Sanctity of Life

well good morning arcade Church like Sally said my name is Beth Whitney I'm on staff here and it is truly a pleasure to be here with you this Sunday it's sanctity of you Thank You Craig it's sanctity of human life Sunday and we believe in the biblical position that life begins at conception and there's a couple verses in Psalm 149 that speak to that let me read those to you for you created my inmost being you knit me together in my mother's womb I praise you because I'm fearfully and wonderfully made your works are wonderful I know that full well my frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place when I was woven together in the depths of the earth your eyes saw my unformed body all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be that's pretty powerful statement isn't it because before science caught up with this before ultrasounds before technology God's Word says what was growing inside the mother what is growing inside every mother is precious to him to God the Creator it's precious to him and with that in mind we need to remember that racism that like racism abortion is not a political issue abortions on a social issue honestly it's not even a women's issue abortion is a gospel issue and we believe in the gospel of life and with that in mind we need to grow in our discipleship we need to learn to think like Jesus thought we need to learn to see the way Jesus sees and to help us in our growth I'm gonna have just a conversation with Heidi and Debbie but I want to give you a little more background information on them Heidi masky you're the executive director of alternative Pregnancy Center you're also married to Andy for 20 years he's a pastor over at Sun River Church and you're the mother to three teenagers so we need to say an extra prayer for Heidi today because we all know what a challenge that is thank you for being here thank you for having me thank you and bright Sam I let right to my left directly to my left is Debbie Harding her and you been married to Craig for 35 years 36 I'm sorry 36 I skipped a year that's Craig no but you four alternatives you are the president of the board of directors you're also mom to Scott and Steph and I don't know if you've heard Debbie so grandma she's been a grandma for just about six months and if you want to see pictures you can find her after the service so we're glad you're here thank you for being here at this W all right [Applause] so I have some questions to ask you let's talk about alternatives let's talk about the hope of the gospel let's let's get right in so as representatives of alternatives what do you want the church to know well first off I think it is so important for you to hear my heart and my gratefulness and my thankfulness to you as a congregation and to Craig for allowing this conversation to take place and for being a church that is supportive on this issue for me as a pastor's wife as I stepped into this role as an executive director I thought you know naturally I'm gonna have the church's support and I found out very quickly that that is not the case that because it is such a political issue this topic there are a lot of pastors that are just very scared to talk about it because they don't want to say the wrong thing and there have been representatives in the past that has not represented the topic well as well and so the fact that I am here and he's given me this opportunity to talk about my heart and share with you more about it you're already supporters I just want to begin by saying thank you so much secondly what I want you to know is God has given us a very clear and direct future vision of what 2018 is supposed to look like that vision really kind of came to me a year ago when somebody had sent a live-action video to me and that live-action video was a video of the CEO of Planned Parenthood standing up in front of a large group of women talking about how she cares for women and that they even offer prenatal services I won't go down that road we all know that Planned Parenthood does not offer prenatal services but that video convicted me to my core and what I realized is that out alternatives it is our mission to provide hopeful alternatives to women in unplanned pregnancy situations but what I realized is that we encourage women to choose life and we walk alongside them in that process but we do not offer prenatal services we do not help women in all these other areas and that really began the journey and the tug on my heart that God has placed us for this vision for this next year and then he added to that vision in July of this last year I had had the privilege of doing a precept study in the book of Deuteronomy and as I was studying God's Word and there was this direct parallelism that was going on between the book of Joshua and my journey at alternatives Pregnancy Center and throughout scripture he began to reveal to me that God had asked Caleb and Joshua to enter a promised land and yet there were giants there and it looked like a very scary place and he had asked them God had asked them to not only enter in this land but take over this promised land that he had prepared for them and he said do not be afraid do not be discouraged for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go and as you dig deeper into that passage into that chapter there was also this parallelism of the the promised land at the time was a land that was filled with Canaanites and the Canaanites at the time were worshipping the god of Moloch and that is who they were sacrificing their unborn baby or their babies to and again the parallelism God gave me of this very clear vision that you are to go into Sacramento you are to offer the hope of the gospel