Ephesians chapter 4.
What a great book, what a great chapter.
I want to speak to you this evening
on maintaining spiritual balance.
Now some people don't like the word balance,
and if we use the definition that some
of them use, then I don't like the
word either.
I don't mean by balance, compromise, or just
wishy-washiness, or you know, just sort of
the middle of the road.
But I mean the kind of balance that
the Concord has built into it so that
it can go across the Atlantic at such
fantastic speed.
To me balance makes something sharper.
I believe with all my heart that as
Christians, spiritual balance, maintaining a balance of truth,
not compromising truth with error, worldliness with spirituality,
no, but letting one truth bring another truth
into balance.
And I believe if you see this principle,
it will definitely help you in your summer
work as different things happen.
You want to know what to say to
a young person you're counseling, or how to
react to a particularly difficult situation you may
be in.
Now let's look at these words in Ephesians
chapter four, verse eleven is a good starting
place.
And He gave some apostles and some prophets
and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers
for the perfecting, or the bringing into maturity
of the saints, for the work of the
ministry, for the edifying of the body of
Christ, till we all come in the unity
of the faith and the knowledge of the
Son of God unto a perfect man, a
mature man, unto the measure of the stature
of the fullness of Christ, that we henceforth
be no more children tossed to and fro
and carried about with every wind of doctrine
by the sly or the sly of men
and the cunning craftiness by which they lie
and wait to deceive.
But speaking the truth in love."
There's a perfect picture of balance.
Speaking the truth in love.
"...may grow up into Him in all things,
who is the head even Christ, from whom
the whole body fitly joined together and compacted
by that which every joint supply, according to
the effectual working in the measure of every
part, maketh increase of the body unto the
edifying of itself in love."
The greatest message in the Bible, once we
know Christ personally, we've been justified by faith,
we know this great salvation.
The greatest message next to that, in my
mind, is love.
God so loved the world, that's message number
one, that He gave His Son.
And when we come to His Son in
faith, simple faith, believing, then that vertical love
relationship with God is back where it should
be, and of course it has to grow.
But then we have that challenge of the
horizontal relationship with the people around us, and
that is such a great challenge.
I had such a blessing today just answering
some very difficult letters.
One difficult letter from a close friend, actually,
sort of the spiritual father of this Swedish
brother and his wife, I'll never forget, when
they were in this meeting in Stockholm, they
were already living with each other, they were
miles away from God, and through the simple
proclamation of the gospel, he came to Christ,
and he brought her to an OM conference
in Belgium, she came to Christ, and they
became dynamic workers and leaders in OM.
Now it's many years later, they wrote me
a very difficult letter with some really tough
questions, and I've been procrastinating about answering that.
But walking along the beach, the Lord just
gave me the inspiration to answer that letter,
and that's really one of the encouragements for
me today, because in my life, individual people
are important.
And I think that's one of the great
motives for the kind of work you're in
here.
People are important.
And you're coming here to give yourself to
people.
And I hope you're coming here believing that
God is going to give you some permanent
relationships.
And that starts even this weekend.
We don't all know one another here.
Perhaps there's someone here you would like to
get to know.
But maybe there's someone else that would like
to get to know you.
Somehow, God, even in these next days, just
two days together, I believe wants to cement
our hearts together.
And then he wants to spread that kind
of fellowship, that kind of reality, through this
camp all summer.
And I believe for that to happen, there
has to be spiritual balance.
There has to be a balance of truth,
as we're exhorted to find here in the
book of Ephesians.
Now, I've written quite a lot on this
subject.
I guess I shouldn't say quite a lot,
but it's just that there's not that much
written on the subject of balance.
And some of you have read my book,
Revolution of Love and Balance.
I don't know where it is, buried here
under all these books.
Interesting little symbol on the cover.
And then in my latest book, No Turning
Back, I actually talk more about this, even
in the book that's called, by the name
Balance.
And let me just throw out, for you
to think about, some of the areas where
you're going to have to work for balance,
in your Christian life.
The first area, I've already touched on a
bit, the balance between the crisis experience and
spiritual growth.
Now, we know that God works at times,
through a crisis.
Let me just take a little survey.
How many of you were converted, in a
way that you more or less at least
know what day it was, you may not
have the date, but you know, it was
a particular day you can remember, and it
was somewhat of an emotional experience.
It was a crisis experience, whether it was
a small crisis, or a big crisis.
How many of you have had that kind
of conversion experience?
Okay, that's about, maybe just a little under
half.
How many of you have had a conversion,
probably because, maybe when you were very young,
so you don't remember it very well, or
it was more gradual in the sense that
you know you've passed from death to life,
but you don't exactly remember some specific, you
know, crisis event.
How many of you were more in that
camp?
A few of you are not sure which
camp you're in.
If you're not converted at all, I'd like
to give you priority for personal fellowship after
the meeting, but I think most of you,
all of you know Christ personally.
