James Merritt - Pro-Life for Life
Every year, the Oxford English dictionary declares a word of the year. It's a word that they say, and I'm quoting, has lasting potential as a word of cultural significance. Well, in 2016, the Oxford English dictionary declared that the word of the year was you ready for this? Post-truth, post-truth. Now, what does that word mean? Well, they defined it this way. It's relating to our denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief. In other words, put it simply, here's what they were saying. We're living in a day and an age now in a culture and a country where we're being taught and we're now practicing a belief that feelings are more important than facts. That's the world we live in today. It doesn't matter what the fact. Don't confuse me with the facts. My feelings dictate my actions.
We're in a series, if you're joining us today for the first time, we're calling Facing the Truth. And we've been de-looking at issues that frankly, within the church and in the culture are very real. And even though they're being more and more universally accepted outside the church, I don't believe that should be accepted inside the church. And so today we're going to be dealing with a topic that is emotionally supercharged. And I understand that. In fact, it probably ought to come with a sign that kinda looks like this. It's such a hot topic. There are pastors today that are adamant. They will tell you up front, we don't deal with this topic.
We're not gonna talk about this topic. We're not gonna preach on this topic. This is not going be broached in our church whatsoever. It's too hot. The elephant in the room is too big. And that topic is abortion. It is an issue that's caused an ongoing battle in this nation for half a century. And so I'll just kind of give you a few facts to kinda let you know why it's a big deal to me. It should be a big deal to you. According to global data on population and health, abortion is now the world's leading cause of death. 42% of all deaths are because of abortion.
Now to put that in perspective, that's more than cancer. Heart disease, diabetes. The world was shut down over the spread of a virus called COVID-19, big deal. We'll never forget it changed our world. Never get over it. You know how many people died from COVID-19 so far? 1.9 million. In one year there are 42 times more babies aborted in one year than have died of COVID. Last year, 42.6 million children were aborted. It's unbelievable. 8.2 million people died because of cancer. 5.1 million people from smoking, 2.5 people from alcohol. But 42 and half million were aborted. Now those who know me know I'm unashamedly pro-life. I'm pro-life for life. And I realize right now, let me just get it out. There's some of you right now, even in this room, you feel differently. You consider yourself pro-choice.
That's all right. What I'm gonna ask, those of you're watching right now, and even in the room mentally you may be tempted right now. You've already heard enough. You wanna change the channel, you wanna flip the switch. You wanna turn me off. You wanna turn me out? I'm gonna ask you to hear me out 60 seconds. That's all, just 60 seconds. Then do what you wanna do. I believe that one of the most important things in this debate is compassion. And I don't wanna just say what's true today and what I believe is true. I wanna say it with respect. I wanna say it with kindness. You know we live in a free country and you have the right to believe what you wanna believe and feel what you wanna feel. I'm not here to shame anybody for decisions that you made in the past.
If you're watching right now, you're in this room and you're a lady and you've had an abortion, I'm not here to put you on a guilt trip. I'm not here to condemn you. I'm not here to judge you. Here's all I'm asking us to do. Would you be willing today to think about this issue in three ways? Let's think about it biologically. Let's think about it logically. And let's think about it theologically. That's all I'm asking you to do. Particularly if you claim to be a believer, you claim to be a follower of Jesus. You are a Christian and you believe at least, well, maybe God ought to have a, at least one saved out the final say. So I just pray to right now, if that's you, it's okay. I'm willing to listen. Let's just face the truth. Now when I say pro-life, you probably think about politics.
Lemme give you some good news. I'm gonna leave the politics out of it. 'Cause again, I always wanna make the case today that being pro-life, if you are being honest, is the only logical, biological and theological position that you take if you're willing to face the truth. So I want you to keep in mind one thing today. The right to life to me is the right side for life. The right to life is the right side for life. So we're gonna just say three things. Just hang with me. Put all your feelings aside what you hear in the media. Put it all aside. Lemme say three things. Number one, being pro-life is biologically confirmed. Being pro-life is biologically confirmed.
