James 3, 17.
We need both.
We need zeal.
We need enthusiasm.
Too much enthusiasm, I don't think, is the
greatest problem in the average church today.
You know what A.W. Tausser said about
that?
He said for the average church to be
worried about too much enthusiasm was like sending
a squadron of police to the cemetery.
To guard against a demonstration at midnight by
the residents.
To guard against a demonstration by the residents
of the cemetery at midnight.
You can see why I like A.W.
Tausser.
And I'm glad that more of his books
are getting into German.
And just for your encouragement, it was Dr.
Martin Lloyd-Jones that introduced A.W. Tausser
to Europe.
And I think that's wonderful since they are
not exactly on the same side of the
theological fence.
And I think that's wonderful since they are
not exactly on the same side of the
theological fence.
We need enthusiasm and zeal.
And we have no excuse for not having
it.
But on the other hand, we also need
this wisdom, this discernment.
And follow-up, establishing the believers.
Sometimes you find people arguing over this.
But we need both.
In many countries we cannot do any follow
-up because there are no believers to follow
-up.
In many countries we cannot do any follow
-up because there are no believers to follow
-up.
Mauritania has no believers.
Libya has almost no believers.
All the believers in Turkey could sit in
this room.
All the believers in Afghanistan could perhaps fit
in your bedroom.
We need to evangelize.
And I believe every Christian is either evangelizing
or he is fossilizing.
He's either going out and evangelizing or he's
going down, he's deteriorating spiritually.
And I found that when I was studying
the Bible, especially at Bible college, that without
getting out each weekend in evangelism and leading
people to Christ, I don't think I could
have continued.
If we're constantly taking in, taking in, and
not giving out, somehow what we take in
will almost turn to some form of poison.
Oh, I know what some people say.
There'll be time enough for that, brother.
Now you must study.
You'll evangelize in the future.
Now there's an element of truth in that.
And when you're a student at seminary, your
priority is study.
But if you think you're going to change
when you leave seminary, you're in for a
big surprise.
Because as Billy Graham once said, the Christian
life is habits.
It's building habits into your life.
And you've got four important years and you'd
better build those habits in because you may
not get them so easily later on.
It's a hard area to find the balance.
I'm still struggling with this.
How much time to read and to prepare.
When I'm on a train, do I read
a book?
Or do I witness to the man sitting
next to me?
You know my tendency?
Thank you, Lord, for this book.
I don't want to talk to this guy.
I think John Stott is one of the
greatest examples of a witnessing-on-fire theologian
in the world today.
A man who's so busy and writing books
and going to great meetings and yet he's
constantly leading men to Jesus Christ.
May God give us the balance.
Because your congregations are not going to firstly
learn by what you're saying.
They are going to learn by what you're
doing.
What you are living in your own practical
life.
I think we'll continue with this message tomorrow.
Let's pray.
Oh Lord, we all need more spiritual balance.
And it doesn't look like an easy road
for most of us.
Help us not to forget those things that
you are teaching us in these valuable days
together.
Keep any form of pride from looming up
and hindering your voice to our own hearts.
Because we believe that some of these principles
will determine whether we are ever to be
effective men and women of yours.
Oh Lord, we give you all the praise
for your Word and for your Son, the
Lord Jesus Christ.
The great example that he set.
And even more the sacrifice that he made
on the cross.
That his balanced, compassionate life now may be
lived out through us.
We pray this in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Good morning.
That wasn't very good.
Good morning.
Well let us continue our study on this
subject of balance.
I want to especially deal with some areas
of spiritual balance.
That we need to keep in mind when
we think of evangelism and we think of
world missions.
I've noticed that there are many misunderstandings concerning
missionary work.
One of them is that the main people
that need to be interested in mission work
are the missionaries.
But the truth is that this is something
that all believers should be interested in.
And the missionaries are only going to be
able to move as far as the local
churches are able to send them.
And some of you who are quite convinced
that the Lord wants you to be a
pastor in Germany.
