Four score priests of the Lord who were valiant men, eighty valiant men followed this king who was as powerful as I just described him being and they withstood Uzziah the king and said unto him it appertaineth not unto the Uzziah to burn incense unto the Lord but to the priests the sons of Aaron that are consecrated to burn incense go out of the sanctuary for thou hast trespassed neither shall it be for thine honor from the Lord God then Uzziah was wroth and had a sensor in hand to burn incense and while he was wroth with the priests the leprosy even rose up in his forehead before the priests in the house of the Lord from beside the incense altar And Azariah the chief priests and all the priests looked upon him and behold He was leprous in his forehead and they thrust him out from thence. Yay himself hasted also to go out because the Lord had smitten him and Uzziah the king was a leper unto the day of his death and dwelt in a several house being a leper for he was cut off from the house of the Lord." King Uzziah, as mighty as he was, as powerful as he was, the conqueror that he was, the civil authority that he was, was withstood by the priests, by the men of God, by the church.

And they were indeed valiant men. One of my hopes that will flow from this talk and this conference is that valiant men will be stirred to be just exactly that. Valiant. Courageous in the face of overwhelming odds. You think those 80 priests by man's reasoning had a real good chance against this powerful king and yet was that their rationale?

No. They weren't confident and valiant in their own strength. They were confident and valiant in the strength of God who defends His Word, who defends His law, who defends His jurisdictions. And yet, he has a method. He uses valiant men, his men, the church, the family, as a part of the church.

God's methods matter. And while he was the defender and he did the work and he struck this king leprous, it was important what these valiant men did. They stood. They stood. And that's true courage.

Not being so sure of your own strength, but being supremely confident in the strength of your God. That's the call of the church today in a nation that so much needs to hear. You have left the law of God. We need valiant men. We need valiant women.

We need children who are mature in faith and brave to stand up to powerful kings. However powerful they may be, they cannot withstand the one true God who defends his truth and defends his law. You're probably thinking of lots of other examples where God has used his men to speak with regard to the issues of the day and particularly to speak to civil authorities who are, aren't they, the oppressors of religious liberty. You're probably thinking already about 1 Samuel 13 where the prophet of the Lord rebuked the king for breaking God's law. It's so familiar.

The Philistines had gathered to fight with Israel in overwhelming numbers and Saul had waited for Samuel who hadn't come and the people were quaking and fleeing and hiding in thickets and hiding in caves and Saul waited the appointed days and when Samuel didn't come he made the sacrifice himself You remember and what did Samuel say you have done foolishly You have not kept the commandment of the Lord your God, which he commanded you. For now the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever, but now your kingdom shall not continue. The Lord has sought for himself a man after his own heart, and the Lord has commanded him to be commander over his people because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you the man of God speaking to the civil authority about the law of God and about his violation of it not taking jurisdiction over him improperly but speaking the truth to him that's the job of the church that's the job of the family That's the job of the prophet of God. That's the job of valiant men. And God has indeed created jurisdictions in the church and with His people that are not to be usurped by civil authorities.

We also see another pattern. God using jurisdiction in the church and his prophets and his priests to provide accountability. Just as he did with King Uzziah through Azariah, You remember King David, a man after God's own heart, but not a man who was sinless. And you remember his rebuke by Nathan. Thou are the man who has done this evil thing, and these will be the consequences.

Peace will not be on your house. The rebuke of the Lord coming to the king through his prophet. Samuel's rebuke of Saul when King Agag was spared along with the choice sheep and oxen. Another familiar story, another strong rebuke, another civil authority who had done wrong in the sight of God, rebuked by the people of God. There are no shortage of examples.

1 Kings 13, the man of God calling down the wrath of God on King Jeroboam. 1 Kings 18, Elijah confronting King Ahab, 1 Kings 21, and Elijah's subsequent rebuke of Ahab for murdering and then stealing, Jeremiah 26, Jeremiah rebuking and speaking unto all the princes, all the civil authorities of his day and to all the people. Luke chapter 3, John the Baptist rebuking Herod for his immorality. The apostle Paul speaking to Felix about uprightness and righteousness and morality when he was married to a woman who he had seduced from another man through the use of a magician to commit adultery with him on an ongoing basis. The men of God must speak.

They must be valiant. So, if you're convinced, if we agree that the church and the family not only have jurisdiction, but also duty to speak to the issues of the day and to speak when abuses and violations of God's law occur, not just in their churches, not just in their families, but in the civil sphere as well. If we agree on that, if we agree that Luther was right, one of the great quotes of the Reformation that the church is to lick the fur of the state and not the feet. If we agree, what are some of the most significant threats to religious liberty to churches and Christian families today? Well I would like to set the context for continuing this discussion on a kind of a personal level.

