Prayer For the End of Abortion

About. Three four four years ago. Well three and a half years ago now. I I had. The only opportunity I've had and probably will ever have now to go to the land of Israel and.

I.

Wasn't all that excited about it at first. I Had I had seen a lot of people Talking about how wonderful it was do this that and the other thing. I just I Don't know. I I didn't want to be the tour. I didn't want to be the touristy thing.

It was life-changing and it was life-changing on a number of different levels. Not so much the oh I Walked where Jesus walked part. It was amazing to be in the first century synagogue in Migdal Migdal.

They found it while building a hotel. And so now the hotel Goes to a certain point and then it goes up in the air and it goes over like this and then down beneath it is the first century Synagogue in Migdal and of course Mary Magdalene that would have been her synagogue and Jesus taught in the synagogues all the synagogues in Galilee.

And so we know that the stones the mosaic on the floor That it was from the first century that those stones would have heard Jesus speaking it was that was fairly fairly amazing. But what struck me so much was how small it all is tiny.

I Stood on the seashore next to Capernaum where Jesus where where the where the boats would have come up after Jesus walked on the water and Wherever you were you could see the far shore of The Sea of Galilee.

I always figured see ocean big can't see no you can now it's just it's very vague. When it's when you're going north-south, but east-west very clear. I mean, it's a big lake, but it's It's just not all of Israel.

You can you can drive from one end to the other in just a very short period of time. It's a small land it really really is and so One of the more memorable places that I visited was the area where Elijah had his encounter With the prophets of Baal and so, you know, you know the story.

You know the story in first Kings chapter 18, you know what happens. I have to I Have to admit that over and over and over again when you think about The mockery that Elijah poured upon.

The.

Prophets of Baal and one of the things that was fascinating was to see One of the high places in Israel because we read about all the time the Ashram the groves. These were places of horrific Pagan worship.

Just.

Really vile pagan worship. Sort of like some of the things around here. They're just much bigger than they were back then.

And.

You know what happens the fire falls and and and Elijah has the the prophets of Baal slain and. Then you have the this amazing after chapter 18 the end of the drought Ahab Elijah running so on and so forth.

You have this amazing story that takes place in chapter 19. Now Ahab put my old man glasses on here. Now Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done and How he had killed all the prophets with the sword.

Now, by the way, I'm reading from.

My.

1977 New American Standard Bible I am I am switching Jeffrey Rice who did this one beautiful job, if you know Jeffrey Rice and post-Tenebrous Lux. He has my new Bible with him right now and We'll be binding it.

I've decided to go with the LSB the Legacy Standard Bible, which is the New American Standard gone over by Scholars at the Master's Seminary and the reason is simple for years and years and years when I would read the Old Testament like look at look down verse 7 and The this is how I would read it and the angel of Yahweh came again a second time and touched him and said arise eat.

Because the journey is too great for you. Now it says Lord in all caps but for a couple of decades I have just made it a practice to Use the divine name because it's there it's there over 6 ,000 times in the Old Testament and it is simply a Jewish tradition to not pronounce the divine name and So when I would read the Old Testament I would not read Lord.

I would read Yahweh so like Psalm 110 1 Yahweh said to my Lord sit at my right hand until I make your enemies footstool for your feet. Well, that's what the LSB reads it inserts the name Yahweh for all the places the Tetragrammaton appears and then there were certain texts that I would translate a little bit differently John 118 Romans 9 5 and The LSB translates it the way that I translate it.

So it's sort of like Why fight it? I mean Why and why be editing things as you're going along when here's a translation that does it just the way that so When I use an English translation, I'll be using the LSB, of course mine will be bound in glorious orange goatskin.

But hey, you can you can do the same thing. You can get hold of Jeffrey rice, too. Anyways, so I'm reading from the NASB. But I will make those changes as I go along and I better read this before it gets too dark for me to see It anymore.

Then Jezebel sent message a messenger to Elijah saying so may the gods do to me and even more. If I don't make and not make your life as the life of one of them. That is one of the prophets of Baal by tomorrow about this time.

