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Voddie Baucham - A Biblical Worldview on Abortion · Voddie Baucham Sermons

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Good evening. Good evening. All right. I need you to
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: help me tonight. I'm not doing too well this evening.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: My wife and I just got back from a very
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  Speaker 1: long trip. We were in Israel, touring Israel for a
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  Speaker 1: couple of weeks and came back home and there was
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  Speaker 1: sickness in our house. And so our children were sick. And,
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  Speaker 1: you know, we have eight children. And so when there's
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  Speaker 1: sickness in our house, there's sickness in our house. And
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: so I came back and got sick, and I turned
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  Speaker 1: 44 yesterday. And I feel every day of it right now.
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  Speaker 1: So I need you to do better than that, all right?
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: I bring you greetings from the Republic of Texas. Y'all
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: need to stop sending us so many Californians. I am
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  Speaker 1: one myself. I grew up down south of here, a
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  Speaker 1: little town called Los Angeles. And it is always good
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  Speaker 1: to be back here in my state of origin. And
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  Speaker 1: it's always good to address my brothers and sisters on
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  Speaker 1: this particular topic. This particular topic has meant a lot
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  Speaker 1: to me for a long time. I have been keenly
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  Speaker 1: aware of this issue for a long time, partly for
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  Speaker 1: personal reasons. My mother became pregnant with me when she
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  Speaker 1: was in high school. And had it been 1979 versus 1969,
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  Speaker 1: her options would have been a lot different. When I
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  Speaker 1: hear people talk about abortion and the importance of abortion
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  Speaker 1: and and why it's important for women to have that option,
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  Speaker 1: the women that they describe almost always sound exactly like
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  Speaker 1: the woman who gave birth to me in 1969. And
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  Speaker 1: so I've had a profound understanding of the importance of
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  Speaker 1: this topic for a long time. I have spoken on
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  Speaker 1: this topic, worked in this area for two decades now.
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  Speaker 1: actively involved in various ministries and organizations and working with
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  Speaker 1: a variety of pregnancy help centers, now have the privilege
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  Speaker 1: of doing events like this in different parts of the
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  Speaker 1: country for a number of reasons. And I'll share some
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  Speaker 1: of that with you in a while. But what I
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  Speaker 1: want to do is I want to help us think
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  Speaker 1: about this issue in a more full-orbed way. Because I
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  Speaker 1: believe that in some ways we are losing ground on
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  Speaker 1: this issue. I believe we're losing ground particularly in the
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  Speaker 1: marketplace of ideas. Because we have, you know, as we'd
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  Speaker 1: say where I grew up, we've fallen for the okey-doke.
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  Speaker 1: We have fallen for a trap. And the trap is
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  Speaker 1: that this issue is all about personal stories and that
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  Speaker 1: we have to have more compelling personal stories than the
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  Speaker 1: other side. And if we can just come up with
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  Speaker 1: compelling personal stories, then we can just win the argument. Ultimately,
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  Speaker 1: compelling personal stories usually come down to who's telling the
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  Speaker 1: personal story. And there are people with compelling personal stories
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  Speaker 1: on the other side. There are people who will talk
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  Speaker 1: about having had an abortion and having had their life
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  Speaker 1: basically rescued because they weren't saddled with a child, so
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  Speaker 1: to speak. So if all we're about is personal stories,
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  Speaker 1: then that becomes a problem. If all we're about is
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  Speaker 1: personal stories, then we fall for another trap. And this
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  Speaker 1: I see in the political arena. where now what we
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  Speaker 1: do is, as pro-lifers, we believe that the most important
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  Speaker 1: thing that we can do is have female political candidates,
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  Speaker 1: because if you're a man, you can't talk about the
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  Speaker 1: abortion issue, because you don't have the personal experience or
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  Speaker 1: personal story. Bad move. Bad move. Because you have just
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  Speaker 1: let our opponents determine the battlefield. which always gives them
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  Speaker 1: a tactical advantage. But we fall into it because we
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  Speaker 1: already fell into the trap of it's all about personal stories.
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  Speaker 1: It's got to be about more than that. If for
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  Speaker 1: no other reason than we are people of the book. Amen?
