WEBVTT - Ché Ahn - Oct 14 - 9:00 am 0:00:13.670 --> 0:00:17.070 Hi, I'm Pastor Che. Welcome to Truth Talks. Whether you've 0:00:17.140 --> 0:00:19.480 come to know the Lord just recently or you've been 0:00:19.500 --> 0:00:23.000 walking with Jesus for years, I believe today's podcast will 0:00:23.120 --> 0:00:25.880 really bless you. Stay tuned. I'll share a word of 0:00:25.940 --> 0:00:31.930 encouragement at the end of the message. Now, I want 0:00:31.950 --> 0:00:37.740 to just go right into my message here and There's 0:00:37.780 --> 0:00:39.950 so much I want to share, and by God's grace, 0:00:40.370 --> 0:00:42.190 I want to just, first of all, just talk about 0:00:42.210 --> 0:00:46.210 the biblical perspective on life, the biblical perspective on life. 0:00:46.290 --> 0:00:49.350 I want to quote from Lou Engle, and I'm quoting 0:00:49.450 --> 0:00:52.250 from this book, The Reformer's Pledge, and I need to 0:00:52.290 --> 0:00:57.640 highlight this book. A year ago, January 2019, how many 0:00:57.720 --> 0:01:00.820 of you know James Gall? Heard of James Gall, heard 0:01:00.840 --> 0:01:05.390 him speak, okay? He's a best-selling author. James Gall had surgery, 0:01:05.470 --> 0:01:07.730 so he was in bed in January of 2019. This 0:01:07.990 --> 0:01:13.810 is before COVID hit. And in his sleep, he had 0:01:13.850 --> 0:01:15.350 a vision. It was like a dream, but he said 0:01:15.370 --> 0:01:18.950 it was more like a visitation. Jesus walked up to 0:01:19.010 --> 0:01:26.009 his bedside holding this book, the Reformer's Pledge. And Jesus 0:01:26.050 --> 0:01:30.149 said to him, this is the book of the hour. Now, 0:01:30.910 --> 0:01:33.490 James immediately calls me up the next day and says, Che, 0:01:33.510 --> 0:01:36.030 you won't believe it, you know, the book that you edited. 0:01:36.990 --> 0:01:39.210 I write a number of chapters, but I'm more of 0:01:39.270 --> 0:01:41.369 an editor for this. And I asked James to write 0:01:41.390 --> 0:01:44.929 a chapter. I asked Lance Walno to do a chapter 0:01:44.970 --> 0:01:47.250 on the Seven Mountain Mandate. By the way, he gives 0:01:47.310 --> 0:01:52.180 the best, concise understanding of the Seven Mountain Mandate vision. 0:01:52.600 --> 0:01:54.140 And if you want to understand what that is, get 0:01:54.180 --> 0:01:56.860 this book. And I asked Lou Engle to write a 0:01:56.940 --> 0:01:59.940 chapter on life, developing a culture of life. I came 0:02:00.000 --> 0:02:03.620 up with 10 pledges that were to make, and so 0:02:03.640 --> 0:02:07.340 that's why it's called the Reformers Pledge. And this pledge 0:02:07.400 --> 0:02:09.620 is here. I'm going to ask you to make this 0:02:09.710 --> 0:02:13.450 pledge as well. Now, this was 10 years ago. This 0:02:13.490 --> 0:02:16.990 came out 10 years ago. And I wrote it really 0:02:17.030 --> 0:02:19.590 because out of the call prayer movement, which I was 0:02:19.630 --> 0:02:21.489 so involved with back in 2000, 2003, I was the 0:02:21.510 --> 0:02:26.830 president of the call. that we would mobilize thousands of 0:02:26.889 --> 0:02:29.190 young people. The smallest crowd we ever had was 35,000, 0:02:29.190 --> 0:02:33.440 and that was in Dallas, Texas, the Bible Belt, but 0:02:33.500 --> 0:02:36.320 it turned bitterly cold that day in the Cotton Bowl, 0:02:36.860 --> 0:02:39.980 and the crowds didn't show up. But up to a 0:02:40.139 --> 0:02:43.959 half a million on the Washington, D.C. Mall on September 2nd, 2000, 0:02:43.960 --> 0:02:45.820 I know what crowd size is, and so when I 0:02:45.860 --> 0:02:49.769 was at the rally, Trump rally, on November the 6th, 0:02:49.800 --> 0:02:52.440 it was much bigger than the call. And that was 500,000, 0:02:52.419 --> 0:02:56.500 so I know it was more than 500,000, maybe 700,000. 