In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of seeking and obeying the will of God. He mentions two recommended books for reading, "Life's Sense" by Charles Coulson and "World on the Run" by Michael Green. The speaker also highlights six things to remember when trying to find God's will, including the understanding that God guides different people in different ways and the significance of waiting on Him and gathering facts. He emphasizes the need for a general overall understanding of the Word of God and the importance of testing thoughts that God brings to our minds. Lastly, the speaker mentions the providence of God and how He uses circumstances and people to guide us, including the door pushing method in Operation Mobilization.

Communication is important, isn't it? You want to hear these things. I don't think you want us to just give messages to you. You want to know what's happened. What are you getting into? We trust you. We believe in you. You are now in the family. We will share and must share the burdens. One thing I want to mention. If you don't feel happy about OM, you're not convinced about it, and I hope you will investigate and ask questions and not be manipulated into coming into this world. But if you don't feel happy about certain things, you have certain questions, there is no pressure for you to give in your money. That announcement given is for those that are sure to come in on the year program. After all, most of you by now, you've told your church, you've told your parents, this isn't something you decided last week. But we get new people here who don't understand, and just one mistake can be costly. So there is no pressure. At this stage, if you're not sure whether you're coming this year, there would only be a small percentage in that camp, there is no pressure for you to give in any money. In fact, if you need some money, maybe we can help you. We have to do everything possible to communicate that in no way is OM anything like a false cult. The only thing that may be similar is false cults have a lot of zeal, a lot of zeal, and I hope we have a lot of zeal. But from there, there may be some other things, of course from there we do part ways. So we welcome you in the name of the Lord. We hope most of you will be with us for the year or two. We hope you'll not be afraid to ask questions. We hope that you'll sleep well and that you'll stay healthy, and that you'll try to understand what we're trying to communicate. And one of the reasons we have these sessions is so that you can communicate to others. You've got to communicate to prayer partners. You've got to communicate to parents, to church. And you have to communicate to the people you teach. Some of you will be in leadership or some responsibility. Now, you'd think I'd lost my marbles if I didn't mention any books. So I thought I'd mention two books. We don't do a lot of book purchasing this time of the year because you're limited in the number of books you can cart all over the world. And you'll find every OM team has a huge library or a good-sized library with a lot of books. So I'd like to introduce two books. One is not new, Life Sentence. If you're really looking for something to read during this conference, which is unlikely from the number of books most of you have, and you would like to sink your teeth into this book, just write a short note to my secretary Vera and say you really are looking for something to read during these two weeks and you'd like a copy of Life Sentence, a fantastic book by Charles Colson, the author of Born Again, about his whole ministry and how he wrestled with criticism and mistakes and problems and, oh my, the birth of that ministry and what he learned. It's not a normal biography, though it's shared in that style. Then a new evangelistic book, though this book is being used as an evangelistic book, especially among prisoners. It's called World on the Run, the rewrite of Michael Green's outstanding book, Runaway World. It's rewritten and InterVarsity is actually lowering some of their prices. So this is a book that we also are just beginning to use and if you would really like to read an evangelistic book, you can drop Vera a note with a definite commitment that you want to read this in the next couple of weeks and I don't think many of you are going to be able to do that and we might be able to supply you with a copy. We may put a few on the book table. We prefer you to look at the books, write what ones you want, unless you're already in a field. If you're already in a field, you can go through your field leader to get a book. Not so easy these days, so be patient when the finance is the way it is. And if you don't know what field you're going to yet, which is most of you, you can look at a book, write the title down, generally, and then get it later on when you know where your field leader, through signing. The idea of that system, it's an honor system, that when you sign for a book, certainly if you're seeing your full support come in, there's scope for a couple of books. You go to Bromley, you get a little piece of paper, and they give you so many free books. But it's actually you, out of your support, that are seeing it come in. Now, if you're only seeing your minimum come in, I doubt if there's too much scope there, but your leader, of course, he's not going to ask you generally questions about it. It all gets rather interesting when we're so short of finance, and we're wrestling with so many factors, so many factors. You know, some people think the due loss is some great extravaganza, which proves that OM has lots of money, and that's why some people no longer give any money to OM. We even have people on OM. They told me they'd rather give their money to somebody else, because, you know, they figure, you know, it's OM is so big, and what, you know, what good does my little gift do, this movement that's got ships? And if only they understood that that ship, built in 1914, is one of the most economic ways to move manpower, and literature, and vehicles into world evangelism. Many people have no idea. Right now they're raising millions of dollars in England for just an evangelistic crusade within Britain. And, you know, I don't believe that OM is wasting a lot of money. Any movement this size wastes some. When I think of some of the experts, some of the very talented people that God gives us, and without those people, the likes of us, you know, we wouldn't be able to go too far. A ship without a chief engineer. An accounting office without a chief accountant. These people all work and basically live on the same lifestyle, modifications, of course, if they have a family, as the newest recruit. Can you imagine if, like most organizations, we had to pay the experts the salaries that the experts are demanding today? The world is a strange place. Great numbers of people unemployed. They're happy to get half-day work at terrible salaries. Other people are making a million dollars a year. If you think it's any different in the Soviet Union, visit. I was just reading an article in the Soviet Union today that the elite who run the Soviet Union have special food, special cars, special doctors, special films, including films that are completely banned for all Soviet citizens, Western pornography. If you're in the elite, you can see those films. They've got everything. And I know it's true because I've seen Soviet diplomats in the New Delhi airport with 30, 40 boxes of possessions they bought in Delhi. If they buy that much in Delhi, imagine what they buy in New York, flying