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  Speaker 1: We are people of the gospel. It is not about
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  Speaker 1: my personal story. My personal story has very little relevance.
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  Speaker 1: Why do I need to give you my story when
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  Speaker 1: I have his story that I can tell you? The
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  Speaker 1: gospel is actually his story, not mine. But we don't
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  Speaker 1: believe that. And that's part of the problem. So what
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  Speaker 1: do we do when we find something like this? This
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  Speaker 1: is an article. I won't read you the whole article,
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  Speaker 1: but I will tell you up front. that I'm going
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  Speaker 1: to read extensively from this article from salon.com earlier this
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  Speaker 1: year from January. And the title is, So What If
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  Speaker 1: Abortion Ends Life? The subtitle, I believe that life starts
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  Speaker 1: at conception and it's never stopped me from being pro-choice. Now,
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  Speaker 1: I want you to listen to this and you'll understand
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  Speaker 1: why I believe we need to read extensively from this
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  Speaker 1: as you listen to this woman's line of reasoning. Because basically,
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  Speaker 1: pro-lifers have drawn a line in the sand. Abortion stops
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  Speaker 1: a beating heart. Abortion is murder, yada, yada, yada. And
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  Speaker 1: she's going, okay, we'll give that to you. And we
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  Speaker 1: still believe abortion ought to be legal. But listen to her.
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  Speaker 1: Here's the complicated reality in which we live. All life
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  Speaker 1: is not equal. That's a difficult thing for liberals like
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  Speaker 1: me to talk about, lest we wind up looking like
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  Speaker 1: death panel loving kill your grandma and your precious baby stormtroopers.
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  Speaker 1: Yet a fetus can be a human life without having
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  Speaker 1: the same rights as the woman in whose body it resides.
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  Speaker 1: She's the boss. Her life and what is right for
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  Speaker 1: her circumstances and her her health should automatically trump the
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  Speaker 1: rights of the non-autonomous entity inside of her. Always. When
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  Speaker 1: we on the pro-choice side get cagey around the life question,
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  Speaker 1: it makes us illogically contradictory. I have friends who have
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  Speaker 1: referred to their abortions in terms of scraping out a
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  Speaker 1: bunch of cells. And then a few years later, were
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  Speaker 1: exultant over the pregnancies that they unhesitatingly described in terms
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  Speaker 1: of the baby and this kid. By the way, powerful
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  Speaker 1: point there. She's absolutely right. These people, on the one hand,
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  Speaker 1: would have an abortion and say, no, it's just a
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  Speaker 1: lump of cells. But then if they decide that they
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  Speaker 1: want a baby, all of a sudden, at the same
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  Speaker 1: phase at which they took the other life, they will
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  Speaker 1: now call this a baby. She's saying not that exposes
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  Speaker 1: us philosophically, not that exposes the error of our position,
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  Speaker 1: but she's saying get over it. I know women who
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  Speaker 1: have been relieved at their abortions and grieved over their miscarriages.
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  Speaker 1: Why can't we agree that that how they felt about
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  Speaker 1: their pregnancies was vastly different, but that it's pretty silly
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  Speaker 1: to pretend that what was growing inside of them wasn't
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  Speaker 1: the same. Fetuses aren't selective like that. They don't qualify
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  Speaker 1: as human life only if they're intended to be born.
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  Speaker 1: When we try to act like a pregnancy doesn't involve
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  Speaker 1: human life, we wind up drawing stupid semantic lines in
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  Speaker 1: the sand. First trimester abortions versus second trimester versus late term.