0:02:56.500 --> 0:02:58.820 Some say a million. I don't know. There's no one 0:02:58.840 --> 0:03:01.690 that really knows because it wasn't just the crowd. It 0:03:01.720 --> 0:03:04.350 was the way we were packed in. I could not move. 0:03:04.389 --> 0:03:07.990 I was like a sardine, which was good because then 0:03:08.010 --> 0:03:09.590 you get to know the people around you waiting two 0:03:09.630 --> 0:03:12.590 hours just for the program to begin. And that's when 0:03:12.650 --> 0:03:14.190 I shared the gospel. I found out there was a 0:03:14.220 --> 0:03:16.120 Japanese man next to me who didn't know the Lord. 0:03:16.419 --> 0:03:18.700 He was a Buddhist from Hawaii. He flew all the 0:03:18.720 --> 0:03:22.000 way from Hawaii just to support President Trump, and there 0:03:22.020 --> 0:03:24.860 were two Catholics behind me from Boston, and they started 0:03:24.900 --> 0:03:27.000 asking me questions about what it means to be born again, 0:03:27.860 --> 0:03:30.579 and so I just shared the gospel with the two pastors. 0:03:30.639 --> 0:03:32.760 The two people in front of me were pastors, and 0:03:32.780 --> 0:03:34.870 they were interceding, and so I shared the gospel with 0:03:34.880 --> 0:03:36.750 the three of them. All three of them gave their 0:03:36.780 --> 0:03:39.670 lives to Jesus Christ, so it was just great. Again, 0:03:39.710 --> 0:03:43.210 the harvest was coming in, so I know crowd size, 0:03:43.310 --> 0:03:48.510 but we couldn't move, and Every time we gather people together, 0:03:48.530 --> 0:03:51.000 we ask them to make a pledge to vote for 0:03:51.090 --> 0:03:54.000 candidates who are pro-life. Now, we didn't ask them to 0:03:54.060 --> 0:03:59.059 sign anything. We didn't hold them accountable. We just asked 0:03:59.080 --> 0:04:02.340 them to make a verbal commitment. At the peak of 0:04:02.480 --> 0:04:05.640 each call, it was really, if you know anything about Lou, 0:04:05.740 --> 0:04:07.960 how many of you heard Lou last week? This is 0:04:08.060 --> 0:04:11.990 his life assignment. So being the visionary founder of the call, 0:04:12.030 --> 0:04:15.400 he made sure at the the zenith of the call 0:04:15.460 --> 0:04:18.000 time together, when most of the people were there, we 0:04:18.080 --> 0:04:21.420 asked them to make a verbal pledge to vote life. Well, 0:04:21.540 --> 0:04:24.520 I thought, okay, that's great, but we need to write 0:04:24.560 --> 0:04:26.860 about it. We can't just, you know, we have to 0:04:26.920 --> 0:04:31.280 document this, and then we need to really get it 0:04:31.400 --> 0:04:34.039 out to the next generation, because when I wrote this 0:04:34.160 --> 0:04:36.320 in 2010, you know, the call had, was 10 years 0:04:36.339 --> 0:04:42.610 after the call D.C., and a whole new generation. There 0:04:42.630 --> 0:04:45.990 were young people there that were now following us that 0:04:46.050 --> 0:04:49.620 were not at the call, D.C. And so now, 10 0:04:49.620 --> 0:04:52.820 years later, who would have ever known that God would 0:04:52.900 --> 0:04:57.880 lead our apostolic center to birth a pro-life movement called 0:04:58.060 --> 0:05:02.860 One Race for Life? And that the main thing that 0:05:02.880 --> 0:05:04.820 we're trying to do is get people to make a 0:05:04.860 --> 0:05:09.020 pledge to vote life. And we're going to actually do that, 0:05:09.300 --> 0:05:13.060 prayerfully consider doing that in But before I get into 0:05:13.260 --> 0:05:16.339 even talking about the Bible, I want to read something 0:05:16.380 --> 0:05:19.180 that Lou Engle said in this book that is so powerful. 0:05:20.520 --> 0:05:22.150 And by the way, you can get this on Amazon, 0:05:22.630 --> 0:05:26.570 and I do believe that our resources are being opened 0:05:26.610 --> 0:05:29.229 up again, and you'll be able to buy a number 0:05:29.270 --> 0:05:32.930 of my books. And so, I mean, all of them, actually. 0:05:33.470 --> 0:05:35.590 But let me quote from Lou Engle. He says this. 0:05:38.000 --> 0:05:40.710 If we will see abortion ended in our day... the 0:05:40.790 --> 0:05:44.630 church must submit her political preferences and rebellious reasoning to 0:05:44.670 --> 0:05:49.060 the measuring rod of God's truth. God gave us courageous 0:05:49.140 --> 0:05:51.380 men and women like Martin Luther who challenged the whole 0:05:51.420 --> 0:05:55.120 religious system of his day and his false ideologies of 0:05:55.180 --> 0:06:00.279 salvation with a trumpet phrase, sola scriptura, meaning scripture alone. 