In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of being peacemakers and being ready to evangelize to those who do not know Christ. The speaker highlights the need to deal with sin in our own lives and confess and repent when necessary. The speaker also discusses the importance of addressing sin in someone else's life directly, rather than gossiping or spreading rumors. The sermon emphasizes the value that God places on each individual and the need to reach out to those who are lost or in desperate need.

They ask him, who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? Now, fortunately, we're not as carnal as the disciples. I'm sure that in none of our minds, since we've come to this conference, has there been any comparison whatsoever of ourselves with anybody else. Isn't that right? That's the farthest thing from any of our minds. Well, I know very often, I can think back to the first OM conference I came to, and as I looked around at other people, I didn't know very many there. And I can remember thinking to myself, boy, it seems to me, I don't know what terms I put it in, but I'm a little bit better than those people over there, and, well, I'm not, I don't think I'm quite as good as those people over there. And whenever you come into the group, the temptation is to try to find your place. Where do you fit in the group? And so the problem the disciples had of looking for who was the greatest is a continuing human problem. And Jesus called a little child to him to answer the question. He didn't answer it directly, but he said, I tell you the truth, unless you change, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself, like this child, is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Now, like all of the basic qualities in the kingdom of God, all the basic values are totally opposite to the way the world operates and thinks. And here's a prime example. Whoever is the greatest must humble himself like this child. And the one who humbles himself like a child becomes the greatest in God's kingdom. Now, how is a little child humble? I'm just thinking on this today. You remember last night when I stepped up here to the microphone to welcome everyone, my little son Peter, three years old, was sitting over here on the side. You remember he said, Hi, Dad. And everybody laughed. Now, I'm sure that my 12-year-old daughter would not have done that. But little three-year-old Peter is young enough to not really care what other people think. He is just himself. The older you get, the less yourself you become, because you become conscious of what other people are thinking. And so the tendency is to put on layer after layer of coverings to try to make yourself what you think other people want you to be. But a little child is not without sin. Doesn't take long to find that out. Mothers and fathers find out the sin nature quite early in their children. Not without sin, but they're humble. They say what they think. They are themselves. And for us to become great in the kingdom of God, we must humble ourselves. Humility is the first basic principle of becoming a peacemaker. It's right at the very foundation. Now, how do you humble yourself? Well, I'm sure there are different ways to do it. But one of the best ways that I know to humble yourself is to admit you're wrong. Now, we've got people here tonight who speak many different languages. We've got the group of Spanish speakers from Mexico in the back. Translation is going on for them over there. We may have one or two who only speak French here. And I'm sure if we took a poll of all the languages that were spoken here, we have a girl from Korea and one from Singapore, a couple of Indians and several others, we'd probably get to 30, 25, 30 different languages spoken here tonight. I know the hardest words in the English language to say, and I think it's true in other languages as well, are the just three words. I was wrong. Very difficult to say. Not hard to pronounce, but very difficult to say. I was wrong. Please forgive me. I was wrong when I said that. I wasn't wrong in what I said maybe, but in the way I said it, I was wrong. And I hope that even this far into this conference, that you're learning to say that you're wrong when you're wrong. Learning to admit it. You know, many people are afraid to do that. They think, what will others think of me if I admit I'm wrong when I'm wrong? But I want to tell you something. Other people already know you're wrong. And if you pretend you're not wrong when you're wrong, then other people lose confidence in you. But when you admit you're wrong, others' confidence in you increases, because they see you're being honest. And when you admit you're wrong and you ask forgiveness for being wrong, you become a peacemaker. The first way to be a peacemaker is not to go out and to get a peace treaty between Argentina and Britain. Not many of us are being called on to do that, and nobody has succeeded in doing that, although the great world peacemakers have tried. But the first step to being a peacemaker is to admit when you're wrong, to allow humility to grow. You know, if you scratch down deep enough in any problem between two people, you will find that one of the root causes of that problem is pride. And God is at work to tear down pride in each one of our lives. Of course, there is a positive kind of pride, a confidence in the way that God has made us and how he has made us, giving glory to him, a positive kind of pride. But this kind of pride that covers over, that tries to pretend to be something else than what we are, is destructive. And it is ripping the Church of Jesus Christ apart, many local congregations across the world. The first quality, foundational quality of being a peacemaker is humility. The second one we find in verse 6. But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea. Woe to the world! Because of the things that cause people to sin, such things must come. But woe to the man through whom they come. If your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It's better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and to be thrown into eternal fire. If your eye causes you to sin, gorge it out and throw it away. It's better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell. Now I have to admit there are things in that passage that I certainly don't fully understand. But I believe that there is a basic principle that is being expounded by Jesus in this passage that we must deal with sin in our lives. We have a responsibility to deal with sin in our own lives. Now that's right next to humility, because humility is at least in part the willingness to admit when we're wrong and to repent of that wrong and to make it right. And in this passage, we're told that we have a responsibility not just to ourselves, not just to God, but as peacemakers going across the world. We are examples of the gospel that others will follow, little ones physically, little ones spiritually, those that are just born into the kingdom of God. We have a responsibility as we stand before them, as we go out to share the gospel with them. And we have a responsibility to deal decisively with sin in our own lives if we allow it to remain in our own lives. We disqualify ourselves from being peacemakers, and we do damage to the gospel of the kingdom. You see, the message of the gospel is not just a verbal one that we speak with our mouths. It's one that is spoken through a person who lives out the truth of the gospel, not perfectly. But truly and genuinely. You move down with me to verse 10. We come to the next important insight into being a peacemaker. Here we have the parable of the lost sheep. We read in verse 12, If a man owns a hundred sheep and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go and look for the one that wandered off? And if he finds it, I tell you the truth, he is happier about that one sheep than about ninety-nine that did not wander off. In the same way, your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should be lost. What's that parable all about? Sheep? No, it's a picture of people. And it tells us that the value of the individual, the value of each human being on the face of this earth before God is inestimable. God hates injustice. God hates oppression. God hates exploitation. Because when those things happen, when there is injustice, individual men and women made in the image