The Right Stuff — George Verwer

Discipleship and the Crucified Life

Take your Bible. Galatians chapter 2 and verse 20. Many people ask, what kind of people are we looking for to join Operation Mobilization? And that's what we're going to speak about tonight, as we think about discipleship in the age of me-ism, when most people are thinking about themselves and what's in it for me.

We're going to speak about the kind of people that God can use. The kind of people I'm sure we are looking for in OM, and I'm sure you're looking for the same kind of people right here in your own church.

Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, we thank you for all you're doing around the world. We thank you for bringing us here together tonight. We thank you for thousands of answers to prayer represented in this very church tonight, as you have saved people all over North America, Mexico, as you have sent them out to this place to receive further training, further preparation, whether it's witnessing across the street or across the ocean.

We thank you that in your providence, after many years of praying about it, you brought us here to Hamilton. And we believe this is a very deep, a very significant partnership for world evangelism. Speak to us now from your holy word.

We acknowledge your word. We want to submit to your word. We are not interested in the praise of men. We are not interested that much in the philosophy of men, but we want to know what you say to us from your word.

We ask in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. The kind of people that are needed in the mission field today, the kind of people we need to make an impact in post-christian Europe or in semi-post-christian Canada.

And I believe this scripture in Galatians 2 and verse 20 gives us the picture, the first picture I want to leave with you, of the kind of person we need. Paul says, I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.

The life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. What kind of person? A crucified person. What a danger there is today when this kind of terminology is not easy for the average person to understand.

What a great danger there is that we just sort of pass over it as some kind of super-spirituality that doesn't work in 1988. I'm amazed when I find people in our churches. I know that many of our churches specialize in superficiality.

I am aware of that. Almost a little more south of the border than here. But I am still amazed when I find people five or ten years in Christ that have never understood the crucified life. They have never understood one of the most basic principles of the Word of God concerning living the Christian life.

Whole movements have been built on this biblical principle. I'm part of a movement in England known as the Keswick Convention. Often misunderstood as people just generalize about things rather than understand what it's about.

You can get books back on the book table about Keswick. I ministered there again last summer. Alan Redpath, who some of you may know, often ministers there. And it's simply a convention that emphasizes the need for holiness.

You know, is that something way out? Is that off the wall? Holiness? What do we read in our Bible? That we should walk even as Jesus walked. Be holy, saith the Lord. Holiness is absolutely basic to spiritual maturity.

Perhaps this is what got Alan Redpath in difficulty. In Chicago as the pastor of Moody Church. I was there at the time. Because he preached holiness. And some people didn't want to hear it. Because it cut across their lifestyle.

It cut across their erroneous zones. We can easily point our finger today at different people who have fallen into immorality. And we know that is wrong. But I believe that pride is causing more corruption and difficulty in the church than immorality.

Pride has certainly caused more problems in Operation Mobilization than immorality. And we've had 40 ,000 young people who have been with us over these 25 or 30 years. I believe that crucified life is the normal Christian life.

Watchman Nee became very famous because of his emphasis on this. Now we are well aware that some people take these things to extremes. We're aware of that. But isn't there the danger that some of us who are a bit conservative.

And I'm a little in that camp myself. A graduate of Moody Bible Institute. I don't think most of you will be able to find much difficulty with my theology or O .M.'s theology. We'll be happy to send you our doctrinal statement.

But isn't there a danger that some of us in overreacting to extremes. By people who have got into the so-called deeper life. By overreacting to those extremes we have gotten into the dead, the deep fields of dead orthodoxy.

I remember so vividly ministering with Corrie ten Boone in the Netherlands. Land of my father's birth. Many years ago I spoke, I think she spoke in the morning and then I spoke and then Brother Andrew.

Brother Andrew is known as God's smuggler around England. I'm known Brother George as God's bungler. It's true. You know he had this great program of taking literature into the Soviet Union. About the same time he was doing that I also had this phenomenal plan taking literature into the Soviet Union.

And we had a printing press hidden in the car. I had learned how to type Cyrillic alphabet learning Russian. I was living in Spain at the time. And in the second day due to my own sophisticated stupidity I was arrested by the Soviet secret police and accused of being a spy.

And promised long term free all expenses paid vacation in Siberia. After two more days of interrogation they decided I was a religious fanatic. Gave me a submachine gun escort back to Austria. Fiasco, failure.

