In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the word "potential" and its significance in the lives of believers. He draws inspiration from Jesus and his 12 disciples, highlighting how a small group of individuals can have a profound impact on the world. The speaker encourages the audience to have a vision and set goals, emphasizing the importance of being motivated and driven in their faith. He also calls for prayer, specifically asking for workers to be sent into the harvest fields to spread the message of God's love. Throughout the sermon, the speaker shares personal experiences and emphasizes the lasting impact of encountering God's grace and mercy.

It's great to be back in Germany again. Thank you for your prayers. It's been a joy to see hundreds and hundreds of Germans sent out into the harvest fields of other parts of the world. I want to be sensitive to what God has already been doing this evening. I'm just one of the team. Many of you have come forward and made a very important step of faith. I remember when I, for the first time in my life, went forward in a meeting like this. I was only 16. I had never been in a meeting like that. My father and my grandfather came from the Netherlands. You can see on my map jacket, the Netherlands. And they went over here to the United States, over my heart. People always ask me, what's under my armpit? There you'll find Los Angeles. They need a lot of prayer there. My grandfather was in fact an atheist. And my father also was not a Christian. By 16, I was very much on that broad road that Jesus talks about that leads to destruction. And a lady began to pray for me. Praise God for men and women of prayer. Some are praying even right now as we're here. Hallelujah. This lady heard about me. I was in trouble with the police, in trouble with the headmaster at the school. So she put my name on her hit list, her prayer list. She not only prayed that I would become a Christian, she prayed that I would become a missionary. Can you imagine? She didn't even discuss this with me. At least a phone call would have been nice. As this woman through her prayers was about to completely change my life. Then she sent me a gospel of John, part of God's word, through the post. And I began to read God's word. Then a character came to New York City and had a meeting like this. And I was told this was fanaticism, this was emotionalism. This man's name was Billy Graham. He was an evangelist. I hardly even knew what an evangelist was. My life was sports, and money, and business, a little bit of school. I was in a different world. But I went to that meeting in New York City. I heard Billy Graham preach the gospel. And also at the end of his preaching, he called people to come forward, similar to what we did here tonight. Initially I was very hesitant. Then I went forward and believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. Now I know other people who went forward, they were rededicating their lives to Christ. Or they were repenting of specific sins. God was doing different things in different ways in different people's lives. There were 20,000 people in that meeting. And you could easily feel so small. But I experienced that night the love of God. And as I believed on the Lord Jesus Christ that He died for me, I was born from above. The Holy Spirit powerfully invaded my life and put there a great love for Jesus and a great love for His word. And a great love for those who went to my high school and for the people of the world. And I share this with you. This has been a burning reality every single day ever since. I say this because often people say, well, these things don't last. This is just a lot of emotion. And the enemy, the enemy Satan will try to say to us, oh, this won't last. Or even worse, he'll say, well, nothing really happened. God works in different people in different ways. I had a very emotional experience that night. I began to weep as God invaded my life. But some of the greatest Christians I've known all over the world did not have the exact same experience that I had. Some of them were converted in a very quiet way. Some of them accepted the Lord when they were only ten years old. And yet as I have had the joy of witnessing and watching the lives of at least 1,000 people over these years, I personally correspond with more than 1,000 people. I've seen that God works in different people in different ways. So as many of you were praying here an hour or so ago, I believe God has done something in your lives. And I pray that you may share with another brother or sister what you sense God is doing in your life. And that day by day you'll now, with the word of God in your hand, follow Jesus with all of your heart, soul, life, and strength. I had many struggles as a young Christian. I still have some struggles. And I'm amazed that God could ever, ever use a character like me. We have a God of grace. We have a God of mercy. Amen. A brother who was sharing spoke about the sin, the sin that has invaded even the body of Christ of involvement with pornography on the Internet or whatever. I'm so glad he openly mentioned this. This is an epidemic. I've been on the phone most of the afternoon. One of my last phone calls, which was prearranged by email, was a brother wanting to pray completely hooked on pornography and unable to break that bondage in his life. Just before I came here I was praying with him on the phone that he would be set free from this bondage. Hundreds have written to me about this. Partly because at 16 I was hooked and addicted to pornography. And Jesus Christ set me free. He's kept me free all these decades. Maybe you have a sexual difficulty. You know, God can use that. Because I knew at 17 years of age that if I didn't have a spirit-filled, radical relationship with Jesus Christ every day I would not make it in this great marathon race. I knew with all my struggles and temptations that I had to stay very, very