In this sermon, the speaker shares personal anecdotes and experiences to emphasize the importance of effective communication. He highlights the need for love, patience, and selflessness in our interactions with others, drawing from 1 Corinthians 13. The speaker also mentions his desire to live in community and his involvement in Operation Mobilization. He concludes the sermon by praying for revival and expressing gratitude for the opportunity to gather together.

God and Father, we thank you for this great salvation. We thank you for the reality of your Holy Spirit. Again, we would pray not just for what's happening here in this great campground, but we would praise you for what you're doing in many parts of the world. And, Lord, when we think of areas where there are almost no workers, and areas where the church is just being born, we would pray in obedience to your word that you would send forth laborers into the harvest. Lord Jesus, you told us to do that. And so, we don't believe it's some secondary issue. And we pray that you would send laborers into places like India. That you would send laborers into places like the Muslim countries, Afghanistan and Iran, Turkey. Some of these areas where so few have heard the gospel. We pray for laborers to go into many of the needy parts, especially of southern Europe. We know the harvest is plenteous, and the laborers are few. We would ask also that in these days you would work in our own nations, America and Canada. Lord, how we need revival. How we need to see your reality and your power manifest in a greater way. We pray for the leaders of our respective governments, as you have commanded us to do that as well. And we believe, our God, that you are going to continue this great work. We give you the praise. We thank you for this moment of being together. In Jesus' name, Amen. Let's begin in 1 Corinthians 13, one of the greatest passages in the word of God. It's amazing to see all of you together. I said to someone as I was walking here, Wow, in the middle of the day, it's hot. Swimming pools are available. I wonder how many will be here. And this is just exciting. People that want to worship. People that want to feed on God's word. 1 Corinthians 13. Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not love, I am become a sounding bronze or tingling cymbal. Though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, though I have all faith, so that I can remove mountains, and have not love, I am nothing. Though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, though I give my body to be burned, and have not love, it profiteth me nothing. Love suffereth long. Love is kind. It envieth not. It faulteth not itself. It is not puffed up. It doth not behave itself unseemingly. Seeketh not its own. It is not easily provoked. Thinks no evil. It is not irritable. Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in truth. Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Now we all know this passage. It's one of those passages we should want to memorize. And with this passage as a foundation, I want to share with you, as time allows, ten foundations for communication. Ten biblical foundations for communication. My main work is not preaching. My main work is living. Living by God's grace, through His Holy Spirit, this life. One of the reasons, about fourteen years ago, I got this burden to get an ocean-going ship, was because I wanted to live together with people, as many as possible, in community. The Lord gave us this ship, the first ship, three thousand, about three thousand tons. Had room for a hundred and forty people, because that's all we could get into the lifeboats. Doesn't mean you live in the lifeboats, but if anything happens, you got to have enough capacity in your lifeboats. And for the first two or three years of that ship ministry, though I had my other responsibilities of coordinating OM around the world, which is made very easy by an army of about two hundred faithful leaders, men and women, a few of whom are with me here in these days. But together with that, I was living on the ship, for two or three years, total time. I had to travel off once in a while, with my family and with other people. This was one of the most challenging experiences of my life. In a sense, I was somewhat of a pastor, because when we were at sea, we couldn't go off to the other churches. We are not a denomination. Normally on Sunday, we go off to different churches. We have some go off to the Baptist Church, some go off to the Pentecostal Church, some go off to the Anglican Church, some go down to some church whose name we don't even know. They love God, they love God's Word. Then on Monday, we get back to work again. But we also have our own nights of prayer, our own daily prayer times, fellowship, worship, times in God's Word. Of course, when we are at sea, it's difficult to go off to the local church, middle of the Atlantic. So, it was a worshiping community. Some of the teaching I share with you came out of the nitty-gritty of living together on a ship. People of 25 nationalities, some older people, some younger, many different backgrounds, some of us amateurs as far as ships go, working together with highly