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Welcome to the Defender Podcast, a resource to help mobilize and equip the body of Christ to manifest the gospel to.
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I.
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Children this podcast is a ministry of Lifeline Children Services and I'm your host, Herbie Newell.
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It's Wednesday, January 1st, 2025 and I'm coming to you from Birmingham, AL.
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Today I am so grateful to be joined by.
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By the one and only Pastor Chris Johnson, Pastor Chris is no stranger to the Defender podcast. As a matter of fact, just a couple of months ago he joined us to talk about Orphan Sunday and how your church could get engaged with Orphan Sunday. As a reminder, maybe.
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If this is your first ever Defender podcast to listen to, that was one of your New Year's resolutions.
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You decided to start listening to Defender podcast, or maybe if you've missed one of those episodes with Pastor Chris. I want to remind you that Pastor Chris is the senior director of Church Partnerships here at Lifeline Children Services.
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And he has over 20 years of pastoral experience.
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Based in Birmingham, AL, he and his wife Alicia have 10 children, seven of whom are adopted and are now proud grandparents to 9 grandchildren, even though some of them have not yet made their grand entry into the world.
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And I said 9 but actually met 7.
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And they've also they've fostered over 40.
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And maybe if you've even heard an episode that we have with Pastor Chris and Alicia, you know that two of the kids they fostered are now their grandkids.
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Who their oldest daughter adopted. Chris holds a bachelor's in church ministries with a Masters in educational leadership.
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And as we have mentioned so many times on the Defender podcast, not only is he an all around, great guy, loves the Lord, Expositionally preaches, does a fantastic job representing orphan care and foster care ministry through lifelong.
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Also, the Michael Jordan of all pastors, and so we're grateful to have again past.
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Johnson. But before we do, bring on Pastor.
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Chris, I do want to remind you about the highlight that we have going on throughout January and that is we want to shine a light on the sanctity of human life.
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It's a meaningful observance that takes place on the 3rd Sunday of January, and in 1984, President Ronald Reagan declared this day to remind us of the importance of valuing and protecting life.
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A time for church.
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Wide to come together to pray, discuss and take action for the voiceless.
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Lifeline has resources available to support your church's effort in standing for life with speakers and materials that can help make an impact in your community. To learn more about how you can engage with this vital cause, visit lifelinechild.org back slash sanctity.
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Again, that's lifeline, child.org back slash sanctity. Or, as always, you can check out our show notes for these additional links and how to get this information. We'll pastor Chris.
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You know, especially for the month of December and even as we start January, you know, Doctor Rick has been out because he had a hip surgery.
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And so maybe maybe this is becoming now more you're you're you and I are Co hosting this thing together.
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Been on so much.
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Talk to us a little bit about starting the year off with sanctity of Human Life Month and how apropos that is that even as a ministry we start our year out every year looking at the sanctity of human life.
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For most people, they may even wonder why does an adoption foster care and orphan Care ministry even care about celebrating the sanctity of human life?
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Give us a little bit of a of a reason why this is such an important month, not just for the whole pro-life ministry and movement, but for Lifeline in general.
00:03:48 Herbie Newell
Well, it is.
00:03:49 Chris Johnson
A joy to join you today. Herbie and I will do my best to fill in.
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Doctor.
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Those are big.
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To fill and I will do my best.
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To do it justice.
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But it.
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It's always a joy when I get to come and join together with you and to be able to.
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Hopefully encourage churches and Christ followers to engage in caring for the most vulnerable. And so yeah, it's it's it's really, you know, in some ways it's you think it's it's it's hard to kind of get into your mind wrapped around jumping right into the new year and celebr.
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Such a big thing as.
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Significant human life Sunday or safety, human Life Month, but at the same time, I think it's very appropriate that we are kicking the year off with it because really everything we do in kind of the orphan care space.
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Is tied to the sink of human.
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We do this because we believe that God is the Creator and sustainer of all life.
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That includes most vulnerable among us.
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Includes kids in foster.
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It includes kids who have been orphaned, no longer have parents. It includes.
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Mothers who are finding themselves pregnant in difficult situations and trying to to weigh out their their options and.
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So really it all comes back to holding life in a valuable place and holding life and viewing it as a gift from God.
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And all life.
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All life carries that intrinsic worth because human life is created in the image of.
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God. So really, it's a great thing to just set the tone from the beginning of the year to say, hey, as we launch into this new year, we're going to keep this ever in front of us.
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Going to keep this at the heart of who we are as Christ followers, as who we are, as as a church, as God's people, as who we are as a ministry here at Lifeline.
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Because really, everything we do flows out of.
