I'd like you to turn in your Bibles
to Luke chapter 14.
We're going to look at a number of
scriptures, but I'd like to start with Luke
14.
Thank you for blowing up the world.
These globes, I find, are so tremendous, especially
for the children.
Try to show them where these countries are.
We use generally flat maps, but they're distorted.
Tomorrow night I'll be wearing, actually, my own
global jacket, which doesn't go so good on
me because I'm so skinny, because, of course,
the world is round.
But for fat people, these global jackets are
really right on.
We're now the agents for Great Britain for
those jackets.
But what a challenge, as we think of
Europe, and as we think of the whole
world.
But the first passage of scripture I wanted
to read was from Luke 14.
And to me, this passage is just so
important.
Whenever we have a conference like this, whenever
there's great vision and great plans and great
ideas, this passage is important.
I recently became the chairman of the tract
in the 82,000 movement for the mobilization
of new missionaries.
Never has there been a movement, it's really
a network, with such high goals and aims.
At least, I have never seen in my
38 years of walking with Jesus.
When I first heard of 82,000, and
I brought some copies of their amazing handbook,
82,000 handbook, I felt some of it
was just so over the top, if you
know the expression.
But the closer I got to some of
the people, like Louise Bush, the coordinator, the
more I felt the Holy Spirit, despite all
the weaknesses and the complexity, was in this
movement.
With a goal of giving everybody in the
world the gospel by the year 2000.
And seeing a church planted in every unreached
people's group.
I think they had a bit of discussion
about the 2000s, and so changed the name
of the movement to AD2000 and beyond.
Because we know the work will continue, and
we can't easily predict exactly all that's going
to happen by the year 2001.
But as I think of these various challenges,
and in our particular tract, we're praying, and
we can't say God just gave us this
number, but we're praying for a doubling of
the mission force in the world today, in
the next decade or less.
Parry Rickard of YWAM is the coordinator of
this tract, I'm just the chairman watching him
move forward.
And of course, we don't think we're going
to do this, the Lord is going to
do this, through all the different agencies in
the world, whether they network with AD2000 or
not, that's not our first burden.
Just to see, to see it happen, in
answer to prayer.
So as we wrestle through all these things,
this passage of scripture becomes very, very important.
And as we think of Europe today, and
as we want to prepare ourselves to be
more effective in Europe with the gospel, this
is such a relevant passage.
Let's start at the 25th verse.
I usually read from a modern translation, but
this morning I have my old Bible in
a bit of a rush.
But I think it's fairly simple.
I know many of you are Christian leaders
and missionaries, and have spoken on these things
yourself.
Verse 25, And there went great multitudes with
him, and he turned, and he said unto
them, If any man come to me, and
hate not his father and mother, his wife
and children and brethren and sisters, yea, in
his own life also, he cannot be my
disciple.
And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and
come after me, cannot be my disciple.
For which of you intending to build a
tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the
cost, whether he has sufficient to finish it?
Lest, perhaps, after he hath laid the foundation,
it is not able to finish it, all
that behold it begin to mock him, saying,
This man began to build, was not able
to finish.
Or what king, going to make war against
another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth,
whether he is able with ten thousand to
meet him that cometh against him with twenty
thousand?
Or else, while the other is yet a
great way off, he sendeth an embassy, and
desireth conditions of peace.
So, likewise, whosoever he is of you, that
forsaketh not all that he hath, cannot be
my disciple.
Salt is good, but if salt has lost
its sabre, with what shall it be seasoned?
It is neither fit for the land, nor
yet for the dunghill, but men cast it
out.
He that hath ears to hear, let him
hear.
I remember once ministering in Germany, a land
where people are very punctual.
I guess I was going on a little
bit too long.
It was an OM meeting, so I felt
somewhat free.
The young people were just so responsive, listening
intently.
I guess I went way beyond the one
hour mark.
But a man in the back held up
his watch, trying to get me to stop.
And I was speaking about missions, discipleship, forsaking
all to follow Christ.
And I saw this man holding his watch
up, and I stopped the meeting.
I said, praise God, look at this dear
man donating his wristwatch for world missions.
I believe all of us here this morning,
as God's people, have a commitment to integrity.
Integrity is one of the great words in
the English language.
I know there are people here from different
countries.
English may not be your first language.
What is integrity?
To me, integrity covers so much.
Honesty, truthfulness, openness, being the kind of person
that can be trusted, pure, moral, straightforward, on
and on we could go.
And as we attempt the impossible in a
complex world, with a highly complex church, and
as we attempt the impossible here in Europe,
we need that commitment, that ongoing commitment to
truthfulness and integrity and honesty, reality, whatever the
cost.
Because we need to understand that the church,
to a large degree in Europe, has lost
its testimony.
There are beautiful exceptions, individual churches, that have
a wonderful testimony.
There is still a salt and light ministry
on the part of the church as a
whole, despite all those weaknesses, because God is
sovereign.
God works through his church.
I feel that some people describing the church
in Europe describe it in a way that
it makes it look too weak.
Other people describe it too optimistically.
I haven't met too many of those.
Usually they're talking about some individual movement that
they're excited about, that they think this is
going to be the answer.
Having lived in Europe now for 32 years,
my wife and I still praying about that
first furlough, but we decided to just become
citizens instead, which is a little complicated, though
we have all the papers, because you have
to stay in the country so many months
a year, and I'm all over the rest
of Europe and the world, so this citizen
thing may never happen.
How many of you are British?
Let me see who's British.
Good.
When you just look, you don't know where
you're all from.
So you've already got that privilege you probably
inherited.
Didn't even work on it.
The British passport can get you very easily
into a lot of countries.
