to see everybody here tonight. If we can find our hymnals, we will get started tonight with song number
327. Song number 327. Pressing on the upper whites. I'm gaining every day. Song number 327.
Let's all sing that out. Thank you everybody. Let's open up the service now. Thank you so much for
this great church and all the great people gathered here to sing unto you. We just ask that you help
us with the voices tonight. And it's in Jesus' name that we pray. Amen. For our next song,
let's go to song number 455. I've sung it this morning. It's been a new song to most of us.
You know it well, sing it out. Song number 455. Sing that out together.
St. Vas Baptist Church, if you still need a bulletin, you can lift your hand nice and high.
Memory verse of the week, Romans 10-12. On the insides are service and soul winning times.
List of expecting ladies. Please be in prayer for them. Texas A&M College Soul Winning Marathon is
going to be happening February 27th and 28th. It's Friday and Saturday. The Diego is helping
lead that if you have questions. Also, if you are wanting to go early on Saturday morning,
I think Brother Sam was planning on maybe taking the church van. Just talk to him if
you are interested. We're meeting at the Bee Creek Park. They'll go out around 10, do soul winning,
have lunch, and then go out again on Saturday. So even if you can't make it, just pray that things
go smoothly. If you are going to do the van meetup, it's just 6 a.m. here at the building.
They're going to go pretty much at 6 a.m. sharp. If you want to do a free movie this Friday here
at the building, 8 p.m. Again, the movie is going to start right at 8 p.m. So if you are planning
on attending, just realize that if you're running late, we're not going to wait for you. So
but we'll still be here. We won't start the movie late, God willing. Children's Choir
practice begins March 1st. Foley Baby Shower March 7th. There's another Solany Marathon March 21st.
Carthage, Texas. Not too far away from here either, so if you'd like to go out for that.
Solany Mega Marathon April 4th. Easter Sunday is April 5th. Children's Choir is April 5th.
They're going to be performing that morning. There's a baby shower for the Foley's. If you
are interested in going, please, I'll just repeat it, Ms. Souther. There's our prayer list. On the
inside was a congratulations to the Chesiks on the birth of Bethany Olivia. She was born on the
14th, six pounds, nine ounces. Congratulations to them. I think that's really all I have as far as
announcements. We'll go ahead and just sing our Psalm of the Week, Psalm 119, and our special
binder, Psalm 119. Psalm 119? Psalm 119? Take that out together. Everybody, now as the offering plates
are being packed in your Bibles, Peter, chapter number three, 1st Peter chapter, "Wives, be in
subjection to your own husbands, that if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be
won by the conversation of the wives, while they behold your chaste conversation coupled with fear."
"Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plating the hair and of wearing of gold,
or of putting on of apparel, but let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not
corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.
For after this manner in the old time, the holy women also who trusted in God adorned themselves,
being in subjection unto their own husbands. Even as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him Lord,
whose daughters ye are, as long as ye do well, and are not afraid with any amazement.
Likewise ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honor unto the wife, as unto
the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life, that your prayers be not hindered.
Finally be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another. Love as brethren, be pitiful,
be courteous, not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing, but contrary wise blessing,
knowing that ye are thereunto called, that ye should inherit a blessing. For he that will love
life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile.
Let him askew evil and do good. Let him seek peace and ensue it. For the eyes of the Lord are over
the righteous, and his ears are opened unto their prayers. But the face of the Lord is against them
that do evil. And who is he that will harm you if ye be followers of that which is good? But and if
ye suffer for righteousness sake, happy are ye. And be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled,
but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts. And be ready always to give an answer to every man that
asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear. Having a good conscience
that whereas they speak evil of you as of evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely
accuse your good conversation in Christ. For it is better if the will of God be so that ye suffer
for well-doing than for evildoing. For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the
unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but quickened by the Spirit,
by which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison, which sometimes were disobedient,
when once the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was there preparing,
wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water. The like figure whereunto even baptism
doth also now save us, not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good
conscience toward God by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is on the
right hand of God, angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him. Let us pray.
Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for this day. I thank you for the souls that have been won today.
I ask you to please bless the upcoming soul-winning marathons and our group that's going out on a
cruise. Please bless the soul-winning efforts of this church, and I pray that you would bless
now as Pastor Shelley preaches your word to us. Please fill him with the Holy Spirit to preach
what you've laid on his heart. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. I want to look at verse seven. The
Bible says, "Likewise, the husbands dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honor unto
the wife as unto the weaker vessel and as being heirs together of the grace of life, that your
prayers be not hindered." The Bible tells us as husbands to dwell with our wives according to
knowledge. And of course, this evening's sermon is going to be all the single guy's favorite subject,
childbirth and postpartum care. So, but in all seriousness, obviously, even if you are a young
single man, you may get married someday and you can still learn things as far as just empathizing
with your sister and your mother and other ladies and just trying to understand this. But this is a
topic that I think is addressed in the Bible in some different ways. And I just kind of want to
talk about this a little bit. Obviously, as a fundamental Baptist church, we believe, you know,
God wants us to be fruitful and multiply and to have a lot of children as God sees fit. And that's
different than the world. That's, you know, most people in America are not trying to have very many
kids. Many people are only having one, two, many people are having no kids. And as a result of
that, there's, I think there's a lack of knowledge just in this subject. I think that the past
generations not having six, seven, eight, nine, ten kids are not necessarily passing down a lot
of common knowledge. There's a lot of, there's just a lot of ignorance in some of these areas.
Most people are not trying to live in a single income household where the husband is paying all
the bills and the wife's staying home. So I think again, there's a lot of ignorance. There's a lot
of just lack of understanding. And so we should all be trying our best to understand these subjects
for our own, studying ourselves, looking up information, trying to think about these
situations. And you know, as a leader, as the husband making rules and decisions for our household,
I should still be aware of all the things that are affecting my wife. And of course, that's what the
Bible literally says here. It says dwell with them according to knowledge. You know, we should know
about our whys. We should know about their bodies. We should know about what's going on with them.