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The the.
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Holding fast and holding true and strong to the reality that all human life is created.
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Of God and is worthy of honor, value and respect.
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So that.
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Really drives everything that we do and who we are as a ministry.
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I say even greater who we are as people of God.
00:05:51 Herbie Newell
Yeah. Amen. You know, have as a follow up to that question, I'd love for you to just to even track some of the core principles of the.
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Life and just even how this conversation has changed over the.
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But you know, I think even before, you know, you respond, Pastor Chris, you know, I really believe that in June 2022, when the Dobbs decision, the Dobbs verdict came out by the Supreme Court.
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That those of us who've been on this side on the adoption foster care side of the pro-life Ministry, a lot more light was really shed on that ministry. I think before the greater pro-life Ministry always almost saw us as a saw us as a friend.
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Of the pro-life ministry because so much onus was on abortion protection, protection of the unborn life.
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Do we overturn Roe V?
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So it's almost like after the overturning of Roe V Wade, people were.
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Inviting us a lot more to the conversation.
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Talk again about some of those core principles of the sanctity of human.
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But then also just how you've seen that conversation evolve over the years as well, both in pastoral ministry, but now also in ministry here at Lifeline?
00:07:03 Chris Johnson
Yeah, I think we have to recognize that really this whole idea of celebrating a sanctity of human life Sunday and even taking kind of the month of January, and it really all flowed. You mentioned earlier that there was first adopted by Ronald Reagan in 84 but it.
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Started as a response to the initial row decision.
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In 70.
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And so it's even, you know, recognized as the third Sunday in January, because that's the Sunday that followed that initial decision in January of 1973.
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It really kind of.
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Roots tied around that row decision and the need for Christ followers the need for.
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Churches to engage around that issue and to stand up and be a voice for life in the womb.
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You know, I think initially churches were were giving that focused and seeing the need to to protect life.
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The.
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But so many times, that was the only part of the conversation.
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Was just. Let's do what we can.
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To make sure that the children have the opportunity to live, and let's let's help kids be born and and that certainly is hugely important, you know, needs all the energy and effort and.
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Certainly a child of the womb is the most vulnerable human life because it doesn't have a voice. It it so easily discarded by the world. And of course the enemy wants to do everything he can to to stop life and keep life from flourishing.
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If he can stop it from ever coming, just remember being.
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That he can certainly do that. And so that was kind of the initial push, the initial thrust behind it.
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I think as the the kind of the, the overcure movement and.
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Has spread and has kind of become more understood. The realities around caring for older children. We begin to in recent years be able to tie that more closely to a again a pro-life ethic that would we really say if we're truly pro-life and we're truly value.
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As God does, and as his word values it, then we're going to be absolutely concerned with life being born. But we're.
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Concerned with that life after birth? And so I think kind of the as the Auckland care movement has elevated, it's also risen the the kind of the conversation around then we've got to, you know, understand the realities of all life. And we've got to protect.
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Whole life and so certainly there was still for a long time this push to overcome Roe. Again. I think the reality of you know sanctuary really kind of coming out of that mindset.
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So there's this huge push we've got to get Roe.
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We've got to get Roe overturned and then we saw that happen, and so then it was like, OK.
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Do we do?
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What now? You know what next?
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And so I think it was a.
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It's been a natural flow to that conversation to go, OK, if we're getting overturned.
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Hope is that that will mean that more children are born.
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But the situations of the women who were making those decisions has not changed.
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Still, in a crisis situation.
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Still in a.
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They're still a lot of vulnerability around those women, and now the children that are now being born, and so we've got to say, hey, if we're, if we're really value life and really kind of put our, you know, put our actions where our mouth is then then.
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Say, hey, what does the church need to?
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What's the responsibility role of God's people to come alongside that woman who now has chosen life?
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That baby that is now being born.
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And so the natural flow that is to go, OK, these things that we've been seeking to put in place and recognizing the the need to step into vulnerable families, broken families, hurting families to wrap around, care to keep children from going into foster care to provide.
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Adopted parents when that's the best choice. They needed the reality of that now is is again just really been the emphasis there has been raised.
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To.
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Hey, we've got to make sure that if women are choosing life, that we, as God's people are stepping in to provide support and care and help for her and her child after birth.
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Just become even a greater part of the conversation.
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We've really seen a lot of, even just.
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Recognizing safety, human life Sunday has become more very similar to what an orphan Sunday would be, or a, you know, stand Sunday.
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Kind of.
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Some of the conversations we had couple months ago back in November were seeing a lot of churches that are recognizing, hey, we've got to shed more light on that and we've got to shine more. We got to.
