Special Event: Ohio Pastor's Meeting | LIVE

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And then here is your mic, I'll introduce you. My name is

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Mike. I am one of the guys who have been working with the legislators here, and I just wanted to introduce you to our

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Wilberforce representative, Bill Dean. So he's going to be walking it forward. He told me, he told me, he said, don't make me have to talk.

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And I promised him, but then these guys are coming to me and saying, OK, we need him to say something. So I'm like, it's not my fault.

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I'm just telling you right now, no, but just kind of explain the legislative process to these guys, where the bill's at now, what we're going to see in the weeks and months coming forward.

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Yes, the legislative process. Well, a bill is submitted to LSC, the legal services, and they have a bunch of lawyers there, and they write up the bill to be legally viable.

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And then it's out of the legal services, and it's assigned a number, and then it's assigned to a committee by the speaker of the house.

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And he can either allow it to go to a committee, or he can tell the chairman to sit on it and it dies in the committee, or, and if it goes out of the committee, and he can, he can say he's not going to bring it to the floor of the house.

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But at the same time, the legislatures, legislators can do a discharge petition and put their names on the discharge petition, and make the, make the, just a minute, make the speaker bring it to the floor of the house for a vote.

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And usually that never works. But that's, it's right now, it's in the

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LSC, and we're waiting for this to be kicked out of LSC, and it will go from there.

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And that's it. Oh, go ahead. Is there anything we can do?

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Yeah, well, you could call legislators, and you could be praying for them, and be praying for the speaker, and be praying for me.

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Because I think everybody acts like I'm a hero, but I'm not a hero, I'm a chicken. And so I'm just in the right place at the right time,

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I guess. And the reality is, is that we serve an awesome

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God, right? Yeah. We just heard Brother Zach preach the word, and exhort us to righteousness, and to move in action towards this.

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But what we don't need is just your likes on Facebook, on Twitter. We need you not just to call, but to write in people from your church.

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We need, we need everybody on board to get their attention, and they need to hear from more people from Ohio.

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We've had thousands of people calling the legislators, but Ohio, we need to lift on this.

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We need you guys to show up, and be reaching out to these legislators, sharing the gospel with them, exhorting them to righteousness.

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That's what we're trying to do here, is it's fundamentally about showing them

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Christ first and foremost, and then they're going to understand the position. It's just a matter of time.

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So. Well, I'll tell you a little bit of story. This last time I ran, a person from the

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Dayton Daily News called me up and asked me if I'd fill out their survey. And I filled out their survey, and when it came to abortion,

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I said there was no excuse for an abortion, no matter what. And I was, my opponent was a pediatrician.

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And she called me back, and the Dayton Daily News person called me back, and she had all these questions, and I'm sure the pediatrician that was my opponent gave them, gave her those questions.

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And a lot of them, I didn't know what I was talking about, and I told her, I says, I'm not a doctor, I don't know, but I said, a civilized country,

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I thought, always executed the perps, and not the innocent person.

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And I said, I thought that's what our country was founded on. And then, well,

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I wouldn't tell you the rest of it, but you know what I said. So, well, can we give

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Representative Bill Dean an applause, and just your prayers continuing forward? All right,

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I don't know, I forget who's next, am I? I'm up here already. All right. Well, let me turn this guy off here, if it's not already off.

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There we go. Well, I will put this over here. All right, if you have your

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Bible, I hope you do, because the whole goal of this meeting is really to get you to open up your

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Bible and see we're not bringing anything special. We're just literally looking at God's Word and saying, let's apply it to legislation, to every sphere of life, right?

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And now, the challenge that I am faced with is that you have all eaten, and so I know this.

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You're going to be sleepy and everything, so I'm going to try to help you to carry on.

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And there's going to be some overlap, because guess what? The message of equal protection is all over Scripture. See, what

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Zach didn't do was pull one passage and make it say something.

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He just simply exegeted the Word, and that's my goal this afternoon.

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Let's pray. Heavenly Father, this task that we have before us is way bigger than any of us, but it is not bigger than you.

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Lord, we just ask that you would help us to have a hunger for your Word and a passion for your name.

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Help us to truly live our lives out as if we truly believe that you are on the throne and all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to you.

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Lord, you are the one who gives kings and rulers and magistrates their very breath, and you can stop it in an instant.

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Lord, help us not to be afraid of man, but to fear you.

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Lord, I pray that you would speak through me, that I wouldn't say one idle word, that you would exhort the believers here.

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If there's anybody here who doesn't know you, Lord, draw them to yourself. And may you get all the glory in Jesus' name, amen.

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So let me start off by doing a little bit of groundwork before we jump into our text this afternoon.

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We need to acknowledge something significant about the battle to preserve innocent human life.

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We are not fundamentally facing a political battle. Brother Zach mentioned this, but let me share with you a quote from a man

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I greatly admire. He says, the heart of the problem that we are dealing with is the problem of the heart.

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See, the prominence of prenatal homicide in our society is fundamentally a heart issue.

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Abortionists, death escorts, those contending for prenatal homicide in law, yes, the mother who pays the abortionist to have her baby ripped apart or commits the act of prenatal homicide by taking the abortion pill, all fundamentally are in desperate need of a heart change.

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They all need, first and foremost, to understand their position as sinners before the

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Creator of the universe, awaiting His just wrath for their sins, and then they need the

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Gospel of Jesus Christ. Because I would do a great disservice,

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I'm not going to assume that everybody in this room is a believer, and so I'm just going to bring the Gospel once again, because that's what we're here for.

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Because of Adam's sin, we are all born with a sin nature. We are slaves to sin.

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In fact, Scripture makes it very clear we are dead in our sins and trespasses.

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We are all deserving of God's righteous wrath on us for our sin. Here's the beautiful conjunction, though.

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But God. God proved His own love for us, and that even though we could do nothing to please

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Him but build up more wrath upon ourselves, He sent His only Son to live the perfect life we couldn't, fulfilling all the standards of God's law.

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He was crucified and died for our sin, taking our place, and the wrath meant for us upon Himself.

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He was buried in a rich man's tomb, and on the third day was raised from the grave, defeating sin and death.

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Gospel means good news, but it is only good news for those that repent of their sins, that confess their sins and turn from their sin to Jesus, and put their faith and trust in Jesus alone, by confessing that Jesus is

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Lord, and believing in their heart that God raised Him from the dead. Now if you have questions after this,

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I want to talk to you after this. And any of the men that you've seen up here would love to talk to you.

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Shoot, you're in a room full of pastors. Look to your right or to your left and ask about Jesus.

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You're going to get an answer. Now let's get into the message today. You have heard the statistics, and you know that we are facing an uphill battle in our state, yes?

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But our call to you is a call to prayer and action on behalf of the pre -born.

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We aren't another non -profit looking to be our own thing apart from the church.

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End Abortion Ohio desires to be local church driven. In other words, as we have said earlier, we need the church to show up.

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We will only end abortion in Ohio if you show up. It won't happen any other way.

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If the body of Christ would show up and say no more, abortion could be outlawed in our state tomorrow.

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Look, a few thousand phone calls and emails have turned the statehouse and senate upside down.

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Just ask an aid back there. Can you imagine if thousands of churches averaging 100 to 150 show up in calling and emailing demanding equal protection and equal justice in our state?

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Do you think they'll start to pay attention? Can you imagine if for several months in a row while those calls were happening, thousands of Christians picked a day each week and stood outside the statehouse demanding equal protection and equal justice?

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Do you think they'll pay attention? The problem is that we are lazy. We're not showing up.

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And we need you church. We need you. What if some of your church members ran for office to replace those that are not serious about ending abortion in Ohio?

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I'm getting serious. I'm getting serious. We need to stop pushing the buck to the next guy and take responsibility for the task before us.

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Oh, the difference that it could make. The lives that could be saved.

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See, in this aim to address the evil of our day that is abortion, we have seen that many in various positions of magisterial power have made excuse after excuse and attempted to justify the unjust taking of the preborn baby's life.

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But there is no justification and no excuse. See, I've heard equivocation after equivocation and witnessed outright negligence to protect the innocent among us by our magistrates.

