Gesandt Aus Gnade (Eng - German) — George Verwer

The Call to Global Missions

But God has put a very, very strong, important message on my heart for this time to be given. I also had the joy of discovering that some of my OM German team members have joined us, and I hope you'll meet them in the exhibition area.

And they just brought a very, very few books with them, including my latest book, the first book I've ever written about global missions. And I hope they're giving that to you at a very special price.

If I had more copies, I would give them free, but I don't have enough copies. You can go into my website georgeverward .com and get the whole book free. Georgeverward .com. Unfortunately, it's in English.

This is the book I wrote 35 years ago. That brought me 25 ,000 personal letters. And I just thank God for the way he can use a book that, in my view, is not that great. And I find rereading it rather difficult.

Last night I mentioned the book on personal revival. Calvary wrote, I was thrilled that they have copies of these books. And they have some books also about the ship ministry. Perhaps the most important book they have is called Serving as Senders.

Because we discovered that the ministry of sending is just as important as the ministry of going. This is not an easy book, but it's an important book. I was one of those pressuring different people to put this into German.

So I'm thrilled that they have that book available today. Turn with me now in your Bibles for our scripture reading for this morning in 2 Corinthians. 2 Corinthians chapter 12. And we pick up the scripture at about verse 6.

Where Paul says, I have plenty to boast about. And we'll just read that through verse 10.

And we'll read 2 Corinthians 12, verses 6 -10.

Strength Found in Weakness

These are truly, truly radical revolutionary words. To say, for when I am weak, then I am strong. This seems like a wild contradiction.

If you're weak, you're weak, and if you're strong, you're strong.

How can we possibly say this? When I am weak, then I am strong. This has been one of the most important passages in my whole Christian life. Because I also was one of these persons with many weaknesses.

Now, I don't know exactly what Paul is referring to when he talks about his thorn in the flesh. There's been many different commentaries about what that means. But one thing is clear. He prayed many times for it to be taken away, and it was never taken away.

I prayed that for my struggle with pornography when I was a young Christian. And though I experienced great victory, the problem, the temptation, never went away. And here I am now as an old man. Certainly, we should not have these problems anymore.

I'm in God's work for 48 years. I've helped bring a few thousands of people to Christ. I'm in the Word and prayer every day. I know about the armor of God, the shield of faith. And every day, every hour, every moment of the day, I attempt to live out this reality that's in me through Jesus Christ.

And I've experienced his strength in the midst of weakness. Victory in Jesus includes knowing what to do when you fail. And as young people, I pray you will not be afraid to fail. When I first came to Europe, I was living in Spain.

Learning Through Ministry Failure

My vision was very narrow.

It did not include Germany. It did not include Great Britain. It was communist countries, Muslim countries, and closed countries.

Which reminds me, it did include part of Germany, which is good fun.

And I was learning the Russian language in Madrid.

And it was planning to go the next summer for a big Bible-smuggling expedition into the Soviet Union. And I shared this with my prayer partners, and people were praying. We went to Vienna, where I purchased a printing device in the Russian language to print up some gospel material.

We had a brief tour, first of all, down to what was called Yugoslavia. We should have learned from that experience, because on the third day we got caught by the police and thrown out of the country. But we were a little bit slow to learn.

In an amazing way, we got across the border into the Ukraine. We were really praising God. We had all this material hidden in cornflakes boxes and hidden in the walls of the car. I had learned how to type.

I had a typewriter in the Cyrillic Russian alphabet. We had decided not to try to give anything out, even secretly. We were going to send it through the post, as we had been doing in Spain. And through the internal post within the country, we didn't think there'd be a problem.

But I made a very big mistake. Some butter had melted on one of the Gospels of John. My friend who was with me said, Let's get rid of that. Let's throw that away. He even suggested we flush the Gospel of John down the toilet.

