In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of being a servant leader and winning the hearts of the team. He highlights the need to spend time with team members, listen to them, and build friendships. The speaker also discusses the challenge of building loyalty and unity within organizations, using the example of OM. He concludes by mentioning the significance of practical actions and the impact they have on one's spiritual life.

I'd like to just share a few thoughts about building loyalty. In some ways it's harder than ever to build loyalty in order to get a particular job done. The world, they have a unique way of working. They have a system very much linked to money and man's desire for material things. But how do you get people motivated and loyal to a vision like world evangelism when they basically are going to do it on a volunteer basis? I think a lot of people have difficulty understanding, especially some business people, the complexity of working with people when they are volunteers. Now we know when the ship goes into port we have people who are called volunteers, right? But in fact, in OM we're all volunteers. We've come of our own free will, hopefully because the Holy Spirit has led us. In OM we have this double challenge. We want, first of all, to build loyalty to the body of Christ. We don't want people to be, first of all, an OMer. Have you ever been called an OMer? Of course you have. Then someday somebody will call you an ex-OMer. A term we don't like, but we haven't found a very good substitute. In India they call them graduates, but Europe will not let us get away with that. So we want to, first of all, build loyalty to Christ, to his kingdom, to his word. But if we have a particular job to do, we have to build loyalty to a vision. And I think it's important for you, as you go away and become leaders in the church, I think it's important for you to understand how to build loyalty. These thoughts are linked with my desire, as I shared with you on the first day, to think in terms of your preparation to go into leadership, and also, at least some of you, quite soon to go home. And I wrote here in my Bible just some of the reasons why it's not going to be easy for you to build loyalty. When you go back, maybe you want to organize an evangelistic team. It's good. That's how this work started. Maybe you want to organize a prayer group. That's the heartbeat of OM, prayer groups. How do you get people to come together? How do you win their hearts? How do you get them to move as a team? In OM we very much believe in teamwork. OM is led by a team of leaders. And as I've been studying this, to be honest, I've seen how hard it is in our day and age. Let me give you some of the reasons. Number one, today there's such a wide range of strong emphases. Now let me just insert here that we're just kidding ourselves in the ship ministry, or in OM, as leaders, I'm speaking to myself now, if we don't think we have a job of winning people. If they're not convinced that OM is biblical, if they're not convinced that we're being guided by the Holy Spirit, if they're not convinced that we're not extreme, they're not going to throw in their lot and work with us in the Muslim world for the next four years. I don't think so. I don't think so. And today there's a wide range of strong emphases. I've met people in the last years far stronger against abortion than they are against world evangelization. The fact that a million souls a week go out into hell, that, you know, in my mind, that's pretty important. But to them, the death of a fetus, and many fetuses, and that is important, and I am concerned, and I believe Christians should be concerned, in their mind and with their action, that's ten times more important. And so we have today in the evangelical world an enormous amount of energy going into the abortion thing. Millions of dollars. And who's going to say anything against it? I don't want to be accused of being a murderer. My good friend Dr. Schaeffer, who's a very close friend of this work, he's been giving a lot of his time in anti-abortion marches. He was just in London marching. He was just in Atlanta marching. Now he came to an OM conference 18 years ago. He gave us three solid days. He's linked with us. But when I've written him in the last 13 years, he never has time to come to an OM conference anymore. And yet, of course, he has lots of time to march in abortion marches all over the world. Mainly the states. Who's going to say anything against it? I'm not going to. I'm not going to. Now abortion is only one of endless issues. In the states today, more and more Christians are getting into politics. We have moral majority. We have other groups. And more and more the Christian... And you need to understand these things. Because you're going back into this. The Christian is just in evangelism. He's ridiculed. He's ridiculed. You mean, you know, what about human rights? What about justice? And wherever you go, it seems there are so many voices today. The political thing. The abortion thing. The human rights thing. And some of them are very important. Like, for example, abortion. Others are not so important. A big voice in some countries today is the vitamin voice. That every Christian should be taking vitamins. Yeah. You're just, you know, you're lacking understanding in this area probably. And there's tens of thousands of evangelical Christians in the United States