In this sermon, the speaker discusses the importance of balance in the Christian life. He emphasizes the role of different spiritual gifts in the church, such as apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers, in bringing maturity and unity to believers. The speaker also highlights the need for balance between spiritual warfare and rest, drawing from Hebrews chapter four. He cautions against overemphasizing liberty and questioning established church practices, urging young people to seek truth and guidance from God and others.

Ephesians chapter 4. What a great book, what a great chapter. I want to speak to you this evening on maintaining spiritual balance. Now some people don't like the word balance, and if we use the definition that some of them use, then I don't like the word either. I don't mean by balance, compromise, or just wishy-washiness, or you know, just sort of the middle of the road. But I mean the kind of balance that the Concord has built into it so that it can go across the Atlantic at such fantastic speed. To me balance makes something sharper. I believe with all my heart that as Christians, spiritual balance, maintaining a balance of truth, not compromising truth with error, worldliness with spirituality, no, but letting one truth bring another truth into balance. And I believe if you see this principle, it will definitely help you in your summer work as different things happen. You want to know what to say to a young person you're counseling, or how to react to a particularly difficult situation you may be in. Now let's look at these words in Ephesians chapter four, verse eleven is a good starting place. And He gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers for the perfecting, or the bringing into maturity of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come in the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man, a mature man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the sly or the sly of men and the cunning craftiness by which they lie and wait to deceive. But speaking the truth in love." There's a perfect picture of balance. Speaking the truth in love. "...may grow up into Him in all things, who is the head even Christ, from whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supply, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love." The greatest message in the Bible, once we know Christ personally, we've been justified by faith, we know this great salvation. The greatest message next to that, in my mind, is love. God so loved the world, that's message number one, that He gave His Son. And when we come to His Son in faith, simple faith, believing, then that vertical love relationship with God is back where it should be, and of course it has to grow. But then we have that challenge of the horizontal relationship with the people around us, and that is such a great challenge. I had such a blessing today just answering some very difficult letters. One difficult letter from a close friend, actually, sort of the spiritual father of this Swedish brother and his wife, I'll never forget, when they were in this meeting in Stockholm, they were already living with each other, they were miles away from God, and through the simple proclamation of the gospel, he came to Christ, and he brought her to an OM conference in Belgium, she came to Christ, and they became dynamic workers and leaders in OM. Now it's many years later, they wrote me a very difficult letter with some really tough questions, and I've been procrastinating about answering that. But walking along the beach, the Lord just gave me the inspiration to answer that letter, and that's really one of the encouragements for me today, because in my life, individual people are important. And I think that's one of the great motives for the kind of work you're in here. People are important. And you're coming here to give yourself to people. And I hope you're coming here believing that God is going to give you some permanent relationships. And that starts even this weekend. We don't all know one another here. Perhaps there's someone here you would like to get to know. But maybe there's someone else that would like to get to know you. Somehow, God, even in these next days, just two days together, I believe wants to cement our hearts together. And then he wants to spread that kind of fellowship, that kind of reality, through this camp all summer. And I believe for that to happen, there has to be spiritual balance. There has to be a balance of truth, as we're exhorted to find here in the book of Ephesians. Now, I've written quite a lot on this subject. I guess I shouldn't say quite a lot, but it's just that there's not that much written on the subject of balance. And some of you have read my book, Revolution of Love and Balance. I don't know where it is, buried here under all these books. Interesting little symbol on the cover. And then in my latest book, No Turning Back, I actually talk more about this, even in the book that's called, by the name Balance. And let me just throw out, for you to think about, some of the areas where you're going to have to work for balance, in your Christian life. The first area, I've already touched on a bit, the balance between the crisis experience and spiritual growth. Now, we know that God works at times, through a crisis. Let me just take a little survey. How many of you were converted, in a way that you more or less at least know what day it was, you may not have the date, but you know, it was a particular day you can remember, and it was somewhat of an emotional experience. It was a crisis experience, whether it was a small crisis, or a big crisis. How many of you have had that kind of conversion experience? Okay, that's about, maybe just a little under half. How many of you have had a conversion, probably because, maybe when