Robert Morris — Still
All right, turn to Isaiah 45. Isaiah 45, and I'm gonna preach a message that I entitled, "Still", S-T-I-L-L. And, you'll understand why I entitled that when we get to the points, okay? So, I understand we're living in a stressful world. And so, it began to stir up in me that I want to share some things with you about that, and I want you to know that I've just gotten kind of so sick of the news. You probably have, too. So, with all that's going on in the world, here's how I got this message. It's called, "Still", and all the trouble that's goin' on, here's point number one, okay?
Point number one, God is still in control. Would you agree with that? God is still in control. Now, look at Isaiah 45, Isaiah 45:5-6. "I am the Lord, and there is no other. There is no God besides Me. I will gird you, though you have not known Me, that they may know from the rising of the sun to its setting that there is none besides Me". And in case we didn't catch it, He wants to say it again. "I am the Lord, and there is no other". And then if you look at Chapter 46, maybe one page over, Verses 9 and 10. "For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me". And this is where the phrase comes from. You've probably heard it, but you might not have known it was Isaiah 46:10. "Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done, saying, "My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure".
Now, here's what gives me peace, even in the troubled times that we're in. I know who's still on the throne. I know who is still in control. And, that does not absolve us of our responsibility, but even if I do everything I can to help our nation, and our nation continues to go the wrong way, I know how it ends. I know who's in control. I know who has authority and rule in my home. I know peace. But, it doesn't absolve me of what God's called me to do or to try to help our country or you.
I had a dream a few years ago that I fall back on a lot. It was on December 31st and the morning of January 1st, and I dreamed that I was sitting in the front seat of a car. The driver was a pastor friend of mine, and the passenger on this side was an evangelist friend of mine. And the evangelist had just preached that this was going to be a year of darkness, and the pastor said, "You know, I'm not trying to take objection to your message. I thought it was a great message, but I feel like the Lord's shown me it would be a year of light". And the evangelist said, "Well, I'm not, you know, trying to be argumentative either, but I feel like the Lord says it's gonna be a year of darkness". And the pastor said, "Well, again, I don't want to argue". They were bein' real nice.
That's how you know it was a dream! They were being really, really sweet to each other. Well, I feel like it's gonna be a year of light. Well, I feel it's gonna be a year of darkness. Well, I feel it's gonna be a year of light. I feel it's gonna be a year of dark... you know? And so, in the dream, I said, "Guys, stop"! I said, "Don't you remember the ninth plague in Egypt? Darkness covered the whole land, but the children of Israel had light in their dwellings". I said, "God is saying that's it's gonna get darker and darker in our world, but we will always have light in our dwellings". So, I go back to that because it has gotten darker and darker, but here's somethin' I want to say. I have light in my tent, but I want everybody to have light in their tents. Is that right? I want others to have light in their tents.
So, number one, God is still in control. But, number two then, Jesus is still the answer. Jesus is still the answer. I told you that right after the tragedy of the officers being shot in Dallas that I did an interview by Skype when I was on the plane, ready to go for family vacation. And, they asked me, you know, "Well, what's the answer"? I said, "Jesus is the answer", on national television. Jesus is the answer. He is the answer, is that right? Look at these Scriptures. John 14:6, "Jesus said to him, "I am the way". If you want to know where to go, how to go, He's the way. "I am the truth". He doesn't know the truth. Well, He does know the truth. He doesn't just know the truth, He is the truth. "And the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me". And Revelation 19:16, "And He has on His robe and on His thigh a name written: King of Kings and Lord of Lords".
Now, I'm gonna talk some about where our country is. Let me explain somethin' to you, though. We never, in any election, we never, never get to vote for the best candidate. Here's the reason. The best candidate is not running. He's already been nominated and appointed King of Kings and Lord of Lords. See, so He's the best! But we do have to vote for the better candidate. So, there will never be a perfect candidate. There will never be one that you agree with fully, I promise you! But, you vote for the better. Another way is we vote for the one that we think please don't... I already know some of you are gonna get mad. Stop it! Okay? But, another way to say it is we vote for the person we think will do the least damage. City, state, local, national.