God works in different ways in different people.
The same is true when it comes to
sanctification, when it comes to going on.
Quite a few people that I have talked
to have had some pretty heavy crisis experiences
after their conversion.
One of the questions that John, is it?
Was going to ask me, was about the
baptism of the Holy Spirit.
That would have been the hottest question of
the night, because that's a very hot issue,
and especially among Brethren Assemblies.
And I'm sure you are aware of Brethren
Assembly history, and how many have left the
Assemblies in the past 10 or 20 years
since I've come.
In fact, you probably, not to do with
me, I can't take credit for that, but
through the very strong, fast moving force in
this country, often referred to as the Charismatic
Movement.
When that first hit, the Brethren Assemblies were
the arch enemies.
Traditionally, Brethren and Pentecostals had not been able
to get along at all.
Even to this day, that controversy rages.
There's books on this.
Of course, the more modern Charismatic Movement was
not the same as the more traditional Pentecostal
Movement, and so the Brethren didn't know quite
how to handle this.
And I can remember being in a valedictory
meeting with a particular brother who had a
baptism in the Holy Spirit experience at university,
but it was a traditional Brethren Assembly, and
he gave his testimony with the terminology that
would not blow the roof off the Assembly
at that particular moment, and I noticed he's
listed in Echoes of Service, and is plowing
on serving the Lord Jesus.
Actually, quite a few young men who experienced
that kind of crisis at university, quite a
few left the Brethren, and you'll find them
in many different Charismatic House groups.
Some of the leaders of the famous Bradford
Charismatic House group, which is spread all over
the country, very strong.
The guru leader of that group, his father
was the famous Reginald Wallace.
The son is Arthur Wallace, one of the
leaders of the Charismatic Movement in this country.
He moved north, and now he's moved south
again.
Many of the people in these house groups
have their roots back in Brethren Assemblies.
Very interesting little study, I won't get into
it tonight.
Others, though they've had some crisis experience, felt
that they should remain within their own Assembly,
and those people should receive a great reward,
because it was not always easy, and they
were often misunderstood.
I spoke, I think it was a year
or two years ago, at the Swanwick Brethren
Meeting.
By the way, that meeting is not even
recognized by more tight Assemblies.
That meeting is considered a wildcat.
Operation of people that are far too open
-minded.
But I found, I had very good fellowship
there, and I found a lot of the
people were struggling with this.
It really goes back to this issue.
Is it crisis, is it process?
Is there any hope for us if we
don't get some major, mind-bending crisis experience?
This has been one of my favorite subjects
for twenty-eight years, and I stand very
firm on this particular issue, that God works
in different ways in different people.
And that in sanctification, some seem to have
a tremendous crisis, they go on for a
while, and then they become worse than they
were, even before the crisis, sometimes even before
they were saved.
There's a lot of people like that in
Britain today, twenty years later I can tell
you, even overthrown the faith.
Others, because the crisis was followed by a
process, they're going on for God today, and
they realize it's not just because of the
crisis, whatever they may call it, it's because
of many things.
The Word, prayer, growth, what we're talking about
this weekend.
Then there are other people.
I've met them, we have them on OM.
They have never had any great crisis experience
apart from their conversion.
They've never had any great second blessing experience.
This is why OM is a very unique
movement that provides us with a lot of
interesting research, because we have such a wide
range of people.
And I have watched these people because I
have had, in my life, too many crises.
I've watched these process people, to use a
term, and I will tell you they are
some of the most dedicated, Spirit-filled Christians
I've ever met.
So I can't deny what I've seen, twenty
-eight years, God working in different people in
different ways.
I believe that one of the things God
hates the most is lukewarmness and spiritual death,
and He will use sometimes almost anything to
somehow bring life and reality and vision and
love and growth and compassion into the Church.
And I think it's good that today there's
more dialogue here in Britain between different kinds
of Christians.
It's interesting that some of the leaders of
the charismatic movement, like, for example, Michael Harper,
who was John Stott's curate, and he and
John Stott, years ago, as John Stott held
the ground on the more traditional teaching on
sanctification.
And Michael Harper, very much charismatic movement, and
the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and they
separated, and all kinds of things have happened.
Michael Harper has just written for one of
our leading Christian magazines, and it's interesting what
he has said now as the years have
gone by.
He said he's no longer pushing for charismatic
renewal and revival and unity, he's pushing for
Christian unity and revival.
Now what he may mean by that, what
you and I may mean by that, may
not be exactly the same.
But it's interesting to see how people change.
Sometimes you look back and you wonder, what
about all the people who got into extremes
in the process?
It's so great now, Christian leaders come back
into balance.
They say, well, you know, it really wasn't
like this.
And I know, this speaks to me, because
I know from some of the strong statements
I made 20 years ago that some people
got astray.
And though maybe I have come into more
balance, and balance is not something you arrive
at.
It's an ongoing process.
