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Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. 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Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Oh, yes, he cares. I know he cares. His heart is touched with my grief. When the days are weary, the long nights dreary, I know my Savior cares. Does Jesus care when my way is dark, with a nameless dread and fear? As the day light fades into deep light shades, does he care enough to be near? Oh, yes, he cares. I know he cares. His heart is touched with my grief. When the days are weary, the long nights dreary, I know my Savior cares. Does Jesus care when I've tried and failed to resist the temptation strong? When will I be free? I know we need. Though my tears blow all the night long, Oh, yes, he cares. I know he cares. His heart is touched with my grief. When the days are weary, the long nights dreary, I know my Savior cares. Does Jesus care when I've said goodbye to the dearest on earth to me? And my sad heart aches till it merely breaks, gives it all to him, God sees me. Oh, yes, he cares. I know he cares. His heart is touched with my grief. When the days are weary, the long nights dreary, I know my Savior cares. All right, offering plates around. As the plates go around, let's turn our Bibles to Psalm 127. Psalm 127, and we'll read the entire chapter as we always do. Follow along with Brother Dan as he reads. Psalm 127, beginning verse 1. In Psalm 127, the Bible reads, Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain. It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows, for so he giveth his beloved sleep. Lo, children are in heritage of the Lord, and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man, so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath this quiver full of them. They shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate. Father in Heaven, we thank you for Jesus Christ. We also thank you for five years of Faithful Word Baptist Church in Tucson, Arizona, Lord. We ask you to bless tonight's sermon. Fill Pastor Anderson with your Holy Spirit, and let his message pertain to our lives today. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. This evening I want to preach about a Christian view of having children, because today the world has kind of a different view toward having children than what the Bible teaches. And the Bible says in Psalm 127 here that having children is a blessing, right? Children are a reward, they're a blessing. Happy is the man that hath this quiver full of them. Constantly the Bible's telling us to be fruitful and multiply, and talks about how God will bless people and multiply them, and it's a blessing when your wife is like a fruitful vine, and you're surrounded by children and so forth. And so having children, according to the Bible, is really a positive thing. Having a lot of children is a positive thing, whereas today a lot of people would look at having children as a burden, or say, you know, well, maybe I'll have one or two, but, you know, we don't want to go overboard, we don't want to have a lot of kids or something. Now, look, full disclosure, I'm a little biased on this subject. I do have 12 children, okay? So just to let you know where I'm coming from here. Okay. But I'll say this, part of the reason why I had 12 children is because I believe that that is the will of God, that we as Christians have children. I'm going to show you some scripture on that from the Bible, and I know this could be a sensitive subject with people sometimes because they didn't have that many kids or whatever, but look, I'm never trying to criticize people about what they did in the past, because here's the thing about the past, you can't change it. I'm trying to talk to a young generation that's growing up in our materialistic, heathen society that's down on having children, that's down on having a lot of children, and I'm trying to show them a biblical viewpoint, a Christian view, and to try to encourage them to actually raise a whole generation of children for the Lord and not buy into this world's philosophies when it comes to children. I don't care what you did 20 years ago, 10 years ago, 30 years ago, quit making it all about you, okay? It's not about you. It's about everybody who needs to hear what the Bible has to say, and especially young people need to have a biblical mentality on a subject that the world has a much different view on than what the Bible has. Now let's start out in this passage, Psalm 127. He starts out by saying, except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. Obviously, we're not talking about a physical building there. We're talking about a household. We're talking about a family. When we talk about the house of David, we're talking about David's family, his descendants, his children, and so forth. Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. Obviously, our homes, our families need to be built upon the rock of Jesus Christ, the rock of God's Word. If the Lord is not the one building our house, we labor in vain that build it. When it comes to the church, the house of God, except the Lord build the church, we're laboring in vain when we build it, right? Christ said upon this rock, I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. So except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain. The Bible's saying, look, if God wants the city to get invaded, if God's not protecting it, it doesn't matter how good the security force is, God can allow them to be invaded, and it doesn't matter how weak their security is, if God's protecting them, they're protected, okay? At the end of the day, our destiny is in God's hands, right? He either sets us up for success or failure. He can make everything we touch turn to gold, or he can make everything that we touch just fall apart and be a disaster. At the end of the day, God is the one who controls our destiny, whether we prosper or whether we fail. And so if we do things God's way, if we follow the word of God and his program, we are going to be better off than if we lean upon our own understanding, and we get up early and stay up late, and we've got all the watch figured out. We think that we have everything figured out, but at the end of the day, God can just go like that and destroy any aspect of our life, or he can make any aspect of our life prosper. He has the ultimate power over these things. Amen. You know, you get all high and mighty, and you think that, you know, nothing can stop you, and, you know, I wasn't high and mighty when this happened to me, but, you know, a month ago, I was just having a great day, having a great time, feeling good, woo-hoo, road trip, you know, preaching and doing all this stuff, and then next thing I know, out of nowhere, I was just laying on my back, screaming in pain, and I couldn't move, and I couldn't walk for like three days just because of some weird, stupid fluke in my back. I had to go to the hospital, you know, but that kind of thing always just reminds me that God can just take you anytime he wants to and just do that to you. You know, I don't think that's what God was doing to me, but I'm saying if he wanted to, he could. It doesn't matter how secure your finances are or your relationships are. God can just go like that and destroy any aspect of your life, or he can go like that and just fix any aspect of your life because God has the power to change things in our lives, and so we need to fear the Lord and realize, hey, it's God that controls our destiny. That's what I get out of that first portion there in Psalm 127. It's vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows, for so he giveth his beloved sleep. He's saying, look, you know, just do your best, go to bed, sleep eight hours, and let God take care of you, and trust God. Don't be stressing and thinking that you have to do everything yourself. Ultimately, God controls your destiny. