I want to share with you this morning
on this whole principle of survivalship.
It used to be that I only spoke
about discipleship, of course there are many related
subjects, but after about 10 or 15 or
more years in missionary work, evangelism, discipleship training,
the Lord caused me to see the need
to speak a lot about spiritual balance, and
then caused me to see the need to
speak about survivalship.
That may be a new term for some
of you, but really it's an aspect of
discipleship.
It's linked with perseverance.
We see so many people who start out.
In fact, there's no greater agony that has
come to my own heart than to see
so many start out with a great flair
in their Christian life, often even criticizing others
who they don't feel are as dedicated, and
then to see them just go downhill themselves.
So I want to speak to you about
survivalship.
Also, during these days together, you may have
heard some pretty heavy messages and you're wilting
under the Word of God, because of course
the commands and the demands of Christ are
very strong.
The Sermon on the Mount and the challenges
that we've been looking at or receiving from
God's Word are very, very strong.
And in ourselves, we cannot live this way.
We must learn how to draw upon the
resources of God.
Sometimes we give the idea that the victorious
life, you know, we're always up here, sort
of as it says in the Old Testament,
on the wings of eagles.
But I think also the plotting aspect is
included in the victorious life.
Times when we are struggling, we're battling, we
may be wounded, but we're still going on.
With this ship, we hope that most of
the time we're going to be on the
main ship, moving through the water.
But there may come a time when we
will have to take to the lightboats.
And each man will have to do his
part.
It will be survival.
And I'm convinced that in our Christian life,
there are times when we are in the
lightboats.
We're not always in the mainstream of blessing
with, you know, people being converted and the
joy of the Lord flowing out of us.
There are times when we are in the
lightboats.
It's survival.
We're about to be destroyed.
It's an emergency situation.
A.W. Tozer said the whole world is
an emergency situation.
And when we study verses about the spiritual
warfare, we see verses like in Corinthians where
it says, the weapons of our warfare are
not carnal but mighty unto God to the
pulling down of strongholds.
It's not always in the warfare, on the
advance, up the enemy beaches, taking enemy territory.
There is legitimate retreat in warfare, regrouping to
reattack.
This is why in our Christian life we
need to know something about rest, something about
relaxation, something about these principles of survival.
Allow me to share some of these with
you at this time.
I know as you just write down perhaps
just the main headings and then you restudy
your New Testament, you will find these principles
going through the whole of the New Testament.
I think one of the most encouraging things
that I've experienced in the work of OM
over these past 20 or more years is
that very few of our leaders who have
come to understand these principles are not going
on today.
Even people who have graduated from OM are
working with many different Christian groups all over
the world are going on.
And I believe that is proof that this
is not just talk.
These are basic biblical principles that when we
put into practice are going to enable us
to persevere and not just for a year
or two.
The first principle of survival that I have
listed is that as a believer and especially
as a young person and the younger we
learn this the better, we need to really
know that we are accepted and forgiven.
Ephesians 1.6 is a very important verse
that has helped me to understand this principle
of acceptance.
To the praise of the glory of His
grace through which He hath made us accepted
in the Beloved.
We are accepted in the Beloved.
We are accepted of God.
Now it is easy to say that.
But in so many people that we are
involved in counseling we find that they have
emotional difficulties.
This is a very real thing.
And people that come into OM into our
training programs in various parts of the world
it is not because they are emotional giants.
It is not because they are God's elite.
But many who come into OM are wounded
people emotionally.
Some come from broken homes.
Others come from many years of rejection and
lack of love.
And so we try to bring out this
principle of acceptance.
Of accepting oneself.
And of knowing that we are really accepted
of God.
Many years ago a young man came to
speak at an OM conference.
We were very generous.
This was back in the States.
And we gave this man an hour.
You know, our conferences, you have to count
each hour.
And he spoke about acceptance of self.
He spoke about meditation on the Word of
God.