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I stopped counting how many legislators I've met with over the last two years. If God's people show up, we can end this bloodletting and stop the sacrificing of children on the altar, a pleasure in Ohio.

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Now some of you are thinking through a lens that tells you we shouldn't be involved in this political arena as if it's a separate arena.

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But we should only be concerned with preaching the gospel and discipling our people.

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To that challenge, I challenge you that you are neglecting a huge area of discipleship and neglecting an entire arena where the gospel must yet also go.

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You know how many legislators that we've been talking to that have no clue about the gospel? Every legislator that I go into their office,

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I ask them, who is Lord? There are a lot of them that don't answer that question.

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We have work to do, church. Now before I start jumping into our text, just one more thing.

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I approach the text with a conviction that the word of God is infallible in its substance and sufficient for all of life.

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Now though I'm a little rusty on my Greek, so don't yell at me if my pronunciation is off, let me briefly translate this passage.

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Some of you will know it right away. Passagrafe Theoponoustos kai aphedelimas pros didascalien, pros elegmon, pros epanorthosin, pros paidian te indikeosune, henna artos eha tuteo anthropos pros pon ergon agathon exertis minos.

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So what's that mean? All scripture is God breathed and profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness so that the man of God may be complete and fully equipped for every good work.

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Why did I say that in Greek? Because for some reason in our brain, we don't really register that the person who is representing the word has done their work in the word to bring you the word unadulterated by human opinion.

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My question for you, as we get ready to get into the text, the question for the bride of Christ in Ohio right now is, do we believe that the words

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I'm about to read in exegete are in fact breathed out by God? Turn with me to Proverbs 24 verse 1, excuse me if I have a different version of my notes on my iPad.

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So if my phone dies in the middle of the sermon, you guys will see a very interesting look on my face and it's about to die.

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So we'll make it work. But let me scroll up here.

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Let's go to our passage. Be not envious of evil men, we're starting in verse 1, nor desire to be with them, for their hearts devise violence and their lips talk of trouble.

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By wisdom, a house is built and by understanding it is established. By knowledge, the rooms are filled with all precious and pleasant riches.

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A wise man is full of strength and a man of knowledge enhances his might. For by wise guidance, you can wage your war and in abundance of counselors, there is victory.

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Wisdom is too high for a fool. In the gate he does not open his mouth. Whoever plans to do evil will be called a schemer.

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The devising of folly is sin and the scoffer is an abomination to mankind. This part really hits home.

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If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small. Rescue those who are being taken away to death.

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Hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter. If you say, behold, we did not know this.

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Does not he who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not he who keeps watch over your soul know it?

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And will he not repay man according to his work? My son, eat honey for it is good and the dripping of the honeycomb are sweet to your taste.

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Know that wisdom is such to your soul. If you find it, there will be a future and your hope will not be cut off.

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Lie not and wait as a wicked man against the dwelling of the righteous. Do no violence to his house.

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For the righteous fall seven times and rises again, but the wicked stumble in times of calamity.

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Do not rejoice when your enemy falls and let not your heart be glad when he stumbles. Lest the

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Lord see it and be displeased and turn away by his anger from him. Fret not yourself because of evil doers and be not envious of the wicked.

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For the evil man has no future. The lamp of the wicked will be put out.

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My son, fear the Lord and the king and do not join with those who do otherwise, for disaster will arise suddenly from them.

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And who knows the ruin that will come from them both? These are also wise sayings.

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Partiality in judging is not good. Whoever says to the wicked, you are right, will be cursed by peoples, abhorred by nations.

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But those who rebuke the wicked will have delight and a good blessing will come upon them.

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In reference to Proverbs 24, thank you. I love my wife, she is awesome.

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In reference to Proverbs 24, it is prudent of us to have a right understanding of what

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Solomon would have thought this wisdom he earnestly teaches his son is.

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Solomon himself defined wisdom as fear of the Lord. In fact, he said the beginning of wisdom is what?

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The fear of the Lord. Proverbs 1 .7 says this, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.

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Fools despise wisdom and discipline. Now, I've heard more times than I can count from legislators that they need to be wise with timing on bills.

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In fact, that's one of the main excuses for not signing on to our bill. It just isn't the right time with the ballot initiative and all, as if we didn't study to know that there's a ballot initiative that's happening.

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Let me briefly take some time to refute that suggestion that is delaying the abolition of abortion as 57 children are ruthlessly murdered in their mother's womb daily.

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We have no more time, brothers and sisters. My contention to this timing argument is that those that make this argument are not only violating

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God's clear command, as we saw from brother Zach, as I will demonstrate also, but they think they are wise in their own right apart from rightfully fearing the

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Lord and obeying His clear commands. Is everybody familiar with Exodus 20 .13?

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See, I think it's written very plain to see, you shall not murder.

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It is short and to the point, isn't it? I don't see God stuttering here, as I do.

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It presumes to be the case that the commandment doesn't say this, you shall murder only those with a detectable heartbeat.

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Or you shall not murder because the person you are murdering can feel it. Or you shall not murder because you don't have the right license to do so.

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Or your office halls aren't the right width. Or you shall not murder for the wrong motives.

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No, it unequivocally condemns all unjustified taking of an image -bearer's life.

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For the magistrate to delay doing what is right is to sin against not just the 57 image -bearers of God murdered in the womb daily, but God Himself.

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Those of us contending for equal protection and equal justice are not naive to the ballot initiative, as I said, in our country.

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We believe they in many ways are a judgment of God on each state that accepts them.

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We fundamentally believe that if we do the things that God has called us to do,

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His way, He will fight the battle for us. But if we neglect His teachings on how to address prenatal homicide, we will likewise be judged by Him, and our state will be handed over to further its own depravity.

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Just ask our brother from Michigan, or the five other states that have run the exact same play.

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Please let that sink in. What depravity leads a person to murder their posterity?

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Especially as Christians keep having kids. See, we're on the winning side of this.

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So what does our passage have to do with the magistrates and your role as pastors and leaders in your church?

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Contextually, this passage is argued to have been written by Solomon, a magistrate king, to his son on how to rule equitably and justly.

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Ah, now we make the connection, right? Our passage today challenges on several fronts.

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Excuse me, let's take a look at a few of them. In verses 10 through 12, let's look back at verses 10 through 12.

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When it says, if you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small. Rescue those who are being taken away to death.

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Hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter. If you say, behold, we did not know this.

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Does not he who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not he who keeps watch over your soul know it? And will he not repay man according to his work?

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This is what it means, just plain and simple. It's a command to rescue those that are perishing and hold back those that are stumbling to the slaughter that is being given, right?

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Plain as day, I'm not doing anything with the text that you don't see right there in the words. Now this has many applications, one of which most certainly is the murder of preborn children.

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It doesn't say wait to rescue those being carried to death or incrementally allow the stumbling to the slaughter.

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No, the reading is straightforward from the text and it directs the magistrate to proceed bringing an immediate ending to the actions that are mentioned.

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I don't know how people miss the immediacy that is here, the urgency that is communicated.

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Then Solomon exhorts that God knows their excuses of ignorance and doesn't allow that as an excuse for delaying justice.

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And yet how many times do I hear supposed Christian legislators tell me, I know that's what the

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Bible says, but I just can't do it right now, it'll cost me too much. Do you realize what you're asking me to do?

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Yeah? Yeah? I realize what God is asking you to do. The question is, will you be obedient or disobedient?

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This isn't a Christian religious liberty issue. This is an issue of obedience or disobedience.

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Is Jesus Lord of all or not Lord at all? That's the question that we're asking today.

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Jump forward, because we can't go through the whole thing even though I'm tempted to verses 15 through 16.

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Lie not in wait as a wicked man against the dwelling of the righteous. Do no violence to his home, for the righteous falls seven times and rises again, but the wicked stumble in times of calamity.

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Here's what it says. The righteous magistrate is not to lie in wait with the wicked against the righteous.

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Remember, this is a magistrate talking to a soon to be magistrate. Only clear, the admonition is no violence towards the religious man's home.

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Though the righteous may fall each time he will rise, but one day the wicked, they will fall, and their judgment will be that they do not rise again.