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  Speaker 1: Dancing around the issue, trying to decide if there's a
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  Speaker 1: single magic moment when a fetus becomes a person. Are
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  Speaker 1: you human only when you're born? Only when you're viable
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  Speaker 1: outside of the womb? Are you less of a human
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  Speaker 1: life when you look like a tadpole than when you
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  Speaker 1: can suck on your thumbs? By the way, sounds like
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  Speaker 1: our argument, right? Because she's stealing it. And in her opinion,
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  Speaker 1: she's destroying it. Let me move down. The majority of
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  Speaker 1: women who have abortions, one in three American women will,
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  Speaker 1: are already mothers. And I can say anecdotally. that I'm
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  Speaker 1: a mom who loved the lives she incubated from the
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  Speaker 1: moment she peed on those sticks and is also now
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  Speaker 1: well over 40 and in an experimental drug trial if
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  Speaker 1: by some random fluke I learned today I was pregnant
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  Speaker 1: you bet your ass I'd have an abortion I'd have
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  Speaker 1: the world's greatest abortion. That's brazen. I know it's a
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  Speaker 1: human life, and I don't care, because not all human
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  Speaker 1: life is equal. Basically, she's saying some human lives need
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  Speaker 1: to be sacrificed if they stand in the way of
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  Speaker 1: other human lives. Let me ask you something. Where's your
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  Speaker 1: personal anecdote for her What do you say to her
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  Speaker 1: when she steals your thunder on the abortion stops a
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  Speaker 1: beating heart argument? What do you say to her when
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  Speaker 1: she stands there and says, yeah, you're right, I agree,
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  Speaker 1: and my position has not changed? What do we have then?
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  Speaker 1: That's why I believe it's important for us to have
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  Speaker 1: a biblical, theological understanding and approach to this issue and
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  Speaker 1: the way that we address this issue with our culture
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  Speaker 1: at large. So what I'd like to do is just
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  Speaker 1: take a few moments and walk with you through biblical,
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  Speaker 1: theological understanding of this issue. And then I'll tell you
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  Speaker 1: a bit more about me. But I want to do
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  Speaker 1: it in that order. Why? Because again, my personal story
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  Speaker 1: is not what's significant here. When you think about abortion,
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  Speaker 1: It's important to understand that this is an issue that
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  Speaker 1: goes all the way back to the beginning, all the
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  Speaker 1: way back to creation, all the way back to the garden,
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  Speaker 1: all the way back to the fall. If you remember,
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  Speaker 1: after the fall, God confronts the sinners. He confronts the man.
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  Speaker 1: He confronts the woman. He confronts the serpent. And the
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  Speaker 1: first time that the good news is proclaimed, the first
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  Speaker 1: time that the gospel is proclaimed in its inception is
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  Speaker 1: there in Genesis chapter 3 and verse 15. When God
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  Speaker 1: says to the serpent, I will put enmity between you
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  Speaker 1: and the woman and between your seed and her seed.
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  Speaker 1: You will bruise his heel, but he will bruise your head.
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  Speaker 1: There in that picture, God proclaims the answer to man's
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  Speaker 1: sin problem. But he also declares war in that moment.
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  Speaker 1: The war between the serpent and the seed. How significant
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  Speaker 1: is this declaration of war? Here's how significant it is.
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  Speaker 1: In chapter 3, there's the declaration of war between the
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  Speaker 1: serpent and the seed, and the promise that the way
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  Speaker 1: God is going to deal with man's sin problem is
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  Speaker 1: through the promised seed that comes through the woman. That's
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  Speaker 1: chapter 3. In chapter 4, we have the first murder.
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  Speaker 1: What is the first murder? The seed of the serpent came,
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  Speaker 1: and I call him that because in 1 John chapter 3,
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  Speaker 1: John calls him that. The seed of the serpent came
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  Speaker 1: kills the seed of the woman, Abel. God declares war,
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  Speaker 1: and then Satan fires the first shot. The very next chapter.
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  Speaker 1: The good news is at the end of that chapter,
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  Speaker 1: we're reminded that Adam knew his wife and that there
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  Speaker 1: was another son who came by the name of Seth.
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  Speaker 1: Then in chapter 5, we have one of those lists
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  Speaker 1: in the Bible that we all like to pretend to read.
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  Speaker 1: If you can't say amen, you ought to say ouch.
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  Speaker 1: Reading along in the Bible and this happened and that
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  Speaker 1: happened and then there's a bunch of names that I
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  Speaker 1: can't pronounce and it's probably not important and then this
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  Speaker 1: happened over here and then that happened. Every genealogy is
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  Speaker 1: extremely important in Scripture. Why is that genealogy important? Because
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  Speaker 1: God connects the promised seed that he gave to Adam
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  Speaker 1: and Eve and Seth To Noah. Ten generations. So that
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  Speaker 1: when the flood comes, we know that the promised seed
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  Speaker 1: is still alive in the person of Noah and his sons.
