Full Transcript

Amen, powerful! You may have a seat. I asked Micah, “We need to do that song, A Mighty Fortress (Luther). So he scoured around for contemporary arrangements, couldn’t find one that satisfied us, so he just put that one together.

We need to be reminded that we are in a fight! There is a spiritual and cultural war going on! As the days get darker, the Christians must shine brighter. The darker the days become, the bolder the Christians must be. So we’re not beating around the bush, we’re not bashful, we’re not even necessarily concerned with being likable or nice. We must be bold in a culture that is minimizing God’s grace and magnifying sinful choices.

So today is another opportunity for us to be bold. We’re in a series called Be Bold, we’re kind of looking at four things. I’ve announced to you that I’m going to preach the four boldest sermons I’ve ever preached. Last week we looked at what God’s Word has to say about the origin of man.

We dealt with creation vs. evolution. We tried to answer the question, “Did God create man?” Or, I guess the only other option is, “I guess man created God?” We tried to address that from God’s Word, and from that message comes another truth that we’re going to deal with this morning. We’re going to talk about the sanctity of human life. So, are you ready for another bold statement? Why don’t you open your Bibles to Psalm 139? I’ll meet you there in just a minute.

Here’s what we want to say about the sanctity of human life. God intricately created every human life. You say, “I thought you said that last week.” No, last week’s message was about how God created all human life. Today we’re going to talk about how God created each and every human life, intricately fashioned and formed together!

And because we believe that every human life is created by God, every human life has value and worth and is to be protected. Now, what our culture believes about the sanctity of human life will determine how we create our laws and the choices that we make. How you view the sanctity of human life will determine what you believe about things like homicide and suicide, physician-assisted suicide, abortion. . .and even embryonic stem-cell research. What we believe about this issue will determine what we do with those things.

Even last week, California became the fourth state in the United States to legalize physician-assisted suicide. So, things like this are a departure from what God’s Word has to say about the preciousness, or the sanctity of human life. And let me just say this up front: Abortion is not a political “football.” It is not something to be used to try to gain or harness a voting bloc, although we need to understand that every time we cast a vote, we should understand where that candidate falls in relation to what he believes about the sanctity of human life.

The two major political parties in our country are diametrically opposed to one another on this particular issue. God will hold a people accountable for the lawmakers they put into office, knowing what kinds of theological views they have that will spill over into the laws that are made.

But I’m not here to make a political statement. I’m here to talk to you. And if statistics hold true, here’s what we know about the people in this room: one in every three women has or will have an abortion in her lifetime. That means that in this room, there are women who have had an abortion. This is going to be a heavy message.

There are men in this room who, instead of taking responsibility for their unbridled sexuality, have covered their sin by providing or encouraging or paying for an abortion. I realize that up front. So why would we deal with such a sensitive issue?

First of all, let me just say this: we always end our service here at Harvest with three words. Do you know what those words are? [Congregation responds, “We are loved.”] We cannot wait ‘til the end of the service to hear that, okay? We need to hear that right now, so turn to your neighbor and say, “No matter what he says, remember, you are loved.” Everybody do that right now. [People respond.]

You are! You are loved! No matter who you are, no matter what you’ve done, no matter how sinful your choices have been, God intimately loves you this morning! We’ve had a little trouble fitting everybody into to the service, so I’ve got a solution to free up some seats. I would like to now dismiss all of the perfect people from the room. All the perfect people. . .

This is not a message for perfect people, this is a message for sinners. So let’s just take a moment and let all the perfect people leave. [pause] Oh! Oh, you’re sinners, too—so I assume you’re here to hear what God would have to say to sinners like you. . .so that’s what we’re going to do. We will not find freedom and forgiveness by minimizing the horrors of sin, this morning. If I do my job correctly, what we will do is we will find freedom and forgiveness by magnifying the gracious merciful God Who speaks to people who have committed horrible, heinous acts of crime against an Almighty God. So, we’re going to look at what God has to say about the sanctity of human life.

We’re going to be bold about engaging a culture that no longer appreciates how God intricately forms every human life. Do you have your Bibles open to Psalm 139? I’m going to meet you there in just a minute. We’re going to summarize our thoughts in three statements. Here’s the first. . .

• Every life is precious to God.

