Interview with Josh Kappes of Love Life

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Lord. Um today I want to talk about a very important topic with a very important person and Involved in a very important ministry today

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I'm joined by Josh Kappas and he is involved in the ministry that I want to shed some light on I want to share with you so that maybe you can be involved and you can definitely be praying for this ministry and We can learn more about it together so Josh welcome

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Thank you for joining me and I'm gonna let you introduce yourself who you are and what you do Yeah, so my name is

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Josh Kappas and I serve as vice president of love life and You and I know one another through just our involvement in our churches in the

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Newton Conover Hickory area And I've been married to my wife be 20 years in July.

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We have two kids Kaitlyn and Samuel and Really our whole married lives. We've been involved in student ministry and pastoral ministry

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So service elder at the church that we planted back in 2012 and So that's a little bit about me

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So Josh mentioned that he is a part of his vice president of a ministry an organization called love life and by the title,

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I'm hoping you that you're gathering that they love life and this is a

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Whatever term you want to use anti -abortion Pro -life Life ministry

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That's kind of where we're going with this. They they are involved in saving lives ending abortion

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So I'm I'm guessing that's their passion. And of course, that's our passion if we're a

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Christian And I wanted to share just a few things Why I think where we get as Christians The importance of loving life

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The importance of ending abortion we get that from God's Word from God himself and just a few things

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From God's Word that I wanted to share with you that that I see and that I hold on to as why this issue is important starting off beginning you have the

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The admonition from the Lord the command from the Lord To to stay away from the the other people groups that are worshiping idols that are offering child sacrifices to these and today

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We don't necessarily have Temples with with idols that are offering, you know physical baby sacrifices, but we can somewhat relate that issue to to our abortion today

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With the idea that We ourselves are greatest idol. We take our we take glory we take

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Ownership of our lives from God and give it to ourselves. And so in some cases

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I would imagine that abortion is a convenience because it's going to Mess up my life my plans for my life.

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And so we we sacrifice that on the altar for ourselves And there's many other ways to relate this this

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Old Testament admonition or command not to Sacrifice Children to idols to what we have today, but there we have the importance of life and children in that arena

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Of course, you have the command not to commit murder which Abortion we believe is is murder

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Then you have in the Old Testament This idea that God knit us together in our mother's womb

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So he forms us he knows us and and we he's our creator We come from him and it's not it's not just that he spoke us into being but he says that he

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Knit us together. There's there's some kind of care taken When when we're created when we're formed by God He tells us that we're fearfully and wonderfully made

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And then of course Old Testament New Testament idea. We're told to care for the widows and the orphans

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Jesus in his ministry When the Apostles tried to stop children from coming to him, you know using the

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I guess the King James language He said suffered not the little children to come unto me He wanted the children to come and he also told them that The kingdom of heaven

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Speaking of children for such as the kingdom of heaven. Yeah. Yeah So we see this love for children and then you know, one of the greatest

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Evidences that we should be Against abortion. We should love life. It's the fact that we are created in the image of God and He beginning that's how he said he created us we create us in his image we are

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Not just spiritually but physically and emotionally mentally every aspect, you know whatever way

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That is meant God created us in his image. We are his representation here on earth and we're his ambassadors as Christians.

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So You Know from Scripture Scripture is very plain

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Speaking to this issue about loving life About the importance of life and how God cares about us.

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So let's go back after we've built that foundation Let's go back to your specific organization your specific specific ministry called love life

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So Josh, will you tell me about the history? mission the vision and the location

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Yeah, sure, so Love life was founded by a

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Christian business owner who was doing great things in the marketplace was sharing the gospel with his employees they were baptizing doing discipleship but as Justin tells it and his name is

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Justin reader as Justin tells the story You know, he was not doing much for the least of these in his city

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And he actually got exposed to the reality or what he calls the tragic truth of abortion when he was invited to a meeting by another

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Christian business owner in Charlotte and he didn't tell him that that meeting was across the street from the largest abortion clinic in the southeast and So he was his life was interrupted that day as he stood across the street from A place where he saw men and women going in and out of the building and ironically one of his largest clients was across the street from that abortion clinic and he didn't even know it was an abortion clinic and so His heart was broken that day and one of the biggest things that he left

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That the church really wasn't present

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There was a handful of people that were doing ministry out there that day sharing the gospel Calling out to the women who were there but by and large the church was not present in the thought that occurred to him

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You know if they were killing two -year -olds in this place There was two -year -olds being walked into this building and not coming out

