Sanctity of Human Life

Psalm 139:1–16 ESV

1 O Lord, you have searched me and known me! 2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. 3 You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. 4 Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it altogether. 5 You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me. 6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it. 7 Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? 8 If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! 9 If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, 10 even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me. 11 If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,” 12 even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you. 13 For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. 14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. 15 My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. 16 Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.

Introduction

Video: As Long As We Have Breath

Good Morning and welcome to our special service on this “Sanctity of Human Life Sunday”. Did you hear that last line in the video? “Sanctity means that we give all the love back to the God who holds each soul in His hand by caring for His creation as long as we have breathe.”

This is the 38th year that the 3rd Sunday in January has been set aside to consider, contemplate and honor the value of life as God has given it. And while this tradition began in response to the Roe vs. Wade decision, over the years the focus has expanded beyond just the abortion issue, into recognizing the valuing of life at every stage and in any struggle.

Because right from the beginning, God’s heart was in favor of His creation of life.

Genesis 1:26–27 (ESV)

26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

Everything on earth has the fingerprints of God on it, in that He created it, but human life is unique in that we alone are the “image-bearers of God”. This makes human life, in every stage and any struggle, uniquely sacred.

Tension

I use those qualifiers “every stage and any struggle” very intentionally. Because those are the two places where the value of human life is being attacked the most right now. Those are the places where our true enemy, the Father of lies, has gained the most ground.

The Devil has convinced so many people that there are certain stages of human life that are not really sacred or there are certain struggles in human life that make that life no longer sacred. But that is a lie, and don’t you believe it! Because every life, born or unborn has been created with purpose, with love, and with value.

But you might say, sure Pastor Dan, if we go back to Genesis 1 and 2 then we see how great it was to be human but what about chapter 3. Because we no longer live in the Garden of Eden any longer, we life on this side of the Fall and the the presence of Sin has changed the experience of human life.

That is true. There is no doubt that our sin has changed everything about our world. It has invited new struggles into every stage of life and we are no longer perfectly reflecting the image of God as we once did. We did that. We wreck that. We turned our backs on God and His good design in us and for us. So that our relationship with God, our relationships with each other and our relationship with the created world changed for the worse.

We do sit on the other side of that change and that is bad news…but…today we also sit on the other side of the change that brings us good news. The greatest news in fact. The news that reverses all the bad from the bad news for those who are “in Christ”...as we have been talking about for the past couple of weeks.

The struggles in our lives on this side of the Fall are real, and we do no one a service by trying to pretend otherwise, but the hope that we have been given “in Christ” eclipses every struggle in any stage of our life.

This is why it is so important that we as a Church continue to get involved in this Sanctity of Human Life effort - because we have this good news to share.

Jesus said,

John 10:10 (ESV)

10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

So when we talk about the “Sanctity of Human Life” at every stage and in any struggle, that is what we are talking about. We are talking about the “abundant” life that Jesus our redeemer bought for us in his death, burial and resurrection.

So as a Church, we want to focus our energy and efforts not just to make attacks on human life unlawful - although that continues to be a piece of it - but we are called to be ambassadors for the Abundant life found “in Christ” because that will make attacks on life unthinkable.

This is what we are after today, to celebrate and promote the value of the Abundant life found in Jesus Christ for people in every stage and in any struggle. So lets stop and pray and we will dive into that together.

Truth

So the first thing that I want to do this morning is to make the Biblical case for the value of life in all stages and struggles. Many of these verses that we are going to run through may be familiar to you but it is good to remind ourselves that we get our view from what God says about life, not from the view of others or even from ourselves. So our first theme is...

The commands to value life abundantly

So first off, lets get back to pre-fall Genesis again to remind us that we a creature, created by God. Some of you remember when I had you turn to your neighbor and say, “You are a Creature”. The kids remember that we still talk about that in Sunday School. But that is not just Pastor Dan being funny. It is a reality right from God’s Word.

Genesis 2:7 (ESV)

7 then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.

But that is the special way that God made Adam...without a belly button. Have you ever thought about that? Our belly button is a sign, or evidence that we were once attached to our mothers, but God made Adam and Eve in a special way so they would not have had one.

But what they did have was the ability to become parents of kids...kids with belly buttons and kids with the ability to grow up to be parents who had more belly button kids who grew up and became parents of kids... and on and on.

The Bible even gives us these long lists of them. Have you ever thought about how there is a testimony of the value of life even in those long genealogies full of names we’ve never heard of and are impossible to pronounce? Why write down the name of these “no-names” except to show how their lives matter.

Even if we never knew anything that they ever did, their lives matter because they walked this world as part of God’s creation, but in their case we know even more about their story because they were found in the family lines of some of the people that we know much more about. Specifically Kings and prophets who wrote parts of the Bible that have.

