Some of the basic principles of leadership and
spiritual life in the Book of Acts.
We don't want to overemphasize leadership.
That can be a danger, like anything else,
because above all else, we are followers.
We are followers of the Lord, followers of
the Lamb.
Behold, the Lamb of God takes away the
sin of the world.
And as we read the Book of Acts,
we realize that many of the principles there
are for all Christians, not just for people
who are leaders.
But often one of the marks of a
leader is that he's a little more hungry
for God.
He grasps something a little quicker, and therefore
the Lord uses him to help others understand
that same principle.
He doesn't share these principles from a position
of superiority, but he shares these principles from
a position of grace, that he's experienced the
grace of God and the reality of God.
You can turn with me now in your
Bibles to Acts chapter 1.
By the way, I started some time ago
an excellent book on the prayer life of
Jesus, and I haven't finished that book.
I loaned out my copy, and last I
saw it, it was only available in hardback,
but I made a lot of notations in
the back of my Bible from that book
of the references.
And in many ways, I would love to
share with you on that subject even more,
but I think that may be something for
the main conference.
It's amazing to see the prayer life of
Jesus Christ.
You can trace it yourself in the Gospels.
Prayer at his baptism, prayer in choosing the
twelve, prayer before feeding the five thousand, prayer
through the night, teaching the disciples to pray,
prayer for the Holy Spirit, prayer on the
road to Emmaus.
That's just a few of the references.
Therefore, as we move into the book of
Acts, we are following in the footsteps of
the Lord Jesus.
One of the leaders of our work shared
with me in the form of a note
that as he came to this conference, his
one great desire, even though he has many
responsibilities, I can say that his one great
desire is just to be more Christlike, and
to me that is very much a priority.
Let's pray and then look through the book
of Acts together for a time which can
be, I believe, a great preparation for our
extended prayer time.
Living God, we thank you for this living
book.
We thank you that it is your word,
that it is authoritative.
We thank you that we can base our
whole life on it.
We sense very much your grace in these
days.
We praise you for answers to prayer for
lives that are being touched.
Thank you for your protection, your glorious protection
over us in many ways we don't even
see.
We just look to you for this time
of prayer tonight and pray that our hearts
may be quickened by your word.
Lord, my own heart needs quickening.
We want to be stirred into action by
your Holy Spirit.
Deliver us from anything that is hindering us
from really praying tonight.
Maybe introspection, maybe self-pity.
Maybe we are hurt by somebody.
Maybe we don't feel fulfilled in what we
are doing.
Maybe we don't feel at home.
Maybe we are lonely or homesick.
Lord, by your grace, we want to take
these things to the cross.
We want to be able to say as
the Apostle, I am crucified with Christ.
Oh God, make this real in our hearts.
Some of us are tired.
But Lord, you can renew our strength.
We know often your strength is made perfect
in weakness.
Sometimes we can pray better from a position
of tiredness and weariness in which we sense
we are almost at the end of ourselves.
Unless you give us utterance and strength, we
can't even enter into this prayer meeting.
We will merely sit here.
You know all of our personal needs.
We thank you.
We can cast them upon you.
We look to you now in your word,
in Jesus' name, amen.
Book of Acts, chapter 1.
I'm sure many times already, if you've had
much contact with us, you've looked at Acts
1.8. So we're going to jump over
that, because I easily get stuck in that
verse.
That verse is very exciting, especially when we
start talking about the uttermost parts.
I once was going to give a great
tour through the book of Acts.
I didn't get past 1.8. So we're
going to jump over Acts 1.8, because
it'll come up later in the conference.
But whenever we think of Acts 1.8,
we think of Matthew 9, which is so
basic as we go into prayer tonight.
Pray ye the Lord of the harvest, that
he will send forth laborers into the harvest.
That is one of the most specific commands
for prayer in the whole of the New
Testament.
I believe every one of you is here,
because someone has prayed on the basis of
that verse, even if they didn't know the
verse.
This whole movement was born, you all know
the story, because of one dear woman who
believed God's word, who believed that promise, that
command, and who prayed forth laborers.
And I just happened to be one of
them.
And many others followed.
Twenty-two thousand have come forth and had
some training in this fellowship of OM, and
thousands of them are serving Christ in almost
every nation in the world today, with almost
every major mission society of any size.
One woman took God at his word, and
I tell you, it was seen in her
home as well, because every single one of
her children, I think she had three or
four, were beautiful examples of the Lord Jesus
Christ.
It was her one son.
Together with that gospel she sent me through
the post, her one son, who I watched
when I was in my first year at
secondary school, and he was a senior, and
I saw a difference in his life.
I want to make it very, very clear,
beloved.
It's not literature that makes the big impact,
it's life.
It's life.
Literature is used.
Literature is important, but the life is more
important, Christ living through you.
You know, it oftentimes amazes me that Christians
run around looking for special blessings when Jesus
Christ is dwelling in their own heart.
I can't think of anything in one way
more stupid.
It's like running around looking for gold when
you've got, you know, a great ton of
it right in your arms or in your
front living room.
That doesn't mean, of course, God can't give
us special blessings.
Of course he can.
But the greatest blessing of all, let us
get it very clear, is Christ living in
you.
And if Christ is reigning and living and
ruling in you, then you are filled with
the Holy Spirit.
I don't think there is competition between Jesus
and the Holy Spirit.
I don't think they're having great arguments in
heaven.
Well, no, no, this church is speaking more
about me.
Oh, but look at these two house groups.
They're definitely talking more about me.
Well, wait a minute, Holy Spirit.
We can't hardly think of anything more ridiculous.
I preach on the subject, be ye filled
with the Spirit, more than almost any other
subject.
