8-30-2015 Bioethics Part 22

The speaker discusses what the Bible has to say about prenatal life, stating that it doesn't provide specific answers but suggests that God forms humans in the womb. The speaker also explores the concept of personhood, questioning when a fetus becomes a person. They argue against using viability, nervous system development, and movement as defining factors. The speaker concludes that conception is the point at which something new is formed and suggests that Christianity demands individuals to consider how they treat their neighbors. The speaker does not provide specific guidance on public policy or actions, as it is a personal decision. All right, well, let's pray and get started now. We thank you for this morning and for this Opportunity that you've given us to come here together as your people To worship to pray to sing to think To hear and to speak back to you the things that are both true of ourselves and true of you we pray that as we Spend the next 45 minutes together that you would give us Wisdom Jesus name Amen Last week we covered quite a bit of ground We began looking at what the Bible has to say about prenatal life What's the answer to the question? What does the Bible have to say about prenatal life? Not a lot Way less than we would like to think Way less than we might want The Bible is not a science book and does not give us answers to scientific questions It also doesn't give us answers to things like how to make a peach pie. So we shouldn't be too concerned But it doesn't say nothing What does it seem to say about prenatal life? What can we say that like well while there's there's nothing very specific we could say Apparently we could say a couple things. What would those things be? You better remember Okay Okay, so Okay, right so God forms them and when we speak of them, what are those what where are them? What are them? People humans, that's right. And so That would lead to the psalmist is speaking about God forming him in His mother's womb or in the depths of the earth, which is a poetic way to refer to the same thing and So therefore the psalmist we said was self-referentially aware which is a really complicated term for saying when the psalmist looks backward to His previous existence in his mother's womb. He sees that thing as him. He doesn't see it as a Kind of just unknown thing or a thing that just doesn't really exist Or a thing that kind of is neutral. It's a real thing It also says that Embryos are in some sense. It's not very easy to understand what we call morally culpable What does morally culpable mean? Morally responsible, there we go. Man. I was fast. Yes morally responsible So in sin, my mother conceived me there seems to be this idea that I can bear sin Again pertaining to this embryonic state What we're trying to figure out is when people become persons which sounds kind of like a dumb question but it's a real question because as we saw nobody pro-choice or pro-life believes that What a embryo is is nothing other than a human being. Why is an embryo human being no matter what your opinion is? Okay genetics, so it is human which means it's not what A dog right or a penguin or a flamingo. Okay, so it's human And why would it be considered a human being? It's life exactly so it's alive therefore the human being there's no question about that We saw there's nobody that debates that question. The question is is it a person? Is it a person? Because only persons Have rights Since only persons have rights then we have to determine what's a person We're trying to determine that from uh the order of birth backwards Right trying to determine some kind of point. So at birth we said that's not really a a legitimate time to consider Somebody like oh at that point they become a person. Why not? Right and also is the day of their birth set No, it's completely arbitrary. It's not like somebody is we say that a baby takes how long to develop Nine months, right? But that's not nine calendar months to the day Ding Comes out of the oven perfectly prepared, right? It's approximate. It's Ordinary, okay So birth we go at birth something does change you go from not breathing to breathing You go from eating in profoundly different ways All of a sudden you're using your faculties to both urinate and defecate However, nothing all that stuff was potential before it's the environment that changed so we go that's not really a good point Roe versus Wade determined Um is a kind of our major case in the united states to determine the viability Is the point at which somebody becomes a person? What does viability mean? A chance of survival Out of the womb. There we go. So why is viability also? Uh arbitrary and probably shouldn't be considered the point at which we consider somebody human or a real person Dependent Person Yes, so as we've uh posited last week a woman could be 24 weeks pregnant and the child could be viable Because of the medical technology that she's present with she could get on an airplane and fly to Nairobi, Kenya And that evening that child is no longer viable. It all depends on just where that Person is in the world and the medical technology that's available to them. Therefore, you can't say that Viability is the point at which somebody becomes human or a real person So then we looked at the development of the nervous system Why is the development of the nervous system for some people the point at which uh, Personhood comes into being What do you need your nervous system in order to do? Most things yes, that's true in this case It's reason right people go if you can't reason then you can't