I was just in South Korea.
And the growth of the church in South
Korea is phenomenal.
And just in the past 20, 30 years
they've sent out thousands of missionaries.
Thousands.
The growth of the church in the Philippines.
They don't seem to have the money to
send out so many missionaries.
But they go out as workers.
They go out as tent makers.
So Filipino people are all over the world.
Even sometimes in the palace of a sheikh
in the middle of the Arabian Peninsula.
It's exciting what God has been doing in
the Philippines.
And the harvest is continuing.
And our great burden is that the nations
that have been left out now may be
included in a greater way in this great
harvest.
And I really pray that many of you
will get a copy of this book.
And if you can't find a copy after
a week or two, maybe you could e
-mail me.
Yes, through the internet you can get it.
Why don't you tell them how to get
it?
This is a brand new edition.
That has come out only a few weeks
ago.
And when we compare it with the old
edition, we are amazed what God has done.
Praise God for your vision for prayer.
The leaders of our ministry also called a
day of prayer today for the crisis going
on in India.
As the fanatic Hindu element is trying to
close down this special meeting that was planned
for November 4th.
And I know in my own office back
in London when I phoned they told me
on the phone that they called a special
morning of prayer concerning the crisis in India.
If you do read English, and you don't
have a copy of my book in German,
you can send me an e-mail and
I'll send you this as a gift.
The English edition of the same book.
It's called Out of the Comfort Zone.
The German publisher changed the title, but the
book is the same.
But I suggest you get one in German,
then later on you can get one in
English and give your German one to someone
else.
In fact, if you have a real vision
for mission mobilization, which we talk about in
this book, then you will want to get
at least 10 copies.
But we know you don't want to get
too much vision all at once.
That might scare somebody.
So I know many of you, you want
to go just very, very slowly, very cautiously
about this mission thing.
But seriously, if you really believe the message
that we have been sharing from God's word,
you're not going to be happy just keeping
it to yourself.
You're going to want to become a mission
mobilizer.
You're going to want to get extra of
some of this material that you find on
these displays.
Please visit every display and distribute it to
others.
Let's look together now into the word of
God.
Turn to the book of Acts.
First of all, chapter 1.
Verse 8, which I think you may have
already looked at.
The final words before Jesus went to heaven.
Words that should be deep, deep, deep, deep
in our hearts.
But ye shall receive power after the Holy
Ghost has come upon you.
Ye shall be witnesses unto me, both in
Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost part of
the earth.
This is one of the great foundations for
everything we are teaching.
And we realize the importance of the ministry
of the Holy Spirit.
We realize that all of us are to
be his witnesses.
And it has to be to the whole
world.
And that's what we read about in the
book of Acts.
And if you're interested, I have 11 lectures
on cassette in English from the book of
Acts.
11 messages, a series through the whole book.
And all you have to do is request
it by e-mail or letter, and I
send it to you as a gift.
Turn now to Acts 13.
One of the great missionary passages in the
word of God.
We're going to have a Bible study.
Last night and yesterday, I shared a lot
of biblical exhortation.
And I felt very strong.
That's what God put on my heart.
And I thank God for all of you,
especially who responded last night.
To repent and to make a more radical
commitment to Jesus.
Greater grace, greater wisdom, greater discipline.
Steps of faith.
Realizing failure can be the backdoor to success.
Holding high the shield of faith where it
is not possible to fail.
Wherewith you can stop the fiery darts of
the evil one.
But this afternoon, I want to have a
Bible study.
And I'd like us to read from the
word of God, Acts 13.
The first five verses.
And then I'm going to share seven mega
principles from these five verses.
And you can write these seven principles down.
And if one year you send me, not
now, but one year from now, you send
me the list of these seven principles, seven
words.
I will send you seven English books.
Which means many of you need to learn
English in the next year.
Very easy for Germans to learn English.
Because Germans are generally quite intelligent.
They're often quite disciplined.
And they realize the rest of the world
is not really into German at this present
time.
I don't actually like English.
I don't like the sound of English.
I like Spanish.
It has a more nice smooth sound.
And French is like a dance.
But somehow everybody around the world is speaking
English.
In China, millions and millions of people speak
English.
In India, tens of millions speak English.
In Africa, over 100 million speak English.
And God can use this to win people
to Jesus.
As there is a common language spreading across
the world.
It's not enough.
And in most of these countries we have
to learn the language of the people's heart.
But it sure is a great help to
get started.
Let's read, we'll just read in German verses
one through five.
Let's read in German.
Let's pray.
Father, we thank you for your word.
We thank you God for what you have
been doing in our hearts during these days.
