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The Brevity of Time

If today was your last, would you be proud of how you spent it? Get motivation to live well in Billy Graham’s 1988 message from Buffalo, New York. Watch more #MondayNightClassics​​ weekly at 8 p.m. Eastern.

Dear Lord,
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 classics.
Now tonight, I’ve been in a quandary as to what I should speak about.
But also I was thinking this morning when I woke up, what I would do if I had life to live over again, what would I do if I had it to live over again?
And I find in First Corinthians, the seventh chapter in the 29th verse a little phrase that says the time is short.
And then also in the 12th chapter of Ecclesiastes, these words, the 11th chapter beginning with the ninth verse, rejoice, so young man in thy youth and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth and walk in the ways of thy and heart in the sight of thy and eyes.
But know thou that for all these things, judgment is going to come to you.
Therefore, remove sorrow from your heart, put away evil from your flesh for childhood and youth.
A very short and our vanity like a bubble that burst.
Remember now thy creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come up.
Now the years drawn when thou shalt say I have no pleasure in them.
There’s going to be a time when the things that you enjoy now you will have no pleasure in it all while the sun or the light or the moon or the stars be not darkened, nor the clouds return after the rain in the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble.
That’s when a person gets old and his hands and his arms and his legs begin to tremble and the strong men shall bow themselves and the grid does cease because they are few.
That means the teeth wear down. That’s what he’s talking about here.
That day is going to come when the teeth are going to give out and then while the sun or the light of the moon and the stars be not dark and that means your eyes are going to grow dim as age comes on.
It happens to everybody you watch on television.
People that used to be young film stars and you see them as they were 30 years ago and today they’re sort of bent over and they have wrinkles and they have gray hair and I’m sure if you examine their mouth, their teeth are grinding down and if you go to their doctor, you’d find that their eyesight is not as good as it used to be.
What about you? Have you ever thought about life like that?
I remember that one of the members of our team died this past year.
The first one of our original team, Grady Wilson went to be with the Lord.
What a glorious homegoing he had the last week of his life is a wonderful story in itself.
And I went to see him and about three or four weeks earlier, I had seen him before and he told me an interesting thing.
He said, Billy, he said, tell them how short time is. And I thought about that.
Then I thought about the person in a university that asked me, what is the greatest surprise of your life at your age?
And I said, the greatest surprise of my life is the brevity of life.
How short life is time is collapsing on us? How much longer do we have?
We read about the ozone, the acid rain, the pollution, the atomic bombs.
I’ve heard that South Africa has as many as 20 or 25 atomic bombs.
What will they do with those in case they’re pushed to the wall. Israel has atomic bombs.
Iraq Pakistan are all working on the atomic bomb and it’s estimated that 15 small countries now have the atomic bomb.
What’s going to happen when one of these small countries explodes one and it starts a chain reaction and the whole world could blow up.
Technology has no morals. Man is the same as he was in Jeremiah’s day.
And Jeremiah said the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it?
How do we know when some Hitler Stalin is going to come along again and have the whole world at his feet?
First is the brevity of time. The Bible says our time on earth is very brief.
Behold, thou has made by my days as a hand bread and my age is nothing before the the Bible says in Psalm 39 think of a hand bread from the thumb to the little finger in God’s sight.
That’s as long as your life is so quick, it’s over with.
But you can’t tell young people that because you know, when you’re young, you think the whole thing is in front of you and you never realize that you may be gone tomorrow.
The Bible says in Psalm 90 the fourth verse for 1000 years in thy sight of it is yesterday when it is passed and a watch in the night, 1000 years in God’s sight is but a day, second Peter 38 says one day is with the Lord is 1000 years and 1000 years is one day, none of us are going to be live to be 1000 years old.
There may be one or two in this crowd that may make it to 100.
But even then you will hardly know what’s going on around you if you do.
And then in Isaiah 40 it says it is he that sit up on the circle of the earth and the inhabitants thereof are like grasshoppers.
God looks down and sees all of us and we look like grasshoppers to Him.
The Bible says, we are like the grass, we spring up and like the grass, we are mowed down.
The Bible says in Psalm one oh two, my days are like a shadow that decline and I am withered like grass for thou oh Lord shall endure forever and thy remembrance unto all generations.
