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I Begin at the verse numbered one I Therefore a prisoner for the Lord beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called with all lowliness and meekness with patience for

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bearing one another in love Eager to maintain the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace There is one body and one spirit Just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call

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one Lord one And through all and in all But grace was given to each of us according to the measure of Christ gifts Therefore it is said

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When he ascended on high he led a host of captives and he gave gifts to men In saying he ascended what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower parts of the earth He who descended is he who also ascended far above all the heavens that he might fill all things and

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His gifts were that some should be apostles some prophets some evangelists Some pastors and teachers to equip the Saints for the work of ministry for building up the body of Christ Until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God

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to mature manhood to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ So that we may no longer be children tossed to and fro and Carried about with every wind of doctrine by the cunning of men by their craftiness in deceitful

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wiles rather Speaking the truth in love We are to grow up in every way into him who is the head

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Into Christ from whom the whole body Joined and knit together by every joint with which it is supplied when each part is working properly makes bodily growth and up builds itself in love and

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May the same spirit who inspired these words Incline our hearts to their understanding Pray with me In

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The name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit Amen When I began the chain of sermons To which I add another link this morning. I

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Asked my colleagues whom they would identify as great 20th century Christians and immediately Sally Cheney our

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director of women's and children's ministries answered Will you must include the name of? Mordecai ham Mordecai ham I said who is Mordecai ham

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Mordecai cam she informed me was the man who won Billy Graham to Jesus Christ It's very likely that Mordecai ham never knew that this was the case We as Christians often experience circumstances in which we find ourselves to be called upon to make Certain sacrifices or to enter into certain service and we do not really understand

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Why this is so? It takes a while for it to become evident or indeed We may never see the results of our efforts Though others might be richly blessed by them

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During a time that I have been praying for our hostages. I Prayed especially each day for Terry Anderson Because he had been held hostage so much longer than all the others sometimes more than twice as long And I couldn't understand why God

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Was having these hostages released one after another but Terry Anderson who had gone through the most was left until the very last and Then the answer became evident. It seems that Terry Anderson

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Was the spirit builder and the morale builder? amongst the hostages It was essential that he stay on till the end In order to keep the minds and the spirits of his fellow hostages

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High and filled with hope there was a purpose in God's providence Even though I didn't see it so Mordecai ham preached on many nights and He probably never remembered that night on which he planted one particular seed in

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one particular young man Interestingly enough Mordecai ham one Billy Graham to Christ on the same night in which Billy Sunday died

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another strange and unusual providence Since that time Billy Graham has gone on to become the best-known Christian of the 20th century He has spoken to more Christians than anyone else in history the Gallup poll has

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Conducted a survey each year for many years as to the ten most admired men on earth Billy Graham has been one of the top ten every year since 1955 except two

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more than 10,000 articles and stories about Billy Graham are written in the world's publications every month He is the founder of decision magazine

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Which has the largest circulation of any Christian periodical anywhere? He is also the founder of Christianity Today, which is the leading evangelical journal of our time His newspaper column appears in 100 newspapers each day and Time magazine Has selected him as the man of the year

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His weekly radio broadcast is heard quite literally around the world Surveys have shown that his television programs are watched by two times as many Christians and Four times as many non-christians as the television broadcasts of any other preacher preaching today

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Christian Century magazine the leading liberal publication a few years ago listed what he called the 11 giants of 20th century faith and It asked people to respond as to which of these giants they could identify with which ones they knew immediately by name

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67% knew Billy Graham as soon as they read his name The next nearest name was recognized by only 5% Billy Graham has received the Templeton Prize, which is the Nobel Prize of Christianity last year life magazine

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Identified him as one of the 100 most important Americans of this century So Mordecai Ham did not know what he was about But the whole world has come to know what he did on that night so long ago Billy Graham is a remarkable personality just a few months ago a

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team of secular historians led by dr. Jeffrey Haddon of the University of Virginia Asked the question 300 years from now in the 24th century Which Americans will be most remembered? They identified ten and one of them was William Franklin Graham

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Now Billy Graham is first of all and above all an evangelist the words that Paul wrote to Timothy might just as well had been written to him as For you always be steady

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endure suffering Do the work of an evangelist? fulfill your ministry From the early days of his ministry Billy Graham knew that he was to be an evangelist now all of us as Christians

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Are called to be able to give a reason for the faith that is in us All of us are to be able to witness to what Jesus Christ has meant in our lives But there is a special gift of evangelism given to some people Which enables them to win others to Christ in Ephesians?

