Celebrate Life | Psalm 139:13–16

Well, our various campuses are joining us right about now. I want to welcome them in. Lamoni and Carlisle, Guttenberg, our gathering there, of course, and then our Foster campus just north of us here a bit.

I want to bring all the men in this room as well. I want to welcome all of you and our first-time guests in every location. We've got a lot to cover today, a lot to do, a lot of miles to get under our feet.

So what do you say we get started? Let's get under the weight of the word. And as we think about what's ahead for us today, let me remind you that a few decades ago, the largest concern across the globe, especially in America, was overpopulation. Some of you are too young to remember that, but in the 70s, this was a primary message going out across our country.

In the January 1970 cover headline of Time magazine, these words were splashed, the population explosion. Later in that decade, the Washington Post ran an article entitled, Population Growth, a Crisis in the Making. And so that really captured our attention.

It was the dominant narrative of the country and really of the world in some ways, overpopulation. Fast forward now to 2026. That concern has quietly shifted in the opposite direction.

Our national fertility rate, which is a little more accurate than the crude birth rate. That's the actual title. I wasn't trying to be crass there.

There's a crude birth rate, then there's an actual fertility rate. The fertility rate is at historic lows. Some researchers estimate that this year, excuse me, last year in 2025, we're going to find out that the fertility rate was 1.6 births per woman.

The replacement rate to survive as a civilization is 2.1. We thought we were concerned about not enough space. We realize our concern is now not enough people. This low birth rate is staggering.

It's been happening for almost 20 years. There's been a few years where we've seen a few peaks, but for the most part, this is the trajectory of our country. And so the result means, and this is not hard to figure out, it's just biology.

Fewer children are being born. Fewer families are being formed. What you find now in the headlines are words like this, decline, shortage.

Some even use the word collapse. Now, here's what's striking about this. Sociologists, economists, demographers, they'll look at this as an issue related to their field, a sociological issue, a demographic issue, a economic issue.

But I would venture to say that this is far deeper than that. This is a theological issue. You see, we aren't seeing something the way God sees it.

What we're not seeing the way God sees is the issue of life. Maybe not you in this room, but across our country, especially the last 20 years. There's a diminishing, a devaluing of life.

And I'll be even more specific. There's a diminishing and a devaluing of children. And when a culture stops welcoming children, something deeper and darker has shifted.

When they begin to feel like interruptions or liabilities or obstacles, something's amiss in that culture. You see, scripture paints a completely different picture of children. The Bible says children are a treasure.

Say that word with me. Treasure. I mean, you can't say that word and not smile.

The Bible calls them a heritage. The Bible sees children as blessings, not burdens. As intentional, not, you know, inconsequential.

They're meaningful, God-given lives. Their life is to be received with gratitude, protected with courage, and celebrated with joy. But that's true not only for children, that's true for all life.

And that's God's view of life. And so we're missing something when we look around us and there's a diminishing of life. There's a devaluing of children.

There's a dishonoring of the elderly. Something's wrong in that culture. And today on Sanctity of Life Sunday, let me just address that by bringing you God's perspective on life.

I find Psalm 139 to be a beautiful place to do that, especially for verses right in the middle of this chapter. Will you turn there with me? And as you're turning, you may be thinking, oh my goodness, here it goes again. It's going to get political.

Or maybe you're thinking, oh my goodness, it's going to get painful. But I want to say to you that neither of those are true because this chapter and these four verses, they don't center on pain or politics. These verses center on praise, praise to God for his wonderful formation and creation of life.

In the Psalm, David's not reacting to a crisis. He's responding to his creator. And I want to read these four verses, verses 13 through 16, to give you a highlight of the praise of this chapter.

Follow along with me. Psalm 139, beginning in verse 13, for it was you, David here is speaking to his creator. It was you who created my inward parts.

You knit me together in my mother's womb. I will praise you because I've been remarkably and wondrously made. Your works are wondrous, and I know this very well.

My bones were not hidden from you when I was made in secret. When I was formed in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw me when I was formless. All my days were written in your book and planned before a single one of them began.

That's just four verses, five English sentences from a Psalm that really has a lot to say about God. It's a praise to God. I think overarchingly we'd say about his presence.

You'll find that theme in here. About his personal attention, you'll find that theme in here. About his power, that's in there.

