In this sermon, the speaker shares that he has been given two messages to share with the audience. The first message is about seven major obstacles to the work in India, specifically geared towards the Indian national situation. The speaker emphasizes the need for balanced teaching and the importance of cassette tapes as a means of reaching people with the message. He also mentions the challenges faced by Pakistani young people in education, employment, and marriage, highlighting the pressures they face in society.

It's easier to get up here in the east than it is in the west. Various built-in alarm systems to the culture, like these men who get shouting from the minarets early in the morning. But this morning we got up even earlier as Wakely's dog was having a convulsion right outside the door where I was sleeping. And I went up to see if I could help him. And then I couldn't get back to sleep, but I had enough sleep. And then I went into the other little room where I probably woke Wakely up with my coughing. My wife is not well. She has been fairly well on this trip, but somehow got a little ill the last couple days. And I was crying out to the Lord for a message to share with you. To me, every hour in life is important. Some of you, I may never get the chance to speak to you again. OM is a movement of people just coming and going, you know, like ants in an earthquake. And so you never get to see people sometimes again until maybe an ex-OMer's reunion 20 years later. It's a little late then. But the Lord was very gracious. He not only gave me a message to share with you, he gave me two messages. You know, like yesterday, we had, you know, the four points. That's on the fourth point. We had seven points. But I want to limit it to this one 60-minute tape because also Mike has a lot of things he wants us to do this morning. I'll have to visit bishops or lepers or whatever else is on his mind for today. But I'd like to first of all just share with you something fairly practical, similar to what I shared with a group of Indian brothers. God gave me a message, seven major obstacles of the work in India, very much geared toward the Indian national situation as I work in India is very much a movement of nationals with some internationals, of course, involved as well. This morning I got the seven obstacles to the work in Pakistan. This is built up over my last four trips. Four years in a row I've come here. I went out jogging around six o'clock to this fantastic park. If you haven't discovered the park behind the zoo yet, you probably have as much initiative as a water skiing donkey. But I went to that park and there must have been at least 2,000 Pakistanis doing their exercises all over the park, everywhere. Some weightlifters, joggers, jumpers, yoga specialists, hardly anyone was in the mosque. And I got the burden to come and live in Lahore. But I'm not sure that was from the Lord or from the park. But what a beautiful place. No wonder they have to crowd people into other parts of the city so they can keep the park, such a huge park, completely free. I was thinking it is a terrific privilege to be here in Pakistan. I guess we're more aware of this now that the day is over for long-term missionary service in India, except for very few people. And yet here the Lord has kept the door open. It is a terrific privilege, really. I count it a privilege even to be here for a few days. I'm scheming and conniving constantly how I can get more time in Pakistan without getting out of the God. It's difficult. If I look over this trip in terms of its results, by far the three most fruitful days were Singapore and Malaysia. Nothing even come near that. In terms of the gifts God has given me and seeing a lot happen that will have a lot of long-term results. On the other hand, I was very motivated down in Butwal, just meeting with our Indian brothers all day long, just man-to-man, face-to-face. It's not that one is important and the other is not important. It's just that there's so much, so many opportunities. And of course, some places the church is just so much larger, so much more responsive, and so right in a sense to what the burden and the message God has put upon our hearts. And I think some of you know that even as I leave here in a few days, wherever I go, I'm challenging people about Pakistan. It was an encouragement to talk with one of the eastward bound brothers yesterday who was partly here because after the Easter leadership conference, which I offered free tapes about Pakistan, he wrote for one of those tapes. And that was used to challenge him, I'm sure, together with other things to come to this part of the world. Now, everybody who's a learner and a true OMer at heart at this point either has his notebook out or is about to take it out. Those who are still not to that stage of initiative, vision, discernment, you can just recommit your life at this point and get your notebook. But it is good to be able to write things down. OM, please, we're not trying to be funny. OM is a serious thing. We're trying to prepare you for life back there, which is much tougher than life here. And I've seen even OM leaders now, men that are with us 10 years, go back there. And I tell you, in one year, they were in not such good condition. Billy Graham said, life at its best is filled with sadness. And in OM, we are a training program, not just for missions, but for marriage. I had a letter from another one of those great couples who met on OM years ago, young Englishman and a young woman from another nationality. And they just hit the divorce court. That's not a very pleasant experience. I don't know how many of you have been through divorce. They say it is one of the most difficult emotional draining experiences in your life. Everybody ought to go see Kramer versus Kramer. But somehow they met on a summer campaign, and it was all whoop-dee-doo. Life is one big bowl of blessings, romantic feelings. And I tell you, their marriage was one saga of agony and pain until they finally had the courage. And I think, in their case, it did take courage to divorce. Don't get the wrong idea. So the reason I like people to write a few things down is because if I didn't believe in what I said, I wouldn't say it. And because I believe the truth