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Engaged more in the bigger picture of.
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Things now, we certainly know that even with the overturning of Roe, that did not end abortion in America, as many people falsely believe and thought might would happen in some states, abortions become more prevalent, become there's there's even more abortions happening.
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So we can't back off and can't quit fighting for life in the womb.
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Got to continue to do what we can.
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But certainly in those places where abortion has been outlawed and is no longer an option, we got to make sure that we're supporting those women that are choosing life and that we're coming alongside them so that their their children can have the opportunity to live an abundant life.
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Not just just have life, but have an abundant life that that really is God's designing God's plan.
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So we've seen kind of a shift of focus.
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States where it's more on supporting and caring for life after it's born. In some states, it's like, hey, we've got to do more in our particular state to protect life and to protect life in the womb.
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We're seeing kind of a few different shifts and a few different angles that are that are happening based on where church might be located, where family may be living.
00:12:05 Herbie Newell
Yeah, it's such a such a fantastic overview and I think so important. Of course, I think a lot of people that are listening, they wanna hear what we see because they're not on the ground, they, they're just in their sphere of influence. And you and I have it.
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Have the opportunity to travel the country.
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To even see how the fight for sanctity of human life is different in every state, and that's one of the things that Dobbs did is it pushed this idea back to the states. And so you have a lot of different battles in in different States and even in.
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Of the states that.
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We're licensed in. You see a very.
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Different platitude, a very different mindset towards to the abortion issue in the sanctity of human life. And so you have states like Alabama and Georgia and Florida. Even at your home state, Mississippi, who really are transitioning into the conversation with St.
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How do we care for these kids that are being born?
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We've clipped these restrictions. We put the abolition there.
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Are we going to?
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And then you have right in the center of the country states like Kansas that really the abortion issue of the Midwest, especially the states that surround Kansas.
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Has been brought to.
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This because of the the legislation that was upheld from the Supreme Court or the decision to upheld from the Supreme Court to allow abortion unfettered access to.
00:13:23 Herbie Newell
And so you see the whole thing and the whole agenda go forward. But you know, Pastor Chris kind of, you know, going back and diving into that moniker, we call you a pastor.
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Pastor, you had the opportunity to preach God's word.
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Some would say even in Florida that you're the goat, the greatest of all times in that, that.
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But a lot of times, even Christians have a hard time defending from scriptural basis to sanctify human life. You know, we don't see in Scripture per SE where.
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It 100% unequivocally says, OK, life begins at conception and should be guarded at conception. Now we believe that and we see it in God's word.
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We don't see it explicitly.
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Can you maybe take us through into God's word and just show us how the word does support?
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A Christian's view on the sanctity of human.
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In life.
00:14:14 Chris Johnson
Yeah. And I think this is so important because we, again, we're seeing even kind of going when you were talking about just some of the trends we're seeing even in in the week would consider conservative states, the most recent election, we had several conservative States, Missouri being one.
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Them where we have an office.
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We're seeing those.
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States still not be willing to.
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Regulations that would stop abortion in their constitution and then go in the other.
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They're voting to put a constitutional right to some type of abortion in their states, laws and constitution, which is just really heartbreaking. It reminds us that we've got to remain vigilant to this, even in states where we could sometimes would take it for granted.
00:14:49 Chris Johnson
But the reality is we've got to do a better job as pastors, as church leaders, in teaching and training our people, that this is a biblical issue, that this does not come from Conservative government. This is not come from conservatism.
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Comes from a biblical.
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Of what it means to value life.
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We see it right from the very beginning in the creation account in Genesis Chapter 1, when God said let us make man in our image. That's what was unique about human life from all the rest of creation. Everything that God had created was good.
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Created.
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The.
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The vegetation he created animals.
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And then he said, let's nail this. This is all.
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This is beautiful thing, but but we need to create man in our image and so human life was created in the very image of God. And so as being created in his image. It means that every life that is created from from that time forward.
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Is an image bearer of the most holy God, and so if if we can't value that, then what can we value? We have no basis for.
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For valuing you anything, if we can't even value that which was created in God's image.
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So we see that from the very.
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So the emphasis is placed on that there is something unique and different about this creation from all of God's other creation.
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So I think Genesis 1 holding fast and understanding that is foundational to this.
00:16:03 Chris Johnson
But then you move forward throughout Scripture and you see that from the beginning when God was calling his people to when he was giving them the law and giving them kind of how to manage themselves, he was always making space for the care of the most vulnerable.
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So there was this idea that those who are most vulnerable, they are worthy of you going beyond going above and beyond doing extraordinary. Those that didn't have a voice. You need to provide for them. You need to share the extra share, the abundance for them. So again.