How this could change our inner being.
That man was Bill Gothard.
Today probably the Bible teacher that receives and
has the greatest crowds many times, six day
seminars, 25,000 people.
And he has over 40 seminars a year.
A man, by the way, who has a
real heart linking with Operation Mobilization.
He puts a strong emphasis on this.
Many people have been helped through it.
So many people we counsel have a low
image of themselves.
Maybe it's because their parents were always using
the carrot approach.
I don't know if in your country you
use the carrot approach.
But we have this illustration of always holding
the carrot in front of someone.
Like you hold it in front of a
rabbit.
Because the rabbits love carrots.
And so it'll keep following the carrot.
Then you never really give it to him.
Just lead him around.
And some of us have always, perhaps we've
been reared in an atmosphere where no matter
how well we did in an exam, our
parents always felt we should have done better.
No matter how much we did around the
house, it wasn't good enough.
We were never up to the standard that
our parents were inflicting upon us.
And so this has helped to contribute to
a very low image.
So many young people were involved in counseling.
I personally spend more time in counseling than
I do in preaching.
And I preach about 600 times a year.
So you can imagine there's a little time
given to counseling.
But so many have a negative view of
themselves.
Even Christian leaders because of their emotional hang
-ups, their attacking of other people, their inability
to relate to other people can be traced
right back to their home, right back to
the fact that never really came to terms
with themselves.
And accepted not only their strong points but
their weak points.
And developed a proper image of themselves.
You say, what's the biblical basis for this?
I'll give you the strongest biblical basis you
can get.
Love your neighbor as you love yourself.
That's a testament.
Because if this verse indicates that if you
don't have a healthy respect for yourself, you're
not going to be able to love your
neighbor.
The greatest love relationships you begin with people
will probably eventually collapse because you have a
wrong view and an unhealthy view of yourself
and acceptance of yourself.
It's something that we have to grow in.
You're not going to get this by revelation
overnight.
No matter how mature we are in Christ,
there are times when we will feel inadequate
and when we will feel some of these
emotional difficulties.
It's one thing to suffer from emotional difficulties
from time to time.
It's another thing to be just captured by
our emotions and to live as a slave
to our emotions and to our inability to
rise up and be the men and women
that God wants us to be by His
Holy Spirit.
The second principle of survival is the principle
of learning to cast every care upon Him.
1 Peter 5.7 Casting all your care
upon Him because He cares for you.
This is a message I need almost every
day 24 years after coming to Jesus Christ.
Sometimes the evangelists give us the idea that
when we come to Christ all of our
burdens suddenly flip off our back and Jesus
carries them away to the hills.
Some of you know very well the very
morning after your conversion you started putting some
of the burdens back on your own shoulders.
You may have a great experience.
Recommit your life.
Cast every care upon the Lord and the
very next morning you start taking it back
again.
We may say with all of our heart
I am crucified with Christ but we are
beginning to feel the pain of what it
is to be identified with the death of
Jesus Christ.
And a lot of God's people are spending
much time trying to take the nails out.
They want the victory.
They want to be crucified with Christ but
they don't want often the mental and emotional
suffering that sometimes comes when we walk the
Calvary Road.
We've got to learn what it is to
really cast our burden upon the Lord.
At the same time please understand that one
of the reasons we're sharing this message this
morning and this is especially true of all
of you crew members who are here listening
to me and leaders from different parts of
the work is not just that you can
listen to another message.
Every OM leader should be teaching this to
every one of the persons that he is
involved in training and discipling.
We should be communicating this message to the
churches.
The message of OM is not just evangelize.
No.
It's not just world vision or prayer.
This also, what we're sharing this morning is
as much a part of the OM message
as anything else.
And without this aspect the rest goes to
nothing because we can't do it.
We've not learned the principles of drawing on
God's grace.
Some people give the idea that drawing upon
God's grace is just praying a morning prayer.
