Above all, really just give thanks to the
Lord for His mercy to us over this
past year and past years.
It's far more difficult than it ever has
been before for many of these men to
be here as their men, quite a few
of them with families, children in school.
That's why many of the wives are no
longer also able to come.
Last year they had a married women's special
conference and even some of the men stayed
to take care of the children and it
was a great time that they had together.
And I can assure you that if it
wasn't for committed women, many of these men
would not even be in the ministry that
they're in.
I'd like you to look in the book
of Psalms to chapter 133.
It says in verse 1, Behold how good
and how pleasant it is for the brethren
to dwell together in unity.
This is such an important thing in this
work.
And we tried to emphasize this in the
leaders conference.
The importance of relationships.
The importance of fellowship.
The importance of this conference in really getting
to know one another.
And I always feel that getting to know
some is an expression of your desire to
get to know all, even though of course
that's totally impossible.
For the next three days many of us
as leaders will not be with you.
We'll be retreating down the road for a
13 hour a day conference to face very
squarely some of our own mistakes, some of
our sins, some of the problems in this
work.
I've seen in these conferences over the past
years that OM leaders are not afraid to
question anything.
And you can be sure our hearts are
very exercised concerning some of our weaknesses, some
of the areas of need, some of our
failures, and sometimes of course the sin that
gets in even to the work of God.
I've found it to be an enormous privilege
and in some ways an easy task to
work with a group of men so like
minded as the men some of whom you've
met tonight.
Men many of whom have been a great
and continual encouragement in my own life.
Men who I have discovered through getting to
know them personally who do live out to
a large degree the principles that this work
stands for.
And that's true of the women as well.
I always feel that some very important people
get left out when we have introductions like
this.
Because we know in God's work especially everyone
is important.
And like everything we do in life there's
always some risks.
And the risk we took tonight is that
someone in fact quite a few we failed
to introduce mainly because they aren't here.
And the devil is going to attack our
relationship.
Every real relationship you ever have in life
will be attacked by the evil one.
And it will be tested also due to
your own human weaknesses and failings.
I have quite a few weaknesses in my
life.
And I think the greatest ministry has come
from my wife who so totally accepts me
even in times of failure or weakness or
sin.
Not the scandalous sin that would make the
Gospel Gazette but just sin that God hates.
Like an unkind word
or a thoughtless act or a selfish move
and many other things as well.
So our relationships will be tested.
I think you've been amazed as I always
have been at the great cross-section of
men and women that God has called to
help lead this work.
That they are working together to
the degree that they are is a miracle
of God and a great answer to prayer.
And I believe one of the reasons for
it are the tens of thousands perhaps more
than a hundred thousand people who are continually
interceding for these men and women.
I appreciated your prayers for the meeting I
was in last night up in Southport.
There were about a thousand people there.
One of the humbling things is to stand
at the door of the church shaking hands
which is harder than preaching and meet people
who say they've been praying for you for
15 years regularly.
Some every day.
And I believe that's the power behind the
leadership of this work.
And I hope you will be involved in
praying for these men and women.
And many others who are in training and
who are coming up into places of leadership
in the work.
Every year it's a joy to see at
least one major leader let out from OM
to join another fellowship and take up a
major responsibility in that fellowship.
Last year God let Ron Penney out and
I heard today he's in such a major
and strategic position of leadership in the Bible
Society in India.
We believe we are members of the body
of Christ.
I just said well I'm always saying goodbye
to people.
And sometimes it's not easy.
But when we keep the vision of the
Lord then it's a joy to see men
moving out and moving into other strategic ministries.
The leader of the Manchester office has left
to go to seminary and probably into the
pastorate in the free church in Scotland.
And one of the things that's very meaningful
to many of us is the fellowship we
have with what some people call XOMers all
over the world.
To see how God is using them.
To see many of them moving into strategic
positions in their mission organization.
And to see the influence.
As some of these principles get re-emphasized
and put into practice in different places.
And our relationship with people outside of OM
is often just as important as relationships within
the fellowship.
The devil is going to attack however these
relationships.
Very quickly what are some of the ways
the devil attacks?
Number one he uses our emotions.
Our emotions have tremendous capacity to trick us,
to deceive us.
And I hope we will become aware of
this.
As we move forward in this kind of
work.
Our emotions change.
We may feel rejection at a particular time.
Maybe because some freak unpredictable thing takes place.
And the devil will try to use that
feeling of rejection to bring division.
Even permanent division.
Another thing that the devil uses is our
tendency to read into situations and words things
that are not there.
Or maybe they were there but the person
has already realized that it wasn't right and
he has forgotten it.
It's past.
This is very important.
This is linked with this danger of being
too idealistic.
The devil uses our idealism to destroy relationships.
We may like someone.
We get a linking with him.
We lift him up in our thinking.
Then we get to live with him.
We see his weaknesses.
Or her weaknesses.
We're disappointed.
He's not the man we thought he was.
She's not the woman he thought she was.
And so then a depression can come in.
Or other emotions.
And the foundation of unity begins to shake.
Of course so much disunity and breaking down
of relationships is linked with the pride.
The wretched pride that so easily can come
into our hearts.
Or if we could only
understand some of these things and then immediately
repent and claim the power of God when
we see these things creeping in and destroying
any relationship.
Then another thing that destroys relationships is a
lack of time.
It takes time to maintain a relationship.
We're all supposed to be winning other people
to Christ.
When you lead a man to Christ, there's
someone else who needs some of your time.
You only have so many chunks of time
in a day.
Nobody has any more or any less than
anybody else.
