I want to read from the Psalms.
I want to read starting at Psalm 145,
just a couple of verses, because I believe
it's such a wonderful thing to begin this
conference in praise and thanksgiving.
And you're going to have to follow me
quickly because I'm going to jump right to
the last Psalm.
I still love the old King James Bible.
I've been living in England now off and
on for 18 years and so I have
no trouble understanding this English.
If you don't understand the King James then
I really apologize and again I'd be happy
to talk to you after the meeting and
we could, you know, show you what it
means.
Let's praise the Lord through the Psalm.
I will, Psalm 145, verse 1, I will
extol thee my God, O King, and I
will bless thy name forever and ever.
Every day will I bless thee and I
will praise thy name forever and ever.
Great is the Lord and greatly to be
praised and his greatness is unsearchable.
One generation shall praise thy works to another
and shall declare thy mighty acts.
Then 146, verse 1, praise ye the Lord,
praise the Lord all my soul.
While I live will I praise the Lord.
I will sing praises unto my God while
I have any being.
Put not your trust in princes nor in
the son of man in whom there is
no help.
His breath goes forth, he returneth to his
earth.
In that very day his thoughts perish, happy
is he that hath the Lord God of
Jacob for his help, whose hope is in
the Lord his God, who made heaven and
earth and sea and all therein, who keepeth
truth forever.
Psalm 147, verse 1, praise ye the Lord,
for it is good to sing praises unto
our God, for it is pleasant and praise
is fitting.
The Lord doth build up Jerusalem, he gathereth
together the outcasts of Israel, he healeth the
broken in heart and bindeth up their wounds.
He appointeth the number of the stars, he
calleth them all by their names.
Great is our Lord and of great power,
his understanding is infinite.
The Lord lifteth up the meek, he casteth
the wicked down to the ground.
Sing unto the Lord with thanksgiving, sing praise
upon the heart unto our God.
Psalm 148, praise ye the Lord, praise ye
the Lord from the heavens, praise him in
the heights, praise ye him all his angels,
praise ye him all his hosts, praise ye
him sun and moon, praise him all ye
stars of light, praise him ye heavens of
heaven and ye waters that are above the
heavens, let them praise the name of the
Lord, for he commanded and they were created.
Verse 5, let the saints be joyful in
glory, let them sing aloud upon their beds,
let the high praises of God be in
their mouths and a two-edged sword in
their hand.
Psalm 150, verse 1, praise ye the Lord,
praise God in his sanctuary, praise him in
the firmament of his power, praise him for
his mighty acts, praise him according to his
excellent greatness.
Let's pray and praise the Lord.
Our God and Father, we lift our hearts
in praise to you tonight.
We thank you for the reality we have
in your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
We thank you our great God that you
know all about us and love us still
and are wanting to bless us in these
days of conference together.
You are wanting to renew our vision, you
are wanting to refill us with your Holy
Spirit, that we will be men of vision
and men and women of passion.
We thank you for your word which is
a lamp unto our feet and a light
unto our pathway.
We thank you for this testimony here in
Akron and the power of your Holy Spirit
that has been manifest here through many decades.
And we believe that our God we come
to you in a spirit of expectation, believing
you to move in our midst in these
days together.
May each one of us not miss our
heavenly portion as we wait upon you morning
and night, as we gather in your name,
as we go the extra mile to discipline
our lives and to get into the exposure
of your Holy Word and your children who
you have brought here from almost every state
in the United States and every province of
Canada and Mexico and from around the world.
Lord we know that it's in your providence
and in your divine timing that we are
here tonight.
Help us to see this in our own
personal individual circumstances, for we pray in Jesus
name, Amen.
I believe the Lord would have us start
this great conference on a note of praise.
It's so easy to be negative in these
days.
I notice everybody's complaining about Cuba and the
Cubans, not everybody but many.
How did your great-grandfathers come across?
Were they invited over by the president?
And I praise God despite whatever difficult circumstances
our nation may be facing.