So he was afraid and arose and ran for his life and came to be a Sheba which belongs to Judah and left his servant there but he himself won a day's journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a juniper tree and he requested for himself that he might die and Said it is enough now.

Oh Yahweh take my life for I am NOT better than my father's. He lay down and slept under a juniper tree and behold there was an angel touching him and he was said to him arise eat. They looked and behold there was at his head a bread cake baked on hot stones and a jar of water.

So ate and drank and lay down again. And the angel of Yahweh came again a second time and touched him and said arise eat because the journey is too great for you. So he arose and ate and drank and went in the strength of the food 40 days and 40 nights to horror of the mount the mountain of God.

Then he came there to a cave and lodged there and behold the word of Yahweh came to him and he said to him What are you doing here Elijah? And he said I have been very zealous for Yahweh the God of hosts the sons of Israel have forsaken thy covenant torn down thine altars and killed thy prophets with the sword and I alone am left and they seek my life to take it away.

He said go forth and stand in the mountain before Yahweh and behold Yahweh was passing by and a great and strong wind was Rending the mountains and breaking in pieces the rocks before Yahweh but Yahweh was on the wind and after the wind an earthquake, but Yahweh was not in the earthquake.

Now for the earthquake of fire, but Yahweh was not in the fire. And after the fire a sound of a gentle blowing. It came about when Elijah heard it that he wrapped his face in his mantle and he went out and stood in the entrance The cave and behold a voice came to him and said what are you doing here Elijah?

And he said I have been very zealous for Yahweh the God of hosts the sons of Israel have forsaken your covenant torn down your altars and killed your prophets with the sword and I alone am left and they seek my life to take it away.

And Yahweh said to him go return your way to the wilderness of Damascus. When you have arrived you shall anoint Haziel king over Aram and Jehu the son of Nimshi. You shall anoint King over Israel and Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel-Mehola.

You shall anoint as prophet in your place. It shall come about the one who escapes in the sword of Haziel. Jehu shall put to death the one who escapes in a sort of Jehu. Elisha shall put to death. Yet, I will leave 7 ,000 in Israel.

All the knees that have not bowed to Baal and every mouth that has not kissed him. Now I want you to think with me. First a little bit about what has taken place here. Now that I've been to Israel. I realized how he could run from one end of it to the other.

You'd have to be in pretty good shape and he obviously was but Still needed his rest as you as you noted the angel providing him with supernatural sustenance. But it does strike me that you could have such a massive victory as he had just had over the prophets of we say Baal it's Baal but No one didn't know what in the world you're saying if you say Baal.

Have such a major victory and then within a very very short period of time. Be quite as depressed as Elijah was. And it says a little bit something about Jezebel. That Elijah is not afraid of Ahab. But all Jezebel has to do is send a messenger.

It says I'm going to kill you by this time tomorrow and he's running. That tells you a little something about who Jezebel was and what she was all about.

But.

Think for a moment. What it was like in this day. Remember there had been a drought going on and.

We.

We struggle as modern Americans to conceive of.

How.

Fragile human life really is down to the history of mankind. Most of us I Mean I was I was raised in a very poor family. I Mean now as an adult I look back and.

I.

Realized how poor we were. Didn't really realize that at the time.

But.

We lived in a hundred and five-year-old farmhouse that my dad patched back together again, so we could rent it and Thinking back on it now we were We were sort of subsistence level. But still you turned you turn the faucet and water came out and I don't ever remember really going hungry.

The idea of What they were going through in this time period the difficulty and the challenge of what a drought would mean to crops and food and Livestock and your children. There are still places on earth that experience these things, but we don't know much about those things unless you've lived in those places and Have gotten out of those places and are now in a blessed place like this at least for now.

But these were difficult in dark times. What we learn in this text is That during this time There were only seven thousand throughout the land of Israel That had not bowed the knee and kissed The Ba 'al idols which means of course that there had been tremendous pressure placed upon everyone to compromise and To get with the program.

