The Meaning of Life (Part 9)

Our Father in heaven Lord, it's a blessing and a privilege to be Gathered together this morning to see what your word has to say about difficult issues

Father I pray that you bless each one here as we study as we try to Understand your word and apply it to our lives

Father we thank you again for your word and for The Lord Jesus Christ, and it's in his name.

We pray amen Well, we've been talking as I prayed about difficult

Issues and and we last week talked about capital punishment, and I found it interesting. I was

Driving when they announced the the verdict on the Boston bombing case this week

Was anybody did anybody was anybody listening to the radio or watching TV when they announced the verdict?

Because I found it very interesting what some of the announcers were saying like right away, which was

Anybody want to take a guess? What do you say, you know this man

Sarnaev, you know was convicted of murdering how many people died in the Boston bombings three or four and then the shooting of the police officer and then

You know all the chaos that was going on all the people that lost limbs and all the all the various injuries

But people right away were on the radio and on the TV saying He was only 19 at the time of the

Of the bombings, how can they dare? You know put him to death. These are announcers or you know analysts and stuff like that And I thought okay 19 years old

What were you doing at 19? I know what I was doing.

I was in the United States Army I'm like, okay. It's okay to sign up for the army and You're responsible for going out and you know carrying out the orders of the commander -in -chief and carrying on war or whatever

You know for the United States of America but if you

Wantonly and without any care or concern for anyone plant bombs hoping to kill innocent people innocent people

Then the fact that you're 19 needs to be taken to an account and and I'm I just thought that was kind of odd You know, let's feel sorry for this poor young man

I'm like, all right, I could feel really sorry for him if he was the victim of the bombing, but it's a little harder

But we talked about capital punishment and about why one of the reasons why God ordains it

It says in fact, I think I quoted Hendrickson Last week.

Here it is the wrongdoer Better be afraid why because the government

Carries the the sword it is an avenger for God Hendrickson goes on to say you should realize that the magistrate does not bear the sword in vain that is to no purpose

And I just thought it was interesting to see his response or his reaction, which was uniformly described as no response whatsoever

He didn't start crying He never said he was sorry by the way He was completely indifferent well, why is that it's because he has no fear no fear at all

But that's a capital punishment. I Mean who knows if if it'll ever happen

I saw another question that was asked in the wake of this will Sarnaev be the last man to ever be sentenced to death

Because it's so barbaric to do that I don't know.

I I'm kind of at a loss for words because when you think of the barbarism that's involved in planting bombs hoping to wound or kill

People who are just watching a race or running in a race. It's pretty pretty bizarre thing that we do these days

But this morning I want to take a very easy topic non -emotional topic

Assisted suicide and euthanasia, I mean there's a move there are places in the

United States that permit assisted suicide physician assisted suicide

Who's familiar with the Hippocratic Oath the physician's oath? What's that?

first do no harm So physician assisted suicide. I mean it seems like on the face of it first do no harm

I'm going to help you kill yourself. That sounds like to me That sounds like harm

But I'm just a simple guy. What do I know? But I what

I've been trying to do throughout this whole series is to get us to view things one way issues one way which is not left right

Republican Democrat but as God would see them if we view the person who wants to kill themselves and who wants a doctor to help them do it as an image -bearer of God they have

God's image he breathed life into them and now we're saying you know what God Thank you, but no.

Thank you. I want to end my life on my terms Thank you very much, and I'm going to and I'm going to get a doctor to help me kill myself

What are we to make of that is that something that we as Christians should be supporting?

And I think the answer is no I Hope the answer is no and the message of what you know well, let's think about it this way

What is the message of those who would legalize? Assisted suicide or euthanasia.

It's their choice. It's my life, right and The question is ultimately is it your life whose life is it anyway, right?

MacArthur wrote a book called whose money is it well whose life is it? Do we have the right to decide when

Our life should end even just suicide Mike mentioned it in the first sermon if you didn't hear it he'll probably mention the second one, but Found this on the grace to you website

They say this they say suicide is a grave sin equivalent to murder well, why is that?

Because you're ending a human life you are ending what God began It goes on to say but it can be forgiven like any other sin and Scripture says clearly that those redeemed by God have been forgiven for all their sins past present and future

Now that's kind of a shocking statement, right? Suicide can be forgiven

Why is that goes on to say? Paul says in Romans 8 38 and 39 that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus not even us

Right no created thing Not even us so But it goes on so if a true

Christian would commit suicide in a time of extreme weakness He or she would be received into heaven

But we question the faith of those who take their lives or even consider it Seriously, it may well be that they've truly or never truly been saved now who can know?

