 Good morning, everybody. Hey, can we just quickly give it up for my beautiful bride, Jane, who's joined me on the platform. This is a big deal, Jane. Jane hates the platform, but she loves you and so she was willing to do it and she did such an awesome job last night. So much so, because whether you believe it or not, we don't see the questions. We have no idea what's about to be answered or about to be asked and then answer. And last night, one of the messages that came in said, we absolutely know these questions are already pre-scheduled. Your answers were way too polished. It was too put together and it's just, we need it more raw. And I'm like, there you go, Jane, you did an amazing job. So, excited to have her on stage. And but I did preference it like, please ask nicer questions than you did last week. So, those were pretty intense. I'm like, she can answer all those. I told her she has the Trump card. I said, what that means is that any time you can say, nope, I don't wanna answer that. And so, and then I'll take the brunt of that. So, but this morning we're gonna be answering questions related to marriage, family and parenting. So if you have not texted in or emailed or however you do that, radiant.church slash red hot on our website. If you haven't sent a message in, feel free to do that. And that's for those of you online. We wanna say good morning to Portage. We're glad that you're joining us as well. And we're gonna go ahead and dive in this morning. So, let's down here on the first question. This is somebody named John Z from Richland. Says, is it true that the first time you and Jane went out for breakfast, you said to her, hey, since you like those eggs so much, I'm let you pay for them? Do you guys see what I had to grow up with? I mean, seriously, do you see this? It was constant. So, yeah. I said it wrong. It's supposed to be, I'm let you pay for them. Did I say it better? Okay, yeah. Love you, John. Yeah. Sort of love you. Okay. Okay, so here's the first real question from Zach. Portage, can you explain what wives submitting to their husbands and husbands being the head of the wife looks like in God's call for the family? And he quotes a couple different scriptures there. How does it look for a wife to submit to her husband? And for both to submit to one another? Well, let me just start by saying both of those scriptures, I won't take the time to read them. Ephesians five, Colossians three, both layout, responsibilities within the family, husband and wife. And a lot of times when we read those scriptures, they seem to kind of slap us in the face, especially related to the culture and the world that we live in today, because in our world, the word submission is actually a derogatory term. When we say to somebody, submit or you need to submit or that submission or you need to come under submission. And I understand that a lot of that has to do with the tenor by which it is communicated, but the word submit actually means or at least in our culture today, that phrase means less than that you're coming under, you just need to know your place and get there. But before I even touch on the husband and wife part of it, I wanna remind you of what Philippians chapter two said. It says that Jesus, who being the Son of God in the form of God did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but he emptied himself and he became like a servant. Jesus, the Son of God in the triune relationship of Father, Son and Holy Spirit is equal to God the Father just as much God as the Holy Spirit is, but yet he willingly submitted himself to the Father. And so if submission takes place even within the Godhead, without it diminishing the deity whatsoever, God the Father's God, God the Son is God, God the Holy Spirit is God, but in order for there to be unity within the Godhead and the purpose of God being lived out, there has to be submission, which means one is the head and the other is submitted there. It's submission is not a destructive or a derogatory or a controlling or belittling phrase at all. It's actually the greatest gift that can ever be given is the gift to willingly submit to the will or the leadership of someone else. When we get saved, we submit to God and when we're children, we submit to our parents and within the family, when the Bible refers to a husband as the head of the household, what that means, the word head in the original language means the source or the one who carries the responsibility. And I believe that God has given men, especially within our framework of our families, the responsibility to set the temperature, the pace to provide, to protect within the family structure and also to be the source of encouragement, empowerment and life to our wives and to our children. That's our number one responsibility. Submission has nothing to do with, I'm the boss, you do what I say, that's domination. But a husband is called to be the head and the source, the source of life, the source of leadership, the source of inspiration and empowerment. If I'm not empowering Jane to be everything that God has called her to be, then I'm actually going to stand before God and give an account for that because I'm the one responsible. And I think when it's done right, it just brings confidence to the woman, to the family, to the kids and all that. And so I went as a single woman, like