In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of spreading the Word of God to every person on the planet. He shares the story of Hudson Taylor, the founder of the ONF, and his belief that if giving the gospel once is not enough, then not giving it at all is even worse. The speaker highlights the need to reach the unreached people, especially in the Muslim world. He encourages the audience to join in the goal of distributing the Word of God in various forms, including film and cassette, to ensure that everyone has access to it. The sermon also touches on the spiritual warfare that comes with evangelizing the world and the need for faith and perseverance in the face of opposition.

We are not a mission society as you would know it. We are a training movement. Of course, some of our long-term people who are in church planting in places like Turkey and Pakistan or Afghanistan, that's different. And there are several hundred of those. Among their other jobs, whatever work they're doing, they also have to train the new people who are with them short-term. That creates quite a lot of tension. But the work of the summer crusade and the one or two-year program, one of our greatest burdens, and I say this all over the world, this isn't something I'm saying tonight because it's Brother Trevor's, is to recruit people, because God has given us a great open door among hundreds of thousands of people and with a ship, to recruit people and to train them to join these great mission societies. Ralph Shallis is speaking in my place tonight. Dr. Lionel Gurney, the founder of the Red Sea Mission Team, will speak on Monday. And as these great men come to speak, I remember when Len Mould came to speak, he was director of the WECC. His new biography is also there, just published. Then people leave OM and they join these missions. Every year, dozens and dozens leave OM to join some of these great mission societies. In fact, every time I'm given orientation at OMF in Singapore, when I've been out there, there's two or three or four OM people, even our second officer off the ship, going through that difficult OMF orientation to be a missionary with that great society. So this is where it fits together. Many of these young people come with us. Not are they not only ready for mission societies, many of them don't even believe in mission. They come from churches and house groups that have no teaching on mission. But somehow they heard about OM, that it was a summer of service, and maybe their talents could be used on this ship or somewhere. And it's often after they come with us, and many of them are just babes in Christ, then they begin, as they meet missionaries, and as they go to these one-month training conferences as they're in right now, 12 hours a day for a month, their eyes open. Many of them feel, because the missionary has always been painted in some people's minds, even though missionaries haven't said this, it's in people's minds as something's going to be very super spiritual. I did read some time ago one of the qualifications, a little booklet, qualifications to be a missionary. It turned out I was utterly depressed after reading that. I certainly don't have it, never did have it. I went to three years of Bible school and got some training, two years of Bible school and a year of college. But I believe there is so much miscommunication that God has raised up movements like OM to communicate what it's all about, to give young people a chance to meet a real missionary and to see that missionaries are ordinary people. God is calling ordinary people. Tonight you may feel the last thing in the world you would ever be as a missionary. And you don't have the gift. You're not able to speak in public. As a young lad, I never thought I'd ever be able to speak in public. And you may feel you'll never get the theological training or whatever. But if you've got a better understanding, I believe your ideas perhaps could be changed. Now we read from the word of God in Matthew chapter 9. And you could turn there again. And I think we need to often turn to that passage to be reminded of the great ministry of prayer that God has given us. Let me just somehow push in my own feeble testimony of God's grace at this point. Because it's a testimony concerning a woman who believed that this was God's word. There in the church today, and it's frightening, there is an eroding of the word of God and a failure to acknowledge that this is God's holy inspired word. And in our own movement, it doesn't mean we won't fellowship with you if you don't believe exactly as we do. We believe that this is his inherent word. The originals were without error. They were inspired by God. We know in God's providence those originals are no longer available. But we believe in studying the text and in studying archaeology that there's enough proof and we know there are problems to say this is God's word and we can trust it. And it is without error. Though it has been copied many times and there are slight changes in manuscripts, those changes do not affect the basic teaching of the word of God. You say, well, that's a strange exhortation to bring into a missionary meeting. But you see, the reason people are not going to the mission field is they don't believe in the authority of God's word. They don't believe that men are lost. Our seminaries have become cemeteries and they're not sending forth men any longer to the mission field because they don't believe that the heathen are lost. Or if they believe something even more extreme, like, well, if the Lord wants to save them, he can save them. There's nothing we can do about