Right, and that's that's why they're couching The the wording like this how do you know if somebody committed suicide was a

Christian or not because their last act was not an act of faith an

Act of hope an act of trust in the Lord Why does somebody commit suicide?

Ultimately, ultimately, why do they commit suicide? I mean Well, go ahead. Why does somebody commit suicide?

Anybody have any experience with committing suicide? Oh, sure. They feel hopeless, right?

One of the first things I did as a police officer Out on the street.

I'll never forget this because we were we just finished arresting somebody and booking them and I Don't remember what my training officer was doing probably, you know

Something important, I don't know but I was up near the desk and the 911 phone rang and I picked it up and It was somebody on a suicide hotline

And she said I've got a woman on the other line. She's in a phone booth and it was in an area of Los Angeles that was probably about eight or ten miles from us and she says you know,

I I Need to get a police unit there before she kills she got a knife she says she's gonna kill herself

So I did what I was supposed to do. She's in Los Angeles. She's not in the county area

So I transfer her to LAPD's 911 hotline I stay on the phone and I hear you have reached the 911 hotline

All our operators are busy now Please stay on the line and your call will be answered in the order in which it was received

This was new to me, I Mean the Sheriff's Department when you dial 911 it goes directly to the local station well in LAPD you go to a big bank of telephones, right and They've got a bunch of operators in there.

But if something's going on, they don't have enough operators to answer the phone So I said

I said listen, we got a lady in a phone booth. Who's apparently, you know trying to kill herself and LAPD is too busy to go, you know,

I mean we can't get through to him so the The watch sergeant says okay, you guys can go

So we go driving down. This is in like I said, it's a 10 miles away we go driving down Foothill Boulevard all the way, you know lights and siren and It was probably about a

I don't know 12 15 minute drive or whatever we get there. We find this woman

My training officers talking to her I get up behind her grab her arms get the knife out of her hand put her in handcuffs we get her in the ambulance and then the

LAPD unit comes up and I gave him, you know, all the info all her information everything like that And I'm just like I wanted to say hey, thanks for showing up, you know now that we've done your job.

We'll see you later But Suicide is a very serious thing.

I mean this woman eventually I have no doubt, you know was committed for 72 hours because she was a threat to herself

But why would somebody want to legalize this, you know, somebody gets depressed Somebody's in you know now listen the euthanasia argument.

My life is so difficult that it's not worth living I'm going to die anyway, and you know,

I've got Anybody has anyone ever known anyone with Lou Gehrig's disease

ALS I Had a couple of police officer friends die of it and it is it is so hard Andy was one of the

I mean we were we went to this police officer Bible study together. He was a little little more charismatic in every way than I was but He Eventually would get

ALS and I remember seeing him, you know a few months before he died smiling happy But the only way the only person who could understand what he was saying was his wife because she was with him all the time

And you know his his voice his language because all your muscles are Atrophying and and they're stopping working and everything is shutting down, but your mind continues on Perfectly you just think about that you think okay.

Now this is a situation where Assisted suicide That would be the kind of thing where somebody would argue.

Listen, I've got ALS. There's no cure for it My life is going to get worse and worse and worse and I think

I have the right to end it Bible really says that that's not true.

Let me let me finish this grace to you thing and then we'll talk more about it but they say that Because basically suicide is is marked by this by hopelessness and the grace to you people who go on to say that God's children are defined repeatedly in Scripture as those who have hope so it's hard to see how a believer commits suicide

I'm not saying it's impossible That they have purpose in life and those who think of committing suicide do so because they have neither hope nor purpose in their lives furthermore

One who repeatedly considers suicide you've thought about it for a long period of time months years

You know it kind of comes and goes What what would we call that if it was anything other than suicide?

What will we call that? What's that? Okay, let's step aside from the killing thing let's say

You you're a man and you struggle with pornography you're a woman and you struggle with gossip What will we call those things?

Sin, and then if you did it repeatedly we would say there's a pattern of Sin in your life, so if somebody repeatedly thinks about committing suicide.

What is there? There's a habit of sin in their lives They're practicing sin and they say finally suicide is often the ultimate evidence of a heart that rejects the lordship of Jesus Christ because it is an act where the sinner

Is taking his life into his own hands? Completely rather than submitting to God's will for it

Surely many of those who have taken their lives will hear these horrifying words from the Lord Jesus at judgment

I never knew you depart from me, but again. We don't know They say though it may be possible for a true believer to commit suicide.