of God are subjected to treatment which is less than what that dignity of being created in God's image is all about. And you know, right at the base of our motivation to go and to share the gospel is the fact that men cannot be fully human. They cannot be fully as God intended them to be until they have peace with God, until they are in right relationship with Him. And where we see injustice in the world, of course the greatest injustice on the face of the earth is the injustice of the slavery of sin. But where we see economic injustice and slavery and abuse and other things happening, our hearts should pound and cry out and we should say these things should not be because our heart, our mind is remade by the Spirit of God and we see the value of each individual. And this parable teaches us that God places a special value on the one that is lost, on the one that is out of fellowship with Him, on the one that is in jeopardy and in danger. And there are times when we have to turn away from our team and our safe and comfortable fellowship and go out to the person in desperate need. There are emergency situations when we need, if we are peacemakers, to be ready to move and be available in evangelism to those that do not know Christ, the lost ones, in the eternal sense and also to those that are out of fellowship and in desperate need in their own lives. Well, if you skip down with me now to verse 15, we come to the fourth foundation of being peacemakers. We looked in verse 6 at what to do with sin in our own lives. Deal with it. Confess it. Make restitution. Repent. Make it right. We see in verse 15 what to do when you see sin in somebody else's life. Look carefully at verse 15. I'm reading from the New International Version. See what your version reads. If your brother sins against you, go and tell somebody else. Is that what your Bible says? I think I misread here. That's what usually happens, isn't it? You know, if you see somebody sin, you go and you tell somebody else. You know what I just saw this person do? And very soon it goes around, all around the neighborhood, all around the church. But Jesus says, if your brother sins, and some of the manuscripts say just sins, stops there. Others say sins against you. If you see someone sin, if you see someone sin against you, take it either way. Go and show him his fault. Just between the two of you. Other translations say in private. Now, how can you do that? What kind of attitude should you have when you go? Well, we go right back to the first principle. In an attitude of humility. If you go and you say, you wretched sinner, how could you possibly ever have done such a stupid thing as that? There won't be much peace that will come about. Why do you go? You go to bring about reconciliation. You go with a heart burden for that person. If he has sinned against you, you go having already forgiven him. But you go that his fellowship with you and with God might be restored. I wonder how many of the problems that are being faced in local churches across this nation and around the world would be avoided if we followed the simple command of Jesus. If we saw someone who sinned, we would go to him. And in humility, desiring to see reconciliation, we spoke to him. In private. Not in front of others to embarrass him. But we spoke in private. And we urged him to repent and to be reconciled with us and with others that he might have been out of fellowship with. I think the actual meaning of this verse does not just imply that we should go once, but that we should go even again and again. There might be a period of preparation, of prayer, even fasting, before we go. But taking responsibility. If we see someone sin, we have a responsibility to do something about it. We shouldn't go immediately to the leader, to the pastor, to the elder and say, you know what this person has done? We personally should go to the person. And in love and humility, present him with what we've seen. Now, I found that when you go, very often it's best to ask questions rather than to make any kind of accusation. Because you may not have seen the whole picture. And I found that many times the best thing to do is to go and say, you know, I wonder if you could just explain to me something. The other night I happened to be at the same place you were and I saw this happen and I don't really understand what was happening. Would you be willing to just explain to me what happened? Rather than accusing, because you may not have all the facts, but to go in humility, desiring truth and reconciliation. And of course we're given the pattern. If there is no response, after we have prayed and after we have gone and maybe after we have gone several times over a period of time, especially if it is a serious sin, you know, the immediate reaction when someone comes to us, if we're involved in sin, the immediate natural reaction is to get our backs stiffed and to reject the person and to not listen and not be willing to talk to him. And if we realize that that's the natural reaction, we'll be ready for it and won't feel rejected if the person isn't ready to receive us the first time, but ready to go again and even again. But if there's no response at all, Jesus gives us the second step, verse 16. If he will not listen, take one or two others along so that every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses. And again, what is the purpose of this? Is it to embarrass the person? Bring two or three more so they might really shame him? Not at all. The purpose is reconciliation. The purpose of any godly discipline is to bring about life and usefulness, restoration. Very often we have in our minds that discipline is a very negative thing. It's destructive, but not godly discipline, not biblical discipline. The purpose of discipline is to produce usefulness. Peacemakers are useful people, people that are needed in this world that is torn apart. And then in verse 17, if he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector, the extreme case of kind of excommunication because of a hardened heart. But even then, the desire should be, if the person totally hardens his heart, the desire should be to see restoration and to continue praying and continue believing and continue to react in a way that would show love to this person. Because the scripture makes it clear that not only should we love those that love us, but we should love our enemies. And even in the extreme of this last condition, you could say that the person was an enemy, but we are still to love because the very trademark of the peacemaker is the way of love. Well, we see in verse 19 the power of agreement, and this is the fifth foundation of being a peacemaker, that we see in this passage, the power of agreement, verse 19. Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them. There is power in agreement. When there is peace, peace is active, it's not passive. Where there is peace, where there is harmony, where there is unity, Psalm 133 says how good and how precious it is when brethren dwell together in unity. Throughout those early chapters of the book of Acts, we see the power that was unleashed when there was unity, when they were of one accord, one heart, one mind, the spiritual power that was released. And we see here when two of you agree on earth about anything. And that agreement isn't just when we come up and we say, you know, let's pray that I get the money I need to go to Europe this summer. Will you agree with me on that? Yes, I'll agree with you on that. It's not just that. It is that. But it is the deeper agreement of life of people who are in fellowship with one another, who are dealing decisively with sin in their life, who have God's viewpoint of the value of each individual, who are living in humility, who are living in obedience when they see sin in the life of another, and who are not afraid to go and obey the Lord and to go and to speak, even though it might mean rejection and embarrassment and awkwardness from that person. People who are living in that kind of agreement, praying together, see God answer prayer and see dramatic things happen in answer to prayer. And I pray that on the teams that you go out on this summer, there might be agreement, deep, living agreement, that you might be moving all together in one direction, one heart, one mind. And when you pray, you'll see things happen because God has given His promise that where