In this sermon, the speaker reflects on various Bible verses that have personally impacted them. They emphasize the importance of not growing weary in doing good and trusting in God's provision. The speaker encourages listeners to persevere in their faith and not be discouraged by challenges or changes in the world. They also urge believers to mature in their faith and give themselves fully to God's work.

But I'd like to move in now to just share some of these thoughts about perseverance in the life of a believer. I know it's late, I know you're tired, but I'd ask you to bear with me. You see, it's easy to get excited. We've been getting excited at this conference. We move into a new project and we get excited. There's nothing wrong with that. Don't feel guilty about that. Something's wrong with your heart if you don't ever get excited about the work of God. I'm excited about the fact that Billy Graham these days is preaching over in Hungary. That excites me. I'm excited about a lot of things that are happening in the Christian world. But I do believe one of the greatest weaknesses in the present-day evangelical scene is perseverance. Perseverance. How easy it is to start. How easy it is to start. Let's look at a few scriptures. For example, Galatians, one of my favorites. I probably gave it to you in the summer. Let's look at Galatians chapter 6. This verse has helped me again and again. Verse 9. Let us not be weary in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap if we faint not. If God tests us in regard to this ship, it doesn't work out, we're not going to get weary. We're not going to get weary. If a major persecution broke out, a major change in the social order broke out, and, you know, all the fun stopped coming in, and every kind of problem you can think of came upon O.M., well, half of us would go to work, or half of us would go farming, or we'd do something, but we wouldn't grow weary. There are tremendous changes taking place in the world today. I don't know if you keep up with philosophical trends, with trends in modern thinking. I don't know if you're aware of what's happening in France right now. This is one of the most incredible moves and shifts in the area of philosophy since Marx came into the scene. A whole spectrum of the top intelligentsia of the young Marxists of France have totally turned against Marx. They're now writing Marx is dead. And they have shifted into a conviction that there is no ideology that will help society. Of course, they're not becoming Christians. But their leader, their number one inspirer is Solzhenitsyn, who probably is a Christian. They also go around quoting even Jimmy Carter. Not that they agree with everything he believes, but they are very pro the dissidents. And when Brezhnev, I think it was Brezhnev, one of the top big communists came to Paris, they all had a big meeting somewhere else with the leading dissidents. And just a whole big army of top French philosophers are finished with Marxism. Actually, they're finished with socialism. They believe that socialism is a dead-end street. Of course, they also believe capitalism is a dead-end street. So don't, you know, don't. Those of you right-wing ringers, don't get too excited. But it is exciting to see these changes. And I believe this could possibly open. I have a burden to send every one of these new philosophers in France some really key literature. You know, if even one of these men could be born again, it could alter the lives of thousands. Because so far we have been so weak in Europe to break into the intelligentsia. This is almost a whole message in itself. But no matter what happens, no matter what happens, we cannot grow weary in well-doing. Another scripture that's been helped to me is 2 Corinthians 15, 58. Be ye steadfast, unmovable, always. Is it 1 Corinthians 15, 58? Be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. For as much as ye know, your labor is not in vain in the Lord. This really frightened me on the ship today. I thought, who, where are the three people that are going to work in that laundry all day long? Where are the 15 people that are going to work in that engine room? I tell you, it was hot. Hotter than the Lagos engine room because there's some steam things down there. The rudder on this ship is operated by something that actually probably will eventually be able to sell to a naval or merchant navy museum. It is a 1914 steam-operated rudder control. I said to the engineers, I said, look, if this breaks down, can you fix this thing? They said, look, this thing is easier to fix than any of the new stuff that they've got today. And Graham Scott, who I thought would be very pessimistic about this, he explained how if this breaks down, you just tie a rope on one end and tie a rope on the other end, and you attach that to the winch, and you keep the rudder going. My vision increased for the London office. But I wondered, where are we going to get the 15 people to stick it out in that engine room? This ship probably, Mike Poynter said, a chief engineer, one of the top officers, will have to be in the engine room all the time because it's a boiler. It's more complicated. It has 18 pistons. That's just in the main engine. Then there's generators all over the place, and they all have pistons as well. Don't ask me how many pistons are in the generators. But, you