We have a lot to be grateful to
the Lord for.
I certainly will not easily forget today.
And as you look back in history, days
do blur.
I've been to so many OM conferences, summer
training conferences, that sometimes it's just a blur.
But today will not be a blur.
It will be a hiccup in the life
of George Burwer on something I can tell
my grandchildren about.
And I'm just so encouraged by the way
you're just captivating the real core of the
message that I'm trying to give.
But we'll press on anyway.
Let's just pray together.
Father, we are all so different, and some
of us are more different than others.
We thank you that we don't have to
try to die to our sense of humor,
because you can use it for your glory.
Think of how you've used men like Gordon
Bailey, and we think of how you've used
men like Arthur Blessing, and many, many others
that we've never met, because you've given them
a gift of humor to use in stabbing
home truth, in bringing people to repentance.
We thank you for all that we've experienced
today and what we've learned, and we believe,
Father, that you want to also speak to
us again now from your Word.
In Jesus' name, amen.
I want you to turn to Ephesians chapter
4.
Ephesians chapter 4.
What a great book, what a great chapter.
I want to speak to you this evening
on maintaining spiritual balance.
Now, some people don't like the word balance,
and if we use the definition that some
of them use, then I don't like the
word either.
I don't mean by balance, compromise, or just
wishy-washiness, or, you know, just sort of
the middle of the road.
But I mean the kind of balance that
the Concord has built into it, so that
it can go across the Atlantic at such
fantastic speed.
To me, balance makes something sharper.
And I believe with all my heart that
as Christians, spiritual balance, maintaining a balance of
truth, not compromising truth with error, worldliness with
spirituality, no, but letting one truth bring another
truth into balance.
And I believe if you see this principle,
it will definitely help you in your summer
work, as different things happen, and you want
to know what to say to a young
person you're counseling, or how to react to
a particularly difficult situation you may be in.
Now let's look at these words in Ephesians
chapter 4, verse 11 is a good starting
place.
And he gave some apostles and some prophets
and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers
for the perfecting, for the bringing into maturity
of the saints, for the work of the
ministry, for the edifying of the body of
Christ, till we all come in the unity
of the faith and the knowledge of the
Son of God unto a perfect man, a
mature man, unto the measure of the stature
of the fullness of Christ, that we henceforth
be no more children tossed to and fro
and carried about with every wind of doctrine
by the sly or the sly of men
and the cunning craftiness by which they lie
and wait to deceive.
But speaking the truth in love.
There is a perfect picture of balance.
Speaking the truth in love.
May grow up into him in all things
who is the head even Christ from whom
the whole body fitly joined together and compacted
by that which every joint supplies according to
the effectual working in the measure of every
part.
Make it increase in the body unto the
edifying of itself in love.
The greatest message in the Bible, once we
know Christ personally, we've been justified by faith,
we know this great salvation, the greatest message
next to that in my mind is love.
God so loved the world, that's message number
one that he gave his son.
And when we come to his son in
faith, simple faith, believing, then that vertical love
relationship with God is back where it should
be.
Of course it has to grow.
But then we have that challenge of the
horizontal relationship with the people around us and
that is such a great challenge.
I had such a blessing today just answering
some very difficult letters.
One difficult letter from a close friend actually,
sort of the spiritual father of this Swedish
brother and his wife, I'll never forget when
they were in this meeting in Stockholm.
They were already living with each other.
They were miles away from God.
Through the simple proclamation of the gospel, he
came to Christ and he brought her to
an OM conference in Belgium.
She came to Christ and they became dynamic
workers and leaders.
Now it's many years later, they wrote me
a very difficult letter with some really tough
questions.
I've been procrastinating about answering that.
Walking along the beach, the Lord just gave
me the inspiration to answer that letter.
And that's really one of the encouragements for
me today because in my life, individual people
are important.
And I think that's one of the great
motives for the kind of work you're in
here.
People are important.
And you're coming here to give yourself to
people.
And I hope you're coming here believing that
God is going to give you some permanent
relationships.
And that starts even this weekend.
You don't all know one another here.
Perhaps there's someone here you would like to
get to know.
But maybe there's someone else that would like
to get to know you.
Somehow, God, even in these next days, just
two days together, I believe wants to cement
our hearts together.
And then he wants to spread that kind
of fellowship, that kind of reality, through this
camp all summer.
And I believe for that to happen, there
has to be spiritual balance.
There has to be a balance of truth,
as we're exhorted to find here in the
book of Ephesians.
Now, I've written quite a lot on this
subject.
I guess I shouldn't say quite a lot,
but it's just that there's not that much
written on the subject of balance.
And some of you have read my book,
Revolution of Love and Balance.
I don't know where it is, buried here
under all these books.
Interesting little symbol on the cover.
And then in my latest book, No Turning
Back, I actually talk more about this even
in the book that's called by the name
Balance.
And let me just throw out for you
to think about some of the areas where
you're going to have to work with balance
in your Christian life.