back to take it home with them. There's no system, neither communism nor capitalism, that is going to straighten out all the crazy problems in this greedy, unfair, lost, depraved world. And I think it's a miracle that we can all, as much as possible, try to live on a simple lifestyle with freedom, and that we can get some of these experts and highly trained professional people, people with all kinds of degrees and can demand big salaries, to come in on the same level. And do you know how much money that saves us? I tell you, two of those salaries would save all the money I believe OM has wasted, because we do waste some. You'll see how that... Just two or three of those salaries would cover it all. But that's perhaps for another day. I want to speak to you on how to find the will of God. I wonder if that's of any interest to anybody. Tomorrow, boy, you're going to be hit. All these different field leaders, they're warming their engines, they're cruising around the woods, praying and crying out to God for their recruits. You know, it's interesting, that announcement last night. I've never seen any problems in these woods. I'm always running around. And this morning, when I was jogging, a sister alone was walking through the woods. And I don't generally jog with my hat on. I had this funny old American baseball hat, and I just felt like putting it on this morning. Put it on over my head. And I came jogging out of a distant part of the woods. And this sister was walking right toward me. And suddenly, she did an immediate reverse and headed in the opposite direction. And I thought, boy! And then immediately, I remembered Nigel E.'s announcement, and I had myself a good laugh. Actually, those woods are not very big. They're actually quite small. And I hope the Lord catches this fellow out there, because I've been, of course, challenging people to go out to the woods to have a quiet time. Then Nigel comes in with his announcements. It's unfortunate, but it is quite normal in the world in which we live. I once called this message, Harbor Lights to Finding God's Plan. I think that was a result of living on a ship and a result of hearing somebody else's message. You know, when you come into a port with a ship, and I've had the joy of living about two years of my life put together on the ships, and I've been on many other ships, the old QE2, or the old Queen Elizabeth, the QE2. I guess I've been on about 50 different ships. And when you come into a port, often you just begin to see one distant light. If there's a lighthouse with a strong light, you'll see that a long ways away. And you have to sail to that. It was a great joy to visit the douloirs, and I especially like to go up on the bridge and watch the navigators. And I think often finding the will of God is like a ship coming into harbor. You don't see it all at once. You don't, you know, just one night get a revelation. You often have to fix on one light. And then as you move by faith, another light will come, and another light. As you keep moving, pretty soon, there'll be the harbor. And then you'll see eventually your birth. Some of you perhaps are in the right harbor. We hope OM is your harbor. But you're not in the right birthing. And, oh my, we've learned in the world of shipping there are many different kinds of births. I remember in India we got put in a birth, and all we had blown on us all day was iron ore dust. The lights fused out with the dust. We coughed in the dust. What a horrible birth. Difficult birth. I think it was down in Goa. Goa. In Goa there's many fields. Some of them are hot, and they're hard. Some of them are not so hard. Some are big, super-tanker fields. Some are small, rowboat fields. Then there's two real ships, to make it even more interesting. How in the world to determine the will of God? Another title I've given to this message is Foundations for Knowing God's Will. I think that's a better title. Let me just give you a few basic foundations for finding and knowing the will of God. I think many of you feel you know the will of God, and now you need that confirmed. We are not here to find the will of God for you, but we are, through counseling, going to help confirm that this is God's will. And I think O.M.'s sort of down-to-earth balance of the spiritual with the practical has helped a lot of people in their life to get off will-of-God extremism. And I hope that even though you may not agree totally with everything I say, you'll glean some of this. Let's just pray again and ask the Lord to help us. Father, we thank you that we're here. We believe that right here we are in your will. We ask for continued confirmation through provision, through the witness of your Word and your Holy Spirit, through the counsel of other leaders and men who know the situations that we feel we want to go into. Guide us now as we look into the Scriptures. In Jesus' name, Amen. By the way, when you go to England, one of the things you need to learn about is cricket. That is such an interesting game. It's a long game. It takes a long time. One of my long, unfulfilled desires has been to learn to really play cricket. But because I've been somewhat committed to other things, I haven't got heavily into that. But it's certainly very interesting to watch. Even more interesting, those of you, and quite a few of those Americans and people from other countries, you are going to have the phenomenal privilege of living on the great island of Great Britain. Actually, many islands. But most of the people seem to live on one. And you're going to be able to get involved in things like rugby. Rugby is really exciting. It's a little bit like Operation Mobilization. And you find one man is running with a ball and he passes it on, and then someone else is running with a ball. And when you get to your field, there's a man, he seems to be the leader. Suddenly, he goes off to preach somewhere and gives the leadership to someone else. And he's running with it, and you just get to know him. Suddenly, he hands you the ball and he runs. And you'll know you're on Operation Mobilization. But you know, over in America, we play baseball. And I still am just American enough. Some actually think I'm British until I open my mouth. But I'm just American enough to think that that's a great, unique, interesting game. I started playing when I was about five. I was a baseball addict, though I wasn't very good. I was good when I was 13. I made the team and was a pitcher. But I didn't grow very much after that. So when I got to secondary school, I made the team and they let me warm the bench. In other words, I didn't play. But all this is just to try to get you calmed down about this long message I'm about to give you. In baseball, we have a term called a double-header. How many know what that is, a double-header? Here's a few Americans. This shows the tremendous differences in language. A double-header is when they play two major league games on the same night. It's long. I saw some of you come across with an expression that was less than joyful at that moment. So this is a double-header. First game, the will of God. Okay. Number one, how to find the will of God, the foundations for finding the will of God, spiritual life. Matthew 6.33, Seek ye first the kingdom of God. This is our first priority in these days. This conference may be of value to you even if you never go anywhere because we're here to seek God. We're here to have our spiritual life built up. We're here to be edified. We have different people coming to minister the word of God. We're grateful for