Billy Graham - The cost of not following Jesus - San Diego CA

Admirals and Generals and officers uh here that I heard one of my associates a moment ago call an admiral a lieutenant and uh of course he he was from the Army and he didn't uh know quite what the emblems are uh for the for the Navy but I heard about uh one fell that was in the military and he was in the mess hall and uh the colonel had come in and put some flowers on the tables and the mess Sergeant came in a little bit later not knowing the colonel had done it and he

said who put those blankety blank flowers on those tables and uh a very frightened private said the colonel sir and the sergeant looked a moment and he said my ain't it pretty and so that's what rank can do I heard about uh a fell in the Air Force and uh he was uh uh had been taken in he didn't want to be in the paratroopers but they' put him in the paratroopers he was scared to fly to start with and he was certainly scared to be in the paratroopers and so finally they had to push

him out of the plane for his first jump and they said because you're so frightened we're going to put two parachutes on you and if one doesn't work the other one's bound to work and we'll have a Jeep down there to pick you up so you won't have to walk so they pushed him out of the plane and he started down and he pulled one cord and it didn't work uh-huh he said I thought so and he pulled the next one and it didn't work he said uhhuh I thought so and he said I bet

that Jeep's not down there either I'm sure that some of you in the military have had experiences similar to that but you know Lieutenant Randy of Cunningham is on the platform tonight and I got to know him a little bit the other day the most decorated fighter pilot in the Vietnam War the only uh Navy Mig Ace that we had come out of the Vietnam War and he was shot down and he was telling me that up until that time he was he ignored God he didn't think about God he was somewhat of an agnostic

and he said thatth this Missile hit his plane and he was trying to get it straightened out so he could get to the coast and probably be picked up but he didn't think he could make it and he said Lord he said if I make this and you get me out of this I'm going to sure look into your existence and what you mean to me when I get out and he said all of a sudden the planes seem to settle down and he he thought to himself well God had nothing to do with that

I don't need to think about God anymore I'm going to make it and all of a sudden the plane began to tear apart again and he said he made it about one mile off the beach and they came and picked him up while the Vietnamese were shooting at him and he made it and he came back here to San Diego and he ran into our chairman Dan McKinnon and Dan and some other friends led him to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ and Randy is on the platform tonight General Hoffman who led the prayer a

moment ago Commander at Camp Pendleton I'm sure would agree that the standards have to remain high to have a ready combat Force whether it's Marine Air Force or Army and it's for the good of the men and it's not only for the protection of the country and that's what I want to talk about tonight as Christians we've been having some testimony in the Congress and I was interested in reading about one Congressman testifying who had been a very strong Dove during the Vietnam war but he had also been in the Marines and he said I

believe in being tough he said even if it means death for some he said I believe they need to be trained tough because that will protect them when they get into combat and that is true in the Christian Life as well and I want to read a couple passages from what our Lord Jesus Christ said Luke the 12th chapter the 49th verse beginning I'm come to send fire on the earth and what will I if it be already kindled but I have a baptism to be baptized with and how am I straightened till it' be

accomplished Jesus said I'm going into the baptism of fire I'm going to the Cross I'm going to be executed suppose ye that I have come to give peace on the earth I tell you no but rather division for from henceforth there shall be five in one house divided three against two and two against three the father shall be divided against the Son and the son against the father and the mother against the daughter and the daughter against the mother and the Mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law in other words when Jesus

Christ comes into the heart it brings about a certain unity and it brings peace but it also brings division how many families are divided some in the family believe and some do not and then Jesus said in the 14th chapter of Luke's gospel these words beginning with verse 25 and there went great multitudes with him and he turned and said unto them if any man come to me and hate not his father and his mother and his wife and his children and his Brethren and sisters Y in his own life also he cannot be my

disciple he cannot be my follower he said and whatsoever and whosoever does not bear his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple in other words Jesus said as I said the other evening to follow him is going to be very very costly now I want to speak tonight on the subject what it cost you not to follow Jesus Christ if you decide tonight not to follow Christ not to accept Christ what's it going to cost you because you're going to have to pay a price either way if you accept Christ as your lord

