From Selfishness to Others

And Jesus finished his race, since therefore we are surrounded by such a race of everything that hinders, and the sin that so easily besets and entangles us, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. I have a friend who lives in the northeastern Indian state. They are part of India, but they're not actually Indian people, they're tribal, they would rather not be Indian, so they're a bit different.

This particular state has been officially Christian for 150 years, before that they were naked and headhunters. And my friend there has a home for unmarried mothers, and has been criticized by the church there. Everyone goes to church, by the way.

Has been criticized by the church for encouraging promiscuity. And she told me of this girl. This is, I'm sorry to say, a normal story.

This baby was sold across the border. Well, the mother might have thought, I'm not really selling my daughter, but I cannot afford to raise her, and these people say they will. Now they either buy a child to be a servant, or they adopt one.

They have no intention of raising them as their child. It's just a legal form of slavery, you can adopt one. So they, in this case they took the baby in, and they were to pay the parents yearly, except they never did.

And the child began to be abused by the father of the house when she was four, in front of the other children. And when she was 12, she was pregnant by the only man she knew as father. My friend, who's a very brave tribal lady of that state, went to the family where the child had been living, and the child, of course, wanted to go back, because it's the only home she'd known, and said, you will find her natural parents.

They said, we cannot. She said, if you do not, the police will. So, of course, they were able to find that family, and she said, you will pay them what you owe them, and you will free this child to live a new life.

I love what IJM is doing, the International Justice Mission. I love how many people these days are understanding the need to free the slaves, but sometimes I'm a little bit worried, you see, because we live in missionary land, you know. Everybody stops off there for a while.

And I get these messages from ladies who truly love Jesus, and they say, we are going to such and such Asian country, I won't tell you which one, and we're going to help the girls who've been rescued from slavery for two weeks. And I think, oh, God, no, oh, God, no. You see, the first thing our men say, or our girls, we're currently housing between 200 and 300.

The first thing they say to visitors is, when are you leaving, in case they get disappointed. And it's one thing to rescue someone out of a brothel, it's one thing to buy someone's freedom, and it's another thing to stay and love them whole. Grow them up and be there.

Well, that's what your kids had, wasn't it? Not hallelujah, they're born. But God has entrusted this life to me, and I will look after this life. I will love this child.

I will love them better. We have a scripture from Zechariah, which is one of the captioned passages this week, chapter eight, chapter seven, sorry. When the Lord is asking the people of Israel what their fasting and feasting has been about, has it been about them or him? And then he finishes up, this is what the Lord Almighty says, administer true justice, show mercy and compassion to one another.

Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the alien or the poor. In your hearts, do not think evil of one another. Now, it's a very interesting thing that there's a modern phrase, which, forgive me, it may even be on your pamphlet.

It may even have been on your publicity material. I'm not sure. It tends to pop up rather frequently these days.

And I came here because it's about Go. And a lot of the current publicity materials about mission then put another little phrase afterwards, which is make a difference. Now, I have a problem with make a difference.

I thought the scripture said go and make disciples. And making disciples takes time. Getting people born is quite quick.

I'm not really criticizing, because of course I want you to go and make a difference. But the problem is if make a difference is about me. And we have people who pass through Hong Kong and they're saying, we're praying about what we want to do in the future.

And we have people who stay with us for a while, and we're wondering what to do next. And I've noticed with the young generation, it's, by the way, it's not their fault. It is not their fault.

Understand this. It's a current day phenomenon, and it is not their fault. But they cannot concentrate.

So they go off to Mozambique for six months. They want to come to us for a few months. Off they go to that well-known place in California for a year.

And first of all, I'm thinking, who's paying? And how many more places where God is on the move do you want to visit? Would you not stay somewhere and work it through? Would you not stay somewhere and love people so that they know it's not about what you're getting from God, but about what you are sharing of God with them? This is what the lost, the lonely, and the hungry need, not us having one more experience. And by the way, you know, the lost and the broken and the hungry, they are not remotely fooled. They know exactly who is there for God and them and who is there for their own missionary CV.

They do. I remember after I had been in Hong Kong for four years, there was the brother of the gang leader. I'm going to tell quite a few family stories.