there is agreement, He answers. Whatever they ask, it shall be done. And we need that kind of praying this summer, and we need that kind of oneness if the task that we have in the countries that we're going to, in Ireland, England, among Islamic immigrants and Asians, and among Turks in Germany, and in France and Belgium and Italy and Spain and Austria and Turkey and Mexico and Quebec, if the objectives that we have are going to be accomplished this summer and eternal fruit is going to remain, it's going to take this kind of agreement. We see the last principle in verse 21, the sixth principle of being peacemakers. And it is the principle of forgiveness. And in many ways, although it's last, it's so vitally important. And the picture we get is Peter coming to Jesus. And we're not told exactly what had happened before Peter came to Jesus, but perhaps we can use a little sanctified imagination. Perhaps Peter and John were out preaching in the villages. And you know the kind of impetuous person Peter was. And often, I can just imagine, as he got carried away in preaching, he may have said some things that were not said in quite the best way, the most loving way. He may have ruffled some feathers that didn't need to be ruffled. And maybe some of the persecution that was suffered from time to time was not just because of the message, but the way the message was given. John was a bit more sensitive and perhaps John tried to come to Peter one day and gently say to Peter, You know, Brother Peter, it would be good if you just tried to be a little more careful in what you said and stick to the facts a little bit more. Try not to offend people for unnecessary things. Maybe Peter's response to that was, Who is John to talk to me about this? He has so many problems in his own life. And instead of listening to what John was saying to him and saying, Is there really something to this? He immediately gets defensive and starts accusing John. So John backs off. And maybe Peter remembers that Jesus taught that he should forgive. So he says, Well, I'll forgive John this time. But a few days later, John comes to him again and John is getting a little more irritated because Peter's not responsive. And the same things are happening over again. And Peter blows up this time and accuses John again. And then Peter thinks, Again, no. You know, the Lord told us we should forgive and I'm going to forgive John. Again, not thinking, Is there something I need to change in my life? Then a few days later, the same thing happens. And this is too much for Peter. He forgave once, twice. This is too much. He goes immediately to Jesus. That's where we come in verse 21. Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? And you can almost see Peter standing there and he asked Jesus the question. And then, like us so many times, he doesn't wait for the answer. He just gives the answer himself. Up to seven times. Now remember, he was having trouble forgiving the third time. But he wanted to make it sound good to the Lord. And you can see Peter standing there waiting for the Lord to commend him. You're my best disciple, Peter. You're really understanding what I'm trying to teach you. But that isn't what Jesus said. He said, no, not seven times, Peter, but 70 times seven. Now, anyone with a pocket calculator in your pocket? How many times is 70 times seven? 490. Now, what does that mean? Should we all have a little notebook? And in the notebook, we have a page for everybody we know. One page for everybody in our family. Husbands would have two or three pages for their wives. Wives would have six or eight for their husbands. One page for a pastor. One page for everybody here in our dormitory, especially those sleeping near us. And every time somebody offends us, we quickly look in the index, find their name, turn to the page, and write it down. Offense. Write it out. Put the date. Stamp it. Every time somebody offended us, we'd put it in the book, keep it here, and then when we got to 488 times, 489 times, 490 times, close the book, put it down, and say, I'm not going to forgive you anymore. You've offended me too much. I was really patient for those 490 times, but I fulfilled the law, and I'm not going to forgive you anymore. Is that what Jesus is teaching here? Of course not. He was teaching that we should forgive and forgive and forgive and forgive and forgive and forgive and forgive and forgive and forgive and forgive and forgive and forgive without any limit. Because that's the way we have been forgiven. Jesus didn't say, I'll forgive 50% of your sin, but this other 50%, you hurt me too much. I can't forgive that. He didn't say, I'll forgive 95% of your sin, but this 5% here, you really, you know, you don't know what that costs me. I can't forgive that. I'll forgive most of it, but not that. He has forgiven all of our sin. And just to make it crystal clear, Jesus tells this parable, you know it, about the king, who was settling accounts, and then the man came before him, and he owed him a fortune. And the king was about to throw him into prison, and the man said, please, and he got down on his knees, and he pled before the king, please give me a little more time. I'll pay you back, but I need some time. And the king said, he was moved. Scripture said he was moved with compassion, and he forgave. He tore up the debt. And that same man, who had been forgiven a fortune, went out in the market, and he found a man who owed him, maybe a few hundred dollars. Now, a few hundred dollars is not nothing. And there are quite a few of us here tonight, who would be very happy, if we had a few hundred dollars in our pocket. But a few hundred dollars, compared to a fortune, is very, very little. And I would be glad, to somehow scrape together, a few hundred dollars tonight, if some of you want to trade with me a fortune, for my few hundred dollars. And this man, who had been forgiven a fortune, went out and grabbed the man, who owed him a few hundred dollars. And he said, pay me, or I'll throw you into prison. The man pled with him, but he threw him into prison. And the king heard about it, and we read in verse 32, the master called that servant, whom he'd forgiven a fortune, and he said, you wicked servant! I canceled all that debt of yours, because you begged me to. Shouldn't you have had mercy, on your fellow servant, just as I have had on you? In anger, his master turned him over to the jailers, until he should pay back all that he owed. You wicked servant! Unforgiveness, bitterness, resentment, is wickedness. It's just as wicked as murder. It's just as wicked as immorality. It's just as wicked as practicing homosexuality. It's just as wicked as any sin that you can name. It is wickedness. And it is ripping apart families. It is ripping apart individuals. It's ripping apart churches. I remember when we went with the Logos, to a port in northern Spain. And in that port city, there was a church that 20 years before, someone had gotten upset with somebody else in the church. I don't think it was over a doctrinal matter. But, some people in the church got on this side, and they said, this man is right. Others got on this side, and they said, no, this man is right. That church did not split into two churches. It remained together somehow, but half the church, for almost 20 years, would not speak to the other half of the church. And that spread through that whole province of Spain. And there were other churches in the same fellowship, and some of them said, that man is right. They got on that side. And others said, no, this man is right. They got on this side. And those churches in that fellowship did not communicate with one another for almost 20 years. And in that province of Spain, as in all Spain, there are more Jehovah's Witnesses than there are Evangelical Christians. You can imagine the impact upon the unbelieving community. The power of the gospel in the lives of these people who were not speaking to each other for almost 20 years. And when we were there, I remember in a pastor's conference, ministering on the subject of forgiveness. And one of the leaders of that church came up to me afterwards, and he said, you know, just recently, we have begun to communicate with one another. We've begun to ask each other's forgiveness. And the healing process is beginning after 20 years. I wonder how many of the young people of that church rejected the faith of Jesus