I want you to turn with me to
the book of Proverbs.
I want you to go right to the
middle.
It's right after Psalms.
We have a great emphasis on the Psalms
in these days.
But, uh, we seem to stop there.
Proverbs 15.
There's 31 chapters, one for every day of
the month.
Some of you, I'm sure, heard the old
story.
I was selling books door-to-door before
I ever went to Mexico in my home
area.
I discovered how easy it was to sell
Christian books door-to-door.
I actually could have made a living doing
that, especially children's books and sex books, Christian
sex books, or Christian books about sex.
We didn't have many in those days.
We had Life and Love by Clyde Naramore.
It was hot.
These people didn't even know this book existed.
And I met a lady who bought a
lot of books, really warmed my heart, and
then she said, son, you've got to study
the Proverbs every day.
She gave me this little motto, a proverb
a day keeps the devil away.
She's quite strong and overbearing.
I think she's in the glory.
And then she pointed out that there were
31, one for every day of the month.
I have never stopped reading the Proverbs every
day ever since.
That's 29, no, 32 years, 33, 34 years
ago.
And the Proverbs has been an absolutely major
impact in my whole life.
I understand, I don't know if I knew
this before that, that Billy Graham is very
strong on the Proverbs.
I may have touched on this before for
some of you, so let me take my
survey.
How many of you are regular Proverb pilgrims?
You're reading the Proverbs regularly, maybe not every
day, but at least every week you're into
the Proverbs.
Raise your hand.
So the Lord has led me this morning
to try to capture the rest of you.
It's interesting, there are hardly any choruses based
on the Proverbs.
There are hardly any hymns based on the
Proverbs.
Not many even touch the same principles.
And it's hard to believe that it could
be such a neglected book.
It's especially dedicated, the Proverbs, to the big
mouths, to the lustful, and to the lazy.
Should I repeat that?
It's dedicated to the big mouths, the lustful,
and the lazy.
Having all three of those problems as a
young person, I found this book rather hard
-hitting, to say the least.
I often start in the beginning, in chapter
1, and I never get very far.
So I've decided to start in the middle,
in chapter 15, just giving you a few
mountain peaks, just trying to whet your appetite
through this practical book of wisdom that God
has given us in His Word.
This is man's wisdom, but it's wisdom that
man received under God's help, and received the
stamp of being fully inspired and part of
God's Word.
We won't go into a lot of discussion
concerning interpretations of Proverbs, higher
criticism, and all that kind of thing, but
we do believe it is God's Word, and
we believe it's relevant for our generation.
It's always good to back up Proverbs with
other important principles out of the New Testament.
Almost every, I think I could say that
every major principle in Proverbs you could find
back up, and similar verses in the New
Testament.
Let's start right there at verse 1.
I'm not going to read any one chapter,
I'm just going to jump.
I may go backward, I may go forward,
and look at some of these mountain peaks.
We could easily spend a day in chapter
15.
Chapter 15 is one of the highlights of
the whole book.
A soft answer turneth away wrath, but grievous
words stir up anger.
Another interpretation is harsh words.
You can imagine why the Spirit of God
has led me to dwell on this book.
To this day I'm still learning how to
give that soft answer.
And if you have that ability already to
give a soft answer, praise the Lord.
I wonder if you've thanked the Lord for
that.
Now if you're just dead scared so you
don't give any answers, that's something else that's
dealt with in other passages.
Soft answer.
How much better I can testify from much
failure and praise God also from much victory
that a soft answer turneth away wrath.
I'm thinking not just among ourselves as God's
people.
That's not our first concern.
Our first concern isn't just our little community
here on the ship.
Our first concern is our whole life.
You get off the ship today.
You go to do an errand, and in
the process of doing that, somebody hinders you.
Maybe like once in my life, maybe more
than once, trying to get a little petrol,
a little gasoline, and the man is pumping
it on the pavement.
I never like to see my money pumped
on the pavement.
Anything where I'm losing money tends to get
me a little excited.
Like phoning people, as I've been doing yesterday,
and the receptionist or secretary says, just a
second.
Two minutes later, at no small cost, you're
still listening.
No voice, nothing.
