Turn to page 309.
Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for steadfast Baptist
who went out to your harvest today to win souls.
Thank you for the salvations that we had.
Pray Lord that you would bless us, bless the service,
and that you would fill us all with the Holy Spirit.
Help us to become better Christians through your word,
and through the word preach,
fill Pastor Shelley with your Holy Spirit.
In Jesus' name I pray, amen.
Our second song this evening is page 156,
Jesus is the sweetest name I know.
Page 156, Jesus is the sweetest name I know.
On the fur, spirit blows, singing this evening.
Spring plates will be passed around at this time.
You can turn your Bibles to Genesis chapter one.
It's Genesis chapter one.
Genesis chapter number one, the Bible says,
in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth,
and the earth was without form and void,
and darkness was upon the face of the deep,
and the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
God said, let there be light, and there was light.
God saw the light that it was good,
and God divided the light from the darkness.
God called the light day, and the darkness he called night,
and the evening and the morning were the first day.
And God said, let there be a firmament
in the midst of the waters,
and let it divide the waters from the waters.
And God made the firmament and divided the waters
which were under the firmament
from the waters which were above the firmament,
and it was so.
And God called the firmament heaven,
and the evening and the morning were the second day.
And God said, let the waters under the heaven
be gathered together unto one place,
and let the dry land appear.
And it was so.
And God called the dry land earth,
and the gathering together of the waters called he seas.
And God saw that it was good.
And God said, let the earth bring forth grass,
the herb yielding seed,
and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind,
whose seed is in itself upon the earth.
And it was so.
And the earth brought forth grass,
and herb yielding seed after his kind,
and the tree yielding fruit,
whose seed was in itself after his kind.
And God saw that it was good.
And the evening and the morning were the third day.
And God said, let there be lights
in the firmament of the heaven
to divide the day from the night.
And let them be for signs, and for seasons,
and for days and years.
And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven
to give light upon the earth.
And it was so.
And God made two great lights,
the greater light to rule the day,
and the lesser light to rule the night.
He made the stars also.
And God set them in the firmament of the heaven
to give light upon the earth,
and to rule over the day and over the night,
and to divide the light from the darkness.
And God saw that it was good.
And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.
And God said, "Let the waters bring forth abundantly
the moving creature that hath life,
and fowl that may fly above the earth
in the open firmament of heaven."
And God created great whales,
and every living creature that moveth,
which the waters brought forth abundantly after their kind,
and every winged fowl after his kind;
and God saw that it was good.
And God blessed them, saying, "Be fruitful and multiply,
and fill the waters in the seas,
and let fowl multiply in the earth."
And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.
And God said, "Let the earth bring forth
the living creature after his kind,
cattle and creeping thing,
and beast of the earth after his kind."
And it was so.
And God made the beast of the earth after his kind,
and cattle after their kind,
and everything that creepeth upon the earth
after his kind.
And God saw that it was good.
And God said, "Let us make man in our own image
after our likeness,
and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea,
and over the fowl of the air,
and over the cattle,
and over all the earth,
and over every creeping thing
that creepeth upon the earth."
So God created man in his own image.
In the image of God created he him.
Male and female created he them.
And God blessed them.
And God said unto them,
"Be fruitful and multiply,
and replenish the earth and subdue it,
and have dominion over the fish of the sea,
and over the fowl of the air,
and over every living thing
that moveth upon the earth."
And God said,
"Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed,
which is upon the face of all the earth,
and every tree in the which is the fruit
of a tree yielding seed.
To you it shall be for meat.
And to every beast of the earth,
and to every fowl of the air,
and to everything that creepeth upon the earth,
wherein there is life,
I have given every green herb for meat,
and it was so.
And God saw everything that he had made,
and behold, it was very good.
And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
Let us pray.
Dear Heavenly Father,
thank you for the souls that were saved today.
I wanna thank you for Steadfast Baptist Church.
Thank you for Evangelist Urbanic
and the work he's doing in the Philippines.
Please bless our upcoming marriage conference
and the upcoming mission trip to the Philippines.
Please bless Pastor Shelley now.
Fill him with your Holy Spirit
as he preaches your word to us in Jesus' name, amen.
- Amen, here in Genesis chapter one,
I wanna look at verse number 28.
The Bible says, "And God bless them,
"and God send them to be fruitful and multiply."
And we're going through a doctrinal sermon series
where I've been going through the doctrine of the church.
And one of the points on our doctoral statement
talks about the idea of life beginning at conception,
also addressing a sin issue
when it comes to the idea of abortion,
morning after pills, IVF, birth control,
and other similar things.
And our doctoral statement just explicitly says
life begins at conception,
therefore all abortion, morning after pills,
IVF, birth control, et cetera, are sin.
And that's a stance that I've always had,
it's a stance our church has always had,
we'll continue to preach that.
And it's probably a very unpopular doctrine, to be honest.
Even a lot of fundamental Baptists
do not agree with what I just said.
Many fundamental Baptist churches will prescribe
and advocate for college students
to take birth control specifically.
And so this is not necessarily
a universally accepted doctrine or belief.
But I just wanna go through what the Bible says
on this particular issue.
And I find it interesting that the pretty much arguably
the first commandment mentioned in the Bible.
You could argue that obviously in chapter two,
Adam is given instructions prior to this specific mention
because we have both Adam and Eve here.
But this is the first commandment mentioned in the Bible
says to be fruitful and multiply.
That's just what the Bible explicitly states here.
And this is an instruction given to Adam and Eve.
Notice that he says in verse 28, and God blessed them.
And God said unto them, be fruitful and multiply
and replenish the earth and subdue it.
Now, some people will take this verse and they'll say,
well, that's not a commandment.
That's a quote blessing, which it's crazy.
But I'm not making this up.
And it's not even necessarily limited
to just some groups of people.
I even asked AI and stuff, does anybody believe this?
And they were basically saying it as well.
So I'm just going to read a few things about what
the internet says is what most people believe,
or some people believe on this particular.
It said, some religious interpretations of Genesis 1.28
within Christianity and Judaism--
whenever there's a crossover there, you should be worried--
says some argue that the phrase is not
a universal ongoing prescription for every individual,
but rather a general blessing or a descriptive statement
for humanity as a whole.
For instance, it's seen as already fulfilled
through population growth or applicable primarily
to early humanity when the earth needed filling.
Another option is that for singles, the infertile,
or those called the celibacy, fruitfulness
can mean spiritual multiplication such as mentoring
or evangelism rather than biological reproduction.
And then thirdly, family planning
is considered scriptural, emphasizing
the need to be fruitful, acquire resources before multiplying
to avoid frustration or hardship.
