We never know what we truly believe until it’s a matter of life and death. Billy Graham, along with a firefighter and a young woman forced to face the reality of death, share the Gospel message, and what really happens when we die.
if there’s a life hanging in the balance
we’re willing to put our lives on the
line so now the person may live
my dad and I were actually really close
I was definitely a daddy’s girl I felt
like we were always having these
adventures out in the wild they say your
life can be turned upside down in a
blink of an eye
life is awesome until something
unexpected happened
all of a sudden out of absolutely
nowhere I just got this crazy feeling I
didn’t know exactly what had happened
but I knew that it was my dad and I just
shook my head and I said no no
an unexpected tragedy comes our romance
breaks up a terrible injustice is done
and you feel so alienated so lost but
you can start Life all over again with a
clean slate
we had a family reunion this summon all
of our grandchildren came home no it was
one of the most wonderful wildest times
I have a song when I’d get tired I’d say
oh I’ve got to go back to study a few
minutes and I’d go back and lie down a
few minutes and then come back some more
but you know I love those children it
was great
I’ve had this home for many years and
I’ve had a wonderful family that God has
given me and my wife and as I think back
over the years I’m in a state of
faithfulness
now God wants you to live he wants you
to live life to the fullest and he has a
plan for you that will prosper you and
bless you Jesus said I’ve come that they
might have life and might have it to the
fullness he wants you to have life he
wants you to enjoy life to give you the
assurance that your sin is forgiven that
you’re going to heaven when you die
facing death things become a lot clearer
I was on top of the world had everything
going for me I had just been promoted to
drive the hook and ladder truck felt
like I was Superman
was your like 24th 2007 a day that
changed my life forever
recording fires in the room my job as a
driver an oaken ladder truck is to get
on the roof and ventilated open it up
with a chainsaw so that the company’s
coming inside the fire can actually make
their way there without all the smoke
and heat upon
we arrived on scene I put our aerial to
the roof brought my chainsaw in hand
when I got on top of the roof I saw fire
at the rear the building come out of
skylight and I stepped over as a
division wall
making news now we have had a
firefighter for
I woke up on the ground I looked around
all I could see was orange fire all
around me
I came to realization that this was it I
was gonna die in life there are things
that you will never anticipate things
that completely ruin the plan that you
have for your life things that you never
ever imagined my dad was a very big
outdoorsman
we were always camping and fishing and
hunting and you name it if it’s outside
we were always out doing it
when I was in college I really didn’t
see my dad that often so we decided to
actually go down to Lake Powell we just
spent the entire week house boating and
water skiing and wakeboarding and we
just had such an amazing time
a week after that trip ended out of
absolutely nowhere I just got this crazy
feeling basically I just wanted to go
home and I didn’t know why so we went we
get out of the car it was my aunt
and um just the the look in her eyes and
it was just such a deep sorrow
and I just shook my head and I said no
no no
my dad had been murdered
you’re just overcome with anger and
sadness and grief to a degree that you
never knew before as people were coming
down the line at the funeral telling me
all of these things that you know your
dad is in a better place I just couldn’t
believe it and I couldn’t believe in
heaven because it just seems like such a
fairy tale to me it was something that
you tell somebody to make them feel
better
now we want to soften the reality of
death we don’t want to talk about it
some of us don’t want to think about it
so we have a lot of cosmetics and
facelifts and the frantic search for the
mythical Fountain of Youth goes on but I
don’t want to turn tonight to the
psychologist or the sociologist or the
medical students but to the Bible what
does the Bible say about death
the Bible says in Ecclesiastes 3 –
there’s a time to be born and a time to
die it’s appointed unto man once to die
but after that the judgment
yes just in so much uncertainty we ask
ourselves why why why and I want to
quote one passage from Amos the fourth
chapter that says prepare to meet thy
God and I want to ask you tonight are
you prepared today
when my dad died it really did change
death in my eyes because people were
telling me that he’s in a better place
but I couldn’t believe that but I was
really hoping to be able to see my dad
again to just have something anything I
was just desperate for that I
desperately wanted my dad to come
when I thought about the man who
murdered my dad
I honestly hated him and when I saw his
picture in the newspaper with any of the
newspaper coverage I literally shuddered
he was kind of like the villain in my
mind he wasn’t even really human and I
never thought that I’d be able to
forgive him
it had been about nine years since my
dad’s murder and I think it all just
kind of came to a head and I kind of