You might consider the possibility of spending a
year in some kind of missionary work as
preparation for laboring eventually as a pastor in
Germany.
Before I went to a seminary in the
United States where I was speaking each day
for a week.
One of the men who knew that God
was calling him to be a pastor in
the United States said, I wonder who is
going to be led off to the mission
field by this missionary speaker.
He said, well at least he knew where
he would be.
God had called him to be a pastor
in America.
At the end of the week he came
to me.
And he soon signed up for a one
year program on the ship.
Now he is back in the states.
And he feels that that year of overseas
exposure has been a valuable further preparation for
his ministry in his own country.
In the whole area of world missions we
need to find the balance.
What are some of the trouble areas?
The first one is the balance between the
emphasis on the call, getting a special call,
and having guidance, making an objective decision.
An objective decision.
Doing something out of planning and out of
thinking.
Some people say you can't go to the
mission field unless you have a special missionary
call.
I say this is a false idea.
That you do not find in the New
Testament.
You say, but what about the Macedonian call?
They were already missionaries.
That was a call to go over to
another area to continue their missionary work in
a different area.
And there are many Macedonian calls today.
We constantly receive calls to go over and
help people in this area and that area.
Some Christian leaders have been asking us for
ten years to start work in Pakistan.
So this year we heard the call and
our men went into Pakistan.
But the leader we sent there has already
been a missionary for ten years.
Of course, in all that we do, we
need the guidance of God.
We need to know the will of God.
The call of God.
Yeah, the will of God.
And some may have a more emotional experience
in sensing that God wants them to be
a missionary.
But that doesn't mean God will lead everyone
that way.
I've spent about twenty years on the mission
field.
I've never had a missionary call.
Maybe God just saw this stubborn Dutchman and
he gave me a missionary kick.
And I believe it's the responsibility, biblically, of
the local church to be sending out men
and women.
To witness across the world.
And sometimes those that are more subject to
emotional calls don't always make the best missionaries
in the long run.
The fact is that God works in different
ways in different people.
But I believe if we're going to see
the world evangelized, and remember half the people
in the world have never had the gospel,
then there needs to be a higher degree
of flexibility and adaptability in the modern missionary
thrust.
Then
there's
a controversy between short-term missionary work and
long-term work.
And sometimes the longer-term life missionaries are
very critical of the short-term work.
I believe that both are needed.
But I think that in this generation, it's
being proven that short-term work is becoming
more and more valuable to the ongoing, the
forward thrust of the church.
We have found that single people living and
moving on teams can accomplish sometimes a work
that the normal family, missionary family, are unable
to do.
In our own work, we have about 200
families.
Some of them are very long-term people.
They've been on the field 15, 20 years.
And they're the first ones to say, send
us some more single men and single women
to get on with the task.
In many countries, it's more and more complicated
to keep your whole family in that country.
We saw this in Iran, even before the
civil war.
The expense of education.
Of the children.
And the tremendous cost of housing, just to
rent a small flat, a small apartment.
And many other things.
That's why some mission societies now are requiring
60, 70,000 Swiss francs a year for
a family to go on the mission field.
Most of our single people stay on the
field for 4 or 5,000 Swiss francs
a year.
Of course, I still believe we need those
families.
Especially those who have proven themselves as people
who can effectively work in cross-cultural evangelism.
One of the groups that's made an impact
on Switzerland, and still winning many Swiss people,
sorry to say, are the Mormons.
I remember on a train right here in
Switzerland, meeting a Mormon, and him telling me
what was happening in this country.
They now have over 25,000 short-term
workers on the mission field.
And it's not a superficial work.
Because when they finish their two years, another
25,000 are right behind them, ready to
follow up on what they do.
And those who return home, they get into
businesses, they're very shrewd business people, and they
send out the millions of dollars to keep
the other people going.
In fact, wherever we look, the false cults
seem to be challenging the church in terms
of their dedication and their zeal for propagating
what they believe.