You don't know whether they've gone, you've been
cut off, or what.
And you just see, if you're like me,
you see the money.
Some of these phones actually show you how
much money you're spending.
They're terrible.
That thing at the OM conference, those little
units, trying to make a call.
Tick, tick, tick.
Forget it!
The soft answer turneth away wrath.
To somehow, at that moment of being upset,
to grab ourselves, to instantly worship Jesus, to
instantly repent, and try to come out with
something that is gentle.
That's another sentiment.
Grievous or harsh words stir up anger.
Now, the only way that I'm still in
this great race, living a godly life, is
because when harsh words come from my mouth,
and I started practicing this as a young
Christian, as fast as I could get my
ego crucified, I go back to that person
and I say, please forgive me.
I didn't mean it to come across that
way, or I shouldn't have said that, and
I really would ask you to forgive me.
Now, as Christians, we should forgive people who
have used harsh words against us, whether they
come back or not.
If you sit in your cabin after being
hurt by somebody, say, wow, if they come
and apologize, I'll just accept them.
I'm just itching to forgive them and forget
and accept them.
We'll maybe become good friends.
Don't worry about any baby noise in my
meeting.
Glory to God and reality.
But there may be a word there that
child has for all of us.
It says out of the mouths of babes
come great things.
The tongue of the wise useth knowledge aright,
but the mouth of fools poureth out foolishness.
I don't know if any of you have
the problem of not being able to stop
talking.
Now, I am known as a talkative person,
but my wife can testify that I am
well able to stop.
In fact, after talking for 52 years, I
don't love silence.
I love silence.
I love to be alone.
I'm happy to sit for hours reading my
letters and praying through my photos.
I don't need to talk.
If people, however, get me going, it's hard
to stop.
Again, I learned how to stop because I'm
so conscious of time.
But again, I know that talking too much,
the inability to stop and to listen, maybe
the other person would like to say something.
Most people are not gifted listeners.
And it's good, as it says in one
of the living Bibles, paraphrases of Proverbs, learn
to turn off the flow.
Sometimes you meet people with diarrhea of the
mouth.
Very blunt statement, but it goes home.
And that's something that's emphasized a great deal
in the book of Proverbs.
In fact, it's one of the main emphasis
of the whole book.
Look at the 29th verse in chapter 14.
He that is slow to wrath is of
great understanding.
But he that is hasty of spirit exalteth
folly.
Now listen, when you're on OM, you can
be sometimes hasty and get away with it.
People generally are loving.
Generally they're forgiving and forgetting.
And also, in a larger movement, we can
make up for your mistakes.
Somehow, not always.
The world we're all living in can be
very, very cruel.
One mistake can cost you your life, your
marriage, your children.
And the more you can develop self-control,
the more we are preparing you for whatever
God calls you into Christian ministry, long-term
service on the ship, being a pastor.
Surely there's not more than 25% of
the pastors I've met in 35 years that
are successful.
There's no way more than 25% are
successful.
Being a pastor is incredibly difficult.
Incredibly difficult.
You've got people in that congregation, they are
ready to pounce.
And if a pastor doesn't have mouth control,
doesn't have self-control, he can get in
more trouble on a Sunday morning than you
can ever imagine.
When he does, when he makes a mistake
and he says something stupid, people will talk.
When he hears about people talking, he will
get offended because he's human.
His wife will get more offended.
And pretty soon the church will be in
a state of siege.
That's why these gifted pastors who really have
self-control as well as ability to preach
the Word of God, love people, pastor people,
and have some management skills which seem to
be very basic today in most cases, these
men are in such demand that they actually
have almost organizations just to find them.
The business people of the world have executive
headhunting organizations.
Have you heard that term?
Just to find the top executives.
And they're ready in a place like the
United States.
Many electricians here.
The Lord bless you.
You can listen to the cassette tape.
My dad was an electrician.
I have a great nostalgia for electricians.
They're all wonderful people.
I lost my train of thought there.
Somebody help me.
What was I talking about?
Pastors and the tremendous pressure they're under.
And the importance of learning self-control and
especially mouth control.
And the fact that often what you can
get away with in OM, you can't always
get away with when you're in some other
situation, some other ministry.
