In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of being serious about Jesus and having a total commitment to Him. They mention the need for missionaries and believers to be filled with the Holy Spirit and have discernment in order to effectively share the gospel. The speaker also addresses the issue of people drifting away from Jesus and explores the reasons behind it. They mention a book called Operation World, which seems to be a valuable resource for understanding global missions. Overall, the sermon encourages believers to stay faithful to Jesus and finish the race strong.

Here's a few of my cassette tapes, and since our time together is short, one of the ways we can get more time together, and you can always feel free to write to me and ask questions about what you hear on these tapes, is if you could get a couple of these cassette tapes. I just produced them in this brand new style, produced in New Zealand. Why 200,000 workers? Some of you know that God has put upon our hearts, those of us connected with the 82,000 movement, which is simply a network of like-minded churches and Christians across the world, to see 200,000 new workers raised up. That includes tent makers, it includes people behind the scenes, it includes the whole body of Christ going to the whole world. You may want to pick up that tape and then write for more information. This is a message on being big-hearted. I still feel that the average Christian is not a big-hearted person. I'm sorry to say that even many Christian leaders that I meet, you're with them a very short time and they're picking some other Christian leader apart and presenting their little narrow-minded viewpoint. That sometimes happens even in our own fellowship. That message was first given on the Afghan border, where missionaries from different societies, different backgrounds, were working together and they were having some real tensions. And it eventually went into print, being big-hearted. And then this little tape, why do people get away from Jesus? No matter what method of evangelism you use, I can assure you a certain percentage drift away. The very people who write some of the books drift away. Why do so many people drift away from Jesus? Why do we see so few finishing the race when they're 70, 80 and 90 years of age and having walked with Jesus Christ their whole life? So that's a little tape on that subject. I think we've already mentioned Operation World, but I'd like to say just another word about this amazing book. By the way, I just had a tremendous meeting in a church here this morning. I'm just amazed at so many great churches you have here in New Zealand. I would have thought the way New Zealand's going, you'd be able to send out your own 200,000 missionaries, but maybe 2,000 might be good for starters. But we sold every copy we had of this book this morning. This is the most significant missionary book in the history of the church. It presents prayer requests on every nation in the world. It'll be reprinted again in the year 2001. So this copy's still got to last a couple of years. So if you don't have Operation World, anybody without two copies is probably a backslider. So even if you have one copy, you might want to get another one. Serving as Senders, a book we've been emphasizing during this week, probably the most significant book to help churches be serious. It's amazing how churches can be so professional about certain things and so unprofessional when it comes to world missions. I was reading an article about persecuted Christians, and a top American government character, very much involved in human rights, when he was asked by a woman concerned about persecution of Christians in China, she mentioned house groups, and he said, What's that? Shows a professional person can have a blind spot about something that is so simple and so basic. So Serving as Senders, Priority One, The Great Mission by Robertson McQuilkin, How to Be a World-Class Christian, that's only a few dollars. These are outstanding books, basic books, that I believe will extend the impact of this tremendous event. And we all want to do that. And that's one of the reasons. After nine years of holding back on invitations to New Zealand, the UNOJ and open air campaigners managed to lasso me in here. And it's not because I don't want to be here, I love to be here, but I do have a few other responsibilities and places that I'm supposed to be. I'm excited about tonight. God did something here last night. Let us never despise what God does, like last night, and only think in terms of tonight. Because really what I want to say tonight is going to help, I hope it's going to help. Many of you came forward last night and you were prayed, some of you were filled with the Spirit, some of you made Christ the Lord of your life, some of you just surrendered some area of your life you were struggling with. God works in different people in different ways. And those of us who are praying, those of us who are ministering, God is working in us. We don't feel often inadequate to lay hands on someone else and pray for them when we know our own needs. I've got my little globe here. I thank God for this little audio-visual, and I don't think you're ever going to forget it. The Lord Jesus said, Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every person. One of my great goals in life is to find people who are serious about Jesus. Not talking about Jesus, but are serious about Jesus. I listened to that tape by Ray Comfort this afternoon when I was out running. I tell you, he's a serious dude. The fact that you've had the two of us in the same conference, you should have had a panel discussion with us. But this guy is serious about Jesus. He's serious about heaven and hell. I love people who talk about hell, because hell is real. And today, so often, that is left out of our messages. Billy Graham was the most outspoken person I ever heard as a young Christian on the subject of hell. He constantly talked about hell. He wrote a booklet that I distributed all over the world