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Let that one sink in. One day their heart will stop, and they'll be ushered into eternal judgment, unceasing pain, anguish.

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Romans 6 .23 makes this very clear. They are earning a paycheck, if you will, their wages of eternal judgment on their sins.

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The earning for all wickedness from the evil person is their own demise.

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Do not be fooled by their perceived temporary triumphs, church. Their downfall is imminent.

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Jump with me to verses 19 through 20. Trust, I'm reading the wrong one.

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Fret not yourselves because of evildoers, and do not be envious of the wicked. Okay, I'm gonna go off just a little bit off my notes because it just hit me.

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What's the excuse right now? Oh, the ballot initiative. The wicked are making

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Christians fret, and what I'm reading in God's word right now is an admonition to what?

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Not fret because of the evildoer. Ooh, it gets better.

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For the evil man has no future. The lamp of the wicked will be put out, and we are afraid of a ballot initiative.

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Believers, go and tell the magistrates, the legislators that claim to follow

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Jesus that when you read your Bible, it says fret not the wicked, the evildoer.

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See, it says that because their future is bleak. The word here says the evil man has no future.

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Okay, I'm playing my card a little bit, but that seems pretty optimistic to me. In fact, the promise is that the wicked's lamp, their life will be put out.

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Friends, God already has a plan to deal with the wicked and their schemes. His justice will be swift and precise.

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They will not escape His judgment. Don't worry about them. Evil people will do evil things, but we serve an awesome

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God who calls us to obedience. Not the ends justifies the means.

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Pragmatism will not win this. Principled Christians will win this.

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Those that are submitted to Jesus as Lord will win this. Keep moving forward with me to verses 21 through 22.

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My son, oh man, this is what we have forgotten. In this whole conversation, we have forgotten these next words right here.

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It says, my son, fear the Lord. Where are you men of courage?

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Where are you Christians who fear the Lord? We have succumbed to fear of man.

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We're too worried about our next opportunity to impress somebody for what, a couple of years, and then we stand before the

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Creator and He's gonna look at us and say, why didn't you do that? What you cared about, what this person thinks about you, did you not fear me?

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Fear the Lord and the King, and do not join with those who do otherwise. Ooh, those are strong words.

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We've yoked ourselves with people who do otherwise often. For disaster will arise suddenly from them, and who knows the ruin that will come from them both.

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The text that we are looking at, this next admonition of a father to his son is the most important, fear the

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Lord. See, the Hebrew word used here, the reason it's in all caps in your Bible is

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Yahweh. In other words, He's the great I am. There was never any before Him, nor shall there be after Him.

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The governor is not seated on the throne over all eternity, Jesus is.

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We should fear Him. To rebel against a just and righteous

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King is to bring God's righteous judgment on oneself. Clearly, we see the anarchy is not the answer here.

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But turn with me still to verse 23. These also are sayings of the wise.

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Here it is again. Partiality in judging is not good.

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I don't know how much more plain it could be in Scripture. Partiality, favoritism in judging is not commended, but seen as not good.

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Might I suggest that much of what passes as pro -life legislation is that which

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God has said is abominable, as Zach so clearly put it for us? Like showing partiality of judgment and weighing the life of one child over another and legislating the death of a pre -born child based on the ability to perceive a heartbeat or an arbitrary developmental timeline measurement.

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If God's word says it's not good to do something, then to do the opposite of that thing is to sin.

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James 4 .17 paints it very clearly for us. So whoever knows the right thing to do, like right now, immediate abolition, equal protection for the pre -born, and fails to do it is not merely picking one of another good options.

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They are sinning because God's word is not stuttering about what He has commanded us to do.

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Friends, it is in your authority to legislate God's clear rebuke of the murder of His image bearers at any age on the gestational timeline, from fertilization to natural death of old age, yet you decide to delay calling for justice.

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You're not operating within Christian liberty as I have said over and over again on agree to disagree issues of speculation.

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You are acting in sin and direct violation of God's word. Keep going to verse 24, it's not over.

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Whoever says to the wicked, you are right, will be cursed by peoples abhorred by nations.

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I could spend the whole time here. Let's get this straight.

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Those that tell the wicked they are right will be cursed. Friends, is this not what we have been doing legislatively in this state for far too long, expecting

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God to bless off of it? Laws teach people either righteousness or unrighteousness.

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In our compromised legislation, we have been telling the wicked they are right. Church, in our silence on this, we have been telling this wicked culture they are right.

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We cannot stick our heads in the sand and expect this evil to go away. We must confront it. See, I spent nine years in the infantry.

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And last time I checked, when the enemy steps up to the line, you don't run away. You stand ready to engage.

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Look at verse 25. But those who rebuke the wicked will have delight.

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We see a contrast here, don't we? The one who says to the wicked, you are right, is cursed.

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But the one who rebukes the wicked will have delight and a good blessing will come upon them.

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The contrast is true. For those that are courageous and rebuke the wicked, they will have delight and a good blessing will come upon them.

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For those of you still sitting on a fence on this, let me put the cookies on the shelf so everybody can reach them.

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It's always right to do that which honors God. It's never right to do that which dishonors

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God. And he says it's not good. What we don't see from this magistrate is compromise or equivocation due to perceived opposition, but principled resolve to rebuke evil.

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So here's a couple of closing applications and summary of this. See, I'm a big proponent of reading dead guys.

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And one of the guys that I've found very helpful is a Scottish Baptist preacher who was alive in 1826 to 1910 named

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Alexander McLaren. Let me share with you how he exegeses this passage because I think he does far better job than I do.

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"'Not to use any power is a sin. "'To omit to do anything that we can do "'is a crime.

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"'To withhold a help that we can render "'is to participate in the authorship of all the misery "'that we have failed to relieve.

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"'He who neglects to save a life kills. "'There are more murderers "'than those who lift violent hands with malice, "'a forethought against a hated life.

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"'Rulers or communities who leave people uncared for to die, "'who suffer swarming millions to live "'where the air is poison and the light is murky "'in first the soul, "'and then the body are dwarfed and die, "'the incompetent men in high places "'and the indolent ones in low, "'whose selfishness brings "'and whose blundering blindness allows to continue.

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"'The conditions that are fatal to life, "'on these the guilt of blood lies.

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"'Violence slays its thousands, "'but supine negligence slays its ten thousands.'"

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What are we looking at in our state but negligence? "'Lofty disregard of human suffering is not

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God's way, "'it is ours, unfortunately.

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"'He looks down from the height of his sanctuary "'to hear the crying of the prisoner. "'Should not we stoop from our molehill to see it?

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"'God has not too many concerns on his hands "'to mark the obscurest sorrow "'and be ready to help it.

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"'And shall we plead that we are too busy "'with petty personal concerns to take interest "'in helping the sorrows "'and fighting against the sins of the world?

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"'The strongest motive for seeking to save others "'is that God has saved us, amen?

39:29

"'Thus this name for God touches "'closely upon the Christian thought.

39:35

"'Christ has given himself for me, "'and in that thought we find the true condemnation "'of a

39:42

Christianity which has not caught from him "'the enthusiasm for self -surrender "'and the passion for saving the outcast and forlorn.

39:51

"'If to be a Christian is to imitate Christ, "'then the name has little application "'to those who see them and that are drawn to death "'and turn from them unconcerned "'and unconscious of responsibility.'"

40:07

Almost done. I venture earnestly to appeal to all my hearers for more faithful discharge of this duty.

40:15

I pray you to open your eyes to hear and your eyes to see, or open your ears to hear and your eyes to see, and your hearts to feel, and last of all, your hands to help the miseries of the world.

40:30

Solemn duties wait upon great privileges. It is an awful trust to have Christ and his gospel committed to our care.

40:38

We get it because from one who lived no life of luxurious ease, but felt all the woes of humanity, which he redeemed and forbore not to deliver us from death, though at the cost of his own.

40:52

We get it for no life of silken indolence or selfish disregard of the sorrows of our brethren.

40:59

If there is one tear we could have dried and didn't, or one wound we could have healed and didn't, that is sin.

41:06

If we could have lightened the great heap of sorrow by one grain and didn't, that is a sin.

