Lukewarm No More - Part 9 — George Verwer

A Burden for Jesus Before Missions

I often don't take missions conferences because my first burden isn't mission. Sorry. My first burden is Jesus. Jesus. I just love Jesus. He saved me 40 years ago. He's been living in me every single day for 40 years.

It's amazing. And I still, as an old grandfather, have the opportunity every year to speak to tens of thousands of young people with my balloons in the youth meetings. I usually throw it up in the air.

I don't do that in adult meetings. And I have all kinds of response. I have more response now than when I was a teenager. So the key word for the conference is heart. But the word I want to talk about right now, also starts with an H, is help.

The Macedonian Call to Help Others

See it right there? The Macedonian call. Come over onto Macedonia and help us. My kind of character, we come across a little bit too strong. We come across sometimes as characters who are able to accomplish all kinds of things.

People hear that we have two ships. Some people have read a bit of my biography in some book or magazine. And they think, whoa, great man of faith. He wants another ship. He just goes down to the ocean in the name of Jesus.

Boom, third ship. Somebody wrote a newspaper article. It was a cynical article in Britain where they're gifted in that area. And said, George Burwer was going to get a submarine for evangelism in depth.

Then someone else wrote me. I think it was from Arizona. And they said, why don't you get a jumbo jet for Jesus? We got a bunch of them out here in the desert. But it's not quite that way. Living for Christ, missionary work, being his disciple is uphill all the way.

The Cost of Following Christ

Jesus said, if any man come after me, any woman come after me, let him or her deny self, take up the cross and follow me. Maybe I could just say that in many ways I was a reluctant Christian. I'm not from a Christian home.

My father, his father was an atheist from the Netherlands. My dad came over from Holland as a boy. His big thing was to make a living. Went through the recession or the depression, they called it then.

My other grandfather on my mother's side was an alcoholic. That marriage broke in two. And by 16, my whole life was just money, women, and the fast lane of New York City as I was born just across the bridge in New Jersey.

Conversion Through Prayer and the Gospel of John

And then a dear woman, a woman of God put my name on her hit list. And not only prayed that I would be converted, she prayed that I would become a missionary. You imagine, she didn't even discuss this.

I didn't even get a phone call warning. You know, you're going to be a missionary. Thank you very much. I can organize my own life. Then she sent me a spiritual hand grenade through the mail, Gospel of John.

And I was sort of hoodwinked into reading this. And the word of God began to cut me down and cut into that George Verwoerd, Dutch, stubborn, egocentric thinking. And then a real southerner came to New York City.

His name was Billy Graham, Billy Graham. Among my peers, Billy Graham was considered cuckoo. Somebody told me he's a hypnotist. When I went to hear him, a businessman, and praise God for dedicated Christian business people, a businessman gave me a free seat on a bus.

A friend invited me. I had read a little magazine about Billy. He played sports. He had a wife. I thought he might be partly normal. And so I decided to go to New York City, Madison Square Garden, the big old fight arena, and hear this guy.

And I took my binoculars. And I also brought this proxide blonde that I was infatuated with, one of many. I thought she could use some of this hot religion. I thought I was okay. I was in a Boy Scouts.

I'd received the God in Country Award. I had become assistant to the pastor, leader of the youth fellowship. I was teaching a man to rock and roll in the church. People thought I was bringing life to this church.

Repentance and the Call to Genuine Faith

I was all right. But when I heard Billy Graham, I knew I wasn't all right. You ever get that kind of feeling? Things aren't going well. When he started preaching about sin and he started talking about salvation, he started talking about repentance.

He always says it the same way. You're going one way, you stop, and you go in God's direction. That's repentance. And then at the end, he did something I don't think I'd ever seen in my life. He called people to get up out of their seat.

In my church, no one moved. Well, occasionally it does off. But, you know, get up and go to the toilet. But he gave this invitation for people to come forward and repent and become Christians. What do you mean?

I'm not a Christian? I'm born in America. We're all Christians here, aren't we? The greatest enemy to reality in Jesus in our country is religion. All kinds of cocktails. No, there's not a straight drink left in the church.

It's all cocktails. New Age combined with old-time liberalism combined with all kinds of other all-American flag-waving right-wing politics. Stand on your head and wiggle your toes. Every kind of gymnastic jargon and thing you can imagine, and people are believing it.

We need to go back to the Bible. And I praise God for your testimony here of building this whole work and your whole vision on the Word of God. That's what makes the difference. It's not whether you're so much a Baptist or a Methodist or an Anglican.

Last weekend, I was in a little town called Dallas. I was preaching in a Methodist church. But they're born again. They believe the Bible. They preach the Gospel. Not true of the average Methodist. Brothers and sisters, that night in Madison Square Garden, in answer to prayer, that lady had prayed for me for three years.

The New Christian’s Struggles and Need for Encouragement

Because the Word of God is sharp, that Gospel of John had cut into my heart and prepared the way. I got out of my seat and I went forward. And I was born from above. And I just want to say this. Some of you may be new in the Christian life.

In my mind, you're more important than all the rest put together because I know when you're new, it can be real rough, just figuring out God's people. I found myself with all the Lord's people, real pain in the neck.

I had this negative streak, a lot of struggles. I developed a little prayer. When I found people who were pain in the neck, I said, Thank you, Lord, I'm not a giraffe. I don't know if any of you also find that it's so easy in society today, so many things going wrong, so many problems, so many drive-by killings, kids carrying guns to school, and they're hitting us with all this in the newspapers and the radio.

Overcoming Negativity Through Positive Effort

You can get really negative. How many of you feel like me? I'm really struggling with negativeness and negative attitude. Any of you in that camp? Raise your hand. Okay, let me give you a story that will help you because you'll never become more positive unless you make an effort.

I was in Pakistan speaking in a cathedral. It was a very important meeting. I had a suit and tie on. I was driving home a very important point. It was a very old cathedral built 100 years ago. It was loaded with pigeons.

I don't think they were born again. And I was preaching. And as I drove home a main point, a pigeon flew right over my head, boom, dropped its load on the sleeve of my suit. Oh, in front of all these people.

Talk about a negative moment? No. I said, praise God, folks, that the elephants here don't fly. You can see why I have chosen the word help because you obviously realize this guy preaching to us this morning really needs help.