From the historic city of Rome, Franklin Graham shares a powerful Easter message for our time, presenting a story of new birth through Jesus Christ. Featuring special music from Michael W. Smith, a choir and a full chamber orchestra, it’s an unforgettable Easter celebration from Rome.

would you like to have your heart

illuminated by the spirit of God you

that are watching by television can

pick up that telephone and call that

number on the screen right now and

there’s a counselor standing by ready to

talk to you about how you can have a new

heart because he promises a new heart to

all of those that put Faith in and trust

in him

and you can do it right now

what a wonderful thing and then the

Bible says our hearts are deceitful the

heart is deceitful Above All Things

think of it above all things your heart

is deceitful

it deceives you

it deceives other people

and then in Psalm 101 it says that our

hearts are proud him that hath a high

look and a proud heart I’ll not

recognize says God

then the Bible says our hearts are

rebellious but this people hath a

revolting and rebellious heart they’re

revolted and gone the Bible says that

our hearts are idolatrous

we think of other things more than we

think of God and anything that you think

more of than you do of God becomes

idolatry

it may be that box in the corner in your

room that we call television

and you spend more time in television

than you do in the Bible

more time thinking about what you’ve

seen on the television than you do in

the Bible and sometimes I have to get

down on my knees and confess

that I’ve done the same thing

and I say oh God cleanse me and forgive

me

I’ve spent too much time in front of

that screen tonight

I should have been reading and soaking

up your word and spending time in prayer

for people in Africa and people in other

parts of the world where there’s so much

hunger and so much homelessness and so

much suffering

then the Bible says our hearts are Stony

and I will take the Stony heart out of

their flesh

our by the Bible says our hearts are

Stony hard cold and Barren that’s your

heart that’s what the Bible says that’s

how God diagnoses your heart

you go to a Cardiologist to get

diagnosed and he puts instruments on you

gives you a stress test or whatever

or you take a cardiogram

or take an angiogram I remember when the

first time I had an angiogram at the

Mayo Clinic in Rochester Minnesota I was

a little bit nervous about it and I lay

there

and I said to the doctor there were

several doctors I said when are you

going to insert that tube and put that

dye in my heart because I had a big

screen up there

he said it’s already in look up that I

didn’t even know it when they did it and

I’d been told by people oh my

and they had me nervous about it

the Bible also says that our hearts can

be hardened

you see Pharaoh I was watching a little

bit of the Ten Commandments the other

night when I was home they had it

running on one of the stations

and uh

how Pharaoh hardened his heart in Exodus

7 it says and the Lord said unto Moses

Pharaoh’s heart is hardened he refuses

to let the people go God sent 10 plagues

to soften Pharaoh up

and he promised every time he’d let the

people of Israel leave Egypt they were

slaves in Egypt

but he didn’t do it he broke his promise

every time

and he hardened his heart and let me

tell you something the Bible says he

that hardeneth his heart being often

reproved shall suddenly be cut off in

that without remedy

in other words they’ll come the last

time that you harden your heart and

it’ll all be over

be no more chance for you

because you see when you harden your

heart it builds a little ring around it

and the Holy Spirit may speak to you

again

but your heart will be harder it’ll be

like Pharaoh’s heart getting harder and

harder every time

until when God speaks to you you can no

longer hear him

what about you is your heart right

God takes our heart out and Ponders it

think of the almighty God studying your

heart

every way of a man is right in his own

eyes but the Lord pondereth the hearts

Proverbs 21 2.

the scripture says if thou sayest behold

we know it not doth not he that

pondereth the heart consider it and he

that keepeth thy soul that thee not know

it and shall not he render to every man

according to his Works he knows your

heart he studies it

you can’t fool him you can’t hide

he knows all the secrets

how do you stand before God Is Your

Heart Right with God

then the Bible says he weighs the heart

and tries the heart

what do you mean he weighs the heart

will he weighs Your Heart by The Ten

Commandments

he weighs it but The Sermon on the Mount

he weighs it but the great law that we

just read he weighs it by the Life of

Christ he weighs it by the teachings of

scripture on the way we ought to live

he weighs your heart how much do you

weigh

but there’s something else

all the way through the scriptures we

read about the blood of Jesus Christ

somebody said don’t you think that the

scriptures have too much about blood

some have called it a slaughterhouse

religion there is a lot about blood in

the scriptures

but the Bible says without the shedding

of blood there’s no forgiveness of sin

if Jesus Christ had not died on that

cross and shed his blood for you there’s

no way you could be

forgiven of your sins

it means that his heart bled and it is

only through the cleansing of that blood

that we can be forgiven

the Bible says that God prepares the

heart by the Holy Spirit

he prepares your heart your heart’s

already been prepared for this meeting

tonight

he prepares by the many experiences in

your life

the Bible says the preparations of the

heart in man are from the Lord

many of the experiences that you thought

were terrible

was God preparing you

the Bible says he opens the heart acts

16 14 whose heart the Lord open it

how wonderful for God to prepare the

heart then open the heart then he

enlightens the eyes of your

understanding being enlightened without

the enlightenment the opening and

preparation by the Holy Spirit no one

could receive Christ

you see salvation is of the Lord

we receive but it’s all of God he’s the

one that gave his son on the cross he’s

the one that sent the Holy Spirit to

convict you he’s the one

that made it possible for you to come

here tonight so that you can receive him

into your heart

and the Bible says that he gives a new

heart God says an old heart

will not do you have to have a new one

and God doesn’t just Pat you up

a new heart also I will give you in a

new spirit will I put within you and I

will take away the Stony heart out of

your flesh and I will give you a heart

of Flesh

God says a new heart is what you need

what about you have you received this

new heart from God

you say now Billy I have been baptized

I’ve been confirmed

and I I try to live a good life I don’t

succeed but I try

and I try to get this Sunday school once

in a while and I go to church or I watch

on television some church service

and we think that’s enough

but it’s not enough

oh yes you may be born again

at the moment of confirmation

but many of you need to reconfirm your

confirmation vows

you need to come to the Lord and say

Lord I haven’t kept those vows

I want to reconfirm them

I want to rededicate my life to what I

promised at confirmation or what was

promised for me at baptism

many people like that thousands of

people

whether you’re what denomination makes

no difference

a little Sunday school girl was asked

which of the Beatitudes she would rather

be like

she said pure in heart

they asked why she said because I could

obtain a pure heart I would possess all

the other good qualities spoken of in

this chapter

if your heart’s right