Valium that's used for depression is the most
widely used drug in the entire world.
It's a multi-billion dollar business.
And I'm sure there are times when it
is used properly.
But if Christians learned a little more of
the basics of the Christian message, they would
not need so many tranquilizers.
The younger you start to learn these basic
principles, the better your chances are some of
you already look too old.
Every year past 17 years of age that
you fail to learn these principles will make
it a little more difficult to learn them.
In fact, some of us, because our parents
were always worried about this or that, we
also are always worried.
And as Christians, one of the things we
worry about the most And the devil really
uses it.
It's this.
What do other people think about me?
Or what does she think about me?
What do people say about me?
And we start to live for the praise
of man.
We crave the praise of man.
We crave, we desire the praise of man.
Jesus said to the Pharisees How can you
believe who seek honor, one of another, instead
of the honor that comes from God alone?
How can you believe who seek honor, one
of another, instead of the honor that comes
from God alone?
And this is so important in the ministry.
Firstly, we please God.
We don't want to purposely just offend people.
That's extreme.
But at the same time, our first burden
is to please God.
Then the third principle is making God your
goal.
We have already spoken about this.
There is nothing more important than that.
What if you have a great tragedy in
your ministry?
The whole church votes that you must leave.
They don't want you anymore.
Finished.
Or something more difficult.
Does God die at that moment?
Often it's only when we have nothing left
but God, we learn that God is enough.
And then the fourth principle is very, very
important.
We have to learn how to be hurt.
How to be offended.
How to be hurt.
You're going to be hurt if you're in
the ministry.
There's no way to escape it.
You're going to be hurt if you get
married.
You're going to be hurt if you become
a father.
In fact, you're going to be hurt if
you do anything.
Let us this week grow up.
Let us do away with some of our
naive, superficial viewpoints about life on planet Earth.
Nothing is perfect here.
Error and sin and mistakes seem to move
in from every side.
So many difficulties come in marriage because of
this.
The wife marries the man she thinks is
the ideal husband.
Maybe she has heard him preach.
Ooh, he seems to be a good preacher.
I can assure you that the man she
thinks is the ideal husband is not.
I can assure you that being a good
preacher has very little to do with being
married.
Your wife is sitting in the bedroom at
night.
She is waiting for a few words of
affection.
She is wanting you to hold her hand
and to comfort her and to tell her
how much you love her.
And you step into the bedroom and give
your discourse on the Greek meaning of Romans
8, chapter whatever.
You don't understand why she is not more
excited about these great theological truths that you
are throwing out to the world.
And you are astonished when you realize how
little she is excited about these great theological
truths that you are throwing out to the
world.
She has been praying for four months that
you would fix the light switch so the
lights would turn on.
Because if you are not careful, you will
find that you and your wife are in
two totally different worlds.
And of course this means you will end
up hurting her in many ways.
In my life it was a lack of
sensitivity.
I don't know if you have a word
for that in German, but it's a very
important word.
Being sensitive to the other person's feelings and
emotions.
Many years ago, I would never buy my
wife any flowers.
We are in the spiritual warfare.
What place have flowers in the spiritual warfare?
And of course I told my wife all
the reasons, seven reasons why I will not
buy flowers.
And of course she wanted to be the
good disciple.
So she said, oh, it's okay, it's okay,
I know you love me.
Then I began to come into maturity.
Mom, I still did not want to spend
any money.
I still didn't want to spend any money
to buy the flowers.
So I went to the fields picking flowers.
And of course some of the flowers I
brought, like these ones that grow on the
lawn, we call them dandelions, were not very
appropriate.
I don't know about the German culture and
the Swiss culture, but in America and England
you don't give those flowers to people.
Somehow a few years ago, God gave me
the great faith to give some flowers.
And yesterday I arranged through the telephone for
my children to buy some nice flowers and
give them to my wife from me for
her anniversary.
If only I had learned some of these
basic principles 25 years ago.
