Psalm 139 - UnPlanned and UnWanted

UnPlanned and UnWanted (Un is crossed out)

Closing out our Praying through the Psalms series

This week we are wrapping up our Praying through the Psalms series.

We have walked through Psalm 19, 23, 77, 73, and today we will be in Psalm 139.

Like in previous weeks, you will be gathering with 1-2 other people around you to pray using the points on the screen.

When it is time to bring it back in, I will say “Lord” and then pause.

At that time, you will wrap up your prayer, I will close the prayer time, and we will move into our next point.

Introduction

We are going to be in Psalm 139, which, among other things, is one of the most powerful passages concerning the sanctity of life - and is biblical proof that human life begins in the womb, not after a baby is born.

DISCLAIMER: I go into this message with the realization that this may significantly challenge many of us present.

Before you tune this out, I am going to challenge you to do something…

If you are a Christian, and your position is to support a woman's right to an abortion - OR You are a Christian who is against abortion, but for political reasons, I am going to ask you to think about this through a BIBLICAL lens.

I want you to truly ask the question “What does GOD say about this?”

We must do away with the political lens - which uses abortion as a tool to win voters to one side or the other…

Too many politicians make an argument for or against abortion, not based on what is morally right or true (God’s standards), but rather what is going to secure them the best chance of being elected.

We must also do away with the cultural lens - which sees abortion as birth control enabling us to engage in sex recreationally without consequences

our culture has also made the expression of one’s sexuality to be the essence of what it is to be human

in doing this, we have sought to remove any of the effects of that sexual expression - namely, children, commitment, and responsibility.

This is a short circuit of God’s design for sex in the context of marriage, which is meant to provide protection for the married couple, enjoyment of one another through committed monogamous relationship, and offspring that this couple is to raise according to what God has said.

There is a great academic resource on this called the Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self - by Carl Trueman, if you want to take a deep dive into this.

I want to say this emphatically - Abortion is not, and cannot be, for the Christian, a political or cultural issue.

Discussing abortion outside of a biblical worldview ultimately seeks to undermine the Lord’s created order of things, removing the Lord as the central figure, and placing self on center stage.

When we begin to make cultural arguments to subvert divine purposes, or political arguments to support God’s order of life then we have gone off the reservation.

I am going to ask that you hang with me here, pray and ask the Lord what is TRUE and right, not just what you FEEL is true or right or what you have been told to believe.

My hope and prayer is that I would be as Christ-centered as possible in my approach, not relying on political or cultural talking points, but rather the Word of God to support my claims.

To that end, I have tried to be as faithful to the Word as I can be

I also want to make known, that if you have any follow up thoughts, questions, or concerns, Pastor Jonathan, pastor Kevin and myself are available, along with other leaders in our church.

Not a political win - an Imago Dei Win…

Nine days ago, as most of you know, Roe V Wade was overturned by the Supreme Court effectively giving power back to the states to determine if they would permit or prohibit abortions.

For those that fall in what we have historically called the pro-life “category,” this was a huge win.

Abortion always has been (and will continue to be) an Imago Dei issue (which means Image of God) in ALL people issue - Genesis 1:27.

Because of this, we do not celebrate the overturning of Roe v Wade as a political or cultural win.

We celebrate the overturning of Roe v Wade as an Imago Dei win.

My intention is to try and illustrate that today, through our text and prayer time.

There is No condemnation here...

The last thing that I need to say, before we jump into this Psalm, is in regards to grace.

Many of us in this room (myself included) have either actively participated in the advancement of a pro-abortion agenda or perhaps have participated in the act of abortion.

If you are a believer, Jesus looks at that and says “tetelestai” - It is finished… You are forgiven.

Perhaps you are still wrestling with the condemnation over the role that you played in an abortion.

If that is the case, then I want to remind you of Romans 8:1 - “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

Jesus does not look at you with a single ounce of disgust - but rather with unwavering love and acceptance, because He already paid the price for that sin on the cross - and because of this, no one else has the right to look at you with disgust.

If you are not a believer in Jesus, then He calls to you today and offers unconditional forgiveness and eternal life, that He paid for by dying on the cross and then raising from the dead.

This grace is big enough to cover the sin of abortion - and any other sin for that matter.

Finally - for the woman in this room who is either struggling with an unwanted pregnancy (or may in the future struggle with and unwanted pregnancy)… I need you to hear me.