be like scared of that word, but also find a godly man that understands the submission part of that. You know what I mean? Cause we're all submitted to something or to someone. Yeah, and even in Ephesians five, after it says why submit to your husbands, it also says submit to one another. So there are some things that in our family, I submit to you on or if you have a strong conviction about something, I submit to that because I trust your discernment and your leadership. And I think communication is just the key in that. You know what I mean? Of sitting down, even like, and we've done this forever, take a night a week and just go over your schedule, go over your kids. I mean, just all those things of just not letting life just go by, but really communicating and talking. And like Lisa, there's things that I'll feel and be like so strong on it. And he'll be like, okay, you know what I mean? Like, if you feel that strongly about it, then we'll let it go. You know what I mean? Instead of being like, oh, I'm the man of the house and this is the way it's gonna go. That would never fly. No, it wouldn't. And that's okay. And that's good. Because I think as women, we ought to be strong. And, but in our strength, also have a tenderness, not a weakness because I don't like that word, but a tenderness towards the Lord first and towards our husband. And God blesses that. So. And in leadership, man, the last thing I'll say about that is we're supposed to be servant leaders, which means we're leading, but not out of a place of domination. But like Jesus said, the world uses leadership to Lord it. Our job is to be a foot washer and a servant and in a relationship to our wives, the washing of the water of the word and inspiration and encouragement. That's our number one responsibility. So that's what we'll have to say about that. Let's take another question. This is Bill from Richland. Excuse me. Where does radiant church stand on birth control? I personally don't use any. And we don't make a mandatory for our members, obviously. Our nursery is exploding. So obviously there's some procreation. It's not the free gift you get when you go to the lab. Yeah. Radiant, radiant labeled condoms or something. I don't know. Where did that come from? I don't know. I just think of branding and logos for everything. So I think birth control is one of those issues that couples have to come into agreement on. I don't think that there's anything wrong with birth control at all. I do think I'm not a doctor and so I can't speak to all the medical components of that. However, I would say that that's something that you wanna consult with your doctor. Some people's bodies don't respond to certain kinds of birth control or those kinds of things. And so you have to be careful. I think that there can be some ramifications physiologically for long-term use of certain kinds of birth control but I think that you and your doctor make that decision. And you and your husband or your husbands and wives coming together to determine when and for how long and what way that you're going to approach that. I don't think in general there's anything absolutely wrong with birth control. I know that there are certain denominations that say that all birth control is evil, that God's the one who opens and closes the womb and so therefore if you want you to have children then you're gonna have them and my pastor when I was coming up he said, you know what you call people that don't use birth control? And I said, what? He says, parents. And so if you wanna have 20 kids, well then you better know if you're not gonna use birth control and unless you're gonna be celibate in your marriage you're probably gonna have a whole lot of kids and you need to be wise about that. You need to be in agreement on that but I don't think that there's anything specific that the Bible has to say about yet or whether good or bad for birth control. You wanna chime in on this? You're the one in our marriage that's actually ever used it, so. I'm sorry, I told her I wasn't gonna do that. I lied. Next question, what happens as a married couple when you get to heaven? Where in the Bible does it talk about this? That is a great question and this is from Lindsay and Richland. The Bible doesn't have a lot to say about that other than let me, I think it's in Luke. I'd have to dig here. I think it's where Jesus is confronted on the subject of marriage and what he says to the Pharisees who came to him is he says, you have no understanding of the scriptures because you don't know and you don't realize that in heaven there is no marrying or giving in marriage that we're actually like the angels in other words that we're no longer in a corporal body where we're reproducing. So there's not gonna be child rearing, there's not gonna be birth, there's not gonna be new life that is actually produced in heaven. That's what it means when it says that we're like the angels. And in the intermediate state, which is right now, if you die and you're a believer, your spirit and your soul go directly into the presence of the Lord. Paul said that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. And so that's talking about our spirit and soul. And it's called the intermediate state because it's not the final state. The final state will be after Jesus returns, he judges the living and the dead. There