The Elephant in the Room: Hearing God's Voice on Abortion

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Come on. That's some good news we can celebrate today. I just love what we have in Jesus. Let's read that out loud. Some of you already, you doing it. You're ready for church today. Let's read it out loud. Romans 8:1. Here we go. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Amen. Well, let me tell you a story. It's a true story of a young woman quite a while back. She seemed to have the whole world going for her. This young woman, she she had it all. She loved the Lord. She was in a great relationship with a guy she was going to marry. I mean, don't you just hate people like that? They just seem to have it all. Right? This young woman seemed to have it all until one day she was pregnant. She was not married. She

came from a religious home. She's actually from a religious area. And so this girl's life was was detourred just just in one day in one moment. I wonder today if this young woman came to Journey Church, what type of counsel she would get. See, we're a diverse church. This is a beautiful church with all kinds of people from all sorts of backgrounds. And what happens with a church like ours is we bring our beliefs with us into the church. So if this young woman came into the church, I wonder what you would advise her. Here she is, unwed, young. I wonder what you would say to her. Well, this young woman decided to keep the baby, and it wasn't easy. In fact, it was incredibly inconvenient. It looked scandalous from the outside in.

Some people misunderstood her. It was quite confusing. And the truth is, by the time she had this baby, she was all alone, isolated from her family. But the good news is she delivered a healthy baby boy. She delivered a healthy baby boy and she named him Jesus. Yes, I'm talking about Mary, the mother of Jesus. You see, all of us will go through seasons much like Mary. Although you may not ever carry the son of God, okay? None of us will carry the son of God in your womb, no matter how much you think your kid is great. But we will all have those detours in lives. We we will all be misunderstood by other people. We we will all have those moments where we're confused. We're uncertain and your life all the dreams and plans that you have

change and you you wonder about the uncertainty of the future. And today we come to a conclusion of this series we've been calling the elephant in the room. They're subjects that are often hard to talk about in church. And today we look at the elephant of abortion. Abortion impacts all of us in one way or another. It impacts really the entire world that we live in. Abortion has been legal since January of 1973 in America. And since that time, there have been over 62 million abortions, legal abortions in the United States. Nearly 25% of all women will have had at least one abortion by the age of 45.

We live in the state of Oregon. We live in the most liberal state when it comes to abortion laws in America. A woman can have an abortion all the way up to the birth of a child. Only in the state of Oregon. We are the only state where there are no restrictions. There's no counseling. There's no requirements. There's no waiting period. There's no parental consent that all the way up until a baby is born, a woman can choose to abort the child. Yet, this is also the same state that if you want to get married, we're one of the few states that actually still requires a minister to have a license to officiate a wedding. If you go to the county clerk and you say, "I want to get married," the state of Oregon requires you to wait at least 48 hours before you can legally have a marriage license. Yet, it's not that way when it comes to abortion. And today I

realize this is such a sensitive topic and I don't want to talk about abortion from a political perspective. Nor do I want to talk about it from a personal perspective. Today I really want us to hear from the voice of the Lord. There's no greater voice than God. I want us to learn from the Lord. It was Jesus. When Jesus spoke to the church in the book of Revelation chapter 2 and three, he speaks to the church and he says, "He who has an ear, let him hear what the spirit says." God wants to speak to us today. And we just read from Romans 8:1 that says, "There's therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." That when we hear from the voice of the Lord, we see that Jesus changes our stories. Jesus changes everything in Jesus. We are who God says we are. It doesn't matter what anyone else says.

Doesn't matter what you think. It's what God says about you. And although there's no condemnation in Christ, Christians have been known throughout the ages for being some of the most condemning people. The church has been known to be one of the most judgmental places on the planet. Christians have done some pretty awful things like bring shame and guilt and all kinds of awful pain towards other people. And I want to recognize that today and acknowledge that the church has made mistakes and I've made mistakes. I've done things in my life that I regret doing. I've I've acted out of selfishness or or sin. Amen. And so as we we talk about the church's role in