and you are to help women who are in the midst of unplanned pregnancy situations and begin to offer prenatal services limited ob/gyn services STD testing everything that Planned Parenthood offers - abortion for free and with the hope of the gospel and that is what we have began this January doing that is so exciting what I think is even more exciting I'm just speaking as a board members when Heidi pitched this to us we had a planning meeting where we dreamed and how'd he pitch this this vision that God was laying before her of let's do all of these things with the gospel in hand and we as a board got very excited about it we thought yay maybe in five years maybe ten because there's huge costs involved in that and a lot of things that have to happen and basically in the process I think God revealed how little faith the board had because he's in big ways provided the financial the physical all of the things kind of fell into place in six months time they'll be honest with you yeah for us to begin this journey of meeting the needs of women and unplanned pregnancies with the gospel alongside of it so it's very exciting to watch him to see and alongside that was so fun for me and and what I love about our Lord is that prior to all of this really prior to the gala we had had planned to have five hundred people at the gala and two weeks before the gala we had 238 people registered and really no funds to move forward so when I had pitched this idea to the board not only did it look like a mountain that was on that we could not climb it just was out of touch but a board member said you know what let's not squash her dreams let's lay the gala as a fleece out before the Lord that says this is the vision and desire Lord that you're taking us as an organization then we're gonna ask you to bless the gala and we're gonna ask you to go before us and give us the resources and the ability to make it happen and I'll never forget again just fasting and praying with our team the week of the gala three days before the gala we had 489 people registered for that event our goal was $150,000 and God brought us almost a half a million so I would say that he desires us to go down this mission and and I say that too also because this vision takes a lot of resources and it takes a lot of money including hiring a physician assistant and then all the costs with the added services so we have since the gala moved forward with training a physician assistant and we next week move into a new facility that expands our clinic that is so exciting you know I keep hearing the word mission and and we at our kid have a mission to we we think our mission is to get as many people as possible to hear see and follow Jesus how does partnering with alternatives further that mission well here's the thing I'm gonna step back in time and I think I've shared this with you all before but when I was first approached to join the board of alternatives Pregnancy Center i sat down with these two gentlemen and they you know were telling me about the ministry and and seeing if I would be interested in joining the team and in the midst of the discussion the thing that was revealed was that this wasn't just about the moral issue of saving unborn children this was about the gospel and for me that hit me right in my soul because the reality is if we are just saving babies and not bringing the gospel of Jesus Christ what are we accomplishing in the big picture of things because the gospel is key and so alternatives everything we do there every thing they do there the gospel just permeates everything has a purpose it may not be inward at times it may be indeed but it ties right into getting these young women and young men and sometimes grandmas along an answer along but getting them to hear about Jesus to see Jesus in the kind acts and and ultimately we pray to hope to follow Jesus I'll never forget after being hired as the executive director I had somebody come to me and say you know what you need to remain focused on one thing and one thing only he said your only responsibility at alternatives Pregnancy Center is to save babies and I looked at him dead in the eye and I said then you have just hired the wrong woman because my passion is so much more than that and I said to him if all we do at the end of the day is saved babies who don't have the hope of the gospel and they are raised in homes that are abusive or homes that are without hope then what have we done you know we recognize that we don't save alternatives Pregnancy Center doesn't save the alternatives pregnancy center is a platform that God uses in the midst of a woman who is who is in a crisis situation to offer hope health emotional healing spiritual healing resources mental support the whole nine yards we do it all for women and we do it with the hope of the gospel it is our mission statement to provide hopeful alternatives to women in unplanned pregnancy situations and hope in that word is there specifically because we recognize that hope only comes with the gospel if there is no gospel in hope there is just wishful thinking and that's not what we're about well like I'm sorry I hear that we could put our mission statement and then put a little maybe by you get as many people as possible to hear see and follow Jesus by offering hope mm-hmm they just tie right together suddenly what and I think the other key thing that there is hope obviously we want to provide hope for the women that walk in that are pregnant they didn't plan on it they're not in a good life situation but we also have a lot of women that come through the door and to be perfectly frank sitting in our churches who have experienced an abortion and they feel very hopeless they have