It used to get you into India, which
is really my first love.
Sorry about that, Europeans.
It used to get you into India without
a visa, and the whole work of OM
in India was pioneered by Commonwealth people who
didn't need a visa.
They're no longer allowed.
Very hard to get visas now, but because
they taught Indians and discipled Indian leaders, OM
India now has an army of 400 full
-time people, almost a completely indigenous work.
But that was partly due to the fact
that British people didn't need a visa going
to India.
I believe this is a significant conference.
Probably those who've organized this conference have discovered
how uphill it is to promote world missions
here in Kent.
God gave me a vision for Kent back
in 1963.
I was living in the north of England
and I said, this place, Kent, and I
hardly knew anything about it, this place, Kent,
is so close to France, so close to
Belgium, surely they should be more involved in
reaching out.
I was very naive, very idealistic.
So I sent a young man and his
wife to, I think it was to Folkston,
it may have been to Canterbury, to mobilize
for missions out of Kent, 1963.
Well, praise God, some went.
There are great churches in Kent.
Missionaries have gone from Kent and surrounding counties
for many, many years.
And I think one of the things I
always like to do when there's something new
going on and there is something new going
on is to esteem those that have gone
on before us.
And as we talk about developing a European
mind, let me just say that there's nothing
that has hurt the work in Europe as
much as people coming in from the outside
with pride and arrogance and lack of humility.
Of course, for many years living here in
Britain, I discovered that most British people didn't
really think of themselves as European.
They were British.
In 1963, British people were British people.
You didn't talk to them about being European.
No, they would acknowledge that ultimately.
But that was not the main bang on
the drum.
And we found that the average British person
didn't have really a very good attitude toward
the French.
I don't know if anyone here from France,
as God's people were supposed to be different.
One of the most depressing things is to
discover how so many of God's people aren't
very different.
But present company, of course, excluded.
Praise God for many British people who through
the power of the Holy Spirit now for
many decades have gone to France and churches
have been planted in France.
And I think, I know my friend Paul,
where is he?
Has he arrived yet?
Dear brother was with us in the early
years.
We'll be here sharing about France.
If they had that attitude toward France, it
didn't improve much when you came to talk
about Belgium or you came to talk about
other European countries.
People had tunnel vision.
But not the kind of tunnel vision we're
here to talk about.
When Ernst Ferdus heard of this conference tunnel
vision, I thought, oh no!
I've been preaching for 30 years against tunnel
vision.
Now this group comes along, they're having a
conference tunnel vision, this must be insane.
But you see, words change their meanings, don't
they?
And the tunnel vision we're talking about is
not you living in your small little narrow
world only seeing your own little church or
your own little garden, but it's through the
tunnel.
This tunnel just down the road here, I
can't wait to go through it.
If I had known about these sportsmen, I'm
a jogger, nobody invited me to run through
the tunnel.
I would have gone with them, probably would
have collapsed halfway.
The first train came through yesterday, did you
see that on the television?
Didn't have time, you were all here getting
blessed.
The first train came, nobody was on it.
Already I'm scheming how I can get to
Paris faster and how I can get to
Belgium faster.
I prefer train over air for a bunch
of reasons.
It's exciting, isn't it?
But of course, if you talk among many
British people, they're against the tunnel.
Some are still against the tunnel.
Some don't believe it's going to happen.
Some are telling me I'm going by ferry.
Now everybody's talking that the price is too
high.
The price is too high.
Typical, small-minded 19th century.
Isn't it amazing some of the church is
just just slipping in to the 20th century.
And I had to tell some of my
slow-minded friends, actually, excuse me, we're about
to go into the 21st century.
Were you aware of that?
Why is it that the church is often
so slow to grab on to new opportunities,
to respond to new challenges?
And I'm not saying that because I'm negative
about the church.
I'm very positive about the church.
But as part of the church, including the
failures, we are committed to integrity.
We are committed to honesty.
And we know that the church in Britain
and in France and Belgium and throughout Europe
needs a fresh move of the Spirit of
God.
A fresh commitment to vision and to being
God's people.
Now I'm going to read another passage of
Scripture because there's not time to expand this
passage though I would just plea with you
as you dream, as you make plans, as
you and your individual ministries expand, count the
cost.
Count the cost.
Don't just say things because it seems nice
to say or it grabs people's attention.
You know, we're going to plant 10,000
churches in France next week.
It's great.
Wow, what a man of faith.
Must have an anointing.
No, he's an idiot.
We need to count the cost as we
speak, as we dream, as we make plans
and we need to look into the Scriptures
and realize also the real situation in Europe.
Brothers and sisters, if we are to fulfill
these burdens and goals we have for Europe,
some of you have heard of the new
plan, Hope for Europe.
Some of you know of the many, many
plans in Great Britain like Jim and all
kinds of things that are happening we need
to count the cost.
We need to realize that even the difference
between getting an initial decision for Jesus and
getting a disciple, seeing a church planted, seeing
people go on for God.
We're going to look at another passage but
I wanted to stop for a moment and
mention some of these books because our time
is limited, we have so much to cover
and I'm convinced that the books that we've
been able to bring and others have brought
are a vital part of this thrust.
And firstly, the book Operation World, which I'm
sure has already been mentioned.
This is probably the most significant missionary book
of all times.
The section on Europe alone is worth the
price of the book.
Ten years in the making by Patrick Johnson,
650 some pages or 660 let's see what
it is, two to be exact of information.
Now some people don't buy one of these
because it looks so big.
How many of you have an encyclopedia?
Any of you have any kind of encyclopedia?
You can get them cheap now in some
of the supermarkets.
Most of you have.
