CHRISTIANITY’S BIGGEST QUESTIONS: Sanctity of Life
Pastor Steven Osborne
Transcribed by DaVinci Resolve 18
Our Identity in Christ
Who’s excited about another election year?
He’s saying that because he can’t vote yet. It is a good time to not be an American. Those were the days. You don’t have that pressure of voting, no. No, it is a gift to vote.
But one of the goals for me as your pastor is to help us talk through some of these difficult things that we will hear throughout this year again, and probably for many, many more years. And unfortunately, in our culture today, we are shaped so much by our politics, and not really from God’s Word. And a lot of times, even our identity—you know, I had to really think about it, even just what Christo shared now a little bit, just with the joke piece, right? If you are a believer, if you know Jesus Christ as your personal savior—I want you to hear this, and I want you to hear this very clearly, because this is really important—your first identity is in Christ. You are sons and daughters of Jesus Christ. That’s the most important thing that you can leave with here today. And that is if you have received Jesus Christ as your savior, and then if you acknowledge what Christ did on the cross for you, and then we become adopted into his kingship, into his family, which is really, really exciting, because we’re all messed up. And it is so cool that we have a God that loves us, and that just adopts us and loves us. But that’s our identity.
Then I think, secondly, at least for me, it’s, “Hey, I’m a husband. I’m a dad. I’m a pastor,” right? And then comes, “Cool, I’m African-American.” I am the true deal here, actually. I know some of you—I grew up in South Africa, you know, and now I’m American citizen. Okay? You know, then it’s my identity, you know, American, and that’s great. I celebrate that. We were just talking about ancestry stuff, and it’s like, Hailey is a first generation American, and it’s like, how cool is that? We celebrate that.
And then, you know, we can talk about politics. Like, “I’m a conservative. I’m Republican. I’m a Democrat,” right? But can you see that it’s pretty late on that list, right? It is really not that important in the big scope of things. But in our church world and in our world today, we would be surprised and be in a conversation, because that’s not always the reality. It seems like we are either—our first priority is Democrat/Republican, and then I’m a Christian, you know, and then that list, and it’s like, “Hey, something is off here.”
Approaching Political Issues as Christians
And so it is my prayer that this election year, as a church—we can’t control the whole world, and we can’t control all the other states, but we can at least control what happens in our church and in our homes, right? Amen? And so we will do our best to act godly in that way.
And so if this is true, that we say that our first identity is as believers, as Christians, then it is important that our views, our views on moral big major issues then are directed according to God’s Word. Can I hear an amen? Not based on what any politician—left or right, forget this morning. Don’t try and figure out, am I on the left side or on the right side? I’m for Jesus this morning, all right? That’s where I’m at. And so don’t try and figure out the political pieces. And I want you to even be at peace this morning—don’t think about your political party. I want you to think about God’s Word and how that shapes you and how that guides you this morning. That’s going to be really important. And so it is my prayer that God’s Word will shape us throughout this year.
Over the next several months, I will talk about some of these tough questions, some questions that we all wrestle with. As we go to those voting polls in November, we have to make some important decisions. And, you know, we have to vote not based on personalities and different things, but we’ve got to say, “How does this candidate line up with God’s Word,” right? I think that is really, really important for us to evaluate and look at all of those things. And you know what? I don’t know what happens if we get to a place when we can’t actually vote. And then maybe we just have to write in “Jesus,” I don’t know, right? Because that might be the reality too. We’ll see how everything plays out, but I do know God has a plan, God is in control, and we trust Him.
Restoration, Not Condemnation
And so this morning, I want to talk about another hard topic, and I’m doing it because I love you. And I want us to get this right. (Excuse me, my voice is going weird.) And so before I share, I want to just share with you, again, our mission, in summary, is this, “To be a community that partners with Jesus on His mission of restoration.” This is what we are all about, right? This church and my ministry is not to come into your life and tell you everything that you have done wrong. And all reality is you know all the things that’s going on in your life—what’s right, what’s wrong, what’s sin, how the Holy Spirit is convicting you, right? And I got to trust the Holy Spirit and God’s Word will convict you of some of those things.
But I do know when we look at the life of Jesus, when Jesus interacted with sinners, their lives (thank you, Bruce) … their lives were always transformed and changed. And that is our goal and my heart as our pastor here at Salem Covenant Church that even in this season of where we might see all kinds of brokenness and challenges, addictions, bondage, is for us not to judge, but to come alongside of you and to say, “How do we come in partnership with Jesus Christ so that you can be restored?” What type of church will we be if we can’t come alongside of people and help them in that restoration process? Isn’t that why Jesus Christ died for all of us? We all need restoration. We all need the grace of God. And there’s nobody that’s too far gone and dealing with such major sin that your life cannot be restored. And so even this morning as we’re talking about hard things, I want you to know this, that the Holy Spirit wants to restore you. This morning is not about placing condemnation and guilt and shame on you. That is Satan himself. Even Jesus told us that he didn’t come to condemn, but to set us free, to deliver us, to give us eternal life. And that’s what we as a church want to experience.
