In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of the church in global evangelization. He mentions that local churches are the key to spreading the word of God worldwide. The speaker also highlights the need for more workers in missions and encourages the audience to pray for more laborers. He shares a vision of seeing thousands of churches sending out new workers and witnessing a great movement of global missions. The sermon emphasizes the significance of worship, the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and the importance of work in fulfilling the special work of spreading the gospel.

What a privilege, what a joy to be back in France once again. I've come here about 75 times, but not so much in recent years. As OM Operation Mobilization got involved in another 50 different nations in the past 10 or 15 years. And when you don't speak French, you find it a little difficult to come here. I speak Spanish, but France is the second country I ever went to in my entire life. I came on the Queen Elizabeth to Le Havre a long, long time ago, like 45 years. I came because I thought I could buy a car cheap in Paris and then drive to Madrid. And after Paris, one of the first places I ever went to was Grenoble. Anybody here from Grenoble? And when I drove out of Grenoble, I made a wrong turn instead of going in the valley. I tried to go over the mountain and the car blew up. I've been praying for France for 48 years. I believe God answers prayer. When God first brought us to France, our burden was to give every single French person the Word of God. In about two years, 10 million people received literature from OM teams. Little did I know when I came across on the Queen Elizabeth the famous ship, that we would someday have our own ships. We had no plan for ships at that time. And now we have three ships. So we hope when the bigger ship goes into service, this is a 12,000-ton ship being repaired in Croatia. We will need 400 people on that ship to make that global ministry happen. And we would like to see some more French people. In my view, one French person is worth five of other nationalities. Don't feel too proud. It's partly because so few French people are willing to go as missionaries into the non-French world. And I understand that. But I hope that during this weekend, we cannot think in terms of French or English or Spanish, but we could look at some of the nations where the Church hardly even exists and that we could start to pray more for those nations. I have a little notebook. And in that notebook, I have the top 10 most difficult nations in the world. Let me just mention those. And probably on your radio, you have your top pops, your top favorite songs. Do they have that in French? This is the top 10. The most impossible, difficult, unreached nations in the world. Now, when I give this list, some people don't agree with it. Because their favorite, difficult nation is not on the list. A lot of people always think their own country is the most needy country. And so some of you probably think, well, France is the most needy country. Brothers and sisters, in comparison to some of these countries I'm going to mention in a moment, in comparison, France is like a giant revival camp. There is no comparison. Of course, we don't want people to go to these places just because they're the most needy, impossible, difficult, unreached nations. Don't flatter yourself, thinking God's going to send you to Tibet. But as we pray, as we grow in wisdom and stature and knowledge, as Jesus did, we can have the same experience that we're going to read about in a few moments from the book of Acts. The Holy Spirit will send us to these places. We're going to see that in a moment. What are these ten countries? You can write them down. Pray for them. Sometimes I've asked people to raise their hand if they pray for some of these countries. For example, my first country is Tibet. I used to live in Nepal, right up here, north of India. And Tibet, which was a nation, is north of Nepal. It's now been taken over by China. But in my book, it is a nation. There is no church in Tibet. I've heard of one small Catholic church left over in a village somewhere. There are almost no missionaries from any country. I think there are now, in answer to prayer, a few. And I think some missionaries are coming from the great Chinese house church movement into Tibet. If you know any French person working in Tibet for Jesus, I would like to know because I will send them 200 euros. So that's nation number one. How many of you already pray for Tibet? Raise your hand. You're people of prayer. You're people who know the reality of the Holy Spirit. You're people who believe the Bible is the Word of God. I don't think this is a mosque. It looks like a church from outside. The Lord Jesus said, Pray. Pray. Pray ye the Lord of the harvest, that he'll send forth workers into the harvest. And I believe the reason we don't have more people in Tibet is we don't understand much about prayer and praying for the nations. The second nation is a very different nation. It's North Korea. Very different from South Korea. I just a month ago came from, two months ago came from South Korea. Amazing country. About 20% of the people in the nation profess the Lord Jesus. Some years ago when the ship was there, I was with David Young Cho and his church in Korea and preached in that church. They have 700,000 members. But North Korea is completely different. And South Koreans want to go there and evangelize, but they have not been permitted to do that. Over one million have died in the famine in North Korea. It is surely one of the most fanatical