God is from everlasting to everlasting. God had no beginning. God has no end.
You had a beginning and you have an end and God promises that you may live to be 73 score and 10.
But beyond that, he doesn’t give any clear promise. And that’s not long.
Let me tell you, it comes quicker than you could ever dream.
The days of our years are three score years and 10.
We have each been given the same amount of time in a day.
Do you know how many minutes there are in a day?
440 minutes, you have already lived today and it will never be repeated.
It’s already written down in God’s books.
It’s on God’s tapes, the things you did, the things you did not do that you should have done and the things that you think because God records even our thoughts as well as our words and actions.
You know how many hours they are in a week, 100 and 68 hours in a week and a week ago, yesterday, we arrived in Buffalo, a week has passed since we arrive quick.
Just like that. It seems like yesterday we began the meetings. Yes. 70 years. God allows.
The 1st 15 is in childhood. 20 years you spend in bed.
The last five years of physical limitations are curtailing your activities. Only 30 years left.
That’s all you have really 30 years out of the 70.
And part of that time has to be spent eating and working and figuring out your income tax.
And the Bible says in James four, for what is your life?
It is even a vapor that appear for a little time and then vanishes away just a vapor.
Jesus said that the road to heaven is narrow, the gate to the entrance to heaven is narrow.
And Jesus said, I am the way, the truth and the life. No man comes to the father.
But by me, you must come to Christ by simple child like faith and repentance of your sins.
Then there’s the urgency of time.
The Bible says redeeming the time because the days are evil.
The days are very evil in which we live, read your newspapers and watch the television and see how many muggings and rapes and crime and how many wars are about to break out or wars that are being fought and how many thousands have been killed in the Iraqi Iranian war.
And it seems that the whole world sometimes is just about ready to explode.
I had a letter from a man out on the west coast several years ago and he said that he promised God that he was going to give the Lord two days a week and he was going to visit his neighbors and friends and invite them to church.
Do you know that over 20 people joined his church that year?
Because of his being willing to tithe his time.
I have so much time but time for what time to serve Christ time to live according to his will.
But there’s a tyranny to time.
It controls us to a frenzy and we become frustrated and we run here and there and everywhere and we don’t feel that we have enough time to get everything done that we ought to get done.
I feel that way and we do too much.
You know, it used to be awfully nice when you only had a train or a bus to get on.
And now you plan your schedule by airplanes, you plan your schedules by computers and you become a statistic after a while and we do too much or try to do too much.
Jesus said I must work the works of him that sent me while it is day, the night cometh.
When no man can work, there’s going to be a time when you can’t work for every one of us.
I mean, for every person here there will come a time that your life on this earth is going to cease.
Jesus said I have finished the work which thou gave us me to do.
There was an urgency but there was a serenity about Jesus.
You never find him hurrying anywhere. You never read about him running anywhere.
He said, I finished the work.
He was only 33 years of age and he said, Lord, I’ve done what you asked me to do and there were still people but the thousands that needed to be healed, lives that needed to be touched.
But Jesus said, I finished my task.
You see, time can be our tool, but it can also be, we can be a slave.
We are to take time to believe, time to study, time, to teach, time to pray, time to be friendly with people, time to entertain, time to visit, time to fellowship, time for witness, time for work and all of my life.
I’ve spent too much time at work, too much time in meetings like this.
If I had to do over again, I would spend a lot less time preaching and more time studying, we need to be better prepared as ministers of the gospel.
So I’ve had to double up as I got older.
Keep doing the crusades, keep doing all of these works.
But at the same time studying harder than ever, I study a lot harder now than I did when I was in college.
I still wake up sometimes and feel that I’m in a nightmare in a math class.
And I don’t know the answer to the question in an exam or in a Greek class and don’t know the answer to that question.
But we’re coming to a final exam one day.
It’ll be at the great judgment of God.
And God is going to say, what did you do with your time?
That time that you had the opportunity to receive Christ?
That moment that you had to repent of your sins and come to him and follow him.
What did you do with it? Did you walk away? Turn away and say, I’ll take my chance.
I heard about a little boy, he was sick and he was making slow progress.
So the doctor gave a prescription to the father and the doctor said this prescription, sir is for you, not for your son.