Now, David, I'm gonna point to several scriptures today by the way, but in Psalm 139, if you want to turn to it just right in the middle of the Bible. But in the 139 Psalm, David wrote something that was amazing. Now remember, David was not an obstetrician. He was not a gynecologist. He had no medical training whatsoever. But God was speaking to David. And I want you to listen to what God said to David when he wrote this psalm. He said, David's talking to God. And he said, "You knit me together in my mother's womb. Your eyes saw my unformed body".
Now, David's talking about himself in his mother's womb. So was he more than just a blob of protoplasm? Well, one of the best friends of the pro-life position, one of the things I'm so excited about, and I'm glad we live in the 21st century, one of the best friends of the pro-life position is medical science. And I welcome medical science. This is one case for sure. I'm a pro-science guy. Because guess what, in the last 25 years, the more medical science has advanced, the more the pro-life position becomes stronger.
Now, again, I'll be upfront, I'm a pastor. I'm not a medical doctor. But what's very interesting is when you go to some very standard embryological texts that are used in prominent medical schools, you learn that a big part of the scientific community leaving politics aside. A big part, I didn't know this, a big part of the medical community, now it freely admits that the life of a brand new organism, that is the moment when a sperm and an egg join together to form an embryo, otherwise known as a zygote. They actually believe that happens at conception. I've not what I'm saying, that's what they say. I'll give you an example. A medical textbook used in a lot of medical school is called "Langman's Medical Embryology". It describes what really happens at fertilization. That is at conception. This is what happens.
"An X carrying sperm produces a female double X embryo. And the Y carrying sperm produces a male XY embryo. Hence, the chromosomal sex of the embryo is determined at fertilization". In other words, really to put it simply, they're simply saying that when that sperm and that egg join together, the sex of that being that's formed, that sex is determined at that moment. So when the conception takes place, you've got a brand new human of a particular sex in existence. As a matter of fact, at that moment, that unborn infant is just getting started in its development. Because another embryology textbook says this, "A zygote is the beginning of a new human being".
This is a medical book. This is not what I'm saying. It is the beginning of a new human being, i.e. an embryo. "Human development begins at fertilization when a male gamete or sperm unites with a female gamete or oocyte to form a single cell, a zygote. This highly specialized cell marks the beginning of each of us as a unique individual". So okay, I know that's a lot of medical jargon. I don't wanna lose you in the weeds. So you say, okay, what exactly does that mean? It means this. When a woman conceives, when she becomes pregnant, she has her body, her body's still her body. But that unborn baby is not a part of her body. It is a separate body. And by the way, again, I've done my homework. That's all what I'm saying. This is what an obstetric nurse says. This is a lady that works with it. Listen to this carefully.
"It is the placenta umbilical cord, which separates the mother from the baby and proves that the fetus was never a part, never a part, never a part of its mother's body. The placenta and umbilical cord exists precisely because the baby has a different and separate circulatory system from the mother. And their blood must not intermingle. If the fetus were not a separate human being, but were only another part of its mother's body, it would not need a placenta and an umbilical cord to separate them. It would simply grow inside one of her body cavities, like a tumor without any barriers between the two to protect each of them".
So in other words, when a woman says, it's my body, absolutely true, no argument with that whatsoever, but read my lips. The baby she carries is not a part of her body. It is a separate that's just, listen, I'm talking biology. It's just biologically and simply, scientifically true. The woman's body has its own body, its own blood type. It's own sex. But the baby, listen to this. The baby has it's own blood type, only blood type. It's own sex, it's own distinct and separate DNA and genetic material. So from the beginning of conception, what do we find? Here's a human being that is coming into being.