men like Tony Sargent, willing to leave his rather aggressive, rapidly growing, unique British church to come here and teach us. Spiritual life is the number one foundation for finding the will of God. OM must not be geography-centered. It must be reality-centered or Christ-centered. The big thing, even this week, is where am I going to go? People get so uptight that when a bird flies over them, you hear a noise come out of their nose. And we need to just relax, just relax a little bit and just get into the word and have our spiritual life built up. You know, I believe even if you miss God's geographical will, He can make this the greatest year of your life. If I didn't believe that God could put together some of our blunders and some of your blunders, you know, I'm not sure I'd even want to speak. Knowing the will of God does not destroy the human factor. That's original. Very seldom I come up with anything original. Say that again. Let's see if I can remember it. Knowing the will of God does not destroy the human factor. You're a human being. You've been programmed by your parents, by your culture, some good, some bad, by previous experiences, by language, by emotional difficulties, by failure, by sin. And so it's not just going to all come together in the little couple of weeks at OM. We're building for a life of commitment, a life of service. And praise God that we can take a month out of our life and be in the word and be with other people and hear the things that we hear. We're learners. I have been learning wonderful things in the last 12 days here. From listening to my brothers and sisters and from the things I've read and also the things that are happening around the world as we pick some of that up in the newspapers and in the news. And some of that will even come out in the prayer meetings. Number two, submission to God. OM is into the submission movement. We believe you need to learn to submit to God. And we as OM leaders, we are not God and we are not going to play God or play the Holy Spirit in your life. Did you know one of the books we've been pushing is Rich Christians, how is it, God Wants You Rich and Other Enticing Doctrines. There's not hardly a copy left. 200 copies have gone just like that. You read that book. You can find one in your team library. And that book speaks against extremes in the area of submission. Leadership in OM is by negotiation. And we have to negotiate. That leaves us ultimately with the right to say we don't believe it's God's will for you to go to this particular field. You in turn have the right to say I don't believe Operation Mobilization is for me. It's as simple as that. And I will tell you when you leave OM we will pray for you. We will say God bless you. We will stand with you. We will not put you into a guilt trip. We will not say hey, you're backsliding. God's brought you here. Now you're trying to run away from God. That's the way the cults work. So submission to God. 1 Peter 5, 6 speaks about that. We do believe that we need to learn something of working with and cooperating with the leaders in the work we're in. Dr. Martin Goldsmith spoke to us about this at the Leaders Conference, giving us a very unique interpretation of Hebrews 13, 17, 1 Thessalonians 5, 12. God raises up spiritual leaders. What He shared with us is what we are trying to do in OM. We're trying to be examples. We're trying to encourage. We're trying to lead by persuasion. We're trying to lead from the rear as God's shepherds. We don't like that word so much, but it is found in the Bible. Submission to God. Priority for finding God's will. Number three, Thanksgiving. Look at 1 Thessalonians 5, 18. Get my new international version out. 1 Thessalonians 5, 18. Let me read that. Pray continually, giving thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. You want to know the will of God? There it is. Give thanks. If you're not learning to obey the revealed will in very basic ways, like giving thanks, no wonder you're having trouble finding the will of God in some very unique, complicated situations. So giving thanks is another foundation for finding the will of God. And then, number four, trust. Trust that God loves you. Trust that God will care for you, even if O.M. makes a mistake, an O.M. leader, even if something goes wrong in relationships. I hope it doesn't happen here, but it may happen someday in your life. It can happen in a local church. It can happen on an O.M. team. I warn you in advance, things because humans are so gifted in this area go out of control. And people start to get hurt. We had it in our leaders' meeting tonight. There's supposed to be a policy in O.M. that if a field is going to jump a lot of numbers, they're at least supposed to tell me about it so I can tell the other leaders, and we can find out where we're going. You can't just have every leader just launching his own plan. We've got to work in harmony and unity. So one of the leaders was in the meeting, just kidding, that we have need, because the leaders were giving in people they need for their team, new people they need. And he read off in the meeting, we need, leaders feel we need 1,200 people. Well, there's only 700 people here, including returning people. And my mind just, you know, I just thought, oh no, this thing has finally got out of control. And boy, I was warming up. Boy, this is it. Boy, I'm going to give these leaders a piece of my mind. I've always wanted to do that. But you've got to be careful, because you start running out. Maybe that's what's happening to me. I hope not. So I gave this excitation, there is an existing policy that if you're going to increase your numbers, I'm supposed to know about it. And I went on, and I think, what did I say, something about, you're all doing your own thing. Dead serious. Then they told me they were only kidding. Now, my brother and sister, I like to talk once in a while the way some of my friends in the States talk. Now, brother and sister, have you ever done, felt like a first class fool? Praise the Lord. Then they managed to tell me that they may have this important statistic by tomorrow. Well, I can assure you, you are one of the most wanted groups of people anywhere in the world. Really. Overnight, you have become spiritual heroes. People are going to chase you around this compound as if you were some kind of E.T. And when they get you, if it's the ship, they'll challenge you about joining I.T. Anyway, Proverbs 3, 5 really helps. Trust the Lord with all your heart. Lean not to your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths. Isn't that wonderful? And God is teaching me more about trust. More about trust. It's so easy for my type of personality to want to get my hands on things, you know. I get the feeling things are getting out of control. I'm getting my hands on it. And the Lord is telling me about O.M. More and more. Get your big ugly knuckles off this thing, Berwer. You ever see my... I got very big hands. I used to play basketball and I learned to stretch my hands so I could just hold that ball and bounce. Once a team actually tried to throw me up through the ring. Trust. Deep trust. God is in control. Even when things are out of control through the human factor. And then number five. Witness. You know, if we're faithful where we are and I hope you get some opportunities for outreach on the weekends. But this is a message I've shared firstly with people who are not, you know, necessarily in a conference where it's not so easy to witness just for this short period of time. But if you're faithful witnessing