In this sermon, George Ferber emphasizes the importance of practical steps and commitments in our Christian lives. He encourages attendees to attend the prayer meeting and engage with missionary displays and books. Ferber highlights the significance of training leaders and discipleship in missionary work, emphasizing the need to work alongside nationals and learn from them. He calls for a response to the call of moving overseas to reach unreached people and urges the audience to stand up if they are willing to do so.

This cassette was recorded at Southern Ontario Youth Missions Conference, held on Saturday, October 15th at McMaster University campus in Hamilton, Ontario. Tape three, side one. The speaker is George Verver of Operation Mobilization. His message is, where do we go from here? Some men die by shrapnel, and some men die by flames. But most men perish, inch by inch, in play at silly games. George, we don't want our lives to be characterized by words like that. We've appreciated your first two messages. Come and help us with our commitment with your third message. Well, it's hard to believe this day is almost gone. I wanted to mention a couple of things that I think are very important. You know, often practical things, practical exhortations, lead to steps that totally change our life. The first thing I wanted to mention was the prayer meeting that's coming up after the break, at which time you'll be able to go to the books and go to the missionary displays, those that are left. And I really pray you won't see the prayer meeting as something optional. I'm sure you're tired. One of the most important things in training to be a worker for Christ is to learn how to be tired. I've never met anybody in 29 years who died of being tired. It's quite a normal feature of life. I'm tired. When you fly from this direction, from England, you're six hours further on into the night. But I do believe that probably, in some ways, the most significant part of this conference, this day together, is ahead of us. And even if you could only stay for an hour or two, it would be worth it. It's not a marathon in which, you know, you have to stay a certain amount of time. So pray about that. It may take a little organization in terms of travel. It may even mean some change of plans. Then I want to mention just these New Testaments that I believe were put in each one of your packets when you arrived. This isn't to have one more thing up on your shelf, but to use it with someone that you're witnessing to, or you're going to witness to, as the Holy Spirit directs you during the coming days. And I hope that that will be sort of a trigger to cause you to be involved in distributing literature. Now, in some ways, I'm more excited about the books. I've just been roaming around the book table. It says book table. It's a pretty interesting table. It's like an amoeba. But I just thought, you know, there's so much more in these books than I can share. And I may never get the opportunity again to just urge you to read some of these books. So I'm going to take a risk and mention a number of books with the hope that you'll write them down and maybe, if not tonight, later on, some other time, get them. And I had a real difficulty deciding which books to mention. So I'm going to have to just mention them quickly rather than talk a lot about three or four and mention a number because different books meet different needs. First of all, I want to mention two books on prayer. Absolute Gold, a new book on prayer, Born for Battle, an old book on prayer with Christ in the School of Prayer. I mean, this is just such spiritual meat. And I just want to commend those to you. One of the toughest subjects we're dealing in missions is are people really lost? That was the biggest problem for me as a student. I'm not the kind or the temperament to want to believe anybody's lost. You know, I don't get kicks out of that. I met some people who I think have deep emotional problems who get almost kicks out of the thought that others are lost and they're saved. And some even get greater kicks that they're the only true church. Everybody else is lost. None of the other churches know anything. They're the only church. This blows my mind. At least if we believe such things, it should be with heartbreak and tears. There's a book recently published by OMF, Overseas Missionary Fellowship. God, that's not fair. It's so basic on the subject of are men really lost? Is that really fair? Very important. You know, this is such a mini conference, just one day. We've just finished a one month conference. At the end, we were aware of how much that had not been covered, one month. And those young people right now are getting ready to get in vans and trucks and buses and head out to India and all over the world. So this is just the beginning. But through these books, we can extend this conference. God, that's not fair. Any of you who are in leadership responsibility, you should be required to read this book. You know, in our work, our main burden is to train leaders. Leadership training should be the backbone of every missionary thrust. It's not for us to do the job in Sudan or India or Bangladesh. It is for us to be involved in discipling and training nationals. If they are already nationals, then we should be together with them and learning from them at the same time. But I cannot speak too highly of this book. I've been using it for 15, 20 years. We are now in the process of trying to put it into 100 languages. It's a book, Spiritual Leadership. Oswald Sanders and OMF has just published its sequel. Kingsway, I think, published it, but it's on the OMF table in the literature department. Paul, the leader, just published. Now, I know some of you don't have money to get these books, and I wish I could just stand out there and make loans. We will take postdated checks. We will use the barter system, shirts, ties, pullovers. But we'd like to get this literature out because we won't be here again. I only come to Canada once every third year. And so I would just commend these two books, this one first, this as a follow-up. Someone once asked me years ago, what do I think the greatest book in the English language next to the Bible is? If I was out on an island, I could only take one book. Which book would it be? And I did a lot of research. I've researched about 1,000 books over the last 29 years. I haven't read them all cover to cover. I sometimes jump chapters and read backward. I always, usually in about 40 books at the same time. But there's my book. That's the greatest book in the last 100 years in the English language. One of the mightiest instruments of God ever raised up in Europe, Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones, only recently went to be with the Lord. It's an encyclopedia on spiritual life. It's just the book of books. A lot of people don't get it because the title, depression, it's not about depression. It's about how to live for God, how to worship, how to run the race, how to stand against the enemy. I've gone through it two, three times. It's equivalent to a year at seminary, at least a year at seminary. You know, most of the great people in God's work all over the world, you know where they get their education? From books. This is known as a great medical school. I understand, you correct me, you don't have that many classes here. And a lot of reading, read, read, read. It's the way it is in Cambridge and Oxford. You can set up your own university in your bedroom, books. And there's one you want to put on the top of the shelf. And just to get the record straight, I don't get a single penny out of these books. I don't get paid to come here. I don't get anything for coming here, though very kindly paid my airfare to get over that. That, of course, helped. I'd rather go by rowboat, but it's slow from London. But I just believe in books. And I'm only here as a Christian because God used books in my own life. So there it is, Dr. Lloyd-Jones's great book on spiritual depression, its cause and cure. In the Gap, basic for missions. Anybody interested in missions, there's a book to get. Now, this is more easy to find than these other