Never be, how marvelous, how wonderful is my Savior's love for me.
For me it was in the garden, he prayed not my will but thine.
He had no tears for his own griefs, but sweat drops of blood for mine.
How marvelous, how wonderful, and my song shall ever be.
How marvelous, how wonderful, and my Savior's love for me.
He took my sins and my sorrows, he made them his very own.
He bore the burden to Calvary and suffered and died alone.
How marvelous, how wonderful is my song shall ever be.
How marvelous, how wonderful is my Savior's love for me.
When with the ransom and glory his face I at last shall see,
it will be my joy through the ages to sing of his love for me.
How marvelous, how wonderful, and my song shall ever be.
How marvelous, how wonderful is my Savior's love for me.
All right, as the offering play goes around, turn to your Bibles to Leviticus chapter 12.
Leviticus chapter number 12.
Pastor.
Leviticus chapter 12, the Bible reads, and the Lord spake unto Moses saying,
speak unto the children of Israel saying, if a woman have conceived seed and
bore a man child then she shall be unclean seven days according to the days
of the separation for her infirmity shall she be unclean. And in the eighth
day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised and she shall then continue
in the blood of her purifying three and thirty days she shall touch no hollow
thing nor come into the sanctuary until the days of her purifying be fulfilled.
But if she bear a man child then she shall be unclean two weeks as in her
separation and she shall continue in the blood of her purifying three score and
six days and when the days of her purifying are fulfilled for a son or for
a daughter she shall bring a lamb of the first year for a burnt offering and a
young pigeon or a turtle dove for a sin offering under the door of the
tabernacle of the congregation under the priest who shall offer it before the
Lord and make an atonement for her and she shall be cleansed from the issue of
her blood this is the law for her that hath borne a male or a female and if
she be not able to bring a lamb then she shall bring two turtles or or two young
pigeons the one for the burnt offering and the other for a sin offering and the
priest shall make an atonement for her and she shall be clean let us pray father
thank you for this opportunity to be in your house this evening and sing praises to you in your son's name.
We thank you for all the souls that were won to Christ today and just pray that the power of the Holy Spirit will be upon pastor this evening and that he will preach with goldness and authority.
And in the end it's hard to message that we can be here.
And we just thank you for your son's precious blood and we appreciate the eternal life.
And we pray these things in Jesus name. Amen.
Leviticus chapter 12 is a very interesting chapter that talks about the purity of a woman after having given birth.
And it says here in verse number one it says in the Lord spake unto Moses saying speak unto the children of Israel saying if a woman hath conceived seed and born a man child then she shall be unclean seven days.
According to the days of the separation for her infirmity shall she be unclean.
And so the Bible is kind of talking about a process that we know in our modern vernacular as postpartum.
And postpartum is just basically talking about the period of time after a woman gives birth and the Bible gives some clear instructions here about purity.
Now we have to understand about the Old Testament and specifically this section of scripture is you know Leviticus is really written to the Levites.
That's why it's called Leviticus. Now who are the Levites? Levites are the priests of God and they perform very specific job duties in the Old Testament.
They're the ones that offer the animal sacrifices. They're the ones that carry around the tabernacle when they're floating in the wilderness.
Basically they just have everything to do with what we know as church and the temple and the tabernacle and the things of God and the service of God.
The priests themselves were only allowed to be of the tribe of Levi and the book of Leviticus is giving a lot of instructions about cleanliness, purity and it talks about all kinds of things.
It'll talk about animals that are pure and clean and unclean. It'll talk about disease and how to treat diseases. It brings up a lot of different things.
This is also bringing up purity and cleanliness in regards to a woman.
Now of course some of these rules you know obviously some of these things that we read in the book of Leviticus have been fulfilled in Christ in a sense.
The Bible talks about carnal ordinances. It talks about divers washings and cardinal ordinances imposed on them until the time of reformation.
And so of course we don't observe certain things like the dietary restrictions that are found in the book of Leviticus.
And there's other things that we would say okay well that's not technically a sin anymore.
And yet there is still benefit, there is still things we can glean from the book of Leviticus and from the Old Testament that's still profitable unto us today.
And things that are just good advice. And the Bible always uses carnal truths to expound spiritual truths.
So what I want to talk about this evening though is more on the practical sense and that is postpartum and pediatricians. Postpartum and pediatricians.
Now these are two things that a lot of people will deal with in their daily lives and I think that the Bible gives us some good instruction on this subject.
But I also just wanted to at least explain some of my own personal experiences that I've had in these two categories.
Just because we have a lot of young couples, we have a lot of young people having children, going through those processes.
And I think it's beneficial to learn what the Bible does say about some of these subjects and just some general wisdom that you can glean.
Now of course some of the things I'm going to say tonight are kind of just my personal opinion.
So take that for what it's worth. But let's also at least consider what the Bible does clearly teach and clearly say.
Now it does say here, if a woman conceives and has a man-child, she shall be unclean seven days and that she's supposed to be separated.
Now, in the priesthood, of course this is non-negotiable. This is just stuff that you just have to follow and abide exactly to the T.
Because God could not allow any uncleanness or anything unsanitary to enter into the tabernacle.
I mean this is the place of God. So God is trying to eradicate all levels of uncleanliness.
Any kind of thing that's not completely sanitary is to be not allowed into the house of God at this time.
And so we have to understand that these principles are still true in the sense that it is a form of uncleanness.
There is still a form of something that's not sanitary humanly speaking when we talk about these principles.
God wasn't doing these things randomly. It wasn't just that she was spiritually unclean or something like that.
I've heard some people say, oh in Leviticus it's just talking about spiritual cleanliness and spiritual purity. That's false.
Now the Bible is talking about physical cleanliness and physical sanitation to also then further elaborate on spiritual truths.
It's both. But it's certainly not just one. It's not just physical cleanliness and it's not just spiritual cleanliness. It's both.
And so we can still glean carnal truths and spiritual truths from these passages and from these particular sections of scripture.
So of course this woman is unclean. Now let's keep reading. It says in verse 3,
And in the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised.
Now that is good advice medically speaking to have a child do the circumcision on the eighth day.
And whatever reason the human body, that's like the perfect timing for a lot of different reasons.
I'm not going to go into all the medical necessities or the reasons why that happens, but that is theoretically really good advice.
But we live in the New Testament so circumcision availeth nothing so there's no point getting physically circumcised anymore.
However if someone were to do circumcision the eighth day is like the ideal timeline.
Verse 4, And she shall then continue in the blood of her purifying three and thirty days.
She shall touch no hallowed thing nor come into the sanctuary until the days of her purifying be fulfilled.
So what the Bible is saying is that a woman after having given birth is going to go through a human physical process of an issue of blood that is going to last for a period of time.
And so God is wanting her to abstain from the holy things and abstain from the tabernacle and those type of areas while she's in this process.
So essentially it's saying for the first week she has a certain level of uncleanliness but then she's also going to have an additional thirty-three days where she's basically still recovering.
And what we can learn from this in the carnal truth is this, that after a woman gives birth it's not like she's just immediately fine five minutes later.
She's going to have to go through a healing process. She's going to have to go through time where her body is going to have to recover.
And there's going to be a lot of things and events that happen in the human body that need to basically take it easy.
And if women don't take it easy during this period of time, it can cause more trauma or more problems to her physical body.
And so that's why it's very important that a woman after having given birth, she take it easy.
And of course if she's going to take it easy, then what has to happen is the man in the house has to carry more burden.
And the man has to do some more things around the house.
And I think that men need to learn. When your wife gives birth, you have to know that you're going to have to volunteer and do more things and help her out.
Because you should try to make an environment where your wife can take it easy.
You want your wife to be able to relax and to recover. And she's going to be going through a lot of difficult things, humanly speaking.
Now what's interesting though, is that the Bible teaches that women are more difficult than men.
You say, what do you mean? Read. Let's keep reading. Verse five.
But if she bear a maid child, then she shall be unclean two weeks.
Okay, so women, girls are twice as hard. Whatever.
It says this, and is in her separation, and she shall continue in the blood of her purifying threescore in six days.
Now, again, this is a medical truth that a female pregnancy will be harder on a woman than a male pregnancy as far as postpartum is concerned.