Christ. How much damage was done. You know, the church of Jesus Christ is like a mighty river dammed up behind a gigantic dam with turbines to produce electricity. The power to finish the job that Jesus Christ has given the church. And yet, it's just like going to one of these great reservoirs and with the water dammed up in back of the dam, just having like a bathtub plug and pulling it out of the reservoir and having all that water be lost and diverted away from going through to turn the turbines to produce the energy and the power. The energy of the church of Jesus Christ has been given by the Spirit of God to accomplish the task of reaching the world for Christ and bringing blessing to all mankind. And yet, so often, that energy through bitterness and resentment and unforgiveness is drained away. That strength that God gives the church to do the job is wasted away by God's people in resentment and bitterness and fighting with one another. I wonder tonight, as you think of your own life, how are your relationships? How are your relationships, young people, with those back home? With father, with mother, with relatives, with people who used to be your friends? Have you forgiven? You have been forgiven. I have been forgiven. Are you holding back that gift of forgiveness to others? When we forgive, it's a miracle. Let us just pray together. Father, we thank you for your gift of forgiveness to us. Just in this moment of silence, we would pray and forgive those that have hurt us and injured us. In the name of Jesus, we forgive them and we receive your forgiveness. In Jesus' name. At this time, we're supposed to be getting a telephone call from England, from Peter Maiden, but we've also heard that we're getting a telephone call from Germany, from Dale Roton. Dale Roton was the brother, together with one other and myself, that launched out to Mexico just 25 years ago this summer, and one of the greatest, certainly, inspirations in my life has been the constant encouragement and challenge from Dale to press on in the battle. Dale has been in many, many different situations. You know, pioneering the work in Turkey, and then pioneering the work in some of the communist lands, then very much involved in the work in general, a little time back in the States, and then he was leading the ship Dulles for a couple of years, and now he's settled for a while in Germany. Now, while we're waiting for these phone calls, I think a number more ex-OMers have arrived during the meeting, or OM graduates, people that have once been on Operation Mobilization, and we would like you all, some of you stood up down in the cafeteria, the food pavilion, and book pavilion, but we'd like all of you ex-OM people, you've served on OM one time or the other, to stand up again. I wonder if you'd be willing to do that, even if you're only for a short time, like one of our former ship captains, Captain Barrett. Welcome. Let's remain standing. We'd like you to remain standing and just tell us when you were on OM and what you're doing now, very briefly. We'll start over here with our captain friend, and then, good, insurance. Okay, you can sit down then. We'll try to go back there quickly. Paul was the director of the work in Iran. We praise God for them. Thanks for coming. Yeah, good and loud, huh? One second. Just all stand up there. Hello. Let's see if we're going to get you over the loudspeaker. Is this you, Peter? It's me. How are you doing? Where are you calling from? I'm calling from my bed in Carlisle, England. Can you hear us? Okay, we can hear you. We appreciate very much your taking time to phone. We realize now that it's about two in the morning, isn't it? No, no, no. It's only quarter to one. Only quarter to one, huh? Peter, how many recruits do you have so far for the summer crusade in Europe from the British Isles? Well, it's just gone over the 200 mark. We would expect it to reach about 450 this year. Well, we want to pray for each one of them. I wonder if you could give us just a couple of prayer requests about the June crusade or the summer crusade that we could be praying for, especially tomorrow night in our night of prayer and even tonight. Well, I think the main prayer request at present is for travel. I'm going to Manchester in about four hours' time, four or five hours' time, and we're working on the final travel arrangement for the British people for the June crusade, and I know the same thing's going on all over Europe, and we're just praying now for safety in travel and that everyone will arrive fit and well for the crusade. And then I think over in Belgium, Kees Roosies, who is, of course, coordinating the conference, and Nigel Lee are really feeling a fair bit of pressure these last few days for the first of the three summer conferences this year, and they'd appreciate prayer. Good. Could you give us a prayer request about Southern Ireland? Some here are very interested in Southern Ireland. Hello? Hello? Yeah, we're here. I couldn't hear you. Oh. Can you give us a prayer request for Southern Ireland? Yes. We just had the news that one couple that we've been praying for for about nine months, they just happened to be baptized. The couple are called Dennis and Angela. I think we lost it. Hello? I don't know if you're going to try to get them back, or we should just leave it there because of the time that's involved. We would like to just quickly get those people back up on their feet again. They all collapsed by the wayside. We're going to ask you just to give us your name now because we've run out of time. We'd like to at least know your names. Bob and Joanne Barrett. Probably more Summer Crusades than any people I know. Yes. Annie, I got that much. Crystal Harden. Up here in the front. Teddy Stevenson, one of our former secretaries in many other things. David Levitt. Good. Praying to go back to India. Soon, we hope. Carol and Nancy Engel now on the board of directors. Bob Billings. I'm making phone calls all over the world. I used to live in Nepal, and I used to have to speak so loud from Nepal talking to Bombay that I was sure they were hearing my voice rather than the telephone connection. The people in the house at least trying to sleep felt that way about it. Again, I would like to express our appreciation for each one of you has taken the time to come and be with us during this anniversary celebration. Our goal is really just to give thanks to God for his mercy toward us and his overwhelming grace toward us over these past 25 years. I'd like you to turn now with me in your Bible to 2 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians chapter 12. We do hope many of you will come back if you can tomorrow night. We're going to have a very short message, just one message, and then have a wonderful time of prayer. You can stay as long as you want hearing from different countries. Tomorrow at noontime we have a pastor's luncheon. If your pastor is not coming, if he lives within range, why not challenge him to come? You can always put an extra plate out for lunch. And then we're having some mission leaders from a number of different mission societies come and be with us in the afternoon. So tomorrow is going to be our most intensive day. I felt today was intensive enough, actually. So I don't know what will happen tomorrow. 