So for example, after 24 days, that baby, that conception has a heartbeat. After 40 days, it has measurable brainwaves. Now, medically speaking, let me tell you when a person is dead. A person is clinically and medically dead when they'd have no heartbeat and they have no brainwaves. But if you have a heartbeat and you have brainwaves, you are considered a living human being. And the scientific fact that cannot be denied, the biological truth is what an abortion does. It does two things. It stops a beating heart and it stops measurable brainwaves. Now you do your homework. You find some fascinating things about these babies in the womb. For example, a study from Great Britain recently found.
Listen to this, babies early in pregnancy prefer to look at face like images. While they're in the womb. Very early, they can recognize and distinguish between taste. Later in the term, they can recognize words, tunes, and languages as early as six weeks after conception, six weeks babies can feel it when doctors inflict pain. Now, because we're public and we're in a mixed audience, we've got some young people here, I'm not going to go, 'cause abortionists really hate this. I'm not going to go into the gruesome procedures that unborn babies go through when they're aborted. I'm not gonna, I would never even try to do that. 'Cause I realize that's not gonna get us very far. I will just simply tell you this, if abortion procedures happen anywhere except outside a mother's womb, not only would we be outraged, people would go to jail if it happened outside of a mother's womb.
The fact of the matter is the pro-life position is biologically confirmed. What is conceived by medical science is a human being. But let's put that aside. Let's say you're one of those people that just say, I don't give a rip what biology says. Let's put that aside. Being pro-life is logically consistent. Because now we're gonna get to the heart of the matter. Lemme tell you, we can really boil down this whole abortion debate down to one simple question, at least for me should be for you. Here's the question. Either what is conceived in the womb at that moment is a human being or it's not. That's the whole debate right there, to me debate's over.
If it's not a human being, what do we care? If it is a human being, different ballgame. And by the way, that's what the Supreme Court said in Roe V Word in the 14th Amendment. This is something a lot of people don't know about Roe v. Wade. They said exactly the same thing. Lemme explain what I mean. The 14th Amendment, that's not Roe v. Wade. The 14th Amendment, which was passed right after the Civil War says this, "The state shall not deprive any person of life without due process of law". When that amendment was written, it was very clear what the legislators meant. A person was a human, 'cause remember, the amendment was passed in relation to the freedom of slaves. 'Cause there was a time slaves were not considered fully human. They were what? Three fifths.
So the amendments passed and lets make no mistake that we're all humans, we're all persons. We all should never ever be deprived of life without due process of law. A person in that sense was a human. You say, why is that so important? Because when the Supreme Court passed Roe v. Wade, this is something nobody wants to talk about, but you gotta do your homework. When the Supreme Court passed Roe v. Wade, they made a statement. You won't read this in the media, but go read it for yourself it's there. Here's what they said. If the suggestion of personhood, meaning of the unborn is established, the Appellate's pro-abortion case of course collapses. For the fetus's right to life is then guaranteed specifically by the 14th Amendment.
So here's what the Supreme Court said. This was back now what? 40 years ago, 50 years ago. 50 years ago, we didn't have the medical science we have today. So the Supreme Court said, now, if medical science determines that at conception, that's a human being, then the whole Roe v. Wade case collapses. We are wrong in what we're saying. That's not what I'm saying. That's what the justice said. So in other words, the court in 1973 just arbitrarily decided without any scientific or medical evidence whatsoever, they just kind of said, well, there's a difference between a person and a human. But no one makes that argument anymore. We now know that's just not true.
A person is a human and a human is a person. And we've already seen the problem now is that pro-choice people have been painted into a corner because the scientific community recognizes, but what's conceived in that womb of that woman is indeed a human being. So as a matter of fact, let's just go back to the moment of conception. We could ask three questions. Question one is, what is conceived human? That is did it come from human beings? We know the answer to that is, that's yes. Here's a second question. Is it a genetically unique individual? Medical science says, absolutely, has its own blood type, has its own genetic DNA. It is a totally complete, uniquely complete and a unique individual.