Like King David who wrote the Psalm that Scott read for us this morning. Psalm 139 is the “go-to” passage on showing how God recognizes and knows the life of one who is yet to be born. That that stage of life is a part, an intimate personal part of our lives where God has worked.

Psalm 139:13–16 (ESV)

13 For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. 14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.

15 My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. 16 Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.

You pretty much have to completely let go of the authority of God’s Word to read this and think that the unborn are nothing but a mass of cells like a tumor that can be removed and forgotten.

And it is not only the testimony of the great King David that speaks to this. The book of Jeremiah written by the prophet of the same name begins with God saying...

Jeremiah 1:5 (ESV)

5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”

If you have ever tracked the physical growth of a unborn child then you know how amazing that development process is, but God is doing other work in there as well, mighty works in us even before we are born.

And the prophet Isaiah says...

Isaiah 49:1b(ESV)

1 The Lord called me from the womb, from the body of my mother he named my name.

And the prophet Isaiah had similar things to say about how the Lord works in all our lives:

Isaiah 44:24 (ESV)

24 Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, who formed you from the womb: “I am the Lord, who made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens, who spread out the earth by myself,

Our Creator God made all things, including this incredible process of a life that gives birth to a life.

And lest we think this is some Old Covenant, Old Testament anomaly, the Apostle Paul in the New Testament talks about his calling in a very similar way. In Galatians...

Galatians 1:15 (ESV)

15 But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace,

In the Old and New Testament God is identified as having already invested in the lives of these people even before they were born. It is impossible to be faithful to God’s Word and believe any other way.

And if that is true of the unborn, then it just as true as the born. Remember we are talking about “The Sanctity of Human Life in every stage and any struggle.”

Some people have developed a framework of what a “quality life” looks like and they contend that if any life does not fit in that frame then that life isn’t a life worth protecting. So when a life, born or unborn, young or old, starts to develop signs of physical, mental or emotional struggles of some sort...then questions are introduced that would not be asked otherwise.

These questions may be asked by others in topics like euthanasia or by the person themselves in cases like doctor assisted suicide. Either way, we have no right to pretend that we are God like this and decide what type of life is worth living and what type of life is not.

Isaiah 45:9–11 (NLT)

9 “What sorrow awaits those who argue with their Creator. Does a clay pot argue with its maker? Does the clay dispute with the one who shapes it, saying, ‘Stop, you’re doing it wrong!’ Does the pot exclaim, ‘How clumsy can you be?’

10 How terrible it would be if a newborn baby said to its father, ‘Why was I born?’ or if it said to its mother, ‘Why did you make me this way?’ ” 11 This is what the Lord says— the Holy One of Israel and your Creator: “Do you question what I do for my children? Do you give me orders about the work of my hands?

Or from the New Testament we read...

1 Corinthians 6:19–20 (ESV)

19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

The Human life is sacred because God created it, and we have no right to declare it otherwise. God has clearly revealed this to us from multiple places in his Word…but still a surprising number of Evangelical Christians do not support the idea of the Sanctity of human life in all stages and any struggle.

It is not that they have not heard the Biblical case for it, it is just that there is a disconnect between what they understand God’s Word to say and what they are willing to do about it. So our second theme is...

The courage to live life abundantly

This disconnect between belief and behavior is sometimes expressed as, “Well, morally I don’t think that it is right, but I have never been in that situation so I don’t want to tell them what they should do”. And I can understand the sentiment.

Many years ago, I remember sitting in the living room with a young teenager, his girlfriend and her grandmother. He had asked me to come with him because he wanted to convince his girlfriend to not abort their baby. Neither one of them grew up in a healthy family situation... so there was ample reason to be concerned over what kind of upbringing a child would have.

And I remember being dumbfounded over the words of this grandmother, who was something of a stable force in the unstable life of this teenage girl. While I can’t remember her exact words she said something like this, “I go to church so I know it is wrong, but at my age I have all I can to raise this teenage girl since her mother left and I know that I can’t do again with her child. So, God forgive us, she IS getting an abortion.”

Maybe circumstances like that seem very distant to your experience...or…maybe you have sat in a room much like that one. Either way, I hope you can sympathize with the desperate feelings that that Grandmother was expressing in that moment, even if we disagree with her conclusion.

Our ministry partners over at APPLE pregnancy center sent us some resources from a Pastor down in Texas who had a chart that looked like this. Chart

He explained that most of the conversation around the Pro Life Movement are focused on that first little section which represents the 9 months from conception to birth. But the problem was that most of the women and men who came in for abortions, some 74% according to Planned Parenthood’s own records, did so because they were looking at the uphill climb of that second section from birth through the rest of the life of the child.

How many of us know that it takes tremendous courage to parent children well even in the best of circumstances?

It does. We recognize that uphill climb don’t we. From that nervous moment when your child is first placed in your arms and you are afraid you will break them to that final moment when they are all grown and you watch them drive out of the driveway and it breaks you…the need for courage just grows right along with the many challenges.

