You know, there are different ways to approach
the scriptures.
And sometimes I do expository speaking, and especially
when I'm with a group for a long
time, like when I lived on the ship,
was ministering every week, I remember once going
through the whole Book of Thessalonians, verse by
verse, and I praise God for that kind
of teaching and preaching, and we need more
of it.
But you know, back in the days of
George Whitefield, this man who shook Great Britain
and America in such a great way, many
of his preachers were called exhorters, and they
had the ministry of exhortation.
And in some ways, this is what we
have been into this weekend.
The ministry of exhortation must be based on
the Word of God.
And it can be just as biblical as
exposition, because it's not just a reflection of
one verse, but it is speaking under the
anointing of the Holy Spirit, on the foundation
of the whole of Scripture.
Many verses, many chapters, and I would certainly
appreciate any feedback from you, on anything that
you feel is not biblical.
Of course, sometimes when I've spoken to you,
I've immediately explained that something I was saying
was not a major issue.
But I think we have been very much
trying to build on the whole basic foundation
of Scripture, and I hope that as you
continue in your Bible study, especially getting into
some of those Emmaus courses we mentioned, and
Scripture memory, that these various principles, we've been
looking at biblical principles for perseverance, biblical principles
for building our life upon, that you will
again and again be reminded of some of
the things we have spoken about during these
days together.
Now, my final message is a message I
have given before in deforms, and it's called
Secrets of Survival.
In fact, the theme of the weekend came
from this particular message.
Most of you picked up a free copy
of the book True Discipleship, which had a
very important part in the early development of
OM, though the book actually was written as
a result of OM, not the reverse.
But as it was written as a result
of students that went from Emmaus Bible School
and came back, and made an impact on
the President, the author of that book, William
MacDonald.
So, new people coming into OM, of course,
they read this book, and it became required
reading with other books like Calvary Road.
And I hope you'll read that.
And I, of course, was known for someone
who went around continually preaching on discipleship.
Now, this word has fallen into misuse in
the past years.
And a lot of people in this country,
not so much among the assembly, but other
groups, when you say discipleship, they immediately think
of the Civil Movement that came out of
a group from Fort Lauderdale in Florida, came
through the Dales Bible Conference into a place
called Bradford, and then spread.
And one of the teachings of the Bradford
House Church Movement is that there must be
strong submission.
I think at times, by the way, they
have been falsely accused.
And if you understand the historical roots of
Bradford, you'll know it's an amalgamation of the
charismatic movement and Brethrenism.
Arthur Wallace, Bryn Jones, men like this, I
know both of them personally, they sort of,
after years of praying, came together and the
Bradford Church Movement, in which quite a few
people who were once in assemblies are now
a part of, is a very unique new
denomination, they don't like that, but they just
had 15 churches I heard pull out from
them because they feel it's becoming a denomination.
It's interesting, you know, if a church has
leadership and structure and teaching and books, is
it a denomination or not a denomination?
We're still seeing this one out in the
Brethren.
And some have finally said, look, let's stop
and just call it the Christian Brethren.
Others are holding out against that, don't want
to be accused of being a denomination.
Well, I won't get into that this morning,
but it's interesting to see that history repeats
itself.
So for a lot of people, discipleship means
heavy submission to your leaders.
This was never the message I was preaching.
Discipleship for me and for William MacDonald means
following Christ in all of the aspects of
biblical truth, the life of prayer, witness, dealing
with the problem of materialism, dealing with the
problem of laziness, taking up the cross and
following Jesus.
That's the best verse about discipleship I know.
It's not man-centered.
It's not submitting to men.
It's submitting to God.
And it's submitting to the Lord Jesus Christ.
I think wherever I went, and sometimes people
never invited me because they were afraid my
message on discipleship was too strong and perhaps
would bring division.
A certain part of this message, which William
MacDonald actually emphasized more than we did, is
the message of discipleship in relationship to material
possessions.
And he said some pretty strong things about
that.
Today, the message of simple lifestyle is quite
popular.
We have Rich Christians in the Hungry World.
We have Beauty of Simplicity, or books about
simplicity by Foster, Celebration of Discipline, a number
of other books.
But back when we started to preach and
teach this message, believe me, it was not
popular.
And articles came out in Brethren magazines, like
this little Brethren magazine from America, against the
book, True Discipleship.
And I felt actually in some of the
articles that what was being written was quite
good.
And it brought the book, True Discipleship, into
balance because it's only one book.
It's written by a bachelor.
And, of course, I think it needs balance.
And I discovered the more that I preached,
the more I needed to bring into balance
some of the things I was saying.
Like we have Luke 14.33. It's a
pretty strong verse, right?
Except for take all that you have, you
cannot be minus.
I heard someone as a result of the
simple style seminar you had here, I heard
somebody maybe better go sell his old car.
Daimler is supposed to be, you know, a
big name car.