And yes, some feminist liberal out there screaming, you know, you don't have a uterus,
so you can't make decisions for me. But yes, I can. So there you go. And again, it's my wife's
body, but it's still my choice. But at the end of the day, I don't want to just make decisions
that are harmful for her. I want to dwell with her according to knowledge. And I want to be
understanding of what she's going through. I'll admit that our first child that me and my wife
ever had, I was pretty ignorant of almost all things related to childbirth and postpartum.
And I think that that was a failure on my part. I didn't really, I just kind of went with the flow.
You know, it's just kind of like, you just kind of trust everybody else's opinion. You trust the
doctors that you hire. You're just kind of going through the motions. I didn't really know much.
You're just kind of at the hospital and they're just like sign here and do this and go. And you're
just kind of like, whatever, you know, just what's on the television or something. And it's kind of
lame. I'll just admit that was kind of lame, but I don't want other people to be like me. I want
to be better and be more informed and take it seriously. You know, if you want to have a lot
of kids and you're wanting to take care of your wife well, you should think about what the Bible
says on these issues. Now let's go to Psalm 127 for a moment. I do want to, I do want to go to
some familiar verses for a second, but again, the Bible does talk positively about having several
children and I do not believe that the Bible is outdated. I believe that the Bible is timeless
and that having lots of kids is still the right thing to do in 2026. I do not believe that oh
well in times past they needed to have a lot of kids but we don't now or we needed more farm
hands back then but with AI we don't need it or hey it's too expensive now. Look kids have always
been expensive, life has always been difficult, but at the end of the day kids themselves are
a blessing and and we shouldn't look negatively down on children and think only about the burden
we should think about the blessing. The Bible says in Psalm 127 verse 3, "Low children are
in heritage of the Lord and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows are in the hand of a
mighty man so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them.
They shall not be ashamed but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate." So biblically
speaking the Bible says children are a reward and that the person that has a lot of them is happy.
That is what the the Bible teaches about having lots of children. Go if you would to 1st Timothy
chapter number 2. Additionally the Bible says there's a benefit for women in having lots of
children. They're basically going to be saved from wasting their time on vanity because if women don't
have a lot of children you have to ask themselves this question. If you're going to be a sole
provider, if you're going to be a single household income and you're going to take care of all the
bills and all the finances and your wife isn't having lots of children what is she going to do?
And honestly the the answer is get into trouble. That's just the reality okay because all of us
even if men if men had nothing to do if someone if we were just a trust fund guy where daddy just
paid all of our bills and we didn't have to necessarily work hard to make money we would
all get in trouble too you know you just be like an Andrew Tate loser or something you just be
some guy out there just spending money getting drunk partying living up just being a loser
and in the same way you know for women that have all their needs provided for financially and they
don't have to work for it they too are going to often find themselves in trouble. David when he
stops going out to battle and stop doing the fight he gets himself into trouble. Man gets
himself into trouble woman gets himself into trouble not having something to do. So it's
important to have something to do. Now if you don't have a lot of children or if you don't have
children or whatever your scenario is then you should find something to busy yourself with
and busy yourself in the work of the Lord. Amen. But just in general it's a good thing for women
to be busy and having children. The Bible says in 1st Timothy chapter 2 look at verse 15
notwithstanding she should be saved in childbearing if they continue in faith and
charity and holiness and sobriety. So the Bible talks positively about women being busy with the
work of childbearing and honestly if you have a lot of children you will be busier than you can
even believe. Being a mother is an incredibly difficult task. It's a hard job. There's no
clocking out mentally, physically, emotionally. I mean my wife is always like, "Were you wake when
the kids woke me up at two?" It's like, "No." "What about at three?" "No." "What about at six?"
"No." It's like, I don't know, it's just like, it's incredible to me how she's even surviving because
she's just telling me about how little sleep she gets and I'm just thinking like, "Dang, you know,
it's just crazy." And the kids just constantly bother. Like I could probably have like World
War III and I'm fine, you know, at night for whatever reason, but you know, she's a light
sleeper. She'll constantly be like, "Did you hear that?" And I'm thinking like, "Nah, I don't care
enough." I mean, unless the alarm's going off or something, like I'm not going to get out of bed,
like I don't really care. So, you know, women have a different, they have a different situation
that's difficult. You know, men, we have our difficulties. We have our hardships. Women have
different style hardships. I feel like their hardships are a little bit more in like a
marathon sense versus, you know, men sometimes are more sprinting. It's a little bit more
physically difficult. It may be a little bit more stressful, but sometimes we get to take breaks,
whereas for them it's like, it seems like just never-ending, just the constant grind of being
a mother, constant grind of being a wife. And so, you know, we should be empathetic towards that.
We should recognize that it's difficult, but, you know, the Bible says it's good still because
it's saving them. You should believe it. It's what the Bible teaches. Women not being busy
with children, you know what they are, they're just a bunch of whores, let's just be honest, okay?
Tons of women out there in the world are whores because they're just not busy having children.
And so, you know, this is the biblical command. So point one of my sermon is this, you should
have kids. Now, since we understand that point, let's go to Genesis 3. As men, we need to dwell
them according to knowledge. We have to understand that having children is physically painful.
For men, there's no physical pain whatsoever. So it's not necessarily a fair burden. And as men,
as husbands, we shouldn't be completely ignorant or uncaring about the pain and the suffering
our wives are going to go through at childbirth. Genesis 3.16, "Under the woman," he said, "I will
greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception, and sorrow thou shalt bring forth children."
The Bible does not paint childbirth as a positive thing at all. It paints it as an extremely painful,
excruciating event. It's likened unto the great tribulation in the end times. The great tribulation
in the end times is the equivalent parallel to childbirth. Additionally, every horrific event,
every horrific war is often compared to laboring and childbirth itself specifically.