trained professional seamen from different merchant navies, American Merchant Navy, English Merchant Navy, Norwegian Merchant Navy. You can imagine the potential problems in the area of communication. Do you ever find in the local church there's a few communication hassles going on? Do you ever find that God's people sometimes gossip a little bit? Do you ever find that sometimes you're on the wrong end of the stick? And I believe the Word of God gives some very basic and clear principles of communication. And we're going to share those. They're basic for those of you who are not married. And the more you can get of this kind of thing in your life from God's Word before you're married, the better chance your marriage is going to last. Now, I'm going to tell you something. It's a little bit of a risk. I may have said it yesterday. We didn't have even a third this many. But in our work, we've been going about 21 years. We've had many people meet in our work and get married. We've had about 21,000 people that have had at least some training with OM. Some of them very, very short for a summer, and that's not a real burden. Our burden is to get people at least for a year. Many of them have met international marriages, all kinds. 21 years, how many do you think that we know of have ever come apart, separated or divorced? Now, you know the statistics. One out of every two marriages ends in divorce, separation. You know some experiences. How many do you think? None. 21 years. Talking about a lot of people. These principles work. Now, we've had people come to us who are already married, and we discovered in some cases it was already too difficult to get some of these things in. But we haven't seen many of those people ever come apart as well. There have been a few. And so I'm very serious. I cannot tell you how much I search my heart before I come to meetings like this. I do not come here as a profession. I take not one single penny out of coming here. I do not come here because I want to promote OM. If I wanted to do that, I would have been crazy to leave America 18 years ago. I could have set up a promotion organization in America, had 20 times as many recruits as we get out of Europe and out of Asia. We have purposely low-profiled our work in North America. I come here because my concern from God is for His people. It's for you, whether you ever come on OM or not. And I believe God wants to bless you this afternoon and God wants you to become very serious about these principles and believe that they can become a part of your life. Now let me also say this, because this is in way of balance, that there are many ways to say these things. Different men of God communicate in different ways. I've had the privilege of studying and reading under many men of God. Recently I even went through a Bill Gothard basic youth conflict seminar. I studied a lot of material of Clyde Naramore and his son and Jay Adams, which is a totally different view from Naramore. I've had the joy of spending many hours under the teaching and influence of Dr. Schaefer, Francis Schaefer. I've got greatly blessed through some of the men who've been raised up in recent years in the great charismatic movement in North America. And yet I've been greatly blessed and stirred by people who for some reason or other are on the other side of the fence. And I am a man greatly in debt to many teachers, to God's Word, to books which are a sermon, which are sermons in print, to women like Eugenia Price. One of my close friends in India is a man named Bhakt Singh, very unique. Doesn't get on with too many people. Has his own movement. Planted over 400 assemblies. I think we can learn from him. And so I come, sharing not a lot of original things, a few, a few of my mixtures as I've taken these different people and tried to put them together and they do come together. Let's look now at the first principle. I've made a list to help me. You may make a list. Do what you want. Number one, learning to be unselfish. Philippians 2, 3 and 4. Philippians 2, 3 and 4. Praise God for these words in his Holy Word. I'm sure many of you have them memorized. Let nothing be done through strife or being bored, but in loneliness of mind and let each esteem others better than themselves. Have you ever heard a message on that Bible doctrine? You get some people that emphasize Bible doctrine. There's a Bible doctrine. It's in your Bible. It's teaching. You know Bible doctrine isn't just about the second coming of Christ. That's very important. It isn't just about the inspiration of Scripture. That's also important. The atonement. Bible doctrine is everything we read in the Bible. And there are what I call the character doctrines. They're doctrines that are clearly concerning how we are to live. A lot of people change their eschatology. They go from a premillennial position to an amillennial position or then to a pre-trib to a mid-trib and then back and around and they see a film and change again. And I meet people that change their ideas about the latter times and in the process of these changes their life does not change one inch. They remain the same selfish, egocentric Christian they were to begin with. And all of us have met such