The first area I've already touched on a
bit, the balance between the crisis experience and
spiritual growth.
Now, we know that God works at times
through a crisis.
Let me just take a little survey.
How many of you were converted in a
way that you more or less at least
know what day it was?
You may not have the date, but it
was a particular day you can remember, and
it was somewhat of an emotional experience.
It was a crisis experience, whether it was
a small crisis or a big crisis.
How many of you have had that kind
of conversion experience?
Okay, that's about maybe just a little under
half.
How many of you have had a conversion
probably because maybe when you were very young,
so you don't remember it very well, or
it was more gradual in the sense that
you know you've passed from death to life,
but you don't exactly remember some specific crisis
event?
How many of you were more in that
camp?
A few of you are not sure which
camp you're in.
If you're not converted at all, I'd like
to give you priority for personal fellowship after
the meeting, but I think most of you,
all of you, know Christ personally.
God works in different ways in different people.
The same is true when it comes to
sanctification, when it comes to going on.
Quite a few people that I have talked
to have had some pretty heavy crisis experiences
after their conversion.
One of the questions that John was going
to ask me was about the baptism of
the Holy Spirit.
That would have been the hottest question of
the night because that's a very hot issue,
and especially among Brethren Assemblies.
And I'm sure you are aware of Brethren
Assembly history and how many have left the
Assemblies in the past 10 or 20 years
since I've come.
In fact, you probably will.
Not to do with me.
I can't take credit for that.
But through the very strong, fast-moving force
in this country, often referred to as the
Charismatic Movement.
And when that first hit, the Brethren Assemblies
were the arch enemies.
Traditionally, Brethren and Pentecostals had not been able
to get along at all.
Even to this day, that controversy rages.
There are books on this.
Of course, the more modern Charismatic Movement was
not the same as the more traditional Pentecostal
Movement.
And so the Brethren didn't know quite how
to handle this.
And I can remember being in a valedictory
meeting with a particular brother who had a
baptism in the Holy Spirit experience at university.
But it was a traditional Brethren Assembly, and
he gained his testimony with the terminology that
would not blow the roof off the Assembly
at that particular moment.
And I noticed he's listed in Echoes of
Service and is plowing on serving the Lord
Jesus.
Actually, quite a few young men who experienced
that kind of crisis at university, quite a
few left the Brethren.
And you'll find them in many different Charismatic
House Groups.
Some of the leaders of the famous Bradford
Charismatic House Group, which is spread all over
the country, very strong.
The guru leader of that group, his father
was the famous Reginald Wallace.
His son is Arthur Wallace, one of the
leaders of the Charismatic Movement in this country.
He moved north and now he's moved south
again.
Many of the people in these House Groups
have their roots back in Brethren Assemblies.
Very interesting little study.
I won't get into it tonight.
Others, though they've had some crisis experience, felt
that they should remain within their own assembly.
And those people should receive a great reward
because it was not always easy.
And they were often misunderstood.
I spoke, I think it was a year
or two years ago, at the Swannock Brethren
Meeting.
By the way, that meeting is not even
recognized by more tight assemblies.
That meeting is considered a wildcat operation of
people that are far too open-minded.
But I found, I had very good fellowship
there, and I found a lot of people
were struggling with this.
It really goes back to this issue.
Is it crisis?
Is it process?
Is there any hope for us if we
don't get some major mind-bending crisis experience?
This has been one of my favorite subjects
for 28.
I stand very firm on this particular issue,
that God works in different ways in different
people.
And that in sanctification, some seem to have
a tremendous crisis.
They go on for a while, and then
they become worse than they were, even before
the crisis, sometimes even before they were saved.
There's a lot of people like that in
Britain today, 20 years later, I can tell
you.
Even overthrown the faith.
Others, because the crisis is followed by a
process, they're going on for God today.
And they realize it's not just because of
the crisis, whatever they may call it, it's
because of many things.
The word, prayer, growth, what we're talking about
this weekend.
Then there are other people.
I've met them, we have them on OM.
They have never had any great crisis experience
apart from their conversion.
They've never had any great second blessing experience.
This is why OM is a very unique
movement that provides us with a lot of
interesting research, because we have such a wide
range of people.
And I have watched these people because I
have had, in my life, too many crises.
I've watched these process people, to use a
term.
And I will tell you, they are some
of the most dedicated, spirit-filled Christians I've
ever met.
So I can't deny what I've seen in
28 years.
God working in different people in different ways.
I believe that one of the things God
hates the most is lukewarmness and spiritual death.
And He will use sometimes almost anything to
somehow bring life and reality and vision and
love and growth and compassion into the Church.
And I think it's good that today there's
more dialogue here in Britain between different kinds
of Christians.
It's interesting that some of the leaders of
the charismatic movement, like, for example, Michael Harper,
who was John Stott's curate.
And he and John Stott, years ago, whoo!
