Messy Beginnings | Clayton Hentzel

What up, Crossing Family? It is so good to see you.

I want to welcome all of our different locations.

Those of you watching online and those of you are part of our

Crossing Inside family. We just got to celebrate 13

inside baptisms from this past month of ministry, praising God

for that. This weekend is a special

weekend here at The Crossing because our friends from the

Solomon Foundation are here and the Solemn Foundation has been a

big part of the Crossing story. Doug has been one of our biggest

and best ministry partners here at The Crossing because of

Doug's leadership and faith in God and the Crossing.

He helped us start so many of our campuses.

In fact, this weekend our McComb campus is celebrating its 16th

birthday and he came in at just the right time and help us get

that campus all the way to completion and then helped us

start every campus after that. And then we entered into our

most strategic partnership with the Solomon Foundation.

We gifted them five of our locations and in turn they paid

off all of our remaining debt allowing us to become a debt

free church and gave us money to help further our mission.

It is a 30 year partnership and we immediately as a leadership

team set aside money principal amount of money that will grow

with interest to be able to purchase back a pre agreed

amount at the very end of the term.

We did this partnership for two reasons.

The first, we want to be debt free and retain the full usage

of all of our properties for a highcapacity ministry.

But the most important reason that we did this was that by

giving them our assets, they're able to make loans 20 times the

value of our assets to help other churches grow and expand

and have stories just like The Crossing.

Jennifer and I have our retirement at the Solomon

Foundation, so does our staff. In fact, 247 people who sit in

the seat just like you at our church have over $11 million

invested there. This allows them to continue to

help churches while giving your money a chance to grow and work

for you to expand the Kingdom of God.

Would you please put a warm crossing welcome together for

the TSF family? Mr. Doug and Mr. Ryan.

Come on up, guys. This is special on so many

fronts, which I know we'll get to in just a second.

Come over here, Ryan or. Yeah, you come over here.

Well, otherwise, I'll be the Oreo.

I'll be the. I'll be the cream.

OK, question cuz there's a lot of people paying attention to

us, Doug, what is the Solomon Foundation?

So the Solomon Foundation, Clayton is was called the Church

Extension Fund, which basically we're a notforprofit.

And what happens is people that sit in the chairs and pews of

the Restoration movement, Christian Church and Church of

Christ all across America can deposit money at Solomon

Foundation. Then we pool that money and we

make loans to churches. All over the United States in an

Eastern Europe. So if somebody in our church was

going, you know what, I want my money to work for me and work

for God. How do they get involved with

the Solomon Foundation? So it's real simple.

We're based in Denver. You can go on our website, you

can pick up some information from us this weekend.

But basically we offer certificates just like you would

get at the bank. So a six month, one year,

three-year, five year, 7 or 10 year certificate that you can

purchase, you get a good yield on that.

And then again, that money's going to go help build churches

now. What has been the impact of the

Solomon Foundation? Because this is going to blow

your mind. This is what motivates guys like

Ryan and I every day. Yep, okay, here's the deal.

In over 13 years, we've helped over 600 churches.

We took a snapshot of the church when we made them alone.

We took a snapshot today. And those 600 churches now have

over 160,000 more people in church.

Come on but. But there's a but that's not the

best number I know. Here it comes.

Are you? Come on, give it to them.

Those 600 churches have baptized over 65,000 people.

Come on. Absolutely.

Awesome. Now do you want to do it or you

want you you talk about? Ryan OK, so the Solomon

Foundation went on a national search.

Yeah. To find a new president.

I serve as the CEO. And we decided we needed to find

a younger person to come in and and really help guide the

organization forward. So we went on a national search.

And this guy right here helped me a lot because he introduced

me to Ryan. So the new president of the

Solomon Foundation. Actually came from McComb.

He came from our church. Ryan Riggins and Ashley are

actually dear friends of Jennifer and I.

They were a big part of our church.

They are incredible encouragers, dear friends.

