Now in 1 Samuel chapter 1 we find the famous story about Hannah and she's not able to
have a child.
The Bible says in verse 5 and 6 that the Lord had shut up her womb and so she's praying
to the Lord and Eli prays for her and she eventually has a child and that child
of course becomes Samuel the prophet and so on and so forth.
What I want to preach about this morning is the subject of infertility or the subject
of women not being able to have children and this is a subject that the Bible deals with
over and over again.
In fact, you could almost say it's one of the great themes of the Bible.
It comes up so often and just looking through the Bible, here's the list that I came up
with of ladies who were not able to have a child or the Bible calls them barren.
We would call them infertile or not able to have a child for whatever reason.
First of all, Sarah, Abraham's wife, Rebecca, Isaac's wife, Rachel, Jacob's wife, and then
if you remember Samson's mother was barren, the wife of Elkanah.
She was not able to have a child.
The wife of Elkanah, Hannah, we just read about it.
Then there was the Shunammite lady in 2 Kings chapter 4 who was not able to have a child
until Elisha prayed for her.
And then Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist, the Bible also says of her that
she was barren, she was infertile.
And then also there's a story in Genesis chapter 20 where the Lord had shut up the
wombs of the house of Abimelech.
Abimelech was the leader of the Philistines and his whole household became barren as
a result of the situation with Sarah being brought into Abimelech's house and so forth.
So there are a lot of women in the Bible who dealt with this, but what's interesting
about it is that every single one of them eventually had children in the Bible.
Did you hear that?
All these women that I listed for you, all the stories throughout the Bible, every
single one of them eventually gave birth to a child.
Not one of them remained childless.
Now some people will erroneously bring up Michal, David's wife, and say, oh that was
one who was barren and remained childless.
There's a verse in the Bible, 2 Samuel 6.23, you don't need to turn there, where it says
therefore Michal, the daughter of Saul, had no child until the day of her death.
And they'll say, see there was one that was barren until the end.
But Michal was not barren at all, there's no evidence of that whatsoever.
What really happened, and if you notice that that verse starts with therefore, and
I heard somebody once say that whenever you see a therefore, you need to figure
out what it's there for, because therefore is a conjunction.
And if you look at what comes before the therefore, David is chewing her out, you know, telling
her, and putting her in her place, and then it says therefore she had no child until
the day of her death.
The reason why is because David had multiple wives.
And David basically from that point on, after she rebuked him, he had nothing to
do with her ever again.
Well obviously that's why she remained childless, because he's not having a marital relationship
with her.
And in the barrenness, that story is not relevant to the discussion.
So every woman in the Bible who was infertile or barren eventually had a child.
And I want to go through with you just biblical principles on this subject.
What does the Bible teach us about this?
How do we handle this?
There are a lot of ladies today in 2013 that are barren or infertile.
There are a lot that wish that they could have children and could not.
Or perhaps you know someone who's in that situation.
So we need to learn from this.
The first thing that we see in this passage is that God is the one who opens and closes
the womb.
Look at verse 2.
This is talking about Al-Qaeda.
It says he had two wives.
The name of the one was Hannah, and the name of the other Panina.
And Panina had children, but Hannah had no children.
Jump down to verse 5.
But unto Hannah he gave a worthy person, for he loved Hannah, but the Lord had shut
up her womb.
That's a key phrase.
Look at verse 6.
Her adversary also provoked her sore for to make her fret, because the Lord had shut
up her womb.
So twice in this passage the Bible makes it clear that it was the Lord's doing that
she was not able to have children.
It was his will.
It was something that he made a decision on.
Now you don't have to turn there, but we see this over and over again.
Genesis 2018, the Bible says, for the Lord had fast closed up all the wombs of
the house of Abimelech because of Sarah Abraham's wife.
Genesis 29, 31.
And when the Lord saw that Leah was hated, he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren.
Genesis 30, verse 1.
When Rachel saw that she bare Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister and said unto Jacob,
Give me children or else I die.
And Jacob's anger was kindled against Rachel, and he said, Am I in God's stead, who hath
withheld from thee the fruit of the womb?
So we see then that this is a decision that God makes to open the womb and to close the
womb.
And Genesis 30, verse 22, about Rachel again, it says God hearkened to her and opened
her womb.
She prayed, God hearkened to her, he opened her womb.
So this is something that is in God's hands, that is according to the will of God.
Another thing that we notice in this passage is that this situation of not being
able to have a child is a cause of great grief and frustration and sadness for those
who are afflicted by it.
We see that Hannah is very upset, she's crying, and part of the reason why she's
upset is how she's being treated by Penina.
So we should be careful not to treat people badly, and obviously this can be a sensitive
subject with people.
So therefore, if people don't have children and you don't really know why and maybe
they've been married for a while and they don't have children, you might not necessarily
want to go to them and just say, so when are you going to have kids?
What's the deal?
What are you waiting for?
Because you could be obviously opening up a sore subject, you just need to be polite
and tactful and just kind of mind your own business on things of that nature and not
always question.
Somebody might only have one child, and you think, well, aren't you going to have
another one?
Why are you only having one?
It could be a source of sadness and so you don't want to open up a bad subject.
You just want to treat people nicely and kindly and lovingly and gently.
That's a biblical principle.
But the first thing I would say on this subject, go back to Genesis 25, the first
thing I would say on the subject of infertility is that if this is something that you're
dealing with or that anyone's dealing with is that women need to be patient when it
comes to this subject.
Patience is the first thing that I would advise.
Because the Bible tells us that, of course, every woman in the Bible who was infertile
eventually had a child, but that doesn't mean that it happened right away.
And sometimes we can pray and ask God to do things and we think that God's not
answering our prayer, but really it's just that he doesn't always do it in our timing.
And sometimes there's a delay before God chooses to answer our prayer.
It doesn't mean that he's not going to answer it.
For example, in Genesis 25 verse 20 it says, and Isaac was 40 years old when he took
Rebekah to wife, the daughter of Bethuel, the Syrian of Padanaram, the sister to Laban
the Syrian.
And Isaac entreated the Lord for his wife because she was barren.
And the Lord was entreated of him and Rebekah his wife conceived.
Now it's easy to read that verse and it just seems like it was just an instant answer
to prayer.
