Isaiah chapter 6.
I think it's very good preparation for our
night of prayer which lies ahead of us
and any visitor is more than welcome to
stay.
I feel it's very appropriate to prepare us
as we go forth into Asia this year.
By God's grace this year we will have
almost 400 young men and women committed to
the work of God east of Istanbul.
I believe without exaggeration that is a 20th
century miracle.
400 people working for Christ in Asia.
How we are ever going to hold the
ropes in the offices I don't know.
I was talking to my wife wondering if
I or even both of us should take
Steve Hart's bookkeeping course next week.
I've become a bookkeeper but really praying and
trusting that God is going to raise up
the home staff and I don't know how.
I don't think too much about it lest
I get a headache.
We know God is able to stand behind
those who are out in Asia and of
course out in Europe as well.
Don't think for a minute most of those
in Europe are in the offices.
The majority also are in the streets and
you've seen some of you already the army
that is headed for France.
Isaiah chapter 6.
In the year that King Uzziah died I
saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne
high and lifted up.
His train filled the temple.
Above it stood the seraphim, each one had
six wings.
With two he covered his face, with two
he covered his feet, and with two he
did fly.
One cried unto another and said, Holy, holy,
holy is the Lord of hosts.
The whole earth is full of his glory.
And the posts of the door moved at
the voice of him who cried and the
house was filled with smoke.
Then said I, woe is me, for I
am undone, because I am a man of
unclean lips and I dwell in the midst
of a people of unclean lips.
For my eyes have seen the King, the
Lord of hosts.
And flew one of the seraphim unto me,
having a live coal in his hand, which
he had taken with the tongs from off
the altar.
And he laid it upon my mouth and
said, Lo, this has touched thy lips.
And thine iniquity is taken away, and thy
sin purged.
Also I heard the voice of the Lord
saying, Whom shall I send, and who will
go for us?
Then said I, Here am I, send me.
And he said, Go and tell this people,
Hear ye indeed, but understand not.
See ye indeed, but perceive not.
Of course, Isaiah had an unusual task, not
like our task.
And that's why we read verse 10.
Make the heart of this people fat, make
their eyes heavy.
Shut their eyes, lest they see with their
eyes, hear with their ears, and understand with
their hearts, and be converted and be healed.
I believe one of the most important and
one of the greatest needs in the Church
of Jesus Christ today is a vision of
the holiness of God.
The holiness of God.
This is very much linked with a great
need to understand more about God himself.
I've spoke less at this conference than any
other year in the past 13 years that
I've ever been in an OM conference.
Praise God, I believe as others are raised
up, I can speak less and less.
But if I had a few extra nights,
I would speak to you on the attributes
of God, the attributes of God.
And I want to recommend to every OMer
to take time this year to study the
attributes of God.
I was looking at a book on the
book table.
I don't have it with me.
But if you ask the man in charge
for a book on the attributes of God,
he'll show it to you.
By a man named Francis, I believe from
Nigeria, where he's working in Nigeria.
A.W. Tozer has also written a book
on the attributes of God, which is unfortunately
incredibly expensive in this country.
I don't know, some secular publishers got a
hold of it.
You'll get some very cheap editions of that
out in Asia.
You may even find one in Belgium.
Also, there's a book by Packer, we're all
sold out, a hardback book on the attributes
of God called Knowing God.
And I would ask you to study the
attributes of God, the holiness of God, the
glory of God.
The faithfulness of God, the omnipresence of God.
His omnipresence, His omnipotence, all-powerful God, the
wrath of God, the very nature of God
needs to be understood by every believer.
It's amazing in this day in which there's
much controversy concerning the Holy Spirit, that there
seems to be an incredible lack of books
about God himself.
There's much more in the Bible about God
himself than about the Holy Spirit.
Unless you be concerned, there is no competition
in the Godhead.
Is that a great debate in heaven going
on over who is more important?
Is it the Holy Spirit or Jesus or
God, the Father?
Could anything be as ridiculous as that?
Of course, we know the Holy Spirit, one
of the main ministries of the Holy Spirit
is to reveal the Lord Jesus Christ.
One of the great ministries of Christ is
to show forth the Father.
And so it is important, those of us
who believe in the Holy Spirit, those of
us who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ,
and His sufficiency to also understand God Himself,
God the Creator.