But I also love to speak about the
Lordship of Jesus Christ.
I believe, of course, God works in different
people in different ways and God meets us
through different avenues of truth at different stages
in our life.
But basically, we're always talking about the same
thing, God.
God working in you.
And you may see it from Ephesians.
You may see it from Colossians.
And that's wonderful.
We hope tonight you'll see it from the
book of Acts.
Now, let's look at verse 14, one of
the main principles.
We're going to mention a number of principles
as we go through.
And the first one is prayer.
And my burden is that this message will
give us some basic biblical principles about spiritual
life, the life of a leader, but also
prepare us for the prayer meeting, fill us
with faith with the prayer meeting.
Some of you have been around OM for
a while.
I'm always encouraged when longer term people, some
of them who have had to listen to
my voice for years, can manage to put
themselves together and come to a meeting.
Always encourages me.
But you know, the great test of your
prayer life will come when you leave OM.
Now, praise God, it can be tested in
OM, so we hope some of you won't
leave.
But the bigger test for many is when
you leave, there is no longer a movement
organizing prayer meetings for you.
There's no longer a group of people who
basically have this habit in their life, and
you can somehow link with them, even if
you feel weak, and get down to more
serious prayer.
There's nothing wrong with that.
That's the way it should be in the
church.
Every church should be a praying church.
Every church should be having, of course, extended
nights of prayer.
That's a biblical principle you're going to see
again tonight in the book of Acts.
It's not an OM teaching.
Don't go around promoting it as an OM
teaching.
Get it into your life, into your heart.
Practice it as a New Testament principle.
This was one of the first prayer meetings
recorded after Pentecost.
This one actually before Pentecost, verse 14.
These all continued with one accord in prayer
and supplication with the women and Mary, the
mother of Jesus, and with his brethren.
This was a prayer meeting.
This excites me, even 24 years after first
reading it, approximately.
Because we're living in a day when the
prayer meeting is in question.
And I go to churches, and they say,
well, we no longer have a prayer meeting.
We now go and just meet in house
groups.
And I say, well, that's great.
I'm all for house groups.
Always have been.
Do they have intercessory prayer in the house
group?
And you'll find out many of them do
not.
They have some prayer.
They have fellowship.
They have discussion.
They may listen to a tape.
But intercessory prayer, the concept of waiting on
God in prayer, is rapidly disappearing in many,
many places.
I've attended some of the biggest evangelical conferences
and congresses in the world.
I have always been stunned by the lack
of prayer in these great meetings.
I remember the World Congress on Evangelism in
Switzerland, and I think it was finally the
Indians, some other third world people, that started
to, you know, there was a rumbling.
Why don't we do some more praying around
here?
I remember all the red tape I had
to cut through to organize a night of
prayer, even though we had Bakht Singh with
us.
He believes in nights of prayer.
You can be sure of that.
Days of prayer, nights of prayer, weeks of
prayer, prayer and fasting, prayer with food, without
food.
I've never known such a man of prayer
in my own sort of feeble contacts.
We had Bakht Singh, we had a night
of prayer, here we were in Switzerland, you'd
think we could get permission to tarry into
the night, forget it.
It's just not done.
If you're a young person, you get high
on drugs, stay out all night, get drunk,
stay out all night, go to parties.
I used to go to parties every week,
come home four in the morning, five in
the morning, not even come home, go swimming
six in the morning, wake the girl up,
go back and carry on for the next
day.
I was considered quite normal.
They elected me as president of the student
body and called me Mr. Ramsey High School,
that was the name of my school.
But ever since I got filled with the
new wine and wanted to do a little
nocturnal talking to the living God, I've been
given about thirty-five different names over the
years.
And of course, in the early days, people
said some very interesting things.
For example, we had an accident in which
someone, I think, was hurt, and some very
clever person blamed it on the night of
prayer.
They say this is dangerous for young people,
staying up so late, and some of them
have to drive the next day.
Of course, some things are not wise, and
we've made mistakes, but it isn't interesting how
quickly you get pounced on when there's some
problem that takes place after you do something
that's spiritual, or it may seem, of course,
in some people's minds, extreme.
Prayer meetings are biblical.
Churches should be having prayer meetings.
Our teams should be having prayer meetings.
We have extended prayer meetings because there is
so much to pray about.
It's a practical thing.
We have extended prayer meetings just like when
you go out with a girl that you
first meet and you fall in love with.
You don't usually go out for a ten
-minute date.
Can you imagine a fellow meeting a girl
in any society and saying, well, look, you
know, we'd really like to get together, and
the relationship is really roaring, and he says,
well, you know, I've only got ten minutes
tonight, but I'll meet you again next week,
and maybe we'll have fifteen minutes.
You may find that she chooses someone else
who's got a little more time.
Can you imagine if this girl, you're really
pursuing her, boy, she's the one, and there's
something going on in here about her, and
as you're sitting with her after the first
half an hour, you keep looking at your
watch.
If we really love the Lord Jesus, number
one, we'll keep his commandments, and that includes
a lot about prayer, and number two, we'll
want to be, by faith, in his presence.
I think God understands that as human beings
it's often easier for us to fellowship with
one another, to love one another, especially the
one we love in terms of the one
we marry.
I'm sure God doesn't want to put us
in a guilt trip, because at times that
seems to be a lot more real, that
relationship, than our communion with him.
In fact, the one speaks of the other.
They're not in competition.
And I'm convinced this year is a year
in which we must grow in our love
for Jesus.
There's always a danger in leadership conferences, and
in OM conferences in general, and in seminars
and congresses on evangelism, that everything gets more
complicated.