John Stott held the ground on the more
traditional teaching on sanctification.
And Michael Harper, very much charismatic movement, and
the Baptist and the Holy Spirit.
And they separated them.
All kinds of things have happened.
Michael Harper has just written for one of
our leading Christian magazines.
And it's interesting what he has said now
as the years have gone by.
He said he's no longer pushing for charismatic
renewal and revival and unity.
He's pushing for Christian unity and revival.
Now, what he may mean by that, what
you and I may mean by that, may
not be exactly the same.
But it's interesting to see how people change.
Sometimes you look back and you wonder, what
about all the people who got into extremes
in the process?
It's so great now, Christian leaders come back
into balance.
They say, well, you know, it really wasn't
like this.
And I know this speaks to me, because
I know from some of the strong statements
I made 20 years ago that some people
got astray.
And though maybe I have come into more
balance, and balance is not something you arrive
at.
It's an ongoing process.
I need it every day.
But I've often thought back of some that
maybe I let astray because of strong statements
I made 20 years ago.
Peter Maiden was sharing on a tape I
was listening to today that he started to
preach among the assemblies when he was 15.
He was pretty young for preaching.
He was known as the young boy preacher
of Carlisle.
He went around to some of the little
assemblies in Cumbria, preaching at 15 and 16.
And he said on this tape I was
listening to today, it's a message he gave
in Kathmandu, actually, in Nepal, that he'd become
a more careful preacher.
Because back then he would make these extreme
statements that actually he couldn't always back up,
maybe from Scripture.
I don't know exactly what he meant by
that.
Balance.
God may give you a crisis.
God may give some of these campers who
come here this summer a crisis.
There's nothing wrong with that.
There may be some tears.
There may be some repentance.
Isn't there the danger in some of our
assemblies that we overreact to what we feel
is emotionalism to the point that we're in
the deep freeze?
And we're afraid of anything that's got a
little emotion.
If we see somebody putting their hands up
in a meeting, whoa!
What's happened to him?
And it really gets quite absurd.
It really gets quite absurd.
And we judge each other by outward appearance.
And, you know, some of these young people
who come here this summer, they need to
meet God in power.
They need to be filled with the Holy
Spirit.
That's not just a super special experience, you
know, for a few weirdos who stay up
all night praying.
The fullness of the Holy Spirit, and I
think that's a terminology we can agree upon.
And if you read the early Brethren writers,
even Darby himself, they talked about the reality
of the Holy Spirit.
You get that little book on the table,
Footprints for Pilgrims, which is a lot of
the writings of Darby.
They believe in the fullness and the reality
of the Holy Spirit.
Darby, the so-called founder of the Brethren
movement.
No, we don't talk about that.
Very much true, one of the founding men.
He was a spirit-filled, soul-winner, wildcat
evangelist.
He's described going across France, you know, living
on pieces of bread.
He's described as one who led hundreds and
hundreds of souls to Christ as an evangelist
in southern Ireland after his conversion.
An amazing story.
Only later in life, he got more and
more into controversy and theology, and then the
assemblies, he and Mueller split.
The exclusives went one way, open Brethren under
Mueller went another way.
The life story of George Mueller is well
worth reading.
I think there may be some there on
the table.
It's quite a challenging history.
We don't need to be afraid or ashamed
of our roots.
Those of us who fellowship in Brethren assemblies,
and I do that, but not exclusively, we
have tremendous roots.
Tremendous roots.
And most of the modern movements today, they
have to trace part of their origin back
to the early Brethren, especially the house movements
and other similar movements.
And they are going to face the same
struggles.
The struggles they're facing up at Bradford right
now, they just had 15 of their churches
just pull out on another split.
The struggles they're facing there, it's just history
repeating itself.
In fact, it has the danger of doing
the same thing that exclusive Brethrenism did 100
or so odd years ago.
A very interesting study could be made of
that.
I've been doing it, but not to any
great degree for sheer lack of time.
Yes, God works in different people in different
ways.
Acts 4.31, they prayed, the place where
they were gathered was shaken.
They were filled with the Holy Spirit.
And they went forth and spoke the Word
of God with boldness.
Now today, people who get extreme seem to
say they were filled with the Holy Spirit,
went forth and spoke with other tongues.
And tongues has become the brain, hot, controversial
issue in so many places today.
It shouldn't be.
Even balanced, charismatic people would say, that shouldn't
be.
There's just so much more that the Holy
Spirit wants to do.
And so easily, that becomes a sidetrack, whatever
you may believe or not believe.
In Acts 4.31, they were filled with
the Holy Spirit and they went forth and
spoke the Word of God with boldness.
A true mark of a deep work of
the Holy Spirit will be missions and evangelism
and church growth and bold proclamation and witness.
That is absolutely clear in the Book of
Acts.
I don't think we can get away from
it.
Acts 20.32 says, I commend you to
God and the Word of His grace which
is able to build you up and give
you an inheritance among those who are sanctified.
