George Verwer at Calvary Chapel — George Verwer

The Great Commission: Going to Every Nation

Who said, go into all the world and preach the gospel to every single person. 2 ,000 years ago, he said that. And then just before he ascended into heaven, he said, when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in Judea, Samaria, and even to the uttermost part of the earth.

What a serious, awesome challenge that is. Let's just pray for some of the nations of the world right now. Father, we thank you for what you are doing across the globe. But we know there are some countries that are in special difficulties.

And I think of Sudan, where thousands have been slaughtered and killed, where children by the thousands wander almost like animals without their parents. We pray for changes in Sudan. And also, Lord, we cry out to you for the situation in Afghanistan, where a couple million have died in the 10-year civil war, where things are continuing to be very chaotic.

These fanatic Taliban fundamentalist Muslims persecuting women, all kinds of things that are quite mind-bending. We pray for Afghanistan to send out workers. And we pray for those that are attempting to work there.

Lord, our hearts also go out to the crisis in the Middle East, in Syria, and in Israel, and those surrounding countries. We pray that somehow this team going out there will be a great blessing. And you'll use your church in Israel, in those surrounding lands, Lebanon, Egypt, Syria, and Jordan.

We pray for the Middle East. And the land of Turkey, where all so few know you among 60 million people. We thank you for new opportunities. And pray, Lord, for Europe, and for Central Asia, and for India, with 900 million, and Asia, and Africa, and Latin America.

We pray, Lord, that you would strengthen those who are already there. And the church that in some cases exists, but in other countries does not yet even exist. Oh, God, we don't believe we're here by accident tonight.

And we're asking you to stir our own hearts as well, concerning our own nation and the world in which we live. In Jesus' name, amen. It's a great challenge to be with you this evening. And thank you for your prayers.

Britain as a Mission Field and the Ministry of Sending

Thank you for sending this dynamic couple over to us in England. England only has a fraction of people, 8, 7, 6 percent, who even go to church. Many of those would not know the living Christ. There is, however, in that small percentage, a dynamic remnant of godly people in Britain, where my wife and I have lived for over three decades.

And we work very much with churches in renewal, and commitment, and seeing new churches born. We're especially focusing on 1 .5 million Muslims living in the British Isles. So, it is a great mission field.

And we're so grateful for Rich and his wife as they come to be with us. Tonight is a very special night. This is International Literature Night. And wherever I go, I declare that International Literature Night.

We've set up a big display of books. And you're not going to believe this, but it's true. Every one of you tonight can get a book absolutely free. A book worth probably $7 to $10. See, we read in the Bible, it's more blessed to give than receive.

And for years, we were selling books. We weren't getting as much blessing as we wanted. Taking all our money, we have these two ships. We're hoping one of our ships may come to Fort Lauderdale. If you think that's a good idea, you can meet some people at our table who are trying to line this up and prepare the way for our ship, Lagos II, to come to Fort Lauderdale and then Miami.

It's just been in Mexico, following up on the hurricane, ministering to the physical needs of the people in Acapulco. A tremendous story where the mayor asked us to help out, and there's not time to tell that.

The ship ministry has been going for about 28 years. And a little later, I'll tell you how it started when I got this idea and I converted pub in Bolton, Lancashire, England, where I was living at the time.

One of the books that you can get free from our little book exhibit is a book about the ship ministry. All the other books, you get one book free. All of you are going to want more than one book when you see these books.

All the other books that are on a donation basis, you can give a check, you can give the money later on to Stephan. You can send post-dated checks. We're part of the AD2000 movement. That's a network joining Christian movements around the world.

So we take checks post-dated up to the year 2000. So you don't have any excuse for not getting some of these great books. It's very hard to out-give God. I've tried for many years. Here's the number one book we're hoping you will take as a gift, the $10 book by Norm Lewis, Priority One.

