“Sanctity of Life” | Sunday AM | Pastor David K. Caruthers & Ashley Moss

Original Broadcast of Sunday Morning 10 AM Bible Class, 03/29/26

Speaker: Pastor David K. Caruthers & Ashley Moss

Message Title: "Sanctity of Life" 

We invite you to join us in person 

Sundays at 10am & 11AM 

Wednesdays at 7:30 PM

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:03

Good morning. Good morning. Thank you all for being here on this Sunday morning. So glad that you are here. Welcome. Can we stand together? Let's lift our hearts and voices to the Lord in praise as we come into this house today. Lord, thank you for your mercies and grace. Thank you for your blessings, your kindness, your goodness, your hope, your joy, your salvation. We rejoice in what you're doing and your work in our lives, and we thank you, Lord, for your word. That's a lamp to our feet and light to our path. Let our hearts be enlightened by your word today, and let us follow you with all of our hearts. We thank you. We praise you. We honor you. We magnify you, great Savior. Amen. Amen. You may be seated. Thank you so much. We're going to do things just a little bit different today. And so we're looking forward to this time together, this Discovering God Bible class. We've been talking about clashing kingdoms, talking about some areas where the Bible directions clash with our cultural directions. And so we're going to continue that today. This is the last of those series. And I hope you find have found these helpful. And so kind of give you some information, give you some approach from a Christian perspective, and help you deal with that in our in our everyday life. Today we're going to talk about the sanctity of life, seeing what I've uh sort of subtitled seeing human worth through God's Eyes. So the sanctity of life, our when cultures sort of lose their sense of sacredness of life, they inevitably drift towards brutality. History has shown us over and over again that societies that stop seeing people as the image-bearers of God, God breathed life, cruelty becomes normalized, compassion becomes optional, and we can kind of see some of this happening even in our own culture today. And it's just human nature that we tend to value the life we that's closest to us, that's dear to us. We tend to hold those in greater value just because that's human nature. But the Bible calls us to a higher standard, and that standard is to see every person through God's eyes and the value of every person's through God's eyes. And so that's sort of the focus of what we're talking about today. We're going to discuss how the Bible reveals the value of human life and why we as Christians need to follow and to guard what God has given us. And to start with today, I know that when we talk about sanctity of life, one of the uh things that we often talk about is uh the topic of abortion. And um, so I have asked Sister Ashley Moss to come and teach for a few minutes on this topic in particular, and then I'll come back in a few minutes. Thank you, Ashley.

