Lasting Love

The small globe of previous years, now God has given us this big globe because we have a bigger vision. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him should never perish but have everlasting life. Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every person.

You shall receive power of the Holy Spirit to come upon you and we shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the under most part of the earth. Our vision, I believe, is going to greatly increase this week. We've just come out of our staff conference, a week of focusing on missiological challenges and especially the unreached people.

Amazing. Last night many people stood to make a deeper commitment of their lives and asked God to fill them afresh with his Holy Spirit. Some of you were there.

We really believe God wants to bless us this week. Don't be over accustomed to spiritual terminology. The Bible talks a lot about God wanting to bless his people.

In the past some people have come on with rather strange motivation. They felt they were such a bad Christian that they should go through some kind of purgatory in order to pay for their past sins. So they looked through books and asked questions.

What was the toughest, most difficult, stretching, wild, impossible mission? And they found it was OM. So they joined, thinking it was an extended purgatory. Some of them got so disappointed because they discovered it was more like heaven.

Worshipping, praising, praying, working together all day long for Jesus. What an enormous privilege in the world in which we live to work all day long in direct action for King Jesus. How many of you, be honest, you're excited about this? Raise your hand.

Good. The rest of you, you can just simply, very quickly, just repent. Because if you're not excited about Jesus, somehow you're probably a bit backslidden, maybe more than a bit.

It doesn't mean you're going to be loud, like me. Even when I try to be quiet in the meetings, it doesn't work. They just keep turning the volume up off the loudspeaker.

You've seen in this past week how God is working in different ways in different people. Many, many people are praying for us. Now it's true what Hergen said, he's a man of great discernment.

The books are one of the most important parts of this whole conference. And I hope you're going to go over there. This is the greatest Bonanza Book Exhibition we've ever had in 33 years of September Conference.

A number of the books for new recruits, if this is your first year, a number of the books are free. All you have to do is tour the exhibition and then you can pick up your free book. If you cannot read English, I don't know what to say, except if you want to learn to read English, you can save money because English books are cheaper.

I tell you, when I saw the price on the German edition of Grace Awakening, I almost lost all the Grace Awakening that I had. Here's a book on how to win friends and how to raise your support. It's a free gift to every new recruit, it's worth $8.

Here's the authoritative book on the subject of AIDS that every Christian should be informed about. This book also is a free gift. Here's a book in Spanish by Frank Dietz.

Free for those who can read Spanish. Free for those who can read Spanish. This is Logos Story, free for those that are hoping, you're not there yet, but you're hoping to go on one of the ships.

Raise your hand. Okay, that's free for you. And if you already have one, you can take another one and give it to one of your favorite prayer partners, supporting churches, or your grandmother.

The other books are available, and every time you buy a couple of pounds, you get a couple of pounds matching, free of charge. Here's a book about contemporary music that's a must for this generation. Especially buy a copy to send to anyone you know who's an old fogey and opposed to contemporary music.

You might even find a few around here. Usually very sad looking. When Heaven is Silent is one of the great books of this past year.

When Heaven is Silent. So many of my prayers, they just don't seem to go anywhere. But I've never lost a single day in my commitment to prayer in these 39 years.

Because I worship a God of mystery, who we're going to be speaking about tonight. God is surrounded in mystery. There's my favorite book for this decade, Grace Awakening.

If that book doesn't bless you, write to me, and I'll send you 10 free books wherever you are in the world. But you must be honest. And here's a new one, special, dedicated to OM, and the average OM team.

Don't let the jerks get the best of you. God has a book for every purpose. How many of you have already been blessed at one time or other in your life, you've been mega blessed by a book? Just stand up, I want to see that.

This is amazing. So, thank you, you can sit down. Also, for those of you who are completely broke, though some of the books are free, behind the translation booth is a diamond mine, gold mine, platinum jungle of free literature.

You can't believe what is there, and it's being given away. It's amazing. And you're going to be blessed as you read more and redeem the time through reading.

There are many burdens on our hearts during these days. We live in a real world. One of our greatest burdens is for the land of Rwanda.

