Further Thoughts — George Verwer

Further Thoughts on OM’s Seven Major Emphases

Lord, deliver us from just, being hearers of the word, cause us also to be doers, for we pray in Jesus' name, amen. I'm trying to, each day, get a definite burden from the Lord to share with you, and trying also to share things that I have not shared before, especially with Indian brothers and sisters.

To be honest, part of the purpose of the sharing is also to do some sort of advanced level tapes that can be listened to in India. Many of the people, of course, are not able to come here at this time.

Many years ago, maybe fifteen, twenty years ago, I started to preach a message called the Seven Major Emphases, and the missionary, he begged me to put this into writing. I was very hesitant, but then, after a number of years of praying, I finally committed this message, not the whole message, just part of it, to writing.

And supposedly now, everybody in OM has read this, has studied it, and hopefully they are able to share this when God gives them opportunity, we have this daily competition with the birds. Able to share this with the younger brothers, and sometimes even in their own churches.

Now today's message, and this is the first time I have ever done this, I don't know why, I want to share a message called Further Thoughts, Further Thoughts on the Seven Major Emphases of OM. Now this doesn't mean this is the only thing we emphasize.

Also there's another message called the Major Doctrines of OM. The fact that we believe in the deity of Jesus Christ, we believe in the doctrine of heaven and hell, we believe in Christ's atoning death upon the cross, we believe the Bible is the word of God, we believe that Jesus Christ is coming again.

And maybe another day I'm going to share a message based on the doctrinal statement of OM. We have in OM a memorandum of agreement, you may have never heard of that before, but this is just a statement that unites all OM fields around the world, because each field is different.

Turkey, India, France, each field is different, and there's no official legal link. The linking is in heart, and in mind, and in commitment, there's no legal link. Legally, OM India is a separate Indian trust, and each team actually is not officially part of that trust.

They are in fellowship with OM as a fellowship, but they are not officially members of that trust. Now we do that because we are living in India, we must follow the laws of India, therefore we have bookkeepers and accountants, we pay taxes, all of these things that sometimes we are not so aware of in the work of God.

And I've noticed some brothers, they are thinking, what are they doing in Bombay, so many people? Because they don't understand all the regulations, government regulations, when you are a registered charity trust.

And so in Bombay, they have a lot of work, a lot of work, and I hope you'll pray. We have this heart linking, we have this commitment to each other, that links us internationally. But some of the governments of some countries are asking questions, where is this money going, how do we know this is being used properly?

And so some years ago, we had to draw up a memorandum of agreement, which gives some things that we agree upon. It shows some degree of worldwide fellowship. And in that memorandum of agreement, we have our OM doctrinal statements.

Everybody linked to the Lamb, believes these basic doctrines. And you can hear a tape on that, which I hope to do perhaps next week, or you can at least read the doctrinal statement, as they are available in printed form.

Sound Doctrine as the Foundation for Ministry

So in a sense, that doctrinal statement is, and those doctrines, that's the foundation. We can't build this emphasis we're talking about today, worship and prayer, love and forgiveness, without that basic doctrinal emphasis.

You see, even in India, there are many who say, doctrine is not important, maybe we just love one another. Then the next step, they say, well, doesn't matter if you're a believer in Christ or a Hindu, all roads are the same.

It's slowly, slowly down the same road. And in OM, though we emphasize these very beautiful principles, and some Hindus, they would say, this is very nice, love and forgiveness, victorious living, worship and prayer, but they would have trouble when they got to number four, the Christ's Lordship and All-Sufficiency.

And we were, Brother Chowdhury was talking to one Hindu at breakfast this morning, and of course, this man was willing to say, Jesus Christ, on the cross, even, yes, he died for me, but to make Christ Lord, to turn from his idols, that is the more difficult step.

Because, of course, they want everything, and they put the picture of Jesus up next to the picture of some other god, and then another picture of Indira Gandhi, another picture of John F. Kennedy. I've been in so many different houses, they have all the different pictures, hoping, hoping, somehow, they may get to heaven, or what they think is heaven.

So let's remember, these seven spiritual principles, these seven emphases, are built on the foundation of sound doctrine. Then also, let me remind you of the basic strategy of OM. I had that message about the strategy of OM long before I had this, in fact, the basic orientation tapes in English.

There are some of those tapes around India. Prayer, the Word, Unity, Warfare, Discipline, Reproduction, Counterattack by Satan. We used to have a little diagram showing this basic OM strategy. That is another very important set of Biblical truths that we are trying to emphasize.