that. Anyway, I've got to build a bigger house. How can I get involved in world missions? Here was a simple, ordinary woman near my secondary school where I started to study. She believed the word of God. Therefore she believed men were lost. Therefore she believed world missions was a priority. And she started praying forth labors, not from the nearby Bible school. We didn't have any Bible school near there. She prayed for labors from an ungodly secondary school where a third of the students were drunk every weekend. In God's providence, I went to that school. I didn't know Christ. My grandfather and father from the Netherlands. Grandfather was an atheist. My other grandfather from Glasgow, he was a drunk. Divorced from my grandmother. Our home was one big mess. And this woman prayed for me and sent me a gospel of John through the post. Have you heard of the great ministry of the pocket testament league? Well, one of their gospels ended up in my hands through this woman, through the post. I believe in distributing the word of God. And it is our burden and our goal, working together with all different organizations and fellowship, because we feel we're one in Christ, to see the word of God go into the hands of every single person on the planet. If you'd like to have a big goal, would you join us with that goal? The word of God in every single hand, every single heart. And if they don't read, then we'll put it on film. We'll preach it. We'll put it on cassette. There are ten ways you can reach a man, including those who don't know how to read. Never has the world been faced with such unlimited opportunities for reaching the masses. Yet, despite that, probably 40% of the world has still not had the word of God even once. People say, well, giving the gospel once, that's not enough. Certainly giving the gospel once, a leaflet, a tract, a gospel, you can't say he's evangelized. No, we wouldn't say that. But Hudson Taylor said, and he founded the OMF, and now James Hudson Taylor III is the director. That excites me. And a new film is just being released about the life of Hudson Taylor that I believe the Holy Spirit wants to use in a mighty way. We long to put it into about ten languages and circulate it across the world, both in 16 millimeter, Super 8 video cassette, and I better not talk about that. Another sidetrack. Hudson Taylor said, if giving the gospel once is not enough, what do we say of not giving the gospel at all? And that's the way 40%, approximately, of the people in the world are tonight. Especially the Muslim world, especially the unreached people. So this dear woman had a vision. And she sent a gospel to a little lad in school, myself. I read this, and in the hands of God, it led to my conversion. Billy Graham came to New York City just for one night. I didn't even know what an evangelist was. Even though I had people living next door to me who belonged to the Exclusive Brethren. I didn't even know what they were. They were my next door neighbor. I just thought they were crazy. We have no idea. Those of you reared in the church, I came from the other side. We have no idea how we tend to become isolated through our jargon, through our vocabulary, through our meetings where people would often not feel very welcome. They may not be dressed properly or something. How isolated we become, even from the man next door. Much less the Hindu, the Muslim, the Buddhist. And as you know, the Muslims are building mosques from one end of Britain to the other. Probably haven't got one up yet. And Barry, it'll take a little while to get down this far. They'll have to check their map. One woman prayed. God spoke to me through His Word in a strange set of circumstances. Not time to explain. I went to this meeting in New York City, and I heard the gospel of the grace of God. And by His sovereign, irresistible grace, I was drawn to the Savior and born again in His Spirit that night. And I've never been the same, not one day, these 27 years. One woman prayed. Think of the potential in this church tonight if men and women would become men and women of prayer. If prayer were our priority, if the prayer meeting were brought back into the rightful place within the church, and even in the work of world mission. Because if you don't think the lack of spiritual reality spreads to the mission field, obviously you haven't been out there. We have had thousands of Christian leaders and workers come to our ships for seminars and for training. And we bring anointed men of God, often nationals, to minister the Word. And we've discovered that prayerlessness is no respecter of persons. And I can tell you, as we met as leaders of our own fellowship last week, came together from all over the world to pray and have a day of prayer and a night of prayer, and wait upon God. Our Lord convicted us as a fellowship of prayerlessness, of playing around with holy things. I do not come to you to talk about some great movement of spiritual giants. Because O.M. is a very needy fellowship. And we're hungry for God. We're hungry for what men like Lloyd-Jones and Tozer say in these great books. We're hungry to re-read again and again the writings of men like Andrew Murray, that somehow the spiritual superficiality, which is so prevalent in our day, may be burned from our lives by the purging, loving fire of our God. It is said of our God that He is a consuming fire. A consuming fire, something that I've often meditated on. I read a book by Samuel Logan Bringo called Resurrection, Life and Power. And in this book there is a definition of fire. He said, what is fire? It is love. It is faith. It is hope. It is