Revelation chapter 3.
And to the angel of the church in
Sardis, write, here as the seven spirits of
God, seven stars, says this, I have known
your deeds, that you have a name, that
you are alive, but you are dead.
Wake up, strengthen the things that remain, which
were about to die, for I have not
found your deeds completed in the sight of
my God.
Remember therefore what you have received and heard,
and keep it, and repent.
If therefore you will not wake up, I
will come like a thief, and you will
not know at what hour I will come
upon you.
But you have a few people in Sardis
who have not soiled their garments, and they
will walk with me in white, for they
are worthy.
He who overcomes shall thus be clothed in
white garments, and I will not erase his
name from the book of life, and I
will confess his name before my Father and
before his angels.
He who hath an ear, let him hear
what the Spirit says to the churches.
To the angel of the church in Philadelphia,
write.
I think, I think it would be good
to read the whole thing.
It may seem long, but it's the word
of God.
He who is holy, who is true, who
has the key of David, who opens and
no man will shut, who will shut and
no one opens, says this.
I know your deeds.
Behold, I have put before you an open
door.
Isn't that so true today?
I have put before you an open door
which no man can shut, because you have
a little power, and have kept my word,
and have not denied my name.
Behold, I will cause those of the synagogue
of Satan, who say that they are Jews
and are not, but lie.
Behold, I will make them to come and
bow down at your feet, and to know
that I have loved you.
Because you have kept the word of my
perseverance, I also will keep you from the
hour of testing, that hour which is about
to come upon the whole world, to test
those who dwell upon the earth.
I am coming quickly.
Hold fast what you have, in order that
no one take your crown.
He who overcomes, I will make a pillar
in the temple of my God, and he
will not go out from it anymore.
And I will write upon him the name
of my God, and the name of the
city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which
comes down out of heaven from my God
and my new name.
Hear as an ear, let him hear what
the Spirit says to the churches.
Verse 14.
And to the angel of the church in
Laodicea write the Amen.
The faithful and the true witness, the beginning
of the creation of God says this, I
know your deeds.
That ye are neither hot or neither cold
nor hot.
I would that you were cold or hot.
So because you are lukewarm and neither hot
nor cold, I will spit you out of
my mouth.
Because you say, I am rich, and have
become wealthy, have need of nothing.
And you know not that you are wretched
and miserable and poor and blind and naked.
I advise you to buy from me gold
refined by fire, that you may become rich
and white raiments, that you may clothe yourself,
and that the shame of your nakedness may
not be revealed, and the eye salve to
anoint your eyes, that ye may see.
Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline.
Be zealous, therefore, and repent.
Behold, I stand at the door and knock.
If anyone hears my voice and opens the
door, I will come into him and will
dine with him and he with me.
He who overcomes, I will grant to him
to sit down with me on my throne,
as I also overcame and sat down with
my Father on his throne.
He who has ears, let him hear what
the Spirit of God says to the churches.
May God give a spirit of obedience to
the reading of His Holy Word, and this
is God's Word.
You will never understand OM unless you understand
that we believe this is God's Word, and
it must be the final authority.
It must be the final authority over feelings.
It must be the final authority over the
will.
It must be the final authority in your
social life, in your financial affairs, in your
planning, in your future, in your marriage, over
even your intellect, the Word of God.
God was speaking to the church through the
writer of the book of Revelation, speaking under
the authority of the Holy Spirit, and God
is still speaking to the church.
We're living in a day where on one
side we have a group of people that
are especially experience-centered and are always emphasizing
experiences, and I praise God for the balance
of A.
W.
Tozer in this area, because I tell you,
A.
W.
Tozer was a man who experienced God in
the depth of his soul.
You read the latest book, one of the
latest books we've published, Leaning to the Wind
by A.
W.
Tozer, and you'll know this man believed in
experiencing God, and he felt that the great
mistake that Bible-believing Christians were making in
the fifties and the forties was the propagation
of dead orthodoxy, theology without life.
Dr. Lloyd-Jones, it's just, well, a book
has just come out, he didn't write it
because he's in heaven, but a book came
out of Dr. Lloyd-Jones' Messages on the
Holy Spirit, a very expensive book.
I haven't got my copy yet, can't afford
it, but it's dynamite.
Now Lloyd-Jones led, really, the Reformed movement
in Britain, and if you've listened to as
many of his tapes as I have, you
know that he said many controversial things.
