Billy Graham - "Finding Answers" (September 23, 1973)
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Transcript
Transcripts may contain inaccuracies.
(choral praise music) | 0:02 | |
(bright organ and choral music) | 1:16 | |
- | As we continue our worship, | 6:23 |
let me ask that those of you seated outside | 6:28 | |
and in Page auditorium follow and join with us | 6:33 | |
in the order of worship as we all find it | 6:40 | |
printed in the bulletin for today. | 6:43 | |
As we worship, it is a joyful experience | 6:49 | |
to sing God's praise. | 6:53 | |
As we worship it is also a needful experience | 6:57 | |
to confess our sins, | 7:01 | |
to receive God's forgiveness, | 7:04 | |
and to find new strength for the day. | 7:07 | |
Let us then, together, confess our sins to almighty God. | 7:12 | |
Let us pray. | 7:18 | |
Oh merciful father, | 7:21 | |
you who know the thoughts and intentions of the heart, | 7:23 | |
and are acquainted with all our words and deeds, | 7:27 | |
we confess to you our negligence and sin | 7:31 | |
as citizens of our country, | 7:34 | |
we have been excessively concerned about our rights, | 7:37 | |
and have often ignored and neglected our responsibilities. | 7:41 | |
We have been oversensitive about the wrongs which affect us, | 7:45 | |
and have shown an easy acquiescence in wrong done to others. | 7:50 | |
Our concern for social righteousness | 7:56 | |
has been feeble and fickle. | 7:57 | |
We have lacked the courage to expose and oppose | 8:00 | |
that which is evil, | 8:04 | |
and the zeal to advocate and strive for that which is good. | 8:06 | |
We sorrowfully acknowledge that our own lives at home, | 8:11 | |
at work, on the campus, and in society have not | 8:15 | |
always commended the gospel of Christ. | 8:20 | |
Forgive us as individuals, as a church, and as a nation. | 8:23 | |
Cleanse and deliver us from all evil, | 8:29 | |
and so confirm and strengthen us in all goodness | 8:32 | |
we may henceforth do your will. | 8:37 | |
Through Jesus Christ our Lord, amen. | 8:40 | |
Let us continue with our personal confessions. | 8:44 | |
Our Lord Jesus Christ has said, | 9:03 | |
"Any person who comes to me, I will in no way cast out." | 9:07 | |
As surely as we have come to God in Christ, | 9:15 | |
as surely as we have confessed, | 9:20 | |
just as surely, God will forgive. | 9:23 | |
Let us hear Christ's words now. | 9:29 | |
"Your sins are forgiven, go in peace." | 9:34 | |
And now we pray as our Lord has taught us to pray: | 9:43 | |
Our father, who art in heaven, | 9:47 | |
hallowed be thy name. | 9:51 | |
Thy kingdom come, | 9:53 | |
thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven. | 9:56 | |
Give us this day our daily bread. | 10:00 | |
And forgive us our trespasses, | 10:03 | |
as we forgive those who trespass against us. | 10:06 | |
And lead us not into temptation, | 10:09 | |
but deliver us from evil. | 10:12 | |
For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever. | 10:15 | |
Amen. | 10:21 | |
(organ music) | 10:24 | |
(joyful choral music) | 11:08 | |
- | The scripture lesson for the morning is Psalm 23. | 15:23 |
"The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. | 15:30 | |
"He maketh me lie down in green pastures; | 15:36 | |
"He leads me beside still waters; | 15:40 | |
"He restores my soul; | 15:44 | |
"He leads me in paths of righteousness for His name's sake. | 15:48 | |
"Even though I walk through the valley | 15:55 | |
"of the shadow of death, I fear no evil; | 15:57 | |
"for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff, | 16:03 | |
"they comfort me. | 16:08 | |
"Thou preparest a table before me | 16:12 | |
"in the presence of my enemies; | 16:14 | |
"Thou anointest my head with oil; | 16:17 | |
"my cup overflows. | 16:20 | |
"Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me | 16:24 | |