We believe that that is an unusual occurrence Tonight I'm gonna talk about looking through life through a different frame.

Well not really a different frame Let's let's just put it this way if you view the gospel Or if you view life through the gospel, how do you think of yourself?

I? Am not my own I have been bought with a price

I Don't live for myself. I live for Christ so if I think listen

I am My situation is bad my circumstances are bad, but There has to be that but you have to view life through the prism or through the lenses of the gospel

In spite of everything that I've done all the sins that I've ever committed. I have the sure hope of heaven

My life might be terrible right now, but that's not my concern my concern is

I Need to be telling others about Christ and what kind of testimony do I leave by the way to my unsaved family and friends if I End my own life.

What does that say to them? well, if Jesus Christ is so great if being a Christian is so wonderful of having all your sins forgiven is such a blessing that How do we explain what that guy did?

Doesn't really seem like it helped him very much doesn't that's not exactly the kind of epitaph you'd like to have on your tombstone

So what about? Suicide or euthanasia

How should we view that? Well, I'm just gonna suggest if we if we think about the number of times

That the Bible talks about and I I think I cut these out and then cut them out of my cutout

We think about teach us to number our days or the Lord has numbered our days and all these kind of things

It is God who decides when we die and yet we're going to take our own life.

What are we doing? We're not submitting to God we are Rebelling we are even taking

God's place God, I know what you have in mind is Whatever, but I'm gonna take care of that right now

It's ultimately just rebellion other thoughts about I mean we could talk about the sin nature of it

I mean, is it the ultimate act of selfishness? Yes Because what is the person who commits suicide concerned about?

themselves Relieving their pain relieving their anxiety And not concerned about others, you know, they're just consumed with self

So again, I you know what I say, it's impossible for somebody to commit suicide and be a

Christian No, I wouldn't say that I would say that It's less likely because They're certainly not obeying

Philippians 2 which is to consider others more important than yourself Charlie Well, and and I think that's important You know to think about how we can bear one another's burdens

I mean, you know people to get personal for a moment people will ask, you know What's the difference between being a pastor and being a police officer?

And a lot of times the answer is there really isn't that much difference. I mean, I use less force now, but But one one of the differences is

How how I view suicide? I mean I you know as a Christian I never was you know in favor of it or anything like that but you know, you know, one of the things that you learn as a police officer is is really how to tell when somebody's serious about committing suicide

As a pastor, I would never say I would never say for that might be tempted to say as a police officer

Well, that wasn't really very serious, you know, come on, you know, you can do better than that as a pastor

I need to understand that there is a burden that these people are under exactly what you're talking about and so it's important it's important first of all to give them the gospel and You know if I sat there and I and I communicated the gospel to them and they said well,

I believe that I believe that I believe that then I'd then I'd want to use force because I've been what are you thinking, you know?

But most of the time if you if you talk to somebody who's in depression or is depressed, you know, and you get to the root of it, you're going to find that it's it it's a

Gordian knot of of things that are related to the past and you know, all kinds of issues like that and ultimately

If you are bound I mean one of the things

I really Forgive me hate about psychology is it tries to explain away what we want to do in the present by the past and To me that's

I I don't mean to say it's a it's a crutch, but it's wrong thinking because whatever whatever was done to me in the past, however bad my past was and It really pales in comparison to what

I've been granted Whatever my suffering was Whatever Abuse I suffered compared to being forgiven of all my sins

Compared to what Christ went through for me That I inflicted upon him.

I think you know what? I'm pretty blessed and It's getting people to just think about the cross think about Christ think about The the penalty that ought to be do us and to think more about that but when it comes to Suicidal folks.

I mean, you know, it's obvious or it's let's just say this that It's it takes a long time

You have to be willing to invest a lot of time to talk to somebody and work them out of that.

So It's not something that we would take lightly, but it's it's It's definitely wrong and shouldn't be accepted at all

Corey Yeah, I mean we are given to Contemplation and the problem is we you know

We can be so I mean I can almost hear pastor Bob saying this it is so much Naval -gazing, you know that we forget the rest of the world exists, right?

and And I mean I I've done that as much as anybody in my past and I I just think you know

We can we can almost talk ourselves Into Depression, you know, so how do you get out of that?

Well, you preach yourself out of depression because you think about what a great God you have

But I you know just to kind of get back to this idea of physician assisted suicide, you know, some states have already

Either tried to legalize it or have legalized it and it's coming I mean this is and again almost well all these issues

There there is a there is an argument a worldly argument that says, you know what? Whether it's a capital punishment.