nowhere to share that they for some reason maybe by our own fault we have communicated this is an unforgivable sin God can never love or accept me they are not able to feel the freedom that the Cross gives I loved some of the music that we sang this morning that talked about there's no rival you know what the God that we are worshiping is more powerful than any sin any of us had committed whether it's abortion or lying he is the forgiver of those sins in his blood and so alternatives also has an outreach and a ministry to women who are post abortive who are struggling with that issue they they carry baggage from that they feel chained and bound by the burden of what was in the past and I love that component of alternatives that we're offering hope and giving them the true Word of God even though they're a follower of Jesus Christ some of them they still need to be reminded that that that blood is powerful and it paid for it all Heidi you were saying that your volunteers are kind of a very specific group of women can tell us about them yes um so you know the gospel again is is is the purpose for everything that we do and you know going back to you know the book of Deuteronomy in chapter 30 God talks about today I set before you life and death a blessing and a curse choose life so that you and your descendants may live this whole concept of choice today in the feminist movement whatever it was not something that our culture today brought up and that is so important that our volunteers so important that everybody that that steps foot in our Center knows choice is something that God extends to every one of us whether in the past or whether today the beautiful thing though about the New Covenant is that we are now covered with the blood of Christ and through the new covenant we could have made for instance I had a woman that came to me after a service a couple months back and she said you know what Heidi I I had an abortion and I am a believer in Jesus Christ and I knew it was wrong and I can't forgive myself and I grabbed her precious little hands and I said you know what I know this is gonna sound harsh but you're not that important and what I meant by that and what she I explained to her later was that your sin of abortion is not greater than any other sin that Christ came to set you free from that and many of the volunteers at our clinic volunteer because they are post abortive women there are women who have gone through a healing process that alternatives offers and as they've gone through that they want to use this past grief pain to bring life and hope and healing to women who are in the midst of that situation and you know I am very strict with our volunteers and as a matter of fact at our last in-service I I said to them as client advocates dealing one-on-one with every client that comes in in the midst of that situation if you are not in a sanctifying growing relationship with Jesus Christ I cannot have you here I do not want you here and again I know that sounds very harsh but that goes back to the fact that they become a liability to us in the sense that they can be used by the enemy and we are in a battle every morning against life and death and that battle is a very serious one and we have this incredible privilege of offering hope to both ends of the spectrum hope to a woman who is is in that crossroads determining whether they will choose life or whether they will choose death and then also two women who have experienced the pain and loss of abortion well and thinking also have the the level of volunteers and staff to be perfectly frank it is an amazing staff and alternatives if you have not gone and taken a tour you need to do that I'm telling you it is an amazing place and amazing staff but but one of the things why I really support Heidi in the bar that she holds for our staff and volunteers is because it is a very practical real battle the reality is we have fake clients come in often looking for opportunities to cause trouble to be perfectly honest we've had a Facebook post we became aware of of a organization looking for undercover pregnant women to come in and check us out we have legislation that we are continuing to battle that god is doing the work and we're not afraid we're not afraid but we're being wise and so it calls our staff to be at a certain level of spiritual preparedness mental preparedness that I think is very unique to this ministry and and three years ago when I came on I went back to the very foundation of what makes us a medical clinic because we are a licensed primary medical clinic so what makes us medical and from there building on our policies and procedures our statement of faith our vision our mission and really because of Megan Farrah's input have worked very hard for the last three years to not only offer a clinic that is that a that really operates to our cultures integrity standard but if this is our culture's integrity standard this is where I want a PC to operate we have worked very hard at bulletproofing our clinic and doing everything that we can to be above reproach so that when somebody comes in with a fake camera or a real camera and videos us you know what they shared Jesus with them and gave them free diapers you know I mean by all means come that's great I love the impact you're having in the community that's something that we often hear about that is talked about so often in Christian circles many of us are involved in our areas of social justice things like sex trafficking or feeding and housing the marginalized you know we could go on and on and on there's a really long list of of really great ministries and organizations but abortion seems to kind of get lost in there why do you