In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of paying attention to certain chapters in the Bible that contain significant teachings. The speaker also expresses a burden for the testimony of their team to be one of godliness and reality. They mention a powerful example of a woman who lived a faithful life until the end and is now in heaven. The sermon then transitions to discussing 2 Corinthians 4:7, highlighting the idea that believers carry a precious treasure within them, despite their weak bodies. The speaker shares a personal experience of speaking with a missionary who is battling cancer and emphasizes the importance of remaining faithful in the midst of suffering.

I remember when Dr. Schaeffer, who influenced our movement in those early days, was sharing with us how he felt the battle in our Christian faith was tied in with the book of Genesis, and whether we really believed the book of Genesis. So I brought some of these along. These are not to take. They are not for sale here. I don't have enough copies. These are just for display, and you can order them from Graham Scott if you want. I'm sure he'd love to hear from some of you. So I'll put these out. A number of them are for children, and a couple of them are magazines. Apparently, the leader of the movement Graham is part of is from Australia. Quite a gifted man. I've watched him on video, and it's certainly worth us thinking about and taking a look at. But that's not my theme this morning. It's just my book review. I want to read a number of scriptures. This message is burning on my heart, and to be quite honest, I feel in some ways the message is firstly for me, because we're going to talk about suffering, and I'm in the camp certainly of those who do not want to suffer. I've got a coward streak. I've got a lazy streak. I'm soft in some ways, so I hope not beyond the point of God being able to use me. What else can I say? I have to constantly go back to the Word of God to get the courage that I need to face what I want to face. I think maybe one of my qualifications to be the international leader of OM is to have it with all my heart. I really don't want to do it. I really don't want to do it anymore. It's been quite a few years, and it's because of my willingness in my heart. There can be elements of deception, but I believe it's because of willingness in my heart to lay down my life that I'm willing to carry this responsibility. With my kind of temperament, things weigh heavy, and I become emotionally involved, and it's not easy just to go to the ship, and visit either ship involves tremendous weeping. It'd be easier just not to go anymore. I think of the people that were once on the ship, and now some of them don't walk with Jesus. We heard these horror stories last night of Indonesia. It'd blow your mind to think of people coming back off OM and backsliding, but it does happen. It happened in the earliest days. Mexico. A very high percentage of people in Mexico who come to Christ backslide. I don't know why people don't like to talk about it. We get these tremendous statistics about Brazil. One Brazilian told me, he said, way over half of all these people are all backslidden. They're not walking with Jesus today. They're a statistic. They're a church growth statistic. They're not people who are walking in the power and the reality of Christ today. I think one of the reasons perhaps I'm qualified to continue to lead ICT, something that also gets discussed occasionally, is because, I can assure you in myself, what it takes, and I feel inadequate, and I don't want to, but I do it as unto the Lord. That doesn't mean I don't enjoy it. It doesn't mean I'm not fulfilled. I'm not the ascetic type. I can hardly remember an unhappy day since my conversion. But as I think of this message this morning, I just hope that you'll stand very firm against very worse straw, hindering what the Spirit of God may want to say to your heart from His Word. We're going to look at at least six major scriptures, and just allow the Word of God to prepare us, and to speak to us in a strong way. The first scripture is in 1 Corinthians 4. Our theme this morning is the subject of suffering in the work of God. Not just suffering in general, but suffering in the work of God. 1 Corinthians 4, starting at verse 9. I'm going to read from the Living Bible. In some ways I prefer to read from my authorized version. I'm so unbelievably comfortable in the authorized version, but I don't want to particularly be comfortable. I want the words to go to your heart, and I'm especially realizing quite a few of you here this morning are new on ICT, even new in OM. This morning you're going to get one of the building blocks that this movement is made of from the Word of God. 1 Corinthians 4, verse 9. Sometimes I think God has put us apostles at the very end of the line, this is the Living Bible, like prisoners soon to be killed, put on display at the end of a victor's parade, to be stared at by men and angels alike. Religion has made us foolish, you say, but of course you're all such wise and sensible Christians. A bit of apostolic sarcasm. We are weak, but not you. You are well thought of, while we are laughed at. To this very hour we have gone hungry and thirsty, without even enough clothes to keep us warm. We have been kicked around without homes of our own. We have worked wearily with our hands to earn our living. We have blessed those who cursed us. How many of us are into that? We have been patient with those who injured us. We have replied quietly when evil things have been said about us. Yet right up to this present moment, we are like dirt underfoot, like garbage. I'm not writing about these things to make you ashamed. You know, one of the big buzzwords in America today is the word shame. We're all being taught that a lot of our behavior is shame-based, and people are reading books until they're having mental breakdowns, reading them, digging deeper and deeper into themselves, and of course the psychologists and psychiatrists are making hundreds of millions, but there are elements of truth in some of those things that are being said, even by secular people. But it's interesting that Paul writes this, wanting to make sure that we don't develop some more shame-based reactions, which sometimes certainly was the case in the history of OM. I'm not writing about these things to make you ashamed, but to warn and counsel you as beloved children. For although you have ten thousand others to teach you about Christ, remember you have only me as your Father. Apostle Paul at times sounded a bit arrogant, really, the way we think today. But it was his compassion, it was his love, it was commitment to the truth, that he was willing to put his spirituality and his reputation on the line to get God's people sorted out. And that's what this biblical exhortation is, because they were surely in a messed up situation in Corinth. For I was the one who brought you to Christ when I preached the gospel to you, so I beg you to follow my example and do as I do. That is the very reason why I am sending Timothy to help you do this. For he is one of those I want to Christ, a beloved and trustworthy child in the Lord. He will remind you of what I teach in all the churches wherever I go. Powerful. In the Old Authorized Version we have these words, which I think go powerfully to some of us, maybe even more than this modern translation. Even unto this present hour we both hunger and thirst, we're naked and buffeted, have no certain dwelling place, labor working with our own hands, being reviled we bless, being persecuted we endure it, we're defamed, we entreat, we are made as the filth of the world and the offscouring of all things unto this day. Very, very powerful. I think of how in some of our churches and in whole denominations, people take isolated verses out of context and make it major, major doctrinal emphasis. Whereas we have whole chapters along the line of what we're studying now that are basically to a large degree bypassed. 