In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of spending time with individuals who want to come to Christ. He explains that by investing time in teaching and discussing the Word of God with them, it saves him from having to constantly follow up and ensure their spiritual growth. The preacher also highlights the three aspects of the ministry of Jesus Christ: his teachings, his miracles, and his reactions to people's responses. He then focuses on the teachings of Christ, specifically mentioning fasting, giving, and prayer. The sermon concludes with a reference to the Apostle Paul's exhortation to be transformed by the renewing of the mind and the importance of understanding God's mercies.

I would like to say this morning it's a wonderful privilege and a blessing to be able to share with you in these two morning sessions and also this evening. I was born and brought up here in South Africa and we spent, then went to spend eight years in the British Isles in Scotland and up in the islands and the highlands of Scotland across in Ireland, studied in Cape Town. And then the last 22 years my wife and myself and our daughter live in the west coast of Canada. I mean if you are here this morning and you complain about cold, we just say, listen, welcome to humanity, you know. Because I sometimes lecture in places in Alaska where it's minus 60 in the winter. And so if you want to go fishing up there that time of the year, it's going to take you a whole day to dig a hole in the ice to put your boat in, you know. So it's just one of those things. But it's wonderful to be here. I almost, I said to the Lord this morning in my choir time, I for the last five weeks has been speaking in this foreign tribal language of Afrikaans. And I almost this morning felt I had to relearn to speak in English again. My wife is a typical, calm, cool, calculated Canadian. And she only knows two sentences in Afrikaans. The first one is, ik het jou bija, bija lief. And the second one is, ik is een bija, bija groot bobberjaan. And so, you know, where we are in North America, they say opposite to track each other and then they attack each other, you know. But we never had any need of counseling the last 22 years because those two statements just does it, you know. But it's wonderful, wonderful to be with you. If you want to pray for us, you know, we live there in Western Canada, about 45 minutes outside of Vancouver. But I also have a privilege to be involved in about 30 to 40 countries, mostly on the theology of prayer, seminaries and Bible colleges and sometimes with as many as 40 or 50, 60 churches that we bring together and cities for a week of prayer. And I just spent time in the land of Peru. We traveled to North Eastern Europe, Western Europe of course, and then the UK, and then South America and Africa, countries like New Zealand and Australia. Our daughter, if you want to pray for us, just went to study in New Zealand. In fact, she's on a mission trip in Fiji at the moment and then she's going to study theology in New Zealand and we are back there next year. I don't know if you know this, I almost am afraid to tell you this because people think I'm not a true South African, which I am. The only reason why I live in Western Canada is because God has put us there. My wife often said to me, Daddy, if God wants us to come back, wants you to come back to South Africa, we'll be with you. But you know, just in North America, we've got about a million South Africans. We've got close to 5,000 doctors and people in the medical field just in Canada. I'm sometimes in a church where there could be 30 South African families and I would just get up and say to them, most of them are doctors, and I would say to the people, how many of you recognize this accent? And then a whole bunch of hands would go up because their doctors are South Africans. And so I said to them, if you don't treat me well these days, you're going to end up with seven flu injections for the fall. And then, you know, they're just so wonderful to me, these Canadians. But my daughter, you know, I had this picture. We were in Peru some time ago with about 6,000 Christian leaders and pastors. Brought them together for four days of prayer in the city of Lima. The last night, I asked them to pray for us, and I said to them, I want you to pray for us, and I showed them this picture of Monica. And I said, the first young man that wants to come and visit her needs to spend a week with me in prayer and fasting. Well, there were 11 pastor's sons. And I thought, oh, brother. And then they said to me, we don't just want to meet her, we want to pray with you. And so then I changed it to 40 days, 40 days prayer and fasting, no water. So no one else has ever tried to manage that, but we appreciate it. You know, I don't have time this morning because our time is so limited, and we want to get into the Word of God. Let me mention to you just this evening when you come, I hope to deal with the subject of the Holy Spirit and His ministry as it relates to the presence of God. You know, we only have one life to live, and only that which is done for Christ is going to last. And it costs us more to be outside of the will of God than it will cost us to be inside of the will of God. And so this evening, I want us to speak about this subject. What does it mean to live a life under the unction and the anointing of the Holy Spirit of God? You see, brother and