Many a simple believer has gone to Bible
college and seminary, I've seen it many, many
times.
A simple believer in love with Jesus, ready
to go anywhere, ready to obey.
Four years in a little Greek and a
little Hebrew, a little theology, a little Calvinism,
a little Arminianism, a little eschatology, a little
ideology all thrown together, and he's deader than
a dodo when he gets his diploma.
He doesn't know anything more about prayer than
he does eating lightbulbs.
My heart aches for our institutions.
I'll put the institutional aspect of OM into
it.
We're together.
But my heart aches for more reality in
prayer, more discipline in prayer, more Acts 1
.14. Notice they all continued with one accord.
The women were there.
Everybody was there.
And, of course, this was in preparation for
Pentecost.
Pentecost took place in chapter 2.
The Holy Spirit came, like the blowing of
a violent wind, the New International says.
Came from heaven, filled the whole house where
they were sitting.
They saw what seemed to be tongues of
fire that separated and came to rest on
each of them.
All of them were filled with the Holy
Spirit and began to speak in other tongues
as the Spirit enabled them.
And it goes on to tell what God
did at Pentecost.
In the last part of that chapter, we
have the results.
We have a description, which is very important.
Daryl Brother Buck Singh calls this the four
pillars of the Church.
And we need, every one of us, these
four pillars in our life.
Let's look at them in the last part,
chapter 2, quickly because these things often get
covered in other meetings.
Verse 41, Then they that gladly received his
word were baptized, and the same day there
were added unto them about three thousand souls.
Amazing.
I think it's so important to realize, as
it says also in the last verse, the
Lord added to the Church such as should
be saved.
We cannot force people into the Kingdom.
The Lord has to add.
We must be faithful.
We must pray.
We must sow the seed.
We must speak forth.
We are his witnesses.
There is very little emphasis in the New
Testament on soul winning.
You look for it.
You can send me the references.
There's far more emphasis on we are his
witnesses.
I love to see church planting.
We believe in church planting.
But I want to tell you, if you
try to plant a church where the Holy
Spirit is not moving in power, you're going
to become an ill man.
The Lord added to the Church such as
should be saved.
I believe it's important to keep that in
perspective.
We see these four pillars in the next
verse.
And they continued steadfastly in the Apostles' Doctrine.
That's the first pillar.
I was reading a message on this by
John Stott just the other day.
And he says that one of the keys
to renewal is Bible reading and Bible study.
That sounds typical John Stott.
And it's typical God's Word.
Apostles' Doctrine.
It's interesting that John Stott has taken six
months off just to get alone with God,
get in the Word, get away in his
cottage in Wales and maybe one or two
other places.
Of course, he's one of those men that
chose the single life.
Not too many of those today.
They're looked down upon as some kind of
weirdos who didn't quite find what life is
all about.
Well, I will tell you, if Pastor Lucas
in St. Helens and John Stott and William
MacDonald and a few other people like Buck
Singh, he was, I believe, married before his
conversion and lost his wife through that process.
If these people are strange, we sure could
use a few more like them.
God doesn't lead many that way, but he
does lead some.
They have a lot less entanglement.
And I'll tell you especially, because I'm in
that category, if you're an extremist and you're
never going to give enough time to family
and you want to give out tracts all
day and night, win souls day and night
and do the work of God day and
night, great.
Just don't get married.
The moment you get married, your life changes.
You have a new priority.
The Word of God shows that in a
number of places.
Of course, a good way that I've already
mentioned is if you give at least a
few single years to the Lord, then maybe
he'll lead later on.
We're all excited about Brother D'Vochram.
We don't want to ever embarrass anybody.
But Brother D'Vochram is reaching the 35
mark.
Only Graham Scott held out the 35 and
a few others.
And it does seem the Lord has found
D'Vochram his life partner.
I think that's a good thing to say
anyway, because it saves a lot of other
people investigations.
I believe it's just wonderful the way the
Lord puts people together, especially in Operation Mobilization.
The Apostles' doctrine, fellowship, breaking of bread, I
think that also must refer to worship and
in prayer.
Will you get those four pillars in your
life?
Let me read that verse from the New
International Translation, verse 42.
They devoted themselves to the Apostles' teaching and
to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread,
and to prayer.
Look at the results.
Everyone was filled with awe.
Many wonders and miraculous signs were done by
the Apostles.
All the believers were together and had everything
in common.
Selling their possessions, wow, extremism coming into the
early church, and goods.
They gave to anyone as he had need.
Every day they continued to meet together.
Every day.
Tell me how often they meet together in
the average church in the 20th century?
Once a week.
If you go to the prayer meeting, or
an extra meeting, you're sort of considered among
the super dedicated.
And pastors will click their heels and jump
for joy if they get even 20%
into a prayer meeting.
Now it's come in a number of countries,
especially the States, you can't even get people
out on Sunday night.
Anyway, why should you go to church on
Sunday night?
You can sit in your $400 chair, push
an electronic button, get vibration, and listen to
any five different gospel preachers.
The so-called best of the nation, the
cream of the crop, just now with modern
television you don't have to get out of
the chair.
You sit back, one button's for Oral Roberts,
next button for Rex Humbard, next button for
Uzi Qudduzy, and who else?
Don't misunderstand me.
I'm not saying God doesn't use those ministries.
I especially am thrilled when unsaved people tune
in to Rex Humbard and get saved, hallelujah.
But when God's people fail to gather for
prayer, because you don't find many people weeping
in front of their televisions.
I'm sure there are some, especially those who
can't get to church, who can't get to
the prayer meeting.
But none of this electronic church, none of
this kind of thing, whether it's cassette tapes
or whatever other paraphernalia, is a substitute for
gathering together as a people of God, looking
each other in the eye, loving one another,
praying for one another, and engaging in intercession,
breaking of bread.