I need it every day.
But I've often thought back of some that
maybe I led astray because of strong statements
I made 20 years ago.
Peter Maiden was sharing on a tape I
was listening to today that he started to
preach among the assemblies when he was 15.
He's pretty young for preaching.
He was known as the young boy preacher
of Carlisle.
Went around to some of the little assemblies
in Cumbria, preaching at 15 and 16.
And he said on this tape I was
listening to today, this message he gave in
Kathmandu, actually, in Nepal, that he's become a
more careful preacher.
Because back then he would make these extreme
statements that actually he couldn't always back up.
Maybe from scripture, I don't know exactly what
he meant by that.
Balance.
God may give you a crisis.
God may give some of these campers who
come here this summer a crisis.
There's nothing wrong with that.
There may be some tears.
There may be some repentance.
Isn't there the danger in some of our
assemblies that we overreact to what we feel
is emotionalism to the point that we're in
the deep freeze?
And we're afraid of anything that's got a
little emotion.
If we see somebody putting their hands up
in a meeting, whoo!
What's happened to him?
And it really gets quite absurd.
It really gets quite absurd.
And we judge each other by outward appearance.
And, you know, some of these young people
who come here this summer, they need to
meet God in power.
They need to be filled with the Holy
Spirit.
That's not just a super special experience, you
know, for a few weirdos who stay up
all night praying.
The fullness of the Holy Spirit, and I
think that's a terminology we can agree upon.
And if you read the early Brethren writers,
even Darby himself, they talked about the reality
of the Holy Spirit.
You get that little book on the table,
Footprints for Pilgrims, which is a lot of
the writings of Darby.
They believed in the fullness and the reality
of the Holy Spirit.
Darby, the so-called founder of the Brethren
movement.
No, we don't talk about that very much.
It's true.
He was one of the founding men.
He was a spirit-filled, soul-winner, wildcat
evangelist.
He's described going across France, you know, living
on pieces of bread.
He's described as one who led hundreds and
hundreds of souls to Christ as an evangelist
in Southern Ireland.
After his conversion.
An amazing story.
Only later in life, he got more and
more into controversy and theology.
And then the assemblies, he and Mueller split.
The exclusives went one way.
Open Brethren under Mueller went another way.
The life story of George Mueller is well
worth reading.
I think there may be some there on
the table.
It's quite a challenging history.
We don't need to be afraid or ashamed
of our roots.
Those of us who fellowship in Brethren assemblies,
and I do that, though not exclusively.
We have tremendous roots.
Tremendous roots.
And most of the modern movements today, they
have to trace part of their origin back
to the early Brethren.
Especially the house movements.
And other similar movements.
And they are going to face the same
struggles.
The struggles they're facing up at Bradford right
now.
They just had 15 of their churches just
pull out on another split.
The struggles they're facing there, it's just history
repeating itself.
In fact, it has the danger of doing
the same thing that exclusive Brethrenism did 100
or some odd years ago.
A very interesting study could be made of
that.
I've been doing it, but not to any
great degree for sheer lack of time.
Yes, God works in different people in different
ways.
Acts 4.31. They prayed.
The place where they were gathered was shaken.
They were filled with the Holy Spirit.
And they went forth and spoke the word
of God with boldness.
Now today, people who get extreme seem to
say they were filled with the Holy Spirit
and went forth and spoke with other tongues.
And tongues has become a great hot controversial
issue in so many places today.
It shouldn't be.
Even balanced charismatic people would say that shouldn't
be.
There's just so much more that the Holy
Spirit wants to do.
And so easily, that becomes a sidetrack, whatever
you may believe or not believe.
In Acts 4.31, they were filled with
the Holy Spirit and they went forth and
spoke the word of God with boldness.
A true mark of a deep work of
the Holy Spirit will be missions and evangelism
and church growth and bold proclamation and witness.
That is absolutely clear in the book of
Acts.
I don't think we can get away from
it.
Acts 20.32 says, I commend you to
God in the word of His grace which
is able to build you up and give
you an inheritance among those who are sanctified.
That's the process.
The word of God.
It's interesting that in Ephesians, it says be
filled with the Spirit and then it has
a description of the Spirit filled life.
Speaking yourself in psalms and hymns and spiritual
songs.
Making melody in your heart to the Lord.
In Colossians, it has the same description but
it doesn't say be filled with the Spirit.
What does it say?
Colossians 3.16, let the word of Christ
dwell in you richly.
Different vocabulary.
Same reality.
That's why I think when we get to
talk about the Holy Spirit, it's good to
remember the words of Billy Graham.
Who in speaking about the Spirit filled life
said, I don't care how you get it,
just get it.
Just get it.
And you and I should know, must know,
it's a command from God.
The fullness of the Holy Spirit.
And if you kneel down by your bed
tonight or walk out in this field after
this meeting or pray right in here, Lord
fill me afresh with this Holy Spirit and
you pray that prayer in sincerity and faith,
He will fill you tonight.
