Turn in your Bibles to Romans chapter 14, verses 7 through 9. Verse 7, For none of us lives to himself, and no one dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, We are the Lord's. For to this end, Christ died and rose and lived again, that he might be Lord of both the living and the dead." If you affirm that, please say, Amen. Amen. Thank you. You may be seated. With all of the extensive news coverage of the death of Terry Schiavo, It is little wonder that many Americans are, for the very first time, considering seriously the wisdom of having a living will, or as some call it, a final directive. Because medical science can now keep your body alive long, long after your brain has ceased to function in an intelligent and sentient manner, it is becoming increasingly important that each of us provide written instructions in the eventuality that we find ourselves incapacitated and therefore unable to direct our own medical care in the context of either a terminal illness such as cancer or an irreversible illness such as severe stroke or Alzheimer's disease. As Christians, we must seek to honor God's plan and purpose for our lives, as well as the Lordship of Christ, as we are considering our final directives. This morning, my objective is not really to give you counsel and direction on how to address the issues of loved ones who are currently in a nursing home or hospice facility. I do believe that as we look at some of the verses of God's Word, you may be able to extrapolate guidance in that very sensitive issue, but that is not my focus this morning. My focus is those of you who are in fact listening to this message. and to provide you with the theological framework that will assist you in preparing your final directives or living will in a manner that can honor the Lordship of Christ in your life and in your death. The Lordship of Jesus is basing our decisions on life, death, and the final directive or living will squarely upon our understanding of the will of God as revealed in the sacred scriptures. I believe that my final directive should honor Christ's Lordship in my life. The actual living will that I will prepare and have authorized is going to be consistent with the Word of God, not my personal desires. I believe as a Christian there is something higher than my selfish desires, and that is the Lordship of Jesus. If I live under His Lordship, I want to die under His Lordship. For this reason Jesus died and rose again, that He might be Lord both of the living and the dead. So this morning I'd like to provide you with enough of a theological framework to help guide you in the preparation of your living will if you should choose to do so. And I strongly encourage you to consider that because it can prevent your family from excruciating pain and divisions within your family if there are disagreements over what ought to be done. The more you love your family, And the more you love your Lord, the more I believe you should consider preparing a living will. Let's begin constructing this theological framework. I'm just going to forewarn you, the further we go into this, the deeper it gets. Alright, number one. We must first of all consider the doctrine that God is the author of life and the Lord over death. God is the author of life and the Lord over death. Let's read together. Deuteronomy chapter 32, verse 39. It's on the screen. Would you read that with me, please? There is no God beside me. It is I who put to death and give life. God claims to be sovereign over life and Lord over death. Life from the biblical perspective is a sacred gift from God. It is to be treasured for the sanctity of that gift. God alone has a prerogative to end the life of the innocent and the helpless. Whether the innocent and the helpless life is in a nursing home, or whether he's in a hospital or in a hospice facility or in the womb, God alone has a prerogative as sovereign creator of life to end life in the experience of the innocent and the helpless. Therefore, as Christians who believe the Bible and who believe life is a sacred gift from God, our presumptions and our biases should always favor life. Follow me carefully. Our biases and presumptions favor life at all times because we believe life is a sacred gift from God. Now let me mention Terri Schiavo since she's on everybody's mind. Terri Schiavo, was she terminally ill? No. She could have potentially lived another decade or longer Was she irreversibly ill? Apparently yes. Was she incapacitatingly ill? There was some debate on that, but apparently she was. She did not have a living will. There were divisions in the family over what Terry would have wanted. She did have a feeding tube to administer water and food. Now, most conservative theologians would not consider a feeding tube as extraordinary medical treatment, because everybody has to have water and food to live. All they were providing for Terry, who was not terminally ill, was what she required to be alive. Not extraordinary medical treatment. Because of our belief in the sanctity of human life, Our conservative, Bible-believing theology would dictate we would err on the side of life if we're going to err at all in the light of no living will or final directives. Therefore, the feeding tube should have remained in place. And to remove the feeding tube would have one purpose, and one purpose only, to bring her to the point of death. Point two. The murder of innocent, helpless people is forbidden by the Word of God. In Exodus chapter 20, verse 13, let's read the sixth commandment together, please. You shall not murder. Now, in many Bibles, it says, you shall not kill. Well, in the Hebrew language, there are no less than seven words that could be translated into English as kill. But the specific word that God led Moses to use here in the sixth commandment would be better translated as murder. God is saying, you shall not commit murder. Murder can be defined as the intentional and proactive ending of innocent human life. It is intentional, and it is proactive. It will bring a viable life to a hasty conclusion and end. That would be murder. The Sixth Commandment prohibits homicide. There's no question about that. The Sixth Commandment also prohibits suicide. If I proactively and intentionally end my life by whatever means I have committed murder against myself, that is suicide, and it is prohibited by the sixth commandment. Euthanasia, which under any circumstance is bringing to an intentional and proactive end someone whose life is viable, like Terry Schiavo, is considered