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So the title of the sermon this morning is quantity and quality. Quantity and quality. Often you hear people saying it's either quantity or quality. What I want to talk to you about tonight or this morning is quantity and quality, specifically in the realm of children, of having children. Not only having children, but also what kind of children. The Bible teaches us that not only should we have a quantity of children, but that we should also have quality children. Now, if you look there in 1 Chronicles, you say, why are you going to 1 Chronicles to teach this? Well, look at 1 Chronicles 26, verse 1. It said, concerning the divisions of the porters of the Korahites, Melishemiah, the son of Korah, the son of Asaph, and the sons of Melishemiah, were Zechariah the firstborn, Jeddah the second, Zebediah the third, Japhneel the fourth, Elam the fifth, Jehonan the sixth, Elionai the seventh, moreover, the sons of Obed-Edom were Shemaiah the firstborn, Jehozabat the second, Joah the third, and Sakhar the fourth, and Nethaneel the fifth, Amaiah the sixth, Issachar the seventh, and Paluthai the eighth, for God blessed him. Now, if you notice the first guy there, he ended up having seven sons. But it says there of Obed-Edom, it says that at the end of verse 5, he says, Peluthuai... I didn't name these guys, right? ... guy, the eighth, okay? And he was the eighth. God blessed him, okay? Now, why does it say that God blessed him? Why did God, why does it say that of Obed-Edom, that he blessed him? Well, is it because maybe he was older on in years, maybe he started late? I don't think that's it. I think God's just pointing out the fact that, hey, this guy had seven, that's a blessing, but then Obed-Edom, he had an eighth because God blessed him. He was able to have even another child. Notice that when God is adding to the children, what's going, this kid, the first, and this kid, the second, and this kid, the fourth, and this kid, the fifth, and this kid, the sixth. And some people are going, is this really a blessing? This kid, the seventh, and then this kid, the eighth, and it says that God blessed him. That every one of those kids was a blessing, and a blessing, and a blessing, and a blessing. So it says there, you know, Meshelemai had seven sons, and Obed-Edom had eight, for God blessed him. So the Bible teaches us here that having more children, not less, is a blessing. And of course, that's completely contrary to what the world would teach you today. The world, their philosophy would say, hey, it's more of a blessing to not have kids, to have fewer children, okay? But the Bible's really clear here, all throughout scripture, and we're gonna look at several places, keep up something in 1 Chronicles 26. But go over to Joshua 24, Joshua 24. Joshua 24. Now, the Bible teaches very clearly that having an abundance of children is a blessing. You know, and of course, I wanted to start out by saying this. You know, who desires many children, but only has a few? You know, be it through, you know, whatever your circumstances are, or maybe there's some kind of, God just hasn't given those children. You know, that doesn't make you less blessed, right? That doesn't mean you're a lesser parent, or that you're not as good as Christian as somebody else who has a multitude of kids. You know, God has his reasons of why he only allows people to have so many kids, and why he allows a multitude of kids. We talked about this morning, or preached, is that, you know, having a multitude of kids is a blessing and not a curse. So I'm not saying that, you know, if you, for some reason, like force, you know, making a point to not have kids when you could, you know, then that is wicked. You know, we'll talk about that, and it's leading to huge problems in the world, in the very near future, in fact. But let me just start out by saying that even if you only have a few children, that's still a blessing. And, you know, God has used people in the past mightily that only had a few kids. Look at Joshua 24, verse 1, it says, And Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem, and called for the elders of Israel, and for their heads, and for their judges, and for their officers. And they presented themselves before God, and Joshua said unto all the people, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time, even of Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nachor, and they served others, Abraham from the other side of the flood, and led him through all the land of Canaan, and multiplied his seed, and gave him Isaac. Okay, so, you know, our spiritual forefather, Abraham, how many children did he have? I mean, of the promise. We know that he had, you know, he had the Hagar, gave him, you know, Ishmael, and that's a whole other story. So technically he had two, but God recognizes the one. He had one son in his old age. Are you going to tell me Abraham was less of a Christian just because he only had one child? No way. He was a great man of faith. And it says, and it goes on beyond that, it says in verse 4, And I gave unto Isaac, Jacob, and Esau. So even his son only had two more sons. He didn't have the eight, but that doesn't make him any less blessed. Right. And he says, I gave unto Esau, and I was here, and so on and so forth. Go over to Genesis chapter 24, Genesis chapter 24. So don't get me wrong, there's something to say that having children is a blessing. And it is. Really what I'm trying to preach against is this philosophy of not having children. Right. But what I don't want people to get an idea and walk out of here feeling bad because they only have so, they don't have, they don't have, you know, what was his name? I'm going to get it right. Piluthai. Piluthai the eighth. I'm not a good Christian. Well, you know what? Maybe you had Isaac. Or maybe you had Jacob and Esau. Maybe you had one, maybe you had two. You know, so that's where the quality comes in. Right. It's not just all about quantity. Because some people think it's like, well, let me just have a bunch of kids, and that's good enough. No. I mean, you could raise, you could raise a, you know, a whole litter of, you know, rats. You know, that's not a good thing. You know, you want to, you want to raise not only the quality, not only the quantity, but you want to raise quality as well. Well, look. The Bible says in Psalms 127, I'll just read you, it's a very familiar passage. Lo, children are in heritage of the Lord, and the fruit of the womb is his reward. The Bible says having children is God's reward. It's not a curse. It's not a, you know, of course it's a burden in the sense that there's