The Sixth Commandment

A few years ago, a movie came out called Amazing Grace. It was about William Wilberforce. He was a British politician in the 19th century. More importantly, he was a Christian politician. He had two purposes. One was to help the manners or really morals of Britain. And the second one was to end slavery, to end the slave trade. We celebrate that he was able to accomplish the former, or the latter rather, that he was able to accomplish the ending of the slave trade. And we praise God for that. It wasn't until after he was converted that he took on these, this calling, these responsibilities. It wasn't until after he became a Christian, he confessed his sin, he called upon the Christ and started studying the Bible and being influenced by the Christians to realize life has value. That life is to be lived a certain way because the designer, God, has called us to live a certain way. And more importantly, God has given every life a clear value and dignity and honor. And so when he saw the abuses that were taking place in the slave trade, he was committed to ending it. And we praise God that God blessed those efforts of he and many others. God's Word, it reveals that we have dignity and honor as human beings. We are called to protect that dignity and we are called to pursue the righteous way God has called us to live. Our message this morning is on, we're still in the Ten Commandments for those of you who are new or visiting for the first time. We've been walking through Exodus. We've seen the great redemption of Israel from Egypt. Now God is calling these people to be his nation and we are just halfway past or just beyond halfway now in the Ten Commandments. Our message summary this morning is this. God gives life and calls us to honor the life he gives. Our passage this morning is Exodus 20 verse 13. You shall not murder or or said maybe better in the King James. Thou shalt not murder. It just seems to have more gusto to it. Again, our message. God gives life and calls us to honor the life he gives. There will be four parts. to our message this morning. First, we'll consider the command itself in the Old Covenant and the rationale behind the command. Secondly, we'll see how Christ fulfills this command. And the last two will focus on how Christ actually heightens the command. The first way he heightens that command, he takes it from the external action of murder and he takes it to the internal desires that are sinful, anger and hatred. And the second way he heightens it, he says, not just to stop being angry or hating your enemy. He calls us to love our enemy. So let's begin our study of Exodus 20. God commands us not to murder those who are made in his image. Exodus 20, 13, you shall not murder. Now, we need to focus on here. It's the specific action. It's the external action of murder. And we need to think about some technical differences. Murder is the intentional taking of someone's life, intentionally killing someone who is innocent. Now, there's another killing that isn't part of this passage. It's killing in self-defense. That person is obviously not innocent. If they're trying to attack you and take your life, the Bible actually says you will not have guilt for defending yourself and killing them if that's what that takes. That is Exodus 22 verses 2 and 3. And then there's manslaughter. This is the unintentional, the accidental taking of someone's life. Murder is specific, it's intentional, and it's taking the life of someone who is innocent. And it's the outward action. Now this has to be the most universally recognized of the Ten Commandments. Everyone everywhere believes that murder is wrong. No one thinks that this should be an acceptable opportunity, an acceptable thing. No one says murder is good because everyone wants their life to be protected. The other commandments, especially the first four, most people don't care about the name of God. Most people don't care about how many gods and how many idols we have. Even the moral ones. Lying is acceptable. Most people think there are such things as innocent lives. Stealing is even considered acceptable. If you're in need, if you need to take something in order to feed you or your family, some people will say that's okay, but no one will say murder. Well, actually, we tried to say murder was okay. At one point, the legal system was considering allowing murder to be guiltless based upon the way the children were raised. Remember that there were certain trials where they were considering the possibility that the way someone was raised made it where they had to act this way. Thankfully, that did not seem to continue. So this is in the horizontal ten commandments. The first table, those are the vertical commandments, the way we relate to God. We shall have no other gods before us. We should not take the Lord's name in vain. The second, that's how we relate to one another. So there's two parts of the commandments, how we relate to God, how we relate to one another. And as we think about how we relate to one another, they cannot be removed from the way we relate to God. How we relate to one another is completely dependent and reliant upon how we relate to God. For instance, we are not to murder others who are made in the image of God. It's because we honor God and respect him and worship him. We don't murder others. Because God is a God of truth, we don't tell a lie to others. We are supposed to image and reflect him. Our relationship to God determines how we relate to one another. If you're sitting against one another, that is a immediate reflection on your relationship to God. So let's begin at the very beginning. God made man in