2 Corinthians. Go to 2 Corinthians chapter 4 where it talks about this treasure being in earthen vessels. What an enormous help that has been to me and my weakness and my struggles. It talks about renouncing the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the Word of God deceitfully. I remember a woman at Moody, the dean of women, preaching on that text, don't handle the Word of God deceitfully. It was very, very powerful. When you remember something from 34 years ago, by the way that dear woman ran the race right to the end and is in heaven today. 2 Corinthians chapter 4. I really want to start at verse 7. 2 Corinthians 4 and verse 7. But this precious treasure, this light, and we do welcome our very special team members. Mike Wakely just in from Pakistan, looking very well. Gary Dean just in from Bromley, headed out that way. Welcome. We're having some Bible study and we're in 2 Corinthians chapter 4. But this precious treasure, this light and power that now shine within us is held in a perishable container. That is our weak bodies. I was just on the phone a few days ago with David Adeny, one of our heroes. Many of us know him. Great China lover, missionary with OMF. He may be on his way to be with the Lord. Cancer on his lung. I've talked to him three times on the phone and you can just sense the struggle, the weakness. His great burden is that he somehow can be faithful to the end. You say how can... When you're that old and you've run the race, do you mean you can be unfaithful at the very end? People have lost their faith in the last week of their life. People have cursed God in the last week of their life. We always get the stories of the atheists who cried out for the mercy of God. Let us understand, if you know history, not all Christians die well. And I tell you, one of my greatest burdens is that I may not just live well, I may die well. And a lot of people that are linked to this work are actually dying right now. Because we're a big work. We didn't want to become big, but we did become big. It means there's a lot of people. And as we see a message from the Word of God, it is not just about living, it is about dying. And that to me is a tremendous, tremendous challenge. I was listening about the death of Ray Stedman in California about a year ago. People at his bedside, right at the end. And it was just an enormous challenge of how he was just running the race until the final second. Of course, if you're killed in a mid-air crash, I guess you don't have so much time. But what a challenge to hear about people who run the race and die well. I've heard of other Christian leaders, bitter, angry, no longer able to relate to other people, starve themselves to death. Starve themselves to death. I won't give names because it wouldn't edify. 2 Corinthians 4, 7. Let me read it in the Authorized as well. But this treasure is in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power, to me somehow that sounds better than this living Bible, may be of God and not of us. We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed. We are perplexed, but not in despair. Persecuted, but not forsaken. Cast down, but not destroyed. Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. Powerful. Verse 16. For which cause? We faint not. Of course, as we continue to run the race in these coming months as a team and as individuals, we are going to be tempted to faint. We're not talking here about slowing down a bit, pacing ourselves, taking a bit of a vacation for refueling. We're talking about the spiritual life. We're talking about the battle against sin. This chapter opens up with that challenge. We faint not. This is not legalism. This is not bondage. We've already had that condemned in chapter 3. Look at verse 6. For the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life. The fact that we have more freedom in many ways on OM than we did in the earlier days, to me gives greater hope for true spirituality. Because sometimes in the early days, people were just copying. People were just doing it out of bondage. People were just doing it because maybe there was some kind of shame-based behavior. I'm not judging those people because God is the judge. But we know that some of those who were the most zealous in the early days of OM no longer walk with Jesus. Somehow we missed something, or they missed something. Now, of course, no matter how much... Let me just back up a little bit and say people can be living biblically and still, of course, be knocked out in the battle. So I want to avoid generalizations. But I believe the new freedom with the higher risk factor that we have in OM, and it does scare us at times, is really the only environment in which we can create truly spiritual stalwarts who will not only live well but die well and who will not become bitter at the end. As I saw in the early days, bitterness already coming into some people because things didn't quite go the way they felt it should go and the way they felt the Bible would have things go. It was a very scary experience. The letter killeth. The Spirit giveth life. Look at verse 17. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we are all with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord are changed under the same image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord. To me, they're just awesome words. Back to verse 16. For which cause we don't lose heart. It says in another translation. Though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. What a joy to visit elderly people who are really diminishing outwardly and yet to see them renewed. To see them renewed. I'd encourage all of you. I've done it all in my Christian life. Visit elderly people. It's not something I've started now that I'm old myself. Something I've... Being converted through Mrs. Clap. Meeting the woman who was the great prayer intercessor for Billy Graham when I was in that crusade. Taking people into the crusade in 57 which by the way was featured in Decision Magazine this month. Very interesting articles including my testimony. Had some interesting feedback from that. I've always been involved with older people. Somehow in God's providence He enabled me to link with people that were three... Back in those days, three times my age. To pray with them. To esteem them. It's exciting to be with people who outwardly they're going down but inwardly they're renewed day by day. The privilege I had to sit at the feet of Alan Redpath. The privilege I had to sit at the feet and become very close with Richard Warnbron with Dr. Schaeffer and with dozens of others. I am truly a debtor. Truly a debtor. For our light affliction. Look at verse 17. Our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. Do we really believe that? Do we take hold of that? When we're in the middle of light affliction certainly in my life if I interpret this correctly most of the affliction that I've had has been fairly light compared to what I read other people going through. I just don't know how some of these people handle what they've gone through. Let me just read that from this translation just to see if it gives it a different bit of a light. That is why we never give up. Verse 16. Though our bodies are dying our inner strength in the Lord is growing every day. That's the ideal. That's what we want. These troubles and sufferings of ours are after all quite small and won't last very long. Sometimes they do seem to last quite long. Can you imagine what the believers are going through in the former Yugoslavia? If any of you read that book about Yugoslavia in the Second World War I forget the title of it but I've never read a book with so much suffering at least a modern history book. Fox's book, The Book of Martyrs, of course is the ultimate. Dale Roton used to always go around hitting us with Fox's Book of Martyrs. I never did finish it. It just