And, you know, again, I'm not a doctor, I'm not a scientist.
But, humanly speaking, it makes sense in the sense that when a woman is going to give birth and have this child, a lot of hormones are being released.
And whenever it's a male that she's going to give birth to, she's releasing a lot more testosterone than normal.
And she's going to have a lot more testosterone levels.
When it's a girl, it's going to be more estrogen involved. And we all know that that just causes a lot of problems.
Okay, now I'm just kidding.
So, obviously, it's just her having a boy or having a girl, it's going to have a little bit different response in her body.
And, of course, according to the scripture, she would need even more time to relax, even more time to basically recover.
And so, you know, for women in our church, you know, I think that it's completely absurd for a woman to have birth and then be in church in the same week.
Now, again, I'm not going to stop you from showing up physically, but there's a lot of things that I don't agree with that I won't necessarily do anything about.
But I think that it's just completely insane for a woman to give birth on a Sunday and then come to church on Wednesday.
Okay, that really just should not happen.
And I'm not going to get mad at you and throw stones or whatever.
I'm just telling you that that's not taking it easy.
You know, that woman should take some time, recover, not beginning out.
And look, I'm also not saying this, oh, well, don't come to church on Wednesday, go out and party and go to the restaurant.
Like, she should stay home during that period of time.
She should just stay home, stay in bed, relax, take it easy, allow her body to recover.
You know, there's a lot of things going on and it's important that you don't put too much stress on her in that situation.
She's already going to be, like, stressed, okay, and have a lot of things going on and emotions are going crazy.
And she just has this child and she's not going to get a lot of sleep, she hasn't been getting sleep, her body's recovered.
I mean, there's all these different things, factors going on.
Why do you want to then throw on the top of that going out in public or doing these type of events?
And I also remember this and it was advice that I got from just a, it was a boss, but he was kind of a mentor and a friend of mine.
And I remember when I was going to have my first child, he told me, and it was really good advice because I didn't know, I just didn't know anything.
You know, whenever I had my first kid, I knew literally nothing.
And he just said, you know, a lot of people are going to want to harass you right when you have a baby.
Like, you're going to have your mother-in-law and your family and cousins and aunts and uncles and friends and all these different people are going to come in.
And he said, often your wife will feel uncomfortable being around all these people or they're going to put a lot of stress on her or a lot of pressure or kind of try to make it where you have to be around these people.
And I said, you just have to tell them no.
You just have to be the person to just say like, hey, we're going to just take our own time, we're going to be separate, we're going to just be alone and I'm going to allow her to recover and do whatever.
If you want to come see the baby in a few weeks, then go do whatever.
Now, I'm not telling you what to do. I'm just saying that that was good advice and I like that advice.
And a lot of women, they feel pretty vulnerable right after having a baby.
They don't really want the whole family to just come down the cart line and just see all of that, you know, and see everything that's going on.
Sometimes they don't really want to go through that experience.
I mean, in some cases, it was the most intense physical thing that your wife's ever gone through.
You really want to cart every single uncle and cousin to just be like, here she is, you know.
Like, some women feel uncomfortable about that. They don't like that.
And so, again, I'm not telling you what to do.
If you say, hey, let's bring in the whole family and cousins and uncles and let's stream it on Facebook and whatever, you know, you can do whatever you want.
Okay, some people do this.
But I'm just saying a lot of women don't necessarily like that.
And just as some general advice, it's good to not necessarily put your wife out on a show.
Notice what the Bible's saying, it's like, hey, she's put up, she's separate, she's recovering, she's getting to do her thing.
And, you know, I think that that's important.
It's important for husbands and men to allow their wives to have some time to basically relax.
Think about this.
I mean, you guys, you men out here, how many of you get paid time off?
I want to know.
All right, who doesn't get any paid time off?
All right, there's a handful of you. You work for yourself, probably, right?
Or you're like 1099.
But let me tell you something.
Your wife who has kids, how much paid time off do y'all get?
Yeah, zero.
So it's like, you should think about that and say, you know what, maybe I should give my wife a little bit of, you know, some time.
I can take care of the kids.
I can help her.
I can relax.
I mean, it's important to help with the burden, right?
And to help your wife in these situations.
Now, go if you would to Hosea, chapter number one, Hosea, chapter number one.
We see that the Bible clearly says that, you know, the woman's going to have some level of uncleanness after initially giving birth.
And that's OK.
That's normal.
It's natural.
That's going to happen.
We want as men to give our wives adequate time to recover and to feel good.
And look, I'm not going to put an exact timeline on when you're allowed to come back to church after giving birth.
But, you know, it really should never be within a week.
Probably even a few weeks.
You should just give them some time to just recover and whenever they feel really good and they're in the right kind of spirits and everything like that.
Now, Hosea, chapter number one is we've already kind of been going through this in the Bible.
It's not necessarily a really positive chapter.
And I'm kind of just going to cherry pick a few verses out in the Bible this evening because, you know, most of the time the context isn't postpartum.
We did get it in Leviticus chapter 12.
That's our clear context.
Right.
But then there's other verses that we can just glean wisdom from.
And here's one thing that, you know, I think is really important is a woman to breastfeed.
And that's part of the postpartum is going through that.
Now, they've already gone through a lot of difficulty.
And one thing that's interesting about the breastfeeding is the first few days of breastfeeding is very difficult in almost every case.
I mean, if you don't have difficulty in the first few days, you're the exception because most women will have a lot of difficulty.
Sometimes it can be painful or very painful in that first few days.
A lot of times women will struggle with the timing of when their milk comes in and everything like that.
But it's important for, I believe, you know, us to learn about breastfeeding from the Scripture and learn the benefits of breastfeeding.
And one thing that people will get mad at a church like ours for is the idea of us just having children without using birth control
or using some kind of medical device to prevent children from being birthed.
And, you know, of course, there's been extremities out there like the Catholic Church who's always been against birth control.
And they ended up having a lot of people do what's called Irish twins.
And they were Irish Catholic, which means that they didn't exercise birth control but they were also not really doing the breastfeeding correctly.
And so they would end up having children, multiple children within a period of less than 12 months.
That's what an Irish twin is. So essentially it's just a child that's born within less than a 12 month period of its sibling.
I don't recommend that either. That's obviously not a good idea.
And that's not really even allowing your wife to recover from the full postpartum period that they need to recover.
Because postpartum is not necessarily just limited to one week or 66 days.
In a medical term, they'll even consider a woman six months postpartum.
Or, you know, I don't know exactly what the cutoff is.
But, you know, women are going to go through all kinds of crazy emotions and their bodies trying to recover and heal.
So it makes sense that God would not want women to then get pregnant immediately after having given birth.
And God thought through this and He said, you know what, I'll give them breastfeeding.
And it naturally makes your body not conceive.
Now, eventually, you will again, what does the Bible say in Hosea chapter 1 verse 8?
Now when she had weaned, lo rheuma, she conceived and bare a son.
So notice once she stops the breastfeeding, and frankly speaking it's not even necessarily just stopping.
Weaning is a process. It's just when you're slowing down.
Because the human body responds to everything you do.
If you feel tired and you go work out, you'll feel more energetic after having worked out than before.
Which makes no sense. Because you're tired, you exerted more energy so that you would make it think like you'd have less energy.
But for whatever reason your body responded to that working out and you just released all these endorphins.
And now you're kind of like pumped up and you got adrenaline pumping.
Whereas you could feel fine. You could feel normal like I'm not going to get tired.
But if we just put you in a dark room and you lay down, you'll just start getting real tired and you'll go to sleep right away.
Because the body just responds to everything.
I typically don't eat breakfast in the morning.
But, and I really don't even, it doesn't even bother me.
Like it's not like a sacrifice or anything like that.
I just really don't like doing it. And then I can eat more for lunch and dinner.
So it kind of like works out.
But I find that I'm not actually hungry in the morning.
And I could go till like 2 or 3 and I really wouldn't even feel that hungry.
Usually I eat a little earlier than that.
But I'll say this. If I eat anything, and I mean this anything at like 10 am or 11 am, I have to eat a whole meal.