Okay, how many of you have read the
encyclopedia through from A to Z?
Raise your hand.
Nobody.
You don't do that with encyclopedias but you
have them.
This is an encyclopedia of missions.
Information, facts, prayer requests on every nation in
the world.
It's incredible.
It's put in the form of a prayer
diary so some of us are praying right
through the whole thing and reading all of
it.
This is my third time through.
Every time I learn more not of this
edition but the old edition.
And I would just urge you, all of
you who are missions, not just listeners but
missions mobilizers to get copies of this book.
And this morning is your opportunity.
It's nine pounds.
Or two for ten.
Did you hear that?
Two copies for ten.
Because I have a motto.
Anybody who doesn't have two of these because
immediately someone's going to buy one the moment
you get home they're going to want it.
Anybody who doesn't have two copies is a
backslider.
So we hope you'll take this opportunity to
make it a little easier.
You can give pay-by-check.
You can give post-data checks because we're
in the 82,000 movement up to the
year 2000.
And I am not joking.
I have a check from a lady in
South Africa where I was ministering a few
months ago.
It's dated January 1st, 2001.
And on top of that I lost it.
We have a little motto on our book
table.
It's more blessed to give than receive.
We want these materials to go out.
We don't have huge quantities.
Some of you I know men of faith
you're going to go right, I want 100.
That's at the price of 50.
A little more or less.
But we could bring them down bigger quantities
when we come back tomorrow night.
Operation World the section on Europe.
Really we should make it required reading for
this conference.
This is something just almost as amazing.
And this is going in many European languages.
This is going into German, French, I'm not
sure yet about Dutch, Spanish, the prayer cards
that are just out.
We don't even have copies yet.
These little prayer cards you've seen them in
the past taken from the book.
This is the new edition.
I'm going to be referring to some of
those.
We're hoping they'll go into all the languages
of major languages of Europe.
Now this is the children's edition.
Jill Johnston died of cancer but completed this
just before she died.
It is absolutely the most amazing children's book
ever.
People's groups, countries, fascinating.
In fact, the average adult would do well
to study this because their knowledge of missions
probably would not go beyond this.
And you're going to want to get some
copies of that as well and they're available
at a special price.
Let me mention just a few other major
missionary books.
Europe Reborn.
This was written just a couple years ago
starting to go out of date but still
highly relevant.
There are not that many Christian books written
about Europe.
Again, we should have almost given all of
you this copy free for coming to this
important vision conference.
Forward by Stuart McAllister who is now the
Secretary of the European Evangelical Alliance and part
of the powerhouse about to launch Hope for
Europe.
Europe Reborn.
A Christian perspective on a continent in change.
Very much in line with what I'm attempting
to share this morning.
Serving as senders.
If you're committed to world missions again, you're
going to want to get five or ten
copies of such a book because, brothers and
sisters, we are not right now lacking Europeans
who want to get into mission work.
There are far more Europeans who want to
be in the missions full-time than there
is money or sending energy from the churches.
Now that doesn't mean we don't challenge to
get more because a lot depends on what
church they're from.
And I don't know what church they're from
when I see them out there so I
keep challenging them to go even though I
know there's so many seemingly waiting to go
unable to get that sending.
The finance, the prayer, what it takes to
send out workers.
In fact, right now in a number of
places in Europe, including Britain, missionaries are returning
and not going back to the field because
of lack of financial support.
A mission agency, isn't this amazing?
One of the few mission agencies based in
Kent just closed.
Just down the road.
Central Asian Mission.
Just closed.
And when they closed, there was over 70
,000 pounds of back support for missionaries never
sent in.
They closed their door.
That's a little amen from heaven, that bell
just, you know, cause you didn't say amen.
I had the man ring that bell.
But I hope you'll get a copy of
this book Serving as Senders because if you're
serious about missions, you have to understand sending
is just as important as going.
Romans chapter 10, verse 15.
How will they go unless they are sent?
And of course, what happens is in the
general challenge, try to understand this because it's
very important.
In the general challenge, many young people begin
moving toward Christian service.
But to move in Christian service out of
your own culture and out of your own
church takes a lot more inertia.
You may be able to go for a
summer, even a year.
But long term career, most of the money
in a place like Britain is within the
church.
It's for pastors and assistant pastors and all
the things that are within the church.
And of course, that is important.
So when it comes to overseas, and I've
had 32 years in Britain analyzing and studying
this, a high percentage of the young men
and women who I've watched for 30 years,
2 years in this country, wanting to go
overseas, most of them are all here.
They're all here.
They're pastors.
They're in their churches.
Many of them, of course, had to take
up secular work in order to survive.
But they're here in their own country.
Let us understand, it is only a tiny
percentage of people who are going from Britain,
Europeans' number one sending country.
It's only a fraction of people that are
going out to the unreached people.
Whether you talk of the unreached of Europe,
or go beyond to other parts of the
world.
That's why when we have a great conference
and we challenge young people to recommit themselves
and to go, we need these teaching tools,
we need a balanced message, we need discernment,
tremendous discernment.
Mission work is more complicated than ever before
in history.
The church in Europe is more complicated than
ever before in history.
The false cults are moving at an unbelievable
rate.
And we need, A.W. Tozer once said,
the greatest gift needed by the church today
is discernment.
That is going to increase your discernment in
connection with world missions.
There's another book that fits right in with
that challenge.
This is a YWAM book by Betty Barnett,
for by Lauren Cunningham, Friend Raising, building a
missionary support team that lasts.
Some of you are missionaries, some of you
are planning to be missionaries, some of you
are going to be standing behind missionaries sending
them forth.
In the bigger sense, right, we're all missionaries.