scared me right out of my shoes almost. It can only take so much reading about suffering. Yet this short time of distress will result in God's richest blessing upon us forever and ever. Isn't one of the problems of modern man and the modern Christian that basically everything seems focused on the here and the now? We've got to change the government. We've got to build better houses. We've got to feed everybody, clothe everybody. We've got to have justice everywhere. When I read some of this I really, I may be wrong, I really feel some of the people writing this they must be drunk or naive because it's just not the way it is and it probably never is going to be the way some of these people are talking and they couch it sometimes in disguised words like the kingdom. I just, I find it very, very difficult. This is a lost and fallen planet. It is always going to be that way. I believe we should be salt and light. I believe Christians should work in all of these areas. Don't misunderstand me. But if that's our main thing, patching up this planet and making us all feel more comfortable and having better government then I must be reading the wrong Bible. Somebody better write me a letter real quick. Light affliction. Which is, but for a moment. Surely he must be speaking here in terms of eternity because so often the light affliction isn't a moment, isn't it? It's a moment in terms of eternity. But when someone suffers for 20 years, I don't know if we can say it's a moment, working for us a far more exceeding eternal way of glory while we look not at the things which are seen. Isn't, isn't what, forgive the grammar, isn't one of the problems we're facing right now in OM the tendency to see and focus more on that which is seen rather than that which is eternal. I don't know. God has to, has to look in our hearts. 2 Corinthians 6. I know for some of you these passages are in the way of review. I dare to say I've studied them probably more than most people and I need them more than ever before. I need the Word of God. I'm a wordaholic. I cannot live without the Word of God to my own heart. And these verses are such a great challenge to me. 2 Corinthians 6 gets even more blunt and more pointed. It talks about giving no offense in the ministry. It talks about being workers together. Surely when we have a whole chapter, not an isolated verse, a whole chapter with this kind of material, we should pay attention to it. We should realize that if we miss these chapters, and we're dealing with 3 or 4 chapters, then we are missing a major block of biblical emphasis. Giving no offense, verse 3, in anything that the ministry be not blamed. I'm sure you realize one of my burdens, and I'm sure it's one of your burdens, is that the testimony of our team and people are watching this team. A lot of people talk about this team. And one of the burdens is that as much as possible, that our testimony be one of godliness and reality. And I tell you, when I hear of a team having that kind of testimony, wherever, it is an enormous inspiration, an enormous encouragement. I was talking to a man who I thought was somewhat well-informed, and realized in talking to him how unbelievably ignorant he was of other churches. He only knew his own church. He didn't think there were any churches, other churches, that were really getting the blessing, like his church. And I've had the privilege of ministering in several thousand churches. Many churches are doing well, just in case you feel a little pessimistic. I was just in the church of Dr. DeHaan. Remember old Dr. DeHaan, any of you Americans? He broke away from the Christian Reformed Church and started a church, now called Calvary Church, independent church. Built that whole church on the Word of God. He was a man so faithful to the Word of God. I just preached there on Sunday morning. I came in on Saturday night to speak at their contemporary service. This is a church that's trying to make the adjustments to the day in which we live. The contemporary service on Saturday night. We're told that you can't do anything with God's people on Saturday night. Just forget it. 400 come on Saturday night. Off the streets. People with AIDS. Gays. All kinds of people. And I tell you, a powerful meeting. As I stood before those people, and as the Holy Spirit moved in that meeting, it was quite awesome. The pastor gave me orientation before I took the meeting. They seldom give this meeting to anybody. The pastor has written a book on seeker-sensitive ministry. He takes all these meetings. He's won these people over. Maybe I only got the meeting. I don't know. I don't know how I got this Saturday night meeting. But there I was, and that night he also gave me orientation for the next morning. Next morning, four and a half thousand people poured in three services. They put a million dollars into world missions. And on Sunday night in America, they're closing down churches on Sunday night. Right, left, and center. I think it's even written in books. Sunday night services are out. Two and a half thousand came Sunday night. They didn't come just to hear me. They come. A great church. There are a lot of great churches. It's not a perfect church. And we hear so much negative about the churches. And when we're in a church, it's so easy to see the negatives. But let us understand, there are many healthy, growing churches in the world. And praise God, O.M. has planted even a few of them. Let's look at this passage about not giving offense in the ministry. But in all things, commending ourselves as the ministers of God in much patience, in affliction, in necessities, and in distresses. I'm not sure if they got into our core values. I'm sure they're probably there somewhere, maybe in disguise. In stripes, in imprisonments, in killments, in labors, in watchings, in fastings. I haven't found that yet in our written strategy, but no doubt it's implied. By pureness, by knowledge, by long-suffering, by kindness, by the Holy Spirit, by love unfeigned, by the Word of Truth, by the power of God, by the armor of righteousness on the right hand and on the left, by honor and dishonor, by evil report and good report, as deceivers and yet true, as unknown and yet well-known, as dying and behold we live, as chastened and not killed, as sorrowful yet always rejoicing, as poor yet making many rich, as having nothing and yet possessing all things. Someone might say, well, we've heard Verwer preach on this chapter before. That's just the point. OM is one of the movements that has preached on this chapter. But are we living this message? That's the issue. Not whether we've heard a sermon on it. The devil hears sermons, no doubt. Maybe he's listening to this one by some kind of recording device with all the sentences on demons. No doubt there's something swooping around over the house here. And if you're into praying in the way, just shoot up a prayer. As I found myself praying against Satan the other day, I just love this prayer-walking concept. As the guy who wrote the book said to me, in a letter to me, trying to get me to buy a load of books, I only bought 50. OM has been in this for years. It is interesting that OM, many of us, have been into prayer-walking for decades. Why are we not smart enough to write a book about it? But anyway, I was walking up from Honor Oak Park Station to the base there at Forest Hill. And got into praying for people and praying for houses, the people in the houses. I'm not into praying for houses, though we may need some soon on ICT. So I guess I am into that. And I just felt a rebuke in my heart. I'm not condemning people who sort of go around rebuking Satan, but I want most of my prayers just to be aimed at God. I just want to talk to God. I'm going to let Him handle it. I'm not itching for a direct punch with Satan. He's smarter than I am, cleverer than I am, a better fighter. He's been at it for thousands of years. I'm going to do most of my praying, without judging