Twenty million refugees in the world.
There is so much death.
And, you know, I hesitate to say these
things but I'm committed to honesty but I
have been so hit by so much death
in this world and suffering that I have
got to the point at times of being
almost numb.
And I have whole periods when I don't
bother listening much to the news.
When I get on the road, everything is
so hyped up.
I don't get to listen to the news
so much.
But when things calm down, I get back
home, I get a little more routine.
I watch the news and it's really awesome.
And I think Gordon McDonald's challenge about being
in the real world, what he shared with
me on the phone about what's happened in
his life since moving into New York City,
still my city of first love where I
was converted, it all somehow fits together.
And I hope that we will not become
a group of people, I don't think we
are, we never will become a group of
people that says, well, we really can't do
anything about that.
We're limited in our resources, we're limited in
our manpower, we've got so many internal problems.
We can't really do anything about 14 million
refugees, that's not really our calling is it,
except Gordon and Grace's exceptions.
What are we going to do about Pol
Pot and Campochea and that situation where no
one knows?
Have you ever read about Laos and how
many people died there?
I'm reading the history of South America now,
they had some wars down there between Paraguay
and Argentina and Paraguay and Brazil.
The number of people that died, I never
realized.
How much death?
And all of this for most of us
in our background, in our society, it's all
sort of historical, isn't it?
It's just sort of more history.
And when someone dies like Randy, then it
comes right out of the history book, isn't
it?
Because we know him, we can feel it.
I was with Randy just a year ago
at the Sarnia conference.
You always feel when someone dies like that,
you wish you had taken some time.
I can't even just say that, it's emotional
for me.
Maybe God can motivate us through this to
do something more that of all these people
who continue to die, many of them very
young, that somehow we may see more of
them in heaven.
Somehow we'll have more funerals like Randy's where
we know, we have that assurance that he's
in heaven.
I really believe this is directly related to
our learning how to release resources for righteousness,
for that which is good.
I'm not thinking just of OM.
The vision I have and what I'm sharing
tonight goes completely beyond operationalization.
If you guys, the movers and the shakers
and the hustlers in OM want to do
something with this vision, that's up to you.
You have your little meetings here and there
and do something.
But my vision goes beyond that because that's
just what's on my heart.
In OM we're just so tiny.
We think Offenburg is some big thing, but
we know in the light of the whole
situation, in the light of the world situation,
it's just a small thing.
I think we need to communicate that, by
the way, with our other European mission agencies.
I tried to do that with the leaders
that I spoke to there.
We believe that OM is just a tiny
part of what God is doing in the
world, but we're thrilled to be a tiny
part of what God is doing in the
world.
We hope it'll grow bigger.
Let's look at Luke 14 just for starters
and then these other scriptures.
Luke 14, of course, you've often had for
me, so it's just a reminder point, a
starter point.
It's interesting, this passage, just how strong it
really is.
Starting in verse 25, the multitudes came to
him.
He turned and said unto them, If any
man come to me, and hate not his
father, and mother, and wife, and children, and
brethren, and sisters, yea, his own life, also
he cannot be my disciple.
That's a tough one, isn't it?
Whosoever doth not bear his cross and come
after me cannot be my disciple.
Anybody tries to say that Jesus Christ wasn't
radical, all you have to do is read
those two or three verses.
For which of you intending to build a
tower, sit it not down first, counteth the
cost whether he is sufficient to finish it.
And here again, we see Jesus, as we
often see him, using for his illustration, very
material things.
Things that people can understand.
He's talking about building a tower.
And those people knew in those days to
build a tower meant money.
And so he's saying, counting the cost.
That you have enough to finish it, sufficient
to finish it.
Now, it may have been bricks, it may
have been some wood.
When we think of the things that were
built, even thousands of years ago, back to
the Tower of Babel, ancient pyramids, things that
we've read about, sometimes we've seen.
It's uh, it's real.
Lest, perhaps, after he hath laid the foundation,
is not able to finish it, all behold,
it begin to mock him.
Saying this man began to build and was
not able to finish.
What king going to make war against another
king?
Very interesting illustration for Jesus Christ to use,
isn't it?
War.
Today, in some places, they don't even want
you to talk about war.
I had a lady write me a very
strong letter.
Can't believe the letters that I get.
And I mentioned something about warfare from her
pulpit at a little church in Cambridge, Anglican
Church.
And how could I, you know, go on
with this warfare terminology?
I forget what I said there.
What king going to make war against another
king?
Sitteth not down first and consulteth whether he
is able with ten thousand to meet him
that cometh against him with twenty thousand.
Or else, while the other is yet a
great way off, he sendeth an embassy of
peace and desireth conditions of peace.
So likewise, whosoever he is of you that
forsaketh not all that he hath cannot be
my disciple.
Words that have gone to our hearts again
and again.
Salt is good, but if the salt had
lost its savor, with what shall it be
seasoned?
It is neither fit for the land, nor
yet for the dunghill, but men cast it
out.
He that hath ears to hear, let him
hear.
Now, keeping that in mind, let's talk about
resources.
I think we should start with Matthew 6.
I want to look at some verses in
Matthew, Mark, Acts, Romans, and Corinthians.
I hope you will perhaps write down the
references.
Matthew 6.
The Lord Jesus Christ speaking.
We're again back in the Sermon of the
Mount where we were last night.
There's quite a lot in the Sermon of
the Mount that's tied into material things, tied
into money.
Verse 19.
Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth,
where moth and rust doth corrupt, where thieves
break through and steal.
But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven,
where neither must moth nor rust doth corrupt,
and where thieves do not break through and
steal.
For where your treasure is, there will your
heart be also.
The lamp of the body is the eye.
If the eye, therefore, thine eye be healthy,
the whole body shall be full of light.
But if thine eye be evil, thy whole
body shall be full of darkness.
If therefore the light that is in thee
be darkness, how great is that darkness.
Compare that very much with those verses after
Luke 14.33 about the salt losing a
savior in the parallel.
No man can serve two masters, for he
either will hate the one, love the other,
or else he will hold to one and
despise the other.
He cannot serve God and man.
I wonder how many Tony Compallo cheerleaders at
Love Europe really accepted what he said.
And if you didn't accept what he said,
I wonder if anybody's got the guts to
write him or challenge him face to face.
You know one who does?
His son.
His son has challenged him, and Tony's admitted
his lack of moderation.
