(NOTE: I gave this message on Sanctity of Human Life Sunday at Riverside Church in North Lauderdale Florida on January 26, 2014. You can view the PowerPoint slides that accompany this message via PowerPoint Web App here. You can download Microsoft Sky Drive free here. You can listen to this message online here under the heading The Church for Life.)
Before we begin I
want to acknowledge that I understand that abortion is a controversial subject,
and may be difficult perhaps even painful for some to think about. Statistics
would indicate that in most audiences I speak to there will be individuals
whose lives have been touched by a abortion. I want you to know that I am aware
of that. Perhaps you have had an abortion, or in some way were a participant in
an abortion. You pressured a girlfriend wife, daughter, grand daughter or niece
into having an abortion. Perhaps you paid for an abortion. Or you have lost a
child, a brother or sister, grandchild, niece or nephew to abortion.
As followers of
Jesus Christ we must be willing to address this subject from the authority of Scripture.
But, as we take this journey, we must do so in the context of two very
important biblical truths.
Let me illustrate it
this way. (SLIDE 2) There are two
things a train must have to safely reach its destination. Two tracks. Two
tracks that run parallel to each other all the way to its destination. A train
will go nowhere without riding on both tracks at the same time all the way to
the end of the rail line.
In the same way, we
must communicate what God says about abortion in the context of God's grace and
God's truth. You see, theologically grace and truth always go together. In
fact, they are theologically inseparable. They are like the two sides of the
same coin. You cannot have one without the other.
And here's why this
is important. Pastor Randy Alcorn has written, (SLIDE 3) "Grace without
truth deceives people, Truth without grace, crushes people."
You see, we will
never understand (SLIDE 4) God's grace - apart from God's truth. But God's truth
will always lead us to God's grace.
And as we begin this
morning let me impress this upon you. If your life has been touched by an
abortion, while you cannot escape the truth about abortion nor some of the consequences of your abortion, please know that there is forgiveness, there is
healing and restoration in the gospel of Jesus Christ.
There is a way to
resolve the guilt, shame and hurt that abortion will bring to the human experience.
And I want you to know that you are in the right place to hear that Good News.
If your life has
been touched, by an abortion in any way you are in a safe place in this church. No one is here to
condemn or judge you. On the contrary, we are here to extend love and compassion
and a message of forgiveness, restoration and hope available to you because of the
death and resurrection of Jesus Christ on your behalf.
This church is invested in ministry to those at risk for
abortion and the post-abortive. (SLIDE 5)
Riverside Church works in partnership with Hope Women's
Centers of Broward County. The church provides space rent free for the North
Lauderdale center and Hope's administrative offices here in Riverside Plaza.
Brian Brookins, our pastor serves as the President of
Hope's Board of Directors and May Gordon serves as a volunteer client advocate
at Hope's center just doors down from our youth center. This pregnancy resource
center is in need of additional volunteers to serve as client advocates and at
the front desk. Please pick up this brochure, People Make a Difference for Life, on the literature table in the foyer, for further information as
to how you can be involved.
Hope also
has a ministry to the post-abortive. This brochure, Abortion: The Choice that Changes You, is also available in the
foyer. It will give you information
about the abortion recovery ministry of Hope Women's Centers. Perhaps you know someone whose life has been
touched by an abortion. Please pick up copies of the brochure to share with
those at work or school, in your neighborhood or family.
Palm cards telling of Hope's free services are also
available to give to women you know who are facing an unplanned pregnancy.
We believe
that the gospel is the solution to America's abortion crisis. We believe that as those who have been saved by grace and
regenerated by the Holy Spirit, we are to live as "children of
light." as Paul says in Ephesians chapter 5: 8-11 (ESV) (SLIDE 6), We are
then to
"Walk as children of light 9 (for
the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), 10 and try to discern what is
pleasing to the Lord. 11 Take no part in the unfruitful works of
darkness, but instead expose them."
As Pastor
John Piper says, "Another way to say this is that God calls his people to
be the conscience of the culture. Our individual conscience probes into our
behavior and either approves or disapproves what we do. So the children of
light are to probe into the life of their culture and approve or disapprove what
it does." (Exposing the Dark Work of
Abortion)
This last Tuesday,
January 22, (2014) (SLIDE 7) we
remembered the 41th anniversary of two U.
