The uniqueness of this manner of life.
Paul said in 1 Thessalonians chapter 1 verse
5, you know this manner of life.
O.M. has a lifestyle.
People say, why do you call it O
.M.? What do you want it to be
called?
If you don't take a name, they'll give
you one.
Dear saints years ago wanted to worship the
New Testament way.
They wanted to gather around the Lord's table.
They wanted to evangelize the world.
They kicked up so much dust, more people
hated them than almost any movement ever born
in history in the British Isles.
They soon were given the name Plymouth Brethren.
They didn't want that name.
They still don't like it.
They got it.
Different movements in history, they get different names.
We've chosen this name.
Somehow we believe the Lord gave it to
us just for the sake of organization and
it's called Operation Mobilization.
There's no membership in a sense.
People in O.M., they slide in one
week and slide out the next depending on
what country they're going to.
We have systems where people have to renounce
O.M. in order to go out into
a field.
We've been renounced and rejected by more of
our most faithful men than any movement perhaps
in time in history.
And it's not, they're not telling a lie
because there is no membership.
Some of you know when you came from
North America, you had to even sign a
relief form to prove that you are not
a member of the Send the Light Incorporated.
We are acting as an organizing body that
things may be done decently in order so
that you can get on with the job.
When we felt it more expedient to pull
O.M. International out of Spain, we did
it.
O.M., technically speaking, doesn't belong, doesn't exist
in Spain anymore.
But the O.M. lifestyle, the manner of
life that we believe in, that continues in
Spain in the lives of the people who
caught fire in the process of what the
Holy Spirit was doing.
We believe in the practical leadership of the
Holy Spirit.
We believe the Holy Spirit must continue as
the leader of this work.
He is a person.
The Holy Spirit in our day has been
relegated to mainly emotional meetings, sermons, or experiences.
But we are living in a day when
more than ever before we need the practical
leadership of the Holy Spirit in the nitty
-gritty, in the ordinary, in deciding what to
do.
Now this is not easy.
Some of you have read, I don't know
if that's one he brought down.
I think it is.
Can you believe it?
There it is.
I was rereading this just the other day
again.
The waning authority of Christ in the churches.
That is the most devastating prophecy against the
Church in our day that has been written
in a hundred years.
The waning authority of the Church of Jesus
Christ by A.W. Towson.
He points out how the Lord Jesus and
the Holy Spirit have been relegated to the
side room of main line functions and operations
as far as the Church is concerned.
What an article that is.
There's another one that we're distributing, a little
black leaflet about the absence of the Holy
Spirit in present-day missionary work.
Another powerful pamphlet published by the Oriental Mission
Society.
You know I am impressed with that group,
the Oriental Mission Society.
I don't think in O.M. we've had
enough representation from them.
They're there from the Wesley side of things.
Maybe that's why, because in Europe perhaps we
don't have so many live churches of that
tradition.
But I have been impressed with this Oriental
Mission Society.
I met their leader Wesley Duell.
He always writes to me.
He returns letters to me quicker than most
of my leaders.
They have seen tens of thousands come to
Christ last year.
Tens of thousands.
And they have written this pamphlet, The Displaced
Person in Missions.
The Holy Spirit.
Today the Holy Spirit is no longer leading
O.M. We're finished.
And what frightens me more is that I'm
afraid that if the Holy Spirit disappears in
some teams, no changes will be made.
Think about that.
So we have this little name.
In Bangladesh O.M. got kicked out, so
we started Young Christian Workers.
More, I guess, more like our original name.
The first name I ever had when I
was working on the high school, trying to
bring revival in the high school, was, I
only realized this a couple of years ago
again, when I saw it on the side
of the first O.M. truck.
I thought, I saw this old photo.
I thought, what is this on the side
of this truck?
CYC.
Can you believe it?
The first name we ever took on in
the high school and the first trip to
Mexico was Christian Youth Committee.
The Christian Youth Committee.
Then it became Send the Light and then
it became Operation Mobilization.
So we don't want to worry about a
name, but God has given us a manner
of life.
He's given us certain principles.
Some of these principles are very basic.
Some of them are a little more unique,
a little more unusual.
Now, to keep myself from going totally astray
in this message, I even wrote some notes
down.
In fact, I've written down seven points.
Some of you like points for your notebook.
How many have a notebook?
You all have a notebook.
Look at this boy, Nigel.
I think you've done a great job here.
They all have notebooks.
That's no substitute for a brain.
And so we don't want you to just
write things into the notebook, but we want
you to think these things through.
We want you to think these things through.
Now, some of you are a little skeptical
about OM.
That's great.
Some of you are skeptical about me.
If anybody can listen to me once and
not become skeptical, something's wrong.
Either that or the Holy Spirit must be
working so hard in his life, he's missed
me.
That's good, isn't it?
But I don't mind when people are skeptical.
Let me read you my favorite quote from
Tozer about being a little skeptical.
Here's what he said.
I wish someone would turn the lights on
up here.
In our constant struggle to believe, we are
likely to overlook the simple fact that a
bit of healthy disbelief is sometimes as needful
as faith to the welfare of our soul.
Isn't that good?
I go further and say that we would
do well to cultivate a reverent skepticism.
It will keep us out of a thousand
bogs and quagmires where others who lack it
sometimes find themselves.
Now, those who don't know English, this bogs
and quagmires, this may bother you, but if
you go out in the swamp, you know
what a swamp is?
It's an area of the woods where it's
all water.
If you try to walk, you go down.
And you step on what looks like solid
ground, you go down.
You know, that's what Tozer's talking about.
So you'll know that from now on.
You know, when I first went to Spain,
you know, I got paid for teaching English.
That's right.
What are you laughing about?
You see?
You see, this is a beautiful proof of
the humiliation I go through in the work.
I tell you, if you want to develop
an inferiority complex, you get a crowd of
Cambridge guys on your team.
They'll go out of your mind.
Anyway, Tozer didn't worry about it, and I'm
not going to either.
He says, it is no sin to doubt
some things, but it may be fatal to
believe everything.
That helps me a lot.
So I'm not worried if some of you
are a little skeptical, but just keep listening.
What are some of these areas where this
manner of life is unique?
It's unique to certain people, whatever they call
themselves—disciples, followers of the Lord.
Number one is a revolutionary attitude toward the
world.
Now, when you're in OM for a while,
you don't think this is unique.
You get spoiled.
Some of you have been on the ship
all year, nights of prayer every week, prayer
cards flowing around like cornflakes in Chicago, and,
you know, pretty soon you get the idea,
well, boy, everybody's got a world vision, and
you almost can overreact from it.
Why don't you talk about something else?
You don't have to talk about the Muslim
world every day.
Let's talk about the browning effect of the
potato chip or something else.
I remember McDonald telling us about that in
one of these conferences years ago.
Someone got a PhD writing on the browning
effect of the crisp.
I said potato chip, and the English were
confused.
But I believe that we can be deceived.
This is a unique thing to OM and
to a few other groups and a few
other missionaries, perhaps a few thousand.
That's not many, is it?
A revolutionary attitude toward the world and practices
based on that attitude.
You'll never understand OM and some of the
things we do if you don't understand that
when we believe that people are lost.
People are lost.
That is the most radical, difficult teaching in
the whole Bible.
There is hell.
Men are lost.
We may not like it.
I told God the other day again, God,
I don't want to believe this doctor.
I don't like this doctor.
I had a big argument with God out
in the field, and I lost, and he
won.
