In Matthew 6:24, Jesus says, “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.” Who will you serve? Hear Billy Graham explain this important decision in this 1991 sermon from Seattle, Washington. Watch more #MondayNightClassics every Monday at 8 p.m. EDT. CONNECT with the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association: on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BillyGrahamE… on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/BGEA on Twitter: https://twitter.com/BGEA on Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/bgea on YouTube:    / billygraham   on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@bgeaofficial

from our archives the Billy Graham

classic

I want to take this opportunity to

Welcome All of You

I want you to turn with me tonight to

the sixth chapter of Matthew’s gospel in

the 24th verse

the sixth chapter and the 24th verse

these words no man

can serve two masters for either he will

hate the one and love the other or else

he will hold to the one and despise the

other you cannot serve God and

materialism

at the same time you have to make a

choice

no man can serve two masters

for either he will hate the one

or else

he will hold to the one and despise the

other you cannot serve God and

materialism you know there’s a

psychological vacuum in America tonight

Millions have no purpose for living and

no motivating challenge they want to

cause

to believe in they want a song to sing

and they want a flag to follow

Ernest Hemingway once said I live in a

vacuum that is as lonely as a radio tube

when the batteries are dead and there’s

no current to plug into

Irvin s Cobb once said in politics I’m a

democrat in religion I’m an innocent

bystander

I remember a story that they used to

tell out of the American Civil War one

man said I’m neutral so he put on Gray

trousers and a blue coat and they shot

at him from both sides

Christ never allowed people to be

bystanders and Spectators the word

Christian is from the Latin and it

literally means partisan for Christ a

partisan for Christ you know they’re

having all that trouble down in

Yugoslavia

and Mr Tito died some time ago and left

a vacuum in that country and his people

that followed him in fighting the Nazis

during the war were called partisans I

remember I’m old enough to remember that

myself

and they were called partisans

and they committed themselves they

believed in something and those

partisans never play at neutral they

never play it safe

they never sit on the fence they are

never Spectators in the struggle of

their times they take sides they commit

themselves

I heard one in Texas they asked this man

are you a Christian he said no thank God

I’m a Baptist

the word Christian in the early days was

used in derision it was a term of

reproach many people have a wrong idea

about what a Christian is they think

that a Christian is a person who prays

who lives with a golden rule who is

Sincere who goes to church and who keeps

the Ten Commandments all those are good

things they’re products many times of

being a Christian but that doesn’t make

you a Christian that doesn’t really make

you a true follower of Jesus Christ

a Christian is one that three things has

taken place in his life first he has

made a choice

all the way through the Bible we’re

asked to make a choice Adam and Eve made

the wrong choice and it affected the

whole human race because they sinned

against God and that became a disease

that went from generation to generation

and you and I have a disease that’s

going to end in physical death and

spiritual death unless we return unless

we return to Christ

every choice we make affects other

people in Deuteronomy the 30 chapters

30th chapter Moses called upon the

people of Israel I call Heaven and Earth

to record this day against you that I

have set before you life and death

blessing and cursing therefore choose

life that both thou and thy seed may

live

choose Joshua the 24th chapter Joshua

said to the people choose you this day

whom you’re going to serve I’m asking

you tonight to make a choice you have

many of you have a choice to make I

talked to a man on the telephone this

afternoon and I asked him straight out

will you receive Christ as Savior he

said not now I’m going to think it over

I have too many questions to ask and he

made a choice but he said I’ll watch on

television and I’m praying that he’ll

make the right choice in First Kings the

18th chapter Elijah said to all the

people how long are you going to Halt

between two opinions if the Lord God be

God follow him if the devil is God serve

him

Jesus said enter Yen at the Straight

Gate for why it is the gate and Broad is

the way that leadeth to destruction and

many there be that go therein because

straight As the gate and narrows the way

which leadeth to life and few there be

that find it think of it Jesus said it’s

a narrow gate it’s a narrow road for

eternal life and only a few people are

going to find it most of the people are

going to be on the broad road that leads

to destruction and judgment and Hell

which road are you on tonight you have

to make that choice before you leave

here

and then secondly a Christian is a

person who has made a change

a change in the way you live

the Holy Spirit comes into your life

when you receive Christ and he gives you

the power to change your whole way of

life the scripture says therefore If any

man be in Christ he is a new creation