and savior there's a price to be paid it may even mean death it may mean that your family turns against you it may mean that you lose some friends it may mean that you'll have to even give up some of the things that you're doing because because you know they're ethically and morally wrong the whole pattern of your life has to change because that's what repentance means it means change and you have to repent or you're going to perish said Jesus so if you follow Christ it's going to cost you something but if you don't

follow Christ and don't receive Christ it's going to cost you something too and going to cost you far more what's it going to cost not to follow Christ how many of us really sit down and count the cost even when we go to get married that's one of the reasons that one out of every two marriages in America is breaking up we don't sit down and count the cost a young woman I read about the other day married a boy because of his handsome face and his athletic figure she didn't sit down and think about

his mental and his spiritual and his moral qualifications she just married him 6 months later they were in the divorce court the same is true in education we don't think it through many times or business or Athletics and you know in the in the Olympics I was interested at how much time those fellas have to spend in training I heard some of them say that they would spend 8 and 10 hours a day in training for their special event no wonder they were so good and thrilled audiences all over the world now if you don't

follow Christ and you don't pay the price of serving him it'll cost you first of all the sacrifice of Peace of conscience and heart you will not have peace with God you will not be reconciled to God you will be considered an enemy of God you don't consider yourself an enemy of God but he considers you an enemy because you have rejected his love you've rejected his offer of reconciliation you've rejected his offer of peace and so you sacrifice that there being therefore justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ

but the scripture says there is no peace saith my God to the wicked now that word Wicked is used there in Isaiah 57 doesn't mean mean that you're a criminal it doesn't mean that you're vicious but anyone who is not conforming to the will of God and conforming to the image of Christ is considered in the sight of God Wicked that's what that word Wicked is translated from the Hebrew there means now you may have pleasure and fun and Mart and gity and good times and delightful times you may succeed in drowning the voice of

your conscience in excitement pleasure money getting and something else but way down in the bottom of your heart you don't have peace with God you give that up I was interested in Reading just a short time ago one of the great intellectuals of Canada he's a professor at one of Canada's Great universities I'm not going to call his name I wouldn't want to embarrass him even though it was in the newspaper but here's what he said listen to what he said in the in the Press quote there are so many nights that I go to

bed and really think it would be so much better if I did not wake up in the morning peace yes peace if nothing else there would be peace I often think that if there could only be peace when I'm dead I would like that to come soon just peace peace I never go to bed without feeling that it would be nice if I did not wake up again the first thing I say to myself in the morning is why I get into my car and say it would be nice if someone were to run into

me and I went through the windshield yes peace if nothing else death would bring peace and how many thousands of people privately feel that way searching for peace Jesus Christ The Prince of Peace ready to come into your heart tonight and give you the peace that you're longing for you remember when the hurricane Bell was pounding its way up the Atlantic and it hit parts of Pennsylvania and New York and Connecticut and Vermont and they had all those floods in Vermont the national weather map if you remember showed a 25 mile SWA of complete calm

precisely in the center of that hurricane and that's EX exactly what Jesus said he said in the midst of the hurricane of life in the midst of the storms of life I can give you peace he said in the world ye shall have tribulation but I've spoken unto you that in me ye might have peace in the center of the hurricane is a place of calm and that's what Christ brings in the middle of your life he doesn't remove the hurricane but he gives peace in the middle of it and if you don't come to

Christ you sacrifice that you give it up and you go all through life with the hurricane turning and churning and the tornado twisting in your own life and you like that deep inward peace that the believer has and then the second thing you sacrifice you sacrifice true joy for several months one of the three or four best sellers was Drury the promise of joy and then there was that other bestseller the that you would see in counters and even in grocery stores The Joy of Sex and Marbel Morgan is writing a book called total Joy

but overall with suicide among the young people in the last decade climbing so rapidly Joy is in short supply David said after he had sinned against God and his Joy was gone and he was miserable he said restore unto me the joy of my salvation and how many Christians here tonight you believe in Christ but you've lost the joy of your salvation because of sin you know worry in this country is at an alltime High and a a doctor at the Mayo Clinic said said a few weeks ago quote worry affects the circulation the heart

