OPENING COMMENTS
January is
Sanctity for Human Life Month
Today is Sanctity for Human Life Sunday
The Roe V Wade Decision was made on January 22, 1973– creating a women’s constitutional right to have an abortion.
For 40 years our nation has been divided on the Subject.
• Very Decisive Issue
• Political Issue
• I believe a moral issue
TOTAL ABORTIONS SINCE 1973:
54,559,615
U.S. Abortion Statistics By Year (1973-Current)
National Right to Life Committee, 2012
National Right to Life Factsheet, January 2012
http://www.christianliferesources.com/article/u-s-abortion-statistics-by-year-1973-current-1042
NOTE: These numbers excludes NH, CA, and at least one other state
• That statistic is a year old, so adding another year to the totals we are very close to 56 million babies aborted in the United States in the last 40 years or an average of almost 3700 per day.
• With that in mind I think it is very fitting that we set aside a Sunday in our churches to:
• Remember those babies that have been aborted
• To honor and protect the lives of our unborn now
• To offer HOPE to families and individuals who have been touched by abortion and not to fail to sound the message that mothers who have had abortions can be forgiven and start a new life in Jesus Christ.
TRANSITION STATEMENT: In the Bible there where evil leaders who orchestrated organized massacre of children.
First I want to call your attention to Matthew chapter 2.
• It is Matthew’s account of what happen after Jesus was born in Bethlehem.
• Matthew doesn’t mention the Shepherds but he does give detailed account of the Magi who came from the East to worship Him that had been born King of the Jews.
• Herod the king was troubled and all of Jerusalem with him and he made 2 attempts to get rid of Jesus.
• He thought he would trick the Magi in to finding Jesus and pretending that he would worship he would slay Him. However, that attempt failed because God knew Herod’s heart has He knows all hearts.
• When Herod saw that He was deceived by the wise men, became angry and he put to death all the male children who were born in Bethlehem and its districts from 2 years old and under and there was weeping and great mourning.
Going back about 1400 years earlier in scripture there was another massacre of the innocent. Recorded for us in Exodus 1, and Exodus 1 is my text this morning.
BACKGROUND FOR THE TEXT:
• The children of Israel have been living in Egypt about 400 years.
• Joseph came first as a slave with God’s hand upon his life.
• Jacob came with his family of 70
• Now Joseph, Jacob, and all of the family including the King of Egypt has died and the children of Israel have grown to over 2 million people and the new King is fearful of them.
• As a birth control of preventing male sons to be born to the Israelites he instructed the midwives to kill every Jewish son as they were being born.
TEXT EXODUS 1 STARTING WITH VERSE 15
“Then the king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, of whom the name of one was Shiphrah (shif•rä') and the name of the other Puah; (pü•ä')
Stop for a moment, it highly unusual for women to be mentioned by name during this time of Biblical History. However, these two women were named I feel because their lives honored God.
16 and he said, "When you do the duties of a midwife for the Hebrew women, and see them on the birth stools, if it is a son, then you shall kill him; but if it is a daughter, then she shall live."
EXODUS 1:17
“But the midwives feared God, and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the male children alive.”
Look at the first part of verse 20.
20 Therefore God dealt well with the midwives, ………..
Look at verse 21-
21 And so it was, because the midwives feared God, that He provided households for them.
BIBLICAL TRUTHS FOR US TO TAKE HOME
TRUTH #1- GOD WILL TAKE CARE OF HIS PEOPLE IN THE WORST OF TIMES IF WE WILL JUST DO WHAT IS RIGHT.
Just want to say that I am glad for the outcome of the WET AND DRY VOTE in Greenup this past week. They voted to remain a county that does not sale alcohol.
We have been told by our political leaders too long that if we compromise our standards it will help the economy. It does not happen, it never has happen and it never will happen.
If we vote for issues and leaders that stand for the right God will take care of His people in the worst of times.
TRUTH #2 - THESE TWO LADIES IN TODAY’S STORY HAD SOMETHING THAT WE HAVE LOST IN OUR SOCIETY. GODLY FEAR
It seems that we have lost the FEAR OF GOD in our world today.
J. Vernon McGee
These two women had to choose whether to obey Pharaoh or God. They had learned to fear God and their obedience was seen and rewarded by God. He gave “shif-ra” and “Pu-a” both a name and a place in Israel, and they were greatly respected in the land.
