(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Thank you very much. Thank you. So, brother Jimenez, you have six children. I have 11 children, and nowadays that's actually really out of the ordinary. It used to be the norm about 200 years ago in this country, but nowadays very few people have a big family like that. And one of the biggest reasons why I have a big family, and I'm sure you'd probably agree, is because we've looked at scripture and God over and over again talks about the blessing of having children. You know, happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them, and children are in heritage of the Lord. The fruit of the womb is his reward. We're looking at verses about be fruitful and multiply. The Bible really influenced me as far as having 11 kids, and I don't think I would have done so if it weren't for the scripture's teaching, but man am I glad I have 11 kids because it's wonderful. Yeah, amen. Yeah, and I would definitely agree with that. You know, if you look at scripture and you look at the Bible, and you don't come to the Bible with any preconceived ideas, which is what we're supposed to do as Bible-believing Christians, and you just ask yourself, what does God think about children, having children, large families, you can't walk away from scripture without the understanding that God sees it as a blessing all throughout the Bible, from Genesis through the rest of scripture. I mean, he's just talking about how he opens the womb, and it's a blessing. And of course, you know, having children, we know it is a blessing. And of course, when you're raising children, there's going to be difficult times and hard times. Like anything we do that's worth doing, there's going to be difficulties that come along with it. But our goal in life is, of course, to glorify God. And part of that is raising a godly heritage, a goodly seed, for the honor of the Lord. So absolutely, when you look at the Bible, God is always telling us it's good to have kids, it's a blessing to have kids, it's his reward, the Bible says. And unfortunately, our culture will try to make you think that children are an inconvenience, that they're a burden, and they're going to hold you back. But the truth is that God is right when he says that they're a blessing, because especially the older you get, you realize, and especially I think a lot of people get into their old age, and regret not having kids. I've had conversations with older people, actually encouraging me when they see my, when they see me and my wife with our six kids, and saying like, I wish I would have had more kids, you know, I stopped at two, and that was a mistake, you know, I wish in their older age, they wish they would have had more kids. So just kind of shows you that it's worth investing into others. Well, and let's face it, I mean, having kids is a lot of work, it's expensive, it's time consuming, it's definitely a sacrifice. Absolutely. So when people say it's inconvenient, they're right, it is inconvenient. But like you said, anything worth doing in life is hard, and it's challenging. I mean, what was it like starting a church from scratch? I'm sure that was challenging. Absolutely. That's hard work. Yeah, it's hard work, but it's worth it. Pastoring a church is hard, and not only that, but when I think of having a lot of children, I strongly believe that it's a matter of faith, because we have to actually believe God when he says, happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them. Right. Or we have to believe God when he says that he will provide all our need according to his riches and glory by Christ Jesus. Because it can be a little daunting, you know, when you start crunching the numbers of how much it's going to cost for the food and the diapers and the lodging and everything. Sometimes I just don't even want to look at the numbers. I just kind of like not even look at it and just forget about it, because it's just incredible how expensive it can be. Right. So it's a matter of faith, in my opinion, where if we believe that this is God's will, if God's telling us that he opens and closes the womb, children are inherited to the Lord, be fruitful and multiply. If we walk away from the Word of God saying, hey, look, it's God's will that I do this, then we have to also believe that he's going to provide. Absolutely. Absolutely. And obviously, all the reasons to not have a kid are there. Right. And actually, one of the things that really helped me when I was thinking about these things and learning these things is the realization that every reason that you have for not having a kid, for not having children is a selfish reason. I mean, when people tell you why they don't want to have kids, it's always money. It's always furthering their career. It's always not the ability to not buy certain things and not go on certain vacations. And they're really just selfish reasons, you know, sleeping a full night. Exactly. You know, so but obviously, God doesn't want us to live for self, right? God wants us to live for others to invest in others. And of course, anything that's right to do anything that God asked us to do, he's going to ask us to do it in faith. And we have to believe that he's actually going to provide our needs. And I know in my life, I've seen God just increase us, you know, financially as we have more children, but not just financially, just in our ability, just patience, just, you know, sometimes you wonder how you even get anything done, you know, but it's just God comes alongside and helps you and you really sometimes you can't even crunch the numbers because if you crunch it, it doesn't even make sense. You don't even know how you've gotten this far. If it's not just because of God's help. Yeah. You know, so I definitely agree with one. And also, you know, the tax write off