Theme Music
Let me say something up front:
regardless of how you feel 
about the topic we will deal
with today; 
I hope you will hear me out.
I hope you'll hear me out...
because we are dealing with the
most polarizing and
controversial subject in the
21st Century.
Make no mistake about it.
So therefore, regardless of your
position, please hear me out.
Hear me out, and to see what I
think we need to believe.
Perhaps you will not join me in
this 
concerning the miracle of life.
Our Scripture is taken from the
Book of Psalms.
The Psalmist is replying and
speaking to God.
It's almost like a prayer of
thanksgiving or acknowledgement
to the Almighty.
Psalm 139, Verse 13 following:
"For You formed my inward parts.
You wove me in my mother's womb,
and I will give thanks to You,
for I am fearfully and
wonderfully made.
And as I say, "We are..."
I hope you'll answer in 
this sermon, 
"...fearfully and 
wonderfully made."
We are...
(Audience Responds)"...fearfully
and wonderfully made."
C minus!
Here we go!
We are...
(Audience Responds)"...fearfully
and wonderfully made."
Now everybody!
We are...
(Audience Responds)"...fearfully
and wonderfully made."
"You wove me in my
mother's womb.
I will give thanks to You, 
for I am fearfully and
wonderfully made.
Wonderful are Your works, and my
soul knows it very well.
My frame was not hidden from 
You when I was made in secret 
and skillfully wrought in 
the depths of the earth.
Your eyes have seen my
unformed substance, 
and in Your Book were 
all written 
the days that were ordained for
me, 
when as yet, there was not one
of them.
We are...
(Audience Responds)"...fearfully
and wonderfully made."
Mike Evans was a third year law
student at Harvard University, 
so he printed some little signs
that said, 
"Smile! Your mom chose life!"
And he put them on bulletin
boards on the campus, you know,
those bulletin boards that say,
"Couch for sale..."
"Looking for roommate."
"Want a ride home to Miami
in the holidays..."
those kinds of bulletin 
boards that...
so he began to put these 
signs up.
"Smile! Your mom chose life."
And he put them everywhere.
They began to pop up, and the
whole student body said, 
"Who's doing this?
Who spreading this all over
Harvard campus?
Who's doing this?"
Finally, someone saw him put one
up on a bulletin board, 
and they turned him in.
This third year law student was
taken to the dean.
The dean said, 
"You're on probation."
He said, "Why?"
He said, "Putting all those hate
signs on our campus!"
Let me remind you as to where we
are in America today.
Forty-nine percent of all
pregnancies are unwanted.
Half of those forty-nine
pregnancies end in abortion.
In fact, women who are 45 years
of age and under; 
one third of them have had one
or more abortions.
There have been over fifty
million abortions
in the United States since 
Roe vs. Wade 
made abortion legal in 1973.
Over fifty million abortions.
This is more lives lost than
were lost in the 
Civil War, the First World War,
and the Second World War 
all added together.
We need to break this down as
far as per day.
There's three thousand, 
three hundred and twenty-two 
abortions per day in America.
There are a hundred and thirty
eight every hour in America.
There are two every minute
in America.
So we look at these fifty
million lives that were lost 
in the most dangerous place a
baby can find him or herself, 
is in the womb of a mother.
We wonder about those 
fifty million.
Were one of those lives-was that
someone who could have 
found a cure for cancer?
In one of those lives, did we
squelch wonderful talent 
in the music world, 
in the art world, 
in the world of literature,
in the world of helps, 
in the world of medicine, 
in different worlds of life?
All those lost lives?
What we've missed out on?
I delivered these words last
night in a service.
After the service, I was 
shaking hands, 
and a woman came up to me
and she said, 
"I'm 75 years old."
She said, 
"I know my mother would have
aborted me 
if abortion had been legal when
I was born.
My mom told me that."
And I said, 
"Where were you born?"
She said in a sorority house on
the campus 
of The University of Texas."
Evidently, her mother's sorority
mates had hidden her pregnancy
until she gave birth to this
daughter.
"If abortion had been legal" 
she said, 
"I would not be alive today."
I walked over to shake 
another hand, 
and a woman came up to me 
and said, 
"I was adopted by a family in
our church" 
and I knew her adopted 
her parents.
She said, 
"Had abortion been legal when I
was born, 
just a little bit before 1973, 
I am sure my mother would
aborted me because 
she went and lived in a home and
then gave me up for adoption."
She said, 
"I would not be alive if 
Roe vs. Wade 
would have been on the statutes
of America when I was born.
And this is where we are in
America today.
This is the stance that we 
now have.