How to Sort Out the Priorities in Your Life. And as we give you that, it's an investment. And we believe it's going to pay big dividends, not for us, but for the kingdom. There's another one we're giving on the free list, How to Be a World-Class Christian.

My own books are in the free section. They never sell anyway. No Turning Back. That's my name. George Verwer, not No Turning Back. The Unreached People, that's about praying through the 1040 window. That's another one of those that's free.

Serving as Senders, one of the most important training books on missions. You're already using that in your church. Again, a $10 book. You can pick that up as a gift this evening. Now, the other books are available on a donation basis.

Give What You're Able. I learned that from my great friend Keith Green, who's now in glory. He even used to sell his music cassettes on a donation basis. I have a singer that travels with me. We've just been together in Sweden, but he went on to Finland and I came to Florida.

As far as climate, I got the better deal, I can assure you. But a few of his tapes are there. Bill Drake, who I believe has the mantle of Keith Green. Some of my own cassettes are there. That's a weekend missions conference.

Luke Warm No More, which is the title we're giving to tonight's video and audio tape as well. Operation World. How many of you already have that? It's the most widely circulated mission book in history.

500 ,000, this edition. Prayer requests on every nation in the world. Anybody who believes in prayer will want this book. I've always said all over the globe, this book's in many languages now. Anybody without two copies is probably blind or a backslider.

So that's a book, but you're going to have to give a little bit of donation. Greater Mission by Robertson McQuilkin. Another phenomenal, challenging book. Everybody can have one of these newspapers. I'm not going to talk much about Operation Mobilization.

I'm going to share a message from the word of God. But if you'd like to know about OM, about the ships, about what's happening across the globe, there's 2 ,800 on our staff. This all started in my high school when I was just a kid.

And it spread like wildfire across the world. So you can pick up one of those little OM papers free indeed. And then, the really hot premier adventure of the year for me, this book. Grace Awakening by Charles Swindle.

How many of you know this book? Many of you. You may also know you can't get it except 20 bucks hardback. This book has sold so well, they never took it out of hardback. I had lunch with the publisher, and I don't want to tell you what I said.

But somehow after a year of prayer, they gave me my own private edition. I never saw it until today. I bought 10 ,000 copies at $1 .37 a copy. Nobody should ever tell you that. I don't even know if Swindle's getting his little nickel out of it.

But this here is a $20 hardback book in tremendous, beautiful paperback for any donation you get. You give past $1 .37, we'll put the money into evangelizing India. This is the most significant book in the history of the United States Church in the last 25 years.

If you read that, don't bother with the first three chapters. They're a little slow. Get right into the middle of the book. I read the middle. I went in both directions. I tell you, it blew my circuits.

It was confusing as well. Really. But if you don't get blessed out of this book, especially the middle chapters, and especially the chapter on Holy Ghost oiling your marriage with grace, especially dedicated to legalistic husbands and chauvinists and other types.

That's right. You write to me, I will apologize and send you five free books. So Grace Awakening is the book of the night. We probably won't have any left. That is not one of the free ones. We'd like you to give at least a dollar.

Imagine all the people that have paid $20 for that book. I'm excited. I'm excited. How many are excited about Jesus? That's great. Looks like I'm preaching to the choir again. I was converted in a Billy Graham one-night meeting in New York City.

Conversion, New Birth, and the Authority of Scripture

I was lost as anybody could ever be. I don't post about it. I'm ashamed of it. I was a liar. I was hooked on pornography. I owned three small businesses. Had two or three hundred people working for me part-time across the country.

I was on my 32nd girlfriend. Of course, this was the age of romance rather than the age of the bedroom. So I didn't have AIDS. And then somehow a little old lady put my name on her hit list. It's unreal.

This lady never even met me. She heard I was in trouble with the police, in trouble with a school principal. She heard I was a loud mouth. Of course, I'm from New Jersey. Most of us are pretty loud. And this lady not only put my name on her prayer list that I'd become a Christian.

