Pathway to Victory

Speaker 1

Before we have our offertory prayer, the remainder of the service, I wanted to take just a few moments and say some words about what we all witnessed last night in the strikes against the nuclear facilities in Iran. There's been a lot of debate in our country, especially the last few months, about whether America should support Israel and to what extent we should support Israel. You may have seen the clip that went viral of the debate between Tucker Carlson and Senator Ted Cruz. Tucker was ridiculing Ted Cruz for saying that as Christians, we were mandated to support Israel. Tucker said, "Where is that in the Bible? And what does it mean to support Israel? Does it mean we support the government of Israel? What does that mean?"

Well, Tucker, let me help you out. Here's what it means to be supportive of Israel. To support Israel, first of all, means to support Israel's right to exist. The nation of Iran does not believe Israel has the right to exist. Iran has its stated objective to wipe Israel off the face of the earth. And there are other countries that believe that as well. But in doing so, they are going against God himself, unlike any other nation in the world. God created the nation of Israel. Israel was his idea. And he said Israel will endure forever. No other nation, including the United States, has that promise. But Israel has that promise.

And second, to support Israel means to support Israel's right to exist in her land. You listen to the left, listen to what's being taught on college campuses. They will have you believe that this land belongs to the Palestinians. It's been theirs. And just in the last 50 years, Israel tried to come and steal the land that belonged to those poor Palestinians. Nothing could be further from the truth. You look not just at the Bible, but look at secular history, look at archaeology. We know without a shadow of a doubt that Israel occupied that land at least 3,000 years ago. It was theirs because God gave it to them. And he said, "This land will be yours forever."

Ladies and gentlemen, history is very clear on this. Those who oppose Israel are always on the wrong side of history, and most importantly, they're on the wrong side of God. And thank God we finally have a president who understands that truth: Donald Trump. You know, I was watching the news this week, and I saw the president getting hit from all sides, including from his own coalition about Israel. And so Thursday, I texted him and I just reminded him that there are millions of Christians who pray for him every day. I said, "Mr. President, the vast majority of those Christians are going to trust you and support whatever decision you make."

And last night, we saw President Trump make the right decision in going against Iran. He not only removed a menace, a threat to the nation of Israel, but he removed a threat to America and removed a threat to the entire world. He did something other presidents have dreamed of doing, have talked about doing, who wanted to do it, but only President Trump had the courage to make that hard decision. And he ought to be thanked for doing that.

But he also needs to be acknowledged for the way he accepted victory last night. I don't know if you saw his brief four-minute speech that he gave after the mission was accomplished, but in that statement, he said, "I want to thank everybody, but in particular, I want to thank God." And I just want to say, we love you, God. Have you ever heard another president say that, Republican or Democrat? No other president has said that before.

And I think I speak for the vast majority of the members of First Baptist Church, Dallas, when I say, thank God for the courageous and godly leadership of our president, Donald Trump. God bless you, Mr. President, and what you've done.