old things are passed away behold all

things have become new your mind

your emotions your will are all involved

in that change and it affects your whole

life when you come to Christ

many people have made statements about

this very thing Freud said people change

by renewing their fixations Adler the

great psychiatrist used to say people

change by renewing their goals Rolo May

used to say they changed by renewing

their efforts towards self-realization

but God says people change by renewing

their minds

the Bible has a lot to say about the

mind when you come to Jesus Christ you

don’t commit intellectual suicide you

come to Christ with your mind and you

change your mind and that’s repentance

you’ve changed your mind toward God you

change your mind towards sin you change

your mind toward yourself and you change

your mind towards your neighbor and you

begin to love your neighbor as yourself

the Bible is very clear to change from a

defeated problem-oriented person depends

on first changing the mind

because our problems emotional

upsets and feelings and behavior and

goals are all rooted in wrong basic

beliefs about how to meet our personal

needs in Christ

the third thing

a Christian is a person who has accepted

a challenge

Jesus said If any man will come after me

let him deny himself and take up his

cross daily and follow me how many of

you are looking for a challenge

If any man will come after me the first

thing he must do is deny self your own

selfish Ambitions your own self-goals

and you must come to the Cross where

Christ died for you and shed his blood

because you see you and I are sinners we

have all broken God’s law and we deserve

judgment we deserve hell we’re going to

end up in hell we’re going to end up at

the judgment

but Christ came on the cross

and by stripes we are healed when they

took those long leather thongs with

steel pellets and beat him across the

back he was doing that for you

when they put those Nails in his hands

he was doing it for you when they put

that spirit inside he was doing it for

you he went to hell for you he took your

judgment and your hell so that you’ll

never have to spend one minute in hell

and you’ll never have to face the great

Judgment of God

that’s how much God loves you God loves

you

[Applause]

but he rose again we don’t worship a

Christ who’s still on a cross we worship

a living Christ that’s what Easter is

all about

but

God says

that if you were to follow him

you’re going to have to take up your

cross daily

every morning when you get up you take

up your cross now what is your cross

the cross

is the fact that Jesus went out to die

on the cross it was like saying take up

the electric chair and follow me today

take up the Galas and follow me you

identify yourself with Christ openly and

publicly and you’re not ashamed of

Christ

that’s what it means

he would walk down the street

and people and he would call them in and

they would follow him

now some young people here tonight

resist the idea of choice of any sort

we’ve been called the generation of the

uncommitted

you don’t want you they don’t want to be

called narrow they don’t want to close

their minds

Christ taught clearly that there are two

roads two masters and two Destinies we

cannot travel both roads so we avoid the

choice as long as we can there’s death

in every choice you die to one road when

you go down the other life never allows

neutrality without exacting a price try

to be neutral in politics and one day

you’ll be confronted with The Ballot Box

try

to be neutral about the race problem and

it’ll you’ll be confronted in your block

in your neighborhood or on your street

or on your school

and someday

it will come to you

you can’t be non-involved in the issues

of our day and the social problems of

our day you can’t be involved with the

thousands of people that walk the

streets of King County with no place to

sleep

and nothing and very little to eat

we have to do something about it that’s

the reason we have love and action we

know we can’t feed all the hungry people

but we do it as an example as to what

churches ought to be doing all the time

we ought to be extending a helping hand

to help all of those that are in need

foreign

[Applause]

some people don’t want to be involved in

their neighbor’s problems there’s a time

though when you must stand up and be

counted Jesus Christ demands that you

decide decide about him

pilate asks what shall I do then with

Jesus which is called Christ pilate

washed his hands

you have to make a decision about Christ

whom do men say that I the son of man am

and Simon Peter answered and said you

are the Christ the son of the Living God

now some are reluctant to make the

choice for Christ because of theology

you don’t want to accept all the things

that the scripture teaches about God and

about Christ even about God himself the

Bible says I am the Lord God I change

not the Bible says God is a god of love

and then there comes the Bible what am I

going to do about the Bible I can’t

accept the Bible

job says I’ve esteemed the words of his

mouth more than my necessary food in

second Timothy the third chapter it says

all scriptures given by inspiration of

God

the Bible is the inspired word of God I

don’t ever spend five minutes wondering

whether this is the word of God or not I

accepted this by faith years ago and

I’ve never had a doubt about it since

[Applause]