41:13

And if there be one soul that perishes, which we might have saved and didn't, the negligence is not merely the omission of a duty, but the doing of a deed, which will be rendered to us according to our works.

41:28

Does he not perceive it? We have no excuse. Are we not bound by God's word to demand total immediate abolition of abortion?

41:42

If we never do demand it, haven't we just accepted that abortion will always continue?

41:51

Let me share this with you. The late Frederick Douglass, on August 3rd, 1857, in his

41:56

West India Emancipation Speech in Kenandiagua, I can't even pronounce that, but it's in New York, spoke the following wise words through contextually, although contextually having nothing to do with abortion, they have everything to do with the plight of a sector of mankind that was seen as less than human.

42:16

Here's what he says. "'Power concedes nothing without a demand. "'It never did, and it never will.

42:24

"'Find out just what any people will quietly submit to, "'and you have found out the exact measure "'of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them.

42:33

"'And these will continue till they are resisted "'with either words or blows, or with both.

42:39

"'The limits of tyrants are prescribed "'by the endurance of those who they oppress.'"

42:48

Now, to my own fault, I was for a long time accepting that we should just receive what we can get.

42:57

We just ask for more, and just take more, and it sounded really good in concept, but it was actually an apathetic excuse for inaction.

43:11

See, many have thought they had to accept what the courts would hold up, even though deep down every believer knows that the biblical answer to the mass murder of any people is immediate abolition.

43:22

In case you don't know what abolition is, it's the act of officially ending, legally, or ceasing a perceived atrocity that is currently legal.

43:36

See, somewhere along the line, many of us adopted a whatever -will -slow -the -murders mentality. In that adoption, the goal line was shifted to never truly ending abortion.

43:50

It also has unfortunately turned into opposition against the demand for immediate justice for our pre -born neighbor.

43:57

So we've gone from, we need to end it historically. Zach mentioned this.

44:03

I'm writing this in a book that I've been working on. It is irrefutable that the church's response to abortion was equal protection from the earliest manuscripts that we can find.

44:15

In fact, I would argue, and I think you can look this up, it's only been within the last hundred years that we've gotten confused on this issue.

44:24

What happened? Compromise. We've compromised God's standard of justice because we wanna be nicer than God.

44:40

How have we gone from demanding that the mass murder of children ends to legislating where, when, how, and how many, and what conditions the murders have to happen under?

44:55

When you begin to voice out these pieces of legislation that we've been presented over the years in the last 50 years, they make absolutely no sense to the

45:05

Christian. The problem is is we've been sleeping. We've been passing the buck onto the next guy.

45:11

Now, I'm no expert in the law, but that logic of legislating how, when, where, and how many somebody can have just doesn't make any sense to me.

45:25

It seems like it's moral compromising because it is, and it, to God, is an abomination, and he detests it.

45:38

So I'm about to wrap up, but maybe you're a person who believes that so far my argument is unrealistic.

45:44

Maybe you disagree with Zach and I when we got up here and we just were showing you the word, and you're like, oh, you're naive.

45:50

You don't really know how the legal process works, and if we could do it that way, we would.

45:57

I think you have too small of a view of God. Maybe you would classify yourself as a realist or make the distinction without a difference of I'm a smash -mouth incrementalist.

46:14

To that I say God has not called us to accept the easy way or most, in our mind, realistic way, but to be faithfully demanding biblical justice, which, by the way, is his way.

46:34

See, I think to do anything other than to demand that which Scripture demands is to trade Scripture for our best -perceived solutions, and brothers and sisters, that is pragmatism, and it is an enemy of the church.

46:56

Let me break down one more passage for you because I just wanna make it abundantly clear that Scripture just, it lays it out for us.

47:06

We're not just picking and choosing. Zach hit on a couple of things in Leviticus 19, but I'm gonna overlap and then expound on that briefly here.

47:15

So if you go to Leviticus 19, you'll see that it says you shall do no injustice in the court, as I often do when

47:32

I'm preaching. I need to have us hit pause for a second. We need to reflect on the command here.

47:42

You shall do no injustice in the court. I have to address the elephant in the room. What on earth have we been doing legislatively for the last 50 years as 63 million -plus babies have been ripped apart in their mother's wombs as the equivalent to 97 countries, think about it, from smallest to largest wiped out, entire people groups, because we have compromised on God's standard of justice.

48:17

I petition you that we have been doing injustice in the courts under the guise of protecting life.

48:24

Under this guise of being pro -life, we have sanctioned the mass murder of preborn lives into laws in our states.

48:36

In fact, the whole reason Roe v. Wade even passed the courts was due to compromise legislation in Texas that did not acknowledge the equal personhood of the preborn baby.

48:48

There's so much for us to reflect on, and I'm tempted to hit on all these things that I've written down here, but let's continue with the text.

49:02

You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor.

49:12

Did you catch that? Because I feel like we've been doing exactly the opposite thing legislatively, and even pastors have been defending those positions, and God's word clearly says, you shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor.

49:33

As if God wasn't already clear on the standard, he sovereignly takes away any confusion here.

49:38

When the standard is you shall not be partial, it doesn't say except when the ends justifies the means, does it?

49:46

So hang on with me. I know I'm going a little bit longer, but I want you to see this the way that we've been arguing from, and I want you just to see the word so clearly articulate equal protection and equal justice.

50:00

See, then in this case, one might miss it. We get an even clearer statement from the

50:06

Lord, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor. How is it possible to judge righteously the life of an innocent preborn image bearer of God over the life of another innocent preborn image bearer of God or delay their justice?

50:20

To say it's just not the right time. You shall not go around as a slanderer among your people.

50:29

You shall not stand up against the life of your neighbor. I am the Lord. You shall stand up before the gray head and honor the face of an old man, and you shall fear your

50:40

God. I am the Lord. See, the standard gets even clearer in this in that not only do we see

50:48

God irrefutably arguing the sanctity of human life, but condemning those that would speak against the life of their neighbor.

50:57

Any argument for abortion is speaking against our preborn neighbors, in case you didn't catch that yet.

51:04

Then to make sure sinful people understand, God seals it with the reminder that he is what?

51:12

Lord. It is he who gets to make the standard, not us.

51:22

Friends, it is so plain in the general equity of these principles, if applied to the issue of abortion, that to oppose a righteous bill of equal protection for the preborn image bearer of God is to stand against the life of your preborn neighbor.

51:41

And we are clearly not to stand against them. Now, jump several verses ahead in chapter 19, where it says, when a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him harm.

51:54

Do him wrong. It is clear here that whether the person is an Israelite or not, he is not to be treated wrongly.

52:02

And this societal status does not determine his value. Now, you may be having a hard time keeping up with some of the passage, but hold on,

52:11

I'll give the references. It is clear here that whether the person is an Israelite or not, he is not to be treated wrongly.

52:19

Continuing on, you shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.

52:29

I am the Lord your God. He's sealing it, he's continuing. The Israelites are to treat the stranger who sojourns with them with equal respect as the native.

52:37

They are to love him as they would themselves. Then we get the reminder of whence they came by the grace and mercy of God.

52:46

God then once again seals this admonition with a reminder that he is Lord. And then we get the unambiguous admonition, made again, and this is the last part.

52:56

You shall, in verses 35 through 37, you shall do no wrong in judgment, in measures of length or weight or quantity.

53:04

You shall have just balances, just weights, a just ephah, a just hymn.

53:10

I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, and you shall observe all my statues, not some of them, and all my rules, and do them.

53:19

I am the Lord. Hang with me.

53:26

We now read the command, do no wrong in judgment. Then that judgment is defined in measures of length, weight, or quantity, most likely in reference to commerce.

53:35

The very balances that the Israeli merchants used are to be accurate, the weights legit, not shaved off, the currency honest as to its value, not tampered with in any fashion.

53:50

This is sealed once again by the Lord, but he goes a step further in sealing it by declaring he alone is the

53:56

God who rescued them out of Egypt. He repeats that they are to observe all, not merely some of his statutes and rules, and do them because he is the one who gets to set the laws.