Number three, is it alive and growing? Well, you ladies who've been pregnant, tell me how you look in six months or seven months or eight months. Yeah, it's alive and it's growing. So by any logical account, unborn babies from conception are human 'Cause here's what we know after nine months. When a woman gets pregnant, what is produced after that nine month period is not an animal. It's not a vegetable, it's not a mineral. It's a human being. When you came outta your womb, you were a human being. If you don't believe that, go home. Look in the mirror. You are a human being. And that fact alone has logical, tremendous, logical implications.
Here's one. So now get ready. I'm not trying to make you upset, I'm trying to make you mad. We're just going to get, be honest. Let's just face the facts. The favorite argument out there is, well, I'm personally against abortion, but I'm pro-choice. That that's the art. You know, I'm against it, but I'm pro-choice. Well, I always wanna ask people, wait a minute, why are you against it? I mean, you ought to be against abortion is because you believe that's a human being. If you don't believe it's a human being why are you against it? But let's just take that argument. I'm personally against abortion, but I'm pro-choice.
Now this is what people don't like to face up to. If you're pro-choice, you are in effect pro-abortion. There is no difference practically speaking between those two choices. I'm gonna prove it to you. I want you to imagine you and I are at a table. And a woman is pregnant and a doctor's about to abort that child. I say, you know, I'm in favor of you aborting that child, but I'm personally against it. I'm in favor of you having the right to choose to abort that child, but I'm personally against it. You say, on the other hand, I'm not only personally in favor of your right to choose to abort that baby, I'm in favor of it. At the end of the day, that baby's just as dead. It doesn't matter whether I'm personally against it or not. That doesn't give that baby a whole lot of comfort.
So in effect, don't give me this business mind. Well, I'm per no. If you are pro-choice, you are pro-abortion. Now let's take the other classic logical argument, right? This is the other one that's out there. This is a woman's right issue. It is her body and she should have the right to do with it what she pleases. We don't believe that, we don't even practice that. For example, in most places, I know at least it is here in Atlanta and here in this state, prostitution is illegal. Why is it illegal? If it's a woman's body, and she has a right to do it or whatever she wants, why can't she sell her body for sex? What's the logic behind that? I mean, after all, you say it's her body. Or why can't a woman take cocaine out in public? I'm not trying to be facetious. I mean I'm saying we're gonna face facts. Why can't she use illegal drugs?
I mean if a woman has the right to terminate a baby in the womb. Why does she have the right to sell her body for sex or to take drugs or to do whatever matter? My point is we don't even believe that when we say it. So here's another one, somebody says, well what about the right to privacy? That's another one. What about the right to privacy? Here's my simple answer. Is the right to privacy for anyone equal to the right that an unborn baby has the life and oh, besides that, we don't even believe that. We don't believe the right to privacy is absolute. Is it okay? Is it legal for me? If I look at child pornography in my home, in my basement and nobody's looking? No, if somebody finds out, I'm gonna get arrested.
But what about my right to privacy? You don't have the right to do that. Even in privacy, you don't have the right to beat your wife or abuse your child, even if it's in privacy. I mean, I'm just being honest with you. Listen if I'm making you mad, apologize, I'll forgive you. I'm just telling you the logic. It's just not logical. You can't get there logically. Anything, you paint yourself into a corner. We don't even believe what we say. So it may cause hardship. Yes, it may in some cases cause you know, to carry a baby in a term it may be difficult, but it is not morally wrong. It is morally wrong to take a human life. Now let me state the obvious. Obviously, when a mother's wife is truly in jeopardy, different ballgame.
I've told you my story. when my was being wheeled into surgery to have me. The doctor looked at my dad and he said, look, I don't think I can save both of them. I can save the baby. I can save your wife. I can't save both. And my dad made the right. He said, look, you've got to save her. You have to let him die. You gotta let... I was at the time. You gotta let the baby die. You gotta let the baby die. I've got to have her. I've got two more kids. Absolutely the right choice. And you know, I get that. And I wanna say I don't have time to get into it. I know there are difficult cases like rape and incest. And I don't have time to get into all these exceptions. I'm just gonna ask this question. I'm not trying to blow over it.
