In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of helping others and doing good, even when faced with opposition or criticism. He encourages listeners to give their best to the world, even if they may face setbacks or rejection. The speaker also highlights the value of learning from failures and bouncing back. He shares personal experiences of sharing the gospel and distributing literature, emphasizing the joy and privilege of spreading the message of Christ. The sermon concludes with a reflection on the paradoxical nature of leadership and the need to love and serve others despite their flaws.

I've appreciated very much the feedback that various people have given to me, notes and letters and words of encouragement. I hope you'll be in much prayer for those people who made outward commitments last night. We know there are those, of course, who make commitments in their own seats. And that's fine with me. The Lord works in different people, in different ways. Many times I don't even give an outward invitation. I would like to give to those who stood last night a little booklet. If you bought one last night, you can perhaps go to the book table and use what you paid for on this little booklet. You didn't pay much for something else. But I decided to give this free because I think it will be so helpful to those who made commitments. I prayed with about 25 people personally and read their commitment papers. And you know, some of these people have some really fierce spiritual battles going on and how we need to be praying for one another. Some of you know this book by Erwin Lutzer, Flames of Freedom, the story of the revival that took place in some parts of Canada back in the early seventies. And some of you may know the Sutera Twins. They've written a little booklet on making my Christian commitments stick. And I think this book will really help those of you who made a deeper commitment to Jesus Christ last night. And as long as the copies last, you can pick one up at the table. I'll ask my literature men to keep that in mind. This is the last evening for our book table. It's been a challenge to be here. We're looking forward to tomorrow. The privilege to speak to you in the morning and the afternoon before I go for meetings tomorrow evening in Edmonton. Appreciate prayer, especially for a pastor's luncheon I'll be having in Edmonton on Tuesday. I wanted to just read another quotation from my quotation section from a man named Howard Ferguson. There's a tremendous book. I had the joy of visiting the book shop today, bookstore. What a tremendous thing. There's two things you're going to want to do before you leave here. One is to visit the missionary exhibits. The other is to visit the bookstore, and that means tonight. But they've got a lot of great books there. I ordered a few hundred to send to London, mainly of books published by Prairie. Books by L.E. Maxwell and books by Brother Rendell on their way over to London. So I hope they'll be there when I get there. From there they'll go to many other parts of the world, especially L.E. Maxwell's book, World Missions, Total War. There's a new edition available in the book shop. And I don't understand how people can be connected with this dynamic institution and not read that book and be involved in distributing it. But maybe this paradoxical commandment of leadership will help us understand. Many people, whenever I've read this, they rush up and they want photocopies. That's not so easy tonight, so I don't think they're going to be available. People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered. Love them anyway. Number two, if you do good, people will accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. Do good anyway. Ever had that experience? If you are successful, you win false friends and true enemies. Succeed anyway. The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow. So, do good anyway. Honesty, number five, honesty and frankness will make you vulnerable. Be honest and frank anyway. Six, the biggest man with the biggest idea can be shot down by the smallest man with the smallest mind. That's strong. Think big anyway. People favor underdogs, but follow only top dogs. Fight for a few underdogs anyway. And eight, what you spend years building may be destroyed overnight. Build anyway. Number nine, people really need help, but may attack you if you help them. Help them anyway. And ten, give the world the best you have and you'll get kicked straight in the teeth. Give the world the best you have anyway. Well, that's just a little warm-up exercise. And I do hope you students will start saving quotations. If you get some hot ones, send them to me. I send free books for the ten outstanding quotations of the year that are sent to me. And one of them might get in my Bible, and you can even get a bonus of an extra book. I'm so excited about books and Christian literature. I cannot tell you how many letters I receive every single week. They follow me all over the world. My post arrived here, came in by special priority post from England, about that high. I haven't read it yet. There's no time here to do anything but talk to people and pray, preach. But every time I go through my post, my mail, there are letters of people touched through the printed page. And I hope that somehow God will give you a vision to be involved as a distributor of Christian literature. Maybe low-profile, but God will so use that. A lot of the literature on our special table, the table behind the book table, is completely free. And will be, I think, available tomorrow. Let me mention some of it. There is literature there about Operation Mobilization, about places like Pakistan, about the way to work short-term in India, about the seven major emphasis of OM. But other literature is just literature I gather along the way. This is Brokenness, a little track that does well for people to read again and again. How many have ever read this little track, This is Brokenness? You know, if we knew a little more about brokenness in the church and in missionary work, we'd be going a long way. And there's a little leaflet I picked up, originally published by Good News Publishers, called Living Above Our Circumstance. So down to earth. I love to put these in my letters. I hardly ever send a letter without a minimum of three enclosures. Usually I send a book and a tape by separate posts. But I put little enclosures like this with my letters. You got to pay the postage anyway. And I've had people write me and even tell me once that it was something I said or enclosed that kept them from committing suicide on that very day. God uses the printed page. All the material on that table is free. And I hope you'll just take it and share it with others. I wrote a tribute to a young man killed at Christmas time who was with the United Nations. He was with OM first. Then he was with the Swedish Diplomatic Corps, then the United Nations. Then he came back on OM, met a woman he met on one of the OM ships. And in a very unusual way, he was killed this Christmas. And I've written a tribute to this young Swedish diplomat. And I believe God wants to touch people's hearts about this man who gave so much to the work of the Kingdom. I wrote this when I was in Nepal last year and it's just been printed. It's a picture of his wife who was one of the main leaders of OM. And I'd appreciate your prayers for her because she has not found it easy. They were so young. They were only married a couple of years. And he was killed in a car crash in Sweden. Of course, there's a lot of books that are still for sale this evening. There's never enough time to mention them all. I would like to mention this little booklet, Your Muslim Guest, published by the Fellowship of Faith for Muslims, a low-profile movement that should get a lot more attention in Canada. And I hope you'll get this to understand Muslims. It's just been reprinted again, 10,000 copies, not so long ago. Your Muslim Guest. Doesn't cost much. Go over and get a copy. Operation World. I want to try to emphasize this tonight. It's a book presenting prayer requests on almost every nation of the world. There's 320 pages. How many already have this book, Operation World? That is amazing. So that is... How many have found this book profitable in your prayer missionary vision ministry? Raise your hand. Many. The prayer cards that we presented on other evenings were taken