In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of being witnesses for God in every part of the world. He mentions the example of William Carey, who faced opposition but believed in the command of Jesus to preach the gospel to every person. The speaker encourages the audience to commit themselves to world missions and to set aside specific time for information and prayer. He also highlights the need for discipline in our lives, including how we use our time, money, and engage in small talk. The speaker challenges young people in particular to be more involved in missionary work.

Wow, God's grace. God's grace to weak people. We just had a great, I'm going to turn my phone off so nobody can call us now, you see. So some of you thought I was going to be making phone calls while I was speaking. Each new year I make a commitment that every hour, every moment of my time can be used for God's glory. This life will soon be passed. Someone once said, only what's done for Christ will last. A great man of God once said, the greatest sin of young people today is just wasting time. Wasting time. It's not fornication or listening to rock music or beating up their brother or not feeding a dog. It's probably wasting time. At the same time, that doesn't mean there's no time for recreation. The Word of God says, whatever you do, do it heartily as unto the Lord. One of my greatest recreation experiences in my life was in Edmonton, Canada, where in the mall they have a roller coaster and a water park in the same mall. And in my one afternoon of recreation, I went on about six roller coaster trips and about ten water slides, including one that injured me a little bit. I failed to realize this one had a big bump in the middle of it. But it's a privilege to be here in Canada. It really is. And I've been coming, brief trips, but regularly, for over 30 years. And I've seen God's hand upon this great nation. I'm one of the great missionary sending countries, certainly in the top ten nations in the world as far as the church, the health of the church, the state of the church. Doesn't mean there's a need for revival. Doesn't mean that everything is well. But in the 60 or 70 other nations that I've traveled in, I don't find as many. I don't find so many that have the resources and the generosity and the church power, resource power, manpower, womanpower, to get the job done. We have many Canadians that come on every year. It's quite exciting. The door is so wide open for Canadians in missions. And Canadians are needed as much as ever before. Because though in some countries, nationals can do the job like, say, South India, don't really need many missionaries in South India anymore. There are so many nations where the church doesn't yet exist. I was praying, got up early this morning and started after my cup of tea, prayed through, or during my cup of tea, prayed through Operation World for November 4th. Do you know what's featured on November 4th, 5th, and 6th? How many know? Anybody that's praying their way through it? Turkey. And if you know anything about O.M., Turkey is O.M.'s number one country, really. India became our biggest country. The ships became our most attractive kind of, you know, Louise Palau, Billy Graham, that's attractive kind of ministry, though not an easy ministry. But Turkey, in the early years, became our priority country. And it was there that, well, to make a long story short, I went out to Wheaton College to visit Dale Rotom. We had been together at a previous liberal arts college. And I transferred to Moody Bible Institute, he transferred to Wheaton after we went to Mexico for that original trip. And he was going with Wycliffe, and then he was getting involved with a movement called the Open Brethren. And so he had no plans of coming back with me. So I went out to Wheaton College and challenged him about Turkey. And to my utter amazement, he left those other plans and went to Turkey way back in 1960. And it's been rough. We've had people shot and killed in Turkey, we've had people imprisoned in Turkey, had people die of rare viruses, one I think of particularly. And as I was reading and praying through Operation World this morning, it in a sense wasn't easy. Fifty-five million people, Operation World says the most unreached nation in the world. Of course it consists of many people's groups, mainly Muslim. I'm sure you know where Turkey is, but I always have my little globe. It's a rather large nation. Part of it is in Europe, and the rest is in Asia, right there. So I don't think that'll block anybody's view if I put that there. Let's just pray together and commit this time to God. Many people are praying for us. I have about 100,000 people who pray for me. Isn't that embarrassing? It's built up over the years. We have 82,000 ex-OMers. I don't know, I don't think they all pray for me. Some of them surely want to forget me, but many of them do. But I have some people that tell me they pray for me every day. Some people pray for OM every day. And I am expecting great things from God today, and I hope you are as well. Let's pray. We thank you, Lord, for already ministering to our hearts from your Word, the great challenge of faith. And Lord, as we think about vision and as we think about some of the practical steps that we need to be taking, we don't want to hold back. Lord, if we don't go, people who come to conferences like this on a Saturday, if we don't go, we wonder who will. So grip us with the reality of what we're talking about and enable us to take those steps of faith. Lord, our hearts ache for the land of Turkey. Our hearts ache for the unreached people of the world and the suffering people of the world. Lord, we want to, by your grace, be set free from the fantasy view of life, what we can develop sometimes in our Western materialistic culture with all the comforts and all the things that we have, which can be used either for, a lot of it anyway, can be used either for our own selfish ambitions or can be used for your glory and enable us to be the kind of fighting force you want us to be. We look to you in this hour and throughout this day and the prayer meeting especially tonight. We thank you for each group represented here and we pray that there may go out from