Now, we're all different.
And the thing that has meant the most
to me about God, next to His love,
for we have a God of love, He's
a God of wrath, but He's a God
of love.
He's a God who is just, who is
holy, who is pure, who is righteous, but
He is also a God who is merciful
and mighty to save.
But one of the things that has given
me such inspiration again and again to my
faith is that God is the Creator.
Perhaps it's because as a young boy, I
loved nature.
Spent hours and hours, weeks in the woods,
sitting all day in the woods, alone, love
to be alone.
Some people think that all the outward temperament
types, the extroverts, some man in England said,
woo, you're so intensive that these guys always
like to be with people.
It's not right, actually.
So all of us crave moments of being
alone.
And to get out in the creation, in
the midst of the creation of God, whether
it's listening to the birds or looking at
a tree or a flower or a plant
or the sunset or standing on the edge
of Grand Canyon, which has been one of
the greatest thrills in my life.
The creation of God.
Many, many times in my life, when I
was out in the midst of the creation
of God, going overland, and I tell you,
it's a thrilling trip, this overland trip.
If you like God's creation.
If you like the stuffy, smelly cities, well,
then you can walk around Soho.
But if you like God's creation, you'll find
this overland trip absolutely exhilarating.
It'll be hard, not too easy sleeping in
the back of the truck when it's eight
below zero.
You know, it doesn't only happen in Afghanistan.
I remember that happening in my first truck.
I was O.M.'s first truck driver.
Of course, I didn't drive, I just aimed.
And we drove all the way to Mexico
in this old truck.
And I remember coming back, it was below
zero, no heater.
I remember after driving about 25 hours, letting
someone else drive.
It was even worse than I was.
And I went into the back of the
truck.
The whole inside of the truck was frozen
solid, really cold, sheer ice.
It's terrible North American winter.
And I remember asking someone for a peanut
butter sandwich.
The early days, you know, peanut butter was
the major food of the entire movement.
I ate so much peanut butter in those
days, I never wanted to look the rest
of my life.
Even now, I get a psychological reaction to
peanut butter.
I can't stand it.
And I remember, I think it went back
to this first truck trip.
I remember taking a peanut butter sandwich in
the back of the truck, and it was
absolutely frozen solid.
It was like eating ice cream out of
the deep freeze.
Maybe a new thing in the ice cream
world, peanut butter ice cream.
You know, when you get out of that
truck in the middle of Afghanistan, and you
look into the snow peaked mountains, you see
the creation of God.
I remember breaking bread together, coming home once,
traveling through the Turkish mountains.
I lost track of how many times I've
been over land.
And I remember going off into the mountains
and having the Lord's table, surrounded by the
natural beauty, not a single human being anywhere
in sight.
God, the Creator, many times, looking over God's
creation.
I lived in Nepal for a couple of
years.
I may go back and live there again.
Looking over the Himalayas, had to recommit my
life to God.
God, the Creator, God, the Sustainer, God, the
Giver of all life.
By Him, all things consist.
That refers to Jesus Christ, by the way,
because Jesus Christ was with the Father in
creation.
In the beginning was the Word, and the
Word was with God, and the Word was
God.
Who is the Word?
The Lord Jesus Christ, Lagos in the Greek.
Word every O-M-er should know.
Do you know God?
Do you know the attributes of God?
Could you sit down and write, what does
the holiness of God mean to me?
You had your Bible content exam, that's just
sort of a little glorified pop quiz, just
to see how you feel.
The papers are being corrected right now, by
the way, in the other rooms, they listen
to me.
And you're going to find out how, you
know, just general Bible knowledge.
But a lot more important than that is
your knowledge of God.
And of course, we get to know God
through the Word of God.
I would recommend another study this year, and
that is that you study the names of
God.
I did a very long study on all
the names of God.
Jehovah Shabbat.
Jehovah Nissi.
And all these other names of God.
You can trace them through the Old Testament.
That's a very good one for your study
program.
Because it's in these names of God in
the Old Testament that we learn more of
His character.
The Lord God Almighty.
And one of the great problems today is
that our God is too small.
We have difficulty praying in the funds needed
for God's work because our God is too
small.
You've got your God somewhere like the Ford
company, you know, is having all these troubles
these days.
