Jack Graham - God's Work in a Woke World
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I want you to take your Bibles and turn with me to Daniel, chapter 9 and just hold it there for just a moment. Because I do believe that this day is an opportunity for me, for you to take assessment, to assess our lives and to take a pause and frankly, pray for our country. To pray for our beloved America. Because we're in trouble; our nation is in trouble. We're like Humpty Dumpty who fell off the wall from the childhood nursery rhyme. We were high on the wall; high wide and handsome. But we've taken a great fall, we're in a free-fall. "And all the king's horses and all the king's men can't put us back together again".
So we’re fragmented. We have the pieces on the ground of America and we’ve got this great division going on. And I’m deeply troubled by where we stand. Leftists have declared war on Americans and in particular, Americans like you and me who are Bible-believing Christians. Conservative, biblical values are now in the cross-hairs of those who are unbelievers and worldly, without God and without hope. And we’re seeing Satan move in ways that our generation at least has not seen in the past. To the degree that the president of the United States called people like you and me semi-fascists and enemies of the state.
So it’s not enough to say that we are intolerant or irrelevant, but now we are considered dangerous to democracy; dangerous to our fellow citizens. Dangerous. These are the same people represented by this president who vigorously support abortion rights all the way up to birth, and even beyond. They support gender ideology, dysphoria and chaos. They support child mutilation, crazy ideas regarding climate extremism, a welfare state. America now, 43 percent of Americans are on some kind of welfare. Not work, but welfare.
The Bible says, "If a man will not work neither shall he eat". Not talking about people who cannot work, but people who will not work. Forty-three percent are on welfare. Fifty percent is the tipping point. When we get to 50 percent, and that's where we're headed, we're are then a socialist state. And America will not be the America that we have known, that our parents and our grandparents worked so hard, and many of you are working so hard to build. And you can't understand what's happening in America, and oh by the way, the intolerance of the extreme left is promoted and supported by an unfair and dishonest media every single day. And this is not a democrat-republican issue. It's not even conservative-liberal issue. It's not a black and white, or white and people of color issue. It's not even ultimately an economic issue. It's a truth issue! What is true and what is not true. It is a worldview war that we're facing.
What is worldview? How you view the world; how you see things. And the questions of worldview answers the big questions of life! The most important questions you can ask yourself, "Who am I? Why am I here? Where did I come from? Where am I going"? These are all the questions that are answered by your worldview, how you think. There are several primary worldviews. One is the Christian theistic worldview, Christian theism. Theism meaning God. Christian theism is the belief, the view that God created everything; that He spoke and everything came into existence; that He creates every life; that every life is made by the hand of God, therefore, it is a sanctified life, even from the womb to the tomb and beyond.
But there's another worldview and that is deism. Deists believe that there is a God, but simply put He is not personal. He has not chosen to reveal Himself. He's like a watchmaker that makes a watch and winds it up and then walks away. And so we're on our own. God is not directly involved in our lives on earth. This is deism. In speaking of the founding of America, many of the founders of this nation were Bible-believing, evangelical, born-again believers and followers of Jesus. Don’t let people rewrite history on that one!
Then there is naturalism, the worldview of naturalism. And only natural, observable causes can be accepted as true. If you are a proponent of naturalism, religion, spirituality, and the supernatural in any time is not relevant at all to your life. There's no absolute moral truth. Certainly, there's no truth that comes from God. The only truth that we can know is the truth that we can see or study in a test tube. There's no objective standard for behavior.
Then there's the worldview of nihilist, again from the Latin nil which means what? Zero. "We believe in nothing". This is a dark and foreboding and despairing idea regarding what life is and who we are. And a close ugly cousin of nihilism is existentialism which is often adopted by progressive Christians, existentialism, existentialism. And existentialist believe that the only thing that matters is what? Now. Right now! So don't think about tomorrow, don't think about your past, it's all here and now. It's typically atheistic or agnostic, as well. Jesus spoke of this idea when He said of that farmer who had it all, made it all. He said, "I'll eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow I die". Just live your life now; live for today! And this philosophy of life is a cancerous cell in the body of America. Existentialism.
Then there's the worldview of mysticism. As you know, I'm summarizing very quickly or we'd be here past Labor Day. So stay with me. Mysticism. This is the view that we learned back in the sixties. The age of Aquarius, they "tuned in, turned on and dropped out". But eastern mysticism, you say, "Well that's the sixties". No, it's now. I'm seeing it as a trend in books and writing and you see it and hear it from celebrities, even sports athletes and so on. And it's a new idea and Buddhism and Hinduism is merge into Christianity. I heard one politician say the other day that she is Hindu-Christian.