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we read some are called to be evangelists and Billy Graham was one of those From his earliest days as a preacher. It was noted that when he extended the invitation for people to come to Christ Folks responded in unusually large numbers

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Today he is described as the most successful evangelist in history But those are not words which he would ever apply to himself As a matter of fact Billy Graham has said on more than one occasion. I

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Am not sure if I have ever led anyone to Jesus Christ There are so many other factors praying mothers Sunday school teachers

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Preachers slugging it out Sunday after Sunday All I do is say to folks who will listen Do you see that door? Well, that's the way in

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The Billy Graham evangelistic association never refers to those who come forward in his crusades as converts They are called simply inquirers

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There is you see that lowliness and meekness in Graham to which Ephesians calls us It's interesting to notice I think that while this is a special gift of his there are other special gifts which he does not have For example, he does not have what Ephesians calls the gift of pastoring His own staff has testified to the fact that he does not like to do pastoral work

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And in fact does not do it. Well He is also not accomplished in sharing his faith with someone one-on-one Just a few years ago He was with a minister who invited him to go out and make some face-to-face calls and he said to him

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You will have to teach me how to do this because I am not gifted in reaching individuals Ephesians talks about Certain people receiving the gift of being prophets of God that means preachers Well, Billy Graham is by any reasonable standard of measurement a poor preacher

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He knows nothing about exegesis His sermons are filled with errors so much so that they have to be edited for radio and television and sometimes astonishing errors like claiming for example, but Thomas Jefferson was a great Christian when in fact Jefferson was a deist or pronouncing that Nietzsche and Freud and Schleiermacher were all

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Behaviorists when in point of fact they were not He does not preach the whole counsel of Scripture But focuses on certain verses again and again He admits that he is no scholar most of his reading is a popular periodical but

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Whenever he extends the call to people to come to Christ The Holy Spirit touches him in such a way that that call is heard and He has done everything that he can to develop the use of the gift of evangelism

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And this is no more more conspicuous Than in his efforts to do what Ephesians calls equipping the Saints for the work of ministry in 1866 Billy Graham organized for the first time in the history of Christianity a

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worldwide gathering of evangelical Christians They came to got together as one body of Christ again to use a phrase from Ephesians and It was a tremendously inspiring occasion

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many of them thought they were laboring in the world alone and Suddenly they discovered they were part of a very large company in 1974 he called a second Congress on evangelism

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This one was held in Lausanne, Switzerland, and there were five emphases in this Congress the authority of Scripture the unity of the spirit as over against political unity

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how to reach the unreached the importance of social action in evangelism And that the kingdom of Jesus Christ is a worldwide kingdom Graham never describes himself first as an American and then as a Christian

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He always identifies himself first as a Christian and then as an American But Billy Graham even after this tremendously successful Congress in Lausanne Still felt that he was not reaching the multitudes of evangelists around the world many of them from third-world countries

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Who oftentimes had received no training? They had the gift of evangelism and they were using it in a stumbling uninformed way and He wanted to bring them greater knowledge than they had before and so in 1983

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He organized a Congress in Amsterdam to which 3900 evangelists from more than

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133 countries came the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association paid all expenses for all

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3900 delegates it came to about 21 million dollars The emphasis was on education and inspiration Each one of the delegates when he or she was sent away Carried with them a knapsack full of books and other papers