others, I'm going to do most of my praying to God. And so I found myself, Lord, bless the people who live in that house. Bless that person and other more simple prayers. Because my great hope this morning is that the Word of God will stir our hearts in a very deep and powerful way, I want to read this passage again from the Living Bible. Starting at verse 3. We try to live in such a way that no one will ever be offended or kept back from finding the Lord by the way we act, so that no one can find fault with us and blame it on the Lord. In fact, in everything we do, we try to show that we are true ministers of God. Powerful! We patiently endure suffering and hardship and trouble of every kind. We have been beaten, put in jail, faced angry mobs, worked to exhaustion, stayed awake through sleepless nights of watching and gone without food. We have proved ourselves to be what we claim by our wholesome lives and by our understanding of the Gospel and by our patience. We have been kind and truly loving and filled with the Holy Spirit. We have been truthful with God's power, helping us in all we do. All of the godly man's arsenal, weapons of defense and weapons of attack, have been ours. We stand true to the Lord, whether others honor us or despise us, whether they criticize us or condemn us. We are honest, but they call us liars. The world ignores us, but we are known to God. We live close to death, but we are still very much alive. We have been injured but kept from death. Our hearts ache, but at the same time we have the joy of the Lord. We are poor, but we give rich spiritual gifts to others. We are nothing, and yet we enjoy everything. Oh, my dear Corinthian friends, I have told you all my feelings. I love you with all my heart. Any coldness still between us is not because of lack of love on my part, but because your love is too small and does not reach out to me and draw me in. I am talking to you now as if you truly were my very own children. It goes on to say that they should open their hearts, return their love, and then in verse 14, don't be teamed up with those who do not love the Lord. For what do the people of God have in common with the people of sin? How can light live with darkness? And what harmony can there be between Christ and the devil? How can a Christian be a partner with one who doesn't believe? And what union can there be between God's temple and idols? For you are God's temple, the home of the living God, and God has said of you, I will live in them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. That is why the Lord has said, leave them, separate yourselves from them, don't touch their filthy things, and I will welcome you and be a father to you, and you will be My son's pal. Turn to 1 Peter. For those who have just come in, we're having a study of a number of almost whole chapters on the subject of the Christian life. It seems to be especially focusing on suffering, but it is touching many, many other aspects of the Christian life. We just read and looked at with a few comments, 1 Corinthians 4, 2 Corinthians 4, and 2 Corinthians 6. And now we want to go to 1 Peter 1. Starting at verse 3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy hath begotten us again into a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, to all inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. Verse 6. In this ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold trials, that the trial of your faith being much more precious than gold, that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honoring glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen ye love, and whom though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable, full of glory, receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls. People have tried to figure out, it's not a small issue by the way, whether I am a total Calvinist, or whether I am an Arminian. And I have studied probably more books than most of you on this subject, except Peter Maiden, and I just say this, I find that the Arminians have a lot of great verses. I've just picked up a book that completely attacks Finney. Calvinists always send me their tapes against Finney. I remember jogging over the hills, I think the Pennines, listening to this attack against Finney. One of my heroes, who I don't particularly agree with, Keith Green, was overdosed on Finney. You never understand Keith Green if you don't understand what he was reading. I think even some of his material he has pulled out of publication. Dale Roton was heavy into Finney when I met him. Then he shifted over a little bit, then he shifted back. I'm not sure where Roton is anymore. But he's moving on to better things than just talking about theology. But we do remember a guy, his name just popped into my mind, but I won't mention it there at Maryville College. He got into Finney, and of course when you get into Finney you usually feel you're not saved. And pretty soon his mind just snapped. I remember him when he just cracked up, getting so overdosed on one man. The same thing's happened with people overdosed on Watchman Nee. People overdose... I haven't had any letters, but I'm sure there's some overdosed on George Verwer. One guy wrote me that, and my wife, she's just raised her hand, she's overdosed on George Verwer. One brother from India listened to 300 George Verwer cassettes on this ship. I'm just hoping something will come of his life. He shortly left O.M., and I think I actually had to ask him to leave. And somehow he is going on for Jesus today. But the Armenian brothers and sisters, and there are many of them in O.M., and if you're a Calvinist you need to try to love them and be patient with them, they have many, many great verses. Of course the problem is the Calvinists, they also have many, many great verses. And if you'd like books on either side of this subject for your own entertainment, edification, I'd be happy to supply them. Perhaps God has not in His sovereignty allowed me to come down overwhelmingly in an extreme sense on one side because of what He's attempting to do in terms of reaching the world with the gospel. I don't know. There's a lot of things I don't know, but I do want to read this passage from the Living Bible, and it will just take me a few seconds to get there. 1 Peter, starting at verse 6. Please listen, because even the translation you have in front of you will be quite different than this. So be truly glad, there is a wonderful joy ahead, even though the going is rough for a while down here. Surely some of you have just come to the team, just joined OM. You could probably testify the going is rough. The going is rough. Well, that's what it says. What did you expect? There is a wonderful joy ahead, even though the going is rough for a while down here. These trials are only to test your faith. Some of us say, yeah, that's all right Lord, I don't want my faith to be tested. I'm just happy to go on the way I am. I'm not into any big sport event. I don't want to be tested, but I'm afraid you don't have the option. The trials are only to test your faith, to see whether or not it is strong and pure. It is being tested as fire tests gold and purifies it. And your faith is far more precious to God than mere gold. It's interesting, isn't it? Ever watch the value of gold on the stock market? It's very interesting. It will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day of His return. You love Him even though you have never seen Him. Though now seeing Him, you trust Him. And even now, you are happy with the inexpressible joy that comes from Heaven itself. And your further reward for trusting Him will be the salvation of your souls. I'll let you study all the translations of that verse, all the books about it, then we'll discuss that on some other occasion since that's not the thrust of the message. Turn to James, chapter 1. It's our last passage. Don't get any idea we're near the end of the message. It's