where you are doing the will of God where you are the Lord will lead you. I want to tell you something that's really interesting. It's to see people fall apart in October because they can't go to their field as quick as they want to go. And they may be in London. They may be here. There's opportunities to witness. These people are lost in Brussels. They're lost in London. They're lost in Manchester. Everywhere you go people are lost. The need is always there in the face. And yet we find people during that waiting period all uptight, not really getting involved in witnessing, mainly just concerned somehow to get out to their field. No wonder six months after some get to the field they're mainly thinking about when they get home. There's something in the human heart, something deceptive that we're never satisfied and we're incredibly impatient. And I think I can challenge you, though it's hard for some of you to sit in meetings and listen, it's hard for me to sit. And I have been sitting for 12 days, 11 days, in a lot of meetings. When the prayer time came I could usually stand up. And I think in the field leaders meeting, I remember now I was able to stand. I got in a corner and had a pulpit for my desk. But the last set of meetings I was sitting. It isn't easy for some of you to sit. But I believe as we sit and listen and study and pray we're going to learn a lot. And if we are held back and we've got a lot to see happen before we can move out, even to get the fuel and the vehicles and all the rest of the things, as we witness, God is going to honor that. And then I have as number six just learning God's viewpoint. Getting the big picture. Getting the big picture. Understanding God's priorities. Getting things in focus only through suffering and difficulty and delay. Have you ever read about the discipline of delay in Raymond Edmond's outstanding book on discipline? It's often only through delay that we learn the lessons that God wants to teach us. Some of you, your finance may not come in immediately. You're praying away and praying away. The discipline of delay. The discipline of disappointment. The discipline of learning to be desperate. Some of us won't see breakthroughs until we're desperate. We say, Lord, what are you doing? We maybe miss one meal in order to fast and pray. Then the breakthrough comes. The training does not start when you get in India or Sudan or London. The training started the moment you were born again. That's right. And all we are is part, just part, of God's ongoing training program. You know why some of you are going to have trouble this year? You're expecting too much. You're a little hyper-idealist and you think it's all going to be taken care of in one year. God's giving you a vision for the Muslim world and you're going to get out there and you're going to win Muslims to Christ and you're going to plant a church this year. Disappointing. So learning God's viewpoint. Slowing down a little. Getting things in focus. A few other things to remember as you try to find God's will in these days. Number one, God guides different people in different ways. This is things to remember. Six foundations, now things to remember. God guides different people in different ways. Number two, waiting on Him. Getting the facts. Why are we having these incredibly important sessions tomorrow? Because finding and obeying the will of God must be based on facts. There are all kinds of O.M. fields. Some of you are not going to be happy in certain O.M. fields. There are certain places in O.M. where someone who's strongly charismatic might not be happy. There are other places where they more easily wouldn't be happy. We cannot manipulate and control 35 nations and 100 teams. So you ask the hard questions. While you're here, you've got that opportunity. Of course, one way there's no easy answer. Waiting on Him. Getting the facts. Number three, of course, God uses His word. But it's not a matter of just letting your Bible flop open and pointing to a verse. You've all heard the story, but just for those of you who are new in the Christian world, and we have new Christians here, the old story is a man who believed this method of guidance. He opened the Bible and he pointed to the verse to get the will of God, and it said, Judas went and hung himself. He thought, boy, I better try this again. So he just once more, and it came to the verse, go ye and do likewise. Tried it again. One more last time, Lord, I need your guidance. That was a misfire. I'm counting on you now this third time in the name of Jesus. Whatsoever you do, do it quickly. Shows how many of you are new Christians. So we need to get the whole general, a general overall understanding of the word of God. We need to see how God leads different people in His word. And then, God, of course, can speak to us from different verses within their context. And that can be confirmed by other important things like prayer. That's my fifth, fourth point. He brings thoughts to our mind. We have the mind of Christ. As we're in the word, as we're in prayer, as we're walking in the Spirit, God can bring thoughts to our mind. But as God brings thoughts to our minds, they have to be tested. And then number six, or number five, the providence of God. You know, if I didn't believe in the providence of God, I think I'd give up. God uses circumstances. God uses people. And one of the methods in OM is the door-pushing method. Really. You've got to push different doors. For some of you, the main thing is that you're in OM. You came in OM for basic training and growth and grace. For others, your bigger interest is a particular country. That's why we're so different. And so you've got to be sensitive about other people, and you've got to push some doors. Many of you, the door you push, as you feel burdened about a particular country, either this year or next year, it will open. A very high percentage of people who come on OM, they do eventually get to the place they really felt God wants them after it gets confirmed. And there's a time of preparation. Many cannot go to difficult situations without a year of preparation. We're all different, and we cannot get to know everybody that easily. And that's why we have to acknowledge as leaders we make some mistakes. So be patient. But I believe through God's Holy Spirit, as He uses providence, there's so many, only so many open doors on the ship, only so many open doors in Sudan, only so many open doors in Lebanon, very few, and not too many takers right now. God will lead. And then number six, we have to learn to move by faith. That's why some of you are here. You never really had the full assurance, did you, that OM, or this conference, was to be God's will. You want to know why? I never had the full assurance that I should be at this conference. I had a number of other ideas. I'm always conniving on my little dream plans. You know, I've been twenty years, twenty-two years of September conference, every September. And, you know, I wasn't really sure this was God's place for me this month. But I took a risk. I've always been a bit of a gambler. I learned to gamble when I was about six. I used to keep the aces up my sleeve and I learned how to shoot them out. Later on, I think it was really, I only got into winning when I was about twelve. But, you know, I'm glad the Lord crucified the money gambling. But I think in God's plan, you've got to be a gambler. If you're ever going to get married, you've got to be a gambler. I remember a fellow sitting in one of my sessions on marriage and he had this, I think