Sermon Tone Analysis
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Life Is Precious
Exodus 20:13
It was a story of mass murder.
In the wake of the killings investigating officials were heard to say things like: This is the most horrific thing I have seen.¨
They suffered in ways you and I can’t imagine.¨
When we find (the killer), he is going to be the kind of person who has no conscience.
¨ This is an offense to our senses. . . .
It is like somebody desecrating the flag.
¨ Whose deaths prompted this outpouring of shock and anger?
Tourists?
School children?
No.
The victims were 33 range horses.
They were gunned down on the evening of Dec. 27 in a canyon just 10 miles outside Reno, Nevada.
The killings have since been attributed to some Marines home on holiday leave who used their training and skills to murder the innocent.
Interesting isn’t it, how in our modern times we get so worked up about killing and cruelty to animals, yet atrocities against human beings often leave us apathetic and unmoved.
We’re on a slippery slope.
Unless there is a dramatic change in the American mindset the value of life will depreciate with each passing decade.
There is also an individual, personal cost when we disrespect human life.
Vital connections with other people are severed, a proper value of our self suffers and an intimate relationship with God ceases.
Human life is important to God.
So much so that the sixth commandment directly addresses how we handle it.
“Do not murder.
¨ Exodus 20:13
Through this commandment God explicitly tells us to respect life.
Some older translations say “thou shalt not kill.”
That’s kind of misleading and some wrongly conclude that all life is included here.
The literal Hebrew word used denotes the deliberate murder of human beings.
There is no prohibition against the killing of plants, bugs, or animals, no matter how groups may try to rip this verse out of context.
What’s the basis for this command?
Why are we so valuable?
What separates humanity from the animal world?
Genesis 1:26, 27 “Then God said, ‘Let us make people in our image, to be like ourselves.’
So God created people in his own image; God patterned them after himself; male and female he created them.”
(NLT)
Each of us are inherently valuable because we were created in God’s image.
As C.S. Lewis observed, “There are no ordinary people.
You have never talked to a mere mortal.
Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat.
But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub and exploit.
Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbor is the holiest object presented to your senses.¨
God calls us to respect all human life, from the least to the greatest, because all were uniquely fashioned in his likeness.
Image is everything when it is God’s.
Where does murder come from?
What is it that causes us to lash out at these beings created in the image of God? Murder has two sources:
1. Unrighteous anger.
This one is a given.
There are times when we should be angry.
When other people are abused or exploited we should be indignant.
That is righteous anger.
Unrighteous anger comes when we perceive that our needs aren’t being met.
We fume because our rights are being violated.
Unrighteous anger is self-focused.
It is inappropriate for the follower of Jesus Christ.
James 1:19-20 says, “My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, for man is anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires.”
(NIV) The second source of murder may not be as apparent to you as the first.
Murder can arise from:
2.
False ideas.
All you have to do is refer back to 9~/11 to see this one in action.
The Islamic terrorists who brought down the World Trade Towers and killed thousands of people did so out of false ideas.
The Qu’ran puts forth the false idea that killing an infidel and dying for the cause of Allah virtually guarantees you a spot in paradise.
You have to be careful when it comes to ideology.
As one author has said, “Ideas have consequences.¨
The result, as we know all too well, can be murder.
Most of think that we’ve got this commandment licked.
We congratulate ourselves that though we may have violated all the others, at least we‘ve never murdered anyone.
Or have we?
Let is look at the different degrees of murder.
\\ What Is First Degree Murder?
1. Homicide.
This is deliberate, willful killing of another human being.
We can picture it in the senseless shootings in the Washington DC area this past week.
Homicide does not include self defense, participation in the military or capital punishment.
The implication of homicide is that an innocent victim died at the hands of another person.
Closely related to homicide is:
2. Suicide.
Suicide is simply self-murder.
This kind of murder says to God, “Not thy will, but my will be done.
¨ It is also a disregard for the image of God within one is self.
As a pastor, I am often asked whether suicide prevents a person from going to heaven.
To that I answer, “Not necessarily.”
No where in the Bible is suicide listed as an unpardonable sin.
Suicide points to a lack of hope and possibly a loss of mental faculties.
Over 90% of all suicides are drug or alcohol related.
There is really no all encompassing principle here.
In the final analysis, only God knows the state of the person’s heart who commits suicide.
That is why I’ll refrain from setting absolutes and let God be the judge.
Another category of first degree murder is:
3. Euthanasia.
This has nothing to do with kids on the continent of Asia.
Euthanasia is also known as mercy killing ¨ or doctor-assisted suicide.
¨ It literally means, good death.¨
Euthanasia can rightly be considered murder because it sees no value in life if there is not quality of life (by whatever arbitrary means you determine that).
When I speak of euthanasia I’m not talking about situations where you let nature take its course.
There is a huge difference between removing a ventilator from a brain dead patient and actively administering a lethal dose of sedatives to a cancer patient.
Unfortunately we don’t have time to discuss all the ins and outs of this subject.
Suffice it to say that euthanasia disrespects life.
Accepting the practice leads to a slippery slope that America will soon be sliding down.
Listen to this chilling description reported by Dr. James Dobson.
“This downward slide [of euthanasia] was explained dramatically by Dr. Leo Alexander in an article in the New England Journal of Medicine.
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