00:16:33 Chris Johnson
You're valuing the most vulnerable among.
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We move into, you know, passages like Psalm 139, where we're just we see that.
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That God shakes life within the.
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From the very beginning, it's why God he was the the.
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Of.
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No life comes into this into being without God ordaining it to be so. You can have a a man and woman who come together, but life only forms when God says I won't like to be formed, and so it's it's God that brings that life into being it.
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That shap.
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Warms that life within the womb.
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It's God that sets out.
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Plan for that life.
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No life is given without God's design and.
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No life is taken without God's design and plan, and so I know that's hard for us to wrap our minds around and wrestle with.
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But the reality is life will all be ended unless God allows that life to be ended, and so.
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Over and over and over again, we just see in Scripture that the God is the one who gives life.
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Is the one who sustains.
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God is the one who allows life to end and that God values life and causes.
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People to value life as well, and we take that all.
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Way.
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To you know the verse that we kind of hold up in orphan care.
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James, 127 offered in widow there are representative of the most vulnerable in a society, so even there God is saying that those whose faith is real and genuine, the natural outflow of that is that they're going to come alongside the most vulnerable.
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Most vulnerable, and they're going to do what they can to support and undergird the most vulnerable among us.
00:17:58 Chris Johnson
All through scripture, we're seeing the just the sanctity of life, the importance of valuing human life.
00:18:04 Herbie Newell
Yeah. You know, I think it's even important to look at the passage that we've looked at so many times in Luke Chapter 1 as well, even coming off of the Christmas season, the Advent season. And as we start a new year, we look back to Christmas.
00:18:21 Herbie Newell
And in Luke Chapter 1 it says in verse 24 that that Zacharias wife Elizabeth conceived.
00:18:27 Herbie Newell
And that she kept it for five months, and then we see in verse 26 that it was in the sixth month of the Angel Gabriel, the 6th month of Elizabeth Pregnancy. The Angel Gabriel comes to Mary and says you're with child and your cousin is also.
00:18:42 Herbie Newell
Pregnant and with child. And you should go to her. And then we see recorded in Luke Chapter 1, verses 39 through 44. The word says in those days Mary arose and went with haste into the Hill Country to a town in Judah.
00:18:53 Herbie Newell
She heard the House of Zechariah and was greeted by Elizabeth.
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Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary. It says the baby leaped in her womb.
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And then Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.
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And she cried with a loud.
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Blessie among women and blessed it is the fruit of your.
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And why is it that it is granted to me that the mother of my Lord should?
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For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy, and we see even.
00:19:22 Herbie Newell
There, first of all, Scripture says it's a baby, but it's also a a person, the spirit.
00:19:27 Herbie Newell
It inhabited John the Baptist. The spirit inhabited the womb of Mary, and we know that the spirit doesn't inhabit cells.
00:19:37 Herbie Newell
Spirit does it in inhabit, just matter. The spirit inhabits people.
00:19:43 Herbie Newell
And so there were people in the womb of both Mary and Elizabeth, but also, you know, a lot of times the debate.
00:19:51 Herbie Newell
Is that a person or there the personhood should not be given into a child? Can exist outside of the womb on their own?
00:20:00 Herbie Newell
And yet I know you.
00:20:02 Herbie Newell
You've got the Johnson Dozen 7 grandkids, 10 kids.
00:20:06 Herbie Newell
You know.
00:20:07 Herbie Newell
A fact that kids cannot exist without parents after a long, long time.
00:20:13 Herbie Newell
They're dependent for a long time of parents to get food to provide nourishment.
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Can't get.
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They can't provide for themselves.
00:20:21 Herbie Newell
So it's idiotic to even begin to say this dependency womb life is either life or it isn't.
00:20:29 Herbie Newell
There's not even this whole idea of the potential for life. There is life in the womb, and we see it in Scripture.
00:20:37 Herbie Newell
See it echoed in Scripture and certainly we know that that's important and that's why as believers we.
00:20:43 Herbie Newell
Just appreciate the sanctity of life.
00:20:45 Chris Johnson
And the reality of science continues to catch up with what God's word is always.
00:20:48 Chris Johnson
But he said we can even share from personal testimony last last May, I had a grandson who was born at 22 weeks in a lot of states. He would have been discarded. His parents would have been told to abort him.
00:21:00 Chris Johnson
Have been no opportunities. There have been no chance they would have sent a child.
00:21:04 Chris Johnson
At 22 weeks, in vitro could not survive.