That's just somewhat superstitious.
If I don't have my quiet time the
devil is going to get in.
And also it's amazing in prayer meetings how
we call on the Lord to come down.
The presence of the Lord.
The Lord is in us if we are
believers.
We are indwelt by the Holy Spirit.
If anything we need to see this released
in reality rather than expecting the Lord to
come down.
Because depending on how the planet is turning
we need to pray that the Lord will
come up.
We get interesting concepts and sometimes it disturbs
us when people challenge them.
There are many verses that are very important
in this whole area of worry and there
are some excellent books.
Books by Tim LaHaye, books by John Haggai
on how to deal with worry.
But just look with me at Philippians 4
.6. And
many of these verses need to be memorized
because the word has a cleansing power.
Be anxious for nothing but in everything by
prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests
be made known unto God.
The biggest test for many people who have
been trained in the work of OM is
when they leave.
This is the biggest test because OM in
many countries can be a very, very secure
lovely family to be a part of.
Now some people don't think that.
But I tell you when you get thrown
out on your own and it's just you
and God you will discover your real theology.
You may find that in the head you're
a theist but practically speaking you're an atheist.
Your God is just as dead as the
man who's never trusted because he can't answer
prayer he can't supply your needs and you'll
find that your time in OM because you've
refused to take God at his word has
turned you in to an emotional and spiritual
cripple.
I've seen this.
This is why at times I have to
be hard on people in my teaching and
preaching to make sure they're not leaning on
OM.
Many of you listening watching this video are
with other groups and other organizations and I
would warn you not to put your confidence
in men not to put your confidence in
organizations but to put your confidence in the
living God.
There are many, many great men who have
learned these principles that we emphasize in OM
that have never been on Operation Mobilization I
can assure you.
They found the Bible and they studied it.
Was it the great revival leader who said,
if you read the Bible, read it, and
believe it the world will shake.
That's what we need.
And the devil, of course is very, very
effective at using worry.
Worry is a powerful force.
Fear is even more powerful.
And we've got to learn to cast these
things upon God.
I have tremendous bouts in my life with
fear.
And I don't think is made in the
absence of these things, great faith is made
as we get these things, get a hold
of them by faith, and so to speak,
wrestle them to the floor.
And we do wrestle against principalities and powers.
How important it is to know what it
is to be anxious for nothing, but in
everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let
your requests be made known unto God.
And think of the teaching of Jesus Christ
in the Sermon on the Mount.
Why are you worrying about your life?
Look at the lilies.
What a sense of humor he had.
Look at the birds.
Aren't you better than a bird?
And it's so wonderful to be cast upon
God.
And it's exciting to read the life story
of men like Sajas Sundar Singh and others,
so many others, so many others, many that
never made any fame, who knew what it
was to walk by faith.
And of course, it means we've got to
deal with worry.
We've got to deal with fear.
We've got to cast every care upon him,
and it's a regular event.
I find that I get tortured by vain
imaginations.
I have a very, very vivid imagination.
I almost never sleep without dreaming.
It's almost unheard of.
Every night I dream all kinds of dreams.
I wouldn't even begin to tell you any
of them, but also in the daytime, imaginations.
Some of it isn't too pleasant.
And I've learned to cut off the flow
early in its stage.
Once you know your own mind, you know
what way your mind is beginning to go,
why let it go that way?
What good is it going to do to
let your mind run down that road, run
down this road, run into the future?
What's going to happen to me this day?
What's going to...
Cut it off early and worship the Lord.
Because you see, if you keep engaging in
this kind of worry and vain imagination, the
harder it gets to stop.
It's like a dripping faucet.
It just gets more and more and more.
Well, we need to move on.
Thirdly, the third principle of survival is making
God your goal.
Isn't it interesting how we sing with such
great excitement, Seek ye first the kingdom of
God.
I want to tell you, it's easier to
sing that than it is to live it.
