Faithful in Our Commitment to Jesus Christ (1984)

by Billy Graham

"I'm wondering if there aren't some gamblers for God."

What will you be like as a Christian ten years from now? Many will be walking with Christ and serving him in various capacities around the world. But for others there will be a tragedy, because ten years from now they will have lost their burning zeal and love for Christ - not necessarily because they wanted to, or because they set their heart in rebellion against God's will, but because they set their life by the world's agenda. Then Christ and his Great Commission gradually dim.

In a marathon race, like the ones in New York or Boston, there are thousands of fresh, eager faces as the gun sounds to begin the race. But along the grueling, twenty-six-mile route, one person after another drops out before finishing the race.

Christian commitment is like a marathon race. There are starters and there are finishers. But time after time the Bible turns our attention to God's faithfulness to us and the supernatural life he produces in us through the power of the Holy Spirit. "Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it" (KJV), Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians 5:24.

Philippians 1:6, one of my life verses, says, "Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ" (KJV). He will perform it. "There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape that ye may be able to bear it" (1 Cor 10:13 KJV). There is no excuse for any of us ever to commit sin, willful sin. Do you know why? Because there is always an escape that God provides. He always gives us a way out. And we're to look for that way out, and then have the courage to take it. There's no testing that comes, there's no suffering that comes that there isn't a way out. And it's God's faithfulness to us that under girds and empowers our faithfulness to him.

But faithfulness in our service to Christ is also important. The Bible reminds us that it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful. And we know that true biblical faithfulness is more than just showing up for work as Christians and performing our required duties. Four things should characterize our faithfulness to Christ: joy, compassion, vision and commitment.

Joy

The first thing is joy. Now faithfulness without joy becomes drudgery. "Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me. Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will turn back to you," says the psalmist in Psalm 51:12-13. And Jesus said to his disciples, "These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full" (John 15:11 KJV). God wants us to have full joy. Nehemiah said to the crowds, "For the joy of the LORD is your strength" (8:10). The joy of the Lord, produced by the Holy Spirit, is a supernatural joy which he gives us in all circumstances. And anticipated joy helps us to endure. Jacob served Laban for seven years for the anticipated joy of marrying Rachel.
Recently in North Carolina Thelma Barfield was executed. She was the first woman in over twenty years to be executed in the United States. For three years my wife had been in constant correspondence with her and talked with her over the phone. My daughter Ann had been to see her to teach her the Scriptures, up to three hours at a time.

Faithful Witness

While in prison she became a wonderful Christian. She had murdered five people; she knew that she deserved what she was going to get. Yet her life had been transformed. Because they were still appealing, and they felt it might prejudice her case, her lawyers did not want her to tell her story to all the reporters who had come down there: Diane Sawyer, David Hartman and all the rest of them. But she wanted to tell the whole world about what Christ had done for her.

The day before she died, I talked to her on the phone. I said, "Thelma, you're going to beat us home. Tomorrow night you'll be in the arms, of Jesus."

She said, "Praise the Lord."

The other day I went down to that prison and I slipped in hoping no press people would know that I was there. Jenny Lancaster, who is the warden of the prison, let my daughter and me in. She had all the inmates and all the guards come. And I stood there and preached the gospel for forty-five minutes, and I used Thelma Barfield as my example of what a Christian ought to be, because she had lived it for nearly six years in front of them. You take her Bible, which my daughter Ann now has. I opened it. You won't find a page in that Bible that's not marked. And when the invitation was given to receive Christ - and I made it as tough as I knew how - over two hundred people said yes to Christ. Thirty of them were guards. One was the father of the warden. And another was the sister of the warden. One was the brother of the lawyer that had defended Thelma.

In that prison Thelma had been the happiest person. I went to the cell where she had been held in solitary confinement, and the warden said, "You know, I haven't been in here since Thelma's death. I just couldn't bring myself to come in here. On the night of her execution, she was the happiest and most radiant human being I had ever met." She was already living in heaven. She, a person on death row, was looking forward to paradise. She knew joy.

Compassion

The second quality that should characterize us is Compassion. Compassion means literally "to suffer with another." It means that when another person experiences pain or sorrow, we feel that pain: or sorrow. Throughout the Gospels we read that Jesus was moved with compassion for multitudes, for two blind men, for a leper, for a widow whose only son had died. He wept over the city of Jerusalem and at the grave of one of his friends, Lazarus. He told of a Good Samaritan who had compassion on a beaten man.
And yet the disciples had a difficult time learning compassion. Once when Jesus was not welcomed, the disciples said, "Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?" (Luke 9:54). Jesus rebuked them because "the Son of Man did not come to destroy men's lives but to save them." The disciples often saw people as problems, while Jesus saw them as possibilities, and so should we.