That was bad enough. She prayed that I would become a missionary. Can you imagine? She didn't even discuss this with me. Again, New Jersey's known for people being rude. And so she then sent me a Gospel of John through the mail.

And I began to read this little Gospel of John. By then I was hooked on pornography and a lot of other things. And one could say, humanly speaking, what is a Gospel of John going to do in the life of someone like myself?

But as I read God's word, he spoke to my heart. And then Billy Graham came, not on a crusade. I hardly knew who Billy Graham was. I just knew that most of my peers, people that I related to, they thought Billy Graham was off the charts.

This was extremism. In fact, they told me he was a hypnotist. A business person gave me a free seat on a bus. There was a girl who I thought could use this kind of hot religion. I heard a little bit about it.

By the way, I was starting to get religion. I joined the Boy Scouts. I tried hard to get in the Girl Scouts. I joined the Boy Scouts. There's a lot of prejudice. And I actually was about to receive the God and Country Award, the highest religious award in scouting.

And I was lost and on the road to hell. I had one foot in the church and one foot in the world. From the New York City nightclub on Saturday night, sitting in this very, very liberal church where they were sort of a social club on Sunday morning.

Well, I went to that meeting because I thought he was a hypnotist. I sat as far away as I could. There were 20 ,000 in the meeting. Got my binoculars I used at the races and watched Billy Graham. And all he did was preach a simple message from the Bible.

The Bible is God's Word. He kept saying, the Bible says, the Bible says. And it went to my heart in a powerful way. He then told people, I'd never seen anything like this in the churches I'd gone to. And no one even moved in the churches I went to except they dozed off and fell over.

But at the end of the meeting, Billy Graham gave an invitation for people to come forward and repent of their sin. Imagine. And I, whoa, I didn't, I wasn't going to move. He said, pray. I started praying for this girl next to me.

And pretty soon the Holy Spirit convicted me that I was, I was a needy, lost soul. And I went forward and I was born from above. I know some people mock these things, being born again. It's very easy to mock things.

It's very easy to criticize things. It's very easy to be cynical. But I will tell you, what happened to me that night, and I say this especially for those of you who may be young Christians, has been a dynamic, powerful reality every single day ever since.

And that's now a long time ago. When I first began to preach at 17, you know, most people didn't think too much about it. Guy's just done some kind of late adolescent religious trip. Even when I preached and started preaching around the world when I was in my 20s, a lot of people wouldn't listen, you know, youthful zeal, especially in Europe where I lived, and in Spain, and then Great Britain, and a few other countries.

Young people responded, but many older people were skeptical. And I don't blame them. They wanted to see some real long-haul proof. Well, here I am, 42 years after my conversion, a grandfather of four grand.

Aren't grandchildren great? And have any of you got grandkids? I tell you, you know what Tony Campalo says, grandkids, that's God's reward for not killing your kids. It's a tremendous, tremendous encouragement.

My wife was going to be with me on this trip, also to see her parents who live in Florida. And somehow my daughter got ill, and she had to stay in England and be a babysitter. It's great as parents to be wanted again, but sometimes we're not sure where we're coming or going.

God is great. There's a number of passages I want to talk about from the Bible. If you don't have a Bible, or at least a New Testament with you, you should be shot. No, you can raise your hand, and I understand they give out Bibles here.

That's another free book for you. Can you raise your hand? These guys look a little bit slow. Anybody that doesn't have a Bible, looks like everybody's got one. Raise your hand if you're maybe a stranger, you thought this was a rock opera and came in here.

The Bible, God's Word. I want to just share a number of scriptures that have been very motivating for me. Isn't it amazing what they pay in America to hear a motivational speaker? You know, Tony Robbins, you know, it's 55 grand a shot.

We're an amazing country. But I believe the Lord Jesus Christ and His Holy Spirit can motivate you far more than the most gifted motivational speaker you will ever, ever find. I believe many of you I know are already motivated, so you're going to go into what I call hyper-motivation.