I said, Oh! How can we flush the Word of God down the toilet? God forbid! I have a better idea. Tomorrow, out on the highway, in the countryside where no one is looking, I'll just drop it out the window of the car.

No one will see, and later on someone will pick it up, read it, and be saved. This was a completely stupid idea. Because we were already being followed by the KGB. They saw everything we did. And they saw the Gospel of John go out the window.

And within ten miles, they had a major police roadblock. And that was the end of our Soviet expedition. At first, they thought we were spies. And the Pravda newspaper had a main article, American spy caught in Rovno.

Somehow, after two more days of interrogation, they decided we were religious fanatics. And took us back to the Austrian border with a submachine gun escort. Some of you have heard of my friend, Brother Andrew, who had so much success in this smuggling work.

And this morning, he's known as God's smuggler. They call him God's smuggler. Brother Andrew, God's smuggler. I'm Brother George, God's bungler. Bungler means the guy that makes big mistakes. In God's providence and mercy, this led me to a day of prayer in Austria, in the mountains.

And that failure turned out to be one of the greatest blessings in my life. I realized my vision was too narrow, and that I must include places like Britain and Germany. And I needed to slow down, and to build up the number of people who were involved from Europe.

This is the summer of 1961. Around this same time, God was raising up this ministry here. And we've had over 43 years of wonderful partnership. And I want to thank, especially Brother Doyle and many others who have kept that partnership going, when at times I'm sure we have failed.

Operation Mobilization and the Work of Sending

During that day of prayer, the name Operation Mobilization came to me for the first time. The name of our little group before that was called Send the Light. That was the old name. And the vision was to work with the church, and help mobilize especially the young people of the church.

I then moved from Madrid, where things were very, very restricted, to London. And started traveling in Austria and Germany and Netherlands. And by the next summer, God gave us 200 people. The next summer, God gave us 2 ,000.

Including people who spoke fluent Russian and could do a much better job. And within 10 years, that particular part of the work became the biggest operation in Eastern Europe, smuggling scriptures into the satellite country.

Millions and millions of pieces of literature were flooded out in all those countries even way before the Iron Curtain ever came down. We were learning that God could overrule our failure.

Und wir mussten lernen und durften lernen, dass Gott unser Versagen überstimmt hat. Und wir mussten erkennen, dass wir gerufen waren aus Gnade.

Und dass seine Kraft in den Schwachen mächtig ist.

Es gab viele andere Schwachheiten in meinem Leben. Und ich werde das nicht in Einzelheiten ausführen heute Morgen. Aber wenn ich zurückschaue auf die vielen Jahre, dann bin ich einfach erstaunt darüber, auf welche Art und Weise Gott die unterschiedlichsten Menschen gebraucht.

Und ich hoffe, dass du dich nicht einschüchtern lässt durch deine eigene Schwachheit oder durch deine eigenen Kämpfe. Ein Vers bringt oft einen anderen Vers in die Balance, ins Gleichgewicht. Und eines meiner Bücher behandelt dieses Thema, die Revolution der Liebe.

Denn ich glaube, dass die biblische Ausgewogenheit ganz wichtig ist, wenn wir einen Marathon laufen wollen. Und was für eine Herausforderung liegt doch vor uns. Paul schrieb an Timotheus und sagte, sei stark.

In der Gnade, die in Jesus Christus ist. Es sieht aus, als wäre es ein Gegensatz, aber es ist es nicht. Und während Paul betete, dass dieser Pfahl vom Fleisch beseitigt wird, und es geschah ja nichts, da finden wir darin eine große Ermutigung.

Unbeantwortete Gebete und Ausdauer im Gebet

Ein Geheimnis. Leben mit dem Geheimnis der unbeantworteten Gebete. Egal wie viele unbeantwortete Gebete du hast, und du kannst mir ein E-Mail schreiben, nachdem ich bete, stehe ich nur herum und spreche und gebe meine E-Mail-Adresse.