is there. Right. And the tax credit. Yeah. And so here's the thing. If you don't have kids, yeah, you're gonna have more money, but you're also going to end up giving a lot more money to Uncle Sam. Right. And so the tax credits are pretty serious in the United States. So that does help out a little bit as far as making it more affordable. But you know, for me, one of the big things that I think about is just every single day, I can't even count how many times I'm just smiling and laughing and enjoying absolutely my children because children are so much fun and they bring so much life and joy and delight right to the house. And it's, it's sort of like the verse that says, I reckon that the sufferings of this life are not worried to be compared with the joy that shall be revealed in us. Right. And you know, I look at it as, you know, there are a lot of painful times. They're, they're going to be heartbreaking times, even painful things. Your children are going to do stupid things and embarrass you, embarrass themselves or cost you a bunch of money. They're, they're kind of like breaking things. Right. You have to go buy it or just, you know, it's just things go wrong. Take them to the dentist, just all sorts. Yeah. Cause they ate too much candy and didn't brush their teeth. Yeah. You know, you're going to the dentist or, you know, or you're going to the doctor cause they put a toy in their ear and they can't get it out. Have you had to do that yet or no? We've had stuff like that. Yeah. So there are all these, there are all these downsides, but then it's like when you put that in the scales with the joys, you know, I mean, I believe that the joy and the happiness from having children, even during the rough times outweighs the negatives. Right. And, and in the end, what it all really comes down to is, you know, it's God's will. Right. Right. And like I said earlier, I probably wouldn't have chosen, you know, the thug life, you know, the thug life chosen, you know, I probably wouldn't have chosen to have that many kids if I were just kind of just leaning upon my own understanding. Right. You know, the Bible says, trust in the Lord with all that heart and lean not unto thine own understanding. Right. Right. All thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths. He directed my paths through the scripture. Right. To have a lot of children. Right. And that's what influenced me to do that. Yeah. And looking back, I'm so glad that I did. And I'm thrilled to have eleven kids. And I wouldn't have chosen that for myself because I'm not smart enough to choose that for myself. Right. Right. And, you know, it's interesting because there's actually there's a there's these other benefits to having kids that you don't really realize are there until you have kids, you know, and obviously God tells pastors that they need to have children and you don't really realize it till you till you have children. Obviously, people who can't have children, you know, we understand that God opens and closes the womb and that's, you know, they should they should pray about that. And we understand that. But if you can have kids, you should have kids. And, you know, here's the reason that we often don't think about. But something that my wife and I've been talking a lot about lately is it just makes you a better person. It stretches you. It makes you be patient. Obviously, kids, especially babies, you know, it's all about them, you know, so it makes you, you know, just focus on other people, but even like we we just had our our son just became a teenager. And we've noticed and this happened just a few weeks ago, but we've noticed even even in that transition, that's going to grow us in our leadership, you know, because it's different, you know, having a toddler is different than having an older child, an older kid, and which is all different than having an older, you know, teenager or whatever. So there's just so much there that you don't really realize that goes into it makes you a better person. It makes you invest into others, makes you think about others. And you know, sometimes people in this world is just a little too self centered. It would do them good to have kids. Yeah. And you know, you you got married at 18, right? I got married at 19. We both started having kids pretty much right away. Right. And one of the things that it does for you is it makes you grow up fast, right? You grow up quick because you're responsible to your wife and your children and and so forth. But not only that, when it comes to qualifications for being a pastor, we're supposed to be the husband of one wife, right? And we're supposed to have faithful children not accused of right or unruly. Right. And so we're supposed to be ruling our own house and disciplining and making sure that any problems are dealt with and so forth. And I sometimes think to myself, you know, how could anyone be a pastor without having kids? Because there are some guys who do it right. And they pastor without getting married or without having kids, even though the Bible says that. But I think to myself, half my sermons come from being married and having kids. I mean, think about even even when your children do something dumb. It's just like, oh, there's another sermon. Right. Yeah. Right. And, you know, it's in and I don't mean this in a rude way, but even sometimes when you're giving counsel to to adults, you know, some of that's coming from experiences of just dealing with kids, you know, and and, you know, people might understand that, but it's true. There's just something there's a reason why God wants you to go through that raising those kids because it helps you with your people skills. It helps you with just being able to explain things to people and influence them and bring them along. And obviously, you know, like you said, there's