sister, we can't go from our experiences of God to the exposition of Scripture. If you're going to do that, there's the possibility that we would isolate God's Word and we will interpret God's Word in the light of experience. And we can't do that. We see the fallout today in evangelical circles of some of the most weird things that you can think about that is taking place in the name of God. I want to tell you this morning, I've been in revival twice in my life. And revival is not a series of special services. Revival is what Jonathan Edwards referred to when he said that the countryside was ablaze with the presence of God. And revival touched the man on the street. And I need to tell you this morning from a theological perception that if God sends revival, you won't fall on your back, you will fall on your face. If God sends revival, you won't have people running around doing all kinds of strange things. When God sends revival, we will be broken before God. There's a burden on my heart for South Africa. If we would have dealt with prayer in the Old Testament this morning, because there are 11 Hebrew words that are speaking to us about prayer, and one of the great concepts of the Old Testament as it relates to prayer is when the Bible speaks about the burden of the Lord. And when the prophet in the Old Testament said, The burden of the Lord was upon me. It's the Hebrew word, masau. And if you have time to explore what the burden of God is, what is the burden of God doing to us when we come to intercessory prayer, discover how the burden of God brings brokenness. And our brokenness is not emotion. It's a lifestyle of absolute submissiveness to God. And our brokenness brings cleansing. And how cleansing, when God purify us as His people, how the Spirit of God in our lives becomes not just resident, but president. And how the Spirit of God leads us to a spirit of prayer. And how the spirit of prayer leads us to the will of God in prayer. And how the will of God in prayer is surrounded with the promises of God in prayer. That's why Jesus said in Luke chapter 11, If you then who are evil know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those that ask Him? And in the construction of the Greek language, it's really emphatic, you know. Because what He is saying is that, How much more shall your heavenly Father, and it's in the present imperative mood, How much more shall your heavenly Father keep on giving the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him? So when you are with us tonight, I trust you will, I want us to explore this subject. How do I live a Christian life that demands a supernatural explanation? Why was it that my brother and sister in the life of Christ, that every word that came from His lips never neutralized people. They knew exactly where they stood with Him. That's why they were able to say, No man ever spoke like this man. So I trust that you will be with us this evening. I wish this morning I would have a time to share with you about countries where we go to. Romania, Albania, Croatia. And just some of the countries that is poverty is so brutal. I wish I can take you into the underground church in China, where 80% of the pastors has been arrested during the last 12 months. Take you to the countryside of China and introduce you to a little Chinese pastor, with a name, the nickname of One Tooth. He only has one tooth left. He's been arrested so many times and abused by the secret police in China. And when my friend Garth Hunt was with him in a village in China some time ago, Garth turned to him and he said, Listen, how can we pray for you? And he turned to my friend and he said to him, You know, we only have one problem in this village. And Garth said to him, What is the difficulty? And what is the problem? And the Chinese pastor turned to him and he said, The only problem is this village is simply this. There's no one in this village that needs to become a Christian. And Garth said to him, What do you mean? He said, Every single one of them has been born of the Spirit of God. I wonder what will happen in South Africa, if this takes place in our country. It's an amazing thing when you are out of the country. And I come back every two years to lecture in Afrikaans and some English-speaking places. It's an amazing thing to come back and to see what's happening in our country. My brother and my sister, we desperately need a move of God. And I'm not interested in churches full of people. The burden of my heart is to see churches that will be full of people, that will be full of God. And that costs absolutely everything. Urasius Bunar, the great Puritan, used to say, He was a great friend of Robert Murray MacChain. And Robert Murray MacChain used to say, So much of my time of praying is preparing myself how to pray. MacChain of Scotland used to say, How can the Holy Spirit in me criticize the Holy Spirit in you? And Urasius Bunar used to say, I went to look for the church and I found it in the world. And I went to look for the world and I found it in the church. I hope there's a distinction this morning in our relationships with God, because of the fact that we are precious to Him. I want you to turn with me in your Bible to Matthew 5, if you will. And just for the sake of our time, why don't we just read a few verses. Would you mind if we stand for the reading of the word of God? We change our positions. Matthew 5. And let's read a few verses