"all the days of my life; | 16:29 | |
"and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever." | 16:32 | |
Here ends the reading of the lesson. | 16:37 | |
(choral and organ music) | 16:41 | |
- | Let us now, in one spirit, affirm our faith. | 17:23 |
We are not alone. | 17:29 | |
We live in God's world. | 17:32 | |
We believe in God, who has created and is creating, | 17:34 | |
who has come in the true man Jesus | 17:40 | |
to reconcile and make new, | 17:43 | |
who works in us and others by his spirit, | 17:46 | |
we trust him, | 17:50 | |
he calls us to be in this church | 17:52 | |
to celebrate his presence, | 17:55 | |
to love and serve others, | 17:58 | |
to seek justice and resist evil, | 18:00 | |
to proclaim Jesus crucified and risen, | 18:04 | |
our judge and hope, | 18:07 | |
in life, in death, in life beyond death, | 18:10 | |
God is with us. | 18:15 | |
We are not alone. | 18:17 | |
We believe in God. | 18:19 | |
Thanks be to God. | 18:21 | |
The Lord be with you. | 18:24 | |
Congregation | And with your spirit. | 18:27 |
- | Let us pray. | 18:28 |
Please. | 18:30 | |
Oh God. | 18:46 | |
Giver of life and health, | 18:49 | |
of body and food, | 18:53 | |
of spirit and love, | 18:57 | |
of mind and thought, | 19:00 | |
help us in these moments to worship you. | 19:04 | |
Give us a renewed sense of your presence. | 19:10 | |
Oh how we need to know that you are | 19:14 | |
both dear and near to us. | 19:17 | |
We need your sense of compassion and concern. | 19:23 | |
Your sense of justice and right. | 19:27 | |
We need your presence in chastisement and in acceptance. | 19:32 | |
Help us to know, oh God, that you rejoice in our right, | 19:38 | |
and grieve in our wrong. | 19:43 | |
Be close. | 19:47 | |
Be near. | 19:49 | |
Be with us, closer to us than breathing, | 19:51 | |
and nearer than hands or feet. | 19:54 | |
Hear our prayers for others. | 19:59 | |
For those in need, hungry and starving, | 20:04 | |
ill clothed and naked, | 20:09 | |
wounded and weary, | 20:12 | |
lost and lonely, | 20:15 | |
in prison and captivity, | 20:19 | |
the war weary natives of Vietnam and Cambodia and Laos. | 20:23 | |
Those imprisoned because of their struggle | 20:30 | |
for freedom and for right. | 20:33 | |
For those who are sick, or forgotten. | 20:37 | |
Those for whom the sun is setting on life. | 20:42 | |
Those elderly persons who wait for someone, | 20:47 | |
just anyone to come. | 20:51 | |
Those who have difficulty breathing, or talking, or walking. | 20:56 | |
Those who wonder if anybody really cares. | 21:04 | |
In the name of Christ, help us to care. | 21:10 | |
He cared. | 21:13 | |
So are we to do. | 21:16 | |
Hear our prayers of supplication, oh God. | 21:20 | |
Oh God, give us faith that is strong enough | 21:26 | |
to move mountains. | 21:30 | |
Oh God, give us love that can surely know our neighbor | 21:33 | |
and care for her or him. | 21:37 | |
Oh God, give us hope to sustain us. | 21:42 | |
To help us both to mount up with wings as eagles, | 21:46 | |
and also to walk and not grow weary. | 21:49 | |
Oh God, give us assurance in these turbulent | 21:55 | |
and troubled times. | 21:58 | |
Assurance about ourselves, | 22:00 | |
about this university, | 22:03 | |
about this nation, | 22:07 | |
about your church, | 22:09 | |
and your world. | 22:12 | |
Be close to those who lead us, | 22:15 | |
those in authority on this campus, | 22:16 | |
those who lead our nation, and the nations of the world. | 22:20 | |
Help them to be wise and responsible | 22:24 | |
in their judgements and in their decisions. | 22:27 | |
Oh God, we ask for very much. | 22:30 | |
Do you know why, oh God? | 22:35 | |
Because our needs are great. | 22:39 | |
Very, very great. | 22:43 | |
We do believe that from you comes | 22:48 | |
every good and perfect gift. | 22:49 | |