And it was after many, many years that the Lord gave us this further set of Biblical principles that we could have a degree of like-mindedness about. I hope you will read this leaflet, and if you can contact someone in India to distribute copies of the seven major emphases, I think it's also in other languages, it would be good for you to study this.

Because I'm giving you now further thoughts, but some of you may not even have the original thoughts of the seven major emphases. By the way, this has gone into many, many languages, many, many printings, many other groups and organizations use this.

Little pamphlet, you know in OM we believe in the power of the printed page. And it's amazing how God uses not only Christian literature for unconverted people to bring them to Christ, but how God uses Christian literature to help the believers, to build up the believers in the faith.

I open this leaflet by saying Operation Mobilization is a Christian fellowship of learners moving out to the frontiers of world evangelism. The movement is both interdenominational and international. It is a fellowship specializing in evangelistic and discipleship training for young people.

Now, we specialize in this, but we don't only do this. We have longer term people, we have older people, we have special ministries like the STL publishing ministry, publishing and distributing books in over 100 countries.

And a nucleus of people in that ministry. This is their life calling. This is their life ministry. This is not just short term. But we are specializing in evangelistic and discipleship training for young people.

This training is carried out through working together on teams, out on the field or in various headquarters. Our young people are involved in almost every possible method of evangelism with a special emphasis on the use of literature as tools for both teaching believers and reaching the masses with the gospel.

We desire to be disciples of Christ, learning and teaching what is on our heart, what is on the heart of God as we find it in his word, the Bible. Now let me just say, it's very important to understand what I just read.

That we're involved in almost every method of evangelism. OM is not just literature evangelism. Some of you have read my book, Literature Evangelism. Some people think because I wrote a book on literature evangelism, that's all that OM does.

No, it doesn't. Actually, I wrote that book because there were already 40 books on personal evangelism. I believe in personal evangelism more than literature evangelism, but I didn't think I should write a book when there already were 40 different books.

And that was 25 years ago when I wrote Literature Evangelism. Also, we felt when people first come for a summer campaign or short term, they are just learning the language, they are young Christians, it is good to use literature even more extensively while they are learning more about personal evangelism, understanding people, speaking the language, and other important factors.

OM is different from one country to the next. In Turkey, except in the summer, we do not give out much literature. We mainly do personal evangelism. We learn the language, we have to get a job to stay in the country, we learn the language, then we work mainly in personal contacts, and we try to get them into a small Bible study group with the hope that that group will become a living church.

France and Belgium are very close to each other. There is another tape you may want to listen to, which I shared with the sisters. The scope, the scope of OM worldwide, much bigger than people understand.

And you can pray more effectively if you listen to that tape and you understand the many different ministries that God has put us into. France and Belgium, very close to each other in Europe, two different leaders, two different strategies, and that is very interesting to understand.

Now, in India, God has given us a definite strategy. We are constantly growing, we are constantly learning, and there are just so many possibilities. In our first ten years in India, we did not use films very much.

But then, ten years ago, approximately, actually more before that, we saw the power of using films in evangelism. I hope that we can do much more, not only with films, but also with audio cassettes. We still, in India, have not learned how to use the audio cassette.

This little cassette that's turning around in this recorder, that we can use for both evangelism and teaching ministries. Even this morning, I was receiving spiritual food, as I was shaving, as I was doing other things, from a powerful message by a man of God, who, by the way, recently visited India and was greatly encouraged seeing the work of O .M. in India.

Conviction Must Become Practical Action

Here are seven of our deepest and strongest convictions. We have many convictions, you know, many convictions. Here are seven of our deepest and strongest convictions. We desire, above all else, to put these into practice in our lives, while at the same time sharing them with others, as God gives the opportunity.

This is the key word. So many messages we have in O .M. Study seminars, daily studies, AIC, but how much of it is in practice in your life? That is our burden. And it's not easy to convert emotion into action.

Sometimes we hear a message, God touched my heart. But converting that into action, that is much more difficult, brother. That's why many brothers stay in O .M. for two, three or four years, constantly working, constantly buffeting the body.

Paul said, I buffet my body and bring it into subjection, lest after preaching to others, I become passed away. If Paul had to know something about that kind of discipline, how much more do we? Now the first emphasis is prayer and worship.