Overpopulation concerns also lead to some
to question its literal application today.
So it's saying here's the reasons why
within Christianity and Judaism they're not doing it.
I want to point out initially, notice
there was zero chapters and verses.
And that's going to be really hard for anybody
to show me chapter and verse on this.
Now, on the second point,
obviously if you choose to be a single person,
there's nothing sinful about that.
The Bible has obviously the apostle Paul
in first Corinthians seven.
And it does, I guess mention that in that context,
but it's just saying obviously someone
that's choosing to be single, not married,
or is a eunuch from birth,
or choosing to be a eunuch in some capacity.
Obviously, there's nothing wrong with that person
living that lifestyle.
And the Apostle Paul could even argue
that it's a superior lifestyle to some.
However, for most people that have a desire to be married
and have a desire for, you know, the marriage,
this is not their lifestyle.
This is not what God wants them to do.
God wants them to be married.
And for those that are married,
I believe this is a command that applies.
Of course, it's given to Adam and Eve.
It's not given just to Adam.
It's given to Adam and Eve.
As a married couple, they are to be fruitful
and they are to multiply.
It's strange to suggest that this is a quote blessing
and not a command.
Now, this is what some people have argued
and they would say, well, you don't have any control
over whether or not God blesses you with children.
And that's true.
It is true that you can't technically
force yourself to have kids
'cause there's some people that wanna have kids
and they're unable.
It's just not happening,
even though they're doing everything right.
But I would argue that what I mean by this
is that you need to do your part
in allowing yourself to be fruitful and multiply.
And if you're not doing that,
then that would be a sin.
Obviously you can't control whether or not
God opens or closes the womb,
but you can just prevent that from even being on the table.
And I believe that's what God does not want us to do.
I think God wants us to try our best
to be fruitful and multiply
within the boundaries of obviously
what the Bible describes about being married,
one husband, one wife,
obviously following all of his rules
and all of his statutes altogether.
You need to do all of it.
But yes, I do believe that this is a commandment.
It's the first commandment.
This is the first instruction.
This is what God wants Adam and Eve to do.
And if they hadn't, none of us would even be here.
You have to be pro fruitful and multiplication
because you exist.
It's funny that you get to be against this
when now you exist.
Well, we need to be fruitful multiply
so other people can exist
and so that God can have other children
and we can have more people that are saved
and doing the works of God.
And so we obviously as Christians
even more so need to do this.
Like I'm not against spiritual multiplication.
That's another application to this layer.
We could understand that as Christians
we should not only physically multiply
but we should spiritually multiply.
But that's not the point of this sermon.
The point of this sermon is we're addressing
the carnal commandment given to husband and wife
to be fruitful and to multiply.
Now I wanna go to a couple of places.
Go to Matthew chapter one, go to Matthew chapter one
and let's talk about for a second
the idea of birth versus conception.
Obviously there's a nine month window.
Some people will try to suggest that someone's not a child
until after birth, including some Baptists.
People like Peter Ruckman.
Peter Ruckman taught that a child is not a living soul
until it's taken its first breath outside of the womb.
I mean, this is insane, but this is what he taught.
And even taught that abortion
is not even necessarily a sin per se.
Just, you know, it's just crazy stuff.
Of course, the guy whose wife is driving,
you know, while he's driving,
throwing herself outside of a moving vehicle.
He said that he had, I mean, he's been divorced
and remarried multiple times.
He like bragged that a wife gave him her wedding ring back
during the middle of a church conference.
Like someone just walks up
and just puts an envelope with a ring on the pulpit
during the middle of a conference,
and it's his wife's ring.
I mean, you got some marriage problems, I think,
when your wife is handing back the ring during a marriage,
during a conference, okay?
I don't know if it was a marriage conference,
but it was during some kind of a church conference.
You got problems when your wife hates you so hard
that she's literally throwing herself
out of a moving vehicle.
You know, it's even weirder that that happened,
and then you bragged about that,
like that was a good thing.
Like you're so spiritual.
I don't think you're over here just like,
I just love the Bible so much,
and she's like, I can't stand it,
just diving out of the car.
Probably some other issue, okay?
Yes, Peter Ruckman taught that children
are not really children, not a living soul,
not alive until they take their first breath.
Other individuals, typically radical feminists,
Democrats will have similar ideas.
Some even crazy doctors may believe this.
And of course, this is a hotly debated issue.
Even in Texas, we had some more recent legislation
about the heartbeat bill,
suggesting that you cannot perform an abortion
after the heartbeat has been detected.
So even in the state of Texas and even other states,
they have laws and statutes preventing
killing a child in the womb
past the heartbeat being detected.
And this is way earlier than birth itself.
Question is, where is the line?
And again, I believe,
and I believe the Bible clearly teaches
that it's at conception.
That's where we actually should draw the line.
Not at the heartbeat.
Definitely not at the first breath.
We believe that it's a child at conception.
And here's a couple of proof texts.
Matthew chapter one.
Look at what it says in verse number 18.
Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise
when as his mother Mary was the spouse of Joseph
before they came together,
she was found with child of the Holy Ghost.
We gotta think about what the language has said.
She was found with child of the Holy Ghost.
This is not talking about the birth.
This is not talking near the birth.
This is the first discovery of her being pregnant.
What does the Bible describe it as?
Being with child.
So when she was discovered to be pregnant,
she was not discovered to be with fetus
or with cells multiplying,
but she was found with child,
as how the Bible describes it.
And it says in verse 19,
"Then Joseph, her husband being a just man,
not willing to make her a public example,
is minded to put her away privily.
But while he thought on these things,
behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him
in a dream, saying, 'Joseph, thou son of David,
fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife,
for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost.'"
Now think about just these few verses
just encapsulated by themselves.
We have a time window.
We have the time window from her conception
and being found and Joseph discovering.
This is in the same like window of time.
This is a very early stage.
And what does the Bible say?
Conception was with child.
We're not fast forwarding several months.
We're not months into the pregnancy.
This is the very beginning.
She's been discovered.
She's been found with child at what?
At conception, that which was conceived of her
was that of the Holy Ghost and she is with child.
Now, if you go back to Isaiah chapter number seven,
it's kind of a quote of this particular scripture.
It's a parallel passage here.
And in Isaiah chapter seven, look at verse number 14.
The Bible's also describing this and notice how it words it.
Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign.
Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son
and shall call his name Emmanuel.
Yet when the Bible is describing this in Matthew,
it's saying with child.
In Isaiah, it's conception.
In Matthew, it's with child.