unknown 3:00

Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 3:05

Good morning, everybody. Thank you, Pastor, for asking me to teach this part of the lesson today. I will tell you I know this is not a light topic, and it can be heavy and um whatnot, but I promise by the end of it there is hope, and we will see the love through this. So if you can just bear with me for a few minutes here. Um, I want to start just so you know where I'm going here. The goal is to show you that God values life from conception, and it's not our role to determine if that child should or should not be born. I will say child through the entire pregnancy because I am a Christian. I believe life begins at conception, therefore it is a child, so I'm gonna say that. Um, we'll start with a lot of scriptures here in the beginning just to show you that God values life, because again, I don't want you to walk away and say, well, that's her opinion. I want you to know it's what the word of God says. Then I will move on to what how society views abortion and the effects of that on a woman, and then I'll end just so you know the hopeful part, the Christian response to that. So let's begin with some scriptures here. The first one I have is Genesis 2 and 7. It says, Then the Lord formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. I'm just starting with that because we know Adam never grew in a mother's womb. He was created. However, it shows God's hand in creation. All of the other creation he spoke into existence, but with man he stopped, he formed it with his hands, and then he breathed his life into that man. So God created man with a purpose, and he values what he creates. Um the I want to move on to Psalms 139, 13 through 16. It says, For you 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, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. This shows you that God sees what was happening inside of the womb, and he took time and he took care to create it. It says that he knew the he this is in Psalms, so he knew the psalmist, he knit the psalmist together, he had his hands in that, he was creating the body, and he took care in that. This scripture shows God's creation and it shows that he cares what's happening in the womb. It wasn't just a poof, there's a something growing, and we'll just call it a fetus until we decide what we want to do with it. There was care. It said that my frame was not hidden from you, and it said you knit me together, and that they were wonderfully made, or he was wonderfully made. And then knowing that God created the body, I want to focus for a minute here about the soul, the actual purpose of this um baby that was being formed here, and I'm gonna show you in two different spots in the Old Testament, in Isaiah and Jeremiah, both times it says, and I'm gonna read you the scriptures here in a moment, but he said that he called them from the womb. So listen to these scriptures here. It says Isaiah 49, 1 and 5. Listen to me, O coastlands, and give attention, you peoples from afar. The Lord call me from the womb, from the body of my mother, he named my name. And now the Lord says, He who formed me from the womb to be his servant and to bring Jacob back to him, and that Israel might be gathered to him, for I am honored in the eyes of the Lord, and God has become my strength. So it didn't say that Isaiah had a purpose after he was born. It was actually while he was in the womb, God called him. He created him for a purpose. A baby doesn't have value once it enters the world. A baby has value once it is created. Then we have Jeremiah 1 and 5. He has a similar story here on his calling. It says, Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. And before you were born, I consecrated you. I appointed you a prophet to the nations. So before I formed you, I knew you. Jeremiah had a soul that was called and he had a purpose. These aren't the only two people in the entire existence of the world that were called from the womb. We can't read the Bible that way and go, well, that only applies to those two people. Those scriptures are in there to show you the importance that they were called, and there is a soul attached to that body that was made. And so that also shows us that there is no distinction between prenatal and postnatal life. Okay? There's no more value if a baby was born or not born. That infant that is created in the woman has value and has purpose, and God can call them as early as the womb. And then a common scripture we know, Genesis 1.27, it says, So God created man in his own image. And in the image of God, he created him, male and female, he created them. God created man in his image. So that means we are image bearers of God. We cannot undervalue a life. If every life is a reflection of who he is, then every life matters. And then my last scripture before we move on here is Psalms 127 and 3. Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord. The fruit of the womb is a reward. Children are a blessing. The scripture doesn't tell me when children become a blessing, it just says, children are a blessing. That doesn't, I'm not saying that my kids are not blessings yet. Sorry to mine in here. I am saying that that means they have blessing from the beginning. They are a blessing. I apologize. That was a pretty ambiguous statement there, and I was not subtly insulting my children. They are great blessings to me. Um okay, so we know that God values life at the earliest stage, and so what I want to talk about for a moment is how the world views abortion, um, what it we are told about it, and how it actually affects a person in their life. So, first I'm gonna throw some stats at you because I like them. I love us like those kind of things. It helps you understand. And this way I did the research for you so you don't have to go read all the gross, disgusting things there are about this topic. Um, first I want to talk about life in the womb. It says at fertilization, so the moment an moment fertilization happens, I'm gonna filter there. Sorry, I'm not in a group of ladies or at a dinner table with my family here. Um, there is a unique set of human DNA that is created. So at that moment that fertilization happens, there's DNA already created. It's not happening later. They have their own set of DNA that separates them from their mother and their father. Week three, the heartbeat begins. It's visible by week