this conversation of abortion, I I want to remind us that the church is not man's idea. The church is not a religious idea. The church was Jesus idea. And the devil would love to divide the church. The devil would love for the church to look bad. The devil would love for the church to misbehave and act inappropriately and not look anything like Jesus. But the devil's not going to have his day because Jesus told Peter and he said this, "I will build my church." The church is Jesus idea. And he said, "Not even the gates of hell will prevail against it." So we know that the church is God's idea and nothing's going to get in the way. There's no plan B. God wants to work through the church. And the church is full of imperfect people just like you and me. It's full of sinners that are

forgiven by a God that saves us from our sins who's full of grace and truth. He not only gives us forgiveness, he gives us the gift of inheritance, eternal life, not so that we would keep it to ourselves, but we would share it with others. This is called the gospel. Gospel means what? Shout it out. Good news. This is good news. There's too much bad news today. There's there's too much sad news today. Paul wrote to the Romans. He says in Romans 3:23, he said, "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." He says in the same book that the wages of sin is death. Now, if all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, that's that's all of us. If that message stopped there, it would be a sad message. That would be sad news if that's a headline.

Listen, you're a sinner. But he doesn't stop there. Yes, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, but God did what needed to be done. The very next verse says, "And are justified by his grace as a gift." Grace is just that. It's a gift. You don't earn it. You don't deserve it. It is not because you're born into the right family or go to the right church. It's because of Jesus. And when you receive this grace of gift, it's through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Oh, redemption is an important word. I hope you bring your Bible to church or you have a Bible. I would underline that word. It's a redemptive story in Jesus. You get God's grace and something happens there. We read in verse 25, whom God put forward as a propitiation. That's a beautiful word meaning God did what needed to be done by his blood to be

received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness because in his divine forbearance, he had passed over former sins. Oh, listen. Listen. Jesus changes everything. When you have Jesus, you're no longer who you used to be. You're no longer what you were defined by. You're defined by what he's done for you and his grace. You see, faith should change everything because of grace. Now, if all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, listen, sin is real. Sin separates us from God. Sin is anything outside of God's will. It's just when you miss the mark. It might look close to the mark, but it's just when you've missed the mark of God. And and all of us have sinned and some sin seems pretty serious, but we need to remember where sin abounds, grace abounds more. There's no sin that Jesus can't forgive. There's no sinner that Jesus says. Not sure about that one.

We are loved and equal in God's eyes. You see, grace covers sin. Grace changes our identity. Grace heals our heart from our hurt. Grace gives us purpose. It changes who we are because of who he is. And at Journey Church, we say we're gracegivers, which means is we want to receive the grace of Jesus, be changed by that grace, but we can't hold it in. We have to give that grace to others. So, just as we're forgiven, come on. We've got to forgive others. We We live in a a wild world today. There's division everywhere. Can you just agree with me on that? People seem to be angry everywhere. People are frustrated. They're they're confused. People are are full of fear. There's just anxiety. Anxiety is just seems to be everywhere. You can't go anywhere without anxiety.

You just turn on the news, you read a headline, go on social media, talk to your family, go anywhere today. And there just seems to be this serious tension in our our world. We're unertain of the future. I mean, there's a lot of people that that are full of fear right now. But I'll tell you, if there was a time for us to experience God's grace, it's right now. It's this this is the time that God wants to show off and show us who he is. You know, when Mary was pregnant with Jesus, it wasn't the ideal time to have the savior of the world. I I want you to consider this. At the time when Mary got pregnant with Jesus, Rome was ruling the known world. At the time, there were some political tensions. Religion seemed to be watered down. It was full of hypocrites. Taxes were high.

Morality was low. People were looking for their hope in academics, in entertainment, in philosophy. That's when the savior of the world decided to step into our story. That's when the invisible God made himself known through the person Jesus Christ. That's when the fullness of grace and truth. That's when the light stepped into the darkness when the world was pretty messed up. Now, I'm telling you, today sounds a lot like the day in which Jesus stepped into the story. There is political tension. Religion seems to be watered down and full of hypocrites. Taxes are high. Morality is low. And people are looking for hope in all the wrong places. The government's not going to give you hope.

