Vision Unity Reality + Forgiveness — George Verwer

We really need your patience as we share in this way through interpretation. Some of you, I know, have never had this before.

Wir brauchen natürlich auch eure Geduld, wenn wir hier vorne stehen und durch die Übersetzung das Wort Gottes verkündigen. We know some of you are tired. Viele von euch haben das noch nie gehört und wir wissen auch, dass einige müde sind.

Spiritual Warfare and the Message from God

But we are here in a spiritual warfare.

Aber wir sind hier auch in einem geistlichen Kampf.

We are giving essential orientation that is absolutely critical for the strategy you will be thrust into within a few days.

Wir geben wesentliche Orientierung, die wichtig sein wird für die Aufgabe in den kommenden Tagen.

We really believe the Holy Spirit directs us in what we should say. That doesn't mean it will be perfect, but it means there will be a message from God for us.

Wir glauben wirklich, dass uns der Heilige Geist in dem, was wir sagen, leidet. Das heißt nicht, dass wir perfekt sind, aber dass es eine Botschaft ist, die von Gott kommt.

Counting the Cost from Luke 14

Turn to Luke 14, verse 30, just Luke 14.

Schlagt einmal Lukas, Kapitel 14 auf.

I would like you to read just in your own language as I read in English.

Lest in eurer eigenen Übersetzung mit. Starting at verse 25. Und wir fangen von Vers 25 an.

I'll just read in English. Ich lese in Englisch. How are we doing back in the interpretive booths? Raise your hand if you're happy and rejoicing in Jesus. Good. Starting at verse 25, read in your own language through the end of the chapter.

This is the word of God. And there went great multitudes with him. And he turned and said unto them, If any man come to me, hate not his father and his mother and his wife and children and brethren and sisters, yea, in his own life also he cannot be my disciple.

And whoever or 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 hath sufficient to finish it.

Thus perhaps after he hath laid the foundation and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him, saying this man began to build and 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 the salt hath lost its savour, with what shall it be seasoned?

It is neither fit for the land nor for the dunghill, but men cast it out. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. We have been counting the cost throughout the year as we make some pretty big decisions about the future of Operation Mobilization.

We went through some very difficult days financially a couple of years ago. We've come out of those days, but not completely. Some of our countries, including a number of European countries, are still facing significant financial difficulty on a day-by-day battle.

Four years ago we wondered if Dulas could continue such a huge ministry of 300 people, over half of them at that time without proper support financially. Phenomenal answer to prayer, that that ship never stopped her ministry, even when it was slowed down in Europe and we battled through that financial mountain.

I would love to talk to you for an hour on what God has done to you despite our failures, despite our sin, what God has done through Dulas in Africa and India. Now we're in the process of launching a European summer mega-special in 1989, bigger than anything we have ever done in OM's history in Europe.

How many of you were at Mission 87? Raise your hand. Praise the Lord. You remember, you tracked 10 ,000 young people praising God in that conference. It was a humbling privilege to share at that conference.

We are praying about renting that same building, that same place in the summer of 1989. Instead of having different small conferences each month to all come together, many as the Lord, some are talking about 5 ,000, we need the Lord's mind, but a large number coming together for worship and praise, fellowship and the Word of God.

Networking with churches and with other organizations all over Europe, continuing some of our similar type of summer small teamwork, but also launching into a greater variety of efforts. Just getting a strong-minded band of people like the OM leaders to unite on such an effort is probably the greatest miracle of the whole thing.

The European leaders seem to be united on this, and it's slowly moving forward as it will be presented to the General Council of OM at the end of August. There are other big forward thrusts planned for India.

I hope many of you will go to the India seminar. This is still the decade of Muslim emphasis, and this will continue on into the next decade. Though we are praying in the 90s about having a major decade emphasis on the mega super cities of the world.

God is just releasing so many ideas, so many visions, I cannot even keep up reading about all the different things being said.

