In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the need for commitment with balance in the work of evangelism. He acknowledges that there has been a lack of understanding about personal evangelism and the different forms it can take. The speaker also acknowledges that mistakes have been made in the past, with a tendency to be heavy on zeal and short on wisdom. However, he highlights the importance of maintaining balance and learning from these mistakes. The sermon also emphasizes the concept of love and freedom, as well as the need for discipline and self-discipline in the work of God.

Now, I have several talks. As you know, I like to change my style over the years because I've been around 22 years and people get bored. And so I try different ways of saying the same thing. And of course, whenever there are old timers in like Rex Worth, the former chief engineer on the ships, both ships, he's now in charge of everything and anything around Britain. When there are other people here like Alec Brackett, who's been involved with the work for 20 some years, I think, and Mr. Baldwin, who keeps trying to sell his chemist shop in Bolton so he can come to the board meetings. I have to think of something new to say. Most of you have never heard this message. But the first message isn't the main thing on my heart. So I'm just going to give this quickly and then move on. Short term work. What's the purpose of this short term work? Is this just a training program? Is this just some kind of an evangelical lollipop we give to the teenagers until they grow up and can become real missionaries? Or is this effective? Is this worth praying for? Is this worth because some of you are supporting this ministry? Some of your churches are financing these young people. Is this worth it? And I believe it is. And I've got eight reasons that this kind of short term work is biblical and valid. Because it's the kind of short term work that brings long term workers. You have to start somewhere. Stephen was a short term worker. We just read how Stephen was set aside to serve tables. I don't know how many tables he served because suddenly he was going out in an open air ministry and that was the end of Stephen. Short term ministry. Many of the missionaries who first went to West Africa were dead within a few years. Short term ministry. Many missionaries never go back after their first term. Short term missionaries. Now one of the wonderful things about being short term is that we can esteem the longer term workers. No problem. To say they're greater than us. To say OMF and WEC and CLC and BMMF and all these mission societies are greater than us and have people and have had people whose shoelaces we're not worthy to tie. That's no problem. Because we believe it. One of our greatest burdens is to train up young people who will join WEC or OMF or BMMF. And the fact is now after this work has gone on almost a quarter of a century, the first years were very, very small in Mexico and Spain. Roots go back into the States where God found me in his mercy. I think you all know that testimony by now. But there are now workers trained in OM. There have been 36,000 through the program working in almost every mission society in the world. And we're talking about largely Europeans because there are not that many Americans in OM. Still relatively unknown work in that part of the world. The Lord led me out 23 years ago. He never told me I was ever going to go back. Now two of my children are British citizens, of course, waving their British passports in my nose. I'm a second class citizen in my own home. But if you want to meet my British daughter, she's here after the meeting. And you might recognize her if you look around hard enough. But short-term missionary work can lead to thousands of longer-term workers. And one of the unique things about the OM message, even from the beginning, is that we never said it was more spiritual to go overseas than to be a laborer for Christ in your own country. And those of you who are working for Christ in England, we're not trying to put you into a triple-thick gilt-straight jacket. Because if you're in the will of God, that's all you need to say. Even to a big mouth like me, you don't have to give any explanations. All you have to do is say, I know I'm in God's will in Manchester. Fine. I've got enough to do, much less getting in an argument with you. If you say you're in the will of God, fine. But to some of you, if you search your hearts, you're not so sure you're in the will of God. You're not so sure you really thought this thing through and found God's place in your life. And maybe one or two years in short-term work, with an emphasis on discipleship and training and relationships and prayer and growth and patience, you know the strongest message that I've preached has never been firstly evangelism or world missions. In fact, unless people ask me, I don't usually preach on that theme. It's the fruit of the Holy Spirit. It's walking with Jesus. It's building relationship. It's life in Christ. It's the Lordship of Christ. I'm coming back to Merseyside in a month or two for four days. If you want to really hear what's on my heart, come over and join us. Personal revival, spiritual balance, the Lordship of Christ. Short-term missionary work is valid, especially if it's done right. Now, praise God for other groups that have been raised up with the same vision to some degree. Wonderful. Unfortunately, some have launched out just trying to copy this without having a divine mandate. And they haven't put enough effort, enough tears, enough manpower into it, enough