you were very young, so you don't remember it very well, or it was more gradual in the sense that you know you've passed from death to life, but you don't exactly remember some specific, you know, crisis event. How many of you were more in that camp? A few of you are not sure which camp you're in. If you're not converted at all, I'd like to give you priority for personal fellowship after the meeting, but I think most of you, all of you know Christ personally. God works in different ways in different people. The same is true when it comes to sanctification, when it comes to going on. Quite a few people that I have talked to have had some pretty heavy crisis experiences after their conversion. One of the questions that John, is it? Was going to ask me, was about the baptism of the Holy Spirit. That would have been the hottest question of the night, because that's a very hot issue, and especially among Brethren Assemblies. And I'm sure you are aware of Brethren Assembly history, and how many have left the Assemblies in the past 10 or 20 years since I've come. In fact, you probably, not to do with me, I can't take credit for that, but through the very strong, fast moving force in this country, often referred to as the Charismatic Movement. When that first hit, the Brethren Assemblies were the arch enemies. Traditionally, Brethren and Pentecostals had not been able to get along at all. Even to this day, that controversy rages. There's books on this. Of course, the more modern Charismatic Movement was not the same as the more traditional Pentecostal Movement, and so the Brethren didn't know quite how to handle this. And I can remember being in a valedictory meeting with a particular brother who had a baptism in the Holy Spirit experience at university, but it was a traditional Brethren Assembly, and he gave his testimony with the terminology that would not blow the roof off the Assembly at that particular moment, and I noticed he's listed in Echoes of Service, and is plowing on serving the Lord Jesus. Actually, quite a few young men who experienced that kind of crisis at university, quite a few left the Brethren, and you'll find them in many different Charismatic House groups. Some of the leaders of the famous Bradford Charismatic House group, which is spread all over the country, very strong. The guru leader of that group, his father was the famous Reginald Wallace. The son is Arthur Wallace, one of the leaders of the Charismatic Movement in this country. He moved north, and now he's moved south again. Many of the people in these house groups have their roots back in Brethren Assemblies. Very interesting little study, I won't get into it tonight. Others, though they've had some crisis experience, felt that they should remain within their own Assembly, and those people should receive a great reward, because it was not always easy, and they were often misunderstood. I spoke, I think it was a year or two years ago, at the Swanwick Brethren Meeting. By the way, that meeting is not even recognized by more tight Assemblies. That meeting is considered a wildcat. Operation of people that are far too open-minded. But I found, I had very good fellowship there, and I found a lot of the people were struggling with this. It really goes back to this issue. Is it crisis, is it process? Is there any hope for us if we don't get some major, mind-bending crisis experience? This has been one of my favorite subjects for twenty-eight years, and I stand very firm on this particular issue, that God works in different ways in different people. And that in sanctification, some seem to have a tremendous crisis, they go on for a while, and then they become worse than they were, even before the crisis, sometimes even before they were saved. There's a lot of people like that in Britain today, twenty years later I can tell you, even overthrown the faith. Others, because the crisis was followed by a process, they're going on for God today, and they realize it's not just because of the crisis, whatever they may call it, it's because of many things. The Word, prayer, growth, what we're talking about this weekend. Then there are other people. I've met them, we have them on OM. They have never had any great crisis experience apart from their conversion. They've never had any great second blessing experience. This is why OM is a very unique movement that provides us with a lot of interesting research, because we have such a wide range of people. And I have watched these people because I have had, in my life, too many crises. I've watched these process people, to use a term, and I will tell you they are some of the most dedicated, Spirit-filled Christians I've ever met. So I can't deny what I've seen, twenty-eight years, God working in different people in different ways. I believe that one of the things God hates the most is lukewarmness and spiritual death, and He will use sometimes almost anything to somehow bring life and reality and vision and love and growth and compassion into the Church. And I think it's good that today there's more dialogue here in Britain between different kinds of Christians. It's interesting that some of the leaders of the charismatic movement, like, for example, Michael Harper, who was John Stott's curate, and he and John Stott, years ago, as John Stott held the ground on the more traditional teaching on sanctification. And Michael Harper, very much charismatic movement, and the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and they separated, and all kinds of things have happened. Michael Harper has just written for one of our leading Christian magazines, and it's interesting what he has said now as the years have gone by. He said he's no longer pushing for charismatic renewal and revival and unity, he's pushing for Christian unity and revival. Now what he may mean by that, what you and