A thing that I hope will be fun and interesting and I think that more importantly really helps to couch the danger and describe the debate. I do this by introducing my family to you at some level. I've only done this in one other talk. I have generally been very protective of the privacy of my family and my thought process has been whether I really articulate it to be okay with being in the crosshairs myself and have people talk about me on the internet and say ugly things, but I really want them to leave my family alone. I really wanted them hands off with regard to my wife and my little children.

I've never until this year talked about my family and used illustrations along those lines. But as we went to the conference where I was going to do this for the first time, I warned my family I was going to do it. I didn't want them to be caught too badly off guard. And I said, you know, this may result in some bad things for y'all. But we're launching a national organization to help unite Christians to stand together and fight against these very abuses that I'm talking to you about this morning.

We're going to be public as a family. We can't shrink from that. We can't hide from it. It's going to happen. So I'm going to talk about y'all.

I'm sorry if it brings persecution your way. I'm sorry if it's scary. I'm sorry if people say ugly things on the internet about how you're dressed or how stupid and backwards you are or how deceived or whatever you may be. I'm sorry for some of these things that may hurt you. But the time has come.

My family was silent for just a second, maybe two. And then they just erupted into cheers in the car. And I looked at them and one of my daughter said to me, Daddy, if they're gonna say hateful, ugly things about you. We want them to say hateful, ugly things about us too. Pardon me.

That gets to daddy's heart. That's courage. Those aren't valiant men, but that was a valiant little car full of children. I pray that example speaks to you as it does to me. I'd like to introduce them to you as a part of my message today, not just to curse the darkness, but to help light a candle, not just to emphasize duty, but to offer insights as to where opportunities to do our duty arise, to help offer a solution, to let you know my family a little bit so that in knowing us you might see some of what threatens us and you might think about what also threatens you and your family and families like yours who you love and families that are part of your church and Christians across this country with whom we ought to stand.

As I've said it makes me a little nervous but the courage that my family showed I have a son named Robert Christian Valor Heart. Robert means shining. We pray that he will be a man of shining Christian courage. And I'm just grateful that he was right there helping lead the cheers. Not afraid.

Valiant little boy who I hope will grow into a valiant man. So one of my fondest hopes for this message in this conference is that valiant men and women will rise up again, as we've said, not in their own strength, But with faith in God as our defender to fight our battles, faith in him as our strength, our fortress, the kind of faith that those 80 valiant men had when they spoke to King Uzziah. So this is our most recent family photo. They made it up there tastefully done. Uh, as I'm sure you agree, uh, Although getting the deer to pose with us took a little effort.

We're just regular folks. We do eat a lot of venison as a big family. If you come see us you're likely to get venison, steak, fajitas, tacos, stew, chili, whatever is really natural and good and we care for it well and it doesn't cost eight dollars a pound. And we all pitch in to help fill the freezer each fall and this was a special and this is Victor's first deer, my second born son, he's five in this picture and that's about the time when I generally want my boys to demonstrate a mastery of firearms and that's a little bit tongue in cheek, We're very careful with how he gets to use those, but he did. And he is beginning to develop some of those manly attributes.

Howard Phillips advised me years ago to train my children to be marksmen. I think he meant a lot when he told me that but I've taken his advice seriously and it's been a lot of fun and I hope that it's a skill that serves in taking Dominion and filling the freezer and isn't required in in some other ways in their lifetime But I took that wise man's advice in that. So this was a special photo. We celebrated with him. Took about 80 pictures probably.

And as you can see It's probably a little challenging to get all nine of us looking in the same direction and faith was getting hungry back there and in Mom's arms is one of those one of these things is not like the others photos of a very happy group except faith Protesting just a little bit, but you know who would despise this bunch. I mean don't they look like nice people? I'm glad they do to you. They do to me too. Harmless looking as long as you're not a deer.

I mean a sweet group but you know what? The world thinks we're a little different. They think we're weird. They actually think we're threatening. They're suspicious of us.

In many ways. And that's not something that ought to shock or alarm us too badly. Let me give you a little more specific introduction, not necessarily the best pictures that we have of our family but they're representative of who you are. You've met Faith and her mama was holding her, I'll talk about her in a second, but from shortest to tallest to next tallest on down is Jackson, Emily, Catherine, Hannah, Valor, and Victor and their blessings. They're an absolute heritage from the Lord to me.