Or some of these other big companies that
are debating about selling out.
The Kuwaitis just went over the United States
and bought a big chunk.
You read that in the paper?
Seventeen million dollars.
They bought an island off the coast of
South Carolina.
That's great, man.
They can buy several states for all I
care.
As long as they'll give us some oil
for our OM ship.
You know, we're praying about going into Kuwait
this year.
And that needs to be saturated with prayer.
Wouldn't it be beautiful if one of these
old sheiks came aboard and got saved?
But you know, our God is beyond all
these oil magnets.
All those oil wells ultimately are in His
hand.
They can't pump a gallon without God's permission.
Ultimately.
Because one of the greatest attributes of God
is the sovereignty of God.
Do you know what that means?
It's a very practical thing.
It means that though Dick Griffin is in
Mexico, perhaps going to lose the sight of
one of his eyes, one of my closest
friends, one of the first OMers.
He'd been 16 years in that job.
And the only reason I've been able to
move on to new countries year after year
is because there have been men like Dick
Griffin who are willing to stick something more
than a year or two.
And if we don't find more men like
Griffin, we're not going to go into any
more fields.
In fact, we're going to close fields.
Though we praise God that we have the
one-year people and the two-year people,
we need men and women more than ever
before in this work.
And I don't care what their age is,
who are willing like Dick Griffin to say,
God, here I am.
Here I am.
And I'll not leave until you move me.
Here he is in Mexico.
And after all these years, he's now got
this tumor in his eye.
And he may lose the sight of one
eye this week.
We're going to be phoning tonight again.
As we meet in prayer.
But the sovereignty of God means that with
one eye or two eyes, he is God's
child, Brother Dick.
And God is going to overrule and God
is going to use him.
And he's going to experience blessing and strength
through this trial that is upon him.
That's the sovereignty of God.
If there's anything we need as we go
out in such an impossible situation this year,
it's a greater view, a greater understanding of
God himself.
He's not some little God who's going to
drop dead when your truck goes off the
road and you find yourself in a major
accident, who is going to do a disappearing
act when your money doesn't come in.
And you sit back.
Oh, God is sovereign.
We see this in the life of Joseph.
We were speaking about this the other day.
It's not time to turn to all these
passages, but you know them.
How everything went wrong for Joseph.
What a story that is.
Oh, my heart has been hit again and
again by the story of Joseph.
Everything went wrong.
His brothers deserted him.
He made mistakes.
Turned in prison.
His goods seemingly was honored with difficulties.
And then we see the hand of God
turning the situation and Joseph raised up as
a mighty man.
We see it in the case of Nehemiah.
What a story.
Oh, I'd love to preach to you for
seven days on Nehemiah, one of my favorite
books in the Bible.
How many have studied Nehemiah in the last
six months?
Raise your hand.
Nehemiah, praise the Lord.
Not too many.
It's a good book.
God gave us that book of Nehemiah when
we were on the ship and there were
so many problems and every day something else
was broken down.
And I'll never forget when the engineers came
to me and said, George, three of our
pistons are cracked.
What?
Do you know what a piston costs for
a ship?
It costs a lot more than a new
car, I'll tell you.
One piston, three cracked pistons.
And I tell you, we were praying for
pistons like they were going out of season.
Then after a lot of prayer, a lot
of wrestling and not seeing too much happen,
we found out that these are special pistons.
They were manufactured with slight cracks.
Our engineers hadn't quite had that variety of
Danish piston before.
Of course, the Danes are unusual people.
God overruling.
And this year, some of you are going
to have crises.
Some of you are going to have problems.
Some of you are going to find yourself
in intense situations.
And one of the keys is a simple
little word.
We use it all the time.
I use it on the telephone.
When somebody calls me and blurts out some
major problem, I just say, don't panic.
God's still alive.
Will you make that your motto this year?
Don't panic.
I remember a time traveling overland with my
whole family.
We were in the middle of Iran.
It was a terrible trip.
We got stuck in the Turkish mountains in
a blizzard.
We ended up thinking we were going over
the edge and trying to turn this vehicle
down in the middle of the highway in
the middle of the night.
My little daughter cried out and got saved
that night.
She's still convinced she got saved.
She prayed for Jesus to come into her
heart.