That's why language is so interesting.
We walk out this door and we face
a mission field.
Do you know how many Muslims alone there
are in Great Britain right now?
1,500,000.
Muslims have targeted Britain right for conversion.
One of my close friends was just in
that big mosque last week.
It tried to convert him to Christ.
Cat Stephens is one of the leaders of
the big mosque down in London trying to
win English people to Islam.
And some are so ignorant of their own
Christian faith if they aren't Christians, they get
caught.
We brought a book reaching Muslims for Christ.
We need to get every Christian in Britain
and I believe the whole of Europe.
There are more Muslims in France than there
are in Great Britain and with the situation
in Algeria, who knows what is going to
happen with more coming out of Algeria in
that horrendous mess that country is in right
now.
So here's just one of a number of
books about Islam reaching Muslims for Christ.
But just to finish my comments on this
book, this helps young people who want to
be missionaries to raise that support team, praying,
godly, committed senders.
That book is worth its weight in gold.
I had wished we had that 30 years
ago.
I cannot tell you how we learned the
hard way.
Do you know how many people have had
training in Operation Mobilization?
Do you want to take a guess in
your mind?
82,000 have been through conferences similar to
this.
You cannot come on OM unless you go
through a mega training conference.
Nights of Prayer, study groups, Operation World Books.
It's an intensive thing.
Usually in the summer now we're getting 4
,000 or 5,000 at our conferences for
a whole week.
But one of the lessons we learn with
those 82,000 people all over the world
is again, as I've already touched on, how
hard it would be for them to raise
the support.
And how much cold water would be put
on them by their own churches, by denominational
leaders, especially if the movement as OM is,
was interdenominational, truly interdenominational with people from all
different churches that love Jesus and that base
their thinking and their doctrine on the Word
of God.
This book is gold.
And if you and I are committed to
world missions, if we are really wanting to
see an impact in Europe, we're going to
get some of these tools and we're going
to become distributors.
And that is going to make a difference.
Let me share my own testimony at this
point.
I may repeat it in a mini form
or maybe I'll make it mini now and
repeat it tomorrow night when other people are
there.
I'm here because of one woman.
I'm not from a Christian home.
My grandfather was an atheist from the Netherlands.
By 16, my life was women, money, business.
But a lady had put my name on
her missionary hit list.
She not only prayed that I would be
converted to Christ.
I was in trouble with the police, trouble
with the headmaster.
I'm from New Jersey, just outside New York
City.
She heard about me.
I never met her in those days.
But she prayed for me that I'd become
a Christian and that I would become a
missionary.
She didn't even discuss this.
She prayed for me for over two years.
She prayed for this ungodly high school.
Auditorians have a very special place in my
life.
She prayed for this ungodly, drunken high school
for 15 years.
15 years.
She sent me a Gospel of John through
the post.
That started my pilgrimage.
Other things were involved there as well.
And then Billy Graham came to New York
City just for one night.
It wasn't even a crusade.
One night.
And I didn't understand what that kind of
thing was.
I heard he was a hypnotist.
I actually brought my binoculars.
You know, we had one little Pentecostal church
in our town.
Everybody in the town that I met thought
they were all completely crazy.
Their communication skills were a little weak back
in those days.
And I don't think hardly anybody ever came
to Christ there.
Just the same people.
I know because later I preached there.
Later they moved from that little location.
God did a new work through some real
heartaches.
And that is quite a good church today.
Last time I inquired.
It was back in my hometown.
People didn't understand.
Billy Graham?
This is emotionalism.
Anyway, I went there one night.
And I heard the Gospel.
I heard the Gospel.
Jesus Christ died for me.
Just the message you're trying to carry to
the whole of Europe.
He gave an invitation.
I've never heard of such a thing.
People get out of their seat.
I never saw that in a church except
if people had to go to the toilet
or something.
He called people to, you know, come up
forward and repent.
I did it.
I got out of my seat.
And I went forward crying out to God
to save me, cleanse me, use me.
I don't remember what I prayed.
All I know is lightning came into my
soul.
Spiritual lightning.
Found out later His name was the Holy
Spirit.
And I was saved and filled.
And I share this without exaggeration.
Every single day for 39 years since that
lightning bolt hit my soul I've known the
power and the reality and the joy of
the living Christ.
Brothers and sisters, this is the message we
have.
This is what we're talking about across Europe.
It's not religion.
It's not churchanity.
It's not religious nonsense.
It's the Holy Spirit of God invading the
heart, changing a man and sending him out
as an ambassador of Jesus Christ.
And if God could take a struggling, needy,
weak, over-sexed, loudmouthed I won't give you
any more descriptive words because some of them
are illegal.
And somehow keep me going every day for
39 years.
You can imagine the flack I had in
those early years.
Nutcase, religious zeal.
Imagine when I first came here at 22
years of age.
I lived in Spain first, Mexico before that.
And I started preaching much stronger than this.
Now at my age I've had to mellow
down.
But when I first came and I started
preaching people just wrote it off.
He's a nut.
He's a wild Pentecostal.
And yet at the same time God just
started to touch people's lives.
I arrived here in February of 1962.
By June I had 90 extremist Brits ready
to go anywhere for Jesus.
We united in Paris 200.
By the next summer there were 2,000.
And OM has been going from strength to
strength ever since.
Now with 2,500 full-time workers reaching
tens of millions with the Gospel.
Only God knows how many have come to
know Him but certainly many, many thousands.
One woman!
One woman who was a missions mobilizer.
One woman who decided to put into practice
what she was singing about on Sunday morning
on a Monday through Saturday basis that the
world could hear the Gospel.