from this book by Patrick Johnson of WEC. And I hope that you'll get a copy and use it for prayer. It's not 100% accurate. It's going to be redone in about a year. Patrick Johnson with his computer has done an enormous job. But it will be a while before the revision is out. Because we publish it. So, get a copy of this even though a few things are out of date. The prayer request. You know, God can put it together if one or two things are inaccurate. But it's a brilliant book. And tonight, if you buy that book, I think it's six Canadian dollars. Let's knock it down to five tonight, my literature people. Take note. Down to five dollars. No refunds from other nights. This four dollar book, a tremendous book on the costly harvest by David Howard in South America. Free of charge for the first 20 or 30 people that get over there. Your Muslim guest, free of charge with that. And, I don't know, maybe Bert will give you something else when you go over there. I think most of you know Bert is still the part-time, very part-time rep for O.M. in Western Canada. He can't be the director of O.M. Canada for 18 years. Not director for 18 years because he was overseas part of that time. And just, you know, slip out that quick. Of course, you know that David Lundy, the director of North African Mission, without any pressure on our part, was led of God's Spirit to take on Bert's job. He is the present director as of two weeks ago of Operation Mobilization Canada. Started with us way out in India. We thought he was going to be one of the leaders of the work in India. Came back here. Was recruited by another ex-O.M.er, Greg Livingston of North African Mission, who's now founded Frontiers. I tell you, it gets wild, doesn't it? Let me just tell you, when the Holy Spirit's in control, you never know what's going to happen next to anybody. And it's exciting. I remember this pastor in Chicago. He told his assistant pastor, Let's bring George Bearer in here and challenge the high school students. All high school students need a challenge. Where are the high school students? Do you need a challenge? Somebody just choked him. But, uh, anyway. Anyway, I went to that church. Very fast-growing church in the Chicago area. And I met the pastor. He sat in on a couple of the meetings for the high school young people, praying for them. And lo and behold, two years later, the pastor joined Operation Mobilization. The high school young people stayed in the church. And he's been ministering with us for about ten years, and literally all over the world. We have a God of surprises. Hallelujah. When you read some of these books, Elizabeth Elliot's Love Has a Price Tag. When you read books like this unbelievable book by Jack Van Empy, Heart Disease in Christ's Body, every hyper-fundamentalist, you probably don't, after all the emphasis on balance at Prairie, have any double-decker hyper-fundies left here. But every hyper-fundamentalist needs to read what happened to Jack Van Empy when he discovered a movement of hate within certain aspects of what was called fundamentalism. This is the most significant book for fundamentalism in this decade, without question. And though it's not maybe your style, it's not my style of writing, quite funny in some places, it's basically a message on love. It's linked with what I'm going to share with you tonight. And I went and had the privilege of fellowshipping with Jack Van Empy, who apologized to the Moody Bible Institute, who apologized to Billy Graham, who apologized to many other people because of the things he said when he was caught up in this kind of judgmentalism. And hundreds of thousands of copies are going out. And I hope the bookstore will get some more. Some of the best books are now sold out, but you can order them from the bookstore. This bookstore has fingers in all the publishers all over the place. So exciting to be involved in the work of God. I want you to turn with me now in your Bibles to Romans chapter 12. Permit me just to say a word about Operation Mobilization. I haven't said anything about the fellowship that I'm a part of. You can almost believe that I was ashamed to speak about it. One of the greatest commitments of Operation Mobilization is to recruit and train people for other mission organizations. Maybe 25 years ago some people thought we were joking about this. Nobody thinks that anymore. Because there are ex-OMers in almost every single major mission society in the entire world. Less in some American societies than European societies as we are much larger in Europe than we are in America. Five to one. Five, six, seven to one. And I just believe that God has raised up this fellowship of OM with all of its needs and weaknesses, especially its leader, to help prepare young people to be higher quality missionaries. Now there are already others doing this and many societies have their own internship program and they don't need OM, especially American societies. In Europe it's not quite so easy though it's changed a lot since we started out 25 years ago. Almost every other mission now has its own short term work. When we started out almost no one had short term. We did not start as short term. I never went short term. God led me from almost my conversion to launch out in overseas work though I wasn't sure exactly where. I learned Spanish in Mexico, then went to Spain, went to the Soviet Union and ended up in India and Nepal and then half the time in Asia and half the time in Europe. Our first vision was actually to train nationals and to stand with nationals in practical support in other ways so they could do the job. And we internationalized very quickly so that in OM the nationals and the internationals work on an equal basis to varying degrees of course. And it's only in India now, only in India where we still support financially in various ways a force of national workers, about 300 working with internationals. Because of the internationalization of OM over 20 years ago most of the nationals Sudanese, Jordanese of course Europeans who rapidly became the leaders of OM and all of these countries came in trusting God for their own support just like the rest of us and often sent out by their own churches. So OM is a short term training ministry though the short term work in itself is valid. It is not just preparatory. It is valid. OM has helped with short term workers plant 17 churches in France alone working with usually national church planters some cases committed missionaries. No wonder when Billy Graham went to France or his organization they asked Mike Evans, our leader to be the executive director of this huge Paris campaign with Billy Graham next summer. So short term work is not just training because Satan doesn't just allow just training. He attacks you from the moment of your conversion. It's on the job training and I believe it's short term work done the right way under supervised trained leadership men who know the culture and know the language and who will correct you. There must be correction in short term work because there will be too many blunders and there must be a large number of people as we have in OM committed to short term work. We have over 200 longer term leaders in OM most of them speak 2, 3, 4 languages committed to the training of the short term people because short term is 60% of everything we do. That's 2 years, 3 years, 4 years anywhere up to 5, 6 years is short term. But over the years of course OM also became a longer term fellowship because we have certain countries that 20 years ago not many people were interested in. Turkey was the leading country where God led us to go long term. God gave us such a unique role in the Muslim world. We have 250 committed to Muslim evangelism most of them longer term people that we became a longer term missionary fellowship for the Muslim world even though we still channel many people into the other Muslim world agencies. We especially began to play a very vital role in the subcontinent. India, then Bangladesh, then Pakistan and with our nationals most of them committed for life. Of course OM immediately became a longer term missionary fellowship for that part of the world. It was impossible to stop it in other parts of the world. The whole communist world trust men who knew Russian, men who knew these other languages they felt they wanted to remain in the fellowship as what they were doing was somewhat unique. So, today especially