World Vision - How Om Began — George Verwer

And from this important area of Britain that now has this glorious bridge so that everybody can rush up and get here much quicker, even though it seems that there's not as much traffic as they once envisaged, it always encourages us to read about some of these things since we've also, in our bridge building around the world, have sometimes miscalculated the problems and what was involved.

I'd like to just pray once again and ask the Lord to help us. Before I do that, I would like to say a word about some of these books. I get so excited when I come to this ship and just see the Christian books.

Some of them, whenever I come here, I see books I've never seen before. I don't know if you know about all these books, but in your position in Christian leadership, I think you want to know about books that you can recommend, that you can use in your ministry.

Counseling Young People with Damaged Emotions

There are two books that I have especially been recommending in the last two years, one of them only in the last year. Unfortunately, they keep putting the price up. But this one is called Healing for Damaged Emotions.

I don't think I exaggerate when I say that about 50 of the people that come on OM, young people, OM is many things. It's a long-term missionary fellowship, but the bigger sector is short-term training.

A lot of these young people who come for training have serious emotional difficulties or damaged emotions. That's why in our work we've had to give a lot more time to counseling, to listening, to really helping young people.

I don't know if I'm sure in the ministry you've discovered an increasing number of young people today have been raped in their homes. That's just one of, say, 15 factors that we would find in society today on the increase in our counseling with young people.

Often, many young people open up within OM, the context of the OM team and the fellowship and the counseling, many of them open up and share their problems for the first time in their life. Quite a few homosexual young people, for the first time after hearing our teaching on the subject of sex in the Bible, have opened up and shared that they had a homosexual problem.

Others have shared, like one young girl, that she had been raped 15 times by her grandfather. People in our society, you know this probably better than I do, they hurt him. There's no way we can hustle him off on an evangelistic campaign.

We've got to stop, we've got to listen, and we've got to somehow, in some cases, see if they're even ready for this kind of work. Quite a few people, we actually encourage to go back to their own home area, try to get counseling, try to get some roots, and build within their local church before coming, especially on a one or two year program.

Anyway, I got sidetracked there because I'm actually just trying to talk about this book on healing for damaged emotions by a pastor, a man who had been a pastor for 30 years or more, and who I believe brings a biblical perspective to this important subject.

His follow-up book is just published, Putting Away Childish Things, Reprogram Old Behavior Patterns That Are Holding You Back. Two absolutely brilliant books, and I would consider it almost worth coming here to Hull just to push and mention these two books.

I have had more people lately thanking me for introducing them to these books, and so I'm happy to mention them to you. There's another book along similar lines, Where Is God When It Hurts? A book you can give to somebody when they're hurting, when they're having problems emotionally.

Where Is God When It Hurts? Also, very balanced way, deals with the problem of suffering. There's a lot of easy answers about the problem of suffering. Personally, I'm not very satisfied with many of them.

Prosperity Doctrine and the Need for Balanced Teaching

We had one group in the United States. One church alone took a strong position. I don't know if you read the book, God Wants You Rich and Other Enticing Doctrines. That's another American export that's coming your way.

Prosperity doctrine. If you're spiritual, you will prosper. You can get rid of that Ford Escort, get a Rolls Royce, or something that's really going to bring glory to God. That's the way they talk. And this doctrine is going to come in heavy in the next few years.

It's already here. And there's a book against it called God Wants You Rich and Other Enticing Doctrines. And in this one church where they had very extreme views about healing in America, 52 people dead in one church, many of them children.

We don't always hear that side, or if we do, we don't like it. But I believe we need balanced material on this subject of suffering. And that's one of the books that may be a help. Edith Schaeffer's book, Affliction, is another brilliant book on that subject.

Loving and Respecting Christian Leaders Despite Disagreement

Love Covers, a book about how we can love and respect one another even when we may not agree. Are all the Christian leaders in Hull and this area all in agreement with each other? I rather doubt it. I've been around the country now 22 years.

I haven't found it yet in any single area in the entire nation. And we don't have to be. We don't have to all be in agreement on every little jot and tittle. But we can respect one another. We can learn to love one another.

We can learn to compassionately disagree instead of arrogantly, impatiently, in the flesh disagree, which so often gets into God's work. At least it has at times into ours. And so I commend Love Covers.

I commend to you Celebration of Discipline. Again, you may not agree with every line. This man comes from a unique background, not so well known among Christians, evangelical Christians. But 95 of what you read here, you'll just be thrilled.