think that is well I have some pretty as definitive thoughts on that first off I think and I'm speaking this is a room full of for the most part a younger generation I think there is a current mentality that this was the previous generations issue and now it's not trending now it's not culturally acceptable to stand for abortion there are so many other things that are safer just stand for you can stand you can protest or post or give publicly or whatever to all kinds of great causes and I'm not saying they're bad causes whether it's sex trafficking or or racism or women's issues or just all kinds of things I've got a whole list here any of that and you will get that's wonderful you are so amazing and churches will get aren't they an amazing Church but if individuals and churches bring up abortion it is a completely different reaction part of it is because our society has politicized it it is not a political issue this is not an issue that belongs to one party this is an issue that is at the gospel I believe that it has become to be honest with you a foundational issue I would contend that how we view our most vulnerable member of society reflects and how we treat those that are walking around so I would say that if we do not value the one who has no voice why would we value the disabled did you know that over 50% of abortions are women who and tested and they have a disabled child and that is the abortion reason so we're not our view of life before birth bleeds out in big ways into how we treat women and how we treat the disabled how we treat people of different colors how we treat sexualization of children across the board I think a foundational issue truly is our view of life and I just think it's not it's not popular right now right it's it's much more popular to wear a pink beanie and protest I'm just saying yeah so for me I will confess to you that this was not an area where I would have said 10 years ago a sign me up and in fact when I felt the Lord tugging on my heart and calling me into this ministry the overwhelming amount of fear that came I'm a pastor's wife so I have a bullet on my chest right I have three teenage children one of which is not mine but as precious as could be and I have a responsibility of raising them in the fear of the Lord the the weight for this topic it was not sign me up for the most politically charged nonprofit in America today I did not sign myself up for that the Lord drugged me to that and I don't say that to you with pride but when he awakened to my heart and my soul and my eyes to what was going on it was at that moment where I truly felt the weight of what scripture talks about when it says take up your cross and follow me and I felt God very clearly say Heidi this is not gonna be an easy road for you in fact it's gonna be paved with a lot of pain and I did not sign myself up for that but when you're a follower Jesus Christ you take up your cross and you follow him and you recognize that's where the fear of the Lord comes in if you do not you walk in disobedience and you don't want to be in that place so I tell you that because I'm sensitive to that I'm sensitive because I understand that the culture has numbed us in a sense to this issue and I'll never forget fast-forward just a few months ago I have for the last three years been pursuing a church for their support a church that knows me many people on their board they know me they know my heart they know my passion they know why I'm there and yet it's taken me three years to get somebody from their church to come down and see it got a phone call and she said all right we're gonna come down we're gonna walk through your clinic with you so I said okay great come on down so we came and sat down and had a two and a half hour a wonderful conversation she drilled me like no other about our finances and about our mission statement our vision statement our five-year you know focus plan and she asked me what is the gospel and when you ask a pastor's wife that I hope you have a lot of time but all that to be said afterwards she looked at me and she said okay I just want you to know that I'm gonna go back and I'm going to encourage our missions committee to support alternatives Pregnancy Center and the work that you do but I just want to warn you that just because we support you this year does not mean we will support you next year we have a backpack organization that we really love to support and we may want to do that and this was one of those moments when you begin to vomit words where you wish you could just like shove them back in that comment just the hair on the back of my neck just began to stand straight up and I just said I so appreciate that and thank you for your honesty but can I tell you that if as a church you are looking for a nonprofit that meets the physical spiritual emotional needs of women who meets a woman in the midst of a crisis situation who offers hope to her in the this is that crisis situation who walks alongside her after whatever decision she makes life or death and a ministry that operates above reproach with their finances and then on top of all of that keeps an unborn baby's body from being ripped from limb to limb if you as a church decide that you want to support a backpack organization over a PC then by all means and again but it just backpack organizations are great you know we get to put backpacks on little kids and that's such an amazing thing even those that can't afford it but if there's no children to put backpacks on then what do we do that was that's really where my heart and my passion is I'm so thankful for this church and so grateful for Craig and his his vision and mission and his passion for the unborn because you