That's the process.
The Word of God.
It's interesting that in Ephesians, it says being
filled with the Spirit and then it has
a description of the Spirit-filled life.
Speaking to yourself in psalms and hymns and
spiritual songs, making melody in your heart to
the Lord.
In Colossians, it has the same description, but
it doesn't say be filled with the Spirit.
What does it say?
Colossians 3.16, Let the Word of Christ
dwell in you richly.
Different vocabulary.
Same reality.
That's why I think when we get to
talk about the Holy Spirit, it's good to
remember the words of Billy Graham.
When speaking about the Spirit-filled life, he
said, I don't care how you get it,
just get it.
Just get it.
And you and I should know, must know,
it's a command from God, the fullness of
the Holy Spirit.
And if you kneel down by your bed
tonight or walk out in this field after
this meeting or pray right in here, Lord,
fill me afresh with this Holy Spirit and
you pray that prayer in sincerity and faith,
He will fill you tonight.
Even if you were filled last week and
the week before or had some great crisis
three years ago.
It's got to be both crisis and process.
Ongoing work of God in your life and
my life.
The second area where we have to battle
for balance is the balance between discipline and
liberty.
Some of the young people, when they come
here, they're going to rebel against the rules.
Do you have any rules in this camp?
There must be some rules.
We need to be able to explain rules
to young people.
We need to be able to show them
these rules are not to prove whether you're
spiritual or not spiritual.
These rules are not the Ten Commandments of
brethren assembly camp life.
But these rules are a human attempt to
put into practice what we find in the
Bible in terms of love, so that we
can consider one another.
A lot of rules are just rules for
trying to be considerate of other people.
Maybe you have a rule about noise late
at night.
We have that on the ship.
Not because one of our commandments from the
New Testament is thou shalt not make noise
after midnight.
But because as we mature, more and more
we're sensitive to other people and to their
needs.
And we know that some people, if they
don't get enough sleep, they actually start to
come apart.
And that can cause other difficulties, especially if
it's the cook.
And so, it's good to have some basic
rules.
And I believe when we're motivated to love
Jesus, and we're motivated to love one another,
these rules, whether we like them or not,
they don't bother us.
I may not like some of your rules.
I'm a more free-style individual.
I'm still a bit radical in my approach
to certain things.
But if I came here, by God's grace,
I'd want to respect your rules and your
policies.
I'd want to be considerate of other people.
I actually didn't want to come to a
session here at 7 o'clock.
I had something else planned for 7 o
'clock.
But somebody said, hey, we're really counting on
you to come at 7 o'clock.
And little bells rang in the back of
my thick Dutch head.
And what I suspected was, well, I didn't
suspect that much.
I thought really, when you were finished with
your little leg prancing out, whatever you were
doing, I thought, well, you know, that's all
over.
But, you know, we had a little more
after that as well.
But I like to receive correction or exhortation
and encouragement from other people.
I find God often guides me through other
people.
And I believe greatly in God's providence.
And that has helped me all these years
when I've been confused.
Why is this happening?
Why has this gone wrong?
God's providence.
Romans 8.28, God's ability to overrule.
So I think it is good you have
a few rules.
And I hope you'll be able to explain
them to the campers.
In a loving, compassionate, considerate way.
You know, I think one of the things
that really hinders people sometimes when they come
on camps, is the dictator types.
The little mini-Hitlers who run around with
a giant stick.
Now probably, hopefully, you don't have any of
those in your camp.
That's being a little too strong, perhaps.
But really, when we do tell people what
to do, the more compassionate, the more considerate
we can be, even in the way we
express ourselves, the better it is.
We hard, what can I say, hard-hitting,
organizing types.
We like things organized well, you know.
We don't realize it, but we hurt people.
We do.
I hurt people.
I never realized it.
Well, say never, that's not a good word.
But it took me a long time for
it to get in.
How the way I say things was so
hurtful to my wife, to my children.
There were times, because of the strong temperament
I had, and because I do so much
preaching, I thought on the phone I was
just coming across with my more or less
moderate, relaxed voice.
The person on the other end of the
phone was blown away.
Just blown away.
They thought I was angry.
If I could reach through the phone wire,
grab it by the neck, pull out the
atoms out.
The way we say things, especially when we're
under pressure, is very important.
And I'll tell you something even more important.
You can read it in Calvary Road by
Roy Hesham.
Thank you, Jesus.
I believe in the Christian life.
The word of God clearly teaches there is
discipline.
Paul said, I buffet my body and bring
it into subjection, lest after preaching to others
I become a reprobate.
But also there's liberty.
Though it says in Galatians 5.13, we're
called unto liberty, only used not to liberty
as an occasion to the flesh.
And some of the new movements moving around
Britain today, and there are many of them,
have overemphasized liberty.
I heard one where they said, you know,
if you feel like playing golf on Sunday
morning, well, you should play golf.
Don't be in bondage to going to church
on Sunday morning.