And these feeble OM teams and we're more
aware of our failures than we are of
our successes but these feeble OM teams now
in 60 nations have given the Word of
God to over 500 million people.
That's an understatement.
500 million have received the Word of God.
Some of you know we got a little
help to do that as God gave us
these 2 spiritual battleships Lagos which after 17
years we lost and so we now have
Lagos 2.
Lagos 2 sailed out of Britain just 3
years ago.
They just celebrated the 3 millionth visitor up
the gangway.
How would you like a church with 3
million coming through in a couple of years?
That might excite even the biggest visionaries here.
God answers prayer.
It's not just missionaries that are needed.
It's not just full time pastors and evangelists
that are needed.
It's women, men and women like that dear
lady committed to prayer.
Committed to share the vision.
Committed to spread the Word through literature, through
every possible method.
Her praying of course was greatly based on
Matthew chapter 9.
I know you're aware of that great passage
and I love to read it.
The Word of God is sharp and if
my words don't hit home this morning then
it's my prayer that the scriptures will go
like an arrow to your heart rebuking, convicting,
challenging and stirring.
Matthew 9.35 Jesus going about into all
the villages teaching and preaching the gospel of
the kingdom healing every sickness and every disease
among the people.
And when he saw the multitudes he was
moved with compassion on them because they were
faint and were scattered abroad as sheep having
no shepherd.
Then said he unto his disciples the harvest
truly is plenteous but the workers are few.
Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest
that he'll send forth workers, laborers into the
harvest.
That was her vision.
Tell me is that your vision?
I know it's the vision of this group
but I want you in your own heart
to answer individually.
Are you specifically praying for workers to go
out into those harvest fields as that woman
prayed for me and as I caught this
vision and began to pray for my fellow
students.
When I went back to that high school
we had a meeting in an auditorium just
like this, a bit bigger.
Six hundred students came to the meeting mainly
out of curiosity.
A big mouthful had got saved.
They wanted to know what was going on.
This was in a school that's now illegal
to do this in the United States.
I just shared my testimony and the Holy
Spirit just came in power.
A hundred and twenty five of those students
stood to believe on Jesus Christ and among
them was one older man, my old stubborn
Dutch father, surrendering to Jesus.
Now eighty-eight he's followed the Lord also
ever since.
Prayer, brothers and sisters, is where the action
is.
If we're going to be on the cutting
edge to reach people for Christ in post
-Christian, pagan Europe, it's going to mean prayer.
Not just prayer when we're all together with
great music and enthusiasm, hallelujah for that, but
prayer when we feel alone, when we feel
that everything is against us and we haven't
seen the answers to prayer that we prayed
maybe a few weeks ago and so the
temptation is to throw in the towel or
give up or certainly not emphasize intercessory prayer.
I'm reminded of the great missionary strategy so
clearly brought out in Acts chapter 13.
Turn there very quickly.
There were five men.
It lists them there in the first verse.
We pick up the story at verse 2.
As they ministered to the Lord and fasted,
the Holy Spirit said, Separate me Barnabas and
Saul for the work unto which I have
called them.
There's a biblical basis for what we want
to do in Europe today.
That's the way we're going to develop the
kind of sanctified imagination, the kind of spiritual
reality that's going to penetrate even the back
streets of Paris, Milan, Torino, other bastions of
unbelief that stagger the imagination.
As they ministered to the Lord and fasted,
the Holy Spirit said, Separate me Barnabas and
Saul for the work unto which I have
called them.
And when they had fasted and prayed and
laid their hands on them, they sent them
away.
There's that little word again.
That's a mega word.
Sent.
They sent them away.
Verse 4.
So they being sent forth by the Holy
Spirit, the chief executive officer of all missionary
work.
So they being sent forth by the Holy
Spirit departed unto Seleucia, and from there they
sailed to Cyprus.
And when they were at Seleucus, they preached
the word of God in the synagogue of
the Jews, and they had also John as
their helper.
Prayer is where it's at.
Waiting on God.
Being filled afresh with His Holy Spirit.
Sent out by the church, by the Holy
Spirit.
But my final passage of Scripture that especially
ties into some thoughts along the line of
our theme for this hour is found in
1 Peter chapter 5.
Now let's be honest.
The present mood in Great Britain, even among
the zealous, let's talk not about the dead
Christians.
Let's talk about the zealous.
The present mood when you talk about evangelism
is all 90% Britain.
British people, including the zealous, are not thinking
much beyond Britain.
Now if you're different, hallelujah.
I know the leaders here are different.
Even as the dawn movement has come.
What is the dawn movement?
Movement for the multiplication of churches.
It's great.
I've just looked through their three magazines.
I follow this movement.
I believe in it.
But of course, dawn for British people makes
them even more into the British situation.
Because with that kind of vision you paint
the picture so black in Britain that you'd
be an idiot to think as a British
person you should go anywhere else.
They always end up comparing some great responsive
country in Africa or Brazil or Korea or
the Philippines.
Always take the same countries.
And when you talk about these countries where
there's phenomenal church growth, compare it with Britain,
we look so miserable that we think Britain
is the number one mission field.
Now if you think that's the case, you
certainly brought the wrong guy here today.
Because the fact is, Britain is among the
top ten nations in the world as far
as resources and readiness for world missions.
And Britain itself has a relatively healthy church.
Relative is a key word.
Especially for dreamers like me.
Because the church I was dreaming about at
20 doesn't exist.
I've looked for it in 60 nations.
So we had to get back into the
Bible as a movement and try to figure
out what is acceptable reality for God's people.
And a little book came into our hands.
Later on we already had these ideas, but
the book came a few years ago called
Grace Awakening that has been like a thunderbolt
in our movement to cause us to be
a little less critical, a little less judgmental,
a little more balanced in evaluating churches.