determine between what right and wrong therefore you can't make decisions So this is a common roman catholic argument among some people that they say if you don't have a central nervous system You can't make decisions But as we said if we're going to determine personhood on the basis of rationality Then there's a large number of people in the world right now that are not persons because they're in no way rational Um, they are called children teenagers college students. It kind of depends on how old you are It's like everybody younger than me not rational. Um Then we saw quickening what's quickening? I actually I had somebody asked me about this the other day. What's quickening? That's right moving in the womb the biblical example that people give for this is John the baptist that's right John the baptist leaps in his mother's womb when jesus comes into the room and people go see at the moment of movement is the Point that kind of you're indwelt with a soul and you become a real person That doesn't exactly work for what reason? You move at all different stages totally true also, there's the very simple fact that uh You don't some kids don't move for very long. And also what do we call a body without a soul? A corpse that's right So if you're saying that the soul enters the child at the point that it moves which we have no reason to believe that That's true Then you're saying that essentially you have a dead person living inside of you until it moves at which point it's a real person Which is number one super creepy and number two Just not very helpful to the discussion So lastly we got to the very complicated early early early first three weeks uh Stage which is the most difficult because we talked about twinning. What is twinning? It's like a science class up in here, huh? There you go when an embryo splits in two or has the Possibility of splitting into the first three weeks of embryos life. We have no reason or idea why there's lots of theories One embryo can turn to two embryos Spontaneously and then also even even rarer cases two embryos can turn into one embryo So people go see you can't call it a person until it's Individualized which is post three weeks But the argument that goes against that is while that's true Embryos in their first three weeks of life They can become two embryos or two human beings then actually in the first three weeks of life They are more important because you're talking about the possible annihilation of more people not less An embryo would actually in that case become less important post three weeks Okay, there's only one point at which there is a true transition from Something to something else what's that stage? Conception right as we have titled it or germination Fertilization There is now at the point of fertilization something in there that wasn't there before something wholly new Something shares part of both egg and sperm, but something completely different And we have no reason to believe that anything else than that is what makes people people This week we're going to talk about abortion and what you and I should do about it I would like to say from the very beginning that I have absolutely nothing to say about public policy Or how you should act in the world as a citizen of the United States of America I guarantee you that there are some people here who are on this side over here that say you know what every individual life matters It's grassroots campaigns that work So therefore you're probably a small government person, right? So you say we need to work in clinics save life-to-life. There's other people over here Who for whatever reason a large number of reasons believe in the power of government? And they say no we do is work with lobbyists and change laws because laws well, they don't change people's hearts I'm a Christian only Christians could say that Laws do enact change in civil society Therefore we need to work with lobbyists and big-scale things and some people need to work with lobbyists And big-scale things and some people might be here going. We need to do both Um, just so we're all clear all of those options are perfectly legitimate and none of them is better than the other one I don't care how much you're convinced that you're right and other people are wrong We're not talking about those things the way that you act in civil society is none of my business as far as telling you what? To do although it is interesting to me and I would like to know your reasons why? But I am not going to answer those questions I am speaking this morning as a pastor to this church I am not speaking about what Christians should do somewhere because that's too Uh objective and out there i'm talking about you people and me people What should we do? What I have to say this morning is not easy If you didn't know this before then you will definitely know this by the time we're done this morning Christianity demands something of you and I And never was that more true than how you and I treat our neighbors each and every one of them From the very beginning. I would like to point out something very simple that Christians have always from the very beginning of um the beginning Christians have been opposed to abortion Here's something else that I would like to bring up just in case you were curious abortion has been around for how long? Forever that's right. The reasons for abortion have changed over time and the justifications for abortion have changed over time But do not believe for a single moment the lie that we in the united states of america came up with the idea of abortion And we're the only ones that have ever done