books. So you can probably borrow this one. You don't have to buy it. There it is, a very powerful book. Operation World, an encyclopedia for those that believe in intercession. I go through it again and again. The section on the communist countries is worth the price of the book. And every time you buy a book, at least here tonight, they give you a magazine book free. So it's an unusual opportunity. And one of the burdens we have is that you get books also to distribute them to others. Now, we have some corrective books. Some books are books of challenge and instruction. Others are corrective books, like love covers. Can a tongue-speaking charismatic work together with a non-tongue-speaking PB or Baptist or non-charismatic? As far as I can see, we're all charismatics. But anyway, according to the present controversy definitions, Paul Vilheimer, who wrote Destined for the Throne and Don't Waste Your Sorrows, incredible character, now 80 years of age, I wish he could be with us, love covers. The last three years, we've given this book free to everybody who came on our summer campaign in Europe. It's just so significant. Some of you won't understand all the theology in it, but you'll get the basic thrust. And then just off the press, God wants you rich. And other enticing doctrines, prosperity, name it, claim it, praise God for everything, submission, visits with angels, shepherding, inner healing. This is the book of the year. This is just published. A woman researched 16 years to write this book. It's not an anti-charismatic book. She's actually a charismatic Christian. But it's a book that really lays the cards on the table. Because I will tell you, there's more nonsense going on in some places than you and I'll ever dream. And it's hurting people, it's dividing churches, and it's blowing committed people right out of their chairs. One church in the United States has had 32 deaths as a result of extreme teaching on healing alone. It's not a game. And I don't blame some of the people sometimes who've been in some of this stuff and are now on the road to agnosticism. They just say, I can't handle it anymore. Just can't handle it. And we need a biblical, sane, balanced New Testament challenge. So these books are very challenging, but there are some like this one that are corrective. So take one more trip to the book table. I don't think most of you will see a book table like this again for many years. It's taken hours just to put it up. And I believe it's really part of this conference. It's one of the reasons that I came here. John Wesley was always criticized for pushing books. Ever heard of it? And one encyclopedia said no man in that century did more to promote inexpensive and powerful literature than John Wesley. Did you know we don't always have books, we have tapes, and we even have maps of the world. How many have one of these maps of the world? This is the OM map of the world. How many have any map of the world? In your house, in your room, where you live? Raise your hand. That is very encouraging. Now, how can I hold this map up here? Let's put this down. Hope that doesn't interfere with it. That's all right. That's all right. Just sleep like that, doesn't matter. No, let's change it. Let's change it. I got an idea. I want to just relax here. That's our goal. We haven't got time for any more clapping. This is a serious moment. I'm sure there've been many serious moments because we're asking the question, what do I do from here? Turn to Romans chapter 10. Take a blank page in your notebook. There's a lot of them there. You know, there's amazing ways you can save money for Jesus. I've hardly had to buy any clothing for 27 years. Because, you know, people throw away clothing. In America, they throw away clothing. So you can just find out where they throw it, and that's how you get your clothing. Yeah. And they throw away Bibles. This is a throwaway Bible. You know, it's damaged. This section here, John and Acts comes out. So the guy who bought this Bible, Douglas Troyce Brown, he paid a lot of money for it. Of course, when he found out it was damaged, he returned it. So people know that OM is a movement that collects about everything you can think of, some things you never thought of. We get these Bibles free. And so that's the Lord's provision, that wonderful new international version that comes apart. Well, it's just loose leaf. Romans chapter 10. I hope Romans is in here for this Bible. It was this morning. Verse 10. Well, maybe we should start before that. Verse 8. What does it say? The word is near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart. That is the word of faith we are proclaiming. That if you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord. And believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified. It's with your mouth that you confess and are saved. As the scripture says, everyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame. For there's no difference between Jew and Gentile. The same Lord is Lord of all. And richly blessed all call on him. For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. How then can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sin? As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news. Those who bring good news. Where do we go from here? I always have a fear that the church in the 20th century has become a no risk church. Or a church that represents the status quo. And one of the reasons we can't get missionaries out of the average church to any great degree is because it's now in some places an accepted thing to be an evangelical. In some countries they have evangelical presidents. And they have evangelical men in the cabinet. There's so many millions of evangelicals. We've got more evangelical television programs in North America than all the rest of the entire world all put together. I don't want to get down that road because our time is short. But it's come to my heart that if you who are here today who have heard this challenge, who have been in these seminars, who have sat here in these prayer meetings, if you don't go, who will? Who will? There's so few that seem to get even this far. Many missionaries no longer have any missionary conference at all. If they do, a little remnant comes. I was speaking in a very famous missionary church, better than most. And reluctantly I went for midweek meetings. Of course, one-fifth of the congregation shows up, one-tenth. Sunday morning they're all there, television, the band, the whole works. Great. Choir. God bless the choir. This in America today is the ultimate of Christian service. You actually sing in the choir. Or you ring bells. I saw an advertisement in a gospel magazine. And if you want to know what we think and what we believe in America, read the articles in the magazine. If you want to know where we are in America, look at the advertisements. You make a study on that and I will tell you, you will get depressed. You'll have to go back to Psalms quick. But I read an ad, how to get your church involved. Spend a couple of grand on bells. Apparently any dummy can ring a bell. And so you get your bell choir and they all stand up there and they spend hours practicing and they ring bells. I don't know if this has spread to Canada, but it's big in the USA. We, of course, in the USA, are pioneers of many great things. Now don't misunderstand me because I will tell you, really, to bring that into balance, I would rather see, especially a young Christian, ringing a bell than doing nothing. Anything is better than nothing. But why is it that we don't move on from the bell ringing and the choir and taking the collection? That's another ultimate in Christian service. You rededicate your life at the summer camp and you go to the assistant pastor and you say, I feel God has done a deep work in my life. Really, I'm willing to help take the offering. For the collection. Again, praise the Lord. At least the guy's not going to sleep in the meeting. He's waiting for that moment when he's going to be able to carry that gold. And it's interesting to look at these collection plates, especially in the States. Praise God for these Kentucky Fried Chicken