murder. Therefore, I believe that Terri Schiavo's death was a court-sanctioned murder, just as abortion is a court-sanctioned murder. I'm just speaking the truth as I understand God's Word. Point number three, as we construct our theological grid, we are not under obligation to prolong the dying process in a terminal illness. And I would add this caveat, once we are convinced that God's purposes for that life, for our life, has been fulfilled. Now, I'm going to tread some very sacred territory here as part of my theological basis for this assertion. In John chapter 19, verse 30, we read these words, Jesus' words from the cross. Jesus said, it is finished. And Jesus, bowing his head, gave up his spirit. According to John 10 verse 18, Jesus said, I lay down my life willingly, voluntarily. No one is able to take my life from me. Now, what I understand that to mean is simply this. They could have whipped Jesus until He was nothing more than a bloody hunk of flesh, and they could not have taken His life. He could have been on that cross, not for six hours, but for thirty-six hours, for a hundred and thirty-six hours, and He could not have been killed until He was ready to give up His life. No man takes my life from me. I lay it down willingly. Jesus was on that cross. In that circumstance, I think we would all agree that Jesus was in a terminal situation. He was not going to come off that cross alive. Are you in agreement? Therefore, Jesus was going to do whatever was necessary to extend his life, no matter how humiliating and painful the circumstances were. He would do everything within his power to extend his life until his divine purpose was accomplished. When Jesus said, it is finished, He was declaring to those at the foot of the cross, and he was sending the message down through every generation to our very own, that he was going to live until he accomplished his divine purpose. And having said it is finished, the Bible says Jesus bowed his head, and he yielded up his spirit by yielding himself to the natural dying process. Once Jesus had accomplished God's purposes, he was morally justified in passively resigning to his own death by submitting to the natural process of dying. Now, let me give you an example of a grandparent who is on her deathbed. The doctors tell her they've done everything they know to do and she is going to die in just a matter of hours. The family has been notified. There's a grandson who is very, very close to his grandmother. He has never professed faith in Jesus as his personal Lord and Savior. And he's got a several hour drive to get all the way from San Antonio to get up here to Fort Worth to see his grandmother one last time before she passes away. And the doctors say, there's nothing we can do. Your situation is terminal. She says, can you keep me alive until I see my grandson and share with him one more time the love and forgiveness of Jesus Christ in the Gospel? And the doctor says, I can make no promises, but I know you're in a lot of discomfort. I can do some things that will extend perhaps your time before you die. That grandmother senses in her spirit that she has one more objective in her life before her purpose is fulfilled. She is morally and spiritually justified to insist that the doctors do everything medically possible to extend her conscious life on the earth until she can meet with that grandson and share with him one more time the gospel of Jesus. And having fulfilled God's purpose for her life, She at that point could say to the doctors, no more meds, no more extraordinary treatment. I have fulfilled my purpose. I'm ready to meet my Lord. It's interesting, my dad taught a men's Sunday school class for 49 years. And the last Sunday that he taught that class, he spent about 10 minutes explaining to this class of old men like himself, dad was 82, how he believed he had fulfilled God's purpose for his life. And then he taught his lesson. And then six days later, he had a massive heart attack and stepped into eternity. I doubt that if dad had gone into the hospital conscious, having stated he believed he had fulfilled God's purpose for his life, I doubt that my dad would have gone to the hospital in a conscious state after this heart attack and said, keep me alive at all costs. I think he could have justified no medical treatment. I'm ready to go. Four, in an irreversible, incapacitating illness, we may trust solely in God's power to heal us when confronted with a life-threatening illness. Now, I want to ask you to do something before I go any further. Under point three, would you circle the word terminal? Under point three, circle the word terminal because I don't want you to confuse these two. And then in point four, circle the words irreversible and incapacitating, because it's really a different situation. In an irreversible incapacitating illness, we may trust solely in God's power to heal us when confronted with a life-threatening illness. Now, would you agree that most of the people whom you have known in your lifetime, when it came for them to die, they died of some illness? I mean, very few people just drop dead. Most people experience an illness, and that illness eventuates in their passing from this life into the presence of the Lord. Illness, we have to admit, under any circumstance, may be God's way of delivering us from this life into His eternal presence. If someone is in an irreversible, incapacitating illness, such as a severe stroke or Alzheimer's, and they are not able to direct their own medical care at that point, it would have been tremendously helpful if they had given their family that final directive. Now, an interesting point, in 2 Kings chapter 13, verse 14, the Bible says Elijah became sick with the illness from which he would die. The Bible is telling us that illness was God's way of delivering His servant, Elijah, out of this world into God's eternal presence in heaven. In Deuteronomy chapter 32, verse 39, God says, I wound and I heal. Psalm 103 says, Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name, who heals all of your diseases. If somebody is in an irreversible, incapacitating illness, It is within Christian theology for them to say, if I am threatened with a life-threatening illness, I don't want you to provide medical treatment for that illness. I want to trust solely in God's power either to bring healing in my life or to use that illness to bring me into His glorious presence. Therefore, we may refuse medical treatment. and be within the confines of Christian doctrine when