leadership into it, enough training into it. And it has brought short-term work into... The word ill-repute comes to my mind, but I'm not sure it's the best term. So that there are some groups that don't give the young people much preparation, much training, much supervision. They send them out to build a garage for a missionary in Africa. The missionary finds the thing quite a pain in the neck. And now missionaries are speaking out, not many, but some, against short-term work. And so we cannot lump all short-term work in the same bowl. Do you put all airlines in the same bowl? Have you ever flown with Royal Air Nepal? Have you ever flown with Cambodian Backstreet Express? In OM, in order to get cheaper tickets, we have flown with some very unique airlines. I have learned that not all airlines are the same. Not all mission agencies are the same. Not all short-term work is the same. Short-term work, especially if you have a large, longer-term program going on at the same time, as we do in OM, quite a few hundreds of us, is incredibly complex, very demanding, demands a very, very sophisticated yet highly flexible organization and a lot of gifted, trained, disciplined leaders. And that's why at times, OM, we do make mistakes, we do fail, because we're trying to do so much with so little in a world that's so lost when so many Christians just don't really care. Short-term work done the right way will produce the manpower, and it will also accomplish the job on the field. First of all, if the men are prayed out. Matthew 9, that's the first thing. We don't want to grab people by the collar. We don't want to get in the flesh into gimmicks. Do you know that we hardly ever run an ad for manpower in the history of OM? When it has happened, it has been against the policy of the work. We don't advertise for manpower. The only thing I think in England near it, and we mentioned that we've had an Easter crusade, I think we ran something that might look like an ad for manpower. We've never run an ad asking for secretaries, workers, missionaries. We're not against those who do that. God leads different people in different ways. But we found Matthew 9, the last five verses, pray ye the Lord of the harvest that he'll send forth laborers, and we've hung on to that. We present the challenge, and of course many who have been to OM meetings have never joined OM. Ninety-eight percent, I estimate, of the people challenged in OM meetings don't join OM. They work in their local church, or they join another mission. And I receive letters from such people all the time. So number one, the kind of short-term work that's really going to count is when they are prayed out. Number two, when the work demands discipline and learning to endure hardship as a good soldier, excuse me, of Jesus Christ. We all know 2 Timothy chapter 2, endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. If we're going to create men of God, soldiers who are going to be long-term disciples, it's got to be rough and it's got to be tough. On the other hand, that's not easy because you don't want legalism. Some are disappointed in OM because they don't find things are enforced. We don't have an evangelical Gestapo, even in OM. They find the exercise program is not enforced. They find a lot of things are not enforced. OM's main emphasis on discipline is self-discipline. It is not a legalistic army with little military guys going around with little insignias telling people what to do. Certain illustrations in the Bible only go so far. I believe in the militant terms in the Bible, but they only go so far and they must be brought into balance by all kinds of other descriptions of a Christian. And above all else, it must never contradict the rule of love. Love means freedom. And so, of course, even though there is the discipline, there is the challenge, there are a few basic rules and regulations which is true in any work of God and also in your own local church. It's really self-discipline. That takes years. That takes years to teach young people. Some of us, like me, a bit thick, a bit slow, we're still learning. Discipline. Thirdly, short-term work that's going to produce long-term workers will have a strong emphasis on balance. Some of you think the emphasis on balance is sort of the middle-age thing that's crept into OM while our eyes were closed. The fact is that if you came to the first OM conference at the Mexican border, the first conference of any size, the Mexican border, June 1960, just before I came to Spain, every night I spoke on the fruit of the Holy Spirit. I think in some ways I may have been more balanced then than I am today. Now, it is true, we made mistakes, we got into extremes. It was easy for us to be heavy on zeal and short on wisdom. In 1963, we took people for two weeks only and some of them were too weak and we suffered a lot of criticism as a result of that. A lot of it was our own fault, but God kept us preaching and teaching and emphasizing balance. The message that's in that book that Val mentioned, Revolution of Love and Balance, was preached in Bolton in 1965 around the same time the ship vision was born. And that message, which originally was in a pamphlet, Extremism, which has been rewritten and corrected because to maintain balance you've got to keep changing, keep growing, keep correcting. And it's gone into languages and been distributed all over the world. I wish I had a long time tonight to talk to you about balance. I'm glad I've got three or four meetings tomorrow because it will help me just to quiet down tonight and make sure we get out of here on time. In my new