Transcript

During the next five years, I believe that our world is going to go through the most difficult times in the history of the world. Because we're now developing weapon systems, both in the Soviet Union and Red China and the United States and other countries, that could destroy the entire population of the world. In fact, we already have such systems now.

Off the coast of California, at this moment, there are several nuclear-powered Soviet submarines with 12 missiles on each one with nuclear warheads that can travel 2,000 miles. They're on the East Coast. They now have every city in the United States covered. And if some madman should come to a place of power, our whole world could collapse overnight.

And I believe that in many areas of life today that we are going to have to take a stand for something. Otherwise, our world is going to disappear in our generation. The seeds of decay and destruction are all about us.

And I believe that among the athletes, the golfers have the greatest responsibility and the greatest influence. Because golf is the greatest participating sport in the world today. And you fellows that are on the tour have become the superstars. And I believe that you have more influence than any of the other athletes in other sports such as football and baseball and the other sports.

And I know that golf is the most challenging. And I told a television man a moment ago, the most frustrating, the most enjoyable, the most exasperating, the most humiliating game in the whole world. And I've watched you people give it all you've got. I've been at some of these tournaments. And I've seen you go out after a hard, grueling grind and practice till night if you thought you didn't do well that day. There's a dedication to golf. There has to be practice and discipline to make it the game that you've made it.

Now, some people think that golf is mentioned in the Bible because the best golf course in Israel is in Caesarea where the apostle Paul spent more than a year. And it was in Caesarea that he said, “I fought a good fight and I finished the course.”

And tonight, I'd like to take a few of the problems that I have faced as an amateur golfer and apply them in our lives and how we can apply them in the world in which we live. Gary Player has a very strange idea that you should keep your eye on the ball when you're hitting it. He kept telling me that today. But there are other problems that I face.

First is the problem of a proper stance. I know that our stances are as varied as golfers. There's the open stance, the closed stance, the straight stance, the wide stance, the narrow stance, the knock-kneed stance, and all the other stances. But I believe that in our world today, we've reached the point where we're going to have to take a stance, a stand for what we believe in. Because we have poverty problems, race problems, crime, rioting. And while you're at your country clubs and while we're at a country club playing, enjoying lovely dinners and all the rest, there are some extreme radicals that are meeting behind closed doors, in little dinky places, planning to overthrow everything that we've ever believed in.

And I don't think that we can continue to bury our heads in the sand and pretend that they don't exist. And that it doesn't affect golf because it does. We noticed today that film stars in Oregon—I was amazed at how many motion picture stars and actors and actresses came up and participated in the campaign. John Glenn was riding all over the state of Oregon, the astronaut. Students are getting involved everywhere. And I find that our crusades, we had about 20 to 30,000 people a night in Portland, even though it was raining every day. And about 70% of the audience was under 25 years of age every night.

Now this is a switch in five years. The young people are looking for something. They're searching for something that brings purpose and meaning to their lives. And I'm not asking you to get involved in politics. But I am asking you to demonstrate by the life you lead a positive influence. You lead a positive influence at this particular period of our history. Take a stand.

And in the Christian life, Christ demands that. He doesn't allow neutral ground. There is no neutral ground with God. You're either for me or against him, he said. He puts you in a corner and you have to decide. And you have to come to the point where you've committed everything you've got. He becomes Lord. And you're willing to stand up and say it just like Dave did a moment ago. And that would be tough to say it in front of people you're with a great deal.

Secondly, there's the problem of the proper grip. Now I know there are many different kinds of grip. I don't know which kind I use. I think it's a different one on every shot. But I was cross-handed in golf for many years and switched over. And I'm thinking about switching back after today.

Now, the question I'd like to ask you is, do you have a grip on your life? I know that most of you have a controlled backswing. But is there a control down inside? We're living in a period of a great deal of emptiness and loneliness. You know, the youth in Germany were rioting the other day in West Berlin and somebody asked why they were revolting and they said they were revolting against soulless materialism. In other words, a materialism that had no faith. And this is true in France. They have the highest standard of living they've ever had in history. The same in Italy. The same in this country. What's happening? A vacuum has developed.