of God and the message of God from any of his servants is worth remembering. Now, I'm an inconsistent person. And I have to admit, sometimes when I'm listening to a message, especially when I'm jogging, I have difficulty writing it down. But often when I get back, I write it down. I'm also at a little different stage of spiritual life than some of you. I'm not saying I'm any better. But I have so many messages, so much notes, so many notebooks, that I think I have to, at times, confess that I'm a truth glutton. And I'm reading less and studying less now because I'm up to here. I'm saturated. And I have to give it out. Or I don't know how I can take anything else in. And there's not that many opportunities to give out, especially when a lot of my meetings are with new people. And I don't want to just give them my 100th message when I haven't given them my first basic message yet, sufficiency of Christ, the lordship of Christ, total commitment, world missions. But with people like yourself, who I've had the joy of speaking to before, and I count that a great privilege, and I have the joy of somehow getting to you also through some of my cassettes, they say a way to a man's heart is through his stomach. The way to my heart is through cassettes. You write to me and say you've listened to one of my cassettes. I'm irresistible when you say that. I don't know, especially if it's a video cassette or a Super 8, because that program's been a bit of a disaster. Having somebody out in the middle of Rajasthan in the back of a truck is listening to 25 points for survival. And they write me asking a question. That can really make my day, and you'll probably get a fairly good answer. I need to apologize, by the way, if I haven't answered any of your letters. A number of reasons some letters don't get answered. Number one, I never get them. Number two, I can't read the signature, so it gets into a file to deal with later. That's always drastic. Number three, I dictate the tape and lose it. Number four, the letter gets typed out by a new secretary, not Vera, who doesn't make many mistakes, and gets posted off to the wrong nation. I mean, there's a number of other reasons. Lack of discipline sometimes on my part. But I hope you'll feel free to ask any questions based on this little message. Which message should I give first? I think the seven obstacles I see to the work here in Pakistan. I don't think I need to give you some of my basic verses, like be not ignorant of Satan's devices, or Ephesians chapter six. Most of you, I hope, by now have Ephesians six at least partially memorized. So I'll just dig right into the obstacles. I think we know Satan is going to counter-attack what you're doing. The obstacles to the work in India, I think, are greater than the obstacles here. Maybe that's just because I've been involved in the work there longer. For instance, one of the great obstacles to the work in India is terrific gossip against OM in India by embittered OM graduates. You know, you don't have thousands of Indians go through your training program and not have some of them bitter. And Indians who can seem very placid and very controlled, and far more hospitable and loving than those of us from the frozen west, I tell you, when they get upset and they get bitter, you better get out of the way, because they'll have you in court. And fortunately, OM has never had a major court case in India. The main court case we had was my breaking of the customs regulations, which is probably the reason I can't get the visa. They wanted a big bribe because I broke a technicality of the law by selling my possessions, which I shouldn't have done. It was a mistake. That led actually to my eventually not being able to return to India. And there is some pretty vicious gossip against Ray Eicher, against Alfie, against OM. It's very sad. And it hinders the work. There are some churches that are quite strongly opposed to OM. But we don't have that problem here. You may have in a few years' time. You may have a little. But in Pakistan up to now, I think you have terrific credibility. In fact, with top church leaders, you've arrived more credibility in a couple years than India has in almost a couple of decades. But there are other obstacles. Obstacle number one, just jot these things down, think about it, pray about it, try to keep it in balance, is the state of the church in Pakistan. Now, there are many positive things we can say about the church. I think it's very important to have that weighty positive mentality. He came to Kathmandu and gave us all a message last year on being positive. He gave the same message in Europe. And OM needs this kind of optimism, this kind of positive attitude toward God's people and toward the church. And in a sense, the church in Pakistan isn't so different than many, many churches in our own countries. So don't major in putting down the church in Pakistan. I'd love to give a message, the obstacles the church is facing in just surviving in this country as a minority group, as a socio-political entity, surrounded by people who do not understand, with a couple hundred years of interesting history. And I hope all of you read at least some history of the church in Pakistan. To me, incredibly important. Compare it with the church in Nepal, which is very young, they have almost no history. There is some, I saw a book that I really wanted to read, the history of the church in Pakistan. But in fact, generally speaking, when it comes to evangelizing our special friends that we are primarily here to reach, the church situation presents quite an obstacle. Many times they are completely cut off from these people as far as real communication, though it is amazing how they do exist together in some of the busties, in some of the different areas we visited. And I think personally, there is a foundation, a foundation for communication that we can build upon, more than in some other countries. But many of God's people here, as in most parts of the world, are lukewarm. This is not something I am telling you for myself. This is what my Pakistani friends, and I know many of them, have told me. So don't let anybody say, George Verwer is saying most Pakistani believers are lukewarm. No. Pakistanis have told George Verwer that most