Some Pastoral Thoughts on Roe v. Wade

Praise for the Supreme Court Decision and the End of Roe v. Wade

Readings and prayer, but this hasn't been a normal week, has it, if you know what's happening in the, you know, rise and flow of our nation, as it were. As you know, this week a Supreme Court decision came down, which is probably one of the most critical in American history, and it's usually not my custom, as you all know.

My general habit is, I believe that this sacred desk we call a pulpit is made for one thing. It's made for the preaching of God's Word. I generally make it a custom not to give tons of commentary about everything happening out there.

I think I said it in a sermon a few weeks ago, I happen to be of the belief that we come here to take time away from what happens out there. But that being said, as much as I've made it my general point not to discuss politics from the pulpit, because after all, I have all this Bible to preach.

When I get done with that, I plan on starting all over again. So I have plenty of content to fill my time, as it is. That being said, this, what happened this week, is fairly monumental. And we, I know we all may be feeling mostly the same sort of feeling, which is a general happiness regarding what's happened.

But I also think that I would be failing as pastor and teacher here, not to give some biblical perspective that I hope will help to ground your thinking as we think about what's happened in the last few days.

And part of what I want to do for a few moments, which is again very abnormal for us in our services, I want to help you to think not politically or emotionally about this subject, but I want you to help you think biblically about this for a moment.

Now, I have to credit my friend Pastor Kosti Hinn. He's pastor over at Shepherd's House Bible Church in Charnel, Arizona. He tweeted on Friday a very helpful outline that I like so much. That is flat out awesome.

Can I borrow your outline? And he was very gracious and said, of course. I did add a point, and I filled out his outline. It was literally just four points he gave. I've kind of filled out some, so if you disagree with some of what I'm about to say, that's on me.

That is not on Pastor Kosti. But for a few moments, consider with me, I'm a preacher, I like my alliteration, five Ps for a moment. Five Ps that I think will help us to think biblically and think clearly.

Did that work? Nope. Maria, if you could run the slides for me. Not quite getting it to work up here. There we go. Some pastoral thoughts I'm going to give, like I said, in the shape of five Ps. First of all, first one, praise.

Let's start with some praise. I am thankful that the Supreme Court of our United States finally did what magistrates are called to do. When you read the Bible, it makes it clear. In fact, we'll talk about it in the sermon.

Magistrates are there to affirm justice and to fight against wickedness. To use the biblical language, they exist to praise what is good and to punish evildoers. Millions of children have been murdered, the vast majority of whom have been murdered simply for reasons of convenience.

That's just not an opinion, that's the statistics. You look at the numbers, the vast majority of abortions are not life-threatening circumstances. They're not, as is often trotted out, due to some sort of sexual assault or sexual abuse.

The vast majority are abortions of convenience. And so we're thankful that this decision takes us a step closer to what I believe as Christians we all want, which is the total abolition of abortion. Now, this doesn't do that, of course, if you understand what this says.

Essentially it says that this was not a constitutional right, therefore this is a state issue for states to deal with. Again, that's helpful, but it's not where we ultimately want to be, of course. That being said, we can be thankful even for this.

Prayer for Civil Leaders and Ongoing Spiritual Battle

But then that leads me to my second P, which is prayer. So praise and then prayer. You see, even with this good news, we have to remain fervent and active in prayer as God's people. Our state government immediately followed Friday's decision.

It announced almost immediately the desire to make our state, along with our neighbors up north, excuse me, up in Washington and our neighbors down south in California, to make our three states a, this is the language they used in their press release, an abortion haven.

In fact, when I watched the video on Friday afternoon, the language was even evoked of a West Coast offense for abortion. Football fans in the room, you know what a West Coast offense is. Well, unfortunately that language was used, and I would argue abused, to talk about the desire of all three of our West Coast states to keep abortion legal, and in fact to put your tax dollars towards keeping it that way.

Our governor has made her stance very clear, and of course now we have a blessed opportunity once again, as we have been doing for years as God's people, to make our own stance clear. And that begins with fighting on our knees, not appealing to state and federal courts, but appealing to the throne of grace.

So prayer, excuse me, prayer, praise. My third P is prudence. Prudence. Now honestly, this one is for me. You just have the benefit of eavesdropping as I read this. Time for blunt speech and being honest.

I will point to you that some evangelicals, and I've seen this all weekend, are like, we can't celebrate this because real people are being affected by this. Sorry, I think there is a little cause of a celebration.