from chapter 5 and just a couple of verses from the 6th chapter. Matthew chapter 5, verse number 1. And seeing the multitudes, Jesus went up into a mountain and when he was sent, his disciples came unto him and he opened his mouth and he taught them saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they which do hunger, and they thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when men shall revile you and shall persecute you and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake. Now chapter 6 of Matthew, verse number 5. The Lord Jesus said, And when you pray, you shall not be as the hypocrites are, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets that they may be seen of men. I say unto you that they have received their reward. But you, when you pray, enter into your closet, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father which is in secret, and your Father which seeth in secret shall reward you openly. Heavenly Father, we just want to pray this morning as we will take some time to consider the greatness of your word. And we are so grateful that God has given unto us his word. We are reminded that the Lord Jesus said unto us that, Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my word shall abide forever. We are reminded that you have said unto us that, Is my word not like a hammer that is able to break the rock? Is my word not like a fire? We are reminded that the Apostle Paul said to his son in the faith, the young man whom he invested his life when he said to Timothy, Study to show yourself a proof unto God, a workman not needeth to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. And that he said to Timothy that all scripture is given by inspiration of God, and it is profitable for reproof and for correction and for instruction in righteousness. And Father, we want to submit ourselves under the authority of your word. The fact that you have said to us, If my people which have been called by my name shall humble themselves and pray, and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and I will heal their land. And our Father God, we are thy people. We have been called by thy name, and we want to humble ourselves this Sunday morning before your throne. And we are so conscious this morning as Oswald Chambers used to say, that the ministry of humbling ourselves is not just a discipline, but that God wants it to become a disposition. And Father, we want to submit ourselves to you. And Father God, we long to hear from heaven. And we have come this Sunday morning because we don't want to see a church just full of people, but oh God, we long to see a church that will be full of people that will be full of God. And we do not want experiences that is going to be a mile wide and an inch deep. But we really want God to plow into every aspect of our relationships with him, because we are so precious to you. So Father, we pray with a puritance of oath this Sunday morning, all that we would not just be informed by the reality of scripture, but God our Father, we pray that we will be inflamed, and that you will build up Christian character in every aspect of our relationships with you. Bless us we pray, in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. It's very significant if you would study the gospel of Matthew, that you will somehow come to the realization that in Matthew's gospel, do we discover that Christ spent most of his time in what we would consider as Galilee. And the reason why I am saying that this morning is simply on the basis that the Bible is saying to us in Matthew chapter 4, that after these things Jesus departed into Galilee, and right from Matthew chapter 4 until the beginning of the 19th chapter, will you discover that the scriptures is saying to us, after these things Jesus departed out of Galilee. And if you and I would take time to systematically study that 1071 wonderful verses in the gospel of Matthew, you will come to the realization that you probably will come across three aspects of the ministry of the Lord Jesus. First of all, you will discover what Dr. Sidlow Baxter referred to as, that which the Lord Jesus Christ taught. In other words, the teachings of Christ. Recognizing that preaching challenges the will and teaching informs the mind. Then we come across that which the Lord Jesus Christ wrote. That is taking us to the miracles of Christ from chapter 8 right through to the 10th chapter of the gospel of Matthew. And from chapter 11 to chapter 18, do we come across that which the Lord Jesus Christ thought. In other words, the reactions that came from the lips of the Savior, as men and women would respond to the preaching and the teachings of Christ. I'm concerned this morning in the little time that we have available, for us to look at some of these teachings of Christ. And I need to give you a little illustration out of the Greek New Testament. Because it's really emphatic for us to be able to understand this. And this is what I would like to say to you, that it seems to us, that when the Lord Jesus Christ saw those multitudes of people, that he realized that the only possible way that it will be possible for him to reach those multitudes of people, was going to be through the lives of those early disciples. That's why the picture that is coming onto us is that, when he saw them, that he called his disciples unto him, and he began to teach his disciples. You see my brother and my