it and we're the only ones that have ever legalized it That's absolutely false in every sense of the term Abortion has been around forever and Christians have always been opposed to it As we saw some Christians thought that life might have begun a little later So even today you have people that go with kind of the viability argument And say it's kind of really hard to say that a person is a person before they're viable But at any point That they even Christians would say but at this point they become a person although we might disagree on when they become a person They've always been opposed to abortion And society has always gone about it Our current notions of abortion as I said before come under the idea of roe versus wade All revolving around the notion of personhood and viability which is why we looked at that question so closely Once fertilization can be defended as the point at which a person becomes a person then the argument Becomes very difficult because if you can't Actually kill a person everybody knows that that's why we're trying to define personhood so This is why the arguments are always around when somebody becomes a person and the pro-choice side of the world would argue So vociferously or strongly against the idea that no people don't become people till later on You and I should not expect to win any arguments What I'm what we have explained about why we think people are people and why people matter is a christian argument There are public reasons for Avoiding abortion. I'm not interested in just winning arguments or having people change their minds You and I are christians So our goal is to say truthful things about people You and I are christians So our goal is to say truthful things about the god we worship and the world we live in and then live in truthful ways period Most of the common everyday argument for abortion on the pro-choice side comes down to what we could call the privacy argument What is could you please tell me the privacy argument? There it is. I can do whatever I want to do with my body It's not your body. You can't tell me what I can do with my body Now, let's go ahead and say that this is a bold thing to do because you and I would be Telling people what they could be doing with their own bodies. Again. This is not a public policy thing. This is the church thing It's the common argument and as we're going to see it's the weakest one The personhood argument is the strongest one that we covered last week but this is really the the personhood argument is the argument at the very high levels of people who are thinking hard about this And justifying the ordinary everyday rhetoric of I can do whatever I want with my body Which is the man on the street argument the argument that you've probably heard either by a man on the street or a woman on the street Which is the man on the street argument the argument that you've probably heard either by people who are considering having abortions or By people who are defending the rights of other people to have abortions I'd like to point out that this is a side note. This is a quote from stanley harawas. He says talking about the importance of language We must remember that the first question is not is abortion right or wrong or is this abortion right or wrong? rather the first question is Why do christians call abortion abortion? And with the first question goes a second. Why do christians think that abortion is a morally problematic term? To call abortion by that name is already a moral achievement The reason why people are quote-unquote pro-choice rather than pro-abortion is that nobody really wants to be pro-abortion So it's important that we keep the term abortion and not the termination of life or the end of Just a medical procedure or something like that guarding the term is an important one The privacy argument is I can do whatever I want with my own body including abortion And this is problematic because it assumes That you and I only have duties towards other people if we decide to take them upon ourselves Right, I can I only have to do in society what I decide to do Towards you Right, I can come out I come out of my home so I live in my box And I only desire to exit my box When I feel like it, I have no duties towards any other people unless I decide to take them upon myself And it also seems to imply that you and I can do whatever we want with our bodies including harming the bodies of other people If I can do whatever I want with my body, and that is an argument that holds all the time Then I can be a suicide bomber I'm doing whatever I want with my body and you got to know you can only do something with your body That doesn't harm the body of another person What happens if you That doesn't harm the body of another person What happens if you if you try to shape the argument that way You go back to what's a person because all of a sudden you can't kill your baby If you want to because you can't use your body to harm the body of somebody else That's not legitimate This notion of privacy comes from somewhere It comes from a lot of different places. I would say that one of the main places it comes from is capitalism now Don't hang me or shoot me. I believe that capitalism is a very great benefit to the world in some ways This is not one of them One of the things that capitalism teaches us is that you and I are Free to live in absolute autonomy. I am free from everybody and everything unless I desire to do Otherwise, I'm out to make the most money for me You and I can't tell others that they must live as if others matter and not do the same thing ourselves It is