I say that as somebody who was somewhat cautious on Friday when I saw this, but the more I thought about it, the more I was like, yes, there's still so much work for us to do. But this is not the time to sit there and say, well, we, no, abortion is murder, let's call it what it is.

But that being said, even as somebody who trends towards blunt speech, Proverbs says there's a lot to say about either being slow to speak or not speaking at all. I would say that that requires knowing ourselves and knowing those with whom we might engage on this issue.

Speak the truth by all means. If you find you can't say it with wisdom, with grace, and by the way, I say grace, not niceness. With grace and with an eye to honoring Christ, might I suggest that it's okay to sit this one out and let the Lord do his work through someone else.

Prudence, prayer, praise my pee. Perspective. Perspective. I am pee for what happened this week, but let's be clear. For those of us who live in Medford, who live in Jackson County, and who live in the state of Oregon, our work is far from done.

We have won a major battle, taken 50 years to get there, but we won a major battle. But the war on the unborn, the weakest of our society, is far from over. I mean, at least as long as our covenant governor has a say in the matter, excuse me, and honestly, we have an election coming up this year, chances are we will get more of the same.

I've seen lots of celebrating this weekend. I'm thankful for all the states where laws have been triggered now, that function, but can I remind you that if you live in the beaver state, not much has really changed.

If anything, the bear got poked pretty aggressively, which leads me to my final point. We talked prudence, we've talked perspective, we talked prayer, praise, finally, practice. This is time for us to get doing something.

Now more than ever, we need to think long-term about ways to fight the evil of abortion. We cannot solve the problem simply by lamenting how evil abortion is, and let's be clear, it is an incalculable evil.

We now actively, you've probably heard me use this phrase, the culture of life and the culture of death. Well, it's time for us, as the people of God, to be what we have always been, and more actively so, which is a culture of life in the midst of a culture of death.

Many of us have done this and are continuing to, and so this is not a, you guys aren't doing enough, do more. No, it's a praise God for what is being done, and let's not take our foot off the gas. Think about ways in which we can be actively involved in fighting this evil called abortion.

Get involved in the ministry of our local pregnancy center, which I guess implies knowing where it is. Think about practical ways to help mothers not make that dreaded choice. As families, we should be thinking and praying about what can we do about this.

Yes, there's much to be thankful for, but this is not a time for excessive celebration. As I said to a couple of the guys this morning, this is really just the first quarter, and if it really is the first quarter, then there is much for us to do.

I hope that helps you to think soberly about some of this, and to plan for what the next steps might be. Who knows where this is going to go? I mean, if you have been, unless you're not on social media, which God bless you, that is a great way to live, but for those of us, unfortunately, who are on social media, you've probably seen basically the world pulling its hair out right now.

I would venture to say that this is far from over, but we do have a moment in which we can be thankful, we can praise God, and we can pray about what to do next. With that in mind, can I invite you to pray with me for a moment, and then we will continue with our regularly scheduled service.

Prayer for the Unborn, the Church, and Revival

Almighty Father, Creator of all life, you created man in your image and after your likeness. It has pleased you to create a world in which people are continually born into it, who bear your image, and you have protected that life by commanding that we are to literally do no murder.

Heavenly Father, I would ask that as we celebrate this pivotal moment in our nation's history where, at least for now, a line has been drawn, we ask that your Word would grant us clarity in this moment, that your Word would help us to speak boldly and at the same time to speak gracefully, to speak wisely.

Father, we pray that we would not just sit on the sidelines, as it were, high-fiving and celebrating, that we would be about actively proclaiming your gospel in every sphere, which includes proclaiming your gospel in the face of those who would deny or reject the sanctity of life.

Father, we thank you for the many ministries that are, even in our state, seeking to do the right thing in speaking up for the unborn. Father, we pray that you would strengthen their hands, strengthen their labors, provide further laborers to help in that mission as pleases you.

And above all, may we all be faithful witnesses proclaiming the good news of the gospel of Christ to a world that is so cloaked in darkness. Father, we even pray for our civil leadership. We may disagree strongly with the stance they choose to take, but Father, we know you're a God who is able to do anything, and so we would ask that you would, if it pleases you, send revival to the West Coast.

May the gospel ring out from churches and individual believers, even in this very dark season. May it become apparent that even though the gates of hell may shut up shop against us, they will not ultimately prevail against your people.

And Father, be with us as a body as we pray and think through ways in which we can help and support and minister to those who have been most affected by this. We ask all these things in Jesus' name and for his sake.

Amen.