At Moody Bible Institute they filled my head
with Bible verses and theology.
But they didn't give me any clues about
living on planet earth as a person.
And there is a danger when we study
theology that we will be way up here
in a cloud of theological clichés and jargon.
And we will not even know how to
properly pull up our zipper.
And we will not even know how to
properly pull up our zipper.
Now I'm being very practical.
Because if you stand before the congregation with
a great sermon but this is not arranged
properly your
message may not make the impact that you
want.
Do not use that illustration in your German
churches.
That is only special because we have become
friends.
But you will remember the point.
The little practical areas of life are important.
And there must be the union of theology
and reality.
If we are to be the men and
women to make an impact on this generation.
And therefore we will not be so hurt
when people hurt us.
We will know this is part of life.
Even if someday after 15 years of marriage
your wife in a depressed moment says I
don't really love you anymore.
I don't know what's wrong, I just love
you.
I just must be honest, I don't really
love you.
And if you of course love her that
can be a terrible experience.
But if you have some wisdom you will
know that that sometimes can happen in a
person's emotions.
And you will accept that probably at that
time she does love you but that her
feelings have changed and the same thing can
happen to you.
It's not the time to seek the divorce
court but it's the time to seek revival
in your home and get your priorities right.
I've had times when I didn't feel that
I loved the Lord Jesus Christ.
Times quite often when there was no feeling
toward God or toward Christ I was just
nothing.
But I decided at that moment to stand
firm.
To say oh God I love you.
Even though my feelings may be totally dead
at this moment.
It's not easy to be a pastor.
It's more difficult to be a pastor's wife.
And what do we say of the pastor's
children.
And we need, desperately need to understand these
principles of survival for the sake of our
whole family.
And then the fifth principle is learning the
reality of praise and thanksgiving.
We have already emphasized this.
But how important it is.
Even in the midst of the problems.
Just to praise the Lord.
You see the devil tries to get us
mountain climbing over mole hills.
You know the little animal in the garden
makes a little hill.
The devil tries to get us mountain climbing
over mole hills.
In other words he tries to take little
things and make them bigger and bigger and
bigger.
You may have this experience in your church.
You may have this experience at the seminary.
Some little thing happens.
People start to talk.
It gets bigger and bigger.
Pretty soon you have even disunity.
You know living on a ship of 300
people is very interesting.
Especially because it's easy for Christians to sin
with their tongues.
Recently we had to ask someone to leave
the ship.
It was a very serious thing.
Five leaders agreed this person had to leave.
He was of one particular nationality.
So the gossip went around.
He's having to leave because he's this nationality.
They leaders don't like our nationality.
Before they could listen to the total complicated
story the tongues begin to talk.
This person of course is hurt so he
presents his case to his friends.
So soon the ship leaders are here and
this little party of talking people are over
here in rebellion and they are ready for
total warfare.
Because of this they had to stop everything
and bring the whole ship together.
And then, praise
God, even the person, this doesn't always happen,
even the person admitted they were wrong and
admitted it would be best to go.
You know one of the problems with the
church today is the leaders of the church
are afraid to tell anybody to ever leave
the church.
Because it is the most difficult task.
But there must be some discipline in the
work of God.
And naturally the tendency when someone is disciplining
you is to turn on them and find
something wrong with their life.
Because we all have something wrong.
But that is a great mistake.
Because when we're disciplining a person we are
pointing fingers at everybody else.
We must deal with that issue first.
This is why it is so important to
have practical wisdom and understanding of how to
work with people when you are going in
the ministry.
This is why the more experience you can
have with different kinds of people before you
become a pastor the better chance that you
will survive as a pastor.
And remember when everything does go wrong you
still need to just praise and thank the
Lord because that will give you the spiritual
strength you need in the midst of that
hard situation.
You need the spiritual strength at that time.
Oh if only God's people would learn to
praise the Lord.