I'm not going to go into the whole story, but they've got

really serious about their faith because of the faith of you guys

making a campus happen in McComb.

And now Ryan gets to help churches just like us all across

the country through a partnership with the Solomon

Foundation. If you want more information

about the Solomon Foundation, there are people from the

Solomon Foundation family at most of our locations in the

lobby. If you don't, there's

information brochures. They are a first class

organization that you can interact with and by partnering

with them you get a partner with us to help the Kingdom of God

grow and expand. Ryan, come on real quick.

Just tell us what's your experience been in just two

months being in Denver? Yeah, two months being in

Denver, it's been quite an honor.

It's an honor to work with Doug. It's God's quite the author to

to be a part of the McComb campus and learn that that was

one of the first loans that Solomon Foundation made upon

being formed. And to get the call from Doug

and and talk to Clayton and Doug about this opportunity and and

now I was talking to somebody in the lobby and every day at work

we just get to talk about helping churches grow.

It's an honor. That's exactly right.

Would you guys give a big round of applause?

Okay. We got a lot of work to do.

I want to give you some ground rules.

I'm going to read my sermon. The reason I'm going to read my

sermon is because I don't want to screw it up.

So just deal with the lack of jokes and you know what I

normally provide for you. Second thing I want to tell you

is please, please, please come to church next weekend and bring

a friend. I just finished the sermon for

next weekend this morning and I cannot wait to preach it because

it is going to wrap this entire series up.

It's going to put a bow on it that I think we are all going to

really appreciate. But before we get to week five,

we need to deal with week four. We have been in a sermon series

called Truth and Tension, Balancing faith and love on Hot

Topic issues. And here's what I've noticed,

and I think you've noticed it too, that the closer you are to

the sin, the situation and the person, the more you tend to

bend on the truth. And the further you are from the

sin, the situation and the person, the harder you hit with

the truth. And I don't think this comes

from a bad place. I think it comes from a well

meaning place. It's hard to balance these

issues. The situations and the people

are complex. What parts of the Bible get

highlighted often depends on how close you are to the person, how

close you are to the situation. Good, well meaning people like

you, like me, can get this wrong.

At the beginning of the series, we laid some ground rules.

I just want to recap them. One no clapping.

We're not going to clap for a sin that we don't struggle with.

We've reached the gospel every single week here at The

Crossing, and if we're not going to clap for the power of the

cross, we're not going to clap for a sin that put in there.

Well, #2 no emails. We want Facetoface

conversations. Feel free to reach out via

e-mail. But I want you to know in

advance that our response is going to find a time to get

together and look at the whites of your eyes so you can see the

whites of ours. So we can hear your tone and you

can hear ours. We will get coffee, a meal.

You picket our treat. Rule #3 First, Peter 3:15.

But in your hearts, Revere Christ as Lord.

He's in charge. Always be prepared to give an

answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope

that you have. But there's a way that we're

supposed to give that answer. But do this with gentleness and

respect. The overarching theme around

these topics are these hot topic issues has been this God's way

is the best way. We believe that to the core of

our being here at the Crossing that no matter the question, no

matter the situation, no matter the struggle, God's way is the

best way. God has a better way for us, not

just in how we live our lives, but in how we respond to sins

and situations and people. Today we are going to talk about

abortion, and I'm going to take a really long way around the

barn. I want you to pay close

attention because some of the things that I'm going to talk to

you about, you're going to be like, where is he going with

this? But it will help provide a

foundation for you to view the framework that you're perceiving

through the news outlets and secular culture.

A pastor in Kansas City got up in June of 2022 and his church

celebrated the overturning of Roe V Wade.

After the service, a young woman came up to him in tears and she

said, why didn't anyone ever tell me that abortion was wrong?

She had no idea. I made the decision that we must

take a clear stand on this issue and educate those who call the

crossing home about God's design and direction for our lives.

To be silent on this issue would be to sin.