on the subject of hell. And I must confess that one of my motivations that's kept me going every single day now for 42 years is I believe that men outside of Jesus Christ are lost and going to hell. If the gospel is good at all, it must be good for all. God didn't send the Lord Jesus just to die for Americans, or Brits, or New Zealanders. It's for every person in this great world in which we live. And it is a scandal. Fred Jarvis, one of the most anointed preachers I've ever listened to, believed that the failure to take the gospel to those who had never heard was the crime of the century. He wrote this most thought-provoking, aggravating, mind-bending book called Crime of the Century. He was not exactly a dummy. He had four doctor's degrees. He founded so many different Christian ministries across the globe. Nobody ever made a list of them. And at a fairly ripe age, he went to glory. I've had the privilege of being mentored by over 100 men and women of God whose shoelaces I am not worthy to tie, including such men as Oswald J. Smith, who is probably the greatest missionary statesman of this past generation. Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every person. This is what OJ is about. Let's not forget it when we rise up in the morning, when we go to sleep at night, when we face tough situations. Let us not forget that we are simply obeying the Lord Jesus Christ. John 14, verse 6, Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh to the Father but by me. As a young Christian, I found the challenge of the lostness of people, because I was a people person even before I was a Christian, so overwhelming that I almost lost my faith. People say, well, is that possible? I can assure you in many of our universities, even our Christian colleges, as people study psychology and philosophy and anthropology and many other interesting subjects that are often anti-Christian, they lose their faith. I went to a very strong liberal arts college university, and many of them were there preparing for the ministry. Many of them had sort of a biblical faith when they arrived there. They had been converted. They had been born again. They had experiences with God. Some of them didn't. Ninety percent overthrew the Christian faith in the freshman year, as far as any biblical faith. The pressure was on to become universalistic. We had guys going into the ministry that were into staring out candles, using New Age theories years ago, before people even talked about New Age. I don't know if we are aware of just how powerful the infiltration of New Age is into the Church and among people who profess the Lord Jesus Christ. The amount that's getting into the cinema, the amount that's getting into the bookstores, it's just, it's overwhelming. I don't know what you've heard about the future. We get some very glowing prophecies. We've had them in England. We should have had revival 25 years ago. The whole nation should have been converted by now. The Prime Minister should be standing on his head clapping Jesus with his feet. But somehow a lot of it has not exactly happened. The fact is in Europe it is getting rougher every week to be a follower of Jesus Christ. The tremendous amount of agnosticism. The rapid growth in Islam is a phenomenal intimidator so that the government is putting the pressure on to accept Islam equally as Christianity. And I know the whole world was weeping over Princess Di and I will not get into that subject. But there was a good possibility that she was about to marry a Muslim. You can imagine the impact globally if that would have happened, my dear friends. And today, even among Christians, there is phenomenal ignorance about Islam. And a high percentage of women who marry into Islam ended up as beaten and battered wives. Probably I shouldn't even say that. I'm liable to get into a court case. Perhaps not in New Zealand. But we are a naive generation. We are an untaught generation. A majority of people have never even read the Bible through. Now help make my day. I know New Zealand is a little bit ahead of the average country. Hallelujah. So how many of you have read the Bible through at least once? And it's God's Word. How many have done that? Raise your hand. Well, that's less than half, folks. Maybe I'll have to come back again to New Zealand. Let me throw out a little false motivation. I'm into false motivation, especially with God's chosen frozen. If you will make a commitment to read the Bible through and you finish it by this time next year, you tell one of the leaders of open-air campaigners, I will send you... They'll send me your address and I will send you 10 mega-motivating, challenging, life-bending books, including one on sex and marriage that has to go in a plain wrapper, only with their approval. And really, every Christian ought to read the Bible through at least once. We go around claiming it's God's Word. Some of us get uptight, almost about to punch someone in the nose who tells us the Bible is a pack of fairy tales, and yet we haven't read it. Read it in a modern translation. You know, it's always good when you read something to understand. It's sort of helpful. One of the verses I wanted to share with you is from the book of Isaiah, chapter 6. No need to turn to it. But we have in that chapter a picture of the glory of God. We have a worship experience. Then suddenly we find repentance, brokenness, and cleansing. And I believe that's been happening here and that happened tonight, last night, maybe tonight again. And then we find these amazing words coming from Isaiah. He says, Lord, here am I. Send me. Isn't that amazing? What about you young men? Have you ever prayed that prayer? We have the new modern translation of the Isaiah prayer to the average spineless male of our generation. Lord, here am I. Send my sister. Now the sisters are getting nervous about this. And so now they're praying, Lord, here am I. Send my grandmother. Praise God for grandmothers. We're getting an increased number of them on Operation Mobilization. I shared this last night, but just