I told this this summer, forgive me if I told this this summer, it's one of my favorite stories. It's a true story. Not all my stories are true. He was a real conservative Englishman. He had his eyes on this girl for years and praying about her, looking for verses, waiting for revelations. Had a very conservative view on marriage, you know, all that. And he was in one of my marriage sessions and the last point, eight points, was, you know, be willing to take a risk. He went out of that meeting like a bullet. This is the honest truth. He caught her on the stairways and he just about proposed on the spot. I was just with him, happily married, couple of kids, leader in his church. Boy, I tell you, he appreciates my ministry. It's always good to have a few. Now let me just bring that into balance, that this is not the year for that event for most of you. If this is your first year, this is the year to watch and pray and wander not astray. But some of you are in your second or third year and you've just been wandering, you know. Well, if you've prayed about it for quite a while and maybe you've sought some counsel, somewhere you may have to take a leap. But when you do, get ready to be hurt. Because there's no entering the romance aspect of life, and it's an exciting aspect, isn't it, without getting hurt. It's an enormous blessing and there's tremendous hurts that come out of this whole area. I'd love to speak about that, but we haven't got time. Moving by faith. We can't remain passive. We've got to do something. A lot of times I find it hard to make a decision. You ever find that hard? And often you just have to. You just have to. And so you decide and you trust God that even though you're feeble and you're not sure, He's going to work it out. Oh, I love that teaching from God's Word. And then, above all else, you've got to be ready for failure. You've got to be ready for a cul-de-sac. You've got to be ready for things to go wrong. And in life, sometimes they do. And realize that when they do, God is still God. There's going to be some tears in the coming days. There's going to be some disappointments. There's going to be a lot of discussion. There's going to be counseling. But God is God. Now let's stand up and sing after we finish. Now, how many of you have ever seen this little leaflet? Seven major emphasis of Operation Mobilization. Okay. So this message can be short because you've already seen this. But I want to just review this which represents some of the most basic. This is a week for some of the basics. And a lot of this has to be relatively quick because we've got to move on. After years and years and years of wrestling and teaching so many things, we decided to sum up some of our basic teaching. Now you'll find on the free literature table the OM doctrinal statement because there's another message I'd like to give and there's not time for that called the major doctrines that we believe in Operation Mobilization. And some of that will be touched in other sessions. But I'd like you to study that doctrinal statement because we hope that you're aiming in that direction. And of course without sound doctrine and basic Bible doctrine which is important, these other emphases can go off balance. They can lead even into extremism and cults. But we're just going to share this tonight. I think most of you have had the doctrine statement. And that's one of the reasons you're here. The first emphasis that we want to major on throughout this year is worship and prayer. And it doesn't hurt to write these things down again because one of the reasons I'm sharing this is so that you can share it with others. You're at that stage now. And you can sit down and share this in a humble way with other people. So the first emphasis that's on our heart in our whole Christian experience is God Himself. And you get some of these books by Tozer. If there's any of you that can honestly say you've never had a book by Tozer, you write to my good friend Vera and you say, I've never had a book by Tozer and you'll have one in your mailbox as a gift, probably a magazine book before you know what happens. Because this man has been one of our teachers in O.M. And praise God for his emphasis. Knowing God. The harp. Remember Tozer talks about the harp? God's given everybody a harp. Worship. And you've got to learn to play your harp. Worship Him. To praise Him. And to learn then from a heart of worship as we're broken before God, we learn about thanksgiving, about praise, about prayer, confession, intercession. It's a big, big challenge and there'll be other messages on it so we'll just leave it. And there it is. Major emphasis number one. God. God Himself. Number two. Love and forgiveness. In a sense, two sides of the coin. Some of you have read my book Revolution of Love and Balance. In fear and trembling, I ever say these things and allow these things to be printed. Love and forgiveness. In a sense, two sides of the coin. Some of you have read my book Revolution of Love and Balance. In fear and trembling, I ever say these things and allow these things to be printed. Part of that I wrote. Part of it's from taste because I know that I've been such a failure. I don't just say that. In the depth of my soul, I know that when it comes to love, I have been a failure. I have been a failure in my home. I have been a failure on teams. And I just thank God for the other side of the coin, forgiveness. Now, you're not going to heaven because you are such a great person of love and you've got the first commandment in one hand and the second commandment in the other and you're just Mr. Compassion. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. We are a forgiven people and we want to proclaim from one end of the world to the other justification by faith. This is why we can't always cooperate with everybody because once a man is preaching justification by works, it's another gospel and Galatians says anathema. I remember hearing Donald Gray Barnhouse on Galatians when I was a young Christian. I've just been listening to some of his tapes this summer. That great Presbyterian. Went to be with the Lord many years ago. Boy, I tell you, his lectures on Galatians. And I hope you'll become a tapeworm. I don't want you to be afraid of being a tapeworm for Jesus. Get into some of these tapes. Love and forgiveness. You're gonna have messages on them. It's the foundation without which we don't go very far. I have a message I'd love to share with you on learning to love. Yes, when we're filled with the Spirit and we have the reality of the Holy Spirit, the potential to love is there and the fruit will begin coming. Fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, temperance. Against such there is no law. Everybody should memorize Galatians 5.22. But then we have to learn through the circumstances out in God's gymnasium. Dr. Lloyd-Jones in his great book, one of the greatest books in the English language, spiritual depression, its cause and its cure, speaks about in God's gymnasium. You're joining or you're now part of one of God's gymnasiums. And it's through training that we learn about love. You ever had my list of all the different kinds of people in OM you can learn to love? We got a fantastic range. Learn to love the people you don't understand. Learn to love the loudmouth. Learn to love the person with prejudice. Learn to love the person who rejects you. Learn to love the person who's unattractive. Learn to love the homosexual. Learn to love the one who's slow. Learn to love the perpetual backslider, the self-righteous, the