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The church would be present media would be present. The police and SWAT would be present and So just as you were saying

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About being made in the image of God being fearfully and wonderfully made culturally We have assigned a lack of value on persons because of their location because of their size

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Ironically in the midst of a social justice war in our culture, you know a prevalence of talking about justice the same things that were happening to African Americans back in the 1800s and beyond with You know treating them as less than human because of the color of their skin

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The same thing with Jews and Nazi Germany treating them as less than human by Jews Jews homosexuals gypsies

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We're all referred to by Germans as intermensch, which means subhuman And now we're doing the same thing with the unborn

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Because of their size their location their level of development that they're subhuman that they don't count as persons

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They're not worthy of the same protection as we are And so it's you know, it's the same demon different names but at the end of the day, we know

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Satan loves the destruction of the image of God in the earth because It's an attack on the glory of God.

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And so Justin began praying and Actually, he was coming up on ten years in business and his wife and he were praying about what they were gonna do next they actually thought they were going to go overseas and do missions overseas and Actually in a season of prayer and fasting and reading through the book of Nehemiah The Lord really showed

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Justin how to mobilize the church to the darkest places in our cities and what we love to say

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Robert is Abortion clinics are the only place in the city where you can point to and you can say we know when and where lost and hurting people are gonna show up and Human beings are scheduled to die and it's very reasonable for the church to be there not picketing and protesting

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But proclaiming the hope of the gospel and the help of the church to these families who are oftentimes in very desperate situations and have been taken captive by the enemy to do his will and So it's a mission field.

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We are helping the church see abortion clinics not as a place for activism and politics

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But a place for mission and discipleship and and so Through Nehemiah the

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Lord gave Justin the mission for love life Which is to unite and mobilize the church to create a culture of love and life

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That would result in an end to abortion and the orphan crisis We want to create a culture where men and women stop running to the abortion clinic for answers and instead are running to local churches

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Because the reputation of those churches is their arms are open wide to give mercy and help however is needed and and and so, you know for far too long the church has

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Really viewed Abortion only as a political issue So pastors have been pressured to not address it to stay silent in the pulpit all the while 36 depending on the study 36 % to as high as 54 % of people have who have had an abortion claim to be evangelical or Catholic They were attending church at least once a month and a survey done by care net and life way

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They surveyed 1 ,200 women who had an abortion I believe All of them said that the church had little to no impact on their decision on whether or not they were abortion

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So we've relied way too much on politics on waiting for politicians to change the culture while advocating our role as Christians who are the salt of the earth and the light of the world to shift the culture and so that really is the heart of our ministry is

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We're not motivated by the sin of abortion. We're not motivated by hatred for abortion. We're motivated by a beauty of the gospel

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We think that the parable of the Good Samaritan is a great illustration For what we do as a ministry where there are people in our city who find themselves in the ditch.

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They're being left for dead And that includes not only the unborn but their parents to write their parents and the abortionist the abortion workers

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They're all being impacted by this and we have a heart for all of them We want to see them come to know Christ. We want to see their lives transformed

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Because we do know that judgment is coming Wrath is coming for sin. Not just the sin of abortion, but for all sin

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And so we want to you know proclaim the gospel that's our motivation and so we're not pro -life activists

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We're Kingdom activists. We're bringing the kingdom of God to the dark places in our city and and I'm just telling you man, there's so many stories

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I could share of The miracles that God does through his people when we say yes when we obey him when we press in the darkness

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God shows up and We can talk about some of those stories but on a practical level what we do is we host 40 weeks of prayer every year

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We call those adoption weeks. So every Saturday from mid -february to mid -november.

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We host a peaceful prayer walk Right now at 15 different abortion centers throughout the

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United States the main hub is is in Charlotte about an hour south of it and And We have a code of conduct.

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We don't hold signs. We're not picketing. We're not engaging with anyone involved in abortion We're strictly there to pray and to worship.

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Some people have said why are you doing that? Does that really make a difference? Well, absolutely and I'd love to read the Old Testament stories where God sent the worshipers in front of the army and you know and it's the reality is is that the reason

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God did that was because at the end of the day the battle was His the battle was spiritual. It wasn't just in the physical

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It was in the spiritual and worship in front of battle is a declaration that we are trusting in God.

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This is God's fight for his glory and So we worship we pray we then really at the

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The end of the prayer walk what we're trying to do is mobilize people to ongoing ministry, you know so I'm sure you've heard

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Robert that pro -lifers only care about babies in the womb and So we're trying to counter that false claim by mobilizing people who come to our prayer walks to get engaged with foster care and adoption

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We recruit and train people to mentor families who choose life and over the last five years.