I think it's one of the most beautiful devotional books that I've ever read. Celebration of Discipline. And the book we use in our leadership training. We had a leadership training course in Birmingham two weeks ago.

We had 800 enrolled. We turned over 150 away. We had 1 ,300 in the meetings, the bullring. There are a lot of young people who are in responsibility in their Christian unions, in Sunday schools, in youth groups.

They want some training. They're making mistakes. They're already suffering from the pain of trying to be a Christian leader because they're in youth leadership. We believe that one of our specialties, and we're still learning ourselves, is training young people.

And we use this book in our leadership training. Spiritual Leadership by Oswald Saunders, the former leader of OMF, now known as the, formerly known as China Inland Mission, now known as OMF. So there's some books I'd like you to look at.

Putting Away Childish Things and Healing for Damaged Emotions. Where Is God When It Hurts? Love Covers. Celebration of Discipline and Spiritual Leadership. And I think if you get those books, when you look back on this particular conference, you'll be able to say it was worth it just to get some of these key tools.

Ongoing Education Through Reading and Listening

Many of us dream about going back to seminary for one or two years. I'd like to go back, get some more formal education. I only had about four years after secondary school. Two in universities, two in Bible college.

Not enough. Well, not so simple now in my particular situation. But you know, I find through reading, through regularly listening to lectures on cassette tapes, that I have the privilege of ongoing education.

And it is so stimulating and so challenging. And there are so many beautiful books. And many times, the cream of what people are saying in these various institutions, it's all put in books and with a little discipline.

Especially now with the cassette tape. I hope you look at some of the cassette tapes we have. I was before accused of being a bookworm. Now people are accusing me of being a tapeworm, which is a little embarrassing for my wife.

But the Lord is merciful. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for Christian books. We thank you for the way you are working through books. The way often when we're not exactly sure what to say to a person, we can share something and then give them a book that can be used of your Holy Spirit to meet their particular needs.

Lord, we rejoice. We rejoice. You have called us into this great work. Whether it's preaching the word locally or carrying the gospel to the ends of the earth, we're together. We're on the same team. We belong to the same body.

Whether we got an American accent, an English accent, whether we're from China, Russia, or India, if we're born again, if we're your children, then we're on the same team. We thank you for this privilege.

Help us, Lord, as we just look into the word together now. In Jesus' name, amen. I want you to turn to the book of Acts. I think it may be announced in the program that I was going to speak on world vision, and I will do that this afternoon.

A Relevant Ministry for Christian Leaders

But God, by His Holy Spirit, has put something on my heart, especially for you and your situation. After all, it's great to talk to you about world vision, but you've got whole vision, and you've got a particular task here.

And our burden, even as you come for these days, is that you may receive something here that is exceptionally relevant, or at least very relevant, for what you're facing right now. And it's been my joy all over the world to be able to share with Christian leaders.

It's not easy for me. I think I would easily cop out and say, let me speak to just ordinary people, young people. These Christian leaders, let me mainly learn from them for another ten years. Then maybe I'll speak.

But somehow, in a very unpredictable way, when I was just a young Christian, I kept being thrown to share my testimony with Christian leaders. And if that was true when I was 19 and 20, now that I'm in these great mid-years.

Boy, isn't it, some of you look like you may be in the mid-years. Isn't it great? The mid-years, it's a mid-year crisis. All life's a crisis. But I find it so stimulating. My son is getting married on Saturday.

Boy, we've got another free room in the house. We're praising God that he's moving on to higher ground. And pray for the wedding. It's a very formal English wedding and quite a formal reception. Everything is really organized.

We have our sort of OM receptions if it's an OM marriage. Anybody come, bring your own food. This is a proper reception. It's in a hotel. Every guest's name's on a card. Of course, mainly it's done by the bride's wife, so it's not much problem for me.

But every day, somehow, this week, my wife, what did I say? My bride's parents, bride's parents are organizing it. But every day, last week, my wife's been exhorting me about my manners. And she seems to feel that I may blow it on Saturday.

So just pray that I may somehow be well-mannered, not eat too fast. I hear it's going to take several hours sitting in the same place. I was asking my future daughter-in-law whether I could bring my tape recorder and earphone.

She wasn't so happy about that idea. The Lord is good. And He ministers to us through all the various changes in life. Midlife, I'm looking for those senior citizen days. That's ahead. But we've got to be patient.

