Vision Eng to Korean — George Verwer

Let's just say a word about the books. Books are not optional when you're on operation mobilization. You need to get into these books. How many of you are thinking seriously toward long-term missionary work?

Stand up. Stand up. Long-term missionary work. This is a sight to be. Everybody turn around and look. You got to see this. Hallelujah. You can now sit down. Now let me just give a prophetic word. You are not going to make it.

Financial Preparation for Long-Term Missions

Many of you are not going to make it. Unless you become more serious about money. Oh. Such a such an unspiritual statement. There's George Behrer again. He can't help talk about money. He used to always talk about sex.

Now he's always talking about money. Well, if you look in your Bible, there are 500 verses about sex, and there are hundreds of verses about money. Here's a book about money. But it's in disguise because talking about money on the front cover would make it look unspiritual.

The title should in fact be fundraising. But no one is going to read a book on fundraising. So they changed the title. It's called friend raising. Isn't that lovely? Friend raising. But if you read underneath it, you find out what it's actually about.

Praise God, it's written by a woman. The 90s is the decade of the women. It's also the decade of the children. It's also the decade of the children, which is normal since the women do produce the children.

So together. Building a missionary support team that lasts. That lasts. Not just little donations from your grandmother who's going to heaven next week, but a support team that lasts. Somebody gave me some orientation for you, how to speak with you as my interpreter.

I was given some orientation. You interpret that, please. They said I should be gentle. Imagine telling me I should be gentle. I'm always gentle! Anyway, I hope you will read this book. Because this is so basic.

To get enough money to come short-term when you're single, that is easy. Like my friend says, that's like a walk in the park. But when you get married, expenses quadruple. Because they can't stick you anymore in a freezing tent.

They have to put you in a room. The expenses go way up. But don't rush into marriage just because of that. Because if you look into the book of Proverbs, you will read a verse that is very similar to this paraphrase.

Better to be in a freezing room on your own than a freezing tent on your own, than a warm room with a nagging wife. So don't do anything foolish in the first few days here. There's another book along this line, which will soon be in German and Spanish and other languages.

And I urge you to get it. Serving as senders. We need senders. Romans 10, 15. There's not time to say much because our time is short tonight. I just urge you to get that powerful book if you're serious about becoming a missionary.

Some of you are looking for an English Bible because you are learning English. And you can get this English study Bible at less than half price at our literature table. It's a revised translation known as the New King James.

I'd like to give every one of you one of those Bibles. But I have not paid for them yet. Then there's a new book called Mentoring in Missions. I've had high recommendations of this book, which I've only started to read myself.

It is outstanding. And then a book one year, when we had a little more money, we gave everybody who came to this conference a copy of this free of charge. It's called Love Covers. How can people work together when there's such different denominations?

Those who pray with their hands in the air moving around. How can they be on a team with those that pray with their hands in their pockets or sitting on them? How do Pentecostals work together with fighting fundies?

This book explains how. Actually, this book explains how. A good book is just a sermon based on God's Word in print. That's what a good book is. And lastly, Calvary Road. How many of you have read Calvary Road?

Used to be required reading. Now some are a little concerned about the worm theology in the early chapters. So if after reading Calvary Road, you are feeling like a worm all wiggly in the dirt, you can read the second book.

Because when they did this first book, some people got extreme on this. So Roy Heshin wrote the second book. We would see Jesus to bring it into balance. So when the little wiggly worm sees Jesus, he roars like a lion and he comes into balance.

And if that doesn't work, you pick up the book Healing for Damaged Emotions. It's very warm in here, so I'm going to take off my globe. Yes, you can take off your sweater. But I feel a burden too because you're doing such an excellent job translating.

I'm going to present you with this global jacket as a gift. And since you speak so well and you're so anointed, you can give the message and I'll go to bed because I'm tired. Let us pray. Lord, we thank you for the joy and the privilege of being here together tonight.

And we know that some are tired. Some may be lonely. Some are missing their mommy or daddy. And we pray special blessing for these people. You have called them here and you will give them the grace to receive what you have in these days.

We thank you for those who have brought in such a large number from places like Korea. But we thank you for those that are here, the ones and twos from other countries where OM may just be getting a slow start.