They are arrows that I pray will be in the hands of a warrior for the Lord and they're worthy of protecting and I want to protect them. And I want my church to stand with me in protecting them as I want your churches to stand with you in protecting your families as I want you to stand with your brothers and sisters in Christ locally, regionally and across the nation in protecting their families. Back to our introductions. Looks like some Photos may have gotten rearranged. Let's see what happened with the with the slides here Volume up a little bit.

Okay sound guys. We got any more got any more volume we can add here No, I think they I think they got changed on this one. Hang on, let me try to line up with yours. Which one do you have next? Okay.

No, they, looks like our slides got rearranged a little bit. Forgive me. This is going to chop up our talk a little bit But that's okay back to family introductions. Go ahead to that one. That's fine The Lord has been incredibly kind through the blessing the fatherhood and has used it to draw me to Him in ways that I really never imagined.

I imagine many of you give just the same testimony. God has awakened in me a love for Him that is stronger and more profound and an understanding of his tenderness and love toward me as my Heavenly Father in the context of family that I really never understood apart from being a father. I'm confident some of you fathers understand that. You mothers may have been more naturally tender, but some of us gruff old guys need to be daddies before we're tenderized in certain ways and God certainly has done that with me. Our boys are sort of rough around the edges and generally ready for whatever may come and lots of fun.

They like to play but I pray they're also being discipled and nurtured to hit the mark not just with things like this but far more importantly in the ways of the Lord. Trying to train them to be men. The cowboy attire that they wear is not just idle costume. Switch to that next slide. They actually work and do the things that cowboys often get to do.

There's my little boy Valor at five helping us round up cattle in South Texas and pitching in. Our boys are all boys and I pray that our girls are all girls. If you can go to the next slide. I'm delighted that the world scowls when they see my daughters, at least those in the world who hate feminism and or hate femininity and love feminism. Those that hate feminism don't scowl at my daughters.

I'm delighted that we are, at least today, in seeking to faithfully do so tomorrow, teaching them to reject the ideals of feminism and the lies of hell that they are, to love and embrace biblical femininity and to their completely unbiased daddy, I believe they do so. And as you can tell, they can pretty effortlessly give daddy a look that captures his heart in many ways. While they're ladies of the first order, again in my completely unbiased opinion, they also have a sort of a pioneer adventurous spirit. These are sturdy pioneer women we're seeking to raise, not wilting flowers. Rejecting feminism doesn't mean that femininity is weak and we believe that and we're trying to give our daughters opportunities to demonstrate that.

So occasionally They'll rescue stranded kitties from flooded streams. And they will sometimes climb trees in their tea party attire. Which is a sweet little slide coming next. And it's not just their brothers who are marksmen in the family. Go to the next slide.

Each of our daughters has on many occasions actually knocked over a dough for the freezer and done just what we just showed their little brothers doing and these ladies are are pretty capable. In fact on certain days they may outshoot their brothers who are pretty fair marksman themselves but we we enjoy the context of family and all that it involves. Their mama is a capable lady. She's pretty comfortable in all these crazy situations that I've put her and the family in and growing more so and in fact is of a pioneer spirit herself Killed a rattlesnake with an axe when it got up to the house too close to her children A little while back and This amazing lady is here helping me and I'm not going to look at her because I'll choke up again standing at my side even as she nurtures and nourishes our little four month old daughter with whom we have taken her first really long trip to come and be with you. For our family though the most important day of our week is the Lord's Day.

The day when the cowboys get cleaned up and the girls put on their best. The day when little boys who are not supposed to be able to sit still for anything but video games or television sit still for three hours and worship with the church. That's the highlight of our week. That's the most important day of our week. It's a near all day affair for us.

Three hours of worship followed by a meal and several hours of fellowship until finally our time to be in the center that we rent runs out and we all stand around outside for another couple hours until it finally is time for us to disperse and move away from the body of Christ. So we're just a regular Christian homeschooling family, a lot like yours. You probably see a lot of your family and ours I know that I see a lot of our family in many of yours. And you know as I give this talk and look at you and see smiles and nods, I see that you understand us. That you don't despise us.

I see why twelve, fifteen hundred people would go to such lengths to come to an NCFIC love the church conference. We love the church and the blessing of children and life and beauty and manhood and womanhood and the culture of Christ. That's our family. That's your family. I hope and pray And we're not, boy are we not perfect.

Boy do we have rough edges and lots of warts, but we take each other warts and all. Love each other And I am grateful for the affirmation that I get from the Christian community just from being here with you, for being a part of our church family. And I know that that's a lot of what this conference is about, is building that church life, that sense of community in the church that is so beautiful. But again, there are those who are suspicious of us. There's a state whose mold we don't fit well and who can often be and has often been downright hostile and suspicious of us and of you too.