2 Corinthians chapter 12 where Paul speaks about this messenger of Satan to buffet me. Verse 7, lest I should be exalted above measure. Verse 8, for this thing I besought the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, reproaches, necessities, persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake, for when I am weak then I am strong. Failure is the back door often to success. I have another title for this message which perhaps may be a mixture of a number of messages called the Confessions of a Weak Missionary or Missionary. I think there's always a danger when we come into OM and we hear maybe just one message. We may hear a strong message on dedication, commitment, world evangelism. We may hear a strong message on forsaking all. We may hear various people testify about answers to prayer, about great things taking place in various countries. And it's all good, but it's also good to keep it in perspective. And I believe these 25 years have been years of much failure. Much failure. I believe these have been years in which we've had to at times very honestly confess sin and failure, wrong attitudes, spiritual pride, judgmentalism, you name it. And probably at one time or other it has crept in to this army of committed people as they moved out across the world to tell men and women of Jesus Christ. As I shared a few days ago, about 23,000 have received some training in this training program. Some of them for several years. The average Indian stays four years in Operation Mobilization before he graduates. That would be apart from those who may just come like for a weekend or a few months. And it's been exciting to go out to India again a few months ago to meet with 50 of the leaders of the work there, a work at that time about 450 strong. We're trying to cut the numbers down a little bit. It was just a great inspiration and challenge. Peter Maiden, who just spoke on the phone with us, was with me. And we met day after day planning, praying, wrestling with God, sometimes disagreeing to see what God's strategy was for India. I believe all the effort we have made in England in laying a foundation, the place that sends the most people into O.M., all the effort we've made here in Canada and the States, all the effort we've made in Scandinavia, a place like Sweden, O.M. would be about ten times more known than the United States. Of course, it's a lot easier. It's a very small country. But I think all the effort, all the prayers, it would be worth it if all we had in O.M. was O.M. India. When I start adding the Muslim world on top of that, as you'll be seeing tonight in the ships and in O.M. Europe, the long term, the short term, the literature ministry, now the fastest, one of the fastest growing ministries in O.M., the ministry of films, the music ministry, the pastors' conferences, and 15 other ministries based on the two ships. Well, I do still, I must confess, get excited at the possibilities. And I want to thank at this time those of you who work in the New Jersey office and the Canadian office, those of you who come in as volunteers to those two offices that help keep this thing going. Because we don't have enough manpower, I can tell you, when we consider what we have to do every day of the week. Yes, an O.M. failure has often proven to be the backdoor to success. I shared already the other evening that big failure when I launched into the Soviet Union and everything went wrong and I was arrested by the secret police and accused of being a spy. And yet came back from that, went together with Roger Malsted into a day of prayer in the mountains of Germany, and it was there, actually praying and waiting upon God that the name Operation Mobilization came into being. And the vision, as it was more well known after that. There are many other failures I could talk about. And I think one of the greatest principles in the Word of God is the principle of God's sovereignty. God's sovereignty. God's ability to overrule man's folly. I have seen 27 years since my conversion of the folly of man. There is no church absent from it. There is no denomination. There is no stream that can say they are absent from folly. That their group is the final arrival point and they don't make any mistakes, and they've got all the sound doctrine, and they've got all the answers. Some of us believed that when we graduated from Bible college. We learned the hard way. Some of us had to learn through our European brothers and sisters who didn't always accept what we thought was Bible doctrine and they felt was just more Americanisms and didn't want it pushed down their throat by the likes of us. We learned there was such a thing as committed, consecrated, spirit controlled, and we were born again Anglicans, some of the finest Christians I have ever met. Sometimes in OM we have tried to put God into a box and we've ended up in the box ourselves with God on the outside. I thought I should make this perhaps a little more personal tonight because I don't want this to be an indictment on OM. I couldn't choose to work with a more loyal and committed and loving group of people. I really mean that. But I thought I should make this a little more personal and share or perhaps confess some of my own struggles, some of my own battles, some of my own failures. I think this is important to do because I think at times we get rather high ideas of the people who lead the fellowships that we belong to and a high percentage of you are joining OM. And I think also sometimes if I don't share this kind of message at least once during a week and it has to be kept in context with the other messages, it can give a wrong impression and instead of people being encouraged they get discouraged. I don't know if you've ever read a really great missionary book and come away discouraged realizing how God can mightily use them but can he ever use me? Or maybe you've heard a great missionary speaker or any other kind of speaker and you've heard of miracles and of wonderful things and of answers to prayer but ultimately it didn't really change you because you never got to the place where you realized God could use you because you felt you had this problem and that problem. You weren't able to cope with communication even in your home much less communicating to Pygmies or to Arabs or to Jews or to Chinese or to Russians or whoever. One of the reasons many people never go to the mission field is they have a wrong idea of what it's all about and they have a wrong idea of the kind of people that are needed or can be used. I feel very strongly about that and we really still live in the day when missionaries are painted as little heroes. The ones we read about. We don't write books about the missionaries that fail. We write books generally about the missionaries that are successful and the tribes that come to Christ and the headhunters that give up head hunting for heart hunting. Hallelujah! But there's many a tribe that doesn't respond. There's many a missionary that does fail. For some the failure is a backdoor to success. They may even return to the United States and be used in a mighty way here. Praise God! Let me list some of the areas of struggle I've found in my own life. Most of these 25 years I've been overseas living in various countries. But I've been fortunate to be able because of these conferences to visit the United States almost every year and to be able to make some interesting studies and comparisons. I don't want to get into that too much tonight. But I hope somehow some of you perhaps especially after the message this morning feel that you're a real failure or a real struggler. Maybe you found this conference somewhat hard. Maybe you feel as you've been here these few days wow, 6.15 in the morning to 10 o'clock at night not too much time to gather it all together and to rest and to relax. Maybe you found other things difficult sleeping in a dormitory with 50 other women. We're so used to such beautiful accommodation in this country. The homes are unbelievable. When I went jogging this morning street a few blocks from my parents' home which is quite a humble little house I jogged past homes. I can't believe that people live in these places. I have really a deep struggle. The average price a quarter of a million dollars. I've jogged down the streets in Bangladesh. I've jogged down the streets of Calcutta. I've jogged down the streets of probably a hundred different cities. I know of nowhere in the world apart from the very high super elite who are generally hated by the people and the people are planning to kill them off as soon as possible. I hardly know in many countries not all I know of nowhere in the world where people live so lavishly as this nation. I believe with all my heart just in case some of you think that I have changed my message that the day of judgment is going to come for the way we have so wasted the resources of God. I know all the arguments I've read so many arguments and articles defending our lavish lifestyle and don't misunderstand me I don't believe we should all live the same. I don't believe for a moment that it's wrong for someone to have a decent accommodation to live in. No. I visited some very interesting accommodations today. Little condominiums they're much cheaper only $150,000. Right over where I used to have my day camp behind Spring Lake they put up some condominiums and the thing looks like a bit of a flop because some of them are sinking into the ground and people have asked to move out. Well I won't get into