And now would you, in mercy, | 22:53 | |
give to us not according to what we have said or feel, | 22:56 | |
but give to each of us as you know we need. | 23:00 | |
And above all, oh God, never cease to love us. | 23:06 | |
Bring us at last to your full presence | 23:13 | |
where we may hear, well done my good and faithful servant. | 23:16 | |
Well done. | 23:21 | |
Thank you, God, for life. | 23:23 | |
Thank you. | 23:27 | |
We offer this prayer, and we offer ourselves, | 23:30 | |
in the name and in the spirit of Jesus Christ, our Lord. | 23:33 | |
Amen. | 23:38 | |
May I make one announcement please? | 23:45 | |
In the bulletin it is noted that the ministers | 23:50 | |
participating in the service will be | 23:53 | |
waiting at the entrance to the chapel | 23:56 | |
following the service. | 23:59 | |
This cannot be. | 24:02 | |
Due to other responsibilities and the need for rest, | 24:06 | |
we have felt it somewhat imposing | 24:10 | |
to ask Doctor Graham to remain. | 24:14 | |
So this announcement, please disregard. | 24:17 | |
Writer, husband, father, | 24:26 | |
Christian, student, organizer, | 24:31 | |
administrator, evangelist, preacher, | 24:38 | |
warm and dear friend to persons around the world, | 24:44 | |
we were pleased to have Doctor Billy Graham | 24:51 | |
on campus with us yesterday. | 24:53 | |
We are glad to welcome him back | 24:58 | |
where he preached in 1952. | 25:00 | |
Back to this chapel, | 25:05 | |
following the singing of two stanzas of the hymn, | 25:10 | |
When I Survey the Wondrous Cross, | 25:14 | |
Doctor Graham will bring us the message for the day. | 25:18 | |
So we welcome you, Doctor Graham, | 25:21 | |
to Duke University, to this service of worship. | 25:26 | |
And we hear you eagerly as you bring God's word to us. | 25:32 | |
(organ music) | 25:41 | |
(choir sings "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross") | 26:20 | |
♪ When I survey the wondrous cross ♪ | 26:21 | |
♪ On which the Prince of glory died ♪ | 26:30 | |
♪ My richest gain I count but loss, ♪ | 26:40 | |
♪ And pour contempt on all my pride. ♪ | 26:49 | |
♪ Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast, ♪ | 27:00 | |
♪ Save in the death of Christ my God! ♪ | 27:09 | |
♪ All the vain things that charm me most, ♪ | 27:19 | |
♪ I sacrifice them to his blood. ♪ | 27:29 | |
- | As Mr. Young said, it was my privilege to be | 27:53 |
in this pulpit 21 years ago. | 27:56 | |
I have been invited back on other occasions, | 28:00 | |
but because of scheduling in various parts of the world, | 28:03 | |
have not been able to come. | 28:07 | |
And I'm delighted to have this opportunity | 28:09 | |
to speak to another generation | 28:11 | |
of the Duke family. | 28:14 | |
I'm reminded of an old prospector that was | 28:18 | |
coming out of the mountains in the west, | 28:20 | |
and a drunken cowboy came out of a saloon in the little town | 28:23 | |
and started shooting his six shooter | 28:27 | |
all over the place. | 28:29 | |
He ordered the man off his donkey. | 28:30 | |
And started shooting at his feet. | 28:34 | |
He said, old man, have you ever danced? | 28:36 | |
And the old man said, no. | 28:38 | |
He said, you're gonna start now. | 28:40 | |
And he began to dance as the bullets began to fly. | 28:42 | |
And when he was out of bullets, | 28:45 | |
the old man looked at the cowboy | 28:47 | |
and reached in his saddlebag | 28:49 | |
and pulled out a sawed off shotgun | 28:50 | |
and held it up to his face. | 28:52 | |
And he said, have you ever kissed a mule? | 28:54 | |
And the cowboy looked at the donkey, | 28:58 | |
and looked at the old man, | 29:02 | |
and saw that he was sincere, | 29:03 | |
and saw the barrel of that shotgun, | 29:04 | |
and he said, no I've never kissed a mule, | 29:08 | |
but I've always wanted to. | 29:10 | |
(scattered laughs) | 29:12 | |