But the brother of the gang leader came to me once and he said, we've watched you. We've watched you. And he said, many people come to Hong Kong.

Now this was, this was about, this was nearly 40 years ago he said this, actually. He said, many people come to Hong Kong, they stand on platforms with guitars and they sing about Jesus. And he said, what does that have to do with us? He said, they get back on a plane and they've got their fridges and their air conditioning and we're still here.

They may even take photos. He's not being cynical, by the way. They may even take photographs to take back to their people about the poor they have met.

And he said, it doesn't touch us. He said, this is what we do. We try to discourage people.

Now I was in the walled city and he said, it's quite easy to discourage people. Somebody asked me yesterday about being a woman in difficult situations. God is smart.

Those people didn't want to touch me because they discounted women. They actually thought that if you step on a fly, it doesn't hurt the fly. Neither would it hurt a woman, so they didn't bother.

So God's smart. He's not brave of me, he's just smart of God. He said, we've watched you.

And we can normally discourage people. We don't mind if you're offering needlework, hymn singing, judo or noodles. What we want to know is, are you anything to do with us? And when you've been here four years, we thought maybe you meant what you said.

And I thought, oh God, they really have been watching. There was another couple. They were called Ping and Tadpole.

And they were just little gangsters. And they said, we sat up all night, and I know where they were sitting because Tadpole was one of six brothers and four of them were drug addicts. I never, ever went to their house where somebody wasn't shooting up or spitting.

And the stairs up to their place was where the gamblers used as a toilet because there were no toilets at that time in Walled City. He said, we sat up all night, and we were talking about you. This was again after maybe four or five years.

He said, we came to one of two conclusions. Either the British government sent you here as a spy, or what you say about Jesus is real because nobody would spend their life with us here unless they had to. I thought, oh, oh, they haven't rejected Jesus.

They've accepted me in his name. That was so exciting. They have been watching.

And I'm here this morning to encourage you not only to go but to continue. Not to go because you probably know that many go and never do a second time. And today's young generation think two weeks holiday is outreach or six months here or six months there.

I'm here because I know that if God has called you to him and is sending you out, whether it's to this country, to the broken and the lonely and the refugees and those who've come to find a better country, which is why they've come. If God is sending you to these people, some of you have got to stay and finish the race. Jeremiah 12.5 says, If you have raced with men on foot and they have worn you out.

This is such a great scripture. If you've raced with men on foot and they've worn you out, how will you compete with horses? If you stumble in safe country, how will you manage by the thickets in the Jordan? And so we hear very often about people who are on outreach teams and they're having problems after a few weeks or a few days. And then I get these messages saying spiritual warfare.

And I say, no, it's not spiritual warfare. We've just met you. And the lost, the poor, the gospel, none of us have a problem with that.

We just have a problem with the people we're doing it with. We just have a problem with the other people on the team. And so this scripture is saying, If in safe country you stumble, how are you going to be able to compete with horses and the thickets in the Jordan? How then do we need to get ready? Well, we have to start.

I always loved that C.S. Lewis book, you know, with the picture of heaven and where the grass was too difficult for normal people to walk on because the feet weren't used to the heaven grass. And for young people here today, if God is calling you, by the way, he's made you, he equips you, he's going to see you through, he's going to gift you. If he's calling you, if he's sending you, he will enable you to finish.

And you're going to need to develop some qualities. And one of them is called, what Jesus said, perseverance. Let us run with perseverance.

The race marked out for us. Now there are two main pictures I like in scripture that help us to understand the process of going and persevering. One of them is the race picture, which we've shared.

He says you need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. Do you not know that in a race, this is 1 Corinthians 9, 24, all the runners run, but only one gets the prize. Everyone who competes goes into strict training.

Now you're not competing in this race against other men. This is a very helpful thing to understand at the beginning. And I think particularly for those of us who've grown up unsure of ourselves.

That's why I like to bring a team with me, so that when this meeting is finished and everybody says, Jackie, will you pray for my sick son? I say, I'm not that good at it, but my team is. Because more people get healed through my brothers and sisters in Hong Kong than me praying for people. I'm really scared of big meetings.