that discussion. I will tell you if all of us could quickly be transferred tonight immediately to the streets of Calcutta even for a few hours I don't believe we'd ever be the same without really resisting strongly resisting the Holy Spirit. Well I think you sense when you hear me speak this way that my burden to see the curse of materialism broken upon God's people is still there. But in the midst of my intensity and my commitment and my love for the lost and my desire to identify with the poor and to reach the poor with the gospel and with physical help whenever possible. I've made a lot of mistakes and I've had a lot of struggles. And tonight I'll just share a few of those as confessions of a weak missionary or a weak Christian leader. I think my greatest struggle I'll list this as number one and I know some of you will identify with this has been with my tongue and with my temper. Supposedly you inherit this. I think it comes actually from the fall about, well, many thousands and thousands of years ago. Patience. God had to show me it was more in the Bible than the subject of evangelism. Did you know that? Patience. I did a word study on it in the early days in Mexico when I offended one Mexican after another with my quick tongue. See, I have this trouble that my tongue goes faster than my brain goes faster I haven't got that high of an IQ I'm not sure that would be the total answer because some very intelligent people have some very big mouths but all the trouble we can get into with our tongue with our closest friends I think I already read that quotation to you of A.W. Tozer a man so mightily used of God I'll read it again briefly I have seldom been called a coward even by my most cordial enemies but my want of moderation has sometimes caused grief to my dearest friends An extreme disposition is not easy to tame and the temptation to bring severe immoderate methods to the aid of the Lord is one not easily resisted The temptation is further strengthened by the knowledge that it is next to impossible to pin a preacher down and make him really eat his words There is a ministerial immunity accorded to a man of God which may lead to extravagant irresponsible language unless he uses heroic measures to bring his nature under the sway of the spirit of love This I have sometimes failed to do and owes to my own real sorrow I'm sure my problem was much greater than A.W. Tozer And if there's anyone here tonight that I have hurt with my tongue I beg you to forgive me If I knew it specifically I would go to you immediately I also have been baptized with a poor memory And if you have difficulty with your tongue young man young woman I pray that you may make that the greatest goal of this summer It's more important than evangelism It's more important than tract distribution It's more important than whether you get a world vision or not or whether you understand all 68 of the prayer cards Billy Graham says with our tongue we so easily smite people and hurt people I believe this has been a source of much grief to my fellow workers for 25 years They have been patient men I somehow learned a little about repenting and apologizing putting things right I certainly had to with my own wife who I hurt so many times probably with my tongue I lost count And I just say this If any of you have difficulty with your tongue difficulty in the area patience there's still hope there's still hope May we be delivered of false ideas of what missionaries are like If you think over in the middle of Calcutta a dedicated missionary he has difficulty in the traffic people cut him off and the last place sanctification seems to enter is behind the wheel of a car And when he has some trial or difficulty he just rolls down the window and says May the Lord bless you I will tell you I've heard some interesting language out of the mouths of missionaries And if we think the problem is just short term workers obviously we haven't fellowship with any of the long term ones We're all in the same boat in many ways And so often the last area that comes under the control of the Holy Ghost is the tongue Read the book of James One minute we bless God the next minute we curse our fellow men Or maybe we use the insinuation method which is even more deadly especially for the cynics Those are shows how the cynic is so often right and yet pitifully wrong because he has a wrong attitude Perhaps the second greatest area of struggle in my own life has been the area of fear Fear We give the idea that missionaries are sort of fearless people ready to take on entire hordes of giant cockroaches with a single thrust I will tell you many of the people at least in operation mobilization are afraid of insects We actually had a giant fly attack us in the prayer meeting this afternoon and I asked Clint Smith the director of A.M. Egypt to get this fly I thought he was going to break the window It took him over 15 swings to get one little fly Can you imagine in India when they come 50 at a time In Egypt they come off the pyramids like who knows what Missionaries are ordinary people often fearful people I decided I probably even have phobias That's really bad A phobia is supposed to go immediately to a psychiatrist I think most of the psychiatrists have phobias That's why a lot of them got into it What is a phobia? When do we cross the line from just a normal fear into a phobia? They say when you're regularly continually preoccupied about something Well when I fly in airplanes I have great difficulty getting my mind off anything At least when the plane is in trouble I've got a lot more victory now and I usually can read and dictate a lot of letters until they flash the seatbelt sign on Turbulence comes and of course I've had a few little emergencies like trying to take off from Oman in the middle of a desert and the man you know, just didn't have enough power like a lot of Christians so he blew out all the tires and skidded to the end of the runway and we sat in Oman for three days waiting for them to repair the tires Then you get back in the same plane on the same runway and you try again And we have this impression really that Christian leaders and missionaries they're this fearless group that just launch out in tremendous courage I will tell you a lot of missionary work is done in fear and trembling When bombs go off two blocks from where you're living people are killed and our workers are facing that in Lebanon right now Fear will enter the heart of the most consecrated the most spirit-filled person Great faith my friends is not made in the absence of doubt or fear or worry Great faith is made as we battle through And I don't see any end of the road until I'm with Jesus It's a battle to the finish I don't know Maybe I'm just not a missionary type Maybe I should have just stayed in America Where you don't have any fears Oh That's right You've acknowledged it It's not really where you are It's what you are And I don't believe young people you need a special call to go out to some of these countries any more than you need a call to remain in Manhattan Island or Hawthorne or Ridgewood You need guidance You need to find the will of God You need counsel But I don't think there's some special call that you need before you can cross the Atlantic Ocean I often see Americans over there on their holidays And sometimes I ask them Did you get a missionary call to come over here? Praise God for that word in Timothy that says Our Lord has not given us a spirit of fear but of love and of power and of a sound mind And I want to testify as a fearful person that at times has failed in this area and been trapped by worry or fear even to the point of trembling in tears Especially at times when I've worried about the ships That there is victory And part of a victory is to know that God accepts us even in that moment of weakness We give the idea that we only really get communion with God when we lay up here Sailing in victory and triumph Then we're really communing with the Lord And that's where He really loves us to be False When you fall flat on your face He is there There's communion in the desert as well as in the mountain Of course To obey God is wonderful And the results will be great And that's our goal Trust and obey There's no other way But God doesn't desert us when we fail God doesn't desert us in that moment of weakness When our legs are beginning to shake spiritually or physically He is