will be the resurrection, physical resurrection of both the righteous and the unrighteous to be judged. The righteous will be given glorified physical bodies and we will live forever in the kingdom of God. The unrighteous in the resurrected bodies will be cast into a lake of fire where they will be tormented. And there will be, it's hell for eternity. So that's gonna be the separation. In the kingdom of God it implies in scripture that we will know, obviously know each other. We will know then as we have been known. So there's going to be the ability to know who everybody is. So we're gonna have relationships and friendships, but it's probably not going to be like it is here, especially when it comes into regards with marriage. It's not like, Jane and I have talked about this. It's like, heaven must be so good that when we get there, there's not gonna be any level of disappointment because on this side of eternity, just to be honest, there's times where it's like, when we get to heaven, I kind of, I wanna have a little house together, you know, over there on the outskirts of the kingdom of God. I've already kind of picked out my spot in Cape Cod where I wanna be. But yet the Bible seems to imply that it's not gonna be like that. Married couples, marriage is, if you've ever noticed in the vows, until death do you part. It's a covenant here on this earth, but there's a very strong family reality in a sense that is present in the kingdom of God because Jesus mentioned, people will come from the east and from the west to sit down with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. That's a generational covenant that is eternal. So there's aspects of family that will be recognized and honored in heaven in the kingdom of God. But when it comes to marriage, marriage is dissolved as soon as we die on this planet. Hopefully that there's, hopefully we can hang out together in heaven, we can go for walks together. And who knows, I don't know what heaven's gonna be like. It's gonna be amazing. Paul said, I has not seen, ear has not heard, nor has it even entered into the heart of man what God has prepared for those who love him. So how many know heaven's gonna be amazing? It's gonna be good. Nobody's gonna get to heaven and go, oh, this is a bummer. I like it better the other way. Now we're gonna get to heaven and be like, whoa. And it's gonna be amazing. So that's all I can say about what the Bible has to say about marriage in heaven. Just says that we will, there's no marrying or giving in marriage and we will be like the angels in heaven. Okay, let's take another question. Okay, well, we just jumped right from angels in heaven to the M word, here we go. Is it okay to masturbate to, by the way, before I read this question, if you have children, I'll give like a five second thing, plug their ears. Okay, is it okay to masturbate to pictures or videos of your own wife when she isn't in the mood to be intimate? Well, welcome to church this morning. And this is definitely one of the ones he's gonna answer. I was gonna, I was gonna, I was gonna hand this one off to you, babe. So here's what I would say about this. God's design for sex within marriage is to be mutually pleasing to one another and to approach it from the standpoint of not just getting my needs met, but meeting the needs of your spouse. That's love, love is self-giving. And there's two things that I will say about this. Number one, I would think that in this particular occasion where it's like, oh, wife's not in the mood and she's just like giving you a picture and go do your business. I don't know if it's inherently simple, but it's inherently selfish. And I think that in this particular situation, we need to have a focus where it's more about, A, sex is a bond in marriage. It's a celebration of covenant. It's not just about, hey, I'm hungry, so I'm gonna go eat something or, hey, I've got a sexual need and I'm gonna go fulfill it. I realize those needs can be very strong and there can be a strong pull, but I think that there can be ways even within the marriage bed where it can be like, where I'm not really in the mood, but let me take care of you. Let me help you. Let me be a part of it where you're doing it together and it doesn't have to be full-blown intercourse or those kinds of things. And the other thing I would say is that we need to emphasize more about the fruit of the Holy Spirit and one of the fruit of the Holy Spirit is self-control. And it's like, do you have to have it? Let me just be blunt. Do you have to have it so bad right now that you'll settle for a Polaroid? It's like, come on. It's like the whole thing is I'm married to you and I love you and I wanna be with you and this is intimate. This is intimacy, not just having a need net. So I wouldn't say that it's necessarily inherently sinful, but it's not the best and I think we can do better. And I think with better communication, and if a marriage is healthy and you have those levels of intimacy, you don't have to mess with that stuff because I'm fearful that that kind of thing can just lead to you have your own sex life and I have my own and then that bleeds into not just pictures of my wife, but then porn, which is so easily available in our culture. And we don't wanna get into a mentality where sex is just me by myself taking care of my own needs and self