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Man, the title of my sermon this morning is animals are not people. Animals are not people. And you know, you can flip that over and say people aren't animals, and we're living in a day where people literally believe both of those things. They're teaching that people are just animals, that we're just some kind of an evolved species, and then they believe the reverse of that, that animals are people. You know, I used to drive a lot and I had XM radio in my car and there was a station called Animal Radio, and this was the jingle it would play. Animals are people too, animal radio. That's what it would do on there. And you know, you say, oh, it's just a joke. But here's the thing, you know, I've been driving around and I see this billboard in Arizona and even in Southern California, it said, animals are children too. Love them, don't abandon them. We're living in a day where you can go to the grocery store and go to the greeting card aisle and there's a special section of greeting cards for pets. Now I'm not talking about where you write a greeting card to your pet. That would be weird enough. You can buy greeting cards that are from your pet to you. I'm not kidding. Check it out. I've seen it. I've seen a whole bunch of different varieties where your dog is telling you how much it loves you, your cat is telling you how much it loves you. I remember there was a frozen yogurt place I used to go to in Fountain Hills when I was working up there and they had an entire section of the frozen yogurt display for pets and they had flavors like sardines, salmon, and people would go in there with their dog, because I would frequently go there while I was working, and people would bring their dog in to get their dog a little sardine flavored fro-yo and then they get their own and then it was like a little date with their doggy and so forth. So we live in a day where people literally, in many cases, believe that animals are on the level with humans. Now it's not that I don't like animals. I like animals as much as the next guy. I'm not really a big dog person, but I do love Boston Terriers because when I was growing up, we raised Boston Terriers, that was something my mom did and she still does actually to this day. We were raising them before they were cool, all right? And so that's my favorite dog breed. But look, I like animals as much as the next guy, but here's the thing, it's just I love people and I'm not willing to elevate animals to the level of people and I'm not willing to drag humans down to the level of animals. So don't get mad at the sermon this morning. I'm going to preach a biblically balanced sermon on this and so listen to the whole thing before you get upset. Try to just have an open mind. So we're going to come back to 1 Corinthians. Go back to Genesis chapter 1 and we're going to come back to 1 Corinthians, but Genesis chapter 1, starting at verse 26, we're just going to kind of follow this subject through the Bible because the Bible has a lot to say about animals. The Bible talks a lot about animals from Genesis to Revelation. So it's really no mystery how God feels about animals or what animals mean to God or what the distinction is between people and animals because we have so much material to look at because animals come into play in literally almost every single book of the Bible. It's a big, big subject. But all the way back in Genesis chapter 1 verse 26 it says, And God said, Let us, that's the Trinity right there, let us make man in our image after our likeness and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the air and over the cattle and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So we see that human beings are the only ones made in the image of God. And this is the colossal difference here between just animals and humans that are made in the image of God. And not only that, but mankind is given dominion over the earth and all the animals. Now what does dominion mean? Well think about in Spanish, you know the word Sunday is Domingo, right? What's that mean? The Lord's Day. Domingo means Lord in Latin, right? Dominate is to have the mastery over someone or something. And so this word dominion means lordship. He's saying like you are lords over the animal kingdom. You are to dominate the animals. You are the bosses. You know, they exist to serve you. And so we are to have dominion over all of the animals. And it says in verse 27, So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him. Male and female created he them. And God blessed them. And God said unto them, be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the air and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. So right away we see that the animal kingdom is to be used for the benefit of mankind. Basically our job is to subjugate, subdue and have dominion over the animals. Basically they exist for us and not vice versa. We don't exist as some kind of a custodian of nature. Like we're basically this zookeeper for God. He's really just into his zoo. He's created this earth zoo and we're the zookeepers. Wrong. He created the animals for us and not vice versa. They're for our enjoyment. We enjoy animals in many different ways. Go to Genesis chapter 6. Obviously we enjoy eating them and we also just enjoy looking at them. I love going to the zoo. I think probably everybody likes to go to the zoo. Is there anybody who doesn't like to go to the zoo? Virtually everybody. That's kind of a universe. We found one. That's because you're from New York City, right? You live in a zoo. You want to get away from the zoo. I know. I'm just kidding. Basically, you know, the zoo is pretty universal. Almost everybody enjoys it. You know, the reptile house. They like to look at the giraffes and the elephants. You know, my personal favorite animals are camels, llamas, and I really like ostriches. So those are just some of the animals that I like to look at at the zoo. But look, we enjoy animals. They also do work. Even to this day, people use horses for work. There's certain jobs and situations where a horse works out better than a car or a motorcycle or a bicycle. You know, even the police sometimes use horses in different places, certain applications. Obviously, oxen have pulled plows for thousands of years. And so, you know, animals are there for us to use for work. They