Every life, no matter how big, no matter how small. Every life is precious to God. We take that from the same Scripture we looked at last week—Genesis chapter 1. From the first page of our Bible, we see this foundational truth, that God created man in His own image. In the image of God He created them male and female, boys and girls—He created them.

Because we understand that God is intimately involved in creating human life, we believe that every human life has dignity, value, worth and purpose. You are not an accident! You are a human intentionally placed on earth at a specific time in history by God’s choice, by God’s design. God is the giver of life. We know this from Job 12:10: “In his hand is the life of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind.” Did you hear that? Every breath you have taken since you have walked into this room is in the hand of God. That means the only thing God would have to do to terminate your life would be to stop giving you breath. All God would have to do would be to close His hand. God is the giver of life!

Again, in Job 33:4: “The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life.” So, life is a gift; it’s not an accident. You were created with purpose, dignity, value—and every life you create has dignity, value, worth and purpose.

God is not only the giver of life, God is the ultimate terminator of life. Job 1:21: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb. . .” Anybody show up fully clothed? No! No fashion design at birth, okay? “. . .and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” You say, well what would some ancient writer with a funny name have to say about death and life issues to 2015 Christians?

Do you understand that Job made that statement immediately following the loss of his ten beloved children through tragedy? Much like Horatio Spafford, when he wrote It is Well With My Soul. He saw that God had given and God had taken away, and with a proper of God’s providence and sovereignty he said, “Lord, life doesn’t come from me and life isn’t taken away by me. Ultimately, You are the Decider. You’re the Creator, and ultimately your sovereignty reigns even over the loss of life.”

Deuteronomy 32:39b affirms the same truth. God says, “I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand. . .” God is the ultimate determining factor in the termination of every human life. We stand back and we say, “God, you are Sovereign, I am not. You are God, I don’t understand. But God, I worship You and I bless Your Name, as You give and You take away.” That has to be our understanding about the sanctity of human life.

Here’s the second thing:

• Pre-born life is protected by God.

Look at Psalm 139. Let’s begin to work through it here, beginning in verse 13:9, “For you formed my inward parts. . .” You got any body parts? You got any inward parts? It’s not good when the inward parts become outward parts! But He talks about the inward parts. He must be talking about the brain and the organs of the liver and the hypothalamus, and things we don’t even think about. God formed those things with intentionality and with great creativity.

“. . .you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.” So, for about nine months, God has designed that human beings would develop in the safety, in the care, of a mother’s womb. And before the mother is even aware there is another life inside of her, God is at work intimately and intricately forming, shaping, caring for—with great artistry—the design of a unique human life. The Bible says He knitted it together.

Does anybody in here knit? Do people still knit? C’mon, be bold about knitting! Are there any bold knitters in here? Alright! And so there’s creativity and there are different fabrics that come together, and different colors and different designs. And if I would ask you, most of you knit—not because you’re designing something for you—you’re designing something for someone you love. And in the same sense, God knits together something for someone He loves—another human life. He knits it together with artistry, this tapestry that is a human life.

Notice, things have to happen together. It reminds me of my eighth grade science class, once again. My football coach, as he was teaching the class, taught us that there were twelve anatomical systems that are necessary for every human life. It would only take one of these systems shutting down to create chaos in every other system. Do you know these systems. . .do you remember?

The skeletal system—do you remember that? How many bones in the human body—teenagers? They’re looking at each other. . .”A lot!” [laughter] Some of them started counting—one, two, three. All right, so that you can get the answer right on the test—two-hundred-and-six bones in the human body.

So, here’s my next question: How many of those bones were formed after you were born? Zero! How many of those bones were formed and knitted together before you were born? Aaah—two-hundred-and-six. The skeletal system was put in place by God before you were born.

Not only that, the nervous system, which includes the complexity of your brain. Some of your brains are more complex than others. If you’re female, that is a more complex brain than the average man’s brain, and God fitted and formed that brain. From there came the sensory neurons and the motor neurons. . .and that brain keeps other systems functioning without your consciousness.

Aren’t you glad you didn’t have to remind your heart to beat when you got up this morning? Aren’t you glad you haven’t had to remind your lungs to inhale and exhale? What would happen if our breathing was dependent on our consciousness? Every time you fall asleep, you would die! [laughter] Statistics show you can only die one time! God put it together in a way; when did He put that nervous system together? How many of your brains were formed after you were born? Zero. It was formed after you were born.