gratification. We wanna celebrate the covenant and celebrate marriage. And then just on a practical note. You really are gonna chime in. Yes. I'm just gonna say like on a practical note, it's like, okay, masturbation to pick or video of your own wife, when she isn't in the mood to be intimate. It's like, if you're gonna go through all that work to send a video or a pic, I mean, at that point. Just have sex. Just have sex. You know what I mean? To me, that'd be a heck of a lot. Easier and like self, like. I would like to have some pics though. Oh honey. I don't think I'm gonna get any, but. We have one more service and I'm not gonna do it if you're gonna be naughty, so it's just kind of like, if you're gonna go through all that work to do that, then just. Amen. Love your husband, just do it. I don't know. All right, we're moving on. John, online. How do I raise my child as a Christian without force feeding Christianity on them? That's an awesome question. I think raising your child as a Christian starts with you being a Christian. And it starts with your example and your model. So in the Old Testament, the way that God commanded His people, Israel in the very beginning of covenant about training up their children is found in Deuteronomy chapter six. It's called the Shema. It's a declaration of our faith and of what we believe. But if you read all of chapter six, what you'll find is that God gives them the instruction about how to pass that on to their children. And he talks about, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. That's the Shema. And then it says, and these words I command you today, verse six. You shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children. You shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontlets before your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. And when the Lord God brings you into land that he swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to give you with great and good cities, houses full of good things. It basically goes on and don't forget the Lord your God. So if you notice, he says, here's the prescription for training your children up. Number one is make this declaration. Hero Israel, the Lord our God is one God. Okay, so that's our mission statement and our statement of faith. And then it says as parents, talk about it when you're leaving the house, when you're in the car, when you're in the minivan, when you're putting them to bed, when you're having dinner, and when you're playing football all out in the back and set it as frontlets before their eyes. In other words, make it visual. Write it on the doorpost of your house so that when they, every time they come in the house, there are reminders of that. And so I would say that there are some very formal things that you can do. And there are some informal lifestyle things that you need to do. And your faith needs to permeate every aspect of your life. It can't just be, oh, I doctrinally believe this and so you should believe this, but I live differently. You have to have a consistent lifestyle where Jesus says at the center of everything that you do. We talk about them in our house. We pray in our house. We read our Bibles in our house. When we sit down at the dinner table, it's our conversation. What God doing in your life? What did you think of that sermon? You've got youth group this week. What's going on in youth? Those kinds of things. What did Miss Dawn teach you in Sunday school? Those kinds of things need to be a part of just everyday life in the car, worship music that you have playing. Signs that you have with scripture, scripture on the mirror in the bathroom or on the refrigerator, those kinds of things. Even what you watch on television and then I'd say the formal things are, make church a priority. Listen, I'm preaching to the choir because you're all here. But listen, the average churchgoer in America, so born again, Bible-believing Christian, attends church 1.8 times per month. So that means more than half the time they don't attend church. And the reason why we don't, I get it, is because of work sometimes, those schedules, but a lot of things has to do with sports, competitions, just don't feel like it. And what you don't make a priority, don't expect your kids to make a priority. I think the greatest thing that parents can do to impart their faith, number one, is be an example. Number two is make church a regular habit where you come week in and week out and youth group is a priority. You do those things, your kids aren't gonna like go, oh, we love Jesus so much. But they're gonna know that it's a priority and it's important. When you train them up when they're young, they will not depart from it when they're old. And then what you need to have is an amazing mom like our kids had who, Jane did a phenomenal job during the day. She stayed home with the kids and she constantly had worship music on in the house. She made sure that our kids were constantly, what they were watching was healthy and was Christ-centered and those kinds of things. She took them and had them spend time like in vacation Bible schools and different things like that. Anything you wanna add to that? I know, just basically like, just know they're watching you. You know what I mean? Like from a young age, even older. And so like Lee was saying like, and think you're pulling