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. Make sure you have food and clothing and what you need. That's kind of the first two verses. Then he kind of changes gears. And in verse 3, he says, Lo, children are in heritage of the Lord, and the fruit of the womb is his reward. So the first thing that we take from this is that having children is a privilege and a blessing from God. It's a reward from God. It's a heritage from the Lord. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man, so are the children of the youth. I mean, think about it, if you're going into battle as a soldier, how many arrows do you want to have in that quiver? Okay. Or, you know, speaking to the younger generation, if you're in a video game and you have the bow equipped, how many arrows do you want to have equipped, right? Two, three? No, you know, you want to have as many arrows as you can equipped. Okay, just I hope that that helped you with that illustration. It says, you know, as arrows are in the hand of a mighty man, so are children of old people, of people in their 30s, 40s? No, no, the children of the youth, right? He's saying, look, having a bunch of children when you're young is a virtue, it's a blessing, as arrows are in the hand of a mighty man. That's what it's like, children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath this quiver full of them. Throughout the Bible, you'll see these kind of statements. Blessed is the man, or happy is the man, used interchangeably. Happy is the man that hath this quiver full of them. They shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate. So when you read Psalm 127, obviously verses 1 and 2 feel a little bit separate from verses 3 through 5, but I'll tell you how you can bring these two halves of this chapter together in your mind, is that a lot of the reason why people don't want to have a lot of children is because they're worried about it. Because obviously having a child is a big commitment, because when you have a child, now you're going to have to raise that child, at least for the next 18 years, you're going to be responsible for that child, it's a financial burden, it's a time burden, it's something that could stress people out whether they're going to be able to afford having children. And so I think the first part of the chapter is to remind us that, you know, it's God that is either building the family or not building the family. If you have children, it's God blessing you with children, God knows what he's doing, and God is able to make you prosper, he's able to build your house, he's able to provide your needs, he's able to give us the food and clothing, your Heavenly Father knoweth that you have need of all these things. Now I can really relate to this, because when I first got married, my wife and I, you know, lived on a very tight budget, really tight budget, okay? I mean we were just living in a little small apartment, we had like no, when we first got married we didn't have a sofa, we didn't have a dining room table, we just had a mattress on the floor, and just some really basic stuff, and we started from the bottom, you know, and just slowly acquired things from people giving us stuff, getting stuff to use, and we're just living paycheck to paycheck, you know, and I remember my wife's budget in the early days of our marriage for food and household items was $40 a week, you know, that's like for food, soap, shampoo, cleaning, whatever, I mean it was tight, you know, and so when we were going through this, you know, I was working 50 hours a week at my job doing the best I could to provide, but I mean, you know, it is what it is, right? You know, you're young, you're starting out, you haven't really climbed the ladder at the job yet, I was 19 years old, and so we started out with nothing, and I remember being nervous about having a child, because I just remember thinking like, man, we're just kind of getting by with the two of us and just paying our bills and paying for things, how are we going to afford having a child? How is this going to work? And I remember having those worries and those thoughts and stressing out about that in the early days, but here's what I found is that when my wife got pregnant with our first child, I couldn't really see on paper how it was going to work out, but this is the thought that I had. I thought to myself, you know what? God says, blessed are the children of the youth, and I know that if my finances get a little bit messed up, I could always fix that later, but, you know, if I just focus on finances and I just live my life about making money, I might not be able to go back and have children later, because there's kind of a window on having children, and so I remember just kind of stepping out in faith and saying, you know what, God wants us to have children. We wanted to have children, by the way, of course. It wasn't just like, well, the Bible says to do it, let's go. You know, we wanted to have children anyway, obviously, but it was kind of a step of faith because of the fact that we didn't really know how it was going to work on paper, but I remember just immediately upon my boss learning that my wife was pregnant, he just gave me a raise, and, you know, you say, well, that's a cool boss. No, that's a God in heaven that keeps his promises to provide our needs according to his riches and glory by Christ Jesus. At the end of the day, every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and coming down from the Father of light with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. It's God that would move a boss to give you that extra raise and give you that money and help you to do better, and I remember when it came time to have a second child, I didn't know how it was going to work out, but it just seemed like God kept providing. I kept getting the raises, different job opportunities. You know, we were never wealthy. We never had a bunch of extra money, but we were able to get by. We were able to have food and clothing and shelter, and we were able to raise our children, and several of them are adults now, and, you know, the rest is history, but I'm telling you, it took faith in those early days when you're a young married couple to have children when the world's telling you, well, you know, you got to get established financially. Here's the thing about getting established financially. For most people, it kind of just never happens, right? You know, you're waiting to turn the corner financially. The bad news is it's a round room, and you're trying to turn the corner, okay, because I'm telling you that if we waited till we have all our financial ducks in a row, we're probably not going to do much of anything, probably not going to get married, probably not going to have kids. You know, sometimes you just have to just do things, and at the end of the day, what I decided is that in my life, people are more important than things. Family is more important than things. Having children is more important than having some house that looks like a museum and everything's perfect and everything's fancy and nice. No, no, no, I cared more about having children, and so I'm thankful to God for his advice in Scripture where I stepped out in faith, because then afterward, I was glad that I had those children. And there's one day a week, or excuse me, one day per year when I get really glad that I have children. And does anybody know what day that is? What day is it? Well, Christmas, I mean, that's cool, but that's not the big one. It's called April 15th. It's like people who have kids appreciation day. You know, we have a holiday for people who have a lot of kids. It's called April 15th when I get Boku tax credits for all these little dependents running around, all these little tax credits running around. You know, and so I figured out a long time ago, you know