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  Speaker 1: And then one particular son. And through the rest of
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  Speaker 1: the book of Genesis, we are tracing the promised seed.
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  Speaker 1: Where is the promised seed? Who is the promised seed?
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  Speaker 1: Through the rest of the book of Genesis, we There
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  Speaker 1: is this promise and there is this hope and there
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  Speaker 1: is this doubt. Abraham is promised a son. What's significant
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  Speaker 1: about that? That his wife is beyond seed-bearing years. God
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  Speaker 1: promises a seed. The next link in the chain appears
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  Speaker 1: to be broken because this woman cannot do what God
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  Speaker 1: says women are going to do to bring about the
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  Speaker 1: one who will end this curse. So what do we do?
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  Speaker 1: Do we go to Hagar and Ishmael? No, we don't.
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  Speaker 1: We wait for God to provide the promised seed, Isaac.
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  Speaker 1: Next we have twins. Well, it must be the older, right? No,
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  Speaker 1: because this is not about birth order. It's about election.
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  Speaker 1: The older will serve the younger. It's not Esau. It's Jacob.
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  Speaker 1: Now we got 12 sons from a variety of different women.
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  Speaker 1: How do we figure this one out? Well, maybe because
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  Speaker 1: Jacob was so in love with the one, one, one,
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  Speaker 1: that they're going to come from her, right? It's going
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  Speaker 1: to be Rachel, certainly, because of this wonderful love story. No,
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  Speaker 1: he gets stuck with the other one, one, one, the
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  Speaker 1: wife he doesn't even want. He ends up having to
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  Speaker 1: give another seven years for the wife that he wants.
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  Speaker 1: But the wife that he wants can't bear children. Remember,
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  Speaker 1: this is all about the promised seed. The one that
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  Speaker 1: he never wanted to be married to proceeds to give
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  Speaker 1: birth to Reuben, Simeon, Levi, the father of the priesthood,
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  Speaker 1: and Judah, the promised seed. The one he didn't even
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  Speaker 1: want to be married to. Very next book in the
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  Speaker 1: Bible opens up with what? Pharaoh, seed of the serpent,
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  Speaker 1: who gives the order to kill male children born to
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  Speaker 1: the Hebrew women. The war between the serpent and the seed.
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  Speaker 1: And it goes on and on and on. We come
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  Speaker 1: to the New Testament, and amazingly, Matthew opens up with what?
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  Speaker 1: The genealogy. Why? To connect you. To Genesis chapter 3
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  Speaker 1: and Genesis chapter 4. So that you know that Jesus
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  Speaker 1: Christ is the promised seed. What happens next? Herod tries
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  Speaker 1: to do what Pharaoh tried to do. Why? The war
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  Speaker 1: between the serpent and the seed. All the way to
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  Speaker 1: Revelation chapter 12. where we see this picture of this
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  Speaker 1: dragon and his seven heads and these ten horns. What happens?
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  Speaker 1: There's a woman who is about to give birth, and
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  Speaker 1: he is there to devour the child. The war between
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  Speaker 1: the serpent and the seed from Genesis to Revelation. Folks,
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  Speaker 1: abortion is spiritual warfare. And you don't win spiritual warfare
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  Speaker 1: with personal stories. Get away from me, devil. I've got
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  Speaker 1: a compelling story. Bless your soul. It's spiritual warfare. What
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  Speaker 1: we just read from this woman, this is spiritual warfare.
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  Speaker 1: That's evil. To be that flippant about the taking of life.
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  Speaker 1: I wouldn't just have an abortion. I have the world's
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  Speaker 1: greatest abortion. She's talking about killing somebody. She doesn't bat
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  Speaker 1: an eye. That kind of hardness of heart is spiritual warfare.
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  Speaker 1: This is a spiritual battle. So what is our message
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  Speaker 1: to the culture at large? Our message to the culture
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  Speaker 1: at large is that gospel message. And here's what we see.