know, I can remember Lagos. I remember one real exuberant engineer. I remember him coming to me after the second month. He said, I can't stand it. I can't stand it. I've got to get out. I want to get in the ministry. It's rough. And who are the men that are going to paint? Then we looked at that aft deck. The aft deck is about, you know, twice the size of this room. With a swimming pool in the middle. Not quite twice the size. It's got this big alcove there. But it's big, and that's all wood. And that has to be caulked. The water goes through, and then, you know, you're having your soup, and it gets thinner as you take it because the water is coming through from a deck that's not been caulked properly. That takes hours, weeks. We'll have to paint three times as much all year round as on Lagos. I don't know if they have machines that put paint on. I've never seen them spraying ships. It is a lot of work. And that's true of every aspect. The line-up job will be three times more difficult than the present line-up because we cannot run a ship that's going to cost us $2 million a year and come into a port and get 15 people sitting in a pastor's conference because the line-up man didn't know what he was doing. And he's going to have to have, he is going to really have to be one of God's supermen. And we have very few people sticking in line-up. Line-up is the death trap of the ship ministry. They all apply for resignation after one year, apart from a few real nutcases like Peter Conlon and a few other characters. So that is going to be a big thing, a big thing. And this is not just true of the ship. The ship is on our mind right now. It's more true in the Muslim world. The ship is a playground next to working among Muslims for 20 years. But the burden of this ship is to get young people. We know 50% of the young people today are lazy. We know the other 50% are spoiled. We know we produced the greatest generation of grasshopper Christians that have ever tried to read their Bibles. We're aware of that. We're part of it. But we believe that if some men can stick in that laundry and stick in that galley. You know how many cooks they have on this ship? You know how many cooks? 15 cooks. That's not counting the assistants. They got a soup cook. They got a biscuit cook. They got a cook to cook the cooks. I don't know. They got everything. The galley was so big it looked more like a bowling alley. And hot. Galleys are not air-conditioned. They specialize in fried food and fried people. Who's going to stick in that galley, you know, one or two years? Praise God. You think of Alfred Boschbach, still on Lagos. He joined us when the ship was in Rotterdam. Oh, this is what we're going to need. And when men have put their year or two on the ship, we want to see them graduate into Turkey, into the Muslim world. Someone wrote me a letter this morning saying, Lagos isn't sending more people into the Muslim world. I counted up, bang, just like that. Six Muslim, ex-Muslim, ex-Lagos people in the Muslim world right now. That's on OM, but we're not mainly thinking of OM. A number of others, when I was in Bangladesh, 15 ex-Lagos people are laboring in Bangladesh right now. Right now. I was just speaking to them a few months ago. Others, because when they came to the ship were very young, very, very young, they haven't got out there yet. Because we know often it does take years of training before people are ready for some of these difficult fields. I think of Yanni Norblom, who now is headed out to the ship. I won't catch that. I'll catch this 455. Thank you. Let me just take this. Yanni Norblom just got his prayer letter. He was one of the original Lagos men. Quiet, shy fellow. Now he's got training on the ship. A little time in India. And he's going out. Somebody said Indonesia, but I think it's Thailand. One of those two countries. I think of our second mate going out. Met his wife on the ship. What's that brother's name? Rory McKenzie at Bible School right now. Headed out to the east. I am just convinced that whatever we do worldwide, it's linked with this thing of perseverance. Perseverance. If this ship isn't the ship, then we've got to persevere and find the right ship. One of our greatest problems in O.M. is to find people who stick at the job. Bookkeepers who will stick. Who at the end of the year aren't always looking for something new to do because bookkeeping can be a little bit boring. You know, I mean, some of our jobs, they change. I mean, my job changes from one day to the next. Sometimes I almost lose my identity. I wake up, I'm not even sure what continent I'm in. I don't even know what bed I am. I have nightmares. Suddenly I'm crawling through portholes or riding on Jonathan McCrossley's back. Other people, it's the same thing day in and day out. Day in and day out. Day in and day out. We need men who are going to persevere. William Carey said, give me plotters. Give me plotters. What are some of the secrets of perseverance? Now, I don't hold myself up as a great perseverer. 