this place today, workers, into the harvest fields in Jesus' name. Amen. I hope you will visit all the displays. We also have a special book table just around the corner and you'll find not just books, but you'll find maps. I find it so helpful to pray with a map of the world. I guess that's why I wear one. And I hope that you will get at least one of these maps. We have a few of these jackets as well, but you might find them a little expensive. In order to cover the costs on mine, I went in business, so I'm the agent for these global jackets. But the Lord said, go into all the world and preach the gospel to every person. And we're here this morning not to consider the philosophy of OM or any other mission. We are here to examine the claims of the Lord Jesus Christ in His word. That's what it's all about. If it wasn't for that, many of us would have run out of gas or steam a long time ago. So I hope you'll get one of those maps. That one has a picture of our two ships on it. And I hope you'll look at some of these other books. Prayer is where the action is. And the most exciting session of this conference, I believe, is going to be the prayer time. Here's a book that may help you prepare for that. Touch the World Through Prayer. When I first went to work and live in India, this was one of the first missionaries I ever met. And I've watched his life for over 30 years, almost 30 years. And though he's, I think he must be 80 now, Wesley Duell, he's still running. And that's one of the greatest books on prayer that has ever, ever been put into print and by a man who practices it. As we think of vision, we of course are automatically drawn to Operation World. And I'm afraid after the missions conference over at Providence that we're not going to have enough copies of this. So if you can't get one here, get one in your bookstore. It'll be a great encouragement to them. Some bookstores used to refuse to handle this book because it didn't sell that well. That's changed a bit. But you may find that some Christian bookstores don't have it yet, and they need to. So you go in and order one or two, and that could be used of the Lord. There's also now a children's edition that we're offering here at a special price. It's an absolutely brilliant book for children. In fact, the truth is where the average Christian's knowledge of missions are, they should start with a children's edition. I had somebody tell me that. You start with this and get to know these unreached people that are mentioned here and these nations. And then you can move on to Operation World. So I would encourage you. What a fantastic Christmas gift as well for children. It is brilliant. Dear Jill Johnston, I was with her. Shortly after she finished this book, within a few weeks, months, she was in heaven. Died of cancer. So that's a legacy. You can change the world. Operation World for children. We in Operation Mobilization, and I'm sure it's true of most missions, are not wanting to just thrust a lot of workers out to the harvest fields. We want to see workers really in tune with God. And some of the books we have available, like my own books, they're about walking with God. This book, Healing for Damaged Emotions, greatly used in our counseling ministry around the world. A brilliant book. I know there's some books on the subject of healing for emotions that are extreme, and Christians need to be discerning about that. This is a very basic book. A man who spent 30 years counseling young people at Asbury College and Seminary. And a pastor. He's not a psychologist. Not that that would be wrong, but he's a pastor. He's had a lot of just field experience. A great lover of India. David Seaman's Healing for Damaged Emotions. One of the seminars this morning will be about Hinduism. Especially Orthodox Hindus are almost as neglected as Muslims. There is no breakthrough in all of India among upper class Brahmins and Orthodox Hindus. There is no breakthrough. There is no church, indigenous church, among upper class Hindus. There are individuals, beautiful individuals who have come to know Christ. And this is one of the great challenges facing the church. The challenge of Hinduism. And I hope you'll get that book. So we have a lot of exciting material. This is a very special day for getting that material. Now turn with me in your Bibles please to a very basic scripture. I often like to start with the basics. Though I'm sure many of you are beyond that in your mission's vision. Acts 1.8. I want to try to in this first hour share something of the world vision that has been on my heart for many decades. And then something of practical steps of how you can get involved. We'll just see how much we can do in our limited time. These are the final words of the Lord Jesus before he ascended into heaven. Verse 8. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. We have it very clear from the Word of God that it is God's desire that we be his witness in every part of the world. Imagine when William Carey first wanted to launch out some very sort of hyper-Calvinistic people and tried to stop them. And they said, you know, God, you know, in his timing if he wants these pagans out in these lands like India to come to know him, God will do. He will do that in his timing. He doesn't need you. And I sort of asked him to sit down. No matter how much we believe in the sovereignty of God, we have some wonderful Calvinistic people on Operation Mobilization. We have Arminian people. We have quite a few. I'm not sure what they are. I'd like to just be considered followers of Jesus Christ. But we're dealing with the Word of God. Whatever theological little implications we want to put into it from other passages of Scripture, the Lord makes it clear we are to be witnesses. We are to share the message of Jesus through the whole world. And this is the passion that has gripped my life since almost the moment of my conversion. I wasn't from a solid Christian background. My grandfather from the Netherlands was an atheist. My father was sort of a materialist. He came to America as a young man to New Jersey. And he didn't know Jesus. His thing was to build a house and to make money and to survive. And he sent me off to Sunday school while he worked in the yard. And