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We've seen 2905 mothers choose life and It's absolutely amazing.

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And when they do they're offered the opportunity to be connected with a mentor in a local church

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So I'll share a story with you about how this works. Yeah There was a family and this story is on our

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YouTube page the Wiggins family. They came from abortion They spoke to a sidewalk counselor who was there telling them about the resources that were available through pregnancy care center and local churches

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They were living together for 10 years. They were actually living in a hotel They didn't really have much of their own possessions and they just thought we can't do this

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And after they heard about the help that was available in the gospel a few days after they chose life for their baby they both gave their lives to the

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Lord a few days after that they got married after living together for 10 years and the husband actually works for Justin's company now and they're a part of the family and so we do have mentors in our local churches that we recruit and train sometimes we partner with pregnancy care centers that already have that program in place and Basically, all we're trying to do is life on life discipleship, but then also to help with the physical needs that are there

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So a lot of our mentors you know, they get with people in their in their church family and they throw a huge baby shower for For the mom and for the baby

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We try and encourage them to provide for the child's life for the first two years after the baby is born

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And again, that's just you know, first John 3 16 18, this is how we know what love is Christ laid down his life for us

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We also ought to lay down our lives for one another verse 18 says let us love not only in word but in in action and in deed and truth and And so that's what we're trying to do with our mentor program with foster care and adoption with sidewalk outreach

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And then we also a huge part of our ministry is post abortion recovery so we know

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One of four women have had an abortion in a lifetime that means our churches have quite a few people who have been impacted by abortion and so when a church adopts a week with us the very first thing they do on their adoption week is the pastor preaches on life and We have a presentation that we do and a big part of that is saying if you have had an abortion

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It's not the unforgivable sin There is mercy and grace available to those who turn to Christ for forgiveness confess their sins instead of hiding it and So we have seen a lot of God's people who were hiding and sin and shame and guilt

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Reach out to the restored life aspect of our ministry and get plugged in to a local post abortive healing group and Just man have the gospel applied to the sin of abortion and find healing and restoration

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And then they share their stories at prayer walks and with other people It's our church, you know, we've had five women at least five women go through our post abortion healing and many of them

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Have shared their stories and you know, we're years and years and years. They were silent. Nobody knew now

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They're sharing their story of how the Lord's restored them and healed them. So so yeah, so that's

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That's gonna get in a nutshell the peaceful prayer walk at the end of the prayer walk there we're mobilizing people to ongoing ministry and that's really where we see just amazing things happen as Christians really begin to dream then and experience, you know, hey,

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I showed up here at this place. We prayed God moved We got involved in ministry. Where else can we serve in our city?

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Where else is there darkness in our city where we now, you know We've seen we've experienced that when when we go with the

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Lord, we represent him in his kingdom We go in his power and where else can we start to press in the darkness and see

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God set people free. So It's the ripple effects of the ministry are pretty cool to see

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I was so excited to hear you talk about the worship Aspect of kingdom ministry.

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I mean that's a conversation in and of itself What if what if we worship like that in church, what if we worship like that going to the grocery store

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What if we worship like that in every aspect of life? Where we we're worshiping

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God because he has he has won the victory already Yep He is king.

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He's reigning and he's won the victory already and and I've heard people say that worship is warfare

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And so that that's amazing. That's Fantastic Yeah, and it's all linked together.

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You talked to you talked about in the beginning the scriptural foundation for why abortion is wrong and That child sacrifice was essentially the worship of self, right?

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And so anytime murder is committed whether it's murdering the person in the womb or outside of the womb

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It is a declaration that our life is more valuable than that person's life and essentially that we are

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God That we get to decide who lives and who doesn't and you only get four chapters into the

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Bible Where you see that happen You know chapter 3

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Adam and Eve rebel and you think it's simple as well. They just eat fruit But what they did was they said they wanted to be

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God and you go from that act to the very next chapter Cain is taking the life of his brother

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Abel Believing that his life is more valuable than his brother's and that God ultimately does does not exist

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That God is not to be feared that we are God and that we have the right to take life And so every time a baby is murdered it is a act of worship of self and a declaration that God does not exist and That his image is not in that human being which then really means it's not in any of us the image of God Abortion devalues every one of us every one of us

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When when we decide a certain sector of the population is not worthy of life

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Then who's to say that those? arbitrary Markers can't be placed on any of us and and that's what we've seen all throughout human history

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So that's why worship is so key because we want to take a place where self is worshipped where Satan is worshipped

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Through child sacrifice and bring into worship of God And I think that's why people hate what we do because even though we're peaceful even though we're just there singing and worshipping the vile behavior that we see is because our presence itself is

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A declaration that God is King and you are not God is

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King. God is Lord God is gonna call into account everything that we've done in the body whether good or evil and The culture just wants this, you know abortion clinics are out of sight.