Anyway, we finally got through all the snow.
We got to Iran.
We're heading for southern Iran to get the
warmer climate.
And I brought the briefcase out of the
car and put it in the restaurant.
Or actually, I had another brother bring it.
And he put it by the side of
my chair.
We forgot all about it.
Had all the passports, had all the money,
had all the vehicle papers.
Everything.
And I had my mind on other things.
I was just slipping around the streets of
Iran trying to get out a few tracks.
Forgot complete about this briefcase.
So did he.
We got back in the vehicle.
100, 200, 300, 500, 600, 700, 1000 miles
away.
Pakistan border.
Just before we were getting to the border,
I thought, who's got the passports?
Where's the money?
I was sick.
Oh, I walked through the streets of that
town.
And tried to figure out whose fault it
was.
It couldn't be mine.
I don't know if any of you have
that problem.
When anything goes wrong, whose fault is it?
There's something in us that works that way,
isn't it?
And the Lord said, sorry, George.
It's you.
My fault.
Well, it took me about four minutes.
Swallowing, apologizing to the team.
Then I walked through the streets and I
said, thank you, Jesus.
You're still alive.
And it's yours.
And I had such a tremendous time of
worship.
And praise.
After another 15 or 20 minutes, I went
straight to the telephone.
Called Tehran, asked somebody to get in an
airplane and fly to that city.
They did.
This was 20 hours later.
They walked into the restaurant.
And there it was.
Money.
Passports.
The vehicle papers.
Everything.
Muslim restaurant.
Jumped in a bus.
Brought it to us.
And many people all over the world, they
got a letter from me from the border
that year.
Quite a few days there.
Unfortunately, I had my secretary with me.
Had a lot of extra time with the
family.
We went hiking together.
A lot of other interesting things happened.
It was a great experience.
Well, we had 16 punctures before we got
to the Pakistan border.
It was an interesting time.
That was the border into India.
In fact, when you run out of tires,
in the middle of nowhere, and the Pakistani
police come up and say, do you know
this is a dangerous area?
People are being killed here all the time.
And they put one armed guard on one
end of the road.
And another armed guard on the other end
of the road.
With the rifles.
We managed to fix a puncture.
Not me.
Fellow was with me.
Well, you're going to have many experiences just
like this.
And you've got to see that no matter
what happens, God is sovereign.
The sovereignty of God.
Overruling sickness.
Overruling heartaches.
Overruling.
Endless suffering that just seems to come upon
humanity like a great stream.
Some of you who are older, who are
visitors here tonight, know more about suffering than
any of us here.
We're just kids.
I'm just a kid.
In terms of suffering.
Some of you have known real suffering.
Real suffering.
Recently, a young man back from the mission
field, his father was a missionary.
In a fit of temper, took a pistol
and killed his father on the spot.
Can God overrule that?
Vernon Blythe, one of my most faithful prayer
partners.
Some of you have heard his testimony.
This humble, broken man from California, stood with
this work for 15 years.
He stood one day in a schoolhouse, and
his father walked out and took a pistol.
Shot his mother through the head.
Shot his sister through the head.
Aimed at Vernon.
Vernon ducked.
Missed him by a quarter of an inch.
Vernon played possum on the floor.
Father thought he was dead.
Father picked up the pistol again.
Shot himself.
Can God overrule that?
Is God still alive?
Is God still around when those things happen?
Vernon Blythe was one of the most bitter,
young Air Force pilots in the United States
Air Force.
He had more hatred and more vengeance.
And then Jesus met him.
And he's today one of the most broken,
humble, Jesus-loving men I've ever met.
God is God.
God is sovereign.
Some of you are going back to broken
homes this week.
Some of you are going back to alcoholic
mothers, alcoholic fathers.
I've had people share that with me this
week.
Some of you are going home in situations
where you see your own father in immorality
every week.
Some of you are going home to Christian
homes where both parents are backslidden.
Or even Christian homes where they headed for
the divorce court.
How can that be Christian?
I don't know.
There are more divorces among Christians than ever
before in the history of the church.
But remember, as you face these heartaches, as
you face these tragedies, last year within a
month, one of the girls who sat in
this conference was dead in a motor accident
in France.
Another girl sat in this conference died in
a bathtub in Belgium.
