Faith and Freedom

Welcome to this edition of PowerPoint with Jack Graham.

A little later in the program we'll tell you how you can get a copy of Dr. Graham's devotional, Moments in the Word. But first, here's the message, faith and freedom. How many of you love America? I love this great nation. I'm privileged to have been born an American.

In a little town in the middle of America, Conway, Arkansas, growing up in the 50s and later in the 60s as a teenager in Fort Worth, Texas. I am so grateful for the freedoms that we have enjoyed and the heritage, the history of our nation, both personal and public. I believe, I still believe that America is the greatest nation on earth. It is.

Exceptional, exceptional in every way. But I'm concerned about America as I know many of you are as well. Concerned because we are in a moral free fall. Because spiritual darkness is encroaching upon our nation and endeavoring to stamp out or to shut out the light of freedom. And today, we are fighting battles of a different kind.

Unseen forces that wage war against the character and the soul of our nation, sinister forces, even satanic forces, and therefore a spiritual warfare in which we are engaged today. The Christian faith is under attack in America as secularists, so-called progressives or liberals are advancing a godless agenda. And the foundations of our faith and ultimately our freedom are at risk. The scripture says if the foundations be destroyed, what will the righteous do?

And I can tell you that the foundations of America, they are shaking. Now make no much mistake about it, the fathers of our country and the mothers of our country as well, the framers of our freedom, for the most part, during the revolutionary period, the writing of our historic documents of faith and freedom, these were Bible-believing Christians. And at the very least, those who were not Bible-believing Christians, what we would call evangelical Christians today, if they were not evangelical Christians, at the very least, they were people who believed in God and in God's providence and his power that would create this great nation. In other words, America is built upon the foundations of faith, which then produces these freedoms that we experience and enjoy and freedoms that people have fought in blood and given their lives to preserve. This is the basis of the birth of America and the basis of who we are today. These founders believe that faith produces freedom, the life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness comes from a creator God who moves among the nations and makes nations themselves, that the creator God of the universe governs the affairs of humanity. Consider the words of some of our founders and leaders of our nation. Let's start with the father of our country, the first president of the United States, George Washington, who said, to the distinguished character of patriot, it should be our highest glory to add the more distinguished character of Christian. Washington was calling for Christian patriots.

He was saying it's good to be a patriot, I'm a patriot, but better yet to be called a Christian patriot. Thomas Jefferson, writer of many of the documents, of course, including the Declaration of Independence, signed it, third president of the United States, he said this, God who gave us life gave us liberty. And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis?

And what is that firm basis? A conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God. And Jefferson went on to say, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just and that his justice cannot sleep forever. Thomas Jefferson was saying our liberties, our life, comes from our faith as the gift of God. James Madison, great American, early American, revolutionary fourth president of the United States, cursed be all the learning that is contrary to the cross of Christ.

Imagine a president saying that today. Did you know that the institutional, educational organizations of the early American history, like Harvard, these were founded by Christians? That Harvard was actually begun to train ministers to preach the gospel of Christ and to lead churches? Harvard. And most of the Ivy League schools were dedicated to Jesus Christ. The founder of Harvard said this, there is no true knowledge apart or wisdom apart from Jesus Christ.

You don't hear that coming out of Harvard today. But that's how they began. People say, no, American was not founded on Christian principles.

Wrong. Some want to rewrite or re-remember history. But if you read history and you know history, you will discover that this nation was built upon the Bible and Christian principles. Patrick Henry, that red-blooded, red-headed American from Virginia, ratifier of the U.S. Constitution, said it cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded not by religionists, but by Christians. Christians.

Not religions, but on the gospel of Jesus Christ. And it is for this reason that it is founded by Christians on Christian principles that our nation through generations have welcomed people from all nations and all faiths around the world. And have given religious freedom to everyone who comes to America and the opportunity to succeed in the greatest nation on earth. That comes from the Christian faith.

That comes from the Bible. President George Washington, I quote him again, said in a farewell address, reason and experience both forbid us that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle. In other words, the way to keep this nation together morally, for it to be a moral nation, it must be a religious nation.

John Adams, second president, loved President Adams. The United States Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for the government of any others. Democracy living in liberty requires moral principles that are found in the Bible, and therefore our laws that produce our liberties come from God. This is what the founders have said.

What say you? In 21st century America, you're listening to PowerPoint with Jack Graham and today's message, faith and freedom. When you set aside daily time to connect with God, he'll give you the ability to live a godly life and fulfill his plans for you in the coming year. And we'd like to help you walk even more closely with the Lord in the year ahead by sending you Pastor Graham's 180 day devotional moments in the word. It's our way to thank you for your gift today to help proclaim the gospel to more people around the world through PowerPoint. So call now to get your copy of moments in the word when you give. Call 1-800-795-4627. That's 1-800-795-4627. You can also text the word PowerPoint to 313131.

Text PowerPoint to 313131. And don't forget to visit Jack Graham.org where you can shop our e-store, give a gift online, or sign up for Dr. Graham's free daily email devotional. Our website again is Jack Graham.org. Now let's get back to today's message, faith and freedom.