So this is a great challenge.
You mark that verse.
I have all these verses marked.
He that is slow to wrath is of
great understanding.
But he that is hasty of spirit exalteth
folly.
How many have been blessed through the writings
of Charles Swindoll?
Raise your hand.
Charles Swindoll.
Can't believe it.
Please read one of his books.
If you don't get some blessing from Charles
Swindoll, write me about it.
I'll send you a couple of free books
and an apology.
This man is one of the most gifted
writers in the English language that I have
ever read.
His book about service, Improving Your Serve.
It's not a book on tennis.
You saw it in the library.
You thought it was a book on tennis.
Even my daughter who doesn't read many Christian
books was just thrilled with that book and
purposely went to hear Charles Swindoll when she
was traveling around the world.
I've listened to the tape series he gave
at Wheaton College some years ago.
He talks about the four spiritual flaws, F
-L-A-W-S, among God's people.
Absolutely brilliant material.
He's a man that I believe is a
representative of what we see in the book
of Proverbs.
Look at 15 verse 13.
I've been thinking about joining a new organization
I just discovered.
It's the Fellowship of Merry Christians.
It's a group in the United States that
specializes in Christian humor.
Most people didn't know such a thing existed.
They are absolutely convinced that Jesus had a
sense of humor.
They have over 20 books in their catalog
about Christian humor.
Now some of it is off the wall
like the book in my cabin, 121 Things
to Do During a Boring Sermon.
Did I tell you about that one?
One of my favorites is if you're in
a liberal church where they don't really believe
in salvation or the new birth or anything
like that, the man's giving a very boring
sermon.
Toward the end of the sermon just walk
forward in the meeting and raise your hand
and say you want to accept Christ as
your Savior.
Definitely can stir the place up.
Look at verse 13.
A merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance, but
by sorrow of heart the spirit is broken.
Verse 15.
All the days of the afflicted are evil,
but he that is of a merry heart
hath a continual feast.
I think you can link that with a
wholesome tongue mentioned in verse 4.
A wholesome tongue is a tree of life.
What do some other translations say instead of
a merry heart?
What do we have?
These six, yay, seven Bible scholars here in
this second row.
Thank you for sitting here in the front.
This is such an encouragement.
Happy heart.
Another translation.
Cheerful heart.
Any other word there?
Joyful heart.
So you've got some scope for interpretation.
But there is, there is certainly a place
for humor.
Some of the most serious speakers use humor.
Leonard Ravenhill.
I remember him coming to the OM conference.
And he's so strong.
Oh my, Leonard Ravenhill.
Why Revival Tarrys?
Everybody in OM used to have to read
that.
It hit me so hard I can tell
you almost the time and the place.
Let's see, my computer says 1964, January, Benares,
India.
I first read that book.
Why Revival Tarrys?
Ever since then I've been a major distributor
of that book.
Even got it in magazine form, 50,000
copies.
Leonard Ravenhill, when you hear him speak, his
humor is in the book.
It's not so clear when you hear him
speak.
Tozer, humor.
Vance Havner, the strongest Southern Baptist preacher you
could ever get.
Deadly humor.
Talks about the average church in America.
So lukewarm you've got to backslide to get
into fellowship.
Talks about so many churches that want to
finish dead at 12 and most all the
people are dead at 12.
Every other line or every fifth line at
least of people like Vance Havner seem to
be pithy missiles of humor ready to blow
sin out of your backslidden heart.
Here's another original statement.
We're just throwing these nuggets out here this
morning.
We're not even charging you.
Tony Campalo, strong message, heavy message.
Totally different kind of speaker.
And surely one of the reasons that Tony
gets so many invitations is of course his
commitment to the Lordship of Christ, his powerful
message, but also his humor.
And we can't copy these people.
We can learn from them.
And people have different anointing for different messages.
But I think there's a greater problem that
we get intimidating by the fear that somebody's
going to accuse us of copying somebody.
Now you turn away from that intimidation.
I preached at Moody one of the first
times back after I studied there and somebody
wrote me a note, I think you're trying
to copy Billy Graham.
I certainly was never trying to copy Billy
Graham consciously.