Pakistanis are lukewarm. That's what they've said to me. I've been four years trying to see if it's true, whether it is true. And I think it is. And we know what Revelation chapter 3 says about lukewarmness. There are beautiful exceptions. We have the privilege of working with many of the exceptions, people who are on fire. And let us understand that the great problem sometimes within OM is lukewarmness. It's easy to start out the September conference with a great burst of enthusiasm and zeal, but after a few of the devil's arrows get stuck into your back, and some of them don't come out. I didn't have arrows yesterday, but as I was fellowshipping here under the trees, I had other things landing on me. And I just recommend that if you fellowship any longer in this compound, try to stay away from the trees. There are birds in the trees who are usually having target practice. Praise the Lord elephants don't fly. But after you get a few arrows, a few arrows in your back, and you discover some of the problems, it's easy for lukewarmness to set in. So that's one of the major obstacles. And that's why I think it's so sane in Pakistan that we are committed to work with the church. We're committed to see reality, revival, and training in the church. These people do speak Urdu. When God touches them and their lives are changed, they will influence the special neighbors around them. And some of them I believe will come to the Lord Jesus Christ. Number two, because we're short on time, the language obstacles. Now some of you are going to get a little upset by this, but I have to be courageous. But I really believe that a lot of OM people really dilly-dally at language. Get all excuses, all excuses. But I really feel we go about language study often in a very slipshod way. And if you were in a secular corporation, in which they give you one year at times to get that language if you want the promotion, I tell you, you'd get it. I was in Mexico one month and I was preaching in a Spanish language. I listened to cassettes night and day. I refused to speak English except when I absolutely had to. I had about 10 different ways that I got brainwashed with the language. When I got to Spain, I was working on advanced Spanish and I was learning Russian. I was playing the Russian tapes in the night, playing them. And that was before the Walkman. The Walkman, you put the little thing in your ear and you can be pumping those words into your head when you're jogging, when you're sleeping, when you're bathing. And if we're going to make an in-depth impact, long-term people especially, if you're not even thinking of staying here more than a year, I agree language is not priority. But anybody who's serious, you've got to go at language with a much more intensive way. Not just with your teacher when he comes around for a few hours, but every possible opportunity. Turn off the English. Nobody's taught language in O.M. like Mike Evans. You either speak French by Christmas or you're just going to be out of it. You're going to be like a goon. Nobody wants to be a goon. And if we're going to reach 80 million people, most of whom speak Urdu and also have the language so when you get back to England, you can go to Bradford where we have 40,000 speaking, Urdu speaking people. You've got to get that language. Don't make excuses. I'll get too many other things in the program. I've never hardly seen anybody of the people I've traveled with in Pakistan redeem the time in the vehicles. And I saw it again this time. They're just sick. I say, don't you read the thing? I get sick when I read. Maybe you ought to get sick. But to just sit for hours and hours in a vehicle, not using the time. You can take the cassette recorder. You put a 25 rupee thing in your ear. You can listen to Urdu or you can speak. I've seen Pakistanis sitting with foreigners in the back of the vehicles not even converse once in three hours as if the Pakistani had leprosy. This Pakistani speaks Urdu. You can talk to him. He won't bite you. And I believe if we really want to reach this nation for Christ, we are going to have more of this initiative. We're going to have more get up and go, more oomph. Now admittedly, I have a thing about this because I feel that so often people in the secular world are more serious about what they're doing than people in Christian work. The same thing goes over to driving. Now my brother Steve has told me that people are not taking the driving seriously. Now are you telling the truth or not? You're getting me in trouble? Not taking it seriously enough. How many more deaths do we have to have in O.M.? How many more deaths do we have to have before we realize that driving is one of the most serious things you can do? And in a country like this, why? I tell you, if Steve is willing to give you a little extra training as someone who's been out here for years. By the way, the best drivers have the most fatal accidents sometimes. So we're all at the mercy of God. And my teaching is do the best you can, keep learning, and then leave it with Jesus. Leave it with Jesus. You will not find me coming down heavy on you after you have an accident. No way do I believe in that. I believe in prevention, and then after that, God's mercy, God's providence. You know, Keith Green, he overloaded that plane that killed 12 people. That was a clear-cut mistake. Clear, simple mistake. He had been warned by Ravenhill. He'd been warned by me about the way he carried on, especially a number of areas. He confessed that he was an extremist, but in a moment of impetuousness. Keith Green was a very impetuous guy. He overloaded the plane. So much so, the insurance will not even cover that accident. And Melody's asked me to share this with OMers. Please pray because they're being sued for millions. Millions. Can you imagine if we try to operate the Dulaws and Lagos without discipline? Can you imagine if some of our engineers worked in the engine room to put in that new generator, the way some of you go about driving, language study, keeping your flat clean, single men? What if I went over there today for a little inspection on the single men's accommodation? I think it's all a joke. I had a wife come to me recently and she was just crying on the inside and she really wanted to