Because we've developed a high standard of living, a great materialism, but we have nothing to believe in. I have a friend who's a motion picture star in Hollywood. And he told me the other day, he said, my son is a student at Berkeley. And he came to see me and he said, Dad, I'm dropping out. I'm going to become a hippie. He'd already let his beard grow and his hair was long. And the father was shocked. But the son shocked him even further. He said, son, or he said, father, he said, I'm going to become a hippie. I hate you. I hate you. And I want to tell you why I hate you. He said, I hate you because you've given me everything. I've had no challenge. I never had to work. You didn't give me anything to believe in. And I'm dropping out. And I hate you for giving me that kind of life.

And this is a part of the revolt of young people today. It's a revolt against what they call the establishment. A materialism. A high standard of living with no faith. Because you see, man cannot live without faith.

I played golf a few weeks ago with one of the great pros of all time. I guess most of you know him. He's getting older. Alcohol has the best of him. He can hardly hit the ball. And as we went around the course, he said, I wish to God I could start my life over again. I'd take a different road. But he said, I'm now so gripped by my habits that I can't quit. And he said, I guess I'll go to hell. I said, no. I said, you won't go to hell if you put your trust and your faith in Christ. I said, that's what Good Friday is all about. That's what the cross is all about. I said, Christ died to forgive people like you if you put your faith in Christ.

And then the third problem that I face in golf is the problem of hitting the ball from the inside out. Now, I know there's an argument about that. I've been told by more than one pro that somehow you've got to get that club on the inside of the line of flight. I don't know whether that's right or wrong nowadays, but that's what they used to say. But whether it's true in golf or not, it certainly is true in life. We've got to hit from the inside out.

You see, the Bible teaches that you have a body. But inside your body is your spirit. We have a mind. We have a body. But we have a spirit. Now we develop our minds. We develop our bodies. You have to keep physically fit. You read. You study to keep up intellectually, watch television. But you have a spirit which is totally neglected by many people. And therefore, they search for something all their lives. And when they reach the top of their profession, it doesn't satisfy something down in here.

And how many men I meet in business or politics or various areas of life. They're in the top rung. They have everything they ever dreamed they'd ever want. But they're dissatisfied. Look at the Beatles. The Beatles never need to worry about money the rest of their lives. They became the most famous entertainers in the world. Where are they? Running to India to travel. To sit at the feet of a holy man to try to find peace in their hearts and peace in their minds.

Now in the paper tonight, it tells about the Beatles. And the Beatles are going to seances trying to talk to the dead. A desperate search for peace. And the thing that Dave says he's already found. Very simply. Just in the Bible and in prayer and in faith in Christ.

Christ said, what shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Now what if you gained everything? What if you got it all? Became the most famous person, the wealthiest person the world had ever known? Like Solomon. Solomon said, I'm going to get it all. He had 700 wives and 300 concubines. Think of the sex life he led. I mean, he had it all. Look at the money he had. He was the wealthiest man. He had the greatest income of any man in the history of the world. He could have bought and sold Paul Getty a dozen times. He had the biggest army of Paul Getty a dozen times. He had everything. He had the biggest navy, the biggest army, the greatest power of any man of his generation.

And after he had it all, he said, vanity of vanities. He said, it's a bubble that bursts. It doesn't last. And that's what the Bible says. He said, it's a bubble that's going to abide. And while you're playing golf, it seems to me it's very important to develop the spirit that's down inside. Because that's going to live forever.

You know, not long before he died, in a very strange way, Tony Lema came up to my room one night. I happened to be in the same hotel where he was. And he asked if he could see me. And I had met him only one time before. But he came up. And I don't know what made him talk. But he wanted to talk. And he talked about God. And he talked about religion. He talked about faith. And I read him a passage out of the Bible. And I've often thought when I heard that he was killed. Maybe in some strange way, Tony was getting prepared for that moment that all of us has to face. The greatest crisis that any human being can pass through. The crisis of death. Are we ready?

Because you see, the body dies and goes to the grave. But the spirit is eternal. It lives on. Forever. You can't kill it. That's the reason you can't commit suicide. Did you know that the number one killer among American students is suicide? Every three and a half minutes in the United States, a university student tries to commit suicide. Every hour and a half in the United States, a student succeeds in committing suicide. And do you know the greatest number of suicides? What profession has the greatest number of suicides? And this is very interesting. Ten times more than any other profession. Psychiatry. Psychiatry. Psychiatrists commit suicide at a greater rate than others.

You see, because psychiatry can analyze a problem. But the difficulty is giving an answer. You see, you were made in the image of God for God. And without God, you never find that total fulfillment and total peace and total satisfaction that you're searching for and want. And some people turn to alcohol, some turn to this, and some turn to that, seeking it. Maybe going all the way to India to find a holy man, seeking something to bring satisfaction and fulfillment. And it's found in a simple, meaningful experience.

