What Do You Do If You’re Pregnant? | Todd Wagner

[Music] well hello porch how we doing yeah it's great to be with you my name's Todd I get to hang out with you guys periodically and hang around here all the time the watermark it's awesome to be here and I'm gonna tell you a story about a friend and he's got a question for you true story I've got a friend who's very powerful this particular friend was a good guy for a long time but one day man you know how it is he just laid his eyes on something he couldn't keep his eyes off of and he kept looking at it and he kept liking it and eventually he tapped into it and not just a little bit but all the way just one time and he thinks that she's pregnant even worse this deal my friend is that it was not just the friend of a friend of his it was the wife of a friend of his and he comes to me and he says what are my options if she's pregnant I'm asking for a friend I mean now here it is I was just getting along and having a good time with a girl and all of a sudden we get out in just one time but a good pie for a long time and then we get this I'm asking for a friend what do you do if you're pregnant man what are your options what can I do now let me just go on to tell you somethin bout this friend true story this friend was powerful I told you that and so what he did is he decided to try and cover up the mistake he made this one time with his friend's wife and so he invited the friend home the friend was away too in business for him the friend works for him he brought the friend back home thinking that bringing the friend back home would cause the friend who'd been away for a while to sleep with his wife and then maybe that when he just kind of worked forward nine ten months he would figure out that the child was his that would all got away and he just his little secret and the wife's secret and he was gonna let it go away but here's the thing when his friend came home where his friend came back from he had left some other friends he was called home and a special envoy by this friend of mine to come back and when the friend came back he was honorable and said I'm not going to enjoy the benefits with my wife this short time when I'm home I'm gonna be all about business so he did sleep with his wife and so my friends got the problem and he wants to know what are his options because she's pregnant what he actually did is he decided to do something crazy he sent this friend to his back I didn't tell you this yet but what his friend was was a warrior like a Navy SEAL think like a Navy SEAL he was a Navy SEAL and because he was powerful he put this guy in a position where he knew that probably in the mission that he was on he wouldn't survive true story and his friend whose wife he had slept with one time and she got pregnant died he in effect murder of his friend because as he tried to figure out what he should do and he was tricking through his options you go I can't tell my friend I slept with this gal I can't tell the world that this girl is pregnant by me so what I'm going to do is set this person up and I'm basically gonna murder this person that's what I'm gonna do because this person I didn't mean to get pregnant got pregnant I think I think my option is to eliminate my problem now how many all want to live a land with a person like that who because it was more convenient for them because it was powerful they were powerful and able to do this that the way they dealt with their problem that was a major inconvenience was to commit murder anybody want to live in a land like that I know I don't there's a law actually not a law there's a change it was made in our society back in 1776 we we conducted a great experiment the experiment was could people live together in what is called a Democratic Republic in other words no longer was the king going to be it's called Rex Lex where Rex the king is Lex law the king is the law he's got all the power he can make all the laws we came back and we said no fact we took from something called the Magna Carta the Magna Carta was a great document and a challenge Rex Lex and it said no Lex Rex the law is actually king there is a write that even the king should have to live this way but see sometimes powerful people don't like to live ways they don't want to live especially when they get problems they don't want to have and they get the power do something about them and they like Rex Lex I'm asking for a friend she's pregnant what are my options now listen my friend didn't talk to me about this particular problem before he made the decision to commit murder on his buddy so there would be no problem as he moved into a more permanent relationship with his ex friend's ex-wife but I think all you guys listed the story to go meant tada that's crazy you said that story's true yeah the story is true it's a story of a guy named David he was king and he laid eyes on be Shiva who was the wife of his good friend Uriah who was one of his mighty men the Navy SEALs of this day and when David didn't know what to do when he found out that somebody that he didn't mean to get pregnant was pregnant the king just did what he won because he could because there was something in the way something costly something bothers some something he was powerful over and he decided to commit murder to deal with this problem what are you gonna do when your friend come to you their innocence King maybe your friend's a girl doesn't matter she's queen and she can decide what she wants to do I mean I'm pregnant what do I do so here's what I would say to my friend what what is your what are you pregnant with right okay what do you pray to with us just start with that because the pay was you're pregnant was we may or may not have a problem are you pregnant with a mouse you're praying with a gerbil are you pregnant with a some people might have a problem with that if you mess with that panda but what is it that you're pregnant with because let me just say some