In this sermon, the speaker focuses on the concept of unity within the body of Christ. He emphasizes the importance of each member of the body having the same care for one another and the need for unity among leaders. The speaker also addresses the issue of submission and freedom, highlighting the balance between the two. He mentions Satan's hatred for unity and the impact it can have on the effectiveness of the church. The sermon concludes with a personal anecdote about a negative experience within the OM movement, highlighting the importance of treating others with kindness and respect.

Psalm 105 says, O give thanks unto the Lord, call upon his name, make known his deeds among the peoples. Sing unto him, sing psalms unto him, talk ye of all his wondrous works. Glory ye in his holy name, let the heart of every joy so seek the Lord. Seek the Lord and his face, seek his face evermore. Remember his marvelous works that he hath done, his wonders and the judgments of his mouth. I think it's good to remember the works of the Lord. It's hard to believe that already we're on the 13th of January, 1981. Time goes by, every time I return to Johnston. And I remember when I first looked at the place before we owned it or even were here. I had some photos of Johnston standing in some of these absolutely barren areas. But every time I return here I see the growth, the physical improvements. For years when I lived here, one of my great prayers was that they would put the gate up. I used to live in fear that children would run out. That must have taken several years after I left before the gate got up. It was great to trudge down the road from the station last night. Of course we couldn't get in the gate. But we could get in the door thanks to Brother Klaus. There's a lot to thank the Lord for and I always have a struggle. I kind of wanted to share with you what God is doing through the work. I think that's important because it's your work. There's no way this work would go on without places like Zomitum. Take New Jersey, Zomitum, Manchester and Bromley away. There would be no work. There would be no teams. Of course, if we did it right now something would happen. They would realign themselves. A third of their men would come back and start building structure again. I am amazed at the many children and grandchildren OM has. Over 30 different organizations and movements that have been born through OM. I'm amazed at how some of them, when they left OM's fellowship for specific reasons, generally in a very, very good way simply because we just couldn't expand more in that area. I'm amazed at the amount of effort they've had to put into getting their structure, getting their bookkeeper, getting their office. It's been a challenge to me that in fact, generally speaking, larger fellowships are more efficient than smaller fellowships. A research in England that's just come out has often also proven this. And England is just overwhelmed with small organizations. Enormous amount of duplication. Incredible amount of structure. Some of them only have three people on a mission. And some of the top leaders in England are starting to think through this. Why is this? As this research has also shown, the number of British missionaries has again dropped. And that includes OEMers. And we're one of the larger mission groups as far as having people overseas. British people. We don't count non-British. I put that little brackets in the corner of this particular research. The number of British people on the field has dropped. The number of retired people has greatly increased. It's quite a significant expense. The number of office personnel, especially with many of these fellowships, are very, very small. So in my heart, though I long in some ways for OEM to be smaller, and always found OEM a lot easier when it was smaller, it does seem that we are at the size where we can be very, very efficient. That doesn't mean we always are. And I think we do have so much to thank the Lord for. We think of over 400 people right now involved in Love Maharashtra. Some of those teens distributed two months of literature in two weeks. There have been quite a few making professions of faith. And literally millions, millions. And when we say millions in OEM, for those of you who are new, we mean millions. We don't mean thousands and exaggerating. But millions of people are being reached in that effort. So that's a real item of praise. Another item of praise is that the Lord saw fit to bless Operation World. We were really going against the tide in Richmond, a place where the churches are very paralyzed, or very polarized. And where we came in with this interesting mixture of denominations and having both charismatic and non-charismatic people, which is a no-no in Richmond to a large degree. And a lot of people from Richmond did back off. In fact, there was little discouraging that the Richmond people didn't get more involved. Some did, and we believe it was a testimony for the Lord, and their mouths dropped as 1,000 people, a large percentage of them, came in from out of state and all over the country to Operation World. $10,000 worth of books were sold at Operation World. And the feedback I've had is that there was a real anointing upon George Lively and the other speakers, and I think only Eternity is going to tell the full story. Perhaps the most important announcement I can give is the fact that David Hicks will be remaining in the United States and is now the co-leader of the work in that country, working together with Paul Troper, similar to the way that Alfie and Ray worked together in Bombay. This has come after a long period of prayer, an evaluation of the work, a realization that there are over 300 Americans overseas. It's a huge Christmas effort, summer effort. Now Operation World just finished in Richmond, starting soon in