A.W. Tozer admitted the same thing.
It's easy when you're a preacher.
But I tell you, he said strong things.
He said things that I was saying, and
are even in some of my books have
got me in trouble in places like Sweden.
I won't go into that, but I hear
Tony.
I've listened to a lot of his tapes.
He has a unique way of communicating that
is not easily interpreted.
But I can feel.
I can feel with him.
I can feel with a lot of these
people who at times are angry about the
way Christians live.
The big cars.
The big homes.
I may not go all the way after
wrestling through a lot of things about wealth
over the years.
I'm probably not exactly in the same camp.
Um Maybe I'm uh I don't know.
Maybe I don't have the guts to land
in one camp.
Being part of a movement like Operation Mobilization
because I'm not sure.
I'm unsure in a number of areas of
my life.
And you know when people come up and
they read the scriptures and come up with
one simple little interpretation, they say this is
it.
It just makes me angry actually.
Because I've been studying the scriptures pretty thoroughly
for 32 years.
I'm not a scholar.
I've studied a lot of books.
I've listened to a lot of preachers.
And I'll tell you there is a lot
of contradiction.
One top man of God against another top
man of God.
Some of the young people.
I've got Winky Prattney's latest book on the
nature of God.
I don't know if you know Winky Prattney.
Very amazing invitations he gets.
He gets invitations into events in America that
I wouldn't mind getting some invitations to for
the sake of the work.
But I don't get them.
Maybe I do need to do some research
on that.
But truly there are a lot of passages
where legitimately people can get two different meanings
from the same passage.
Peter Maiden spoke on this at our ICT
retreat.
It's on tape.
I'd be happy to send it to you.
So here we have the Lord Jesus Christ
giving this clear plea not to lay up
treasure in heaven.
Whatever interpretation we may give.
And I'm not going to get into that
controversy.
We have to acknowledge that Jesus Christ seemed
to have a realistic teaching and attitude about
money.
And he spoke out about money.
And I believe that if we are going
to follow Jesus Christ as we talked about
last night then we, in this work, have
to start speaking about money.
Now we already have.
It's nothing new.
It's just that at times when we spoke
out, speaking about myself, we gave a partial
picture or an incomplete picture or we got
so excited about half the truth that we
forgot the other half.
And it takes time to develop your theology.
And I'm still developing mine and still reading.
I have a new research document on George
Mueller that is absolutely awesome.
This document proves that George Mueller was one
of the greatest fundraisers in the history of
the Church.
George Mueller.
There now seem to be several George Muellers.
And this, of course, was sent to me
by none other than David Hartz.
Some of you who are so busy winning
souls you don't know what's going on in
O.M. don't even know who David Hartz
is.
Let's look at another scripture.
Matthew 10.
Verse 9.
This is interesting.
Jesus having a little love holy land campaign
here.
And he's sending him out to preach.
Verse 7.
As you go, preach, saying the kingdom of
heaven is at hand.
Heal the sick.
Cleanse the lepers.
Raise the dead.
Cast out demons.
Wow.
He's obviously into all that even before Wimber.
Freely ye have received.
Freely give.
Now we like that verse 8, don't we?
So we write a whole book on that.
What about verse 9?
No, that's, verse 9's not for this dispensation,
right?
Provide neither gold nor silver nor copper in
your purses nor a bag for your journey
neither two coats neither shoes.
I mean, not yet a staff for the
worker is worthy of his food.
This guy is nothing.
This is a glorified beggar.
He's going out and he's expecting the people
that he meets along the way to cough
up and provide him some food.
Probably even some shelter.
Into whatever city or town ye shall enter
inquire who in it is worthy.
It's interesting.
And thereby to you go from there.
It'd just be interesting to know where these
guys stayed.
Let's look at another passage.
Let's try the 13th chapter.
13th chapter talks about the sower and the
soil.
Jesus often in his illustrations was so down
to earth.
That one especially.
Forgive me.
That's terrible.
But I wanted to look especially at the
22nd verse.
He also that received seed among the thorns
is he that heareth the word and the
care of this age and the deceitfulness of
riches choke the word and he becometh unfaithful.
Now let's just stop for a moment on
that because I think that's incredibly important.
I believe it's the negative power of money
that has driven a high number of committed
Christians, especially in England, but also in other
countries, into an extremist position about money.
Now I certainly was in that camp.
Things that turned me off, things that people
said to me, things that I saw in
my early days in the United States, the
way they went about taking offerings and meetings,
and what people said to me about young
Christians being stumbled through this kind of thing.
And just the thought of a young Christian
being stumbled by some manipulating person up there
trying to get money caused me to certainly
move in the opposite direction and probably at
times too far.
I think we were very aware, I hope
we still are, of the deceptive power of
money.
You see that in that film Wall Street.
We see it in every nation.
We see it in government.
We see it when we read about the
great Kennedy family.
It's interesting the reference to Robert Kennedy because
I've been studying his life this year and
I tell you it's been such a moving
experience for me to study the life of
Robert Kennedy, to realize what happened in 1968
when we were all gun-ho, evangelizing the
world.
I was living in Nepal and the Democratic
Convention that year changed the course, in some
ways set the course of American history.
We won't go into that in an international
group.
But we see it on every side, the
deceitfulness of riches, and let's remember that.
Let's remember that as we become a little
more free, as we get a greater vision
for releasing resources, as we speak more openly
and honestly, let us walk with care.
We can be deceived, you can be deceived.
You find yourself suddenly having to go to
hotels and maybe sit down for lunch with
some millionaire who may want to give money
to your field and pretty soon maybe you're
fellowshipping with more of this kind of person
and it can be a deception.
And it takes, it does take, I believe,
very godly committed people to handle money.
I've never been able to understand everything about
Bill Bright.
He and I are very, very different.
But I have become an admirer of Bill
Bright and Campus Crusade and I believe that
one of the reasons that God has committed
so much money to them, their budget is
awesome, they've been through great struggles with it
as well, and I heard from a Campus
Crusade for Christ leader that Bill Bright gave
one of the strongest messages against materialism that
they had ever heard him speak in their
life as a Campus Crusade for Christ staff
member because he feels that some of his
own people are caught up in materialism, especially
in the United States.
And materialism is subtle.
Let us not think as leaders with all
this vision we have and all these messages
and love for Jesus that we cannot become
materialistic.
We can.