as God has now added the two ships in order to spread this message spread this vision and help and we only go generally with the invitation of churches and other mission agencies with our ships to these countries the ships making up about one third of OM's task force we now of course are reaching out to most countries in the world. We are unbelievably aware in OM of how tiny our part is. But you know it's wonderful to have a tiny part in what God is doing. And I just appreciate over 100 mission agencies that God has given us a relationship with and over 1,000 national churches in 50 nations God has given us an in-depth relationship with. And the story of OM is a story of partnership. It's not our great faith our great commitment our zeal, our love certainly not just ver-wer dynamism, I can't even pronounce the word it's partnership, it's Jesus it's God using many different people it's failure, the back door to success it's the national church our greater linkings are often with the national church sometimes quicker than with even foreign missionaries because our leaders like for example in Sudan is a national, he's a Sudanese but usually we have both. And I hope that some of you will consider because OM doesn't have that much input here in prairie in terms of you know, just really sharing and we're hesitant to almost come here because so many other great mission societies are counting on prairie students and we, really, I would rather go back to Europe and not return again in myself only on your invitation and continual invitation do I come here. And it was Briarcrest really that got me here this time they grabbed me four years ago and said you've not been here and we'd like you to come and they wrote and they wrote and I finally agreed and then of course I already had somewhat of an open invitation from you and then you wrote and Ted Rendell came and ministered with us Paul Maxwell ministered and so God has now given us a special relationship but the last thing we would want is to take any candidate from any other mission but I'll tell you a lot of missions are now sending young people our way and giving them to us for two years and then we try to give them back and we believe this is our place in this great task there's a lot of literature about all this there's a whole leaflet we don't produce much literature but lately we got this printed free of charge so there's a little more about OM and some of the things we believe in this very complicated work of some 1600 people I was at the OM conference just before coming here about a thousand went through that conference and one of the meetings I know about 500 were in that meeting because the conference is in different sections different kinds of training and different emphases during different weeks all takes place there in Belgium I said how many of you young people 400 of them were new recruits on a one or two year program how many of you are planning toward career missionary work 80% raised their hand and they're Germans Swedes British and of course Canadians and Americans 80% that's why right now there are hundreds of ex-OMers hundreds in Bible school right now many people do not feel ready for Bible school they come on something like OM first because we've won them to Christ we're evangelists we've discipled them we've helped them through their hang-ups so they come with us maybe in our packing department in England maybe in our warehouse in Waynesboro maybe in some other job and it's there meeting characters like me who went through Bible college and many other OM leaders they catch a vision for Bible college others don't others go in other directions God leads different people in different ways I think that's exciting I think that's exciting and I hope we can continue to labor together Bible colleges longer term reputable missionary agencies operation mobilization together for Jesus Romans 12 verse 1 and verse 2 I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice wholly acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service isn't that strong? be not conformed to this world but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God perhaps that's the Mount Everest of all Scripture for me I guess I've preached on Romans 12, 1 and 2 more than any other verses in the Bible we have 11 great chapters of theology in Romans when we get to the end of Romans 11 we almost have a crescendo of the greatness of God all the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God how unsearchable are His judgments His ways, paths finding out isn't that beautiful? for who hath known the mind of the Lord who hath been His counselor who hath first given to Him and it shall be recompensed unto Him again for of Him and through Him and to Him are all things to whom be glory forever Amen then we have this shift to this great chapter of personal exhortation when I was a young babe in Christ I mentioned this to you already one of the things that helped revolutionize my life and it's still doing it still learning, still stumbling is memorizing Scripture how many of you regularly memorize Scripture? even one verse a week raise your hand that's about one third maybe twenty five percent I want to give this practical challenge would you commit yourself to memorize one verse a week for God? the psalmist said I've hid thy word in my heart that I may not sin against you young person, if you make a commitment like many of you did last night and don't follow through by increased feeding on the word of God you know, your minds will not have stood up now I am no great Bible scholar sometimes when I go into the word of God in the morning I find it dry that's when I read it more sometimes I read four different parts of the Bible at once I'm a variety man I always get something from the Psalms always get something from the Proverbs usually something then from another place in the Old Testament something in the New and then my memorization never get enough time but you battle on and I tell you that method especially with memorization has kept the Bible alive for me for thirty one years I've never had a period in my life when the Bible was not alive I've had dry days but usually you come through that I don't understand how we can be so negligent of the Scriptures especially, you know, in a place like this you can write Scripture verses I remember when I was at college before I ever went to Bible college when I was at liberal arts college with my faith being attacked every week I wrote Scripture verses on a card and I kept them with me I remember sitting in my physics class this physics teacher used to talk about his grandmother and his uncle and he was a real rambling unbelievable character I hated physics so I used to write Scripture references all over the physics book and Bible verses and work on my memory you know, I'll tell you right now when I'm preaching I'll submit to Ted on this because he doesn't want you to disturb others but you know, if you memorize Scripture instead of listening to me quietly without disturbing others no problem no problem now you are clean through the Word of God which I have spoken unto you when Jesus Christ, the Son of God was challenged by Satan was tempted by Satan in the wilderness what did he do? quote Shakespeare? he quoted the Word of God and if you and I don't get into the Word of God and get more of the Word of God into us in meditating, in memorizing not just superficial reading in-depth meditation then the enemy one of these days is going to zero in I had these struggles with lust it's interesting one-third of all the feedback last night people were wrestling with lust perversion difficulties of that nature all the books living with a passion they're gone we need another hundred why? are people just buying these for their friends? they all like to believe the best, don't they? fact is Billy Graham once said speaking at Urbana way back in the 60's young man, young woman if you don't win the battle against lust and against impurity you lose the most important battle in the Christian life and unless you learn to meditate and memorize the Word of God unless you have a practical strategy for spiritual growth for buffeting the body and bringing it into subjection as it says in 1 Corinthians chapter 9 unless you know something of what Paul wrote to Timothy when he said endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ you're not going to go