Watching For Life

That organization has grown to multiply itself, and I think it's been over a thousand gals that they've helped in the last five years. So Amy's going to share for just a few moments some thoughts in her heart. Let's welcome Amy. I even have notes. I never use notes. I have just three personal areas that I wanted to share about tonight because after being with the Center for now five years, this is our, as a matter of fact, this week is our fifth anniversary of our initial training, and many, many people were here and made that opening possible through gifts and support, and I see many faces here that have been supporters of ours for the last five years, and that means so much to me to know that this is my church home, but it's also the home of where I've been able to work for the last five years. But let me just share three things. One of them really ties in with what Tim shared, that we are in a battle. Now, that's a pretty obvious observation, right? I mean, if you go to North Way very long, you realize everything's a battle. We're always on the front lines of something, and we realize that the battle is not flesh and blood. We're not fighting National Organization of Women. We're not slugging it out with National Abortion Rights Action League or Molly Yard or anybody else. We're fighting the powers and principalities that rule in this area and that are covering our country with real darkness. But what I've learned about that is the nature of the battle, because for many of our volunteers at the center, this has been a very personal battle. They have waged war in personal ways with their health, with the health of their families, with their children, raising their children. I mean, we have volunteers who faced very difficult odds as they've been volunteering at the center, and I know, there's a witness in my spirit, that has not been a coincidence that the enemy has fought harder against individuals serving in this area of ministry. In the other seven centers that are in Pittsburgh, three directors of those centers have had major upheavals in their lives, emotional breakdowns, a very violent rape in one situation. I mean, the enemy has attacked and attacked the people that have worked in this organization. And that shows me that the enemy is very serious about winning that battle. And we know that, as that banner says, we have a victorious savior. We know who won. But many times we have to engage in the battle. And what I wanted to share is that the front lines of the pro-life fight are not really on the streets. They're not really at the rallies, like the one today at noon. They're not really at the rally that we'll see next Saturday in D.C. The front lines fight is not at the CPCs necessarily. The front lines is not writing letters or seeing the center, even though each one of those things works. The front lines is really, what is God doing in your heart? What is He changing in you? How have you become pro-life? And I think that's what God's been doing in me, is say, how have you become more pure? How have you become more compassionate? How have you become more knowledgeable? How have you collected information? And what have you done with that? And most importantly, what has your ministry been one-to-one with individuals facing a crisis, just like the one we saw on the stage? That's the front lines of this battle. And I really believe that we're seeing many, many people rise up into the front lines because of what God has done in their heart. Because the point there is that we really can't go out in ministry until God has dealt with us in our own front lines, right here in our hearts. The second thing is that our ministry has really been kind of known as a conception to birth, kind of a ministry. We're dealing with women at the point where they have conceived, they get a pregnancy test, and many of us think the test is positive and we work with the woman until she has the baby, and that's the extent of our ministry. And what I've learned in the past five years is, boy, that is just the beginning of pro-life ministry. It is not a conception to birth ministry because it has to reach the needs of the whole person. And that's where many of you are involved with taking a single mom to church or seeing that her needs are met, or a food bank kind of a thing. Many people that educate parents about training up their children. People that talk to kids about chastity and abstinence. These are all a big part of the ministry that many of you can be involved in without being really part of a pro-life group. You can actually be working in the areas of ministry that really matter, that really make a difference in the whole life of that person. From conception to birth is a very important time, but the after birth time we're finding is much more challenging, and in many cases just as crucial because the decisions of that young woman and her newly born child are very, very important. The last thing is that I used to think that being pro-life, you know, for a while I didn't even use that word, pro-life, because it sounded so political and so controversial and so social activist or something. I really felt uncomfortable about the word pro-life. And what I've learned about that is that we have to be pro-truth. We have to know the truth of God's word and be about the business of proclaiming the truth. And God's truth is that abortion is never the right answer. It's just not the right solution. It might seem like the right solution, but it never is. And so if