just the last passage. We've got to go back. I'm going forward. James is falling out of this Bible. Here it is. James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ to the twelve tribes which scattered abroad, greeting. Here it is, verse 2. The Word of God. My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials. Count it all joy. I've been trying to practice that all my Christian life. It has been an enormous help. The Word of God is God's rescue program. I sometimes have failed. So often, suffering that God allows into our lives has a human element to it in which we are to blame and that makes the suffering more complicated but doesn't make it any less suffering. Don't think the only real suffering for Christ is when it's purely, totally spiritual. You went out to preach and you were speared to death. Clear, black and white. By the way, even those who gave their lives down in Ecuador, I'm sure many of you read the book Through Gates of Splendor, there later was massive criticism. Do you think it was all just a wonderful story of heroes? There was criticism. The widows went through phenomenal pain because a lot of people said it was their own dumb fault for using such a stupid strategy to reach these Indians. Others said they should have left them alone anyway. And we know the rumors concerning Watchman Nee and the suffering he went through and why he was in China or in prison. To this day, I'm not sure if we know the truth on that. But let's read it again. For the Word of God is sharper than a two-edged sword. Verse 2. Dear brothers, is your life full of difficulties and temptations? Then be happy. Imagine somebody going out and founding the Difficulties and Temptations Club, seeking membership. Isn't this one of the most pathetic things about so much of the Christianity that's coming across American television and not just American television? In fact, one of the prosperity women has just produced a book that can guarantee protection. If you get this formula from this book, guarantee protection in every situation. As far as I understand, I haven't read the book yet, so maybe I better be careful. But I do know the drift of their teaching. Dear brothers, is your life full of difficulties and temptations? Then be happy. For when the way is rough, your patience has a chance to grow. So let it grow. And don't try to squirm out of your problems. I wonder how much of the rethinking going on in O.M. And this is no way anything against that, because that's what we're going into in the next session. But surely, we are human beings. Surely our faults and our sins and our weaknesses are going to come in to all this present, forward planning and thinking. We cannot, you know, take away our sinfulness for six months so we can come up with a perfect plan. The sinfulness will be embedded in the plan. And it is possible that at this present time in O.M., there is quite an effort to squirm out of our problems. And I'm sure you know, I am as committed to solving problems almost extreme as anybody walking around. But when your patience is finally in full bloom, then you'll be ready for anything strong in character full and complete. There's a danger when we become a movement and we have policies and we have principles, we have goals and we have aims and we have all this that we have in O.M., that we attempt to see it as a substitute for basic godly spirituality that many women and men have who have never been part of a movement. And we've got to, in the midst of all of our changes, constantly go back to the Bible. Not one or two verses. I love to hear certain people say, one or two verses, I'm guilty of it myself. And then, boom, off with some theory they basically got out of an IBM textbook. They didn't get it from the Bible. What we've been looking at for the last half an hour or so, that is from the Bible, chapter after chapter, not just verse after verse. And as you study the Word of God, you will just see that the whole challenge of suffering, the life of suffering, of temptation, of difficulty, is part and parcel of God's kingdom and building the kingdom here. If you want to know what God wants you to do, ask Him and He will gladly tell you for He's always ready to give bountiful supply of wisdom to all who ask Him. He will not resent it. Brothers and sisters, even as we have our discussions, this morning and in the days to come, let us have that heart cry, Lord, give us wisdom. The final scripture, which is just brief, I almost forgot it, is in 2 Timothy 2. 2 Timothy 2, well, I'll just start at verse 1. Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus and the things that thou hast heard from me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men who shall be able to teach others also. Thou therefore endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. You don't need to read that verse in an OM meeting. That's what the whole thing was built on from day one. That's why we could get, over the years, thousands of people to go out to tough, difficult missionary situations and live in the trenches in a lifestyle, in a manner of life that was totally foreign to them until they did that. And one of the reasons they did it, the first reason was their love for Christ. The second reason was their desire to be obedient and evangelize the world. And perhaps tied in there somewhere with some of them was a desire just to be, as Paul wrote to Timothy, a good soldier of Jesus Christ. Just put yourself in Somalia in a soldier's boots this morning. Put yourself in former Yugoslavia in a soldier's boots this morning. Put yourself as a Sri Lankan facing the Tamil Tigers this morning who give their bodies as human hand grenades to blow the Sri Lankan troops into eternity. And I think as you do that, you'll decide you don't like this verse. I was preaching in an Anglican church in Cambridge. I think I got two major feedbacks. One was, please don't speak so loud. We Anglicans are not deaf. I did have a lot of positive feedback as well. The other was a letter. A lady felt it was completely out of hand and unnecessary to use military terminology in the church. She was quite offended. And where did I, you know, where did I get the basis for going on about military terminology? I guess I read that verse. You know, the average person today does not know what is in the Bible and what is not in the Bible. You know, in OM, I don't think that's true, but I hear that the knowledge of the Word, the average OMer, according to some opinions, is quite low. And we certainly want to work on that. But I think most of us in OM, in the early days, did come across this verse. And verse 4, No man that woreth and tangleth himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier. I pray that in the light of modern culture and in the light of the fact that this runs so against modern culture, especially Western culture, but culture in general, that we will not rationalize away these challenges that we are to be soldiers of Jesus Christ. We are to endure hardness as soldiers of Jesus Christ. In too much today, the Word of God seems to be laid to one side. Now we know when we read verses like this, whole chapters like this, and we speak like this, we create perplexity. Of course, that's what the verse promised. We're perplexed. How are we supposed to live in the light of this? Are we supposed to go into asceticism? We've already had that beautifully dealt with through Peter Maiden's commentary on the brilliant book, True Discipleship. And I believe that message is in manuscript form, a famous message now going around the world. It was a tremendous stimulus to me. I listened to that message. I agree with Peter on most points, but it stimulated me to read the book. And I realized, of course, as I have a hundred times, how totally different Peter Maiden and I are just in the way we read the book, because he is actually a theologian. He will not accept that, but he is a theologian. I'm just a