September 11 and the Love of God

In the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, the nation heard story after story of people who sacrificed their lives to save another. In this sermon, preached in Fresno, California, not long after that tragic day, hear Billy Graham share how Jesus paid the ultimate sacrifice by going to the cross to save you.

God’s Messages 💌

Today…….I am asking all my prayer warriors to say a prayer that may help others. So many people are hurting right now. Many are struggling with finances and need jobs. Some are facing foreclosure and don’t even know how they are going to make it from week to week.. Many are lonely. . Many are heartbroken. . Many are facing sickness and health is fading. . Some are dealing with difficult family members. Many have lost HOPE.. Tonight, let us put our prayers and faith together decree and declare breakthrough over our families. Financial miracles WILL take place. Jobs WILL be found. Our Bodies WILL be made whole & sickness WILL flee. Marriages and relationships WILL be restored. Family members WILL find Jesus. Heartbreaks WILL be healed. JOY WILL be restored and HOPE WILL be found. In Jesus Name. Amen!!!!!! Keep God First…….

From our archives, the Billy Graham classes.
I’ll love a dog. He’s greater.
Then tongue or pin. And ever tell.
It goes beyond the highest star, and reaches to the lowest, uh,
all of How rich and pure?
How measure less and strong.
It shall forever more and do.
A saints, the angels song.
Oh, we can only see a little of the ocean at least and the Sandy shore.
But up there, beyond the horizon, there’s more. There’s more.
We can only see a little of god’s loving a few rich treasures from his mighty store but out there beyond the horizon, there’s more.
There’s more.
Oh, love of god. How rich are pure?
Measureless and strong.
It’s for ever more and do.
It is a cents and angels saw
George Beverly Shea.
Then the other person that was with me standing here was my son, Franklin.
And Franklin will be
He just finished a a mission in recifei, Brazil, And the last night, they had 81,000 people.
And then then he flew to New York,
and he was at ground 0 this week.
Praying with those people, the farmer, the police,
he set up a office there
where people can phone in to counselors and pray And those switchboards are filled with people that are calling in wanting spiritual help.
And I’m thankful for that little bit of ministry that we can have in New York. Thank you, Franklin.
My heart is heavy, just like yours, because of what our nation is going through.
The September 11th attack has been called the bloodiest day in the United States since the civil war.
I had 2 grandfathers. Both of them fought at Gettysburg.
One of them had his leg shut off.
And the same man lying there to be helped had his eyes shot out also.
That was my mother’s father. My father’s father was named crook Graham, and he got a shrapnel or a bullet lodged next to his spine.
They couldn’t moved the rest of his life.
So I know a little bit about, and, historically, some of the bloody battles, But what happened on September 11th was the deadliest, bloodiest, We have ever known.
It was unbelievable and heartbreaking to see all those lives lost.
On the 4 planes and at the Pentagon in Twin Towers.
Proud of this attack, most of this culture’s attention was on the newest song, or the latest movie.
A person was often considered a hero if he could sink a basketball or play a chord on a guitar.
Now we know that what true heroes are. They’re ordinary people.
There are ordinary people just like you and me.
That have done extraordinary things. Who can forget the incredibly courageous action of the firefighters and the police rushing into the Burning Trade Center, while everyone else was brushing out.
All that wonderful chaplain father Michael Judd, who was just ministering to a man who had just been injured, was killed himself by a falling brick.
We’ve read about the man on the 27th floor of the North Tower, who called his brother in Brooklyn after the plane hit and said, I’m still here in the office, and I’m okay.
His brother couldn’t believe it. He said, get out of there and get out of there quick.
He said, I’m with Ed, and he’s afraid to go down because a smoke is so strong.
Ed was a fellow worker with him and a close friend. He also lived in a wheelchair.
Abe’s brother pleaded with him to get out, but he didn’t.
Abe, who was Jewish, stayed to help his friend, who was a Christian.
They never made it out, but they left a message of heroism and working together no matter what our race or our religion may be.
And what a wonderful story.
There are so many stories.
That we could tell.
My wife and I cut a lot of them out of the papers that we had, both from England and Other places.
He rose, made their lives down for total strangers.
This reminds us of what Jesus did for us on the cross.
When he picked up that wooden cross, and carried it to Mount Calvary.
There was no cheering crowds. And as a matter of fact, they jeered him.
That already spit on him and pulled his beard, that ripped his back open with a cat of nine tails, Even after they nailed him to the cross, they still mocked him.