also provide security. Cats are used to catch mice. Dogs are used to guard the property. I mean, they have all kinds of benefits to us. And we just enjoy having them as pets and playing with them and looking at them and so forth. It says in Genesis chapter 6, and the reason I want to show you Genesis 6 is I want to show you how God does not put the same value on animal life that he does on human life. And God, throughout the Bible, just indiscriminately wipes out animals and doesn't really even give it a second thought. And there's a lot of examples of this. But look at Genesis chapter 6 verse 5. It says, And God saw the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him in his heart. And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth. Now that makes perfect sense, doesn't it? God is mad at who? He's mad at mankind. Who's the one committing all the sin? Who's the one doing all the wickedness? Who is the one that he's having regrets about? Man. But yet he says, I will destroy man from off the face of the earth. And then he says, both man and beast and creeping thing. Now obviously the creeping things had nothing to do with this. You can't blame earthworms and centipedes and insects for the sins of mankind, but yet a lot of those things are going to end up getting wiped out, aren't they? He says, I'm mad at mankind and so therefore I'm going to wipe out man and beast. Look at Genesis chapter 7 verse 23. Genesis chapter 7 verse 23, it says, and every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man and cattle and creeping things and the fowl of the heaven, and they were destroyed from the earth and Noah only remained alive and they that were with him in the ark. So of course there were those few animals that were on the ark, the two by two of the majority of the beasts and then there were certain clean beasts that there were seven by seven of the birds and other things like that. But we see that the 99.9% of animal life got wiped out. God didn't give it a second thought. Go through Mark chapter 5. Not only that, but if we study Leviticus, we see throughout Leviticus that there is this elaborate system of animal sacrifice that involves butchering and killing and eating a lot of animals. And it just goes on chapter after chapter out of chapter killing quote innocent animals. I mean these animals didn't do anything. And in fact that's why God used animal sacrifice to picture the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ because Jesus is the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. So what better picture than to take an innocent lamb that has done nothing and kill it for someone else's sins. That picture is Jesus because Jesus is innocent and sinless and then he died on the cross for our sins. So that just goes to show you how these animals are totally innocent that died. They're just animals, right? They don't know right from wrong. They can't really do right or wrong. Everything they do is kind of right and everything they do is kind of wrong because they're just animals. It doesn't matter, right? They don't have morality. I'm going to get to that later in the sermon. But look at Mark chapter 5. It's one of my favorite Bible stories where the guy is demon possessed and Jesus is going to cast out the demons from this guy and he ends up casting out the demons into this herd of pigs. It says in verse 11, Now there nigh unto the mountains a great herd of swine feeding. Swine are pigs. And all the devils besought him saying, Send us into the swine that we may enter into them. And forthwith, forthwith means immediately or right away, Jesus gave them leave. Now every word in the Bible is important, amen? Is there anything in the Bible that's just there and it's an accident? It's a coincidence. It doesn't matter. I think it's interesting that when these devils say, Hey, is it alright if we possess these pigs? Jesus didn't even have to think about it. He doesn't even stop and think like, Oh man, I don't know, they're so cute. You know, they're innocent. He's just like, you have to be a hello. He's just like, sure. Because it says that he forthwith gave them leave. He immediately said, sure, fine. Go into the pigs then for all I care. Forthwith Jesus gave them leave and the unclean spirits went out and entered into the swine and the whole herd ran violently down a steep place into the sea. They were about two thousand and were choked in the sea. So for Jesus Christ, this is a really easy decision. Two thousand pigs, one human being, he sacrifices the two thousand pigs in a heartbeat to save the life of one human being. So that goes to show that he considers one person worth more than thousands of animals. And it says in verse number 14, and they that fed the swine fled and told it in the city and in the country and they went out to see what it was that was done. And they come to Jesus and see him that was possessed with the devil and had the legion sitting and clothed and in his right mind and they were afraid. Now look, these people should have been happy. They should have been rejoicing because they knew this guy. This was kind of a local idiot. He was a local maniac who had terrorized them. He was a scary person that was a threat to them. He was a menace. I mean, how would you like to live in a town and you got some guy and he's cutting himself, he's screaming and howling and hanging out in the cemetery. And whenever someone tries to subdue him or arrest him or bring him in, he ends up just breaking the handcuffs, breaking the chains. He's so violent no man could tame him. And then you see this guy just clean cut, dressed nicely, just in his right mind. Wouldn't you be pretty happy? Wouldn't you be pretty excited? And they that saw it told them how it befell to him that was possessed with the devil and also concerning the swine and they began to pray him to depart out of their coasts. So their attitude is, you know what, we don't want you, Jesus. If you're going to wipe out animals like this, never mind that you saved this guy, if you're going to wipe out these animals, get out of here. So these people were the first animal rights activists in the Bible. This is when PETA started right here and it's been going ever since. But not only that, go to Revelation chapter 8. So we saw in Genesis that God makes a big difference between man and beast. He creates man in his own