World Mission - Total Commitment (Quinta) — George Verwer

World Missions and Total Commitment

Let's get to the scriptures. Matthew chapter 9. What's close to the heart of God? World missions. World missions. Not token commitment, total commitment. The man who's doing the tapes, that's the title.

World missions. Not token commitment, but total commitment. That's why we're in a crash course for 30 or 40 young people who, within a few days, will be launching out on our immigrant work and to Portsmouth and to Bristol to work with the church in evangelism.

That's why a number of the people who are here by September will be with us in the Netherlands for our international intensive training conference to prepare people for the ship, to prepare people for other parts of the world.

Because world missions is a priority in God's thinking. A lot of the things we do are not a priority with God. It's not against them, but they're not a priority. We build a lot of buildings. There's no scriptural basis for it.

I'm not against it, if it's done carefully. A lot of them that they built years ago and spent a fortune on are now empty. But there's not much in the New Testament about building buildings. It's not actually a biblical priority.

It's where most of God's money goes, especially trying to keep some of these old buildings going. Major, major problem in some of the denominations. But that which is on the heart of God, people. Saving people, working in their lives.

And when we speak about world missions, we're speaking about people. Let's examine the scriptures and see if these things be so. Matthew chapter 9, verse 35, we have a picture of Jesus going about all the cities and villages.

Reaching Villages and the Biblical Vision for Mission

You know, if I lived here, if I moved to the Quinta, I'd set as my goal to reach every village in 50 mile radius, say in the next five years. I actually did that in Great Britain back in 1964 after the big campaign in Europe at 62 and 63 when OM was really being born.

And we reached 90 ,000 villages throughout the continent. I thought we've got to do this in Britain. I did research on the villages of Britain. Many of them are pagan. Did you know that many of them are pagan?

Some of them are even into witchcraft. Some of them are demonized. Unbelievable things go on. In what's described often as the lovely countryside where people subscribe to Country Life magazine. And I had this great burden for the villages and I got every single ordinance survey map and I launched a plan to reach every village.

And you know, we were young. Many of OM's victories have been recorded, but that was one of OM's disasters. The young men who led that program got away from the Lord, a lot of things went wrong, and that program never became a reality.

But I've never lost my burden for Britain's villages and a lot has happened in the villages since those days, I can assure you. And it's been an inspiration to me to see a lot of new and wonderful things happening.

In my short sojourn here in Britain of 23 years. God is on the move in Britain. You better believe that. New churches are being born. Thousands of people are coming to know Christ. Think of what God did in Sunderland through Billy Graham and in London through Louise Palau.

What God is doing through video, through television. More of the gospel is getting on television. A lot of exciting things are happening. Key people in the sports world, key people in the political world, key people in the intellectual world coming to know Christ.

Scientists, mathematicians, doctors, engineers, agnostics, atheists coming to know Christ. You say well, you know still a minority of people seem to be true Christians. Well, that's what the Bible says.

Bible says narrow is the way and few there will be that find it. I remember when the ship Lagos was in London. I had the opportunity to share the gospel with a whole auditorium, the small Lagos auditorium, mainly members of Parliament and a number of them that those men already knew Jesus Christ personally.

Jesus had a vision for the villages and so we read and Jesus went about all the cities and villages teaching in the synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom and healing every sickness and every disease among the people.

But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion because they were as sheep. They were faint and were scattered as sheep having no shepherd. Then he said unto his disciples, the harvest truly is plenteous, but the workers are few.

Then what did Jesus say? And this is exciting. Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest that he will send forth labors into his harvest. You know why the young people are here preparing to go out to the mission field?

Because people prayed. Some of you are new to OM. We are new to this wonderful part of the country. Let me just share how this work was born. I may have done this last time I was here so I'll make it really short.

A dear woman of God had a vision, not a technicolor stereophonic vision, just in her mind, of a God who answered prayer and a vision for the local secondary school near her home. And she prayed for that school for 15 years.

That people would be converted to Jesus and sent out to the mission fields of the world. She had a phenomenal vision for world missions. She had missionary prayer letters. She had maps. She had all these pictures of missionaries.

You know, one of these women really committed to prayer. I was not a Christian when I went to that high school. Contrary. I've been in trouble with the police. I was in perpetual trouble with the principal or the headmaster.