I mean, I don't know which car he's
referring to if it's that old thing that's
sitting next to my bus over there.
I hope he's not too optimistic about how
much he's going to give to world missions
after he sells it.
But it is easy after we hear one
message to get a little bit uptight and
think, you know, have I got to forsake
my Walkman for Jesus in order to buy
Bibles for New Guinea?
And it's not an easy area except you
forsake all that you have.
I remember one of my meetings in Holland,
there was a woman who was already a
little emotionally disturbed in the meeting.
And when she heard that message, she just,
you know, things just went wrong.
And she went back to her flat and
took her possessions and threw them in the
nearby canal.
Except you forsake all that you have.
And, you know, I wish I'd been under
the bridge when she was throwing them.
It was a very sad thing and God
really spoke to my heart.
The need for spiritualness, the need for Scripture
to bring another Scripture into balance.
Some people get upset by this.
Even some of my old hard-lining OMers
got upset at some of my emphasis on
balance.
They said it's compromise.
But, you know, as long as it's taking
one Scripture to bring another Scripture into balance,
that's not compromise.
That's biblical.
And we need that.
You need that.
And other Bible teachers, you're going to hear
the days to come, they're going to bring
some of the things I've said into balance.
You know, let's face it.
You've been very kind to me giving me
so many hours to speak.
And I think some of you got an
overdose of George Verwer.
That's why you need some of these other
cassettes that I have here.
I especially wanted to mention this series on
morality since we just barely touched on that
subject this weekend.
Ralph Shallis.
Ever heard of him on morality?
Peter Brandon.
Talk about a burning bush for God in
the assemblies.
You listen to his message, sin and your
body.
And then also, one of my messages on
sex.
But I hope that when you hear some
other Scripture, it may not be that what
he says is a direct contradiction to what
maybe I'm sure.
It may be just another red light on
the same subject.
And it's an ongoing battle to continue to
find the most biblical position on these many,
many areas.
I thank God that young people today are
asking so many questions about the human rights
issue, about the homosexual problem, about the nuclear
problem, about the poverty question.
For too long, we have not been willing
to deal with these issues.
And that's why sometimes we've been left way
behind.
And then what happens when we don't deal
with these issues and people finally are exposed
to them, they swing the pendulum.
And I've seen people when they get really
into some of these social issues, the pendulum
swings so far, they just leave the assemblies.
They feel the assembly movement is not relevant,
is not really contemporary in its teaching and
thinking.
And that's also very, very sad.
I personally believe that the assembly movement in
Britain, and I hope and like to believe
it's still a movement controlled by the Holy
Spirit to some degree, has an enormous foundation
for spiritual growth, for discipling people, and for
world evangelism.
And I could give you many, many positive
points about your own home churches and the
structure and the foundation they have.
There is a foundation we can build on.
You know, one of the fastest growing churches
in Spain, where I first lived when I
came to Europe, are the assemblies.
Some of them are huge, 500 in fellowship.
And you know one of the reasons they
grew so much and they survived the days
of Franco?
Because they were not hinged on just one
paid pastor.
They were not tightly controlled by their building
program.
There was flexibility.
There was plurality of leadership.
They were able to meet in homes.
And they were the main group to survive
the Franco regime.
The story of the assemblies in Spain is
an exciting bit of church history.
And they are on the move today.
And I praise God for the involvement we
have had with many of the men trained
in OM in the early days are leaders
in the assemblies today.
Some of them have planned new assemblies.
And we have had the joy of working
with them.
Secrets of survival.
Secrets of perseverance.
1 Corinthians 15, 58.
Don't turn to it.
Just memorize.
Quickly as I repeat it to you.
Be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work
of the Lord, knowing that your labor is
not in vain in the Lord.
Did you get that?
Good.
But I want to again emphasize what I
said yesterday that memorizing the Word of God
will be such a great help to you
in your spiritual life.
God wants steadfastness.
God wants us not to allow this time
here to just be a mountain peak experience.
You know, I only discovered as I went
jogging this morning and looked for a new
route that to get down to that, in
that direction on the beach, you don't go
that way on this road.
Why didn't somebody tell me that?
You don't turn left here and go down
to the main road and go down to
the main road and get killed, almost killed.
You turn right, right here outside the gate
and that road goes right down almost to
that little railway station.
Anyway, I want to come back here again
because I'm only just feeling at home here.
I'll stop in the middle of the summer
next year since I'll be in North America.
I do want to say, however, that we
are committed to for your camp ministry here.
I'm sorry until Steve wrote to me, I
never heard of this camp.
That's my own fault.
But praise the Lord for the ministry you
have here and for the many lives that
have been touched over the years.
God wants this not to be a mountain
top experience in which we then go down
into the valley, but he wants this to
be the beginning of more mountain climbing for
the Lord Jesus.