I would not be able to agree with
them all.
He opposed the evangelical alliance, which we are
actually in Britain a part of.
And he and John Stott openly confronted each
other in London on the platform.
And of course it's often true of great
men of God, they don't get on too
well.
Something some of us have to learn to
live with.
But they eventually got a little closer.
It surprised a lot of Dr. Lloyd-Jones'
followers, and he had a great gathering of
people who would come with him in his
ministerial meetings.
I went to one of them once.
And it surprised a lot of his followers
when Dr. Lloyd-Jones came to the Doulos
in London many years ago.
And he spoke a message that was right
down what we call O.M. Main Street.
A message on spiritual balance.
That we want sound doctrine.
We need solid doctrine.
Some of you, if you're honest, new leaderships
in training, you are weak in doctrine.
You don't know the basic doctrines of the
Word of God.
In O.M., we have a doctrinal statement.
In O.M., we believe in truth and
love.
And we're not going to fall into the
trap of just thinking, you know, all people
with the name Christian, we're all just going
to sort of love one another and flow
together in some kind of great ecumenical bizarre.
Because it does end up very bizarre.
We believe in truth, and therefore we have
to compassionately disagree with some people.
We don't work together with everybody.
We have Jerusalem meetings.
We had one years ago with a group
called Christ is the Answer.
They wanted to cooperate with us.
We loved them.
We met.
When they shared what they believed, we said,
thank you very much.
We'll pray for you.
Goodbye.
They were very sad.
That movement was practicing some very extreme things.
And now they have split down the middle.
Now we still love them.
And we are re-flirting with them.
We're re-dialoguing.
And we've discovered they have changed.
And an ex-O.M. has just joined
the Asian section, because they split in two,
as a member of their board.
Back then they didn't have a board.
And dear brother Bill Lowry, the founder, is
a brother I love very much.
And I allowed him to speak from the
O.M. pulpit.
But we're not yet to the stage where
there can be sort of intensive, you know,
kind of cooperation.
Now with our brothers and sisters in YWAM,
there are also differences between YWAM and O
.M., we feel, you know, that we're able
to work together.
We don't always have the opportunity.
But this year I had the joy of
working together in depth for the first time
with YWAM.
O.M., YWAM, Youth For Christ, Think Buzz
Magazine, in last day's ministry, Keith Green Memorial
Concerts.
What a great time that was.
And I praise God for many different styles
of preaching.
I listened to many different men.
Some of the great charismatic men, James Robinson,
that strict outspoken Southern Baptist, criticizing so many
people.
God met him in a special way, and
he was filled with the Holy Spirit.
He was already James Robinson, one of the
most famous evangelists in America, spoke to more
people in America than Billy Graham.
And when the Holy Spirit met James Robinson,
he confessed that when he was preaching, he
would be lusty after women from the pulpit.
He confessed that he'd go to a restaurant
after preaching and seeing people saved.
And treat the waiters like they were scum,
and the waitresses.
And he felt as a great Christian leader,
he was in the grip of the enemy.
I listened to that tape recording at this
conference last year.
It's taken James Robinson, a good part of
his life, to come to the place that
God brought OM 25 years ago.
We believe that the Holy Spirit makes radical
change and delivers men and women from bondage
and from sin and Satan and self.
And we are not afraid to see people
have crisis experiences with the Holy Spirit.
And many of our leaders have had crisis
experiences with the Holy Spirit, I can assure
you, and I am one of them.
Many others, and some of them are just
as far spiritually, even further spiritually, have never
had any one particular crisis, but have had
the continual, ongoing process of God breaking into
their lives, God breaking into their lives, in
their quiet time, in the Word, and through
the preaching of the Word of God.
One of my gurus or teachers is Alan
Redpath.
He mixes these two together, and oh my,
he has upset a lot of people.
But he is still running the race when
many of the others have dropped out along
the way.
Stephen Olford, a little more conservative than Alan
Redpath, is another one of our OM favorites.
If ever a man could expound the Word,
it's Stephen Olford.
Just went through some more of his tapes
recently.
Stephen is way over here, very strong on
the exposition of the Word of God.
John Stott, very strong on the exposition of
the Word of God.
George Whitefield probably had as much anointing as
all those men put together, a little hard
to compare, just a little personal opinion.