So many visions, so many new plans come to my notebook. I can't even read everything that our OM leaders want to do. Some time ago I read so many reports, reports and analyzes, I said, hey, I'm so tired, you read this thing and I'm going to sleep.

Honest Evaluation and the Cost of Ministry

But we are facing right now, this month, this summer, is a big challenge. And we need to do what we've often emphasized from Luke 14. We need to count the costs. The Christian world has proven that talk is cheap.

And it's so sad that now, when a man exaggerates something, we say, well, evangelically speaking, or evangelistically speaking, blah, blah, blah, blah.

What a horrible thing that has become.

That is why we do not want to exaggerate. We don't want you to write a prayer letter home, whoo, six people were saved this morning through my sharing the four spiritual laws on the street corner. Just because someone prays a little prayer with one of you little blue eyed, lovely little nice looking, doesn't mean that they were saved.

We would prefer you to say, six people this morning professed, they professed with their mouth, faith in Christ. We hope some of them have really been saved. There's nothing wrong with saying that. OM traditionally has not been very good at keeping score.

Numbers of decisions for Christ. Most of the high percentage of these so called decisions, we know five years later have not been true conversions to Jesus Christ. That doesn't mean we don't challenge people to make a decision.

We'll never all agree on how that's to be done. I like to get the sense in my heart that the Holy Spirit is doing something in somebody before I press them to make a decision.

Maybe you don't totally agree with that.

God wants us to count the cost of what we are going into even in the next two weeks. Some of you went through the driver's training just a short time ago. Did that take place this evening? How many went to that meeting?

How many drivers did not go to that meeting? How many drivers did not go to the driver's training meeting? Stand up. Okay, you can repent and sit down. But you know, driving these vehicles is one of the most serious and important tasks we have this summer.

And we have counted the cost many times about what this is involved. Especially as we have seen some of our close loved ones killed out on the highways. You can be sure we count the cost. We don't have time tonight to go into many different areas where we've been counting the cost of what we are going into.

We've been praying, we've been wrestling with God on these important issues. And I know that you have counted the cost before you've come here to some degree. And we hope you'll count the cost in these days.

There's a sense in which we admire people who at the end of this week come to us and say, look, I have counted the cost of what's involved in this kind of confrontation evangelism and I feel really that I love Jesus, I want to stay, I don't feel I'm ready for this.

I know that that of course is difficult because there's a sense that none of us feel ready. And I'm sure some would like us to throw out little black and white formulas so you could just resolve these things that easy.

Am I ready to talk to Muslims about Jesus? I think many of you are. Because we are not pretending that you are the apostle to the Muslim world. You are a young person who is learning to share your faith with people of all cultures.

Then it's how nice you can write it down. We don't walk up to a Muslim in the street and say, we are targeting in on your people's group. We hope that you will exercise great wisdom and discernment in your witness.

So each session we have during these four days, five days,.

Each session is important.

Don't shrug it off and say, oh, I've already heard this, oh, I've already read this when I was home in my book about Islam. Most of us have to hear the truth. We have to hear things several times before it sinks in.

Vision for the Whole Body of Christ

But there are four words that God has put on my heart, especially for tonight, four very important words. And I want to share these words and a few biblical thoughts about them. Words are powerful. They communicate thoughts.

One word can communicate a whole river of thoughts in our minds. The first word that's burning on my heart, and I spend a lot of time thinking and praying on what I should share in the short times I have with you, the first word is vision.

Vision. Write it down in your own language.

God wants to increase our vision.

God wants to increase our vision of the whole universe. Body of Christ.

That's why this book, I feel, is so important. Coming from the USA conference in Atlanta, I met Ralph Winter in the airport and on the airplane. This kind of thing happens to me all the time. People that I want to see, that are not easy to see, suddenly I find I'm stuck at 30 ,000 feet and they're on the same plane.

It can happen on, it happens on boats. It happens in phone boxes.

