Where Did You Come From?
Psalm 139:13-15
January 25, 2009
This is Sanctitity of Life Sunday. We are going to take a look at God’s view of life and the value that God has for all life. The primary scripture comes from Psalm 139:13-15, which was read earlier.
Here we are reminded of how precious children are to God. That each person including all of us here are knit together in the womb. God knows us and has known before we were ever conceived. He has known us before time began.
One pastor preaching on this topic inadvertently misquoted scripture when he said, “Children are an heritage of the Lord, and the fruit of the loom is his reward.” Kind of ruined the moment.
The title of this sermon is, “Where Did You Come From?” I think this is very pertinent to know where life originated from. It is very pertinent to understand that life comes from God. It originated with God. It originated with Christ. For Colossians 1:15-20 tells us that Jesus:
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
By Jesus everything was created. By Jesus you came into existence. Everything including our lives was created by him and for him. He is before all things and in Jesus all things are held together. He keeps us from falling apart.
Two weeks ago, we looked at the vastness of the universe and the greatness of our God who is a star-breathing God. We kind of saw how indescribly huge God really is. This week we are going to go in the opposite direction. We are going to look at how amazingly detailed God has been in his creation especially in creating us. Even though the universe is incredibly vast and bigger than we can conceive, we are not insignificant to God.
A teacher was reviewing with some seventh graders about the three states of matter. Think back and you might remember that matter can exist in solids, liquid, and vapor. To test them, she asked, “In what three states does water exist?” One boy said, “It’s in all fifty states, isn’t it?”
Let’s look at your life.
Your life started as the joining of two cells. One from your mother and one from your father. That cell from your dad made in an incredible journey. One of thousands. Each cell carries 23 chromosomes. When the cell from your dad and the cell from your mom met, they formed one cell, joined together to form your DNA. Your DNA carries the basic code that tells how you would be formed. How God would knit you. A brand new DNA code. Using four character nucleotides to write out the 3 billion character descriptions *your genomes.” They described who God ordained you to be. If take the DNA out of that single cell, it would be 6 feet long. 3 billion characters. If I read your DNA reading 1 character per second it would take me 96 years to read your description. Isn’t it any wonder that we can never learn all there is to know about someone in a lifetime of marriage?
When your cell was formed, it was completely and totally unique. There has never been someone with the same combination of characters and code. Then that one cell started to grow and form a body. You started as one cell. This could have been your first photo…
Sanctity of life Sunday. Life, every life, is a miracle. No matter what you’ve been through. No matter what your parents have said about you or failed to say, you are God’s miracle. I showed you one baby picture… here is one where you are at three days old. At this point you have 16 cells. You could put it on the head of a pin. Pic of 16 cell.
Eventually you would form 75 trillion cells. Each cell contains 6 feet of DNA code. Your DNA if stretched out would go to the moon and back 178,000 times. As I told you that 50,000 cells died and were replaced by brand new cells. And just now 50,000 cells died. No wonder we are tired. Fearfully and wonderfully made indeed!
You’ve heard people tell how a baby was a mistake. Maybe you were told that you were a mistake. Oopps. Don’t believe it. Maybe two adults made a mistake. Maybe two kids thinking that they were adults made a mistake. But the formation of a baby by God’s hand inside the womb is never a mistake. It is never an accident. You are a miracle not a mistake. Every life is a miracle not a mistake. This is the first thing that we need to remember. We are miracles not mistakes.
No matter what your history is and no matter what has happened to you and no matter what kind of disabilities that the world may label us with: We are never mistakes. We are all miracles. Sometimes code malfunctions. Sometimes environment causes the code to malfunction or get distorted. Even if this is the case, every life is a miracle.
Here is the second thing to remember:
Christ holds us together.
Now here is the craziest thing. It is an amazing. Some of you probably have seen this. In Christ, all things are held together. The heavens. The earth. And even our bodies. This is amazing. It is totally outrageous. And we call it Laminin. I first heard this through a preach named Louie Giglio. He also has talked about some of thing that I shared two weeks ago.
Say it with me… laminin. Lam – in – in. It is the most amazing thing. It is the cell adhesion molecule. Isn’t that cool. Well, all the different cells in our bodies and all the DNA code and all the different things need something to hold it together. And it is Laminin. It is the rebar of the body. (show pic) How many of you know what rebar is? Someone explain to us what rebar does.
Christ is the rebar of our bodies. The Scripture reminds us that he holds all things together—the universe and our bodies. We saw the black hole in the center of the whirlpool galaxy that is 31 million light years away. Remember that? (Show pic) But Christ also holds our bodies together. I don’t mean figuratively either. I am being totally literally here. And he does it through laminin. Isn’t that great? You don’t look very excited.
You don’t seem to excited about it. Which is why you need to see laminin. Remember this is the diagram of the protein molecule that literally is holding you together right now…
Here is what it looks like through an electron microscope. Isn’t that awesome? Isn’t that amazing? Right now there are millions of little crosses floating around in your body. Jesus the firstborn of all creation holds you together literally. We are miracles, yes, but we are also made to have the fullness of Christ dwell within us. We have physical reminders that point us to the cross. Jesus holds you together.
So when the world falls down, he holds you together. When your world falls apart, he holds you together. God’s purpose and plan prevails. He set these markers in place before you born—before you were conceived and thousands (if not millions of years) before the first two cells that would be you joined together.
He renews. He strengthens. He gives peace. God sees what you are going through. He can and will hold you together if you trust Jesus. He is the everlasting God and creator of the earth , the heavens, and the universe. He created you. He gives strength to the weary. There are millions microscopic crosses holding you together. And there is one cross that holds those who trust in Jesus close to the Father. A Father that holds us together no matter what. No matter what the world throws at us.
Sanctity of Life Sunday occurs on the Sunday after the anniversary of Roe vs. Wade, which was the Supreme Court decision that held that the women has the right to choose to continue or terminate her pregnancy. I understand the issues are very complex. There are issues of poverty and justice and governmental regulation. There groups that want you to vote in elections based on one solitary issue.
However I do know and believe this. I was born on January 21, 1968. For the first couple of years of my life, my grandmother watched over me. She raised me. My mother had other priorities in my life. My grandmother told me that my mother hard a very tough time accepting that she was pregnant. She had a hard time accepting that she was really going to give birth to a child. Eventually she came around. Eventually she took responsibility.
A few days after I was born, Roe vs. Wade was handed down. If all the events of my conception had happened a year later and the means for an abortion was readily available, I have no doubt that I would have been in that number.
When I look at the miracle of the beginning of life and when I look at a simple protein molecule called laminin, I am convinced beyond a doubt that life is sacred. I am convinced by the Holy Spirit in me that each person no matter how small is a miracle. I am convinced by God that we are called to treasure the lives of people just as God treasures life.
We are created by Christ and for Christ. We are created to worship Christ. We are created to serve Christ. We have been made on purpose to have the fullness of Christ dwell in us. Not figuratively but literally!! For the laminin in us testifies to this.
Are you truly living your all for Christ? Are you holding something back? Are you hanging onto something that is keeping you from being all that Christ has called you to be? You are a miracle. You are literally held together by Christ. You were made by Christ and for Christ. All things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
He can and will hold you together if you believe and live completely and totally for Him. There is no in-between. Holistic means everything. All that we are is His. Then if someone ever asks you where did you come from then you can literally with complete confidence say that I came from God. And I have the laminin to prove it.