It made me realize that while I have avoided sermons like this

because they're not the ideal sermons to reach people in their

pain in the meantime, the world has never stopped talking about

these issues. It might help to realize how we

got to where we are today. There has been more change than

ever in recorded history over the last 65 years.

This is especially true in the realm of human sexuality,

marriage and gender. Think of how out of place you

feel right now compared to 18 months ago, five years ago.

This should actually create a little bit of empathy for us

when we're interacting with our parents or our grandparents.

I need you to hear me say this. The world was different 60 years

ago. It was a completely different

place before the 1960s. What happened in the 60s?

A lot. You have the civil rights

movement, you have black power, Chicano power, feminist

movement, antiwar movement against Vietnam, the legal push

for secularization which included prayer being removed

from schools, the teaching of evolution.

This became the seedbed for a revolution around human

sexuality. Thus the sexual revolution was

born. And this was the mantra.

If we stop making sex such a big deal, it won't be such a big

deal. Many civil rights activists have

indicated a level of jealousy over the amount of progress the

gay and trains movement has made culturally over the last 60

years because their effectiveness and efficiency are

profound. Society has experienced 4 major

shifts and how we think about sex and sexuality since the 60s.

Shift Number one, sex was separated from childbearing.

Before the 60s, that wasn't the case.

You're going to go Clayton saying a lot of stuff, rewatch

it because listen to what I'm about to say.

It wasn't until 1954 that clinical test began for the

pill. It was approved by the FDA in

1960, but it was not until 1965 that the Supreme Court ruled

that the Constitution protects the liberty of married couples

to buy and use contraceptives without government restriction.

Up to that point, it was illegal to use any drug, medicine, or

instrument to prevent contraception.

It wasn't until 1972 that laws were passed that allowed single

people to buy contraceptives. It was illegal for unmarried

people to get contraceptives before 1972.

Then in 1973, Roe V Wade ruled that the Constitution protects a

woman's right to abortion. Shift #2.

Sex was separated from a lifelong marital covenant.

Legalizing gay marriage is a modern Western phenomenon.

Religious history is unanimous on this.

Moses and the Jews, Jesus and the Christians, Muhammad and the

Muslims, Dalai Lama and the Buddhists all contend that sex

should be confined to opposite sex.

Marital covenants and the world as a whole is almost unanimous

on this. Outside of predominantly white,

progressive Western cities, marriage between a man and a

woman is the accepted mandate. What may be the most profound is

that secular world superpowers like China and Russia are also

in lockstep with the rest of the world.

On this, the views of progressive, Western, mostly

white, rich society around marriage are an aberration on

the global scale. So why protect marriage?

The common logic surrounding the argument for protecting marriage

is societal flourishing. This is actually an area of

agreement between secular governments and the religious

organizations. You may, if you pay attention to

politics, heard these famous lines not just in politics but

from the church. You ready?

The healthy family is the backbone of a healthy society.

Interestingly enough, they're right and have enormous data to

back it up. History shows that societies

flourish when marriages are strengthened and encouraged,

sexual impulse restrained, and parents take responsibility for

their children. All the teachers are like

preach. Study after study shows that the

ideal child rearing environment is a biological mom and a

biological dad. And it's not even close.

This was actually the logic used around the creation of divorce

law in America. It was decided that it was in

the best interest of our collective future and the future

of our children to do everything we can to keep parents together.

Marriage laws and the benefits along with divorce laws and the

benefits were designed to incentivize people to invest in

their marriage and their family. That's why I'm so thankful we

have a marriage retreat center and offering marriage help and

ministries at many of our locations.

A strong family impact society positively on so many levels.

However, sadly, over time these benefits became to be viewed as

promoting inequality more than social flourishing.

The cultural message of today is that sex is no big deal.

We have hookup culture, friends with benefits, Netflix and

chill. We have entire apps and

algorithms, websites and social media platforms dedicated to

propping it up. They don't just facilitate

hookup culture, they have monetized it.