Rochester, spreading to California. Full-time people like Billy Torres in Texas, Jack Goley in Florida, Harley Rollins in a rapidly growing operation in Georgia, and Paul Troper still sort of operating in New Jersey the way he was trying to operate 10 years ago. And we decided that one of the problems was not just giving him more people, new recruits to come in and help do the work, it was always a problem getting these, but to give him someone who has the kind of gifts that are needed to supplement his gifts and to try to put the USA working in a better situation. Also, we're moving offices to Clinton, where we have over 700 square feet of office space at a very good price. That's just a little ways down the road from Richmond. So pray. This is a decision that Paul Troper is very happy about. Talked to not only him, but talked to his wife. Pray now that we get other needed staff members for the USA, where things have tended to grow. An example is that we have these little cell groups in colleges all over the country, and they get almost no input from us whatsoever. Many of them collapse at the end of the year for somebody leaves, the leader leaves, and they collapse. And sometimes we don't even know them. There's just too much to handle there. And if Paul Troper travels, and often, which he wants to do and does, then oftentimes we find ourselves very, very short in New Jersey. So pray specifically for that. You know, we have so much to thank the Lord for in regard to the two ships. If our entire operation, as far as headquarters, if all we had were India, in comparison to almost all the other missions in the world, if all we had was India, we still would not have too many people in our offices just to handle that work in India. I'd say we'd have to cut down a little. I don't want to cut down a lot, but we'd cut down a little. If all we had were the two ships, just in terms of handling the gifts, just in terms of the new recruits, they need over almost 100 single women in October, on the Dulas alone. Just in terms of that, the little structure we have in Bradley and here would be more than justified. There are a number of major answers to prayer with a ship. Number one is finance. We had 100,000 Deutschmark gifts a couple of days ago. If you don't know exchange rates, that's over $51,000. We've also had another load of stocks dumped on us in the United States, over 1,000 shares of something, and we estimate it's worth between $30,000 and $50,000. Yesterday, before leaving, I left at about half past 12, came home with my hovercraft, the roughest ride I've ever had in my life. I've never been on one of those things. When it just took off, I thought, it's going to go right into the air like an airplane. They almost canceled it. Somehow, I guess they had Alvin and Cassidy at the wheel and decided to take us over. But Jerry Davey phoned me yesterday morning and shared that the long-awaited inheritance from a dear elderly lady of 5,000 pounds came in yesterday morning. We had another inheritance last week, or just before that, of 5,000, or was it 9? It was 9,000 pounds. It was two weeks ago. Time goes fast. These are some inheritances, because we don't get many inheritances. We're maybe 10 years from now. Some of the ex-electors. Personally, I like to forgive the money when they're standing there. But the Lord has been bringing in finance. You may not be aware, or you may be, that there's massive bills in Germany in connection with the doulos. Studying the finance reports from the doulos never ceases to amaze how little it takes them to live, the actual gist of food, and how much it takes the ship to keep going because of fuel, port dues, all that kind of thing. Publicity and everything connected with that ministry. I think there's a real danger at this stage of taking the ships for granted and just not realizing what a massive operation this is and how much it needs prayer and not to presume about recruits. Just because there were a few women and a few married couples in September who wanted to go to the ship and couldn't go does not mean they have enough recruits. Every year the situation completely changes. If the rumors get out and really there's no scope to go to the ship, people praying about the ship don't even come on the ship because maybe that's their burden, to go on the ship when in fact doulos is a two-year program and they were only halfway through this September. Now this next September, the two years end and there's a massive exodus from the ship. And I think it would be a great danger to presume on recruits the greatest pressure I sense in my own work is the lack of strategic people. Every major leader is telling me he's lacking one or two or three people. Now as you go out to recruit, you can't in a sense say, well folks I'm here now only to recruit for the CAI or I'm here now only to speak to you about being a marine engineer on Lagos in 1984. I have to go out and preach Mark 1 leave your nets I was preaching on that Sunday night and I have to take all the different varieties that may get exciting. Sometimes it includes people over 70. And they immediately come up to me after the meeting and they say I'm ready to go right now. I say well, it's over now, let's not rush into this. So here I am, and it gets very difficult. Yesterday morning, very early in fact, Marilyn Sears phones me from Seattle. She's just going to bed and she has an elderly couple or an upper middle aged couple whatever that means who are ready to go. They can't make it to the January conference. They're ready to come January 20th. And here I am just waking up and he's telling me about these wonderful people and he's telling me people get excited when they're trying to tell me about their new latest recruit. So I said well, I think we ought to pray about this. And maybe he is with his wife destined