passion, purpose, determination. It is utter devotion. It is divine discontent with formality, ceremonialism, lukewarmness, indifference, sham, noise, parade, and spiritual death. It is singleness of eye and a consecration unto death. It is God the Holy Ghost burning in and through a humble, holy, faithful man. I want to ask you. I don't believe anyone is here tonight by accident. Would you be that man? Would you be that woman? I went back to my secondary school in fear and trembling. And through the Word of God I saw that in a little booklet that the best thing we could do is just start to pray. So we started a prayer meeting in this ungodly secondary school. And one or two came to Christ. And then a dozen. And when I left the school, the dozen or two opened the door for me to come back. Six hundred came to the meeting. And over 125 came for counseling in regard to the salvation of their lives and their souls. One woman prayed and a revival came to that school. She not only prayed that people would be saved, but she prayed that people would be saved and sent. That's the kind of praying we need today. Open-ended praying. Open-ended evangelism. Praise God that your conference here still even has a missionary night. Something that some conferences have decided to drop. Well, in the future, if you don't call it a missionary night, that's not the most important thing. Often in order to get the young people in the meeting, I have to make sure they don't announce that I'm a missionary. That's a guarantee to cut 30% attendance on the meeting. Isn't that a shame? But it's true. At Spring Harvest, I could speak to six and a half thousand. Because I just go there as a youth speaker, as an evangelist, as a writer, whatever. I don't care what they call me, as long as I get in. And I've had dozens and dozens of letters and feedback of young people touched in those meetings. In fact, some of them were already in Europe. Some young people got touched by the message of prayer. They organized a night of prayer on their own. Only seven came. Four out of the seven joined us on Operation Mobilization three months later. And are praying about a life of service for Jesus Christ. It was E.M. Bounds, the man who wrote one of the strongest books on prayer ever put in print, called Power Through Prayer. Who said the church looks for better machinery. God looks for better men. What kind of men? Men of prayer. I want to ask you, are you a man of prayer? Are you a woman of prayer? Is that some kind of mythological thing of yesteryear? Like Robin Hood? Is George Mueller become a mythological figure? Playing hard? Hudson Taylor? And we say, though not verbally, but by our actions. Oh, not today. We're so busy, you know. Heller-Sivy and all the wonders of the documentary programs we can get. And usually the best one is Sunday evening at 6.30. And the second best is during the night of prayer or the half night of prayer or the church prayer meeting. How can it be that our spiritual life has sunk so low in this nation, and that includes Wales, my beloved brethren, that we can't afford one hour to pray. And yet we so quickly point fingers at other people, whether they're English or French. Or just the denomination down the road. Or just a little house group up the road. Billy Graham says we have taken the sword of the Spirit and we have turned on one another instead of using it to evangelize the world. I believe that God wants to bring us back to His Word. God wants us to face the reality of what spiritual life is really about and what New Testament Christianity really is. There was a little quotation I cut out of one of those books by A.W. Tozer because I wanted to paste it somewhere that I wouldn't lose it. He said evangelical Christianity is now tragically below the New Testament standard. Worldliness is the accepted part of our way of life. Our religious mood is social instead of spiritual. We have lost the art of worship. We are not producing saints. Our models are the successful businessmen, the celebrated athletes, the theatrical personalities. We carry on our religious activities after the methods of modern advertisers. Our homes have been turned into theaters. Our literature is shallow in our hymnology, borders on sacrilege, and scarcely anyone appears to care. World mission is directly linked with spiritual life. We cannot propagate that which we do not have. Tozer said that our first obligation is not world evangelism, but it is to be worthy. It is to be the kind of men and women who are able to spread a true form of the Christian message across the world. I was singing this evening as I was praying about this message about two men in the Old Testament, Caleb and Joshua. Do you remember those two men? Do you have any of those in Wales? I'm sure you do. And I've studied just enough of church history in Wales to know that this small nation has played a major role in world evangelism in years gone by. And to this present hour. And this is not the hour to faint. This is not the hour to put our head in the proverbial evangelical sand like some kind of gospel ostrich and feel, oh, there's nothing really we can do now. Just wait to the end. No, this is a time to unite. Men and women of different churches, we may not all agree, but we need to unite in prayer. We need to unite in world evangelism. We can still fellowship in our own churches if they are biblical. There is unity in the midst of diversity. God's great work isn't to amalgamate denominations. God's great work is to amalgamate the Holy Spirit and the living Christ with people. Transform lives. And as lives are transformed, churches will be transformed, and