I want to go to some more passages on this. Go if you would to Isaiah chapter 13. Go to
Isaiah chapter 13. Notice God said he's going to greatly multiply thy sorrow. So you have to
understand that childbirth itself is going to be extremely painful. Now, that being said,
is it the most painful thing ever? Probably not. You know, my wife one time had a kidney stone and
I think she said that that was actually more pain in some ways. So it's possible to have more pain.
It's not, it's not so unbearable that you can't get through it. Obviously, modern technology has
tried really hard to get rid of the pain aspect of childbirth. You know, there's things like
epidurals. I'm not a doctor. I'm not trying to give you medical advice, but my personal opinion
is that I would try to avoid those because of some of the consequences related to it. You know, pain
can be good because pain is trying to force your body to do something. When the child needs to be
delivered, it needs to be delivered. And that pain of that contraction and labor is there to try and
help you take care of that serious situation. If you weren't feeling any pain, you may not take
it as seriously. You might not go through that at the right timing. When you take off the pain,
this is the problem. You can end up hurting yourself because of the fact that you're pushing
when you shouldn't be pushing. You can over exert yourself. Look, pain prevents you from hurting
yourself worse. You know, if you're at the gym and you're lifting weights and you start to feel
pain, you should quit immediately. Don't just, don't like push through the pain, right? Because
then you could injure yourself even worse or cause a bigger problem. In the same way that a woman
giving childbirth, she could injure herself by pushing or doing something when she shouldn't.
When you have the epidural, you have no feeling. So you end up could just cause yourself worse
problems, cause yourself bigger problems. Now look, if you get an epidural, I'm not saying
you sinned. I'm not saying you're bad, whatever. If you have to have it, you do whatever. You make
whatever decision you want, but just my personal opinion, personal warning, I think you should
probably avoid it still if you can and just go through the natural processes. There's obviously
always a risk of them doing something wrong or complications as a result of that. So I'm not here
to try and say, Hey, take the pain away. Sometimes you have to endure the pain just like during the
end times. I don't think we should all go hide in a, in a, some kind of a cave and do nothing for
God. We should just go through the great tribulation. Albeit there'll be some pain, albeit there'll be
probably some uncomfortable experiences. But I would rather go out with a bang than essentially,
you know, not do anything for God. So there's a spiritual parallel there. But when we talk about
warfare in the Bible, when we talk about distress, look how the Bible compares these things. Isaiah
chapter 13, look at verse number eight, "And they shall be afraid, pangs and sorrows shall take hold
of them. They shall be in pain as a woman that travaileth, they shall be amazed one at another,
their faces shall be as flame." So when the Bible wants to describe someone just going through like
the worst experience, the scariest pain, it uses childbirth as a comparison. Isn't it interesting?
Verse seven, "Therefore shall all hands be faint and every man's heart shall melt." Their hearts
are going to melt and they're going to be in such pain and sorrow. So, you know, the moments of childbirth
are going to be intense. And what am I trying to illustrate in this point? I'm trying to illustrate
that childbirth itself is serious. This is a serious event. Why would God make it so painful?
Because He wants you to recognize this is a serious event. It's not like, "Hey, while in the
middle of shopping, I'm just going to catch my kid." Now there's videos of this, okay? I've seen
women just, they're literally just shopping. They just, you know, kind of catch their kid or whatever
on aisle seven, clean up on aisle seven. It's just like, "Bro, the pain should tell you this is a serious
event. Don't just be shopping at Walmart while giving birth. Walmart's not the place to have
a child, okay? Neither church, all right? If you start experiencing labor, leave, okay? Now if you
have to, we'll take care of you, but I'm just saying like this isn't the place, all right?
You should take it very seriously. That's what I'm trying to communicate. I think some people,
it's like they don't really look at childbirth as as serious as they need to look at it.
It is a serious event. It's a major event. Look at chapter 21 verse 3. Isaiah 21, look at verse
number 3. Bible says, "Therefore are my loins filled with pain. Pangs have taken hold upon me
as the pangs of a woman that travaileth. I was bowed down at the hearing of it. I was just made
at the seeing of it." So if the Bible wants to paint a picture of someone screaming and agony
and woe and suffering, it's using the picture of a woman. And look, women screaming and yelling
and whatever at childbirth, totally normal. Now I'm not saying you have to. If you don't have to,
okay. But if you do, we shouldn't be judging you. It's not a big deal. It's expected. It's normal
that a woman would be screaming and having a problem. So again, as a husband or someone
that's new, if your wife is having a child and she's screaming or whatever, it's going to happen.
You know, it's probably normal. Okay. You don't have to necessarily freak out. It's okay. But
obviously it's still a serious event. We want to take it seriously. Okay. So let's go back to
Genesis. I want to go to Genesis chapter 35. Why should we take childbirth serious? Well,
number one, God already told us that specifically childbirth was going to have great sorrow. We see
it being compared to war pains, war type events, war type fear and screaming and agony and pain and
suffering. So it's serious. And here's, here's something you also should recognize. The Bible
brings up multiple women dying in childbirth because it is a life-threatening, serious
situation. Look at Genesis chapter 35. We want to look at verse 16. "And they journeyed from Bethel,
and there was but a little way to come to Ephrath, and Rachel travailed, and she had
hard labor. And it came to pass, when she was in hard labor, that the midwife said unto her,
'Fear not, thou shalt have this son also.' And it came to pass, as her soul was in departing,
for she died, that she called his name Benoni, but his father called him Benjamin. And Rachel died
and was buried in the way to Ephrath, which is Bethlehem." So the Bible tells us about
Rachel dying with her second son, Benjamin. A couple things to note, notice she has a midwife.
The midwife obviously delivered her previous son, Joseph, because notice what it said that
you're going to have this son also. Thou should have this son also, indicates it was the same
midwife, same person there. But here's the thing, childbirth is so serious that women can die.