I'm scared that if people come up and ask me to pray for a sick person, I'm scared they won't get healed. Because you see, I'm not always very good at hearing God, so that's why I have people with me. I'm also scared they'll get healed.

Oh, goodness, there's going to be a prayer line thinking I can do it. Nobody's supposed to be doing this kind of thing. We're all supposed to be equipping everyone else how to pray for the sick, because that's efficient.

That's what Jesus did. You think he couldn't have stuck around for another 40 years and healed a few more people? I don't know why after three years, God the Father in him said, that's your bit, now it's your bit. I mean, what a plan.

But these days, we've gone backwards again, haven't we? Now we've got anointed healers, anointed prophets, and everything that is not Pentecost. When he said, I will pour out my spirit on all flesh, old men, young men, there will be signs and wonders. This is to happen through the ordinary people of God, and our job is to make sure that we equip them to do that, not invite special speakers.

That's so inefficient. So, some of your strict training is to learn how to heal the sick, practice it, and if nobody gets well, practice some more. Nobody gets well, practice some more.

Find out somebody that understands how to spot demons. There's no point in casting one out that isn't there. You know, we had some of our guys, they don't speak English.

They did the most odd thing one day. I was with them, and they started, sounded like dogs barking. They went, out, out, out.

I said, what are you saying? They were saying, out, out, O-U-T, O-U-T. And I said, why are you saying out, out? And they said, well, we have a pastor that comes on Thursdays and prays for us. And he says, out, out.

Well, but you need to know how to cast out demons. You need to know how to heal the sick, and you need to persevere. One of the reasons that we feel bad about ourselves is that we think somebody else can, and we can't.

And especially, this is why I keep saying it's hard on the young generation. Because the young generation have grown up with computers, and messaging systems, and Facebook, and everything's instant. Do you know, I mean, I tell this story to our new arrivals, nobody wants to hear it.

I say, I was in Hong Kong for one whole year before I went down to the local telephone exchange where I had to book a call. And I had three minutes with my parents after one year on the telephone. And nobody wants to hear that.

Now our people, they get off the plane, and all their friends in Britain know how they feel with a happy or an unhappy smiley face, or what they ate, photographs. I mean, it's different, isn't it? So, you know, have they left behind their country? No. They've taken all their friends with them.

That's why it's very hard. Because they have to keep checking in. I call them the Greek chorus.

They have to keep checking in, what do my friends think? This is what I felt. It's all about what am I going through. And if you've been brought up like this, which is why if you're youth leaders or something, we have to help our young people.

If you've grown up like that, it's very difficult. You know, one of the things I'd suggest if you've got young people, is when you go on your summer camp or something, ban telephones. Ban their iPods.

At least for three days. Now, they will have withdrawal symptoms. Truly.

Truly. They'll have the shakes, they'll have bad temper, and they'll have insomnia. They will.

Because it is an addiction. And if your addiction is what do my friends think, rather than what has God got for me, you cannot last. The other picture in scripture, which is about sowing and reaping, and it says in Galatians 6, 9, do not weary in doing good.

For at the proper time, we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. And one of the problems I think that people have when they cannot last is because they are results orientated. They want to see the harvest now.

In fact, there's sometimes large annoyance. So, I tell people who come to help in our houses, never get annoyed with the person you've been looking after because they haven't changed. That's about you.

Jesus died for us whether we said thank you or not. Jesus loved us to the end whether we changed or not. Jesus gave up his life whether we said thank you or not.

We do not pour our lives into other people so that they'll say thank you. And when they don't change, we feel, look what I did and they didn't. By the way, they can spot that too.

I'll love you because he loved me. That's it. In God's mercy, he's been so kind to me.

He's so kind to me. God's mercy. When I went to Hong Kong, nobody supported me.

I actually didn't know that there was something called raising support. Didn't know. I just thought God looked after you and you worked whenever you could.

So that's what I did. And I didn't receive any donations I think for five years. I wasn't expecting any either.

So I used my own money. I used what I earned. I learned.

It was so sweet of him. You see, I didn't have a group behind me. No organization.

I had one vicar who prayed. That was it. But he never sent any money.

It's fine. It's fine. He was a brave man.

