Cd Gv113 10 Harsh Reality — George Verwer

Let's just pray. Lord, this isn't Urbana or Campus Crusade or the local church down the road. This isn't the New Recruits Conference. This isn't Jocoe or the 40th anniversary in Oregon. This is us, long-term bonded close friends and people who are new being bonded into this group.

And it is special and it is a privilege that we have to gather in this way. We know someday it may no longer be possible. So we thank you for this opportunity and we avail ourselves of all that we're called into doing during these days.

And just speak to us now from your word, from history, from reality. May we go from here tonight a little wiser, a little more discerning, a little more proactive, a little more motivated to do the work that you've given us.

And may we somehow be able to see what you've done in our lives in all of its weakness, in all of its ragamuffin-ness multiplied in the lives of many others who will go to others, who will go to others.

At this tidal wave of blessing that exploded through the prayers of Mrs. Clapp 45 years ago may continue to impact the nations of the world. And someday we will in glory understand what it's all about.

Minister to those who have special needs, who are carrying special burdens, who can't even maybe concentrate on what's going on because the burden is heavy and the need is great and the hurt is real, that they may know the power of your grace and your forgiveness to set them free from anything that Satan would put around their neck, no matter how heavy, no matter how wild.

And grant us the grace to appropriate all that you have for us in the battle in the name of Jesus. Amen. Amen. Well, thank you for your prayers over these past days. Certainly one of the tougher challenges in my life that started over a year ago was preparation for the Urbana meetings.

Preparing for Urbana and Receiving an Unexpected Message

Preparation being far, far more difficult than giving the message. That was just a wild total free celebration. But the preparation was a one-year trauma, writing out a message, a lot of it handwritten, submitting it in fear and trembling, studying it, reading it, putting it on tape, which I was going to play back to myself, which I never did.

Getting a tremendous sale of notes based on the message in big bold print so I didn't have to use my glasses. And on my way to visit Randy Lawler's team, the Lord just took it from me, forgot it, and gave me what he wanted me to share at Urbana.

So praise God. And more people will probably hear and see that message by videocassette than ever were there at Urbana. And soon you'll be able to get both of those messages on video and PAL and other formats.

So if you want more, it's available and I'm sure many of you definitely will not want to watch that video. I was really wrestling with God about what to share here and in some ways it's even more important.

And in a similar way, it doesn't always happen this way, God just began to just hit me with some thoughts and I wrote them down and then I rewrote them in a little bigger type. I probably still will have to use my glasses.

Before I go into that, I'd like to just mention that Urbana, I believe, was a great breakthrough for the kingdom of God, totally regardless of my involvement. I've just done a cassette report about that at our night of prayer back in Forrest Hill.

That will go out, maybe be back in your office when you get there. 19 ,200 plus actually registered. That's not one of these exaggerated figures that we're so accustomed to in the church, but those people registered.

About a thousand of those were exhibition and missionaries. Eight or nine hundred were pastors. I'm not positive of that statistic. So they were not all students. On the fourth night when I had the awesome scary task of giving the invitation and I asked special permission to not just give this paper invitation when they fill out the form, but to call people to stand and I was given that permission, something that Urbana has debated for many decades.

I guess about one-fourth of the whole audience stood after some pretty strong words, not just mine, but over a couple of days. One of the most outstanding speakers was a missionary from Afghanistan, absolute opposite of me, and just quietly gave the message of the cost of discipleship in a very quiet way that people would never forget.

It was very much a ministry team. When it came to those forms, the woman after me led them through this decision form, 9 ,000 signed a commitment to go, short or long term over the next few years. Altogether, 15 ,000 made decisions.

I think the same number made decisions to pray. And I don't think we can ever underestimate that. Keep in mind the team of people that have worked for three years to make this happen. It's a very highly professional conference in my viewpoint, highly committed and motivated people.

And so it was their tears and toil and sweat and the tears of God's people around the world that made it happen. And I could easily talk for several hours about Urbana because it's just such an overwhelming life transforming event for so many.

I haven't even taken my registration bracelet off yet because I just feel the continual power surging. Better not believe that. I also wanted to just say a word about the literature. We don't have that much literature on display here just because we've been so tied up with Urbana and other things.

We never got a big shipment here for you. There are some books that belong to O .M. Sweden over here they need to be paid for. There are some brilliant books there. So take a look at those books. You might just find not a big armful, perhaps like other conferences, but a couple of gems.