Shift #3, sex was separated from male, female relationships, and

shift #4, all of this was framed up as moral progress.

So sex was separated from childbearing, sex was separated

from a lifelong marital covenant, sex was separated from

male female relationships, and it was all framed up as

progress. And this is what became known as

the sexual revolution. If we stop making sex such a big

deal, it won't be such a big deal.

The question we should probably ask 60 years later is were they

right? Are we healthier sexually as a

culture today than we were sixty years ago?

And the evidence points to this being an impossible argument to

make. The meteoric rise of abortion,

the invisible father epidemic in her culture, the explosion of

the porn industry, the Me Too movement, body image issues, and

depression and mental health that are that's being caused all

point to it didn't work. It wasn't good for us.

Nancy Pearcy is a scholar at Houston Baptist University, and

in her book Love Thy Body, she suggests that there is one

broken theory underneath the world view of those today who

are pro abortion, pro transgenderism, pro L GB sexual

relationships, and euthanasia. And the theory is personhood

theory and personhood theory answers this question.

What makes a human body a person?

And somebody going? That's a confusing statement.

Check with me now I'm going to use a phrase called upper story

and lower story. Now here at the Crossing, we

talk about the upper story, which is God's plan, and the

lower story, which is our sinful reality.

And so we've used those terms a lot.

Here, she uses these exact same terms, but she is simply talking

about your body. So just kind of forget

everything we've taught you about upper and lower story for,

you know, the last 25 years at just for the sermon to talk

about your body. OK, that's an agreement we have.

Here's the upper story. The upper story is personhood,

and the lower story is our physical bodies.

Personhood theory divides humans into two parts, their internal

dispositions, which is their personhood, their upper story,

and their physical bodies, their biology, the lower story.

And then it teaches us to prioritize what our internal

dispositions say over what our physical bodies say.

You're going to want to hold on to that because it's going to

help you understand a majority of the rest of my message.

The result is that our internal dispositions become the basis

for our human rights and our identity over our physical

bodies. The upper story Trump's the

lower story. The authentic you is found in

your personhood, not your biology or an integration of

both. This is what philosophers would

call the fact. Value split.

Here's how this plays out. the Enlightenment in the 17th and

18th century contended that there are two parts to the human

story, the upper story and the lower story.

The lower story has empirical science, and the upper story

deals with morality and theology.

And since the lower story can be tested with the scientific

method, it resides in the realm of fact, while our morality

resides in the realm of values. But you can't argue with facts.

They're binding on everyone but morals, values.

Those are subjective, and so they elevated the lower story.

Then the Romantic movement took place at the turn of the 19th

century, and they pushed back against the devaluation of the

upper story. So these sinker our thinkers

swung the pendulum in the exact opposite direction, and they

focused on questions about justice and freedom and morality

and meaning. This is where a lot of the isms

of our day came to be. This is where you get idealism,

Marxism, existentialism, and postmodernism today, all of the

tension that you and I feel is these two groups pushing back on

one another. People are trying to figure out

how to integrate the upper story and the lower story.

Let me give you an example. That's why you can have a group

of people screaming trust the science, wear a mask, and then

at the same time saying who cares what bodily science says

you are? Whatever gender you feel like

what you see. There is someone trying to

harmonize the fact value split. They're trying to figure out

what do I do with the upper story and the lower story and in

what situations does science win and in what situations do my

upper dispositions win? How does this play out with sex?

Well, this is where the whole idea of sex isn't that big of a

deal comes from. When the Bible says that a deep

emotional, spiritual level, two people become one in the sex

act, this is just simply regarded by them as not true.

You don't have to make sex emotional if you don't want to.

You don't have to make it spiritual if you don't want to.

Just do what you want. If you want to have an open

marriage, go ahead. If you want to have sex without

marriage, go ahead. If you want to have lots of

partners, go ahead. It's just sex.

It's just pleasure. Do what feels right to you.