close to God's Word and Jesus. I had some powerful experiences with the Holy Spirit. But I also knew that my kind of character had to have a daily experience with the Holy Spirit. That's what God gave me. And I just praise His name. He's so merciful. He's so forgiving. And if God could change a character like me and keep me going all these years, here I am now, a grandfather, then there's tremendous hope for everybody here tonight. God uses ordinary people. People who may have an emotional and crisis experience with the Lord can also go on to experience God every day of their lives. It's not either or. Christians are fighting about this. Some say, well, we need a mighty zap from God. That will solve everything. I remember in a meeting as a young student I was already committed to Christ. I'd left university and went to Bible college. The work had begun in Mexico. I had learned Spanish. Many, many people had come to Christ through my feeble ministry. I'll never forget this big meeting and the speaker was the famous Oswald J. Smith, probably the greatest missionary leader of that day. Many of his books have been read by millions and millions of people. Many of them are in German. He spoke to a very large audience and then he gave an invitation for recommitment, for world missions, for repentance. And God just hit me and I just ran out of my seat. I was weeping before God but I was the only one that responded. I was so amazed but God was still dealing with me. I didn't notice very much. And because only one person came forward nobody paid any attention. So I went into a back room behind the auditorium, behind the pulpit and I just laid on my face and wept and cried out for God to change my life. Then the choir came into that room. They didn't pay any attention either. This is one of the biggest churches in Chicago. So shaken by God, I ran into the basement and continued to weep and pray until I knew something had happened in my life. It's tremendous to meet with God, to be filled afresh with His Holy Spirit, to know that He has forgiven you, that He has taken over your life. Never despise even the smallest thing that may be beginning in your life here in this great tent tonight. So many times God has met me and yet I know this I also need that daily discipline. Jesus said if any person come after me let them deny self take up the cross every single day and follow me. So it's not either or. Is it the big blessing or is it the daily discipline and discipleship and radical commitment to Jesus? Almost every man and woman of God I've ever met and I've met thousands. They've said it's both. It's got to be both. There can be the big blessing. There can be the times prostrate before God. It can be those mountaintop experiences. I've often spent days of prayer in the mountains fasting and praying and waiting upon God but then back into the battle and Jesus has not promised an easy time. If you decide to Jesus in the light of faith and in the power of the Holy Spirit it's going to be rough it's going to be tough but his grace is sufficient. I was really wrestling with God with what I should share tonight and God just gave me these seven words and I want to just give you these seven words and then close in prayer because I know God has done so much today already and more is coming after I speak. I thought the meetings in India were long until I came here and this is the only place in Europe where the meetings are longer than India. I hope Nelson will forgive me when I finish I'm going to bed. If I had known this is the way it was I would have brought my sleeping bag and could go behind the curtain. My heart is so full tonight. I have a hundred thousand people who pray for me and I feel just so consumed by God's mercy, God's grace as I share to wonderful people like yourself. Humanly speaking I should be very tired. I speak 400 times a year. I've spoken 25,000 times 25,000 times since my conversion. So I should be tired of speaking. Let some younger person speak I'm going to go do something else but I am excited about speaking tonight. Let me give you these seven words and if one year from now you write to me and give me these seven words in English or German I will send you a couple of books that will help change your life. So you may want to write the seven words down. It can sort of be a word study a bible study seven life changing meta-motivating awesome challenging biblical words. The first word that comes to my mind is the word potential. When I look at you tonight I think of this word potential. Jesus had only 12 men one of them was completely bad then the Lord added the apostle Paul and those 12 men turned the world upside down. In the book of Acts it says these who have turned the world upside down they're coming to our city as well. I have purposely wore this global jacket because I'm here to talk about world missions. I'm here to give a Macedonian call for Afghanistan for Turkey for Algeria for Sudan for Tunisia for Libya for Kazakhstan Uzbekistan you say well wait a minute the need in Germany is so great when I talk about these other countries. The need in Germany is great. The need everywhere is great. But there's more witness in Germany than all those nations I have just mentioned all put together. And I could add 10 more countries and there's still more biblical churches in Germany and believers than all of those countries all put together. And so when I see people like you especially coming forward to yield your life in a greater way to the Lord and I think of the potential firstly through prayer then through giving then through sending people to these places places where there are often very few missionaries where millions have never had the gospel a new testament even a gospel of John we'll talk more about that tomorrow. The second word is the word vision. The bible says without a vision the people perish. God has given Nelson and his co-workers together a vision. Otherwise