divorce her husband. Why? He stank. He stunk. I don't even know how to, whether stank, stink, or stunk. He never learned to take a bath and put a little deodorant on. We still have this problem in OM. I was with someone in OM the other day and I almost had a seizure just from the odor. You know, is this asking people too much to bathe? I fortunately have a wife who hassles me. I even have a secretary who hassles me. I am not speaking as one who has arrived. I'm not a good driver. I'm not super disciplined. I'm not Mr. Cleanliness. It's an ongoing battle, but at least as Dulas, when she sails from Southampton, I know what direction I'm going in. It's going to take Isaacson a long time to get to Karachi when he sails from Southampton, maybe two years, but at least he knows what direction he's going in. OM is not going to change your life in one year. Life is habits. Some of you have deep, deep, deep habits. After you're married, it'll take your wife several years to change those habits. Dubai. So I see language as a great obstacle, especially for follow-up, for in-depth work. I might say some of you have done tremendous in getting the language and it means a lot to the people. It really does. Language is a very important thing to people. One of the reasons I'm hesitant at times to extend my time of ministry here is because I don't know that language. I think this is linked with a lot of other things. I think it's linked with the whole thing of culture and getting to understand the culture, fitting into the culture. Pakistan is a pluralistic society. There, of course, are very Western people here. Praise the Lord for the opportunities among them. There is scope here for those that don't even know or do because a Christian witness is never just one thing. It's many, many things. There's a literature which is so powerful. And even when people know that you're trying to learn their language, my own experiments in the streets, just telling them that I was trying to learn the language and using different phrases brought quite amazing response and certainly very high book sales. Number three, the third obstacle I see is linked with vision, initiative, and discipline. I once gave a terrible message on Lagos. Never preached it again. Remember, one brother wrote me a really heavy letter about it. And it was seven reasons why most OMers will never amount to anything in life. Can you imagine that? Oh, I was in a rare mood. It was what you call a reverse message. It was just, you know, a little bit of cynicism just to try to stir people up. And, you know, I feel that a message like what I'm sharing with you this morning in Pakistan is good because I don't think most of us understand how difficult it is just for a Pakistani young person just to make it through. Education, a job, marriage, the pressure is enormous. It's enormous. Society generally is much more difficult here than in many of our own countries. And many of our own countries are tough as well. There's a number of ex-OMers totally unemployed, one for two years. England is not a game. And again and again people write to me after their time on OM and they say, it's like a broken record, it's much tougher now. It's much tougher now. Getting a job, getting a place to live, paying the mortgage if you're following that road. And I think that it is good as old Martin Lloyd-Jones exhorted us to do, to just exert ourselves a little more. There's plenty of messages on pace, keeping God's pace, spiritual balance, mercy, forgiveness, healing for damaged emotions. That pendulum has almost gone too far with OM. I think we need a little more old-fashioned discipline. The problem is OM has become basically socialistic. People are coming to OM expecting a lot on the plate. And where they don't get it, I tell you, we get a lot of complaints. You know, when I arrived to Mexico, it was either do or die. It was either see breakthroughs. I had nobody with me. There was no organization. It was do or die. And believe me, the opposition was waiting. Short-term work was unheard of. George Verwer was unheard of. Who are these foreigners? And of course, you know, the intensity of prayer, the intensity of commitment, the many, many nights in which I didn't sleep. Not that I recommend it anymore. I don't. But now in a movement that's 25 years later, vehicles are there, the headquarters are here, things are organized. Sure, there's plenty of things that still go wrong. We're not against things being organized. We don't have the answer. But it's just sort of part and parcel of the way it is now. People expect a lot. Of course, often we can't produce it. And so then people get bitter. I tell you, I met some very bitter people in Singapore. Just be honest with you Singaporeans. Really bitter against OM. And it's a lack of maturity on their part. It's a lack of understanding what life is about. OM, of course, the 700 Singaporean Malaysian graduates going into Singapore and Malaysia with no understanding of Chinese culture, already embedded in endless cultures. Of course, we have failed some of those people. They have come with their complexities, just as the Americans bring their complexities, the Englishmen bring their complexities. And I thank the Lord that at the ex-OMers reunion in Singapore, He just broke my heart and I apologized and I asked people to bring healing, to allow healing to their bitterness. It's only a small percentage. But you know, the Bible teaches if 99 are going well and one is going off, that's the one that concerns us. And if there's any ex-OMer anywhere who's hurt, who's bitter, who's upset, and these days it often isn't with OM in general, it's often one particular leader. Of course, leaders have failed people. Leaders are over-committed. And it's a great burden to me, a great concern that people now come in OM expecting a package tour. I think it's a little less perhaps in this part of the world. Certainly on the ships, they often expect a package. The ships have such a reputation, you know, study program. And of course, when they don't get it, they're bitter. I got to Lagos, every fifth person I talked to was fairly, fairly upset. One was leaving the day I got, another was quitting and leaving a few days later. He flew in from Australia. He didn't know what OM was