Und wenn ich hier fertig bin, dann stehe ich hier herum und ihr könnt kommen und ich gebe euch meine E-Mail-Adresse. Und wenn du begreifst, wie das funktioniert, dann kannst du für den Rest deines Lebens sogar Bücher umsonst bestellen.

Aber egal wie viele unbeantwortete Gebete du auch erwinkst in dieser E-Mail, wenn ich diese Zahl nicht verdoppeln kann, dann schicke ich dir kostenlose Bücher. In diesen 49 Jahren habe ich Tausende, Zehntausende von Stunden gebetet.

Es gibt Tage, da bete ich drei oder vier Stunden. Jede Woche nehme ich Teil an einer Gebetsnacht oder einem Gebetstag. Und ich könnte viele, viele Geschichten erzählen, in denen Gott Gebet erhört hat.

Aber ich muss auch ehrlich sein. Viele meiner ernsthaftesten Gebete sind nicht beantwortet worden. Gebete für unveränderte Verwandte und Cousinen. Gebete für einige der Orte, die ich in einigen Augenblicken nennen werde.

Wenn ich euch, aus meiner Sicht gesehen, die etwa zehn schwierigsten Länder der Welt aufzähle. Aber anstatt weniger zu beten, weil ich eben Enttäuschungen erlebt habe, habe ich mich entschieden, mehr zu beten.

Und eine meiner Lasten für dieses Wochenende,.

Ist, dass wir alle dahin verpflichten, dass wir mehr beten.

Alleine vor Gott oder in Gebetsgruppen. Dass wir erkennen, dass wir ihn anbeten, auch wenn wir von Geheimnissen umgeben sind. Und indem wir realisieren, dass seine Gnade ausreicht. Seine Kraft ist in den Schwachen mächtig.

Wir müssen erkennen, dass es für Gott nicht zu schwer ist. Ich kämpfe damit. Denn manche Dinge sehen so unmöglich aus. Und diese zehn Nationen, von denen ich gleich rede.

Die zehn schwierigsten Missionsfelder

Ich bete für fast alle Nationen in dieser Welt.

Und wenn ich mal alle unsere Mitarbeiter zusammenzähle, dann kann ich wohl sagen, dass wir alle Nationen dieser Welt schon besucht haben. Ein Bruder, ein guter Freund, Ray Lynch, seine Biografie wurde gerade festgehalten.

Eine erstaunliche Person, und seine große Leidenschaft war, das Evangelium auf den Straßen zu verkündigen. Wir haben gerade 40 Jahre Partnerschaft zelebriert, gefeiert, obwohl wir sehr, sehr verschieden sind.

Er ist viel älter als ich und musste jetzt auch in ein Pflegeheim gehen. Ray hat in den Straßen gepredigt zu Hunderten von Tausenden. Tausende haben eine Entscheidung getroffen. Wir wissen nicht, wie viele wirklich errettet sind.

Und das war sein Gebet, dass er alle Nationen dieser Welt erreicht. Und ich kann euch sagen, Ray hat einige sehr ernste Schwachheiten. Seine Frau hat ihn verlassen, nachdem er geheiratet hatte. Er hat sich auch entfremdet von seinen eigenen Kindern.

Und durch das Ganze hat er wirklich auch emotionale Verletzungen erlitten. Aber wenn ich beobachten kann, was Gott durch ihn getan hat, dann kann ich nur staunend dastehen. Vielleicht könnt ihr euch die Namen dieser zehn Länder aufschreiben.

Vielleicht stimmen auch einige von euch nicht zu, weil ihr denkt, es gibt Länder, in denen es viel schwieriger ist. Das ist okay, denn ich bin immer dabei, diese Liste zu erneuern. Und ich habe jetzt schon zehn Länder, die sich anstrengen, die ersten zehn Länder auf meiner Liste zu wählen.