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  Speaker 1: That Christ, through his incarnation, vindicates, validates, and verifies the
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  Speaker 1: sanctity of human life at every point, from conception to
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  Speaker 1: natural death. How? Folks, he could have come to this
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  Speaker 1: world in any way, shape, form, fashion he chose. But
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  Speaker 1: God chose him. conception and every step of the birth process,
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  Speaker 1: thus validating, verifying the sanctity of human life while it's
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  Speaker 1: in the womb, all the way to the end of
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  Speaker 1: life where God the Son experiences death. Thus validating and
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  Speaker 1: sanctifying even that part of our experience. But here's the
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  Speaker 1: other thing. He also validates and sanctifies human suffering. God
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  Speaker 1: the Son suffers and dies. He doesn't just die. He
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  Speaker 1: suffers and dies. So from conception, we know that life
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  Speaker 1: is sacred and set apart because God has told us
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  Speaker 1: so through having his Son, the second person of the Trinity,
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  Speaker 1: go through every phase of that process. The human life
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  Speaker 1: and the human experience itself is validated and verified and
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  Speaker 1: sanctified by Christ because he experiences it. Death as a
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  Speaker 1: part of human life. He experiences it. And suffering prior
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  Speaker 1: to death. So that whether we're talking about protecting babies
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  Speaker 1: in the womb or protecting people when they are weak
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  Speaker 1: and frail at the end of their lives from being
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  Speaker 1: cut off from the suffering that Christ validated himself. It's
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  Speaker 1: all the same theological principle. That's the story. Not my story.
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  Speaker 1: Christ's story. That's the one that gives us the biblical
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  Speaker 1: theological foundation upon which to build our argument. He even
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  Speaker 1: validates human sexuality and the way that we use our sexuality. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Now,
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  Speaker 1: wait a minute now. I haven't heard about stuff like this.
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  Speaker 1: Never think it was a movie about that. You know, Jesus,
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  Speaker 1: he didn't do no sex stuff. No, actually, he didn't.
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  Speaker 1: But his first miracle is performed at a wedding. The
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  Speaker 1: motif that he uses to communicate his relationship between himself
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  Speaker 1: and his followers is that of betrothal, a wedding ceremony.
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  Speaker 1: and consummation. That's what he chooses to communicate what he's
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  Speaker 1: about and what he's doing and the redemption that he
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  Speaker 1: brings to his people. We refer to as the bride
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  Speaker 1: of Christ. So that now this same Christ who for
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  Speaker 1: us validates and verifies the sanctity of human life from
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  Speaker 1: the moment of conception until its end in death also
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  Speaker 1: verifies and validates and sanctifies for us the very purpose
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  Speaker 1: of human sexuality. We must We must have a biblical
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  Speaker 1: theology of life. We have to. Otherwise, we hear somebody
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  Speaker 1: who stands flat-footed with something as evil as this, and
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  Speaker 1: all we're holding on to is a personal story, and
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  Speaker 1: truth be told, I mean, let's just go on and
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  Speaker 1: be honest. You sat out there, and as I read that,
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  Speaker 1: and you thought about what you would say to somebody
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  Speaker 1: who was just that brazen, and the words that came
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  Speaker 1: to your mind were probably, well, you see what had
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  Speaker 1: happened was, there is an answer. But here's what you
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  Speaker 1: need to know. Because this is spiritual warfare, we don't
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  Speaker 1: have an answer, you know, that is some sort of,
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  Speaker 1: you know, magical judo or jiu-jitsu move. You give the
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  Speaker 1: right answer to a hard-hearted person. You know what happens?
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  Speaker 1: They go find another question. Isn't it always like that? Again,
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  Speaker 1: we spent two weeks in Israel and we're going from
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  Speaker 1: place to place and we're seeing all these places where
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  Speaker 1: archaeology has verified and validated what we find in the Bible.
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  Speaker 1: By the way, there's never been an instance where archaeology
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  Speaker 1: has invalidated anything from the Bible. And so we have
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  Speaker 1: things like, you know, the people at Pontius Pilate. There's
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  Speaker 1: no record of a Pontius Pilate. So I looked at
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  Speaker 1: the stone that they found with Pontius Pilate's name written
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  Speaker 1: on there. And so then what happens when you find that?
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  Speaker 1: Do people go, oh, dude, we were wrong. The Bible
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  Speaker 1: said no. They just go find another question. They don't
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  Speaker 1: want an answer. They don't want an answer. They're lost.