image and he gives him total dominion, total authority over the earth, authority over the animals. Basically the animals belong to us, we own them. They're our property, they're for our use, they're for our enjoyment. And then he ends up, when he gets mad at mankind, he just wipes out all the animals too. Then we get into Leviticus and what does he do? He sets up a system where thousands and literally eventually millions of animals are going to be killed for the sins of human beings just on a regular ongoing basis. You know, birds having their necks rung off and the throat being slit on these beasts and stuff. And a lot of that is grotesque to us when we read it sometimes or when we see those things because of the fact that we grew up in the city and it didn't stop us from eating the products of those things. You know, we've all eaten the cheeseburgers and the pulled pork sandwiches and we've all eaten the sausages and bacon. But we don't always see where it comes from because I remember the first time that I saw where it comes from, it was hard to watch. You know, when I watched a pig being slaughtered for the first time, it was very difficult for me to watch. I was cringing. I was, you know, I'm not, you know, don't think I'm a baby or something. You know, if you grow up in the city and you're not used to that and you're just watching this big 250-pound pig get hit over the head with a sledgehammer, throat slit, blood's coming out like a garden hose. I mean, I was honestly having difficulty observing that. But I felt like, you know, this is something I need to watch though because this is life. You know, this is where food comes from, okay. I've been sheltered too much. So obviously it's grotesque to us, but this is the way of the world, okay. Now in Revelation chapter 8, verse 8, we see God pouring out his wrath. So you know, we start all the way at the beginning of Genesis and we can kind of follow this through the Bible. Even Jesus is just sending animals off a cliff. All the way at the end of the Bible, God's doing the same thing he's doing in Genesis where he's punishing mankind and he ends up wiping out a lot of animals in the process, okay. So in Revelation chapter 8, verse 8, and the second angel sounded and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea and the third part of the sea became blood and the third part of the creatures which were in the sea and had life died and the third part of the ships were destroyed. And you know, if you study Revelation, what I believe this is is basically a giant meteor crashing into the earth because if you study what scientists say would happen if a meteor were to hit, it's really all the same things that we see in Revelation, so God's probably going to use something like that when he talks about, you know, a star falling from heaven and crashing into the sea and poisoning all the water and everything and all the things that it does. But that's another sermon that shall be preached at another time. What I want to point out is that the third part, in verse 9, of the creatures which were in the sea and had life died, okay. So when God is doing this, obviously when he's torching entire forests, earthquakes are happening, volcanoes are erupting, tidal waves, this isn't just going to kill people, it's going to kill animals also. That's obvious. And even here, he brings it up. Look at Revelation, chapter 16, verse 3. I'm not going to go through all this for sake of time, I'm just showing you some examples. In Revelation, chapter 16, verse 3, it says, and the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea and it became as the blood of a dead man and every living soul died in the sea. That's going to include dolphins and it's going to include the sea horses, not sea horses, I don't think you're that attached to them, but the sea lions is what I meant to say. You know, the sea lions, the seals, the dolphins, the whales, those type of things, all the porpoises, they're going to get wiped out. So here's the thing, there's kind of a lot of evidence in the Bible that God is not concerned about animal life the way that he is concerned about human life. They're expendable unto him. I mean, in Genesis, he wipes them out without even thinking about it. Jesus will send them off a cliff without even thinking about it, possess them with devils, doesn't matter. Wiping out the earth, they don't really even come into the consideration. Now let's change gears in the sermon and if you would, go back to Deuteronomy, chapter 25. So the first thing that I wanted to point out is that God makes a big distinction between people and animals and he does not value animal life the way he does humans. They're expendable to him. But now I want to go to some verses that people will point to because a lot of people will say, no, you're wrong, Pastor Anderson, God cares about animals. God loves animals. And they'll point to certain scriptures to make that point and say, no, no, no, God actually does love and care about animals. It's not just that he loves human beings. He puts a value on their life. Let's see if that's really true. So let's look up the verses that they would point to and see what they actually say. I told you to go to Deuteronomy 25, verse 4, look at verse 4, it says, thou shalt not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn. Now flip back just a few pages to Deuteronomy 22, 6. So thou shalt not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn. This is what it's saying. When the ox is working in the field, don't muzzle him so that he cannot eat of the field that he's working in. You know, if he's working in that field, let him eat where he's working. Not like, oh, you're going to do all the work, but you also have to wear a face mask, you know, for COVID. No, I'm just kidding. You know, you got to wear a muzzle to stop you from eating. This was a verse that I quoted when I worked at Round Table Pizza. You know, I said, hey, don't muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn, all right. You know, we have the right to eat of the fruit of our labor here, all right. So I quoted it often. But it says in Deuteronomy 22, 6, if a bird's nest chance to be in the way in any tree or on the ground, whether they be young ones or eggs, and the dam sitting upon the young, the dam is talking about the mother. That's just an archaic word for mother there. So