S. Supreme Court decisions, Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton. These two rulings of
the court legalized the
deliberate, premeditated killing of unborn children at anytime during all nine months of pregnancy
right up to the moment of natural child birth for virtually any reason.
This plunged
America into a national tragedy that has proved to be unparalleled in our 238
years of history. The National Right to Life estimates (SLIDE 8) that over 56
million unborn children have lost their lives to abortion in the U.S. in the
last 41 years, over 71,000 in Florida last year, (SLIDE 9) and 12,024 in Broward County alone. (SLIDE 10)
Last January, U.S.
Congressman Chris Smith, made this observation, (SLIDE 11)
"Someday future
generations will look back on America and wonder how and why such a seemingly
enlightened society, so blessed and endowed with education, advanced science, information,
wealth and opportunity could have failed to protect the innocent and
inconvenient.”
This morning I raise
a two-fold question: How could this happen? And how should we respond? How
could a civilized nation historically rooted in a Judeo-Christian heritage and
ethic abandon both the metaphysical and
scientific evidence that the unborn are human beings and proceed to legalize
abortion?
I suggest to you the
answer to that question is found in a radical worldview shift that has taken
place in America in the last half century or more. What do I mean by worldview?
Here is Whitney Clayton's definition. (“Basics: Defining Worldview”) (SLIDE 12)
“…a worldview is
quite literally the filter through which someone interprets, defines, and engages
with the world around them. Your worldview assists you in making every
decision throughout your day.”
At the risk of being
overly simplistic, the worldview issue centers around one question. Who is in
charge? Or to personalize it, who do you recognize as being in charge of your
world?
A conflict of
worldviews has been in play from the beginning of time. Let me begin with
the Biblical or Christian worldview. The
stage was set as recorded in Genesis 3:15 (NIV). After Satan successfully
deceived Adam and Eve plunging mankind into sin. God said to Satan, (SLIDE 13)
"...I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your
offspring and her offspring he will bruise your head, and you will bruise his
heel."
With that, the epoch struggle between good and evil began. It continues
today as varying worldviews compete for the heart and soul of man. And Satan
has been trying to kill the offspring of Eve ever since.
He was successful in killing Jesus Christ. But the blood Satan shed on
that cross came back to haunt him. As Paul said, (SLIDE 14) "...having
disarmed the powers and
authorities, He [that is Jesus Christ] made a public spectacle of them, triumphing
over them by the cross." (Colossians 2:15)
Satan's work of evil
became God's provision for his defeat and the salvation of sinful man. So today, though one
can identify many different worldviews there are essentially only two. God's
and Man's.
There is a worldview
chart on a very helpful Christian apologetics website, that identifies six
different worldviews: Islam, secular humanism, Marxism-Leninism, Cosmic
Humanism, Post modernism and Biblical Christianity. But there is a sense in
which there are only two worldviews because all of the five other than Biblical
Christianity are in conflict with God's revelation of Himself to man through
Scripture and the revelation of Himself by the historical intervention of Jesus
Christ into our time and space dimension through His incarnation.
So today there are
essentially two worldviews vying for control of every man and woman and the fate of the
unborn. One is a Biblical or Christian worldview that acknowledges there is one
God who is the Designer, Creator and sustainer of this universe. In other
words, He is in charge! As Paul wrote the Colossians, Colossians 1:16-17 (ESV),
(SLIDE 15)
"For by him [that is Jesus Christ] all things were created, in
heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or
rulers or authorities —all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all
things hold together."
Friends that is a
worldview statement. That is a truth statement that applies to believer and unbeliever
alike. It declares in very unambiguous terms who is in charge of our world. He
created us. He sustains every breath we breathe. And ultimately we are accountable
to him and will face Him in
the final day of judgment.
Listen to the words
of Paul this time in Athens as he interacted with those who disputed the Gospel
he had proclaimed to them. It sparked their curiosity and this is part of his response.