Most of us are still battling with what
that actually means.
It is difficult.
But we see clearly from the word of
Jesus Christ that riches, money can be deceitful.
Now when we meet people who we feel
are deceived by riches, what are we to
do?
Are we to declare anathema upon them?
Are we to declare that you couldn't possibly
be saved?
Or are we to be used of God
through literature and sharing and prayer, help these
people see the light about the deceitfulness of
riches and be set free?
Don't we believe in seeing people set free
from moral impurity?
And haven't we seen homosexuals set free through
the history of O.N.? Don't we believe
in seeing people set free from other sins?
And should we not therefore if we see
and discern that someone is deceived by riches
in love and pity not write them off,
not declare them anathema, not refuse to dine
with them or talk to them or send
them run away and send them some semi
-obnoxious cassette tape but in love to try
to see, especially if we feel they are
a believer to see them set free from
the deceitfulness of riches.
Let's go on.
Nineteenth chapter.
And I hope this will whet your appetite
to study what the New Testament says about
money.
I actually made this study over twenty years
ago and I've never used it except isolated
verses.
For this message the first time I went
through my Bible, all these just some of
the places where I have dollar signs.
I have dollar signs by all these verses
that refer to money.
It's just part of my code.
I have all kinds of other symbols, doves
for the Holy Spirit and I'll be happy
to show.
I forget at times what they mean so
I have to look it up.
I have it written back here but I
can't find it.
Let's look at Matthew 19.
Let's look at verse 16.
I hope that this will help us to
pray in faith tonight for some big things.
I'm going to get to that.
Really big.
Some really big things are on my heart
tonight.
And I know some of you are going
to laugh.
And I know last night I said I'm
not going to come up with any big
visions but this vision isn't for O.M.
This is for the whole church.
Matthew 19, 16.
The rich young ruler.
I don't think we'll read the whole thing.
Why did Jesus put this in here?
This is a guilt producing.
This is another one of these guilt producing
chapters.
You ever read this in the yuppie church
somewhere?
You know about Compala when he went into
that Presbyterian church.
Big Presbyterian church I think it was and
he swore from the pulpit.
I think it was SHIT or something like
that.
Just let it rip.
People.
Let me explain what he did.
First he talked about thousands of people dying
everyday without food, without shelter, without the gospel.
Nobody said anything.
And then he swore.
People were infuriated.
I mean you never heard the end of
it.
Now we all use it as an illustration.
But we're afraid to say the word.
But he did this to drive home.
You know when Compala gets a truth in
your head you don't forget it easily.
You might get angry but you don't forget
it.
He wanted to point out that those people
were more disturbed that their preacher had used
one moderate swear word.
That's possible.
Then that thousands of people were dying without
food, without clothing, without shelter and going to
hell.
It's a terrific point.
I never forgot.
Never forgot.
And I just sense in my heart that
God wants to do something new in O
.M. It wasn't me that started mouthing off
God wanted to do a new thing.
I don't know who started all that.
God wanted to do a new thing.
I know Maiden picked up on it.
I agree.
But I wonder if we're really willing for
that.
I wonder if we're willing to get a
whole new orientation of what God wants to
do.
Not primarily through O.M. That's not God's
great first vision.
That's not God's great burden.
We're part of the whole body of Christ.
I was saying something about Bill Bright and
I didn't finish it.
Forgive me.
But the thing that's impressed me about Bill
Bright is that he's handled all this money,
hundreds of millions, and he's basically continued in
a modest lifestyle.
In fact, when I read about his lifestyle
I was so encouraged I phoned him direct
and I just said, Bill that just meant
so much to me.
You know if you phone people or write
people more about something positive then the door
may open to you to say something eventually
negative.
If you're not saying anything positive, and this
is to your own team members as well,
you have no credentials to say very much
negative.
And you may think it's off the wall
but I do think we as a movement
need a re-read of Dale Carnegie's book,
How to Win Friends and Influence People.
It used to be required reading.
Now some of you don't need it but
most of us do, including myself.
And I just believe that we can, we
can win the people we need to help
get the job done for the King of
Kings.
But if we are honest, some of us,
maybe because of personality maybe because of lack
of knowledge, maybe because of other needs and
hang-ups, we're all different, we actually drive
people away.
We actually drive people away sometimes from our
vision and sometimes, especially people who have resources.
There's something often unpleasant about OM for the
men who has resources.
I don't have a simple answer about that.
But let us be honest, brothers and sisters,
it's men and women with resources, fairly wealthy
people, that have been a major factor that
God has used to keep this movement going.
So before we make our little cliche about
these people, we better acknowledge what's been putting
the bread on the table for the last
30 years.
It is not enough just to make some
statement about God supplying.
The Bible doesn't speak that way and we
must not speak that way.
God uses people.
Who has kept the engine room of the
ship going?
It's been the chief engineer.
Is it wrong to speak of how God
used Mike Pointer in the ship ministry?
Is it wrong to speak about Johannes Thompson
who does the job of three people keeping
one of the oldest ships in the entire
world going?
No, it is not wrong if it's done
carefully with sensitivity.
Neither is it wrong to say that God
mightily used a man named Frampton in Bromley,
who's now in heaven, to keep OM going
to a certain degree over a period of
over 20-some years.
And just as God gave us the Mike
Pointers for the engine room, just as God
has given us to fill bushels for church
planting in Bangladesh, God has given us men
and women of resources who are a vital
part of what we're doing.
And they deserve better than they're getting from
us at this present time.
I'm just on the phone with Everett Langlett,
who's one of the great resources.
Many of you have got support from Everett
Langlett.
If it stopped, it's probably because you didn't
write him the thank you letter fast enough.
I can talk to Everett about anything in
the area of money, because he knows me.
And I called him up, and he was
fighting fires in his fields.
He owns a lot of land.
They're on fire.
Everett actually is not just committed to modest
lifestyle in American context.
He is committed to fairly simple lifestyle.
And yet, I've never seen bitterness in him
about that.
And some of you know his dear wife,
and you know his children.
Everett came on OM.
He went to India.
He wasn't even really walking with the Lord.
When he got in Bombay, he heard my
message on forsaking all.
I was really coming across strong that day.
He had all this junk with him.
I don't know what he was bringing all
this stuff out to India.
And he brought it and put it all
on my desk.
He said, sell all this for the kingdom.