You're not going to find it in academics or in entertainment. This hope is found in Jesus Christ. And there's hope for everyone as we turn our attention to understand the times that we're living in. Uh we've got to understand that nothing can separate us from the love of God. Paul when he writes to the Roman Christians at this time, you have to ask this, is there anything that can separate us from the love of God? Anything I've done in my past, is there anything that we're going through right now? Is there anything that can stop you from experiencing God's love? And here's what he says in Romans 8:38. He said,"For I am sure that neither death," now remember that death, nor death, and that's in any context, not even death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor

anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. There is no pandemic. There is no decision that if you disagree with someone else, I'm telling you today, the devil is a liar. And the division we see in the church is not of God. Although what we see right now in the world, I'll tell you this, nothing can separate us from the love of God. So the voice we should be listening to the loudest should be God's voice. Because if we're not listening to God's voice, we're listening to the wrong voice. And there are a lot of voices that are vying for your attention today. There there might even be the voice of your own conscience. We live in this world is oh just follow your heart. The Bible says don't do it. Your heart is

deceitful above all things. I know it might feel good. It might look good. What the Bible says is you know you need to listen to the Lord. His His voice should be the loudest voice. God's voice should be the one you listen to. And it's not easy to listen to the Lord's voice. Especially in a loud world when you wake up with your cell phone next to you. We got televisions everywhere. We're busy. We got to pay our bills and there's all kinds of things that are screaming for your attention. But the danger here is if we don't listen to God's voice, we're listening to some voice and some other message will slip into our lives like fear. That's one voice you can listen. Fear. Fear is a liar. Fear will stop you from experiencing the destiny that God has planned for you. Fear will paralyze you from the dreams that God planted in your heart. Oh, just think about that. that unwed pregnant young woman. The fears that come in,

fear of what the family will say, fear of what the family do, fear of the church and the shame, the guilt of fear of what God is actually thinking. All those things are a lie. She may experience those things, but God will give her everything she needs. John puts it this way in 1 John 4:18, "There is no fear in love." Now, earlier in the same chapter, he said, "God is love. So when you turn to the Lord, God's not going to give you a spirit of fear. But here's why. Because perfect love casts out fear. Some translations say it drives out fear. So the more God you have, the less fear you have. For fear has to do with punishment. Didn't we just read in Romans 8:1, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ? And whoever fears has not been perfected in love.

Which means this, I need to keep listening to the voice of God. If there's some other voice telling me that I'm not loved, if there's some other voice condemning me, if there's some other voice trying to separate me from the love of God, that's not God. So, so I got to keep coming back to the God that is love. He has a plan for me. So, what does his voice say? When the Lord spoke to Jeremiah, and I believe he's speaking the same thing to you today in Jeremiah chapter 1 verse 5, the Lord said, "Before I formed you," this is God speaking. "Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you." Let's just stop and think about that for just a second. It's God that made you. God is the great activator. It wasn't evolution. It wasn't just by happen stance or

accident. God actually had a plan for you. He knew you before your mama knew you. He knew you before you knew you. God said, "I knew you." Even more, he says, "I got a plan for you." He He said this, "And before you were born, I consecrated you." That means I set you apart. This is a special word, consecrated you. I set you apart. And then he tells Jeremiah this. I appointed you a prophet to the nations. Now, you may not be a prophet, but I'll tell you this. what God told Jeremiah. He's telling you, "I have a plan for you. I have a plan for you. You don't have to wonder. You don't have to wander. You don't have to look at your life and say, "Oh, I'm not like anybody else." Our God is so big and so unique. He made you so that you would fulfill his will and your life.

Many of us are like Jeremiah. We're full of excuses. Jeremiah lived in a in a very, very dark time in history. See, Jeremiah was born at a time where kings did evil in the sight of God. Kings did not listen to the command of God. Kings led people to do evil. And that's when God says, "Hey, I want to call you into ministry." Not a comfortable time in history, not an easy time to follow the Lord. He says, "I want you to do it." And Jeremiah had every excuse just like Moses. Remember when God spoke to Moses through the burning bush and and God told Moses, "Hey, I want you to lead my people out of slavery." And what did Moses say? Uh, you got the wrong guy. I I I I I I stutter. I don't think I speak eloquently enough. And God said, "Nope, you're the exact guy I want to use." Because God doesn't use people who are qualified and look good and sound good.