How about the cardiovascular system? Miles of arteries and veins. . .the heart that pumps so well through seventy-five, eighty, eighty-five, ninety years without ever a conscious thought of ever telling it to beat. Those veins and that blood carry red blood cells and white blood cells that carry nutrients and carry away toxins—and a filter system. All that happens in the womb!

The muscular system. . .How many muscles do you have in your body? You say, “I don’t think I have more than about five!” [laughter] We all have the same number. Some of them are in various conditions, but we all have six-hundred-and-fifty muscles and they all work together, knitted together, and they were all formed before you were born.

The respiratory system, with lungs that exchange oxygen and carbon dioxide with every breath. . .The reproductive system, which insures that the human race will continue long after you die—because God is reproducing human life.

The digestive system. Think about just the digestive system. . .the mechanical and the chemical processes that go on, that miraculously turn a Cheetos into energy! [laughter] That’s a miracle! You understand that? And that all was formed before you were born. The digestive system. . .the excretory system, that eliminates waste from the body. Your immune system which fights off deadly diseases, and actually heals you after you get an infection. . .!

The integumentary system, which is the skin and the nails and the hair (which keeps Mary Kay in business!). . .and the lymphatic system and the genetic system, which carries chemical communications all through the body, through our hormones, which are way overactive during our teenage years. . .But eventually it regulates and we think normally again [laughter]. When did God put those twelve systems together? During the nine month period before you were born. They were all fully functional before you were born!

Preborn life! God, in the womb, intricately forms that. That’s why the Psalmist says in verse 14, [When I stand back and look at your creative design] “I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.” The idea between those two words, “fearfully and wonderfully” is intentionality! God uses different skin colors, He uses different styles of hair (curly or straight), He uses different amounts of hair for some of you, He uses tall people. . .Thank God He uses short people. . .in all different shapes and sizes, God fearfully and wonderfully makes us. “Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.”

Do you understand that? Your soul knows you were created! In the heart of every atheist and every agnostic, his soul knows he’s a created being and he has a Creator. He is not self-existent. He is dependent upon His Creator. The writer says in verse 15, “My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.” Simply this. . .You were meant to be! You have purpose, you have design, and what once was hidden from us in the womb, and known only to God, has become visible to us through modern technology.

Those of you who have found out you were pregnant. . .and you go to the doctor, and it’s the day for the sonogram, and you’re going to get to see this brand-new baby for the first time. . .and you immediately start bonding with this image. What once was hidden from us—what was happening in secret, known only to God—we can now see what’s going on. . .even in the womb, as God fearfully and wonderfully creates it.

We delight when we see that little baby there in the womb. What we get to experience now, through modern technology, is something that God has always delighted in seeing. His eyes see what’s going on in the womb. In the same way that you and I delight when we see our children running on the playground or climbing up the jungle gym or whatever, that’s the delight that God has when He sees a baby doing somersaults in the womb! He is intimately involved in what is happening there in the womb.

What we know from the Bible is now being confirmed in every modern textbook on anatomy and human development. It’s simply this: Life begins at conception. That is an irrefutable fact of science! From the earliest stages of development, you were given twenty-three chromosomes from your mommy and twenty-three chromosomes from your daddy, and on Day One they came together and created a brand-new, unique life that has never before existed. A person has been created. . .at this stage, a tiny living organism.

Eighteen days after conception, that organism has a beating heart. It’s pumping its own blood independent from the mother, through its forming body. Twenty-eight days from conception a baby has eyes and ears and even a tongue. Muscles are developing along a future spine. The arms and legs are building.

At thirty days, a child has grown ten thousand times its size and is about a quarter-inch long, there in the womb. At forty-two days, a skeleton is formed, a brain begins to coordinate movement of muscles and organs, reflex responses have begun, brain waves can be detected. A jaw forms, including teeth and taste buds, and an unborn baby begins to swallow amniotic fluid; fingers and toes are developing.

At fifty-two days, spontaneous movement begins, including hiccupping, frowning, squinting, furrowing the brow, pursing the lips, moving individual arms and legs. . .his head is turning. . .touching his face. . .breathing without air. Even though the air is not there, the lungs are already forming. The baby begins to stretch, he opens his mouth, she yawns. Eight weeks after conception, of the four-thousand-five-hundred structures in the adult body, four-thousand of them are already present.

