Offering testimony of his own brokenness that led him to faith, Graham exhorted those in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building next to the White House to remember that power and wealth cannot save them, but that God is inviting them to find their hope in Jesus Christ alone.
He also emphasized the gravity of what Jesus endured to save the lost and warned of the alienation from God that awaits those who reject salvation.
Graham said Jesus took the place of sinners during His agony by experiencing the terror of God’s rejection.
Graham said Christ’s resurrection offers hope that “the debt’s been paid,” but added, “You have to be willing to accept it.” He also warned that some he spoke to in the palatial office building “might be in danger of losing their soul.”
Graham soberly cited the parable of the rich man and Lazarus from Luke 16, which recounts how an unnamed man who lived a sumptuous, powerful life was cast into eternal torment upon his death.
Graham applied his message personally, sharing that despite growing up in a devout Presbyterian church as the son of renowned evangelist Billy Graham, he had to grapple with his own sinfulness before embracing his father’s message in his early 20s.
“All of us are guilty; I’m guilty,” he said.
He closed by exhorting his audience to reach out to God, that they are “willing to follow Him as Lord of my life from this day forward, forever.”