varieties. That encourages me. But, you know, sometimes the collection plate comes around and I feel, you know, if they can afford that silver collection plate, I'm not going to give them a nickel. I'll give my money to some relief agency or to someone else who's got a little more sense on how they spend it. I tell you, we are so confused in this jungle of materialism. We've got our priorities so wrong and it's a miracle we get any missionaries to the field. It really is. And I just feel that there's got to be radical surgery. And I feel that you are an unusual group of people that have managed to give a Saturday for a missions conference. After all, Saturday is for so many things, isn't it? Tennis is strategic, isn't it? That's really on the increase in America. Competing with squash. We are the nation of recreational maniacs. Now, maybe in Canada, I always feel that Canada is just a few inches more sane. And, you know, maybe somehow where the Holy Spirit has failed to be able to break through in Toyland, south of the border, he'll be able to break through here. And that we will be able to get our priorities sorted out. Not that I'm against you having an exercise program and even playing a little tennis. But you were willing to get this day at least scheduled into your calendar and come here. And hear these messages. And get some of these books. And go around to these missionary exhibits. I didn't get a chance to go around to all of them. I've been to many missions conferences. Maybe a hundred. And I always try to go around and get all the free literature. I go for freebies. But I have a man who's working with me and he graduated from Oxford University. So I figured he'd know how to collect free literature. So I sent him around. And I just met him at supper. I said, did you get all the freebies? And he said, yes. This is intensive training for him. And he's just started. And I know he would appreciate your prayers. If you don't go, who will? Your grandmother? Your younger sister? Maybe your dog. Maybe you think you should put a sign on your dog. Prepare to meet your God. Send him down the road. Some people are doing things more foolish than that. More foolish than that, I can assure you. We've come to that moment in this meeting where we've got to make a decision. Now, some people don't like invitations. Make people stand up. So embarrassing. Someone may look at you when you're standing up and think you're not spiritual. And you know, one of the things that's hindering the kingdom of God more than anything else is fear and pride. I remember when Oswald J. Smith was preaching at Moody Church. I was a Moody student. I'd already led teams to Mexico. I'd already won many hundreds to Christ. I knew a little bit about prayer. I was recognized supposedly as some kind of a leader. And Oswald J. Smith preached at Moody Church. And he gave an invitation for recommitment and for people to take the step of faith. And he asked people to come forward. That's even harder than standing up. And I just bowed my head as they played the closing hymn. I thought, wow. May the Lord move in a lot of hearts tonight. And the Lord just hit me like being hit with a six-ton truck. And I needed to repent and recommit my life. And I needed to go forward again. I said, Lord, I've already been forward. People are going to think I'm unstable. I am, but anyway. I went forward. That was 24 years ago. And God met me in that place. I was already on my way to the mission field. But God dealt with me. About other areas in my life and about unbelief and fear factor. What will people think? Will people think I'm becoming a fanatic? Will they think that I'm being persuaded by some other movement? If you don't go, who will? You know, it's so logical that a good number of people who are at this conference begin to plan for going. And I said this week, it's so logical. Why? Number one, the need. We've heard something of the need. Whole nations with no witness. Most people don't even know this. I purposely was with the meeting tonight from the very beginning. I was first in the TV room and then I moved to the back. And I heard those three testimonies. And especially our sister sharing how when she was at university, she didn't even know, you know, anything about missions. So many are like that. And if those who do know, those who have prayed through Operation World or gone through these unreached people's cards, WACC has produced another set of cards. It's just overwhelming, isn't it? I don't believe that there's going to be any big stampede of people quitting university. Because I believe as people pray and get guidance and counsel, in most cases, they're going to finish their education. Most of our people have finished their education. And many of them after working on the field for four or five years and winning a lot of people to Christ and getting their backbone back, turning their wishbone in, they went back and they got more studies. We've had another man just get a doctor's degree. The man who runs our ship's a medical doctor who threw that to the wind and took over director of the ship. And, you know, we're not anti-education. But a lot of this education, if you don't get some spiritual fiber, if you don't get some vision, if you don't get some spiritual reality, it's not going to mean much. You're going to end up married with four children before you know what the Atlantic Ocean even looks like. Or the sea sickness or air sickness experience or the cockroach Brazilian experience or whatever else the Lord wants to put you into. So the need does demand action. It is not the final criteria. No. The final criteria is God's personal guidance for you. And I tell you, if you can write to me from two weeks from now, say you've prayed through these things, you've read some of these books, and through it God's confirmed it, that you're right in the center of His will in Calgary or in Three Hills or in Vancouver, you won't have any trouble with me because I do not judge people's personal guidance. I don't want to get into that business. And I tell you, we need people back here as committed to this vision, prayer, releasing the resources through prayer, sending others, spreading the word, being a recruiter, mobilizing prayer, starting prayer meetings in your home. It would be tremendous if everybody here went back and got involved in a small prayer cell somewhere. Oh, to God that some practical things will come out of this day that we've been here together. But I think it's logical that a large number of us allow the Holy Spirit and the church and other believers to send us forth. And to be quite honest, I'm not very interested in the summer. I'm certainly not very interested in the Christmas, even though OM has a Mexico Christmas crusade. It's too short. Now, if that's all you can do, fine. Or if that's a step into something else, fine. But don't go somewhere for a summer or a Christmas and think you've had a missionary experience. You've had a missionary taste. It's like going into McDonald's and sucking on the straw. It's just not enough. It's not enough. And my burden, my burden is that people will think of a minimum of two years. The Mormons think in terms of two years. Most military armies think in terms of two years. And possibly maybe in two different or three different kinds of experience. It's all right for one summer to get a garage building experience for the missionary's new car. But it would be good if the next summer you could get an experience of witnessing eight hours a day intensive evangelism, learning a language and getting in to church planting or evangelism or something along that line. Because I think in some cases some of our efforts bridge on a little bit of attempting to get cheap labor to do work on the field that could be done by local people who often in these countries get very, very low pay. And I feel that in some cases and there are now a lot of missionaries speaking against short term work. And it's because they just didn't count the cost. It's not a matter of getting cheap labor. If we're going to have short termers on our fields and missionaries are here we have got to put time into them. Some missionaries