When I was sitting on top of the
hill about a mile from here yesterday morning
and I was praying, I let each one
of the mountains, it was very clear yesterday,
each one of the mountains in the background,
I've climbed a couple of those, I don't
know which ones looking at it from here,
I let each one of those represent a
country and I said, Lord, there's Pakistan, be
Thou moved.
There's Nepal, be Thou moved.
There's India, that big one off there, be
Thou moved.
And each mountain, I let it represent a
different country.
One of the messages I haven't been able
to get to here is the burden I
have for world missions.
You probably wonder how in the world did
George Verwer get here in three days and
not give us some missionary message.
Must be backslidden.
But you know, I've always believed this, that
when we get right with God and we
get into the Scriptures and we lay a
foundation of biblical principles, then we get in
the best possible position in the world for
God to call us into missionary work.
And I still believe the Holy Spirit is
a hundred times better at recruiting than I
ever was or ever will be.
And I believe the Holy Spirit is going
to recruit some of you for India.
I have confidence in that.
And I believe the Holy Spirit is going
to recruit some of you for the Muslim
world.
And He still is going to have plenty
of you left over to evangelize the Merseyside,
shake Wales with one hand and England with
the next hand and work toward renewal within
the assemblies and throughout the whole church in
the British Isles.
What are some of these secrets of survival?
Well, they're not secrets.
The word secrets, it's not a good word,
really.
They're very clear in the Bible.
And let me just give them to you,
realizing that perhaps, perhaps this isn't the best
message for our final time.
I don't know.
Sometime in the final session I give a
strong message with an appeal to recommit to
Jesus Christ.
Now maybe that will fit into the end.
But this is more of a teaching message
because I'm just so convinced about these principles.
Number one, we touched on it at the
breaking of bread yesterday morning.
Knowing you are accepted and forgiven.
Ephesians 1, 6.
I can't tell you how important this is
in my life.
I'm hilariously forgiven.
Do you ever get it?
Hilarious?
Do you ever just feel so filled with
joy you've got to jump and leap and
dance?
Now don't think that I'm going to try
to invade your assemblies with my teaching about
dancing in the Spirit because it's too controversial
and I've seen too many churches divide over
this subject.
But let me just tell you that if
you're someone like me you just can't help
your legs.
And I generally do it on the beach
or in the woods and I don't get
any complaints.
I haven't invaded any assemblies over my teaching.
But oh how I love to just leap
with joy.
Now I don't teach the theology.
But I believe there is a place to
worship God with all of our being.
Now if you're the phlegmatic non-movable type
praise the Lord.
Some of you just to move your head
is quite a breakthrough.
But if you're a character like me and
I've had to accept myself and I've got
a lot of energy that's why I job
to burn some of it up so I
can sleep better at night.
My wife looked at me the other day
and she said I get tired just looking
at you.
But I'm forgiven and when I think of
the fact that I am forgiven I have
been set free from sin then sometimes I
just leap with joy.
Now if you don't feel happy doing that
no problem.
You can be a sitter for Jesus.
Some of you have tried being sleepers for
Jesus.
By the way I think that was one
of the funniest films I've ever seen.
I don't know if some of these teachers
are you cannot go to these Hollywood films
they're from the devil.
And after they give that message they go
home to their full color television and their
video recorder and they watch you know James
Bond.
But I think one of the funniest films
I've ever seen is Sleeper.
I'll never forget it.
There was a good brethren brother and his
wife she was a German.
She's supposed to be having a baby and
it was overdue.
And I said look I called him on
the phone I said I know a method
for you know getting this thing over with.
It's a true story.
I said we'll go to a really funny
film because I've heard that a pregnant woman
at you know eight point some odd months
really laughs and does it.
So I took him and his wife out
good German wife and we went to see
Woody Allen in the Sleeper.
I tell you she almost rolled down the
aisle and the baby was born the next
day.
Praise God not Simba.
Anyway it's wonderful to know that we are
forgiven.
We are set free.
By the way I think on the end
of your singing which is quite interesting where
he comes his singing this is a new
thing and I'd like to get a copy
of it.
I think at the end of the tape
you ought to just put some of this
laughing in there.
It's a very gifted group in this laughing.
This actually develops in the assemblies because sometimes
we're so uptight sitting through somber meetings week
after week that when we get away and
you know the littlest thing and people just
you know burst out laughing.
You know like one of the elders coming
to visit us and falling down the stairs.
People are all laughing.
Well I think you need to bring it
under control.
The second secret is from 1 Peter 5
.7 1 Peter 5.7 Casting every care
upon him because he cares for you.
Probably the moment you get home there's going
to be some problem or some care that
you are suddenly entering into.
That's normal.
I know when I get home my wife
has some burden.
She's already shared some on the phone.
We have a little dubbing machine a tape
dubbing machine that a believer in Dubai gave
us.
Fantastic cassette recorder and it dubs double speed
tapes that I want right away.