one who won't share, the one who shares too much, the liar. Learn to love the mentally disturbed. Learn to love other races. Learn to love other ages. Learn to love the people that disagree with you. Learn to love the people that speak against you. Pretty big challenge, I'd say. You think that just comes when you get one spiritual blessing and you go away and say, Oh, the Lord's filled me with His Holy Spirit. I want to tell you some of the most unloving people I've met have had triple blessings, supposedly, from the Holy Spirit. And all the gifts on top. Beloved, it takes years for the Holy Spirit to make this a fuller and greater reality in our life. William Macdonald, once speaking to us, I believe it was in the conference in the mid-60s, shared with us why it seems to be and must be an ongoing walk of faith. The Christian life, a life of constant crises of dependence upon God. I like that. A life of constant crisis of dependence upon God. And in these days, we're going to have to learn to depend on God in new ways. And one of the reasons he gave, he gave several, is that so easily we can feel that we can arrive. Now I'm here, I'm spiritual. I've had the final blessing. And I've got the O.M. Summer Crusade experience as well. And I've even been through O.M.'s six-day leadership training. God bless your fickle heart. You know the word fickle. I so appreciate being able to preach in English. And I hope, you know, I wish that I spoke French and not English. I don't like English. I actually like Spanish. Yo puedo hablar y predicar en Español, pero no hay mucha gente que hable Español. Aquí, en esta tienda. And I wish the international language was French or Polish or even Russian. Really. What a tremendous change. But somehow, you know, I wasn't in heaven. God, I want to be born in America. You're just born there. And you learn to just accept that. Why argue all your life, Lord, I was born in the wrong place. I wanted to be born in the Fiji Islands. And I just appreciate being able to just speak English. I've had so many messages this year with people interrupting me. I thought at times I was becoming schizophrenic. Love and forgiveness. Memorize 1 Corinthians 13. God can teach us more about love. This can become a reality. And I've seen thousands of people over the last 28 years since I've been a Christian become more and more loving. To me, it's one of the most exciting things. People. Actually becoming more and more loving. Beautiful. May it always be our major emphasis. Yes, we believe in the fullness of the Holy Spirit. If you use the term baptism of the Holy Spirit, praise the Lord. We're not going to have a big fight with you. We've got too much to do. To fight over the Holy Spirit. Because these terms are all found in the Bible. We know there are different interpretations. We'll never all agree even among leaders in OM. Much less all the new recruits. We try to avoid just unnecessary controversy. And try to use vocabulary that's more united. Not going into a brethren assembly. Or some church that you know uses one vocabulary. And just use totally way out vocabulary. And every time we get in a church to preach, a vagabond band of disciples like us, it's a miracle. Much less go in and speak different languages. We have to become to some degree all things to all men. To win some. When we get our foundation of communication, then we can say a lot more. Then we can say a lot more. This is not a restriction, young people. It's a new road of discipline and liberty. Because it forces us to get to know other people. And the way they express their faith. Different people express their faith and their love to Christ. In different ways. And if it's in the Word of God, we at least want to listen. And there are, as you know, beautiful words that are not even in the Word of God. But they express deep truths of the Word of God. Like Trinity. Is that a bad word? Jehovah's Witnesses. They foam at the mouth and really shake. You say Trinity. And praise God. You know, one of the first people ever got an O.M. His name was Baltimore Aguilar. And he was the leader of the work in Mexico. And God used him. And he won over 50 Jehovah's Witnesses to Christ. They couldn't. When he opened the Word of God, they melted like butter. Do you think they know their Bibles? Most of them don't. But maybe before you tackle them, you get to know your Bible like Baltimore. Because he was like a little mini walking concordance. Victorious living. We often quote 1 John 2.1, which is mentioned in that section of the leaflet. Our first goal, sin not. Second goal, if we sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. In O.M., when we talk about victorious living, that includes knowing what to do when we fall. I repeat that. In O.M., when we speak about victorious living, it includes knowing what to do when we fall or when we fail. And any other teaching about victorious provision or victorious living that doesn't have that provision, I believe often leads people into a dead end street. I'm always amazed when they invite me back to the Southport Convention. I'm not holiness in background, in terms of the holiness movement as it is known. But this is my seventh visit to the annual holiness convention of Southport. And I find those people are very hungry for this balanced message on holiness and victorious living and the Holy Spirit that God has given us in O.M. And some of you from that background, you should be very at home in O.M., even though maybe your leader is not of that background. And there will be some things in O.M. that will ring the same as your Nazarene church or your Methodist church or your Salvation Army Citadel. And praise God for the amalgamation of people from so many different backgrounds. Victorious living and the fullness of the Holy Spirit. A.W. Tozer said, the more keen Christian is more easily led astray. That's an amazing exhortation, isn't it? We've discovered this, and this is one of the reasons we want to emphasize the whole counsel of God. We want to emphasize balance because when people get keen, they get enthusiastic. The enemy seems to move in on them and try to get them into extremism. We've seen it again and again. Not that we believe O.M. is the movement of perfect balance. No. Because balance will be different to different people. And balance in itself incorporates, listen, a great range of variety. A great range of variety. And don't be afraid to be yourself. And you meet some little American who's a little bit right-wing in his politics and, you know, the first time you talk to him, wow! And maybe you're a little more left-wing and you're thinking, you don't have to, overnight, you know, just adapt to his theories. And politically things get more intense as the world gets more and more out of control. And it's beautiful to meet different Christians of different political persuasions. And if you think all Christians have the same political persuasion, you must have had your education in an extended shoebox. May somehow your mind be a little expanded. Don't feel threatened. You can even write to your president and tell him what's happening. But don't feel threatened. So, it's a long road. It's an exciting road. But there is victory. The Holy Spirit can fill us and guide us. And we'll have more teaching on that. Number four, the Lordship of Christ and the all-sufficiency of Christ. By the way, this leaflet is in many languages, about 20 languages. The Lordship and the all-sufficiency of Christ. And I would love to speak longer on this, but I'll just recommend the book of