his own image. This is the rationale behind the commandment, thou shalt not murder. You don't murder someone because they are made in the image of God. Now, the image of God clearly has a functional aspect to it because the imaging is the exercising dominion. That is a clear connection that if you're imaging God, you're exercising his dominion. And while we all fail at that, But the imaging also is something that is just placed upon us as humans. It's beyond just exercising dominion. It means every human life has worth and value. This is the sanctity of life. You can look around and you can see every other person in here is made in the image of God. They're creatures of God. Therefore, they have honor. They have value. They're to be treated with dignity. Man is set apart from every other living being with this value, and it doesn't matter how they function. We can think of the worst human beings and how they function in this world and murdering many. There's still many image of God. They still have value. They still have honor. They still have dignity. Even Hitler, even Charles Manson, even Osama bin Laden. They all were created in the image of God. They failed in their function, but they are worthy of a certain dignity that is common to us all. That's why we never celebrate death. We never celebrate the death of anyone. Now, we may be thankful that someone who was seeking to kill us is no longer seeking to kill us, but we never celebrate death. Especially someone who is not a Christian and is a murderer, because that person is forever in hell. That is not what we celebrate as Christians. Respect the right of life because God has given that right. Genesis 9, 6 makes this very clear connection for us. Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed for God made man in his own image. The for there is extremely important. It's the rationale, the basis. Every life is worthy of honor and dignity. You are not to take someone's life because every man is made in his own image. Now, we look at this and it means every nationality, every race and both genders, every man, woman and child is made in his image. That's amazing if we look at scripture, we have the fall that happens very quickly in scripture, Genesis three. And then right after that is the first murder. It's a it's a sibling rivalry. It's it's it's the two brothers, Cain and Abel. They both bring sacrifices to God. One brings some of his wheat. The other brings the choices of his lamb. And God accepts the sacrifice of Abel because it was better because it was the best lamb he had. And Cain is jealous. He gets envious and he murders his brother. It says he was angry in verse five of chapter four. It's amazing here that God sees his anger and he warns him. Sin is crouching at your door. It's going to destroy you. But Cain does not heed the warning. He shirks off his responsibility of caring for his brother and he kills him. He murders him. God comes, where's your brother? Again, he throws off the responsibility. Am I my brother's keeper? Yes, you are. God says the blood of your brother is crying out from the ground against you, and that blood was declaring a testimony guilty. The blood of Abel was a testimony to Cain that he was guilty. Cain was supposed to protect his life as his brother, and he took it. Now, as we conclude our Old Testament section, there's much more to say, but we want to get to the New Testament because, well, that gets a little more complicated and much more demanding. But there's already some basic applications, a very, very clear application. First, you have dignity and worth because God has created you with it. You may come and you may wonder, who cares about me? Does anybody really know who I am or care for my well-being? God does. You are his creature. You are his special creation made in his image. He knows the number of hairs on your head. While some may not have many, he knows how many there are. He knows your heart. He cares for you. He says your your life has value. He wants you to know that you have worth. Now, the problem of humanity is where our hearts are sinful. And we usually think too little of ourselves or too much of ourselves, and the way to keep this from happening is to always remember who we are under under God. The second application is very similar to the first, only we're going to reflect a little bit on it with our neighbor. Your neighbor has value, honor and dignity. Now, we typically always know and want to claim we have honor and everyone needs to recognize it. We must recognize that our neighbor is created with the same honor, value and dignity. This is the basis of the golden rule. Treat others as you will treat yourself. Jesus and his command, love your neighbor as yourself. The assumption is that you already love yourself. What you're supposed to do is love your neighbor as yourself. The dignity you want to be treated with, the honor and value you want people to treat you with, that's what you are called to treat your neighbor. The question is, do we demand honor without giving it? Or are there some people that you just refuse to show honor to? Now, these are all good and basic morals for all people. This is just how to live as good creatures, good human beings. Let's now turn to the new covenant and think about how we can apply the you shall not murder to us as Christians. We always want to start with a simple first questions. Is there any reason the new covenant to think this law, this law no longer applies? Is there is there some reason to think that this law has been removed or abolished and the new covenant? Well, absolutely not. To the contrary, it is repeated. It's even heightened and