And about his patience, that's towards the end of the Psalm. I think if you were to take these four verses and the Psalm as a whole, you would say this is really the central truth of both the core, 13 through 16, and the Psalm as a whole, is this right here. That we celebrate life because every human life is personally formed, deeply valued, and sovereignly directed by God.

That's what these four verses say. And you'll find that just extrapolated throughout the rest of the chapter. So could you say this with me? Our take home truth today that we're going to glean from these four verses and the chapter together, church, we celebrate life because every human life is personally formed, deeply valued, and sovereignly directed by God.

Now, I want to break that apart for you using these four verses. So can we just kind of put this set of verses, can we do an ultrasound on them, kind of fitting for today, right? And can we just get some more? Can we just glean more from this set of verses? I'd say to you, first of all, that we do celebrate life because God forms life personally. This is clearly seen as this set of verses opens up.

It's verse 13. But can I ask you to notice a couple of maybe three or four really key words. You'll notice in verse 13, the word created.

So this is not like some type of accidental discovery. Oh, look, I ran upon a kid or, hey, I'm pregnant. What's happening here in the inner parts, in most areas is intentional craftsmanship.

Something's created on purpose. And when he says inward parts, he's referring here to, of course, these really almost hidden deep aspects of personhood. The part of you that only you and God know.

I really knew you. God knew you. It's a beautiful thought.

He formed you. He created you. The Bible here says he knit you together, which means this is not like a mass production.

There's not an assembly line just churning out humans. There's a God intricately involved at each step, creating, knitting together the babies. Let me show you one last word that really points to the personal nature of this.

Do you see the pronoun my in verse 13? So David's saying in my mother's womb is where God did his work of creation. It's a beautiful verse that points to the personal nature of God's creation of life. This is not God just commanding from a distance.

There's no deism in play here. This is complete theistic perspective. God is intricately involved in the creation of life.

Can I read for you a list of names that represent lives that have been created by God? These were babies born in 2025 within the FFC verse. Our sphere here, I'll just call some of names out. Jaden, Amelia, Asa, Abner, Abigail, Mila, Colby, Nyla, Valor, Buxton, Walter, Cedeno, excuse me, Adeline, Mabel, Judah, Theodora, Kepler, Hezekiah, Stuart, and Oakland.

Now, amen, amen. All names of lives born to people in this faith family. Those weren't accidental.

They weren't unknown. Notice they weren't given numbers or like A1, A2. It's personal creation in the mother's womb.

Isn't a baby a wonderful, beautiful thing? And when we celebrate these kinds of moments, whether we're calling names out in this message or whether we're dedicating a family from the platform, let's say at various weeks, we're not only, and watch this, we're not just only celebrating the parents and those children, we actually are celebrating God's creative work. Every ultrasound image is a quiet testimony that God is still knitting. This understanding of God's creation of life in a very personal manner is the core reason we hold to this conviction that abortion is a horrific sin.

It is the destruction of God's handiwork of what God has knit together from conception forward. It's the taking of a life made in the image of God. Now, I suspect in the room right now, there's this feeling somewhere, Todd, don't talk about this.

Don't say that word. You'll offend people or you'll hurt someone who's with us today who's had an abortion. A man who's been complicit in a woman who went to the clinic.

You'll make them mad, Todd. In all pastoral politeness, I beg to differ. Let me give you the evidence I would use for that.

Do you know who urges me to be the loudest and clearest about the sin of abortion? Those who've had one. They're not asking me to be quiet. They're not telling me to pipe down.

They're saying, Todd, warn people of a diminished view of life. Those women and the men complicit in that. Some in our church have repented and God's grace has been strong.

They're following Jesus. Just like you, God's forgiven your sin. He's granted you restorations.

He's brought you back. So they exist. They're here, but they're not telling me and they're not telling this church, don't say anything.

It's like the adulterer. The adulterer isn't saying who's been restored. He or she doesn't say, hey, you know, don't warn people about the dead end road of sexual dysfunction.

No, they're saying, Todd, warn them about wandering eyes and idle hands and about friendships they shouldn't have with the opposite sex at the wrong times in the wrong places. Todd, warn them to stay faithful. That's what they're saying.