Not just when it's going right.
Not just when they're being appreciated.
But when things are going wrong.
This has been so important in my own
life.
We had many, many problems in Operation Mobilization
I can assure you.
My mail is being sent express every day
from London.
I'm picking it up in Zurich.
Telegrams, telexes, letters every day the problems are
there.
And I've learned whatever's in the mail, in
the post praise the Lord.
This is not my work.
This is God's work.
These are not my ships.
The enormous problems of operating these ships plus
all the rest of the work.
These are not my ships.
These are God's ships.
I do what I can.
And I put all into the hands of
God.
Because otherwise I'll be a sick man.
Some books say that when you become 40
you enter the middle life crisis.
A man recently wrote a book called The
Middle Life Crisis.
I was actually feeling quite well until I
started to read this book.
I was feeling well until I started to
read this book.
Then I started to think about all these
possible crises I'm going to have.
I put the book aside, I've not touched
it since.
Casting every care upon Him.
Praising Him.
These are some of the principles of survivalship.
You'll get some more in the afternoon if
you survive.
Let us pray.
Our God and Father we thank you for
the practical implications of your word.
We thank you Lord that you can help
us take the theology we have in our
hands and work it into our practical lives.
Lord you can give us the wisdom and
the discernment we need to be leaders in
your church.
Nothing is too hard for you.
And even though some of us may have
disadvantages you can well overcome them.
And through your word we shall triumph.
In Jesus name.
Amen.
Well I feel very refreshed.
I was able to go...
Refreshed, refreshed.
As I was able to go swimming in
your beautiful local swimming pool Typically Swiss.
Incredibly impeccably clean.
And not too expensive.
Of course for all you suffering poverty stricken
students I realize it would be difficult to
pay four francs.
But if you're feeling the strain I'll be
glad to loan you four francs until you're
a rich pastor and then you can pay
me back.
Let us continue from where we were this
morning.
As we examine a few more of these
basic principles of survival.
I'm sure many of you are getting your
heads full.
What are you going to do with all
of this teaching?
But I think it's important to realize that
some of you may never have this same
opportunity ever again in your life.
I've spoken on some of these things to
pastors.
Men 50 and 60 years, 70 years old.
And some of them have written to me
or they have come to me.
And they said only I had heard some
of these things when I was a student.
And I think it's important to realize that
some things that I say are important for
some other things are important for others.
Not everything is equally important for everyone.
And in the midst of the material you
have to appropriate that which is especially relevant
for your thinking and your situation.
And I do hope that somehow in the
coming months you will be able to review
and pray through some of this material.
Let us now go to the sixth point.
It doesn't matter if you have one number
more or one number less.
But here we want to look at Hebrews
chapter 4.
Where we read about the rest of faith.
This is a beautiful chapter in God's word.
Let us begin at verse 6.
Since therefore it remains for some to enter
it and those who formerly had good news
preached to them failed to enter because of
disobedience.
And
then
going down to verse 9.
There remains therefore a sabbath rest for the
people of God.
For the one who has entered his rest
has himself also rested from his works as
God did.
For the one who has entered his rest
has himself also rested from his works as
God did from his own.
Let us therefore be diligent to enter that
rest lest anyone fall through following the same
example of disobedience.
We have the principle of sabbath rest.
It also seems to indicate that for the
believer there is a rest of faith which
is a way of life.
And I have met many people who have
had an experience with the Lord in which
they shifted from striving in their own effort
to resting in the Lord.
There are men like Ian Thomas who has
strongly emphasized this teaching and Alan Redpath.
Of course some take it to extremes.
And the writings of Dr. Lloyd-Jones especially
his new series on the Christian armor that
certainly keeps some of this in the right
perspective.
Needless to say I think there is a
basic biblical place of resting in the Lord.
After all God answers prayer.
He can answer prayer regarding our own emotional
and spiritual life.
The first big OM effort in Europe was
in 1962.