And there are always problems that God is
God.
And as he brings many interesting people from
all over the world into our nation, those
who love his name, and we must always
love his name even more than our country,
are going to take this as a challenge.
And this was the challenge I heard in
David Vernon's sermon a few weeks ago, to
reach people right here in this country.
This is as much on our hearts as
reaching out to even the ends of the
earth.
There was in a campaign we had among
Cubans about 17 years ago that a young
son of a missionary who had turned agnostic
at one of our so-called Christian colleges
had his life turned around as the director
of OM India today, a work with 350
full-time workers.
And I believe God is wanting to do
great things.
Limits to the complaining and the murmuring and
the grumbling and the economic crisis that supposedly
our nation is in.
I believe God's people are still to be
a people of praise.
God's people are still to have a spring
in their step and a joy in their
heart that cannot be taken away by circumstance
or suffering.
Just a few weeks ago, at least it
seems a few weeks, I was walking the
streets of mainland China.
I wish I could have had every person
here tonight with me on that short trip
into China.
It was a brief trip, but one of
my closest friends was on a much longer
trip.
And he brought back with him a series
of slides.
And when he got back to England, he
showed me these slides and he shared with
me.
And then we showed them in a public
meeting.
And there's a cassette tape available in that
meeting if you're interested in getting it.
It's not available here, but we could send
it to you.
And this dear brother Peter Conlon was the
first foreigner to interview Wang Mingdao.
Now, that name may not mean too much
to you, but there is a book called
Three Mighty Men of China.
Watchman Nee, whose books you'll find on the
book table, one other great Christian leader, and
then Wang Mingdao.
He was the pastor of what would be
equivalent to this church in one of China's
great cities.
23 years ago, he was put into prison.
The enormous change from this great pastoral ministry
to life in a prison broke his mind.
And on a piece of paper, he denied
the Lord Jesus Christ and was released from
prison.
When his mind came back to him out
of prison, he went back to the prison
a couple of years later and spoke forth
his testimony for Christ, asked that this paper
be destroyed, and they re-entered him into
prison where he was for the next 20
years.
Wang Mingdao has only been released, probably many
of you haven't even heard this news yet.
With only one tooth in his head, partly
blind, unable to hear very well, he gave
his testimony and shared on this little cassette
that I was able to listen to.
And I can tell you, as I heard
this man's testimony of joy in a communist
Chinese prison, after such a fall and fruitful
ministry, to be put into prison with hardly
any fellowship, with no Bible most of the
time, and yet coming out a radiant witness
for Jesus.
I will tell you, if that doesn't cause
you to praise the living God, your spiritual
battery must be completely dead and you're in
trouble.
And how we praise God for what is
happening in China.
In one area alone in China, there are
2,000 house fellowships.
Some of these house fellowships don't have a
single Bible.
The churches that are now the official churches
are often packed.
Literature is going in.
When I went in, I carried literature.
The customs people didn't even look in my
case.
Others who have been with us have been
carrying two or three huge suitcases in.
The hunger for the Word of God is
unbelievable in China at this present time.
I might say that I don't feel these
things are wise to put into print, in
case any of you are newspaper people.
But we are faced with a challenge right
now in China that I believe every Christian
should know about and be praying about.
There is even the slight possibility that our
ship Lagos, now in Japan, soon to go
to Korea, will be able to go into
China.
And we're in negotiations now with top-level
Chinese leaders about the possible visit of the
MV Lagos.
It's not an open door for traditional missionaries.
But God in His sovereignty has given us
in OM over 100 Chinese young people from
Malaysia, Hong Kong, and Singapore.
I was just in Singapore.
I was speaking on a Saturday night.
They said no one's going to come.
I was competing with a world champion badminton
tournament.
I was competing with the biggest football league
in town.
And I was competing with the Chinese New
Year.
They said no one's coming.
By faith, they hired the largest Congress hall,
or one of them in Singapore, and 700
Chinese young people were there, many of them
recommitting their lives and determining to be missionaries
back to their home land of China.
