Psalms 139: A Celebration of Life - Psalms: The Heartbeat of God

Hey, I'm Steve Holt, the senior pastor of the Road at Chapel Hills.

This is the Rudd Podcast.

Thanks for joining us.

My heart is to empower you to change the world.

I hope this message impacts you.

So this is a special sermon in celebration for the June 24th, 2022 Supreme Court decision ending Roe v.

Wade.

I have the decision right here.

All the pages are here.

And if anybody wants it, you can contact our office and we'll make copies of it for you.

I want to take time to commemorate the 5-4 decision of the Supreme Court of the United States of America on Friday, June 24, 2022, to abolish the legality of abortion on the federal level.

The court ruled, and I quote, the Constitution does not confer a right to abortion.

This does not abolish abortion, though, but rather pushes the decision to state legislatures.

Some states have trigger laws in place that immediately ban abortion once Roe is overturned.

Others guarantee the right to an abortion via laws or constitutional amendments.

Kentucky, Louisiana, and South Dakota, and then I just heard when I was leaving this morning, I think Oklahoma had such trigger laws in place, and it's now illegal to have an abortion in those states.

There are at least 13 other states that may soon outlaw or put restrictions on abortions.

Justice Alito wrote the majority decision, joined by four other justices.

Chief Justice Roberts voted with the majority to uphold the Mississippi abortion restrictions, but did not approve of tossing Roe altogether out.

I wonder if we should enact a national holiday called Victory for Life Day.

Not dissimilar from VE Day and VJ Day after World War II.

But this is also a somber moment as we realize that over 70 million babies have been killed, and it's also a time of mourning.

But we must bring compassion to all involved.

We want every woman and man here who has been through an abortion, either by getting someone pregnant who had one, or the woman who had the abortion, that God loves you, forgives you, and so do we at the road.

We are not, listen, we are not going to be a people that becomes pharisaical in condemning women who've had abortions who in most cases felt they had no other option.

And also, who, even though they might have been believers, felt shame.

And you guys know that's a theme of mine is that we all deal with shame.

And most of us have shame areas of our life that wouldn't be maybe that extreme, but everybody here has shame.

And the church has at times shamed, enjoined the shame that these women and the men who are involved may feel.

And we want to build a sanctuary at the road, which we'll talk about at the end of my message, where men and women who are working through healing, they want to work through healing from an abortion, we have, we're gonna have a ministry for you to help you grow and be set free.

We already have one, actually, but we're gonna talk more about it today.

So I want to give you what I think is the significance of this decision, and then we're gonna go into Psalm 139.

First of all, constitutionally, a culture of life has been reaffirmed.

A culture of life has been reaffirmed by our Supreme Court.

In the preamble to the Declaration of Independence, we read, we hold these truths to be self-evident that all men, all human beings, are created equal, and they're endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

The Declaration of Independence in 1776, the Constitution drafted in 1787, and alongside the Bill of Rights in 1789 are all based in natural law, that all people, even the unborn, have certain rights that governments are created to protect.

The founders believed that natural rights are unalienable, meaning they cannot be surrendered to government under any circumstances.

It took the Civil War, which President Lincoln declared in the Gettysburg Address, quote, a new birth of freedom, to vindicate the Declaration of Independence's famous promise that all men are created equal.

And I believe it may in the days ahead be true that some would note that Dobbs v.

Jackson Women's Health, this ruling vindicated that children in the mother's womb are people too.

Number two, politically.

This removes the protection of legal abortion on the federal level, but does not end abortion.

Each state will have to decide what they will do about abortion.

The Supreme Court should not be making laws.

They're supposed to interpret laws based on the Constitution.

State governments make laws for their state.

The real battle for human life will be waged locally.

The place it was 50 years ago and it should be.

But also the place that really matters.

We will have to decide in Colorado what we want to do about abortion.