very far for God I believe meditating and memorizing Scripture is one of the great ingredients and I'd be happy to send you a book on this subject I didn't bring it with me I left them all in London printed it in India Success! God's Way by Norm Lewis you write me a letter that you're committing yourself to Scripture memory and I'll send you a copy of that book as a gift it'll take a while to get here but I'll do it and I hope one of the passages you remember and you memorize is Romans 12.1 I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice wholly acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service I want to ask you a question really and I may give an invitation again tonight because some people needed to think about it last night but let me just ask you this question are you really totally committed to Jesus Christ? what about a high school young person? we don't want to pick on you but you are at that ripe age you cannot afford to go through high school without total commitment to Jesus Christ what does that mean? it means Jesus Christ is Lord of your life He's Lord of your emotions He's Lord of your intellect He's Lord of your time He's Lord of your romantic feelings He's Lord of all I want to ask you that question that Alan Redpath asked me when I was a student at Moody and he was the pastor of Moody Church he asked that simple question when is Jesus Christ King? King! we have a constitutional monarchy in England I'm an immigrant to England my children are now British citizens I'm a second class citizen in my own house my little dinky American passport my children running around speaking proper English I've been trying to learn proper English for 22 years it's a disaster but in England we have a constitutional monarchy we all come to appreciate the Queen and we all come to appreciate Princess Diana I sent her a book you know it's amazing what books can do I read somewhere in the newspaper a couple of years ago Princess Diana was going to have a baby of course that's no big deal only be the King of England someday so I sent her a book I found a Christian book on how to have a baby and I got a lovely letter back thanking me she didn't ask me to come for any personal visit or anything like that so last year I sent one to Margaret Thatcher Prime Minister she's dynamite I sent her No Turning Back my own book and Charles Colson's book Love Covers and I got a tremendous letter from 10 Downing Street I was carrying it around in my Bible for a while but I think it's floated away it's amazing a little turkey like me sending a book off to a princess or to a Prime Minister let me just tell you with our two ships these people come to our ships you just can't believe admirals, generals President Marco's been on the ship President Marco said as long as there's ships like Lagos there's still hope for the world he bought about $5,000 worth of books too that wasn't bad they're heavy into books I think they give them away or pave the streets with them but I feel this conviction very, very deeply that for many, many people today who name the name of Christ and who love the word of God there is a shallowness in their commitment there is a superficiality in the way that they are following Jesus and today we justify it we justify it with psychology we justify it with philosophy we justify it with academics the great God of America academics and I am for spirit-controlled academics so don't misunderstand me but I want to tell you if you graduate from here with a degree and you don't have Holy Ghost power and love and commitment for God you don't have anything you might as well take your little degree and drop it in the wastebasket you may get a better job you may feel that you're now as good as Wheaton College or whoever else you may feel you're competing with but before God you don't have anything for God's mathematics is anything without love and without the Lordship of Jesus Christ is nothing does that upset some of you? good good anything's better than indifference anything's better than the average sleepy time drowsy evangelical who's used to about one meeting per week not true here but it's true in general in the church of Jesus Christ one meeting per week what's happened to the prayer meeting in Canada, would you tell me? don't we have enough commitment to show up to one or two prayer meetings a week? don't we have enough commitment to tarry a few hours? most of our prayer meetings are shows so short you barely start to get through to God and everybody's walking out the door having pizza we're an overweight nation we're a gluttonous nation and we justify it and it is an abomination to God and I believe unless there is repentance among God's people we're never going to see those missionary candidates most of these recruiters are going to die of nervous exhaustion Jesus said the harvest is plenteous but the labors are few pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest that he'll send forth labors that's Jesus that's not me you can forget me when I leave here tomorrow but I pray you'll not forget Jesus Jesus said pray ye pray ye how many labors have you prayed out into the harvest from your church? how many of your churches haven't sent a single missionary this year out into the harvest field? let me be very honest from my viewpoint in Europe and some degree in the United States I don't see the number one problem as candidates and I tell you when when brother Keith Green went to be with Jesus Christ and left behind that piece of dynamite tape Jesus commands you to go and that unbelievable video he never even allowed video tapes this man walked very close with God he might have been extreme he might have been misunderstood he upset the charismatics by calling them charismaniacs in one charismatic meeting they removed him from the platform and when Keith and I fellowshiped together I will tell you it was a heavy experience he had doubts about me when he introduced me at last day's ministry he sort of covered for me in case he had to undo what I did but I'll tell you at the end of that meeting Keith Green and George Verwer were in each other's arms and he showed me around this last day's ministry which I didn't understand much of though I'd been reading some of this powerful Finney material some of these Keith Green tracks and so I went around I wasn't that much into his music and he asked me he threw a tape into my hand and he said do you know this tape? I've had very little trouble in my Christian life with lying and a lot of that before I was a Christian but after I became a Christian very little trouble with lying I've been caught for a lot of things but not much for lying do you know that night with Keith Green I told a small lie he said what do you think of that tape? I said it's great now I was you know how these things happen instantly in your mind I had heard one of his tapes and I thought it was great and so I just said it's great I hadn't heard that tape it was on my conscience because I've always tried to keep short accounts with God the next morning I was meeting in prayer with Leonard Ravenhill we had an hour of prayer together it was his 75th birthday and we celebrated it ever was a wild man loose for God it's Leonard Ravenhill his book Why Revival Tarries is the most nerve-breaking mind-bending laser-beam book I've ever read almost you wear asbestos gloves when you pick it up so I went there for Leonard Ravenhill's 75th birthday and we spent an hour in prayer and as we were praying old bombastic extreme Keith Green comes bombing in and I thought uh-oh we're gonna have to pray here together and so we prayed I started to weep Jesus taught me to weep in my culture when I was a kid you weren't allowed to weep I was so ashamed of tears I'd hide I wanted to be tough when Jesus came into my heart he taught me to weep and I've wept hundreds and hundreds of times since Jesus came into my heart don't be afraid to weep young men don't think weeping is just for women weeping is for anyone who follows Jesus Christ I said Keith I want to talk to you and I went into the other room and I was weeping and I said Keith this isn't easy you know cause we Christian leaders like to impress other Christian leaders don't we I said this is not easy to tell you but last night I told you a lie when I said that I appreciated that tape I never even heard or listened to that tape something happened to the two of us 40 days