At RCB, we are here to love you and walk with you through this - with dignity and grace.

I will talk more about this in our third point today, but I want to set the stage for us.

Main Body of the sermon

With that said, let’s jump into Psalm 139:13-16

Point #1

Psalm 139:13 (ESV)

13 For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.

Point #1 - An Intelligent and Intentional Design (v. 13)

Pay attention to the language used here…

Formed - meaning to buy, acquire, or to create

Knitted - meaning to weave together, to shape, or to intertwine

The imagery that we are meant to get here is one of God as a skillful artist, methodically and meticulously working on his most precious of creations.

Think of an artist, working on their magnum opus

Da Vinci - Mona Lisa

Michelangelo - Statue of David

Van Gogh - Starry Night

The Lord’s Magnum Opus is human life…

There are at least two implications I gather from the words Formed and Knitted:

Intentionality

Ownership

The implication of Intentionality is that...

You are not an accident

I don’t care if you are the result of an unplanned or unwanted pregnancy by your parents...

You are neither unplanned nor unwanted by the Lord.

You were not accidentally formed and knitted together - and no one on this earth was either.

The implication of Ownership is that...

You are not your own, you are the Lord’s.

You are the Lord’s as the Statue of David is Michelangelo’s…

This is a side note, but worth mentioning…

Did you know that the piece of marble that Michelangelo carved the statue of David was an unwanted piece - discarded twice before by other sculptors?

I think there is a sermon illustration in there somewhere…

When did this start?

Pay attention to when this all started…

Psalm 139:13 - For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.

Personhood and Imago Dei is established in a mother’s womb.

From the moment that a male and female gamete come together and a zygote is formed, the Lord is forming and knitting an image bearer together.

We see evidence of this in Luke 1:39-45 when the first person who recognized Jesus as Lord was a fetal John the Baptist.

A baby is not a person only when they are wanted by the parents and a clump of tissue when they aren’t.

They are divine image bearers from the start, the Imago Dei

This means that every person on the planet, born, or unborn, intrinsic value - period.

Because of this, believers should be pro-life “from womb to tomb,” as one of my heroes Dr. Tony Evans says.

And our lives should be lived reflecting that truth.

Prayer Points:

Ask the Lord to form your thoughts about life through His Word and not our culture or politics

Ask the Lord to help you see and affirm His intelligent and intentional design in those around you.

Close first prayer time after 3-4 minutes

Point #2

When thinking about the overturning of Roe v Wade, this is a significant step towards preserving life.

Since 1973, when R v W was passed, around 63 & 1/2 million babies have been aborted.

To give you a perspective on how many people this is.

To relate this to time, if each baby aborted equals one second, it would total 735 days (over 2 years)

This is 243 times the population of Bryan/College Station

That is 20% of the current US population.

20% of the US population, simply gone.

The overturning of Roe v Wade should be a reason to rejoice, because it gives life a greater chance - and the Word of God would agree with that sentiment.

Psalm 139:14 (ESV)

14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.

Point #2 - A Living Response of Praise (v. 14)

Here in Psalm 139, David is drawn to praise of the Lord for what He has done.

When the Lord brings new life into this world, He does so in a supremely wonderful way!

This is why he says TWICE that this is wonderful...

I am fearfully and WONDERFULLY made - WONDERFUL are your works.

This speaks to the sheer complexity of the human body - which is astounding.

The human brain is more powerful than any computer that has ever been made

The human heart operates non-stop circulating blood throughout our bodies.

The lungs transfer atmospheric oxygen to our blood where it is carried to every part of our bodies.

The eyes gather light waves and process that into images that our brain constantly analyzes to give us awareness of the world around us.

To think that this all started with a single fertilized cell.

The growth and development of an embryo is unbelievable.

Did you know??

