- Well, good morning. Isn't it great to be back together again? Worshiping here with... You can clap if you want. I thought I heard somebody out there trying to do that. And it is awesome to actually see you face to face in this room again. It just feels so cool. I was worshiping even in the first service and it's like we haven't done this since, when was it? March or something? I don't know what it was. I love being outside, but welcome to those of you that are worshiping here. Welcome to those of you that are worshiping in our lower gathering area. And I also want to greet those of you that are worshiping online. Whether it's right now on Facebook, YouTube on our website, or also watching the service during the week. Welcome, we're delighted to be with all of you and excited about what God has in store for us today. As many of you know, we are in the midst of a very short series called, kingdom people in today's world. And we wanted to take a look at what it means to bring kingdom principles into our culture, righteous principles, that those of us that are followers of Jesus Christ need to live out in the midst of our culture today. As many of you know, we're in the midst of some pretty significant cultural upheaval, we have an election that's coming up, and we need to be informed voters who are followers of Jesus Christ, committed to living out these righteous principles, whether it's for voting or for any other time. And today we're going to deal with a concern of mine. I really do believe that the issue that we are going to look at today is an issue that has been set aside by many in our culture today. You've heard of it just a little bit, but it is one of those major essential issues that must be considered by a follower of Jesus Christ, living out this principle in life, but also as you move in to the voting booth. And my concern is, as I hear conversations taking place with individuals within our culture, they are elevating nonessential issues and actually voting on those nonessential issues instead of elevating essential issues that are moral and biblical, when you are living life, when you are considering a political candidate. And that's why today we're going to take a look at this topic of a culture of life. And it is a culture of life, both from the womb, all the way to the tomb. Both are very important and we must consider them. My concern is that oftentimes this has been set aside, especially now when individuals claim that wow, Roe v. Wade settled that issue. We have nothing to say about it. We have an awesome opportunity for us to speak loudly and clearly into it because it's not a subtle issue in God's eyes. He has righteous standards that we must understand, and we must live out. Now, as we talk about this very sensitive subject today, I realize that there are people that are worshiping here within our upstairs worship center, in our lower gathering area. Perhaps you're worshiping online with us again today, or at some other time, who perhaps have gone through and experienced this issue of abortion. It is a very painful thing to go through. And there are individuals that have gone through that here at Rockpoint, perhaps, you know someone that has, you've got a friend or a family member. There's another group that I want to be very sensitive to. There are many that are being raised in this post really anti-Christian culture today. Who've been told by the culture, who've been told by schools, who've been raised in a family, a home, a situation whereby they've been told that the taking of an unborn life is acceptable. It's okay, it's legal. There's no problem with it whatsoever. And you had no idea what you were doing. And today, you're sitting here in many ways, you're going to hear a message of truth, but it is truth with love. And today might be that first day that you're listening online or right here where you actually see what the Bible says about life. And how we should support it. And so I want to be very, very sensitive as we walk our way through this, to acknowledge the fact that many of you have perhaps gone through that. You've been told that, and now all of a sudden your going to come face to face with truth that may sting this morning. But I want you to understand, we embrace you. And we wrap our arms around you. And if you have been told that, you're going to see today, that's a lie, but you also need to be told that we love you, and we care for you. And we will offer you words of grace and support, and hope and healing. And I'll have some more information to say about that because we are a phone call away from walking alongside of you in the midst of this conversation. And we want to help you think biblically, but we also want to help you understand God's forgiveness and that his grace can overcome anything in your past, Amen? That's why we have the cross, the greatest expression of love to our culture, and to us in our humanity. So as we begin this conversation this morning, I want you to take your Bibles out, and I want you to go to Luke 1 and locate verse 41. You can use your Bibles that you brought in, your electronic version on your phone, I also want to ask that you pull up the notes. Each chair has a little code on the back. Just put your phone on that code. And the note prompt will come up, and you'll be able to pull up the notes for this morning. Not only the words from their songs each and every week, but also the notes that we have. And you'll be able to follow along. I'll have you turn to a few passages. I'll also have the references to the verses that you'll see up on the screen. Those are also in your notes, so you can look them up and check them out