later Keith Green was killed due to his own extremism he was raw he was wild but I'll tell you no man has influenced the United States I don't know about Canada for world missions more than Keith Green in the last 10 years only Urbana only Urbana that great event and through the memorial concerts that went across I spoke at those memorial concerts in England and I tell you we had 18 concerts they were packed out cause that's where so many of the young people are whether we like it or not old conservative fossils like George Bear whether we like it or not that's where this generation is that's their language that's what they understand we had 18,000 in Britain flocked to those concerts and 3,000 put their John Hancock on a piece of paper and said we're ready to go tens of thousands in the United States said we're ready to go after those memorial concerts Keith already in heaven all they had was a videotape but I'll tell you the problem I'll tell you the problem the church is not ready to send them and whether we're talking about fundamentalists or charismatic middle road lower road upper road hep hype dull dumb whatever kind of church you want to talk about we're all in the same boat when are we going to repent of all of our church pride when are we going to stop thinking we're better than the man down the road when our own hearts are cold our own families are messed our own kids are backslidden I want to tell you if God doesn't humble some of us here in Western Canada we might find Ichabod written across the front of this dear Prairie Bible Institute let us walk humbly before God let us repent when God says repent let us jump when God says jump let us embrace a brother of another kind when we may not agree learn to live righteously before God that's what L.E. Maxwell stood for that's why he preached balance year after year and I don't believe that if he were here with us today he would want us to carbon copy what he was doing in 1935 or 45 he would want us to get the fresh breath for our day and I'll tell you L.E. Maxwell was more convinced about operation mobilization our little ragtime band than I was when I preached here last time he even came to the high school meeting and had to listen to me preach for an hour on what the Bible says about sex and he was cheering saying amen praise God anything is better than indifference brother and sister I want to ask you is Jesus Christ Lord of your life is he Lord of your future have you really considered the possibility that he may want you to be a missionary among the unreached people that he may want you to be a secretary out in the Chad even if you have a difficult way out that weird senior missionary that you have to learn to adjust to and that's becoming the increasing the biggest problem on the mission field long tooth senior missionaries that know about as much about relationships as grasshoppers and goats and I can say that because I am now a senior missionary 25 years on the field and I will tell you God has had to humble me through some of these new recruits because some of them have got more zeal at times than I do and they have got good ideas and new ideas and we need new ideas and we need great spirit filled humble senior missionaries but we also need to know how to build together how to change a little bit this generation is not going to come to the mission field playing the same music that your little generation was playing they are different and we need love and we need patience and we need to reach out and we need to listen many of us missionaries are poor listeners we are big in the mouth and short in the ears that is why our wives often suffer at least mine is Jesus Christ Lord of your future? is He Lord of your money? missionary giving is in a shocking situation a shocking state the money that goes into our building programs the money that goes into Christian bowling alleys Christian camps I am not saying we should not do this I would never point my finger at anything people said the Spirit of God was directing them to do I have to leave this with Jesus but when I think of the hindrance the unbelievable hindrance on the mission field today for lack of funds lack of Bibles lack of literature it was Winston Churchill who said to Roosevelt in World War II give us the tools and we will complete the job many of our outstanding national Christian leaders they are not against sending more missionaries if they are the right kind the Go Home missionary movement is not as strong as it used to be but you know what they are saying together with send missionaries you know what they are saying give us the tools and we will complete the job missionaries are not God's only way have you been reading about China? I was in China a couple of years ago God also miraculously enabled the ship Lagos to go into China I just listened to three tapes from a Chinese woman who has just come back you know the most conservative figures seem to indicate there is 6-7 million believers in China brother Andrew and many others say there is 50 million believers in China this lady said there is 100 million I think she is just a little excited but she was Chinese just come out of China let's say 50 million let's say 30 I don't know it is an impossible figure but I will tell you one thing if you are not praising God for what He has done by His Spirit in China through persecution and on the foundation of those great missionaries who went there 100 years ago then you are not in tune with world missions I am not going to judge you you are just not in tune you may be good at hockey you may be good at necking with your girlfriend you may be good at watching television but you are not in tune with what is going on in the world today because God has been doing mighty things in China and we should be praising Him more we should be praying more and we should be just believing that He can do the same thing in Burma where we don't have many missionaries left and now in India where the missionaries are leaving again now Canadians I begged Canadians to go to India for 23 years last time I was here I begged you to go you didn't need a visa the day is finished Canadians now are no longer special people in India they give you 3 month visa that's it the day is over and my heart just breaks on how many have refused to hear the call of God for India I don't believe that God didn't call I don't believe that God has not spoken do not dare say God has not spoken because He has spoken and He has spoken in His word and He has spoken through hundreds of missionaries who have crossed this platform it is we who have not heard and now we only have Pakistan where Canadians can go without a visa and as official missionaries as well in fact team represented here tonight has one of the great works in Pakistan we are very newcomers to Pakistan in OM we have an open door there we got more church relationship in 2 years in Pakistan I've even been around talking to you know many some of the bishops some of them born again men love Jesus want to win Muslims to Christ we got more relationship with some of the churches in 2 years there than 15 years in India longer more complicated country I want to ask you would you pray about the possibility of giving a couple of years to Pakistan with the open door of maybe after that career missionary work in Pakistan isn't that logical am I asking too much I just come from that been there every year for I don't know how many years when our ship sailed into Karachi people just started to get saved all over the place in fact so many came to Christ a Logos named after our ship we don't want that but they did it anyway a Logos fellowship was born and it's now one of the most living live fellowships in the whole city of Karachi and they're now sending out workers one visit from the MB Logos Pakistan the workers of Pakistan want me to invite you as Canadians to consider that country but the first step is not go the first step is surrender the first step is commitment the first step is making Christ Lord over that social life Lord over that money Lord over that land God has given to you the Lord over the use of your time let me just tell you one of my great struggles in the area of discipline and that's the discipline mind I wonder if you've read much of that man Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones if there's any book I'd like you to get from your book shop