Failure as a Doorway to Missionary Calling

And I was broken before God. I went for a day of prayer in the mountains and that's when the great shift in our work took place. As God in those mountains on that day gave me these two words operation mobilization.

Before that our work was called send the light. Mainly I'm aiming at closed countries the Muslim world and the communist world. But at that time we became operation mobilization confirmed by the leaders I met within Spain a week or so later.

And the vision was to see Europe mobilize. The vision was to see a great movement of the spirit in Western Europe, all the countries, Britain, Sweden, Norway, Germany. And let that spill over. Let Europeans carry the gospel into the Soviet bloc and even drive into the Muslim world.

And the history of what God did that next summer as he brought 200 people together. The next summer when he brought 2000 together. Failure is something that really is still quite staggering to our minds when we think of it.

And I like to mention that because failure is often the back door to success. And we're going to be talking a lot this week about failure. Don't let your friends not come here because they think it's all about missions.

And it's all going to be stuffy reports with slides of the jungle. You know here he is before he was saved. Here's the slide after he was saved. We're going to talk about things this week that I can assure you people have probably never heard about before.

At least in the same way. We're going to talk about sex. We're going to talk about failure. We're going to talk about some things that probably normally wouldn't be mentioned in public. I'm very known for that.

People are going to be offended. People are going to be angry. People may throw things. This is going to be an exciting week. So picket the ballpark. Make telephone calls. Turn on your answering machine.

But let's pray that God brings in the people and that we have a mighty outpouring of the Holy Spirit as we wait upon him here. But I remember what Brother Andrew told me in that meeting. Now this is the problem when I speak.

And you can pray for me. I try to go down the freeway. What do you call it here in Canada? Motorway? Freeway? Autobahn? Whatever. You know the main road like this 403 going up here to the little town.

What is it? Toronto. 403 going up to Toronto. People must really feel inferior when they're like in Toronto and they feel like they're a suburb of Hamilton. It must be difficult. I was there this morning.

I sensed there was some feeling perhaps along that line. Maybe it was something else. But when I start mentioning people like Brother Andrew or Corrie ten Boone or something else then I get off on what we call in England an A road or a B road or a dirt road.

And I've had people rebuking me about this and exhorting me. Let's stick to the subject. Stick to the text. But other people write to me and they say praise God. I didn't get anything on your message until you got on the dirt roads.

Getting back to the freeway. I spoke in the afternoon and I didn't give an invitation. Brother Andrew came in and cried a rambunctious loud mouth type of Dutchman. It'd be difficult. Two of us in the same meeting.

And he said did you give an invitation Brother George? Did you give an invitation for people to repent and get right? And I said no. You know I thought I'd leave that with you. And he said well I'm going to do it.

And he said something I had never forgotten. He said I find it easier to cool down a fanatic than warm up a corpse. And I believe that somehow O .M. leaves Hamilton behind with a few fanatics. That Brother Ford is more than happy to handle that.

Do you think you can handle a few fools for Christ? A few overzealous soul winners wanting to pray to much loving people. Do you think you could cool them down? Do you have any gift in that area? He looked skeptical.

Applying Galatians 2:20 to Personal Sin

Brothers and sisters when we take Galatians 2 .20 we must not just read that and leave it. We must say this is for me. This is what I want. I want to be crucified with Christ. I want that Verwer pride to be crucified.

And I'll tell you there was plenty of it. I want that Verwer impatience. Greatest problem in my life. I want that Verwer patience. Impatience to be crucified. And Christ patience to come out. I want that Verwer lust.

So easy it is for me to lust. And if it hadn't been for this message coming to me as a teenager. Of the crucified life. I would have been wiped out by lust. And the reason we had so many problems in this area.

In our culture and in many of our churches. Is that there's so little emphasis on the crucified life. Dying to self. People don't even like you to mention that. And we have some preachers who have eliminated this kind of biblical truth.

From their terminology. They're very popular. They don't want to talk about repentance. They don't want to talk about the crucified life. How archaic. We only want to emphasize the positive. We only want to emphasize the possibilities of your personality.

If you will just bloom. If you will just blossom. It's like trying to get a squirrel to fly over the moon. Paul and many others have said. Very very clearly. That they could do nothing in themselves. I'm not saying we shouldn't be positive.