Because I believe his word is true, and
I don't want to base my life on
somebody's philosophical ideas, whether it's the Jehovah Witnesses
who have quickly liquidated hell, or the Roman
Catholics who take us to purgatory first, or
anybody else.
You are part of a movement, if you
come with us, that believes in hell.
We're not interested in giving you the temperatures,
but we believe it is out of darkness.
We believe that men are lost.
We don't pretend to understand it, but it's
in God's Word.
If we're going to take John 3, 16,
then we've got to take Romans chapter 1
and chapter 2.
If we're going to take what Jesus says
about love, we've got to take what Jesus
said about hell, and he talked about it
more than anybody else in the Bible.
This will give us a revolutionary attitude toward
all people.
We will want to reach them for Christ.
This will become a passion.
Now, I know some people can come along
in a very sophisticated way, with lots of
verses and deeper messages, and explain how it's
not really a proper motivation to get all
excited about the loss.
Our motivation should be the love of God.
What kind of irrational, schizophrenic gymnastics do you
have to play to believe that?
That I can't allow myself to be motivated
by the fact that all these people are
going out into hell.
This is why many, many non-Christians have
been extremely stumbled by false concepts of Calvinism,
and false ideas about predestination, and false ideas
about a lot of this kind of thing.
You know, if God is going to save
the heathen in his good time, he will
save them, and why should you worry about
it?
William Carey was told something like this when
he went out to pioneer modern missions, and
we do.
We turn God into a monster.
I believe the love of God should be
a major motivation.
The love of Christ constrains me.
No one is arguing against that.
Never, never, never.
But I believe in the Christian life there
are many motivating factors, and I don't believe
that's unspiritual.
My wife motivates me.
When I see her love for Christ and
her love for me, that, that, that turns
me on.
That motivates me.
Is that wrong?
Am I being superficial?
I shouldn't allow that to motivate me.
I should only be motivated by the love
of God.
And I think we try to put God
into a corner where he doesn't want to
be.
He wants to work through your wife if
you have one.
He may want to work through a brother
on your team.
He may want to work through a book.
He may want to work through—we know he
works through his word.
And I think God uses, God uses this,
this, this attitude toward the world.
We are to go into all the world
and preach the gospel to every creature, and
Jesus looked over the multitudes and he wept.
Jesus looked over Jerusalem and he wept.
When's the last time you looked over any
city and wept?
Climb up that hill.
I had a day of prayer in a
mountain next to Belfast, and I went up
to that hill, and I don't remember if
I wept, but I cried unto God for
many hours.
I hope if you can do that near
your home city, you'll go up to the
nearest hill, climb a tree or something, and
just look over that city, all the great
cities of the world.
Have you got that leaflet?
It's usually free on most OM tables.
The Millionaire Cities, a leaflet of all the
cities that have more than a million people.
If you can't find it around, write me
and I'll send it to you.
The Millionaire Cities.
A man wrote me a letter thanking me
because he got most of the information, a
lot of it from OMers around the world.
The Millionaire Cities.
We believe that men are lost.
We want to live in the light of
this.
This will affect every area of our life,
what we do with our time, what we
do with our money, our relationship toward clothing,
our relationship toward good things.
Many times the good is the enemy of
the best.
Let's move on.
Secondly, a revolutionary attitude toward people and God's
people.
This has many practical outworkings.
One is that we believe that all people
should be given the gospel.
We don't believe we should just preach to
those who understand English, or just preach to
the affluent because they can support the work
as we go along, or just preach to
those in a good climate.
Everybody, the tough countries, the non-responsive countries,
such a heavy emphasis now on church growth.
Everybody wants to go where people are responding.
This limits us to a very small sector
of the world, maybe 30%.
We're not against that, praise the Lord, but
we've got to go where they're not responding.
This is important.
This is worth shouting about.
Someone once said to me, as we were
going to have a pastor's conference, some brother
trying to be humble, which is good.
I mean, we want everybody to make efforts
in that direction.
He said, well, what do we have to
say to all these pastors?
You know, sometimes because we don't want to
appear to be, you know, superior, and that's
important.
We can make the mistake of going the
opposite way.
We don't have anything to say.
You know, the prophets didn't have this attitude.
They'd roll into town, you know, sort of
hiding in their coat.
Well, you know, pastors, we, you know, all
such a great group.
You're doing such a terrific job here.
We, we, we prophets don't really have much
to say.
We just came to, to fellowship.
Well, we're just going to learn from, from
you men.
These men put up their soapbox and started
screaming and crying, cutting their hair off, every
possible thing just to try to wake up
God's people.
We need prophets today.
If RM is not a prophetic movement, I
want to get out of it.
I'd rather preach than belong to some degenerate,
semi-half-cocked, evangelistic machine, turning out spiritual
midgets by the thousand.
And we've had 21,000 people through this
program.
If we lose our prophetic voice, if we
lose our message, if we become introverted and
afraid to speak out because we may offend
someone, we're finished.
We're finished.
We might as well go back and sell
the linings to the inside of pockets.
That doesn't mean everybody in OM goes around
shouting.
God has given us several ways to get
the message out.
One of them is literature.
And I'll tell you, the way that a
lot of people on OM go about distributing
literature makes me wonder if they think there's
poison on the inside cover.
Somebody goes out to take a book.
They're going to have a meeting.
Boy, they really believe in God.
We can pray, you know, like God had
just come down and built a big tower
in the midst.
But when we actually go out, we prove
that we don't believe God's going to answer
prayer.
Move among his people, Lord.
Stir them.
We have this terrific prayer meeting.
Then we go to the meeting.
Well, how many books are we going to
take?
Well, maybe we can borrow Sally's purse.
Let's pack all the books in Sally's purse.
I'm talking about leaders, not new recruits.
Go out to a meeting, and they got
a little tiny book bag, five copies of
true discipleship.
They don't even have application forms.
We're going to go out to believe God
for recruits.
We don't have any application forms.
You see, the need and one of the
greatest burdens of OM is to couple the
spiritual with the practical.
Oh, we pray something.
Now we're going to live in the light
of it.
We had one meeting on this little Canadian
trip.
We were out in the middle of nowhere.
I tell you, you just can't believe Canada.
You just can't believe Canada.
I've never seen so much nothing anywhere in
the world.
And in between the nothings are some of
the greatest people in God's green acres.
And I think that nature and being out
in the woods produces great people.
There's no school, I've been told, by an
outstanding man of God, no school in the
world has a higher record for getting men
to the mission field and keeping them there
as than Prairie Bible Institute.
Somebody told me.
I tell you, if there's a man who's
a disciple today, it's that Mr. Maxwell.
You can be sure he's not living in
some mansion.
There's a man who has lived.
He is such a rebuke to some of
our evangelical fish, high-flying, $30,000 a
year man, that they won't go near Prairie
more than you'd go near a dragon with
six mouths.
Praise God for this old man.
He's got a message of the cross and
he's got practical life to go with it.
Doesn't mean he's perfect or his school is
perfect.
You don't fill a school with a thousand
students and have it perfect.
But here we were in this little meeting
out nowhere.
A man said to me, no one's gonna
come.
They're all out combining.
Of course, I didn't know what they're talking
about combining.
I didn't know they were putting tracks in
gospel packets or what.
But actually I did.
They were, you know, they're gathering in whatever
they grow in those fields.
But anyway, a few people came.
Fifty people came.
One man stood at the door as we
set up the book display.
You know, he thought we'd gone crazy.
We brought in 25 boxes of books.
We set up seven tables.
Fifty people.