My question is, if you're so worried about this, if any somewhat, what's the beef here? No one in that boat saying that. I say we row together and yes, warn each other and encourage each other, but let's be a voice in the culture. Let's speak loudly and clearly on this issue and declare how God views the life and the preciousness with which he has created it.

You see, speaking into this culture of death, which is exactly what we're living in. Oh, maybe you don't sense that in this room, but go outside these doors. You can look around at a number of factors indicate there's an infatuation with death in our culture.

60 million babies is the first piece of evidence who've been aborted since 73. Speaking to that culture, it's not cruelty. That's bold compassion, grounded in truth.

And so, because we care, we speak. You say, well, Todd, I don't have a pulpit like that. I don't have a platform like yours.

I don't know how to speak about this. I'm so glad you brought that up. I want to share with you two ways you can speak with your life on this all important issue.

First of all, you can become a sidewalk advocate. What's that? A sidewalk advocate is one who's willing to go down to a Planned Parenthood Center here in Des Moines. There's only one, I think, in the Des Moines area.

There's probably only two or three left in all of Iowa. There was one in Ankeny, and we became sidewalk advocates years ago, helped shut that down, and they left the city. Hallelujah.

Praise the Lord. We love to see the one in Des Moines close and leave as well. There are folks who utilize that.

They go in there, men and women, for all kinds of reasons. And typically, it's because they devalue life at some level. When we go and hold signs and pray with people and stand with smiles, it's a way to be a voice.

And maybe you don't have a platform or a pulpit. Recently, our staff did that. We got trained in sidewalk advocacy from Pulse Life.

We went down there and we had lunch at DoCo Pizza. There's some free advertising for them. And then we just took rotations, 15 minutes, three of them, three or four would go, and they would just hold signs, give out pamphlets, engage people according to the laws and the ordinances of the sidewalk and the property.

Fantastic hour and a half, two hours for all of our staff. Some got mocked and cursed by cars that drove by or by folks on the sidewalk. Others got blessed.

This depends on maybe when you went. And so we did that so we could say to you, we want you to do that with us. So there's some folks in our church, there's all our staff, and they're trained in this.

And we want to ask all of you to get trained in sidewalk advocacy for this reason. It's a visible way to stand for life. And I'll be extremely ultra clear about this.

I do want to shut down the Planned Parenthood Clinic. I do. I think it's a valiant goal.

It's going to take people on the sidewalk standing for life. So on February 7th, Saturday, I would love for you to come by the church here and be trained in sidewalk advocacy. You have to be trained to be able to do that with Polk's Life.

It's nine to three. Won't cost you anything. We'll provide lunch for you.

We need at least five to sign up. All right. So if five of you at least will sign up, then we'll begin to schedule some dates in which we can go as groups.

And you can be a voice for the voiceless, even if you don't have a platform or a pulpit. A second way is this. This June on the 20th is the second March for Life in Iowa.

It's probably like a small replica of the National March for Life. It's on that day because that's the anniversary of the Hobbes decision a few years ago, which sent a lot of the abortion things back to the states. Here's what I say to you.

I'd encourage you to set aside that morning, some hours that day, and come with your whole family and just be a part of the Iowa March for Life. Jewel and I did this when our kids were very small. In fact, only two of them were born at the time.

And it was in Atlanta over 30 years ago. We participated in the Atlanta, the Georgia area March for Life. And it's a memory you keep and you begin to treasure.

It does help you solidify your convictions and you become bolder and more visible. So I just want to encourage you on June 20th, probably mostly in the morning, could you just mark that date down and you'll be able to be a voice even though you don't have a pulpit or a platform. So two days, February 7th, June 20th.

Wouldn't it be awesome to watch more and more people at First Family take visible verbal stances for life the way God sees it? Well, God doesn't just personally form life. He also assigns it immense worth. This is the second thing I want you to see, that God values life deeply.

And so this is why we celebrate life. Notice the two middle verses of this four verse section, would you? Some words here, remarkably, wondrously. This is language of awe.

In fact, wondrously is used twice. You see that? So this is a language of dignity. It's high level language when it comes to value.

It really connotes sacredness. So something's wondrous and remarkable. Notice also the phrase, I have been made.

Do you see that twice here in verses 14 and 15? And then you see the verb formed, right? Now here's what's very intriguing and wonderful about this. These are all three in the passive tense or a passive voice we'll call it. Meaning the value that God places on these creations that are remarkable and wondrous, it's not something that's achieved.