I mean, isn't that true? I mean, you just think, I don't like this one, but I like this one less than I don't like that one more. I hate that one. But you know, you just can't. You just gotta... are you following me? Okay. And, so let me tell you some things and address a few. In a short message you can't address every issue and every problem, you know, unless you all want to stay for a few more hours. So, let me address a few, but let me just let you know a little about me. I'm color blind. Now, I didn't admit that for years. I just did not want to admit it. But, my son got me some color blind glasses. Have you heard of these? Yeah, you can put 'em on and you can see colors now, if you're color blind. It's amazing. I don't know if you all know. Did you know the signs on the highway, they're green? Did you all know that? No, no, I'm serious! They're green! I saw 'em, they're green. And Debbie picks out my clothes, and you should thank God for that.
Okay. So, I'm color blind, so I got these glasses now and I can actually see colors. So, the other day, just for fun, some of you know my son-in-law's black, Ethan. So, I put the glasses on and I said, "You're black"! "Why didn't you ever tell me that"? I'm kiddin', I didn't do that. All right, here. Here's the point. You have to use humor to talk about some of these things, 'cause we have sad problems in our nation, and we have a problem, a racial problem. Let me tell you a horrible thought that came into my mind, okay? And, you've had 'em, too. You know, you have a thought and you're ashamed that you even had the thought. I'm ashamed I had this thought.
As you know, just a few weeks ago, Ethan and Elaine, black father, white mother, our daughter, had a baby. This thought all of the sudden just appeared in my mind. I hope his skin is not too dark. And I was ashamed. I was ashamed I had the thought. But I thought, why do I have that thought? And here's why I had that thought, because we still have a problem in this country. And to quote a very famous man, "I don't want my grandson to be judged by the color of his skin, but by the content of his heart". And we've got a problem, but it's not what people are calling it.
Now, listen to me carefully. It's not racism, it's prejudice. You need to know the difference, 'cause we've got a media that has gone astray. So, hear me. There's a difference, and you need to know the difference. Racism is when you hate a person because of his or her race. Prejudice is when you judge a person, whether it's race, gender, or whatever else, before you know the facts. It comes from two words, prejudice. It's real simple - pre-judice, pre-judge. It means you make a judgment before you have all the facts.
Now, we do have some racist people in America, but there really aren't that many. We have a whole lot of wonderful, wonderful white people, Asian people, Hispanic people, black people, whatever... wonderful people. But we have a few that are racist, but most of us have some prejudice. And the best thing to do is admit it and learn to deal with it. It's I've made a judgment about you and I haven't even met you. That's the best way to deal with it.
Now, I'm gonna make some strong statements, okay? I told you to get over it. Don't get mad at me, all right? But, listen to me carefully. If I vote against a person because of his or her race, that's prejudice. Would you agree? If primarily I vote against because of race, that's prejudice. If you vote for because of race, that's prejudice. Or, if I vote against a person because of his or her gender, that's prejudice, but if you vote for a person because of his or her gender, that's prejudice. So, it doesn't matter whether it's a male or female, or black or white. It matters whether the person can lead our country. Do you understand what I'm saying?
So, I could talk about all sorts of issues, again, but I want to just talk about one more issue that we need to understand, that even though Jesus is still the answer, the election is extremely important, and you need to know that a non-vote is a vote. A non-vote is a vote, so we need to vote, but it's very important that we vote, because as a pastor, I can talk about social issues, religious freedom issues, spiritual issues, you know, inequality issues, race and gender. I could talk about all that. All of that's important. All of it's important.
Let me just talk about one, because you know, I love to give, generosity, but the other side of my message is stewardship. Okay, if you don't understand this, and I know a lot of people don't. I know a lot of people hate math, and I understand that, but we're in trouble financially. And the problem is when we hear that we're over $19 trillion in debt, we don't even know what that means. I mean, I can't relate to that. Think about that. Okay, just for a minute, just think about $1 million. That's hard to relate to for most of us, $1 million. All right, then $2 million, or $5 million, or $10 million. $10 million, $50 million, $100 million dollars. See how much that is. Then, 200, 300, 500, then you get to a billion.