and this is true in our own work they don't have time for that. So we don't give them any short term work. Because the average person who comes when they're young they have emotional problems, they need counseling, they need a lot of teaching, a lot of fellowship and a lot of instruction. And we're having a lot of kickback against short term work today because sometimes we haven't counted the cost. And I speak of OM as well because we have made some mysterious mistakes in our own work and are having to give more manpower, more effort, more muscle, more money, more training that we have short term work that really will last a long time and that will produce longer term disciples. It has been proven however that even summer workers can be a great help and receive effective training at the same time. Your next few years should be basically training. I would love to speak to you about what Dale Roton talks about in his book Christian Strategy which by the way you can get free. On the principle of Jesus of training men. I find too many men in key leadership today who have never been trained. They've never been trained. We have abandoned the biblical concept of discipleship training, of man to man training. My friend Dirk who's with me on this trip has not joined my team so he can collect free things from tables or carry books or a lot of the other things that he's doing. With me. But he's in this year because it's a Timothy relationship. I'm no Paul but he is a Timothy. And I believe that as much as possible many of you should get into Paul-Timothy relationships. Even though you may already be a leader. People are being thrown into leadership far too quickly in American Christianity. We have the same problem. I wonder how many of you have ever been really discipled? You've ever really lived with an anointed man who knows God, who knows his word, who knows how to pray, knows how to witness? Live with him. Walk with him. Talk with him. See him when he's being overrun by the enemy. Discover that he's real and he's raw and he's human. Tell you if we had more discipleship training a lot of our other systems and seminars could be thrown in the lakes. We're trying to do things through shortcut programs, seminars, conferences. Now everybody's got to go watch films until your eyes are falling out of your head. And it's, I'm not against it because I have a wide angle lens in my mind of how God works. But I believe if we're going to evangelize the world we've got to go back to 2 Timothy chapter 2 and verse 2. Those things you've heard of me, Paul writing to Timothy. Commit thou to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. And as we go overseas and I remember when God first sent me to Mexico the burden was to find a brother I could just love and just give myself to. It says in 1 John 3, 16, in this we perceive the love of God in that he laid down his life for us so we will lay down our lives for the brethren. We don't cross the ocean as great white teeth. We go over as servants. Some of us, we need to be Timothys for a few more years before we think we're some kind of Paul. That man that teaches us and disciples us may be an Indian, he may be an Arab. The leader of our work in Sudan is a Sudanese and our Europeans and our Americans have to go and work under him and learn from him. The leaders of our work in India are largely Indians and they have to go and submit to an Indian. One of my concerns about a lot of American short-term work is it's a whole team of Americans. They're all Americans, all gum-chewing Americans working together and even they're fighting. And I fear if you go out on a team that's just all Canadians that it's going to be less than best. God can still use it. I'm not opposed to it because God ultimately makes decisions, not me. But I think it's good when we from this hyper culture and this hybrid culture of North America go over and submit to nationals and get mingled in with Belgians and French and Austrians and Germans and the team leader may not even speak English. Who ever heard of a leader who doesn't speak English? We need a lot of radical thinking and we need to realize at the same time that these national leaders all over the world they are asking us to come. I try to do a lot of reading. The pros and the cons of all these different things. I wish I could share with you a message. I have the notes here in my Bible on maintaining the balance in world missions because I think the enemy is trying to polarize different kinds of societies, different kinds of vision. Missionaries are arguing over endless subjects. There are endless articles written on every kind of controversy you can ever face in the mission field. Now these things need to be discussed and I read a lot of it. But I think we need to realize the bottom line and Bill Heimer mentions it in this book to some degree. God is working in different people in different ways. God is leading different people in different ways. And there's a range of opportunities out there for every kind of person. For example, it's not just church planters and evangelists and those who are gifted in sharing Christ and maybe giving out and distributing literature. There's a need for mechanics. Not just for a summer, but for years. My own nephew was definitely a non-missionary type. His thing was vehicles. We never did, we didn't know each other very well. I was never over here. I only have one sister. This is her son. But I was into rock climbing. I did this when I was developing an intensive training program with NOM. Patterned after outward bound or eastward bound. Outward bound, we have eastward bound. And so we got into rock climbing. We're not doing it so much because we had almost a number of people killed. But at that time, we got into this rock climbing. And my nephew was a rock climber. So his old uncle and him went up cliff climbing, you know, with the ropes and the helmets and all that. It's great for Bible memory verses and all. You know, when you're full and you're hanging on the rope, there's a lot of time to memorize scripture. And we became friends. And if you want to win recruits for world missions and want to influence people for God, then make yourself friendly. Make yourself friendly. Because not only is friendship evangelism very, very powerful, but friendship discipling is very, very powerful. Anyway, we became friends and he came over to Europe just to look around Europe one summer and repair some of the OM vehicles. We got a couple of hundred vehicles and breaking down quite regularly. And God just touched him. And if anyone tells you this kind of short term exposure doesn't work, I could give you hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of cases of people long term in the mission field today because it does work. In fact, through OM, we have people working in almost every mission society in the world in almost every single nation in the world. Anyway, my nephew is now on his second long term out in India. He's a New Jersey lad. He's, he's, he's, he's an American. And yet the Indians love him. They invited him back and he's there on his second term. He's been three terms. He was one on the ship before he went there. And he's laid aside getting married. He's laid aside a lot of things back home because he's just convinced about this and he's training Indian mechanics so they can keep our fleet of 30 vehicles moving in order to reach approximately 12 million more people every year with the word of God. Just an ordinary person never had a missionary call. We got too many people waiting for some kind of emotional missionary call. God leads different people in different ways. If someone had a great emotional missionary call, I'm not going to have an argument with him. But let's not push that on everybody. Some people are less emotional. And if we kept you here at three o'clock at night and then said, well, let's all just sleep here on the floor. And then about four o'clock at night, we turn a little music on, a little, you know, a little, a little, a little Congo music. And we, we put some, you know, films on the screen of the Congo and what's happening there in Africa. Some of you would wake up in the