So before I left I gave my wife
a whole load of tapes.
She has a very tiny kitchen.
I could see she wasn't over enthusiastic about
this but I said you dub these while
you're cooking.
And the tapes apparently were all the wrong
size.
They're old tapes because I like to reuse
tapes.
I don't believe in wasting anything.
I even save old chewing gum.
She told me on the phone that this
was a heartache and she erased one of
my originals.
She was really feeling quite bad about that.
But it's normal.
When you get home there's going to be
some problem.
Did you hear on the wireless this morning?
See how I learned English?
Wireless.
You say that in America they look at
you?
Of course if you say it here now
they look at you too.
I'm so out of date I'm still using
fence pieces.
Ever tried the parking meters?
But I heard on the radio this morning
it's actually very sad how a bunch of
young people after one of these car rallies
last night they went all off to get
drunk and to drink and they were all
coming down the street together and to protect
them a police car was sort of escorting
them back and somebody came around a bend
in another car and that man I believe
it was the policeman at least one man
was killed.
There it is.
You know it's so typical of life isn't
it?
A big fun time a great weekend and
suddenly the tragedy those people will never never
forget.
One policeman is killed.
Government relations have been broken today with Libya.
We don't know what that is going to
lead to.
There's thousands of people living in Libya.
The whole world is stirred over one policeman
that was killed and we should be.
One policeman was killed out on the highway
last night in two days except for the
people involved it'll all be forgotten.
I tell you every time you get in
one of these cars you better get on
your face and ask God to help you
in your driving.
Billy Graham says this poor driving is a
spiritual problem.
And the number of great Christian leaders that
have been killed in car crashes said many
preachers that he's an angel behind a pulpit
and he's a devil behind the wheel.
And driving is a big responsibility.
Whatever problem you may face in the coming
days back in your home out on the
highway in your office some of you within
a few weeks may lose your job.
You've got to learn this basic principle of
survival.
Casting every care upon Him.
So easy to say this.
So easy to sing about it.
I want to ask you are you doing
this?
If you are not you are disobedient to
the Word of God.
It's one thing to get in great arguments
about inerrancy of Scripture the authority of the
Word of God and people give us some
pretty strong messages on this don't they?
This is the Word of God we cannot
disobey one job.
And yet often there's subtle disobedience in these
areas.
And we find I personally find a lot
of Christian leaders are weighed down by worry
and by tension.
And it brings a lot of illnesses.
Doctors say more than 50 psychosomatic illnesses just
as a result of emotional problems and linked
with worry.
There's a book on that table how to
deal with depression.
Doctors tell us the number one illness in
Europe today is depression.
Now often they're speaking about chemical imbalance that
kind of depression.
But other times it's a more mixed type
of depression linked with spiritual problems and basic
emotional problems that are dealt with in some
of these books we've been recommending this weekend.
The third secret of survival is making God
your goal.
How many times have you repeated Matthew 6
33 Seek ye first the kingdom of God
and His righteousness and all these things shall
be added unto you.
You know one of the greatest needs in
my life is to keep things in perspective.
I think as Christians sometimes we go mountain
climbing over mole hills.
Do you have moles here in this country?
I don't mean these guys down in London
in the government.
I mean the kind that are in the
ground you know just a little bump in
the ground.
Wouldn't it be funny to see you know
a rock climber with a helmet and ropes
and you know all this equipment and you
say what are you doing?
I'm going over this hill now.
That would be the height of the ridiculous.
And yet as Christians we're like this.
We are.
We make a mountain out of a mole
hill.
That's why it is important to develop a
sense of humor.
In the present church scene it's either laugh
or cry.
It's either laugh or cry.
It's either laugh or pop your cork.
And a lot of Christians are popping their
corks.
You know that expression?
I mean I'll teach you a lot of
slang.
Forgive me for that.
You know lose your marbles.
You know.
Displacement of the upper story.
Removal of the inner follicles.
Crack up.
It hurts.
It hurts when we see people mountain climbing
over mole hills.
Jesus said we strain at a gnat and
swallow a camel.
Did Jesus have a sense of humor?
Strain at a gnat and swallow a camel?
And oh my sometimes in our families we're
straining some little thing.
Some little thing.
We got our little one verse and we
take it out of context sometimes like the
Jehovah Witnesses.
They're in the lead in that by the
way.
We're way behind.
And we make we make a mountain out
of this this little mole hill.
Oh may the Lord help us.
I want to tell you these problems you
have in your churches they are common everywhere.
The new movements the new house groups the
Anglican churches the Baptist.
I minister in fellowship with all of them.
Thousands of churches and fellowships and assemblies over
the last 29 years.
And sometimes it's so true that when we
think it's greener grass on the other side
of the street and we actually get over
there you know what we find out?
Concrete.
Somebody's painted it green.
I love that little expression.
I think someone wrote a book by that
title.
Bloom where you are.