And here's where the hippies are right. The hippies say, have a meaningful experience. It doesn't have to be emotion like Dave said his was. When I came to Christ, I didn't have any emotion at all. I didn't shed a tear. I had no feeling except I was scared when I went forward in a meeting to make my commitment. And then when I stood there, I felt like the most foolish, ridiculous person in the world. But I knew that moment that something had happened down in here. I couldn't explain it. If some newspaper man had come to me and asked me what it was, I would have given him some ridiculous answer like, well, I wanted to go forward and see what the preacher looked like, or some answer like that. But I knew something had happened down inside. And it changed the direction of my life and the dimension of my life and brought about a peace that I wouldn't trade for anything else in the world.

The fourth thing, problem I have in golf is, and golf is, and my home golf pro is here, Ross Taylor, and he'll tell you, as Gary said, the problem of keeping my eye on the ball. Now this is a rule in every sport, whether it's baseball, football, hockey, tennis, golf. The Bible says, looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith.

You know, you know, the author and the finisher of our faith. You know, there's a new theology in Germany that's coming to this country called the theology of hope. Because you see, we're living in a period of despair and pessimism. Nearly all of your philosophers today and writers today, whether it's a popular writer like Hemingway was, many of these writers are pessimistic. Bertrand Russell says, we only have five years to exist as a human race. This is how pessimistic these people are.

But you know, the Bible tells us the whole future of the human race is exactly where we're headed. And everything that was predicted in the Bible is happening today right on schedule. And the Bible says that Christ came the first time as the Son of God for the express purpose of dying on the cross. And God took your sins and laid them on Christ. I can find total and complete forgiveness. And the head of a mental institution in London said, half of my patients could be released if they could know they were forgiven. And it's a marvelous thing to go to bed at night and know that everything I've ever done wrong is gone and forgiven. And God will never hold me to account because of what Christ did on the cross.

And then not only did he die on the cross, but he was raised from the dead. And the last year that he was chancellor of Germany, I was preaching in Germany and Chancellor Adenauer invited me to come and see him about 11 o'clock one morning. I was surprised. I didn't know he knew I existed from Adam. I walked in, he had a cup of coffee. And the first question he asked, he said, young man, he said, do you believe that Jesus Christ is alive? I said, yes, sir, I do. He said, so do I. He said, I've come to the conviction that if Christ is not alive, there is absolutely no hope for our world. He said, that is the only possible hope. And he said, when I leave office, I'm going to spend the rest of my life studying that because I believe it can be scientifically proven that he's alive.

The Bible says he is alive. But the Bible also says that he's coming back. We're going to have utopia on the earth. All that mankind has ever dreamed, no death, no suffering, no disease, no wars, no jails, no hate, no lust, no greed, all that's going to be wiped away. And we're going to have a marvelous world. It's called the kingdom of God. And when Christ prayed in the Lord's prayer, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven, that prayer is going to be answered.

And that's where the world is headed. First, we're going to have shock after shock, judgment after judgment, troubles and difficulties beyond anything the world has ever known. And then just before the world is to blow itself to pieces, the Bible says Christ is going to come and set up his kingdom and he's going to rule the world. And what a marvelous world it's going to be.

They told me today, said, watch out, don't go out there after your ball. We've got big water moccasins and rattlesnakes out here. And I thought to myself, the passage in the Bible, because it says the lion and the lamb are going to lie down together. And I was talking to Walt Disney one day and I said, you know, all these nature pictures that you make, Walt, I said, they seem to show that all of nature is going after something else in nature to try to kill it and eat it. He said, that's right. He said, the cruelest thing in the world is nature. And he said, if you could just see it the way we've seen it.

But all that's going to change because the Bible says nature is now in the minor key. It's going to be snapped into the major key. The venom will be removed from the snake's mouth and he'll become a beautiful creature once again. That kingdom is coming and the Bible is filled of it. There are 318 passages in the New Testament alone that describe it. And to me, it's so thrilling, I wouldn't be alive at any other period of history to see all that's happening and to know where we're headed and to have this hope that's down in here.