Some of you won't even need to use your car to get home. It's going to be an exciting night. But I believe the Bible motivates people. And I have been motivated by God's Word almost every day since my conversion.

There's so much in God's Word. And one of the things I love about the Calvary fellowships, chapel fellowships that I've spoken in different parts of the States, I think this is my 10th trip over here this year, is the emphasis on the Word of God.

The Bible is God's Word. You know, we're seeing chaos in Sweden right now because many of the pastors, they just took a survey and found this out. I've just flown in from Sweden. A lot of the pastors do not believe the Bible is God's Word.

Once we put the Bible to one side, there's no foundation. We no longer really know how to measure anything, morality, immorality, basic core values. And so what I share with you, I share with a conviction that the Bible is God's Word.

Maybe when you heard this was going to be a bit of a missions emphasis, maybe you began to switch off. Maybe you don't know what missions is all about. But I can assure you it's quite simple, otherwise characters like me couldn't be involved.

Missions is simply people. We're in the people business. And my greatest burden tonight isn't to recruit you into world missions. The Holy Spirit is in charge of that. We measured on an international level, by the way, in the 82 ,000 movement, that about 40 ,000 young people are trying to get into missions.

40 ,000 Brazilians, Koreans, Argentinians, South Africans. I've just been in the last year or two in all those places. The response is overwhelming. It is actually far easier to get recruits than it is to get churches to do what you just did, send them out.

The Local Church Sends Missionaries

Acts 13, where five people were praying, the Holy Spirit spoke, bang, Paul and Barnabas were sent. You read that. That's one of our passages for tonight. We just throw that in as a bonus. The local church is the key to world evangelism.

And as I was looking at the little missions booklet of your own church this morning during my prayer time, I could only praise God. You may not know all those people, but I know some of them. And they're being used of God to impact people, to serve people, to help people, to love people.

I think of Perry and Diane Rickards. How many of you remember them? They're in your little booklet. Your church supports them. We work together in the 82 ,000 movement. He's in YWAM. I'm in OM. We've linked together all these years.

And God has used Perry in an amazing way. He's an unsung hero. So I want to affirm you in what you're doing. I want to thank you. I want to thank you for even letting me here. There's a new blacklist against missionary speakers.

We're not allowed in, especially any larger meetings. They let us in the small meetings that no one comes to. I heard of a church in New York City. I was praying the Lord might open the door to share with them.

All I do is want to encourage. I was saved in New York City. I'm a big apple lover. But they sent us a note. Our policy, we do not have visiting speakers. Can you imagine the arrogance? We don't have visiting speakers.

Apostle Paul, back from the dead, you're not going to let him speak? Jesus Christ, knocking on the door. Hey, I'd like to share my testimony. No visiting speakers here. You know, really, I think a lot of our churches have hang-ups.

And I'm praying that somehow there may be a deliverance ministry to churches across America. Let's start with a little passage, just a little spiritual snack in the book of Revelation. I know that's your favorite place for just little snacks.

Revelation's Warning Against Lukewarm Faith

This one will probably finish you off for the next few hours. The book of Revelation, chapter 3. I've got a different translation. I hope that doesn't frighten you. I don't even know what translation it is.

It's because it's Spanish. But next to the Spanish, you get one of these kind of Bibles. One side is Spanish. The other side is English. And just looking at you, I think I'll read perhaps the English side.

Verse 14, chapter 3. To the angel of the church in Laodicea write. This is the message. This is the message from the Amen, the faithful, the true witness, who is the origin of all that God has created.

I know what you have done. I know that you are neither cold nor hot. How I wish you were either one or the other. But because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. Wow.

Did you know how many of you didn't know that was in the Bible? The verse about spit. I am going to spit you in old-fashioned translations, which some of you have. I will spew you out of my mouth. You say I am rich and well off.