So when we hear that someone is considering abortion, our attitude should never be dismissive of their struggle. As if we always do what is right, just because it is the right thing to do. We don’t always do the right thing when the consequence are far less impactful.

Part of being someone who recognizes the value of life in all stages and struggles is to have compassion for those who are living through some very real struggles and it is tempting them toward doing something they know isn’t right, but they just can’t see any other realistic alternative.

Since we know parenting always takes courage and their particular circumstances may bring even more challenges, isn’t it better to acknowledge the challenges with them? To be honest about the fact that it will take courage but then to reinforce the other thing that every parent knows. Yes it is a challenge and it will take courage but…it…is…worth it.

God’s Word says 3 Children are a gift from the Lord; they are a reward from him. - Psalm 127:3 (NLT)

That of course doesn’t make it any less challenging, but it does remind us that God is doing something great in the midst of all the challenges. This is true for those who are facing unplanned pregnancies or any other stage or struggle in our lives. It is often hard, but because God is in it, it is worth it.

Jeremiah 29:11 (ESV)

11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.

And this is an encouraging verse, but not because everything was going well for the people who first heard it. In fact, Jeremiah was speaking to God’s people at a time when everything in their life was a struggle. The people of God had sinned against him and now they were facing the consequences of exile in a foreign land. It was into this stage and struggle that God shared these encouraging words, but we get a fuller of picture of what God wants when we read the next couple verses where God says...

Jeremiah 29:12–13 (ESV)

12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. 13 You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.

This brings us to our last theme for the week. How to establish...

A culture of supporting life abundantly

Have you ever thought about the fact that Jesus’ parents experienced an unplanned pregnancy? Now it was a “one-of-a-kind” event with that whole “Immaculate Conception” thing but neither Mary nor Joseph were planning on their life taking this turn.

But God the Father provided for Jesus the two things that every life needs. He provided a supportive family life and a supportive faith life.

Supportive Family

The saying goes that the “Holy Family” was “Wholly Family”. A father and Mother committed to each other and to the well being of their children.

And while this ideal is not the case in every family in our broken world, it is good to recognize that when God gave us life, He did with the intent of it being a part of a supportive family.

Supportive Faith

And a big part of being a supportive family is to point each other to the God that created this world and has told us how to live in it. We don’t know a lot about Jesus’ growing up years, but we know from their story that both Mary and Joseph were people of great faith and that it was their habit to bring Jesus to the Temple in Jerusalem for worship and prayer. So they were a Church going family. We also can see the results of their family life in the summary statement of Jesus childhood.

Luke 2:52 (ESV)

And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.

Since God the Father saw fit to make these things a part of His Sons life here on earth, it seems to me that they would work to develop a culture that supports abundant life here at Friendship Church. That whatever stage or struggle they are in, we would look to come alongside individuals and families here at Friendship Church and help them take the next step toward God’s good design in being a part of a supportive Family and growing in their Faith.

This touches on the issue of the Sanctity of Life in many different ways. Certainly we will teach on God’s design for babies to come into this world in the care and protection of a Mom and Dad that are committed in life long marriage, but we will also come along side those who are struggling to see their life as the good thing that God made it to be.

Application

I don’t know who needs to hear this today but their is strength for your struggle, the reason you are going through that struggle is to draw you to the source of strength. Ending a God-given life is never the answer, the struggle is there to draw you to the one who gives life and life abundantly. If you need help making sense of your struggle, please come see me or one of the other leaders here at Friendship Church. If we can’t help, we will point you to others who can.

And for anyone facing an unexpected pregnancy, let me offer this clarification and commitment to you.

Clarification

It is not sinful in and of itself to be in the state of pregnancy. The actions that led to becoming pregnant may have been sinful, but there is nothing intrinsically wrong with being a mother, with having a child growing inside your body. We love babies here, and we hate it when babies are killed.

Commitment

Our commitment to you is that we will never encourage you to have an abortion, because we believe that every unborn child is a bearer of God’s image. But we will not kick you out of the church for being pregnant. We will not shame you. We will not allow people to mock or tease you because you too are an image bearer of God.

Instead, we will celebrate the life in your womb. We will connect you with the resources that you need, like APPLE Pregnancy Center and we will do our best to love you well, following the example of Jesus as he loved the woman at the well and the woman caught in adultery.

We will approach you with grace and friendship. We will teach all our people how to deal with shame through the forgiveness that we all can have through Jesus Christ.

Bottom line, we are for you, we love you, we love that little one, and we want to celebrate their life, even throw a baby shower for you to celebrate the baby’s birth just like we do all births in our church. And we will do everything we can as a Church to help you and your little one grow in a supportive family and a vibrant faith in Jesus Christ.

Landing

I can think of no better way to end than to remind us all the powerful words of Jesus from

John 10:10 (ESV)

10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.