book, No Turning Back, I've tried to stress more than anything else the need for commitment with balance. Number four, the kind of short-term work that's going to produce long-term workers will have an emphasis on evangelism. It's not enough to get young people to paint our church buildings or pick up paper on the church garden or whatever. They've got to learn evangelism. There is a great lack of understanding about personal evangelism, literature evangelism, Bible study small group evangelism. And this means that there's got to be a large group of leaders in that work who are evangelists and who go out in evangelism. And I think that's just so important. And I think it's very encouraging that OM, with our many weaknesses, has still kept its evangelism cutting edge. In fact, I think in the last months it's actually increased in a number of places. And God has given us a number of anointed evangelists, like Mickey Walker, Nigel Lee. And I wrote in my Bible some years ago, Lord, give us 50 men who can preach with a mighty anointing. And Peter Maiden told me the other day, because he is now the associate international leader of OM, as well as the British leader. You know, when they come from Carlisle, they've got a lot of potential because they've got the Scotland and the England mixed up there. And he said, I think we've got these 50 preachers. I think we've got these 50 anointed preachers. We're pushing toward 100. And so young people are working together with mature, gifted men and women. Sure, they're still sinners, they still fail, and young people will be disappointed when they come to fellowship with the likes of me, thinking we're all super spiritual, we'll always listen to Christian hymns, come in my bus and listen to me, listen to the hits chart, as I was listening to today, trying to find out what's happening in the secular world, and somewhat enjoying it. And they'll all be disappointed sooner or later to discover that we're all not so spiritual as they thought. We're not reincarnations of some kind of combination of Hudson Taylor, Watchman Nee, Amy Carmichael, and E.T. We're human beings. We're weak, feeble human beings, and we are learning how to lead, not from a position of strength, but from a position of weakness. As we are not creating a fraternity or a special club for super saints, but we are bringing people into the church, a clinic for sinners. Now we hope the clinic will have a barracks. Lloyd-Jones says the church should be a barracks with a clinic on the end, but it seems today it's a clinic with a little tiny barracks on the end. Well, we won't argue the point tonight. Number five, the kind of short-term work that's going to bring results, I believe should be international and cross-cultural. Solzhenitsyn said it's foolishness to speak about internal affairs. We are involved with one another. What they decide in Washington affects us in London. What they decide in Poland or in Sweden, just giving the Peace Prizes away these days, quite a controversy as usual. I don't know if they've ever given one to Jesus, but I think he deserves all the Peace Prizes. We're all involved. We live in a global village. It seems sometimes the Christians are the last ones to face this. Young people need to get out of their own countries. Even secular authorities and educators are saying this. They have exchange programs. Get them a little bit de-Anglicized, a little bit de-Americanized. Only when I went to Mexico and then Spain and then England did I discover that I was an ugly American. Yes, in a number of ways I was an ugly American. God still forgave me. Isn't that wonderful? If we can forgive and change an ugly American, just think of the hope for the British. They'd be dancing on the roof. We need to learn how to communicate cross-culturally. And I just praise God for these young people that have volunteered, some of them in fear and trembling, to go into this cross-cultural program, to get in the backs of some of those old OM lorries purchased in London, rebuilt in Zaventem, Belgium, and going out across Iran, Lord willing, in the next few weeks. And then number six, short-term work that's going to produce long-term results. It must be organized. And there must be trained leadership. From our earliest days, God put it on our heart to put a high percentage of all of our emphasis in leadership training. That's why we've been using Oswald Sanders' book for 20 years or more. That's why we have leadership conferences. Some of you have been to our leadership conferences, in which we can emphasize the whole counsel of God, in which we can emphasize the fact that the leader is a servant. And by the way, two of the most powerful books on that table are written by Charles Swindoll on the subject of being a servant, strengthening your servant, strengthening your grip, what a communicator this man is. I didn't want to mention these books because I thought everybody's just going to buy them and then the other books are going to get neglected that perhaps aren't quite as dynamic. But anyway, I slipped and mentioned them. But we need, we need that emphasis. And then number seven, the right kind of short-term work we believe should emphasize practical and simple lifestyle. Yes, O.M. was despised in its early days for our extreme stand on forsaking all. Actually, from the earliest days, we always said Philippians goes with Luke. God supplies all of your needs according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. It's on the earliest tapes. But when people heard Luke 14.33, they got so upset they weren't even listening by the time we got to Philippians. Of