for those of you who only arrived tonight from this wonderful church, I was sharing about Tony Campalo. As I now have four grandchildren, I'm trying to figure out how to relate to them and it's just been so much fun. Tony Campalo says that grandchildren are God's reward for not killing your kids. Probably a little bit overstated. Tony Campalo has a way of sort of getting in trouble. Have you followed his ministry? I just love him. He was the main speaker at our big OM event just a few months ago. I guess my favorite story about Tony Campalo is when he was with the Presbyterians. Very staid Presbyterian church. He's talking about hunger. He's talking about AIDS. He's talking about people going to hell. He's talking about suffering. Nobody moves. Nothing. You know, Tony, I think, likes to see a little response. So guess what he did? He said, S-H-I-T, but he didn't spell it. He said it good and loud. I will tell you, the Presbyterians were in a big buzz after that. The place just about came unglued. And that story got around and doors closed to Mr. Tony Campalo, who is on the blacklist of quite a few churches and organizations. I got in trouble just telling the story, spelling the word. I might be in trouble tonight. The point of what he was trying to do was that we so often, as God's people, are more concerned about our little pet things, some of which are not even mentioned in the whole of the New Testament, we're more concerned about our little pet things than we are over justice, suffering, giant problems across the world that are just staggering to the imagination, like the millions of street children who have no place to live, the millions that are dying of AIDS, especially in Africa, the millions and millions who have no home or place to lay their head, and the hundreds of millions who have never even heard the gospel of Jesus Christ. The Holy Ghost I read about in the book of Acts, which I have been reading regularly for forty-some years, I believe brings a Holy Ghost. And if you are not going somewhere for God, that may be to the beaches, as it will be this summer, or it may be across the street, if you are not going somewhere for God, then I would check out what spirit you may be into. We cannot get away from this great commission of the Lord. World Missions is taught from Genesis to Revelation. We don't have time to give the biblical basis of missions, but some of you know of the great speakers that have gone out across the world, including great pastors, who are preaching what the whole Bible says about missions. One of the privileges we have in Operation Mobilization is partnership with about one thousand churches. In-depth partnership where the pastors come on OM, where we go to their churches, we have meetings, we have training weekends, some of it similar to what you are doing. One of the reasons I emphasize Acts 13, some of the material we have is about Acts 13, is because we see the local church is the key to world evangelism. Maybe we can just look at that for a few moments together. Acts chapter 13. We find five people praying. Pick it up in verse 2 as we battle the clock. While they were serving the Lord and fasting and praying, the Holy Spirit said to them, Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul to the work to which I have called them. Isn't this amazing? This was a fairly new church. These were not people that had been trained in the local seminary. Many of them now have cemeteries. This was the very birth of the church. Yet they were gathered together in prayer, and the Holy Spirit said, Barnabas and Saul, you're going. Verse 3. They fasted and prayed. Here we see the church becoming proactive. Placed their hands on them and sent them off. Having been sent by the Holy Spirit, Barnabas and Saul went to Seleucian, from there to the islands of Cyprus. When they arrived at Seleucus, they preached the word of God in the synagogue. They had John Mark with them to help in the work. And I would like to just say that one of my favorite words, it might seem like a boring word to some people, but one of my favorite words is the word helper. And I know this great OJ event. I've only been in three cities. It's gone on in other cities as well. Because on my original schedule, I thought I was going to New Plymouth. I sort of missed that. But maybe another time. I love the way so many places here are named after places I preach in England. It sort of gives that nostalgia, that feeling. It's a little bizarre, but praise God. But I want to thank all those in OJ and in this church as well, who have worked behind the scenes as helpers to make this happen. God's work is teamwork. I believe one of the mistakes in American Christianity, my own native country, and I don't want to give you my 100 problems with American Christianity tonight, it's very depressing. But is we have lifted up people too much. We have made ordinary flesh and blood into heroes. And then we have seen them fall, and we have seen them locked up in prison. We've seen pictures of them going into brothels with prostitutes. It's been just slightly depressing. Before God, we are all sinners saved by grace. Let us not lift up speakers. Great speakers are often idiots. Just ask their wives. We need great speakers. But we also need great helpers. And more than anything else, we need great lovers. Great agape lovers. And I believe the work of God goes forward as we see various gifts functioning in symphony. And many times for every outstanding person pioneering their way through some kind of diabolical jungle of hellish minefields, we need many, many helpers. And I want to say to you young leaders, develop wisdom. Don't be just big in the mouth and short circuit in the head. Because today, many, many women are being thrown prematurely into big responsibility. They go for a few years. They blow their organizations apart. They blow their marriages apart. And a lot of people get hurt in the process. I am concerned about the massive exit of people from the church. I've learned more that were hurt when they came on OS and had an unpleasant exit from our movement. I've learned more from those people than from people who stayed around and patted me on the back and asked me to give them more thunder when I felt the Lord Jesus was trying to shut me up and get me to be a little quieter. There's a place for quiet. There's a place for thunder. But one thing for sure, if I can't back up with my life, what I'm talking about from the pulpit, then I believe I ought to go do something else. I'm not talking about perfection. I'm talking about reality. I'm talking about integrity. I'm talking about walking in the light. I'm talking about at least having some strategy to develop humility and brokenness. And all the wonderful biblical mega-principles that we read about in the work and in the Word of God. Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. That's great. We hear great stories of huge numbers of people going. But my burden is the quality of these workers. And I thank God for your emphasis on Jerusalem. If you can't do it in the streets of Auckland, I wonder if you're going to do it in the streets of Bombay. If you can't win at least a few people to Jesus Christ here in your own culture, in your own language, where it is relatively easy. I wonder how many you're going to win to Christ in Mecca. You'll probably be martyred before you open your mouth. So don't fly there without a special training program. I remember a particular incident and I just thank God for people with a prayer ministry. And I hope you as young workers, so many of you look so young, and I hope you will learn to esteem those who are praying for you. Those who are supporting you. Even here in New Zealand, when I ask people what their ministry is, they never mention usually their job, their so-called secular job. They always talk about what they're doing at church. You know, they're teaching Sunday school. I tried it again this morning on a guy, interesting guy. And I finally had to draw out of him what kind of work he was doing. I found out he was a cook in a seemingly nice situation, helping people. And I believe his cooking is a ministry. I don't think we should allow anymore the separation of those things that are considered spiritual and those things that are considered secular. I tell you, if a spirit-filled man works in the police department, or a woman. We just had a wonderful woman in Britain just murdered, just stabbed to death in the last couple of days. It just came on the news. And I know men and women in the police department who are dedicated Christians. A couple of years ago I went to the Isle of Man, a unique island off the coast of Britain. And the Isle of Man, the chief constable is an outstanding, dedicated follower of Jesus Christ. I had the privilege of playing a little golf with him. I always like to mention that. My golf. Because it helps people. Some people that think I'm a bit crazy when they hear I play golf. Oh, wonderful, he's balanced. I took up golf some years ago when I read about the possibility of a midlife crisis. I don't know if any of you have read these books on midlife crisis. I was feeling great until I read these books. Really. And I thank God, you know, I can never remember ever having that midlife crisis. My wife said, because my whole life has just been a crisis. But I tried to take up this sport of golf. I got some very cheap clubs in Canada. I think about $40 for a half set of clubs. That's a pretty good price. I don't like to spend money on anything but Bibles. My wife thinks I'm extreme in that area as well. Do pray for my wife, by the way. But I must confess, I found it difficult. Especially playing with other people. So a lot of times I just go out on my own. And the end of the day when everybody's leaving, the sun's going down, I go on my own. And then I like to run. After I hit the ball, I like to run to the ball. Hit it again and run. Tap it in the hole and run. And if people are in front of me, then I make my own path. I don't like this one, two, three, four, five. So I make my own path across the golf course. Seriously, I was able to play eighteen holes in less than two hours with no cheating. Anyway, it's very upsetting if you try to do that in a threesome. One of the reasons I mention these things is sometimes we have the idea that missionaries and people like myself that believe so much in the fullness of the Spirit, in radical discipleship, in just a total commitment to the Lord Jesus, that somehow we're a little bit less than humans. The fact of the matter is the more filled we are with the Spirit, the more we have discernment and God's love and grace flowing through us, I believe the more sensitive we are about so many things that exist in our culture. And music, even so-called secular music, is more greatly appreciated. I partly learned this from one of my mentors, a man and close friend named Dr. Francis Schaffer. And when I began to read about him as a young Christian, rather hyper, wanting to use every inch of my energy for evangelism and prayer and shaking the world for Christ. And I got to know this man and saw his interest in the world of films and the world of arts and got to go through some of his material which I believe is still relevant in the 90s. It was a huge blessing to me. And I made a paradigm shift and realized that somehow it all fits together. What the policewoman is doing, what the person in ballet is doing, what the carpenter is doing, what the farmer is doing, what the person working in the stock market is doing, what the person in the banks is doing, what the preacher and the missionary and the full-time worker behind the scenes, it all fits together. It's all part of the kingdom of God. And what your little wife has been doing back there in the kitchen with the three or four kids and cooking and washing and all those things, that is not second class. That is part of the kingdom of God. And if she decides that she would also like to go out and have a career, I flew here on a plane in which the women was the captain, at least to L.A. on Virgin