Sermon Tone Analysis

Biblical Foundation for the Value of Human Life

If you brought your Bible this morning, open it up.

I want to encourage you to bring your Bible when we gather to worship God.

And you don’t actually have to wait for the sermon to get it out.

When we are singing to the Lord, is there a phrase or a verse that sends your mind to the Scripture and you open your Bible to that place.

If there is never anything in our worship songs that brings specific passages of Scripture to my mind, then there is either something wrong with our songs, something wrong with me, or both.

Do you value life the way God does?

INTRODUCTION

Our culture does not value life the way God does.

All life proceeds from God.

There is no life anywhere that does not have it’s source in God.

I cannot overemphasize this foundational Bible truth, but I am going to try.

There is no life anywhere that does not proceed from God.

I cannot overemphasize this foundational Bible truth

The purpose of this passage is ultimately to identify Jesus Christ as God and to begin to teach the distinction of divine persons within the one Triune God, but along the way, it affirms this fundamental truth that all things proceed from God.

A subset of all things is all living things and a subset of all living things is all humans.

, (In the beginning…) All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.

The purpose of this passage is ultimately to identify Jesus Christ as God and to begin to teach the distinction of divine persons within the one Triune God, but along the way, it affirms this fundamental truth that all things proceed from God.

A subset of all things is all living things and a subset of all living things is all humans.

This is, of course, the same truth we see from the beginning of the Bible.

, the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.

The reason that any person has ever been alive is that God breathed the breath of life into that first man.

The reason that any person has ever been alive is that God breathed the breath of life into that first man.

then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.

Now, Pastor, I get that the first man was made by God, but for the rest of us God did not scoop up some mud.

We came along in the normal sort of procreation reproductive fashion.

, the Apostle Paul is preaching to a bunch of intellectual pagans in Athens, Greece, who believe in wide assortment of gods and He points them to the one true God that they know nothing about.

About that God, the Apostle says this: ...he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and all things.

Present continuous action.

Everything that every person has it’s origin in God and God is actively continuing to supply life itself and breath.

The Apostle Paul is preaching to a bunch of intellectual pagans in Athens, Greece.

They believe in wide assortment of gods and the Apostle points them to the one true God that they know nothing about.

About that God, the Apostle says this: ...he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and all things.

Present continuous action.

Everything that every person has it’s origin in God and God is actively continuing to supply life itself and breath.

How many breaths have you taken this morning?

Every one of them is actively purposefully intentionally from the hand of God.

You continue to breath up to this very moment NOT because biological processes were started at conception and you have not yet experienced sufficient injury, disease, or degradation to stop those breaths.

That’s not why.

You continue to breath up to this very moment because, by the force of His good will, continues to grant you breath, continues to allow those biological processes to continue.

Glory - To - God

Thank You - God

Praise - God - From - Whom - All - Blessings - Flow

This first duty of every man and woman, according to

is to honor God and to thank.

We are to acknowledge God.

“My life and every breath I take is from You, God, who made me.”

Whenever we forget to acknowledge and thank God, we are risk of beginning a downward spiral

is to honor God and to thank.

We are to acknowledge God.

“My life and every breath I take is from You, God, who made me.”

Whenever we forget to acknowledge and thank God, we are risk of beginning a downward spiral

is to honor God and to thank.

We are to acknowledge God.

“My life and every breath I take is from You, God, who made me.”

Whenever we forget to acknowledge and thank God, we are risk of beginning a downward spiral

My Challenge To You: Spend a day rehearsing this great truth to your own soul.

Write it on your hand.

Really.

“Every person made by God.” “Every breath a gift from God.”

OK, I don’t think we overemphasized this first truth, but we started it anyway.

God holds the end of life.

As life proceeds from God it also returns to God, that is the time of death is in God’s hands.

It is not given to us to take a human life.

Job knew this.

He endured a ton of blessing in His life and also some very severe trial, which is what he is famous for.

In Job 14:5, he is complaining about how hard life is and how God ought to just leave everyone alone to enjoy life (as though we could enjoy life the way God intends without Him), and in the middle of His complaint, Job says this: man’s ...days are determined, and the number of his months in with you, and you have appointed his limits that he cannot pass...

, he is complaining about how hard life is and how God ought to just leave everyone alone to enjoy life (as though we could enjoy life the way God intends without Him), and in the middle of His complaint, Job says this: man’s ...days are determined, and the number of his months in with you, and you have appointed his limits that he cannot pass...

God is eternal.

He is the only one with no beginning and no end.

He is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning of all things is in Him and the end of all things is in Him.

God is eternal.

He is the only one with no beginning and no end.

He is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning of all things is in Him and the end of all things is in Him.

famously starts out this way:

LORD, you have been our dwelling place in all generations.

Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.

God is eternal and our lives are in His hands.

,

Moses continues, You return man to dust and say, “return, O children of man!”

You sweep them away as with a flood;

Moses continues, You return man to dust and say, “return, O children of man!”

You sweep them away as with a flood;

Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations.

Before

Moses continues, You return man to dust and say, “return, O children of man!”

You sweep them away as with a flood;

The beginning of life and the end of life are in God’s hands and it is not given to mankind to decide the time of death, not by murder and not by suicide, as God so concisely tells us in the 10 Commandments:

, Thou shalt not murder.

Pretty clear, right?

Any question?

Exodus 20:13, Thou shalt not murder.

Pretty clear, right?

Any question?

Well, some do a legitimate question: what about capital punishment?

Because God prohibits taking innocent human life, He also punishes the taking of innocent human life.

, The way this is to work is not by individuals merely taking revenge.

Rather, authority is granted to government to carry out capital punishment, as the Apostle tells us in , …there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.

…if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain.

Every life proceeds from God.

The way this is to work is not by individuals merely taking revenge.