And I was reading some information just even this evening about Rwanda. This is probably the greatest tragedy in the world in your generation. Those of you who are between 19 and 25, this is the most horrendous tragedy in your lifetime.

Some are saying up to one million people have been slaughtered, butchered and hacked in pieces, sometimes while in churches, claiming for protection. How does our little tiny view of God fit into this crisis? I hope every day in your prayer groups you can pray for Rwanda and the relief work and all that is going on there. I would have left for the refugee camp since I'm here 10 days ago if I didn't believe that rescuing man from eternal separation from God was as important as anything going on in Rwanda or those surrounding lands.

I hope you can be gripped with the seriousness of what this is about here this week. It doesn't mean we dehumanize ourselves and no longer laugh and no longer enjoy the things around us. That is not God's plan.

We are his people. He has a great plan for our life. We must find that plan and follow that plan.

Let's pray for Rwanda and other places right now. Oh God, we thank you for the power of your Holy Spirit. We thank you for what you are doing around the world.

We know that you want to do far more if your people would respond in obedience of reality and prayer. Because you have chosen a mysterious way to work through your church. You wanted to work through your church all these years in Rwanda but so often times, so often times we fail to respond.

Now we see the consequences of man's folly and man's sin in a way that staggers the imagination. Oh God, we pray for those refugees. There are different agencies working on that.

Brother Randu Rudu, the associate of OAN working there and helping those refugees. Oh God, speak to us now from your word. In Jesus' name.

Amen. Tonight on our first night we are speaking about God. I remember one of the earliest September conferences speaking on this subject with all my heart, knowing God.

You would think it is an easy subject to speak on, so basic. I believe it is one of the more difficult subjects to speak on. I look back over the 30 years since that message and I have presented many times since.

I realize it is a holy task to speak about God and about knowing God. It is possible to speak in a way in which everybody feels miserable, everybody goes away feeling they don't really know God. I believe that is a great mistake.

And I want to start tonight just to think in the context of a group of people that are gun-ho for world missions like most of you. I believe the message that we give to you we should be able to give to any Christian anywhere in the world. Otherwise we create a brand of super-spirituality that puts missionaries out of step with ordinary people.

And in past years we have seen how at times on OM we say things and we do things that confuse people. And so when they are done with their very hyped-up, hyped-up year of OM and so many prayer meetings and so much evangelism they are unable to adapt to their home situation. So it is not an easy subject.

Because we want you to have higher goals in the things of the Spirit. And last night we spoke about the fullness of the Holy Spirit. This is not just for missionaries.

And many of you are not planning to be career missionaries. How many of you are leaning toward career missionary work? You haven't made the decision, but you are leaning in that direction. It takes a while to get the translation to the Korean people.

We want to give again a special welcome to all of you who come from so far, Japan and Korea. When I was first converted, one of the first things I did as a baby Christian was adopt a Korean orphan and finance that little Korean orphan. I still got his picture.

39 years old. And if you are about 47 years of age and your name is Bang Boon Boo, I'd like to talk to you. Turning your Bibles to that favorite verse.

In the book of Matthew, I've got this new translation here. Chapter 6 and verse 33. It says almost the same thing in every translation.

Because this is the Word of God. But more than anything else, put God's work first and do what he wants. Then all the other things will be yours as well.

Notice verse 24 in chapter 6. You cannot be the slave of two masters. Or be more loyal to one than the other. You cannot serve both God and money.

And the old translation, verse 33 says, Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness in all these things shall be added unto you. Come with me now to the Old Testament, to the book of Isaiah. Oh, when I was in South Africa just 10 days ago, it was an amazing time.

Where is our great South African delegation? Okay, wonderful. God is doing great things in your country. We had 2,000 every night for 7 nights at Stellenbosch University at a missions conference.

The final night we had 3,000. We gave an invitation very specific about going out of South Africa as a cross-cultural missionary. 191 stood and made that decision and filled out that card.

We are praying Francois Boussois' vision with others to see thousands of South Africans moving out to the 1040 window in other parts of the world in the years to come. There are so many exciting things going on around the world. And we give God all the glory for these things.

Now Isaiah chapter 6, at the same time I'm just going to read in English, I would ask you to read in your own language, whatever language that may be. This is our Bible. This is what I'm reading for tonight.