eight and audible by week 10. If you've ever had the fortune, the blessing, I would say it that way, to go see an ultrasound at week eight. I always call it the gummy bear face because it's just a little gummy bear, but you can see the little light flickering, seeing the heartbeat. There is a heartbeat there at week eight. Week seven to twelve, organs are in place and body parts are growing. For those who may not be familiar about pregnancy, week 12 ends first trimester typically, okay? So um, this is all happening in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. These are uh the organs are forming and body parts are growing. And then week 10, babies are sensitive to touch and can feel pain as early as week 10. Keeping that in mind, please know that 93% of abortions happen before week 12 even happens. So while the organs are forming, while there is a heartbeat, and while babies can feel pain, abortions are happening. And our society presents abortion as a simple act of simply ending a pres a pregnancy and resuming life as normal. It's just that easy, right? You got pregnant, no big deal. You can just choose how you want to go forward, and your life will go as normal. Go on as normal. During um, if you are looking at different things about abortion, it will tell you that it's the solution to someone who says they're not ready for a child, whether that's mentally, financially, or just stage of life, and that abortion is used as an option. And then during political seasons, the biggest argument for abortion is what about women who are raped? Um, just if you want a statistic on that, only 1% of abortions are actually because of rape. So keep that in mind when that is thrown around as the reason why we should be having abortions. I'm gonna give you a scripture here on that too. Deuteronomy 24, 16 says, No child shall be put to death because of the sins of their fathers. So I'm not gonna go into all of that, just know that those situations are unfortunate. But again, we don't get to choose if that child's life should continue on because that is not their sin, that's not their price to pay. I went on Planned Parenthood, which is one of the biggest advocates for abortion, and I wanted to see what they talked about, how what they said about the effects of an abortion on a woman, and I will tell you, they make it very clean and simple and so no big deal. Literally says that if it's an early in pregnancy one, it takes five to ten minutes. Later, after 16 weeks, it only takes 10 to 20 minutes, and then they tell you that the woman can go forward, resume her life with some bleeding and cramping. However, after further research, I was looking into it, it says that women who have abortions actually face a higher risk for mental health problems, including substance abuse, anxiety, and depression. And that through the years, many of the women will mentally track the age that their child is supposed to be. They do embed that in their hearts of what day that happened, and they will track, they'll see a child and go, Oh, mine would have been this age. Um, I didn't want it just to be statistics and studies, so I went onto a forum online and read about women who had abortions and what they were experiencing. And one woman the day after said she didn't know the weight she was going to carry, the sadness that she felt, and that no one told her about that mental weight. And in the comments reading them, everyone said, yes, very normal to feel this. That's a normal experience. And someone else said, No one will tell you about this pre-abortion. So they're not even told, you go on Planned Parenthood and it's no big deal. You'll have some cramping and you'll move forward. But these emotional responses to these things tell me there's an indication that there's a maternal connection from the time a baby is formed. And when you end that, that lives on with her forever. She will carry mental scars that are never seen and not warned about in those abortion processes. And I'm gonna apologize because this next sentence seems a little bit weighty, but it just said that abortion leaves one dead and one wounded. No one walks away unscarred from those situations. So, what is our Christian response supposed to be? Well, first we have to base it. If someone's asking you about abortion or talking about it, we have to base it off of what the Word of God says, that we know life is valued, even at its earliest form, we know that's in the womb. And we're meant to protect the innocent. Ten Commandments, the sixth one is thou shalt not kill. Um, and then we also know in Exodus, further down, it talks about how we are not supposed to kill the innocent. So there is no one more innocent than a baby in a womb. They've done nothing. So we're supposed to be protecting the innocent. But what if? What if someone has already had an abortion? It's not the end of the road for you. There is forgiveness when we confess our sins. 1 John 1 and 9 says, if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. So if you know somebody who may have faced that, or maybe you, when they approach you about it, remind them God's not done with you. All you have to do is confess your sins and he'll forgive you just as any other sin. First John, I'm sorry, just that's what I just read. Romans 8 and 1 says, Now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. This means that he's not going to look down at you in disapproval. After he's forgiven you, he's not looking at you angry and going, I can't believe. There's no condemnation, you've been forgiven. And then Psalms 103 12, it says, As far as the East is from the West, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. I'm grateful we serve a God who gives second chances, and there's a chance to rewrite that story no matter what it looks like. Um, I'm gonna be wrapping up here, Pastor, so you can. He told me I could take as long as I wanted, and I decided an hour on abortion might be a little bit daunting. But there aren't any scriptures that support ending a life in the womb for any reason. Human life from conception is sacred. We're supposed to value and protect it. And again, if you or someone you know had an abortion, it's not the end of your story. God can rewrite it because he forgives and he restores. And as much as he values that life in the womb, he values you as well. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 16:05