This is why to maintain relationships, especially in
a movement like this, every man must exercise
faith and believe the best about other men
that he may not get time with, even
though he would like to.
All my life I've wanted to have even
five minutes with my own spiritual father.
25 years I've been waiting.
I've never even met him yet.
Of course his name is Billy Graham.
He's got quite a few spiritual children.
And I personally don't even feel that I
should waste his time.
Probably I've had a lot of wrong emotions
trying to wrestle at times with my spiritual
father.
But one of the wonderful things is that
we are going to be, all of us,
for all of eternity together in heaven.
So at times we're going to have to
be willing to sacrifice even things we would
like to do here with one another in
order to get on with the job that
God has given us to evangelize the world,
because that's going to be all over for
most of us very soon.
Another thing that brings
disunity is the fact that we actually do
believe different things.
We have to face facts.
There are areas where we just do not
agree and no amount of talking, in some
cases, is going to cause us to agree.
Even if you could get the many hours,
which often you can't, to sort of come
together on one subject, sometimes, even if you
could, you still would not come out agreeing.
I think the way quite a few leaders
have survived with me is they've just agreed
to disagree and then get on with the
job, kept their eyes on Jesus.
There are legitimate differences in theology among the
leaders in this work.
We have some who lean toward a more
Calvinistic position.
We have quite a few who lean toward
an Arminian position.
There are many people that would tell you
right there, that's completely crazy, these two groups
cannot work together, so forget it.
And there are people that would tell you
right there, Calvinists and Arminians cannot work together,
so forget it.
And this is just one of the many
groups where unfortunately there is not one opinion.
And I would like to put this in
front of the beginners, where they all have
different opinions.
And one exists not through uniformity, or the
means of uniformity, but through different activities and
through the miracle of the Holy Spirit.
And it is this kind of unity that
we see in us, it is the stereotypical
uniformity, which is not in contact with the
Holy Spirit.
And that's the pressure of the work.
You see, there is work to be done.
This conference generates masses of work for many
people.
As we think, some of us are already
recruiting, I am already recruiting for next summer.
Many of us, by the nature of this
work, must stay one year ahead, always one
year ahead, and at the same time, we've
got to live in the present.
Sometimes the pressure gets too great, we don't
get enough rest, we have our human limitations,
and under that pressure, things get said that
should not be said.
And then the devil tries to take what
was said under pressure, and spread it around,
and use it to divide and destroy the
troops, or the work of God.
If Paul and Barnabas could have a division,
I'm sure such things can happen within any
work of God.
As we've observed over the past two decades
in this work, we've seen that the devil
will go to almost any end to slow
down the work, and to cripple the leadership.
One of the biggest things that divides is
just straight forward sin.
1 John chapter 2, we're told to sin,
but then we're told what to do if
we do sin.
I'm sure some of my sins have been
a great hindrance to this work.
Remember, as believers, we can sin with our
minds.
This in turn hinders our prayer life.
And if our prayer life is hindered, then
anything can happen.
And sometimes it does.
Another thing that brings confusion and disunity, perhaps
one of the biggest of all, the sins
of the tongue.
I believe this at times has been one
of the greatest marks of the devil getting
into some OM situations.
The sins of the tongue.
There's not time to read you those verses
in James, about the tongue.
And in almost every chapter in the book
of Proverbs, it speaks about the sins of
the tongue.
I'll never forget reading Billy Graham's sermon as
a young baby Christ, about the sins of
the tongue, and it became one of the
greatest goals in my life, still not totally
fulfilled, to have absolute control over the tongue
at all times.
And of course, I know most of you
have this same conviction.
You want a spirit-controlled tongue.
As we look into or look forward to
another year, on a practical level, we are
faced with many problems.
Perhaps more than I've ever seen or known
in my 20 years in this work.
Humanly speaking, the work has expanded too quickly.
The offices cannot keep up.
Leaders tend to be overworked, not giving enough
time to family, to study, to other areas
to bring spiritual balance into their lives.
Though there are some churches wonderfully behind the
work, great majority of churches remain, at least
practically speaking, indifferent to what we are wanting
to do, even though they may have young
people actually on the crusade.
The indifference of so many of God's people
has perhaps been the greatest struggle of my
whole spiritual life, and at times has almost
totally overwhelmed me and dragged me into depression.
Because of this indifference and lack of vision
and practical concern for world missions, and all
the unbelief and materialism that moves with it,
I cannot see anything but a hard and
difficult road ahead for any who would trod
in the steps of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I find that when I really get into
the heart of the battle, for every encouragement
there are five discouragements.
And the way to survive is you better
meditate a little more on the encouragements.
And keeping your eyes upon the Lord Himself.
So we are faced with some severe growing
pains within OM at this time.
In some cases even the health of a
leader and a leaderess.
Has been affected.
Because they are very linked together.
And this is why we so desperately need
to band together in these days.
Even though we may not agree on every
point.
Even though at times we may be tempted
to quit or to give up.
We need to take God's Word.
With our eyes on the Lord.
Our hands on the plow.
And go forward.
Together.
Of one heart, of one mind.
Believing the Lord will give the victory.
I hope you'll pray for us during these
three days.
As we will be praying for you.
As we have a night of prayer.
As we are ministered to by a guest
speaker from outside the work.
And trust that his words will be strong
to our own hearts.
And I believe when we return next Monday.
There will be a difference.
And victories will have been won.
No, the road ahead, if you're going to
join OM, will not be smooth.
But I'd rather be with Jesus on a
rough road.
Than with the devil on the greatest motorway
in the world.
So let's band together.
Let us pray.