Within these intervening years, | 29:14 | |
I have always wanted to come back | 29:16 | |
because of the warm hospitality here. | 29:18 | |
And I'm delighted that yesterday, Duke did not lose | 29:21 | |
because I would've held the blame I'm sure. | 29:24 | |
Because so many people said, | 29:27 | |
we're glad you're here to help. | 29:29 | |
So I felt before I left the stands | 29:31 | |
that I was the 12th man on the team. | 29:34 | |
In the passage that was read by the chancellor | 29:37 | |
a moment ago, David is a young man out under the stars, | 29:40 | |
as a shepherd in the Middle East. | 29:45 | |
So much of the world history revolves | 29:48 | |
around the Middle East. | 29:50 | |
And if you pick up a Raleigh newspaper this morning, | 29:52 | |
the number one headline has to do | 29:54 | |
with the oil in the Middle East, | 29:57 | |
as the whole world is concerned about the problems | 29:59 | |
and the conflict and the violence | 30:02 | |
that may come out of the oil crisis | 30:04 | |
that is surrounding the Middle East at the moment. | 30:08 | |
And the Israeli Arab crisis. | 30:10 | |
David was a young man. | 30:13 | |
As a shepherd in that part of the world. | 30:15 | |
And writing hundreds of years before Christ was born, | 30:19 | |
David touched upon the three greatest problems | 30:23 | |
that we face in 1973. | 30:27 | |
And David said, I've found an answer | 30:31 | |
to those three problems. | 30:35 | |
These three problems are the three problems | 30:37 | |
that science has been unable to solve. | 30:41 | |
In all of these centuries, | 30:45 | |
and in all of our scientific development, | 30:47 | |
and knowledge is doubling every 15 years | 30:51 | |
in the scientific world, | 30:53 | |
we have not been able to solve these three problems. | 30:55 | |
And these three problems are your problem. | 30:59 | |
They are mine. | 31:02 | |
They're America's. | 31:04 | |
They are the world's problem at this moment. | 31:05 | |
The first problem, David touches on when he says, | 31:09 | |
"He restoreth my soul." | 31:13 | |
"He restoreth my soul." | 31:16 | |
There's the problem of human iniquity. | 31:18 | |
What causes lust, greed, hate, | 31:22 | |
jealousy, war, | 31:26 | |
social injustice? | 31:30 | |
What is the cause, what is the root cause of it? | 31:32 | |
The bible says, "All have sinned and come short | 31:37 | |
"of the glory of God." | 31:40 | |
David said, "He restores my soul." | 31:42 | |
Jesus asked a very searching question: | 31:47 | |
"What shall it profit a man if he gained the whole world, | 31:50 | |
"and lose his own soul?" | 31:53 | |
When the Berlin students were rioting some time ago, | 31:57 | |
a Berlin student was interviewed by the press. | 32:00 | |
And they said, what is the purpose of this trouble? | 32:05 | |
What are your objectives? | 32:08 | |
He said, | 32:09 | |
"We want to restore the soul of Germany." | 32:10 | |
I asked a friend of mine when I first | 32:16 | |
heard of soul music and soul food, | 32:18 | |
I asked a black friend of mine in Watts, | 32:20 | |
what do you mean by soul music and soul food? | 32:25 | |
He said, | 32:29 | |
"Everything man that's good in a man is soul." | 32:30 | |
A nation also has a soul. | 32:37 | |
The bible teaches that you have a body, | 32:39 | |
but living down inside of your body is a soul, a spirit. | 32:41 | |
And that's the part of you that will live on forever, | 32:45 | |
after the death of the body. | 32:48 | |
That's the real you. | 32:50 | |
The part of you that can remember, | 32:52 | |
the part of you that feels and thinks, | 32:54 | |
and is the real you, that's the soul. | 32:57 | |
Our nation also has a soul. | 33:01 | |
And America has been going through, | 33:04 | |
during the past few months, | 33:06 | |
a soul crisis, | 33:07 | |
as we've seen the unraveling, | 33:10 | |