to be with us. But it's a big task. And we praise the Lord and he is continuing to bring recruits. This is the greatest area where God has blessed this movement. And people can't understand that much about modern missions and that we live in Europe where there is no major increase in the number of missionaries on the field from Europe. There may be a few more from Germany and a few less from England but there's no major increase. Now, don't think that's so bad because we've got a big task just keeping up with the previous generation. Fifty years ago, a little even further back, a lot of people were moving out to the mission fields. It's a different day in many, many ways. So I think it's a miracle that we are seeing so many new ones to take the place of those who go on to be with the Lord. Charles Marsh's wife, by the way, just went just a few days ago to be with the Lord. Some of you know about the couple from the Netherlands, Eric Berenson, who was one of the first members of the board of directors. He was with his wife, and he took the place of these people. That's a great challenge. And I think one of the most exciting ministries that we're involved in is the ministry of throwing out the challenge to launch out. Just a couple of items from the ships. The ship made it safely around the Straits of Magellan, arrived safely in Argentina. We had a telegram, in which they especially asked us to pray for a birth in Mar del Plata. That's the next major port. They still have no birth. It really looks grim. Praise the Lord. That happened when I was traveling across the English Channel. Well, let's praise the Lord for that because, as you know, everything with a ship hinges on getting a birth. And that's an item of praise. We've had some good communication from Lagos. The refugees went off the ship in Thailand, and I haven't heard much since, except that the Christian organization in England is not allowed to handle these people. It has to be handled by the government. The British government has all the structure for this, supposedly. And they just go through an orientation camp and they go out to different towns. The Christians will eventually be in contact with them. And I may show the slides. Have you got the refugee slides here? They've shown them already, haven't they? Yes, yesterday. Okay. But I'm sure you'll get to see those here one of these days. So let's thank the Lord for that. I think I'll end there because there's just so much, and we don't have the time because I want to share a little bit from the Word of God. We're praising the Lord, especially in our team that he's given us, not totally, but certainly and even with a couple of people like Jim Rogers on leave. By the way, his wife's mother just went to be with the Lord through cancer. We can remember Jim and Elise over in the States. I, of course, keep it all day here giving you O.M. news, especially if we got into births and marriages and engagements. I think the most interesting engagement is that Helen Freel has been engaged to a local pastor in commentary. So we're really reaching out in our lives, though, for the ministers. I'd like to read a few verses from 1 Corinthians chapter 12. 1 Corinthians chapter 12. By the way, what about mechanics? What's his name? The one that's getting married. Sam, isn't it? Sam and June Fraser are getting married at the end of the month or next month. So, we don't know what implications it's going to have for our garage. It does seem that the Lord has brought us a mechanic from Australia so we may somehow survive. My vehicle literally exploded when I went to drive it. The engine, something blew up and the smoke went all out and I ran back to the house to get fire extinguishers. We've only made 50 pounds of fire extinguishers. 1 Corinthians chapter 12 and verse 12. For as the body is one and has many members and all the members of that one body being many, our one body shall also is Christ. For by one spirit were we all baptized into one body. Whether we be Jews or Greeks, whether we be bond or free, and have all been made into one body. If the foot shall say because I am not a hand, I am not of the body, is it therefore not of the body? And then it speaks the same thing about the ear and other members of the body. I just want to go on because of the time to verse 24. For our comely parts have no need but got a temper to put together the body having given more abundant than we should have. We should have the same care one for another. And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it. When one member be honored, all the members rejoice with it. Now you are the body of Christ and the members in particular. There's so many things I'd love to share with you. I want to above all really thank you for your ministry here. I certainly hope that when I was 18 to go off to university next year. My daughter is 16 working with me this year. So she's studying for an extra examination that she's taking this week. You can do this in England a year later and try to make up an examination. And I hope that when they're grown up I might be able to come to Zosington and Liverpice for a couple of weeks. My wife and I lived here and Zosington has never lost its spell in my mind. There's just something about this place. As I walked down the road last night in the snow and I looked off at the lights on the motorway and I just thought, wow, did we ever dream when we purchased this that it would be literally at the heart of all of Europe. That junction is one of the main junctions of traffic with all those lights shining back there. So now if we could just get our own plug in we could run all over Zosington. And I just believe that this is such a strategic place in God's program. And I think one of the areas where God has given you victory where there have been many victories one here is in connection