And every Christian should read the biography of
George Whitefield.
I read volume one right through 500 pages.
I was in the middle of volume two
and loaned it out and haven't seen it
since.
But I'll tell you, when that man preached,
20,000 people in the open air, the
Holy Ghost moved in power.
And George Whitefield emphasized the ministry of exhortation.
And his preachers, he had many preachers.
I wrote in the front of my Bible
many years ago.
I'll see if I can find it.
I write so many things here, it's hard
to find them all.
Lord give OM, here it is, right under
the word Holy Bible.
Lord, over the word.
Lord give 50 men to preach with a
mighty anointing within Operation Mobilization.
I heard someone, I think I must have
misunderstood it.
I heard someone say he didn't believe God
gave people special anointings.
I think he was referring to administration.
I wouldn't even agree with that.
But I will tell you, if I didn't
believe God anointed me to preach, I would
fold up right now.
Because I tell you, in my flesh dwelleth
no good thing.
And I am a weak earthen vessel.
45 minutes ago, I collapsed from a mild
case of just being wiped out.
Not so much physically tired, because one of
the things I did was clean the garbage
and the rubbish up around my bus.
There was a major airplane attack on my
bus last night.
I live in an old bus.
But when I woke up this morning to
go jogging, there were over 30 paper airplanes
all around my bus.
Now none of them were nuclear armed.
But, you know, with my crusade about, with
litter, I of course spent the first part
of my jogging picking up papers.
There were also bottles and tins and other
things out around my coach.
I don't think they were actually aiming for
my coach.
I think maybe some of the children had
got a vision.
And you know, who am I to judge
that?
When I was a teenager, I went to
the highest building in New When the police
weren't looking, I released it from the Empire
State Building.
It was the most glorious sight.
The wind picked up all the paper, and
every tourist in the Empire State Building was
watching my great fanfare.
And it was all over.
And I was enjoying this, and when these
two policemen swept in on me, and I
was taken away.
The literature and paper at an early age.
But maybe the children who threw the planes
could come down in the morning and clean
it up.
But I was, now what in the world
was I talking about?
Oh yes, I was just sharing how this
evening, about 45 minutes ago, I've been talking
to so many people, reading so many mob
albums.
I've talked to the teenagers today.
I've talked to all the wives today.
That's a blessing, but sometimes just talking to
people, you're just tired.
And so I just turned on Amy Grant
on my cassette recorder and fell asleep for
a few minutes and was refreshed.
And in my soul, in myself, didn't feel
really ready or able to preach.
But the Lord has never failed.
When I've stood with this word open, with
a burden on my heart, He's given the
anointing, the grace, the unction, the help.
Call it whatever you want.
Help is a good word.
You don't like anointing.
The help of the Holy Spirit.
And this is our last night of this
conference.
And listen, brothers and sisters, God wants to
bless you tonight.
God wants to do something in your life.
You know, I'm with a tremendous emphasis on
teaching and learning and training and discipline.
We don't want to lose the emphasis on
God meeting you.
God filling you afresh with the Holy Spirit.
Ephesians 5, be filled with the Holy Spirit.
And that's one of the greatest burdens on
my heart.
When I listen to some of the rather
strong messages here that go on and on,
God never adds to His word.
I believe that.
But I don't go as far and I
would not agree with people who give the
idea God doesn't speak today through His servants.
How can we possibly do that?
These very men, as they say that, are
hoping that God will speak through them so
we won't go swinging too far over in
this other camp that they don't like.
So they're hoping God will speak through them.
I believe God speaks today through His servants.
But they are imperfect human beings.
They easily make mistakes.
I'm in that camp.
And so it must always be compared with
the scripture.
Peter Maiden asked us to have a day
of prayer last Sunday, and he exhorted us.
And if there's anybody loyal and faithful to
the word of God, it's Peter Maiden.
And he is basically a Bible expositor, where
I would be more of a Bible exhorter.
But he said, let's have a day of
prayer.
We need to hear the voice of God.
What does he mean by that?
You know, good brethren background, I mean, this
sounds a little bit dangerous.
But we met God in prayer, and He
spoke to our hearts from the word, but
not exclusively.
In practical areas, some practical areas, there's nothing
in the scriptures about it.
Captain Isaacson shared with me that on the
ship navigating through dangerous waters, having to make
a decision, of course, using all of his
navigation skills, all of these fantastic charts, the
help of his men, navigators, the stars.