Airline. Then I came from there with a better airline known as Air New Zealand. And tomorrow night I fly back and in God's providence at a breakfast meeting the other day, I met the man who's going to be the co-pilot of the plane I fly back on tomorrow night, a committed follower of Jesus Christ. We're going to have some Holy Ghost fellowship in the cockpit with my jacket. So if after maybe a time of training and experience in evangelism, God leads you back to some particular job here in Auckland, that is not second best. Don't go around feeling bad all your life because you wanted to be in ministry and the door didn't open to be in ministry. I meet business people that are on the cutting edge. They're putting money into world evangelism. And sometimes they say, well, I really long to be in ministry, but if I can't do that at least I can get my money. I say, thank you very much. That is one of the most strategic ministries in the work of the kingdom. And I believe the average evangelist has such a cockeyed view about money, I don't even like to talk about it because I get upset and they get upset and the whole thing can be a real downer. But I would urge you to go back into the New Testament and see what God says about money. And I would urge you to study history and to study about world missions and to see how God has used business people and farmers and all kinds of people who put their business in the hands of God. Often they live under greater pressure than those of us who are in preaching and teaching and Christian leadership ministry on the mission field. That's the truth. One of my supporters in Singapore has been in court cases for I don't know how many days. Somebody that worked for him turned against him, sued him for ten million. It's gone on for two, three years. I have a friend who supports our ministry. I went to high school with him. In fact, I went to primary school with him. What a joy to see him come to Jesus. He's in the oil business. And he has a lot of petrol stations. We call them gas stations in America. And of course, if you have a petrol station in America, somebody is suing you if it's an old station because some of the stuff went into the ground and if it's any in the ground, you're being sued. I don't know how much time my dear friend Charlie has to spend with lawyers and in courts and his phone is always ringing. People are always banging on his door to get money or banging on his door to give him a subpoena. And yet, he loves Jesus and he worships Jesus and he's trying to honor God in the marketplace ministry. And today, in this unique world in which we live, we need men and women in marketplace ministry. And we need to make sure when they're in it, they don't think this is second best. And we, who are missionaries, receiving our money from other people, that's a very unique way of living. Nothing wrong with it. We need to esteem those who support us and those who pray for us. And we need to make sure we try to encourage them. If you know anybody in the world that's giving money to world missions and a letter from me of encouragement with a few free books including books written for business people like The Soul of the Firm written by the chairman of the board of ServiceMaster, one of the biggest companies founded on the word of God, totally marketplace company in the world, I would be, just send me their name and address and I'll write to them just a general letter of encouragement, nothing to do with fundraising and send them some books that'll be an encouragement in their lives. Why do I say this? Because I can tell you people in the political world, people in the commercial world, people in all these different aspects of society, right now with the way things are going, they are under big pressure. I just talked to my friend in the state, one of my friends in England who is a doctor. He's in the Christian Medical Fellowship of Great Britain. He has been shaken in the last six months as he's retraced his contacts with medical interns. I don't know if he used that term here. Young doctors. He has been stunned how many of them have given up their Christian faith. Scary. They followed Jesus in pre-med, but when they became doctors, they ain't go through all that training, the whole thing about abortion and many other issues, genetics. I tell you, there's stuff coming down the track so fast. Did you just read those articles about Sweden where they discovered this wonderful land of Sweden was sterilizing all these women for years and years, thousands of women who they felt weren't quite blonde enough, weren't quite, you know, enough. They just sterilized to make sure they don't get any more of these little second-rate kids. Whoa! Has that blown the roof off a few Swedish agnostic atheist heads in the last, literally, few weeks. We live in days in which the kind of wishy-washy commitment we've had in the past will no longer accomplish much at all. We need people who are focused. We need people who are visionary. We need people who are grace-awakened. We need people who somehow have a little more discernment than the average and know how to present the gospel in different ways to different people because they have discernment as to where they people are. For example, we have many people in our churches today around the globe who have had abortion. What happens to a person when they're sitting in our church and they've had an abortion and some insensitive preacher gets up and gets on to this issue without sensitivity, without a spirit of grace and without a spirit of humility? People are destroyed through some of our preaching and they never come back because they're so hurt and they're so wounded. Having an abortion surely is wrong and is a sin, but pride and arrogance is also a tremendous sin and we need to humble ourselves before God. We need to be honest with the people we're witnessing to and not give them the idea, we have arrived and they're just on the road to hell. They may be on the road to hell and sometimes it may be very good to remind them of that as the