I noticed David Seaman's book on the whole subject of forgiveness and shifting the blame. Absolutely brilliant. I noticed Charles Marsh's biography. A man we owe a lot to in O .M. Be wonderful to read his story.

This is a book Special Projects put some finance into when heaven is silent. This is in Swedish. I believe one of the most significant books in Swedish in the last 10 years to bring many other books into palace.

There's Barbara Jordan's Splashes of Joy. One of the wild books in my life in 1996. Over on this table where you meet my new traveling partner Nate is the son of Lou Williams, O .M. from the 60s. You'll find all kinds of other material and tapes.

John Piper's book that I'll be referring to. A whole album full of cassettes that you can choose from. We cannot this year give them free just to control the flow. We ask you to give some kind of donation or a field leader sign an IOU.

At least look at these and see if there's some that you want. When you get back home if you want you can request them free, but if you want them here we need just a little bit of a donation. We do have one free book for everyone which came from our brothers and sisters in the states.

Everyone who's a field leader. Sorry, misled you. It's about the praying through the window challenge number three. The unreached people and if you are a field leader, again we're limited by quantity, please pick one of these up free of charge.

So there is something free and there are other leaflets and smaller items that are available there free of charge. The message that I sensed the Lord gave me for tonight and by the way I don't speak on the last day because I'm gone by then.

That's a long story. I won't bore you with it, but I can't be here right to the end so my other speaking thing has been moved to some other day. But I'm always when I'm speaking to people like yourself who've listened to me a lot over the years and I want to thank you for your loyalty and for your commitment.

I'm sure that I have tested your faith and your patience at various times and it is a humbling thing to attempt to even be part of the leadership team of this amazing movement. But I always feel when I'm trying to share with people who have listened to me a lot over the years, I should try to come up at least with something, something new, something fresh, something different.

And this certainly is I think along those lines. Though it is the first part of it is a little bit more negative than generally I'm known to be over at least the last five years. The grace awakening has made me a little more tolerable, listenable, whatever.

But I share this with all my heart. If you and I sitting in this room don't think we can make phenomenally big mistakes in the next few years that will completely change the course of our life and even our movement, then we are very naive.

And so though the first part of this may come out a little strong, some of the wording may be strong, it comes from my heart. It comes from 40 years in the trench, 42 really since my conversion. It comes from a hunger for reality.

So many people came to me in Urbana and it's true for the last 20 years or more and have shared with me that the message I shared on reality in Urbana 1967 radically changed their life. It's quite an encouragement.

John Piper and I recently got together on the phone and he's written me a couple of letters and in it he mentioned that his life was changed at Urbana in 1967 when I spoke. And it was changed not by my message but by my challenging people to read Dr. Lloyd-Jones's book or books on the Sermon on the Mount.

And John Piper dug into those books and he was never ever the same. Some of you realize he's become one of God's outstanding Bible expositors with an outstanding church in Minneapolis. He blessed Frontiers at DeBron just before we rolled in and his book has been the book of 1996 in my life.

It was this book more than any other book apart from the Bible that prepared me for my ministry at Urbana, that gave me the grace and courage to lay aside those written messages which predated this book in my life.

Tony Sargent wrote urging me to read this book, other people urged me to read this book, but it was Gordon Abraham's letter that in accident I came across somewhere and re-read and he was urging me to read this book.

I'd already purchased 50 copies to get other people to read it. And so I started into John Piper's brilliant book on the supremacy of God in missions, Let the Nations Be Glad. And I believe it's destined to become probably one of the best-selling books in the 90s in Operation Mobilization.

His book especially speaks in a very powerful and realistic way about suffering. And in a sense this message is tied into that but it's being presented in somewhat of a different way. The title of the first half of the message, and I'm going to have to speak quickly and I feel bad about that, is Ten Harsh Realities of Life.

Harsh is not a word I use very much. It's a strong word. But I want somehow this get into our hearts. I sometimes go back to Bible colleges and I speak this message, Seven Things They Didn't Teach Me at Bible College.

And believe me, the response is overwhelming because there is a sense on the part of thinking people that a lot of things are being missed in our general training of young people in Bible college. And that can be true of OM.

And I think it's great to emphasize the positive things. We have endless books on positive thinking, praying positively, thinking positively. And even the whole message of Grace Awakening has a very positive appeal to it.

Words like proactive perhaps being overused in my vocabulary. So in a sense, I had an argument with God when he began to put these thoughts on my heart because I felt it was too negative and I'm negative enough as it is.