Certainly, the church in Germany and Switzerland could
be sending out thousands of short-term workers,
and this in turn would strengthen the entire
church.
Some people say, oh, but I'm not the
missionary type.
That's not my, you know, I'm not the
missionary type.
What is the missionary type?
Are there certain people that sort of just
are infatuated with hot tropical lands?
In 20-some years, I haven't met such
people.
Who would naturally want to leave such a
paradise as this?
Just try to transplant yourself, even for one
minute, into the streets of Calcutta.
Where you may live for a year and
never once see any scenery whatsoever.
Where you may live for a year and
not see any scenery, any fields, any trees,
even for one year, not once.
I'll tell you, until you live in such
places, and I have, you don't appreciate what
you have in your home country.
Nine million people in that one city.
Many of them living like animals.
Do we really care?
After all of our Bible verses, with all
of our theology, with all of our talk
about the love of God, and about being
servants of Jesus Christ, and about being bought
with a price, do we really care for
these people?
And if we do care, then I believe
we're going to do something about it.
Some can go.
Others can send them.
Everyone can pray.
Most people can give.
And the results can be very, very great,
as already has been proven in some places.
Then another area where there's great tension, is
whether we should go to mainly the open
countries, where people are responding, or what about
the closed countries, or semi-closed countries, where
people are not responding.
Some people, especially in the church growth school
of thinking, people who are involved in church
growth, they tend to think we should go
where the people are responding.
But I see in the New Testament that
we should go everywhere, not firstly for results,
but firstly because we obey God.
Let us look at some verses together.
First of all, Acts 1.8. You shall
receive power after the Holy Spirit has come
upon you, and you shall be witnesses unto
me, both in Jerusalem, and Judea, and Samaria,
and the uttermost part of the earth.
Every part of the world is included.
Those last few words, the uttermost part of
the earth, that includes Mongolia.
We don't know of any believers in Mongolia.
That must include Bhutan, a small land where
there are only a dozen or so Christians.
It must include Afghanistan, and other lands that
we have spoken about.
It's the whole world.
And as far as I can see, we
must go, we must preach, whether they respond
or not.
They still should at least hear the Gospel.
Look at 2 Corinthians 10.16. So as
to preach the Gospel even to the regions
beyond you, and not to boast in what
has been accomplished in the sphere of another.
And then Romans 15.20. And thus
I aspire to preach the Gospel not where
Christ was already named that I might not
build upon another man's foundation.
If this was the burden of the Apostle
Paul in the first century, how much more
it should be the burden of each one
of us in the 20th century.
And therefore we say, we must see that
both of these different types of countries must
receive the Gospel.
I was reading just last night about how
tens of thousands of Bibles are going into
China.
Because they all, while these are closed countries,
there is no such thing as a closed
country.
Every nation is open to some degree.
Especially to the Swiss and the Germans.
There are most countries that you can go
to.
China especially likes Switzerland.
They have come here and been through many
of your factories and they have managed to
copy many of these fine machines out in
China.
Now China may not be open to official
missionaries with big hats that say I am
a missionary.
But there are many ways to go into
some of these countries.
We have had people in most so-called
closed countries.
Like Afghanistan where Gordon Magney has been for
about nine years.
And we have had people in almost all
so-called closed countries.
He went as a student in the University
of Kabul.
It took him many years.
He was a very slow student.
Meanwhile he was winning Afghans to Jesus Christ.
And we need greater faith to enter into
impossible situations.
C.T. Studd said let us not be
nibblers of the possible but grabbers of the
impossible.
Then another area where we must find the
balance is the tension between a team of
missionaries launching out from a mission society and
the local church.
There is an increase of extremism today in
overemphasizing the local church.
And of course there are some that have
become so extreme they are almost like false
cults.
You will find such a group up in
Stuttgart.
They call themselves the local church.
And it's interesting how even some very zealous
young Germans have been just drawn into this
extremist group.