So I don’t care where you are at, what you have done, and some of the things that you’re experiencing, but I do know that the Holy Spirit might convict you of some things in your life. And that’s good. That’s OK. We shouldn’t run away from that conviction, because that conviction will lead you to repentance, and that will lead you closer to the heart of God, and you’re gonna just realize how much he loves you, and the work that the Holy Spirit can do in your life. And probably most of us have sat there; most of us have experienced that. So I just want to say overall, this stuff, what I’m sharing this morning is, man, it is just—I want to restore you. I want to see the Holy Spirit restore you. I want to see the Holy Spirit restore our community. I truly want to see the Holy Spirit restoring our world. That is my hope. And ultimately we might not see all of that happening in this world while we’re alive, but at some point we do know we will see that in heaven, where Jesus will restore everything. And we are all looking forward to that moment.
Sanctity of Life
Now this morning, we’re talking about—at least in the church circles, a lot of times we’ll talk about the “sanctity of life.” What does that even mean? So the word “sanctity” comes from the Latin word sanctus, which means “holy, sacred, or set apart.” The Bible makes clear from the beginning that all life is sacred. This sacredness ties back to Genesis 1:26—and we’ll come back to that passage—when God said, “Let us make man in our image.” This means that when you look around you, every human life you see has been created in the image of God and is a reflection of God. This is often referred to as the imago Dei. Isn’t that beautiful? That we’re all—every human person, human—is created in the image of God. And we’re just saying that life matters. Your life matters.
And it’s easy for us to even lose that. Sometimes we feel so hopeless as we go through hard things that it’s easy to even sit in a place and say, “Does my life really matter?” And a lot of times when people don’t have the truth and good voices that are speaking into them, you actually see it’s where people are so overwhelmed, right, in that moment that they take their own life.
And all I want to say this morning is this: that your life matters. Your life is sacred to God. It doesn’t matter if it’s that fetus, right, that baby that’s a couple of weeks or several days—that life matters to God. It doesn’t matter if you’re 80, 85, 100—I just saw this week on TV, there was a gal that turned 116. Did you see that? 116. How do you do that? That is… wow! That’s amazing.
Do It In Love
All right, key passage for us this morning. I don’t want us to miss this as believers. 1 Corinthians—a lot of times we’ll hear this at weddings. But this passage has really impacted my life the last several years, and God is still working in my life around this passage. 1 Corinthians 13 says,
If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I’m only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. Love is patient. Love is kind. It does not envy. It does not boast. It is not proud. It does not dishonor others. It is not self-seeking. It is not easily angered. It keeps no record of wrongs.
We can be the biggest crusaders for whatever topic it might be this morning. And there’s hundreds of topics that we can be crusaders for, that we’re passionate about it. You name it. But at the end of the day, if it’s not motivated by love, it means nothing. In this passage, we have this warning to say, you can be the most gifted preacher; you can be the most gifted person with all kinds of gifts; you might have this revelations and things—it’s like the angel is whispering words of wisdom in just your ear, right?—it’s like you have all of the truths and mysteries of the earth; and if you don’t have love, it means absolutely nothing. The church can write all kinds of stuff on Facebook, and we can have our banners up and be this loud voice—and we do need to be a loud voice, we will talk about that today—but if there’s not love behind it, it means nothing. What type of testimony do we have if we’re trying to be this voice and to stand up for what is right? And we should, right? But in the meantime, we act like jerks, and there’s no love. There’s no love flowing out of us. And we see it. We see it on TV all the time at the different rallies or people being in front of Planned Parenthood or some of the other centers, right? And there’s just this yelling that’s going on, and that’s fighting. And I guess, I know that we have to be that voice, and we have to stand up against some of the spiritual forces that is happening in our world. And believe me, when you dig a little deeper, you’ve got to realize that there’s a lot of spiritual forces and battles that’s going on in this world right now. I don’t have a lot of time; you have to do the work to go and dig a little deeper to understand what is behind all of this whole abortion motivation.
What drives a nation to kill 800,000 babies a year? It comes to about every 97 seconds, I believe, a baby is being murdered. And this morning, we have to call it what it is. Abortion is killing babies. It is murdering the innocent. Now, I want to just say this. There is all kinds of—and I’m going to get the softer tone here pretty soon, all right? But I just want us to call it, and we need to see it the way that scripture tells us to see it.
