Our Situation - Warfare — George Verwer

This is Orientation Session Number One in preparation for Semilite and Operation Mobilization Crusades in Mexico, Europe, and the Middle East. Because there will be young people listening to this tape from a number of different lands, some of the facts included herein will be more pertinent to some than to others.

Counting the Cost of Christian Warfare

The textbook for these sessions is the Bible, God's Word. We also would request that you keep a notebook and especially keep track of all the Bible references given throughout the message. The subject of this first Orientation Session is our situation, warfare.

Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we pray that with all of our intellect, with all of our heart, with all of our emotion, we might give ourselves to the understanding of your Word, to what the life of Christ is, and to how you would have us live out the principles of the New Testament in our daily life and in these Crusades to reach millions of souls for Christ.

For we ask it in his name. Amen. No matter what phase of Christian work you're going into, no matter what kind of a Crusade you're going to participate in for Christ, you need to, and I need, to have a full understanding of what our situation really is.

If one goes into a building not knowing that the floor is weak and is about to cave in, he's going to find himself in a very difficult situation. It's important in all of life to know what our situation is, to know what's ahead, to know what we're going in for.

This is clearly pointed out in Luke, the 14th chapter. In Luke, the 14th chapter, Jesus Christ tells his listeners that they need to have an understanding of what they're getting into. They need to count the cost.

They need to realize just what's ahead of them. Let us look at Luke, chapter 14, and see what Jesus Christ says. Chapter 14, starting at the 25th verse. ...and come after me, and I'll be my disciple. For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first and counteth the cost, whether he hath sufficient to finish it?

Lest, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him, saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish. For what king, going to make war against another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand?

Or else, while there is yet another great way off, he sendeth an ambassage, and desireth conditions of peace. So likewise, whosoever he be of you, that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.

Salt is good, but if the salt hath lost his savour, wherewith shall it be seasoned? It is neither fit for the land, nor yet for the dunghill, but men cast it out. The Lord Jesus Christ clearly tells us here that we need to count the cost.

We need to know what our situation is. Are we going up against an army of ten thousand, or an army of twenty? Are we going to build a fifty-story building, or a five-story building? We need to know our situation, because it makes all the difference in the world.

It will make the difference between tragedy and success. It will make the difference between defeat and victory. And how many Christians have been destroyed, have been put on the shelf, and had spiritual defeat, simply because they did not count the cost.

Some young people have been defeated in Bible school, because they just didn't realize what they were going into. Some young people have been defeated in the ministry, because they didn't realize the hellish battle that was involved in taking on the pastoral of a church, or some other task in Christian work.

And before you go on a crusade in Mexico, before you take part in follow-up in Europe, or in the Muslim world, you need to sit down, as Jesus said, and count the cost. You need to sit down and realize just what is your situation.

I beg of you, young person, and I beg of myself, to use the wrong expression, that we sit down and count the cost. That we sit down and see what's involved in following Jesus Christ. Jesus didn't mix words.

And if Jesus were preaching today in some of our evangelistic meetings, I'm not sure if his appeal would be quite like ours. I'm not sure if as many would respond to the appeal of Jesus Christ to forsake all, to take up a cross and to follow him, as appealed to some of our evangelistic meetings, in which we make Christianity sound like sort of a bed of roses, and sort of an opportunity to get peace, happiness, and joy in a capsule.

Might we sit down today and count the cost? Might we sit down today and analyze our situation? And this is why we've chosen this as the first session, for this orientation, for this preparation, for what you're planning to do in this crusade.

Oh, my God, grip us in this next three-quarters of an hour, and bring us into a knowledge of just what we're headed into. To me, it's very difficult to completely describe what our situation is right today.

The Physical Crisis of a Starving World

What our situation is, as we look out over a world of three billion souls, we can look out over the physical situation. And as we look over the physical situation of the world, it's so shocking, it's so unbelievable, it's so incomprehensible, that we can only sit down in trembling before God and say, what can I do?

This is what happened to Paul, when he met God on the road in that earth-shaking experience. And he said, Lord, what would you have me do? What must I do? This is what happened to the Philippian jailer, when he encountered the gospel, when he met these revolutionary people who shook the jail through their prayers.