ever so slightly, | 33:13 | |
of a part of our government on television. | 33:16 | |
And we've seen how government operates, | 33:22 | |
and we've been seeing on the television, a classroom, | 33:24 | |
and we've been taught something about our government. | 33:29 | |
Its strength, and its failures, and its weaknesses. | 33:33 | |
And we've asked ourselves can the system survive? | 33:38 | |
And can it bring social justice to a nation | 33:42 | |
that desperately wants it and needs it, | 33:45 | |
and to a world can it bring peace? | 33:48 | |
He restores our souls. | 33:51 | |
How could the soul of an individual or a nation | 33:54 | |
be restored? | 33:57 | |
This is what Good Friday is all about. | 33:59 | |
This is why every Catholic church | 34:02 | |
and every Protestant church has a cross. | 34:04 | |
Jesus Christ came to die on that cross for a purpose: | 34:08 | |
to restore our souls. | 34:14 | |
When he died on that cross, something mysterious happened. | 34:18 | |
Something thrilling and wonderful happened. | 34:23 | |
God took your sins, and my sins, | 34:25 | |
and the sins of the whole world, | 34:29 | |
and laid them upon Jesus Christ. | 34:32 | |
And he became the world's great sin bearer. | 34:35 | |
And because of that, | 34:38 | |
God can say to you and to me, | 34:41 | |
you're forgiven, | 34:44 | |
I forgive you! | 34:47 | |
I was in a mental institution some time ago, | 34:51 | |
and the head of that institution said, | 34:54 | |
I could release half of my patients, | 34:56 | |
if they could be assured that they were forgiven. | 34:59 | |
Because you see, one of the greatest | 35:03 | |
psychological problems that we face today is guilt. | 35:04 | |
What to do with our guilt. | 35:09 | |
This is why Christ died, | 35:13 | |
to take our guilt away. | 35:15 | |
And God is saying through the cross, "I love you." | 35:18 | |
"I love you." | 35:22 | |
"I love you." | 35:24 | |
"I forgive you." | 35:26 | |
"I restore your soul." | 35:28 | |
Because your soul was separated from God by sin. | 35:32 | |
He forgives the sin and reconciliation | 35:36 | |
between man and God takes place at the cross. | 35:39 | |
But that's not the end of the story | 35:44 | |
because there's another part to that story. | 35:46 | |
They buried him. | 35:48 | |
And as we said in our confession of belief a moment ago, | 35:51 | |
he was risen from the dead. | 35:55 | |
I went in to see a man that was approaching | 35:59 | |
90 years of age. | 36:02 | |
He gave me a cup of coffee. | 36:05 | |
Then he looked at me and he said, | 36:08 | |
young man, do you believe in the resurrection | 36:11 | |
of Jesus Christ? | 36:14 | |
I said I do. | 36:15 | |
He said when I leave office, | 36:17 | |
and he was the head of his country, | 36:19 | |
when I leave office I'm going to spend | 36:22 | |
the rest of my time studying | 36:24 | |
the resurrection of Jesus Christ, | 36:26 | |
because if Jesus Christ is not risen from the dead, | 36:28 | |
I see no ultimate hope for the human race. | 36:32 | |
But Christ is risen. | 36:37 | |
He is alive. | 36:39 | |
And the message we proclaim today | 36:41 | |
is not a dead Christ still hanging on a cross, | 36:43 | |
but a risen savior who is willing to come into our hearts, | 36:46 | |
forgive our sins, and restore our souls. | 36:51 | |
How can a nation have its soul restored? | 36:56 | |
America needs to repent. | 37:00 | |
Not just the republicans, but my own party, | 37:03 | |
the democratic party as well. | 37:06 | |
We all have something to repent about, | 37:09 | |
because there's a little bit of Watergate in all of us. | 37:12 | |
And Solomon said long ago, | 37:18 | |
"If my people which are called by my name, | 37:20 | |
"shall humble themselves and pray, | 37:23 | |
"and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, | 37:25 | |