What do I mean? Well if you understand the nature of idolatry at this time The idea in this day was that the various gods had power over a particular aspects of human existence and so there were fertility gods and there were gods of the weather and there were gods of you know you get a fertility amongst your animals or fertility amongst your crops and there would be gods that the gods of war that you know sort of only had authority out to the borders of your country and and so the idea was if there were difficulties if there was a drought then what you're supposed to do is you were supposed to try to appease any and all deities that might be able to help and The idea of having an exclusive God Just one God To where you would not Join with the community and.

Seek.

The.

The good of the community and Seek the face of these deities. You'd be hated. You'd be looked upon as a person who was who was fundamentally hateful. You weren't loving your fellow citizen your fellow Israelite.

Who do you think you were. And so the vast majority of people in the land? Had compromised and it doesn't mean that they didn't still go to the temple. Or go to at least a place of worship of Yahweh, but they had become compromised in Joining the worship of the one true God with the worship of other gods.

And the pressure would have been great to do so. It wouldn't have just been well our God's really cool, and you're just going to be nerdy if you don't know in this situation the pressure that would have been put upon you is You need to do this to save our country or Save the world.

Oh. That would never happen again. It's happening right now and so very often.

Idolatry and.

Unfaithfulness to God Comes with a pressure from those around you including those around you Who themselves now have become compromised and are saying you're just being you're being too harsh. You're being too harsh You're being too narrow.

You need to broaden your perspective and be more loving.

You see.

And so here's Elijah and Elijah says to God I I have been zealous for you Yahweh the God of hosts. The sons of Israel forsaken your covenant. They've torn down your altars and killed your prophets with the sword.

I alone am left.

Now.

Given it's possible that Elijah was Somewhat Oh.

Exaggerating.

But it's clear he doesn't realize how many There were in Israel That had not compromised. He is surprised. I would imagine that there are going to be 7 ,000 in Israel all the knees that have not bowed to Baal and every mouth that has not kissed him 7 ,000 notice it says I will leave.

God's in charge of this. It's not well, whoo. Well, I just I was wondering if there's going to be anybody left either. I boy it was all those people with their free will down there. I I didn't I didn't know how that was all going to work out.

But but somehow amazingly there are still 7 ,000 that That's have not bowed the knee. I'm very very thankful for that.

Now.

This was the remnant. This was those that God had reserved for himself. But notice they're not the elite. Elijah would have known who they were if They were of the elite. These were what's called the arm hot it's the people of the land.

Regular folks and they had somehow managed to maintain fidelity and faithfulness. But it could not have been easy not just because of the pressure Around them to compromise. But just think what it was like.

You are being faithful to Yahweh, but you know, it's Yahweh who's punishing Your covenant people you've been faithful but you look around and you realize. The people haven't been faithful and you know that the hardships you're going through the suffering the deaths of friends the The weight loss the loss of your.

You've lost crops. You've lost livestock your 401k is going down fast and you know why it is and You know, it's just you you look around your land and and you go you remember Deuteronomy 28 and 29. Did y 'all I mentioned this on the dividing line a couple couple episodes ago, did y 'all hear about the they just found a What may be the most ancient Hebrew inscription that there have been found and it was found found on Mount Nebo and if you remember the blessings and the cursings they were they were pronounced across this valley and It was right there that this thing was found and it's a inscription of curses and so it's directly connected to what happened there and it uses Yahweh's name over and over again and It's very very ancient.

It's from around the time when Israel would have come into the land depending it they're saying about 1200 BC. I put the Exodus of 1400 BC, but that general time period and So it's fascinating that it's there but but the righteous would know That what they were going through that their suffering was a part of the just punishment of God Upon a people in light of the fact that his word said if you abandon me if you worship These are the gods.

These are the things are going to happen. I'm going to shut up the heavens. I Give you the rain and therefore I can withhold it. And so We don't have any books written by the 7 ,000. No blog articles tweets Facebook articles anything like that.

But what would they have said? What would their attitude have been? Given the fact that they did not compromise given the fact that they remain faithful. I They remain faithful they did not bow they did not kiss the idol.

Despite all the pressure now why in the world have I spent all this time talking about this situation? Well, you've probably already been drawing the parallels. At least I hope you have we Have lived in a land that has been blessed beyond measure beyond measure when you think of the advancements of that have been made in just simply the quality of life my mother Told me about when she was a child.