00:21:06 Chris Johnson
Well, he was born. Not only was he born, he was breathing on his own, did not have to be put on a rest.
00:21:11 Chris Johnson
Later was bleeding on his own, was able to sustain very frail absolutely, but his his life had value and meaning and he was he was a baby.
00:21:21 Chris Johnson
Was a child, whether he was born at 22 weeks or 40 weeks or at 12 weeks, he still a child.
00:21:27 Chris Johnson
And that life from the very beginning, when God creates that life, it has value and worth.
00:21:31 Chris Johnson
And so there's there's the the other science tells.
00:21:34 Chris Johnson
That.
00:21:34 Chris Johnson
We're truly honest, and the more we again, the deeper we go into understanding through ultrasounds and through other means of learning about life in the womb, we're seeing that science.
00:21:43 Chris Johnson
Is up with that.
00:21:44 Chris Johnson
But as pastors and leaders.
00:21:47 Chris Johnson
Even if that's still rejected, we got to go with God's.
00:21:50 Chris Johnson
We got to go with the truth of God's word, and we can't make.
00:21:53 Chris Johnson
A political issue.
00:21:54 Chris Johnson
We can't even preach it from a scientific viewpoint.
00:21:56 Chris Johnson
Got to preach it from a biblical.
00:21:58 Chris Johnson
It's life has value meaning because God says life has value meaning.
00:22:02 Chris Johnson
God created science and science catches up, and science is affirming that but.
00:22:08 Chris Johnson
An.
00:22:08 Chris Johnson
It's a spiritual, biblical issue that God has been very clear on from the beginning.
00:22:13 Herbie Newell
You know, Amen. And I think I love what our friend Karen Purvis used to say, she says.
00:22:21 Herbie Newell
What you said. I love it when science begins to catch up with God.
00:22:24 Herbie Newell
And she was even talking about so much of.
00:22:29 Herbie Newell
Of our engagement of our involvement, of of the way that we even see the.
00:22:34 Herbie Newell
A child advance on the other side of the womb really does point back to a creator who made us in his image, who created us to that, to need certain things, to desire certain things.
00:22:45 Herbie Newell
And it really is a a blessing of life.
00:22:48 Herbie Newell
It is the the meaning of life.
00:22:50 Herbie Newell
Pastor Chris.
00:22:52 Herbie Newell
You mentioned even in your last answer about churches. So if there are pastors that are listening this podcast, or even members of churches that are listening this podcast.
00:23:04 Herbie Newell
How can a church really get engaged on the sanctity of human life?
00:23:07 Herbie Newell
Are ways they can engage with lifeline.
00:23:09 Herbie Newell
What are things that they can begin to do, not just in January, but throughout the year to make sure that their people have a biblical ethic on the sanctity of human life, but also?
00:23:20 Herbie Newell
The mandate of the gospel around this issue to spur that mandate, and that biblical thinking into action.
00:23:27 Chris Johnson
It starts with with prayer first and foremost. Pray that God will work.
00:23:30 Chris Johnson
That God will move in the hearts of his.
00:23:33 Chris Johnson
Pray that God will move in the hearts of leaders and.
00:23:35 Chris Johnson
Those the pastors have to be willing to preach on.
00:23:37 Chris Johnson
They've got to be willing to again approach it from a biblical perspective, but then preach a holistic view and understanding of what a pro-life ethic looks like.
00:23:46 Chris Johnson
Think you know we've got to do a better job of creating a culture within our church that recognizes the realities around these issues.
00:23:53 Chris Johnson
I love one of the things that one of our partners.
00:23:56 Chris Johnson
Love life is doing what they they're helping churches create what they're calling a House of refuge, and they're in challenging churches to to to say up front, hey, we value life, and if you're in a crisis or you're struggling or you are in a place of vulnerability, you.
00:24:10 Chris Johnson
Welcome here and we're going to do everything we can.
00:24:12 Chris Johnson
Come alongside you and support you.
00:24:14 Chris Johnson
So I think there's things that we, as churches can do that create that, that mindset, create that culture, that that values all life. I think part of it.
00:24:23 Chris Johnson
Some kind of practical things you can do certainly come alongside a pregnant Resource Center in your community and and support them and help them.
00:24:29 Chris Johnson
One of the things that we've really been trying to do is help churches make the connection to recognize.
00:24:35 Chris Johnson
Women and help them get connected to your.
00:24:38 Chris Johnson
So we've created kind of a discipleship mentorship program called worthy that's designed to connect women who maybe are have experienced a crisis, your unexpected pregnancy.
00:24:47 Chris Johnson
To help connect them to women within the local church so they can hear the truth of the gospel, recognize that their life has worked in by you as well as the life of their child.
