Formed For A Purpose Series

OPEN: Several years ago, the Country Gazette in Franklin, Massachusetts had this listing in its classified section: “Unknown item for sale. We know it’s valuable; we don’t know what it is. If you can identify it, we’ll sell it for $250.”

APPLY: Now isn’t that interesting? They had no idea what this thing was. But they knew - somehow - that it had value. AND they realized that (only someone who knew what it was) would understand how valuable it truly was.

YOU AND I HAVE VALUE. The world may not know what kind of value we have … but that is because – only the one who created us really knows what we’re worth.

David hinted at this in Psalms 139:13 “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.”

I. The Bible repeatedly declares that every individual on earth has value

Every person that has ever been born has been born with the potential to do great things.

God has created each one of us with the ability to change the world we live in.

That’s what God told Jeremiah “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.” - Jeremiah 1:5

BUT, in our culture, there are those who don’t believe we are created with any inherent potential. They try to convince us that we don’t even start become valuable… we don’t even start to become truly human until we are born

Up until that time, a child is called a “fetus.” It’s considered to be a collection of tissue that can be tossed aside if it inconvenient because it doesn’t have the quality of being truly human.

ILLUS: However, according to a report I read last year (2003), science has begun to challenge that presumption. New scanning techniques known as 3D and 4D scanning have revealed amazing pictures of babies inside the womb.

These pictures offer new insight into an unborn child’s behavior. The techniques have captured images of “fetuses” yawning, blinking, and sucking their fingers. They even seem to smile and cry, and move their limbs at very young ages. (www.sky.com/skynews, September 12, 2003)

ILLUS: Photographer Michael Clancy – was once “pro-choice” advocate, but he quickly changed over to being pro-life when he filmed the operation of 14 week old “fetus” – named Samuel Armas.

Samuel was being operated on in his mother’s womb to correct a condition known as spina bifida. But just as the doctor was closing the womb, the little child’s hand reached out and grabbed the doctor’s finger.

Clancy said that it was this action by a 14 week old “fetus” that made him realize that this was indeed a child. (Chuck Colson, on Breakpoint 4/2000)

Pro-abortion advocates have gone even further than just saying the fetus is a mass of inhuman tissue. They’ve argued that if a child faces the potential of deformity or social misfortune then parents should seriously consider aborting a child. If the child has the prospect of growing up physically or socially impaired, abortion rights advocates would point out that these factors as good reasons for a “fetus”… to be torn from the womb.

They reason: Such a child would have no chance to have a “good life.” Such a child would have no true value in this world.

ILLUS: One person has put together a series of examples of how this thinking would play out

Case #1: There’s a preacher and his wife who are very, very poor. They already have 14 children and now she finds out that she’s pregnant with the 15th. They’re living in tremendous poverty. Considering their poverty and the excessive world population, would you consider recommending an abortion?

Ø This child grew up to be John Wesley, one of the great evangelists of the 19th century

Case #2: The father is sick with a bad cold, the mother has tuberculosis (TB). They have four children. The first is blind, second is dead, third is deaf, fourth has TB. She finds that she’s pregnant again. Given their extreme situation, would you consider recommending an abortion?

Ø This mother’s 5th child was named Ludwig van/ Beethoven

Case #3: A white man has raped a 13-year old black girl, and she became pregnant. If you were her parents, would you consider recommending an abortion?

Ø The child of this raped black girl became a great black gospel singer named Ethel Waters. She was often a featured performer for Billy Graham.

Case #4: A teenage girl is pregnant. She’s not married. Her fiancée’ is not the father of the baby, and he’s concerned. Would you consider recommending an abortion?

Ø You might recognize this child as the son of Mary from Nazareth… Jesus Christ