She remembered hearing the clip-clop of the horse Pulling the wagon With the dairy products Being delivered to the home. That's how far back they went and My parents saw amazing things. They're born in the Depression and They saw men walking on the moon and Has seen they saw before they died they saw pictures of faraway planets Amazing things and They themselves got to have air-conditioned homes and hot and cold running water.

Well in Phoenix it's hot and hot running water, but the fact first We moved in We came from Pennsylvania. We didn't know We moved we arrived July 31st in Phoenix That wasn't wise and we had a brand new house.

We were moving into just built.

And.

We go to the sink and you turn the C and it's H. No matter how long you let the C run it stays H so you turn the H and it just stays H and We literally I remember I remember my dad getting on the phone.

Now. This was a phone. Okay, you younger folks It was on the wall, okay. And you you pick this thing up and you pressed buttons and you could only go so far before that ring and it pulled you back and We we called the the homemaker the home manufacturer and we're like It's messed up.

What do you mean? It's messed up there's only hot water and they said You're not from around here. Are you? No, if you want cold water, it'll come out of your refrigerator and My dad hangs up the phone and we just all sort of look at each other.

What have we done? Where have we gone? And by the end of August we pretty well knew we were In for it anyway, so but we had those. You know, eventually we had a solar water heater that was pretty cool until a dust storm came along and blew it about three houses houses down the down the block, but Had a lot of Tremendous modern conveniences.

Maybe I'm just saying this for myself. But man, I'm gonna tell you something I'm pretty spoiled and I have a feeling there would be a whole lot of People basically saying to God what have I done to you?

I Thought I'd been so faithful. Why have you taken my ease of life from me? I'm having trouble finding food and I can only take a shower once a week. Now that will wake us all up on it. It was a difficult difficult time in those days and Yet they remained faithful and they were surrounded by false religion.

Those high places those altars that Elijah makes reference to. Those are places of sacrifice. You even have the prophets saying that the people of Israel got so low in.

Their.

Idolatry. That they began to worship Moloch and Moloch required child sacrifice as Part of his worship and you read Jeremiah you read the prophets and they specifically make reference to this kind of horrific Behavior.

We live in a day where I don't know about the rest of you. I'm I'm having to Limit how much exposure or how early in the day I have exposure To what's going on in the world within the past week? The leader of this nation or at least whoever writes the words the leader of this nation repeats Without knowing what he's saying.

I'll be perfectly honest with you on that level stood before us and Talked about the goodness. The moral proper goodness of the utter overthrow of.

God's.

Design in creating mankind male and female and Said that it is a high priority of the government of this nation to seek to provide Surgery Early as early as possible including puberty blockers. And this is going to be a moral good.

These are powerful drugs that destroy the body. They stop mental development. They they they they leave a person. The number of testimony is already available if you even want to look them up of What happens to people who go through these things these?

Childhood Situations surgeries. Quote-unquote. Transitioning it is horrific. The destruction of the body and of the person and Yet our government says this is a moral good and hence if you repeat What scripture says? About how God is to design man and how man can have fulfillment.

You are now viewed as being hateful. You are now being viewed as a person needs to be watched. Or maybe Maybe in the not-too-distant future unless God Does something amongst our people? Imprisoned. Because that's hateful.

This is not the first time this has happened but it's certainly it's in our experience a period of time where we sit back and We look at what's happening now. Many of you may know or may not know That really.

The person who could do a much better job in speaking to you on the subject of Praying about abortion and About the murder of unborn children From apology at church is not me. It's my fellow pastor Jeff Durbin.

Jeff is the primary person behind founding and abortion now and I don't know if any of you saw but just a few weeks ago if you want to see the fissure The divide the Grand Canyon that has developed in our society.

I was so proud to watch Jeff testifying before the Colorado House of Representatives. He had gotten there at noon and he began testifying at midnight and the testimony went on till three o 'clock in the morning and At the very same time that they are introducing that kind of legislation to protect all.

People.