Mother Theresa said that 
"India is a very poor nation;
but the United States is a
poorer nation than India, 
because the United States has
legalized the killing 
of the unborn, and therefore"
said Mother Theresa, 
"The United States is a very,
very, very poor nation."
Today, you are fortunate.
I'm not going to preach.
No applause!
(Audience laughs).
But I'm going to try to 
have what 
Franklin Delano Roosevelt called
"a fireside chat."
And I want you just 
to listen.
Regardless of your position 
on abortion, 
I want you to prayerfully,
carefully hear me out, 
and I want you to know that
grace and forgiveness 
is a part of everything 
we're about.
We in this church family-we
stand with everyone 
in every moral dilemma, 
in every challenging moment
of birth, of life, of death, 
of pain, of divorce, 
of sickness.
We are there.
That's who we are as a 
church family!
If you haven't discovered that,
you haven't looked around or
listened very much.
So let me say, 
I begin with grace and
forgiveness for all of us.
That's how the Lord Jesus Christ
begins with you and me.
He loves us without question.
So, in this fireside chat, let
me just imagine for a minute,
and I have no particular
situation in mind.
This is a hypothetical, 
but it's a hypothetical I've
walked through many times 
through the years.
Let's say after the service, I'm
shaking some hands, 
and a teenage girl comes out
that I have known 
perhaps through beach retreat
 or,  she just comes out
and says, 
"Pastor, could I speak with you
in a few moments?"
I said, "Sure, Mary.
Just sit down over there in 
the church, 
and I'll be in there with you in
a minute."
And let's say she came in and
sat down, 
and I went in and sat down with
her, and I said, 
"How are you doing?"
And she began to cry and sob and
she says, 
"I'm sorry." I say, 
"It's okay, Mary.
That's okay."
And then she says, 
"I'm pregnant."
Teenager, 
sophomore in high school.
And she says, 
"I don't know what to do."
Said, "My friends tell me I
should abort the child."
She said, "I haven't told my
parents yet.
I need help."
And so I would say to Mary
something like this.
I will digress, and I would not
go into the detail 
that I will today in this
fireside chat; 
but this is the general outline
I would talk to Mary about.
And by the way, 
let me say before I begin to
speak with Mary, 
there are three groups of
people here today.
There are those who are
convinced that the 
fetus in a female is a 
human life.
You know that.
You're convinced of that, 
and you will be classified as
pro-life.
There are others here who are
unconvinced, 
and they believe that that fetus
is just a piece of tissue.
They are pro-abortion.
And there are others here who
are agnostics.
You say, 
"I just really don't know.
I know it's legal by the law,
but I don't know whether
that's a life or not."
The basic issue, the thesis of
all I'm saying 
has been spelled out by a 
doctor Hernandez.
Look at this statement here:
"There is no morally significant
difference"
see it on the screen
"between the embryo you 
once were, 
and the person you are now."
In other words, my thesis 
is this, 
and I would explain this 
to Mary.
I would say, 
"Mary, I believe
that in you, right now, 
is a little life...
a little life.
I believe that life starts 
with conception."
And incidentally, I do not know
of a single credible scientist
who would debate the fact that
life begins at conception.
Now they can go through some
medical gymnastics 
and try to wiggle around 
that truth; 
but I really do not know 
any credible people 
who would argue with that fact.
You see, when the 23 chromosomes
of the male, the sperm, 
and the 23 chromosomes of the
egg, and they come together, 
and you have those 
46 chromosomes-
you have the splitting, 
bang!
At that moment, there is life.
There is conception.
Now that life is independent of
the mother.
That life has its own
circulatory system of blood, 
and at that moment 
of conception, 
all the DNA is there; 
all the identity that will grow
through that life, 
beginning with conception; 
that's beginning with life.
It goes all the way until death.
What is death?
Death is when all the functions
of our body 
or part of the function of 
our body 
no longer are coordinated 
together.
See, when we die, our cells
still live for a while, 
but beginning with conception,
when everything is there that
gives any definition of life, 
all the way through until death,
there we have life.
Now, I would try if I had a
piece of paper, 
I would tell Mary, 
and I would put a little outline
down for her, 
an outline you'll see on 
your screen
It's an acrostic called
"S.L.E.D."
"S.L.E.D."
Look at it.
First of all, people say, 
"Well, you know, this is
not a life because 
it's such a small thing in 
the beginning."
Let me tell you something: 
Size does not equal value.
That argument is not valid.
Then someone say, 
"Well, here is a 6 week old baby
is not as aluable as a 9-year
old child..."
Or someone who is large is 
morevaluable 
than someone who is small...
