Sermon Theme
It is one of the hardest things to bear as a human being… An experience of loss so great is ‘guts’ you as they say. The sense of loss and pain are overwhelming and life just isn’t the same anymore.
Such is the experience of a couple when the excitement and joy of a pregnancy is tragically snatched away from them, sometimes leaving an empty nursery all prepared as a cruel reminder of what was expected.
- In my time as pastor I have been with a couple whose baby had miscarried late term
- I have been with another couple at the birth of a child who they knew would be still born
- Too painfully I have seen the pain and grief of a couple heartbroken with a miscarriage in first ten weeks of pregnancy of their first child.
‘WHY’ questions flood into the minds of the expectant parents….
- WHY did God allow this happen?
- Have we done something wrong and God is punishing us?
- Where was God when our child and us needed Him the most?
- Can I believe in Him anymore?
As we turn to Psalm 139, may God in His loving mercy and compassion, through His Spirit give us comfort and strength to work through dark and traumatic days.
Sermon outline
- A HEART WRENCHING LOSS
- THE GOD WHO HAS KNITTED US
- WHEN GOD STOPPED KNITTING
Readings reproduced on this page:
The Holy Bible: New International Version. 1996, 1984. Grand Rapids: Zondervan
Readings
2 Samuel 12:11–24 (NIV84)
11“This is what the Lord says: ‘Out of your own household I am going to bring calamity upon you. Before your very eyes I will take your wives and give them to one who is close to you, and he will lie with your wives in broad daylight.
12You did it in secret, but I will do this thing in broad daylight before all Israel.’ ”
13Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” Nathan replied, “The Lord has taken away your sin. You are not going to die.
14But because by doing this you have made the enemies of the Lord show utter contempt, the son born to you will die.”
15After Nathan had gone home, the Lord struck the child that Uriah’s wife had borne to David, and he became ill.
16David pleaded with God for the child. He fasted and went into his house and spent the nights lying on the ground.
17The elders of his household stood beside him to get him up from the ground, but he refused, and he would not eat any food with them.
18On the seventh day the child died. David’s servants were afraid to tell him that the child was dead, for they thought, “While the child was still living, we spoke to David but he would not listen to us. How can we tell him the child is dead? He may do something desperate.”
19David noticed that his servants were whispering among themselves and he realized the child was dead. “Is the child dead?” he asked. “Yes,” they replied, “he is dead.”
20Then David got up from the ground. After he had washed, put on lotions and changed his clothes, he went into the house of the Lord and worshiped. Then he went to his own house, and at his request they served him food, and he ate.
21His servants asked him, “Why are you acting this way? While the child was alive, you fasted and wept, but now that the child is dead, you get up and eat!”
22He answered, “While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept. I thought, ‘Who knows? The Lord may be gracious to me and let the child live.’
23But now that he is dead, why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I will go to him, but he will not return to me.”
24Then David comforted his wife Bathsheba, and he went to her and lay with her. She gave birth to a son, and they named him Solomon. The Lord loved him;
Text
Psalm 139:1–18 (NIV84)
1O Lord, you have searched me and you know me.
2You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar.
3You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways.
4Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O Lord.
5You hem me in—behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me.
6Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.
7Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?
8If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
9If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.
11If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,”
12even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.
13For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.
15My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,
16your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.
17How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them!
18Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand. When I awake, I am still with you.