people. But if you start putting into practice this doctrine of esteeming others better than yourself can you imagine what will happen in marriage? Esteeming your wife better than yourself. Esteeming your children better than yourself. Now to do this you have to have a certain amount of self-esteem and we've dealt with that already. This whole thing of having a proper image of yourself, accepting yourself, knowing God's love, knowing the reality of forgiveness. These are foundations. Without that foundation you will have trouble communicating. And I've already shared with people here on a personal basis and even in talking with them in five or ten minutes I can tell them that their problem, what they're talking to me about is not the real issue. The real issue is down underneath. Lack of love, insecurity, fear, probably stemming from bad family background, deep hurts, injuries, maybe broken marriages, bitterness, resentment, all the rest. This stuff doesn't come out of us easily. But we build as we lay this foundation of self-acceptance, of knowing that God has forgiven us. One of the greatest things that can happen to you at Jesus 78 is to go away knowing you are forgiven. Not just the unsaved that we're preaching that message to. That message is for the saved as well. Saved people who are not living in the light of the forgiveness they have in the Lord Jesus Christ. How did a young man come to me? He said, I can't win any souls to Christ. This is years ago. There's no possibility of relating this with any person. My illustrations about people no one ever figures out because they're ten, fifteen years ago or they're so unrelated. Nothing to do with anybody who's talked to me in the past weeks. That's something that's light. This person came to me many years ago and he said, I don't believe God can ever use me. I said, what is it? I said, share it. He never shared it with anyone. Finally he came out. He had raped his own sister. This was hanging on him like a great weight. And I was able to show him God's forgiveness. Though your sin be as scarlet, it shall be made as white as snow. There's nothing that God cannot forgive. Very seldom is there a case of the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. The very fact that the person is concerned about it is more or less a proof it's not blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. People get such a bad view of themselves. Like I said yesterday, someone who had a problem with masturbation, which I consider a minor problem. A fellow came to me with this problem and said it was a blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. He's going to go to hell. Well, as I explained yesterday, and some people appreciated what I said on this yesterday because it's a subject not many people talk about. That this problem should be put on the same level with impatience or any of these other things. In fact, it's less serious. I believe in most cases it is a sin because it's involved with impatience. It's involved with lust. It's not God's way. But there are certain sins that I believe are easy to claim a deliverance experience from. And again, God works in different people in different ways. But there are other sins that as far as I can see in studying so many books and reading God's Word again and again, that for most people will be a perpetual battle at least on one level. At least on one level. Try to understand that. And as we get this foundation of knowing we are forgiven, knowing God loves us, even though we have failed, we have been able in these past 20 years to see many people with pretty heavy problems greatly helped. We've got a lot of people with homosexual problems come to us. They expect when they write to us that we'll condemn them and say, you can't cover an operation mobilization. You can't serve the Lord. After all, if you can't teach school, you can't serve the Lord. Well, there may be a difference. Maybe homosexuals, especially anyone who's practicing it, should not teach school. That's not my debate this afternoon. But our policy has been this. If a homosexual sincerely is saved and therefore he's on his way out of his homosexuality, he realizes it is sin, not necessarily the emotion. You're not condemned for having a homosexual emotion. But if you go into the practice and get other people involved and you disobey the Word of God, you are, of course, sinning just as a man who has a problem on the other side of the fence. If he gets off doing things, he is sinning before God. And as Christians, our problem is different from what the world is facing. Therefore, we cannot face the problem the same way that the world faces it. We hate all sin. The world says, worldly psychiatrists have been saying for years, if you've got a sex problem, you've got too much of an urge, you feel frustrated, it may cause schizophrenia or neuroses, go out and find yourself a woman or a prostitute and release, release. Secular psychologists have been teaching this. Many are now pulling back from that because they saw that whereas legalism may have caused a minor neuroses, liberty seems to be causing major psychosis. And I think most of you know at least the difference in terms of seriousness. And so we've