Life is life, and life is life.
Size has nothing to do with it.
Then you would say 
level of development.
Well, that would determine
whether or not 
this is really a baby or not.
A 4-year old is not as developed
as a 14-year old.
Does that mean the 14-year old
is more valid than a 4-year old?
Or a 4-day old embryo in
the mother?
Absolutely not!
So, level of development is
not that.
Environment!
Where you are doesn't determine
who you are.
Who in the world believes that?
And you have a baby that's
in the mother's womb, 
that's the environment,
and then that baby moves about 
9 inches 
through the birth channel,
and now those 9 inches 
and that baby is outside the
mother's womb; 
the fact the baby is inside or
outside-
does that determine whether or
not that is a baby?
Environment doesn't 
determine it.
Degree of dependency!
You say, "Well, when that life
can live 
outside the womb on its own..."
When is that?
You think a 6-month old 
is independent?
They can just live on
their own?
Anybody think that?
It's not a question 
of dependency.
You think someone who has
Alzheimer's
that's under hospice care,
and has no mind, 
and they're totally dependent on
other people?
You see, there is a slippery
slope from abortion, 
to euthanasia, to infanticide.
They all work together, 
and it is a culture of death 
we are building in our world in
America today.
And it is the most divisive
issue we have before us, 
and I would talk in terms of
S.L.E.D. to Mary.
I would say, "I believe 
science has proven conclusively 
that life begins at conception.
Then I would say to Mary, 
"You have some legal
considerations about this life
that is within you.
For example, the doctors, 
upon graduation, 
for many, many years would
quote, or be charged with 
a Hippocratic Oath,
and in this Hippocratic Oath,
there's a little phrase in there
that I want you to look at, 
a very clear phrase.
It says, 
"I will maintain the utmost
respect for human life
from the time of its
conception."
Now, they've taken off 
"from the time of its
conception" 
See?
"I'll will maintain respect for
the human life 
from the time it's..."
Now the new Oath in recent
years-they've said, 
"Oh no, not from the time 
of conception."
See what's happened?
Now, has there been a medical
breakthrough
that's proven that life doesn't
start with the conception?
Absolutely not.
It's just a part of the
correctness of our society.
We use to talk about, about the
baby you are carrying...
They no longer use 
that terminology.
Let me say this: 
If that child, 
that life within a mother; 
that embryo, that fetus,
that zygote-if that is not 
a human being, totally and
completely a human life, 
then it's just tissue-I have 
no problem with abortion.
But if it is a life-
that's a whole different issue
altogether, 
and I would say to Mary, there's
some legal considerations.
I would say, "Mary, 
it's wonderful you live in the
state of Texas.
In Texas, we have the finest
laws of any state in the union
that will protect that unborn.
You see, that little life inside
of that mom 
doesn't have a voice of his or
her own.
It is a silent life, 
and only those of us who are
outside the womb 
can defend that life that is
there...
Now in Texas, 
we have a law that deals with
all the aspects of what a 
expectant mother must go through
if she considers abortion.
The doctor has to offer her 
a sonogram 
where she can see what is 
going on, 
the stage with that life.
The doctor also has to say, 
"You have to get the permission
of your parents."
There are a few exceptions, 
but generally, the parents have
to be brought in.
Also, there has to be a 24-hour
waiting period.
Also, the doctor has to remind
all that's involved here.
Look what you would see on 
a sonogram 
as to how this develops.
Look at 21 days!
See it on the screen?
Genetic blueprint is complete.
Eye color, hair color, 
all of this is there.
First irregular heartbeat, 
21 days.
Look at the next sequence, 
4 weeks.
Heart, digestive system,
backbone and spinal cord begin
to come.
At 1/4th an inch, the single
fertilized egg is now 
ten thousand times - 
look at that!
Larger than the day 
of conception.
Usually, this is the period
beginning here 
where the girl understands she's
pregnant, and things happen.
Look at 9 weeks.
Most joints are formed now.
Fetus will curve the fingers
around an object 
placed in the palm of his or 
her hand.
Fingerprints are already evident
in the skin.
Average size, length,
you see it there,
9 weeks.
Look at the next stage, 
20 weeks.
The weight is about 1 pound.
Internal organs are maturing.
Eyebrows, eyelids, 
eyelashes appear.
Fetus is about 
8 to 10 inches long.
Weight is about 1 pound.
There have been those who have
lived who weighed 
1 pound and a little more.
That's how advanced we are 
in our hospital and our 
science today.
So that is a little life.
About 50% of those who weigh 
2 pounds in premature delivery,
they also survive, 
and that is wonderful.