Couldn't wait to send me off. Because I had no group behind me, I had no one to report to, which was very kind of God. So I did not have to write and say I've led 53 people to the Lord and they've all changed overnight.

Here are their pictures. That was just so kind of God. I was free.

So you see, I knew I didn't have to succeed. What it says in Galatians is five, six, the only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. All we have to do is go on the journey that God has sent us on and keep running and love people.

We told stories yesterday about some of the simple acts of kindness that we do along the way and then with the power of the Holy Spirit some of them turn into miracles. That's it. That's going to be our race until he comes back and that's all he's asking us to do.

But if we've got a success mentality, we'll either get proud because thousands of people have come to Christ. Actually, it's nothing to do with us. His plan, his Holy Spirit just allowing my feet and hands and that's it.

Why should I be proud? I'm just thrilled to have been there. He did it. So I'm not thrilled with myself.

I'm just privileged. Neither am I disappointed though I nearly was when nothing happens. Because he asked me to go.

That's it. He asked me to go. I can leave it to him.

It says in 1 Corinthians 3. The Bible's great, you know. It's all in here. One sows, verse 7. Another reaps.

And there's equal reward. Neither he who plants nor him who waters is anything. So we don't have to say, what a great anointing this man.

He's led two million people to the Lord. No greater anointing than he who wastes his life on one man. Oh, just different job.

I'm happy to be anywhere. But only God who makes things grow. Each one is rewarded according to his labor.

Now when I got to Hong Kong, all the missionaries I met were depressed. They were saying cloud over Hong Kong. I had no idea what they meant.

Because you see, I've always believed in 1 Corinthians 15. 58 which says, whatever you do in the name of the Lord is not in vain. So I thought, how could anyone be depressed? I know that what I'm doing in the name of the Lord is not going to be wasted.

And Galatians says, there will be a harvest. There will be a harvest if we do not give up. So we come to some stories.

There are some groups. You may even have joined some of those groups. So I won't tell you which organization.

But they go off. After they've done some kind of discipleship course, they go off and do some outreach somewhere. And they come back and they say, their outreach has been a month or two somewhere.

And they come back and they say, Hallelujah. When we were there, we led 58 people to the Lord. Marvelous.

And do you know there have been missionaries there for 20 years and they haven't seen anything? And I'm thinking, why do you think you led 58 people to Jesus? It's because those missionaries who were there for 20 years were faithfully sowing God's heart. And it says in John 4, this is what Jesus says. There's a harvest ready somewhere.

And he says, the unfair thing about the harvest is that you're going to reap what someone else is sowing. I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work.

This is John 4, 38. And you have reaped the benefits of their labor. So this is my encouragement to you people.

I haven't got time to share all the Bible and all the stories, so I'm frustrated. Don't get stuck in a position. It's very boring.

I just sow. I just sow. Then you get the other people who go to where they hear revival is.

I knew one man who moved to this country because somebody had prophesied there was going to be a revival in the north of England. Well, I was fed up with him for doing that. He's going to plant a church.

Why don't you move to the north of England because you love those people? Well, he didn't see revival and he left. Now, good. Don't move where you hear there's a move of God.

There'll be a move of God if you move and stay. We need to love the people. But there's a bunch of people who only want to see miracles and there's a bunch of people who got stuck with the sowing.

You should be harvesting and you should be sowing. He says there is a harvest somewhere everywhere. When I started praying in the Holy Spirit, I led all these gangsters to Jesus and I thought, my Chinese suddenly got very good.

But actually I was saying the same words as I'd always said. I realized that the fun thing about praying in the Holy Spirit, which for me is often tongues, is that it's not a feely thing, by the way. You don't suddenly hear him say take the number eight bus.

But what started happening was I started being in the right place at the right time, saying the same words as before. Only this time when I said them, people fell down in the streets. He believed in Jesus.

Then I knew it was him. He got people ready. I could have said tomato ketchup and they would have been saved.

Honestly. Because whatever I was saying, they heard Jesus. And you know, who could be proud about that? So neither be proud about the results nor disappointed because there aren't.

We've had so many people and they come and we either have a marvelous time. Now if you only stay three months, you won't learn much. So if you're hoping to understand addicts, you need a good two years.