unfortunately it was a church where there was no real challenge about the Gospel. There was no real gripping belief that the Bible was God's Word. It was what we call in those days a rather liberal church, sort of a social club. A lot of nice people. The pastor is very nice. But there was no message of the Gospel of repentance. And it took a praying elderly woman and a Gospel of John and a Billy Graham meeting in New York City to really get through to a thick-headed Dutchman like myself. Already at 16, very much caught up in the various minefields of Satan, especially the whole women and money scene. But this dear woman put my name on her hit list and prayed for me every day for almost three years. And then sent me a Gospel of John through the post and the mail. And that led me to go to this Billy Graham meeting where I heard the Gospel in a powerful way. And I heard a call to repent. And I just hope every one of you this morning has that assurance that you have repented and you've believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. That you know him personally. Religion is not enough. Even some of the good old kind of religion you have here in this very, very famous town. One of the most religious towns in the whole of North America. Religion is not enough. I'm not saying that most people in this town only have religion. I'm sure what I hear most people do. Many people do know the Lord Jesus Christ. But we should never presume on that. Just this morning in my praying, I felt led to search my own heart concerning my own eternal salvation. Not that I have any doubts, but I like to be open. And I just in prayer said, Lord I'm open right now if there's something I've missed. If there's some massive deception. You know I really want to know about it. Because my desire is to repent of all sin and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. I sort of got that idea of doing that every once in a while from my spiritual father Billy Graham. Because I heard years ago Billy Graham went off to the mountains to just check out whether he was really a child of God. Well I know when you talk this way some people get over introspective. Will end up counseling a whole group of people. But our salvation is not linked with good works. It's not linked with being a missionary. It's not linked with being zealous. It's not linked with going to church, joining OM. Our salvation is linked with what Jesus Christ has done on the cross. That night in Madison Square Garden I was born from above. And that has been a reality. I don't say this lightly. It's been a reality every single day ever since. And I'm so excited about that. Because if God can keep a character like me, I had so many struggles. I still have struggles. If God can keep a character like me, my emotions go up and down. I'm not the smartest guy in the world. I find often Christianity a bit of a pain. A lot of God's people a pain in the neck. I have to keep repenting of bad attitudes. If God can keep a guy, a person like me, nobody has an excuse. Some of you I can tell just by looking at you. You're just so much more stable than me. Either that or you're sleepy. But God is great. And His grace is sufficient. Whatever your struggle may be, whatever your doubts, His grace is sufficient. Isn't that beautiful? You shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, the uttermost part of the earth. Let's talk about a few of those places. Let me just share with you some of the vision, some of the burden that is pulsating on my own heart. I think the first burden I can best describe by talking about a window. You know, always in Britain we have these people coming to the door trying to sell us double glazing. Do you have that expression here in Canada? They don't have that in America. It's a British expression. Double glazing. You want to change your windows so you have double windows. It costs a lot of money. So I want to talk to you about windows. But I want to talk to you about the 1040 window. How many of you have ever heard of the 1040 window? Good, about half of you. Now it has nothing to do with American income tax. The biggest income tax form in the United States is called the 1040 form. But this is about a particular zone of the world. After a lot of research and prayer, a man named Louis Bush and others have determined that most of the unreached people in the world are between 10 degrees north of the equator and 40 degrees north of the equator, right across this strip here. You can see it perhaps better on my jacket. 10 degrees north of the equator, 40 degrees north of the equator, starting here at North Africa, going right across Africa, right across the Middle East, India, Bangladesh, Burma, Thailand, on into China, over to Japan. That's the 1040 window. And David maybe even has an overhead of the 1040 window. That is absolutely brilliant. Because not only does the 1040 window represent the area of the world where 90% of the unreached people's groups are, that's approximately, but it also is a way that we can market the vision of world evangelism. Now we're not a large group of people here today. We have some more people coming. I would have thought for a place like Steinbeck, you know, we'd have 25 times as many. I remember going to a little thing in Vancouver. They get 20,000 out to their missions thing in Vancouver. Now last time I was here in Winnipeg, that was a missions fest. Some of you were there. But the fact is it is not easy to get God's people to give a Saturday to thinking about world missions. So we are very grateful for those of you who are here. But here is our vision for today. Our vision for today is that every one of you who are here are going to go and share this vision with others. And being able to talk about the 1040 window, having copies of some of this literature, is a way that you can market world missions. And we need to market world missions. If you don't like that term, you can use another term. We need to spread the vision. That's the old term. It doesn't matter what word, it means the same. The AD2000 movement that just finished in October praying through the window, millions around the world praying through the window. You know what that means? It means they simply prayed for the nations in