We actually have church groups in America that claim that. They claim they're in full prosperity. They have everything by faith. So this verse is dedicated to them. You say I am rich and well off. I have all I need.

You do not know how miserable and pitiful you are. You are poor, you're naked, and you're blind. A little blunt. This guy must have been from New Jersey as well. I advise you then to buy gold from me, pure gold, in order to be rich.

Buy also white clothing to dress yourself and cover up your shameful nakedness. Buy also some ointment to put on your eyes so that ye may see. I rebuke and punish all whom I love. Isn't that encouraging?

Be earnest then and turn from your sins or repent. Listen, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into his house and eat with him, and he will eat with me.

To those who win the victory, I will give the right to sit beside me at my throne. Wow. Just as I have been victorious and now sit by my father on his throne. If you have ears, then listen to what the Spirit says to the churches.

Isn't that a powerful passage? I notice hearing in America these days is a great emphasis on revival. People praying for revival, people going into extreme fasting. I would warn you against going into extreme fasting until you try a little minimum fasting.

Why don't you try to miss one meal? You might find that's not so easy. How many of you have ever missed a meal for Jesus? Quite a few of the others haven't got into that blessing yet. Many of you are praying, God forbid.

Revival as Daily Life in the Holy Spirit

But there's a lot of people talking about revival. There must be a book every month about revival. And I'm not against what I call the Big Bang Revival. I call it the Plan B Revival. They occasionally happen.

I was speaking at Wheaton College about a year after they had sort of a Big Mini Bang Revival there. They already wrote a book about it. They usually write books right away. That usually helps quench the spirit.

But anyway, by the time I got to Wheaton College, the students, I was speaking at their missions event for three or four days. They said, please don't mention the revival. That was the counsel they gave me.

I noticed as I read this book about revival that for large periods of time at Wheaton College, these big revivals didn't take place. These are more emotional revivals. A lot of repentance and people turning in their pornographic magazines and repenting of having sex with their girlfriend.

And it gets all pretty very messy. People weeping. And these things do occasionally happen in history. They always talk about the Welsh Revival. I visit Wales a lot. But there's not much sign of that anymore.

In fact, many of them started to backslide within a week of the revival. Let me just say, if a Big Bang Revival ever does come, and I hope it does, I pray for it, the very next day, suppose it comes on Sunday, Big Bang Revival, thousands converted, people walking down the street, boom, just fall over and get converted.

Let me tell you, the very next day will be the toughest, messiest day in the life of the church. I guarantee you. So don't think revival is a cop-out. Revival is going to somehow set the hands of history back, put a born-again praising standing on his head president in the White House.

We are known as a nation of naive people. That's one of our reputations around the world. You don't have to react to it, just think about it. Consider the behavior of various people who have been in the White House over the years.

But our God is wanting us to have spiritual discernment. Our God is wanting us to know His Word. Our God is wanting us to know the difference between the true and the false. And I believe our God is also wanting us to know that plan A revival is Jesus.

Plan A revival is Jesus by His Spirit living in you. You don't have to wait for that, you don't have to roll on the floor for that, you don't have to fast, you just need to by faith receive the Lord Jesus, which most of you have at conversion, and then day by day through repentance, through grace, through the Word, through prayer, all that the Holy Spirit is doing, you walk day by day in the power of the Holy Spirit.

I want to ask you a question. I've heard that there's two services tonight, that's great. I hope you come back to the second service because it takes me at least 45 minutes to get warmed up and I'm jet lagged and I probably should be in bed.

But I want to ask you this question. Are you, I don't know if anyone's asked you this, are you filled with the Holy Spirit? I know in some places the moment you mention the Holy Spirit people start to get nervous because they know there's a lot of extremism going on under the name of the Holy Spirit.

And that bothers me, I've actually written about that in my book. But there's just a greater danger, probably not here but in a lot of conservative places I go, that we overreact to extremism and we end up in the deep freeze of dead orthodoxy.