Yet he went through it. Why? Because he loved you and me, and he loves us tonight.
I want to speak tonight briefly on the love of god.
God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believe it in him should not perish but have everlasting light.
That’s the first verse of scripture that my mother ever taught me. I never forgot it.
I guess I’ve preached on it a thousand times.
Much of the world is feeling the effects of terrorism and war right now, but there are other things that are bothering us.
Disease, poverty, racism, hate, loneliness, aids, unemployment, divorce, psychological problems, boredom, murder statistics, moral problems, our papers are filled with all of that.
So the world didn’t stop sinning after September 11th.
Didn’t stop getting bored, didn’t stop the divorces.
For some time, suicide has been on the increase, but suicide is no solution because you only kill the body.
You don’t kill the soul, and the soul is the most important.
For what shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul.
That verse says, for god’s beloved for god.
I was thinking the other night as I looked up at the stars, for god.
You can’t put god in a test tube. You can’t see him on a computer screen.
But that doesn’t mean that he’s not real. He is the creator.
He created everything that there is All the stars we see spread out on the entire sky.
A part of the immense Milky Way that we live in.
But that galaxy of the Milky Way is just one tiny part of a universe containing 1000000 of galaxies.
And they found now that their galaxies beyond what they thought would be the last one.
For Los Angeles times, on 5th this month, had a story about the discovery of a baby galaxy, which is over 13,000,000,000 light years from Earth.
Do you know what a light year is?
1 light year is more than 5 trillion miles.
That’s how vast our universe is, and we’re just a little speck floating out in the middle of it.
And we develop all this technology to try to make us like god.
That wasn’t downloaded, but that’s the way it sort of turned out.
Now we’re afraid that technology is gonna destroy us.
Genesys 11 tells us in the beginning god created the heavens and the earth.
Psum 8 talks about thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon, and the stars which thou hast created.
By the word of the lord where the heavens may, and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth.
The Bible also teaches that God is a spirit.
He doesn’t have a body like you are. Me? God is a spirit.
And then the Bible says he’s unchanging. Um, the lord, I change not.
In him as no variables, neither shadow of turning.
The Bible says, god is a holy god.
He’s righteous in all his ways and holy in all of his works.
Then the Bible says god is a god that is going to judge the world.
It is appointed under man once to die and after that, the judgment.
You are going to be at the judgment.
If you don’t know Christ, you’re going to be at the great white throne judgment.
God shall bring every work into judgment with every secret thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil.
Everything you’ve ever done is gonna be wide open at the judgment.
All your sins will be there. You say, well, then, I won’t be alone.
There’ll be many with me. No, at the judgment and in hell, you’ll be alone.
You won’t have your friends with you, and you won’t have the parties, and you won’t have the drinks.
You’ll be all alone naked before god. But the Bible also says, god is love.
In 1st John 48, it says, god is love.
And I hold on to that. Yay, I have loved thee with an everlasting law.
Jeremiah 31 3.
There was a popular song a few years ago that said, I can’t live in a world without love.
You don’t have to because god loves you.
No matter how bad you’ve been No matter how many sins you’ve committed, God loves you.
I could talk all evening just on that.
And god is not only a god of judgment, but he’s — and a god of love, but he’s also a god of mercy and forgiveness He wants to forgive you.
He offers his hand of mercy to every one of you that are willing to open your heart and receive them into your heart.
In a few minutes, I’m going to ask you to get up out of your seat and come and stand in front of the platform and say by coming, I need Jesus.
I want to receive him as my lord and savior.
It may never be again in Fresno like this. When you have such a moment before god.
You see, god gave man a choice in the Garden of Eden.
But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shall not eat of it.
For in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die.
And Satan was there in the form of a servant, and he attempted Eve with great promises that he had no power to offer.
And so Eve succumbed.
She gave the fruit to Adam, And Adam was not deceived.
He just knew what he was doing, and he took it.
And god had said you can have them every fruit in the garden except this one, and god was testing man.
And that’s where sin began, and that’s where all the troubles of the world began right there.
We know that something is wrong with human nature.
Terrorism, war, greed, immorality, racial prejudice, poverty, sin is what’s wrong with the world.
And only Jesus Christ can solve it. No one else can forgive it, but Jesus.
Sin is your problem.
The Bible says for the mystery of inequity, they’ve already worked.
1st, John 34, it says, sin, is the breaking of the law.
You know, the 10 commandments? Have you ever broken one of them?
If you’ve broken one of them one time, you’ve broken them all.