China considers every overseas Chinese as a member
of their own country.
They can go in, they can buy property,
they can study, they can witness.
And it's just an unusual open door.
You know, when God led us to become
totally international, and this is why we kept
a low profile in this country, so that
the Asians and the Europeans would be at
least in total equal status with Americans, numerically
and every other way, little did we know
what God had in store in bringing in
this army of Singaporeans, clever young people, backed
by their churches, more than the average American,
because the churches in Singapore mean business, certainly
more than the average church in this country.
God is moving in Asia.
Some estimate there may be two million believers
still worshiping the Lord Jesus in China.
Some say four million.
Now that isn't much compared to the population
of a billion souls.
But what can happen as we pray and
as the Spirit of God moves among these
two or four million, and as they begin
to fan out across China, armed with literature
and cassettes and films, that by God's grace
we would like to be able to supply
them.
I believe China stands as the great challenge
of the Church of Jesus Christ.
Tuesday night, as we gather here for a
night of prayer, in which all of you
are welcome, usually only a half night of
prayer, so don't be afraid.
You can leave when you want.
We will be praying for China, and we
will be believing God for great things.
I remember when I was a student at
Moody, in our nights of prayer, we would
take a whole hour just to pray for
China, 23 years ago.
We even assigned different cities to different students.
And Greg Livingston, now the director of the
North African Mission, came to me recently and
he said, Hey, I'm still praying for that
city you asked me to pray for in
China.
And now some of our young people, Chinese
-speaking young people, are moving in those cities,
sharing Jesus Christ.
I will tell you, it was an emotional
experience for my wife and I, after 23
years of prayer, to walk the streets of
China.
You know, we hardly saw a private car.
It's a land still gripped in poverty, though
not starvation.
And when you walk into the Chinese city,
as we did, you are just faced with
just hundreds and thousands of bicycles, and then
thousands of people walking.
One of the most crowded cities I've ever
seen was this small city we were visiting
in this bus tour in southern China.
Will you pray for China?
Would you sign up as a prayer partner
with Operation Mobilization, making use of this little
coupon so that we can keep you informed
about where the ship is?
Most people don't even know where our ships
are from the United States.
And sometimes people are praying for the ship
in England, and in fact it's in South
America.
It's like a phone call I made to
the church tonight.
I think the OM people are taking care
of the switchboard just suddenly, at least one
of the numbers.
And apparently the one who normally does the
job went off for supper and someone new
was just given the switchboard.
And so I phoned in to this great
church and I said, can I speak to
David Vernon?
And the fellow said, well, I'm not sure
where he is right now.
Can you tell me, is he with the
church?
That's the truth.
And I said, well, actually he's the pastor
of the church.
That poor fellow probably had a heart attack.
So if you phone in these days and
you get some unusual answers, don't be discouraged.
Just get in your car or get on
your horse and come on over here because
God is going to be moving in this
place, I believe, in these next three days
in a mighty way.
And then I'm praising God for what he
is doing in India.
I no longer can get a visa in
India long-term.
So we were aboard a ship and just
went into the Bombay Harbor for a couple
of days.
And our leaders, about 25 of them came
together from all over the nation.
I think it was in God's providence that
I, in 1968, could no longer get back
into India long-term.
I moved to Nepal for a couple of
years.
Then I moved down to the ship for
a couple of years around the ports because
that forced us to make the work even
more Indian and based on Indian leadership.
And God has given us some of the
finest Christian leaders we have in our entire
work worldwide from among these Indians.
We now have some 350 full-time in
India.
And I would ask you to pray for
that work.
We're launching into a massive campaign to reach
10 million people with the word of God
in Maharashtra, one of the states that we
have not worked in very much.
Almost every day there are several people who
come to Jesus Christ through this testimony in
India.
As young men move out with films and
with preaching, in church planting, in Bible studies,
and mainly in discipling young Indians to evangelize
and reach their own nation with the gospel
of Jesus Christ.
