A Conversation with Lakey Derrick

TNG Radio, where today's culture and timeless truths come together. It's reasoned, relevant content apologetics, worldview, and answers to the questions that you need to know. From Alex McFarland Ministries, this is Truth for a New Generation Radio. And now the man who preached in 50 states in 50 days, speaker, writer, and advocate for Christian apologetics, Dr. Alex McFarland. Do you enjoy hearing about someone who makes a difference? Do you enjoy hearing about an individual who maybe gets out of their comfort zone or maybe at great personal cost?

They go out there, they put themselves on the line, and they make a difference. Hi, Alex McFarland here. Welcome to Truth for a New Generation Radio. And on this edition of TNG Radio, in a few minutes, you're going to meet a college student who is really out there on the front lines being used by God to turn her fellow students to truth. College students toward truth, the gospel, conservative Christian constitutional values. It's an exciting story.

You don't want to miss it. In just a few moments, we'll talk with Lacey Derrick, who's being used by God to touch hundreds of college students for America, for God and country. But you know, the Bible talks about making a difference. James 5, verse 20 says, Remember this, whoever turns a sinner from the error of their ways will save them from death and will cover over a multitude of sins. Galatians 6, verse 1 speaks about making a difference in the life of another person. It says, If anyone is caught in a transgression or a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness.

Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. But the Bible talks about being used to make a difference. And friend, God wants to use you.

As we record this, there is, they say, maybe a red wave of conservatives that have been elected here in early November, and Virginia now is going to be having a Republican governor. And look, we know that the only message that can really change the world is the message of Jesus and the cross. But here in America, in addition to the Christian faith, we need morality. We need truth.

We need people to care about this nation. And Hebrews 10, 24 through 25 says, Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works. And it goes on and it connects this promotion of the message of truth, salvation, morality with the church. After talking about stirring up one another to love and good works, Hebrews 10, 25 goes on and says, Not neglecting the meeting together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all so much the more as you see the day approaching. Well, this quote, meeting together, that was church. That was a reference to how the saints of God would get together for worship, for service, for instruction, for mutual encouragement.

And we need that more and more. 1 Thessalonians 5 talks about it. But do you know the Christian message, not only winning lost people to Christ, but discipleship?

It's very much, we've used this term for years, life on life transference. The Bible says that as iron sharpens iron, so a man is sharpened by the countenance of his friends. My dear friend, you can do more to point people toward Jesus than you might ever realize.

Young people, and I know we have a lot of teenagers that listen to our programming. You can do more. You might change somebody's life, just like Angie changed my life when she invited me to a Monday night Bible study. Little did I know that I would hear about Christ and be saved. Little could I have guessed that God would not only save me, but call me into ministry.

And it all began because I was invited to a Monday night Bible study group one time. You know, there's somebody you probably have never heard of, but it was one person. Before Rosa Parks, there was a Christian 15-year-old named Claudette Colvin, C-O-L-V-I-N. And everybody knows the story of Rosa Parks, but Claudette Colvin was one of the unsung heroes of the civil rights movement. She was 15 years old, and during the time of segregation, she refused to give up her seat on the bus to a white woman. And she was respectful, she was non-violent, but later on she told the BBC she was being interviewed.

And she said, whenever people ask me, why didn't you get up when the bus driver told you to? And Colvin said, I felt as though Harriet Tubman's hands were on one of my shoulders and Sojourner Truth's hands were pushing me down on the other shoulder. I felt inspired by these women because my teacher taught us about them in much detail.

Now the thing about it was, and this 15-year-old in Montgomery, Alabama was arrested for not obeying the bus driver who told her to get up. And this was again before Rosa Parks. Now you don't hear that much about Claudette Colvin, but Sojourner Truth and Harriet Tubman that were her heroes were Christians. And Claudette Colvin, maybe we'll get her to speak at one of our conferences, I would love to do that sometime, but her heroes were two Christians that were part of the abolitionist movement and she kept her seat and she inspired a lot of people as part of the civil rights movement.

