Participants:
Series Code: LAC
Program Code: LAC180013A
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00:01 Do you believe that you are fearfully and wonderfully made?
00:04 It's true friend. Join us today on Life After Choice 00:09 and take hold of all that the Lord has declared you to be. 00:31 Hi, my name is Antionette Duck, 00:33 Welcome to Life After Choice. 00:35 In this series we are going to be exploring story after story 00:39 related to crisis pregnancy and abortion and brokenness 00:44 and the most incredible redemption. 00:46 This issue is so important to me personally 00:50 because I myself was rescued from abortion 00:54 and it was because of those who were willing to lift up 00:58 voices to speak on behalf of those who could not speak 01:02 for themselves that I myself was saved 01:05 and my mother along with me. 01:08 I am a part of a ministry called MAFGIA Ministries. 01:13 When I came into the Seventh-day Adventist Church 01:21 after studying for a period of time. 01:24 I was raised a Christian and knew the Lord 01:28 but as I began studying the Seventh-day Adventist doctrines, 01:32 I saw a truth there that I had not known previously. 01:37 I absolutely fell in love with this church, 01:41 I fell in love with it's teaching, 01:43 I fell in love with their love for the Lord, 01:45 I fell in love the way that they really sought Him 01:50 and wanted to honor Him with their lives. 01:52 The more that I became familiar though 01:56 with church doctrine, I was saddened by a silence 02:02 that surrounded this issue of abortion. 02:06 The Seventh-day Adventist Church has been given so much truth, 02:10 so much light and to be the standard bearer in so many 02:17 areas and my heart was to see this church, our church 02:22 be the standard bearer in every way, especially on an issue 02:27 as critical as this one that speaks about us being made 02:32 in the image of the Lord 02:33 of us literally bearing His likeness. 02:39 When I came across this silence, I was moved to do something 02:47 about it. I had actually encountered a woman who 02:51 happened to have a very providential conversation 02:54 with her and she said you know what, you don't do nothing. 02:58 You join, you become a part of this and you seek to change it. 03:03 So in January around early 2011, the MAFGIA Ministries began. 03:11 MAFGIA is a Hebrew word for "intercessor," 03:15 it comes from the verse Isaiah 59:16. 03:18 We are committed as a ministry to interceding for the value, 03:23 for the sanctity of human life from our very beginning, 03:27 from conception until natural death but we're also committed 03:32 to reconciliation and redemption for women and men who have 03:37 experienced the tragedy of an abortion. 03:39 It's not a ministry where it's only concern with the value 03:46 of the child or only concerned with the value of the mother 03:49 the Lord holds all of us equally valuable and He wants all of us 03:56 to esteem the other as being equally valuable. 04:00 So we are very much seeking to reach everyone involved in 04:06 this situation, especially in the midst of a crisis pregnancy. 04:10 In this series, you are going to hear the most incredible 04:15 testimonies, testimonies of pain, of shame, of brokenness, 04:22 of women hiding, hiding the crisis pregnancy, 04:29 of women needing to... experiencing all sorts of self 04:36 loathing and self-hatred as a result of their abortion 04:40 experiences. 04:41 You're going to hear from men, men who can tell you that 04:45 they experience shame, they experience self-hatred, 04:49 they experience suicidal thoughts over not being able 04:54 to stop the abortion that was taking place, you will hear 04:59 of their own struggle... 05:01 You will hear from parents, parents whose daughter 05:04 became pregnant and what do they do because they're in 05:08 pastoral ministry, how are they going to survive 05:11 in the situation that they're in? and they are so concerned 05:14 with what other people are thinking. 05:17 You're going to hear so many stories that are raw, 05:20 they are gritty, they're vulnerable 05:22 and they are so desperately needed to be told. 05:26 Because the reality is, we are made in the image of the Lord, 05:33 that is simply true. 05:36 You listening to me today, you were created with purpose, 05:42 you were created with destiny and it's a purpose and a destiny 05:48 that you alone can fill. You possess intrinsic value, 05:53 eternal significance. These things are so fundamental 05:58 to who you are that they cannot be diminished and they will 06:02 never be destroyed. 06:05 You are not valuable because of what you do, 06:08 or what you've achieved or what you possess... 06:10 You are not valuable because of how intelligent you are, 06:14 or how wealthy you are or the kind of influence you have. 06:18 You're valuable because you are made in the image of the Lord. 06:22 The Lord is asking us to live in that place. 06:28 He's asking us to live with that kind of humility. 06:31 To acknowledge the fact that we are valuable because of Him, 06:36 It's Him and Him alone who established our value 06:40 through creation, He established our value, He fortified it 06:44 forevermore at the cross and it's something that no one and 06:48 nothing will ever be able to take away. 06:51 Abortion is a thing that can not be undone, 06:58 that's simply true, you can't undue abortion. 