know we as a church must rise up on this issue we cannot be afraid to share hope with women in the midst because we're afraid we're going to offend eternity is that safe eternity is at stake and and you can you can share grace with truth and love you can and every day we have the privilege of doing that sorry I'm a little passionate you touched on something that just triggered a lot of thoughts I'll be honest with you my generation for maybe I'm just implementing Craig and I I don't know but I think a lot of us from my generation we thought our children would gain a pro-life understanding by osmosis and we were not deliberate to address the issue parents address the issue find ways there are lots of ways to converse with your children no matter what age they are about how precious life is and I'm going to shared a post yesterday Megan Farah we keep talking about Megan but I love her heart for the ministry she did a little blog last year about how she shares talks about abortion with her children and I shared it on Facebook so if your Facebook friends with me if not become my Facebook friend and you'll be able to see the article but it we have to be deliberate because the world the world is teaching our kids right culture is teaching our kids that babies don't matter that the unborn is just a nuisance so if we are not aggressive and deliberate with our children and that means being verbal and taking them to Scripture and helping them to see the whole and preciousness of life we are failing and the next generation of followers of Christ are going to be even less engaged in this issue Wow really good discussion about that one thank you ladies um we talked a little bit about this but tell us some more about the hope you offer I'm thinking there's women who are abortion vulnerable when that pregnancy test comes back positive it is not a happy moment for them but then women also who have made the choice to have an abortion in their past and how you will offer hope to those women if there's anything I'm most passionate about it is about this because my little sister was faced with an unplanned pregnancy at the age of 18 and she grew up in the church and we her and I were a part of all kinds of pro-life rallies and and spoke out against the issue and it's almost as if God said there you go and I'll never forget the day that she came home and I shared this the last time I was the last time I was here you heard her story and it was it was gut-wrenching to sit there in that moment when I realized she was pregnant no one else knew and it was just her and I and and so I tell women all the time if you have never experienced an unplanned pregnancy you have no idea what that woman is going through and so the sensitivity there is huge and then on top of it my sister being in a church the fear of condemnation and the fear of being judged and my sister and lover two pieces that was so bold I didn't have to but three weeks after she found out she stood up on this on the on stage at church and confess erson in front of the whole congregation and - you know my nephew just got married he's 21 years old a youth pastor and in downtown Denver and and was married two weeks ago and so um the tenderness at which we must walk alongside the women who have who have made this choice but that is what the gospel is about you know like I said Christ came to forgive sin and we all have sinned and fallen short of God's glory and and we have an incredible message - again to offer those women and they can then use that as a platform to then serve serve the Lord with and give back and help save lives and I think that's where we have to be so careful those of us who are on the pro-life side of the aisle we cannot let anger be part of our message it cannot be it cannot be ugliness because the gospel is not angry or ugly and if we're really going to reflect Jesus Christ and whatever ministry were called to it cannot be a ministry that's full of anger or disgust or ugliness and there's many times where that's a temptation I see things on the internet and I hear voices and speeches and I just am disgusted and then scripture screams at me guess you're just as disgusting - you just hide it better so we have to be really mindful of that as we we love women we love the young men we we help them to navigate whether it's a choice they've already made or a choice they're considering we have to do it through that filter and lens and the gospel of course is the key yeah that's that's kind of the heartbeat of your ministry the gospel is a key no matter what you're doing in the first minute someone calls they're gonna know that the gospel is a part of your ministry yeah that's really well Heidi brought a video with her that just gives us a little glimpse of what day-to-day life is at the clinic and so do you want to tell us a little bit more about it yeah so this is a very special video to me because I'm about well last year our goal was to offer abortion pill reversal services which we move forward in doing and this young woman was a part of one of the very first abortion flow reversal services that we had provided and I knew at the gala this last year that I wanted to share her story and but I didn't know I'd never met her before and I didn't know how I was gonna do it this is one of those classic cases of when we just want something from God just Lord would you just help me share this story and yet God has so much more for us as a result of finding her reaching out to her asking her if she would share her story meeting with her the video all the above her and I have become dear precious sisters I shared Christmas time with her and it's just God's Way of saying you are so limited in what you want