22 years is not much, is it? But for some of you, it seems like a lot. It doesn't seem too much to me in one way. But to some of you, 22 years, you've been going 22 months for Jesus and already your batteries are getting rusty and you're wondering how far you will go. And I want to just share from the word of my own experience, what are some of the things that keep us persevering? How have I maintained a vision and a burden for Turkey now for 19 years? Every time I go to Turkey, I go into a major depression almost. I can't pretend that I've seen even 5% of my prayers answered for Turkey. The 5% is very exciting. But we prayed some pretty big prayers. I'm going to Turkey in November to speak at the Turkish Workers' Conference. All the people working in Turkey, not just the OMers. They all work together down there. Don't worry about labels. We don't use these labels in these countries. These are some of the things that have helped me. First of all, the word of God. Verses like this. Memorize them. This morning, I just felt I couldn't read my Bible. It was in my case and I was on a plane. So I took out my little navigator pack and I just memorized this morning. I hope that doesn't offend anybody. I just memorized for half an hour, an hour. The word of God. As I was going through some of these verses, so many of them seemed to be preparing me for the day. I have about 10 different packs like this. I just happened to grab it. I don't know where I found this. I'm a little unsystematic sometimes. I found this and yet as I went through it today, so many of the verses were linked with today, what the Lord wanted to do to me today and what he wanted to work into my heart today. The angel of the Lord encampeth around them that fear him and deliver them. My God shall supply all your need according to his riches and glory by Christ Jesus. Ask and it shall be given you. Seek and you shall find. Knock and it shall be opened unto you. But they that wait upon the Lord. This is one that especially God hit me with on the plane. They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings of eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint. I thought when I got to the ship I'd collapse from exhaustion. I've had less sleep in the past 48 hours than I've ever had in the last probably 13 years because I don't like to miss sleep anymore. I don't believe it's good. I may get not so much, but you need that 5, 4, 5, 6 hours. And I thought I just, you know, I wouldn't even be able to think straight. And yet I was just completely, as far as I can tell, alert and able to carry on that inspection. And then some of these verses, especially from Isaiah 41 10. Fear thou not, for I am with thee. Be not dismayed, for I am thy God. I will strengthen thee. Yea, I will help thee. Yea, will I uphold thee. Yea, with the right hand of my righteousness. The Lord is good and stronghold in the day of trouble. He knoweth them that trust in him. Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of good courage. Be not afraid. Neither be thou dismayed, for the Lord thy God is with thee, whithersoever thou goest. One of the secrets of perseverance in the life of the leader. He's a man of the word of God. He'd rather forget his breakfast than miss the word of God. We've got to persevere in our memorizing of the word of God. We've got to go to the word of God when we feel dry, when we're afraid. And we've got to allow it to build us up. I think that is a major factor. As a young believer of 17, I began to memorize hundreds of scriptures. It was one of the most powerful factors in my whole Christian life. The thing that motivates me in perseverance is that this life is so short. This life is so short. And if the Bible is true, and that's another major thing that causes us to persevere, then the way we are living, what we are doing is absolutely logical. It's absolutely logical. Time is so short. I can't believe that I'm 39 years of age. It seems impossible. It's just gone like that. And when you look back over your life, when you're 39 or when you're 69, what do you think is going to count? All the fun you had. There is fun in the Christian life. You had some fun today. You can't go through all in one day without laughing. You can't be around Mike Poynter and Rex Worth and Graham Scott. You know, Frank Dietz. You've got to laugh. They can't look at me, and they barely look at me, and they'll start laughing. The great managing director arrives. My shirt was 10 years out of date. The tie was too big. I took all that off. I've got my undershirt on now. I borrowed this last night. I asked a brother if he had a T-shirt. This is all he had. I guess he must have dropped it in some ink. But I believe there is time for fun. But really, most of the time, we've got to be serious in the work of God. Not letting days just dribble by. Time is short. That challenges me not to waste any days. I don't believe in staying away from the Lord for certainly not for a day. I don't believe in being away from the Lord at all. But I've been preaching this year that challenging people within the Lamb that we don't have to backslide. That's not the normal Christian life. We go weeks bitter about somebody or with hatred or upset or depressed. Because of the cross, because we can repent, we can be renewed, and we can know what it is to go to bed every night cleansed and free and worshiping the Lord even if sometimes we feel terrible. Persevere. Perseverance. Perseverance is so logical when we think of the shortness of time. The shortness of time. I think of those who were with us a few years ago. Jay Sonnenday, Sharon Brown, Chris Begg, Helilee Begg, here they were singing