Schaffhausen - Session 1 (Eng-German) — George Verwer

Okay, thank you, great to be back in Switzerland again, 100 visits to your amazing nation and.

Being able to for 50 years observe Swiss people involved in global missions and we just thank.

The Holy Spirit and the Call to Global Missions

The Lord for what the Holy Spirit is doing through his church here in Switzerland. And we thank you for coming, Saturday afternoon, not easy time to get people to come.

In England where I live we would not try this, this would not work, they want us to go up.

Higher. I read a verse about that, go up higher. And so we thank the Lord for each one of you.

I'm always encouraged when I speak to a small group of people because my savior gave most of his time to 12 people and he didn't even have a music team traveling with him and it's.

Just exciting to see what God is doing in individuals.

And I believe there's a purpose for each one of us being here this afternoon and this evening.

It may not be what we originally thought, God may have a surprise for us. How many of you, for example, are planning to serve Jesus in the nearby land of Turkey? Raise your hand.

You're going to Turkey. That's a good percentage.

Three people. Most of you are not planning to serve in Turkey for Jesus.

That may change this afternoon. That's what God's been doing through my own ministry for 58 years, completely changing people's lives.

And so if you have your own little plan, you probably are in a difficult situation right now. I remember just one sentence about the land of Turkey.

It was a big meeting, many thousands were in that meeting.

And God used that one sentence to call a woman to Turkey at that very moment. He then wrote me from Turkey. Matthew chapter 9 says, pray the Lord of the harvest that he'll send forth workers into the harvest.

And that's of course what this meeting is about. By the way, here's the land of Turkey. I was just there again recently. And when I heard about your Silk Road vision and organization, it really warmed my heart.

For over 50 years, these nations have been the center of my passion and my praying and my vision. I've taken about 20 ,000 meetings around the world since I started when I was 17 years old.

And often I'm talking about these places, because I know they're on the heart of God.

My compassion and concern is tiny next to what is on the heart of God for the peoples of the world. We know this is not a popular thing among even the Lord's people. But it's a big thing with God. And we just really believe he's going to continue to send forth workers into the harvest field.

Christian Mission in Turkey and the Muslim World

When we started our work in Turkey 51 years ago, among the Turks there were only a few.

Believers. There were Greek believers, Armenian believers, there were other American servicemen believers. But among Muslim Turks there were only a few. We've seen hundreds of workers sent to Turkey, some of them for only a few years, some of them 10 and 20 years.

It's been an enormous battle every step of the way. But today there are maybe 3 or 4 ,000 Muslim background believers that are worshipping Jesus around this great land of 70 million. And of course God brought all these Turkish people to Germany and Switzerland.

And you would think that would just wake people up, right? But it doesn't necessarily wake people up. And we have often failed to reach the Turks that are right here sometimes running our restaurants and our businesses.

So we should never have that tension between, do we go to these places or do we stay at home? Of course it's both. And this is Pentecost weekend and it's time to acknowledge that the Holy Spirit is the chief executive officer of all missionary work.

Books, Films, and Mobilizing Christians

One of the exciting things about our little mini-conference today are all these books you can pick up.

And quite a few of them are free of charge. And you can even take extras to give to your friends. In fact you can even give books to your enemies. And I have this motto, every Christian a book distributor.

And we don't want to put too much pressure on you to do that. But when you get to heaven and I meet you, if you're not a book distributor, I'm not talking to you. Because we see how, especially in the work of global missions, God uses books.

I'm going to stand over here just for a few moments. So that I can just talk about these books. And God is using missionary films in a similar way. And many times when I have a display now, I have equal number of films.

And a Christian film company is actually, within the next few weeks, starting a film of my life story. Which we hope somehow God can use. This is one of the books we're featuring all over the world about the Dalits, the untouchables of India.

Das Buch geht über Indien, die Dalit, die sogenannten unberührbaren.

And in Zurich in the next few days there's a major meeting of people from all over the world concerning this great challenge.

Und es ist in den nächsten Tagen in Zürich ein Treffen, welches sich mit dieser grossen Herausforderung auseinander trägt.

This book is a gift. Just take this book as a gift from us. And from the author, my close friend Joseph de Sousa.