pragmatic person who wants to evangelize the world. I'm not a theologian. And even when I read the book this next time, I was so blessed. I was so challenged. I found myself repenting. And a new commitment has come in my heart to distribute the book, True Discipleship, around the world with a clause that not all of this is totally acceptable. There are some problem areas, and you can consult Peter Maiden to talk about the problem areas. I just had a great phone conversation with William McDonald. I had a wonderful letter from him in which he finally admits that we don't agree on everything, but we are linked together and have been for 35 years. How shall we then live in the light of this? O.M. has wrestled with this. O.M. has wrestled with this from day one. This is why we sold all of our possessions and even other people's possessions. Because we wanted to be soldiers. We didn't want to get entangled with the affairs of this life. This is why when the first mention of pension in the early 80s came at an area leader's meeting or field leaders then, I reacted with a strong message about hell. Were you there? Do you remember? Do you guys really believe in hell? Wow! How to win friends and influence people. The fact is, we are going to be struggling with many of these issues. Just as we are struggling with the Calvinist Armenian issue, just as now we are struggling with whether the rapture is before the tribulation, in the middle of the tribulation, or a third of the way through the tribulation. As this book was signed, it becomes hot reading among whoever is around the world. My dear friend Bob Van Kampen, he can't understand why I have not just settled. He said, Brother George, it is so absolutely simple. I said, what do we need this whole book if it is so absolutely simple? But there it is. What are some of the testings, what are some of the difficulties we are going to face if we are not out in the trenches of Iraq like my nephew right now? I just got a letter from him. That is where the real Olemar belongs. He doesn't belong in Westwatch Mansion sleeping in a lovely bed, beautiful fresh air, going out to play a little croquet in the garden afterward. That is always a strain on some of the saints to bend over. But the true Olemar, he belongs in the trenches. It is a movement geared toward the trenches. So how do we survive living in Bromley? How do we survive with the wonderful places we have to live, the cars we drive? I believe we have to bloom and live our Christian life where we are and that God in His infinite wisdom is well able to test us right where we are. And to run foolishly into another man's world where the Lord hasn't sent you, even in your mind, will actually not help you get on with the work of God. Because let's face it, what are we going to do with all of our prayer partners? Whenever I preach a message or I share something, I want to know, will that function for my prayer partner in Chicago? Will that function for people that are in business? And it is the people in business that are putting a lot of the money that's enabling these people to go out into the trenches in the first place. So are the people in the trenches, we're speaking spiritually, though some degree physically, not exactly. They're able to be soldiers of Jesus Christ, but these business people, these prayer partners, all these people we mingle with around the world, they don't have a chance. They're all going to be second class citizens doomed to a life of softness and compromise, stay away from all these scriptures and they'll be happy. I'm not pretending to get through this this morning. Peter has urged us to study this subject. He sees it as one of the real difficulties in OM and the feedback showed the collision of thinking. But I wanted to just share very quickly some of the ways that we are already being tested and tempted right here in the UK and Christians in general and somehow it's my plea we will understand that testing and difficulties and misunderstandings and feelings of rejection or being hurt, it's part of becoming mature in Jesus Christ and not see these things as the enemy or see the people who are inflicting them. We're not excusing anybody for sin, but not to see the people who are inflicting these things upon you as somehow the enemy, as workers in a very intensive spiritual invasion. There are going to be some hard experiences that we're going to go through. We may want to run away. I sometimes do. And I believe one of the keys when we're tested is we've got to learn how to forgive and forget. I think one of the things that stuns Peter and I the most as we lead the work is to find people holding things against others that were done months or years ago. It is completely, totally, radically unacceptable in the work of God. We have to forgive and forget. The Word of God is so strong that in one verse it could almost indicate if you're not willing to forgive, then God is not going to forgive you. You know that verse. Many different interpretations of it. Surely with other verses we cannot believe that a man who fails to forgive is going to go to hell. Though there might be some people who teach that. But it is scary to think of a Christian who is not forgiven. Of course we can't completely forget things, but we take a position emotionally and mentally that we have forgotten that and when it comes back by faith we reject it. Just as a sheer, raw, sexual temptation can come to me, I have to, with everything in me, stand against that. So if the temptation to hold something against a brother or sister comes on me, I must stand against it with the same ruthlessness that I stand against sexual temptation. I, by the way, believe a lot of this sexual failure is totally unnecessary. I'm very stubborn on this point, but I believe a lot of it is totally unnecessary. I don't know who mentored these people. I don't know who taught these people, but to me, it is a basic provision in Jesus Christ that we can stay above and out of this kind of moral cesspool. And I believe part of the problem is somehow maybe we think it's always God's responsibility to somehow keep us. We get a lot of spiritual terminology that may sound good, but if you look through the terminology, you realize not only the blessing goes to the credit of God, but the failure, God has to take the credit as well. So I don't appreciate that kind of spirituality. We are responsible. We must obey. No matter how much you've been zapped with the Spirit. Years ago we thought if we could get a few hundred thousand people baptized in the Holy Ghost, that was a big terminology twenty-five years ago, man, we are going to turn Britain upside down. We, many, many people thought this is it. We've arrived. Get baptized in the Holy Spirit. Speak in tongues. Get filled. Get blessed. You know, we've got probably a half a million people in Britain at least that have been baptized in the Holy Spirit, speak in tongues, and got the gifts. We've barely seen church growth in the nation. A lot of those people aren't even walking with Jesus anymore. That's not to put down any true experience they may have had, but it is to say without discipline, without obedience, without spiritual battle on a daily basis, no blessing, no matter how great it is, is going to carry you through. I'll say something even more radical. Even salvation. Because you and I know how many people have professed salvation. And today, their lives are amiss. In fact, that was the great mistake many of us made when we came out of Bible college. We thought if a man saved, that's it. And we always heard these fantastic testimonies of people who were zapped, and they were never the same again. Testimonies are wonderful, but they can also be deceptive. That's why I used to look for the failure testimonies. Even in the businessman's world, you go to the Christian businessmen's meeting, always the success testimony. This guy gave his business to God, he had a prayer, the Lord