you're afraid of being political, controversial, and a social activist, and I know none of those things were polite conversation in my family, then be aware of this, that if God is working in your heart to motivate you to be pro-life, pro-truth in your heart, then you will be equipped to do ministry. Because the ministry is not political, it's not social active necessarily, and it's not necessarily controversial. It is one-to-one. At the center, we see a person one at a time. We see women one at a time. And in their crisis, one at a time. And that's how people's lives are changed. That's how their minds are changed. That's how they come to the truth, one at a time. And that's how you can be involved, one at a time. Because if God is working in your heart, then you can be able to minister to people, and then you'll see a victory. And I'm not going to tell you how that will happen for you, whether that's letter writing or the other things I listed earlier, marching or being at a rally. But make sure of this first, that you go to God's Word, that you search for the truth, and that the front lines of this battle is one in your hearts first, so that you can minister to the many, many people who need it. Since we're beginning to enumerate a few specific ways that you can be involved, I'm going to ask the gals in the overheads to put these up. And let's all stand for a moment and look at these. Watch the overheads for just a moment. Did you all get a big enough stretch there? I was all ready to sing a song. I was kind of gearing up. You were too, huh? It's too late, Russ. I'll tell you what. I very easily could have just enjoyed the extension of what we've been hearing and seeing tonight. I don't know about you, but I was... It's very hard to bring me to tears, but I was this close with that skit. It was very, very powerful. I've asked a new friend of mine, Jack Casey, to come. There's one more person that's going to share with you tonight. Jack, I know you're here. Are you hiding? Jack. Come on, Jack. Scared me there. This was the introduction. Jack is a... I'll very briefly introduce him. Jack is a becoming member of North Way. He and his family are just in the process of... They're just in the process of getting involved here in our church. They've been coming, what, for six weeks or so? Which time? About six weeks. Jack and I have spent enough time together that I've been somewhat impressed by what I've seen God doing through him in his life. Jack is a man after my own heart. How many children do you have, Jack? Almost after my own heart. We have four. But Jack is currently running for political office in this area. Jack, what are you running for? State committee. Republican state committee. Which means what? Well, basically, there's a group of people that are behind the scenes that actually seed the candidates to run on any ticket. So it's important that you have good Christian people in there or people that are trying to be good Christian people in there or trying to slate candidates that are supported by the party. For instance, Barbara Hafer, who is on the Republican ticket, is not pro-life, and she has been accepted by the Republican constituency in the 50 political Republican state committee members to be the candidate on the Republican ticket. So it's important you have people on the state committee level that can influence the person that the party decides that they want to push to the forefront of the Republican constituents. I know for many of us politics as such gets to be a little confusing, a little bit overwhelming. Jack lives right here in Wexford, and Jack, I would imagine you would welcome anyone calling you if they had questions about how to get involved. If they wanted to know who their representative was, I suppose you could tell them who to call. I'm glad to help anybody I can. I think really what you can do most is vote. And if you happen to be a Democrat, it's no big deal. If you want to vote as a Republican, you can go to post office, and you can change your party affiliation for just the primary so you can vote for Peg. If you vote for Peg, then maybe we can send a message to the Republican state committee that we are very committed to our cause. That's Peg who? I can't pronounce it. See, Peg's a lot easier. Peg. Now I know why you said Peg. Jack, we're going to have to cut it kind of short here tonight, but you shared a story with me that reinforced the opportunity that awaits every one of us as individuals. I think we tend to lessen the significance of ourselves as individuals and think only in terms of the corporate statement that we can make. Would you share that story that you shared with me of how you are anxious to find one day how your one voice just may have made a difference? Listen carefully, folks. This is an exciting story. In, I guess, 1979, 1980 area, I had decided to run for another political type job that people don't quite understand. And that was a delegate to the Republican National Convention. And the delegates are the people that actually elect the people that they're going to put on the ticket for the election. So I was backing Ronald Reagan at the time, and I happened to go to a little party before a Westmoreland County Republican dinner, and that was a private party for just Reagan delegates, and it was one-on-one with Ronald Reagan. And he gave me a pin that said Ronald Reagan. I'm wearing that pin at the dinner that night, and I was walking by the head table. I'd gone up to take some photographs of these high-powered