Sanctity of LIFE
Scott Bayles, pastor
Blooming Grove Christian Church: 1/17/16
• Video: Abortion – Survivor Testimony
I really thought I was done with diapers. Our first born was potty trained by the time he was two. Our middle child was a little more stubborn, so she didn’t potty train until she was three. But then the youngest came along and I wouldn’t say she was stubborn; she just didn’t care. She was still wearing pull-ups when she was four years old. When we finally threw away the last dirty diaper, I swear the hallelujah chorus was playing in the background. So when Ashley and I started taking classes for foster parenting, I said upfront: “No diapers.” But then we got the call for a six week old baby girl and Ashley was so excited that I just caved in. Now I’m changing diapers and mixing bottles at two in the morning. And I’ll tell you, it’s exhausting. But when you’re holding that bottle and she grabs ahold of your finger with her tiny little hands, your heart just melts and you know it’s worth it.
My ten-year-old says to me the other day, “Everybody who stops by the house wants to see the baby. How come nobody stops by to see me like that?”
Children—babies in particular—are precious, aren’t they? It’s no wonder the Bible says, “Children are a gift from the Lord; they are a reward from him” (Psalm 127:3 NLT). Earlier this week I came across some notes that kids wrote to God…
• Dear God, I went to this wedding and they kissed in church. Is that OK?
• Dear God, If you watch in church on Sunday I will show you my new shoes.
• Dear God, please send Dennis Clark to a different camp next year.
• Dear God, maybe Cain and Abel would not kill each other so much if they had their own rooms. It works with my brother.
• Dear God, please put another holiday between Christmas and Easter. There is nothing good in there now.
• God, thank you for the baby brother but what I prayed for was a puppy.
• Dear God, I think about you sometimes even when I’m not praying.
Here at the Grove we believe that children—even the ones yet to be born—matter to God. This Sunday is Sanctity of Life Sunday. Pastors all across the country and even the world, will stand behind their pulpits and confront one of the most critical issues of our generation—life. This is easily one of the most difficult issues for me to talk about. The issue has become so emotionally and politically charged that many Christians and pastors are afraid to talk about it at all. But, frankly, I’m not interested in being politically correct. I’m only interested in being biblically correct.
So, this morning, I’d like to look at God’s words to one person, one man, about life before birth. That man was Jeremiah. God chose Jeremiah for a very special task—to be one of the last great prophets of the Old Testament and to warn the people of Israel about the coming Babylonian invasion and exile. Jeremiah was just a young man, maybe fifteen years old, when God called him. But God’s very first words to Jeremiah underscore three powerful truths that pertain not only to Jeremiah’s life, but also to yours mine and every person on the face of the earth.
Before we get to God’s message to Jeremiah, however, I want to pay special attention to the verse preceding it. Jeremiah says, “The word of the Lord came to me, saying…” (Jeremiah 1:4 NIV). Put another way, the words we’re about to read are not man’s words, but God’s Word. People will have their opinions and politicians will have their positions, but this is what God says. So what did the word of the Lord come saying? Let’s read it slowly: “I knew you before I formed you in your mother’s womb. Before you were born I set you apart and appointed you as my prophet to the nations” (Jeremiah 1:5 NLT).
In twenty-eight words, none of them more than two syllables, God highlights three profound truths that are just as relevant to your life and mine as they were to Jeremiah—three truths that ought to shape the discussion when it comes to abortion and the question of when life begins. First, this verse underscores the truth of God’s acquaintance with us prior to birth.
• GOD’S ACQUAINTANCE WITH US
Have you ever noticed how it’s possible to be surrounded by people, even friends and family, and still feel like no one really sees you or knows you? Your deepest dreams, your inward struggles all remain hidden from view. I think, deep down, we all have a desire to be understood—for people to really get us. We long to be known.