from, from a moonwalk. And when he got there and found out that he had to go into a study program, they're very strict now along us with a study program, everybody in the study program. And when he found out that he had to go into a study program, he just, he just went down and then sin got in different ways. Back he'll go to Australia. I'm not picking on any one country, by the way. Every country has these problems, but it's good sometimes to be specific. And I just feel that part of this syndrome that creeps in is linked with lack of personal vision, personal passion for souls. I want to tell you, if you got a passion for souls with or without OM, you're going to go places for God. And if you don't have a passion for souls and you're not baptized or filled with the Holy Ghost, which we all go around the world teaching, OM or no OM, ultimately you're not going to go anywhere for God. We can't create spirituality. We can't rub you together with Mike Wakely and create spiritual reality, or with Shastin, or their dog. Spirituality comes from above. It comes from the book, and it comes as you repent at the foot of the cross. Praise God for some that left OM. They just left OM. Maybe Tom Hawksley's way is the way to go. You know, get yourself one of the local, you know, local women. That seems to be a big thing in Pakistan right now. And you know, leave, leave the loving fellowship of this great OM Pakistan movement. By the way, OM Pakistan is one of the highest reputations with an OM. That can make it dangerous a couple years from now, because people come expecting so much they get disappointed. And it does seem sometimes no matter what way you move, you can't win. No matter what way you move, you can't win. But praise God for those that have left OM and they were just thrown, like pitching a little baby in a, in a, in a pool. They're teaching swimming that way. I forget which country. Little babies at a few months, pitch them in. And of course, if they go down, I think they fish them out with a, with a net. But you know, I don't know. I don't know what the answer is on that. But I believe vision, initiative. You know, I know I'm hyper. I know I need to calm down. But do we really need, do we really believe these people are lost, these people right outside the doorway? Or is this sort of a game, like a Monopoly game? I've seen people more seriously playing Monopoly than I've seen OMers going for souls. They sit down and start that Monopoly game. They have a lot of similar games. They go right through meals until the game's over. Have you ever been in a gambling casino? People go at gambling more serious than we're going for souls. I've seen people in the casinos in Las Vegas, sitting there, you know, winning all ages, you know, bloodshot eyes, a little mule neck, popping coins, pulling the, you know, commitment. Well, it's an addiction. Maybe we need to be addicted to people. Vision, initiative, sanctified imagination. Have these become cliches in OM? Spend a whole month getting taught. We should come out of there like laser beams from an American satellite nuclear project. Follow-up is linked with this. Perhaps one of the obstacles, this is linked with this point, is how do we follow up on what we're doing all over Pakistan? This is the greatest burden on the heart of our Indian brothers. How do we follow up? And so we get a lot of people saying, well, OM, we must plant churches, as if that's the only way to follow up. But you know, until you get some on-fire Christians, or at least some solid Christians, you're going to have difficulty planting a church. You might, you might plant a group of people, but it may not necessarily become a church. How's your letter writing? Do you meet people in these villages? Do you write to these people? Now, I haven't had many days in evangelism here, but for my little time in evangelism, I'm corresponding with people, unsaved people in Pakistan. I would have thought that OM is basically impossible without writing letters, because we're on the move. And if one minute you're giving the idea to a person, you love them, you appreciate them, you'd like to know them, the next minute they never hear from you. It doesn't add up. It doesn't add up. And I think that in our work, we've got to increase our discipline in letter writing. Of course, we can also link people up with local believers. There are Pakistani Christians who would like to follow up in areas where something is really happening. We can pray, but we can't break God's arm. And I'm a great believer in God's providence. And up to now, there's not a major breakthrough among our special friends here in Pakistan. And I don't think anybody should go on a three-day fast necessarily to bring it. But I believe that we can see some of these people that profess Christ, follow it up on, and disciple. Basically, I think most of you are doing a fairly good job in this area from what I've observed. But I think that some steps of faith could be taken. I talked to a brother. I better not even mention what nationality. I might get too close to home. And he just, at least he was honest. He just admitted he's been in our training for over a year. He just doesn't have any discipline. That scares me. I tell you, that really scares me. How he could be in this work for a year and not have any discipline. Now my prayer is that he's just humble. Now he doesn't hardly write any letters. And a lot of the other basic things, it does seem that he's falling on his face in that area. Praise the Lord, I just want to be positive. He's at least honest. But I wouldn't want to marry him. Of course, I won't marry him because I'm already married. And he's a man. Please, please, don't take lack of discipline lightly. It could destroy you. Life is cruel. Life is cruel. We arrived in Katlandu all rejoicing over the birth of Wayne and Sheila's baby. Two days later, she's got the baby in her arms, dead. Now is that cruel or not cruel? I know all the theological answers. I know God ultimately is a God of love. Humanly speaking, humanly speaking, there's a cruelty element in that. You say, all right, not cruel for Sheila and Wayne because the baby goes to heaven. All right, what about the baby born down the road here to two Muslim parents? How do you explain that? Maybe you've got nice little theological answers. I don't have them all. I had them when I got out of Bible school. But I've lost them for 25 years of being kicked in the teeth. And life does kick you in the teeth. It really does. Ingemar Emker, Christmas, day after Christmas, only married a couple of years. One of the best, most committed, compassionate Swedes we've ever known in OM. Bang, he's gone. How? Why? Lord, we're trying to evangelize the world. Takes 20 years to see an Ingemar Emker. You have to take him when he's in the prime of life. What about Irma? If the rest of us overcome it, that's relatively easy. She just wrote me it's getting harder. And we know God overrules. We know our faith is being tested. We distribute. Don't waste your sorrows. We preach. 