In this sermon, the speaker encourages the audience to consider committing to missions for at least two years. He emphasizes the abundance of resources available for those who are willing to go and shares his own experience of learning how to raise money for the kingdom of God. The speaker also addresses the challenges of cross-cultural missions and the importance of obeying God's call. He concludes by reminding the audience that they have been given much and therefore much is expected of them, urging them to take advantage of the missionary opportunities and literature available to them.

I haven't been over there, just pay at least one visit. I've just been rereading this book by this great Canadian, Oswald Chase Smith. And some of the insight he had 50 years ago is still valid today. Some of this is out of date. But there's some nuggets there that are very, very significant. I don't want to miss anybody over there. So pick up that book, there's a few of them left. Serving as senders should be required reading in every Bible college. I waited for 40 years to find such a book. As I discovered the hard way, getting the senders is so much more difficult than finding the people willing to go. And I would urge you to read that book. I met a dynamic woman today here, a student named Sarah, same name as my granddaughter, so I can remember, who's got a vision for fundraising for world missions. Seldom do you meet these kind of people. And so that was exciting. I think you can spot Sarah, she has more unique hairstyles. So do get to talk to her about her fundraising vision. Priority One, What God Wants, that's another great missionary book. Just got a few copies of it left. Don't miss it. You know, if you know the price of books these days, to be able to go and get a book for a couple of dollar donation, that's a bargain. And I think those of you broke, you all went and had at least one free book. My books are not that great, but I've had 25,000 letters and more just from one of my books. So people do read what I call ordinary books from weak, needy characters like me. My book, I especially try to deal with this subject of discouragement, which has been such a big thing in my life, the tendency to battle discouragement. So we got some copies, no turning back. If you ever do read that, please write me and I'll send you some books free just as a reward for plowing through my book. We also got some great books about the ship ministry. We're really having a hard time finding men. We have a lot of women volunteering for our ships. Women generally have more discernment than men. And so we have a lot of women on our ships, but men are mainly praying, Lord, here I am, send my sister. I've hardly ever known a man, and we've had thousands of men working on our ships, pretty hard physical work. That's a turn off to a lot of people in this generation, but a ship is a lot of work. I've hardly ever met a man, and we've had some outstanding men on our ship that did not look back and consider it one of the most significant experiences in their lifetime. To visit 10 or 15 countries in two years, to live in a community of people from 30 nations. Harvey is one of our co-leaders of the work in Canada now, was on the ship for years, and you can talk to him about it. But pray that, Lord, maybe it's not you, that he will send more men to our ship ministry. We're especially looking for marine and engineer officers. That's a major prayer target, but we also just need ordinary men who are willing to work, and willing to put their hands on the plow. Let's read the scripture text for the theme of this great event together. Quite a few of you came up to see me afterward. I know Canadians are generally shy. The last thing on planet Earth they ever want to do is walk up and shake the hand of a loudmouth yank. I've just been shouting at them for an hour. But a few of you managed to come up, and I gave you my email. I've already had email from Hamilton and email from Briarcrest, so I hope I get some email from here. I don't actually know where I am, but wherever it is, I'd like to get some email. I know I'm at Providence Bible College, but I don't know what other. Manitoba, praise God. It's a great province. It's in my favorites. It's in my top ten provinces of Canada group. It's a miracle I haven't been assassinated. The word of the Lord, Ezekiel chapter 33. How many of you have your Bibles? Hold your Bibles up. That's great. It's a privilege. Many, many believers in different parts of the world can't even get a Bible. Can't even get a Bible. Many languages, the Bible doesn't exist. Whitcliffe is working hard on that. Is Whitcliffe represented here? It would be unusual if they weren't. Over there, this two good-looking couple and this little smiley gal in the black. I like black. Notice I'm black. My underwear's not black, though. Word of the Lord came to me. Son of man, speak to your countrymen and say to them, when I bring the sword against the land and the people of the land, choose one of their men and make him their watchman. Inclusive language would say watch person. And he sees the sword coming against the land, blows the trumpet to warn the people. Then if anyone hears the trumpet but does not take warning, and the sword comes and takes his life, his blood will be on his own head. Since he heard the sound of the trumpet but did not take warning, his blood will be on his own head. If he had taken warning, he would have saved himself. But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet to warn the people, and the sword comes and takes the life of one of them, that man will be taken away because of his sin. But I will hold the watchman accountable for his blood. Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel. So hear the word I speak and give them warning from me. When I say to the wicked, O wicked man, you will surely die, and you do not speak out to dissuade him from his ways, that wicked man will die for his sin. And I will hold you accountable for his blood. But if you do warn the wicked man to turn from his ways, and he does not do so, he will die for his sins, but you will have saved yourself. That's an Old Testament picture that can be interpreted in different ways. You have to interpret it within the context. But I believe it also is a picture, a fore picture of God's people today. As we looked in Acts 1.8, we are called to be his witness. And that to me is very important. The Apostle Paul is described in Acts chapter 20, where it says for the space of three years, night and day, night and day with tears, he warned people. And I believe some of you are going to have a ministry right on this campus, a ministry of the word of God, in love, in grace, to warn fellow students when you see them going on the wrong way. You are your brother's keeper. And we need to warn people if they're going on the wrong way. It may be sex, it may be drugs, it may be just bad attitudes and negativeness, it may be a critical spirit. You need God's timing when you do that. You shouldn't humiliate and embarrass people in front of others. But I thank God for those that were willing to warn me about things in my life that were not right. Not many want that ministry. We all like to be more positive, including me. And yet we find this warning ministry in the word of God. It's not just warning and witnessing to the unsafe. It sometimes may mean standing up in front of your church and giving a word of exhortation about something you see as a danger. This was considered a prophetic ministry. It was considered by George Whitefield a ministry of exhortation. Today we put a high esteem on Bible exposition and very little esteem to the ministry of exhortation. Whitefield even called his workers under that great revival, he called them exhorters. And we need to have a ministry of exhortation. I don't have time. I do sometimes expound the scriptures. But when I have just a short time, I generally, and I'm just here for two days, engage more in exhortation, which has to be built on the ministry of Bible teaching and exposition. And surely some of your teachers are expositors. I had a burden on my heart as I walked up here. All those on the faculty and the staff of Providence, could you just stand up? I would like to pray for you. Just stand up. Some of them are busy. But those of you on the staff, I always appreciate it when staff come to my meetings. I once told a colleague in one of my hard moments, the staff doesn't come, I'm not going. But I back down from that because I know that's sort of a grace killing type approach. Lord, I just thank you for the staff that are here right now. We know many of them have been through other conferences and they're busy out serving, doing something else right now. But I lift up those who have taken the time to come. And bless them and give them wisdom because their work and their job will not get any easier. In the name of Jesus, amen. Amen, thank you very much. How many of you, by the way, are already missionaries? Could you stand up just real quick? Just a popcorn stand up. You're already a missionary. Great. Let's pray for them. Lord, I pray for these who are already missionaries. Bless them. Use them for your kingdom. In Jesus name, amen. You can sit down, but if any of you email me, I'd love to send you 10, 20 books. Do your address in proper form so my secretaries can read it. Then how many of you students have already made a commitment to go into cross-cultural missions? Even cross-cultural missions in Canada. That doesn't mean being a youth worker or a pastor to Canadians in Canada is any less important. But this is a missions conference. You can't do everything at once, even though I try. So those of you who are going cross-culturally, you're trying to get there, you've made some kind of commitment, I'd like you to stand right now. I did this in Briarcrest. It was half as many as four years ago. I don't remember if I did this here before, but that's a good group. That's a good group. It'll take a lot to make it happen for these people. Let's pray for them. Lord, we think of all those standing right here. Maybe they're even here at Providence because this is their vision. Give them strength. Help them understand it's harder to become a career missionary today than it is a brain surgeon. They're going to need a lot of anointing. They're going to need a lot of discipline, a lot of wisdom. Help them to build up their support team. Help them to be proactive in their finance and prayer and make these weeks, months, years count here in Providence. We pray in the name of Jesus. Amen. Thank you. You might ask why I did that. Well, a number of reasons. I'll just give one. Because at the end of this short message, I'm going to give an invitation and I'm going to ask people who are willing as a result of what the Spirit of God is doing in these days, as a result of what the Holy Spirit is doing in your life, maybe what I say, I'm going to ask people to stand who are not necessarily mission types, not necessarily planning on career missions, but they're willing to at least give one or two years out of their own country for the sake of cultural development, education, ongoing training, to get delivered of any ugly Canadianisms, more of a problem in other countries than good old Canada, by the way. Almost everywhere in the world, they like Canadians. What a privilege to be a Canadian. Every born again Canadian should pray about being a missionary