I may mean by that, may not be exactly the same. But it's interesting to see how people change. Sometimes you look back and you wonder, what about all the people who got into extremes in the process? It's so great now, Christian leaders come back into balance. They say, well, you know, it really wasn't like this. And I know, this speaks to me, because I know from some of the strong statements I made 20 years ago that some people got astray. And though maybe I have come into more balance, and balance is not something you arrive at. It's an ongoing process. I need it every day. I need it every day. But I've often thought back of some that maybe I led astray because of strong statements I made 20 years ago. Peter Maiden was sharing on a tape I was listening to today that he started to preach among the assemblies when he was 15. He's pretty young for preaching. He was known as the young boy preacher of Carlisle. Went around to some of the little assemblies in Cumbria, preaching at 15 and 16. And he said on this tape I was listening to today, this message he gave in Kathmandu, actually, in Nepal, that he's become a more careful preacher. Because back then he would make these extreme statements that actually he couldn't always back up. Maybe from scripture, I don't know exactly what he meant by that. Balance. God may give you a crisis. God may give some of these campers who come here this summer a crisis. There's nothing wrong with that. There may be some tears. There may be some repentance. Isn't there the danger in some of our assemblies that we overreact to what we feel is emotionalism to the point that we're in the deep freeze? And we're afraid of anything that's got a little emotion. If we see somebody putting their hands up in a meeting, whoo! What's happened to him? And it really gets quite absurd. It really gets quite absurd. And we judge each other by outward appearance. And, you know, some of these young people who come here this summer, they need to meet God in power. They need to be filled with the Holy Spirit. That's not just a super special experience, you know, for a few weirdos who stay up all night praying. The fullness of the Holy Spirit, and I think that's a terminology we can agree upon. And if you read the early Brethren writers, even Darby himself, they talked about the reality of the Holy Spirit. You get that little book on the table, Footprints for Pilgrims, which is a lot of the writings of Darby. They believed in the fullness and the reality of the Holy Spirit. Darby, the so-called founder of the Brethren movement. No, we don't talk about that very much. It's true. He was one of the founding men. He was a spirit-filled, soul-winner, wildcat evangelist. He's described going across France, you know, living on pieces of bread. He's described as one who led hundreds and hundreds of souls to Christ as an evangelist in Southern Ireland. After his conversion. An amazing story. Only later in life, he got more and more into controversy and theology. And then the assemblies, he and Mueller split. The exclusives went one way. Open Brethren under Mueller went another way. The life story of George Mueller is well worth reading. I think there may be some there on the table. It's quite a challenging history. We don't need to be afraid or ashamed of our roots. Those of us who fellowship in Brethren assemblies, and I do that, though not exclusively. We have tremendous roots. Tremendous roots. And most of the modern movements today, they have to trace part of their origin back to the early Brethren. Especially the house movements. And other similar movements. And they are going to face the same struggles. The struggles they're facing up at Bradford right now. They just had 15 of their churches just pull out on another split. The struggles they're facing there, it's just history repeating itself. In fact, it has the danger of doing the same thing that exclusive Brethrenism did 100 or some odd years ago. A very interesting study could be made of that. I've been doing it, but not to any great degree for sheer lack of time. Yes, God works in different people in different ways. Acts 4.31. They prayed. The place where they were gathered was shaken. They were filled with the Holy Spirit. And they went forth and spoke the word of God with boldness. Now today, people who get extreme seem to say they were filled with the Holy Spirit and went forth and spoke with other tongues. And tongues has become a great hot controversial issue in so many places today. It shouldn't be. Even balanced charismatic people would say that shouldn't be. There's just so much more that the Holy Spirit wants to do. And so easily, that becomes a sidetrack, whatever you may believe or not believe. In Acts 4.31, they were filled with the Holy Spirit and they went forth and spoke the word of God with boldness. A true mark of a deep work of the Holy Spirit will be missions and evangelism and church growth and bold proclamation and witness. That is absolutely clear in the book of Acts. I don't think we can get away from it. Acts 20.32 says, I commend you to God in the word of His grace which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among those who are sanctified. That's the process. The word of God. It's interesting that in Ephesians, it says be filled with the Spirit and then it has a description of the Spirit filled life. Speaking yourself in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. Making melody in your heart to the Lord. In Colossians, it has the same description but it doesn't say be filled with the Spirit. What does it say? Colossians 3.16, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. Different vocabulary. Same reality. That's why I think when we get to talk about the Holy Spirit, it's good to remember the words of Billy Graham. Who in speaking about the Spirit filled life said, I