Well, that's cruel and unusual and that's not fair and you know It's unequally applied and yada yada yada yada yada or if it's abortion

Well a woman has a right to choose or you go through all these issues that we've talked about We see some other issues

These social issues the wave is against the Bible The wave is you know, the tide is against what is right?

same with Drugs, you know, let's legalize drugs and I'm like, you know as a political matter there are times where I just think okay fine, let's let's legalize them as a theological matter and as a practical matter when you understand what some drugs do to people and you could never support this and You know, they're coming up with new drugs all the time.

Some of them are really frightening But Assisted suicide the idea that someone's life and and here's the problem with almost all these things.

They're doing it now in Europe You know younger and younger people with less and less Problems, you know somebody finds out for example

There's a new test that Did can determine that you're going to develop cancer sometime in the future and somebody says

I don't want to go through that You know, I want to I want to kill myself. I want a doctor to assist me in that Well, there are people who think that's all right

That you should have the right to do that It's it's wrong because and it's sinful because We are in fact acting in the place of God and we are defacing that image bearer

We are taking away the breath of life the gift of life that God has granted So I want to move on to another topic here today kind of moving a little rapidly, but that this is this is

It's gonna seem like it's not related at all But it is related because here's the here's the message of many people in the world today

You know what the number number one problem in the world is today number one problem in the world Well, that would be the number one problem is that they don't believe in the

Lord Jesus Christ but the number one problem that people would say is the number one problem in the world is people there's a

Music group my son used to listen to a long time ago and I used to say to him You know what? The message of that band is the message of that band is the world would be a lot better place if there were no people

On it. I mean it it's that bleak, right?

When the world be a better place if there were no people, you know, if it was just Bambi running around Well, I mean that's that's how they how they act and if you listen really carefully

We just had Earth Day if you listen carefully to the message of Earth Day. What's the message of Earth Day? The world would be a lot better place if there were no people on it

Anthro Anthropogenic global warming that is man -made global warming man -made climate change

I mean, I don't have a an opinion on it biblically but What's the message of that?

The world would be a better place if there are no people on it. It's people that are the problem. This isn't our world

God has and that's here's the key. God hasn't given mankind the world

The world exists and mankind just luckily popped up on it

What right do you have to destroy the world? What right do you have to exploit the natural resources of the world?

I think I've used this word before Let's let's just see how you respond to it Malthusian Everybody should be jumping up and down.

No Malthusian Anybody want to take a crack at explaining that I Can make it easy for you the world would be a better place if there were no people on it

Listen what he said. He was a interestingly enough. I loved it because I looked him up and he was a

Reverend I didn't know this till I look at him Reverend Thomas Robert Malthus was an

English cleric and scholar influential in the fields of political economy and demography now

Malthusian means Or is defined this way that the world's population tends to increase at a faster rate than its means of subsistence that is its ability to feed people and That unless it is checked by moral restraint or disaster disease famine or war

Widespread poverty and degradation inevitably results in other words The world would be a lot better place if there were no people on it

This is an entirely unbiblical anti God I'll just call it what it is.

It's a theology Mother Earth is in charge and people are the problem again to summarize it increase of Population is necessarily limited by the means to feed it population invariably increases when our means of production increase and The superior or the superior power of population is repressed and the actual population kept equal to the means of subsistence only by misery and vice

And he placed the long longer term stability of the economy above short -term

Expediency in other words if you can reduce the population people are going to be better off But what's happened?

I mean you could look if you look at the history of these kind of thinkers these sort of philosophers

What they have said consistently is the food the world will run out of food or not be able to support itself by Thus and such a date

We will run out of water by thus and such a date and what happens Why haven't we run out of food?

Why is it that if we? Distributed food, you know in a perfectly equitable way everybody would have enough food to eat today

The problem isn't that there's enough food the problem is that there are some people who? Don't have a good enough government to give them that food, but putting aside all the political arguments

Why is it that? We continually prove these people wrong when they say the world's gonna run out of food by whatever date

I mean, you know, there are great movies wonderful Movies like water world.

I'm sure all of you enjoy that You know these end -of -the -world kind of scenarios there's one coming out here soon enough, you know,

Mad Max, whatever Where the world runs out of water it runs out of food. Well, why don't these things happen?

Because God hasn't ordained it yet would be a theologically correct answer, but even from a human perspective

But that's not what mouth says. Come on But the reality is that every time it seems like we ought to reach our capacity for food and whatnot what happens we get some kind of Technological breakthrough, you know, whether it's the

Industrial Revolution where more goods are able to be produced you know and and so that increases things or Whether it's technological increases in food production where we you know, we're able to genetically modify food.