The church wasn't big enough to keep five
large American cars in it.
You know how many books we sold that
night as God came down among those people
and hunger came in the heart?
Many of those people weren't thinking of even
buying a book.
We sold $500 of books to 50 people.
That's because God answered prayer.
Book selling is a spiritual work.
God, those people buy books on discipleship and
worship.
Books they never dreamed of reading because the
Spirit of God, in answer to prayer, works.
Now, of course, there are meetings where the
Spirit of God works and people don't buy
books.
Be foolish to think every time the Spirit
works, people buy books.
I remember Chanda Pillay put a balance of
that on the Inner Varsity Convention.
He says that that becomes almost an American
thing.
You know, we get a blessing, we run
around the book table, buy a book.
That can become a neurosis.
That can become a neurosis in a way.
You get a blessing in some meeting, you
don't go to the book table, you go
to the prayer closet.
That's more important.
But I believe that if we had this
revolutionary view toward people and the world, that
we would really start moving literature.
Of course, you know what everybody's afraid of
in O.M.? This is a big neurosis
in O.M. because we're so mature, we've
read so much of Tozer, and we want
to be balanced.
The big fear is to be accused of
being a George Burwell.
This is the last thing.
Think of poor John Spears.
You know, they accused you up in Scotland.
That's just, that's like sticking a dragon into
your stomach, accused him of being George Burwell,
probably just because you're loud.
Or, I don't know, we certainly don't speak
the same language.
You know, let's stop worrying about being accused
of being like someone.
I don't believe that's the problem of most
of you.
One or two of you may have the
problem, just because you believe in Christian literature.
Wesley believed in literature more than I do.
Did someone walk up to you and say,
are you trying to be like John Wesley?
That's not our problem, that we're all gonna
be like John Wesley.
You think that's the great problem in the
20th century?
And as you get involved in books, you
won't do it the same way I'll do
it.
You won't do it as you learn.
You'll learn better methods.
But all that we cannot lose our prophetic
voice in this work.
What do I mean by that?
I don't mean, as some people think, that
God has given us a prophecy for this
age, and we got it in Revelation.
No.
God has given us a message from his
Word, an emphasis from his Word, and our
burden is just, thus saith the Lord.
This is his Word.
He didn't get any new message.
This is his Word.
We must obey or we're gonna get in
trouble.
And to be able to distribute books by
men like Tozer, by men like Ravenhill—boy, people
don't like his books.
I was reading just this week Tozer's introduction
to Ravenhill's book, Why Revival Tarries.
How many have read Why Revival Tarries?
I can't believe it.
Why Revival Tarries.
How many have read Why Revival Tarries?
A few more hands went up.
Have you read the introduction by A.
W.
Tozer?
He's explaining how, you know, people either hate
Leonard Ravenhill or they love it, because he's
a prophet.
Now, one of the reasons is also because
he's a prophet, sometimes he makes mistakes.
He's a human being.
I think everybody, including Ravenhill, would admit sometimes
he has some pretty wild things that have
nothing to do particularly with his message.
But in every prophet, there's the human element.
Some of you wouldn't have gone on very
well with Amos.
How would you like to have Amos as
your team leader?
Or maybe Jeremiah, he would keep that turkey
crowd going.
Some of you don't know enough about these
people to even laugh.
I hope you will read these books in
the Old Testament.
A revolutionary attitude toward people, toward the world,
toward the people of God.
We believe that there needs to be a
divine equalization, especially in God's work.
This comes about by sharing.
What a thrill it is to have foreigners
working in India, living on the same support
level as the Indians.
I tell some people this, and they just
believe it.
Again, they think we're telling stories.
It doesn't mean exactly the same, because there
must be liberty, there must be freedom.
But that means that in some cases the
Indians are living, and we have a number
of cases of this, on a higher level
than the OM so-called missionary.
Isn't that great?
They've got freedom.
Others can, I cannot.
These things may sound small to some of
you, but do you know what a stumbling
block it has been on the mission field
for missionaries to be living up on this
level, and the national evangelist and teacher living
in some little hut down the road?
Do you know how much agony and confusion
this has brought?
Now, of course, many of the nationals have
been incredibly patient with the missionaries, and they
haven't minded if missionaries need a few things
that perhaps they don't need.
They know they're from another culture.
They don't expect them to fake it and
just pretend that they're, you know, completely of
that culture.
But the thing has got to be kept
within some realm of reason, and we're battling
toward that in OM.
We know we failed.
We know we failed, but we're moving in
that direction, and we hope you will as
well.
This has to touch every area of our
life, and one of the key words I've
used in this outline is attitude.
Attitude is the foundation for practice, and we've
got to have a revolutionary attitude toward people,
toward God's people, and above all that means
loving God's people.
You see, the tendency today is to break
away from the church.
A lot of the youth movements are breaking
away from the church.
They're doing their own thing.
They're starting their own house fellowship.
Now, some of these are born of God.
We need new churches in some areas.
In OM, we're trying to keep our arm
around the historic church.
They're God's people.
They believe His Word.
They love Him.
We're trying to keep one arm around the
historic church.
We're trying to keep one arm around some
of these new wildcat operations, at least if
they're semi-sane.
Some of them aren't even semi-sane, and
then we, that's when we say, excuse me,
we let them go.
Now, this is not an easy road to
walk on.
Some of you are from some of these
newer groups, newer fellowships, where there's more freedom.
All right, we hope that you still have
that freedom ten years from now.
But you'll discover, if you're not careful, what's
a new fellowship now, ten years from now.
You'll be more traditional than Westminster Abbey.
Tradition can come in anywhere.
It can come in OM.
That's why we try to make major changes
every year.
Some of them I don't even agree with.
I go along with them because I think
it's good to change certain things.
I believe tradition can be one of the
greatest enemies.
I hope OM keeps changing and keeps growing,
not in doctrine, not in basic goals, but
in the way we carry on some of
the conferences and in other areas.
It's a difficult area.
We need balance.
I don't have all the answers.
Very quickly, the third point.
We need a revolutionary attitude toward our possessions
and money.
This is the one thing that really disturbs
people about OM.
And this is where we're accused of being
extreme.
Now, other people have the same principle in
practice, but in OM you've got a whole
body of people who are practicing some revolutionary
principles in this area, and it disturbs people,
especially when they live this way on the
home front.
They like to relegate the missionaries.
You know, well, we know missionaries are to
be super committed.
Missionaries are to forsake all.
There's not a verse in the Bible that
says that.
Missionaries are to forsake all.
Jesus turned to a crowd of people and
gave that message.
Except you forsake all, you can't be my
disciple.
Renounce all.
Tozer points out in his writings how we
cannot, as believers, have any possessions.
That doesn't mean we don't have anything to
use in God's work, but we become stewards.
We are no longer possessors.
We are stewards.
You say, that's a game of words.
No, it isn't.
It's a revolution in your attitude, in your
mind, or attitude toward things.
Someone who has nothing can be more selfish,
more materialistic than rich people that I've been
with.
I've been with rich people that I'm convinced
they're ready to let go as soon as
they hear the trumpet.
I know there's other rich people that they've
heard the trumpet 16 times and turned it
around and threw it in the garbage can,
the dustbin.
That's why we have to be careful of
judging people.
We don't know where they are spiritually.
We don't know what other problems they're going
through.
A man may want to forsake all in
a greater sense, but his wife isn't even
converted, or his wife may be away from
the Lord, and if he tried it, she'd
divorce him.
Tell you, life can get very complicated.