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up his train filled with temples. Above it stood the seraphim, each one had six wings, with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he did fly. Verse 5, verse 3, One cried unto another and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of his glory.

4 The posts of the door moved, and the voice of him who cried, that the house was filled with smoke. Then said I, Woe is me, for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips. I dwell in the midst of the people of unclean lips, for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.

5 Then flew one of the seraphim unto me, having a live gold in his hand, which he had taken from the towns from off the altar. He laid it on my mouth, and he said, Look, verse 7, this hath touched thy lips, thy iniquity is taken away, thy sin purged. Also I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send? Who will go for us? 6 Then said I, Here am I, send me.

My prayer is that every one of you could teach a Bible study based on that passage. You know, preaching and teaching the word of God isn't as difficult as some of you think. I started when I was 17, and believe me, I wasn't that smart.

And when I preached at 17 and 18, I saw a response almost equal to what I see today. After all these years of training, why the hell do I think I'd be getting a better response? At 18 years of age, I stood up in front of 600 young people from my high school. You see, we had learned how to pray.

We had a passion to know God. For us, nothing counted really except to know God. And we wanted our fellow students to know God.

I had been converted two years before in this Billy Graham meeting. The thing that marked my heart about Billy Graham was that he was a man, he knew God, and he spoke from the word of God. And that changed my life.

There in front of my high school friends, 600 of them, I just told them about God. I told them they could know God personally. And that that was because of what Jesus Christ had done on the cross.

And that they should repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Because sin was separating them from God. And when they come to Christ, that sin factor, that wall is broken down, and they come into fellowship with God.

And I gave that invitation for people to repent and believe. About 125 stood up. That was the first major evangelistic meeting in the history of Operation Molly.

And among those young people was my own father. I followed Jesus Christ ever since then. I appreciate your prayer for him, he's 88, he just had a very bad fall, and has lived in extreme pain now for 9 days.

Let's understand. If you are a Christian, if you've been born again, you believe in Jesus Christ and receive his saving grace, then you know God. It's so easy to get excited about sort of future blessings that we have as we grow in Christ.

And we share about various spiritual experiences. We may have the Holy Spirit. Or when we first begin to get gripped with a crucified life, that's a powerful life-changing message.

Some books about that on the table. Have you ever read that book, Classic Christianity by Bob George? That's a book that will help you know God. But there's nothing greater than salvation.

That's what Calvary was all about. That's why God gave so many sons. And when you are born from above, you begin to know God.

You know God, and you begin to know him more. It's so easy when we hear a strong message on this subject to see all that we don't have. I want to start tonight with you seeing what you already have.

And begin to rejoice in this so great salvation. We should never, no matter how old we are in Christ, stop being awed at the amazing grace that will save the lives of us. Now, of course, Satan is the accuser of the practice.

And many times, shortly after a person believes in Jesus, that they all see these spectacular changes that they're sort of expecting, and they don't realize that they're going to be saved. Maybe because someone told them that's the way it's supposed to be after you're born again. If they don't see those changes, they start to get discouraged.

They start to doubt whether they really have come to know God. And as many a person who's professed faith in Christ who seemingly has lost it all in a few weeks, it's so easy to trust our feelings. Some people, after their conversion, they don't feel that different.

Some people are converting at a very young age. How about you? We're born again. You converted maybe before you were even born.

You're 13 years old. This is amazing. At your conversion, you probably didn't suddenly burst with tremendous emotion and realize all the major attributes of God.

And how about descripting your life at seven? Some of you are taking notes. That's such an encouragement. So many people are too lazy to take notes.

I always try to believe the best. I know some of you are writing your girlfriends back home. I believe the best.

It's so easy to get uptight when we have a wrong view of God. It's interesting that even E.W. Tozer, who said so many strong things, he said, God is easy to live with. I tell you, that's why I'm still here.

Because I am not the naturally spiritual, mystical, I know God type of guy. One of the brothers, I think he was heard in sharing in our pre-meeting prayer time, praying for those that had come and then just wondering which country, how did you express that, which country they should go to? So many different countries, so many different challenges. Which country should you focus on? I immediately thought to myself, if I were a young guy at this conference, what country to focus on? Forgive me, forgive me, I shouldn't have said that.