Prayer and Worship Beyond Outward Forms

I don't want to just read and comment on what is here in the leaflet, because we don't have that much time. We quote A .W. Tozer who said that worship was the missing jewel of the evangelical church. It's unfortunate that in some cases the church actually divides and fights over different kinds of worship.

And we judge one another. Those that hold their hands in the air to worship may feel they're better than those who have their hands folded. Those who are praying with a loud voice may feel they're more spiritual than the one who is praying quietly.

And the danger is we get caught up with outward forms rather than inward reality. We get caught up with outward forms, hand raising, praying. One group in India, they're always saying we must kneel, everybody must kneel, the main thing is to kneel.

Every prayer we must be kneeling. So we get caught up with the outward forms. Some want nice organ music, others want drums, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. All different outward things. Now I'm not against different outward forms.

Music in worship is good. Indian music is good in worship. Not only western songs, translations of the western hymns. Many times, sometimes in our churches when they are sung in India it is sounding horrible.

Like the angels all have laryngitis. But praise God there in some places are Indian songs with Indian melodies. But the main thing is not the outward, the inward. Many men of worship are very quiet. Others like me may be a little bit noisy.

And we need to realize that when it comes to worship and prayer, it's not something that's going to be learned in one year. We are continually coming to know God in a deeper way. We must never separate worship from knowing God.

As we worship, we become more like the one whom we are worshiping. Otherwise, something is going wrong. And it must be grievous to God when people are gathering every week around the Lord's table, worshiping, and yet their lives are not being changed.

They are having bitterness in their heart towards someone who is sitting at the same table breaking bread. How can we break bread and worship God with bitterness, bitterness in our hearts? So I hope as you think on this great challenge of worship and prayer that you remember those important words.

I think of the words in John's Gospel. John's Gospel, chapter 4 and verse 24. When I preached this message, originally for many years before it was ever written, there were many more scripture verses.

But because we tried to condense this in one piece of paper, we left out many of the references, scripture references. So you can study each one of these subjects, and you can write in many scripture references, like Psalm 69, about worship.

And here, that Psalm, here in John's Gospel, chapter 4. God is a spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. Now one of the dangers in worship and prayer is we're very idealistic.

We want revival. We want to feel God. We want to be like Andrew Murray, or Buck Singh, or A .W. Tozer, or Sadhu Sundar Singh, and we easily get discouraged. When we discover the ugliness of our own hearts.

I was once in a worship meeting, and this beautiful girl walked into the meeting. I couldn't get my mind off this girl. And how could I worship that I'm feeling so condemned? What an evil fellow I am.

Many of the Indian brothers I've met in the past. What an evil fellow I am. I'm having evil thoughts in the prayer meeting. I'm thinking about the sisters in the prayer meeting. How can God ever use me?

Such an evil, wicked fellow. No, you're just normal. Stop thinking you are so special and so wicked. Do not flatter yourself as being excessively wicked. You're just a normal human being. And we have to, as we worship, constantly bring our minds back to God.

If your mind wanders away easily, each return journey of your mind is an act of worship to the living God. We are feeble human beings. We are not angels. We're not seraphims. And we're not even Sadhu, Sundar Singh.

Nor do we really know the struggles and the battles that Sadhu, Sundar Singh, or Bhakt Singh, or A .W. Tozer, or Watchman Nihat. They're all human beings. And this skinny little man sitting on this chair also is a human being who has had many struggles, sometimes did not want to pray, did not want to go to the night of prayer, did not want to even look at one more OM prayer meeting.

But of course, we're not deceived. We're not deceived. We know the lies of Satan. My study this morning in God's Word was John chapter 8. You are of your father the devil. Ooh, what strong words. You try preaching that one in the street.

You are of your father the devil. You'll get interesting reaction. So don't be discouraged and learn how to handle your emotions. I recommend as a study book this year, that great book by Dr. Lloyd-Jones, Spiritual Depression, Its Cause and Cure.

It is the greatest English book I have ever read. Of course, it's only sermons based on the Bible. But it's very much a book that will help you in your life of worship. Number two, Further Thoughts of Love and Forgiveness.

Love and Forgiveness as the Central Christian Practice

Again, someone was sharing with me in a letter that I read yesterday. A brother I had not heard from in 25 years, when he was in Bible school, he was a carnal Christian, just playing the Bible school game.