blessed him, and now he's giving thousands to world missions. I remember hearing my first businessman's failure testimony. I couldn't believe it. The man got up, said he gave his life to God, he turned his business over to God, and he went bankrupt. I said, hallelujah! You say, why? Because I love honesty. And I love integrity. And I hate people who say things that aren't true. And that includes if it comes out of my mouth. And I thank God for the people I've had to be accountable to, and the people who've had to nail me when something's come out that hasn't been true. We must learn what it is to take criticism, correction, understanding things in a balanced way, and to be able to talk things out. The greatest mistake we often make in the work of God is we clam up, silence up, and we go on strike. Because we've been hurt, because we tried before and it didn't work, we somehow go on emotional strike and we don't realize that so often we are mainly hurting ourselves. Because spiritual people will go on somehow in the race, no matter what. What are a few specific areas where we may be tested even in the coming year, or already have been? Number one, esteeming others better than ourselves, especially if that other person has such glaring weaknesses. How are you doing on that? Esteeming someone better than yourself when their weaknesses are so glaring and they so rub you out. How do you esteem them? We have that verse in Philippians, esteeming others better than yourselves. How are we doing organizationally in that area? Esteeming YWAM, better than herself. Esteeming Campus Crusade. Esteeming WEC. Esteeming Child Evangelism Fellowship. It was one of the strongest messages in the early days of OM. Esteeming others. It helped keep us on balance. It shut our mouths. It killed judgmentalism in the work. I hope we don't lose it. Our main burden isn't firstly what is OM going to do between now and the year 2000. Of course we have to deal with that. God has put us in this family. We have to do God's will in the family. But our first burden is the whole body of Christ. Wouldn't it be wonderful in Bromley if we heard from the pulpit leaders rejoicing over what God was doing in the church down the road. It would be exciting. Christ Church, praise God for what's happening at Bromley Christian Center. Praise God. Let's have a prayer for what the Lord's done at Bromley Baptist. Praise the Lord. We just heard that Icthys has seen another hundred souls come to Jesus Christ. Let's rejoice together what God is doing in the other churches. I don't hear too much of this. Probably I'm not in enough meetings. So again, I'm not going to judge. The Word of God is radical. The Word of God is strong. And I know it's a whole life, it's a whole lifetime to learn these things. How do you handle when you've played an important part in a person's life and you've been completely forgotten? Ooh, ooh. How I have been tested on this lately and how I have sometimes failed the test. Someone was going on and on about what God was doing through someone. I had won Him to Christ. You think I could keep my mouth shut and not get my two bits in? Don't you know He came to Christ through O.M.? Oh, I didn't know that. Boy, I said Him right, didn't I? I'm not saying there's no place for communicating and I know when I used to give this kind of message years ago, people of a certain kind of temperament who had a low esteem of themselves, who had what today they described as shame-based behavior, after this kind of verbal message they would sink deeper into despair and introspection and it can be very intimidating to listen to the tapes of some of these people. But I still want to proclaim what I see in the Word of God and I know that it's only part, it's only part of what the whole picture is. What happens when you see money come in as a result of prayer, book sales, sweat, tear, toil, and saving and a co-team member seems to be wasting a lot of it? Especially if you find out his support is real short, your support is way over the top, you're living real carefully and he's wasting money. How does that, does that warm your battery? Haven't you got far enough down the OM road to experience that? I want to tell you, if you think that's minor, that almost tore OM apart. And one of the things that really helped me, such a penny pincher in so many ways, is when I give something to God, then He is responsible from there on. If Joe Blow somehow gets part of that money from God and he wastes it, that's between him and God. I gave it to God, I didn't give it to him. I remember when the Zobington mechanics were so upset, some guy took a vehicle out of there and within 200 miles blew the engine out. That was enough to really depress some of those mechanics and I don't blame them. And I had the chance to counsel a mechanic who was upset and I said, look, when the vehicle goes out of the driveway, give it to God. Do your work as unto the Lord, then no man can spoil it. That's not excusing the driver. That doesn't mean we shouldn't have driver training, engine mechanic training, all these practical things. But it does help you get things in God's viewpoint. Whatsoever you do, the Word says, do it heartily as unto the Lord. We didn't realize in the early days of O.M. how difficult it would be to live out what we were preaching. I say that again. We never dreamed in the early days of O.M. how difficult it would be to live out what we were preaching. But praise God, He's given the grace to keep on keeping on. What about when you are shown appreciation? Learning how to receive appreciation is sometimes more difficult than giving it, though we have to work on both. And what about when you have a message on your heart and you never receive an invitation seemingly to share it? And what happens when you go the extra mile for another leader, another person, and a similar opportunity comes and they don't go the extra mile for you? The world works on the basis of favors. I'm sure we understand that. I do you a favor, but then you owe me one. That is into the cultural system of the world. And I sense sometimes it's come into O.M. And so if we, we, of course, go out of the way to pick up a brother when he flies in. And that is a wonderful thing when you can do that. It does mean a lot to people, I'll tell you. It means a lot to me when I, in a strange country, arrive at the airport, somebody is there. We've all had, who fly, the airport wait experience. It's always great when you come in the wrong day and you can't get the phone number and you can't get a new coin because you don't even have a local coin to get into the phone box. I'm so spoiled living in this country with my mobile phone. Lord, have mercy on me. Brothers and sisters, it is a beautiful experience when you go out of your way to show love and kindness to a brother that later on and the situation is reversed, he doesn't do it to you for one reason or other. He has to stand before God if it's sin involved. For one reason or the other, he doesn't do it to you. That's when you're going to really find out whether it's Jesus who's supplying your strength and your joy or whether you're perhaps leaning a little more to other people. God does use people to minister to us. There's nothing wrong with that. But when it doesn't happen, we have other reserves, bigger reserves. The grace of God, the Word of God, praise, repentance, prayer, seeing the big picture, rejoicing in what the Lord is teaching us. And it is a powerful force for reality in our lives. What about when you have an idea and it doesn't catch hold? Someone else comes along later with the same idea and the whole group catches it. Have you had that experience yet? Maybe you haven't been around long enough. What about when you loan something out and it comes back broken or destroyed? Is that your favorite thing? Loaning things out. Is that the big thing in this culture, in this generation? I remember a dear brother from STL