I was flying to California. William McDonald, the author of True Discipleship, one of our closest friends, he's on the same plane. These are things, if you try to plan them, meet in the airport, get on the same flight, it doesn't work.

I had such a burden to be able to get some time with Mike Evans. I get on a ferry on the way to Italy. I'm sitting at the table next to where the people line up to go in and get their breakfast. There's Mike Evans.

Not just Mike, but the second person, his wife. So we had breakfast together. Our lives are ordered by God. Isn't it a joy, isn't it exhilarating to know tonight we're here in the will of God? We want you to have an Acts 1 -8 vision.

You shall receive power after the Holy Spirit has come upon you and ye shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost part of the earth. That's one of the reasons we're here in this tent right now.

Those of us who have been around a long time, we need our vision renewed. Those who are new need your vision to grow, maybe to be renewed as well. So let's come into the prayer times with enthusiasm to learn about these countries, to pray for these people's groups.

A lot of things we challenge people to do in OM, they can really be drudgery. If you don't have a vision. In the last few days, one of my jobs, one of my blessings is to answer letters. So when I went on my trip in my old bus to Norway, I took four or five hundred letters with me.

And most of the time I just sat there in the same seat, back of the bus, dictating, talking in his little machine, dictating letters. I can't remember being bored once on the entire trip. There may have been a time that I forgot.

Just very ordinary letters. Sometimes just a thank you letter to somebody who sent in, one person sent in a one pound gift. I wrote them a thank you letter. The whole process of thanking costs more than the gift.

So if you have any one pound gifts, if you could hand them in and not ask for a receipt, or a thank you letter, that would be helpful.

What am I trying to say?

When we have a vision, ordinary things, routine things become very exciting.

Driving a vehicle for Jesus. Giving out a few tracts. Cooking some food.

Picking up some paper across the campsite. I could name a hundred things to do. Two hundred things I've had the privilege of doing that seemingly are boring, but with Jesus they're exciting. We need a vision to understand how what we are doing is a vital part of God's great program to bring in this harvest of people around the world.

Vision. This is why God has brought some of you here.

He wants to blow your circuits with vision. You're going to spiritually freak out.

As you pray your way through this book.

I'm going to wait to see some of you gasping for spiritual breath, crawling across the grass with this book in your hand. Well, not quite. Well, let me get to the second word. That word is unity. Unity.

Unity Across Cultural and Denominational Differences

Some of you, a few of you, have heard the orientation tape on the subject of unity, but many of you have not, especially in other languages. We know the Bible teaches there is strength in unity. We know the prayer of Jesus in John 17 about unity.

We know the message of love in 1 Corinthians 13 is completely tied together to the message of unity found in chapter 12. Even the Old Testament says, how good when the brothers dwell together in unity.

When I was a young Christian, I made a study on the subject of unity. I've got that little piece of paper I used.

When I made that study 30 years ago.

Before I went to Bible college, I was at university. It was before I went. I was studying all secular subjects. I didn't have a lot of time to study the Bible. But on my own, this is one of the studies that I made.

As a baby Christian.

And I listed all the verses that are tied into unity, which is basically the fruit of the Holy Spirit. These are just the verses that I found in the New Testament relating to unity. This is just on unity itself, a whole string of verses.

When I was making this study, little did I know what God was doing. He was laying a spiritual foundation for a movement of His Holy Spirit.

That was destined to touch many millions of people.

I never cease to be amazed at verses like, for example, 1 Corinthians, chapter 1, verse 10. Sorry if I said that wrong. Chapter 1, verse 10. Listening to it on cassette tape this morning. Verse 10. Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together, the same mind and the same judgment.

One of Satan's primary methods for hindering the work of our Lord is to bring disunity. Satan will try that strategy on your team this summer. You can be almost sure of that. We are especially vulnerable because we come from many different countries, many different languages.

