Encouragement From A Field in a War Zone

0:00 Yeah, you definitely don't want to lose the grief and, again, the gravity of what's happening. But if you dwell on the grief and the gravity, Um, yeah, if you if you lose it, your heart could be callous and can be hardened, but if you dwell on it, you'll start to become bitter and disillusioned. I Am Yours, I'm yours, I'm yours, and me, Lord, I'm yours, I'm yours. I'm welcome to the Gospel centered pro life podcast, a podcast designed to equip, encourage and challenge you in pro life ministry, and always with a focus on the Gospel. Stay tuned. I felt your passh touch your heart. Use Welcome to the Gospel centered pro life podcast. Everyone. I'm yeah, good test see you, Daniel. I'm Vicky Kasier here Daniel Parks and we have an encouragement today. I think this is this is an encouragement for all of you who may be, like our state, are seeing an unbelievable influx of abortions in their state. So here in Charlotte, we're pretty much in North Carolina.

1:22 We are surrounded by states that have some sort of restrictions and people are flocking from out of state, two Charlotte specifically, and Tuesday of this week there were probably more than ninety abortions in one center. I know we've always seen people coming from South Carolina and from Georgia pretty consistently. Sometimes maybe from Virginia, Alabama, Tennessee, but for the most part South Carolina, North Carolina's rules because we're not far from the South Carolina border. But now, yeah, we're seeing I mean I think today the I was out there just for a little bit on the sidewalk and our team lead was just counting the cars that had come from Georgia. I mean we pretty consistently we'll see maybe a car or two per week or something like that from Georgia, and now it's like multiple people a day coming to at least little tribal abortion center from Georgia and Alabama and Tennessee and stuff. Yeah, we're thinking probably half of the arrivals right now are coming from Georgia. So they're clearly being sent from from Georgia. So, but ninety is it's the record for me then, the largest number of people coming for an abortion that I have seen in the ten years I've been out there. Um It's pretty devastating. It's devastating to be on that sidewalk and watch these women just stream. And Yeah, I

2:55 mean there's a certain heaviness just being there has. Anyway, we're in front of a place where kids are dying right, people are killing their children, and especially at the latrobe abortion center. Like those ninety cars that showed up there, we know that they didn't come in for something other than abortion, because that's all they do there. Right. So it's heavy already being there, but to see the parking lot full, so full that they have to park people in a second parking lot and even park people on the street, that that brings a level of heaviness that's hard to it's hard to grasp, it's hard to deal with, it's hard to cope with. And, Um, and so certainly, like we, we know that we need to be praying all the more for our folks that are serving out there on the sidewalk and we need to be rallying people to hey, we need more folks out here, because you could always use more volunteers out there. Um. But yeah, I mean just the heaviness is kind of what what just is brought fresh to my mind because I remember years back when I would be out here on a Saturday. Saturday's used to be the busiest day. Used to be like they're sometimes sixty, sometimes seventy, five people there on an average, probably fifty or so on the Saturday. Since the love life started with the prayer walks and we saw a significant decrease in people coming out here on Saturdays.

4:11 Um. But I mean I remember back in those days we would have fifty, sixty cars there, so much so they'd be parking them on the street. I just remember the heaviness that came with that. But to see ninety like that's just Um, yeah, it's hard to grasp. It's truly mind boggling and horrific. Uh, that's three kindergarten classes, you know, if you want to think about it in those terms, maybe even four right there in one day being slaughtered. So Uh, you know, it's it's led us all to to really think about how can we help our counselors who are facing this, because it is so heavy and it is, I think, very easy to become very discouraged and depressed by Um, by that influx which is just huge. So Um, we were thinking about what can we say, well, how can we encourage our counselors to stay in the battle and not be destroyed by the weight of this battle? And one of the things we have said many, many times, and I think just preface, is this is not our battle. This battle belongs to the Lord. This is we're called to be there. There's no doubt we're called to be there.

5:32 We feel very convicted of that, or we wouldn't have been there all these years. But ultimately it's it's not us that brings the results. Yeah, we're called to be faithful, we're called to show up and proclaim God's word, and God is the one that does the work. And that doesn't make it any less heavy for us. There's kind of this balance that we need to strike, and I've been talking about this recently just with our staff here and also just even in my own heart. Um, there's this balance we've got to strike with understanding the reality ninety babies are dying, but then we can't let our minds dwell on that. And this is this is a key right here, guys, and the key Um, it comes out of Paul, his letter to the Philippians, and Paul specifically says Philippians four, eight through nine and I believe Paul. You even think about the brother Paul, Think about the Apostle Paul, Paul. This guy dealt with a lot of stuff. You talk about heaviness. Not only did he have situations where he was shipwrecked and he was beaten, he was beaten by the Romans, he was rejected by the Jews Um, he also had brothers in the Lord that rejected him, that turned their back on him. He had to deal with the pressure of the churches turning away from the truth that he had taught them, turning into, you know, back into Judaism and other kind of heresies and things. And he had he had a weight about him, right, and he had to deal with like the reality of these things. And just like us, we have to deal with the reality babies are dying.