it says if the dam is sitting upon the young or upon the eggs, thou shalt not take the dam with the young, but thou shalt in any wise let the dam go, all right. Now here's the thing. So we have these laws in the books of Moses that seem to be protecting wildlife, kind of like wildlife protection act here in the Bible where he says, hey, don't muzzle the ox when he treads out the corn. And you know, if you come upon the nest and it's got the mother bird and the baby birds, go ahead and take the baby birds or go ahead and take the eggs or what you want to take. But leave the mother alive. Leave it alone. So it seems like it's a law to protect wildlife, but look what it says in verse 7 there. Let's get the context. But thou shalt in any wise let the dam go and take the young to thee that it may be well with thee and that thou mayest prolong thy days. So who's God worried about? Is God worried about the birdie or is God worried about the person? He's saying, look, the reason that you're going to keep the little birdie alive is so that you can prolong your days and so that it can be well with you. Why? Because you want that little birdie to produce more little babies that you can eat and more little eggs that you can eat, right? Because here's the thing. If we wipe out a population to extinction, we're hurting ourselves at that point. You don't want to just wipe out a species because that's a species that's here for a reason and we're using it for something or God has some plan for it where our ecosystem, you know, is a balance between all these different animals and plants and they have a symbiotic relationship. So if you wipe out any one thing that could have a harmful effect. So what he's saying here is, look, take what you need, take what you want, but let the species live. Let this thing live to go on and produce more babies another day. Now flip over to 1 Corinthians chapter 9 and let's examine the scripture about not muzzling the ox when he treadeth out the corn because honestly, the verse that we're about to look at in 1 Corinthians chapter 9 is the most clear scripture that just completely puts this issue to rest in my opinion. I don't see how anybody could read this and walk away saying, nope, I still think that God cares about animals and that animals have to be preserved and so forth. Look what the Bible says in 1 Corinthians chapter 9 verse 9. Let's let the Bible interpret itself. You know, I got my interpretation, you got your interpretation. Let's let the Bible give its interpretation on the Bible and it says in 1 Corinthians chapter 9 verse 9, for it is written in the law of Moses, thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. And then this profound question is asked, doth God take care for oxen? So he's saying, here's what the Bible says. The Bible says, don't muzzle the ox. And then the question is asked, does God care about oxen? Now one group of people would say, yes, God cares about oxen. Yes, God loves them and cares about them and he's so worried about them. And then there's my view which would say, no, God doesn't care about oxen. God loves people. God created people on this earth and the animals are for our benefit and enjoyment. And here's the thing, when they die, they're just going to go to the dust and be gone. Our souls will live on for eternity, but the animal goes back to the dust where it came from and it's just gone. It just stops existing. Does God take care for oxen, verse 10, or saith he it all together for our sakes? Now what does the word all together mean? Is that a partial word? Does that mean partially? Well it's both. It's partially for people and it's partially for the oxen. Is that what the Bible says? No, the Bible says, or saith he not, or saith he it all together for our sakes, meaning that it's 100% for our sake, 0% for the oxen. And then it says this, for our sakes, no doubt. So the Apostle Paul is saying there is no doubt about this, there is zero doubt that when God wrote, thou shalt not muzzle the ox that turneth out the corn, he did not give a rip about that poor ox that's out working in the field and doesn't get to eat of the corn. That was not even part of his consideration. It was all together for our sakes so that, you know, thousands of years later I could say to the manager at round table, hey, you know the Bible teaches, thou shalt not muzzle the ox that turneth out the corn. And obviously the context of 1 Corinthians 9, he's talking about preachers getting paid and how there were people that were saying that preachers should never get paid, like the Mormon Church teaches, while their prophet lives in a multi-million dollar mansion, but the Mormon Church teaches that, you know, they should have an unpaid clergy. Well, you get what you pay for, amen. I haven't heard a lot of great Mormon preaching. It's all lies. But anyway, go if you would to Luke chapter 12. So let me just recap as we turn to Luke 12. So we talked about the fact that, you know, God distinguishes between humans and animals. God does not put the value on their life. He wipes them out indiscriminately. He doesn't care about them. He loves and cares about us. And right now we're going through verses that people would point to, to say that I'm wrong. You know, they would point to the verse that says, hey, what about the bird nest? Or hey, what about muzzling the ox? Well, you know, we looked at both of those and we saw what? God's actually worried about people. When he's giving advice that's for the benefit of humans, he's not worried about the animal itself. Now here's another one people would point to. Luke chapter 12 verse 6, are not five sparrows sold for two farthings? And not one of them is forgotten before God. You know, so they'll say, hey, God cares about, like God's up shedding a tear every time a bird, you know, lands on the wrong power line or something. Like he's basically going to be sad about that is what they're basically trying to say. Or like where the Bible says, you know, not one of them shall fall on the ground without your father. And I've heard people say that he attends the funeral of every sparrow. That is not a correct interpretation of this, okay? Because look what he says in the next verse. What's the point that he's actually making? The point that he's actually making is, but even the very hairs of your head are all numbered, fear ye not