I'm a dad and every now and then people ask questions and before you answer the question I ask of you you want to get a little bit more information so I've been in this situation where I'm in one room I can't see what's gone in another room now if something goes oh dad can't kill this now listen before I answer that question what do I need to do I need to go well what is it that you want to kill is the cockroach yeah I'm gonna step on that thing kill it is it the neighbor's dog mm all right is it your brother let's definitely come in here what is it that you want to kill because once you determine what it is that you want to kill then we've got some answers and we know kind of which direction to go and we know what your options are if you're pregnant let me just talk about this as we get going a little bit further because there's certain things that that we all like and there's certain things that that we all respect when we we see things and other people and so in addition to asking you what is it that you're pregnant with by the way so what was what's the mother of the baby well it's a human what's the father of the baby it's you human well throughout history we're pretty sure that creatures create after their kind so probably what she's pregnant with is in fact a human and that something is alive if it wasn't alive we wouldn't need to deal with it because it's not a problem no something is growing in you it's alive that's the problem that we're trying to deal with if we're looking at this as a problem instead of possibly an opportunity an opportunity what you might say well an opportunity to do the things that we always see people do that makes us respect them right I mean have you ever thought about what it is that makes you look at some I admire that person I had a friend of mine who actually had a chance to speak to a bunch of folks about a topic related to what I'm talking to you about night tonight where she's basically making a case for her friends that human life matters and one of these that she said was just basically this video there's really three things I always see and other people that make me respect them and admire them number one they inspired me when I see people put others ahead of themselves so when I see people do that it makes me really admire them she used a great example she talked about in 2009 there was a captain of a ship called the cost of Concordia I don't know if you guys remember this or not but he was a captain of a cruise ship and this cruise ship got a little bit too close to land and it tipped over and a bunch of people actually died that's not why the story made the news because this cruise ship tipped and a bunch of people died it made the news because the cat's themed Acosta Concordia in 2009 said when the ship tipped he fell out of the boat into a lifeboat and that's why he abandoned ship he was later court-martialed and he was villainized universally why because there were people dependent upon him folks that were under if you will his care and he abandoned them and he left them and he didn't inspire anybody he was villainized and charged and prosecuted three years later there was a guy that was flying a US Airways flight took off from The Guardian remember this story a flock of geese jumped into one of the jet engines and shut this sucker down and captain Sullenberger saw that he was losing power in both engines he could make it back to legardie or any other near Airport so he said I'm not going to do anything but try and land this thing and he landed that plane safely on the Hudson and when he got there in that Hudson what happened is that people in the back didn't realize the tail was submerged so somebody opened that exit gate in the rear of the plane and water began to flood the plane that he had miraculously it's called the miracle in the Hudson it miraculously landed safely and people then started all running towards the middle in the front where the two exit doors were there except one person captain Sullenberger made his way to the back he made its way all the way to the back and make sure everybody got off the middle in the front and he made two laps up and down water waist-high checking every seat to make sure everybody was out and Tom Hanks made a movie about this hero and it inspires us when we see somebody who looks at others in their care and they put those others ahead of themselves doesn't that inspire you secondly we look at folks and they've got a perspective that they realize that the issue that they're dealing with right now isn't the end of the world and so they don't make impulsive dramatic decisions they don't add one problem to another problem they're proving they're careful and they're wise and they stop and they slow down you know one of the options that you have when somebody gets pregnant say I'm gonna do the noble thing right I'm gonna make it mine we take him under my wing I'm gonna be I'm gonna offer to be their husband that may not be the wise thing to do it's an option but if you've got two people that are reckless that are prone to do what they want to do when they want to do it who live in rebellion against God consistently to try and then move them together in a marriage where those two people have never learned to love but have always been used to doing what they want to do when they want to do it which is partly how they got where they are in the first place then it may not be wise for them to get married it is an option but you can marry that person that you got pregnant or if you are the pregnant person that you can marry the person that impregnated you but that may not be the wisest thing to do and I'm inspired by people have perspective I can see outside the moment that are individuals that are careful not hasty impulsive I'm inspired by people who do the right thing even when it's hard I'm asking for a friend man she's pregnant what are my options let's walk back through some of this again let me just