I'm like starving. It's like because you like awaken the hunger demons inside of your belly or whatever.
And so it's like, you know these people that talk about snacking all day or something like that on a diet.
That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard.
Because if I snack, I'm just going to have to keep snacking and eat and eat and eat.
And again, I'm just saying this to say your body responds to the things you do.
And interestingly enough, a woman, her body responds to breastfeeding.
Now of course, there could be exceptions out there.
And I'm not saying there isn't exceptions.
But if you just look up, medically speaking, the LAM method, which is the scientific term,
it's called Lactational Ana Maria Method, is 98% effective for the first 6 months.
Now of course, you know, that's like anything medically.
Whenever it's 98 or 99%, they only put that in there for basically human error.
It's usually not that it's not effective. It's like you're probably doing something wrong.
Of course, there could be an exception. And I'm not saying that there's not.
But if it's 98% effective, medically speaking, then it works.
I'm not saying that it couldn't have an issue. There couldn't be problems.
And honestly, unfortunately, due to some of the things we're doing medically as a group of people,
this number is probably not as effective in some cases.
And I'm going to talk about that.
Here's the thing. If you do the breastfeeding, you can delay your next conception cycle naturally through the LAM method.
Some people might ask, okay, well how long? I say as long as you want to.
There's no limit to how long you're going to breastfeed and at what point that you wean.
Now the reason why I personally believe that they say it's 98% effective for the first 6 months
is because 99% of pediatricians will tell every single person to introduce solid foods to their children at 6 months.
And if you start introducing foods at 6 months, what's going to happen?
You're already kind of starting that weaning process.
Now what did the Bible say? Let's read that verse again. Verse 8.
Now when she had weaned, lo ruma, she conceived and bare a son.
So notice when you start changing things, your body starts changing and it gives you that option to go back to a conception cycle.
Of course there's always exceptions to every rule, but again, just generally speaking,
if you exclusively breastfeed and you don't have any kind of alternative method, the LAM method is 98% effective.
And that's not Pastor Shelley's personal opinion, that is just research and scientific articles information.
Now, you know, just my personal experience, I do believe that you kind of have to do this in a really extreme format.
And what I mean by that is you have to allow your child to eat on demand, which is kind of hard on a lot of women.
Meaning that you have to co-sleep, you have to bed share, you have to literally feed all the time.
No pacifiers ever. Because your body's responding to things.
And a lot of times the babies, they'll feed, but they won't actually eat.
They're just there just for the comfort. Anytime they're upset, they're the comfort there.
Every time that they are tired, it's just to go to sleep.
And then of course they're doing some feeding here and there.
Plus, you know, there's importance that they have to be feeding often enough.
And you need to be regular enough that they're getting hind milk, which is a little bit lengthier process of breastfeeding.
So if a baby is breastfeeding and is only doing really short cycles, it's never going to get what's called the hind milk.
Hind means back, or behind, right?
So according to breastfeeding, if you look up the research on this, there's foremilk, which is like in the front, and there's hind milk, which is in the back.
The foremilk is accessed really easy. It's the first part.
So they have to do a longer feed to even get to the hind milk.
If they're not getting to the hind milk, what's happening is the woman's body might be confused and think that you're weaning.
Because whenever a baby is weaning, it's not going to be eating as much, it's not having the big cycles as much, so it can confuse the body.
So if you're not having a 10, 15, 20 minute session, it could get to the point where your body doesn't even realize what you're trying to do there.
And it could cause it where the land method's not effective.
What causes a lot of times people to do this is they use a lot of covers, or they use a lot of other methods to not allow the baby to breastfeed.
And so they won't feed as long, because they get hot, they get uncomfortable, and do whatever.
So that's why at my church I've always had an open breastfeeding policy.
We're not going to make you wear a hijab and go hide in the closet.
Even according to Texas state law, you're not allowed to prohibit women from openly breastfeeding.
And that was a big point of contention when I took over this church.
And I don't know why, but honestly it's like, to me it's like you have to hate babies to want to limit, and mothers to not allow them to be able to do whatever is necessary.
And the guys that, it's interesting, the guys that have a big problem with this, they have a huge problem in other areas.
Go to Genesis chapter 49, Genesis chapter 49, because normal dudes don't care about that.
It's stupid. I just want my wife and my baby to be able to do whatever they need to freely.
And again, I'm not saying that there couldn't be an exception to this, but I find that if you are breastfeeding on demand, you never had any substitutes,
no pacifiers, you're doing the bed sharing, you're getting the good sessions, I mean the land method is going to work.
But when you're not doing all these things and you're kind of picking and choosing which methods, it could possibly not work.
And then obviously you have to suffer the consequences of that.
And of course there's always, you get to choose your suffering, right?
Some people are like, oh that's a terrible thing because it's so demanding.
And they'll be like, oh Pastor Shelley, you're just saying this because you're selfish because you never have to feed the baby.
Well I don't have to feed the baby. Okay, but you know what I'm being selfish for is my baby.
You know, I don't really care about all the other stuff. I would feed it.
I remember with my first child, Clayton, we didn't do this, and I would get up in the middle of the night and I would feed him bottles.
And I cleaned all the bottles and it sucked and I burned my hands a thousand times.
And you know the formula smells bad. The diapers are ten times worse. It's not even close.
Formula diapers are the worst. And they have, your children often have more indigestion.
They have more stomach problems. Also the jaw often will not form as strongly or as well on a baby that has to use this formula.
Because in order to do the breastfeeding they have to suck really hard and they get a really good formation of the mouth because they're learning how to suck.
Whereas children that do a lot of the formula, they'll have weird under bites, you know, and they'll have to get braces to fix that.
They'll have all kinds of weird issues with the jaw because they're just not doing what God planned for them to do.
And they're just getting spoon fed a bottle. And that just can cause a lot of problems when they're, you know, using the formula.
Now again, I'm not saying that you're stupid for using formula, but, you know, and I'm not saying you're bad.
I'm not saying your children's bad, but I will make jokes every once in a while about that's why, you know, because you're formula fed.
No, I'm just kidding. Hey, praise God that my mom breastfed me, you know, and, you know, I really appreciate that even though I didn't remember even one time.
I don't remember it, but you know what? I could have been a lot dumber, you know, out there.
And so I appreciate that I'm at least the level I'm at. Okay.
Now, Genesis chapter forty nine, look at what it says in verse twenty five.
The Bible says this, even by the God of thy father who shall help thee and by the Almighty who shall bless thee with blessings of heaven above,
blessings of the deep that lies under, blessings of the breasts and of the womb.
So the Bible actually describes blessed breastfeeding as a blessing.
Why would I want to forego the blessing that God is willing to give our family?
Go to Psalms twenty two, Psalm twenty two.
And what's interesting is we live in a time in the world where we have a lot of options.
You know, in the past, people didn't have as many options.
They were kind of just forced to do the right thing in a lot of cases.
We live in America where you really aren't forced to do the right thing in a lot of cases.
You have so many different options. And through those options, it's caused a lot of problems.
You know, there hasn't been birth control as easily and readily accessible in America like it has in the past.
I mean, in the past, there was no option to just kill off all of your children through birth control.
Abortion wasn't necessarily as accessible. You know, divorce wasn't always as easy.
It wasn't always as accessible.
Whoredom, being a whore or being with a whore was not nearly as accessible as it's been at times.
So it's not like necessarily everybody is always more righteous in the past.
It's just the access to sin in many cases hasn't been as available and as easy.
So we live in a generation, we live in a society where ease and access to sin is almost arguably the easiest it's ever been.
And when it comes to alternatives to even breastfeeding, I'm not saying it's a sin to not breastfeed.
But what I am saying is that the alternatives are very available so people don't, people have this choice.
But for most of human history, there wasn't a choice.
It wasn't like, you never had to preach on breastfeeding because it wasn't like there's all these other options.
It was the option.
But, you know, Jesus Christ was breastfed. Look at what it says in Psalm 22 verse 9.
But thou art he that took me out of the womb. Thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother's breast.
So notice Jesus Christ himself. There's a prophecy about him. He was breastfed.
Go to Lamentations chapter number 4. Go to Lamentations after Jeremiah, the big book of Jeremiah.