7:03 But I believe Paul trained his mind to not dwell on the things that are bad, the bad things that are happening. We have to be very intentional about this. The news media knows that the human propensity is to gravitate towards the bad. Like we like to dwell on the bad, and so that's why you always see bad news right that's compelling to get sort of an hour in the monkey so that there's more, more bad news, I call it the bad news, and they make money off of that human propensity to grasp those things that are bad. Dwell on the things that are bad. Um, I know one thing. This is just an example, but and sending out emails. You know in the past you used to do some email marketing and stuff. If you have a negative subject line, people are far more likely to open it than if you have a positive subject line. It's just a reality. It's human nature. Yeah, but we have to train our minds to think on the things that are good. And so Paul says in Philippians four versus eight through nine. He says, finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, admirable, if there's anything excellent or praiseworthy worthy, think about such things. One version says, think on these things. If there's anything praiseworthy, there's anything, just think on these things. So what I want to encourage you before we get into kind of the meat of this podcast episode, you guys who are out there and

8:33 there's a heaviness out there, whether there's an influx of people coming in for abortions or just a fact that you're there in front of a place where where kids are being murdered. We have to grasp the reality of what's happening and not lose the gravity, because we talk about that right. We need to not lose the gravity that babies are dying, but we cannot meditate and and have our minds dwell on that. We have to dwell on the good things. What's a good thing? Well, if you're out there on the sidewalk, you're a good that God is doing. God has called you to be out there. People are there, you have a team with you. Praise God. Maybe it's only you and another person. Think on the fact that God took someone who was dead in their trespasses and sins, saved them, put his word in them and his Holy Spirit in them and placed them at a place of death. You're there. That's praiseworthy. Think about that.

9:20 Think about God working through you and how he's using you. If you've seen babies saved, think about the babies that have been saved instead of just dwelling on the ones who are dying. Think about that, which is Praiseworthy, and praise God for his work. Salvations, people that are coming to the Lord. Think about that, the body of Christ being united and mobilized, churches that are in your city who are doing nothing about abortion now are doing something about it. Think on the things. Train your mind, bring your mind in subjection, take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. Bring your mind and subjection to those things which are praiseworthy and think on those things, not losing the gravity of what's going on. That's my encouragement and I agree totally with all of that. And it is there. There will be that tension. I just had a counselor say to me, I think it was yesterday, I don't want to lose them, the grief, because my heart will become hard and we don't want to be hard hearted. It's our soft hearts that allow us, I think too, to be there for those MOMS. So, but you definitely don't want to lose the grief and again, the gravity of what's happening. But if you dwell on the grief and the gravity, Um, yeah, if you if you lose it, your heart could be callous and can be hardened, but if you dwell on it you'll start to become bitter and disillusioned. Right, exactly. So, as I was thinking about this, uh, the story in the Bible that came to mind is one of my favorite books in the Bible, the story of

10:50 Jeremiah, the weeping profit, and there is a very well, there's a few encouraging passages in Jeremiah, but one of the most odd encouragements has to do with a field in a war zone. And so in Jeremiah, just to kind of recap Jeremiah, his his story really is very tragic. He's he's called to this ministry as a youth and he says, but I'm just a youth. I mean, he tries kind of to like argue God, how can I speak? I'm just a youth and Um, and that's where that passage comes from. And Jeremiah, one five that we use on the sidewalk a lot. Before I formed you, I knew you and before you were born, I set you apart as a prophet to the nation's right.