I'd like to illustrate a key point in our legal discussion with a story about the little fella on the right here in this picture. His name is Victor and he's sitting by his mama between her and Mrs. Brown and he is a sweet spirited tender little boy. First thing he does in the morning when he gets up is go crawl in bed with his baby sister and just stroke her face for about 10 minutes and just say hello to her if she's still asleep when he comes in there. He's so disappointed.

He's also one of the most determined little guys you'll ever meet. He's sort of the character of our family in a lot of ways keeps us just in stitches much of the time frankly and something happened with him that I think illustrates our relationship with children in a in a neat way. He when he was a lot littler than he is now, was trying to get my attention at the dinner table one time. And we were eating with my family, my parents, and some other folks. And he was pulling on my sleeve and I was talking to the men and around the table there and he said, Daddy, Daddy, Daddy, Daddy, Daddy, Daddy, Daddy, Daddy, Daddy.

And I was kind of giving him the don't interrupt, wait, son. And you know, that lasted about 10 seconds. And then he was pulling in, Daddy, Daddy, and I knew I was gonna have to stop and remind him of how he needed to do things. And yet, pretty involved in the conversation. And the more frantic he got, the higher his voice got.

Daddy, I need you. Daddy, I need you. Daddy, I need you. Daddy, I need you. Until it was just almost ready to break glass.

And finally, a little exasperated, I turned and said, son, just hold on and stop that whining. And so I turned back and I'd gotten about three words into the next conversation, a little tug at my sleeve. Daddy, I need you. And of course we just fell out. And that's just typical.

I've got a lot of those kinds of stories about him. But you know what it reminded me was, well, they do need us. Now he understands that. He just flat understands that he needs his daddy. God has created a bond and a connection between a daddy, a mama, and children that is just indescribable so I won't try.

But he needed his daddy and he understood that and it reminded me how important these little ones are to God and how much they need. 2 Timothy 3.15-17, and that from a child that has known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus. They need to be soaking in the Word from the time they are little bitty. Ephesians 6, 4, and fathers, provoke not your children to wrath, but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. They need us.

They need us. Matthew 18, 6, But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck and that he were drowned in the depths of the sea. How important these little ones are to God. Malachi 4, 5 and 6. Behold I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord and he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children and the heart of the children to their fathers lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.

These little ones are important to God. Important to God. They need to be so important to us and it's not coincidental that many of the attacks that many of the oppressive actions on the part of the state have to do with these little Children historically. It has always been critical for a tyrannical state to control the hearts and minds of the children. It's one of the reasons that I believe that what we are doing in home education is one of the great hopes for revival and reformation in this land.

It's one of the reasons that I frankly believe this land is still enjoying a level and degree of God's mercy which it could not pretend to deserve because there is still a faithful little remnant that is seeking to walk before the Lord, to train up a child in the way that He should go so that He won't depart from it. To understand that our children are a heritage from the Lord. To teach them diligently the ways of the Lord and to talk about those things when we're in our house, when we sit, when we walk, when we lie down and rise up. To lay up these words that the Lord's given us in our hearts and communicate them to our children. You know Abraham, Genesis 18, seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him.

For I know him that he will command his Children and his household after him and they shall keep the way of the Lord to do justice and judgment that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he has spoken of him. The greatness of a nation tied directly to the faithfulness of a father with his children and how he would command them in the ways of the Lord. You know what we don't see in scripture? The state-given jurisdiction to do the things through compulsory education and quasi-jurisdictional invasion of the family through social services, police of thought, faith and belief. We don't see jurisdiction given to control what goes on in the church.

Unless those things rise to the level of criminal activity. We don't see jurisdiction given to the state to police the thought and the conscience and the mind of the church that is supposed to flow in the other direction as we have seen exemplified from the scriptures that we've considered already and yet historically tyrannical intrusions by the state in the family have been common from ancient civilization to modern America. This pattern of state intrusion into the jurisdiction of the family has been fairly predictable. The breakdown has been predictable when that happens. Universal corruption and disregard for marriage, one of the first attitudes that flows from family, breakdown.

You see vanishing birth rates. This is just sort of a chronology of nations that collapse. Go just precisely this way historically. They stop loving and embracing the blessing of Children. They embrace abortion, use of birth control, fewer children, and then rebellious claims of independence asserted by children against their parents and supported improperly against the law of God, resulting in a drastic rise in juvenile delinquency which then flows straight into crime throughout adult life and nations which are destabilized and nations which collapse very, very predictably throughout history follow this pattern.