start by just asking you what is it that we're pregnant with what's going on inside of you right now because because if what's growing inside of you it's not a human being then no justification for what you might consider is an option let's just call abortion that's what it is no no no decision to abort something that it's not a human is really a problem like I said if it's a panda you know the Chinese are gonna be ticked off all right you guys know why he said it well because you know that every panda in the world is owned by the Chinese you know that and they lease them out to zoos all around the world at a million bucks a year so Chinese might be ticked off if you're gonna board a panda all right but what is it that she's pregnant with if what is growing inside of her is not a human person then no justification for abortion is necessary if it's just tissue then it's no problem but if it's a human being that she's pregnant with then no justification is adequate and you have a situation right here where you've got to have a little perspective you don't want to add one problem to another you want to be Noble you want to do the right thing you want to add to your mistakes my friend quote-unquote David made a mistake he added to the mistake murder I'm gonna told you that story every single person is man why in the world would you do that and let me just be very tender here I just want to say this as we go forward I want to be really compassionate towards unite because some people s time in time when you talk about abortion you mentioned the word murder man don't you know that according to people who study this that that one out of every three woman alive will have an abortion one day that one out of four women alive today under 45 of already had one she got pregnant there was some problem and and and and now she's done this and you just you just equated that with murder is that what you just did is that kind of how you told the David story and worked it back around and she was pregnant didn't know what to do and thought his option was murder and I you're dragging that from your Ryan with David did which we all thought was wrong to what that mom just did let me just say something some people would say man you can't talk like that and you can't talk about it that way because you got to protect people from guilt and pain and what I want to say to you is I'm not trying to create guilt and pain in you I don't want to shield you from unnecessary pain as much as I want to keep you from that which you need to understand which will bring about necessary healing until you understand what you may have been a part of or might be about to be a part of you can't feel bad about it you can't deal with it oh you're gonna feel it for a long time but you may not feel it the way you need to if you keep telling yourself it's something that it's not let's just be clear if it's just a clump of cells then we don't have a problem day one the moment that a sperm fertilizes an egg at that particular moment every chromosome all the DNA everything that will be present in that human when they are 80 years old is present immediately after that conception happens it is unique human life at the moment of conception let me just say this one of the things that we know is that sometimes when people can't get pregnant they go to a life specialist and in vitro fertilization 'el who's going to sit there and try and figure out when they have something they can implant inside of you that will lead to a human being what is that thing that thing is a fertilized egg and they don't say we're not really sure if it's gonna be three weeks before it has a heartbeat or six weeks before it has you know it sends a full sense of touch and brain waves and its mouth and lips are there and fingers are there or at 17 weeks it's got a sense of hearing and memory no they know they have a human life the second there is a fertilized egg it's human life and they go now we can implant that in you and if it is cared for and protected it will lead to a human life we know when life begins it's not just a clump of cells or should I say it this way it is a clump of cells just like you and I are clump of cells that's what a human being is right it is an ordered assembly of cells you might say well tied man that newborn baby doesn't look very much like a human I'm going to tell you that that that fertilized egg looks exactly like every human ever looked exactly at that human's age of development man she's pregnant what are my options what is she pregnant with sometimes when folks are talking about this topic they just say well look man is there's a couple of things that are necessary for you to to really have a sense of a responsibility towards that because because I'm not really sure okay so it's a human being but it's not a human person and because it's not a person it doesn't get all the rights that persons should get and I go well what makes you say it's not a person I've already talked about one omegle it doesn't look like a human and I've said no no it looks like every human looked at that particular age of development right the four-year-old doesn't look like a 40 year old but we all agree a four-year-old is just a 40 year old there are different life stages it is a human being and it is filled with dignity and value and it is worth protecting because it's a human person same thing true when it's a zygote or an embryo or a fetus fetus just literally means in Latin that which is brought forth embryo just means fruit of the womb it's just words that we use and the reason we sometimes use words is because we want to protect people from guilt and shame and what I'm gonna tell you is I don't want people to feel guilt and shame but I also don't want to protect them from that which is going to bring them necessary healing and until you know what you've done until you know that there's a problem you cannot deal with the problem and move towards a solution blessed