Und das Buch ist ein Geschenk von uns und vom Autoren Joseph de Sousa, der ein enger Freund von George ist.

There are quarter of a billion, 250 million approximately, who are considered untouchables, considered Dalits in India. We can't take time to feature that this afternoon. And that's why we have this book.

This is a whole conference in itself.

Das Buch ist eine eigene Konferenz zum Thema Indien.

And I really believe God's going to grip some of you with this vision and it's going to become a big thing in your life. Even non-Christians are gripping this. This is the apartheid of our generation.

Das ist die Apartheid von unserer Welt, von unserer Generation.

This is the slavery that Wilberforce and others had to deal with in their generation. This is the segregation I saw as an American when I moved from New Jersey to Tennessee at university and saw full-blown, total segregation practiced in my own country.

It took enormous sacrifice to end segregation in America. People gave their lives. It took enormous sacrifice to end apartheid in South Africa. Many people died. I was in a church in South Africa.

Suffering, Human Rights, and Christian Mission

And somehow God put it on my heart to speak about suffering, which I often speak about.

And I said, you can't tell God what kind of suffering he can never allow into your life. Boy, that surprised a few people. And I don't know why I even said that. I had not said that very much before then.

A few weeks later in the evening service, terrorists broke in and many in the congregation died in that attack on that famous St. James Church at Cape Town. But that incident shook South Africa and I believe was one of the factors to keep it from the eventual big bloodbath that they were expecting.

This is the big global social concern that all the Lord's people, in one way or the other, should be concerned with. I lived in India in the midst of this. I didn't understand it. Christians generally, that generation of Christians, were in denial about this.

They would just say they need to be saved. But they didn't understand the huge social complexity under the leadership of this amazing man, Joseph de Souza, and others. They realized the implications of this and how to approach it also on the level of human rights, not just certain individuals coming to Jesus.

It's got to be both. I was thrilled to discover this book about Swiss people getting involved in global missions. Probably you already have, each of you, ten copies of this and you're distributing it.

But in case you've been left out, this is your opportunity to get a great book. Sometimes, when we think about global missions, we think of just one thing.

Reaching Unreached Peoples and the Muslim World

We've got to reach the unreached with the gospel. One of the men who influenced my life, Dr. Ralph Winter, now in heaven, that's the way he would think. People said Ralph Winter had a bow and arrow. He just said, one arrow, one arrow.

Unreached people. He shot you with that arrow. Another mission leader that I know, who was on OM for about ten years, actually helped me in the beginning of OM, Greg Livingstone. He also just has one arrow.

Muslims. He would even refuse key meetings in churches. If he couldn't speak about Muslims, he'd say, you know, send Verwer, I'm not going. I'm reading his amazing autobiography right now. In this day and age, Greg Livingstone, when he was born, or before he was born, he would have been aborted.

His mother did not want him, so today, you just kill him. But being born in the 30s, very hard to get an abortion. So his disappointed mother had to keep this little kid. And what a horrendous childhood he had.

And became one of the greatest pioneers to the Muslim world in the history of the Christian faith. So I have a lot of friends among the one arrow crowd. They just have one arrow. I have 25 arrows. I like to shoot them, that's why I'm glad I have three sessions today, no doubt.

Most of you will leave before the last one, but if anybody's here, I'll be very thankful. That's why we bring different kinds of books. In the past 10 years, Randy Alcorn has become a close friend. A very unlikely friendship, since he lives in Oregon and I live in London, England.

And so I push his books. And this one about grace is so powerful.

You see, the workers that we send out into the harvest field, they have to be healthy disciples of Jesus. They have to be trained.

They have to get over their emotional struggles and difficulties, which most people have. And so books about how to live the Christian life, that is as great a passion as missions itself. It's not either or, but for me it's both of those working together.

So please take a look at these Randy Alcorn books. What is that one in English? Moral purity, right? This is another one of my main arrows. Moral purity. Some things have shown in the States. I don't know about Switzerland.

Many men drop out of global missions because they don't get total victory in their sexual struggles. And so they quit. For 50 years, I've met those people. And that's why I talk about this subject openly.

My own struggles, my own failures. I could, just like someone could become an alcoholic, I could have, it never happened, but I could have become a pornoholic. Somehow because I got, as a baby Christian, books on this subject that helped me with my questions, that was a major factor in keeping me from that destructive pit in my own life.