we would not be here I would not be here. God wants to increase our vision during these days for the people of the world and for our own town and city as well. For sometimes it's easier to go across the ocean than it is to go across the street. We need a passion for souls. One of the most important things that happened to me that night in that meeting is that God gave me a passion for souls that has never left me not a single day all of these years. It's not always at the same level and sometimes I have to repent of lukewarmness that tries to come into my heart for Jesus in Revelation said be ye hot or be ye cold if you are lukewarm I'll spit you out of my mouth. Vision is a tremendous thing. When you have a vision it means you'll have goals you'll have aims you'll have discernment and your life will change you'll be more motivated than you've ever been before again I just share this as a weak learner at the feet of Jesus I've never had a non-motivating day since my conversion I've had some miserable minutes maybe even up to an hour in which I wasn't really moving in God's grace The Bible says when we confess our sin He's faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness Praise God Do you have a vision tonight? Has it grabbed your heart and your mind? You wake up in the morning you think about it When you go to bed at night you're still thinking about it Praying without ceasing as it says in Thessalonians Learning to walk by faith for realizing a vision cannot become a reality unless we exercise faith And then my third word is the word action In the book of James it's very, very clear Don't be just a hearer of the word but a doer Action God is calling us to action Surveys in many, many churches all kinds of churches have shown that 10% of the people are doing all the work 90% are passengers like a train They're just sitting They go to different meetings like going to different stations But they never move into action in the power of God's grace Sharing their faith Mobilizing people for prayer Specifically denying self taking up that cross every day and following Jesus Praise God for revival I was impacted by a man who came out of the East African revival in the 50s In the 40s in the 50s in the 60s there was a great revival in East Africa A man impacted in that revival was a British evangelist named Roy Hessian He was an evangelist but he was also impatient unbroken and arrogant And when he met these men these Africans who had been broken before God in revival he repented and he was filled afresh with God's spirit Roy Hessian ended up writing one of the most famous books in the entire history of the Christian church Calvary Road that's brought thousands into revival blessings in their lives God gave him tremendous discernment as he lived out this life 20, 30, 40 years and he saw that above all else revival is Jesus Revival is Jesus reigning and ruling in our hearts on a day by day basis through all of life's challenges and problems and complications and heartbreaks And remember this and for some of you even some of you leaders this may be the most important thing I say tonight no matter how filled you are with the Holy Spirit no matter how anointed you are with the Holy Spirit you are still all your life incredibly human and unless you understand that and have that discernment you will probably be one more casualty the fourth word I leave with you quickly is a word that a lot of people don't like to talk about it's the word suffering and yet the word of God says in the book of Philippians all who live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer one of the reasons we don't have many missionary candidates anymore is because we don't want to suffer we want the blessings we want to prosper we want our nice homes and our nice cars and of course God can give us good things but the Bible says all those who live a godly life will suffer persecution that's what the Bible says that is biblical prosperity my wife and I lived in India for some years then in Thailand then in Nepal then on our ships traveling across the world often getting seasick we suffered a little we have to be honest compared to other people my wife and I have not suffered much but of course there are different kinds of suffering and as you start to carry responsibility in the work of God even as our brother Nelson will experience a different kind of suffering and sometimes it will come even from the hands of brothers and sisters in Christ but when you see the hands of a brother and sister maybe somewhat hurting you and causing you to suffer if you're a biblical person if you're a spiritual person you'll see the hand of God behind it all for our great God can use even the things that go wrong even the things that people do against us that may be clearly wrong God can still use it for His glory do not run away from suffering we know there's suffering specifically for the kingdom but we know there's also suffering as I have suffered for my own stupidity there's still such a good chapter in my biography so maybe I don't think I'll write a biography and I'll share some of the stupid things I have done tomorrow or Sunday especially when I thought I was going to be the great Bible smuggler and I ended up arrested by the KGB my fifth word is the word harvest I was just with the Anglicans out there in Malaysia in East Malaysia the bishop has become a spirit-filled believer he organized a huge missions conference five other bishops and the archbishop from Singapore another spirit-filled man came to this event and when I got in the cathedral to preach that fifth word of mine was written there on the big bulletin board the word harvest brothers and sisters it's harvest time we're in the midst of the greatest engathering of people to Christ the world has ever known now it is it is true some nations seem to be left out and we'll be talking about that but we believe what God has done in Korea he could do in Turkey