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Which they could study and continue to use as they carried out their evangelistic work they went back into their home parts of the world and Excited so many people by what they had to say That they had to have a similar conference in 1986 in Amsterdam and to this one

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9,000 evangelists from all over the world came Now there is no question that Billy Graham has made a great contribution to the kingdom In all the people who have responded to his call for Christ in his crusades around the world But I think it may safely be said

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That his greatest contribution has been That he has sent some 20,000 little Billy Graham's out into the world you see Here's a man who knows his gift and is using it in every way. He knows how it's very sad

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When Christians sometimes Christians who have been in the faith for a long time do not know what particular gifts the Spirit has given them or Knowing those gifts have become self-satisfied with their development of them Ephesians says that we are to seek to be obtaining knowledge

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That we are to become more mature in the fullness of Christ We are never to be satisfied and I think it's interesting as you listen to and read the writings of Billy Graham to notice that across the last 40 years his thoughts on many subjects have changed and

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Have deepened and become more profound His eschatology is different His understanding of ecumenical affairs is different His doctrine of salvation of pagans is different

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His understanding of death and suffering and Pentecostal ism have shown major changes his views with regard to alcoholism Homosexuality and abortion have all been adjusted his understanding of the place of women in the work of the church his ministry to the poor his views on capital punishment and nuclear

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disarmament all of these Have shown significant change across the decades. He has never stopped growing The most important thing That a serious Christian can know is not the right answers

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but the right questions and The first two questions are these what are your gifts and What can you do to utilize them better?

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It doesn't take much of a man or woman to be a Christian But it does take all there is of them Now I think it interesting and not surprising

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That any person who has achieved the worldwide fame that Graham knows Also has many critics He is criticized first of all by the fundamentalists Now fundamentalism is not so much a theological position as it is a psychological attitude

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Fundamentalists are those people who are still opposed to the revised standard version because it came out in a red cover and they understood that To mean it was a communist plot People like Bob Jones and Carl McIntyre groups that all times have in them strong

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anti-semitic strains or strong anti-catholic strains or strong race prejudice indications These kinds of groups that often are very right-wing

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politically these groups Hate Billy Graham. I remember Coming down the steps from a meeting of the World Congress on evangelism at Lausanne Which Billy and his team led and as we came down the steps Carl McIntyre one of the leading

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fundamentalists at that time Was standing on the stairs His face red and twisted with anger as he screamed at all of us Christians from all over the world That we were all communist

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Because we were all bowing down before Billy Graham who was one of the biggest communists of them all But dr. Graham has never permitted himself to be intimidated by this kind of criticism and Even though they have lied about him and misrepresented him. He has never come down to their level indeed

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If you are aware of some of the things which they have perpetrated against him You can only come to the conclusion That one of the noblest aspects of his character is That in spite of what they have done he to echo Ephesians has always spoken the truth

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in love Now major criticism often aimed at Graham is that he avoids major social issues

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And it's true when he began his ministry his early crusades were segregated He oft times has avoided making statements on Current issues as for example Vietnam or the Watergate episode when that was in the news And he has always emphasized personal evangelism over social evangelism. I

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Think in large measure he has done these things Because of four things which a long time ago were absent in his thinking first of all he forgot that the Holy Spirit has made everything and If the Holy Spirit has made everything then that means that he is concerned with everything

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with every dimension of life the social just as much as the personal The second thing that he did not remember was that God is the Lord of all of history and That everything that transpires within history

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It's interesting to observe that some of the greatest days in the history of the church Had been when it took a stand on a social issue as for example the role that the church played in the defeat of slavery in this country a Third thing that he did not think about enough in his early days was

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That when you do not oppose the status quo You by your silence whether you want to or not seem to approve the status quo and If that is so

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Then what do you say to those people who are suffering? because of the status quo and Finally dr. Graham applied the word moral in his early ministry

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almost exclusively to matters of personal morality To drinking and dancing and smoking and those kinds of things He did not emphasize the moral dimensions of war or

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justice or racial prejudice or government spending and These things are important concerns after all why are the prophets?