And then of course, in Matthew it even says
that which is conceived in her is, of course,
what we're talking about with the Lord Jesus Christ,
which is Emmanuel, which is God with us,
also mentioned in Matthew chapter number one.
So you see the Bible using conception
and with child interchangeably in Matthew
and when you pair that with Isaiah chapter seven.
Go back to Luke chapter number one.
Let's look at this as well.
Now, I probably should have started with Luke
just considering the timeline,
but we could for sure even tell
that at six months development, biblically speaking,
that these children are alive,
have some kind of even interaction to the world.
Notice in Luke chapter one verse 36,
"And behold thy cousin Elizabeth,
"she hath also conceived a son in her old age."
And this is the sixth month with her who was called barren.
So we have John the Baptist in his mother's womb,
six months pregnant.
What does it say in verse 41?
"And it came to pass that when Elizabeth
"heard the salutation of Mary,
"the babe leaked in her womb
"and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost."
So notice that the babe is actually responding
to the salutation of Mary.
And of course, why?
Because she's carrying the Lord Jesus Christ at this time.
And so even at six months,
that baby is able to interact with the surrounding world,
with the world.
And of course, many studies have even been done
talking about the importance of fathers
talking to their baby or talking to their wife
and how the baby even can recognize that voice on some level,
even from utero, they have that familiarity.
Of course, we're not talking about a clump of cells again.
Now, how would someone like Peter Ruckman
even interpret this verse,
suggesting that it's not even a living soul
until it takes its first breath,
whereas John the Baptist is leaping
his mother's womb at six months.
I would even go all the way back
to what Matthew's kind of stating,
again, that this is conception.
Go through with the second Samuel chapter 11.
I wanna go to another place,
go to second Samuel chapter 11.
There's a lot of special things.
And look, I'm not a biologist.
I'm not a geneticist.
I don't necessarily study all these things,
but just my cursor understanding
and just a little bit of research
into fertilization and conception.
There's some incredible miracles that happen
just immediately, immediately once
there is connection in the womb.
There's all kinds of crazy things that are happening
and unique events that are happening.
And look, I believe that is when the life is beginning.
That's when the life is beginning,
is at conception itself.
Now, several days after that initial conception
or fertilization period, there's gonna be an implanting
in the uterine wall, and I don't believe
that it has to implant for it to still be alive.
And that's gonna be important for some of our discussion
that we're gonna have, but look at 2 Samuel,
chapter number 11, verse number five.
And the woman conceived and sent and told David and said,
"I am with child."
She didn't say, "I have conceived a bunch of cells.
"I conceived a clump of moving organisms or something."
No, no, I'm with child, why?
Because the Bible describes conception as being with child.
This is a consistent theme in your Bible.
Go if you would to Ecclesiastes chapter 11 as well.
Go to Ecclesiastes chapter number 11.
So we're just kind of taking a journey through the Bible.
We're seeing what it has to say.
I think anybody that just wants to know
what does the Bible actually teach,
the Bible teaches conception is being with child.
That's just a clear statement in the Bible.
That's why that's the doctrinal statement of our church
is that we believe that life begins at conception
and that is a child.
It's not just some cells or something multiplying,
but rather it's a child.
Ecclesiastes chapter 11 verse five.
"As thou knowest not what is the way of the spirit,
"nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her,"
notice this, "that is with child,
"even so thou knowest not the works of God who maketh all."
So notice, whatever's inside, even before it has bones,
before the bones start growing, it's a child.
This is what the language is of the word of God,
this is what the Bible teaches.
Wanna go to Exodus chapter 21 now,
go to Exodus chapter 21.
So let's talk about a few things
that were mentioned in our doctrine, abortion.
Abortion is, of course, killing the child
that's been conceived and its mother's womb.
There's so many different variations, forms, timelines,
when it comes to this kind of stuff.
I'm against all of it.
I think that you should do none of it.
Some people would say, what about in the situation
of risk to the mother's life?
But see, here's the thing.
I don't think that you have to kill a child
for the mom to live.
Now, obviously, sometimes what people have talked about
is that maybe a woman has what's like an,
and I'm gonna use the word wrong, but a topic.
Yeah, a topic, pregnancy or something,
and then there's a risk with that particular pregnancy.
But when they typically have some kind of a procedure,
they're doing kind of surgery,
they're trying to help the woman,
they're not necessarily going and doing
what an abortion doctor does to that particular baby.
They're not going in there and pulling it limb from limb
and sucking it out with a vacuum.
And that's what abortion clinics are doing.
Abortion clinics are using forceps,
they're using utensils to go in and rip babies into shreds
and then suck them out in a vacuum.
And it is disgusting, it's reprehensible,
it's weird.
Obviously if a woman had to have immediate surgery
and it puts the child at risk of jeopardy or something,
I don't think we have to play all these hypotheticals
of the most weird situation to condemn people.
But look, if you're trying to save the mother
and that's putting the baby at risk,
I'm not saying that's abortion,
but killing the child, it would be an abortion.
And there's no justification,
there's no reason where you're just like,
we just have to kill this one to save the other.
Obviously there's gonna be some risk
and that's for I think couples and their doctors to decide.
That's for the husband and wife and their doctor to decide.
But I don't think the decision should ever be,
kill the child, kill the baby.
That just doesn't really make any sense.
Obviously sometimes you could choose a decision
that puts the child at risk.
And there's always risk when it comes to childbirth, right?
Delivering now, performing a surgery, doing whatever.
And I think if you make a decision that ends up
resulting in the loss of a child, that's not killing it.
But purposely trying to kill it, that's wrong.
That's evil, that's satanic.
The Bible describes a lot of Satanism
as offering your children and sacrifice in the Moloch.
And again, that principle, I believe applies
to what a lot of modern abortionists and feminists
are trying to do today.
They rejoice in the murder of children.
They rejoice in the slaughtering and killing of babies.
A lot of abortion doctors have been found out
to be Satanists and have ulterior motives
of just being evil, wicked people.
You don't find a lot of fundamental Baptists saying,
"You know what, I wanna become an abortion doctor."
It just doesn't happen.
It's typically atheists, it's typically Satanists,
it's typically very humanistic type individuals,
non-Christian type individuals,
false religion type individuals.
Why, because there's a satanic element
to just slaughtering youth, slaughtering children,
slaughtering babies.
We see these being played out in Pharaoh
trying to slaughter young children.
We see this happening with Herod
trying to slaughter young children.
Of course, these are minions of the devil
and the devil wants to slaughter children.
We see in the book of Revelation,
the concept and the idea of the devil
and the dragon trying to slay the child.
