Sermon, Sunday January 31 2021 – The Sanctity of Life

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Psalm 8

Do you know your net worth?

What if I told you that your net worth is infinitely more than you can imagine?

It may shock you that in America today there is an abortion every 96 seconds, or 2362 Lives taken every day. As tragic as that is, there is a sinister and extremely worrying shift that has taken place in our world today. With an increase in atheism and godless narcissism, life is under attack at both ends of the spectrum, the unborn, the elderly, and even the disabled.

When it comes to the sanctity of life, Psalm 8 has a poignant message for us. No other Psalm draws attention to the dignity and value of mankind as this one. It begins and ends with worship, placing God the creator of all things, at the place of ultimate worship and glory.

In verse 2, the Psalm then takes a sharp turn, from the glory and majesty of God, to the weak and helpless babies and infants. Of all the scriptures speaking to the sanctity of human life, this one gives us the clearest evidence of why Satan is on a mission to destroy the unborn. Abortion is not a decision regarding freedom of choice, it is a war against the giver of life Himself.

Jesus himself quoted this verse in Matthew 21. He had just cleared the temple of the money changers and the traders, there was pandemonium, and the children were running around the temple shouting, “hosanna to the son of David!”. The chief priests are furious, but Jesus simply quotes this verse and leaves.

There is tremendous power in the prayer and praises of innocent children. If you are struggling to pray, invite your children into the prayer time.  There is power in the praises of children to break down spiritual walls of opposition. Satan quakes at the sound of children praying.

In 2007 we took a mission planning trip to Philadelphia as a family. Joshua was ten days old at the time. On one of the days, we decided to visit some historic sites and took the tour of Independence hall, the room where the declaration of independence was adopted on July 4th, 1776. As we were listening to the tour guide, he wanted to find the youngest person in the room. Joshua was by far the youngest and Debbie took him to the front. As he looked at Joshua, he made his point, “here is the person in the room with the greatest potential”.

At the time we thought his statement was quite special, but Joshua’s life has been filled with challenges. He has Autism, Epilepsy, and a host of other diagnoses. On two occasions, we have sat at his hospital bed, not sure if he was going to wake up.

Today, does Joshua still have that potential?

We say, “absolutely”, the fact that the enemy tried to destroy him, points to the fact that God has a special calling and purpose for his life. Every life is valuable and has unlimited potential when given over to the calling and purposes of God.

The Psalmist then goes back to gazing at the magnificence of the universe – the general revelation of God (Psalm 8:3-4). If you are struggling to worship and encounter God in your daily life, take a few minutes on a cloudless night and look up at the sky. Within a few moments you will be worshipping as you see a glimpse of the magnificence of God.

The next two verses of the Psalm seem jarring considering the world we live in today. Some educators and environmentalists tell us that the world would be perfect, if only mankind was eliminated. According to them, man is the problem, the weak link in the order of things.

Considering what we see in Hebrews 2, we know that Psalm 8, is a messianic Psalm. Verses 5 and 6 find their fulfillment in Jesus. When Jesus died and rose again, God put all things under his authority (Hebrews 2:8).

It was God’s original plan in Genesis chapter 1 for mankind to have dominion over creation.

But when Adam sinned, he lost that dominion. The original sin damaged the original design. Instead of being a king, mankind has become a slave.

When Jesus came, he began to show us the original design of God. Jesus displayed in many miraculous ways, the power and dominion that he has over creation, by calming storms, commanding fish, walking on water, multiplying food and much more.  The fact that Jesus died and rose again, is all the assurance we need that one day, when he returns, his people will reign over a renewed earth. Jesus is the firstborn of the new creation; he has the first resurrected body that is incorruptible and eternal.

What makes mankind so incredibly valuable, is that we are created in the image of God and as followers of Jesus, we have been adopted by God and have become co-heirs with Christ. God places no greater value on any other part of creation.

Post-modern teaching has lowered man to an animal and rejected the image of God in creation. All around us, we are seeing the effects of this because we don’t see human beings as being created in the image of God.

Whenever you are tempted to gossip or speak angrily to someone, remember they are created in the image of God. Next time you are tempted to dismiss someone or look down on them for their dress or personal decisions, remember that they are created in the image of God and God views them with incredible love and value.

This applies to all people, the unbeliever, the criminal, the homosexual, the disabled, the elderly, those suffering from Alzheimer’s or any other debilitating illness, it does not matter. God puts priceless value on every human being. Even those that the world says are of no value.

The value of something is based on the price someone is willing to pay for it.

How much is someone willing to pay for you?

Your creator has demonstrated your value (Romans 5:8).

Jesus gave his life for you and he redeemed you.  The cost of your redemption was the perfect priceless spotless lamb of God.

You are infinitely valuable (1 Corinthians 6:19-20).

How does this fact change the way you view yourself and the people in your life?