Like it's, I'm not saying this to scare you, but I am wanting you to take it serious. You should
not take childbirth lightly. It is a serious event with serious implications. There's a reason why
there's a midwife there, because frankly speaking, this is a serious event. And even with, you know,
medical assistance, even with people there, it may just happen because it's just part of life.
And you know, we should take that seriously, that you know, this is a life-threatening situation.
Look at Genesis 38. Genesis 38, you'll look at verse 28. Genesis 38, verse 28, "And it came to
pass when she travailed, that the one put out his hand, and the midwife took and bound upon
his hand a scarlet thread, saying, 'This came out first.'" Notice again that in this travailing,
in this birthing process, and this is twins, this is a midwife present. You'll kind of notice like
in the Bible, there's almost always a midwife present. When it's describing childbirth,
sounds like it's a pretty common practice, okay? Why would you say that that's common? Well,
probably because of how serious it is. Let's go to 1 Samuel chapter 4. Let's go to 1 Samuel chapter
number 4. Rachel ends up dying. There's another woman who ends up dying in childbirth in 1 Samuel
chapter number 4. And look at verse number 19. Now, of course, you could argue, and someone may
argue that, okay, Rachel is being judged by God for having idolatry. In this story in 1 Samuel
chapter 4, this woman's being judged because her family was wicked and turned against God.
Sure, but we just have to recognize that childbirth is a serious issue, and anybody can die from it.
And I think it's not limited to bad people or something. Anybody, good, bad, or whatever,
it can happen. And so we should take childbirth seriously. But in 1 Timothy chapter 4, look at
verse 19, the Bible says, "And his daughter-in-law, Phineas's wife, was with child, near to be
delivered. And when she heard the tidings that the ark of God was taken, and that her father-in-law
and her husband were dead, she bowed herself and travailed, for her pains came upon her.
And about the time of her death, the women that stood by her said unto her, 'Fear not,
for thou hast borne a son.' But she answered not, neither did she regard it. And she named the child
Ichabod, saying, 'The glory is departed from Israel, because the ark of God was taken, and because of
her father-in-law and her husband.' And she said, 'The glory is departed from Israel, for the ark of
God is taken.'" So another woman dying in childbirth, it's very serious. You know, one thing
that we could think about, and I don't know how much it impacted, I'm just trying to read the story,
is notice that she hears some pretty awful news at the time of childbirth, and it seems to kind
of like negatively affect her. And the reality is that a woman near delivery is in a sensitive
position that you probably need to just be careful. You need to be careful with her
physically, you need to be careful with her emotionally even. Things can affect delivery.
The Bible talks about if two men strive with one another and they basically like run into a woman
that has fruit, the fruit may depart as a result of that running into her. Meaning what? Again,
a pregnant woman is sensitive, you need to be careful, we should be protective. You know,
you don't want to have a pregnant woman doing certain activities that could cause her to go
into early labor, or you know, a distressed laborer. And again, this is, in my opinion, a distressed
labor. It may not even been as timely, but just the fact that she's just experiencing so much pain
and sorrow, maybe just kind of kicked her body into some kind of gear, and she's having this child,
and it's kind of a distress birth, and then she dies as a result. You know, you want to do your
best to comfort your wife, to be encouraging, to be positive, to be there to be a help, and not necessarily
putting more stress, more anxiety, more pressure. You don't want to be causing her to have all this
physical, you know, stress when she's trying to deliver, because by putting more pressure, more
stress, you just, you're just making that much harder on her, where it could be life-threatening,
literally. And so, you know, we should dwell with our wives according to knowledge again. We should
be thinking about their emotional health. We should be thinking about their physical health. We should
be thinking about their life circumstances and situation. A lot of hormones are firing. You know,
women having a son typically have an injection of testosterone in their body. Women that are having
a daughter will have more estrogen pumping through the body. And in fact, from a purity perspective,
I'm not going to all these passages, but we could. There are passages in the Old Testament that say
that a woman will be unclean for a longer period of time having given birth to a daughter than having
given birth to a son, illustrating that there's even a difference in which gender you're giving
birth to. And that could affect a woman more. That's why I sometimes joke, when my wife's
pregnant, I'm like, it's obvious you're having a girl. Or you're having a son. Because again,
if you just inject yourself with tons of hormones, whether they be testosterone or estrogen, it's
going to affect you. It's going to have an effect on your body, on your mood. Obviously injecting
that much more estrogen, crazy. But at the end of the day, that's reality. And if that's reality,
I need to dwell with my wife according to knowledge. And I should be sensitive to that.
I should be considering that. I should think about these things because it's important.
And you know what? I don't want to lose my wife in childbirth. That's crazy to me. Go to Exodus
chapter one. Go to Exodus chapter one. Now again, I'm not saying that you have to do anything. You
can do whatever you want. You know, my wife and I have kind of done almost everything with our
pregnancies in the sense that we had a traditional gynecologist, a female gynecologist with our first
child. We went the hospital route. We had to induce with drugs because they're worried about
the pregnancy with our first child. She had an epidural. Then we've had an unassisted home birth
by accident with the second one and I had to deliver. It's not recommended, okay? I do not
recommend that at all. We still even went to the hospital afterwards just for like the placenta,
which then it was just like I don't know what the point of that was. Then we had a third child with
some midwives that were like hippie weirdos, you know, but it actually went pretty smooth.
That actually went pretty well. Some feminist weirdos. That was our Arizona baby as we call it.
Then our fourth one was a Airbnb baby. So don't tell the Airbnb owner, but we had a housing
fiasco. We didn't know where we were. And then we had the baby at the Airbnb. All right.