Oh Yeah, no, nobody likes that But We're making technological breakthroughs that enable

I mean imagine feeding the world without things like canned goods

Without things like preservatives and you say well, that'd be wonderful except it probably wouldn't work for very long

That there are things there are technologies that have come up in the last hundred years or so that have enabled us to feed

More people these are good things But when you when you hear this this idea that we're over populated, you know ultimately, what does that lead to by the way if you believe if you firmly believe that You know climate change is coming and it's because there are too many people and we're burning too much fossil fuel and you know what we really ought to be doing is living in caves and Etc.

Etc. What what how do you how do you respond to that? If you really believe that what do you do Cory?

Population control. Yeah, and and and so countries some countries have Encouraged birth control and abortion and things like that, but you know,

I I don't know how many of you have Sort of crazy friends like I do.

I have friends that will only have one child or no child Because they believe in this kind of worldview that people are the problem

I have friends who will not own a car because they are so convinced that We are the problem

You know, I have some odd friends Well, and I argue the same thing that the great thing about that is that those people are you know now now they believe in Evolution I would say well if you're correct if Darwin's theory is correct, then you're obviously evolutionarily speaking inferior, so because your genetic line is

Marto, you know It's a it's a funny thing, isn't it

But it's it's kind of sad and and what it all stems from what it all comes out of Is a denial of God Once you suppress the truth of God and unrighteousness once you say

God does not exist. I don't believe in God It's not a big step to say you know what it's okay to take your own life

It's not a big step to say Mankind is the problem. But what does the Bible say?

Let's go to Genesis 1 and we've been there before but I think it's

I just Think it's good for us to be reminded of what God says You know, we live in a world where pollution is the big problem now

Listen, I'm not in favor of corporations dumping chemicals in the water. I you know,

I never have been in favor of that I've never watched the Dow chemical Documentary where they said we dumped literally billions of gallons of you know pollution to the into the

Water and and said, oh man, I love that better living through chemicals I never thought that but ultimately we know that God has everything under control

But God has granted us this world as a stewardship. Let's look at Genesis chapter 1 verses 26 to 29

And I'll read that it says Then God said let us make man in our own image after our likeness and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and Over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth

So God created man in his own image in the image of God. He created him male and female

He created them and God blessed them and God said to them be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and Have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth

And God said behold I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of the earth and every tree with seed in its fruit

You shall have them for food listen God has put mankind in charge of the planets and we're not to think

I Mean, there's there's so much. I want to say here. I hate when dogs die.

I Hate when you know when people love cats and their cats die I don't really hate when cats die, but I hate when people look

I feel bad for them I have empathy for them because I know what it's like to lose a pet But what we have to keep in mind is that dog that cat that bird

That lion that wolf that cockroach that Delta smelt, whatever it is is not the equivalent of mankind

It's not and I don't care how many Scientists say that you know, all life is equal.

It's not all life may be Precious all life is a gift from God and we are stewards over it

But make no mistake. We are made in the image of God Fish are not

They don't have any of the moral attributes of God. They have life But I don't think we're gonna find even if we can someday get inside the mind of a fish

I don't think we're gonna find, you know fish are Contemplative, you know capable of writing

Philosophical tomes. This is not what fish do dogs don't do that and Dogs are probably second only to mankind in terms of but this whole

I mean if you believe what the Bible says It it kind of dispels everything

Everything that we're assaulted with all these issues if we understand

This passage rightly and we understand that yes, we have a responsibility here. Yes. We are caretakers of the earth

But the earth is not something to be worshipped in fact If you turn over to 2nd

Peter chapter 3 I love what

MacArthur said by the way when he was talking about, you know pollution and all these kind of things He said what? you know

Step on the lawn shoot a deer or whatever, you know I mean it if you think whatever you can do to the world is bad.

Just what do you see what God does to it? 2nd Peter chapter 3 But the day of the

Lord will come like a thief and then the heavens will pass away with a roar and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed but everything is going to be

And maybe I didn't read as much of it as I wanted but everything is going to be destroyed. Ultimately. This earth is

Temporary, this is temporary everything that we see everything that's around us is

Temporary because ultimately God has to purge sin out of it all sin is going to be removed from this earth and so it's good to think in terms of Conservation Stewardship, you know not

Like I said not dumping chemicals and stuff like that. But I mean things are just done that are stupid for example,

I Don't know how many of you paid attention to what's going on in California with the droughts and there's a movement now.

