[WIND BLOWING] [BIRDS SINGING] [MUSIC PLAYING] I was always told that I would amount to nothing and that I'd end up on the streets. If you tell a person that continually, that's what you believe, that you're worthless-- you're useless. The story really starts when I was seven and a half, when, in 1949, my father died.
He'd just finished planting a hundred cherry trees, and then had a heart attack and was taken to hospital. [SIREN] And I'll never forget when I was told that my dad had died. I just couldn't handle it, and I remember running up into the top paddock.
I screamed at God, "God, I hate You. I hate You with all my heart. I hate You, and I will never love You.
" Hatred, I found, is like a cancer. It doesn't stay dormant. It grows.
I was just so angry with God. [MUSIC PLAYING] (SINGING) [INAUDIBLE] Ha, ha, haa. I had a vile temper.
I really did. If anyone did anything to me, I would pick up a chisel and throw it at him. (SINGING) Please say you want to marry me-- [GRUNTS] --in the summertime.
And I don't want a diamond ring because-- We had a big gang fight. We captured the leader of the other gang. And we held his hand on the ground, and we ran a car backwards and forwards over his hand and broke every bone in his hand.
It's all I ever thought of was hurting people. We heard that Billy Graham was coming. He was a man that I hated.
We hated Christianity, and he stood for what-- everything we hated. I do not believe that you have come here to hear a man. I believe you have come to hear a message.
I want you to listen to this minute of what I'm going to say because this is the most important thing I'll say. You must be willing to repent of your sin. Billy Graham stood for everything that I detested.
It was something that drove me and made me exist day by day. --any way that we can we would join in with these people-- The only reason the 10 of us went to that crusade was to kill Billy Graham. [INAUDIBLE] I made up 10 zip guns, so each member had one of those.
I said to the guys, come on. We're going on the green. And we spaced ourself so that we could see each other around where Billy Graham was preaching.
We decided that we would leave it until the appeal time, not before, but during the appeal, and we would kill Billy Graham. There are thousands of you here today that have burdens that need to be lifted. My gun was under my jumper, and I'm standing there.
And I looked around at this crowd, and I thought, what the dickens are all these people doing here? [APPLAUSE] And I turned back around, and then suddenly a voice said to me, what are you doing here, George? And I quickly turned back around to have a look and see who was there, and nobody was there that I knew.
And I got very uncomfortable about that, I could tell you, very uncomfortable. The spirit of God is speaking, and He's here tonight, and you know He's here. And there's a little voice down inside of you that says you need Christ.
That is God speaking. OK, I know this is You, God. You took my dad.
You hurt me so much. Why should I love You? Why should I care about You?
And God said to me, George, I didn't take your dad to hurt you. And, indeed, He said, I would never hurt you-- full stop. Well, by this time, I'm starting to melt a bit.
Now, remember that I hadn't cried since seven and a half. I tell you, before you leave this great stadium, you can find an answer to the dilemmas, the mysteries of life, if you will come and surrender yourself without reservation to Jesus Christ. I thought about it for a while-- --and then the appeal came.
I suddenly began to weep, and I cried, and I cried, and I cried. My zip gun was under my jumper, and I put it on the ground, and I ran to the front. [MAJESTIC MUSIC] And there may be many factors that led you to this moment, but there is a climactic moment when you give your life to Christ.
And you do it by faith, faith in Christ! The amazing thing was that 9 out of the 10 of us got converted that night. Then we were all a blubbering mess.
We really were. And we talked about, you know, how wrong we were, and the things we'd done, and all this. It was quite a night, let me tell you-- quite a night.
God took this person that hated Him with every part of his being, yet God took him and loved him. It's amazing how God can take a situation like we were in. And He can change your life completely.
And I thank Him every day for that. I really do.