Ultimately, when he had to make a decision,
you correct me if I'm wrong, he had
to depend upon God.
He's navigating a ship.
He cannot at that moment open the Bible
and look in Kings or Chronicles to get
some navigation signals.
So in the practical work of OM, we
need a voice, a message, a burden, guidance
from God.
And I want to share with you a
message that God gave me many years ago
for the leaders of OM.
And I had someone type out the notes
from the tape.
I gave this message to a group of
Christian leaders in Florida some years ago, and
the Spirit of God just moved through the
place.
Sometimes people like a title if they're taking
notes.
And I just call this dangerous, serious dangers
facing OM, facing many Christian workers.
The Word of God says, take heed.
You know that verse?
Take heed, lest you fall.
We looked at Ephesians 6 last night, so
we won't look again.
There are many other scriptures I would like
to read, and I'm very conscious of the
time.
I think of Isaiah 58, 1 through 7.
I could just write down the reference.
I shared last night about the conspiracy against
Christian leaders.
Tonight, I want to quickly share some of
the real dangers facing us as a movement.
We need your prayers.
Some of you are leaving tomorrow.
Will you pray?
Will you commit yourself to pray for OM?
Will you sign up and receive that prayer
letter?
Will you get that It's Happening in India
letter or Pray for Pakistan letter?
Don't just get one letter.
Sign up for some of these other letters.
One of these dangers, as I see them,
is a practical thing.
I don't think you can find anything here
that is contrary to scripture.
If you do, you can write to me.
Number one, I see the danger of OM
getting set in its ways, stuck in its
routine, in its particular way of doing things.
I see the danger of getting set in
tradition.
When did I first say that?
Deal, a little coastal town in England, September
1965, 20 years ago.
Brothers and sisters, if I was worried and
burdened that OM 20 years ago was getting
stuck and set in its traditions, how much
more in 1985?
Listen, that which in one particular age can
be a blessing in another age can be
a curse.
And we've seen that in the church of
Jesus Christ.
I don't know when the church in England
first started pew rentals, but when I arrived
in 1923 years ago, they were still renting
pews.
You paid in advance to rent the best
pew.
No doubt there were some good reasons for
that somewhere, but I tell you, there was
a day when that became a curse.
Today, God has had to bypass some churches
because they have been stuck in tradition.
They would not move.
They would not even change the very hymns
they sing.
And oh my, the millions of souls, humanly
speaking, that have not heard the gospel because
God's people have a name that they're alive,
but so often they are dead.
And there is a danger in OM.
Now that we have wider acceptance, now that
we have more credibility, now that we have
proven something in the area of perseverance, there
is the danger that we will have a
name among God's people worldwide, but in fact,
individually, and maybe as a team, or even
a whole field, basically dead.
When it comes to spiritual life, the fruit
of the spirit, something that begins good in
zeal and love under the control of the
spirit becomes a tradition, and then it becomes
a legalism, and it leads to judgmentalism, backbiting,
and confusion, which can destroy the work of
God quicker than almost anything else.
Secondly, the second danger that I believe OM
continues to face is the danger of not
walking in the light with one another.
This was a major emphasis in OM.
I hope it is in your life.
Calvary Road was probably one of the most
influential books in all of OM.
Roy Heshin.
I sent Roy Heshin a copy of this
financial tape, which I have just made, and
he wrote a beautiful letter back to me.
Immediately, he responded quicker than most OM leaders.
And he wrote a letter back to me,
and he said, it seems to me you
have answered all of your questions in your
own questions.
So I guess I'll have to listen to
the tape myself.
But Roy Heshin had this emphasis, walking in
the light.
And I want to tell you some of
the saddest things that have happened in OM,
things that I have wept over, things that
have caused me to be angry in righteous
indignation, which only God knows those moments that
I've had, have because we have failed to
stay in the light with one another.
Somebody has hurt us instead of going to
the brother.
We've talked to others.
We've gossiped.
And the enemy has used that in Operation
Mobilization in ways this past two years that
I estimate it will take us five years,
a minimum of five years for OM to
recover from what we have done in that
area, sinning against God and one another.
And remember, I spent 365 days a year
listening, watching, and reading what goes on in
this work.
I visit every single field in this work,
apart from a very, very few, and read
every single OMers prayer letter, scanned read that
is sent to me, and team reports, and
probably about 500 memos per year.