But behind all of that frustration, behind all of that righteous anger, it needs to be love. It needs to be love. When we’re going to these Planned Parenthood centers and we’re standing and we’re waving the Bible around, right, it will mean nothing if we’re not doing it out of love. That needs to be our testimony, to say, “You know what? We’re not agreeing on your decision right now, but just as I’m valuing that baby that’s inside of you, I also want you to know that I love and respect and value your life. And I know that God has a plan for you and that God has a plan for that baby.” But people will only listen, and we will only be able to change the hearts and minds, when we do that with love, and when the Holy Spirit—we’re allowing the power of the Holy Spirit to bring that conviction, right? There’s too much noises with all of these parades and things that’s happening in Washington. And again, all of those things needs to happen. But nobody hears anything when there’s all this yelling that’s going on. And all of these division things that is going on in our election year.
And so let the motivation for us be love in all things, in everything that we do. It says,
Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
And I hope that we will be a church that always perseveres with the truth.
Created in the Image of God
So Genesis 1:27 says,
So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female, he created them.
Each one of us sitting here today were created in the image of God. You are God’s handiwork. And our kids are such a gift. And this is the key challenge that we have today—it is not about trying to go into some of these arguments and trying to prove my point. I think the problem is we have lost the principle that God values life. If we can understand that and if we can have clarity on that, that will change everything. And so the biggest gift that I can give you this morning is this: for you to realize that your life is a gift, that every life is a gift. Sometimes if you have teenagers, you might wonder, right? You might want to shorten their life, but hey, at the end of the day, that life—not Hailey. She knows. She’s perfect.
There’s a warning, Genesis 9:6. It says,
Whoever sheds human blood, by humans shall their blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made mankind.
There’s just this kind of alarms, bells going off, that God is just reminding us to say there’s something special about human life. And nobody has the right to take a life.
The Bible affirms that God is intimately involved in the formation of every individual in the womb. Right? And then look at several scriptures here:
Did not he who made me in the womb make them? Did not the same one form us both within our mothers?
Psalms 139, this is so beautiful:
For you created (this is God) For you [God] created my inmost being. You knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I’m fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
I’m gonna give you one from the NLT. It says,
You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex!
I was talking today to somebody just about their health challenges and different things, and it was like, man, humans are complex. We’re complex! There’s so much going on.
Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it. You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb.
Is there anything more sacred than this image, that gift when you find out that you are pregnant, and to know that there’s something so beautiful and so holy that is being developed in you, that there is life, and that it comes from God and God alone? And to say, “Man, I value life, and that is important.”
Jeremiah 1:5, and so in context of this, this is God just calling him, Jeremiah, as a prophet. It says,
Before I formed you in your mother’s body, I chose you. Before you were born, I set you apart to serve me. I appointed you to be a prophet to the nation.
And it just tells us that everyone’s got a purpose in life. God has a plan for you. We were singing that this morning, it’s like, “God, you have a plan for me.” God’s got a plan for every baby.
Over the last, I don’t know exactly the time frame, but we have murdered 50 million babies. Kevin DeYoung,
Every human life is precious. Children with special needs are precious. Aging parents are precious—even when they don’t remember because they’re suffering dementia. They’re still made in the image of God. Children or parents who are nonverbal, those in a wheelchair, and those who are completely dependent upon you or doctors are precious. All of life matters to God. If we have our eyes open, we can see this in even the most surprising places in the Bible. You see it in the imago Dei. You see it in the incarnation where God entered the world as a helpless babe.
But throughout scripture, even when we follow the life of Jesus in the gospels, we see him bringing dead people to life. His life and his ministry is all about life, dying so that you and I might have life for eternity. John 10:10 reminds us that God came to give us life and life abundantly. But here’s what we got to know, that there is a Satan that’s out there. And he wants to kill, steal, and destroy. And when I look at this major cause, when I look at abortion and what is going on in most of these situations, it is a spirit of death that’s working behind all of this. And that should anger us. That should cause a righteous anger in our lives.
And so here this morning is our invitation as a church. It says,
Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy.
And so yes, we get to speak, and we get to make a difference in this world. And so this morning, even I want to just… some things to say, then how as a church do we respond? Let the world fight it out if they want to fight it out. Let the world be divided, but let the church be united, right? Let us be united around God’s Word and not a president or a new president, right? But let the thing that unites us be God’s Word, because our identity is in Jesus Christ, and we are his kids, and we’re called to look and talk differently.