responsibilities that come along with it. But it's not this thing to be avoided in life. It's something that should be embraced. It should be something that's looked forward to. It's something that should bring us joy and pleasure. It's something that we should, when we have the womb, we should say to the child, thank you, Lord, for this reward. That's what the Bible calls children. They're not just, you know, a taxable reward from God. Now, the tax write-off is a little bit of a reward. I will say that. And it says, as arrows are in the hand of a mighty man, so are the children of the youth. Happy is the man to have his quiver full of them. He says the guy that's happy is the guy that has, you know, p-u-tha-i. I'm going to say it, p-u-tha-i. I can't say it. The ape. That's a happy guy. Obed-in was blessed. He was a happy guy. Why? Because he had the ape. You know, these are just his sons. He might have had, you know, daughters as well. But look there in Genesis chapter 24, verse 58. And it says, and this is, of course, when, you know, Abraham sent his servant back into his kindred, or Jacob rather, excuse me, or Isaac. I'm getting all mixed up. But he sends him back to get a child for his son, for Isaac, yeah. Go get a son for his son Isaac, or a daughter of his son Isaac. And he goes to his home land and he says in verse 58, and they called Rebekah and said unto her, Wilt thou go with this man? I will go. And they sent away Rebekah their sister and her nurse and Abraham's servant and his men. And they blessed Rebekah and said unto him, Thou art our sister, be thou the mother of thousands of millions. And let thy seed possess the gates of those which hate them. Is that the blessing that the world is telling women today? Is that the message that people are hearing from their relatives and the universities and even in churches? I mean, I've been in a Baptist church that said don't have more kids than you can afford. Well, I wouldn't have had any because I couldn't afford the first one. You know, that's a bad philosophy. That's not the philosophy that we see here, though. They said, hey, be thou the mother of thousands of millions. Of course, they're referring to, you know, the generations to come. That's quite fantastic. That just reminds me, I had a great-great-grandparent, I don't know how far back, one man, one woman, 21 kids, 21 kids. Two of them died real young, you know, but they had 21 kids. Of course, they were farmers in southern Michigan or something like that. So, you know, you got to have the spare kids around, you know, keep the farm running, right? But hey, that was, you know, no one back then would have been like, well, what are you doing? Don't you know what a TV is for? They didn't have TV, okay? Don't you know what the fireplace is for? You know, don't you know what the stars are for? Just go stare at something, you know? They make some dumb comment. Don't you know what causes that? All these stupid things that you hear people say. That was the mentality back then. That was the mentality back in Genesis 24. They're saying, hey, be thou the mother of thousands. They didn't tell her, now, when you get back there, spend two to five years just getting to know each other. You know, just make sure you're compatible. Keep working on your career. Keep things don't work out. Is that what they told her? No, they're saying, go be a mother. Go have lots of kids. That was their philosophy. They didn't tell her. And see what it's like. Get a feel for had your children. See what it's like. Anyone who's done that, anyone who's gotten a dog, a couple, and said, let's get a dog to see what it's like to have a kid and then had a kid, knows that they're completely different. They're miles apart. I mean, is that how you feed your kids? Put a bowl on the floor? There you go. Want some? Get some Rice Krispies or whatever. Do you put a diaper on your dog? I mean, some people probably do. Right? But it's miles apart, people. And that's not what they're telling you. This is the philosophy that's out there. And I always like to pick on it because I've known people personally who've developed this mentality. Like, well, we're just going to have a dog. Maybe have kids. And I had kids at that time. I'm just thinking, you're in such a world of shock. You're just going to be so surprised when you find out that dogs and children are not alike. I mean, they drool a lot. I'll give them that. Maybe the slobber is kind of a thing that's there. But that's it. So what are they telling you in Genesis 24? They're saying, look, don't have this worldly attitude. Don't have this attitude that having a lot of kids is just this big drag. Like, oh, oh, the Bible wants me to have kids. Look, I understand there's the difficulty and everything that goes with it. But the Bible says it's a reward. And our attitude ought to be the attitude of these people. Hey, let's have an abundance of children. I have a real hard time believing that I'm going to get to the end of my life. I wish I would have watched more TV. Or done whatever. Or had more money to spend on myself rather than children. That's not going to happen. If any of them get to the end of my life and say, you know, I would have loved to have at least one more. Maybe two more. Just get another child in the wrestle. Genesis chapter 33. Genesis chapter 33. I want to take the time to read these verses because we need to get this in our head. I mean, I'm sure there's people in the room that have got this figured out that they're not struggling with this. What about all the kids today? What about all the young people that are going to grow up and get married and have children one day? What's your philosophy going to be? Is it going to be what the world teaches? You know, just have a couple kids. Just get to know each other for a while. Use birth control. Keep it working. Keep the wife out. Don't have more kids you can afford. Or you're going to have the philosophy that the Bible teaches. You're going to have the attitude that the Bible teaches. That having children is a blessing. It's a reward. The more you have, the more of a blessing that it is. Look at Genesis chapter 33 verse 4. It says, and Esau ran to meet him. Of course, this is when Jacob's coming back. Esau ran to meet him and embraced him and fell on his neck and kissed him and they wept. He lifted up his eyes and saw the women and children and said, poor thing, man. Look at all those kids you got, man. What are you doing? How do you do it? You must be pulling your hair out, Jacob. Man, I was mad at you when you left and looks like God punished you for stealing my birthright for all those kids. He said, no. And he