And almost everything that we've ever sort of
considered sacred in our more established churches, everything
has been questioned.
Everything.
And I tell you, it's not easy for
young people today to know what is the
truth.
A lot of young people are really mixed
up.
And that's why I feel so strongly about
this thing of balance.
I don't believe it is a mortal sin
that you miss Sunday morning breaking of bread.
But I think as much as possible, we
should, as it says in Hebrews, not forsake.
Not forsake.
Gathering together and worshiping the Lord.
And it will be a joy to break
bread together here tomorrow morning.
I dare not get into this subject because
we don't have time.
But I believe we can find a balance
between discipline and liberty, between organization and freedom.
I find, generally speaking today, the greater need
is for a little more emphasis on discipline.
Maybe that wasn't true ten years ago.
Then another area where we need balance is
between zeal and wisdom.
I think in the early days of O
.M. we were heavy on zeal and weak
on wisdom.
I fear now that we may get a
little heavy on wisdom with all of our
reading and studying and further education and weak
on zeal.
And that frightens me.
Have you read William McDonald's brilliant book True
Discipleship?
Almost a Christian classic now in 30, 40
languages.
Here was a man reared in the Brethren
Assemblies who was the president of the Emmaus
Bible School in America but who was able
to incorporate into somewhat traditional Brethren Assembly life
the very basic principles, radical revolutionary principles that
we were putting in practice out on the
mission field.
In fact, they started a discipleship training school
in one of the assemblies in California where
they have an O.M. type of function
right within the church.
Right within the church.
Some people say, well, man, that's the way
it should be.
Praise the Lord.
And you know, we get young people from
that church, that assembly, almost every single year
on O.M. They have nights of prayer.
They have the most fantastic worship meetings.
And people are being converted all the time.
People are being trained and sent out as
missionaries all over the world.
And it's all still in the traditional, more
or less, Brethren framework.
With the old timers happy and with the
young people happy and functioning together in unity.
That is no small thing.
And that's what God can do when there's
a spiritual balance.
We need zeal.
We need wisdom.
James 3.17 emphasizes that wisdom that comes
from above.
I talk about it in this little book.
And of course, zeal is emphasized in many
passages, I think especially of Romans 12.11.
And then number four, the balance between submission
and freedom.
Submission and freedom.
Why have some new groups got into extremes
in the area of submission?
I think it's because in some churches there
has been so little teaching about submission.
We read in 1 Thessalonians 5, we read
also in Hebrews that we need to learn
how to submit to those who are over
us in the Lord.
I learned to submit at an early age.
It wasn't easy.
I'm speaking now, early age as a believer.
I went to Moody Bible Institute.
The rule book was so thick, I couldn't
believe it.
Very, very strict place, at least back in
those days.
I was outspoken.
I didn't agree with some things there.
But I felt somehow from what I saw
in Scripture that I must submit.
You're supposed to have only two practical Christian
work assignments.
That means twice a week you go out
and evangelize.
I didn't realize they were very strict about
that because they wanted you to give yourself
to study, not just be an evangelist.
I had been involved, before I knew what
happened, in about five or six different outreaches
that I had more or less organized on
my own.
And this was not allowed.
What?
Not allowed?
To evangelize?
That's why I came here to Chicago.
And I had to submit.
And then I didn't read.
I didn't read the section about social policy,
boy-girl relationships.
Because when I went to Moody, I was
on one of my long-term bachelor things.
Women.
Got to become spiritual first.
And since my life had been quite confused
in that area, I thought I needed a
little bit of a fast.
So I didn't read that part of the
handbook very well.
And then I had that experience, which you
already have told about.
I went to rent a film, and I
met this secretary behind the desk who became
my wife.
And actually I ended up breaking the rules.
Of course, innocently, naturally.
And I had to go to the dean.
This would be like sort of the headmaster.
The dean sort of apologized for my breaking
of the social rules.
I think it was to do with the
time.
I was supposed to be back at a
certain time, and I wasn't supposed to be
alone in a room outside of the institute
with her.
She was in sort of a woman's center.
I found out later in a fine print
I wasn't supposed to be alone in a
room with her.
And just learning to submit on some rules
that I didn't agree with particularly was a
great time for my spiritual life.
We need to learn submission, but we also
need to see that we are free.
And I feel that sometimes our assemblies are
absolute specialists in intimidation.
You feel intimidated so easily.
You're not going to enough meetings.
You're not doing this enough.
You're not doing that enough.
And you feel intimidated.
And there's a lack of freedom.
And that's not from God.
That's not from God.
And you shouldn't feel guilt pains all day
if you miss your quiet time.
Have that as your aim.
I know the other extreme where people, you
know, they just say, oh, that's bondage.
You don't need to have your quiet time
every day.
That's bondage.
I like to go to these people and
say, look, do you have breakfast every day?
Oh, yeah.
Bondage.
Breakfast bondage.