At 16, I was a pornoholic. A lot of other things that I'm not too happy to talk about. Life is fast outside New York City. I didn't live in a fast lane. I created my own. But this woman was not intimidated by this little loudmouth.

And she prayed for me and put me on her hit list. And she sent me a gospel of John through the post. And I began to read God's Word. And my grandfather and my father both came from the Netherlands. Stubborn Dutch background.

My grandfather was an atheist. My father was a materialist who actually was seeking God in a small way as I was. He would send me off to Sunday school to a nearby church where there was no real content.

No real gospel being preached. So I became somewhat religious. Became president of the youth fellowship. Assistant to the pastor. Taught the kids how to dance. A few other things. But I didn't know that it was necessary to repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.

I saw, I thought religion was sort of like this, like the suit coat that I put on on Sunday. You know, the necktie you put on Sunday. And you take it off on Monday. By Saturday night, you don't even know it exists.

And then Sunday morning you look for it again. And a young fellow lived down the street from me. I couldn't stand him. I hated a lot of people. I was a hostile person. I had my own little gang when I was only eight.

He was in the opposing gang. Couldn't stand him. And he had the courage, nobody ever witnessed to me. But he had the courage to ask me to go to a Billy Graham meeting. He didn't realize I had just picked up at the newsstand where I bought pornography, a magazine about Billy Graham out of curiosity.

And I thought because he played golf and sports, he had a wife, he probably half normal. Maybe there was something to this. And so with the invitation of this young man, I went to hear Billy Graham. The author of this phenomenal book whose picture's on the back.

I went to hear him preach in Madison Square Garden, New York City. Skeptic. Grandson of an atheist. And I heard something so, so powerful, so simple. It completely matched up with what I was reading in that Gospel of John.

And I thought in my mind, this is true. God loves me. God wants to change people. God wants to do something in the world. It is not His will that we're all running around killing each other. It's not His will that we, you know, are arming ourselves with nuclear bombs that can blow the entire planet into the universe.

It's not His will that there's so much hatred and envy and jealousy and immorality. I'd already seen it with my own eyes. And that Christ was the answer. And that night, I'd done something I'd never even hardly heard of.

When he gave an invitation to come to Christ, I got out of my seat. I went up forward and I prayed a prayer. I don't remember it. Let Jesus Christ come into my life. And I went back to that high school.

Christ had changed my life. Of course, that was to be a long-term program that's still going on. But God had changed my life enough through that night. And other students, I had been blacklisted by the teachers.

I was supposed to receive an honor for high marks, but for bad conduct, I was blacklisted and refused that honor. And when my life got changed by Jesus Christ, six months later, even teachers that couldn't stand me took my name off that blacklist.

And I was given that little honor, not much. But Jesus Christ can change our lives. The Holy Spirit is real. He entered me that night when I was born again, and that has been a reality every single day for 32 years.

I've given away now my age. I don't look that old, especially if you're sitting way in the back. That's what my wife says. But God is so real. He's more real than the wood of this pulpit. And you know, when I go to into some of our churches and I see people on Sunday morning with these long tomato sauce faces, I can hardly believe that they know the living God.

Jesus Christ is alive. The Holy Spirit is indwelling us as believers. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, temperance. That's self-control.

Against such, there's no law. I've always had a fear of getting in trouble with the law. Yes, I got first got in trouble when I was about nine, housebreaking or something. I'll never forget. I was there looking through the junk in this house, and the police came up the stairs with a pistol out.

You know, it's always an interesting experience when you're about eight or nine. I blamed it all on my sister. But I've always had this sort of fear of the law. Praise God. There's no law against bearing the fruit of the Holy Spirit.

Unlimited. And I just want to ask you before I go any further tonight. Are you born again? Do you know Jesus Christ personally? It could be that there may be just one person here. You're like me. And religion, you're not like me.

You're a good guy. I was a bad guy. I wasn't in the mafia or anything like that, though they lived up the street. Probably would have recruited me in a few more years. You may be a good guy. You may be fairly moral.

You don't beat your wife much. You don't lie much. You're not in any big bank robberies. You know, a little cheating on taxes, but nothing heavy. Religion, you go to church. You may even sing in the choir, but you've never been born again.

You've never been saved by the grace of God. You've got your religious suit coat on. What a wonderful thing, tonight. You could be born from above. Maybe somebody listening to this tape. Maybe you're stuck in the motorway in world's biggest traffic jam.