There's some somewhat this message comes from what I have struggled with all of these years and continue to struggle with. But I believe if we're going to count the cost and one of my passages that I have in mind tonight is Luke 14, counting the cost.

The Reality of Suffering in a Fallen World

Most of you all heard me speak on that passage. But just keep it in mind because it is so significant. The first harsh reality we must face is the phenomenal dimension of suffering in the world. I really get upset when I hear people belittle suffering.

When I hear people tell about a nation where tens of thousands have been slaughtered, they pass over that in two sentences and tell about all the wonderful things that God has done. I beg of you, for my sake, please don't do that anymore when I'm around.

Forgive me because I do get angry and I'm liable someday to rush right up in the pulpit and pounce you right in the face. And I believe because I've been mentored by Peter Maiden that anger is very important in my ministry.

And I get angry when people just paint suffering in such a belittling or small way and instead of weeping with those that weep and cry out against war and against sin and against suffering, we give some little sovereignty of God cliche and tell about somebody getting saved in the middle of it.

I want to ask you, if that were your family slaughtered, my dear OM leader, would you be coming out with that cliche anymore? I don't think you would. In fact, some of you probably would be knocked out of ministry.

And that may be true of me because I've had very little raw suffering in my life like I see in history and like I see across the world. And I believe one of the reasons Christians are getting knocked out by sometimes even minor suffering is because we've not faced this harsh reality of life, this fallen planet.

And what has happened between the Tutsi and the Hutu people, as I pronounce it, is continually in my mind. I'm not morotic. I'm not sick. I'm just human. And I don't believe that war is right. And I don't believe that people should be killing other people.

And I think it is normal for some of us, if not all of us, to feel these things in a deeper dimension. God has spared me from visiting some of these countries, probably because I would not be able to handle it.

I don't really think I can handle going around Southern Sudan. Just reading of Sudan is enough to almost finish me off. But somehow, as I look at this dimension of suffering, as I have the privilege of so much ministry, as I have these other realities, the 10 mega life-changing blessings which we hope to get to, a little unlikely the way I'm going right now, I press on.

The Scarcity of Leadership

The second harsh reality is the scarcity of leadership in the present-day world. The secular people are now acknowledging a phenomenal scarcity of leadership. Have you followed what's gone on in the United Nations in their attempt to find their new leader?

Have we followed what's gone on in the North America scene? Has the United States attempted to find one man of integrity and reality and honesty that could be the President of the United States? As people tend to pick on the United States, they should perhaps take a world survey, and maybe they could write me, on how many outstanding godly men or women of integrity are leading present political parties or governments.

We also are hearing from many Christian leaders the scarcity of leadership. Some of us in this room know that the only reason we're in leadership is because of the scarcity of Christian leaders. And God has just somehow, in his grace, looked around and seen some unlikely soul with the glow of discipleship over his head and just grabbed him.

It's a mystery how the likes of some of us are in leadership, and I think I have to include myself. The third reality is the abundance of disunity. Again, I find it very difficult to sit in meetings where people are talking about the tremendous unity in the body of Christ that is sweeping the world.

Disunity, Exaggeration, and the Need for Reality

I find it just as difficult when I hear someone telling me about the revival that is sweeping the world. And there is a tendency among God's people to exaggerate, and I believe it is wrong. And I believe sometimes we need to be bold, and we need to speak out, or we need to get on the phone and challenge that person about what they are saying or what they are putting in print, because the end of the day, it drags the name of our Lord Jesus down, and it discredits the Church of Jesus Christ.

How sad it is that the very word evangelical means now exaggeration. Where in the world has the Church gotten to? We speak of evangelistically speaking. It's not right. We shouldn't laugh at it. Of course, we do, but we should understand and be realistic.

I guess I confess after all these years, if I sum up one of my greatest passages, it's just to be real. It's just to be real. And as I mingle with many young people, and there's a great mixture of young people, and I don't want to exaggerate about them, I think this next generation, more than most, they want reality.

They don't want the things that used to be looked on so highly back in the 60s. There are some exceptions. They want reality. They want people who are real. They want people who are honest. If we've got immorality in the Church, they want us to be honest about it.

And unless there's a greater ring of reality in the Church of Jesus Christ, which I believe will help us be set free from the chains of legalism, which are so extremely detrimental in building the kingdom, then I don't have really that much hope on a human level.

