Elephants – Week 3 (8-11-14)
Elephants
Abortion
August 11, 2024
What do we do when our faith in Jesus is at odds with the world around us?
How we navigate these complex issues not only affect our relationship with Christ they also affect our witness for Christ.
Principles & People
“It may be true that the law cannot change the heart, but it can restrain the heartless.” MLK
James 1:27
Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
Principles:
Miracle of Life
Psalm 139:13-16
For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.
Deuteronomy 32:39
“See now that I myself am he!
There is no god besides me.
I put to death and I bring to life,
I have wounded and I will heal,
and no one can deliver out of my hand.
Created on purpose for a purpose
Jeremiah 1:4-10
The word of the Lord came to me, saying,
5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
before you were born I set you apart;
I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”
6 “Alas, Sovereign Lord,” I said, “I do not know how to speak; I am too young.”
7 But the Lord said to me, “Do not say, ‘I am too young.’ You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. 8 Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you,” declares the Lord.
9 Then the Lord reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, “I have put my words in your mouth. 10 See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant.”
You are not the only person impacted by your decisions.
Consequences & Condemnation
Romans 8:1-4
Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
John 3:17
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
People:
What will we be known for?
What you are AGAINST has the capability to blind you to what you are FOR.
Psalm 103:11-12
For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his love for those who fear him;
12 as far as the east is from the west,
so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
The story of the gospel is not bad people made good but dead people made alive!
How we navigate these complex issues not only affect our relationship with Christ they also affect our witness for Christ.