ministry. Gone. That's when your faith really gets tested, you know, when God starts to take some of your real friends. Then you discover all this stuff you're preaching out in the open air like a wildcat, whether you really believe it. The people actually are saved and go to heaven. I tell you, God has tested me to the root and I've seen how little faith I have sometimes. It's shaken me. You know, this whole thing of heaven. But it's there. God's word is true and the only way it operates is faith. You can't get a picture of it. Some of you want a picture of heaven. You have people drawing such pictures. You can't get any pictures. You have people asking, where is it out in the universe? Then, when I was arrested in the Soviet Union, 61, this big, bald interpreter, she says, come in one day, we've just put a man out in space and we've looked around and heaven isn't there and God isn't there and that proves it finally, once and for all, there is no God and there is no heaven. Can you imagine someone being so naive as to believe that? They do believe that. They've looked out, not there. You know, God is so great and just the Einstein theory of relativity. If you've studied the Einstein theory of relativity, I've only studied a little, and studied the whole thing of the curve and this thing, the relativity of time and space and then the light year, the whole principle of the light year and we can get in an airplane or a jet and if it could go faster than the speed of light, tonight we could watch Jesus Christ on the cross. Tonight we could watch Noah going into the ark and we wouldn't even be out of our galaxy. Our galaxy has millions of stars. There are millions of other galaxies. But, I mean, God, the way God has ordered all science, you know, heaven could be right in this room. Let that one bother you, you'll probably think I'm a heretic, but it's no problem with a great God to find a place for heaven. Perseverance, another secret of perseverance, I believe, is what I call spiritual stubbornness. Some of you sold your backbone and put in a wishbone 10 or 15 years ago, I don't know why, and you've got to ask God to give you a backbone. You've got to become spiritually stubborn. On some issues you have to say, here I stand, you dig your heels in like Martin Luther. In many things you're willing to compromise, you're willing to bend, but on some issues you say, no sir, this is where I stand. I believe in world evangelism. I believe the Bible is the word of God. I believe Christians must love one another. I believe some of these other basic principles, you just dig your heels in, and the cold water comes, and the laughing comes, and you get misunderstood by your parents, misunderstood by your closest friends, and you'll acknowledge if you make mistakes, and you sin, you'll acknowledge that, but you won't compromise your conviction. Spiritual stubbornness. We need people who have that kind of stick-to-it-ness, because they love God, because they love Jesus. Jesus said, if you love me, keep my commandments. Keep my commandments. We need to be stubborn about that. I think that's so important. Another key to perseverance is keeping our eyes on the word Jesus Christ himself. Wow, look at that in Hebrews. Hebrews, chapter 12, Wherefore, seeing we are all so compassed about, with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which does easily beset us, let us run with patience the race that is set before us. Looking unto Jesus. We should all have that memorized. The author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. Doesn't that cause you to want to persevere? Looking unto Jesus. You look at men, you will get disappointed. You look at situations, you'll get discouraged. You look too much at yourself, you'll get depressed. You look at Jesus, and you'll go on from victory to victory, with or without feelings. That leads me to another major secret of perseverance that I've emphasized throughout the summer, so I'll just touch on it tonight, and that is not living by feelings. Today I felt pretty good. I've been through one of my major feelings ordeals somehow. Even though I've been tired, my feelings and my mind has been relatively well, even on the airplanes, which is quite a victory for me. But tomorrow it can just change, just like that. Any of you have that problem? One day you just feel so with it, you even love OM. You're just feeling good. The next day, just like that. You want to get out of this thing, you're all tied up inside, you sense nothing but failure, or maybe fear. I tell you, when I go into one of my fear of death phases, I almost come out pink, blue, and purple. Any of you ever have a fear of death? Fear of the unknown. Even though we believe in heaven, we believe the Word of God, it is still unknown. It still isn't a step out. You don't find many people, even the great preachers about heaven, sort of running in the pearly gates, do you? People battle pretty hard to survive. It's one of man's greatest desires, is to survive. You know, you don't find too many, you know, whoo, boy, heaven, maybe tomorrow, maybe I'm going to get killed tomorrow, whoo. You know, I think one of the things that's helped me to persevere, just a little side thought, is I've had to accept my humanity. We get people in OM, they don't accept their humanity. They get all these great messages, and great