one of the greatest shames on the church That you and I would have the guts to look people in the face and tell them how they ought to live unselfishly And then live as if other human beings didn't matter There is a big reason why pro-choice people laugh in the face of people who picket at abortion clinics It's because those people do not actually live as if other people matter much of the time Oh sure, they care in that moment They care that that woman doesn't Kill in their minds that child however They do live perfectly privatized lives in all other kinds of areas You have to understand something Those of you with children understand this very well Children ruin your life Oh, yeah, it's true The only people who don't believe that argument are people who don't have children Or who are so old that they can only idealize the time at which they had children children ruin your life now it is a life worth ruining because Children are a great blessing And lead to what I would argue to be In many cases if God gives you the gift of children, it actually leads to a much better life It does not mean that a life without children is a less better life However, all of the circumstances that are brought our way are changing us into particular kinds of people But it will ruin your life and make it something other than what it was And when you tell a woman That she must carry a baby to term And then raise that child You have to remember that you're not just saving a fetus But you are protecting a life that will go on that that woman will have to take care of For the next at least two decades of her life It is an incredible call to self-sacrifice christian or not It's a sacrifice worth taking But you've got to put yourself in the person's shoes who's considering the abortion Because if they have even two brain cells to rub together They understand that this is going to cost me something should I go through with this and the cost is for you Who is trying to convince this person not to go through with the action? You don't understand her situation You really don't it's impossible Because you can only really understand your own situation And even then who knows if you can understand it you can try you can try and sympathize Thankfully many people have In the christian community help tried to help people who are anti-abortion Understand that you have to understand the reasons why somebody would want to get one in order to speak to them truthfully These are not people that just want to go out and kill children The reason why they work so hard at trying to believe they're not children Is it so they can justify an action that would otherwise be monstrous? So you have to ask yourself what would lead somebody To work so hard against what they seem to believe is true In order to commit an action that they're having a hard time even accepting is legitimate You and I are all very very much inconsistent in our lives We are all selfish There's not a single person here who is as self-giving as they ought to be Which is why in the christian life We begin and we end with repentance But please explain to me. What is repentance? Broadly speaking Okay, so that's step one acknowledging you did something wrong Turning from your ways and Pursuing what is right Acknowledging that you are wrong Turning to something different and pursuing what is right I'm going to pound this drum For the rest of this morning and for the next week The problem of abortion begins with the fact that you and I are not the kinds of people that we ought to be Yes, abortion begins with the fact that we live in a sinful world and everybody does sinful things When it applies to us, it is the fact that you and I are not the kinds of people that we ought to be And are often unwilling to become them I gift you with a very simple question that you must ask yourself every single day The men's group talked about this last week and we'll be talking about it again tomorrow The question is not what must I do? What is the bare minimum? I must do to get saved and go to heaven when I die? The question you must ask is what does Jesus demand of me? That is one of the most terrifying questions a human being could ask that knows anything about Jesus because Sum it up in just a few words. What does Jesus demand of you? There you go Never less than that There you go never less than that Jesus demands everything from us Applying that to the situation that you are in will get you much further down the road then well, is this really wrong? The privacy of limit the privacy argument is off limits to Christians that much is clear You can't do what you want to do against another person just because you feel like it That should be pretty much clear You also don't have the right to treat your body. However, you want it However, however you want to As one philosopher puts it there's no religion Worth believing in that doesn't tell you what you can can't do with your body and can do with your body What are the kinds of things that christianity tells us we cannot do with our body? You can't go kill people what else Sexual immorality Absolutely. You also so that includes adultery homosexuality. It's all kinds of things that the bible tells you you can't do with your body But I think even for non-christians this privacy argument doesn't really hold up You see you and I all want our privacy You see you and I all want our privacy Yet we also want the intervention of others, especially at the points that we you and I are most frail You desire for the firefighters to kick in your door and pull you out of the house when your house is on fire You