We all want our lives to matter and, in part, we believe they only matter if they are noticed by someone. I think this desire for a witness is what fuels a lot of blogs, Facebook, Snapchat and Twitter post. We want someone, anyone, to take notice, to care about us, to watch us and by their attention communicate, "You matter. Your life counts."
I think this is why God’s words to Jeremiah are so powerful: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you” (Jeremiah 1:5 NIV). The word, “know” in Hebrew speaks of a personal intimate knowledge and was used of Adam “knowing” Eve. The idea is that God has a close personal commitment and intimate relationship with each one of us. God not only knows where you are, he knows who you are. He knows what you’re going through, why you’re going through it and how you feel about it. He knows you better than you know yourself. He cares about you personally.
Listen to this psalm David wrote about God’s intimate knowledge of us:
O Lord, you have examined my heart and know everything about me. You know when I sit down or stand up. You know my thoughts even when I’m far away. You see me when I travel and when I rest at home. You know everything I do. You know what I am going to say even before I say it, Lord… Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too great for me to understand! (Psalm 139:1-6 NLT)
What’s truly great and wonderful is that God knows us like this before we’re even born! Before you were born, God knew what your favorite color would be. Before he formed you in the womb, he knew the sound of your laughter. He knew the color of your hair (and how many hairs you’d have). He knew whether you would prefer pizza or tacos. He knew what your favorite sitcom or sports team would be. He knew what would make you cry. He knew what would make you smile. He knew your private-most thoughts. He knew everything that would make you the person you are today.
The fact that God knows us so personally even before birth speaks to our personhood and our value as human beings made in His image even before we are born. God’s acquaintance with us—his intimate and personal knowledge of us before our birth—is the first truth embedded in this verse. Furthermore, Jeremiah 1:5 highlights God’s assembly of us.
• GOD’S ASSEMBLY OF US
Not only did God know us before our birth, but He assembled us in the womb. God says to Jeremiah, “I formed you in your mother’s womb” (Jeremiah 1:5 NLT). The word “formed” is the Hebrew word used to describe the creative work of a potter as he molds and shapes a piece of clay. It means to squeeze into a predetermined shape. It’s also the same word found in Genesis 2:7 where we read that the “Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground…” Just as God purposefully formed Adam from the dust of the earth, so too He does His creative work in the womb.
David expounds on this idea in Psalm 139, where he writes:
You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it. You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. (Psalm 139:13-15 NLT).
You were handmade by God Himself. God prescribed every single detail of your body. He deliberately chose your race, the color of your skin, your hair, and every other feature. He custom-made you the way He wanted you. Your life is a miracle. You were fashioned and formed by the God of all creation. Therefore, a pre-born life is more than just a clump of cells or a by-product of conception. It’s a masterpiece in the making. It’s a newly conceived human being whose life is sacred and inviolable at every moment. It’s a living human being whose DNA is infused with potential, talent, eye-color, hair-color, and life. Whose tiny heart begins to beat at day 25, who practices inhaling and exhaling by day 90, whose delicate frame can kick, twist, flail, grasp, squint, frown, grimace, and even suck a thumb by day 105. Every human life, no matter the stage or condition has value because God created it—because God knit it together.
My wife knows a little something about that. We have a blanket in our closet that I would love to get rid of, but Ashley won’t let me. We never use it. The color is faded and thread is frazzled. Frankly, it’s kind of ugly. It simply takes up space in our closet.
Logic says, throw it out. But Ashley won’t let me throw it out.
Why not? What’s unusual about that blanket? To start with, it has no label, no tag telling you "Wash in cold water." That’s because it wasn’t made in a factory, produced on an assembly line as the product of a nameless employee. Rather, it was the creation of a devoted mother expressing her love—Ashley’s great grandmother to be precise. That blanket is unique, one of a kind, irreplaceable. Each strand was chosen with care, each thread selected with affection—knit together by caring hands. And so, even though the blanket has lost all of its use, it has lost none of its value. It is valuable not because of its function, but because of its maker.