Even if you were filled last week and
the week before or had some great crisis
three years ago.
It's got to be both crisis and process.
Ongoing work of God in your life and
my life.
The second area where we have to battle
for balance is the balance between discipline and
liberty.
Some of the young people when they come
here, they're going to rebel against the rules.
Do you have any rules in this camp?
There must be some rules.
We need to be able to explain rules
to young people.
We need to be able to show them
these rules are not to prove whether you're
spiritual or not spiritual.
These rules are not the Ten Commandments of
Brethren Assembly Camp Life.
But these rules are a human attempt to
put into practice what we find in the
Bible in terms of love.
So that we can consider one another.
A lot of rules are just rules for
trying to be considerate of other people.
Maybe you have a rule about noise late
at night.
We have that on the ship.
Not because one of our commandments from the
New Testament is thou shalt not make noise
after midnight.
But because as we mature more and more
we're sensitive to other people and to their
needs.
And we know that some people if they
don't get enough sleep they actually start to
come apart.
And that can cause other difficulties especially if
it's the cook.
And so it's good to have some basic
rules.
And I believe when we're motivated to love
Jesus and we're motivated to love one another
these rules whether we like them or not
they don't bother us much.
I may not like some of your rules.
I'm a more free style individual.
I'm still a bit radical in my approach
of certain things.
But if I came here by God's grace
I'd want to respect your rules and your
policies.
I'd want to be considerate of other people.
I actually didn't want to come to a
session here at 7 o'clock.
I had something else planned for 7 o
'clock.
But somebody said, hey we're really counting on
you to come at 7 o'clock.
As little bells rang in the back of
my thick Dutch head.
And what I suspected was well I didn't
suspect that much.
I thought really when you were finished with
your little like prancing out whatever you were
doing I thought well you know that's all
over.
But you know we had a little more
after that as well.
But I like to receive correction or exhortation
and encouragement from other people.
I find God often guides me through other
people.
And I believe greatly in God's providence.
And that has helped me all these years
when I've been confused.
Why is this happening?
Why has this gone wrong?
God's providence.
Romans 8.28. God's ability to overrule.
So I think it is good you have
a few rules.
And I hope you'll be able to explain
them to the campers in a loving, compassionate,
considerate way.
You know I think one of the things
that really hinders people sometimes when they come
on camps is the dictator types.
The little mini Hitlers that run around with
a giant stick.
Now probably, hopefully you don't have any of
those in your camp.
That's being a little too strong perhaps.
But really when we do tell people what
to do the more compassionate, the more considerate
we can be.
Even in the way we express ourselves the
better it is.
We hard, what can I say, hard hitting,
organizing types.
We like things organized right.
You know, like punctuality.
We don't realize it but we hurt people.
We do.
I hurt people.
I never realized it.
Well, say never, that's not a good word.
But it took me a long time for
it to get in.
How the way I say things was so
hurtful to my wife, to my children.
There were times because of the strong temperament
I had and because I do so much
preaching.
I thought on the phone I was just
coming across with my more or less moderate,
relaxed voice.
The person on the other end of the
phone was blown away.
Just blown away.
They thought I was angry.
If I could reach through the phone wire,
grab them by the neck, pull out their
Adam's apple.
The way we say things, especially when we're
under pressure, is very important.
And I'll tell you something even more important.
You can read it in Calvary Road by
Roy Hesham.
If you do say something hurtful and you
sense you've hurt someone, go to them.
Have the courage, even if you're the number
one camp leader, to go to them and
say, Look, I'm sorry.
I didn't mean it to sound that way.
I think I've hurt you.
I'd like you to forgive me.
I don't know how a Christian camp can
function without those words, forgive me.
Things do go wrong in camp.
People get different ideas of how something should
be done.
The littlest thing, even the cooking of a
little special meal, the organizing of a little
special skit, the arranging of a late night
film, the littlest thing sometimes with Christians, because
we are as Christians at times hypersensitive, it
becomes a traumatic affair and people get hurt.
People get hurt.
And God wants to bring people to your
camp to be blessed, not to be hurt.
And if you do hurt someone, and we
all do as human beings, if you don't
want to ever be hurt, you're on the
wrong planet.
I've heard the Swedes are booking holidays to
the moon in 1995 or something.
Maybe you can go to Stockholm and check
that out.
But as long as you're on this planet,
you're going to get hurt.
You're going to get hurt.
And if you do hurt, in turn, hurt
somebody, to go to them and apologize, or
to write them even a note.
Oh, how people have ministered to me at
times by writing a note.
And how I know, I learned indirectly, how
I have been able to help others by
my little notes.
Though it says in Galatians 5.13, we
are called unto liberty, only use not the
liberty as an occasion of the flesh.
And some of the new movements moving around
Britain today, and there are many of them,
have overemphasized liberty.
