Abortion: The Moral Perspective

Tom Shrader devotes a full teaching to the moral dimensions of abortion on National Right to Life Sunday, grounding his argument in passages from Job, Jeremiah, Genesis, and Isaiah to establish that God forms, knows, and values human life from conception. He walks through the most common reasons women cite for choosing abortion and responds to each with biblical and pastoral perspective, including a recorded testimony from a church member who continued a pregnancy after a difficult prenatal diagnosis. He closes by addressing post-abortion guilt with the hope of forgiveness in Christ, and challenges the congregation to engage the issue through prayer, personal conversation, and practical support for those facing crisis pregnancies.

“God says I formed you, I knew you, and I valued you.”

— Tom Shrader

Series: National Right to Life Sunday - 2000

Recorded: 2000 at East Valley Bible Church

Duration: 1 hr 14 min

Themes: abortion, sanctity of life, forgiveness, hope, unborn, prayer, justice, crisis pregnancy, facing unplanned pregnancy, post-abortion guilt, grieving a loss, parent, woman in crisis, advocate for the vulnerable, struggling with shame, young adult

Scripture: Job 31:14-15, Jeremiah 1:5, Genesis 1:26-27, Isaiah 45:9-11, Matthew 6:25-26, Matthew 6:33, Psalm 37:25, Psalm 68:5, 1 Timothy 1:15-17

Theological Themes: imago dei, made in god's image, biblical anthropology, personhood, redemption, post-abortion healing, prolife theology, divine foreknowledge

Full Transcript

Introduction: A Day That Lives in Infamy

This is National Right to Life Sunday, and over the course of our time together, we have commemorated that in a variety of ways. Some years, we simply stop and pray. Other years, we have taken time to hear a three-, four-, or five-minute devotional dealing with the topic. But I thought today we would stop and devote all of my teaching time to this.

It was 27 years ago yesterday, January 22, 1973, that the Supreme Court gave us the verdict we now know as Roe v. Wade. In December of 1941, when Franklin Roosevelt was talking about the bombing of Pearl Harbor, he said, "This is a day that will live in infamy." I think if we fast-forwarded to January 22, 1973, we could apply exactly that same phrase. It was that day, with that verdict, that the Supreme Court declared war on the unborn child, opening the floodgates for abortion in this country.

The Scale of the Casualties

Whenever there is a war, there are casualties. In our history, we have fought many wars, and here are the total casualties we have seen in the different wars this country has been engaged in. The Revolutionary War claimed just over 25,000 lives. In the Civil War, almost half a million soldiers were killed. World War I took 116,000 American lives, and World War II saw 407,000 men and women give their lives for this country. Korea claimed just under 55,000, and Vietnam just over 58,000. To give some sense of scope, as many Americans were killed in the three days of fighting at Gettysburg as were killed in either Korea or Vietnam — that is the magnitude of that single Civil War battle.

But in the war on the unborn, there have been over 40 million casualties since 1973. To put that in perspective, if you take the current population of men, women, boys, girls, and infants living in California, Washington, Oregon, and Arizona combined, you arrive at a number right at 40 million. That is the scope of the slaughter that has taken place.

Why We Cannot Avoid This Topic

This is a divisive issue, and I understand that. People feel strongly on both sides. But the fact that it is divisive does not mean we can avoid it. Several years ago, U.S. News and World Report devoted an extensive feature to this issue around the 25th anniversary of the decision, and what they reported was astonishing. Forty-three percent of American women will have an abortion in their lifetime if current rates are sustained.

What does that mean in terms we can understand? It would mean that, for better or worse, abortion is as common a life experience for a woman as divorce, and three times more common than breast cancer. It would mean that more than twice as many women have abortions as graduate from college. Those are staggering numbers.

U.S. News and World Report concluded that 25 years after Roe v. Wade, abortions are safe and legal, but not rare. They were paraphrasing the rhetoric of the president who said his desire was to make abortion safe, legal, and rare. They are not rare. When we look at this issue, we are looking at the greatest moral issue our generation has ever faced — comparable to slavery in the mid-1800s.