it's Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones' book Spiritual Depression Its Cause and Its Cure if your shop and store doesn't have them let's just pray they order at least a hundred that is the greatest English Christian book of this century in my mind I've examined over a thousand books outside of America O.M. I guess is the largest literature book distributor in the world outside of America because as you know in the United States books is a big business and we have everything in the way of books but overseas is a little different but of all the books I've ever gone to gone through I think that book by Dr. Lloyd-Jones Spiritual Depression Its Cause and Its Cure is one of the greatest books I've ever read here's something from Spiritual Depression Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones considered by many the greatest preacher in Europe of this last five decades known for his books on the Sermon on the Mount he said this listen I regard it as a great part of my calling in the ministry to emphasize the priority of the mind and the intellect in connection with the faith but though I maintain that I am equally ready to assert that the feelings and the emotions the sensibilities obviously are of vital importance we have been made in such a way that they play a dominant part in our makeup indeed I suppose that one of the greatest problems in our life in this world not only for Christians but all people is the right handling of our feelings and emotions oh the havoc that is wrought and the tragedy and the misery and the wretchedness that are to be found in the world simply because people do not know how to handle their own feelings and young person I want to share with you as you commit yourself to Christ as you totally surrender to Christ as you make Christ Lord as you allow the Holy Spirit to fill you He will enable you to handle your emotions and if a character like me with all my emotions all my struggles with hostility with anger with lust and many more can live in God's growth pattern in God's victory since my conversion then nobody is exempt here tonight and in these closing moments I want to just share with you seven practical ways that you can maintain your commitment to God you can gain victory over lust over hostility you can gain victory over judgmentalism ego trips pride there is victory there is victory through Jesus Christ and one way it's as Tozer said you have as much as you really want as you really want now number one before the seven is this has got to be the total surrender and that is an ongoing process it's an ongoing process it's linked with repentance it's linked with the cross it's linked with what Maxwell talks about in his book Born Crucified but you'll have to order there's no copies left but when you've made that commitment as some of you did last night as some may make tonight in which you fall at the foot of the cross that's not the arrival point that's the beginning as you're filled with God's spirit now I know God works in crisis God works in process I know people that don't know of any particular time when they had a great moment of crisis or great infilling but they've grown they know commitment they've surrendered and they're being used as great missionaries fine, no argument with me but a majority of men and women I have met around the world Raymond Edmond brought this out in his book have had some kind of crisis experiences with God don't be afraid of a crisis experience with God don't be afraid to come forward in a meeting don't be afraid to shed a few tears but the crisis without the process will become an abscess and so it's ongoing surrender as the Holy Spirit reveals areas of your life that are not crucified let me just bring this to a close and share these seven practical things I've maintained almost all my Christian life won't take long just bear with me and write them down if you want there are others but you don't want to be here all night just seven that's a good number isn't it? number one I've already shared with you intensive meditation on the Word of God not just Bible reading not just even just Bible study though that's very very vital and all tied in we'll just call this one the Word you all know that already right? we don't have to dwell on it but especially meditation and memorization walk as you sit as you run as you're on a bus redeem the time put those memory cards there in your mirror there's so many places you can keep your memory cards Dale Roton he and I have been together twenty-eight years when he was at Wheaton College he had a full-time job he was ministering to the black community he was getting starting to get re-involved with OM he was with Wycliffe he was doing all kinds of things and he memorized one-third of the New Testament and he's still going today Muslims memorize the whole Quran the whole Quran they show more reverence to the Quran than many Christians show the Bible so that's number one the Word especially memorizing meditation number two make love your roof your foundation your aim in everything that you do without love I wouldn't even be here there's an interesting book on the table there by a man named Mr. Drummond on the subject of love I thought I picked up a copy but I didn't yes I did here it is hidden one of the most amazing little books I read as a young Christian the greatest thing in the world I also read Theodore Epps' book on love love is the answer later on in life I picked up love covers you may not agree with everything in this book dear Mr. Bill Heimer what a saint of God I only had a lot of phone conversations with him never met him but that book is a very helpful book in this day and age love love you take 1 Corinthians 13 you can forget these books if you want do a Bible study that I did even before I got to Bible college I underlined every verse on love in the New Testament every synonym of love on the New Testament and I got on my knees and I said God I know that without love George Burwer is nothing I had a lot of convictions I was a roaring lion I've been preaching since 17 years of age I used to preach 900 times a year I've seen thousands and tens of thousands surrender to Christ in my meetings but I know this without love I am sounding brass and tingling cymbal that became the greatest theological anchor of my entire life I'm not going to give you my message on sound doctrine I don't like to presume on anything but when I come to prairie I do like to believe you've already got sound doctrine but in a sense without love you don't have sound doctrine I've talked about this in my little book Revolution of Love and Balance expounding on James chapter 1 with this emphasis on love you'll be constantly repenting constantly growing you'll be a lot humbler your wife will get along a lot better even your dog will appreciate you more make love your aim I picked up a little book by Eugenia Price many years ago make love your aim it's a brilliant book I don't know why it's not more widely distributed and determined by God's grace that everything you say will be in love I will tell you that's revolutionary that's hot that's hot because love next to Christology next to the emphasis on Christ himself is the most mentioned doctrine with all of its synonyms in the whole of the New Testament the Bible even says in one place God is love that's pretty heavy and if you say you know God and don't love your brother you're in darkness still that's heavy and I tell you it scares me it scares me for the people that Jack Van Empey talks about in his book it scares me stiff I've just left who's going to heaven I don't get into that anymore I left that with God I left it with God number three prayer must become your vital breath private prayer corporate prayer small group prayer you know why a lot of people don't go to our prayer meetings anymore I'm going to lay it very honestly with some of you pastors because so many of the prayer meetings are so dead pastors in our seminaries are told to prepare hours and hours and hours for their sermons and only a few seminaries give any basic instruction at all on how to lead a prayer meeting the average pastor does not know how to lead a prayer meeting and there's very little preparation in many of the prayer meetings men prepare for hours for sermons good but we don't give enough prayer and preparation for leading a prayer meeting and leading a prayer meeting is a head on collision with Satan it