during the week. But I want to begin by mentioning one other thing before we start reading in Luke 1, and that is this. There are some resources that can be of enormous help to you. I mean, you two individuals and two organizations. The first is a man by the name of Dr. Wayne Grudem, G-R-U-D-E-M . He's fantastic on this issue. He's a systematic theologian, is what we call them and you can dial him up online. And he has some incredible resources as he's reasoned his way through. I referred to him a couple of weeks ago in the area of carrying our faith into the political arena. The other individual is Randy Alcorn. I've drawn from both of these individuals extensively, they've helped me out and I would encourage you to seek out their information. Randy has written a ton on this subject. Now there's two organizations that you can contact. The first, is the Family Research Council with Tony Perkins. He's written extensively on this Family Research Council, has a number of different things that can help you think through this from a biblical perspective, as well as focus on the family. Both with Dr. James Dobson and Jim Daly. Those individuals have been on the forefront of holding up life. And so I hope you can seek them out. Now, the question that I want to deal with today is this, what does God say in his word? And the first declarative statement that I want to mention is this, the Bible teaches, that any pre-born child should be treated as a person, this is the key phrase, from the moment of conception. Every pre-born child should be treated as a person from the moment of conception. Now, the passage that you are looking at is Luke 1. Mary, who is the mother of the son of God, Jesus has just been visited by Gabriel. Gabriel is very busy at Christmas time, okay? So he's running around giving a lot of good news that we really need. And he came to Mary and said, you are going to be the mother of the son of God. Can you imagine what her reaction would have been? And one of the signs that she was given is that Elizabeth who a relative it's her cousin, has actually been given another miracle baby, to prove that God does miracles, right? Now, Zechariah and Elizabeth, Zechariah was a priest in the Jewish nation. They were unable to have children and they're in their old age. So they're beyond even the ability to have kids, okay? An angel comes and says, guess what? You're going to have a miracle baby. And that baby is going to be named John. He's not gonna be named Zechariah, and he's going to be the proclaimer of the son of God. And now Elizabeth is pregnant with John, the Baptist, six months into the pregnancy. And Mary goes to visit her. And this is going to be one of those boxes that proves that the baby inside of Mary's womb is a miracle. It's Jesus, the son of God. So now we read their interaction. So if you look at chapter one verse 41, and when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby, this is John, the Baptist in her womb, Elizabeth's womb, leaped in her womb, okay? He gets really happy to snooze. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy spirit and she exclaimed with a loud cry. Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And why this granted to me, that the mother, notice this, of my Lord. Jesus has not been born yet, but my Lord should come to me. For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy and blessed is, she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord. Now, a couple of things I want you to see here, the word baby used in this passage, in the original Greek language is brephos. That's the word. I don't do this very often, but this one's significant. The word brephos, that's the Greek word, we translate it, baby. Baby is referred to Jesus in Mary's womb. And also John, the Baptist. These are both pre-born children. Now, hang on to that. Now I want you to go to chapter 2. You're right there, go to chapter 2 of Luke and locate verse 16. Now we have another encounter. Again, the angels run around giving some great news and they show up to the shepherds on the hillside and they say, you gotta run to Bethlehem. And you see Mary, Joseph, Jesus, a savior's born and he's laying in a manger. And so, they run very quickly. If you'll look at 16, and they went with haste, and found Mary and Joseph and the baby, this is Jesus, after birth laying in a manger. The word baby, is the same New Testament word, brephos. So whether we translate baby, referring to a baby after birth, or a baby before birth, it's the same human being, it's a baby. That's the point of the passage. This is a child that's been born. And furthermore, if you go back to after one, I want you to see a couple other things that are found there. This is a distinct human being, human life, referred to as a baby. Notice, what does Elizabeth do? She refers to Jesus with a personal pronoun, with the divine distinct as the son of God, her Lord, he says. This is Jesus. He's not been born yet, but he's the Lord. He is a distinct living being. He is the son of God, fully God and fully man. And then furthermore, it is John, the Baptist that actually gets really excited, doesn't he? He starts leaping around in there. I wonder what that felt like, 'cause I've never had that experience, right? And he gets really excited. Modern medical research tell us that pre-born children can distinguish and become familiar with voices, both of the mother and the father and other siblings, even within the family. And she attributes personal human activity to John, the Baptist while he's still in the womb. Now I'm gonna look at another passage. Again, I'm not covering... There's tons of passages to look at. I'm just