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They're out of mind. They're hidden they're tucked away and we just want it to be my body my choice and it just be hidden and The church is exposing this the

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Bible says we could expose deeds done in darkness and so that's what the church is doing is the church awakens in city after city and Begins to press in again not as activists

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But as kingdom people the sin of abortion the darkness of abortion the wickedness that takes place in these places

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And I'm just telling you man There is if you want to feel and sense and see darkness go to your local abortion clinic.

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It is on full display We've seen witches there. We've seen incantations spells seances

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Pentagrams symbols written on the sidewalks people commenting spells in our live feeds and our comments things like that The abortion clinic manager bringing in witches.

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She knows it's a spiritual issue and so all of this stuff is being exposed for the glory of God and So that's why worship is a big part of what we do yeah, and those things aren't something to laugh laugh off brush off or ignore because Scripture tells us that we don't fight against flesh and blood but you know principalities powers and Those things that are invisible and otherworldly

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So it's a spiritual issue and there's they're fighting against us.

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And yeah, this worship is key So, thank you, thank you for sharing that that's that's amazing

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So what I did was I went through you just the first page of your website Yes, what all you guys have and you guys can do the same

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You who are watching the video you can go to love life dot org and You can check out their website see what's going on and you can see what

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I'm talking about here One of the first things that I see is is this creating a culture of love and life?

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so just like Josh said that this ministry this organization is is more than just The anti -abortion it's more than what and it's not as he said

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You know just activism this is Kingdom work and so There there's more to this and I you know,

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I read that just by saying creating a culture of love and life and You've expounded on that already anything else.

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Yeah. Let me look. Yeah, let me let me share a couple stories that just kind of You know illustrate what happens.

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I mean, so just today Precious young girl. She's probably 14 in Southern, California showed up for an abortion.

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Her parents don't know she's pregnant she just feels alone man, and because Christians were there they ministered to her and You know took her to breakfast took her to a local pregnancy care center got her away from that place

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And yeah, there's a long journey. There's a ministry to her several years ago in Charlotte The there was a young girl who showed up for abortion she changed her mind and She left the abortion clinic and we connected her with a mentor in a local church

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We didn't know this at the time, but this young lady her her aunt

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Was the manager of the abortion clinic there? for several years and so the church threw her a huge baby shower and The aunt showed up at that baby shower and saw the church loving her niece and meeting her needs and She actually started sending patients out of the abortion clinic telling them that they didn't have to have an abortion because the people outside weren't crazy that would actually help her because they were helping her niece and She quit she left the industry

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She finally reached a point where she had had enough and She actually now caters meals for our missionary training that we do and she's a friend of the ministry

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She's no longer working in the abortion industry and it was because she saw love in action she saw the church being the church with her family member and Realized, you know,

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I can't be a part of this anymore. And so when we say creating a culture of love in life That's what we're talking about and this wasn't love life that did this this was a local church that did this

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We believe the answer is the local church We are a toolkit for the church, but if love life goes away love life goes away, you know at the end of the day

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God didn't say love life would prevail against the gates of hell He said the church would prevail against the gates of hell.

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And so that's how we view our ministry. We're a toolkit for the church To provide them resources to engage with the gospel and and see lives transformed so And at the risk the rest of that You've used some keywords that leads us to the next next part of this creating a culture of love and life across the world

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So you've mentioned Charlotte you've mentioned, California and you've mission missionaries

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So it's not understanding that love life started in in Charlotte But then you've also mentioned

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California Yeah, so love life started in 2016 in the city of Charlotte and The Shortly after that the

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Lord and just in Justin's devotional time He wrote in his journal what God begins in Charlotte will spread across the nation what

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God begins in Israel will spread across the world and we could talk about Israel later, but There's always been a seed in our ministry of how do we expand this across the nation in a way that doesn't kill our staff and and doesn't lose the integrity of what love life is and so we started slowly and in 2018 we expanded into Greensboro and Raleigh and then in 2019 we expanded into Manhattan and Manhattan was really kind of a big test for us if you can make it in New York City you can make it anywhere and and so we launched in Manhattan, but that process was slow and Took a lot of time and resources