needs wisdom it needs strategy it needs it needs a lot praise God there are now some materials and books coming out on this but they're not very popular when I was a student at Moody all these things I share with you were all they were all in practice in my life right before I got to Moody that's how I made it through because these things are just basic you learn these when you're a baby Christian all you need is a Bible and maybe a few books but when I got to Moody I just immediately knew the greatest thing going on at Moody Bible Institute is the prayer meeting and I seldom missed any prayer meeting anywhere after every meal volunteering most of them because to me that's where the reaction was my studies never suffered that much and I was as far as I know controlled by the Holy Spirit and filled with this Holy Spirit every single day of my studies that's where O.M. had its second birth more and more people got involved pretty soon the teachers were going down to Mexico and even to this day I'm back at Moody Bible Institute's Founders Week in February they acknowledged that God wrought a miracle at Moody Bible Institute in those days because of a group of extreme reckless students who believed in prayer we had nights of prayer some of them got a little wild can you imagine Moody Bible Institute one of the deans going down at one in the morning and one student was standing on top of a chair praising God these were fighting fundies these weren't you know somebody out of some strange doctrinal treat and I remember old Dean Snow just opening the door and looking in and you know his eyes bugged out people were laying on the floor weeping others were crying out for Mongolia we were praying in different groups the thing was a little bit out of control Dean Snow looked in the door lads do you think you could be a little quieter in there now we always humbled ourselves and we always apologized Dean Broman the head dean became one of my very closest friends I just visited him it's going on 80 years of age just visited him a few months ago when Dean Broman called a prayer meeting here was the dean of men the dean of men called men to prayer you know how many came never in my whole period at Moody more than 30 ever came most of them were these crazy OMers who weren't even called OMers we didn't even know what we were doing except we loved Jesus we loved Jesus more than food and we fasted too much we loved Jesus more than anything and we believed men were lost and we believed the book of Acts was true it was history and that we were following in the steps of men like Stephen had the privilege of being stoned I only had that once one stone boy I was just praising God as India boom it hit me on the head I've made it I've made it all kinds of crazy things happened because the man who threw that stone the next year he died and when I went back to that part of India they were kissing my feet and they came from all over the place and expected me to perform miracles and I gave my message on balance in the area of healing did you get number three prayer prayer make it priority I think prayer is more important than breakfast you're not going to die if you miss one breakfast some of you look like you can miss fifty breakfasts and still be going number four this is going to bring us right into balance never neglect the human factor that's what I did and that's why at times what O.M. did wasn't all good physical exercise whatever walking is one of the best we've been told great swimming may be better I don't care if you roll around on your living food floor but you need an exercise program I think most people agree if you're a farmer working in your fields out here you don't need an exercise program you go home and read a book but the average person sitting behind a desk needs exercise and in my life exercise has helped me deal with depression early morning depression helped me deal with laziness helped me deal with getting out of bed because I have someone knock on the door if you can't get out of bed and are not disciplined in that area just humble yourself and get help you get somebody who knows how to get out of bed get you out of bed phone you throw water knock on the door I can give you 28 methods to get people out of bed Elizabeth Elliot emphasized that Alan Redpath said the greatest problem in Britain was blanket victory get the blanket off take care of that body exercise a balanced diet recreation a little bit of fun music may be a help too psychologically I wish I had time to share my message on survivalship I may get to it tomorrow I'm still trying to get to the balance message we haven't got to it yet maybe a little of it but I pray that you will find balance in that area physical body love your neighbor as you love yourself seems to indicate that some love for self is basic somebody said that's no problem people automatically do that not the kind of people that go to prairie and moody and some of the places I preach at they tend to put themselves down they tend to neglect themselves they tend to get down on themselves super spirituality comes in false ideas of reality come in legalism comes in so you need and I know this is going to be misunderstood I say it anyway sometimes you need to be just a little bit selfish now we'll we'll subtract that word you don't like that word right but you got to care for yourself if you don't care for yourself how are you going to help anybody else and om we saw tremendous foolishness in this area there's nothing wrong with brushing your teeth this isn't some selfish pursuit there he is again brushing his teeth why don't you brush your brother's teeth you selfish wretch I used to put my wife in so much guilt I never could understand what women were doing in the little room in front of the mirror for five or ten minutes nowadays it's five or six hours what are they doing in there and when we traveled I could never understand you know why to me when we're going somewhere for me the whole world by the way is going too slow when you're going somewhere you want to go fast and you know if you're going to have a toilet stop fine you know in the early days in om we tried buckets in the vans but it was a bit messy so you know when you're going there fine stop let the girls go to the toilet you know give one minute get going girls I will tell you we learn the hard way I know I'm going on a little long but if you learn these lessons it's worth the pain of staying here a couple more minutes number five number five bear with me especially Ted hang on there learn learn how to bounce back when you fail my favorite verse I guess next to Romans twelve one and two is first John two verse one first goal of the verse sin not I believe in holiness second part of the verse if you sin you have an advocate with the father Jesus Christ the righteous before that it talks about confessing your sin look you've got to learn to bounce some of you made new commitments to Christ last night you claim the victory over lust you claim you claim the victory over pride you claim the victory over other things you think that's all going to happen now no there's going to be ongoing struggle ongoing failure that's why we called the message last night failure the back door to success you've got to know how to bounce back and if you're like me it's going to be for many many years bounce back confession honesty open off with a mask a revolution of honesty it's invigorating number six you've got to learn real fellowship I can't believe the lack of fellowship in some Christian institutions and some places people don't they don't know each other people are working together sitting together in the same car they don't know each other they've never had in depth fellowship you can't have in depth fellowship with many people but you can have it with a few and listen if you've got some of the struggles I've been talking about these days you need someone you can really share with I would not be here today if I could not unload my burdens at times not unnecessarily not every time I get the whim to throw garbage but I have to take the mask off and I've been having fantastic fellowship in fact I feel like a fellowship glutton I've had tremendous fellowship with some of you today I've almost put weights in my shoes just to get over here but I cannot understand people who are not having real fellowship I've got here I've got to get over I've got to I've