Then we had just one at our home, which was a pretty good experience. That was actually
a pretty good one. Then our most recent one, we had like a crazy, I mean, we've had, we had
a miscarriage at 1.2. We also had one where my wife's water broke, no labor. It was like multiple
days. It started getting very serious. So then we, again, we had to go to the hospital just out of
care for the child. Didn't know what was going to happen. Had to go on drugs again. And that was
probably one of the worst deliveries that we've ever had to go through because whenever you get
on the drugs, it makes the contractions and the pain way worse because it just like, it just really
hammers. You know, so my wife's done the drugs, no drugs, unassisted. I mean, just kind of like a
whole gamut. So we have, you know, a decent sampling of just all kinds of different random
situations. You know, my opinion, and this is our personal opinion, again, home births with a midwife
has been the best experience when you can have it. If there's complications, hey, you should seek
medical attention. You should seek, you know, I think a support and help. Go to the hospital,
whatever you need to do in those situations. But I probably wouldn't prefer that. I think that
the hospitals are kind of a hassle. It's real expensive. Wow. It's like they just send in a
doctor every 30 minutes, like a new one, just to bill you or something. You know, it's just like,
I don't know what's wrong with these places. But, you know, again, this is just some of my personal
opinions, experiences I've gone through. But again, biblically speaking, and I'm just trying
to say this, biblically speaking, you pretty much see a midwife in every scenario. Maybe exceptions
are like Adam and Eve, because there wasn't one. There was no one doing the wedding. You're going
to pick the serpent? He didn't work out. Obviously, in, you know, Joseph and Mary's situation,
they're in a manger, probably not a midwife around, okay? I get, like, you can survive a pregnancy.
But it's like, is that recommended? I don't personally recommend it. And the Bible speaks
positively about midwives. Not only the fact that they were existing, but the Bible speaks
positively of them in Exodus chapter number one. Look at what it says in verse 15. "And the king
of Egypt spake to the Hebrew midwives, of which the name of the one was Shephrah and the other,
and the name of the other Fuah. And he said, 'When you do the office of a midwife to the Hebrew
women and see them upon the stools, if it be a son, then you shall kill him. But if it be a daughter,
then she shall live.' But the midwives feared God and did not as the king of Egypt commanded them,
but saved the men's children alive. And the king of Egypt called for the midwives and said unto them,
'Why have you done this thing and have saved the men's children alive?' And the midwives
said unto Pharaoh, 'Because the Hebrew women are not as the Egyptian women, for they are lively
and are delivered ere the midwives come in unto them.' Therefore God dealt well with the midwives
and the people multiplied and waxed very mighty. And it came to pass because the midwives feared
God that he made them houses." So, you know, it's kind of an interesting story. A lot of things I
would like to note in this story, okay? And again, this is just trying to pay attention to the story
and think about some of the things that we read, okay? Number one, notice that the Bible is kind of
differentiating between Egyptian midwives and the Hebrew women. It's like, why don't they have Hebrew
midwives? Is there, I don't know, have you ever thought about that? Here's my just opinion, is
that the reason why they don't have Hebrew midwives is because the Hebrew women are having children
and the Egyptian women are, you know, boss babes basically, okay? That's just a personal opinion,
I don't know. Maybe the Egyptians have superior information education when it comes to, you know,
just giving birth, maybe they went to medical school, I don't know. But also it doesn't seem
like God is negative towards them hiring or employing or having Egyptian midwives. You know,
they're not, it's just part of life, right? Sometimes you just have to do things in the world
regardless of whether they're saved or not. And I guess some people it's like they only want to do
business with "saved people." You know, I don't think God has this thing up in heaven where you
just have to have everything from "saved people." Like your burger doesn't have to be cooked from a
saved person and you know like I don't think that everything your house doesn't have to be built by
"saved people" and you know whatever. Now again if your contractor is the devil don't hire him all
right? I get it. But I'm just saying like we don't see like God mad like oh you should have hired a
Hebrew midwife instead of an Egyptian midwife. God even blesses the Egyptian midwives doesn't he?
And the even the Egyptian midwives still feared God. They still got blessed by God. And you know
what they actually saved the children alive and disobeyed the government disobeyed the king
and did what was right. And I would say this you're probably more likely to get a midwife
to care about you than to care about the government protocols whereas the doctors of this
world are probably more likely to do things that are unethical don't make sense that are kind of
against God's natural order. So you know you know my experience again having had gynecologists
having had male doctors female doctors having midwives and unassisted and all the things in
between you know I feel like the midwife route is typically the best I personally recommend that
I've done that we continue to do that so you know and biblically that makes sense I think that if
you've never had if you have no medical experience no medical training and you're going to try an
unassisted birth that is highly discouraged from my personal opinion I do not recommend that I
don't encourage that I think that that's probably you know a dangerous road to go down I would not
recommend that at all and again you just don't really know what you're getting yourself into
typically the first birth is going to be one of the most difficult of your labors of your deliveries
there's just so many unknowns since you've never really gone through that experience that it could
just be kind of like you don't know what you're looking at and there's a lot of stuff going on
okay a lot of fluids a lot of blood a lot of kind of crazy stuff i mean i'm just going to be honest
it's messy okay it's crazy and so you know it's nice to have someone experience there
there has been many men praise god i've never had this experience but there's been many men
they literally just pass out they just freak out because they just you know they're seeing
their wife in stress she's screaming yelling it takes hours it's in the middle of the night
they're not getting sleep and there's blood and just like pass out i'm not i'm not trying to judge
anybody i'm just saying it's a reality you know well then now what is she gonna do she's she's
got to take care of a husband that passed out and give birth you know whatever it's like dang
i mean that would be kind of intense right i'm just saying you know my personal opinion again
now obviously you can hire midwives and they just can't even get there in time because if you read
the story i don't think they're being honest but did you notice what they said they said the hebrew
women are so lively that they give birth before the midwives even show up and you know sometimes
you're sitting here like man i paid this midwife to do nothing you know what sometimes it's better
to just pay them to do nothing than to have not paid and then have a horrible accident and then
be having regret for the rest of your life you know it's like which one is worse you know uh
sometimes it's better an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure um i want to go to
genesis 31 let's go back to genesis 31 again i think these things are important because why
