Every Life Is Precious

“EVERY LIFE IS PRECIOUS” Gen. 1:26-28

INTRO – Aren’t you thankful to be alive today? To be able to breath, eat, laugh, play, relax, work, worship – to be able to live is a wonderful gift from God. Isn’t it wonderful to be able to watch a beautiful sunset, to eat your favorite dessert, to go hunting or fishing w/ your son, to go shopping w/ your daughter, to go to a ballgame w/ your friends? Isn’t it wonderful to be able to watch your grandson play baseball or football or an Upward basketball game, to watch your granddaughter in a dance recital? Isn’t it wonderful to be able to hear this choir sing the praises of God, to be able to sing the praises of G yourself? Isn’t it wonderful to be able to walk on the beach, or walk through the woods, or to stroll around the subdivision, or walk through the mall? Isn’t it wonderful to be able to see the grandeur of the mountains, or the beauty of a rose, or these stained glass windows that point us to our Lord? Isn’t it wonderful to be alive today?

And yet every year in the US, 1.2 to 1.4 million babies are never given the opportunity to find out how wonderful it is to be alive. That’s how many abortions are performed each year in the US. That amounts to about 4,000 every day, 3 every minute, 1 every 20 seconds. So the white crosses that were put on display at the civic center yesterday not only represent the approximate number of abortions in MS each year, they also represent the approximate number of abortions that happen every 2 hours in the US. That many children die every 2 hours in the US.

Here are some basic spiritual truths that we need to remember:

God is the Creator of life – Gen. 1:26-27

I remember when I was a kid that my parents, SS teachers, church, and every other respected person in my life taught me that I was created by God, that every person was created by God. Do you believe these things? I know what biological process is necessary for a child to be conceived, but do you believe that God is still the Creator of life? God created every person, every precious life you see on those photos in front of you.

So when did we get so sophisticated that we thought that we could move away from this basic foundational truth and determine that even though God is the Creator of life, that we could be the ones to decide when to take an innocent life?

God is the Giver of life – Gen. 2:7

Not only does God create life, but He breathes His “breath of life” into every human being. HE gives life. He gave life to every precious life, every person you see on those photos in front of you. HE is the Giver of life.

Dr. Bernard Nathanson was the leading abortion doctor in the United States in the 1970’s. He had campaigned vigorously for the legalization of abortion and he himself had performed 60,000 abortions. He even believed his intentions were good and that he was doing a righteous thing by providing a service that guaranteed a woman’s right to control her body.

But something changed Dr. Nathanson’s point view. It was a medical breakthrough called the ultrasound, introduced in 1976. This device literally opened a window on fetal development. The first time Nathanson saw an ultrasound in action, he was with a group of residents gathered around a pregnant patient in a darkened examining room watching a demonstration by a technician. The technician applied a conductive gel to the woman’s abdomen and then began working a handheld sensor over her stomach. As the screen clarified, Nathason was amazed. He could see a throbbing heart. When the technician focused closely on the image, Nathanson could see all four chambers of the heart pumping blood.

And during the scan Nathanson became convicted. He said that his mind had dropped the word fetus in favor of the word baby. Suddenly, everything he had been learning about the child in the womb since his entry into the medicine snapped into focus. He had known what took place in the womb but somehow seeing it for the first time changed everything.

Bernard Nathanson, the leading abortion doctor in America, became convinced that human life existed with in the womb from the onset of pregnancy. In an article he wrote for the New England Journal of Medicine he wrote, in abortion “we are taking life.” That fetus is not mere tissue - it is human life. (www.sermoncentral.com)

Every life is created in the image of God – Gen. 1:27

Every precious life, every person you see in those photos in front of you was created in the image of God. You were created in the image of God. That does not mean that you will become a god as some religions would have you believe. What is does mean is that you have the capacity to think intelligently, to feel emotions, and to reason. It is not a process that has come about through evolution, but is a God-given part of every person’s life. John MacArthur in referring to the phrase “image of God” said, “This phrase defined man’s unique relation to God and set him apart from the animals. He was like God in that he could reason and had intellect, will, & emotion.”