because you're the most appreciated. Now, many out there have never met a Canadian, a real one, but they don't have... There's not all this negative stuff that there is about USA Americans. And I know some of you maybe from the USA don't feel bad about that because the Holy Spirit, as in my life, can fill you, take that intimidation and just set you loose and you'll find that it is not a problem for people to love individual Americans. It's the corporate block that they have difficulty with and the Vietnam scene and let's bomb Libya next week scene and the militia Ku Klux Klan scene that some thinking people have a little difficulty with. But individual Americans may not be easy but they're lovable and if you don't succeed the first time, try again. Sometime if you turn them upside down and shake them, then after that, they're easier to love as you collect all the money that falls out of their pockets. God is no respecter of persons. God is no respecter of persons. Why you should be a cross-cultural watchman. Watchwoman. An Old Testament word for missionary. Someone willing to go and witness. Someone willing to obey God. That's the bottom line. Obeying God. And it's exciting. Let me give you five or six reasons. If you feed these back to me a year from now, I'll send you five or six free books for each reason. Just after lunch, people get a little drowsy. I didn't eat lunch yet so that helps. But people get a little drowsy after lunch. So if you write these down, students are supposed to be serious minded people. They got their notebooks. They got their laptops. They're getting this information down. Paul said in Timothy that I'm giving you these things that you can share them with others also. Do you know that verse? 2 Timothy 2. Write it down. That's a good text. And I don't share these things just for your sake. I share these things so that you also can share them with others. Even by email. Why don't you open your own website? It's only an idiot that doesn't open his own website. Everybody needs a website. Do you know what's happening in the internet world right now? People are buying your name. I just found out my name. Somebody already had it. GeorgeVerwer.com They had it. A friend of mine got a proactive nerd. He got a hold of my name and because he loves me, he gave my name back to me free. And so you don't have to immediately open a website, but get your name. If you think any time ever in your life, you're going to amount to something more than a backslidden mushroom. You want your own name and then you can open your own website. So in a week or two you can go in GeorgeVerwer.com and you'll get my all kinds of freebies and recipes. I don't even know what this guy is putting in there. He's a bit of an over the top kind of person. It's exciting, isn't it? Email. And you can send an email out this afternoon and tell some people that are your friends, what God's been doing here during these two days. Give them my email. Tell them in a week or two, free books, free tapes. I'm giving away free coffee. I got a load of coffee from a Born Again coffee dealer. It's exciting really what we can do through the internet. Five or six reasons why you should go for at least one or two years. You say, well, wait a minute. Why are you talking only one or two years? Why aren't you talking career? My burden is to get the right people into career missions. We don't want just a big army of Canadians saying, I'm going to be a career missionary without consultation, without discussion with their church, without understanding. And if you want to pray for me, pray that I may have more wisdom for the job that God has given me of leading with others this huge movement that's now 2,800 missionaries in 82 nations with the two ships. There's some parts of our work that got so big, we don't include it in that 2,800. The literature ministry in Great Britain grew so big as a separate corporation. They now finally pay salaries, so it's not really a mission, but it's part of the kingdom. So in the literature work, I started with a couple of boxes of books when I arrived in Britain in 62. Now I have 600 employees, the largest literature warehouse in the world, perhaps outside of the USA, 40 bookstores in Britain alone, another 40 in their network, and customers throughout the entire world and distribute more books in one month than we used to distribute in a whole year. That's just one little part of this thing that has tended to grow up. Something similar to that is taking place in India. Something similar to that exists in other countries. God answers prayer. Three of us went to Mexico and started this as students, before I went to Moody, from nothing. And God has heard our prayers and has brought in the finance and brought in the people. 100,000 people have had a one or two year or at least a summer training experience, many of them 20 or 30 years. Dale Roatan just came back, you know, short-term missionary, Dale Roatan, just came back from 39 years on the field. He's now serving Christ in San Diego, so he's still a missionary. We live in a rapidly changing world, and that's why the training that you get here at Providence, Providence in any training has wheat together with straw, and you've got to have the discernment to separate that. I believe it's a valuable preparation for world missions. I noticed at Briarcrest, many leave after their freshman year for various reasons, they explained to me. And I'd urge you to consider not leaving after your freshman year, if that's a problem here, but trying to get at least two years or more and focus in on this challenge of cross-cultural communication, and developing a knowledge of the Word of God and the skills that you can use. But I share this