In this sermon, the speaker discusses the purpose of a conference and the importance of meeting with Jesus Christ. He emphasizes the need to put together a team and highlights that Jesus chose a group of very ordinary people for his team. The speaker also mentions that Jesus described the crowds as harassed and helpless, indicating the need for compassion and support. Lastly, the speaker emphasizes the importance of absolute commitment and selflessness in serving God's mission.

Well, we haven't prayed so far in this evening meeting, so let's commit this meeting to the Lord. Let's pray. Father, we really want to thank you and praise you for all your goodness towards us. We don't want to just sing these words in our hearts, we want to enthrone you and we want to make you our king. We want to ask you to be king to the Lord of this conference. We want to ask you to control us and lead us by your spirit into the truth and the life that you have for us this week. We want to pray for all those who are laboring hard behind the scenes so that we can enjoy this conference. We especially commit the conference staff to you this evening. Speak to us now, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. I want to add my word of welcome to the many words of welcome I'm sure you've already received. It's really great to see you. I spend a lot of my life going around trying to recruit people for Operation Mobilization. It's always a tremendous encouragement to stand here and see those whom God has drawn to be with us for this month. And I'm sure there's probably 800 stories of how God led you to be with OM. How many of you would say you came this summer because of something you heard in a sermon? Someone from OM possibly was preaching and God spoke to you and that's why you're here. Please raise your hand. Raise your hand high, this is important. How many would say you are here at this conference because a friend told you about OM and about their experience of OM in the past possibly? All preachers immediately retire I think it's been. How many people would say they came because they picked up a piece of literature, OM literature and read it and God spoke to them through that piece of literature? That's encouraging. How many saw an OM film strip and that's the reason or a video, that's the reason why you came? Praise the Lord, 3, 4, 5, 6, growing. That is encouraging to see how God brings different people in different ways. Now this is an OM conference so we do have a little bit of literature. In fact we have a lot of literature. And I want to just present a few books to you tonight. Now we have four book tables at this conference. There's an English book table, a French, a German and a Dutch. And I'm going to present English books this evening, we'll be presenting other languages on other evenings. Now here's the technical aspect of these book tables. All the books are priced in Belgian francs. And books can be bought in two ways, with cash and without cash. Now that probably needs some explanation. In other words you can use the money you still retain with you to actually purchase these books if you want to at the book desk. But if you don't have enough money or you want to use the money you have in another way, there is a second way of buying books. You can take the books that you want to purchase. Go to the book table and you will be able to fill in an OM conference invoice. And that means you'll have to pay your home OM office by the end of September. So if you're in Britain you'd send a check to Denzig Street, if you're in Germany you'd send a check to Mosbach and so on. Now some of us in OM really believe in Christian books. For some of us just the feel of books is exhilarating. I have this illness, I can't actually go into a Christian bookshop and come out empty handed. I've tried hundreds of times and I've failed. And I pray this illness will prove to be contagious this week. How many of you have read David Watson's Fear No Evil? Please put your hand up, I'm very interested. Incredible how many of you have not read this book. This is, I think, the most moving book I have ever personally read. David Watson is an Anglican minister and evangelist whom God used in a tremendous way in Britain and in many parts of the world. He wrote his biography a couple of years ago, well it's twelve months ago, which is well worth reading in itself. And in the last chapter of that book he describes how the day before he finished the book he went to his doctor. It was just for a regular check-up for an ailment he'd suffered for many years. And he mentioned some secondary pains he'd been having. The doctor was immediately very, very concerned, had him in Gaius Hospital within two days. They had an investigatory operation and they found that he had fairly massive cancer. And that's where this book begins. It's the last ten or eleven months of David Watson's life. And he tells you in the most honest, moving way of the struggles he had during those ten or eleven months. At the same time it's a book packed with the most readable theology. Because he goes in great detail into the great question of suffering. Is suffering a test? Is suffering a punishment? Overcoming suffering. You will not be able to stop reading that book once you