The Koreans especially, forgive me. They always have a very high view of the international director of the work. Koreans, be patient, it will take you many centuries to understand western humor.

Last year at this very conference, I had a Korean joker, a wonderful girl. And of course, he just so idly is saying, I'm the founder, I'm the leader, I dress like a jerk, but I'm the founder, I'm the leader. The George is the leader, but his clothing is not so special.

He is respected by the Asians because he is the leader. That meeting will never be forgotten in the history of OM. She was translating so well, it was a great flow.

Then I mentioned my struggle with pornography. She stopped and froze solid. She looked at me.

Instead of interpreting, she said, you have a problem with pornography? Somehow we did manage to keep going. Personally, one of my greatest desires for all who come on OM, not just that we may know God and all that means, but that we may be real in the process. That we will not have a year of pretension because of the pressure of this atmosphere, only to return and not really be any different at the end of the year.

Growing in grace, which is going to enable us to grow in our understanding of God. It takes time. And different people are growing at different speeds.

Some people come with very difficult backgrounds of hurt and all kinds of things that block their ability to grow in God very quickly. Maybe you're in that category. That doesn't mean God doesn't love you.

It doesn't mean you don't know him. It just means that you're young in your faith and then you have to grow and that's normal, that's biblical, and you should relax about that. You're young in your faith, you have to grow.

I believe many of you, most of you, I believe you already know God more than you would give yourself credit for, because of Jesus. Not because you've read so many books about him. Not because you understand all the names of God and have as a study that I would recommend.

I did it as a young Christian. But because of the grace that is in Jesus, the wall has been broken down. We're in fellowship with God.

We know him. He knows us. He says we're not only called anymore servants, but now friends.

We see the experience that Isaiah had with God. He saw the holiness of God first of all. Verse 3, holy, holy, holy is the Lord and host, the whole earth is full of his glory.

Remember, this is an Old Testament experience. This is before Calvary. Our experiences probably will not be exactly the same.

But surely as we get closer to God, as we grow in our knowledge of God, we will see his holiness, and that will be emphasized this week. It's normal that when we see his holiness, we begin to see our wretchedness. So we find Isaiah collapsing before God, verse 5, and saying, Whoa, it's me, I'm undone, I'm a man of unclean lips.

Then we find God meeting him. In his hour of need. And there's that experience of God.

We find cleansing and purging. Verse 7, the live coal he had taken off the altar, laid it on my mouth and said, Lo, this has touched thy lips, thy iniquity is taken away, thy sin is purged. A picture, an Old Testament picture of what has happened to us through Jesus Christ.

Then he responds with this presentation of his body for the task. Here am I, send me. God is working in different people in different ways.

We come to worship God each night with his tremendous musicians. This has become a great phenomenon in the church across the world. It's called worship.

It's not the only way to worship. I personally find it easier to worship when I'm alone. I go out here each day in the woods or somewhere around in the natural beauty and I worship God.

And something that's so exciting about this generation, we can go out in the woods with a Walkman and we can have music in the woods at the same time. I get excited by that. This year I hiked almost to the bottom of Grand Canyon in listening to praise and worship.

There was a time it became dangerous because I thought I could fly, but I decided not to do it. God is working in different people in different ways. Romans chapter 12 exhorts us to present our bodies as a living sacrifice wholly acceptable unto God.

This is tied in with worship in most translations. What about the people who can't get here to the worship meeting? They're doing the dishes. All those poor souls.

They're never going to get to know God down there in the dishes. We better forget eating and get them up here to worship. Well, that sounds a bit extreme.

I believe I'll try that again. I believe that as we grow more mature in Christ, we can worship Him in the midst of washing the dishes as much as we can worship Him in the midst of listening to the greatest music that man can ever produce. Many great men of God have taught that work can be done as unto the Lord and that is a form of worship.

It's not the total picture, but it's part of the picture. Many great men of God have taught that work can be done as unto the Lord and that is also a form of worship. One of the things I find very difficult