Not a game, beloved.
All of you are now old enough, you're
facing life head on.
And it's going to be filled with suffering.
It's going to be filled with trials.
Sure, there'll be joys.
Sure, there'll be victories.
Sure, there'll be times of praise.
We've had a whole message about that.
And it's in these times that our real
knowledge of God will hold us steadfast.
It's when these tests come that the little
evangelical froth and bubble boys go down the
tube.
They go running, although God is dead.
Sometimes they even backslide through such experiences.
But a man who knows God, a man
who knows the God of the Bible, a
sovereign God, a holy God, a God who's
working all things out according to his purposes,
a God who has given Satan some freedom
for a very special, unusual purpose that we'll
only fully understand when we get to heaven,
is a God who overrules.
My favorite subject next to the Bible is
history.
All year, I try to grab moments to
read history books, see historical films, go through
the encyclopedias, reading history.
And history, I believe, shows that God is
sovereign.
Look at the history of the Jews.
Oh my, incredible.
A man who loved Jesus Christ, once faced
the famous king.
I don't know the story exactly.
The man said, give proof, give reason why
you believe in the Bible.
And the man looked at this famous man
or king, whoever he was, and he said
one word, the Jew, the Jew.
Well, this passage in Isaiah speaks of the
holiness of God.
God is perfect.
Today, there's a lot of pantheism.
When you get out to India, you're going
to discover pantheism.
They say God is everywhere.
And the animals are holy and the trees
are holy.
This is not the holiness of the Bible.
God is intrinsically holy.
Doesn't just make things holy.
Holy water, holy this, holy that.
God is holy.
God is perfect in himself.
And though God is everywhere, God is not
in things.
God does not go in things, in trees
and in bushes and in rocks.
But he goes in people.
And the word of God says, be holy
as I am holy.
One of the verses that really upset me
as a young Christian.
And how we need to understand this gate
truth.
There are many areas where we need to
know the holiness of God.
The area of our tongue, in the area
of our eyes, in the area of our
hands.
Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts.
Isaiah said, the whole earth is full of
his glory.
And this year, you may want to make
a study on the glory of God.
The glory of God.
Look that word up in the concordance.
The glory of God.
It speaks much also in the book of
Ephesians about the glory of God.
Again and again it says, unto the praise
of his glory.
Just look at Ephesians for a few minutes.
Time is going.
We want to get into the prayer meeting.
Verse 12, chapter 1.
That we should be to the praise of
his glory, who first trusted in Christ.
Verse 14, who is the earnest of our
inheritance, unto the redemption of the purchased possession,
unto the praise of his glory.
And even over in many, many other places,
you will find this word, glory.
The glory of God.
And as we have our quiet time, we
spoke about our quiet times this morning.
As we have our quiet time, one of
our greatest burdens should be to know the
glory of God.
It was said of Adolf Hitler that people
would walk into a study and there you
would be prostrate, experiencing the glory of God.
Some decades ago, the fundamental church, the Bible
-believing people, swung the pendulum, afraid of extremism,
and for good reason to some degree, extreme,
afraid of fanaticism.
They swung the pendulum into a subtle form
of dead orthodox.
And everything was your theology, your Bible doctrine.
And they took the whole evangelical church into
the deep freeze.
And it's been very slow coming out.
And we'd say, well, there's no place for
feelings.
We've only got to sit in church, you
know, like a bunch of stiffs, going through
the same hymns and saying the same words
that have long since had any meaning to
most thinking people.
You know how we need to realize that
when a man experiences the glory of God,
it is going to touch his feelings.
Have you ever met a man who fell
in love and had no feelings?
Would you introduce me to him?
Have you ever met one?
Have you ever met a girl that fell
in love, she had no feelings?
Can you imagine meeting one at her wedding?
How do you feel?
Blah.
Why are you marrying him?
God told me to.
That wouldn't quite go, would it, for a
girlfriend?
But somehow with God, we're willing to go
year after year, cold, never experiencing his glory,
never knowing the inner sanctuary, never knowing the
overflowing heart and the joy of praise.
I'm not saying it has to be loud.
Three loud people are enough for any movement.
But it's real.
It's real.
The glory of God.
The holiness of God.
And I tell you, you can't tell me
that Isaiah didn't feel it.