0:06:00.940 --> 0:06:03.599 Vast portions of the church today ringing with a hollow 0:06:03.740 --> 0:06:07.540 echo of relevance are dumbing down the razor's edge of 0:06:07.580 --> 0:06:10.620 biblical truth for the sake of acceptance and are following 0:06:10.660 --> 0:06:14.040 a pattern of apostasy that breaks away from God's fixed 0:06:14.480 --> 0:06:22.099 moral standards. Powerful, well-written statement. Sola Scriptura, this is the foundation. 0:06:23.020 --> 0:06:25.520 This is the authority God's given. In the beginning was 0:06:25.560 --> 0:06:28.520 the Word. The Word was with God. The Word and 0:06:28.560 --> 0:06:33.010 God are inseparable. Just like Jesus is the Word, and 0:06:33.050 --> 0:06:34.849 he has all authority. He's the head of the church. 0:06:35.230 --> 0:06:37.969 He has given us the Word to have authority over. 0:06:38.290 --> 0:06:43.510 and be the foundation of the church. So with that 0:06:43.560 --> 0:06:45.890 in mind, I want to go to the most important 0:06:45.950 --> 0:06:51.700 foundation of what we believe in, a Judeo-Christian value of 0:06:51.960 --> 0:06:55.520 God who created every person here in the image and 0:06:55.560 --> 0:06:59.380 likeness of him. Genesis 1, verse 26. Then God said, 0:06:59.460 --> 0:07:02.920 let us, I like that, plural, let us. It's within 0:07:02.940 --> 0:07:05.740 there you see the triune being, the Trinity, God the Father, 0:07:05.779 --> 0:07:09.390 God the Son, God the Holy Spirit interplay One God, 0:07:09.590 --> 0:07:14.120 but three personalities. All right. Let us make man in 0:07:14.380 --> 0:07:18.980 our image according to our likeness. Again, plural. God created 0:07:19.020 --> 0:07:21.450 man in his own image. In the image of God, 0:07:21.510 --> 0:07:24.670 he created him male and female. He created them. 0:07:26.090 --> 0:07:30.180 There's something about how God uses California to change the world. 0:07:30.420 --> 0:07:33.600 Azusa Street in 1906 changed the world. The Billy Graham 0:07:33.640 --> 0:07:37.360 Crusade in 1949. The Jesus People Movement in 1967. Could 0:07:37.460 --> 0:07:41.340 it be Hope Fest LA 2026, April 11th at the 0:07:41.380 --> 0:07:43.160 Coliseum changes the world? 0:07:43.260 --> 0:07:45.440 Bring your friends who don't know Jesus. Bring those who 0:07:45.460 --> 0:07:48.190 are hopeless, who need hope. Bring them to the Coliseum. 0:07:49.050 --> 0:07:51.850 I believe Gen Z and the next generation, they're ready 0:07:51.890 --> 0:07:55.540 for the harvest like never before. An evening of worship, encounter, 0:07:55.570 --> 0:07:58.300 and transformation featuring Kim Walker-Smith. 0:07:59.560 --> 0:08:02.700 Lecrae, and I don't know all of the outcomes. 0:08:03.820 --> 0:08:07.100 April 11th at the Coliseum. RSVP now and get free 0:08:07.140 --> 0:08:13.000 tickets while they last. HopefestLA.org. Hopefest 2026. Dedicated to bringing 0:08:13.020 --> 0:08:16.380 the transformational hope of Jesus to save souls, heal. 0:08:16.200 --> 0:08:22.090 The broken, and set Now two things that need to 0:08:22.150 --> 0:08:25.950 be highlighted. Number one, God created the universe at the 0:08:26.030 --> 0:08:28.290 peak and the zenith of his creation and created you 0:08:28.890 --> 0:08:32.829 and me. The second thing, he created us in his image. 0:08:34.350 --> 0:08:38.250 Why is that so important, so foundational? Because if you 0:08:38.290 --> 0:08:41.080 don't believe in God, then all of a sudden human 0:08:41.120 --> 0:08:48.439 life becomes nothing. It's interesting that Marxism-Communism... which is a 0:08:48.500 --> 0:08:54.350 political party, let's say China, CCP, the Communist Chinese Party, CCP, 0:08:55.330 --> 0:08:59.270 you have to sign a pledge that you will never 0:08:59.309 --> 0:09:04.179 believe in God. I've been to China around 20 times. 