Spirit of the Lord gives utterance, but sometimes a little bit of love might go a long way and my conviction is sometimes when I'm meeting people and bonding with them, I don't necessarily immediately punch them in the nose with the gospel. That was a method I used for many, many years and I learned a hard way. I know people around the world criticize Willow Creek. I could easily criticize Willow Creek. Have you all heard of Willow Creek? That's the seeker-sensitive church that went from a few hundred people to 15,000. One guy wrote a whole book against Willow Creek and when they checked him out they found out he'd never been there. Made a lot of money selling that book. I want to tell you the church in America is irrevocably split in about 50 different sections and it's getting worse and then we export this out to you dear folks and it grieves me. Willow Creek is not strong in sending out career missionaries so I should be the one that criticizes. I had lunch with Bill Hybels and we talked about it but Willow Creek has a vision. They have a mission vision. Willow Creek preaches the gospel and I will tell you people are powerfully dynamically saved as much as any other place I've seen in America ministering there now for 42 years. And I praise God for the variety of ways that the Holy Spirit works. Stuart Briscoe, a close friend of mine up in Milwaukee has a very different approach and God is saving people there. Hallelujah. Jim Henry, the most dynamic Southern Baptist preacher perhaps in America who got through to my wife's stepfather who opposed Christianity for 25 years and saw him miraculously born again. A little church of about 10,000 people. He has a different approach as well and he is seeing results. Adrian Rogers, another Southern Baptist heavy hitter with a church that seeks 15,000 is seeing people saved all over the place proactive about world missions and I just praise God. Even in my short visit to New Zealand I've been in many different kinds of churches. You have quite an amazing variety of churches. I've also read two books about the church in New Zealand. God's unity is in the midst God's unity is in the midst of diversity. Let's not shoot the wounded and let's not shoot one another. God is working in different ways in different churches. Some churches in New Zealand are experimenting with some Willow Creek seeker sensitive concepts. I say hallelujah. Phil Heibel insists you must contextualize it into your own situation. They started from nothing and they have plenty of problems. To take some of those concepts in a church that's ten years old and try to launch some of that is not going to be easy. Anybody that has even a small size brain is going to realize the problem of bringing change to God's people. So we need wisdom sensitivity patience I mean all the fruit of the spirit could be helpful. I don't believe it's going to get any easier for Christian movements like OAC or OM or our mission societies. Harder days are ahead. We need to stick together. We need to love one another. We need to be big hearted. And as you get together on your teams you're going to have the opportunity on that little team working with your local church to demonstrate what this book is all about. But remember what it says in 1 Corinthians 13 whatever else you have on your team you don't have love. You don't have much. It's great at the end of two weeks to say we saw 25 people accept the Lord. Or whatever terminology you use. I prefer to say 25 people profess faith. And we're hoping and praying and working towards seeing as many of them as possible true converts disciples. Billy Graham years ago learned not to just name all these people who come forward as converts. It's just not that simple. But praise God. Even if you don't see one person come to Christ on your team in this very short campaign that doesn't mean God has not worked in your midst. For many of you this is just the beginning. Would you be patient? Would you beware of false expectations? Would you learn that bonding and building unity as a team when you first get together is probably just as important as how much literature you distribute or how many people profess the Lord. There's not time to go into detail but I know one of the fieriest darts that will come against your work is the fiery dart of disunity. I would encourage you as leaders of OAC to guard your unity. 25 years ago I said in our own leaders meeting in Europe these men that were all of one heart, all of one mind. I said I believe every relationship in this room will be tested. 20 years later as we look back almost every relationship in that room had been tested. And we did have a few hurtful failures. Usually restoration came after a season. I'm excited about what you're doing. I'm excited about this great church and I've only been here last night and tonight. I wish I could do more. I want to pray. I want to supply you with literature. I want to help network some of the things that God has taught you into other networks across the globe. I'm excited about Promise Keepers. How many of you have ever heard of that? That's come to New Zealand. I was there, I think I told you this last night. I was there with my big globe, Washington, D.C. I was asked to come as an advisor to the international meeting because the Promise Keepers want to learn as much as possible as they also want to contextualize their vision wherever it spreads across the world. So I went there and during the big Saturday when one million men approximately came to Washington, D.C., I just walked around with my globe around the entire congregation, the biggest congregation I've ever circled. Pretty soon I was on Danish television talking to them about world missions. Then I was with an unbeliever who was making a negative video against Promise Keepers and he interviewed me for 15 minutes and I could see his heart melt. Then I introduced him to one of my black friends who just happened to walk by at the time, who's a very, very gifted communicator. He interviewed him for 15 minutes. I later met him two