But I believe that O.M. must not
move away from this revolutionary attitude toward possessions.
I believe, as I've said for 20 years,
that we should live on the barest of
senses.
We should not waste money.
We should pray very much about all expenditure.
We should not only redeem the time, but
we should redeem the pound and the dollar
and the Deutschmark.
We should just want to live as closely
to the life of Jesus in the simplicity
of that life as possible, while at the
same time maintaining sanity and balance.
This will mean different things for different people.
So many scriptures, most of these these particular
points you've all heard messages on, but we
need this in the way of reminder.
And when we get this revolutionary attitude toward
the world and toward people, we're gonna let
go.
We're just gonna, we're just gonna want to
let go of those inheritances.
Some of you aren't gonna know how materialistic
you are until you inherit some big fat
sum of money.
Boy, you're gonna drop your discipleship message so
quick, you'll wonder if you ever knew who
O.M. was.
People have nothing.
They've never been tested.
Never been tested.
It's when you've perhaps gone struggling for years
and then suddenly you inherit $20,000.
What do you do with it?
You know what most people do with it?
They put it in the bank.
Put it in the bank and they watch
it devalue.
And they watch the number of tracts it
produces cut in half every year.
It cost us three times as much to
print tracts now as it did 15 years
ago.
Three times as much money, huh?
To reach a million people for Jesus Christ.
And one of the, and O.M. is
dropping every year on the number of people
that we're reaching in terms of the masses
with literature.
That is a big concern to me.
It's not dropping much.
But if it wasn't for India, I don't
know where we'd be.
And one of the problems, we don't have
the money.
And people don't have a vision for this.
It's easier for people to get a vision
to buy that shit than to put another
million pieces of literature.
And my burden, first burden, is those millions
of pieces of literature.
But the other problem is that sometimes we
get literature out to O.M. Fields who
sits there for two years.
No one has a burden to give it
up.
A lot of people in O.M. think
this is someone else's job.
This is the job of the group in
charge of tract distribution.
Do you know there's not one team in
O.M., not one team worldwide that's given
over to tract distribution?
Did you know that?
You're learning something about O.M. And I
just believe that this is part of the
unique calling of this movement, that we believe
in reaching every creature.
And to do it, we're willing to sell
our possessions.
We're willing to cash in our bonds and
get rid of the silly insurance policies.
We're willing to just give everything.
Not because those things are wrong.
And if other people don't believe that, we
respect them.
We love them.
But we believe that it's greater to give
this to produce the next million tracts to
get another million Bibles, another million new testaments.
We find a terrific joy.
We're infatuated with giving things to get the
job done for God.
We're gonna be tested in this area.
I can tell you some of our leaders
are going through tests in this area.
We will have men leave this movement in
the next five years in this area, because
they get to feel insecure.
When you get around 40, you begin to
shake.
You discover you've been in O.M. 15
years.
You've got nothing, man!
Old George Berwyn, he's duped you for 15
years.
He's got you to sell your possessions, and
he's tricked you into reaching Muslims, and to
pouring your life into lost souls, and planting
churches.
And here you are, you're coming to 40
years of age, and you don't own a
house, and you don't have an insurance policy.
And man, if one of your children gets
sick, who's gonna take care of them?
Have you ever heard of a man, a
person called God?
Oh yeah, God!
You mean God fits into this practical thing?
God is gonna take care of me?
We know so little of living by faith.
I am so upset with the present trend
in missionary work, that I just, I just
almost exasperated to think about it.
And we're increasing the support, and it's only
in North America.
North America is totally out of line with
the rest of the world.
The missionary support is moving 15, 20, 30
thousand a year, for some missionaries.
Everything's set.
Retirement fund, old age pensions, homes purchased before
they ever get back there.
Missionaries are living better off today, some of
them, than, than most of the rest of
the people in the world in secular employment.
Now that's got to be kept in balance,
because there are missionaries who are fed up
with this, and who don't believe in it,
and who are refusing it.
But I just cannot agree as much as
I want to be loving, and I want
to compromise, and I want to, I just
cannot agree with this, that everything must be
set.
I can't believe it.
It'll never function in the other countries.
It won't work in the rest of the
world.
So why should it be in the affluent
society?
And they're gonna give you this line in
Germany, and they're gonna give you this line
in, in, in Switzerland.
And people are so worried about insurance.
We have no rule in OM that you
cannot have insurance.
If you believe, from God, that insurance is
the same thing, and I know there's a
whole theology of insurance.
The insurance company sellers, the salesmen, they've got
this memorized, they've got their Bible verses.
You, you, you know, you've all heard it.
If you don't care for your own, you're
worse than an infidel.
That's their favorite text.
You know, there are a few hundred other
verses that you may want to read in
the Bible.
But if you really believe that's your theology,
if you really believe that's the way to
live, then I will just praise the Lord.
You won't have any trouble fellowshipping with me.
We are gonna teach that we are to
live as much as possible like the Lord,
Jesus Christ, and the disciples, and the early
church.
And the early church was a caring community.
And I personally believe that people in the
OM family have a greater insurance policy than
any of these other people.
Do you know some of the biggest insurance
companies can go bust just like that?
Do you know anything about economics?
Do you know anything about the Rockefellers?
Do you know anything about the World Bank?
Do you know anything about how insurance companies
function, where they get their money from, and
all the rest?
Isn't it amazing?
People invest in an insurance company with five
minutes of study.
But boy, I tell you, if they come
to join a movement like OM, they got
to go through 11 tapes, 15 books, two
summer conventions, and then only after getting the
next 25 questions answered, they'll sign up for
one year to see if it works.
They'll buy a $25,000 insurance policy quicker
than you can cut a pie.
It's interesting.
I just believe God wants us to be
bankrupt on Him.
If God can't take care of me, then
I'd rather not be on planet Earth.
Maybe Mars has got a better program.
I haven't heard of that.
Admittedly, if God doesn't give a man faith
for this, praise the Lord.
I believe there are different degrees of faith.
I don't expect some new convert to just
automatically move into this line of thinking.
I believe we need to be patient with
God's people.
I don't go around to the churches preaching
like this.
This is a leadership conference.
I wouldn't even be sending this to the
new recruits.
But I believe if some of you are
praying about leadership in OM, if some of
you are praying about the Muslim world, then
there's got to be a price that's paid.
And what I just talked about, now that's
the least, the bigger price is when some
of us are going to be up on
a stake, being burned for the sake of
Jesus Christ.
How will your insurance company help you at
that time?
Some people think, OM doesn't think about this.
To the contrary, I believe we have thought
through more of these things than many people
will ever know.
In fact, I've already thought, probably this second
ship, or Logos, 15, 20, 30 years from
now, will make an ideal prayer center.
You know, when some of these people in
OM, the few that stick around with us,
and there won't be many, that stick around
in 50 or 60 years, and that'll be
OM's retirement prayer center.
There we'll have old McCrossie, he'll be on
a cane, he'll have the big beard, and
they'll be, I'm talking about really old, you
know, they'll be 105, 110 years old.
And their ministry will just be prayer.
There'll be others bedridden, they'll just be bedridden.
Praise the Lord if He makes you bedridden
for Jesus.
You know what Fanny Crosby said?
If she could thank Jesus for any one
thing after she was born, she would thank
Him for being born blind.
That was the greatest blessing in Fanny Crosby's
life.
You read her story, that'll whet your appetite
to know God more.
She wrote a few hymns, some of you've
seen.