To put that one verse into practice is
quite a challenge.
To seek first the kingdom of God.
So easy to put other things first.
This is why oftentimes our quiet times get
neglected.
One of the toughest things on ship life
is to get a quiet time.
I find the ship scheduled very hard.
Normally in Bromley, I work late into the
night, so I sleep in till 6.30
every morning.
That's sleeping in.
But you see, we don't start our day
full blast until 9 o'clock or quarter
to nine.
Now we can't do that on a ship,
which means if you're going to survive on
this ship, you cannot get up at 6
.30. You've got to get up at 6
or 5.30. That's hard.
It means you've got to get to bed
earlier.
Because I tell you, if you just don't
get that time in the morning.
Now some people are very fast in the
morning.
All of my duties in the morning, including
my morning exercise, I have to do about
eight and a half minutes.
But you see, I haven't shaved yet.
Somehow I've got to get that in with
the next, you know, I'll get somebody that
I'm counseling and we'll go into the room
where I shave and I'll talk to him
while I'm shaving and redeem that time.
Of course, you girls, I realize, girls, it's
going to take more than eight and a
half minutes to get ready in the morning.
I mean, they'll need at least nine.
But whatever your system, whatever your system, if
it takes you more time, fine, just get
up earlier.
Just get up earlier.
But we need that time with God.
God is our goal.
And I think that's so important.
In fact, there's nothing more important than our
relationship with the Lord.
Many times we get caught up in the
work, caught up in the work, rather than
caught up in the Lord.
It's hard to find a balance in that.
Because I can tell you, you find some
people who, you get the idea their main
goal is God.
They want to read the Bible most of
the day or do this or that.
And sometimes you discover after living with them
that the real problem is that they're lazy.
And their spiritual life is a cover-up
for laziness.
And a great man of God once said
this, he finds that laziness creeps into the
ministry quicker than many other professions because ministers
are not responsible often to anyone else in
a direct day-by-day way.
And if any of you hearing my message
and hearing my voice at this time are
not responsible to somebody on a day-by
-day basis, you will be tempted to be
lazy.
It's dangerous when you're not accountable.
It's a wonderful thing to be accountable to
people, to live with people.
And that's important.
Fourthly, the fourth principle is we have to
learn how to be hurt.
We see that in the Sermon on the
Mount, chapter 5, verse 38 and 39.
Verses like, blessed are those who are persecuted
for righteousness sake.
It is basic to survival to learn to
be hurt.
I cannot emphasize this enough.
You will never live on this ship without
being hurt.
People will hurt you.
There will be miscommunications.
People's mouths will flap.
Whatever their nationality.
When I first went to Spain, the first
country I worked in, after Mexico, people said,
be careful of Spanish pride.
Then when I went to England, they warned
me about English pride.
When I went to France, they told me,
boy, this is not like Spain and England.
Watch out for French pride.
Then I was told about Italian pride.
And I was warned when I went to
India, watch out for Indian pride.
There's no such thing as national pride.
It's all the devil's pride.
Each nationality thinks they have a special problem
with pride.
It's universal.
And of course because of pride, we're easily
hurt.
Because of pride, we hurt others.
I don't know if all of you have
the same struggle I have, but perhaps the
greatest struggle in my life has been with
my tongue.
My tongue and my temper.
Self-control is certainly one of the highest
of all virtues.
You see, my tongue goes faster than my
brain.
It's not that I'm not sincere.
It's not that I want to go around
jabbing people with my tongue.
Billy Graham says we smite with our tongue.
We can destroy a man's reputation with our
tongue.
And in some cases, you might as well
kill him.
Because some people, when their reputation has been
destroyed, they've actually gone and committed suicide.
And so control of the tongue is very,
very important.
There's an excellent book on this ship.
Everyone should read it.
Beauty Care for the Tongue.
One thing I've never understood about women is
how much time they need to spend in
the mirror.