most of us probably our parents did not have a midwife most of our parents probably didn't
have a lot of kids most of our parents probably haven't taught us hardly anything most of us have
not considered many of these things um most people are anticipating you to go to a doctor that's
that's a skilled professional and they're going to tell you everything to do so the fact that you
don't have much knowledge isn't really scaring them but when you're going down a road that's
not been traveled without knowledge it's kind of a dangerous thing to go down so we need to make
sure if hey you're going to live an alternative lifestyle something different you need to make
sure you know what you're doing ask other people get knowledge get information be well prepared
you don't want to just go down these roads that are very serious you know without considering
the consequences and you know myself included i had not really thought much about vaccines and
all that kind of stuff but when we started you know getting close to the delivery of my first
child i really started looking into it i was like you know these vaccines seem like trash
they seem like they seem like really a danger not really a help and i started doing a lot of
research personal research i looked it up i i totally came to the conclusion that i thought
the vaccines are not a good thing and so we weren't going to do that um you know at first
my wife thought we were you know crazy and granola and whatever and she was kind of nervous about
that you know it's hard it's your kid you're going to love your kid more than you can realize
and you know these decisions are important and it's important to do research it's important to
think about them and not just go with the flow on everything this world will you know stick you with
32 vaccinations of all kinds of diseases you've never heard of including extra metals and stuff
to try and get it in there thermosol and or the marisol and formaldehyde and animal parts and
dead baby simstel research and you don't even know what's going on in your body
and they'll do that to your child and it's just it's just crazy it's a crazy world that we live
in i'm sorry so it's important to do some research study for yourself make the best decision for
yourself um you know and again i'm bringing these things up because you know i think it's important
that we consider how serious these issues are so point one hey we should have kids i get it but
number two we should realize it's serious and having kids is serious as husbands you should
really think about this do research be protective of your wife you know consider you know having
some assistance getting the best help that you can okay number three point that i want to make
though is is more in kind of after the childbirth in the consideration of postpartum care now
postpartum is just kind of talking about after the child's delivered the window of time for their
recovery because here's the thing it's not like hey she gave birth five minutes ago all right go
make me a sandwich that's not very realistic okay and you're basically asking for trouble
if you go down that road you know they still need to quote recover from this particular experience
now i'm using this story because i think that it gives us a little bit of a little bit of a window
into this particular issue look at what it says in genesis 31 verse 34 bibles is now rachel had
taken the images and put them in the camel's furniture and sat upon them and laban searched
all the tent but found them not and she said to her father let it not displease my lord that i
cannot rise up for thee for the custom of women is upon me and he searched but found not the images
now here's the thing obviously if we think about the actual context rachel's lying and trying to
mislead her dad because she stole graven images but what's the excuse that she uses she uses the
excuse of a time of women or the custom of women and notice that it's just and it's just expected
that if a woman's going through the situation she should not even have to get up she should not be
forced to even move or get up or change positions she should be able to rest and just do her thing
and this is not after delivery this is just just a normal you know regular situation so then how
much more in an actual delivery an actual birth should a woman not be expected to get up physically
and move around and be expected to do things or you know take care of things after she's given
birth and look this is a very important thing to understand that if you force your wife to get up
and move around a lot after birth she could die literally from that particular situation.
I was looking up statistics 53 to 65 percent of all women that die due to a pregnancy related issue
died during postpartum in that first week and 84 percent of them are preventative situations in
the sense that it didn't have to happen so a woman getting up too much or doing having to do too much
physical labor is going to potentially hemorrhage and then she's going to just lose tons of blood
quickly and die so therefore you should let your wife rest. I mean if you just watched her scream
and yell and go through pain and another human came out of her maybe you should be like take it
easy not like hey that sandwich isn't going to make itself funny you know like that's pretty
insensitive and I get that in today's world your boss and companies don't really care about
paternity leave and I get that but you know what you should try to figure out the best way
to give your wife the ability to just rest and take it easy at least for a week probably even
longer it depends on the circumstances and you know and again we're talking about easing her
back into life obviously it's gonna you know ebb and flow I mean the first few days she shouldn't
even expect to do anything literally you know we kind of have a custom that the day that she
gives birth I'll make like a big steak dinner and baked potato and beans and I give it to her I
serve her in bed you know every every day like I'm just serving her every meal you know I'm just
making her like yoke she really likes yogurt for some reason during pregnancy I don't know why
for the rest of the year she doesn't really eat it that much but just like during pregnancy just
wants yogurt or something so I'm just like making her yogurt in the morning I'm making dinner I'm
making food she loves this time in our lives number one I'm an excellent cook okay number two
she just likes the break she likes you know getting to just be with her baby and take take it easy and
you know that's a very important time for her to just heal recover and you know the faster the
better I rest I give her the faster she's going to cover anyways better she's going to be able
to get back in the swing of things if I just force this if I pressure things you know it's
going to not only make her mad at me and cause her to be upset but she's also just going to
simply be risking her own physical health mental health all kinds of crazy stuff and you just
you need to figure out a way to help her and encourage her and you know she's going to be
going through not only just physical recovery emotional recovery um 80 it's like 80 some percent
or something or no I'm getting this wrong sorry one in eight women so this is different percentage
one in eight women will go through major depression as a result of postpartum and and again this is not
like they're doing anything wrong it's just that their hormones are so out of whack that sometimes
they just go through these like intense lows where they just have these like mental lows and they're
just really depressed and they just have like just crazy emotions and thoughts that they would
normally never have and it's not because they're doing something wrong it's just because their
body's just trying to like figure out how to like get back to normal and so as a result they're
just gonna be crazy all right and they're gonna have crazy lows crazy highs like they're gonna