therefore you're of more value than many sparrows. You're of more value than many sparrows. What he's doing is he's giving an illustration here to talk about the omniscience of God. The fact that God knows everything. And that every sparrow that gets fried, you know, and most of the time they can be on the power lines just fine, but that's for another reason. But you know, every sparrow that gets harmed or eats Alka-Seltzer or whatever happens to it, you know, God's aware of that. He knows that that happened. He's not. And what the Bible's teaching is if God knows every bad thing that happens to every little birdie, every little birdie that breaks its wing, God knows about it. He's aware of it. He's got it cataloged because God knows everything about nature that's happening. He's omniscient. And he's saying just like that, he also knows every hair of your head. The hairs of your head are numbered, meaning a hair falls off your head. He knows the new number. So God's not just this distant God who's unaware of the bad things that we're going through in our lives. Hey, he knows what we're going through. He cares about what we're going through. And hey, he cares a lot more about you than he cares about that bird. You're of more value than many sparrows. That's what the Bible's saying. So God's just using an illustration about an insignificant thing like a bird die. Because come on, birds are dying all the time. I mean, I was just riding my bike to church on Wednesday and I dodged a dead bird in the sidewalk. I mean, it's just, it's all the time. It's all over the place. They're just, they're falling out of the sky for crying out loud. So the point is that this is an insignificant creature, an insignificant event, and God's on it. How can you think he's not on your situation? You don't think he's on your health crisis? You don't think he's on your relationship crisis? He knows exactly what you're going through. And if we pray to him, he's a very present help in a time of need. That's what the Bible's actually teaching. But it can be dangerous to just take scripture out of context and just say, hey, animal rights. Let's do it. I've heard an animal rights activist take a verse from Hosea that's, or it might be Isaiah 66, might be Hosea. Don't quote me on this. He that slew an ox as if, as if he killed a man. And they, yeah, and they just quote that by itself from Isaiah 66. He that slew an ox as if he slew a man. You know, you can teach anything from the Bible if you're just going to lift phrases out of context and make them mean whatever you want, okay? So that's not the right way to read the Bible. Now another verse, go to Proverbs chapter 12. I've got to hurry for sake of time. Proverbs chapter 12, because we want to look at both sides of this, you know. I want to look at all the scriptures that people would bring up and give a balanced view here of what the Bible teaches. And then for you animal lovers out there, I'm going to say some nice things at the end of the sermon. So that way you don't leave mad, okay? And like I said, I love animals too. You know, they taste delicious. And I enjoy looking at them at the zoo as much as the next guy. But anyway, look at Proverbs chapter 12 verse 10. Proverbs chapter 12 verse 10 says this, a righteous man regardeth the life of his beast. And people will try to take this, and here's what they'll try to say that it means, hey, he basically puts this value on the life of his beast as if like it's like a human or something. Like, you know, it's just, it's a soul or something that's like it's a person. I don't know how to explain it because I don't believe in it. But anyway, they'll try to kind of twist this. It says a righteous man regardeth the life of his beast, but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel. Now flip over, keep your finger there in Proverbs 12, 10, because this is a great verse. And I'm going to explain to you a right way to interpret this. But look at Proverbs 11 verse 17, and I think this will help shed some light on this verse for you, okay? Because verse 11, 17 says, the merciful man doeth good to his own soul, but he that is cruel troubleth his own flesh. Now here are some thoughts I want to give you on Proverbs 12, 10. But first, get this verse, let it sink into your ears. The merciful man does good to his own soul, but he that is cruel troubleth his own flesh. Now hang, if you're merciful to other people, you're doing yourself a favor. And if you are cruel to other people, you're harming yourself, okay? The cruel person is harming themselves by being cruel, okay? Now look at Proverbs 12, 10, it says a righteous man regardeth the life of his beast. First of all, this is just a statement of fact. This is just telling you, hey, righteous people, people who do right, regard the life of their beast, okay? But the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel. Basically, he's saying they're wicked people, they're so cruel that even their mercy is cruel. I mean, they're just cruel on cruel. Whereas righteous people are so merciful, they even end up being merciful to animals. So it's using kind of this extreme distinction, talking about the wicked person is cruel and hurtful to other people, and even when he's merciful, he's cruel while he's merciful because he can't even be merciful, he's just that bad. Whereas the righteous man is so righteous, he's just trying to kind of give you these opposite extremes, not only is he nice to people, he's even nice to animals, who don't even matter, but he's nice to them anyway just because he's just a nice person. Now let me explain to you why I do not mistreat animals and why I don't think that we should abuse animals or be cruel to animals. Let me tell you why, because I don't want you to misunderstand the sermon when I get up and say, animals have literally no value in comparison with humans. When it comes to a person, I would kill any number of animals to save that person because they're not even being measured on the same plane. So when I get up and say that animals have zero value compared to humans, I mean that. But I'm not saying, hey, so let's go out and torture animals or something. That's why I don't want you to misunderstand the sermon. I do not believe that we should harm animals or be cruel to them or whatever just for kicks and I don't think that that's good. And let me explain to you