54:10

So how would this apply to abortion, you might ask? The general equity of this principle is true in all matters of justice and personal interactions.

54:22

By using unequal standards, the Christian slanders the name of Christ and is not above reproach to the surrounding world.

54:30

What I'm saying is that we do not have the liberty to set up the standards and laws as we see are most likely to pass, when that standard is in opposition to operating according to God's holy standard of justice.

54:45

I labored for a long time. You heard things repeated in regard to what Zach said, but I want you to look at the scriptures.

54:53

I'm not up here because I was convinced of EAN or because I'm convinced of free the states, though they do all do great work.

55:00

You know what I'm convinced of? Jesus is Lord, and his word stands forever as the standard for which we should live our life.

55:11

My challenge to you today is act like you believe it.

55:18

Go out with confidence, knowing that he's going to reign supreme. He's already on the throne now.

55:27

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, where I have misspoken,

55:37

Lord, I pray that you would erase it from people's memory. Where I have said something that is true and accurate according to your word,

55:46

I pray that you would dig it down deep, that they would be convicted, Lord, that you would move in our hearts.

55:52

And even in my inability to communicate as clearly as we desire, as I desire,

56:00

Lord, I pray that you would make your word clear to them, complain, drive them to action, not indifference.

56:10

Guide us, Lord, to boldly call for equal protection and equal justice for our freeborn neighbor.

56:20

And Lord, I don't want my name to be what gets the credit. I don't want an organization that I helped start to get the credit.

56:30

Lord, I don't want anybody else to get the credit except for Jesus. So let us stand under that banner. We are

56:36

Christ's followers. And we stand according to your word to rebuke the evil that we see in our midst and to call for justice.

56:46

We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen. We should be able to,

57:04

I don't know what time it is. So we're gonna do about 10 or so minutes of Q and A, and then

57:12

I'll do closing remarks. So I'll come around with the mic. Just raise your hand if you have a question.

57:19

Well, actually, let me get another mic. Or Felix, yeah, okay, awesome, that one works.

57:26

So yeah, if you have a question, just raise your hand. I'll come along with the mic. Yeah, so about anything here, about the ballot initiative, about anything that was said today.

57:36

I used to work for pro -life organizations quite a while, work at the Ohio Republican Party headquarters.

57:43

About end abortion and how they're doing. Raise your hand if you have any questions and answers. And again,

57:49

Nicholas and I would love to have lunch any time. If anyone has questions, let us know afterwards as well.

58:00

What is the best resource for accessing all of the representatives and legislatures and their contact information?

58:11

Very good question. Helpful to have a place that puts all the information in one location. If you head to endabortionnow .com

58:19

and then slash whatever the state that you live in, so in Ohio, OH, endabortionnow .com

58:26

slash OH, you'll come up with a page there to be able to access all your representatives' contact information there.

58:34

So yeah, that has it all in one place and kind of a status on things here in the state that you live in.

58:41

That's really a helpful way to, I mean, it does all the work for you in terms of email, phone, contact, all of that.

58:50

So that's what I would recommend. There's also openstates .com too, where you can put in your address and it'll give you who's your representative and senator.

59:00

It also provides your phone number and email. And if you go to the

59:06

Ohio Legislature website, you can also type in your email and you can look at each representative and senator and provides their contact information too.

59:16

So a nice variety of sources. I would say everybody in here, schedule a meeting with your legislator just to preach the gospel to them.

59:25

You'll at least get 10 minutes to just talk to them. They're just people like us and they need the gospel in the same way as anyone else does.

59:32

They're not intimidating. They're just regular people as well. Respect the office, respect them as a person in the image of God.

59:38

But you get a free opportunity to preach the gospel. Thank you all for your presentations.

59:54

I really am so grateful. I just wanted to ask this question.

01:00:00

You were doing Proverbs 24, I believe. And I could not find the area where you said that those that you would rebuke in regards to their unrighteous stand, that there would be a delight about it.

01:00:17

I mean, that they would delight. And I could not figure out where that was in that scripture.

01:00:29

Case people didn't get the reference because I realized I made them a footnote and I shouldn't have because then the footnote didn't go to the end.

01:00:35

So here are the passages that I used and I focused in on. So Proverbs 24, 10 through 12, 15 through 16, and 19 through 25.

01:00:49

And then 24, 10 through 12, 15 through 16, and then verses 19 through 25.

01:00:58

So it's all in chapter 24. But those are the ones that I focused in on. And then Leviticus, I did chapter 19, verses 15 through 16, and verses 32 through 37.

01:01:18

All right, I'm Pastor Walt Mossman. That's my wife, Darlene. I'm the president elect for the Right to Life Action Coalition of Ohio as a new pro -life group.

01:01:27

But I endeavor to keep it to the forefront with Christ.

01:01:34

And the thing that I got from meeting here today is that iron sharpens iron. And so we need that accountability and we need that push.

01:01:42

But how do I, as a pastor, connect with some of the pastors here?

01:01:47

I met a couple that I've never met before, but that would be my interest because we need all the support we can get.

01:01:54

And we need you to push us to make sure that we're staying biblically. Yeah, so I know the guys are gonna have a roster that will have a spot or there's the opportunity to scan it somewhere here that would automatically upload your information.

01:02:13

And then if you just come up and talk, we'll swap numbers. Happy to make the connection, for sure.

01:02:19

Yeah, and if you want other pastors' contact information, I'll share with you everybody who registered with us. Yeah, one other thing, we're doing town halls to give individuals, churches,

01:02:32

Patriot groups information about the ballot initiative. And if anyone's interested, all you have to do is contact me and we'll come to your place and do that.

01:02:49

Who else? Any other questions? So you've mentioned the ballot initiative and with presupposition, we understand everybody in this room may understand what that ballot initiative is.

01:03:08

But if you could give a brief narrative for those who may not understand what it is, because we're mentioning this as we all understand what it is, but maybe there are some who don't.

01:03:18

If you can give a brief narrative as to what this new ballot initiative is going on. Yeah, so currently in Ohio law, you can perform the surgical abortions up through 22 weeks.

01:03:30

That's through like the legislature and some of the regulatory laws we've actually passed make that action legal.

01:03:37

And you're doing so. The ballot initiative here is a new effort post the fall of Roe v.

01:03:43

Wade. And now the Dobbs decision is that they're proposing a change to the

01:03:50

Ohio constitution to allow abortion until birth. And that is going to be voted on by the people of Ohio, pending some more signatures.

01:04:00

But most probably this November, if they get those signatures by July, the people of Ohio will come.

01:04:06

Not for like a representative vote, like the rest of our republic works, but a direct majority, 50 % plus one vote to allow abortion until birth.

01:04:17

And so this is just going to take the number of the people in the state who vote yes or no on that. If they vote no and it goes away, well, it's still just status quo.

01:04:25

It's still abortions up till 22 weeks. And this is why we don't agree with the excuse to wait to do anything for the next year.

01:04:33

This is why we put this bill here. If we can pass this bill now, we win in November as well.

01:04:39

That's it. Abortion is ended for good. And so that's what this new effort is. We're going to see this around the country.

01:04:46

It's already happened in five other states. Every time the pro -abortion side comes out to vote on these ballot initiatives, they win.

01:04:54

They're 0 for 5 and our side is 0 for 5 in defeating them. And that's because we see the states haven't responded like Christians.

01:05:02

The church doesn't rise up. We go into this defense only turtle. Let's make sure we use soft messaging to get the middle.

01:05:09

And pastors don't want to talk about that. I don't want to talk about that. I want to talk about the gospel. That's what I want to share with people.

01:05:15

And so this is why we believe so strongly that we push this bill no matter what. And every other state,

01:05:21

Zachary can talk more, but every other state they've put these bills in, there's always an excuse. It's something every single time.

01:05:28

And right now, the most convenient one in front of us is the ballot initiative. It's 15 times in a row, it's been something else.

01:05:35

And so we just do what's right regardless. Yeah, and it's the whole threat, the evildoer thing that we're struggling with, right?

01:05:43

So, yeah. The bill that the legislator's here to, like he's wanting to put in, when is he planning on introducing that?