course, God had to balance us out. You know, that's one of the wonderful blessings of marriage. Now, those of you who have never had that privilege, of course, God gives special grace. And there's an amazing book called Your Half of the Apple that you ought to read. But when the Lord looked at the likes of me, headed such an extreme direction at 19 and 20 years of age, I guess he decided this one should be married. He brought a woman into my life. I just saw her stepping out of an elevator one day to rent a film. Blew all of my circuits, and that was the end. A year or two, we were married. By the grace of God, I've been married ever since. But you know, if you're an extremist, and you're a bit obnoxious, and you've got a big mouth, and you tend to do your own thing, and you tend to judge others, and you tend in that direction, you'll be all right as long as you don't get married. Well, you won't be all right, but maybe you won't at least destroy too many people. But if you're going to get married, we always say this in OM, that OM is as good a preparation for marriage as it is for missions. And in OM, we're as concerned now, we should have been more years ago, about marriage as we are missions. If you're going to get married, I tell you, you're going to come into balance. And if your wife doesn't help you, and get you over the hill into balance, you can be sure the kiddies will. Anyway, no more time for that point. But we've got to emphasize the need for simple, practical lifestyle, for sharing, and then number eight, I have many more points, but not the time, it needs to emphasize church planting. I still find people who think OM mainly goes out giving out tracts. We gave that up actually in summer of 1962. That's 20 years ago. OM is involved around the world in a full-orb evangelistic thrust. Preaching, films, small Bible study, the biggest thing is personal evangelism, with literature, church planting. In Turkey, in Bangladesh among Muslims, in France alone there are 15 churches planted by OM teams. We do it under existing missionaries so that no OM church has ever come into existence. No new denomination has ever been born. We just work with that which is existing and stretch it or multiply it. Except maybe in Turkey where there was nothing existing or in those villages of Bangladesh. Doesn't that excite you about the possibility of these young people as they go out? This isn't some small thing. Maybe one or two year training program. These young people next to perhaps their decision to come to Christ and then maybe their decision someday to be married have made the next biggest decision in their life to go on this program. We still pray that if for any of them it's not the Lord's will, He'll stop them. And we can't go yet anyway. The next step for us is to wait upon God and to see Him move certain mountains, financial mountains, transport mountains, and then we go. So if you hear that they're sitting around three weeks, last year it took us two months. We organized things better. We learned a few lessons through that. And we've been praying harder. And we are in much better condition, OM, than we were a year ago in terms of getting things ready and getting people moving. Plus the Indian people, not so many of them have to fly this year. Many of them can go overland, which is a lot cheaper. But we have got to see the Lord move some mountains to see somewhere between three and four hundred new recruits and many of these second-year people launching back to the harvest fields. What are some of these target areas? Moving into this second part of the message in which I'm going to try to finish in ten minutes, what are some of these target fields? If you look at Acts chapter 1, you'll get the vision for the target. He shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the earth. If you compare that with 2 Corinthians 10, 16, and Romans 15, 20, you will see the emphasis of the Apostle Paul on going to the unreached and going to the regions beyond. This is biblical. It is not biblical to put most of our emphasis in Jerusalem. And I feel it is wrong that at present less than one percent of our British manpower is committed to international missions overseas. Less than one percent. The only reason we say less than one percent is because nobody has the exact figures. We know it's much less. It's not right. And you know, some people have more or less hinted that during Mission England we ought to fold up. We certainly dare not bring the ship to England during Mission England. Praise God, some of the Mission England people in some ports have said, Bring it! This is the time to bring it. Because we can't separate world evangelism from local evangelism. This isn't the first century. You weren't the first missionaries arriving at British shores. The Church does exist in Britain. In fact, I have only, of the 60 nations I have visited, only know of five or ten countries that are even near Britain in terms of numbers and preacher power, manpower, resources. Often in Britain we always look at America. America is in a camp of its own. So is Korea and Brazil. They are very unique. The Church growth there is phenomenal. But if we look at the rest of the world, if we look at Europe, Britain is part of Europe. There is no nation in Europe that is anywhere near Britain in terms of potential manpower, resources, some degree of life within the Churches, and a lot of other things that I haven't got time to talk about. Beloved brothers and sisters, if we don't launch and continue to carry on a great missionary endeavor across the world, who will? As Americans we are more