the wool over their eyes or whatever and live one way and then do another, but they see it. And we're all guilty of that at one point or another. I'm not gonna sit up here and say that we've done everything perfect, but they do know, and it's funny as they get older, they'll be like, do you remember when, blah, blah, blah. And so just to remember that, that they're little Christ followers and they're following you as you lead them. That's our job to lead them into a relationship with the Lord. I think some of the greatest times you can, as a parent, is when you blow it, when you've made a mistake is to own it, admit it and say you're sorry to your kids. That speaks tons of volumes. I can't, Jane and I have, I know it's hard to believe, but at times we've blown it or said something that we shouldn't or gotten an argument in front of them. And we've always made it a point to go back to our kids and just say, you know what, I shouldn't have said that and I'm really sorry. When you do those kinds of things, it actually, you don't have to say to them, I'm doing this because I'm a Christian. They know you're a Christian and that you claim that and when you live it out and you're able to do that in practical everyday terms where you humble yourself, you have to say you're sorry, they see that and it sticks. So I think. Because it's even funny as kids get older and they go through their phases of questioning or whatever, one of our kids came home and I had worship music going on and he goes, you know how I know all these songs, mom? I'm like, it's because you played them all the time when we were growing up. And I was like, thank you, Lord. You know, it's a seed that's planted like right now. I can wonder, is it taking root? You know, did he get anything? I growing up, you know, like you just questioned all these things and it was just like, okay. We brain washed them. Yep, so no. Literally, yeah. And sometimes their brains need some washing and so we want them saturated in the presence of God in our house. And two, this might seem like super religious, whatever but I don't care. I think too that you have to just be careful when they're younger of what you let them read. And I know our kids would probably stand up here and go, oh my gosh, mom, you didn't let us read Harry Potter. You didn't let us read Goosebumps. You know, I'm just thinking of stuff that was important, like was popular when our kids were little and I didn't because I felt like they were in that formative years that I didn't want that to influence them, you know what I mean? So I was like, okay, well, let's find something that is good. And if you have, I mean, I'm not condemning whatever but for us, it was just like one of those things like, I'm going to wait until you're older, more mature. This isn't gonna influence you, you know what I mean? That kind of way and so one of the kids have read it and they're like, oh my gosh, this is amazing, blah, blah, blah. You guys were so strict. And I go, yep, and you wait until you have kids and you'll be strict some day too. And I can't wait for that day to just sit back and watch them as they raise their kids and I'll just be like, I don't know. And I think I said this last night that as parents we just can't be afraid of our kids. We just can't be afraid to think that they're gonna be mad at us or, you know what I mean? Like you have to set the limit and boundaries because really that's what they want. And they might be mad, they might be ticked, they might hate you for a minute, but in the end they'll love you. Because I remember Tiffany, I think she was like in seventh grade and we're out of state. Of course these things always happen when you're out of state and she's texting me and I'm like, I wanna go to a community dance party. And I'm like, mm-hmm. No. And I'm like, but I didn't say no right away. I like I wanted to, but I just kind of like ask questions. I'm like, well, who's gonna be there and who's it open to? And is there gonna be a parent there? And no, no, no. And I'm like, well, no, you know what I mean? And she was so mad, but I didn't care. I was just like. She didn't talk to us for like 20 days, but it was great because it was quiet in her house. I loved it. But it was just like, I could have easily have just been like, okay, go. And maybe it would have been fine. I have no idea. I didn't know what it was. And I was like. I know what it was. I don't. It was like a meat market for high schoolers and they're all getting together and they weren't doing the waltz. So. So, you know, and then the whole thing, a parent's gonna take us and pick us up and you're going at every angle and I was, you know, trying to break you down and they do do that. You have to be brave parents. Yes. Brave and strong. Be willing for your kids to hate you until they have their frontal lobes fully developed in their mid 20s. Just settle that issue. Love them and make the decisions for them that they can't make for themselves and they will thank you later. Okay. Let's take another question here. This is Alice online. As someone who is getting married soon, congratulations and thinking about having a family. It is getting increasingly harder to think about bringing children into the world with the state of things as they are today. What does God say about this? Well, you know, understand this. I