Isaiah said, oh, we like sheep have gone astray. We’ve turned everyone his own way.
Instead of going god’s way, we go our own way. And we get lost And we are lost.
There’s a film I saw, I think, advertised called lost. We are lost.
From god, we think we’re on the right track.
But the scripture says, there’s a way that seem it right on demand, but the end there is death.
There are two roads.
There’s a broad road, well lighted, a lot of fun, and most of us are on that road.
But then there’s a narrow road. The narrow road leads to heaven. And paradise.
Jesus is on that narrow
road. Amen.
And you stand at the crossroads. Which road are you going to take?
You have to make a choice. You said, Oh, I’m not gonna make a choice. You have to.
God has arranged for the fact that you cannot ignore that great decision.
Because the end of the broad road is death.
Natural death, but primarily spiritual death separated from god forever.
Our souls separated from god. And that’s called Hill.
I’m going to ask you tonight to, as you stand at that Crossroads, to make the right decision.
And come to Christ and open your heart to him.
You might have thought you were a Christian, but you’re not sure.
There’s a little voice down inside that says, you’re not sure, that you need to make this decision and be sure we’re living in a moment in history.
I wouldn’t want to live for the next 5 years if I didn’t know I knew Christ.
And many of us are members of the church. We’ve been baptized. We’ve been confirmed or whatever.
But deep in our hearts, we have that void that uncertainty.
You need to make sure. You may be up.
Kathleen or Protestant, or Jewish, or whoever you may be, you can make your commitment.
To Christ tonight. I’m going to ask you to come, hundreds of you, get up out of your seat and come.
And when you get here, I’m gonna say a word to you, give you some literature to help you, and we’ll have a prayer of commitment.
You get up and come right now and say, I need to be sure.
I need Jesus. Get up out of your seat if you would, maybe you can bring up friends with you.
As hundreds are responding to Mr.
Graham’s invitation to make a public commitment to Jesus Christ, you 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 pray with you about this most important decision.
Hi.
I spoke a few weeks ago after the tragedy on 11th September, I spoke from Washington.
And all the networks were there.
Thank you, Mr. President, for calling this day of prayer and remembrance.
We needed it at this time.
No matter how hard we try, work simply cannot express the horror, the shock, and the revulsion we all feel over what took place in this nation on Tuesday morning.
We’ve always needed god from the very beginning of this nation.
But today, we need him, especially. We’re facing a new kind of enemy.
We’re involved in a new kind of warfare, and we need the help of the spirit of god.
And I’ve gotten letters from all over the world, from people that listen.
And 2 or 3 of them couldn’t find a television station that was carrying it, so they went to a bar.
And they said an interesting thing.
They said when I got up to give the gospel, everything got quiet in the bar.
And people receive the lord in that.
So where wherever you are, whether it’s in a hotel or a bar or where, Christ will come into your heart if you open it to him.
Many of you have been watching about television.
And you’ve seen this great number of people here in the Valley of California, San Joaquin Valley, making their way to assurance of their faith in Christ.
And where you are, you’re gonna make that same commitment. Oh, god.
I’m a sinner. I’m sorry for my sin.
I’m willing to change my way of life.
But you will have to help me.
Now I open my heart to the lord Jesus Christ.
I want him to be lord of my life.
I want him to take man to the fellowship of his church in Jesus’ name.
Oh, man.
If you just prayed that prayer with my father or if
you have any questions about a relationship with Jesus Christ,
I would 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 18777724559.
That’s 1877 7724559.
Or you can write to us at Billy Graham, 1 Billy Graham Parkway, department C, Charlotte North Carolina 28201.
Or you can contact us on the web 247 at peace with god dot 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.
Jesus Christ died for the war Whatever country Whatever the color of your skin, whatever language you speak, g as Christ died for your sins.
It’s Jesus.
I hope you don’t think that this like one of those cop shows, you see, on television.
It’s Anne. She’s in trouble.
If you don’t take it to the edge every chance you get, you did already, baby. I came aside, clumping.
We’re in a bad place. God Where are you?
Is there any hope? Yes. There’s hope.
What should a man give an exchange for his soul?
I was in trouble, and I didn’t know what to do.
Help. Without the juice. I knew that I could take on the world.
It’s like you’re in a dream, but not really between this reality.
I was forever changed and just had a call believe this is real.
I don’t really believe in all this, but I know something crazy is happening right now.
Tonight, I’m glad to tell you as we close that the lord Jesus Christ can be sees, your things will give us.
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