It's very important.
We have some copies of that book as
well.
An American needs ten quid to buy that
book.
Because he's so famous, Charles Swindle.
But over here, he's not so famous.
So they forgot the hardback, put it in
paperback.
And if any of you are Americans returning
to the States, take a hundred of those
at one-third the price of the American
edition and you can go in business.
I think it's actually illegal to export them,
but you can carry them in your suitcase
as a person.
I don't think that's a problem.
Anyway, I'm sure you've got to be Grace
Awakened to do that.
Brothers and sisters, we in Great Britain today
have thousands of churches.
We have at least a million believers that
are committed to varying degrees.
Now, don't misunderstand me.
I believe we've got to work in Britain
more.
In OM alone, our little fellowship, I don't
know how many people we have working in
Britain, but it's a lot.
I think it's our third, fourth biggest nation
in the world.
As far as numbers of people, that's partly
because our international office is also here.
So don't go out and quote me.
People misquote me because I speak too fast.
George Brewer doesn't believe we should do much
in Britain.
Please!
We got this on video as well.
We are here talking about tunnel vision because
we're concerned about what's on the other side
of that channel.
We haven't got a tunnel vision conference so
that we can just emphasize Britain.
You don't need a tunnel to evangelize Britain.
You just walk out the door.
We want that to happen.
That is 90% of the mission's emphasis
at present in Britain is in that direction.
And we're here just to try to bring
a little balance.
We're not here to judge anybody's work in
Britain.
We're not here to put anybody down.
But we're here to try to get people
out of their tunnel vision through the tunnel
for the bigger vision of the rest of
Europe.
Because as we get into places like Greece,
and our Italian delegation just arrived, and we
start talking about Italy or Spain, where I
lived for a couple of years before I
came to Britain, we are in a different
world than Kent.
Even London.
We have thousands of churches and house groups
in London.
We need more.
We need to double it.
We need to triple it.
But in the process of doing that, we
need to get some armies of God mobilized
through the tunnel.
If they're scared of tunnels, they can fly.
They can go by ferry.
They can swim.
But we've got to get them over there
to France, to former Yugoslavia, to Greece, and
even beyond to the little land of Turkey,
which isn't little.
But the European section of Turkey is little.
The biggest mosques in Europe are all in
Istanbul.
They're huge.
One of the strongest Muslim nations in Europe
and Asia.
All the believers in Turkey.
I'm getting a little sidetracked now when I'm
watching the clock.
It's good we're going to come back after
the coffee break.
I hope you don't all run away after
that.
I know some people don't like a storm
first thing in the morning.
But as we think of Turkey, all the
believers in the whole of Turkey could sit
in this auditorium.
From a Turkish background.
I'm not talking about American servicemen or tourists
who know Jesus in Istanbul.
I'm talking about Turks.
They could sit in this auditorium.
So if we think London needs more witness
than it does, if some of you think
that Kent is one of the neediest places
on planet Earth because you've never been anywhere
else, what are we going to say about
places like Turkey?
And if you go into some of the
other areas of Europe that we're going to
focus on in these days, it isn't much
better.
Brothers and sisters, Britain has a phenomenal debt
to the rest of Europe.
Now how is that going to happen or
what is the European mind we need to
have if we're going to, as British people,
a high percentage of you today, are British?
How are we going to do this?
What kind of European mind?
What in the world does that mean, a
European mind?
Let's read this passage.
It talks about feeding the flock of God,
which is among you.
Some of you may be Christian leaders and
you need to understand that probably the most
effective way as a pastor, for example, in
Kent, that you could help the missions movement
is not firstly jumping in your car and
driving off to Turkey, might be good for
an exploratory trip, but to be a faithful
pastor right where you already are, teaching the
Word of God, grounding the Lord's people in
His Word, and turning your church into a
sending church.
We had a great book, Ten Sending Churches,
went out of print.
Who's going to buy a book, Ten Sending
Churches?
What's that about?
Went out of print.
That's why I'm so glad this book, Serving
As Senders, is in print and this will
not be going out of print.
It's going into German, it's going into Spanish,
it's already in Dutch, it's in German already,
it's going into Korean, and it's becoming a
major handbook in missions mobilization.
Verse 2, feed the flock of God, which
is among you, taking the oversight of it,
not by constraint, but willingly, not by filthy
lucre, but of a ready mind, neither as
being lords over God's heritage, but being examples
of the flock.
And when the chief shepherd shall appear, you
shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth
not away.
In like manner, ye younger, submit yourselves unto
the elder.
Yea, all of you, be subject one to
another, I want you to mark that, and
be clothed with humility.
For God resisteth the proud and giveth grace
to the humble.
Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of
God, that he may exalt you in due
time.
And what a balance suddenly comes in, because
those verses could really get you uptight.
Casting all your care upon him for he
careth for you, be sober, be vigilant, because
your adversary the devil, like a roaring lion,
walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.
Who resists that fast in the faith, knowing
that the same afflictions are accomplished in your
brethren that are in the world.
What is this European mind, this European Christian
mind?
This is what it is.
It's a mind that has been humbled before
God.
I remember as a young missionary in Mexico,
I learned Spanish very quickly.
God was working.
People were being saved.
I don't think I was getting puffed up.
With all the other struggles I had in
life, I don't think that was my major
struggle.
I had read Calvary Road.
I was constantly repenting and humbling myself.
I certainly didn't think...
I don't think I thought too highly of
myself, but that's very subtle.
Probably I did.
Pride is very subtle, isn't it?
How many of us just were very aware,
very aware, I definitely think too highly of
myself.