J. Vernon McGee Volume 1 page 205, “Thru the Bible.”
FOUR DRASTIC DECISIONS HAVE TAKEN PLACE IN MY LIFE TIME THAT HAS DRASTICALLY AFFECTED THE MORAL CODE OF OUR COUNTRY.
In 1962 the US Supreme Court established what is now the current prohibition on state-sponsored prayer in schools.
In 1963 Bibles were removed.
In 1963 the Supreme Court made devotional bible reading by school faculty in the classroom unconstitutional.
In 1973– Roe v Wade on allowing a woman the constitutional right to have an abortion as the means of birth control.
In 1980, the US Supreme Court failed to allow public schools to display copies of the Ten Commandments
THINK ABOUT WHERE WE WERE AS A NATION 50 YEARS AGO MORALLY AND WHERE WE ARE TODAY, I THINK THESE 4 DECISIONS HAVE ATTRIBUTED TO OUR MORAL DECAY.
CONCLUSION
In closing this morning we have to ask, “What are we going to do?”
I think we have to do what Nehemiah of old did, we have to take responsibility.
When Nehemiah heard about the condition his beloved Jerusalem was in he felt a certain degree of responsibility.
• Today we want to blame, the gun laws for the violence in our world, we refuse to accept the fact that it is a sin problem, it is the heart that holds the gun wherein the real problem lies.
LET ME READ ANOTHER STATISTIC TO YOU THIS MORNING
• An estimated 22 million Americans abused or were dependent on drugs, alcohol or both, in 2002, according to the latest report from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). Some 19.5 million Americans -- 8.3 percent of the total population ages 12 and up -- currently use illicit drugs, 54 million take part in binge drinking and 15.9 million are heavy drinkers.
http://usgovinfo.about.com/cs/healthmedical/a/drugabuse.htm
Yet alcohol companies spend 2 billion a year advertising alcohol consumption on TV and magazines and much of that is directed to sporting events where youth are watching. Then we wonder why we have so many alcoholics and underage drinking.
Neh 1:4-11 (NKJV)
4 So it was, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned for many days; I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven.
What did Nehemiah hear, he heard the condition Jerusalem was in, great distress and reproach, The wall of Jerusalem broken down, and the gates burned with fire.”
There was distress, there was reproach, and God’s people had lost their identity and their protection.
5 And I said: "I pray, LORD God of heaven, O great and awesome God, You who keep Your covenant and mercy with those who love You and observe Your commandments,
6 please let Your ear be attentive and Your eyes open, that You may hear the prayer of Your servant which I pray before You now, day and night, for the children of Israel Your servants, and confess the sins of the children of Israel which we have sinned against You. Both my father's house and I have sinned.
7 We have acted very corruptly against You, and have not kept the commandments, the statutes, nor the ordinances which You commanded Your servant Moses.
8 Remember, I pray, the word that You commanded Your servant Moses, saying, 'If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations;
9 but if you return to Me, and keep My commandments and do them, though some of you were cast out to the farthest part of the heavens, yet I will gather them from there, and bring them to the place which I have chosen as a dwelling for My name.'
10 Now these are Your servants and Your people, whom You have redeemed by Your great power, and by Your strong hand.
11 O Lord, I pray, please let Your ear be attentive to the prayer of Your servant, and to the prayer of Your servants who desire to fear Your name; and let Your servant prosper this day, I pray, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man.
Nehemiah felt and owned responsibility though he had never lived in Jerusalem. Even though he was living in Persia he felt responsible for what had happen to Jerusalem.
I referenced the massacre of children in the day Christ came
I referenced the massacre of children in the day that Moses came
I hope that I am not reading too much between the lines here, but both of those events represented
• Revival
• Deliverance
• What we need is a spiritual revival, I hesitated saying, “Old Fashion Revival” because it is something greater than what any of us have seen.
• We need to realize we are living on the brink of deliverance, for our redemption is drawing nigh.
As they are coming with a song,
• If you are here this morning and you don’t know Jesus you can find Him.
• If you are here this morning and you have never been filled with His Spirit and sanctified to His will, you can have the blessing
• If you are here this morning and you need to be delivered from the vices this world has put upon you, God is still in the delivering business
• Church I want to challenge you to come this morning and pray for our nation. Pray for someone you may know who has been affected by abortion, or is affected by drug addiction or some other vice that is dragging the very life out of them.
• Come this morning and say God forgive us and please send a move of God.