The Permanence of Division and the Cost of Discipleship

The Church is permanently divided. It is not going to change that much. Individuals, yes. Individual churches, yes. Individual agencies, yes. Certain towns and cities, yes, yes, yes. But overall, with 25 denominations across the world, with all kinds of new networks, I was stunned as I got involved in the AD2000 movement to discover the tremendous hostility and all the opposition, far more opposition, I found, than I have found proactive, let's go for it.

Of course, there are beautiful exceptions, especially in certain countries. And it's because there are so many doctrinal factors, there are so many strategy factors, there are so many complexities. Yet somehow, we decide to be proactive and keep on keeping on.

I believe you can be more biblically proactive after counting the cost than if you somehow go along with a wrong foundation, which develops a sort of a fantasy, sort of a Pollyanna view of life. And I've had a number of leaders that I've been involved with, sharing with and discussing, admit to me they had a fantasy view of what life was all about.

And that's why, in some cases, it fell completely apart, completely apart. Tied into that is often the danger of building up some such unrealistic expectation. I fear that in OM right now, with our dreams, with our plans, with our core curriculum, with global action, all the things that we're wanting to tell the young people, and we are telling the young people, our dream for greater pastoral care, which of course we need.

Life has a way of backfiring. If that's only me, then maybe write me about it. But as you get involved in pastoral care, I would ask you, as someone who's walked with Jesus every day for 42 years, you better tell them, when they leave OM, when they leave OM, they're not going to get much pastoral care.

They're going to get kicked in the stomach. They're going to get walked on, especially if they're black, or if they're women, or if there's some other minority group in some city, whether it's London or Los Angeles.

Life is playing hardball. Life is cruel. When they moved in on the churches in Rwanda and machine gunned the people in the churches, praying for protection, brothers and sisters, that is beyond what my mind can measure.

And when they moved in on St. James Church, a few weeks after I preached there on this very subject of suffering and how God allows so much suffering, and many, many were dead and others were wounded.

It's an awful thing. It's an awesome thing. And you and I somehow have to be, even though we never are fully, we have to be prepared for that. And as we teach people in OM, we cannot give them anymore the hope that they will be in full-time Christian work the rest of their life.

You don't have that hope because the economic environment, the church environment is shaking because post-Christian Europe is becoming more post-Christian by the week. And to think the huge amounts of money it takes to support the likes of you and I, to keep us in full-time ministry, is just going to continue to flow, is a dream.

And some of us here are going to be back working in the factories and working in the offices or driving taxis. My heart goes out to the ex-OMers or former OMers who, when they left our wonderful little world of Christian service, they got smacked right in the nose by the unpredictable things that happened along life's road.

So let us care for our people. Let us love them. Let us bond with them. Let us be their friends. And in some cases, I hope that is a lifetime friendship. And this message in some way is born out of a lifetime friendship with hundreds of people who I love and who I pray for and sometimes weep with over the telephone and when I meet them.

The abundance of disunity, we want to talk about it no more. We'll get to the positives in a few moments. The fourth harsh reality is the power of money. Why are we so uptight about admitting the failures we had as a movement in the 60s and the 70s?

The Power of Money and Compassion for the Poor

There's no big deal with God. He loved us all during those years. Why do we have to defend some completely cuckoo things we did back in 1962, all in the name of faith and love and whatever? It's quite normal that as you go along life's road, you grow and you change and you become more mature.

You also can take some lapses back into immaturity. That's what makes it so interesting. But I thank God for the realistic view of money in O .M. in 1996. I thank God we can talk to business people in a whole different way than we did before and esteem them as better than ourselves.

And I thank God that we can be honest about the problem of debt and a shortfall of support. It took me 20 years to get the courage to make a tape, Does the Lack of Finance Hinder God's Work? I'm so excited about that tape, I think I'll even listen to it again myself.

Though I know some of you will definitely not like it. That's okay. That's what O .M. is today. We agree to disagree and press on to evangelize the world. We're never going to all agree anymore. You don't have to be uptight if you don't agree with me on a number of issues.

My wife doesn't agree with me on a number of issues. Big deal. In a few days we celebrate our 37th wedding anniversary. Swindle has a whole chapter on the subject and if you haven't eaten it yet, why don't you write your own chapter?

The only way ahead is we have to agree to disagree. Somehow hang on to those basics, especially those basic doctrines and go forward in the name of the Lord to touch lives across the globe. But let us be honest about money.

Money is power. People are bought and sold in this world like you and I might buy an ice cream and deli in May. And my heart goes out to those who are poor. My heart screams for those who have no place to sleep tonight.