what, I can give a bunch of money to the government. I could work full-time and have my wife working full-time, make a bunch of money, and just giving just loads of money to the government. Just being in the highest tax bracket, two incomes, no children, just loads of money just going to just Uncle Sam to do who knows what with. Or I could actually make an investment in my own family, make an investment in the kingdom of God, make an investment in actually being fruitful and multiplying according to scripture, having children, being happy. Happy is the man that had this quiver full of them. Do you really think that living in a fancy house with a round driveway is going to make you happy? Or having a certain fancy car is going to make you happy? Or wearing certain brands is going to make you happy? You know what, we shouldn't be people who derive our happiness from material things. That's the way that the world is going and that's what they want to promote. But you know what, that gain isn't godliness. And the love of money is the root of all evil. And so we should not be people that just think about how much money we can have. We should rather think about what the Bible says and what's going to bring us true joy in our lives. And having children brings a lot of joy to your lives. Go through Psalm 128. And you know what, I derive so much joy from my children every single day. Every day I'm enjoying having children. Every day. Now, does that mean that my children are never annoying or that they never do something wrong or that they never cause stress or problem or headaches? But you know what, here's the thing. Everything meaningful in life always causes you stress, problems, headaches. Think about everything else in life that people derive meaning from. Even just humanly speaking. You know, you probably derive some fulfillment and joy and meaning, hopefully as men, from your career. But is your job ever a headache? Is it ever a pain in the neck? Is it ever painful? Is it ever a source of discouragement and suffering? Of course. But it's also a great source of joy and meaning as you work and fulfill your job each day. I hope that you have a job that you believe in and that you can enjoy and get behind it. What about marriage? Marriage isn't always all fun and games. But yet, it's a great source of joy and enjoyment and blessing. But it can also be a source of pain and suffering and misery and woe. You know, it could be both because guess what? That's just things that are meaningful in life. Right? I wonder if athletes get a lot of joy and enjoyment from competing and breaking records even in training, having a personal best. But, you know, are those that are serious athletes really just looking forward to every single workout? They just can't wait to get up every morning and swim for hours and run for hours? You know, it's not always. Sometimes it's painful. Sometimes it hurts. Sometimes it's annoying. Sometimes it's stressful. Guess what? Everything that's meaningful in life is going to have some negative things associated with it. But it's worth it to go to your job. It's worth it to do the athletic training. It's worth it to study or do whatever you're doing. Well, guess what? Having kids is worth it, too. Getting married is worth it. Somebody explained all these MGTOWs in the manosphere that getting married is worth it. Okay, having children is worth it. Don't give up on God's institutions. I'm not saying it's always going to be perfect, but the joy that I have derived from my children over the years far outweighs the times that they've been a pain in the neck, the times that they've tortured me. The joy is so far outweighing it that you can't even compare. Having children is a blessing. It's a joy. And so that's what the Bible says. Look at Psalm 128, verse 3. Next page there, you're in 127. Go to 128. It says, Thy wife, verse 3, shall be as a fruitful vine by the sides of thine house, thy children like olive plants round about thy table. So again, painting a picture of blessing is a fruitful wife and a bunch of children lined up around the table. This is the way God looks at things. A little bit different than the way this world might look at things. Now, let's look at some stuff from the book of Genesis. Go to the book of Genesis, chapter 17. Genesis, chapter number 17. And obviously, we understand that the book of Genesis is in a certain time in history and there's a certain story that's going on back then, back in the time of the patriarchs and so forth. But still, when we read a book like Genesis, we're deriving universal principles about life that can be applied throughout the rest of Scripture. And we're going to see that these principles continue throughout the rest of Scripture. But look at Genesis, chapter 17, verse 4. It says, Notice how being exceeding fruitful and being made into a great nation is a blessing for Abraham. He's going to bless him and multiply him. Look at verse 20. So, Ishmael is going to be fruitful and have a lot of offspring. Abraham is going to be fruitful and have a lot of offspring through Isaac and Jacob. Look at chapter 24. Genesis, chapter 24. These are the kind of statements that we're going to find in the Bible over and over. Here's what you're not going to find in the Bible. You know, You're not going to find anything like that. But you're going to find a lot of this kind of stuff. Genesis 24, 59. Thou art our sister. Be thou the mother of thousands of millions. And let thy seed possess the gate of those which hate them. I mean, imagine that at a baby shower. Or at a bridal shower, at a wedding reception. Hey, be thou the mother of thousands of millions. What a great blessing. And by the way, thousands of millions are called billions. Okay, look at chapter 28, if you would. Chapter 28. And while you're turning to chapter 28, I'll read for you from Genesis 35, 11. God said unto him, I am God Almighty. Be fruitful and multiply. A nation and a company of nations shall be of thee. And kings shall come out of thy loins. Genesis 28, 3. And God Almighty bless thee and make thee fruitful and multiply thee that thou mayest be a multitude of people. Notice the connection between being fruitful and being blessed. Now, look, we don't want to misunderstand this and think that if someone only has one child, or two children, that they're somehow not blessed by God. Because, of course, we know that Abraham himself and Isaac himself didn't have a lot of children. It was Jacob who ended up having the 12 children and the 12 sons and one daughter. But, you know, the multiplication came a little later down the line. It didn't come right away necessarily. You know, sometimes God's only going to bless you with one child. Sometimes God maybe hasn't blessed you with children yet. Well, sometimes those prayers take a really long time to get answered. You know, be patient. It might still be coming in the future. I can tell you all kinds of people who couldn't have children for even decades and then, you know, at age 40 they're having children. Okay. So, you never know what God's going to do. So, be patient, trust the Lord, leave it in his hands. It's up to him whether it's his will or no. So, I'm not trying to say that we should look at how many children people have or don't have and make some kind of a judgment about them. I mean, Isaac's a godly man. Rebekah's a godly woman. They're saying, be thou the mother of thousands of millions to Rebekah. Well, guess what? For 20 years she had no child. Then after 20 years she has one set of twins and that's it. Does that mean that Isaac was less godly? Isaac was a great man of God. And so, it's nothing about him. So, we don't want to misunderstand this that it's some kind of a barometer of spiritual blessing. That's wrong. Okay. But here's what I do want to get across to you is that if you do have children, be thankful. And say, this is a blessing