Faith in God, the Word of God. Many of us believe that America is now imploding. I remember back in the early 1960s when the Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev pounded the table at the United Nations and said, we will bury you. And when asked about it, he said, not with armament or nuclear weapons, but we will pick you like an overripe piece of fruit. We're seeing the fruit ripen and over ripen today in America.

The harvest is past and we are not saved. In great part because we have systematically and systemically removed God from our homes, our families, our churches, our courtrooms, our government, and our culture. Now much of this started when I was a teenager in the 1960s in the revolution of the 60s, the Vietnam era. There was drug experimentation and so much of the drug abuse that we're seeing today. Those seeds were sown in the 1960s with drug experimentation and the sexual revolution that began in the 1960 has produced the sexual perversion of our own generation today. Where sin is no longer considered evil or wrong, bad in any way. And what was sown as a seed of the 60s is now prominent flourishing of bitter fruit today. The scripture says we have sown the wind and now we're reaping the whirlwind.

That's what's happening in our God-blessed, God-built America today. There are no moral absolutes according to those who aggressively pursue their agenda of secularism, the evolution. The evolutionary movement has said that sin is not sin as God would have defined it as the Bible tells it, but sin is just the upward drag. Evolution tells us it's merely the survival of the fittest.

And if you tell children and young people that they came from animals, they'll start acting like animals. The secularist says that sin is simply a social experiment, that it changes with time and conditions and circumstances. Or the secularist says man is basically good. Men and women are basically good. Not what the Bible tells us that men are inherently sinful.

But no, we are basically good and we're getting better. Or secularism tells us that we are simply victims of our environment or our lack of education. And when you tell people from generation to generation that there's no moral absolute, live as you please, live your own way.

Today liberty is turned from liberty to license as people are throwing off all restraint. There is hope. Certainly we know of people who are tormented by sin and Satan. And Satan wants to kill and steal and destroy according to Jesus in John 10. But Jesus said I've come that you might have life and have it more abundantly. Satan wants to destroy life, but only Jesus can heal your hurts and restore your life and redeem you and remake you in his power and set you free from the power of sin, Satan and death. Jesus will do that for you. No matter how confused or broken or sinful or imprisoned you may be or feel, you can be delivered by the love of God and the love of Jesus Christ who laid down his life on the cross and poured out his blood as a sacrifice for your sin.

And the blood of Jesus Christ, God's son, cleanses us from every sin. America is facing apparently what Paul talked about in 2 Timothy chapter 3. He said but understand that in the last days there will come times of difficulty, dangerous times literally, for people will be lovers of self and lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving God, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. We're living it, folks.

That's our generation, the terminal generation. You say is God going to judge America? God is already in fact judging America. All God has to do to judge a nation is to remove his hand of blessing. Psalm 33 tells us in verse 12, blessed is the nation, verse 13, blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord. God will bless any nation who turns to him and trusts to him. But in order to judge a nation, God just needs to remove his hand. And many believe, and I'm one of them, that God is taking his hand off America in these days. And that judgment follows sin as surely as night follows day, as smoke follows fire. Churches are deluded and divided by false teachers and by pastors and leaders who proclaim lies. Paul tells us in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 that in the last days God will send them strong delusion so that they would believe lies. That's what's happening today.

People are believing lies. You say what's happening to America today? Listen to another great American, Abraham Lincoln. He answered this question, what's happening to America, many years ago. He said, we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us and have vainly imagined in the deceitfulness of our hearts that all these blessings that we see in our country were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Abraham Lincoln, God bless him, said this in the midst of the Civil War. And we're in another kind of Civil War today. Our nation is deeply divided.

Why? Because we have forgotten God just as Abraham Lincoln, our 16th president said. But the good news is God has not forgotten us. And in the midst of judgment, there is the possibility of revival and renewal and redemption. For as the Scripture says, where sin abounds, grace much more abounds. Grace is available for our great country. There is still hope for America.

But really we have two choices, retribution or revival. Judgment will come. Be not deceived. God is not mocked.

Whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. You know, these are strange times in America, even among those who say they believe. For example, most people say they believe in God in this country. Ninety-four percent say they believe in God. Eighty-four percent say Jesus Christ is God in America. Surveyed Americans. Sixty-six percent of these say they have a personal commitment to follow Jesus Christ. They're Christians.

Seventy-five percent of Americans say they believe the Bible is the inspired word of God. And yet of these surveyed, only 69 percent said they believe in situational ethics. In other words, there are no moral absolutes. What is right and what is wrong is determined by your circumstances or your conditions.

You can't say this is right, this is wrong. Traditional marriage is under attack and redefined by the Supreme Court of the United States due to situational ethics. Again, seeds sown in the sixties.

I remember as a college student hearing about situational ethics. And we thought, well, that'll never happen in America. But here we are today. And one of the biggest problems that we have in this country is the breakdown of the family.