I heard one where they said, you know,
if you feel like playing golf on Sunday
morning, well you should play golf.
Don't be in bondage to going to church
on Sunday morning.
And almost everything that we've ever sort of
considered sacred in our more established churches, everything
has been questioned.
Everything.
And I tell you, it's not easy for
young people today to know what is the
truth.
A lot of young people are really mixed
up.
And that's why I feel so strongly about
this thing of balance.
I don't believe it is a mortal sin
that you miss a Sunday morning breaking of
bread.
But I think as much as possible we
should, as it says in Hebrews, not forsake
him.
Not forsake him.
Gathering together and worshiping the Lord.
And it will be a joy to break
bread together here tomorrow morning.
I dare not get into this subject because
we don't have time.
But I believe we can find a balance
between discipline and liberty, between organization and freedom.
I find, generally speaking today, the greater need
is for a little more emphasis on discipline.
Maybe that wasn't true ten years ago.
Then another area where we need balance is
between zeal and wisdom.
I think in the early days of OM
we were heavy on zeal and weak on
wisdom.
I fear now that we may get a
little heavy on wisdom with all of our
reading and studying and further education.
And weak on zeal.
And that frightens me.
Have you read William MacDonald's brilliant book, True
Discipleship?
Almost a Christian classic now in 30, 40
languages.
Here was a man reared in the brethren
assemblies who was the president of the Emmaus
Bible School in America.
But who was able to incorporate into somewhat
traditional brethren assembly life.
The very basic principles, radical revolutionary principles that
we were putting in practice out on the
mission field.
In fact they started a discipleship training school
in one of the assemblies in California where
they have an OM type of function right
within the church.
Right within the church.
Some people say, well man that's the way
it should be.
Praise the Lord.
And you know we get young people from
that church, that assembly almost every single year
on OM.
They have nights of prayer.
They have the most fantastic worship meetings.
And people are being converted all the time.
People are being trained and sent out as
missionaries all over the world.
And it's all still in the traditional more
or less brethren framework.
With the old timers happy and with the
young people happy and functioning together in unity.
That is no small thing.
And that's what God can do when there's
spiritual balance.
We need zeal, we need wisdom.
James 3.17 emphasizes that wisdom that comes
from above.
I talk about it in this little book.
And of course zeal is emphasized in many
passages I think especially of Romans 12.11.
And then number four, the balance between submission
and freedom.
Submission and freedom.
Why have some new groups got into extremes
in the area of submission?
I think it's because in some churches there
has been so little teaching about submission.
We read in 1 Thessalonians 5 and we
read also in Hebrews that we need to
learn how to submit to those who are
over us in the Lord.
I learned to submit in an early age.
It wasn't easy.
I'm speaking now early age as a believer.
I went to Moody Bible Institute.
The rule book was so thick I couldn't
believe it.
Very, very strict place at least back in
those days.
I was outspoken, I didn't agree with some
things there.
But I felt somehow from what I saw
in scripture that I must submit.
You're supposed to have only two practical Christian
work assignments.
That means twice a week you go out
and evangelize.
I didn't realize they were very strict about
that.
Because they wanted you to give yourself to
study, not just be an evangelist.
I had been involved before I knew what
happened in about five or six different outreaches
that I had more or less organized on
my own.
And this was not allowed.
What?
Not allowed to evangelize?
That's why I came here to Chicago.
And I had to submit.
And then I didn't read.
I didn't read the section about social policy,
boy-girl relationships.
Because when I went to Moody, I was
in one of my long-term bachelor things.
You know, women.
Got to become spiritual first.
And since my life had been quite confused
in that area, I thought I needed a
little bit of a fast.
And so I didn't read that part of
the handbook very well.
And then I had that experience which you
already have told about.
I went to rent a film and I
met this secretary behind the desk who became
my wife.
And actually I ended up breaking the rules.
Of course, innocently and naturally.
And I had to go to the dean.
This would be like sort of the headmaster.
The dean sort of apologized for my breaking
of the social rules.
I think it was to do with the
time.
I was supposed to be back at a
certain time.
And I wasn't supposed to be alone in
a room outside of the institute with her.
She was in sort of a woman's center.
And I found out later in a fine
print I wasn't supposed to be alone in
a room with her.
And you know, just learning to submit on
some rules that I didn't agree with particularly
was a great tonic for my spiritual life.
We need to learn submission.
But we also need to see that we
are free.
And I feel that sometimes power assemblies are
absolute specialists in intimidation.
You feel intimidated so easily.
You're not going to enough meetings.
You're not doing this enough.
You're not doing that enough.
And you feel intimidated and there's a lack
of freedom.
And that's not from God.
That's not from God.
And you shouldn't feel guilt pains all day
if you miss your quiet time.
Have that as your aim.
I know the other extreme where people, you
know, they just say, Oh, that's bondage.
You don't need to have your quiet time
every day.