He was my spiritual father.
I had listened to dozens and dozens of
his tapes.
Maybe something had crept into one of my
messages like the Bible says.
A real copy really takes a lot.
The Bible says, or God bless you.
What does he say at the end of
his radio broadcast?
God bless you real good or something like
that.
I don't remember saying that.
I'm not a southerner.
In the United States, those from the north
and those from the south are very different
people.
We don't imitate one another.
But I could have been intimidated by that.
Does that mean anybody who gives an invitation
is trying to copy Billy Graham?
Anybody who says the Bible says is copying
Billy Graham?
Anybody who gets loud is copying Billy George
Ferrer?
Anybody who bangs is copying Billy Sunday?
Anybody who spits is copying Tony Campalo?
No.
By the way, preachers don't purposely spit.
They speak too fast and the juices get
in the mouth and it just comes out.
I mean it's awesome when they can get
a picture of it.
Big chunk of saliva heading right for the
red-headed girl in the front row.
And it's so embarrassing when Tony Campalo comes
back to England, the group in the front
row put up their umbrellas in the meeting.
I mean it's really unkind.
People are cruel, aren't they?
We preachers ought to form a club for
basic survival.
So God can use humor.
Now humor is difficult.
And you're going to have to, as many
of you are wanting to learn to speak
publicly, you're going to have to learn how
to use humor.
If you don't have a good memory, you
should write humorous stories down, humorous things that
happened in your life.
Write them down now.
Because you may not be doing a lot
of preaching now, but later on that little
humorous story of something that took place on
the ship will be very, very helpful.
Write it down.
Keep a notebook of humorous experiences, funny things
that are happening to you.
Because it's amazing how the memory fades.
And though they're there, you can't recall them.
And it's not right as a preacher, or
a teacher, or even in personal sharing, to
recall something and then not tell the truth.
It's one of the greatest pitfalls we can
fall into in our witnessing, in our preaching,
in our teaching.
In our desire to communicate, we say something
that isn't quite true.
We add to our testimony.
Now every time you get a chance to
go off this ship and go to a
meeting, you go.
That is such a great opportunity.
And meet the people.
And if you get a chance to share
your testimony, even if you're scared stiff, share
it.
You can write it out.
There's nothing wrong with writing it out.
People in these churches, some of their pastors
write out their whole sermon.
You prepare that.
You plan it.
You ask how much time you have.
And share from your heart, and God will
use it.
And it's one of the best training tools
we have, is to get you off the
ship, into the churches, into other meetings.
Even if you're just going to stand behind
the book table, you will meet people.
Take the initiative.
Ask people their name.
Most people in England are fairly shy.
They don't understand the ship.
They think, oh embers are coming.
They think you're all a bunch of dynamic
spirit-filled evangelists.
Little do they know how many slokey pokey,
hokey dokey, sleepy drowsy bousy myopiates we've got
on our ships.
Of course they're all in bed.
They're not here now.
Take the opportunity to get off the ship
and to mingle with the people.
To go to these meetings.
Give your testimony.
Keep it short.
Mix it with one or two stories.
Surely we've all had something happen to us
on the ship we've learned from.
Now I've been learning for a long time.
This morning I learned another lesson.
Yesterday I meet the man in my thinking,
in charge of helping us keep the ship
tidy.
Beautiful.
I talked about it last night, remember?
This morning they had one of my favorite
breakfasts.
Rice krispies.
I was a little hungry.
So I fill the bowl.
Then I pour the milk in.
And pretty soon I was in a major
crisis.
And all I could think of was this
guy is watching me as the krispies, as
I tried to move, float over.
Did you see all the krispies on the
floor there?
It's me!
George Brewer!
And I saw the vacuum cleaner and I
wanted to, I was looking for a plug.
I couldn't see anywhere to plug that thing
in.
And finally I sort of wheezed over and
sat down at David Greenlee's, his little private
stall there.
And got the krispies landed before any more
went over.
Then I'm trying to have the krispies in
walks David Greenlee.
Ah!
I'm at Greenlee's table!
Help Lord!
I dare to say on this ship you
could probably get a story almost every day.
This is a potential nuthouse.