anti-Christian leaders in the world. Many are in prison right now. But we believe in answer to prayer, changes are coming to North Korea. Business people from Europe are getting in. Medical people are getting in. And as a French person, I would have thought with the right career or profession, you could get into North Korea. You pray a lot. The third nation is Saudi Arabia. By the way, if one year from now, you can remember these ten nations and you can email me a list, I will send you a couple of really great books as a gift and a reward for remembering these ten nations. Saudi Arabia is nation number three. A very complicated country. A very important country. There is no indigenous Saudi church. There is no church. There are Filipinos, there are Americans, there are Koreans. Even those people get persecuted in Saudi Arabia. They get put in prison. We know there are some believers. They are meeting secretly. And we are praying, we are crying out to God for breakthroughs in Saudi Arabia. Would you join us in this impossible task? Now we are coming much closer to France. Libya. You can just go to southern France. If you are really strong, you can swim down to Libya. You may want to use a boat. But people go to these countries on holidays. Very cheap, inexpensive holiday, hotel included. Libya has less than twenty believers among the Libyans. Less than twenty. They can sit in the first row of this church. Tunisia is not in my top ten, but it is in my next group of ten. Tunisia has now a few hundred believers. Praise God. But Tunisia is so important for France. Because they speak French. And they still look to France in a special way. But the fourth nation is the land of Afghanistan. Forty-nine years I have had the vision for Afghanistan. Even my own nephew ended up going there. Many of my friends I sent to Afghanistan. One of them was murdered. Another was kidnapped. Never seen again. It has been forty-nine years of spiritual warfare, fasting and prayer to try to see a breakthrough in this stronghold of the enemy. Praise God. There are now a few hundred believers. But they are often fearful. There is no functioning, organized church. But they are meeting together. This could be a new day for Afghanistan. And then they meet again. And then the fifth nation is Turkmenistan. Not Turkey, but Turkmenistan. It is just north of Iran. It is part of Central Asia. Most of the Central Asian countries are now much more open. Workers are getting in. Tent makers are getting in. The exception is Turkmenistan. Again, a fanatic leader, anti-Christian. A Baptist pastor, I believe, was put in prison. Missionaries have been thrown out, not given visas, even tent-making missionaries. Turkmenistan is, humanly speaking, almost impossible. But nothing is impossible with God. The sixth nation is a little country called Chechnya. The key city is Grozny. You have read about this place in your papers. Right near where that school, all those children were taken hostage and so many died about a year ago. One of the most horrendous things I have ever read in my whole life. Would you please pray for this country? It is a forgotten country. And then the seventh country is the land of Iraq. Now, I have just read a report from Iraq and it is probably going to fall off my top ten. So many people are coming to Jesus. Even in the midst of the war. New churches are being born. Of course, Iraq already had Christians. Many of them were nominal Christians. And when their churches got burned, many of them have fled the country. So Iraq, of course, needs our prayers in general. That this killing and this fighting may soon come to an end. One of the greatest mysteries in the way that God works is that he works in the midst of suffering and war. I cannot say that I understand. The last few verses in Romans chapter 11. Who has been God's counselor? We don't understand so many things. The seventh nation is the land of Sudan. Sudan also is going to go off my list soon. Because there is now peace in the south. Hundreds of thousands in the south have come to Jesus. Even though two million people died in the process. And the war is still going on over in the western part of the world. In the western part of Sudan. An area called the Darfur. And I want you to especially pray for the Darfur. That's Muslim killing Muslim. The south where they have at least peace right now is Muslim killing pagan Africans and Christian Africans. But the Darfur where a hundred thousand have been killed in the past year or two. It's Arab background Muslim killing more African background Muslims. It's incredible isn't it? People who claim to have this faith in Allah that they would kill their own people. One hundred thousand of them. Was that my eighth nation? My ninth nation is Somalia. Not really functioning as a nation. It's probably the most chaotic country in the world. And there's very few believers. Almost no missionaries. You see we made a great mistake here in France. We thought we'll evangelize France and we'll go to some of the French speaking countries. And that's good. And we'll let the British and the Americans and the Australians and the New Zealanders we'll let them take care of the rest of the world. But they failed. They failed. And twenty percent of the people have never even heard the gospel once. When I went to Mexico at eighteen years of age a trip of four thousand kilometers I was only two years old in Jesus. I'd been saved in a Billy Graham meeting in New York City. I wasn't from a Christian home. My father and my grandfather came from north of here in the Netherlands and they went over to New York City. He was an atheist. My grandfather on my