Billy Graham Houston 1982

now tonight I want you to turn with me to the hundred and second Psalm the hundred and second Psalm and a very strange verse in a way the 5th through the 7th the sixth and seventh verses I'm like a pelican in the wilderness I'm like an owl of the desert I watched him as a sparrow alone upon the housetop this week President Reagan in his news conference declared to the world you can look pessimistically on the world today or you can look optimistically he said I chose the optimistic look and tonight I want to speak on why I am an optimist and in this passage of Scripture an interesting little story surrounds it in 1954 we were in England and we were holding a crusade that lasted three months at the Haringey arena in London England and my wife is a bookworm and she loves to go to old book stores and buy old books and just browse through old books and she has hundreds of them that she's gotten over the years some of the great classics and on this occasion she saw a little old man in there what he wasn't an old man about a middle-aged man and he was very discouraged and very despondent looking and he came up to her and said are you mrs. Billy Graham and she said yes I am he said well you know he said I'm so discouraged he said my marriage is breaking up and he said everything is happening to me I don't know what I'm going to do and she said well why don't you come out to the Haringey Arena tonight and hear the gospel and she gave him some tickets that she had in her bag and she didn't see him again wondered what had happened to it prayed for it one year later we were back in that same city of London holding a crusade at Wembley Stadium where incidentally it poured rain every night in the like this except on the last night and it was clear and ice-cold so we had a delightful time in the rain and in the cold but an average of sixty thousand people every night came in on that last day I remember we had 90,000 people in that cold air but anyway she went to that same bookstore she was browsing around and this same man came and he was bright and chipper and Ruth said I've never seen such happiness on the face of anybody and he said you know I took the tickets I went to the arena that night I accepted Christ as my savior my wife accepted Christ said now we have a Christian family and he said you know the verse of scripture that your husband quoted that night that won me to the Lord he said it was a hundred and second Simon he got a Bible on his shoulder I'm like a pelican in the wilderness I'm like an owl of the desert by watching him espera alone upon the housetop and I never thought of that as being an evangelistic verse but it was to him because he said that described my condition because he said I felt like a pelican in the wilderness a pelican doesn't belong in the wilderness he belongs down in Galveston or someplace I'm like an owl of the desert well owls don't go to the desert much and he said that's the way I felt that night and he said it changed my life now the whole world tonight is like a pelican on owl Ostara dickens wrote of the French Revolution in 1775 that it was the best and the worst of times and that's what we're seeing today glamour them achlys in the fourth century BC said something against the king of Syracuse and he was ordered to sit under a naked sword suspended by a single hair now there's a difference between an optimist and a pessimist and I heard about one of our prisons two convicts were looking out of a cell window one night and the pessimists all did the bars but the optimist saw the stars and in our world we see bow I heard about one man suffering from depression decided to commit suicide and he jumped off one of the tall buildings about 70 stories high and he became more and more optimistic as he went down and when he passed the 10th floor somebody said how you doing he said I'm doing all right so far and in London I remember another story about London when we were over there they told us the story about a man that was getting ready to commit suicide he was gonna jump off the London Bridge into the Thames River and commit suicide and a policeman saw him and said wait wait wait don't do that don't jump I'll come and help you so the policeman climbed up there and sat down beside him and tried to help him and counseled him and tell him not to jump and so the man told the policeman all of his troubles and they both jumped in and that's the way some psychiatrists and some psychologists feel today and I suppose some kirdamon do have to listen to all of these stories that people are telling them about all their troubles and trials and tribulations and broken homes and drug addictions and runaway children and all the other things that they're facing our demonstration was recently held in England and Birmingham England and on the back of one t-shirts owned in huge white letters were the words no future and here in Houston this week I've noticed the headlines in some of the stories in the post in The Chronicle one of them said future of mankind and doubt another one said deadlocked on the precipice of all-out war or pushing toward a nuclear showdown disaster of catastrophe people scared those are the things every day now and we're getting so used to it that we don't realize that this terrible cloud is gathering on the horizon filled with it's hurricanes and it's tornadoes that can tear us to bits and then an article I think it was in today's paper told what would happen in a nucleus change that even those that survived would suffer the most terrible diseases and it might be better just to be killed in the nuclear war rather than to survive because even the survivors would be fighting among themselves for the little bit of food that they might be able to find even that would be contaminated and then the insects that would come all the terrible things and we laugh at that and smile at that but that's a reality that's a possibility in our in this decade that's how serious it is perhaps the most agile ated and pampered woman of this century just had a widely heralded Barger he published on