They've done nothing. It's what's received. So value is inherent from creation.

It's assigned by God, not earned by you. And when you begin to realize that, your only response should be the first word of this section, which is the word praise. He says, I will praise you.

That's the fitting response when you realize how much God has done and the worth, the dignity he's given in his creation. So when you begin to see these verses and the fact that God values what he's created very deeply and he's assigned it worth and dignity, then it leads us to this truth that all human life matters. Will you say that with me? All human life matters.

Let that kind of just kind of wash over you because often we don't live that way. I don't doubt that you believe that, but perhaps like me, you may struggle to implement that. Let me explain and be a little more personal with you than I have been already.

You see, I think sometimes we know we should grieve the loss of life wherever it occurs, whether it's nationality or ethnicity, politics or proximity. Those things shouldn't affect how we grieve the loss of life. But I think sometimes we let that affect us.

But the truth is all human life matters. Whether it's in a school, a hospital, a war zone, a street, that should grieve us because God values the life that was lost. Hear this, church.

Scripture never ties human worth to political alignment, national borders, or moral purity. Scripture always roots dignity in creation itself. It's God-given, not earned by ourselves.

And so this is what allows us to grieve the loss of life on all sides of, let's say, a war without excusing why the war is happening. It allows us to mourn victims without celebrating the violence that may have caused those victims. It allows us to uphold the sanctity of life even when the world demands and pressures us to categorize our compassion, to give our compassion certain levels based on who you are.

Let me give you some examples. Listen in, my brothers and sisters. We should value life and grieve its destruction, whether it occurs from people who are using planes as missiles.

On 9-11, 2001, where 3,000-plus people were killed in New York City, that should grieve us. Whether it's dropping atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, where between 150,000 and 250,000 civilians were killed. Both of those should grieve us.

We should grieve the loss of life, whether it's the assassination of a conservative college evangelist named Charlie Kirk or whether it's in the assassination of a liberal lawmaker named Melissa Hortman and her husband in Minnesota. Both of those should grieve us. We should grieve the loss of life, whether it's through the atrocities of October 7th and the attack of Hamas on Jews or what's known as the Tantura massacre on a Palestinian city and then the mass graves that resulted in 1948, committed by an Israeli brigade.

Both of those scenarios should grieve us. We should be grieved when life is lost because of the shooting of Jamie Zapata, an ICE agent, or whether it's the shooting of Rene Good. We should be grieved when life is lost because embryos are destroyed through chemical abortions, which now account for 63% of elective abortions in America.

It's tragically horrifying. We should grieve that and we should also grieve when there's the loss of life in embryos that were dropped from a tray at an IVF facility in Alabama. I'm speaking about embryonic life and the value it holds.

I do want to say a word to our president. I know he's not listening. He's not tuning in.

He doesn't know me, but for my conscience sake and for the church's stance, let me say this to our president. Don't play loose with life. I feel like sometimes our current president uses life as a leveraging tool.

I'm thankful for how God has used him in the past eight or so years to really see some progress on the issue of life. There are times I get nervous when everything's up for grabs, including life. Life is not a bargaining chip, Mr. President.

I also want to say, Mr. President, the IVF field and industry, while I do think there are moments that can be used in right ways, it is a very slippery slope. Embryos are living humans, storing them. I don't know how long it goes, but we must be very careful in how we legislate this area.

I think sometimes we just play a little loose with things that are a lot more sacred. I want to encourage you, Mr. President, be very careful with life. As I describe those situations, did you find yourself categorizing your compassion? Did you find yourself in one moment like, man, that was awful, and then the next moment think, well, that's what they got.

I'd remind you that grief doesn't mean every cause is just. It doesn't mean every ideology is right. It doesn't mean that every action is moral, but we grieve because every person bears the image of God.

God's image does not disappear on the battlefield. It does not disappear in hostile nations. It does not disappear in differing religions or boardrooms or laboratories or sidewalks.

Now, I want to say to you, without exception, this is very difficult to grasp. These are hard things to hold in balance. Here's what I want to direct your attention.

God does this perfectly and wondrously. He does it magnificently. God values every single life, and yet He meets out justice in perfect balance to evildoers and evil.

How does He do that? It is beyond me. Our God is great. He's beyond comprehension.