Not in the mirror, but in front.
It's amazing.
Beauty care.
And this new series of books, Beauty Care
on the Tongue, Beauty Care on Other Parts
of the Body, is definitely required reading.
But my tongue goes faster than my brain.
So I say something unkind to my wife,
then just seconds later, my brain comes along
and says, you shouldn't have said that.
It's not, it's not kind.
But I already said it.
And if any of you have this difficulty,
I tell you, you got a real problem.
You can go around hurting people.
At the same time, we have to learn
how to be hurt if we're going to
be in the warfare, if we're going to
be Christian leaders.
We must learn not to be so sensitive
by allowing the balm of Gilead to quickly
cover the wounds that other people inflict.
And if we're drawing upon the grace that
is in Jesus Christ, we will not be
so hurt by what other people say.
Because first of all, if we just use
our minds, often people say things they don't
mean.
Don't write down things people say against you.
Sixteen things people are holding against me.
Because it's, and so often these people didn't
even mean it.
They were uptight, they were in a bad
mood.
Maybe their wife just, just fed them some
strange porridge or something.
And they, they, the porridge this morning on
the ship was very good.
Don't, don't misunderstand it.
I don't want to hurt the cook.
When I first lived in India, the lady
I lived with served the same cement every
morning.
Every morning.
She thought she was going to fatten me
up.
And of course, she lost hope.
Learn how to be hurt.
Learn to see God's providence behind the ugly
things that come into your life.
God is not just behind the good things,
the blessings.
We are blessing maniacs in some countries.
We'll travel six thousand miles to a special
meeting to get a blessing.
We won't travel six feet to suffer.
If you have a famous preacher in, and
especially if he can sing or, or, or,
or yodel, or do gospel handstands, or play
an electronic saw, or something else, you know,
the crowds will gather.
You call a prayer meeting just to meet
with the Holy Ghost and the Living God,
you can have the meeting in the church
vestry.
It's true.
And yet we're told that we're called not
only to believe in Him, but to suffer
for His sake.
And some of the suffering will come even
at the hands of God's people.
Even at the hands of people who actually
love us, but maybe can't express it, or
are under attack themselves, and during that time
of attack, Satan uses them to wound you.
Learn to see the providence of God even
behind the wounds.
And then the fifth principle is learning the
reality of praise and thanksgiving.
Learning the reality of praise and thanksgiving.
This is emphasized by A.
W.
Tozer in an article he wrote against cynicism.
He explains how we evangelical Christians are often
battling against wickedness and evil, and because this
tremendous struggle we're in, there's a danger as
we're overexposed to become cynical.
Are you cynical about the church in your
state, in your country, in your town, wherever
it may be?
And he warns as a cure for cynicism,
thanksgiving and praise.
We're told in 1 Thessalonians 5, 16, to
give thanks in all things.
One of the main things that young people
and adults are very uptight about is finding
the will of God.
What's the will of God for me?
I think one third of the people who
come often for counseling, their big concern is
the will of God.
You know, I think if we obeyed God
in some of the revealed areas, some of
the revealed areas, we'd have less trouble in
terms of the will of God in some
of the more difficult areas.
The will of God is to give thanks
in all things.
In other words, if you want to know
the will of God, then build a foundation
of praise, thanksgiving, rather than worry, what's going
to happen to me?
Where am I going next?
And I think this is very important.
I would love to speak to you about
the will of God.
I believe many people are confused on this
issue.
They think the will of God is a
little black and white little thing.
It's like putting a punch card into a
computer and then the typewriter comes up, you
know, like our Telex machine in Brownland.
There it is.
That's what you're to do the rest of
your life.
No, I think it's more like running a
race across the ocean on water skis.
It's difficult.
Very difficult.
And sometimes you'll fall and you'll have to
get up.
And I'm convinced that God allows us, because
we are humans, please understand this, because we
are human, God allows us to go down
dead end streets.