two year, one year vision, because I want to speak to those of you who are especially not planning to be missionaries, which is a majority. I want you to understand that to be a pastor in Limpay or to be a youth worker in Toronto, a couple years, at least a year in a cross-cultural situation in which the focus is on training you rather than what you can do is going to help you make it happen. Because in our tough society, and I had somebody come to me with the same thing yesterday, he was thrown into a youth work in a key church. He told me yesterday, they just fired him. We're in a society that hires and fires. We're in a society, so-called commitment to excellency, with a lot of diversity on how people would like things to happen, that going into Christian ministry is not easy, and a lot of people have fallen out of so-called Christian ministry, don't really like the term, if it separates us from other aspects of building a kingdom. So, to have more experience in a training role, especially if you're being mentored and under other men and women of God, can prepare you better for your life work. Hundreds of former OEMers are pastors. Some of them quite successful. Quite a few are leaders of mission agencies. Another one just stepped into that position, Craig Shugart, new leader of InterServe Canada. After 15 or 20 years, he once was my traveling partner. And that's one of the goals and aims of OEM, is to prepare people for other missions. One of my favorite missions is OMF. And I was speaking to their international director years ago, and we decided OMF meant O-M for life. And we've had the joy of sending many, many OEM people into OMF. We do have our own long-term ministry, especially in the Muslim world, and it's attention to know when to challenge people to move on, challenge them to get involved with one of the long-term aspects of our own ministry. But the Holy Spirit can direct in that. The next reason you should consider going for at least one or two years, is because of what the Word of God teaches. And we don't have time to go into the Biblical basis of missions. You've already had that. We've looked at Acts 1-8. We know great passages like the Book of Isaiah. Chapter 6. I'd just love to read a couple of verses from that. Because to me, that's just so, so powerful as we think of what God can do, even right now, in terms of our own futures. Talks about meeting God. Waiting on God. Isaiah got this vision. He saw the Lord high and lifted up. He said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord almighty. The whole earth is full of His glory. Then he repented and he broke before God. He had this tremendous experience of purging and cleansing before the Lord. And then verse 8. I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send? Whom will go for us? And I said, Here am I. Send me. Have you ever prayed that? Here am I. Send me. Would you pray that this morning? The second reason I believe so many of you should go for at least a couple of years is because the need is so phenomenal. Now I could talk nonstop 24 hours. Someday I'm going to do it. Just on the need around the world without notes. I've been through the book Operation World three times. I've been on the mission field. If I count my first trip to Mexico 42 years, we've never even gone on our first furlough. This is my life. This is my passion. I pray for almost every nation in the world. I have my own little special projects fund. We're involved in projects. Can you believe this? In almost every nation in the world, if we count what the ship does as well. So this is my life. This is my passion. This is why though I want to run away from so many meetings. I take 400 meetings a year. The Lord keeps grabbing me by the scruff of the neck. You might think I'm some hyper extrovert that just loves being with people. But when you've been in it as long as I have some of you already have this. My recluse instinct is almost out of control. Where will you find me this time next week? You'll find me in the bottom of Grand Canyon where nobody can phone me or find me. Except my grandkids pray for me. The need is ten times greater than we can portray in these couple of days together. All of the seminars, all of the missionaries together. It's impossible for us to portray the need but we try. Especially the need of the more unreached people. Now you think Canada. How many feel that Canada's mission field is pretty needy? Raise your hand. Everybody almost. Let me tell you something and no one has ever disagreed with me. Canada's in the top ten nations in the world. As far as evangelism, church, ministry and especially potential to be effective in world missions. Canada is in the top ten. Don't quote to me some third world country where they're talking about missions. They haven't even sent their first 200 career missionaries yet. God bless them. We're working there as well. The Canadian church is a proven church. It's got a church with a heritage so deep you can't even find it. It's got some of the greatest men and women of God like Oswald J. Smith that have ever walked the missionary trail. It's got martyrs going back for a couple of hundred years. The Canadian church of course is not growing a lot but it takes a lot of growth just to keep up with all the great Canadian saints are going on to heaven like Terry Winter not that many months ago. Boy, that was a surprise. You never do know when you're going to go, do you? So I tell you, make those days count. So I believe Canada is to continue to play a leading role in the task of world missions. It must not be the same. It's not in the same countries. Some countries the national church can do most of the work. There may be specialist tasks for Canadians in those countries but Canada now must turn her eyes more toward the more unreached, forgotten sectors of the world. Most of those places, not exclusively but many of them are in that famous 10-40 window. 