desire for the medical team to take care of you every waking moment when you're in the icu dying from an unknown disease You desire for the police to intervene in your situation when you are in trouble in your home There are all kinds of times at which you are at your weakest and you desire the intervention of others If the fetus is a person then they are some of the weakest members of our society Therefore they deserve the best of all protection And if everybody is just supposed to fend for themselves, if privacy is just this thing that you and I must guard at all costs Then don't you ever criticize anybody that kills a small child Because they're just doing what they feel like doing Or anybody that argues that we ought to kill the elderly Which as we're going to see is a very strong argument against the bible Which as we're going to see is a very strong argument from a group of human beings Or the handicap The privacy argument doesn't hold But I ask you what is the opposite of abortion That's a great answer desiring to see people flourish in life, I would say that what the opposite of abortion is is hospitality This is such a major topic in my thinking Lately that i'm going to have a hard time not rambling Hospitality is going to play a major role going forward in the topics that we speak about including homosexuality And the mentally handicapped and mentally ill Why is it that you and I are so terrible at being hospitable? Because we're terribly selfish Yes You and I have bought into the notions of privacy at all costs And also you and I have rarely ever considered the cost of discipleship to jesus christ Now let me be frank Not all the guilt rests on you Or on our brothers and sisters most of the guilt rests on people who stand in my position Because we are unwilling to preach the whole counsel of god and read the red letters of the bible that don't sound very pretty But jesus demands much of us more than what most of us expect and more than most of us want And we can't just say well, I don't like that part So i'd like to address the area of hospitality as they relate to abortion in two areas We'll do one this morning pick up the other one next week The first is hospitality towards those who seek abortions I could begin this section by asking you to kind of raise your hand and i'm not So don't ask you how many of you have spoken with women who are considering having abortions Or their male counterparts who by the way are a group of useless individuals That we never bring up in the conversation Believe me i'm gonna See, but that would be maybe an unfair question. It's also very uninteresting It's unfair because some of you might not have had opportunities. It's uninteresting because who cares It's just a race. Yeah, i've done that the much more interesting question and the better questions are these Do you live in such a way that you might come into contact with people considering having abortions? Or have you so constructed your life that you're only around nice people who do nice things in a nice world? The other question is are you seeking to be a person of hospitality welcoming the stranger The other question is are you seeking to be a person of hospitality welcoming the stranger Even somebody as possibly morally reprehensible to you as a woman who has had an abortion A woman who is seeking to have an abortion or an abortionist themselves If you and I are ever going to be helpful and truly love our neighbor We must be the kinds of people who are able and willing to have these people in our lives and in our homes I have lots of problems with the methodist church One of the things I don't have a problem with the methodist church on Is one of the things that every single one of the members of the methodist church has to agree to as they become members Each and every member of the methodist church has to promise to uphold the church with our prayers our presence our gifts our service Our prayers our presence our gifts our service which one of those is the most difficult you think? Service Gifts I would argue that presence is the most difficult presence not as like christmas presents, but presence as being near people Why because you can use your gifts whenever you desire to You can pray as much as you want You can serve whenever you feel like it But presence assumes that you're going to be there both in the good times and the not so good times As we argued in the virtue section constancy or stick with it-ness or long-suffering Perseverance through all things is by far the most complicated of the virtues Because you and I particularly in our society particularly in one where there's a church in almost every corner I can just pick up and leave because we feel like it because this doesn't suit me Because this doesn't cater to every one of my individual felt needs And at the moment that I have a problem with somebody I can just leave Being present is very very much fun when it's easy and almost impossible when it's not easy I firmly believe that the church in general and we in particular are a rather inhospitable people No doubt No doubt most of us are willing to be kind to people who are easy to be kind to What do we call people that we like? Friends So friendship entails spending time together. That's a no-brainer And are friends a good thing to have yes or no? Absolutely, don't just consider that hospitality even for a moment. It's not it's called It's not it's called showing friendship Hospitality is opening ourselves to those who are strangers amongst us Jesus himself points out in Luke chapter 14 verses 12 through 14 Jesus said also to the