Just to keep that in balance.
I have my quiet time and my time
with God most days.
But some days I miss it.
And on those days I refuse to go
for the day with some kind of guilt
pain because that is not the purpose of
the Christian life.
I say very quickly, I hope you know
how to do this.
Lord, I goofed.
I blew it.
You know, this morning, I wasn't organized or
I slept in and I just claim your
grace right now.
The same grace I would have got this
morning from your word and from an extra
time of prayer, I claim it right now
because the Christian life is not this or
that, this rule or that rule.
It's Jesus living in me.
And you're with me now, even though maybe
I didn't get my act together so well
early this morning.
And I've experienced tremendous grace and blessing on
days that I missed my quiet time.
Why do I say that?
I think it brings into balance things I've
heard people say, when I miss my quiet
time, everything goes wrong.
I think even Billy Grant said that.
I don't disagree with him much.
I think he was just probably trying to
put a point across, just like I'm trying
to put a point across, and actually both
are true.
Both are true.
If you let your guard down, shield of
faith, spiritual weapons, you can get in a
lot of trouble.
So I don't like to go out without
putting my arm around, on and then without
that prayer and that time in the Word.
So it's finding the balance, isn't it?
Submission and freedom.
A lot of other areas we could talk
about.
And I hope maybe we can fit in
a time of questions and answers on some
of these issues.
Feel free to put it down in Operation
Feedback, that little paper you're going to hand
to me at the end.
The fifth area where we have to work
for balance is between the warfare and the
rest of faith.
We are in a spiritual warfare.
Timothy says we're to be good...
Paul writes to Timothy and says we're to
be good soldiers of Jesus Christ.
But I was helped by realizing we're in
a warfare, but our finger isn't always on
the trigger.
It has to be the time for refueling.
And Hebrews chapter 4 speaks a lot about
the rest of faith.
I talk about that in this little book.
The rest of faith.
I remember when I was driving a large
lorry down to the coast.
The first OM campaign in Europe, 1962.
The summer after the Russian fiasco.
And I was really feeling tense.
I had a headache.
You ever get pressure headaches?
And I didn't know how to drive very
well.
We had these 10 or 12 old lorries.
Most of them, we got them from the
scrapyard.
One of them had already broken down on
the way to Dover.
It was all very new.
90 British young people had all signed up
over a period of three months to come
with an almost totally unknown movement.
I tell you, I was tense.
And the vehicle I was driving started to
backfire.
Enormous explosions as we went over one of
the bridges, over the tents.
I lived in the East End at that
time.
And you know, somehow, something happened to me
on the way to Dover.
I can so remember.
I came into an experience of just deeper
trust.
God, this is your work.
Maybe we're not going to make this ferry.
Maybe this engine is going to blow up.
How will I be able to help by
worrying about it?
By getting tension and pressure and headaches?
How will that help the whole campaign this
summer?
It won't.
You know one of your big enemies this
summer in this work right here?
It's going to be worry.
Worrying about what people think.
Worrying about maybe you're going to fail in
a job that you've been given.
Maybe you've been given a particular responsibility.
You're already feeling a little nervous about it.
Fear of failure is normal.
We all have that fear at times.
And I just realized afresh that day this
work of OM that I was committed to
so much, it was not mine.
And God took it from me.
Cast every care upon Him.
He cares for you.
OM was my care.
God took it.
And that headache went away.
And emotionally I was flying.
And I just stopped and I made a
phone call.
I forget exactly what happened.
I think an AA man came.
Even though I didn't belong to the AA,
I think I had to pay him something.
Some little timing mechanism on this old Bedford
glory eventually went all over North Africa.
And we purred on and drove it all
the way to Paris.
We're in a warfare, but we've got to
fight for the right foundation.
The rest of faith.
Do you know that?
Rest of faith in your life.
It's a beautiful thing.
You study Hebrews 4.
Then number six.
Sixth area where we've got to wrestle for
balance.
The balance between basic principles of the word
of God and particular policies of our particular
group or fellowship or church.
This is an area where we need discernment.
And where we need to be able to
point out to the young people here that
there are certain camp policies that we do,
we have here in order that things may
be done decently and in order, but they're
not necessarily biblical principles.
We had a lot of trouble with this
in O.M. in the early days.
For instance, we used to sleep generally on
the floor in churches or in tents.
By 63, there were 2,000 of us.
We put most of our money into scriptures.
We had a very low budget.
We didn't spend enough probably on food.
These were basic policies of O.M., not
biblical principles.
The people got mixed up.
One girl went back home thinking that sleeping
on the floor was the mark of spirituality.
And she went home and told her mother
if she could take the bed out of
the bedroom.
This is why O.M. got a very
bad name in some places.
In those early years, some of you were
just not being born that way.
But God showed us, and again I write
about this in this little book on balance,
the difference between O.M. policies and biblical
principles.
Biblical principles are more flexible than many people
I think make out.