the gospel will go forward. To remind me of this, I wrote something in my Bible that came into my mind some time ago. And it's one of the mottos in our own work, where we work together with people of different denominations, provided they stand upon the Word of God. I've written this. It may help you. Because of world evangelism and the reality of spiritual warfare, we need to agree on a plan of action and a strategy and policy to carry out that action, even when there are things we don't like or even agree with. You know, I discovered that wasn't only true for world evangelism and to be in tune with God's people. You know where else I discovered it was true? Marriage. I wonder how many of you have entered into marriage. You look, most of you, like the married type. You know, it seems that marriage is God's great graduate program. At 20 years of age, I had been to Mexico. I had won many people to Christ. I was preaching. I was leading these teams. I was learning and speaking Spanish. People had rebuked me for my lack of love. I was seeing these things in the Word of God. I began to understand the crucified life and what it was to appropriate the power of Christ. And I was saved at 16. I thought, boy, I'm really getting spiritual. Boy, I'm really, really getting on. Then I got married. God's graduate school. And ever since the day of those wedding bells, through marriage and through rearing three teenagers, one going off to Southampton University next week, the other to Croydon Technical College, the third is going to join me and travel out to Pakistan in an old bus. I have discovered many uncrucified areas of Georgeville where, I can assure you, and I know a lot less now in some ways than I knew when I graduated from Moody Bible Institute with a big gospel smile. In the Christian life, we never arrived. I heard Alan Redpath preaching at Keswick. A man who's had a great influence in my life was a pastor in Chicago when I lived there, emphasizing the need for a childlike spirit. Not childish. We have lots of that in the church. A childlike spirit, even as we go on in Christian service, even as pastors or teachers. I'm encouraged this evening as I think of Caleb and Joshua. Now, I must confess my tendency is to go too long. I've only got to my introduction. I'm known as one of the longest speakers in Europe. I was speaking in Germany, and I won't go over time tonight, so don't worry. But I was speaking in Germany. It was our own meeting. It's our own OM meeting, and I feel I'm going to decide the time. If I'm a guest, especially first time, I'm always very cautious. As you can tell tonight, I'm very shy, taking it through our low profile. But it was so funny, this meeting, because the young people were just really taking the Word of God in. And God is working in Germany. We had 350 Germans join us this summer. They are the main group standing behind the second ship. Great Britain is the main group standing behind the first ship. And I'm preaching about an hour and a half. One man in the back, I think he wanted to go home, and he wanted me to stop. So he held up his watch, and he's pointing. I was preaching about world evangelism and total commitment, discipleship, forsaking all for Christ. And as I saw that watch, I said, oh, praise the Lord. Here's a man donating his wristwatch for world evangelism. So be careful when you try to stop me, brother. But really what I wanted to speak on was about Caleb and Joshua and the spiritual warfare and how Satan will attack any effort, any effort we make to evangelize the world. Just in quick summary, Caleb and Joshua went into the Promised Land. They came back with other spies. Everybody was negative. They were positive. Caleb said, let's go up. We can take the land. Joshua, he had a different vocabulary. He had been to Keswick, the more deeper life vocabulary. Joshua said, if the Lord delight in us, he will give us the land. So one had been in Petrus. Let's go up. We can conquer the land. He and Thomas went like that. The other one, if, how did it go? If we abide in the Lord, we trust the Lord, we delight in the Lord, he will give us the land. The Christian church so often fights over vocabulary. Have you ever compared Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones' vocabulary with Ian Thomas' vocabulary? Well, it seemed to me in one of his recent books that Dr. Lloyd-Jones just about destroyed everything I read from one of Ian Thomas' books. Maybe I was just seeing things. I'll go back and read it again. God uses different men in different ways. And as Dr. Francis Schaeffer says in his amazing book, Ash Heap Lives, all Christian leaders have clay feet. And the church must understand that, or they will never understand God's purposes. They will never understand some of the unbelievably ridiculous things that men of God do. And some of the greatest men of God have been subject, for example, to tremendous depression, like McCain of Scotland or Spurgeon of London, who used to run away to the beaches of France to overcome weeks of depression. This treasure is in earthen vessels. That is so important to understand, because otherwise we read of Caleb and Joshua and we think, well, I mean, that's not me. These are ordinary men who had an extraordinary God. And they launched out by faith. And they were the only two men allowed into the promised land. Of course, as they went into the promised land, there were many enemies. And as we think of the task of world evangelism, there will be many enemies. And even as we leave tonight praying about this, considering the possibilities of missionary service or becoming involved through more