from the Lord you know you just want to tell a story and yet I have so much more for you and so I can't wait to share this video with you let's take a look it was my son's ninth birthday weekend I had said some something to a girlfriend my sciatic nerve was really bothering me and I said I haven't felt this kind of pain since I was pregnant something right after that skating party drove to the store and bought three pregnancy tests and I thought just because I know that we weren't safe I really didn't expect it to be positive it was and the next one was and exponent was what my girlfriend said like she had talked about having an abortion and I said well I just I need to talk to him I need to talk to him I just listened to him I listened to him talked for probably over 25 minutes and he just said no way he was the one who informed me of a chemical or medical abortion you could swallow a pill and thought that I should go through with swallowing a pill pill goes in my mouth and then she checks to make sure it's swallowed you know not under the tongue not in the cheeks and she times it and she tells me that within 24 hours I need to swallow the other four pills and then I'll do this at home and that it's not reversible [Music] when I called alternatives about 18 hours after swallowing the abortion pill they stepped in and said we'll call you back and they call me back and I was instantly in touch with a nurse and a doctor so I started taking the prescription that night but it was within the next day alternatives had me back to confirm the ultrasound and the heart was still beating [Music] I heard them say he's here and that his head was out and then it might near the minute that I saw him that he was okay [Music] this is really just the beginning of Benjamin's story because of alternatives and the hope that they gave me and my hope is that Benjamin feels loved throughout his whole life and all his journeys and me alternatives know how truly grateful I will always be [Music] first of all Heidi thank you so much for taking some time out your husband's preaching at Sun River today and he probably would rather have you there and we got you here so thank you very much for for being here let's give her a hand okay all right and then for Debbie the best wife ever wherever she went where'd she go oh she's probably getting ready for the women's retreat and Beth thanks for steering the conversation we're very very grateful for that you know in I really admire the courage of these three ladies up here because and they touched on a little bit in the conversation churches like this many times are no longer friendly spaces for this topic and yeah we probably have pro-choice people here if you are here and you are pro-choice I would just encourage you to to reinvestigate to rethink that from a biblical standpoint if you are professing believer in Jesus Christ if you're not a Christian and you're pro-choice first of all thank you for being here we are honored that you would take the time to be here and I hope that what you hear is we think that babies should live not because they're useful but because life is sacred there's a difference we're not the ones who judge whether a life will be useful or not we believe that the Bible teaches us by this Creator God that all life is sacred it is meaningful and we believe that by a conviction all life in talking about that though we've also got people here who are aware of roe v-- wade going ball the way back to 1972 they were there and the church rallied and the church yelled and the church protested and the church picketed and nothing happened and so it's very easy for us to fall into complacency that it just doesn't mean anything and as a result we sit there they okay I'll endure the sanctity of life Sunday and then we'll go on to something else next week but the thing I want to communicate to you is that this is a spear battle that we have been called to engage in and we have no idea the power that is wielded by our Most High God laws come and go presidents come and go rulers and kings and prime ministers come and go and and so we must remain faithful and continually press on into this conversation in our own country 60 million babies and Counting have been aborted in our country since roe v-- wade so that's said Heidi I do want to talk to you a little bit about arcade church and you know us very very well you know we're sister churches and and we get along mostly with your pastoral staff the sandy guy how can is there a way that we can be able to participate you mentioned in the conversation volunteers how can we how can we volunteer with alternatives to move towards and to press into the conversation of pro-life well if you have a passion for sharing God's Word with women in the midst of crisis situations and you love talking about the hope of the gospel regardless of what I said earlier about you know having a sanctifying relationship don't let that scare you but if you are passionate about the gospel and you will help helping women were always in need of client advocates client advocates are really the one that meets that woman at the very beginning of our appointment and really assesses her situation assesses her needs and then has an incredible ability to influence her for two years so those of you that may not know if a woman comes and chooses life she has the ability to opt into our parenting program which she'll come on a monthly basis and a mentor will mentor her through her birth and through up a year after and after her her baby is born and giving her all the resources she needs as well as parenting curriculum and all of that so if you're a woman who is passionate about that I encourage you we have a client