And especially, Lord, we thank you for all the people who are here from Latin America. And God, we know that you have answered many, many prayers, many thousands of prayers to bring us together like this.

Jesus’ Compassion and the Vision for the Harvest

Help us now as we speak together of this subject of vision. In Jesus' name, Amen. Many, many, many scriptures that are on my heart. But I'd like you first of all to turn to Matthew chapter 9. Matthew chapter 9 starting at verse 35.

We see something of the vision of the Lord Jesus. And our first burden, our first vision is the vision to see Jesus. I'm sure that was emphasized last night. These Greeks came and they said, we would see Jesus.

So let's just look at this passage about the Lord Jesus. And we'll just read verses 35 through verse 38. We see Jesus was a man of action. We'll read in English and Korean because while she's reading Korean, all the other languages, we'd like you to read the verses because it's God's Word.

I'll read one verse at a time. Matthew 9, chapter 9, verse 35. There you're finding it. Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, healing every sickness and every disease among the people.

When he saw, here's the key verse, 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 he said unto his disciples, a harvest truly is plenteous, but the workers are few.

Pray therefore the Lord of the harvest and he'll send forth workers into the harvest. We have a vision in OM. As you know, this has been burning in some of our hearts for more than three and a half decades.

And I'm so glad that without pretending, I can say that the vision still in my own life is an all-consuming vision that grips me every single day, 365 days a year. The challenges we will give you, the teaching we will give you in these days, it will be impossible if you don't have a vision.

Discipline, the disciplined life which we believe in, without which we cannot function. Without a vision, discipline leads to drudgery. Now, it's good to see some of you writing some of these things down.

Because the memory is not very good at remembering these things. And we are not just sharing these things so that you can hear them. On the basis of 2 Timothy chapter 2 verse 2, we are sharing these things so that you can receive them and give them to others.

And I just pray that you will do that. Because that's part of the vision we'll talk about just a little bit later. Something that's so important to remember, you are not coming to just join some large, sophisticated mission organization.

You are, as of yesterday or before, maybe the middle of the summer, you are the organization. It's very important to understand this. In OM, the short-termers are not some little extras we add because of one reason or the other.

In OM, the short-termers are part of the major heart of the whole movement.

And that's a mega blessing. But it also can be a problem.

Because though our first burden is to see you become more mature and strong in God. That's our first burden. Therefore, we want to give to you, we want to share, we want to teach, we want to love. At the same time, we, and those who've gone before you, we have a vision.

We have a ministry that God has called us to. We have goals. We have purposes. We have plans. We have dreams. And we see you as part of that dream. We see our partnership, us long-termers, with those who are short-term, that partnership is essential for this dream to become a reality.

And so, in these days, we share with you our dreams. We share with you our visions. Some of these visions have already become a reality. Things have happened. People have been saved. Churches have been born.

But the needs are still great. Further training. Consolidation. Many, many other ministries that are connected with any work of God. There are many ministries. And if you do not have spiritual discernment to understand the way in which God works in the world we live, easily in a few months from now, you might feel that you're just being used.

Maybe to give out somebody's tracks that they've had stuck in a box. Or to do some dirty work in the engine room of the ship. There is a lot of work to be done in OM. We do not apologize that we are a work-oriented movement.

Because we are attempting to evangelize the world. Because the Word of God says we should not be hearers only, but we should be doers. That's what it says in James chapter 1. We're constantly struggling to do better for our Lord Jesus, who we love.

In OM, we're in the midst of the biggest rethink and strategic planning initiative in the history of the movement. You have come right in the middle of that. Right now, it's going on. Long-term people, not all of them, but a lot of them were here for four or five days before this conference.

Thinking, planning, praying. Asking hard questions. Going to six different task forces where we've broken up major OM areas of vision and ministry to try to improve and change this work. These are exciting times in OM.

You have not joined a movement that is stuck in cement. We don't like cement because they make monuments out of cement. And we don't want to be a monument. We'd like to think of OM more as liquid hot steel just dropping out of one of these big cauldrons at a steel mill.

They have great steel mills in Korea. And these are days of bending and molding and forming the steel that we may be more effective in the coming years for our Lord Jesus Christ. This is our vision. This is our burden as we rush to the year 2000.