sister, there was a reason, why Christ in John chapter 14 to 16, when he introduced to those early disciples the ministry of the Holy Spirit, that he said unto them, it is to your advantage that I go away. Because he said, if I do not go away, the Comforter will not be able to come to you. And then he made this profound statement, and he said, but when the Comforter will come, he said, you will do greater things than me. And so what we are really want to say to ourselves this morning, is that it will cost us more to miss the will of God for our lives, than it will cost us to find it. That you and I as a Christian, we are not able to take people further spiritually than we are ourselves. That we are only able to impart to men and women, that which we possess in our relationships with God, and from the fact that 75% of our growth as Christians will be determined by what we learn or what we read, and also that God is in the process of building up Christian character, although we are born with a personality. And so the setting was important, it was a mountain. The speaker was important because it was a historical voice of authority that came from the lips of Christ. It was a dynamic voice of authority, because no one ever spoke like this man. It was a prophetic voice of authority, because he spoke into the lives of people. May I say to you this morning, my brother and my sister, when you and I would study the sermon in the mountain, you know one of my great difficulties with the Christian world today, as we travel to many, many countries, and I sometimes find myself doing conferences with a man with the name of Rabbi Zachariah, but one of the things that I'm astonished by is the fact that we know so much about the word of God, and yet God's word knows so little about us. And so when we come to the sermon in the mountain, the sermon in the mountain is not a set of rules and regulations. The sermon in the mountain is the fulfillment of the law of the spirit of life that we read about in Romans chapter 8, in your life and in my life. Now you sit here this morning and you say, so what is this all about? Well, it's very significant, because the Beatitudes is speaking about the imputed righteousness of God, and the rest of the sermon in the mountain is dealing with the imparted righteousness of God. How the imputed righteousness of God becomes part of my relationship with God. The Beatitudes is dealing with Christian character, and the rest of the sermon in the mountain is unfolding to us the great reality of that which Christian conduct is all about. I want us in the few minutes that we have available to concentrate on just one or two aspects of the greatness of the teachings of Christ, and let me start with the very first word. You see the Lord Jesus when he looked upon those early disciples, my brother and my sister, he did not look at their infirmities, he did not concentrate on their weaknesses, but he turned to those early disciples, and he began with what we would consider as the abundance of the blessings of God. He turned upon them and he said to them, bless it. I want to tell you something this morning in this morning's service, I want you to know that you are really important to God. I want you to know that there is no one like you. I want you to know this morning that if you are the only person on this planet earth, that your life is so vital for God, that he still would have sent his son so that you would be able to have life and abundance of life. And I want you to let you know that God wants you to be blessed. That God has got a plan for your life, and that you need to find it and you need to follow it. And my brother and my sister, you need to finish it. And so when you go, and I've got a great love for the Greek New Testament, you know Dr. F.P. Meyer used to say, I read no other New Testament than the Greek New Testament. But there is this wonderful word that refers to the understanding of this word, bless it. It comes from that blessed island. It's called, it's the word Makarios. And if you and I would take the word blessed, and we would systematically go through the scriptures, you will discover that the word blessed is speaking to us about two possibilities. It is speaking to us about the incoming and the indwelling of God the Holy Spirit. And then it's focusing us not just on the incoming and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, but it's focusing on part of our inheritance, which is the infilling of God the Holy Spirit. Now let me explain to you what I'm trying to say. You see it's quite possible that you are here in this morning service, and you do not know Christ as your personal Savior. If you die today and you need to stand in the presence of God, is there no reason why He would allow you to come into His kingdom, because you have never received Christ as your personal Savior. You say, why do you say that? Well let me explain to you something. I was saved while I was studying theology. I was brought up in the Dutch Reformed Church here in South Africa, and as we were brought up in the church, we had no concept of what does it mean to be born of the Spirit of God. I mean we were real Dutch Reformers, you know. In fact, you know, we used to say on the farm that our ducks wouldn't even bark on a Sunday afternoon. I mean that's the way that we were brought up, you know. And I went to study theology. And when I went to study theology at the end