We're told here in Psalm 145, one generation
shall praise thy works to another and shall
declare thy mighty acts.
I will speak of the glorious honor of
thy majesty and of thy wondrous works.
And it's that scripture, the freedom just to
share with you some of the things that
God is doing.
I don't feel a burden when I come
here to teach the word of God as
I believe this church has some of the
finest Bible teaching and more Bible teaching than
any church you could find.
And so I feel that what I come
with must be complimentary.
It must be to share in a different
way.
But of course, anything I say will have
to be rooted and grounded in the scriptures.
And that's why tomorrow night I'm going to
speak on what the Bible says about that
great subject.
Verse three, great is the Lord, greatly to
be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable.
You know, it's easy to praise the Lord
for something that happens locally, and there's nothing
wrong with that.
My aunt and uncle from Pittsburgh, who I
hardly ever see, drove here from Pittsburgh to
be with us yesterday.
They were here this morning.
They drove back, and as they drove into
the driveway in Pittsburgh a few hours ago,
I just spoke with them on the phone,
they saw a strange sight as a tornado
had whipped right through their backyard and destroyed
20 trees and barely touched the house at
all, or their two children who were left
behind.
And of course, my aunt, who's a very
outgoing dear southern belle, she was really ding
-a-linging on the telephone an hour ago.
And there's nothing wrong with that.
Praise God when he answers prayer locally.
George Mueller, at the end of his life,
had 20,000 answers to prayer.
He kept a list.
He prayed in by faith, equivalent to a
hundred million dollars.
And when we see God provide, when we
see God provide to fill that ship with
fuel, we don't do that anymore.
We just go day by day.
If any of you are digging in the
backyard in the coming week and you discover
some oily material, just just phone me, and
I'm sure we can make a special deal.
You'd have a lifetime free trip on our
ship.
But I would ask you to really pray,
because it's the most unbelievable crisis that in
some ways we could ever face.
And it's wonderful to praise the Lord for
that which happens in your own life.
But I believe it takes a greater degree
of spiritual reality and vision and passion to
praise God for what he's doing in other
places and other countries, even if you are
in a situation where it seems that God
at present is not hearing your prayer.
And maybe as you praise God for what
he's doing in other lives, and maybe as
the Lord is able to deliver you from
living in too small of a world, you
will then see also a greater touch of
blessing in your own situation.
It's so easy to pull down the shades
and to live in our own little isolated
world.
This is why there are many, many people
in the United States now, even in the
evangelical community, who don't really feel that world
missions is a priority.
And this is sad.
And I pray that we may see that
world missions is still a priority, because it's
a priority with God, and because we base
our actions on God's word.
And then I had to praise the Lord
for what I saw in the Middle East,
the toughest situation we are in.
I was in Egypt.
Our work is very much linked with the
local churches.
And it was exciting to hear yesterday that
almost 50 people have gone from this church
to be involved in O.M. Very ordinary
people.
All kinds of people, of course.
And that's a great challenge.
When I was in Egypt, I was talking
to some of the leading pastors, and I
wanted to see what they felt about the
work, because personally, to be honest, I felt
we weren't getting very far in Egypt.
And we're willing to close the work down
in a country.
We're not trying to build monuments or put
a name on the letterhead.
And those pastors shared with me that they
felt the O.M. team there, several of
whom already know Arabic, they felt that they
were fitting into the situation.
They felt they were among them.
And they begged me to keep O.M.
going in Egypt.
And they shared a number of other very
positive reactions.
A pastor at one of the largest Presbyterian
churches in the country.
Very Bible-believing people.
And I will tell you, I was praising
God when I sailed out of Egypt.
The next country I went to was Israel,
another land where O.M. has made an
enormous impact.
Probably 80% of all the believers in
Israel would know about O.M. and would
appreciate what they are doing in that country.
Most of these lands, we do not work
under the name of O.M. We just
work.
And Israel is a unique land where we're
having an open door, both among the Arabs
and among the Jews.