Nine weeks after conception the unborn baby will bend its fingers around an object placed in its palm. Unique fingerprints appear, thumb sucking occurs. . .At ten weeks the unborn baby’s body is sensitive to touch. Eyelids, fingerprints and fingernails are evident. Eleven weeks in, vocal chords and taste buds form. Facial expressions, and even smiles, are evident in the womb.

At twelve weeks a baby’s sex can be determined. The unborn baby is now about three inches long, weighing approximately two ounces. Fine hair begins to grow on his upper lip and chin and eyebrows. At fifteen weeks, an unborn baby is now about five-and-a-half inches long, weighing approximately five ounces. He or she is actively moving inside the safety of the womb. The baby turns and kicks and even somersaults. . .and now, Mom realizes she’s pregnant!

At twenty weeks, the unborn baby’s ears are functioning and she hears her mother’s heartbeat, as well as external music, and the baby is able to experience pain. At twenty weeks, life-saving surgery has been successfully performed on babies, even in the womb. A baby’s grown to about seven-and-a-half inches long, and is about fourteen ounces.

From twenty to twenty-six weeks babies can sometimes survive on their own, even outside the womb. But tragically, abortion is still legal. At twenty-seven weeks an unborn baby can recognize his or her mother’s voice. He opens and closes his eyes, knows the difference between waking and sleeping and can relate to moods of the mother.

And then from thirty-three to forty weeks, an unborn baby finally triggers labor and birth. Of the forty-five generations of cell divisions before adulthood, forty-one have already taken place before the child is even born. Do you know what that means? Only four more come before adolescence. Ninety percent of human development takes place before a human is born! That’s why the Psalmist, unaware of all the technology and unaware of all the mechanical systems that we are aware of now says, in verse 15, “My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. [verse 16] Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.”

What is this book that he mentions in verse 16? Well, it’s figurative language of the mind of God. The Psalmist gives us an understanding that there’s already been a book written about you! That’s how famous you are! God is so intimately involved in every detail of your life, He’s already written the book! And He’s already written the book on some children who have yet to even be conceived! That’s how intricately involved God is with every created being.

So the question is, what is going on in a culture that doesn’t acknowledge the sovereignty of God and His handiwork in creating every human life? How did we get to the place, in a culture, where we would allow abortion to assault God’s handiwork? Who’s responsible for that?

Well, first of all, lawmakers are responsible. The United States Supreme Court, in a ruling on January 22, 1973 (a ruling known as Roe v. Wade) struck down the laws of all fifty states, allowing abortion for any reason up to the moment of live birth, and the father of the child (even if the father is legally married to the child’s mother) has no legal right to prevent the abortion. So, abortion’s legal in America through all nine months of pregnancy, which has resulted in 1.3 million abortions every year in America. Our lawmakers are responsible.

But not only our lawmakers. . .abortion providers like Planned Parenthood. If you’ve been paying attention to the news at all, you realize the Planned Parenthood has been in the news. Videos have surfaced that show that not only has Planned Parenthood been providing abortions, they’ve also been dismembering the bodies of those aborted babies and then selling the parts for profit. All of it’s happening while Planned Parenthood receives about a half-a-billion dollars of our tax money to perform their services. So, providers are responsible.

But not only providers. . .getting more personal now. . .Fathers are responsible who, again, have used abortion as contraception to try to cover their unbridled sexuality and prevent them from taking responsibility for things that they have done through their sin. Fathers are responsible!

Parents and grandparents, who might have encouraged an abortion to cover up the sin of a young lady. . .friends who would advise abortion. . .pastors and churches who refuse to be bold and speak out on the sanctity of human life are responsible for creating the culture in which. . .finally. . .

A frightened, trapped, vulnerable seventeen-year-old girl, who finds out she has an unwanted pregnancy, makes the tragic choice—that is available to her—to end the life of the child that God has placed in her womb. How tragic! And we’re responsible, we’re complicit for allowing it and not speaking out.

Listen! The abortion option should never have been available to that young lady. Is it any wonder that she would choose that option, as—supposedly—an “easy” way out?