Because there is biblical positive thinking in the New Testament. And we've got some great books on that. But it must never do away with the message of repentance. The message of dealing with sin. The message of revival.

The message of a crucified life. Which we find right through the New Testament. Consider the words of Jesus. Because that's pretty bottom line isn't it? Jesus said if any man come after me. Let him deny self.

Take up the cross. And that I believe is the heart of the message. We are trying to declare in our feeble fellowship across the world. I think as you get to know us. You'll understand that our first burden is not geography.

It is reality. Our first burden isn't to get you all to join OM. That's not the reason we have come to Hamilton. Our burden is just to see you going on for Jesus. Just to see you walking with him. Just to see self being crucified.

And Jesus being magnified in your life. Though I'm a bit of a skeptic. As I have lived with people like Hessian. And Alan Redpath. And so many others whose names just don't tumble into my mind instantly.

Hundreds of people all over the world. I can testify. Even as a doubting Thomas. That I have seen reality in the lives of these people. When I first arrived at a little sleepy Presbyterian college in Tennessee.

In God's providence. I went to this college. I met a character named Dale Roton. I was warned about Dale. I was told almost the first day on the campus. He was a sophomore. I was a freshman. Dale Roton, he's a fanatic.

He's baptizing people in the showers. Watch out. So I knew where's the man I got to find fast. And I met that man on Sunday walking home from church. Never forget it. And we've been together now for some 33 years.

And I tell you I have watched this man's life. He in a sense was my teacher. I've watched this man's life. I've peeled it like peeling an onion. I was always, even before I was converted, used to drive the teachers right up the wall because I would have endless questions.

If a teacher even dared open for questions in a session where I was, I mean, watch out. And so I peeled Dale Roton over the years. And the more I peeled the layers off, the more my eyes began to water.

Because of the reality in this man's life. And there are many others like him. They're not perfect, but Jesus is reigning and ruling in the heart. And I would not preach here tonight if I didn't believe that Jesus Christ could take over a man's life or a woman's life.

No matter how many problems, no matter how egocentric, no matter how caught up in materialism or me-ism, Jesus Christ is able, well able, to take over. But he will never force you. Too many people sitting around expecting God to make the next move when it's their turn.

My favorite sport really now is tennis. Because it's simple. I think things that are simple. Dale Roton plays chess. I get, you know, just blows my circuits just looking at the board. Chess. One of our board members, Val Grieve, he's written a book.

He's a lawyer. He's written a book on the resurrection. He plays chess with a computer. Talk about intimidation. I like things that are simple. Tennis. The ball comes over, you just hit it back. Comes over again, you just hit it back again.

I never even read a rule book. Never read a rule book. I play tennis quite frequently. Brothers and sisters, if Jesus Christ is living in your heart, then the next move, in terms of your spiritual life, the next move is yours.

Too many people praying, Oh Lord, touch me. Oh Lord, do a new thing. I'm not totally against those prayers. If you understand that, generally speaking, if the Holy Spirit is already in you, you don't need a touch.

You've already had an invasion. Now you need to step out. You need to let self be crucified. You need to repent of specific sins or deal with specific areas and believe God in an act of faith that something is going to change.

My favorite song, one of my top ten of the old songs is Trust and Obey. There's no other way. So we're looking for men and women that will put their life on Galatians 2 .20. That will put their confidence in the words of Jesus when he said, If any man come after me, let him deny self.

Take up the cross and follow me. For those of you who are joining O .M. at this time, we must again tell you, it is going to be rough, it is going to be tough, but it's not going to be rough and tough in the way that you're expecting it.

You may think the big hardship is going to be sleeping on the floor and you'll end up sleeping in a bed. You may think the big hardship is going to be eating some of this wild food you've heard, you know, that O .M. is into, you know, wild honey and berries and cactus, which isn't true when you've heard the stories and you think your big problem is going to be eating this kind of food when actually your bigger problem may be that person that's sleeping in the same room, both of you on a comfortable bed.

But the person is a very uncomfortable person to live with. Maybe at each midnight he bursts out, like a friend of mine that I traveled with, with snores that shook the entire motorhome. I know at the end of the summer some of you are going to think that David Hicks and Frank Fortunato and Dave Lundy got back together here and planned how things could go wrong.