I mean, he marries Rebekah, she's barren, he gets on his knees, he prays to God and
asks God to open her womb.
God opens her womb.
Nothing to it, right?
Jump down to verse 25 though.
This is when she gives birth to the twins, Jacob and Esau, it says, and the first came
out red all over like in hairy garment and they called his name Esau and after that
came his brother out and his hand took hold on Esau's heel and his name was called
Jacob and Isaac was how old?
Three score years old when she bared them.
He was 60 years old.
A score is 20, three score is 60.
The Bible says that he married her when he was 40.
She was barren and was not able to have a child and then God answered the prayer 20
years later.
So was that just an instant answer to prayer?
Just yep, he prayed and just fixed.
No, Isaac had to be patient.
He prayed unto the Lord, God heard his prayer, but it wasn't an instant answer
to prayer.
It was 20 years that went by before the child came.
Here's a scripture for you in Psalm 113.
You don't have to turn there but it says, he raiseth up the poor out of the dust and
lifted the needy out of the dung hill that he may set him with princes even with the
princes of his people.
He maketh the barren woman to keep house and to be a joyful mother of children.
Praise ye the Lord.
So is God able to open the womb?
Yes.
Is God able to make the barren to have a child?
Absolutely.
Does it always happen immediately when we pray and ask God to do it?
No.
The Bible says, but you have need of patience that after you've done the will of God, you
might receive the promise.
And so often we just want everything right now.
We're like the prodigal son.
You know, give me the portion of the inheritance that falleth unto me right now.
I want everything now.
When sometimes God wants us to wait and it's difficult to wait and it takes faith
to wait, but that's what God counsels us to do and that's what the examples of these
ladies in the Bible shows us to do is to wait.
Now I have known, I have personally known people who thought we are unable to have
children and they were married for literally a decade or 15 years and I can name specific
people like that who eventually had children even though they had completely given up and
thought we're unable to have children.
I'm thinking of a couple in particular.
They finally, they tried and tried for a decade and prayed and then they basically adopted
children which there's nothing wrong with that.
I'm going to get to that later in the sermon about adoption, the specifics of what I believe
is right and wrong with adoption.
But they adopted children and then lo and behold, she had children after they adopted.
So that shows you, and of course there's nothing wrong with adopting children in
that case, but what I'm saying is that a lot of times we think that it's not going
to happen but really the answer to prayer is just still coming.
You just have to be patient, just wait and not get ahead of yourself.
But why are women barren?
Because I don't believe that every woman is barren for the same reason.
So let me give you a list of all the reasons that I've come up with both just
biblically and just what we see around us in the world why women are barren.
Number one reason why women are barren is that God has chosen to close the womb.
Now even if you go to the world and their science and their statistics and their research,
depending on whose statistics you look at, they'll say that 20 to 40 percent of those
that are infertile, they have zero explanation for why.
You know, they'll look at the man, they'll examine him, and everything's good with
the man.
They'll look at the woman, they'll examine the woman, everything's good with the woman.
And they'll just say, look, you're both perfectly healthy, everything's fine, we have
no idea why you are unable to have children.
Forty percent of the time that's the case.
They don't know.
Some would say 20 percent.
A lot of them will say 40 percent.
That's a pretty substantial number of women today where God has just closed the womb
for whatever reason in His infinite wisdom.
That might be hard to accept, but that is what God chooses to do and His will,
you know, is His will.
I mean, what can we do, what can we say to the will of God?
He knows what's best.
And He chooses sometimes to make people wait or to not have a child whatsoever.
Now, if you look at the case with Abraham and Sarah, why do you think Sarah was barren?
I don't believe it was a result of any sin on her part.
And if we look at a lot of the women in the Bible who were barren, they were not
living in sin, they were righteous and godly people.
It was not a punishment, but rather, God had a purpose for allowing them to be barren.
Why do you think Rebecca was barren?
Part of the purpose might have been that He wanted to give us that example today of
prayer and waiting 20 years to get the answer.
He was using that as an illustration to teach us something.
God wanted to perform that miracle where Sarah gave birth at a very old age.
That's why He allowed her to be barren.
If you remember, there was a man who was blind from his mother's womb in the book
of John.
And the disciples asked Jesus, you know, why was this man born blind?
Did he sin or did his parents sin?
And God said, neither he sinned, neither did his parents sin, but he's blind for the
glory of God.
It was so that Jesus could heal him.
So there could be all different reasons why God chooses for a woman to be infertile
at a particular time in her life.
Maybe it's just God's will that you only have one child.
Maybe it's just God's will that you only have two children and you're going to have
that child later.
As is the case with Abraham, Isaac, God had a plan, God had a will, and who are
we to question God?
It happened to righteous people.
But secondly, sometimes God has chosen the womb, or closed the womb because of the fact
that it is a punishment.
You know, I'm not going to get up here and lie to you and say it's never a punishment.
Because it is a punishment in the Bible.
For example, with the house of Abimelech, they were punished by having the womb closed.
And that is something that comes up in the Bible.
So I'd be lying to you if I told you that God never closes the womb as a punishment,
because He does.
But where we make the mistake is where we look at somebody or look at ourselves and
say, oh, I'm not having children.
It must be a punishment.
No, because there are a lot of examples where it was not a punishment.
It's just like the book of Job.
Job wasn't being punished and God became very angry when Job's friends accused him
of sin just because bad things were happening to him.
And Job was not in sin.
So we never want to judge ourselves or someone else on that basis and say, oh, it's a punishment
of God.
It's a judgment of God.
Because we don't know what God's doing.
You say, well, how do I know if God's punishing me?
Well, are you living in sin?
Are you breaking His commandments?
If you're violating God's word and breaking His commandments and bad things happen,
it's a punishment.
If you're following God's commandments and doing what's right, then it's not a punishment.
It's that simple.
Basically we need to go by what the Bible says to determine what's right and wrong,
not on the circumstances of our lives.
And we can't really judge based on that.
So God chooses to close the womb is the number one reason.
Even the world will say that could be up to 40% of the time.
No explicable reason.
Or God could even use other causes that science could even recognize.
He could use those to close the womb.
Is it always a punishment?
No, most of the time it's women in the Bible who are righteous, godly women who are not
being punished.
Sometimes it is a punishment.