had the joy of seeing people with a homosexual problem learn God's way of discipline, learn the power of the Word of God, learn God's therapy, learn how to communicate, learn how to repent and see them effectively serving Jesus Christ. Now the battle never ends. And we will not take someone who thinks that they're just, the battle's all over, totally delivered, there'll never be any problem again. Therefore, what happens? They slack off. They become undisciplined. They become careless. And the devil zaps them again and again. I say these things because I find so many people today feel they have a special problem. Your problem may not be that special problem, but you have something else. And I feel as a foundation for this message. You need to say to God, because of Jesus, I know that I am forgiven. I am forgiven. Then you move on to learn what it is to communicate to others. And number one, you learn to be unselfish. I've seen that the greatest problem in many ways in my own life has been selfishness. Even as someone who has been a missionary, so-called for almost 18 years, more actually, know the first years I had to come back and go to school and only went to Mexico in the summer and Christmas. But I've seen how easy, especially after I got married, how easy it is to be selfish. Even in spiritual things, I was very selfish about my quiet time. What about my quiet time? In the morning. What about my wife? I didn't think much about it. She's got to get my breakfast. She's got to get my cup of tea. She's got to get the children ready. She makes the bed. She hunts around and chases and looks for my socks. And I'm becoming more spiritual, having my quiet time. And God had to break me The reason I recommend that book Calvary Road, perhaps one of the greatest Christian books of all times, now in 30 languages or more, is because it exposes selfishness. I found, for example, that I easily became irritable. That's leap with a self-life. It's leap with uncrucified self. I was sitting at my desk studying the Word of God, preparing a message. My wife comes. She just wants a few minutes. In love, she puts her hands on my shoulder, but at that time, because of the self-life, I'm in a particular mood. I'm in the don't put hands on shoulder mood at that time. She is feeling a need, perhaps, for a little romance. Maybe she would like to at least say hello to me. You can't tell your wife, you know, get an appointment with my secretary. May God have mercy on the busy executive. And so she puts her hands on my shoulders, but because self is intact and because victory over the self-life doesn't happen that easy, I turn and I say, look, how about not bother me right now? Can't you see I'm busy? Now, I don't know how you as a wife would take that. But my wife started to cry. Fortunately, because of God's Word, I turned around and I soon repented and said I was sorry and we got together again. Now, maybe some of you are married. I'll tell you, you never have any arguments in your marriage. You're both very calm and totally filled with the Spirit 24 hours a day and just moving along on some cloud you found up in the spiritual life convention. Moving along year after year, it's all wonderful. All the children grow up, they never argue and they all accept Christ at 11 years of age and are filled with the Holy Spirit and they go on to serve the Lord and their children all grow up and they never argue and go on to serve the Lord. It's just all wonderful. Now, I can tell you, for those of you who have it all together like that, you're in the wrong tent. I recommend you don't waste your time. Just go swimming. But I tell you, in our family, it's been a little bit of a rough road because I have a bit of a loud mouth. My kids are all a bit noisy. I remember we were in Rome. God was still training me in the school of unselfishness. Here I was leading Operation Mobilization. I had 2,000 people under my leadership. Rome, 1963. And yet, I couldn't keep my own family functioning properly. And I remember saying something unkind to my wife and at that moment, often she didn't ever say anything back when I said unkind things. My wife has been such an example of love, submission and patience. I cannot tell you. But sometimes when she was in a struggle or I said something really stupid, phew! Boy, I tell you, when she does let go, she, you know, woo! I tell you. And then I said something back and pretty soon we were locked in a really, you know, a really heavy argument. I can't remember what I said. All of a sudden, I left the room. Cop out. And I got in another room and I, of course, the Lord, if you're the Lord, you get under conviction. That's one of the ways I know I'm the Lord's child. Conviction. And I was in this other room and I said, and this is difficult for those of us who are still in the prairies of self-centered living. I said, Now, Lord, I realize at some points I was, you know, a little bit wrong in this situation. I want you to just know, Lord, that if she repents and comes to me and apologizes, I will admit that I have been partly wrong. Tremendous humility. There I am in my room praying my pharisaical prayer, thinking of how unfair my wife has been. She didn't tell me these