No doubt they've tried breaking of bread through
television.
I can just imagine, all of you out
there in television land, go into the kitchen
and get some bread.
We're going to have the breaking of bread.
There you sit, all alone in your little
compartment, your little apartments that are getting like
compartments, 16 security locks, hand grenades hanging ready
for throwing.
Not quite that bad yet.
And you can break bread there in front
of the television.
I don't know if that's happened yet.
I'm not saying it necessarily again.
People are bedridden and that's all they can
do.
I'm sure the Lord could use that.
I think you get the point.
They gathered together every day.
They met together every day.
They continued to meet.
I'm not saying that in our society, in
our situation, that is going to always be
possible.
But can't God's people at least meet one
other day in the week apart from Sunday?
So, prayer was the heartbeat of the New
Testament church.
And we see their lives changing as they
prayed together.
Now they were living and they were thrown
into somewhat of a community situation.
There's not enough scripture to sort of say,
well, this is the only way you can
live.
So I don't have any argument with the
preacher who comes along and says, well, look,
they tried this, but they didn't.
Some say they tried it and it didn't
work.
I don't think there's enough proof of that.
That one little verse they take out of
chapter 6 to say this doesn't work, that's
a bit of a stretch.
But I think what I'm willing to accept
is that in other situations, this exact thing,
this exact thing was not necessary.
Expediency, reality, unselfishness, the spirit that we see
here, and the results to varying degrees I
believe is as biblical today as it was
in the first century.
And I believe until the church returns to
at least to some degree to this kind
of radical and unselfish discipleship, we are going
to continue to be a sounding brass and
a tingling symbol in many places of the
world even if we tell the whole world
about it through television.
We need loving, caring, praising, worshiping, praying communities
of believers.
That's what your OM team is supposed to
be.
You're not just an evangelistic team.
You're a unit of praising, worshiping, caring, committed
people.
And if you're a proper team leader, that's
what you'll be leading, not just in evangelism,
but you'll be leading in prayer, and in
praise, and in commitment, and in caring, and
all the rest.
May the Lord have mercy on us in
OM for our many failures.
But he knows our hearts, and he knows
this is the direction we want to go.
We spent two or three hours as leaders
just talking about how we can be more
faithful in caring for the people the Lord
gives us in pastoral work, in counseling.
And we felt terrible about our failures.
I came out of that meeting feeling a
little bit down, thinking of our many failures,
though there was an emphasis on some of
the victories as well.
And what an encouragement.
I went back to my van, and the
first letter I read was from a sister.
I guess I wrote a letter to her
after she made some kind of commitment, or
after she spent a year on OM.
I can't remember.
And she said, your letter was a blessing
to me.
It has proven to me that you're still
concerned about us, even though we're no longer
on Operation Mobilization.
Well we are.
One of the things we talked about today
is how we can be a help to
all people who have been on OM for
a while and are now in the transition.
We're about to make a new proposition, something
that we agree on, that in the future
we're going to always make sure that we
have contact with your local church or the
people who initially prayed you out to be
with us before you get back, to pray
with them, to speak with them on the
phone, and to make sure that when you're
coming back somehow there's something there to come
back to.
Because the transition from a movement like OM,
especially if you've been out in India or
on the ship or in the Middle East,
back into your own hometown, your relatives, auntie
and uncle, and 16 girls that have been
waiting for you to come back so you
can marry them, this can be a heavy
experience, a difficult experience.
For most, there's no girl waiting for them
back there.
Well we are concerned, and the pattern in
the New Testament church was a pattern of
concern.
So next to this basic principle of prayer,
let us put the word concern.
These people were concerned for one another.
That's why they sold their possessions.
It wasn't some brand of political communism.
It was compassion.
It was concern.
Different situations make different demands.
Are we ashamed in OM that one of
the marks of our movement for many years
was the continuous selling of possessions?
Thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars of
people's goods went up for sale.
That was in the earliest days.
We never felt that we should boast about
this, and to this day now, no one
hardly knows what's happening.
It still goes on.
It's between individuals and God.
Can you imagine what would happen for world
evangelism if people would be willing to sell
even something?
If they would start even somewhere?
The evangelical church in America could have the
greatest series of garage sales in the history
of the United States.
It could release tens of millions, hundreds, yay,
hundreds of millions of dollars for world evangelism.
Scripture.
When the Holy Spirit moves, practical things take
place.
If you think for a minute that when
the Holy Spirit of God moves, the main
result is noise, clapping, jumping up and down,
or dancing, you're crazy.
And that is no attack against those things.
But when the Holy Spirit moves in power,
there may be some different kinds of motion,
nothing wrong with a little clapping, hallelujah, but
there'll be a lot more.
Possessions will go up for sale, people will
be cared for, souls will be saved, churches
will be born, and the world will be
evangelized.
The Holy Ghost I read about in the
book of Acts brings a holy go, and
if you're not going somewhere for God, you
barely know the Holy Ghost.
You know maybe some other spirit.
Maybe you met him late in the night
in a tree.
You'd better ask him to depart.
Be filled with the Holy Spirit, a spirit
of compassion, a spirit that gives the go
to the gospel.
How can we separate world evangelism from the
fullness of the Holy Spirit?
How can we put these things into two
compartments?
It's impossible if you read and study the
book of Acts.
Well, let's go on to chapter 3.
Here in chapter 3, we find another little
interesting principle when Peter says to this man
who's asking for money, alms, his testimony in
verse 6.
I wonder how many of you have this
testimony.
Peter is supposedly the first Pope.