Two weeks won't do. Because everything might go right, you see. Everybody may have the most miraculous time.

Then you'll go off somewhere and you won't be remotely equipped to deal with the difficulties. Or everything might go awfully badly, which it does. And then they'd say, you know what Jackie wrote in her book? It's not true.

And you haven't learned anything anyway. We have times of sweetness and miracles and times of difficulty. And we have people who come to stay with us and during the difficulty they say, am I in the right place? I always say, why don't you go back to when God last spoke to you? Through the scripture and through the spirit.

Because if he's taken you somewhere, he will complete the work that he has begun. And this is what he said to Timothy. Preach the gospel in season and out of season.

In season and out of season. It's not always going to be times of revival, but we love people anyway. I want to talk to some of you less teenage people.

There was a man called Caleb. And Caleb and Joshua were part of the twelve that went to spy out the promised land. You know what happened.

Ten out of the twelve came back and said we can't do it. And it would be dangerous for the kids. By the way, your children are never an excuse for not going to the mission field.

We understand there are difficulties about schooling and so on. Understand that. But don't say it's dangerous for the kids.

What happened was that entire generation failed to get into the promised land and the kids did. Caleb said we can do it. And he later said in Joshua 14, my brothers made the people's hearts melt with fear.

I, however, followed the Lord my God wholeheartedly. And the land on which your feet have walked will be your inheritance and that of your children's forever. Just as the Lord kept me alive for 45 years since that time, here I am 85 years old.

Don't know any 85-year-olds, but anyway, if you are, God's speaking to you. Here I am, 85 years old, just as vigorous to go out to battle as I was then. Now then, give me this hill country that the Lord promised.

There are some of you here that didn't go and your portion has been kept. It has not been given to another. It is still to come.

You see, when the Lord has made us for good works, when the Lord has made us for journeys, they're for us. And if you missed it because your brothers were afraid or your church didn't understand or your mother got sick or whatever, it's kept for you. It is not too late.

So I'm speaking to young people and I'm speaking to old people. People ask me sometimes, what was the best time of your life? Was it when the gang boss of the walled city who controlled about 20,000 people, was it when he came to Jesus? I say, no. Of course, that was great.

He was in prison and the Holy Spirit came on him and he prophesied for 30 minutes, worked his way through a whole box of tissues in the cell. It was great. But no more.

I knew he would come to Jesus. It just took 16 years. I mean, how could you not? All your brothers had changed.

And I loved him. I always recognized the Lord in him. I told him he was like Jesus.

They were very embarrassed when I did that, but I said, you've loved me when I'm your enemy. He redeemed something that someone had stolen from me. And I said, you're just like Jesus.

You've redeemed my typewriter with your own money and I'm your enemy. I'm here to make sure that people don't follow you. He is so like Jesus.

Well, he couldn't resist that. It just took 16 years. But everyone whose heart is touched by Jesus, I'm just as pleased.

They don't have to be great gangsters. God wants to use you and he wants you to finish. He wants you to persevere.

And if you've got difficulties, it doesn't mean you're in the wrong country or you should go where there's real revival or where you've got leaders who understand you. I want to read some things that will happen during the difficulties. He says, count it joy in James.

Count it joy? When my place in the walled city got beaten up by my friends, by the way, they painted it with sewage. I spent the day praising God just because I saw in the scripture you're supposed to. Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds.

It doesn't mean to say you're thrilled. It doesn't mean to say you even feel joyful. It just says consider it joy.

Okay, consider it joy. Why? Because this is what's going to happen. Whenever you face trials of many kinds because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.

Perseverance. And in Romans 5, rejoice in sufferings because they will produce perseverance and perseverance, character, and character, hope. And we need some missionaries with character and hope.

We need people who go and stay and love to the end. What do you think these child soldiers will do if they have but a series of two-week visitors? Wouldn't they need parents, not wires? There are people being saved who need to be healed slowly and out of sight of the video machine or the platform or anywhere that they're a trophy except to the Lord in heaven. We do this for them because He died for us and allows us wonderfully to be in His work and He says, whatever I have begun in you, I will complete until that day.

