Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
This automated analysis scores the text on the likely presence of emotional, language, and social tones. There are no right or wrong scores; this is just an indication of tones readers or listeners may pick up from the text.
A score of 0.5 or higher indicates the tone is likely present.
Emotion Tone
Anger
0.48UNLIKELY
Disgust
0.46UNLIKELY
Fear
0.11UNLIKELY
Joy
0.14UNLIKELY
Sadness
0.58LIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
0.68LIKELY
Confident
0UNLIKELY
Tentative
0.16UNLIKELY
Social Tone
Openness
0.9LIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.63LIKELY
Extraversion
0.08UNLIKELY
Agreeableness
0.54LIKELY
Emotional Range
0.53LIKELY
Tone of specific sentences
Tones
Emotion
Language
Social Tendencies
Anger
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9
! Why Terri Schiavo Matters
!! Making Sense of End-of-Life Issues
/Message Purpose:/
/Presentations:/ [PowerPoint: “Why Terri Schiavo Matters”]
/Handouts:/
*/Introduction/*
There exists today a battle of worldviews.
A worldview is a lens in which we view and interpret events and issues.
Everyone has a worldview, whether it is stated and defined or not.
Your worldview is largely influenced by your experiences.
As people who have experienced the saving work of Jesus Christ, we hold to a biblical worldview.
That means we view the world through the lens of God’s Word, the Bible.
Your worldview helps you understand issues in a certain way.
The issue that I want to help you understand today is the issue of euthanasia.
The title of today’s message is “Why Terri Schiavo Matters: Making Sense of End-of-Life Issues.”
I’m sure you’ve heard about the legal and medical issues surrounding Terri Schiavo.
Mrs. Schiavo was brain-damaged but not dying, at least she was not dying until she was starved and dehydrated to death by order of a court at the request of her husband.
This highly emotional case made national and even worldwide news.
But before there was ever a Terri Schiavo, there was a Hanna Heyt.
You probably never heard of the case of Hanna Heyt.
Hanna Heyt was a beautiful and talented woman who was married to a successful, young physician.
Not long after the wedding of Dr. Thomas Heyt to his bride Hanna, they discovered that she had multiple sclerosis.
Over the next number of weeks and months the MS started to take its toll on her body.
And although she was not immediately terminal—in fact, she probably would have lived for many more years—Hanna concluded that if she couldn’t have a full, vital life, she didn’t want any life at all.
So she asked her husband to kill her.
She said, and I quote, “I want to remain your Hanna till the very end; I don’t want to become somebody else who is deaf, blind, and idiotic.
I wouldn’t endure that.
Thomas, if you really love me, promise that you will deliver me from this beforehand.”
At first, he refused.
But as Hanna’s condition worsened, Dr. Heyt finally decided to inject her with an overdose of sedatives, and she died.
The young couple’s maid was horrified.
So she went to the police, who came and arrested Dr. Heyt.
He said, “Yes, I confess: I did kill my incurably ill wife, but it was at her request.”
In fact, according to the police report, Dr. Heyt testified that his wife died happily.
Nevertheless, Dr. Heyt was formally charged with the murder of his wife.
During the first part of the trial, things were not looking good for him.
The prosecution was presenting its case against Dr. Heyt in a clear, comprehensive manner.
It looked like an open-and-shut case.
So Dr. Heyt decided to take the stand in his own defense.
And in one of the most dramatic testimonies ever given in a court of law, Dr. Heyt turned the tables on those who would chastise him.
Pointing to each member of the prosecution in turn, he accused them of prolonging the suffering of those who cannot be saved.
He yelled, “You accuse me?
I accuse you!” Finally the case was handed over to the jury.
The case of Dr. Heyt illustrates something that is more and more common these days: End-of-life issues.
With all the advances of the medical industry, end-of-life issues are becoming more complex.
For those of us who are Christians, we want to follow God’s way.
Here are some common questions we face:
· Is it unbiblical for me to ask for a “do not resuscitate” status?