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And so last year during the pandemic the Lord really kind of laid out a model for us where we could have people from across the nation actually come into Charlotte and do a week a week -long training with us and We have four abortion clinics in Charlotte So there's a lot of different scenarios where we're taking trainees out to these different abortion clinics and showing them different scenarios and it's a great training and then we do classroom training to teach them how to engage churches and mobilize churches in their city and So we have a process now where missionaries are coming in every other month to Charlotte we just trained 12 missionaries or missionary trainees last month and we have about 20 that are coming in June and We've trained almost a hundred people now across the nation since last year and we've been able to Took us four years to launch four cities and in the last year.

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We've launched 11 cities and so we're in a total of 15 locations now and so we are

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Refining and improving and learning like crazy as we're watching these new cities and how they're growing.

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So we're in South Florida We're in New York. We're in Southern, California We're in Boise, Idaho.

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We're in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and and there's several folks who are in the process of getting ready to launch new locations as well, so We're excited because right now

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California is just white hot we in fact every trainee that was here last month was from California all 12

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That were here. We're all from California, Southern, California, Northern, California and everywhere in between and California man, the church in California is so hungry to engage.

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They've been you know, kind of marginalized and you know all the shenanigans out there in California and I think courageous pastors have had enough and are pushing back against the tide and their people are following and so There is

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Amazing things happening in California right now and people coming out and being trained Which is great because California is a hotbed for abortion that that state probably does the most abortions in the country

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It's hard to get numbers on California because they're not required to report abortions

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So it's a bit of a mystery From the best we can gather. I believe there's around 360 abortions a day in the state of California There's around a hundred and twenty to a hundred and sixty abortion clinics in the state

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So we're excited that abort that California is, you know, the church in California is awakening because there's a massive need there

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Southern Florida right now. We have a team in Fort Lauderdale. They're growing like crazy

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Which is great because Southern Florida is another hotbed for abortion in the country There's 35 abortion clinics in Between Miami between like Dade County Broward County and then up further north there where West Palm is and all of that There is a lot of abortion clinics there.

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And then of course in New York is another hotbed So the Lord's given us grace with the church and those three hotbeds of abortion in the country

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And so we're excited about that as we're just equipping People to really take the core of what love life is and then turning them loose to start love life in their city start engaging with churches getting churches and pastors activated and To me that's the most exciting thing is, you know,

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I helped launch Greensboro and Raleigh and so, you know I've stood with a lot of pastors

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Who came out to the abortion clinic for the first time ever? They didn't even know where their abortion clinic was and tears are running down their face as they see people in their community who are having their workings and their hearts are broken and and so that's really what is is

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Turning the time in the church is that pastors are being exposed to this in a way that they never have been before And they're getting

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God's heart for his creation for his people and then they're using their platform and their voice to mobilize their people and You know, so many people are afraid of it like they think like man if a pastor preaches on abortion

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He's got to be angry and you know pounding the pulpit and and that's not that's not it at all

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I mean, you know, Jesus was full of grace and truth. He wasn't 50 % grace 50 % truth.

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He was full of both and So it's great to see pastors who you know, they say what

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God says about abortion, but they're doing it a way that's redemptive and Full of the gospel and and so it's it's exciting to see that when pastors get

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God's heart for the unborn and for their families You continue to say some amazing things that gets my theological brain, yeah work

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You you were talking about the wonderful things that are happening with Love life and and what

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God is doing, especially when you're talking about what's going on in, California you know, it's so easy for us to get our theology from Media from the news outlets and and we can say to ourselves when we say to each other

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Look how bad it is and we forget we forget that aspect of worship. We forget that aspect of praise

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We forget to open our eyes to see what God is doing and how great his work is and This is just an example of celebrating what

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God is doing praising him. Give him glory for what he's doing in In North Carolina, California all over the world and so we praise

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God for what he's doing through love life and saving lives saving souls and Growing this organization.