The other side is introducing as you know both in Maryland and in Colorado the exact opposite.

A.

Type of legislation that would literally Decriminalize infanticide and I'm not just simply saying well up to the point of birth. The language actually allows. Literally says there will be no investigations of a child's death During the natal period which it can go as much as weeks after live birth.

So we know where this is going. It's all happening at the same time.

And.

We see around and those two issues The transgender issue the abortion issue. They are not separate issues. They are both very much Flowing from the exact same culture of death you want to be able to kill the child if it happens to be conceived.

But the best way to avoid having to do that is To destroy the person's body so they can never conceive. Anyways, that's why the focus is upon young women. Oh, yes, there are young men that are being destroyed.

They'll never have children. But the focus the amazing focus Is on the destruction of young women. These are all a part of the culture of death. These are all acts of rebellion against everything that Jesus taught Was good and righteous.

I have come that they might have life and so the culture of death says we will embrace death in all of its forms and We will promote it and we will call it good. We will call it good. So as I said, I Almost hesitate to raise the topic because I know who can address it so well and One of the reasons I think that my dear brother can do so I don't know if any of you saw the video that Jeff recorded about Think about 18 months ago 16 18 months ago now, I think About his adopted son Augustine Augustine Augustine we still have arguments about that too.

Apologia Apologia, whatever I'll never forget it. I'll never forget the events that led up to it. We're gonna be doing something again in October. I believe we do something called reform con once in a while and The last one that we did back before I think was what's a 2020.

I don't remember. Anyways, kovat has messed everything up. I can't remember what years are anymore ain't anything like that. At the one of the last ones we had had Jeff had tried to deliver a sermon and He had hardly been able to speak he was under such conviction and I didn't realize at the time I found out later that What was going on was, you know, we would we Every pretty much every day.

Someone from Apologia is outside of abortion mills all around Phoenix and now up in Salt Lake City and things like that and We would stand out there and say we will adopt your baby. Well a situation had arisen Where we had a pregnant mom and It looked like the child was going to have what was to be very special needs Specifically spinal bifida now we have a we had a family in apology it had a little little girl and I guess you'd call it a Milder case because she can walk now, you know, she has braces stuff, but she can walk and things like that.

But the.

Ultrasounds didn't look good in this situation and I won't go into all the details of all the amazingly supernatural things that happened. But Jeff and his wife and Jeff's a very young grandfather. He has a yes grandkids.

So He and his wife struggling with this situation they've.

This.

Mother has come to us and and Jeff's like I think I'm the one that needs to do this and on every any human level. You just go you're you're a grandfather. Really is is this, you know, given all the people in our church, is this really?

But he really felt that he needed to do so Despite the fact that the doctors had told him from what we're seeing. You may have to catheterize this boy For the next 18 years every day. That's a That's putting your money where your mouth is in essence and so the last ultrasound before The birth was scheduled.

Very clearly showed the spine outside the body.

And.

So they Jeff and his wife were at the hospital and.

They.

So they they had the delivery and in one room and then they had the surgery surgical suite set up next door and the doctor standing there because as soon as the baby's born there needs to be major surgery done if the baby's going to survive.

And so I get a call and it's on one of these things where All all of us elders are all together.

And.

It's Jeff and he says to us he's perfect. And we're like what?

He says he's perfect.

What would what do you mean? There's nothing wrong with him. He we were in the room and and he's born and The nurses are like turn him over. They're checking they're checking her little thingy on her wrist, you know that I yeah, that's the right mom is this the right baby and the doctors are coming in because the doctors are waiting to do surgery next door and they They're looking at that baby every rich direction.

He probably saw the whole world gun, you know going around. There's nothing wrong. They've got the ultrasounds. There's the spine outside the body and when he's born, he's perfect he's completely healed nothing wrong and Last night at church.

We have the Lord's Supper each Sunday and so I I'm normally Luke and I handle the supper at our church you come forward and so someone needs to take the empty tray and put over there and And so I get to see everybody.