her life and she's described as having in her heart been a very sad person all of her life and yet she made people on the screen laugh Frances Mitterrand the president of France said last week that Alice is a tragic world everything is a struggle he said after the death of President Sadat and Moshe Dayan who played a major roles at Camp David Lord Calvin of England said the prospects for peace in the Middle East are really terrible now after one single act of violence and terror the Middle East stands once law on the brink of war and Jesus once said there would be a time like that a time upon the earth when there would be distress of Nations with perplexity that word distress means pressure the word perplexity means no way out they'll come a time when the economic and the military problems will become so great that there'll be no way that man can figure his way out it'll be the end and many people think were almost there now Johnny Cash wrote a song Matthew 24 is knocking at the door that's the name of the song Matthew 24 tells all about the signs of the times and the coming again of Jesus Christ and we read all over the world of Assassin in attempts one of our embassy leaders in France was shot at today six times they shot at him he ducked behind his bulletproof limousine that's the only thing that's saved and that's almost daily now terrorist attacks everywhere and then there comes your own personal problems the boredom the children that are in rebellion yesterday we read of a 31 year old son of one of America's most wealthy and influential families you'd know his name if I called it who left America for India with this result here's what he said quoted in the press I renounce capitalism I renounce communism I come to India to settle here permanently to have the grace of the Supreme God and with this he assumed a brand new name forgetting his past becoming a new name hoping that there's somewhere at the feet of a guru he'll find the end one night we were leaving India about three years ago and we went to the New Delhi Airport we had been up in the northeastern part of India preaching up in the mountains and it was jammed with American students they were lying all over the place university students and I said who are these people they said there three 747s coming to pick them up they've been here studying at the feet of some guru and they're going back disillusioned young people searching for something anything to find peace and happiness in a world that seems to have gone mad and insane nothing seems to make sense to some of our young people anymore and then they read about some of their heroes I can remember 15 years ago and 20 years ago people went absolutely wild over Elvis Presley and now the trial has just finished and we've read all in the press about how terribly he had gotten in his latter days on drugs and how these drugs probably contributed to his early death and many of the people that are your heroes and many of the people that you think are at the top are really in their hearts at the bottom searching they don't find that in all this popularity they don't find that in all the adulation they don't find that in all the popularity they don't find that in money they don't find it in some of the philosophy but they can find it in Jesus Christ and so can you there's a telephone number there on your screen right now if you will pick up your phone and call that number our counselors standing by to say a word to you you can find the answer in the person of Jesus Christ many of you here tonight have an unfulfilled longing in your soul a New York taxi driver about oh it's been a year ago now suppose asked me if there was anything to cheer about where I came from and I said certainly there's many things to cheer about and I thought about at least four times Jesus said be of good cheer the first time Jesus said it was to a paralytic he said son be of good cheer your sins are forgiven you now this man was sick of palsy but Jesus knew that he had deeper knees Jesus said man shall not live by bread alone Jesus said a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth there's something deeper in your life that you need that materialism cannot satisfy money cannot satisfy pleasure cannot satisfy and one of the things that you need is the forgiveness of sin because all of us have sinned against God and the word sin means lawbreaker you are a breaker of the laws of God in so am I and the Bible says that you have if you have broken in one point you have broken all of God's laws so we are breakers of all of God's laws and there is a penalty for breaking the law of God and that penalty is death and destruction and judgment in Hell that's the penalty and we're all under sentence we'll identically sitting under that naked sword we're already under condemnation we're not going to be condemned when we die we're condemned now we're already under condemnation and Jesus came to save us from that condemnation and from the penalty of that sin you see the Bible says there is no peace saith the Lord unto the wicked or to the sinners there's no permanent peace that you can ever find you'll never find it anywhere except in Jesus Christ be not deceived God is not mocked for whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap you see man is trapped by sin we're in a trap very much like a rat that's been captured in a trap a featured film in Houston this week is the first deadly sin I'm the first deadly sin was committed by Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden when they rebelled against God and broke God's laws and you and I inherited this same tended to the sin it went to Cain and Abel and Cain killed his brother he became jealous they became filled with pride and he killed his brother murder took place right in just outside the garden today and it's still taking place all over the world and then not only that but we suffer spiritual death and eternal death and that means that when your body dies your soul the spirit that lives in your body goes out into eternity away from God lost and that's why it's so important for you