don't care how you get it, just get it. Just get it. And you and I should know, must know, it's a command from God. The fullness of the Holy Spirit. And if you kneel down by your bed tonight or walk out in this field after this meeting or pray right in here, Lord fill me afresh with this Holy Spirit and you pray that prayer in sincerity and faith, He will fill you tonight. Even if you were filled last week and the week before or had some great crisis three years ago. It's got to be both crisis and process. Ongoing work of God in your life and my life. The second area where we have to battle for balance is the balance between discipline and liberty. Some of the young people when they come here, they're going to rebel against the rules. Do you have any rules in this camp? There must be some rules. We need to be able to explain rules to young people. We need to be able to show them these rules are not to prove whether you're spiritual or not spiritual. These rules are not the Ten Commandments of Brethren Assembly Camp Life. But these rules are a human attempt to put into practice what we find in the Bible in terms of love. So that we can consider one another. A lot of rules are just rules for trying to be considerate of other people. Maybe you have a rule about noise late at night. We have that on the ship. Not because one of our commandments from the New Testament is thou shalt not make noise after midnight. But because as we mature more and more we're sensitive to other people and to their needs. And we know that some people if they don't get enough sleep they actually start to come apart. And that can cause other difficulties especially if it's the cook. And so it's good to have some basic rules. And I believe when we're motivated to love Jesus and we're motivated to love one another these rules whether we like them or not they don't bother us much. I may not like some of your rules. I'm a more free style individual. I'm still a bit radical in my approach of certain things. But if I came here by God's grace I'd want to respect your rules and your policies. I'd want to be considerate of other people. I actually didn't want to come to a session here at 7 o'clock. I had something else planned for 7 o'clock. But somebody said, hey we're really counting on you to come at 7 o'clock. As little bells rang in the back of my thick Dutch head. And what I suspected was well I didn't suspect that much. I thought really when you were finished with your little like prancing out whatever you were doing I thought well you know that's all over. But you know we had a little more after that as well. But I like to receive correction or exhortation and encouragement from other people. I find God often guides me through other people. And I believe greatly in God's providence. And that has helped me all these years when I've been confused. Why is this happening? Why has this gone wrong? God's providence. Romans 8.28. God's ability to overrule. So I think it is good you have a few rules. And I hope you'll be able to explain them to the campers in a loving, compassionate, considerate way. You know I think one of the things that really hinders people sometimes when they come on camps is the dictator types. The little mini Hitlers that run around with a giant stick. Now probably, hopefully you don't have any of those in your camp. That's being a little too strong perhaps. But really when we do tell people what to do the more compassionate, the more considerate we can be. Even in the way we express ourselves the better it is. We hard, what can I say, hard hitting, organizing types. We like things organized right. You know, like punctuality. We don't realize it but we hurt people. We do. I hurt people. I never realized it. Well, say never, that's not a good word. But it took me a long time for it to get in. How the way I say things was so hurtful to my wife, to my children. There were times because of the strong temperament I had and because I do so much preaching. I thought on the phone I was just coming across with my more or less moderate, relaxed voice. The person on the other end of the phone was blown away. Just blown away. They thought I was angry. If I could reach through the phone wire, grab them by the neck, pull out their Adam's apple. The way we say things, especially when we're under pressure, is very important. And I'll tell you something even more important. You can read it in Calvary Road by Roy Hesham. If you do say something hurtful and you sense you've hurt someone, go to them. Have the courage, even if you're the number one camp leader, to go to them and say, Look, I'm sorry. I didn't mean it to sound that way. I think I've hurt you. I'd like you to forgive me. I don't know how a Christian camp can function without those words, forgive me. Things do go wrong in camp. People get different ideas of how something should be done. The littlest thing, even the cooking of a little special meal, the organizing of a little special skit, the arranging of a late night film, the littlest thing sometimes with Christians, because we are as Christians at times hypersensitive, it becomes a traumatic affair and people get hurt. People get hurt. And God wants to bring people to your camp to be blessed, not to be hurt. And if you do hurt someone, and we all do as human beings, if you don't want to ever be hurt, you're on the wrong planet. I've heard the Swedes are booking holidays to the moon in 1995 or something. Maybe you can go to Stockholm and check that out. But as long as you're on this planet, you're going to get hurt. You're going to get hurt. And if you do hurt, in turn, hurt somebody, to go to them and apologize, or to write them even a note. Oh, how people have ministered to me at times by writing a note. And how I know, I learned indirectly, how I have been able to help others by my little