people, and Mr. Bush saw me up there, and he called me over. He said, son, come here. So I came over, and we started a conversation. He says, you're wearing a Reagan badge. Why? I said, well, sir, it's real easy. He's against abortion, and so am I. And Mr. Bush looked at me. He said, well, son, I'm against abortion. I looked at Mr. Bush, and I said, but you're wishy-washy. And this time he ran for office. He was not wishy-washy. And the whole time he ran for office, I kept on saying, did he hear me? I can't wait. Someday I'm going to ask him if he remembered me. Now you know why I wanted to share that story. One person allowed it to make a difference. I hope we heard that message tonight. Let's pray together. Father, we thank you for the opportunity we have in this country to break apart your word, plant it in our hearts. In Jesus' name. I must confess to you that this was a difficult subject for me to address tonight. I far rather would have appreciated Amy just going on until we ran out of time because Amy deals with this thing every day. Marilyn Reid deals with these topics every day. As a pastor, I don't get that opportunity and privilege. But I think after this week, I'm going to more. I was reading a story of a pastor from New York City. He told of a couple who came to his office relating how they had seen a doctor in the abortion clinic across the street hold up a plastic bag to the son to examine the contents. They then proceeded to toss it into the garbage. That night, that couple retrieved the bag and brought it back to their pastor's office where, with trembling hands, they laid it on his desk. Inside were four recognizable babies. Amidst tears, the pastor called the health department where, after hearing what he thought was a slight snicker, got this response. Hey man, let me shoot straight. If those were puppies, we could do something because there are laws against cruelty to animals. As it is, there ain't nothing I can do. That's all too typical a statement, my friends, of our condition. I'll share with you something personal that happened to me a few weeks ago. My wife and I were leaving Wednesday night service just a mile down the road. It happened to be just the two of us. My wife caught out of the corner of her eye and then turned her head and noticed a drunk driver staggering to his car on the driver's seat, barely able to find the door. She was immediately on that track, immediately on the track of responding, of stopping a potential injustice. She said to me, what are you going to do about it? Flashing through my mind were pictures I've seen on television of those kinds of people pulling out a gun and blowing me away for doing something about it. I quickly related to her those kinds of pictures in my mind as I whirled through the stop sign, hoping it would be too late to do anything about it. That didn't make her very happy. But I realized that I had no prepared response. I simply wasn't ready. I didn't have time to formulate a strategy. I wasn't prepared. What would your response have been if you were in my shoes? She asked someone we were driving with this week. Much to my surprise, it was still on her mind. Well, after we thought about it a while, we realized, well, what we should have done was we should have gone back, taken the license plate of the individual, called the police, asked the police to watch out for that car, figuring maybe the next night the police officer would position himself to watch that car and maybe we'd nab the guy. But we weren't ready. What is your response to what you're hearing tonight? What is your response to our society's death sentence to 5,000 babies a day? What's your response? You see, our response will be and is the only indication of whether or not we are willing to take responsibility. Response, responsibility. Oh, I'm responsible, we say. Then what's your response? You see, the other two are very closely linked. They are directly linked. To say, sure, I'm responsible, just like he is and just like the pastor. Without purposeful response makes us hypocrites, doesn't it? You think I feel very good about the way I responded the other day? I don't. I pray I'll be ready the next time. Most of us have discovered truth. Many of us willingly declare truth, that is, we freely tell about it. But far too few of us know how to put our discovery of that truth and the declaration of that truth into action. Most of us vote with our feet and our feet say, there ain't nothing I can do. I really didn't want to do this tonight. But we're going to be talking about where a lot of us are. You know what I say to that? I say, and I want you to say with me, oh, yes, there is. Say that. Oh, yes, there is. Because that's the kind of conviction, beloved, that we need in our hearts if we're going to be the salt of the earth that Jesus, our Lord, spoke of. There are at least three things we can do to break what I'm calling the responsibility barrier. The responsibility barrier. That is, to break that indifference that comes from that point of hearing and understanding and knowing about the truth and the declaration of the truth into doing something about seeing that truth manifest in our world. Three things that can be done. Number one, pray intelligently. Pray intelligently. Some of you are already thinking to yourself, oh, boy, I drove all the way out here tonight to hear that pearl of wisdom. When are our pastors going to stop preaching about prayer? Well, let me ask you a few questions. Do you believe that God's word