to repent of sin and turn to Christ while you can we're trapped in sin we saw today the account of a 54 year old who beat up his 91 year old mother to get money he got $1,200 then from the torch of his guilt he committed suicide the Bible thank God eschews wonderful forgiveness for all sin blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins for cupboard God can forgive you because of the cross because on the cross Jesus Christ died for our sins and because he was willing to die God can now forgive you and remain just you see God had a problem how could God forgive the sinner and remain just and holy and righteous because if God had come along and patted us on the back and said you have forgiven he would have been a liar and if God had been a liar he would have not been God somebody had to pay the penalty you and I are guilty who's going to pay the penalty Jesus paid it that's the reason he came we sing that song jesus paid it all he paid it all that's the reason the word blood is used in Scripture because the word blood stands for life he gave his life for us on the cross the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin and it's wonderful to know that all your sins are covered by the blood of Christ yes God can forgive sin because of the cross and if you'd like forgiveness tonight and to know that you're forgiven years that are watching by television pick up that telephone now and call the number on your screen and be sure you know the United States Air Force I read recently was trying to locate a major who is lost in flight and it costs ten million dollars to search for that one man but God gave far more than that for each of us the Los Angeles writer Alice Ramirez wrote in her syndicated column this week in this year of the handicapped she spent a day in a wheelchair as an assumed paraplegic it gave her a whole new perspective of what it means to be handicapped you know one time I went several hours with a blindfold around me just to see what it would be to be blind it gives you a whole new perspective on what it means to be handicapped but you say God in Christ came down and became a man he became handicapped in a man's body the mighty God of heaven went into a man's body as it were and just like us only without sin and finally died on the cross and when he died he became guilty of our sins he'd never told the lie it never committed adultery he'd never had lust he'd never been jealous and yet he became guilty of all of it because he had your sins on him and when they put the spikes in his hands and the spear in his side and the blood gushed forth and he suffered and the angels of heaven came were ready to come to rescue him he said no forgive them and they know not what they do and he's saying tonight I'll forgive you if you come to me in repentance and faith in verse Peter Peter says in the 18th verse of the first chapter for as much as you know you were not redeemed with corruptible things such as silver and gold but with the precious blood of Christ as a lamb without blemish and without spot we were redeemed not with silver and gold and all the gold in the world can't save your soul you can give all your money to charity you can give all your money to the church but that won't say you can work all you the rest of your life in good works but that won't say you can join every church in town but that won't say you must repent of your sins and receive Christ by faith for by grace are ye saved through faith and that not of yourselves it's the gift of God not of works lest anyone should boast you can't work your way it's Grayson the word grace means unmerited favor something you don't deserve God gives it to you as a gift something you can't buy you can't work for it's a gift and God offers you the gift but you have to reach out and receive it and there are thousands of people that belong to the church here in Houston that are not sure that your sins are forgiven or that you have eternal life and you can make sure tonight by coming to know Jesus Christ as your Lord and your master and your see the second time jesus said be of good cheer well first of all that makes me an optimist when I know my sins can be forgiven because that means that the atomic bombs can fall war can come death can come I'm ready my sins are forgiven I have eternal life I'm going to spend eternity with Christ that makes me an optimist and then the second time Jesus said in Matthew 14:27 and Mark 650 be of good cheer it is I be not afraid you see Jesus was on on the on the sea and a storm had come up and he was walking on the water and the storm had calmed down in the disciples it was just in daylight in the disciples through the mist could see somebody walking and they thought there's a ghost and they were afraid they began to tremble and Jesus said be not afraid be of good cheer it's I I'm here and Peter jumped out your amendment to the water and said Lord I'm coming to you and he was walking all right until he began to look around at the sea and how dangerous it was and he began to slip and fall and he said Lord save me be of good cheer I'm with you when you go back home tonight I'm with you when you have to face your friends tomorrow I'm with you when you have to go back to the same humdrum existence that you I'm with you to give you a new excitement in the enjoy and a new peace you see John Wesley was on a ship and John Wesley had been a missionary had been a pastor he had been a student of the Bible a long time but he saw on board that ship when the storm came some Arabians 200 years ago over 200 years ago some Arabians that had great peace they weren't afraid and he said you know I don't have that kind of faith and on May the 24th 1738 243 years ago he committed himself totally to Jesus Christ he had already been a missionary already been an ordained clergyman but he wasn't certain of his relationship with Christ till that night of May 24th 1738 when he said my heart was strangely warm we rarely have a hold of crusade that some clergyman doesn't come to make sure Christ is with you in that hour of crisis in that hour of trouble like a