That was a crisis for Everett, and he's
never been the same.
Not that it's been all easy.
We joined together and made one of the
most classic mistakes in OM's history.
The Bangkok connection.
Only the Kabul, Peter Conlon, Singapore, Katmandu is
as off the wall as the Bangkok.
Everett and I were going to make money
for the king.
And he had been buying and selling in
the United States, and the war was going
on in Vietnam, and a lot of people
were making money on the war, and we
thought, you know, let's get in on the
action.
And so we started buying Vietnam surplus.
Now Everett could deal with Minnesota farmers, but
for Everett Langlant to take on a Bangkok
Chinaman was like me trying to fight a
dinosaur with a toothpick.
It did work.
We had all these sleeping bags, and all
these stopwatches, all this.
I still have some of those.
And I think God showed us through that
situation that we were not in OM to
go in business, to make money for the
king.
That we were to stick to prayer, we
were to stick to the knitting, if you
read some of these funny books.
But we learned through that.
Everett went back to the States, he went
back into selling nuts and bolts and scrap,
and he has poured, you know, I hope
he never hears this tape, but he's poured
hundreds of thousands, hundreds of thousands into this
work over, you know, 25 years.
Now tell me, who's more a part of
OM?
The man who comes on the two-year
program, leaves, and we never hear from him
again, or Everett Langlant.
Tell me, who's more on OM?
Some of you in this room who will
leave OM in a couple of years, and
that's acceptable.
But now you're at, this is a privilege
to be in this field.
Maybe you think it's a pain in the
neck, but it's supposed to be a privilege.
Who is more at OM?
You here who also get the inside information?
We have information that motivates us.
I know people have gone to these conferences
and got the inside information, went home and
sold their house.
We've got that information.
That information motivates us.
That information causes us to renew our commitment
to OM.
Renew our commitment to World Evangelist.
And we, if we are to do this
job, if we are to be fair to
the Bible, we need to be willing to
take the inside information, the guts of what's
happening at OM, and share it with the
people like Everett Langlant.
Share it with the prayer partners, with the
business people.
How can they, wrestling with all they're attempting
to wrestle with, 50, 60 letters coming into
their post box, looking for people, looking for
money, how can they possibly know when to
give to us, and when not to give
to us, and give to someone else, if
they don't have the hot, real information?
Not the cliches.
God's always supplied our needs for 29 years.
You think he's going to desert us now?
That cliche isn't.
What does that accomplish?
They don't know.
They don't understand some of these cliches.
And it miscommunicates.
Here we see so clearly, in the Word
of God again, the strong emphasis of Jesus
Christ on money, when he gives us this
story of the rich young ruler.
And he says in verse 21, If thou
wilt be perfect, go and sell what thou
hast, and give to the poor.
I'll tell you, Everett Langlet could be living
really high these days, if he had put
that money, the money he gave to us,
into stocks, or put it into the right,
he could be a multi, multi, multi, multi
millionaire.
But he decided to follow the teaching of
Jesus.
He has a house, he has a car,
he provides for his family.
Do you know Everett Langlet's wife also works
as a nurse?
They're committed people.
And there are hundreds within OM's orbit, there
are probably thousands, various degrees of commitment.
And in God's work, there are many more
thousands.
And I will tell you, when this grips
you, when this vision grips you, and I
know it already has gripped many of you,
it will change your ministry, it will change
your life, and it will give you greater
hope that the job can be done.
I'm going to get to what I mean
by that in a few minutes.
Jesus Christ is very, very clear.
And we know there are many interpretations, there
are many other passages to bring that into
balance.
But I want to just look at verse
29.
And everyone that hath forsaken houses, or brethren,
or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife,
or children, or lands, for my name's sake,
shall receive a hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting
life.
Very challenging verse to interpret.
I can't get into that now, but it's
just there, that Jesus speaks openly about these
things.
He makes incredible promises to the person who
forsakes houses.
I speak openly, I try to do it
sensitively, challenging God's people to sell possessions for
the kingdom.
And I don't get a lot of anger
or opposition in the way I do it.
I talk about Wallington's missionary auctions, I try
to bring balance, not just promote a lot
of guilt.
I take some surveys, how many people have
ever sold one possession for Jesus Christ.
You know, even in a garage sale, even
in a boot sale, we say in England.
Very few Christians have ever sold anything for
Jesus Christ.
I mean, something rings, I mean, with these
verses, something rings wrong.
And I believe it's worth really thinking about.
Look at Mark's Gospel, 1241.
Mark's Gospel, 1241.
The widow's mite.
You know, this is the word of God.
These stories given through the inspiration of the
Holy Spirit, this one about the Lord Jesus
Christ, were given for our edification, for knowledge,
for teaching, for doctrine.
What do we have this little story here
for?
Jesus sat opposite the treasurer.
And beheld how the people cast money into
the treasury, and many of them were rich,
casting in much.
And there came a certain poor widow, and
she threw in two mites, which make a
farthing.
And he called unto him his disciples.
And he said unto them, Verily I say
unto you, the poor widow has cast in
more than all they that have cast into
the treasury.
For all they did cast in of their
abundance, but she of her want did cast
in all that she had, even all her
living.
As far as I can see, Mrs. Clapp,
who helped found this work, has been doing
that all of her life.
Even now, she still gives regularly to the
work, though now her mind is going, she
can't figure out where to give and how
to give.
She got it all confused because she's got
so many people.
She's turned it over to her son.
But I know that right to this day,
her great passion next to prayer is just
giving.
Now do you think that Mrs. Clapp would
have ever done that if she had never
met me or O.M.? Or we cut
her off the prayer list because she wasn't
a big donor or didn't answer the letter.
Mrs. Clapp, I'll tell you, gets hot information.
She's been getting personal letters from me for
30 years.
Ad visits and phone calls.
And I just know there are a lot
of Mrs. Clapps out there.
The widow's might.
If you think that in O.M. we
are just somehow writing letters and phoning people
who have wealth, you don't know what's going
on.
I'm going through my whole mailing list right
now, praying through the entire list.
That's two and a half thousand.
Very few people on there have a lot
of money.
Very few people that I write to, it's
even money related.
Though I believe it is not wrong to
write a letter that is money related.
It's taken me a long time.
I'm still battling with it because I'm so
concerned about motivation.
But if our motivation is right, we're not
building up.
You know, this isn't just for ourselves.