And we could give so many other examples. I think about somebody who made a difference, Nellie Bly, you've heard of the writer Nellie Bly, her real name was Elizabeth Cochran Seaman. But do you know what Nellie Bly did in the 19th century? She faked insanity, went undercover to investigate mental hospitals, which at that time had just horrid, unspeakably inhumane conditions. But she spent ten days in an insane asylum and she wrote about the just abhorrent conditions that mental patients lived under. And her work, it would take a few years, but it was used to really not only help mental institutions be more humane with their patients, but it really influenced mental health care forever.

And she was just one person who did something, she followed her passion, she didn't really have a commission from a newspaper, but she cared about other people and was willing to put herself in harm's way to write and expose and the condition of people was all the better for it. When we come back, we're going to talk about making a difference for our Constitution, the document that guarantees our liberties. You're going to hear an inspiring young person that is out of the comfort zone, but in the truth zone and is being used by God to make a difference.

Stay tuned. Truth for a New Generation Radio is back right after this. Christians don't necessarily agree with one another when it comes to questions of religious pluralism, homosexuality, the role of government, abortion and war. Too often we manage these disagreements by ignoring them. Yet we're called to engage the world for the sake of Christ.

How can we be effective if we avoid society's most pressing questions? In 10 issues that divide Christians, Alex McFarland challenges us to drill down to the biblical core of 10 current issues, such as social justice, evil and suffering, pornography and environmentalism as he echoes the biblical invitation. Come, let us reason together. Only by engaging the scriptures deeply, thinking clearly and speaking truthfully can we in God's family address our differences and discover the peace that comes with unity of purpose. 10 issues that divide Christians.

Find this book and many others at alexmcfarland.com. Have you ever wanted to raise your hand during a sermon? Well, here's your chance. Hi, Alex McFarland here from the nationally syndicated radio program Exploring the Word. For more than 10 years, my co-host Bert Harper and I have taught scripture and answered hundreds of Bible questions. We've compiled a brand new book of the top 100 Bible questions from listeners of all ages from questions about supposed Bible contradictions to apologetics facts that prove the truths of scripture. This new book features practical content that will make the Bible come alive for you.

Can we really be sure that God exists? Are there contradictions in the Bible? I need a book that will help me understand the Bible better.

There's so much good content in this book. 100 Bible questions and answers published by Broad Street Publishers and available at your local bookstores and also through resources.afa.net. For apologetics resources, books by Alex McFarland, and to find out where Alex is speaking, visit alexmcfarland.com. Welcome back to Truth For A New Generation. Alex McFarland here, and you know, I'm on the road in Tennessee right now. One of the joys of what we do with Truth For A New Generation, all over the country we meet interesting people that are being used by God to do extraordinary things, and that is certainly the case right now.

I'm in Kingsport, Tennessee. We're having an amazing apologetics weekend at Gravelly Baptist Church, Pastor David Salle. But I met a college student named Lakey Derek, and we were planning and scheming, really, for something we want to do next semester, but I just wanted to have a few moments to converse with Lakey Derek because this, what she's doing, and all that she's about will give you hope. So first of all, Lakey, I want to say thanks for being with us on Truth For A New Generation.

Thank you for letting me come talk to you guys. Well, you know, you and I just came out of this gathering, and I was up there talking about truth and talking about morality and the future of our country. Are these things that your age demographic is concerned about? I think definitely for the most part it's just going right over my generation's heads.

We're not very much focused on the future of our nation, and we're not very much focused on the morality of our nation. Now tell us what you, if you don't mind me asking, what is your age and what do you do, Lakey? So I'm 19 years old. I am a full-time college student, and I also work part-time at Hobby Lobby, so all your crafting supplies, I've got them. And I just am the vice president of my Turning Point USA chapter at ETSU. We're a new club. We have about 75 members, so that's pretty good for first semester.

We're growing a lot. I also am on the executive board for my Washington County Young Republicans. And then I work with the national organization, the Madison Coalition, and I work with the Keep 9 Amendment. And what we do is we're working to get a constitutional amendment passed that would ban Supreme Court packing. Oh, that is wonderful.