0:09:04.260 --> 0:09:06.440 I meet the people who have been former members of 0:09:06.460 --> 0:09:08.980 the party. I've had the privilege of leading a party 0:09:09.020 --> 0:09:12.589 member to the Lord who said... don't really want to 0:09:12.630 --> 0:09:15.510 leave because I will lose my privileges. He said, when 0:09:15.570 --> 0:09:18.830 I retire, I retire next year. Can I give my 0:09:18.850 --> 0:09:22.059 life to Jesus Christ then? That's what he said. We're 0:09:22.080 --> 0:09:25.040 having this discussion over dinner, eating Peking duck. And I 0:09:25.100 --> 0:09:27.620 said to him, I said, no, it doesn't work that way. 0:09:27.640 --> 0:09:30.600 Because you don't know what your life will be like tomorrow. 0:09:31.990 --> 0:09:33.890 When you hear this voice, don't harden your heart. Now 0:09:33.950 --> 0:09:36.270 is the time of salvation. Today's the day of salvation. 0:09:36.679 --> 0:09:38.460 And he gave his heart to the Lord right there. 0:09:38.540 --> 0:09:42.200 Thank God for that. But he was renouncing his atheism 0:09:43.300 --> 0:09:45.699 by doing that. So when you take God out of 0:09:45.720 --> 0:09:47.620 the equation, all of a sudden we're not made in 0:09:47.640 --> 0:09:49.760 the image of God. And this is so important because 0:09:49.820 --> 0:09:54.490 we know intuitively man is valuable, whether you believe or not, 0:09:54.630 --> 0:09:58.490 even our conscience tells us that. I remember a year ago, again, 0:09:58.530 --> 0:10:01.390 a year ago in 2019 or January at the end 0:10:01.410 --> 0:10:03.430 of January I was privileged to speak at the American 0:10:03.450 --> 0:10:08.050 Renewal Project conference in Anaheim and David Lane our dear 0:10:08.100 --> 0:10:11.240 friend he's part of HM was hosting and organizing that 0:10:11.260 --> 0:10:14.360 and we had people like Charlie Kirk there Dennis Prager 0:10:14.380 --> 0:10:17.030 and And I remember Dennis Prager speaking. He gave an 0:10:17.070 --> 0:10:21.590 illustration that just really valued life. He says, listen, if 0:10:21.630 --> 0:10:26.449 you see a man drowning in the river, but at 0:10:26.490 --> 0:10:29.150 the same time your dog is drowning in the river, 0:10:29.630 --> 0:10:33.430 who would you rescue first? Someone said the dog, and 0:10:33.470 --> 0:10:38.320 I said the man. They were joking because they knew. 0:10:39.130 --> 0:10:41.760 Even if it's a stranger, you know that life is 0:10:41.820 --> 0:10:43.900 more important than your dog, even if it's your pet dog. 0:10:44.660 --> 0:10:49.970 You rescued the human being. We know that. But God 0:10:50.020 --> 0:10:55.630 says every human being matters. So we say all lives 0:10:55.950 --> 0:10:59.790 matter here because we're all made in the image and likeness. 0:10:59.809 --> 0:11:02.089 It has nothing to do with color. In fact, that's 0:11:02.110 --> 0:11:05.590 the least important thing. The most important thing is we're 0:11:05.670 --> 0:11:14.709 made in the image and likeness of God. And so 0:11:15.090 --> 0:11:19.590 the communist China, if you look at what communism has done, 0:11:19.690 --> 0:11:23.150 look at the fruit of communism. And as a historian, 0:11:23.190 --> 0:11:26.730 I've studied this. Just look at three nations. Look at 0:11:27.309 --> 0:11:33.450 China under Mao, Russia under Stalin, Cambodia, which is now 0:11:33.510 --> 0:11:39.170 Kampuchea under Popak. We're talking about killing 100 million of 0:11:39.220 --> 0:11:43.719 their own people during their leadership time, during their reign. 0:11:44.840 --> 0:11:51.040 during their administration, 100 million. If you've never read a 0:11:51.059 --> 0:11:52.939 book that you don't really want to read, but just 0:11:52.960 --> 0:11:57.260 to give you an idea how brutal, how evil communism is, 0:11:57.840 --> 0:12:03.420 you have to read Alexander Sosinitsyn's The Gulag Archipelago. And 0:12:03.440 --> 0:12:06.380 I have to be honest with you, as this is 0:12:06.470 --> 0:12:10.309 one of the books of the century, of the 20th century, 0:12:10.590 --> 0:12:12.189 when it came out in 74 or 75, whenever it was, 0:12:14.470 --> 0:12:16.350 And so I started to read that, but I could 0:12:16.410 --> 0:12:21.319 only go through two chapters because I saw how evil 0:12:21.800 --> 0:12:25.920 the communist system, how people were snitching on each other. 