I have followed and studied that movement for
the last ten years.
They say it started in China but in
fact it really started in California.
Already many, many of their groups have split
in two.
And I have followed some of their main
leaders have left the movement.
Many things have happened in California that I'm
afraid they do not know about in Germany.
They are very upset with me and have
written me a number of letters because in
my prayer letter which is spread
all over Germany I have warned God's people
against these neo-exclusivistic extremisms.
Sorry about that.
You see it comes because those people are
looking for the perfect church.
And perfectionism is one of the most subtle
forms of extremism.
We get this concept that the church must
be sort of a fraternity, a special club
of super saints.
Instead of a clinic for sinners saved by
the grace and the mercy of God.
Of course there are many good groups that
also emphasize the local church.
It's a very important emphasis for us.
We are not a mission society in that
we do not send out the missionaries.
In our work we believe the local church
must send out the missionaries.
We will only provide the structure needed to
do the job for God on the field.
I know this becomes very
complex in some of your countries.
Because some of your churches don't want to
send anybody out.
And if they do send you certainly it
will not be with any other group except
their own denomination.
And this is something worth praying about.
And it's been our joy to be involved
in training people for a year or two
who then were sent out by other mission
societies or by their own denomination.
In fact most mission societies here in Europe
have people on the field and were trained
in O.M. And
I believe that a team working with someone
like O.M. in Turkey this is just
as biblical as a local church.
Because we see both of these groups in
the New Testament.
In fact it was these early missionary teams
that started the local churches.
The goal of O.M. in Turkey is
to see men converted, gather together, that there
may be a fellowshipping local church.
So we can't say well this O.M.
team that's not really scriptural but when they
plant a church oh the church, that's scriptural.
That doesn't make any sense.
The non-biblical team starts the biblical church.
Paul worked on a team.
He started churches.
Then he left.
Then he revisited them.
And I believe that if the world is
to be evangelized there has to be a
very close working relationship between the local churches
and teams and fellowships like O.M. Another
area where we have to work for balance
is evangelism versus social work.
Some emphasize the social work.
They want to feed people.
They want to build hospitals.
This has become now the very popular type
of work among evangelicals because we feel guilty
that we didn't do more of this in
the past.
The truth is that evangelicals for a long
time certain groups of evangelicals had always been
active in social work.
I think history is quite clear about that.
And it needs to continue.
At the same time I personally feel the
command to evangelize and see men saved is
a clearer, more important command in the New
Testament.
We need both.
We don't want more disunity.
More polarization.
And we need to see how God works
through different groups in different ways.
You know, we get very wrong ideas about
certain countries.
We think, for example, everybody in India is
poor.
Actually, there are not many people starving in
India.
There are many poor people.
Especially in the huge cities and some of
the villages.
But there are also an interesting number of
rich people.
And Indians illegally have literally millions and millions
stored away in your banks here in Switzerland.
And it used to be when I lived
in India that men would spend sometimes 400
,000 francs just on the wedding of his
daughter.
And in government circles all these people have
money.
They have all learned how to get money
through their different political positions.
And you can be sure there are very
few honest people in these cultures.
Now, if these people can be reached with
the Gospel, they can do more to help
their own country than any social work we
can do as foreigners.
And we need to work not only among
the poor people but among the rich people
to see them come to a knowledge of
Jesus Christ.
Destroyed by the monster of technology which can
so easily consume us.
We should continue by God's grace to follow
the lifestyle we see in the New Testament.
Then there's another area I'm sure some of
you have been thinking about.
Should I get married or should I remain
single?
Now, some of you may not have much
choice because no one is going to marry
you.
But let us not be afraid let us
not be negative let us all be hopeful
that God in this area also can do
the impossible.
But I have seen how God can use
single people and we have seen many single
women and single men mightily used in the
work of God.
This is one of the things I like
about England in comparison to America.
The Englishman especially the university student he usually
waits a little longer before he gets married.