are the poor in spirit people who understand what they've been a part of and understand what they've been doing it helps clarify what your options are some would say it's not a person because of its size let's just talk about that if I want to give you a little acronym it's a simple way for you to remember when you're talking to her friend says man I think she's pregnant or hey I think I'm pregnant what are my options you want to think about sled you just give it the sled test people go well it's not probably a person because of its size it's not as big it doesn't look like I've already talked about that it looks exactly like every human being looks like at that particular part by the way a newborn doesn't look like the toddler toddler doesn't look like a child child doesn't look like a teenager teenager does it look like somebody who's 50 the size of something does not determine it's personhood a hundred percent of the genetic information 100% of the genetic information that exists in me was present when I was a zygote size does not determine dignity and value some people say well not just size okay because we think of two-year-olds as valuable as a four-year-old what about the level of development in fact there are people a guy named Peter singer who is a philosophy professor at Princeton makes the case that that we shouldn't give any dignity to somebody unless they're irrational conscience and self-aware in fact he believes in what's called a fan's aside up until several years of age you should feel to make a decision about whether you want to keep a child and frankly he's more consistent than many other people who because they hide behind certain language in certain terms think there are more options with what you should say or what you might consider when you find out that she might be pregnant I'm asking for a friend Peter Singer says I don't care if she's pregnant okay if the baby was born until that baby is rational conscious and self-aware it isn't a dignified human person I want you to think about that when you start to talk about something that is small and and at the moment that the one selves human embryo begins to exist it doesn't have an organ that allows it to think I've mentioned to you that that sense of memory or the brain is it really developed until about six weeks so those first six weeks if you're lucky enough to find out you're pregnant during those six weeks you might think what's that a human yet I would tell you it's completely human and everything that is there that will be there when that human is eighty is there right then it just hasn't developed now it's different than an amoeba okay an amoeba isn't something that will ever be rational conscience or self-aware because of what it is not because of how old it is children are not rational children are not often self-aware children aren't conscious of their surroundings two-year-olds are people that still in their level of development have not yet developed all the things that we have when we walk in this room tonight and yet nobody in this room would side with Peter Singer and yet Peter Singer in many ways is scientifically more consistent although he's philosophically way off base Peter Singer Southbay what your options are not just up until that child is born but I'll say what your options are up until we think that child is rational and conscious and self-aware size doesn't determine dignity level of development is internment dignity an environment doesn't determine dignity they would say well it's not really human because that human lives inside of the mothers in the wrong location we don't think that somebody becomes less human when they leave the Earth's atmosphere and go into orbit we don't think somebody comes less human when they put on scuba gear and go underwater we go no it's still a human even though it's in a different environment environment doesn't determine whether or not somebody is human then what about this one table what about degree of dependency that child is dependent in fact one of the things that I would say is that we look at it go back to our our example of Captain Sullenberger is the more that something is dependent the more something is needy the more something requires care and attention the more we put responsibilities on the individual who was stewarded the care of that individual if a mother decides go to the rollerskating party on Thursday night and she leaves a six month person at home alone there's going to be a different response from our government than if she leaves to go to a roller skating party on Thursday night and she leaves the 18 year old at home the greater the level of dependency or the degree of dependency that's in somebody what should be more true is the greater the care we give to them should be and some people go with Todd you can say all this all that you want but I am King I believe in a woman's right to choose so I got options all I would say when somebody says that I believe in a woman's right to choose like that's just kind of a statement that needs to be finished what do you mean you believe in a woman's right to choose it's not even a sense you believe in a woman's right to choose what her nail color I'm all-in right what job she wants on all in what she wants to spend $800 for and call a purse I'm all-in a woman has the right to choose she can do whatever she want but there's a woman have a right to choose to kill her six month old does she have a right to choose to kill a baby that makes her uncomfortable or cost too much or disrupts the life she always dreamed of I might say to you would you believe in the right of a man to take take what take a chance take his dog to the park take a nap sure you believe in a man's right to take a woman's dignity do you believe Harvey rhyme Weinstein had the right to take me to neither finish your sentence we don't believe that people have a right to choose anything they want to choose why I wouldn't use that but