Remember, how many of you have ever heard of Brother Andrew, God's smuggler? Amazing character, you should read his books, he's another Dutchman. I'm only half Dutch, he's completely Dutch which is dangerous.

And he's known as Brother Andrew, God's smuggler. Tonight you've got Brother George, that's my name. I also went into this Bible smuggling in the Soviet Union and I blew it, I got arrested by the KGB.

Thrown out of the country so I'm known as Brother George, God's bungler. But I remember one day preaching in the Netherlands with Brother Andrew and also with Corrie ten Boom. And Brother Andrew asked me if in my meeting in the afternoon I'd given an invitation.

I said, well no I hadn't, maybe you can do that Andrew. And he said, I think I will. I've learned it's easier to cool down a fanatic than warm up a corpse. True. Do you think the biggest problem in Fort Lauderdale is too much enthusiasm for Jesus Christ?

Too much witnessing, too much love, too much care for the poor? Too much zeal, too much prayer? I don't know Fort Lauderdale, well I'm pretty new here. I come from a small town called London, England.

A .W. Tozer, how many of you have ever read the writings of A .W. Tozer? Probably the most piercing, cutting edge writer in the last couple of years, 50 years. He's with the Lord now. Tozer said to think that too much enthusiasm and zeal was the greatest problem in the average church was like sending a squadron of policemen to the nearby cemetery to guard against a major demonstration by the residents at midnight.

This is not the biggest problem in town. I want to ask you, are you filled with the Holy Spirit tonight? That means the fruit, that means the gifts. Of course that means love, it means reality and witness, it means reality and prayer.

We're not talking perfection, but we're talking reality, which is an ongoing process. And I just love to shout from the housetops when I get the chance that revival is Jesus. That's plan A. You put your hands on the plow, you let Christ take over your life, and you never ever take your hands off.

Perseverance, Testimony, and God's Use of Ordinary People

That is my own personal testimony. Maybe God has allowed that in my life. I do not boast saving Jesus Christ. Just to bring into balance 1 ,000 testimonies of American backsliders. You know the story.

Came to Jesus, went on for a while, got discouraged, fell away. Went to the Christian conference, came back to Jesus. Went on for a while, got married. Went on for a while, got divorced. Went to a Christian camp, rededicated life.

Went for counseling, got sorted out, came back to the Lord. Praise God when that happens. I've had 100 ,000 people in my meetings come forward or stand up to come back to Jesus. I'm not against that. And if you're away from Jesus, tonight you can come back and drink again.

It's a fountain of never-ending water. But I'll tell you, plan A is still you put your hands on the plow, you commit your life to Jesus, and you never ever turn back. That has been... Amen. There's nothing wrong with clapping.

That has been my experience every single day for 42 years. You know, Billy Graham used to be greatly criticized. Now that he's so old, they don't criticize him so much. But he was greatly criticized. And I was told all over the place, oh, Billy Graham converts.

A lot of emotionalism. And it doesn't last. It doesn't last. All over the world, I've met people converted through Dr. Billy Graham. Many of them have left. Missionaries, pastors. It's not Billy Graham.

If you read his autobiography, which I'm doing right now, you discover how ordinary and how many struggles he had as a young man. It's God. And the same God that anointed Billy Graham and has used him and Ruth is the same God that wants to use you.

I believe one of the reasons God's brought me here tonight in His providence, and the story of being here is quite incredible, is because God wants to use you much more than He's using you at present.

I know He's already using many of you. He was already using me when I was a baby Christian in my high school. But He wanted to use me more, so He sent me to Mexico. Then He sent me to the Soviet Union, then to Spain, then to India, then to Nepal, then to Bangkok.

Then He put me in a little pub, a little bar in England. We had converted it into a Christian bookshop. And I began to dream dreams about having a ship to sail across the seas with 200 tons of literature and people and vehicles, and be able to train them while you're traveling, reading, studying, lecturing.