Acts 17:24-28 (ESV) Again notice the
emphasis on God the Creator. (SLIDE 16)
"The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of
heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, 25 nor is
he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and
everything. 26 And he made from one man (SLIDE 17) every nation of mankind to live on all
the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of
their dwelling place, 27 that they should seek God, and perhaps
feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each
one of us, 28 for in him we live and move and have our being’; as
even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are indeed his offspring.’"
Do you see it? The
Gospel is our worldview. That's why abortion is a gospel issue. God created man
in His image and likeness for his purposes, and because He values each human
life, He sent His Son to the cross in an obedient act of sacrificial love to
pay the penalty for our sin that by faith in Him we might be forgiven,
justified and adopted into His family where we will spend eternity in the presence of He who is both our Creator
and our Savior.
When I spoke here
three years ago, on Sanctity of Human Life Sunday, I make the case for the
sanctity of unborn human life from both a Biblical and scientific perspective.
I hope you understand that the two are never contradictory.
And as we've just
noted the Christian worldview begins with creation. This is the explicit teaching
of the Genesis creation account. Genesis 1:27 (ESV), (SLIDE 18)
"So God created
man in his own image, in the image of God he created them...then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the
breath of life, and the man became a
living creature. Genesis 2:7 (ESV)
As we've noted this
is the consistent and repeated declaration of Scripture from Genesis to Revelation.
The apostle Paul saw it as the foundation of a Biblical worldview, the denial
of which prompted God's response to the ungodliness and unrighteousness of man.
Romans 1:18-25 (ESV) (SLIDE 19)
"18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against
all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress
the truth. "
What is the truth we suppress?
"19 For what can be known about God is plain to them,
because God has shown it to them. 20 For
his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have
been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the
things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21 For
although they knew God, (SLIDE 20) they did not honor him as God or give thanks
to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were
darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and
exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals
and creeping things. 24 Therefore
God gave them up (SLIDE 21) in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the
dishonoring of their bodies among themselves,..."
Now listen, "25 because they exchanged the truth
about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the
Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen."
As Peter
Jones writes, (One of Two? pg. 89)
"To
speak in postmodern terms, there are only two 'metanarratives'---an ultimate
story from within the universe, or an ultimate story from outside the universe.
A word from within, or a Word from without. Either creation is divine or the Creator
is divine. It is one or the other, but cannot be both. To claim that creation is divine is to deny true divinity
to the Creator."
Contrary to modern evolutionary theory, that denies the existence of the Creator, man was not the product of a meaningless, random evolutionary process over billions of years. Man was not the result of a cosmic accident. On the contrary the Genesis account speaks to us of a Creator who intentionally created man in His image and likeness with capacities reflective of God Himself.
Contrary to modern evolutionary theory, that denies the existence of the Creator, man was not the product of a meaningless, random evolutionary process over billions of years. Man was not the result of a cosmic accident. On the contrary the Genesis account speaks to us of a Creator who intentionally created man in His image and likeness with capacities reflective of God Himself.
The Psalmist wrote these
stunning words, identifying God as the creator of what John Piper calls "independent
personhood." Listen to what David wrote of his life in the womb. (SLIDE
22)
"For you
created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mothers womb. Your eyes saw
my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before
one of them came to be." Psalm 139:13,16
The Biblical
evidence can be summarized this way: (SLIDE 23) The unborn are created by God and for God. They are created in His image and likeness. That is, they resemble God
and they represent God. They are recognized by God as distinct and unique
persons from the moment of conception. Therefore
to take the life of a preborn infant would constitute a violation of God's
moral law, specifically the sixth commandment "You shall not murder."
Four and a half
years ago, when I spoke here on this subject we identified the spiritual
forces- behind child killing. Jesus on at least two occasions revealed the
nature of the Devil 's work. (SLIDE 24)
In John 8:44, He
refers to the Devil as " a murderer" and "a liar and father of lies."
Making him the Architect of
Abortion. (SLIDE 25) In John 10:10
Jesus exposed Satan's agenda. The thief comes only to steal and kill and
destroy."
As I shared back in
2011 there is conclusive scientific evidence that human life begins at conception.
That debate ended years ago with the discovery that the first cell of human
development contains its full complement of DNA. (SLIDE 26) As Dr. Jerome LeJeune, M.D.
summarizes, "after fertilization has taken place a new human being has
come into being."
