You can live in the Bible Belt, go to church, sing the songs…and still miss it.
It’s a reality some Oklahoma City residents came face to face with on Saturday night at Chesapeake Energy Arena. But the event happening there was called the Good News Festival for a reason. The thousands who packed the arena—and thousands more watching live online—heard the powerful message that it’s not too late to find salvation in Jesus Christ.
That’s what Steven Cooksey from Bethany, Oklahoma, got to tell the 29-year-old man he met at the foot of the stage after Franklin Graham preached the Gospel, inviting people to come forward and accept Christ.
Steven had signed up to be a Festival counselor and completed the required training. When he spotted Jacob, he was ready to put that training into action.
“He had gone to church before,” Steven said. “I asked him if he’d ever accepted Christ before. He said he hadn’t. He hadn’t really ever taken his faith seriously.”
But after Franklin Graham preached the Gospel and one music artist after another talked about what Jesus meant to them, it finally clicked, and Jacob came down the stairs to make his decision public.
“Jacob just accepted Christ,” Steven said a few minutes later. “I don’t think I’ve ever led anyone to Christ, personally. I get a little emotional even right now. It was pretty incredible. I told him I was really proud of him for having the courage to come down.”
A few feet away, Festival counselor Doris Craddock was having a similar experience with a young woman who came forward. This wasn’t Doris’s first rodeo—she and her husband volunteered when Billy Graham preached in Oklahoma City in 1983 and 2003. But the excitement in her voice proved this latest experience was just as thrilling as the first.
“It’s wonderful,” Doris said, explaining that the young woman she counseled was a high school junior and a regular church goer. “She said she had always wanted to accept Christ, but no one had ever told her about it. Nobody had taken time to challenge her to pray to receive Christ.”
That changed Saturday when Franklin Graham gave a clear invitation. After years of going through the motions, the young woman became a Christian.
“I think the Lord uses an event like this to reach people,” Doris said.
It would have been hard to ignore the message spoken so consistently from the stage throughout the night.
Singer Lacey Sturm shared the story of how Jesus saved her from anger, depression and plans to commit suicide.
Rapper Dae-Lee worshiped Christ through music, encouraging a huge crowd of young people that God created them for a purpose.
Amena Brown shared her powerful, Jesus-saturated spoken word.
And Franklin Graham pulled it all together with the message that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life (John 14:6).
“There are many of you here tonight…your life is not right with God, and you know it,” Franklin said. “You can accept Christ or you can reject him. God loves you, and He sent Jesus Christ to take your sins.”
When scores of people came forward to invite Jesus into their lives, Franklin explained, “The Bible tells us that if just one sinner repents, all of heaven rejoices.”
Meanwhile, the rejoicing down on earth sounded like a mix of metal and rock ‘n’ roll as Skillet took the stage to close out the night.
Lead singer John Cooper wasn’t shy about sharing his faith: “Jesus came to bring Good News to the poor,” he said.
“And to set. You. Free.”
As the first night of the Festival came to a close, hundreds of people left the arena with a new-found freedom. And it doesn’t come from passively attending church, knowing the right songs or going through the motions.
It’s comes from knowing and loving Jesus and sharing His love throughout Oklahoma City and beyond.