just fell apart I became very depressed
and I fell into a pretty deep dark hole
my greatest fear at that time was that
there was going to be something wrong
with me and I would die
and I would leave my children I had some
family members come up to me and say
Laurie I think it’s time to try some
medication and I remember just crying
and saying is it that obvious but I’m
really not doing well
if you can imagine hell on earth this
was it and the burn started you imagine
the first layer of your skin burning off
the second layer third layer
down your attendance I came the
realization that this was it I was going
to die and all I could see was my life
flashed before my eyes like a DVD
everyone
so the young man in high school I was
exposed to to drinking and partying I
took it to the next level
was doing it quite often I went to
college it was all about getting girls
me out all my buddies partying I live
for myself remind audiences I would
often wake up next to a woman that I
hardly recognized
I remember name
my dad tried talked to me a couple times
about god I just blow him off not for me
not now don’t need it I’m in control my
life the scripture says that all have
sinned and come short of the glory of
God we’re all sinners and if we have
sinners then we are doomed but that I
mean Jesus used the word hell and that’s
the teacher of all of us if we don’t
fill out trust in Jesus Christ
people do not want to be warned of
judgment in hell
a lady said some time ago I hate the
very thought of hell
so do I and I also hate the sin that
sends them there I hate war I hate the
fact that people are starving in the
world but my hating it does not change
the fact is it right for me to warn you
tonight what Jesus taught and what the
Bible teaches from cover to cover but
suppose you were a drowning man and I
have the gospel lifeboat and I’m not
going to let you drown if I can help
now what is the nature of hair
essentially and basically it is
separation from God
it’s the banishment from the presence of
all that is joyous and good and
righteous and
matthew 8:12 pale is called outer
darkness
it’s separation from God in darkness
you’re not going to go down there and
set up a knife Club no you go out into
eternity thirsting for God and you can
never find it
and you can never find the fulfillment
that you missed in this light what is
your choice
what’ll people say well I don’t wear the
wrong change in my life
the Scripture teaches without that
change that God demands we’ll never get
to heaven but me I was a member of a
church but I had really come to Christ
from the very beginning I was really a
Christian atmosphere
my father another both were Christians
the time I was a teenager became an
evangelist out of town
Mordecai ham I remember I got under such
conviction and one night they gave the
invitation to receive Christ and I
reluctantly went but I really meant
business with the law
I came just as I was with all my sins
all my failures and the Lord received me
and changed me that has transformed me
till this day I’ve never been the same
Jesus is the only way of life eternal
life that he gives to every one of us
that have put our faith in Him
I became very depressed and I couldn’t
get myself out of it I tried going to a
therapist
I tried meditation I tried doing yoga I
tried all sorts of different things but
nothing was working
my last resort was to call my girlfriend
Sarah and I called her up and I said
Sarah can you tell me a little bit about
your church and that next Sunday I’m
sitting there and the pastor started
preaching on exactly what I was dealing
with in that moment I started going to a
woman’s Bible study you started pouring
myself into it I started reading
Scripture and at one point even though I
I still had some doubts I was just like
what do I know to be true like deep down
in my heart and it was truly that jesus
is the son of God I gave my life to
Christ and I said yes I do believe that
Jesus is who he says he is God was
showing me step by step by step
Who I am and and who God is I started to
see my own depravity I started to see
the depths of the sin within myself and
that is why Jesus had to die because
ultimately Sanus is what separates us
from from God and Jesus had to come so
that we can be forgiven
I had tried to forgive the man who
murdered my dad and then one day I was
reading about Jesus dying on the cross
he was asking for God to forgive the
people who were in the process of
murdering him and I understood in that
moment that true forgiveness can only be
done through God I mean it was so hard
and so difficult but I was able to
forgive
Jesus has gone to prepare a home for us
forever it has given me such peace the
thought of heaven is just overpowering
at times because it is a place where
there will be no more fear no more tears
no more sorrow no more death
the Bible talks about heaven as a holy
city a perfect environment in which a
perfect society dwells heaven will be a
place in which its inhabitants will be
freed from the fears and insecurities
that plague in on us in the present life
and the scripture says and God shall
wipe away all tears from their eyes and
there will be no more death neither
sorrow nor crying neither shall there be
any more pain for the former things are
all passed away and we enter a new world
I’m looking forward to that glorious day
of going to heaven are you ready