And it's exciting to see the word of
God going out and the open door in
that country.
I've never been able to do much touring
in my 10 or, I guess, 7 or
8 trips to Israel.
I've always been so busy speaking 2 or
3 times a day.
I've never had a chance to tour.
Well, my wife, she's very much into prophecy.
I'm not the prophecy type.
My wife's into prophecy.
And she wanted to visit all these places,
the Dome of the Rock.
So for the first time, we went around
and we just saw a little bit of
some of these places.
You know, as we stood on that hill
that looked over that field where the battle
of Armageddon will someday take place, we were
made aware again.
We see the budding of the fig tree
that we don't have much time to obey
God in world evangelism.
The writing is on the wall.
I believe now is the hour to pull
the stocks out.
Now is the hour more than ever to
lay our lives totally on the altar and
to commit ourselves to evangelism, both home and
abroad.
And I pray that even during these days
together, as we deal with some of the
practical implications of spiritual reality and the spiritual
warfare, that it will lead to one of
the truly great evangelistic thrusts of this decade.
There's so much I would love to share
with you about what he's doing across the
world.
The answers to prayer in Europe.
I've just been ministering at Cambridge and Oxford
University.
I cannot tell you what a challenge that
was as I came in the footsteps of
Billy Graham, who was just there and who
made an enormous impact on those two universities.
And there are dozens and dozens of students
going on for Christ now who came to
Christ just a few weeks ago in those
unusual meetings.
And again and again, Billy had the opportunity
to face the whole nation of Britain on
television, and they threw the most weird, difficult
questions.
And God gave him the grace to present
the saving grace of Jesus Christ right there
on the media across Britain.
And there are 55 million people in Great
Britain speaking about world missions.
And again, God has given us a nucleus
of young men in this country, perhaps because
of our low profile and because of the
complicated evangelical situation.
O.M. has never broken into the university
scene very much.
We get some, a few dozens.
But in Europe, our whole work is in
basically the university scene.
I think this is one of the reasons
I find even here in Aix, people do
not understand Operation Mobilization.
They maybe meet someone who goes on O
.M., who maybe would not have been accepted
by another mission, maybe would not have so
much education.
And they, because of their mentality, feel, well,
you know, this mission takes these people who
are not really quite women, don't have all
their act together, and you know, what kind
of a movement is it?
But you know, God uses all kinds of
people.
And it's worked out in his sovereign purposes
that in O.M. we have a little
humbler group of Americans, because I can tell
you, the Europeans don't want to work with
the people who've got it all in here
and not too much down here.
If you have the balance, which is an
unusual combination, and we've got some of those,
I can assure you, out of this country
as well, from our seminaries and from our
colleges, then of course that kind of person
will make an impact whatever country he's working
in.
And I would ask you to pray for
Great Britain.
I would ask you to pray for these
universities, as we're now having a ministry in
almost every university in the British Isles.
And God is calling out men and women
to serve him.
Remember the Cambridge 70?
Men like C.T. Stunt?
Does the name of Hudson Taylor mean anything
to any of us?
I'm sure it does.
And this nation is still in God's program.
We're expecting over 400 British recruits to launch
out with us this summer.
We're having an increasing number of pastors and
Christian leaders spending a summer with us.
There's a booklet that'll be available on the
literature table of a pastor of one of
Britain's largest churches who just spent his second
term of service in India, and it's revolutionized
his whole congregation where I was just ministering
again a few weeks ago.
God is working in Britain, that country where
they say only seven percent of the people
go to church.
A recent survey says it's 13 percent.
In a few weeks I'll be speaking at
the Keswick Convention, where four, five, six thousand
will gather in the name of the Lord.
At the Filey Convention, nine thousand gather in
the name of the Lord.
God is working in Europe.
We're seeing even more unusual works of God
in Germany, Sweden, and Switzerland.
All very small numerically compared to what you
have here, but at the same time real,
because God's great concern is not necessarily numbers.
And I hope that many of us during
these days will sense a greater linking with
Europe.