And specifically, specifically, guys, the absence of godly dads and fathers. It's time to cry out to God, to repent, and to return to God. We need a rebirth of freedom.

We need a new kind of revolution, a spiritual revolution in this nation. Revival, it's called revival. Revival means to live again, relive, revive.

Now, you can't be revived until you are vived. Revival is not for unbelievers. Unbelievers don't need revival. Unbelievers need Jesus. They need salvation. But God's people, the church, Christians, we need revival. We need to live again. Revival is when we are desperate for God to work in our lives, our homes, and in our families. Oh, how we need revival. A heaven sent, earth shaking, heaven breaking, devil defying, Jesus saving revival. That's what must happen, to cry out to God.

It can happen. Habakkuk was an Old Testament prophet, tucked away in the minor prophets of the Old Testament. He was confused about why God was allowing injustice and immorality to exist in his country. But God spoke to him. And God gave him a vision for what could be. And in Habakkuk, chapter 3 and verse 2, oh Lord, I have heard the report of you. A lot of people have heard about what God has done, what God can do. We've heard of your work, but oh Lord, do I fear in the midst of the years, revive it.

Revive your work again in the midst of the year. It's not too late for America. What kind of God do you think we serve? God is not surprised at what's going on in America. God is not wringing his hand wondering what he's going to do next.

One word that does not exist in the vocabulary of God is oops. God knows what he's doing and God is waiting on his people to return to him that he may revive us in the midst of the year. Revive your work again. We've heard about revivals in the past. We have heard of what God has done in yesteryear. But oh, that we ought to cry out, God, do it again. God, revive us again in the midst of all of this, in our own generation. Revival has been called a finger pointed in your own face.

God's finger pointed in the Christian's face. I say what we all need to do is draw a circle around our own lives and our own families and say, Lord, revive us again. Lord, send a great revival and let it begin in me, in our family. Do you need a revival? Do you personally need a revival? If there was ever a time in your life where you love God, serve God, worship God, live for Christ more than you do this very day, then you need a revival. You need to return to the Lord, repent and renew your faith in Him. Remember what it was like when you came to the Lord and you couldn't get enough of the Bible and you couldn't wait to get to church and you loved being around Christian friends and you were active serving the Lord and sharing your faith, but now you need a revival because you're not there anymore.

The Bible calls that backsliding, going backwards. The Christian life is a new beginning and revival is a new beginning of obedience to God in your own life. I close with 2 Chronicles 7, 14, if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face, turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, forgive their sin and heal their land. We've heard that many times, perhaps, but I want you to personalize it as I'm going to personalize it. If Jack Graham will humble himself and turn from his sins, if Jack Graham will humble himself and turn from his sins, then God will hear from heaven and heal his life and heal and forgive his sin.

Make this personal. I want revival in my own life. It's going to take some sacrifice. Delay our lives before the Lord to humble ourselves, to die to self, that we might live for Christ.

You're listening to PowerPoint with Jack Graham and today's message, faith and freedom. Looking ahead to a new year can fill you with expectation, but it can also fill you with desperation. What if things get worse?

What if the world gets crazier? What if you don't have the strength to face what comes your way? It's through spending daily time in God's word that we find the strength, peace and hope we need. And we want to help you do that by sending you Pastor Graham's 180 day devotional, Moments in the Word.

Moments in the Word is our special thanks for your gift this month. So call to request your copy today. Call 1-800-795-4627. That's 1-800-795-4627. You can also text the word PowerPoint to 313131.

Text PowerPoint to 313131. And don't forget to visit JackGraham.org where you can shop our e-store, give a gift online or sign up for Dr. Graham's free daily email devotional. Our website again is JackGraham.org. Pastor, what is your PowerPoint for today? Even though America has largely forgotten God, He has not forgotten us. The Bible teaches us that where sin abounds, grace much more abounds. So we need to take heart in the immeasurable infinite grace of God. I do believe there's still hope for America, but we need to repent. Galatians 6, 7 says, Do not be deceived.

God is not mocked. Whatever a person sows that he will also reap. And while America will certainly reap what we have sown, we are believing and praying for the grace of God to be poured out on America again. And the hope, this hope begins with God's people. It begins with you and me as we personally seek revival in our own lives, in our own families, in our own churches and communities. In other words, it's time to get on our knees and truly pray. It's time to join together with unbelievers and cry out to God. And while there's a place for public debate and political action, what we really need is the power of God in our lives and in our churches and in our homes. The hope of America begins with a revival, a spiritual awakening among God's people.

Pray today, Lord, send a great revival and let it begin in me. And that is today's PowerPoint. Remember, when you give a gift to PowerPoint, we'll send you Dr. Graham's 180-day devotional moments in the Word as our thanks. Call 1-800-795-4627. That's 1-800-795-4627. You can also text the word PowerPoint to 313131. Join us again next time, Dr. Graham brings a message about the surprising secret to maturing your faith. That's next time on PowerPoint with Jack Gray. PowerPoint with Jack Graham is sponsored by PowerPoint Ministries.