man who had invited him when you give a dinner or a banquet do not invite your friends Or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid But when you give a feast invite the poor the crippled the lame the blind and you will be blessed because they cannot repay you For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just There's absolutely nothing wrong with having friends. There's absolutely nothing wrong with having parties with your friends however Our convictions are put to the test when we are dealing with those who are easy to love and uneasy to welcome Like women who are considering having abortions women who have had abortions or abortionists themselves You might be asking Jeremy How do you and I become these kinds of people It's easy to talk any kind of abstract terms we do bad at this we should do better at this But you can't point to a problem without giving a solution. So I ask you to begin with How can you and I begin to become hospitable people there's not one right answer there's all kinds of answers give me ideas There's a good one pray about the condition of our hearts good what else Yes, um good get to know your neighbors Uh, i'd like to point out two things Number one for most of us that's very very complicated number two When I say neighbors, I mean the people who live in close physical proximity to your house One of the problems we have with the neighbor argument is we go. Well, everybody's my neighbor So you and I feel very passionately about sex trafficking in thailand and women who are starving in ethiopia Yet, you don't give a single thought to the person who lives next to you because you're concerned about your neighbors and those who are struggling the most Your physical neighbors are the people that you are most morally responsible for and it is very difficult I will tell you personally that with all the neighbors moving in around here. It's still very hard to get to know them We live in an incredibly privatized society Privatized society But just because it's hard doesn't mean it's not something you're supposed to do Which goes back to the first argument or the first thing? Are you even praying that you would get to know your neighbors or do you just not care? It's hard and oh by the way your neighbors probably jerks Okay, you probably don't live and leave it to beaver land and everybody's just super nice and helpful Congratulations If those people were nice and helpful and you liked them They would just be your friends and you wouldn't have to find other people to be hospitable towards What else can we do Yeah, okay, so being patient with those whose beliefs might differ from yours You all see the world in uh different ways On all kinds of different issues I could start a fight in here in about three minutes on 10 000 different issues that don't matter and have nothing to do with the church however Differences are good. But in order to speak well, you have to first listen well So I don't care how crazy the idea is of your neighbor You have to give them the right to hear them out on what they're saying no matter how morally reprehensible you think that thing is Good what else? Yeah, okay Yeah So there's some kind of apparent common ground there's either real common ground in some kind of thing that you both like to do therefore you can begin a relationship there or There is some apparent common ground where they believe for example that kids need a good education Now unless you're just a heartless Weirdo, you probably believe very similar things. You might disagree on how that might go about but you're probably for the proposition Children just need a good education Here's the thing that you can then start with and go why why do people matter? You jump to it like quick, right? You go like what? Well, why does anybody matter? You know, maybe they'll tell you well because everybody's created an image of god you can go. Whoa. All right. Here we go I can almost guarantee you that's not going to be their answer And that my understanding for myself is already trying to articulate a fighter and that's not good because you're always trying to find out what's wrong, what's right, what I can agree with, what's true, that's what you're saying about the person. Exactly. There are many beliefs that you're most atheistic, mean, cold-hearted, cruel neighbors. There are things that you both agree on True things, real things, crime is bad. You probably totally disagree on what crime is and also what should be done about it and all that kind of stuff. However, there are things that you totally agree with. Find those things as much as you find things that are indifference. You and abortionists hold many things in common. A whole number of things. Figure out what those things are as you have opportunity to know abortionists. Jeremy, how am I ever going to know abortionists? You start with prayer. Not God please send me an abortionist. But God please change me in the kind of person that when I met an abortionist I wouldn't just start yelling and screaming at them. The one thing that we have not brought up yet is the fact that what you and I can do that's probably more important than anything is be honest amongst ourselves and live in such a way that demonstrates that you are indeed dependent on other people. The church is one of the worst places that I know of in all of civil society that fakes the notion that everything is okay and that I don't need anybody because I have Jesus. Just so we're all clear, you're not fooling anybody if you're setting yourself up that way. Everybody knows that you're a mess. We just are determining