10 degrees north of the equator to 40 degrees north starting where my hand is by Mauritania and to Morocco moving across Algeria, Libya Southern Mediterranean right through Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan right through places like Tibet and North India, Pakistan, Bangladesh through a good chunk of China there's a few places north and south like Indonesia and Mongolia which of course spiritually belong in the 10-40 window. Less than 10% of all the missionaries in the world work there. We're a high percentage of all the world's population. Isn't that amazing? Now if we throw India in and China in, they're so big it distorts that statistic I just gave you because they have so many nationals and the church in China is mainly growing by indigenous phenomenal movement but keep in mind there are hundreds of millions in China who have never heard the gospel or read the gospel because the church in the method that it's using has great limitations as far as reaching 1.3 billion people in their own country including many cultural groups that are considered outside of their affiliation. It has also been proven that a high percentage of the career missionaries who are laboring in the 10-40 window got their vision by going on a short term mission exposure experience where some of the false ideas could be broke down in their thinking where they discovered they could really love these places missions is not a purgatory trip you'll have a hard time finding, you can talk to my wife you can talk to people who stuck with me in this work many of them 30-40 years, you can ask them about me, you will not find people much happier or fulfilled than my wife and I so the idea is that I'm going to stay in my own country because I want to be happy I want to stay in my own country because I'm not a missionary type and I'm not a missionary type that's just a load of nonsense, you don't even know yourself yet that's why I cry out against these premature romances and marriages you don't even know yourself yet much less know this girl you're dating and you're about to hop in bed with in a couple of months or a couple of years we need to get to know ourselves we need to get to know the living God we need to understand people and develop discernment about people in general especially this whole area of psychology and the mind why people just so quickly change as they get a little bit older I have a friend of mine, once this woman that he married got a little older and she went off to university and studied feminism, she just told him to go get lost, he left into her, and not all feminism is bad so don't misunderstand that but this idea that you really can't be fulfilled if you're married to some guy who's like this or like that, you know how all these bad guys are, especially Christians who believe in some degree of submission they are considered archenemies by the feminist movement, the more extreme end of it, though amazingly a leading feminist just wrote a book in favor of men whoa, is she getting criticized by the hardline feminists just read and review it get to know yourself what makes you tick you have a problem with anger, why do you have a problem with anger you think that's a vacuum? you got a problem with anger because you got another problem and I tell ya, women, if you marry a guy with anger problem you invite him to smack you in the face he will smack you in the face women have been walked on and beaten on for hundreds of years, including in the church including on the mission field and guys like me involved in depth and marriage counseling we gotta pick up the pieces and the bruises, they don't produce films like the burning bed, and I did see that film, just for kicks those things happen I urge you to wake up and come out of your little naive movie fantasy world because it's worth it for you in the long run, it's not for me I'm out of here tomorrow, I'm here for you, I'm already 43 years in the wreaths it's for you that we are here it's for you we're having this conference that you may be a whole person that you may have victory over anger, or lust or that fear that has destroyed your life, or that inferiority that has dragged you down since you were 5 and somebody told you you were an idiot my own wife suffered from tremendous problems because of her childhood her first father divorced after a couple of years, went to the war and was killed in the war she never knew her own father she was put in an orphanage as a little girl and she had about as much love as a cockroach and then her stepfather didn't really like her and I don't want to talk about that, he was anti-Christian and he eventually, when she was an older teenager, threw her out of the home it's like Joseph, Joseph got sent to Egypt, that was terrible but it was for God's good you need to understand that about your background whatever's gone wrong, whatever hurt you've gone, whatever exile you've been through, whatever rejection you've experienced God ultimately can use it for good, that's not justifying anything that's happened, but God ultimately can use that for good it's because she got thrown out of the home that I met her crap, I've been on a 3 year fast, no girls for 3 years I thought it was going to go out of my mind, only Jesus can meet my need during those 3 years I already mentioned I had about 32 different girlfriends at the time I was 17 and 18 after I became a Christian I still couldn't figure out how this all worked, I let a girl to Christ and then kissed her for 2 hours, that was not a real