when you accepted by faith

nothing can move you there are things I

don’t understand in the Bible

there are things that almost apparent

contradictions but they’re not I just

accept it as God’s word by faith my

problem is

not the things I don’t understand in the

Bible it’s the things I do understand

things that I do understand that I ought

to be doing in obedience to Christ

that’s what disturbs me

and then there are a lot of young people

that say well I’ve heard about

conversion and you want us to be

converted

yes because Jesus said except you be

converted and become as little children

you can’t see the kingdom of God what

does conversion mean it just means turn

around I’m going this direction

I turn and I start this direction in my

life that’s conversion

just changing over

that’s all it means don’t make a big

thing out of it but it is a big thing

because it depends

your eternity depends on whether you’ve

been really converted or not you have to

be converted inside in your heart not

just the outward things many people

think you’re a good person because you

go to church you’ve been baptized or

maybe you’ve been confirmed in your

church

but you need to come and reconfirm your

confirmation vows you need to come and

reconfirm the baptism vows that you took

all the baptism vows that your parents

took

you need to come and make Christ real in

your own life

and then some refuse Christ because of

the church how many times I hear the

word well the church is full of

hypocrites

well there’s Hypocrites in every area of

life I was born read on a dairy farm and

we sold milk

and we would distribute the milk to the

various customers and we’d get up early

in the morning and send our little Dairy

trucks out and I would milk the cows and

sometimes I’d go on the truck

and we had several dairies in our area

and so the when price of milk got so low

the farmers began to put water in the

milk

now they were hypocrites

in the milk business

but that did not mean that they were not

some real ones my father would never

stoop to such a thing as that

now the One requirement for membership

in the church is that you are unworthy

to be a member

Christ himself founded the church

the church is made up of Sinners that

have been saved by the grace of God

there’s no such thing as a perfect

church if you find a perfect church and

you join it it becomes imperfect

the church is for Fellowship the church

is for strengthening our faith

the church has many things that it can

contribute to you

but there’s another reason that we

sometimes say we don’t want to come to

Christ we don’t want to pay the price

if you want an education you’ll deny

anything to get it if you want wealth

you’ll give up all sorts of things to

attain it

now God gave the very best he had for

you the scripture says he spared not his

own son

the scripture says the world passes away

and the lust thereof but he that doeth

the will of God abides forever

what shall it profit a man if he gain

the whole world and lose his own soul

and then there are other young people

that are afraid of being misunderstood

and ridiculed do not want to be in such

a small minority the Bible teaches that

there may be persecution there will be

you will be misunderstood you will be an

outsider in many groups

in and peer pressure is so powerful

today

in the various School levels whether

it’s the University or whether it’s the

high school

the Bible teaches that you may be an

outsider and you may have to seek some

new friends because one of the things

that happens is when you come to Christ

you enter a whole new social world

and you will find that you will have

brothers and sisters in every country of

the world

it’s a great fraternity that we join

when we come to Christ

and it may not be just episcopalians or

Baptists or Methodist or pentecostalist

or Presbyterians or Catholic it may be

we just are Christ ones

I’ve been all over well not all over the

world but many parts of the world and

I’ve met people that were absolute

strangest to me but the moment we met we

were brothers

you might not be invited to certain

parties

you might not be invited to certain

things and you may have to pay a price

for a little while till you make new

friends among believers

to follow Christ may be costly business

but the Apostle Paul said yea and all

that will live Godly in Christ Jesus

shall suffer persecution that’s a part

of the cost

it’s not easy to follow Christ in 1991.