of my first year, a fellow student turned to me on a Sunday night and he said to me, he said, Gerard, if you die tonight, where will you spend eternity? And I said, well I must be a Christian, I mean I'm studying theology, I love God's Word, I was brought up with the Scriptures and all those things, and then he turned to me and he said to me, but do you have a witness of the Spirit of God that you are born again? And I had no idea what he was speaking about. And that Sunday night in that room, on my own I went alone and 3 o'clock the next morning, God revealed to me my last condition. Do you know what? I was missing heaven by 18 inches. I had it all in my mind. I had a passion for theology, but I had no personal experience of God. And 3 o'clock that morning, I asked Him to come into my life. That Monday morning when we stood in our lecture room and one of our professors gave us a hymn to sing, as we were singing that hymn, the Spirit of God be a witness with my spirit that I was a child of God. I remember I stood in our lecture room that morning in Cape Town and I grabbed that student who asked me the previous night, I took his arm and I turned to him and I said to him, I'm saved by the grace of God and I know it. And can I tell you something this morning, my brother and sister? In my quiet time this morning, it was as fresh as it was more than 30 years ago. Let me tell you a huge theological error. There are times in my life when I'm so excited about this that I would say to God, I wish I can be saved all over again. And I wonder this morning if I can ask you, do you are the witness of God, the Holy Spirit that you are born again? Saved by the greatness of the blood of Christ. Receive the wonders of the new life in Christ. In North America where I live, it takes me about 3 to 4 hours to lead people to Christ. You say, why does it take you so much time? Because if you are a Christian and you lead someone to Christ, you are doing the most important thing that any person on this planet will ever be able to do. And it takes me about 3 hours. You say, what happens? We sit down with two Bibles and I systematically take them through God's plan of salvation. We look at man's condition that it's lost. Look at God's provision that Christ came. We look at man's responsibility in the doctrine of repentance. And then we look at God's promise which is eternal life. And it takes me about 3 hours to systematically do that. And sometimes I go through, it could be 150 passages of Scripture. I let them read it, we discuss it. I make sure that the mind is satisfied by the Word of God. That the heart is stirred by the Spirit of God. And that the decision to become a follower of Christ is taking place in the realm of the will. Pastor asked me some time ago and said, Why do you need to spend so much time with people that want to come to Christ? Do you know what I said to him? It saved me so much time in the future. I don't have to run after them to see if they are half-born. If we are dealing with a spiritual abortion. And when you begin to speak about discipleship. And when you begin to speak about accountability. And when you speak about the place of God's Word. Sometimes there is just nothing. And so you see what I said. You see it's the Word, bless it. I was in Macedonia some time ago at the missions conference. And there were about 450 missionaries from Eastern Europe together. And the first night after the service, a Dutch missionary came to me. He was a missionary for about 25 years. And we sat down and I said to him, how can I help you? Well, he said, you know, I need to tell you something. I said, what is it? He said, I don't understand the word that you are saying about the Holy Spirit. And I looked at him and I said to him, I'm so sorry to hear that. But would you mind to share with me your testimony? And you know, he began to share with me his testimony. And he came out of the Dutch Reformed Church in Holland. And as I listened to that, you know, there was no life. And I said, well, you know, you are Dutch. And I said, the Dutch people in Canada are saying to me that if you are Dutch, you are wearing wooden shoes and you've got a wooden head and you wouldn't listen. And he kind of looked at me and said, well, I guess you're right about that one. But I said to him, my friend, I said, would you mind, do you want me to explain to you what does it mean to be born from above? And he said, I want you to do that. And for three hours, I sat to this missionary of 25 years in Macedonia. And I systematically went through God's plan of salvation. And when we came to around 12 o'clock that night, he turned to me and he said to me, Gerard, he said, I need to tell you that I've never been born of the Spirit of God. God gloriously saved him that evening. That's what this word is all about. Let me go a little step further, if I may. You see, it's not just speaking to us about the incoming of the Holy Spirit. It's not just speaking to us about the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. But it's speaking to us about our inheritance as it relates to the fullness of the Spirit of God. I want to explain to you exactly what I'm trying to say. You see, my brother and my sister, when we are speaking about the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit of God is not an eat. The Holy Spirit of God is not a manifestation. The Holy Spirit of God is not an influence. The Holy Spirit