If you are under the age of 31, I want you to stand up. (Come on, stand up if you are 31 years of age or less.)
While these remain standing I want you all to look at them, and give thanks to God for them. Because for a full nine months it was perfectly legal to terminate their lives; and yet God has spared them that they might become his children. (Thank you, you can be seated.)
Just a few days ago on January 18th in a move I hope you didn’t miss Norma McCorvey the former Jane Roe of Roe V Wade now a Christian approached the Supreme Court of the United States and filed papers to have the decision in her court case legalizing abortion reversed.
My friends we are living in the middle of a sacred moment. It is not a moment for us to remain seated. It is not a moment to hold our breath in hopeful silence. It is a time for action. This morning I am calling you to action.
Many times I seek to increase your understanding of the Scriptures, because I believe that God will change our lives when his word gets into our hearts. But there is a time for study, and a time for work. It is time to go to work on the curse of innocent blood lying upon this nation.
As we start, look briefly if you will at Deuteronomy 21:1-9
"If a slain person is found lying in the open country in the land which the LORD your God gives you to possess, and it is not known who has struck him, 2 then your elders and your judges shall go out and measure the distance to the cities which are around the slain one. 3 "It shall be that the city which is nearest to the slain man, that is, the elders of that city, shall take a heifer of the herd, which has not been worked and which has not pulled in a yoke; 4 and the elders of that city shall bring the heifer down to a valley with running water, which has not been plowed or sown, and shall break the heifer’s neck there in the valley. 5 "Then the priests, the sons of Levi, shall come near, for the LORD your God has chosen them to serve Him and to bless in the name of the LORD; and every dispute and every assault shall be settled by them. 6 "All the elders of that city which is nearest to the slain man shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley; 7 and they shall answer and say, ’Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it. 8 ’Forgive Your people Israel whom You have redeemed, O LORD, and do not place the guilt of innocent blood in the midst of Your people Israel.’ And the bloodguiltiness shall be forgiven them. 9 "So you shall remove the guilt of innocent blood from your midst, when you do what is right in the eyes of the LORD. “
In the seventh verse is a prayer that we cannot pray.
“...Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it...”
Because we have allowed this evil to exist in our land, our eyes have seen it.
We have known and we must repent.
Let us pray...
O Lord Our God, we come to you this morning, not in our own strength or righteousness; but in humility and grief for we ourselves and our nation have sinned against you. Dear God be gracious to us and do not count to us that which our sin demands. Forgive us Father for being callous or self-righteous in our distance from the issue of Abortion. Forgive our judgmental attitudes and our self serving comfort.
Open our eyes O God to see your tears and your wrath at the sin of the murder of innocents upon which our nation has given it’s apparent blessing. OH GOD, because in your great mercy you sent your son Jesus to bear the price of our sin, forgive us and cleanse us from bloodguilt. Wash away from us the iniquity of silence in the face of injustice. And furthermore Oh God I plead for you to move in the halls and courtrooms in this nation to break the curse upon this nation and reverse the judgment of death given to our nations babies. This work is for us O Lord, Cleanse us now and commission us that we might stand and begin fight to right this terrible wrong.
Oh Lord, Forgive us! Oh Lord, Embolden us! Oh Lord, Break the backs of the wicked and by your power purge this nation of the guilt and practice of taking Innocent lives.
For it is written and you have promised:
Deuteronomy 21:8-9 ’Forgive Your people .... whom You have redeemed, O LORD, and do not place the guilt of innocent blood in the midst of Your people Israel.’ And the bloodguiltiness shall be forgiven them. "So you shall remove the guilt of innocent blood from your midst, when you do what is right in the eyes of the LORD.
Trusting then in your gracious power to forgive and in your mighty power to change the hearts of men, we offer this prayer in Jesus’ name. AMEN!
Inasmuch as that prayer was your own, we stand cleansed and ready before the Lord on this matter but what are we to do? I want to give you three specific things that you can do to end abortion.
1) Speak out: Proverbs 31:8-9
“Open your mouth for the mute, For the rights of all the unfortunate. Open your mouth, judge righteously, And defend the rights of the afflicted and needy.” (Pr 31:8-9, NASB95)
Those babies don’t have a voice, but we do. We need to start talking about it whenever and wherever the subject matters. That means defending life in the relevant conversations in the coffee shop as well as to contacting our law makers on capital hill. The trends in this nation right now are clearly showing that people are uncomfortable with abortion. We have an opportunity right now to set right millions of wrongs. But we’ve got to make noise to make it happen.
For years the tact of the liberals and abortionists has been to make the most noise – it’s time that we talk back. Some people are already speaking on their behalf such as Dr. Kanwaljeet Anand, a neonatal pediatrician and an expert on pain. He testified for three hours to congress demonstrating “that unborn children feel pain even more intensely than adults...”
(Expert Says Fetuses Feel Pain. World, Apr 24, 2004, Vol 19, No 16 (page 24))
We may not get a chance to testify before a congressional Committee but each one of you can contact your Senators:
__________pastor: insert your senators and representatives here if desired___________
and quite frankly you should “Open your mouth for the mute, for the rights of all the unfortunate...” (Pr. 31:8) That is righteousness, that is religion that God sees as undefiled.