mother's side he was Scottish, Irish and English mixed together which is I'm pretty sure it's toxic. He was a complete alcoholic and drunkard. And at sixteen years of age I was on the highway to hell and a woman started praying for me a woman of God who believed those words in Matthew 9 Pray ye the Lord of the harvest send forth workers. I had never even met her. She heard about me. I was in trouble with the police. I was a radical student leader in my campus. She put my name on her Holy Ghost hit list and sent me a gospel of John 3 through the post. She not only prayed that I'd become a Christian she prayed that I would become a missionary. She didn't even discuss this with me. I'd like to decide what I'm going to do with my life. And then this person who I heard was extreme Billy Graham arrives to my city New York City. And thanks be to Jesus a business person gave me a free seat on a bus into the city. I heard the gospel that Jesus died for me that religion wasn't enough because I by then was going to church my main thing was girls and there were lots of girls in the church. I didn't know Jesus until I heard the gospel preached in the power of the Holy Spirit. And I was invaded by the Holy Spirit and sent not to some other country God sent me back to that ungodly drunken high school. We started prayer meetings in the high school. And we started to give out the word of God. We had a few meetings we showed some Christian films. That lady had been praying for that school for 15 years. And then it's as if suddenly a dam broke and a flood of blessings came. In fact when I went off to university they asked me to come back for the Christmas break. 600 students came to hear my testimony. 125 stood to believe on Jesus including my own father. So by 18 years of age I knew the power of God. I knew that God answered prayers. I knew that God could send forth workers. The next summer he sent three of us to Mexico. And we learned Spanish. And a movement was born which exploded here in France and Western Europe later on in 62 and 63 and became known as Operation Mobilization. And now there's a staff of 4,000 people. In 110 nations. 130,000 have been on OM including many hundreds of French people. And they've given the word of God face to face to 1,000 million. In England we say 1,000 million in the States they say 1 billion. Because one woman prayed. One woman loved Jesus. Very ordinary woman. Her story's never even been hardly ever written. She's now in heaven. Operation Mobilization can take place because of Operation Multiplication. The multiplication impact as we pray, as people get saved as they win others to Jesus. And Operation Mobilization can only take place if people pray for each other. Operation Multiplication is necessary. And my 10th nation is Yemen. It's a very close call for who should be number 10. But Yemen got into the category because of the island of Socotra. Just a small place. I speak about it all over the world. Most people have never heard about it until they came to my meeting. But our God is concerned for small places. Our God is concerned for the islands of the world. One of the 10 reasons that God raised up the ship ministry which only represents about one-fourth of our ministry is because of the islands of the world. And right now Logos 2 is over in some islands in the West Indies. And Dulos is in reunion off the coast of East Africa. Would you pray for those 10 nations? Would you be willing to consider going there? Perhaps with the skill that you're learning at college and your apprenticeship. We cannot think other nations are going to do this. Other churches are going to do this. It's time that the church in France catches the vision for every nation in the world and we need your help. I give a Macedonian call to you as I read in the book of Acts. Turn with me now to the book of Acts. We'll start with Acts chapter 1 a verse that we always have to read at every missions conference because it's the word of Jesus just before he ascended into heaven. I'm sure you know the verse well. Let us read it again. Acts chapter 1 verse 8. We've just spent 15 or 20 minutes speaking about the uttermost parts and we know these places they are on the heart of Jesus. That's enough for me. If Jesus is concerned for Tibet, then I want to be concerned for Tibet. And a lot of people today they're not that interested in missions anymore. Churches don't even have mission speakers sometimes. They think missions is old fashioned. We need something new. I'm in favor of new things but I don't want to throw away all the old things. There's a very old book. I don't want to throw this away. One of the ways forward I believe in our day one of the ways forward is mixing the old and the new. I try to tell people missions talk about people talk about loving them. Tomorrow we're going to look at Luke 10. We're going to look at the Good Samaritan. Love your neighbor as you love yourself. That's the second commandment. How do we work that out in a global village in which we can fly around the world on five different flights. I've done it many times. I know when people see me in this global jacket they think this guy's a little strange. This is a very practical tool. I was on a jumbo jet from Brazil down to Argentina some years ago. Back in those days you could go up to the cockpit. The British Airways jumbo jet. I went up to the cockpit. You have to make an appointment. Try to talk about Jesus. The copilot said I think we're flying over Ecuador. I was amazed. These guys are piloting the plane? Ecuador's up here. I've just been there. They used my map jacket to see where they were flying. They were flying over