and more disliked. We have more and more visa problems. The subcontinent alone with a billion souls is wide open. No visa needed for British people except Bangladesh. It's incredible. And the blood of the subcontinent is on your hands as a nation. You colonialize that place. You taught them a lot of the tricks of the trade, both the bad and the good. And now the door, because of the very unique way that India did become independent. And though there was somewhat of a bloodbath as portrayed in the Gandhi film, perhaps a little excessively, actually it was a relatively smooth transition as far as the British. The greater bloodbath came between the Muslims and the Hindus. And so even in India today, British people are appreciated. Generally. And there's an open door to work side by side with the church to reach the unreached tens of millions of Indians. There's not time to go into detail tonight. But I believe the challenge that OM carries to reach the unreached people, to take the gospel to the Muslim world, to put a priority on Sudan, Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, North India, also places like Turkey, the communist countries, which have continued now for over 20 some years to be a priority in OM's planning and thinking. To think this way, to pray this way, to work this way, to put some of our effort and time and our prayers in this direction, to me is the most logical, sane, biblical thing that we can ever do. And I don't believe the work in Britain will suffer because of it. I notice that even many of the leaders in some of the newer groups around Britain had early training experiences in OM. Many pastors in Britain today were trained in OM. Because of the way history is, because of the many barriers there are for longer term missionary work, problems like health, problems especially linked with finance, local church, denominational problems, a majority of people who come on OM, no matter what they want, they will never end up long term overseas. They will end up here. And we have to accept that to at least some degree in God's providence that He wants to use them here to send others and to pray and to be involved in the ministry of intercessory prayer. It's a great mistake when we hear statements like well at least we can pray. At least we can pray. That's the most. You know my own conversion is linked with a woman who interceded for my secondary school for 15 years and prayed for me for 3 years. The ministry of prayer that's given to all of us here who are believers is the most important ministry in getting the gospel out to the ends of the earth. Yes, let me re-emphasize some of those target fields that we're facing in OM right now. Bangladesh, a wide open door for evangelism among Muslims. A completely new work. We keep OM's name out of it. In most countries we don't use the name of OM. In Turkey, all the different missionaries, about half of them I guess went through OM at some time or other. The other half and many new groups coming to Turkey now have been banging the drum for 25 years. They just work together. They don't say I'm of OM, I'm of WEK, I'm of this group. They work together. Because the Muslims are confused enough. Much less one man who witnesses to them says he's a Baptist, and the next man says he's a Presbyterian, the next man says he's a Pentecostal, the next man says he's Anglican, the next man says he's a Lutheran because the Germans are there and the Finns are there. They're confused enough just thinking about the Crusades when we went down there on horses with big knives, cut their heads off, and according to one book ate Turks for breakfast. We need to go down there as a united body. Not I'm of Paul, I'm of Cephas, I'm of Joe, I'm of Sam, I'm of YWAM, I'm of OM. And though some of the old time missionary leaders, especially some of the denominational boys are having trouble with this, it's here to stay. We are one body. And when we go to the unreached places we must not go in the name of OM. We are seeing little groups of people coming to Christ of Islamic background in some countries. I can't say much, it gets too easily misunderstood, but it's happening. And as you pray for young people in OM, maybe a young person is going to the communist world. We can't tell you what he's doing. We can't put it into prayer letters. But if you know him personally, we can put some of it into prayer letters. And John Imus who lives in, how do you pronounce that place? Rill? He's preaching at the Wales valedictory. He's responsible for the communist world. You can write to him, you can get some information, but we can't tell you a lot of things that are happening in some of these countries. OM is now a permanent work in 35 nations, and special evangelistic efforts in another 60 to 75 nations. But as you're praying for them, as you're praying for their health, as you're praying for their financial support, as you're praying for them getting on with their brothers and sisters in Christ, as you're praying that they'll be able to survive on less tea, as you're praying that they'll be able to do this or that, God will work. And others who are on the scene can pray for the things that we can't always tell you about. Whether it's China, or the Soviet Union, and how my heart broke as recently I was again in the Soviet Union, and just saw the pressure these believers are living under. The lack of literature in this city I was in, they didn't even have tracks. They didn't even have tracks. We hear about literature in the Soviet Union, reports are coming back, it's harder than ever to get material in. There are underground