You see,
whether you approach the issue of the
personhood of the unborn from a Biblical or scientific and biological
perspective, the inescapable conclusion is that life begins at conception. The
unborn are distinct living persons while in the womb worthy of our protection.
In light of this
evidence, how is it that abortion could remain legal in America for forty-one
years? To answer that question we look no further than the prevailing worldview
of our nation's educational, governmental, and judicial institutions, and the entertainment
and media establishment.
Dr. Francis
Schaeffer, over thirty years ago wrote in his book, A Christian Manifesto, (pg. 24) (SLIDE 27)
"The term
humanism...means Man beginning from himself, with no knowledge except what he
himself can discover and no standard outside of himself. In this view Man is
the measure of all things, as the Enlightenment expressed it."
Man suppresses the
truth about the Creator. Romans 1:25, "they exchanged the truth about God
or a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator."
Again, Peter Jones, "The
main enemy of the gospel is no longer secularism but religious paganism."
In essence, you have
the deification of man according to this worldview. Man is the center of his
own universe. He has put himself in charge, accountable to no one but himself! G.K.
Chestertson, "When men cease to believe in God they do not believe in
nothing; they believe in anything."
It parallels
naturalism that denies the existence of God, believing that matter is all there
is. Therefore the cosmos, as someone has said, "...exists as a uniformity of
cause and effect in a closed system," a closed system that excludes God, transcendent
truth and God's intervention in and sovereignty over the affairs of man. As
someone has said, man is but a complex machine "products of valueless
processes" and the afterlife consists of the extinction of personality and
individuality." In other words, when you die that's all there is. It's all
over. Life is void of any
intrinsic meaning or purpose.
This is the premise
of Darwinian evolution. As Dr. D. James Kennedy & Jerry Newcombe have written,
"Evolution
simply says that (SLIDE 28) the whole universe is made up of nothing but
matter; that matter, time
and chance -- the trinity of materialism -- have brought all things into existence.
Therefore there is no God." (Lord of
All, pg. 24)
This mindset not
only denies the inherent value of each human life but it denies any notion of
purpose to his existence. After all, if man is the product of random chance he
exists in the absence of any transcendent truth or moral compass that would assign purpose and meaning to
his life. This worldview has had a significant impact on the fate of the
unborn.
The Founding Fathers
wrote, in the Declaration of Independence, (SLIDE 29) "We hold these
truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are
endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty
and the pursuit of happiness.”
The Founding Fathers
recognized the truth of Genesis one, that the Creator endowed man with the
unalienable right to life, not the Federal Government, not the Supreme Court, not
the state of Florida, but their Creator.
Again, Dr.
Schaeffer, (CM pg. 25-26)
"Those who hold
the material-energy, chance concept of reality...not only do not know the truth
of the final reality, God, they do not know who Man is...They have reduced Man to
even less than his natural finiteness by seeing him only as a complex
arrangement of molecules, made complex by blind chance. Instead of seeing him
as something great who is significant even in his sinning, they see Man in his
essence only as an intrinsically competitive animal, that has no other basic
operating principle than natural selection brought about by the strongest, the
fittest, ending on top. And they see Man as acting in this way both
individually and collectively as society."
This is the reason
why a modern, educated, highly advanced society can deliberately and legally kill
its own off spring.
Some advocates of
abortion, are now acknowledging that life in the womb is human. But in an
attempt preserve their right to choose abortion are sliding further and further
down the inevitable slippery slope of those who deny the intrinsic value of
human life.
Listen to the words
written by Mary Elizabeth Williams that appeared in the January 2013 progressive
online magazine Salon. The title of the article was, "So What if abortion
Ends a Life" The subtitle: "I believe that life starts at conception. And it's
never stopped me from being pro-choice." She writes,
"While opponents of abortion eagerly describe themselves as
'pro-life,' the rest of us have had to scramble around with not nearly as
big-ticket words like 'choice' and 'reproductive freedom.' The 'life'
conversation is often too thorny to even broach. Yet I know that throughout my
own pregnancies, I never wavered for a moment in the belief that I was carrying
a human life inside of me. I believe that’s what a fetus is: a human life. And that doesn’t make me one iota less solidly
pro-choice." She goes on to
explain,
"Here’s the complicated reality in which we live: All life is not
equal. That’s a difficult thing for liberals like me to talk about, lest we
wind up looking like death-panel-loving, kill-your-grandma-and-your-precious-baby
storm troopers. Yet a fetus can be a human life without having the same rights
as the woman in whose body it resides. She’s the boss. Her life and what is
right for her circumstances and her health should automatically trump the
rights of the non-autonomous entity inside of her. Always."