He said, what must I do? So it is with us in this day, that as we look out over the world of the starving multitudes, a world which Prince Philip described recently as, in this way, when he said, that half the world was going to bed on a diet that would reduce the average Westerner to skin and bones.

Think of it, half the world hungry tonight, as you listen to this tape, half the world with a pain in its stomach for lack of food. The United Nations recently reported that every day 10 ,000 people die of starvation.

Think of it. Every day the population of a large-sized town passes into eternity from starvation alone. How can we, living in 1963 and 64, realize and know that there's starving multitudes around the world, know that there's people passing off the earth starving to death, and be so content in our loose, lavish living?

Oh my God, grip us with the world situation today. The scientist, the doctor, the engineer, the astronaut, the president of a country, the king of a land. These men today are conscious that they're living in a crisis hour.

They're conscious that they're living in an age in which a button can be pushed and a city can be blown off the face of the earth. Why is it that men in the world are so conscious of the crisis hour and we seemingly are so conscious or unconscious of anything going on around us?

Might God grip us with the fact that we're living in a desperate hour? We're living in an hour when we cannot pray, when we cannot take things lightly. We're living in an hour that is almost indescribable.

I find it difficult to even describe the situation of the world today. We've been just speaking for a second on the physical situation, the situation of multitudes that are starving to death without physical bread.

The Spiritual Situation and the Unreached World

But who? Who in all the earth could begin to describe the spiritual situation of the world today? The spiritual situation of cities like London and New York? The spiritual situation of cities like Paris, Madrid, Rome, Bangkok?

And all these other fantastically large cities where people live in sin, immorality and degradation beyond human description. Who could describe the situation along the Ganges River tonight? Who could describe the situation in Moscow at this very hour or in northern Siberia or in southern China?

The spiritual situation. Who could describe it? Only Jesus Christ walked the earth with a full knowledge of what the situation really was. Only Jesus knew the real score here on this earth. And when he looked over Jerusalem, he knew the situation.

And he wept. And he wept. Oh, might we come to grips with what Jesus Christ meant when he said, they were as sheep without a shepherd. And how shall they hear, the Book of Romans says, without a preacher?

And we see that the world today has not heard. For 2 ,000 years we have taken lightly the commands of Christ. For 2 ,000 years it's been a tiny little minority. It's been a little handful at times of professionals who've gone out and tried to take the gospel to the masses and it has never worked, nor will it ever work.

God did not build a religion of professionals in which a small group of paid clergymen and paid missionaries were expected to take the gospel to 3 billion people, which is the approximate population of the world today.

God's plan was that every Christian, every believer would mobilize in the name of Christ to carry the gospel to every creature. That all would be his witnesses. His promise in Acts 1 .8 isn't to a little handful of people who've gone through Bible school or seminary.

It wasn't to a little handful of people who were called so-called full-time Christian workers. That promise was to every man, woman, and child who believed that Jesus Christ was the Son of God. And oh, how we need to realize the spiritual situation in the world today is indescribable.

Half the world has never received even a gospel tract. Some of you have listened to my voice, or are listening to my voice now. We're on Operation Mobilization in Europe and you were in villages where they had never seen a Bible.

You met people who had never seen a gospel tract or a Christian pamphlet. And there are still millions, and yay, half the world that walks in a similar situation in Turkey, in Iraq, in Iran, in Russia, in China, in India.

Who can describe the situation? I talked to a leading missionary from North India recently and he said he estimated that there were still at least a hundred million souls, half the population of the United States, twice the population of Great Britain, in North India today that had never seen even a gospel tract and knew nothing of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Oh, might God open our eyes to the situation in the world today and might we realize that it's a desperate one. It's an emergency situation. What happens today when a man has an automobile accident? It's an emergency.

The sirens roar. The ambulance comes to pick up the wounded people. Telephone calls are made. People fly here, people fly there. Blood is given. We know what happens when there's a national emergency.

The Red Cross moves in, the Boy Scouts move in, all different charity organizations move in. This past summer there was a national emergency in Yugoslavia. It was hard to believe, but 10 ,000 people perished in the earthquake in Sofia, Yugoslavia.

And when that happened, the army mobilized, the Red Cross mobilized, Boy Scouts were moved from Greece over into Yugoslavia to help. Thousands of pounds were sent from Great Britain and from other countries to help in this tremendous state of emergency.