That's bondage.
I like to go to these people and
say, Look, do you have breakfast every day?
Oh, yeah.
Bondage.
Breakfast bondage.
Just to keep that in balance.
I have my quiet time and my time
with God most days.
But some days I miss it.
And on those days I refuse to go
through the day with some kind of guilt
pain because that is not the purpose of
the Christian life.
I say very quickly, I hope you know
how to do this.
Lord, I goofed.
I blew it.
You know, this morning I wasn't organized or
I slept in.
And I just claim your grace right now.
The same grace I would have got this
morning from your word and from an extra
time of prayer.
I claim it right now because the Christian
life is not this or that, this rule
or that rule.
It's Jesus living in me.
And you're with me now.
Even though maybe I didn't get my act
together so well early this morning.
And I've experienced tremendous grace and blessing on
days that I miss my quiet time.
Why do I say that?
I think it brings into balance things I've
heard people say.
When I miss my quiet time, everything goes
wrong.
I think even Billy Graham said that.
I don't disagree with it much.
And he was just probably trying to put
a point across just like I'm trying to
put a point across.
And actually both are true.
Both are true.
If you let your guard down, shield of
faith, spiritual weapons, you can get in a
lot of trouble.
So I don't like to go out without
putting my arm around, on and then without
that prayer and that time of the word.
So it's finding the balance, isn't it?
Submission and freedom.
A lot of other areas we could talk
about.
And I hope maybe we can fit in
a time of questions and answers on some
of these issues.
Feel free to put it down in Operation
Feedback, that little paper you're going to hand
to me at the end.
The fifth area where we have to work
for balance is between the warfare and the
rest of faith.
We are in a spiritual warfare.
Timothy says we're to be good...
Paul writes to Timothy and says we're to
be good soldiers of Jesus Christ.
But I was helped by realizing we're in
a warfare, but our finger isn't always on
the trigger.
It has to be the time for refueling.
And Hebrews chapter 4 speaks a lot about
the rest of faith.
I talk about that in this little book.
The rest of faith.
I remember when I was driving a large
lorry down to the coast.
The first OM campaign in Europe, 1962.
The summer after the Russian fiasco.
And I was really feeling tense.
I had a headache.
Did you ever get pressure headaches?
And I didn't know how to drive very
well.
We had these ten or twelve old lorries.
Most of them we got them from the
scrap yard.
One of them had already broken down on
the way to Dover.
It was all very new.
Ninety British young people had all signed up
over a period of three months to come
with an almost totally unknown movement.
I tell you, I was tense.
And the vehicle I was driving started to
backfire.
Enormous explosions as we went over one of
the bridges, over the Thames.
I lived in the East End at that
time.
And you know, somehow, something happened to me
on the way to Dover.
I can so remember.
I came into an experience of just deeper
trust.
God, this is your work.
Maybe we're not going to make this ferry.
Maybe this engine is going to blow up.
How will I be able to help by
worrying about it?
By getting tension and pressure and headaches?
How will that help the whole campaign this
summer?
It won't.
You know one of your big enemies this
summer in this work right here?
It's going to be worrying.
Worrying about what people think of you.
Worrying about maybe you're going to fail in
a job that you've been given.
Maybe you've been given a particular responsibility, you're
already feeling a little nervous about it.
Fear of failure is normal.
We all have that fear at times.
And I just realized afresh that day, this
work of OM, that I was committed to
so much, it was not mine.
And God took it from me.
Cast every care upon Him.
He cares for you.
OM was my care.
God took it.
And that headache went away.
And emotionally I was flying.
And I just stopped and I made a
phone call.
I forget exactly what happened.
I think an AA man came.
Even though I didn't belong to the AA,
I think I had to pay him something.
Some little timing mechanism on this old Bedford
lorry eventually went all over North Africa.
And we purred on and drove it all
the way to Paris.
We're in a warfare, but we've got to
fight from the right foundation.
The rest of faith.
Do you know that?
Rest of faith in your life.
It's a beautiful thing.
You study Hebrews 4.
Then number 6.
The sixth area where we've got to wrestle
for balance.
The balance between basic principles of the Word
of God and particular policies of our particular
group or fellowship or church.
This is an area where we need discernment.
And where we need to be able to
point out to the young people here that
there are certain camp policies that we do
and we have here in order that things
may be done decently and in order.
But they're not necessarily biblical principles.
We had a lot of trouble with this
in OM in the early days.
For instance, we used to sleep generally on
the floor in churches or in tents.
By 63 there were 2,000 of us.
We put most of our money into scriptures.
We had a very low budget.
We didn't spend enough probably on food.
These were basic policies of OM, not biblical
principles.
But people got mixed up.
One girl went back home thinking that sleeping
on the floor was the mark of spirituality.
And she went home and told her mother
if she could take the bed out of
the bedroom.
This is why OM got a very bad
name in some places.