challenges, and ideals, and visions, and a few hallucinations thrown in, which are deadly, and they don't accept their humanity. Their unwillingness to accept the human element. And as humans, we are going to battle fear. Faith is not produced in the absence of fear. It is produced under the fiery dart of fear as it comes and assails your soul. For one, it's fear of one thing. For someone else, it's fear of something else. Some people's fears, they make me laugh. I've never even thought of it. And I'm sure my fears must make them laugh. Fear of failure seems to grip some people to a point where they can't produce. They become almost paralyzed. Fear can paralyze you. Graham Scott was telling me about a Christian group that just went climbing up in northern Wales. Relatively easy climb, but even in June, you can hit bad weather. This group was not prepared. They're foolish. They hit bad weather and one fellow experienced total paralyzation at the top of those mountains. They had to get the mountain rescue team just to move him. He was frozen by fear. Fear paralyzes. Love casts out fear. That's why I will not entertain fear. When I start feeling this coming on me, I just fight it with everything within me. Because I know ultimately if I dwell on fear and I allow it to seep into me, it'll paralyze me. Perseverance is linked with this thing of learning, not to live by feelings. Probably the fiery dart that's cutting more leaders down than any other fiery dart is a combination of pride and immorality. Every week I hear about seemingly another leader knocked out through immorality. A brother shared with me yesterday a fellow I was just with six months ago. He's a Christian leader in another organization. He shared with me just yesterday fornication with some girl and he's out of the battle. This is an area where we have to build up every area of our armor, sharing with others the word of God, the disciplined life, exercises, eating right. By the way, a top group of research people have just met together and they have further confirmed that too much sugar and fatty food is deadly for the body. And they're now absolutely convinced this particular group that fatty foods and so much sugar is a major cause of two forms of cancer. And boy, I tell you, some of the junk food that we eat, we wonder why sometimes we don't have energy. These are problems. These are problems. And I don't have easy answers, especially in some of the situations in OM. And ultimately we have to learn to trust the Lord. Perseverance. Living by faith, not by feelings. Our eyes upon the Lord, not upon people or circumstances or situations. Don't get out of the train when you're in the tunnel. Wait to the station. And I tell you, when you're in a time of depression, in a time of discouragement, it's a major decision. It's the last time to make a major decision. So many have shared with me that they're going through vicious temptations in the area of sex. Men you'd never believe. I'm not talking about new recruits. They have it too. And I believe that it's not any one thing. It's the cross, it's the fullness of the Spirit, it's the Word, it's the love unto me. I almost jumped out of my shoes. They always want, what is one answer to spiritual life? Some people think the one answer is the baptism of the Holy Spirit. People who have that teaching. But you know, sensible, sane people who have that teaching know that that is not the one answer. The man who wrote Discipline Life has that teaching. He believes in the baptism of the Holy Spirit experience. one answer. Someone else says the Keswick Convention. Someone else believes in the Ian Thomas experience. Someone else says it's a watchman knee experience, normal Christian life. I've seen guys come out of the normal, reading the normal Christian life, more more more cockeyed than reading Mad Comics. That's right, because they think this is it, this is everything, watchman knee. Look, you read his biography, he had probably more problems than some of you. He made mistakes, he got on tangents, he admitted his two volumes on spiritual life that he wrote, it wasn't even a reality in his life, he wrote it when he was young, he got 30% of that from Jesse Penn Lewis. The average person doesn't even know who Jesse Penn Lewis is. That's where watchman knee got 30% of his material. She's a woman, can you believe that? Boy, now you're gonna turn away. And I just feel that we've got to get off the one-answer trip and realize the whole counsel of God, all the means of grace. Someone else says it's worship. Of course worship is a major thing. Someone else believes the whole answer is if you become a Calvinist. If you become a sold-out Calvinist, read only Banner of Truth trust books, you get a great big view of God. Look, you can have a great big view of God in your head, and your heart can be smaller than a they don't even produce pennies. And I think we need this great view of God. We distribute some of these great Banner of Truth books. I read Whitfield's biography cover to cover. That doesn't mean I think Wesley was all wet. There's no one answer. The whole Word of God is a secret to perseverance, and I have seen the one-answer boys shot down quicker than almost anyone else because they get this way up here. This is the answer. I've got the answer. And then when they collapse, they don't know