And the Word of God says a laborer
is worthy of his hire, so even communicating
your own personal needs says surely nothing's sinful
in that.
But I, in my own ministry, because of
my particular job, most of my letters are
not necessarily money related.
I have a ministry of encouragement.
I know you do as well.
And some of you probably heard the story
of the year, at least my story of
the year that I just called this dear
black pastor, just to encourage him.
I hardly knew who he was.
I thought my visit to Little Rock, Arkansas
two years ago was a bit of a
downer.
I didn't see really a lot happen.
That's my temperament.
I always like to see a lot happen.
And I thought, Little Rock's in Arkansas, it's
a downer, and not much is happening.
And I thought, I met this black pastor,
and of course I'm so, feel so guilty
about the whole black thing in America and
how little we've done and how complex it
is.
Anyway, I phoned him and I just said,
look brother, I love you.
I hope you're going on for God.
How's your church?
It just blew his mind that someone would
phone him, especially a pale face.
It's nothing to do with money.
Little did I dream.
I mean, you know, generally in the states,
the black people are not in the church
having a lot of money.
And if they are, they're not going to
give it to groups like Operation Normalization.
You can be sure of that.
That man was so excited.
He wrote me, he phoned me.
We became close friends.
He was used to release $80,000 six
months ago for the work of the kingdom.
Then I invited him to Peachtree City.
Of course, everybody jumped on him in love,
of course.
He just sent in $20,000 or $30
,000 for relocation, $20,000 or $30,000
for something else.
Love Europe scholarships.
We don't look to man in the bottom
line sense.
We're aware of spiritual warfare.
But I will tell you, as that one
man through a foundation I think he belonged
to, as that one man in that particular
culture, which can match anything you have in
the third world, my friends, the black ghetto
American situation can match anything in terms of
complexity and problems that you have in the
third world.
If we can see $130,000 released in
these last few months, and much more spiritually,
much more spiritually, then I know that from
Singapore and from Hong Kong and from South
Africa and from Argentina and from Brazil we
can see released for the work of God.
It doesn't have to be O.M. Millions,
and I pray that from now on you
will start praying in millions.
Millions released for the kingdom and the work
of God.
If Campus Crusade can handle it better than
us, let them handle it.
If YWAM can handle it better than us,
and I mean they have goals and programs
that I can't even relate to, give it
to them.
World Vision has ability in handling money.
And I believe that one of our sins
at times in O.M. has been our
small mindedness.
We maybe have seen their mistakes.
We maybe have seen that some of them
are traveling first class by plane.
We may not agree with certain things the
way this group and that group is carrying
on, but I tell you the true score
is in heaven.
So let us as O.M.ers be
a little more humble in the future.
Let us be a little slower to open
our mouths and let heaven give the score
as to who is really accomplishing what needs
to be done.
We have learned that it's not possible to
do big things without wastage.
If you want to do small things, if
you want to be small minded, good, start
your own mission.
Leave O.M. and start your own little
fellowship of the small minded.
And aim at small things.
Aim as low as you possibly can.
And don't bring anybody else to work with
you because eventually you'll fight with each other,
as we have in this work.
Don't misunderstand what I'm saying because I am
not about to want to launch O.M.
into anything that is not honoring to God
and that's what we talked about last night.
But I believe we must think big.
We must pray big.
Is it wrong that we pray that every
one of those refugees could find a home
in 1990, 1991?
We went out of our minds to rescue
a couple of boat people.
We made a big thing about it.
Let's face it.
Every time you see something about the ship,
we hear about the great Lagos refugee rescue
program.
I'm not against that.
But we need that times 10,000.
If we are concerned for those boat people
who are being murdered at sea, pirates are
attacking them.
Awful things are happening.
We need to be burdened for that situation
right now in Colombia.
I just heard on the radio 4,000
were arrested in the last 24 hours in
Colombia.
The drug barons almost control Colombia.
This may be the last stand of some
people with righteousness trying to get on top.
They've rescued, they've arrested 4,000 after the
murder of the man that could have been
the next president.
Now when we read these things in the
paper, when we watch them on TV, what
do we do?
Do we say, we can't do anything about
that?
I hope not.
The power of money in the hands of
the drug people of the world is awesome.
In Pakistan right now, it is awesome.
We can sit back in our suburban righteousness,
which isn't righteousness, and say these people shouldn't
grow the crops.
Some research, and I may be wrong, shows
that if people grow poppies for drugs, they
get this much money.
If they grow the food that somebody's telling
them to grow, who's against drugs, they make
this much money.
What if you were the man with the
field and that decision would determine whether you
put bread on your own little screaming son's
stomach?
What decision would you make?
Most of us from a suburban background, who
have had most of our needs met, we
don't even know what these people are going
through.
Mentally, emotionally, it's awesome.
What the poor and those without are going
through.
And I believe, through prayer, through preaching, through
literature, through steps of faith, through greater biblical
emphasis on resources, we can be a part,
maybe only small, of seeing millions released.
Do you know how much money some of
these baseball players have now in the United
States?
One minute I talk to Tony Campala at
Love Europe, the next minute I'm talking to
Eddie Waxer.
How do you put that together?
Eddie Waxer targets those who have resources.
His second target, which may be his first,
are the sons and the daughters of those
who have resources.
He wins them to Christ.
You say, hey, this is heavy strategy.
I don't believe with Eddie it is.
But I tell you, I thank God for
the vision of Eddie Waxer.
I was all angry about the salaries these
sports people are getting.
I read about the baseball players' salaries.
And I said, Eddie, what do you think
about the money that these guys are getting?
I expected him to come out.
He said, boy, I think it's great.
The resourcing of the work of God that
can come, because he was thinking of the
Christian athletes, through these men and women.
Well, you can think about that.
But when I see the salaries and the
money that people are making, I have a
list in one of my business magazines of
the salaries of all the top executives in
the United States and all the top executives,
and most of them in the world.
It's just staggering.
Cannot, without us becoming extreme, can we not
lay hold of some of this for God?
Must we go on in our own fellowship
with half our people, half our people not
even seeing their support come in?
And some people say, oh, and we'll always
be the same.
Well, let me just tell you, brothers and
sisters, forgive me if it's going to be
the same.
I'm leaving.
I'm leaving, because I don't believe God wants
it to be the same, and I don't
believe you believe it's going to be the
same.