Now, a billion is 1.000 millions. So, if you had a billion, you'd have $1.000 millions. Are you following me? Okay, then you do the same thing. $1 billion, $2 billion, now you've got another 1.000 millions. Then $50 billion, a $100 billion. Then 200, 300, then you get to a trillion, which is 1.000 billions, 1.000 billions, and we are now almost $20 trillion in debt. And, here's the sad thing. In the last eight years it's almost doubled, and in the eight years before that, it almost doubled again. So, I'm talkin' about the last 16 years, so we've had a Democrat and a Republican and it doubled, in both eight years. So, just think, the next eight years, if it doubles, that's $40 trillion, and if it doubles in the next eight, that's $80 trillion dollars!
But, here's what you're not thinkin', and again, I can't go into too much math, but it went up about $5 trillion and then it went up about $10 trillion. So, it's not just doubling, it's exponential now. See, until the year 2000, it was only at $5 trillion from every president before, and now the last two presidents, it's gotten to almost $20 trillion. So, now it's growing exponentially. Please hear me. There's probably no politician that's going to leave his or her daughter a whole bunch of debt, but they don't have any problem leaving my children and your children, and our grandchildren, a mountain of debt, and there's a lot at stake right now. Supreme Court justices, there's a lot at stake.
My father, a while back, ran for city council, and he called me on the phone and he said, "You know how you're always breaking down words to see what they mean, you know"? So he said, "I decided to do that". So, he said, "I thought of the word "politics", and he said, "poli- means many, and tics means bloodsucking animals"! All right!
So, God is still in control, Jesus is still the answer, but here's number three. We still need to do our part. We still need to do our part. You know, I know you're praying for South Louisiana. You probably don't know, but we immediately sent finances, we immediately sent people, we immediately sent resources, food. We're helping them. So, just so you know, we're helping. But, we need to do that. James 2:15-17, "If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, "Depart in peace, be warmed and filled", but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus also, faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead".
Okay. In other words, if we don't do something, we're in trouble. There are about 100 million evangelicals in America, 100 million evangelical Christians. And hear me, less than half evangelicals are registered to vote, less than half. And in the last presidential election, less than half registered voted. See, here's what we do so many times. Well, I don't like either candidate, so I'm not votin' for either one. Well, you just voted. I'm telling you again, a non-vote is a vote, and here's the reason I think many times evangelical Christians don't vote, because they understand that we have a constitution.
Now again, I'm gonna say some strong things in the message. We are not a democracy. I don't know if you know that. We are not a democracy, we are a republic. A democracy is rule by majority, and now, let me tell you, if you go look up the definition of democracy, they've changed it, and they'll say it's where you elect leaders, and then leaders make the laws. Well, that's really not what a democracy is. They shouldn't ask a politician what it is, they should ask a preacher, 'cause it comes from two Greek words, "demos" and "kratia", which means people power — power comes from the people. Now, and I'm gonna explain somethin'. Hang on. Hang onto your seats though, all right? But, what it means is, in a true democratic nation, people actually vote on the laws. In a republic, it means rule by constitutional law.
But, we are a republic, listen, with a democratic process. So, we elect leaders who are supposed to uphold our constitution. So, because we have this constitution that is so great, I think many of us sometimes feel like, well, we'll be okay. We've got a Judeo-Christian foundation in America, so this one election doesn't matter. Well, it does matter. Because for years now, we have sat home, and those who are trying to change our constitution are voting, and they are changing it, and they are interpreting it, and they are saying, that's not constitutional. For instance, they said it's not constitutional to pray in schools, and look what's happened in the violence in our world since we did that. So, it's very, very important that you vote. It's very important.