They can be adjusted to different cultural situations.
I'd love to talk to you more about
this.
But I think that what sometimes we teach
as biblical principles are only a particular group's
interpretation of those principles.
And there's a lot more freedom than perhaps
you and I will ever know.
And then we've got to find the balance
between love and judgment.
We preach love, but we know the message
of judgment is also in the Bible.
We know that there's forgiveness, there's heaven, but
we know there's also lostness, there's hell, there's
judgment.
Our God is a God of love, but
He's also a God of wrath.
This is hard for so-called modern man
to accept, but it's true.
We have to find the balance.
I have scriptures, a lot of scriptures for
all these areas, but we've really run out
of time.
The balance between fellowship and worship.
Some of us say, these are very strong
on worship, but very weak on fellowship.
People don't really know one another, don't really
know one another.
In fact, I've had to at times fellowship
in places where I knew people gathering around
the Lord's table were not even on speaking
terms.
They were not even on speaking terms.
And there was bitterness, one against the other.
And yet we sit there and we pray,
Fred, and we go through these fantastic hymns,
and we pray these great prayers.
And I pray, those of you who are
leaders in this camp program, that you will
be right with God and right with one
another.
That doesn't mean everything is going to be
all bubbly-bubbly, never going to hurt one
another, never have misunderstandings, because as long as
we're human beings, there'll be some of that.
But to have that fellowship, that openness where
you can go to a brother, in love,
carefully, with sensitivity, and say, look, what did
you mean by that when you did that
the other day?
You know, rather than the accusation method, I
hope you catch this, working with young people,
rather than the accusation method, use the question
method.
Now, if you learn that little principle, you
might save yourself a lot of agony this
summer.
Don't accuse the young person.
You're lazy.
Don't say that to a young person.
As you say it, so he may become.
Or you're proud.
Or you're trying to get away with this,
or whatever.
Use a more sensitive question approach.
Actually, what did you mean when you shot
at me with that gun the other evening?
You know, oftentimes we're so sensitive that we
read things into what other people say.
I've done that.
How many of you have ever had a
letter that really hurt you?
Are you into the correspondence scene?
How many of you have ever had a
letter that really hurt you?
You're not into the correspondence.
How many of you have ever had a
phone call that really hurt you?
Have you ever had...
Some of you are pretty young.
You haven't got into life yet.
Full oar.
But it'll come.
How we need to find the balance in
these areas.
Forgiveness.
It's written all over our Bible.
Love and judgment.
Fellowship and worship.
Work and recreation.
One of the beautiful things about camp ministry
is that generally a camp, a Christian camp,
represents balance.
It's not extreme like Operation Mobilization.
And OM, in its summer campaign, is a
bit extreme.
We sort of justify it because we say,
look, we only got you for one month.
You got the other 11 months to bring
it back into balance.
When you come on OM for one month,
you're going to work.
It'll be 14 hours a day probably.
You're going to evangelize every day.
You're going to be in nights of prayer.
You're going to get exhausted.
You're not going to like all the food.
It's going to be rough and tough.
It's a spiritual boot camp.
We're going to kick you around a little
bit and we're going to see what you're
made of.
A lot of people read about this.
Of course, they never come.
It is a bit extreme.
And our year program, even our September orientation
conference before the year program, has to bring
people back into balance.
We have more recreation.
We have more free time.
And then after the September conference, which is
still somewhat condensed, we got a lot to
do in one month before they go all
over the world, the year program, you'll find,
however, going off to see a good film,
you'll find them maybe going bowling, you'll find
them with a whole Saturday afternoon and all
day Sunday, maybe free kicking their heels.
It gets more back into balance.
This is why in summer camp ministry you've
got some maybe advantages over OM and teaching
spiritual balance.
Maybe we should require all OM people to
come here to your camp for one summer
before they join Operation Mobilization and go to
Mongolia to plant the First New Testament assembly
in Mongolia.
Yes, spiritual balance is needed at every turn.
We need work.
We need relaxation.
We need to know how to refuel.
I can't even begin to tell you what
music has meant in my life.
I may be a musicholic.
The Lord knows.
Have mercy on me.
I just love music.
All kinds of music.
And it just breaks my heart that people
so quickly run around condemning other people's music.
And I know that in my own teenagers
if I had condemned totally their music and
said, you're not going to play that hard
rock record in this house.
This is God's house.
I sanctify this house.
You get out of here.
He probably would have taken up his tent
and walked.
And I say, you know, I just feel
that so often people get into extremes about
music.
Thank God that even David Wilkerson who was
so against rock and to some degree Christian
rock because they're totally different.
He wrote this little leaflet.
I don't know if we have any of
it.
Confessions of a rock and roll hater.
Because God showed him through Keith Green a
singer of Christian rock.
A friend of mine.
Verses with a war now.
That God was using Christian rock.
You may not like it.
Your parents probably don't like it.
But, you know, God is working in many
different ways.