All right. Thank you, Ashley. Thank you so much. Weighty topic for sure. Um I want to go back to something we've talked about every week. And um in these particular topics, as Christians, we have to let the love and the compassion of God propel us, motivate us, move us to interact with people that are dealing with these issues. The culture has lied to them. The culture has lied to them. And um so the powers that be around them have lied to them. The people influencing them have lied to them. And so we have to approach this as well as all other topics with compassion and grace of God, and that's sort of the overriding uh concept for us as people living for God, serving God. We know without God, there's no hope for us. Any of us. Amen. So I want to continue talking about this topic, so we'll get to your handout. Uh Sister Ashley had some scriptures, but I didn't get them in time to add them to my handout. I mean, I didn't, she sent them. I didn't realize they were there in time to add them to my handout. I have a lot on my handout. That's because I didn't know how much time I'd have because I was afraid Ashley might take the whole hour talking. No, not really. Uh we didn't really know how much time I would have, so I tried to put as much in there as possible. That doesn't mean I'm gonna be twice as long or three times as long or whatever. So I'm gonna start right there where Ashley started in Genesis 2, 7, and the Lord formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul. And so just that scripture alone lets us know why, why it's so important, life itself is so important because it comes from God. So the scripture here lets us know that life is not accidental. It's not accidental, and that's important. You say, well, of course it's not. Well, but a lot of underlying philosophy about the beginning of things is that it happened accidentally. Life does not happen accidentally, and also that human life is not merely biological, it's not just the functions of a human body. Again, in our culture, much of the discussion, even about abortion, sterilizes it to become just the functions of a human body. But it is not that, it's animated by God's own breath. And also that life is not disposable, that it carries, that life carries with it the divine imprint and person of God as He's breathed life into us. Every human being, regardless of their age, regardless of their ability, regardless of their status, regardless of their circumstances, every living person carries the breath of God. As God has breathed into them, and that alone establishes the sanctity of human life. And because it was so important to God, God protects that life through his commandments, and so we see those coming to us in the scripture even from the very beginning. Exodus chapter 20, again, as Ashley alluded to, one of the Ten Commandments, thou shalt not kill. And uh, we would say in modern vernacular, thou shalt not murder, because that's what we're really talking about here. Thou shalt not kill. The command's short, but its implications are huge. It says so much with so few words, it affirms to us that all life belongs to God. My life is not my own. I know that's part of a song, but it's a truth of the scripture. God has breathed into me life, he has given me life, so it lets me know that that life belongs to God and not to us. It it also establishes some moral boundaries, some ways to approach this in a moral way, establishing moral boundaries about how to deal with life and and and around violence against life and how important that is for us. And it also teaches us that taking innocent life is an offense not only to the individual, but to the creator of life. So when you when you murder, it's not just against the person, but it's an offense against God because He is the one that breathed into them the breath of life. So this command is not merely about physical, physical murder, but it's about honoring the divine worth of every individual. It's important for us to have that honor, respect, and dignity to others because God breathed into them and made them a living soul. And that goes beyond just their life and just that moment, but it also extends to Calvary that if Jesus gave himself for every person to be saved, that lets us know the value of every human life. And God's not willing that any perish. It's not his plan, it's not his will that anyone perish because he has invested not only by giving them life, but by pouring out his life for their hope of salvation. And so the scripture teaches the value of life, but it also teaches us that that life is so valuable that if you take a life, the only value high enough as punishment is your life. In Genesis 9 and 6 it says whoever sheds a man's blood by that by man shall his blood be shed for in the image of God made he man. And again maybe the wording is not the way you would say it, but it's pretty clear that what God is saying that that if you shed blood, if you murder, then the God who breathed life demands your life in return because you took someone else's. And in Exodus 21 and 23, the last part of that verse says thou shalt give life for life. So these passages particularly in the Old Testament let us know that murder and by murder we mean intentional murder was treated as one of the gravest possible offenses that any person could commit. And the seriousness of that the seriousness of the crime and the punishment lets you know how important and how significant it is in the Old Testament. And additionally it's there as you can read but I want to be clear that we're not talking about political philosophies or political approaches. We're talking about what the Bible says it's theological it's what the Bible teaches not just what is codified into law because humans bear in God's image he is the giver of life and and that's not a that's not a blanket endorsement of every modern system of capital punishment. When we read it in the scripture it's not as I know some people read it as very loosely applied that for just you know you just kind of anybody who killed somebody in your family you could kill them. Well it it's more technical than that. There's more to it than that. It makes it clear even the Bible creates these cities of refuge for the Israelites designed for people who did not intentionally commit to protect them from the vengeance of a family member who's claiming they did do it on purpose. And so there's protections built in there's a whole system involved in this it's not just a random kind of do whatever you want to do everybody figure it out you know I don't know some I'm thinking of some old Western you know that you may think about too if you're my age. Anyway so it's not a tool for vengeance it's not a tool for political power and uh while we affirm the principle we we wrestle with the imperfections of humanity. But I want to continue because number four in your notes Jesus deepened this he deepened