You had no other tape but this one and you put it in and now you're listening to it. You're getting angry and especially since the traffic's not moving. Just pull off to the side of the road right now and let Jesus Christ come into your heart.

I speak to more people by tape recording than I do face-to-face. So I just throw that in as a bonus for anybody who got the tape. This woman prayed that the Lord of the harvest would send forth workers into the harvest field and the whole ministry of OM 37 ,000 of us who have now been trained in this work, some of us still with it, can be traced back to one persevering, praying, unknown woman.

Prayer as the Engine of World Mission

And you know, brothers and sisters, prayer is where the action is. Now we have Billy Jones here tonight. He wouldn't want me to have him stand up. He's from this part of the world originally. He came on OM.

He found himself a dazzling darling wife, one of our best bookkeepers and Billy Jones is very famous. He's the first person that is officially retired and that's still alive. Captain Padgett retired, captain of the ship and he soon went on to glory.

Billy Jones is supposedly retired, not tired. He doesn't believe in that and he's just moved back from America and I hope some of you're gonna get to meet Billy, who was a former boxer and who experienced the grace of God in such a great way.

The grace of God is seen in most, if not all, who are here tonight. We wish we could take time just to share testimonies of what God is doing. Paul and I just met today. We had tea together. Did you say you were converted in Sunderland?

Was that the Billy Graham campaign? People who were at the Billy Graham campaign got excited, met this character and led him to Jesus and he's praying about going on our ship for a while. Well, there are all kinds of celebrities here.

We can't introduce them all, but if you want to, if you want to get involved in world missions, you don't have to leave Shropshire. Is that how you say it? I've been working on that for a couple years.

About 20 actually. I used to drive through here on my way to the beautiful mountains of North Wales when I was in rock climbing many years ago. I gave that up after almost being killed. I don't recommend it.

The Welsh just, they're so wise, the Welsh. They just, they just sit over there and watch these crazy English come across and climb these rocks and get killed. Amazing. Pray ye the Lord of the harvest that he'll send forth labors into the harvest.

How many of you are into that ministry? Be honest. I can't remember the hands. How many of you are in that ministry? You're praying out workers into the harvest field. Raise your hand. Great. About a 25 of you.

The rest of you can start tonight. You don't need a membership card. You don't need to join OM. All you have to do is say Lord Jesus, I believe your word. You have told us to pray. We don't fully understand it.

Why does God need us to pray to send out laborers? Somebody said if God wants to send them, let him send them. He's God. God has chosen to work through people. I'm reading that great book, Quiet Talks on Prayer, by that man Gordon.

Great Keswick speaker. I'm back at Keswick for the third time next summer. It takes him three years to live it down. So I get back every third or fourth year. George Verrick Keswick. People can't believe it.

But I'm there again next summer at the holiday week. I've never been at the second week. So some of you, you ought to come there and see what happens at Keswick next summer. But this man Gordon wrote this book, Quiet Talks on Prayer.

And I've been reading that and he emphasizes God in his sovereignty has chosen to work through prayer. It's so exciting. It's so motivating. No matter where you're living. Some of the OM people who have moved here from the city, they've been wrestling with living out here.

They feel a bit detached. And it's taking them a while to adjust to the, you know, the air. They're getting killed out of fresh air, you know. Too much for them. Their eyes have started to open. Their hair is starting to grow again.

But through prayer right here from Weston Wrynn, you can touch China. You can touch the Soviet Union. You can have a ministry in Africa. You can have a ministry in India. You can have a ministry through our two ships as they move around the world.

Prayer is where the action is. Don't be deceived to think otherwise. Pick up one of those maps of the world or a set of prayer cards. Sign up for the OM prayer letter, the prayer letter of other mission agencies.

Take those prayer requests seriously. Because that's where the action is. Jesus spent an entire night in prayer. Jesus taught his disciples to pray. I've been reading a book called The Prayer Life of Jesus Christ.

It's an entire book that's just about the prayer life of Jesus Christ. Even if you're so-called retired, even if you do eventually develop bad health, you can still pray. Oswald J. Smith at 96 years of age in that nursing home where I visited him was unable to do anything any longer.

He wanted to go home, but he was able to pray. And it's only as we pray we're going to see revival in the church. It's only as we pray that we're going to see doors open. It's only as we pray that labors are going to go forward into the harvest field.