said, who are those with thee? Oh, that's the old ball and chain. I guess in his case, balls and chains, right? If you had multiple, right? Which is not condoned in scripture. That's another sermon. Go listen to my sermon on polygamy, okay? He said, oh, you know, it's just they got to put up with them. He said, no. He said, the children which God hath graciously given thy servant. I mean, he looked at his kids and said, man, God's been good to me. He's been gracious to me. You know, he's pleased with me. He's blessed me. He's a reward. Go over to Genesis chapter 48. Genesis chapter 48. I'll read to you from Deuteronomy 7. Word for it shall come to pass, if you shall hearken to these judgments, and keep and do them that the Lord thy God hath given thee, which he sware unto thy fathers. And he will love thee, and he will bless thee, and it says, and multiply thee. And he will also bless the fruit of thy womb. Look, one of the promises that we're given in the word of God is that if we keep his commandments and obey him, that he's going to bless us, and one of those blessings is the fruit of the womb. That's a blessing from God. Jacob said unto Joseph, God Almighty appeared unto me and was in the land of Canaan, and blessed me, and said unto me, behold, I will make thee fruitful and multiply me. So we're just seeing over and over again. We can go to many other passages where the blessing of God is associated with multiplying and having, you know, being fruitful and having children. Now, the world, that's not their philosophy. That's not their attitude. You know, they perceive or a curse or inconvenience or something that's just to be endured or limited, you know, and they believe this to the point of murder. Literally. Like literally killing children in the womb. I mean, all children obviously are vulnerable, but none more so than the unborn. They're the most vulnerable. And you know, the world has gotten this philosophy that children are such a curse to be avoided that they're even willing to slay them in the womb. And yes, it's murder. It is murder. And you say, well, what do you mean? It's just a protoplasm. You know, unless you're some ruckmanite who doesn't believe. Well, it's not really a child till it breathes its first breath. Cuckoo. It's wicked. It is wicked. You know, the Bible says, therefore, the Lord shall give you a sign to hold a virgin shall conceive. That's an Isaiah. Right. And it says in Matthew one, when it quotes that verse, behold, a virgin shall be with child, the son. So being conceiving is considered being with child. And when it's conception, it's when the seed meets the egg. That is conception. And the Bible calls that a child. Right. It's a child. Well, you know, it's not a child. Well, what else is it going to be? Right. It's not going to be anything else. If it's allowed to grow and to become what it's supposed to be, it's going to be a child. And the world today, they look at that and they say, well, that's a curse. They look at the fruit of the womb and say, they say, sees the light of day. And that's the, that's where the world's philosophy has led. And let me just say, go to second Kings chapter 17, second Kings chapter 17, because there's nothing new under the sun. What has been, you know, what it has been before, you know, people approve of killing children and you say, Oh, there's, you know, it's, it's a woman's body. It's her choice. That's a wicked philosophy. That's a wicked mentality. It's ungodly and it's unbiblical. And people that are going to vote for that, people are going to put that, you know, make that the law of the land. And by the way, you know, I looked into it. The majority of Americans agree with it. The majority of Americans think that abortion is fine. In most cases, they think it should be kept legal. And it's been that way since 1995. I looked at the Pew Research Center on it, the statistics and the vast, you know, I wouldn't say the vast majority, but 60% and above Americans are okay with abortion being legal. That's the country we live in. This wicked blood-soaked land that we live in. That's just shedding innocent blood in the thousands daily. And that's why this country is a godless, wicked country. Look at 2 Kings chapter 17 verse 9. Because only godless, wicked people would approve of murdering children. The Bible says in verse 9, 2 Kings 17, And the children of Israel did secretly those things that were not right against the Lord their God. And they built them high places in all their cities, from the tower of the watchman to the fenced city. And they set them up images and groves in every high hill and under every green tree. And there they burnt incense in all the high places that they did to the heathen whom the Lord carried away before them, and wrought wicked things to provoke the Lord to anger. For they served idols, whereof the Lord had said unto them, He shall not do this thing. And yet the Lord testified against Israel and by all the prophets and by all the seers saying, Turn ye from your evil ways and keep my commandments and my statutes according to all the law that I command of your fathers, and which I have sent to you by my servants the prophets. So it's not that they were ignorant of what God wanted. And it's not like there aren't people crying, you know, marching up and down the streets, there aren't people getting up behind pulpits, and even even unsaved churches are crying out saying abortion is wrong, it's wicked, it's murder. And just like then, just like it is today, back then they had prophets and seers standing up and saying, turn you from your evil ways, stop what you're doing. But you know, just like back then it is today, verse 14, notwithstanding, they would not hear, but harden their necks, like to the necks of their fathers, they did not believe the Lord thy God. And they rejected his statutes and his covenants that they made with their fathers, and his testimonies which he testified against. They followed vanity, and went after the heathen of a round of altars discerning the Lord on whom the Lord had urged them, that they should not do like them. And they left all the commandments of the Lord their God, and made them molten images, even two calves, and made a grove, and worked at all the hosts of heaven, and served Baal. And then what do they do next? Verse 17, and they caused their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire, literally burning their children, this false god. They say, well that's really bad, but you know what, people are sacrificing their children on the altar of vanity and selfishness even today, in the form of abortion. I can't be inconvenienced with this child. You