0:12:25.940 --> 0:12:29.800 It's socialism, it's communism, I'm telling you. And that's why 0:12:29.840 --> 0:12:32.240 we have to say no to the tie that's taking 0:12:32.280 --> 0:12:35.380 place and just allow the gospel of the kingdom that 0:12:35.420 --> 0:12:37.440 brings liberty and freedom, where the spirit of the Lord is, 0:12:37.460 --> 0:12:40.750 there's liberty. That's the only thing that brings true freedom, 0:12:40.790 --> 0:12:43.270 and that's why we are here to be salt and 0:12:43.309 --> 0:12:48.689 light to But communism, I can't even describe how they 0:12:48.790 --> 0:12:53.790 tortured to make false confessions. They knew they were not guilty. 0:12:54.570 --> 0:12:57.410 It was their way of eliminating the masses because they 0:12:57.429 --> 0:13:02.350 couldn't even support them financially. Because socialism promises you'll get 0:13:02.390 --> 0:13:05.370 a paycheck, we'll take care of your medical well-being. Where's 0:13:05.550 --> 0:13:08.430 the money coming from? There's no amount of money to 0:13:08.470 --> 0:13:14.239 do that. And so life became so cheap. because of 0:13:14.300 --> 0:13:20.179 their warped demonic ideology of no God and were not 0:13:20.240 --> 0:13:24.140 made in the image and likeness of God. And so 0:13:24.160 --> 0:13:26.880 we have to go from there. But I want to 0:13:26.920 --> 0:13:30.920 just emphasize, this is something that's really interesting. God created 0:13:31.120 --> 0:13:34.030 man in his own image, verse 27, and the image 0:13:34.050 --> 0:13:37.030 of God, he created him. And what's the next word? 0:13:39.050 --> 0:13:43.420 Male and female created him. The second thing I want 0:13:43.440 --> 0:13:45.800 to talk about, life begins at conception, and this is 0:13:45.900 --> 0:13:48.650 really important that you see a biblical basis because they 0:13:48.670 --> 0:13:52.090 said when, you know, what developmental stage of the child 0:13:52.270 --> 0:13:55.250 is that a child from a fetus to a baby? 0:13:55.610 --> 0:13:57.670 And no one knows. No one knows as far as 0:13:57.740 --> 0:14:01.699 those who are secular humanists. So they made arbitrarily, like 0:14:01.740 --> 0:14:07.180 the United Presbyterian Church, UPC, said after three months, prior 0:14:07.220 --> 0:14:09.260 to that you could abort, which is madness for a 0:14:09.360 --> 0:14:13.140 church of Jesus Christ to condone abortion at any stage. 0:14:13.440 --> 0:14:17.920 Here's what the Bible says. God is so brilliant, so wise. 0:14:17.980 --> 0:14:22.370 He says this in Leviticus chapter 17, verse 11. For 0:14:22.390 --> 0:14:28.090 the life of the flesh is in the blood. For 0:14:28.110 --> 0:14:32.770 the life of the flesh is in the blood. Only 0:14:32.770 --> 0:14:37.220 2,000 years later, the scientists understand that one drop of 0:14:37.260 --> 0:14:43.890 blood has the DNA of the whole person. They could 0:14:43.970 --> 0:14:46.170 know exactly what you're going to be like by one 0:14:46.230 --> 0:14:48.750 drop of blood. When does that drop of blood begin? 0:14:49.110 --> 0:14:52.870 Three months into the pregnancy? Four months? Six months? No, 0:14:53.050 --> 0:14:56.200 at conception there is blood. That's why the Bible says 0:14:56.250 --> 0:15:00.060 life begins, life is in the blood. Life is in 0:15:00.080 --> 0:15:03.380 the blood. It's beautiful. The DNA makeup is already there 0:15:03.400 --> 0:15:10.500 at conception. Here's what the Bible also says. I love 0:15:10.540 --> 0:15:15.360 this about Jeremiah 1.5, he says, before I formed you 0:15:15.400 --> 0:15:20.040 in the womb, he wasn't developed. I knew you. And 0:15:20.080 --> 0:15:22.560 before you were born, I consecrated you. I appointed you 0:15:22.900 --> 0:15:25.940 a prophet to the nations. Is it possible at the 0:15:25.980 --> 0:15:28.540 moment of your conception, God had a destiny for you? 0:15:29.220 --> 0:15:31.590 That he called you? That he knew you? Of course 0:15:31.620 --> 0:15:35.690 