omnipresent He indwells us He knows all about us A.W. Tozer said in one of his books He knows all about us And he loves us still That motivates me Then the third greatest struggle The hardest one to talk about We talked about it this morning a little bit From the Word of God Is the struggle with lust I know it's embarrassing for some people to speak about these things from the pulpit even though there are four hundred verses in the Bible and a lot of them are very blunt But a very high percentage of all the men I have ever counseled A very high percentage indeed and I've counseled a few thousands have shared that this was the real battle in their life Lust Especially Christian young people Their goals are so high I've known them want to commit suicide because they couldn't get a victory over lust I've known them believing they would never win a soul to Christ A young man years ago came to me who had committed incest sex within the family He thought God could never use him because this terrible sin And we saw from the Word of God Though your sins be as scarlet they shall be made as white as snow And he became a real disciple and follower of Jesus Christ For most of us as it's been in my life the battle is in the mind and in the eyes And we especially under the moment of temptation can try to justify it But as we've seen this morning and tapes are available on that subject As we've seen this morning the standard of the Lord Jesus is very high And I made that my standard 25 or so years ago to get victory over the lust of the mind whether it was pornography or whether it was some something I was conjuring up in my own thinking or whether it was looking at a sister in the wrong way or thinking something wrong I'd like to be able to say for 25 years it's been all victory But it's hard to live in the pornographic jungles of London where people just leave the pornography laying on the train tables Where I went out in the woods once for a time of prayer and there was a $10 pornographic magazine hanging in a tree on the path that I was walking on I'd like to be able to say to you it's always just been instant victory But it hasn't been And I've shared some of the lust that's gone through my mind with my co-leaders and I've offered my resignation Because if there was ever anybody inadequate and in a sense unworthy to lead such a fine group of young people as this I will tell you it's not me But you see there's where I almost made my mistake And there's where you may make your mistake Basically thinking that missionaries just don't have these problems They just don't sin in this way And a lot of young people think this way And that's why if they have a lust problem, and many of them do they cancel out the possibility of ever being a missionary And there's three tears in hell Because the devil is the accuser of the brethren I personally believe if we spoke more honestly about these issues and we faced one another more honestly as my leaders have faced me and as I have faced them and then we walked in the light we confessed our faults to one another as it says in the book of James and prayed for one another that we would be healed there would be greater victory and we would not enter into some of these scandalous things that so quickly come if we're not on our toes spiritually for God And I just want to challenge any of you who are having difficulty in this area to appropriate the grace of God to realize that God knows all about you and He loves you and that the Christian life is one great war of many battles and no one is winning them all no one I've never known a Christian leader who didn't have area of failures I've never read about one I've never known about one Dr. Schaffer has tried to emphasize this to the church I've never in his amazing book Ash Heath Lies in which he's pointed out that all Christian leaders have clay feet maybe some wear higher shoes and you can't see them of course some men do grow into much greater holiness I have met men and I've got to know their lives and I've seen a higher degree of holiness most of them were over 50 you see it's one thing to have a much holier life as you get older and older and more mature and you've been through many of the weirdest wildest unpredictable things of life we get young people coming into OM they want what Hudson Taylor and George Mueller had at the end of their life before they're 19 I was that way and then we get young sisters that come into work that try to be sort of a combination of CT stud and Hudson Taylor and George Mueller and Butt Singh and whoever it's very difficult for a girl I can assure you and one of the problems we've faced over the years in our feeble work is women unwilling to really accept themselves as women and they get caught up trying to be little men and it's really weird that doesn't mean it's weird for a sister to have some what some people would call masculine interest I'm not talking about that I've seen very very feminine women who who had some so called masculine interest whatever that means but I think there is a need to realize that God works through different people in different ways and generally the women's role is different in God's strategy than the man's and she must not live in a constant syndrome of inferiority or rejection about that but find the Lord's will for her life women also battle with lust so perhaps for women insecurity is a greater problem and I had a letter recently from an outstanding woman missionary her number one problem lust for other men and yet women being so sensitive so sensitive often when they have some difficulty number one they're afraid to talk about it number two if they have some area of failure they immediately feel they could not possibly be a candidate for God's great missionary program oh beloved when did you last read your old testament God uses people weak people feeble people then another great struggle in my life was the problem of extremes I spoke about spiritual balance last night so maybe I don't have to say much this evening but I found it so easy to go to extremes so easy perhaps I'm too emotional I don't know but when I see things and I see people suffer I tend to want to go to some extreme method to relieve that suffering even if it brings suffering to others in the process very hard to find the balance I couldn't understand as a young Christian once my heart was aflame and I seemed to understand something of the New Testament how people could spend money the way they were spending it and I became extreme and I wanted all the money to go to missions and all the money to go to the suffering and all the money to go for Bibles and New Testaments some of you know the story when I met my wife even before we hardly began to date I just laid the cards on the table I wasn't spending any money I probably would die being eaten by cannibals in some island in the Pacific I gave her seven negative things I said look if you still want to meet with me we'll study the book of Acts together and go door to door and see what God has in it my wife told me years later she was not in love with me at that point and I discovered the hard way as some of you have that extremes can really hurt people this is where I almost completely gave up the Christian faith and just went really berserk because you know we're all very complex on the one hand I was extreme on the other hand I was very sensitive and when I found out that I had hurt somebody I couldn't handle it and I would stay up nights I would go doing all kinds of things trying to find anybody that hurt maybe that's how my letter writing ministry developed writing people apologizing trying to put things right always thinking that if someone was mentally ill or had emotional problems in O.M. it was probably my fault then sometimes of course people would say you know your messages really upset people and I thought you know am I going crazy I remember a Bible school in England I thought the message was somewhat balanced all these girls it was a women's Bible school and then the word came back that 50% of the girls were not sleeping and on aspirins after my visit I thought Lauren I don't think I can ever preach again I must be you know I must be really hurting a lot of people and some of it's incredibly serious I was speaking on forsaking all visions obviously a woman with heavy emotional problems already I didn't know that heard this message it got