of God is a person. And the Holy Spirit of God never ever speaks about himself or about what he does, is that he brings us back to the Word of God and his ministry is to bring us to the life of Christ. And so you sit here this Sunday morning and you say, Well, I know that I'm a Christian. I know that I'm a trichonomy. That God has given unto me a body to make me conscious of this environment. God has given unto me a soul to make me conscious of myself. And God has given unto me a spirit so that he can make me conscious of himself. And you say, I know that I've been born of the Spirit of God. You see, if we are saying this Sunday morning that God the Holy Spirit is a person, then you and I need to recognize that when we speak about the personality of the Holy Spirit, that we are speaking about the mind of the Spirit. That we are speaking about the will of the Spirit. And that we are speaking about the emotions of God the Holy Spirit. It's a wonderful word in the Greek language, you know, when Paul said the Spirit of God grown within us. In Romans chapter 8. It's a great word in the Greek language because it's the word, And so we discover the personality of the Holy Spirit. And so my brother and my sister, when you and I receive Christ, and the Spirit of God came and be a witness of our spirit, that we are a child of God, what actually happens is that we receive the person of the Holy Spirit. Now you can't divide a personality. In other words, that when He came into my life, I did not receive a little part of the Holy Spirit because He's a person. But you know what happens to so many of us? You are able to sit here this morning and say, you know Gerard, I know that the Spirit of God is in my life. I know it's right that you say that I've received Him as a person. But you know my brother and sister, there are some of us, and the Spirit of God is in my life, and He's resident there, and yet He has never become president. You say, what are you saying? There's the possibility that there are areas of my life that has never been surrendered to God. There must be a reason why the Apostle Paul is saying to us, in Romans chapter 12, I beseech you by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies as a living sacrifice unto God. And then he said, now why is he saying that? He said, this is your reasonable service. And then he said, be not conformed to this world, but he said, be transformed by the renewing of your mind. So what Paul is saying, it's going to be confirmation or transformation. And then he said, I beseech you by the mercies of God. You know, I love the Apostle Paul, that when Paul said in Romans chapter 8, the Spirit of God help our infirmities. And people say to me, so how do I discover the infirmities? And I said, just go to the first 25 verses and they're all there. And when he said in Romans chapter 12, I beseech you by the mercies of God, and people say, what are the mercies of God? I said, just go to the first 11 chapters, and you discover the mercies of God. The building up of the understanding of justification by faith, sanctification by faith, the greatness of the supremacy of God. And he brings us to the 12th chapter, and he said, you don't have an option. Can I ask you this morning, you know, I was greatly influenced by Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones when I was in Britain. And you know, he was one of my great heroes. He spent 14 years preaching through Romans. He spent 8 years in Ephesians. I don't want your pastor to hear that, because he probably will try to do the same. But you know, he spent 8 years in Ephesians, and it was a standing thing to say in the British Isles those days, that Martin Lloyd-Jones began to preach out of Ephesians. Young people got married, they went to the mission field, they came back with children, and he was in chapter 1, verse 3. I don't think it was true, by the way. But I wonder this morning if I can ask you. My brother and my sister, is your life at God's disposal? You say, what are you speaking about? Let me explain to you. It's my life and its relationships. I need to surrender them to God. It's my mind and its thoughts. You see, everything that I read as a Christian, I'm forcing the Holy Spirit of God to read it with me. It's my heart and its affections. I need to surrender them to God. It's my body and its instincts. I need to surrender them to God. It's my personality and its prejudice. I need to surrender them to God. You say, what is it? It's absolute surrender to God. You say, pastor, what is it going to cost me? It's going to cost me absolutely everything. And I wonder this Sunday morning if I can ask you, as a husband, my brother, have you laid your family on the altar for God? Have you laid your wife on the altar for God? Have we laid our children on the altar for God? You see, we can't do the work of God, the Holy Spirit. He needs to come and He needs to bring us to this place where we surrender things to God and we put them on the altar for God and we don't interfere, we pray and we seek the will of God and we pray according to the will of God and we are at God's disposal. I had a very dear friend in the British Isles and I was just a young fellow, he was on in years, but we were able to share conferences together and his name was the late Dr. Alan Redpath. And we were together at a conference in Bangor, Northern Ireland and Alan Redpath was speaking and he was speaking