prayer, giving and going and being, mobilizing others, Satan will counterattack. One of the passages that the Spirit of God has burned into my heart the most is Ephesians chapter 6, where we're exhorted to take the shield of faith, wherewith we should stop the fiery darts of the devil. This week I was reading about the new sex revolution that will be coming our way. It's already coming. You say, what's that? The teaching that it's all right to have sex before marriage? No, that's 20 years ago. Is it the teaching that homosexuality is acceptable? No, that's the last 10 years. The new teaching that is coming out is that there must be a child's liberation movement and that it is perfectly normal and acceptable for children of any age, even shortly after birth, to engage in sexual activity. Full page, major magazine spread last week. And then people wonder why some of us feel that at times there's a little need to cry out and to pray for our nation and to speak up and to go down to this little funny guy in the corner who's displaying all the pornographic things and who eventually will have the child pornography under the drawer and maybe just gently give him a little exhortation. Pornography has broken on London like a giant hurricane sweeping in. And child pornography is part of it. And no doubt there will be a toddler's liberation movement so that all the toddlers can do what they want. I won't go any further. But I believe that is just one of 30 things I could speak to you about tonight concerning what's happening in the world. Brother Talbrook, an author who is with me tonight, has written this book on death that shows that so much of this talk, a major feature in Reader's Digest this month, about people coming back from the dead, is generally, as far as it can be understood, evil spirits. People are not coming back from the dead and telling about it. But evil forces are moving. People are deceived. And there are many deceptive spirits loose in our day. And Christians, if they don't stay close to God, if they don't know their Bibles, if they're not in the spiritual warfare resisting the forces of darkness, can also be deceived. I believe that we are in a great spiritual warfare. And in these closing moments, let's see where I am on my watch. I'm going to finish at 9. I think you even said 9.15. So, see, I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt. I've got to drive to Southport. I don't know whether to go tonight or tomorrow. I guess it would be better tomorrow. Might be floods. But as we launch out in the spiritual warfare, there will be counterattacks. And as we have launched out in this great missionary work, and I believe we're all one, OMF, WEC, BMMF, all of us together are a very small force. Let's face it. Satan is going to counterattack. Let me just share, a few of you may want to write this down, some of the things I believe we can expect as we become serious about the Lord and about the Word and about His Lordship. First of all, there's the fiery dart of unbelief and fear. God's Word says in Timothy, Our Lord has not given us a spirit of fear, but of love and power and a sound mind. I am a naturally fearful person. Some of you young people, you think to be a missionary, you've got to be courageous. You're looking at a real coward. In our country where I was reared, you know, we call them chickens. But you see, now, because of conversion, because of Christ's Spirit, I have a courage, I have a force within me that is not mine. And I have seen the most shy, little, quiet, English sister, controlled by the Lord, learn something of evangelism and become a fervent, effective witness for Christ. So many sisters used to say to me, or some said to me, You know, we're very quiet. You know, if you come in big, noisy, loud-mouthed American, you don't understand us. We're just a little shy. English. Now, I know the Welsh are supposedly not quite that shy. But you get that same sister on her favorite subject, sewing or cooking or boys. Great gift to speak. Tremendous gift to speak. And then get married to her and give her some trouble in the kitchen some night or complain about this or that or be a general pest like many a husband around the house. You'll discover she's quite a speaker. I believe that if somehow we could come to know the Lord Jesus a little more and we knew His Word and His life, we would be able to speak more freely of Him. It's not a matter of being some super-talented, great speaker. It's a matter of letting Christ control your tongue and your heart. God has not given us a spirit of fear. We live in fearful, awesome days. The laser beam, the neutron bomb, term warfare, every day in the newspaper, someone else killed, some other terrorist. You don't think it's going to happen in Wales? The child of God has not been given a spirit of fear but of love and of power and of a sound mind. And I have seen that work these 20-some years in 40 or 50 nations across the world in many a frightening situation. The second fiery dart, I believe, is the fiery dart of materialism. There's an amazing book out called The Golden Cow by John White, a man from Lancashire now disturbing the saints in Canada. He also wrote that book Parents in Pain to help those who have children away from God, a gifted writer. And he speaks of how money often becomes very, very manipulative in the work of God. Surely it's the root of many evils. We discover one of the biggest things that keeps young people from coming with us is the manipulative power and the control that money has in our society. The unwillingness to become serious about commands like those words of Jesus in Luke 14, 33, except