giving you a couple, but I want to go to now to an Old Testament reference. You don't need to turn there. I'm going to put the verse up on the screen, but it's found in Psalm 51. Psalm 51 was written by King David. After he committed sin, the sin of adultery with Bathsheba, and it's his Psalm of confession. Here's what he says in verse 5. He says this, behold I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin, did my mother conceive me. And I want you to see, iniquity means sin. So he's not talking about the sin of his mother. He's talking about his own sin. His entire point in this passage, is that from the moment of conception, David is referring to his own human distinction as a sinner from the moment of conception. It means that he thought of himself as a distinct human being, with a distinct sinful nature. That was separate from his mother. Now, not only does David think of himself as having a sinful nature, a distinct human being like all of us who were born sinners, okay? But he also considers his own development. Because by the time you go to Psalm 139, if you've ever read through all of the Psalms, there's a lot of them. You'll land in Psalm 139, and it is a powerful passage. Now I want you to go left from where you are. And I want you to go to the book of Psalms. And I want you to locate that passage, Psalm 139. And we're going to read from it, starting in verse 13. It is a passage that we oftentimes look at for child dedications. We read through it. We say, wow, that's great, but I want to unpack a few key details here. As the Psalmist and many believe it was David, is writing this. It would say this, for you formed my inward parts. You knitted me together in my mother's womb. Now, before I read verse 14, let me point out something that just happened. There are two personal pronouns that are mentioned here about the development of whoever the Psalmist is, inside of the womb. And I want you to note now, as we read through the rest of just a few verses here, how many times the personal pronoun is brought up referring to this person, describing their growth inside of the womb. It's very, very important. If you look at verse 14, my frame was not hidden or I'm sorry, I praise you, verse 14, I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works. Now notice this, my soul knows it very well. He's acting actually communicating that this individual himself in the womb, actually has a distinctive human soul. Verse 15, my frame was not hidden from you. When I was being made in secret intricately woven in the depths of the earth, your eyes, saw my unformed substance, in your book were written every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them. How precious to me are your thoughts, oh God, how vast is the sum of them. And go back up to verse 16. Notice, your eyes saw, and again, it's the personal pronoun, my unformed substance. This was before the fingers were formed, and the hands were formed. This is from the moment of conception on, the author refers to themself as a living human being. It's a very powerful, powerful passage. So I think clearly the Bible teaches that this unborn child is a distinct human being. And these are just a few examples. There are others from both the Old Testament and the New Testament. Now, even with these examples though, and it's true with all of them, I want you to note that in all of these examples, there is no distinction made anywhere. If a child has down syndrome, if the child has a disability, that somehow they are of less value. There's no distinction like that made in any of these biblical texts. They are of extreme value and worth. Let me illustrate it by a wonderful individual, that is a part of our church family here at Rockpoint Church. Some of you know the young adult, and you'll see around here, she's always smiling. Mckayla Holmgren. Now Mckayla is the daughter of Craig and Sandy Holmgren. And God has used her at a National level, even with down syndrome, to communicate the love of God, the peace of God, the gospel of God, and also to promote life nationally. As a matter of fact, she was interviewed by a national reporter. You would know his name, if I am remembering the story correctly. And I was talking with Craig, her dad about it this past week. And when this news anchor actually asked her about her own down syndrome, do you know what she actually said? She goes, well, that's just something I have on the side. It's not really a big deal. Isn't that great? I love that. It's not a big deal. It's like anything else that people struggle with. she's got enormous gifts. What I want you to understand is that she actually worked with representative Kathy Loma, who was also a part of Rockpoint Church, to pass a bill here in Minnesota that requires doctors to give alternatives to abortion. And it was signed by the governor, is now a law in Minnesota. Aint that great? It's great news. Absolutely. She testified in Pennsylvania in order to stop abortions of children with down syndrome. It was going to become a law, until unfortunately the Governor vetoed it. She's also testified at the United Nations. Can you imagine that? She testified at the United Nations in order to encourage countries around the world to stop taking the life of a precious individual with down syndrome and other disabilities. What a remarkable platform God has given to her. And she has blessed so many of us. Now, let me ask another question today. And I'm going to deal directly with a couple of key issues as we apply this. But what about children that have been conceived from rape or incest? Let's deal with that one head on. Now, let me say this. Before we answer this