Again, I don't know about Switzerland, but many of our churches in other countries, they don't speak about sex. This is why even on the mission field, we have enormous problems with sexual immorality.

People are in tough situations. They're not seeing their dream come true. They're discouraged. They can just flick on their computer and get a sexual buzz that can bring them right out of depression, at least for a short time, just like drug addiction.

A huge percentage of men and women on the mission field are struggling with pornography temptation. All many different levels of victory. I was speaking in Paris a few months ago, and a friend, an old friend, he came to me, I've known him for years.

He's going through divorce now, after being separated from his wife for a long time. And he looked me in the eye as he was saying goodbye. And he said, I am totally, completely addicted to pornography.

He had not come to me to talk to me about that. He just came to the meeting to see me. That was not on his mind. He'd given up that he could ever, ever be free of that. He'd given up. And I prayed with him, and he agreed to keep in touch with me.

And that's a month and a half ago, and he has been free. He has been free for a month and a half. I just met him this morning at the station in Zurich. He's still free. So, this is the confessions of someone, why I don't have only one arrow.

Missionary Access, Church Invitations, and the Power of Testimony

Because people put me as a mission speaker, many churches will never have me. My reputation has closed doors all over the world. I'm telling you the truth. We're talking about big churches, Sunday morning meetings.

In America, missionaries, they speak at the Wednesday night prayer meeting. That's the box where we put the missionaries. The Wednesday night prayer meeting. I praise the Lord for every opportunity to speak to even two people.

But now they don't have. Most churches don't have a midweek prayer meeting anymore. So when do we get an opportunity to speak? Some churches, I can tell you, have tremendous missions conferences, and I have more invitations than I can expect.

But the bigger churches that pay their pastors 200 ,000 or 300 ,000 euros a year, they pay a lot for their pastor. They want him to preach, not letting some missionary take the Sunday morning pulpit. Woo!

I just wrote one of those churches, a very famous church. I know the pastor. And I hardly ever do this. I've asked if I could come and share a five minute testimony.

I at least got an answer. He's going to think about it.

So you can pray. Maybe I'll get in that church of 15, 20 ,000 people, because the Holy Spirit can do a lot in five minutes. I can't do much, but the Holy Spirit can do a lot. This is why I'm so glad to have these three sessions, because the first session, I'll only get through the book reviews.

Wisdom in Mobilizing People for Global Missions

But every one of these books is a powerful lifetime message. People sometimes ask, where does the ship fit into the vision of reaching the Muslim world? See, in mobilizing for global missions, we need a lot of wisdom.

People often aren't going to immediately get in a car and drive to Turkey. But they might come to a 75th birthday party. Woo! That's unusual. So last July, I had 250 people in London at my 75th birthday party.

So that we could talk to them about Turkey. And global missions.

And Greg Livingston spoke. And my grandson, who may come here tomorrow, gave his testimony of how living on the ship for two years not only turned his life upside down, but as a Swiss wife, as a cherry on top of the cake.

And now they live in Basel, even though we're praying they may go to Turkey. Or maybe some other mission field. So we need training programs that are sort of the middle of the road. They're the next step to take people, one step at a time, toward a very radical change in their thinking and in their lives.

Swiss Missionary Recruiting and Family Opposition

Now I've been studying Swiss missions recruiting for 50 years. So I'm going to give you a truth that some of you are not going to like. Get ready. If you want to get a Swiss person to go long term, not short term,.

Long term into Muslim evangelism,.

Make sure they marry a non-Swiss. Don't get two Swiss together. Because the families generally are a big opposition to this kind of thing.

Because the families generally are a big opposition to this kind of thing. But if you marry a non-Swiss, you're one foot in the door.

To take the next step out of Switzerland,.

I mean, which normal person would leave Switzerland? That's much easier.

Send me a phone survey and send me an email. But of course many of the Swiss people who remained here became great mission mobilizers and leaders within the church in Switzerland and that is also very important.

You want to know a little more about OM's history? There's a book that almost no one is reading. I'm not sure why we even allowed it in print. But the history of OM is available. It's a little too big for the average person.