is his will? Do you? Does his word declare truth? Is his word a lamp to our feet? Then why is there so much confusion and lack of direction in the church? You see, I'm convinced that our starting point in breaking that responsibility barrier is prayer. Prayer is what helps us feel what God is feeling. And I believe God is feeling righteous anger. You see, the only way you're going to know how God feels isn't just by reading his word. It's by getting close to God. It's by getting so close that you feel his heart. You want to have the heart of God? Do you? Do you really want to have the heart of God? See, I think if we have the heart of God, we better expect a heart transplant. If we get a heart transplant, if we get the very heart of God, it's going to change our life and our lifestyle. Christians can and should get angry. For those of you who may be newer to the faith, Paul said in Ephesians 4.26, Be angry and sin not. It says be angry. He was commanding the response of anger. Feeling God's anger, mentioned over 500 times in the Bible, by the way, comes from the Greek word, Pastor, A-P-H. Ah? Fine. For those of you taking notes, Ah, A-P-H. Meaning, breathing heavily with passion. Something one feels very deeply because of godly convictions. Righteous anger. Whispering his word in our ears. Defend the rights of the poor and needy. Rescue those who are being led away to death. Hold back those staggering toward the slaughter. This is the starting point. Hearing from God. Hearing God's voice. His still small voice. In 1950, George Orwell said, Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind. It bothers me that we're believing too much of what we're hearing on our television sets. We're responding to too many half-truths impulsively. Frankly, many of us are kind of blowing with the wind. My friends, unless we learn to pray intelligently and feel what God is feeling and do what God is doing, we will be deceived and useless. Step number one. Father, what would you have me do? The starting point. Number two. By the way, let me just say about that. If you just don't feel like you're plugged in to an opportunity to pray, our elders, our pastors, our staff are very purposefully gathering small bands of people to pray with every week. We're picking a day a week and we're just getting together with those folks in our communities. If you aren't on track and don't know the heartbeat of God, you let one of us know and we'll see to it that you find that place of prayer. Number two. Pursue spirit-led strategies. Great ideas without a strategy to implement them breed frustration and indifference. You see, if God gives us vision in prayer, which he does, then he will also give us a strategy to fulfill that vision. You see, we don't stop with prayer. Some have said, hey, all I can do is pray. But I don't believe it's God's intent for us to stop there. We can limit God by stopping there. Winky Pratt and he once said, living in a hole will not make you holy. Prayer should always result in pursuit of our enemies, not withdrawal. Too many of us have attempted to pull out at this point so that we can remain spiritual. But to pursue means to follow in order to overtake and capture. You see, I don't believe it is spiritual to remain silent. It's not spiritual to receive a vision from God and let it die. Pursue spirit-led strategies. The reason I brought these Citizen's Magazines up here with me, and these are put out by James Dobson, a focus on the family, and you can order these from our church. You can order them directly. The reason I brought these up is I want you to know that there are spirit-led strategies inspired by God, given to us as instructions for steps of action that we can take. In every one of these are sections called, What Can You Do? I'm so tired of hearing people say, I don't know what to do. I just wish I knew what to do. Do you have eyes? Yes. Can you read? Yes. Have you read? No. What can you do? It's all right here. Every major political, moral, ethical issue that our culture is involved with, Dr. Dobson is doing a wonderful job at addressing and giving us practical ideas. That's the steps we can take. Let's not use that excuse. How do we break the responsibility barrier? Number three, proceed. Notice my three Ps tonight. Pray, pursue. I've learned that from my pastor. Proceed with God's mighty army. Do any of these voices sound like yours? Now listen. Do any of these voices sound like yours? Quote, I am personally against abortion, but I don't believe in legislating my morality upon others. Or, God has called me to preach the gospel, not to get involved in political affairs. You see, God's call to his bride is to both proclaim and to demonstrate his character and his will on the earth. Both proclamation and demonstration. Most of us, come on, let's get honest, most of us get stuck right here. This is where we get stuck. We've heard it. We've read the strategy. We know what to do. And the pastor says, now go do it. And we go like this. And we fall over and stumble. We get deceived. Jesus said, the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth, and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful. We have more study notes than ever, but less power. We attend more meetings than ever, but I just can't hear God anymore. We make excuses, lots of them. And when the opportunities come, they get choked out and we say things like, no, I can't do that. And I'm just dealing with too much stress right now. Hey, we've got two busy little rugrats. I can't