know what, don't be a fornicator. Don't go out there and get knocked up. And if it happens, don't be this selfish person who's just going to go ahead and have an abortion. Because it's murder. That is a child that's in there. And look, if that's something that people have done, you know, when one in four women or whatever it is, some staggering statistic, have had an abortion, you know, confess it, forsake it. You know, I'm not mad at you, but here's the thing. There's other people in this room that need to hear this. They need to be warned. And we need to not allow ourselves to get brainwashed by the world in thinking that this is okay. Because the Bible thinks that wicked people would do this. You know, that's the world's philosophy, so that's what we see today. We've got God's take on it, on having children, right? God says, have them. Have as many as I give you. As many as I give you. As many as I give you. Every single one of them is a reward. Then have children. That's what he wants. Then you see the world's philosophy, which is they're just a burden, they're just an inconvenience. You know, we'll have them when it's convenient for us. Okay? And that's wicked. Now, this philosophy of the world is actually, I ran across the article the other day, and this is really what inspired the sermon. It's leading to a massive decline in population growth worldwide. The world right now, there's experts coming out saying, we are headed for a huge decline in global population growth over the next, like, 60 years. By the turn of the century, it's going to be a different world. This is from, and by the way, this isn't, you know, LifeSite News or whatever some pro-Christian art. This is from an organization who paid, if people were to visit a few years ago. We were what we were, you know, and we're not ashamed of that. But anyway, the point being, this is from the BBC as of July 7th, 15th of this year. It says, the title is, Fertility Rate Jaw-Dropping Global Crash in Children Being Born. Jaw-dropping, is what they called it, global crash. You want to talk about, you know, the world economies crashing? Well, you know what? There's another crash going on right now that's in children being born. It says, failing fertility rates mean nearly every country could have shrinking populations by the end of the century. And 23 nations, including Spain and Japan, are expected to see their effects half by 2000. Imagine living in a country where in less than half, half the people in our lives are going to be gone. They're not going to be replaced by new births. Countries will also, excuse me, countries will also age dramatically with as many people turning 80 as they are being born. You've got to kind of think about what they're saying there. For the sake of time, we're going to move along. The fertility rate, the average number of children a woman gives birth to, is falling. If the number falls below 2.1, the size of the population starts to fall. In 1950, women were having an average of 4.7 children in their lifetime. 4.7 in 1950, today it's less than 2.1. Or it's right around 2.1, which means you're not even breaking even anymore. In most countries, and when I say most countries, I don't know if it's in here, but it's like literally the vast, except for like Nigeria, the vast majority of countries, and they say it's because Nigeria just doesn't know any better. It's because of their poor, you know, because they haven't been educated, because they're not prophylactics or something. But it says here, researchers at the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation showed the global fertility rate nearly halved to 2.4 in 2017. And their study projects it will fall below 1.7 by 2100. So they're saying, look, 2.1 is the threshold. If it goes below that, you're going to start losing people. And they're saying, look, we're projecting it's going to be at 1.7 by the turn of the century. As a result, the researchers expect the number of people on the planet to peak at 9.7 billion. I think we're just over seven right now. So at 9.7 billion people at 2064, so in what, 24 years from now, we'll be at 9.7 billion, that'll be the peak, before falling down to 8.8 billion by the turn of the century. So just boom, just like that. That's a pretty big thing. Most of the world is transitioning into natural population decline, Chief Researcher Professor Christopher Murray told the BBC. Now, first of all, Professor, it's not because of natural decline. Because there's nothing natural about using... There's nothing natural about pumping yourself full of chemicals to prevent yourself from having children. That's not a natural decline, that's a chemically induced decline in population growth. But he's a professor, so we'll just give him credit for that. He said, I think it's incredibly hard to think this through and recognize how big a thing it is. I think it's incredibly hard to think this through and recognize how big a thing this is. It's extraordinary. People have to reorganize societies. Look, if this happens, like they're projecting, it's going to change the way society even functions. Why are fertility rates falling? Well, I can tell you. It has nothing to do with the usual things that come to mind when discussing fertility, like physical problems. Instead, and they even admit this, so at least they have the honesty to admit what the problem is. Instead, it is being driven by more women in education and work, as well as a greater access to contraception. Does that sound natural? No, there's nothing natural about that. Whatever. Leaning to women, choosing to have a future. So at least they're admitting, hey, the problem here is that women have developed a philosophy in the world today that it's more important for them to go out and work than to do what God said, which is to be fruitful and multiply, to replenish fear, and to be keepers at home. This will be a truly global issue with 183 out of 195 countries having a fertility rate below the replacement level. You're going to say it's 83 out of 195 countries are projected to not even be able to replace the population that's dying off. And why is it that it's more important to be able to go out and earn a living rather than just have to rely on some man to bring home the bacon? The world's teaching, hey, be your own woman. Go out there and don't let anybody, don't be some man's doormat. And if you're just going to be a homemaker, then you haven't accomplished anything in life. That's what they teach today. And you know what? That's completely backwards. That's completely backwards. So who can find a virtuous woman? Her price is far above rubies. You know, when you find a