presses, but the Soviet Union is so big. It's so big. And they can't tell, one, what the others are doing, until they're absolutely sure he's not an informer. And there are informers everywhere. And the pressure these people are living under is sometimes unbearable. And some of them do have nervous breakdowns. And this idea we have of communist world Christians, of being sort of super spiritual, and suffering anything, is a load of nonsense. They're human beings, and many of them crack. And some of them go back. Others go forward. Same is true in many nations where we're involved. Probably 80% of all Muslims backslide. Sorry, maybe that doesn't fit your theology, but it's true. Many have nervous breakdowns. Some commit suicide. Some are murdered by their wives. It's not a game we're talking about. We haven't come here to announce some kind of a religious festival at the end of the month out in the local park. We have come here to once again be reminded of the fact that God has called us to a spiritual invasion. And we need men and women who will pray, and who will sacrifice, and who will go, and who will help mobilize others. I wasn't planning to go to Newcastle tonight, but after being in Edinburgh where the program was a bit slow until the end, and then it really picked up, I thought I want to go to Newcastle and get in on the beginning. And we're having an after-church meeting tomorrow night in this new shed, big shed next to the river. And it's all been announced at what's happening. And a few more churches have opened the doors. And the people will come. We hope we can get 1,500 to 1,000 there. And we're going to challenge every one of them to get involved. Not to think of the ship as O.M. ship come to Newcastle, let's go look and see. And people go away because they didn't shake hands with the captain, or they didn't get to go down to the engine room and play with the piston. And so they go home disappointed. And they think, oh, O.M. ship, well, I really didn't enjoy my visit very much. I found them rather unfriendly. You know, when 5,000 people all show up in one day, it is a little difficult when you spread the fellowship around. And this is the problem. So often, we want to be ministered unto. The Bible says Jesus came not to be ministered unto, but to minister. And even in this meeting tonight, I think the unique thing isn't first that you be ministered unto, though I hope you will be, but that we could go from here, how can I minister? How can I encourage some of these young people? Because I can tell you, knowing from previous years, some who stand up there won't go. They won't go. Life is complicated. And we need people who will see O.M. ship is their ship. It's God's ship. And they will see that O.M.'s work in the Sudan or Bangladesh or North India where we're right now involved in one of the largest efforts that we've ever been involved in together with many other missions and missionaries. Go83, among a hundred million souls who live near the Ganges, to be able to see that as your campaign and to pray tonight as you leave, Lord, what would you have me do? How can I get involved? We're looking for recruits for next summer's campaign. I wonder how many of you young people, you've never been on O.M. yet. You're young, over 17, eligible to go on O.M. We take almost any age now. It takes a little negotiation when you're over 100. But how many have never been on O.M. yet? Raise your hand. Anybody who's never been on O.M.? A vast majority. Would you just pray about it? You know, I don't want to pressure you. You've already got me nailed as a big-mouthed American salesman. I don't want to pressure you. Just pray about it. Just ask God. Maybe you'll join YWAM or IFES. There's an ex-O.M.er who's with IFES now, suddenly becomes secretary of the whole work in Europe. Good friend, I met him in Oxford, Lindsey Brown. What did he do in Manchester last summer? He and his co-workers organized a youth conference. But not just the conferences. They often have conferences. After the conference, they sent teams out all over Europe working among students. I think it's fantastic. And we still have more than enough people on O.M. Next summer, of course, if you don't come, we won't have the number we need. Pray about it. And if you can't come, will you send others? Will you become an intercessor? Do you know some people won't even sign up for a prayer letter? You give a challenge in a church of a hundred people. We would like you to pray for this work. And you present the countries. You talk about the Muslim world where very few people are working today. One-sixth of the world's population among Muslims. Less than 2% of the missionaries. And if out of a hundred you get five to sign up for a prayer letter, you will dance a gospel jig on the end of a book. People don't want to get involved. They feel they're already committed. I say, what do you mean committed? How many missions in society are you committed to? Well, I'm committed to two or three. Beloved, unless you and I, the few who have this vision, who believe that men are lost, who believe that Jesus Christ is the resurrection and the life, unless you and I take on a greater responsibility with more individuals. Doesn't necessarily have to be more missions, but more individuals, more nations. If we don't, who will? Those who next summer again will gather, maybe to sing and play their guitars in the woods, as they did that last year and the year before and the year before. Where missionary speakers are sometimes not even invited. Lest the young people feel that they might have to become a missionary. What a