Very easy language misunderstandings come. You know, I've been married to the same wonderful woman for 27, 28 years. And we still, when we're together, average two to three misunderstandings per day, if we're doing anything.

Most of them are small.

We're from the same country. We're born in the same year. We speak the same language. A lot of things in common. But we have language problems. Problem number one, he speaks.

I don't listen. I'm thinking about other things.

I mean, after all, 28 years, the same voice, same things going on about. I'm planning my next book sale attack on the local church for Sunday mornings. I'm thinking about this next memo I'm going to write or this next sermon I'm going to launch.

She's asking me if I lock the back door as we go out to walk the dog, of course.

And I didn't hear what she said.

So she asked a second time.

I didn't hear, really, what she said.

But I say, yeah, yeah. Just sort of a psychological reaction. So we get back to the house. And she said, we go into the house and the back door is open. She said, were you listening to me when I asked you about the back door?

Well, sure I was listening. What do you think I'm a jerk? Don't you trust me? 28 years I've been working for you and you don't think I love you?

Pretty soon the thing is out of control.

Simple little misunderstanding. Now, if you don't think you're going to have any of those things on your team this summer you are more ignorant than a frozen grasshopper. That was a good one. You don't even have those in Germany.

But really, I just want to give a plea. We don't have much time. A plea for unity. We're never going to all agree on all these different issues the church is fighting about. I read a high percentage of Christian magazines.

I minister in churches of almost every denomination. I listen to a lot of different cassette tapes from men who absolutely are not even on speaking terms with each other. And I believe that Satan is just trying to just pull the body of Christ into pieces so that we cannot get on with the work of world evangelism.

Lately we've had some people fighting over what kind of evangelism is going to shape the world for Christ. One brother says it's power evangelism. We need the power. That was a little close. Remember, mine's longer than yours is.

Another brother has read a lot of books on management and expertise and excellency. He says we need a better program. We need to organize. We need to bring in the best speakers. We need to set up satellites and televisions in every living room.

We need to give everybody a tract, everybody a testament. No, give everybody a Bible. You know, it's good that we can laugh. Because I tell you in some of these things it's either cry or laugh. There's no middle ground for this thing.

And it seems to me in many of these controversies it's not one or the other. It's often both. When Billy Graham preaches he doesn't have a great healing service as some other people have. God's not led him that way.

He believes God heals. He prays for the sick.

I don't think we can call what Billy Graham does program evangelism. Simply because he doesn't do it exactly the same way that someone else. I was saved in a Billy Graham meeting. It wasn't program that saved me.

It was the power of God through the preaching of the Word that slayed me and brought me to the feet of Jesus Christ and I was born again. And I know some of you in the middle of the summer especially working among Muslims you're probably going to think, well these people are not all coming to Christ.

Very hard work.

Just selling a few books, witnessing. We need a miracle.

We need to see somebody raised from the dead.

Boy, these Muslims, they'll just set Jesus as their Savior. So you get the team together.

And you're all gathered around laying hands on the tombstone. Here's a poor lady who's been resting there happily for a hundred years. Probably she's in heaven and you're going to come there and bother her and bring her back to this crazy place.

But I will tell you the Word of God says many, many people even if you bring someone back from the dead they will not believe. That's what Jesus Christ said. Only the Holy Spirit can bring conversion.

We don't want to do things just to impress people just to somehow prove that God is alive. We're not proving anything. We are declaring the Gospel which is the power of God unto salvation. And when a man is saved by the grace of God and the work of the Holy Spirit that is a miracle.

That is a greater miracle than a man having his arm healed. Amen.

But we are willing to pray for his arm to be healed as well.

What we're not willing for is to allow disunity and contention to come into the team over some of these complicated and controversial issues that the church is fighting about at this present time. I wrote in my Bible something that's really helped me to be happy and fulfilled working in something like OM which is interdenominational and people of different backgrounds.

If they want to write this down it's sort of one of OM's statements of unity. Because of world evangelism.