So it was in Iran not too long ago during the great earthquake. So it is whenever there's a great hurricane in America or a great national windstorm or a tidal wave in some country, a state of emergency is declared.

That's why they have in certain countries what's called martial law, in which the country, during a state of emergency, can be completely taken over by the leader of the country. And martial law goes into effect, which means that leader of the country can do what he wants with factories and with business in order that the whole country might be aimed at conquering and winning during that national emergency.

We've seen it in Great Britain. We've seen it in America. War is a state of emergency, and we've seen what happens during the war. Rationing, sleeping in the underground, having one's fence taken off the front of the yard that it might be melted down and used for war weapons.

And so it is, whenever a state of emergency comes, there's mobilization. People begin to move. People begin to do something. People begin to take desperate action. People begin to do things that they would have never done under normal conditions.

People begin to say things they would have never said. They go places they would have never gone. They'll sleep in conditions they'd never slept in, and they'd work hours that they would have never dreamed of working under normal conditions.

The Church as a Mobilized Force

The communists believe that they're working in a state of emergency. They believe that their situation is war. They believe that their situation is desperate. And a recent article, not so recent any longer, which I quote in my book on literature, Evangelism, states that the communists are winning in World War III because they believe they're in it.

And what we call peace, they call war. And they're moving out in a fantastic way, educating thousands of young propagandists and taking the communist poison to the ends of the earth. So we see Cuba, and we see countries moving into the communist revolution, swept into this so-called warfare, this peacetime warfare that they carry on through bullets made of paper and ink.

And men who are willing to dedicate themselves, who are willing to forget family and friends, who are willing to forget fame, who are willing to forget everything and bury themselves for an ideology. And when I read the life of Lenin and I read the life of Marx, it was like a knife in my side and a sword in my stomach as I saw their dedication and their fanaticism for the cause of communism.

And great leaders like Billy Graham have said that the church is being challenged today like never before for the communists have taken New Testament principles, dedication, discipline, propagation, and all of the rest to spread forth their poisoned doctrines.

Oh, might we look at the world today and realize what the situation is at this very hour, right where you're sitting, right in that soft chair or that hard chair, right there on the floor, wherever you're sitting, wherever you're listening to this tape, wherever you're listening to my voice, you're in the midst of a crisis situation.

You're in the midst of what I believe is best described as an all-out war. And might God grip us with it. And when he does, we'll never be the same. A man is not the same in war as he is in peace. There's all the difference between a peacetime soldier and a wartime soldier.

There's all the difference in the world between a young man with a submachine gun on the front lines of a battlefield and the same soldier back in peacetime with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth with a nice young girl in his lap.

All the difference in the world. Might we see what will happen to us as Christians when we realize that our situation today is war, when we look out at a lost and dying world, suffering, yes, without bread, but worse than that, suffering without the gospel of Jesus Christ, we're going to do something.

Oftentimes I've given the illustration, and I'll give it again, of what would happen if you and I had the medicine to save a group of people that were dying downtown in the city where we live. Just imagine if the report came back to us and we heard that there were 10 ,000 people dying of a dreaded disease in the center of our city, in our little cabinet.

We had the medicine they needed. We had the vaccine. We had the serum. We had just what they needed to save them. But we said, well, I'm busy. Well, tonight I've got this activity and I have a date with Sally Q.

And I have this and I have that. They can wait. Let's not get excited about the situation. Let's not go overboard. Let's not get imbalanced. Let's not rush into things. Let's take it easy. We need more training.

We need this. We need that. The 10 ,000 people passed into eternity and the medicine still stands in your cabinet. Now that's the most ridiculous story anyone could ever tell. Only an insane man would do that.

Only an insane man would speak like that. Only a man who was not thinking reasonably or logically would think of such a thing. Any normal human being would immediately go to his medicine cabinet and mobilize and move out down the street to help those people.

You didn't have that medicine. But not far from you was a storage house. Not far from you was a storage house there. There were literally hundreds of pounds of medicine stored up. And you went down to the storage house.

You knew about these dying people. And you went to the storage house. And you looked on the door. And on the door there was a fantastic little sign. And it says, Ask and ye shall receive. Seek and ye shall find.

Knock and it shall be opened unto you. This was written above the door of this big storage house in which the medicine was contained that the world needed. Tell me, how much would you ask for? How much medicine would you ask for?