This is a place of either much weeping
or much laughing.
Choose you this day whom you will serve.
And the book of Proverbs will help you
stay happy and sane.
Learn to laugh at some of these things.
You go to your cabin.
You're tired.
You want to be alone.
And there's some new recruit.
He's in your cabin, necking with his girlfriend.
Don't get excited.
Get your camera.
Get a picture.
I'll give you ten quid for it.
Okay, let's see what else we can find
in the book of Proverbs.
Verse 16 and 17.
Better is a little with a fear of
the Lord than great treasure and trouble therewith.
Better is a dinner of herbs.
Gross!
Where love is than a stalled ox and
hatred therewith.
There's an increase of vegetarians.
No doubt someone will propose, everything eventually comes
to the ship ministry, that we become vegetarians.
God's people, just think of the seaweed possibilities.
We wouldn't have to take any food at
all.
We could save a lot of money.
We just get some real deep hooks and
as we're going across the ocean, scoop up
seaweed from the floor and we could serve
it in all different styles.
Seaweed fried, well that wouldn't be good for
the health.
Seaweed boiled, probably safer.
I admire vegetarians.
Just don't get on to me.
I'm a meat eater.
But look, there's what it says.
And this is strong.
Better a dinner of seaweed.
Herbs, it's the same.
It's all the same, that green stuff.
Don't let them kid you, it's all the
same.
Probably getting in trouble now.
Better a dinner of herbs where love is
than a stalled ox.
Tremendous filet mignon, prime rib of beef.
All these things, just start hallucinating.
Better to have seaweed and hatred therewith.
What a powerful verse.
Can you honestly say, because of 1 Corinthians
13, because of verses like this, that love
is your number one passion.
You want to love people.
You want to show love.
You want to demonstrate the fruit of the
Spirit.
When you wake up in the morning, you
get into the Word, your desire for that
day is love.
It's to go the extra mile.
It's to show these people that come on
the ship some love.
That has been the passion of my life
since my earliest Christian days.
I studied every verse on love when I
was in university.
I was only 18.
It changed my life.
It laid the foundation for this whole movement,
which some people have called a revolution of
love.
And a lot of the people in the
world are linked with us, and they give
money to us because they know we love
them.
People that I have phoned on this ship,
perhaps 30 people or more, they know that
I have phoned them, most of them, because
I love them.
I'm not after their money first.
Some of the people that I phone don't
give anything.
I am actually needing to give to them.
Love is the answer.
That was a required reading book in the
early days by Theodore M.
Love is the answer.
And if you're like me, in which when
I was young, loving people didn't come easy,
start reading every book you can get on
the subject of love.
I did almost everything I could get about
love.
And it was used to change my life,
though I still have a long way to
go.
Even when visitors come to this ship, they're
standing in here after a meeting, or anywhere,
the coffee bar, and you go to them.
Introduce yourself.
Don't wait for people to introduce themselves.
I'm George Furman.
I'm with the ship's crew.
We're so thrilled that you've taken time to
visit the ship.
Don't give them the idea.
You are doing them a favor, letting them
on your ship.
That's to throw the book of Proverbs out
the porthole.
We show appreciation.
We show love.
That is the biggest challenge on this ship,
because you're going to run out of your
own steam sooner or later on it.
Sooner or later, you're not going to want
to see people coming up the gangway.
And sooner or later, you're going to enter
into a hide-in-the-cabin mentality.
I was on doulas with a couple of
people.
I couldn't believe it.
At five or six o'clock, they went
into their cabin, they closed the door, and
that was it.
They didn't even have ship people into their
cabin, except occasionally.
I just cannot understand that.
Do you think businessmen out in the world
can function that way?
Do you think Margaret Thatcher can function that
way?
Everybody needs to be able to get some
private time.
And if you're not getting any private time,
you need to talk to somebody with a
little sanctified imagination.
I have lived on this ship.
I had to lead this ship and the
whole of O.M. at the same time,
with a wife and three kids, and I
found private time.
A little sanctified imagination.
This ship isn't sailing that much.
And when we're sailing, I've been around these
decks so many times, there are many places
where nobody is.
You could curl up there.