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  Speaker 1: Their eyes are blinded. That's where this woman is. See,
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  Speaker 1: here's the danger of the whole, you know, compelling story
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  Speaker 1: side of it. And again, not saying the compelling stories
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  Speaker 1: aren't important. They are. But if we're not careful, we
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  Speaker 1: think that what we're supposed to do is find the
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: story that's the magical judo move that will melt the
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: hardest of hearts so that we can win the argument
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: because of our compelling story. What happens when somebody tells
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: a more compelling story than the one we told? I
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: love it when Paul goes to Corinth. We read there
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: in 1 Corinthians chapter 2, when I came to you,
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: I determined to know nothing among you, save Jesus Christ
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: and him crucified. He goes on later in verse 5
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: to explain himself. Why? So that your faith might not
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: rest on man's wisdom, but on God's power. We preach
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: Christ and him crucified. That's what we preach. We have
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: a biblical theological understanding of the sanctity of life. That's
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: what we preach. Knowing all the while that there are
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: those people out there for whom it will mean absolutely
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: nothing because of the hardness of their hearts. But you
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: know what? I'm not in the hard heart business. Amen?
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: I'm not. I'm not in the hard heart business. I'm
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: just in communications. My daddy handles sales, okay? I'm not
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: in the hard heart business. But guess what? I'm not
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: ashamed of the gospel because it is the power of
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: God unto salvation. The gospel is the power of God,
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: not my compelling story, the gospel. Now, my compelling story
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: may earn me a hearing. Now, let's get to that part.
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: But again, we have to understand it in that context,
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: that our compelling story may help earn us a hearing.
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: But that's all. It can't be all that we have.
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: It may earn us a hearing. But we don't rest
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: on that. We rest on the gospel. And so here
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: we are, armed with our biblical theological understanding of the
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: sanctity of human life, prepared to communicate that to people.
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: And perhaps, I've had this happen. I've had this happen
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: to me. You know, you're a man. You don't understand. Yeah,
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: I do understand. I absolutely do. I understand because I
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: sat at a graduation and bawled my eyes out several
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: years ago at a graduation. Couldn't even watch. Couldn't even
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: watch the graduation. Why? Because they called my 48-year-old mother's name.
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: She walked across the stage and graduated at 48. Why? Why? Why?
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: Because at the top of her class at 18, she
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: got pregnant with me. And her whole life was put
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: on hold. Won't you tell me I don't understand this?
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: I get it. I more than get it. But I
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: don't just get it because of that. I get it
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: for other reasons as well. I get it because I'm
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: a man who's married to a woman and We've been married.
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: This is our 24th year of marriage. And so here
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: we are, we're married, and God has given us these
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: two children. And we, again, we got married the summer
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: between my sophomore and junior year in college. And people
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: thought we were just absolutely nuts for doing that. And we, whatever.
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: Man finds a wife, he finds a good thing. I
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: found my good thing. I was like, what you told
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: me to wait on, man? Non-Christian people, they didn't have
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: any problems with it. There were Christian people who had
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: the problems with it. Christian people, they were the ones.
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: You're doing what? You're getting married? Yeah, I'm getting married.
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: You're getting married? You've got two more years of school.
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: Why are you getting married? What do you mean, why
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: am I getting married? You want me to wait two
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: years before I get married? Two years? Are you crazy?
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: The wisest man in the Bible, the strongest man in
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: the Bible, and the most godly man in the Bible
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: all fell to sexual sin. I am not wiser than Solomon.
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: I am not stronger than Samson. I am not more
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: godly than David. I'm getting married. And so we did,
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: and our first child was born ten months later. Because
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: we're what you call efficient. So here's my junior year
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: in college, you know, until I got married and got
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: a child. Everybody really thought we were crazy. I mean,
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: they just, you know, they really thought we were crazy.
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: And so everybody just, you know, there's all this pressure.
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: So it was three years before our next child was born.
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: And then our daughter was born first, and we had
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: a son, and then we, everybody, everybody told us, all
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: together now, you have the perfect little family. And I wish,
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: I wish I could say that we were strong. But
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: we weren't. We weren't. Listen to that stuff. And so
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: here's my wife. Second child is born. She's on the table.