Taking Ownership of Operation Mobilization

We don't want you to just sit as frightened observers of this that's taking place. We invite you tonight to take ownership of operation mobilization. To take ownership of operation mobilization.

Now in many public companies these days or when companies go public from a private company to a public company.

They offer stocks ownership in the country. They sell it to every Tom, Dick and Harry Luigi or Hufeng or Hongbong who wants to buy the stocks. We have to be more international in our vocabulary. By the way, my favorite Chinese name is wonderful.

Ping Pong. Because it's such a good game. Though I'm not very good at. We want you to take ownership. We don't want anybody to be an observer. Now I know some of you have come to check out what's operation mobilization.

Maybe your mother told you about OM. We didn't used to have such people. And so you've come to check us out.

You're an observer. You're going to play it cool.

You're not going to get too excited. And you especially have been warned about big mouths, hypnotists, verwers, vap. He's liable to get you to become a long-term missionary. It's obvious that that isn't necessary.

Eighty percent of you are already planning. I got to challenge some of you to go home and make some money. But seriously, I would beg of you in the name of the Lord to take ownership of this work, of this vision that God has put upon our hearts.

What is the vision? Some of it is seen right here in this passage of Scripture that we have just read. It is the vision to carry the gospel to every village, every people, every person in the world. Jesus started doing that Himself when He was here.

And of course He backed up His actions with His words in which He said, Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every person. So clear, so simple. That is our vision. It's not only emphasized throughout the gospels in very, very clear terms.

But also in the book of Acts, just before Jesus ascended into heaven, He gave that great command and that great promise in Acts chapter 1 and verse 8. Please mark that down and continue to share it the rest of your life.

Just before He ascended into heaven. Just before He ascended into heaven. He said this. But you shall receive power after the Holy Spirit has come upon you and ye shall be my witnesses both in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the uttermost part of the earth.

You'll never understand OM if you don't understand this. That's why we have given the word of God face to face across the world by sea forces, by land forces by sea, by the ship ministry and by the land forces to way, way over 500 million people.

Face to face. 500 million. Statistics easily get mixed up in interpretation so I'll say it again. Over 500 million individuals have received the word of God face to face with literature and testimony from these OM teams these 30 some years.

I can't really say it in numbers anyway. Great numbers. Okay.

500 million. I'll make it easy for you. There are about 5 billion people in the whole world. How do you deal with that one? 5 billion people. So 500 million is one out of every 10 of those people. Now that it's not really as good as it sounds because that's 35 years a lot of people have gone out into eternity.

Now OM is not as committed to reaching the masses as perhaps we were in our first 10 or 20 years. We still have that vision. It's still happening. But we have other visions. And the second part of that vision is to see the church, living churches established in every people's group of the world.

So after the initial sowing of the seed for example as we did in France two times over we had to shift more of the attention to follow up and church planting and discipling and training leaders. Now OM today is part in fellowship with the AD2000 movement.

Many, many, many millions and millions of Christians are linked with this. It's not an organization. You don't have to agree with everything but we're linked with the general flow of the AD2000 movement.

And the slogan, the statement of this great movement is the gospel for every person a church for every people by the year 2000. That is our vision. Now, it's the vision of many other groups. It's the vision of many other fellowships and many other groups.

And it should be. And we don't want to think that we're some special organization. Oh and we got more vision than these other people do. No. We are learning from these other people. Now they write me letters and they say they're learning from us.

Praise God. We're learning from each other as we go forward together to fulfill this great vision. And we know that God will lead different people in different ways. And that's the beauty of God's way of working.

God is not leading everybody to be full-time missionaries, full-time preachers in foreign countries. God is only leading a certain number of people that way. But we believe He is leading everyone to have this vision or at least a similar biblical vision.

And as you write your letters back to your prayer partners, back to your churches, as you share some of this vision, remember those words in Philippians that say that we should esteem other people better than ourselves.

Let that grip your heart tonight. And I want to esteem.

Those who are praying and giving their money. I have to leave here on Thursday morning.

Because one of my main jobs that God's called me to in OM is the relationship with your churches all over the world. And God has given me the privilege of being bonded and linked with hundreds and hundreds of churches all over the world.

Of course, it's taken 38 years. And not just to those churches in terms of the church, but to also individuals in those churches. I get bonded with these pastors. We become very close. I pray for them.