And let me say this, sometimes there are STDs that can cause one to become infertile,
whether male or female.
And by the way, when we think of infertility we often just think of the woman.
But in reality, 50% of the time, you know, the modern science will tell us that
50% of the time it's the man.
Just as often as it's the woman, it's a problem on the man's end.
And a lot of STDs, or diseases that are transmitted through fornication, can cause
one to become infertile.
And so this is something that people don't think about when they go out and they commit
the sin of fornication, and they go out and commit all this sin, and then they wonder
when there are repercussions to it, where infertility could result in those type of diseases.
So that could be a punishment right there just built in to the sin of fornication.
Most of the time it's not a punishment, but it could be a punishment.
That's number one, god choose to close the womb.
Number two, why are women barren today?
Because of the residual effects of birth control.
The residual effects of birth control.
Women will take birth control for years, and then all of a sudden they're like,
okay, I want to get pregnant now.
Might not necessarily happen.
And in fact, they say that for as long as you were on the birth control pills, that's
about how long it might take you to become pregnant.
So if you're on birth control pills for five years, it could take you five years
just to get all that out of your system and get your system back to normal.
And of course, I'm totally against birth control pills.
I've written a whole article about it, and I'm not going to go into it just because
I don't have time.
All the reasons why birth control pills are bad.
The residual effects of birth control can sometimes make someone temporarily or permanently
infertile from taking birth control pills.
Number three reason why women could be barren is because of health issues.
Now I would put these into two categories of health issues, and these could be either
in the man or the woman.
Health issues could either be a medical problem or a lifestyle problem.
For example, a medical problem, you know, sometimes cancer or disease or just other
issues in the body where your body's not healthy for whatever reason could cause you
to be infertile, either temporarily or permanently.
But secondly, lifestyle.
You know, it's a proven fact that being overweight, either man or woman, or being
underweight can often lead to infertility.
Living an unhealthy lifestyle, being completely sedentary, just completely sitting around
not getting any exercise, eating junk food, all the toxins and the junk that we eat sometimes,
all the chemicals going into your body, that stuff can throw you off hormonally.
That stuff can affect your body and cause you to not be fertile.
You know, stuff that's in the water, stuff that's in the food can enter in and contaminate.
And this is not me just up here giving my politically incorrect opinion here.
I mean anybody will tell you, anybody will agree, common sense can tell you that if
your body's not healthy, your body's not going to function properly.
And if your body's not functioning properly, that could result in you not being fertile.
And the Bible tells us in 1 Corinthians chapter 12 that when one part of the body
suffers, the whole body suffers.
And we know that that's true, I mean you could have a bad tooth that could cause
problems in your blood and in your heart.
You know, our whole body is one system that works together, and when we live an unhealthy
lifestyle that will reduce your chances of being able to have a child.
If you're overweight, if you're underweight, if you're sedentary, if you're eating junk food,
not exercising at all, sometimes amongst women, excessive exercise can cause them
to become infertile.
You know, these that are just obsessed with that, you know just constantly running and
bicycling and very underweight, and you know they're vegan and they're exercising
all the time, and they're just so underweight and they're just exercising so much that they
become infertile.
I mean that's an issue.
And it's not just the women, it's the men, just 50% of the time it's the men.
The man's living an unhealthy lifestyle, that can cause infertility as well.
And then the last reason I would give is just old age.
I mean the older you get, the less fertile you're going to be, right?
And that's why it was such a miracle when these people did give birth in old age, like
Sarah and others.
So just a quick review, why are women barren?
Number one, because God has chosen to close the womb, usually just for reasons unknown
to us, just it's His will at this time.
Sometimes it could also be a punishment, usually it's not, but it could be a punishment.
Number two, it could be the residual effects of birth control.
Number three, it could be health problems in the man, whether a medical problem or
a lifestyle problem.
It could be a health issue in the woman, medical or lifestyle related, or it could
just be older age, just advanced age, those are the issues.
So the question is then, biblically, what are the steps that should be taken when someone
is infertile?
If a woman is infertile, what are the steps to take and what are the steps not
to take?
That's the remainder of the sermon.
What steps should be taken biblically and what steps should not be taken, biblically
speaking?
First of all, the step to take when infertile is to pray, of course.
Remember it says in verse 22 of Genesis 30, God remembered Rachel and God hearkened to
her and opened her womb.
That was an answer to prayer.
Here's a woman, she can't have a child, she prayed and had children, and in reality
every single woman in the Bible who prayed eventually had children.
Prayer works.
But number two, not just pray, you also need to have faith.
Because we need to pray believing.
The Bible says a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.
The Bible says let him ask in faith, nothing wavering, for he that wavereth is like
a wave of the sea, driven with the wind and tossed, for let not that man think
that he shall receive anything of the Lord.
So a key thing when it comes to having your prayers answered is to have faith or to believe
in prayer.
Okay, let me give you a few scriptures on that.
Hebrews 11, 11, you turn to Matthew 21 if you would, Matthew chapter 21, I'll read
for you from Hebrews 11, it says through faith also Sarah herself received strength
to conceive seed.
So how did Sarah receive strength to conceive seed?
Through faith.
And was delivered of a child when she was past age because she judged him faithful who
it promised, Hebrews 11, 11.
The Bible says the same thing in Romans four about Abraham, about how he had faith,
how he believed God, and that's why he was able to have a child, because of faith.
Matthew 21, 21 says this, Jesus answered and said unto them, verily I say unto
you, if ye have faith and doubt not, ye shall not only do this which is done to the
fig tree, but also if ye shall say unto this mountain, be thou removed and be thou
cast into the sea, it shall be done, and all things whatsoever ye shall ask in
prayer believing ye shall receive.
So when we pray we need to have faith, we need to not just go through the motions,
but we need to actually believe that God has the power and the ability to answer
our prayer if it is His will.
Go to 1 John chapter 5, 1 John chapter number 5, because we're going through just
biblical steps here of what to do when you're infertile.
What does the Bible teach?
Well the Bible shows prayer as being the first recourse if a woman wants to become
pregnant and is not getting pregnant, she prays.
But how do we get our prayers answered?
Well it's important that we have faith and believe in the power of God and believe
in the power of prayer.
1 John 5 14 says this, this is the confidence that we have in Him that if we ask anything
according to His will, He heareth us.