the 1040 window. You can see from that little overhead there are many nations in that window. Dozens of nations in the 1040 window. We have this terrific leaflet. I've been distributing many of these all over the world. And this leaflet, every one of you, if you possibly can, can pick it up. You'll find the cities in that window. You'll find the nations in that window. Now, in my view, we are living at the most exciting period of world missions apart from perhaps Acts 13 when it was born. I wish I had been there. Five men had a vision, they prayed, zap, Paul and Barnabas went out into the harvest fields. It's interesting back then that they sent two of the best people they had out into world missions. Have you ever noticed that a high percentage of all your great Canadian Christian leaders and you have some great people, they all remain in Canada. Canada gets the best. And you know what they give us? They give us teeny boppers. They give us teenagers. We believe in plan B. Plan B is God can use teenagers. Maybe it's plan A. I'll let the Lord handle that. But I know he sent me to Mexico when I was only 19. But I'm still convinced that the Acts 13 plan should not be laid aside. And that if churches were really on their faces as they were in Acts 13, that some of the best, some of the very best men and women we have in Canada would suddenly find themselves being thrust out into the harvest field. It does happen. I remember going to a church in Chicago, very big, fast-growing church. I'd heard about the pastor. He brought me in to challenge the high school kids to world missions. He sat in the back, the pastor, senior pastor. They had many pastors. Guess what? He had an Acts 13 experience. God sent him. He resigned from that pastorate, much to the dismay of his congregation. The church, by the way, did survive. The Holy Spirit is able to handle some of these things, right? And this pastor headed out into Operation Mobilization and has had for over 15, 20 years a worldwide preaching, teaching, counseling ministry. Hadn't been easy. Lived in Cyprus for a while. Lived in London for a while. Eventually settled in California, but is hardly there. Now, among other things, considered one of the pastors of Lagos II, our ship. God is wanting to send all kinds of people out into the harvest field. And we believe a priority should be the unreached people of the world, the 1040 window. We praise God, however, for the short-term missions movement that has been raised up over the last 30 years. Operation Mobilization, without realizing it, I myself, without realizing it, going to New Mexico as a teenager for a summer, became one of the birthplaces of the short-term missions movement. And the short-term missions movement now is working side-by-side with long-term missions. In fact, leading missiologists have said that most of our career missionaries now are getting their call, their guidance from the Lord through going short-term. That's how it's happening in the 1990s. How many of you have already been, first of all, for at least a summer in some kind of overseas missions outside of Canada? Working in Canada is also brilliant, but I just want to focus a little bit. We can't do everything. You don't need me to come here and tell you about evangelizing Canada. But how many of you have served Christ for a summer outside of Canada? Could you just slip up your hand? That's good. I think we got about a 20% there. A little more. How many of you have served at least for one or two years outside of Canada? Okay, we dropped down to maybe 10%, maybe 15%. That's exciting. That's probably one of the reasons you're here today. One false cult, I don't want to name them, but name them for me from Utah. One false cult has 50,000 men on a two-year program. I don't know what they do with the women. Actually, I do know what they do with the women, but that wouldn't be nice to talk about. 40,000 to 50,000 men on a two-year program. It's interesting, no one accuses these people of being superficial. Those of us committed to short-term missions, we are constantly bombarded, especially by certain theologians, that this is superficial. Something may look superficial, but when God is in it, it's not superficial. This false cult has 50,000 people on a two-year program, and they are leaving behind thousands of converts. We just planted a church in Albania with people on a two-year program. God is no respecter of persons. When the Holy Spirit is moving, a lot can be done in two years. I would urge every one of you to pray about the possibility of giving at least two years of your life. You can still seek the career that you sense God is leading you into, maybe engineering, maybe business, even medicine. We've had doctors come with us and lead medicine for a whole year, and then pick it up, because they wanted to get a broadening of their character-building experience. They wanted to serve the Lord Jesus Christ. And one of the messages that God has put upon our hearts is to challenge people to spend a year or two helping in the huge task of world missions, and if possible, among unreached people at the same time. If you have gifting, for example, as a secretary, you could get into an office, a behind-the-scene mission office, as a facilitator, as a behind-the-scene person, and you would enable someone else to move out into the 1040 window. I don't know if I'd be able to be here today if it wasn't for my secretaries. Wherever I am in the world, I have a seven, eight-hour day of things connected with the leadership of OM, phone calls, letters, organizational things. And it's my secretaries and helpers back in London, England, where I live, and my wife who's a full-time person with her computer skills. She stayed home in Winnipeg today specifically to spend the whole day on her computer. There's so much work to do. You know, it's amazing. Some people try to say today, missionaries are not hard-working people. We hear about laziness on the mission field. There is some, but I'll tell you, most of the missionaries I've met, if anything, we have to encourage them to beware of being workaholics because they are committed to their work. So we're not expecting, when we give the challenge of the unreached people, when we give the challenge