and the glands and the whole nervous system and profoundly affects the health and Jesus is promising all the time to replace the worry with joy his Joy he said that your joy may be full whom having not seen ye love in whom though now ye see him not yet believing ye Rejoice with joy un speakable and full of Glory that's the joy that he provides now you're going to miss that if you don't come to Christ you'll miss that and some of you have just enough religion to make you miserable I don't know anybody in

in the world any more miserable than a person trying to be a Christian who really isn't like when these sailors go to the Far East or I go to the Far East I remember I've been to the Far East many times and I was on my way to Vietnam to speak to the Troops on one occasion and I stopped in hula and they said you need to get um oh I forgot what shot it was now but it was 10 cc's in those days to uh keep you from getting something or other and uh this

uh Navy fella I think it was about the second shot he had given and because I was a preacher he either wanted it to hurt real bad or he was he pushed it in real slow uh and uh I'll never forget I limped out of there like this because of that shot some of you have had that experience and you know you can get a a a shot let's say for against Cara and you know every time I get Cera shots I get sick because I get a little bit of c and that little bit

of C that I get keeps me from getting the real thing when I get out there if they have a c epidemic my father-in-law was a expert in handling CA epidemics and you know you can get just a little bit of religion and get a little bit sick and that keeps you from getting the real thing and the hardest people in the world to win to Christ are people that that have been read in a Christian home that have' gone to church and have enough religion to know the language but they've never known the real

joy and the real peace and the real Christ and they are inoculated against getting the real thing those are the miserable people and then thirdly you sacrifice hope hope I heard about a fell that was riding in a propeller airplane and the passengers saw first one motor went out I've been on airplanes where Motors went out and blew up as a matter of fact and finally three of the four engines were gone the passengers were scared to death and the cabin door opened and the pilot appeared with a parachute on his back and he said

calm down everybody Don't Panic he said I'm going for [Applause] help now that's about as far as the world can go they're saying don't panic Don't Panic everybody's arming to the teeth Don't Panic Don't Panic somehow we'll muddle through we'll get through somehow and there's the philosophy as I said last evening a philosophy of Despair and discouragement and researchers claim that between 70,000 and 880,000 young people between the ages of 15 and 20 attempt suicide every year why because they have no Hope in Hope of eternal life which God who cannot not lie has promised

hope of the future is more important than anything else happy is he whose hope is in the Lord his God said the psalmist Paul said we're saved by hope Paul also said if in this life only we have hope we're of all men most miserable my hope is in the world to come as well as in this world the coming again of Christ the King om that he's going to set up the time when there will be peace on the world on the earth I'll talk about that tomorrow every man that ha this hope in

him purified himself says the scripture which would you rather be a millionaire tonight and tomorrow found to be an embezzler and put into prison for the rest of your life or would you rather be penniless tonight and certain of being a millionaire in eternity I'll take being the millionaire in eternity the hope of Tomorrow is more important than the possessions of today our hope is in Christ Our citizenship is in heaven I would rather be the poorest child of God tonight and and have that wealth that God is preparing for us there not Material wealth

necessary we think of wealth in terms did you read that marvelous story on Mother Teresa that was in the paper the other day she was at the Eucharist conference in uh Philadelphia and one of the great women of our time I remember I was in Kolkata about a year ago maybe 18 months ago and one of the first questions I ask is how could I see Mother Teresa and a man from the American counil D said well I think I can take you to where she is I don't know whether we'll get to see her

or not and we went back some dark alleys and back into one of the dirtiest slester and there we went into this place the house of the dying where Mother Teresa holds in her arms dying people so they can die with dignity and some of the nuns came and uh when they found out that I was there they said well mother is holding a dying man right now but we'll go see says she doesn't see many people right now about 30 minutes later in came Mother Teresa and we sat down and talked and I had

just been told that she had received the nou award and that when miss Mrs Gandhi presented it to her that for the first time people saw Mrs Gandhi cry yes I'd rather be Mother Teresa living in that slum in Kolkata than to be the richest man in all the world when I get to heaven laying up Treasures in Heaven and she said the most the poorest people people in all the world are in the affluent West she said you Americans are very poor I'm going back to some rich people they're rich in God rich in