twisted in her own mind she went home and took half her possessions and threw them in a canal that really wasn't the thrust of the forsaking all visions we can laugh now but I think you get the point God had to humble me I just thank him for the people that he raised up around me to exhort me and correct me and to listen to me and I say something maybe it shouldn't be said I go I have a hard time knowing what shouldn't be said but I think if I hadn't learned how to cry again I think I would have cracked up you know when I was a little boy around here I used to cry I remember once in the boy scouts I don't remember something happened and I cried and of course our culture tells us that crying is for sissies the last thing I wanted to be when I was a little whatever was a sissy and so if I was crying about something I hid and I was ashamed to cry now that kind of orientation we give in our little twisted culture has probably messed up more people than we'll ever know because if you have no way really of expressing your emotions not always but often it gets pushed down and there's a lot of little illnesses we can bring upon ourselves and it all just keeps getting pushed down especially a combination of bitterness and hurt somehow as a young Christian I learned how to cry again maybe I never maybe I never forgot but I learned how to cry again there's nothing wrong with tears the bible says Jesus wept many a time I've had to weep over my sins and my failures and other times I wept because I was hurt and that's I'm sure God accepts that as well and I just believe that some of us as Christians this summer are going to have to learn how to weep again you can't weep you can say Jesus I want to weep you know me you know my emotions Jonathan McCroskey always had difficulty crying he shared with me and this will make me cry because that's still a heavy emotional thing every time I phone him I cry every time I've only been in to him I cried almost the whole time I think if I hadn't done that I don't know what I would have done but Jonathan told me he's been crying all the time since the accident I don't mean all day but continually and he said the thing that gets him crying I've hardly ever seen Jonathan cry is the prayers of God's people the letters he's had from God's people the you know letters have come from all over the world and people that haven't written him in 15 years not a word to him in 15 years have written him and said we're praying and he just keeps breaking and he keeps crying I don't know whether there's going to be a leak there in the hospital but I think it's a beautiful thing I think it's a beautiful thing God taught me to repent and taught me to weep and deal with those extremes and not get too down on myself in the process have you ever got really down on yourself you felt you were really ugly wow I tell you all I have to do is listen to one of my old cassettes oh boy this thing is who is this man or my voice before I had surgery some of those tapes are really interesting I hope it's not as unpleasant to others as it is sometimes to myself and I've had to repent and realize that's probably another little bit of an emotional kink in my own mind the devil is the accuser of the brethren he wants to get us down on himself he wants you maybe your housewife to believe you're the worst housewife maybe your husband said something two years about you not being such a good housewife you always remember that oh the devil is very good at reminding you what your husband said three years ago or husband what your wife said she was in a moment of depression and you know you did something wrong and so she called you a scatterbrained son of a whatever she said and you remember that fifteen years later no wonder so many marriages come apart forgive and forget is one of the royal routes to a happy marriage of course we say silly things once in a while to each other I find that I'm a very moody person nothing to do with a moody bible institute it's one thing to be up here speaking to you sharing I may seem to be on top I may seem to be in the lord's mind and by his grace I am but it's far more difficult often after you get home from a fifteen hour day and face problems in the family and this thing's gone wrong we arrive home from this tremendous trip I forget where it was must have been ten twenty thousand miles very few problems very few problems praise the lord get to the house all I wanted to do was we have a little camper a little small camper has a little toilet in it all I wanted to do was empty this little toilet where are we going to empty it in England you can't go on the street you know so I took it into the house we only have one toilet in our house I carefully opened it pouring it into the toilet and the lid slipped and that lid was the exact size of our toilet here I was you know and we had a plumber in he couldn't fix it we called the emergency OM squad they completely smashed the toilet but everything is running all over the house it cost a lot of money which doesn't always warm my tight rod spiritual battery a whole new toilet I find that sometimes it's the smallest little things that can draw me right out of spirit controlled walk with Jesus sometimes after a day of handling criticisms problems heavy letters telexes phone calls some little thing going wrong some little word on the part of one of my family members or maybe something on the phone throws me right off then something less than what Jesus would have gets said well just quickly I could just mention that another one of my greatest struggles has been with discouragement I probably appear to some people as a great non-discourageable type I battle discouragement almost every day almost every day you see what people see is what takes place after the battle because as you grow in the Lord I believe the battles are shorter you know how to deal with the subtle lies of the enemy you've been down the stupid discouragement road why go down it again you've been down it why do you keep going down it again there's nothing there except maybe depression confusion a headache and somehow the struggle with discouragement is over the years got shorter and shorter but it's still there and it's intensive I've been ministering a lot on the subject of discouragement it's the most widely requested tape I think I've ever made a lot of people are wrestling with discouragement they don't seem to know how to handle it they don't understand it and depression which some cases is physical some cases is spiritual some cases is a combination it's certainly a complex thing and I again just believe that great Christian living comes not in the absence of discouragement it comes as we battle through as we go back to the cross as we go back to the cleansing blood of Christ as we allow that to cause us to grow into more mature followers of Jesus oh there's been other problems struggles with doubts a great Christian leader with intellectual doubts look you don't see what we see in the Muslim countries and the Hindu countries without asking questions you can't you don't want to stand in the streets of Istanbul and just glibly believe they're all going to hell let's write another prayer letter to tell the Lord's people about it let's take a picture of a minaret and make a recording there's agony when you stand in the streets of Calcutta and Bombay and India and you realize the majority are lost and you realize the way the church is going at it they never will be reached and then you begin to question you begin to doubt I know missionaries that went to India within a year were Hindus spiritual warfare is very intense in these areas of the world and again I was helped so often I've been helped in my life by women I'm indebted to at least 10 and I was helped by Eugenia Price in her little book No Easy End I can't tell you when I finally got a hold of that message I wanted to dance a jig on the pulpit we don't have to have answers to everything every theological question every little question about suffering every little question about church life and why he did this and why that happens we can learn to trust God not only at the moment of deliverance we can trust God at the moment when there is no deliverance as Job had to learn to do but I'm still in the race I would ask you to continue joining with us in the same race his grace is sufficient his strength is made perfect in weakness in weakness