mobilizing to sell vitamins. Tens of thousands. And there's all kinds of vitamins. Super vitamins. And wherever I go, people are trying to sell me vitamins. Of course, they look at me, you know. This guy needs vitamins. And they've got my wife into this thing. My wife has a range of vitamins that we could keep an entire army moving. And I won't get into the brand names. And, you know, some of you take vitamins. Don't get me wrong. I'm happy for my wife to take some vitamins. Usually she gets free or discount. And then you have the salt people. The Amway people. Now, those of you not from the United States or England, you may not know this yet. I have a friend who is more consecrated to selling Amway. He was on OM for many years. Then I ever saw him consecrated to reach souls for Christ. I mean, it's his life. It's his life. And these Amway preachers, you think I come across strong, you should hear an Amway man. I mean, it's every creature. It's every nation. It's unbelievable. Now, of course, you may think that's not significant because that's not your thing. But you see, there are so many voices. And people get going in so many different directions. How do you unite these people? You know, to keep these people excited about Amway products, they have monthly rallies. They have group sessions. They have group therapy. They have camps. They have prizes. Keep them going. I'm not saying I'm against this. My daughter signed up as an Amway salesman. I encouraged her. I think she didn't go for it. Very expensive kind of soup. Now, when it comes to purely Christian things, of course, if you read the Christian magazines, you know all the emphases, all the voices. I figured out that whatever you believe, whatever you say, someone else can give good reasons against it. No matter what it is. No matter what it is. How do we get people united? A lot of the Christians now in America are fighting over the subject of inerrancy. And it's big. A lot of energy has gone into it. A lot of books. A lot of conferences. I'm not against that. OM leads that way. We have to acknowledge there are a lot of very great Christians. Very great Christians who don't go along with the American brand of inerrancy. We got a lot of them in England. But it seems to me that with all these voices, all these different messages, all the different things we get taught, that it is very hard to get people to unite on anything. On anything. And also this creates an environment in which people jump from one thing to the other. Sure, you're excited about OM now. You're excited about Operation World now. And you, you know, you're an enthusiastic bunch. But what about 10 years? Will you even read the OM prayer letter? Will you even read it when it comes? From 28 years of experience, I know that some of you won't. You'll be in something else. This will be past history. It was nice when you were in it. You got from it what you could. And then you went on to something else. And next year it will be something else. Now in one sense, in one sense that's good. And if someone writes to me and says they no longer want to get the OM prayer letter, that's not a problem. If I discover they still love Jesus, they're still witnessing, they're still praying, they've joined a good group, maybe the WEC, maybe the OMF, maybe some other great group. And they're just committed just as much to Jesus and to world evangelism. It's no problem then, no problem. Because my burden isn't to push one movement. Building loyalty in a day when there's so many voices. Now sometimes you can build loyalty among uneducated people. They don't know, they don't read much. You get them in your little church. You give them your diet. And they, for some reason, even in places like the States, they go on. They go on. That's all they know. But you see, when they start reading magazines, when they start getting a taste of other experiences, like you do when you come on the ship, you meet other missionaries, you read magazines, you hear other voices. Some of you have never listened to a David Wilkerson tape in your life. Suddenly George Voe is recommending you listen to a David Wilkerson tape. He's a strong voice. He's not the same voice as me. And a movement like OM is very risky. Because we're trying to combine the intellectual with the spiritual. We don't want you to be intellectual midgets. We don't want you to just read the OM prayer letter. I read about 40 Christian periodicals, not all the time. All different voices. I get another 20, 30 secular periodicals. I read them. Again, not every article. I listen to tapes by dozens and dozens of different speakers. Always, ultimately, I try to go back to this book. And I try to, as I listen to David Wilkerson, remember what I heard from Dr. Schaeffer. They aren't exactly in the same wavelength. As I listen to Jay Adams, I like to remember what I've already received from Clyde Naramore. They're not in the same wavelength. As I listen to Buck Thing or read his books, I like to remember that which I received from Alan Redpath. One of the closest friends and associates of OM. And I believe it is possible to be intellectually open. Intellectually honest. Unafraid of truth. Unafraid of questions. And still be loyal to a particular vision. When you do that, you don't anymore say, ours is the only way. Our church is the only New Testament church. Our movement is the only live movement. Or even make insinuations. We are the top of the