We don't plan that. We actually work overtime to try to get everything as possible going right because we believe that honors God. But no matter how hard we try in something of this dimension, this is fast lane living.

If you're a slow lane operator, you have got yourself in a big pickle joining O .M. This is a fast lane operation. But you can take counsel from my wife because she's a slow lane operator and she married a fast lane operator.

She looked at me some time ago and she said, just looking at you makes me feel tired. But I can tell you, I can tell you, we need operators, disciples in O .M. in all the lanes with all the different gifts.

And it's the slower people, not the fast characters like me that have done the real work in O .M. I couldn't plant a church in the Muslim world. I couldn't even probably plant a church in Hamilton. I can mobilize church planters.

I can encourage them. I can write them a letter. I can phone them. I can send them a book, send them a tape. I can dig with them when they come back. But I couldn't plant a church in the Muslim world.

You need slow, steady, sort of pragmatic, mega Canadian types planting churches, you know, in the middle of the Muslim world. So brothers and sisters, it's going to be rough. It's going to be tough. The problems are not going to come.

And this is true for those that remain at home as well. It's true in the ministry in North America as well. The problems often come in ways that we don't expect. And if we're to deal with problems effectively, self must be crucified.

More people have written this one statement about their time on O .M. than any other statement that I have ever seen. I say this truthfully. I have learned more about myself this summer than I ever expected.

I thought I was going to win souls. I thought I was going to speak to Muslims. I thought I was going to do this and do that and learn how to witness and learn how to be a cross cultural contextualized bonding incarnational communicator in the third world.

And they come back and they write the same thing at the end of the summer. I learned what a wretch I am. I learned about myself. What does the word of God say? Except the seed fall into the ground and die and abideth alone.

My young brother, my young sister, you want to serve him, you want to live for him, you want to be used of him, then Jesus is saying to you, come and die. When you fall into the ground, that ego, that strong personality, that hostility or that anger, as that somehow falls into the ground and somehow that precious blood and the power of the cross comes through your being and your personality, then you will bring forth much fruit.

Hallelujah. It happens. I think the second way to describe the kind of people we want in this fellowship is found in the book of Ephesians chapter 5. Ephesians chapter 5 in verse 18, it says, Be not drunk with wine wherein is excess, but be filled, be filled with the Spirit.

The Fullness of the Holy Spirit

Again, some places today, just speaking about the Holy Spirit, you get on dangerous ground. One of the things that some people find difficult when they come on OM is they find people come from different backgrounds and different churches who have different teaching about the Holy Spirit.

Truly this is one of the authentic marks of OM as a spiritual movement that there are people from many different backgrounds in many different churches and we do not agree on all the terminology concerning the Holy Spirit.

We do not agree, even as leaders, on some of the fine-tuning about the doctrine and the teaching concerning the Holy Spirit. I guess sometimes we go to our great spiritual mentor Billy Graham and speaking about the Spirit-filled life, he said, I do not care how you get it, just get it.

It says in the book of Ephesians, as I have just read, let us read it again. And be not drunk with wine wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit. Yes, we need crucified people, but we need Spirit-filled people.

I want to ask you, are you living in the fullness of the Holy Spirit? I pray the Lord a new edition of Calvary Road has just come off the press in Great Britain and in the same book they put Roy Hession's other book, Be Filled Now, with some very clear, less controversial teaching about the Holy Spirit, emphasizing the need to be filled now.

They were gathered in Acts 4 .31, praying, the place was shaken, and they were filled with the Holy Spirit and went forth speaking the word of God with bones. That is what we need this summer, isn't it?

That's what you need right here in Hamilton. You're preparing for evangelistic work. You're preparing for Billy Graham to come. What a ridiculous thing for some people to think, that Billy Graham is not filled with the Spirit because he doesn't speak in tongues.

Spiritual Gifts, Unity, and Evangelism

And this is a very controversial area. And as you get to Europe, you're going to meet young people in OM who speak in tongues. And you may come from a church where that's considered, you know, that's not on.

And to keep unity and to keep love within OM, we emphasize that if people feel burdened to exercise gifts that have tended to bind their body and bring controversy that we've been arguing about for at least a century, that it's better for that to be manifest in your own church.

And this is what you'll discover on OM, especially in the year program. Everybody's going off on Sunday to different churches. We all start our own OM churches. We belong to other churches. We're sent from churches in our home countries.