So, you know, this is my job.
God's given me that privilege, so I know
a little bit.
And it's one of the great dangers we
face in this work.
Now, let me just say this.
There have been also many victories in this
area.
In fact, it's amazing that often the struggle,
the failure, and the success go on at
the same time.
And some of our greatest victories have also
been in this area.
And some of you know that on your
team, your greatest failures have been in this
area, and your greatest victories have been in
this area.
When you've been willing to repent, when you've
been willing to repent, and you've been willing
to take 1 John chapter 1 seriously, maybe
we can just look at those verses.
1 John chapter 1.
If we say that we have fellowship with
Him, we all like to believe that, right?
And walk in darkness, we lie and do
not the truth.
Verse 6 talks about God being light.
Walking in the light is walking with God.
In Him is no darkness.
It's part of verse 5.
But if we walk in the light, as
He is in the light, we have fellowship
one with another, and the blood of Jesus
Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sin.
Honesty, openness.
It doesn't mean we share difficult, private, complicated
sins necessarily in public meetings.
We're not talking about that.
But it does mean we're in the light.
We're not deceiving people.
We've had people join OM and deceive us
on the application form by not telling us
the truth about something.
It's a complicated area.
Don't think I teach that you arrive to
a place where you're now always completely in
the light.
I hope we've already destroyed in previous messages
that perfectionist mentality, but this is our goal.
And as the Spirit of God convicts us,
walk in the light, in love.
Light without love is the most subtle form
of darkness.
Number three, the third danger I see is
the danger of not taking enough time to
meet for prayer.
Not taking enough time to meet for prayer.
In some things, we have increasing numbers of
people who in the extended time of prayer,
which has got shorter, they still only remain
an hour or two and go.
I refuse by God's grace to judge those
people.
If I have a question, I will go
to them.
I'm just trying to believe that they're not
feeling well.
They have an urgent responsibility.
Some go to send their wives back because
they have the children to take care of.
Many reasons people leave prayer meetings.
So don't get into that judgmentalism.
But I will tell you, it is not
enough to just show up at the OM
prayer meeting.
You've got to show up with your heart
and your mind concentrating on God, breaking through
the barriers, unbelief, laziness, tiredness, pride, overreaction.
And I pray that we'll consider the prayer
meetings during these days together, the most important
meetings of this conference.
I think that night of prayer could always
be improved.
Anything I do or anything I say can
be improved on.
Anything, as far as I know in all
the history of my ministry.
But God in our weakness broke through with
us here on Wednesday night, and we have
seen answers to prayer.
Taking time with God.
How is your own prayer life?
Are you really getting through?
Sometimes I'm hesitant to say those things because
people immediately, they feel so guilty, and the
pendulum swings, and they start judging themselves, and
they start thinking, I'm no good.
I'll never be a disciple.
I'll never be a good OMer.
I'm going to go join ET or somebody.
It takes time to make a man or
woman of prayer, and I pray you'll be
patient.
You'll be patient.
It takes time for a team to develop
its prayer life.
Be patient with the leader.
He's also a learner.
Number four, the danger of not being involved
in evangelism.
I told some of you leaders years ago,
I said, look, brother, if you don't get
involved in evangelism and stay on the cutting
edge speaking to people about Jesus Christ, you
are going to have problems.
But I will tell you, if you think
you're in a movement where people just obey
or listen to what I share from the
pulpit, you don't know anything about Operation Mobilization
because life is not like that anymore.
Life is a free-for-all, and when
a strong-minded person like me shares something,
there's something in certain kinds of people that
react against that.
That's right.
And this movement has had plenty of rebellion.
And plenty of rebellion from the very earliest
days, 30 years ago, against even basic policies
that we have taught and preached.
And I will tell you, you're going to
find situations in OM where there are men
and women who have dried up.
And it's going to scare some of you.
And every year we have people leave OM
because they meet people who are dried up,
and it just blows their mind.
They're young, they're idealistic, they hear the messages,
they believe in the fullness of the Holy
Spirit.
They believe in New Testament biblical Christianity that
tears down strongholds of the enemy, and they're
expecting that when they come in this work,
they are going to meet anointed men, and
broken men, and godly men.
And I will tell you, this passion that
God put in my heart the day I
was saved has never left, and my own
preference would be to be in the streets
of Brussels this weekend rather than in this
conference.