from God. Having this child. Now, other people might be blessed in other ways, but you know, the 12 children that I've been given are blessings from God. And I consider that fruitfulness of myself and my wife to be a blessing. And I'm thankful for it. What I'm also saying is, we should not approach life saying, oh man, I don't want to have a bunch of kids. You know, because what you're showing is you don't understand that kids are a blessing. You don't understand that the fruit of the womb is his reward. You don't understand that children are a heritage of the Lord if you have this attitude that says, oh, I don't want to have a lot of kids. Now, of course teenagers talk this way. If you would have asked me how many kids I wanted to have when I was like 15 or something, I would have said zero. Okay. And here I am. So, don't take teenagers too seriously when they talk like this. Okay. But at the end of the day, you know where I think this attitude is kind of coming from? And don't get offended when I tell you the truth. Okay. I'll tell you where I think this attitude is coming from of, oh, I don't want to have children or, oh, we don't want to have a lot of kids. Ah, you know, just want to have one kid or two kids. And look, if that's all God gives you, fine. Or if that's what you did 20 years ago, quit making it about you. But, you know, this attitude comes from basically a prideful, selfish, narcissistic attitude in general. And I'm not saying that everybody who makes that decision, that's the reason. But I'm saying there's a trend today in America to not have kids. I mean, there are articles in the news about how millennials aren't having kids. Gen Z isn't having, you know, they're not having kids. And, you know, immigrants are going to have to make up and pick up the slack because there's just not going to be enough young people. I mean, these are mainstream news articles. Where is this trend coming from? Why is it that if we look back 200 and some years ago in America, the average woman is having eight kids? And now 100 years ago, it's like four kids. Now, today, it's like two kids. And you know what? The way things are going, eventually we're going to be like Europe where it's like 0.9 children in certain places in Europe or 1.3 children on average where it's literally below replacement. Okay. How do you get there? Now, what the liberal types or academic types or environmentalist types will tell you is they will tell you that as prosperity increases, the fertility rate goes down. You know, they're looking at the stats, they're crunching the numbers, and they're saying as fertility, or excuse me, as prosperity increases, fertility goes down. Right? Basically, the more money people have, the less kids they have. And then they'll say the more education they have, the less kids they have. This is what they'll tell you. Now, if you would go to Exodus chapter 1. So, what they're trying to insinuate is that it's classier and more intelligent and more enlightened and more successful people have less kids. It's really just the derelicts that are just having kids like rabbits, you know. That's what they're trying to say with that. They're trying to say, well, you know, as prosperity increases and as education increases, the fertility rate goes down. So, you know, let's all be more educated and prosperous and just have less children. That's what they're getting at. Now, look what the Bible says in Exodus chapter 1, verse 8. Now, there arose up a new king over Egypt which knew not Joseph and he said unto his people, behold the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we. Come on, let us deal wisely with them lest they multiply and it come to pass that when their fall without any war they join also unto our enemies and fight against us and so get them up out of the land. Therefore, did they set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens and they built for Pharaoh treasure cities, pythons, and ramses. Watch this in verse 12. But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew and they were grieved because the children of Israel and the Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigor. Look at verse 22. And Pharaoh charged all his people saying, every son that is born ye shall cast into the river and every daughter ye shall save alive. Now, here's some things I want to point out. At the beginning of verse 10, the Egyptians are saying, come, let us deal wisely with them. You know, we're smart, we're wise, and the slaves, they're the ones that are just multiplying like crazy. Now, how could 70 people, because when the Israelites came into Egypt, there were only 70 people. And at this point, there are literally millions. So how can 70 people become millions in 400 years? Well, you know, it's pretty, if you do the math, it's actually pretty easy. They're just, you know, God's blessing them, they're multiplying, and that could easily take place. Here's the thing that's surprising, because that's not really surprising. What's surprising is how come the Egyptians can't keep up? Because if you think about it, when 70 people come into Egypt, how many Egyptians are there? Thousands and thousands or tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands, I mean, who knows, right? But a lot. There are way more than 70 Egyptians. Why aren't the Egyptians keeping up? The Egyptians are obviously practicing birth control, big time, and they're obviously having way less kids, because if you start with 70 over here, and you start with many hundreds of thousands or even millions over here, you know, or whatever, how do 70 people pass up that group? One of them is not having children. And in this case, it's actually the more prosperous, quote unquote, because it's the Egyptians, it's the slave owners, not the slaves, talking about how they're going to deal all wisely and everything. They're so civilized, they're so smart, they're the ones that got passed up demographically by the children of Israel. Let me propose to you a different reason why fertility goes down as prosperity increases, because prosperous people fall in love with themselves. That's why. Prosperous rich people fall in love with themselves. How many rich people have you known that are in love, absolutely in love, not with their wife, not with their children, but with themselves? They're obsessed with themselves. They're prideful, arrogant, self-centered people. Hey everybody, look at me. And people who are obsessed with themselves, people who are prideful, arrogant, it's all about them? No, they don't want to make sacrifices to have children, because that would be making sacrifices for someone else. And it's all about them. It's about them having a certain lifestyle and doing whatever they want instead of investing in the next generation. It's just all about themselves. Why does more education lead to lower fertility rates? Well because knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifies. Now look, I am 100% for education, I am 100% for everybody in this room learning as much as you possibly can and getting as smart as you possibly can, and I want all of you kids to study hard and work hard at your school work, whether you're homeschooled or whatever you're doing, I want you to learn and be smart. God wants us to be wise and increase learning. It's fools that despise wisdom and instruction. A wise man will hear and will increase learning. And so, I'm 100% for education, but here's the thing about that, is that education must be balanced with charity. Because knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth. Now we don't want to be afraid that we're getting a little too much knowledge, you gotta get a little puffed up there, brother, with all the knowledge you're getting. No, no, no, we're never afraid of getting too much knowledge. What we need to make sure though is that we're also balancing that out with charity and