Also wenn ihr von einem Land wisst, das schwieriger ist, viel mehr Probleme hat, dann schreibt mir ein E-Mail und ich kann sagen, dass dann euer Land, eure Nation, in diese Top -10-Liste kommt. In den letzten zwei Jahren haben wir unser Gebet für diese zehn Nationen wirklich vermehrt.

Und in vielen Teilen dieser Welt.

Nenne ich diese Last auf meinem Herzen. Und in den letzten Monaten haben wir Veränderungen gesehen in diesen zehn Nationen.

Ich habe gar keine Zeit, diese Einzelheiten einzugehen, sondern gebe nur einen kurzen Überblick.

Über diese zehn Nationen. Das erste Land ist Nordkorea, wo es sehr wenige Missionare gibt. Es gibt auch in der ganzen Nation nur einige wenige offene Gemeinde. Viele Gläubige sind im Gefängnis. Ich denke, ihr habt auch gehört, dass viele in dieser Zug-Explosion ums Leben gekommen sind vor einigen Tagen.

Nordkorea und die Herausforderung vergessener Nationen

Wir glauben, dass jetzt Nordkorea Stunde gekommen ist. Und ich weiß, dass wenn ich nach Deutschland komme, dann widerstehen mir ganz bestimmte Leute, sie finden, dass ich Deutschland nicht genug betone.

Erkennst du nicht, wie notvoll die Situation in Deutschland ist? Wie wenig Christen wir haben und wie viele Probleme? Wie kannst du hierher kommen und über die unerreichten in anderen Ländern reden? Wir verlieren vielleicht einen Sonntagsschullehrer und der geht dann irgendwo in die Mission.

Ich habe wirklich eine große Last auf dem Herzen für Deutschland. Egal was ich sage und egal wie viele Konferenzen wir haben.

Die Geschichte zeigt,.

Dass weniger als ein Prozent schlussendlich aufs Missionsfeld geht. Ich weiß gar nicht, warum sich Leute Sorgen machen. George Brewer wird nicht dafür sorgen, dass die Bevölkerung in den Gemeinden in Deutschland abnimmt.

Und wir wollen auch gar nicht, dass ihr alle aufs Missionsfeld geht. If I talked to you personally at the end I'd probably tell you,.

You should not go to the mission field. We don't want you on the mission field.

But these countries that I'm about to talk to you about, most of them have less than five percent of the witness we have in Germany. Some of them have less than one percent of what we have in Germany.

So it is only logical, it is only normal. And Germans are generally fairly logical and many are normal. So it's logical and normal that we think about these countries, we pray about these countries.

And that every young person here is at least willing.

To go to one of these places or similar places that I will not have time to mention. Tonight we're going to look at Isaiah chapter 6.

Where we have that great prayer,.

Here am I, send me. And I'm praying that if you have not already prayed that prayer, that tonight you may be willing to pray with absolute submission and reality, Here am I, send me. And maybe some one person here will end up in North Korea.

Saudi Arabia: An Open Door Without a Church

The second country is very different but even in some ways more difficult. The land of Saudi Arabia, there is no practicing church among the Saudis. There is not one church. There are some foreign groups, Koreans, Filipinos, worshipping and even they get persecuted.

And sometimes in prison. Including some of our own people. So there is more of an open door here than North Korea. Much more of an open door. But no major response. And yet this seems to be the hour, it seems to be the hour for Saudi Arabia.

Many tent makers who love Jesus.

Have jobs there. You can probably get a job there. So many of these countries, they respect and they love Germany.

Germans have a phenomenal open door, even on the human level, above the globe. But first you need to pray more for Saudi Arabia. Now all of these surrounding countries,.

Yemen and Oman, United Arab Emirates,.

Kuwait, Qatar, they are all much more open. But the response is small.

So pray for Saudi Arabia. The third nation, the nation that's been on my heart for 47 years,.

Afghanistan and English as a Missions Strategy

Where I've seen very few answers to prayer,.