morning and say, God's called me to the Congo. Maybe not. But a lot of people tell me they got their missionary call through a missionary showing slides. Continue listening on the other side, please. Through a missionary showing slides. Somebody comes back from Kenya and they show slides. Kenya's got the greatest per capita missionary population in the world. It's so crazy. We got so many missionaries going to some countries and no missionaries going to other countries. I think we need to do a little more studying before we all run off to the Philippines or we all run off to a country where there's already 3,000 missionaries. Where places like Turkey and other Muslim countries have hardly anybody. Who is going to come back and show film strips on Afghanistan? There's hardly anybody in Afghanistan. So how are they going to come back and show film strips on Afghanistan? And that's why I think it's so good that God has raised up Ralph Winter and those who labor with him who keep banging on that same drum, boom, boom, every time he gets near, boom. The unreached people, the frontiers. We must consider that. We must consider that. And if you don't, who will? Who will? You know, some of these countries where America is now still aiming at sending great numbers of missionaries. You know what our view is? Those countries should be sending hundreds of missionaries to other countries. You know why God sent our ship, the Duluth to South America with 300 workers on it? Not to evangelize South America. It's one of the most evangelized places in the world. There's still unreached people there, still unreached pockets. But in comparison, in comparison, North India, for example. We went there because the Holy Spirit gave us the burden to see Latin Americans moving out for Portugal and Spain and the Muslim world and India and places that don't have one one hundredth, one one hundredth. Do you know enough about math to grasp that? Of the witness they have in Brazil, where by the way, they have some of the biggest churches in the entire world. And Argentina, where you have one of the strongest brethren movements in the entire world. That's just one of many powerful denominations in that country. And now we got a hundred South Americans on our ship and in Europe and in our trucks headed for India. We're so slow to move from a receiving base to a sending base. That doesn't mean no Americans should go to Brazil or Argentina. No, I'd be a fool to say that because God is going to continue to use different people on a totally international level. But it does mean that Mexico and Argentina and Brazil and Singapore and the Philippines and Korea must be major sending bases. And I hope you'll pray in that direction without thinking you're no longer used. Because some of the statistics, statistics have a subtle way of lying, are very deceptive. For example, I recently read an article about Korea. Gave the idea thousands of Koreans are launching out as missionaries. Now, I love Korea and I've been involved with Koreans for 20 some years. The fact is most of the Koreans who go out overseas go to work among Koreans. That is not cross-cultural missionary work. And a lot of them especially go to California. I'm not against that. But let's not mark that up as a missionary statistic that proves the Muslim world is going to be evangelized by Koreans because there are very few Koreans who are effectively witnessing in the Muslim world. And we have a lot of them there. They have an enormous problem learning English and Arabic is enough to drive them completely around the bend. Now, praise God for a church of 100,000 people. But even that church of 250,000 in Korea only has a handful at present of cross-cultural missionaries. So it's a good idea and we want it, but it's still beginning stage. Meanwhile, we need some Canadians who have a gift for languages and we don't have to spend three years teaching you English. And in places like India, you can use English the moment you get there. Even the great Bhakt Singh of India became a very close friend of mine, converted to Christ in Canada, by the way, went back to India and eventually planted about 300 or 400 churches. He does most of his ministering in English. He knows other languages, but English is a strategic language in India. And I think of a missionary right now in India who has had a powerful ministry there for many years and he has never learned the language. Now, doesn't that break up some of the things you've heard? Too easily, we make generalizations. In certain countries, absolute priority, first thing, you're going to learn the language. We have it even for France. We're not going to use English in France, but you will use English in Hong Kong, Singapore, many parts of Africa, certainly India, Pakistan. I will tell you, Pakistan is so open. No, no, that's not the way to say it. The doors are not open in Pakistan. They're off the hinges. And if I'm on my way, I would spend a year in Canada just looking for recruits for Pakistan because you don't even need a visa for Pakistan. There's only five countries that can go to Bangladesh without a visa, only five. Even the British need a visa for Bangladesh. I believe that's the case. Canadians don't need a visa for Bangladesh. And yet so few in Canada are even thinking about this. They're not even open to it. We meet Canadians who feel the Lord is leading them to evangelize Florida. They come down in great hosts driving their big cars. They feel Florida, mainly in the winter months, and they've got cars and you meet the same people and they feel the Lord to work among the Eskimos, mainly in July, in August, they head on north. Now, of course, that might be a bit of a generalization, but it's true that certainly in the United States, very few, very few of our evangelists ever go to these countries except Israel. Oh, yes, dear Israel. We've all got to go to Israel. I just read a big ad also that great numbers of Christians now are going on Christian cruises. This is the end. There's only a couple of grand. I mean, what's a couple of grand? You know, once God's prospered you and you're the apple of his eye and he's loaded your bank account. And so we can go on these great cruises and we can listen to the outstanding Bible teachers of our nation. Money is flowing like a river when it comes to things we want. But when it comes to reaching the lost, when it comes to sometimes even sending a student missionary out from his local church, suddenly, well, we're really a bit pressed in the church now. We feel this is a good vision, but we're really a bit tight. We haven't paid for that last stained glass window and the organ. It had a squeak in it. We really do need a new organ. But maybe in the 1990s, we'll consider this possibility of sending out a student missionary. Anyway, most of these students are not mature enough to go. They need to stay here in our church and become seasoned. And after they're seasoned for a few years, then we'll commend them. So I ask those people, well, how many, in fact, have you commended in the past 15 years? How many seasoned ones, spirit-filled men in the 30s? Do we get seasoned when we're in the 30s? I think some begin to smell when they're in the 30s. And I just feel it's deception. It's deception. And if we look into the book of Acts, we'll discover that some of the most powerful witnessing was being done by new believers. How do you explain the book of Acts in the light of the brainwash we are being given today about excellency? Wherever I go, especially around the States, I see little signs on people's desks. Excellency, excellency, excellency. We're going to become neurotic. I am a great believer in aiming as high as possible in the work of God. In fact, I believe quality is more important than quantity. But as I look into the book of Acts, I see people who had no seminary education, not even Bible college education, shaking the world for Jesus Christ. And I will tell you from my own Bible college experience that some of the people were on fire for Christ in their freshman year and they were dead as dodos when their heads were filled with theology in the third year. And our Bible colleges know