Christ and you know we strive for material things and we try to get all we can get and so forth and we can't take it with us you don't see any U harlots following a curse on the way to the graveyard can't take any of it with us Jesus said what shall it profit a man if he gained the whole world and lost his own soul what if you did gain the whole world and lost your soul and you know what else you [Music] lose by not coming to Christ you lose the knowledge of the

purpose and meaning of your life on this planet you lose that Dr maler the great psychiatrist in Atlanta said the other day unhappiness is common today because people have lost their sense of purpose and he blamed it impartial partially on the loss of religious Faith here are the word of the Lord ye rulers of Sodom give ear unto the law of our God ye people of kamorah to what Purp purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices he said all your religious sacrifices and all of your churches is not enough what's the purpose of it if

you don't have true Faith the scripture says Daniel purposed in his heart Paul purposed in his Spirit do you have a purpose and is that purpose centered in God God has a plan for your life are you living according to God's plan and then the last thing that you lose you lose eternal life Carlile The Great philosopher once said one life a little gleam of time between eternities I don't know all that's involved in eternal life there's a mystery to it I only know that when you receive Jesus Christ as your savior here tonight you

become a possessor of eternal life not the day you die but tonight right now God performs a miracle in your heart Christ comes to live inside and both of the men that testified tonight testified that they'd been in the church one of them a clergyman's son but they didn't really know Christ there's a vast difference Time Magazine said I think it was a couple weeks ago that 69% of Americans are sure that there's life after death you know that's what we're on Mars for we're up there looking for life we spent a billion dollars to

send those Vehicles up that vehicle up there and it's reaching out searching around trying to find something that would tell us that there's life like we know it on the planet Mars but we can have eternal life and and live forever with Christ that's what he offers you can't push death away you'll never live this evening over again the hour that you spent here the two hours you spent here you'll never live again it's gone forever and death is approaching to all of us because it is appointed unto man once to die and after that

the Judgment but eternal life can begin right here and now you know we spend $25 billion do a year in America to get rid of pain the Bible says that there's a heaven and there's a hell heaven forever hell forever and you must make the choice whatever is meant by Hell whatever Jesus meant by it he was the one that did the talking about it and you can draw your own conclusions when you read the passages but you can take the deepest and the greatest and the most thrilling experience you've ever had in your whole

life and and double it and redouble it 10 million times and you have heaven and take the worst moment of your life and double it 10 million times and you'll have just a little bit of what hell must be think a moment do you know Christ are you sure your sins are forgiven do you know that you're going to heaven if not you say what do I have to do first you have to repent of your sins and repentance means to change your way of living I'm against this so-called easy conversion ism where you just

say a few Mumble a few words and that's supposed to be it you've got to really mean it that I'm coming to Jesus Christ in Repentance of my sins and I come by simple childlike faith in the Lord Jesus Christ in him alone I'm not trusting myself I'm not trusting my works I'm not trusting my money I'm not trusting my parents' religion I'm trusting in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ and I'm asking you to do that tonight and I'm going to ask hundreds of you like we've seen every night I'm going to ask

you to get up out of your seat right now and come and stand in front of the platform and say I want eternal life I want Christ I want what these two men have found in Panama I want to find it in San Diego tonight I want to receive Christ into my heart you may be Catholic or Protestant or Jewish or you may not have any religion at all but you want to come and surrender your life and your heart to Jesus Christ as your lord and your master and your savior you come and after

you've all come I'm going to say a word to you and have a prayer with you give you some literature and you can go back and join your friends if you're with friends or relatives they'll wait and if you come from that top balcony up there it'll take you several minutes to come so start right now there's plenty of time God has spoken to your heart you may never be this close to the kingdom of God again you get up and come right now quickly we're going to wait hundreds of you from everywhere and come

and stand out on the field quietly and [Music] reverently BL sh for me [Music] and [Applause] to of [Music] God you that have been watching by television can see what is happening here in San Diego California at this great and beautiful Stadium hundreds of people are coming from the stands to make their commitment to Jesus Christ you can make that commitment right now where you are God help you to make that decision and go to church next Sunday thank you for joining us for this television series from San Diego