I think most of us don't exactly agree
with that.
But if he was the first Pope, he
certainly has a different testimony than the present
Pope.
The Vatican is one of the richest corporations
in the entire world.
I was sitting on a train.
Some of you have heard this story, couldn't
believe it.
A total atheist in charge of investments for
the Vatican.
They invest in everything.
Arms for both sides of the war down
in the Middle East.
Just unbelievable.
Unbelievable.
Peter's testimony was a little bit different.
Silver and gold have I none.
But, such as I have, give I thee
in the name of Jesus of Nazareth, rise
up and walk.
A lot of people would like that second
ministry.
I've often wished and longed for a greater
ministry in the area of healing.
I've prayed for sick people.
I've seen a few healed.
It's always discouraging when a few days later
they get sick again.
It's a subject that gets more mysterious as
the years go by, but I don't give
up praying for the sick.
I was telling the Lord the other day,
God, if it be your will, give me
more grace to see people touched in healing.
Jesus heals.
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and
forevermore.
How in the world can you study the
life of Jesus and not believe that he
heals?
But we overreact.
We get in our little groups and we
hear about somebody that's extreme and so we
overreact.
And instead of finding a balanced healing ministry
and avoiding the circus tactics and just doing
as we can and as we see in
the scriptures, we overreact and we don't have
any prayer for the sick.
It's ridiculous.
It's totally ridiculous.
I had the joy of seeing part one,
two, and three recently of Jesus of Nazareth
on videotape.
I just happened to have them with me.
I want to look at part four.
And I must confess, of course, I'm emotional.
The parts that excite me are, number one,
John the Baptist, played by this very interesting
actor whose name I've forgotten.
And the more interesting parts are when Jesus
Christ heals the demoniac, the blind man.
Let's face it, beloved, the most spectacular part
of Jesus' ministry on this earth were the
healings and the miracles.
That's why some people try to do away
with it all through some dispensational concoction.
I tell you, it's amazing what we will
do with the Bible when there's something we
don't understand or we don't like.
Jesus heals!
Now we're not Jesus.
And our healing record, and all the people
in the world that have ever prayed for
sick people have never had a track record
forgive the Americanism like Jesus.
And of course, we have a lot to
learn, and I'm one of the strongest pushers
of books like Affliction and books like Don't
Waste Your Sorrow, and I believe very strongly
in the other side of the story that
there are times when we, as feeble human
vessels, pray for people or they pray for
themselves and they're not healed.
We see in Hebrews chapter 11, some were
delivered, some did not choose deliverance.
So it's both.
But in this case, Peter had the testimony
and he healed this man.
A lot of people would like to do
that, but how many people in the 20th
century have that testimony?
Silver and gold have I none.
In fact, one of the extremes of our
generation in the affluent society is that people
have twisted the concept of prayer so that
now we can use prayer for our own
prosperity.
One minute we're praying for someone to be
healed, which is scriptural, and God does a
miracle and God does something special.
The next minute we're praying for God to
give us a Cadillac and we're using the
same phraseology and we consider it just as
spiritual.
And this extremism, prosperityism, heresy, has spread, especially
across America, just like a cancer.
And people that don't have new cars and
their business isn't making big money, they're almost
feeling unspiritual, and many times supposedly they are.
And we're told, why should you be some
old dumb old Volkswagen Christian?
You can be a Rolls-Royce Christian!
Just speak a word!
The name of the Lord!
There it is!
Comes in the door, Rolls-Royce.
Peter made behind the wheel.
I am not saying, don't misunderstand, I am
not saying God would never give a man
a Rolls-Royce.
I would have my doubts about it, but
I wouldn't want to, you know.
What I am saying is we can never
turn that into a doctrine that all who
are spiritual prosper financially.
That's what I'm saying.
God has prospered America and Switzerland.
God has prospered some German Christians and some
Swedish Christians.
They will stand before God for what they
do with what the Lord has given them.
That's God's individual working in a nation and
a life.
And some of it's also the devil's working
and it's very hard sometimes to figure out
where it's coming from.
But it's not a doctrine.
And praise God, just in case you think,
some of you who don't understand some of
these things, that I'm taking some type of
hit at Charismatic Brothers and Sisters, because they
have gone into this more than others.
The largest Charismatic Publishing House in America has
put out the strongest book against this.
And the Assembly of God, the biggest Pentecostal
denomination in North America, has put out the
strongest articles against this.
I'd be happy to send you a reprint.
So it has nothing to do necessarily with
people being Pentecostal or Charismatic.
It's something beyond that.
Peter said, silver and gold have I none.
That which I have, I give.
Rise up and walk.
Beloved, take the miraculous out of Christian living.
Take the miraculous out of OM.
Take the miraculous out of the Word of
God, New or Old Testament.
And there is not much left.
Ours is a supernatural faith.
Ours is a biblical faith.
And for far too long, millions have been
confused by dead orthodoxy that refuses to believe
God for the miraculous, that refuses to believe
that God can hear prayer for finance, that
God can break into the Muslim world, and
that God is the same God that fellowshiped
with Moses on the mountain and that met
Peter's heart cry when that man was raised
up in Acts chapter 3.
No, it's not going to all happen overnight.
And in OM, especially as a movement committed
to discipling people and to working with young
Christians, and in the confusing age in which
we live, there will always be things that
may sound very good on paper and even
may sound wonderful when we preach them, but
it doesn't always work out that way living
in Kabul, Afghanistan.
We'll be hearing some requests from Gordon about
that later on.
Well, let's move on.
Let's move on to chapter 4 and just
point out one of the other basic principles
in the book of Acts in verse 12.