totally resonate and can understand what you're saying. It's easy especially today to look around and say the world is going crazy, morals are going out the window, there's, you know, norovirus or coronavirus or whatever it's, you know, it's around. It just seems like so many things are going wrong and we're nearing the end times and all that, I'm not sure if I should have kids. But here's the thing. We have to have more faith in the power of God's sustaining grace than we do in sin's ability to corrupt and destroy. And I think having children and having kids as Psalm 127 says children are the heritage or the reward that God gives us. And so we don't wanna be motivated in our lives and in our marriages by fear. I understand there's some sobering times that we're living in, but the reality is that there's never been an age, never been an era where there weren't similar challenges as there are today. They may have looked different. They may be on accelerants today as opposed to other times, but for example, if you raised kids during the Middle Ages, the mortality rate was 50%. And so people could say, well, I don't wanna have kids because 50% of my kids are gonna die and I don't wanna deal with the grief of that. Or during the bubonic plague era during the Middle Ages where, you know, 30% of the world's population died. You could look at that and say it's the end of the world. There's too much disease or too much war or different things like that. And we, if we're not careful, we can allow fear to become a more dominant factor in how we view life and view our families and the promises of God than we do faith. And I think God actually, what we need is we need more Christians, listen to this, having children and then intentionally raising them to be disciples of Jesus, to be salt in light in a world that needs it, as opposed to us having less and less children. Jesus comes back next week, praise the Lord, that'll be awesome, but we're not gonna live our lives going well because things are getting worse and that kind of thing that we're just gonna put it on pause. So I would say to you, Alice, get married, love your husband, have a family, train them to love Jesus, come to church, dedicate them, train them up to be salt and light and let God use your family to change the world. And I can't remember, I know it's in Psalm somewhere, but just about the children being an arrow in the hands of... Psalm 127, that they're like arrows in the hands of a man and blessed is he whose quiver is full of them, yeah. And so, you know what I mean, like... Yeah, they're arrows. Yeah, we can train them up to be instruments of righteousness and that goes back to the birth control thing. You need to have a quiver full of them. See, see how I worked that right there? So have like 10 kids, that'd be awesome. So, Alice, have fun, have kids. It's gonna, you know, Jesus is able to sustain them and strengthen you as a parent in the middle of whatever battle you're facing. Okay, we're gonna take another question here. This is Mary online. What would you say to a couple that is going through infertility? It is the hardest thing that we have had to go through in our lives thus far. I am at the point where I'm trying to understand why this is happening to me and how can I find meaning in this dark time? Well, Mary, first and foremost, we just, all of us wanna just say that we are so sorry that you're going through this. We've never gone through infertility so I have absolutely no idea what you're feeling or the pain and the questions that you're going through. Jane and I have gone and walked through fertility with close friends and we've seen the tears and we've also seen the laughter and the joy on the other side of that battle and that journey. But first and foremost, I wanna say that we're sorry you're going through that and Mary, we will pray for you and for the journey you're going through and for anybody else who's listening, wherever you're listening, if you've gone through this, probably some of you in this room have gone through similar type of thing and you know what Mary is going through. I would encourage those of you who've been through that to just pray for Mary. You may not know her but you know her name so add her to your prayer list. And we recognize that it's one of the hardest things that parents can go through because you have a desire to be a parent, to wanna have kids and for whatever reason, bodies aren't cooperating with that and what I would say to a couple that's going through infertility, number one is don't give up hope. Don't give up hope. Number two, do not feel like God is against you or has cursed you or has judged you because that is not how God operates. God is not the orchestrator or the initiator of your infertility. You haven't done anything wrong. God is not disappointed in you. He's not mad at you. This isn't judgment. That is not at all what this is. We live in a fallen world and sometimes our bodies aren't the way that they should be. And so don't accept the lie from the enemy that you've done something and this is payback for that. Don't give up hope that God is still at work and then I would encourage you to use every tool at your disposal depending on what the Holy Spirit leads you to do. For some people, they say we're just gonna wait it out and we're just gonna continue to pray and