God has put most of you in a
good biblical church.
Bloom where you are.
And make your goal God himself.
Don't let your major attention be on people
on the church on the problems on success
even on oh we are going to have
the greatest camp this summer.
A goal as we come here this summer
must be God himself.
I find that very motivating.
I find it helps me bring things into
perspective.
Do you know that analogy?
Get things in perspective.
I do a lot of ministering at family
conferences to married couples.
Some of you married couples want some of
my married couples tapes.
I'd be happy to send them to you.
Survival in the home.
Unity in the dark.
Various messages.
No that's actually a book on ecumenicalism.
But I really believe that one of the
things that blows marriages apart is when we
get uptight about little things.
Uptight about little things.
The wife is very systematic.
Very organized.
She believes that you should squeeze the toothpaste
tube from the bottom.
Systematically.
You've all heard this story.
It's now gone on all over England.
It's like the story of the Wesleyan Chapel.
But she believes that systematically day by day
as you brush your teeth you squeeze the
toothpaste from the bottom until it's finished.
The husband is non-semitic.
He's my type.
Just, you know.
But it's amazing how Satan uses little things
to break up relationships.
And our goal is not God.
Our goal becomes our little doctrine.
Our little way of doing things.
Our little set of traditions.
Do you have any traditions here in this
camp?
That's normal.
But beware when new people come in.
I'm just jumping on them.
Because they don't know what their traditions are.
When I was, you know, I was looking
for the the wayside chapel or the loo
when I came here.
And I went over there and I saw
this little this little military hut.
And I saw on one end officers.
And I saw on the other end boys.
I thought, well, I guess the officers are
the women and the boys are the men.
And with fear and trembling I went in
to the the officers.
And, uh, this is all part of your
camp tradition.
No problem.
But when people come and they're just you
know, they're just young and they haven't been
here before.
Beware of jumping on them too quickly.
They're gonna make mistakes.
They're young.
They're very young often.
And they sometimes don't know even the basic
things.
And I just mention this again.
Beware of belittling the new young camper.
Maybe you mentioned some basic biblical thing.
Some name in the Old Testament and the
young person doesn't know who that is.
And they're sort of embarrassed.
Oh, you don't know who that is?
Some young people it's no problem.
Other people feel very embarrassed by their lack
of Bible knowledge.
And sometimes among us there comes Bible knowledge
pride.
Some of them won't know the books of
the Bible.
Some of them won't know where to find
the book of Hezekiah.
And you're gonna have to help them.
You're gonna have to help them.
The secret of survival is learning how to
be heard.
Jesus taught us to love those who persecuted
us.
Love those that did evil against us.
It's obvious from the teaching of Jesus that
people would be hurt.
He was hurt.
And I feel it is very important to
learn how to be hurt.
I've already emphasized this so I'm gonna move
on.
But if you don't wanna be hurt, remember
what I said?
Try another planet.
You're on the wrong planet.
And don't overreact back in your assemblies to
things people say to you that may be
hurtful.
You cannot have church life without being hurt.
You think people aren't being hurt in these
other churches?
You think people aren't being hurt in these
new, supposedly more revived churches?
You haven't visited them.
People are people.
They change slowly.
And it's easier to change doctrine than to
change basic personality.
Did you get that?
It's easier to change doctrine than basic personality.
And I found that some people who were
obnoxious before conversion, forgive me, they're still a
little obnoxious years later.
And I know that certain things in my
life that were not really beautiful before I
was converted, they still have a way of
getting in.
Of getting in.
I had to apologize to my friend Dirk
the other morning because, I don't know, something
happened and the way I expressed something to
him it was more, the other brother who
lives with him is not here right now.
The way I said it, it wasn't what
I said, the way I said it, it
was that old verber, that old, irritated, somewhat
upset George Verber.
The positive point in my kind of getting
upset is that I quickly forget.
I never, I don't know whether I'm not
smart enough or what.
I never hold anything against people.
I've never had that problem.
Isn't it good?
I wanted to say that to bring things
into balance because some of you got the
idea I got a lot of problems.
And you know, I wouldn't want you to
go away from this camp thinking, you know,
boy this guy's got a big lust problem,
let's break right here.
You know, he's probably down on a beach
right now with his penicillin.
But, you know, I thank the Lord there's
enough areas where I don't seem to have
much of a struggle.
I don't have much attention about material things,
buying things.
My wife thinks I'm just the opposite.
I don't have trouble holding things against people.
To me that's, to me, in my mind
it's worse than stealing or punching somebody in
the nose.
I don't like to do that.
So when I go to bed and I've
been this way for 29 years since my
conversion, I've never had anything against anybody that
I can remember.
But I do have a problem sometimes just
getting a little irritated when something just, you
know, goes wrong.
You're driving in a car and you're having
fellowship and the person gets all caught up.