So what has happened? In the United States, did you know that about half of all pregnancies are unintended? Of those unintended pregnancies, four in ten will end in abortion. That means that about twenty-one percent of all pregnancies in the United States will end in abortion. One out of five babies who are conceived will be terminated. . .will have their life ended. About forty-two-million abortions occur every year, world-wide.

That means that, in our world every day, one-hundred-fifteen-thousand babies are introduced to the outside world through a chemical designed to kill them in the womb, or a surgical instrument designed to dismember them. . .All of that in spite of what we’ve just read about how intricately involved God is.

You say, “Well, Trent, abortion is a complicated issue. It’s so complex, there are so many different factors. . .” Listen, I don’t pretend to know all the factors that would go in to someone choosing to have an abortion, but I do know this—Though it is sociological in complexity, it is not a morally complex issue. It all comes to down a single question. Whatever the questions, or whatever the complexities, it all comes down to one question, simply this: “What or who is in the womb?” How you answer that question determines how you will vote, it determines how you will advise your seventeen-year-old daughter who may come home one day and announce that she’s pregnant, though single. . .

It will determine what you will do as a husband and wife when you find out you have an unwanted pregnancy. What or who is in the womb? You have two options to answer that question. Gregory Koukl states this: “If the unborn is not a human person, no justification for abortion is needed.” You don’t have to answer the hard questions! If it’s not human life, it’s as simple as going to the dentist and having a tooth pulled. If it’s an inconvenience, if it’s causing a little duress, just take care of it—get it out of the way! There’s no justification needed, if it’s not human!

But if the unborn is a human person, then no justification for abortion is adequate. No matter what you argue, abortion is homicide! You are taking the life of a human being, stamped with the image of God.

So, what kinds of justification do people offer? Well, they just simply say, “Unborn life is not human life. It’s a blastocyst, it’s a woman’s body, it’s not a human life.” They say that because they think that somehow it’s too small. Now listen, as a person who is shorter than the average guy, I take offense to that, okay? [laughter] What you are saying is, “If you are smaller, you are less human.” Most women are smaller than most men. Would you say that women are less human than men, because they are smaller? Size is not a determining factor for personhood.

Listen! All fifty states have what we call “fetal homicide laws.” Do you know what that is? If, through your negligence, or through your aggression, you take the life of an unborn child and the life of its mother, you’re guilty of manslaughter and will go to jail. . .unless you’re a physician providing an abortion.

What kind of legal logic is that? It makes no sense, does it? So, size is not a determining factor.

The level of development is not a determining factor, any more than we would say that a four-year-old is not as developed as a fourteen-year-old. Does that mean a four-year-old is not human, or is less human? And we all know that fourteen-year-olds are not developed the way that they one day will be when their brains go back in place, right? We wouldn’t say that a fourteen-year-old is less human. (Most fourteen-year-olds!)

Environment is not a factor. . . “Well, it’s in the womb, so it’s not here yet, so it’s not human.” When does where you are determine what you are? Does travelling down a birth canal six inches create life? No.

Some people say, “Well, the degree of dependency is what makes a person human.” Is anybody here a diabetic—do you have to take insulin shots? Are you? Would we say you’re not human because you’re dependent upon insulin for living? Or would we say the elderly, that become dependent on care at some point, are less human and are not a person? The “logic” does not make any sense. Unborn life is human life.

Some people say, “Women have a right to privacy!” I agree. Every woman, every man for that matter, has a right to a certain degree of privacy. But, where in South Bend, Indiana do two people have the right to meet in secret and conspire and conspire to kill another human being? No, at that point, we say, “You no longer have that right to privacy.” When your right to privacy risks the life another person, we intervene and we take away your right to privacy. And so, that doesn’t make sense.

Some people say, “Well, women should have the right to choose. Abortion is a women’s rights issue.” I would acknowledge that men have not always adequately acknowledged and fought for the rights of women, equal rights. I would acknowledge that. But do you understand that even though our [right to] personal choice is what makes us free, no one has absolute autonomy? No one has absolute freedom to do whatever you want to do.

Your right to freedom and your right to choose end where my life is at stake! We limit your choice in the same way that my fourteen-year-old daughter is not given the choice to be able to drive on the roads of Indiana. Why? Because she would put other lives at risk. So, we limit your right, when it risks the lives of others.