Colossians. Some of you are looking for a good book. You want to get into a really good book in these days. Try Colossians. In him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. You want education? You want education? You're in the right place. We believe in education. We hope you'll read good books this year, both secular and Christian. And we hope you'll realize as you read and you study and as you listen and as you go to great films and videos, some of them may even be secular, you'll realize, in him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. I was doing a little 10-day special course at Wheaton College when I heard the great Raymond Edmund, the principal and former missionary, give a message on that verse. It stuck with me like an arrow in my heart. In him are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. God didn't leave me to have so much education as many of my co-workers. I'm one of the least when it comes to formal education. But I discovered that little truth and it's helped me keep all the hundreds of books and thousands of tapes and all the things I've read and studied in focus as I've been able to go to these some 60 different countries and study and learn and read and then do a little bit of writing. I've always kept that as a focus. In Christ are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. And so each day, this is the first book. This is the fountainhead. And to know Christ and to walk with Christ is the key to real, biblical, revolutionary education. The kind that's going to enable us to carry the gospel to the ends of the earth and make an impact on a humanistic lost world in which sometimes if money and sex hasn't become God, education has. Knowledge has. And then number five, honesty and true openness. We've often spoken as though I am being a revolution of honesty. By the way, what I'm sharing is totally different except in one or two places from this text so you can still re-read this. These truths are so big you could give 20 messages on every one of these subjects and be new territory each time. Honesty. I was reading something on honesty today that an ex-OMer sent me. I don't know if you've ever read that powerful little book God for Sale by Greg Lewis. What a bombshell of a book. No wonder it never sold. It's so unpleasant. This book, God for Sale. Greg Lewis was with us on OM years ago. He's a man who's been through much suffering. And he sent me something today on honesty and an article against lying among Christians. And I find there is an increase of dishonesty and lying and poor ethics among Christians and Christian businessmen. Little lies. We have people confess to us. They lie on their application blanks. They lie about the people or their references. They lie about the church relationship. Incredible. We believe there needs to be a revolution of honesty. Let's put things right. If you've had something in your background that you've lied about on your application we need to know it. Someone once didn't put a major health problem on their application. This is a medical form. Some of you in certain countries get a medical form. And they said well they didn't put it down when we finally caught up with it after a major problem. They didn't put it down because God had delivered them from that. Well if God has delivered you totally from that medical problem maybe you could just testify on that medical form about it and how the Lord has delivered you from it. Wonderful. But you know if we're sending somebody out to Bangladesh or India and they're an epileptic or they've got some other medical history we need to know about it so that we can serve better. OM is very revolutionary in receiving and working with people who have health problems. We have epileptics we have diabetics we have people who have had mental illness. We believe God is alive. God is able to heal. God is able to change. But we don't believe in playing games because there can be reoccurrences that we are complicated our physical being complicated. So we need to know and we hope there'll be openness and a developing of openness. And there's an army of people here most leaders are willing to talk to you and share with you and I hope that we may see this particular emphasis continue as we learn as it says in 1 John chapter 1 to walk in the light. Not in a way that it will hurt people everything has to be with love. You don't just walk up to somebody and say I've been having evil malicious thoughts about you I wanted to choke you in the meeting last night. That is not going to edify him. That's not the way of expressing love. Now if you did choke him then you need to apologize. Open sin needs open confession. Most private sin there are exceptions most private sin needs to be dealt with privately between you and Jesus at the foot of the cross. We operate no confessionals in operation mobilization. And our sharing and our openness and honesty is for growth for edification for healing not for forgiveness. And then number 6 discipline and brokenness. Some people have never heard about brokenness before they came on the web. The Lord Jesus spoke about the broken vase and the beautiful perfume and ointment coming out of the broken vase. And in the Old Testament there's the breaking of the jar and the remaking the molding of the jar in the potter's hand. Andrew Murray said that brokenness was humility's response to the touch of God. It's hard to discern sometimes when God is touching you or when some human being is trying to push you. Forgive us NOM if sometimes we try to push you. We're all too human. And this is where you have to learn to deal with false guilt because some of the guilt that some of you are carrying around is not from the touch of God. It's from a pre-tuned wrongly tuned conscience because your conscience is not a total guide. Your conscience can be wrong because so much negative input is in conscience sometimes even from your parents. And we need the redeveloping of our conscience by the Word of God and by sound doctrine and it's a long road. And I thank God that at times now when my conscience twinges I can say thank you very much conscience but on that point you're wrong. We're free tremendously free and we need to beware of the manipulation of false guilt. We need to somehow be able to discern when God is whispering something gracious and forgiving and tender into our ear or even firm or when the enemy the accuser of the brethren is trying to push us down again and tell us we're no good and tell us we'll never make it through this kind of spiritual movement and we'll never relate to this this band of international nondescripts. Beware the enemy is the accuser of the brethren. So we're not talking about a discipline that leads to bondage we're talking about a discipline that leads to freedom. A freedom to be to some degree yourself and yet to continue being conformed to Jesus Christ. A freedom to have different kinds of discipline. Someone asked I think it was myself actually Why don't we have an early morning exercise program? This really took a lot of change in me to give this up. I took the whole OM plank on head on. We're not giving up the 630 exercise program. I'm going to lead it. It's going on for 20 years. You think I'm going to sacrifice a major doctrine? They're so gentle the leaders. They just took me aside put one arm around my back put my leg around my head and said this is the way it's going to be from now on, George. No, actually what they said was that there are no showers except once a week. And I said oh my who wants to preach in a