I'm gonna let her choose that really let me ask you a question what would you do if somebody came to you said they were gonna rape somebody else I know you wouldn't rape somebody what if someone's gonna rape somebody else would you go I'm gonna do everything I can to keep them from doing it yet would you say that if they go ahead and do it they're already laws in place to keep them from doing it again there are the consequences and significant ones you bet you would the same thing is true of you might not take someone's life and you just don't think you should let somebody else there should be laws in place the question is what is she pregnant with man see at the end of the day you got to realize that this topic that we're talking about your view and abortion is not just a personal choice you're making about a child it is a declaration you're making about who is your God and I'm not talking about Bible verses to talk about the dignity of human life I'm not talking about bottlers to talk about that God knows us in our room and he's seen us from the moment that we were conceived I'm talking about what you're gonna say at that particular moment I don't really care about that child I don't really care about any body but me so what are my options because I'm gonna choose what I want to choose listen we don't let people kill people for all the reasons that are always offered when we talk about this thing called abortion we know what people kill people because they're in the way they're costly it's a privacy issue I've got a right to my own body the person had a tragic beginning because they remind me of a terrible classical event that happened earlier in my year I don't want this person to live and I would just ask people because listen let me just talk about this because some people meant that even in cases of rape let's just all agree man rapist awful we're gonna do everything we can to care for women that have been raped we got to take seriously about significantly increasing the consequences of men who rape women but do you believe we should kill a child because of the sins of the father what is the rape victim pregnant with what inspires you what inspires me are people that put others ahead of themselves and have perspective and that do the right thing even when it's hard so if you're asking for a friend what do you do you got to think about what it is now let me just take just a moment and I'm gonna show you some hard stuff and I'm not going to show you some hard stuff because I want to again have you experienced unnecessary pain but because I want to keep you from missing out a necessary healing I want to keep you from being persuaded by stories and questions and illustrations that aren't true there have always been human rights atrocities here's a here's a picture of two of the more well-known ones of a person that because of his color and race was treated as chattel it was treated as somebody that he wasn't owned and and actually I want to show the slide of the three people up here first okay the african-american slave the victim of the Nazi Holocaust and then you're also going to see the child in the womb there's always been victims of human rights offenses and the reason that they've been victims it'll come up in just a moment it's because of the way that they were described they were seen as less than human they were whipped they were imprisoned because of their ethnicity the color their race or their stage of development or how they were viewed as a person every human right in justice that's ever happened dehumanizes the innocent victim and says that's not a human they're not human it's not human what are our options picture was up here a little bit ago is of a young man his name is Emmett Till Emmett Till actually just was exhumed and had his casket moved to the african-american Smithsonian Museum in DC the reason it did is because Emmett Till became a very famous individual in 1955 in a way the wasn't at all glamorous Emmett Till was from Chicago he went down to visit some relatives and Dixie and when he was down there there was a woman Carolyn Bryant who accused him of wolf-whistling her grabbing her aggressively and actually thrusting himself upon her she later denied that that ever happened but her husband Roy Bryant and his buddy JW million took him at night and beat him to death through him the Tallahatchie River tied in with barbed wire to a cotton gin fan and threw him in the river and left them there to decompose it took several days for them to find him and when they found him they took his body and they sent his body back to Chicago and his mother mammy Till decided to have an open casket funeral now brace yourself in 1955 Jet magazine went ahead and ran this picture I'm about to show you of Emmett Till because she wanted to awaken the nation to the horrors of dehumanizing somebody simply because of somebody else not thinking they're valuable this is the picture of Emmett Till that began to change the consciousness of America both eyes were gouged out there was a bullet hole to the head he was severely beaten and left dead and she just said you need to realize that this is what they're doing to people because they put them in a category that they say those people don't matter I'm going to show you in just a second very quickly some pictures because the pictures communicate truth your buddy comes to you and says I think I might be pregnant your girlfriend comes in too I think I might be pregnant what what are my options you got to ask yourself what are you pregnant with sweetie because if it's a human life I don't care how costly it is for you to bear it I don't really care how much it's gonna be in the way of your perfect plans I don't care what you think about what it reminds you of I don't care about your privacy issue I don't care about what you want I don't care about the tragic beginning have some perspective because what's being aborted is a human life now listen if