condescending to men of low estate and not becoming so puffed up and prideful and arrogant and thinking that we're better. You know, people who get a lot of education often think that they're better than other people, unfortunately. And it's the same type of rich people who think they're better than other people, well-educated people who think they're better than other people, and then what do you know, they're not reproducing. Because they're kind of in love with themselves, that's part of the reason. I think that that's a big part of where that trajectory comes from. Another reason why, or another thing I'd like to point out statistically, because you can sit there and say, well, you know, as education and prosperity increases, that fertility rate goes down. Well, you want to know what else goes down as prosperity and education increase? You know what else goes down? How religious people are goes down, too. Want to look at those statistics? Let's look at how Christianity goes down as people get more prosperous. Now here's what's funny, is that being Christian brings prosperity. God blesses Christian nation, God blesses godliness and righteousness, but then once they become prosperous, then what do they do, they forget the Lord. It's what we've been reading about in Deuteronomy. He says, look, God's giving you all this prosperity, when you get prosperous, don't forget the Lord. But what happens? I mean, look, why is our country today the greatest country on the face of the earth? Why is our country probably the greatest country in the history of mankind? Because our country started out as a Christian nation. And I don't want to hear about how some founding father was a Freemason worshiping Satan or something. That's not the point. I'm talking about the people of America. There've always been weirdos in government or whatever. But the people in America have been, by and large, Christians. It's been a Christian nation. I mean, even today, there's like 50 million people classified as Baptist in America. Like half of America is Evangelical Christian. And then there's Protestants and then, you know, there's fake non-Christians called Roman Catholics. But I'm saying, you know, even among the actual Baptists and Evangelicals, I mean, this is mostly, by and large, a Christian nation or at least it historically has been. But what's the trajectory on that? It's getting less Christian all the time, isn't it? Prosperity is going up, up, up and Christianity goes down, down, although the Christianity is what brought the blessing of God and the prosperity in the first place. I mean, if we would have been some Muslim country or something, you'd think God would have given us this prosperity that we have right now? If we were a bunch of illiterate Muslims, you know, worshiping a pedophile prophet, you think God's going to bless that? You know, and all these crap-hole countries that Muslims live in? That's not the blessing of God. But let me tell you something, the United States has been blessed by God because of the fact that it's been a Christian nation historically. And here's the thing about Deuteronomy, is that the idea behind Deuteronomy, and in fact this is sometimes called a Deuteronomistic view of history, is that it teaches that in the long run, forsaking God's laws is going to bring curses upon a nation and that in the long run, obeying God's laws is going to bring the blessing of God upon a nation. And that's what we see playing out throughout the history of Israel and Judah in books like First and Second Kings and First and Second Chronicles, you're going to see those kind of patterns playing out, of course in the book of Judges, you see that kind of pattern playing out. And sometimes it's a delayed reaction, sometimes the judgment comes later. You don't always re-put you so immediately, but ultimately you re-put you so. So God has blessed America because it's been a Christian nation. Now that we're prosperous, we're starting to forget the Lord as a nation, we're getting less and less Christian, isn't it interesting that then also the birth rate is going down as we become more atheistic as a nation or more science-minded. And look, I'm all for science, but not as a replacement for God, not as a replacement for Jesus, not as a replacement for Christianity, because it doesn't replace those things. It should be a supplement to those things. Because at the end of the day, Christ is everything. Christ is our life. Everything else is just details. That might be a sporting goods slogan, so, that I might have just ripped off right there. But the point is that the reason why the birth rate's going down is because we're being de-Christianized. The reason why is because as people get prosperous, they start falling in love with themselves. And they're not interested in investing in the next generation. Why do poor people have a lot of kids? Why is that? Are they just too stupid to figure out where babies come from? That's not what's going on, my friend. The reason why poor people have a lot of kids is because for a lot of people, family is what's important to them. And that's what they've got. I mean, think about it. If you're a slave in Egypt, family is what you've got. Am I right? I mean, what do you have going for you if you're a slave in Egypt? Is it just like, oh, I just can't wait to go backpack across Europe and I'm thinking about, you know, sitting in a tent in Tibet, just waiting to climb. You know, I just want to climb Mount Everest, so I got to just kind of sit on my butt for a month and wait for the weather to be right so I can like have some guide take me up there just so I can be like, I climbed Mount Everest. Is that what you're thinking about when you're a slave in Egypt? You're not just thinking about all the cars and houses and clothes and keeping up with the Joneses. Family is what you've got. You've got the Lord and you've got family. Well guess what? You know, a lot of people of modest means, a lot of people in the working classes, you know, family is what they've got. Family is what they cherish. Family is what's important to them. That's good. There's nothing wrong with that. Quit looking down on poor people. Because the Bible says that God has chosen the poor of this world, rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which he has promised to them that love him, but you have despised the poor? Do not rich men oppress you and draw you before the judgment seats? Do not they blaspheme that worthy name by the which you're called? Hey, poor people are blessed of God. But then we look down on poor people? Oh, I don't want to be like these poor people having a bunch of kids. You know, I'd rather be a poor person with a bunch of kids living paycheck to paycheck working a blue collar job, working by the sweat of my face, doing without fancy things, you know, with maybe some old clothes and an old vehicle and an old house than to be some narcissistic rich jerk who's in love with himself and he's just trying to figure out his next little epic adventure up Mount Everest. You know what I mean? Like, is that really what life's about? Just tagging that summit? It's getting a little quiet in here because I know a lot of you have that Everest trip planned. No, I'm just kidding. I really doubt that. Let's turn our Bibles over to Deuteronomy chapter 1. Deuteronomy chapter number 1. Folks, don't look down on the poor. You know, the world's going to tell you that gain is godliness. The world's going to tell you, oh look, these countries where they have less kids are more prosperous. Let's have less kids and just dedicate our lives to making money. Folks, that's not what life's about. I don't want to be rich. The Bible says that we should not seek to be rich or labor to be rich or desire to be rich. There's nothing wrong with buying used clothing, eating modest meals, eating some meals without meat in them. Okay, you