Here's a brother, he's absolutely convinced God has
supplied him, the girl who is to be
his wife.
He prays, he gets good feelings, reads the
word, he gets some verse out of Esther.
And, you know, he's convinced he's got God's
choice.
He counsels with one or two brothers.
They say, well, you know, I mean, who
wants to say anything negative about this?
He said, perhaps, brother, it's the Lord's will.
So down he goes.
Maybe for months and then, boom, the whole
thing ends.
I know people that at that point have
actually turned into atheists.
Turned against God.
Because they said, if God wasn't guiding me
then, how can I know?
Whenever God is guiding, and maybe He doesn't
even exist.
If He existed, how would He ever let
this horrible experience happen to me?
Because that is a hard experience.
It is a hard experience.
I remember when I was very young, this
one girl that I was really interested in,
she told me to get lost, I tell
you.
I went back to my room in my
little house and I wept.
I wept.
So, I'm convinced God works with us in
our humanity.
And He allows us to do all kinds
of things.
He allows us to make mistakes.
And yet, through it, He's working, He's bending,
He's breaking.
And it's so important to be able to
praise the Lord even when things go wrong.
It doesn't mean you always praise the Lord
right in front of someone.
I'm one of the first, but there
is a rest of faith.
There's a place where we're resting in the
Lord.
On the other hand, it's an amazing paradox
because it says in the same chapter, labor
to enter into that rest.
That's me.
I've got the labor to enter into rest.
Because it doesn't come naturally.
And that's a wonderful principle we need to
know.
And it needs to be kept in balance.
And then the seventh principle is realizing that
God is easy to live with.
Let me read something else from A.
W.
Tozer.
God is easy to live with.
Just saying that, I know, disturbs some people.
Because they have a false conception of God.
Their God is a God with a big
stick that's about to hit them on the
head if they do one little thing wrong
or whatever.
And a legalistic view of God may go
back to a poor childhood or a father
who got upset and beat them often.
But God is easy to live with.
He goes on to say the fellowship of
God is delightful and beyond all telling.
He communes with his redeemed ones in an
easy and uninhibited fellowship that is restful and
healing to the soul.
He is not sensitive nor selfish nor temperamental.
What he is today, we shall find him
tomorrow and the next day and the next
year.
He is not hard to please, though he
may be hard to satisfy.
He is quick to mark every simple effort
to please him.
And just as quick to overlook imperfections when
he knows we meant to do his will.
He loves us for ourselves and his love
or our love means more to him than
a galaxy of new created worlds.
We've got to get to know the love
of God if we're going to survive.
Many people think George Verwer is a great
success story.
You've heard some people tell it.
They don't know the other side of the
coin, that for every success there's been many
failures in my life.
Oh, they may have been the small failures
that don't bring scandal, thank God, because as
a Christian leader, there are sins that wipe
out your testimony and bring scandal.
And God in his mercy has kept me
from those things.
But there are many, many little things that
are just as displeasing to God.
And the Christian walk, no matter how many
successes there may be, it's filled with difficulty
and often with failure.
Failure at the same time can often be
God's backdoor.
Very seldom, whenever I failed or even sinned
against God, did I sense that he had
left me.
Perhaps this was due to my first orientation,
I don't know, but I feel that when
I fail, God loves me just as much.
I have tremendous struggle with lust.
The magazines, the lustful magazines that pour out
of every newsstand in Britain are like a
torture chamber for me.
And I don't always win the victory in
the first five seconds.
It's a struggle.
And there's something that sometimes just looms up
within me and causes me to sin against
the Lord with my mind.
And then of course comes the guilt, the
depression, the feeling that you're no good, the
feeling that how can you be used?
Or Satan comes along and says, you have
not changed.
I remember once when I was a young
Christian, the worst time of backsliding I can
remember, it lasted for at least 30 or
40 minutes.
That may sound funny, but you know, I
don't believe we should give even minutes to
the devil.