This is really the second birth of OM.
The first prayer was to pray for the
salvation of the world.
What we were doing was completely new.
We had about 200 people.
I was living in London and we had
about 90 from Great Britain.
We had all these old trucks, old vehicles.
I was driving one of the biggest ones.
That made me nervous.
The whole thought of what was ahead of
us that summer as a totally new thing
made me very tense even as I was
driving down the highway.
And then the engine started to go wrong
and it started to backfire making these big
explosions even as we went across London Bridge.
But as we drove to Dover something happened
to me in that I just sensed well,
it's in the Lord's hands.
It's in the Lord's hands.
I felt it.
It's in the Lord's hands.
And I came into a place of just
relaxation.
And I'll always remember that experience.
And again and again I've had to in
a sense re-enter into that place of
resting in the Lord.
That was the seventh principle.
His one I've taken from A.W. Tozer.
He got it from some of the old
mystics.
And it's good to read some of these
old saints of God.
Some of them even within the Catholic Church
had a very deep walk with God.
And we can learn something from them.
Tozer said, God is easy to live with.
I had to stop and read that again.
Because it seems at times that discipleship and
a strong presentation of God makes him very
hard to live with.
And many today have a very hard and
legalistic view of God.
Maybe it's because their father was that way.
Maybe your own father was stern with a
big stick.
And when you did something wrong, crotch.
It's not easy to get the right view
of God.
It's the most difficult area to find balance.
And we are all learning, including me.
The balance between the mercy of God and
the judgment of God.
But we see that through Jesus Christ and
the blood of Christ God has now made
us righteous.
It's not a matter of us earning our
own righteousness.
And this should affect us spiritually and emotionally.
And I believe God is quick to mark
even the smallest thing you do in his
name.
And he's quick to overlook things that you
may do wrong.
Especially when he sees that your heart is
right and broken before him.
The Bible says a cup of cold water
given in his name will not go without
reward.
Tausser said God knows all about us and
he loves us still.
Most people have things that they do in
secret that they are ashamed of.
But God knows what they are.
And the thrilling thing is he knows and
he still loves us.
And I believe it's not the law that
brings spiritual growth it's the grace and the
message of grace that brings spiritual growth.
Then the eighth point.
Learning to accept God's growth pattern in your
life.
Philippians 1.6 is a very popular verse
and I still love it.
For I am confident in this very thing
that he who began a good work in
you will perfect it until the day of
Christ Jesus.
God has begun a work in you.
And in the youngest convert you are working
with.
And we need to have that confidence that
he will continue that work.
Now when I was a student I did
a lot of evangelism.
That was the thing that kept me going.
Every weekend, Saturday, Sunday out in evangelism.
Taking what I learned in school and applying
it working among drunkards, drug addicts, Spanish people.
And that's where I got reality therapy.
Because if you're going to get involved with
people in an in-depth way you are
going to get very big disappointments.
We make a great mistake if we think
all a man has to do is be
born again and then he will live happily
ever after.
And you can go back to your evangelical
scorecard and mark up one more soul has
come to Christ.
People go to their meetings and they think
ho, ho, ho, they are Pentecostal.
But in fact Bucksing is the strongest anti
-Pentecostal.
You see, we can think that we know
something.
But in fact we are only making more
sophisticated our own prejudices.
Punishing our prejudices.
And I say we must avoid categorizing people,
classifying people especially when we don't know them
that well.
Different people are growing at a different speed.
Lane Adams who was with Billy Graham has
an excellent book on this subject.
The book is called Why is it taking
so long?
Have you ever asked that question?
Why is it taking so long in my
life?
And the tendency is to become impatient with
your own spiritual growth.
If you go out to the woods here
could you watch a tree grow?
If you met a man in the woods
and he said he was watching the tree
grow you would have some questions about him.
Yet the tree is growing.
And you are growing.
It may be slowly.