Almost half of the states are expected to outlaw and restrict abortions as a result of the Supreme Court decision on Friday.

This means that abortion in Colorado is gonna go up dramatically.

Do you guys hear what I'm saying?

Abortion in Colorado is gonna go up dramatically as women come to our state to have their abortion.

So we need to be ready as a local church to make a local impact in women who are coming to have an abortion.

And I don't know exactly how that's gonna play out, but I can tell you that's how ministries get developed in this church.

We see a need, God begins to move in our hearts, and then we develop it.

And so we'll be looking at that as the days ahead move forward.

Number three, spiritually, America, this is the most important, spiritually, America is rebuilding the truth that God is the creator of all people.

Our 45th president Donald Trump, who appointed three of the five justices in the pro-life majority, said of Friday's decision, God made the decision.

Family Research Council President Tony Perkins reiterated the gravity of the moment.

Quote, while we are grateful that the tyranny of Roe has ended, we're mindful of the solnity of this moment.

What the court has done is an act of repentance out of which we bring forth the fruit of repentance, rebuilding a culture of life in America.

So 70 million lives have been lost during this period.

And so it is somnity with compassion and celebration as we move forward.

This decision gives more babies the opportunity to live.

The passage that jumped out in my heart when I heard the decision was John 10.10.

John 10.

The thief comes only to steal, kill, and destroy, and Jesus said, But I came that you might have life and might have it abundantly.

This was a defeat for Satan and a victory for God, but also a new responsibility on us at the road who live in this state of Colorado, where the trigger law was already in place in the last legislature, that abortion would stay legal here.

That we have the most compassionate anointing to reach out to all involved in abortion.

And may God use it in a mighty way to be the church in the gap for these special people that God loves, and may God use it to bring them actually into the kingdom.

What seems to be horrific, what seems to be so difficult, would actually be the means God would use to bring them into the kingdom.

So let's turn to Psalm 139.

Psalm 139 is, in my opinion, the very best passage in all of Scripture about God's love even for the unborn.

Now, you may be noticing a lot of this is not on your slides because this was put together last minute.

Team's done the best that they can.

But look at Psalm 139.

Let's just go through Psalm 139 and look at what it says.

I mean, this is the great psalm, the great pro-life psalm, the psalm that shows God's heart for the unborn.

David is writing this for himself.

So this is a psalm for the believer.

This is a psalm for the Jesus follower.

And you'll understand why that's important as we move along.

Lord, you have searched me and known me.

You have known my sitting down and my rising up.

You understand my thought afar off.

You comprehend my path and my lying down.

And are acquainted with all my ways.

There's not a word on your tongue, on my tongue, but behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.

You've hedged me behind and before, and laid your hand upon me.

Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, it is too high, I cannot attain it.

So I would say, first of all, in Psalm 139, is the sovereignty of God.

God's sovereignty, he is at work in all of your life.

Even in your sin, even in your rebellion, even through the difficult times that all of us go through, God's sovereignly working things out for good if you will love him with all of your heart.

Now, if things don't work out for good for those who don't love God, they're in rebellion to God, and they're, in a sense, in Satan's camp.

Romans 8.28 is what we hold to that, you know, all things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to his purposes.

And so God is working out, you men and women that love God and are called according to his purpose.

He's working that out.

And Psalm 139, David understood that.

You know why this is significant?

Is David spent 14 to 17 years, we don't know exactly, but 14 to 17 years, he's running from Saul.

He's living in caves, he's living off rivers.

He has this hodgepodge of thieves, robbers, and disenfranchised people to make up his army when he had been in the king's palace.

Anybody looking at that was saying, things aren't working out for good.

But David trusted God.

And then as he looked back, I think this is probably later in life, he's looking back, he's writing a song, and he's saying, Look, God was always working that.

I can see it now.

And some of us that are a little bit older, we can see it now.

Some of you that are younger, you have to take this by faith and believe that even when hard things come, sometimes that's the greatest moment of your life.