But this, again, is a low view of the body, and people you know

this are regularly hurt by and through sex.

While schools may be incredibly smart to have sex education

programs that point to the value of contraceptives and condoms,

there is no contraceptive. There is no condom big enough

for your heart. It just might be smart to teach

alongside of that, a biblical view of sex as an option for

them to choose as well, a view that teaches that we should be

careful, respectful of sex. And in doing so, we just might

protect them from the emotional fallout that comes from a porn

addiction, multiple partners and abuse.

Personhood theory might also give us insight on the why body

image issues continue to rise in America.

Billions spent each year on cosmetics, fitness and surgery,

not to mention what's spent on fashioning with fashion, with

slimming technology. Add to that special foods,

minerals and diets. The reason people hate their

real bodies? They want one that doesn't have

fat, doesn't age, and they will never be comfortable in their

own Godgiven skin. They will never be comfortable

in their body. Their lower story?

They hate it. That's how personhood theory

plays out in sex. What about in transgenderism?

Leah Thomas in 2022 won the 500 yard freestyle NCAA championship

in Atlanta by a full second, which is a huge margin.

But before Leah transitioned from male to female, she was a

D1 swimmer in the men's division and as a man he was a decent

swimmer in D1 competition. But he wasn't winning any

titles. The question our society is

wrestling through right now is is this OK?

And many trans activists are speaking and saying of course it

is. If she says she's a woman, she's

a woman. You decide your own gender.

Upper story. But on the other side of the

argument, check this. Feminists and women's right

activists are saying we've had our rights violated by men long

enough. These two categorically

different definitions on how to determine gender and sport are

taking place right now. One appeals to the lower story,

your body, your biology, and the other one is appealing to the

upper story, what's in your head, how you feel, your

personality. And there are lots of different

situations regarding people and gender fluidity.

Transgender people often say they are trapped in the wrong

body. This perceived mismatch between

physical sex and psychological gender is called gender

dysphoria, and while many advocate that it must have some

biochemical basis, perhaps there's a hormonal cause, There

has been no clear scientific evidence uncovered.

But what's most surprising is most transgender advocates argue

the opposite. Their position is to deny that

gender is rooted in biology. In the lower story.

To them, gender is completely independent of the body.

It is simply a judgment of the heart.

The problem with this position from the trans activist is that

the body, the lower story, is not seen as having any value,

any purpose. And if it does not operate as

and it does not operate as a signpost to the way that they

were created by God, or if they don't believe in God evolution

in order to flourish as individuals and as a society.

It just doesn't matter to them. It is simply your body is simply

a collection of physical systems.

It's just muscles, bones, organs and cells that should be and can

be operated on, shifted, rewired when one becomes or feels

disoriented with them. If you feel a separation between

your upper story and your lower story, you operate on your lower

story to bring it in alignment with your upper story.

Gender is not something derived from the body, it is something

we impose on the body. Thus, gender becomes a social

construct. If you wanted to go home and do

this, you can search gender Unicorn on Google.

An organization called Trans Student Educational Resource

published this cartoon that deconstructs sexuality into five

separate factors that can all contradict one another.

OK, this is like the Rosetta Stone.

If you're trying to understand what's happening in our world

right now, this is how they separate you.

There's your gender identity, how you identify, then yours

expression, how you want to be seen by other people.

Then there's your sex assigned at birth, which for Christians

there's only been this one. And then you have your sexually

attracted to and then you have your emotionally attracted to.

What they're saying is this is how you get all the names is you

can be have your sex assigned at birth, being a male, but your

gender expression can be a female but your identity can be

male but you can be attracted to men but you can be emotionally

attracted to women. This is how you get all of the

labels as you pick from here where you actually are and then

you impose it on the body. It is designed to appeal to

young children, and it's being used in public school district

around the nation to teach students that there is no

unified self. Why should someone care about

the structure of the body? Who should?

Some are. Why should someone let that

inform their identity? Why should someone's sex body

have anything to say about their moral choices?