We're pushing it back 
further, and further, 
and further all the time.
So I would try to explain to
Mary, say, 
"Mary, look-there are scientific
reasons 
that there is a life within you.
Good science.
Positive science.
Almost irrefutable science.
Also, there are 
moral considerations.
You hear someone say, uh, 
these politicians on T.V.-I love
how they try to divide this up.
They say, "Look, I believe 
what my church teaches, 
that abortion is wrong.
It's illegal, and I'm 
against abortion.
I don't like abortion; 
but, I believe in a woman's
right to choose."
You hear that all the time.
"Now, I don't like abortion..."
Let me tell you something: 
Why does someone not 
like abortion?
If that is not a life, 
it's just a piece of tissue, 
what's wrong with abortion?
But if it is a life, that's a
whole different arena entirely.
You see, let me talk about
objective fact.
This is my wife, Jo Beth Young.
Stand up, Jo Beth.
There she is, right there!
(Audience applauds).
Jo Beth Young is present in
church today.
That is an objective fact.
Does anybody want to debate
about that?
I see none.
That's an objective fact, 
Jo Beth is here.
If I did not see her, would that
mean that she was not here, 
if she were really here?
No, no, no.
She's here, whether I 
see her or not, right?
Whether you see her or not,
she's here.
Thank you, Jo Beth.
That's an objective fact.
Now, I like vanilla better than
I do chocolate.
That's a subjective fact.
That's my opinion.
That's what I like.
You may like chocolate better
than you do vanilla.
That's true to you, 
but it's not true to me.
That is a subjective fact.
That's the reason when you see
someone say, 
"I don't like abortion..."
It's not a matter of a
subjective understanding; 
it's a matter of what is true
and what is not true.
It's not like, 
"I don't like abortion."
You see a bumper sticker
says, 
"I don't like abortion-
then don't have one."
It's not a matter of like 
or dislike; 
it's a matter of right or wrong.
It's like somebody saying,
"Well, I don't like 
abusing women."
It's not a question of 
abusing women, 
whether you like it or not.
Abusing women is wrong!
It's not right.
Taking the life of an unborn 
is wrong.
It's not a matter of likes, 
or choice, or anything else.
That's the reason we have to
look at this 
in a sense of what is true.
The whole issue uh, is, for
example: Someone says, 
"Well, this life-we ought to
abort this baby because 
it'll totally upset the 
life of this teenage girl."
Let me ask you something: 
If that is a life-
if that is a life 
and you come to that very
obvious, scientific conclusion, 
then is it worth aborting a
toddler because it will 
inconvenience the mother?
You want to take the life of 
a toddler?
Absolutely not!
You want to take the life a
toddler because we can't afford
to have this child now?
Absolutely not!
See, the issue is always a
matter of life.
If that is a piece of tissue, 
no big deal!
But if it is a life-if it is a
life, there's a moral question.
The Bible says 
"Thou shalt not kill."
It does not say, you know, 
"I don't like killing..."
That's not how that operates.
That's not the arena this
operates in, folks.
That is where the fallacy 
comes in.
How can someone say, 
"Well, I wish there'd be fewer
abortions..."
Why?
If it's just tissue?
The issue revolves is that a
life in the womb of its mother.
There is the issue.
There is the issue.
There is the issue...
And then, 
I wouldn't be this preachy 
with Mary, 
I assure you of that.
I would talk about, I'd say,
"There are scientific reasons
that that is a life.
There are some legal
considerations.
There are some moral
considerations here, 
what is right and what is wrong.
But also, there is a Biblical,
Biblical word here.
The Bible says that human life
is sacred.
I would say to Mary, 
"You never do right doing wrong.
Two wrongs do not make a right.
It's wrong.
You made a poor choice.
You're pregnant.
Don't make a second mistake by
giving up this life."
The third thing I would say, 
"It will be painful to do the
right thing 
for the immediate future,
but I can tell you, in the long
thrust of your life, 
Mary, it will be a 
beautiful thing, 
and God will honor you in a way
you can't even imagine 
as we are obedient to Him.
Over 2,000 years ago, 
a teenage girl discovered she
was pregnant.
Perhaps had she lived today, 
I don't know...
but this teenage girl was
supernaturally pregnant, 
and she carried that child to a
full term, 
and we call His Name Jesus.
For too long 
America has turned it's back 
on the biblical principles 
that have made this
country great.
Now we find ourselves 
in a world that has 
lost its moral compass.
In the series Truth, Lies and
America Today, 
Dr. Ed Young takes an in-depth
look at 
abortion, the separation of 
Church and state, 
and morality in our society.
We would like to send you this
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