hours after the thing was over approximately and God had touched his heart. He said they were the two best interviews I had and he gave me some sandwiches that he had. I think he got those free from Promise Keepers. And my heart breaks, my heart breaks as certain American people known for criticizing everything and anything have taken their heavy cannons and shot them at Promise Keepers. Aligning themselves without realizing it with a major movement against Promise Keepers which are the extreme feminists who are also generally against all evangelical or biblical forms of Christianity writing it all off as basically chauvinistic nonsense. But I will tell you, God did something in the life of Bill McCartney and Randy Phillips and most of those one million men were seeking Jesus. It was six hours of solemn assembly, repentance, prayer. Can you imagine hundreds of thousands of men laying on the grass crying out and repenting on the Spirit of God moving among them. We know that is not the total answer to America. In fact, Bill McCartney when he stood up challenged every one of these men to go back and submit themselves to their own church, to the pastors and elders of their church. This went out nationwide on C-SPAN, six hours of it on cable and satellite television throughout the nation and around the globe in the most biggest media event perhaps of this decade, maybe next to Billy Graham's Satellite link up. God is doing great things in the world today. This isn't a time to put our heads in the sand and think it's all over. Only a few of us are going to last to the end. Maybe you and your wife are the only ones left. Everybody else has left the word. All a bunch of compromisers. Now you're not quite sure of your wife but you're hanging in there. I love this slogan, No Compromise. But with every slogan you have to have an alternative slogan. So probably on the back it says Compromise is sometimes very good. I don't have the time. But if I hadn't compromised with some of my hard line stuff when I got married that would have been the end. I thank God for compromise. I probably wouldn't be here. And we need discernment. Oh, we need wisdom day by day. And we need to know the difference between the main things in which we cannot compromise especially sin and areas that really aren't that important at the end of the day. I used to use my giant big mouth howitzer cannons to shoot mice. You should have seen me in the 60's. I would have blown your mind. And God so dealt with me especially through my accountability group. And people were not afraid to come up and correct me. And I said, Lord from now on I only want to shoot elephants. I'm not going to shoot any more mice. What do I mean by that? Let's through the study of the word of God find out what the really big and basic issues are. Life and death. Heaven and hell. The Lord Jesus Christ in his atoning death on the cross. The Bible as well as God's word. A number of other basic issues that unite biblical, charismatic and evangelical people across the globe. And let us mainly emphasize those things rather than the things that divide us and confuse us and hinder us in the great work of world evangelism. I know some Christians are opposed to clapping. That is one of the 100 controversies in America. But I hope we will understand there is no great sin to sometimes stop and express our emotions. Because I have the distinct advantage of being here for an hour pouring out my heart and you are just sitting there. It would almost be better if people could throw things. I'd rather have anything. I'd rather have anything than indifference. Even a tomato right in the face would be better than one more even jellyfish just floating out not even looking at my book table where they go. My wife at this point would give me the elbow and say, darling, I don't think you should have said that. How many of you are married? How many of you have had the elbow experience? I want to tell you the Holy Spirit is able to sometimes use my wife's elbow more than Billy Graham sermons on tape. How do I summarize this? I wanted to summarize by just giving this plea. I want you to pray, and I'm going to deal with it more in the morning, but I want you to pray about all these things we've talked about. I want you to get in the word more. I want you to talk to one another about some of these things, but I want you to also consider getting out of New Zealand for at least two years. I don't want to be negative about New Zealand. I'm going all over the world and telling people how wonderful you are, but the place can be a little bit provincial, just a little bit. Mainly I'm fellowshipping with other New Zealanders. Praise God for people coming in here from the islands, parachuting in, and lots of them around. They're some of the most exciting people that I've met, and I know generally also when New Zealand missionaries go out, they go to these islands and New Guinea, and all that's great. I'm not going to tell you where to go, except I would like you to give a little more possible consideration to that 1040 window that we saw on the screen last night, and that videotape is available from our office, where hundreds of millions have never heard. One false coat has 50,000 on their two-year program. That does not hinder them in their careers. They go back, many of them become millionaires, and the amount of money now in their hands is absolutely, it's absolutely bizarre. A major magazine feature came out last month about that. And I believe you could give two years in another part of the world, especially a two-thirds world situation, where there's great poverty, great suffering, where millions have never heard. And that could be not just a great training program spiritually. It could be a character-building program to prepare you for cutting-edge marketplace ministry. When I say that, I'm not When I first shared this in Wellington at your conference, I was a little nervous, and the pastor, I was staying in one of the houses belonging to a particular church, the pastor came up to me, and I