going to be ups and downs, you know, and we are supposed as pastors, we're supposed to be an example not to the believers, but of the believers. So people should realize that, you know, they should they should be looking at us and seeing this what a Christian should be like. And like any Christian, we're human beings. Obviously, our kids, you know, people sometimes, you know, it's like, all the kids can be running around. But if your kids run around, like, they're the pastor's kid, you know, it's like their kids, you know, we're human. This is bound in the heart of a child and the rod of correction shall drive apart from right. And also, you know, having like you said, having a teenager is going to bring its whole new set of challenges, right? But it also brings new joys because, you know, when you have teenagers, you can do stuff with them. You can't really do with little kids. You can you can take them on more, you know, intense hikes, right? Absolutely. And you can take them to do things that grown ups do. Yeah, absolutely. As opposed to little kids. Yeah. But obviously, teenagers, you know, are you think about what you were like when you were a teenager when I was like, absolutely. Yeah. And even older kids like something my wife and I have been enjoying recently, which has kind of been a new thing for us is like being able to play board games with our kids. You know, we're obviously when they were little, you you couldn't do stuff like that. But even just having playing board games like my kids are teaching me board games, you know, and teaching us and playing games playing board games that are on your level. Right, right, right. Not little kid games. So it's just an interesting dynamic as you have kids. And as they grow, you just see the differences there, you know, so now, if we think about the alternative to having kids, because let's face it, if you get married, and you just kind of just go with the status quo laissez faire, kids are a product of marriage. It's really, you have to work not to have kids, right? You have to make the effort not to have kids, right, right. And if you think about the history of birth control, you know, a lot of people don't know the history. You want to talk a little bit about the history? Yeah, well, I mean, people don't realize that for a long time. It was looked down upon to have birth control. I mean, you have US presidents who said that birth control was a sin. Theodore Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt, exactly. You had, you know, john r rice, just preachers preaching against birth control. birth control is really a new thing, a newer thing, you know, and in the in the scope of, of all history, because obviously, it's natural to have kids, right? You get married, you have kids, that's just the natural result. There's this invention, you know, and and as far as birth control for me, I know, obviously finding out or learning that the Bible teaches that children are blessing is an aspect of it. Realizing that not the reasons to not have kids are selfish reasons as an aspect of it. But realizing and learning that birth control actually ends life after conception, we are talking about chemical. Yes, yeah, we're talking about, you know, to some percentage of progesterone only pills, the patches, those those, you know, those end up ending life after conception, right? Those chemical? A lot of people don't know that. Yeah, a lot of people don't know that's a big thing that people need to consider, you know, because obviously, what you're doing, you know, you could you could be taking these pills or doing these things, and not realize it and killing your own children that God bless you with that God wants you to be damaging your own body damaging your own body. Exactly. You know, so obviously, birth control has a really dark history. You know, it started off as really it wasn't really a birth control method in regards of just making sure people have a lot of money. It was trying to keep it was a racist thing, you know, trying to keep black people from reproducing. Well, a lot of people don't realize that Planned Parenthood right was originally called the birth control Federation of America, right? When they changed the name Yeah, to Planned Parenthood. And it was founded by Margaret Sanger. Right. And like you said, she's a total racist and saying, Hey, we don't want the wrong kind of people right reproducing. Absolutely. And Planned Parenthood makes it sound a little more, you know, nice and acceptable. And and it's actually on you know, you're on Planned Parenthood, you're on Aaron. Yeah, you're planning not to be a parent. Yeah, you know, but but yeah, it's, people should look into these things. Before they start making these decisions that could really affect their lives, you know, they should figure out, you know, where these things came from, especially before you start putting something in your body, you know, where did this come from? You know, what, what is it doing? And not only that, but then also, what does the Bible say about this? What does God think about this? And when it comes to children, it's always a positive with God. God is always, there's no negative. I mean, you know, obviously, like you said, it's hard work, there's challenges. But God says, do it. I'm going to bless you for it. I'm going to help you along the way. And I can tell you, it's worth it. You know, I think it's worth it. And just, you know, even from time to time, my wife and I might get away on a date or even, you know, a little overnight getaway or something. And we're always missing our kids, you know, we want to come back to the kids. You know, we want to see the kids is weird. And people would think that's weird. But you know, I would just tell people have them and you'll see. So do it by faith. Absolutely. Yeah. Thank you.