So we get a whole army of English
university graduates working in almost every country that
OM is in.
Single men and single women.
Then on the field there is a better
chance that they will meet and marry someone
who is like-minded and who has a
sane commitment to Christ and to World Evangelist.
And for those of you who are not
yet married I beg of you not even
to consider marrying someone who is not of
one heart with you and of one mind
in your commitment to Christ and World Evangelist.
And certainly in any case marriage is the
great challenge for many of us.
We have seen how both married people and
single people can be used.
And this is a great challenge.
Then another area of controversy Who will evangelize?
Is it the national living in the country
or is it the foreign missionary?
Of course it's both.
And in fact in countries we are working
in it's the nationals and the national church
that is saying will you please send us
some more internationals to come and help us.
There is a great need for men who
can teach the word of God and who
can teach theology.
Africa is about to launch its first or
one of the first seminaries very high level
seminary.
Similar to this.
In every nation there is an increase of
seminary level training.
And sometimes there are openings for people from
other countries.
There are just so many openings on the
mission field.
But of course because we are generally in
our minds locked into one culture the German
culture or the French culture we don't really
get to know these situations in Africa and
Latin America and India.
We don't get to know about some of
these opportunities.
Then another area of difficulty is the balance
between the emphasis on the lostness of men
motivating us the
fact that men are lost.
And on the other hand what it says
in 2 Corinthians 5.14 the love of
Christ constraining us.
I think this is one of the most
difficult doctrines because it's one that ultimately so
many people intellectually feel they cannot handle.
The fact that all men outside of Jesus
Christ are lost for eternity.
There wrote on the leader of our ship
Doulas when he was studying at Wheaton College
he discovered even some of the evangelical professors
didn't really believe that the heathen were lost
the people who never heard the gospel were
lost.
So he wrote his thesis that the professors
all had to read on the subject of
why the heathen are lost.
And this has always been a strong conviction
in our work.
On this point we must very much literally
take what the New Testament says.
And this is still a major area where
evangelical and biblical Christians are in a totally
different world from those who are liberal in
their theology and certainly do not believe that
men and women are going to hell.
And when we believe this of course it
is going to motivate our lives.
At the same time the love of Christ
is our greater motivation.
And even if they are not lost if
Christ tells us and God tells us we
must give them the gospel then we will
obey God.
And I am convinced that this theology about
the lostness of man is often only in
our head.
Because when it grips our hearts that men
are really lost we will never never be
the same again.
And without this of course missionary work is
almost ridiculous.
If all these Hindus and Buddhists and Muslims
they are all going to heaven anyway then
what is the purpose of going out there
and giving your life in evangelism for them?
There are a number of other areas where
there is tension.
For example between education and action.
I feel very honored that I have this
privilege of speaking to you and I can
assure you I have been told that many
seminaries are absolutely scared to ever have me
come and speak.
Because they are afraid that the young people
will be led away from academics and be
caught up into some kind of action.
Cannot we have both?
Must we put action against education?
Must we have these two types of people?
One with all heart and legs and no
head?
Others with all head and no heart and
legs?
Can't we have any normal Christians with heads
and hearts and legs and feet?
It's interesting that the word of God says,
blessed are the feet of those who preach
the gospel, not blessed are the noses or
the eyes or the heads.
And in my life, the study of theology
caused me to recommit my life to Christ
and to serve Him and live for Him
every minute of the day.
If what we say we believe is true,
then we are going to be men of
action.
And we are going to want to take
that which we are receiving and share it
with everyone as much as possible.
And as we go out across the mission
fields, we will not just evangelize, but we
will see those new converts trained in our
schools.
And many of them will go on to
seminary.
People that we have won to Christ in
OM all over the world are studying in
seminaries and Bible colleges all over the world.
And now an increasing number of these men
of action are now teaching in seminaries and
Bible colleges across the world.
We need both.
And I believe this is one of the
goals that every one of us in this
room should have before the Lord.