Three Goals for Today

This issue can be discussed in many different ways, but today we are not going to talk about the medical aspect, the political aspect, or even the economic aspect. We want to focus strictly on the moral and spiritual side of this. I have three goals in mind as I speak to you today.

Number one is to inform. For some of you, this is all new. If you are under the age of 27, abortion has simply been part of your culture — you have never known it any other way. Number two is to remind. For others, this is something you already know, and today is simply a reminder of that difficult truth. And in both cases, my third goal is to challenge you — to move from thought to action in whatever way God lays on your heart.

A Word to Those Who Have Been Touched by This

One of the things I have learned in my teaching role here at the church is that when I address this issue in particular, it touches nerves. When something is as commonplace as we are describing — three times more common than breast cancer, twice as common as earning a college degree, more common than divorce — we are speaking to a large number of people within this very church who have been touched by abortion.

I have asked staff members over the years what they estimate the rate of divorce to be among women in our congregation between the ages of 20 and 35, and I hear numbers around 30 percent. It is so easy to look around and see families walking in together and assume everything is fine, but so often there is a story behind that. So often these are couples who came to Christ after painful experiences that include abortion.

The staff at our Crisis Pregnancy Center also tell me that one of the growing areas they deal with involves men — men who paid for and pressured their girlfriends, fiancées, or even spouses to have an abortion, and who years later say, "I deal with this every day." So I understand that as we address this issue, it will expose a raw nerve for some. But that is all right.

Encouraging Trends in Our Culture

Let me share some current statistics that I find encouraging as we look at our society. The divorce rate has declined by about 19 percent since 1981. The birth rate among unmarried teens is down 7.5 percent in the last

Encouraging Signs and the Moral Foundation

Since 1990, the abortion rate is down 15%. Last week I came across a statistic that brought a terrific smile to my face: among college freshmen, there are now more who oppose rather than support abortion. Perhaps the tide is turning and the pendulum is swinging back. That doesn't mean the battle is over — it's never going to be over — but it does mean there is a ray of hope.

This morning I want to speak not from a medical or political perspective but from a moral perspective. When we speak from our Christian heritage, we understand that what God says is what rules in our life. The Bible is the final and absolute authority in our life.

People Are Formed, Known, and Valued by God in the Womb

When we look at Scripture, here is what we learn: people are formed, known, and valued by God in the womb. We may live in a culture that says this is an issue about the byproduct of conception, or that what is present is merely fetal tissue. But God says no — that is a person, a person He has formed, known, and valued from the very beginning.

Job writes in Job chapter 31: "Did not he who made me in the womb make them? Did not the same one form us within our mother's womb?" Job says God was actively involved in the formation and creation of this new life — in his case, himself, and in our application, us.

Jeremiah speaks to this and more. God speaks to Jeremiah in Jeremiah 1:5: "Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. Before you were born, I set you apart and I appointed you as a prophet to the nations." That word *know* is more than mere awareness. It is used in the same biblical sense as when Adam knew Eve — it carries a spirit of intimacy. It implies not simply that God had awareness of Jeremiah, but that He had a relationship with him. God says: I formed you, I knew you, and I valued you.

Made in the Image of God

In Genesis chapter one, God arrives at the crown jewel of His creation — you and me. "And God said, let us make man in our image and our likeness, let them rule over all creatures." Notice that God uses the plural personal pronoun. He doesn't say *I will make* — He says *we will*: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the triune God speaks. "So God created man in his own image, in his image God created him, male and female he created them."

We need to address this head on. God not only formed us and knew us — He valued us. He made us in His image. Now let me tell you what that does not mean. It does not mean that we are God. We are not little gods.