don't have to get all scared that you're going to accidentally become vegan or something just because you have a few meatless meals because you eat a few grilled cheese or bean and rice burritos or eat some tomato soup. You know, you don't have to turn in your omnivore card. You know, nobody's going to accuse you of anything. You know, there's nothing wrong with eating some vegetarian meals, wearing some used clothes, living in an old house, driving an old vehicle, walking, riding a bike, taking the bus. You know what, at the end of the day, life's about tradeoffs and priorities. And I'm more interested in the people in my life than in gathering material wealth for myself on this earth. Because you know what, God willing, when I get to heaven, I'm not going to be able to take any of my stuff with me, but I am hopefully going to take all of my children with me. You know, God willing, I hope that they're all going to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, their Savior, and I can take every single one of them with me and that's something that nobody can ever really take away from me. Whereas everything on this earth is just temporal, but the things that are not seen are spiritual. The souls of our family and loved ones and friends are what really count, not just a bunch of material things. Don't become a materialistic person. Deuteronomy chapter 1 verse 10, the Lord your God hath multiplied you and behold your this day as the stars of heaven for multitude, the Lord God of your fathers make you a thousand times so many more as you are and bless you as he hath promised you. There's already millions of them and he's saying, may God make you a thousand times as many as they are right now. The Bible says in Proverbs 14, 28, in the multitude of people is the king's honor, but in the want of people is the destruction of the prince. Now if you would flip over to Deuteronomy 25. Now some people would say, well, I don't want to have kids because having too many kids means I can have less of a parental investment. Like care for your children is the zero sum game where whatever care I give one child is coming out of another child and so if I have a bunch of children, I'm not going to be able to give them all of the love and attention and benefits because there's just too many of them, it's just going to get spread too thin. Here's why this is wrong. Number one, people in America are giving their kids way too much attention and way too much material prosperity anyway and so we could probably use it if we could spread it a little thinner than to raise a generation where they just think the world revolves around them because mom and dad are just at their beck and call every moment, just giving them everything, taking care of everything and doing everything for them. You think, oh yeah, but what if your kid wants to go to college, hmm? Like if you're going to bring 12 children to the world, well, you better have 12 college funds so they can go off to Harvard and study critical race theory and gender studies at Harvard or whatever. But here's the dumb thing about that is that first of all, you don't have to go to college to make money and prosper and even to get educated in this world. There are lots of other ways to get educated and lots of other ways to prosper and make money in this world and in fact, I could point you to a lot of people that didn't go to college that are making a lot more money than people coming out of college. You get in a good trade, you get a good skill, you can make really good money. That's the path that I took in my young life and it worked out great for me. God bless that and it worked out. But look, here's the thing. Let's say your kids want to go to college. Well, you know what? Have you ever heard of paying your own way? And not only that, by the way, if they just go to the public school, it's pretty much paid mostly by the government. Like the vast majority, if they just went to literally public colleges, it's pretty much mostly paid by the government unless you're wealthy. It's pretty much paid by them anyway. But guess what? You could pay your way through school. You know, I went to Bible college. I was working a full-time job and going to school full-time. It can be done. And some would even say it builds character to do it that way. As opposed to like, yeah, but these, you know, they've got to have it all paid for by mom and dad, I guess, so that they can just go to their classes and just kind of fart around the rest of the day. Like as if going to school is like a full-time gig when you're 19, 20, 21, 22. I mean, I can't even imagine, I can't imagine being 20 years old, taking a full load of classes and just like thinking I'm done for the day. It's like, wow. I mean, when I was back in college, I was taking a full load of classes and I was working a full-time job and I had a wife and kids, you know, and I was working in the ministry on the side at the college that I went to. You know, I was doing the ministry where we're out soul winning and I'm preaching every Sunday and going through all that as well. Okay. But really just, but no, no, I want my kids, I want my kids to just go to the private college and just go to class and then I guess they can just have the rest of the time for just beer pong and fornication and partying and what, like what do they need to do all day? What are they doing all day? After you go to class for a few hours, what are you doing for the rest of the day? And please don't tell me it's homework. You think these college students are doing 12 hours a day of homework, eight hours a day of homework. You know, there's nothing wrong with having a job, you know, and paying your own way through school if you want to go to school, but it's not like you have to go to school anyway because there are plenty of other pathways in your life that don't involve school where you can make really good money. And so, you know, this attitude of like, well, you know, I'm not going to be able to financially give them everything, good. I'm glad my parents didn't financially give me everything. I'm glad that they didn't buy me all the name brands and give me all the fancy things. I'm glad that I had to pay for things myself and drive an old used car and that I paid my own way through school and then I did all that. And my parents gave me a lot of, you know, blessings and a great upbringing and everything and I grew up in a really nice home and everything, nice neighborhoods and all that, so I'm real thankful for that. But you know what, I'm thankful they didn't just give me everything I wanted. And kids down the street were sometimes getting two and three times as much for Christmas, but you know, I just thought, man, these kids are a bunch of spoiled brats. They're getting too much. It's not that I'm getting too little, they're getting too much. Today's a bunch of entitled brats when you just give them everything. It's called being spoiled, okay. And not only that, but it's like, oh yeah, but just time and attention and so forth. Well, here's the thing about having a big family. First of all, I've done it. Okay, I have 12 children. Well, guess what? I guarantee you that little kids in my family get more attention than little kids growing up in a family with one or two kids. Hey, there's nothing but attention in my house. When you're in a house with 12 people, oh, somebody's giving you attention. So maybe personally, dad's not constantly giving you attention, but what about your eight older siblings or 10 older siblings, you think they're giving you some attention? And so it's not like my kids are not getting enough like communication in their lives. Like no one talks to them. Yeah, you're getting talked to nonstop in my house. The talking never stops. Why does all the attention have to come from me or my wife? How about older siblings giving attention to younger siblings, siblings