This disassociates completely the body from people as humans.

It leaves the body with no intrinsic, no intrinsic dignity,

no purpose that we are obliged to respect.

This is such a profoundly low view of the body.

It is widely accepted today that if a person senses A

disconnection between biological sex and sexual desire, the

proper course of action is to accept the psychological state

as the authentic state, thus elevating the fleeting nature of

our feelings over the created natural facts of the body.

The biblical worldview, on the other hand, leads to a unified

view of the body. While I may be seen or treated

as harsh and judgmental, biblical morality and sexuality

show a deep respect for the body being an integral part of who

you are. Since God is behind nature, that

means it provides a reference point or a natural law for

morality and human flourishing. Christians believe that there is

purpose in the physical structures of our bodies that we

are to respect, not disregard. This is the teleological

argument. If you remember from week 1

where I talked about kitchen knives and lawn mowers and

washing machines, the teleological morality says that

nature bodies science. The lower story matters too,

because in the created world we see the Creator and His purpose.

How does this show up with abortion?

There are two key steps to how prochoice people apply

personhood theory. The 1st is at conception.

The baby is just a fetus, so it's in the lower story, it's

just a body. Then at some undetermined time,

it becomes a person that has rights.

People debate when that time is. Some say it's when the baby has

a heartbeat. Others say the viability line is

about 20 weeks because that's when the baby can technically

live outside of the mother's womb.

Some say it's not a person until it's born.

Some philosophers suggested that we should allow abortion up to

several days afterwards because it takes 3 days to see if the

baby has certain deformities or disabilities.

They are completely separating in a baby, the lower story from

the upper story. It has a body.

It's not a person. Here's the interesting thing.

Science has now proven that life begins at conception due to

advances in genetics and DNA. Virtually all professional

bioethicists all agree that life begins at conception.

An embryo has a full set of chromosomes and DNA.

It is complete. It is a whole individual capable

of internally directed development in a seamless

trajectory from the moment of fertilization.

The science on this issue is settled.

Why then is the science not treated as fact?

Personhood theory. This is literally the logic of

Roe V Wade. In ordinary conversation, you

and I use the phrase human being to mean the same thing as

person. Their synonyms, the two terms

were ripped apart by the Supreme Court.

And it's 1973 Roe V Wade abortion decision, which ruled

that even though the baby in the womb is human, it is not a

person under the 14th Amendment. Thus we have a new category of

individual, the human non person.

In fact, in the Supreme Court's ruling, Justice Harry Blackburn

or Blackman asserted point blank, the word person as used

in the 14th Amendment does not include the unborn.

The implication of this is that it is simply being human is not

enough to qualify for rights until the baby becomes a person.

It is a disposable piece of matter.

They can be used for research experiments, tinkered with

genetically harvested for organs, and then disposed of

with other medical waste. Personhood theory promotes a

very low view of the human body, which ultimately dehumanizes us

all. Having a body is inherently or

is not inherently valuable or worthy of life.

This is the worldview that we're talking about.

But biblical morality expresses a high view of the body.

The biblical view of sexuality is not based on a few scattered

verses. It's based on the teleological

worldview that encourages people to live in accord with the

physical design of their bodies. By respecting the body, the

biblical ethics seeks to unite body and person.

It heals self alienation. Over time, it creates integrity

and wholeness. Our minds and emotions are

brought in tune with our body. Christianity holds that both

stories matter. The upper story of our souls

matter and our inner life matters.

However, it also holds that your body matters.

In Genesis 126 to 31, the creation narrative unfolds, and

through the inspiration of the Spirit, the Holy Spirit

emphasizes a few things about humans.

We are created in God's image. This is where the inherent

dignity of every human being finds its origin.

Therefore, enemy, love, forgiveness, generosity, care

for the least of these become more than just hallmarks of the

Christian faith. They're baked into the

foundation of our theology. All of this and more are built

upon the dignity of humankind because they were made in the

image of God. They are not just image bearers

of God, but they are children of God.