And when we're overseas, unless we're in a totally unreached area, where some of our people are planting a church, and that is more complex, we go to different churches that have different emphases. But one thing we have agreement on, people coming from various sides of the theological spectrum agreeing very, very clearly that it's not right for a person to be considered a second-class Christian simply because he doesn't have this gift or doesn't have that gift.

I speak in many great Pentecostal churches. Thirty percent of all Pentecostals have never spoken in tongues. And I've had a counseling ministry with many of these people who feel very, very inferior, very second-class.

They may have tried more than 100 times to speak in tongues. They never have. And so they feel God can't use them. This is wrong. God gives different gifts to different people. Many of the greatest men, the most anointed men in history, have never spoken in tongues.

And just for others who may be on that side of the scale, many of the greatest men in history who have preached the gospel have spoken in tongues. So what are you going to do with that? Let's fight. No.

Let's lay aside the differences. Let's continue to discuss and study. No one's stopping you from going to one of the theological cemeteries and getting these seminaries and getting these things. But meanwhile, let's get on and evangelize the world.

How ridiculous it looks to Muslims in Turkey to see Christians fighting over all of these petty issues. They overreact to extremes about the Holy Spirit and end up out in the dry desert of spiritual barrenness.

D. L. Moody was known for his emphasis on the Holy Spirit. R. A. Torrey. Many great fundamentalists were known for their emphasis on the Holy Spirit. A secular encyclopedia says about D. L. Moody that he depopulated hell by two million souls.

Not that. Who can bring people to Jesus Christ in true conversion? Only the Holy Spirit of God. Moody would emphasize the need to be filled again and again and again. I know most of you have heard this story, but it's a privilege to always be ministering to young people.

You can tell the same story over and over again. You see, that's an advantage I have over you. You have to get new messages, new messages. I'd go crazy if I had your job. You'd go crazy if you had mine.

You just stay here and I'll go there. But Moody would emphasize the need to be filled again and again. And one day a lady said to him, Mr. Moody, why do you keep going on about being filled again and again?

And Moody looked her in the eye and he said, Lady, because I leak. I'll tell you that ministers to me because I find this is the story of my life. One minute I can be just so, so enraptured, so sensing God's grace, His reality, His attributes, and the Lord seems to be working and the next minute somehow I seem to be a bit dry.

I get a wrong attitude because someone's just bumped into the back of my car and I'm not yet told to be the spiritual driver or the dog has just misbehaved again or my daughter is mouthing off or something else and suddenly I seem to have leaked.

And there's little at that moment to draw upon to really, you know, minister in that situation. Something I learned as a baby Christian and I hope you have learned it as well. There are free refills available.

This is the thing that really amazes Europeans when they first go to the States. They go to a restaurant. A little lady running around the restaurant with a big thing of coffee. You know, you can't hardly get one cup out.

Look, you know, they measure it. If you want another cup, you pay. Free refills. Don't take it for granted. But I will tell you when we bow in our morning quiet time with the Word of God in prayer, when we bow at the foot of the cross in repentance and brokenness, we are filled again.

Young person, before you go to Europe, make sure you have been and are being filled with the Holy Spirit. A lot of people are confused on this because they think that when this happens, they will arrive.

They think when this happens, the first person they witness to, just like under Phinney, boom, he'll fall down on the street. And I have seen, I say this from a broken heart, I have seen people so hungry to be anointed and filled, they got into extremism because they were comparing themselves with other people.

They had cockeyed ideas about the Spirit-filled life. They taught you how to have a different voice. I've seen people even develop spiritual voices, especially in prayer meetings. Talk to the guy in the street, he's got a bit of a rough voice, sort of that kind of person.

He gets in the prayer meeting, spiritual voice. How many of us really feel spiritual? How many of us get up in the morning and we walk in the mirror, we look in the mirror, ha ha, a spiritual man. Ever feel spiritual?

I have to take it by faith that if I'm obeying God, if I'm walking with God, if I'm doing His will, then I am a spiritual man. I don't look spiritual, I don't feel spiritual. I almost gave up the Christian life, completely, as I read about some of these great men of God.

Then I picked up a missionary leaflet, characteristics of a true missionary. About 25 characteristics that I never saw anybody who had all of them. And it came to the idea that you needed all these characteristics to be a missionary.