He's looking for the right people that he formed in the womb that he had a perfect plan for. Oh, but you look at the life of Moses. He was a murderer. Yes, God can even use a murderer. He would say, "I'm going to redeem your life. You're not defined by the actions that you've done. You're defined by the obedience that you have in me. And so, just as Moses was called by God, Jeremiah is called by God to go be a prophet to the nations. Now, he was young. He's I'm I'm too young to serve you, God. Well, I'll tell you what, you're never too young to serve God. You are never too young to do great things for God. You are never too young to accept the Lord today. If you believe in Jesus Christ, you get God. Doesn't matter how young you are. If you're a child, you don't get a little version of the Holy Spirit. You get the power of the Holy Spirit. Come on. We've been lying to kids their whole lives. We just

teach them a little Sunday school version of Jesus. We got to teach them the big Jesus. That just like Jeremiah was called in the womb, there's no such thing as you'll be the future church. You believe in Jesus, you are the church. And Jeremiah is told by God today, listen, listen. Yes, you are called by me to go do great things, but it starts by hearing the voice of God. and not listening to all those other voices. In the Levitical law, Moses is speaking to the people and he teaches us about life. And he says in Leviticus chapter 17 vers 11, the law is to lead us to do the right things. It says, "For the life of the flesh is in the blood." I I want you to hear this so that we can identify where life begins. The life is in the blood. The life is in the blood. A lot of arguments today about when when does life begin? Does it does it start at first breath? Does it start at first heartbeat? When does life begin? And the

law of God says life is in the blood. We know this because if you get a wound and you bleed, you'll die. You need blood to live. Now, in the law, it goes on to explain this because as Paul explains to the Romans, the wages of sin is death. You keep sinning, you deserve to die. So, here's what God set up. And I have given it blood for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life. This is in the Old Testament which means it's before the birth of Jesus. We see God set up a system that said if you keep living apart from me you will die. But you come to the temple and you bring an animal. That animal will be sacrificed. And although you deserve death, that animal will pay your price. By the blood of that animal, you will live. By that blood, you live. This this was a prophetic picture of what Jesus would do. Jesus did what no one else has

ever done in history. He lived a sinless life. He was perfect. Never ever ever sinned. You got to read about the life of Jesus. Four biographies of him. So good. Great guy. Jesus never sinned. Yet he died on the cross. Why? If if he didn't sin, why would he die? He didn't deserve death. Well, here's what he did. He took your sin on the cross once and for all. This is why when you come into the church, you hear all these weird things about the blood, the blood, the blood, blood, the blood of the lamb. You're like, "Gross. Why are these Christians always talking about blood all the time?" You know, I'll tell you why. Because there's life in the blood. So when you come to Jesus, aren't you grateful we don't have to bring an animal to sacrifice anymore? He was shed. His blood was shed for your sins. He took his life so that you can live.

That by believing in him, you receive God's righteousness to be made right with God. So when you listen to the voice of God, you start to see that you don't have to work this out on your own. Jesus did it for you. And as we talk about abortion, we can't even come to an agreement if we don't hear from the same voice. So if you're new to church or you're uh maybe coming back to church and what I what I mean by voice and I refer to the word of God, I'm actually referring to the Bible that we're actually going to the authority of what God has stated so that we can see how to live our lives. And when you start shifting saying, I want to hear from God. That's okay. Wherever you are in your journey of faith, you are most welcome. We're all at different places in our journey of faith. But the more you listen to the voice of God, it changes you. You see

the mystery and the majesty of what David said in Psalm 139 when he pens these words. For you, God, you formed my inward parts. You knitted me together in my mother's womb. I mean, he goes into description. God, you know every little bit of me. You know the inside because you're the one that made them. And he says his response is this. For I praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works. That's what David said. You made me. Good job. My soul knows it very well. You see, when you understand that God Almighty, the creator, the maker, made you, there's no amens there because you're a little bit worried like, well, I didn't get the right color of hair that I wanted. Skin color. my body size could

be a little different, Lord. Like, I've got this abnormality or I've got this thing that I don't really like on my body. I mean, I got this disability or you might make every excuse in the world for for why you don't like you. But God looks at you and says, "What I make, I don't make mistakes." And Jesus answers the question. Someone's born in disability. God says, "That's not a disability. That's an opportunity for me to get the glory. You were never made for this home. This is just a tent." That's what the Bible says. this this body is not it. You you're to live for a greater home because one day your body is going to be glorified. But when we understand that humanity is made in God's image, something is special here and we've reversed it. We've made other creatures special today. If we said we were going to abort all the baby pandas in the world, everybody be in an uproar or or some other endangered species.