We've got to be patient. Acts chapter 20 is where I would like you to look, just to take a quick look at some of these important statements by the Apostle Paul. Verse 19, Serving the Lord with all humility of mind, with many tears.

We're talking now about the ministry. Serving the Lord. Many tears. And trials which befell me by the lying in wait of the Jews and how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have shown you and have taught you publicly and from house to house, testifying both to the Jews and also to the Greeks.

Repentance. Repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. And now, behold, I go bound in the Spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there, except that the Holy Spirit witnesseth in every city, saying, Bonds and afflictions await me.

When I was a young Christian, I took verse 24 as one of my sort of life verses. I like to take them all. But this one really jumped out of the Word to me. When I was a young believer, I think I was 18, none of these things moved me.

I don't belong to be able to say that. Problems in the church, misunderstandings, suffering, things going wrong. None of these things moved me. I need to say that. I got a few problems. None of these things moved me.

Neither can I my life gear unto myself so that I might finish my course with joy. And the ministry which I received of the Lord Jesus to testify the gospel of the grace of God. May every one of us be able to go from here, renewing our commitment to that kind of biblical ministry.

And then it talks about some of the other burdens that were on the heart of the Apostle Paul, feeding the flock of God. It's a great chapter. Study it. Preach on it. Then I want you to go over to Acts 23.

The Conspiracy Against Paul

The title of this message, it may not say this on the tape, because they have everything all advanced, planned here. It'll probably say World Vision 1. But the title of this message is The Conspiracy.

The Conspiracy. Now since there's a couple of thousand of my tapes floating around the world, it's hard to come up with new titles. But here's a new title. Though I did share this with pastors in Swansea a couple of months ago and with a few pastors in Pakistan.

Because when the Lord gives me a burden, and a particular message, and I had never preached on this in this way up until some months ago, then I like to share it in many parts of the world, not just keep it to Swansea where I first gave these thoughts.

The Conspiracy. What was The Conspiracy? Verse 12 in Chapter 23. And when it was day, certain of the Jews banded together and bowed themselves under a curse, saying they would neither eat nor drink till they had killed Paul.

Imagine that. Imagine getting home tonight, a little note on your door. Dear Pastor, several of us have met together and we have decided we are not going to eat until you're dead. Now some of you feel you've got a few problems in your church, but I dare to say if you had that problem, it may make that little controversy in the choir look small.

There is a conspiracy. It goes on to say there in verse 21, But do not thou yield unto them, for there lie in wait for them more than forty men who have bound themselves with an oath that they will neither eat nor drink till they have killed him.

And now are they ready, looking for a promise from thee. I don't know if you've ever preached on this text. I am strongly convinced that there is a conspiracy, a definite conspiracy brewed in hell against you as a Christian leader.

And I think it's incredibly important. Number one, we don't overemphasize this. We don't want to all go out of here neurotic. And I don't believe in giving a lot of attention to the devil. Someone once said every, you know, one look at Satan, take ten looks at Jesus.

Or was it one look at self, take ten looks at Jesus. Both are true. And in our work we're a little bit wary of all the big flood of books lately about Satan. And, you know, some people are seeing demons in every bush.

And if you sneeze they want to cast out a demon of cold. But, you know, this is what I'm talking about this morning. We don't want to go to the other extreme. Because Corinthians says very clearly, be not ignorant of Satan's devices.

And what I share with you this morning is not something that I have looked for or sort of, you know, purposely researched. It's something that I've had to face in 29 years of ministry. Now let me share just briefly my own testimony.

Persevering Prayer and the Gospel

Because I think most of us were a little bit new to each other. And it's not been my privilege to come to Hull very much over the years. Though I was in Hull, never forget it, the day that Nixon resigned.

Do you remember that day? It's hard to believe it's more than a decade ago. And I was preaching in Hull. I remember I came across the ferry. We didn't have any sophisticated bridge. Came across from the other side by ferry.

I was coming up from Ipswich. Tremendous ferry. It looked like something out of a museum. And I think somebody came to me recently and asked me if I wanted to buy that. You know, really. They think, you know, George Burbick, shipping tycoon, buys and sells, wheeling and dealing in ships.

The next ship I hope to go into is one from my grandson in his bathtub. But my son says that's several years off yet. But I was in Hull the day that Nixon resigned. And I, as someone who knew Nixon, not personally but just knew about him, and followed him, I just wept.

I just wept in front of that TV screen right here in Hull. But I haven't been here very much. And so maybe I would just, I could just share a little of my testimony. My grandfather's from across the water in Holland.