But I know from the book of Acts
that these Jerusalem meetings are all part of
God's ongoing work.
But I had this fear 20 years ago.
It has been confirmed again and again.
Mickey Walker gave an anointed message to us
two years ago at the conference.
I don't know if we listened to it,
but I fear that there are many of
us out of touch with reality because we're
not committed at least once a week to
talking to the unsaved about Jesus Christ, reaching
out to our neighbors, reaching out to the
people in the bus, in the street, on
the planes.
They're lost.
They're going.
You say, why do you have to shout?
Look, brothers and sisters, I don't want to
shout.
My doctor told me I've had two vocal
cord operations.
Whatever you do, don't shout.
Well, I'll try to whisper.
Maybe some of you like the silent quiet
approach because one thing I understand, there will
be no talking in hell.
May God fill us afresh in this auditorium
tonight, and may we go from this place
anointed, evangelists, witnesses.
You may not have a big gift of
evangelism.
I don't see any Louise Palau's around, but
you are a witness.
In Acts 1-8, when the Holy Spirit
has come upon you, you shall be my
witnesses.
I'm not going to put you in a
guilt trip that you must be a soul
winner.
You witness.
The Holy Spirit is the soul winner.
You witness.
You share literature, gospel tract, a word of
testimony.
You know, people think I'm one of these,
you know, buttonhole, you know, grab them in
the street corners types.
People who have gone with me in evangelism,
they've been quite amazed.
I have a very much indirect approach.
I use decoy method evangelism.
You know, like having a book on the
plane, sitting on top of my Bible, says,
you know, what the Bible says about sex.
Conversations just open.
This is a danger.
Operation mobilization today.
Do you know that we have situations today
where we can end up having more time
in a committee meeting than a prayer meeting?
More time in a committee meeting than talking
to lost souls about Jesus Christ.
Now, I can tell you there are many,
many, many leaders in O.M. I hope
you're among them, of whom that is not
true.
And we have, we now have 50 anointed
men preaching the gospel in O.M. And
an army of witnesses, but I'm still worried.
I'm still concerned.
And so I will speak forth that word.
And then number five, the danger of the
subtle influences of the lukewarm.
That's why I read the revelation chapter three.
I think we all know some of the
quotations from books like gems from Tozier, the
subtle dangers of lukewarmness in order to maintain
fire in my own heart, evangelistic seal in
my own soul, vision in my own spiritual
eyesight.
I have to continually repent, continually repent.
Many times I have no passion for souls.
What do you think?
Every time I walk in the streets, I
walk into the streets.
I may notice a new car more than
I notice a lost soul.
And I'll tell you something that attracts me
a lot more sometimes than lost souls.
When I often don't eat much, you know,
around five or six o'clock, I preach
first.
And I come back from that meeting.
I arrive at Victoria station, 11 o'clock
at night.
I'll tell you, I'm not thinking about winning
anybody to Christ.
Forgive me.
I'm trying to decide whether it's Burger King,
Wendy's, Wimpy's or Pizza Land.
Let me just tell you, there's a time
to eat and there's a time to preach.
And anyway, we can win all these pizza
hut people to Christ.
But there is the danger of the subtle
influences of the lukewarm.
And then number six, because the time is
gone, the danger of presumption.
This is so subtle.
You know, we presume we, we, we, we
know the principles.
We know what OM believes.
We know what the new Testament teaches.
We know the leadership manual.
We read that through.
That's old hat.
I tell you, there's many people in OM
that don't know what OM believes.
Takes time.
It's a big movement.
It's a complicated movement.
We got the whole Bible.
We believe the whole Bible.
We've got our own interpretations of these scriptures,
which we believe God has given us.
Don't presume.
Get the attitude of a learner.
I wrote down here, our attitude is absolutely
essential.
Sins of the disposition are as deadly at
times as the outward more offensive sins.
Number seven, the danger of choosing the path
of least resistance.
Oh, I wish I had an hour choosing
the path of, of least resistance.
I wrestled with this also to the point
of torment.
There are other times when we have to
change courses, but we must beware because sometimes
the easy road is a trick.
And I, I know that many of you
are not yet married, but when you're married,
tremendous pressures will come on you to get
bigger houses because that's so much easier, at
least within reason.
You know, somehow get a newer car.