of the 1040 window, when we start talking about Turkey or Uzbekistan or Kazakhstan or Mongolia or Albania, all these countries, new open doors, churches barely exist, we're not expecting people to rush to the airport and jump on a plane and fly to these places. We're expecting people to become more informed, to pray, to network, to try to discover their own abilities and gifts and how they can best be part of the overall vision and the overall mission. Believe me, one of the most exciting things in my life is to see God using such very ordinary people. Very ordinary people. I've also seen God use some very gifted people and we can use all that we can get when they walk humbly with God. Do not think God cannot use you on the mission field or somebody else that you're mentoring, someone else that you're sharing Christ with. One of the young persons at Providence College stood up yesterday, that they should not go to the mission field until they had everything sorted out in their own life first. I couldn't help, I don't know if any of you were there, I couldn't hold myself back, I shouted at the end as this person sat down, and I shouted, down with all grace killers! I probably shouldn't have done that. But really, that kind of statement to a young person, that is what Charles Swindoll talks about in his book as being a grace killer. Let me tell you, most missionaries don't have it all together who are out on the mission field. And to say that you can't serve Jesus Christ until you have it all together, first of all, what in the world does that mean, have it all together? I certainly don't have it all together yet. Just ask my wife. She's praying that I might have it all together. The Word of God says this treasure is in earthen vessels. And surely, and I hope you can remember this statement, no matter how spiritual we are, no matter how filled we are with the Holy Spirit, no matter how much we're flowing in grace and in gifts and in the fruit of the Spirit, we are still very, very human. And you know, one of the things that helped me to walk with Jesus is to accept my humanity. Now, I don't know about you, but with me, there are certain parts about my own humanity which is no great problem. There are other parts about myself that I struggle with. Do you ever struggle with yourself a little bit? But I know, I, according to Ephesians, am accepted in the Beloved. And to realize the acceptance we have in Jesus, that's what David Seamans talks about in this book, to realize the acceptance we have by God because of Jesus Christ and the fact that God loves us and God cares for us. And A.W. Tozer once said, God knows everything about us and loves us still. I will tell you, that's like a cool shower on a hot day in New Delhi. I remember when I lived in Delhi, one day I took seven showers just to survive. And that's what I think of when I think of the grace of God to someone like myself. Some people think that movements like Operation Mobilization, and we have the privilege, together with WECC, of holding these Operation World Conferences in different parts of the world. They're not copyrighted, so anybody can hold an Operation World Conference. But some people think that our big thing is world missions. Let me tell you, let me just set the record straight. Our big thing is Jesus. Our big thing is Jesus, and our greatest goal is to know God. And world missions, reaching the world with the Gospel, has to flow out of that love for Jesus and that knowledge of God. And of course it's just the logical next step. That's why when you go to our book table, you don't find just missionary books. You find books about revival. You find books about how to persevere, like my little book, No Turning Back. Some people are probably disappointed. There's not much about world missions in my book, No Turning Back. There's some, because this was the strategy God gave me to persevere when I was battling discouragement, when I wanted to quit, when everything's so dark. Did you ever have hours and days in your life when everything just seemed so dark? So I just allowed some of that to be taken off some of my tapes and put into print. I believe if you buy one or two of my books, David Mundy, Mr. Generous, we'll give you that one free, because it surely doesn't sell. Literature Evangelism by George Verwer. God uses the printed page, but people, I guess, just don't want to read about it. One of the great burdens I have is to see a marriage of great biblical emphases. Emphasis on revival. Emphasis on holiness. Emphasis on the church, life in the church, fellowship, community, reality. The emphasis on world missions. We want to see a marriage of these things. We don't want to see, you know, this group of Christians in this corner, they're doing their little thing. A little group of Christians up in this corner, they're doing their thing. There's this group over here with global jackets and balloons, they're doing their thing. Missions. We need a marriage of these great visions. The greatest mistake we've made in our seminaries is we've given ministers the idea that missions is for a particular group. You go to seminary and you enroll in some particular course and some enroll in the missions course. And the rest of the ministers sort of treat the guys in the missions course, you know, as if they had AIDS. The pastors not going to the mission field need the vision for missions just as much as those who go. In many churches, and I'm involved with thousands of churches, it is the pastor that is holding up the whole process of missions, because he is departmentalized in his thinking. He's got a burden for his own people. He's got a burden for his church. He's got a burden for the building program. He's got a burden for the community. A lot of good things, praise God. But he thinks that missions is for the missions committee. And the missions committee, often they feel they're struggling on their own. The pastor's not really with them. They have a missions conference. The pastor takes his vacation during that period and it sends a signal to the church that missions is not the priority. And we need a marriage. And praise God for many great pastors in Canada and the States who are in the missions. And it makes all the difference in