Would you knock on that door? Would you seek? Would you ask? Well, of course you would. Any unsaved and regenerate man would do that. And yet this is just our situation today, young person. The world is dying.

The remedy, the medicine they need is the gospel of Jesus Christ, the power of God unto salvation. And although sometimes we don't have much on our own shelf, and there doesn't seem to be much potential in us, and we seem to be weak, and we don't seem to really have all that it takes to go out and to meet this crisis situation, across from us and right in front of us, there's a huge storehouse.

It's the storehouse of God's grace. It's the storehouse of God's mercy. It's the storehouse of God's love. And above the storehouse is a great sign. It says, Ask and ye shall receive. Seek and ye shall find.

Knock and it shall be opened unto you. But we go to the storehouse and we look, and because of unbelief, because we're self-seeking, because we're trapped into a self-centered life, and because we're mainly interested in ourselves, we fail to read the sign, and it's blurry and dim, and we're so interested in our own ways, and our own plans, and in our own projects, and we're so caught up into naturalistic thinking, and we're so caught up into the realm of unbelief, and fear, and murmuring, and all of the things that kept the children of Israel out of the promised land, that we never enter into the warehouse, we never take hold of the promises of God, and they never become real to us.

We read them. And the man comes to the warehouse door, and he shows us a whole list of promises. He shows us promise after promise, as we see them in page after page of the Word of God, but we don't seem to ever want to get to grips with what it's all about.

Steve Carmichael once wrote a poem, that some of you need to read, about the masses of people that walked toward the great canyon, and there were very few centuries they were placed at very interspersing intervals, and the people plunged over this great canyon out into eternity, and the people heard the shrinking and the groaning, but they were busy, they were busy making their daily change, they were busy in good little secondary activities, and that's what a lot of you have on your Bible school campus, that's what a lot of you have where you're working, that's what a lot of you have right around your community, a lot of good little secondary activities that you're busy in, and we're busy, busy, busy, we're busy even sometimes in the service of the Lord, but it's not that primary task.

It's not warfare official, and it's a sham, and it's a noise to God. Might the Lord grip us, even in this hour, and show us just what the situation is. Yes, as we look at the world today, we realize our situation is a warfare.

Spiritual Warfare and the Weapons of the Church

As we look at the situation today, we realize it's a warfare. Do you know what happens during war? Do you know what men do during war? You can't describe it. I've often told the story of the Battle of Iwo Jima.

This little island, some five miles wide and seven miles long, or something like that, was just a little rock in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, but the supreme command of the United States said this little rock had to be taken.

This little rock had to be conquered. This little rock had to be won, and they spent millions and millions and millions of pounds and dollars bombing, bombing, bombing, day after day, risking lives, young men strong in stature.

They gave their lives flying over that island, shot out of the air. Then they moved in, the infantry moved in, the foot soldiers, the men with palisades and bent fingers moved in with the guns in their hands and the hand grenades and the weapons in their hands, and they moved in thousands of them, young men, college graduates, doctors, strong young men whose parents had spent thousands of dollars to give them a well-balanced education, and they moved in and they flew it away.

Young men, college graduates, doctors, strong young men whose parents had spent thousands of dollars to give them a well-balanced education, and they moved in and they flew it away for a little island.

And there were 20 ,000 casualties on Iwo Jima. 20 ,000 casualties and 5 ,000 men never returned to tell the story. The story might not be very real to some of you who are listening to my voice. War isn't real to most of us, this younger generation, but our mental hospitals and our veterans' hospitals are filled with young men who will testify to the reality of that war.

You see, that's one of the things about war that we must understand. It's only real to those who get in it. Some of you who are listening to my voice are yearning for greater reality in the Christian faith.

You have doubts even about the Bible. You have doubts about basic truths of the Christian faith, and at times you're wondering what it's all about. I want to tell you this with all sincerity, and I'm the authority of the Word of God.

You'll never find reality in a textbook. You'll never find reality sitting in a chair somewhere reading, even if you're reading the Bible. You'll find reality only when you, by faith, enter into this gigantic battle, this gigantic struggle for truth and righteousness and love and godliness.

Reality is found on the front line with the weapons of warfare in our hands, and the Bible says the weapons of warfare that we have are not carnal, they're not missiles, they're not intercontinental ballistic missiles or any other kind of weapon that human beings can ever discover.