start. So buy it. Put it in the bottom of your suitcase. And start reading on August 26th or 25th as soon as the August campaign ends. I honestly cannot sufficiently recommend that book. It is a tremendous book. It's only 105 Belgian francs. The founder and international coordinator of this movement, as many of you know, is George Woerwer. This is the first summer that George has not been present at the summer campaign conferences. I was on telephone to him just a couple of days ago in America where he is for the summer. And he was explaining again how he feels torn. He just loves to be here. And yet God has given him some unique opportunities this summer in America. We really missed his ministry at the June and July conference. But you can still get much of what is up on George's heart through his books. And I'd like to really highly personally recommend these three books to you. Revolution of Love and Balance. I remember reading that book. I was traveling to a meeting in Swindon in Wiltshire. I arrived an hour early for the meeting, went to a quiet side street and picked up this book and started reading it. The next thing I knew I looked at my watch and I was 20 minutes late for my meeting. It's short. It's immensely readable. I was almost going to say read it at your peril because there's such a challenge with that book. Literature Evangelism is a very practical book. How to get out the word of God. How to give it out. Hunger for Reality is another of George's books. Some of you might say what's this conference all about? Is it so that we can get 300 to France and 130 to Austria? Is that what the conference is all about? We believe this conference would be valuable even if there was no campaign to follow. Our concern this week is that all of us have a fresh meeting with the living God. So you will find worship, you will find prayer, you will find the preaching of the word central to this conference. Paul Bilheimer's book, Destined for the Throne, is a terrific book on worship. We are obviously also praying that many of you at this conference will sense the call of God upon your life. We are praying that for many of you this will be the first step to a life of service for Jesus Christ. Therefore we have a number of books on the subject of the evangelization of the world. Elizabeth Goldsmith's very practical book, Going Places. You sense God speaking to you this week. You want to move into Christian service. How do you go about it? Is Bible college essential? Do you need a missionary call in order to be a missionary? And whatever is a missionary call, any words? That very practical little book deals with those issues. Then of course we have this famous volume, Operation World. Now I really encourage my heart, put your hand up if you've used, you don't have to read it from cover to cover, but you've used this book. Raise your hand. That's great. When we first came across this book, we wondered whether it was really worth printing. I mean just, you know, pages and pages of prayer requests. It's become STL's best selling volume. Neil, have you any idea how many we've now printed? No. I think it's well over a hundred and twenty, a hundred and thirty thousand copies of this book have gone out. If you haven't used it, purchase your copy. It's a very valuable handbook for world prayer. Once you get into praying for different countries, you might want to find out exactly where they are. So we do give you a world map, just so you can be sure. And a reminder to pray for our ship ministry. And then finally we have these prayer cards. The idea is they'll just fit in your pocket. And when you get a spare minute, you just take out a card. I've just pulled out Saudi Arabia there. Facts and figures about the land on the front, prayer requests on the back. And this pack presents the 70 spiritually most needy nations in the world today. So do make your way to the book table immediately after our evening service. And all your computer results are out and all the rest of it. Now let's turn to the greatest book of all, to God's word and to the ninth chapter of Matthew's gospel. We're going to read from verse 35 of chapter 9 through to verse 10 of chapter 10. And I'll read in English and please follow in your own language. Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every kind of disease and sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. He called his 12 disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out evil spirits and to cure every kind of disease and sickness. These are the names of the 12 apostles. And then the 12 names follow. Verse 5. These 12 Jesus sent out with the following instructions. Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel. As you go, preach this message. The kingdom of heaven is near. Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received, freely give. Do not take along any gold or silver or copper in your belts. Take no bag for the journey or extra tunic or sandals or a staff. For the worker is worth his keep. These evening services in our conference we feel are extremely important. They are going to be opportunities for worship together each night. But also each evening we are going to open the word of God and we are going to give you what the Bible says on some particular issue. Tonight we are going to have a very general kind of subject. We are involved in a pre-campaign conference this week. And tonight we are going to see how Jesus conducted a pre-campaign conference. Tomorrow night we are going to look at holiness and purity of life. On Tuesday night we are going to have a guest speaker, a great old friend of OM, Ralf Schallens. And I am personally really looking forward to hearing Ralf minister to it. Wednesday we are going to be thinking of the Lordship of Christ and of the necessity of absolute commitment to Him. And on Thursday we are going to be thinking of the goodness of our God. And every time what we say we are really going to seek to base on scripture, to base upon God's word. So let's look together at this passage in Matthew 9 and 10. As I said, we have here the Lord Jesus conducting His own pre-campaign conference. In chapter 10 Jesus sends out the twelve disciples for the first time. We are going to see that the Lord Jesus covers most of the subjects with His disciples that we are going to cover together this week. And I want to show you tonight, very briefly, because I know you have had a hard day already, seven things that the Lord Jesus showed His disciples before He sent them out. The first thing Jesus did, and we see it in the last few verses of chapter 9, was to give the disciples a vision. He points out the crowds to His disciples and He urges the disciples to look at the vast crowds. And it is our earnest prayer that this week you are going to receive a vision for God's will. On Tuesday night we will be spending a number of hours together, four, five, maybe six hours together, praying for God's will. You will be receiving first-hand reports from all over the world. Each day there will be sections of the day given over to prayer for various parts of the world. And we really trust that your vision will grow this week. When Jesus pointed out the crowds to His disciples, He described them. And His description is very interesting. He says they are harassed. Harassed and helpless. It is a word which in the days of our Lord Jesus was used to describe a man who had got lost on a journey. He was going around and around in circles. He was going nowhere. And he was utterly exhausted by the activity. And then Jesus uses the word helpless. Again this word was used to describe a man or a woman who was suffering the effects of drink. Lying prostrate on the ground. And then Jesus says they are like sheep without a shepherd. Without a shepherd's care the sheep cannot find food or water. They cannot find shade from the heat. This, says Jesus, is what the world is like. Crowds of people going around and around in circles. Absolutely helpless. Like sheep without a shepherd. And I hope this week you are going to get a fresh understanding of the condition of people who do not know Jesus Christ. A very popular view in certain sections of the church today is what we know as universalism. The idea that there is a God of love somewhere up there. And He is so loving that no one needs really fear. One day every man, every woman on earth will find their way into His heaven. Some may need a second chance in a second life, but eventually everyone will get there. This is a very popular view in certain sections of the church today. It's a very pleasant idea, isn't it? It seems to present God to us as being so kind and so loving. It's very attractive. The only problem is, it is not contained in the word of God. In fact, the Bible says the exact opposite. The Bible says man without Christ is lost. The Bible says there is a hell just as there is a heaven. And the Bible says there is no name under heaven apart from the name of Jesus by which people can enter heaven. I trust that this week you are going to get a real biblical vision of the world. A world crowded with lost men and women. And then the second thing that Jesus did in this conference was to show His disciples the absolute priority of prayer. Jesus says, look at these crowds. Now I want you to rush out in all directions and seek to win them. No, Jesus didn't say that at all, did He? He said, look at these crowds. I want you to pray. I want you to pray to the Lord of the harvest, to send out labourers into His harvest. It's very important to appreciate that this lost world is God's harvest. Out of these millions, God is going to harvest a people for His Son. He's going to do it. You're not. I'm not. He is going to do it. It's His harvest, not ours. So we don't rush off in all directions immediately. We come to meet with the Lord of the harvest. And that's the third thing which Jesus did at this conference. Notice in verse 1 of chapter 10, He called His disciples to Him. So the primary message of this conference is not, go into all the world and preach the gospel. That's not our first message. Our first word is not go, it's come. Come to the Lord Jesus. Meet with Him in a fresh way. Be renewed by His Spirit. And then go with Him. With Him into this lost world from which He is going to gather a harvest. And if we had time tonight, I could take you through the New Testament and show you that this is how Jesus did it every time. Every time He was sending people forward, He first called them to Himself. You remember at the time