what happened. And then they can't rebound. They don't realize that God is just trying to teach them more. God's just trying to bring other things into their life. We get people who even think OM is the answer. I get on OM. I'm gonna get trained, get into the IT program, or do this, go to India. Look, you can come back from India more defeated than you went out. Isn't that some special Indian experience? You go out there and bounce in the back of the truck for two years until your teeth have got dense in them, and you're gonna come back, you know, filled with the Spirit, and you can come back defeated. Spiritual perseverance is linked with a whole counsel of God. It's linked with taking advantage of all the means of grace. We're constantly learning, constantly reading, and we're constantly receiving exhortation from different people. It grieves me that sometimes certain groups get a blessing, then they don't want to listen to anybody else. This happens to some people who are in a revival. Revival can be the shortcut to spiritual death, because no revival is meant to stop. It's supposed to keep going. And if it stops, it becomes a historical event. Oh, we remember 10 years ago when God came down upon us, and you know, 10 years ago. What about today? And if revival puffs you up so you don't need to be taught by other people, and you always know better than these other groups because you've been in the revival, you got the blessing, you're gonna be in trouble. And that's why people that have had high spiritual experiences have ended up living low lives, immorality, six wives, the works. Perseverance! Some people thought OM was a shortcut to Christian service. Fifteen years later, they discovered that OM is probably the longest route in the world today into missionary service, because we believe it takes years and years to really prepare a man for what we would like to think of as apostolic missionary work, when they can go out on their own and plant a church or something like that. It's gonna take time, and that means plotting, that means keeping our eyes on the Lord Jesus. It means so much. Another thing that has helped me is to be in fellowship with like-minded people. I tell you, when you go back home, some of you tomorrow, whatever you do, find at least someone who's like-minded. We are not called to live alone. If you plant yourself in the midst of a bunch of ice cubes, you will get killie, I can assure you. You've got to find other people who are like-minded. It doesn't need to be many. I think of how when I went to Maryville College, the first college I went to, God led me to Dale Roton. That was a major factor in my life. His brother exhorted me. This guy, you know, he had me every day. And God gave me a Christian roommate, and still one of my closest friends today. I was just with him this summer for a couple days. And I just feel we don't make enough effort to make sure we've got some like-minded brethren. And if we're weaker, then we need to find a stronger brother, if at all possible. But we need fellowship. That's why I believe it's good for people to be on OM for a year or two in training and preparation, even to go back into the secular world, where they can get a little more grounded before they face the frozen, chilly situations that so often exist today in the church. We need fellowship. Praise God for fellowship, but it won't mean much if you're not willing to really share yourself. I think this is the area where leaders really cut themselves short. How it can happen, a leader in OM not learning to share. I don't know how it happens. You say it hurts me to share. I will tell you it may hurt in the process, but it can be one of the greatest blessings in your life. What are you trying to hide? People get so stunned. You know, in one of my meetings I share that I got to struggle with pornography, and that last week a porno magazine knocked me for a loop for several minutes, and I'm so ashamed of it I can hardly verbalize it. And when I share something like that, you know, when they first hear it. How can this be? George Thurber looking at a pornographic magazine? Just like the United States reaction to Jimmy Carter when to these Playboy people. I personally believe it's a bit stupid to talk to those people. I'm not gonna let them interview me, that's for sure. But, you know, he confessed that once in a while there's a problem with lust. People start, I mean, the hypocrisy of the people who overreacted to that. About such is life, I guess. We got to learn to share it doesn't mean you have to stand up. I have to minister, and I have to communicate, and I use this as a tool of communication. I use it because I believe it's essential, but at least you should have one or two, some people you're sharing with. People with homosexual problems. They're all over the place. Every time I take meetings, they come to me, and they're in the church. They don't want to share, or they go to the extreme, then they announce it with a big broadcasting, and go join a church. They got a church in Toronto, and it's just in Toronto. An Anglican church, all homosexuals, all gays, they marry each other, everybody's, it's all part of the big worldwide Anglican family. You won't be offended, you Anglicans, if you know, I'm not too impressed with the general worldwide Anglican setup, but I do believe there are