1 Peter chapter 1, In this ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be ye are in heaviness through manifold trials. There is a place for heaviness. And my heart is heavy when I've seen the trials of God's people. That the trial of your faith being much more precious than gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto the praise and honoring glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. Thank God for his word. James says the same thing. Let me read it. So many times this has warmed my heart. My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials. You know, I think it's a trial to have to move your house here, really. Don't develop a position where if the trial is not being martyred for the faith, you don't count it as a trial. Little things can be a trial. And having to move house, having a van break down in the middle of nowhere when you're trying to get to a meeting, these are trials. They're small trials. But you know, if you don't pass the test with the small trials, what are you going to do when the big one comes? You know, an interesting, an Indian brother is going through a very deep trial right now, reminded me that in 1968 in Kathmandu during the leadership training, I shared a message called the Big Test, that God allows many, many, many small trials, hundreds, hundreds, hundreds to prepare you for the Big Test. For some it's divorce. For some it's murder of a loved one. For some it's rape. For Rosalyn, Helen, Rosalyn, what's her name? Helen Rosevere, it was rape. Imagine! For others, it's something else. Probably most of you this year will not have your Big Test. These are just little preparation programs, the heartaches, the troubles, the things that go wrong, the disappointments. It's to prepare you for the Big Test. I've had medium-sized tests in my life. I haven't had my big one yet. I haven't had my big one yet. I'm getting ready for it. I don't know what it'll be. My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing this, that the testing of your fate worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, lacking nothing. That's quite strong, isn't it? Lacking nothing. God wants us to come into maturity. Then it talks about wisdom, which we shared about in the meeting last night. It was encouraging to see many of you there. The fourth obstacle I see as financial. Financial, well, there's a danger in Pakistan because you have field credit. Woe to the ease in Zion that comes with a positive field credit. I personally have always functioned better under negative field credit. I remember sitting in Kathmandu, getting a letter from a strong leader in Europe, basically telling me the whole work in India was out of God's will. What a letter. I visited the spot where I read that letter about 10 times in Kathmandu because I was taking people for walks and that was the best route. The Lord hasn't allowed any house to be built on that spot, which is quite unusual in Kathmandu. And I can remember with agony of heart, I remember one of the big misunderstandings between Dale Roton and I. And he wrote me a heavy letter, which he was 90% right, but I nailed him on the 10%. But you know, when OM India was really growing and things were really moving, we did run into a little in debt. Now that's much more difficult now. You've got the budget boys, the financial committee. You've got managers. You've got all kinds of people ready to move down on you, like some kind of spiritual God squad, if you get too much in the red. We get them hovering over ICT. But lately they've been backing off, as I sent them a little bit of a memo to think about. Now we would appreciate your prayers as an ICT, an entity that is barely recognized in OM, and yet has to absorb enormous expenses for the whole movement, is $100,000 in the red. More. Only the Dulas bypasses us. But I think basically we are on a good program of trusting God for finance and paying our bills as we go along. And I have got along with that. I simply want to say this. There is a lot more we could do in Pakistan if we saw specific gifts. Gifts for vehicles. The day of running the operation on foreign vehicles is over. I am not pushing this. I am just resounding what Mike Wakely has been talking to me about. We need more Pakistani registered vehicles that can stay in the country. Literature needs, cassette needs. You are definitely among the penny-pinching fields. I mean, Wakely has this by nature. His wife seems to go along with it. He's coming into a little more liberty lately. But, you know, I'm not opposing it, though it can be dangerous in certain situations. Mike is very flexible. He even lets me travel first class when I come from Peshawar, which I very much appreciate, though when I'm alone without my wife, I prefer to be alone with her. I have a second-class upper berth so that I can take pictures of all that's going on beneath me, which is really wild. Cooking food, wiping baby's bottom in the same, almost the same photo. Very exciting photography. So, I see finances as an obstacle. The fifth obstacle, I've written down here, extremism, disunity, anti-parent church mentality, total answerism. I don't know if that can all fit into one category. Certainly, there is disunity in Pakistan between the parent church and the church structure. We had a very, very good time with the bishop yesterday morning, but he was quite blunt in sharing that though he greatly appreciates OM, he does not appreciate the way certain other parent church groups go