virtuous woman who's willing to do that job, you roll a wife and mother, you've found something that is invaluable. And you can really start to see the value today when you have, you know, 183 out of 190 something countries that can't even replace the population. I mean, this philosophy stinks. It's garbage. Why is this a problem? Well, because if you don't replace people, eventually everyone dies off. You might think this is great for the environment. Yeah, that's my big concern. I'm just like, well, at least the environment's good. At least there'll be plenty of trees and fresh water. At least there'll be plenty of animals, you know, to roam the earth. You might think this is great for the environment. A smaller population would reduce carbon emissions as well as the deforestation of farmland. You know, that plays into it right there, too. That's why these populations are declining, because people have this mentality. They're more worried about the tree. They're more worried about their effect on the environment. You know, last I checked, you know, things like air and trees and water for sustainable, like, you know, the water, it evaporates, it comes down again. It's this cycle. It's not like there's a limited supply. Anyway, the study projects, excuse me, he said, this would be true except for the inverted age structure, more old people than young people, and all the uniformly negative consequences of an inverted age structure. So what happens is when you have less people being born as are growing into their 80s, there's less people there to take care of them in their old age. You know, through the social programs and so on and so forth, the infrastructure, the homes, everything goes along with being an old person, being an elderly person. You know, society isn't able to keep up with that. The study projects the number of under-fives will fall from 681 million in 2017 to 401 million. So, you know, almost 200 million less five-year-olds by 2100. The number of over 80-year-olds will soar in 2017. So 141 million 80-year-olds in 2017, they're projecting it will soar to 866 million in 2100. Meanwhile, all the kids that are five and under, they're just, you know, it's dropping off. Professor Murray adds, it will create enormous social change. It makes me worried because I have an eight-year-old daughter and I wonder what the world will be like. Well, it will be clean and fresh. It will have lots of, you know, great benefits. Don't worry, professor. It will be your liberal utopia that you've been wanting. There will be plenty of women out there just working away, busily. There might even be a female president. Maybe your daughter, you know, maybe your daughter here can grow up and be a senator or a lawyer or a doctor, something really important besides a mother. I wonder what kind of world it will be like. Well, as long as she's independent, as long as she's free to do whatever she wants, as long as she has the right to, you know, put your children in the womb, what do you care, professor? Who pays tax in a massively aged world? Who pays for health care for the elderly? Who looks after the elderly? Will people still be able to retire from work? We need a soft landing, argues Professor Murray. Are there any solutions? This is the end of the article. Yeah. There's a solution, all right. It's called having babies. It's called, Mom, get back in the home and start having some kids. Start having some kids. God gives the children, and yes, it's God-given. That's what God created men and women to do, to have children. That's your solution, plain and simple. Case over. Let's put the, you know, we can close the Bible and go home. I just solved the world's problem this morning by just listening to the Bible. Be fruitful and multiply. You think that's what they're about to say? This stupid article? Well, it just can't be anything but what the Bible says. Countries, including the UK, the bastion of everything good and holy, have used, um, used their population and compensate for fun. How are we going to fix this? Let's get more immigrants in here. And they're just bringing in the Muslim hordes that are just overrun. And by the way, the Muslims, at least they got it figured out. They're outpacing the Christians today because at least they figured out, hey, if we have more kids, you know, we're having a hard time converting people to this crazy religion, let's just breed them into it. However, this stops being the answer once nearly every country's population is shrinking. Remember where migrants come from? Other countries. So there's no migrants in that country. You know, you can't, you can't rely on that. So what are we going to do? Oh, I don't know. What could we possibly think of? They'll probably turn to cloning before anything, which will never happen. Some countries have tried policies such as enhanced maternity and paternity leave, free childcare, financial incentives, incentives and extra employment rights. But there is no clear answer. OK. Sweden has dragged its fertility rate up from one point seven to one point nine, which means they're still not replacing themselves. But other countries have significant effort into tackling the baby bust, they call it, have struggled. Singapore and whatever. OK, let's just move on. Professor Murray says, I find people laugh it off. They can't imagine it could be true. They think women will just decide to have more kids. That's what he said. He's like, tell people about this. And they and they just laugh it off. They can't imagine this is true. Well, it's just math. That's all it is. It's just numbers. Just simple math that if you have more people dying, you have being. Even these even these professionals, these these statisticians and things, they see it coming. You know, they see the fruit of the world's philosophy on the horizon and scaring them. But then they laugh, they think and they think, well, women will just decide to have more. You know what? I hope that's the case. I hope women do decide that. And I hope they get to know the joy and the pleasure and the reward and all the blessing of being a mother. That it's not just, you know, this this, you know, this prison to just be endured. It's not just this, you know, terrible thing that they have to put up with having kids. It's actually a blessing. I hope more women figure that out and start having kids so that the human population is, you know, disappear from the face of the earth. Now, I think it's probably not. You know what? Because people probably are going to think, you know, fads like this philosophies, they just they do this throughout human history. 