things before the wedding. Not that I told her much before the wedding. I don't know what she was doing in the other room, but it could be in some cases that she was praying. Well, Lord, you know, I could have been a little more calm and submissive. I realize I got a big mouth for a husband and I knew that to some degree before the wedding. And so, Lord, if he comes to me and really repents and gets on his knees and asks forgiveness, of course, I realize I'll take some of the blame. You know, I once spoke to a married couple that got in that kind of a situation and went for several weeks without speaking. You know, one of the blessings of my type of temperament, there's dangers for my type of temperament. We're explosive, we're too emotional, but generally we get in trouble quick, but we get it resolved quick. I tell you, I am not going ever more than one or two hours without speaking to my wife. I don't believe in that. So when I counsel a couple, they go, Operation Freeze. He comes home. Hello darling, I'm home. Zzzz. Food ready? She says nothing. For days. For days. Of course, none of you have ever been through such things, but Calvary Road and the Word of God teaches repentance, teaches brokenness, teaches esteeming others, teaches dying to self, and when we do that, and that's the very basic thing the Bible talks about as far as spiritual life, then we rise repenting, saying we're sorry, apologizing, and we get united at the foot of the cross. The worst argument we ever had was in Kabul Gorge. We were in the back of a truck. Been a rough journey. Heat was 110. We were up heading toward Kabul, Afghanistan, and somehow we got on each other's nerves. You know, don't condemn yourselves if that happens. Don't think there's no hope for your marriage if you keep getting on one another's nerves. If you bug each other once in a while, whatever other terminology you want to use, learn to repent. Learn to accept yourself. Learn, we're going to get to this again later, to accept one another's weakness. Learn to be unselfish. So, oftentimes, we've had crises just trying to go to sleep because I found it difficult sleeping in one of these beds together. I wanted to pull the blanket. Pull the blanket. And I felt my wife was really inconsiderate, and she said, She kept taking the blanket. She fell because I always went to sleep very quickly. She has trouble going to sleep. I go to sleep, boom, three minutes. Then in my sleep, I roll over, curling up the blanket, and of course, it unwinds off her. She's there shivering in the night, and I'm wrapped up in about three layers of blankets. Then, if she wakes me up and asks for the blanket back, I explode. Because, I don't know about you, but if I'm half asleep, I'm a little less sanctified when I'm totally awake. I wouldn't want to list how many times I have hurt my wife, and I beg of you men, let's aim at trying not to hurt our wives. Let's try to get on God's road of unselfishness. Let's think about their needs, their health. They in turn will think about our needs, our health, our burdens. And together, not each going 50%, each going 99%, the marriage will work. And there'll be joy and reality, and the kids will see it. And it will reproduce joy and reality in them. Let's go on. Number two, it's very much linked. We've got to learn to be patient. Let's be really honest. Let's have a little survey. I like to give surveys. Helps me see if everybody's awake. How many have a bit of a struggle with this thing of patience? This really is a bit of a problem. Look at that. All of God's patient people. And yet, so often, so often, this aspect of biblical truth is bypassed. I had an experience in Mexico with a young man I was supposedly discipling. You know, a big white chief from the United States goes to Mexico, disciples Indian. He was a Mexican Indian. I let him in charge. I had opened a book shop and I left him in charge of that book shop one night. And I said, I'm going off to preach. Take care of the shop. Take care of the cash register. And when I came back, he'd done everything wrong. So I lost my patience. And this young Mexican, I later named my son after him, my first son, he just began to cry. He was so hurt. He so respected me and looked to me and when I lost my temper and I was impatient with him, it so frightened him, he just began to cry. And it was because of God's Word, it was because of that book Calvary Road, that I got on my knees in front of that young Indian who I was discipling and I repented and I asked God to change my life and make me patient or I wasn't going to the mission field. And I went back to my room that night and I went through all the concordance and I looked up every verse on the subject of patience and I saw it's more in the Word of God than evangelism and world missions. And I asked God to fill me with His Holy Spirit because the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, that's part of patience, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, temperance, against such there is no law. And God just poured Himself into my heart. I don't think I've ever been the same again. Oh, I've still failed. But I've known what to do. The fruit of the Spirit, patience. I was reading