Though I've seen some.

The land of Afghanistan. There are German co-workers laboring there.

My own nephew married a German woman.

They are living in Kabul. They've been working among the Afghans.

For 15 years or more. They know the language. Like many of our other workers, they fluently speak the language.

And in mission work today, learning a language is incredibly important. But it is also amazing what we can do in the international trade language called English. So it's encouraging that so many of you know English.

And as we go and think of many, many parts of the world, tens of millions are wanting to learn English. So many of these more restricted access countries where we are working,.

We are there teaching English.

It's a great open door to share Christ even in China. China is asking for 10 ,000 more English teachers now. China, by the way, is not on my list because evangelism is going on there in such a phenomenal way even though, of course, there are millions and millions of unreached people.

There's no comparison with Afghanistan. There is no church in Afghanistan among the Afghans. We know there are now believers. Some of them are gathering in Bible studies. It's a tremendous open door. There are 200 tentmaker workers in many agencies living in Kabul right now.

They are asking for us to pray. Would you put Afghanistan on your prayer list?

Would you possibly consider working in Afghanistan at least for some years? The fourth nation in my top ten is Iraq.

Iraq: A Changing Door for the Gospel

Iraq was one of the first countries God ever put on my heart 47 years ago. Up to two years ago, it was the nation where I seemingly saw the least number of answers to prayer. I was getting nowhere.

Now, in the last two years, things have radically changed. And Iraq is a wide open door.

And it may fall off my list of top ten in the near future. Many are coming to Christ. Many new churches are being born. But the incredible war going on and all of the other suffering keeps it in this top ten problem nation list.

How long will this door be open? Should not some of you consider Iraq in the near future, as soon as you graduate? And then my fifth nation, again quite distinct from these other countries, because the response to the gospel and I'm referring now to the land of Sudan, the response of the gospel in the south has been so big.

Sudan and the Gospel Among Suffering Peoples

Hundreds of thousands have come to Christ in the last few years. So on that basis, it should not be any longer in this top ten. But because of the war, because it's the nation with almost the highest level of suffering in the world, it remains on this list.

We have an open door for going to Sudan, especially in the north, where you can share your faith with Muslims. I'd urge you to read more about this country, to find out more about this amazing country in the open doors.

Libya and the Need for Prayer

My sixth country is Libya. I had an amazing phone call two days ago.

There's a conference of 80 Christian leaders in a conference center I've never been to, two kilometers from my house. And this man said, would you come and speak at our conference?

I've never heard of the man. It's as soon as I get back on Tuesday, this coming Tuesday, I said, what's the conference about? He said, everybody is coming because of their interest in Libya. I've never even heard of this group.

I said to him, I definitely will come. Libya has less than.

20 believers from among the Libyans. There are almost no missionaries.

But we know there are some Egyptian believers that have gone to Libya to share their faith. Pray for the Egyptians. Egypt has tremendous potential as a missionary sending country. So, of course, they have their unreached peoples as well.

Gaddafi seems to be changing a little bit. I believe this is the time to increase our prayer for Libya. My seventh nation is the land of Iran. It may go off the list in the next year. So many Iranians are coming to Jesus.

Iran and the Problem of Closed Minds

Christian literature and Bibles are going out. Literature and Bibles being distributed throughout the nation. I'm sure it would be very easy for German people to go to Iran. We've had small groups working among the earthquake victims.

In the summer, I will be speaking to the Iranian church of London during their summer conference. Iranian churches are popping up all over the world.

And yet at the same time,.

Iran is a very tough nation for believers.

Very tiny percentage of Christians.

Very few missionaries or young people even considering mission service in Iran. We have this false thinking that Satan wants us to have. We think these places are closed. Yes.

Our problem is not closed countries, my friends. Our problem is closed minds.

I'm asking you to open your heart and open your mind to these countries. That God's people generally have forgotten. That we may see great breakthroughs in the next few years. And then my eighth country is in Central Asia.