But if you're walking with Jesus if you're
in his word and if you're keeping your
heart clean you are growing.
What is the thing that often grows in
a very spectacular way?
I'm asking a question.
What is the thing that grows in a
spectacular way?
Often it's the weeds that grow very quickly.
Weeds.
And trees take a long time.
So this is so important.
And it touches many areas of our life.
Especially when we meet Christian leaders.
Without saying, especially as young students we expect
the Christian leaders to be more or less
perfect.
We don't say that, but we expect that.
And we always think, well the leaders should
be setting the example for us and they
should serve us.
But it says in Timothy let no man
despise your youth you be an example to
the believers.
And there's a danger that we get our
eyes on man instead of upon the Lord
and upon his word.
And if God has given you more light
on a particular subject be patient with others
who may not have yet seen that light.
Then the ninth principle I call the freedom
of a disciplined and ordered life.
Discipline does not bring bondage discipline brings freedom.
This is a beautiful thing.
You may feel that seminary is very hard.
And probably it is hard.
A lot of studies, a lot of work.
But what do you think that life is
all about?
It's time to face the reality that you're
no longer a little child playing in the
sandbox in back of your daddy's house.
I always admire the farmers wherever I go.
Any of you come from a farm?
One or two.
All that I know about farms is very
hard work and it's not seven hours a
day.
And many of the countries that I have
lived in people have to work fifteen hours
a day just to get food.
And as we walked with the Lord Jesus
Christ Und wenn wir mit dem Herrn Jesus
Christus wandeln, we must avoid the mud puddle
of self-pity.
We must avoid falling into self-pity.
Dann müssen wir es vermeiden, in diesen Sumpf
des Selbstmitleids zu geraten.
And we think, oh, we are studying so
hard.
Und wir denken, dass wir nicht denken, oh,
ich studiere so hart.
Or we have such a hard life.
Oh, ich habe so ein schwieriges Leben.
And think about some of the other people.
Und denk einmal an andere Leute.
We will realize that we have a very
easy time, most of us, in Western Europe.
Dann werden wir sehen, dass es uns sehr
gut geht hier in Westeuropa.
And in fact, to be able to study
about God for three or four years is
a privilege that few people have in this
world.
Und nur die Tatsache, dass ihr das Vorrecht
habt, drei oder vier Jahre nur zu studieren,
das Wort des Herrn, das haben ganz wenige
Leute in der ganzen Welt.
And I believe God allows this privilege, that
you in turn may go in a few
years and just give yourself to these other
people, that they may also know God and
His Word.
Und ich denke, dass Gott euch dieses Vorrecht
nur darum gibt, dass ihr dann nach dem
Studium hinausgeht und das, was ihr erhalten habt,
mitteilt, damit sie auch wachsen und Gottes Wort
kennenlernen.
When I was studying at Moody, the work
of OM was already born.
Als ich bei Moody studierte, da war die
Arbeit von OM schon geboren.
So I had all of my work in
correspondence.
So hatte ich alle meine Arbeit mit Briefen
geschrieben.
Fifty hundred letters a week.
Fünfzehnhundert Briefe.
Fifty to a hundred letters a week.
Fünfzig bis hundert Briefe in der Woche.
Plus meetings, speaking at meetings.
Und Versammlungen, in denen ich sprach.
Plus a lot of private study and research.
Und viel privates Studium und Nachsuchen.
Plus all of the school work.
Und dann auch die Arbeit in der Schule.
And there were some nights when I didn't
go to bed at all, not even one
hour.
Und es gab manche Nächte, wo ich nicht
einmal eine Stunde ins Bett ging.
Of course the school didn't know that.
Natürlich wusste es die Schule nicht.
They didn't have room in the main building.
They put me down the road in the
YMCA.
Sie hatten keinen Platz mehr im Hauptgebäude, und
so verlegten sie mich in ein Zimmer des
CVJM.
They were hard days.
Das waren harte Tage.