An astounding admission, a diabolical line of reasoning. She continues, "I
can say anecdotally that I’m a mom who loved the lives she incubated...If by
some random fluke I learned today I was pregnant, you bet your [expletive] I’d
have an abortion. I’d have the World’s Greatest Abortion."
Similar words to the
defense of abortion by Psychologist and professor Dr. Ginette Paris,"It is not
immoral to choose abortion; it is simply another kind of morality, a pagan
one.”
When man is
considered to be nothing more than the product of a meaningless, random evolutionary process
over millions of years, or the result of a cosmic accident; when he is no longer
assigned the intrinsic worth given to him by His Creator; he therefore becomes expendable in the
struggle of the survival of the fittest. Might becomes right, and evolution
triumphs.
And when the Supreme
Court gave women the right to kill their unborn children, the inevitable has
taken place. You've just heard the admission. The stronger, in every case the mother,
has used her power to take the life of the weaker--her unborn child, allowing millions
of mothers and fathers to sacrificed their own posterity to further their own convenience.
The denial of
transcendent truth has come at a very high price to our nation. When man becomes
his own god, all hell breaks loose in society, and the civility of a
civilization is lost.
Dr. Bernard
Nathanson, who helped to legalize abortion and who was personally responsible for 60,000 abortions
before his conversion, wrote the
following.
"The abortion holocaust is beyond the ordinary discourse of
morality and rational condemnation. It is not enough to pronounce it absolutely
evil....The abortion tragedy is a new event, severed from connections with
traditional presuppositions of history, psychology, politics and morality. It
extends beyond the deliberations of reason, beyond the discernment of moral
judgment, beyond meaning itself....This is an evil torn free of its moorings in
reason and causality, an ordinary secular corruption raised to unimaginable
powers of magnification and limitless extremity. extremity." ("Pro-Choice 1990," New Dimensions, October 1990)
Do you see why this
is a gospel issue? The Gospel has not failed abortion. The church has failed to apply the gospel
to abortion. I have said it before, I know of no greater issue facing our nation
to wrap the gospel around than abortion.
Just turn the page to
Romans 3:21-26. Paul writes, (SLIDE 30)
"21 But now the righteousness of God has been
manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness
to it— 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23 for
all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are
justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation (SLIDE 31) by his
blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine
forbearance he had passed over former sins. 26 It was to show his
righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of
the one who has faith in Jesus."
A propitiation
is a blood sacrifice that covers sin, so that God’s wrath and judgment will be averted!
There is only one remedy for the shedding of innocent blood the innocent blood
shed on the cross.
You see, Jesus
died in our place. He paid the penalty for our sins; your sin and my sin, any
and all sin. The sin of killing your unborn child; the sin of pushing a
girlfriend, wife or daughter or granddaughter into an abortion; the sin of
paying for an abortion; the sin of performing an abortion; the sin of doing
nothing to end abortion. It matters not what sin it is. We can be forgiven and
justified, declared righteous in God's sight, our sin no longer being held
against us.
Listen to what Don
Schanzenbach posted
last year (January 20, 2013) in his blog "Roe v. Wade--40 Years and Counting (to 55 million Abortions), part 1."
"The science is on our side. The supposedly
scientifically-oriented secularists, are refusing to embrace the science they
purport to use as their source of absolute truth. Given the trouncing they have
received in these science-related categories, we would expect the battle should
long ago have turned in our favor. Yet, this has not been the case. Secularists
struggle on with undying emotion in their now scientifically disproven cause..."
He goes on to say,
"The unsaved do not have the power to act
righteously. Their minds are at enmity with God. As a group, they will not turn
toward the civilization of Christ without His Spirit and prevailing influence...