The weapons we have are more powerful, they're greater, they've got more potential than anything men ever dreamed of. Our weapons aren't spiritual weapons, as it says in Philippians. And they can tear down strongholds, and they can cast down imaginations, and they can bring, think of this young person, every thought into captivity.

Every evil thing you think about, every wrong thought, every lust, it can be brought into captivity by the power of God, by the weapons of the warfare that God has given to us. And I tell you, that's greater than a cobalt bomb or anything any human being, a thousand men and twenty thousand casualties to take a little island in the Pacific.

Do you really think it's going to take any less to take spiritual islands in Mexico, in England, in America, in Canada, in Italy, in France, in Turkey, in Iran, in Iraq, in Mali? Do you think it's going to take any less?

Who would be so foolish? For God says you wrestle not against flesh and blood, you wrestle not against flesh and blood, but you wrestle against the very powers of hell. And the devil has a roaring lion, thick as whom he may devour.

Young person, it's war. And until you and I come to grips with this fact, until we realize it's a warfare, and we've got to enlist as soldiers, 2 Timothy chapter 2, endure fondness as good soldiers of Jesus Christ, for no man that warrants entangles himself with the affairs of this life.

These are verses from the Word of God. This isn't my idea. I didn't say fight the good fight. I didn't say endure hardship. I didn't say that we wrestle against the powers of darkness. I didn't say any of these things.

These are verses from the New Testament. And when we look into the lives, when we look into the lives of the men of the New Testament and of the Old, what can we say? This is the final confirmation. We look out at the world situation, we realize it's desperate, we realize it's a crisis, we realize it's war.

We look into the Word of God and we see the verses that clearly tell us that our situation is war, that our situation is desperate, that our situation is an emergency situation, worse than anything that happened in Sofia or Iran or during any earthquake, tidal wave or hurricane.

The Faithful Witnesses of Hebrews 11

And then when we look into the lives of the saints, when we look into the lives of men in the Old Testament, let's stop. Let's stop and turn in our Bibles to Hebrews the 11th chapter. Let's look at some of these men.

Hebrews chapter 11. Let's see how these men lived. Let's see the kind of life they led. Let's see if they were militant or not. If they really lived like soldiers. If they really lived as if it were a crisis situation.

Let's read about a few of these men. Look at Moses in Hebrews 11 .23. By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season, esteeming the reproach of Christ, greater riches than the treasures in Egypt, for he had respect under the recompense of the reward.

By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured as seen him who is invisible. Oh my, when we look at men like this, Moses with all the pleasures of Egypt, with the best possible education, with all the women of Pharaoh's court, with all the riches, with everything else, he forsook it and he entered into that warfare of suffering and of reproach and of enduring hardship as they went across the wilderness and were beaten and went through every possible trial.

Moses was a soldier. And we read on. We read about Joshua. And then we come to verse 32. Like a great crescendo we read these words. And what shall I more say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and of Barak and of Samson and of Japheth and of David also and Samuel and of the prophets, who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens.

Women received their dead raised to life again and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance that they might obtain a better resurrection. And others had trial of cruel markings and scourgings, yea, moreover, of bonds and imprisonment.

They were stoned, they were thrown asunder, they were tempted, were slain with a sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted and tormented. Harun, the world was not worthy.

They wandered about in deserts, in mountains, in dens and caves of the earth, as these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise, God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.

Do you see the power of that passage? They just have what we have. They didn't have the promises that we have. They didn't have all the blessings that we have and yet this is the kind of life they lived.

We look into the New Testament and into the lives of men who lived in the New Testament. We see the same thing. We see the description of the Apostle Paul in Corinthians 11 and it's shocking what this man went through because he lived the life of a soldier.

Savings, markings, scourging, wandering, suffering, the care of the churches and all the rest. Read the passage. And then we read in 2 Corinthians 6, Paul is speaking to all of us who desire to be faithful unto Jesus Christ, who desire to be faithful ministers unto Christ.

And he says in 2 Corinthians 6, these revolutionary words, why if we dare to even obey this one chapter, the world would be turned upside down. And God doesn't need a great number. We're not looking for great numbers in this crusade.

We're looking for faithful people who dare to begin to live the life of faith. We're not looking for perfect people either. We've given up on that. We're looking for people who are willing to say, Lord, teach me.