We have a number of Europeans with us.
The coordinator of our conference here from the
OM side is from Great Britain, a former
chief engineer on the N.V. Dulas.
He's on shore leave, and I think he's
wanting to leave and go back to the
engine room on the ship, but he's coordinating
this conference meanwhile.
Actually we have young people here from almost
every single state in the United States, every
province in Canada, Mexico, South America, and many
nations of Europe and other parts of the
world.
I believe it's truly an international conference that
God has brought us together to celebrate in
his name.
Yes, we have much to praise the Lord
for.
At the same time, it's important to keep
all of this in balance.
And a verse that helps me keep things
in balance is found in 2 Corinthians 6.
If you could turn with me for our
sort of closing remarks.
If you know me, you know that I
try to squeeze in at least three messages
to each session, much to the frustration of
those who attempt to take notes.
But I want to look at 2 Corinthians
6.
I would love to expand that whole chapter,
but I'll leave that to David.
And I'll just speak on verse 10 to
bring what I've said into balance.
It speaks of the true believer, the true
disciple of Jesus Christ.
And it starts, of course, right up there
in verse 1.
And the crescendo picks up as we get
to verse 9, as unknown and yet well
known, as dying and behold we live, as
chastened and not filled, as sorrowful yet always
rejoicing, as poor yet making many rich, as
having nothing and yet possessing all things.
What a paradox.
And that chapter presents one of the most
powerful pictures of what a true minister and
true worker of God is.
As it says in verse 1, we are
workers together with him.
And so though there is much to praise
God for, and the gospel is advancing across
the world, and there are new churches planted
every day, our own fellowship alone has reached
a quarter of a billion people with the
Word of God.
250 million we have presented face-to-face
through preaching or personal evangelism, which is our
main method, or through literature.
And yet we realize we're now in a
world of 4.4 billion, according to what
I read this morning.
What a challenge.
And I believe God is wanting to cause
some of us during these days to begin
to live in the light of population explosion,
to begin to live in the light of
the global village in which we find ourselves.
One of our main leaders came to this
conference on a Freddy Laker flight to Florida
for $120, London to Miami for $120.
Through going back and forth, she saved $200
on that trip, and with $200 she can
buy an unlimited continental airline ticket that covers
the entire United States.
It's unbelievable in the age of inflation.
We live in a global village, and it
doesn't take much even to move an army
like the young people are here to Europe.
And they probably, including their travel expenses, will
function far cheaper in Europe this summer, including
the air travel, than any of the young
people I can assure you who stay around
here and are tempted to spend money in
many interesting ways.
What a challenge.
Population explosion.
And so on the one hand we're praising
God, we see the open doors, we see
what He's doing.
I'm overwhelmed with what He's doing in our
small fellowship.
I used to sense that I was leading
the work, now I sense I'm following it
by, by, by, by a long way behind.
Watching God work through an army of men,
many of them more committed than I am,
certainly more disciplined than I am, many of
them certainly smarter than I am, with a
greater knowledge of the Word of God than
I've ever had.
And I just, I just, I don't even
know what I'm doing half the time.
This is why I'm emphasizing praise, because when
I feel so totally overwhelmed I just have
to praise God.
And yet at the same time, there are
the moments of sorrow.
And I would be, I would be a
deceiver if I didn't share some of the
things that, that cause our hearts to ache.
I was listening to a great Anglican preacher
at a funeral, funeral of one of my
closest friends a year ago, a man who
was the chairman of our board of directors
in England, a great businessman, who died suddenly
of a heart attack.
And I heard one of the most powerful
sermons at a funeral I've ever listened to,
and he spoke about the legitimate value of
sorrow.
Last Sunday in my office when a long
-distance phone call came in from Singapore, and
one of my closest friends in this world
who worked with me in pioneering the ship
Lagos as the chief engineer suddenly threw cancer,
and then his heart giving out went to
be with the Lord.
Fifty-some years of age, four children left
behind.