this commandment by addressing the heart behind it. So as Jesus often did he went beyond the codified rules and he explained where the sin grew where it was springing from so in Matthew chapter 5 Sermon on the Mount Jesus in there's several verses here Sermon on the Mount Matthew chapter 5 verse 21 and 22 you have heard that it's been said of them of old time thou shalt not kill and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of judgment. But I say to you that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of judgment. And whosoever shall say to his brother Raka shall be in danger of the counsel. But whosoever shall say thou fool shall be in danger of hellfire. Now you don't have to know what all those words mean and what those insults mean. I I've heard people try to explain what all those meant don't don't get don't get so deep in the weeds that you don't get the message. Okay? And don't try to justify particular words because well you've interpreted them to mean something or haven't if I don't say those words and it's okay the point that Jesus is making is very clear to us we just think about it Jesus is teaching that the sanctity of life is violated long before a weapon is drawn that contempt that hatred that dehumanizing of others they're all seeds of this sin of murder anger without a cause or we might say hatred hatred wounds that image of God that's in another person. It's an affront against that image of God. When you hate others it's an affront against the image of God in that individual that God breathed life into the Bible makes it clear we're not supposed to hate others. Yes I understand but the hatred that you have is the precursor of the sin of murder I've never seen anybody murder someone but I've heard people say things. Because they were feeling that hatred in their hearts so he refers to a fool and rock of these are insults to the person for insulting the person. Now I'm not talking about just some joke or something you know something that I'm not talking about a sense of humor us being easily offended. That's not what it's talking about. But when when people use words against others that dehumanizes them they're lowering the value of the person it's a way to justify my hatred for others to dehumanize them you can think of examples all through history and if you can't think of anything let me just point to the Nazis of Germany because what did they do? They dehumanized the Jews they insulted and dehumanized them they made them less it happened in America with slavery dehumanized people treated them as animals looked at them as animals and when you dehumanize people you're devaluing the life God has given them and it's a path to murder or at least destructive behavior we can if we're not careful dehumanize our enemies whatever you think of our war that's going on right now in Iran however justified you feel it is or not don't dehumanize the people it's still grave it's still horrible it's still tragic for whatever the cause whatever you think about people crossing that border don't dehumanize the people whatever you think the policy is don't dehumanize the people Jesus calls for us Christians us followers of Jesus to honor life not just with our hands not just don't murder people or don't abuse people but also in our hearts and this is something that we have a hard we struggle with in America and we all humans do but we certainly struggle with it in America and you can see even the politics on both sides of whatever aisle it is you can see the politics dehumanizing others to gain advantage that's an affront to the value of the individuals now you might I again I'm not talking about the policy you may disagree with the policy you may think it would be better to do it this way or we shouldn't do that or all that whatever the policy is fine but don't dehumanize the people it's still real people's lives being affected all right I'm getting sidetracked on that. So the sanctity of life is not just about what we refuse to do to others but it's how we see others in our hearts and how we treat others. Number five God values human life above all other creatures again Ashley referred to this a little bit Jesus again in Sermon on the Mount he's uh speaking to uh to the crowd about their concerns about their cares and and and uh what's going on in their lives and their needs and Jesus points to the birds and the flowers the other living creatures and the inanimate creatures that he's created and he said if I take care of them his question was verse Matthew 626 are you not better than them he said you are greater than them you think I take care of them but I won't take care of you. This is the point Jesus is making because he values human life above all others. If he takes care of the sparrows if he takes care of the flowers then he will take care of the people human life has an incomparable worth and God's care for us is rooted in I think in the notes we have identity but it's rooted in that God created us and God breathed his life into us not how valuable we may seem to our culture so it's not how we perform it's not how much money we make it's not how much we are that's not where the value is at the value is that God breathed life into you. It doesn't matter what your role what your job what your you know what your social standing is it's based on that. So every person is created by God with an intention with a purpose with a calling with a dignity that should be honored. It's not nearly merely about existence but it's the divine purpose that's woven into every soul now I want to talk to you about some topics because my time's running out so I want to run through these topics quickly I don't have time to cover them extensively but I do want to talk about some some topics in our culture other than abortion first is uh that and I think these are complex topics that obviously we can't really you know cover in any detail today but but at least we can talk about them briefly in the scripture. So first is capital punishment the scripture presents a a the the limited response to intentional murder as capital punishment and so without getting too deep in the feelings and emotions of the topic or execution as a form of you know just saying execution as a form of punishment is fraught with all kinds of concerns all kinds of difficulties that I don't have time to address today. Can I just say it that way? But I want to say again and affirm to you again that you can believe in the principle but question how it's carried out or even if it's carried out in our modern systems. Is it effective? Is it fair? Is it accurate? Is it all those things? Those are big concerns and they should be big concerns to us all. So whatever your your uh idea about the principles whatever your belief about the principle which I believe is what the word of God teaches us carrying that out is a whole different thing. And so uh you can you can have that