I'm not saying trust feelings.
I'm not saying live day by day on
feelings.
But as you get to know God, it
will touch the very center, the very totality
of your personality, including feelings.
And so Isaiah fell before God, and he
said, woe is me, for I am undone,
because I am a man of unclean lips,
and I dwell in the midst of a
people of unclean lips, for mine eyes have
seen the King, the Lord of hosts.
And then there came the purging.
First, there is the fresh revelation of God.
Have you read any of these books by
Deverme Fromke?
Some of them are on the book table.
How many have read anything by Deverme Fromke?
I don't know what you read.
Peanuts, I guess.
This author has touched more on a God
-centered ministry than any man I've read.
I remember Dale Roton, way back in Maryville
College, when we first met.
Some people think this work was born at
Moody.
It was born before we went to Moody.
Dale didn't go to Moody, he went to
Wheaton.
We met at Maryville, and he went to
Wheaton, and I went to Moody.
But I remember Dale saying, hey, there's some
fellow come to town, and he's got a
real message of depth.
His name is Deverme Fromke.
Before he was ever known, he'd never written
a book.
We had Deverme Fromke speak at our conference
some years ago, and I want to tell
you, the Holy Spirit moved.
Never forget it.
Because Deverme Fromke was a man who, through
many trials, came to a deep knowledge of
God.
And the greatest thing that's going to lead
you to deep knowledge of God is trials.
Trials.
Suffering.
Jesus learned obedience by the things which he
suffered.
Praise God for trials.
Praise God for obnoxious, difficult team members, difficult
leaders, difficult vehicles.
Praise God.
We're trying to organize things to make things
as smooth as possible.
If you knew how much that went behind
the scenes, day and night, to try to
make the way for you to have a
good year.
But no matter what we do, God's going
to allow trials.
Trials.
Deverme Fromke wouldn't listen to this because this
is simple.
Deverme Fromke, in the early days, was with
the New Tribes Mission.
The New Tribes Mission had many things very
similar to OM, and many things very different.
Probably the main thing being, they never had
some of the books that we had that
made such a profound influence on this work.
And so they were very zealous.
And they just grabbed young people and sent
them right to the mission field as full
-time missionaries.
Very little training.
Not a training program like we had.
And they were really moving.
They were really moving.
And they said, boy, let's get an airplane.
Great!
Think of how many can move.
And they said, well, let's get a ship.
They got a ship.
The thing folded up.
Tremendous problems.
Then they got an airplane.
I don't know which came first.
They got an airplane.
They filled it with missionaries.
DeBert Frompkin was involved.
Let's go, you know.
Woo!
World evangelism.
That's a big thing.
Look at all these heathen.
Look at all these lost people.
Let's go.
Get in the plane.
They got in the plane.
They prayed.
The first plane crashed.
Forty missionaries dead.
Not one.
Not two.
Forty.
Can you imagine?
Can you imagine the thralls of pain that
that movement went through?
Can you imagine the director?
Can you imagine the people who have the
vision?
The people who prayed the big prayers?
They were determined and they moved on.
They didn't wait.
DeBert Frompkin's message was waiting on God.
And they got another plane.
This time the director was in it.
It crashed.
They were all killed.
Do you think missionary work is a game,
beloved?
Do you think it's child play?
Do you think it's a matter of an
odd prayer here and there?
A four-week conference and away we go?
No.
And this is why we have got to
make our goal God Himself.
This is why even though we're moving in
OM, we cannot go any further out than
we go down into the mind of God,
into the heart of God.
This is why we remain a training movement.
This is why this year one of the
most important things is your prayer life, your
study program, your time with God, your study
of the attributes of God.
Waiting on Him.
And DeBert Frompkin, in a way I can
never explain it, shared how through the suffering
the whole new tribe's mission went through a
tremendous purging and a great working of the
Spirit of God.
And today, in the miracle working power of
God, it is a great mission.
They emphasize training before going to the field
more than almost any mission in the world.
They have one of the most radical intensive
boot camps that you'd ever want to get
in.
Similar to our intensive training program on the
ship, a little bit tougher.
They got a great army of missionaries all
over the world.
A little more strict in doctrine than perhaps
many of you could take.
But a very good work.