why it's not because I'm worried about what's going through that animal's mind. It's not because I'm thinking to myself, man, that animal is going through a lot right now and let's just end its suffering. That's not the thing. The real reason is because of what it said in chapter 11 that people who are cruel trouble their own flesh. Now what does that have to do with being cruel to an animal though? Well think about it this way. How many times have you read a book and you know it's fiction, you know the story isn't real, but yet something happens and you start crying because of what happened to the character in the book. I've done it many times, you know, I'm not ashamed to say that I get very into stories, you know, and some people probably get into stories more or less than others, but when I read books, I mean I'm getting angry, I'm getting sad, I'm rejoicing with, you know, it's called empathy. Now normal people have empathy. Psychopaths lack empathy. That's what a psychopath is. A psychopath is a person who has no empathy. They can't put themselves in other people's shoes. They can't imagine themselves in other people's shoes. They can't feel what they feel. Now the Bible teaches that we should have empathy. The Bible says in Romans 12-15, rejoice with them that do rejoice and weep with them that weep. So if somebody's crying, cry with them. Somebody's rejoicing, rejoice with them. That's what the Bible says. That's normal, right? Rejoice with them that rejoice. Who's ever been around somebody and they start crying and you just start crying? Or they start laughing, you start laughing, you know, it's just that's how we are. Or somebody will yawn, you yawn. That means you're not a psychopath, all right? You have empathy. You know, you end up mirroring what other people do because we as human beings have empathy. Now there have been studies done, like for example there were these terrible orphanages in Romania where these kids were not shown any love. And basically they were given their needs, they were given a diaper change, food, drink, that they weren't interacted with or loved or played with. And they ended up just being permanently damaged people. They could not live normal lives. They could not interact with society. Their brains were damaged and they had no empathy. So you know, when we raise our kids, we want to interact with them, play with them, spend time with them. We smile at them, they smile back and they learn empathy, okay? The Bible also says in Hebrews 13-3, remember them that are in bonds as bound with them and them which suffer adversity as being yourselves also in the body. So he says, you know, when you think about people that are going through a hard time, it should be like you're in their body, like you're going through what they're going through. You know, when they're in prison, you feel that. You know, they are in the hospital, you feel that. They're suffering, you feel what they feel. That's called empathy. And like I said, a person who has empathy, whether they're watching a movie or reading a book or something, they can get happy, smile, sad, cry, angry. Everybody knows what I'm talking about. Where you're weeping, now does that mean that you think that the movie's real? Does that mean that you think that the book is real? No. It's not that you think that it's real. It's that you're empathizing with that character. So here's the thing. If I'm walking down the street and I see some dog that's crippled or something and it's hobbling along and it's suffering, I'm going to feel bad. Just like when I watched that pig getting slaughtered in Hungary and that hammer came down on its head, I'm flinching because I'm thinking about that hammer coming down on my head. And I'm thinking about all that blood coming out of my body. That's just kind of a normal empathy. It doesn't mean that I think that it's a person or that I think it's real in the sense of like a human is real, you know, having an eternal soul and spirit and actual consciousness and sentience that we have. It's not that I think that. It's just that any normal person, you know, literally I walked out my front door this morning and there was a roach on its back just going like that. And this is why, because, you know, we just had pest control come out. And our neighborhood in the summertime, our neighborhood just gets filled with creatures like, literally, I kid you not, I go jogging through my neighborhood and I'm dodging roaches like land mines, just on the public sidewalks. So it's just the neighborhood, so it's like you have to do pest control or your house is just going to get overrun with these things, you know. You got to send them to someone else's house, you know. So basically, we just got pest control done, but here's the thing, when you get pest control done, the bodies don't just disappear, you know, they die but they're there. And basically, you know, my instinct when I saw that thing was like, I need to put this thing out of its misery because I'm like, this thing's suffering. Now look, is that roach really suffering? No, because that roach doesn't exist the same way that you and I exist, okay. That's what I believe. Some people have a different view on that. And even Bible-believing Christians might have a different view that animals have some kind of consciousness that just disappears when they die or something. I personally don't believe that. I believe that they're more like a robot or a machine, you know, but. And you might call me an idiot but then, you know what, the great scientist and philosopher Rene Descartes would be an idiot too because guess what, he thought the same thing. So I take his view on this and he invented a lot of great math and science so he's not an idiot, amen. But here's, you know, his view, this was his view and by the way, his view is basically what the evolutionist thinks that you are anyway. Because his view was that the animal, all of its emotions and feelings that it's exhibiting are basically just a product of biology, it's just its biology and instinct, you know, the animals are programmed to be a certain way. That's why some animals are loyal and some aren't. You know why? It's called instinct. Have you ever noticed animals just know what to do? Think about it, an animal's born and it just knows what to do. You know, let's say like a bee or an ant, it doesn't have to go