question, we must recognize the pain and the hardship that they have gone through, and this woman has gone through. Please understand that, especially as we talk about the subject and how we embrace a Christian, who knows these kinds of situations, needs to step into the life of that individual, and walk alongside of them. And as much as these crimes anger us with righteous anger, I still have to ask this question. Would we think that it would be right to take the life of a baby or an adult who is conceived in this kind of circumstance, after they were born? The answer is obvious, right? It's a no. And so if it's no after birth, it should be no pre-birth. This is the life of a child, and it's not right for that pre-born child to its lose its life prior to death because it's not the fault of the child. Now some of you might say, well, where do we get that from scripture? Well, at Rockpoint, we always go back to God's word. Let me give you a reference and I'll quote the verse. You can write it down. It's Deuteronomy 24:16. It says this, fathers shall not be put to death because of their children, nor shall children be put to death because of their fathers. Each one shall be put to death for his own sin. See, it's not the fault of the child. And in actuality, the percentage of cases like this are less than 1%. And many of us have heard testimonies of individuals who have lived as a result of these unfortunate circumstances, and they have blessed our lives. Now what about this issue? The life or health of the mother, does that justify an abortion? Well, if you're talking about the physical life of the mother, and you would go on to the website for the Center for Disease Control, you would find out that abortions carried out under these circumstances, again, amount to less than 1%. And you're not comparing the same thing either, because you're talking about a very difficult situation. If, indeed her physical life is in danger of losing one life versus losing two lives. That is a very difficult session that must be prayed through and looked at. However, I will say this, with modern medicine technology, we monitor the health of the mother. We monitor the health of that little baby. And with our Neo-intensive care units, this virtually never happens. It's very, very, very, very rare. Why? Because we can have a child that can fit in the Palm of your hand. That we can protect, and grows up to be perfectly normal in so many different ways. So we have to be careful of this word, the health of the mother, because it is now defined so broadly with mental health that it boils down to obtaining an abortion, whenever the mother wants to have one. See, the biggest argument, or one of the biggest arguments I should say, that you hear today is that, it's a woman's body, and therefore she has a right to choose. Well, biblically, that is a statement that is not true. Because we've already seen biblically, that this child is distinct in every way. And I'll come back to this in just a moment, has a distinct DNA. This is separate in every way. You've seen this issue come up. And actually this point was raised I believe, in the previous vice presidential debate. You need to consider these things. And I am proud to say that we have a Vice President, a President that stands strongly for pro-life issues. And that came up in the vice presidential debate. I wish it would come up more often. Now there's another major statement that I want to make here. And that is this, that the Bible teaches that legal protection should be granted to a pre-born child at least equal to that, notice that, at least equal to that of other humans in society. The passage I want to go to, is one of the most significant passages regarding this issue. And if you will left from where you are, in the book of Psalms, we're working our way backwards. I want you to go to the book of Exodus. Second book in your Bible in the Old Testament, I want you to turn to Exodus 21:22. Exodus 21:22, this is part of the mosaic law code. God gave righteous standards for the nation to live by so that they could demonstrate what it means to follow Jesus Christ, as King. We really have a parallel with us as followers of Jesus Christ. We need to live by the Lord's righteous standards, as salt and light in our culture, so that people can understand what it means to have Jesus Christ as King and the Lord of our lives. That's why we're doing this entire series, of kingdom people in our culture. Well, this speaks into that issue, because if you look at verse 22, he's talking about men fighting and what happens. When men strive or fight together, and hit a pregnant woman who happens to be in the area, so that her children come out, that means born, but there's no harm. The one who hit her shall surely be fined, as the woman's husband shall impose on him. And he shall pay as the judges determine. But if there is harm, and notice harm both to the mother and the pre-born child, or either one. Then you shall pay life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, strife for strife. The first thing I want you to see here, is that if there is no harm done to the pre-mature birth of the child or to the mother, there is still a penalty that is given out. I want you to notice that. It tells you worth and value. The penalty was for carelessly endangering the life of the mother or the child. Now we have a similar law here. If you get drunk and you go out and drive, you're going to be arrested. And the reason you're going to be arrested, is because you are recklessly endangering other people that are driving alongside of you. We have the same similar kind of system here. But then second, I