do that. No, I don't need one more meeting. If that church gives me one more meeting to go to, no way will I go to Washington. So, we approach our responsibilities asking, what's in it for me? Moi. What's the benefits? Come on, what's the bottom line benefits here? Will it make me more money? Will it raise my social status? Will my wife love me more? Will I get more respect in my community? What's in it for me? Will this interfere with my weekend plans? How will others, my boss, feel if I do this? Church, the only alternative I know is total. Pastor Tom said it, sold out and radical commitment to God. See, many of us, we just have to repent. I know we don't talk a lot about that word. It's not a pretty word, repentance. You think of repentance, you think of the color black, sackcloth and ashes. But all repentance is is change. Many of us have to change. We just have to change. We have to break away from the activities that have claimed too much of our attention. I was sharing with a group of men the other day, and I don't have this in my notes, but I just feel that this word is for someone here, out of Isaiah chapter 6 and verse 1. Isaiah, in the year King Uzziah died, fell and worshiped God and saw that his train filled the temple. He experienced the presence of God when King Uzziah died. Many interpreters of that verse feel that King Uzziah had become Isaiah's God. And King Uzziah was in the way of Isaiah being able to worship and see God and hear God and have a direct line of communication with God and see the glory of his presence and know his heartbeat. What gods have gotten in your way that have kept you from knowing the heart of God? Does God have to put them to death? That's what repentance is. You see, repentance or changing is putting to death the things that we know have gotten in the way of that which we need to have, that direct link of communication with God. We have become a people of excuses. Where would our nation be today if our forefathers simply signed the Declaration of Independence and sent it off to Britain? Would that have impressed them over there in Britain? Not a bit, my friends. Not without bloodshed. Not without men and women willing to put their lives on the line to say, we mean this. They had to put their convictions into action. Men had to say, enough is enough. The founding fathers of this nation, the abolitionists, the civil rights movement, all said, enough is enough. God's chosen people, Daniel and his three friends, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, the apostles, they all said, enough is enough and even disobeyed civil authorities because of their convictions. You see, the world is convinced that the church is unwilling to get involved. The world is convinced that we're unwilling to lay down our lives. Action must accompany declaration. Ask yourselves the question, what am I doing? What am I doing? What am I doing? To put a stop to ungodliness. Martin Luther said that if I profess, listen, this is beautiful, if I profess with the loudest voice and the clearest exposition every portion of the truth of God except precisely that point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ. We must proceed with God's army into politics. Seem to it that godly people like Jack, in case he run for office, are voted into power so that godly choices and decisions will be made. We must proceed with God's army to Washington's rally for life with Tim Johnson to let our nation know that we've had enough and we must proceed with God's army to move from the shock of reality to anger from the heart of God to declaration into action knowing that we have the full support of unity in our family, our brothers, our sisters in Christ. How do you break the responsibility barrier? Pray intelligently. Put that up again, please. Pray intelligently. Then put your lives where your prayers are. Pursue God's strategy. Then put your feet where your mouth is and proceed with God's army and put your faith into action. I close with these words from the writer of Proverbs, chapter 24, verses 11 and 12. Rescue those being led away to death. Hold back those staggering toward slaughter. If you say, but we knew nothing about this, does not he who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not he who guards your life know it? Will he not repay each person according to what he has done? Let's all stand for a moment. And I want us to heed that very well-prepared message that I want to thank Scott for tonight and ask you to do what Scott said to do first. And let's pray. We're going to go over a few more minutes. I don't like to do this, but I think we need to tonight just to respond prayerfully. I won't hold you more than another seven or eight minutes total, but I want to ask you to do this because I think it's appropriate. And so we're going to turn in a moment and pray in twos and threes. And since all of us here know this as a normal practice of our life together, you know what to do. And I want you to pray for what you need to do in your life. Maybe you just need to get informed. Maybe you need to be proceeding. Maybe you need to be in some way mobilizing yourself to make a difference. Do that, and then we're going to pray together for a few individuals. So go ahead and turn in groups of three or so, four at the most, and pray for your part, what you're going to do as God has spoken to you tonight. Let's put those three or four things back up in the overhead, gal, so that people can be reminded. Go ahead and pray together, would you?