It gets harder if the weather gets freezing,
but actually the weather is going to get
hotter and hotter and hotter, and then we're
going to see the Latins really come into
their own.
If you think the Latins are really moving
now, as we get further south, their eyes
will begin to sparkle.
Their hair will not need to be put
up in the morning.
It will immediately fall into the right place,
and great things will happen.
Better is a dinner of seaweed where there's
love than prime rib of beef and hatred
therewith.
Love is the answer.
How difficult to have breakfast together.
Breakfast with people.
If I had my way, I wouldn't see
anybody for the first two hours of any
day.
Even my wife, early in the morning, nobody
told me these things happened before the wedding.
They look so beautiful.
And my wife, when I first saw her,
I stepped out of the elevator there at
Moody Bible Institute.
She was sitting at the desk.
A tremendous brain tornado took place, broke into
my romance department.
I was almost finished on the spot.
Now, the adventures of the Verwers, 30 years
later, 7.30 in the morning, getting ready
for OM devotions at 8 o'clock.
I look over at my wife.
I have to immediately say, woe is me,
I'm a man of unclean lips.
I don't know if you know that verse.
Proverbs 16.
Look at verse 24.
Pleasant words are like honeycomb.
Let me get some more honey.
Sweet to the soul and health to the
bones.
But drop down to verse 28.
A perverse man soweth strife and a whisperer
separateth chief friends.
Proverbs talks a lot about gossip.
I think one of the things that starkles
some new people when they come on OM,
the most, I bet some tell me this,
is the gossip factor.
Just on our little team, ICT and Brahman,
a rather large complicated team.
Family, singles, different departments, different ministries.
Just the gossip that gets going on our
little team.
It's absolutely amazing.
Now, some gossip is harmless.
Don't think Christians are ever going to get
to a place where they're not speaking about
things.
And listen, there is a fine line between
information and gossip.
So I don't believe in this great desire
not to gossip, to control our tongues, to
not speak evil.
I don't believe we ever arrive in this
world.
Some of the most godly people I've met,
I've been stunned when I've heard them speak
things negatively about other Christians, even other Christian
leaders.
I remember meeting one of the most famous
leaders in California.
I dare not give his name.
I had to see him, this is 30
years ago, or 28.
And then I had to see this other
leader.
The man actually said to me, don't bother
seeing him.
It's a waste of time.
He's not going anywhere.
I couldn't believe it.
The man he was speaking about became one
of the greatest Christian leaders and one of
the greatest Christian organizations in the history of
the church.
The other Christian leader said, don't waste your
time.
He's not going anywhere.
He said some other negative things as well.
So don't worry too much if somebody's gossiping
about you.
I wonder how many of us talk about
somebody that may have body odor or bad
breath or one of those little funny little
things.
I wonder how many of us have the
courage to go up to that brother and
just simply say something.
What do we do when we see a
brother whose fly is down?
Now, I don't think the sister should be
in charge, but I tell you, as soon
as possible, if you see somebody walking around,
it's just part of our culture.
I am convinced someday flies down will enter
into our culture.
It will be acceptable among the young people.
They'll all walk with a little zipper down.
Because can you imagine right now, it's acceptable
to have a hole in your knees of
your dungarees.
There's now a new style in which the
holes are in the back and you can
see young people with their underwear sticking out.
That's accepted.
It's the style.
So who knows where style will take us.
But at present, it is love that will
take you to a brother very quickly and
just say, hey, zipper or some little code
word.
We never talk about these things in meetings,
do we?
As Christians, there's things we don't talk about
in public.
Does the queen go to the toilet?
I'm glad your humanity is coming out this
morning.
The book of Proverbs is filled with pithy,
humorous statements.
And gossip is deadly.
And we need to stand against it because
it separates chief friends.
You on this ship have the ability to
turn two close friends against one another.
We have seen that happen on O.M.
through gossip, through little innuendos, little stories.
If you have a question, if you have
an accusation, the first place to go to
is that person.
Matthew chapter 18.
Let's go back a page to chapter 14.
Verse 12.
That's linked with 1215.
1215 says the way of a fool is
right in his own eyes, but he that
hearkeneth unto counsel is wise.
