Leadership in Context with Keith Tucci
Episode 016
Pro-life
Who was the first person to praise the incarnate Jesus Christ on this planet that we have a record of?
The answer is found in Luke 1:41 When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greetings, the baby leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.
John the Baptist was the first person to praise the incarnate Jesus on this planet. He happened to be living in his mother’s womb at the time. It is interesting that it is a medical doctor, Dr. Luke, who recorded this in Luke 1. Luke 1 tells us of a divine encounter of two unborn children in their mother’s wombs.
There are 27 people that God names and refers to in Scripture before they were even born. There is a clear pro-life message in Scripture.
Conception means to start. The point of conception is where it starts. There is no such thing as a post-conception start to anything. How, then, could there be a post-conception start to a life?
As Christians, we need to be able to articulate that life begins at conception from a scientific perspective. We also need to be crystal clear on the moral position without apology.
Moral Redemption
Jesus died for mankind. Meaning ALL mankind. To dehumanize any mankind, let alone a specific group, would be outrageously offensive to God. Over the years, our nation has done that. We dehumanized the Chinese workers during the railroad craze. We dehumanized the Japanese during WWII. We dehumanized women in many situations. In our lifetime, since 1973, we have dehumanized children, simply on the basis of where they live—unborn children living in their mother’s womb.
In Matthew 25, Jesus said …as much as you’ve done it to the leastof these, you’ve done it unto Me.In our culture, who would qualify for being “the least of these” more than an unborn child? Jesus gave us a template that we need to be very clear about. When we dehumanize human life—because of a caste system, or skin color, or gender—we literally are slapping the Creator God across His face. Not only because He is the Creator, but also because He gave Himself in the very form of that humanity to sacrifice Himself for ALL men. When we separate a people group and say they are less valuable, we are being morally and ethically offensive in the sight of God.
Silence
To say nothing, is to say something. Silence is always an “amen,” prophetically speaking. It is time that we remove our “amen” from the bloodshed that is destroying the soul of our nation.
When a mother kills her child, it doesn’t make her any less of a mother; it makes her the mother of a dead baby.
The outpouring of violence, school shootings, drug abuse, teenagers cutting themselves, rampant suicide—these things all have one thing in common: they dehumanize human life. I believe that they are being fed by the blood that is being poured onto the ground through abortions.
If Abel’s blood cried for justice, what must the blood of almost 60 million unborn children cry for?
On January 22, 1973, when the Supreme Court made open season on little boys and little girls who have committed no crime, who have offended no persons, we opened up Pandora’s box of hate and maliciousness on all people.
As a leader, you have to make sure you are not silent. Understand what the root of this is. If someone close to you lost a child or had their child taken from them or murdered, would not your heart break? Every day, God’s heart breaks, because every day abortion happens. It is never going to be OK with God. If we are in covenant with God, it should never be OK with us. Therefore, we must speak up and we must pray for creative, redemptive tactics, vision, and plans to stop the death tally in our communities.
Psalm 106:34-37 They did not destroy the peoples, as the Lord commanded them, but they mingled with the nations and learned their practices, and served their idols, which became a snare to them. They even sacrificed their sons and their daughters to the demons.
No matter what is happening in the natural, Satan is demanding a blood sacrifice to mock the humanity that Jesus clothed Himself with.
Psalm 106:38-39 And shed innocent blood, the blood of their sons and their daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan; and the land was polluted with the blood. Thus they became unclean in their practices, and played the harlot in their deeds.
In the Old Testament, every king was judged by one standard—they did or did not tear down the high places of Moloch. Moloch was a Canaanite god who demanded the shedding of innocent blood from newborn infants whose throats where sliced and the blood poured out and flowed on his innocence. The stinky stench was said to give him pleasure. The kings were not judged on how prosperous they were, how many people worshiped them, how great their armies were; they were judged on whether they did or did not remove the high places of Moloch.
I believe that God wants to bring revival to America, the Western culture, and around the world. We have spoken up in part, not in whole. I want to urge you to take a Sunday in January (specifically the third Sunday if you can, as it is pro-life Sunday) and address this holocaust. Put together a Sunday that is biblical, doctrinal, that will heal people that have suffered the loss of a child through abortion, that will send a clear message, that will take the “amen” away.
Francis Shaffer said, “Every abortuary in our communities should have a sign above it that says ‘Open by permission of the churches in this area.’”
If you believe in spiritual authority, you have to believe in spiritual responsibility. I have seen communities across America silence the “amen.” There have been over 600 free-standing abortion clinics that have been shut down and have not been replaced because two or three churches began to pray on the sidewalks in front of the clinics.
Take your “amen” away and say, “Let the killing stop.” I’m believing God for revival. The shedding of innocent blood is the greatest barrier that is holding that back.
In your church, in your ministry, in your business, and in your family, make it clear that you really are pro-life. Make it clear with Bible doctrine and foundation. Let’s celebrate life together.
The first person on this planet to praise the incarnate Jesus Christ was John the Baptist—as a baby inside his mother’s womb. Jesus received praise while He was still in His mother’s womb. What a message God sent to us. God is still sending that message—that He wants His body, the Church, to be one with His mission and His purpose and to communicate with our actions that all life is valuable, all life is redeemable, and there is no group of people that we are willing to see dehumanized. A true prophetic anointing is to care about what God cares about. Let’s allow our hearts to be resensitized, and not desensitized by all the death and destruction that is around us.
Join us next week as Keith Tucci continues to put leadership truth in the context of the local church. And as always, please like, share, rate/review, and invite others to listen. See you next week!