get over here I've got to over here I've got to get here I've got get over here I've got to I've get over here I've got to get over here I've got to get over I've got here I've got to get over here I've got get over here I've got to get I've got get here I've got to get over here I've to get over here I've got to get over here I've got I've got to get over here I've here I've Jesus said go you know all the world and preach the gospel to every creature And I want to tell you One of the reasons I've been fresh as far as I know most days these 31 years is I'm always witness I'm always sharing by phone by letter in the street door-to-door. I've knocked on thousands and thousands and thousands of doors What a tremendous privilege Pakistan India Mexico Spanish English out in the streets I've had the joy of personally giving out hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds upon hundreds of Thousands of tracks you stand on Harrow Bridge outside of Calcutta and you can get out 10,000 tracks in one day the only trouble is skinny guy like me your shoulders eight from the shoulder bags carrying all the tracks As you give out God will give you more as you keep in it will begin to stink If you just keep it in keep it in don't give it out. There are seven practical ways That you can maintain your commitment Brothers to tear and his books has a different approach to it. Fine. The Word of God is so big, isn't it? We only touch just touch a little bit in one little message like this I want to ask you in closing. Are you totally committed to Jesus Christ is Christ absolute Lord of your life? Of your time your talent your money your future your relationships Your mind is he Lord if not, will you make him Lord tonight? Would you stand as those who stood last night and say Jesus Christ? I acknowledge you as Lord I recommit my life to you. I'll go where you want me to go. I'll do what you want me to do I'll learn to live in the power and the fullness and the energy of the Holy Spirit That's what it's about Let us pray Right across this great auditorium. I want you to seek God's face. I Want you to seek God's face. I want you to answer that question. Is he Lord? Is he Lord of your life Lord of your time? Are you living in the fullness and the reality of the Holy Spirit? and if you're not You want to take a fresh step of faith to make Christ Lord and to be filled afresh with the Holy Spirit tonight Then I want you just to quietly where you are stand to your feet as an outward sign of an inward Transaction the inward transaction is that which counts? You trusting you taking a step of faith you repenting acknowledging sin and claiming the blood of Christ in your heart in your inner being That's what counts but this outward expression by standing of that inward transaction will help seal it as I see you instantly and pray for you and Then get that feedback paper and pray for you again and again God has spoken to you and you respond And ask Christ the absolute Lord of your life Fill you afresh with his Holy Spirit Even right now as we wait all of us praying seeking God's face As people just stand and make this surrender to Jesus Christ Wherever it leads may lead you right here to remain in Alberta may lead you to the ends of the earth It's not geography. We're talking about tonight get this it's reality God taking over in your life full surrender Born crucified Right now If you mean and I want you to stand up bless you You you the name of Jesus you you I want to see each one you you you God can answer instant prayers because he knows my heart He knows I'd love to spend hours with each one of you He will give more time than I'd ever dreamed Yes in the back up there over there over there yes All be praying This is a holy moment. Yes standing already in the back your hand up you over here You you And God make it real. Yes there in the back front You You this was not my message plan for tonight, this was God's plan I was gonna speak on spiritual balance and And a few other things and God drove me back to Romans 12 Because I felt there were people that needed to get Committed and on the cross at the cross and before we talk about balance and survivalship as I'll do Tomorrow, yes, God bless. Yes Praise yes He is real We're not throwing out magic pills. We're not we're not promising you you've heard the message. I haven't promised it instant Christianity It's just a step, but it's an important step. They'll still be the battles still be the struggles I've shared seven principles on how you're gonna maintain this but you've got to start Many of you have already started you just want those seven principles fine Christ is already your Lord. That doesn't mean perfection. It means reality. It doesn't mean you've got everything together It means that Christ is living working through you day by day in reality joy and truth In the midst of struggles and failures and difficulties tears even doubts But there are others need to make this surrender Ask him to be Lord Every area of your life Yes, any others before I pray yes, God bless So many now I can't Keep track of all who have stood but God does yes, God bless you God bless you You know, I wouldn't give this invitation. I hadn't seen the Holy Spirit using this kind of simple invitation over all these years and had Thousands I'm not exaggerating Thousands of letters for people they've often said especially even very shy people from countries like Germany and Switzerland They said dear George your dear. Mr. Brewer. Thank you for giving an invitation It helped me make a stand it helped me to drive a milestone into the ground It may be a simple thing. It may be a silly thing. Jesus said Zacchaeus come down from the tree Jesus put mud on the eye of one man before a mighty work took place and You'd really think it was strange if I asked you to put mud on your eye I'm only asking you to stand as an outward symbol of an inward transaction. It's a simple step of faith Representing the heart broken before God is your heart broke Doesn't mean you feel it the same depth as I may have felt it, but you know, God has spoken Thank you. Just thank him and receive his forgiveness love This cleansing you think your problems too big for God you're deceived no problem is too big for God No problem is too big. You say I've already tried this and failed so many times God's not interested in that He's ready for a new page completely clean page tonight because the blood of Christ cleanses from all sin Anyone else before I pray this prayer from it. God bless you. Yes Yes Thank Jesus Praise the Lord Way in the back Lord Jesus Anyone Praise Some of you have responded to many invitations like this in the past and so you feel called to remain seated You know when I say praise the Lord That's good There's a time to stand at a time to be seated and you know, sometimes when we remain seated We just affirm Lord. I stood and made you Lord not months ago some years ago. I just want to reaffirm that You do that right there where you are. You do that remain seated Because I know I Know that most of you here tonight. Really you love Jesus And he loves you and He's not trying to put you in a guilt trip It's not trying to put a guilt straightjacket around you and make you feel miserable He knows all about you and loves you still net wonderful We're standing before him by grace forgiven cleanse redeemed We're failures. We're major miserable disciples poor witnesses floppy prayer partners, but we're saying And that's the bottom line Hallelujah, and on that grace then we can go forward with all the other things Let us pray Lord you see each one standing before you And Lord, I just pray for them right now and all over this auditorium we pray as Many have made you Lord as many as determined to be real disciples As many are dealing with sin or pride or unbelief or laziness or foolishness in their own lives cleanse it Lord We pray right now together cleanse it and Set people free people who are in bondage People who somehow have been drifting people who are into judgmentalism or legalism people who are into cynicism Drifted into spiritual laziness the lazy mind lazy body Cleanse forgive renew fill right now. Oh God by faith in Jesus precious name Amen Amen Let us all stand and can we sing that song? I Surrender all is that in here All to Jesus I surrender You It 200 Let's just turn to 200 those words catch my heart right now 200 instead. Thank you