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: Caesarean section. I'm in there. Oh, yeah, I'd go for everything, man.
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: And so I'm in there, and we're standing there, and
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: one of the hardest things I've ever witnessed in my life,
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: not the Caesarean, but after it, when the doctor took
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: his scalpel and his sutures and spoke to God on
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: our behalf, and he said with his scalpel and his sutures,
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: this couple no longer wants you, welcomes you, or needs
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: you in this area of their life anymore. That's what
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: he said to God for us when he tied her tubes.
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: Several years later, here we are convicted about what we've done.
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: So we go, my wife comes in to me. I'm convicted.
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: I've been convicted about it since watching this happen. She
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: comes back. Several years later, my wife comes to me.
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: She kneels down before me with tears in her eyes,
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: and she says, baby, I need you to forgive me.
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: And like most men, your wife comes and kneels down
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: in front of you. She's crying. I need you to
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: forgive me. I'm just sitting here going, wow, I'm getting
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: ready to start a prison ministry. Just tell me who
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: he is and where I can find him. And she says,
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: I need you to forgive me. I said, why? She said,
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: for cutting off the possibility of God sending us any
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: more children. And I looked at her and I said, no, baby.
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: That happened on my watch. I'm your shepherd. I need
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: you to forgive me. She said, do you mean that?
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: I said, yes, I mean that. oh, that's so good
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: because there's this procedure. And it costs. So we went
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: to another doctor and we said, doctor, we want you
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: to tell God we didn't mean what that other doctor said.
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: He comes back and he tells us there's nothing he
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: can do. One of the most awkward moments for me
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: as a man, as a husband ever, because I'm extremely disappointed,
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: I'm crushed, But I know that my wife is not
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: only crushed, but she's crushed because I'm crushed. So I
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: have to be crushed enough to identify with her, but
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: not too much so that I don't crush her more.
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: All the men in the house know exactly what I'm
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: talking about. And so both of us had been thinking
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: about the same thing, and we determined we need more children.
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: And so we determined that we were going to adopt.
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: And so we walked into an adoption agency. And we said, listen,
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: we would love to adopt two, three, four, five kids.
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: That's all right with you guys. Lady gets up from
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: her desk and walks away. Did not make us feel
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: all that confident. She comes back with the director of
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: the agency. She says, tell her what you just told me.
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: We would love to adopt two, three, four, five kids.
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: kids from you guys, if that's okay. And they just
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: start crying. See, here's something you need to understand. There
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: are very few black adoptive families in the United States.
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: Very few. In fact, I got a call just last
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: year from an adoption agency, because now we hear from
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: them all the time. We do. We do. This is
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: an adoption agency in Abilene, Texas. And Anyway, the call
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: came from them. They said, if you guys know anybody,
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: if you can help us. A birth mother came into
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: the adoption agency, a black birth mother who said that
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: she wanted her baby to go to a black family.
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: And he had contacted, please listen carefully, a thousand other
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: agencies and could not find one home study-ready black family
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: who would adopt a child. That's what it's like. That's
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: what it's like. And so we finish our paperwork, and
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: we get a phone call. We're not even finished with
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: our background checks and everything. We get a phone call.
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: You're matched with a baby. Like, what about, you know,
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: we're supposed to, like, finish stuff. What do you, how
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: do you know this is, how, what happened? The lady comes,
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: and she tells us, listen, we heard this young woman's story,
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: and we knew that this was your baby. I said, why?
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: Young woman had come into the agency. She had called
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: them after she had delivered. She contacted the agency and
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: told them her story. One year earlier, she and her
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: cousin were driving around downtown Houston area. They were carjacked
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: and raped. She was on Depo-Provera, these birth control shots,
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: which should have aborted any potential pregnancies. So they didn't
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: give her the morning after treatment, which would have aborted
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: any potential pregnancies. several weeks later, she realizes something's going on.
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: She finds out she's pregnant. She picks up the phone,
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: calls Planned Parenthood, says, I was raped. I'm pregnant. Please
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: help me. He told her, come in immediately. We'll figure
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: out a way to help you. Her own words now.
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: She sits in the abortion clinic, looks up at the clock,
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: feels like it's taking too long. And as she looked
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: at the clock, she says, it just dawned on me.