There is a scene in a book Shirley MacLaine wrote — which later became a movie — where she is being coached by a New Age spiritual guru. She is standing on a beach somewhere in South America, and the man tells her to open herself up and chant after him: "I and God are one." She stands there repeating it — "I and God are one, I and God are one" — and then he offers her one subtle change: "I am God." The scene shows Shirley MacLaine standing on the beach chanting, "I am God, I am God." I remember watching it and thinking, God help us if Shirley MacLaine is God. And not just Shirley MacLaine — God help us if you or I or anyone else claimed that title. There is one true and holy God, and no other.

Three Aspects of the Image of God

Being made in the image of God means three things, and I want to remind you of them. First, we have a sense of morality — a sense of responsibility, freedom, and justice. I was speaking with a gentleman in my office last week who is not a Christian and has never been in church in his life. He was telling me that certain things are wrong and certain things are right. So I asked him the same question you would: how do you know it's wrong? On what basis can you say this is wrong? He said, "You just know these things. You're just born knowing certain things are right and certain things are wrong." Which, by the way, is exactly what Paul said. There is in us a sense of morality that marks us as beings made in the image of God.

Second, there is a sense of personality. Every time I address this, I try to draw a distinction between all other creation and humanity. I will grant that animals have some minuscule level of emotion — but when we speak of personality here, we are talking about knowledge, the ability to think, and the capacity not merely to respond to stimuli but to rationalize. Personality is something that links man to God in a way that does not link God and man to any other creature.

Third — and this is so important — we are spiritual creatures. We are, as one author has put it, incurably religious. No matter what culture you visit, you will find this to be true.

People Are Formed and Known and Valued by God in the Womb

You will never see man worshiping something greater than himself — and you will never find that in the animal world. You will never uncover an anthill and find in the middle a little altar with candles. Animals are animals, but man is unique, made in God's image. So we return to our original statement, so simple and yet so profound: people are formed and known and valued by God in the womb.

After the first hour, a young lady came up to me and said she thought it would be helpful to write a report for school and for her friends, using the Bible and talking about abortion from the biblical perspective — what the Bible has to say. I told her that was terrific, but she needed to understand something: the majority of people she would be talking to do not believe the Bible is the Word of God. When you quote from it, it has no impact — it doesn't mean anything to them. There is a place for it and there is power in it, so we continue to use it, but we also need to be able to connect on a level that is extra-biblical — by that I mean simply a human level.

The Human Case: We Already Know It Is Life

I think you can make that human-level case with this issue as easily as with any other, because I believe deep down inside all of us understand that the life in a mother's womb is a human being. I don't mean this in any flip way at all, but Janice Forman used to sit right over here at the 9:30 service, and about every other Sunday she would come up and say that the minute I started talking, the baby started kicking her. I have never had anybody say — and again, I don't mean this flippantly — "My fetus is very active today." I have never heard a little child say to his mother, "Boy, that byproduct of conception is in your tummy, isn't it?" No — it's a baby, and we know it. We have to educate ourselves out of that understanding in order to somehow miss it.

One of the great illustrations that cuts right to the quick was a billboard that was around town about three years ago. It was an anti-smoking billboard — maybe you saw it. It was striking, and it caught your attention as you drove down the street: a picture of a baby in the womb. We are informed and educated enough now that when we saw it, we knew exactly what it was. Generally speaking — and this is a generalization, which is why I say generally speaking — people who are actively anti-smoking and pushing that kind of agenda tend generally to be on the liberal side of the political persuasion, and tend generally to be pro-choice. But when they were dealing with this billboard, they were not thinking about any political agenda. All they were trying to do was communicate in the most powerful way they could that you should not smoke.

They put the picture of the baby in the womb, and next to it they put these words: *Listen to the one person who can't ask you to stop smoking.* Do you see it? Person. When people react with no agenda — when they just speak from the gut — they understand we are talking about a person. And I think the issue is not nearly as complicated as we would like it to be. It is that simple.

Judge Bork's Illustration

Judge Bork, at one point in his life, was pro-choice, while his wife was pro-life. She convinced him with a simple illustration. She said, imagine your uncle — someone you love — falls into a coma, and the doctor comes to you and says there is really no hope. He has never seen anybody recover from this condition. All they are doing is sustaining the life, with no prospect that this man will ever be mobile, ever talk, or ever think again. She asked Judge Bork what he would do. He said it would be very difficult, but he would probably cease life support.

