West
Side Church of Christ, Searcy, Arkansas
Sermon Notes, January 22, 2017 A.M.
Choose
Life
Steve W. Reeves
INTRODUCTION:
A. Forty
four ars ago today, January 22, 1973 the Supreme Court of the United States
issued a ruling in Roe vs. Wade that legalized
abortion in our country. That ruling
had a greater impact upon the world than
any other decision in the court’s history.
B. I
want you to know that I am unashamedly and wholeheartedly “pro-life.” I hold
this
view not because of political partisanship
but because I believe it is the will
of God revealed in the Bible. Since Roe vs.
Wade there have been approximately
1, 600,000 babies aborted every year. That's
4,383 per day. In the United States we
have aborted more babies than the total
number of soldiers killed in the Revolutionary
War, Civil War, WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam,
Iraq and Afghanistan combined.
C. I
believe every Christian along with everyone who respects the message of the
Bible
and everyone who seeks to honor God should
choose life.
I. EVERY LIFE IS IMPORTANT TO GOD.
A. From the book of Psalms notice:
1. Psalm 22:9-10- “Yet You are He who
brought me forth from the womb.
You made me trust when upon my
mother’s breasts.10 Upon You I was cast from
birth. You have been my God from my
mother’s womb.”
2. Psalm 127:3 – “Behold, children are a
gift of the Lord, the fruit of the womb is a
reward.”
3. In Psalm 139:13-14 we read, “For You
formed my inward parts; You wove me in
my mother’s womb.14 I
will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully
made. Wonderful are Your works, and
my soul knows it very well.”
B. Under the law of Moses if a pregnant
woman was hit as two men struggled and the
baby died the penalty was death (Exodus
21:22-25).
C. We have desensitized the violence of
abortion. Isaiah said, “Woe to
those who call evil good, and good evil;
Who substitute darkness for light and light
for darkness; Who substitute bitter for
sweet and sweet for bitter: (Isaiah 5:20).
1. We cannot face the cruelty of what we
are doing so we change the terminology.
2. We say we are “terminating” a
pregnancy.” The largest provider of abortions in
the United States is “Planned
Parenthood.” This does not sound offensive does
it? However, Planned Parenthood was
founded by Margaret Sanger who
advocated abortion as a means of controlling
the size of families.
3. We don’t call the baby in a womb a
child. We call it a “fetus.” Do you know the
the word “fetus” is Latin for “baby
child.” People use that word because it sounds
more acceptable for someone to say
they destroyed a “fetus” as if it were simply
a blob of material rather than
destroying a “baby child.”
D. The late Nelson Mandela, former
president of South Africa, said, "There can be no
keener revelation of a society's soul
than the way in which it treats its children." In
our country, however, we have more laws
protecting the Northern Spotted Owl or
the egg of a Bald Eagle than we do a
baby in the womb of its mother. This is wrong.
II. EVERY LIFE IS A PLAN OF GOD.
A. In Jeremiah 1:5 God called Jeremiah -
“Before
I formed you in the womb I knew
you, and before you were born I
consecrated you; I have appointed you a prophet
to the nations.”
1. Who is the “I?” God!
2. What did God do with Jeremiah before he
was born? He consecrated (set apart)
and appointed him as a prophet.
3. God had a plan for Jeremiah’s life.
B. In Judges 13:5 God told Manoah and his
wife of the impending birth of Sanson
and how he would be used to deliver
Israel from the Philistines.
C. When Elizabeth, the mother of John the
Baptist was carrying him in her womb they
were visited by Mary, the mother of
Jesus. When Mary came near Luke says the
baby leaped in his mother’s womb. The
word used for baby is “bephos” which is
also used in Luke 18:15 where it is
translated, “babies.”
D. When the Word became flesh He was formed
within the womb of a young virgin.
Mary was young, unmarried, poor. Many
people today would have urged her to
have an abortion. Abortions and infant
exposure were performed in Roman times.
Aren’t you thankful she did not?
E. God has a plan for every life. A young
woman once gave birth to a baby boy. She
was not married. The country was in the
midst of the great depression. The babies
father had nothing to do with them. How
easy it would have been for her to have an
abortion. She kept the baby. When the
boy was still young his mother was killed in
an accident. He was raised by his
grandmother working in cotton and strawberry
fields to help with the family income.