So, I'm not saying that this is easy to do, but I would encourage you not to categorize your compassion. Ask God to give you strength to grieve the loss of life, even though you don't agree with perhaps how it happened or what's being done or the action in play. Now, incidentally, I think this whole holding two things in balance that are both very difficult is exactly what David drives at the end of the psalm.

Maybe you've not read ahead yet. I'm glad you didn't because the end of the psalm is jarring. Verses 23 and 24, they kind of rescue the moment, so to speak.

But 19 through 22, man, it'll mess you up. And if you don't read it right, you'll think David is ascribing this to God. You're reading that right now, aren't you? You're kind of already ahead of me, aren't you? I can see your eyes all looking down.

I'll talk more on the podcast Tuesday about this, but let me say to you, David here is not ascribing his feelings to God. He's wondering, in my opinion, I'll give you a little heads up. He's wondering why God doesn't feel the way he feels and why God hasn't acted the way he wishes he would act.

Have you ever felt that way? Sure you have. It's hard to not categorize your compassion, but God has this transcendent, remarkable, perfect, holy ability to value every life he's created. At the same time, be just and holy in his punishment of evil.

It's remarkable. I'll talk more about it on the podcast. David is trying to get his hands around that in the last part of the psalm.

So if I saw that to say this, that we must value every life fundamentally because every life is stamped with the image of God. We don't have to agree with every life's position politically, positionally, theologically, but we can grieve humanly. We can admit that certain lifestyles, positions, and stances, they actually do result in greater risk.

They have a deeper damage. If you go down that road, we can say that while at the same time saying we grieve the loss of life because every life is valued by God. Oh, for a church able to embrace both of those with integrity.

Well, God not only creates us personally and he values us deeply, this third point is this, that God directs our life sovereignly and purposefully. This is the final verse in this section. Verse 16, if you thought the last truth was hard to hold, wait till you get your hands around this one.

Verse 16 really declares for us that God's care for us, you see the word formless there, God's care for you, God's knowledge of you preceded both your visibility and your viability. When no one knew really that you were about to be, God did. In fact, he says that at that moment, all of your days were known to him.

That's not random. That's not God improvising in the moment. You see this also in the words written in plan.

God's not like pulling levers after he sees what you do. He's the God of ordination and within ordination are there words we use like cause, allow, there are. I don't fully understand that either, but this Psalm tells us that God sovereignly directs with purpose all of your days before you even knew them.

In fact, I love the phrase, all of this was written and planned before one began. That's sovereignty without panic, isn't it? God's not worried or threatened. That's why I say to you, this is a harder truth to hold than the previous one.

Why? Because it means that there is no life that ended too early and there is no life that lingered too long. And sometimes we just have a hard time saying that. I know what we mean when we say their life was cut short.

I feel that humanly. I don't think it's a sin to feel that. I don't think saying it is theologically accurate, but I'll admit to you, I think we all feel that.

If you have a miscarriage and our miscarriage between Bethany and Brianna, you feel things that you just don't understand. So pastorally, I want to get in this boat and row with you that often life, the weight of it is like something happened too early or something's lingering too long. But I want to come around you with theology that will comfort your soul and say to you, there is no life that ended too early and there is no life that lingered too long.

Everyone was just as God designed it. I say, Todd, why do we struggle with that? Are we rebellious? Are we stubborn? Some of you maybe. Here's what I think is going on.

I think we all want one more day with someone we love, don't we? I think Tom gave up with love one more day with his dad. See Tom right over there. I think Jace and Julie and Emma and Jessica, they'd love one more day with their brother, Ryan.

I think Sarah would love one more day with her, Andy. Carolyn, she'd love one more day with Pat. Tammy would love one more day with Tom.

Kathy and Becky, you'd love one more day with Bob, wouldn't you? Carol, one more day with Monty and Craig, one more day with your two daughters. I could go through the audience, down the list. That's not hard to relate to.

As we remember our saints that have gone before us, yes, we do grieve because we would love one more day, but we don't grieve without hope. Listen very carefully. That hope is that we'll see them again, but here's another aspect of that hope, that their life was not cut short.

Their life was completed according to God's wisdom and sovereignty. I can't take away the hurt, but I can come underneath you with the promises of God. Yes, every life sovereignly directed on purpose by God.