If if we were to say we're take all the puppies, there's too many puppies in the world, too many dogs in the world. there there would be a great protest. But today we have called the human child a choice. And I I recognize full well that there are many reasons why a person may choose to have an abortion. There are many. Most commonly you hear the words unplanned pregnancy. We've taken out the mystery of the divine of really probably the elephant behind the elephant of abortion is sex. So when the church doesn't talk about sex, the world will talk about sex and then the world will be confused. Sex is a great design by God.

And so we're confused when all of a sudden there's an unplanned pregnancy and someone says this is inconvenient for one reason or another. And it's very serious and it's not limited to some socioeconomic or religious background because Christians are getting abortions, single women, married women. It's not limited to a certain group of people. And we come to the determination, why does someone have an abortion? One would argue, well, listen, abortion needs to stay legal because of the case of rape or incest, but it doesn't take long to do some due diligence that in rape by incest is less than a half of a percent of all abortions. Less than a half. Abortion because of rape is 1%.

So 98.5 of all abortions have nothing to do with rape or incest. I recently heard a story from one of our superheroes here at Journey. We were just casually having a conversation a few weeks ago and she started to share with me her story. If you don't know what superheroes are here at Journey, those are our volunteers. We believe they do more than volunteer their time. They're changing the world. And as I was talking to her, she was telling me her story how as she shared she was adopted and she shared her biological mother was raped and so she was a product of rape and she was a young woman. She was unmarried and she decided to keep the child a full term and give it up for adoption and her adoptive parents could not have another child and they had been praying to God

for another child. So she was the answer of their prayer and she was raised in a wonderful Christian home. She ended up meeting a great guy. I saw them first service. They didn't even know I was sharing the story because I didn't ask for permission. But she and he's like one part of the story was wrong. He wasn't a great guy. I got lucky. But he she married a wonderful Christian guy. They have great kids and then they go on to have incredible grandkids. And the legacy of what happened out of a tragedy, something that was wrong, it was injust. It was evil ended up being an absolute miracle of God. And this is the redemptive story of Jesus that that what the enemy intends for evil, God can use it for good. And and that message needs to be shared today because we're

living in some dark days. And some of us are confused as if we don't have hope that's found in Jesus. You have hope. It's never too late with God. You're never too young and you're never too old to give your life to the Lord. And as we look to abortion, we want to look at the story of Jesus to understand what God would have to say for us. That we would hear his voice. There's a great voice in Isaiah 44. Verse 24. This is Isaiah speaking on behalf of God. He says, "Thus says the Lord." That's how you know God's speaking. "Thus says the Lord." If you're wondering, when God says he's saying it, "Thus says the Lord." Now, what does he call himself? Thus says the Lord, "Your redeemer."

If you got your own Bible, I would underline that, highlight it, and then just circle it. The Lord is my redeemer. There's a great burden off your back that you don't have to redeem yourself. You don't have to be good enough. You don't have to be loved enough. God loves you. Thus says the Lord, your redeemer, who did what? He formed you from the womb. I am the Lord who made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens, who spread out the earth by himself. Now, the God that made everything made you still doesn't make you want to praise God. Go back to Psalm 139. You go to the Grand Canyon, you see this God that just speaks it and it happens. He says, "I formed you." Oh, the majesty, the wonder, the beauty,

the absolute awesomeness that God loves you and had a plan for you. Let me just share a part of my story. I was born into a non-religious family. My family did not go to church and my dad abandoned our family when I was only two years old. My mother never remarried. And as a young child, I was quite confused. I I thought it was my fault. I led to some wrong conclusions. You see, not growing up in the church, I didn't learn to listen to the Lord's voice. So, I listened to the voices that were inside of my head. And my head said, "You were the last child to be born, and then your dad left. Maybe it's your fault." Clearly, he doesn't love you. He doesn't write you letters. He doesn't call you on your birthday. He doesn't give you gifts. And so, I took it as I was unloved. Something was wrong with me.