And it read two gloves, one bowl, spend more time with your son.
I have two sons, three daughters.
I wish that I’d spent more time with all of them.
But thank God, all five of them know the Lord and all five of them are either preachers or bible teachers, but I have to give the glory to the Lord and the earthly credit to my wife.
Yes, we have to pay a price.
I have no time in my life for certain things when you know Christ.
So certain things fall away. You don’t want to do them anymore.
We are to redeem the time you don’t have it very much.
Life is brief, the time is urgent so we’re not to waste it.
And then the Bible talks about the immediate action of time.
The fact that time is short calls for immediate action because in second Corinthians six, the Apostle Paul said now is the accepted time.
Today is the day of salvation. A crusade like this.
So an opportunity like this doesn’t come to Western New York.
But maybe once in every generation, or maybe once in every two or three generations, I think since you’ve had meetings like this, it’s been many years and he may never come again in your lifetime.
And you have a chance now to receive Christ in a meeting like this.
And the scripture says now is the time, do it now, every time the clock ticks, it seems to say now the scripture says in Hebrews three today, if you will harden his, if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
You see when you hear the scriptures quoted and hear the gospel preach, your heart gets harder and harder and harder and harder.
Till after a while, you’ll reach a stage when the Holy Spirit will continue to speak to you.
But you cannot hear because your heart is so hard, you’ve turned it down and you put it off so many times.
Now is the time. And then the Bible says that you ought to come while you’re young before all those evil things come into your life and habits come and form.
And there comes a time when you cannot come to Christ, except under the most extraordinary circumstances come.
While your heart is young and tender.
That’s the reason I like to see Children and young people come to Christ because they have a whole life as well as their heart and their soul to give to Christ.
The Bible teaches that in the future we’re going to have a wonderful future.
When you come to Christ, you’re going to spend eternity with him in paradise, in heaven, you’re going to walk down the streets of pure gold.
Your eyes will see the king and all of his glory and there will be total fulfillment.
None of us here has ever known total fulfillment.
You will see then that the ungodly are not so, but they are like the chaff which the wind drive away.
And you’re going to say, thank God, I made my commitment to Christ and here I am in heaven with him forever.
There’s a warning to time. Also, it will someday be too late for your soul.
Time is too short for indecisiveness and vacillation. First kings.
18 Elijah talking to those false prophets and to the people said, how long halt you between two opinions.
Here was the goddess, the God bail and the goddess Ashar on one side with their prophets about 850 of them on the other side with the people and Elijah was alone and he said, you’re halting between two opinions.
If God is God, then trust him go all the way with the true and the living God, you see time is too short.
There may be no tomorrow for you.
Many movies are being made today that are called Armageddon movies, films dealing with the end of the earth.
Some of them date back to Vietnam and we see almost the end of everything that we’ve ever believed in in some of the films that they’re making on Vietnam.
The scripture says singing, then that all these things shall be dissolved.
What manner of persons ought you to be?
If all this thing that’s in this earth is going to disappear someday.
And the Bible says it is the world and the lust thereof will disappear.
And the Bible talks about a gigantic fiery confrontation that will wipe away all evil and all sin and all ugliness from this planet.
And God’s going to replace it with his kingdom. That day is coming and it may be soon.
I’m going to speak on it Sunday afternoon. The hope of the world.
The Los Angeles Times said some time ago that the world drinks like there’s no tomorrow.
A French newspaper said a couple of summers ago, Europe is living very much like those last hours on the Titanic.
In other words, the earth, the world is sinking into moral depravity and we’re drinking, eating, making Mary going our own way and giving no serious thought to the fact that there’s an eternity out there, heaven and hell and the decision that you make about Christ will decide where you are 100 years from tonight.
There’s an old pop song in England that was entitled another time, another place always.
That’s what the devil will whisper in your ears. Yes, you ought to do it.
You ought to make that commitment to Christ, but do it at some other time.
Some other place God says here and now a television network program is called One Life to Live.
The scripture says only one life will soon be passed.
Someone has written only what is done for Christ will last how long hal between two opinions.
If the Lord be God follow him, you see Jesus Christ came and died on the cross and took your sins and your judgment and your hell shed his blood for you.
Now, God says that you must receive Him. God offers you a gift.