Then she said: what if the doctor came in and told you something entirely different — that he could guarantee this man would be like this for seven months, but at the end of those seven months he would stand up and run and jump, and not only that, he would grow and grow stronger? What would you do then? Judge Bork said that was easy — he would not stop that at all. And she said, that is exactly the issue in abortion. In that mother's womb is human life lacking only nourishment and time. When you intervene, you stop that human life.

Framing the Debate Correctly

Even Faye Waddleton, the past president of Planned Parenthood — I heard her speak one night — said that this is not about when life begins. She acknowledged that life could even begin at conception. She said it is about choice. Men and women, if we allow the conversation to be framed in that context — about choice, or a woman's right — we have already lost the ground we need to stand on. It is not primarily about choice. It is not about a woman's right. It is not about a simple medical procedure between a doctor and a patient. It is about the cessation of human life. It is killing. That is why it is a moral issue that demands we respond to it, and that is why it must be understood in that context.

When we accept that this is a person, school is out. It is a no-brainer. The discussion is over. There is nothing we can say or do or think about that gives us the right to take an innocent human life.

Why Would a Mother Do It?

So why would a mother make that choice? We do not have to guess. Surveys over the years have rendered essentially the same statistics — and you will notice these numbers add up to well over one hundred percent because respondents could give more than one answer. Seventy-six percent of women said that if they had a baby now, it would change their life.

What makes me laugh — not with humor, but with a kind of painful irony — is this: why is that number not one hundred percent? I do not understand how it could be anything less. I would say that is a symptom of an even deeper problem in our country today. When you have children, in essence —

God's Provision for Every Circumstance

Your life is on hold. Their needs supersede yours. You brought them into the world, and you have to take their needs seriously. Here is what they need more than anything else: they need you. I remember when Haley was really a little girl, and I said to her, "Haley, do you need quality time or quantity time?" She said, "Well, I don't know what you mean." I said, "Quality is when we're really talking a lot and engaged, and quantity is just large chunks of time." Here is what she said: "I need quality time, and a lot of it."

That is what a kid needs. What does a kid need more than Air Jordans, or a swimming pool, or a rec room, or a pool table? More than anything else, a kid needs a mom and a dad to love them. It blows me away that that is not 100% the dominant view.

The Reasons Women Give for Abortion

Looking at the statistics, 68% said they could not afford it. 51% said they were not in a stable relationship. 13% said the baby has a health problem. 7% said the mother has a health issue. And then that small — so small — 1% are victims of rape or incest. That 1% almost always becomes an issue in any discussion I have ever been involved in on abortion. Let me deal with these very quickly and show you how God has an answer for each one.

God Meets Our Economic Needs

God always meets our economic, emotional, relational, and spiritual needs. God is a God of hope for us. Jesus said, "I tell you, don't worry about your life, what you're going to eat or drink, or about your body, what you'll wear. Is not life more important than food, the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air. They don't sow or reap or stow away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they are?" If you are struggling with your identity and worth, let me help you out: you are more valuable than a bird.

Just a little further along, in verse 33, Jesus says, "Seek first my kingdom and all these things will be added unto you." To be faithful in our pursuit of Him is to understand that He is there to take care of us. If we waited until we could afford children to have them, we would be one generation away from extinction. God meets our needs. Haven't you seen that in your own life?

The problem for some of us is that we get confused. The psalmist writes, "I was young and now I am old, and yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken." I have never seen God walk away from His people. We frequently confuse our needs with our wants. God says He will meet your needs. It may not be filet — it may be hot dogs. It may not be a five-bedroom house — it may be a studio. But God is faithful to supply and meet the needs of His people. There is no reason to kill a baby because a mom and dad do not think they can make it financially.