Instead of turning right he turns left and
pretty soon, you know, you're driving through a
field and the cows are all looking at
you.
I say, hey, do you think you could
be a little more careful driving?
See, the way I said it was not
really loving enough.
I should have said, brother, is this the
right road?
The fifth secret after learning how to be
hurt, probably some of you think, this guy's
just, he's just, somebody's gonna criticize this message,
especially somebody over 90 who listens to the
tape and they're gonna say, this guy's just
telling jokes.
I had no plan this morning to tell
a single joke.
I don't know how to tell jokes.
I've tried and usually people just, especially English,
you ever see an American telling a joke
to the English audience?
They all sort of look at him.
I have had a number of messages where
nobody has laughed once in the entire message.
That's absolute truth.
And, you know, the way I speak, I
ask God to control me but not destroy
me and different messages I use a different
set of railway lines to get the message
home.
This message about survival, somehow, sometimes it comes
out a little bit humorous.
Other messages that I give, there's a few
thousand of them on cassette tape, there's no
humor.
And I think this is, again, a picture
of balance.
There are messages, there are different truths, there
are different ways of expressing things.
I listen to all kinds of preachers.
I was listening to Tony Compala who was
bursting with laughter listening to him.
Then I've listened to some of the messages
by David Wilkerson.
That message over there given by that leading
charismatic figurehead, David Wilkerson, on the Christless Pentecost,
is one of the most unique messages I
think somebody from the other side of the
fence could ever listen to.
And it's interesting what this man is saying
in the books he's reading right now.
Because he's been specializing in reading some of
the old Puritan writers.
He's only discovered these people in the past
few years.
It's quite amazing.
And some of the Brethren writers.
He's only just discovered them after 20 or
30 years living for Christ.
You know, one of the reasons I fellowship
with a wide range of people even though
I don't always agree with them is because
I've got to know some of these people.
I've prayed with them.
I've lived with them.
Men like Wilkerson.
And though I may not agree, and my
theology may be different, I cannot deny that
they are men of God.
I cannot do it.
And it hurts me that sometimes in our
assemblies we're getting to know people we write
them off as heretics.
We write them off as just, you know,
almost enemies.
Almost enemies.
There's a book on that table called Love
Covers.
I think it's one of the significant books
of our decade.
You probably won't agree with it all.
But it shows how even when we don't
agree we can love one another.
And we can learn how to compassionately disagree.
And I praise God for the tendency, the
strong tendency in Britain right now for assemblies
to be in fellowship with other churches in
their own time.
And to say, look, we don't fully agree
with you, but we respect you.
Let's meet together once in a while.
Let's unite hands and get involved in Mission
England together.
When it's all over we'll come back to
our own assemblies.
We'll teach our own basic doctrine.
And there's nothing wrong with that.
I think it's beautiful what God is doing
in this area.
And I praise the Lord for it.
I believe it's honoring to God.
Number five.
Am I up to number five?
Learn the reality of praise and thanksgiving.
I think you've been doing that in these
days.
I think it's beautiful.
You say, how much can we get away
with in the local morning breaking of bread?
It is in some places a tradition.
You need to walk with a prayer that
God will give you and give the leaders
and elders in your assemblies about how the
breaking of bread can incorporate the great emphasis
on the death of the Lord Jesus Christ
and remembering Him and the equally biblical emphasis
of praise, adoration, thanksgiving, worship, in all of
its various forms.
It is just as biblical.
And it comes from here.
And some of the first books on worship,
who were they written by?
The brethren.
They emphasize this before many other groups were
even born.
That book by Gibbs, that thick.
Worship.
I've been pushing that book for 20 years.
I think we're sold out right now.
It's a big book.
And it's beautiful.
Praise and thanksgiving.
Worship.
Praise the Lord.
You can have other young people's meetings.
Most assemblies now do have young people's meetings
in young people's groups.
Women's meetings.
I think the assemblies are often more broad
-minded than people perhaps give them credit for.
And in those meetings sometimes there's a little
more freedom.
And that's beautiful.
Number six.
Living in the rest of faith.
Hebrews chapter 4.
By the way, my verse for verse 5
in each of these, I remember verses, is
1 Thessalonians 5, 16.
This is the will of God giving thanks.
Living in the rest of faith.
Hebrews 4.
Number seven.
Realizing God is easy to live with.
That's a direct quote from A.W. Tozer.
You know, some of us are religiously jumping.
We think God's watching our every move.
I picked that up in reading some of
your questions.
God's going to punish us.
We go out with a girlfriend in a
weak moment.
We kiss her.
After we kiss her, we think the Lord
is going to hit us on the head.
Now, I will not get into my theology
of kissing because there's not enough time right
now.
But, uh, I think it's dangerous when we
don't understand God's mercy and God's grace and
God's love and God's forgiveness.
God is easy to live with.
That doesn't in any way put aside His
holiness.
And sin is dangerous.