some really good local Anglican churches. I hope you're a member of one of them. But this thing with homosexuals is really something, but those people who have that problem, there's terrific hope for them. I said that to a pastor's wife, or a pastor the other day. She said, what? Hope for a homosexual? We've never heard of anybody getting anywhere. As I talked to him, I found out he hadn't tried very hard. Of course, there's hope for anybody. I don't feel that I'm any better than somebody with a homosexual problem. I get away from God. I mean, who knows what could happen? Sin is sin. So my sin is a little more, you know, a little more acceptable in contemporary society. You know, my thing is women. Sin, if I go committing immorality, it's sin before God. It's one of the reasons I think I'm able to relate and share with homosexuals. I'm just a sinner. And they talked to me five minutes, and they just amazed. Wow, this guy's got problems. I thought I had problems. But I've got a solution. Perseverance through the power of the Spirit of God, through the Word of God. And just as I have to persevere if I'm going to stay out of the pit, that brother with a homosexual problem, or that sister, they've got to persevere. It will be, I'll admit, a little harder for them in most cases. It won't be any harder for them than for the young man that God calls to stay single. William McDonald, 57 years of age, single all of his life, never married, never fallen into sin. He's told me the temptations come upon him. Left in some home. Husband goes off to work. He's got to minister. He's got to prepare the Word. Suddenly finds himself in a home alone with some woman. Temptations come. And he stood. He's battled. He's remained faithful to the Lord Jesus Christ. And there are other single men. And if there are a hundred single men that can prove it in battling one side, then they can win battling the other side. Actually, the battle, I think, in some ways is easier for the man with a homosexual problem than for the single man battling through. Because, of course, his whole thing is more ugly and more frightening when the other thing can be so appealing and look so right and all the rest. But, you know, when a man has a problem, and I don't know if you're like this, we can all think, I've got such a special problem. Nobody knows the suffering I go through. The Bible says your problems are common. You don't have a special problem. Come down off your special problem kick. You've got a normal problem. In fact, Jesus Christ was tempted in all ways and didn't sin. And I find Christians very sensitive about their problems. Some little thing. I think it's so evil. Somebody came up to me, you know, in one of the sessions after the sex lecture. You know, in the night, Brother George, sometimes when I'm sleeping, you know, I don't mean it, but suddenly I get these pictures and girls and something happens to my body. I feel so condemned. I wake up guilty. He's had a simple little thing that the books call a nocturnal emission. Quite normal for most full-blooded males. Seems to be one of God's ways to release a little energy of a special type. But Christians, they get so guilty about these things. Especially in the area of sex. And it's that guilt that destroys. It's not the nocturnal emission. It's the guilt and feeling, boy, you know, I'm really the wretch of the wretches. I'm the creep of the creepers. And God will never use me. Really. I had a brother come to me years and years ago. He said, you know, I committed sex with my sister. I committed incest. Now that is a big sin. It's in the Bible. It can happen. And he felt because of that, God will never use me. I'll never be a soul winner. I had the joy of putting my arm around that brother and claiming grace. And he's just gone on ever since as a winner of men for Jesus Christ. The weird ideas people have. We've got to throw those things aside and claim the cleansing blood of Christ and persevere. Persevere. A lot of it is linked with the problem of self-acceptance. I have hilariously accepted myself. I have to or I'll just pop. You may think, some people may think that I come up here planning to get, tell things, get people to laugh. Do you know sometimes I preach and no one ever laughed once because I just didn't say anything funny the whole time. I plan almost none of my humor. I don't want to be humorous, but I have to be myself. And I have to accept myself or I won't even be able to continue. I hate certain things about myself. I can't stand my voice. Do you like your voice? Listen to your voice on a tape. Go sing or yodel. You know, you're not all Frank Fortunato's. And after a few years his wife may give him a few lessons. But I listen to my voice on a tape and I, how can people listen to that? If I listen to what I said tonight, it would be emotionally a horrible experience. But I say, Lord, you know, I accept, accept that voice. I've always wanted these, one of these mellow voices. You ever, the kind of, the kind of guys they hire to do the, the India film strip or the Lagos film strip. Nobody ever hired me to do one of these film strips. Or these fellas they have on television, you know. I don't have a television, but once in a while I get to see something and they, they come in late at night. Ladies and gentlemen, we're glad to be with you here tonight. And you