God Meets Our Relational Needs

Fifty-one percent said they were not in a stable relationship — either single, or in a marriage that could not sustain the challenge of a baby. Again, the psalmist says of God, "He is a father to the fatherless, a defender of the widow. He is God in His holy places." There is also an interesting statistic worth noting: there is no correlation between a child being abused and whether the pregnancy was wanted or not.

God meets our needs. When we start looking to other people — to humans — to meet those needs, we are in real trouble. Every time I stand here and perform a wedding, one of the points I make to both the bride and the groom is this: do not look to the other person to meet your needs. They cannot do it. Only Christ can meet your needs.

God's Sovereignty Over the Health of a Child

We come now to two really difficult issues: the health of the child and the case of rape or incest. Thirteen percent said they were carrying a baby with a health problem, and when pushed further, the majority of these involved very minor problems. Rarely was it a truly serious condition. But even in those serious cases, Isaiah quotes God as He speaks: "Woe to him who quarrels with the maker. Does the clay say to the potter, 'What are you making?' Does your work say, 'He has no hands?' Woe to him who says to the father, 'What have you begotten?' Or to the mother, 'What have you brought to birth?'" — Isaiah 45.

God continues: "This is what the Lord says, the Holy One of Israel — concerning these things to come, do you question me about my children, or give me orders about the work of my hands? It is I who made the earth and created mankind." God says: Who made the deaf? Who made the mute? Who made the blind? Who made those who are physically, spiritually, or mentally challenged? I did, God says. It was not a mistake. It was part of My creation.

People look at this and say, "But what about this — this baby is not perfect, this baby has some level of challenge. What do we do then?" I may never fully understand exactly why God permits these things, but the answer remains powerful.

Jill Greer's Story

Several years ago, I invited Jill Greer to come and speak to you for about ten minutes about a situation in her own life. I was going to summarize that for you this morning, but I realized there is no way I can do it justice. So I went and found the tape and took an excerpt — about five minutes long.

Let me bring you up to speed very quickly. Jill and her husband Kurt had gone to their doctor for a normal, routine 20-week checkup. She was pregnant with their third child, and when they arrived, they discovered something they did not expect. Here is Jill speaking about it and about her reaction to it.

*"You see, a year and a handful of days ago, Kurt and I were sent off to a routine 20-week ultrasound. We were so excited…"*

Nicholas: A Personal Story

We were expecting our third child. What would this baby look like? Would he respond to us? Would this be a girl or another wonderful boy? The technician was cheerful and talkative in the beginning. She became noticeably interested in the brain and the spine of our third son. She spent an eternity looking up and down the spine, now hesitating to answer our questions.

With our hearts in our throats, she announced that she needed to talk to the doctor, and she left the room. When she came back, she had an entourage of medical minds — a perinatologist, a geneticist, and some other specialist. They were all there to present a unified front when they explained that our fetus would be born with spina bifida and hydrocephalus. We were told that an amniocentesis needed to be performed immediately to rule out any other birth anomalies because at nineteen and a half weeks gestation, we were right on the edge of our window of opportunity for a therapeutic termination of this pregnancy. It would take a week to get the results, and we were running against the legal clock. That is really how they worded it.

It is bad enough to be wounded with the news that the child you are carrying is going to be born with a lifetime of challenges. But to have the doctors you are supposed to trust immediately salt those wounds by nonchalantly focusing on the logistics of his demise is heartless. Our minds were already swirling with fears and questions about what this child would do to our family. What would childhood be like for Cody and Dylan, who were so young and still needed so much? Would Kurt and I have a normal home again? Would we ever be able to go out on a date and leave our kids with a babysitter? Would this child ever leave the care of our home?

I have never fantasized about parenting a special needs child, especially after having children. It is hard enough parenting normal kids and feeling some sense of success and accomplishment. At that moment, and several times to come, I wished I had never even gotten pregnant again. In an appointment where we were expecting pure joy and delight, we left with broken hearts and minds tormented with fear of the unknown.

Two Things We Knew

We knew two things. This baby was our son. And as frightening as this was, killing him was not an option. Terminating him, as they called it, would greatly displease our God.