want you to notice if there is harm, verse 23 brings this up, either to the mother or the pre-born child, then we get into what is called the law of retaliation. And the law of retaliation even leads to capital punishment. And it applies both to the mother who is already an adult or the child that hasn't even been born yet. Both the mother and the pre-born child are treated as persons deserving of equal legal protection under the law. And the law doesn't place any restriction on the number of months that the mother's pregnant. It could be right after the point of conception. Why, because we've already seen biblically, this is a human being. The unborn child had the same dignity, value, and worth, as the mother. The Bible is clear. It teaches that this is a child inside the womb from the moment of conception, has full legal protection. Modern science continues to support the personhood of a child from the moment of conception. I Marvel at DNA technology. It's absolutely incredible. And DNA shows from medical science, that this is a distinct human being, with a distinct genetic identity, that goes down to every single cell of that child's body. It is not a woman's body. It is a child that is under, we say, under construction so to speak. They respond. The vivid images of ultrasounds are absolutely magnificent. They're better than what they were when we had our kids. I mean, that was kind of fascinating, right? Well, I can't quite figure that. And then the doctor show you, you can kind of start seeing it. Well, today, it's unbelievable. We can see that this is a real child and they feel joy and unfortunately they feel pain. Now let me put this in perspective. Again, this might be the first time you have seen what the Bible says about life. You were told that it's okay. And all of a sudden you're seeing as a follower of Jesus Christ, you gave your life to Jesus. It's not okay. And you're sitting there numb, or you know someone that is numb, or you've experienced it. And maybe you haven't even gone through the road of finding healing with someone. And so I understand that, but I want to put this in perspective. Since 1973, when Roe v. Wade made this decision acceptable in our culture, it might be acceptable in the culture, but not acceptable in God's eyes. Over 61 million children have lost their lives. That needs to sink in. It needs to sink in for those of you that are online watching this for the first time, here in this room, downstairs. And I realized that it is a tough topic to talk about. But we, as a church, want to tell you, regardless of where you are, that we are a community of broken and imperfect people who have found hope in Christ. And we are here because we are all sinners, regardless of what that choice was made. We've all made idols. We've all collected them as a part of our sinful nature. And we all deserve healing at some level. And if you are here, we embrace you and we welcome you. And we will walk with you down this journey of discovering what it means to find true forgiveness and hope and healing that is found through Christ and Christ alone. We are one phone call away. We are one email away. And we will point you to people that are within our church that can walk with you, and help you, and support you, and encourage you down this road. And especially for those of you that were told it was okay, and now you realize it's not okay. We are here for you. Please let us know. But I also want to make another declarative statement because I told you this was entitled a culture of life, both from womb to tomb. And that is this, that the Bible teaches that followers of should protect and care for life before and after birth with compassion for those in need. Now you're already in Exodus. You can see the careful roadmap here. It's very easy for you. Go back to the first book of the Old Testament, Genesis, and locate chapter 1, verse 27. I want to read for you a statement that God gives through Moses to us in this first general account of how he created the world that we find it, in Genesis 1, he unpacks it with more detail in Genesis 2, but in chapter one of the book of beginnings, Genesis, look at verse 27 now. So God created man, in his own image, in the image of God, He created him, notice male and female, He created them. Male and female, men and women, boys and girls, created in the image of God with infinite dignity, value and worth, regardless of disabilities, regardless of deformities as a result of sin, by the way, regardless of age and economic status, whether it is a person who is elderly or sick, or those who are struggling through life, everyone is worthy of redemption. They are created with infinite dignity value and worth in the very image of God. This has direct implications. Not only on the issue of abortion, it has direct implications when it comes to issues of infanticide and other kinds of things that we should be looking at, in any segment of our lives. But especially as we approach an election. And it also includes those who are poor, in need, and disadvantaged. Now, I want to mention a few key nuggets here. First, the needs of the poor should not be neglected. If you care for people before birth, as evangelical believers, we must stand up for those afterbirth. Let me give you a couple of key references. And by the way, the Bible says to care for the poor over 100 times. So that's huge. That's really significant. Look at this passage, it's found in Deuteronomy. You'll see the reference pop up, in just a minute. It says if among you, one of your brothers should become poor, in any of your towns, within your land, that the Lord, your God is giving you, you shall not harden