I send them books. They write letters back. They thank me for the books. And they invite me or another OM speaker to come and speak. And then we get a chance to speak to people like you. How many of you are ever in an OM meeting where you were challenged before you came on OM?

Raise your hand. An OM meeting where you were.

Challenged in your church or somewhere else. It could be anywhere before you came. Raise your hand so I can see. That's about 75%. So I'd appreciate your prayers.

As I spend three days in very big meetings in Scotland. And then two weeks in churches and Christian colleges in the United States before returning back to London. This leads me to share a very big, vital part of our vision.

Partnership With the Local Church

Again, you'll never understand OM if you don't understand this. God has given us a vision of His church. The church is the bride of Christ. We have, first of all, the church universal, which is all true believers in Jesus Christ.

Whatever their denomination, that's the church universal. But it has many manifestations. The local church, the local fellowship, is the manifestation of that great universal church in a particular area among a particular people.

When people first came on OM way back in the 60s, many of them were recruited in universities. They told me later it was on OM they came to their first understanding of the church and the importance of the church and how God wants to work through the local church and fellowship.

It changed their lives. How many of you have been prayed for and sent out in some way, maybe a small way, but sent out by a local church, whether small or big? Raise your hand. That is absolutely amazing.

We would not have had that 25 years ago. God has given us a vision of the church. To have that partnership with the church. We have over a thousand churches that we have partnership with. We give to them.

They give to us. We visit. They send workers. Partnership! Wherever I go in the world, I'm often speaking at pastors' conferences. What a privilege. Or leadership conferences. And the Spirit of the Lord works in those meetings.

And later on, many of those leaders and those pastors have sent to us their young men, their young people, sometimes their own sons and daughters. How many of you have parents who are missionaries? Man, that's wild.

Ooh, missionary! MKs! Raise your hand. Every MK and every PK can get a free book from the book table tonight under three pounds. Why do I say that? Because it's tougher to be a second-generation fool for Christ than a first-generation fool for Christ.

Because the second-generation fool for Christ has actually seen too many fools, and he gets confused. God has given us a vision to see a revived church. To see a biblical church. To see a 1 Corinthians 13 church.

To see a witnessing church. Where everybody in the church is winning others to Jesus. Where everyone in the church is committed to one another to love and to care and to put into practice the biblical realities of God's Word.

Integrity in Personal Testimony

And as sometimes you go and take a church meeting, you're asked to give your testimony. That's a privilege. You prepare that. You pray about that. You make sure you don't go too long. And you don't have to add to your testimony so it's more glamorous.

Some of you feel your testimony is a little boring. You were saved at 7 on your mother's knee when she threatened to spank you if you didn't accept Jesus. Just be honest when you give your testimony. There was this young guy giving his testimony.

He was talking about the evil. He was in gay, he was in bi, wickedness and evil. He was dangerous. He was involved in heavy sinful crime and activity. People were listening. Then at 8 he accepted Jesus.

Somehow it didn't quite sound right. Be honest about your testimony. One of the greatest commitments of OM is our commitment to reality, integrity and honesty. I wonder if you could say that together with me.

Reality, integrity, honesty. One, two, three. Reality, integrity, honesty. That's the vision God has given us. You see, it's not firstly geography. It's not firstly geography. It's firstly reality. Like we heard last night knowing God.

And I will tell you I've watched this young man's life Peter Maiden for almost 20 years and he is practicing what he is talking about. He is experiencing what he is talking about and that's why I counted a joy to submit to him as a co-leader.

Reaching the Muslim World Through Church Partnership

Now of course we can divide these two mega visions into many many many subdivisions. We don't have the time. Here's the vision, the specific vision for the Muslim world. That's a huge thing in OM's thinking and praying.

Almost everything in OM revolves around the vision for reaching the Muslim world with the gospel including both aspects of what I shared. We have many kinds of teams. We have many ways of going about this.

Sometimes it involves relief work and ministry among the poor and the refugees as among the Afghans and the Kurds. Other times it involves working closely with that local church as in Alexandria or in Pakistan Egypt, Alexandria, Egypt or in Pakistan.

In the land of India where we had such spontaneous growth. I believe one of the keys was this. The right balance between working with the churches and reaching the masses to keep those two parts of this vision in balance.