That's God's method. You know when God gave us that first ship 15 years ago, I've been having fellowship this evening with one of the brothers who was one of the original engineers on that ship. How well we remember how impossible that situation was.

That old ship broke loose from the tugboat coming down from Copenhagen. Then we get in Rotterdam where we've got tensions and divisions and the engine room looks like it's getting worse every minute. All kinds of different problems.

God gave us a message from the book of Nehemiah. That's a great book to study. How many have never read the Old Testament? You've never read the Old Testament through whether you read it, you know, back to front or front to back.

Raise your hand. You just haven't quite made it yet. The Old Testament. It's neglected. You ought to do that. You read the Old Testament. You read the book of Nehemiah. You read about Elijah there on Mount Carmel calling down the fire of God.

Seeing those miracles. The next chapter is under a juniper tree. Wanting to take his own life. The divine factor and the human factor. What a message. God is calling his people to commitment with balance and that commitment with balance that we spoke about last night is going to lead us into prayer.

Vision as the First Condition of Prayer

Why don't we pray more? What are some of the reasons? First of all, I don't think we have a vision. Now I have too much vision. We're all, you know, I'm an extremist. Forgive me. I've got to cut down on some of my vision because OM, we can't handle it.

We don't have the money. We don't have the people. We don't have the energy. My wife looked at me the other day and she said, you know, to be honest, just looking at you makes me feel really tired. I got a beautiful wife.

She's really honest with me and we were sitting in the car sometime ago and I was just praising God and I said, I want to burn out for Jesus Christ. She just sat there. She said, I'm burned out. So I've been trying to find the balance and slow down and some of my visions, some of my ideas, I just leave them with Jesus.

I say, Lord, if that's your will, give it to someone else. And let them run with it. Because, you know, I can't. I can't do it. Somebody thought I was gonna get a submarine for evangelism in depth. Sometime ago another man wrote to me.

He said, I'd like you to be partners with me. I want to go and get a jumbo jet for Jesus. We know if Jesus can give you a ship, he can give me a jumbo jet. It's not the same. I can assure you. And Christians aren't always, you know, 100 when it comes to expertise and excellency.

And repairing things. And I can tell you when the ship breaks down, it just stops and floats. It's great. But when one of those things breaks down, I can tell you, at 30 ,000 feet it can spoil your whole day.

So I'm leaving some of my visions for other people. But I will tell you this, really. It's tremendous to have a vision. What do you mean by that? A vision of what God wants to do. With the church. With your own fellowship.

With me, that's O .M. With my own life. A Christian is a person who knows where he is going. He may not know every detail. I don't know every detail. But I know my ultimate destination. It's to reach men.

It's to see them converted. It's to see them discipled. It's to see churches coming alive. It's to see workers launching out to the harvest field. In turn, it's to see millions of people giving the Word of God.

God gave me this vision, this burden, when I was 18 and 19 years of age. And though it seemed ridiculous, it was laughed at, it seemed impossible, it became a reality. Very, very slowly. O .M. has grown very slowly.

You see it now over 25 years later. We didn't get here overnight. We didn't get here through just dreaming dreams. Hard work. Tears. Perseverance. Repentance. Disappointments. Broken hearts. That's the ingredient.

It's the ingredient of seeing a vision become a reality. I want you to pray a prayer with me tonight. Lord, increase my vision. Another reason people don't pray more is because they're not disciplined.

Spiritual Discipline and the Renewal of the Mind

They're not disciplined. They don't know how to get up out of bed in the morning. Alan Redpath, that great British preacher, influenced me when he was in Chicago, said the great problem in Britain is blanket victory.

Just to get that blanket off in the morning. I know some people have been on O .M. for a couple of years. They still haven't even learned, you know, basic A-B -1. Just get out of bed on time and get with God.

And let me just tell you, those of you are joining O .M. this summer, O .M. produces no instant spirituality. In fact, you can function on O .M. as a backslider. We don't have any Gestapo program kicking people out.

Eventually, you may fall out. But spirituality is not created by joining a particular church or by going on O .M. Spirituality is linked with Jesus Christ reigning and ruling in your heart. And it frightens me, as I shared last night, the lack of discipline.

Getting up in the morning is only one of 25 or 30 disciplines that we have to develop. Discipline in the area of food. Discipline in the area of what we think. A lot of people waste time in what they're thinking about.