Our only path to success is to preach and teach Biblical truth as it applies to
the abortion issue. The only tool God uses to transform people is His word preached. The culture calls
it foolishness, but we call it the power and wisdom of God. God truly
transforms men, and the societies of men, through the word preached. This
then, must be our chosen road for the future."
I remind you
this morning that the advocates of abortion are not the “enemy." The
doctors who perform abortions and their clients, and those who defend a woman's
right to kill their unborn are not the enemy. Paul identified the enemy when he
wrote of the unseen reality behind this kind of evil, Ephesians 6:12, (NIV) (SLIDE 32)
"...our
struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the
authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual
forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”
You see,
tragically those involved in the abortion industry are themselves the
casualties of Satan's deception and darkness. To the Corinthian church Paul
wrote 2 Corinthians 4:4 (NIV), (SLIDE 33)
“The god
of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the
light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of
God."
Only
Jesus can open the eyes of the blind. John Ensor wrote,
"The commands
of Scripture exist that we might be compelled to do what does not come
naturally." (Innocent Blood)
In Luke chapter ten Jesus
helped a lawyer understand what it meant to love his neighbor. (SLIDE 34) He
told the story of a man on his way to Jericho from Jerusalem who was robbed and
beaten and left half dead alongside the road. Three different individuals had
the opportunity to
render him assistance -- in all likelihood to save his life. Two of the three did
not respond to the needs of the man bleeding by the side of the road. Those two
were the church leaders of that day, a priest and a Levite, responsible for the
spiritual care of their nation.
And Jesus points out
that not only did they fail to respond, but they "passed by on the other side."
In other words they went out of their way not to respond. Jesus then pointed
out that the one who proved to be the neighbor to the dying man was the one who
showed mercy to the badly beaten traveller. He then said, "Go and do
likewise."
John Ensor, in his book Innocent Life, defines "Samaritan compassion"
this way, (SLIDE 35)
"Doing right in the sight of the Lord
means acting to stop the shedding of innocent blood. The only person in Jesus’ parable who is
pro-life according to the demands of love is the Samaritan. Only he was willing
to make the nearly dead man’s problem his own. Only he was willing to see the
victim’s suffering as his own. Only he was willing to act according to what he would cry out for if their positions had
been reversed."
The
Church in America is struggling with how to respond to America's abortion
crisis. We have failed to expose the shedding of innocent blood and proclaim
the full pardon available through the shed blood of Jesus Christ. We have
failed to grasp the implications of the gospel with regard to the killing of
over 3,300 unborn children each day.
According
to Jesus' parable salvation has a moral imperative built into it with regard to
the needs of those around us. John Ensor has written,
"Loving God and loving
neighbor are not separate choices. One flows sweetly from the other. Loving
my neighbor will always mean a desire to
help him or her find the grace of God in all its manifestations. Loving my neighbor
will occasionally arrest me, and maybe even require me to help prevent someone from
being murdered. Loving God and loving neighbor are never at odds with each
other. Those who try to do one at the expense of the other offend both God and
neighbor."
I don't know how or if God has spoken to you this
morning. If anything, I barely know my own heart. But if God has spoken to you
this morning, I urge you to respond in these moments as we close in prayer.
If God has spoken to you, agree
with Him. Yield to Him; surrender to Him. The Apostle Paul wrote, (2 Cor.
7:10) "Godly
sorrow brings repentance that leads
to salvation and leaves no regret"
You will never regret
yielding to God. You will never regret obeying God. Remember
the words of Jesus in exposing Satan's agenda - John 10:10 (ESV), "The
thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy." Listen to the second half of that verse. I came that they might
have life and have it abundantly."
Here's
Jesus' invitation: Matthew 11:28-30 (ESV). It comes with a promise. (SLIDE 36)
“Come to me, all you who are weary
and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from
me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."
If you hear His voice calling
you to salvation this morning, I urge you to surrender to His call, go ahead and do it, cry out to Him. He'll save you and you will never be
the same again - and you'll never regret it. If you have sin that needs to be
forgiven, repent and confess it. His blood will cover it for all eternity, and
you will be forgiven.
(c) James P. McGarvey All Rights
Reserved