Now, I'm gonna give you one statement from our Declaration of Independence and tell you that most politicians who quote this don't believe it, and I'll show you what I mean. Here's the statement, and you know it. "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights". Okay, you might think that I'm gonna zoom in on the word "equal". I've already talked about equality. We do not have racial equality in America. We do not have gender equality. Those are two things we're still trying to fix, and they need to be fixed, but that's not the word that most politicians don't believe. Here's the word they don't believe, the word "created".
We are created equal and endued by our Creator. Here's what many politicians believe — evolved. Now, listen to me carefully. If you don't believe we were created, you will never believe we're equal, because people don't evolve equally. They don't. We learn at different paces, and I'm not talking about race, I'm talking about any person. But, we were created. It's the foundation of our government is that the rights that we have not been given to us by the government, but they've been given to us by Almighty God, our Creator! That's our foundation! And if you don't believe in creation, you can't believe in equality, no matter what you say.
So, we were created equal. Now, you need to read the platforms of each party. I read 'em this last week. One's 55 pages, one is 66 pages. You may not want to read them. You might want to just read a summary. One is very specific. One is very vague. I'll quote you, and I'm gonna take, again, one issue. Now, I'm gonna talk about the issue of abortion. Please hear me, though. I understand it's sensitive for many people here. I understand that, and I never, ever want to talk about a sensitive subject with insensitivity. So, please, if you've had an abortion, I'm not trying to talk about this with insensitivity, but it does need to be talked about.
I think most Americans realize that our courts made a mistake in 1973, and the reason that people on the other side will not even give an ounce is 'cause they know if they give an ounce, that then common sense is going to take over. So, I'm not gonna read the whole thing, but here is one of the party platforms. It says, "We assert the sanctity of human life and affirm that the unborn child has a fundamental individual right to life which cannot be infringed". It goes on to say, "We believe the Fourteenth Amendment protects the newborn child and we do not believe that we should use government funds to pay for abortions". The other one believes that we should use government funds to pay for abortions, that abortions should be legal for the full nine months. That's in their platform.
You need to understand this is more important than you think. And not only that we should use government funding, which is taxpayer dollars, that's your dollars, but that employers should have to pay for abortions and that we should use taxpayer funds to actually put pressure on other democratic nations that have pro-life laws use our tax money to change other nations that have pro-life laws. That's in their platform. It's unbelievable.
Here's the problem. You may have never thought about abortion this way, but every person is unique. There was only one Albert Einstein. There was only one. There was only one Louis Pasteur. There was only one Martin Luther King. What if they had been aborted? We may have aborted the person who could have come up with the cure for cancer, because all of us are unique in God's eyes.
As you know, I told you a few weeks ago we welcomed our seventh grandchild, a grandson. What some of you don't know is that one of our presbyters who was here last weekend, a few weeks ago his daughter had their first grandchild, a son, and it was born stillborn at nine months. And I sat with him at our Dallas campus after the presbytery service as he cried and told me, "Nobody should ever have to say hello and goodbye in the same day to a baby". The baby's heart stopped two days before it was delivered. The next day, the mother realized something was wrong, went in the hospital and delivered it stillborn, but the heart stopped two days before.
I want to show you a picture that he sent me today. Now, that baby has two eyes and two ears, one nose, one mouth, and hair on his head. But the only difference in that baby and my grandbaby is that that one was born blue. He would have loved it if that baby had been born white, black, olive, or brown, any other color than blue. You will never, ever convince me that that is tissue and not a human baby. You will never convince me of that. And there is a party that does believe that one month before, one day before, one minute before, you could end that life, and that's human life. I am asking you to pray for our country. We are going the wrong way, and we need to get involved, we need to pray, and we need to vote.
I want to encourage you to pray for our country. Praying for our country and voting are spiritual things that we do, and Satan wants to convince us that we, as Christians, should not be involved in politics. Well, our focus shouldn't be politics, but we should be involved. We should be praying for our leaders, we should be learning about the candidates, and we should be voting. So I want to encourage you, get involved, vote, and pray.