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: This baby hasn't done anything wrong. Somebody will love this
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: baby and adopt this baby. Eight and a half years ago,
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: she put that baby in our hands. And that was
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: our first adoption. Our next adoption was a 14-year-old victim
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: of incest. We didn't know at the time that she
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: was a victim of incest. It wasn't until two years
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: later that I had to go to a neutral location
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: and meet with two plainclothes detectives so that they could
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: take a DNA swab from my two-year-old in order to
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: convict this family member who was 40-something years old. So
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: when people talk about, you know, exceptions for rape and incest,
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: they're talking about our first and second adopted child. I
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: could go on, but my point is, But sometimes, if
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: it's necessary to have a compelling story to get to
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: what we want to talk about, there are those. And
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: so we have an almost 23-year-old, a 20-year-old, an 8-year-old,
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: a 6-year-old, a 5-year-old, a 4-year-old, a 3-year-old, a 2-year-old,
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: and a 1-year-old. This is important to us. This means
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: something to us. This is important to me from a
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: biblical theological perspective because of who I am and whose
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: I am. This is important to me from a personal
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: perspective because of my own story and the way that
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: I came into this world. This is also important to me.
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: Six times over the last eight and a half years,
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: God has given us the privilege of saying to young women,
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: not only give your baby life, but give your baby
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: to us. Is that what everybody's called to? No. No,
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: I don't believe that. I don't argue that. But I
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: believe if you understand this issue clearly, from a biblical
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: theological perspective, you're called to something. We make no apologies
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: about the fact that tonight we're asking for money. I
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: would never ask you for money for me. I'll ask
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: you all night for these people. We're asking you for money. Why?
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: Because for some of you, that's what you have to do.
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: That's what you have to give. And so we say
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: do that, give that. If that's the way that God
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: has gifted you, and if he's brought you here, and
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: that's the yes that you can give tonight, give that
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: yes tonight. For others of you, though, there's a place
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: for you to serve. For others of you, you can
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: increase the number of people who stand next year when
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: the volunteers stand. For some of you, that's what you
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: have to give. That's what you have to offer. Some
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: of you can give money and volunteer. Amen, hallelujah, praise
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: the Lord. Okay? Others of you, perhaps God has put
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: it on your heart God has put it on your
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: mind to open up your home. Scary thing. It's an
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: incredible blessing. It's an incredible blessing. Here's what's ironic. We
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: have no idea, no idea whatsoever if God's through sending
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: us children. None. None. None. We won't. We've said we
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: want ten. We've got eight. But, you know, this could
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: be it. And we've thought about that the last few times.
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: And so now our youngest just turned one at the
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: end of February. Actually, he was born February 29th last year.
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: So he didn't really have a birthday this year. But
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: the amazing thing to us is here we are in
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: our mid-40s looking at our friends who are, you know,
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: becoming empty nesters, which we would be right now, you know,
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: had we just stopped at the perfect little family. And
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: I don't know. I mean, we'll be, I don't know
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: when we'll be, we'll be retired before we're empty nesters,
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: you know. But all we can think about is unbelievably
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: sad that this could be our last baby. We don't
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: sit around and go, hey kid, I'm tired. Just hurry up. No,
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: we sit around and literally we look at one another
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: and say, wouldn't it be sad if this was our
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: last baby? If we didn't get to do this one
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: more time. Why? Because we're superhuman? Because my wife is
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: Bridget the Magnificent and I'm half man, half amazing? I mean,
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: that's true, but that's not why. In all honesty, the
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: answer is, how can we see what we see know
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: what we know, believe what we believe, do what we've done,
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: and then come to a point where we say, we're
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: out of the fight. Because with people writing pieces like this,
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: the fight's just warming up. And whether you acknowledge it
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: or not, you are part of this fight. If you
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: can give tonight, get in the fight and give. If
• 42:58
  Speaker 1: you can volunteer tonight, get in the fight and give.
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: If you can open up your home, get in the
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: fight and give. But by all means, don't leave this
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: place without making a determination by God's grace that you
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: will put to use that which he has given to you.
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: bring glory and honor to him and to proclaim the
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: sanctity of every human life from conception to natural death
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: because it is fitting in the context of the gospel
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.