you are not comfortable certain images I don't put these up to shock you I put these up to teach you just like mammy Till did I'm gonna put up five images in five seconds they're gonna fly by this is what's being aborted it's a precious human person what are my options your options are to be heroic your officers are not to make another problem your options aren't to stay Rex Lex baby I'm King your options are to really acknowledge that maybe you've been a part of something that you never thought you'd want to be a part of see because some of you in this room I know you've made a decision already to terminate the pregnancy and the moment you did he became unpregnant but you know every single year when that child's birthday would be you look at other kids and you go that child's about six that's how old my child would be you became unpregnant but you're not a nun mom and you know that and you carry that weight around you with you and I don't want you to carry that weight around anymore and I want you to know something there's a God who loves you he's not mad at you and he wants to heal you there's a verse in Isaiah chapter 49 that says this but Zion it's the name for Israel the people that God loves is the Lord has forsaken me the Lord's forgotten me and then Isaiah the prophet says this can a woman forget her nursing child have no compassion in the son of her womb Isaiah says oh yeah almost 60 million Americans has since 1973 hundreds of women in this room hundreds of men in this room have been a part of forgetting the precious unborn human person that they were given stewardship over moms can forget dads can forget they can find convenient words and convenient reasons to maybe deal with it in a way that doesn't make them feel bad but we need to realize exactly what's going on here yet you may forget but this is what God says I won't forget you behold verse 16 says I've inscribed you on the palms of my hands the things that are hindering you the troubles the protection you need they're continually deforming and I love you I want you to know this proverbs 28:13 says this that that he who conceals his transgressions will not prosper you may think that this is a secret you can take with you and that you can go forward with but he who conceals his transgressions will not prosper but he who confesses and forsakes them will find compassion I'm gonna give you a testimony from my friend David the one who didn't seek good counsel when he found out that she was pregnant and ended up participating in a murder this is what he says in psalm 32 he says how blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven whose sin is covered how blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute which means just to put upon the place upon their sin and whose spirit there is no deceit how blessed is that man David says that's not me I know exactly what I did even though I'm King even though I can cover it up I can't cover it up inside of me I carry the weight of my decision with me and when I kept silent verse 3 about my sin my body wasted away through my groaning all day long for day and night your hand was heavy upon me the hand of his conscience the hand of God my vitality was drained away as with the fever heat of summer and he just rests and he sits in that pain but he said then I acknowledged my sin to you and my iniquity I did not hide I said I'm gonna confess my transgressions to the Lord and you forgave the guilt of my sin that's that's what God wants you to hear tonight listen we all make decisions without perspective we've all rebelled against God all of us like sheep have gone astray and hundreds of us in this room have made a decision to deal with an unwanted pregnancy in a way that we look back and we just go you know I just didn't have perspective I can't ever tell anybody that even though I'd never really stopped thinking about that and you have a God who's here who's telling you tell me tell me you know exactly what you did tell me you know that all the rhetoric and all the language that you've used and you were told about it being safe that it's not safe that you carry it with you everywhere you go and that you need forgiveness this is what he says therefore let everyone in verse 6 who is godly pray to you in a time when you may be found surely in the flood of great waters you will not reach him Oh David says you're my hiding place you preserve you from trouble you surround me with the songs of deliverance that's why we sing these songs we want you to know it doesn't matter what you've done there's a God who wants to forgive you you're pregnant what are your options your options are you can keep that child and you can find folks who will support you and care for you you can be courageous and just say hey I'm gonna be there I'm gonna alter my life plans I'm gonna be a mom I'm I may not be the husband of the of my baby's mother but I'm going to provide for that woman we have examples here watermark of a godly man who made a decision early in his life to be intimate with a woman that wasn't his wife led to a child but they courageously brought to bear that he continues to have a good relationship with the mother care for the child and is happily married and they're both members here you can make the courageous decision to give the child up for adoption only 2% of all unwanted pregnancies unplanned pregnancies end up in adoption and you can make that courageous decision let me tell you a story two years ago right here two years ago March of 2016 sweet little Dominique shows up here this is a picture of Dominique she was 20 years old at the time she came down actually with her sister because she wanted somebody to pray for her sister she gets connected with some friends and turns out she's about to go on spring break and she tells these friends I probably should go on spring break because the people I go on spring break are the wrong play mates and that's the wrong playground they encourage