Turkmenistan and Persecuted Churches in Central Asia

Now Central Asia is a wide open door for the gospel right now. We have a lot of people in Central Asia. A lot of our ministry there has to be mercy ministry, development ministry, helping the government and sharing our faith at the same time.

My eighth country is the exception. It's the only nation in Central Asia.

Where there is almost no open door. Almost no workers.

The church is being persecuted. Very little literature is going out. I'm speaking of Turkmenistan. Turkmenistan. Turkmenistan. Do not confuse that with Turkey. Turkey, which was on our top ten years ago, now has almost one thousand workers.

And thousands of Turks have come to Christ. Now it still would have.

Less than five percent of what we would have here in Germany. And I wish I had time to share the vision I have for German people to reach the Turks who live among us here in Germany.

Tibet and the Great Commission

But we must move on to my number nine country.

Due to China, this is no longer an official country. It's the land of Tibet. How many of you ever pray for Tibet? Raise your hand. That's wonderful. We have five or six people that pray for Tibet. I want to ask you to pray for this country.

There used to be almost no church. There are now, in answer to prayer, a few workers. We've heard of the Chinese house church movement also starting to send workers to Tibet.

Again, I believe now is the hour for Tibet.

How can we leave a nation with almost no witness? How can we do that? What kind of thinking have we developed? What do our churches believe about the word of Jesus? Who before he ascended into heaven said, You shall be my witnesses, Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost part of the earth.

Would you consider working in Tibet? If some of you would even go there for a year, I believe you would fall in love with the Tibetan people. They are one of the more unusual.

Peoples of the world. And then my final nation, you can never, never guess. It's only just in the top ten,.

Sokotra, the Maldives, and the Forgotten Places

Just barely got in. And I voted it in because it represents the smaller places. Many people do not know about. I'm referring to the land of Sokotra. Sokotra, just say it in English. Sokotra. Did you know where it was?

No. God forgive you. Thank you. See how grace awakened I am? It's right off the country off the coast of Somalia. And if I were giving you a list of eleven, I would probably give you Somalia.

Eleven to ten. That little island has no church. But finally there are.

Some workers there. Not yet heard of the first believer.

The Maldive Islands are very similar, not quite so difficult. The Maldives over here. There's my top ten. And if a year from now you send me an email with those ten nations.

And you tell me you've been praying for them. I'm going to send you a couple of free books. Because I want to promote prayer for those nations. Though we may feel it's so difficult it seems so impossible.

Faith for Impossible Missions

We feel so weak, so small next to these giants. When we go to the word of God when we see David slaying Goliath when we see God using ordinary people even characters like myself or Brother Andrew and other people that you personally know in the great history of Germans in missions as this nation was one of the great pioneering nations of global missions we see the impact of that even to this day in places like India.

And many other countries. Some people are saying we don't need any more German missionaries. They're too expensive.

Plus there's so much work here in Germany. And then we have all these people here as well. We have the Turks and the Arabs.

Go to Berlin. We have everybody in Berlin.

They all should be a priority of the church in Germany. That's normal. They're living right next to us. You don't need me to tell you about that. God has brought me here to talk to you about those other places that none of you will easily go to without the Holy Spirit doing a deep powerful work in your heart and calling you by His grace to one of these more impossible forgotten places in countries where often the church does not even exist.

A Prayer for a New Generation of Missionaries

Let us pray. Oh God and Father we praise you for all you've done over these years. We don't understand why these places are so forgotten and neglected and difficult. But we believe we must come.

In the midst of the mystery in the midst, in my case, of much unanswered prayer. And cry out to you again.

For this new generation of young people that they will not fail where we have failed but they will be willing to take up a more radical faith.

And go to the hard places and the forgotten places that everyone may hear.

Let your church be established among all peoples. By your grace we ask this. Amen.