And we could have, just think, if we
had 20 or 30 bedridden ex-OMers or
ex-OMers, those have been labored 50 years
in the Muslim world, planted the first churches,
no insurance policy.
What a joy to take care of them.
Would you let them go?
Would you say, man, you old jerk, working
in Christian work for 40 years, no insurance,
nobody to take care of you.
Get out of here, we don't want you.
Can you imagine how that would ring clear
of the testimony of the movement built on
love?
We're just working for the day.
We're taking care of Captain Paget as if
he was the king of Sheba.
We've moved him into the king's cabin on
the ship.
Every ship in the world, when a captain
gets sick with a serious illness as Paget
has, you know, there he goes, he's gone,
never as heard of in the world.
Hardly a captain being kept on the ship
after he can't be captain anymore.
He already retired, that was years ago.
Now he's ready to go to heaven.
He's there on Long Island, that's his retirement
center.
We're happy for him to go off.
He doesn't want to go off.
He doesn't need any insurance policy.
What a joy it would be to provide
a coffin for old Captain Paget.
How long do you think it would take
us to raise that money?
That's a joy, it's a privilege to take
care of God's people.
I'm not gonna let these insurance companies rob
the blessings.
They can't collect the reward anyway, most of
them are lost.
I want that blessing to take care of
my brothers and sisters, and if they suffer,
then I suffer with them.
If they're without food, then I'll stop eating.
And not just people, I don't believe that
should be just true in a fellowship like
OM, I believe it should be true all
over the world.
If the world goes into a crisis, and
we find anybody, especially a missionary, who's destitute
or who's needy, we'll move them in, we'll
move them in.
Now there's already so many people doing that,
there's no need for OM to do it
right now.
I mean there's so many people in America
getting, taking care of the older missionaries.
And some of those works, by the way,
are really tremendous.
I have a tremendous burden and love for
the older people.
And some of these retirement places, these very
humble, sensible retirement places that have been built,
and missionaries have been given them basically free,
I think that's acceptable.
But they didn't need any insurance policy to
do that.
God's people got together.
When the need occurred, God supplied.
It's as simple as that.
But to put all this money invested in
the future, invest in this company, in that
company, you know, 20 years in advance.
This I do not believe.
Perhaps that remains one of the hardest parts
of OM for some people to accept.
It seems so unique in the age we
live in, but there are more and more
people agreeing with this.
Have you read that new book?
InterVarsity published it.
Rich Christians in a Hungry World.
Don't read it.
Don't give it away too much.
You'll get in trouble.
Rich Christians in a Hungry World, published by
InterVarsity, and what OM has been saying for
20 years, many Christian leaders are now saying.
And there are plenty of other missionaries in
many other societies who believe the same way
I am talking to you right now.
We're not some little special crowd, a plenty,
thousands, but in the light of the total
number, it still is rather unique.
Quickly, the fourth thing, a revolutionary attitude in
regard to prayer and worship.
Not talking about it, not preaching about it.
So many people can preach and teach and
talk about all these things better than we
can, but practice, practice.
I believe the night of prayer in OM
is a absolute mark upon this movement of
its uniqueness.
Now that can become a fetish, we know
that.
It can become a fetish, it can become
a tradition, and we will attack that, we
will attack that.
But I believe that this emphasis on prayer,
even the battle we've had over the years
to keep one or two hours of prayer
in each one, in these conferences, hard as
that is on the flesh, isn't it?
Sometimes it seems to be the last thing
you want to do.
But that's what the Christian life is about.
That's what Lloyd-Jones talks about in this
book.
Constantly doing things you don't necessarily want to
do, but you know it's God's way, and
you know it's God's will.
And there's a joy in doing it.
There's a joy in doing it.
A joy of coming out of a night
of prayer knowing we have moved, we have
moved the arm of God that moves man
and that moves the world.
I hope you'll read that book, Destined for
Greatness.
Perhaps that is the best book this year,
Destined for the Throne.
You will be destined for greatness as well.
That is a very, very in-depth book.
Destined for the Throne, all about prayer, about
worship, about why God has created us.
This is an absolute major and must continue
to be the major emphasis of all we
have.
Worship before evangelism.
Talking to God before we talk to men
about God.
Now we know we're failures.
We know our hearts, don't we?
That's why we keep preaching it.
That's why we exhort one another.
That's why I even ask my leaders face
-to-face.
They love it.
These guys, great bunch.
Boy, I tell you.
How's your prayer life?
Oh, I knew he was going to ask
that.
They can ask me.
What time you get up in the morning?
You know I'm worried about that.
How's your exercise program?
How's your Bible study?
Why are we afraid?
People ask this question.
We want to be exhorted and encouraged.
We need more sharing and fellowship.
I think that's important.
There'll be no area as big as this.
Nothing will stop that ship colder than prayerlessness.
The fifth point, for lack of time, our
revolutionary attitude about motives.
Some of you have read Pseudo-Discipleship.
You've heard our messages.
I believe this is so important.
God is concerned about motives.
Motives.
Why are we doing this?
Why is George Burwer working 16 hours a
day?
Oh, I tell you.
You can work long hours with lousy motives.
We believe God wants to search our hearts.
We want to be open.
Nothing like standing in front of a group
of people and confessing that you've been motivated
falsely.
You did that for the praise of men.
Have you ever confessed that to somebody?
Brother, you know what I just did?
You thought that was spirituality.
I was motivated for the praise of men.
Have you ever confessed that?
I am a man from a Pentecostal line
of thinking.
He had a great gift, seemingly, of healing.
I don't know if he did or not,
but I know many people had been helped
through this man for years.
He came to an OM conference.
He's a very top man in Britain today.
Very top.
It was not OM years ago.
No one knows it.
And he said to me, I've never prayed
for the sick in all these years with
the right motive.
Never did it once.
Always false motivation came in.
Boy, it can.
I prayed for the sick.
I believe in praying for the sick.
You know that?
We anoint people with oil.
We read that in the book of James.
You ever read that in your Bible?
If they ask, we're in a church out
in India where they believe in it.
Suddenly a man wants to be anointed with
oil, we quietly have prayer.
If an OM doesn't believe in it, he
doesn't have to do it.
But I mention that because some people think,
oh, I'm anti-healing.
How in the world can you be a
New Testament Christian and be anti-healing?
Have you ever read the light story of
Jesus?
And have you ever tried the book of
Acts?
Of course Jesus Christ can heal.
And Moody Bible Institute, we're as conservative as
any Bible school in America.
We're the fundees of America.
We don't even really cooperate with Billy Graham.
That's what I was told when I was
a student.
And they publish books showing the significance and
the importance of healing on the mission field.
They have another book about miracles.
They have another book about demons.
I think it's called Demon something in many
ways, something similar to that.
Moody Press.
Conservative.
Not a charismatic book in the bookshop.
But don't think, you know, if you believe
in healing, well then you're just, you know,
you're one side of the theological screen.
Many, many great men have gone right across
the theological screen.
Brethren, Anglicans, have believed in healing.
They've believed in different ways of going about
it.
Many have been very anti-circus tactics.
I am rather conservative about the circus approach
to healing.
But to pray for the sick, to me,
is just unloving.
You know, you may get a vision for
healing if your own wife is dying in
front of you.
You may, your theology may change right on
the spot.
Man, you'll get oil, you'll, you'll use mobile
oil if you can't find olive oil.
I believe that we, in all these areas,
want to be willing for anything, not to
be bound by traditions, not to be bound
by the praise of men, not to be
bound by what my denomination thinks.