Right after is the book of Lamentations.
And, of course, I always like to emphasize all these verses.
Why would God constantly talk about breastfeeding as a blessing?
Why would he bring it up as Jesus Christ was being breastfed?
And when we look at Lamentations, it's even a talk about breastfeeding specifically.
Why would he give us all these verses if he didn't care about that?
Of course he wants that. He emphasizes that.
It's a natural thing.
It's crazy how anybody could be an atheist when you think about how much the female body does.
Like in all the incredible things that God built into the female body, you know, and how it works perfectly.
The Bible says in Lamentations chapter 4 verse 3,
Even the sea monsters, the word even means specifically, specifically the sea monsters draw out the breast.
They give suck to their young ones.
The daughter of my people has become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness.
The tongue of the sucking child cleaveth to the roof of his mouth for thirst.
So it's saying, animals will breastfeed, yet my people are refusing to breastfeed their children.
The children are literally thirsty and not being fed.
And of course, why will a baby cry?
Because it's tired, it needs his diaper changed, or it's hungry.
That's pretty much, I mean, that's the three.
And a lot of times you even see, you know, women that are not breastfeeding
are letting their children cry a lot more than they need to because they're not feeding it as much.
Sometimes they do the opposite, I've seen the opposite as well.
But according to the Bible, he's mocking these women for not breastfeeding.
He's rebuking these women for not breastfeeding.
Now of course there's spiritual truths that are tied to this,
but the carnal truth is still there to help us illustrate the spiritual truth.
And we should not be a group of people that forsake any part of the Bible,
but we embrace all of it because I look at the family unit as it's kind of like the game of Jenga.
And when you start taking little pieces out, the whole thing can fall down.
And you know, in order to have a successful marriage and a successful family,
you've got to be doing all the things.
You can't just forsake any one of them.
And when you take the chink of breastfeeding out, you start causing a lot of other issues.
Like if you want to actually have a big family and you want to be healthy
and you want to have all the other benefits that come with that,
it's like breastfeeding is one of those dominoes in this rung that you've got to kind of stick in there.
And when you're not sticking it in there, it starts causing problems in all kinds of other areas.
And so it's important that you do this.
Go to Hosea chapter 9. Go back to Hosea.
I want to show you a few more verses on this.
And you know, I hear this, and I'm not trying to get on to anybody,
but I hear a lot of people just say, you know, breastfeeding doesn't work for me.
And I'm not saying that that person doesn't exist,
but I hear it so much more than the statistical probability that I know that it's just not true in many cases.
And I'm not saying that it couldn't exist. I'm just saying that there's some other issue probably.
Of course, you know, just being healthy in general is important.
Breastfeeding to go successfully and the land method be successfully,
you need to be of a healthy weight, you need to be in good shape, you know.
Things like that are going to affect it.
But not being able to breastfeed, according to the Bible, is a curse.
Look what it says in Hosea chapter 9, verse 14.
So according to the Bible, you know, not being able to form these natural duties would be a curse unto a person.
Of course, it could exist.
There could be medical reasons why someone could struggle in one of these areas.
But of course, it's not a good thing, it's a bad thing.
You know, if you have a miscarriage, that's not a good thing, that's a bad thing.
No one would say like, oh, I'm so glad I had a miscarriage, unless they're like a reprobate or something.
So why would I then say, oh, it's a good thing that I can't breastfeed or whatever.
You know, that's a bad thing.
And I remember when we went to our first child, we had a pediatrician that was recommended to us.
I think it was the pediatrician, maybe it was actually the doctor that had delivered the child.
I can't remember, it was one of those two.
But I remember after my wife had given birth, he just said,
oh honey, just wear a really tight bra and the milk will go away after a couple weeks.
And I was just thinking like, why are you saying that?
I didn't even ask for your opinion, number one.
That was unsolicited information.
But then why are you just immediately trying to tell women not to breastfeed?
To me, that's like a curse onto someone.
Someone that could possibly do it and is healthy and is working and then saying like, hey, dry up the breast.
It's like that's satanic in my opinion.
You know, that's not what the Bible teaches.
You know, you should hope for this method of work.
And in fact, I personally believe that the body will respond to this so well that you could do it at any time.
Have you ever read the Bible?
Naomi somehow gave suck under her granddaughter.
Or grandchild. I'm sorry, not daughter, but grandchild.
And I'm like, how did that even happen?
You know, it could be a slight miracle.
It seems like your body just responds.
And I've heard like someone will say, oh, I'm drying up or I'm limited.
Well, then you just need to increase your workout routine.
You need to increase your sessions because the body responds to everything that you do.
And often what will happen is women start getting in a bad routine.
Then they say they start drying up and then it's this vicious cycle.
Whereas it's like, no, no, no.
If you have the right routine, your body will naturally respond and you can get that back.
Well, there's a lot of times it'll ebb and flow, but you just have to stay committed to the right routine.
And while my wife has told me very clearly that breastfeeding for the first few days is very painful,
it usually gets to a point where it's no longer painful anymore at all.
And she loves it.
Now, you know, it's incredible because when we first had children, my wife was very, or maybe it was right before,
but she was kind of averse to breastfeeding.
She had been told her whole life that it was gross or something.
And her family was very negative towards breastfeeding and she had a really unfavorable opinion towards it
and was really nervous about it.
And I remember, you know, for me it was kind of hard because I'm like, well, it's not my body
and, you know, it's hard for me to just tell her what to do and whatever.
But, you know, I should have just been a man and just told her what to do anyways, number one.
Okay, that's my fault.
But number two, now that she's actually gone through both experiences, she's like the breastfeeding's way better.
She loves it. She likes it so much. It's really important to her.
She feels like she's really close to her children and she desires it.
And, you know, if you commit to it and you just decide like I'm going to do it no matter what, then it can become a blessing.
But if you kind of like in and out on it, it's not necessarily always going to work, just like a marriage.
You know, when you get married, you're not supposed to be like, well, we'll try it out.
We'll see how it works. Because let me tell you something, marriage is going to get hard at some times.
You could even get to a point where you just really don't like each other.
It exists out there, folks, okay?
But then you can head back to where you like each other again, okay?
You can have these swings and things are going to happen.
And so you can even have that with anything.
Breastfeeding, you're going to have the ebbs and flows, you're going to have the event.
But, you know, if you just stay committed and you just say I'm going to do it, you know, oftentimes you can get through those hard spells
and then it ends up not being a big deal later.
And you can end up getting to a point where you get really experienced and you're really good.
The first few times, the first few kids or whatever, it can be challenging.
And I'm all for asking for advice.
You know, one of the hospitals that we went to the first time offered free counseling.
Like you could go with a nursing specialist and they just had people at the hospital that will just train women on how to breastfeed.
They'll show them what to do, they'll explain to them, they'll make sure they have a good latch,
the children have good latches and everything like that.
And, you know what, it was helpful.
We did it one time, we went there and one of the female nurses was there to help and just kind of give some advice.
And I think that that is good.
As much advice as you can get on those subjects, it's not going to hurt.
It's not like it's a new thing.
There's been millions of women that have done it and they've all been successful, you know, and so it can happen again.
And of course a lot of the pitfalls and problems, they can help, you know, walk you through on that as well.
Go if you would to Isaiah 66.
Go to Isaiah, just go back in the Bible a little bit.
Isaiah chapter 66.
I know all the young single guys in here are really excited about this sermon.
And so I'm just making sure to preach for them this evening.
Isaiah 66, look at verse 10.
And Sharon shall be a fold of flocks, and in the valley of Acre, a place for the herds to lie down in, for my people that have sought me.
But ye are that forsake the Lord, that forget my holy mountain, that prepare a table for a troop, that furnish the drink offering under that number.
I feel like I wrote this verse down wrong.
I'm reading chapter 65, that's why.
Sorry, I see 66 on the page and I got confused.
Look at verse number 10.
You know, this is what I want for every baby, is to milk out.
You know?
And it's just so funny, because I feel like I see this.
Sometimes my babies, you can tell after they've had a good feeding, then they're just kind of like, ah.
Like right before they're screaming and they're just like, ah!
And then they feed, and they're just like, ah.