go from one moment of just like I love you so much you're so amazing to just like just the
opposite all right I don't want to necessarily reveal what that's like but it's the opposite
all right and you're just thinking like that was three minutes ago you know and when it goes below
it's like here's the snickers you know it's like go back to your old style but you know at the end
of the day it's just it's just part of life it's part of what happens if Rachel is not expected to
get up how much more a woman that's just giving birth you know I think that's that's kind of what
I'm trying to get from the text and trying to help you understand go through Ephesians chapter
five we'll look at another verse on this Ephesians chapter five so again number one we want our wives
to have kids but number two we need to take that seriously it is serious it's difficult on them
we want to love them and be compassionate and think about them and you know number three we
should nourish them you know the bible brings us up in Ephesians chapter number five we should give
them the opportunity to rest take it easy even if you can't necessarily be the one to be there
because of your job your work life situation you don't try to get an aunt a mother a sister
or somebody to be there to be a caretaker so that way they can just rest they can take it easy they
don't have to rush things and they're not going to have complications. Ephesians chapter 5 look at
verse 22 wives submit yourselves unto your own husbands as unto the Lord for the husband is the
head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church and he's the savior of the body notice that
the husband is the savior of the body as Christ is the savior of us therefore as the church is
subject unto Christ so let the wives be their own husbands and everything husbands love your wives
even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it that he might sanctify and cleanse
it with the washing of water by the word that he might present it to himself a glorious church not
having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that is beholding without blemish so what men to love
their wives is their own bodies he that loveth his wife loveth himself for no man ever yet hated his
own flesh but nourisheth and cherisheth it even as the Lord is church we are members of his body of
his flesh and his bones so we should nourish our wives and we should nourish their bodies as if
it was our own and we should be the savior of their bodies many men we really need to think about
them and their comfort and what's going on with them their physical health wanting to make sure
that they're healthy taking care of you know this is why it's very important to think about these
things and so we need to make sure that we're taking care you know by forcing your wife
to just pop out kids every nine months and make you a sandwich that every whim's notice
you're probably not really nourishing her you're probably not really taking care of her
and you know that'd be a very selfish thing to do and if you run your wife into the ground you
might literally run her into the ground six feet under. I don't want to do that. No man
ever yet hated his own flesh but nourisheth and cherisheth right and so at the end of the day you
need to make sure that you're following all of God's commandments not just the ones that you like
that you're not just selfish with God's commandments rather you're dwelling with
your wife according to knowledge. Yeah you might be the leader but you know sometimes leaders make
decisions that are going to be helpful or beneficial to the people under them, the people
that they're leading, you know, gently leading.
Gently leading is a husband leading his wife, okay?
Not a wife leading something, okay?
It's men leading their wives gently.
Why?
Because they understand they can't take necessarily the same things they can take.
They can't run as hard as he can run.
They can't take the same pain.
They can't take the same turmoil.
They can't take the same emotional stress or difficulty.
And so you're dwelling with them according to the knowledge.
You're giving honor under the weaker vessel.
You're recognizing, hey, we need to be sensitive.
We need to be caring.
You know, you listen to people like Nick Fuentes and they'll make fun of you for caring about
your wife.
But the guy is just not married.
He's single.
Okay.
So why does it even matter what his opinion is on what he would do with his wife?
These guys that talk a big talk about like, "Oh man, if I was married, my wife—" whatever.
This guy's going to be whipped if he ever gets married.
You know what I mean?
Why don't you go ahead and get married and then show us how you got your wife in control
before you start telling us how much your wife would be in control, okay?
And do it successfully.
Because again, some of these guys is like, "Oh man, I'd have her in control."
She might chop your head off.
She might poison your food there, Muhammad.
Like, yeah, you think you're going to have her in a tent, you know, a little ninja suit
or whatever, doing whatever you want, you know, if you treat your wife like a slave,
you know, that's dangerous.
It's dangerous territory, okay?
So you have to figure out how to be a benevolent dictator.
It's just like a lot of people think like, "If I was king, the nation would run great."
But it's like, okay, Rehoboam, yet telling them that you're going to chastise them with
scorpions didn't really work out because they can leave, you know?
It's like, again, is that right?
No.
Today, you know, it's not necessarily a good idea to chasten people with scorpions.
It's not necessarily a good idea to just run people on the ground.
It's not necessarily a good idea to not be compassionate and caring and loving and trying
to do your best.
And when it comes to our wives, we want to dwell with them according to knowledge, want
to give them honor as under the weaker vessel.
According to statistics, 30% of women do not receive any postpartum care or help assistance
at all.
In 2020, so just the year 2020, 30,000 women suffered life threatening complications in
their postpartum due to hemorrhage or organ failure or ICU issues.
That's a lot of women, 30,000 women.
And again, most women are not having five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10 kids.
So this is a very important thing to think about.
One in eight are suffering depression.
According to the statistics, I don't know how they figure this stuff out, but supposedly
a woman that does receive good postpartum care.
So if you actually did take very good care of your wife and she received good postpartum
care, there's a 45% chance of lowering her rate of cardiovascular disease and metabolic
disorders.
So supposedly they just have even better health when you just take care of them and you actually
nourish them and you cherish them and you're thinking about their needs.
Now if you go to 1 Corinthians chapter seven, this is the last verse I want to go to on
this particular issue, but hey, you know, childbirth is an important thing.
I believe in it.
If you look at our bulletin, man, people are putting into practice.
I mean, you can go to old IB churches running a thousand, they'll have one pregnant lady
on their bulletin.
You know, we're running a couple hundred and it's like, you know, 20, you know, it's
like 10, you know, it's like we, we're definitely having a lot.
I visited a church, um, an old IB church, they run about 500 on a Sunday morning and
they had zero ladies that were pregnant.
And so the, the kind of the assistant pastor, he gets up and he's like, so we don't have
any ladies that are pregnant, so you guys know what we need to do.
And I was sitting here thinking like, man, that's kind of crazy to think like a church
that's, you know, bigger than us, just doesn't even have anything.
Um, but you know, maybe we should tell that assistant pastor when you reach 50, you can't
have kids anymore.
And you look at that congregation and it's definitely a geriatric congregation.