giving each other attention, they spend time with each other. They learn how to get along with other people. They live in a house with other people. You know, there are all these objections, but at the end of the day, the Bible says that having children is a blessing. The Bible says happy is the man that has a quiver full of them. The Bible says being multiplied and being fruitful is a blessing from God. At the end of the day, that's what the Bible says. You can lean on your own understanding and come up with these objections about the college fund and come up with these objections about, you know, how you're not going to be able to give them enough attention. Well, I say you're giving them too much attention. You're smothering them. Give them some space. I doubt that my, I mean, look, my kids are not just like, Dad, would you please give me more attention? They're fine. You know, and I do spend time one on one with each of my children. I take them on work trips with me. Back when I was in my secular job, I take them on those business trips. I take them on preaching trips now. I spend time with them. I hang out with them. But you know what? I'm not really trying to send a message to my children. I'm always there for you 24 hours a day to do whatever you want. It's like, well, no, that's not the way life works. The world doesn't revolve around you. Get over it. And so, man, there's so much more that I want to say. I'm kind of looking at the clock here. Deuteronomy 25 is a passage that a lot of times atheists will bring this out to kind of criticize the Bible just because it's kind of culturally foreign to us. So they like to pull out things that are kind of culturally foreign and act like there's something wrong with them or something. I think there's a lot wrong with our culture right now in America. So there. You know, at least these people knew what gender they were and what bathroom to use and they kept it hetero. Okay, so Deuteronomy 25, verse number 5 says this. It says, if brethren dwell together and one of them die and have no child, the wife of the dead shall not marry without unto a stranger. Her husband's brother shall go in unto her and take her to him to wife and perform the duty of a husband's brother unto her. So you know, you've got some brethren. If they live in the same place and one of them's married, the other one's not married, and his wife died, then the other brother marries her in order to raise up seed for his brother and to keep his brother's name alive in Israel. Okay, that's what the Bible says. And it shall be that the firstborn which she beareth shall succeed in the name of his brother which is dead, that his name be not put out of Israel. And if the man like not to take his brother's wife, then let his brother's wife go up unto the gate of the elders and say, my husband's brother refuses to raise up unto his brother a name in Israel. He will not perform the duty of my husband's brother. Then the elders of the city shall call him and speak unto him. And what are they speaking to him about? They're saying like, dude, do this. This is your duty, man. You need to do this for your brother. Raise up seed for your brother. They're supposed to talk to him. And if he stand to it, so he's refusing, right, verse 8, and say, I like not to take her, then shall his brother's wife come unto him in the presence of the elders and lose his shoe from off his foot and spit in his face and shall answer and say, so shall be done unto the man that will not build up his brother's house. And his name shall be called in Israel the house of him that hath his shoe loosed. Now look, people are like, oh, the Bible, you know, it's the word of God. I see no issue here. Makes sense to me. Now, if you would go to Genesis chapter 38 with that in mind. So what is the idea here of, you know, raising up seed for your brother so that his name doesn't die out? Because, you know, being the end of your family line is not cool. You know, we want to pass on our way of life, our faith, our Christianity, we want to pass on our heritage, our culture, our family traditions to the next generation. That's what we want to do as humans. It's sad when somebody dies before they're able to pass that on. Now you say, well, it's not really his kid, though, because it's his brother going in unto his wife, you know, and so how is that going to be passing, you know, his name on or whatever? Well, here's the thing about the, first of all, the Bible is accurate on this point because if you study modern genetics, here's what you'll find. That my children have like half of my DNA on average. This is just a probability now. Each of my children is carrying half of my DNA, meaning that half of their DNA matches mine. The other half matches my wife, right? But do you know how much of my nephew's DNA matches mine? One fourth, on average, of my nephew's DNA matches my DNA. So my son, yeah, he matches me 50%, but my nephew matches me 25%, even though he's not even descended from me, 25% of his DNA, on average, in the same place, is going to be the same genes. Now what about my grandchildren? What percentage of their DNA is going to be my DNA, on average, 25%? So basically, my nephew and my grandchild are both literally carrying the same percentage, on average, of genes that are the same as my genes. So basically, if you think, and that is the truth. Science has gone into great detail about this, as the genetics is all the craze throughout the 20th century and into the 21st century. And so if you think about it, the kid that is produced from this union of the brother and the wife is going to, first of all, carry his name, so that's going to keep the name alive, but also, even genetically, this kid is going to have 25% in common with the guy who died anyway, even biologically. So how do you like that? Now go, if you would, to Genesis chapter 38. And by the way, my son and I were talking about this this afternoon, how in Leviticus, when it's telling them not to marry someone who's near of kin unto them, God seemed to have a perfect understanding of the genetics, because he says not to marry the grandchild, or the aunt, or the half-sibling, or whatever. Because I thought, just in my ignorance, I thought, well, I guess your half-sibling, you're kind of related to them about as much as you're related to your cousin, but no, it turns out that your half-sibling is a 25% genetic match, whereas your cousin is like a one-eighth genetic match, 12.5% genetic match. So the Bible, all the prohibitions, where it's like giving a hard prohibition, like don't do it, is all the 25% and greater gene match, so God got it right there. But I don't believe that that's what we should follow today, because the Old Testament was never intended to be an eternal covenant. It was only ever intended for the children of Israel for 1,500 years. And so I do believe that today you should not marry your cousin. Don't do it. Don't even marry your second cousin. You're going to have some serious problems if you do that. Back then, the DNA was less degenerated than it is now. There's been more accumulation of bad traits and so forth. Don't do it. Amen? We're in Arizona, so this isn't a big deal. But if anybody's listening out there in certain states, I'm not going to name which states. Don't marry your cousin. It's a genetic disaster, believe me. So here's an example of this. I'll hurry up and finish here. Genesis chapter 38 has an example of what we just saw in Deuteronomy. It says in Genesis 38 verse 6, Judah took a wife for Ur his firstborn whose name was Tamar and Ur, Judah's firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the Lord and the Lord slew him. And Judah said unto Onan, go in unto thy brother's wife and marry her and raise up seed to thy brother. So we kind of see this in action, don't we? This idea of the brother raising up seed for the dead brother with his