about things. It is complex. There's a whole book on this now called Parachurch Church and Uneasy Marriage. It's a major problem for us in Singapore, where the church is big, but where they are invaded by parachurch organizations. There seems to be a new one arriving every month. And Singapore is a small island. And I tell you, it's a miracle OM got its roots in Singapore before some of this happened. But it's still not easy. It's still not easy. Thank God for the meetings we had there, not only among ex-OMers, but among Christian leaders. Don't despise these meetings among Christian leaders, because I tell you, it's basic. The PR gift that he has given Mike and some of you. PR, public relations, not a naughty word. You don't have to use that word. 1 Corinthians 13 is even better. People. Caring for people. Listening to people. Listening to some of these pastors, some of these other church leaders, why they are saying what they're saying about parachurch groups. People that run full-page ads like one recently in the United States. We are church planting on the Afghan border among the Afghans. Full-page ad. You don't think that the embassies get copies of some of these ads. One group through one ad set their work back in the land of Egypt at least two years, if they ever get it off the ground there. I think they will, at least temporarily, because they're bypassing the church. Bypassing the church sounds good for certain types of strategy. I'm not convinced it will work. There will at least have to be some very careful behind-the-scenes public relations, apologies, repentance, and brokenness, because God's people do get involved, especially when people start to come to Christ. There's no way we can think of Pakistan that our special neighbors are going to come to Christ and the church isn't going to look. That's sort of projecting on them something that's less than best. Also here in Pakistan there's a fair amount of extremism in some of the churches. There is a fair amount of legalism and extremism where you may want to take a survey and ask people who are believers if they sinned and died before they could repent, would they go to heaven or hell? Somebody took a survey in Gujarat state and I think 50% of the OMers believed they'd go to hell. I tell you when I heard that I just couldn't believe it. I've got to do some research because I still find it difficult to believe that people could be on OM where we have such an emphasis on mercy and grace. If a believer who's born again at a moment of depression commits suicide, what do you think, he's going to hell? You've got a God that's a little short, what I read about in my Bible. Now the possibility, the high possibility of a man committing suicide may have never been born again, I will also accept that possibility. Legalism, extremism, total answerism, and some of it comes in by visiting preachers. They come in offering total cures, total blessings, you know, get the baptism, get the blessing, come forward, let me pray for you. Do you think this is new in Pakistan? I remember 1968, Indonesian team had come to Pakistan and one of the main things we heard about over in Singapore was revival in Pakistan, revival in Pakistan. But you see, as I shared in that meeting yesterday, which I believe is an important message for Pakistani Christian leaders, it's not just the blessing. We need all that comes after that, the wisdom, the spiritual balance, the love, the message that these Christian books you distribute have. Don't think that's a secondary activity. Selling Calvary Road to Pakistani believers is not a secondary activity. To me it's a primary activity. Getting some powerful cassette tapes with balanced teaching about love and some of these other subjects, as you know I could come here and take meetings 365 days a year. Once I lived here and they knew I was here because they do respond. They want this kind of teaching. And Viv could stay here probably the rest of his life going around teaching. There is a great need for teaching because there is extremism. The enemy is attacking the church. And God has given us in these books and in our hearts a message that the whole church around the world really wants. Do you know some of the standard messages we get on OM? Pastors in various countries have never had even once. Just basic, simple material. And that doesn't mean it's in your life, but you've had it in the hands. And in OM, where people are complaining that the study program is not good enough, we have more truth than most of the believers I meet in churches in various parts of the world. And I don't think the greatest need in OM is more and more study. I'm in favor of study, study seminars. That's clear in scripture. But I believe the greater need is obey. Obey. See it really put into practice in your life. And of course you know that I'm not expecting that in one year or two years. It'll take many years. Number six. Sixth obstacle. Family pressure. Now this is true first of all within Pakistan. We must try to understand the Pakistani family. If you don't understand the Pakistan family, you're not going to understand Pakistan because actually people here are very family centered. It was amazing in the park this morning to see quite a few husbands and wives walking together in their exercise program. And that certainly wouldn't be original Pakistani culture. That's an amalgamation. Perhaps some East and West. One family was jogging even with the children. Whatever is going on in the park, you can be sure back in the home. Family is very important. One leader shared with me yesterday that they are actually having to, having quite a lot of difficulty with Pakistanis living in England to get them matched up. To get the right wife. Very important. Get the right wife. Right husband. And I think we have to realize as Greg Livingston once said, parents can sometimes be the greatest obstacle to world evangelism. And I think this is where we need a little research. Deeper understanding. I think this is where also we need both OM strategies for discipling men. Maybe you already know this. The in-house strategy. These all have subdivisions. In-house strategy. That's Brother Samson. He's in-house strategy. He's in OM. We're hoping he's going to get just so turned