DeBert Frompkin left, I don't know when he
left that work.
And through it, he's become one of the
most profound men I've ever met with.
We need depth, don't we?
Depth of character.
We need a deep knowledge of the holiness
of God.
And you can fool us.
You can jump in the train here and
go down in the Soho and buy yourself
some porn and come back.
You can fool us.
We have people do that.
You can't fool a holy God.
And every year we have men on OM
who pretend.
Every year we have girls on OM who
pretend.
You can't fool God.
He is holy, He hates sin, and He
will judge sin.
And I pray if there's any who have
sin that's not been dealt with severely by
the power of the Holy Spirit as it
was in the life of Isaiah, that tonight
you may let it be dealt with.
And allow the purging, and allow the breaking,
and the repentance, and then the sending.
Holiness of God, moral purity, ethical purity.
And every other aspect.
And then of course it was after this
purging and this cleansing, after this experience with
God in depth, that Isaiah was able to
say, Lord, here am I, send me.
I'm going to give an invitation tonight.
I usually do it only once in the
whole month.
My invitation is to come, even as Isaiah
did, for a fresh, deeper knowledge of God.
And to say with it, to come together,
Lord, here am I, send me.
I'm not talking anymore about the year program.
You're already in that.
I'm not talking about the two-year program.
I'm talking right now in these remaining few
minutes about making your life 100% for
God's service.
And saying tonight you are willing, you're more
than willing, you're going.
Unless God stops you, shows you something else,
you're willing to go as Isaiah, to go
as Hudson Taylor, to go as C.T.
Studd, to go as Judson, to go as
David Brainerd, to go as Henry Martin, to
go as William Carey, to go as Amy
Carmichael, to go as thousands of others before
us for a life of missionary service.
A life, a sent one.
Your time in OM will be training.
It'll be preparation.
But your commitment will be life.
Anywhere, whatever the cost.
Some of you know very well God has
been dealing with you about this for a
long time.
And tonight you need the opportunity to make
a public profession.
First, you want to know God at any
cost.
You want to know God.
You know it won't be easy.
You know your own problems, your own hang
-ups, your own emotion, but you want to
know God.
And second, you're willing to go.
You're willing to say, Lord, here am I.
Send me India, South America, with OM, outside
of OM.
That God will work out.
You're willing, more than ever before, to say,
here am I.
Send me.
Irrevocable commitment is one of the greatest needs
in the church today.
Too many of us are going on for
God and we've got little bridges.
And you know, we're going on and the
bridges are there, but we're all ready to
go back over the bridge.
Oh, oh, we've got boats.
You've all heard my story when Cortez went
into Mexico.
It's a true story from history.
When he got his men on Mexico shore,
they looked back at the boats and they
were all aflame.
They looked at him.
What have you done?
He said, men, in this army, there is
no turning back.
We are to conquer or we are to
die.
Are there any like that tonight for Jesus
Christ?
To conquer?
To evangelize the world?
Or to die?
Paul said, for me to live is Christ.
To die is gain.
Praise God for the few.
Keith, John, Nelly, a few others who are
from our ranks are in the grandstands.
They will take their place.
Nelly Kitchicoff sat in this meeting last year.
I think it was in the summer campaign
when I was speaking along similar lines and
challenged young people to go anywhere at any
cost.
She gave me a note at the end
of the meeting.
I carried it in my wallet.
I had it in my wallet the day
she died in that automobile accident.
And I looked at that little note in
my wallet again.
And she said, George, I have a Mongolian
background.
And tonight, I'm going to tell you I've
said to God I'm willing to go to
Mongolia for Jesus Christ.
What about you?
Could you write a note tonight and say,
George, for Jesus, I'm willing to go anywhere
for you.
Not a year, not two years.
My life.
The holiness of God, the sovereignty of God,
the creative power of God, the love of
God, the mercy of God, His omnipotence, His
omnipresence, all this is the foundation.
And on that foundation, we can go.
In that strength, nothing can stop us.
No matter how weak we may feel in
ourselves.
Hear Him out.
Send me.
Will you make that commitment?
Let us wait upon Him.
But it's His will.
Whatever the cost.
Wherever it be.
India, Muslim world, Europe, an office.
Wherever it be.
Send me for life.
Through Jesus Christ.
Amen.