Several years ago Bob Mitchell, who is now the president of Young Life, was counseling at a summer camp in Colorado. And he noticed a high-school boy who was always alone, who didn't seem to have any friends and who wasn't involved in any of the activities. And Mitch struck up a friendship with him and before the end of the week had led him to Christ. And at the end of the camp, Mitch asked the boy, "When did you first get interested in becoming a Christian?"

The young man looked him in the eye and said, "The moment you learned my name."
The time to learn compassion is right now, in our daily lives. If we aren't filled with compassion for the lost and the hurting right here, a flight across the ocean isn't going to help us. The apostle, Peter wrote in 1 Peter 3:8, "finally, all of you, live in harmony with one another; be sympathetic; love as brothers, be compassionate and humble...’ We're to be compassionate.

Vision

Our faithfulness is to be guided by vision - vision with a purpose and a plan. There's much to be said for having a global picture of God's work today. Without it we can develop tunnel vision and a narrow focus on our little ministry and our little place of service. Get a map out and use it. I had a friend, V. Raymond Edman, and every morning he would get up; early and he would have a different continent on his heart. He would take a map and pray all across that continent, for the missionaries, for the Christians, for the people he corresponded with and for others he knew personally. Get a vision for what God is doing in his world.

More important than a vision of our work is maintaining a vision of the one we're serving. As the writer of Hebrews put it, "[look] unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and who is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds" (Heb 12:2-3 KN). The word consider here means "take along look."

Without a daily time of personal fellowship with Christ, it's very likely that you will become a spiritual casualty in the next ten years. The most important thing for anyone from now on is a daily walk with Christ, and that begins with your quiet time. If I miss having a time of prayer and Bible reading early in the morning when I get up, the whole day goes wrong for me. Start the day with Christ. Let those first thoughts that come into your mind when you wake up be Christ. God has had to deal with me many times along that line.

Becoming a Christian is just like getting married. In the early days life is filled with wonderful feelings, as we discover new and thrilling things about our partner. But as time goes by, those early feelings and passions begin to fade, and we're faced with a choice: We can either become disillusioned, looking for someone else who stirs our passions, or we can begin to study the depths of our relationship with the person to whom we're already committed. And I want to tell you I love my wife tonight ten thousand times more than when I married her, because she has depths to her that I never knew existed when we first got married.

At missionary conferences we often refer to the call of Isaiah: "Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, `Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?' And I said, ‘Here am I. Send me!'" (Isaiah 6:8). Yes, we need a vision: a vision of starving people in Africa. A vision of the terrible possibilities of the day after a nuclear holocaust. A vision of the social injustices in the world. A vision of the evil racial prejudice can do. A vision of the judgment in hell that awaits men and women who have rejected Christ. A vision of the joys and the glories of heaven. But most of all, a vision of the cross and the resurrection.
I remember one night many years ago when I was preaching in Dallas, Texas, to a large crowd in the Cotton Bowl. When I gave the invitation, there wasn't much response, and I left the platform feeling a little bit down. There was a German friend of mine there, and he put his arm around me and he said, "Billy, do you know what was wrong tonight?"

I said, "No, John. What was it?"

"You didn't preach the cross." I never forgot that.

Both times I've traveled through the Soviet Union; I've had with me an Orthodox theologian. He teaches at the theological academy in Leningrad, and he's dean of the largest cathedral there. He's one of the sweetest men I've ever known. And he taught me in those three-hour liturgies, where you stand and listen to chanting all the way through, the centrality of the resurrection. He said to me before I left the Soviet Union this last time, "Dr. Graham" - I tried to get him to call me Billy, but I don't think he could pronounce it - "Dr. Graham, I have a great prayer for you - that you will never stand up to preach without emphasizing that Jesus rose again from the dead and that he is alive." We need to have the vision of Christ's death and resurrection always before us.

Commitment

The last quality I want to describe is commitment. In Mark 10 we read of Jesus' encounter with a man who has become known to us as the rich young ruler. And Mark tells us that this young man ran to Jesus, fell on his knees and said, "Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" And when Jesus recited a number of the Ten Commandments, he said, "All these I have kept."
The Bible tells us that Jesus looked at him and loved him. Then Jesus said, "One thing you lack. Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor … Then come, follow me" (Mk 10:17-21). At this the young man's face fell and he was sad, because he was so attached to material possessions.