this and they don't know what to do. We're not against Bible college and we've channeled thousands from OM into Bible college. But there's got to be the fire. There's got to be the reality. There's got to be the Lordship of Christ. There's got to be commitment and there's got to be a realization that God can use you even if you don't have the privilege of going to Bible college. And in most nations of the world where I've been, it is a great privilege to ever be able to go to Bible college. Why? They don't have the money. You know, in some countries, they have to work. You've heard of those kind of countries. They have to work. Now, I know it's true often of many people in our countries to get through Bible college and seminary and education. People are working very, very hard. So don't mistake that. But in other countries, even if they did that, it would not be possible. There's just not the money. There's just not the resources. It's just, it's just not that way. Is there no hope for them? I want to tell you, I still believe that the layman, the man who works in the factory, in the office, in the job downtown, at least in most countries, is still the key to evangelism. Not full-time workers. Certainly not American and Canadian missionaries. We can be a help. We are needed. But the ultimate key is the man who lives there. That's why when we go to these countries, we must work under them. We must work with them. That's why we should know something about humility and esteeming others better than ourselves. And you know, this is one of the reasons short-term two-year workers are often so effective because they are non-threatening. They're non-threatening to the existing church. They are often more willing to submit. They're often more willing to change and be flexible and adaptable. They often don't have a particular program. They're not necessarily planning to plant their particular brand of church next to an already existing church. You know that's happening in the Philippines. That's happening in Kenya. That's happening in Brazil. That's happening in country after country. Our little denominations come in from America and they have no respect for existing churches. If they can find one little thing they don't agree with, it's not separated enough or it's not this enough or they don't do this or they don't have that doctrine. They don't count it. When they write their prayer letter, reporting back, even when they feed their computer information into California, they don't report about other existing churches because they're not of our group. Isn't that interesting? Oh, beloved, I feel this is, this is a moment of destiny for many of us in this auditory to consider getting involved in a radical, revolutionary, worldwide cooperative thrust with the national church and in unreached areas where up to now hardly anyone has gone. You know another reason why it's so logical for many of us here to consider this is because most of you have good health. Now, there may be a few of you, you don't have good health. And even when there's a lot of people planning to head for the mission field, there will be some stopped by health. But if God has given you a good mind, have you ever thanked the Lord for a sound mind? I tell you to me, it's one of the greatest gifts God can give you. Whatever you want to call it, a sound mind. And if you have a sound mind and healthy body, you ought to pray about giving at least a couple years in God's army overseas. Another reason why this is so logical is because the resources are available. Now, let's bring some things into balance. There are some beautiful, committed people in our churches. There are some churches that have more of a missionary vision and they had it long before I had it. They are a minority, but they exist. Some of you belong to that kind of church. They actually are more than ready to support you. Others, you don't have that situation. That doesn't mean God can't handle your situation. But when I find churches, as I have found, where they want to send young people and not many want to go, I just don't know what to do. I had that experience in People's Church some years ago. I was preaching in People's Church, a little church in Toronto. Tremendous missionary vision. I don't know, they pledged a million dollars to missions. And at least the year I was there, among all the young people in the church, there were hardly any that wanted to go. Now, isn't that a trick of the enemy? Here's a church ready to send people from their church. Hardly anybody wants to go. Maybe it's changed now. And here's another church where the young people want to go, the elders don't want to send them, or the leaders. That's just what the enemy likes. And that's why if you are going to go and get involved short term or longer term, you are going to need some holy ghost stubbornness. Any of you Dutch? That's helpful. Scottish? Also. Most nationalities can produce stubbornness at the right time. But we need people who are going to put their hand on the plow and not turn back. Because it's not easy to see that financial breakthrough. We're going to have special prayer and a word about releasing finance through prayer in the prayer meeting tonight. It's not easy to win your church or to win some friends, to stand with you in this vision, to take your prayer letter, to pray for you. It's not easy. But it's the only way. Because we're a remnant. This is not the most popular thing in the church today. We're a remnant. And so we need patience. We need a lot of the fruit of the Holy Spirit. We need a lot of wisdom as we go back and talk to our churches and our pastors and our leaders. These men are burdened often with a lot of problems, increase of divorce in the church. Divisions in the church. So many voices disrupting church life. I will tell you, it's an intensive mixed up scene in North America today. And we need understanding. We need sympathy. We need words of love. And we need to be willing to slow down a little. It may not be this summer for all of you. It may not be, you know, this Christmas down to Mexico. I feel that often the hindering thing among young people today is impatience. Better to wait a year and get things a little bit more together. Get yourself a little bit more together. We're not talking about basically a short term program. Our greater burden is your whole life given totally for Him. If you don't, young people like you have this exposure, who've read some of these books, who have prayed through these prayer cards, who have some vision, some understanding, some knowledge. If you don't take this serious, who will? You know, in my mind, when a conference like this is planned for a year and a half, it should be 5,000 people. It should be 5,000 people, just Canada. Now, I'm not saying we should do that. Because personally, I believe one of the greater ways is that every conference, every local church or every local community has a smaller missionary conference in their community or in their own church. Because it takes a lot of work to put together a conference like this. And actually the brothers and sisters who worked on this, they were more or less shooting at 400. And they got what they aimed at and they're happy. We're all happy. But let's face it, who are we in the light of the population of Christians in Canada? We're just a little tiny group. But if we don't, who will? Oh, we know there will come some workers out of great places like Prairie Bible Institute. There will come a few out of Ontario Bible College. There'll come a few out of Oswald J. Smith's church. There'll come a few out. I've been to most of the Bible colleges in Canada. I think most of them are all great. And some are coming. And this is exciting. We thank God for this. We never despise anything that the Holy Spirit is already doing. And there's been a lot of prayers and a lot of tears and a lot of work. And we're not really coming forth with a lot of new things that other people haven't thought about. Some of these older missionaries here today have been thinking about these things before even I was born. But the task is still tonight overwhelming. And the harvest is plentous. And the