A child's need for his father who speaks the truth of God into his life and into his heart. A child's need to be a part of a church which will stand and defend the rights that the Lord has given to the family and the duties that flow from those rights are so critical. I'd like, if I could, to give you a couple of other real life examples that I think paint a picture that may save a thousand words. What other dangers should you be concerned about in your family? Let me, you know, one of them you probably figured out and understand, but when you have a medical need it is a dangerous situation.

If you don't have a Christian doctor who understands the truth of God's Word. You are dealing with a mandatory reporter for state social workers who likely doesn't respect God's Word. And it's a dangerous situation for you and your family. One of the smartest things you can do, one of the best things you can do in your church is go to the effort of finding Christian doctors who can just give care to your family and understanding the dangers that exist there particularly if you understand what the scripture say about corporal punishment and discipline in child rearing while it is legal throughout the United States. It is frowned upon and discouraged and harassed and persecuted very very consistently even though on the books it may be perfectly legal social services agencies and administrative codes apply things in ways that that create real difficulty for families.

Just a point of wisdom. Be careful when you have a medical need. I represented and helped a family one time who had a child just stung by bees repeatedly. And the emergency room nurse didn't understand how to get those stingers out whenever they took the child down there. Instead of scraping them off like most good parents here know you're supposed to do.

She grabbed them with tweezers and squeezing this poison back into this child's head. And this family had a family doctor they trusted and said, you know what, we're gonna go to his office and try to get this dealt with, thank you very much. She gets turned into CPS, opens a file on their family, comes after their family, wants to interview everybody in the family, wants to come in and see the children apart from mom and dad, wants to just absolutely invade the jurisdiction of that family because they refused incompetent medical help. And thankfully, we were able to help them and get that resolved pretty quickly but just the sting of an emergency room nurse, no pun intended really, over being rejected in terms of not knowing how to do her job and she reports this family for leaving the emergency room without letting her continue to poison and perhaps kill their child. Medical environments can be incredibly dangerous when you are perfectly innocent and doing everything that you should be doing.

Be careful. Extended family. I helped a family who because they became Christians had one spouse's mother and father call and report unspeakable things about them, none of which were true and cause the sheriff's office to arrive at their front door at two a.m. In the morning, just disagreements, difficulty disputes with extended family present dangers for Christians, present situations where Christian liberty really needs to be defended. I'll tell you about another family.

And for the sake of time, just one more quickly, the Jackson family. I've talked about them a couple of times and we'll just quickly tell their story because it just illustrates so well how tensions play out in real life. In some of these situations, I love their story because it shows so much of what can happen to a family and how family can respond faithfully and how family can can seek help and how family can be courageous when unspeakable difficulties come. This family had been praying for years for the blessing of children. Both home educated, married young couple.

The Lord finally blessed them with a child but Kathy Jackson began experiencing some unusual physical symptoms early in her pregnancy. Was diagnosed with an incompetent cervix condition making early labor very likely. And when the situation manifested itself, things happened very quickly. She was rushed to a hospital And their story then just took a really dramatic and for them very unexpected turn. They expected to be cared for and for the life of their baby to be protected and for things that you and I would expect when we go for medical assistance to occur and That's not what they found.

When they arrived, Sonogram revealed that their baby was healthy, heartbeat strong, 1.6 pounds, head down in the womb, ready to be born should Kathy go into labor. But obviously very, very early, estimated to have been in the womb 22 weeks and 4 days. An estimate that the hospital would then sort of conveniently revised downward for their own purposes. And so the first issue that came up was the role of the state in determining the welfare of this family's baby. Early that morning in the hospital, brian and Kathy were visited by the hospital's social worker and all hospitals that I know of have a social work department that comes in and sticks their nose right in the middle of what's going on in families that come there and receive medical treatment.

Well they got that visit. One of the things the social worker wanted was for the family to agree to take Medicaid and SSI and Brian refused, explaining that he couldn't in good conscience accept state welfare, that he intended to pay everything that he owed to the hospital, that if he was unable to do so, his understanding of the biblical progression would be for him to do all that he could and then for his family to come alongside him and help all that they could and then for his local church to come alongside him and ultimately even perhaps the broader body of Christ might come alongside him and help him but it was not the right thing to take money stolen inappropriately and apply it to his own situation so he refused and so as you might well imagine the hospital was just flabbergasted. You know what kind of a nut are you? He just stood for what he believed. Well, That wasn't well received.

A few minutes after that talk with the social worker and she left incredulously, the doctor who was treating Kathy hinted that the hospital's neonatologist might not try to save their son if he were born prior to 24 weeks. I said, what? They said, yeah, that's just not what we consider viable. And so if the child is born, we'll just keep him comfortable until he dies, if he's deemed to be before 24 weeks. Well, as you might imagine their level of alarm was escalating rapidly and at this time the Jacksons were acquaintances of our friends of friends who we had met but didn't know real well but they knew who I was and some of the work that I did and they figured out how to how to contact me and I was on a trip out of town but I was able to get on the phone with them and to help them work through some issues and to help them begin to think about how to deal with the situation that they were in and to talk about how serious the scenarios were and how to handle them wisely in a way consistent with God's law.