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Included in the Old Testament by the Holy Spirit if he does not wish to speak on these issues Why is it that Mary when she sang her song? Magnifying the Lord for what he was going to do through her made that song a song of social protest Why is it that the first sermon that Jesus ever preached?

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Was preached exclusively to social concerns. Why is it that so many of his parables? focus on matters of social emphasis Now in those early days Graham justified his conduct by saying I am a Paul and not a Nathan and

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By that he meant I am an evangelist I am NOT a prophet I Am one who proclaims how one may come to God

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I am NOT one who speaks God's Word of judgment against that which exists in the world But as he grew older and as he matured and developed in the fullness of Christ he came to understand That it was his responsibility as it is the responsibility of every other Christian to seek to know and apply the whole counsel of God and

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So in these matters of social concern we have seen tremendous growth All of his crusades have been Desegregated for many years and he insists when he goes into other countries that they be desegregated Also, he was the first one to conduct such desegregated crusades in South Africa

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he became an ardent defender of Martin Luther King a leader in the cause of nuclear disarmament and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association has become amazingly generous in Meeting the needs of the poor. Oh

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It's true there are times still When he says things that shock those of us who are concerned about the state of our society For example during the Watergate episode When the Nixon tapes were made available for the first time and he was asked about them

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he said that he thought that Nixon had said what he said and Did what he did? because he was under the influence of drugs, which he was taking for his phlebitis and Also because he was attacked by demons

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Billy Graham's wife Ruth is a very outspoken woman and She let out the real fact

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that when he read the transcripts of those tapes he wept for hours and Vomited again and again and

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prayed to God About how he had been used There Is great growth in his social ministry and

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In his evangelistic skills as they are shown in social concern and Then Billy Graham has also been criticized

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because of his close ties to the various presidents of the United States and The fact that he has many times Not said to them

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Some things which he alone was in a position to say to them Billy Graham has not hesitated to endorse a particular candidate for president in every one of the elections for many years and Unfortunately, all of the people that he endorses are from one particular political party he coaches

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Candidates for president from that party as to how to use religion in their speeches He gives them advice on what issues to emphasize He invites them to sit on the platform in his crusades. Now. I am a registered independent I am NOT a Democrat. I am NOT a Republican and

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One of the reasons that is the case is because I recognize that not all the good people are On one side of the aisle or the other But Dr. Graham consistently

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has pumped has emphasized has promoted the candidates of one party Someone said with regard to him that when you eat at the table with power

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You cannot expect to come away spotless That's the reason the prophets spent their time in the wilderness So then when it came time to speak to the Kings they were in no way obligated to them

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but having said this It is I think crucially important to remember That Billy Graham has used his contacts with presidents of the United States in

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wonderful ways to advance the cause of Christ It was through his presidential Associations that he became the first Western minister to preach behind the Iron Curtain

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It was because of his presidential contacts that he was invited to minister in Hungary and it was Billy Graham who more than any other person Succeeded in having the famed crown of st. Stephen returned to Hungary which led to the You

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Behind the Iron Curtain to a degree and in a manner that no one else had been able to do He made tremendous contributions To the political liberalization which we have seen happen in Eastern Europe within the last year Now he is ministering in China

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He has already met with Prime Minister Li Peng lectured at the University of Beijing and other prominent places in that great land before every one of these journeys He is briefed by the United States Department of State and that has come about in large measure

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Because of his connections with presidents of the United States Yes, maybe he does enjoy sailing with presidents and flying with presidents and riding with presidents and staying many many nights At the White House which he has done or going up to Camp David with the presidents all of them That have been in office during the time that he has been an evangelist. Maybe he does enjoy those things, but my friends

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He has never done these things out of self-glorification There is none of that cunning That is talked about in the book of Ephesians and condemned there