Greenbelt may not be your thing.
I've heard people denounce Greenbelt.
I feel bad that once I made a
somewhat negative statement about Greenbelt.
I think it was all in the name
of humor because I've always believed that God
is working there at Greenbelt.
A lot of people go there who won't
go to any other Christian activity.
And in the midst of all the music
some of which we probably wouldn't like there's
message, there's teaching and I feel that lately
especially with this new book by our dear
friend Mr. Blanchard the whole thing has become
more heavy more polarized and with more division
than ever right now in Britain on the
music issue.
I feel it's very sad and I think
it's a lack of balance and understanding and
I feel there is a tendency among us
as Christians to become more and more narrow
and only see our little view and feel
our view is the biblical view even though
the verses we use we have to actually
stretch them a bit because the Bible doesn't
say much about music and if you think
it was all Beethoven in the Old Testament
I don't know what Old Testament you're reading
about.
Balance is needed in every area.
I put here, I don't know what number
you're at in your notes but number 10,
church and family I may have stuck another
one in there without getting the number church
and family again and again we see the
enemy attacking families and we see good families
where in the church everything looks fine they're
both sitting there for years regularly at the
Lord's table and then BAM!
they separate and divorce and if you don't
think that's happening in good, little, well organized
brethren assemblies you haven't been around too long
you know, I think often it happens because
of the lack of balance and the fact
that sometimes church, church life with all of
its demands causes the family to suffer some
husbands away four or five nights a week
in church activities it shouldn't be it shouldn't
be unless he has a very special family
and today there needs to be more emphasis
on the family we need Christian camps for
adults I thank God for Filey I thank
God for Keswick I thank God for some
of these other camps they're sort of camps
where whole families can go we need this
and the Holy Spirit is mightily used in
some of those places and maybe, maybe some
of you this summer after being here in
this camp working you'll have the opportunity to
go with your parents for two weeks to
something where the whole family can be together
don't give up on your family maybe you
feel there's a generation gap maybe you feel
you can barely communicate with your father some
of these young people who come here will
feel that way let's not increase the gap
but let's teach young people how to understand
parents we live in the day when parents
need their young people need their sons and
daughters more than ever before parents feel threatened
by this generation and some of them are
on the retreat in America I heard something
about this on the radio the other night
here in England they've got these giant retirement
centers where no young people are allowed they
can't get through the gate unless they have
a pass they were arguing over I think
it was Capital Radio arguing over the pros
and cons a really heavy discussion about this
thing I know some dear people who are
in one of those retirement centers in California
and I can understand why they're there you
just can't believe the hurt they have gone
through with their children I'm talking about threat
and murder double divorce I'm talking about the
works many of us when we're young I
know I was that way I have a
very naive view of life and I'm very
idealistic about what the Christian family is I
pray that if some heavy things happen in
your family ugly things, difficult things that you
will not panic because if things are coming
apart in your family and everything is going
wrong one more person panicking is not going
to help if you at that time can
have a balanced view of life if you
at that time can believe yes, God can
overrule this this isn't the end of the
road maybe some of you will see your
own parents separate it's not the end of
the road with God and God's mercy and
God's forgiveness and God's grace with Christians it's
never the end of the road and I
have seen people even divorce and be resurrected
in their spiritual life and sometimes come back
together other times not come back together but
end up being used of God and I
believe as one great writer said our God
is often too small we have a little
tribal deity and each little group looks at
the other tribal deity we look down the
road at the Pentecostal tribal god and we
look up the road at the Baptist tribal
god and we don't like those and we
look over the fence at the Anglican tribal
god but isn't there a danger that we
can create our own little brethren tribal deity
and he's so far, so far from what
we find written in the pages of this
great book spiritual balance touches every area eleven,
positive and negative twelve, reckless faith and dynamic
discernment thirteen, anointing and training fourteen, faith and
common sense if you're trying to take notes
you've had it fifteen, the intellectual and the
emotional sixteen, taking in, giving out seventeen, evangelism
and church work or church planting eighteen, full
-time workers versus the layman nineteen, prosperity versus
poverty twenty, repentance versus acceptance twenty-one, the
life of victory and being honest twenty-two,
my list goes on and on this is
a good place to close because really I
just, with this message hope to get you
started in a new way of studying your
Bible letting one truth, one chapter bring into
balance other truths and other chapters and you'll
find for almost every truth in the word
of God every subject you can talk about
there are other truths and there are other
subjects there are other facts bring it into
balance that means sharpens it up even more
and I'm convinced that if you will make
this one of the aims of your life
and it's like saying from Corinthians make love
your anchor that it will make all the
difference in the world as to whether you're
still pressing on ten years from now we're
not here this weekend to prepare for summer
we're here to prepare for a life a
life a totally committed life that will carry
you through the twenties crisis the midlife crisis,
the old age crisis and maybe you'll be
able to have a reunion fifty years from
now you can't reunion from the way some
of you are going