notes. Though it says in Galatians 5.13, we are called unto liberty, only use not the liberty as an occasion of the flesh. And some of the new movements moving around Britain today, and there are many of them, have overemphasized liberty. I heard one where they said, you know, if you feel like playing golf on Sunday morning, well you should play golf. Don't be in bondage to going to church on Sunday morning. And almost everything that we've ever sort of considered sacred in our more established churches, everything has been questioned. Everything. And I tell you, it's not easy for young people today to know what is the truth. A lot of young people are really mixed up. And that's why I feel so strongly about this thing of balance. I don't believe it is a mortal sin that you miss a Sunday morning breaking of bread. But I think as much as possible we should, as it says in Hebrews, not forsake him. Not forsake him. Gathering together and worshiping the Lord. And it will be a joy to break bread together here tomorrow morning. I dare not get into this subject because we don't have time. But I believe we can find a balance between discipline and liberty, between organization and freedom. I find, generally speaking today, the greater need is for a little more emphasis on discipline. Maybe that wasn't true ten years ago. Then another area where we need balance is between zeal and wisdom. I think in the early days of OM we were heavy on zeal and weak on wisdom. I fear now that we may get a little heavy on wisdom with all of our reading and studying and further education. And weak on zeal. And that frightens me. Have you read William MacDonald's brilliant book, True Discipleship? Almost a Christian classic now in 30, 40 languages. Here was a man reared in the brethren assemblies who was the president of the Emmaus Bible School in America. But who was able to incorporate into somewhat traditional brethren assembly life. The very basic principles, radical revolutionary principles that we were putting in practice out on the mission field. In fact they started a discipleship training school in one of the assemblies in California where they have an OM type of function right within the church. Right within the church. Some people say, well man that's the way it should be. Praise the Lord. And you know we get young people from that church, that assembly almost every single year on OM. They have nights of prayer. They have the most fantastic worship meetings. And people are being converted all the time. People are being trained and sent out as missionaries all over the world. And it's all still in the traditional more or less brethren framework. With the old timers happy and with the young people happy and functioning together in unity. That is no small thing. And that's what God can do when there's spiritual balance. We need zeal, we need wisdom. James 3.17 emphasizes that wisdom that comes from above. I talk about it in this little book. And of course zeal is emphasized in many passages I think especially of Romans 12.11. And then number four, the balance between submission and freedom. Submission and freedom. Why have some new groups got into extremes in the area of submission? I think it's because in some churches there has been so little teaching about submission. We read in 1 Thessalonians 5 and we read also in Hebrews that we need to learn how to submit to those who are over us in the Lord. I learned to submit in an early age. It wasn't easy. I'm speaking now early age as a believer. I went to Moody Bible Institute. The rule book was so thick I couldn't believe it. Very, very strict place at least back in those days. I was outspoken, I didn't agree with some things there. But I felt somehow from what I saw in scripture that I must submit. You're supposed to have only two practical Christian work assignments. That means twice a week you go out and evangelize. I didn't realize they were very strict about that. Because they wanted you to give yourself to study, not just be an evangelist. I had been involved before I knew what happened in about five or six different outreaches that I had more or less organized on my own. And this was not allowed. What? Not allowed to evangelize? That's why I came here to Chicago. And I had to submit. And then I didn't read. I didn't read the section about social policy, boy-girl relationships. Because when I went to Moody, I was in one of my long-term bachelor things. You know, women. Got to become spiritual first. And since my life had been quite confused in that area, I thought I needed a little bit of a fast. And so I didn't read that part of the handbook very well. And then I had that experience which you already have told about. I went to rent a film and I met this secretary behind the desk who became my wife. And actually I ended up breaking the rules. Of course, innocently and naturally. And I had to go to the dean. This would be like sort of the headmaster. The dean sort of apologized for my breaking of the social rules. I think it was to do with the time. I was supposed to be back at a certain time. And I wasn't supposed to be alone in a room outside of the institute with her. She was in sort of a woman's center. And I found out later in a fine print I wasn't supposed to be alone in a room with her. And you know, just learning to submit on some rules that I didn't agree with particularly was a great tonic for my spiritual life. We need to learn submission. But we also need to see that we are free. And I feel that sometimes power assemblies are absolute specialists in intimidation. You feel intimidated so easily. You're not going to enough meetings. You're not doing this enough. You're not doing that enough. And you feel intimidated and there's a lack of freedom. And that's not from God. That's not from God. And you shouldn't feel guilt pains all day if