That means from the womb to the tomb, God is at the helm of your life, and that's why we celebrate life because it's not random. It's intentional. It's not impersonal.

It's personal, and it's not worthless. It's valuable. It all brings us back to our take-home truth.

Summarizing these four verses, but also the entire chapter. Will you read it one more time with me? We celebrate life because every human life is personally formed, deeply valued, and sovereignly directed by God, so we celebrate life. Be a person who celebrates life in the midst of a culture who actually is careening towards death.

Since this is true, God's word says it is, and since God has formed you, and since God values you, and since your life is directed by God, since he's written your days, let me say to you this beautiful truth. Your life is not an accident, which means you're not here by accident. That somewhere, somehow, the creator of the universe, God, has directed, orchestrated your path to be in this chair, on this day, hearing this message about the beauty, and wonder, and value of life.

Why? Perhaps it's to know this, that not only does God give physical, earthly life and values it, God gives eternal life. That's what God gives. You see, there's more to this life than just what you see and know right now.

There's more to life than just what's physical. There's a spiritual life, and God gives that through his son, Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ lived a real life on the earth for 33 years.

He was known as Jesus, but he was God in the flesh. He was sent by God, the Father, with express purpose of paying the price of sin for all who would believe. He did that by dying on the cross.

He was perfect, and holy, and righteous, and innocent, and Jesus Christ died on the cross, was crucified by the hands of murderous men, but in accordance with the ordination of God, and Jesus Christ suffered willingly, and died willingly in your place and my place, because he was God, and lived among us as a man. His sacrifice covers sin forever. He's a one-of-a-kind sacrifice, holy, and pure, and righteous.

God knew that, of course, and so he raised Jesus from the dead as a way to indicate he was satisfied with Christ's sacrifice. And today, Jesus, the second person of the Godhead, is reigning in heaven. He calls all people everywhere to repent and believe in his name as the only way to be saved from sin, and to have eternal life, I'm going to say it like this, added to their earthly life.

Because it's not eternal life that you experience if you die without Christ, it's eternal death. Only eternal life is given to those who believe. So if you've never believed, and you now have heard the gospel, the Holy Spirit's drawing you to believe in the name of Jesus Christ as the only way to be saved, maybe that's why God brought you into this room on this day on purpose, not by accident, because God values your life and wants to give you eternal life.

They thought, I'd love to accept that gift from God. How do I do that? Right now, where you are, just ask God to give you eternal life through Jesus Christ, his son. You can be looking at me, sitting in those chairs.

You can be in one of our campuses, locations, looking at me. Your eyes are wide open. You can say this as a whisper in your heart.

You can say, dear God, I believe that Jesus Christ came to earth as your son and my Savior. He died in my place. He paid the price for my sin.

You raised him from the dead. And so, God, will you save me through Jesus? I repent of believing the wrong things would save me. I turn and believe the only one who can save me, Jesus.

God, would you save me through Jesus? God will keep his word and save you today. And you will not only have physical life, you will have eternal life. That's how much God values you and loves you.

If you're already a Christian, if you're wondering, how do I respond to this, Todd, this annual message on life? It's usually tense. It's pretty hard hitting. It comes at us pretty straight.

May I suggest a few ways to respond? Perhaps some of you are like me. You'll need to ask God to forgive you for categorizing your compassion without diminishing your stance for what's right. You'd ask God to just upgrade the way you value life with those you don't agree with.

Perhaps you want to pray for those who are in situations where they're facing death, and maybe that's someone here who's dealing with a loved one who's just on the brink. Maybe they're in hospice or palliative care, and you're wondering, is this going too long? Maybe it's a family who's dealing with a miscarriage, or maybe a child is sick, and maybe you're thinking, not so soon. All these thoughts that are human are weighing in on you.

Maybe you just want to respond and say, God, I need you to lean in with me and help me trust you more. God, give me faith to walk with you when I don't understand what's happening. Maybe it's for courage to go to the training and to get on the sidewalk and to speak up and stand up for the issue that is the bottom of every other issue, life.

There is no single greater issue. When that one is violated, no other issue matters. You can argue about school lunches.

You can argue about elderly care. You can debate all kinds of things for health care and tax structures, but if we say it's okay to kill a child, what do the other battles matter? I'm saying maybe you should pray for courage to stand up and be a voice for the voiceless.