People have nothing proper to eat. All those refugee children. We don't only see it in New Delhi and out in some of the Asian cities. We see it in New York, Chicago, and London. And we must understand the economic system and the lostness of mankind or humankind is all tied into this.

And I would love to give you many hours on my thoughts but we must move on. But a realistic view of money, a realistic view of wealth, and the ability to handle a certain amount of wealth for God's kingdom to me is just so significant.

The Subtlety of Lust and the Need for Moral Purity

The fifth harsh reality is the subtleness of lust. I don't ask for it. I don't look for it. I perhaps did back in the 60s. I try to run away from it. But everywhere I go, I'm told of another Christian leader, you can't be involved in death with the churches as we are.

Christian leaders are being knocked out by immorality. Even here I wonder if we'd be honest to talk about the immorality of people who sat with us here only a few years ago. We'd rather just not talk about it, right?

It's so unpleasant and we're taught to be more positive. The fact of the matter is you and I are targets of the enemy. And since the fiery dart of immorality is one of the more subtle, one of the more proven, please turn the cassette over now.

Do not fast wind it in either direction. Since the fiery dart of immorality is one of the more subtle, one of the more proven, it is probably going to happen that a number of us in this room are going to have very subtle attacks on our marriages, on our minds, and on this whole area of moral purity.

Please, I beg of you, don't play games in this area. If you're having struggles and you're experiencing some failure, get some kind of help before it's too late. You say, you mean to tell me sometimes it's too late?

Yes, it's too late to ever get your ministry back where God had it at a particular time. I'm dealing with one man now for four or five years, a brilliant Bible teacher. He only had a small moral failure, if that's possible.

Everything went bizarre after that, though praise God his family stayed together. But he basically has almost no ministry now for four years. And he's one of the greatest men of the Word of God and knowledge of the Word of God and the ability to expound the Word that I have known personally in my lifetime.

Serious. It is maybe better to have the risk of walking in the light and maybe somebody sharing that with someone else and your reputation being slightly damaged. I'd rather live with that risk than the problem of so many other people who have got trapped by this area.

I would urge you to control the video recorder. I would beg of you to control what you watch on television. It is five times easier to get in pornography. No, 50 times easier to get into pornography in the 90s than it was for me in the 60s.

And I was hooked on pornography. Well, that was way back in 56 or 55. But now with the computer and porno on the computer and with a video cassette, and especially now that OM is committed to freedom, we don't believe it's wrong to watch a film.

We believe there's a place, the place of culture in the Christian life, the place of the arts. We will preach that. It's risky. I'm not going to back off, but I will tell you it's a very, very tricky road.

Everybody is different, but we all need to be careful. That's really not what I want to speak at. So let me move on to the sixth harsh reality, the predominance of pride. How hard it is to admit that many of our problems are linked with pride.

Pride, Complexity, and Leadership Accountability

Christian leaders generally acknowledge they find criticism difficult. Sure to that is linked with pride. It certainly was in my own life. So subtle sometimes I didn't even realize it. The predominance of pride in the work of God.

The word arrogant is one of the words I hate the most. But sometimes Christians who don't even mean to come across in an arrogant way, and it should break our hearts. It should break our hearts. The harsh reality, number seven, of the complexity, the complexity of our society and the church.

Even operation mobilization, forgive me the complexity of it, which is far easier for my brother Peter Maiden to handle. The complexity of operation mobilization is beyond me. It is beyond me. That's why I thank God that it's a team of people leading this work, not me.

Yes, I'm the international leader and in our society and even in God's work, such a such a thing is acceptable, but it has to be brought into balance by the team and by the checks and balances. And we haven't got it all perfect.

We got a lot to learn and a lot of ways where we constantly have to fine tune and bring in old William McDonald's corrective lenses. But I thank God for the reality and the unity and the decision making mechanism that we have in OM with all of its struggle, with all of its weakness and sometimes with its slowness.

And I thank God he can give me grace somehow to live with operation mobilization as long as he wants me to. And I hope you'll not be intimidated when there are things you don't understand. Do we all understand global action perfectly?

To show the variety of global action, we will probably soon have an abundance of T-shirts. I got my free Finnish T-shirt within one hour. I was given actually a much more attractive T-shirt from Singapore, but I decided to esteem Finland since it's closer.

Some may get upset by that. It doesn't bother me to the least. I don't care if you come out with 40 different T-shirts and global underwear to match. To me, these things, these are not issues. We proved ourselves to be incredibly silly at times with our various arguments over various subjects.