And if we know that He hear us whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions
that we desired of Him.
The Bible says that we know that if we ask anything according to His will, He heareth
us, and if we know that He hear us, we know He's going to give us the petitions that
we have desired of Him.
The Bible says, be careful for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication
with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God and the peace of God which
passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds to Christ Jesus.
What does that mean, the peace of God?
What does it mean to pray believing?
What it means is that when you pray to God and you ask God to answer your prayer and
to give you a child, you leave it at that as far as you don't, you don't sit there
and say well now I'm going to worry about it and stress about it and I don't think
God's going to answer my prayer so I need to go do something else.
That's not faith.
Faith says I've prayed to God about it, I've put it in His hands and now it's in
His hands and I'm not going to worry about it.
Carefulness means worrying.
That would be the modern day word for it.
Carefulness is when we're worried and stressed out about things.
What we ought to do is just put it in God's hands, pray to the Lord and say God
it's up to you and you know what I think part of that is when we tell God and say
God I want you to do this but my will, not my will but thy will be done and I'm
willing to wait Lord and I'm willing to be patient and I believe that you want
what's best for me, I want your will to be done and God I'm casting it all upon you
and to understand that God hears you and He can answer your prayer and believe that
He will answer your prayer in His timing.
The Bible also says in verse 22, chapter 3, flip back to chapter 3 of 1 John.
It says in 1 John 3, 22, whatsoever we ask we receive of Him because we keep His commandments
and do those things that are pleasing in His sight.
So we should strive to live a life that pleases God and keeps His commandments and then we
pray to God and put our requests before Him and then it's up to Him at that point
and then we leave it in His hands and let Him decide and if He chooses to make
us wait then you know what we just are thankful for the good things that we have
and we patiently wait for God's will to be done.
What's another step that you can biblically take?
Obviously besides praying, obviously besides praying with a heart of faith and believing
you're not doubting God, you're not doubting His choices, I mean what if God just decides
to not give you a child or to only give you one child or to not give you a child
for the first 20 years.
Are you willing to accept God's decision and just believe that His best for you is
good enough than to try to second guess His decision with a lack of faith?
But another thing you can do besides praying and believing is to basically get someone
else to pray for you, like for example the pastor, because if you look at these stories
in the Bible this is actually something that frequently happens.
For example in 1 Samuel chapter 1, what did Hannah do?
She went and prayed and she'd been praying for a son but then she actually told Eli
her situation and when she told Eli the situation, Eli prayed and then it happened
as a result of Eli's prayer.
Actually Eli's prayer was what actually got the job done in 1 Samuel chapter 1.
And then Eli again, after she had the first child Samuel, Eli prayed for them again and
then they had five more children in 1 Samuel, I think chapter 2 is where it records
that part.
So you can get the pastor to pray.
Another example of that is with Abimelech's house.
When Abimelech's household was barren, Abraham prayed for them and it was a result of Abraham's
prayer that they were no longer barren.
And then another example of that is with the Shunammite in 2 Kings chapter 4.
She'd been barren for a very long time, she was an older woman and Elisha prayed
for her that she would have a child and she conceived and had a child.
So that would be one thing you could do, you could pray.
Number two, you'd get a man of God to pray, have faith, etc.
Now another thing that you could do is improve your health.
Now I don't think that this shows a lack of faith to improve your health.
You know, to say, well, okay, I've prayed, I've put it all in God's hand, I'm trusting
in the Lord, I'm not going to worry about it.
And look, covetousness can become an issue when it comes to infertility, can't it?
Isn't covetousness a sin?
Wishing that you had what someone else has, wishing that you had what you do not have.
So we need to learn also to be content with such things as we have and be sure that
covetousness does not enter in.
There's nothing wrong with wanting to have a child.
There's nothing wrong with praying to God and asking the Lord to give you that child.
But we don't want to become covetousness where it's like, well, God's not going to
be a child, but I want one anyway.
That's a bad attitude.
Getting angry at God, getting angry at other people around you that are having children,
coveting what other people have, that's not the right attitude.
So there should be a faith and a peace that says, God, I trust you, I trust your timing,
I trust your judgment, I've prayed to you, you know my heart, you know my request, I'm
thankful for everything else I have.
You say, well, I don't have children, but you have a husband.
And that's what Hannah's wife told her, you know, I'm better than you than 10 sons.
You know, he said, look, at least you have me.
There are always people who have less than you and who are worse off than you.
So you don't want to get a covetous attitude where you're not content with what you
have.
But that being said, that you've put it in God's hands, you have peace about it, you
don't worry and fret and covet about it, you just live your life and trust the Lord.
Improving your health is not a lapse in faith, okay?
Because that's something that you should probably be doing anyway.
And keep in mind, is every woman infertile or is every man infertile because God has
closed the womb?
Not necessarily, because remember when I was given the list of reasons why women are infertile?
Sometimes it's a lifestyle issue or a medical issue, okay?
And so I don't think that it's a lapse of faith to improve your health.
So if you're saying, man, I would really like to have children, I'm not able to have
children, you may want to address health issues.
If you're just eating a really unhealthy diet, living a really unhealthy lifestyle,
and then you just say, God's not blessing me with children, well, maybe it has something
to do also just with you physically, with your lifestyle, and I realize that God could
perform a miracle and give you a child in spite of a bad lifestyle, but he does teach
us in the Bible to take care of our bodies.
He does tell us what we should and should not eat.
I mean, how many times in the Bible does he warn in Proverbs about eating too many
sweets?
I mean, doesn't he tell you, you know, hey, don't eat too much honey, eat honey
but don't eat too much because you'll vomit it up.
Did he not say that?
Did he not tell us to eat our daily bread and to eat our meats, but he does warn us
also about gluttony and overeating.
Obviously, also there could be an under-eating issue.
There could be all kinds of just, and also God does warn us to work with our hands
and he tells us to, you know, to basically do things that would be giving us exercise.
Now I don't think that necessarily the people in the book of Genesis had a membership
to the gym, but you know what, they lived a different lifestyle than we live.
They're pulling up, I mean the women are spinning wool, spinning flax, washing clothes.
I mean they're doing all kinds of physical work.
They're hauling water around.
They're hauling babies around.
They're cooking meals.
They're bringing food around.