So, will you stand? Because I'm calling you to the long haul. By the way, if you're booked for a two-week trip, go. We often say it produces a hook in people.

It hooks you for life. You get a taste and then you go back. But don't do a series of two-week things.

Got that? And if you're a young person, if you could just stop six months here and nine months there and all that stuff that some church is paying for, I don't know why they should because you're no tested person. They should be providing for people that no one else is providing for who are in for the long haul. Too many teenagers sponsored these days.

Go and pick fruit if you want to do a six-month thing. Pay for yourself. Let your church and your Christian friends invest in someone who's showing character and perseverance.

Let's pray. There's a bright path ahead, but a feeling of fear. But Jesus says, don't be afraid, I'm walking beside you.

I am a God of freedom. I am calling you into a spacious place, a place of freedom, of joy. I will not hang you in.

I've come to set you free and I'm safe. So come to me and you will be free. First of all, I want to call forward people who started on the mission field and got disappointed because you, for whatever reason, you didn't go back or you didn't see what you thought or hoped for.

Come forward. We want to say well done. Well done.

Come forward. Come forward. There will be fruit.

There will be a harvest. There will be rejoicing in heaven because of you. You failed not.

Well done. So Kent and some others, I want you to pray for these people. There's a few more.

Come. Some of you have started working with addicts. Some of you have started working with the poor and you got burnt.

And you said you got your things stolen or you didn't see the results you hoped for. Some of you loved people and they cheated you, stole things or messed up your house. Some of you saw conversions and then people went back.

So did I. I had nothing to show for my great miracles after a few years. And all my friends in other countries had multiplied their cell groups ten times. Mine was decreasing.

Ha! But no. There was eternal fruit. All you people who've come forward, we say well done.

Well done. Well done. You haven't failed.

You're just disappointed because you didn't see the results you thought. But there will be eternal fruit and harvest. It's never a waste to have loved in the name of the Lord Jesus.

That's all that counts. That's all that counts. The numbers don't.

Now for everyone else, I want to pray for you because I'm fully expecting that the whole lot of you would walk forward if I invited you. So that's a little hard. You might just take a step to the side.

If you'd like to ask the Lord, I want to be in for the long haul. I want to finish. I just don't want to go and stop.

I want to finish whatever it is you've set out for me. Will you just open your hands and take a step into the aisle or somewhere. Meantime, I'd like some of you less than teenagers.

You may not be 85 but could be getting there. One or two of you who thought you'd missed it come to the front. It's still on by the way.

Your calling has not been taken back. God's gifts and callings are irrevocable. You are still called.

Come forward. It's not too late. You don't just have to bless the young people who are going.

You're on. You're on. I don't know how he's going to get you there.

I don't know. Good. Come forward.

Auntie, come right forward. Come right forward. Come right forward.

Let's have some other aunties come pray for her. Good. Not too late.

Not too late. Come right forward. Come right forward.

Oh, good people. You see, he wants you all. You're not too old.

It's not too late. That piece of inheritance has been kept for you for this day. There are people that are still alive waiting to hear about Jesus.

You better get there as quickly as you can and start training by the way. Training how to heal the sick. Training how to cast out demons.

And loving people to the end. If you've had families in the meantime, that's pretty good training. Close your eyes.

Receive a blessing. Lord, we pray for these people. That that which you've called them to and kept for them, you will make away.

We don't know how this works, Lord, but keep them. And for everyone else out there, if you'll close your eyes, we bless you to count it joy when there are trials and sufferings. Because you will be developing the feet that God needs and the heart which is His.

I bless you not to be disappointed when your friends see great results and you don't. Because the only thing that counts is faith expressing itself in love. And you must know that there will be a harvest if you faint not.

Some of you may harvest what you've sown. And for many of you, others will harvest what you've sown. And I bless you to see miracles because there's a harvest ready somewhere all the time.

All the time there's a harvest ready. Don't say four more months. I don't believe in that kind of kairos.

There's a harvest ready somewhere all the time. Ask the Lord where it is. And when people fall on their knees believing in Jesus, you just said, oh, somebody else did the work.

I just got the harvest. Then you might not be a great evangelist after all. But it doesn't matter, does it? Just thank the Lord He allows us to be somewhere in His work.