We can talk about it in Q&A later, but lemme just ask you, I want all of you to ask yourself this question. If you found out today that you were the product of rape or incest, do you wish you'd been aborted? I guarantee you the answer is no. And the whole point of the matter is this, rape is terrible, incest is terrible, I get that. But no matter how conception takes place, why should an innocent life be sacrificed? The baby had nothing to do with that. The baby wasn't the cause of that. Now yeah the state ought to come alongside every woman that brings a child into this world. We ought to give whatever help and aid. We're one of the big contributors, by the way, to Abria. We put our money where our mouth is.
But whether it be through adoption or quality foster care or food and shelter, that's a totally different issue. The core issue simply is this, from the time of conception, that baby is a human being and it's logically consistent to be pro-life. You say, well, I don't care about your biology. I don't care about your logic. Well let's just put that aside for a minute. Lemme say one last thing, being pro-life is theologically commanded. It's commanded. Now again, I'm talking to believers. If you're not a believer, I get that we have a totally different worldview. I understand that. But at least for believers, we gotta bring theology into the room. We gotta put theology on the table. 'Cause that is the defining issue. I mean, the whole defining issue to me is this.
I don't care what the Congress says. I don't care what my logic says. I don't even care what biology says. I wanna know one thing about every part of my life. What does God say? What does the book say? What is the creator of all that? What does he say about this whole issue of being pro-life? And you say, well, ought to be obvious. Well it really isn't because according to a Lifeway survey, 70% of women who have abortions self-identify as Christians. So evidently it's not cut and dried. 70% of women who have abortions identify as Christians. As a matter of fact, 43% say they attended a Christian Church at least once or more at the time they aborted the baby.
So particularly, I'm talking to those of us listening now, those of us in the room, you say, I'm a follower of Jesus. I believe my life ought to be guided by the word of God. I wanna know what God has to say. Okay, let's just look, wanna remind you of a story that happened, I'm sure you remember it, but if you don't, I'll refresh your memory. In Luke 1:26, we're told that Elizabeth was six months pregnant with John the Baptist. Well the angel Gabriel tells Mary, hey, your cousin is pregnant. And we want you to go visit your cousin. But he had also told Mary she was pregnant. So Mary leaves Nazareth and goes to Jerusalem to visit Elizabeth. So Elizabeth, Mary's just conceived. She's just conceived the child. And Elizabeth's six months pregnant when Mary walks in the door to greet Elizabeth and to say hello to Elizabeth, here's what we're told in Luke 1:41.
"The baby leaped in her womb". Why? Because a six month old fetus recognized Jesus. Knew exactly who he was, and the baby leaped in her womb. So let's go back to a book. If you wanna turn to a book called Jeremiah, it's right past the book of Psalms. But I wanna go back to a book called Jeremiah. He was a prophet, and I want you to read one of the greatest prophets ever lived. I wanna read about, let's just read about his beginning, because the Lord says something to Jeremiah. And every time I read it, I go, man, I can't even get my mind around this. I want you to listen to this. God's speaking of Jeremiah. Here's what he says, Jeremiah 1:5. Now watch this, "Before I formed you in the womb".
Now ladies, that word for means to weave kind of like, kind like you would weave a blanket or put to, you know, or it means put together like you put the pieces of a puzzle together. What was God talking about? He was talking about how conception takes place and what do you say to Jeremiah was, Jeremiah, you know when your mom and dad came together and they had relations, I'm the one that took that egg and I'm the one that took that sperm. And I am the one that put that together and made you an embryo. It is my hands that were at the very beginning of taking all that. I'm the one that began to knit you together. I'm the one that begin to put you together before I even formed you in the womb.