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Yeah, I mean as a tool to help churches, it's amazing and thank you for Allowing me to celebrate with you what

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God is doing through this ministry just continue on through your website Some of these kind of run together

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But it's okay Another another phrase or another part of the phrase that I looked at and saw was you're you're doing this

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Creating this culture of love and life across the world Uniting and mobilizing the church and you know a lot but as Someone may be hearing this they may be getting hungry themselves

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Wanting to know more about it so uniting and mobilizing the church love life is a tool

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How why when and and where and I know you touched on a little little bit But give us give some more information for those that are hungry or wanting to get involved

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Yeah, so the primary way where we see the church uniting and mobilizing is at our prayer walks and so You know many times you'll if you come to a prayer walk in Charlotte, there'll be five six seven churches at a time

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That are there for their adoption week. And so those pastors are leading the prayer walk together

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Many times they're different denominations. They're different races and So it's beautiful when you see the body of Christ come together and what you find not only in Scripture but in life in general

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That being in battle together unites people You know You have the army and Air Force Navy and Marines and you know

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They all have their little tussles and their things where they jab at each other and things like that But at the end of the day when it's time for war all those things

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You know go to the side and and we're brotherhood. We're a sisterhood. We're in battle together

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And we see this In this work right where there's a thing that unites us and that we want to see

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Jesus glorified We want to see people saved. We want to see abortion come to an end as a result of those things and It unites the body of Christ.

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And so John 17 is a foundational passage for our ministry as Jesus prayed that Not only his disciples, but those who would believe as a result of the disciples ministry would be one as he and the father are one

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And he actually gives a reason for that so that the world would believe

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That you sent me and that you love the world and so when the body of Christ lays down their denominational divides

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Socio -economic divides racial divides and comes together for the purpose of this kingdom work

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Jesus's prayer is being answered and the world will know that God sent Jesus into the world and that he loves the world and so That's uh, that's our heart is to see the body of Christ come together.

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In fact, one of the reasons I stepped down from co -pastoring with with Jonathan and Started working full -time with love life was because of Justin's heart for the unity of the body of Christ And I saw this as an opportunity to minister to pastors as a pastor and really help bring unity in the body of Christ where so many times we're

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Divided and it's not even necessarily like Negative divided. I mean, it's just like you're Baptist.

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I'm Presbyterian. We do our thing you do your thing and And it's pretty encouraging to see folks come together.

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We do have a statement of faith. We're not wishy -washy There are essential doctrines that we agree upon and come around But when it comes to secondary issues, we're able to lay those things aside to labor together in this kingdom work

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So I would say the prayer walks are the main way that happens But then to the ongoing ministry of sidewalk outreach and mentoring and post abortion care

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All of those things again are being done across the nominational lines and people serving together and humility.

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So That's really how that plays out Okay, and and they can find that information on lovelife .org

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Correct. Yeah, lovelife .org You can find all of our locations where our prayer walks are being hosted also, if you can't if you want to learn more about how you can connect with those ongoing ministries or If you are post abortive yourself

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And that's not just doesn't apply to women that applies to men as well as many men

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Carry as much guilt and shame for paying for an abortion driving a girlfriend or a spouse to have an abortion

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We're just not even saying anything at all two of the guys on our staff are post abortive dads and Share their story regularly and and you know, this ministry has been redemptive for them is they're able to help other men

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But it could be grandparents I mean we come in contact with grandparents who are broken over a grandchild that was aborted that they were a part of and so You can get connected

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Privately with our restored life director and she can get you connected with a Bible study or a group in your area

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That's really her specialty. And so yeah lovelife .org. You can find our prayer walks.

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You can find our Connection tab of the different ministries that you can get involved in and the other thing

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I'll just say real quick to if you are a pastor watching this and you want to get your church involved There is a tab for pastors at the top of that page

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And the first step is to really to sign up for what we call a one -hour journey That's a miniature version of our prayer walks just for pastors and leaders and that's how the

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Lord broke my heart that's how I was exposed to the ministry before I worked for love life our church partnered with love life and I was exposed to the abortion clinic through a one -hour journey.

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So I would encourage pastors to sign up for an upcoming one -hour journey Okay You've got something else on here

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You may want to talk about it says your local church can adopt a week with these four steps here pray go and connect

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So what's that all about? Yeah, so that is that is actually the

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Adoption week process. So those four steps is the Sunday is when the pastor preaches on life and there's a presentation

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Then on Wednesday the church took collectively prays and fasts that day then

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Saturday is the go piece that's where you go to the prayer walk in your city and then connect at the end of the prayer walk and That's all of that is taken from Nehemiah's story, right?

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So Nehemiah hears what's happening in Jerusalem the condition of the walls that's in ruins

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His heart is broken by what he hears He begins to pray and fast and then he leaves the palace and he goes to Jerusalem and sees what's happening for himself.

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That's why we do the prayer walk at the abortion clinic I mean you could prayer walk and you can pray in your church.