pile. We're the most filled with the Holy Spirit. Others are filled, but we are more filled. Others are biblical, but we are more biblical. We don't have to make such statements or create that kind of environment to have loyalty. And there'll be a sense where no one will ever be totally, totally absolutely loyal to something like OM. We don't want that. I'm not even that. In that sense. We'll have our questions. We'll have our grievances. There'll be the things we won't like. And we'll be constantly in a state of tension. Constantly growing. Constantly throwing out the old, if it's not from Jesus, bringing in new areas of growth. But keep this in mind. When you're leading a team, some of you may lead a team next month. I tell you, they lay hands on people quickly in the August conference. Wow! You may be leading a team next month and you've got to create loyalty in that little team. You think that's easy? You're going to be in for some big surprises. You've got to win every person on that team to some degree. To some degree. Just like Brother Frank. He's got to win absolute loyalty on this little one. Oh, we've been talking about that. That's a challenge. Don't presume that leading a small team is easy. Oh, you've had IT. You know how to lead. You know, in OM, we still get these little mini-dictators as team leaders. If you get one of those guys, get a phone call to me quick. Because, you know, we don't want that. This isn't, you know, we're not operating a military camp. This isn't some kind of evangelical Gestapo. You've got to win that team. You've got to win that team. You've got to show love. A leader is a servant. Have you read that book by Swindoll? How to Improve Your Service? It's one of the best books I'm in now. I'm in about 40 books right now. That's one of the best. I don't complete most of them. I get bored quickly. I run out of time reading your prayer letters. By the way, did you know it was a rule in OM to send me your prayer letter? Did you know that? I know some of you are slow entry, slow on the uptake. But I'm supposed to get everybody's prayer letter. You say, what do you do with it? What do you think I do with it? Eat it? I read it. I don't read the whole thing. Half your prayer letters all say the same thing. They come from the doulas. But I look for highlights. You know what I think the biggest highlight of your prayer letter is? Your name. It's important, your name. Very important. It's on God's computer. Big blank page underneath it. Well, we hope some things are filled in by now. All the souls you've won to Christ. But you're important. You're important in this work. So I like to get your prayer letter. I look for a few highlights. I look for your name. You know what a lot of you do? You don't put your last name. Do you know how many Marias we have around the web? Do you know how many Jorges we have? How many Georges we have? Is it George Miley? Is it George Burwer? So put your last name on your prayer letter. Put an address. Watch out for hieroglyphics. Chicken scratch. Some of the prayer letters are so small you need a microscope to read them. Let's have a goal of... This is a separate message. We're not going to go... Let's have a goal to increase the quality of the prayer letter. And I look forward to getting more prayer letters from the doulos. So if you're a team leader, you're a servant. You've got to win their hearts. That means you've got to be willing to talk. You've got to be willing to talk. I have had non-stop talking today from the moment I got up until I fell asleep. Ten minutes before I was to come in here, I was with Brother Perfetti. It wasn't that you were boring. It's that I was tired. Fell asleep. Somebody knocked on my door and I came up here. But you know, if you're going to lead your team, it won't be this big. It will be small. You've got to spend time with those people. You've got to talk to them. You've got to listen to them. You've got to win their hearts. One of the greatest keys to leadership is winning people's hearts. Winning people's friendship. And you know, it's good if you have as a foundation a simple fact. This is a simple fact. You like people. Now those of you who don't like people, you've got a problem. You've got a problem. And I want to tell you, God is in the people business. Not firstly the project business. The people business. And God can increase your love for people. And you know, you know when you have a team leader who likes people. And who likes you. And who wants to work with you. And you want to give your loyalty to such a leader. And I hope you'll be that kind of pastor. That kind of team leader. And I'll sympathize with you when somebody on your team rebels and throws a tomato at you. I'm going to stand with you because I know it's hard. And let me give a few of the other reasons why it's hard. Number two, second reason. Let me have some water here. There's a great reaction today still to the cults. And to the Jonestown crisis. And to hyper super spirituality. People, I bet some of your parents are worried that you may be in a cult. We always have people in O.M. whose parents are worried. They think they're in a cult. We had a crisis in the Akron conference. Last minute, one of the parents thought their daughter was joining a cult. Hicks had to go. Trooper had to go. Pastor had to go. You know, God's firing squad. And convinced this woman, her daughter, was not joining a cult. Because someone who knew