Next Steps
So next steps for us, because we can all leave here today and feel good or like, “Way to go, pastor! Way to speak to this stuff,” right, and then we do absolutely nothing about it. And what does that help? How are we the light now? Am I just gonna go and post a fancy quote on Facebook on something I shared? It’s like, “Well, that’s gonna change their mind.” It’s like, it’s not gonna change anybody’s mind. But here’s some next steps for us:
Foster care and orphan care ministries. Supporting foster care and orphan care ministries that provide loving homes and support to children in need of families. Guess what? At some point here, we will have to, as a church, get our hands dirty. And thank you to all of you that are already doing this. But this is how we make a difference, not Facebook or Instagram. It is to say, “I’m gonna open up my door and I’m gonna invite these kids in and orphans in. I’m gonna love on them. I’m gonna stand with parents that are going through this process. I’m gonna love them and encourage them because they’re doing the hard thing. But we will have to get involved. And guess what? Our church is involved in some of these ministries. I want to encourage you to go to our website. We have several videos of some of the ministries that we support. And just by the way, we are—man, again, I love you. Just listen me out if you haven’t done this. We have spent a lot of time—Nick has spent a lot of time going into these ministries that are caring for women that find themselves in trouble. And he created some awesome videos to give you insight into what these ministries are doing and how they’re impacting our communities. And I want to encourage you to go home and watch it. Right? Before you do the Super Bowl tonight—any Super Bowl fans tonight that’s excited about Super Bowl? Nobody. Okay, there’s some some hands. Good! I’m just looking to see who’s having Super Bowl parties so that I can come over.
Pastor Steven?
Yes?
Does our church offer anything—I’ve seen this on YouTube and stuff—but for empty nesters and, you know, these married couples and their kids are out of the house, I’ve seen those types of people take in a single mother who is struggling with a pregnancy. Does our church offer anything like that?
We are in support with several ministries with different individuals. If you are doing some of that, please connect. You know, and then we can share some resource in what is already happening. A lot of our support is on financial support and with volunteers. And I want to just encourage you, go and watch those videos that we have out on our website, salemcovenant.org, so that you can have a sense of what is going on in our communities. Thank you for asking. And again, if you are doing some of that already, please check in with Brody and Theresa.
Next one, intercessory prayer chains. Establishing intercessory prayer chains specifically dedicated to praying for an end to abortion and for the healing of those affected by it. Are we on our knees? If we’re really that passionate, are we on our knees and praying and believing that God can change these things? If not, we should. It should. But again, it’s easier to just talk about the presidents we don’t like and politics.
Crisis pregnancy centers. There’s some of the ministries that we’re supporting. Supporting and partnering with crisis pregnancy centers that offer alternatives to abortion, such as counseling, medical care, and material assistance.
And here’s the big one for us. We need to have honest and messy conversations in the church. Because I think a lot of this stuff, when we talk about abortions, in the church—I’m not talking this church, and I’m just talking in the past—a lot of times, we made it so hard for young moms to come in and say, “I messed up, I’m pregnant,” instead to deal with some of that guilt and that shame. They thought the easy way out is maybe an abortion. And so what if the church can be a place where we can actually say, “You know what? You have messed up. Join the club. Repent, learn, but be restored. And guess what? We’re gonna be your biggest cheerleader in this process. We’re gonna provide for that kid. We’re gonna love on that kid like one of our own.” And now we have removed that sting, and we have removed—sometimes in our own minds—that one option that people think they have. Sometimes when you’re in that dark place, when you’re sitting in front with that news that you are pregnant, and you’re a 15-year-old or a 16-year-old, and a lot of times, you’re experiencing all kinds of pressures—in that moment, Satan can come in and lie and say, “You only have one option.” But there’s many, many great, beautiful options.
But it’s got to start here today to say, “Man, I value life. And I care for life.” And it’s gonna change our community, and it will change our church body. I saw a hand. Will you just stand up? Will that be okay? And just for the microphone? Okay, I’m gonna bring a microphone for you.
…Salem had done a wonderful job when we experienced that with our own teenage daughter many, many years ago, how they loved on her, how they loved on that child that she gave life to, even though it would have been easier, and the world told her not to. And so we are so thankful and blessed that Salem has been there and will continue to be there for these single mothers that need help. And we just are so thankful to God.
I want to just also, if there’s any single moms here, and you’re doing the right thing and the right hard thing, we are proud of you, and we want to stand with you and want to continue to encourage you. May the Lord restore us.
I know that there even might be—because in all realities, when you look at numbers, a lot of women in the church had to face abortions and things in the past. And this morning is a hard message when it comes to, how do we respond from this moment on? But I just want you to know this, that Jesus Christ still died for you. If you’re watching this online, I just want you to know that, yes, you can experience His forgiveness and His healing, and He can make that mistake—and again, we don’t know all of the things that led up to that moment that forced you to make that specific choice—but all I know is this, when we bring our lives and our shortcomings and our sin to the Lord, that the Lord can turn that around and use that mess for His glory. And He can remove your shame and your guilt, and He will do it. He will restore you. And that is what this church is all about. Amen?