he knew you. He made you. God created them in 0:15:36.030 --> 0:15:43.400 his image. He's all-knowing. You know, I was... just thinking, 0:15:43.460 --> 0:15:46.360 reflecting on my 65th birthday, and I said, my goodness, 0:15:46.380 --> 0:15:49.239 time flies so fast. I can't believe it. I still 0:15:49.260 --> 0:15:55.160 feel like I'm like 35. And what's amazing is that, 0:15:56.710 --> 0:15:58.450 you know, I was just sharing with someone about, I 0:15:58.550 --> 0:16:02.970 was sharing with you, Joy, about how inner healing has 0:16:03.050 --> 0:16:06.270 impacted my life because I had this lie lodged in 0:16:06.310 --> 0:16:08.490 my head. I was rejected from birth until I went 0:16:08.530 --> 0:16:12.080 through this prophetic inner healings. And my counselor took me 0:16:12.140 --> 0:16:14.340 back and just said, what do you see? And all 0:16:14.360 --> 0:16:16.800 of a sudden, I see myself being dedicated by my 0:16:16.860 --> 0:16:20.760 grandfather to Jesus Christ. My grandfather was an elder of 0:16:20.800 --> 0:16:25.620 the church, Presbyterian church. My father was late getting to 0:16:26.380 --> 0:16:28.430 my birth time. He was on a bus. I mean, 0:16:28.470 --> 0:16:31.330 back in 1956, that's the way he got around, was 0:16:31.410 --> 0:16:32.950 a bus. And he had to go based on the 0:16:33.010 --> 0:16:36.850 bus schedule. So he was hurrying to get to my grandparents' 0:16:36.890 --> 0:16:40.800 home because my grandmother, who lived to 101... was a nurse. 0:16:40.920 --> 0:16:44.280 She was one of the rare women professionals. She was 0:16:44.300 --> 0:16:48.400 a registered nurse. And she told my mom, look, instead 0:16:48.420 --> 0:16:51.140 of at the hospital delivering your baby, why don't you 0:16:51.160 --> 0:16:53.060 just come and live with me? Let me take care 0:16:53.100 --> 0:16:54.860 of you your last month, and I'll deliver the baby. 0:16:55.040 --> 0:16:59.610 So that's how I end up being born in my grandparents' home. 0:16:59.680 --> 0:17:02.130 But the beautiful thing was is that I was celebrated 0:17:02.530 --> 0:17:07.270 because my mom had lost her first pregnancy through miscarriage 0:17:07.290 --> 0:17:10.250 and was a boy. Then my sister was born. in 0:17:10.270 --> 0:17:13.070 a hospital, and then two years later, I was born. 0:17:13.090 --> 0:17:18.429 And here's the thing, my grandfather dedicated, I mean, I 0:17:18.450 --> 0:17:20.629 didn't have a chance. I was gonna be here preaching 0:17:20.670 --> 0:17:24.169 from the pulpit because my mom had a dream that 0:17:24.190 --> 0:17:26.010 I was gonna be a pastor when she was pregnant 0:17:26.050 --> 0:17:28.369 with me, and then my grandfather was a golly man. 0:17:28.890 --> 0:17:31.600 I mean, he was a founding elder of Yarnock Presbyterian, 0:17:31.630 --> 0:17:34.920 this conservative evangelical church, which is known as the world's 0:17:34.960 --> 0:17:39.060 largest Presbyterian church to this day, 80,000 member. He was 0:17:39.100 --> 0:17:41.260 an elder. He helped build that. He was a banker. 0:17:41.280 --> 0:17:45.459 He gave money to that building project. Billy Graham preached there. 0:17:45.480 --> 0:17:47.609 When he goes to Korea, he preached at that church. 0:17:49.570 --> 0:17:53.210 And so that man dedicated me, my grandfather, to the Lord. 0:17:54.030 --> 0:17:56.649 And I just said, God, I'm here by the grace 0:17:56.690 --> 0:18:00.910 of God. 65 years later, still loving you, serving you, preaching. 0:18:03.010 --> 0:18:05.869 I believe I was called in my mom's womb. I 0:18:05.890 --> 0:18:09.580 believe I was called the moment she conceived me God 0:18:09.670 --> 0:18:12.800 knew the heart and the prayers of my parents and 0:18:12.840 --> 0:18:15.940 my grandparents. They wanted a boy to be a pastor. 0:18:16.400 --> 0:18:18.380 Back then, they just believed in men in ministry. They 0:18:18.420 --> 0:18:21.820 just were very concerned. But that was my grandfather's prayer. 0:18:22.040 --> 0:18:24.670 He wanted one of his kids to be a pastor. 0:18:24.690 --> 0:18:28.270 None of them became pastors. They became Christians, but not pastors. 