in America

it’s hard

it costs something

and then there are many young people

that just put it off

you say I’m going to wait till another

time

Proverbs 27 says boast not thyself of

tomorrow for you know not what a day

will bring forth

the scripture says behold now is the

accepted time to hold now is the day of

salvation

in Lillian Roth’s story in her book I’ll

cry tomorrow at a certain point she had

this to say I’m an alcoholic and I need

help

you need to say tonight I have sinned

against God and I need help I want to

know I’m going to heaven I want to know

my sins are forgiven I want to be sure

if I died now that I would go straight

into heaven

will you say that tonight

and if you’re not certain of your

relationship to Christ tonight I’m going

to ask you to make sure

so that you can leave here and say I

know that Christ lives inside of me

and I’m going to ask you in a moment to

get up out of your seat and say that

you must make that commitment

don’t sit on the fence any longer just

stand out and say I’m coming

a young man recovering from a motorcycle

accident in which he nearly died saw

that we were going to be in Sheffield

England for a crusade

and he said I don’t know anything about

God but I ought to hear that man so he

came

he did an accepted Christ and he told

his counselor I almost died without

faith

when we win

one of the places I forget some City

there was a 16 year old girl that gave

her life to Christ and the next night

she found her counsel and said I want to

give you a change of address I’m going

back to live with my parents they came

here tonight and we were reconciled

George Williams who founded the YMCA

came to Christ in the 19th century in

England’s West country and he wrote this

I cannot describe to you the joy and the

peace which flowed into my soul when

first I saw that the Lord Jesus had died

for my sins and that they were all

forgiven

do you know Christ

are you certain of it if there’s a doubt

in your heart and mind make sure tonight

I read the life story some years ago a

Francisco Pizarro

it brought back to mind today when I was

reading about the trouble they’re having

in Peru in the 16th century he conquered

Peru in the midst of great difficulties

when he only had a handful of men left

he drew a line with his sword on the

ground one way was to Peru

with riches and danger

and the other was back toward Panama

where their ships were and security he

chose to March South to Peru and became

the founder of that great nation tonight

you stand at the crossroads of your life

you step across that line that has been

drawn in the Sand by our Lord Jesus

Christ

and he says repent of your sin

be converted come to me I will change

your life I’ll make you a new person

I’ll give you new power

a new Joy a new peace a new happiness

I’m going to ask you to come and by

coming you are saying I open my heart

and give my life to Christ I want to

change in my life

get up and come I’m going to ask it no

one leave please

[Applause]

as hundreds are coming forward to

respond to Mr Graham’s invitation to

make a commitment to Jesus Christ

who can make that same commitment Right

Where You Are

just pick up the phone and call the

number you see on your screen

special friends are waiting to talk with

you and to pray with you about this most

important decision so please don’t wait

make that call now

the line is busy write the number down

and call again later

[Music]

I want to say a word to you that have

been watching by television

you have been here in Seattle Washington

with us in this great King Dome one of

the great stadiums of the world

and we’ve seen hundreds of people come

to Christ tonight

simply

not knowing all about it but coming to

offer themselves to Jesus Christ and

praying and hoping that there’ll be a

change in their lives there will be with

Christ in their lives

you can make that same commitment Where

You Are

you make the commitment now and say yes

to Christ

he’ll come into your heart

and say Lord I want a change to take

place in me in the relations with my

family my wife my husband my children my

parents

I need you Lord

and I want you to come in

he’ll forgive your sin he’ll give you

the assurance that you’re going to

heaven when you die

give your life to him tonight

Just prayed that prayer with my father

or if you have any questions about a

relationship with Jesus Christ I’ll just

call that number that is on the screen

there’ll be someone there to talk with

you pray with you and answer those

questions and remember

God loves you

if you would like to commit your life to

Jesus Christ please call us right now

toll-free at

1-877-772-4559 that’s 1-877-772-4559

or you can write to us at Billy Graham

One Billy Graham Parkway Department C

Charlotte North Carolina

28201 or you can contact us on the web

24 7 at

peacewithgod.tv we’ll get the same helps

to you that we give to everyone who

responds at the invitation on behalf of

Franklin Graham and the Billy Graham

Evangelistic Association thank you for

watching and thank you for your prayers

[Music]

I know many people that have tried

everything in life and they have not

found a satisfaction in with peace Joy

assurance and security

and they are still searching

you’ll never find

joy and happiness until you yield your

life to Christ you never will

you have a moment right now now

the Bible says now is the accepted time

today is the day of salvation

[Music]

people are searching for the answers

you must make the choice

it’s urgent

we had to wait for the coming of Christ

with patience

we are to watch with anticipation

scripture says Christ is coming when

you’re least expecting him coming as a

thief he said be prepared get ready

prepare to meet by God

are you prepared

you’re invited on a journey of Discovery

at the Billy Graham Library

retrace Billy Graham’s path from Humble

Farm Boy to International ambassador of

God’s love through multimedia photos and

memorabilia

[Music]

Grand family home

plate browse Roots attic bookstore

bookstore and have a meal at the Grand

Brothers Dairy Bar

enjoy special exhibits events and

seasonal activities for the whole family

mission is free so come walk this

journey of Discovery at the Billy Graham

Library

[Music]