When you're just a little child, you come to a lot of false conclusions. I thought I thought like every family had it together. Come on. That's a lie. The enemy. Ain't no family have it together. Come on. Amen. No one's got it together. Not even the pastor's family. All right. So So, but as a boy, I thought like every other kid's got a great dad. Every other kid's got it all together. And I listened to those lies. And I'll tell you, the enemy tried to get me early. He tried to me he tried to get me to listen to those lies to detour me off of God's plan. But I stand before you today. God called me to be a pastor. He's God calling upon every one of your lives. And what looked like it was a bad situation when I was young was just God giving me an opportunity so I can identify and empathize with other people that have felt abandoned. And my story is not your story. God has called you. Everything you've been through. I

realize at this church there there's so much trauma. Some of you were sexually abused as a child. It's absolutely horrific. I'll tell you this. is more common than many of you probably understand. The beautiful people around you were hurt as a child and then it impacts your entire life. It manifests itself in different forms. Some of us weren't sexually abused. We actually just made some really immature decisions. We did some dumb things as kids and those things stick with you into adulthood. There's a lot of healing that needs to happen in in our hearts. I'll tell you the good news is the father doesn't give up on you. He never looks at your age and says, "Boy, you're just too old, or you should have done this a long time ago." God always welcomes you with loving arms. He welcomes you today and

says, "I made you. Nothing can separate us from from my love. I've always had a plan for you. And all that you've been through, you may say, God, I made some bad mistakes. Can you really use someone like me?" Yes. You know, at Journey Church, we say to be 99% known is not to be known at all. Because if you have 1% of your life that you're hiding from others, that you're bearing that burden, that's too much to bear, would you accept the invitation from Jesus? He says, "All those who are heavy laden and burdened, come, I'll give you rest." That's that's a great God. I want to invite up a friend here at Journey Church. She's the executive director of planning. Uh she's the sorry she's the executive director of pregnancy resource center of central Oregon. Uh this is Leanne Woods. She's a

family member here. She's a great friend. She's an advocate of the unborn. She's an advocate of families and all people. So I'm excited that she's going to just really share with us as we close out today. Thanks Le. Thank you. I love to be part of Journey Church for the fact that Journey talks about difficult subjects like abortion and like sex because I do that every day in my normal working life. I talk to young men and young women, old older women, older men who are facing unplanned pregnancies and that's what we talk about. We talk about uh their decisions. Well, I grew up in the 80s, uh, never really wanting to be part of the

political movements, the anti-abortion movements, or anything to do really with saving the babies. But for the past seven years, that's been my life. God called me out of one position working at a church to work in a nonprofit where I get the privilege of speaking to people about their unplanned pregnancies. Because when you face an unplanned pregnancy, you've got three decisions. I mean, three three options and three options only. Your options are to keep the baby, to have an abortion, or to place that baby for adoption. And so, that's what we talk about day in and day out. And God has not called me even at this stage in the game to be involved with politics or to be the

champion of the pro-life movement because that's not who I am. He has called me to speak life, to give hope, and to transform lives by sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ. And that as well is what I get to do day in and day out as I speak with men and women about their options. We share the love of Jesus Christ with them. So, I'm going to tell you a little story. Last summer, I was in the garage working um doing some sanding on a piece of rough saw lumber. I'm a um I'm a woodworker. I love to build things in the garage. And I got this really nasty splinter in my hand. It was there for a while. I tried to dig it out. Couldn't get it out. It was deep. And so I thought, well, I'll just let it heal on its own. And so it did for a few weeks.

A month went by and I woke up one morning. Man, my finger hurt. And I thought, "What is wrong with this?" And sure enough, that splinter had began to fester. And I had to deal with it at that point in time so that I could be whole and be healed. And I will tell you, like that splinter, there are probably many of you in this room who have not talked about abortion, nor did you want to come to church on Sunday where they talked about abortion. And that word in and of itself has begun to cause some hurt in you. cause some fear or bitterness or shame or even anger, deep sorrow or deep sadness. And I would tell you like that splinter, it's time to deal with it because God has you here so that you can be changed.