follow up program and God, you know, he just God just broke me and I said, God I don't believe he leads everybody this way but God just told me you're going to lay off the girl thing no kissing, no necking for at least a couple of years, I'm going to send you to Mexico I'm going to bend you and break you and fill you and then I'll add this to you seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you and that's what I did, and in God's providence I went to rent a moody science film at Moody Bible Institute, I stepped out of the elevator and I turned right and I saw this girl sitting at the desk that blew every fuse in my head it really scared me, I said, Lord I'm not ready for this and I didn't know how to handle it so I thought I would scare her, I took her on a date, it wasn't even a date and you know, my heart was pounding, I thought you know, I've got to throw out a fleece, I've got to scare her and I said, you know probably nothing, she was a little quiet Iowa girl and I'm this aggressive, loud New Jersey son of a Dutch, who knows what and I said to her you know, probably nothing's ever going to happen between you and me, but I'm going to be a missionary, if you marry me you'll probably end up being eaten by cannibals in New Guinea that was the first date to this day I can't figure out why she ever refused to see me again, the second thing I did, this was back in the hyper chauvinistic era, I gave her a bag of my dirty laundry and I said, would you wash this, it's on to the Lord to help the work every year I tell that story, it gets worse I mean the reaction, the reaction from the new generation so young men, if you want to make an impact, I'm not sure that's the way we then got into the book of Acts I then almost required her to go to Mexico, see you know, what she was made of challenged her about forsaking all, she gave her whole, she'd be a millionaire today if she'd invested that in Walmart instead she invested it with me she's been broke ever since and we were actually so attracted to each other we went to Mexico and when we were there together in Mexico City it was sort of a disaster, I'm going to make this short but I didn't have the kind of love she needed, because of rejection because of insecurity, she needed a lot of love, I was trying to go to the university I was distributing two million tracts, leading a team, I was mega mega busy, I had hardly any time and she was my fiance by then, she was crying every night, because of her need for love and attention and my inability to give that, and when she came back, and that's a whole story, I left her down there and one of my best friends phoned me up and said he wanted her for his girlfriend, I had already told him I'll give you whatever I have but I felt that was over the line, I started fasting and gave her a bus ticket to come back, she was in Mexico City, I was in Chicago, finishing at Moody, she was not a student, she was an employee there, that's how I met her and it looked like we'd have to break our engagement because we were just you know, we just didn't didn't meet each other's needs and I thought I'm hopeless at this thing of loving, you know women need sensitivity, they need a tender touch they need patience, all the different things that I didn't seem to have much of you know, I was trying to develop more of that and I mentioned maybe we should break our engagement which really shook her and this is absolute truth, she went back to her room within that period of time and she just had an experience with God you know, people get different names for experiences with God, some of them are real emotional things, hers was actually quite quiet, she by that time had three psychosomatic illnesses as a result of her background and not me, but the background, I wasn't helping any and some speakers had come to Chicago at Moody, we get tremendous speakers used to come there and in the Keswick Convention where they emphasize a victorious life and the reality of the Holy Spirit and she had heard that message about the all-sufficiency of Jesus and there was a book way back then, this was a long time ago there was a book, there are many books on this now showing how the spiritual is related to the physical we read that book it's called Health Springs Forth by Dr. Ayo, it's out of print she went back to her room that night and she experienced the all-sufficiency of Jesus she woke up the next morning completely healed of those illnesses and has been my faithful, wonderful supportive wife for almost 40 years now the other side of the coin is because of the way our culture was, we still sort of rushed into this and we went down to Mexico and I had other extremes like I shared this heavy thing on women need to submit and she just went for it from the book of Ephesians not even the whole chapter just that one verse, submit and our marriage in Mexico it went really great for several weeks and then she read these other verses about husbands loving their wives as Christ loved the church talk about a difficult challenge that's why every man should be humble and I know some of you humility is not your strong point but you're working on it right some of you have already got to humility and you're going to produce a book on it 300 pictures of yourself and a book send me a copy humanly speaking within 6 months or 2 years humanly speaking we seem to be a mismatch God is sovereign you may not have plan A marriage, plan B marriage plan C marriage, you may make mistakes you cannot break the arm of God, don't get bitter because you think God was leading you in a particular direction and then the direction changed, that's the way it is here and my heart grieves over increasing numbers of missionaries on counseling who toward