advocate training coming up there's information on our booth out there about that client advocate training come check it out ask questions well Megan was at the booth Megan who was on the video she was at the booth and she had to go but we mean client advocates we need women who understand the gospel who have had who reared up children and and have a passion for this so I would love to invite you to investigate that if that's your heart but then secondly if your man in here I just ask ya hey I'm a guy like what what do I do well one of our dreams this next year is we've only been able because of a lack of medical personnel we've only been able to operate the mobile clinic one day a week and we get to do it here at arcade we are in the midst of bringing on a physician assistant and we just trained both her and another registered nurse in ultrasound training which allows us three medical personnel to then operate the mobile clinic multiple days a week one of the fears of operating the mobile clinic one of the areas that we would like to go into is Oak Park and I have a really hard time sending one of our registered nurses and a client advocate into that area without security and so I am beginning now to build a team of men who would volunteer for 3 hours in the morning or in the afternoon while our mobile clinic is in designated locations to just be a presence and just just be a security there for them that's so men if you're interested in that go ahead and go back to the table as well yeah ok and then my last thing is I'm a desperate need today of a graphic art design person so if that is your passion and you love that I would love to speak with you ok so we've got people like that in this fellowship probably in this room right now and again go to that table and talk to Heidi about those kinds of things I'd be great obviously you know because you're a non-profit that means that you do not get government subsidy like Planned Parenthood does and so everything that is done at alternatives is based upon the generosity of people who believe in that cause and I'd like to think that most of us in this room if not the vast majority of us believe in the cause of pro-life issues and we have we have given in the past two alternatives pregnancy center and we were happy to do so I'd like to challenge us to do it again and I want to do this so that Heidi doesn't have to ask because she said she's company she's a guest and guests shouldn't have to ask for these kind of things what would happen to you guys okay Arcadians if you're visiting with us you can join in but there's no there's no compulsion for you to do that what would happen we Jesse Carrillo gave us some numbers several weeks ago that we're averaging this last year a little over 1,300 people on Sunday on our campus that's including the babies the children probably a cat and dog that wander on our campus during services you know those kinds of things so it's 1,300 people what would happen what would happen if each of us gave $5.00 and so that means if you have a child in the nursery and a child in one of the Sunday School classes then you'd give $5.00 per child that you have and four per family member that you would have five dollars that would be 6500 dollars that we could be able to just gift alternative pregnancies center with Heidi real quick what would $6,500 do or the five dollar gift do to to to further this cause well again my passion in moving this ministry forward is to begin to offer limited prenatal and ob/gyn service that comes at a great expense and as you know you know just because you end one year making a lot of money oh my gosh the overwhelming amount of fear that comes with how do you do that again Lord that has been just a deep deep burden for me personally and so I want you to know that $5.00 is a big deal this next year for us because when a woman comes to the clinic has an ultrasound and decides that she's going to keep her baby we would like to this next year give her a gift of prenatal vitamins and just just in our care for her for free and not five dollars would pay for prenatal vitamins for a woman that chooses to a five dollar gift pays pays for prenatal care vitamins for one woman that puts it in real time doesn't it it puts it right down where we live that five dollar gift and as Debbie mentioned what a great way to teach your children that that five dollars that they're gonna get out of their piggy bank is going to go towards vitamins that a young mother it would desperately need and that would be that would be incredible okay so can I stop you right there to just under two that you know the clientele that we see I mean you may be think sitting there thinking you know prenatal vitamins they're five bucks but the clientele that we see can't afford to go buy or that is not I would say their priority so that is it that is a big deal so you just when they come in you hand those to them it would be our gift back to them yeah we have a gift for every woman that Jesus like okay well what about ten bucks apiece I'd love that you're asking me what would happen what would happen if each of us gave $10 apiece 1,300 people that's thirteen thousand dollars that we could be able to hand to alternative pregnancy center I'm just curious what would a thirteen thousand what would thirteen thousand do at alternatives in real-time right now or for future ministry yeah so for this next year basically our medical supply cost is fourteen thousand dollars manually annually so that would that amount of money would pay for all of the medical supplies that we need for an entire year all right let's hope that that that puts it where we can where we know where our gifts are going and to make it