The same is true when we think of
anointing, the anointing of the Spirit of God
upon a preacher in comparison to anyone else.
And the same is also true regarding the
filling, the salivation of the Holy Spirit and
on the other side of the education.
And Lloyd-Jones in his book about preachers
emphasizes both of these factors.
But I think personally today in many places
it's the anointing of the Spirit of God
that is often lacking upon our preachers and
upon our clergy.
In the United States we now have many
biblical seminaries Bible believing, holding to the Word
of God one degree or the other.
And we're mass producing the preachers.
But I think we would have to acknowledge
that often the anointing of the Holy Ghost
is not upon these men.
Paul said be filled with the Holy Spirit.
And we'll never have an effective ministry without
the anointing and the power of God's Spirit
upon That means for every hour in the
pulpit there'll be several hours in prayer before
God and in His Word.
That means we don't only know how to
speak to men about God, we know how
to speak to God about men.
And without that our theological diplomas are hardly
worth the paper they are printed on.
You could have given us the paper we
could print tracts instead.
But with the anointing of the Spirit of
God the reality of the Holy Spirit the
love of Christ in your heart then that
theological degree will be worth much.
So keep studying.
But make sure it's also with the anointing
and the reality of God upon you.
Let us pray.
Let us end a few moments of just
silent prayer before God.
We have touched many important areas.
Where we need wisdom.
Where we need balance.
Where we need action.
Let us have silent prayer.
Which we can even pray, Oh Lord fill
me with your Holy Spirit.
Oh living God we thank you for your
word.
We thank you that we're not out just
being banged about thrown about by the concepts
of man.
We have a true word from yourself.
We thank you for the reality of your
Holy Spirit.
That he lives in us.
And that we can know that anointing and
that power.
Not in an extreme way, an uncontrolled way,
but under the control of your love.
Lord we would pray in obedience to your
word.
That you would send forth laborers into the
harvest fields.
Short term, long term.
Men of education, men of action.
That your will would be accomplished.
Lord give us open minds.
Even about what you want us to do
in the future.
That we may not miss your perfect will
for our lives.
We pray in Jesus.
Amen.
Most of you know we have a computer.
Let's just pray now and ask God to
help us as we speak on the subject
of the will of God.
Knowing the will of God.
Especially foundations for knowing the will of God
in your life.
Let us pray.
Father speak to our hearts from your word
and from experience.
We thank you for many specific answers to
prayer.
And we know that you want to do
exceeding abundant above all we could ask or
expect.
Lord we worship you together this morning.
We thank you for all that we are
learning during these days.
Give us an open mind.
And an obedient heart.
And may we be willing to truly deny
self in order to be your disciples.
In Jesus name.
Amen.
Perhaps this subject of the will of God
is one of the most difficult.
I remember someone asking me to speak to
a very large group of young people in
Germany.
And they said please speak about how to
know the will of God.
People of course especially would like some simple
easy formulas for how to know the will
of God.
So when they meet this particular girl they
just approach this formula to know whether she
is the right girl or not.
Finding the will of God is part of
spiritual growth.
It's part of the spiritual battle.
And we will find that Satan will be
attacking us every step of the way.
What we have spoken about extremism and getting
off balance of course is very much linked
with this thing of knowing God's will.
Because of course if Satan can get us
into some extreme then he can get us
away from the perfect will of the living
God.
I do not come to you with any
simple formula.
I'm finding knowing the will of God more
difficult now at 25 years in Christ than
I did when I was a young Christian.
And some of the teaching on knowing the
will of God instead of helping me it
only further confuses me.
Perhaps it is because I have seen so
many crazy things this past 25 years.
People who get special guidance.
The Lord has told them.
A young man came to me many years
ago.
God had given him a word about a
particular girl.
And he wanted to know if he should
go ahead and ask her the important question.
And he had some sense from the Lord.
Some feeling this was the right girl.
He specially felt it when he sat next
to her.
I tried to beg him to please be
patient.