00:24:56 Chris Johnson
And so it's a it's a way for churches to connect directly with women in crisis or women who maybe are post abortive even or have experienced that crisis to help them know that God does a purpose and plan for their life.
00:25:08 Chris Johnson
So I think having women in your church that are trained and ready to receive women in crisis is a huge thing.
00:25:13 Chris Johnson
But then I think again looking at what are you doing?
00:25:17 Chris Johnson
Are there things when when children are born and there are struggles and families that are broken and separated because of foster care or at risk of going to foster care?
00:25:26 Chris Johnson
There ways that your church.
00:25:28 Chris Johnson
Is speaking into places of vulnerability and coming alongside kids. Are you creating a culture that says, hey, if a mother can't parent that child?
00:25:37 Chris Johnson
We have families from our church that are ready to step up and be that period.
00:25:41 Chris Johnson
To come alongside that mother, love her and care for her, but be willing to be a forever family for a child who needs a parents who needs who.
00:25:50 Chris Johnson
Who needs that forever? Family? Are we raising up and talking about the needs of orphan children around the world who have often times been discarded by maybe discarded or by their government, or by others who?
00:26:02 Chris Johnson
Who pushed them to the?
00:26:03 Chris Johnson
Are we willing to bring those children into our homes and ultimately into our churches to care for?
00:26:09 Chris Johnson
So I think churches have to pastors, you need to make sure you're preaching this from biblical perspective. But then also look at your ministries.
00:26:17 Chris Johnson
At what's happening in your church?
00:26:18 Chris Johnson
Search and see are we really living what we say? We believe if we really value life, are we doing weekend to come alongside the most vulnerable among us and we love kind of helping churches create a strategy around them.
00:26:31 Chris Johnson
One of our favorite things to do is to sit down with pastors, Church leaders, ministry teams.
00:26:36 Chris Johnson
And and just kind of look at what's going on in your church and what is God doing and and is there, is there a move toward a more holistic pro-life ministry?
00:26:44 Chris Johnson
So we love kind of helping churches create that strategy and say, hey, what do we see God doing?
00:26:48 Chris Johnson
Do we see God using our?
00:26:49 Chris Johnson
Church and what are the steps that we need to take to make sure that this culture prevails within our congregation?
00:26:56 Chris Johnson
But then we're also providing on ramps for people to get engaged in actually living out.
00:27:01 Chris Johnson
A pro-life.
00:27:02 Chris Johnson
There are some people that God's calling to support financially pro-life ministry.
00:27:06 Chris Johnson
And ministries like Lifeline or maybe come alongside financially, families that desire to adopt and Foster and kind of.
00:27:13 Chris Johnson
But then there also needs to be ramps for people to get engaged and actually open up their homes to to women in crisis open up their homes to children who need.
00:27:21 Chris Johnson
Open up their homes to to kids who need forever families and then give of themselves to support kids in foster care and broken families that are trying their best to get their family back home again.
00:27:32 Chris Johnson
So.
00:27:33 Chris Johnson
There are a lot of different ways that you can get engaged and get involved, so the passion needed to preach it, provide those opportunities, figure out strategies and ways that fit your church's.
00:27:43 Chris Johnson
To make sure that we are living out not only preaching the prophetic, but also living out that pro-life ethic.
00:27:49 Herbie Newell
Yeah. And then you've touched on that a little bit obviously, but for that person that's sitting in the Pew, maybe let's listen to that podcast that says, what can I do?
00:27:59 Herbie Newell
Maybe they aren't called to adopt or foster. What are ways that that we, as individuals can begin?
00:28:04 Herbie Newell
And even the youngest among us to really have a pro-life ethic. And how can that inform the way that we go to school the way that we go to work, the way that we're in our community?
00:28:15 Herbie Newell
Are practical things that we can do to really support the safety of human life.
00:28:20 Chris Johnson
Yeah, I think again.
00:28:21 Chris Johnson
I think it begins with prayer, praying and just asking God to open up your heart and to give you better understanding of what that looks like.
00:28:27 Chris Johnson
I say often I I encourage people to.
00:28:30 Chris Johnson
For.
00:28:30 Chris Johnson
Populations to pray for women in crisis, to pray that abortion would end.
00:28:35 Chris Johnson
Life would be protected. The more we pray for something, the greater the burden increases.
00:28:41 Chris Johnson
But then not only pray for the normal pray.
00:28:44 Chris Johnson
For this, I think wrestle with what is God's calling you to do.
00:28:47 Chris Johnson
The.