By the way, at the moment of conception, that embryo, at the moment of conception, that embryo contains enough genetic information to control that human's growth and development for an entire lifetime. That embryo, listen to this, that embryo already has enough DNA, the embryo. To fill the equivalent of a library of a 1,000 volumes or 600,000 printed pages with 500 words on every single page. So God says, hey, before I formed you, before I knitted you, before I put you together, before I took that egg and that sperm in the womb, what's true about that? He goes on, "Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you".
Now just let that sink in for a minute. God said, Jeremiah, before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. Now you have to understand what the Hebrew word knew means. The Hebrew word know or knew doesn't just mean to be familiar with, right? I mean, Chris, I know you, you know me and you know, I know a lot of you folks out there, right? Man, I know you, I know Melvin. I know, that's not what the word means. That word is used for when Adam came to know his wife. It literally means to love it. It means to cherish. It means to just, you know, really just treasure someone. So here's what God said to Jeremiah. This is amazing. He said, Jeremiah, I didn't just love you when I conceived you. I loved you before you were even conceived.
Now, get your mind around that. I didn't love you at the moment of conception. I loved you even before you were conceived. In other words, get this, you ready for this? Lemme tell you how much God loves you. Lemme tell how much God loves me. God loved you before your parents even met. God loved me way before my parents ever, ever knew each other in a sexual way. God knew me and God loved me. You know what that means? Every single baby that's ever been born on the planet Earth is not a human idea. It's God's idea. He's the one that brought it together. He's the one that did it together. He saw it before it even happened. That's why every life is precious to God. Born, unborn, hey, conceived or not even yet conceived. He said, before I formed you in the womb, I knew you.
Now I could just stop right there, but it gets more amazing. He says, "Before you were born, I set you apart". Now think about that. Before you were born, I set you apart. In other words, God not only knows of us before we're conceived, but even before we're born, he claims us. I'm a preacher of the gospel. I'm a pastor. God called me to do that. Now in my mind, I didn't know God called me until I was a senior in college. But what I now know is God, you are, this thing was fixed. Before I was even born you called me to be a preacher. Before I was even born you set me apart. Before I was even born, you had a plan for my life. You had a purpose for my life. Well then it goes even deeper, listen to this. "Before you were born, I set you apart". Now watch this. "I appointed you as a prophet to the nations".
God said, Jeremiah, before you came outta your mother's womb, I knew you'd write this book. I knew you would be a prophet to the nation of Israel. 'Cause that's exactly what I called you to do. That was my plan for you. That was my purpose for you. That was my will for you. Before you came outta your mother's womb, God had a plan for your life. God has a purpose for your life, and the number one thing you need to do after you meet Jesus. Get in on that. What is it? What do you want me to do? And do it for the rest of your life. Now, frankly, I could preach four or five more messages on this topic and I thought about it a long time and I thought I've given them a lot, a lot to digest, a lot of emotional churning going on.
So I thought, you know what? Let me just tell them the story. Great way to end the message is by telling a story. So I want you to close your Bibles, put down your iPads, close your cell phone. Don't be thinking about where you're going to eating lunch for today. Just gimme your full attention for the next four minutes. First of all, if you have an iPhone, would you just hold up your iPhone? If you have an iPhone, just hold up your iPhone. Alright? How many of you have an iPad? Hold up your iPad, okay? Just keep that in mind, kind of giving it away. But keep it in mind. Lemme tell you a story about a boy named Steven. He was born in San Francisco to an unmarried mother. She was a graduate student at the time, and she thought, I'm a graduate student. I'm single. The dad doesn't wanna have anything to do with a child.
I really can't afford this in my life. This is a tremendous inconvenience. And she had to make a decision. She decides not to have an abortion. She decides to have the baby, and she puts this baby up for adoption. He's almost immediately adopted by an accountant named Claire and a machinist named Paul. They give Steven a loving home. He graduated from high school, but he didn't like school. He attended college briefly and he dropped out. And for the next 18 months, doing everything from returning empty coke bottles to working in a mall for $3 an hour. He just kind of was making ends meet. Then in 1974, things turned around and Stephen became a designer for a video game giant called Atari. Created one of the most popular games of that time called Breakout.