01:06:09

Yeah, so currently Ohio's legislative session runs all year long, which is only one of four states that actually do that.

01:06:16

Most other states have like little segments out of the year. They'll shove everything through really quickly in that little segment.

01:06:22

Ohio is just like a slow moving beast that works all year long. Has its pros and cons, just state tradition.

01:06:29

Every state does it differently. And so what you do first is you submit the text to LSC, which is like a legislative review council, and they'll verify the language, get all the formatting correct, give it back to our representative

01:06:40

Bill Dean, and then he'll wait for the next session when he wants to introduce it. Those typically happen on average like every two weeks.

01:06:47

So we'll just work with him and see what date works for him to do that once we see the language. Take it back to your legal team, make sure nothing went crazy in it.

01:06:56

And so hopefully as soon as possible. I mean, we're gonna be getting it done as soon as we can. And we're actively getting other co -sponsors who are going to representative

01:07:05

Dean and saying, hey, I don't like some of what I'm hearing out of other organizations around here.

01:07:10

Can I jump on board with you? And so we're still, Nicholas and I, going to the state house three, four times a week talking to legislators in their offices about it.

01:07:19

If they kill it, can you reintroduce the same one as loud as do this once a month?

01:07:30

Yeah, we would probably at that point try and go and do it in the Senate, which we're trying to get filed jointly there as well.

01:07:38

And so different strategies and tactics, and we'll definitely reevaluate based on what happens for that.

01:07:44

Most likely, they're just not going to assign it to a committee and want it to just be forgotten. But this is where it's so important to have people calling into those offices, calling into the

01:07:54

Speaker of the House. Yeah, and. Yeah, I mean, what he just said is exactly the issue.

01:08:00

I think what's gonna make the difference in this is finding out whoever can hold this bill up, that's who needs to hear from us.

01:08:07

So whoever can prevent this from being heard or prevent it from progressing and advancing, that's really what we've tried to do in our efforts locally, is we have an entire team of volunteers at our church that are dedicated to just doing that, calling, emailing representatives, heads of committees.

01:08:22

We're planning on doing more. We have about 40 to 50 full -time volunteers. Well, not full -time, but they do it when they can.

01:08:29

And so that needs to happen in every state. There needs to be networking and that many people getting together to dedicate themselves to understanding that these people need to hear from us and it needs to be voice messages, emails, calls, demanding that this bill be heard, that it progress, that it advance, and settle for nothing less.

01:08:53

I think that's really what's gonna make the difference is the church being on board with doing that and that process. You know, as he said, meeting with your legislator, but at the very least, they need to hear from you and know that this is what you want.

01:09:06

This is what the constituency of Ohio demands and nothing less. And so the good thing about that is you guys actually live here and they are more likely to listen to you.

01:09:18

Yeah, and what we've seen in some of the other states when it does die in committee or it goes through the various state processes, which it can be killed, sometimes it takes a multi -year cycle of different elections where the church sees clearly which person stopped that bill from moving forward and they have to vote them out.

01:09:38

You just gotta say, I don't trust you anymore. You're not doing what you said you were gonna do.

01:09:44

And so we have to be, and this is the godly type of incrementalism we're talking about.

01:09:50

We're not compromising our message in that incremental approach, but just being patient and saying the duty is ours to keep saying the truth, the same thing, but the results belong to God.

01:10:00

We're trusting him to move hearts and to raise up church leaders and people like that.

01:10:05

And so keep going back with the same message. William Wilberforce took his bill back 20 years in a row.

01:10:11

He didn't compromise on it and it took that long. And so in our hearts, we need to be prepared to say that's the same truth.

01:10:18

The Bible doesn't change. So what we're gonna say isn't gonna change. Just patience and doing it over and over.

01:10:24

And like Mike said, we have to stress the importance of, if you are a Christian and you are a member of a church in good standing, you are qualified to run for office.

01:10:33

We gotta challenge these people. Don't push that responsibility onto someone else. It's you,

01:10:38

God's calling you to do that. May not be something you love. Representative Dean hates public speaking.

01:10:45

He doesn't like the process or anything like that. He's just a Christian who felt called to do so. And he put so much responsibility on himself with that calling.

01:10:53

And you just gotta respond and you are qualified as a Christian. Yeah, and I would just add on to that, that we don't need you to run in an unrealistic fashion, right?

01:11:05

Like in the sense of if you're not the most gifted public speaker, you could still run for office and that's fine.

01:11:13

But if you are not a people person and you're just like, well, nobody's doing it.

01:11:20

I'm just gonna step up. God can use you, but if you're just gonna step out and run a campaign, but you're not gonna work well with others, you might actually do more harm to the movement than good, but you can propel somebody who you see.

01:11:30

It's just like any ministry situation. Have the elders in your church pray over you and speak into your life.

01:11:36

And this isn't something that you just do like, oh yeah, I'm just gonna go start this thing. You need to really figure out like, is this something that my family can do well?

01:11:48

And it's not totally just based on giftings or things like that, but let's be serious. If you struggle with convincing anybody anything and you're not very concise in the way that you answer things

01:12:01

God could be calling you in to public office, or it could just be you see a need and your heart is big and you wanna fill it.

01:12:09

So pray through those things. We want you, I would love to sit down with people that wanna run for office and encourage them, but I also want them to realize like we need you statewide as well.

01:12:21

Like we need people in all these districts. It doesn't help us if somebody right now is running federally, it doesn't.

01:12:29

I'm just gonna be real. We need to start here. That's the whole doctrine of lesser magistrates.

01:12:35

It doesn't help us to run federally, especially if you don't have any name recognition or anything, you have no chance of winning whatsoever, but you might could win in your district.

01:12:44

And then we actually have an abolitionist or a person who is arguing for equal protection that's in office, that's gonna file a bill immediately.

01:12:51

That's what we want. So if you're pitting all your eggs in one basket, we want you to fight, but we gotta read the law.

01:13:00

We gotta redirect our efforts. All right, let's do three more and then we gotta wrap this up, all right?

01:13:08

You can stay after and ask us questions, but I wanna be respectful of everyone's time. Hi, my name is

01:13:16

Stephen Ferris and I want to personally attest to the fact that all of Ohio's legislative office holders and candidates are fully informed and on the same baseline with respect to that pro -life letter from the 73 to whatever the number of signatories on it was, they are all on the same page.

01:13:35

I personally saw to that and that was around November. So they have a distribution sheet attached to my letter that shows each of them that every other of them is on the letter being addressed.

01:13:51

So when you, please, when you go address your own representative, keep that in mind.

01:13:56

You're not coming in cold, they know. And it's not just to one address that it was sent, it was sent to four or five multiple mailing addresses for each person.

01:14:08

So I'm talking about 500 letters sent out in the last three months. It was November, so five months, whatever that math is.

01:14:16

So please take 1 Timothy 2, 1 to heart where Paul exhorts that prayer be given for all men, kings, people in places of authority, that we may live quiet and peaceable lives in all godliness, all trust in God and honesty.

01:14:32

And please don't neglect to share your contact information with End Abortion Ohio and each other, please.

01:14:40

All right, thank you. We, I'm up in Cleveland and we have that, as you talked about, sort of the bottom of the stream ministry at the abortion mill.

01:14:55

And I was wondering, is there anything that we as a church could be doing at the top of the stream in terms of local government and addressing people like the county, the city, is there anything we could do in that way?

01:15:13

Well, this is just an example. For us, what we did in Arizona was we went to our city council and it wasn't even an item on the agenda.

01:15:21

There would just be 10 to 12 people from Apologia Church that would show up for the citizen comments time and we would get there before everybody else, just in a line, one right after the other.

01:15:31

And so we had three minutes a piece, 10 people straight. We would just go preach the gospel to our city council and show up and fill out cards to do that.

01:15:41

And then the time actually came, there was a resolution that they were voting on in which they would order law enforcement to deprioritize calls for reported abortions at the clinics.

01:15:53

This is kind of when the law in Arizona was up in the air after Roe, that was the resolution that the city council was voting on.

01:16:01

It's filled with feminists and unbelievers of all stripes, a couple men that just kind of maintain the status quo.