And they were still hoping for the best. They were still hoping you know maybe this just isn't going to happen but we feel like we need to get ready. Well, a few hours later that same day, Brian and Kathy were visited by the chief of staff of the hospital's neonatology unit. When he came into the room, he gave him his name and just began his remarks with this statement. Now, remember, Kathy is on medication to stop labor, is in bed, elevated in a way that is calculated to keep her from going into labor, being treated very carefully to prevent things that might be harmful to her very delicate and precarious situation.

And so the doctor, with just complete disregard for this, in fact, well, I won't say more, breezed into the room and said, let me paint you some pictures of what may happen if you go into labor right now. The doctor then just in the most grim terms described the problems premature baby might face until the Jackson's that their son was determined at birth to have been in the womb for more than 24 weeks then all possible action would be taken to save his life and then he just stated as bluntly as he could that if it was determined that the child's birth that he was in the womb less than 24 weeks the baby would be made comfortable until he died. Period. No debate. That's what's going to happen.

I've warned the Jacksons that that might happen. They were at least to some degree prepared although devastated. Not too worried obviously about giving such an upsetting bit of news in a situation that might trigger the very labor that all were trying to avoid and sign what they had written as the baby's death warrant. But despite the shock, Brian followed his convictions. He followed some advice that I'd given him and he made it clearly known to the doctor and I'd suggest you just make a mental note of this that he and his wife absolutely did not consent to this approach.

Not only did they not consent it was completely unacceptable. They would consider it murder and that they would hold the hospital, the doctor, and everyone involved accountable to the fullest extent of the law. Civil, criminal, whatever opportunity to hold them accountable might present itself. We would avail ourselves of it if they did anything except everything possible to preserve the life of this baby. He wrote it down as I suggested some of the things that he ought to say and he said he checked back but he communicated it strongly.

Be ready to fight. Be ready to fight for the lives of your Children. Be ready to fight. You don't know what you're going to encounter. Be ready to fight and expect resistance.

The doctor tried to talk Brian out of this position. He began to just spew dower statistics about how awful the baby's life would be, about his quality of life, about his vegetable future, about all the awful things, what a cruel thing it would be for them to dare to keep a child alive who might have to endure some medical treatment that might actually involve discomfort. I suppose this doctor didn't connect the fact that sometimes if you set a limb, you have to endure some discomfort. Sometimes if you do a surgery, you endure some discomfort. That life-saving medical care sometimes is uncomfortable.

Now that wasn't his perspective. It was just that the level of discomfort would make Brian and Kathy monsters. If they tried to save the life of this baby, but Brian stood fast. Even though the doctor told them if you make this decision, you'll be torturing your son. They stood fast.

Never a word of hope and not agreement to the Jackson's position. Brian just continued to insist that their child be treated as a human being whose life was worthy to be saved and that all be done for him. And the doctor continued to resist and Brian said I've already spoken to my attorney and if you don't agree to do this you are absolutely going to hear from him and so will this hospital and the lawsuit will be on file within hours. You understand me?" At which point the doctor just became furious. He said, if your lawyer takes a minute of my time, I'll bill you for it.

And he stormed out of the room and slammed the door. And that's where they were left. One of the points of wisdom that I think we can take from what the Jacksons did next is that they were proactive. They applied themselves and made every effort to save the life of their son. The search began immediately for a different neonatologist, not surprisingly, for a Christian doctor who understood the ethics of the sanctity of life.

And we were able to get such a man involved. I think he may be here this week. And we were able to tell the hospital we have our personal physician reviewing every single thing you do. We will look at every single medical record. We will look at every single decision.

And if you do anything that pushes this baby in any direction except life-saving measures, we're coming after you. We're holding you accountable. We absolutely won't tolerate it. It is a violation of God's law. It is a violation of all that is sacred and right.

It is a violation of your oath. You may not do what you've threatened to do. We also, not only let the hospital know that their actions would be scrutinized, but we scrutinized them. And there was a fairly intense confrontation, But thankfully the Lord allowed the baby a few additional days in the womb. As we continue to also let the hospital know that should they take a step in the wrong direction, this would absolutely be the most public thing that that hospital ever did.

That every news station would be at their door, that people would be picketing in the streets because of their murder. The hospital began to listen, but it took some effort. It took some determination. It took some planning. It took some help.