you not to go but she went ahead and went anyway and three or four weeks after she went she found out that she was pregnant Dominique came back and she already had a three year old and now she's pregnant again and she was at a point where she didn't feel like she could handle another child and so she was abortion determined she made three different appointments with Planned Parenthood that weren't there to help plan her Parenthood were helped there to terminate the life for precious unborn human child but she kept talking with Liz and Tracy or two friends she met at the poorest and amid an amazing job of just walking alongside her and just helping her think through what that growing thing inside of her was it was everything she is just 20 years younger she had made a bad decision but now I don't wanna make another bad decision your bad decision shouldn't affect the life of your child and Dominique kept listening and eventually she got connected to Pregnancy Resource Center and others around here began to care for her through her pregnancy she didn't really find anybody though in an adoption agency that she reson in a way that we've said this before and I'm gonna say it again let me tell you what one of your options is going to always be as long as God's people are here at watermark if you get pregnant one of your options is to place that child with us in the care of a godly loving couple we introduced Dominique to Ali who had made a decision similar to the one the Dominique was about to make and Dominique and Ryan who are members here had just said hey Dominique we'd love to take you child we'd love to support you we'd love to bring that child up and 20 months ago little effort was born that precious unborn human person is now 20-month year-old everett wall Dominique Dominique story is an over Dominique continue to hang out with us here Dominique's a member of water mark she's here she's in community a couple of months ago I the privileged with Ryan and Allie to be in the water and just celebrate Dominique's profession of life and the forgiveness and the freedom that comes to her and anybody who seeks our gracious King hey man I'm pregnant I'm asking for a friend what are my options your option to be heroic or to enter into a horror that even if nobody knows about you're gonna know about the rest of your days it's not a clump of cells it is a human and God has given you stewardship over it and you have a chance to not make another bad decision you might even have a chance to provide for another couple who was praying for an opportunity love a child like yours a chance for that child to be given to that couple and raised by them and loved by them you have a chance to do the hard thing live with perspective and put others but in front of yourself we'd sing a song and I'm gonna come back up and tell you that that there are a bunch of men and women here tonight we have two ministries one of them is called someone cares and one of them is called forgotten father someone cares the ministry of women who have made an abortion decision and they would love to sit with you and explain to you the healing and the forgiveness that they have found they'd love for you to know what they now know and to find the freedom that they have found there are guys that have made the decision to be a part of an abortion decision that have processed that that have found forgiveness and hope and reconciliation and forgiveness just like I have for my sins and they'd love to meet with you we'd love to share with you the hope that we have hey even if you don't need it right now there's going to be a day that a friend is gonna need that encouragement know that someone cares and they're not forgotten and that God forgives father I pray that my friends in this room would be advocates for life I pray that if a friend comes in as it says hey I'm pregnant I'm asking what are my options that they would sit them down they would say well let me just tell you let's first of all figure out what it is that you're pregnant with and they would love them and they would care for them they would remind them that they haven't made an unforgivable decision by making the mistake of bringing a child in the life apart from a covenant marriage relationship a friend that could remind them that there's a god that's good that can take what we intended for evil and and turn it into something glorious and beautiful that's what our God does he he makes beauty from ashes they can encourage him father I pray for anybody in this room who's listening tonight and the thing they said they never think about again they were forced to think about one more time in Lord High I don't want them to experience unnecessary pain but I certainly don't want them to miss necessary healing so Lord as as they're convicted of what they've been a part of would they be comforted with who you are and what you were a part of that they might be forgiven would they understand the glory of the cross but they understand the kindness of God the one who understands that humans are frail and live without perspectives and act like their king when they are not and that there is a God who does hard things who does put others ahead of him who went to a cross he didn't deserve and died to death he didn't need to die that they might receive the forgiveness that they need father would you bring healing to this room tonight we thank you Father that when we seek you you answer us that you're the god of comfort the God of grace would you remind us of that now through song

Channel: The Porch

Views: 6,755

Rating: 4.9344263 out of 5

Keywords: the, porch, dallas, watermark, church, young, adults, christian, christianity, ministry, movement, jp, todd, wagner, david, marvin, jonathan, fort, worth, ft, el, paso, abortion, pregnant, sex, birth, control, adoption, planned, parenthood, murder, king

Id: _ZlDlkW9lFU

Length: 45min 8sec (2708 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 23 2018