Well, I want to come back to that. So you're at East Tennessee State University, and what is your major going to be, Lakey? So I am a media communications major, and my concentration is public relations and advertising, and I'm a political science minor. Well, you know, frankly, knowing that you're a believer and that you're one of the Young Republicans, I mean, that encourages me because there are a lot of folks my age, and I'm sure you know this, but we're very concerned for the future of the country because we're concerned about what young people believe. And so if you can, tell us what a lot of your peer group, and by the way, I'm thrilled that your club has 75 members right off the bat, but your demographic, 19, 20-year-olds, what do they know about America?

What do they think about America? I think we can easily see, per the public school's education level, our civics classes are very lacking. A lot of kids don't know about our foundings, so I think coming into college, I find that a lot of students don't understand the history of America, and they don't understand, one, why I believe the way I believe, because a lot of these kids, too, especially where I go to ETSU, you know, I live in the Bible Belt, but many of these kids are part of cultural Christianity, so they grew up Christian, but they were never taken to church.

It was never really talked about. At the same time, politics was never discussed, so they got their politics and their religion from their public school teachers, and we've also seen public schools are very lacking in morality as well. Do any of your professors, like, affirm the Constitution and say, you know, America's unique, and we've got freedom and liberty and opportunity, and we shouldn't lose that? I mean, do your professors speak positively of the USA, or do you pick up on things that are little, you know, cuts against America? Overwhelmingly, my professors very much hate on America, even if it is subtle.

It's very major. Just last week, I actually had to discuss in my international relations class, we were going over this thing, a part of the U.N., and it was modeled after the Constitution, and everybody in my class was just saying, oh, this is like the Constitution, and my teacher even asked, like, okay, well, but then where does the Constitution get its laws derived from, and why is the Constitution so good? And I raised my hand, and I was like, the Constitution's modeled after the Bible, and the God-given rights in the Bible, and that just became a whole thing of the Bible's bad, and God allowed people to kill other people, and just crazy things. And there's been many times, too, social justice issues comes up, and I have to debate on why the Constitution's not inherently racist against black people. So it's always something fun, I guess, to have to sit and debate a teacher, but it happens quite frequently. Do many of your peers speak up and say, hey, wait just a minute, no, we've been the beacon of liberty to the world, and the Constitution guarantees that every person has rights, and so to what degree do your peers kind of speak back and say, wait a minute, we have a great country here, and we ought to care about it? I think it always takes one person to kind of stand up to hear the people follow suit and be like, no, I agree with what she said. Usually, whenever I make my opinion known, which I do every single time, I have a few students who will back me up, or I see nods, but some people are a lot more quiet in their beliefs.

If you're like me, you can't be silent. Do you feel that nudge? And it's the Holy Spirit, and nobody's going to speak out, but you have to speak up, don't you? That's called leadership, and that's called the Lord leading you, but you know what that motive is, don't you?

Yes. Every single time something goes against what I believe, whether it be biblically or politically, I make my opinion very much known. Going back to my very first semester at college, I actually had an in-person class, and my teacher, it was just a writing class, and my teacher said, I'm going to give you ten true or false questions, and if they are true or false, you're going to answer, and if you say your answer, you better be able to tell me why. And she gave me ten true or false questions, every single one about abortion, every single one was true. She said the Bible condemns abortion, and I said true.

She said it was false. So I had to go into different areas where John the Baptist slept in the womb. In Job, God acknowledges that he knew you in the womb. And then just other areas where I had to acknowledge the sanctity of life, and I've never been more thankful for my Christian school education from pre-school all the way up to graduating, and then I've never been more thankful for my church here at Gravely because I was very prepared to go into that.

But that's just one scenario where I've had to debate something, but it's usually, I would say, one class a day. Keep 9, N-I-N-E, keep9.org. Very important. Briefly, before we take a break, what is that? So the Keep 9 Amendment, it's an organization, what we're doing is we're working to ban Supreme Court packing through the passing of a constitutional amendment.