intensified. So the real question is this, how does Christ fulfill this law? How does Christ fulfill this law? Because he both fulfills it with his life and he heightens it, intensifies it with his teaching. So our second main point, Christ fulfills the law with his life. First, something pretty simple, he never murdered anyone. Christ is not guilty of murder. He fulfilled the law in that he was never a murderer. We can also look and see that Christ was never angry with unrighteousness. If he was angry, it was always a righteous anger. And we're looking already ahead at how he intensifies this law. The second way Christ fulfills this law, what we want to focus on is that Jesus himself was murdered. Jesus himself was murdered. You can turn to Acts 223. Peter makes this very clear. This Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. So there's two people moving Christ towards death. One is God who intended him to die for sinners. That is the great plan of God, which is for our benefit. But Christ submitted himself to the hands of lawless men who would put him to death, murdering him as an innocent man. Now, we know Jesus is innocent because he is the sinless one, sinless one who died for sinners. But even Pilate couldn't bring himself, even though it was a politically strategic move to send Christ himself, he couldn't bring himself to actually state a real accusation and charge against Jesus. He handed him over to those who were continuing in their sin, the Pharisees and religious leaders. The key question, why did God let his own son be submitted being beaten, spat upon, mocked, and eventually murdered by what Peter called lawless men. It was according to his plan. It was according to the plan all along from Genesis 3 onward that a son would come from humanity and he would take away the curse. This is the amazing part. Jesus is murdered so that he can take away the guilt from murderers. So those who have killed and murdered other people, Jesus dies so that the guilt that they had before God is removed from them and placed upon him. He's murdered to provide forgiveness for murderers, he removes the condemnation that comes from the law. Here's the here's the hard truth. This is what we all have to gather around. We're all sinners. But we may not have actually taken the action of murdering someone, as we will see. We are all guilty because we have all been angry. We have all hated. We've lied. We've stolen. We've not honored God. We are all guilty. And Christ was put to death so that the wrath of God that is due to us and our guilt would no longer be upon us. He took it upon himself so that we could be forgiven. Hebrews makes an amazing, just short little statement. Hebrews 12, 24. And to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. Abel's blood cried out and said guilty. Christ's blood cries out and says innocent. Abel's blood was rightfully declaring that Cain was guilty of murder. When we believe in Christ, his blood cries out before God Almighty. This one is mine. I have washed him in my blood. They are forgiven. This is the good news of the gospel. Friends, I have a pressing question to ask all of you, and I want you to answer this. If you were to stand before God and he asked you, why should I let you into my eternal presence? Why should I let you into my family? What we oftentimes call heaven. What would you say? If God said, why should I let you into my family, what would you say? There's two general categories of how we answer that question. The first one concerns me. If you started that question with you as a subject, I. And whatever you said afterwards, I'm concerned if it was I didn't church my whole life. I was raised in a Baptist family. I've done this. I've done that. I've always been a good person. You're putting your faith in your works because it's not about what you have done the right way, the Christian way to answer this question is to start with God or Christ. God gave me grace. Christ died for me. We must put ourselves in the position of being the recipient of what God has done to be forgiven in Christ, because it's his blood that forgives us, not our works. Jesus died to bring forgiveness. He also heightens this by teaching the true intent and purpose of the law. He's murdered for the murderers, but then he calls us to an obedient life. Let's look at the way that Christ heightens these commands, especially this command not to murder. Our third main point. Jesus teaches that it is not merely the action that makes us guilty. It is the murder that resides in our own heart. It is not merely the action. But it's what we'll call the murder of the heart. You can see this in Matthew 5. Matthew 5 verse 21, you have heard that it was said to those of old, you shall not murder and whoever murders will be liable to judgment. But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment. There's a clear change. From the external action to the internal desires, the internal thoughts, the internal intention. Christ's law focuses on the heart, the cause of our sinful desires. The call is not simply to be obedient with our actions, but to be obedient with our heart, to desire the way God desires, to think the way God thinks. It requires a new heart to be new creatures, to be a new creation. If you're angry with someone, you are guilty before God. If you're angry with someone, you are guilty before God. It is the murder of the heart. Hating someone is putting the word, maybe not using these words, but hating someone is the equivalent of saying, I wish they were dead. They're in my way. This human life, it doesn't have the value and dignity that I should be giving it in my own mind. I wish