Nicky Cruz

but he was so easy to reach.

I think of one of the first stories I read as a child, no, as a teenager, so becoming a Christian, I read the book, I think it was called The Cross and the Switchblade, which is by, I think, David Wilkinson, written about this kind of young lad called Nicky Cruz, gang leader in New York, involved in all sorts of evil and debauchery and gang culture and so far from God.

And this guy, this man, would reach out to him this pastor would keep reaching out to him and reaching out to him and he would be he'd threaten to stab him and to kill him and and all these kind of things and then eventually he comes to a meeting and as he's in the meeting hearing the gospel of Jesus preached he just completely breaks down in tears and surrenders his life to Christ You ask Nicky Cruz, was Jesus easy to reach? Yeah, he was.

All I needed to do was surrender my life.

All I needed to do was confess with my mouth that he is Lord.

And he left his small town in Pennsylvania and he began going into some of the most dangerous neighborhoods in New York, places where most people wouldn't even go or consider going.

And eventually he met a young gang leader named Nicky Cruz.

He was a leader of one of the fiercest gangs there in New York City, the Mau Mau's.

And Nicky was a violent, angry and feared gang man, gang member.

It's about the Nicky Cruzes of our generation who, as he was, have been diagnosed irredeemable, can't be salvaged, too damaged, too dark, too down.

I remind you that this unredeemable man, Nicky Cruz, has preached the gospel to 80 million people in his lifetime.

I want to go across that river again.

I may have found a nice green pasture and I may have been blessed of God, which is wonderful, but I want to go across that river.

This was in the late 1950s at this point.

At the same time, there was a young man named Nicky Cruz.

Maybe you've heard of him as well.

And he had had a brutal, traumatic childhood, a horrible, horrible experience.

He actually ran away as a teenager, and he joined a, a, a brutal gang on the streets of New York, and he rose the ranks, and he had become a warlord.

And David Wilkerson, you know, through a series of events, he's now in New York City, and he is trying to reach out and share the good news and share the gospel to some very broken people, and he actually meets Nicky Cruz on the street, and he tries to share the gospel with him.

He tells him about Jesus.

But Nicky assaults him.

So he loved you, and of course, there were so many other great men and women of God that his life touched there in New York.

Nicky Cruz.

I mean, a gang member.

He

They don't shepherd people like a pastor, but they are evangelists.

My friend Nicky Cruz, you couldn't have a better evangelist than him, in my judgment.

Who knows how many people this former gang leader, crazy man in the Mau Mau gangs here in downtown Brooklyn...

When he was out there, he was so crazy.

Yeah.

Oh, tell us about how Nicky Cruz got saved-

Mm

...