Verse 12, chapter 14.
There's a way which seemeth right unto a
man, but the end thereof are the ways
of death.
Even in laughter the heart is sorrowful, and
the end of that mirth is heaviness.
The backslider in heart shall be filled with
his own ways, and a good man shall
be satisfied from himself.
I want to just say something very, very
simple.
Don't get away from Jesus.
Whatever you do, on the ship when you
leave the ship, when the problems come, the
disappointments, some of you are already disappointed in
the ship ministry, you're disappointed in the leaders.
I get this feedback, oh, there's people on
Dula who's disappointed with leaders, people along us
disappointed with the leaders.
Not much.
I go to whatever team in the world,
all are disappointed with the leaders.
I guess they thought we were going to
resurrect apostle poles for every ministry of operation
mobilization.
Leaders are human.
Leaders are strugglers.
Leaders are different.
And I believe too many people in OM
judge people by outward appearance.
They judge people by outward appearance.
And certain kinds of people, they like a
certain kind of leader.
They like a more charismatic leader who's more
outward and more expressive and maybe more loud.
There are a few people who like these
types.
Other people prefer the more laid back, phlegmatic,
godly, committed man or woman.
We're never going to get the perfect leader
anywhere.
We only have Manfred with us for so
many more months.
How grateful I was when I heard he
was willing to come.
We have a number of other people.
It is a major decision to determine who
should be director of the ship and who
should be captain.
And I believe in many ways each decision
is important.
And Dale is in consultation with the board
members.
He's in consultation with field leaders, in consultation
with me and Peter and the executive committee
of the ship's ministry and with people on
the ship.
How do you think we're going to choose
somebody that everybody is going to be happy?
No.
And there are different leaders who will operate
in a different style.
There are two or three people we're thinking
about bringing here as directors.
Each one of them will have a different
style.
We can roll with that in O.M.
That's part and parcel of our ethos.
To adjust the ministry a little bit to
the style of leadership.
Chaco is leading Dulas for two months.
He's a very different man than Bernd Kocher.
Bernd Kocher is very different from Alan Adams.
And Alan Adams from George Miley and George
Miley from me or David Hicks.
So it's a beautiful thing when we develop
that kind of flexibility.
Now I read this passage of scripture because
to me it emphasizes that we can as
Christians be deceived.
We can think that something is right and
we can be all wrong.
The fool is always right in his own
eyes.
And what I want to just say here
among other things is the value of counsel.
In fact there's another proverb that says in
the midst of counselors there is great safety.
Now that doesn't mean everyone who gives you
counsel is correct.
Ultimately you, before God, have to decide your
will for your life.
Don't cop out on them.
That's why some of the heavy handed movements
where the leadership comes straight from the top
right into every detail of your life.
Most of that has been rejected now.
People have repented of it.
Bob Mumford wrote open repentances.
Repentance of how he got into that.
But people went for that.
Why?
Because finding God's will is hard, isn't it?
Some of you have many different choices.
What are you going to do with your
life?
I have to decide in the next few
days, am I going to go to New
Zealand next August?
Am I going to go to Australia in
January?
That may be 92, I can't remember.
I've got so many things I've got to
decide on.
South Africa next July, Brazil and Chile and
Argentina, wherever, next May.
I don't find it easy.
I'll tell you sometimes I'm dead scared.
And I believe God has got to set
us free from the fear of failure.
We are free to fail.
I believe if I go to South Africa
by mistake, somehow I got the wrong signals,
God is going to bless it.
Don't be, don't be a will of God
neurotic.
We can be deceived.
We can make mistakes.
We will make mistakes.
The heart is deceitful and desperately wicked.
Who can know it?
So many verses here that jump out of
the page.
But look at the 10th verse in chapter
13.
Only by pride, we're going to finish in
a moment, only by pride cometh contention, but
where the well advised is wisdom.
So many of our problems, brothers and sisters,
are linked to our pride.
Now there's a great difference between pride and
dignity.
Where are those who work in the laundry?
Stand up.
Anybody ever works in that laundry?
Please.
Only one?
Amazing.
Here's one back there.
Here's another one.