It just seems like such a logical thing.
I mean, who can handle if we're busy
in the work of God, the crisis of
a puncture could spoil your whole morning having
to actually repair a tire.
And there's so many gadgets today, aren't there?
So many things we can buy that make
life easier.
And I'm not saying we never buy these
things because oh, and first goal is in
simple lifestyle.
It's world evangelism.
I've written a whole memo about this, but
I believe we need to be aware of
just always choosing the road of least resistance.
There are times when we have to go,
get this, against the tide.
And I will tell you, when you marry,
you can't force your wife.
You can't force your husband.
And so I want to give you this
piece of single people, whatever you do, don't
marry someone who's not like-minded about materialism,
about your goals in life, about all these
things, these precious truths from the word of
God.
They may not fully agree with OM.
That's not such a big thing if you're
not planning to stay in OM, but you
know what your convictions are and you need
to, by God's grace, marry a like-minded
person.
Now, I believe that also includes compromise.
It also includes growing into maturity.
Some of the things that I thought were
such, you know, wholly important things at 21,
I discovered were just verbarisms.
And when they went out the window, there
was a cheer in heaven.
And then number eight, the danger of listening
too quickly to evil reports, especially about other
leaders.
Again, we have sinned against God in this
area.
So easy to get something negative about a
leader.
A child can do that.
My children did it with me.
We are called to build up these brothers
and sisters.
And if this message leads to hyper judgmentalism
concerning your leader without the facts and without
fellowship and understanding and love, then I will
have to just say the enemy has pulled
a fast one maybe on me.
I hope not.
Verbal messages are dangerous if you get half
the message and leave the other half.
That's why I don't like people to take
too many notes, because as they're writing the
notes, they miss the next two points and
go out half-cocked.
And I tell you, it scares me when
I get the feedback later on.
Number nine, the danger of listening too quickly
to evil reports, especially about disleaders, leaders and
how it brings disunity.
Number nine, the danger of allowing our discipline
to slip.
What about your discipline?
People cannot get agreement on whether we should
all be jogging a few miles a day,
so I'm not going to push that much.
But certainly there's agreement, 95% among Christians
and Christian leaders, that we need exercise.
It may be swimming, it may be your
own little program, calisthenics, it may be just
intensive walking, one of the best things for
the over-50 group, but the body needs
exercise.
And again, I just read a warning of
the number of people who fail to take
care of themselves, and in the 40s and
50s, they just automatically have heart trouble.
Doctors say 50% of it could be
avoided, just a little exercise.
Why don't you start now when you're a
teenager?
Why wait until the doctor comes to you
when you're 40, overweight, can't even walk upstairs
without somebody helping you?
Fifteen minutes of exercise, I've been doing it
almost my entire life, can do more for
you than you'll ever know.
Fifteen minutes.
Half hour is better.
When I went jogging this morning, I went
through the whole book of Colossians.
Tremendous.
Get out in the fresh air.
I ran into a tremendous inspiration.
I ran into a whole field of bulls.
I mean, they got some unique programs here
in Belgium.
I was looking around for the cows and
all bulls, and they were all looking around
for something to do.
And, you know, I just kept running.
But may God show us the importance of
discipline of body, discipline of mind, discipline in
sleep, discipline in food, discipline in our thinking.
It touches every area of our life.
Number 10, the danger of subtle forms of
pride.
Perhaps the most subtle of all the problems
we've had in OM have been linked with
pride.
The battle is never ended.
The methodology of Satan is diverse, and the
Bible says pride comes before contention.
And believe me, some of the contention we've
had in OM has been pride.
Pride.
Number 11, the danger of slacking off in
the war against lust.
We justify a little bit of lust.
We play little games in our mind.
We give up in our battle against little
things, and I believe it in some ways
is a little thing, like masturbation.
We slack off.
We let our guard down, and the enemy
moves in.
Number 12, the danger of neglecting our home.
That's right, 20 years ago, OM made this
a major principle, and that's why most of
the OM homes have been kept together, and
most of the OM children are going on
for God.
And we've seen so much blessing upon our
homes.
I wish you could have been with me
in that meeting with all of our, so
many of our married women.
What a tremendous time God has given them,
or with those teenagers.
And number 13, the danger of a cult
of idealism.
OM's goals and idealism can knock people out.
Have you ever been knocked out by OM's
ideals?