your hearts or shut your hand against your poor brother, but you shall open your hand to him and lend him, notice this, sufficient for his need, whatever it might be. Proverbs 14:31 says, whoever oppresses the poor shows contempt for their maker. That's God, but whoever is kind to the needy, actually honors God. The great commandment says to love God, and what? Love one another. Love your neighbor as yourself. Now, let me just give you a teaser here. Next week, we're going to come back and finalize our series on kingdom principles, as kingdom people, living them out in the midst of our culture, as salt and light. We're going to come back to this issue. And we're also going to talk about some general concepts for us as a church, and for you as a follower of Jesus Christ. But what I want to mention here, is that we're gonna come back to this idea of what it means to love our neighbor. So don't miss next week, okay? So regardless of how you're worshiping today, don't miss next week. You're going to want to be back with us. And then the following week, we're actually going to open up a practical series in the book of James, which has a lot to say about our culture today. So enough PR for the next couple of weeks. Now, John was the youngest disciple and apostle of the Lord, Jesus Christ. And maybe you've blown by these three little books at the end of your New Testament. Here's what he says in 1 John 3:17. He says, but if anyone has the world's good, and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him. How does God's love abide in him? If the great commandment calls us to love God and love one another. If you've experienced God's love and grace by the cross and the resurrection of Jesus Christ, his point is, now that you've tasted it, it is a Mark for a believer in Jesus Christ to love those who are in need. You see, the poor are not to be unjustly treated in any way, shape or form. And we're going to come back to this, as we look at the topic of justice next week. But let me give you a couple of verses. Proverbs 22:22, do not Rob the poor because he is poor or crush the afflicted at the gate. In other words, don't show preferential treatment. Now, that's going to come up in the book of James, when we get there in a couple of weeks. Here's another one. Proverbs 29:7 says, a righteous man, those living with kingdom righteous principles in our culture today, knows the rights of the poor. A wicked man does not understand such knowledge. And then Proverbs 31:9 says, open your mouth, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and the needy. And I will also say this, that the sign of real faith, is to help those in need. Two important verses. One comes from the book of James, which again, we'll get into in a couple of weeks. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the father is this, He tells you, to visit orphans and widows in their affliction. And then another verse that oughta really grab your heart is this, it's found in Galatians 6:10. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone. It's everyone, means everyone. And especially to those of the household of faith, within the church, within Rockpoint, this is why we have something called the deacon fund here. If you want to give to people that have needs within our church, you can give an offering to our general fund, but you can also give something to the deacon fund. And we distribute it to those who have various needs. You see this throughout the book of Acts, as you read through the New Testament. But also, I want to balance it with this. The Bible also teaches, that a good work ethic often solves the problems of poverty. We hold the two issues. We hold, yeah, you got to help the poor, but some of the most loving news you can give someone is, you need to get to work. And we're going to help you do that. Now we hold to both of those principles. We'll come back to this again next week, how those things play out in our society and our culture, whether it's the United States or Africa, we might have some differences of opinion on that, but we still hold to those principles, you get it? That's important to understand. Christians can disagree. I know that's hard for some of you to understand, but they actually can. But we unify around the major biblical principles and around the cross and the resurrection in the gospel of Jesus. But both of these are really important. Let me show you a couple of verses just real quick. Proverbs 10:4 says, a slack hand causes poverty, but the hand of the diligent makes rich. And Paul speaks into this and 2 Thessalonians 3:10, when he actually makes the declarative statement. If anyone is not willing to work, we might need to help them along the process. But if they're not willing to work, let him not eat. So we'll come back to this next week. But the big question I want to leave you with, that you need to write a few things down here, as we kind of wrap this up is this, how should a follower of Christ respond to all of this? Well, number one, you need to embrace what you've clearly seen in God's word. This is important. Let the Bible be your guide. Use that as a grid, especially on this issue of life, from womb to tomb. There are major essential issues that you need to take into the voting booth with you, but you also need to be living out, regardless of whether or not it's an election year. Now we see this specifically, as I apply it to the issue before us today, with the current argument on a woman's right to choose. Now, let me illustrate it this way. Many of you have seen the yard signs. They're all over our community. They're all of the nation, actually. That say, black lives