They get into worry. They get into depression. My friend, if you have gone down a particular road in your life, you've gone down Depression Street, you've gone down Worry Alley, you've gone down Frat Lane, you've gone down Anxiety Path.

If you've gone down those streets, you know what's down there. Anxiety, depression, whatever. Why go down again? I'm amazed at this little town of Western Wren, how confusing it is. Especially this one little spot out here, where five roads are all coming in.

I haven't got out the right road once, right? Just this afternoon, I was trying to get out to the A5 and somehow I made a wrong turn. I ended up way in a giant wilderness. I thought bears were going to come out and devour me.

But I am convinced, if you know what's down a road and you know it's depressing, it doesn't edify, it doesn't encourage, then you, as you enter the beginning of that road, slam on the brakes and go the other way.

The highway of hallelujahs, the pathway of praise, the trail of Thanksgiving, whatever. I had the ability to completely depress myself in a couple of minutes, if I go down certain roads. That's why old Dr. Lloyd-Jones, the writer, author of this book, talked about controlling the mind.

He emphasized very much the mind. It's not emphasized enough, the mind. Controlling by the Spirit of God, by the Word of God, your mind. You determine what you think. You are not some kind of Freudian clone.

And I believe we have the mind of Christ. And according to Romans 12, 1 and 2, our mind can be renewed. Our mind can be renewed. We can use the Word, we can use prayer. I picked up one of those other tapes and I recommend them.

Just praise. Some of them have just praise songs without words. Terrific background music. And I find in my own life, Christian music has been one of the greatest sources in combating some of the struggles that I have in my walk with God.

Discipline covers every area of our life. Discipline with money. I'm amazed. Sometimes God's people are just impulse buyers. You see this, oh, that would be nice to have. We've already got three of them.

But we can have four that can sit in a line in the living room. We don't need them. The Bible talks about forsaking all. The Bible talks about it's more blessed to give than receive. Do you know the reality of that?

Praise God for Wellington missionary auctions. I bet there's some interesting antiques in some of these houses around here. You ever heard of Wellington's missionary auctions? It's down in Surrey. It's a long way from here.

I know some of you probably don't travel south. Frightening, you know, London and all that. You know what they've done? They've challenged people to sell their antiques for Jesus and they have put tens of thousands of pounds into world missions through people selling old chairs.

It's too rickety even for people to sit on them anymore. And it's released tens of thousands of pounds for Jesus. Discipline touches every area of our life. Get this book if you possibly can. Because it's a book about discipline.

And of course if we aren't disciplined in redeeming the time, one man of God said the greatest sin of young people today is simple. It's wasting time. It's not immorality. It's not shooting drugs up your arm.

I don't think that's the major problem for most of the young people here. I don't think most of the young people here are sitting planning and scheming. How can I break a bank? Is this a big temptation with any of you?

No, the sin today among many Christian young people is wasting time. Time that could be used for prayer. Time that could be used for the meditation of the Word. Time that could be used in sharing Jesus Christ or just helping someone.

I don't believe all witnessing has to do with just talking to people about Jesus. I believe we're called to serve people. We're called to help people. We're called to stop on the side of the road if someone's having trouble with a puncture.

Serving People Beyond Words and Literature

I was with a friend recently. We came into the airport. We were in a hurry. But on the way out a lady had a puncture right in the middle of the airport road.

Please turn the cassette over now and continue listening at this point on track two. Do not fast wind the recorder in either direction.

...into the airport. We were in a hurry. But on the way out a lady had a puncture right in the middle of the airport road. It was a terrible place to be. And she was wrestling with putting the tire on and a policeman was watching her.

This was in America. A British policeman I'm sure would have helped her. In America the policeman was just watching. My friend jammed on the brakes, parked the car, ran over there, changed her tire, put it on in about eight minutes.

And I talked with him and for the last number of years God has endlessly directed him to people in distress. Accidents, punctures. And he has a ministry of just helping people at that crucial moment. And you know if we go out of here all hyper about talking about Jesus and giving literature and we're not ready to serve.

We're not ready to go the extra mile to help somebody. Forget a meal maybe to go down to help somebody in difficulty. Then it's a contradiction what we're saying and what we're practicing. Discipline is one of the most exhilarating processes that God can ever bring into your life.