widow. And Onan, verse 9, knew that the seed should not be his. And it came to pass that when he went in unto his brother's wife that he spilled it on the ground lest he should give seed to his brother. So he's basically making a mockery of this where he says, oh sure, I'll go in unto my brother's wife, but then I'm just going to go ahead and spill it on the ground so that I don't produce a child here. So instead of raising up seed unto his brother, he ends up just making a mockery of that and just, you know, basically practicing birth control with this wife. And the thing which he did, verse 10, displeased the Lord, wherefore he slew him also. So God literally kills this guy because he's so offended by the fact that this guy did that. Okay. Look, here's the deal. The point of what I'm showing you here is that in scripture, having children is a blessing. Being the end of your family line is kind of a travesty. God takes this kind of seriously that he wants us to, you know, transmit our name and our genes and our culture and our beliefs and everything to the next generation to the point where this guy who makes a mockery of that ends up being killed by God. He wants to just enjoy the pleasure with the woman, but he doesn't want the child that is the result of that union. And of course you could find a lot of parallels between that and the mentality today in America that wants to have that physical relationship, but doesn't want to produce a child. Well first of all, a lot of that's because it's happening outside of marriage, which is wicked, it's fornication, it's a sin, it's wrong. But, you know, even when it's within marriage, why would we not want to produce children with our spouse when God says it's a blessing, it's a reward, it's good to be fruitful and so forth. You know, it's probably because we've been infected with one of these worldly mentalities. Because if we really had a biblical mentality, we wouldn't feel that way. And it doesn't really bode well for spilling it on the ground when the guy who did that got killed by God. That's not cool. Show me all the Bible stories of all the godly men spilling it on the ground or using other forms of birth control. You don't see it. So when you're reading the Bible and everything's real positive about having children and fruitful and multiply and blessing and so forth, and then there's just nothing negative about having a lot of children, about producing children, I mean, where are you getting your mentality from? Are you getting it from TV, movies, radio, worldly sources, school, whatever, or are you getting it from the word of God? Because I don't think you're getting this mentality that doesn't want to have children from the word of God. Your ancestors had children, which is why you're here. There were other humans on this earth long ago who didn't want children. And they're like, I don't want children. I don't want to produce children. I'm not interested in having children. They didn't have children. You are not descended from those people. You are descended from people who had children. And in fact, people who had lots of children make up more of your ancestors than the people who had few children. You come from a long line of people who had a lot of kids. Just do the math. And then you come along, and all of a sudden, you don't want to play the game. Okay? Well, you know what? I'm going to do it God's way. I'm going to follow the... Oh, wait. I already did. But I have done it God's way. But the point is that we don't want to be conformed to this world. We want to be transformed by the renewing of our mind. If we're living in the word of God, we're not going to have a worldly mentality on the subject. We're going to have a biblical mentality. Don't let some evolutionist, some environmentalist, some, you know, anthropologist tell you that you need to have less children because, you know what, evolutionarily speaking, I'm kicking their butt. It's just that simple. Okay? Because I'm sending so much DNA downstream, they just can't keep up. And that's why they're bitter. Okay? Because I've already produced 12 children. And I've got all kinds of nieces and nephews that also have some of the DNA from my parents and my grandparents. You know, our family's DNA is alive and well in this world, amen? And you know what? I want to pass on, most importantly, not just some genes to my kid, I want to pass on Christianity to my kid. Okay? And you know what? It's a shame and a travesty today when the illiterate Muslims are producing more children than God's people. You know, is that what you want? You want that crowd to take over? You know, or why don't we give them a run for their money? Why don't we give the Mormons a run for their money? Why don't we give the Roman Catholics and the Muslims and everybody else a run for their money? You know, why don't God's, why are God's people the one choosing to have no kids and then you got a bunch of false religions producing children? You know, I want to raise up a godly generation and I don't want to be like the old IFB that it's just so pumped full of birth control, their wife has a beard and they don't have kids and the youth group's empty and pretty soon the church is just a bunch of grey heads and they're shutting it down. Hey, I want, you know what? Look around, my friend. You know, we got an auditorium filled with babies and toddlers and teenagers. Hey, it's going to be a great group of teenagers and young adults someday. Are they going to be perfect? No. Are there going to be problems? Yes. Even though we're sending out a lot of ambassadors for Christ into this world in the next generation. Amen? And if you say, well Pastor Anderson, you know, I'm hurt and offended because I don't have kids and so this sermon was just totally not applicable for me. Why don't you go out and produce some spiritual sons and daughters by winning people to Christ? You can reproduce spiritually, get some of your spiritual DNA moving downstream and actually have some sons and daughters in the faith. We should all be doing that. But again, who are the Christians who don't reproduce spiritually? Same ones who are all puffed up on knowledge, they're all geeked out on theology. Now they're not soul winning anymore and now they won't preach sermons for Joe Blow, common man. Right? You know what the Bible says about Jesus? The common people hurt him gladly. You know, we ought to preach sermons for the common man, not get so puffed up on knowledge that we're just preaching to the choir. No, let's bring in some babes, some sons and daughters in Christ, some babes in Christ and get them saved and teach them all things that Christ commanded us. If you can't reproduce physically, reproduce spiritually, but you know what? Let's do both. Let's reproduce spiritually and physically. Let's go ahead and have a word of prayer. Father, I pray that something in the sermon tonight would sink in, Lord, I pray that you'd use your word in the hearts of your people and that we would not have a mentality that sees children as a burden, but that we see them as a blessing, Lord, and that we would be fruitful and multiply and that you would bless us with children. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. Let's take our hymnals now. Go to hymn number 109. One hundred and nine. Savior like a shepherd, lead us. Hymn number 109. Much we need, thy tender care. One hundred and nine. Savior like a shepherd, lead us. Hymn number 109. Much we need, thy tender care. One hundred and nine. Hymn number 109. Hymn number 109. Hymn number 109. Hymn number 109. Hymn number 109. Hymn number 109. Hymn number 109. Hymn number 109. Hymn number 109. Hymn number 109. Hymn number 109. Hymn number 109. Hymn number 109. Hymn number 109. Hymn number 109. Hymn number 109. Hymn number 109. Hymn number 109. Hymn number 109. Hymn number 109. 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