11:35 Yeah, yeah, and I'm glad you brought that up because that's that's so critical. Well, Jeremiah was called for this God already knew, just as he already knew all of us that are on the sidewalk. We're going to be on the sidewalk ID already knew that. We have been called, called to that work. and Um so Jeremiah is already kind of a reluctant prophet and then he's told what is going to have to be his life being a prophet for God in this man a street at that particular time and place. He was told he would never marry, he could not attend the normal social customs like Um and celebrations like weddings or funerals. He was told he never have children. Um So he had a very isolated, lonely life. And on top of it, his message is to be to a very wicked, disobedient people who have strayed so far from God, to tell them your wickedness, now is the time of judgment and you're going to be led away to captivity. The battylonians are going to take over and you all need to basically repent and turn back to God. And he he preaches for forty years with no results. With no results. Can you imagine that? No visible fruit forty years. Um. So, basically looking at it from, you know, a human perspective. He was a total failure right. He there was

13:07 just zero it. It seemed as though every effort was wasted on on on his part. But in this story, Um, where it talks about the field, he's preaching to these people, the Babylonians, I think the childeans. I'm a little bit fuzzy on like all the people that are a part of the Babylonians and who took over. Maybe maybe, if I say something wrong, do correct me. But Um, the Chaldeans have already taken over a good portion of the land, including a portion that is the middle of the war zone, a field, and that field is owned by Jeremiah's uncle and in the middle of Jeremiah. Let's see the the verse is I think it's chapter thirty two. Yeah, Chapter Thirty two, Jeremiah, and it's the whole chapter and it talks about how, Um, the uncle basically wants to get rid of this field because the field is worthless. You know, it's in the middle of a battle zone that I don't know if the uncle believed Jeremiah that hey, we're going to be going into exile and that field is going to be worthless, not only as worthless said as it is now, but it's going to be worthless. For how long were they in Babylonian Captivity? Eighty years, something like his, his lifetime. He was never going to be able to, you know, to to do anything with this field. So the cousin, Jeremiah's cousin comes and says, Hey, buy this field, pay, pay good money and buy this field. And Jeremiah, Here's God's Um word voice telling him by the field. He wants him

14:43 to buy the field. and Um Jeremiah knows the field is worthless. He knows God's prophecy because he's been proclaiming it now for, you know, decades. And he knows he's spending money for a field that will never be redeemed. But he does it because God told him to do it. So he was obedient. He buys the field and then God talks about how that field one day will be redeemed, the it will be prosperous, the people will return. There's that beautiful poign in verse where God says they will be my people and I will be their God, and so there will be repentance and there will be returned to the land and the field. He specifically says fields will be bought in this land, of which you say it is a desolation without manner. Beast men will buy fields for money, sign and seal deeds, calling witnesses and Um, for I will restore their fortunes, declares the Lord. That's how that chapter ends. So he ends with this vision for Jeremiah, saying it's okay, this really what that field is is a symbol of yes, there is desolation right now. Yes, you don't see the fulfillment of my promises, but trust me, the promises will be fulfilled and that field will be of great value. So as I'm as I'm thinking of

16:18 that story and feeling so sorry for Jeremiah, but thinking what a privilege that God did reveal what was going to happen. And, by the way, Jeremiah never did see that day. He never did get in human life. In his life he never saw the field redeemed, he never saw the return from captivity Um, he never saw his people repent and turn back to God. But he kept preaching faithfully anyway. And I was thinking in so many ways I could see this as an analogy of what we face as sideball counselors. Our field sometimes looks desolate, our efforts sometimes seem absolutely feudal. Ninety babies were killed Tuesday. There was one baby saved that we and we knew that it was a confirmed save. That's the only one we knew about.

17:12 So that to me, is looking at it, that desolate field, knowing God doesn't want those babies to die. Why? Why? God? Why are all these babies dying now? And yet are our folks are standing there in obedience to God's call, knowing his promises, knowing his attributes, knowing God is good, knowing he promises that all things will work together for the good of those who call, who love the Lord, who have been called according to his purpose. And we may not see that field of abortion redeemed in in our lifetime, we may not see it until Jesus comes again, but we do have God's promises that in the end all will be made right and we are standing there for a purpose and we're standing there from a place of victory, because Jesus has already secured the victory. Yeah, yeah, a man. Yeah, I don't I don't know if I shared this with you and maybe I've shared it on the previous episode of the podcast, but I shared with our staff a couple of weeks ago just the devotional before we did our staff meeting, and the title of my devotional was life sucks.

18:26 Sometimes life sucks, but we win. And the premise is that there's difficulties, there's things Jesus said. In this world you will have tribulation, you know, because we're in a fallen world. There are falling people. We are falling people in perfect in many ways, many aspects, and uh so, issues are gonna come, we're gonna face issues, we're gonna see things like ninety babies dying. We're gonna feel the pressure and the weight and the grief from things like that. But at the end of the day, Jesus Christ has defeated the worst enemy of all death and if we're in him, we win. As a matter of fact, the passage that I went to was in acts chapter two, where Peter Again, this is a guy who rejected Jesus when he said, when all else reject you, I won't reject you, but he did anyway outright denied, even cursed when he denied even knowing Jesus three times. So this is a loser like he he was a loser, rejected Jesus and all that. And yet in Jesus resurrection, Jesus Calls Him To be a leader right ultimately fills him with his Holy Spirit.