with this whole thing of being a caring community. Verse 25, should have the same care one for another. I'm sure at times it's been an enormous strain when so many people have come through here, when they have been here, living in your midst and maybe they've been delayed. Yet from feedback that I have received I know that in a number of cases the one or two days that people have spent here has made a big impact on their lives. We live in an impersonal world. We live in a world now where even sometimes I go as a speaker and there is no house to put me in. They want to check me into a hotel. There are no believers that want anybody in their home. I usually then go find my own friends and stay in a home. Almost every case refused to stay in a hotel especially at the price of a hotel not judging those who do stay in them. That's between them and the Lord. But I know that many have been ministered to by you and I'm sure at times the nightmare you must face is the nightmare of interruptions. You never find the total easy answer when it comes to handling your time. You never will. Still to me one of the greatest challenges I had was the use of time. But so often that interruption is God blessing. It hurts when people share the opposite. This has nothing to do with Zoddington but in another team in another part of the world somebody tried to talk to someone and they felt snubbed. They felt this person didn't have time for them. The person didn't even want time. He just wanted to say hello even a few minutes. And that person was hurt by that. And of course I know this kind of thing is bound to happen in a movement this size but it certainly broke my heart as I read that letter. He was so upset by this experience that he wrote two pages to me about two O-M-ers who he felt would not give him the time of day and treated him as dirt. Wow! That was a heavy letter. It happens sometimes people are in a bad mood sometimes they've had a fight with their wife in the morning or maybe a cockroach attacked them in the night and they weren't even conscious that they just brushed someone aside and I'm sure I myself have done that to some degree at least failed to acknowledge someone maybe impassive going in one direction or the other. What a challenge being a caring community Some of you remember me reading at the conference in Germany these words which I've written in my Bible which I think are destined to become almost a motto or slogan in O-M. Because of world evangelism and the reality of the spiritual warfare we need to agree on a plan of action and strategy and policy to carry out that action even when there are things we don't like or even agree with. The Lord gave me this message that I just shared with my own team and you're the second group that I've ever been able to share this with of why it's so hard to gain and keep people's loyalty in the 20th century. In studying a lot of Christian organizations and talking to Christian leaders so many of them express they can't keep the loyalty. We think of the terrific crisis they faced in the Bill Gothard organization recently. A movement that was really almost an example seemingly for so many other movements in the United States. Everything seemed to be going so well. I stayed there with these people just a couple of years ago. In fact, I shared with them about the fiery darts of the enemy. And those of you who read the Christian press because this is just public news and all the press know that this headquarters has had an ambitious fiery dart from the enemy. And one of the main leaders has fallen into adultery not Bill Gothard himself. Apparently this was with over 10 different women in the headquarters. And they all, some of them had asked to leave, others had left. This man was removed. Unfortunately, it was the brother of Bill Gothard. Bill Gothard took part of the blame because he knew about this situation for quite some time but he kept, at least he told me this on his phone, his very close friend of mine, he kept thinking his brother had put things right and so they kept him in the organization. But he wasn't right and it just got worse. When it exploded, division came in, the loyalty broke down and 30 staff members had left. Can you imagine something like that hitting us in operation mobilization? We can learn by example, first of all by God's word. First of all, I believe we should study the enemy tactics. I spend a lot of time reading what's happening around the world in other organizations because from it I can learn more of enemy tactics. And believe me, if you don't think Zonatan is on the strategy list of Satan, you know very little about the spiritual warfare. Usually what happens is that sin comes in one way or the other, that sin shapes the foundation, disloyalty comes in, then major disunity. It's one thing to stand by a movement and stand by a leader when it's riding on a crest. OM is still riding on a crest. An unbelievably high degree of credibility, still no major scandal in 25 years of any size. I've never had anyone even make an accusation against me of any significance for 25 years, which is a very unusual thing. I'm sure that my desire to stay out of the limelight and to try to lead from behind the scenes has been somewhat of a help. Needless to say, even within OM, it's hard to build loyalty. It's hard to build teamwork. And there is division within OM. There's division on some of our teams. One team right now, I don't know half their even functioning. I don't know half their functioning. And there's divisions in some of the living quarters. That, of course, decreases the loyalty, and the enemy uses that. A certain amount of this is normal. Spiritual life is not lived in a vacuum. It is not lived in the absence of struggle. My own family is in a state of continual struggle. I have three children, all who disagree with each