"then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, | 37:28 | |
"and heal their nation." | 37:32 | |
We as a nation need to corporately repent, | 37:36 | |
and confess, and turn to God. | 37:39 | |
And he will restore the soul of a nation | 37:43 | |
that we're in danger of losing. | 37:46 | |
Secondly, David touched on another great problem | 37:49 | |
that Mr. Young will speak about in a few moments. | 37:53 | |
David said, "I shall not want." | 37:58 | |
The problems of our world are tremendous: | 38:02 | |
poverty, race, pollution, population explosion, | 38:04 | |
war, crime, drugs, kidnapping, bombing, | 38:09 | |
assassination, the papers and the television | 38:13 | |
are filled with it. | 38:16 | |
What is the answer? | 38:19 | |
David said, I have found that I, | 38:23 | |
even though I'm poor, "I shall not want." | 38:27 | |
I have found a resource that I can go to. | 38:32 | |
Some of my men have just returned | 38:37 | |
from Central West Africa because we have | 38:39 | |
set up an emergency relief fund | 38:42 | |
to help those people. | 38:45 | |
And they're estimating five to six million | 38:46 | |
will die before Christmas of starvation | 38:49 | |
unless the nations of the world | 38:51 | |
come to their aid and rescue. | 38:54 | |
I was in northeast India recently. | 38:58 | |
And flying over Bangladesh, I looked down, | 39:03 | |
and I thought of the statistics I'd read | 39:06 | |
and the stories I'd read of the hunger and the suffering, | 39:08 | |
but there are other kinds of suffering. | 39:12 | |
There are sufferings even in affluent America, | 39:15 | |
or affluent Sweden, or affluent Britain. | 39:18 | |
Personal problems that come to students | 39:23 | |
and faculty alike at Duke. | 39:26 | |
Boredom, guilt, loneliness, a marriage that went wrong, | 39:29 | |
bad health, getting old, dreams unfilled, | 39:34 | |
a friend that betrays you, | 39:38 | |
the pressure of life that seems to great to bear at times, | 39:40 | |
a child that disappoints us, a broken love affair. | 39:44 | |
Job said, "Man is born into trouble | 39:48 | |
"as the sparks fly upward." | 39:51 | |
What are you going to do when crisis comes? | 39:53 | |
What are you going to do when trouble comes? | 39:56 | |
What are you going to do when betrayal, | 39:58 | |
and disappointment, and loneliness, and emptiness come? | 40:00 | |
We talk about cosmic loneliness today. | 40:06 | |
You can be in a crowd, be at a party, | 40:09 | |
having a good time and all of a sudden | 40:13 | |
for a fleeting second there's a moment of loneliness. | 40:15 | |
That's man's great loneliness for God. | 40:20 | |
Because we were made for fellowship with God, | 40:24 | |
and we try to bring in substitutes. | 40:26 | |
But nothing works until we come to the reality | 40:31 | |
of our relationship with God through Jesus Christ. | 40:35 | |
I was in New Delhi a few weeks ago. | 40:40 | |
And at the airport there were | 40:44 | |
hundreds of American university students. | 40:45 | |
They had been two weeks sitting at the feet of a Guru. | 40:48 | |
They had three jumbo jets there | 40:53 | |
to bring them back to America. | 40:55 | |
So I decided to move among them and ask them some questions. | 40:56 | |
I talked to several. | 41:02 | |
I said, did you find what you came to India to find? | 41:04 | |
And they sadly shook their heads and said no. | 41:08 | |
They could find it in their own backyard. | 41:14 | |
Acres of diamonds are there, | 41:17 | |
found in a personal relationship with God | 41:20 | |
that is available to everyone of us, | 41:22 | |
and we can say with the apostle Paul, | 41:25 | |
"That I've learned in whatsoever state I am, | 41:27 | |
"there with to be content." | 41:30 | |
Now there is also a Christian discontentment. | 41:34 | |
We are discontented with the world in which we live. | 41:38 | |