borrowed our lawnmower. I warned him. I said, look, this is a little weak little lawnmower just like me. If you try to take this out to some jungle and try to cut it down, it's not going to happen. Anyway, he took it out to the jungle and he managed to break it. I forget what I said to him. I hope it was sanctified. But he did buy us a new lawnmower. If we're going to have any kind of community left as we press on in OM, then we have to take the negatives with the positives. There are negatives in attempting to live together even in a very, very modified community that we have in ICT. We all mainly live in our own houses. We're not a ship. Most of us do actually have our own lawnmowers and we have our own cars. We are a very modified community. It's only our devotional times, our prayer times, an occasional social event, and our coming together spontaneously and our minds and hearts and to some degree still the way we handle certain things like finance. There is a modified element of community and we've got to be willing for the positives and the negatives. It always does look greener on the other side of the fence. When recruiting, we tend to paint our field or program a little better than it is. Be careful making promises you can't keep. If you do make a promise, make sure you write it down. Do you show an interest and love to a person because he can help with your program? Or do you show love and concern for a person because you love him and Christ is loving him through you? Our decisions are based on prejudice and generalizations. I just wanted to very quickly share a few other basic areas where I think we can expect testing. Before I do, let me read this quote from Hudson Taylor. He said, China will not be won for Christ by self-seeking, ease-loving men and women. Those not prepared for labor, denial, and many discouragements will be poor helpers in work. In short, the men and women we need are those who will put Jesus, China, souls first and foremost in everything. And at all times, life itself must be secondary. Their price is far above rubies. Powerful. Howard Guinness in his book Sacrifice says, How do we choose? How do we make decisions in life? What principles govern our actions? I think, for example, how we spend money. Most of us need to put into practice far more fully the principles of the cross which is one of daily death to self and self-gratification. How often we choose the easier of two paths and therefore sometimes we miss God's best for us. The harder path has the sharp pain of the cross in it but also the glory of Easter morning built into it as well. Hudson Taylor went on to say, There is a school of sorrow. There is a school of trial and persecution. And men who have not graduated in that school do not prove very good helpers for the church. I hope we incorporate that into O.M.'s training program as we go forward in a whole new generation. C.S. Lewis talks about testing. He talks about getting hurt. When he said this in his book, To risk being hurt is to be vulnerable. This is dynamite. To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything in your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries. Avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless and airless it will change. It will not be broken. It will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. The alternative to tragedy or at least the risk of tragedy is damnation. The only place outside of heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbations of love is hell. It's interesting how people love C.S. Lewis. I don't know if they love that particular quotation. If you and I are to become spiritually mature, we're going to be tested. Let's get ready for it. And I would ask you to pray for me because I feel so weak. I feel so untested in many ways when I see what God has allowed other brothers and sisters to go through, other Christian leaders to go through. When I read history, when I get prayer letters back from the field, and I don't know what the Lord is going to bring into my life, but I personally need these scriptures. I personally need this message. And perhaps some of you will have the opportunity down the road to say to me, Vera, do you remember what you preached on in November 1993? How are you doing in that message? Wow. I hope you have the courage to say that. I hope my wife has the courage. What are some of the tests that we can face whether we're living in a lovely home in Bromley or we're living out in a little tiny house among the slums of Bombay? And wherever we live, we've got to see God's providence. We've got to see that living the way we are living in Bromley, we are able to do far more to serve this whole body in the job God has given us than if we become some kind of ascetics all caught up with lifestyle trivia rather than committing ourselves to bloom where we are, to live within this society where we are living in a moderate way and simple in some areas as you're able. And that's why I believe O.M.'s message today is far more relevant, far sharper, and is, I believe, getting greater response than it was many years ago. At least I'm finding that in my own feeble ministry. What are some of those other tests? Misunderstandings? We have them every week on our team, every week, sometimes every day. Don't kick against them. Don't get angry with the people who caused it. Sort it out. Talk it out. And thank God for that little testing. And if you fail, well, that's part of the growing as well. Try not to fail next time. The test of criticism. I can't believe it that so many years later I'm still finding criticism difficult. I'm so ashamed that I'm not more just thick-skinned and more spiritual just to handle these critical letters I get every other day almost, some of them. Well, some of them are just about O.M., but I feel partly to blame. I had this devastating letter from a brother, ex-O.M.er in Germany, accusing me as a total traitor, total sell-out to everything all I've ever stood for. I love this brother. I work with him. I live with him. There are a group of people out there from the early days, not many of them, who are very, very narrow in their framework, and we haven't had the time to get to them. I believe if I could get to that brother and have a day or two with him, he'd understand we're not sold out to the principles of the Word of God. We may have thrown away a few of the O.M. twitches from the early days. I find these things difficult. Another one just came from Hong Kong just two days ago, moaning about this, moaning about that. I don't want to say this in reaction, but it does seem that often committed Christians, people who are committed relatively in certain areas, are often quite critical people and become busybodies and opinionated. One of the scariest things I had was a very mature, older Christian actually criticizing a brother for his testimony. Who can give a perfect testimony? People are frightened to death to give their testimony at all, because when they gave it, they got criticized. We need to be more affirmative to our young brothers and sisters if they give some cuckoo thing in their testimony and point out the good thing. And this older Christian was going on against this brother. And I don't know how I said it, but I said, I think really you're quite opinionated. Do you think that's a problem in your life? To my amazement, he acknowledged it was true. There is a danger when we read a lot and we talk a lot and we learn a lot, we think we know enough. I want to acknowledge I know very little compared to all that needs to be known about almost every subject. I hope I know a little more about the Word of God, but speaking generally, I'm just amazed at what I don't know. And I want to do better research in the future before I open my fat mouth on issues, on the team, in my preaching. And of course, this is why I'm frightened about this 82,000 chairmanship track and other things that are coming my way.