Some people say, “It’s a women’s rights issue!” Okay, great, I’m all for women’s rights. When was the last time you stood up for the rights of seven-hundred-thousand preborn women who are killed every year in this country before they were born? Now let me hear you talk about human and women’s rights. Let’s talk about the rights of a woman to be born.

Some people would say an unwanted pregnancy is just too great of a hardship for someone to bear. . .if they’re single, if they’re living in poverty, if they can’t take care of this child. . .Maybe the child is diagnosed with a prenatal disorder, like Down’s Syndrome. Did you know, ninety-two percent of all parents who find out they have a child who will be born with Down’s Syndrome choose to abort that child? Ninety-two percent! While the test is up to wrong half the time! I’m so glad that, even around here at Harvest, we’ve had the opportunity to talk to women and even help them make the right choice about that. We have children in our nursery this morning with Down’s Syndrome—because of a courageous mom and dad who said, “We acknowledge the sanctity of every human life.”

Some people say, “What about in cases of rape and incest?” Less than one percent of all abortions have anything to do with that, yet somehow that’s always the hot topic in the midst of a presidential debate. Yet, how would we use that argument for a three-month-old? If we found out that a three-month-old infant. . .baby. ..toddler was the result of rape or incest? Would we go in and terminate the life of that person? No! Why not? Because it’s the life of a human person. So, if it is a human life, the question is already answered for us.

We know that God can take the most tragic human choices, the most tragic sin, and bring beauty from ashes. We need to provide options. Some people say, “Adoption is not an option.” Well, why not?! Maybe we’re not doing enough as a church to champion, and give other options to women who are caught with a tragic unwanted pregnancy. They need other options.

I’m so grateful. . .I found out just last week. . .Cedarville University, where my two oldest kids go to school, just announced that every faculty member who will adopt a child, they will receive a three-thousand-dollar-a-year grant per child. What they’re saying is, “We’re going to be bold about addressing this issue, and we want our people to aggressively hold out options to those who may have no option other than abortion.”

You may be hearing more about these types of things even at our church, as we consider how we can be more involved in foster care or even an organization like Safe Families. Our family recently brought into our home nine-year-old little Scott, through the organization called Safe Families. Others of you may want to get involved with that.

We’ve got to be serious—if we want to make a dent in 1.3 million abortions—to hold out other options to those who feel like they have no other option.

Here’s the third thing:

• New life is possible with God!

Every life is precious to God, preborn life is protected by God, and—here’s what I want you to hear—new life is possible with God! Look at this verse, 2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” Do you hear what it’s saying? No matter who you are, no matter what you have done. . .if you have committed murder, if you have had an abortion, if you have provided an abortion. . .If anyone is in Christ he’s a new creation. Old choices, old habit patterns, old sins have passed away. Behold, the new has come!

You may look and that and say, “Aw, that’s so great. I’ll not be held accountable for the poor choices. I can just pretend like it just never happened!” Listen, listen! Some of you are not experiencing the freedom and the forgiveness and the clearing of shame and regret in your past because you’ve never humbly and honestly and openly come to God with your sin.

Freedom and forgiveness are not gained through minimizing your sin. They are gained when you come and confess, believing there are fresh starts and new beginnings through the power of Jesus Christ.

You say, “Well, God would never be able to accept me. He would never understand the things that I’m feeling because of what I’ve done to my child. I’ve aborted my child. God would never understand that!” Do you understand that God knows exactly what it feels like to lose a Son? Do you understand that one day God watched as His thirty-three-year-old Son was aborted on a cross? His life ended! Why did that happen? Innocent life taken!

The Son of God was aborted for those who have aborted their sons and daughters—so that your sins could be absorbed by the One Who came to offer you new life through the power of grace and pardon and forgiveness. Some of you know that intellectually, and yet you’ve never allowed yourself to go there in your heart, because it’s so painful.

You’ve rationalized, you’ve minimized, you’ve justified your sin. You’ve excused your sin, you’ve blamed it on somebody else, and you’ve never gotten open, honest and broken. Therefore, you’re still living with shame and regret. Even though you know it intellectually, spiritually you’ve never come and gained freedom and forgiveness through the power of the gospel.