Jesus, Spirituality, and the Priority of Personal Discipleship

But you might make a commitment to read one-tenth. Maybe you're a tither. You can read one-tenth of the book and who knows, it might grab you and will end up seeing you later on. Turn in your Bibles now to Luke chapter 14.

Luke chapter 14. We're just going to look at three scriptures in this first session. If you want to summarize what's on my heart, above all else, it's all about Jesus. It's not about missions. It's all about Jesus.

And your basic spirituality, whatever your job, whatever your situation, your basic spirituality is more important to me than your geography. And it's such a privilege to have Anne, my interpreter, who interpreted for me many times in my younger years.

She has remained young, but I have got older.

And all the times that Anne has heard me speak, she has not gone to Turkey, or Mongolia. She is not a foreign missionary. She is here in Switzerland.

But she is a huge joy in my life. Because my bottom line is just to see people going on for Jesus, wherever that may be. And if those of us who are missionary recruiters, if we just esteem people more highly where they are now, maybe they would listen to us more and come to some of our meetings.

Financial Partnership in Missionary Work

And then there's a side of this that also we don't talk about much. The side we call money, finance. And because of Swiss generosity, millions of people have been reached with the gospel across the world.

I've studied that also for 50 years. And praise God you've hung on to these Swiss francs and avoided this Euro trap. And I remember once we had no money in OM. We were gathered in a night of prayer. We had a lot of bills to pay.

This was like 45 years ago. We were an unknown organization. And then somebody said, we just heard 20 ,000 Swiss francs just showed up somewhere. I don't know how it came about. But 20 ,000, a huge number of Swiss francs came and bailed the whole movement out of indebtedness at that time.

People used to wonder, why is George Borwer always going to Bern? I mean, Bern, you know. Why would I go there? Because every time I visited my friends in Bern, it was 10 ,000 or 20 ,000 or 30 ,000 francs.

Would you go to Bern for 30 ,000 francs? Of course, they're in heaven now and so I can share this way. We in OM found it harder often to get the money than to get the people. And so we celebrate the generosity of God's people in Switzerland and the huge, amazing salaries you get that have blessed the peoples across the world.

And pray for Marcos, who's wanting to raise, hello Marcos, who's wanting to raise a lot more money in the coming years. So pray for him. And if you know where there's any money available, you can talk to him.

If he doesn't talk, you come to me. Because in Operation Mobilization, we discovered that most of our friends don't seem to have any money. They seem to need money. Because thousands of them are missionaries scattered all over the world.

Counting the Cost of Discipleship

200 ,000 have served with Operation Mobilization. About 25 ,000 of them are in leadership. Often in their own country in the local church, which we celebrate. Let's look at Luke 14. The radical challenge about discipleship, about denying self, taking up the cross in verse 27.

And then it goes on to talk about counting the cost. And we'll just read in German from verse 28, right to the end of that chapter, just to save time.

But wouldn't he just start and risk having to stop after the foundation has been built? People would laugh at him and say, he wanted to build a tower, but his money was only enough for the foundation.

Or imagine, a king has to go to war against another king. Wouldn't he consider beforehand with his advisors, whether his army with 10 ,000 men can beat the enemy troops, who attack with 20 ,000 men? If not, then he will send subordinates as long as the enemies are still far away, to negotiate peace.

So think beforehand, whether you are really ready to give up everything for me and follow me. Otherwise you cannot be my disciples. Salt is vital. But if the salt has become a father, how should it regain its power?

It is not even suitable as fertilizer.

This has been an important passage in my life, which I learned from the early days.

When I have a great vision and a great plan, just slow down. Spend time in prayer,.

To speak a lot of counsel, to, as we would say in English, count the cost. And as you have a great vision, both of you who are here, some of you are leaders of this great Silk Road network. You have the honor to have the leader of OM.

They have lots of great plans, lots of great visions. This is the passage to read. To count the cost. And the kind of mission work that we are committed to, it is very, very difficult. Let's look at two other passages.

Perseverance Through Trials

The book of James. Chapter one of the book of James. I had it marked, but a little hard to find it.

It is always difficult when you don't have a counselor, and then you have to have a Bible and a microphone.

Verse two. Until which one? James chapter one, verse two. Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.