I love that. That's pretty cool. And here comes Jeff's wife candy and There's there's Augustin and like I say about a year and a half now he's good. He's a chunk and He's a I think they know that his his parentage his father was like from Guatemala or something So you can sort of you can sort of see that In him, but he's just got a bright old smile and he's like hi, you know, and and he's Perfect.

I think that may be one of the reasons that Jeff can stand before Legislators and Say no No, you don't know what you're talking about. You are you're murdering little children and let me tell you why is.

Because he put his money where his mouth was in the sense that Even even to this day I've always I've told him look no matter what happens. As long as I got five minutes before the service starts I can I can preach if I need to.

Because he for some reason gets more sickness than he used to. You know when you're a grandfather and all of a sudden you're doing the baby thing all over again I'm like always like well, just let me know.

Of course when I'm on the road that doesn't help much but he was He lived it.

Now I.

Personally. Back in the 1980s 1989 January 1989. I was arrested outside of Brian Finkel's abortion clinic in Phoenix. This is the same weekend in which my daughter was born and So I had the opportunity in the lead-up to that to go on local radio stations take on Pro abortion leaders things like that.

And so I've had that opportunity and I'm very thankful that I that I have. But that was long before. What we are now experiencing today. Where there is a there is a a Stupor it's a stupor. How else can you describe it?

Has there ever been a day in the history of mankind Where we have known more About the humanity of the preborn child than we do today.

Never.

Never and yet the large majority of the people in These casinos and these hotels and going by on the street Don't even give a second thought To the fact that they know in the back of their minds That our nation is Standing in blood.

They mean don't think about. Because we don't think of ourselves as part of a people. Any longer? It's all just me. It's all my 401k and my retirement plan. And as long as I get out of this life in.

Comfort.

I'm good.

Whatever comes after me who cares? I mean how many honestly? See, I was raised differently. I I Don't know how my parents did it But I was raised to believe that when I was 18 years old. I needed to take care of myself my parents didn't have to pay for me to Get an education.

I knew they didn't couldn't afford it. Anyways, that was up to me. So I earned my education. I never got to be in high school and got a full-ride scholarship to college. But I I I was married at 19 she was 18 and Man I am glad I did that by the way.

We have our 40th wedding anniversary coming up in June and We get to have a grand old time with our grandkids and If I remain feisty enough, I might get to see my great-grandkids. That's wonderful, I think that's awesome but the culture of death does not celebrate that and that's what's all around us and so when we think about what is happening around us and we think about the attitude of people around us and we ask the question well, what can we do and when we say well we pray a Lot of us ago we've been praying for a long time.

Well something tells me that those 7 ,000 had been praying all through the drought as well and yet they remain faithful and it didn't mean that the Drought was lifted for them. It's not like well here.

Well, there's one of the 7 ,000 you'll notice it's raining over that person. It's not raining everybody else, but that one person's getting a nice little shower. No, it didn't work that way. So you have to ask yourself the question what did their prayers do and that really takes us back to what is prayer in the first place and When you pray for something we pray That God would end the scourge of abortion.

Well, what? What does that mean? I? Mean God could simply do that supernaturally in some fantastic fashion, I suppose.

But on.

A practical level. What's the only way that this is going to end is if there is a fundamental change in? the hearts of The people in this nation and every nation in the world. That's the only way that this is going to going to happen.

And so If I'm praying for an end to abortion, then I am praying that God would use me To in some way be what brings that about. Well, here's Here's the tough part. Here's here's the part that challenges me Because I look around this world right now and If I didn't believe That Christ is on his throne.

I can understand why people are tripping out on every form of fentanyl and LSD and everything else because this world looks like it's careening out of control and There's a crazy guy over in Russia with 6 ,000 nuclear weapons.

It really seems upset Really angry about stuff right now, and I don't know about you, but the people run in our country. Don't scare anybody. I'm sorry when you've got when you've got admirals Wearing dresses there.

They're going don't have to worry about them anymore.

So.

If I didn't if I didn't think that there was an Empty tomb. I don't know what I would be like, but I would probably be using all sorts of Substances I shouldn't be using so as I look to the future. I look now as a grandpa as a grandfather nothing Has changed me more than being a grandfather.