It took the Christian community standing with this little family, newly married, with this new baby in these overwhelming circumstances. It took the body of Christ standing with the body of Christ and it took a man, a Christian man and his wife, being courageous. God allowed the baby to remain in the womb until February 6th of 2006 and he was born at 23 and a half weeks, shy of the time in which they said that they would just keep him comfortable until he died. But just before he was born, the hospital finally relented. And in examining Kathy and checking the baby, said we think maybe things are okay for us to actually help the baby.

So if the baby is born from here forward we'll do all we can to save his life. Well Nathan spent more than four months in the hospital during which time his family and he were bathed in prayer. He had heart surgery and healed beautifully. He made what seemed to us miraculous progress which defied medical understanding. They were just assured that he would be blind and they examined him and found the telltale eye difficulty and lung difficulty that they predicted always had to be the problem with newborn babies but when the expert in ophthalmology came to see what could be done about the vision the problem was gone.

The baby continued. Made progress, gained weight, and it was time to go home with a healthy baby with the baby didn't have any of the problems that they had predicted. Now still some breathing difficulties that were going to require some breathing therapy but but none of the dour impossible horrific circumstances that were just guaranteed had come to fruition. And yet the battle was not over. Can you believe that?

After fighting them to take care of this baby, Just when the Jacksons thought they could relax, the hospital threatens to bring a custody battle to them. Why? Because they refused to take the welfare that they were approached about by the hospital social worker in the beginning of this story. You know what the hospital did? They came in and they said, if you are not on these federal programs, you're not going to be able to care for this child.

And so rather than discharge him and send him home with you, we're going to call CPS in and they're going to take custody of your baby. A little ironic isn't it? Well they asked for a meeting to talk about these things further and the Jacksons called me and I went to that meeting with them and they didn't know that I was going to be there and We sat down and they came in and we did introductions and suddenly the hospital was pretty alarmed. And I began my conversation with them, well this is interesting to me. The same hospital that threatened to murder this baby is now attempting to kidnap him and will only relinquish him if a welfare ransom is paid for his freedom." I think that will play to a jury really well.

They backed off. They never called CPS. They sent this little boy home. Neo-netology chief and I had some interesting words but that's not really so relevant right now. Except to say you've got to fight.

Nathan Valor Jackson was discharged from the hospital. June 9th, 2006. He weighed 10 pounds, 11 ounces. And this is him. He's driving.

And this is him. He's holding his baby brother. And he loves his daddy. And this is him. And I worked cattle with him last fall.

And he loves to go help daddy on the ranch and with the hunting and working cattle. And the eyes that the doctor said would never see are sharper than his daddy's. And the tongue that they said would never speak says, daddy, there's a javelina. And God was good. And God defended his own.

This wasn't us. It wasn't me. It wasn't his family. But they stood and did what they were supposed to do. They showed courage.

They behaved in a manner that I would describe as valiant. And they trusted their defender, their god, to be exactly that, to be their fortress, to be their rock. To protect their unborn son. And God was so kind. It's one of the reasons that I've begun the organization that I mentioned just briefly.

It is a national organization where Christian families can be members and can stand together when situations like this arise and where we can defend each other. If you're interested in knowing more, it's called Heritage Defense. We've got a table down in the vendor hall. We've got a website, HeritageDefense.org. I would like to suggest that that kind of effort and efforts like it are important.

You think about Paul at Philippi when he was falsely imprisoned and then the magistrates realized, we've done wrong, We've beaten a Roman citizen without a trial. You're free to go. And they sent word and Paul said what? I'm not going. Was Paul just being horsey?

That's a Texas term. Was he just being petulant? Was he just being difficult? Just being defiant? No, I don't think so.

The Apostle Paul understood that when a single Christian is prosecuted for embracing God's law, for preaching the Gospel, for doing what is to be done before the Lord, when Christians are persecuted for that, when Christians are treated like criminals for that, when Christians are beaten and imprisoned for that, that it affects other Christians. That that whole city of Philippi knew what had happened. And that if that had gone unanswered, their Christian zeal would have been chilled to say the least. And the gospel would have been slandered because he'd been treated like a criminal for doing what was not criminal, for preaching Jesus Christ, for casting a demon out of a slave girl, for doing what was right before the Lord. And so Paul said, I will not leave.

Not being petulant and defiant, caring about the body of Christ. And saying, you will come down here and humble yourselves and show to this city that what you have done is wrong and that what I did was not and the gospel won't be slandered and I won't quietly slink away. And Paul wasn't assured they wouldn't come down there and kill him, But he was valiant. He was courageous. He cared about the body of Christ.

