Pastor Jack Graham says it’s time for Christians to ‘stand up and flip tables’

Liberty University welcomed Dr. Jack Graham, senior pastor of Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Texas, to the Convocation stage on Wednesday to encourage students to fully surrender themselves to Christ.

After a formal introduction by John W. Rawlings School of Divinity Dean Troy Temple, Graham referred to himself as a “spiritual grandfather.”

“I embrace that because I’m looking at your generation, and I know that many of you are looking for father figures and leaders that you can count on and trust,” he said. “It’s been my goal, it’s been my prayer throughout my life, that I would be consistent in what God’s calling me to do.”

Following high school, Graham attended Hardin-Simmons University, a private Baptist university in Abilene, Texas, and traveled to churches to preach.

Despite already training for ministry and actively sharing the Gospel with various congregations, Graham said that it was during his time as a student that God took complete control in his life.

The catalyst for this intensified desire was the death of his father, who had been attacked with a hammer by someone attempting to rob his hardware store when Graham was 20 years old. Despite the anger that Graham remembers feeling the day his father died, he said that it was in the chapel of the intensive care unit that he found peace.

“I can’t describe to you what happened to me in that room on that dark night, but God moved in my life in a way I had never experienced in the past,” Graham said. “I certainly was a Christian and called to preach, but I look back on it now and I see it in that dark night of my soul as an anointing of my life.”

The moment solidified his calling and gave him a passion to share the Gospel with the world.

“I determined in that room that I would spend the rest of my life lighting candles, being a light in the darkness,” he added. “I refused to be bitter and angry and carry that into the rest of my days.”

Graham then shared from Matthew 21 and the story of Jesus clearing the temple. He said Jesus was not peaceful and gentle in that situation, but violently sought to purify the temple of wickedness. To emphasize his point, Graham flipped over the table on the Convocation stage.

“I’m seeing here the bravery, the boldness, and the courage of Jesus to confront superficial religion. And He’s still doing it today with the false religion and the ideologies,” he said. “Jesus comes in and he turns everything upside down. That’s what he did when he came, and he’s still doing it today.” In fact, it may be possible that Jesus is turning your life upside down right now in some way. It could be that He’s flipping some tables in your life to get your attention or to show you your need to listen to him and get it right again.”

He stated that in order to properly model their lives after Christ, Christians must be willing to stand against the perversion and sin of the world.

“What we need in every generation is men and women like Jesus who are compassionate, caring, tender and kind, but we don’t always (play) nice when we see hypocrisy or superficial religion or ungodliness in the world,” he said, adding that revival is predicated on repentance and confession. “Sometimes there’s a time for us to stand up and flip some tables in order that the glory of God and the power of His presence would return.”

Drawing a comparison between the temple in the Bible and the body of a modern Christian, Graham posited that believers should fully devote themselves to Christ, claiming that God demands complete ownership of believers by virtue of living within them and purchasing them through His sacrifice on the cross.

Speaking from personal experience, he said that he daily rededicates his life to God and aims to give everything that he has over to Him.

“Jesus doesn’t want a place in your life.  He doesn’t even want prominence in your life. He demands preeminence in our lives,” Graham said, citing Matthew 6:33.

He then referenced Robert Munger’s 1954 sermon on devoting oneself to Christ. Munger compared his life with a house, stating that Christ wants complete control over every room. There should be no areas of a Christian’s life where Christ disapproves.

“Jesus doesn’t just desire to be a guest that moves in and out, but the rightful owner and operator of everything in our lives,” Graham said. “That’s when he cleanses the temple. I want to call you to purity. I want to call you to holiness and godliness. You will never regret giving your life completely to the Lord Jesus Christ. If you surrender and give it all to him, it’s going to be worth it. Are there mistakes? Are there going to be sinful behaviors that show up? Yes, but we run right back to Him and he cleanses the temple.”

Just as the biblical temple was a place of prayer, praise, and power, Graham argued that Christians can be that as well if they surrender control.

“God will do things that will blow your mind,” he said. “I’m telling you, I could have never dreamed when I was just a kid what God could do with a life surrendered to Him. I only tell you that to say I’m no perfect model, but I want to be the kind of model that says, when you walk with Jesus, when you live for Jesus, when you’ve been trekking with Jesus, ‘It’s worth it. It’s worth it. It’s worth it.’”