the Jonestown crisis had talked to this girl. And of course, in any movement where people are loyal, where they're doing anything, where there's any commitment, there are similarities. I mean, you know, there's similarities between a lot of things in life. And people make two and two equal eight. And we need to be more sensitive than ever before to the prejudices people have as a result of the cult. The Moonies. The family of love. Do you know the family of love? Formerly the children of God. They preached a message in the early days very similar to part of the O.M. message. Very strong on commitment. Forsaking all. They never had the other part of the O.M. message. Balance. A lot of other things. So because of the cults, it's hard to win loyalty today. And I will tell you, if you think there's anything cultic about this ship, I'd like to know about it. Frank would like you, wouldn't you Frank, to tell me about it. You don't want to tell Frank? Maybe you're afraid he'd be offended. He's asked me to come here. You can tell me. Because we don't want anybody thinking this is some kind of cult. Most people don't. I could give you just like that ten marks on O.M. that prove completely it is not a cult. One right off that we have boards of directors who we are responsible to who do not even go to the same churches. They don't even go to the same group. They're outside of O.M. completely. Businessmen. Lawyers. Doctors. Men accepted in their community. Leaders. They go to all different churches. Anglicans. Baptists. Presbyterians. Nobody is accusing these men of being in cults. Nobody. And they are our senior, final people that oversee us. Mr. Hansler in Germany, the chairman of the board that oversees this ship, is one of the most respected leaders of the church in Germany. He's a Lutheran. There's no way that he's going to tolerate us being a cult. That's one of ten reasons I could give you. Just like that. I'm not going to do that. It's another message. But we need to be sensitive. We need to be sensitive that other people don't know this. When this ship was in London, there was a mix-up about this personal money thing. Somebody turned in some money. It was a confusion. And then they were told, well, you can't be accepted on OM. You haven't even gone to the summer crusade. You made out no application. I'm sorry, we can't accept you. And somehow he had given his money in first. I don't know how that happened. So he went to the policeman at the gate. He said, hey, that ship just ripped me off. They took my money, and now they're sending me home. I tell you, we had our hands full with that policeman at the gate. Misunderstandings. They happen in OM. Two and two equals eight. That happens in OM. And this is why we have question and answer sessions. This is why the leaders on this ship are accessible. Go in there and tell them what's on your heart. If you have to bang on the table, get it out. Spit it out. Don't come back to me two years from now and say, well, I really wanted to tell somebody about it, but I was just scared. No. You get it out. If Jesus doesn't answer your questions, and you don't get an answer in prayer, reading and studying, then go to somebody. Anyway, let's be sensitive to that. Let's be wise. Let's be wise. You know, another proof, just to throw in this one other thing about this, that we're not a cult, is we're not trying to hold on to people. Suppose right now you've made a two-year commitment, but you're fed up. You think this is a pack of nutcases, and now that you've met George Burwer, you want out. You want out. All right. Let's talk to you. We're not going to hold you to that commitment. We may talk to you for an hour. We may challenge you. We may answer your questions. Ultimately, you're free. And, of course, we let people go every year before they finish their commitment. You want to know something? We don't curse them when they go. You know the cults. You know with the cults, it's easy in, hard out. That's how you can spot a cult, easy in, hard out. Boy, when you're coming in, they love you. They're oozing. It's not really love. It's grease. They're oozing. But when you want to go, something like the children of God, they will tell you that God's going to strike you dead. They'll give you a little story of all the people who have left the children of God. Of course, some have died. That's normal. People are dying all the time. So, they get one story of someone who's left the children of God that died within the week. And I tell you, when you hear them tell those stories, unless you're extra strong, it scares you. We have worked with ex-cult people. We have seen many people thrown and brought out of the cults. Maybe many is too big a word, but quite a few. You know, some of them go through withdrawal pain. Some of them actually shake. At the moment they make the break, they begin to shake. And they're scared. They're scared that within an hour they're going to be dead. Because they've been brainwashed into that kind of cultic thinking. And believe me, if somebody's fed up with OM and they don't like it, it's not their thing, we may not agree, we may not understand, but we want to do everything to make their transition out of OM a happy experience. And even a few, only a few that we know of have left. Sort of bitter, you know, even many of those later came back and became just strong prayer partners with us. It's the way of love. It's the way of love. The