to like an orientation. Where it's like it sits down in orientation and the queen bee is like, alright, you're gonna work for me, everything you do is for me, you sacrifice yourself for me, your life's gonna be horrible, I'm gonna sit around eating royal jelly all day, you're gonna die an early death and just work yourself into the grave with no break. Alright, alright, let's go, let's do it. Alright, any questions? There's no orientation like that. The thing literally is just born knowing what to do. You know, they just start, it's like they just are spawned and they just start acting. How do they know? It's called instinct, right? They're programmed. It's just like when you fire up a computer for the first time, you don't have to sit there and program that computer because you wouldn't know what to do. I wouldn't know what to do, right? It's from the factory. It's already pre-programmed. Factory programmed. Well, every animal that's born is like factory programmed. And even us as human beings have some factory programming that we're born with. But we have to be taught a lot more. You know, we have this childhood that lasts like 18, 20 years, whereas most animals are just like an adult, you know, when they're like a year old or something. I mean, it's different for every animal, obviously, but there are animals that are an adult in months. There are animals that are an adult in days. You know, just all different incubation periods. But they have instinct or programming. So look, yeah, animals, they have emotions and feelings that they're programmed to have. It's a product of their biology. It'd be like if we created an artificial intelligence. We could create an artificial intelligence and then tell it, you're stupid, Siri. Now Siri's not that advanced because Siri's just like, I don't care what you call me. Call me whatever you want. How may I help you? What would you like me to look up on Google? You know, it doesn't care. But you know what? Someday they probably will create artificial intelligence that you will think is real. You know, you know, you know, when you call and you talk to the, how can I help you today? And then they make these like fake typing noises. All right. Let me look up that confirmation number. They're not really typing. So it's obvious that it's fake, right? But hey, 20 years from now, it's probably not going to be obvious anymore. You're probably going to be calling customer service. They'll probably give it an Indian accent just to make it seem more real. Yes, how you are doing today? You know, it's going to seem that real. You're like, well, this has to be real. Thank you for calling today. This is David. You're like, that guy's name ain't David. But the thing is, you know, obviously there can be an illusion. This is what I'm trying to say. There could be an illusion of emotion, feeling, love. Folks, everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. So you know, it's a, I better not say too much because I'm going to make the animal lovers too mad. I should just give a digestible amount of material in this sermon. But the point being that animals, even though they're not valuable like humans and their suffering doesn't really matter. You know what I mean? Like a thousand years from now, two thousand years, their suffering is not going to matter. When we're in the new heaven and the new earth, it's not going to matter. You know, the painful de-beaking that went on at Kentucky Fried Chicken or something is not going to matter at all. It's meaningless in the scheme of the universe and in the scheme of eternity. Totally meaningless. Whereas the suffering in our lives matters. You know, everything we do has meaning in the eyes of God. But the reason why we shouldn't harm or be cruel to animals or enjoy that is because a normal person with normal empathy is still going to feel bad when they see anything suffering. Just like even if they read about a fictional character suffering, they're going to feel bad about that because they just feel bad about suffering. And the problem is that when someone just enjoys and craves to watch animals suffer, sometimes that person could then graduate to harming humans. Because they don't lack a normal empathy of saying, hey, this isn't fun to watch animals suffer or to hurt them intentionally or what have you. So the last place I want to turn is Romans chapter one. I have a lot of other stuff in my sermon here that I don't have time to cover. But one thing I'll just throw out there, I'll just throw these out there while you're turning to Romans one, is just that there are a lot of problems. You know, there are groups out there that want to actually grant personhood to certain animals. Like they want to grant chimpanzees, you know, the rights of a human being or whales or elephants. They pick basically the most intelligent animals and they want to give them rights as people. Now here's the thing about that. There's a pretty big gap between the dumbest person and the most intelligent animal. I mean, what are the smartest animals? Whales, elephants, dolphins, chimpanzees, are those the ones that are the smartest amongst the, what were they called them, simian, you know, branch of species? What do they call those? Primates? That's the word I was looking for. Thank you. Primates, you know, amongst primates, which ones are the smartest? Are they the chimpanzees? Is that the one we sent to space? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Well, if we sent it to space, it must be the smartest one. All right. You know, they teach them sign language and everything like that. Here's the problem with giving a chimpanzee personhood. Because a lot of people are like, well, yeah, I mean, they're pretty smart and they're feeling what we feel. Give them personhood. Here's the problem. With rights come responsibilities. If you're going to give a chimpanzee the rights of a person, then now you have to hold it accountable to live as a person in civilized society. Well, here's the problem with a chimpanzee. It has no, it has no, uh, grasp of things like stealing, adultery, murder, morality, right and wrong. And some of those chimpanzees and stuff, like they might look small and stuff, but they could beat the snot out of you. You know, like apes and monkeys and chimpanzees and orangutans, they could tear you up. They're fast. You know what I mean? Remember