He’s offering you a gift and you all you must do is receive it, but you have to receive it.
I was with the governor of Tennessee one time many years ago and we went out to the penitentiary and I asked him a question.
I said, Governor, if you pardoned a man here, that’s on death row.
There were about 18 men on death row.
I said, if you pardoned one of these men and he refused to pardon what happens?
He said, then he dies because the Supreme Court in our state has ruled that if a man refuses to pardon, he must die.
And as we went back into town, I can see tears coming down the cheeks of the governor.
He said, you know, this is the hardest job of being governor of any state is dealing with people that you have the power to pardon.
But you know that you can’t because the law is so strong and that’s a whole another story.
But God offers to pardon you tonight to offer you an eternal pardon for every sin that you’ve ever committed.
If you will come to Christ because you see somebody else paid the price for you.
Christ did on the cross. God laid on him, our sins.
He became sin for us who you know sin and God raised him from the dead and he’s alive now at the right hand of God, the father.
And when we went in Romania a couple years ago, in the old days, they had no way to teach the Bible to those people in the middle ages except by paintings.
And they used a paint that they today cannot duplicate. They don’t know what they put in it.
But the colors are just as beautiful today as they were 500 years ago.
And they painted Bible pictures on the sides of the barns and wherever there was houses, they painted Bible pictures and the blue is just as beautiful and the green is just as gorgeous.
And I saw one that I’ll never forget it was a ladder that was going up from earth to heaven.
At the top of the ladder was Jesus with arms outstretched, going up the ladder with the pilgrims trying to make their way up that ladder to heaven, down below with the devils pulling them down, up above with the angels helping them along.
It was not totally biblical, but it did tell a story of how there’s a struggle that goes on within all of our lives about Jesus Christ.
And we have to decide what we’re going to do with him.
And I’m going to ask you tonight to say, I want Christ in my life, I need Christ in my life.
I need the joy and the peace and the fulfillment and forgiveness that he offers and I’m willing to serve him and follow him from this moment on.
I’m going to ask you to get up out of your seat and do what we’ve seen several 1000 people do already in these three or four days.
I’m going to ask you to get up out of your seat and come and stand down here in front of this platform and say by coming, I surrender my heart and my life to Christ.
I am willing to follow him and serve him. I’m going to ask you to do that.
You may be a member of the church. You may not be a member of any church.
You may be in the choir, you may be in us here and God has spoken to you.
You may be a clergyman here. I don’t know, but God has spoken to you.
You get up out of your seat and come and after you’ve all come, I’m going to say a word to you and have a prayer with you and give you some literature and then you can go back and join your friends.
If you’re with friends and relatives, they’ll wait on you. If you come in a bus, they’ll wait.
We’re only going to keep you a few moments, but it’s very important to come.
And I’m gonna tell you why I ask people to come.
Jesus hung openly and publicly on the cross for you in your place.
He says, if you’re not willing to acknowledge me publicly before men, I will not acknowledge you before my father, which is in heaven.
And if you start from that top row up there, it will take an extra minute.
So start now that top balcony up there. So start people are already coming.
You come and join them and make this great commitment to Christ and say tonight, I want to surrender to him and receive him into my heart and to make sure of my relationship to God we’re going to wait on you.
You come as you can see many hundreds are responding to the invitation of mister Graham to make Jesus Christ Lord of their life.
You too can make that same decision. There is a telephone number on your television screen right now.
This is your opportunity to call and talk with someone who really cares about you. So call that number.
Now, there are many people that have been watching by television and you have been spoken to by the spirit of God.
You realize that time is very short and you need to make your commitment to Christ.
You can do it right now.
Wherever you are just say, yes, Lord Jesus come in and he will may God bless you and be sure and go to church this weekend.
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 at 18777724559. That’s 1877772 45 59. 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 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.
I hope you don’t think this is 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’re dead already.
Baby, I came, I saw I conquered. We’re in a bad place. God, where are you?
Is there any hope? Yes, there’s hope. What should a man give in exchange for his soul?
I was in trouble and I didn’t know what to do.
Well, the juice I knew that I could take on the world.
It’s like you’re in a dream but not really a dream is a reality.
I was forever changed and just said, I can’t believe this is real.
I don’t really believe in all this, but I know something crazy is happening right now.