We can see the support come in for
our brothers and sisters.
We can not only see the support come
in, we can see them having the privilege
of seeing more than a support so they
can give.
So they can give.
We will get what we aim at.
If we're going to crawl along the ground
aiming at half support, if we're going to
be a nickel and dime operation counting the
pennies and somehow feeling we're all very spiritual
through this, that's what we may get.
But if we can think big and pray
big and work hard, I believe we can
see our people supported.
And when they are supported, and we're going
to pray about this tonight, that means when
they leave us there's a much higher chance
that they're going to make it, whether they're
in the secular world or whether they go
in the mission society.
I read an article last night from Missionary
Quarterly by Coggins, Wade Coggins.
I already wrote him a letter congratulating him
on this article.
Brilliant.
You know what he's talking about in that
article?
He's talking about a high percentage of Americans
now that are not going to come to
the mission field because of school debts.
The Swedes were in this before the Americans
knew anything about it.
But now it's hit the United States.
I think it's hitting England too.
School debts.
People coming out of college with ten, twenty,
thirty thousand worth of debts.
They've got to stay home to earn their
money.
While they stay home, they get married.
While they're married, they get children.
The possibilities of going to the field after
that are slight.
And he just made gentle, and Wade is
mega, mega gentle, a couple of suggestions, though,
like the church might do something about it.
Or mission societies might do something about it.
And I asked him to keep me informed
because to me, if a church sees there's
a couple that have got giftedness and missionary
qualifications, if they've got ten thousand in debt,
there's hardly a church in the states that
doesn't have a businessman that couldn't write that
off.
Why?
Why is so much money of the king
frozen in banks, frozen in assets, frozen in
lands, frozen in second houses, frozen in yachts
and boats?
Don't you ever get angry?
Some of you, I don't think you've ever
been angry.
You get angry in your life.
Stomp your feet.
Stand on the chair.
Break something.
But don't just sit around letting the world
go to hell without doing something about it.
Jesus got angry.
Jesus taught, don't let the wrath, don't let
the sun go down upon your anger.
We know there are different kinds of anger.
And I'm still reading about anger because the
last thing I want is to justify any
verbal garbage.
But I am angry and tired of seeing
so often Satan walk off with a big
price.
Don't, if you're an extreme Calvinist, don't at
this point throw me some sovereignty verse.
Because you may get me very angry and
I'll spit at you and then I have
to repent.
You and I know that some clichés have
been used to keep us from doing what
needs to be done.
They threw those clichés at Wilberforce, they threw
them at Carrie, they threw them at many
of the greatest men that have ever walked
in the world.
And my Arminian streak says we have got
to do something about this.
We've got to do it in God's way,
we've got to walk in humility and godliness,
we've got to of course incorporate sovereignty, but
I believe when it comes to what we
should be doing in the world, sovereignty is
God's part and free will is my part.
And to try to figure it out will
become a theological headache.
Let's do something about Lebanon.
Let's do something about the refugees.
Let's do something about the unsupported.
We should be so embarrassed by our whole
Latin America thing.
We should be embarrassed by it.
I am embarrassed by it.
I've just spent time with Frank Dietz, he's
surviving.
Because of all that's happened and all the
complexity it's being held back.
We know it by lack of finance, by
not getting the money out.
And I am ashamed, I'm calling my own
bluff, because I would like to put hard
money into Brazil or give it to Love
Europe, and I did for a little bit
so that in turn I would use the
Brazilian money for projects within Brazil.
There's plenty that has to be done for
God in Brazil.
Do you think the work is all over
in Brazil?
If we had a million dollars, we could
spend it in Brazil.
Especially if we get into the green campaign.
Have you been reading about that lately?
That's the big thing.
I mean, it's getting overwhelming.
We've not only got to evangelize the world
now, now the Christians are telling us we've
got to repair the ozone layer in the
process.
We've got to reforest the Amazon.
You know, a lot of people think, oh,
we're out to lunch.
Groups that just want saving souls and people
go to heaven.
This is not where it is.
It's to make the earth greener.
It's just overwhelming.
Some of the idealism, I was just reading
about it in 21st Christian, I think, I
don't know when that was, last night, and
it just amazes me.
And now if you want to sell your
product, you've got to prove that that product
and manufacturing it has not hindered the environment.
And I'm just dreaming, how do we work
this into books?
Books come from paper, paper come from trees.
We have got to get a new variety
of book.
It can be recycled.
I mean, that's a possibility.
This book has been recycled from hair that's
fallen out of people's heads that's not usable.
Well, let me not get into the absurd.
Go to Acts chapter 2.
Acts chapter 2.
By the way, I've got some bad news
for some of you, that you will be
held accountable for what you hear tonight.
Not by me.
You will be held accountable before the Lord.
And I will as well.
We all know the Acts 2 verses, so
we don't want to dwell on them, but
it just shows how the same message of
Jesus Christ flooded into the book of Acts,
and they got excited about loving one another
and helping one another, and they were concerned
about the physical needs.
They were concerned about the physical needs.
Verse 45 says they sold their possessions.
Part of them, as old men, had need.
Verse 44 talks about being together and having
things in common.
Seemed to me it was a pragmatic operation
for a particular situation demonstrating a reality in
their hearts, rather than the law of the
Medes and the Persians, so to speak.
Acts chapter 4, we find also people gripped
with the need and releasing money for the
kingdom.
Verse 37, having land, sold it.
Do you know how much land is in
the hands of Christians?
Praise God for that Christian in Georgia who
gave us a piece of land, and I
think recently we sold that.
Praise God for what's happening in Pakistan with
us being offered this property and piece of
land for what is it, $60,000?
Some unbelievable figure.
And I just believe that God can release
land through prayer.
What God has done in Carlisle.
What God has done in a number of
your countries in releasing land, releasing buildings.
But I'm again not primarily thinking of a
land, but the whole work of God.
And sometimes if those who are godly and
those who are committed, and those who have
been proven and tested in the handling of
money, if they don't move in in boldness
and action, then people with lesser motivation move
in.
We've had the Jimmy and Tammy Baker thing
thrown in our face so many times, we
don't want it anymore.
But it's interesting that Philip Yancey, another one
of my favorite writers, just went down there
and took a tour of the place and
wrote about it in my favorite magazine, Christianity
Today.
And I believe everybody in OM ought to
subscribe to that.