It's a non-partisan bill, and we're working to educate young people, adults alike, on the issue of why the Supreme Court's integrity is important to uphold our Constitution and America's foundations. Stay tuned, folks. We're going to come right back with more of our conversation with Lakey Derek, and you're going to have hope for the future, so don't go away. America today is like a patient struggling to live, yet is being forcibly euthanized by her, quote, doctors. The life force within the patient fighting for survival is the honest citizens like yourself.

The team of, quote, caregivers are the local and national leaders actually contributing to the demise of the patient. The economy is crashing, crime is exploding, the Constitution is being abolished, the assault on America, how to defend our nation before it's too late by Alex McFarland, has one single purpose, to get you prepared. Learn the real source of America's current problems that no one else is talking about, and what you can do now to face tomorrow, regardless of what tomorrow brings. The assault on America, how to defend our nation before it's too late, available now at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and local Christian bookstores.

Are you tired of liberal agendas ruining our country, but you don't know what to do about it? That's why Truth and Liberty Coalition was founded. We want to equip you to take back our country and impact the world. Here's how we do it. We educate through broadcasts, conferences, and our website with resources that inform, equip, and motivate. We unify by collaborating with like-minded organizations like the Family Research Council, the Family Policy Alliance, and My Faith Votes. We mobilize by providing practical tools you can use to impact your local community.

As Christians, we are called to make disciples of nations. Together, we can change the course of our country for good. Join Truth and Liberty to connect with believers and organizations who not only want to see a change in our nation, but a community that is actually doing something about it. Join us online for our broadcast, and subscribe for relevant updates on our website, truthandliberty.net. In the midst of a culture obsessed with relativism, Alex McFarland is a voice you can trust to speak the timeless truths of Christianity in a timely way. You're listening to Truth for a New Generation radio. Welcome back to Truth for a New Generation.

Alex McFarland here. I do want to remind you to bring your youth group to our summer camp, TNG camp. We always talk about worldview.

We just had our big conference, had 14 states represented. But July 17 through 22, 2022, and it'll be here before you know it, but we're going to be in eastern North Carolina just about an hour outside of Raleigh. We're going to have all kind of speakers. We're going to talk about creation versus evolution. We're going to talk about morality. We're going to talk about the country, why we need to preserve our declaration, bill of rights, constitution, and yes, how to walk with the Lord, how to be a disciple, but how to make an impact for God and country. It's the Truth for a New Generation camp.

Our theme in 2022 is Unshakeable, Building Your Biblical Worldview. It's for middle school and high schoolers. You can get complete information at my website, which is alexmcfarland.com.

That's alexmcfarland.com. And by the way, let me just say the camp that we've rented is called The Refuge, and there's horseback riding and boating and fishing and swimming and archery and zip lines. It's going to be a blast. You want to be there July 17 through 22 next summer, and we'll make the next generation of disciples that will help save our nation.

Well, one of whom is right here with me. We're talking with Lacey Derrick, and let me just say I want to continue our conversation about how God is using you. But first of all, Lacey, let me say on behalf of you and your club and your leaders, thank you. Thank you for standing up for truth. I know it's probably out of the comfort zone sometimes, but for God and country, you're doing the right things, and we applaud you. Thank you.

I'm super excited to be here and just be talking to you about what I'm doing. You know, before the break, you and I were talking about Keep Nine, court packing and really stacking the Supreme Court with an ideology. That's just one of the ways that the socialist progressive left is trying to change America. Refresh us on what Keep Nine is. So Keep Nine, we work with a national organization, the Madison Coalition, and we're the Keep Nine organization. And what we're doing is we're working to get a constitutional amendment passed that would ban Supreme Court packing. And why would this be important?

Well, truthfully, every single thing that I care about, such as abortion, national security, Second Amendment rights, First Amendment rights, responsible immigration, protecting Israel and standing with Israel, all of that falls under the umbrella of an independent Supreme Court. Absolutely. Well, that is great. And again, their website is keepnine.org. Let's talk a little bit about your campus club, Turning Point, right?