We want to do something about it and rightly so. | 41:41 | |
We ought to tackle the problems of pollution. | 41:45 | |
We ought to tackle the energy problem. | 41:49 | |
We ought to tackle the population problem. | 41:51 | |
We ought to tackle the war problem. | 41:54 | |
And try to eliminate them from the human scene. | 41:56 | |
But what about those millions | 42:01 | |
that are caught up in other kinds of problems? | 42:02 | |
Where are they going to turn? | 42:06 | |
There is a resource that David found. | 42:08 | |
He said, "I shall not want." | 42:11 | |
And then the third problem that science has not solved. | 42:15 | |
We've not solved the problem of human iniquity, | 42:21 | |
we still have it. | 42:23 | |
We've not solved the problem of eliminating | 42:25 | |
poverty and war from the world, | 42:27 | |
we still have it after thousands of years. | 42:29 | |
And the third great problem is | 42:33 | |
the greatest problem of all. | 42:34 | |
The greatest crisis that you will ever face | 42:37 | |
is when you have to face death. | 42:41 | |
And David said I found answer there, too. | 42:45 | |
"Yea though I walk through the valley | 42:48 | |
"of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. | 42:49 | |
"For thou art with my, thy rod and thy staff, | 42:53 | |
"they comfort me." | 42:56 | |
Death comes to the whole human race. | 42:58 | |
When C.S. Lewis was the great professor at Cambridge, | 43:02 | |
he made a statement one day that shook me. | 43:06 | |
He said, "War does not increase death." | 43:09 | |
He said, "You think about it a moment." | 43:14 | |
He said, "Every generation dies." | 43:16 | |
Because of war, some may die earlier. | 43:22 | |
But all die. | 43:26 | |
Every generation passes away. | 43:30 | |
You will die. | 43:33 | |
The bible says, "it is appointed unto man once to die." | 43:35 | |
Now when you face that great crisis of death, | 43:38 | |
how are you going to face it? | 43:45 | |
And if you are prepared to die, | 43:52 | |
I believe that you are prepared to live. | 43:55 | |
And death today is the one suppressed subject. | 43:58 | |
I spoke to the presidents and deans | 44:03 | |
of the pack eight universities on the west coast | 44:05 | |
sometime ago, and the big ten were there as well. | 44:08 | |
And I spoke on the missing link in modern education. | 44:12 | |
And one of the points I made was | 44:16 | |
that I did not know a university at that time | 44:18 | |
that had a single class on death. | 44:21 | |
How to die. | 44:26 | |
Or exploring the possibilities of a future life. | 44:28 | |
And when I got through, | 44:32 | |
one of the presidents of those universities | 44:33 | |
came and he said we're going to look into it, | 44:35 | |
and I'm glad to say that that university | 44:37 | |
has put into its curriculum a subject, | 44:39 | |
and did you know it's crowded out? | 44:44 | |
Because you listen to the songs and the lyrics | 44:47 | |
of the modern music of young people, | 44:52 | |
a great deal has to do with suffering and death. | 44:54 | |
And when the University of Kentucky took their survey | 44:58 | |
to find out what university students were thinking, | 45:01 | |
they found that university students | 45:03 | |
think most often about, | 45:07 | |
of course, sex. | 45:11 | |
But second, and a close second, was death. | 45:13 | |
We don't admit it. | 45:18 | |
We would be embarrassed even to talk about it, | 45:21 | |
just as we were embarrassed to talk about sex 40 years ago. | 45:24 | |
We are embarrassed to talk about it, but there it is, | 45:27 | |
our greatest crisis. | 45:30 | |
And how much time and energy are we giving to solving it? | 45:32 | |
Because modern science has not increased | 45:36 | |
the longevity of life. | 45:39 | |
More people are reaching the age of 70, | 45:42 | |