In terms of keeping most of the commandments of God, this young man was faithful. But he was not willing to commit himself unreservedly to Jesus Christ, to accept God's will for his life and follow Christ. One of our greatest enemies in America is the comfort of material possessions. We have tremendous wealth compared to most people in the world. Jesus said, "Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions" (Lk 12:15): My wife adds, “... but in the fewness of his wants." Paul wrote to the Christians in Corinth, talking of marriage but also of material possessions: "The time is short.... Those who buy something, [should live] as if it were not theirs to keep; those who use the things of the world, as if not engrossed in them: For this world in its present form is passing away" (1 Cor 7:29-30). All this is temporary. It's going to pass away. And yet we hold onto it instead of Christ:

In recent surveys the average student today says his or her hope is in the American dream. Last, June, Carl Sagan addressed the graduating class at the University of South Carolina and said, "All future generations, if there are any, will look back to this time as a fundamental crossroads in human history. The choice is literally between life and death." You have to make a choice.

For some of you the choice is between life and death because you are not absolutely sure that you know Christ as Lord and Savior. You could not stand and say, "I know for sure that Christ is in my heart, that if I died I'd go to heaven, that my sins are forgiven." You say, "Well, Billy, I'm exactly like that. What do I have to do?"

First, you need to repent of your sins. What does repent mean? In Greek it means "to turn, to change," to change your mind about yourself, about God, about what sin has done to you, and about Christ who died for you on the cross. And it means to change your way of living.

Now you cannot repent by yourself. Not a person here knows how to repent by himself. The Holy Spirit has to help you to repent. And he will help you. Just say, "Lord, here am I, with, all these doubts and uncertainties. Help me to repent and change my way of living. I've got to go back to that same school, to that same address, to that same family, to that same street, to that same gang, and, Lord, I just don't know whether I can make it or not." And yet he's calling you to make a change. That's repentance.

The second thing is faith. And that word faith means "putting your total weight upon;" trusting in nothing else - not your own goodness, not your own righteousness, not your own good works, not your family, not your church - but totally in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ who hung on that cross and shed his blood for you.

Repent, believe, then third, be willing to follow him in the study of the Scriptures, in prayer, in faithfulness to him. Be willing, I said. Again, he is the one who has to do it in you and through you. And he's willing to. He will do it if you're willing.

And what about those of you who have already made that commitment? Where are those who will serve Christ wholeheartedly so that the gospel may be taken around the world? "I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race," said the apostle Paul, "and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me the task of testifying to the gospel of God's grace" (Acts 20:24).

C. T. Studd, the great British cricketeer, led the Cambridge Seven a century ago and startled the whole English world. He also gave away a fortune and preached in China, India and then in Africa. And just as he was preparing to leave for Africa a second time, while he was very weak and very sick, he wrote this: "Last June at the mouth of the Congo there awaited a thousand prospectors, traders, merchants and gold seekers waiting to rush into those regions as soon as the government opened the doors to them. For rumor declared that there's an abundance of gold. If such men hear so loudly the call of gold and obey it, can it be that the ears of Christ's soldiers are deaf to the call of God and the cries of the dying souls of men? Are gamblers for gold so many and gamblers for God so few?"

I'm wondering if there aren't some gamblers for God. C. T. Studd's slogan was, "If Jesus Christ be God and died for me, then no sacrifice can be too great for me to make for him." Jim Elliot went from Wheaton College to become a missionary to the Aucas in Ecuador and was martyred. Before he died, he wrote, "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose."

Not long ago Newsweek magazine reported on what it called the new wave of mountain men. It's estimated that there are some sixty thousand serious mountain climbers in the United States. But in the upper echelon of serious climbers is a small elite group known as "hard men." For them climbing mountains and scaling sheer rock faces is a way of life. In many cases, climbing is a part of their whole commitment to life. And their ultimate experience is called free soloing: climbing with no equipment and no safety ropes.

John Baker is considered by many to be the best of the hard men. He has free soloed some of the most difficult rock faces in the United States with no safety rope and no climbing equipment of any kind. His skill has not come easily. It has been acquired through commitment, dedication and training. His wife says she can't believe his dedication. When John isn't climbing, he's often to be found in his California home hanging by his fingertips to strengthen his arms and hands.

Where are the hard men and women for Jesus? Where are those who will bring all their energies to bear for the sake of Christ? That's the kind of people it's going to take to spread the gospel around the world in these closing years of the twentieth century. In the church today there's a variety of gifts and talents that could change the world if put in the hands of Christ. We have the youth and the health and the energy and the education and the political freedom and the economic opportunity to accomplish God's mission.

If we don't face seriously God's call, it is a terrible sin and tragedy. Because our world is sitting under a nuclear cloud. We do not know whether we will see the end of this century or not. I know many scientists and people who do not think we will. The Scripture cited earlier said that time is short. I believe it's very short. And God has given us an open door and given us the tools and the technology to touch the whole world in the next decade-if you and I mean business, if we are faithful.

Faithful in Our Commitment to Jesus Christ (1984)

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