He was an atheist. My other grandfather from Glasgow, he was drunk. My parents were not believers, though they had a little bit of religion. I was christened as a Methodist. We went to a little Reformed church, sort of a community social club.

I even became the president of the Young People's Fellowship, the assistant to the pastor. But I was lost. I didn't know what salvation was. I didn't know people had to be converted, especially Americans.

We were a religious nation. I mean, God had organized us, more or less, we thought. And I was deceived. You know, you can be religious and lost. The most desperate state to be in. And a dear woman came into my life who believed in prayer.

One of the things I'd like to emphasize today, re-emphasize, something you already know and have preached on, God works through prayer. My dear brothers and sisters in Christian leadership, if you neglect your prayer life, you're going to pay big.

And if you neglect the prayer ministry in your church, and if you neglect the prayer meeting in your church, your church is going to pay big, I warn you, on the basis of several hundred verses. This woman did not neglect prayer.

She had been praying for the secondary school near her home for 15 years that people would be saved and sent. That school became the birthplace for this whole ministry. An unknown woman, 15 years of prevailing, persevering prayer.

And we know so little of that today, don't we? This is the day of instant results. But you know, the long-term results are going to take or demand long-term praying. Ask and you shall receive. Be not weary in well-doing, you shall reap if you faint not.

We long to see a breakthrough in this area of England. I'm aware that even comparing this area of England with other areas, that this is a needy mission field that God has put you in. Praise the Lord for your ministry here.

And if you need some prayer, I can't promise much, but I'd be happy to receive a feedback paper from you. Take out a piece of paper, put my name on it. My name is George. And give me some prayer requests.

Because I'd be happy to pray for you. This lady not only prayed, she sent me a gospel of John through the post. And I read this. And it prepared my heart for a one-night meeting of Billy Graham in New York City.

I didn't even know what an evangelist was. And among my circle of friends, believe me, we were not in Billy Graham's camp. But somehow, some people got me on an old bus, and I got to that meeting. And I heard the gospel.

I heard that Jesus Christ died for me. I heard there was a need to repent. Billy Graham emphasizes repentance. He does not preach an easy-believe-ism message. You don't have to agree totally with Billy Graham to believe that he's an anointed evangelist.

I probably wouldn't agree fully with you. But I would be more than privileged, you know, to come to your church or to minister or to work with you. And I think one of the problems in the church, we don't know how to compassionately disagree.

We just sort of make generalizations and we, you know, make little innuendos. And though I don't agree with Billy Graham on every issue, I don't know the man that well. I believe the anointing of God is on him.

And that with literally millions of people who are praying, the good will outweigh any negative factors ten to one. In all of our ministries, there are negative factors. In this ship, there are negative factors.

No one in the Christian life has arrived with perfect doctrine, perfect total victory. We're all learning. We're all growing. We all fail. Billy Graham went to the Soviet Union. He was put on the spot.

Things got out of context and he was crucified for that visit. How would you, how would you have done? I just went to the Soviet Union, very quiet little visit. Nobody knew about it. I didn't find it easy, especially getting out.

And life is complex. The decision Billy Graham was forced to make years ago of whether he should work only with very strong-minded American Bible-punching fundamentalists, because that's where he started.

That's where Billy started. Or he should broaden out and work with a wider range of God's people. And then where do you draw the line? Where do you draw the line? God's people. It's not so simple. At least as I used to think when I came out of Bible school when I had all the answers.

Because, you know, we found in our country some of the Bible fundamentalists turned up to be practicing homosexuals. Some of them are in prison today. Others are backslidden and divorced. See, they didn't all have their act together either.

And Jack Van Empy, one of our dynamic, strong-speaking fundamentalists in America, he is so upset with all the fighting in the fundamentalist camp, all the backbiting, that he has turned and is preaching a radical, strong message on love and has just written a book about that.

I don't know if you even know his name, but if you praise God, there's an increasing number of people who are saying, yes, we believe in Bible doctrine, but we must have love. That is the Prince of Doctrines.

And this means we will at times have to passionately or compassionately disagree and press on and perhaps when we get to heaven we'll get the full score. Anyway, I went to that Billy Graham meeting and I was saved.

And that has stood the test of 29 years. In fact, I can say honestly, through much failure and great struggle and a lot of things I'm perhaps not too proud about, I've experienced that reality every day.