Well people began to take notice of Steven and people began to realize, this guy's not your ordinary Steve. This guy's got, he's got some stuff upstairs. So two years later, he left to start a new computer company with two buddies of his. They chose a very simple name for their company. You may have heard of it. It's called Apple. The late Steve Jobs is considered one of the greatest creative minds of all time. So the next time you pick up an iPad and the next time you pick up an iPhone, get on your knees and thank God that a woman didn't say yes to abortion. She said yes to life, every time, every time. Thank God she didn't say, well, my body, my choice. Thank God that woman said, you know what? Not gonna do that.
I'm gonna let this baby live. I preach real strong and I just wanna say one thing, one less paragraph, we're gonna be done. There is no need for anyone listening right now and send your emails. I've not number four. There's no need for anybody to be mad at me, upset with me. If you can refute anything I've said, please have at it. I'm just simply telling you, from a biological, logical, and theological standpoint. The strongest ground you stand on is the pro-life platform. Now having said that, I wanna say something to those of you who are listening right now, and maybe you've had an abortion.
Let me just make something very plain. Abortions not the unpardonable sin. There's all the grace and forgiveness of the world for anybody, whether it's abortion, whether it's pornography, whether it's lying, whether it's cheating, whether it's stealing, whatever it may be, it's not the unpardonable sin. I would say to women out there listening to me right now, and you've been convicted and you feel guilty, lemme just say something to you. Get off the guilt trip. Take the grace trip. All you gotta do is just go to Jesus and say, look, I did it. Shouldn't have done it. Please forgive me. He will forgive you. He will love you. He'll restore you.
But if you're a woman and you are pregnant. And you're thinking about it, you're wondering. Here's all I'm saying, let the God that gave you not only your life, but the life that is in your womb. Let God take that child, trust God for the rest, because God is pro-life. We ought to be pro-life for life. Lemme tell you how, lemme just close with this, not in the notes. Let me tell you how pro-life God is. God is so pro-life. He not only just sent his son to die for our sins that we might have physical life.
God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him would have eternal life and never perish. I for one, I'm thankful for a God that is pro-life. I'm thankful for a mother that risked her life to bring this guy into the world. And I'm just saying to you, this is too big of an issue just to fight about, fuss about, try to have emotional debates about. I'm asking all of us today to really consider what's biologically confirmed. What is logically consistent? What is theologically commanded? 'Cause I promise you this, you'll never regret being pro-life.
Would you just pray for me and pray with me right now for just a moment with heads bowed and with eyes closed? Particularly those of you who are watching right now, I hope you understand this. I don't judge anybody. I'm not throwing rocks at anybody. I'm not saying that it's an easy decision at times to have a baby, I'm not saying any of those things. What I'm simply saying is this, if God is the creator of all of life, then all of life ought to be left in the hands of God. That's all I'm saying. But here's the important thing for me today, the important thing to me is not abortion, whether you've had one or not, you think about having one.
The important thing for me is do you have eternal life? If you died today, do you know you'd spend eternity with the God that gave you life, with the God that created you, with the God that made you? That's why God sent Jesus. That is why God sent Jesus, that we might have life, eternal life, more abundant life. So if you've never, ever, ever come to Jesus, if you've never repented of your sins and placed your faith in Jesus, why don't you do that? Why don't you just in your heart right now, say something like this:
Lord Jesus, I need you. I need a savior. I can't save myself. You died for my sins. God raised you from the dead. You're alive right now. Lord Jesus, come into my heart, save me. Forgive me of all of my sins. I surrender my life to you. I trust you as my Lord. I receive you as my savior. Thank you for forgiving me. Thank you for giving me eternal life.