of His ascension, when He was sending out the apostles into the world, He said, first of all, wait in Jerusalem. Don't go rushing around Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and so on. Wait where you are. Until I come by my Spirit and meet with you and empower you for the service I'm calling you to. And that's the purpose of this conference. A fresh meeting with our Lord Jesus Christ. But there were some very practical things which needed to be done at this conference. So the fourth thing Jesus did was to put together a team. And you can see it was a pretty terrific team, verses 2 to 4 of chapter 10. And we're going to spend quite a lot of time this week together doing that in our campaign meetings, just sorting out teams. And by looking at this team, we can learn something about all teams. The first thing I see about this team is that they were a group of very, very ordinary people. You read the list. Not many of them have gone down in history in any incredible way. Some of course have. Not many were great academics or maybe great evangelists. They were a group of very, very ordinary people. And isn't that an encouragement tonight? Your team, probably definitely including the leader, will be a group of very, very ordinary people. But you see a second thing about this team, and that is that it was a very special group of ordinary people. It was an exceptional mixture of ordinary people. Just look at two of these people with me. First of all, we've got Simon the Zealot. Now I wonder if you know anything about the Zealots. The Zealots were one of the most nationalistic group in Israel at this time. They would do anything for the nation of Israel. They would gladly give their lives for the nation. Now look at another man, Matthew the Tax Collector. What was this man spending his life doing? He was spending his days taking taxes from the nation of Israel to give to the occupying power from Rome. If Matthew and Simon had met anywhere else but in the company of Jesus, Simon would probably have plunged a dagger into Matthew's back. But Jesus takes this great mixture of people and he welds them together into a team. And I guarantee that you're going to come back in a month's time testifying as to how God has done that again. You'll find when you get together, teams of 10, 15, 20, that you're very, very different people. You're from different backgrounds, different temperaments. You have different theological convictions, different denominations, and so on and so on. And your first thought will probably be, can I possibly live with this crowd for three weeks? And your second thought will probably be, no. But if you just hold on, I believe God will do tremendous miracles in your life this month. It's a great privilege I get the forms back, which many of you will fill in at the end of this summer campaign. Testimonies of what God has done in your life this month. I've been reading them every summer for a number of years. Time and time again we get this testimony, incredible unity. God just did a miracle. It'll happen again this summer. Uniting an extraordinary group of very ordinary people. And then the fifth thing that Jesus did was, he appointed them. You can see this in the parallel passage, you don't need to turn to it, in Mark chapter 3 and verse 14. In other words, Jesus didn't just send them out en masse and say, do anything and everything. Jesus appointed them to specific tasks on the team. And in the original word you also have the idea of gifts. The Lord Jesus gave gifts to these people he appointed. And I want you to look out for this, this summer. I think you have a marvelous opportunity to discover what gifts the Lord Jesus has given to you. Again, it's another very regular result of these summer campaigns. You're going to find yourself, if you're willing, doing a vast variety of things in a very short time. That's often how people discover their spiritual gifts. You may have been in a church, the kind of church where you're allowed to do very, very little. And all of a sudden you're going to find yourself possibly leading devotions. Leading devotions on the team, preaching in the open air, taking a children's meeting. Maybe doing a bit of administration on the team. Vast variety of things you're going to find yourself doing. And you may well find yourself feeling quite comfortable about some areas and distinctly uncomfortable about other areas. And I believe that if you're open to the Spirit of God this summer, this could be one of the great results. You will discover spiritual gifts, and at the end of this summer you'll have a new direction in your life. Gifts and guidance are so closely aligned, aren't they? As you discover your gifts, you'll discover the direction your ministry should be taking. And then look at the sixth thing that Jesus did, he gave them a message. Verse 7, he said, as you go, I want you to preach this message, the kingdom of heaven is near. Later in his ministry, Jesus said to the Pharisees, the kingdom of God doesn't come visibly. People won't say, here it is, or there it is, because the kingdom of God is within you. In this rebellious world, God's kingdom is those places where at any given time, his rule and his reign is acknowledged. Here is the Christian