The other thing we knew is that we needed to find a new team of medical doctors. God was going to have His opportunity to show Himself to us in a very real and tangible way. He could work a miracle here. How would we ever know His power if we cut Him off at the pass?

I remember Dave Moore calling us and saying that it was normal to ask why in a situation like this. I told him that we never truly asked why. Kurt and I loved each other. We loved our boys. We loved the Lord. Kurt had a good job. We had great insurance. On the contrary — why not us? God wanted this child to be born. God must have great plans for him on earth, because He gave Nicholas to parents who would protect his life. God obviously had more confidence in us than we had in ourselves.

A Lesson About Preparation

I thought I was so wise when we moved to Phoenix, knowing that our family was not through building yet. I was on a mission to interview obstetricians to determine the best one for me. I walked into a half a dozen offices and asked a page of questions on health management and style. But I never thought to ask them their position on abortion.

More importantly, I never told them that I was a Christian and that I valued life upon conception. In my arrogant mind, I never considered that I would have an unhealthy baby. It never entered my mind that abortion would someday stare me in the face. I could have spared Kurt and myself so much grief if only my position on abortion had been on record.

I do not want to mislead you. These doctors did not wear black cloaks and carry sickles. They did not have red, beady little eyes and gnashing teeth. They did not corner Kurt and me up against a wall and bully us about keeping this imperfect child. No, the evil of this is much more subtle. Abortion is presented as a benign, antiseptic, clinical solution to a problem pregnancy, much like having a suspicious mole removed. But Nicholas was not some precancerous growth. He was our child.

Nicholas William the Braveheart

We are so thankful that God gave Nicholas to our family. Certainly there are problems. We do things for his care that we never had to do with Cody and Dylan. He has endured more in the first month of his life than most of us will endure in a lifetime. Yet he is the sweetest and most engaging child. He is our Nicholas William the Braveheart.

We have touched, seen, and tasted the mercy, compassion, and greatness of our Lord. We have experienced God in a way that few people ever will. Nicholas is our child of amazing grace. We are so humbled by God's intervention. We are blessed. Our lives are so rich.

What Jill's Story Teaches Us

Did you catch what she said? She said there are two things she knew. Number one, she could not kill this baby — it was not a matter of whether it was perfect or not. Number two, she knew that killing a baby would not please her God.

How many times have you sat in that pew and said, "God, I want to see You work in a powerful way"? Here is how you see God work: you obediently follow Him wherever He takes you. Jill will tell you that the way she has seen God work most graphically in her life is through the power and the grace and the strength He has given her, Kurt, and the other children in the midst of all of this. The same thing happens in your life.

The One Percent: Rape and Incest

There is one more issue to address. One percent of women who have abortions report that they were raped, or that the child is the product of incest. Yet again, it is important for us to understand that we are still dealing with a human life. On what grounds can we possibly terminate or kill a human life because the father acted irresponsibly — not even the father, but the sperm donor?

Stories from the Marketplace

I had two illustrations from the last time I talked about this in the marketplace. A man came up and said, "You know my wife, don't you?" I said I did. He said, "She's the product of an incestuous relationship. She's terrific. How awful it would have been for that woman to kill this baby and rob me of this life with her."

Right after him in line was another man. He turned me away from the people, which told me he wanted to share something serious, something very personal. He said, "You're always talking about how cute your girls are — want to see a picture of a cute girl?" He opened up his billfold, and there was a picture of a child that was genuinely adorable. They had been out fishing, and she had picked up a fly pole and had line everywhere, standing there looking pretty cute. I said, "Man, she is cute."

He said, "My wife and I were on vacation. Nobody knows this. She was raped, and that child is the product of that rape. We determined then that it made no sense for us to kill this baby because this man acted in an irresponsible way." We cannot come up with a circumstance where it is fair to kill the baby because someone else acted irresponsibly.