This is a satanic idea to slay children
and to kill children.
It's against nature.
We have a natural, moms have a natural instinct
to protect their children and to love their children
and even put themselves in harm's way for their children.
Not to slaughter them, not to kill them, not to harm them.
This is just, this is a weird idea.
And of course, what does the Bible teach?
The Bible teaches that that which is in the womb
is a life.
And there are plenty of laws and plenty of states
where if you kill a woman that's pregnant,
you'll be charged with double homicide.
Why?
Because it's really a life.
How is it possible that you could kill a woman
that's pregnant in a car accident,
you're charged with double homicide,
but abortion doctor can literally slay the child
and it's not murder.
Make it make sense.
But what does the Bible teach in Exodus chapter 21?
Let's look at a couple of verses here.
It says in verse 22,
if men strive and hurt a woman with child
so that her fruit depart from her
and yet no mischief follow,
he shall be surely punished according
as the woman's husband will lay upon him
and he has to pay as the judge is determined.
And if any mischief follow, then thou shalt give.
Notice this, lie for life.
Now this is a, some of the language here
can be slightly confusing.
I preach the sermons on it,
but just to quickly unpack it again.
The Bible is describing a woman that's pregnant.
There's a potentially an accident here
in the sense that I don't think that the men
were intentionally trying to harm this pregnant woman,
but they're getting in a scuffle.
They're fighting some problem.
As a result, they injure the woman.
It causes her to go into early labor.
That's what the Bible is describing here.
Her fruit is departing from her.
So the labor is induced.
As a result, the child comes out.
The word mischief is referring to harm.
So a woman could go into early labor, deliver the child,
and technically, nothing happened.
Like the child's still healthy.
It's still breathing.
It's still alive.
And it's fine in the sense that there's no actual harm.
But what is the Bible saying?
Just because of the inconvenience factor,
this person would still be punished
and there would still be some kind of a consequence,
even if there was no mischief, meaning
there was no harm to the child.
The child is still intact.
But what does it say?
He shall surely be punished according as the woman's husband
will lay upon him, and he shall pay as the judge is determined.
So it's essentially saying, hey, what did this cost you?
He's like, well, we had to go to the hospital.
We had to pay all these extra medical bills.
It cost us $50,000.
And so the guy has to pay the $50,000 bill.
As long as the judges say, yeah, that seems reasonable,
he needs to pay $50,000.
That's what the text is saying.
But what happens if men are striving, accidentally bump
into a woman, cause it to go into early labor,
and the child dies?
What is the legal consequence?
The legal consequence is life for life.
It does not undervalue that life.
That life is equivalent to the other life,
meaning that an unborn child has the exact same value
in God's law as someone that is born.
There's not a different status of born or unborn,
it's life and life.
And so that if that child were to die, it's a life.
And so you know what, abortion doctors are killing a life,
they're killing a baby, is what they are doing.
It's evil, it's satanic, it's wrong.
Abortion should be illegal and people who commit abortion
should be tried and found guilty
and should be executed for what they've done.
Life for life.
I also believe that women, if we live in a society
that was educated on this subject
and understood what was happening,
and we made this law that they should also be executed
if they killed their own children,
they killed their own baby.
It just, it doesn't make sense
to not live in this kind of a society.
And look, that's extreme for a lot of people,
a lot of people don't like that,
but I don't really care what you like,
I just care what the Bible says.
And they can't prove me wrong, biblically,
but they try to use logic, they try to use reason,
they try to suggest why what I'm saying
doesn't make any sense.
Now I wanna go to some other verses though,
because let's talk about, let's go to 1 Timothy 5,
we'll get there in a minute.
Go to 1 Timothy 5 if you would.
Number one, abortion would be wrong.
A morning after pill also would potentially disrupt
a fertilized egg, the conception that's happened.
IVF is a different subject, and birth control.
I wanna talk about morning after pills
and birth control for a second.
A lot of hormonal birth control
will do two different things.
One, it will definitely have a conception control.
So there's like different mechanisms,
there's different things that are happening,
and in some cases, it could cause women
just to not conceive whatsoever.
Obviously, you really couldn't argue
that that's a sin for these specific verses of killing,
right, you couldn't say it's a sin from that perspective.
I would still say I think it's wrong
because the Bible says
that you're supposed to be fruitful and multiply.
So I think it could be, it would still be a sin issue
from just you're not being fruitful and multiplying,
but you wouldn't necessarily be able to say
it's killing anything because nothing actually got conceived.
But the thing is,
is we're not talking about conception control pills,
we're talking about birth control pills.
Birth is different than conception,
it's called nine months.
And every woman knows there's a difference.
There's a huge difference between the conception
and from the birth.
And there's a huge consequence for the men financially
from the birth and the conception, okay?
And so at the end of the day,
we understand these are two different events.
Very, very, very different, why?
Because birth control does not prevent conception always.
Sometimes what happens is the egg will become fertilized
and it'll still make its pathway down several days.
It'll try to implant in the uterine wall
and then it will not successfully implant.
It'll be flushed out.
Now I looked up Grok and I kind of asked it about this
and what it was saying about this particular process
and hormonal birth control.
And they were basically saying,
well, a lot of doctors just say that that's not true.
It's not really killing anything.
This isn't abortion-like.
This isn't abortifacient.
And then they said this is it.
Surveys of physicians.
So this is not people.
This is just doctors only.
Surveys of doctors only reflect that only 6% of doctors
believe that birth control pills actually cause abortions.
So they're gonna try and suggest to you it's not abortion
because 94% of doctors just believe that it's not.
Whereas even 6% of doctors,
we're not talking about people,
we're talking about doctors believe
that it's still performing abortion.
And you know what?
I would be one of those 6% if I was a doctor.
And so, you know, again, I also agree.
Now, some people are gonna be like,
"You don't understand medicine,
you don't understand science, blah, blah, blah."
Okay, well then 6% of doctors don't either, okay?
But you know, I don't really like a lot of doctors personally
and a lot of doctors have a lot of problems in my opinion.
So, you know, I'm not really caring always
what their opinion is on these particular issues.
But if we understand the process,
if we really believe that it's a child at day one
and you're hardening your uterus
so that the child cannot implant,
it'll be flushed out and perish, then it's killing it.
Whatever you want to call it, it's killing it.
I think it's wrong.
Now look, is it as, you know, obviously evil
as really ripping it out of the womb and tearing it apart?
Probably not.
And that's why a lot of people don't think it's as bad.
But, you know, this is what, I mean, think about this.
This is what so many fundamental Baptists
and Bible colleges are literally prescribing.