Yes, Turning Point USA at ETSU. And what is that club about? What do you guys do?

We work, we're a chapter under Turning Point, which is just a nonprofit 501c3 with Charlie Kirk. And what we do is we advocate for free markets, free speech and limited government. So your conservative values. You know, it's interesting when you talk about what America is and like I was doing some research for an article this week and I came across a quote by Franklin Delano Roosevelt, FDR, who generally is thought to be one of our more liberal presidents, you know. And he started a lot of social programs and progressive things. But FDR, in his State of the Union speech in 1935, he warned in very strong language that we cannot have a welfare state. And he said that welfare is a narcotic that people get addicted to and welfare crushes the human soul, crushes the incentive to work. And he basically said the quote relief roles and welfare is dehumanizing and we cannot become a nation of welfare programs. This is FDR, not a conservative. But when you stand up for things that are just good common sense government, nowadays do some think you're kind of radical? I mean, if you set forth true good American constitutionalism, they think you're kind of radical, don't they?

Yes. People have definitely been brainwashed, especially in this area, because I will say, once again, we're a part of that cultural Christianity where people are raised in Christian homes but they never go to church. Their family never talks about God. Their families never talk about politics. So they're left to get all their information from their schools. And schools are overwhelmingly liberal.

So we see these kids then go to college where, once again, professors overwhelmingly liberal and they're pushing this leftist narrative. And if you go against the grain, I mean, look at abortion. The left talks about dehumanization is deadly, but they want to call a baby a fetus. So that's very dehumanizing. But people, if you even just question abortion, people will come for you saying you're infringing on a woman's right, saying you're such a radical. But you're literally taking the life of another human being.

So, yes, definitely considered a radical. And isn't it interesting how for 40 years we've heard a woman's right to choose, I make my health care decisions for myself, and then along comes the COVID vaccine, you have no right to deny the government administering this vaccine to your body. Suddenly the sword of my own personal rights has been taken away when it comes to the vaccine.

Have you noticed? Yeah, the whole argument of my body, my choice, has completely been thrown out the window. The only time that it is your body and your choice is whenever it's to push the leftist agenda. What is your message, Lakey, that you wish America could hear? Yes, I'm a conservative, but first and foremost, I'm a Christian.

I'm a Christian first, conservative second, and then I'm a Republican third in that order. And what I ask for each and every one of you to do is know why you believe what you believe, don't just believe what your pastor tells you, don't just believe what your parents tell you, do the research, know why you believe what you believe, and be able to go out and tell the world exactly that. I'm very proud of you, and I commend you. And, hey, if the Lord hasn't come back, I figure in 10 years we'll probably see you on the gubernatorial ticket to the state of Tennessee, maybe, right? I definitely hope so.

So everybody remember my name, Lakey Derrick, and if you're in my voting district, vote for me. God bless you. And I would love to come speak at your chapter, and we'll visit again soon. I certainly hope so.

Yes, definitely. And also, please visit TPUSA at ETSU. We're on Instagram. Go check us out.

Give us a follow. Folks, you've been listening to a conversation with Lacey Derrick, and do you know what? She's one example of how you can be involved, and you can make a difference. We often share this verse, 1 Corinthians 15, 58, that your labor in the Lord is not in vain. Your labor in the Lord is not in vain. So I want to encourage you to stand up for truth, stand up for God and country, because you can make a difference, just like Lakey is. And we're here to help you do it with events, publishing, broadcasting. Thanks for listening to Truth for a New Generation. Go to my website, AlexMcFarland.com, and thank you for your prayers and support, which are enabling us to call our nation back to Christ.

That's 877-YES-GOD and the number 1. Or give online at AlexMcFarland.com. While you're there, listen to program archives, read Alex's blog, invite Alex to speak at your event, or contact Alex with a question or comment. AlexMcFarland.com. Thanks for listening today, and join us again next time as we bring you more truth for a new generation on TNG Radio.