19:33 In Acts Chapter two, when the spirits poured out and this man who was a loser before became a bold proclaimer of the Gospel, even so bold. Then, in front of a crowd of three thousand people in the day of Pentecost, he pens the crucifixion of Jesus on them. He says this Jesus, that you guys crucified, pointing the finger at them. So he was so bold. He's going to preach to this crowd of three thousand people who some were probably angry and somewhere wondering what's going on in this day of Pentecost. But then in that in that past, I believe it's in verse twenty four, he talks about Jesus, he talks about the resurrection, she said, whom God raised from the dead Um. And then he says this. He says because it was impossible that he could be held by death. Peter was confident. Peter was a bold man who previously had been a loser.

20:21 Now he's a winner. It's kind of Cheesy, but we win. We're in Christ, and Peter knew that because he knew he was in the one who had defeated death. And he says that it was not possible that he could be held by it, that he could be held by death. And so what Peter is saying, this is what we need to understand. It wasn't that it was improbable, that it probably wouldn't happen, very unlikely to happen, but Peter's basically saying it didn't even enter into the equation, didn't even compute, wasn't even worth consideration that Jesus could be held by death. It's not even it's not possible. It's impossible that Jesus could be held by death because he is the Lord over everything, he is the victor over free enemy and those are in him. It's impossible that we can be held by death. And so we win, no matter what's happening around us, and we're grieved by those babies that are dying, for sure, but if we're in Christ, we win. All we have to be to have victory.

21:15 We've said it time and again. We just have to obey, just just be obedient, trust in Jesus, show up on the sidewalk because he's called you to. And Jeremiah. Jeremiah that he was a failure in the eyes of the world, was a victor in the eyes of God because he obeyed what God told him to do. Yeah, so, analyzing and looking at what Jeremiah did and just this simple little story in with the field, we came up with some kind of key principle, principles that I think will help all of us to obey faithfully, to follow God faithfully in the midst of such great discouragement, such such difficult times. And the first one is my favorite. He was obedient in the difficult things. It is so easy to be obedient when God is answering every prayer the way you want it answer, when things are cushy, comfortable and happy and going the way you hope that life will go. It is a whole lot harder to obey God when you see no end and the situation is very difficult. And why I love that is, first of all, it's true. It has been so true in my life that, Um, you know, it's scripture, but it also it rings true in my life and my experience, but it is also the very thing that allows ninety women to come and aboard their child. Most of

22:49 those women would claim to have faith. We know that because we've been there a long time. We've talked to a lot of women out there. We're in the Bible belt, and yet their faith is not sustaining them to be obedient to God's clear command that shall not murder in whatever difficulties they face. So to me this is one of the most key points for us. Obedience. No matter what, no matter what you're facing, you still obey God through those hard times. Yeah, and God honors that. Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah, so, Um. The second thing that I love about Jeremiah and breaks my heart for him, is that he had to live what looks like an unbearable life, not only in his obedience to the calling, which was so lacking in fruit from what he could tell, but the things that God required of him. Like I, we don't know why.

23:55 I don't know why, Um, but they were very hard things. I have read some commentaries. For example, why was he not allowed to marry? Well, God knew that for the next eighty years life was going to be pretty unbearable under the Babylonians and Um and that, uh, you know, he'd be bearing children to a population that was doing all kinds of unspeakable evil. God knew that and maybe in a sense he was sparing Jeremiah from the pain of watching his wife and children, his family, be Um raised formed in that kind of an environment. That's one of the commentaries I've read.

24:37 Yeah, well, if you think about it and just dig a little deeper with Jeremiah, he did suffer rejection and we've said oftentimes the ministry on the sidewalk is the Ministry of rejection, and so it's tough and so we identify with that for sure. So he suffered rejection and false accusation and he had to do some hard stuff, confront the lead and things like that, which are which are hard things to do. But he also had the glory of fellowshipping with God. I mean this guy seemed to have some kind of direct communication. I don't know there was a voice from heaven or something Um, but this guy had direct communion with God and that's really an important point here. I don't know if you have it listed in this list of things key principles to endure faithfully, but communion with God is key. Um, well, you have that. That's the third point. He knew God, right, this man knew the Lord. He had an intimate relationship with the Lord, and that, guys, will sustain you when nothing else will.