We thank you God for the steps of
faith that have been taken.
We thank you God for increasing our vision.
We thank you God that there's a ring
of reality in our hearts this afternoon.
Help us to receive what you have in
this holy scripture.
That these biblical principles may be a dynamic
reality in our lives.
That we may take even bigger steps of
faith.
That we may share this vision with others.
As your word so clearly teaches in 2
Timothy chapter two verse two.
We ask this in the name of Jesus.
Amen.
The first word.
Verse one.
The word church.
Now there were in the church that was
at Antioch.
The local church is absolutely key in world
missions.
Now when you say that in Germany it
is quite different than many other countries of
the world.
Germany is a very special country.
And many young people I've known don't actually
belong in a, in a, involved in the
mission.
Involved way in a local church.
Especially in Stuttgart where I visited many times.
We find people love Jesus.
They go to the Lutheran church and they
belong to a special fellowship which is sort
of part of the Lutheran church.
One year ago in Stuttgart I spoke at
a huge event of people from these, these
kind of fellowship groups.
These have been some of the greatest supporters
of OM here in Germany.
You may know the name of Friedrich Hansler,
the founder of Hansler Verlag Publishing House.
And now his son's carrying on.
They're the people that have published these books.
And often make them available at a special
price.
And that is a, a unique and, and
beautiful movement of the Holy Spirit of God.
And sometimes the, the mother church, the big
particular Lutheran church, are not really that interested
in this.
And mostly or sometimes it is so that
the, so to speak, the mother church, the
Lutheran church, in general, have no great interest
in missions.
But these fellowship groups within the church are
absolutely committed to world missions.
Now there are similar situations in other countries.
But in most cases people just belong to
a local church.
That local church may be very proactive about
missions or they may not be.
Now let me take one of my special
George Verwer afternoon sleepy time surveys to see
if you're all awake.
How many of you belong to a living
local church, an active local church, like this
one?
The MTR church, raise your hand.
That is a tremendous testimony.
And I'm sure it's one of the reasons,
one of the reasons that you're here today.
Of those of you who raised your hand,
how many would say that your church is
supportive, it is proactive, it is supportive?
Of your mission's vision.
Now we lost about, well, okay, we
lost a few hands.
On a global scale, many young people who
want to go into world missions, their church
is not proactive.
In some cases they have actually counseled them
not to go into world missions.
They said you need to stay here and
teach in the Sunday school.
Our church is the priority.
So you just forget about this mission thing
and certainly don't read any of these George
Verwer books.
The church is absolutely committed to world missions.
That's the key.
For 40 years I've tried to spend every
single Sunday preaching in a local church.
We have several thousand local churches that are
linked in partnership with the vision that God
has put upon our hearts.
Several thousand.
That has been one of our most important
factors in our growth.
Now for me that was quite a step.
Because I came from a very liberal church
that didn't even believe the Bible was God's
word.
It was a social club.
It was called a reformed church.
It certainly did need reforming.
I became the president of the youth fellowship
and I was teaching them how to rock
and roll back in the days of Haley
and the Comet and Elvis Presley.
And then the pastor made me his assistant.
There's a verse in the Bible about this.
It talks about the blind leading the blind.
Then in God's providence Billy Graham came to
New York City and a lady across from
my high school as I already mentioned to
you she started praying for me.
She sent me this Gospel of John through
the post.
I began to read God's word and that
began to change my life.
I was so excited about the Bible before
I was even a true believer I started
to raise money to give everybody in the
world the Gospel of John.
I wasn't even saved yet.
I believed that somehow you had to do
good works.
I was in my pilgrimage and I wanted
to do what was right but I had
not heard the liberating message of the Gospel.
And then Billy Graham came to New York
City and just for one night he came
to Munich many many years ago and over
lunch today I've been talking to friends who
live here in Munich and Munich surely is
a tremendous mission field.
There are tens of thousands of people thousands
of Muslims in Munich very few people working
among them.
What a tremendous challenge to the church.
How many of you are from the greater
Munich area?
Quite a few, many more last night.
I want to be more faithful in praying
for you if you send me an email
I will print it out I will carry
it with me on the plane and pray
for you and pray for your ministry.
Praise God in the last 10, 20 years
new churches have been born here just like
this church that we're privileged to be in
right now.
Five challenges about the local church pray for
the local church be involved with the local
church be a grace awakened member of the
local church beware of unrealistic expectations and
don't be afraid and don't get discouraged as
you attempt to work for revival and for
world missions within your local church.