it weren't here. While you may not take the desire to the extreme of murdering, we're guilty. Now, why? Why does anger make us liable to judgment? Why is it that the heart is what is focused on with Jesus? We can see this in Matthew 15 and James 6. Let me first read Matthew 15, beginning in verse 18. What comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. For out of the heart comes evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person. But to eat with unwashed hands, that does not defile anyone. In James 6.1, what causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. It is our sinful heart that leads to sinful actions. It's not just stopping the sinful actions, it's actually seeking a cure and a fix for what is the cause, and that is the heart. So we hate them by not giving them the honor that God created them for. We hate them, allowing our hearts to continue with their rebellion against God and the way He's called us to live. Something that's very important here. Anger comes from within. Seems kind of obvious here, but it's extremely important. Nobody makes you angry. Things may happen that cause you to respond with anger, but nobody makes you angry. You have control over that. Anger, hatred, that comes from within. It's your choice if you're going to let those sinful desires continue to boil into hatred and slander and abuse. Anger isn't forced upon you. Anger comes from within. It's our desires that take us away. It's God's good gifts that draw us back. Let's think of the fruits of anger. Anger leads to words that slander and words that harm others. As we've been studying in James, our words are so powerful, they can so easily discourage. Anger leads to harmful words where you are not showing others the dignity and honor and value and worth that God has given them. Anger leads to mistreating others, not showing them the honor they deserve, robbing them of their glory. And anger leads to cursing God. Anytime we're angry, It's ultimately and finally anger towards God. Anytime we're angry, we're ultimately and finally angry towards God. Let me delve into a topic that has come up with our James study. Let's talk about righteous anger. Righteous anger. And the key verse here will be Ephesians 4. Be angry and do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your anger and give no opportunity to the double. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave you. So here's a many people ask, can I have righteous anger? I don't think you can. I don't think we are capable of righteous anger. Now, we're going to get into some semantic issues, so let me explain this. That is not saying that there are things that are happening that aren't deserving of righteous anger. There aren't things that are so evil and wicked that they are unrighteous and that they should call about a righteous anger. Wilberforce had a anger towards slavery. I'm thankful that God used that to bring about the ending of slavery. I'm not making a judgment on those things that may cause us to be angry. I'm making a judgment on our hearts. I don't think we can control our anger well enough for it to be righteous anger. The heart is an idle factory. The heart is wild against God, the heart will always over exaggerate. While you may have a real anger that is legitimate, will always take it too far before Christ comes. I don't think we can truly have a righteous anger. It will always lead to rage and hatred in a way of thinking and acting and desiring that dishonors others. That doesn't mean there aren't causes that should make us angry. We'll talk about some causes that make me angry and make us angry. We need to be careful in justifying our anger because only Christ, I believe, has and had righteous anger. Before we move on to application, there's something else that's important from this passage in Ephesians 4. We receive a new life and we're called to a new life. You're called to put off bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander. Put them off. Take them off like clothes. Take them off and leave them behind. You're called to be kind, tenderhearted and forgiving. As Christians, we're called to a new way of living, a new way of thinking, a new way of desiring. We're to put off these things and put new a new way of living on. As we think about the life, we're called to remove anger and we're called to replace it with tenderness and forgiveness. Let me think about the application of this first. Anger makes us all guilty and in need of a savior. This is the most important thing for us all to realize this morning. We are all guilty. We've all been awake for somewhere between five and six hours, I hope. How many of you, how many of us have already been guilty this morning of anger? The traffic on the way in. The chaos of trying to get everyone ready. The breaking of a routine. How many have already used words that were not gracious or generous? How many of us are already guilty of anger even this morning? We're all rebellious and we're all guilty. And we all need a savior who takes away God's wrath for not just the action of murder, but for our anger and bitterness. We're to call upon the name of Christ and seek forgiveness. Secondly, anger demonstrates a lack of trust in God. Anger demonstrates a lack of trust in God. When we are battling with anger, we must first look to God. For wronged by someone, we must trust that God is the just judge and that he will have righteous vengeance and we do not have to seek it. Because when we seek it, we go too far. We further injure someone. This is very clear in Romans 12, 19. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, vengeance is mine. I will repay, says the Lord. Do we trust that God is a just judge? Do we trust God that he is wise and able to exercise vengeance in his time and his way? One author said it this way, I found this very helpful. Anger and bitterness are two noticeable signs of being focused on self and not trusting God's sovereignty in your life. When you believe that God causes all things to work together for good to those who belong to him and love him. You can respond to trials with joy instead of anger or bitterness. So the first thing we need to do to recognize that we're angry is ask, am I trusting God? If someone's offended us, am I going to trust that God is going to take care of that situation and bring a righteous judgment? Is he going to work this all out for my good because I am his child? Anger demonstrates a lack of trust in God's wisdom, power, and goodness. Third, anger demonstrates a desire to control others. And that's not treating them with the honor and dignity that God created them with. Anger says, I wish you would act like this because this is the most convenient thing for me. It's not taking them into account. It's not saying that they have that dignity and honor given to them by God. It's only claiming your own dignity and honor and making yourself a little king. We need to realize that our anger is just showing that we're jealous of something that somebody else has, or we're desiring something and someone else is in our way. We demonstrate a control, a desire to control others. Fourthly, and I'm really trying to work on saying finally for many of you. Fourth, unrepentant anger Demonstrates an unregenerate heart. Unrepentant anger demonstrates an unregenerate heart. A heart that has not been made new by God in the power of Jesus Christ in the sealing of the Holy Spirit. Galatians 5, beginning at verse 19. Now the works of the flesh are evident. Sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. That is a heavy warning, friends. All these things are forgivable, none of these sins are more powerful than the blood of Christ and the power of his forgiveness. But the point here is that if you claim to be a child of God and you're continuing in these sins, unrepentant, that demonstrates a heart that is not God's. It's demonstrating a heart that pursues and loves sin more than the one who frees you from sin. He's warning us what we what we do reveals who we are, because what we do reveals what we desire. A new heart. is a repentant heart. Our fourth main point. Jesus heightens further. Jesus heightens it further. It's not just don't be angry towards your enemy who you are naturally angry towards. Love him. Jesus teaches not just that we are to resist anger, but that we are to even love our enemies. According to the flesh, this is just It seems impossible. But this is the high Christian calling again, we can go back to Matthew five, I'll begin reading in verse forty three, you have heard that it was said you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you. Love your enemies. And pray for those who persecute you. so that you may be sons of your father who is in heaven, for he makes his son rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You, therefore, must be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect. We are called to imitate God as a good son always imitates his father. We are called to imitate the one who has adopted us into his family through the death and resurrection of his own son. We are called to not just refuse the temptation to be angry, but to change the way we view them and love them. Now, key here is that love is not something you fall into. Love isn't something that just happens. Anger is a choice that you have to entertain in your own heart, just as love is a choice that you have to choose to entertain in your own heart. This is what makes the Christian ethic the strongest ethic. Love your neighbor. This is what is a distinguishing mark of Christianity. It seems impossible. And it's only accomplished by the grace of God, because I think we can only do this when we first see ourselves as the enemy of God. We can only see and we can only obey this when we first realized that we were at enmity with God. We were rebelling against him. We made ourselves enemies of God and he chose to love us. That's the gospel. We were fighting against God, resisting him with every bit of our strength and power, and he pursued us. Even while we were fighting against him, he loves his enemies. That's why he calls us to love our enemies. It's only the gospel, the true gospel of God loving his enemies that can call us to do the same. Romans 10 speaks to this, it's a direct imperative, a command from Paul. Beginning in verse 14. Bless those who persecute you. Blessed do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice. Weep for those who weep. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, Never avenge yourself, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, Vengeance is mine and I will repay it to the Lord. To the contrary, if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him something to drink, for by doing you will leave. You will heat burning coals in his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. That last verse is key. There's two ways to live. You can either become over. You can either be overcome with evil or you will overcome evil with good. That's the choice. There's two ways to live, to live in the evil that naturally bubbles forth from your heart or to overcome evil with good, to choose to be the good that God has called and commanded us. Now, the wrestle with loving your enemy. And the impossibility of that, I first want to say this is a high Christian