0:18:28.670 --> 0:18:32.230 They're all in the marketplace. And so God answered that 0:18:32.290 --> 0:18:36.429 prayer through the grandson. You have a destiny. Life begins 0:18:36.490 --> 0:18:39.690 at conception, not death. And, you know, I mean, it's like, 0:18:40.270 --> 0:18:44.389 why pick an arbitrary time, like three months? How crazy 0:18:44.490 --> 0:18:48.429 is that? Listen, if you see a bag, let's say 0:18:48.470 --> 0:18:51.060 a paper bag moving on the freeway, 210 freeway, and 0:18:51.100 --> 0:18:53.500 you're driving your car and you see that thing move, 0:18:53.720 --> 0:18:55.899 you're not going to run over it. You're going to 0:18:55.920 --> 0:18:58.480 dodge it because you think maybe it's a kitten in there. 0:18:58.520 --> 0:19:00.760 Maybe it's a dog. Maybe it's some kind of life 0:19:00.780 --> 0:19:03.100 because it's moving. You're not going to take a chance. 0:19:03.160 --> 0:19:06.500 You want to make sure that you don't kill something 0:19:06.540 --> 0:19:11.300 that's alive. And yet we play Russian roulette and make 0:19:11.340 --> 0:19:14.540 an arbitrary decision and say, well, this person is a 0:19:14.680 --> 0:19:17.220 fetus at this stage and now it's a baby. How 0:19:17.400 --> 0:19:22.170 crazy is that? Make sure. Play it safe. You don't know. 0:19:22.270 --> 0:19:24.570 Only God knows. And God says life is in the blood. 0:19:24.750 --> 0:19:26.810 Why would you kill a two-month baby? Why would you 0:19:26.830 --> 0:19:29.850 kill a three-month baby? And by the way, the viability 0:19:29.910 --> 0:19:33.290 outside the womb is because of modern science is amazing now. 0:19:34.170 --> 0:19:37.490 Three months, the baby can survive. And yet that's when 0:19:38.369 --> 0:19:41.960 You're encouraged. Do it well. It's safe. Get an abortion 0:19:42.080 --> 0:19:48.929 now before it becomes more complicated. That is a slippery slope. 0:19:51.430 --> 0:19:55.969 It's infanticide. They rationalize. They think you have the choice. 0:19:56.619 --> 0:20:00.359 What about the baby's choice? What about the rights of 0:20:00.400 --> 0:20:06.740 the unborn? We got to get righteous people into offices. 0:20:06.760 --> 0:20:11.520 The way they think is unbelievable. All right, let's talk 0:20:11.540 --> 0:20:16.859 about the curse of shedding innocent blood. We know murder 0:20:18.080 --> 0:20:22.960 is evil. Think about it. 631 commandments in the Old Testament. 0:20:23.380 --> 0:20:26.640 A lot of commandments, right? Most of them are ceremonial 0:20:27.220 --> 0:20:32.270 laws that don't even apply today. But God reduced them 0:20:32.369 --> 0:20:36.730 to 10. 10 commandments. The reason why I'm saying this 0:20:36.810 --> 0:20:39.910 is because people have criticized me. They're just so focused 0:20:39.930 --> 0:20:43.129 on Remember that statement, you have a love affair with 0:20:43.190 --> 0:20:47.340 a fetus? It's a single issue, you know, platform for you. 0:20:47.900 --> 0:20:50.699 It's all about abortion. And I said, you know what? 0:20:50.820 --> 0:20:54.240 I'm concerned about immigration. I'm an immigrant. I'm concerned about 0:20:54.260 --> 0:20:56.540 the poor because I was poor and I know what 0:20:56.580 --> 0:20:58.840 the gospel can do to the poor. There's other things 0:20:58.880 --> 0:21:02.720 I'm concerned about. But they're not in the top ten. 0:21:04.200 --> 0:21:08.350 But abortion is. Out of all the commandments, all the 0:21:08.400 --> 0:21:13.850 things the Bible writes about concerning Immigration, showing hospitality to 0:21:13.930 --> 0:21:16.310 a foreigner because you were once a foreigner in Egypt. 