Neither is there salvation in any other, for
there is no other name under heaven given
among men whereby we must be saved.
Isn't it amazing that in this early stage
of the church there was this strong word
concerning the lostness of men and the fact
that there is no salvation outside of Jesus
Christ?
What am I doing here?
I used to struggle with that many times
standing in the streets of India.
I've had the joy of distributing hundreds and
hundreds of thousands of tracts in India, and
I would be standing there outside the station
in Bombay.
Sometimes in an hour you could give out
2,000 tracts, and I thought, you know,
is there something wrong with me?
Can I be so narrow, so obnoxious to
believe all these poor people, these beggars, and
all these different people, the rich and the
poor, they're all lost, and that this little
leaf that I give out with the gospel
and the message of Christ is their only
hope?
It's only normal as a human being to
have struggles along that line.
And this is where we must become deeply
convinced that this is God's word, and there
are times when, as it says in Proverbs,
we should not lean to our own understanding.
Don't be afraid of wrestling through this.
But there it is.
That's one of many verses I would love
to share.
That's not my topic tonight.
Neither is there salvation in any other.
I immediately hear John's gospel ringing in my
ear.
Jesus said, I am the way, the truth,
and the life.
No man cometh to the Father but by
me.
If that is not true, then Operation Mobilization
is a mile off the track.
We ought to all go into just finding
fresh water and digging water wells in needy
countries where there's drought, or feeding and starving,
or join the cancer society, or anything, but
attempt to give out a couple hundred million
more pieces of Christian literature declaring this great
message, attempting to preach this message to some
of the most prejudiced people in the entire
world.
This is a biblical principle.
It's a principle that we find in the
teachings of Jesus and that we find in
the book of Acts.
And I hope it's one of your principles.
Men are lost.
We're soldiers.
There's a real war.
And I hope that in these days, some
will begin to live that way to a
greater degree.
I love to talk about Acts 431 because
it's a great prayer meeting.
When they had prayed, the place was shaken
where they were assembled together, and they were
all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they
spoke the word of God with boldness.
They spoke the word of God with boldness.
Again, we find these people gathered in prayer.
Many of these people must have been at
Pentecost.
They experienced that baptism of the Holy Spirit
at Pentecost.
And yet here we find them in Acts
431 being filled with the Holy Spirit.
It indicates clearly that we need to be
filled again and again with God's Holy Spirit.
And so they went forth, verse 33, with
great power and gave the apostles witness of
the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great
grace was upon them all.
And here it comes again, those unpleasant verses.
Neither was there any among them that lacked
for as many as were possessors of lands
or houses, sold them, and brought the prices
of the things that were sold, and laid
them down at the apostles' feet, and distribution
was made unto every man according as he
had need.
And Joseph, who by the apostles was surnamed
Barnabas, which is being interpreted the son of
consolation.
We need such people.
A Levite of the country of Cyprus.
Having lands, sold it, and brought the money
and laid it at the apostles' feet.
I hope that as we pray for finance
tonight, we will pray specifically for that kind
of thing to take place.
I don't believe the world is going to
be reached unless there are people willing to
sacrifice in this way.
Why is it that the spirit of sacrifice
is so often missing, not only from the
church, but I feel often even in Operation
Mobilization.
The willingness to sacrifice, the willingness to go
the extra mile, the willingness to do without,
the willingness to discipline ourselves a little more
for the sake of the gospel.
Not for the sake of OM, not even
for the sake of our financial crisis, but
for the sake of the gospel.
My heart aches when I think of the
Bible Society crying out for money to buy
paper for the Word of God in Poland.
There is a hunger for the Word of
God in Poland like never before.
And yet they don't have enough Bibles.
Why I would have thought these Christian millionaires
and other wealthy people, upon receiving the first
letter from the Bible Society asking for money,
would just be broken and be sending more
money in than they could ever use.
They'd have to print Bibles for all the
other countries as well.
I happen to know that the Bible Society
is constantly hindered from lack of funds.
Ken Taylor, the founder of Living Bible International,
now also producing the Bible all over the
world, constantly hindered from lack of funds.
Scripture Gift Mission, constantly never have enough money.
Pocket Testament League, never have enough money.
They set a goal in India, seven years
ago, I don't think they got 10%
of the goal yet.
Where is the spirit of sacrifice in the
20th century?
It concerns me, it concerns me.
We see this in the book of Acts.
The other thing, however, I wanted to point
out here, I think is more important, that
part of the message of these men in
the book of Acts was the resurrection of
the Lord Jesus Christ.
I find that today we often preach the
crucifixion and not the resurrection.
We say, I preach Christ crucified, amen, no
problem, but He is also risen.
Our Savior is risen.
He's not on the cross.
I don't like to see these pictures of
Jesus Christ on the cross.
I'm not paranoid about it, it doesn't bother
me in one sense.
I know different people have different ideas.
As long as they know He may be
there on that picture, but He is not
there.
In reality, He has risen.
We serve a risen Savior.
He's in the world today.
We need to preach the resurrection.
Great power was upon the apostles.
They gave witness of the resurrection.
The resurrection is also one of the strongest
intellectual reasons for our faith.
There was a man, I think his name
was Morrison, went out to disprove the resurrection.
He ended up writing a book proving the
resurrection.
I hope that you will study the resurrection
and realize that Jesus Christ rose from the
dead.
Chapter 5, we have the story of Ananias
and Sapphira, something I talk about in my
little booklet, Pseudo-Discipleship, a message I gave
at one of these conferences about 15 years
ago.
That book, Revolution of Love and Balance, if
you don't have a copy, please take one
free from the book table if you're willing
to read it, at least until the copies
run out.
I would like to get those messages out.