this morning James chapter 1 during my quiet time and oh, God always speaks to me from James chapter 1. James chapter 1. Look at this. My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials. Do you do that? Count it all joy when you fall into various trials. From the people I've spoken personally to here, I know there are people here with severe trials, problems, difficulties in the home, unemployment. Count it all joy when you fall into the various trials. That's not the ha-ha-ha-ha joy. God knows, but it's an inner joy. Knowing this, that the testing of your faith worketh patience. Why does God allow some of these things to come into your life? Because patience is a major characteristic of Jesus Christ and the purpose of God is to make you like Jesus Christ. As a family, we got in a Volkswagen in Belgium for a great adventure. We're going to drive to India in the winter. Snow-covered mountains. I fell asleep. My co-worker forgot to put on the chains. We ended up in the mountains of Turkey. We couldn't go up the mountain. A blizzard hit and we couldn't go down the mountain. We expected a truck to come around the road any minute as we were stuck and it hit us. More accidents in Turkey per capita than almost any nation in the world. It's a very real experience. My little daughter accepted Christ as her Savior there in the mountains. One of the greatest joys we've had as a family is to see all three of our children going on for Christ and baptized just a few months ago. And there in the mountains, we had a lot of tests. We finally made it out of that one. Then we had another one and another one. Then we had a puncture and another puncture. Pretty soon, we didn't have enough tires and we were stuck in a place in Pakistan and a man walked up with a gigantic rifle and he said, Do you know this is a highly dangerous area? What are you doing here? No tires. And he said, Well, I better guard you because people are being killed around here. And again and again in the work that I have done, I don't know about you, again and again things have gone wrong. I planned it this way. It didn't go my way. I prayed about it. Somebody comes up and says, Well, didn't you pray about it? You know, prayer was some kind of a slot machine. You know, just put your little prayer in. That's not prayer. You know, A.W. Tozer said something I'll never forget. He said there are three kinds of problems. There are problems that come and go. They come and go. Like a mosquito. It comes, lands on your nose, it goes. You don't have to have a major intercession prayer time for the mosquito. It just came and went. Then, there are problems that come and through prayer they go. It's wonderful. God does answer prayer. But then, there are problems that come and though you pray and pray and pray and pray and pray they don't go. Maybe you don't agree with that. You can talk to Tozer when you get to heaven. But he said on that third kind of problem is where we really learn what life is about. Paul had at least one problem that did not go. And I'm convinced that the trials of our faith, the testings of our faith work patience. Let patience have a perfect work that you may be perfect and entire lacking nothing. And God is concerned that we learn patience. There's a whole series of books, beauty care books. And I know some of you are very heavy on beauty care. You spend a lot of time in front of the mirror. Some of you are beginning to lose hope but keep pressing on. Don't get discouraged. But in the tent you'll find a set of beauty care books. You'll find beauty care for the eyes. Those of you who have wandering eye disease can even be a problem here at this wonderful Jesus festival. Then there's those who have trouble with their tongue. And there's a book Beauty Care for the Tongue. And I think there's one other beauty care book I haven't read it yet. You know it's amazing how the word of God has provision for all the needs. That's why we need to spend more time in it. Learning to be patient. It can be a crisis. God gave me a crisis in that book shop in Mexico. But ever since that crisis there's been the process, the breaking, the repenting. You know two of the most important words in the English language? Let me teach you them. Maybe you missed them at school. I'm sorry. Can you say those words? Now let's hear it. I'm sorry. I knew there were many who couldn't say it. Very weak. Try it again. I'm sorry. Now if you would just put that little simple bit of theology. You see I don't want to give you all the deep theology at once. Because you'll become a theological egghead. And we have enough of those. And I'm not against theology. And I praise God for men that become sound in doctrine. And they know God's word. Especially when they have humility, reality, and the fullness of the Holy Spirit. We can use all those our theological seminaries can give us. Praise God. There was this young seminary student. And he got all this great knowledge. And he felt that God was using him. He had told several people about Christ. And he was going to write his biography on humility. Yeah. He was going to write his autobiography on humility. How he learned humility at seminary. And a nice big picture on the cover. Himself. How