And inside of this we find our cultural mandate that we are to

have dominion, a vocation, to rule and reign and fill the

earth. Out of this comes work and

vocation, calling and career, government and ordered

civilization. We were created with gender

complementarity, male and female.

He created them. In fact, that burst is directly

attached to the idea that humans were created in the image of God

and are called to be fruitful and multiply and fill.

The earth is part of it, and this is where the themes of and

guardrails of marriage and sex and family are formed.

And when God finished all of this, God saw everything he had

made, and indeed it was very good.

And there was evening and there was morning.

The 6th day, the starting point of the human story proclaims the

goodness of the material realm in our gendered bodies.

God could have chosen to make His angels spirits without

bodies. He could have created us in the

spiritual realm for us to float around in.

But instead God made you in a material universe with a

material body. Why?

Because God values the material dimension.

He wants us to value it as well. He values it so much that Jesus

put a body on and came to earth on your behalf and on mine.

And Scripture tells us that one day at the redemption of all

things will include our resurrected what bodies.

God values both the upper story of your soul and the lower story

of your body. The Bible clearly teaches that

we are created by God and have value from the moment of

conception. Psalm 139 says this for you

created my inmost being. You knit me together in my

mother's womb. I praise you because I am

fearfully and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful.

I know that full well. At day 22, the brain and nervous

system have been forming for several days, and the heart it

begins to beat. At day 40.

The eyes and ears continue forming and the hands and feet

and legs are easily discerned. At week 8, the external

genitalia start developing, and within a week, the baby will be

recognizable as a little boy or a little girl for parents to

have a gender reveal party. At week 11, the baby's fingers

begin moving independently and fingerprints have appeared in

baby girls. Her tiny ovaries already contain

all of the eggs she will ever produce, over 2 million of them.

At week 12, she'll start sucking her thumb.

At week 13, she will sense light and turn away from the bright

light. At week 17, they hear sounds

beyond the womb. No wonder John the Baptist

leaped in his mother's womb when Mary arrived with the pregnant

Jesus. Luke chapter one records the

story. At that time, Mary, who's

pregnant with Jesus, got ready and hurried to a town in the

Hill Country of Judea, where she entered Zechariah's home and

greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary's

greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled

with the Holy Spirit. In a loud voice.

She exclaimed. Blessed are you among women, and

blessed is the child you will bear.

But why am I so favored that the mother of my Lord should come to

me? As soon as the sound of your

greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.

In the Mosaic law, the law of retribution is prescribed for a

person who injures or kills an unborn child, showing that the

unborn child is viewed with the same dignity and value as one

who has already been born. Exodus 21 records it like this.

If people are fighting and hit a pregnant woman and she gives

birth prematurely, but there is no serious injury, the offender

must be fined whatever the woman's husband demands and the

court allows. But if there's serious injury,

you are to take life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth,

hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound,

bruise for bruise. Proverbs Chapter 6 has even

Proverbs 6 · chapter mention

stronger language. There are six things the Lord

hates, seven that are detestable to Him.

Haughty eyes, a lying tongue and hands that shed innocent blood.

A heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to

rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies, and a person

who stirs up conflict in the community.

To put in context the loss of innocent lives, I want to show

you this graphic. If you were to go to Washington,

DC and you were to go to the World War 2 Memorial Memorial,

which I'd encourage you to do, you will be struck by the amount

of lives that were lost in World War 2.

But this data only takes us to 2014.

This is 9 years old and this is how many abortions have been

have taken place and this is how many were lost in the Second

World War. There is a battle being waged,

and the battle is this who counts as one of us.

And there are those who are convinced that it is

performative in nature. You have to be able to do

certain things, whether it be feel or whether it be feeling

pain or be a certain age, or have certain skills or cognitive

abilities. Today, modern medicine is

creating a genocide among those with chromosomal issues.