So it is with each life. You, I and every child yet to be born are valuable because of our Maker. God carefully assembled each one of us. He knit us together in our mother’s wombs. Finally, Jeremiah 1:5 highlights one more important truth—God’s appointment of us.
• GOD’S APPOINTMENT OF US
The last part of verse 5 tells us about Jeremiah’s appointment: “Before you were born I set you apart and appointed you as my prophet to the nations” (Jeremiah 1:5 NLT). In other words, even before he was born Jeremiah had a job to do! He was put on this earth for a reason. So were you! God has a purpose and a plan for each one of us.
You are not an accident. Your birth—your conception—was no mistake or mishap, and your life is no fluke of nature. While there are many illegitimate parents in the world, there are no illegitimate children. There is no such thing as an unplanned pregnancy. Your parents may not have planned you, but God did. He was not at all surprised by your birth. Rather, He expected it.
Long before you were conceived by your parents, you were conceived in the mind of God. Regardless of the circumstances of your birth or who your parents are, God had a plan in creating you. God never does anything accidentally, and he never makes mistakes. He has a reason for everything he creates. Every plant and every animal was planned by God, and every person was designed for a purpose.
Again, in Psalm 139, David recounts the fact that God created him for a purpose: “You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed” (Psalm 139:16 NLT).
Regardless of what you’ve got written on your calendar, God has an appointment book with your name on it—a schedule He intends for you to keep. As the wise young Calvin—of Calvin & Hobbes fame—once said, “God put me on this earth to accomplish a certain number of things. Right now, I’m so far behind I’ll never die!”
Sadly, that’s not the way it works.
Every day thousands of unborn children are aborted (180 since worship began), never allowed to experience God’s plan for their lives. I’m reminded of a song recorded by a Christian Acapella band titled “What Was I Supposed to Be?” The song imagines a scene in heaven; children gathered around Jesus asking, “What was I supposed to be? What were my eyes supposed to be? Why did I taste death before I ever drew a breath? Was I to be a prophet used in the ministry? Or a doctor who’d find the cure to some terrible disease? Oh, Jesus, what was I supposed to be?”
One of the most beautiful and inspiring passages about God’s plan for our lives was actually recorded by Jeremiah: “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future” (Jeremiah 29:11 NIV). There is no telling how many lives have been touched by those words. As I pondered this passage, it struck me that had Jeremiah not been born, we might not have these weighty words. If Jeremiah had been aborted when he was in his mother’s womb, we would have a huge hole in our Bibles. I wonder how many holes we have in our lives and in our world that we don’t even know exist.
Conclusion:
As we wrestle with these very emotional and politically charges issues of abortion and right to life, I hope that we will shape the discussion and build our worldview on “the word of the Lord” that came not only to Jeremiah, but to you and me as well. I hope we’ll allow God’s acquaintance with us, God’s assembly of us, and God’s appointments for us to determine our attitudes and actions.
Before I close, let me offer just a couple of practical suggestions when it comes to dealing with abortion. First, we need to offer grace and forgiveness to those who need it. Abortion is a sin but it’s also forgivable. Studies show that the majority of women who’ve had abortions have significant emotional, physical and spiritual scars. 92% report that they have experienced feelings of guilt and 87% indicated that they suffered depression. While we need to speak out about moral concerns in our society, the church ought to be a place of help and healing for those who need it.
Secondly, we need to advocate life. The Bible commands us to “Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves” (Proverbs 31:8). The single best way to advocate for the unborn is to encourage young women who are pregnant and unprepared. Offer your love and support and direct them to crisis pregnancy centers like Living Alternatives in Jacksonville. Christian operated crisis-pregnancy centers like this one are doing amazing work. They are saving lives and leading young women and men to Christ.
Invitation:
Although I could never pick you out of a crowd, perhaps you or someone close to you has been affected by the ravages of abortion. I want to invite you talk with me after church, share your story and accept God’s love and healing. In the meantime, let’s sing together.