Christ in me. He came in that night. He has never left me or forsaken me, even when I've fallen flat on my nose. I went back to that secondary school and began to share the message of Christ. We started prayer meetings.

God began to work in one meeting alone where I was able to share my testimony. 125 young people came for counseling and many of them made professions of faith in Christ, including my own father. And we saw what God could do in answer to prayer.

And O .M.'s first birthplace was back in that ungodly secondary school. It then spread to Mexico. I went to university and there, mainly through reading, I caught a vision more and more for Mexico and for other countries.

And so at 19, I went to Mexico and I saw that young people could work with the churches and could help the churches. That work has gone on now 25 years. To make a long story short, I transferred to Moody Bible Institute where I met my wife.

I went back to Mexico after graduation. Then went to Spain. From Spain, God transferred me to Great Britain where O .M. really had its second birth. O .M. did not have the name Operation Mobilization until the summer of 1961.

Some of you know my friend, Brother Andrew, God's smuggler. This morning, you've got Brother George, God's bungler. And I also went into the Soviet Union. I got arrested by the secret police for distributing scriptures.

And it was really my own ability to make mistakes. Finally, they thought I was a spy and then decided I was a religious fanatic and released me. And I went for a day of prayer and it was there that day of prayer, two words came to my mind.

I was thinking about Europe. I was thinking about all the hatred that had brought the war and killed so many. Six million Jews, six million Gentiles. I don't think we should ever forget it, even if we do have our hearts filled with forgiveness.

And I thought, can there not be a revolution of love? The word mobilization came to my mind. Can we mobilize young people instead of fighting and killing each other, Germans, French, British? Why can't we mobilize for God?

And on the top, I was actually, when I was younger, I used to climb trees just for change. And I was on the top of this huge tree in a forest in Germany. And it was there that these two words came to me.

As I was praying on the day of prayer and fasting, Operation Mobilization. And I came down, shared this with a brother who was with me. And we went back to Madrid where I was living, Madrid, Spain, where my first son was born.

And I shared this with some Spaniards. A plan to mobilize European young people to serve the Church on the continent. And they went for it. What a miracle. They had their doubts about me, about this whole thing.

They went for it. They took over the work in Spain. I, meanwhile, had met two young men who came from England and told me of the green pastures of the British Isles. Among God's people. And in March of 62, I came to Britain for a short visit.

And I've stayed here ever since. And Britain became really the founding country of OM to any great degree. And it's still the base for our international headquarters there in London. Our British base is in Manchester.

God gave us 200 young people that summer in answer to prayer. There was no big publicity. God gave us 900 the next summer. And we made a lot of mistakes. But because we were reading a lot of good books, we were having input from a lot of good Christian leaders.

We set up a board of directors in Manchester of godly men who counseled us and kicked us and urged us to stay on the straight and narrow path. We learned from our mistakes. And God taught us something about spiritual leadership.

Discernment. Spiritual balance. Problem solving. Relationships. Dealing with people. Motivating people. And all kinds of other things which are written about in our leadership material, in our different manuals, and in our many different books.

And so it's through these 29 years, in about 50 different nations, that really this message had its birthplace. I preach about 500 times a year. I'm trying to cut down. It used to be 900. And people say, well, when do you prepare?

I said, my whole life is preparation for the next message. Now that doesn't mean I don't have formal preparation. I do. Tapes. Studies. Outlines. Notes. I have a whole, you know, reams of outlines and notes and messages, more than I'll ever preach.

I don't know if we're going to have preaching in heaven, but if we don't, I don't know what I'm going to do with some of these messages. But some of you are in the same church for 10 years. You've got a greater opportunity.

You've got to really expand your mind to just keep serving them up with new meals. Just pray you don't serve them up with any heresy in the attempt to keep giving new things. I love to talk to you about sensitivity in preaching, because I think sometimes we feel as preachers, we feel intimidated.

We feel intimidated by the intellectual. You know, he wants a certain style message. He's sitting there, you know, with his six gun. And we feel intimidated by the fellow over here who's read all the heavy challenge about exposition.

You know, really, the only real preaching is expositional preaching. You know, as if we're all going to be reincarnations of John Stoddard or Stephen Alford. And then you've got somebody else down here.

He's into psychology, and he wants, you know, he wants a little more psychology, a little practical psychology. And then you've got this guy over here. He's just finished reading Andrew Murray's book on the blood of Christ.

And he's writing in his notebook how many times you mention the blood of Christ in your message. You know, I don't know how preachers even stay sane when they're in a church more than a few years. No wonder they want psychology.