labors are few. And the doors are wide open. Short term, longer term. Summer, two years. Subcontinent of India, Europe, communist countries. I'd love to talk to you for an hour about open doors in the communist land, especially for Canadians, much more than USA citizens. Every USA citizen is under suspect in the world today of being in the CIA. Generally, you don't suspect Canadians of being in the CIA. There probably are some, but they don't suspect that. You have an open door. And the onus is upon you to do something about it. And I'm going to ask now, as I give this invitation, for people to make a specific commitment. Those responsible for this conference have asked me to do this. And to commit yourself to go, by God's grace, overseas. You can't tell how long, but you're going to move overseas as God leads, as, please get this, as God confirms. The Lord can stop you. He can use your church to stop you, because you must be to some degree in submission to your church. He can use health to stop you. He can use finance. You pray, you pray, you pray, finance doesn't come. It can be the Lord's sign. There are so many ways the Lord can stop you, at least this year, maybe next year. It could be different, have more time to work on it. But I say this, it's more easy to direct a moving vessel. Very hard to steer our two ships when they don't move. You know anything about ships? Very hard to steer when they don't move. I have an old bus, no power steering. A little guy like me, I will tell you, to try to turn the wheel when it's going one mile an hour. Very hard. But at 55, no problem. Some of you have been sitting for too long. You've been thinking, you've been praying, you've been wondering, you've been counting the costs. Me? Low my weaknesses? Oh, I wish I could speak to you for an hour about sex. See, how did that get into this? 600 verses in this book on the subject of sex. And many of the young people who write to me, they're discouraged in their Christian life and they're not willing to consider the mission field because they have a hangup in the area of lust or sex or a related area. And they think, until I get all that sorted out, how could God ever use me? You know, they're going to spend the rest of their life trying to get sorted out and they still won't be sorted out. You know, some of these struggles and battles and problems that you may have, of course, there needs to be greater victory, there needs to be reality, there needs to be honesty. But if you wait until you're perfect and you have everything totally sorted out, you're not going anywhere. Anywhere at all. And I have seen people with some pretty serious difficulties when they began to just move and when they had this vision and they had a purpose in life and they got involved with other people. The problem diminished 95%. Especially with the Word, prayer, the message of the Lordship of Christ and His cross. I want to ask you, will you go? Will you make a commitment in writing tonight that by God's grace you're going to begin to move out where the 95% are? Let's pray. I'd like to know how many of you before you ever came to this conference, before you ever came, this will help me, you were already committed in a definite way to moving out to overseas missions. All I want you to do is put your hand up real quick. You're already committed to that. Quite a few of you. Maybe one fourth. Okay. Now you can renew that commitment in your own heart. You can add to it. You can put some more fire under it. But I want to speak to the rest. Would you be willing to make a similar commitment and say subject to God's constant confirmation and the unity of your church, other believers, you're going to move out. God's spoken to your heart. God's spoken to you perhaps before you ever came here. God's spoken this morning. He's spoken tonight. And somehow you just feel you've got to make a commitment. It's going to be hard enough even when you make a commitment. Without that, it's going to be nigh unto impossible. Because there's so many things pulling at our time. I want to ask you if you'll make that commitment with all your heart, commitment toward world missions, overseas missions. Maybe you're already committed to work in your own country. Fine. We can't cover everything in one message. So that's not my burden right now. But it's to give you a chance to respond to moving overseas toward the frontiers, toward the unreached people, toward the more needy lands outside of your own country, as the Lord confirms. And if you do that, and right now, wherever you are, I'd like you to stand up. If you're in the other auditorium, I'd like you to come out of that auditorium and into this auditorium up the back stairs and just stand there in the back. Our time has gone by very quickly, but this is one of the most important moments. If you'll make this commitment between you and the Lord, knowing that he can stop you, he can correct you, and I'd like you just to stand up right where you are. And we're going to pray a prayer that the Holy Spirit will fill you and make this real. It's between you and the Lord. It may only be a few, maybe many. God has spent a year and a half narrowing this down, just narrowing this down. So we're only a few. No matter how many stand up here, we're only a few. But God has been sifting and sorting, and that's how he's brought us here together. And now I'm asking you to make that commitment. Yes, the number are coming in from the other auditorium. Just stand there in the back. Those people who are already standing, if you're not making the commitment, maybe you should sit down. It doesn't matter that much. Let's all be praying. Let's all be praying. Anyone else. You say, well, I need more time to think about it. That's what we're always saying. But I believe most of you have been thinking about it. And now the time has come to act, to act. God knows your heart. God's not going to send you out if that's not his will. He can hold you. And he, you know, we're linked with the church. The church can hold you. But I tell you, if the church holds you, and they have made a mistake in doing that, they will stand before God. And for every meeting I take among young people, I take four among adults. I just came from speaking at the great Keswick Convention, 5,000 in the evening, there are adults who have this vision. And God's going to put you together with churches and adults and middle-aged characters like me who want to send you. And if somehow the devil gets in and it doesn't happen or people disobey the word of God, well, you'll have to trust him. God has plan A, plan B, plan C. And I just know he's sovereign. So take that step of faith. Even if you don't have all the answers. And begin to move. At least for a couple years. If war broke out, you'd have to do it. Maybe for your government. For Jesus. Then, some of you already know, you're longer term. You already know it's not two years for you. Fine. But for others, maybe geography. We're talking about geography for a moment. Reality is life. Lordship of Christ, the cross, love, spiritual revolution. But geography is also a factor. Two years at least. Overseas. In this impossible, incredible, overwhelming task. Anyone else before I pray? Praise the Lord. God bless you. You, yes. I'm not good at giving invitations. The Lord can help. Praise the Lord. Some of you are seated. You're not in the category of people that have already committed themselves to do this. And you're not standing. I want to say something to you. Don't feel you have to stand. Don't feel you have to stand. God loves you as much as He loves the ones who are standing. And He doesn't want to pressure you. Forgive me, I know when I speak, there is some impetus. It may appear some to be pressured. We don't want that. We believe in the work of the Holy Spirit. So if you're not ready to stand, don't stand at God, nor we are going to put any guilt trip on you. And so you just worship Jesus where you are. You say, Jesus, I'm not ready to stand. This is too new. If this is the first time in your life you ever heard any of this today, maybe you better sit and just think it through and pray it through a few more weeks. You can