Are those tough issues? They are really tough issues, laced with emotion. But I think at their core they are relatively simple issues. I don't think God is in heaven saying, "Wow, this abortion thing — this is a tough one." I think He says, "I formed and knew and valued people in the womb from conception." Within days there is a heartbeat, a brainwave, the spine is formed, DNA begins — all of that is there.

Hope for Those Who Have Had an Abortion

At the end of that report, *U.S. News* wrote this: women are willing to discuss the issue of abortion, but they rarely talk about their own. They are afraid they will be judged, or they simply have not dealt with it. Maybe you are here today and abortion is indeed a part of your past — maybe the recent past, maybe the distant past — and you have never really talked about it or come to grips with it.

Here are a couple of things I want you to understand. First, abortion is sin. I cannot gloss over that. You have terminated the life of a human being, and that is sin. But it is not the unpardonable sin. There is hope. God forgives sin — all sin — if you come to Him and acknowledge it as sin and accept His cleansing.

Paul writes to Timothy in 1 Timothy chapter 1, verse 15: "This is a true saying, and everyone should believe it. Christ came into the world to save sinners, and I was the worst of all of them. But that's why God had mercy on me, so Christ could use me as a prime example of His great patience with even worse sinners. Then others will realize that they, too, can believe in Him and receive eternal life."

Maybe you are here and you have never come to grips with not just abortion, but with any sin in your life. God forgives that sin if you will come to Him in repentance and faith. Maybe you have experienced abortion but are still wrestling — still carrying that baggage, that bondage. Do not let any person, any human being, and do not let Satan or his demons hold you in bondage to that sin.

If you truly are a Christian, you have been forgiven of that sin. You are freed from the guilt of it. Christ died for your sin — it is forgiven. God is the God of a second chance, and if that does not move you to thanksgiving, consider what Paul says right after: "Glory and honor to God forever and ever. He's the eternal King, the unseen One who never dies. He alone is God, amen." We break out into doxology.

How to Be Engaged on This Issue

Pray for this issue. Pray for the leaders of our country — in all branches of government, legislative, judicial, and executive — as they deal with it. Pray for those on the front line: crisis pregnancy centers, Christian family care, and the hundreds of agencies dealing with this. Pray for the young girls and women who are wrestling with this terribly difficult issue, that God would somehow bring a person into their lives who would say, "You don't have to do this."

There are people who have volunteered their time, energy, and resources and have opened their homes. So frequently when a girl faces this issue and decides nobly and correctly to have her baby, rather than looking down your nose at her in a condemning way, here is an opportunity to say, "I know this is costing you a lot." It may often be that her parents say, "Get out," and she needs a place to live — and maybe that place is with you.

Get involved in creative ways. If you are listening to a talk show where the other side is being argued, call in. Buy good books and donate them to the library. Write letters to the editor. Make sure this is something you are talking about in your sphere of influence. I was once involved in a small group Bible study with eight men who said they were not Christians. Four of those eight were either pro-choice or neutral — they had never really thought it through. This is exactly the kind of conversation to have in your circle of influence.

Make sure your private thoughts line up with your public behavior. We are to be engaged on this. And just as with evangelism, this is not something we are going to do corporately as a church — it is something we are going to ask you to do individually as God works in your heart.

With every issue we deal with, it is so important to remember: changing laws is fine, but our ultimate desire is not to change a law. It is to change a person's heart.

The Opportunity to Minister

When you encounter people who have sinned and sense inside that God could never forgive them, you have the privilege of going to them and saying that our God forgives sin. That is what He does. That is why Christ died on the cross — for the forgiveness of sin. You get to take that message to the marketplace of ideas.

How common is this issue? It is as common as divorce among women, three times more common than breast cancer, and twice as common as a college degree for a lady. There are opportunities all around you to minister, to serve, and to be used by God to address this issue.

Closing Prayer

Father, please put in our hearts exactly what You would have us do with regard to this issue, and then give us the courage to do it. We pray for those ladies who are here today who have experienced this reality in their lives. God, help them see that there is forgiveness for sin, and that You forgive us. You are the God of the second chance. Father, we pray to You this morning in the powerful name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.