that illness is life-threatening and the circumstances irreversible and incapacitating. Medical science, for all of its wonder, has created many ethical dilemmas, has it not? Medical science is an option for us. It is not an obligation. Again, where there is no living will, no final directive, and a loved one is in the throes of an irreversible and incapacitating illness, we must have the presumption and the bias toward life, assuming that they would want us to do everything possible to help them get through the life-threatening illness, say pneumonia, and continue to live, even though they are in an irreversible, incapacitating state. This is why you need a living will. Let me give you an example. have two brothers, my older brother who is also a minister, he and his wife have living with them his wife's mother, my brother's mother-in-law. She has Alzheimer's. She is not to the point where she is incapacitated. She's very forgetful, but not incapacitated. Is she terminally ill? I don't think she is terminally ill from her Alzheimer's, although I do know that Alzheimer's in some cases can bring a very hasty end to life. Is her condition irreversible? Medically speaking, yes. She has Alzheimer's. Is it incapacitating? Not yet, but it is becoming that way. And if it goes, it will progress to the point where she is no longer able to make the decisions regarding her own health care. She has discovered that she has cancer on top of her Alzheimer's. That cancer, potentially, will take her life. She has discussed with my brother and her daughter, her caregivers, that given the fact that she has Alzheimer's, an irreversible, and an eventually incapacitating illness, that she does not want medical treatment for her cancer. Allow cancer to take its course. Allow God, in His grace, to sustain her life for whatever period of time He sees fit. And when He's ready to call her home, she will succumb to the cancer or some other illness, and she will come home. If she has Alzheimer's and cancer and were to develop pneumonia, I think her final director would indicate she would refuse medical treatment for that illness and allow God's healing grace to work in her life according to the will of God. Point five. Our understanding of Jesus' Lordship for our life must trump all personal desires. Our understanding of Jesus' Lordship for our life must trump all personal desires. I had to put this point in here, and I had to share with you that my personal desires do not line up with what I've just taught you, I believe, from the Word of God. If I were in the state of Terry Schiavo, Irreversible, incapacitated, I wouldn't want to live. I'm headed to heaven. Folks, why would I want to stay a prisoner of my body in some nursing home when I can be dancing in heaven on the streets of gold with Jesus? If left up to me, I would give a directive that would say, withhold all food, all nourishment, all water, and let me die. But that's my selfish desire. What if God has a purpose for my life, even though I am irreversibly ill and incapacitated? What if God wants to use me somehow in the life of family members, in the life of healthcare professionals? What if God has a purpose? That's why I must honor the Lordship of Christ. And if I were in Tereshivo's case, I would say my family must administer food and nourishment through a feeding tube, and I must stay in that state until threatened by a life-threatening illness. Then I'd say, I don't want any treatment. Let God bring the healing, if that's what He chooses to do. Give me medications to keep me comfortable, but do not try to heal this life-threatening illness. I'm willing to trust God with it because that illness may be my open door into His glorious presence. So let's pursue this final point in our theological grid. Our understanding of Jesus' Lordship for our life must trump all desires. Read with me, please, Romans 14, verse 8. Everyone together, please, on the screen. If we live, we live to the Lord. And if we die, we die to the Lord. Folks, you and I must trust God to give us the grace to fulfill His plan and purpose for our life. He's got to. If God has a plan, even though it may involve pain and suffering, inconvenience and humiliation, Jesus was obedient even unto the death of the cross. Couldn't have been more inconvenient, more painful, or more humiliating than that. Why? Because he knew it was God's purpose for his life. And therefore, he was willing to trust his Heavenly Father to give him the grace he would need to be faithful to the task before him. Folks, you and I, because of our Christian theology, we must trust in God's faithfulness. We have to. We may want to get out of the situation, and I would be sympathetic to that, but I could not support it necessarily, when God may have a higher purpose than that which we understand. We, like our Lord, must be obedient even unto death, whatever that death might be, because our death can glorify God. I was astonished when I first came to understanding of the same that Jesus made to Peter in John 21 verse 19. The Bible says that Jesus told Peter how he was going to die. And the Bible goes on to say, the death by which he would glorify God. And church history says that Peter was crucified upside down. He refused to be crucified upright because he didn't feel worthy to die in the same fashion that the Lord died. And He brought glory to God through His death. Folks, if you live your life for the glory of God, don't you want your final act of life, your dying, to bring glory to God? I do. Then when you step into His presence, you trust He will welcome you with the well done, thou good and faithful servant. Our final directive should reflect our Christian faith and theology. Our final directive should trust in Jesus' faithfulness and grace to sustain us, to fulfill His will for our lives. Our final directive should consider God and His glory above everything else. And our final directive should relieve our loved ones of much of the stress and excruciating pain that can come when they do not know what is your desire under the Lordship of Christ. Folks, I encourage you to get the tape of this message and to listen to it over and over again. And I invite you to come and sit down and talk with me. I'll talk with you about these things. I've not answered every question. I realize that. I may have raised more questions than I have solved. But we're here to help you discover the will of God for your life in the confines and framework of the Word of God, which is the standard of the Lordship of Christ.