on, so excited, so filled with spirit, so challenged that the rest of his life he's going to turn people upside down for Jesus. That's the bigger part of the strategy over in the big country to the east. The Middle East, this is, Dennis Alexander pushes this, is the, we don't like to say out-house strategy because that miscommunicates, but the outer strategy. Discipling people in the context of their own culture. They don't have to join OM. Don't think if people don't join OM they can't be discipled. I mean that's crazy. And learning to disciple people within the family, within their own culture, as some of you are trying to do with your contacts. I'm not trying to get all these people to join OM. I think one of the beautiful things about OM is we don't put all of our eggs in one basket. Different strategies, different approaches. Because God gives different people different gifts. Some of you are functioning here largely with the gifts of helps. You're helping, you're serving those who are out doing more discipling or longer term. That is also part of God's strategy. I spoke on that three years ago when I was here. I don't know what you do in those states, but there's a lot of messages around here that share some of my burdens. Now we discover this is also true in some of your countries. Significant pressure to come home and stay home. And we're not seeing so far the long term people we need to see in general in the Muslim world. Well I'm a little hesitant to say this here in Pakistan because with the way things have taken place in India as far as families, we now are on a stage here where we're not so capable to take on a lot more families. But I think Mike Wakely would agree with me, the right families who are really willing for the kind of cross-cultural living and communication that's needed in this country and the high degree of initiative and vision and discipline that's needed in this country, such families I think we will be able to find a place for. And then number seven, the lack of deep trust. You know in my own Christian life, you may not believe this, at times I am just hanging on for survival. Even yesterday I found it very, very hard just to keep going. You know I love people, I want to serve people, I want to do all these things that I talk about, but at times I just find I'm running out of whatever I need to keep running. And I tell you I thank God that His Word emphasizes not only this kind of challenge I'm sharing with you this morning, but it has so much emphasis on grace, forgiveness, healing, mercy, the human factor, man's weakness, all that kind of thing which I'm always going on about. As you know I'm criticized by some as now departing from my original messages. George Verwer of the 80s is a compromiser. He's turned away from the original discipleship, commitment, forsake all message. I don't think most O.M.s believe that. There's a little group, I had a few little discussions along that line. Isn't it amazing that I was such a hardliner in certain areas in the early days, you know that term? Today my greatest problem are the hardliners, even sometimes O.M. leaders. And there's a couple of O.M. leaders that are worried about me. I've allowed these committees and I've allowed these area leaders to take over the overall leadership of O.M. And that I'm on the retreat and that I'm compromising in the housing policy, letting people buy houses. People have owned houses from the beginning of O.M. But basically that certainly wasn't a direction of the work in the early days and there's no big direction now. The fact that a few exceptions took place has not brought a great rush of house purchasing as some people thought. It's God working in individuals in different ways. It's interesting even back in the early 60s when I gave a message, this is a message I shared with him in Peshawar, dangers that face O.M. at that time, early 60s. Getting set in our ways, not walking in the light, not taking time to meet for prayer, not being involved in evangelism, subtle influences of the lukewarm, presumption that we know the principles, choosing the road of least resistance, listening too quickly to evil reports, allowing discipline to slip, subtle forms of pride, slacking off in the battle against lust, neglecting the home. Number 13, very interesting, the early 60s, idealism. It's not just the last few years. It's through David Seaman's book that we've warned against idealism. I've given you a challenge for learning the language. Some of you probably will never learn any language. The sooner you face that limitation and choose a different direction in your life, as Mickey Walker did when he discovered he was not going to learn Arabic and he got out of the Arab world and he got on to Duluth and had a phenomenal ministry and he's chosen now Southern Ireland. Why? They speak English. He's still having a worldwide ministry. Everything I say generally needs to be brought into balance, into balance some way. And you've got Mr. Balance Incorporated, Mike Wakely, to bring anything I've said here that's a bit extreme into balance. This last thing, perhaps, is what some people say or call the bottom line, deep, deep trust. When things are going wrong, when you're not seeing the breakthrough in finance or the language or winning people to Christ, the contacts are backsliding, this is going wrong, that's going wrong, that somehow you just trust him. And that's the way I am at times. Just believe God is in control. Sometimes I have even difficulty accepting some of the basic doctrines of the Christian faith. When I'm under attack like that, sometimes I don't fight it. I just pull back just for a while and I say, God, I know you're there. I know you're there. I'm not sure about all the rest right now. Certainly some of these OM policies. But I know you're there. And I just start worshipping. I just start worshipping. And pretty soon I realize, well, not just God, it's Jesus. I know Jesus is there. And I realize He died on the cross for me. And I realize He rose for me. And then pretty soon all the other doctrines, including OM's minor principles, fall back into place. It usually only takes a couple of hours and I'm back in the race. Now, you never have to go through that kind of survival pattern. Praise the Lord.