Because at that moment, you have to trust God in a whole new way.

If you've been through an abortion, if you have caused an abortion, God can use that for good if you'll surrender it to Christ and break the power of shame.

And usually shame is most empowered in silence.

Let me say that again.

Shame is most empowered through silence.

Shame is disempowered through vulnerability.

Now you don't have to announce it to everybody, but you have to have some blood-stained allies.

You have to have some people around you that you share your heart with that you trust that have your back.

And God will come and he'll bring his healing, his supernatural healing in your life.

Well, he's saying, God's sovereign over my life.

Folks, God's sovereign over your life.

Well, he goes a little further.

Look at verse 7.

Where can I go from your spirit?

Where can I flee from your presence?

If I ascend into heaven, you're there.

If I make my bed in hell, behold, you are there.

If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there, your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me.

If I say, Surely, the darkness shall fall on me, even the night shall be light about me.

Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from you, but the night shines as the day.

The darkness and the light are both alike the same thing to you.

So, secondly, the safety of God.

There's the sovereignty of God, but there's also the safety of God.

He's got you.

Even in your darkest night.

He's got you.

He's with you.

Cry out to him.

He's right there.

He's right there with you.

David understood that.

Men and women understand that.

In your darkest of night, in the dark, what is classically been called the dark night of the soul.

Your deepest depression and despair.

God's there.

God's Spirit is there for you.

Verse 13.

And this is where this is where he's taking us here, you guys.

For you formed my inward parts.

You covered me in my mother's womb.

I will praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

Marvelous are your works.

And that my soul knows very well.

My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in secret.

And skillfully wrought in the lower parts of the earth, your eyes saw my substance being yet unformed.

And this is really interesting.

In your book, they were written, the days fashioned for me when as yet there were none of them.

Let me give you three thoughts on this.

Three thoughts from this passage.

Number one, God skillfully created each person in their mother's womb.

God skillfully created you in your mother's womb.

And if that doesn't bring the sovereignty and the safety of God into greater focus, I don't know what will.

In other words, you had no determination about the color of your eyes, about your height, about your body type, about the natural talents you're born with.

Some people are born as musicians, some are born more mechanical, some are more artistic.

I mean, there's so many.

God was skillfully, he had a plan for your life, and he was skillfully forming you for the abundant life.

The enemy comes to steal, kill, and destroy.

I came that you might have life and might have it abundantly.

So God is forming every child in their mother's womb skillfully.

He knows what he's doing, and he has made every one of you beautifully, wonderfully unique.

So don't compare.

Start growing and learning to not look around but stay focused on loving God with all of your heart, soul, minus three.

That's wholehearted living.

Because you can't change it anyway.

And whenever we do things based in comparison, usually it's of the flesh.

But when we do things that are led by the Spirit, it's usually because we're looking to the Lord to guide us rather than looking around at others.

So you are skillfully made.

Secondly, God created every person wonderfully for a purpose.

Not only did he skillfully develop you, he wonderfully developed you for a purpose that he has in mind.

And then thirdly, and this is, I'll just be honest and say, this is one of those question marks that we have for God when we get to heaven, where he says, he says here, your eyes saw my substance being yet unformed, verse 16, and in your book they are all written.

Now, I could take probably the more orthodox view and say it means the Bible, but the way it's written and the way it's fashioned here makes me wonder if when we get to heaven, there's gonna be this book, because Revelation talks about this book too, that there's this book where you're gonna see God's hand when you were born, even before you were born, of the days of your life.

In other words, he's so sovereign, he's so aware of his love for you, which we'll see in just a moment about even his thoughts for us, that he already wrote down his plan for you.

And he said, Wow, that's kind of, I don't know, Steve, you're kind of getting a little too much into predestination and stuff.

Listen, everybody look at me.

If God doesn't know the future, then what do you do with revelation?

Okay, so God knows the future.

