In this sermon, the speaker shares his personal experience of forsaking all for world evangelism. He recounts how he and his companions were given free gas, oil changes, and even a cake by Christians they encountered on their journey. Despite facing challenges and running low on gas multiple times, they continued to trust in God's provision. The speaker emphasizes the importance of finding a balance in truth and not going to extremes, citing the example of a mission agency that values both unity and purity. He also encourages the audience to have higher goals in their spiritual lives and to set goals for Bible study in the coming year.

Some extremists just put out a book that the New International Translation, which is an outstanding translation accepted by godly men and women all over the world, the NIV, including evangelical and Bible-believing people, someone with no credentials wrote a book proving this Bible somehow came out of the new, the whole new, what do you call it, New Age. Unbelievable. Now, I read very carefully scholarly rebuttals to those arguments, but you see, a lot of times people just read the fast-selling weird book. They don't have time to read the answers that come out from other godly people. This is why I tell my young people, look and subscribe to at least a few scholarly magazines. You may not agree with everything Christianity Today says, but it's a fairly scholarly magazine, and it will help you understand what is going on among God's people, especially if you have the tendency, like me, to go too extreme. One little thing, you read it, and I will tell you, it's a miracle my wife has ever lived through some of the things I put her up to. You see, I read that verse way back in Luke before I got married. It's definitely a premarital verse, and it says, except you forsake all that you have, you can't be my disciple. So I thought, you know, if we're going to be disciples, we're going to forsake all. And I gave her that little challenge. Her old inheritance from her father was killed in a war. That went into the Verwer Pot, which was O.M. It wasn't even called O.M. at that time. Then her sewing machine went in. Can you believe at the wedding reception? I didn't believe in weddings. We got married in the gymnasium after the Sunday morning service, and I thought at least we could preach the gospel. Then we had this little reception. People brought their own food. And Dale wrote on, my best friend got up at the wedding reception and preached on forsaking all, because that's what I taught him. And he told the people that we were planning to sell all the wedding gifts. We got the word out. We mainly... We got the word out that we mainly wanted cash for world evangelism, but some people didn't go for that. So they brought wedding gifts anyway, including especially the unconverted people. And Dale wrote on, got up at my wedding reception and preached forsaking all. And he said, look, the only thing you can do, George and Dreena, really, is pray for them, because they're going to sell all this stuff anyway. And so the main thing you can do is pray. I tell you, we had some interesting times. And we got, my wife... I didn't want to spend any money to get to Mexico. This was the middle of winter. So I took a wedding cake to the first gas station. I said, I'm trying to get to Mexico. I'm a missionary. And, you know, I don't have much money. I got this cake here from the wedding. How about it? Just blew the guy's mind. He just, he was shaking. He filled up my tank and just, you know, that was it. We drove through the night, and I'm not telling any tales. We drove through the night. This is a very old vehicle, the same one I first went to Mexico in back in 57. Now it was 1960. Thing was already old, and it had a broken window. I didn't want to spend any money to repair that. Didn't have any seat next to me. My wife, just married, was behind me on the top of a whole bunch of things that the Wheaton College students had given. Wheaton College students were given all their possessions because this vision of forsake all for world evangelism hit Wheaton through Dale and other people. The next morning, we ran, getting low on gas again. I went in, in God's providence, to another gas station. The man was a Christian. He was so touched. He gave me free gas, he gave me oil change, and he said, keep the cake. Halfway through the next day, by the way, the cake at this time was looking a bit shaky. We were running low on gas again. We were headed for Texas, by the way. That's the way to Mexico. And I went to this gas station. I gave my story. This guy was not in a benevolent mood at all, but he certainly wanted that cake. Another tank of gas. He didn't have any place to stay the first night. I, again, didn't want to spend any money. We had quite a bit of money with us, a couple of grand, but I wanted that for bookshops and Bibles. I went into a telephone box somewhere just before we got to Texas. It was very cold. We couldn't sleep in the van. That was our strategy when we got to Mexico, sleep in the van, but it was a little cold, and then the heater was broken. So I called a minister. Cold turkey, I called a minister. Or no, I knocked on his door. I got his address from the phone book, knocked on his door, cold turkey. I said, we're missionaries in Mexico. We're looking for a bed for the night. Again, God, I just couldn't believe it. He gave us his master bedroom. This is the second night of our marriage. Master bedroom, and he gave us a dollar. God bless him in the morning. The next night we were in Texas. I'd love to know where we were, but it was Wednesday night. I went to a Wednesday night church service. I think they were Baptist. They looked like Baptist. I asked around, is there anybody here that studied at Moody Bible Institute? And there was. We're missionaries in Mexico. We're looking for a place to sleep. And we got another bed for the night. After that, we slept in the van. We got to Mexico. We didn't spend any money, and we opened several more bookshops and a radio station and a few other things, and the rest is history. Was I extreme? I'm afraid so. But as I read on, further in the word of God, I saw in Philippians, my God will supply all of your needs according to his riches and glory by Christ. I urge you as you go forward in mission, as you go forward in vision, as you go forward in action, I urge you to find the balance of truth. The balance of truth. Robertson, McQuill, can you hear me? I used to emphasize this. A man that I've been linked with for many years. And it's exciting to see how that works. When you really get out in the battle and the importance of keeping the balance, it's so easy to go to extremes. And they often are very ugly. Let me read this. It also refers to the S.I.M., Great Mission Agency. The position that S.I.M. takes is stated clearly and carefully. Unity and purity are both truths, even though it is easier to devote one's energy to standing strongly for one or the other, rather than to seek the balance with Scripture enjoyment. It is easier to go to consistent extremes, Dr. Robertson McQuill, now former president of Columbia Bible College, said, than to stay at the center of biblical tension. And God, I believe, is wanting us to know the reality of that biblical tension. And let me get to this deep burden that's on my heart from the book of Nehemiah. And to beseech you in 1995, and we're already well into the year, to have higher goals in the things of the Spirit. It is so normal. Companies today in the world are into forward planning. You've heard of that, forward planning? Isn't that a good thing? Do we see any of that in the Bible? I'll give you dozens of illustrations. To set goals. I want to ask you, do you have goals in Bible study for 1995? Isn't that basic?