you forsake all that you have, you can't be my disciple. We rationalize about those verses but we take John 3, 16 literally. The blessings we take literally, the responsibilities we rationalize and explain that that would lead us to extremism. Now I admit, and that's my third enemy of world evangelism, that extremism is an enemy and we need to avoid it like the plague. Tozer said the more keen young person is more easily led astray. And one of the main things we teach when people come on OM is Bible doctrine, how to avoid extremes, spiritual balance, church history, and a lot of other things that have kept us these 25 years, almost a quarter of a century, from going astray. But you know, I don't think that's the problem in the average church. People too enthusiastic, maybe that's your church. A.W. Tozer said to think that too much enthusiasm was the greatest problem in the average church was like sending a squadron of policemen to the nearby cemetery to guard against a demonstration by the resident at midnight. He didn't feel it was the biggest problem in the average church. Praise God. If revival has come to your church or even a degree of church growth, God works in different ways in different churches, you can be sure that right after it will be the fiery dart of extremism. Yes, we believe there needs to be fire. Our God is a consuming fire. But there's also false fire. The false fire of emotionalism. The false fire of intellectualism. The false fire of super-spirituality. Perfectionism. Prosperityism. Super-submissionism. Total answerism. I could keep you all night if I got on that subject. Yes, the devil's clever. And I'm concerned that many of the house groups go into these things. That's why we need to pray that if there's a new church born, it may be based on the Word of God. That's why we need to have dialogue and contact, so if they're young Christians, they can learn what true biblical doctrine is and avoid the extremes that so quickly carry people from one thing to another. And I want to tell you, already thousands have come out of some of the house groups that were too super-spiritual, and they're beaten down, they've been hurt, they've been manipulated, and they don't even want to go to church anymore. It seems that whatever God has done in Britain, at least in the history that I've read of the church, it has always begun with extremes. It seems that when God wants to start something, He has to find someone who's somewhat extreme. That doesn't mean He's totally away from God. I'm not talking about that. Whether it's Wesley or Whitfield, whether it's the story of the early brethren, they were usually men of tremendous extremes. And unfortunately, some of their followers became more extreme, and that led often to spiritual difficulties. The fourth fiery dart is the fiery dart of impurity. 2 Timothy 2.22 says that we need to flee youthful life. But you know what many young people think? They think that because they don't have yet 100% victory in the area of impurity, in the relationship with the opposite sex, they could never possibly be a missionary. And so they're waiting until they get 100% victory, and then they'll feel maybe worthy to think about being a missionary. That is completely backwards. Many missionaries on the field still have struggles in the area of lust. I've had many missionaries tell me it's the greatest battle they face, wherever they go. And yes, I believe there must be a degree of victory, and I believe there must be spiritual growth, but our message is not perfection, it's reality. And we are sinners saved by grace, and we have to understand that the victorious life includes goal number one, 1 John 2, verse 1, part 1. Sin not. What's part 2? If you sin, you have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. Young person, the Bible says, though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be made as white as snow. Maybe you think you're a failure. Maybe you think you've got too many problems in your life to ever be a missionary. Some of the greatest missionaries who have ever worked, even as Christians, even as missionaries, had many difficulties and many failures. The church and mission organizations are not fraternities for super saints. They're dynamic fellowships of people relating to one another, walking with God, who are all sinners saved by grace. Needless to say, without total war against impurity, we're not going to go very far. There's a book on that table, also I believe by John White, on that subject. God has used mightily in the lives of many people called Eros defiled. And then the fifth fiery dart is the fiery dart of false ideas. The enemy is always sowing false ideas. False ideas about missionary work, like missionaries are no longer needed, or you can only be a missionary if you have so much education. Do you know one of the greatest needs in our work? We have 450 full-time people in India, many speakers, many preachers. You know what we lack? Secretaries, truck drivers, and bookkeepers. We have more preachers sometimes than we know what to do with. Where do you get bookkeepers? Accountants, truck drivers, mechanics. We live in a highly technical world. There are ways that we can serve the national church. In India we mainly serve our Indian brothers, and they want transportation, they want literature, they need help in the offices. Teaching and teachers are also needed. Church planters are also needed. One of the main things our Indian brothers go into after they graduate from OM, usually five years of training, church planting. I believe the most effective church planting will be done by