other on 50% of whatever the other ones are saying. And it's not all mild. Tempers explode, accusations go across the breakfast table, and I have now become the quietest one in the family. Right. I sit there absolutely dumbfounded, not a ripple of fear to God made anything that I seem to be doing wrong. If I even restore my nose looking like I may do something that's not polite. Daddy picks his nose. Certainly with teenagers and grown up children, you have unbelievable opportunity for humility. My daughter is working for me this year. She doesn't particularly like the work. She really likes children and not administration making phone calls and other things that people have to do if they work for me. And in the family letter, the children are writing their own section now in the family letter. They told my wife, I'm afraid too bluntly, that she should not say anything about them. They will write about their own lives. And I tried to negotiate that. Krista has written in the family letter that she's sure Daddy will be more patient and more self-controlled by the end of the year. Either that or completely crazy. And so unity is not it's not something that comes in a vacuum. It's not something that comes in the absence of struggle. It's something that comes as we talk things out. And because we talk it out and work it out today, it doesn't mean it will be back tomorrow. And for most of you, your far greater challenges in life are going to come. Not here in America, not in the United not in not in the United States, the United not in not in the United States, not in the United States, not in the United States, not in the United States, not in the United States, not in the United not in we'll And that can drive them into some interesting struggles, I can assure you. But we're very grateful for what the Lord has done up to now. And I think we see in the family, as we see in Christian work, how hard at times it is to build loyalty. Why is it so hard? I've just written a few things down. I'm trying not to take long, but I think this is more than worth the extra time that we can take this morning. Because we find this time of the year, people's energy begins to drop in Iowa. We find people getting ill. We find people wanting to leave. All kinds of things are happening in Iowa right now. And it's often linked with their inability to stay motivated. If you're not loyal to something, you're not going to fight for it. Your motivation goes down, your morale goes down. Now that's a word some of you may not know. Morale, it involves your desire to keep on, your feeling of unity, your sense of purpose. And when the team in India, we've seen this, when their morale goes down, generally they're always sick. And that is not just psychological. Somehow, when the morale goes down emotionally, the body is unable to resist germs that may be there all the time. Or whatever else it is. And I think this is worth taking a few minutes to look at. The first reason why loyalty is so hard to get in our day is the wide range of strong emphasis. Very, very important to understand this. People come into O.F. with so many strong ideas. I think one of the miracles of O.F. is that we are basically a European movement. Because in a single culture, like for example my own country, the United States, where the nation is still relatively young, America is still riding the crest. In preparation for my meetings in the States next week, and Canada, I've been re-reading certain things. And they feel right now that America has bounced back from the war. There's been a new conservatism coming back, a new sense of purpose. And it's all an indication that America is still a young nation. That's why in America it's acceptable to go to church. And 50% of the people approximately go to church. And 30 million, or 30%, claim to have some experience, they call it being born again, maybe any range of religious experiences. It's a totally different situation to other nations that are 500, 1,000 years old. And from America, we often find the people, especially if they're older, have unbelievably strong ideas about eschatology right down to the exact moment that Jesus is going to return. There's been great strain and heavy division between American missions and British missions just on the point of eschatology. Major divisions, but all missions in two. Because in the United States you often have to sign a doctrinal statement that includes your conviction on eschatology. That's the doctrine of the last days. Are you pre-millennial? One friend of mine, he will give anybody $10,000 if they show one verse that proves a pre-millennial theory. My other friend, I'm glad they never met, but very close friends, both big supporters of our work, he is the strongest pre-millennialist I know in all of the United States. He distributes books throughout the entire world teaching that doctrine. They live a few hundred miles from each other. Fortunately, they never met, and I'm not about to introduce them. They're both on the way ahead of being in their upper 70s. But also in Europe, perhaps England more than some of the other countries, people have strong ideas. New articles just come out in Buzz magazine, well worth reading, showing the denomination or the denominational tree. I never cease to be amazed at differences between different kinds of Christians. A lot of Christians down in Britain are getting into what they call dancing in the spirit. This is a very big thing. It's not a small thing anymore. Especially in the house groups. You go to those meetings and they're dancing around and praising the Lord. Their shoes are off and they're having a great time. I'm very broad-minded, so it doesn't bother me too much, except when the girls dress a little bit. It gets me a problem when they start dancing all over the place. But I don't judge that. But you have