little boy walking through a cemetery at night holding on to his father's hand he will walk with you through the valley of the shadow of death be of good cheer I'm with you be not afraid you have God's presence in persecution yes after you make your commitment to Christ you may be persecuted people may sneer and laugh at you some of your school pals will laugh at you for your declared faith some of them will drop away because they've chosen a different road you've chosen a narrow road that leads to eternal life and they've chosen a broad road that leads to destruction and judgment in hell and you're going to different paths but it's not two roads one going this way and one going this way it's the same road except a believer going up the narrow road is going against the tide of the broad road right down the middle and that creates friction and trouble and difficulty many times you're marching to two different drum beats the drumbeat that you march to from now on will be the drumbeat of the Holy Spirit that fills your heart and comes into your heart to live tonight God the Holy Spirit let persecution come and suffering come and heartache come and depression come the Spirit of God is there with you you don't just make one decision and finish that's not it he lives in your heart and he produces the fruit of the Spirit in your life and he gives you the gifts of the Spirit one of the top pups in Houston this week is George creel is how can you mend broken heart Jesus can is your heart broken by some event that's taking place something unforeseen something that happened is your heart broken and bleeding let Jesus in thinking healing maybe it's bereavement maybe you've lost a loved one white maybe a girlfriend that lets you down to a boyfriend it's turned his back maybe a wife and husband not getting along and both of you are hurting and hurting real bad let Jesus come in and heal that broken marriage maybe it's a wretched ship between a son and a father or a daughter and a mother or whatever let Jesus come in and heal that he can do it I'm with you be of good cheer it's I be not afraid pick up the telephone now and talk to a counselor about you that are watching on television yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil for thou art with me thy rod in that staff they comfort me Corrie ten Boom often said whom we heard about a few moments ago when Christ is in the heart the worst can happen but the best remains and the best is yet to be the best is yet to be isn't it wonderful to know that when you die the best is yet to be this world has been nothing compared to what you're going to have that I have not seen no ear heard nor has it entered into the heart of man what God has prepared for them that love him jesus said in the world right here you're gonna have tribulation in trouble but he said be not afraid of the world be not afraid of everything the devil can throw at you I'll be with you just like he was with David when David had to face Goliath I'll be with I'll give you strength and then the third time Jesus said be of good cheer was John 16 he said be of good cheer I have overcome the world now Jesus made the statement just before he went to Gethsemane and just before he went to Calvary he warned the disciples in that Upper Room he said as the world hated me it'll hate you too he used the word cosmos the world's system not there if not the trees not the nature but the world system and the Bible teaches that this world system is dominated by evil satanic cosmic principles of force and greed and selfishness and ambition and pleasure seem to be in control most of the time and the world system is very powerful it is often outwardly religious and scientific and cultured and elegant but underneath this seething with rivalries and ambitions and lust and hate and greed and jealousies that's the world and Jesus said that world will not like you because you're following me it hated me it'll hate you and often this world of evil is upheld in a time of crisis only by armed force I don't mean everybody in the world is evil I'm talking about the sins of the world the evils of the world dominated by the devil but Jesus meant the world with all of its evil he met the devil he met the flesh which means the evil principle within us and he conquered he conquered death which is the last great enemy of mankind and by the cross we are crucified to the world in other words because Jesus died on the cross the world's system with all of its power has been crucified as far as we're concerned it has no longer power over us sin shall no longer dominate us sin no longer reigns over us we may fail in sin but the moment we do we'll be convicted by the Holy Spirit and we get up and confess our sins and he's from the justifications and cleanses from all unrighteousness but Christ has disarmed the principalities and powers and made a public example of them triumphing over them the Bible says our authority over the world is the name of the Lord Jesus Christ I have authority I have power so do you an ordinary believer over the evils of the world and select the temptations come let the devil try to get you off track and you have a power there with you that's the reason we try to get you into the scriptures and get you studying the Word of God and memorizing Scripture because when Jesus met the devil he didn't argue with the devil he didn't debate the devil he quoted scripture he said it is written three times and three times the devil was defeated the tempter is going to come but you have a power in the Word of God and you have a POW in the Holy Spirit living within to help you as you meet the temptations and troubles and trials of this world yes I'm an optimist I believe that I can overcome the world because of Christ I'm not afraid of all the sins and the evils and the lust and the temptations around me I can walk straight in the midst of this world it doesn't mean that I get out of the world I have to live every day in the world and those temptations are there but I have a power to say no so that you have a power to say no the same power that's available