about consecration to God and he gave us this marvelous illustration and he told us how he was coming back from a conference and when he came back from that conference, at that time there were two young girls, the one was nine years old and the other one was about seven years old and Alan Redpath said, he said, you know, when I came back from that conference, I came to my house and I opened the front door and he said, as I opened the front door, he said, the door opened and there was my nine year old daughter and she saw that I was home and Alan Redpath said she was so excited that she almost came tumbling down those stairs and he said she came and she grabbed me around my legs and she was so glad to see me and he said that all that she was able to say was, I've got all that there is of my daddy. And he said I was so glad to see her because I was home. And then he said suddenly something happened. He said the other door opened and he said as the other door opened, he said there was my seven year old daughter and she saw that daddy was home and she wanted to come down with all her might but as she looked down, there was her nine year old sister and Alan Redpath said she was holding on to my legs and she kept saying, I've got all that there is of daddy. And he said I look into the eyes of my seven year old and he said as I was doing that, he said there was a moment when I knew she wanted to come down and she realized she couldn't and he said, I said to her, my darling, why don't you also come down to daddy? And he said slowly that seven year old came, step after step after step and as she was coming closer, he said, the nine year old was holding tight to her and she kept saying, I've got all that there is of daddy, I've got all that there is of daddy and Alan Redpath said something happened. He said there was a moment when I bent forward and he said I lifted up the seven year old in my arms and I was holding her in my arms like that and he said as I was holding her, he said the nine year old looked up and she said, I've got all that there is of daddy and then Alan Redpath said, here he came. That seven year old in my arms looked down and she laughed and she said, daddy has got all that there is of me. I want to ask you this morning, does God have all that there is of us? You see, we have only one life to live, you know. I mean, if I take you to some countries where I go, my brother and sister, you would live for the rest of your life totally to God, for God. Our time is running on. I see to it such a service this morning, I was in a place some time ago and my watch broke, it was such glory, you know. Hey, by the way, if you come to Canada, you can buy them for $10 a watch and if you know they're not going to last, if you want to preach longer, that's the ones that you buy. Let me explain to you something, because I know our time is on and you know there's so much. You see in Matthew chapter 6, the Lord Jesus spoke about three things. He spoke about fasting, He spoke about giving and He spoke about prayer. I was so tempted this morning to speak to you about prayer because, you know, I find myself in airports 80, 90 days of the year sitting on planes and I've got a thing like this, it's called an iPod, this is a Blackberry, but it looks like this, it's called an iPod and on that I've got 160 gigabytes and on that I've got 12 translations of the New Testament. Take me 27 hours to listen through the Greek New Testament. You say, do you understand it? You never understand Greek. But you know what? If you spend two hours a day on the scriptures in the New Testament, every year you are able to go through the New Testament 35 to 40 times. And let me tell you something, if we speak about prayer, there are 24 words in the Greek New Testament that is speaking to us about prayer. I discovered a New Testament tabernacle as it relates to prayer. You say, what are you speaking about? There are six pillars in the Greek New Testament that speaks to us about prayer. Those are the six words that I found the most. There are 12 words that becomes the roof of this tabernacle that I've discovered, not in a book, I've discovered it on my knees. Those 12 words are related to the six, but they are not so important. And then there are six other words, they are found the least in the New Testament and they become the ropes of this tabernacle. And my brother and my sister, and that's 7957 verses in the New Testament, those words takes us to 248 passages. Systematically. And when you go through those passages, you discover 12 aspects of New Testament prayer. Fellowship praying, routine praying, task-oriented praying, praying within the realm of the Spirit of God. What does it mean to pray through? What does it mean to pray in the will of God? What is the high priestly ministry of Christ in prayer? And you know what? In Matthew chapter 6, the Lord Jesus Christ came. And you know what He did, brother and sister? He gave unto us what we would call the Lord's Prayer. You say, when you speak about the Lord's Prayer, did He gave us that prayer to repeat? I don't think so. You say, why do you say that? I'm saying that to you this morning for the simple reason that the Lord's Prayer in Matthew chapter 6 is not the same as the Lord's Prayer in Luke chapter 11. And there's a marvelous statement in the Greek language. Listen to us. Jesus came in Matthew chapter 6. And when He introduced that prayer, this is what