By the end of month 1 of an embryo’s development, the heart - in the form of a heart tube - starts pumping. He is just 1/4 of an inch long.

in month 2, her brain and nervous system are well formed. She is about an inch long.

in month 3, all of his organs are formed and are starting to function. He is about 4 inches long.

in month 4, her hair, eyelashes, and finger nails form. She is about 6 inches long

in month 5, he is moving a lot, his body exercising his muscles through kicks, twitches, and rolls. He is roughly 10 inches long

in month 6, her fingerprints are formed and her eyes begin to open and close. She can hiccup. She is now about 12 inches long

in month 7, his hearing is fully developed and is able to respond to stimuli - turning towards light and sounds. He is about 14 inches long.

in month 8, she is building her reserves of body fat - which is where those cute little rolls around her legs and arms come from. She is about 18 inches long. At this point, mom is about ready to serve the eviction papers, especially if it is summertime…

in Month 9, he has started to coordinate his reflexes and will respond to touch - which is why if you press on mom’s belly, sometimes he will press back. He is about 17-19 inches long, and getting pretty cramped in there.

in Month 10 - yes that’s right, month 10 - because full term is 40 weeks - if your baby hasn’t flipped, she will. She is around 20 inches long, and she is about to make her grand entry into the world.

The miracles of this child’s life have only just begun - he will spend the rest of his live learning, growing, and fulfilling the purpose of why he is here.

To quote the great theologian Dr. Seuss - A person’s a person, no matter how small.

Hopefully you get the point.

We are fearfully and wonderfully made!

But over time, have numbed and rejected that, which has allowed us to normalize atrocities like abortion.

We have lost the wonder of the human creation.

So, how do we think about and respond to the SCOTUS decision?

If the Imago Dei begins at the moment of conception, and the SCOTUS decision could potentially give that image bearer a chance at life, then the Christ-follower should be overjoyed about this ruling…

Our joy should be manifest as PRAISE for the Lord that LIFE is being preserved.

But in the midst of my praise of the Lord, I have felt a deep sadness that has lingered.

The things I am seeing online are difficult to stomach.

Pastors embracing the moniker “pro-choice pastors”

Others saying we should not rejoice while others are so upset by this ruling.

One friend on Social media posted a picture of a child sleeping on a filthy mattress and trash all around the room with the caption “a life is not saved, just by letting it be born” intimating that this child would be better off dead.

Does this not sound absolutely horrific?

Instead of desiring to help this child and his family break out of poverty, this person just thinks that they should be dead.

Christ-follower, in spite of what others are saying, we should be shouting for joy because this is a win for life.

The word that David used here for praise, means to make a public confession of the attributes and acts of power of a person.

This praise is usually spoken out loud, in the context of the community.

Our praise for the Lord should loud and public and it should center around the fact that God does fearful and wonderful things when He brings babies into this world - not simply because the Supreme Court released a decision.

Do not stifle your praise of the Lord because you are worried someone is going to get mad...

We should be a living response of praise

Prayer points:

Pray verse 14 back to the Lord as if they were your words - marvel at the miracle of life!

I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.

Pray for the Lord to awaken the souls of those who do not see life as being fearfully and wonderfully made.

Close Second Prayer time

Point #3

One of the absolute tragedies of abortion is the extermination of what might have been

Hopes, dreams, aspirations, accomplishments, and love that was extinguished before they even got a chance.

Advocates of abortion have been very crafty in their ‘marketing’ for their cause.

It is not a baby, it’s a clump of cells

Planned Parenthood’s website describes abortion as “Essential health care”.

They demand “bodily autonomy” for women, without regard for the body of the child in question.

The tactic is simple but effective.

First - to dehumanize and take the focus off these children so that it is easier to make the decision to exterminate them

Second - redefine murder as a clinical procedure akin to having a bad tooth pulled or your appendix removed.

This is nothing new...

The Nazis convinced the population that the Jews were sub-human - they called them parasites.

Before that, in America’s history, Blacks were considered 3/5th of a person.

We see this in every circumstance in the world where horrific crimes against humanity are committed.

Convince the public that a whole group of people are sub-human, and you can justify any number of things.

This is how horrors like slavery and racism became normative throughout our country.

And this is how abortion became normative and considered basic women’s healthcare.

Abortion, like slavery and the Holocaust, is an assault on the image of God.

This leaves us with one viable position as Christ-followers as it relates to abortion…

We must fight for life - armed with God’s Word.

Point #3 - A Life Worth Fighting For (vv. 15-16)

Why?

Look at what David says…

Psalm 139:15–16 (ESV)

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.

First, David says that he was “intricately woven”

This word means the weaving of a variegated tapestry…

To be variegated is to have unique markings.

Simply put, when God weaves a child together in her mother’s womb, He is creating something NEW

He sees the “unformed substance” of that single cell and causes it to grow into to a fully formed baby - and in the process he creates something that has never existed before and will not be duplicated.