01:16:10

But when we went there for that, we looked like absolute aliens because this time it was actually on the agenda.

01:16:18

And we showed up and we were the only church, the only Christians in Arizona at that meeting. You had the head of the

01:16:24

ACLU, the head of Arizona Planned Parenthood. The other side showed up in full force and we from the

01:16:31

Christian side spoke our piece about that. And so you can seek out opportunities like that, city council, local government, find out where you have an opportunity to speak as citizens during public comment time and bring this issue before them and call them to obey

01:16:48

God, even if it's a little bit outside of their immediate jurisdiction. Like when we went to the city council,

01:16:53

I mean, they can only do so much, but when it came time and we had already primed the pump on this issue and it actually was an agenda for them to vote on this, which they did, they did pass the resolution, but we were already there with the consistent message saying the same thing again and again that we had been saying for two years up to that point.

01:17:14

So that in turn God has used to lead other Christians as we've been documenting this, not just at the mills over the years, but as we go before our legislatures and go in committee meetings and testify at hearings, that's what's gotten people involved in this and wanting to speak in this same thing.

01:17:34

So find a way to document that too and encourage other Christians to do the same. So hopefully that's a start.

01:17:42

Let's do two more and then if you have any more, come see us in the back afterwards just to respect everybody's time. That's them over there.

01:17:48

I think you had a question first, right? So I just wanted to ask because pragmatism is extremely attractive when you're dealing with anything political and I would say that that's the stronghold that is on the conservative party as a whole, but also

01:18:06

Christians. I mean, we see that from presenting the gospel all the way to handling issues like abortion.

01:18:12

So what is your advice on how to stand strong when you are told that we need to be pragmatists and they'll even bring a scripture.

01:18:23

Well, we had to be wise as serpents, but innocent as doves. Like how do you stand strong against that and also call them to the actual truth so that they can see that yes, we can act in wisdom with God without compromising and not trusting his plan.

01:18:39

How would you guys address that? I've heard that verse 100 times already this month from legislators, but where are they getting their definition of wisdom from?

01:18:48

They're saying that verse and then just making up their own human definition of wisdom instead of going to what

01:18:54

Mike and Zach just preached on. So just challenge them on that. You just said wisdom, but define it for me.

01:19:01

What verse are you defining wisdom as? Are you fretting evildoers and using that as your wisdom?

01:19:08

Confront it with the Bible. I mean, that's our authority. Yeah. So one of the things,

01:19:14

I was just trying to think of interactions that we've had. One of the things that I found really helpful is that in asking them who is

01:19:22

Lord, it completely disarms them, right? Because in the moment that they're saying, well,

01:19:29

I can do this stuff. No, but who is, you just said Jesus is Lord and I'm saying God's word is sufficient and inerrant.

01:19:35

If we don't agree on that, we're probably not gonna be chasing the same goals anyway.

01:19:41

But if you can get them to admit that they don't agree on the inerrancy of God's word or the sufficiency of God's word, you've made a lot of progress and then you just keep bringing the gospel because God's word doesn't go out and come back void.

01:19:52

Don't tire of doing good because sometimes when we don't see the immediate results, especially as Americans, we have our

01:20:00

McDonald's, we have Sonic, we have all these restaurants that we get what we want right now and ministry doesn't always work that way.

01:20:07

God has a way in which he allows you to be the waterer and somebody else to be the person who gets to reap the harvest.

01:20:13

You just be faithful to continue to preach the word. Let your theology direct your emotions and your thinking and constantly be in the word.

01:20:23

You can't fight this battle if you're not in God's word daily. That's it. Yeah, and I think to address that too, yes, there are practical ways you can explain it, but ultimately it has to go back to scriptures that God is going to bless faithfulness and nothing else.

01:20:41

Make them give an account from scripture alone. I don't care about any other excuses. Like I said, we hear it in every other state.

01:20:49

It was Roe and then it was this, the heartbeat. Oh, we don't wanna compromise the heartbeat bill. Now people are saying, oh, if you push that too hard, they're gonna rule poorly on the heartbeat bill in the

01:20:58

Supreme Court. That's not our concern. Scripture says the duty is ours and the results belong to God.

01:21:05

And while our bill is not the entirety of the scripture, like we've said is one of the basic premises of the scripture and it's the same way.

01:21:12

You put the truth out there, the duty is ours to preach that same word and the results belong to God. As we are preparing for our three minutes or our 10 minutes, either with the legislature or with the city council, you've given us three different avenues to discuss.

01:21:36

You've made us aware of the initiative that's out there that will allow abortion all the way up through birth.

01:21:43

You've discussed with us Bill Dean's bill that he's proposing. And then you've discussed first and foremost scripture, which you've armed us exceptionally well.

01:21:52

As we are preparing, certainly the Holy Spirit is going to direct us in how we should speak.

01:21:57

But as we prepare, which one of those three are our highest priority? Yeah, we always open it up with scripture.

01:22:04

We'll open it up with a verse or ask them, who is Lord? Say, look, we're coming at you as Christians.

01:22:10

Our authority is coming from scripture. So we'll always frame it that way. It takes away all their weapons and it shows our authority at the end of the day.

01:22:19

It's the greatest weapon on earth that we have. We're not gonna put it away. And then the other two things you mentioned, absolutely.

01:22:26

If they're not aware of what Bill Dean is doing currently, they soon will be. He's already having a lot of people, even people from out of state in more federal than statewide offices saying, what are you doing?

01:22:40

And this is part of the pressure that comes with standing up for Christ against the world.

01:22:49

And so again, do be in prayer for him personally, daily, please. And then talking about the ballot as well,

01:22:55

I would say, this is some objections you might hear is that we can't do this because of the ballot.

01:23:01

And go right back to your Bible. Do not fret at evildoers. Don't be concerned about what they're doing.

01:23:07

I think how we defeat that is with the gospel alone. And so yeah, definitely all three of those points.

01:23:14

Scripture first, and then the practical thing second. Yeah, so I mean, exactly what he said.

01:23:20

If we're not going in with scripture as the foremost and understanding that these people that we're talking to, sometimes we think the government is this nefarious power structure, but it's people.

01:23:30

And legislators are human. They make mistakes just like you and I do. They are sinners, obviously. We're all sinners.

01:23:37

Go in there and actually care about their soul. One of the things that I'm seeing is we gain the most traction when we actually, we're not just trying to push a message right away, we're presenting the gospel.

01:23:48

And so that's been kind of our strategy as we go in. If we see some things that tip us off, there's a pretty good chance this person's not a believer, we start with the gospel right away.

01:23:58

If we think they might be claiming to be a believer, that's when we're asking questions to kind of probe a little bit more.

01:24:04

Just like you would any other witnessing conversation, and then you're there to tell them about equal protection, equal justice.

01:24:11

But the reality is, if they're not a believer, they're not gonna understand the argument. And so you kind of just redirect your conversation in many ways once you figure that out.

01:24:20

And you can still present it, but start with Christ. He gets the glory. He's the one who's gonna change the heart in the first place.

01:24:30

All right, well, thank you guys. And again, if you have more questions, then of course, we're gonna stay after for a bit.

01:24:38

So feel free to ask us those questions. And we also have business cards in the back. So you can give us a call or email, and we will get right with you.

01:24:51

So yeah, in closing, let me just say a few notes of gratitude, as well as some remarks, and then a call to action.

01:25:00

I really wanna focus at the end on some concrete action points that we can take. So I'll try to stay under 10 minutes, because I know we're a bit over time.

01:25:10

So we apologize for that. But again, my name is Nicholas Callis. I'm the Executive Director of End Abortion Ohio.

01:25:18

And my aim, Lord willing, is to work full time for End Abortion Ohio by the summer.

01:25:23

So we'd really appreciate your prayers that that would be able to happen. So again, we'd like to thank

01:25:30

Journey Church and their pastoral staff for hosting. Also like to thank Zachary and Carmen and the whole

01:25:36

End Abortion Now team for what they have been doing to help states, as well as us personally in Ohio.

01:25:45

Thanks also to some specific brothers and sisters who have been doing a lot to make this meeting happen, including

01:25:52

Chris Routzen, Brian Fox, Michael Coughlin, Elijah, Stephen Ferris.