tent with a hundred cases of BO? I guess we'll have to change we'll have to change the doctrine. But some of you maybe don't sweat so quickly. I'm actually in that camp. Some of us our sweat glands must be clogged with something. I hope it's not dirt. But boy I love to get out there early and exercise. And you know you'll usually find a few people out there at 630, 7 sometimes throughout the day of course. But I personally and this is no rule in O.M. have found it so helpful these twenty some years to always start the day with exercise. You can do it even in your house. Just help me to be alert and it's broken a battle I had with early morning depression. Just help the blood get circulating and make the Bible study better. Now I I had a letter from one of the leaders who was opposing this who said he believed that you should wake up early and he had a letter from a doctor that waking up slowly was better and that this was not right that we were inflicting O.M. ers into a crash program wake up and we were going to hurt people. You know and it's true. Now we've got a quotation from Mike Evans that Billy Graham is having his quiet time in bed. I'm finished. I'm finished. You know at 65 or some years of age you know maybe you can get permission to have your quiet time in bed. Even if you do it now provided you get what God wants you to have I don't think anybody's going to hit you too hard. Discipline it means different things to different people. We're not interested in regimentation and we're certainly not interested in producing a bunch of people who are trying to be little mini George Burwers or little mini Dale Rotons or Nigel Lees. You've got to be yourself. You've got to walk with God. You're original. Some of you are more original than others. But we can all learn something of discipline. We can all learn something of brokenness. We can all read Calvary Road and get something though the book will mean different things to different people. And some of you will get much more blessing out of some other book. Wonderful, isn't it? God is so in many ways so big. You have a big God. He's not a denominational God so take your label off him once and for all. Let's not try to put God in a theological box. Let's get to know him in all of his greatness. The way he's working so many different ways through so many different people. Give him all the glory as we learn something of discipline and brokenness. Oh, to go to somebody even during these days when necessary and say, look, I'm sorry. I kept you awake last night. I'm sorry. That brother who played that little joke on me at the leaders meeting, he was after me right after the meeting. Look, I'm sorry about that. He didn't need to be. You know, let me tell you, sometimes our jokes for somebody of another nationality and another language is not a joke. Any of you who are practical jokers, be careful because we've had people injured seriously through practical jokes. We're an international movement that is just now being welded together. A new team, a new army. We need a lot of sensitivity, a lot of wisdom, understanding people. And because we will fail, we've got to know brokenness. We've got to go and say, look, I'm sorry about what I said. I didn't mean to say that about your country. And actually, I want to tell you, I want to learn to appreciate your country. I have to admit, I'm really ignorant and I have prejudice. Or whatever it may be. Brokenness. Humility. Response to the touch of God. And then number seven. World evangelism. No need to emphasize that tonight. Got a whole night of prayer tomorrow night for world evangelism. It's going to be just a half night. Not going to have any message, but go right into prayer early and finish it up at twelve o'clock so that you can get the sleep you need for this intensive week. Last week we had a long one. It was about three o'clock. Then the leaders had another long one about three o'clock a few days ago. So we're just trying to get a little balance. Just as everything in OM, as leaders we can't get unity as to when to close the prayer meetings down. Isn't that beautiful? You think that's the biggest problem in the average church, huh? Whether to close it down at midnight or one or two or three or four. Well, we appreciate having that problem. And we know, of course, there are churches that know a lot more about prayer than any of us. World evangelism is absolutely a major, a major principle or burden on the heart of God. We know Acts 1A. We've had messages on it. We've been involved in it all summer. And I just praise God that despite the difficulty, the necessity for solid structure and organization and offices, to have an ongoing worldwide missionary evangelistic trust. And as I look back over this past year, as I visited a high percentage of all the teams in the whole world, personally, in the past two years, a hundred thousand miles, I have found it exciting to see so many, so many are committed to actual evangelism. And even those that work in the offices, battling and struggling, sure, lots of failure to get that day or two out in evangelism in their free time. This is an area where because we're so idealistic there'll be tremendous failure. And especially some of us as leaders. It seems to be so easy to miss that half day of evangelism when there's so many other things crowding in. It seems to be so easy to forget those tracks that we used to never forget. We're committed to world evangelism, my beloved brothers and sisters, not in theory, not through just having conferences or books, but where the tire hits the road or the eyeball hits the eyeball. And what a privilege it is to be involved in leading men personally to Christ. Seven major emphases. Will you make those your emphasis? Will you make those your goals for this year? And believe that the Holy Spirit can have the ongoing process of making them a reality. And my friends back here for the second year, how are you doing in those seven things? Did you hear that message, read the leaflet and then drop it along the road as though it got rough and tough and there were disappointments and failures? Or maybe you got bitter because somehow you feel that the thing wasn't really what you thought it would be? Have somehow you, by God's grace, been able to lay aside some of the folly of men and get it in any movement and focus on God Himself and say, Lord, these emphases, they're not OM emphases, they're biblical emphases. And though I may have my hassle with OM, I do, depends on, guess what you mean, I don't have any hassle with believing that. And believing those emphases must be an ongoing reality in my life. Let us pray. Father, we thank and praise you for this opportunity to be together and to have this seminar. It really has been a seminar, the way some people define a seminar these days. And we believe these truths can be an ongoing reality in our lives. And though some of us, it'll be a long, slow road, we are on that road. We thank you for it. And you're going to lead us into your will. And we're going to rejoice all the way. We thank you. Thank you for your healing. Thank you for your love. In Jesus' name, Amen. Now, just to let you know that through most of the years of OM, the evening meetings always finished around quarter to ten. So don't think, you know, we've laid something extra heavy on you. But that is because of interpretation. And because we used to have two speakers. And we had strong opposition from the leaders against two speakers. So we don't have two speakers. God bless you as you press on, walking with Jesus. Amen.