easier our tech team how many of you have a smartphone two people had in the first service so you know you have you have a smartphone okay and and we've been learning that you can text a gift at seven seven nine seven seven I should come up on the wall there it is seven seven nine seven seven go ahead and text a gift and you can text a five dollar gift a ten dollar gift or as many family members as you have for five dollars or for ten dollars and you can give that to alternative pregnancy center just go on there text that number seven seven nine seven seven and then you'll come up to the tithes and offering go ahead and touch on that and then you have a menu of different opportunities that you can give an alternative pregnancy center is one of those items go ahead and do that and then whatever amount you want to give obviously if you want to give more than ten dollars I think that they would accept that gift all right for those of you who are check writers still then you can go ahead and make your check out to alternative pregnancy center and put that the back table obviously the the more funds we get and and we say this all the time about those who give to our K Church you guys every dime every dime that goes to alternatives goes towards the ministry and the vision that we just heard every dime and and that that means something to me as a giver because as you know as you know you get asked to give monies in different ways all the time all the time and they're all viable ministries but when you boil it down a lot of those ministries are involved with administrative fees and this fee and this fee to the point where if you give a dollar about 25 cents goes towards the ministry not the case with alternatives and so I really encourage you to think about that as you think about those gifts so you can go on to seven seven seven seven seven nine seven seven and be able to text that gift just to kind of close this out a little bit we we talked a lot in this conversation or we heard a lot of gospel talk the word gospel and it's possible that some of you are here today and and you've you don't even know what the gospel is well the gospel is kind of an old-fashioned word for good news and the good news and the way we say it around here to our cade is the one true God's one true plan to reconcile rebellious people to himself then that's offered to you free it's a gift that Jesus Christ paid so that you could be able to have that free gift of eternal life would it not be wonderful to be reconciled to this God and if you want that that has been paid for the payment has been paid in full by Jesus on the cross and we relish in that and we love that and the reason why this is so pertinent today and you told me a statistic in a conversation a little while ago that in our in our typical American church like this one and we're typical in a lot of ways 40 percent 40 40 percent of the people in this room 40 percent of the people in this room have been affected directly or indirectly by abortion and and having been part of this this battle for a long long time I know that there are people in here who are just carrying the burden of bearing the burden of the secret of the abortion by a young woman or maybe parents of their daughter they don't want to be and here's the thing what I find in the Christian community when there is an abortion and happens by a Christian young woman they're not afraid of God because they're trusting in God's grace for that what they're afraid of is you and me they're afraid of the church they know that God will not condemn them because Jesus hung condemned on the cross for them what they're afraid of is the church will condemn them that we will become descending to them that we will have this air of superiority over them and be in shock that who a Christian would actually sin and I hope and pray that that not that is not arcade Church do you realize that every one of us are part of a scandal every one of us are part of a scandal and the scandal is not your sin the scandal is that Jesus Christ died for that sin that's the scandal he is a scandal as God and because of that scandal of the gospel you can be free of that I so desperately do not walk out of here again with the burden of holding that secret and keeping that secret because of its secret you're probably bearing the burden of guilt you don't want anyone to know because they might think lowly of you trust me no one here will think lowly of you because we are all equally messed and it is the only thing beautiful about us is Jesus that's the only thing beautiful about us and so pastor Bryan is gonna lead us in a song and we want to make an atmosphere where where you can be able to talk about that and and so as he leads us if you wanted has come for we're we're gonna stand here in a second if you just want to come forward and have someone to pray with you elders and elders wives staff and staff spouses would you please be aware and if you see someone alone just just come up to them and and put your arm around them and pray for them pray with them you will not receive judgment you will not receive a speech you will not receive admonishment you'll receive what we've received grace and you will be free of that so as he leads us would you just go ahead and come on down [Music] thanks for listening to the arcade Church podcast visit us at arcade church online com Facebook Twitter or Instagram [Music] you [Music]

Channel: Arcade Church

Views: 686

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: arcade church, craig hardinger, Sacramento, gospel, church, Sanctity of Life, 1-21-18

Id: uBxCd08uiBY

Length: 55min 10sec (3310 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 22 2018