the world. And I hope that if you're representing a church and the pastor is not here, that you will be as wise and as grace-awakened as you possibly can in your own relationship with your pastor. Because often it's some semi-obnoxious little ex-OMer, forgive me for picking on my own people, who come back after a great time on the field and they're impatient with their church and their pastor. They're not understanding what this man is wrestling with. He's got people in the church going through divorce. He's got people in the church who are in this problem and that problem. He, maybe his wife, is hassling him as well. He's just struggling. And this little missionary returns from the field with some kind of a spiritual baseball bat or cricket bat, we would say in England. A hockey stick, you'd say here in Canada. And starts going at his head with it. That's how not to do it. And guess what? We have a brilliant new book just dealing with this subject. And you need to get that book if you have to trade in one of your lovely sweaters. It's called Re-Entry. Re-Entry. It's 25 years late. They wrote my blurb on the back of it. 25 years late. Some other Christian leaders said, this book is 200 years late. Re-Entry, a subject of what you do when you return from the mission field. We have another brilliant book, I don't know if there's any of them left, called Serving as Senders. Do you have any of those left? Two copies? But Serving as Senders, I was talking to the author on the phone yesterday in California, is another one of the most significant missionary books of this decade. It's the seriousness of being a sender. Sending churches. What to do before the missionary go. When they're there. When they come back. What are some of the problems? And there are plenty. Anyway, that's a separate subject. But I just give this plea in the early part of this day, that we want to see a marriage of great truths, and we don't believe there's any competition. I was just in a church last Sunday. Seeker sensitive. Winning Americans to Christ. They're in Madison, Wisconsin. Growing. Strong. People being helped. Great ministry. And yet at the same time, phenomenal, phenomenal missionary vision. Sending out workers. The pastor goes every year himself, ministering around the world. He comes back with fresh vision. He shares it with a congregation. Now he's had to make a few changes. And to be quite honest, I feel if churches are not going to make changes, they're not going to stay with what God is wanting to do in the 21st century. You know, some churches are so behind they are just now coming into the 20th century. It's ridiculous. We're going into the 21st century. They're just coming out of the 19th into the 20th. Could it be that the church of Jesus Christ is 100 years behind in some places? I will tell you, if you don't think that's true, you visit us in England. We'll show you some churches that are 200 years behind. Go to Rome, find one that's 2000 years behind. But that's another subject. We need a marriage of great truth. We need to have this vision for the unreached people. We need to make world missions the center of our focus, praying out workers, mobilizing people, networking, facilitating. At the same time, we know we need to see people healed and helped in our churches. We know we must be seeker sensitive in our attempt to reach modern 20th century Canadian American pagans. We know that we need to sometimes change in our style and in our language. Because so often we as Christians are operating in some kind of linguistic ghetto. Even as missionaries, we have all this missionary jargon. And there's a time when we can use that, like in an Operation World Conference. But there are other times that we need to be careful in what we're saying and how we attempt to communicate the vision. As God gives you a vision for the 1040 window, as God gives you a vision to share the challenge of world missions with others, Acts 1-8, many other passages of the Word of God, as you begin to become immersed in the vision of Jesus for the lost and for the hurting and for the suffering, what are some of the practical steps you need to take? Let's move a little bit from the theoretical to the practical. Number one, you need to set aside definite time. Definite time every day for missionary praying. Get missionary prayer letters. Sign up for some of these letters. You say, I'm already getting too many letters. How many is too many missionary letters? Is that fine? How many of you are getting more than five missionary letters? Raise your hand. Okay. We've only got a few getting more than five. I would have thought with the brain that God has given us, the brain is amazing, that you could easily handle a hundred missionary letters. If you learn to redeem the time, you learn to redeem the time so you can read some of those letters when you're sitting waiting for somebody. I handle hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds, actually thousands of letters. Now, admittedly, I'm overcommitted. I'm not asking you in any way to do what I'm doing. I've let it build up over 38 years. But I have found it's such a blessing, even though sometimes my prayer letters get backlogged about that many. I carry a whole suitcase full of correspondence when I come on a trip like this. I find on a half day of prayer, even an hour of prayer, I can touch many people's lives. So I don't think to ask people to have a few dozen missionary letters, missionary agency's letters, I don't think that's asking too much. Set aside specific time. Learn how to redeem the time. Cut down some of the other reading. Some of the other things we read are such a waste of time. I read widely also. Get many secular magazines. I read many books. But one of the greatest focuses in my life is missionary literature. Leaflets like this, I never read them. I pray through them. The book Operation World is geared to pray through. It's not a book for reading. It's a book to pray through. Some of the items are listed as specific prayer requests. So the first step as you practically respond, as you commit yourself to world missions and say, Lord, I'm available. I want to be used. I believe this is from your Word. And I'm catching, Lord, the vision of the unreached