He knew that what he did impacted the whole body of Christ. You know all over the country you have brothers and sisters who are who are being attacked in ways of which you may be aware and of which you may be not. Social services have invaded Christian families in ways that would that would chill your blood. The body of Christ needs to stand. The body of Christ needs to encourage one another.

The body of Christ needs to help one another. The body of Christ needs to strengthen one another. Couple of practical notes as we close here. Couple of things that you can do and that your churches can do in the times in which we live. Statements of belief and taking written positions with regard to what we believe to be right before the Lord and not wrong before the Lord could be very important right now.

If your church hasn't done that I would encourage you to begin working on that even right now. You know the old order Amish benefited greatly because they had written positions with regard to certain things and they're now exempt from military combat, from social security laws, from the recent health care law, from compulsory education because they had taken a stand and they had written what they believed and they could go back and point to it. When you think about the dangers that face your family, One of the things that the church can do is take positions, speak the truth, embolden and encourage our people, but stand with them and do things that are wise in preparation. Um, A couple of issues that may come up they may decide to draft women in the military. We probably ought to have a position on that.

They're already forcing all kinds of medical things, vaccinations and lots of other things. Corporal punishment and discipline. Anti-homeschooling. Thank the Lord for HSLDA and the work they began 30 years ago. That's the spirit in which we've launched our organization.

We've done it with their counsel, with their blessing, with their great encouragement. Mike Smith is a dear friend and he has been a strong encourager and supporter as we've begun Heritage Defense. He knows there's a need for something beyond what HSL-LDA is doing now, for something that picks up where being able to educate our children at home leaves off in these areas of social service attack where the state would come in and tell you how to raise your children and what you can and can't do in that regard. Taking positions on these things are very important. We live in chilling times.

We live in many ways unprecedented times, but in other ways, times which have been repeated throughout history. I don't know how many of you flew here, but if you did, it was likely the first time that you had to concern yourself that your nakedness and the nakedness of your children and the nakedness of your wife would be uncovered before strangers who have already posted these things on the internet and done with these images unspeakable things. I won't spend the time going through it but consider Ezekiel 23. Consider the times in which we live. Ezekiel 23 is where we see the discussion of the two sisters who represent the two cities of the people of God, Sumerian, Jerusalem, and the Northern Kingdom and the Southern.

And they are portrayed as harlots who have loved the world and played the harlot against the Lord their God. They are described as in covenant with God but having loved the world and engaged in harlotry. And when you look at verses 9 and 10, what is described there is their judgment. And their judgment is this, that their nakedness is uncovered. They are delivered into the hands of the very ones with whom they committed harlotry.

The very world that they loved, more than they loved the world their God, was the instrument of their judgment. I'm appalled by what TSA is doing. I think we should fight it tooth and nail. But I also think we should examine ourselves in the church and ask as the bride of Christ, are we seeking to the fullest to be a bride without spot or blemish? Judgment starts in the house of the Lord and when God's people love the world it is harlotry.

James 4 describes that friendship of the world is enmity with God and it starts with adulterers and adulteresses. Do you not know this? We need to fight against what the state is doing, but we also need to look at ourselves, and our families, within our churches, and we need to ask, is this a judgment because we've loved the world too much? I think for many churches it is just patently obvious that that is the case. I pray that those are not the churches that are represented here.

And I believe that what we're doing here is seeking to establish and strengthen and be parts of churches that have nothing to do with that. And I praise the Lord for that. And as I said earlier, I believe that the great hope for this nation sits in this room and I am overjoyed. I hope some of these observations and experiences help you and your family. I hope we're encouraged to stand for God's law and his truth in our churches.

I hope we're convicted to do that while we root out hypocrisy. While we ask, is any of this a judgment because of our worldliness? Or because of the fact that we don't discipline in the church? What church discipline should not be some archaic and unenlightened thing of the past. The bride is to be sanctified by her groom.

We must do that. We must look at ourselves and then we must speak to the issues of the day not from a platform of hypocrisy but holding ourselves to the highest standards and then holding those in authority to God's standards. I hope that valiant men will rise up, not in our own strength, but in Christ's. I hope the Christian community will come to realize that the entire body of Christ is affected every time a single family is singled out and persecuted unlawfully, that the gospel is slandered, that zeal is chilled, and I hope that we'll stand together. And I pray, brothers and sisters, that the name of Christ will be exalted, the gospel advanced, the church and the family strengthened and sanctified, and that we will be faithful brides to our groom, the Lord Jesus Christ.

God bless you. And for more information about the National Center for Family Integrated Churches, where you can search our online network to find family integrated churches in your area, log on to our website ncfic.org. Thank you.