And that ministry now has gone on for 27 years and has given the gospel to 100 million people. God uses ordinary people. And God wants to use you. And God wants you to know the reality of His Holy Spirit every single day the rest of your life.

And if you're already experiencing that, God just wants you to give you that greater assurance that you're not going to lose that. You don't have to lose that. You may lose some of the initial first love in terms of emotion, but you can know the reality of the Holy Spirit all your life.

D .L. Moody. How many of you ever heard of D .L. Moody? Not so well-known anymore, but boy, a well-educated group here. A secular encyclopedia described D .L. Moody as overweight American evangelist who depopulated hell by 2 million souls.

It's not bad. It's not bad. And D .L. Moody used to emphasize the need to be filled again and again with the Holy Spirit. And one day he was going on about this, and a little lady in the front row raised her hand and she said, Mr. Moody, why do you keep going on about being filled again and again?

He looked her in the eye and he said, Madam, because I leak, I say thank you, Jesus. Because I'll tell you, you're looking at one weak, leaky Christian leader here tonight. I want to be very honest with you.

I've shared part of my testimony, but I've known this reality and this grace, this excitement every day. But I'll tell you, in the midst of that, I've had many miserable minutes. When I've got away from Jesus, when I've got discouraged, when I got angry.

Prayer, Missions, and the Multiplication of Gospel Workers

Let me give you a little bit more of my testimony. My grandfather, on my mother's side, was an alcoholic. He had Irish, Scottish, and English blood. Can you imagine? That's toxic. My grandmother, dear soul, she divorced him.

And I only met him twice in my life. My dad's side, both my dad and my grandfather came over from the Netherlands. His father was an atheist. There was no spiritual heritage. That was my background. So at 16, as I've already shared, I was lost and found Jesus, or he found me, in this Billy Graham meeting.

I went back to my high school. I found out this lady had been praying for the high school for about 15 years. Her children all went through that high school with a very powerful, godly testimony. Amazing story, the story of this woman's children.

Ordinary housewife. Praying. Committed to world missions. She had all these missionary pictures. You know, when she discovered missionary books like this Operation World, I mean, she almost came unglued.

Amazing, ordinary woman. And if you want to be on the cutting edge of mission, if you want to be on the cutting edge of what the Holy Spirit is doing, learn to pray. Learn to pray. Acts 12, Peter was in prison, but the church was gathered together without ceasing, praying for him.

He was soon out of prison. Without exaggeration, I can tell you, in my own lifetime, I have experienced at least 10 ,000 answers to prayer. Our own little fellowship that started in this high school from nothing, called the Christian Youth Committee.

We were only 17 and 18. We held a few meetings. A few people got converted. I went off to college. I came back six months later. 600 came out to the meeting, including my own father. I shared my testimony.

I gave an invitation. I didn't even know how to preach. And about 125 stood up to believe on the Lord Jesus. I soon found myself going to Mexico. That's 40 years ago, the summer of 57. We discovered that we could learn a language rather quickly when we got among the people.

We worked in the prisons. We worked in the streets. We played phonograph records that preached the gospel when we were still learning the Spanish. We saw people come to Christ, and that was the birth, one of the major birthplaces of the whole short-term missions movement.

Since that day, we have 90 ,000, 9 -0, 90 ,000 go on our evangelistic campaigns somewhere in the world. And through that, we developed into a longer-term missionary fellowship while maintaining the short-term program as well.

We have given the gospel, these various teams, as we always work on teams, to 900 million people face-to-face. One woman prayed. One woman prayed. God is into operation multiplication. God is into using ordinary people.

And it's God's will that none of us who love and know Jesus, none of us are lukewarm. And tonight, if you're lukewarm, I beg of you in the name of Jesus to turn from it. Why do people become lukewarm?

I think some become lukewarm because they get hurt in the church. I believe many people have unrealistic expectation when they get involved in church life. Even when we're first converted, we often have unrealistic expectation.