message, says Jesus. As you go into this rebellious world, I want you to preach that there is an alternative. There's an alternative community of which you can be a part. That church, the church where God's rule and reign is willingly accepted. It's a community with different values, with different goals from the people of the world. It's a community of holiness and of forgiveness. It's a community of love, it's a community of power. It's very important to appreciate this about the message we are going to be proclaiming this summer. Our message is not just about the future. It's not just about heaven and hell. It's about reality today. It's about knowing God today. Jesus said, as you go, I want you to preach my kingdom. And then he showed them something else which was so vital. He said, I don't want you just to preach, but I want you to demonstrate what you're preaching. So verse 8, I want you to heal the sick, I want you to raise the dead, I want you to cleanse those who have leprosy. In other words, let's not just be involved in words. Let's not just be involved in proclamation, but also in demonstration. If we're going to proclaim love this summer, then let's love one another. If we're going to proclaim that the gospel is all about new relationships with God and with one another, then let's show the quality of our relationships on these teams. If we're going to proclaim this summer a God of power, then let's demonstrate that. If and our trust in this God. And then finally, the Lord Jesus, at the close of this campaign conference, called for absolute commitment. You can see it there in verses 8 and 9. Freely you have received, then freely give. Don't take along gold or silver or copper in your belts. Take no bag for the journey, of course the literature bag is definitely excluded, but apart from that, take no bag for the journey. In other words, Jesus is saying, if you're trying to get something for yourself out of this mission, if that's your primary motive, then please don't come. You're freely received of the grace of God in your life. You're freely received, liberally, of his riches in your life. Now Jesus said, I want you to leave everything behind, and I just want you to go out with the attitude of giving. Let's learn the words of that ancient prayer, that we might learn to give and not to count the cost. Just to give of ourselves, freely and completely, without keeping any records. I'm personally very worried about the kind of commercialism coming into the Christian church in some parts these days. An increasing number of preachers and performing groups who just won't appear unless they are absolutely guaranteed a certain fee. Certain Christian publishers whose first motive in publishing is not the ministry value, but the profit value of the article. I don't think that such things have a place in the mission of Jesus Christ. Freely, we have received. Now let's go out and give ourselves unreservedly to God and to others. This then is how the Lord Jesus prepared his people at this pre-campaign conference. I trust we'll have a vision of the world this week. I trust we'll see again the absolute priority of prayer. I pray that we'll know what it is to come to Jesus before we go with him into the world. I pray we'll know the joys and struggles and tensions of these teams being put together. I trust we'll get an increasing idea of what our message is, this vital message we have to share. Then we'll go unreservedly, having freely received so much, to give everything. Let's pray together. Lord Jesus, we want to thank you that you're calling us to yourself again this evening. Many of us would have to say we have been far away from you in recent months. We have not walked with you as closely as we should have done. And Lord, we're just astounded at your mercy, that again this evening, this week, you're giving us a fresh chance to come back to you and to share your life again together this week. Lord, help us to come and meet with us, we pray. And send us from here with a real vision of your glory and of your majesty, that we might share your beauty with this lost, disfigured world. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Thank you, Nigel. Our conference nurse has caught chickenpox. Do we have two nurses here who would be willing to share a duty with us? A duty with each other during the course of the coming week. Can the three of you then that I have seen, or any others who are qualified nurses, please go immediately to room 44 and discuss the situation there. Thank you. Secondly, I now am happy to announce the O.M. Holiday Camp Awards. Those sleeping in rooms 331, 338, 333, 337, 335, 334 and 336. Your tents are awaiting you next to the swimming pool. And finally, please remember that those that want to change a field, it would help us with our calculations. If you took a green form at the back, there are one or two people who are holding them up there. Take one. Whichever door you go out, please make sure you get one. Hand it in immediately to the person who gave it to you or bring it to room 48. Please have your lights out in good time tonight. And please, the rule at O.M. conferences is no alarm clocks before 6.30. If you want to talk to the Lord before then, trust the Lord to wake you up. Good night.