Hey there. Thanks for listening to the Greg Laurie Podcast, a ministry supported by Harvest Partners. I'm Greg Laurie, encouraging you.
If you want to find out more about Harvest Ministries and learn more about how to become a Harvest Partner, just go to harvest.org. How many of you have heard of actor Steve McQueen? Raise up your hand. Steve McQueen. Yeah, he's a very well-known actor.
He's really an icon. I was looking at a fashion magazine the other day, and they had an article that asked the question, who is cooler, Steve McQueen or James Dean? So they sort of checked out their fashion sense and their accomplishments, and they concluded Steve McQueen was the coolest guy ever. That was why McQueen was called the King of Cool. He made a lot of amazing films like The Magnificent Seven, Bullet, The Great Escape. Steve McQueen was the very definition of a self-made man. He rode the fastest motorcycles, was actually a race car driver. He was always on the move. In many ways, McQueen was running for his life, looking for a father, because, you see, his dad abandoned him when he was a little boy, and his alcoholic mother married and divorced multiple times, and two of Steve's stepfathers beat him, and he was out on the streets at the age of nine.
Can you imagine? All on his own at the age of nine. He ended up being arrested. He actually joined the circus for a time. He was searching for some kind of meaning and purpose in his life. Well, he took some acting classes and was pretty good at it, and before he knew it, he was the number one movie star in all of the world. McQueen said in an interview, you only go around once in life, and I'm going to grab a handful of it, and it was the 60s and early 70s, and everything was free, free drugs, free sex, you name it, and Steve grabbed it all, and he also was the highest paid actor in Hollywood. He had women, he had cars, he had booze, he had global fame, he had money.
One time he said, you know what, when he was asked, do you believe in God, he said, I believe in me. That was the way he lived. Well, you know what, he reached the pinnacle, and then he just got sick of it all, and he disconnected, and his doctors told him he was having some problems with his lungs, and he needed to get out of L.A. So Steve moved away in 1970 and tried to start a new life in a little town near Ventura, and he married his third wife there, and she wrote in a book about Steve's life, Steve McQueen, The Last Smile, despite the worldwide fame that he had and the fact that he never financially wanted for anything, a certain piece that eluded Steve for most of his life, he had seen and done it all in his 50 years on Earth, but there was one thing he didn't have, and that was the one thing he wanted most, inner peace. So Steve disconnected from the whole Hollywood world, and he bought an airplane hanger and filled it with all of his super cool restored motorcycles, but there was one thing he never learned how to do, and that was fly. So he went and bought a vintage plane known as a Stearman biplane, and he asked some of his friends who could teach him how to fly it, and they said there's one guy, a guy named Sammy Mason, who's in his mid-60s.
Sammy was a former test pilot for Lockheed and a stunt pilot. So Steve and Sammy spent a lot of time in the cockpit of that plane as Steve McQueen was learning to fly, and they talked about life and the meaning of life, and Steve noticed something different about Sammy, and he said, Sammy, what is it about you that's different? Sammy said, Steve, it's my relationship with Jesus Christ.
So McQueen was intrigued. Sammy said, Steve, why don't you come and join me at church? And much to his surprise, Steve McQueen showed up at church, and the pastor, whose name is Leonard DeWitt, knew that the famous movie star was in this church, but he told people just leave him alone, let him just come, and they did, and one day, Pastor DeWitt, and I know this because I found Pastor DeWitt.
I was reading this story, and I thought, I wonder if this guy's still alive. So we tracked him down. I got him on the phone, and he already knew me because we did a crusade up in Ventura near where his church is, and he said, yo, we helped you in the crusade. Oh, well, we had a nice talk, and I said, tell me about what happened with Steve McQueen. He says, Greg, I was standing around after a Sunday morning. Someone taps on my shoulder. I turn around.
There's Steve McQueen. He says, Pastor, I want to talk to you. I want to ask you some questions. So Leonard said, okay, come on in tomorrow, and Steve came in. He said, we had a two to a three-hour conversation, and Steve had a lot of questions, and I asked Leonard, the pastor, well, what were his questions? He said, well, he wanted to know what is God really like?
Does God really forgive sin? No wonder Steve had tried it all, drugs, booze, had the coolest machines ever. So Pastor DeWitt answered Steve's questions, and then Steve said, good, I'm good now.
You answered all my questions. And then the pastor said, well, I have a question for you, Steve. And Steve smiled and said, you want to know if I'm born again, right? And the pastor said, yes. Steve McQueen said, yes, Pastor, I'm born again.
I went forward at one of your invitations a couple of weeks ago and made my commitment to Jesus Christ. A lot of people don't know this story. The king of cool met Christ. And everyone who knew Steve said his transformation was immediate and dramatic. He spent hours poring over his Bible and praying, and he was bringing all the members of his family to church and bringing friends to church and trying to right wrongs for all the things he had done in his life.
And it was an amazing thing. Steve wanted to know more. He asked if the pastor would meet with him every week, and Steve said, I don't want to get on a soapbox and talk about this before I know more about it. So Steve was growing, and he continued to grow spiritually for a year.
But he wasn't feeling well when he was working on one of his last films, The Hunter. So he went to see his doctors, and they broke the tragic news. Steve, you only have months to live.
You have incurable cancer, and it's spread throughout your body. So Steve told the pastor, and Steve said, you know what, Pastor? Now that I'm a Christian, I really want to live, and if I don't make it, I know where I'm going. Steve McQueen said, the only regret I have is I was not able to tell people what Christ did for me. So I just wanted to right that wrong and tell you what Christ did for Steve McQueen tonight. He saved him and forgave him of all of his sins. Steve had one wish.
He knew he was going to die. He asked the pastor if he could have Billy Graham come visit him. Well, Pastor DeWitt knew some people that worked with Billy, and the great evangelist came to visit Steve McQueen.
And Steve was on oxygen at this point, and Billy said there was a sparkle in Steve's blue eyes. And he was so responsive, telling me of how Christ had changed his life. And then Steve was going to go in for surgery for a very large tumor, and he had misplaced his Bible. And Billy said, here, take my Bible. So he gave his Bible to Steve and signed it, and Steve went in for surgery.
And they removed the tumor, but then when he was in recovery, he died of a heart attack. They found Steve McQueen lying there with Billy Graham's Bible open, Steve's hand on it, next to John 3.16. He went right into the presence of God. Say, what is John 3.16?
Oh, I am glad you asked. Jesus said, for God so loved the world, say it with me, He gave His only begotten Son. And whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
He knows that is true. Everybody needs Jesus. The highest of the high, the lowest of the low, every man, every woman, every boy, every girl, everybody needs Jesus.
Have you realized that yet? You can come to Him and believe tonight and be forgiven of all of your sin. Steve asked the pastor, what is God like? You want to know what God is like? Take a long look at Jesus and you have the answer. Because Jesus was God was skin on, walking among us, loving us, caring for us, forgiving us. That is God. And Jesus is here tonight. As Mel Gibson pointed out, He did not stay in the tomb. Christ rose again from the dead.
He is alive and here, ready to come into your life and forgive you of all of your sin. Hey everybody, this is Greg Laurie and you have just been listening to a classic message from Harvest Ministries. This podcast is supported by Harvest Partners. To learn more and to find out how you can become a Harvest Partner, just go to Harvest.org.