I met Andrea in December of 1992, but I waited until January of 1993 to pursue her [laughter], and so for that year (1993) we started this long-distance relationship. Let me define “long-distance” relationship for you under the age of forty: This was before Al Gore invented the internet [laughter], so no email, no cell phone, no text messaging, no Facebook. . .I couldn’t stalk her. . .

You had to actually talk on a phone that had a wire connected to a wall, and you had to actually physically write letters, and for a year that’s how we got to know each other. And I got to know her heart, and I saw things in her that were so unique, and how she had this special relationship with God that just blew me away. I was so attracted to that, among other things—was really attracted to that.

And. . . “Oh, my goodness, I think this may have a future! This may be—hey, hey—this may be the one!” Right? So when we started talking about those things, she said, “You know what? Before you let your mind go there, we need to talk.” And so we went to a park in Memphis, Tennessee, and for a couple of hours we talked.

What Andrea shared with me in that park that day, she has now shared with thousands of women across the country. What she shared with me, I think is time to share with you. Watch this.

[Video of Andrea Griffith speaking]: Most of you know me as the pastor’s wife, with five kids, who is always smiling and trying out your name and find out who you are, but most people wouldn’t know who I was about twenty-five years ago. [music comes up in background] As a young kid, I found myself becoming a very good liar.

I wanted my own way but I also wanted to be well-liked. So how that worked itself out was that I began to be just very good at being deceitful, and lying. When I was young, some of those lies had small consequences, but the older I got, the bigger the consequences became. As a teenager, I told my parents I would be one place, but I’d really go to another. I would tell them I’d be going out with one guy, and I’d really go out with another.

As I turned sixteen, I started dating more—one-on-one—and I started dating a guy, and we got emotionally and physically way too deep, too fast. I found out when I was seventeen years old I was pregnant. Again, I was still such a good liar that I didn’t know where to go with that. I was still running from the light and living in the dark. Because of that, I decided I would have an abortion.

I knew that I was actually murdering my own baby, and instead of bringing it into the light, I just ran further into the darkness. After that, I started drinking, I was in despair, I didn’t really care much about my life or what happened to me. I figured because I took a life, my life should be taken—at any time—and wondered if I should even take my own life.

About that time, I found out about some people who really loved the Lord. They had sin in their life, but they would bring it to the light, they would own up to their struggle, they would be honest about their sin—which was something I had never done. I started seeing in them what I wanted in my own life, which prompted me to just get honest with another woman about my sin and about the choices that I had made.

As I met with that woman, I was just confronted with my heart. She didn’t let me wiggle out of it. She was pretty hard on me, and I left her and just went and had some time of just meeting with the Lord. At that point, everything in my life started to change! I started to see my sin for the wickedness that it was, and I saw how my sin had offended a holy God, and I didn’t want to live that way anymore!

It makes me think of 2 Corinthians 7, where Paul talks about worldly sorrow that leads to death, or godly sorrow that leads to life. I just thought in my life that, because I had guilt and because I experienced conviction, that I must be okay with God—but I didn’t understand the difference between those two types of convictions.

When I started getting around these people and seeing genuine repentance and genuine godly sorrow, I realized I didn’t have anything like that, and I wanted it! It looked attractive to me. So, I went before the Lord, and God just started showing me my heart, and the wickedness and the evil that lived inside of me. I didn’t know what else to do, so I just started at the top of my head and I went to my feet, and I just gave God every part of me. I said, “I want You to be Lord of my life. I’m tired of knowing truth—somewhere out there—but never being able to obey it, and being able to change, and to be able to live a life that has life and hope.”

I couldn’t get enough of God’s Word! I started to lean into it and let it define me, instead of my own thoughts and my own feelings. One example would just be the forgiveness. For so long I kept thinking that I had to punish myself for all the wrong choices I had made, for all the sin that I had been involved in, and  yet as I started to read the Word and understand what it was saying I learned that Jesus paid it all for me! Jesus paid for my sin; He was my ransom. That’s why He gave His life, so that He could redeem me and actually buy me back.