I mean, come on.
That would look stupid.
It's more subtle.
But I was judgmental, especially of people who
didn't do things my way.
And I was too ignorant to understand, though
I lived in Mexico and I spoke Spanish,
that my way was a North American way.
It was the American way.
And the last thing I wanted to admit,
it took me two years to do it,
was that it was the ugly American way.
And I remember once coming home from preaching.
You know, preaching can be such an ego
trip.
It really can.
You know, the crowd is there and they
rush up to you.
You know, autographs, sign your book.
Well, you go away feeling great, you know,
at least for a couple of minutes.
It's usually until you get home and talk
to your wife.
Anyway, I got...
We had opened this bookshop in the ground
floor of Mexico City, the first street-level
bookshop in the history of that city.
People thought this was great.
I guess I thought it was great as
well.
And a little Mexican brother that I was...
You know, discipling, that's what we do, right?
Disciple these little people.
I put him in charge of the bookshop,
and when I came back from my evening
preach, he had done several things wrong.
And so I gave him a piece of
my mind.
Do any of you go around giving away
pieces of your mind?
You lose your cool and you give people
a piece of your mind?
Be careful because you can run out.
It's a sad day when you come to
the last piece.
I offended and hurt that young Mexican.
And I realized within minutes I had sinned
against God.
Praise the Lord for that little book, Calvary
Road.
You can't read that as a Christian and
never be the same in my view.
And I knew I had to repent and
apologize to this Mexican.
I just began to weep and apologize for
my arrogance and my impatience.
I went back that night and I started
an intensive Bible study on the subject of
patience.
Impatience among missionaries has caused more grief than
we could ever know.
We do bring with us our cultural baggage.
We do bring with us our impetuousness.
And we often do a lot of harm.
As I studied the subject of impatience, I
realized there was more about that in the
New Testament than there was evangelism, which of
course was my big thing.
And God began to change my life as
I asked him to fill me afresh with
his Holy Spirit.
After all, patience is a fruit of the
Holy Spirit.
Fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,
long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, patience, self
-control against such.
There's no law.
You think being baptized and filled with the
Spirit is going to make all that come
automatically the rest of your life?
It's a great mistake.
We're not clones.
For Jesus brought it into balance when he
said, If any man come after me, let
him deny self.
That is the key to Biblical cross-cultural
missionary work.
Deny self.
That's where a lot of this is lingering.
And when we deny self, take up the
cross and follow him every day, I believe
as missionaries moving through that tunnel into France,
over to Italy, down to Turkey, we will
be learners.
We will be learners.
And I, though I had been a learner
in Mexico, I thought, didn't somehow have that
L-plate on straight.
It kept falling off.
You know, for those of you who are
British, an L-plate is just basic, right?
Americans don't have L-plates.
So when an American comes here, he sees
this little L, he wonders what in the
world that is.
And it is especially difficult, as it was
in my life, 20 years after I'd been
driving, thought I was a fairly good driver,
I had to take myself off the road
because it was no longer, for me, legal
to drive.
And I had to take British, proper British
driving lessons.
And I failed the test.
And so I mobilized prayer throughout the world
and took the test again and failed again.
The third time after much prayer, and a
lot of money for these lessons to learn
proper driving, I got the test.
And then to make the whole scene worse,
through this event, my wife, who was coming
into a little more freedom as I tended
to be chauvinistic, another problem in my life,
decided she was going to learn to drive.
And without my permission, got involved in learning
how to drive and applied to take the
test without checking with me.
And so I said, Dreena, her name is
Dreena, you're not going to pass this yet.
You're not ready.
I failed it three times, darling.
You've only taken a few lessons.
You're not going to pass this.
You have to take it again.
It cost a lot of money.
I gave her a real preach.
She passed first time.
Yes.
Guess who's sitting in the passenger seat?
The L-plate is a beautiful principle.
And when we go through that tunnel, or
on the ferry or by the plane, we
somehow put that L-plate on.
We begin to learn how they do it.
We begin to listen.
We begin to do a little more research
before we open our big mouths.
And it's not only Americans who are big
mouths.
There are British people who are big mouths.
And especially when they become Pentecostal, they become
even more big mouth.
Right?
This is why the English Pentecostals are so
great.
I mingle and work with the Pentecostal church
all over the world.
I think the British really are some of
the best Pentecostals because they're generally so cool,
so placid, so laid back, when boom, they
finally get a little emotion, they move to
a place where they can be at least
considered fairly normal.
And it's very, very exciting.
But as we move to other nations, we
need the reality of what is written here.
And let me read it again.
In like manner, ye younger, submit yourselves unto
the elder.
Yea, all of you, be subject one to
another.
Be clothed with humility.
That's the clothing we wear when we go
through the tunnel.
For God resisteth the proud and giveth grace
to the humble.
You go to Spain, and you go into
a church, maybe your church is 200 strong
in Newcastle, and you've been praying, and you're
doing tremendous things.
You go down to Spain, and here's a
church of only 15 people, and immediately you're
giving them, boom, 10 ways that you can
change your situation.
That's how not to do it in modern
Europe, even working with the church.
You go there, esteeming, Philippians chapter 2, is
that one of your favorite passages?
Esteeming others better than yourself.
It may have cost them more.
Somebody may have died as a martyr to
plant that little church of 15 or 20.
It may have cost them more to get
that 20 than to get your 200 in
Newcastle.
The situation in Great Britain is completely different
from Extremadura, Spain, or from the provinces of
Northern Italy, or Portugal, or Greece, or France,
or Belgium, or Austria.
I can only speak as a person who
arrived in Spain as an ugly American.
I can't speak about an ugly British person.