another group of people in Britain, they are still a majority, who are petrified, full of this. Can you imagine someone in the Isle of Lewis getting out in the middle of one of the free churches with a guitar and banjos dancing around? And if you want to find the end of the spectrum on religious thought, you'll have to go to the Isle of Lewis. And we get these people of different backgrounds, really, coming into our enemy. And we wonder. Some feel all of this is too noisy. And the rumor is we're a terrorist band. Others feel, oh, it's so sane and so reserved. If only people would be set free. All these leaders are bound and they're praying for the leaders to be released. And I don't know if they want us to dance on the table. I could easily do that. I don't know if Ted would have more difficulty. You know, actually, it's good to be able to laugh about these things, because in many places people aren't laughing, they're crying. I think of one church that threw a lot of people in, and within three years had over 200 people quit. One minute they feel they're in the most New Testament church in all the world. One year later they're quit, and they're so burnt out by that hyper-experience, they no longer can fellowship with anybody. I'm in correspondence with people like that. Another reason this loyalty is hard to build is the overreaction to extremism and to the cults, to the Jonestown crisis, and to hyper-spirituality. Now this, again, is very important. Very important understanding this. When you communicate to your parents, your churches, friends, especially non-Christian friends, everyone should be able to, just like that, ABCD, show the difference between a movement like OM and the cults. We gave a lecture on this at the annual conference. But people are reacting to that. That's normal. Some of it is good, but the tendency is to overreact. We had a young man on our team a year ago who began to make two and two equals eight. He was lonely, he wasn't sharing, he wasn't getting it out. He actually came to the conclusion we were a cult. And he went privately to the airport with money. He got into the back door and was about to get on an airplane. We've only had that once in the history of OM. He actually thought we were a cult and was trying to sneak away. Somehow we found out, we got to him. Some of us spent hours just walking with him. And he saw that this, of course, was just a devil trying to use certain things that went wrong in a book that he'd been reading about cults and family problems and other things to cause him to think this way. And it got wonderfully resolved and he's very, very elated for this. One of the greatest miracles of OM is that most people leave having had a satisfying experience. Who are the people who are pouring their money into this work today? A large percentage of them are people that once came on OM. They believe in it, they know it's not a cult, they know it's not extreme, and they want to support it and they're loyal to it. There is a greater degree of loyalty among prayer partners and extra members than often there is among people who are with us as it takes time to build biblical relationships. Another reason this loyalty is hard to build is because of language problems. Even here this morning, for some of you, you may not understand some of the things I say. Those of us who work in our first language have an enormous advantage and we need to be careful not to misuse that advantage. I find that in my family we have miscommunications because my own children have misunderstood what I wanted to say. The other day I was a little upset with my son because he borrowed a car and turned it back without any petrol. And I said, you're going to go out and put petrol in it. He was upset because he thought that I meant he had to pay to fill the tank as well, which is about nine pounds, even on a rental. And I was just saying, you know, I want you to go out and get petrol. I was going to pay for it. Just a language problem. And we find that when we all speak English, we have linguistical barriers in the Verwer family. How much more if one child was reared in French, the other child was reared in Flemish, the other child was reared in Mandarin Chinese, and they're all learning English. And they seem to say some sentences very well, like, hello, so I presume they knew fluent English. You could have many, many problems. The international aspect of OM, the interdenominational and the linguistical barrier makes it hard at times to build unity. Number four, the problem of so many extremist books. Books can be a blessing, but there are many extreme books. And we find certain temperaments, they read a book and they think immediately, this is the answer. This is the answer to all of our problems at Zalmton or Bromley. And I think it's important to read a balance of books. It's important to pray through what we read and compare it with Scripture. It's important to get the bigger picture. You read a Washington e-book, normal Christian life, and boom, really you're into that type of thing. And you turn it into sort of a perfectionism. But when you read Watchman Nee, and you see the blunders that he made, the problems he made. You know, he was excommunicated from his own church because he made such a bad business deal. He was so in debt. And God didn't hear Watchman Nee's prayers. His money didn't come. The church in China excommunicated him. He was totally out of things for a period of time. Slowly he came back. Those churches had enormous troubles. One time they were trying to be friends with John Sum who was as great as Watchman Nee. But some of the new converts in the Watchman Nee churches, they thought John Sum was a compromiser. And so they stood outside John Sum's evangelistic meetings. He gave out pamphlets against John Sum. I heard a man who was a very close friend