write to us after that. And we're not here to, you know, just get some kind of instant, quick decision. The Holy Spirit is preparing many of you. So you stood. So those who are seated, worship Jesus. If you feel scared, discouraged, maybe even turned off, worship Him anyway. He'll turn you back on. His grace is sufficient. He's not in a hurry in a sense. He's not in a hurry. A girl came in one of my meetings, I'll finish with this, but I think it's important. She was just shaking. She said, I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do. I can't make this decision tonight. She started crying. I said, look, you don't have to make the decision tonight. Relax, go home, go have a cup of tea, sleep. Read the Bible in the morning. God is a God of mercy and love and peace. And I pray your heart will be filled with peace. Even if tonight you just feel shaky and that you can't make this decision in a real way. For those who are standing, I want to dedicate you to the Lord right now. Let's pray. Father, we're standing before you in fear and trembling. We don't know what to say. You have spoken. You have spoken very strongly throughout the day and before we ever came here. Through your word, through our own churches, through films, through other missionaries. And we finally have taken this step of faith. We commit ourselves to begin to move to the ends of the earth. As an army, as a team of one heart and of one mind. We ask you Lord to move upon our churches, to move upon our friends, that they would send us because how can we preach unless we'd be sent? We can't just go of our own initiative. We need your people. We need your church to send us. Act 13, grant it. Oh God, grant. Oh God, we pray. And meanwhile, give us patience and wisdom and the fruit of the Holy Spirit in our lives. And Father, we would pray right now. Fill us afresh with your Holy Spirit. We need that anointing. We need that power. Lest we try to do this work in our own strength and end up exhausted before the month is out. Fill us, oh God. As it was in Acts 4.31, fill us, oh Lord, with your Holy Spirit. Even now, I think we'll give you the glory. We'll give you the praise. In Jesus' name, amen. Let us all stand. Bernie, would you come and lead us in that chorus? He is Lord. He is Lord. He is risen from the dead. He is Lord. Let's sing this as an act of commitment because in some ways, if I had one more message, I would preach on the Lordship of Christ. It's the last chapter of my little book, No Turning Back. The Lordship of Christ. Because that's the only thing that can make this real. And I think as you have stood in a new sense without even realizing, you have made Christ Lord. You've listened to his voice. You know the human factors there. You know maybe you got some signals wrong tonight. It's possible all through life. But basically, in your heart, you want him to be Lord. That's what counts. Far more than whether you ever go to India or remain here. Let's sing, He is Lord. Can you lead us in that? He is Lord. He is Lord. He is risen from the dead. He is Lord. He is Lord. Every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. He is risen from the dead. And he's my Lord. Yes, my knee has bowed. Yes, my knee. And my tongue confess. And my tongue confess. That Jesus Christ is Lord. Be seated, please. I have one more request and that will be all before I turn this back to brother, If you made this commitment, I believe it's important to put something in writing. I would write something for yourself in your Bible. There's plenty of blank spaces in your Bible, right on the front. On this day, I commit myself by faith to begin to move in obedience to the word of God toward the ends of the earth. Write something like that. You know, a lot of times we have printed commitments. I'm not against that. It's great to use your own words. Think. Write something in your Bible about this commitment. My Bible is a very, very precious thing to me. I use every single blank page for quotations and notes and thoughts and challenges to my own wretched heart. I even got, I never used these maps much, so I even wrote over all the maps. So the Lord gave me a burden. I wrote it in the Bible some time ago, Lord, give me 50 men to preach. I asked God for 50 men, you know, who are anointed to preach the gospel. I figured out today, I put this in an international letter, OM letter I just wrote, God has given us more than those 50 men. So write that in your Bible. And then take a blank piece of paper, any size, you can find it in the program you were given when you came. There's a lot of blank pages there. And I want you to write something to me and to Artaj. And he'll take some of them and I'll take some of them, and we will pray specifically over every one of these papers between the two of us. At least once, maybe more. And then we'll get together and send something to you later on that will help you. What do we want? We want your name and address. This is separate from anything else, you know, the official feedback and all that, do that, fine. This is personal. It will be handled personally. But we'd like you to take that out and put your name and where we can send something to you in the next year, a permanent address is best, even if you're not going there for a month or two. And then, what commitment have you made? In your own words, maybe God has been more specific to you. Maybe it's India. Maybe it's the communist world. Maybe it's conviction that it's long term and you're going to get to one of these mission societies tonight. But we want you to write down what this commitment has meant. Or simply, I commit myself, by God's grace, as he continues to confirm, to missionary service. That's a sentence you can use. And then put one prayer request. What's your biggest hassle? My lust and impatience. If I were filling it out, say I commit myself to long term missionary service, but I need prayer for my lust problem and my impatience. Now you tell us, Artaj and I, what can we pray specifically for you? Is it fear? Is it an incredibly complex family situation you don't know how ever you're going to resolve it? Your whole family's counting on you for your income to feed them for the next five years. It's a problem. Or some other complication. You've robbed a bank and now you're going to have to go and put that right that you recommitted your life and it means jail for ten years you feel will be a problem to get to the mission field during that ten years. Whatever problem you have, we've actually had things similar to that in case you think that's a stretch. We want to pray specifically for you. So fill that out, your commitment in your Bible for yourself, and this commitment written out for us. We may actually photocopy that and send it back to you. Most of you don't carry carbon paper. I always carry carbon paper, but most of you don't have that. So I've just done this with some people who made a commitment. I've just had it typed out and sent it back to them. I got my copy. They got their copy. And I have this little gift of writing to people five years later saying, how are you doing? So this is a serious thing for us. We're not, you know, I'm not here for a day of recreation. This is a serious thing. We are committing ourselves a little, for humans who can only be a little, to each one who's made this commitment, to send you some helpful material. There's nothing to do with Operation Mobilization. I don't think I've hardly mentioned Operation Mobilization. If you want to know about Operation Mobilization, there's a leaflet. You can get that. That is separate. This has nothing to do with that. This is your personal commitment to world missions, to the frontiers, to the ends of the earth. And we want to pray for you. And we believe it's worth your taking that little time to write it down. Give it to our Taj. Give it in information. Give it in at the book table. I go over there all the time. Or hand it to us personally, if you can get a hold of us. Thank you for your patience. And I do believe that we have seen the fulfillment of many years of prayer here at this time. And we look forward to praying about it in the prayer meeting later on.