Sermon February 18, 2018 Treasures of the Kingdom of Heaven

As we look at Matthew 13 we see that Jesus taught eight parables, and each time he said something to the effect of “the Kingdom of Heaven is like….”, and then told the parable. Some longer, like the parable of the sower, and some shorter like the leaven in the flour, which is only one sentence.

But we need to define the Kingdom. Matthew wrote to a predominantly Jewish audience, as a result, he used the term Kingdom of Heaven, whereas Luke and the other gospel writers used the Kingdom of God for the same principle meaning.

The Kingdom of God is the rulership of God over all things. He owns and sustains all things, but because of man’s sin, the world has been under the rulership of Satan. This is not to say that he rules the world completely; God is still sovereign. But it does mean that God, in His infinite wisdom, has allowed Satan to operate in this world within the boundaries God has set for him.

The earth is in subjection to the rule and influence of Satan until Jesus comes again and destroys his evil kingdom. Paul writing in Romans 8 describes how all creation has been groaning and eagerly waiting for the new kingdom to be revealed. When Jesus began his public ministry, he began the introduction of the Kingdom of God to a lost and dying world. The Kingdom of God is not strictly a future hope tied in with Christ’s second coming. it is the realm of God’s rule both present, and future. Jesus ushered in the Kingdom of God, of which He was the embodiment, when He commenced His earthly ministry (see Matthew 4:17).

When Jesus died on the cross and defeated Satan, he began the process of dismantling Satan’s kingdom and installing the Kingdom of heaven. So, the kingdom of heaven is present in the world, but not yet in it’s fullness.

The kingdom of Heaven is so foreign to the world’s kingdom, especially in our era, where the focus of our worship is ourselves. Jesus uses eight parables to introduce some of these foreign concepts of the Kingdom, four of which he tells the crowd, and then another four he tells privately to his disciples, he turns his attention to his inner circle, continuing to explain to them that this is what the Kingdom of heaven is like.

Focusing our attention on two of these parables; the man who finds a treasure hidden in a field and the merchant who finds a pearl great value, what can we learn from them?

When a person makes Jesus Christ Lord of their life, it must cause a dramatic change in one’s value system. The things we valued the most, we set aside;  the things that the world views as treasures become worthless in the knowledge of eternal life.

These two short parables speak volumes about what it means to be a follower of Jesus. What is valuable to you? Not just possessions, but people, titles, position and places. For some people their treasure is their sport, or their hobbies or their career (see  Matthew 6:21).

In both these parables, the man and the merchant sold everything they had to obtain a greater treasure. This is foolishness, this is extreme, this is radical. These are the same adjectives that people use when describing followers of Jesus.

RT Kendall wrote: “Once you have truly experienced the anointing of the Spirit, your money, reputation, love for the world, fear of what people will say and so on all pale into insignificance.”

The Bible does not say that having material possessions is wrong, rather it is when those things become more important to us than God, then we have a problem. This is because there is no comparison between the treasures of this world and the treasures of the kingdom of heaven.

The merchant who sold all that he had to buy one pearl, didn’t simply exchange one treasure for another. He found a treasure supremely more valuable than anything in his life.

This is what Jesus offers us and when we become part of the kingdom of God, we experience a treasure and a life that makes all other desires small in comparison.

So here is the big question, does this reflect your Christian experience?

Or have you simply tried to add a bit of religion to your life by raising your hand in a meeting in response to an altar call, but you really don’t know this treasure of the Kingdom?  Salvation is more than simply avoiding hell because our sins are forgiven. What you have available to you are treasures of inestimable value (see Romans 8:32).

When we ask Jesus to be the Lord of our lives, God gives us his Holy Spirit to fill us and to reign in us; we become a part of the Kingdom of Heaven. When we become a follower of Jesus, we become like the leaven that impacts the dough, we become a change agent in our community, preparing the way for the fulfillment of the Kingdom when Jesus comes again.

When we see it that way, and we see all that it means to be a Christian, we would be fools not to view all our earthly treasures as worthless in comparison. Do you really know what it means to be a part of the Kingdom of Heaven?

But there is a different way of looking at these parables that will hopefully transform your thinking. When Jesus was telling these parables, he was proclaiming the Gospel message. Jesus came to the earth, setting aside his heavenly throne and took on flesh, he became a man just like us as he set aside his golden crown to take a crown of thorns (see Philippians 2:7-11). When we see this, we see that Jesus is the person who found a treasure in a field, it is Jesus who found the pearl of great value and it is Jesus who gave up everything to obtain it. It is Jesus who bought the treasure of salvation by buying the whole field of creation. These parables reveal the Gospel, they reveal the glory of Jesus who denied himself even to the point of dying on the cross so that he would receive the name above every other name.

The kingdom of heaven operates on a completely different currency than our small world.  Have you discovered this kingdom? Give everything you have to the Lordship of Jesus and God will give you a life and a future of infinite value.