the scripture says that God’s desire is
that all men should be saying he wants
it so much that he gave his son to die
on the cross for you now when Jesus
Christ died on the cross that was a
judgment God judged Christ in your place
and Jesus being who he was had the
capacity to endure hell for you
he did it for you because he loves you
now God says you must repent of your
sins and receive him into your heart
repentance is changing changing your
mind toward God until yourself seeing
yourself a sinner and seeing the
holiness and the righteousness of God
looking at the cross of Christ and
seeing that he died for you and then the
second thing you must do is to believe
that word believe means more than just
believing with your mind it means
committing yourself your total self to
Christ as Savior in law and then the
third thing you must be willing to
follow here and serve Him are you
willing to do that are you ready yes you
have to make a choice you have to make a
choice between some things that are
wrong in your life and you have to make
a choice to price which will it be
everybody on duty that day expected a
line of duty death
yeah
have thought of your own casket
and it was real
death was real
but here’s a strange thing there’s
something happened roughly ten years
earlier that connected that day in this
day it was a day back in 1995 and I was
invited to a Bible study there was a
group of 8 to 10 of us but at the end
the leader he offered to those in the
room listening to his voice if they
wanted to receive Christ as their Savior
those are still small voice that told me
you need to do this
we all have a debt the debt is sin wages
of sin is death but the gift of God is
eternal life through our Lord Sri Jesus
Christ
it was that day August 15 1995 is when I
accepted the Lord into my heart as my
Lord and Savior and from that day
forward everything change in the middle
of this raging inferno I had peace the
peace that’s rooted in my faith in Jesus
Christ the scripture that is embedded in
my heart is Romans 5:1 and said
therefore being justified by faith we
have peace with God through our Lord
Jesus Christ
at this point I had a conversation with
God and said God I’m ready to come home
I woke up eight days later in the burn
unit unable to walk began my intensive
recovery over a year it was tough but I
learned a lot
we all walk on a Razors Edge thin line
between life and death we’re all going
to die one day the question remains are
you ready for that day
I found turned a lot of years of my life
when I’ve had sicknesses and been in the
hospital and so forth there’s a piece it
just resides there and stays there that
I cannot explain everybody could have
that same piece if they received Christ
as their Savior
I know I’m going to heaven I’m looking
forward to it with great anticipation
because of what Jesus did on that cross
he died for us but he was raised by God
and you’ll notice that when the
disciples went out after the cross in
the resurrection it says they went out
preaching that Jesus was alive
and that because he lives we too are
going to live someday in that same
resurrection glory
we all die I’m not going to escape it I
don’t want to escape it I want to go
the vast majority of my life has already
been lived my record has already been
made I don’t have very much longer I
know that some of my closest friends and
relatives and especially my wife already
in heaven
and because of the hope we have in Jesus
we can all be in heaven someday forever
but first there must be a decision here
and now in this life
a radical change must take place before
you can get into heaven before you can
be accepted by God
you say well what do I have to do you
must repent of sin you repent and you
believe leave in Christ and you receive
him in your heart and say Lord Jesus
come in and he’ll come in
you don’t have long you’ll be an
eternity and the decision you make
tonight may decide where you’ll be
you know Christ are you ready
today I’m asking you to put your trust
in Christ if you’d like to receive
Christ you can pray a prayer like this
you can pray a prayer like this dear
Heavenly Father I know that I am a
sinner and I ask for your forgiveness I
believe Jesus died for my sins and rose
from the dead I turn from my sins I
repent for my sins I invite you to come
into my heart I’m like I want to trust
and follow you as my Lord and Savior in
Jesus name
Jesus say I’m the resurrection and the
life he that believeth in me shall never
die
hi I’m Franklin Graham and I’m sitting
by the graveside of my mother Ruth Bell
Graham here at the Billy Graham library
my father is over 95 and even though my
mother passed away a few years ago he
still misses her knee longs to be with
her he knows that my mother’s not in
this grade she is alive and she’s in
heaven and the presence of Almighty God
where he’ll be one day soon you too can
have that same assurance of one day
being in the presence of Almighty God
you see the Bible says for God so loved
the world that He gave His only begotten
Son that whosoever believeth in him
should not perish but should have
everlasting life
if you prayed that prayer to receive
Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior
we’d like to give you some resources
that will help you grow in your new
faith just go to the website on the
screen and remember this God loves you
and God bless you
you
you