Now this church in Antioch was started in
a rather unusual way a group of people
who were persecuted they ended up in Antioch
and a church was born and it's amazing
the many, many different ways that God works.
In my book I try to get people
to understand the many different ways that God
works so they can be less judgmental less
critical and have a bigger vision of the
way that God works some people who go
to a church that may be very lively
and have really tremendous music they maybe visit
another church where people are quite quiet and
where they may still have an organ instead
of a guitar and a keyboard and so
when they go home or they meet their
friends after church they say, ah, that church
is dead are we sure?
Is spiritual life mainly outward things?
Outward things are important but some of the
great believers that I know that God has
used I'm not talking one year 30, 40
years they've been used of the Holy Spirit
of God are actually quite quiet
people they're not like me we're all different
I've already pointed out that my wife is
very different from me and she said to
me just looking at you makes me feel
very tired and if I had not changed
by God's grace our marriage would have finished
many years ago but I learned that God
was working in my wife in a different
way than He was working in me and
that revolutionized my thinking about spirituality and I
realized the Holy Spirit was doing a much
wider work in a different way in different
people and those of you who are committed
to world missions if you don't have wisdom
you will actually get away from world missions
rather than draw them into the circle because
you don't have the spiritual discernment to understand
where people are and attempt to respond to
them where they are if
someone is living in immorality or they've got
a half a ton of emotional problems they
don't need a globe and a punch in
the nose from you they need someone to
listen to them they need perhaps a book
on those particular subjects or a testimony of
how God can set people free from their
immorality and then when there is a beginning
work of grace in their lives they start
to share Jesus a little bit with their
friends they start to function as part of
the local church or some kind of biblical
fellowship then in God's timing you may be
able to talk to them about the regions
beyond and show them a copy of Operation
World you don't go to a baby Christian
one night after they were saved with this
big huge book and say well I really
believe you need to pray through this next
week he's not going to understand what you're
talking about a local church loving God's people
listening to them the book of Philippians chapter
2 talks about esteeming other people better than
yourself that's pretty radical because it's so
easy even in our Christian life to be
self-centered the second word is
much more than a word it's a person
verse 2 as they ministered to the Lord
and fasted the Holy Spirit said separate me
Barnabas and Saul for the work to which
I have called them the Holy Spirit that's
the second word and the Holy Spirit is
the chief executive officer the leader of all
mission work how sad it is that
the church is still having so much fighting
and arguing about the Holy Spirit that is
truly the plan of the devil God I
am just so convinced the Holy Spirit is
working in different ways in different people some
emphasize the baptism in the Holy Spirit and
I'm sure many of you have had that
experience when I was a baby Christian I
read a book, a little book baptism of
the Holy Ghost I said Lord whatever that
is I don't understand it but I sure
do want it I was involved in ministry
in jail at that time not very much
was happening and I remember at university getting
on my knees and praying for a baptism
of the Holy Spirit and I felt that
something happened I was very young I wasn't
sure but when I went down to the
jail the next week to share the people
I spoke to were under conviction immediately repented
and believed on Jesus and it's interesting that
the emphasis in this particular book was a
baptism of power power for evangelism power to
see people's lives impacted by the Ghost later
on I read another book I thought I
wasn't so sure that what happened to me
in my room wasn't baptism of the Holy
Spirit so I prayed again and I've had
many other experiences where I experienced something special
in the presence of the Lord often during
a day of prayer and fasting at the
same time as I look back over my
life it seems that from the moment I
was converted I've known something of the joy
and the power and the gifts and the
reality that God gives I meet other people
who are very strong in God that have
not had these special emotional experiences so surely
I'm better than they are they need to
get the George Burwer blessing they need to
go climb a tree in the mountains and
get zapped on the top of the tree
like God did in my life let me
take a survey how many of you have
been zapped by the Holy Ghost on the
top of a tree may the Lord help
you this afternoon we should go out into
the woods and climb trees it's only when
you get to the top of the tree
you're really going to find God's will from
the Lord I feel very sorry for you
and I'm not sure if I can fellowship
with non-tree Christians I need to fellowship
with people I'm like-minded with those who
climb trees those who get zapped I think
we should start a tree-zapping denomination we
laugh I'm glad you can laugh because sometimes
we are like this not to that extreme
but we want people to be like us
we want people to have the same experience
we've had and if they don't we sometimes
don't fellowship so much with those people there
are 27,000 denominations in the world today
and some local churches like in Great Britain
and don't like to fellowship with other churches
some special things are happening in their midst
and I'm not against that but they become
a new denomination and some of the people