The men are out farming.
I mean 90% of men have been farmers throughout history or they're doing a job like a
blacksmith or doing a, I mean it's all jobs that require physical work.
The Bible talks about working by the sweat of your face.
So if you do have a job where you're just seated a lot or you're just in front of
a computer a lot, you know, in order for your body to be healthy you do have to get
out and get some exercise, you know.
Go soul winning is a good start, you know, at least they'll get you walking up and
down the street and then go to an apartment complex and be going up and down those stairs.
But honestly, you got to get some exercise in your life, you know.
You got to stop eating junk.
And the Bible warns us about all those things.
So I don't think that there's anything lacking in faith or unbiblical about improving
your health.
Okay.
Go to Ecclesiastes chapter 11.
So what do you do?
You're infertile.
What do you do biblically?
Number one, you be patient, right?
Don't expect it to happen overnight.
Number two, you pray.
Number three, you pray and you believe and have faith in what you're praying.
Number four, you get someone else to pray.
You go to the man of God and have him pray for you.
You know, whether in the Bible that was Abraham or whether it was Eli or whether
it was, who was the other one, Elisha.
And you know what?
The great thing is that Eli being overweight didn't stop them from conceiving, you know,
when he prayed for them.
Because the Bible says that Eli was a very heavy man and he was rebuked for gorging
himself on the fat of the sacrifices and so forth.
But where did I have you turn?
Ecclesiastes 11, here's another thing that you could do if you're infertile.
You know, I want to say this very delicately, but you know, I feel that I need to tell
the whole truth on this subject is that another thing that you could do is you could
lie with your spouse more frequently, okay?
Because I have literally spoken to people a long time ago, no one that you know, but
somebody has literally asked me the question before, you know, well if we're trying to
have a child, you know, is once a week enough?
Is that enough if we're trying to get pregnant?
No, it's not enough, okay?
I mean, that right there could very well be the problem, okay?
Because that is scientifically just not going to be enough, chances are, I mean,
you might get lucky, but no, that's not enough.
Look what the Bible says in Ecclesiastes 11, 4.
This is a parable, but he's using it in regard to actually having children as well.
Look at verse 4, it says, he that observeth the wind shall not sow, and he that regardeth
the clouds shall not reap, as thou knowest not what is the way of the Spirit, nor how
the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child, even so thou knowest not
the works of God who maketh all.
In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thine hand, for thou knowest
not whether shall prosper either this or that, or whether they both shall be alike
good.
And again, I'm trying to be as discrete as possible here as I explain this, but there
are some people who think to themselves, okay, we really want to have a child, and
so we're going to get out a calendar, and we're going to map it all out, and there's
even software that you can buy.
There's an app for that, okay?
Literally.
I'm not kidding.
There is an app for this.
There is software, and it's like, if you're trying to get pregnant, you need to buy this
software.
And the software is going to tell you, okay, this is the day that you need to do it.
You know, this is the day that you need to sow that seed.
And it's like, okay, that's what we're going to do.
Is that biblical, according to this passage?
The passage is saying, look, you don't know.
You don't know when it's going to happen, and it's, you know what, it's not that
exact of a science, my friend, of just, you know, there's a certain time at a certain
day, and you just, you hit that window, and the software is going to tell you when that is,
no, wrong.
The Bible says here, you don't really know, and science doesn't even fully understand
the whole process of reproduction, of how it even takes place.
That's why even 40% of the time, they're like, we can't tell why you can't get pregnant.
Because there's a lot of things that science still doesn't understand and know.
The doctor is not God.
Scientists are not God.
For us to sit there and think that we can plan this and understand this and know it,
the Bible says you don't know how the bones grow in the womb of her that is with child.
You don't know the way of the Spirit or the works of God that makes all.
He says, look, in the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thine hand.
For thou knowest not whether shall prosper, either this or that, or whether they both
shall like be good.
Saying, you don't know when it's going to work out.
You just do it, and you just, it's either going to happen or it's not, and it's up
to God.
But you have to do it or else it's not going to happen.
And to sit there and plan out some once a week, once a month, according to some app,
you know, it's just not, it's just not going to happen, my friend.
It's just chances are you're not just going to hit that bull's eye, okay?
And so that's a really silly way to go about it.
You know, it needs to be, if you're trying to get pregnant, it needs to be happening
a minimum, just scientifically, it needs to be happening a minimum of every other day.
But ideally it should be happening every day, but at least every other day if you actually
expect to get pregnant.
I mean, that's just the hard truth of it, okay?
And again, I don't want to go into a bunch of detail on that, but I feel the need to
say that just because there are people who misunderstand this and don't comprehend
this, and this could be part of the reason why people are infertile, you know?
And again, it's probably a rare thing where that's the problem, but still I'm just
throwing it out there because it is a biblical teaching here in this passage.
And he's using this to talk about two different things, because he's also talking about actually
sowing a seed out in a field like a farmer.
He says in verse 4, he that observeth the wind shall not sow, and he that regardeth
the cloud shall not reap.
What he's saying is you're never going to find that perfect day to sow the seed,
you know?
So if you're a farmer and you're just like, the clouds aren't just, it's too windy,
pretty soon it's too late to sow the seed because you're waiting for that
perfect opportunity.
And then, do you see how God ties that in with having a child in the next verse?
He puts these illustrations together.
You know, we could also take another interpretation of this and think about this.
What about people who say, well we're just not ready for children?
Think about this.
We're going to wait to sow that seed, you know?
We're looking at the clouds, we're looking at the wind, and eh, I just don't know
if it's the right time for us to have a baby right now, right?
And then what happens?
Then eventually they decide, okay, now we're ready God, okay God, we're ready to go.
And then God doesn't just snap to attention and give them what they want, and then they're
surprised.
What God is saying is we need to leave it in his hands.
We need to just get married, sow that seed, have a normal relationship with our wife,
and you know what?
She's either going to get pregnant or she's not, and we don't have to sit there and
try to say, oh, we're waiting, and then, oh, we're trying.
You know, people always ask me if I'm trying for another one after this.
And I always think that's funny because if you're going to have eight, why would you
stop there?
I mean, do you think anybody just says I'm going to have eight and I'm going to stop?
I mean, pretty much if people don't stop after two, three, or four, they're probably
just going to keep going, okay?