Our denominational leaders believe that this is not
happening in the new, in our day.
This is finished.
You know what was just said on television
in America?
You wouldn't believe it.
One of the top Christian groups, one of
their, one of their glad flies was on
television.
He was preaching.
He was probably a little anti-Pentecostal.
I don't know what his, his acts, what
he went, what his grievance was.
He said over the network, we don't need
the supernatural power and supernatural gifts of the
Holy Spirit anymore.
We have now got technology.
That went over television.
My friend who heard it just about did
a somersault.
He telegrammed the head of that organization so
quick.
And they said, they're investigating to see if
that was ever said.
I don't believe my friend's a liar.
And I know the way some people are
drifting.
We don't need the supernatural power of the
Holy Spirit.
We have technology.
We are opposed to the church selling out
to Madison Avenue, Hollywood, Wall Street, or anybody
else.
I know from some other countries you won't
know those places.
They are the great symbols of money and
business and advertising.
Whenever anyone says Madison Avenue, they are talking
about advertising, big advertising, how to sell your
program.
We now have many groups in America that
will take your Christian organization and for so
many thousands of dollars they will put it
on the map for God.
They will sell it to God's people.
I've had them offer their services to O
.M. They're going to sell O.M. to
the people of God.
You wouldn't believe some of the things that
are happening right now in this area.
You wouldn't believe.
God is concerned about our motive.
Why?
Why are we praying for someone to be
healed?
I found myself praying for someone to be
healed once.
That people would realize, well, you know, the
Lord can use me.
The Lord can use me.
You know, please, please Lord heal this fellow.
Why?
Do you love him?
Do you want to see him really walking
around again?
Well, no, that wasn't really my motive.
I want to prove these people that the
Lord is using me.
I tell you, as an evangelist, we can
get our world's greatest ego trip.
God's using us.
When God begins to use you, you're one
step from the pit.
You know that.
Because you will soon think, God's using me.
Be careful.
Because tomorrow, the God who is using you
can lay you aside.
He can lay you aside.
He can close down your ministry so quick.
You will know what happened.
And it's happened.
We have to learn to check our motives.
Why am I giving an invitation?
I'm calling people to the altar, maybe to
accept Christ as their Savior.
Why am I doing that?
Do I really love these people?
Do I want them to be converted?
I have to repent while I'm preaching sometimes.
The devil attacks with a false motive.
I repent while I'm preaching.
I don't believe you can live the Christian
life without repentance.
Repentance.
Why are we afraid to repent?
Some people limit it.
If God said we could be forgiven seven
times seven, seventy times seven, then why are
we afraid to repent seven times in one
day?
Do you think you're above that?
I have to continually repent.
Because I know that I can sin with
my mind.
Most of my sins never get further than
my mind.
That's far enough.
I'm not talking about just the temptation.
That's not sin.
I don't have to repent of temptations.
I just have to turn away.
But if I start to entertain a lustful
thought, an envious thought, jealousy, wrong attitude, bitterness,
any of it, I've got to repent.
I have to repent.
That's why I'm still going.
I've learned I'm going to repent.
If Roy Hession was here, he'd spend hours
and hours telling us all kinds of stories
and illustrations and scriptures basically to tell you
one thing.
So we'll just give his message in a
nutshell since he can't come.
Repent!
That's Roy Hession's message.
Repent and be filled.
He has a book, upset a lot of
people, called Be Filled Now.
He believes you must be filled again and
again and again.
Not just even one time in the morning.
Some of your problems you only get filled
during your quiet time.
By breakfast you're as carnal as a cat.
If you sit down at breakfast and you
have a wrong attitude toward that brother or
sister across from you, you just repent of
that before you have your cornflakes.
Repent!
You don't even have to stop.
You learn to just keep turning away from
evil.
And then the sixth thing is a unique
attitude and practice in the area of faith.
In the area of faith.
Don't you like to read these books by
these great men of faith?
I tell you these wildcats.
Have you read about, what's his name, old
General Booth?
Oh my.
And then we get Wesley here and we
get Finney.
We get, what was his name, old Brainerd.
David Brainerd probably influenced missions more than any
man that ever lived.
The average evangelicaly fish superficial one-evening condensed
book character picks up David Brainerd and thinks,
boy this is, this is morbid.
They don't know what they're talking about.
This man had an influence that, that can
never be measured in the history of the
church.
One man, oh he was a bit extreme.
He climbed in logs and prayed.
He was sick.
He was an extremist.
And there was a man that influenced David
Brainerd.
Lived up in New England.
What's the name of that man who preached?
Jonathan Edwards.
Get him up here.
And then get William Carey up here.
Get Adonir and Justin.
Get Henry Martin.
He was a bit foolish.
Instead of taking care of his health, he
went out winning souls and died on the
back of a horse in Iraq.
What a foolish thing to do.
Improper medical service.
The name of Henry Martin has stung a
thousand souls and sent him to the mission
field.
What if these men were here?
Well I want to tell you something.
They are here.
Because the Bible says we run this race
of faith with this great cloud of witnesses.
And I tell you, when we think of
these men who've gone on before us, if
that doesn't motivate us to shape up a
little bit, if that doesn't motivate us to
dare, be daredevils for God and believe Him
for the impossible, I don't know what will.
Even if a stone cried out, some of
you wouldn't believe.
Even if I made that organ leap over
the lightbulb, you'd sleep tonight thinking I was
just a magician.
May God give us faith, daring faith, reckless
faith, total abandonment to claim the Muslim world
for Jesus Christ, to claim kingdoms for Jesus
Christ, to be plotters as well as William
Carey said.
Sometimes it takes greater faith for a movement
in a second generation.
We're just sliding into our second generation.
You know why we mark that?
You know how we know we're going into
our second generation?
Because my son is 16, he's finished high
school.
Will be with me this year.
I told him I don't want him to
join OM.
I want him to just be with me
as a father, so he's not joining OM.
He's got to do that in his own
free will.
And there may be a little more price
for him to pay, and a little more
for him to think about.
He's going to be with his father helping
around, teach him a few things, and get
to know each other.
He's been three years in boarding school.
And when I think of that, I know,
I know, I know we're in our second
generation.
And it's tougher for the second generation.
Some of you here now, it scares me.
I am old enough to be your father.
We're in our second generation.
It's going to be tougher for you.
You're going to hear the great stories of
the past.
You know, George Burroughs feeding his wife out
of a garbage can.
And you'll sit there, spellbound, oh, the way
of faith.
All of it can be nothing but meaningless
chatter, meaningless chatter, unless you yourself launch out.
And it'll be harder for you than it
was for me.
Because no one's going to listen to you
tell about how you fed anybody out of
a garbage can.
Oh, I've already done that.
You're playing second fiddle.
They'll tell you you're not original.
You've got to be original to make an
impact.
It's going to be tougher for you.
People used to say, you're with Operation Mobilization.
Whoa, boy, we've heard about that.
Now, you know, you're with Operation Mobilization.
Oh, yeah.
Have a nice summer.
I'm not, I'm not lying because, you know,
when I first arrived in Britain, even though
I was opposed to it, it made headlines
in the Christian press.
You should have seen the nonsense they wrote.
It was a big thing.
And we had 90 British people mobilized in
two months.
We had nothing.
There were two of us in an office.
But it was a big thing.
And it hit the press.
And people want new things.
People join us.
They didn't know what we believed.
They didn't know anything about me.
They just signed up.
We picked up, of course, a lot of
interesting people.
But now, O.M. in England, you know,
it's an old story now.