Get, conceive, and then flush it out.
They don't think that those first seven days count
or five days or whatever.
You wanna look at it.
I think they should all count and I'm against it.
And that's from a killing perspective.
It's definitely against a being fruitful
and multiplying initiative
that the Bible is commanding us to do so.
The Bible is commanding us to be fruitful and multiply.
So again, I am totally against it.
I will preach against it consistently
and I'm not gonna change on this issue.
Morning after pills, again, would be in the same boat.
It's kind of similar what birth control is doing
but a higher dose.
There's another thing, idea of IVF,
introvertofetalization or something,
introvitofertilization.
It's the idea that they extract several eggs from the woman,
try to fertilize them in a laboratory setting
after they've conceived,
throwing them against the wall
and seeing what sticks basically.
Problem is that in this process,
you're gonna have a ton of fertilized eggs not survive.
So again, what is, how is that different
than the birth control element, it wouldn't be.
Now you wouldn't necessarily argue
that this is not trying to be fruit of a multiply,
it is trying to be fruit of a multiply.
The problem is that in the process of doing so,
many times they're fertilizing tons and tons of eggs
and then they're just dying as a result.
And often this is why women will have
three, four kids at a time.
Typically triplets and this kind of stuff
is not a natural thing.
Supposedly triplets can happen naturally,
but to talk about rarity,
typically someone has triplets or a higher number,
it's because of something like this that they're doing
where they're literally just throwing five, six, seven,
eight eggs at the wall, seeing what sticks.
And the reason why they throw that many
is because typically only one makes it.
But then just that random time,
you have two stick, three stick,
a couple stick to the wall.
And so it's just a crazy process.
It's weird, it's frank in science.
I don't even wanna understand how doctors
are doing all this with all their tools and stuff.
It sounds gross, it sounds weird, it sounds invasive.
Why would I as a man want another man
to be shooting eggs against my wife's wall?
Like that's just weird, okay?
Just even that sentence was weird.
I don't even know if I should have said it.
But it's just weird, okay?
And look, I get it.
People wanna have kids.
Hey, kids are a joy, people wanna have kids.
But think about it this way.
If God's not opening your womb,
maybe that's just what God wants.
You know, even genetics themselves,
maybe God just doesn't want those genetics
to keep happening in the pool
and we just keep forcing them to happen by Frankenstein.
It's like maybe God doesn't want those genetics
to happen for a reason, you know?
And at the end of the day,
we're not supposed to play God.
And a lot of people are entering into the IVF world
in their 40s when they took birth control
in their 20s and 30s.
It's like, hey, maybe you should've just tried to have kids
when you were fertile and young
instead of waiting until the last hour
and just going through this Franken-science.
Now, obviously if you happen to be a child of IVF,
I'm not gonna like hate on you
or act like you're a reject of life
or you can't come to our church or something like that.
But look, I don't support IVF.
I think it's wrong.
I think it's murder.
I think it's killing.
I think it's Franken-science.
I think it just makes no sense.
It's weird.
There's really not enough negative things
I could probably say about it.
So don't ask me like, hey, should you do this?
'Cause I'll say no.
And again, I think that you should also not do the opposite.
I don't believe in, hey, going out and getting a vasectomy
or getting any of these other procedures,
non-elective procedures in the sense that,
or these procedures where it's elective, I mean,
in the sense that obviously if you have an issue
in your body, cancer or some disease or something,
they're removing parts of your body
just because you need to get that removed and it
hampers your reproductive cycle.
Live with whatever you got, okay?
But if you're just trying to tamper
with your reproductive cycle and it's not necessary,
I believe it's wrong.
And I'll consistently preach that.
I'll consistently say that.
The Bible says to be fruitful and multiply.
And we're gonna go beyond just being fruitful and multiply.
I mean, this is just how the Bible describes
the ideal situation.
And most people wanna bring up some weird situation
or some crazy situation.
Okay, well, those are exceptions.
There's eunuchs mentioned in the Bible,
Jesus addresses it.
But you know, for 99% of people,
we're supposed to get married
and we're supposed to be fruitful and multiply.
Quit worrying about the 1%, you're not the 1%.
And you're not that person.
People often come up to me worried
about situations that don't affect them.
It's like, hey, you know, I'm a single dude,
but I'm really against, you know, IVF.
It's like, get married and then talk to me about it later.
You know, it's like, why are you so worried about this
when you're single, right?
Or you're married and having kids and you're like,
man, I really wanna understand this thing
about bearing people.
And it's like, but you're not bearing,
so don't worry about it.
You know, it's like, don't worry about everybody else
and every other hypothetical.
Why don't you just worry about yourself?
Don't worry about your situation and what's going on.
But look what the Bible says in 1 Timothy 5 verse 14.
The Bible says,
"I will therefore that the younger women marry."
And notice this, bear children.
Notice again what the Bible actually says.
What does the Bible say?
The younger women marry and bear children.
It's even giving a timeline.
Yet you go to Bible college
and they don't want the young women to marry.
They want them to graduate and take birth control.
What does the old IFB and the Bible college say?
Come to Bible college, pay us money
and graduate and take birth control.
What does the Bible say?
Marry and bear children.
That's what the Bible says.
And you know what?
We should always go with what the Bible says,
not with man things or what man's ideas are.
The Bible is literally commanding young women
to bear children.
Oh, this is just a blessing.
It's a commandment.
How in the world are you gonna look at this
and then say this is a blessing?
This is a literal commandment and instruction.
And it's saying if you don't do it,
what if you don't do it?
Well, it said in verse number 15,
"For some are already turned aside after Satan."
How are you gonna argue with this?
The Bible is saying what God's will is
for the women to marry, bear children,
and when you're not doing this, you're going after Satan.
Now, here'd be the caveat,
is this is obviously talking about widows.
Widows have already shown that they have a proclivity
and desire to get married.
Technically, if a woman decided to never get married,
yeah, I don't think she's sitting
by not having children, okay?
But again, that's the exception.
We're talking about most people
have a desire to get married.
Of course, this woman is not even having an exception
because she was already married.
She's already shown that desire.
So therefore, as a commandment,
she's supposed to get married if her husband dies.
If she's under the age of 60 and her husband dies,
she's commanded to get remarried.
I will therefore that the younger women,
and you say, what's young, 59.
You know, women are all so concerned
that they wanna be like 18 forever.
Just be 59 forever, okay?
It says 59.
Now again, it's saying at 59,
you're commanded to get married.
At 60, you still can.
It's not saying you can't.
You can, I'll perform a marriage.
If you're 100 and you wanna get married, let's go, okay?