You might ask, “What will I say?” it’s a good question. Tell them what you know. You don’t have to be a neonatal specialist to have a clue here. Women I would say that your testimony is stronger in some respects than that of men.
Way back around 200 AD a Christian Theologian named Tertullian recognized that as he argued against abortion in his day (it is an ancient evil!): “I call on you, mothers, whether you are now pregnant or have already borne children; ... Tell us: Do you feel any stirring of life within you in the fetus? Does your groin tremble, your sides shake, your whole stomach throb as the burden you carry changes its position? Are not these moments a source of joy and assurance that the child within you is alive and playful? Should his restlessness subside, would you not be immediately concerned for him?” [De anima 25. 3.]
Take what you know to be true and speak out! Our goal must not be merely to limit but to end the murder of innocents. Currently we provide a little funding for New Life Pregnancy Center. I ask you, is it enough to send money to a missionary and yet never speak the gospel ourselves? By the same turn is it sufficient to fund the New Life Pregnancy Center who does a great work and yet say nothing when we have it within our power and responsibilities to speak to our elected officials?
We need to speak out, even at the risk of offending people. We need to win in the court of public opinion, and we need to win on capital hill, and in the supreme court.
But we have to do more than speak out, we’ve got to step up to the plate and take action.
2) Step Up: Proverbs 24:11-12
NLT “Rescue those who are unjustly sentenced to death; don’t stand back and let them die. 12 Don’t try to avoid responsibility by saying you didn’t know about it. For God knows all hearts, and he sees you. He keeps watch over your soul, and he knows you knew! And he will judge all people according to what they have done.”
We have got to do whatever we can to save those innocent lives. What does that mean you can do? “In addition to equipping yourself to think persuasively and argue persuasively on the pro-life issue, we need to begin acting as if we believe that abortion is a serious moral wrong.”2
We normally act based on what we believe to be true; but too often we’ve decided to become completely passive. Many might agree with the person who says “I believe abortion is wrong but I don’t have a right to tell a woman what to do?”
Oh really? Than why do we lock up thousands of people in prison for murder, rape and drugs every year? Haven’t we made an action based upon what we believe to be right or wrong? If we really believe abortion is murder (And it is) than we have the mandate to act against it.
How do you do that?
Pray for God’s intervention certainly, but how about being the intervention?
Give liberally to places like the New Life Pregnancy Center (Pastor: list a local crisis pregnancy center)
Rescue the perishing by intervening in the process if we can.
Yet as we step up to the plate to take action, we’ve got to remember that our goal is not to destroy people but to bring them redemption. We need to destroy the sin, but we have got to make sure that in the process we don’t destroy the sinner. Remember the purpose of Christ? To seek and save the lost? We too have got to reach out with compassion in hopes of redemption.
3) Reach out: Matthew 11:28-30
It is sad to say, but it’s easier as a Christian to confess to sins of adultery, fornication, or theft than it is to be a Christian who has had an Abortion. We cannot forget that the procedure has two victims. The child is gone but the mother remains and more often than not, she is daily haunted with a memory she can’t erase. To that woman, God offers the sacred gift of complete forgiveness. Abortion has created a multitude of walking wounded who silently suffer their guilt and their shame. And the devil uses the rhetoric to keep them locked in feelings of guilt, even if they’re Christians now.
The church cannot afford to be self-righteous. Psalm 14 reminds us, “...There is no one who does good. 2 The LORD has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men To see if there are any who understand, Who seek after God. 3 They have all turned aside, together they have become corrupt; There is no one who does good, not even one. ”
When we talk about an action plan, perhaps this one point needs to be actively put into our lives more loudly than the others; and that is this: An offer of acceptance and forgiveness to any who would dare to seek it.
Are you willing to be like Jesus in this? He stood before the crowd around him and offered them redemption:
Matthew 11:28-30 “Then Jesus said, "Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke fits perfectly, and the burden I give you is light.”
As we reach out to a sin worn world, we need to carry the message that redemption is possible, acceptance is available and that we are the people willing to offer it in the Name of Jesus Christ.
This week I challenge you to Contact Capital hill. Put some feet on what you’re believe. Speak Out for the Unborn, Step Up to action and Reach Out to the Wounded.
I for one will accept without judgment and with compassion anyone who seeks redemption for anything.
Bulletin Insert:
Sanctity of Human Life Sunday: Break The Curse
Deuteronomy 21:1-9
1. ______ ______.
Proverbs 31:8-9.
Tertullian (Ca 200 AD)
“I call on you, mothers, whether you are now pregnant or have already borne children; ... Tell us: Do you feel any stirring of life within you in the fetus? Does your groin tremble, your sides shake, your whole stomach throb as the burden you carry changes its position? Are not these moments a source of joy and assurance that the child within you is alive and playful? Should his restlessness subside, would you not be immediately concerned for him?” [De anima 25. 3.]
2. ______ ______.
Proverbs 24:11-12.
3. ______ ______.
Psalm 14:1-3; Matthew 11:28-30