You know what I mean?
The old IB isn't going to be here in a few years, you know, a few decades.
So we got to, we got to replace them.
It's called replacement theology.
Sorry if you don't like it.
Isn't it interesting, the people that don't like replacement theology are going to get
replaced with people that do, you know?
But that's just how it works.
Now here's the thing, obviously, you know, as a husband you can do whatever you want,
you're the leader, but at the end of the day, you know, and me and my wife, we like to try
and help each other and stuff like this, but it's like, if I scratch my wife's back, it's
just going to be a little bit more likely that she's willing to scratch my back.
You know what I mean?
Like, if I scratch her back, she scratches my back, if I rub her feet, she rubs my feet,
if I take care of her needs, she's going to take care of my needs.
If I'm not taking care of her needs, if I'm not being empathetic, if I'm not trying to
help her recover, it's going to make it way less likely that she's going to want to help
me out and take care of me, okay?
And when it comes to this particular issue, you know, men have needs just like women have
needs and just because she's having children or giving birth or doing whatever doesn't
mean that men don't still have needs.
The Bible says in 1 Corinthians chapter 7, look at verse 3, "Let the husband render under
the wife, do benevolence.
And likewise also the wife under the husband, the wife hath not power over her own body
but the husband.
And likewise also the husband hath not power over his own body but the wife.
Defraud ye not one the other except to be with consent for a time, that ye may give
yourselves to fasting and prayer and come together again that Satan tempts you not for
your incontinency."
You know, people that are having lots of children and are following the biblical model, you
know what?
Hey, pregnancy is going to cause things to ebb and flow, disrupt some activities and
all kinds of stuff.
But at the end of the day, hey, men still have needs.
And let me tell you something, you take care and you nourish your wife, she's more likely
to help take care of your needs and nourish you.
And look, there's always alternatives to every situation.
There's always a way to take care of your husband's needs.
And in the world that we live in today, it's very, very important that men and women do
not defraud one another, and they do not allow themselves to be tempted of Satan for their
incontinency.
Incontinency means your lack of self-control, okay?
And so you know what?
Hey, I want my wife to be well taken care of during childbirth and postpartum and all
this, so that she's going to be more than happy to take care of my needs during the
same time.
And you know, at the end of the day, we need to make sure that we're always taking care
of each other's needs because if you're not, well, then you know what?
You're just going to cause yourself to go down a bad road.
And look, obviously, you have to think about each other's bodies.
Some things, you know, have different timings.
Some things are not going to work during certain times, but look, there's always alternatives.
And I'm telling you, that's the better alternative.
Not allowing the world to give you alternatives, the devil to give you alternatives or whatever.
You know what?
Hey, you take care of your wife, she'll take care of you.
You don't take care of your wife and you let Satan take care of you.
You're just asking yourself for all kinds of disasters and moral sins and whatever.
You know what I mean?
I'm just telling you, hey, you know, there's, there's God's word.
And again, as a husband, you need to think about this and still be nourishing and taking
care of your wife, doing things that make sense for doing activities that are healthy
for her, making sure that you're not doing things that are going to harm her, cause
her any risks, cause her any problems, you know?
And so at the end of the day, we need to make sure that we're taking care of our spouse
and these issues.
Cause look, I want to keep seeing babies in the bulletin list.
That's what I want to see.
You know, praise God, I've done way more weddings than funerals.
I don't want to do any funerals.
I probably will have to, obviously I get it, but I don't want to do a lot of funerals.
And you know, I want, want people to take care of themselves.
I want them to take care of their wives.
I want them to take this seriously.
Hey, I want to have kids.
I want us to have kids.
We need to take it serious.
We need to make sure we're nourishing one another, and we have happy, healthy marriages,
and that people are, you know, doing things, what the Bible says, taking all the commandments
and applying all of them.
I hope that you learned something, and I hope that we can be, you know, respectful of our
wives and think about them.
Hey, they, according to the Bible, deserve honor.
We should dwell them according to knowledge, giving honor unto the weaker vessel.
In many ways, giving childbirth seems like way harder than anything I've ever done.
You know, it's incredible giving birth and doing these kind of things.
We should be praising our wives and thanking our wives for the hard work and effort they
put in and their willingness to make these sacrifices for our children.
And you know, it's just going to help you in your marriage when you actually give your
wife a lot of respect and a lot of honor for childbirth, not acting like it's just, it's
an inconvenience, that it's a burden, that it's something that you're not positive towards
because it's already going to be difficult on her and if she's getting negative feelings
from you during that process, it's just going to make it worse.
You know, you should be very positive, uplifting, encouraging, thankful, supportive.
She needs that and you know, honestly, you know, my wife is a really strong woman and
she probably could do things without me, but you know, at the end of the day, even her,
I know that she still needs support, she needs comfort, she needs someone to say positive
things for her and it's not different for her than any other woman.
All women need that, whether they ask for it or not, you should be there to encourage
them and support them and take care of them and you know, we want God to continue to bless
us with the children that He gives us.
Let's close in prayer.
Thank you Heavenly Father so much for the gift of childbirth and thank you so much for
all the ladies who are expecting in our church.
I pray that you would just please bless them in their pregnancies.
I pray that you would help the husbands in our church to take childbirth and postpartum
care seriously that they would think about what the Bible says on these issues.
I pray that you would encourage them to study and to seek knowledge and to try to understand
what the Bible says and what information is out there and try to be an encouragement and
a comfort under their wives.
I pray that you would help husbands and wives to nourish each other and take care of each
other and to love each other and to sacrifice for one another.
I pray that you would bless the deliveries in this room and help women to recover after
they give birth.
And I pray that you would help us to try and follow your commandments and have a good attitude
as we do.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.
All right, for our last song this evening, let's go to song number 69.
Song number 69.
We shall shine as the stars.
Song number 69.
Let's all sing that out together.
Song number 69.
Let's all sing that out.