Uruguay. So if you're going to do a lot of traveling you may want to bring your own map with you. And of course France. France is right over my heart. And Los Angeles is under my armpit. Jesus is concerned about the unreached peoples. Later on Paul said I want to go where Jesus has never been named. Later on he said I do not want to go where I'm going to build on somebody else's foundation. So few, so few ever take on this challenge. For 48 years I've been preaching this message. In many different forms. So few are willing to go to places like Tibet or Saudi Arabia or Turkmenistan. And amazing sometimes when there are people who will go the church is not willing to send them. We don't have the money. We need him here as a Sunday school teacher. We can't send him to Tibet. So now I want you to look at Acts chapter 13. And I'm going to share with you seven life changing words very quickly from Acts chapter 13. Let's read this passage just the first five verses. We'll read in French. We'll read in French. What a powerful, what a beautiful picture. The early church. It was born because some people were scattered through persecution. It wasn't planned. They were worshiping Jesus. They were spending time in the church. They were spending time They were spending time in prayer together. This is one of the first churches. This is where the believers were first called Christians. This is in God's Word for our edification that we may have a vision that we may understand God's ways not just follow the tradition of men or women but follow the Word of God. In my latest book Out of the Comfort Zone I speak about this. I'd be certainly encouraged if anyone would take the time to read that book. Where I also share a vision that God gave me on an airplane in Argentina to see 100,000 African-Americans in Acts 13 churches sending out 200,000 new workers and that is happening around the globe even as we sit here. We are in the midst of one of the greatest movements of global missions the world has ever known. There's another 20 countries giving me a list of 30 nations that all any one of those nations has less than 5% less than 5% of the witness we have in France. Maybe I'll mention the other 20 tomorrow. I want to give you these seven words to encourage us to challenge us. The first word in verse 1 the church the church the local church is the key of world evangelism. Some people put mission groups like OM outside of the church which is ridiculous. It's local churches that have sent us. I was sent out to Mexico from a local church in my hometown. I have seven churches that sent me and helped finance my wife and I these 40 some years. Just as Paul went back to these churches we go back to our churches and we share what God's doing and we're part we're part of the church 100%. We need a lot of mission. Mission work is complicated. Church is complicated. 27,000 denominations each one feels they're the best. God must have a tremendous sense of humor when he watches us in our foolishness and our lack of love and the lack of reality so often we have in all of our religion. There is only one church the body of Jesus and there are many manifestations. Here's one Antioch for us to look at and to learn from. The second word is the word worship. Verse 2, one day as the men were worshiping they give the list of the men that's interesting isn't it? Each person is important with God. You are important. Your name's on God's list. Sometimes when I go to a meeting because I've been doing this ministry for 50 years some people have heard about me they think well this is an important servant of the Lord that's okay no matter how spiritual we are we're still very human but let me tell you you are an important person with God. I was a little hesitant when Michel wanted me to sign my books but if that will help get the book out because George Verwer books do not sell well in France and some of those books have been sitting in the publishers for 10 years so okay I'll sign some books but you you also should sign your name and give it to me better than that send me an email which I'll have printed up and which I will pray over in the name of Jesus for every hour I preach I try to spend 4 or 5 hours in prayer so when I say I'll read your email and I'll pray over it believe me I mean that with all my heart we started our meeting with a wonderful time of worship that's just what these men were doing isn't that exciting 2,000 years later we're still worshiping the same Jesus after they were worshiping and while they were worshiping guess what happened the Holy Spirit spoke and Paul and Barnabas were told to go because I speak in all kinds of meetings I speak in meetings where the Holy Spirit is doing incredible things I speak in meetings where people are knocked out by the Holy Spirit I don't know if that's always true but I've seen can you imagine what I've seen in 80 countries in 50 years of ministry can you imagine what I've had to see but you know what I haven't seen much what I see in this book top men leaders the best suddenly hearing the Holy Spirit and going out risking their lives to take the gospel to the ends of the earth I cry out that we may go back to this picture in Christ biblical worship will lead to biblical action then the third word is the word Holy Spirit verse 2 everyone as these men will go back to worshiping the Lord and fasting the heart dedicate Barnabas and Saul for the special work I have for them isn't that powerful guess what God has a special work for you it may not be missionary work and I believe after my couple of days with you you will understand better what's on my heart I'm not saying that being a