the end of their life have allowed roots of bitterness because they thought the church was going to pay the bills, because they didn't think it was going to be quite the way they planned it or prayed for, or because their missionary leader or society let them down, let me tell you, you can't live here on this planet without somebody letting you down an unrealistic expectation will blow apart your marriage it will blow apart even your one year at Providence, we need reality we need to understand one of my favorite proverbs I wrote it myself, where two or three of the Lord's people are gathered together, sooner or later they'll be a mess and no longer be intimidated by the messes now admittedly I have more of a struggle with negativism than many people and I've had to work on that, but I believe it is possible to have the balance between the positive and the negative and I was working to become more optimistic and I'll tell you this true story, I was preaching in a cathedral in Pakistan and one of me put suit and tie on this was a key meeting, there were key leaders in the meeting, I was trying to do my best and as I brought out a point a pigeon flew over me, dropped its load right on my sleeve as I was speaking, hey, you know, is this not a negative moment but God was doing a new thing He was changing me I looked at that audience with a big smile I said, thank God the elephants here don't fly if you don't go moving back to these few notes I've written down here if you don't go who will who will to whom much is given much is expected the Bible says, that's a paraphrase and God has already given most of you here a lot, missionary challenge, missionary contacts missionary literature even a conference like this a majority of Canadians never go through a mission conference like this some schools no longer, some churches no longer have missions conferences so you are special people and you've got to deal biblically with the infallible I'd love to talk to you for an hour if some of you are worried about that on Providence, God's Providence why are you here some of you didn't even want to come to this school maybe it was your fair choice but you're here somehow I never thought I was going to get back to Providence again because I'm cutting down on these kind of meetings and giving them to my younger staff somehow I'm back with this particular message a lot of missions conferences today is a bit vague and a lot of the great speakers only want to talk about spiritual life terrific emphasis on staying in Canada being a missionary here and being spiritual that even came out in Urbana a number of years ago praise God Urbana has moved back a clear challenge to go, they never touch somebody like me Canadian missionaries are still needed American missionaries are still needed and if you don't respond who will, somebody who's never heard the challenge that's important pray about it thirdly there are so many open doors there's so many open doors, so many opportunities even in the 1040 window semi-closed countries are welcoming tourists, they're welcoming English teachers they're welcoming computer nerds there's all kinds of open doors, you can go out and teach some prince in Saudi Arabia how to play tennis you know if you play you need to know how yourself we just birthed a new sports ministry and we're just seeing phenomenal open doors through that sports ministry, music ministry and if you have any talent in the area of music it's a phenomenal open door it's not just for Canada it's not only English you can learn to minister cross culturally we have men who have helped pioneered this open doors, opportunities and yes for people short term, not just trying to catch this, not just because that can be a time when the Lord leads you into long term, no if that were the only reason I would not give this challenge short term ministry is valid in itself because if you win some French people to Christ and Italians to Christ and Indians or Mongolians or Tibetans if you win them to Christ and many of our short term people win people to Christ, they are already in that country, they already have that language that has been one of the major factors of OM's phenomenal growth where 50% of all our workers around the world are two thirds world people many times in their own culture like the 600 workers we have in India I will tell you in two years you can lay that treasure in heaven like investing in a winning stock on Wall Street or in Toronto, it's exciting two years can count every day can count I wouldn't come here if I didn't believe these two days can count, one of your faculty members just walked up to me and said he got his initial kick in admissions at some meeting in Manchester England that I don't even remember but boy he sure brought some overcharge to my battery and I know that God is wanting to move among many of you to make some kind of commitment to go for at least two years the fourth reason is there are such phenomenal resources, such phenomenal resources we don't have time to talk about it I'm not saying it's easy to get them it'll be rough, it'll be tough but you will learn I learned how to raise money for the kingdom and you wouldn't want me, if I shared the results it'd be too much like bragging I can just give only the glory to God and I learned to raise money before I was 20 I tell you when you're a visionary and when you're excited and you know where you're going, people want to give but as Oswald J. Smith said in the book I was just re-reading, you gotta get that information out, you might have to get that website up you may have to do some kind of prayer letter you may have to come out what you think is spirituality and be a little bold for God, Acts 4 13 where they prayed