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Billy Graham Returns With Big Easy Sermon

By MICHELLE ROBERTS, Associated Press Writer 49 minutes ago

NEW ORLEANS - In his first public sermon in nine months, evangelist Billy Graham delivered his message of repentance and salvation Sunday to an overflow arena crowd in this city slowly recovering from devastation.

The 87-year-old required a walker to get to the podium but was greeted with a standing ovation and screams from the capacity crowd of 16,500 inside New Orleans Arena. Another 1,500 people watched on a large screen on a concourse at the neighboring Superdome — an evacuation center where flooding and rancid conditions reigned the week after Hurricane Katrina hit Aug. 29.

Graham told the crowd he watched television with shock as it became clear that Katrina and the broken flood system had destroyed much of the city and caused so much suffering.

"I had no idea the punch it had," he said.

But he also said he watched in awe as rescue personnel and others came to the aid of distressed residents. That, he said, was when "we knew the God of love was watching over us."

Sunday's message was his first evangelistic sermon since June, when he led his final revival meeting in New York City. He was in New Orleans for a two-day event organized by local ministers and his son, Franklin Graham, now the leader of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.

Graham's 20-minute sermon included an altar call — an invitation to accept Christ as savior that is a hallmark of his evangelism. "If you're not sure of your relationship to God, if you're not certain and you'd like to be certain, I'd like you to come," he said.

Graham has preached to 210 million people worldwide in a ministry career that spanned more than six decades. But in recent years he has suffered from Parkinson's disease and prostate cancer. Four years ago, he had a series of brain surgeries — the remnants of which still cause him pain.

On Wednesday, Billy Graham toured some of the neighborhoods hardest hit when Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast, unleashing torrents of water and chaos on the city.

He addressed a gathering of ministers on Thursday, saying no one could say why something like Katrina happened, but that he believes the city of New Orleans has the foundation for a spiritual revival.

Billy Graham Returns With Big Easy Sermon (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060313/ap_on_re_us/billy_graham_new_orleans;_ylt=AqFb9Szr17GlwjMwptM.SBOs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3MjBwMWtkBHNlYwM3MTg-)

Billy Graham eases New Orleans’ suffering, says sermon probably last he'll 'ever preach'
Mar 13, 2006
By Brian Blackwell
Baptist Press

 NEW ORLEANS (BP)--In what he called his last sermon, Billy Graham voiced a message of thanks and encouragement during the March 11-12 “Celebration of Hope” at the New Orleans Arena.

[Click on photo gallery to view a collection of images of the Celebration of Hope in New Orleans.]

“This is probably the last evangelistic sermon I’ll ever preach,” the 87-year-old evangelist told an overflow crowd of 17,800 people on Sunday. “But it’s been wonderful to be here. Thank you.

“I’d like to thank my friends George Beverly Shea and Cliff Barrows for all these years we’ve been together,” Graham continued as he sat on a special chair that raised him to the wooden pulpit’s appropriate height, as thousands of cameras flashed throughout the arena.

“I look forward to a big reunion one day in heaven,” Graham said. “God bless you all.”

Graham’s last visit to the city was a six-week crusade 52 years ago. This time, he delivered a single 22-minute message of hope to a city desperately in need of encouragement.

Graham said he watched in shock as Hurricane Katrina destroyed New Orleans’ levee system, flooding much of the city.

But days later, he said, “We saw the great men and women who helped carry people [to safety] in helicopters ... and we knew the God of love was watching over us. God loves you.”

More than 215 New Orleans-area churches, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and Samaritan’s Purse sponsored the Celebration of Hope to offer hope to victims of Katrina.

In addition to Billy Graham, his son Franklin Graham delivered the Saturday evening message. Officials estimated attendance for the two-day outreach at 30,500 and they counted 1,432 people who either had accepted or rededicated their lives to Christ.

Also featured was high-energy music by country artist Ricky Skaggs, contemporary Christian music’s Point of Grace and Nicole C. Mullen, American Idol finalist and New Orleans native George Huff and New Orleans’ Franklin Avenue Baptist Church choir.

Sgt. Greg Hauk appeared via a video testimony, recounting how he and 479 others rode out Katrina as floodwaters filled a St. Bernard Parish school. Six days later, they were rescued off the school’s rooftop.

“I asked Jesus to give me the strength and courage and the wisdom to get through what I was about to go through,” Hauk recounted. “For the first time in my life, I felt Jesus in my heart. He entered me and I felt it.

“I learned that with Jesus, all things are possible,” Hauk said. “I turned to Jesus and He was there for me.”

In his message, Franklin Graham reminded people that God loves them and has not abandoned them in this time of crisis.

“The Bible tells us God loves us so much that He sent His Son Jesus Christ to earth,” Graham said. “Tonight you can have hope.”

Since Katrina devastated New Orleans, countless people have asked Graham if the storm was God’s judgment on the city.

“The hurricanes were not God’s judgment,” he emphasized, noting that churches were destroyed during the hurricane’s aftermath. “Sometimes, people are quick to blame God, but you know there is the devil.

“The Bible says he’s the liar,” Graham said. “He wants to destroy not only the Gulf Coast, but your life.

“And he wants your soul,” he continued. “Tonight, there’s a battle taking place in this arena for your soul.”

Among those who attended the crusade was Jean Johnson, who was at Billy Graham’s 1952 crusade in New Orleans.

“We not only hope this celebration brings hope to this devastated area, but that a lot of people know Christ as their Savior,” said Johnson, who traveled by van to the arena with 50 fellow members from Williams Boulevard Baptist Church in Kenner.

“We really need the message of hope,” Aleyda Heaton, a member of Williams Boulevard Baptist Church, added. “We need to hang out to God. Without God, we can do nothing.”

Ken Schroeder, pastor at First Baptist Church of Mandeville, believed the crusade represented an opportunity for a fresh start in New Orleans.

“That comes by building a relationship with Christ,” Schroeder said. “Without Christ, your life is without hope. You can pretend you have a good life and have all the answers, but without a faith in Christ, you don’t have a future.”

Billy Graham eases New Orleans’ suffering, says sermon probably last he'll 'ever preach' (http://www.bpnews.net/bpnews.asp?ID=22829)