you miss your quiet time. Have that as your aim. I know the other extreme where people, you know, they just say, Oh, that's bondage. You don't need to have your quiet time every day. That's bondage. I like to go to these people and say, Look, do you have breakfast every day? Oh, yeah. Bondage. Breakfast bondage. Just to keep that in balance. I have my quiet time and my time with God most days. But some days I miss it. And on those days I refuse to go through the day with some kind of guilt pain because that is not the purpose of the Christian life. I say very quickly, I hope you know how to do this. Lord, I goofed. I blew it. You know, this morning I wasn't organized or I slept in. And I just claim your grace right now. The same grace I would have got this morning from your word and from an extra time of prayer. I claim it right now because the Christian life is not this or that, this rule or that rule. It's Jesus living in me. And you're with me now. Even though maybe I didn't get my act together so well early this morning. And I've experienced tremendous grace and blessing on days that I miss my quiet time. Why do I say that? I think it brings into balance things I've heard people say. When I miss my quiet time, everything goes wrong. I think even Billy Graham said that. I don't disagree with it much. And he was just probably trying to put a point across just like I'm trying to put a point across. And actually both are true. Both are true. If you let your guard down, shield of faith, spiritual weapons, you can get in a lot of trouble. So I don't like to go out without putting my arm around, on and then without that prayer and that time of the word. So it's finding the balance, isn't it? Submission and freedom. A lot of other areas we could talk about. And I hope maybe we can fit in a time of questions and answers on some of these issues. Feel free to put it down in Operation Feedback, that little paper you're going to hand to me at the end. The fifth area where we have to work for balance is between the warfare and the rest of faith. We are in a spiritual warfare. Timothy says we're to be good... Paul writes to Timothy and says we're to be good soldiers of Jesus Christ. But I was helped by realizing we're in a warfare, but our finger isn't always on the trigger. It has to be the time for refueling. And Hebrews chapter 4 speaks a lot about the rest of faith. I talk about that in this little book. The rest of faith. I remember when I was driving a large lorry down to the coast. The first OM campaign in Europe, 1962. The summer after the Russian fiasco. And I was really feeling tense. I had a headache. Did you ever get pressure headaches? And I didn't know how to drive very well. We had these ten or twelve old lorries. Most of them we got them from the scrap yard. One of them had already broken down on the way to Dover. It was all very new. Ninety British young people had all signed up over a period of three months to come with an almost totally unknown movement. I tell you, I was tense. And the vehicle I was driving started to backfire. Enormous explosions as we went over one of the bridges, over the Thames. I lived in the East End at that time. And you know, somehow, something happened to me on the way to Dover. I can so remember. I came into an experience of just deeper trust. God, this is your work. Maybe we're not going to make this ferry. Maybe this engine is going to blow up. How will I be able to help by worrying about it? By getting tension and pressure and headaches? How will that help the whole campaign this summer? It won't. You know one of your big enemies this summer in this work right here? It's going to be worrying. Worrying about what people think of you. Worrying about maybe you're going to fail in a job that you've been given. Maybe you've been given a particular responsibility, you're already feeling a little nervous about it. Fear of failure is normal. We all have that fear at times. And I just realized afresh that day, this work of OM, that I was committed to so much, it was not mine. And God took it from me. Cast every care upon Him. He cares for you. OM was my care. God took it. And that headache went away. And emotionally I was flying. And I just stopped and I made a phone call. I forget exactly what happened. I think an AA man came. Even though I didn't belong to the AA, I think I had to pay him something. Some little timing mechanism on this old Bedford lorry eventually went all over North Africa. And we purred on and drove it all the way to Paris. We're in a warfare, but we've got to fight from the right foundation. The rest of faith. Do you know that? Rest of faith in your life. It's a beautiful thing. You study Hebrews 4. Then number 6. The sixth area where we've got to wrestle for balance. The balance between basic principles of the Word of God and particular policies of our particular group or fellowship or church. This is an area where we need discernment. And where we need to be able to point out to the young people here that there are certain camp policies that we do and we have here in order that things may be done decently and in order. But they're not necessarily biblical principles. We had a lot of trouble with this in OM in the early days. For instance, we used to sleep generally on the floor in churches or in tents. By 63 there were 2,000 of us. We put most of our money into scriptures. We had a very low budget. We didn't spend enough probably on food. These were basic policies of OM, not biblical principles. But people got mixed up. One girl went back home thinking that sleeping on the floor was the mark of spirituality. And she went home and told her mother if she could take the bed out of the bedroom. This is why OM got a very bad name in some places. In those early years some of you were just about being born back then. But God showed