the place was shaken they were filled with the Holy Spirit went forth and spoke the word of God with boldness the laborers worthy of the higher I got a tape on that subject pointing out that there's nothing wrong with asking people for money, there's nothing wrong with receiving money from business people of the church if you know that God has led you to do something, whether it's one or two years or long term so hard for her and she was so emotionally wounded I had a very secure home I've had very few unhappy days in my whole life you know even before I was saved you know we say there's no unhappy unsaved people, I was a very happy unsaved person, especially in the arms of a girl that I was in love with, but of course that's not the happiness that really lasts, and that's why there's so much hurt in our society because we've got misplaced priorities because we don't have the biblical discernment which comes yes through studying the word, but also through experience get out there and get some more experiences before you make those big heavy decisions, let's pray lift every head bowed right now just pray and search your own heart search your own heart some of you may want to make this decision tomorrow but I want to ask if there's anybody here that's willing, because God has already been dealing with you about this you're willing to stand up and say I'll go by the grace of God in weakness, in fear, whatever I will go at least one or two years into cross-cultural mission work if you'll make that decision we're battling the clock here a little bit but if you'll make that decision, I'd like you just to quietly stand up right now because I want to pray for you and I know a lot of people are praying for this meeting God bless you, I want you as you stand to ask God to fill you with the Holy Spirit the Holy Spirit is the chief executive officer of all missionary work you cannot volunteer to go one or two years into cross-cultural missions without being sure that you're filled with the Holy Spirit we'll be looking at that tomorrow morning and so I want you, as you stand right now, to make this simple commitment, realizing the Lord may stop you, the church may counsel you against it but at least as you see it now you're willing to start moving Keith Green said, if you don't feel absolutely called to stay, you need to start moving, and I'd urge you to make that decision to start moving for at least a couple years preferably after you finish here in cross-cultural mission work in the light of these five or six reasons I've just given you and as you stand ask the Lord to fill you with His Holy Spirit. Is there anybody else before I pray this prayer of commitment just stand right now I know people say, well I need more time some of you have been thinking about this for a long time and there's a time in life when we have to be willing to take a risk and I urge you don't let don't let some fear some weakness hinder you from making this initial commitment and understand it's all by mercy all by grace in the midst of much mystery. Is there anybody else? Just stand right now. God bless you God make it real Be filled, Ephesians 5 with the Holy Spirit up in the balconies thank you, I almost didn't see you, I see you now God bless you I wish I could talk to every one of you for an hour, God knows my heart for every hour of preaching I spend many hours talking to individuals off and on on the phone or email and I just urge you to understand the Holy Spirit will give you unlimited follow up you got faculty and missionaries here today, they're here now they'll be gone in a couple days, they're willing to talk to you, even about the decision you're making right now. Is there anybody else? Then I'm going to pray. God bless you God bless you. Praise God Father you see each one standing before you we know Satan is a roaring lion, seeketh whom he may devour, he's not happy about this, but I pray that each one standing before you will be filled with your Holy Spirit. I pray they may take Ephesians 6 and wear that whole armor every day the rest of their life that they would be your men, they would be your watch people, your watch men, your watch women to witness, to share, to exhort to tell others about this good news to help bring personal revival and reality back into our churches in a more dynamic way, that soon everybody in the world may have heard at least once though we know that's not enough, and that soon the church would be planted among every unreached people's group in the world we thank you God for what your Holy Spirit is doing here, and I pray again for these who are standing, fill them use them, guide them, give them wisdom give them discernment help them stand against intimidation help them to bounce back when they fail help them to deal with doubts and other questions that they may have for we know that great faith is not in the absence of doubt and questions and struggles and tears, but great faith is often in the midst of all those things, and much more and so we rejoice tribulation, work with patience and all who live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer we embrace that in the power of the Holy Spirit Amen, let's all stand and sing He is Lord, and we're going to bring this to a close He is Lord He is Lord He is risen from the dead and He is Lord every shall bow every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord once again, He's my Lord make it more personal He's my Lord what we do here impacts the world He's my Lord He is risen from the dead and He's my Lord open your eyes and look at this globe every knee shall bow every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord Amen, God bless you be seated Jennifer probably has an announcement if not