Finding Peace With God

Transcript of "The Christian Witness" ~ My Hope America with Billy Graham training seminar
Speaker: GARY COBB

Let me share with you a story... it occurred on the 14th day of April 1912. There was a great ship on its maiden voyage called the Titanic, and it struck an iceberg. It was considered unsinkable, but that’s about the only thing it ever did was sink. A number of years ago, a friend of mine challenged me to go to an exhibit. It’s called “Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition.” And I went there.

Now, my friend didn't tell me how much it was - I almost had to take out a loan - but I got a ticket. The ticket was a replica of the ticket you would
have received in 1912. And it had on it the name of a passenger that was actually on the ship. So as you go through the exhibit, you’re
wondering, what happened to my guy? Well, my guy was Reverend John Harper. And I went through, and we wondered what happened - and I
had a friend with me, and he found out what happened to his guy. I think he was on the staff of the ship, and we found out he survived. But you
go through this exhibit, and you see deck chairs, and dishes, and pots and pans, and life vests. They've recreated the grand staircase, and
that’s pretty incredible. And it’s got a lot of neat stuff. Then you walk into a room and it’s kind of dark, and there are all these glass cubicles. In
these little glass cases are the wedding rings and the watches and the eyeglasses and letters and clothing - and it hits you. When this ship
went down, it wasn't just a great beautiful ship that sank way too soon, but it was 1,500 people who went into eternity that night.

Finally, you come to the final room, and up on the wall are all 2,200 names, alphabetically. You can find what happened to your person. But
there were two categories that shocked me: saved and lost. I thought, Did some preacher put this thing together? But I figured out what they
were saying: survived or didn't survive. But for me, it was all about saved and lost. Because, you see, I saw that ship as a picture of this world -going along, having a great time, thinking it’s unsinkable, when it’s going to sink. And when it’s all said and done, it doesn't matter how much money you had or what your social standing was - none of that stuff is important. The real question: Were you saved or were you lost? My guy didn't make it. But he was one that was in the water rescuing people with the Good News of Jesus. He was shouting out, “Do you know God? Do you know Jesus?” And he was leading people to Christ in the water. Some of those people stood up weeks later and said, “He led me to Christ. That’s the last thing he did.” John Harper. What a guy!

When you think about the Titanic, you have to ask yourself a question. Why did 1,517 people die? Because those who were safe in the lifeboats
would not go back. There were 20 lifeboats on the ship. Many of them, as they were launched, were sent out half full. One of them had as few
as 10 people aboard, and it was supposed to hold 70. Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds more could have been rescued that night, but they rode away from the ship thinking they didn't want to be near it when it sinks, and sure enough it broke up and sank. And they watched, and they heard the cries of the people in the water saying, “Come back! Help us! Save us!” But the people in the lifeboats were afraid. They thought, “If we go back, we’ll be overwhelmed.” And so they waited ... and they waited ... and they waited. Finally, only one lifeboat out of 20 went back. By that time, out of 1,500 people that went in the water, only six were found alive.

And we have to ask ourselves a question today: “O God, is that us?” You see, if you know Jesus Christ, you’re in the lifeboat - you've been
rescued. It’s OK; you’re going to heaven. But the real question today is, What about those that are still in the water? I believe it’s Satan’s
strategy to get us to focus on life in the lifeboat with other rescued people rather than the rescue itself. And so we sing our lifeboat songs, we
have our lifeboat committee meetings, we build bigger and better lifeboats - but we've forgotten the purpose of the boat and the mission that
we’re on: to go back and pull people out of the water.

"My Hope America" with Billy Graham television broadcast this week ~ click here for broadcast listings.

official trailer:
[video=youtube_share;lYaB4ke3GTk]http://youtu.be/lYaB4ke3GTk[/video]

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