Just part of the missionary, sort of part
of the missionary scenery, you know, O.M.
There's all the missionary scenery and beautiful trees
and, and mountains and all.
And then, you know, there's a, there's an
old ugly stick in the middle.
Well, there's O.M., part of the missionary
scenery.
It's going to be tougher for those of
you who are in here, if you're going
to stay with, with this group.
And when you join other groups that are
in their third and fourth generation.
That's why I esteem these groups.
I just love the WECC.
I want to join the WECC.
Can't join the WECC because probably I wouldn't
be able to pass the psychological test.
But I love the WECC.
I love the WECC.
And I love the O.M.F., the
China Inland Mission.
I don't feel worthy to tie their mission.
And I even love the Salvation Army.
I think they've got a few screwy doctrines,
but I sure get excited about William Booth.
The second generation will be harder.
Faith, men of faith, may we accept that
challenge and may it be practical in the
little things.
We're in financial trouble again.
This, this sounds ridiculous, doesn't it?
O.M. in financial, what are you crazy?
We're going to buy a ship when we're
in financial trouble?
I've had phone calls today.
Everybody's sitting, all the leaders, they start the
big chase.
You know the big chase among the leaders
in O.M. They're looking for money.
Start phoning.
Ted Davey needs so many thousands.
Case Roses, he comes in, boop boop boop.
You know, he needs, I don't know, I
don't know how much money he needs.
The last of the big spenders, but everybody
needs money.
And we haven't got any.
Isn't that wonderful?
We don't have any.
We are not going to take that second
ship money.
That's a separate company.
That money was designated to the second ship.
That belongs to God and the second ship.
We're going to start taking that money to
bail you out or to bail me out.
And we're just moving one day at a
time.
One day at a time.
And we're not moving out September 24th or
just after that.
We are not moving out unless we see
all bills paid and we see God open
the heavens.
That is the greatest set of breaks we
have.
Hudson Taylor said, it's not the lack of
money that's hindering God's work, it's too much
unconsecrated money.
We could take out a loan.
We could put the ship up for mortgage
and borrow money just like that on the
ship.
We can put alls on.
We finally own this old factory over in
Somerton.
We can put that up for mortgage.
Oh, Case, I didn't know you were here,
Case.
We're going to set that straight that you're
not the last of the big spenders because
we know there's many more that can spend
more than you.
But it is true that you need money
though, isn't it?
Does Louvain need any money?
All the leaders have the same problem.
But it's not their responsibility.
Fortunately, it's God's.
It's God's.
But we could, we can mortgage up Zalbinton.
How much did somebody offered us recently?
Hundreds of thousands of these Belgian francs.
They're not worth much, but hundreds of thousands
of them for Zalbinton.
We could borrow the money.
This is the standard procedures today.
You think I'm talking about myths.
The standard procedure in Christian work today is
to borrow money.
Everybody borrows money, minus maybe about six major
groups that I know of.
When they build these new churches, do you
think these people put up cash for these
churches?
Very few.
They borrow money.
I just saw an advertisement.
They're looking for, they're looking for 5,000
of God's people not willing to give, willing
to invest.
And we give you annuities so you can
get all the money you need and they
can borrow it.
Borrow, borrow, borrow.
Our whole economy is built on that.
And the fact that O.N. does not
believe in borrowing money makes us look like
the most outdated bunch of George Muellerites.
That's what people accuse us of being.
And others accuse us of being infected with
Plymouth Brethren doctrine.
The Brethren don't believe in money, of course,
don't believe in borrowing money.
That's the early movement.
Today, they can borrow it faster than the
Pentecostals.
The great competition between the two groups, who
can borrow it quicker.
Now, I know that when I say some
of these things, people feel this is too
strong.
And it has to be in balance with
many other things.
But I believe that at times we need
to speak strongly.
And if I can't do it in the
leaders conference, there is no place in O
.M. I can do it.
I have no other opportunities to speak.
I don't speak to the coordinators.
I, we get them together three days a
year.
I may be able to get them to
listen to a few tapes.
I've got to unload these burdens.
And I believe these, these trends in the
church, these trends and missions, I believe it
is an abomination to God.
And I don't want this movement to go
that way.
I'm willing to be in, to be balanced.
I'm willing to love people who disagree with
me.
I'm willing to have new recruits in the
work who have fifty million dollars in the
bank account.
The moon gives two nickels of it for
God's work.
They're going to pray it in instead.
But I don't want it in the leadership.
And I don't want it in our goals.
And I believe this is a part and
parcel of what God wants to do and
continue to do in this work.
Faith!
God's going to bring cash.
I have had to stand up at board
of directors meetings and get in an out
-and-out argument.
Even men on the board of directors who
wanted to borrow money.
Of course, we had other board of director
men as well who hit them so hard
that they soon retreated.
But it is not easy to get people
to believe this principle of not borrowing money.
We're going to pay cash for that ship
to that company in Italy.
God can't supply that money.
In answer to prayer, I am not going
to borrow it from dingle dingle bingle bangle
bank.
It could go broke next week anyway.
God has a cattle on a thousand hills.
And I don't believe we should go around
begging for money.
We're also considered to be really weird and
way out and not with it because the
missionaries, that's what they like to call you,
you know, and cannot ask for money.
Some people find that really hard.
There's pressure on us to change that policy.
I've had pressure even within the work to
change that policy.
Why not a little careful asking for money?
Now I'm not against that if other people
do it.
Careful asking for money, even as far as
the way Billy Graham does it.
I think he's relatively conservative.
But once they go past that, I jump
out the window.
I'm not going to judge people for taking
offerings.
I believe the local church should take offerings.
By the way, I haven't changed my watch
yet.
It's only five minutes to four in the
afternoon.
But I believe God has led us in
OM.
God has led us in OM to trust
that he will supply an answer to prayer
alone.
We realize that with that philosophy there are
problems.
Sometimes the money still comes in without being
an answer to prayer.
You know some of your money has come
by coincidence.
So you're not going to think you're George
Mueller or Hudson Taylor.
I think of my old friend Reese Howell's
son, Samuel Howell, down at Swansea Bible College.
Here he lives, you know, just praying and
praying and praying.
They don't even tell anybody what they're doing.
In OM it's much easier.
At least people know we're alive.
People know we're doing something.
I mean, spiritual people can discern.
We don't say that we never make our
needs known.
We make other needs known.
We ask people to pray for this and
that.
Spiritually discerning people have enough information.
Mueller believed in information without solicitation.
George William McDonald taught the same thing.
Hudson Taylor believed the same thing.
Buck Singh doesn't even believe in information.
Of course, he's a local church.
He gets the Sunday morning offering every Sunday,
and that's a little bit easier.
Now what an example of faith Buck Singh
has been.
I hope he can come here.
I hope he'll be here next week or
the week after.
He said he may.
I talked to him on the phone.
And I just get so excited when I
read about some of these men.
The way they trusted God.
We know no matter what policy we have,
there are problems.
We know that.
Just living on the planet there are problems.
But we believe we have chosen the direction
that God, as far as we can see
it in His Word, realizing without love all
of this means nothing.
It's all nothing.
And some guy begging for money, he may
have more love for people than you.
You've got all your little principles.
You get all little OM principles in your
pocket, and you've got them all outlined.
Without love you're nothing.
You're an OM band.
An OM band, that's pretty bad because there's
not much musical talent around this movement.
And then lastly, a revolutionary attitude toward hardness,
discipline, and suffering.
So many other things I wanted to say.