And as they did that in India, we saw the results. We saw the growth and we're feeling the impact of it today. It might be good for you to understand how some of this began. Some of this vision. How did some of it begin?

It might be good to understand a little bit of how this began. Dale Roton and I went to Mexico together with one other brother in 1957. We didn't have a huge vision of the church. We didn't have a huge understanding of the local church at that time.

And then we separated for about two years. He went to Wheaton College, which was known for intellectual things. I went to Moody Bible Institute, which was known for missions, Bible, prayer, and action.

I still was concerned about mobilizing people. I went back to Mexico with different people and many other things like prayer and faith. Dale Roton got into the Whitcliffe Bible Translators training. And then he got caught up with a group whose major emphasis was local church.

That was a big thing. And then we met together. He took some of my new vision. I took some of his new vision. We mixed it together.

The Origins of OM’s Global Vision

One of the most amazing things in my young life, when I.

Challenged Dale to forget about these tribes and Bible translation and go to reach the masses of Turkey. I was extreme about Turkey. Actually, I was extreme about everything. But especially Turkey. And to my amazement, Dale Roton decided to take on the ownership of this great vision for Turkey, which continues to this day.

But a year later, he baptized me in that little local church. George Verwer, in the name of Jesus.

Dale Roton baptized me. And he wrote a funny little book, which we don't reprint.

Called Divisions in Christianity. It was a little bit anti-denominational. It was called Divisions in Christianity, and it was a little bit anti-denominational. It might have been even thought of as anti-Presbyterian.

Since Dale Roton was a Presbyterian. I'm too. Yes, he was. And he was pleading in that little booklet for living New Testament churches. And so the vision of the local church and to plant churches and to work with churches came from those early days when OM was just being born.

And we praise God for that. And it's no problem for us in OM. If your local church keeps your ownership as a missionary. Let your local church loan you out to Operation Mobilization, but they can keep the ownership.

We are very happy with that. It's not always possible, but we're happy. In fact, let me tell you something about OM that you may not know. We may come on a little bit strong. We may have a strong message.

Evangelize the world. Discipleship. Full commitment to Jesus Christ. But by the grace of God, you will find the present OM is a grace-awakened movement. Hallelujah for that. Would you like to join ICT?

I hope you read that book, Grace Awakening, or at least read the back cover. The back cover talks about grace killers. And I believe we need to declare all-out war against grace killers. But somehow that doesn't sound right.

Try it in Korean. See if it sounds any better. I think we're in trouble with the translation. I will now explain what a grace killer is. He is not someone who carries a machine gun. I'll explain what a grace killer is.

He's a legalist. A legalist. A legalist. Do you have a word for that? In the name of Jesus. It's okay. Fine. It's not Presbyterian. Do not get them confused. Basically, it's someone that is living by rules and regulations instead of by the grace of God and the power and the reality of the Holy Spirit.

And if you'll give us a chance, if you'll talk to us, you will discover we are more flexible in OM than you may have ever dreamed. But you need wisdom on how you put your leader to a test in regard to his flexibility.

You may want to wait for a few weeks to pass when the pressure of this conference goes away. And then maybe share with him some of the things that are on your heart that you'd like to see changed or that you'd like to do.

A Worldwide Vision Through Prayer and Mobilization

But let me quickly share a few other aspects of this vision that is so much upon our heart. Other geographical visions. Basically, it's the whole of Europe. Basically, it's the whole of India and those surrounding countries like Bangladesh and Pakistan.

And because of this vision for the church and the desire to reach tens of millions of people with the gospel, we feel that the vision extends to every nation in the world. We don't feel we should have OM permanent bases in every nation.

That would be foolishness. We're already overextended. But with the ships, we can come in for a season with a catalyst, with literature, with conferences, and tremendous things take place. And sometimes people come from those nations.

And they go back and they start all kinds of different ministries. So we have to confess.

Our vision is a world vision. So we have to confess our vision is a world vision. You're going to pray for every country? Yeah, why not? I remember when I was a little kid I was a baseball fanatic. Baseball.

If you're from England, that's similar to cricket. It's cricket's little cousin that went to America and go bigger and bigger and bigger.