Does that mean that we have no responsibility?

No.

That's what we call hyper-Calvinism.

That's not what he's saying.

He's saying, though, that it'd be like the best description I can think of is if I've got seven of the Hulk kids in a room.

They're all in a room.

Nope, I'm not in there.

Liz isn't in there.

We've got this, we've got a room as big as this sanctuary.

All the Hulk kids are in there, and we put a piano, we got a piano up here, right?

There's a piano, and we have a baseball glove and a ball, two gloves and a ball, maybe a baseball.

And I could go on with legs and everything.

We know which of our kids is gonna pick up these objects.

Because we know who they are, we know what their skills are.

Now, did that mean that we told them they had to do that?

No.

That's that's the sovereignty of it.

Does that make sense a little bit?

I'm trying to take a very complex subject and understand it that God is in control and he's working these things out, and he's got some kind of a book he's writing it all down in.

How precious also are your thoughts to me, O God, verse 17.

How great is the sum of them.

If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand.

When I awake, I'm still with you.

So I'm gonna call this the scrutiny of God.

God is scrutinizing our lives.

He is constantly thinking of you.

I saw a number, I can't remember it exactly, but and I in my other Bible I have it written.

It's not in this Bible.

But I remember one time I was in Japan and I and I figured this through some other research that another guy had done.

It was something like 10 to the 47th power, is how they compute being more than more than the sand on the earth.

It was some astronomical number.

That's how often God is actually thinking about you.

And isn't that wonderful?

Well, then in verse 19, you see the humanness of David and the humanness of all of us.

And you may have even had this perspective during the abortion debate.

Oh, that you would slay the wicked, oh God.

Depart from me, therefore, you bloodthirsty men.

For they speak Against you wickedly.

Your enemies take your name in vain.

Do I not hate them, O Lord, who hate you?

And do I not loathe those who rise up against you?

I hate them with perfect hatred.

I count them as my enemies.

Okay, so that's David.

That's so typical David.

I mean, David is just praying exactly the way he feels.

Okay, but then look that look at the transition in the next verse.

Search me, O God, and know my heart.

Try me and know my anxieties.

So, in other words, he's like fired up, he's angry, he's ticked off, and it's almost like he stops for a moment, he goes, I don't know if I want to stay here, I don't know if I want to live here.

God, would you search my heart now?

I give you my anxieties, and look at verse 24, one of the great verses in the Bible, and see if there's any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting.

That's the searching God.

So we have a sovereignty of God, the safety of God, the skill of God, the scrutiny of God, and now a searching God.

And so tonight and today, as you're at home, search your heart.

Might it be that we celebrate what God's done, but look at what he's doing across the land and remember those who've been through an abortion.

You, many of you in this room, many of you in this room have had an abortion.

Many of the men in this room have caused an abortion.

And God loves you, and you can be healed, and you can be set free.

And if you look at me in the mirror, I have just as the same level of sin and shame in my life.

And I've been set free because I've given it over to God, and I constantly give it over to God.

So this is the Christian life.

The Christian life is not victory to victory.

The Christian life is victory defeat, victory, defeat, learn from it, surrender, victory, defeat, learn from it, surrender, victory.

And we move on, right?

That's how we mature.

That's the reason Peter says, you know, why are you so surprised by the fiery ordeal that you're going through?

May God not use it to strengthen and develop your character.

And that's what he says to us today.

Hey, thanks for listening to the Road Podcast.

It's been my joy to be a part of your life today.

And you know, that's part of what we do here at The Road, and this is what I do in having this Road Podcast is to empower people to change their world.

My passion and desire is that you would take God's word through the power of the Holy Spirit and make that relevant for your life.

You know, the reality is that God has placed your life here on this earth to make a difference.

And if you'd like more information about how to grow in Christ, if you need prayer, if you want more equipping in different areas of your life, go to theroad.org.

God bless you.