I have.
Kierkegaard, a brilliant man, not sure where he
ended up theologically, but he said, as Christians,
we create an ethic, a set of goals
that eventually destroy us.
There's a danger if you try to get
too far too quickly in your spiritual life,
you will create a lifestyle that you yourself
will not be able to live with.
I did it.
That's why you hear me preaching five times
on balance for every time you hear me
preaching something like this.
Read Dr. Seaman's book, Healing for Damaged Emotions.
Read that great book I've been pushing for
20 years, The Psychology of Jesus' Health, Jesus
and Mental Health.
Read Naramore's books, or Eugenia Price's books, or
Tim LaHaye's books.
Read books that are just rolling with freedom,
that sort of bring balance to the discipleship
manual.
And beware of the cult of affections and
idealism.
In closing, I have one question.
It's like the old days.
The old days, I always went to 10
o'clock.
There was a little group that got together,
and they won in the election, so I
backed down to 9 30.
We always used to have two speakers.
I also lost in that election, but I
hope you'll forgive me.
I don't generally go this long, but we
had all these special people coming and testimonies,
and the message wasn't actually that long, not
compared to what I can give if I
get going, especially in certain places.
But I want to ask you as we
close, are you filled with the Holy Spirit?
You can't do that in yourself.
Oh, and without the fullness of the Holy
Spirit, we're finished before we start.
God has been speaking to you in these
days.
You've been to this seminar.
You've been to that message on revival.
You've heard so much.
Where are you right now?
You should be filled with the Holy Spirit,
rearing to go, all engines on full power.
You need to learn a lot more.
That's why you're going to stay around a
few more weeks, but all engines should be
on full power for those who are in
leadership.
That doesn't mean perfection.
It doesn't mean as you grow, there won't
be more power.
It doesn't mean you won't have to repent
tomorrow morning of an evil thought or of
your lazy streak.
Any of you have a lazy streak?
My lazy streak has been on my back
my entire life.
I'll tell you, if I had my own
deep George Verwer way this weekend, I'd go
lie down in the woods somewhere, maybe with
a comic book, or no, better yet, a
couple of good video cassettes.
Star Wars Part 6.
I don't think it's come yet.
There is a time for that, and in
my life, it's taken discipline to practice recreation,
and I need it, and I have to
discipline myself.
I will tell you, when you see me
pick up my golf clubs and walk out
of my office at three o'clock in
the afternoon to play golf, usually five o
'clock, you get there when the sun goes
down, you get half price, and if you
play fast, you can get 17 holes in
before the sun sets in the summer.
If you see me doing that, you know
that Jesus has just got a big victory,
because there's a built-in mechanism in me
that just goes for the work, and the
souls, and the preaching.
It used to be 900 meetings a year,
and the prayer meetings, and the phone conversations,
and all that kind of thing, and to
get freedom to leave that and pick up
your golf clubs and follow Jesus around the
golf course in the steps of Lindsey Gregg,
and Billy Graham, and Oldford, and Redpath, who
all play golf, takes a lot more than
I often have, so I only made it
a few times in the past months.
I am filled with the Holy Spirit.
Let's pray.
Some of you already guessed it.
I'm going to give an invitation for you
to simply stand up and make a refreshed,
new commitment to Jesus Christ, and to ask
Him right now, if you're not sure, or
you're somehow in drifting, or somehow lukewarm, to
stand up in repentance and brokenness, and ask
God to fill you afresh with the Holy
Ghost.
I'm not going to take long, but I
believe some of you, you've had a lot
of teaching, you've been doing a lot of
thinking, you've written a lot of notes, but
if you're honest, you're not filled with the
Holy Spirit.
And I believe tonight is a night when
you need to do business with God.
I want right now, as we pray, for
you to ask in brokenness and repentance, Lord
Jesus.
And I've done it many times.
Fill me with your Holy Spirit, that I
may be your witness, that I may be
the leader I need to be, the follower
I need to be, and that I may
have the strength to deal with these dangers
that will face every Christian organization and every
Christian leader.
If God has spoken to you, you make
that step in faith, and I want you
just quietly across this chapel to stand as
an outward expression of an inward transaction, and
be filled with the Holy Spirit.
God bless you.
God make it real to you, and you,
and you, you, you, you, you, you, you,
you, over there, you, you, you.
That is all there is of this recording.