In those early years some of you were
just about being born back then.
But God showed us, and again I write
about this in this little book, our balance.
The difference between OM policies and biblical principles.
Biblical principles are more flexible than many people
I think make out.
They can be adjusted to different cultural situations.
I'd love to talk to you more about
this.
But I think that what sometimes we teach
as biblical principles are only a particular group's
interpretation of those principles.
And there's a lot more freedom than perhaps
you and I will ever know.
And then we've got to find the balance
between love and judgment.
We preach love, but we know the message
of judgment is also in the Bible.
We know that there's forgiveness, there's heaven, but
we know there's also lostness, there's hell, there's
judgment.
Our God is a God of love, but
He's also a God of wrath.
This is hard for so-called modern man
to accept, but it's true.
We have to find the balance.
I have scriptures, a lot of scriptures for
all these areas, but we've really run out
of time.
The balance between fellowship and worship.
Some assemblies are very strong on worship, but
very weak on fellowship.
People don't really know one another.
Don't really know one another.
In fact, I've had to, at times, fellowship
in places where I knew people gathering around
the Lord's table were not even on speaking
terms.
They were not even on speaking terms.
And there was bitterness, one against the other.
And yet we sit there, and we break
bread, and we go through these fantastic hymns,
and we pray these great prayers.
And I pray, those of you who are
leaders in this camp program, that you will
be right with God and right with one
another.
That doesn't mean everything is going to be
all bubbly-bubbly, and you're never going to
hurt one another, and never have misunderstandings, because
as long as we're human beings, there'll be
some of that.
But to have that fellowship, that openness where
you can go to a brother, in love,
carefully, with sensitivity, and say, look, what did
you mean by that when you did that
the other day?
You know, rather than the accusation method, and
I hope you catch this in working with
young people, rather than the accusation method, use
the question method.
Now if you learn that little principle, you
might save yourself a lot of agony this
summer.
Don't accuse the young person.
You're lazy!
Don't say that to a young person.
As you say it, so he may become.
Or you're proud.
Or you're trying to get away with this,
or whatever.
Use a more sensitive question approach.
You know, actually, what did you mean when
you shot at me with that gun the
other evening?
You know, oftentimes, we're so sensitive that we
read things into what other people say.
I've done that.
Have you ever get a...
How many of you have ever had a
letter that really hurt you?
Are you into the correspondence scene?
How many of you have ever had a
letter that really hurt you?
You're not into the correspondence.
How many of you have ever had a
phone call that really hurt you?
Have you ever had...
Some of you are pretty young.
You haven't got into life yet, you know.
Full, full orb.
But it'll come.
How we need to find the balance in
these areas.
Forgiveness.
It's written all over our Bible.
Love and judgment.
Fellowship and worship.
Work and recreation.
One of the beautiful things about camp ministry
is that generally a camp, a Christian camp,
represents balance.
It's not extreme like Operation Mobilization.
And OM, in its summer campaign, is a
bit extreme.
We sort of justify it because we say,
look, we only got you for one month.
You got the other 11 months to bring
it back into balance.
When you come on OM for one month,
you're going to work.
It'll be 14 hours a day, probably.
You're going to evangelize every day.
You're going to be in nights of prayer.
You're going to get exhausted.
You're not going to like all the food.
It's going to be rough and tough.
It's a spiritual boot camp.
We're going to kick you around a little
bit.
And we're going to see what you're made
of.
A lot of people read about this.
Of course, they never come.
It is a bit extreme.
And our year program, even our September Orientation
Conference, before the year program, has to bring
people back into balance.
We have more recreation.
We have more free time.
And then, after the September Conference, which is
still somewhat condensed, we got a lot to
do in one month before they go all
over the world.
The year program, you'll find OMers going off
to see a good film.
You'll find them maybe going bowling.
You'll find them with a whole Saturday afternoon
and all day Sunday, maybe free, kicking their
heels.
It gets more back into balance.
This is why, in summer camp ministry, you've
got some maybe advantages over OM and teaching
spiritual balance.
Maybe we should require all OM people to
come here to your camp for one summer
before they join Operation Mobilization and go to
Mongolia to plant the First New Testament assembly
in Mongolia.
Yes, spiritual balance is needed at every turn.
We need work.
We need relaxation.
We need to know how to refuel.
I can't even begin to tell you what
music has meant in my life.
I may be a music holland.
The Lord knows.
Have mercy on me.
I just love music.
All kinds of music.
And it just breaks my heart that people
so quickly run around condemning other people's music.
And I know that in my own teenagers,
if I had condemned totally their music and
said, You're not going to play that hard
rock record in this house.
This is God's house.
I sanctify this house.
Here, get out of here.
You know, he probably would have taken up
his tent and walked.
And I say, you know, I just feel
that so often people get into extremes about
music.
Thank God that even David Wilkerson, who was
so against rock and to some degree Christian
rock, because they're totally different.