Only you can do that.
When I came here, two years after my
arrival in Spain, it was very interesting.
But I fell in love with this nation.
I fell in love with the people here.
Most of them were very different from me.
And I found out that opposites attract.
I'm at Cambridge University again this Saturday night.
I've been going there regularly now for 30
years.
Most of the people at Cambridge University are
not like George Brewer.
I don't even have an IQ that can
get me into Cambridge University.
When I first was preaching there, I wondered,
How did I ever get here, Lord?
Then I found out most of the students
there were wondering, How did they ever get
there?
So that brought some degree of balance.
But again and again as I just humbled
myself and shared God's Word, and my own
failures, and my own struggles, and kept somehow
the L plate on through many mistakes, and
we need to be quick to acknowledge our
mistakes, they responded.
Thousands and thousands and thousands of British people
launched into world missions and Britain became OM's
number one sending country, only to be bypassed
eventually by India.
And a lot of their sending, of course,
would be within their own country.
The Word of God has the key to
what we're talking about here this morning.
I can only wet your appetite that brothers
and sisters, whatever your nationality is, you may
think it's an obstacle.
British in France?
Oh!
Americans?
In almost any country it seems to be
humanly an obstacle.
That's no big problem with God.
God is no respecter of persons.
As you humble yourself, as you become more
Christ-like, as you learn the way of
brokenness, the way of esteeming others, as you
keep that L plate on, that will so
stun people, that you will find yourself being
mightily used of the Spirit.
One of the first persons I ever met
in France was Larry Gannon, an American, former
drunk.
Saved just before he was 50.
I mean, let's face it, when I mobilized
50-year-olds to France from America, his
French was atrocious.
The people used to listen to it for
entertainment.
Larry Gannon.
Larry Gannon planted churches in France.
A number of his disciples, as he's in
heaven, are going on mightily in France today.
God is no respecter of persons.
Don't go around with some kind of British
inferiority complex or American inferiority complex, because maybe
you're not quick at languages, or maybe because
you find it difficult to drink cappuccino instead
of tea, or whatever your particular struggle may
be.
Beware of Satan, the accuser of the brethren.
Beware of Satan, the master intimidator, always saying,
you'll never be a missionary.
You better not cross that channel.
You can't even win souls in your own
street, much less take some Albanian for Christ.
Well, Jesus had a little trouble in his
hometown, so I don't think you should go
around with a guilt trip, because your street
hasn't yet burst out in revival.
It all banged on your door to buy
a copy of Operation World.
God uses ordinary people, and God has brought
us together these few days, because He wants
to do something special in our hearts, and
He wants to give us this European mind,
but this biblical European mind of humility, of
esteeming others better than ourselves, and bond us.
That's the new buzzword, but I like it.
Bond us with those Spaniards and with those
French, and soon we'll discover some of our
best friends.
My best friend became that young Mexican.
My son is named after him.
Soon my best friend was a Spaniard.
My second son was named after him.
And then this German girl knocked on my
door in Madrid, running away from East Germany.
She tried Paris, tried Italy, tried England, spoke
three languages, the high life.
She wanted a job.
I said, I don't have a job.
I'll give you a book.
And Krista Fischer was powerfully converted there in
Madrid.
She's been serving Jesus Christ now for 31
years.
My daughter is named after her.
God is going to give you friends in
many different nations of Europe, and it can
start right here.
But it won't happen unless we're willing to
humble ourselves and believe for a deeper work
of the Holy Spirit, unless we're willing to
submit one to another, unless we're willing to
really learn, including as much as possible, the
language.
What a sad thing that so many people
today still in Britain only speak one language.
Anybody can learn a second language.
I had an Indian brother on our ship.
I think his IQ was relatively low.
You know, he wasn't really doing too well.
He did speak two or three languages.
You know, he just picked it up in
passing.
We put him washing dishes.
I think he only spoke two languages, but
by the time he left the ship he
spoke four.
You can learn a language.
My Spanish teacher looked at me.
She just shook her head.
I was supposed to read a book.
I couldn't even read what it said on
the cover.
Two months in Mexico I was preaching in
Spanish.
You can learn French.
You can learn another language.
Now we have these Walkmans.
The Walkman.
It's the greatest invention since the printing press.
You can go around, you know, don't wear
it all the time because you get in
accidents, but you can listen to these language
tapes.
When I started to learn Russian, and I'll
share about that tomorrow night, I learned a
lot of that initially listening on these language
tapes.
Even when you show an interest in people's
language and you learn some words that mean
something to them.
How do you feel when somebody lives on
your street from Pakistan and they say, I
don't want to learn English.
Urdu is good enough for us in Pakistan.
Keep your English.
I bet that really warms your battery.
We can learn a language.
We can bond with other people of other
countries.
We can walk in humility and reality and
be God's cross-cultural ambassadors on the other
side of that tunnel and right to the
ends of the earth.
Let us pray.
We're going to have our break.
Living God, we thank you for the privilege
of being together here this morning.
We thank you for this new tunnel vision.
Not down the back garden, but through the
tunnel to France and the ends of the
earth.
Three hours to Brussels, but Lord, we believe
by prayer it's three seconds to Brussels.
And as many perhaps are not able to
go, we pray they'll be senders and givers
and that they'll have the vision to send
others.
Oh, Jesus, we're praying for a new thing.
We know it's going to be an uphill
battle all the way.
And we know that greater are you who
are in us than all that comes against
us.
And so we look to you and we
trust you that we will not just have
a European mind, but a Christ-like mind
that will enable us to impact Europeans in
a way that perhaps we have never dreamed.
We pray through Jesus Christ.
Amen.