call. And we have to first love our brothers and sisters. Before we begin to think we're going to love our enemy. We can't think we can fulfill this command to love our enemy if we can also, first and foremost, love those who are like minded, love those who are united in Christ, love those who have gathered together. We are called to unite as brothers and sisters. This is actually implied in our demand of Jesus and earlier in Matthew 5. If you know someone has an accusation against you, go and ask for forgiveness. How can we ever begin to think we were going to love our enemy or love our enemy if we cannot first love those who are also bought with the precious blood of Christ? Now, this is the key to loving one another. We don't love one another because of what's inherent in us. We don't love one another because of what others do for us. We're called to love one another because we share the love of Christ. In the same way, as you look to honor others, you honor others because they're creating the image of God. You see them and you say they are worthy of my honor. They're worthy of dignity and worth because they're creating the image of God. As we fellowship as Christians, you say they are worthy of my love because we share the love of Christ. Christian. The church has too bad of a reputation of having wars within. There are legitimate wars over doctrine and things that matter, but so much of the battling and anger and hatred that takes place within the Christian community, it's embarrassing. How can we ever claim that we love our enemy if we can't love one another? So here's the challenge. If you're a Christian, if you're a member here, if you're a covenant to gather under the blood of Christ, is there someone you're refusing your fellowship to? Is there some reason that you're saying I'm not going to love him or her? And here's what's happening. Whatever you're saying is more important than the blood of Christ that unites you, that's your idol. That's an idol. You're saying whatever keeps you from honoring and loving and uniting in fellowship with other brothers and sisters, it's an idol. As we conclude, finally, My wife and I, we went to the theater and we watched Amazing Grace and I walked out and I said, wow, that's such a moving call to action. There's really nothing like that anymore to really say I'm going to set against this particular practice. My wife very kindly and graciously and submissively and humbly looked at me and said, Keith, millions of babies are being killed every year. Abortion. And she's calling it the new cause. It's the cause that would be likened to the slave trade. She had a right correction. I thought, well, there's nothing like this kind of abuse. No. Millions of unborn human beings, created by the God in His image, are aborted every year. They estimate 50 million abortions have taken place since 1973. 50 million human lives. Friends, we have to first realize that that child in the womb is a human being. It doesn't matter when personhood begins. God has said they are fashioned in the womb. They are in His image from the very beginning. They have life, and that life has dignity and honor, and taking it is murder. Taking a human life is murder and killing an unborn child is murder. We must set ourselves against this. Now it's difficult because the political system has legalized it. That's not what a battle is going to be won. The battle is won the same way Wilberforce's heart was won. We win it through prayer. We seek to use the most powerful instrument God's given us. We pray for women and men to seek godly counsel in the midst of their troubles, in the midst of wondering what to do with this child. There's a real practical way. There's a pregnancy center. You can go and you can receive training on how to counsel women who were in the midst of wondering, should they keep this child? That is a way to care For those who are in the midst of making this very difficult decision. Finally, the other practical way. We must proclaim the gospel. It's only when people come to know the God who is life, the God who gives life, the God who renews life, that they will start to see the way they live matters, the way God created us matters, and the decisions that we make, they matter. They will start to see that human life has dignity. Let's go the Lord in prayer. Father, we come before you. We thank you first and foremost. For the death of Christ. That forgives us of our sin. Help us, Lord, to repent of that sin and to seek forgiveness with those we've sinned against. Help us, Lord, to not be angry, but to treat one another with tenderness and forgiveness. Help us, Lord, to know how to love our enemy. To model that the gospel love you've given to us. And Father, we pray. We pray for the mothers right now who are finding out that they are pregnant. And they're wondering if they're going to keep the human life that you have blessed them with. And we pray for strong conviction. We pray for godly counsel to come around them. We pray that they would see the dignity and value and worth that you have placed in the human life. We pray that you will protect them and guide them. We pray that you will provide for them. We know that you are the good God who gives good gifts. Lord, help us to know how we can help those who are either dealing with the emotional distress of having an abortion or the emotional dilemma of choosing it. We pray that you would end the legal battle over it. But it's not just a legal battle, Lord. I pray that you would help us all, all humanity to see the dignity of human life and keep us from ever wanting it. In the name of Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.