I can never repay the debt that I owe to the Lord, and yet that’s why Jesus had to come. I still fail all the time—I make so many stupid decisions; I still sin, and yet now I know where to go with it. I know to bring it in the light. I know what to do with sin. You confess it so that then you can be free of it and walk in the light. . .just leaning into the Word every day and letting Jesus—Who is my life—be my life, my joy, my love, my passion. It is all wrapped up in Him. [applause] [Andrea speaks in person from this point]

[keyboard picks up in background] A lot of times people ask me, “Why do you share that with people? It’s almost thirty years ago. Now you’re the pastor’s wife of a growing church—you can just keep that hidden, keep it away. Why would you even bother? I want this to be a safe place! I want this church to be a place where people know you can come broken—you can come without having it all together. In fact, if we don’t come that way, I don’t know how much of Jesus we’re going to be able to know and experience, because that’s why He came—for broken, messed-up people like me—and like you.

When we come that way, broken and realizing our own failures and deep sin, that’s when we can find that there is a Savior and a Redeemer and Rescuer Who is bigger and greater than all our sin. That’s what the gospel is! So many of you came in this room today and I was looking at your faces, and I was thinking, “There are so many people I don’t know anymore!”

I want to know you, but I don’t know your past, I don’t know the shame. . .the things that are holding you back. . .from experiencing all the freedom and the joy and the love that God has for you. And I don’t have to know it, but there’s a Savior Who does. I just wonder, have you brought it to Him? Have you brought the things that you’re ashamed of, the things that you want to keep hidden? Because that’s where life is found—it’s in His goodness, it’s in His forgiveness, it’s in His grace. That’s what the gospel is, that we could never pay for our sin and so Jesus came and paid the price for us. He’s the reason that I share that, because He is amazing! I hope you know that, and if you don’t, we’re here.

We’re not playing, when we have church. We’re here to deal with real issues, so please come. Please come to talk to someone at the church. Please just meet with Jesus, the Savior, the One Who’s able to take the brokenness and change it into something He can use. [applause]

(Pastor Trent continues) So, I don’t know what you were expecting church to be like this morning, but I hope you understand, it’s not about coming and just getting an information download. It’s about what you do with the information you’ve heard. Some of you feel like God is so distant, and you’re stuck in your relationship with Him, and I know the reason why! It’s because you don’t do, or maybe never have done, what Andrea did—bringing all of that brokenness and all of that sin to a Savior Who can save, a Redeemer Who can heal.

It’s because you’re too busy trying to prop yourself up and covering yourself, making yourself look better than you know you actually are. God knows you’re messed-up. We’ve already dismissed all the perfect people from the room, so there’s nothing left but sinners. There’s nothing left for sinners, but to cast themselves on the grace of God—to come just as you are and acknowledge your unworthiness before a holy God, no matter what you’ve done. . .

. . .or no matter how  little you’ve done. Some of you have sat through the service and self-righteously thought of other people who need to change, because this is not your issue. I’ll tell you what your issue is! You’re a Pharisaical hypocrite [!] for thinking that somebody else needs to repent of sin and you don’t! I don’t know about you, but I’m too busy hating my own sin to hate somebody else’s sin. We need to repent.

So I’m going to just ask you to bow your head and close your eyes as we conclude here today. In your own heart, just open up your life, just peel back the layers to the Lord. He already knows what’s going on. He sees. He’s intimately acquainted with every sin. . .the worst fifteen minutes of your life, He knows about that. Have you ever brought that to Him? Have you ever opened that up to somebody else? Have you ever allowed Him to change those dark motivations?

Maybe for some of you, you’ve tried to heal that pain and erase the shame through some religious practice. . .you thought that going to church or going through some religious exercises might somehow make you different. That won’t help a bit if you don’t come and confess. “If we confess our sin, He is faithful and just to forgive our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9) Have you ever done that? If not, why not come and do it right now?

Say, “Dear Lord Jesus, You’re so holy. There’s no reason why You would want to have anything to do with me, a sinner, who has broken and violated your law—maybe even taken a life that You created. Yet I choose to believe that you love me in spite of myself. I bring You my sin, I bring You my shame. I come just as I am. Forgive my pride, my rebellion. From the top of my head to the tip of my toes I give you every part of me. I want You to be my Lord, my Savior, my Deliverer.” Father, I do pray that everyone of us, God, would every day come to You in humility and brokenness, acknowledging how much we need You to erase sin, to save us every day from ourselves. . .from our past. . .from our future. . .from a life lived with regret and without You. God give us an understanding of the purpose and the design and the relationship that You want us to have with You. We bring you our sin, we bring you ourselves, we pray in Jesus’ Name, Amen.