Prenatal screenings and diagnostic tests are frequently

performed to identify potential genetic disorders and

developmental or developing babies.

These flawed tests are then used to justify determination of

those who might have a disorder. Those who are thought to have

Down syndrome in Iceland are all aborted. 98% suspected of having

Down syndrome have been aborted in Denmark, 90% in England, 77%

in France and 67% here in the United States of America.

A nation that proposes to be under God are participating in a

prenatal genocide against precious innocent individuals.

However, there is another world view, a biblical 1A worldview

that states that you were made by God and you were endowed.

It's not performative. You were endowed your value by

your Creator, it was given to you by Him.

You were made by Him and you were made in His image.

Your value is not based on how much money you make, your color

of your skin, your IQ, your athletic ability, and praise

God, your BMI. You were stamped with the image

of a God, and you are precious in his sight, and you are

precious in the sight of anyone who claims to be a Jesus

follower. Hear me to those of you who paid

for abortions, drove people to an abortion, told your girl to

take care of it, or had an abortion, You murdered an

innocent life. But I need you to hear me say

this. We have an incredibly good God

because Romans 5/8 says this, but God demonstrates his own

love for us in this that while we were still sinners, Christ

died for us. When you were on your way to the

clinic, God was willing to send his Son to die on your behalf.

Your value is not dictated by what you've done.

Your value is dictated by the cross of Jesus Christ. 2nd

Corinthians 521 says this God made him who had no sin to be

sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness

of God. Some of you who participated in

abortion, Jesus paid it. He covered the cost for it, and

he will forgive you for it. And I also need you to hear me

say this because I don't want you to get this wrong.

Romans 323 says this for all of sinned and fall short of the

glory of God. Every single person who's

sitting in the room with you right now has sinned.

And our sins have hurt innocent people too.

And that's why here at the crossing we glory in the cross

of Jesus Christ because there is no sin, God will not forgive and

there is no Sinner our God will not save.

And that is a gospel message that we proclaim.

We're moving to a time of decision.

Romans chapter 8 says this. But you were.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

The Spirit you received does not make you slaves so that you live

in fear again. Rather, the Spirit you received

brought about your adoption to sonship, and by him we crawl

ABBA, Father. And the Spirit himself testifies

with our spirit that we are all God's children Who would have

adopted me. I don't know about you, but I

would have passed on me. Too many problems, too many

demons. Too much pride.

Too much anger. Too much impatience.

Too much lust. Too much idolatry.

But God didn't pass on me. That means he didn't pass on

you. And if you're here today and you

have never started an intimate, personal relationship with Jesus

Christ, I have such good news for you.

You can have it. He is ready right now.

He is not surprised by what you've done.

He already paid for what you've done, and he paid for what

you're going to do. There's no greater message, and

if you want it, you can start it today at your campus, at your

location, in the room where you're watching this from,

there's going to be a staff member over by the baptistry,

and they love to talk to you and answer any of the questions.

Maybe you want to turn to a person who came with, who

brought you. I would just tell you, don't put

it off. And to those of you who are

Christians, we must stop believing the life from Satan,

that our sins don't impact other people.

We must also start believing that tomorrow is the best day to

get right with God. There is no better time than

right now. We have the most beautiful

message to share, and God's best way to take hold of it is for us

to do it together. If you would during this

invitation time, whether you're going to lift your voices and

sing or you want to come up to the steps and get down and pray,

would you spend just a little bit of time thanking God for

dying on your behalf, for your sins and help us create a

community where people who are far from God can find him here?

Would you stand with me, God? We have no hope, no chance

without you and God. I know there are people right

now who are angry and some are sad.

For some, we just unearthed a memory that they had buried so

long ago. And God, the last thing I want

is for them to think that you don't love them, that you don't

care for them, and that this isn't a church for them.

God, we want your gospel, your power, your love, your cross,

your blood, to win every day, all day, and help us to be a

part of that. In your name I pray.

Amen.