But if you're under 60 and you come to me and you say,
hey, what should I do?
I'll say, you need to get married.
That's just the biblical commandment.
If you were a widow, to get married, to bear children,
to guide the house, to give none occasion
to the adversary to speak reproachfully.
By not having children, what are you doing?
You're giving the adversary an opportunity
to speak reproachfully.
That's what the text says.
And then you'll more than likely turn aside after Satan.
That's what the Bible is just clearly instructing.
And it's not just this.
Look at chapter two, verse 15.
Notwithstanding, she shall be saved in childbearing.
I mean, what do you want the Bible to say?
Hey, the Bible says when you're young,
get married, bear children.
The Bible says the woman is saved in childbearing.
I mean, this is not spiritual salvation.
You don't have to have a child to go to heaven.
What are you saved from?
You're saved from the deceptions of this world.
You're saved from the enemy, from the adversary.
Let's just be honest.
What is the Bible picture for an ideal family?
The husband goes out, pays all the bills,
makes all the money, does all the work.
If a woman is married and is not gonna have any children,
what the heck is she gonna do all day?
Get in trouble is the answer.
So what's keeping her from getting into trouble?
Because look, if you give people unlimited money
and unlimited time, it's gonna be unlimited problems.
How is she gonna be saved from idleness?
How is she gonna be saved from the temptations of this world?
How is she gonna be saved from the devil
constantly attacking her and going after her
and trying to distract her?
And God's gonna cause problems.
What does the Bible say?
She's gonna be saved in childbearing.
And of course, if they continue in faith and charity
and holiness and surprise.
It's not that just by having kids,
you're gonna be godly,
but a woman that wants to serve God
is gonna continue serving God by having children.
That's what the text is actually saying.
Obviously you could be a Hindu and have children
and you're not really serving God, we get it.
But a woman that's godly and doesn't have children
like God is commanding them,
will end up going down a bad path
and will not stay on the right path.
To stay on the right path, the woman is saved in childbirth.
That's what the text is saying.
And that was a sensitive issue.
I know that a lot of people get upset about these things,
but I'm just trying to tell you
what the Bible literally says.
Look at 1 Timothy chapter five again,
and when we're talking about the widow,
what does it say in verse number,
let's read a couple of verses here.
Let's read verse number three.
Honor widows that are widows indeed.
But if any widow have children or nephews,
let them learn first to show piety at home
and to requite their parents
for that is good and acceptable for God.
What is a widow indeed?
It's simply just trying to suggest the idea
that she doesn't have anybody to help her.
'Cause if she had someone to help her,
they're supposed to help her.
Verse number five, now she is a widow indeed,
desolate, trusteth in God and continueth in supplications
and prayers night and day.
So someone that has no one to help her
and totally desolate is supposed to only rely on God
to provide for her.
But in verse six, if she liveth in pleasure
while she's dead, it says that she that liveth in pleasure
is dead while she liveth.
But a woman that's truly a widow
truly has no one to help her,
but is not gonna serve God while she's dead
and the Bible says no one should help her.
Where's your ministry to help all the widows?
Well, the Bible says first, do they have children?
'Cause if they have children, that's their outlet.
That's their first ministry help.
The second is if they're actually in church serving God.
These are qualifications before the church
would get involved in help.
The Bible does not say, let's just go rush out
and hand money to widows.
There's plenty of widows to hand money to
if you just really wanted to.
But the Bible is not saying that.
The Bible is saying, first, they need to have
their children take care of them.
Secondly, if they had no one, technically,
then they would have the church to take care of them.
But if they're gonna live in pleasure,
now, it says in verse seven,
and these things give in charge that they may be blameless,
but if any provide not for his own,
especially for those of his own house,
he have denied the faith that is worse than an infidel.
Let not a widow be taken into the number
under three score years old,
having been the wife of one man.
Here's another thing, saying, if you run into a widow
that is under the age of 60,
the Bible is also saying, do not pay for them.
Do not give them free money.
Force them to do something.
What are you forcing them to do as a church?
If I say, we will not help you, what do they have to do?
They have to get married.
Well, what if all the guys are kind of ugly?
Sorry, marry the least ugly.
But it doesn't say, give her money
'cause all the guys are bums or whatever.
That's what the text is saying.
Again, it says, not a widow be taken into the number.
What it's saying, do not as a church give money to a widow
to prevent her from getting remarried.
Force her to get remarried by not giving her money.
Some people think like, this is cruel.
No, what's cruel is giving people free money
because when you give people free money,
they make really bad decisions and they do something.
They go after Satan.
That's what the text actually teaches.
Now, what woman would you take into the number
after 30 years old, or I'm sorry, after 60 years old?
Having been the wife of one man.
Well, she's been divorced?
No, we're not gonna take care of you either.
Well reported up for good works,
if she have, notice this, brought up children.
Notice that a widow is never allowed to be taken
into the house of God and paid for
if she didn't bring up children.
That's what the Bible says.
The Bible says, did you read it?
I read it.
If she have brought up children,
you know what the word if means?
It's conditional, sorry Calvinists.
The word if is there for a reason.
So what if a woman got married, had no children,
and her husband dies,
is the church responsible to give her money?
The answer is no.
The Bible says if she have brought up children,
if she have lodged strangers,
if she have washed the saints feet,
if she have relieved the afflicted,
if she have diligently followed every good work,
but the younger widows refuse.
That's what the text clearly says.
This is just hard breaching.
I'm just telling you what the Bible says.
I mean, and again, I'm not saying these things
'cause it's my opinion.
I probably would have had a weird opinion.
I would have had a way different opinion.
If you had just, I'd never read the Bible
and you just said, hey,
what do you think the church should do
when it comes to widows?
I would have never come up with this.
I would have had the world's opinion.
I would have just thought,
well, just give them tons of money, you know?
Just give them a T-shirt and a high five
and give them money and just like, let's have a party.
No, no, no, the Bible says the younger widows refuse.
He said like, what age should women be forced
to get remarried at?
I would have never came up with 60.
Some guys in this room think 25 is the wall, okay?
The Bible is saying 60, man, okay?
I'm just trying to tell you that, you know,
this is not me getting up and just telling you
what I think, I'm just telling you explicitly
what the text is saying.
And if you like the Bible, if you like the word of God,
then you'll like what I'm saying.
But she should have raised children.
Go to Psalm 127.
Then how are you gonna sit here and tell me
all these things like, oh, I don't think having children
is a commandment, okay?
Wait a minute.
Didn't the Bible say that the woman's gonna be saved
and childbearing?
Didn't the Bible literally, explicitly tell the widows
that they're supposed to marry and bear children?