thought, uh-oh, I'm in trouble. And he said, I'm so glad you challenged all these people to go for at least two years. This was the pastor. He was about to lose some of his sheep. He might have a Sunday school teacher slipping out the window in a QT. I read in a book about New Zealand, there's not enough Sunday school teachers in New Zealand. I mean, that is ridiculous. Any place that doesn't have enough Sunday school teachers really needs to But the pastor encouraged me, and so I decided again to just ask you to consider two years serving in some other place in the world, learning another language. This is not the leading nation in the world for learning a second language. This is not the Maybe you could take your survey on that. I know some of you are trying to learn Australian, but it's actually a similar language. And I would encourage you, and I'm going to bring this to the close. I would encourage you. Did I tell you last night about my experience in Germany when I preached too long? I spoke about that this morning. The wristwatch. Didn't I tell you about the wristwatch? See, I was speaking in Germany. It's a wonderful country, Germany, but they do tend to worship clocks. I've heard they call it punctuality. It was our own OM meeting, and I felt a little free to share. Mainly young people, and they were listening. They were like blotters out of the Sahara. But one older man in the back, I think he wanted to go home and watch the news. Maybe it was a rugby replay. And he held up his watch, trying to get me to stop. I was preaching about world missions, the need to pray, the need to go, the need to give. I saw that watch. I said, folks, praise God! Look at this man, he's donating his watch for world missions. Some people think that going out for two years, this is very important, is just for the benefit of the one who goes. I've even heard some missionaries say, these short-term people are just a pain in the neck. Usually they're talking about people that maybe just come for the summer without much training, without much experience. Some of them are now only 14 years of age. But we're not talking about that. We're talking about serious people, usually college-aged people, who have had some training, who were sent out at least by their local fellowship, Acts 13. There's accountability. These people are not just there on a learning curve, not just there to learn a language, which is wonderful, learn about culture, learn about themselves, learn how to relate to a wider range of people, experience spiritual warfare in the trench. I wish my friend Susie Burton could come up here and give a testimony. She used to embarrass me always sitting in the front with her camera. I've never seen her without her camera. Susie traveled all over the world with OM, and now she has a marketplace ministry right here in Auckland, taking pictures, and she's winning contests. And that just is so exciting to me. Sorry to pick on you. But we need more people like Susie Burton, who are willing to give a few years out there, really become more biblical, more balanced, more so much God-like, and then return and make things happen here. And if we get enough people returning, linking with those that are already here, I believe we can have a Holy Ghost explosion here in the middle of the Pacific Ocean that every nation in the world will feel. But we still have a ways to go. And I think you might be. So no more praying, Lord, here am I. Send my sister. But, Lord, here am I. Send me. Some nations, if you're your age, you're into the army, required is that required in New Zealand? What a pleasure. You have an army? I've seen some trucks and things going down the road, look like they're about to shoot at somebody. But some countries like Singapore, Switzerland, you think Switzerland is a little peaceful, neutral country. They're warriors, the Swiss, they're warriors. Everybody has a gun in their home. They can all live in the mountains, while the rest of the world has their Armageddon. I tell you, the Swiss all have to go in the army. So I say, when there's a country that doesn't have that requirement, let's get in God's army. Let's give God two years for that kind of service. And we will see enormous things happen. It's not just for your own experience. It's not just for your own growth. We need your help. There's jobs to be done that short termers can do, whether it's on the ships, whether it's with OM, whether it's with your own church. We're not getting into those details. Harvest is plenty of workers. Tomorrow morning we'll talk a little more about this, maybe even have a chance for questions. But tonight, as you go from this place, as you maybe pick up a book like Priority One, consider it. Consider it. I believe it's one of the reasons in God's providence that I, who live in London England, am already over committed beyond comprehension, having spoken almost 400 times this year alone. I believe that is the main reason, perhaps, that I am in New Zealand at this time. So I have to deliver that message as weak, as disjointed as it has been. Let us pray. Lord, I thank you for your people here, so patient with me, hopefully patient with one another. I thank you for this church, their willingness to be in partners with OJ, Open Air Campaigners, and so many other churches, willing to let love cover some of the complexities, some of the differences. And Lord, I just pray that from this great congregation, there will be hundreds willing to give, at least, a couple of years to the forgotten places, the starvation zones, the hurting zones, the Afghanistans and the Algerians, the Tibets and the Uzbekistans, the Albanians and the Turkeys, and other places that only your Holy Spirit can direct. And we pray this, realizing that many people around the globe are praying with us, realizing that many pastors here in New Zealand already have this vision, and have this dream, and want to be proactive in seeing it happen. Oh God, we give this to you, and we ask that your will be done. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.