As a young man he joined the army. After the
army he enrolled in Harding College. He
was not a Christian but through the
influence of teachers and classmates he
began studying the Bible and was
baptized in the college swimming pool.
He began preaching and preaching.
Ultimately he preached in over 1,400
revivals with over 40,000 responses of which
10,000 were baptisms. His name is Jimmy
Allen. How many souls would have been
lost if Jimmy’s mother had aborted her
baby?
F. With over 55 million abortions in the
past forty-four years you must wonder how
many lives have been lost that could
have made a huge difference in the world?
Perhaps someone who would have
discovered a cure for cancer? Perhaps
someone who would have grown up to be a
President? An old proverb says,“Any
fool can count the number of seeds in an
apple but only God can count the number
of apples in a seed.”
III. EVERY LIFE IS A PRODUCT OF CHOICES
AND CONSEQUENCES.
A. None of us are here by “immaculate
conception.” Our conception, development
and birth were the result of a plan
designed by God when He created male and
female (Genesis 1:27).
B. God’s plan also consisted of giving us
the ability to make choices. In Genesis 2 we
read how he created Adam and placed him
in the garden with a variety of choices.
There was only one tree that was off
limits and the consequences of the choice was
clearly stated, “for in the day that you
eat from it you will surely die” (Genesis 2:17)..
The man and his wife made a deadly
choice. The consequence is stated by Paul in
Romans 5:12. “Therefore, just as through
one man sin entered into the world, and
death through sin, and so death spread
to all men, because all sinned.”
C. You are free to choose but you are not
free to choose the consequences’ of your
choice.
1. You may choose to jump out of an
airplane without a parachute. Once you have
made that choice you cannot choose
the consequences.
2. Why are there so many unwanted
pregnancies? Why are sexually transmitted
diseases so prevalent? They are the consequences
of choices that individuals
make.
3. Why are there so many abortions? Is
it because of rape, incest or the
endangerment of the mother’s life?
The pro-abortionists consistently use all of
these arguments. Three out of four
abortions are performed as a means of birth
control. Sometimes a woman becomes
pregnant and is told that this is the
answer. She may not know that there
are countless couples who would willingly
raise that child and give it a good
home. Sometimes abortions are performed
because a mother doesn’t want a baby
interfering with her life, career or
education.
D. The consequences of abortion are far
reaching upon society and upon the
individuals involved. Dr. Bernard N.
Nathanson, obstetrician/gynecologist, was
director of the largest abortion
clinic in the world. As the years passed Dr.
Nathanson changed his views. His
clinic had performed 60,000 abortions. He
later made this statement. “I’m
deeply troubled by my own increasing certainty
that I had in fact presided over
60,000 deaths.” Remember, there are always
consequences to the choices we make
in life.
IV. EVERY LIFE IS AN OPPORTUNITY TO
DEMONSTRATE LOVE.
A. Every life provides us with an
opportunity to demonstrate love and concern. A
young couple was told their unborn baby
had a chromosomal disorder. She
would probably be still-born. Doctors
advised that the woman have an abortion.
She refused. The little girl was born
and given the name Bailey. She was blind
and deaf. The doctors said she might
live one week. Bailey surpised them and
lived a month – two months – six months
– a year – two – three years. Her mom
and dad loved her so much. Everyone at
church pitched in and helped. The ladies
in the nursery cared for her. I have
never seen such love and care for a child. Early
one morning the angels came and took
Bailey as she slept. I conducted her funeral.
I
commented on how much Bailey taught us about loving that we would never
have known had it not been for her life.
Today, her picture hangs on the wall
beside the church nursery.
B. Jesus said, “In everything, therefore,
treat people the same way you want them to
treat you” (Matthew 7:12).
1. What if the unborn baby were making
the decision about whether the parents
would live?
2. What if nine unborn babies were
deciding the fate of the Supreme Court
justices?
CONCLUSION:
A. As
Moses spoke his final words to Israel before his death he said in Deuteronomy
30:19-20 – “I call heaven and earth to
witness against you today that I have set
before you life and death, the blessing and
the curse. So choose life in order that you
may live, you and your descendants, 20
by loving the Lord your God, by obeying His
voice, and by holding fast to Him; for this
is your life and the length of your days, that
you may live in the land which the Lord
swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob, to give them.”
B. May
God help us to turn the tide and choose life here and for eternity.