I mean, I I think this is funny It's funny sad there's a movement to say, you know what we need to have

Reservoirs built and we need to have more water here because we live in a desert and guess what? We've got 38 million people living here and we probably got enough water for 25 million and you know, we need more water

And I don't know if you've ever visited Southern California when it's when it rains, you know what happens to the rainwater

It goes straight out in the ocean I mean, they've got these wonderful concrete channels one was called it was it runs right by a grace community church and it's empty

You know most of the time it's called the Los Angeles River and you look down and there's nothing in it

But when it rains, it's a raging torrent of water and it's all going right out in the ocean You just think why don't they save any of that?

Well people there who are being told now to paint their lawns instead of water them are starting to ask themselves the same question.

Hey Why don't we save some of that water? Well, the answer is of course because they need the money for a high -speed rail thing

That's gonna connect and you can't do both and you've got to have your priorities You know, they

I mean they have farmland that's going fallow and I'll talk about that in just a second But they have workers that cannot work

Farmers that cannot farm. They've got all this land that has been the most productive in our country for decades

And now it's just desert land. Well, why is that it's because they don't have enough water. Well, why is that? Because the federal judge decided that a little fish this big called the

Delta smelt was more important than the farmers They don't need the water the Delta smelt does if you don't put the water in the

Delta The Delta smelts environment will be threatened and they might become extinct

Therefore the farmers get no water the fish get the water. Let's see.

What's more important people fish and the fish win

This is the mindset of people who don't understand that Mankind is in the image of God that all life is not equal but you know, there are consequences for these things my

My stepmom bought a house a couple years ago and it's kind of out in the fringe of Bakersfield they're building up all around it, but it's next to what is farming land

And this year the people that own it didn't do anything. They had no water so they did nothing with the land and was

About two weeks ago These little bugs. I mean super small tiny

I Started invading her neighborhood And you think well, what's the big deal, you know, maybe like some ants or something like that.

I don't know And it's not just a few of them. It's not just a few hundred of them It's not a few thousand of them.

There are billions of them and they are I mean, it's like I I was watching There's a newscast about it.

It's like the Bible. This is like Exodus stuff, you know, I mean, it's Every everything in the house, you know, if you have an electric light sockets, they're coming out of the the sockets

They're dropping from vents in the ceiling. They are all over the place. I mean, it's like massive invasion

She's like it's horrible I can't get rid of them, you know, and I offered to come over with a flamethrower

I mean and and you know what the solution is, you know

And all you get is dead bugs and then the new bugs come in and it's just as bad as the old one You know, the solution is water

Water She goes they had to go to a special board and plead to get water

To you know put on this land and she goes it's finally slowed down. It hasn't stopped yet But there are there are consequences to this mindset that says somehow

People are the problem people are you know, just the equal of fish or dogs or cats or bugs

Because we're all on the evolutionary chain. It's just they're a little further behind us. I Don't want to see talking bugs quite frankly, but This is this is just kind of how this is how the mindset thinks and this is you know

It we look at it. We just go this is madness. This is craziness But this is what happens when you see

Creation you see the attributes of God on display and you say well, there's no God and what does it say in Romans 1?

God Gave them over God gave them over God gave them over and we are seeing systematically in our society in our country

God giving this country over to more foolish and more foolish vain speculations stupidity and It's you know, this is wisdom.

This is The height of morality or so they would say

Let's close with this Lewis Perry Schaefer Said this no divine creation or production

Could be inaugurated on a higher plane Then that the thing thus formed should be conformed to the image and likeness of God That's what

God did when he created mankind We are not perfect But we are made in the image and likeness of God and we need to act like it and we need to think like that especially as Christians Well, let's uh, let's pray our

Father in heaven Would you teach us to view? Every issue of life through the prism of the gospel, but through a biblical lens and just to be reminded

That each and every one of us here and all the people that we know and love and meet

All of them are image bearers and they need to be treated like that Lord let us come us alongside the brokenhearted the hurting

Let us minister to them. Let us give them hope The hope of the gospel the hope of forgiveness of sins the hope of eternal life

Deliverance from the difficulties of this life maybe But deliverance from hell for sure

Lord, let us not fall prey to the philosophies Really the banal philosophies of man that would teach us that we are nothing but animals

That we are no different than anything else That earth is the priority

Father this earth is disposable. You will dispose of it But our souls are eternal

Lord teach us To think through every issue this way to look at it