07:04 You can't roll back the clock, you can't turn back the hands 07:09 of time and if we're not willing to speak light into 07:16 that darkness. Where are men and women who have experienced 07:21 the tragedy of abortion? Where are they going to go? 07:26 One of the first times as a part of the MAFGIA Ministry 07:32 when I founded it in early 2011. I later met my partner 07:37 Diane Wagner who is now my partner in the MAFGIA Ministry 07:41 and she invited me to come and speak to various groups 07:45 of people and one of the first groups of women I ever spoke to, 07:49 there was a woman who confessed, in this group of people 07:55 who she knew, but none of them knew that she had 07:59 had an abortion. She confessed that the enemy of her soul, 08:04 the evil one. One of the things he attacks her with 08:07 is the reason your children don't believe in the Lord 08:12 is because YOU had an abortion. 08:14 Think of that, think of the weight of that condemnation 08:20 what is she going to do? She is not going to run to the Lord, 08:26 she's not going to run to the one she thinks condemns her. 08:28 So what does she do? 08:31 Well she tries to fill herself up, she tries to make it ok. 08:35 She pays penance in a hundred different ways seeking to right 08:39 a wrong that never can be righted outside of the cross. 08:44 If we are not speaking into that place, 08:49 if we are not speaking into that darkness, there is nowhere 08:54 that she has to go. Nowhere that's going to set her free, 08:59 nowhere that's going to be life giving and redemptive. 09:02 This is something the Lord has given us to do as individuals 09:08 has given us to do as believers. 09:12 We're not saved because we've never sinned. 09:16 We were not saved because we are always perfect. 09:20 We're not saved because we've never done anything wrong. 09:23 We are saved by faith in Christ alone, we're saved because 09:29 we're covered by the blood of the Lamb. 09:32 That is HOPE! 09:35 Abortion is a thing that cannot be undone, 09:39 but that is not the end of the story. 09:42 The end of the story is the cross if we will allow it to be. 09:47 The story of the cross is the story of redemption. 09:51 That is what we have the opportunity to give the world. 09:57 That's what we have the opportunity to give men and 10:01 women, young and old, pastors and lay people. 10:05 That's what we have a calling to do. 10:10 The question is, will we do it? 10:14 The stories that you are going to hear this week 10:17 are so incredibly critical because they prove this need. 10:24 They prove the way this issue has affected us as individuals, 10:30 the way it's affected us as a church, the way it's affected 10:33 us in society and in culture. 10:36 Women have been made to suffer in silence and so to have men, 10:43 and will we be a people who say, you know what? 10:47 Women deserve better than abortion, men deserve better 10:52 than abortion. The unborn deserves better than abortion. 10:58 We as individuals, we as a church will get into 11:03 the trenches with these people in Crisis Pregnancy. 11:06 We won't reject them, we won't throw them, toss them to the 11:11 side or toss them in a corner and say this is too shameful 11:15 to deal with. We will be willing to go to uncomfortable 11:19 places, to have uncomfortable conversations so that the 11:23 captive can be set free. 11:27 The Lord is calling us to worship Him. 11:34 There's a verse in Revelation that says "worship Him who made 11:38 earth and sun and sky" and I could say and you. 11:45 Worship the one who made you. Do you realize that you were 11:55 literally brought into existence by the hand of the Lord? 11:59 Do you realize that His finger literally brought you into 12:06 existence and crafted you and designed you? 12:09 There is nothing about you that is accidental. 12:12 You originated in the Lord's mind. As one author said, 12:18 You were His idea and He put you here at this time 12:24 in the earth's history. There is such incredible purpose 12:29 to you and it has existed from your beginning 12:34 from your very first moments when the Lord created you 12:39 and brought you into existence. 12:41 The purpose and destiny in your life was there. 12:45 Well, you know what, it was also there for every other 12:51 human being who has ever existed, it was there for the 12:56 unborn. The value that they possess, the purpose that 13:02 the Lord into and onto their life, it has existed from their 13:07 very beginning. Will we choose to worship the Lord 13:12 not only as our creator, but as the creator of every human being 13:19 whoever was and ever will be? 13:23 Will we choose to say yes to the Lord in this way? 13:29 There are countless men and women who are desperate 13:36 to believe that the grace of the Lord is sufficient for them 13:40 because they have abortion in their past. 13:43 There are countless men and women who are in the midst, 13:48 the crucible of the crisis pregnancy and they are 13:53 desperate to believe that the Lord is for them, 13:57 that He's not set against them, that they haven't failed 14:00 so completely in winding up in this situation that He's 14:05 rejected them. They are desperate to believe 14:08 what is true, but who is going to tell them. 14:14 That's you, that's me, that's us. Will we do it? 14:21 Will we take the hand of the Lord. Will we walk side by side 14:25 with divinity and say YES! I choose to believe what 14:30 you have said about my value. I choose to believe what you 14:33 have said about the redemption that is available for me 14:36 and I choose to believe in the value you have written into 14:39 every single human being. Say YES! |
Revised 2019-01-24