terrible thing if a young person got the feeling that he maybe should become a missionary. People could get uptight all over the nation. They might even feel guilty. And some people might even go and become missionaries. And then who would teach the children's Sunday school class? And who would take the offering Sunday morning if the stewards get called to the mission field? And who will sing in our already diminishing choir if one of them gets excited and runs off to the mission field? And our problem today is often our own vested interests. Our burden is not God's harvest field. It's not the world. It's not the lost. It's our own little turf. It's our own little church. Because it's part of our ego. And it's an ego trip. Because if it was God's way and God's will and controlled by the Holy Spirit, then Acts 1-8 would be in the heart of it. Because the Holy Spirit hasn't changed in 2,000 years. No, beloved. World missions, the unreached people, movements like OM, are not periphery things for a few extra-extreme zealots who can't seem to find a proper resting place in their own little home nest. No, world missions is for everyone. Not all to the same degree. We all have different gifts. We're all guided in different ways. But everyone is to be involved. Let us pray. Let us just bow our heads in a moment of prayer. God has spoken to you. Don't have a big argument with Him. Don't find one little thing in my message that perhaps you didn't like or something about my mannerisms that bothered you. I believe if we could sit in your home on a face-to-face basis and talk, that you'd discover that George Vore in the pulpit is only one-tenth of a person. And I wish I could sit in your home for an afternoon. I have in many thousands of homes. But we can't do that tonight. So if there's some little thing that I've said or maybe you're a parent of a young person, you may not fully grasp what OM is doing, try to forget that for a moment. Just let God speak to your heart. He loves people. He loves us. And He wants to do a new thing in our hearts, in our lives. Let's just have a moment of prayer, silent prayer, in your own heart. Now I'd like to ask something. In some ways it may seem small, but in other ways, to me, it's very big. If you will commit yourself to pray in a very definite way and receive a prayer letter of these young people or the OM letter, if you will do that and you're not already doing it, you'll do it from now on in a definite way. And I'd like you, just where you are, just to stand up and just make that commitment that from now on, by God's grace, you'll pray for these young people. You'll pray for this ministry worldwide, these unreached areas. I know many of you are already prayer partners. Maybe you've been dropping and slacking in your prayer life and there's a need for recommitment to the greatest ministry in the world, the ministry of worship and intercessory prayer. If you'll do that, and I'd like you just to stand up where you are. I'm not going to have people come forward. I'm not even going to take your names and addresses, anything like that. You can sign a paper if you want, a prayer letter, that's up to you. It should be included in it, really. But if you want to make that recommitment to world missions, world vision, intercessory prayer, especially for these young people, as they stood up here, I'd like you to stand up out there and we can pray for you. We'll have those who are already involved in this prayer ministry stand in a minute. First, any of you who are new. No one's blaming you. You may have never heard of it before. So no one's blaming anybody. But we'd like you, if God has spoken to you tonight, about being involved in a greater way in world missions, and especially in prayer, to just stand up. Praise the Lord. Any others? Praise the Lord. You may feel weak. I often do. But His grace is sufficient. You can't pray in your own strength. So if it was your own strength, you'd have to sit down. But as you stand, you're saying, Lord, I believe you give grace for a ministry of prayer. For these young men and women as they move out across the world. Anyone else? Praise the Lord. Thank you. Anyone else? Father, we commit now this little new army of intercessors to you. We know there are many others remaining seated who already pray and probably have affirmed in their hearts to by your grace, pray more, to do more, to be involved more, and to even go. Maybe next summer, maybe next year. Maybe to the ship, maybe to India, maybe to Europe, maybe to behind the scenes down in London or over in Manchester, here in Manchester. Just lead us. We know we're all so different. Some we believe you'll give a ministry of stewardship, practical support. We commit each church to you that's represented here. We know the battle is heavy on the local front. And that World Missions is completely linked with the local church. And we need each other more than we'll ever know. Strengthen us in our local churches. Strengthen us tomorrow in Newcastle as we have meetings in 25 churches, or at least 25 different meetings. Oh, Lord. We know the enemy's out to destroy every pastor in this country, to divide every church, to confuse every witness. We pray for Mission England, for Luis Palau and Eric Dalvis and others preaching in London tonight, for Billy as he comes here next year. And pray that there'll be no division between evangelism in Britain and evangelism at the ends of the earth, but that there'll be a balancing of the priorities, that it won't be 99% and 1%, or even 90 and 10%, but that there'll be a greater balance. For your glory, in Jesus' name. Amen.