third thing, the reason why it's hard to get this loyalty, it's the way of love. It's the way of love. And I hope we can always practice this. And if you're going to be a leader, don't manipulate people. Lead them, encourage them. A small-minded leader has to manipulate people. He plays political games. He plays one person off against the other. He tries to scare people. Don't be that kind of leader. The third thing, the reason why it's hard to get this loyalty, there are many semantic problems. Many semantic problems. That's too big a word. Semantics means different words mean different things to different people. And I just taught you something. Semantics. People take a three-year university course in semantics. Did you know that? To understand the four-year course. Understand the meaning of words. Words are important. That's why I know that when I'm here communicating with some people, I may be miscommunicating. Because words mean different things to different people. And this makes it at times difficult to win the loyalty of people. For example, the word fanatic. Michael Griffith's book, Take My Life. Everybody should read that book. What a great book. A great man. President of London Bible College. A close friend. Peter Maiden and him are co-authoring a book on short-term, long-term missionary work. I hope you get to see Peter Maiden's first book on the subject of giving. Everyone needs to read that book. Anyway, Michael Griffith wrote a book, Take My Life, and he uses the word fanatic in that book. The way he uses the word fanatic, the way I've often used the word fanatic, is different. The word fanatic is loaded. It's loaded. I wouldn't use it. Generally. We're not fanatics. Not in the sense that the world is thinking. Not in the sense of what they learn from the cults. The word fanatic is not the best word to use in these days to describe operation mobilization. C.T. Studd used some strong words. The words C.T. Studd used in his day, they don't mean the same thing today. So that's a problem. Number four, the fourth reason. And I found this personally a problem, you know, airmen on the ships. Many, many extremist books going around. Extremist tapes. You know, it's interesting, when David Wilkerson's book Vision first came out in that tape, I was on Lagos at the time. I said, this is way out. This is extreme. And, you know, most of the things he predicted in that book, they did not come to pass. And I followed David. I listened to his tapes. Later on, David said, well, I think I got my timing wrong. I think I got my timing wrong on that Vision. Of course, that really split the charismatic movement in America. A lot of the charismatic Christians turned against David at that time. He then went to speak more and more about judgment. Wow. Really heavy things on judgment. And the thing that's impressed me is I've watched David Wilkerson. I'm only using him as an example. The kind of person I've always admired and appreciated, yet never totally agreed with. I never even finished his first book, Crossing the Switchblade. It's just that's not my kind of book. I saw the film. I think most of you have seen the film. But I've noticed how David has come into more and more balance. If you read his last three books, Have You Felt Like Quitting Lately? A couple of other books. The balance, the honesty, you know, his marriage almost came apart. His wife is very ill. She went into depression, nervous breakdowns, cancer. And she lays it out. He writes about it openly. I tell you, that communicates to me. And I believe that when you read a man's book and it seems a bit extreme, wait for his second book. Wait for his book on marriage. They're usually pretty balanced. But today, people pick up a book. Really, they pick up a book. And they just start jumping and pushing it. And then saying, this is a total answer. Watchman needs a total answer. What's this man from Korea now? Jong-il Cho has a total answer. And people are just going, Christians are just going all different directions. How do you build loyalty? I mean, even here, this is a miracle. You know, I don't believe you have perfect unity. But the unity I sense here, maybe I misread the signals. But the unity I sense here is a miracle. When I think of all the different backgrounds you come from. The books you've read. The groups some of you come from. It's a miracle. Praise the Lord for it. When you leave OM, there's often an extremist group just waiting for you. Just licking their chops. Do you know that expression? Waiting for you. Because sometimes when you leave OM, you're in an emotional transition. You're leaving old friends. And you're ready. You want new friends. Who's going to fill that vacuum? Now, OM isn't the livest thing going. Maybe in terms of emotions. Suppose you're somewhat of a charismatic type of Christian. And you like a little emotion. Probably OM isn't emotional enough for you. I mean, a lot of the British charismatics, they like to dance. They're heavy into dancing. That's more important now than tongues. And you get a 60-year-old British woman out weaving around. I mean, I tell you. That'll leave her with a joy that tongues never gave her. So, you know, we realize that sometimes OM's conservative, middle-world position is hard for some of the more charismatic brothers and sisters. Their churches are more emotional. But somehow, because they get their priorities perhaps changed a little. World evangelism. Love. Unity. Working