missionary inside that or one of these 30 countries is more important than working in the business world in France or in the world of politics or the world of sports because we're not called to just evangelize the world we're called to build the kingdom in every one of its aspects I have thousands of people that I'm in touch with in every walk of life and most of them they know God has called them to that work it might even be in a factory it might be in a farm God uses providence He uses circumstance it isn't always a matter of just getting a blueprint dropping down from heaven what you're going to do the rest of your life the Holy Spirit is the chief executive officer of all missionary work the more we know the reality of the Holy Spirit the more we can experience the power and the vision of our living God and that's the fourth word the word work here in English it says Paul and Barnabas going out for the special work what does it say in French? work is not our favorite word in the English language it's interesting even in many churches I've talked to hundreds hundreds of pastors my best friends are pastors you know what they always generally tell me? they may have a big church they often tell me all the work in the church is done by 10% of the people the 90% they're coming to the services they may be given some money but they're not willing to do much work praise God for some new churches you can't even become a member if you don't have a specific ministry I'm not saying I agree with that but it's powerful and it's an acknowledgement that the Holy Spirit gives everybody that is a special work for every one of us partly in the world to make money and to demonstrate the kingdom and within the church and in the work of missions it's harder to find the people to send than it is the people to go and it's harder and it's harder to find the people than it is the people to send than it is the people to go there are so many Africans that want to go into missions thousands any of you from Brazil I've just come from Brazil I'm speaking to a thousand Christian leaders thousands of Brazilians have come forward and volunteered to go very few of those who come forward ever go beyond the summer we don't have the Antioch model we don't have the Antioch model the whole church sending out that leads me to the fifth word it's the word prayer so after fasting and prayer if we see more prayer we're going to see more workers we're going to see more money we're going to see breakthroughs even in Tibet and then the sixth word is the word send it's mentioned in two different places as they prayed they laid hands on them and they sent them on their way there's a book in French it was printed in French Canada I was over there about a year ago and saw this book I said do they have this book in France my friend said he would send some but I can't find them the book is called Serving as a Sender if you're interested you email me that will motivate me to find some if I have to go over and back the ministry of sending is just as important as the going I just praise God for this mission agency I praise God for this conference this is an answer to many years of prayer even when I first came to France 46 years ago I praise God for what you're doing you may have only seen small numbers going but God will add to that and conferences like this are greatly needed within the church throughout Europe look at verse 4 sent out by the Holy Spirit one verse it's the church the next verse it's the Holy Spirit the greatest partnership in the world the church and the Holy Spirit and it's in our lives as well Christ Jesus lives in us the Holy Spirit lives within us we are temples of the Holy Spirit according to the word of God I wonder if you know what the seventh word is a lot of people were not able to guess what that seventh word is it's a small word helper they had John as a helper or assistant what's the word in French? helper that so encourages me because so many people that I meet they're not great preachers they're not great church planters they're not great theologians miracle workers they're ordinary people but they're willing to help I want to honor every one of you tonight who helps in your church who helps in this mission maybe you're just serving the tea the word of God says a glass of water given in the name of Jesus shall have a reward every year for 45 years I've had a helper travel with me one year they have to do a lot of practical things these days a lot of email Nathan my helper blew up the globe now he's typing emails soon he'll be in the back at the table where we have just a few English books especially about HIV and AIDS and I'm hoping these books will be put into French in the near future so mission work is for everyone it's not just for theologically trained people it's for people who are willing to help that's why short term work has also become very important in certain situations young single people can be more effective in helping let's pray Lord I just thank you for your word thank you it's sharper than a two edged sword Lord help us to respond to the challenge of these 10 unreached nations help us Lord to hear what your Holy Spirit is trying to say help us to take the steps of faith you want us to say to be your men to be your women to go where you want us to go to do what you want us to do we thank you for this challenge from the book of Acts what you're doing through the local church the reality of the Holy Spirit the power of worship and prayer Lord we want to be able to pray as it is in Isaiah 6 Lord here am I send me Lord here am I send me as a preacher as a leader or as a helper ask in Jesus name Amen