He wrote this little leaflet.
I don't know if we have any of
it.
Confessions of a Rock and Roll Hater.
Because God showed him through Keith Green, a
singer of Christian rock.
A friend of mine.
Of course, he's with the Lord now.
That God was using Christian rock.
You may not like it.
Your parents probably don't like it.
But, you know, God is working in many
different ways.
Greenbelt may not be your thing.
I've heard people denounce Greenbelt.
I feel bad that once I made a
somewhat negative statement about Greenbelt.
I think it was all in the name
of humor.
Because I've always believed that God is working
there at Greenbelt.
A lot of people go there who won't
go to any other Christian activity.
And in the midst of all the music,
some of which we probably wouldn't like, there's
message, there's teaching.
And I feel that lately, especially with this
new book by our dear friend Mr. Blanchard,
the whole thing has become more heavy, more
polarized, and there's more division than ever right
now in Britain on the music issue.
I feel it's very sad.
And I think it's a lack of balance
and understanding.
And I feel there is a tendency among
us as Christians to become more and more
narrow and only see our little view and
feel our view is the biblical view.
Even though the verses we use, we have
to actually stretch them a bit.
Because the Bible doesn't say much about music.
And if you think it was all Beethoven
in the Old Testament, I don't know what
Old Testament you're reading about.
Balance is needed in every area.
I put here, I don't know what number
you're at in your notes, but number 10,
church and family.
I may have stuck another one in there
without getting the number.
Church and family.
Again and again we see the enemy attacking
families.
And we see good families where in the
church everything looks fine.
They're both sitting there for years regularly at
the Lord's table and then poof!
They're separated and divorced.
And you don't think that's happening in good
little well organized brethren assemblies you haven't been
around too long.
You know, I think often it happens because
of a lack of balance.
And the fact that sometimes church, church life
with all of its demands causes the family
to suffer.
Some husbands away four or five nights a
week in church activities.
It shouldn't be.
It shouldn't be unless he has a very
special family.
And today there needs to be more emphasis
on the family.
We need Christian camps for adults.
I thank God for Filey.
I thank God for Keswick.
I thank God for some of these other
camps.
They're sort of camps where whole families can
go.
We need this.
And the Holy Spirit has mightily used some
of those places.
And maybe some of you this summer after
being here in this camp working you'll have
the opportunity to go with your parents for
two weeks to something where the whole family
can be together.
Don't give up on your family.
Maybe you feel there's a generation gap.
Maybe you feel you can barely communicate with
your father.
Some of these young people who come here
will feel that way.
Let's not increase the gap.
But let's teach young people how to understand
parents.
We live in the day when parents need
their young people need their sons and daughters
more than ever before.
Parents feel threatened by this generation.
And some of them are on the retreat.
In America I heard something about this on
the radio the other night here in England.
They've got these giant retirement centers where no
young people are allowed.
They can't get through the gate unless they
have a pass.
They were arguing over I think it was
Capital Radio arguing over the pros and cons.
There's a really heavy discussion going on about
this thing.
I know some dear people who are in
one of those retirement centers in California.
And I can understand why they're there.
You just can't believe the hurt they have
gone through with their children.
I'm talking about threat and murder and double
divorce.
I'm talking about the works.
Many of us when we're young I know
I was that way.
And a very naive view of life.
And we're very idealistic about what the Christian
family is.
I pray that if some heavy things happen
in your family ugly things, difficult things that
you will not panic.
Because if things are coming apart in your
family and everything is going wrong one more
person panicking is not going to help.
If you at that time can have a
balanced view of life.
If you at that time can believe yes,
God can overrule this.
This isn't the end of the road.
Maybe some of you will see your own
parents separate.
It's not the end of the road.
With God and God's mercy and God's forgiveness
and God's grace with Christians it's never the
end of the road.
And I have seen people even divorced and
be resurrected in their spiritual life and sometimes
come back together other times not come back
together but end up being used of God.
And I believe as one great writer said
our God is often too small.
We have a little tribal deity and each
little group looks at the other tribal deity
and we look down the road at the
Pentecostal tribal God and we look up the
road at the Baptist tribal God and we
don't like those and we look over the
fence at the Anglican tribal God.
But isn't there a danger that we can
create our own little brethren tribal deity and
he's so far, so far from what we
find written in the pages of this great
book.
Spiritual balance touches every area.
Eleven, positive and negative.
Twelve, reckless faith and dynamic discernment.
Thirteen, anointing and training.
Fourteen, faith and common sense.
If you're trying to take notes you've had
it.
Fifteen, the intellectual and the emotional.
Sixteen, taking in, giving out.
Seventeen, evangelism and church work or church planting.
Eighteen, full-time workers versus the layman.
Nineteen, prosperity versus poverty.
Twenty, repentance versus acceptance.
Twenty-one, the life of victory and being
honest.
Twenty-two, my list goes on and on.