Lo and behold the very next day.
Another man came to me.
The Lord had spoken to him about a
particular girl.
He was sure this was the will of
God.
He had been praying for several weeks about
her.
And I was amazed to find out it
was the same girl.
I believe part of the great battle of
learning the will of God is that God
allows us to make mistakes.
We are human beings.
We are subject to make mistakes.
When we get in our cars and we
go and we drive somewhere.
We pray Lord guide us on the way.
One hour later we're completely lost.
Gone down the wrong road.
Well God didn't answer that prayer.
But you see no matter how much we
pray.
It does not destroy neither our humanity or
the other person's humanity.
Your prayers cannot turn the other person into
a computer.
For instance I often pray that God will
speak to people about giving money to his
work.
In our work we don't believe in asking
people for money.
We don't believe in praying that God will
speak to people's hearts.
So that Bibles may be printed so the
word of God may go out.
And I believe God hears our prayers.
But he in turn does not force people
to give money.
As God speaks to them in answer to
prayer they can resist.
And their selfishness can resist God and grieve
God and the Holy Spirit.
And that means we need to pray again.
We're praying that God will convert Muslims.
And I believe God is knocking on the
heart of many Muslims.
But up until now they are resisting.
And so we must continue to pray.
This of course in some ways is a
mystery.
It's almost as hard as putting together the
sovereignty of God and the free will of
man.
It is a difficult area.
And so in learning to walk with God
God allows us to make mistakes.
You say, well what if I marry the
wrong girl?
And to me this is something that's very
important.
If you do make a mistake and you
go to the wrong place or you marry
the wrong girl and I don't want to
forget our girls, if you marry the wrong
man that also can happen.
God is still greater.
If there's anything I would like you to
get this week is that no matter what
your circumstances, God is greater.
So great that he can even make a
wonderful marriage when you've got the wrong girl.
In life we need to acknowledge our failure,
acknowledge our mistake and then do the best
we can trusting God in that situation.
If you make a mistake and you go
to the wrong place or you marry the
wrong girl, God is greater.
Otherwise you can be blown about by the
devil just all over the place.
We have had a wide range of people
in Operation Mobile.
The Bible says not many wise are called.
And we certainly have had many interesting people.
I remember this one girl that came from
the United States.
When she got in Europe in Belgium, she
felt, she sensed she was out of the
will of God.
So she wanted to fly back to the
United States and start over again.
We tried to say, look you're here now,
you need to do the best you can.
Just repent of moving ahead of the Lord
and now let's make good the situation.
No, no, she had to fly back to
the United States.
That's a lot of money.
She got in the plane, disobeyed us as
leaders, she went back to the States.
When she got to the States, she sensed
that again she had made a mistake and
was out of the will of God.
And that she should be in Italy.
She got in an airplane and she flew
all the way to Italy.
I don't know whatever happened to her and
I'm not too interested actually.
And we need to see as we move
along in life that whatever mistake we make,
God is greater.
Of course sometimes we can change the situation.
But other times we're going to have to
trust God to overrule, by his sovereign grace
to overrule the situation and make a blessing.
Bring a blessing.
Now because of the challenge of this subject,
I want to give you some of the
basic foundations that we need in our lives
to help find the will of God.
First of all, we need our spiritual life.
And seeking God himself.
Look at Matthew chapter 6 verse 33 to
a very familiar verse.
And there's a wonderful chorus that we're singing
all over the world based on this verse.
Let's seek first his kingdom and his righteousness
and all these things shall be added to
you.
So the first step in knowing the will
of God is to know God himself.
This is why I feel this book called
Knowing God by J.I. Packer is so
good.
That should be our first goal.
Not firstly the will of God, but firstly
God himself.
This may sound funny to some.
But I'd rather make a mistake and miss
the will of God and end up knowing
God himself.
Then in a sense get real guidance, know
that I was doing the will of God
and yet in the process of doing the
will of God I miss God himself.