We often have people give their backsliders testimonies.
I was away from God for three years,
I was boasting, but he brought me back.
We hear so many of these backsliders testimonies,
we get brainwashed into thinking in the church
that backsliding is part of the normal Christian
life.
That's a lie of the devil.
If you're a son of God, if you're
following Christ, you don't ever have to backslide.
And in 24 years of living for Christ,
I have never backslidden, not one day for
more than a few hours, usually a few
minutes.
I know where the cross is.
I know what grace is.
And I know I can come with my
pollution and my sins, my sins of my
tongue, impatience, and I can repent, I can
apologize to a brother and every night for
24 years, by the grace of God, I've
known.
And when I go to sleep, I'm in
communion with the King of Kings.
I sleep better that way.
In fact, the bigger problem is waking up.
That takes a new type of spiritual help.
Oh, how the devil has got us deceived.
We fall into sin.
We don't know how to appropriate God's grace.
We think God has suddenly died, as far
as we're concerned, and so we wallow in
it.
And we get discouraged, and we get depressed,
and then we bring on self-pity, the
most subtle form of self-love.
And so we find Christians everywhere defeated and
discouraged.
And they don't seemingly know how to just
quickly repent and claim the grace of God.
In fact, the closer you come to the
Lord Jesus Christ, often the more you will
see sinful areas.
It's not just sins of commission.
There are sins of omission, things you should
have done, not just things you did that
perhaps were wrong.
And then it's not just outward sins, but
dispositional sins.
Some of our church's people can have the
gospel smile on the outside, but the snakes
and the cockroaches are ready to jump inside,
because their disposition is wrong.
And God wants to deal with the disposition
God is easy to live with.
He's ready to cleanse us and forgive us.
He loves us even when we fall flat
on our face.
A Christian who doesn't learn how to rebound
is a Christian who soon gets either in
a tangent, false doctrine, deceiving himself, or discouraged
and depressed.
And then the eighth principle of spiritual survival
is accepting God's growth pattern.
Try to read Lane Adams' book, Why Is
It Taking So Long?
Lane Adams, Why Is It Taking So Long?
One of the truly great books of our
day.
He shows that it takes time for Christians
to grow.
A Christian from a difficult background, it's going
to take him longer to grow.
Any Christian who comes from a broken home,
maybe from delinquency, maybe from some other form
of social evil, it's going to take him
longer to grow.
Lane Adams, I heard him share this with
a group of pastors, showed how an emotionally
unstable person, when he is converted, the Holy
Spirit moves in, but does not immediately invade
every area of instability.
That takes time.
Growth in grace.
The more stable a person is, the more
quickly, generally speaking, the Spirit of God is
able to move into every area.
I was so spoken to when David Watson,
one of the great leading Anglican evangelists and
vicars in Britain today, shared with us at
a recent evangelist conference, after being used of
God so mildly, tremendous depressions he has just
recently been in, and how God had to
show him things from his background that were
causing that depression, and areas of his life
that had to be brought into a deeper
work of grace.
Do not think that because you've been 40
years in the work, or 20 years in
the work, that there are not deep emotional
problems yet existing in your life.
That is deception.
And that's how some Christian leaders, after being
used, later become paranoid, or even mental, and
you no longer can even hardly fellowship with
them.
God wants us to remain learners.
God wants us to understand we always have
areas of growth.
And this is very important.
I think we have to also understand this
within a culture, that God doesn't destroy a
man's culture.
I believe as some people become mature in
the Lord, and as they catch more of
God's vision for the whole world and the
principles of the New Testament, they will come
free, more and more free from their culture.
That is a long work of grace.
Meanwhile, God doesn't say, I won't use you
because you are very Dutch.
I won't use you because you're very Indian,
or you're very American.
He works within a person's culture.