It's not bondage. Gordon MacDonald the new president of InterVarsity in North America who was a pastor for 20 years has written one of the most amazing books ever in print. I don't think it's gone this far yet.

It's called Ordering Your Private World. Made a big dent in me this year. I wish I had had it 20 years ago. I had a similar book. It helped me a lot. Ordering Your Private World. What's it talking about?

Discipline. And it shows that discipline brings freedom. More time to pray. More time to witness. More time to do other things. That may be part of God's ministry to the human factor in your life. I wish I could give you a whole message on this young people especially.

But I pray that in your desire to be Christ-like, in your desire to go on for God, to be filled with the Spirit, you'll not deny the human factor. No matter how committed you are, you are a weak, feeble human.

I have seen a lot of young people hit the wall because they failed to accept their own limitations. I will tell you in my life it was a glorious day when I accepted my limitation. I realized how human, how earthy George Verwer really was.

And I didn't have to try any longer to be a combination of Billy Graham, Hudson Taylor, A .W. Tozer and Clint Eastwood or E .T. or whoever. I'm just George Verwer. And I pray that you will realize that God is not trying to destroy your personality.

He's not going to change the colors of your eyes when you become closer to Christ. I've been watching Billy Jones. How many years now, Billy? Twenty-two years at least. He's on OM. He came on OM when he was about 12.

And I tell you, I've seen Billy Jones grow in grace, become more Christ-like, get married. That's God's graduate school. But I can tell you, Billy Jones is still Billy Jones. And the same is true of every one of us here tonight.

Commitment to Prayer and Spiritual Renewal

I wonder if you'd make a commitment to become a man or woman of prayer. I wonder if you would be willing to let, somehow, a spiritual revolution take place in some of these areas. Vision. Discipline. Getting down to business with God.

I believe the world would feel the impact of the decision that you make in this meeting tonight. Turn with me now for another passage of scripture. I've got a four-hour journey tonight, so I'm not going to go long.

But I want to just share Romans 10 and bring this to a close. I think most of us know Acts 1 -8. Maybe we'll just stop. On the way to Romans, just stop at Acts 1 -8. Just in case you missed that. Where's the meeting tomorrow night with Viv Thomas?

Is that in here as well? That's up at the top. Up in the lodge. And if you're free, you can go up there. Viv Thomas was an Elam pastor for many years. A great man of God. He's been out in India and Pakistan.

And he is going to be ministering up there tomorrow night at about 7 .30. So if you're free, do go hear Viv Thomas. Acts 1 -8. Just before the Lord Jesus Christ descended into heaven, these are his words.

Mark them well. Let them be burned into your heart by a laser beam of God's love. But ye shall receive power after the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost part of the earth.

You'll never understand O .M. The burden and vision that God has put on our heart. The reason we have this British headquarters helping to coordinate over 300 full-time British people around the world longer term.

Another 300 or more in the summer. Alderman missions and missionary history have so few been responsible for so many involved in missionary work. You read missionary history, you'll discover that's true.

And I'd like to take a moment to thank every one of you from this area who have helped us settle in here and have shown your love. We are not some great band of apostolic whatever. We're learners. And we need your prayers and we need your love and we need your forgiveness as we battle on.

Trying to do way, way too much often times. But it's because we believe this is the word of God. It's because we believe Jesus meant what he said. Ye shall be my witnesses. In Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost part of the earth.

And you'll never understand what it's all about if you don't understand Acts 1A. We live and believe these words of our Lord Jesus Christ. There's not a day with many of us, not a day that passes when we don't think of the tasks, the fields, the needs, the barriers, the obstacles.

Seldom a day would pass in many of our lives in which we don't give ourselves for maybe 15 minutes or an hour or maybe 5 hours of intercessory prayer. And our summer nights of prayer, we had to chase the young people to sleep at 3 in the morning.

They didn't want to go. We said, you got to go. Because we got to have you up tomorrow morning at 7 .30 for the next session. What a privilege it is to work with energetic young people. I'll tell you a greater privilege.

Working with energetic older ones. God is no respecter of persons. And if you can show me one verse in the New Testament about retirement as far as retirement from loving, serving, praying, and doing God's work, I'll give you a hundred books.

I'm always careful about what I say. In Romans chapter 10, Romans chapter 10, we read so clearly here in God's Word that men are saved through believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 13, For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.