And then the last thing, the problem that I have in golf is the problem of follow through. I guess that's my greatest problem, following through. And you know, that's true in the Christian life as well. You see, you have to play by rules. And you must live the Christian life by rules. And some rules in golf seem a little bit unfair, especially to us amateurs. But if you break them, you have to pay the penalty. And we saw that dramatically exhibited at the Masters this year. The rules were broken, even though it was a very simple little thing. And one of the great men of the tour might have lost the Masters this year because of it.

Now, God's laid down some rules and suggestions. In the Ten Commandments, the Sermon on the Mount, they may seem rough, but they were made for your benefit. God doesn't give these rules because He wants you to do it. He gives them for your benefit. And He says, live by them. And you'll find fulfillment and joy and peace and satisfaction and hope and relaxation and serenity, even though the world crumbles about you.

Bible reading, prayer, witnessing, all of this is involved in living for Jesus Christ. You say, well, how in the world could that happen to me? It's a very simple thing. You can go back to your room tonight and receive Christ. You can make that decision by yourself, alone in your room. You can make it here. You can make it anywhere.

And you know, there are a lot of the great athletes that are showing that it can be done. Men like Don Shinnick, Bobby Richardson, Bill Wade, Bill Glass, Raymond Berry, all these guys, they've become preachers. Playing football or baseball, but giving the gospel.

And in the afternoon paper, the reason I have these papers here, on the front page is a marvelous story about Philippi Alou. I guess that's the way you pronounce it. And it tells how he found Christ. Now this is on the front page. I was reading these articles in the Portland Argonian, so it must be all over the country. And they were on the front pages out there.

But here's the afternoon paper on the front page. And it says, Philippi accepts Christ. Now listen to this. He said, as I put on a giant uniform for the first time, Al Worthington, a pitcher for the club, came over to my locker. He had spoken to me when I had been at the giant training camp in Phoenix, Arizona. I was a little leery of him. He had spoken to me about reading my Bible. When we were in Arizona, you don't have to be around Worthington long before realizing that he's a devout man and a man who is as much a missionary as he is a pitcher.

Sure enough, no sooner had he welcomed me to the club than he started talking about the Bible. Had I been reading it? Well, yes. Had I accepted Christ as my personal Savior? What? Within minutes, Worthington explained some of the things in the Bible that had befuddled me. God, he told me, had sent his son to die on the cross in order to forgive men for their sins and to give to each one who would believe in him a life everlasting.

Portions of scripture vaguely remembered and vaguely understood came to mind. And the more Al talked, the more the pieces of this huge jigsaw puzzle fitted together. It hadn't made sense before, mostly because I hadn't wanted it to. And because I had only been reading words and had not really given them a second thought, my mind was racing yet attentive. The real meaning of the Bible and all the urgings of my life, they began to strike me with a clarity and a power that stunned me.

At some time or other, each of us has given thought to the fact that there's a great mystery to life, that there must be something far deeper reason for life than we can see. Do you understand, Worthington was saying? Yes. Then now is the time for you to accept Christ in your heart. Here, I ask? Right here. That's one thing you can't put off.

So right there in the middle of the giant clubhouse, I got down on my knees and asked Christ to cleanse me of my sin and come into my heart. Several of the giant players had gathered around. And when I arose, I saw the various ones staring at me. Then I walked out on the field with Worthington. And he goes on and tells about what Christ has meant to him since then and how it's changed his whole life.

That's how simple it is. Just a simple decision. When I got married, I stood in front of a minister and I said, I will. And he said, you're a man and wife. Now, I'd fallen in love with my wife before. I'd kissed her. And we'd had two years of courtship. But I wasn't married until I said publicly, I will.

Sometimes, somewhere, it's my prayer that many of you men and wives will receive Christ and find a new dimension. It's like if you had a television set and the signals are going out from the antennas at the television stations. But your set is broken and it won't receive the signal. You can tune it in and plug in to God. And you'll come to know the greatest pro of all time, the Lord Jesus Christ.

I'm going to ask that we bow and have a prayer. Our Father and our God, we thank Thee and praise Thee tonight that we have a gospel of hope and joy and peace and love that is good news in a difficult and pessimistic age. We thank Thee for every man and woman here and we pray Thy blessing upon them. And may each one come in his own way to know Christ as his Lord, Savior, and Master. For we ask it in His name. Amen.

Thank you very much and God bless all of you. Thank you very much, Dr. Graham. I'm sure we got so much out of that. That concludes our program for this evening and I just want to thank you on behalf of all of the people here. I just want to thank you for coming tonight. Thank you. Thank you.