· May I as a Christian decline being hooked up to some machine since I am soon going to die anyway?
· May a family in good conscience before God ask that our comatose relative’s pacemaker be turned off since it is the only thing that is keeping him alive?
· What does God allow me to do to deal with the intensifying physical pain I am suffering?
· What is the right thing to do?
In my own extended family, we have had to deal with emotionally volatile issues like these, and you may have as well.
Please understand this: Scripture gives us guidelines for these issues.
The Bible is not silent on these issues.
As medical doctor Donn Ketcham wrote, “It is important to have certain guidelines laid down ahead of time—guidelines to which you can cling and hold firmly enough that they weather the storm of emotions in time of crisis.
This is a matter in which your convictions must be hammered out on the anvil of Scripture and moral principles before it is necessary to apply them in time of stress.
They must be settled in the quietness of the study lest the maelstrom of the actual crisis cause you to be swayed and you find yourself with situationally determined standards.”
That is my goal in this message: to give you the guidelines of Scripture as it relates to end-of-life issues.
In this message I can’t answer every question you may have, but you will have a biblical basis by which you can make decisions.
Why should we base these decisions on the Bible’s teachings?
Because we are committed to the truth that the Bible is the Word of God, and as such, it directs our thinking and actions concerning all the questions of life, including euthanasia. 2 Tim.
3:16-17 (HCSB) says, /“All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”/
*/Body/*
I.
So, what does the Bible say about life and death?
A. First, the Bible teaches that human life is sacred.
1.
All persons, from the moment of conception to the moment of death, are made in the image of God.
Gen. 1:26-27 (HCSB) – “/Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness.
They will rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the animals, all the earth, and the creatures that crawl on the earth.’
So God created man in His own image; He created him in the image of God; He created them male and female.”/
Your life is sacred.
You are special to God.
Nothing else in all of God’s creation is made in His image, but humans.
2. Opposed to the view that human life is sacred is the secularist evolutionary view called “the quality of life.”
The “quality of life” view says that if a person’s quality of life is low or declining, he should be exterminated, regardless of whether death is imminent and unavoidable.
The “quality of life” ethic (if you can call it that) grants a decision-maker the right to determine the value of another person’s life and to kill individuals whose lives don’t have enough value.
[/Illus/.: George Orwell’s novel /Animal Farm/ illustrates the “quality of life” idea.
Boxer is the slow-witted but hardworking cart-horse, and he gives his every fiber of strength and energy to the animal farm.
As he exerts himself over the years he grows weaker.
He marks off the days to his promised retirement.
However, as retirement approaches, Napoleon and Squealer, the dictator pigs, realize that Boxer’s value to the farm has lessened and that his upkeep will be expensive.
The solution is to send him to the slaughterhouse under the guise of a trip to the veterinarian hospital.]
A part of the euthanasia movement’s philosophy is to use the “quality of life” arguments to rid society of the old, the weak, the mentally handicapped, and the unwanted.
As Christians, we reject any philosophical ethic that regards “quality of life” as the standard by which people are cared for and allowed to live.
We believe in the sanctity of all human life.
So first, understand that the Bible teaches the sanctity of human life.
B. Second, the Bible explicitly condemns homicide.
1. Exodus 20:13 (KJV) says, /“Thou shalt not kill.”/
2. Why did God give this command not to kill?
Because of the image of God in us.
To destroy what is made in the image of God is tantamount to an assault against God Himself.
That’s why God requires the ultimate punishment for murder.
In Gen. 9:6 (HCSB), He says, /“Whoever sheds man’s blood, his blood will be shed by man, for God made man in His image.”/
Since God alone is the Creator of human life, only He has the right to take human life.
There are, however, two instances in which God extends to us His authority to take life: capital punishment and war.
3. When Commandment #6 says, /“Thou shalt not kill,”/ the word ‘kill’ refers not only to murder, but to all kinds of homicide.
What’s homicide?
Homicide is the taking of life outside the parameters laid down by God (those parameters being capital punishment and war).
The following are examples of homicide.
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9