together. The fruit as well as the gifts. Because they understand the problems we're facing in an international movement like this. An interdenominational movement. They go along with it. But when they leave, they, of course, may want to get back into something a little more their own style. And I just want to tell you. Some of the new movements that appear to be just standard charismatic movements and I've done 27 years of research on this subject. Still have a lot to do. I've asked even to speak on it. But it may look like a sort of balanced, good, charismatic group. And OM has deep links with balanced, good, charismatic fellowships. I just spoke from the Anglican Church in Bristol just before I came here. Strongly charismatic. I tell you. I wish I could bring you to that Anglican Church. And it's one of the most pro-OM churches in the nation. I can go there anytime I want, one week's notice. And I can preach there. I preach for an hour and a half in the Anglican Communion Service. Have you ever heard anything like that? It's unheard of. Hour and a half. The total meeting was a three-hour meeting. Anglican Church. And balanced, charismatic churches like that, no problem. Just as balanced, fundamentalist churches, no problem. We have hundreds of them standing with us in OM. But, you can go out of OM and you can see a group that may appear to be a balanced, good fellowship, but it's kinky. And they're into things that are ugly and that will leave you with deep wounds. They won't hurt OM much, but they'll leave you wounded. They often have total answers. They'll very carefully point out that OM is fine when you're young. I mean, you're just young and immature. And OM's a movement of youthful zeal. And people are careful today in saying negative things generally about OM because we've got a lot of credibility. We've got a lot of friends now after 28 years. People are very careful. But the undertow is still there. Then they will search for the kink in your armor. What's your weak point? Were you living in total victory during those days on the ship? Total victory? Who's living in total victory? Well, no, really I... In fact, I'm really discouraged in my prayer life. Who isn't discouraged at times in their prayer life? You know, when we get really heavily introspective, we always can get discouraged. I say to you with all my heart, beware of the total easy answer. Beware of the little group that says what you're doing now is just youthful zeal. You're just young. We understand. But come with us. Come into fullness. Come into restoration. Come into blessing. Stay here for two or three years. You can go to the mission field, but you need to get this sorted out in your life first. Perfect love. Perfect peace. Total victory. Full, total, absolute understanding of church life. It all sounds very impressive. We realize on Duluth, we're very weak on church life. I mean, this is ship life, not church life. And you know, any movement, and this includes OM, we can't do everything. We can't teach you everything in one or two years. Of course, when you leave, you've got many more things to learn. Find a good church. I would request you give your old church, your own church, a good chance first. We know some people will change churches. You remember Brooks? What was his first name? Frank Brooks. What a miracle story. I took the wrong train. Frank was only a name to me. I took the wrong train. I ended up in crew station. All alone, trying to get the right train. Who's standing on the platform? Frank Brooks. Confused about the will of God, his church, when he got back home, they are so extreme. That was the end. Just finished. It happens. It happens to people who don't go on OM. It's not an OM phenomenon. And so I said, look Frank, why don't you join my team for a few months? Don't go to India right away. Let's ask God to give you another church. He'll pray for you when you go to India. We had a great time on my team. I was traveling all over England. 21 meetings, 21 cities, 27 nights. We had lots of breathing space. God then sent him to Manchester, gave him a good church, and sent him to India. I hope you pray for Frank because he's been ill in India. It's not easy. Number five. Super spirituality. I've already touched on that. Beware of it. And realize, some people you can't win them. We had a young man came to this ship. And he came to me when I was on the ship several years ago with these heavy prophecies. More or less indicating the Holy Spirit had left the Duluths. Really heavy stuff. Now, I was a little worried. Rotan, the first time Rotan, you know, well. But I tell you, when the guy came up with his second prophecy, and his second set of verses, Brother Dale, some of the other leaders, they got together. And the brother, eventually, I don't know whether he was asked to leave or he decided to leave. But he was just so extreme in his view of what spirituality was. And what spiritual people were. And what spiritual leaders were like. And what a spiritual ship. He'd never been on a ship in his life. But what a spiritual ship would be like. I remember years ago somebody coming to me in Lagos. They didn't think Captain Paget was spiritual. I don't know why, you know, I talked to more. Well, the way he looks at me. The way, you know, you get some people have a very, they have a very spiritual handshake. You know, they shake your hand and they sort of hang on. And it's when they start