can read, you read in the homiletics books. You know how important it is. I'm reading a book right now. I forget which one it is. But it's a fantastic book. It's a book about love. And this book got me so uptight because it says people can read you by your voice. They know whether you have love by your voice. And that chapter made me so uptight because, you know, I thought, well, most people, therefore, you know, I must not communicate any love because of my voice. It's interesting. Our voice is important. Do you accept your voice? You really, down here inside, accept your voice? All right, you accept your voice. What about your eyes? I have one friend, has one green one, one blue one. You accept your eyes? Does anyone accuse you of being shifty looking? Ever since then, you've looked in the mirror, you know. What about your nose? Look at that. Can you laugh at yourself? Can you laugh at yourself? Laugh at some of your little idiosyncrasies? You get a lot of guys in there playing with their beards. Everybody's playing with their beards. Looking for fleas, playing with beards. You get others? I had this problem for years. I was always reaching ahead. But I believe that if we are going to persevere, we have got to accept ourselves. Of course, we want to improve. We want to grow. We want to even cut out idiosyncrasies. We want to learn in all these areas. But the foundation for learning is not guilt, repression, fear, lack of respect for yourself. It's accepting yourself. It's believing that God is already using you. He's going to use you more. And that has been such a help for me to persevere. And lastly, for lack of time, when others accept you. I find acceptance in OM. I hope you do. There's, I find some rejection at times too. That's normal in life. But you know what you want to receive? Give, give, give, give. Accept people, love people, forgive people, take the initiative. This was the curse in the early days on the ship. Everybody's expecting the other person to take the initiative in fellowship. Especially the women, the married women, all waiting for the single girls to take the initiative. Single girls, all sort of, you know, a little bit afraid of these married women and babies and their rattles and all these things. They're waiting for the married women to take the initiative. We've got to take the initiative. If we've been through this training session, if we've had three, four days here before any other people come to this conference, we've got to start reaching out and be the big brothers and the big sisters and accept these young people. I don't want anybody going around here lonely in the next three weeks. If no one else is fellowshipping with them, you send me their name and I'll bring them into my office and we'll have an hour walk. But I don't want anybody going around here lonely because no one's fellowshipping with them. Some of us, like, we like to fellowship with the people that we like. Let's all practice fellowshipping with people who don't necessarily appeal to us. And I believe that most of us here are at the stage in our Christian life where we can no longer think about mainly being ministered unto. We got to minister. We got to minister. New converts, new believers. Let's take the little, little dummy. What do they call it in different countries? The thing they stick in the children's mouth. Call it a dummy, a teaser. Pacifier, yeah. Take your little evangelical pacifier. Throw it away. Grow up and start giving yourself, giving yourself, giving yourself. I believe God can give us perseverance. This message perhaps is more for myself because, boy, I tell you, I'm finding it harder. Wow. Wow. But I just know that this message is in God's Word. What he's been faithful these 22 years, I believe he can do it for 22 more and I know he can. It won't be easy. But the message is there. Let's persevere. Let's persevere. Some of you are in tough situations. You haven't got any big spectacular field. Nobody's blowing trumpets about your field. Think of Israel. For up to three years ago, so neglected, I had to almost go parade around with, you know, bare-chested to get anybody even to think about Israel. Really. Now we've got something going there, but still not much interest. And then Nepal. Nepal. We never get anybody volunteering for Nepal. And some of these other areas. Iran. Iran, where's that? And some of you have tough jobs, tough fields, and it's been hard, but you've got to persevere. Some of you feel guilty, and I am going to close in a minute, but I wanted to say that some of you feel guilty you're not living up to the O.M. principles. That message last night, you already, if you could have found me, you'd have given in your resignation. Because you feel, well, I'm failing in some of these things. I'm not keeping some of these principles up. No one in O.M. is keeping all these principles. This is our goal. We acknowledge, if you read our materials, there are special situations. And that each person has to battle through to his place before God. There's no one organizational place before God. We don't present an organizational or an ideological position that you come in and then you are spiritual. No. You have got to wrestle through in your situation. And I think that's so important. I'm going to talk about that next week. But let's close now and get back to prayer.