And it's just like this blissful state that they're in, they're just so happy and they're like a different child.
It's kind of like that Joe Pesci commercial with the Snickers, but you know, it's for breastfeeding.
And it's just like, it's a completely different person all of a sudden.
And it's like, this is what we should want for our children.
Now go over to Genesis chapter 38.
The problem is when you don't do the breastfeeding, and you're going to be biblical, and you're going to do what God said and be fruitful and multiply.
Well, then you run into a problem where people will say, okay, well then how do you prevent having a kid every five minutes if you're not doing the breastfeeding or it's not going correctly?
And so then the suggestion comes in for birth control.
And look, a lot of independent, fundamental Baptist churches will recommend birth control.
I'm not saying that they're tolerant. I'm saying they'll recommend it.
I'll say they'll encourage it.
And sometimes you have a hybrid. You'll have the people that, they're not so brazen to just say like murder your children in the womb with birth control.
But they'll still be like, well, I don't know that you necessarily need to just have kids indiscriminately.
I mean, you should wait and ask your wife if it's okay.
I heard an independent, fundamental Baptist preacher, he's like, you know, it's not right for me to just tell my wife when we're going to have kids.
You know, I need to ask her permission or ask her when it's okay to start having kids.
And I'm like being like, are you a man? Are you a Baptist?
You're a fundamental Baptist preacher and you're going to ask your wife if it's okay to have children?
I'm like, what planet am I living on?
You know, how, how effeminate is that to let your wife tell you when she's going to have kids or not?
I mean, that's feminism.
If I've ever heard it in my life, you know, my wife doesn't get to make that decision.
And frankly speaking, I don't get to make that decision because, you know what, I never had a button to press like have children.
You know, what I do is I just do what God told me to do.
And then if he blesses me with children, praise God.
And if he doesn't, praise God.
But you know what? I can't press those buttons.
But you know what I'm not going to do? I'm not going to press the button that says no children.
That's just off the table.
And you know, it's certainly off the table for me to ask my wife if it's okay for me to press that button or not.
You know which buttons I ask my wife if it's okay to press? None.
Because she doesn't tell me what to do.
You know, that's a weird relationship.
And it's sad that fundamental Baptist preachers are letting their wives tell them what to do.
You know, I would not, I wouldn't even go to a church like that.
If I'm going to a church and I'm having to fight with the information,
I don't want the pastor to try and tell my wife it's okay to tell me what to do.
The whole world's telling them that.
I'm like, I have to fight that so much just from the world that I'm going to go to a church
where the pastor's going to basically teach feminism and try to encourage women to tell their husbands what to do.
You know, and that's going to destroy marriages.
And it's also going to destroy manliness.
And let me tell you what's destroying America is the lack of manliness.
It's the lack of men.
And you know what, if you have great people, the last thing you want to do is limit their reproduction.
We want to increase the reproduction of men in this world.
We need more men and God-fearing women and people that are going to serve the Lord.
And that's why God said be fruitful and multiply.
And yeah, it might be hard to have a lot of kids.
You know, I only have five, so I don't know what it's like to have 10 or 12 or a million or whatever the number is.
But let me tell you something.
There's not a single one of my kids I would trade for anything.
I love all of them.
They're so wonderful.
And you know, my children, when we talk about having more kids, they think it's epic.
We asked Jackson the other day, we said, hey, how many kids should we have?
How many more kids?
He said 2,000.
My wife was a little nervous about that.
I said, honey, it's not possible, okay?
1,000, I'm just kidding.
Obviously, that's silly, okay?
And you know, you can't even necessarily have that many kids in the house all at one time because eventually they grow up and leave.
You know, you're going to max out at some point.
I mean, if you think about it, you could probably only max out about 12 kids in the house at one time.
Because eventually they're going to start leaving the household and getting married.
God willing, okay?
You'll teach them how to find a wife or whatever, right?
That's an amen, okay?
I'm just kidding.
Now, the problem is, though, they'll teach birth control.
And the only time we really have birth control mentioned in the Bible, it's horrible.
Look at Genesis chapter 38, look at verse 9.
So it's like, the one time we have someone exercising a form of conception or even birth control, he's immediately just killed.
Why would I then suggest that as a fundamental Baptist to get up and recommend people to do these type of activities?
Or to not try to actively have children?
Now, of course, you know, you can only do so much.
God is going to be, I believe that God opens and closes the womb.
I've taught that consistently.
But to me, I don't want to limit God in blessing me in that area.
I want to follow all the commandments the best that I can and then ask God to bless me.
And I believe that the Bible clearly teaches that I'm not going to be tempted above that I'm able.
God's not going to give me the children I can't handle.
He's going to, and if he gives me a lot of kids, he's going to help me figure out how to handle that.
And I think it's so funny, all the carnal reasons that the world give never seem to work out in practicality.
Because they say, like, well, how are you going to afford it?
And it's like, well, if you look at every large family in America, it's all the poor people.
I mean, who's having 7, 8, 9, 10 kids?
It's all the Hispanic families that have, like, no money.
You know, or it's a lot of black families that have all kinds of kids.
It's like, how come all the poor people are the ones that are capable of doing it and all the rich people can't?
It's because the kids are getting in the way of your riches, that's why.
Because all these kids, you know, you can't go on all your vacations and you can't go on your date nights and the bar and all the other stupid crap that you want to do.
So it's just like, well, I can't afford it.
That's a lie.
The poorest people in this world have tons of kids.
I mean, have you ever been to Africa?
They have no money and they have, like, a million kids.
And somehow they're making it.
You know, talk about not being able – I mean, that's the biggest lie that you can't afford it.
The devil wants to tell you that lie.
The devil wants to destroy our population, not increase it.
You know, he put it on the Georgia Guidestones, but praise God they got destroyed.
Go to Proverbs 27 for a moment.
Proverbs 27.
You know, I'm just going to blow through a couple of these real quick because I want to just finish a few more things I wanted to say.
But pediatricians by and large, just my personal opinion, are physicians of no value.
And frankly speaking, if it wasn't for vaccinations, pediatricians probably wouldn't even exist.
There's a reason why pediatricians basically didn't even exist in the past.
It's because they didn't have vaccination.
And most pediatricians, 60 to 70 percent of their income is coming only from vaccination.
Also, if you tell your pediatrician, I will not vaccinate, they will drop you as a client.
You say, I don't know if that's true.
It's happened to me in real life.
We went into the office and we said, hey, we're not vaccinating.
The guy tried to make fun of me, but I didn't care.
And I just like, no, we're not doing this.
He's like, well, we're dropping you as a client then.
It's like, OK, bye.
So then I went to a different pediatrician that was not going to force vaccines on us.
She was still like, I'll still do it or the delayed schedule.
And it's like, OK, so half the poison.
That sounds great.
You know, let's just sign up for that.
It's like, I don't want the delayed, the half, the partial.
It's just like, no.
But, you know, usually to find someone like that, they're kind of weird.
And you know what I'm talking about.
OK, these are these are the weird people.
So so then we're going to these checkups and I'm still paying money.
And basically what they do is they weigh the child.
That's what they do.
They weigh it and then they measure it.
That's it.
OK, then they'll show you a chart and then they'll be like, you're in this percentile.
OK, and my children were always in the less than five percentile in every category.
But you know why?
You know why they're usually in the smaller category?
Because they're breastfed.
Because the children that are getting junked full of all this crap formula bloat.
I mean, you if you see you've seen these babies that look like sumo wrestlers.
That can't happen on breastfeeding.
It's not possible.
The only way is because they're just gorging themselves on this formula junk.
And it's just making them fat just like this.
You could never be fat if you only ate carrots, broccoli, celery, grapes and lean chicken.
You would never be fat.
It's not possible.
You say, how are you fat?
Twinkies, ho hos, McDonald's, MSG, Coca-Cola.
That's why.
So whenever we go in and they're like, you're underweight.
Praise God, I'm underweight.
I don't want to be in the 50 percentile.
And this is what they'll do to every young couple because you don't know anything about a kid.
You have a kid and you're so afraid.
You're like, how did anybody even let me take this thing home?
How am I even allowed to be in possession of this soul?
And you think of this doctor as like authoritarian.