people, is to set aside specific time for information and for prayer. And of course, sometimes that's work. It's not going to be easy. I believe one of the reasons we're seeing many casualties in the Church of Jesus Christ today is the failure to emphasize the disciplined life. People generally today are not disciplined. This is why we're losing a leader every single day, just to immorality alone. A major leader every single day, that's 365 days. That is a gross understatement. I just use that as an understatement to somehow maybe shock people into realizing what is actually going on in the moral arena. That is going to be the subject of my next message. And I believe a lot of it is linked to the fact that we have not taught what the Scripture says about discipline. The Apostle Paul said, I buffet my body and bring it into subjection, lest after preaching to others I become a castaway. If we taught young Christians how to buffet their body, how to say no to temptation, how to use the Word of God, how to use the weapons of spiritual warfare, Ephesians chapter 6, most of this would never happen. There's a book in your bookstore called The Snare. Greatest single book I know on the prevention of immorality next to the New Testament. Get a copy if you possibly can. Published by The Navigators. Absolutely brilliant. So if we are going to be men and women of missions, if we are going to be committed to reaching the unreached people, we are going to have to take practical steps and the most practical is we're going to have to discipline our lives. Got to get control over that television. Got to get control over that refrigerator. Got to get control over how we use our time, how we use our money. We got to get control over our small talk. There's nothing wrong with a little chit-chat, a little small talk, but I, for missionary revolutionists, recommend that as something you do with great moderation. Because it can just chew up so much time. Just fooling around. I've ministered in most of Canada's Bible colleges. I want to tell you, many of our young people in these colleges are locked into a syndrome of superficiality in which the Spirit of God is quenched, in which you cannot get through to them without a lot of prayer and a lot of work. And praise God, there has been some of that. And we are getting through to some of them. But Canada should be sending many, many more men and women into the harvest field. We should be having many more men and women missionary heroes going out. But it starts when they're young. Getting their priorities sorted out. Understanding the way of the cross. Understanding what a disciplined life is really all about. As one man of God said, there'll be no gain without pain. And I'm afraid that frightens a lot of people away from real biblical discipleship. Another practical step we need to take is to get involved with other visionaries. Not everybody is a leader. Some people are leaders, they're self-starters. They don't need that much fellowship with other visionaries. They just go. There are not many of them. Most of us need fellowship. God in His sovereignty, when He took me to Maryville College, a liberal arts college where my faith was attacked by the very professors, in God's providence led me to a young man named Dale Roton, one year older than me, or one year ahead of me in his studies. I think we're almost the same age. I was warned about this guy as soon as I got on campus. I said, you know, watch out for Dale Roton. He's a fanatic. He's baptizing people in the showers. So he's one of the first persons I look for. The influence that man had on my life is uncanny. He was not a great visionary. He was not a conceptual person. He was a mentor. He was a disciple. And he discipled me and helped me come out of some of my, you know, child, babyhood habits as I was just a baby Christian. And we became lifelong friends. We've been together for 37 years. We've only had two or three arguments in all those 37 years. I always remember one. In the early days in Europe, he wrote me this ruthless letter. I was so hurt by this letter accusing me of this or that. I said, Dale, we've got to meet together. I had challenged him to go to Turkey. We met together in Geneva, in a little hotel room in Geneva. In 20 minutes, it was all solved, because we'd both been reading the book Calvary Road. And we just broke before Jesus and repented, and the disagreement was resolved. God is wanting you to have very significant, important relationships with other visionary, committed disciples. Find them. Don't be disappointed if you don't find them the right week. You might find someone here today that can be a mentor, or that you can be a mentor to them. It doesn't matter so much the terminology. We're more concerned with the reality. Friendship, praying for one another, phoning one another. Sometimes, even people that we don't see much, we don't see them much, they're on the other side of the world, but we sense they're with us. We sense we're not alone because of people that we've been bonded to, even on a day conference like today. So, a practical step, if we're going to evangelize the world, is to be bonded together, is to make commitments to one another, to pray for one another, to care for one another, to be there at that moment of difficulty. One of the phone calls I made on the way here was to a long-standing friend who, through a whole series of flukes, he's just been divorced. He's just gone through divorce. His daughter actually accused him of abusing her when she was a child. A horrendous thing. He had to go to court. He was clear to these accusations in court, but the marriage broke. Is this the end for him? Do I now write him off? No. It's when our friends and our loved ones, other believers, are in a moment of despair and difficulty that we must be there. We must turn off our television and forget some of our eating and all of our gluttony and be there at the moment of need when people are suffering and crying out, and sometimes even on the verge of suicide. And Christians all over the world are committing suicide. We cannot separate the vision to reach the world with the gospel with our love for the man next door and across the street. Though it may seem idealistic, I believe