OM is headed for greater diversity. You will not turn the clock back. Even if you're a strong-minded, dig your heels in loud mouth, you will die in the process. It's not worth it. So what do I suggest?

Shoot elephants. I bet our guests are wondering what is this about? That's figuratively speaking. In other words, don't spend a lot of time, a lot of effort, and your big holy ghost cannon, which may not be a holy ghost cannon, shooting little things.

You can discuss them. We're allowed to discuss the tiniest details. God has a great sense of humor, but somehow save your passion for the bigger issues. God broke my heart a month ago as I re-read Tozer's little article about having fire in the furnace, but keep the chimney cool.

And please forgive me, brothers and sisters, for the times when my fire in my furnace, which has burned hot for 42 years, has spread to my chimney, and I've said something stupid or outlandish or hurtful to you or your wife or anyone else.

But I tell you, if you have a heaving hot furnace, it is difficult sometimes to stop all the chimney fires, and that's why you need firefighters like Peter Maiden and Roton and my wife and others who can help you along the way.

The Frustration of Human Limitations

Eighthly, the frustration of our limitations. The frustration of our limitations. I often feel in leading OM and in my other responsibilities that I'm driving a brand new Mercedes-Benz down a German motorway at 15 miles an hour.

Have you ever tried that? You will be in serious difficulty, I can assure you, unless you at least get on the side of the road. Do you ever find yourself so struggling with frustration, especially if you don't have secretaries and partners to help you in spreading your vision or doing what you feel you should be doing?

How we should thank God for those partners and helpers we have on an endless level and esteem them and empower them and lay down our lives for them, that they may also have a cutting-edge ministry. For in the kingdom of God, the newest worker in the door is just as important as the brother who has been there for 40 years, and we can learn from them.

And I love that word, empowering, if it's kept in balance. We have to learn to live with frustration, especially if we are relational in what we are attempting to go to do. It's a harsh reality. We feel it in our family, we feel it in the time capsule that we live in.

And as our health may begin to deteriorate, that frustration may become even greater, especially if we are people of purpose and people of passion. And then ninthly, the sensitivity and the vulnerability of people in general and of God's people.

Sensitivity, Compassion, and the Vulnerability of Leaders

God's people are sometimes more sensitive, more easily hurt than Christians. And I've discovered this in my friendship with non-Christians, which is a fair number of people. They, of course, also have their failures in this area.

We all know that. So be careful of just putting down Christians and putting up the non-Christian, because it's not that simple. But I know this, all of us who are in leadership here in this room, we are vulnerable.

I am vulnerable. Sometimes I'm downright scared stiff. I cry at the most amazing moments and I laugh at other moments. But if God can keep me with all this vulnerability and all this weakness, all my doubts and fears, if he can keep me every day for 42 years, maybe you could write me your five excuses.

We could look at them and maybe we'll write you back. The keeping power of God, the grace of God, we'll get to it in a few moments. Let us understand that important harsh reality about people. Let us be a little easier on those who are weak and who are struggling.

Let us leaders be incredibly careful what we say to people when they have upset us or when we think they have sinned or they have broken a rule. That is a moment when there must be compassion and love and listening.

We all need to be better listeners. Yes, there are moments when we have to be firm, but I don't think as leaders we should be strong and hard and firm until we have generally prayed about it with other leaders.

There's a far better chance you're going to get a more balanced solution if you've held back in love and compassion and spoken in a more quiet, spirit-controlled atmosphere before you come with some hard or strong statement.

Surely my great sins in the past and to this day are when I've spoken out strongly and firmly and I thought I was doing the right thing, but it lacked the sensitivity of Jesus. It lacked the balance of the spirit.

By God's grace I could go back and attempt to put it right, but sometimes it doesn't happen and then you have to just put it in the hands of God or it can overwhelm you and knock you right out of the ring.

For as leaders we have to be strong and that means we have to be able to handle our own sins and failures and get up and back in the race and press on. And then number 10, the lostness, the harsh reality of the lostness of humankind.

The Lostness of Humanity and the Reality of Hell

John Piper has given one of the strongest statements I've ever read in a book about the lostness of humankind and about hell. Amazing. Not everybody will agree with what he says. Every book has its draw, has its human factor.

But I believe and praise God Urbana and the leaders of Urbana felt this. The lostness of people is still a major motivating factor in our lives. It isn't the only factor. We all know the love of Christ constrains us factor and we've preached on it, but how can we be human and be godly and not respond to the lostness of people?