And then there's Marxism. I refer you to my sermon of last year of Socialism and Marxism. But this is political system. Brings about the division and inequality of wealth, and gives rise to various cultural theories, including cultural racial theories, including what we now can summarize with the word wokeism. Again, I refer you to a message that I preached sometime this year, go online and find it called "Are you Woke or Are you Awake"? But I thought today since I've already said something about that, that I would bring Scott Turner up, I asked him to come and talk about from his viewpoint as a black man, because some right now would be thinking, "Well, Jack Graham is now going to bring his white racist supremist ideas".
Well, I want Scott to come up and talk to you from his perspective as a national leader in this country. I was at an event in Washington D.C. several weeks ago with Scott. I was tagging on his coattails. He was a rockstar among the people of Washington D.C. and many of the leaders of this nation. And he is here today, of course, I wanted him to talk to you a little bit from his vantage point as a black man in America about wokeism. Scott! Scott Turner: Well, pastor and I were talking about this issue of wokeism, and there’s a bigger issue here we all know. But what I think about this ideology that many would want to become a religion, I think about people that cast off all restraint. There is no godly conviction! There is no supreme rulership or authority coming from Christ Jesus. "I can do and say and treat you however I want to without repercussion and I dare you to say something to me"!
That’s what I think about when I think about this current culture of wokeism. That I don’t have to respect you because you’re my elder; that I don’t have to treat you the way that I want to be treated. Whatever that’s on my mind, I can say it; whatever’s in my mouth I can say it to you without hinder. Now we know as believers that totally against God’s Word. When you cast off restraint, you have no vision. And when you look at a lot of young people today, and even some older people, they are living without godly vision because they have cast of restraint. Do you bear witness with this? And many of you here may not know my background. So I played in the National Football League. Grew up in Richardson, Texas. J.J. Pearce High School. Went to the University of Illinois, played in the NFL, served in the State House here in Texas, and then I served in the former Administration with Dr. Ben Carson, running the Opportunity Zone Initiative to the poverty-stricken area of our nation.
And one of my great claims to fame other than being married to Robin for 26 years and raising Solomon is that I worked at Spring Creek Barbeque. I grew up in a broken home, badly broken. Today it’s blessed but then it was broken. Many would say, "Well, you just going to be a statistic". Because many black men that grow up that grow up in broken homes don’t make it. They take on the ways of those from whom which they came out of brokenness. But God had a different plan Well our culture today with this wokeism and more critical theories say if you're black or if you're a minority or if you're a woman or if you live in a rural place, or whatever it is, then you're a victim. To me, this whole culture has created a victim mentality. And I can't find in the Bible where God says I'm a victim.
As a matter of fact, if you're a lover of Jesus Christ, whether your black or whether your white or whether your Hispanic, whether you're brown, you're a woman, you grew up poor, rich, if you love Jesus, you're not a victim; you are victorious in Him! Yes! "We are more than conquerors in Christ Jesus". Romans 8:37. But again, we've gotten away from the Word of God. I've been at every level of government, state, federal, and hear me when I say government is not the answer! Entertainment, celebrity is not the answer. As believers in the Lord Jesus Christ the answer is the Word of God! The answer is the supremacy of God in heaven! And many people look and they say, "Well, Scott, you're privileged; you played in the NFL".
Hear me when I say I was a seventh-round draft pick. That's the last round in the draft! They tried to cut me every single year, as God is my witness. They told me that. I was not given a spot in the NFL; I had to work for a spot in the NFL. God gave me the gifting; God gave me the gift. He put people around to train me and open up doors, and then I had to work for it and trust God to stay! I'm not a victim! I went from Spring Creek Barbeque to the NFL to the State House, to the White House and now to the church house. Do I look like a victim to you? No victim! How about you today? No matter where you come from, no matter your ethnicity, your color, your situation, if you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, you are victorious, believer!
If you're black here this morning or a minority, you are not a victim. If you're white or Caucasian or whatever it is, you not an oppressor according to the Word of God. If you're black and you need me, I got you. If you're white, if you're a woman, if you're from rural America, tribal America, whatever it is, and you need me, I got you. The answer's not the government; the answer is the church and the people of God! Tears have no color. Struggle does not have a color. Poverty does not have a color. But life, the color is red, and that's the blood of Jesus. Do you trust Him?