So they'll say, you know what?
You need to start introducing formula and you need to start supplementing your feeds.
And you need to start introducing this kind of food.
And you need to put solids because they need to fatten you up.
But you know what?
Most of the time it's a lie.
And then by doing that, what happens is you start naturally weaning yourself.
And then they'll say, oh, you start losing your cycles.
And they go to that vicious cycle and then they just stop the breastfeeding.
And I find that these pediatricians are just, you know, really just kind of dumb.
A lot of them are just dumb.
And they give bad advice and they are hooked into the system.
And, you know, this one pediatrician, she just didn't like milk.
And she would always tell my wife, she'd be like, you need to stop giving your babies milk.
Like that's causing all your problems.
And I was like, I just was like, okay, we're never going back.
Like that was, I heard it a couple of times and I'm just like, I'm done.
Like that's just so obviously anti-biblical.
I mean, the Bible is, it couldn't be clearer on milk.
And look what it says in Proverbs 27.
I'm not going to every verse.
You know what the Bible says, the land flowing of milk and honey.
Amen.
Proverbs 27, look at verse 27.
And thou shalt have goat's milk enough for thy food.
Hey, here's the Bible telling me that milk is for my food.
She was like, oh, you know, we're the only species that drinks other animals' milk.
Every other animal only drinks its own milk.
And I'm like, yeah, well, I'm the only species that has a soul too.
And I'm the only species that's made in God's image.
And you know what?
I'm better than all of them.
I eat them.
They're my food.
And I don't just eat their meat.
I eat their milk.
You know what?
That cow is mine.
You know, and that is foolish advice.
But you know what?
There's so much diet advice out there and what you could eat advice.
And you say, where's your diet advice, Pastor Shelley?
It's right here.
It's red meat and it's milk and it's vegetables and it's bread.
And look, there's so many diets out there.
They're like anti-bread and anti-milk and anti-red meat and anti-less.
It's like, no.
I'm for it.
Give me more brisket.
And look, everything about the cow is good, okay, folks?
It's just a wonderful animal.
Praise God for cows, okay?
I have a picture of a cow in my house and I like it.
Go over to Mark Chapter 5.
What's the title of the sermon?
Postpartum and Pediatricians, okay?
And look, I'm not telling you to drop your pediatrician.
In fact, sometimes it's still beneficial to have them for certain reasons,
like just do a one-year checkup for insurance purposes or whatever.
I mean, we technically got one just to avoid like weird issues,
and so we kind of used that.
But I don't personally feel like there's really any benefit.
There could be a benefit to have a family doctor that's going to kind of help you
if you have injuries.
You know, your kids are going to get hurt.
There's going to be problems.
They're going to get sick.
Of course, I'm not telling you to avoid doctors when you're sick,
but a lot of people are taking their child to a doctor when the baby's not sick.
When it's perfectly healthy, there's nothing wrong with it,
and usually you're going to get a lot of bad advice, a lot of government propaganda,
a lot of medical propaganda, and if you've learned anything from the COVID vaccine,
look, the government will literally inject you with poison,
and then they'll lie to you to your face about it,
and they'll make you lose your job if you even tell the truth about it.
Why would I want to sit here?
And it's funny to me, there's a lot of people that have woken up,
and they're like, vaccines are great, but the COVID shot's bad.
And I'm like, really?
It's like, I don't think so.
Or I've had people tell me, oh, the government's lying about everything,
and they're really wicked, but vaccines are legit.
And I'm like, well, then why can't they not get sued?
And it's not just for the COVID one.
It's all of them, buddy.
Who made that deal?
Why are they so afraid of being sued?
You know what I don't do?
What if I got up and I said, all right, everybody,
I have this form and I need you all to sign it that you'll never sue me.
And then I have some new announcements.
It's like, you should be nervous when anybody's asking you,
like, please don't sue me right now.
I want to get an agreement right now that you're not going to sue me for any reason.
You're like, why?
That's suspicious.
And you should be suspicious of these things.
You know, they that are whole need not a physician.
That's my medical advice, is the Bible.
I just say, hey, what does the Bible say? Oh, I'm not sick?
Then I'm definitely not going to the doctor.
You know, prostate exam, not going to happen.
You know, if I have a problem in my prostate, then we can talk.
You know, I don't want to ask you to check that, okay?
That's weird.
And how do you not know that the constant checking of that
isn't going to cause the problem in the future?
That they're the actual cause of that problem.
You know, that is a one way exit.
Okay, coffee enemas?
Are you a fag?
I mean, seriously, if you look it up, throughout history,
there's only been, like, two groups of people that ever do that,
and the biggest group is homosexuals who do those weird enema things.
It's like, I'm afraid of you.
Like, that is weird.
Now, Mark chapter number five, look what it says in verse 26.
And had suffered many things of many physicians
and spent all that she had and was nothing bettered,
but rather grew worse.
You know, hey, we can talk about doctors in the Bible.
Hey, how about this lady that spent all the money she had
and she only got worse?
They never helped her.
And I'll tell you what, the medical industry does this to a lot of people.
They will spend all of their money and they'll use all of their drugs
and they won't even be better, they'll be worse.
They'll have even worse problems than they did when they first went.
Because oftentimes these medical people, they don't even know what they're doing.
They're guessing you're a guinea pig and a number to them.
You know, a lot of physicians don't care anymore
because typically, you know, I think a lot of medical professionals of the past
cared a little bit more, and usually they would say this,
you know, rest, you know, drink water, sit up, drink, you know,
drink some juice or drink some, you know, like ginger ale,
eat some chicken noodle soup.
They would basically give you all the advice that gives them no money.
Because that's usually what you needed.
But, you know, a lot of people didn't like that.
It's like give me drugs.
And they basically just become drug dealers.
Most doctors today are just professional drug dealers
and they're scumbags, a lot of them.
They have a love of money.
You know, I'm just, I'm not dogging on every medical professional.
There are some legitimate medical professionals out there.
I think a lot of surgeons obviously have to be pretty brilliant
to be able to operate on the human body and a lot of the things that they do.
But, you know, pediatricians by and large, they're not a surgeon.
They're not prescribing a lot of good things.
A lot of them are there specifically because of vaccines.
And think about how dark their heart has to be.
Because they've literally injected children after children with these vaccines
and parents called them and said, my child just died suddenly.
And I think it was the vaccine.
Nope, it wasn't.
My child just had a giant reaction and they can't breathe.
My child just got autism.
My child just now can't even speak.
My child now has Bell's Palsy.
Oh, coincidence.
I mean, that is what, you're not talking about hardening your heart.
And then you want to go ask this person for medical advice?
I mean, a lot of them in my opinion are just wicked.
Like, they're not even just bad people. They're just wicked.
To just love money that much.
To just constantly inject children with poison every single day.
And then a lot of people that just don't know, they're like,
oh, let's go to the pediatrician.
You know, it's so friendly and they have suckers.
And they let our kids play with toys and they just seem so sweet.
Sorry.
You know, I wish I had never gone.
First Kings, go to John 16.
We'll just finish on this.
You know, again, on the postpartum, the dues need to help.
The dues need to, you know, you say, I'm a dude, I'm not interested in this stuff.
You need to get interested if you have a wife.
And you need to get interested if you have children.
You need to help make those decisions.
And especially, look, when your wife just gave birth, she's going to be postpartum.
She can't make decisions.
Okay, that's like, that's a train wreck.
If you thought asking your wife where you want to go eat was hard,
look, after she just gave birth, that is not a good time to have her start making all kinds of really important decisions.
You need to already be able to make all the decisions for her.
And she's going to go through a lot of pain.
Do you make good decisions under pain?
How many people have confessed to crimes when they're being tortured?
Because you don't make good decisions when you're in pain.
And you're asking your wife when she has more hormones than she's ever had, more pain, she's got all kinds of issues.
To then make decisions, it's like, that's foolish.
You just make the decisions for your family.
Okay.
And also, you know, women naturally nest when they get pregnant and when they're in postpartum.
The last thing you want to do is start moving a pregnant woman or a woman that just gave birth around.
Or putting a lot of uncertainty.
Like, we don't know where we're going to live, we don't know where we're going to go.