I hope you can work in the laundry
with dignity.
The Christian message affected the culture of Europe.
The culture of Europe eventually gave dignity to
working people.
Never enough.
My father was an immigrant.
He was a zero.
He had to drop out of school.
He mentioned it to me on this last
trip.
I'm sorry, I had to leave school at
12 to do the most menial, menial tasks.
But he learned how to be an electrician.
And as an electrician in America, and it
comes from the direct influence of Christianity, you
can be an electrician with dignity.
And you can make big money.
And that big money put me in college.
And if it wasn't for my father, maybe,
humanly speaking, his commitment to me, I would
not be here today.
And we can do any task on this
ship with dignity.
Sweep the floor, in some cultures, is out.
In the Jesus culture, you can do it
with dignity.
The first shall be last and the last
shall be first.
He that is greatest among you, let him
serve.
We are called not to be ministered unto,
but to minister.
So everything we do on this ship, and
I've done most of these jobs myself, except
the skilled ones, including the joy of working
on the sewage system of Lagos, which was
sort of a hand-to-hand operation when
it broke down.
A bucket brigade, a very wonderful job that
I'll never forget.
I know I could do it because of
my father, because of the Christian influence, I
could do it with dignity.
I can take an offering with dignity.
I can be, if necessary, a beggar for
the kingdom of God.
I often feel, sitting in some five-star
hotel, talking to some millionaire about the work
of God, I feel a real fool.
They put food in front of me, I
can't even identify it, much less want to
eat it, and when I look at the
price on the menu, I choke.
But I say, Lord, I'm your fool, and
I will do this with dignity.
And a lot of this wisdom goes back
to the book of Proverbs in the Old
Testament.
It's beautiful.
So beware of pride that keeps you from
being humble, keeps you from doing a menial
task, causes you to react when no one's
rewarding you, no one's noticing you, no one's
even talking to you.
By sheer coincidence, you could be on this
ship for a day or two without any
major conversation.
That's not because God's against you, it's because
you're living in a real world.
And in this particular world, there's a lot
of work, there's a lot of goals, from
study programs to prayer meetings to clean up,
and sometimes people get missed in the fellowship.
Don't get bitter about that.
Beware of pride.
Pride is often the cause of that contention,
whether it's in the engine room or the
bridge or the mental tension.
Beware of subtle pride.
When I came to Europe, people warned me
about Spanish pride.
Wow!
Heavy stuff.
Then I went to live in France, people
warned me about French pride.
When I went to live in England, people
warned me about British pride.
I already knew as an American plenty about
American pride.
Then I went to Germany, and I heard,
wow, that's the strongest pride in all of
Europe except for the Swiss.
And when you get to Switzerland, they talk
to you about the Italian pride, who talk
about Greek pride, who talk about Austrian pride,
who talk about the Turkish pride.
Let me tell you something, I'll get the
record straight once and for all.
It's all the devil's pride.
It has nothing to do with nationality.
Let's declare war on Satan.
Through prayer, through love, through going the extra
mile, let's declare war on Satan.
Let's lower our expectations of one another just
a little bit.
Could you do that?
Let's just lower our expectations a little bit,
and just love them as they are.
And you'll be surprised that if you love
people as they are, and you die to
that pride factor, where somebody may have hurt
you, you'll discover that eventually they'll go beyond
your expectations.
It's a beautiful experience.
Let us pray.
Father, we thank you for the book of
Proverbs.
We thank you for this practical wisdom.
We thank you for the subtle humor that
hits us sometimes below the belt.
And we thank you, Lord, that you are
teaching us from your Word how to live
the Christian life.
Yes, we know the anointing of the Spirit
is necessary, and most of us have experienced
some of that.
We know, of course, without conversion and you
living in us, none of this would be
possible.
But now that you are in us, and
your Holy Spirit dwells in us and is
working through us, we want to learn these
basic, practical, biblical life principles.
And by your grace, we're going to do
it.
We know it's going to mean a lot
of brokenness.
It's going to mean some hard times, some
tears.
It's going to mean death to self.
But by your grace, we are going forward
in this biblical, practical, dynamic lifestyle.
In Jesus' name, amen.