argument every day. So what I'm saying is you can believe and accept the principle without agreeing with the process and the system that we have in place in America or elsewhere. Thank God we don't have people being executed by the government on the streets like other countries but we have our own issues with this too because we all have we all know of situations where it turns out someone was likely not guilty of the crime they were commit they were convicted of. So it becomes a big issue. So what I'm saying to you as Christians and us as Christians believe you can believe in the principle that's what the Bible says but you don't have to just blanketly accept what's going on in our culture. So if somebody's sitting on the row across the way from you and they're adamantly opposed to capital punishment in our American judicial system that doesn't necessarily conflict with you if you're not opposed to it scripturally there's a scriptural principle but applying that scriptural principle is not it's always messy when humans do it. Can I say it that way but the sanctity of life means that we approach this topic not just with justice but with caution and grace I wish I had more time let me talk about war and self-defense. Now the Old Testament shows us that war was sometimes commanded by God it was commanded by God to reclaim and to protect people and territory that God had given and it's true that those wars especially when you read the Old Testament are quite brutal but in most cases we can find that the Israelites unlike most other cultures did not kill the women and children and they were they let them remain and often integrated them into their own cultures. But when you read about it when you think about it when you look at the scriptural examples of these wars they were always tied to some specific purpose or intent to preserve wars to dominate and control others. They were not wars to take over additional territory they were not wars to rule the world they were wars to protect what God had given them the land and people of their own so that's a little different. Even with David and Solomon when the kingdom of Israel was at its greatest expanse and in influence around the world most of those other countries were connected to Israel by treaty not because they conquered them in war. They wanted to share in what we'd say today they wanted to share in the commerce but they weren't conquered which is much different from most of what we have seen in history with wars. Most, many, no I would say most, many of the wars that we're familiar with are wars to conquer other territory. That's not what Israel was doing which is I think relatively unique to the nation of Israel that they've been in a lot of wars but it's been to protect themselves and their land not to conquer other lands so I just want to point that out when we talk about it. Yes there is this exception to war but in Israel's sense it wasn't to conquer the world or to rule the world it wasn't like the Romans or the others that took over or other countries that do that sort of thing. I'll just leave it at that so you can work that through and so self-defense acknowledges the value of your life and the life of others to protect them if they're under threat. Let me talk about euthanasia for a few minutes. Euthanasia is the practice of intentionally ending a life to relieve some sort of desire pain suffering something and it conflicts with the biblical commands. And we have to balance the biblical commands with the compassion of others and to others clearly doing something taking an active role to cause someone to die is against the commands of the scripture poisoning them in some way with drugs or some other active means because a person chooses or not chooses is still murder my wife and I just mentioned it again the other day because one of her family members told her this and I'll I'll repeat it in America we don't live longer but there is a point in it that we can extend life longer even though we may be dying and even though in centuries before our life would have been shortened. And so we deal with a lot of issues based on that and I'm not saying we don't want to do that we we like our modern healthcare system that helps us and and and can do so many things we're not saying that but it does bring up issues about euthanasia and so the question arises when we decide to receive treatments especially extensive treatments of some kind you know ventilator machines and other machines forcibly feeding people those kinds of things that don't resolve the issue that the health issue but does make life extend so we have to deal with those each one directly I want to say as a pastor just to you as a church body to you as a pastor if you're if you have to deal with those kinds of situations if the person is passing if the person is dying withholding treatment that simply extends their life longer is not killing them. It's not murdering them I just want to I will I will make that clear to you this is my stance as a pastor it's not murdering them. Now just ignoring them and not providing no care for them is not good. I'm not saying to do that oh well I've got a date I need this to happen by that that is not the right approach at all and it's certain questionable I'll say it the at the least but there comes a time when modern medicine has put us in this position. That's not the same as euthanizing people because well they just got tired of living. It's not the same thing at all. And so I want you to be able to deal with that with compassion and prayer and please talk to your family in advance so they know what your wishes are because that will help them if they have to make the decision for you. Suicide suicide is tragic and it's contrary to God's design there are no winners in suicide there's only losers there's only hurt there's only pain there's only anguish it doesn't relieve anyone from all of that and in most cases it involves deep emotional and mental distress so what is in order for these what is in order for all of these situations for us as Christians we started with that at the very beginning what's in order compassion compassion that's what's in order care and concern stand on the word of God stand on the word of God please stand firmly on the word of God but compassion and grace are in order because you're not living in their shoes it's usually someone else you're looking at so sanctive life is not merely a doctrine it's a way of living and we do that by honoring others as image bearers of God both us and them. We do that by guarding our heart from contempt and hatred disrespect to others. We do that by speaking words that give life rather than diminish life we do that by showing compassion to the suffering to the weak to the lonely to the forgotten and we do that by valuing our own life as God values it when God's people treat life as sacred the world sees a glimpse of his character