And especially when examinations came.
Und vor allem, wenn denn die Examen kamen.
But I thank God for those days.
Aber ich danke Gott für diese Tage.
And I had to submit to the leaders
of the school.
Und ich musste mich den Leitern der Schule
unterordnen.
I didn't like some of the rules.
Ich hatte einige der Regeln nicht gemacht.
And why aren't they having some pages of
rules?
Do this, don't do that, go here, don't
go here.
Ich dachte, wieso haben wir diese vielen Regeln,
wo es heißt, tu das, tu das nicht,
geh da hin, geh da nicht hin.
And once I broke one of the rules.
Und als ich dann einmal eine dieser Regeln
gebrochen hatte, I thought, oh, that's nothing.
Da dachte ich, ach, das ist doch nichts.
But God convicted me.
Aber Gott hat mich überzeugt.
I went to the dean of men, the
man in charge of the men.
Und ich ging zu dem, der den jungen
Vorstand...
And I apologized and told him how I'd
broken this rule.
Und ich entschuldigte mich und sagte, dass ich
dieses Gebot übertreten hatte.
Now, I was a little bit scared of
this man.
Now, he's a big fellow.
Nun, ich hatte ein bisschen Angst vor diesem
Mann, der war ein großer.
And I thought, maybe I would get an
evangelical bark.
Und ich dachte, vielleicht erhalte ich ein evangelisches
Bellen.
But instead, he understood.
Aber er verstand mich.
We talked together.
Und wir sprachen miteinander.
We have now been friends and prayer partners
for 22 years.
Und wir sind jetzt Freunde und Gebetspartner seit
22 Jahren.
He's retired from that school.
Er hat sich nun pensionieren lassen von dieser
Schule.
And most people forget him.
Und die meisten Leute vergessen ihn.
But we've never forgotten one another.
Aber wir haben uns niemals gegenseitig vergessen.
And recently he came to one of the
OM conferences, even though he can just now
hardly walk.
Und kürzlich kam er zu einer der OM
-Konferenzen, obwohl er kaum mehr gehen kann.
This was a very important thing in my
life.
Das war etwas, eine ganz wichtige Sache in
meinem früheren Leben.
From the time after I left the school,
I was destined to be the leader in
my own work.
Und von der Zeit an, als ich die
Schule verlassen hatte, wurde ich dazu bestimmt, der
Leiter in meiner eigenen Arbeit zu sein.
So those two years of submitting to other
leaders, even when I did not agree, were
very important in building and shaping my own
character.
Und so waren die zwei Jahre, in denen
ich gezwungen war, mich den Leitern dort unterzuordnen
und zu gehorchen, sehr wichtig, um meinen eigenen
Charakter zu formen.
And it's easy.
Ja.
And now I have to ask 1,200
OM people to submit to our leadership.
And at least I can sense that I
had to go through a similar experience.
One of the most important things in life
is to learn to do things we don't
like to do.
You may think that I like to speak
here three times a day.
I speak 600 times a year.
If I had my way, I would speak
100 times.
I would still be in the swimming pool.
Life does not consist of doing what you
feel like doing.
It consists of doing the will of God.
I leave in a week for six weeks
tour of Asia.
Now for you, that may sound very exciting.
But I have been traveling 100,000 miles
a year for 20 years.
I don't want to travel.
I want to sit down.
But you see, I am bought with a
price.
I have to do the will of God.
And the wonderful thing is that as we
do the will of God, there is a
degree of enjoyment and blessing.
Jesus said, my meat is to do the
will of God.
And this is such an important concept and
principle.
And without that principle, of course none of
you are going to go to the mission
field.
We are not going to get any Swiss
people to forsake this luxurious paradise of a
land to go out and work in a
place like Calcutta.
It is only when Christ becomes the total
Lord of our lives, that he will be
able to move us out to the hard
places.
And of course when we are doing God's
will.
Even in our own country.