Of course, a lot of... Okay.

They don't know what cricket is in Korea. Can you imagine? Didn't the Americans teach you cricket? I don't think so. But it's amazing when you're into these sports how many of these players you can memorize their batting averages or memorize something else about them.

Hundreds of players you can remember something. You can pray for every nation.

Not all on the same day. Not all on the same day.

But make a commitment to pray through Operation World in one year, a whole year, and you'll touch every nation in the world with your own prayer life. That is exciting. That's the vision we read about in Matthew chapter 9.

For Matthew 9, verse 38 says, Pray there for the Lord of the harvest. He'll send out workers into the harvest, and I don't believe we should leave out any field. That's why whatever field God is leading you to, you can only go to one place at a time.

Except, of course, on the ships. You go on the ship and then you go to 15 different places. If you think you're confused in the beginning of the OM year, join the ships and see how confused you'll be at the end of the year.

That's a little too long, right? Let's try that again. If you join the ship, you go to many different ports. But you can pray for the other countries. And I hope we will be praying for one another. Because the vision of OM is the vision of prayer.

Guarding Against Small Visions

Some years ago when I was speaking to the leaders here in this very room, I gave a message called Little Visions. Because you see, in OM, there's so many big visions. There's so many big plans. It's just bizarre.

Especially if you fellowship with people like Howard Norrish. Have any of you met Howard Norrish? Mr. Memo Howard Norrish. He has so many visions. And as I meet these different OM leaders, they've got dreams, they've got visions.

We've got ships. But some leaders are not satisfied. We now have a leader who's got an airplane. I won't tell you who he is. Just the leader of the work in South Africa. So I'm down in South Africa a few weeks ago.

God is doing amazing things there. And I discover the work has changed there. They don't talk about South Africa anymore. They talk about Southern Africa. The vision gets bigger and bigger every time I go down there.

And I was doing some questioning. Where is this Southern Africa? Where does that end? I was thinking Mozambique, Angola, Zimbabwe. Well, praise the Lord. A little.

Crossing of the borders. Good.

I have my map here. As you can see, Africa is a very big place. This map is a proper proportion map that brings Africa into the right size. Everybody should have one of these maps. Look at this. And I found out that Southern Africa in the minds of some mega visionaries is everything south of the equator.

I mean, at least he didn't say everything south of the Mediterranean. It could always be worse. So there's a lot of vision around this work. People come to me and they say, Mr. Verwer, or I prefer George, Hey, what's your new vision now?

What's your big thing? Because they know that I was the man behind the ship vision. So what's my next thing? You know, a gospel train. Somebody thought I was going to get a submarine for evangelism in depth.

Seriously, I had a letter asking when I was going to buy my first jumbo jet. I get amazing letters. Somebody wrote me and said, I believe the solution to the fuel problem with the ship is to go nuclear.

I sometimes wonder what people are drinking in the communion services. I told a brother the other day that my vision is to somehow get behind my younger men and women leaders and their vision and help see their vision fulfilled for the glory of God.

That's where I am in 1993. So relax. Some of you are looking tense. And you're going to hear about a lot of this this week. And you're going to feel overwhelmed. Tomorrow I'm going to talk on how to make a decision.

This is an exciting message tomorrow morning. I guarantee when you hear me speak on how to make a decision, you will be more confused than ever before in your Christian life. And that's normal when you first come into a whole new fellowship like this.

It is normal to be shaken. It is normal to be intimidated. If I were a young Christian, go back to when I was 17 and I came into this place, you know what my problem would be? It wouldn't be the confusion about all the different countries.

Where am I going? England? Or am I going to France? Is it Fritz Schuller? Is it Dale Roton? Lord, where am I going to go? That wouldn't be my problem if I came here as a young Christian. My problem is that within the first two days here, I would be in love with at least 20 different girls and crying out to God for mercy.

If you don't have that problem, praise God. You're much more mature in your faith than I was at 17. What am I trying to say as I bring this to a close? By the way, in my messages, that means 25 minutes to go.

Grace, Human Weakness, and Persevering in Mission

God, I want you to relax. And as it says in 1 Peter 5, 7, cast every care upon God because He cares for you. And even if you make a mistake, God is bigger than that mistake. I make mistakes. Simple mistakes.