to all of us in Jesus Christ and then lastly the coming again of Christ he said be of good cheer let not your heart be troubled you believe in God believe also in me in my father's house are many mansions if it were not so I would have told you I go to prepare a place for you and if I go and prepare a place for you I will come again and receive you unto myself that where I am there ye may be also yes Jesus Christ is coming back again he's going to set up his kingdom and he's going to reign forever and ever and ever and the kingdom of God is going to triumph no ideology existing today is going to last none only Christ will last as king of kings and Lord of lords and he will come back in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ they're going to be punished with everlasting destruction but when he call me when he comes he shall be glorified in his Saints and to be admired in all them that believe because our testimony among you was believed in that day you'll find that little phrase used everywhere that day in that day in that day the last days or the day it's used all the way through that is the day of his return I go to bed every night with the hope that Christ is coming no this world is not going to blow up in some great atomic war the human race is not going to be totally destroyed God has other plans he has a plan that Christ is going to be on the throne and Christ is going to rule and evil will be destroyed the devil will be cast into hell and the demons will be cast into hell there is going to be universal joy there is going to be universal peace there is going to be universal justice and the scripture says that you and I have to make a choice Joshua said choose you this day whom you will serve Elijah said why halt you between two opinions jesus said no man can serve two masters jesus said enter in at the narrow gate for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction and many there be that go there you because Strait is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life and few there be that find it he said in that seventh chapter Matthew that there are two gates he said that - trees he like in life - a tree one produces good fruit one a bad fruit you're like a tree he said they're two foundations one is built upon the sand and when the wind comes it blows away and the others built upon the rock and it lasts which is yours you must choose you say well Billy what do I have to do first you have to repent of your sin the word repent means that you're willing to change your way of living you say Oh God I am a sinner I'm sorry I'm willing to change my way of living and then by simple childlike faith like a little child trustees father mother you trust in Jesus alone for your salvation and then you're willing to follow him and serve Him whatever the cost if you have a doubt that you know Christ tonight I'm going to ask you to do something we've seen hundreds and several thousand people already do this week I'm going to ask you to get up out of your seat right now hundreds of you and come down on this field and say tonight I want to know that I have eternal life I want to know my sins of a given I want Christ to have all of me tonight and I'm ready to pay whatever price he calls upon if you with friends or relatives they'll wait on you and why do I ask you to come because every person Jesus called him the New Testament he called publicly and he said if you're not willing to acknowledge me publicly before men I'll not acknowledge you before my father which is in heaven he died on the cross publicly for you people sneering and laughing at him but he hung there for you now he says you come publicly and declare yourself for me the Bible warns that his spirit will not always strive with us you may never be this close to the kingdom of God again this is your one moment you better take advantage of it when will we ever see this in Houston again never in this generation most likely you get up and come and make your declaration for Christ tonight and receive him into your heart and let him come and change your whole way of living if you're with friends our relatives elway don't yet after you here I'm going to say a word to you and have a prayer with you and give you some litter too you can go back and join your friends just that simple decision that means everything in eternity you come we're going to wait quickly men women young people from over here all around and up in that top stand up that takes an extra minute so start now don't let anything keep you from Christ you come bring your friend with you as people respond here at the stadium to commit their heart and life to Jesus Christ you can call that number right now that you see on your television screen but the line is busy just wait a few moments and call again trained counselors will be standing by ready to talk to you you that are watching by television can see scores of people coming here to make their commitment to Jesus Christ you can do the same where you are pick up that telephone and call the number on your screen and if you don't reach the council immediately call again and again and again they'll be there all evening if you can't get through right now and make that commitment that these people are making here and be sure and go to church next Sunday across the nation tonight trained counselors are standing by at several counseling centers ready to take your call if the line is busy just wait a few moments and then call again they will be standing by as long as the calls keep coming in it will also ask that you write to mr. Graham and tell him about the needs that you have the spiritual needs and problems that you face the same helps he gives these tonight who are coming here we will be happy to send to you until then cliff barrows here for mr. Graham and all the team saying good night and may God richly bless you this program is sponsored by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association

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Length: 38min 41sec (2321 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 16 2016