We won't have time to always give them
at every conference.
We see something here in this chapter that's
very, very important.
We see God's hatred for sin, especially the
sin of hypocrisy.
Their sin was not that they did not
sell their lands.
They had their choice whether to do that
or not.
That's clearly brought out in the text.
The sin was that they were giving a
totally false impression.
I don't believe God always judges even that
same kind of sin in the exact same
way in our day.
I believe there'd be a lot of people
dead in the churches.
I believe God just allowed this as a
special event to somehow drive into our hearts
and to give us an example that he
hates sin, that sin will be judged, not
always in the same way.
Then mighty miracles were done at Jerusalem.
Their sin got dealt with in the camp
of God, and there was another whole mighty
move of the Spirit of God, and at
the hands of the apostles many signs and
wonders were wrought among the people.
Notice verse 14.
And believers were the more added to the
Lord.
That's good, isn't it?
Change of vocabulary.
One minute they're added to the church, the
next minute they're added to the Lord.
I'm sure it should be always both.
A multitude, both men and women.
Then when there was a great persecution, they
were thrown in a common prison, and that's
another basic principle of the book of Acts
and of spiritual leadership, a willingness to suffer
for Christ.
You don't have to figure out how you're
going to do it, whether you're going to
be able to endure it.
When I think about that, I just get
very frightened.
I think, Lord, I'm a coward, I'll never
make it.
But I'm willing.
And I believe that at the time, God
will give grace.
He will not give you grace tonight for
being in prison.
Tonight, he's going to give you grace simply
to pray here.
You say, man, that's enough.
I believe we must prepare for suffering.
It may not come, we don't know.
There are some very strong verses, like all
who live piously in Christ Jesus will suffer.
There are a lot of illustrations, all of
the book of Acts.
People are suffering, people are being beaten, people
are in jail.
Has this all gone?
It hasn't gone in Russia, hasn't gone in
China, hasn't gone in Afghanistan.
The very fact that we're out of prison,
the very fact that we have some means
at our disposal, vehicles, literature, the very fact
that we have our health and our freedom,
I believe means that there is a greater
responsibility on us to do something about the
world situation.
There may be a day when God puts
you in prison and there's little you'll do
but pray, that will be enough.
But we're not in that situation now.
Let us take advantage of these great days
in which we live.
Let's take advantage of a fleet of three
to four hundred vehicles that can move us
from here across the world in a month's
time.
Let's take advantage of two miracle ships that
can reach millions of souls with the gospel
of Jesus Christ.
Why is O.M. limping in 1981?
And we are limping.
And I could show you a hundred letters
to prove that we're limping.
And I could talk to you about a
lot of sin in O.M. that will
prove that we're limping.
And a lot of murmuring and a lot
of other things that are not right.
We are limping as a movement.
Yes, God is using us.
The Holy Spirit has not departed from us.
But we are not nearly fulfilling what God
would have us do.
I was reading a writer who said that
the great sin of us in the western
world is the sin of unpotentiality.
And in O.M. we are failing to
use the God-given potential that is upon
us and in us by His Holy Spirit.
And by all that He's given us in
terms of vehicles and literature and money and
headquarters and manpower.
Satan is so clever.
He keeps people for 20 or 30 years
from discovering their own spiritual gift.
God has given you gifts.
Are you going to wait until it falls
out of the roof, knocks you out at
60 years of age?
Oh, well, I do have a gift to
teach the Word of God after all.
You think I can give my testimony?
Two years later the guy's dead.
Well, he discovered his spiritual gift.
Now when you're young, ask God to show
you something of the gift and the potential
He has given you.
And by yielding to Him and by crucified
living and by the fullness of the Holy
Spirit, allow that gift to be used to
touch the lives of those around you.
To bring renewal to your church and blessing
to this feeble movement that you're going to
take part in this year.
You know one of the main reasons O
.M.'s limping?
Everybody comes in expecting to be ministered unto.
This is the big thing.
We hear it's a training work, so we
think, well, we've just come and we're going
to be trained.
And it's really, it almost gets to Malcolm
Muggeridge's illustration of the liberals coming out of
a pub at 11 o'clock at night,
all leaning on each other.
Nobody stands, they all fall over.
Read that little leaflet, not to be ministered
unto.
God has given most of you more already
than many Christians have in years.
And I believe, though we want to minister
to you, that you're going to grow far
more if you don't think in terms of
what you can get, what you can give.
Never from the age of 17 was I
running around thinking of what I could get.
Do you know the main reason I went
to Bible school?
I wanted to witness for Christ in Chicago.
I had a burden to turn Chicago upside
down for Christ, and I found there was
a Bible school there, and I figured I'd
better get some Bible in the process.
Admittedly, God doesn't lead everybody that way.
You know, I mean, when God sees someone
who's half crazy, he uses a different strategy.
But the reason I got so much out
of those two years at Moody, that's when
the work, in a sense, had any degree
of birth.
It just began before that, but most of
the early growth took place then.
I believe one of the reasons is my
heart was just wanting to give, wanting to
minister, wanting to help you.
I had so much yet to receive myself.
I haven't got time to go down that
road any longer.
I want us to just look over at
chapter 6 very quickly, where we have this
emphasis on disciples.
Chapter 6, verse 1.
In those days when the number of the
disciples was multiplied.
No matter how much I preach, shows the
great influence I have.
No matter how much I preach against decisions,
oh, Embers, run around all year getting decisions
and writing about it.
Well, at least we never give up.
I don't believe that God has called us
to run around gathering decisions for Christ.
We are to make disciples.
And if we use the term decision, it
should at least have clarification.
We are not saying that we believe all
these people are now converted because they made
some little decision in some little meeting we
had.