And as I talked to his wife a
few minutes later in Australia on the telephone,
I can tell you I was weeping.
Every funeral I've ever gone to I've wept.
I used to feel guilty about this, and
this preacher at this funeral recently just really
helped me to understand that God understands when
we are sorrowful.
Some of you are sorrowful about things that
have happened, and this is legitimate.
You can't dwell there.
Jesus wept.
Paul wept.
You can weep, but you can't dwell there.
And I feel sorrowful tonight for a number
of things, things far more traumatic even than
the death of a close friend.
Another one of my close associates, though I
didn't know him very well, just driving back
to our base in Bihar, one of the
neediest states in all of North India just
a few weeks ago, in a very freak
way this young man in his early 20s,
a tree, fell on him on his bicycle,
and he was dead within minutes.
It was just a year ago, my wife's
birthday, one year and a few days ago,
June 2nd, one of our men on the
doorstep of his own home in Turkey was
gunned down and killed by terrorists.
I will tell you Billy Graham once said
life at its best is filled with sorrow,
and I believe it.
And I am one of those who is
tonight sorrowful and yet always rejoicing.
I feel sorrowful because I feel that opportunities
across the world are being missed by the
Church of Jesus Christ.
In our own feeble fellowship, and we are
only one, and perhaps one of the more
feeble efforts that God has in the world
today, opportunity after opportunity is missed.
Millions seem to slip in eternity that we
could have reached but we did not reach.
And so often it's because God's people don't
seem to have the vision.
God's people seem to be caught up in
other things, and this includes even at times
the very people who are on Operation Mobilization.
If you think OM represents some group of
super disciples, if you think this group of
young people are some kind of reincarnation of
the Book of Acts, you are going to
be in for some big surprises this week.
But I can tell you I believe these
young people know what they want, and they
have set their sights on the Lord, and
they have set their sights on New Testament
Christianity, and some of them are tired of
words, and they're longing to drink deep at
the wells of living water which we pray
will flow in these days together as we
worship and as we pray.
I am convinced that a church like this
and a gathering like this has potential to
shake the entire world for Jesus Christ.
If one woman could pray in New Jersey,
send me a Gospel of John that led
to my conversion in the beginning of this
movement that has touched a quarter of a
billion souls, what can happen as we seek
God's faith in these days together?
As we come become, as C.T. Studd
once said, not nibblers of the possible but
grabbers of the impossible.
As we come together in our sessions with
a spirit of expectation, believing God for great
things.
Matthew 9 says the harvest is plentiful but
the laborers are few.
And one of the things that breaks my
heart and makes me sorrowful is that so
few recruits are coming from North America in
comparison to the size of the church.
One missionary leader says there's an increased interest
in missions evident at Urbana but not an
increase of dedicated committed men and women who
are willing to put feet on their prayers
and feet on their talk and move out
to the Muslim world and to the unreached
people which we of course are concerned about.
I think of the Lord Jesus Christ as
he walked along the Sea of Galilee recorded
in Mark chapter 1.
And it says, and Jesus said unto them,
speaking to Simon and Andrew who were casting
nets, and Jesus said unto them, come after
me and I will make you become fishers
of men.
And straight away, immediately, immediately they forsook their
nets and they followed him.
And when he had gone a little farther
he saw James the son of Zebedee and
John his brother who also were in the
boat mending their nets.
And straightway he called them and they left
their father Zebedee in the boat with the
hired servants and went after him.
In the next chapter we find Jesus approaching
a tax collector, a really weird fellow.
Jesus said follow me and he arose and
followed him.
And I believe with all my heart that
the Lord Jesus Christ as he was in
their midst along the Sea of Galilee is
in our midst here in this chapel tonight.
And I believe Jesus is walking among us
though the word of God tells us he
is also in us by his Holy Spirit.
That's even more significant.
And I believe in these days he wants
to say to some of you, follow me.
Now we know in a real sense every
believer is a missionary.
Whether you're working for a tire company or
whether you're working for IBM or whether you're
with OM, every believer is a missionary.