Dear brothers and sisters, consider it pure joy when your faith is put to the test again and again, because through such a test of perseverance your faith becomes firm and unwavering.

This is exactly what we need.

When we think of the mission among these countries in the Silk Road or among the Muslims. This is exactly what we need.

Perseverance. And to be honest, I think in all of the work of God, especially as Europe becomes more pagan and more anti-Christian, we're going to have to understand what it is to persevere, to go against the tide, no matter how much heartbreak and discouragement and disappointment comes upon us.

Look at the next verse. Let perseverance finish its work that ye may be mature and complete, not lacking anything, a healthy follower of Jesus. Turn to 1 Peter chapter one. Just a few pages. Pick it up at verse four.

It talks about the inheritance that can never perish or spoil or fade. 1 Peter chapter one, verse four.

1 Peter chapter one, verse four.

Suffering as Part of the Christian Life

What a tremendous promise, that next line. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you. And then suddenly the passage changes, it sort of changes gear, it changes focus. Read verse six. In all this ye greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.

This final word in this first session is for all of you, regardless of your focus on global missions. I want you to accept this biblical truth. All of us will suffer. Problems, difficulties, heartbreaks are basic to living the Christian life.

I was speaking on this in a church in Spokane, no, in Idaho where my son lives. Little did I know a woman in the meeting.

Was going to take her own life.

And by the way, the suicide rate among Christians is one of the saddest tragedies in the whole world today. It's directly linked with a failure to practice and preach radical grace and radical forgiveness.

The power of legalism is way stronger than we can know, causing people to even take their own lives. Something I've been researching for a long, long time. Especially when one of our own sea captains, an older man, after he left the ship ministry and he seemed to have an ideal marriage and a wonderful family.

A very successful time with us. And we had just asked him to serve on the board of directors of the ship ministry. And he took his own life. Right in his own house. No one to this day, that's 10 years ago, knows why this man took his own life.

I have my own theories, not worth even mentioning. Suffering is basic to the Christian life. And I thank the Lord, this lady who is going to take her own life. Sent me a letter, an email a week later.

She had so many problems. Everything in her life was going wrong. So what is the use of living? And when she heard God's word, she decided there's hope for me. It reminds me of a guy in Scandinavia, totally addicted to pornography.

The thought of global missions is... I mean, how can you even think about it? But he heard one of my tapes in which I shared that I had this struggle.

He knew a lot about me and my history and how God had worked in my life. And just those few sentences.

He later told me birthed hope. It birthed hope in his life again that God somehow could use him though he was such a failure. And when we had the message of radical grace, combined with these strong biblical facts concerning the fact that we will all suffer, it will revolutionize our lives.

Radical Grace Versus Legalism

And I could give the story of many, many people who have been set free by the message of grace. Why are so many people reading Philip Yancey's book, What's So Amazing About Grace? I'm a bestseller. Because in America, where he comes from, legalism dominates the church life.

We talk about salvation through grace. But when you get into the church, they talk to you about the 20 rules that you've got to keep if you're going to be thought of as a dedicated Christian. And when I first became a Christian, that included, of course, not kissing girls anymore.

Well, when Billy Graham preached his sermon, he didn't say anything about me leaving my number one thing that I did, kissing girls. He didn't say anything about it in the sermon. In my culture, I thought I was doing quite well because I wasn't having sex with any of these girls.

I just wanted to kiss up a storm. And then I looked in the Bible. I'm a baby Christian. I don't understand what I've got into. I read it first, thou shalt not kiss. I saw the Ten Commandments. Maybe it's the Eleventh Commandment.

But I didn't find it. So I just kept kissing any girl available. And somehow, I was not surrounded by too many church people. Most people kept their distance from me. And so I didn't have this heavy legalism that I would have if I had joined a church that had all these rules.

People don't like to hear this. But OM was born completely separate from the local church. I was too young to understand all those things. I did tell the local church, not my own church, that I was going to Mexico and they could pray for me.

To be honest, some of the people in that church became strong partners and put their money into that first trip to Mexico when I was still only three years old in Jesus. It's a great joy to me to preach grace and to help people come away from the bondage of legalism.

I still preach discipleship. I still preach what I call biblical holiness. That's why I love that Randy Alcorn book. Grace and truth, not easy. How do you put it together? Somebody said this grace message is risky.