how big of a liar you are. That's all. And the longer you're in this Christian life, the more you realize that everybody is the same as you, messed up and trying to figure it out. So quit playing the games with other people. You see, if you and I desire to have people come into the midst of us and tell us their struggles, and you and I are not accustomed to telling each other our struggles, then when somebody comes and says, Jeremy, I'm struggling with the concept of killing my child, you will say, and I'm not going to put it that way, they're going to say, I'm considering having an abortion, and you're all going to go, WHAT? But if you and I are people who are in the habit of telling the truth to each other, and living in truthful ways, then when somebody says that, we will be more prone, it's not a magic bullet, more prone to act in compassion towards those kinds of people. Also, if you and I are not visibly dependent people on others, and believe me, this is hard for me too, because I am the most independent cowboy on the face of the planet, but if we do not live in such a way that shows our dependence and thankfulness for one another, then people who need other people are not going to come around us, because you all have it all figured out, thank you very much, and I don't fit into your group. There's the common pastor joke that if you ever find the perfect church, you shouldn't join it, because you're going to screw it up, that's a true statement. I hope nobody ever goes, I can't go to your church, I like it a lot and everything, but I'm just a mess, and it appears that you all are just okay. We must be honest and live in honest ways. The last thing is that if we are going to help those who are seeking abortions, we must talk about males being accountable. It's interesting that when we talk about abortions, we just talk about women getting abortions, and never about the losers that try and convince the women that getting an abortion is a good idea. The first thing that we have to understand is that it's totally understandable that losers ask their girlfriends or wives to get an abortion. Why? Why does that make all the sense in the world? Or why should that make all the sense in the world? Why does it make sense that a guy tries to convince a girl to have an abortion? Irresponsibility. See, that guy knows that he's going to have to provide for that thing one way or another, or actively avoid providing for that thing one way or another, for the next 20 years of his life. And therefore, if he has no sense of responsibility towards really any human being, then it makes all the sense in the world. It's going to become a child, it's not a child now, so get rid of it before it becomes a child, I'm not going to pay for that thing. So first of all, understand, what? Right, yeah, because you just get in the process of like, no, we just get rid of this when it comes up, yes. No, no, no, but this is a very common reason why males convince women to get abortions. I could say that pretty much every argument comes down to irresponsibility. I do not desire to deal with this problem, you get rid of the problem that's inside you that I am morally culpable for. Because if it goes away, then I don't have to think about it anymore. Abortion is 10,000 times harder on women than it is on men, for all kinds of reasons. The physical process of it being just one of them. But if you and I are ever going to address the topic of abortion, you and I have to also ask, where's the guy in all of this? And seek to speak to the men. But before we ever do that, and I'm speaking straight up to every single man in here, be a man. Act in responsible ways, grow up and quit being a child. You're like, I'm not a child, congratulations, I'm not speaking to you. You're like, which one is he speaking to? I'm speaking to all men, including the men listening to this, they're too lazy to get to church. You can't talk to men about being responsible if you're not responsible yourself. You can't talk to people about privacy and the fact that they should give it up if you're such a private person that you're blatantly focused on you and only you. See, the way that you and I live in the world matters. So that as we speak about these things that are not easy, we must become the kinds of people that we seek for other kinds of people to become. And when we are not those ways, we don't go, well, at least I'm forgiven. You repent and you change. So that hopefully, you and I shape ourselves into the kinds of people who are truly hospitable to some of the most vulnerable members of our society. Let's pray. God, the call to discipleship is not easy. And dealing with topics like abortion are very easy to deal with when they are out there and when they are somebody else's problem. And when we all sit around and go, you know what, somebody should do something about that, and that somebody is not us. We pray for our own hearts, but we cannot change that which we do not see. And so we pray that you would show us our own sins, the places in our lives that we have just neglected, the ways that we live that we have justified, because, well, just everybody lives that way. We pray that we would become the kinds of people who do ask, what does Jesus demand of me, and then change. We do pray that we would be a people who are open and honest with each other about our own faults, so that when others come to us with their faults, we would be open with them. God, give us grace to accept the faults of others, knowing that our guilt is accepted before you through the work of Jesus Christ. In his name we pray. Amen.