by God's grace and a balance of truth, it is possible. Of course, we have to know our limitations. One of the reasons I'm still running the race so many years later is because I have a clear theology of limitation and I know how to say no. You cannot do everything. And some things in ministry are incredibly time-consuming. You especially, if God is calling you to world ministry, must beware of getting in something at home that is so totally time-consuming, like counseling has a tendency to be, if you're not careful. Because then you won't have any time, the end of the day, for this vision of reaching the world with the gospel. That does take time. I personally feel in many churches and many places, the whole counseling ministry is out of control. And some of the people, the more counseling they get, the more ill they get. When they sometimes just need to repent and to learn how to press on and not be blown away by every different funny emotion. We all get funny emotions. We all wrestle with degrees of up and down. And I'm not against counseling, but I feel that the tendency in many Canadian churches and American churches now is sort of international navel-gazing and introspection. When we need to look unto Jesus and receive His grace and receive His healing and realize we are accepted in Him and we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us, Philippians. Another practical step, of course, that I've already referred to is that we need to get involved. At least, perhaps, a summer overseas. If possible, one or two years overseas. But we also need to be involved with people locally. How many people God has brought to Winnipeg from all over the world? And Winnipeg is one of the most wonderful cities in Canada because you're a bilingual city. I think that's just so great. I know we're not in Winnipeg right now, but a number of you have come from Winnipeg. And to me, to live in Winnipeg, immediately you want to learn French. I mean, that would just be so basic to learn French. I tell all my American friends in California and Miami, learn Spanish. Spanish is so easy. Even an idiot can learn Spanish. I learned Spanish. But if you don't want to learn French, I don't want to get on your case, why don't you try Arabic? You got Arabic-speaking people in Winnipeg as well. God is bringing internationals from all over the world to Canada. Places like, I think Toronto now has been named as one of the most cosmopolitan places on the whole planet. How can it be that people with a global vision, people that love Jesus and believe God's Word are not getting involved with these internationals in our midst? It is a contradiction to what we're singing about on Sunday morning. I think if I ever pastored a church, once a year I'd announce, we will have no service this Sunday morning. It is such a tradition. It is such a rut most churches in. They always come together on Sunday morning. I would say, this Sunday morning, everybody, you're all glad I'm not a pastor, this Sunday morning we're all going to go out and talk to people about Jesus. Or, we'll do it Saturday night, because that's where the people are at, right? We have to contextualize. We'll go out Saturday night to two in the morning, witnessing for Jesus, and Sunday we'll all have the Holy Ghost sleep in to recover from the evangelism on Saturday night. You say, wow, it's good this guy's not in my church. He would really rock the boat. Well, those of us in the ship ministry, we are used to rocking boats, because you cannot move a ship unless it rocks a little bit. And somehow I feel you cannot steer a church, you cannot steer God's people unless they begin to move. It's better to move and make a few mistakes than never move at all and become one more evangelical fish just being blown wherever the tide is going. A practical step for those of us who are committed to missions is to witness and share Jesus Christ right where we are. That's how it happened in my life. My own hometown, door-to-door. And my own home city, New York City, reached tens of thousands with the gospel before I ever went to another city. Then I went across America distributing gospels. I was still in business selling firefighting equipment, so I did both at the same time. It was then, after God used me, my own town, my own country, in a meager way, then God sent me to Mexico. And I believe it's not an either-or situation. I'm a visionary interested in reaching the 1040 window. Canada is not the 1040 window, so I'm not speaking to anybody about Jesus Christ in Canada. No, it's got to be both. These are some of the practical steps, and as you read some of the books that we have brought along, you will discover many other practical steps that you need to take in order to really get involved. And God can use you as a missionary spark plug. I don't know unless new cars, I guess they won't have spark plugs. But the old cars that we, you know, mainly all drive in old cars, they have spark plugs. And God wants every one of us somehow to be spark plugs that can help ignite other people, help get the high intensity auto of God's great mission program going forward in a greater way. Let us pray, and then we're going to break up for our seminars, and I'll have a chance to share with you again later. Lord, we thank you for the challenge of the 1040 window. We thank you for the challenge of world missions. We thank you for Acts 1-8. We shall be your witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, the uttermost parts of the earth. Lord, we long with all of our hearts for a great grassroots missions movement right here in Canada. We know a lot is already happening, and we thank you. We thank you for everything that is happening. We know that you are sending out workers, and we praise you for that. And Lord, we need to. We need to see the finance raised up to keep them out there. And Lord, we know that's another one of the great practical areas that all of us can get involved. The ministry of giving financially to enable this whole great program to go forward. Guide us as we go to these different seminars, as we fellowship with different people, that somehow as a result of today, we would never be the same. For we pray in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.