I learned humility. By Johnny Egghead. I will tell you. No matter how much knowledge you get. The Bible says. Listen, the Bible says. Knowledge puffeth up. And we need together with the knowledge of God's Word. And I am very strong on getting a knowledge of God's Word. We need humility. We need reality. We need love. We need gentleness. We need to learn patience with other people. People we may not even agree with. It's very, very important. Well, I need to rush on because time is going. Learning to accept others. Look at Colossians 3.12. Colossians 3.12 Very beautiful. Very important. Put on therefore as the elect of God. Holy and beloved. Tender mercies. Look at these words. Kindness. Humility of mind. Humbleness of mind. Meekness. Long suffering. Notice 13. Forbearing one another. Forgiving one another. If any man have a quarrel against any, even as Christ forgave you, so also do you. Isn't that powerful? Isn't that the kind of reality we want flowing from our lives? Learning to really accept others. Just the other day, God was breaking me on the subject of love and showing me that I needed to respond greater to new challenges of love. And I just sat down and inspiration was just coming through me by God's grace. And I just quickly wrote out this outline. I can't give it because I don't have the time. But I listed here ten kinds of people that we have to learn to love. We need to be more specific. Here they are. Learning to love and accept people you don't understand. Do you do that? I have a battle with that. Learning to love a person with prejudice. Some of us come free from prejudice. We work together with people of all races. Then pride comes in. So that we judge people who may be not yet totally free from their prejudice. I go into certain churches in our country, down south, and I tell you, I get uptight when I hear some of the comments about people from other races. And I get upset. And then I realize just as they are not loving those people of other races, I am not loving them. I tell you, I went to South Africa last year and I saw the prejudice among many people there. Not all, but some. It's an emotional thing. It's a deep thing. It's a complex thing. And we better be careful when we in our countries give little easy answers to some of these incredibly emotional situations. And I found that as some of those people maybe didn't love people of other races the way I thought they should. I found a major barrier loving them and accepting them. And so it's a test to learn to love the man with prejudice. Once you come out of prejudice, God tests you in a different way, doesn't He? It's something God had to deal with me about. And then learning to love the one who rejects you. It's easy to love people who accept you. Learning to love the one who rejects you. The one who has no time for you. You go to the pastor and he says, look, I'm really busy today. I can't see you. I'm really sorry. Excuse me. And he gives you the brush off and he goes and you bury some bitterness in your heart against him because you're hurt. Learning to love the one who rejects you. Learning to love the unattractive or the disabled. Learning to love the homosexual. Learning to love the slow. Oh my. What a battle that was for me. And then the poor soul that has to live with me and learn to love the fast, Mr. Too Fast who often gets in a big mess in the process. Learning to love the perpetual backslider. You ever worked with any of those? It's one thing to disciple somebody and you see him go on and people look at him and you even have people come. Boy, the Lord really used you, brother, to disciple him. Jesus, my. I want to tell you if you don't think false motivation can get into Christian work, you haven't been in it very long. And God hates false motivation. I've written a book on this. There's now a chapter in this new book, Revolution of Love and Balance called pseudo-discipleship. False motivation. It's not just what we do, beloved. It's why we are doing it. Why we are doing it. And God had to break me on that point. And some of the people I discipled, they backslid. God showed me to keep loving them. Accept them back. I had one brother backslid probably 15 times in one year. And I'm not talking about just some little thing in the head. I mean sin. There is a place for discipline. But learning to love such people is a great challenge and to accept them and to see them restored. Learning to love the self-righteous. Oh, I find that a problem. The guy knows it all. He usually strongly disagrees with me. That makes it even more difficult. And I'll tell you, learning to love the self-righteous and learning to love the one who doesn't share. See, I'm very heavy on sharing. We often react against people who don't agree with our strong principles. I believe people should share. Open up, man. Let's get the garbage out. Get it cleansed away. Brother comes to me for counseling. We sit for an hour. He told me about his grandmother. He told me about his gerbils. He told me about this heavy problem he had with his bicycle. He told me about what he did on his vacation. He never shares. The whole hour is gone. He hasn't told me anything. And I start, you know, what's wrong with this