1950s, they were having kids, right? They are 4.7 kids is the average. Now it's dropped down. Pretty soon the world, you know, they're going to go, well, we didn't have more kids, so they'll start pushing having more kids. But hopefully Jesus comes before all that anyway. He says, if you can't find if you can't find a solution, that eventually the species disappears. But that's a few centuries away. Oh, it's only a few hundred years. It's only a few hundreds away from thousands of years of human history. Just, you know, disappearing from the face of the earth. That's just a few hundred years away. So we've got time. We've got time to sit around in our ivory tower. How we're going to solve this incredibly complex problem that faces humanity. Is it really that difficult to figure out how to fix this problem? Get married, have babies. Problem solved. Stop pushing a godless, wicked philosophy on people. Stop brainwashing people into not having children. And the problem's done. You won't have to rely on immigrants either. You can have your own, you know, home born population in your own country. The researchers, because you think you think that's now obvious. Do they not understand? Of course they understand. That's that's the obvious answer to the problem. But there they have this wicked philosophy. And that's why this article closes by this by saying this. The researchers warn against undergoing the progress of women's education and access to contraception. So we would love to fix the problem. We all know what the natural solution is. But we certainly wouldn't want to undermine women's education and access to contraception. Let me let me give you a you know, here's here's the thing. The women who have children and homeschool, you know, even women that don't homeschool just because you have kids. That doesn't make you stupid. Right. It doesn't make you a dunce. Some of the smartest people I know are wives and mothers. Some of the most intelligent people that are smarter than me, which isn't saying much. But are smarter than me are wives and mothers. You know, and that's that is what. Mom or any mom or whatever, it's just some dunce for having kids. But she's too stupid to figure out that, you know, that she didn't have to have those kids that could have had a career instead. Who's the dumb one again? Who's stupid? You know, I know plenty of families that aren't worried about, you know, their bloodline ending. Right. Well, they just can't. They just they just don't want to undermine these women's rights that they've worked so hard for. That would just be a travesty. I mean, if the human population is going to get wiped off the face of the earth, at least let's go out with women's liberation. At least, you know, if the last thing we ever do as a species is to have a woman voter, then we've succeeded. Right. That's their philosophy. Professor Stein Emil Bocet, that's how you say it, said responding to the population decline is likely to become an overriding policy concern in many. Yeah, I would say so. That would probably become a major policy issue if you're if your country is facing complete for basically just dying off and disappearing, but must not compromise efforts to enhance women's reproductive health and or progress upon women's rights. Well, you know what? You can't have it both ways. Newsflash, you can't have it both ways. You can't have a flourishing popular. Don't have kids at the same time. You can't have it. It doesn't work. You know, they'll probably try to come up with some another abomination. Who knows what? Try to make it work. But that seems pretty straightforward, doesn't it? Yes. So pick, you know, pick what you want. You know, decide what it is that you want for yourself. You want the world's philosophy that's leading to just absolute. The population, or do you want the rest of my notes go? Where do you want to actually experience God's blessing in your life and not have this concern? Not have to worry about who's going to take care of me when I hold her. That's my retirement plan right there. And then it's are you saving for retirement? Yep. The name's Corbin. I'm investing in him. She knows how to be a man, teaching him how to work hard, teaching him how to respect his mom and his dad, teaching him what it means to be a good godly Christian, teaching him the statue of God, teaching him how to honor his father and mother when he grows old. You know, they should take care of his own, especially if they have his own household. I'm investing in them so they can put up with me for, you know, the last decade or two of my life. And I get to be the one all cantankerous and getting up in the middle of the night. Payback time. They'll fake on senile. I'm going to fake it. I'm going to climb on them and they like it. Right? Just punch them right in the head. But we see the difference. That's what I'm preaching about this morning. Go over to First Timothy, chapter one. Keep something in First Chronicles six if you're still there for 26. But go over to First Timothy, chapter five. Look, what's the title? Quality and quantity, quality and quantity. You know, the biggest problem facing the world today is quantity right now. There's people having enough kids to even sustain the human race. Apparently it's becoming a problem. Now, maybe there's some other study out there that debunks all this. I don't know. But you can't tell me there isn't a philosophy out there that teaches that having children is a curse. That it's something to be avoided, which is completely anti-biblical. The Bible says in First Timothy, chapter five, verse 14, I will, therefore, that the younger women marry, bear children, guide the house, again, not occasion the adversary to speak reproachfully, for some are already turned aside after Satan. It's not like some are already turned aside after their own career or whatever. This is new to some people, but again, I'm preaching to people that haven't made decisions in their life, that have to make these decisions so that they can make the right decisions. But it's not saying, look, you know, it's either be a homemaker or, you know, just enjoy whatever. It's either be a homemaker or turn aside after Satan. And what is Satan's philosophy? What is Satan's goal? Destruction of mankind. He's a murderer from the beginning. All he wants to do is just destroy mankind. And he's doing a pretty good job. How is he doing it? By teaching this worldly philosophy to young women that having children is something to be avoided. You know, but the Bible is very clear. He says, I will. I suggest. Not that, you know, if this suits, if this is something he would like to do, he's saying, look, this is what I command, as the commandments of the