matter. Science's real. Women's rights are human rights. So let's zero in on that one. And then I'll unpack it for you from a biblical perspective. Women's rights are human rights. Now on the surface, we would say absolutely. Totally get it, totally agree, okay? So we know that the New Testament actually elevates the role of women by the way, in society. However, what is behind this statement on the signs, is that a woman should have unrestricted access to abortion, throughout an entire pregnancy. You need to understand what's behind it. And you also need to understand, and this is where critical thinking comes in. By actually affirming the statement that a woman's rights are human rights. You actually undermine the entire argument for abortion. And here's the reason why. Abortion actually denies the human rights of a woman, whether it is outside the womb or in the womb. Let me ask you a question. Do you believe that women are the only ones that have rights? Of course not. That's a given. A girl has human rights. And if a woman and a girl has human rights outside the womb, they also have human rights in the womb. We've actually already proven it. And that's why this moves into, what is called a no-logic zone. And it's exactly what happens, based upon what I said two weeks ago. If you set aside, God's objective righteous standards for truth, you are left with human subjective standards. And that is a bad place to be. Because it will be based upon, what the majority of people want. And we already know that people are born sinners and that's exactly the pathway they will choose. It also raises the next issue. You need to be prepared to answer from the science of embryology and fetal development. And this doesn't take a rocket science, you don't need a degree in biology to do this. You know what the Bible teaches, but you need to interact with people in our culture that may disagree with you. Here's a way to go about it. Every child has a distinct DNA. Down to the very cells of their body. It is a different person. It is developing. It is growing yes, in a mom's body, needs to, has to, but it has a very distinctive DNA. So medical science has already proven that that is a child. Distinct from the mother, from the moment of conception. And this is what makes the argument, it's a woman's own body, simply not true. We hear candidates. We see on signs that are all over our neighborhood, that, and I'll bring up another sign statement, that's on that sign, science is real. And if you want to use science as real for climate change, which is what they do, then you also have to use sciences real for the issues of sexuality, and abortion. Because science, is real totally affirm that statement. But then let's get into the science, and take a look at what it really means. It's a human being. And if after birth, the size of a child, the development, the environment or degree of dependency does not determine value and worth, then it doesn't before birth. If a little baby is born in Africa, who is still dependent on its mother, and is a little tiny baby, so it doesn't matter location, size of development, environment or degree of dependency. It has the same value and worth as a child inside the womb, born here or not born here in the United States of America. And I also want you to remember this one, vote pro-life and get involved in this area. There are women's organizations that are involved right here in Stillwater, helping women walk through some of these difficult decisions of life. And also in the greater st Paul area, we support them individually, and we support them and embrace them as a church. Many of you as volunteers, support them. That's what I mean. You help, you walk with them down this road. And I would encourage you to get involved. I would also encourage you to support adoption agencies and foster care. We have some wonderful families in our church that have embarked on this journey, and it is a powerful, powerful, powerful testimony to the rest of us. And by all means, let me say this. Offer words of healing and hope to those who have experienced the tragedy of abortion. So let me close by saying this. If you need help in this area, would you please let us know. We want to help you walk down this journey. Our prayer partners are going to be down in front. They would love to pray with you. All you gotta do is mention something to them, make a phone call, send us an email, contact us. We want to help you walk down this journey, embracing you, and helping you heal and find hope that's found through Christ. And I want to remind all of us to once again, speak truth with love and with grace. And let's be the kind of kingdom people that God wants us to be, carrying righteous and loving standards into our culture today. Let me pray for us. Lord, thank you for the hope that is found through Christ and Christ alone, and in this very room, worshiping online, perhaps worshiping in our lower gathering area. Lord only, you know the deep hurts in someone's life and Lord, if healing needs to come right now, I pray through the power of your Holy Spirit, You would bring it into that person's life. They would have the courage to step forward and ask for help. And Lord, we as a church, embrace these individuals and try to speak truth with grace into our culture. May we communicate yes truth, but that your grace can overwhelm us. And there is nothing. No sin is greater than your grace. And Lord, we ask that you would continue to raise up this issue of life. May we stand as your kingdom people, offering truth and grace, so that we can see lives transformed by the cross and resurrection of Christ. It's in his name, we pray. Amen.