The final word I'll say: the Word of God has got to be the final authority in our life! If it doesn't line up with God's Word, then it's not true. "The Word of God is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my pathway". "We are more than conquerors in Christ Jesus" according to the Word of God. Amen? When Scott was in the Administration, he'd walk into a cabinet room and the President would see him and he'd say, "Scott, come up here and talk to them"! And Scott would just do what he just did. I'm so glad that we have people like Scott who are in government, representing Christ. It's a high calling some of you should consider it, but some people say, "I don’t believe in mixing religion and politics". Well, I do! I do! I want men like Scott Turner in politics.
Now he’s in the church now and I don’t know what the future is, but when he was doing that, God gave him a voice It's the work of Jesus Christ in this woke world, in this worldview without God and without hope that I bring a final prayer to you from the book of Daniel. That's why you ask, "Where's the text today"? But here it is! And the text that I have for you is a prayer from Daniel, "To us, O Lord, belongs open shame". That’s America today. What used to hide in the shadows now publicly, shamelessly marches in the streets. "To us, O Lord, belongs our shame (and who else?) to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against you".
America has sinned against holy God and we are ripe for judgment! "To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness, for we have rebelled against him". God loves you, God wants to forgive you, God will change and transform any and every heart that comes to Him. It says in verse 10, "and we have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God by walking in his laws". This nation was built upon the Ten Commandments, the principles of the Judeo-Christian ethic and morality. We have broken the laws of God! "...which he set before us by his servants the prophets", and then verse 18, "O my God, incline your ear and hear", there's part of me that comes to this pulpit today to say, "Be brave! Be bold! Be courageous"!
Yes, all that, but also not just to be brave but to be broken and to weep like Jesus wept over Jerusalem. "Open your eyes and see our desolation in the city that is called by your name. For we do not present our pleas before you because of our righteousness", we don't deserve it, "but because of your great mercy". God's mercy! You say, "Why hasn't God already judged America"? Well, in one sense God may be judging America. All God has to do is take His hand off and we're exposed to condemnation and judgment. But God's mercy. I remember hearing Dr. Adrian Rogers, one of my heroes in ministry, say, "The floodtides of God's wrath are furiously beating against the dam of His mercy"!
That's where we are today. So we pray for mercy. "O Lord", verse 19, "hear; O Lord, forgive. O Lord, pay attention and act. Delay not, for your own sake", not for our sake, but for God's sake, for Jesus' sake, "O my God, because your city and your people are called by your name". Now listen very carefully. God is calling the people by His name, who bear His name. We bear the name of Christ; we are Christians, which means little Christs. The Spirit of Christ lives in us and God has called us to boldness and bravery; He's calling us to stand, but He's also calling us to kneel in brokenness. To look in the mirror. Let judgment begin with the house of God.
"If my people will pray", then God will heal our land. But it starts with you and me; it starts in our own heart! And then we get off our knees and we speak and we speak boldly, lovingly, and compassionately. And because Jesus is Lord, not just speak from the pulpit, not to speak to one another where we can cheer one another on. This is good. This is one reason that we gather, to get together, to know that we're alone in this battle, that we're in this fight, that we're an army for God, for good, for Christ in our generation. It's good to gather in the barracks, but then we go; then we go fight the good fight of faith.
God doesn't want us just to sit here. I often say, you know, with your worship, bring your worship with you. When you come into this place, the worship time is not just a time to pump you up for the sermon; it's to worship God so bring your worship with you. But I also say when you leave, take your worship with you! Don't just sing hallelujah in here; say hallelujah out there! Don't just sing Jesus, Jesus in the church house, but sing it at your house, say at your workplace. Because we take it with us! Take the name of Jesus with you because Jesus is just as much Lord on Monday as He is on Sunday!
And the problem we've got in America today is we got Sunday morning Christians who are not praying, who are not giving, who are not serving, who are not witnessing, and we're all watching our world fall apart! And for the sake of our children and our grandchildren, we always talk about that, but for the sake of the glory of our God, our Savior who is Lord may we pray. And why do you think Daniel was so bold? Why do you think he continued through the years? What is it, to dare to be a Daniel is to pray like that and ask God to show up. We like to say when God shows up, He shows out, and He does what only God can do. And Scott Turner, you are exactly right! The answer for America is not our educators, not our celebrities, not our athletes, not our politicians, but God! That Jesus who is Lord of life and Lord of all is the hope of the world!