I offer free subscriptions and I got very
few takers.
I don't know why.
I guess maybe everybody already gets it.
It's interesting that when things get tight, if
you're getting magazine subscriptions, you will be challenged
as to the wastage.
Somebody else can go off and spend $4
,000 for further education, but if you're getting
a few magazines for your research and your
studies, somebody's going to breathe on you, especially
if things are tight.
I don't have a simple answer to it.
I canceled some of my subscriptions and took
new ones out later on when I got
the victory.
Acts chapter 20.
Acts chapter 20, just very quickly I know
the time frustration that Gordon experiences in the
morning I experience.
The verse I was thinking of is verse
33 and 35.
Paul said, I coveted no man's silver and
gold or apparel.
34 Ye yourselves know that these hands have
ministered unto my necessities and to them that
were with me.
Biblical basis for tent making.
35 I've shown you all things how that
so laboring you ought to support the weak
and to remember the words of the Lord
Jesus how he said it is more blessed
to give than receive.
When he had thus spoken, he knelt down
and prayed with them all.
They all wept much and fell on Paul's
neck and kissed it.
There's not time to share with you those
whole chapters 2 Corinthians 9 and 8 where
we have so much biblical teaching about money.
Please if you can study those on your
own.
Many many other verses.
So try to summarize this.
Try to get the Lord's mind.
First of all it's to increase our praying
for the release of finance.
And I have legitimate honest concern for the
prayer life of Operation Mobilization.
There almost seems to be at times a
war going on to shorten the length of
the prayer meeting.
And the ones like me who want to
make it a little longer are running out
of steam fighting the battle.
I know there's no virtue in necessarily having
a long time of prayer.
But the fact is with shorter prayer meetings
there are many major major things that are
not prayed for.
They are not prayed for.
Because it takes time.
So OM is that much bigger with that
much more things to pray for.
Just practical.
And the prayer meetings are that much shorter.
So maybe you can write me your note
on how that's going to work out.
It seems to me we need more prayer.
And you know I don't have the same
steam I used to have on this.
I have far more struggles with prayer than
I used to have.
But by God's grace I'm hanging in there
and I believe the bottom line for releasing
finance, for influencing Lebanon, for influencing Afghanistan, for
influencing South Africa, for not just influencing doing
things.
I believe prayer is the first bottom line.
Now a lot of people are moving way
beyond me in this.
They actually are going to take over these
places.
I am not into reconstruction theology.
I've studied enough of it.
I'm not into it.
You want to read a healthy book on
that?
Try Colson's book Conflict in the Kingdom.
Read it right through from cover to cover.
Awesome.
I believe Charles Colson could use a million
right now.
A million dollars right now for prison ministry.
The possibilities are so great.
Someone said to me, if you had a
million would you be able to spend it?
What are you joking?
A million barely gets all the amount of
debt.
Or pay the bills.
How much does Dale need?
Two million.
Yeah.
And I'll tell you if sometimes you think
I'm changing a little bit, you go ask
old pop guru sitting in the corner over
there why I'm changing.
He has changed faster than I have on
some of these things.
I just got the bigger mouth.
I always have.
He's got the bigger brain.
Brothers and sisters I beseech you in the
name of Jesus Christ to change your mentality.
We have had in our work at times
the sin of small mindedness.
I am not despising anything we have done
in the past.
I am not in any way despising the
whole message of God working through prayer.
I esteem very highly groups that may not
particularly agree with me.
I don't even agree with myself in the
sense that I'm constantly growing and changing.
I'm learning.
I'm keeping the L plates on.
But for us to look out at dying,
hungry, starving people and not do something is
wrong.
It's not ethical.
That's why Tony Compallo swore at the Presbyterians.
And how some of you at times can
be so blase about the state of the
church of Jesus Christ is beyond my comprehension,
except I know it must be your temperament.
Because I am convinced that in many cases,
as Compallo and Tozer and others said, the
church is sinning against God.
It has left the first calling.
Compallo went as far as to say it's
not even really Christianity.
I mean, go on.
And it's because the church sees these things.
They see it on television.
They see the suffering and the dying and
the starved and we go beyond that.
The spiritual needs.
People without Bibles.
Do you know the need for Bibles right
now?
The need for New Testaments.
The open door in the Soviet Union.
Why is almost every mission agency, directly or
indirectly, looking for money?
Why is it?
You think they're infatuated with that?
No.
They're good people, most of them.
And they see the need.
He that sees his brother in need opens
not his heart of compassion.
How dwelleth the love of God in him?
Brother Andrew, who wrote that powerful article about
the problems we are facing, those of us
who are in faith missions and are looking
to God through prayer.
Incredible article.
I think I sent it to most of
you.
But on the bottom line, Brother Andrew is
one of the most brilliant fundraisers of our
day.
Don't use that term.
But I mean, I'll tell you, they know
how to release money.
And they are printing in the process of
a million New Testaments.
Now maybe we can't distribute all this literature
because we've got so many different strategies and
this mega pluralism we're into, which is great.
Other groups are willing.
And I believe as we release funds in
prayer, a lot of it will never touch
us.
See, you bookkeepers and accountants can relax.
You're worried about having to handle too much
money.
This is really getting on your nerves, all
this money pouring in for Real Love Europe.
And I can understand it.
That's why I pray for big gifts.
Big gifts.
One of the reasons, takes the same amount
of energy for the bookkeeper, generally, as a
small gift.
I just processed a gift, remember Vera, last
week?
It was at one pound.
Cost us more to process it.
But who knows?
That may have been the widow's mite.
So I keep a right attitude as I
process that one pound.
Brothers and sisters, let's take some giant steps
to feed the poor.
Let's take some giant steps to minister to
those in prison.
Let's take giant steps to make sure everybody
in the world has a Bible or at
least a Gospel or a New Testament.
Let's take giant steps in praying for the
financial needs of every mission agency that we're
in touch with.
Let's take giant steps in wanting, especially through
literature, through video, through letters, through every possible
method, influence the people in power.
One of the reasons missionaries are still in
Bangladesh is because somehow people were influenced in
tough places.
When the axe was about to come down,
somehow some uncanny influence came again.
And God uses different situations.
I believe some of the money that governments
release to help the poor, to feed the
starving, to meet the needs in Sudan, to
meet the needs in Ethiopia.
I believe prayer is behind that when these
government people release that money.