Like, you know, women want to have some security.
And they start getting really stressed, they cause a lot of problems even with their body.
If they're nervous about where they're going to be and where they're going to be able to have this child and making sure everything's comfortable.
You know, that's why it's important.
Sometimes it's important to get the baby room done before all that.
And have everything ready and make them feel as secure as possible.
Women like security.
They like to feel safe.
They don't like uncertainty.
They don't like a guy that doesn't care.
They don't like, you know, basically having to make a lot of decisions.
They like to pick the colors.
Okay.
Let them pick the colors or whatever, right?
And, you know, again, if you have a child, whether at home or at a hospital or any of those kind of things, I'm not saying anything's a sin.
I've heard someone get up and preach having a child in a hospital is a sin.
That's stupid.
Okay.
Also, you know, you can't necessarily affect where you have children.
Sometimes it just happens.
It could be at the grocery store.
Okay.
It's not a sin.
I'm not recommending it either.
So I'll say this.
I'm not saying it's a sin to have a child in a hospital, but I wouldn't personally recommend it.
I personally believe, you know, the home birth is better.
But if you have one, great.
You know, if we had a medical emergency, we'd probably go to a hospital and have a child there.
You know, I have had a child there.
So, you know, it is what it is.
But I personally like the home birth experience because you don't have a lot of these medical professionals causing a lot of issues.
And they'll do stuff without even telling you.
And they have all these, I mean, the medical profession is declining by and large.
And they just look at you as sheep.
They'll come in and just inject you with the wrong medication.
Like, they'll just constantly, you go to hospitals, they'll just come in.
They're like, I don't know who you are.
Let's inject.
I remember with my wife, a person came in and took blood like multiple times within a very short period of time.
And my wife's like, what are you doing?
And they made a mistake.
And they just keep drawing blood from my wife or whatever.
And it's like, that's a dangerous time when a wife is giving birth to just start drawing extra blood.
Because they're already losing lots of blood.
And it's just like, I hate needles personally.
You know, I don't like just getting, I mean, think about it.
Your wife's about to give birth and they're like, well, let's just stick you with this and do this and like put all these extra instruments on you and whatever.
It's like, it's weird.
Like, I don't want to get hooked up to a machine and then like, you know, then have to give birth or whatever.
Now, again, you can do whatever you want, but I just, I strongly recommend against it.
And again, I've done both.
And it's night and day.
The one, and of course, when we had, you know, birth in the hospital, what they're going to put a lot of pressure on you to do is get an epidural.
You say, why?
Because they make money.
They don't care about if you're in pain or not.
Okay, they only care about money.
Because if they cared about you, they would never recommend an epidural.
Because an epidural doesn't give you any medical benefit except for less pain.
But you know what?
It could possibly paralyze you for the rest of your life.
It could cause you all kinds of back pain.
It can cause all kinds of issues during the pregnancy.
Plus, if you can't feel pain, it's harder to give birth.
Why don't they tell you that?
You know, when you have pain, it helps you recognize, oh, I need to push and you can work with your body.
And you can get the experience over with quicker.
Whereas with an epidural, you have no idea.
It's guessing in the dark.
You don't know when the contractions are coming and going.
And it can make it a lot more difficult.
You can exert more energy than necessary because you don't feel pain.
You know, if you don't feel pain, it's dangerous.
Because you could just slam your hand in the car door and not even realize it.
You could put your hand in fire and not realize it and burn your whole hand.
Pain is a good thing.
Why would the doctor then want to take pain away from you?
And I find that even when you do the epidural, it's still super painful all the way up to and afterwards.
Yeah, maybe you're that little bit of time, you have that little bit of relief.
But it's not like you're just going to escape pain.
And my wife has done both.
My wife had an epidural with her first child and then never again.
And she personally despises the epidural.
She doesn't like it. She doesn't think it was better.
She likes the other.
Because the postpartum recovery is way better if you didn't have an epidural.
So it's like picking your pain.
Do you want more pain right now and just get it over with and it'll be quicker?
Or do you want to delay that and then have a lot more traumatic pain afterwards?
And in some cases, that pain is going to be lifetimes of pain.
You know, if you have an epidural, you're more prone to get things like MRODs or hemorrhoids as the, you know, MRODs as the Bible says.
Hemorrhoids and all kinds of things.
You know when hemorrhoids go away? When you die.
And there's all kinds of other issues that can happen.
You know, I personally am strongly against that.
You can do whatever you want.
If you get 10, I'll still love you and pray for you and whatever.
But I wouldn't do it.
You know, C-section is another thing they'll put a lot of pressure on you.
They'll also put pressure on you just to deliver whenever they feel like the time is right.
As opposed to when it's natural.
They'll just say, oh, it looks like elevated heartbeat so we're just going to, we prescribed you Pitocin.
We're going to kick these things along.
Let's get it going.
But it's like, I've never met a woman who's 90 weeks pregnant.
Have you ever noticed that?
Oh, also, let me ask this question.
Where in the Bible does it say 40 weeks?
It doesn't, does it?
That is just a, that's just a random thing that's thrown out there.
Where, there's nothing in the Bible that says 9 months exactly.
And calculating that is literally impossible.
It's all a guess anyways.
So then why does the doctor get to decide, like, well, I just think it's time.
It's like, that's, I think that's against all conventional wisdom.
It doesn't make a lot of sense.
And of course, it causes other problems for a woman.
Whereas, you know, when you're not necessarily going that route, you can try to do it more naturally.
And of course, everything natural is always better.
But they'll put all this pressure on you.
They'll put the stress.
It's your child.
You care so much.
And sometimes they'll try to convince you to do weird things.
You know, getting a C-section when it's not medically necessary.
A lot of women have C-sections that are not medically necessary.
And of course, it could get to a point where it was medically necessary.
And I'm not saying that you're bad for doing it.
But what they won't tell you is after you have one C-section, usually you can't go back.
Almost all future pregnancies then, it's typically recommended to have that again.
Because you've cut yourself.
And you're putting stress on that body so it could always implode again.
It could tear in that part.
It makes it more difficult.
A lot of doctors will, you know, not even want to work with you.
If you've had a C-section, you want to try and have a natural birth afterwards.
But again, they don't tell this.
And a lot of young women, they just go in.
They're just a cart.
They're just sheep for the slaughter.
You know, let's get you an epidural.
There's another 10, you know, 1,500 bucks in my pocket.
Let's get you the C-section.
You know, a doctor, I don't know what the numbers are anymore.
Because inflation changes every second.
But when I was going to have our first child, so this was a long time ago, eight years ago.
It was like $4,000 for a natural birth.
And it's like $15,000 for a C-section.
And it's like I wonder why they might push the $15,000 procedure.
And let me tell you this.
Natural births are going to take more time and resources away from the hospital than the C-section.
Because the C-section, they can just get it over with like that.
So, I wonder if there's any motivation for the doctor or the hospital to recommend you get a more expensive procedure that's quicker than to get a natural one that's slower and going to take more of their time, more of their resources, and they don't profit from it as much.
And, you know, the love of money is the root of all evil folks.
I'm just telling you some of these things because, frankly speaking, you know, I was never told any of it.
I had my first kid and, you know, I didn't get any information.
I wish I had learned a lot more.
I wish I had never allowed my wife to get an epidural.
I wish we had never gone to the hospital.
I wish that, you know, a lot of things.
I'm glad that she never got a C-section.
But, you know, it is what it is.
You know, there's plenty of women that have had C-sections and still have lots of kids.
And, you know, I pray that they'll have as many kids as they want.
But, you know, look what the Bible does say about this pain.
Look at John chapter 16, verse 21.
A woman, when she is in travail, hath sorrow, because her hour is come.
But as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born in the world.
You know, yeah, it's terrible to go through.
It's a hard experience.
But, you know, afterwards, it's bliss at that point.
And, you know, when you do it naturally, it's often you kind of get to forget about all the pain.
Afterwards. And you get to heal.
Whereas when you do these other medical things, you have a lot of pain that comes after the procedure.
The C-section, a lot of pain after the procedure.
Epidural, a lot of extra pain after the procedure.
You know, when you start doing these weird things, then you have, you're delaying the pain cycle.