God brought you here this Sunday so that you could deal with the issues that maybe you have kept hidden for so long. Ladies, I'm going to talk to you first because as I speak in churches like this all across central Oregon, I recognize the hurt. I recognize the look on your faces. I see the fear in your eyes. And let me just say I'm sorry. I'm sorry that you were here today to have to dig this up, but truthfully, I'm not sorry. I give glory to God because he will redeem you even this day. Second Timothy 1:7 says, "For God did not give us a spirit of fear, but a spirit of power and love and

self-control." And so, my prayer for you today is that you will have no fear. that you will be bold in what it is that God would want you to do with these feelings that you are having inside because you are not here by accident. He loves you. He loves you and he is ready to extend grace and forgiveness to you today. And all he asks of you is to reach out and take it. For the men in the room, you are not immune from this at all either. I can tell you with 100% certainty that there are men in this room who have been affected by abortion,

who have played a part whether by encouraging a woman to have an abortion or being silent about a woman having abortion. There are some of you in this room who have played a part. And for you, I would say there is freedom for you as well. My first day on the job at the pregnancy resource center, I had this man walk through the door. Now, I thought this ministry was simply a call for me to minister to women and save babies. That's kind of what I thought I would be doing. But my first day on the job, this real tall man walked through the door. He was probably in his late 70s, early 80s. and he came in and he walked up to me and he handed me a check. You know, I thought, well, what is this for? And I didn't know first day on the job. I didn't know if I should open it and look at it or if I should just stick it in my pocket. Um, but he handed me

the check and he said, "I want this to stop." And I said, "Well, what do you want to stop?" And with tears in his eyes, he started to tell me a story. He said, "When I was 16, I got a girl pregnant and I encouraged her to have an abortion. My wife, before we were married at age 18, got pregnant and she had an abortion." He said, "Fast forward many years." He said, "I'll never forget the day the do his daughter looked him in the eye and said, "Dad, I had an abortion. And he said, "Just yesterday, I was told that my granddaughter had an abortion."

And he said, "I know my money is not going to change the world." He said, "But this has got to stop." Ladies and gentlemen, this issue not only affects women and men and babies, but it affects generations. Generations are affected by a single choice. But God But God is here to offer forgiveness and freedom for every single one of those choices. Isaiah 40:31 reminds us, "But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles. They will run and they will not grow weary. They will walk and they will not be faint."

Psalm 62:5 and 6 says, "Yes, my soul finds rest in God. My hope comes from him. Truly, he is my rock and my salvation and he is my fortress and I will not be shaken." Journey Church, if you are listening to me here or online, there is hope for everyone. God is extending his hand to say, "Take my hand. Take my hope. Be forgiven and be set free." I will encourage you today. If you want that hope and you don't know how to get it, would you come up here afterwards and be prayed for? Would you go out to the scoop table and ask for information about the next healing class that Journey Church is offering? Would you online

uh go to journeyandben.com and ask for information? Ask to be prayed for. Fill out a connection card. I don't want you to leave here unchanged. Throughout the summer, church, we have talked about the elephant in the room. We have talked about the tough topics. We have talked about things like politics and racism. We've talked about money and suffering and religion and LGBTQ, entertainment, mental health, and today abortion. Tough, tough topics. But I am so glad that I am part of a church who isn't afraid to talk about the elephant in the room.

Amen. And you know what? I find it no wonder, no wonder that the last day that we are here in this building together that God is having us talk about this topic because he wants to launch journey into a new place, a new part of bend and he wanted to make sure we were ready. We were ready as the body of Christ to remember who we are, where we came from, and he has prepared us for the great things that he is going to do in the future because journey exists to lead people on a transformation in Jesus Christ. And let me say we exist so that we as the body of Christ will lead people on a transformation in Jesus Christ. And each one of you exists so

that you can speak into others lives and lead them on a transformation and journey in Jesus Christ. This church started as a in a high school. It moved here into a strip club. And it is no wonder we are going to open our doors south of Bend right next to a bar. We are ready, Journey Church. We are ready to do the great things that God has planned for us to do. So would you stand with me for the last time as we stand in this building? I want to say that we stand together Journey Church. I'm going to embrace you. I'm going to call you to embrace the new place that God is calling this church. Both physically and spiritually. God is calling us to a

new place. We have the opportunity to expand our influence into the community and put into practice the conversations about the elephants in the room and as we do we will have the opportunity to put into practice the values that we hold as a church. So I would love for us to just say these values together. I will lead us off and then please join me as we repeat the values of Journey Church. Um, as a church, we will be relentlessly real gracegivers, gorilla lovers, and community creators. Together, we will take new territory. We will reach the unchurched. And together, we will provide hope for everyone. God bless you.