Don't let George Verwer into the church. All the young people will start kissing their girlfriends again. Then another person came to me as a young Christian. One of my favorite things in life was dancing.

Rock and roll, Elvis Presley, you know, dancing. It's just a great thing, especially for people like me where, you know, high action. Someone else gave me the idea and gave me some literature. They had literature.

Why a Christian cannot dance. By the mercy of God. I made it through those early days. And I realized how God has a tremendous sense of humor. As he watches his church. He watches his people. And even when he watched me.

When I was feeling so bad about myself. God was smiling. And sort of saying, well, you just keep going. Keep going. You'll learn. It's all of grace. So we need on one hand this message. This vision especially that we have.

Grace, Unity, and Handling Misunderstandings

It's tough. There will be misunderstandings. Christians must learn how to handle misunderstandings. You can't live in this world without misunderstandings. We have these meetings in our churches. The leaders meet together.

I've been studying this now 55 years. There's always misunderstandings in local churches. That's why half of all the churches probably in the world have gone through a serious split. We're all different.

It's not easy to get unity on things. And the more rules we have and the more legalisms we have the more impossible to get unity on anything. But here's the thing that's going to really encourage you.

Are you still with me? It's a new English word that I invented myself. The first time an interpreter has had to handle this new word. Messyology. Messy, you know. Messy situation. Messyology. Let's see what you come up with.

What am I talking about? It's based on one of my George Verwer Proverbs. I've been studying the Proverbs almost every day again for over 50 years.

I love the Proverbs.

I'm going to do a television program on the Proverbs in September with a couple of theologians. That's going to be funny. So I started to write my own Proverbs. I only have one main one. Don't worry, it's not going to get in the Bible.

I don't know how to apply. Where two or three of the Lord's people are gathered together sooner or later there's a mess. I've shared this all over the world. I've asked people how many of you have experienced that in your own situation?

Among older people almost every hand goes up. But here's the beauty of Messyology which is more important than it sounds because it's about understanding God Himself. Things that bother us don't bother God.

It doesn't mean He has no concern because He is God. But He has His priorities right as the living God where we don't always have our priorities right. And God's priority is saving people. And seeing them become more like Jesus.

God’s Work Amid Messy Mission Situations

And so if this person is in a difficult situation.

God's viewpoint would often be different from ours.

Because of what Jesus did on the cross. And so He sees these situations. He sees these people. And He keeps working in the midst of it.

And all of us, especially in Global Missions we need this message.

Missions is getting more messy every year. More different nations get involved. Ah, sounds great. Oh, we believe in that. Yeah, we have Eskimos marrying Pygmies from the Congo and serving on OM in Mongolia.

And if we don't help them with the airfare.

To Grandma's funeral we're considered not properly having pastoral care in our movement. And some of you are not aware of what I'm going to just say right now.

It's good. Ignorance is often a blessing.

But among those of us working among Muslims in the last two years the greatest divisions and tensions Muslim evangelism has ever had in its entire history.

Just in the last two years.

Some have become discouraged by it. One major mission closed completely. As one board member turned against another board member. Even accusing them of heresy. Because of the different ways of seeing Muslims reach with the gospel.

I believe that there had been a great awakened approach to these misunderstandings. We could have made it through this situation without so much damage to the body of Christ. So what am I trying to say with all the different arrows I've been shooting at you?

Some of you look like you're really wounded.

Encouragement, Love, and Perseverance in Leadership

What am I trying to say more than anything else? Stay encouraged.

When the problems come. The disappointments. The heartbreaks. Even in your own family as I've had.

Just keep on going. Focusing on Jesus.

Realizing it'll soon all be over and you'll be in glory celebrating with Him. Let love cover these differences. Chuck Swindoll talks about in his brilliant book Grace Awakening, now available in German.

Let's learn how to graciously disagree. We will disagree on things. Let's with love and graciousness and Holy Spirit patience disagree and press on.

God leading different people.

In different ways. Some of you are in leadership. Leadership especially in Europe is tougher than ever.

There's so much cynicism combined with idealism. We're reading so many different books and in a sense part of our European ethos we don't trust leaders. We don't even need leaders. We just go our own way.