01:25:58

Also thanks to our wives, Mary, Maria, Emily. We really appreciate everyone's support and help in this.

01:26:07

And also thank you to Matt Hardin, our good brother, who has been working very hard on our website.

01:26:13

Although it's still under construction, it is up and working. So you can go there and get a little bit more about our foundational beliefs.

01:26:22

That website is on our business card. It's just www .endabortionohio .com.

01:26:29

I wanted to read the ballot, our press statement on the ballot initiative, but again, we don't have time, but we have printed those ballot initiatives or the press release for the ballot initiative in the back for you to take home.

01:26:44

So go ahead and take one of those before you leave. When I think about how the church should respond to abortion, there's a story that I often ponder in the book of Judges.

01:26:58

And in this story, a Levite is traveling to his home with his concubine. And since they were on the road, when night came, they decided to stay overnight in the

01:27:09

Benjamite city of Gabba. Well, it was here in Gabba where the inhabitants of the city violated and murdered the

01:27:18

Levite's concubine. And when the Levite comes to his home, he dismembers the concubine into 12 pieces.

01:27:25

And he sends a piece of her to each of the 12 tribes of Israel. And all the people gathered together, and the text says, and all who saw it said, such a thing has never happened or been seen from the day that the people of Israel came up out of the land of Egypt until this day.

01:27:45

Consider it, take counsel and speak. And of course, they acted as well.

01:27:52

Well, today you've learned of the urgent unprecedented situation in our state.

01:27:58

God in his mercy has raised up a godly man, Representative Bill Dean, to carry forth the

01:28:04

Abolition of Abortion Act, a righteous bill that would establish biblical justice for the fatherless pre -born.

01:28:12

And you've also learned of the Ballot Initiative, one of the greatest schemes of darkness that has ever stalked the corridors of Ohio's history.

01:28:21

And you've learned that the pro -life establishment is actually working to undermine that righteous bill.

01:28:28

And so brothers and sisters, we ask of you to consider, to take counsel, to speak and to act.

01:28:37

We ask you to fulfill your moral obligations to your fellow image bearers. We ask you to love your neighbors as yourself.

01:28:46

We ask that you'd hear the voice of Christ after providing the example of the Good Samaritan says to the lawyer, you go and do likewise.

01:28:56

We exhort you to radically give of yourselves for the cause of the pre -born.

01:29:03

We call you to pick up your cross and follow Christ who was crucified.

01:29:09

And we need your help, brothers, desperately. Again, as Austin mentioned, we're not trying to be a parachurch ministry or an organization where all the work is shipped out to two or three people.

01:29:21

We are just Christians pleading for the church to love their pre -born neighbors by establishing justice for them.

01:29:29

And to continue in the status quo would be devastating and all but seal the condemnation of untold multitudes of pre -born children.

01:29:38

If the church does not cry out for justice, if the church does not herald the message of repentance, then our great state will all but surely be given over to the devilish schemes of the wicked.

01:29:52

What we are doing is quite simple. We go to the governing authorities and call them as servants of God to establish justice.

01:30:01

We demand by the authority of God's word the total and complete abolition of abortion without exception and without compromise.

01:30:09

We call them to repentance. Now, you might say, but who am

01:30:15

I? Well, one person in Exodus also said that. Who am

01:30:20

I, O Lord? It was Moses. But the Lord countered that with an I. He said, but I will be with you.

01:30:28

I met with a representative with Austin the other day and I walked away saying with Moses, I'm a man of uncircumcised lips.

01:30:38

But later that night, I was reading to my daughter, Zachariah 4. And in that passage,

01:30:43

God says to Zerubbabel, not by might nor by power but by my spirit.

01:30:50

The testimony of scripture, brothers, is that God is not interested in our strength or our eloquence or our aesthetic.

01:30:58

He's not interested in what we can do, but he's interested in his glory. And he asks that we only be faithful.

01:31:06

And so that's what we, as your fellow brothers in Christ, are pleading of you today.

01:31:13

And I want to leave you with some concrete action points that you as an individual can do, that you as a pastor can do, and that you can encourage your church to do as well.

01:31:24

If you go to our website, we do have a page called, it's titled Get Involved, and we have more concrete steps that you can take.

01:31:32

But I wanna talk about four steps that you can take in light of the bill that's going to be filed. First, preach.

01:31:41

We ask that you as pastors carry back what you have learned and share with your churches. Don't just internalize it, don't tuck it away, but open up the scriptures and show your people what

01:31:51

God says about abortion and how we should respond to it. Second, plead.

01:31:58

If you would, go ahead and take a picture of the QR code here. Hopefully it works.

01:32:03

If it doesn't, I'll give you that information later. But it's gonna take you to a page that will have the contact information of several legislators.

01:32:13

And we thought carefully about who to ask you to contact at this stage. We believe that these could be key supporters of the

01:32:21

Abolition of Abortion Act. And many of these representatives would claim to be

01:32:26

Christians as well. And so we would ask you that you would consider calling them and asking your people to call them as well.

01:32:34

I think Zach mentioned that Apologia has a committee or a group of volunteers who are dedicated to calling legislators.

01:32:41

And maybe that's a good idea for your church as well to think about. But encourage these legislators as ministers of God to do his will.

01:32:52

And his revealed will is to hate evil, to love good, and to establish justice. And exhort them to do that by supporting this righteous bill.

01:33:03

By the way, the bill, the exact text of the bill is on the red table in the back.

01:33:09

So encourage you to go home, read that, take it with you if you meet with legislators as well.

01:33:15

And by the way, when they hear from you, that's more powerful than when they hear from a bigger pro -life organization.

01:33:23

They're scared when the average person shows up in their office and knows what they're talking about and is demanding of them justice.

01:33:33

You can set up a meeting with them and feel free to invite us to come along, okay? So yeah,

01:33:40

I think we gave six legislators, three who we'd like to get their support and three who have told us that they are supportive.

01:33:48

So please don't forget to call the three who are supportive. They do need to hear from you as well.

01:33:53

The third thing would be your presence. Representative Bill Dean, he's going to file the bill soon.

01:34:02

And when he does, we need you and your churches to be ready to rally with us in person at the state house.

01:34:09

Your presence there will let the governing authorities know that this is what God demands and what his church demands, what his church wants.

01:34:17

And the fourth thing would be to pray, right? Prayer is the most powerful tool we have combined with scripture.

01:34:24

And as Austin mentioned before, we're also trying to find a courageous senator who would also file a similar bill in the

01:34:33

Senate. So please be praying that we would find a senator who would be willing to file the bills too.

01:34:39

So preach, plead, presence, and pray. Four things that you can do at this moment.

01:34:47

Once we close out today, let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father, you are holy, you are righteous and just.

01:34:56

You tell us that you are the father of the fatherless and the protector of widows. We thank you,

01:35:01

Lord, for that. We thank you chiefly for the gospel. We thank you for the shed blood of Christ on the cross, which makes propitiation for our sins and for the resurrection of Christ, which gives us eternal life through the application of your

01:35:16

Holy Spirit. Lord, you tell us in your word that vain is the salvation of man.

01:35:23

Truly that is the case, O Lord. Only your help will count. Grant us help, almighty

01:35:29

God, you who move the hearts of stone. Move the hearts of legislators to do your will.

01:35:35

Give them no rest, no comfort, or ease of conscience until they bow the knee before you. O God, we ask that you would give us good success to this bill, that it would pass into law.

01:35:46

Destroy the devices of our enemies. Break their arms, confuse their plans, and bring them to repentance in your mercy.

01:35:55

And have mercy on our state, O Lord. Our cities are built on the blood of the pre -born. From corner to corner, our land is filled with their blood.

01:36:06

We plead that you would pardon, that you would grant repentance. Give us not over in your wrath to the plans of our enemies.

01:36:14

Quicken the conscience of your beloved bride, the church, and spark within her breast compassion for your image -bearers.

01:36:23

Lord, be with these pastors as they go back to their churches. Be with these men and women who know you.

01:36:33

Lord, give them wisdom and spark within them action.