going up your sleeve, I get worried. And brother, you know, they look you in the eye. Brother, it's so wonderful to have you with us. we believe the Holy Spirit is working in your life. This kind of thing. Now, I don't, I don't judge somebody who's that way too much. I try not to. It's part of their church background. But, don't make these instant super spiritual evaluations. Because someone doesn't look you in the eye. Because someone doesn't ooze at you. We're all different. Captain Paget was unbelievably phlegmatic in temperament. I had instant love for him. Instant. I was just like a son. I could sit on his knee, you know. I was there, I was there when he was dying. I was weeping. I preached at his funeral. We're all different. We're all different. And we need to beware of being too quickly impressed by people who seem to be so spiritual. Because many of us in this work are naive. And there was a man in the States, he was oozing with spirituality. He was speaking about holiness and the perfect life. Everybody, we so easily feel guilty, don't we as Christians? Certain preachers, they know how to bring people into guilt just that quick. You know, it's easy to bring them into guilt. What about bringing them out? This fellow went to this man for counseling. He was absolutely vulnerable at that moment of counseling. And the man who was a practicing homosexual seduced the young man right on the spot. You know, I wonder why a few of us are a little bit like Tozer and over the years we've developed a little bit of reverent skepticism. I don't believe everything I read in some of these books. Even some of the books on your exhibition. Nobody's perfect in choosing books. It takes wisdom, it takes discernment, it takes time. Then number six. This is the other side of the coin. Because the society today we come from often is so cynical. You ever tried to win loyalty among cynics? Very difficult. Any of you worked with cynical people? They can reduce anybody. They've got everybody's number. You try to say isn't that brother a great brother? Within five minutes he's nailed it. He knows his weakness. Yeah, he's a great brother. Did you know you ever see the guy he picks his nose? And you know what he does with it? Puts it in his handkerchief of course. But, you know, today people come... I don't know why I say so many things. But we today often are dealing with very cynical people. And it's hard to win loyalty among cynics. So be patient. Learn to love the cynics. Learn to talk them out. Get them to talk out. Why are they hurting? You know one of the greatest little books going around the ship? Healing for Damaged Emotions. Heartland Blessing. Please contact Grace Heartland. Healing for Damaged Emotions. Read that book. Because I believe quite a few of us quite a few of us have damaged emotions. And that book can be a help. Beware of cynicism. Beware of bitterness. But realize it's everywhere today. It's everywhere today. And if you're leading a team somebody on the team will be a cynic. Somebody else will be bitter. Someone else will have damaged emotions. You're not gonna pull some magic gospel rabbit out of the hat and see that team perfect not in one summer not in one year. And you know one of the things that irks me about every LM team I go to and the ships as well that I meet people who are so quick to judge others as being unspiritual. Maybe the person isn't so unspiritual. Maybe they're different. The person hasn't showed up for devotions for weeks. Have you taken enough time to find out why? He might be totally away from Jesus. He might be ill. He may be about to have a nervous breakdown. You don't know. But don't judge people by outward things. Now that doesn't mean we should be naive. That doesn't mean we're not our brother's keeper because the Word says we are. And I believe people are responsible as adults by God's grace to follow the basic rules. But it just takes a lot of wisdom and discernment. The danger as a movement becomes larger is to try to bring in rules to cover things that previously we did by negotiation. I'm one of the OM leaders that's against it. I say ongoing negotiations. We've got rules. We keep them. But we've got to keep negotiating, keep talking, keep spending time with people, keep explaining. We can't have little cut, dry, easy rules for everything. Yet, a year ago on one of our teams we had one of these persons that believed that not keeping all the policies of OM and the fact that young people were not keeping all the policies was a proof that OM was slipping. It's interesting. People with us one year seem to know more about the work than people who've been around 25 years. OM has always had some of these problems. Always. We've always had some moral problems. Not much. But from the earliest days you don't get a thousand, two hundred, two thousand people on the summer crusade without somebody at a weak moment having a moral failure. That doesn't mean Ichabod is written on the work. That doesn't mean the leaders are oblivious to what's happening. It means the devil is active. It means we're in a spiritual warfare. It means people have to grow into maturity. You can't force them into it. So that's important. Number seven, we live in a day of disobedience to parents. People don't know what it is to submit. There are some people There are some people who you cannot give them an order. How are you at taking orders? The ship's a good place for that. Taking