People who are willing to break before Calvary as Isaiah broke and say, Lord, here am I. Send me, take me, mold me, make me anew. Like the potter vessel. To be broken so that we can be made anew. The loving hand, the kind hand, the meek hand.

It'll take us through trials and suffering. It'll take us through difficulties. It'll bring us into life, live with people who are of different personality. It'll take us into various circumstances. It reminds me of a story of a young boy who wanted to learn patience.

And he went to his pastor and he said, Pastor, I want you to pray for me that I might learn patience. And the pastor said, okay, let's pray. And he got down on the floor and he began to pray. And he said, oh God, the pastor prayed, oh God, send this young man tribulation.

Send him tribulation, Lord. And he went on to pray. And the little boy began to shake. And after the prayer he got up and he said, but pastor, I ask you to pray that the Lord would give me patience. Wise pastor took the word of God and he opened it.

Pointed to a verse and the verse said, but tribulation worketh patience. And if you want to live the life of Christ, if you want to be conformed to the image of Christ, if you want to become a true disciple and a true soldier of Jesus Christ, get ready for the problems.

Get ready for the storms. Get ready for the battles. Get ready for the difficulties. Get ready for the unloving people. Get ready for the criticisms and the lies and the backbiting. For all of this will be used to conform you to the image of Jesus Christ.

Enduring as Ministers of God

Now this is in my ideas. Look at the passage, 2 Corinthians chapter 6, starting at the third verse. Giving no offense in anything that the ministry be not blamed, but in all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God.

Here it is. Approving ourselves as ministers of God. Going through the test. What happens to us? In much patience, in affliction, in necessity, in distresses, in strife, in imprisonment, in tolls and labors, in watchings and fasting, by pureness, by knowledge, by long suffering, by kindness, by Holy Ghost, by love unseen, by the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armor of righteousness on the right hand and on the left, by honor and dishonor, by evil report and good report, as deceivers and yet true, as unknown and yet well known, as dying and behold we live, as chastened and not killed, as sorrowful yet always rejoicing, as poor yet making many rich, as having nothing and yet possessing all things.

There it is. Clear. Specific. This is the life of a soldier. It's not easy. It's not a game. It's real. It's a bottle. And this, and this is our situation today. As we face England, as we face Mexico, as we face Europe, as we face the regions beyond, our situation is warfare.

It's an emergency. It's crisis. It's desperate. The only way to meet it, the only way to enter into it, is the same way that Jesus Christ said in Luke the 14th chapter. He said, except you forsake all that you have, you cannot follow me.

The man was specific. The terms were definite. There were no ifs, ands, buts or maybes. He said, unless you forsake all that you have, you cannot be my disciple. It seems, as we look at the context of the passage, that he was mainly referring to material things.

You see, Jesus knew how close we were knit to the material world. In our day, we've tried to separate the material from the spiritual. But only a fool really does that. Our stomachs are close to our hearts.

Our eyes are close to our minds. And so it is. We're materialistic. We want things, because we know things bring status. We want our way. And Jesus said we had to forsake it. But also, Jesus, both in this passage and in his other teachings, clearly teaches that we're to forsake all other things.

And I find that our day, there's things harder to forsake than material things. Pride, self-love, status-seeking, the desire to be recognized, irritability, impatience. These are the things this passage talks about.

These are the real knots in our life that have to be broken by the power of God before we're ever going to be used in a mighty way. These are the things that must be taken out of us as we train to be soldiers for Jesus Christ.

Discipleship Through Weakness and Surrender

Yes, God has called us to be disciples. As you read the book True Discipleship, you're going to find some principles that are so revolutionary that it's going to be hard for you to fall into accord with them.

But God will grant you the grace for He has said, My strength is made perfect in weakness. Oh, might we remember that. My grace is sufficient, He said. My strength is made perfect in weakness. And so it's God in you who will live this life.

It's God who will enable you to be a true disciple. And remember, above everything else, a disciple is a learner. He's out to learn. He doesn't know it all. He can't say, I'm a true disciple. But he can say, I'm learning from Jesus the life of true discipleship.

And so, if you want to come on one of these crusades, if God is speaking to you about Mexico or about follow-up in a village in England or about a crusade in the Muslim world or in Europe, remember, we're not looking for people who are perfect.