But I think there's a tendency in some
places to call some things a sin that
are not clearly indicated in the New Testament
as a sin.
They are gray areas.
I read just the other day that young
people don't like gray areas.
Yeah.
Gray areas are for those of us in
the mid-years.
I picked up a book some time ago,
The Midlife Crisis.
You know, I was feeling great until I
started to read this book.
I'm supposed to suddenly get desires to leave
my wife and run off with some young
chick.
Not me.
These wildcat women's lips, if I got married
to one of them, I wouldn't last even
a week.
I thank God for my old-fashioned wife.
I hope she doesn't hear this tape.
But, you know, we need a lot of
wisdom and a lot of balance.
I'm not convinced about all this midlife crisis
business.
To me, all the Christian life is a
crisis.
For me, it's always been a struggle.
It's always been a crisis.
There's always been things I don't understand that
I've been able to understand.
And I've always had a problem with God's
peculiar people.
Have you read that verse in the King
James?
The author of...
Boy, I tell you, when I came across
that verse, I began to understand more church
life.
God's peculiar people.
God is easy to live.
He's quick to mark even a cup of
cold water.
Look at that, the man who brought this
to me.
He's going to get a reward.
How much more for orange juice?
Then number eight, accepting God's growth pattern.
Some beautiful trees here.
Have you seen these trees?
What if you went to the...
I've been wanting to go over that wall
ever since I came here.
But I figure there's probably snakes and vipers
over there.
What if you looked over that wall and
you saw somebody sitting by the tree?
And you say, hey, what are you doing
there?
And he said, I'm watching this tree grow.
What?
Yeah, I'm watching this tree grow.
You might, you know, you might want to
have a little chat with him.
It's ridiculous, isn't it?
You're not going to see a tree grow.
Tell me, are those trees growing?
Most of them are growing.
Stop looking at yourself so much.
Operation introspection.
How spiritual am I this week?
How much have I grown this week?
Am I coming into fullness?
Am I becoming mature?
Operation introspection.
We need to be more relaxed.
If you're in the Word, if you're repenting
of any sin, the Lord definitely convicts you
of, and walking with the Lord day by
day, you're growing.
You're growing.
You won't see it.
Like a tree.
The great redwoods of California.
I remember seeing those trees.
Couldn't believe it.
So many years.
You never see them move an inch.
If you had a time-lapse camera and
you put it there for a year or
a couple of years, you'd see it.
Have you ever seen those moody science films?
What great films with time-lapse cameras.
And I believe, I believe all of you
coming this weekend are growing through this experience.
But you may not see it with a
time-lapse camera.
God's growth rate.
Different people are growing at different speeds.
Don't become spiritually jealous over someone who's growing
like a weed.
He may actually in a few years that
he is a weed.
And I grew very quickly because there was
a strong weed aspect in my spiritual growth.
And later on, God had to purge.
God had to purge.
We're all different.
Most people are not preaching at 17 years
of age.
Going to Mexico to start a new movement
at 19 years of age.
We're all different.
Relax.
God's got a plan for you.
It's tailor-made.
And as you're faithful in the Word and
as God speaks to you, you will grow.
Praise God for God's growth pattern.
Individual for each person.
Number nine, the secret of the freedom, a
tremendous freedom of a disciplined and ordered life.
Yes, it's good we focus on discipline.
The brethren have been known for their emphasis
on the ordered life.
I think one of the great brethren writers,
his biography was called The Ordered Life.
It's good.
I think of men like Lang, that great
brethren.
I remember him sitting in front of me
when I was ministering at Woodcroft Hall years
ago.
He was always there.
Founder of the great Lang Construction Company.
What an ordered life.
I heard once from a friend of his
that he wrote down even when he spent
money, a cup of tea, six pence, one
pence, whatever.
I tried that.
I gave up.
I can't get it down.
I try to keep my accounts to pounds,
to fifty pence.
I can't keep track of those pence.
Yet the Lord is somehow still using me.
We're all different.
But we need more order in our lives.
We need discipline.
That's one of the great roots of the
brethren movement.
Thank God for it.
Number ten, learning to refuel and relax.
We've already discussed that.
So for time's sake, I'll give you the
rest of my list.
Number eleven, learning real fellowship.
Taking off a mask.
Being real.
If it's any help for you to learn
the way of real fellowship, write something down
in a letter to me that you've never
told anybody before.
Put on a confidential.
I'll pray over it and write to you
or throw it away whenever you want.
But even better, to have someone back in
your own area that you can really walk
in the light with.
I've had this all my life.
And you can imagine some of the things
I've had there.
Not very pleasant.
Not very easy.
But I have found that kind of real
fellowship for people had enormous help for a
person like me.
I get so worried about people pulling things
up.
I think it's a reason for a lot
of our emotional problems.
Operation.
I can't tell anybody about that.
What if it's found out?
My reputation.
You know, I'd rather lose.