guy? I find that I begin to say, you know, I haven't got time for him. You know, I want to go to the people who really, really want my services, you know. I want to tell you, pray for those of us who are Christian workers. Will you pray for us? We're a needy batch. I can't speak for the rest, but in our work, O.M., we're a needy batch. Pray that God will humble us. Pray that we may know reality on a deeper level. Pray that we may walk in the light. Pray that we may know the reality of humility and humility. And then, learning to love the liar. Ooh, some of us are men of truth. We're all in truth. And we meet somebody who's got a problem with telling the truth. We reject him. Don't jump down your children's throat, hit them on the head with a brick the first time they tell you a lie. Love them. Accept them. Forgive them. Teach them. Set the example. Learning to love the mentally disturbed. What a rejected group of people they are so often in our society. And I haven't got time to go in to my burden about some of the easy answers that people throw out that drag mentally disturbed people even deeper. There may and there is such a thing as demon obsession and possession. But most of the people we meet, I am convinced, that have deep emotional problems or are mentally disturbed. I do not believe that is the problem. And I believe we need to love and accept and be willing to do what we can with this great mass of society rather than condemning them. Especially if they don't immediately respond to our easy answer. And then learning to love people of all races. All races. That's why I like to get people on OM. Get them with all my African friends. All my Indian friends. We are one third non-white. That makes some people uncomfortable. Especially if their leader is from Africa or a black American. One led our work in Iran for years in the early days. Very few go to the mission field from that community. Or an Indian. Learning to love people of other races. What a reality comes when we do that. And then learning to love people of other ages. Sometimes young people without knowing it, they reject old people. Old people are going through problems and struggles just as you are but they are different. And we, older and younger and middle aged, we need each other. And healthy fellowships have some of each age group. Not all young people. All people. Very seldom have I seen a healthy fellowship that didn't have a balance of people of different ages. Learning to love. Learning to accept people. I close by just finishing my outline. Learning to bend and break. 1 Peter 5, 6. Learning to say you are sorry. Learning to repent. Learning to love. We have been dealing with that all along. 1 Corinthians 13, 6. Learning to discipline oneself. How important that is. Do you have a physical exercise program? Something regular, definite everyday. I strongly recommend that. If you want to stay healthy. If you want to deal with hostility. If you want to help overcome lust. If you want to be less irritable with your wife. My exercise program is not that much. Has been one of the strongest practical points in my life. And enabling me to live calmly day by day walking with Jesus. And I believe it's God's way. Learning to relax. How important that is. Some people are spiritually jumping because they know God sees their every action. No. God is easy to live with. He knows all about us. We can commune with Him in an uninhibited way. Learning to relax. Learning to share and open up. How important that is. James 5, 16. 1 John 1, 6. 6 through 10. 9. Learning to repent and embrace the cross. And 10. Learning to redeem the time. Make use of that time. Learn to organize yourself. Many a poorly organized husband is driving his wife crazy. Many a scatterbrained wife is driving her husband crazy. Can't there be a little coming together? A pooling of the stronger points? And I'll tell you. Young people especially. Learn discipline. Learn how to order your life. Learn how to take care of your papers, your addresses, your phone numbers, your suitcase. You may think they're details, but it's details that cause many a death. Many a marriage breakup. Little things are big. Learn faithfulness. Don't put all these things on one side and spirituality on the other side. They're together. There is no dichotomy. The nitty gritty, the practical, is as spiritual as the prayer, the praise, the soul winning and the worship. Our whole life is an act of worship as we obey God's Word even on the very details of life. God bless you. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your Word is so practical. Lord, you know, I needed the reminder of this message today for myself. I'm a real needy person in these areas and I want this. I want love in action. I'm tired of words. Talk is so cheap. I want a revolution in my home. I want to return to England and be more loving and patient and kind and forbearing to my three teenage children. We want to learn to communicate with one another, our roommates, our friends, people we don't understand, people that repel us, people that don't like us. Break down the barriers. Fill us afresh with your Holy Spirit that we may be your men, that we may be your women for we pray to you.