But you, you keep praying. You keep reading the Word. You keep preaching the best you can. Leave the rest with God. You're never going to make everybody happy. And when somebody's unhappy, you go invite them over for a cup of tea.

Take them out for fish and chips or a Big Mac, whatever you're into up here. As McDonald's got this far, they've got this motto, every man with a burger in his belly. And they are moving a lot faster in many places than the Church of Jesus Christ.

And we've got the Word of God. It really rebukes me that these people are more committed to spreading their fast food philosophy than we are spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And I don't want to get into that now.

The Christian Leader's Spiritual Warfare

There is a conspiracy, brothers and sisters. You are on the hit list. I heard after World War II they discovered a list of British people who were up for annihilation if Britain had lost the war. I will tell you, maybe you weren't on that list.

Maybe you were a little young for that. You are on the devil's hit list. And if only we could just grasp a little more, have a little more discernment. Tozer said, and I hope you'll read his writings, the greatest gift needed in the Church today is discernment.

So we are not ignorant of Satan's devices. We realize, as it says, I think in that same passage, that sometimes even comes as an angel of light. Look at Ephesians chapter 6. A passage I'm sure you have studied and maybe even preached on.

Verse 11, put on the whole armor of God. Now you may be able to stand against the wiles, the old authorized version, wiles of the devil. Strategies of the devil. Different translations have a different word.

This is real. This is real. We haven't got time to read this whole passage. But look at verse 12. We wrestle not against flesh and blood. It's not the people in your congregation. It's not that fellow who doesn't like you.

It's not the deacon's wife who doesn't appreciate the great ministry God has given you. We don't wrestle against flesh and blood. We wrestle against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

It's because, to some degree as a young Christian, I began to understand this. I remember a student, being a student at Moody, somebody gave me a little booklet, The Perils of the Victorious Life. Have you ever read that booklet?

I saw, because I was very committed to Christ and His kingdom. I was at least classified by both as very zealous. I was already in leadership. And I saw in this booklet, the higher you go in Christian leadership, the greater the fall when you go down.

And I changed my strategy. And I started to develop a strategy for survivalship. I learned how to pull back. I learned how to relax. I learned more how not to carry all the burdens. I learned how to handle criticism, misunderstanding, innuendos, intimidation, and how to really draw what I needed from the Word of God and from the Lord Himself, rather than often trying to get so much from my brothers and sisters.

And I thank God for His Word. I thank God for great books that I had the privilege of reading before I was 21. I thank God that in His sovereignty, I sat under the ministry of Alan Redpath when he was a pastor of Moody Church in Chicago.

Because here's a man, I believe, that has proven himself as a servant of the Lord and as a soldier of the Lord and was a great influence together with other men in my life. Yes, we wrestle against spiritual wickedness in high places.

That's why it says put on the whole armor. That's why we're told, verse 16, to take the shield of faith wherewith we can quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. What are some of these fiery darts? Let me be specific.

Pride as a Fiery Dart Against Christian Leaders

What are some of the specific fiery darts that I have seen over these years, the enemy using against Christian leaders? I don't want you to dwell on these things. You can put them in your little list.

You can realize that they are real. You don't have to dwell on them. Let me quickly give them to you. What time do we have to go to lunch? Here's our man, he'll tell us. Okay, we want to have a few minutes for questions.

The first fiery dart that I see everywhere I go is the fiery dart of pride. I've seen, just in watching the thing in Britain here these 22, 23 years, I've seen men, I remember one great evangelist that hit Britain.

As soon as there was great publicity, he was an anointed man. You know, when you're anointed and you're seeing souls saved and your church is growing and people are saying, oh, thank you, pastor, God's using you in my own heart and you help families come together, that's great.

You want to be encouraged in the ministry, don't you? You're not waking up each day, oh, Lord, in the name of Jesus, give me another failure today. We don't want people praying this way. We want to do the right thing.

We want to see people saved. And with all of our efforts in that direction, there'll be still enough failures. But you know, I saw this man get puffed up. I've seen church fellowships get puffed up. I see some denominations right now getting puffed up.

They got all the answers. Some of them are newer groups. Some of them don't like to be called denominations. You know, if you're a movement of 50 or 60 or 100 churches and you got your own doctrine, you got your own conferences, and you got literature and videotapes and all this, and you come out and say, we're not a denomination, you know, you need to go back and get your definition straightened out.