of Watchman Nee and is still in that group. He's not out, he's still in, share that this was one of the greatest mistakes they ever made in China. Because John Sum then turned against Watchman Nee. And they then, of course, became and were treated as an extremist group and still are in China today to a large degree. Mistakes are very, very costly. And extremism is an arch enemy of anything that has life and has reality. And then I've just written down here, O.M. attracts idealistic people. O.M. attracts, the message of O.M. attracts people who often are dissatisfied with the status quo. They want revival, they want more. There's nothing wrong with that. But those very people whom we attract, disappointed with the spiritual movement, if you're idealistic, is as normal as getting up in the morning. On that basis, my whole life has been disappointed. Everything. Nothing has gone the way I envisioned, told the spiritual life of O.M., loyalty, unity. Of course, the growth, having things like the ship, well that's gone beyond anything I expected. How could I measure that 20 years ago? But as far as the way people behave, the way Christians live, the way they respond to the various aspects of the O.M. message, it's just never been all that perhaps I expected when I was 19. I was very, very idealistic. Marriage has been the greatest tool that I have been in. Because marriage is reality therapy. You can get it without marriage. I'm sure Steve Hart's got it without marriage. I was thinking of Steve this morning. Steve, you're the longest term person eating in group. You know what I mean, eating in group? Breakfast, you come in here and eat. To me, eating breakfast with a group is an awesome experience. I've had it for years. I'm not far behind Steve Hart. Only in the last couple of years that I eat my breakfast alone with my family and not in a big group. And I'm the kind of person, I just love to choose what I eat. And now choosing all the time, I hardly eat anything. I eat a piece of toast. At least I'm eating what I want to eat and not what other people are pushing in front of me. One dear lady in India pushed the same porridge in front of me for over one year. The same horrible, which isn't in this case. Lord bless you. And I'm sure that Steve Hart, living in community, probably more than anybody in L.A., has had just as much a graduate training program, especially in the CAO, as I have had with my family. But it's through having a family and a wife and all these ideals about what my wife was going to be and how she was going to look all of her life and all these other things. By the way, she's keeping that. She's lost 27 pounds. And it's almost the exact same weight as when I married her. That is a victory. I will tell you. But in so many ways we've had to adjust. I've had to change. I've had to change. I've had to come down in my idealism, what I expect from O.M., from people, from my wife, from my children, lo and behold, from myself. Because ultimately I would have destroyed myself on the altar of my own idealism, my own super-spirituality. And then number six, cynicism. We live in a cynical society. I was over at a friend's house watching television just for a short period. And there was this awful British program called This Is Not the News at Nine. And they made the most vicious attack on Ronald Reagan I've seen or read anywhere. They said, Ronald Reagan is a born-again Christian. Ronald Reagan believes the Bible is God's Word. Ronald Reagan believes in the hereafter and life after death. And then there was a photo of a nuclear explosion. And it more or less hinted that everybody get ready because he's a war monger and he's going to lead us all into atomic annihilation. Now, that was poorly explained because you know what they can do on television. They can just be so shrewd, so cynical. And this is the order of our day. And we get a fair amount of people in O.M. who are highly trained in cynicism. My own son in British secondary school is becoming a master at cynicism. They specialize in taking the mickey out of people. Do you know that term? There's not many English people, there's a few. Take the mickey out of people. And went into a spiritual movement like O.M. that has its weaknesses, it has its problems, it has its inconsistencies. Everything does, everybody does have some inconsistency because none of them are perfect. Cynicism can do it. One upmanship. And those of us who have been around a long time, we especially need to be careful because it can really hurt the young, more pure-minded, sincere brother or sister. And then number seven, disobedience to parents. There's a lack of understanding of submission to parents. Many children know nothing of submission. They join a Christian organization and they do not know how to submit. Submission is only tested when you have to do something you don't like. And it's only tested really when the person asking you to submit demonstrates that he is weak or that he has an inconsistency. If he is some kind of spiritual superman, some kind of bionic man, we're going to be very, very slow in a sense to say too much. But the moment we see the hole in his armor, then somehow we will use that as an excuse to be disobedient or insubordinate and to fail to submit. Of course, again, people are sometimes reacting from over-emphasis on submission. There's any area where I think one has maintained the balance is between submission and freedom. And there's a real sense that we teach in this work of submitting to one another. And then very quickly, of course, Satan. Satan's hate of reality, his hate of unity, because he knows that with his reality and his unity we can move. So unity among the leaders. As I know of hardly any major in this unity among leaders worldwide that is enabling OM to move like a Concorde jet. And it is moving. It's almost