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He hasn't done it to praise himself He's done it to extend the kingdom of our Lord Well now Billy Graham is 72 years old He is still guarded every minute of every day by Secret Service agents

00:32:28.740 - 00:32:46.460

When Secret Service men retire from the White House many of them are employed immediately by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association He still has to sleep in a different hotel room every night When he addresses a crusade

00:32:46.460 - 00:33:07.300

When he steps down from the platform six men Who are dressed exactly the same as he is and who have a certain resemblance to him all? Start moving in different directions just as he does So that no one will know which one is the real Billy Graham. He receives more than 1,000 letters a month

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threatening to harm him or his loved ones or indeed to kill them and His home is carefully guarded with lights and fences and with dogs

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It has to be He's a man who suffered great illness in his ministries He has had hernias and ulcers and tumors and cysts and polyps He endures migraine headaches and chronic high blood pressure

00:33:39.740 - 00:33:55.020

He's been bitten by poisonous spiders and he's broken his ribs 18 times in the crush and the press of his ministry But he carries on When I think of him I

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See him lying on his back on the mud floor of a hospital in Vietnam in a place where young men had been horribly burned and Where they're in those beds that turn them upside down so that they can periodically get some release from their pain and he would lie in the mud so that he could look up to them and

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talk with them about home and eternal home I Remember seeing him clasp the hands the bleeding stumpy hands of lepers and

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As he shared with them the faith Said to the members of his own team who stood about him in amazement This guys is what it's all about. I Picture him riding out over LBJ's ranch in the president's

00:34:51.700 - 00:35:11.780

convertible Cadillac and stopping one night when the Sun was going down and Johnson that flawed but Titanic man Asking Graham as he'd asked him so many times before to pray for him and

00:35:11.780 - 00:35:31.620

Billy did I Think of him preaching his sermons out loud in the hotel rooms. He stayed in in Russia So that if anybody was listening over a microphone, they'd hear the gospel whether they wanted to hear it or not He's a man who can walk with Kings

00:35:31.620 - 00:35:43.380

Popes and presidents He is applauded by the American Bar Association or the Congress of the United States

00:35:43.380 - 00:35:59.820

He brings student audiences at Yale University and at Oxford University And that hundreds of other schools to their feet and yet the simplest farmer in Appalachia Knows him

00:35:59.820 - 00:36:19.380

Understands him and loves him and in his last crusade just a few weeks ago in New York City He drew a huge crowd to Central Park and more than half of those there could not speak English as His sermon was preached by him. It was translated into Spanish

00:36:19.860 - 00:36:34.100

for their hearing He never stops He never stops making the most of his gifts and by his example

00:36:34.100 - 00:36:54.900

He calls us Though none of us are as great as Billy Graham and will have the impact that Billy Graham has had in the world He calls all of us by his very living To learn what our gifts are and to develop them his witness should speak to us if there is any

00:36:54.900 - 00:37:19.940

sensitivity in our Christian hearts, whatever To be the best that we can to the glory of God Just a few weeks ago he was asked if he was ready to retire and he said I'm going to continue the way I am until God says

00:37:19.940 - 00:37:34.820

That's it. I for one hope That it will be a long time Before God says to Billy Graham

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That's it Let us pray And yet we know our father that someday you will say to him That's it

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And the question is Is there some young man or young woman or group of young men or young women in this world who already know thee as Savior and Lord But who have not yet discovered that they are gifted as evangelists and

00:38:24.580 - 00:38:45.100

That they can carry on the ministry which has been his For that matter Lord Are there people who are older than he is who have walked the Christian trail for decades and Still have not had courage enough

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To discover what God has gifted them to do in ways that other people not so gifted cannot do They come close to the end of their trail and Have been profitless servants

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Oh God Help us to try ourselves enough To learn what you've hidden in us And when we discover what that treasure is

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May we spend every bit of it in the fulfillment of thy will and the glorification of thy name We pray our prayer through Jesus Christ our Lord Amen

00:39:47.900 - 00:39:57.880

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