And if you ever go to Bible school, you will meet people that are playing the Bible school game. How sad that is. They are not really called and led to seriously study God's Word. They are there because their parents sent them, or they didn't know any place else to go, or some other reason.

And he shared with me in the letter I read yesterday, how God has changed his life completely, when he discovered the importance of the message of love. So easily now in OM we speak about the revolution of love.

It has become a cliché, revolution of love. What does that mean? It's supposed to mean that the greatest, most dominant force in your life is love. The greatest challenge in OM is not evangelism, it's love.

Loving those team members, and we are not loving the team members, and we go out in the streets with our gospel tracks, it is sounding brass and tingling cymbals, and it is a miracle God in his mercy doesn't drop us into some deep pit.

The first commandment is to love God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength. The second commandment is to love our neighbor. Sometimes even in our evangelism, we see hostility being expressed toward the Hindus.

We see anger when a Hindu says something we do not like. That's not God's way. You are not Jesus Christ to go around parading righteous indignation or to go in to cleanse the temple. That was the prerogative of the sovereign, mighty Lord Jesus Christ.

And we find Christians justifying their anger and their hostility and foolish words by saying this is righteous indignation. No, it's unrighteous anger. It's the self-life, the uncrucified self-life that is causing us to say unkind things to Hindus or Muslims.

And it is not the way of love. And if we are to win these people to Christ, it will take much love, much patience. Sometimes we do preach a word of warning. Sometimes we do preach judgment. But that must be from a broken heart, not a rebellious mind.

And I hope you remember that in your open air and personal evangelistic ministries. Love and forgiveness. How it breaks my heart when I receive a letter from an ex-OMer who has still not forgiven Operation Mobilization.

And when you meet people like that, you can be sure they have a spiritual problem. They have an emotional, psychological or spiritual problem. Because of course OM in 25 years has made mistakes. Of course OM has sinned and George Burwell has sinned with eye and with tongue.

The Church or Operation Mobilization is not a special club for super saints or special disciples. It is a clinic. It is a hospital. It is a training program for sinners. And if you get hurt in OM or some OM leader doesn't treat you properly, you are called by the Word of God to love and forgive.

If he refuses to love and forgive, he will stand before God. He is not your responsibility. You can pray for him. You can write to him. Matthew 18 says, if you have something against a brother, you can go to him.

You can walk in the light and in love. But God has called us to a life of never-ending forgiveness. We are forgiving people even as they hurt us. That is the joy. That is the privilege. We have to control ourselves so that we will not seek opportunities in extremes to forgive people.

We don't want them to sin against us. Just so we can have the joy of forgiving them, that would be somewhat extreme. But when the opportunity comes to love and to forgive, to put into practice 1 Corinthians 13, we count it a great privilege.

Just write that reference down, 1 Corinthians 13. Everybody on OM is supposed to be memorizing it. And turn to Ephesians chapter 4. What beautiful verses in Ephesians chapter 4, verse 30. Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God.

Verse 30. Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God by whom ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice. Mark that scripture in your Bible.

Mark that scripture in your Bible. It's a beautiful verse. Ephesians 4 .31. All bitterness. Somebody has hurt you. Somebody has put the knife in your back. They've squeezed it. What is your response? Of course, it will be painful.

You cannot pretend. I know. It's a nice experience. I'm being rejected. Nobody loves me. People are gossiping against me. Oh, what a wonderful experience. No. But through the pain, through the pain, slowly as you take your place at the foot of the cross in prayer, forgiveness will come.

The blood of Christ will cleanse away the bitterness. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor, evil speaking, put away. How my heart has been concerned when sometimes I found people speaking such evil against even the leaders in God's work, even against Brother Ray Eicher, against other leaders.

Without understanding, without getting the facts, they hear this thing or they hear that thing and they begin speaking evil. One brother in India spoke so much evil. It has gone from Trivandrum to New Delhi.

I, of course, am responsible to find out if these things are the truth. It takes a lot of work. But again and again, I have found out people take some little thing and they magnify it. And then they add to it.

They add a little bit. They weren't really sure this was true, but it sounded very juicy. And so they added it. The greatest hindrance to O .M. India has not come from Hindus and Muslims. It has come from gossiping, backbiting people who call themselves Christians.

And not just O .M. Almost every church, almost every assembly has suffered from people who backbite and gossip and have not experienced deliverance from bitterness. Ultimately, ultimately, they hurt themselves more than they hurt anybody else.