But people ask me, are you guys going to try for another one?
And I always just think to myself, I didn't try for any of these.
They just happen.
And I just think to myself, you have to try not to.
You don't have to try to have children.
You just have a normal relationship with your spouse and children are the byproduct,
you know, eventually, not always right away, could be a long time.
But that is the byproduct.
It's not something that you try for, it's something you try not to, okay?
But if you are wanting to look at it that way of we're trying, well, then once a week's
not going to cut it, okay?
You need to, you know, put in the time.
But anyway, go to Matthew chapter 9, the last legitimate step that you can take biblically,
after you've prayed, after you've had faith that your prayer was heard by God, after
you've, you know, mentioned to your pastor or some other man of God or maybe just a
close friend if you're more comfortable with that, because the Bible talks about
even just two or three gathering together and agreeing on something and praying together
that that has power.
When you agree with someone else and you pray together, even if it's not the pastor,
just whoever it is, just when you join together with someone and pray together, you know,
that's another step you could take.
Then you could improve your health just in case, hey, wait a minute, maybe this
could have something to do with my lifestyle.
Or maybe this could have something to do with, you know, my diet or with my exercise
or lack thereof.
And then after you've decided, okay, am I even sowing the seed often enough to even
expect to get pregnant, okay, just mathematically.
You know, the other thing that I believe is a legitimate thing to do would be if there
was a medical procedure needed just to restore the body to health.
Now I'm going to get to in a moment medical procedures that are not legitimate,
that are not righteous for you to do.
But a medical procedure to restore health.
Look at Matthew 9 verse 12.
The Bible says, but when Jesus heard that, he said unto them, they that behold need
not a physician, but they that are sick.
So the Bible is not just completely anti-doctor across the board.
Now people often think of me that I'm just completely anti-doctor, anti-medicine, anti-medical,
and they're about 99% right.
But anyway, they're not fully right though because I do believe that there's a time and
a place for doctors.
And in fact, the book of Luke was written by a doctor, right?
Luke the beloved physician.
So it's not that doctors are bad.
And even Jesus here says that when people are sick, they may need a physician, doesn't
he?
But are people that are healthy, do they need a physician?
No.
So the idea of healthy people using a physician is the part that I have a problem with.
But when it comes to those that are sick, sometimes you need a physician.
You know, for example, when brother Danny, sorry to pick on you brother Danny, but
when we went hiking with brother Danny and he slipped and fell and dislocated his finger,
he needed a physician.
You know what I mean?
Because we, Scott and I didn't know how to fix it, all right?
And we're like, oh man, and Quinn was there and we're like, oh, what do we do?
We didn't know what to do.
So you know, a physician was needed to reset that bone.
And there are a lot of times when doctors can perform procedures that could help people
and save their lives and so forth.
I'm not against that.
I'm just against unnecessary medical intervention.
I think that medical intervention should be minimal, is my personal opinion on that.
But a medical procedure to restore health, for example, there could be something wrong
with you.
You know, you have an illness, a cancer for example, or some other problem and you're
just restoring the body to health, obviously there's nothing wrong with that.
You know, if you have a problem, going to the doctor and getting it fixed.
Like for example, let me just give you an example.
Let's say some women might have a cancer upon one of their ovaries and there's a cancer
there.
And they basically have a surgery that just removes the cancer, right?
And then okay, now they're able to have children.
Obviously there's nothing wrong with just restoring the body to health.
So any medical procedure that restores the body to its normal function, restores the
body to its normal health, that's just part of just being healthy and just taking
care of yourself.
But now let's get into steps that should not be taken, okay?
Go if you would to Genesis 30 verse 1, Genesis 30 verse 1.
I'm going to get into some steps that you should not take.
Now one more step that you could take is some people do choose to adopt children.
And I'm all for that.
I mean, adopting children is perfectly fine, but I do believe that it is wrong for you
to adopt children that have been kidnapped from their parents by the government.
I believe that's wrong.
And you know, if you've done that or if you know people who have done that, I'm not
attacking you or attacking them.
That's your business, but I'm a Bible believing preacher and maybe you didn't think of that
or maybe they didn't think of that and I'm not hateful toward them, but I'm just getting
up as a Baptist preacher who's preaching the Bible and what the Bible teaches and saying,
that is not right for the government to take people's children away.
And you'll hear people say, oh yeah, but the birth mother, she is a drug addict and
she didn't love the child, she didn't care.
Look, it's wrong.
I don't care if she's on drugs, it's wrong.
Taking people's children away is not biblical.
And you say prove it from the Bible.
Well, if you remember King Solomon, who had the wisdom of God, and this was an example
of God's wisdom working through Solomon, when he was confronted with a woman who's a prostitute,
right?
And she's got the child and she's a prostitute and there are two prostitutes living together
in the house and one of them rolls over on the child and suffocates it, which by
the way is pretty much impossible to do unless you're under the influence of alcohol.
Women have been sleeping with their children in bed with them for thousands of years.
My wife has slept in bed with every baby that she's ever given birth to.
You don't roll over it in your sleep.
Even me flailing around all night, I've never rolled over one of them.
It just doesn't happen unless you're drunk or on drugs.
But the bottom line is that this woman is a derelict.
She's a prostitute.
They're prostitutes, they're negligent, one of the kids dies.
But yet what did Solomon say?
Take it and find a better home for it.
Take it to CPS.
No, he said give her the child she's the mother thereof.
That's biblical, my friend.
And by the way, the government that we have today is criminal.
Our government is a criminal government.
I don't care what level you want to talk about, city, state, federal, it's all criminal.
They're thieves, they're liars, they're murderers, they're adulterers, they're homosexuals in
many cases.
We have a wicked and godless government.
And the government today will take people's kids away for smoking pot or just because
they spanked them wrong or whatever.
I don't believe in it.
I don't believe that people's children should be taken away from it.
You say, well what about these people who are pedophiles, they should be killed.
Then you don't have to take their kids away from them because they're dead.
So if someone has committed a crime worthy of death, then they should be put to death
by a government.
But nowhere do we find in the Bible teaching taking people's kids away from them because
you don't like their parenting.
Now look, do I see people's parenting and often disagree with it?
Yes, but does that mean I should take their child away?
No.
I might not agree with the way someone spanks.