I probably lost my reputation.
When you heard of me coming here.
By the way, can I have the rest
of these?
I use this as scrap paper in the
back.
Okay.
You know, George.
God's answer to the problems today.
George Verwer.
Operation Mobilization.
Probably when I was before I came here
he thought, wow, you know, man of God.
Disciplined.
Totally committed.
Totally filled with a spirit.
Now, you know me.
Lost my reputation.
I'll tell you.
I'd rather lose my reputation and keep my
sanity.
You can have your reputation.
I want to get to the end of
the race.
And I believe we over emphasize guarding our
reputation.
We don't want people to find out about
us.
I believe often we lose mental breakdown.
We risk serious illnesses.
I don't think everybody should stand and speak
about themselves as I do.
No.
God has given, I believe, the anointing and
grace and will to do this.
But we all can be a little more
open.
And we all can have at least one
or two that we can really pray with
about the real struggles and issues in our
life.
Real fellowship is absolutely basic for survival.
For survival.
And you know, if we don't, we risk
becoming absolute hypocrites.
A friend of mine was sitting on a
train.
Maybe I shouldn't tell this story but I
like to call the shots the way they
are.
Because I'm tired of playing games.
He was sitting on a train going into
a particular city in Britain and two men
were discussing the increased price of prostitutes in
London.
And he couldn't believe it as he got
off the train and noticed they were two
leaders from a local church.
I won't say what church.
It's too hot an issue.
He said, I can't believe those things happen.
My young friends, the satanic efforts against the
church are baffling to the United Nations.
You're dealing with the little seeds of sin
in life now and someday you'll be among
those who are trapped into hypocrisy as those
two church leaders sitting on that train.
I am not now mainly involved with young
people your age.
I want to be.
But in a lot of my meetings there
are always the middle-aged people and the
adults.
The ship, it seems, whenever they want me
to come, pastor's conference.
Next Monday, pastor's conference.
And I will tell you the number of
pastors and Christian leaders and elders that have
written to me and shared the double life.
I would never want to put it in
print.
We are in a warfare.
We cannot afford to play games.
And if you want to avoid the double
life, the spiritual schizophrenia I talk about in
my book Hunger for Reality, then learn to
walk in the light.
1 John chapter 1.
Learn to be honest.
Learn to take the mask off.
Deal with the seeds now as a young
person and you won't have those ugly oak
trees of the double life when you're in
your 40s and your 50s.
And then number 12, keeping a positive attitude,
Philippians 4.8. We have to sometimes state
negative things.
It is encouraging that someone gave the feedback
that they felt the majority of my ministry
has been positive and optimistic because that is
the way I am.
I see the negative.
I don't dwell there.
And that's why I'm so committed still.
27 years after I was baptized in a
little, or 26 years in a little brethren
assembly in Wheaton, still committed to this ministry.
And believe me, a lot of winds have
tried to blow me away from fellowship, ongoing
fellowship with brethren assemblies all over the world.
Being positive, Philippians 4.8. 13, remain constant
in prayer and in the Word.
That's utterly basic, isn't it?
14, keep active in His service with your
eyes on Him.
Praise the Lord, we started this session.
Turn your eyes upon Jesus.
15, don't neglect your family.
A little fun, a few laughs.
Recreation, having a hobby.
16, keeping the balance at any cost.
We've had plenty of that.
If we say any more, it'll go off
balance.
17, keep going back to the basics.
Go back to the basics.
You know, I've had times when I thought
I was going to lose my faith.
But when I feel I'm going to lose
my faith, I go back to the basics.
Do you know what I mean?
Is there a God?
And I'm always convinced through many, many reasons
there is a God.
And then I get to Jesus, and I
realize He was a historical figure.
Then I go to the very basics of
the Word.
I have my little doctrinal statement.
And pretty soon, I'm able to retake in
the whole thing and all that I believe
from the Scriptures.
And then last, struggle is normal.
Struggle is normal.
You've probably picked up pretty clear that I
am a struggler.
There's no sense pretending.
I refuse to pretend when I speak.
Give the idea that I've got it all
together.
Here I am, Mr. Spiritual, Mr. True Disciple.
I'm a struggler.
God has a plan for your life.
He will not be without difficulty and struggle
and heartache.
And I just pray that you will realize
that often the greater the struggle, the greater
the victory, and the greater the coming reality
as you press forward.
The only other thing I can say is
that the secret of survival is completely, utterly
linked with the Lordship of Christ, Headship of
Christ, the reality of Christ living in us.
We have all had many messages about that,
right?
And I've said here, we'll just bring some
of those other great messages on the Lordship
of Christ, the sufficiency of Christ, the Headship
of Christ, which we in our assemblies have
been so strong on.
Just bring it into focus.
It's so beautiful to let various biblical principles
dovetail together so that we can have a
consistent, balanced, totally committed Christian life.