Because of world evangelism try to abbreviate it.

And the reality of spiritual warfare and the reality of the spiritual warfare two main factors. We need to agree on a plan of action. We need to agree on a plan of action and a strategy and policy to carry out that action.

And a strategy and policy to carry out that action. We need to get agreement on that.

Even when there are things we don't like or necessarily agree with. Even when there are things we don't like or even agree with.

Even when there are things we don't like or even agree with.

Of course we need to agree on the basics.

The Bible is God's Word. Men are lost without Christ. God gave his Son Jesus Christ to die on the cross for their redemption. They're not small things. They're mega truths. We can unite on these things.

We can unite on these things.

And many other things. And that will keep us more than busy for the next decade or two. My wife and I as you probably have detected don't agree on every point.

Don't agree on every point. Some of these marriage books say.

That as the years go by you become more and more lovely like two peas in a pod. And my marriage as the years have gone on. And my marriage as the years have gone on.

And my marriage as the years have gone on.

Discovered more and more things that we are totally different. Our approach and our thinking is just so different. Sometimes we can't even walk together.

Sometimes we can't even walk together. Because I prefer to walk a little slower. Because I prefer to walk a little slower.

But you know we're staying together. But you know we're staying together. And we've seen some tremendous things in our marriage in the midst of diversity. Unity is often in the midst of diversity.

And we've seen some tremendous things in our marriage in the midst of diversity. And unity is often in the midst of diversity. We don't want you to compromise some of your personal convictions. Maybe you believe in vitamins.

Maybe you believe in vitamins.

I can tell by your eyes you're not into vitamin E. No, if you take vitamins no one's going to stop you on a summer campaign. Fine for early in the morning we find you creeping over to somebody else's sleeping bag and trying to push a vitamin down someone else's throat.

No, no. No, no, no, no, no. And it's not the social policy either.

No, no, no. No, no, no, no, no. No, no. It's getting late.

No, no. Seriously. As we go out and face this work this summer the task is so big. For a couple hundred years mighty men and women of God have been working to try to bring Muslims to Jesus Christ. Let us not be so arrogant to think that this is something O .M. has thought about.

We follow humbly in the steps of men like Zwemer and Lionel Gurney and a host of others. We want to see a turning point in Islam. We are believing God for great breakthroughs in society. But we're not going to fake it.

And it's probably going to take more than one summer. It's going to take more than short-term evangelism. So we need patience as we're tested. As our hearts get broken. Because sometimes Muslims profess faith in Christ and within a few weeks they turn back on that profession and return more committed to Islam than before they made the profession.

And from past experience we know that Satan will try to use the struggles, the problems, the disappointments to bring confusion and disunity into the team. I don't know if you've read any of my books.

I know they're not, in one sense, they're not that great. They're just sermons in print. But I've had thousands of letters from people who've read these books and I believe these books, which are available, have helped people understand this importance of unity and majoring in major issues rather than minor issues.

Reality Through Balanced Truth

The third word I have is reality. That's why I called one of my books Hunger for Reality. In OM we are hungry for reality on every level of our Christian life. This means honesty. We don't have to pretend we're living way up here in the clouds of super-spirituality when we know in fact we're living down here.

You don't have to pretend. Everything is wonderful when you feel miserable. Of course there is scope for taking a position of faith. Taking a position of faith is quite different from presumption or from faking it.

We are willing for the slower road to spirituality in OM. I think that's why perhaps some people don't choose to come with us. I don't know. We want miracles but we want miracles that last 20, 30, 40 years.

We want your life changed and radicalized in such a way that 20, 30 years down the road you will still be running in God's marathon in the power of the Holy Ghost. And we're willing to sacrifice a little on the altar of the temporary in order to get longer term permanent results for world evangelism.

And OM at times has been slowed down because we wanted to get unity right across the world.

At the end of August we all meet for two or three weeks.