That’s true of you and of me.

Each person on this earth is very much a one-of-a-kind - each one an image bearer - intricately woven by the Lord meant to reflect attributes of the Lord to the rest of creation.

David says that He formed and wrote down our days - every one of them - before a single day was lived out.

He knows the day we will be born and the day we will die - and every one in between.

Formed

Formed is not the same word as we saw in v. 13 - Kah-nah, which meant to Buy, acquire or create.

This is the word “Yatzar” and it means to fashion, like a potter shaping a vessel on a potter’s wheel, each movement of his hands calculated and precise.

Written

When it says that all of our days were “written,” it is the word Ka-tav

It means to engrave or inscribe

It’s the same word that the Lord used in Exodus 24:12 when he said that he was going to “Give you tablets of stone with the law and the commandment which I have WRITTEN for their instruction.”

I need you to hear me…

Every child that is conceived, no matter how that child was conceived, has had the hands of the Lord on them like a potter and their days written out by God. .

There are no qualifiers here…

It does not matter if that mother (and father, btw) want that baby or not.

It doesn’t matter if that child is born and lives 3 minutes or that child grows to be an old woman, full of years and experiences.

The Bible doesn’t give you circumstances where it is acceptable to abort a child.

In fact, the Bible tells us in Deuteronomy 32 and 1 Samuel 2 that God has the power of life and death - not us.

What do we DO with all this? What is our response?

The last thing that I want to dig into here is that we cannot simply see this as an academic exercise, forming a theological position that has no legs.

We must respond with action…

PRAY

We need to PRAY!

You need to understand that Prayer is what drove the fall of R v W.

Prayer is what shut down the Planned Parenthood here in town - and if you don’t know that story, go look up Abby Johnson and learn her story.

SERVE

We need to care for people - and in this case, mothers who find themselves in difficult situations where they would even entertain the idea of getting an abortion.

Some are criticizing Christians because they are talking like this - saying that we waited until NOW do do something, which is categorically untrue.

The truth is that there are nearly 3,000 pregnancy resource centers in the US, funded and staffed not by government, but by Christians and churches.

There are at least two in town - Hope Pregnancy Center and Aggieland Pregnancy Outreach

Go volunteer or give money to one of these centers.

FOSTER OR ADOPT

Start praying about adoption and foster care.

Be ready if the Lord’s plan to rescue one of these babies includes putting him or her into your family.

We literally have multiple families in our church that have done this, and I know that they would be willing to talk with you about how to get going.

Or support foster care though the Care Portal that seeks to serve foster families with resources needed.

STAY CONNECTED TO RCB

Stay connected to our church - and connect others.

My charge to you, as one of your pastors, is to be an advocate for life.

If you come across someone who falls into that category of need, please direct them towards us.

Assistance to stop abortion is only as good as it is available - so we MUST make this known, and that is going to happen largely through you.

Quite honestly, if RCB went broke saving the lives of these children and helping the mothers to get help in community - then so be it.

Although, I think that the Lord will meet whatever needs we have in the name of sustaining and saving life.

Just so that we are absolutely clear about RCB’s commitment...

ANY woman who finds herself with an unplanned pregnancy - and needs help to walk through this, we will do what we must do to help her and her unborn child.

We want her to experience the gospel in action

We want to see her baby born healthy

We want to walk alongside her in community equipping her to raise her in a Christ-centered home as a single mom.

OR, help her get connected with an adoptive family who desperately wants a child.

We will do this with the help of the crisis pregnancy center in town, our own church members, and resources that our church has.

Prayer Points:

Pray for those in difficult positions with unplanned and unwanted pregnancies - that the Lord would draw them close.

Pray that RCB would be used by the Lord to single mothers and pregnant women who might have otherwise aborted their babies - providing resources for medical care, adoption services, and/or childcare.

After 3-4 minutes close third prayer time and move into close

Closing

We are going to close in worship - lifting up the name of Jesus

If you want to pray with someone, we are going to have our prayer team available to you along the back wall by the big double doors leading into the kids area.

Additionally, myself, Pastor Jonathan and Pastor Kevin will be available up at the front and sides to pray with you.

If Abortion is a part of your history

If you or someone you know is in this situation right now and need help

If you want to receive this great Jesus who forgives us of all sins if we believe in Him.. .

If you have any other prayer requests