And those of us who have had experience
in a rather unique type of international situation,
and have seen some of our own cultural
weaknesses in our own nations, must be very
careful as we go back home to not
become critical of people who have never lived
outside of their own culture.
And therefore, their culture will be a major
influence upon their Christian faith, and God will
love them and work with them in their
culture, even though his ultimate desire would be
to bring them into greater freedom, especially from
materialism and other ugly aspects of most cultures.
It takes time to grow.
We see that in Peter, where it says,
grow in grace and in knowledge of him.
Then the ninth principle is the freedom of
a disciplined and ordered life.
Discipline brings freedom.
It's not bondage.
People sometimes say, oh, in O.M., you're
in this quiet time, bondage.
Everybody feels they have to have a quiet
time every morning.
This is bondage.
You get those same people.
You ask them, look, brother, how many mornings
a week are you having breakfast?
Oh, I have every morning.
No, I believe in breakfast every morning.
Oh, breakfast bondage.
No, no, no breakfast bondage.
I just believe it's good for the body.
Need breakfast.
Oh.
The quiet time is good for the soul
and the body.
It's not bondage.
It's discipline.
Discipline brings freedom.
We're free not to have our quiet time.
Many of you have proven that very well.
You're surviving.
But we're also free to have our quiet
time.
We're also free to learn a disciplined life
that can come through buffeting the body and
bringing it into subjection, lest after preaching to
others, we become a reprobate.
And then the tenth principle, learning to relax
and refuel.
I'm just going to bring this to a
close.
And you'll have to study these principles on
your own.
It's amazing we see the Lord Jesus Christ
concerned about giving the disciples food.
For a while, years ago, I almost thought
that eating was unspiritual.
And, you know, we went through this syndrome
in O.M. in which, you know, the
sort of, the quality of the food wasn't
all that one would want.
And, you know, to dress it up and
try to make it appetizing, this, you know,
this wasn't spiritual.
I tell you, in India, some of the
problems we've had with foreigners is because we
have not been able to get them to
eat properly.
They've tried to be so Indian, so brave,
so spiritual, like all the Indians.
You wait till the Indians go to Canada.
And we've had brothers sick because they couldn't
be enticed into eating.
I almost made that mistake.
And we need to learn to relax.
We need to see that God wants us
to enjoy many aspects of life.
Why would he give us beautiful sunsets, sunrises,
so many other beautiful aspects of life?
Edith Schaeffer and Dr. Schaeffer and people like
this have helped us understand more the importance
of culture, the importance of enjoying various aspects
of life.
It's a difficult area to keep in balance.
And then my last three points, I'll just
share them in closing.
Keeping a positive attitude and a positive lifestyle,
no matter how negative things get.
Just look at Philippians 4.8 and you'll
know what I mean, thinking on that, which
is good and lovely and of good report.
And then the 13th point, remain constant in
the word and prayer, so basic.
It need not be stressed, as I'm sure
it will be covered in other messages during
these days.
And then 14th, my last point, though of
course there are more, keep active in his
service with your eyes on him.
When a man becomes just passive, the enemy
often moves in.
One of the reasons I believe I've kept
free from some of the sins that could
easily take over my life in areas of
weaknesses is that I'm on the run and
Satan is unable to catch up.
Keep on the run, keep on the move,
not activism.
That's a neurosis.
But being busy for God.
Don't let someone trick you into thinking it's
just youthful zeal.
A youth without any zeal has got something
wrong with him.
Just let the Holy Spirit control him.
Keep growing, keep repenting and keep learning.
These are basic principles that I had seen
revolutionize people's whole walk with God these past
20 or more years.
Don't take them lightly.
Find many other scriptures as you read your
New Testament and decide no matter what, you're
going to survive.
Let us pray.
God, we commit ourselves to you that we
may be disciples and that we may also
know the reality of survivalship.
That we may press on to the end
until we meet you someday.
And you say, well done, my good and
faithful servant.
For we pray in Jesus' name.
Amen.