To get unity on basic issues, to deal with problems in the world, to deal with sin that may be in the camp, to wait upon God for two or three weeks that we may have and know the reality of God.

Burning in our hearts, guiding us along the way.

I cannot explain how hungry I am for greater reality in my own life and in this whole work across the world. It grips me day and night, it has for 32 years. That's why we will talk about balance because without a balance of truth you'll not have reality.

You'll be into unreality as quick as these rabbits.

Are running around this park.

I walk all over the woods, everywhere I go I see these rabbits.

So if you go to bed tonight and you feel something soft in the bottom of your sleeping bag, don't worry, it's probably just a little rabbit.

Reality includes many, many, many things. People say, why does OM push so many books? Because these books largely are written by men who have proven with their lives that they know God and that they know something of reality with God.

Many of us followed this man Lloyd-Jones all of his life until he was with Jesus. Remember when he came to speak on the ship Toulouse in London? Guess what he spoke on? The need for balance. Emphasis on doctrine and truth needs the balance of the work of the Holy Ghost and revival in the believer.

That's the kind of balance we want this summer.

So often today things are off balance.

Some Christians hold truth, truth, truth, truth. Everybody is being seduced. Everybody is going into false doctrine. Take the Bible, boom, boom. That's too small. And then you get somebody else way over on the other side.

And all they talk about is love and unity and the Holy Spirit.

Let's all come together.

Doesn't matter what we believe. Now somebody is even saying, let's bring in the Buddhists,.

Bring in the Hindus, all one.

Even the Archbishop of Canterbury, to his own shame, has more or less said all these different roads are all leading to heaven.

So we get tremendous imbalance in the church.

Most Christians today are confused by it all. They don't know which book to read, which way to turn, which voice to listen to. We don't live in easy days. Some believe that Satan may be making his last big heavy stand to stop the evangelization of the unreached people of the world.

We're going to take reality, knowing God, walking with God, reality in worship,.

Reality in prayer, reality in our witnessing. And we know that's a lifetime task. And the last word,.

Forgiveness as the Foundation of Christian Community

Forgiveness. Oh, I wish I had another hour,.

I wish I had another hour to talk about it, but the time is over.

Forgiveness. Without forgiveness we wouldn't be here.

God forgave us because of Jesus Christ. What he did on the cross.

Now he tells us to forgive others. One of my favorite contemporary songs is Don't Shoot the Wounded. Don't Shoot the Wounded. It seems that so often we do this in the church. We've often done this to the people who have been through divorce.

So divorced people, in many places, all their life,.

They're second-class citizens, if they're in the church you can teach them.

And there's many, many other examples of how we don't really forgive people the way that God forgives. One of the things I remember that Billy Graham said the night of my conversion was that when we confess our sin and the blood covers, he will remember, God will remember our sin no more.

And many, many, many scriptures we could give about this. I want to just close with this question. Is there anybody, anywhere that you've not forgiven? What about your parents? They're not perfect? Sure they've hurt you at some time or other?

That's just so normal.

Maybe they don't know the Lord?

Maybe they do, but have been inconsistent,.

At least in your thinking.

You may even be on OM this summer, running away from your own parents.

Not easy to put it all together. But you need to exercise forgiveness.

Write your mother and father and tell them you love them and express some positive things.

In the midst of maybe negative struggles.

Maybe there's someone that's hurt you. What's God's message? Forgive them. You may say, well, if they apologize,.

Then sure, I'll forgive them. That's not God's way. If they apologize, well, push their nose in the dirt a little bit, and then I'll forgive them. Sure, I believe in it.

It works sometimes. That's not God's way. We don't wait until somebody apologizes. If it's a slap on the face at the moment of impact, forgive them. That's the word that comes on our heart. Just as Jesus on the cross, when the nails went in,.

Said, forgive them. If they hit you, then forgive them at the same moment. That's also the way Jesus would have done it. That's way too idealistic. The OMers are so idealistic. I was warned about this.