Lord. This is what's written down in the Word of God. Mary, in that order, by the way, Mary, bare children, guide the house. That's God's will for women. They say, well, they're not going to be, you know, they're not, no one's going to know their name. Well, their children will. Their children will know their name. Their children will rise up and call them blessed. You know, they might not have some worldly fame, some worldly accolade to flaunt in front of everybody. Some, you know, something to put on the wall and show them, look what I accomplished with my life. Some degree or something. But let me just remind you, the Bible says that the first shall be last and the last shall be first. And I believe there's going to be a lot of godly women in heaven that are exalted before a lot of even, you know, men on this earth. There's going to be a lot of godly mothers and women that I believe are going to be exalted even above pastors and preachers and everything else. What they did with their life. So what do you want? You want the world's praise out or you want the praise of men or the praise of God? Well, if you want the praise of God, this is God's will for you then. To marry, bare children, guide the house. Genesis, we all know what God told them in Genesis 1. He said bless them, God bless them and said be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth and subdue it and have dominion over everything. Right? He's saying, look, when you bless them, what did he tell them when he blessed them? Be fruitful and multiply. It's a blessing to be fruitful. It's a blessing to multiply. Titus chapter 2. Genesis chapter 9 verse 1, he repeats the same blessing to Noah when he got off the ark after God wiped out everybody, save eight. He tells them the same thing. He said to them, be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth. That is a command from God to have children. It's command. The Bible says in Titus chapter 2, look at verse 1, but speak thou the things which become sound doctrine. So here comes some sound doctrine. That the age women be sober, brave, temperate, sound in faith and charity in patience. Excuse me, age men. The age women likewise. That they be in behavior as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given a much life, teachers of good things. Now what's teachers of good things? Is that like, you know, get a job at a university and teach studies at some university? No, because that's an abomination. He's talking about teaching good things. What are the good things they ought to teach? That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blessing. Go preach that in some liberal hellhole of the university. You want to see some triggered people? They'd run out of the room screaming or they'd probably tear you limb from limb. But that's what the Bible teaches. And I'm not going to back down from a minute of what the Bible teaches. And you can see why it's important that we don't, can't we? We can see the fruit of the world. This is just what's to come, not what's already happened. All the innocent blood that has just been shed in this land and around the world through this wicked philosophy of the world of not being fruitful. So the Bible is very clear that we are to have a quantity of children. And again, if you only have one or two, that's still a blessing. The Bible teaches having a quantity of children. Now, go back to 1 Corinthians chapter 26 verse 4. Because I don't want people just to get this idea that, well, if I just have a bunch of kids, that's all I have to do. You know, that's it, my job's done. I did my God given duty. No, because after you have the children, then you have to raise them. And that's where quality comes in. It's not just all about quantity. It's about quantity and quality when it comes to children. That's what we saw in 1 Chronicles chapter 26. We have to have both quantity and quality. It says in verse 4 of 1 Chronicles 26, Moreover, the sons of Obed-Edom were Shemaiah the firstborn, Jehozabab the second, Joah the third, and Nethanel the fifth, and Miel the sixth, Issachar the seventh, and Pei-i the eighth, for God blessed him. Also unto Shemaiah, his sons were sons born, that ruled throughout the house of their father, the mighty men of valor. So this is Shemaiah, this was Obed-Edom's firstborn, so I was talking about his grandkids. The sons of Shemaiah, Ahthai, and Raphael, and Obed, and Elzabad, whose brethren were strong men. He wasn't raising nancies. He was raising strong men, not effeminate little sissies. Raise some men today. Raise some kids that have some grit, that can get out and work, that aren't going to just be offended by every little thing. That's a whole other sermon. Verse 8, all of these, the sons of Obed-Edom, they were sons and their brethren, able men for strength, for the service, were threescore and two of Obed-Edom. So not only did Obed-Edom have his eight children and his oldest, as we talked about the other seven kids, and all their grandsons, so he had a multitude of children, but he also raised quality children, even into his grandchildren. Now, see, so the descendants of Obed-Edom, what were they? They were strong, and what did they use their strength for? For service. You know, it's one thing to have a lot of kids, it's another thing to have a lot of kids that grow up and live for God, and actually accomplish something for the Lord. So it's not just all about quality. You want to have the quality, too. You got to raise kids that desire to use their strength that they have to serve God with their life. And these men, these grandsons, you know, they had Obed-Edom for their example, and say, how do I do that? Well, look over at 1 Chronicles, chapter 15. 