A broad cross-section of nearly 1,200 New Orleans-area residents gathered at First Baptist Church on the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina’s landfall.
Will Graham, grandson of Billy Graham and son of Franklin Graham, exhorts the 2007 Katrina Anniversary Rally audience to move from commitment to surrender of their lives to Jesus. With commitment, a person still maintains control; to surrender is to give up control, Graham said.They came to the 2007 Katrina Anniversary Prayer Rally to praise God for his abiding grace over the last two years – and, under the high-energy direction of worship leader Lisa Pierre of Houston, praise God they did.
They came to pray – and, led by pastors from all over the city plus one high school girl, pray they did: for safety in the city, people who are standing in the gap, mothers keeping their families strong, students and teachers, and more.
Hard times continue in New Orleans, so they came also to be encouraged. George Shinn, owner of the Hornets pro basketball team, did more than that: With a coach’s pre-game fervor, he motivated those who had gone through a bad season to have faith – in America, New Orleans, oneself, neighbors and God.
But Will Graham – son of Franklin, grandson of Billy – brought the unexpected.
The program had William Franklin Graham IV bringing a “message of hope.” Susan Emory of Metairie, for one, said she expected to hear “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.”
But from the first words from Graham, standing at the pulpit his grandfather preached from in 1954, and his father last year, Graham didn’t apologize for his youthful appearance, his being neither his grandfather nor his father, or his lack of an opening joke.
“I can’t comprehend what you’ve gone through,” Graham began. “I can’t comprehend the destruction or what it’s done in your lives. … I can’t comprehend it, but God can.”
Graham said he believes “we’re in the end times” and repeated it a few sentences later as if to emphasize the point.
“When I give up on this world, I’m reminded God has not, and it convicts me,” the young evangelist – and father of three – preached. “God has not given up on this world. God has not given up on this city. God has not given up on you.”
Graham instructed the audience to turn to 1 Kings 8, but first he cited the one-verse admonition in Luke 17:32 to “Remember Lot’s wife.”
Lot and his family, as they fled the destruction of Sodom, were physically safe and in the presence of angels, Graham said. But he took note of Lot’s wife, who is unnamed in scripture, and noted: “But her heart was in Sodom.”
Graham paused, then declared to the audience: “You’re just like her.” His look, his words spared no one in First Baptist’s nearly full worship center.
He let the words hang in the air for a moment, before voicing his message: Forget what was before; forget “pre-Katrina”; and surrender your heart to the Lord.
To surrender is to go way beyond commitment, Graham explained. Commitment is something a person chooses to do or not do; they still maintain control. To surrender is to give up control.
“Some people want to hang on to their bitterness,” Graham preached.
“Surrender it,” his jarring words causing some across the worship center to gasp.
Some people need to surrender their time; some need to surrender their money, Graham continued.
“You have a lack of personal holiness because you have not surrendered every aspect of your life,” Graham said, letting his words echo mentally for a moment, allowing people to count ways in which they haven’t surrendered to God’s control.
Graham closed by cautioning his listeners with the need for a continual surrender, rather than a one-time event, before inviting them forward to pray or speak with a pastor.