in the old denominations are very upset by
this and they say this is not good
in my walk with God I've had one
foot in the old denominations and I have
one foot in the new denomination and I
say Hallelujah what a tremendous privilege to fellowship
with such a wide range of God's people
we need a greater understanding of the church
and the Holy Spirit Billy Graham who was
a very conservative Christian in his background put
into writing something that helped me he said
one of the reasons for church growth across
the world was what God was doing through
the modern charismatic movement and Billy Graham was
criticized and attacked viciously for what he said
and what he did several million fundamentalist Christians
in America including leaders turned against Billy Graham
because of his openness toward other believers and
what God was doing and
Billy Graham got terrible letters one college declared
him part of the anti-Christ movement and
I remember reading that Billy Graham took these
letters some of them were hate letters and
he put them on his bed before as
he was praying maybe it was his desk
it doesn't matter he said God I don't
want to go to sleep tonight until I
have forgiven all of these people and Billy
Graham speaking about the Holy Spirit the reality
the practical reality of the Holy Spirit he
said I don't care how you get it
just get it it might be more of
a process you may speak more about the
fullness of the Holy Spirit or it may
be a crisis you may speak of the
baptism of the Holy Spirit but the key
thing is where are you right now in
your walk with God for 40 years I
prayed for greater unity among God's people here
in Germany when I arrived here 40 years
ago different kinds of Christians were not even
speaking to each other they were writing against
each other they were accusing people of being
instruments of the devil we have the same
thing in Canada we have the same thing
in the United States but the situation was
just a little extra complicated here in Germany
after the war for various reasons and I
thank God that things are changing here in
Germany and in our own fellowship we pioneered
recruiting people from Evangelical churches Lutheran churches Pentecostal
churches and trying to get them to live
together on our ships and on the same
teams thank God for His mercy and
thank God there are people at this conference
from many different churches we don't all think
alike on every issue one thing I believe
we have unity on that the Holy Spirit
is wanting to send us into world mission
work I don't think we're going to get
unity on the subject of speaking in tongues
I don't think we're going to get total
unity on personal prophecy and miraculous words of
knowledge and other things that the church is
arguing about all over the world I say
that unity is in the midst of diversity
I remember when two people were staying on
a cabin in our ship I believe it
was in north Germany when the ship was
there this was many years ago one was
a charismatic believer who just got the gift
of tongues the other was a young committed
German who was taught well that tongues was
from Satan they were roommates living in the
same little cabin and one morning the man
is praying in tongues at his bed the
other guy is trying to resist the power
of Satan I didn't know about this and
here I am preaching and I brought out
a story just similar to this story it
gave them the idea that I knew what
was going on in their cabin I didn't
know anything I had the same experience once
in the Afghan border this is an amazing
story this was a mission group where they
were working together from different missions and they
were going to the same sort of church
and some were very strong on the gifts
of the spirit others were not quite sure
what this was all about I was trying
to call them to unity to love one
another and I remembered reading in a book
about two very conservative people who believe in
speaking in tongues and suddenly one of them,
I think the wife, boom!
got some kind of blessing and started speaking
in tongues and the husband, ahh!
what happened to my wife?
I just gave this as a story I
found out the next day that two Germans
on the team very conservative the wife had
just started to speak in tongues and in
God's providence I ended up having lunch with
them and I wondered why the husband was
looking at me with a rather strong look
that was 15 years ago that couple is
still together worshipping Jesus God works in different
people in different ways and we need to
constantly walk in humility before God so that
love 1 Corinthians love is constantly flowing from
our lives the Holy Spirit works in different
people in different ways Billy Graham who has
won millions to Jesus Christ doesn't have all
the gifts of the Holy Spirit other people
have other gifts to be honest it's a
mystery to me to some degree it's a
mystery but I stand on God's word that
He works in different people in different ways
we're all on a pilgrimage let's keep learning
in wisdom and grace the third word is
the word worship in this English translation verse
2 says as they ministered to the Lord
that's worship ministering to the Lord that's what
we're supposed to be doing a little while
ago worship is the highest calling of the
Christian and as we brought out yesterday not
just when we have great music but on
a daily basis with the inner harp that
God has put in our hearts we can
worship Jesus now notice there were 5 people
gathered in this prayer meeting in this worship
meeting it's such a powerful picture because it's
as they worship the Holy Spirit spoke and
I believe as we've been worshiping here the
Holy Spirit has been speaking now that doesn't
mean you're gonna get everything perfect as a
human being and if you sense the Holy
Spirit is leading you to do something I
believe you need to wait upon God and
get some affirmation from other godly people that
they sense this is from the Lord so
this is a beautiful picture