There will still be plenty of hardships and
struggles and battles.
You can be sure of that.
So be patient with your spiritual growth and
the growth of your brothers and sisters.
And make disciplined living and dying to self
a major factor in your life.
And make disciplined living and dying to self
a major factor in your life.
I have a message called the 20 D's
of a disciplined life.
Because in English there are 20 different disciplines
that all start with the letter D.
Like the discipline of details.
Like the discipline of little details.
Like getting somebody's address and phone number correctly.
Many people I meet do not even know
how to use the telephone in their own
country.
It is not so simple any longer.
You are trying to call somewhere.
Maybe in Switzerland.
You make two mistakes.
You are talking to some lady in Australia
or California.
You are talking to some lady in Australia
or California.
I still have to struggle with the pornographic
literature.
Generally I don't walk in a meeting and
say, well now just down the road I
was tempted by this pornography and had a
bad time.
I generally don't do that.
But I have individuals that I can share
with when I feel that I have had
a hard experience.
The amazing thing is this.
So often when I have shared with people
I find out they have the same problem.
But of course some of these things we
don't talk about.
We neatly repress them into some special compartment
in our brain.
And we wonder why a few years later
spiritually speaking we have some kind of headache.
With over 300 verses in the Bible on
the subject of sex.
If you bypass that you forget a very
important part of God's word.
And it will come out later in your
ministry.
And sometimes there are more problems in this
area among the more evangelical strict people than
there are among some of the liberal people.
And it's an ugly thing when it happens.
I had a young man write to me.
This is a true story.
He said a man came to our college
to speak about holiness.
I went to the man for counseling.
And he seduced me.
He was a homosexual and he seduced me
into sin.
He wrote to me and he said what
should I do?
And I said you must go back and
tell the leaders of your school what had
happened through this visiting preacher on holiness.
We had an evangelist going all over India.
Carrying on homosexual relationships in every town.
One man, evangelist.
There's one town in the United States.
After this great, after this evangelist was there.
There were great crusades.
Everyone was excited.
Especially the women.
Nine women were left pregnant by the one
evangelist.
And this isn't something I talk about in
every meeting.
But you are preparing for the ministry.
You are going into the heart of spiritual
battle.
It is about time the eyes got open.
Because the devil will not be happy until
he has your skin.
He has you defeated.
In California there was a group of criminals.
They worked in blackmail.
Blackmail means you get information about somebody and
you make them pay.
Or otherwise you will give out the information.
Their target was pastors and ministers.
They would send these beautiful women to the
pastor for counseling.
They knew when he was alone in his
house.
She was an actress.
She came to the door crying.
Oh, I need spiritual help.
After about 20 minutes.
Some of the pastors were seduced into sexual
relationships.
And her helper was in right at the
spot with the camera.
All the pictures.
The number of pastors were paying out thousands
of dollars to keep these pictures out of
the public eye.
Finally these people got caught.
And you say there is no devil?
Can we think of such satanic, diabolical attack
against the church?
Against the work of God?
Billy Graham has been aware of this kind
of trick.
They have tried to push women into him
just in the street and get a picture.
This is why Billy Graham is always with
another man or with his wife.
And he will not find him alone with
another woman.
He has to avoid every appearance.
Every appearance of evil.
And I find to have other people that
really know my life.
And can counsel me.
Can warn me.
And people I can be in subject to.
I purposely set up groups of men in
the countries that I worked in that I
submit myself to as unto the Lord.
You see when you are submitting yourself to
men over you.
This is a form of protection.
And the man who is just working out
on his own.
He is not responsible to anybody.
He is vulnerable.
He is open to subtle attacks from Satan.
And then the twelfth principle.
Philippians 4 verse 8.
Keeping a positive attitude.
Let's read that beautiful verse together.
Finally brethren whatsoever is true.
Whatsoever is honorable.
Whatsoever is right.
Whatsoever is pure.
Lovely.
Good report.