what God has done in Brazil what God has done in Argentina what God is doing in South Africa yes, it can happen in Sudan it can happen in Algeria yes, these are difficult days in many places and our hearts break when we read our newspapers but it's still harvest time and you and I are part of God's harvest force I believe every German young person who has even a small brain some of you have a big brain but even if you only have a small brain you should get out of Germany for at least two years it's good for your health it's good for your education it's good even if you come back to minister in Germany you'll be more balanced you'll be just a better person for having had that experience if the only place we live is our own country speaking our own language eating our own favorite bread we tend to have a small nationalistic pipsqueak mentality we usually are quite critical we are usually quite narrow-minded and if we're honest that's hard, isn't it? if we're honest we really don't like people from other countries and other colors well, just take a little survey take a survey on the great love of the German people toward the French or take a survey on how the German people love the Swiss the Swiss people their favorite people now, I'm sure there's some Swiss people here so you can take a survey among the Swiss people I have personally done it how they love the Germans in fact, if you go around the whole world you'll discover almost every nation they don't like their neighbors and if you do more research you'll discover they don't like anybody this is the world in which we live now, when we become Christians and especially begin to walk in the power of the Holy Spirit we're supposed to be different the love is supposed to be just coming out in every direction and the prejudices are gone just love the French people and all the English people we love them so much but the truth is these things come in their beginning stage by the Spirit of God but often if we're not willing for practical discipleship it doesn't come into its fullness of function in our lives there of course are beautiful exceptions spirit-filled godly older people who have never left Germany I'm not worthy to tie the shoelace of those folks they are a minority group so I want to ask you would you go and serve Jesus Christ in another land at least for two years you might go as a student you might go as a tent maker or even be paid for what you're doing and you can learn one or two more languages in the process people say to me oh no I can never learn a language that's the way I was I was studying Spanish in high school I was supposed to read the whole book I had trouble reading the title it was a terrible experience learning Spanish in school in the United States but when I went to Mexico in one month I was preaching in Spanish and if a character like me can learn a language anybody can learn a language Operation Exodus for Germany that is my vision and then many of you when you come back you will be more effective as a global Christian in your own country and then my sixth word is the word forgiveness I love that word because so quickly I fail and I just live daily in the reality of what Jesus has done for me and if you've repented of sin as you came forward just an hour or so ago I'm begging you to receive his forgiveness in the depth of your soul and that means forgiving yourself vain regret is the subtlest form of self-sin and many people who love the Lord have struggles in their Christian life because they don't forgive themselves they often really and it leads to a life of confusion and insecurity where the enemy is constantly pulling the carpet from under their feet and as we forgive ourselves as we understand that God has forgiven us then there's greater reality in forgiving all those who have sinned against us and then my seventh word is the word perseverance I want to talk about that tomorrow we're not here just looking for people to run a sprint you know 100 yard sprint when I was out running in my exercise program this afternoon which I try to do every day I ended up in a school not far from here and they had a running track no just a straight because it was just for a sprint for short races but God has called us to a marathon not 26 miles but for our whole life Hebrews chapter 12 it's a good passage to read it says we're running a race and our eyes are fixed on Jesus we're putting aside every weight and every sin as our brother exhorted us that's God's word that's God's way and I believe some of the principles we're receiving from God's word during these days are going to enable us to be marathon runners I'm very humbled in the work that I'm in out of the 2,800 people on the OM staff over 250 of us have been together for about a quarter of a century it's actually quite amazing we know one another we have failed one another we've prayed together some of us have been in prison together our relationships have been tested in the battlefields of a hundred nations of the world but we're still together because when we were teenagers or in our twenties God showed us the secrets of perseverance marathon running right to the very end and I believe that's God's will that every person in this meeting let us pray our God and Father we thank you for the power of your Holy Spirit we thank you for what you've done in many lives here during these days and we thank you Lord for these seven revolutionary life changing biblical principles and words from your Holy Word and Father we are specifically praying on the basis of Matthew 9 that you would send forth workers into the harvest fields even from this very meeting you would touch the hearts of many to go short term for at least two years into some other country and we believe that from that group others will go even for a lifetime to the ends of the earth to plant your church among every people's group of the world we pray in the awesome glorious name of Jesus Christ Amen