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You can pray in your church parking lot There's all sorts of ways you can pray But there's something to be said for going to it just like Nehemiah had to go to Jerusalem There's something to be said for going to see the modern -day

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Holocaust that's happening in our cities and view it with your own eyes and have your heart gripped for what's happening and Then he began to mobilize and that's where you get into chapter 3 where the

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Levite is next to the priest You know All of these different people and family groups are all side by side with different gifts and different roles working together and in record time they rebuild the wall in Jerusalem and So that that really summarizes our ministry in in a nutshell, so And then if you if you want to become a partnering pastor right below that there's a button that says becoming a partnering pastor

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So there's there's all kinds of ways All kinds of places to click and research and learn how to become involved

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You personally as a pastor or and get your church involved to see what they're doing in small ways or in big ways and The I think the last question that I want to ask about love life and your ministry specifically is this

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I'm really big on this that Your thing may not be my thing

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Sometimes we get into this We get really excited

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I say because the Lord has opened up my eyes About a need and I get really excited about it and I don't understand why everyone else is is not as focused or Involved as I am and then sometimes up I have tempted to look down on someone else or or really be hard on someone else because They're not getting involved in what

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I'm doing for this specific ministry. And so I like to say that My thing is not always your thing but in this case abortion is somewhat of Pandemic type issue.

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So it's you know, really bad all around the world and and we all want to see it in for the glory of God So there there are things that Everyone can do but you may not you may not need to seek to be the vice president of love life

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Or you may not see it's right to be a missionary For love life, but as an individual

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What what can an individual do? at their level As Just in their everyday life for love life or the this this life ministry wherever however they can yeah, you know, we always say everyone can do something and that's one of the things

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I loved about the ministry was you know, what when I What I thought about abortion ministry was really it that's only for certain people who you know

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Could preach and we're kind of more like prophetic like best as the Lord and that's who ministers out an abortion clinic

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And what I loved about love life is that anybody could do it. Anybody could come and pray And be involved and so I would encourage you to pray

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You know, I would encourage you to read the scriptures what what what are the scriptures say about Really those who are oppressed to be a voice for the voiceless

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Proverbs 31 8 9 Proverbs 24 10 and 11 you know

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Ezekiel 16 I think one of the biggest things that needs to happen for the church in America is for the church in America to repent of How much abortion has taken place inside the church?

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When you spoke about child sacrifice is equal 16 God is rebuking Israel because they're sacrificing their children just like the unbelieving nations were

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God says you're offering my children To idols as food in in Jeremiah or Isaiah God says this thing of child sacrifice never even entered into my mind and Israel was doing it.

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It wasn't just the pagan nations. It was Israel and the church has has We've had a lot of this happen within our own walls and I think as pastors we need to repent of that And repent to our people of that and Yeah, and then just as individuals so I would encourage you to pray

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I would encourage you to read the scriptures I would encourage you to repent of just what's happened in our in the church first and then in our nation and then you know

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Come to a prayer walk Obviously, we want whole churches to do this. We want a church community to do it together, but anyone can come and pray

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And so any Saturday from 9 to 10 30, you can come down to Charlotte all that information is on our website to come and pray

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You know, what's amazing Robert is we've seen even Like there's been three babies saved by a door dash driver

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Who took one of our brochures and just started handing it out to people that he thought Might need it.

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So just like you know being aware and being engaged with people around you classmates and neighbors and Teammates and you know who you know, you hear about this and instead of like, oh man, you know judging them and talking about them

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See how you can help and let them know man There's 150 plus 150 plus partnering churches in the

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Greater Charlotte area that are ready to help in any situation and and You know be a voice for that baby for that family

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Learn how to engage about the issue of life is another way you can be involved.

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We actually have if you just You can download our app. We have an app love life

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USA Make sure you put the USA in there because if you just put love life, it gets weird In the app store, so make sure you do love life

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USA, but there's a whole learn There's a whole section in there called learn life Where you can learn how to have?

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Conversations about the issue of the sanctity of life from a biblical perspective. So that's another way individuals can

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I'm getting involved. I would just say this if you want to be convicted read Isaiah chapter 1 where You know

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Israel is having these sacrifices and worship services and God says I hate them.

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I hate your sacrifices, I hate your worship and As you continue to read you find out why he said you've shed innocent blood

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There's blood on your hands. You're sacrificing babies to bail in the Valley of Ben -Hinnom and You need to stop this you need to stop oppressing the poor you need to stop the injustices that are happening

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I don't care about your worship services while all of these things are going on and and so That is the awakening and the repentance that needs to take place within the church

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Wow I've got another line of questions Outside of pro -life that maybe we can do another video on I don't want to keep you too much longer

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But I know my battery. I just noticed my battery on my computer is getting low I did not bring my charger out here.