believe and do that. And if that's what you feel God has led you to do, then go that route. Other people say, no, we're gonna avail ourselves to every avenue that is out there and there are some amazing breakthroughs in medical technology right now for that. And I would encourage you if that's what you're feeling led to do with wise counsel, pursue that. And I'm gonna throw one more thing out and this is just a generalized statement. I know that oftentimes we look at this next thing that I'm about to say as kind of a last resort, but realize this that there are over a million children in our foster care system across our nation that desire and want families as bad as you want a family and adoption may be and should be a huge option for all of us. Look at what God has done adopting us into his family. And there are no second class sons or daughter in the kingdom of God. We're adopted in, he loves us just like he begot us. And I would say for those parents who are going through infertility, consider adoption, pray about adoption because we know some people that have done adoption and their lives have been radically changed. They would now say on the other side of it, looking back in that journey, we kind of thought we didn't wanna go that route, but now that we have, we are so glad that we did because we have actually not only have we got a family, but we've changed the trajectory of somebody else's life who would have not had a family. And I think it's an incredible option. And it's all, it all needs to kind of be brought back around to God, you may not have caused this, but you are not absent from this. So God is standing with you in whatever battle you are in as a parent and as a potential parent or a desirous parent. And you just say, Lord, what would you have me to do in this situation? And submit your desires, submit your frustrations, pour them out, surround yourself with wise counselors, seek out some people who've been through it, who are Christ followers and say, how did you go through it? There are all kinds of support groups, people that you can talk to. And at the end of the day, get your marching orders and use every tool that is available to you. And I believe Mary, I believe your best is coming. I don't know what this story is gonna look like in the end, but I know that God's intentions for you in the end is to bless you and to bless you indeed. And you're gonna be an amazing, an amazing mom. We believe that with all of our heart. Can we just support Mary and that, put our hands together for her? Okay, can we all stand up? We're gonna pray and close. This morning, thank you for all of your questions and for all of your encouragement. I wanna encourage you to bow your heads in our prayer team to move into place this morning at both of our campuses. While your heads are bowed and your eyes are closed, let me just speak over you. Because when it comes to family, when it comes to marriage, when it comes to raising kids and parenting, it's not a question of if you're gonna face challenges, it's just a matter of which ones and when. And the great thing that we stand in is not that, Jane and I don't stand up here because we've never been through battles. We stand up here in the grace of God because we've never faced a battle that God didn't come and fight for us. And I believe that whatever challenge you might be facing today, you're not alone. Because God will fight your battle for you and he will stand with you. And this morning I'm gonna pray and then we're gonna dismiss, but if you have a battle that you're facing or a need or maybe you just need somebody to pray for you or you're going through something that's really, really painful in your family, maybe you're here single and you're going through a battle about an issue that you're going through, maybe with your extended family, maybe about your future family. And you need prayer or maybe you're a grandparent today and you've raised your kids, but you need a restoration in your relationship with your kids or maybe you've got marital strife and tension right now and you need a breakthrough. The good news is that God is able to make all grace abound to us. And after I pray and dismiss and invite the Holy Spirit to come and to meet us at this altar, if you need prayer for anything, if you're going through a battle and you just want support and you want prayer, I'm gonna invite you wherever you're at to just linger and come and make your way to the front and receive prayer today because he is here. Jesus meets us when we reach out. He says, pray for one another in James 5 so that you might be healed. He is our healer today. So Lord, we reach out to you. We trust you. We stand in the grace that is found in you and we ask you Lord to meet us. Lord, I pray that as we leave this place today, I pray that your blessing would be upon every household, every family, every individual, every past, present and future. Lord that we would walk in strength and grace as those who love God and are following his ways. Help us to be salt and light and Lord meet those who come forward for prayer today. Lord, we need you. Every single one of us, every single moment of our lives, we need you. Would you meet us? Would you touch us? Would you heal us? Would you bring about miraculous breakthroughs that only you can bring? In Jesus' name we pray. Amen, amen.