We don't find this.
I don't believe in the New Testament.
The number of disciples multiplied.
That doesn't mean we don't call on people
to trust Christ, repent of sin, to stand
or come forward.
I'm not speaking against Billy Graham and the
invitation.
I think we need more invitations.
Maybe I'll give one tonight.
Someone might get saved.
Don't think it doesn't happen in OM leadership
conferences.
But the decision is not enough.
The fruit must come.
The reality must come.
The revolution must come.
And if it doesn't, nothing happened.
Stillbirth.
Abortion.
Call it whatever you want.
Of course, when a person does make a
decision or a profession of faith, we don't,
you know, just lay some heavy negative thing
on him.
We give him hope.
We work with him.
Pray with him.
And in time, it will be seen, hopefully,
that he has been truly born again, become
a true Christian, a believer, a disciple.
I don't want people to go extreme on
that.
Some books do.
Condemning everybody who's using any kind of evangelism
that they feel is superficial, I want to
be the first one to acknowledge that some
of the most glorious conversions I've ever seen
were through superficial evangelism.
And I just want to say to any
of you who may be very strong against
easy-believism, maybe you read the new leaflet
we just published by William MacDonald, remember one
thing.
You may have your preferences to how the
word should be preached, how people should be
one to Christ, but no matter what, God
is greater, and he can use some of
the feeblest efforts.
God has used the four spiritual laws.
God has used people who maybe had some
wrong ideas, and I wouldn't agree with, but
God has used them.
If I didn't believe God could use us
despite our mistakes and weaknesses and some of
the wrong terminology and sometimes even the wrong
theology, if I didn't believe God could still
use us, I would really get depressed.
I don't think I could go on.
God is greater.
In verse 7, the word of God increased.
The number of disciples multiplied in Jerusalem.
Greatly and a great company of priests were
obedient to the faith.
And then there's Stephen out in the open
air being martyred.
And I believe it is another basic New
Testament and biblical principle that we ought to
take the gospel out into the highways and
the hedges and the streets.
Some of you, this summer was the first
time out into the streets.
Great.
I love street evangelism.
I love to stand outside Bromley South Station.
And when you're older, people sometimes wonder even
more what you're doing there and give out
the word of God and talk to people
about Christ.
And I get inspired when I read of
Stephen being martyred, preaching in the open air.
Some of you go to the ships and
go to some of the other ministries are
going to be able to get an open
air ministry.
That's exciting.
Many of the countries, unfortunately, we work in,
that's not very positive.
Low profile evangelism has many, many, many obstacles,
but it also is effective.
Philip is an example of that.
In chapter 8, notice how the believers were
scattered throughout Judea and Samaria.
The Lord has his way of getting the
missionaries out.
Verse 4.
Therefore, they were scattered abroad, went everywhere preaching
the word.
Preaching the word.
We are not just called to distribute literature.
I'm sure they would have done that if
they had literature in that day.
They had a few manuscripts.
But we are called to preach the word.
It was in about the third year in
O.M. of our birth that I became
more and more convinced that preaching the word
was, well, I believed at that time at
least more important certainly than giving out literature.
Wesley said it was of equal importance.
I won't argue that point.
We need more preachers.
Would you be willing for the Spirit of
God to give you a gift of ministering
the word in public?
Would you be willing to study the word
of God more, to wait on God, to
read, to be ready?
There is a great need for men who
can teach and preach the word of God.
And one of the greatest needs today, and
it's one of the greatest needs in O
.M., are for people who can preach evangelistically.
People who can preach the gospel to the
lost.
And I want to testify as someone who
preaches about 600 times a year that preaching
to God's people is a Sunday school picnic
next to preaching to the lost.
I've preached to Muslims in Bombay.
I've preached to atheists and agnostics.
I've preached, and still do, often to the
lost.
It's always more difficult than preaching to God's
people.
Preaching to God's people isn't always easy, don't
get me wrong.
But I tell you, when you have people
out there that are ready to spit on
you, ready to cut you down, who can
out-argue you, who have all kinds of
prejudices, you're in something that is going to
give you a few vibrations.
You can ask Peter Maiden, he does some
of this.
You can ask Nigel Lee, he does some
of this.
Mickey Walker has committed this.
I am praying for 50 men in O
.M. committed to preaching evangelism.
We're never going to reach the world through
just literature.
We're never going to reach the world through
just personal work.
We need anointed men who can stand in
the university, or who can stand in the
street and preach with power and see men
saved.
That's the way God did it in the
book of Acts, and He hasn't changed.
Some of you, as you wait upon God,
as you experience the cross, as you let
the Holy Spirit have greater preeminence in your
life, you will find yourself preaching the gospel.
You will find one of the most fulfilling,
exciting, soul-stimulating ministries that any man or
woman could ever be thrown into.
Preaching Jesus Christ, calling men to repent, just
as Stephen, just as Philip, just as these
men who went out into the open air
and all ended up in prison.
That can happen to you as well.
You get the wonderful prison ministries.
There is a neglect of evangelistic spirit anointed
preaching in the church, and it is true
in O.M. as well.
And even a number of our leaders, when
we try to get them to preach an
evangelistic message, they say, that's not my gift.
I've been looking in my Bible to see,
was this a special gift they had to
have?
It seems to me that most people who
have a gift to speak to God's people
have at least some gift, if not then
grace, to also preach to the lost.
And if we're not willing to do it,
then a lot of people aren't going to
hear the gospel.
Well, I could go on a long time,
but I want to pray.
That's what we've seen in the book of
Acts.
There are many other verses.
It would be here all night if we
tried to get to them.
Let's stand and sing together.