Whereas the Bible is teaching, hey, your worst pain is behind you as soon as you deliver the child naturally.
And, of course, that's generally true.
Of course, there's always unique situations.
And I'm not preaching about unique situations.
Even I'm preaching about the most common situations that can happen.
But I'll tell you this.
You know, God's way, the natural way, is always the right method.
You know, we need to learn that in just every area of our life.
I say, you know, I get mad because I heard Fundamental Baptist saying,
you can't talk about people having as many children as God will bless them because that's getting into the bedroom.
And I'm like, well, how do you apply the verse that says be fruitful and multiply them?
I can't even, like, just say have kids.
Like, you're a pervert if you think that.
If you think that I'm being a pervert, you're probably the pervert.
Okay.
You should have plenty of kids.
I heard this. I heard someone say, well, you shouldn't just have kids in your scrimmage.
What if you're going to divorce?
And I'm like, divorce isn't even on the table.
Number one.
But let's think about this practically for a moment.
If you tell someone, don't use any birth control.
But ask your wife when it's okay to have kids.
And you're on the brink of divorce.
How is that going to help anything?
Because, you know, 1 Corinthians 7 makes it clear that you're not supposed to defraud one another.
So then you're basically just putting people in this weird scenario.
It's like, well, what do we do then?
And it's like, there's no good option with that.
It's confusing.
And you're basically just begging people to have terrible situations.
I mean, do you really think that if a couple is on the brink of divorce,
them not knowing each other regularly is going to help that?
That's the worst thing you could do.
If you want to take a couple that's about the divorce,
what's the absolute worst advice you could give them?
It's to not follow 1 Corinthians 7.
It's advice.
That would be the worst thing that you could do for them.
And why would you even want to put that on the table?
I mean, can you imagine the conversation?
It's like, well, I was thinking about divorce, but we should definitely not have kids right now.
Wow.
Tell me how you really feel about me.
You know, that's insane.
You know, divorce, as a fundamental Baptist preacher,
you should get up and just say divorce is never an option ever.
You're wicked for even thinking about it.
Repent of your thoughts.
No divorce ever.
It's wicked.
It's evil. It destroys everyone.
Have as many kids as you can because divorce isn't even on the table, folks.
And, you know, you only have a short window to have the children.
You can't go back.
You know, me and my wife didn't have kids when we first got married.
And, you know what, I wish I could have gone back and said let's have more.
I'm not sitting here saying, like, well, that was a good idea.
You know, at most people, 99% of people are going to always tell you I wish I had more, not less.
And I personally have never even met that 1%.
You know, obviously somebody said, well, what if someone has medical issues?
Well, you know, I can't go through every hypothetical with you.
But, you know what, I have certain non-negotiables.
And number one non-negotiable is I'm never going to use birth control ever.
And if you made that mistake, you know, just don't do it again, right?
And 1 Corinthians 7 is a non-negotiable for me.
You know, it's also a non-negotiable for me, a vasectomy.
I've literally had family members tell me I'm selfish for not getting a vasectomy.
I have people look at me and they say, hey, you know what causes that, right?
And I'm like, yeah, it's great.
Any other questions?
It's like, well, you know, you got a lot of kids there.
Yeah, I got a bigger van.
It fits 12. Bring it on.
You know, I'm not selfish.
You know what, you're a woman if you're going to get a vasectomy.
Now, if you've already done that and you can't reverse it, then it is what it is.
You know what, I have personal family members that have done it.
Stupid. It is stupid.
It is a dumb decision.
And this is what I always hear from people that do that.
It's like, that was a dumb decision. I wish I hadn't done it.
And you say, that was mean.
Well, I don't want anybody to ever do that to themselves.
And look, I know tons of people that have done it.
And you know why they do it?
So they can commit adultery. That's why they do it.
Now, I'm not saying that every person that's ever done that is like that,
but pretty much every person I know that's ever done that, that's why.
It's wicked.
What guy would willingly allow people to operate on that part of their body?
It's only because they want to be able to commit adultery and not get caught.
With really bad, you know, with bastard children or something like that.
It's a wicked invention.
And I remember someone telling me, well, by you not getting a vasectomy,
you're forcing your wife to have her tubes tied.
No.
And they're like, well, then what are you going to do?
Have children.
It's not like it's an either or.
It's not like I'm forced into birth control.
And they're like, you're just so selfish because that's so much harder on her to get that procedure.
And I said, she's not getting the procedure.
Well, then you've got to do it.
No.
I'm not having that either.
It's all off the table.
And you say, well, how many kids are you going to have?
God's going to decide that for me.
But it's not 2000.
OK.
Maybe spiritually.
OK.
Praise God.
It is not physically.
But at the end of the day, you know, you have to decide I'm going to just follow God's commandments and allow him to decide for me what's the right moves and what's the right scenario.
And again, I've had a lot of people over the few years that I've passed.
It's only been about four years.
But I've had several people come to me and they always regret birth control, vasectomies, C-sections, all this stuff.
You know what?
I've never had anybody come up to me.
They say, I regret this child.
And you know, that's true.
People don't regret the children they have, but they regret all the decisions they made that stop them from having children.
And, you know, as men, we need to help our wives.
It's a difficult process.
They go through a lot of trauma, but we need to be there.
We need to help them during the postpartum.
We need to be sweet.
You know, whenever my wife gives birth, I have a tradition.
I always make her a steak dinner the day she gives birth.
So I make I cook her like a ribeye with baked potato.
In fact, she's just so excited to give birth for the meal.
I'm not even joking.
OK.
Because I cook a good steak.
All right.
And, you know, I help with all the other cooking and, you know, a lot of different things that are going on.
In fact, that's often why she doesn't want you guys to give meals is because I'm making the meals.
She's like, I want what he's making.
You know, learn how to cook.
You know, get a brisket maker.
Amen out there.
Learn how to make some brisket or some, you know, whatever.
Don't be helpless around the house.
You know, you can help.
You can do some dishes.
You can do whatever.
And again, I want to make it easy on my wife to have children so that we can just it won't even be a problem.
We just keep having them and God will keep blessing us.
I don't want to, you know, obviously having a lot of children's heart on her.
So I don't want to just make as hard as possible and be like, wake me up after the kids, you know, here and then make me a sandwich.
It's like that's bad postpartum.
You know, you should be willing to help out a little bit.
Right.
And carry some of the burden, carry some of the weight.
And just tell all the pediatricians to just go to hell.
All right, let's go.
Thank you, Heavenly Father, for giving us some some sound wisdom and some some principal wisdom here.
I pray that you would just help God's people to be able to follow your commandments and to follow your wisdom.
If I've said anything amiss, I pray that people would just follow your instruction, that you would help them in their situation.
I pray that you would just bless all of our families with children.
That you would bless the pregnant women.
That you would help us to avoid bad advice, unwise counselors.
That you would help us to take faith in the scriptures.
And that we would look to what you've already given us.
That you've already given us such a wonderful creation and our natural bodies are just such a wonderful machine.
I pray that we would just follow the instincts that you've given us.
You would help us to follow the wisdom that the scriptures give us.
That bad preaching and bad advice and bad counsel and bad decisions in the past wouldn't prevent us from continuing to follow your instruction.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.
All right, for the final song, song number 173, song number 173, Love Lifted Me.
Song number 173, Love Lifted Me.
Love lifted me, love lifted me, when nothing else could help.
When nothing else could help, love lifted me, love lifted me, love lifted me, when nothing else could help.
Love lifted me.
All my heart to Him I give, ever to Him I'll cling.
In His blessed presence live ever His praises sing.
Love so mighty and so true marries my soul's best songs.
Faithful loving service to Him belongs.
Love lifted me, love lifted me, when nothing else could help.
Love lifted me, love lifted me, love lifted me, when nothing else could help.
Love lifted me.
Souls in danger look above, Jesus completely saves.
He will lift you by His love out of the angry waves.
He's the master of the sea, Bilosis will obey.
He your Savior wants to be, be saved today.
Love lifted me, love lifted me, when nothing else could help.
Love lifted me, love lifted me, love lifted me, when nothing else could help.
God bless you, Artie Smith, y'all have a good evening.