Because the work of God goes on and God gives strength and we thank Him for reality and forgiveness in the work. Notice verse 15 in chapter 4. Speaking the truth. Chapter 4 verse 15. Speaking the truth.

Yes, we believe in speaking the truth. But in love. In love. That's what makes the difference. Isn't that beautiful? And look at verse 32. Still in chapter 4. Be kind one to another. Is this the thing that really marks your O .M. team?

Be kind one to another. Thinking about the other man. Maybe he needs a mosquito net. Maybe he didn't get enough food. Maybe he's not feeling well and somebody should visit him and pray with him. Kindness is one of the most basic principles of spiritual revolution.

Be kind one to another. Tenderhearted. Do you know that word? Do you have a good word for that in your own language? Tenderhearted. I wrote in my Bible learning to be sensitive. I have a whole message on learning to be sensitive in preaching and in testifying.

Because sometimes in our preaching we say things that are very hurtful to other people. God has had to really deal with me in that area. Tenderhearted. Learning to be sensitive. And then what does it say?

Forgiving one another. Even as God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you. Without love and forgiveness O .M. is destined to be one more evangelistic machine doomed to second-rate blessings and to confusion.

I have had people tell me only after five or six years in O .M. only after ten years did the message of love finally grip their hearts with the intensity that it completely changed their lives. They were never the same again.

It's the most important the most significant of all the biblical principles. Love. And it's the easiest to pay lip service. Oh, we believe in love. Of course.

And many times we don't even have messages. We don't even have a single message on that subject in a whole conference.

Because we have so many other things. We want to learn so many doctrines. And we want to learn everything about the book of Leviticus. And we want to understand everything about eschatology. Without love it doesn't mean a thing.

You can be a seminary graduate and without love you are a sounding brass and a tingling cymbal. This is why the church is in the state it is in today. So desperately in need of revival. Because love has not been our aim.

1 Corinthians 13 talks about love. But 1 Corinthians chapter 14 says make love your aim. Or in this translation follow after love. Follow after love. We produce some books in India on this subject. I wonder if people even read them.

Love is the answer. Just produced in Malayalam. When we think of the tremendous state of the church in Kerala. The fighting. The court cases. We know this doctrine is missing. It's as simple as that. Whether it's a brethren assembly or a Pentecostal church or St. Thomas Evangelical or Maritima or Syrian Orthodox.

Whatever it may be without love it means and accomplishes nothing. And oh what a burden should be on our hearts that people may come to obey God in this area. And you know one of the great dangers? Instead of taking up the cross and following Christ in repentance and brokenness we sit back and pray.

Lord send a revival. Send a revival.

We're waiting Lord. You know that's just an excuse. That's an excuse to spend one more week in sin. One more week without love. One more week without denying self. One more week without repentance. One more week without returning the money we stole.

One more week without apologizing to the man we gossiped against. It's a cheap excuse. And I've been watching people pray that prayer in India alone for 22 years. Now I believe in praying for revival if at the same moment there is repentance and tears and brokenness there can be no revival praying from a heart of pride and superiority.

We are better than that poor group of Christians down the road who they are even wearing jewelry or their hair is not cut at the proper length and all the other things we're always talking about one another.

Many of these things are not barely mentioned in the New Testament. You have to take a verse pulling it out of context and add all of your own cultural cocktails to it before you can come up with some of this extremist teaching.

And God's word. You study it. Don't listen to me. You say to me I'm not going to listen to George Moore. I'm going to study this on my own. Wonderful. Because that's how I discovered this. At 18 years of age I spent hours and days and days in this book.

I listed every single verse on the subject of love. And then 20 other different subjects. So I could see all of what the New Testament was saying. And the message of love stood out like Mount Everest planted in the middle of Karnataka.

Without love we are nothing. Then number three victorious living and the Holy Spirit's fullness. Praise God for this great principle. Victorious living. Fullness of the Holy Spirit. In OM we believe in the fullness of the Holy Spirit.

Victorious Living and the Holy Spirit’s Fullness

However we come from different churches. Some churches emphasize the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Other churches emphasize the fullness of the Holy Spirit. And so what should we do? Of course we should all come out and have a good fight.

And let us take the Bible. As Billy Graham once said we have taken the sword of the Spirit and instead of going in a great offensive to evangelize the world we are carving each other up. I think when we talk about the Holy Spirit it's good to remember the words of Billy Graham.