us, and again I write about this in this little book, our balance. The difference between OM policies and biblical principles. Biblical principles are more flexible than many people I think make out. They can be adjusted to different cultural situations. I'd love to talk to you more about this. But I think that what sometimes we teach as biblical principles are only a particular group's interpretation of those principles. And there's a lot more freedom than perhaps you and I will ever know. And then we've got to find the balance between love and judgment. We preach love, but we know the message of judgment is also in the Bible. We know that there's forgiveness, there's heaven, but we know there's also lostness, there's hell, there's judgment. Our God is a God of love, but He's also a God of wrath. This is hard for so-called modern man to accept, but it's true. We have to find the balance. I have scriptures, a lot of scriptures for all these areas, but we've really run out of time. The balance between fellowship and worship. Some assemblies are very strong on worship, but very weak on fellowship. People don't really know one another. Don't really know one another. In fact, I've had to, at times, fellowship in places where I knew people gathering around the Lord's table were not even on speaking terms. They were not even on speaking terms. And there was bitterness, one against the other. And yet we sit there, and we break bread, and we go through these fantastic hymns, and we pray these great prayers. And I pray, those of you who are leaders in this camp program, that you will be right with God and right with one another. That doesn't mean everything is going to be all bubbly-bubbly, and you're never going to hurt one another, and never have misunderstandings, because as long as we're human beings, there'll be some of that. But to have that fellowship, that openness where you can go to a brother, in love, carefully, with sensitivity, and say, look, what did you mean by that when you did that the other day? You know, rather than the accusation method, and I hope you catch this in working with young people, rather than the accusation method, use the question method. Now if you learn that little principle, you might save yourself a lot of agony this summer. Don't accuse the young person. You're lazy! Don't say that to a young person. As you say it, so he may become. Or you're proud. Or you're trying to get away with this, or whatever. Use a more sensitive question approach. You know, actually, what did you mean when you shot at me with that gun the other evening? You know, oftentimes, we're so sensitive that we read things into what other people say. I've done that. Have you ever get a... How many of you have ever had a letter that really hurt you? Are you into the correspondence scene? How many of you have ever had a letter that really hurt you? You're not into the correspondence. How many of you have ever had a phone call that really hurt you? Have you ever had... Some of you are pretty young. You haven't got into life yet, you know. Full, full orb. But it'll come. How we need to find the balance in these areas. Forgiveness. It's written all over our Bible. Love and judgment. Fellowship and worship. Work and recreation. One of the beautiful things about camp ministry is that generally a camp, a Christian camp, represents balance. It's not extreme like Operation Mobilization. And OM, in its summer campaign, is a bit extreme. We sort of justify it because we say, look, we only got you for one month. You got the other 11 months to bring it back into balance. When you come on OM for one month, you're going to work. It'll be 14 hours a day, probably. You're going to evangelize every day. You're going to be in nights of prayer. You're going to get exhausted. You're not going to like all the food. It's going to be rough and tough. It's a spiritual boot camp. We're going to kick you around a little bit. And we're going to see what you're made of. A lot of people read about this. Of course, they never come. It is a bit extreme. And our year program, even our September Orientation Conference, before the year program, has to bring people back into balance. We have more recreation. We have more free time. And then, after the September Conference, which is still somewhat condensed, we got a lot to do in one month before they go all over the world. The year program, you'll find OMers going off to see a good film. You'll find them maybe going bowling. You'll find them with a whole Saturday afternoon and all day Sunday, maybe free, kicking their heels. It gets more back into balance. This is why, in summer camp ministry, you've got some maybe advantages over OM and teaching spiritual balance. Maybe we should require all OM people to come here to your camp for one summer before they join Operation Mobilization and go to Mongolia to plant the First New Testament assembly in Mongolia. Yes, spiritual balance is needed at every turn. We need work. We need relaxation. We need to know how to refuel. I can't even begin to tell you what music has meant in my life. I may be a music holland. The Lord knows. Have mercy on me. I just love music. All kinds of music. And it just breaks my heart that people so quickly run around condemning other people's music. And I know that in my own teenagers, if I had condemned totally their music and said, You're not going to play that hard rock record in this house. This is God's house. I sanctify this house. Here, get out of here. You know, he probably would have taken up his tent and walked. And I say, you know, I just feel that so often people get into extremes about music. Thank God that even David Wilkerson, who was so against rock and to some degree Christian rock, because they're totally different. He wrote this little leaflet. I don't know if we have any of it. Confessions