I feel ashamed I didn't get further tonight.
But I just believe this is so important.
What a joy it is to kick yourself
out of bed in the morning.
I've heard that somebody feels this exercise program
is too hard on your heart.
Too hard on your heart.
What is this, an old people's senate?
Too hard on your heart.
I will tell you if it is, you
need to see a doctor.
Now admittedly there are some sick people in
OM.
I don't mean just spiritually sick.
And if this exercise program is too hard,
and I'm serious now, and you're finding it
a joke, well slow it down.
Slow it down.
I'm going to be an old man.
I take it easy.
Many mornings, I don't want to run.
I'm not going to go out there and
do handstands and dive off the tree into
a sandbox.
I just take it easy.
But I don't think getting up early will
be too hard.
And that's our main concern.
It's not the exercise, it's getting up.
And you don't have to join the affair.
I don't know what's going on here if
it's too hard.
You have your own little program.
Even a morning walk, praise the Lord.
Those of you feeling, you know, your heart
is too bad, don't run around trying to
follow Hans Strom.
Runs like a deer who's been vaccinated.
No more or less.
We haven't got time.
You get up in the morning.
I feel some mornings about 6.30. I
say, I don't want to run, Lord.
I hate this running.
I've been jogging almost every morning for I
don't know how many years.
I hate it.
So I say, well Lord, I'm just going
to run.
I'm just going to walk this morning.
So I just walk.
I walk down the street.
And after walking, you know, a few hundred
yards, I feel like running.
So then I run.
I don't run fast.
I just jog along.
I don't run that far.
Just take it easy, but get awake.
Some people take a cold shower.
Now I would say that would hinder the
heart.
I dove into a freezing swimming pool yesterday.
My daughter was in there.
She said, oh, it's wonderful, Daddy.
She has a built-in heater.
I don't know.
She's in the pool.
So I dove in this freezing pool in
Canada.
Now that would definitely be a hindrance on
your heart.
I haven't been the same since.
I went in six more times.
Then I pushed my son in.
But I believe that if we are going
to evangelize the world, we have to train
people in enduring hardness.
We've not had one heart attack case in
O.M. in twenty-two years, and I
don't believe it's the time to start worrying
about heart condition in a movement of mainly
skinny people.
The few who are getting a bit fatter
every year around this movement, they're the ones
that need to worry about heart attacks.
And I'm not just kidding, because most all
doctors agree.
When you go out this way, your little
heart just someday doesn't handle it.
And one of my closest friends out in
India, not with O.M., just thirty-nine,
forty years old, and he's just getting bigger
and bigger, just like that heart attack.
He's with Jesus.
Of course, God overruled.
He still takes you to heaven.
You know, you're going to get there quicker
than that.
I believe, I fanatically believe we should take
care of our body, but I believe if
we're going to produce men to fight in
the front lines of the Arab world and
India and Nepal, at least some, not everybody,
not everybody, no one's forcing you, at least
some have to start building up and getting
their body in shape, enduring hardness.
Now listen, even those of you who are
not physically fit, if persecution comes, what do
you think happens to you?
Do you think they bypass you?
Do you think they wait around for the
doctor?
A wave of persecution comes in.
They start murdering Christians.
They start persecuting Christians.
Do you think they check with your doctor
first, see how your heart is, see if
you've got your vitamin supply?
You're going to suffer just like everyone else.
That's why I believe every Christian should have
a desire to suffer for Jesus Christ, and
if you're like me and don't have a
desire to suffer, I don't, you repent, and
you just say, Lord, I don't understand, I'm
scared, this is not my thing, Lord, call
me to something else, Lord, but I'm ready.
Because suffering can come upon you when you
go back to the States as quick as
it could out in India, do you know
that?
I believe that Great Britain could go the
way of Northern Ireland.
I tell you, I was singing this the
other day, we're reading about these riots now
in Britain, and I tend to be very
pro-English, I keep saying, I've been saying
for years, I don't think it can happen
in England, I gave a message on that,
it can't happen in England.
I believe now it could happen, anything can
happen anywhere, and I feel that it's foolish
to run away from suffering.
On the other hand, you can't ask for
grace tonight for what God is only going
to give you grace for five years from
now.
At the time, God gives you the grace,
but you just have to start moving in
the right direction, start moving in the right
direction.
I don't want O.M. to get soft.
How many of you want O.M. to
get soft?
No, no, we're getting middle class, you know,
getting accepted in seminaries, we're accepted, we're being
asked to join the evangelical alliance, we're being
asked to go to big conferences, and O
.M. is very, very accepted in many circles.
Now there's nothing wrong with that, we don't
want to run from that and be some
kind of freak, and think, oh, this is
wrong.
But at the same time, we don't want
to grow soft.
Endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus
Christ.
How many want O.M. to grow soft?
Raise your hands.
Soft and flabby, just take it a lot
easier.
These summer cruises, they're too hard, they're a
stream.
We'll cut down the door-to-door time
to two and a half hours.
We'll get a swimming pool on every team.
They have these mobile swimming pools now, you
can wheel them around.
Anybody think O.M.'s getting too soft?
I don't think anybody, because I know some
of you have said you believe that this
is the problem, that we are too soft.
Well, our time's run out.
There are a few of the unique aspects,
a few of the emphasis, a few of
the life principles.
There are many more, don't try to get
everything in one message.
And I hope somehow you'll see this.
And I hope at least some will be
willing to join this lifestyle.
It's got plenty of modifications, you've all read.
Some of you read more about the modifications
than the message.
You read Revolution of Balance before you hear
my extreme statements.
You're supposed to hear the extreme statements first,
then you read Revolution of Balance.
Let's pray.
Lord, we thank and praise you that in
one sense we are a bit of a
crazy crowd.
We're just so hungry, so many here are
so hungry to go all the way with
you.
We want to be like those early disciples.
We want to be like Daniel in the
Lion's Den, looking down the lion's mouth, ready
to tickle his palate, if that's your will.
But we don't want to be foolish for
our own sake.
We want to be fools for Jesus.
Lord, we just thank you for the things
that are taking place.
Lord, out on that ship, out in India,
we thank you for the response there has
been to this message.
We thought it would scare everybody away, and
you fooled us, Lord.
I've been trying to scare people for 22
years with those orientation tapes, and somehow there
just seems to be an ever-increasing number
who are hungry for these, these emphases and
these principles.
We know there are many more.
We're aware that we've presented them poorly.
Lord, your Word presents them well, and we
see them there.
And we will search your Scriptures and see
if these things are so.
We will not listen just to man.
We will search.
We will read the book of Acts and
all the epistles and all of your Word.
Oh, Father, we're excited by your grace.
Make us revolutionary.
Teach us what it is to live by
faith.
Teach us what it is to have worship
first and other things second.
Teach us what it is to forsake all
to follow you.
Teach us what it is to really have
love for people and to live with a
passion for souls that will change every aspect
of our life, especially help the girls.
Some of the girls really are afraid, and
some of the things they like so much
will be taken from them.
But Lord, if you take anything from anybody,
you'll give something better.
You know, we know you're going to provide
a roof over our head, and you provide
us with wonderful food.
You provide us with friendship, and you provide
us with beautiful sunsets and scenery and beautiful
music.
There's so many things that we can enjoy
without wasting your precious resources and your money
and becoming some kind of self-sold-out
materialist.
Oh, Father, we praise you.
The joy of living for you, of being
abandoned for you, of gambling all, putting all
on the altar.
Thank you, Lord.
Minister to us.