Commitment and discipleship is for everyone.
But we know also that in order to
get the great job done that God has
called the church into doing, he called and
leads, I like that word better, he leads
some to forsake their nets.
And I feel, though I strongly believe in
both, that in these days God is wanting
to say to some of you as Jesus
said to those fishermen, follow me, I will
make you a fisher of men.
You don't come with all your credentials, you
don't come already fully equipped to be a
missionary in the Muslim world, to be able
to communicate cross-culturally in southern India or
China, but you come as those fishermen abandoning
your previous occupation and ready to say, Lord
here am I, send me.
My heart breaks that there are not more
who are volunteering.
And my heart breaks that so many when
they do volunteer, their churches are not interested
and in fact often discourage them.
It would not be true here, I know.
The very fact that you have welcomed this
vagabond band of spiritual nobodies into your fellowship
is a humbling experience for most of us,
I can assure you.
Yes, sorrowful, but always rejoicing.
And I pray that through the week as
we see the different sides of the story,
that by God's grace we will become this
kind of person who sees the situation, who
is not afraid to face the reality, and
who is willing to weep, and yet who
is always rejoicing.
The joy of all of our Lord is
our strength.
And through that I believe we will become
an unstoppable people for God.
Let us pray.
Let us have a moment of silent prayer.
I'm going to give a special invitation for
anyone interested in the possibility of World Missions
serving Jesus with OM or any other group
to remain behind in this auditorium after the
meeting for a time of brief prayer and
questions and answers.
A lot of things I would like to
do, a lot of things you would like
to do, but if you're serious about being
a fisher of men, even if it's only
in the question stage, you want some questions
answered, you want miscommunications ironed out, anyone, maybe
you just want to be a more fervent
prayer warrior, I'm going to give this invitation
to just remain behind, whether it be few
or many, and I'm just going to share
for about 15 minutes and answer questions.
Of course, a more important invitation is even
now, right where you're seated, to make a
deeper commitment of your life to Jesus Christ.
To say, Lord, I'll be a fisher of
men, show me your will.
Because Jesus Christ perhaps is not physically walking
among us, it takes greater faith, and that
means it sometimes will take more time and
prayer and discussion and fellowship with the Church
to make such a decision.
But at least we need to begin moving
by faith in the right direction.
There is no such thing as a no
-risk road if you're a follower of Jesus
Christ.
We're to be gamblers for God in the
right sense, and I pray that some right
now in this moment will in their heart
take a step of faith, and to a
deeper walk with Christ, and to know where
he wants you to go, and do what
he wants you to do, whatever the cost.
Let's have a moment of silent prayer as
we make these commitments.
He will hear you, just tell him you're
worthy.
Maybe there's someone away from the Lord.
You can't, in one sense, think about missions.
You're drifting away from God in spiritual lukewarmness,
but maybe someone doesn't even know Jesus Christ
personally.
This could be your moment of commitment, decision,
as you trust Christ, or as you come
back to Christ.
Take this moment to pray in your own
heart right now.
Lord Jesus, you know all about us, and
you love us still.
You know the particular sorrows and burdens and
struggles that many of us may be facing
at this time in our lives.
We don't have to pretend that there's nothing
that bothers us.
We don't have to pretend that our hearts
aren't aching over a certain situation or circumstance,
and Lord, I know I can't pretend, but
at the same time we are your people,
and we are a praising people.
We are a rejoicing people.
We are a victorious people, and we are
learning how to drink deep at those wells
of living water.
We are indwelt by your Holy Spirit who
is wanting to fill us day by day
and make us the men and women that
we should be, that we may go where
you want us to go and do what
you want us to do, whatever the cost.
Don't allow any of us to cop out
of what you're trying to say to us
in these days together, but enable each one
of us to come to your cross afresh
and to deny self and to take up
that cross and follow you in fervency and
love and zeal.
Oh God, we pray that you would grant
this in Jesus' name.
Amen.