orders. Being told what to do. Do you like that? Especially if the person isn't gentle. You know, when people are working in a second language I have trouble being gentle and I'm in my first language. But when people are in their second language sometimes it's more blunt. How do you like it when people give you a blunt order? Hey, clean your cabin. How do you respond to that? By the way, do you think that clean cabins have anything to do with spiritual life? I believe they do. I would love to go look at every one of your cabins. Maybe I'll do that tomorrow. That's a lot of cabins. But I want to tell you, I had another message. I may give it tomorrow night but my time's run out. On practical things, if you don't learn, twenty practical things, if you don't learn, I don't want to marry you. That's the message. And I'm not recommending anybody else to marry. Because a lot of people who are very spiritual, they have good Bible studies, they pray once in a while, get a smile, they're practical idiots. And if you marry one, you'll want to commit suicide after the second year. It's not funny. You walk into the bathroom, four bars of soap on the floor. You don't slip on the first one, you slip on the second one. You hit your head on the third one and you're finished. Do you want to marry somebody who leaves four bars of soap on the bathroom floor? Not me. I'd rather go with a turkey. Anyway, that's another message. A lot of disobedience to parents. And it just comes in into Christian work. And it's hard to get people to do things. And somehow, we have got to learn to submit without being becoming cultic, without becoming manipulative. I believe it can be done. I believe it can be done. And then, very quickly, number eight, Satan hates reality and unity. He'll wage war against it. Number nine, pride. That's probably the biggest ultimate. Keeps us from unity, from loyalty. Pride. Pride comes before contention. I could give you, by the way, verses on every one of these areas. Number ten, idealism. Some people, not everybody, are so idealistic. This is why many of you are going to be shattered. You're going to be shattered. When you get into real missionary work in some country overseas, and you discover the problems, and you discover carnality among missionaries, and you discover some of the difficulties, you're going to be shattered. So if you have some shattering experiences on OM, we're not going to arrange that. But if you do, just praise the Lord. It's preparation. Some of you are living in an unreal world. The world is not like you think it is. The church is not like it. Christian leaders are not like it. George Fowler is not like it, some of you think. Come down to earth, even with a bang, planet Earth, error, sin, weakness, problems, catastrophe, heartache. Billy Graham said, life at its best is filled with sadness. And that helped me a lot. And then lastly, I have to be honest, if I'm speaking about OM, why can't we sometimes win more loyalty? Get people to throw in their lap with our push into the Muslim world. Or whatever. And I know, sometimes, it's our own fault. It's our own fault. It's my fault. Our sins, our failures, our weakness. And, I think we should do everything we can to improve. I think we should remain absolutely open to correction. But I think we also have to be realistic. We will never, never live up to the ideals of some young people. We'll never do it. And some of us, like me, far more sensitive than I may ever appear. We have, we border on becoming neurotics. In our desire to somehow help people, and minister to people, and encourage people, and write to people, and if we hear they've got trouble to do anything, to help them. Even that has to be kept under control. And I hope you'll find and pick up a book. It's one of the great books I'm reading this year. Gotek Chin sent me this book. You know what the book's title is? Love within limits. Young people, you can't love everybody the same. You can't do everything and respond to every challenge that comes your way. I was preaching to a group of nurses in a hospital in London. The chaplain was a liberal minister. But he was sitting there. And he's heard a lot of the strong challenges. He was the chaplain of the hospital. And he has to pick up the pieces after the strong challenges because nurses tend to be very sensitive. And they tend to try to do too much. So they're going through nursing training. They're involved in the church if they're Christians. They're involved in the Christian Union. They're trying to help local drunkards who clutter up the streets. They're inviting people off the streets into their homes. They're doing all kinds of things to try to be absolutely obeying all the sermons on the mail in one attack. And they have nervous breakdowns. And some of you, if you don't learn to pace yourself, if you don't learn to love within limits, you're going to have a nervous breakdown someday. But if you learn some of these basic things that are talked about in that book Healing for Damaged Emotion, in that book Where God Offers Freedom by Eugenia Price, in that book Love Within Limits, I don't believe most of you will ever have a nervous breakdown. By the way, if you do, that's not the end of the road. People have bounced back from nervous breakdowns and been rightly used of God more than before they had the breakdown. So the nervous breakdown is not the end of the road. That is all there is of this recording.