HUNDREDS COMMITTED TO FOLLOW JESUS AT WILL GRAHAM’S ‘LOOK UP’ CELEBRATION ON AUSTRALIA’S GOLD COAST

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In Queensland’s Gold Coast (equiv. Miami, Florida) known for its entertainment and nightlife, an Evangelical event drew large crowds. Thousands attended the July 7th “Look Up Celebration,” led by Will Graham at the Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre, committed to following Jesus.

“God moved mightily,” Graham wrote on Facebook. “As I shared about God’s love with a crowd of more than 4,600 people gathered at the Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre, hundreds decided to put their hope and trust in Jesus Christ. Would you join me in praying for these new believers and for God to continue to work in the Gold Coast?”

“People have money, titles, degrees, possessions, but spiritually they’re wandering,” Graham said. “You may be searching and wandering. Tonight, God wants you to come home to Him.” 

“Many people believe there are multiple ways to God, but that’s not what the Bible says,” Will Graham told the crowd. “Jesus said, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” John 14:6 There’s only one way to God, and that’s through His Son, Jesus Christ, and what He did on the cross. Jesus bled and died to pay the debt so that you and I can have a relationship with God.”

The event culminated with hundreds responding to Graham’s call to begin a new faith journey, visibly moving toward the stage to publicly commit to following Jesus Christ, said the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA).

Over 380 churches and more than 1,000 volunteers contributed to the preparation of the “Look Up Celebration,” BGEA added. The preparation included a Christian Life and Witness Course, aimed at educating participants on living and sharing their faith.

A prayer counselor identified only as Trinity, said it was like a revival. “I haven’t seen anything like this since I’ve been here,” he said. “It’s life-changing. There’s no greater miracle than the saving of souls. Tonight, I know there’s not just a celebration here with us, but there’s a celebration in Heaven.”

Will has shared the Gospel with more than 1 million people across six continents since beginning his evangelistic ministry in 2006, according to BGEA.

ARE YOU DEAD IN YOUR TRESPASSES AND SINS?

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If you could control the moment you died, what would your last words be? As Jesus hung on the cross, He spoke seven times. The first of His final words was a prayer. But not for Himself. 

“Father, forgive them, because they do not know what they are doing.” (Luke 23:34)

Really? They didn’t know what they were doing? 
1. The Jewish leaders plotted Jesus’ death for months. They paid Judas to betray Him. They held a mock trial in the middle of the night.
2. The crowd cried out for His crucifixion. They even chose a murderer to be set free rather than Jesus, the One who had healed the sick, raised the dead, and fed thousands.
3. Governor Pilate knew Jesus was only guilty of making the Jewish leaders mad. He tried to set Jesus free, but in the end, he knowingly gave the order for Jesus’ death.
4. The Roman soldiers spit on Jesus, beat Him, jammed a crown of thorns onto His head, and mocked Him. As they led Him to Calvary, they watched Him stumble, battered and bleeding. When they drove the nails through His hands and feet, the soldiers knew exactly what they were doing. Christ’s agony was real.
5. Jesus’ executioners didn’t know what they were doing because sin and “the god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (2 Corinthians 4:4).
Yet, Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, because they do not know what they are doing” Luke 23-34

If they had truly understood who Jesus was and what they were doing to Him—God’s Son, their promised Messiah—do you think they would have never done such evil? The horror of such actions would have overwhelmed them. Instead, they would have fallen down before Jesus and worshiped Him. 

Apart from Christ, we are all spiritually blind—and spiritually deaf. In the rebellion of our sin, we are no different than the people in the days of Ezekiel, Jesus, and Paul, who have ears but do not hear (Ezek. 12:2; Matt. 13:13; Acts 28:27). In our sinful state, we don’t hear, see, or respond to the truth. 

Unless God opens our eyes to see Jesus and our sin, we will stay as blind and deaf as the dead, because that’s exactly what we are—dead in our trespasses and sins.

“And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.” Ephesians 2:1-3