nationals. Spirit-filled, trained, spiritually balanced nationals. That is one of the greatest goals in our entire work. Everything we have in one sense goes to that direction, and it's one of the reasons that even in places like France we've seen 14 new churches born. No, it's not just young people roaming around Europe giving out tracts. It's not just a couple of ships reaching a few millions of people with the Word of God. Ultimately our burden is to see, especially in the Muslim world and places where there are no churches, living churches born of people who know God, who worship God. Tozer said worship was a missing jewel of the evangelical church, and it's one of the greatest burdens on our hearts. And then, sixthly, ignorance is another fiery dart. That's why it's so good to get books like Operation World and get to understand more of what God is doing around the world. This book presents information on almost every nation in the world. That's why it's so good to have conferences like this and times when we can hear from missionaries like our brother from Japan. And then seventhly, laziness. Eighthly, intellectualism. Ninth, disunity and failure to build relationships. Tenth, carelessness. Eleventh, the lack of Holy Spirit power. And twelfth, the failure to make Jesus Christ Lord. The first thing tonight is to decide whether you're going to go with OMF to Japan or OM to India. The first thing tonight is to make sure Christ is Lord so that you can say, Jesus, I'll go wherever you want. Maybe it's just Cardiff. Maybe it's the back streets of London who work among Bengalis. They're coming in there by the tens of thousands. Our biggest Arab team works in London, just among Arabs. Can you say, is that great prophet of old, Isaiah? Here am I. Send me. In the context of the New Testament, can you say that Jesus Christ is your Lord and that you'll begin under His Lordship to search the Word of God and to more seriously commit yourself to the great task of world missions, praying for others to go out into the harvest, getting involved in the prayer life of your church and especially praying for world missions and especially holding high the shield of faith wherewith you can stop those fiery darts. Beloved, there's a job for everyone. One of the greatest heartbreaks in my life is when I no longer as an American could get a visa back to India. And in God's providence, also as my children were going to secondary school for education, I settled where I could find a rent-free house in southeast London. It hasn't been easy. Now my adopted country, two of my children are British citizens. They're not going back to the United States no matter what. So this is home. My heart is still in India. My desire in so many ways is to be in India and praying since 1968, 13 years, I still cannot get back. For me, the door is closed. But for anybody who's a British citizen, the door for India is wide open, at least for short term. And so I come. I come as someone who's found it wonderfully fulfilling to live in England. And for those of you like me who feel a little bit stuck here in Wales, which is, of course, a lot better in England, there's a job for you. There's a work for you. And I remember when I first came, I learned a new hymn. I never heard it in Spain, where I was living before, or America. There's a work for Jesus ready at your hand. It may be small, but as you're faithful in the small things, God will give you a bigger thing. And I hope, and I pray, that somehow tonight as we go, we will not be hearers of the word, because we become accustomed to hearing messages. And in Wales, you have many great preachers. I've come with just feeble exhortation. Somehow, we may not go as hearers, but doers. Let us pray. Let's have a moment in which we can pray in our own hearts prayers of commitment. And maybe recommitting our lives to Jesus and asking Him to take over our lives by His Spirit in a greater way. And maybe to, by faith, make Him the Lord of your life. That might mean dealing with specific sins. If you confess your sin, He's faithful and just to forgive you and cleanse you from all unrighteousness. Do that now. And make Him Lord of your life. To go where He wants you to go and to do what He wants you to do. For others, God may lead or be leading you to take specific steps to move toward at least missionary work or missionary training or short-term training or something. You can get information about OMF or about OM or other missions. But you need to take some sanctified initiative. Not waiting for God to somehow grab you by the collar. But because you love Jesus, you'll obey Him and begin to seek His will in a more fervent way. Let us have a moment of silent prayers of commitment. Others committing themselves to renewed prayer, to getting involved in the great prayer warfare, in the warfare of spiritual life. Let us pray. Lord, You know all about us and You love us still. You're not trying to send us out of here with a double guilt trip or take us through some kind of evangelical purgatory. But You're wanting us to respond and to yield our lives to You in a greater way. To be Your men, to be Your women. You want to bring renewal and revival to our hearts and then in Your sovereign timing to our churches. Lord, deliver us from false fire. Deliver us, Lord, from dead orthodoxy on one side and false fire and extremism and emotionalism on the other side. That we may find that narrow road of spiritual reality, that we may walk where You walked and do what You want us to do. Lord, we would surrender our lives afresh to You in a deeper way and say, Lord, take us, You, for Your glory. In Jesus' name, amen.