No wonder! I would never have gotten into any mission societies. I didn't want to start my own. The thing that scares me is the way O .M. is going. If I apply to Port Goldberg or Atlanta, I probably won't get accepted.

So I'm not going to apply, I'm just staying in. Brothers and sisters, don't let the devil get you into extremism about the Holy Spirit. This treasure is in earthen vessels. The Spirit-filled man still occasionally burps.

The Spirit-filled man still, you know, forgets to zip up his fly. I remember preaching to a great crowd in England. You know, here I am, the Spirit-filled man. We become so phony. Really, we become so phony at times.

As Christians, as Christians we don't do this. As Christians, we always wear a tie when we preach. As Christians, we always look, especially when we shake hands with the pastor at the door, happy, God bless you pastor.

It was a wonderful message. It was a wonderful message. If he asks you two days later, what was the message about? Pastor, it was a wonderful message. I don't know anything about it, but it was a wonderful message.

Then some people get really uptight if we laugh in the middle of a spiritual message. What a great mistake the church has made in failing to understand the importance and significance of humor. Praise God, there are now ten books written on the subject of the Bible and humor.

I am not trying to be funny when I come here. If I try to be funny, it gets really sick. So I am not trying to be funny. Life is just funny. Some of you look funny. I may look funny. One of the problems, and A. W. Tozer pointed this out in one of his books, one of the problems with some of us as we get deeper and closer to God, as we get closer to the Word and to the Lord, we become spiritually uptight.

We sense the Lord is looking at us every minute. He is watching us every minute. And He is ready at the slightest move that is wrong to somehow hit us with a big stick. And it gets us into a very subtle form of legalism.

Honest Discipleship and Walking in the Light

I want to invite all of you new recruits that have just come on O .M. You are a little uptight, a little tense. You feel you don't know too many people here. And you are going to have an interview, an interview, an interview.

Ah! What are you going to ask me? Are you going to ask me if I brush my teeth every day? Are you going to ask me if I don't work? We get people who are really uptight at these conferences. I want to ask you just in the name of Jesus tonight, relax.

God is all about you and He loves you still. There are very few people away. The interview is not to send you home. It is to get to know you, to help discern where should you work. And it is just to build, start building a relationship and to give counsel.

Not everybody can go to the field of their choice. We get people coming in with funny ideas. I feel God is leading me to Adam and Eve for the two-week campaign for church planting. We learn the language in the first week and we plant the church in the second week.

I have to be back as I'm meeting my girlfriend to buy a wedding ring in the third week. So not everybody can go to the field of their choice. Some of you would like to sit down with me and just hear what's on your mind.

Some of you have been through difficulties. Some of you may have been through divorce. We have seen divorced people mightily used in the work of God. But we'd just like to know what's the situation so we can pray, so we can get God's plan.

If you've been married to seven different women and you still have these as your wife, we feel this is a problem that we would like to talk to you about. You know, we don't want you to get tense. One of the things we try to emphasize in our fellowship, which is emphasized in this book, Calvary Road, is walking in the light.

Don't hide things from us. We've had candidates hide some pretty serious stuff. It comes out in the middle of the year. It's better if there's something that's a bit difficult in your life, a deep, deep, complex situation, a hurt, a complex health problem.

We've had people fail to tell us about health problems because they claim they were completely healed. When we checked it out, they were healed the week before they came to the OM conference. And there was no more proof yet that they were healed over that particular complexity.

And so we want to walk in the light. We want to be honest. The third and final thing, in terms of what we're looking for in the people that join OM, first, it is a crucified life. Second, it was the fullness of the Holy Spirit.

Realizing that's an ongoing process. Realizing it doesn't destroy the human factor. Realizing that still leaves you as a person who has a lot to learn. We used to say, if you want to join OM, all you need is to be a learner.

In some ways that's still true. But the final thing I want to just mention, what we're looking for in the people that unite with us is discipline. Discipline. Billy Graham, in speaking at our band way back in 57, that take used to be required listening for all those on OM, emphasized a disciplined life.

Self-Discipline and the Race of Faith

As I drove into Toronto this morning, several thousand people actually passed me, running on the highway. I didn't really know what I was going to speak on in that church this morning. And as I saw these people run by me, I got the text.