Isn't the Bible saying that you wouldn't even provide
for a widow if she didn't bring up children?
And they're gonna tell me that this isn't a commandment?
You just don't wanna believe what the Bible says.
Go over to Psalm 127, and again,
this is positive mentions of having children.
The Bible says in Psalm 127,
it's kind of a popular two verses here,
there are two chapters, I mean.
Psalm 127 says in verse three,
"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 the 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."
The Bible says be fruitful and multiply.
Multiplication is a lot more than just 1.7.
The Bible's painting this picture of a quiver.
Do you really expect me to believe
that a guy's gonna go out to war
with 1.7 arrows in his quiver?
That doesn't really make sense, okay.
Historically speaking, cultures and societies
that did not really believe in these like abortions
and birth controls and they weren't trying to control
how many kids they were having.
They're just trying to have kids
'cause they thought it was a blessing.
Typically average eight children per family.
That seems like multiplication.
That's about eight to a two ratio.
You're basically a multiplier of four.
If you think about it, that kind of makes sense.
Obviously even in a military situation,
you'd probably want more than eight arrows, I get it.
But hey, that's kind of typically what kind of number
we're thinking and looking at.
Obviously people that get really aggressive
and they start really young
and they decide they're not gonna co-sleep
and they're not gonna actually breastfeed
and they're not gonna do these other things
that are mentioned in the Bible.
They might start having iris twins
and you could get up there.
You could get to 15, 16, 18.
I mean, it's theoretically possible.
I don't think that's a good suggestion either.
I'm not saying you need to have 18.
You don't get like a special trophy in heaven
for having as many iris twins as possible.
And look, I don't think that you should follow
God's commandments with partiality.
I think we should follow all of them.
So I'm very pro breastfeeding.
I'm very pro.
Look, this is a natural way to space out children
as God's design.
And God clearly talks positively about breastfeeding.
And because of modern technology and modern convenience,
many parents are simply just putting kids in cradles
and putting them with a pacifier,
putting them using formula to supplement,
doing all kinds of other means,
giving them food at young ages.
And that may kick up the conception cycle again.
And then people get mad.
They're like, "Oh, you're just forcing us to have kids."
And look, I've never forced anybody to have a kid,
number one, all right?
And number two, I clearly teach and clearly say
that you should do your best to breastfeed
as long as possible to space your kids out
as much as possible.
If you look at my family,
it's pretty much about two years apart
and we're not doing anything really that conscious about it.
We're just pretty much just doing the same thing,
having kids whenever.
And it's not obviously cyclical
'cause if you look at my family,
our birthdays are all over the map.
It's like January and May and August and June, July
and whatever, we're equal opportunists.
Whereas in my family, I'm in August,
my brother's in August and my sister's in August.
So my parents really like Thanksgiving.
So, you know, that's how you understand how that works.
But at the end of the day, you know,
hey, I think we should just do our part.
Number one, when we talk about this doctrine,
I just have a few ways to recap this idea,
but number one, the Bible says to be fruitful, multiply.
I think that's a commandment.
I think couples should be fruitful, multiply.
Number two, the Bible showed in several verses
that women are gonna be saved in childbearing.
So I think you should also be fruitful because of that.
Number three, it's the duty of marriage.
I don't wanna mess with that.
I don't wanna like downplay that.
That's an important part of relationship.
And because so many couples are so afraid of having kids
or trying not to have kids,
what they end up doing is they end up screwing up
that area of marriage.
And then when you start screwing up that area of marriage,
then you start causing yourself other problems
and bigger issues and other.
Look, there's trade-offs to everything.
And you think like, oh, well, I don't like having kids
and the burden of kids,
but then you replace it with this other burden
where you're screwing up the dirty of marriage.
And it's like, you gotta just pick your poison, okay?
And it's like, hey, I like the duty of marriage,
so therefore I'm having kids, you know what I mean?
But the people that are on birth control,
let me tell you, when women take birth control,
and this is medically proven,
it screws up their hormones, it screws up their desire,
it screws up their wanting to have intimacy
and all kinds of stuff.
And it's like, why do you wanna make that even worse?
Why do you wanna cover yourself even more problems
in that particular area?
You know, it's not a good plan.
And most people that take birth control,
a lot of them, they regret it.
You can screw yourself up permanently,
you can increase your chances of cancer.
I mean, there's just so many consequences
to the alternative.
Oh, well, we do natural family planning.
Okay, Catholic.
It's like you're trying to trick God
into following his commandments.
I mean, like, oh, well, if we trick God
into not giving us conception
by doing these weird methods and counting, whatever.
When did you see that?
When is Abraham like,
hey, honey, will you check the calendar tonight?
To me, I don't like it.
I'm against it.
I'm not for it.
I'm not checking the calendar.
I don't even, you know, I don't even check the weather.
I just walk outside and it's just like,
I don't even know if I dressed appropriately, okay?
It's a silly idea.
Hey, children are a blessing.
What does the Bible say?
Children are a heritage of the Lord.
Here's another aspect of why I believe this
is because you just shouldn't kill children.
People that don't agree with me on this
are gonna be killing their children,
they're gonna screw up the duty of marriage,
they're not gonna save their wives in the childbearing,
and they're not doing what God says
is being fruitful and multiply.
And having lots of kids, according to the Bible,
what does the Bible say?
It's a heritage of the Lord, it's a reward,
happy is the man that hath this quiver full of them.
Look at chapter 28, verse three.
"Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine
"by the sides of thine house,
"thy children like olive plants round about thy table.
"Behold, that thus shall the man be blessed,
"that feareth the Lord.
"The Lord shall bless thee out of Zion,
"and thou shalt see the good of Jerusalem
"all the days of thy life."
The Bible's painting this picture,
having lots of kids like having a lot of arrows,
it's being happy, it's having this family table
where you got all these little plants just all around.
And look, I get it, having kids is expensive.
Having kids is exhausting.
Having kids is one of the hardest things you'll ever do.
But let me tell you something,
you know what, I love every single one of my kids.
I wouldn't trade.
There's no amount of money that you could offer me
where I would say, you know what, give this one back.
Now look, there's days where you just want to give them back
and it's not about finances, okay?
What I'm saying is that you can bribe me.
I'm not gonna sell my child.
And the Bible brings this up.
I mean, some people do sell their children.
It's wicked, it's evil.
It's being without natural affection.
And you know what, hey, have lots of kids
because maybe at least a couple of them will turn out good
'cause there's no guarantee, biblically speaking.
And it'd be nice to have a couple.
I mean, David had a lot of kids.