moving at times too fast. My biggest job is not leading any longer. It's holding back. Other men have learned how to lead. They've learned how to pioneer. They have new ideas. I don't need to throw out any more new ideas. I may from time to time. My bigger need is to maintain fellowship with all these gospel car carrying idealists as they attempt to carry the work across the world. And we, of course, have to realize that movement will not be the same 20 some years later. There are areas where OM is a little weaker than it was 20 years ago. We've got to watch those areas. But in most areas, I see the work as being stronger and more mature, though I'm convinced that life is a constant struggle between the two. You never arrive at the point where you're mature. I have seen in the past six months some real errors of immaturity in my own life. Anywhere I go, people think of me as a mature Christian, generally. There might be these places to speak in. Most people think of me as a mature Christian. But I can tell you, God has shown me areas of immaturity. You never arrive. You may be very mature in some areas, but be very immature in other areas where the Lord still has to do a deeper, much deeper work. And then number nine, pride. Boy, that comes out sometimes in family life. When your children are telling you off, or your children are, what you feel, falsely accuse you. You're the misunderstood father. You discover there are whole areas of uncrucified pride. It's a beautiful experience to go back to your children and admit that you were wrong, that you shot off your mouth, you're sorry, and would they forgive you and accept you back as their father. It doesn't quite work like that. You know what I mean. And then number ten, well, I've already touched on that, this whole area of idealism. But linked with that is the lack of knowledge of the Scriptures. Because people don't know the Word of God, they get blown about by every wind and tide. They don't have a balanced understanding of the Word of God. So this voice comes along and points out one verse, and away they go. And this is another reason I believe people, often today, are hard to build loyalty, to build together unity. I hope that here in Sonomton you have a commitment, firstly to God, to His Word. We never want you to compromise. If we felt for a moment, you felt, I know I must compromise your relationship to God, we would arrange for you to leave any time you want, regardless of any commitment. Very seldom that's happened. Secondly, I hope you can have that commitment and loyalty to one another. I know it's hard. I know that people come on the web today, a number of them are disappointed. It wasn't all they thought it was. Even though in the very conferences, right from the day they walked into the June conference, the messages, and you can really listen to it, very much paint a realistic picture of our life. And the sharing about failure, about problems, which I do in every conference, very openly, somehow they still have a storybook picture. And then they come for the year, and there's the problems, and then disappointments. For some the greatest disappointment is in the South. They thought they would respond quicker. They thought they'd become disciplined quicker, or a great soul winner quicker, a great man of prayer, simply by sitting in nights of prayer for several months. It would all ruffle up on them, and they'd suddenly become more spiritual. It's not quite that easy. And I just share this with you, that if God has been patient with me for 26 years almost, with my failures, in my areas of immaturity, I'm sure there's great scope for all of you. Don't be discouraged by your mistakes. Don't be discouraged that you're not the great man of prayer, man of witness, disciplined, up at 6.30 every morning, disciple that you long to be. Don't lose that goal. Don't lose that idea of a goal. Keep aiming, keep adjusting, but don't let discouragement come. There's no reason for discouragement, in all that God has given us in Jesus Christ, and His Holy Spirit, and the privilege of being in this kind of world of evangelism. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you that we've had this time of sharing this morning. We thank you, Lord, that our loyalty is firstly to you, even though there are times, even there, with things we don't understand, how to express our love to you, how to be more obedient. We thank you that you know all about us, and you love us still. Lord, I thank you that you give us the grace to keep on keeping on. When we feel at times Buffett is beaten down, we feel the odds are against us, we feel that there's too many failures in our life. We praise you that you're a mercy. At that time, more than ever, flow is to us. Now we can go back to the cross, be filled with your Spirit, and launch out once again into the battle. I give you the praise now in Jesus' name. Amen. I might just say that letters from people on the Year program have tried to get priority from me. I won't be able to get to speak to all of you. I'm only here this morning. Back to the conference this afternoon. Through the night, speak to the hour team in London tomorrow morning, and move house. Finally, I've got the place to several months of moving the furniture from one house to another house. The Lord's provided rent-free. By the way, we've seen a lot of miracles in accommodation. In London. But don't hesitate to write. And especially, I think anybody from Southampton would get a priority in my thinking, and get an answer. I couldn't sleep when I got here last night at 12 o'clock. I don't know why. So I just... I have the most wonderful time just sitting in bed, dictating letters. It really is my relaxation. I find it just the point. But I really would love to hear if there's anything you want to ask or share on the basis of what I've said.