He said, I don't care how you get it just get it. The reality. Again people are excusing their sins by saying the Lord has not yet baptized me with the Holy Spirit. I prayed but nothing happened. So we use that as an excuse for our own behavior.

And then we go back to church maybe next week and we pray again. And there are some people even teaching that until you have one particular gift you could not have the Holy Spirit. How many thousands in India have been discouraged and destroyed in their Christian faith because they were seeking one particular gift and without that gift they thought the Holy Spirit is not with me.

God cannot use me. I'm such a poor Christian. And so they become discouraged and then soon they are totally backslidden. I believe on the basis of many verses of Scripture that it is the privilege of every believer to live in the fullness of the Holy Spirit.

And if you're not filled with the Holy Spirit you need to have prayer right now and ask God to fill you. But you see people are not satisfied with being filled with the Holy Spirit. They want special feelings.

They want to feel spiritual.

And they want God to instantly deliver them from all their problems. They don't want any more problems. Any more struggles with the lust of the eyes. Any more struggles with the things in the heart. They think all this is going to disappear if they just get a special blessing.

Some are waiting their whole life. There are now old men of 70 years of age still waiting. Still waiting. Still hoping. You see we are making a great mistake. We are expecting God to do that which He has told you and me to do.

Put on the armor of God. That's what the Bible says. Doesn't fall on you out of heaven. Put on by faith the armor of God. Yield. These are Bible verses by the way. Yield your members.

Unto righteousness. Yield your members unto righteousness. Dr. Lloyd-Jones in one of his books gave these words. Nothing is more obvious about the teaching of the New Testament than this. That the Christian life is a life of activity.

A life of vigor. A life of exertion. Some of you this afternoon are going to have to exert yourselves because you're going to get tired climbing mountains. The strength is given to us by the Lord but we must act.

We must act. Your Christian life is linked completely with you. Not me. I can pray for you and I'll be getting all of your names writing them in my notebook. I'll be getting your picture. I'll be praying for you.

My prayers can influence you. My prayers can cause God to touch your heart but they cannot force you. Don't keep screaming and praying for your parents to be saved. Becoming neurotic about your parents being saved or your brother being saved because your prayers cannot force them to be saved.

And sometimes it's a greater step of faith to put them in the hands of God and say, I am trusting. I am believing. I am now waiting upon you, O God, to move upon their hearts and then get going forward in your own Christian life and in witnessing to others and in spreading the word of God that other parents may be saved.

After all, with God, other parents are equally as important as your parents. Never be discouraged when you're not able to win your own relatives and parents to Christ because Jesus Christ himself had his greatest difficulty in his own town.

A prophet, the Bible says, is without honor in his own town. Now, I'm sure that's not always true. It's interesting that Brother Bhat Singh, my dear friend, has never won many Sikhs to Jesus Christ. He hardly even visits the Punjab.

Interesting. He visits New York, France, England, but very seldom would he go to the Punjab. And I think you know he's a man of God. The only mistake we make when we think about different men of God is we fail to realize how weak and how human they are.

We don't write that in our books because people would be embarrassed. But the fact is one of the great problems in our work in India is false ideas about super-spirituality. That's what led my dear friend, Zack Putin, a dear man of God, I still love him, that's what led him into extremism.

False ideas about what real spirituality is. We are still writing and I'm convinced in the depth of my heart he is still in error about what true spirituality is. He is trying to deny the human factor, failing to realize the treasure is in an earthen vessel.

And oh my, so many are discouraged, so many are discouraged in their faith because they tried to live way up here and it didn't last. You know, then we try. When we come down, we sin, we fail, we say something sinful, we do something sinful.

We don't know what to do, we're feeling so terrible. We won't tell the leader, they may ask me to leave Operation Mobilization. And so we live in darkness and the devil is having a great campaign instead of following carefully what it says in 1 John 2.

We mention this verse here under victorious living and the Holy Spirit's fullness. We mention that this includes what to do when we sin. We believe in the victorious life, we believe in the fullness of the Holy Spirit, we believe in holiness.

I preach at some of the biggest holiness conventions in the world. You think they would let me preach if I didn't believe in holiness? But we believe in holiness without foolishness. Holiness without hypocrisy.

And this is why we have to claim 1 John chapter 2, verse 1. Having trouble finding it? It's stuck in Hebrews here. 1 John chapter 2, verse 1. My little children, these things write I unto you that ye sin not, and if any man sin, we have an advocate, a lawyer, with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.