that? Well, okay. I don't want to go off on that. I was thinking about that fighting style where the guy's running around like a monkey. Who knows what I'm talking about? All right. I see that hand. Yeah. We'll talk later. You know, they're fast and strong and they will rip you apart. So you know, you just give this thing a personhood. What about when it kills someone or hurts people and it can't fit in. It's not going to be able to live in society as a person. It can't have the rights of a person because it's not ready to live up those responsibilities. It either needs to be out in the jungle doing its own thing away from people or if it's amongst people, it's got to be in a cage so that it doesn't hurt people. If we just, hey, we're going to create a brand new zoo where all the elephants just run free and all the chimpanzees and rags, everything just runs free and you just kind of go in there and just get amongst the animals, people would be dying every day. Lions would be ripping you apart. Chimpanzees would be, would be, you know, tearing you limb from limb. Kangaroos would be punching you in the face. I mean, there'd just be all kinds of problems. Okay. That's why they have to be locked up. Also, what about harming animals for the benefit of humanity? Okay. We eat them and if you're going to believe that animals have all these feelings and sentience and consciousness, then how could you eat them? But yet we do and we're going to continue to and God tells us to and Jesus did. Jesus ate the Passover every single year and so obviously there's medical testing and other things. But the last thing I want to point to is Romans 1.25. This is talking about wicked people and it says in verse 25, who changed the truth of God into a lie and worshiped and served the creature more than the creator who is blessed forever, amen. And so we need to understand that animals are here to serve us and we are here to serve God and let's get that priority straight here. We serve God, animals serve us. That is the way things are supposed to be. Instead of serving God though, a lot of people want to serve animals. Think about how offensive that is to God. It's like here we are, we're on this chain that goes, God, people, animals and we look up a God who's demanding to be worshiped and we want to worship God so little that we're like, no, I'd rather worship this animal than you, God. Isn't that the ultimate insult to God? And think about all the ancient religions. What did they do? The pagans, what do they do? Make a statue of an animal, oh, fish God, oh, golden calf, oh, sacred cow. And they're always bowing down to animals. Imagine how offensive the God of the universe who loves you and the hairs of your head are numbered and he sent Jesus Christ to die on the cross for you and then you're like, make us a calf. We want to worship a cow, that's what you want to worship. So get the order straight. Animals are here to serve us, we are here to serve God. We're not here to serve animals. And isn't it funny that the people who dedicate their lives to serving animals typically don't serve God. Typically instead of donating to church, they're donating to the animal shelter. Typically instead of going out soul winning and volunteering for the church, they're volunteering down at the animal shelter, am I right? That becomes a religion unto them. Instead of worshiping the creator, they worship and serve the creature. And also we need to love people more than we love animals. And I've noticed something where people will say, you know, well, I love my dog more than I love any person. To me that just shows that you're a misanthropic individual when you have this attitude of just like, oh, I love animals, I hate people, you know, dogs, yeah, I love them. You've known people like that where it's like, well, this is the one that really cares about me. You know, that's what it is, it's not that they love dogs more than you and me, it's just that they hate people. We need to love our neighbor as ourself. We need to love mankind in general. God so loved the world, we should have a love for our fellow man. And we should, when we see a guy get saved, not worry about the pigs. And you know what? I guarantee the vast majority of people in this auditorium, when we read that Bible story, most of us didn't even think about the pigs until years later. For me it was like decades later, I was like, wait, all those, he sent all those pigs off the cliff, wow, he didn't even care. Because we were so focused on the guy, because that's the focus of the story, is the guy, the person, all right? And so God loves us, we should love each other, we should love our fellow man. Don't become this misanthrope that basically, because you refuse to love God and refuse to love man, you take all, it's like your love's got to go somewhere. So you just point it at an animal, there's something wrong with that. And I'm okay with you loving animals in the sense of like, loving the ocean or loving the sky or, you know, but just don't, don't get to where it's like you're willing to sacrifice people for them or sacrifice your walk with God. Because those kind of loves should be on a different level. Like the love for God's level one, love for our fellow man is number two, right? That's the second commandment, love thy neighbor as thyself. And then level three is like, I love running and pizza and dogs and going to the zoo and ice cream and I love surfing or, you know, that's, isn't that a different level? Okay, three different levels here, let's keep those in the right order. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for the fact that you have made us in your image, that you love us, that the hairs of our head are numbered, Lord. Help us not to fall into this, this trend that's out there, Lord, in our country of, of saying that animals are people or saying that people are animals, Lord. Help us to distinguish these three groups. We're not God. And we know that animals are not you. We know that animals are not God, Lord. Help us to keep these three groups separate and in their proper place. And Lord, help us to worship and serve you with all our hearts, minds, and strengths and Lord, give us love for our neighbor. Give us love for our fellow man. And Lord, thank you for giving us animals that we could use and enjoy. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.