00:28:48 Chris Johnson
God wants you to play. I think sometimes we just are flippant about. Well, I'm not called to a.
00:28:52 Chris Johnson
I'm not called to foster. We just kind of let that go. But I think we really there there ought to be a wrestling with what is the role God wants me to play.
00:29:00 Chris Johnson
The reality is.
00:29:00 Chris Johnson
'S word tells us that.
00:29:01 Chris Johnson
We again are fully following Christ, and there's going to.
00:29:04 Chris Johnson
A natural.
00:29:06 Chris Johnson
Outflow and we need an outlet to be able to.
00:29:08 Chris Johnson
The most vulnerable.
00:29:09 Chris Johnson
So it's wrestling. God, what does that look like for me?
00:29:11 Chris Johnson
Is the.
00:29:12 Chris Johnson
You want me to play? Because when we when we understand how great the needs are and we understand the truth around those needs, and then we begin to pray and say God, what role do you want me to play?
00:29:21 Chris Johnson
God, God's not going to say never mind.
00:29:23 Chris Johnson
Worry about it.
00:29:24 Chris Johnson
All good.
00:29:24 Chris Johnson
He's going to answer that.
00:29:26 Chris Johnson
He's going to show us what the role is, and so then it's it's just being willing to say yes to whatever it is that God's calling you to do.
00:29:33 Chris Johnson
The reality is there are needs that are great. There are opportunities that are great.
00:29:36 Chris Johnson
It's just a matter of God's.
00:29:38 Chris Johnson
For people who will say yes.
00:29:39 Chris Johnson
Willing to take those next?
00:29:40 Chris Johnson
Steps and once he starts revealing those next steps, it could be.
00:29:45 Chris Johnson
It could be adopting it could be fostering it could be supporting a foster adoptive family in your community.
00:29:49 Chris Johnson
Could be disciplining a woman who is in a crisis situation.
00:29:53 Chris Johnson
It could be leading a parenting class for a.
00:29:55 Chris Johnson
That's that's broken. Trying to to get their family back together.
00:29:59 Chris Johnson
Could be coming alongside a teenager in foster care.
00:30:02 Chris Johnson
Mentorship or?
00:30:04 Chris Johnson
Or maybe you're a kid in high school and you know people, there are kids that you meet in your school.
00:30:09 Chris Johnson
That have experienced foster care in difficult.
00:30:11 Chris Johnson
Maybe it's just coming alongside and being a friend to them and and helping them find some normalcy in their life and helping them know that they've got a friend in their corner, but whatever it is that God when God.
00:30:22 Chris Johnson
You that clarity.
00:30:24 Chris Johnson
The challenge then becomes take your next step as soon as possible.
00:30:26 Chris Johnson
Find a way to get involved.
00:30:28 Chris Johnson
Sit back on the sidelines.
00:30:30 Chris Johnson
Don't wait for someone else to do it, but find your role in get.
00:30:33 Chris Johnson
You know, I have a challenge to dads. Lead your family. You know, in your family devotional time.
00:30:39 Chris Johnson
About these things.
00:30:40 Chris Johnson
It's never too early to start having these conversations with your kids.
00:30:44 Chris Johnson
We have.
00:30:44 Chris Johnson
That and their kids are engaged in stand for.
00:30:47 Chris Johnson
Where there you know, learning about the needs of kids around the world and they're willing to do what they can to sell lemonade or make brownies or sell cookies or do something to to help raise funds.
00:30:57 Chris Johnson
So the earlier we can get our families engaged and involved.
00:31:00 Chris Johnson
The more likely we are to to see God work in this space and and so many times we've seen families.
00:31:05 Chris Johnson
That maybe never thought they would do this, but they started off by doing one thing and that led to another thing. And then God continue to open up their eyes and call them to even deeper levels of engagement.
00:31:16 Chris Johnson
So I think, you know, Dad certainly lead your families in praying for that wrestling with that.
00:31:22 Chris Johnson
And when God gives clarity, take your next step as.
00:31:24 Chris Johnson
As you can.
00:31:25 Herbie Newell
Well, that's such a good.
00:31:27 Herbie Newell
Just a great exposition, pastor Chris, of how.
00:31:30 Herbie Newell
Can get engaged.
00:31:31 Herbie Newell
You know, lastly, we have a lot of resources that we're offering churches for the sanctity of human life. We promoted at the beginning.
00:31:39 Herbie Newell
Can you just go into detail a little bit?
00:31:41 Herbie Newell
As we.
00:31:42 Herbie Newell
On the opportunities we have to help.
00:31:44 Herbie Newell
Get.
00:31:45 Herbie Newell
What some of those resources your team has curated are and how can people get those resources?