0:21:18.130 --> 0:21:22.979 God puts number six, thou shall not murder. And for 0:21:23.000 --> 0:21:25.300 your translation of this, the old King James Version, it 0:21:25.320 --> 0:21:27.760 says kill is a bad translation. There are different words 0:21:27.800 --> 0:21:31.000 for the word kill. The Hebrew, this is murder, taking 0:21:31.359 --> 0:21:35.070 an innocent life. So we have to understand the doctrine 0:21:35.109 --> 0:21:37.290 of taking an innocent life. And here's what the Bible says. 0:21:40.180 --> 0:21:44.270 I want to go to, first of all, Proverbs 6, 16, 0:21:44.270 --> 0:21:47.110 because I want to just share how God feels about 0:21:47.170 --> 0:21:50.750 taking an innocent life. There are six things that the 0:21:50.810 --> 0:21:55.869 Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him. Let 0:21:55.890 --> 0:21:58.150 me underscore the word hate is a very strong word. 0:21:58.170 --> 0:22:02.730 Abomination is a very strong word. In fact, you know, Sue, 0:22:02.950 --> 0:22:06.010 when we had our kids and they were small, They 0:22:06.030 --> 0:22:10.310 would say, I hate broccoli. Don't say, I hate broccoli. 0:22:10.550 --> 0:22:13.129 Just say you dislike broccoli because hate is, I don't 0:22:13.170 --> 0:22:15.369 want that word to be used in our house. It's 0:22:15.390 --> 0:22:18.669 such a strong word. And I agree with her. And 0:22:18.710 --> 0:22:23.260 yet God says there's some things I hate. And one 0:22:23.280 --> 0:22:28.399 of them is an abomination. And that one abomination is 0:22:28.500 --> 0:22:33.330 hands that shed innocent blood. Hands that shed innocent blood. 0:22:34.840 --> 0:22:36.600 Here's what the Bible says from going all the way 0:22:36.640 --> 0:22:40.159 back to Genesis chapter 9, 6. He says, listen, whoever 0:22:40.200 --> 0:22:42.350 sheds the blood of man by man shall his blood 0:22:42.380 --> 0:22:44.990 be shed for God made man in his own image. 0:22:46.550 --> 0:22:49.950 Here's the penalty. If you shed innocent blood, life for life. 0:22:51.130 --> 0:22:54.869 Here we have the foundation of capital punishment coming into 0:22:54.950 --> 0:23:00.189 our legal system. If you shed innocent blood, it is 0:23:00.270 --> 0:23:03.470 so heinous to God that your blood will have to 0:23:03.510 --> 0:23:06.450 be shed for And if it doesn't happen, then justice 0:23:06.490 --> 0:23:10.949 will not be met. He's a God of justice. The 0:23:11.010 --> 0:23:16.130 foundations of his throne is righteousness and justice. But look 0:23:16.150 --> 0:23:19.030 what he says, and this is what's really stunning here. 0:23:20.290 --> 0:23:24.500 It's not just to meet justice, but you see, if 0:23:24.619 --> 0:23:28.100 this does not go punished, it leaves a curse on 0:23:28.180 --> 0:23:31.979 the land. The whole nation is cursed. So here's what 0:23:32.020 --> 0:23:38.820 the word says, a number... Chapter 35, verse 31. A 0:23:38.880 --> 0:23:41.100 murderer who's guilty of death, he shall surely be put 0:23:41.140 --> 0:23:44.139 to death. Okay, life for life. Going back to Genesis 0:23:44.160 --> 0:23:48.740 chapter 9, verse 6. But in the next verse, 33 says, 0:23:48.760 --> 0:23:51.859 So you shall not pollute the land in which you are, 0:23:51.940 --> 0:23:55.180 for blood pollutes the land, and no expiation or no 0:23:55.220 --> 0:23:58.940 atonement or there's nothing, there's no sacrifice can be made 0:23:58.980 --> 0:24:01.270 for the land, for the blood that is shed on 0:24:01.350 --> 0:24:04.010 it except by the blood of the man who shed it. 0:24:05.460 --> 0:24:07.859 In other words, there's going to be a curse on 0:24:07.880 --> 0:24:10.300 the land, polluting the land, talking about a curse on 0:24:10.340 --> 0:24:13.180 the land, and the only way that could be done 0:24:13.200 --> 0:24:17.950 is by justice, by the man who committed murder has 0:24:17.990 --> 0:24:21.609 to be executed. There has to be capital punishment. Today 0:24:21.650 --> 0:24:28.520 we say put it on the electric chair. And then 0:24:28.580 --> 0:24:31.200 he goes on to say in verse 34, you should 0:24:31.240 --> 0:24:33.159 not defile the land in which you live in the 0:24:33.200 --> 0:24:35.500 midst of which I dwell. I, the Lord, am dwelling 0:24:35.520 --> 0:24:38.620 in the midst of the sons of Israel. And then 0:24:38.640 --> 0:24:41.639 in Deuteronomy 19.13, I like this because it's more positive. 0:24:41.920 --> 0:24:45.090 Purge from Israel the guilt of murdering innocent people, then 0:24:45.430 --> 0:24:50.669