1 Chronicles, chapter 15. You know, if Obed-Edom had a quantity of children, and not only that, but then had a quality of children, we should be able to look at this man, Obed-Edom, and see what kind of a man he was, and say, well, that's the kind of man you have to be in order to have children like this, to have kids that are strong for the service. What kind of man was Obed-Edom? Look at 1 Chronicles 15. Look at verse 16. And David spake to the chief the Levites to appoint their brethren to be the singers with instruments of music, saltaries, and hearts, and cymbals, and sounding, by lifting up the voice with joy. So the Levites appointed Heman, the son of Joel, and his brethren, Asaph, the son of Barakiah, and the sons of Merarai, their brethren, Ethan, the son of Cushai, and with them, their brethren, the second-degree, Zechariah, Ben, and Jehizel, and Shemael, and Jehiel, and Unai, and Eliab, and Benaiah, and Mahesiah, and Madaniah, and Eliphila, and Obed-Edom, and Jehiel, the porters. So they're porters. And what's a porter? It's like a doorkeeper. It's somebody who's just doing a basic service, right? Jump down to verse 24. And Shebaniah, and Jehoshaphat, and Nethanel, and Amasiah, and Zechariah, and Benaiah, and Eliezer, the priests, did blow with the trumpets before the ark of God, and Obed-Edom and Jehiel were the doorkeepers for the ark. So what was this? Why was it that he was not only to raise a quantity of children, but also a quality that were strong men, that were mighty men of valor, that were men that used their strength for service? Why was he able to do that? Because he, himself, was in the house of God. Because he, himself, used his strength for the service of the house of God. He was there, not blowing the trumpet, you know, not being in the spotlight, even. He was just there being a victim of the ark. He had a job to do, and he did it. Obed-Edom was a porter. He was a doorkeeper. He wasn't heard. He might not have even been seen. But what was he? He was faithful. He used the strength that he had to serve God with his life into whatever capacity God allowed him to serve. As a result of that, his children saw that, and they, themselves, grew up and became men that used their strength for the service. You know, this is just, you know, one aspect of raising Godly children. I understand that's a very, you know, multifaceted subject. But at least this is, like, baseline stuff. That if you want kids that are going to grow up and live for the Lord, you need to live for the Lord. You need to set the example. Go over to Proverbs chapter 32, or excuse me, Proverbs chapter 23. You see, the Bible says in Proverbs, He proclaims everyone his own goodness, but a faithful man who can find. You'll find plenty of people who will tell you how good they are. But how often can you just find just a humble guy who's just faithful? He doesn't care, he's like Obed-Edom. He doesn't care if he blows the trumpet, plays the harp. He doesn't care if he gets to, you know, stand in front of the people and pray. He doesn't care. Whatever. It doesn't matter if he's the preacher, or reading the scripture, or leading the songs. Whatever capacity. That's the kind of man he was. A faithful man can be found like that. That's what you need to find. The Bible says a faithful man who can find. It makes it sound like it's kind of a hard thing to find. If you want to tell you how great they are, just go look in the professional sports world. Go look in the business world. Go look around the world. Are you going to be hard-pressed to find somebody to tell you how great they are? And how you can be like them? And how they'll sell you a book to make you like them? He was seen by those who mattered most. His children. He was seen by those who mattered most. Maybe Obed-Edom, David, never came to him and said good job. Maybe he was never lifted up and praised. Maybe his name was never out there. But you know what? The people that mattered most to him saw him for what he was. And those people were his children. And what did they see? They saw him being faithful to the house of God. The Bible says in Proverbs 23, look at verse 22, That's true. You want wise children. You want children like Obed-Edom. We not just want equality. We want quality. We want children that are strong and that use their strength for service. We want to beget wise children so that we can have joy of them. How do we do that? Look at verse 25, That's a big part of it right there. Not just having rules, but actually winning your children's hearts. But look at this last part, You see, nothing's going to destroy your children faster than hypocrisy. Nothing will destroy children quicker than hypocrisy. I've seen it with my own eyes. They're growing up in a godly home. They're growing up with godly parents. But the parents have a big glaring flaw and the kids will just run with it. As soon as they say hypocrisy, now is that right? Does that make it right for kids to do that? Because again, no parents are perfect. But if we're going to sit there and tell our kids, live for the Lord while we're not, don't hold your breath. Because the first chance they get to do whatever they want, that's what they're going to do. Nothing will destroy them quicker than hypocrisy. If you're going to use that strength for service in the Lord like Obed Edom had, not just a quantity but a quality of children, then let them observe your ways. Because your walk talks louder than your talk talks. There's a lot of guys that can tell you how great they are, but who's just faithful in doing it. You want kids that are going to grow up and be in church? Get in church. You want kids that are going to grow up and read the Bible? Read the Bible. You want kids that are going to pray and love the Lord? Pray. You want kids that are going to go soul winning? Go soul winning. Let them observe your ways. Don't just tell them, do it. That's what he's telling here. Observe my ways. You know, it would be better for your children's sake to have nothing to do with the Lord than be a hypocrite. Think about that. It would be better for your children's sake to have nothing to do with the Lord than be a hypocrite. Because at least then they wouldn't be spoiled. At least then they wouldn't just drive by a church and say, oh, it's full of hypocrites. How do you know? Because my dad was one. Because my mom was one. Whatever. It would be better for them to say, well, I don't know anything about church because my parents didn't have anything to do with it. Let me find out about it. You see what I'm saying? It would be better for you to have nothing to do with the Lord than for you to say you do and be a hypocrite. Because at least then you wouldn't destroy your children. So the thrust of the message is this. That God gives parents children and it's a blessing. God gives children to people and we should count that as a blessing. It's the parents that give their kids character. It's the parents that make or break the kids. God gives us the children and you know what? He says now it's up to you to let them observe your ways and make them into what they ought to be. So having children is the blessing of God. We could see that this morning. And we could see the fruit of the world and it stinks. It's rotten. It's no good. So having children is the blessing of God but having children that are strong for the service, that's up to the parents. And it's not just about talking about it. It's about doing it. Having integrity. Being faithful. Being like Obed-Edom. Being in the house of God. And serving whatever capacity God has given you. Let's go ahead and pray.