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So I've got 8 % Got you We'll wrap this up really soon

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Because I wanted to end on this. I like to end with the gospel. I like to end with prayer

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I'm so thankful for for your focus on the glory of God for the kingship of Christ for the for the gospel and And and how you're reaching out to the world

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You know, we can we can save a life physically, yeah, but We're concerned about their soul as well.

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Yeah, and so I'm gonna put you on the spot But but I know that you are fully capable

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Anyone who's watching anyone who who shares this video with with someone who was an unsafe friend unsaved relative?

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We want them to hear the gospel. So Josh Would you share the gospel with us and how to receive

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Christ? Yeah Yeah You know The Bible says that whatsoever the law says it says to those who are under the law that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world held accountable to God The Bible says that it's appointed for every man wants to die and then the judgment and that God will render unto every person

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What we've done in the body whether good or evil and So the reality is is that when we look at the

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Ten Commandments alone in our own conscience, we know that we've lied We've stolen

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We've committed adultery maybe not literally but in our hearts by lusting after someone coveting things that aren't ours and ultimately loving ourselves more than we love

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God and Because of that the Bible says that we have sinned We fall short of the glory of God and we are deserving of his wrath and his punishment

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But the good news is that God sent Jesus at just the right time To become human and to live the life that we could never live

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We perfectly fulfilled the law in word and in deed from from his very heart and center of who he is

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He fulfilled the law perfectly and then he went to the cross in our place and he wasn't just killed by Roman soldiers

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The Bible said that he became sin for us and that he satisfied

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God's wrath for our sin that God actually Punished Jesus for your sin and for my sin and I want to hear

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I want you to hear me say You're watching that includes the sin of abortion That if you've had an abortion that blood of Jesus is sufficient to cover that sin

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So the good news is Jesus died in your place. He took the punishment for your sin But there's a response that's needed

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Jesus was buried and he rose again from the dead to prove who he said he was The Bible said he rose for our justification.

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He rose so that we can be declared righteous But there is a response that we need to have to that and that's that we stop trusting in ourselves

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We stop trusting in our good works. We realize our sin. We admit it. We agree with God that we are sinners

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We don't just do simple things, but we are at our very core Sinful and in need of a

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Savior and the Bible says that all who call upon the name of the Lord will be saved that when you turn from sin and from self and call on Jesus and Put your trust and reliance upon him and what he's done for you in your place

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That you can be saved and what that means is not only do you get forgiveness of sin?

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But the Bible says that God declares you righteous that you receive the perfect life that Jesus lived

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And he also gives you a new heart so that what you love and what you live for completely changes

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The Bible uses this term called being born again. You become a new creation Where God literally changes you from the inside out and you're saved now to obedience

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You're saved to where you can love what God loves that you can hate what God hates and that's a process and it's you know

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We grow in that but at the end of the day, we're not just talking about going to heaven one day We're talking about you being completely made into a brand new person

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So that you look more and more like Jesus every day and you glorify Jesus with your life

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So, yeah, so if that convicts you and that lands on you and you say yes, I need a Savior just cry out to him

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There's no magical formula Believe on him, you know say what's in your heart Declare your belief confess your sin

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Ask him to save you and to change you from the inside out and then tell your pastor tell a friend get plugged into a local church so you can be cared for and discipled and Don't try and do this all on your own

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Yeah, reach out if you have any questions send us an email let us know we can help you get plugged into a local church

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Love to be able to do that. And so thank you Josh for joining us for sharing all this wonderful information

54:38

Thank you Robin. Yeah, we're going to continue to pray for love life. We're going to continue to pray for souls and All for the glory of God join me as we we pray together

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Father we thank you for this time that you've given Josh and I to have this conversation to get this ministry that you are working through These individuals to be a tool for churches so that you can be glorified through saving lives through saving souls

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And we want to pray for blessings on them. We want to pray for protection on them

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We want to pray that you will continue to raise up local churches and local individuals In many different areas that what that will stand up for the gospel of Jesus Christ move forward in worship for the kingdom of God and stand up against abortion, but also stand with and care for those who are struggling so Again, I lift up Josh.

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I lift up his family and I lift up the ministry to you and Pray that you will just Amen Thank you, brother

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Yeah Thank you for watching the video guys Remember that Jesus King go live in that victory and let's continue to go out there together and share the gospel.