but after 70, and 80, and 90, that's about it, | 45:45 | |
except for a little handful. | 45:49 | |
And most of those are in primitive societies. | 45:51 | |
David said, | 45:58 | |
"When I face death, God will be with me." | 45:59 | |
It's a wonderful thing to know that | 46:03 | |
you're prepared to die. | 46:05 | |
It's a wonderful thing to know | 46:07 | |
that your sin is forgiven. | 46:08 | |
It's a wonderful thing to know | 46:10 | |
that when crisis, and trouble, and difficulty comes, | 46:12 | |
"I shall not want." | 46:16 | |
It's a wonderful thing to know | 46:18 | |
that when I face the greatest of all crises, | 46:19 | |
God is there with me. | 46:22 | |
Do you know God? | 46:25 | |
Did you know that you can know God for yourself? | 46:29 | |
You don't have to go through a clergyman or a priest. | 46:32 | |
This was the message of John Wesley 200 years ago, | 46:35 | |
and George Whitfield. | 46:38 | |
They said you can know God for yourself. | 46:40 | |
And they went to the fields in England and preached it. | 46:42 | |
And that's how the Methodist church was born. | 46:46 | |
You can know Christ. | 46:53 | |
And George Whitfield, one of the founders of Methodism, | 46:54 | |
preached every night on the subject, | 46:58 | |
"You Must Be Born Again." | 46:59 | |
And some of the leaders of the church | 47:00 | |
came to him and said, "Why don't you change text?" | 47:02 | |
He said, "I will when you become born again." | 47:05 | |
We can have a new creation | 47:10 | |
through a personal relationship with Christ. | 47:12 | |
Shall we pray? | 47:15 | |
Our father, we thank thee that these three great problems | 47:20 | |
that seem to be insoluble find their solution | 47:25 | |
in the person of Jesus Christ. | 47:29 | |
And we pray that we today as individuals | 47:32 | |
and collectively may commit ourselves | 47:34 | |
totally and unreservedly to him. | 47:37 | |
For we ask it in his name, amen. | 47:40 | |
(organ and choral music) | 47:45 | |
- | Be seated please. | 49:31 |
May I say a word about the offering, | 49:35 | |
which is now to be received? | 49:37 | |
Included in your bulletin is some information | 49:40 | |
giving a brief word or two about | 49:44 | |
the starving conditions in West Africa, | 49:48 | |
and also an envelope in which you may | 49:52 | |
place a special offering for the Africa Famine Fund. | 49:55 | |
Doctor Graham eluded to the desperate conditions | 50:01 | |
in West Africa in his message. | 50:05 | |
The ministers to the university have decided | 50:09 | |
that on this day and on next Sunday, | 50:12 | |
we will receive a special offering | 50:15 | |
with all of the offerings put in these envelopes | 50:17 | |
going for this particular cause. | 50:20 | |
At the last service of the Minneapolis crusade | 50:24 | |
of Doctor Graham's, an offering of some $80,000 | 50:27 | |
was received. | 50:33 | |
It would be wonderful indeed if we could anticipate | 50:35 | |
such an offering this morning. | 50:38 | |
But let me assure you that every penny you put in here, | 50:40 | |
every check, every dollar, will go to help some | 50:44 | |
starving fellow human being. | 50:50 | |
None of it will go to any organization | 50:53 | |
or for any administrative costs. | 50:56 | |
So let me urge you to give. | 50:59 | |
And I hope give generously. | 51:02 | |
(soft organ music) | 51:17 | |
(organ and choral music) | 53:43 | |
(organ and choral music) | 59:59 | |
Oh God, accept now this money we give to you. | 1:01:51 | |
As we give our gifts, may we also give ourselves. | 1:01:57 | |
Make us aware oh God of the needs of others, | 1:02:04 | |
to know that we are indeed our brother's brother, | 1:02:09 | |
and our sister's sister. | 1:02:12 | |
In the name and in the spirit of the all loving Christ. | 1:02:16 | |
Amen. | 1:02:21 | |
(organ and choral music) | 1:02:25 |