I might think they spank too hard.
I might think they don't spank hard enough.
I might think that they're taking drugs and they shouldn't be taking drugs.
I believe drugs are a sin.
I believe that alcohol is a sin, but you know what, it's not my place to take someone's
child away.
That's not biblical and it's not the government's place.
So when you're complicit with a criminal kidnapping government that takes people's children
away and literally in many cases sells them to the highest bidder, are you listening?
They sell children.
I mean people pay thousands of dollars to them to place these children.
They look in a catalog and look for children with blonde hair and blue eyes or whatever.
I'm telling you, you say, yeah, you're a conspiracy theorist.
Get your head out of the sand and wake up.
Welcome to planet Earth that's filled with wicked people and criminals, okay?
And we need to understand that we're a part of a wicked system when we're adopting children
that have been stolen from their parents.
Now if you adopt a child that has been voluntarily given up by its parent, like you
know sometimes women will just drop a child off at the hospital, right, and just drop
it off because a lot of hospitals will just accept babies like that where they just drop
them off.
If you adopted a child like that or a child who's been orphaned, and there are a lot
of children out there who are orphans, who've been dropped off, who are being voluntarily
given up for adoption, but when you're doing it through the government system of stealing
children from their parents, I think that's wrong.
So that's just a word on adoption, okay, if that's a route that you choose to go.
But here are steps that you should not take.
Number one, obviously adultery or polygamy, okay, and you know, obviously nobody thought
that was legitimate, but I'm just throwing that out there because in the Bible, that's
what some people did, right?
Remember Abraham went in under Hagar the concubine, Jacob had those concubines and
so forth.
So in the Bible there was adultery and polygamy that took place.
Obviously in 2013 in a Baptist church I don't need to spend a lot of time on that point,
but that's not something that you should do.
But number two, you should not do IVF or in vitro fertilization, okay, and let me
explain to you why.
Let me just explain, and look at the Bible, it says in Genesis 30 verse 1, and when
Rachel saw that she bared Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister.
Now first of all, is envy right?
No, that's a work of the flesh.
That is not a work of the spirit.
The Bible says she envied her sister and said unto Jacob, give me children or else
I die, and Jacob's anger was kindled against Rachel and he said, am I in God's stead who
hath withheld from thee the fruit of the womb?
So what we need to be careful that we're not doing is putting ourselves in the place
of God, okay?
It's one thing to restore health.
It's one thing to remove a cancer and restore health and fix a problem.
It's one thing to eat healthy and exercise and try to improve your chances by sowing
the seed more often.
It's one thing to pray and to go to other prayers, but when you're going to play God
and create children outside the womb in a laboratory, you've gone too far.
Now let me just prove to you biblically, even if you disagree with the playing God
aspect of it, why in vitro fertilization is not right.
And listen to me, there are independent fundamental Baptist pastors who will recommend to their
congregation to do IVF.
But I think it's probably because they just don't understand the process.
Because I can't imagine how any Baptist pastor could recommend this if he actually
understood the process.
So let me just briefly explain the process to you just so that you'll understand why
this is something that you should not even consider.
In vitro fertilization is where they'll harvest the eggs from a woman, they'll harvest eggs
from a woman's body, and then they will take the seed from the man, and they will
take these things and they will put them together in a laboratory, in a petri dish.
They will take the eggs and they will fertilize them with the seed from the man,
and then they'll take the fertilized egg and inject it back into the woman's body,
and then she'll have a normal pregnancy.
But what often is overlooked, when you hear somebody describe that, yeah what's wrong
with that?
You take the egg, take the seed, put it together, make the fertilization happen,
and then inject it in the woman's body, so what?
Well because guess what, they don't just do one.
They don't do one.
Because it's a very expensive treatment, $10,000, $20,000.
I don't know the exact price tag, I don't think the exact price tag is that relevant,
but it's expensive.
So therefore, this is what they'll do, $20,000, $20,000, or maybe $30,000, or maybe $40,000.
And sometimes people will get nitpicky because I'm not giving the exact right number.
Okay, sorry, it was $18,000 or $22,000, it doesn't matter.
The point is, they do a large amount, approximately $20,000 from what I've read and studied.
And what they'll do, they will fertilize 20 eggs, then they will observe them in
the petri dish, and then they have a grading scale for how they're doing, how healthy they
are.
And the ones that are not making the cut, guess what they do?
Discard them.
And if you believe that life begins, who here believes that life begins at conception?
You believe that when that sperm hits that egg, that's the beginning of life, that's
fertilization, that's conception.
Who believes that?
Put up your hand nice and high if you believe that.
Okay, well here's the thing.
If you believe that and you're taking 20 eggs and then you're fertilizing them and
some of them are doing poorly and are being discarded, wouldn't that be murder?
If you're fertilizing an egg and then throwing it away.
And you say, well, but it was going to die anyway, no.
Because it wasn't necessarily going to die anyway, number one.
Number two, a petri dish is not its natural environment.
So yeah, it might die in that environment because it's not a natural...
I mean, that'd be like if I took a newborn baby and laid it out in the snow and said,
well, you know, if it dies, it's an act of God.
Well no, because you put it in an environment that's not a natural environment for that
child to live and thrive.
So they're basically, they're fertilizing eggs in a petri dish and first of all,
they're observing which ones are thriving and those are the only ones that they're
going to use.
They're the ones that are thriving and doing the best because they want the procedure
to work.
So they take the rest and discard them, okay?
But then not only that, once they take the best ones and inject them, there's only a...
and again, if these numbers aren't exact, that's not the point.
You're still getting the idea.
There's only a 20% chance that it's going to survive once they inject it, okay?
And again, you can say, well, it's got a sporting chance.
Yeah, but you're putting it in a position where it's more likely to die than to survive.
And they inject that.
So what they'll often do is they'll just inject 5 because they'll say, well, if it's
a 20% chance, if we inject 5, then there's a real good chance that one of them's going
to take on.
And since we paid 20 grand, you know, let's put in 5.
Now a lot of doctors will say, well, we're more ethical about it so we're only going
to put in a maximum of 2 because that way, if both of them take on, they're just
going to have twins and it's not a big deal, okay?
Doctors that are less ethical will put in all 5 and just, if there's too many of them,
they get fertilized, they'll just do a little reduction or you kill a few of them, okay?