25:44 That's why we say, and I want to put this warning out there because I know, especially you guys that are new to sidewalk ministry, the temptation is to let the ministry on the sidewalk replace your relationship with the Lord. And so instead of seeking him in prayer and being in the word for that day that you volunteer or for your whatever, maybe you volunteer a couple of days or you serve in the leadership capacity, and so you let your service to the Lord Replace Your intimacy with the Lord, and that is a trap. Do not fall into that trap. You need intimacy with the Lord. You need one on one time with Jesus in his word and in prayer and in worship. That time on the sidewalk is different. That's time where you're serving him. That's time that you serve him out of the overflow of what you got while you were in his presence alone. Right, you get filled to overflowing and the overflow is what happens in public when you go out to the sidewalk. So don't fall into the trap of replacing intimacy with God with ministry, and I don't think we easily develop the depth of intimacy God in a place of comfort. And again, I'm speaking from my own experience.

26:53 I would say the times when I have felt the closest to the Lord is when I've been in the most painful, impossible situations, breast cancer being one of those times. Terrified. I was terrified, I you know, I thought I was gonna die. No one wants to hear those words. The prospect of what I was going to endure was overwhelming, beyond my ability to bear. And yet God was so present in in my life at that time and I think that that is maybe I'm glad you did mention this and bring it out, because I don't think I brought it out that well in the in the article that we wrote. But Um uh, that it is in sometimes when we absolutely um are at the end of our ability to cope, to bear in such difficult circumstances, that God is necessary and that we understand the necessity for God as truly the only hope. So I think that that goes right into the third one. Jeremiah knew God. He studied God's word, he prayed, he listened to God's voice, and we need to do the to do the same. Yeah, yeah, and next you have here in number four. Here he didn't try to make God who he wanted God to be. He understood who God was, and that's we don't bring God down to kind of match our expectations. God is God and our service to

28:26 him is because he's Lord, not his service to us because, you know, we're cute and we're special or whatever. He let God be who God was in his heart, in his mind, and that's why he was able to be an obedience and there's a sense in which if you're going to be an effective believer, you're gonna be consistent, you're gonna be faithful, you've got to fear the Lord, and that's what Jeremiah did. He feared God. It wasn't wasn't that he was afraid of God. He was intimate with the Lord, but he had a reverence and a fear for God and who God is and knowing the true attributes of God. Not what he wanted God's attributes to be in those struggles. The next one. You've said a lot to our sidebag counselors, and I think it's again a key point, that that it's our obedience, that we're responsible for our faithfulness, doing what God has called us to do, but we're not called for the results. That that's that's God's, God's job, not ours. The burden is his.

29:26 I heard someone else say recently it's God's burden to bear. It might have been you, Daniel. It's God's burden to bear, not ours, um which leads to the final point, uh, that when we have that perspective, when we recognize it's all God, we're just there in obedience and we're doing our part, but everything else is up to God, well then of course all the glory also goes to him, not to us. So that allows a team to be able to go home at the end of the day when their shift is over, whether there are still babies in there being slaughtered or not. You know, you've been out there. We had someone collapsed from heat exhaustion recently and we're learning let God be God, let God be.

30:11 He is in control. You do your part and then rest assured that. Um, that is all he's asking of us. Man. Well, guys, we hope that this podcast episode was a blessing to you and encouragement to you and, uh, we always encourage you guys to reach out to us. If there's any way that we can speak into the situations that you guys are facing, we'd love to be able to do that. You can reach me, Daniel at Love Life Dot Org. You can reach her, Vicky at Love Life Dot Org. Also, we'll mention we're doing a monthly what we're calling a Q and e. rather than a q and a. it's questions and encouragement side of what questions and encouragement meeting. We do it the first Saturday of every month, five PM eastern time, and that actually an invite to that goes out to everyone who's been through all three of our training modules. We have three training modules, Sidewalk One oh one through one oh three, and so if you're in a love life city and you've completed all those, you should have gotten an invite to that. If not, we'd like for you to complete all of those modules, even if you're not in a love life city. If your church is a house of refuge, Church love life. You can complete those modules and be a part of that meeting. It's just a meeting where we, Vicky and I, meet with everyone who's doing sidewalks and encourage you guys and, uh, answer any questions that you have as best we can. Talk about the stuff together, encourage each other and not just us encouraging you, but you guys encouraging us, encouraging other folks who doing sidewalk ministry in cities across the nation under love life.

31:41 And so I just wanna, Um, just make you guys aware of that and if you need more information about that, you can reach out to me, reach out to your city director if you're in a love life city. If not, again you can reach out to me. But Um, yeah, we appreciate you guys listening and until next time, God bless you. Give me out live for love, give me our life for gratitude. I know it will cost me my life. Nothing's too precious. Since I met you, M M