Lukewarm No More - Part 8 — George Verwer

But it is difficult sometimes to receive. I found this in the previous services. That we we are actually trying to give everyone a free book a valuable free book because we want to give. But a lot of people didn't take their free book.

I'm going to try it again. Here's the third service. Those sometimes get a little more sleep or usually a little more alert. So we're glad but we really want to give you a free book and you can choose from about Ten different books.

The books we have in larger quantity. You'll find my co-worker David Pyle there at the table. That's one of the ones you can choose free. It's a book about our ship Lagos an incredible story this ocean-going ship at 17 years of ministry before we lost it off the coast of South America.

There's perhaps the book we're featuring the most today is priority one. Just a basic book calling us to get our priorities sorted out. Talked a lot about that in the first service. We need to have our priorities right or else everything else we do in our Christian life.

Can go off-center so you can get that free serving as senders the greatest book I know for churches that are serious about wanting to send missionaries Romans chapter 10 verse 15. How will they go? How will they preach unless they are what?

Sent. That's a book about it. I've often ministered at the missions conference at First Baptist in Atlanta with Charles Stanley. And I know that they required everybody in their missions committee to read that book.

It's a gold nugget. Of course the book of all the books and up the Bible is a separate category. That's God's Word. But of all the missionary books in history, that is the greatest Operation world new edition published about two years ago.

How many already have this great book? 300 ,000 have gone out in America. About 20 of you. It's put in the form of a missionary prayer diary and That means you just need to go through two pages a day.

I'm doing it again for the third or fourth time counting the old edition of some years ago. Don't miss this book. It's normally twelve thirteen dollars. We are the publisher. I pay about four dollars and fifty cents for this book.

I have to buy him back. We sold the rights to Zondervan. I have to buy him back from Zondervan. So if you can leave five dollars. That covers the cost. It's a golden opportunity to get the most significant missionary book perhaps ever published.

These little prayer cards are taken from that book. You can carry those with you. We want everybody to take also a free cassette. What about the ships one about how to be a mission mobilizer? There's the children's edition of Operation world.

Jill Johnstone died shortly after she created this amazing book in her battle against cancer. Her message goes on you can change the world. Probably the greatest children's book of all times. I'd like you to turn with me in your Bibles now to the book of Acts.

The Acts of the Holy Spirit and the Missions Conference

This is the third in our series this morning. We've had a series the fourth in the series is tonight the fifth is Sunday night though. I have the men on I mean Monday night. I have the men on Monday morning where we're going to be talking about sexuality.

That's our book on that subject avoiding emotional and sexual entanglements. Great struggle on the mission field believe it or not. And then we're looking forward to being back on Tuesday night, by the way, I hope you won't miss Scott Wesley Brown.

He is off the charts. He is off the charts. I've been with him many many times. He's probably one of the leading missionary Christian musicians in the world and you can get and Hear him on Saturday night.

Try to invite people Who are not normally interested in missions, even if that's not your kind of music. Some older people are more into Noah's Ark kind of music, but if you're into contemporary music.

It's worth suffering listening to it if you can get a young person to come. Because we don't have many mission events for young people and We're losing the battle to mobilize young men and women for world mission.

We need events. I've just come from Phoenix. They want me to come back there New Year's Eve to give a message to you. Thousands of young people who are going to come to listen to the news boys, but are gonna get George Verwas Stuck in the middle and some of them are going to end up on the mission field.

Please don't tell anybody in Phoenix about that the book of Acts chapter 16. I love the book of Acts the acts of the Holy Spirit. I'd encourage you to study the book of Acts as part of your missions conference.

Prayer, Missions, and Evangelism in Acts

You can read it through this week. Mark the emphasis on prayer. Mark the emphasis on missions. Mark the emphasis on evangelism starting at verse 6. I was so glad you don't finish at 12 o 'clock. I asked pastor.

We you know, when do you finish? He said 1215 that was such a blessing to me. Because so many of the churches that finished dead on 12 are dead and That's been a real a real concern in my life for many many years.

You know One of the greatest preachers in in the southern part of the United States was Vance Havner. How many of you remember the name of Vance Havner. Quite a few of you? Sort of the AW Tozer of the South.

We have some of Tozer's books there on the table. Vance Havner was concerned about the spiritual Temperature of the average evangelical fish in the southern part of our country. It's not any different in the north.

Actually He said in most churches you had to backslide to get into fellowship Acts 16 verse 6 now when they had gone throughout Phrygia and the region of Galatia and Were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach the word in Asia.

The Macedonian Call and the Advance of the Gospel

It's amazing in it. After they were come to Mycenae they attempted to go into Bithynia but the Spirit allowed them not and they passing by Mycenae came down to Troas and A vision appeared to Paul in the night.

There stood a man of Macedonia beseeching him and saying come over unto Macedonia and help us and After he had seen the vision Immediately we endeavored strong word we endeavored to go into Macedonia.

Assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us to preach the gospel unto them and The Word of God goes in to Europe. Europe a great mission field to this very day the key word For our missions conference is the word heart.

A Heart After God and the Danger of Lukewarm Faith

After God's own heart and in our last meeting we spoke From the book of Revelation be hot or be cold for if you are lukewarm, I will spew you out of my mouth. One of the most difficult messages I ever have to give so I'm certainly not giving it again on the same morning.

Because I believe that a high percentage of Christians in our average Sunday morning service in America is Lukewarm and I believe with all my heart unless we get that sorted out. Whatever else we may do.

We will not be building on a solid foundation. The spirit-filled life a life in which we're hot for God is the normal Christian life doesn't mean you're going to be loud like me. So relax. Doesn't mean you're going to be in my temperament.

We're all different in temperament. Every temperament by the way has full capacity for sin. So don't sit there too smugly just because I appear to be more sinful than the average preacher. My wife sitting here smiling.

I was so sympathizing with her this morning. We've just had our wedding anniversary. 35 years of marriage we were we were a Bible College marriage, which means that we were misfit and We didn't know each other.

She wasn't initially in love with me, of course the first date I Told her I said probably nothing's gonna happen with you and me by the way I've been on a two and a half year fast. No women for two and a half years because that was such a messy part of my life.

And then I stepped out of the elevator to rent a film. She was in charge of the films boom. Anyway, we went on a date. I said probably nothing's gonna happen. But just want you to know in advance I'm gonna be a missionary if anything did happen you would probably end up being eaten by cannibals in New Guinea.

That was the first date I Think the next thing I did was give her a bag of dirty laundry and said do this unto the Lord. Then the third thing I did Was take her out door-to-door and study the book of Acts together and we went down to Mexico.

That was a real mess. But somehow a few weeks you couldn't get married when you were a student at Moody had to wait till you graduated. That's very great motivation to get out of the place. Within a few weeks after graduating we got married we went to Mexico.

I was very extreme. We were in love, but we really we were so different we were so different. We are still 35 years later trying to get to understand one another. She's got a Macintosh. I've got some kind of computer created in the backstreets of China, and they're not they're not talking to each other very well.

Am I the only husband here that has difficulty communicating with My wife is there anybody else that has that problem, please come tomorrow morning. Because tomorrow morning six o 'clock. We're going to talk about communication.

We're going to talk about sex. We're going to talk about Purity we're going to talk about missions. I don't know how they're going to fit that in but it just generally comes together.