Most of them were pretty awful.
I mean, especially all the ones with an A name.
It's like Amnon, eugh, Absalom, eugh, Adonijah, eugh.
David, oh, okay, here we go, David.
But look, if you have an A name, sorry,
I'm not saying you're a bad person.
Obviously, Abel's a good guy, okay.
But David had a lot of bad kids, had some good kids.
There's a mixed bag.
Noah had a couple good guys, had a really bad one, okay.
You have Adam and Eve, they have Cain,
pretty much the worst guy ever.
Had Abel, then they get Seth.
I think having more kids is just gonna be better overall.
You have a better chance of having
at least some turn out good and some positive.
If you only have one or two kids,
what ends up happening is the parents get so invested
in that one kid turning out well
that they end up forsaking what they actually believe
because sometimes it doesn't pan out.
And so they're so emotionally invested in that one
or those two that they end up making bad decisions
as a parent because they didn't have eight or nine
and realize, you know, this one's just kind of a bum deal.
I'm gonna focus on the ones that panned out.
I'm just gonna give more attention.
And look, do you think Adam and Eve were excited
to have the Kane family reunion or the Seth family reunion?
Obviously the Seth side was a lot more enjoyable
to be around, to talk about.
You know, in the wallet, it wasn't a lot of Canes in there.
They had been ripped out.
There was a lot more Seths in there in the wallet,
showing all the kids.
I mean, again, think about Adam and Eve.
Everybody was their kid.
I mean, while they were alive,
everybody was a grandkid or a kid of some sort.
Do you think they were just all good?
They were all great?
No, and look, the more kids you have,
you just, more opportunities to have good ones,
ones that pan out,
ones that are gonna be a blessing unto you.
Would it be nice for them all to be on your side?
Sure, but that's just not the text.
The text says that there'll be two divided against three.
But if you don't have five kids,
how are you gonna have that kind of math?
You only have one, you could just be outnumbered.
At least if you have a couple, a couple side with you.
At least if you have a lot of kids,
hey, you can still have trust and faith in the Lord
that having kids was worth it, it was a blessing.
Everybody's gonna have occasionally a disappointing child.
That's just reality.
But you know what?
I think having kids is worth it.
I trust the promises of God here,
that it's happy as the guy that has lots of kids.
Obviously, you know, having kids is gonna be a big burden,
and you kinda wonder like,
why am I going through all this burden?
But you know what?
Life is a part of a burden.
And even if you don't get a direct benefit
from your children,
what did the Bible say about it for women?
It said that they'd be saved in childbearing.
It at least gives you something to do that's productive
and allows you to just basically live a life
that's gonna keep you from a lot of sin.
And let's just say, hypothetically,
you had eight kids and they all kind of just bummed out.
Okay, well now you get to know what God feels like.
'Cause God's had a lot of offspring
and a lot of them didn't pan out.
A lot of them were unthankful.
A lot of them were ungrateful.
And look, even of the saved,
there's some pretty disappointing characters.
I mean, look at Lot.
That guy's a pretty disappointing kid.
I mean, do you really wanna, I mean, think about it.
You're like, hey, here's my son.
Here's my grandchildren.
Here's their mom.
They're like, where's the dad?
Don't ask that question.
Listen, we don't talk about that.
We don't, we don't, we don't wanna bring up
that particular part of the family, you know.
Again, there's some weird stuff in the Bible
'cause weird things happen.
And look, God had to go through this
and he allows us to go through things
so we can empathize even with God.
We can recognize and understand how God feels.
But you know, God puts us through these examples.
God wants to have children.
God wants us to invest in children.
God wants us to love our children.
And look, I believe if you train up a child
in the way he should go when he's older
and not depart from it, I believe,
hey, we can get our kids saved.
And I believe a lot of kids that we raise in church
are gonna turn out to be some of the greatest Christians
that we've ever seen.
And we need to love on them.
We need to give them that opportunity.
You know, what a special prize it probably was
for people like Lois and Eunice
to see young Timothy raised up and in the faith.
And the Bible says I have no greater joy
than to see my children walk in truth.
You know, there's no greater joy
than to spend 18, 19, 20 years raising a child,
finally letting go and saying,
hey, they're actually still walking in the ways of God.
They're still going to church.
They're still reading their Bible.
They're doing what's right.
They're raising kids.
They're following the Lord's instructions.
They're being a soul winner.
You know, there's not really any greater joy
according to the text.
So you're robbing yourself of potential joy
by not having kids and look,
every old person I've ever talked to,
I mean, I don't have an exception.
I'm sure there could be,
but every old person I've ever talked to
has always said I wish I had more kids.
Why do they say that?
I think it's true.
Obviously in the moment, it's hard.
And look, a lot of people in our church
are kind of in the moment.
A lot of us are in the harder stages,
maybe in a sense, we think that it's harder.
We don't, you don't even know how hard it gets.
I've heard a lot of people tell me raising teenagers
is the hardest because you can't control them as much.
And there's so much more heartache
and so much more problem.
You know, there's different stages
and they can all ebb and flow.
We can't necessarily which one's harder than the other.
But let me tell you something, it is a burden,
but I believe it's what God wants us to do.
And I will continue to preach that.
I will continue to say what the Bible says on these issues.
And I'm not trying to be insensitive
to someone's situation, but this is what the Bible teaches.
We should be fruitful and multiply.
I'm against all destruction of this process,
whether that be abortion, birth control, IVF, any of that.
And I will always say that.
So let's end in prayer.
Thank you, Heavenly Father, so much for the blessing
of conception and children.
Thank you for this commandment to be fruitful and multiply.
Thank you for giving us the opportunity to get married
and have children and to raise them and to love on them.
I pray that we would have natural affection
towards our children, that we would have the hearts
of fathers turn towards their children,
that we'd have mothers' hearts turn toward their children,
that women would realize the purpose that God has given
so many of them is to be fruitful and multiply.
And I pray that you would continue to bless them,
that you would help them with conception,
you would help them with pregnancy,
that you would help them with delivery,
that you would help them in raising them,
that you'd help give them wisdom,
that you'd help give them joy.
I pray that you would just bless our children
in this room that you would help them
to actually have a true, genuine love
for the things of God,
that we could model for them a righteous way of life,
that they would hearken unto that,
that they would think about that,
that they would have a desire and a zeal to serve God,
and that we could see many young people in this room
choose to serve God and to do what's right,
and so that we could have great joy in them.
And in Jesus' name we pray, amen.
- Amen, our last song this evening,
page 130, yesterday, today, and forever,
page 130, yesterday, today, forever,
us on the verse.