I know there's politics and all, but there
we see God's sovereign hand working even through
the sinfulness of man.
I remember the influence Ingemar Empker made upon
me in this area as he was used
in the United Nations to help release money.
Think of what the World Bank is doing.
I know a Christian who works in the
World Bank.
Let's dream dreams.
Let's think of new ways to influence this
planet that we're in with six billion souls.
It can be.
And I want to give my remaining years
to this kind of thinking, this kind of
praying, this kind of message to the churches.
If you know any businessman anywhere that's got
resources, if he's willing to sit down with
me, you tell me, and I'll sit with
him.
Because God has given me this truth, and
I'm not going to keep it.
And the wealthy people that I'm linked with,
which isn't that many, as far as I
know, most of them appreciate me.
Most of them want me to come and
stay with them and have holidays with them.
I wish I could multiply and divide and
stay in all these places all at once.
I know I can't.
And so I share this with you.
You've got to be willing for this ministry.
I'm only one person.
Some of you are already in it.
Dale is in it.
Peter's in it.
Phillip's in it.
Maiden is in it.
A number of you are in this.
There's nothing wrong with it.
We want a chief engineer?
We go for him.
John, you're on the phone in Australia.
Anything, John.
We want you.
Just respect your persons.
We got him.
The first chief engineer was the toughest.
Pretty soon we had him lined up.
Why is it right to go with all
of our heart for a chief engineer?
I think of something brilliant that Mike Wakely
wrote on this subject.
We praise God for the balance that comes
when we're reading one thing and somebody submits
something else.
We need that.
And I know there's far greater dangers in,
for instance, looking for somebody to give money
than there is for looking for a chief
engineer because we just read about the deceptiveness
of riches.
But I believe we can do it.
And I'm praying.
I'm praying that God's going to give some
big people with resources to support the work
in South America.
We've got to have it.
We cannot continue the way that we have.
I'm praying that we're going to get resources
for the Muslim thing.
I mean, the pain that I read in
one letter from one leader in the Muslim
world, I just can't relate to that.
And I think there's a danger that we're
going to get...
We're willing just to live that way.
We're willing just to go on that way,
throw stones at the prosperity movement and become
the poverty movement.
I don't think so, really.
Let's pray.
Lord, you know, my own heart, I believe
this is a very vague kind of a
vision in some ways, that each field has
to work out in its own context.
Fritz will be having, I believe, a seminar
on how to increase support.
Other people are here.
Olin Henrichs.
We may not agree with everything, but surely
we have to listen.
You know that we're not interested in throwing
away any of our basics, any of our
distinctives.
And in a sense, it may be that
you want to bypass us in terms of
this big money.
And just shoot it direct.
You maybe want to work through, I'm sure
you want to work through Habitat.
I'm sure you want to work through even
secular groups, even through government.
We thank you that Wilberforce believed that something
could be done about slaves.
And we believe that something can be done
about poverty.
Something can be done about inequality.
Something can be done about 16 million refugees.
Something can be done about boat people.
Something can be done about millions and millions
that don't have gospel tracts or Bibles.
Something can be done about people who want
to serve Jesus Christ in India and other
countries, and don't even have the finances to
go one more week, one more month.
Something can be done about the fact that
a small percentage of people in the world
are accumulating, consuming a great amount of all
of the wealth.
And 90% of the world, or 80
% of whatever it is, are often suffering.
Lord, we don't want to just go in
this through a lot of guilt.
We want to go in this because of
our desire to be Christ-like.
Because of these scriptures and other scriptures.
Because we are people of compassion.
We have to be honest that sometimes we
find it difficult to push the fork in
the mouth with a full meal in front
of us.
When people are without food, and Lord, we
pray you would deliver us from imbalance or
selfishness, from excess of guilt.
We have to bloom where we are.
We can't pretend something we're not.
But God, we can do something.
If it's to pray a more realistic prayer
before we eat.
If it's a little more fasting.
If it's to share with people of wealth
the real situation in the world, and that
something can be done.
There are honest people.
There are godly people.
We can commit money to them.
They will spend it properly.
There's great movements like S.I.M. There's
M.A.F. Flying Food out to the
village people.
There's Cheer Fund.
There's World Vision.
There's hundreds, thousands of godly medical doctors who
need help in their hospitals.
There's Habitat and other similar programs that want
to put up better housing.
There are pastors in local churches in Pakistan,
around the world, who have tremendous needs.
There's Flood Relief.
There's Earthquake Relief.
There's Famine Relief.
In many cases the structure is there though
there's always need for more godly administrators and
people.
But we need the cash.
We need the resources.
We need that widow's money.
We need the kind of people that we've
mentioned who will see that they are as
much a part of this work by financing
it as they are if they got in
the plane and flew with us to the
front lines.
Once and for all, oh God, break down
that wall between us and our supporters.
Break down that wall of super spirituality, of
clichéism and help us to be honest and
open in love, in balance and with discernment
to understand the deep, ugly, deceptive power of
riches.
We ask this in Jesus' name.
I want us to go right into just
prayer for finance.
Finance for the whole work of God.
Do you know how much it cost for
Ralph Winter to get the U.S. Center
for World Missions?
When I first heard it, I almost opposed
it in my small-mindedness.
How mightily God has used him.
But putting up a center to teach people
about missions is just the beginning.
Can we not see that same amount of
money released each day to plant the church
in every one of these unreached people's groups?
Let God decide who should handle the money.
We all need some.
We're going to survive.
But let God decide which group is going
to become bigger or smaller.
I'm not dictating that tonight.
But I want to see money released for
the kingdom.
And when they can spend half a billion
dollars to put one airplane in the air
to avoid radar.
And when they can spend millions and millions
to put one more missile up or satellite
up so we can have another extra channel
which we don't need on the television.
I tell you, I say, Lord, somehow you're
bigger than all that.
God doesn't have to bring in any money
to prove anything.
We're not in Mueller's same situation.
If you really study him, what he was
trying to prove.
We're not into that.
That's not our calling.
That could be a good foundation.
God is God.
And we know he works in an awesome
way even through the poverty and the suffering
and the chaos.
But we've got to take both sides of
the scripture.
Let's different people just pray for the release
of finance.
I believe this pyramid could release maybe more
money than we have released corporately together in
the past year.
That's probably overstated.
But I believe God wants to take us
into a new thing in releasing finance for
the kingdom of God.