There be any excellence.
Anything worthy of praise.
Let your mind dwell on these things.
Isn't that beautiful?
We have to speak about evil.
We are realistic.
But we don't dwell on that.
We dwell on that which is right.
That which is as it says in Esmeralda.
And you know if you are a positive
thinking person.
I am convinced it actually creates energy in
your physical life.
And if you are a negative person.
You are going to drain yourself of some
of that tremendous energy.
Isn't it wonderful to have energy all day
long.
Fifteen hours a day.
Plenty of energy.
I was talking to my doctor.
He said you got a problem.
You got too much energy.
That's why I have to run.
That's why I exercise every day.
To get some of this out of me.
See then when I come to preach.
I am so much quieter and more self
controlled.
You haven't yet seen me if I get
excited.
And then just a couple more points and
we will close.
Remain constant in the word and prayer.
So basic.
But there is no substitute for it.
And then keep active in the work of
the Lord.
The passive man.
He has no goals.
He has no vision.
He is dangerous.
He is going to get in trouble sooner
or later.
This is why many young people get in
trouble today.
The church does not have a good ongoing
program for the young people.
And if we think the young people are
going to grow just sitting in church once
or twice a week like a bump on
a log we are foolish.
And some of you when you get into
a church do what you can to have
an active and a good youth program.
I praise God that my family belong to
a good church.
And my son is involved three or four
days a week in the things of the
church.
Not all spiritual things.
Some of the things are things that young
people want to do.
There is nothing wrong with being active in
God's work.
And then just the last two points.
Never neglect the family.
And a little bit of fun.
Obviously it is not a sin to have
fun.
And especially young people.
They need to see the balance in this
area.
To develop a sense of humor.
In OM you either learn to laugh or
you will learn to cry.
At any place like a seminary.
Where some of you are five years buried
in the books.
Develop a little sense of humor.
And make sure you know how to laugh
at yourself.
Then you will not be so hurt when
someone makes fun of you.
I could easily be very sensitive about my
nose.
I had someone draw a portrait of my
face with a little head and a big
nose going up.
God gave me the grace to laugh at
my nose.
After all he put it there, not me.
I was giving out tracts in the streets
of Thailand.
And the Thailand people they had these more
different noses.
They are amazed at our noses.
They have an expression if they don't like
a foreigner.
They say he is a long-nosed foreigner.
So I was giving out tracts.
And a man came up.
He didn't take the tract.
He just looked at me and he reached
out and he stroked my nose.
If I had had a missionary call I
would have lost it in Thailand.
And then last what we have already talked
about.
The whole area of finding the balance.
And when we find the balance we don't
all end up in the same place.
Because in your particular case you are in
the same place.
And in your particular ministry what may be
balanced will not be the same as in
my ministry.
And this is to me a beautiful thing
in the plan of God.
That there are so many different kinds of
ministries.
And different kinds of people.
And even when we are committed.
And filled with the spirit.
And balanced.
Will still be all very different.
And it's important.
We are not manufacturing some kind of little
evangelical biscuit.
They all come out in four years the
same.
Some schools even the same haircut.
And this is why it's so good to
go to other countries.
It's good to spend some time over in
France.
The French and the Germans over the years
have had a few problems.
And to go and work with some French
brothers and sisters.
And to show them the love of Christ.
Will be a great victory for some of
us.
And I learned more through living with Spaniards
and Mexicans and Indians.
Over a period of two or three years
than I could have ever learned back at
school.
May God give you that opportunity.
All right let's pray.
Oh Lord we thank you for these principles
of survivalship.
We thank you we don't just take these
things into our heads but into our very
lives.
And that by your grace we will never
be the same.
Because we have met with you and your
word in this week.
You are real oh God and we want
to be real.
Deliver us from any hypocrisy.
Any double living.
That we may be those men and women
who know your power and your lordship in
our lives.
We pray in Jesus name.
Amen.