of a Rock and Roll Hater. Because God showed him through Keith Green, a singer of Christian rock. A friend of mine. Of course, he's with the Lord now. That God was using Christian rock. You may not like it. Your parents probably don't like it. But, you know, God is working in many different ways. Greenbelt may not be your thing. I've heard people denounce Greenbelt. I feel bad that once I made a somewhat negative statement about Greenbelt. I think it was all in the name of humor. Because I've always believed that God is working there at Greenbelt. A lot of people go there who won't go to any other Christian activity. And in the midst of all the music, some of which we probably wouldn't like, there's message, there's teaching. And I feel that lately, especially with this new book by our dear friend Mr. Blanchard, the whole thing has become more heavy, more polarized, and there's more division than ever right now in Britain on the music issue. I feel it's very sad. And I think it's a lack of balance and understanding. And I feel there is a tendency among us as Christians to become more and more narrow and only see our little view and feel our view is the biblical view. Even though the verses we use, we have to actually stretch them a bit. Because the Bible doesn't say much about music. And if you think it was all Beethoven in the Old Testament, I don't know what Old Testament you're reading about. Balance is needed in every area. I put here, I don't know what number you're at in your notes, but number 10, church and family. I may have stuck another one in there without getting the number. Church and family. Again and again we see the enemy attacking families. And we see good families where in the church everything looks fine. They're both sitting there for years regularly at the Lord's table and then poof! They're separated and divorced. And you don't think that's happening in good little well organized brethren assemblies you haven't been around too long. You know, I think often it happens because of a lack of balance. And the fact that sometimes church, church life with all of its demands causes the family to suffer. Some husbands away four or five nights a week in church activities. It shouldn't be. It shouldn't be unless he has a very special family. And today there needs to be more emphasis on the family. We need Christian camps for adults. I thank God for Filey. I thank God for Keswick. I thank God for some of these other camps. They're sort of camps where whole families can go. We need this. And the Holy Spirit has mightily used some of those places. And maybe some of you this summer after being here in this camp working you'll have the opportunity to go with your parents for two weeks to something where the whole family can be together. Don't give up on your family. Maybe you feel there's a generation gap. Maybe you feel you can barely communicate with your father. Some of these young people who come here will feel that way. Let's not increase the gap. But let's teach young people how to understand parents. We live in the day when parents need their young people need their sons and daughters more than ever before. Parents feel threatened by this generation. And some of them are on the retreat. In America I heard something about this on the radio the other night here in England. They've got these giant retirement centers where no young people are allowed. They can't get through the gate unless they have a pass. They were arguing over I think it was Capital Radio arguing over the pros and cons. There's a really heavy discussion going on about this thing. I know some dear people who are in one of those retirement centers in California. And I can understand why they're there. You just can't believe the hurt they have gone through with their children. I'm talking about threat and murder and double divorce. I'm talking about the works. Many of us when we're young I know I was that way. And a very naive view of life. And we're very idealistic about what the Christian family is. I pray that if some heavy things happen in your family ugly things, difficult things that you will not panic. Because if things are coming apart in your family and everything is going wrong one more person panicking is not going to help. If you at that time can have a balanced view of life. If you at that time can believe yes, God can overrule this. This isn't the end of the road. Maybe some of you will see your own parents separate. It's not the end of the road. With God and God's mercy and God's forgiveness and God's grace with Christians it's never the end of the road. And I have seen people even divorced and be resurrected in their spiritual life and sometimes come back together other times not come back together but end up being used of God. And I believe as one great writer said our God is often too small. We have a little tribal deity and each little group looks at the other tribal deity and we look down the road at the Pentecostal tribal God and we look up the road at the Baptist tribal God and we don't like those and we look over the fence at the Anglican tribal God. But isn't there a danger that we can create our own little brethren tribal deity and he's so far, so far from what we find written in the pages of this great book. Spiritual balance touches every area. Eleven, positive and negative. Twelve, reckless faith and dynamic discernment. Thirteen, anointing and training. Fourteen, faith and common sense. If you're trying to take notes you've had it. Fifteen, the intellectual and the emotional. Sixteen, taking in, giving out. Seventeen, evangelism and church work or church planting. Eighteen, full-time workers versus the layman. Nineteen, prosperity versus poverty. Twenty, repentance versus acceptance. Twenty-one, the life of victory and being honest. Twenty-two, my list goes on and on.