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COLLEGE FOOTBALL’S BIG NIGHT AND BIG PRAISE FOR GOD
TOM LAMPRECHT: Harry, last Monday night, Alabama was heard around the world as Nick Saban won his sixth national championship. He now ties Bear Bryant.
DR. REEDER: Yeah, it was quite an event. It is an event in the midst of the city I serve, Birmingham, and my congregation, which is about 55/60 percent Auburn, 40 percent Alabama. I had to make a commitment and I said, “My commitment is this: I am not going to choose,” so I have the great joy of being able to pull for both Alabama and Auburn. A guy actually wrote me an email afterward and said, “I bet you’re an Alabama fan now.” Well, what I told my congregation when I came is, “Go Pirates.” People may not know this, but you live in Greenville, North Carolina and I went to East Carolina, my basic statement is always, “Since I’ve been here, I’ve loved Alabama and Auburn football, but it’s obvious that they’re scared of East Carolina because they refuse to schedule them each year.”
I will tell you this: I am a Tua fan and I am a Jake fan and I’m referring, of course, to the two true freshmen quarterbacks who performed in such a stellar fashion Monday night but, more than that, the way their perspective that was revealed in the post-game interview.
TOM LAMPRECHT: Harry, it was encouraging how both quarterbacks, in the post-game show, their comments gave glory to God.
Tua Tagovailoa: “First and foremost, I’d like to thank my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. With him, all things are possible. That’s what happened tonight. All glory goes to God. I can’t describe what He has done for me and my family.”
DR. REEDER: And after that he was actually asked a number of questions and he kept coming back to a God-centered world and life view. It was really encouraging. He actually apologized to his parents that he couldn’t say them first – he wanted to honor the Lord first. This young man from Hawaii is quite the talent, with a brother, Bo, coaching move was brought in and, with his courage, was able to follow through.
And, by the way, Jalen Hurts, the existing quarterback, his response was admirable in how he exhibited a team player attitude and was his No. 1 encourager in his route of success last night, even though he had replaced him.
However, what I wanted to really point out was his ability to do that and, not only that, the Jake Fromm response, too.
TOM LAMPRECHT: Indeed. Jake Fromm, who was the quarterback for the Georgia Bulldogs, said in a post-game tweet, “God is good all the time and all the time God is good. So thankful for an incredible season with all these seniors who have given so much to this university. They’ve set the standard for University of Georgia football. We will be back. Love my teammates and go Dawgs.”
DR. REEDER: Unlike many fans that I meet – football becomes a religion – but these two young men, one in victory and one in defeat, handled this so absolutely with equilibrium and with clarity and did what I love to see and that is when people are blessed of the Lord to be successful or blessed of the Lord with the adversity of defeat and failure, are able to keep their eyes on the Lord and exalt the Lord and use it as a platform to honor the Lord. I am a Tua and a Jake fan.
HOPE FOR FUTURE ATHLETES
I’m a fan of both of these young men and pray that the coming years of their success, they will continue to manifest not only the desire to honor Christ in every opportunity, both of them then immediately moved to their teammates and their coaches to honor them and then they kept avoiding personal promotion.
I’m just praying that they will continue to do that and to set a standard for our kids that are watching the athletes in the world today and to see that. I am hoping that opens up the hearts of a lot of young men and women who have athletic aspirations to see what happens when you have a heart-embraced world and life view that comes through in victory and defeat.
TRUMP’S IMPORTANT PRO-LIFE ACHIEVEMENTS
TOM LAMPRECHT: Harry, in our closing minutes, I’d like to switch gears. Coming up in just a couple of weeks is Sanctity of Life Sunday. We’ll also be noting on the calendar the anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision – how many millions of lives have been taken as a result – but there’s actually some good news on the horizon.
Let me give you a couple of headlines. One, President Donald Trump has been recognized as Pro-Life Person of the Year for 2017. One of the most prominent pro-life groups in America has given its award to Trump, declaring him Pro-Life Person of the Year. That, according to Operation Rescue.
Another important headline, Harry, out of The Daily Wire, “Pro-life win on horizon: first state to be abortion clinic-free, the State of Kentucky.”
DR. REEDER: First of all, congratulations to President Trump. If you look at his actions since president in his first year, he has actually advanced the pro-life cause further, I believe, than any president. Now, we’ve had a number of presidents who affirmed their pro-life position, but he has advanced it with his Appeals Court and Supreme Court appointments, with his removal of the abortion mandate funding of the Obamacare, with other executive orders, and the Justice Department now doing its investigation of Planned Parenthood. That is rightly awarded to him and I’m grateful for what he’s done.
STATES SHUTTING DOWN ABORTION CLINICS
I’m also grateful for your second headline, to see a state become abortion clinic-free – in other words, to remove another genocidal business – Kentucky is about to take its place along with, I believe, it’s seven other states. And by the way, in Alabama, we are getting close, also. We’re close to removing all abortion clinics in Birmingham.
And, if you don’t mind, let me go ahead and say this: Saturday at 10:45 will be our gathering at Brother Brian Park, the legendary pastor of Third Presbyterian Church, the park that’s named for him who used to walk the streets to pray for the city. I love the full-orbed approach in Birmingham of adoption of ministry and of mercy to women in crisis, the picketing of the abortion clinics and now we’re closing them down – I think we’re down to one – the organizations that are speaking for the pro-life and moving forth legislation in local and state government. It’s been absolutely wonderful, Tom, to see all of that take place.
TOM LAMPRECHT: Harry, if you go back to the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, many people prayed and hoped that we would get a Supreme Court decision, some sort of federal mandate/guidance/directive that would stop abortion. God has chosen a different path: one by one, we see these abortion clinics shutting down.
MINISTRY MUST EXTEND TO MEN, WOMEN, CHILDREN
DR. REEDER: And babies being saved one by one, as well, and women in crisis pregnancy being ministered to one by one, and the fathers who are certainly responsible for this, who have fathered these children. And the fact that the secular elite were absolutely convinced, once they got the judicial case established that this issue would disappear – the death industry upon unborn children would become a part of our culture.
Well, the fact is, it hasn’t and now, these many years later, and in the terrible, terrible, grievous statistic of 60+ million children who have lost their lives because they “were inconvenient,” the mistakes of the sexual revolution that had to be eliminated and then the whole notion that no one is worth living unless somebody wants them instead of the reality that life is sacred and every life is sacred because every life comes with the stamp of the image of God upon it. And I am grateful for what’s happening in Kentucky.
That’s where we are and we will continue to speak to these matters with public policy, all under the mission of the church with the focus of the mission of the church to actually win abortion doctors, win women, win men and win the children that are saved with the Gospel of Jesus Christ – that we love life because we have the gift of eternal life and we can tell you about the one who can give you the salvation from your sins and grant you eternal life. And not only forgive us of our sins, but transform our lives by embracing a new life for Christ that honors life.
Dr. Harry L. Reeder III is the Senior Pastor of Briarwood Presbyterian Church in Birmingham.
This podcast was transcribed by Jessica Havin. Jessica is editorial assistant for Yellowhammer News. Jessica has transcribed some of the top podcasts in the country and her work has been featured in a New York Times Bestseller.
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