00:31:50 Chris Johnson
Yeah, if you.
00:31:51 Chris Johnson
You visit the website that you mentioned earlier, lifelong child.org/sanctity.
00:31:55 Chris Johnson
There you'll be able to download a kit that helps with raising.
00:32:00 Chris Johnson
There are curriculum guides for your small group ministry to be able to to talk about this in a in a Sunday school or life group time, whatever fits your church culture. There are prayer guides that you can use as bullets and inserts that come again.
00:32:14 Chris Johnson
Help your church family understand the the realities and the needs of your of your community.
00:32:19 Chris Johnson
There are various awareness tools. Again, just keeping this in front of your people and then certainly there are next steps.
00:32:26 Chris Johnson
It's there where you can even see what are some things.
00:32:28 Chris Johnson
That that our life groups can.
00:32:30 Chris Johnson
What are some things that our families can?
00:32:32 Chris Johnson
What are some things that our college ministry can do?
00:32:34 Chris Johnson
Our student ministry can do that. Help promote this understanding of the value of life and that find next ways, certainly a great follow up to Saint of human life. Sunday is may be hosting an adoption information meeting.
00:32:46 Chris Johnson
And so there's even in those resources on our website.
00:32:49 Chris Johnson
There there is a guide there.
00:32:50 Chris Johnson
Help helping you know how to do that.
00:32:52 Chris Johnson
So you can reach out to our.
00:32:53 Chris Johnson
We'd love to come in and host adoption information meeting where we can share about the opportunities for adoption both domestically as well as internationally. In your you know, to you for your people.
00:33:04 Chris Johnson
There just are a lot of tools there. You certainly can always reach out directly to our church partnerships team at Church.
00:33:10 Chris Johnson
At lifelinechild.org, we'd be glad to answer any questions you have.
00:33:14 Chris Johnson
Love to come and speak on this.
00:33:16 Chris Johnson
It doesn't have to be on the 3rd Sunday in January, pick a Sunday that fits your church's context.
00:33:22 Chris Johnson
We'd love to have a speaker come and preach on this issue, or even come and.
00:33:25 Chris Johnson
Host a meeting with your life groups and Speaking of Sunday school class or during information meeting after a church service.
00:33:32 Chris Johnson
We would love to come alongside and help you.
00:33:36 Chris Johnson
Just, just just raise that awareness within your church and then help provide those on lamps for people to get engaged and get involved.
00:33:42 Herbie Newell
Amen. Pastor Chris love. Your heart and love what your team is doing, and certainly we would want anyone to get engaged with life lines ministry to be able to help you, your church and your family truly begin to appreciate the sanctity of human life.
00:33:57 Herbie Newell
Go to the next.
00:33:58 Herbie Newell
Step to really not just appreciate, but to get engaged with your life, with your family, with your prayer life, and with your church.
00:34:06 Herbie Newell
So remember, January is safety of human life.
00:34:10 Herbie Newell
Let's commit to pray daily on behalf of those women that are making.
00:34:15 Herbie Newell
Decisions about life that are plagued, potentially with crisis or unplanned pregnancy.
00:34:21 Herbie Newell
But let's also pray for the half a million kids in US foster care and the 147 million orphans around the world.
00:34:29 Herbie Newell
Whose moms chose life?
00:34:31 Herbie Newell
But who desperately need someone to act out for?
00:34:35 Herbie Newell
Who needs someone to care for them and love on them and ultimately show the love of Christ for them?
00:34:41 Herbie Newell
Thank you, pastor.
00:34:42 Herbie Newell
Thank you for all those that listening and we hope to see you again next week on the Defender podcast.
00:34:48
Thanks.
00:34:48 Herbie Newell
Thanks for listening to the Defender podcast. If you enjoy making this podcast a part of your weekly routine, we'd love for you to take a moment to subscribe, rate and review The Defender podcast to make it easier for more people to find. For more information on how you.
00:35:02 Herbie Newell
Your church can partner with Lifeline.
00:35:04 Herbie Newell
Visit us@lifelinechild.org if you want to connect with me, please visit herbbynewell.com.
00:35:10 Herbie Newell
Follow us at Lifeline on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter by searching for Lifeline child. You can e-mail us directly at info@lifelinechild.org.
00:35:19 Herbie Newell
Beloved, will you, our guide, to use the gospel to you, to impact the life of a child? Please contact.
00:35:25 Herbie Newell
Because we are here to defend the fatherless.
00:35:28 Herbie Newell
See you again.
00:35:29 Herbie Newell
Week for the Defender party.
00:35:30
I.