But even the most ethical is killing them in the petri dish and throwing them in
the trash.
And then here's the thing.
They'll do like 20 of them and then they'll put some in the freezer for later, okay?
And so what you get is it's impossible to do this process without killing human life,
first of all.
If you're doing IVF, you're killing human life.
No way around it because you're fertilizing a bunch of eggs that are dying in the petri
dish.
That simple, okay.
But not only that, you're playing God because you're tampering with God's natural
process for producing children.
See God has created this beautiful action between a man and a woman that results in
a child.
It's this beautiful process.
It's this act of love and intimacy between husband and wife that produce that child.
With IVF, you're completely bypassing that.
In fact, it would be possible for a virgin to conceive through IVF.
True or false?
Think about it.
Now look, our Lord Jesus Christ was born of a virgin and you see how this could make
a mockery of that?
You know, it's almost blasphemous the way basically a virgin could conceive.
And not only that, but sodomites, lesbians, use this frequently.
Every famous lesbian out there that you hear about having a child, this is how they
had a child.
Fact.
And you know, we could name all the filthy sodomites in Hollywood and in the music industry
that have had children through IVF with their sodomite partner.
So therefore, this is something where it's playing God, where you're circumventing the
natural relationship between man and woman and conceiving children in a laboratory.
You've gone beyond man's realm and now you've stepped into God's realm.
God says, I kill and I make alive.
The Lord is my name.
It's not our job to kill and to make alive in a petri dish and say, okay, we're going
to kill these, we're going to let these survive, we're going to inject these, and
so forth.
So I believe that IVF is sinful because it involves murder, because it's playing God,
and because it's perverse, because again, it's something that is twisting God's design.
It's also a lack of faith.
Because now you're not trusting in the prayer that you prayed.
When you prayed and said, God, bless with a child, you've lost faith in that.
Just like remember when Abraham had a lapse in faith and Sarah and they went to Hagar.
That was a lapse of faith.
And IVF is a lapse in faith.
Another step that I believe should not be taken, although not as extreme as IVF, is that often
women will take fertility pills.
Now somebody help me out.
What's the main one called?
It starts with a CL, CLO, something, does anybody know?
Juju, help me out.
I can't hear you.
Clomid or something?
Yeah, it's something that starts with a CLO.
If it starts with a CLO, I'm against it.
But anyway, these fertility drugs or fertility pills, what they will do is they basically
are an artificial substance, artificial hormone coming in just to cause a woman to just
hyperovulate or to ovulate more than normal.
So this is different than just restoring normal health.
That'd be like if I'm a body builder and I took steroids and said, well I'm just
restoring normal health so I won't be sore after I work out.
I just want to restore my muscles after a workout so I'm going to take steroids.
Would you think that's legitimate?
No.
Well this is like, I would liken this to steroids for your reproductive system.
Taking these fertility pills that cause you to hyperovulate.
And women who take these will often have twins, triplets, quadruplets, quintuplets
because they're just hyperovulating.
Women who do IVF will often have twins, triplets, quadruplets, quintuplets because
of they're tampering with it.
When my wife was pregnant with twins I was with a lot of people, are they natural?
That's what everybody asks and I'm like, yeah they're natural.
But the reason they ask that is because today it seems like most of the time they're
not natural because of the fact that it's done through IVF or through taking fertility
drugs.
I think when you're taking a fertility drug that caused you to hyperovulate you've crossed
the line, now you're playing God, now you're tampering with the reproductive process instead
of just having faith.
Again I'm for a medical procedure, or a mental procedure if needed, I'm for a medical procedure
that restores health but I'm not for one that plays God and tampers with the normal
reproductive process.
But again, I believe that this is a subject that needs to be preached because it's a subject
that number one, the Bible talks a lot about.
I gave you all those examples at the beginning.
Number two, it's a subject that people are dealing with today.
I think they say 10% of people in America, they're dealing with it.
Now the world will define infertility as you tried for one year and didn't have a child.
Now I find that to be completely ridiculous.
One year?
I mean that is impatience to the extreme.
But there's a medical industry, there's a pharmaceutical industry that wants your money.
And when I was first married, and this is not something that my wife and I have
ever struggled with if you noticed, but we haven't struggled with infertility.
But when we were first married they said two years.
And that was 13 and a half years ago.
Everyone said two years, if you tried for two years, get fertility treatment.
Now they're saying one year.
And they're saying if you're over 35, give it six months and then come see us.
Six months.
Now I've known people, I know someone who has I think six children and went well over
a year where they were trying to get pregnant with one of those in the middle and just
wasn't getting pregnant.
Good night, you've got to just give it some time sometimes.
To sit there and say one year, give up.
Six months, give up.
Two years, give up.
Okay tell that to Isaac and Rebecca.
Twenty years.
But there's a pharmaceutical industry that wants you to play God and they want to
take your money from you.
So 10% of people by those standards struggle with this.
So it is something that is common.
It is something that's dealt with a lot in the Bible.
We need to know where we stand on this.
We need to pray for those who are barren, that they would give birth to children.
And we need to pray if that's our situation, but ultimately we need to trust God and
if He chooses, see look, you think because we're against birth control we're saying everybody
needs to have 20 children.
That's not what we're saying because you know what?
I'm against birth control both ways.
I'm against trying to prevent it and I'm against doing things to make it happen chemically
using these fertility drugs or IVF.
So what I'm saying is we just need to trust the Lord.
And if the Lord decides to bless you with one child, praise the Lord.
If He blesses you with two, praise God.
If He blesses you with 17, praise God.
But we should just let God be God.
Let Him decide.
Trust in Him.
Pray to Him.
That's what I'm saying, don't pray.
Because prayer does change things.
Pray.
Ask God to do what you want Him to do, but in the end you need to just be happy
with His decision and trust His judgment.
Be patient, take care of your health, and let the chips fall where they may.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for your word and your promises, Lord.
We thank you that every woman in the Bible who was infertile eventually had a child and that's
something that can give assurance and faith to those who are struggling with this.
And Lord, just please help us to understand what our job is, what our responsibility
is and help us to stay out of your responsibility and let you do your part and we will do
our part and not to try to tamper with your will and your plan.
And in Jesus' name we pray.