He said in the Greek language. He said, οὐ τὰς οὐ ἄν. You say, what does it mean? He said, when you pray, these are the ingredients and the principles that you can develop a personal private prayer life. So what is He doing? He's giving unto us the priority of prayer. He's giving unto us the paternity of God in prayer. He said, you're going to say, Our Father. He never used the Greek word pater. He used the word abba when He spoke about the Father in Aramaic. He came and He gave us the plan of prayer. He gave us the provision of God in prayer. He said, Gerard, what do you do? He said, give us this day our daily bread. He gave us the protection of God in prayer. He said, He said, He said, He said, He gave us the pardon of God in prayer. He said, forgive us our debts. But let me finish and tell you something. Do you know what He did? He gave us the place. And do you know what He did, brother and sister? He said, when you pray, He said, enter into your closet. I love that word in the old translation of the Bible. You know that word closet is found four times in the Greek language. Now you need to ask yourself this morning. Matthew was concentrating on Jewish disciples. And the moment when He said to them, when Jesus said to them, go into your closet, what were those early disciples thinking? Dr. A.T. Pearson in his marvelous book on prayer made this observation and this is what he said. He said, it seems that the thing that possibly went through the minds of those early disciples when Jesus said to them, go into your closet, is that all that they were able to think about was the holiest of all in the Old Testament. The place where the high priest was allowed to enter in once a year. And the Bible says, not without blood. And once a year on the great day of the atonement, He would enter into the holiest of all and He will make reconciliation for the sins of the people. Ah, you remember what A.T. Pearson said? He said, the moment when Jesus died on the cross, He cried out that wonderful word, Tetzalatzai, in the Greek language. And He said, it is done, it is finished. The moment when He did that, my brother and my sister, the veil of the temple was wrung, not from the bottom to the top, but from the top to the bottom. He said, Gerard, what happened? The way into the holiest was opened. The writer to the Hebrews came to us, and do you know what he said? He said, having therefore brethren boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus through a new and a living way which He has consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say, His flesh. Now He says, and having a high priest over the house of God, He said, let us draw near. How does He want us to draw near? He said, let us draw near with a true heart, full assurance of faith, and our hearts being sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. He said, let us draw near. Can I ask you this morning, have you got a place where you meet with God? He said, those four words in the Greek language, what do they mean? You know what they mean, my brother and sister? First of all, it's speaking about a secret den. Do you have a place alone where you meet with God? He said, why do you say that? Listen, we cannot become great leaders unless we have become great followers. And if I'm the father in my house, and I'm the husband, I need to ask you this morning, do you pray with your wife? Do you pray with your children? I mean, we've got such a curse in North America, because Christian people are sending their children to Christian schools. And do you know why they are doing that? They want Christian schools to do for their children that which they are not prepared to do in their own homes. You say, what is it? It's a place where I meet with God. It's a place where God breaks my heart. It's a place where He advanced upon my soul. And He's standing in the reality of His Word. And He confronts me, as Samuel Rutherford, the Puritan, used to say, He confronts me with a priority in the greatness of the excellencies of Christ. It's a place. I want to close, and I want to tell you something else. You say, what is it? It's not just a secret den, but brother and sister, you know what it is? It's a storehouse. Oh, can I ask you this morning, have you discovered the storehouse of God? One of the greatest blessings of my Christian life, I've been doing for more than 30 years. If you write out 16 verses of the Old Testament every day, every three and a half to four years, you write out the whole Old Testament by hand, you know. If you write out 14 verses of the New Testament by hand every day, listen, every 18 months, you systematically go through those 9,750 verses. You say, what is it? It's the Word of God. I was brought up here in South Africa, and you know what happened? There were years of my life that we spent in the free state. I mean, we were real Afrikaners, you know. And so, thank God He had mercy on us, and there's some of you here this morning, I bet you, you know. But I tell you what, we were really poor. I mean, we were poor. We were in this little place called Parais. It's a place out there in the boogies, you know, on the boonies and the sticks of booger booger land there in the flat of the free state. That's where we were. And do you know what happened? While we were there, I mean, we were poor. It was in the 50s, and we were poor. And I was about 10 or 11 years old, and my father used to work at Susselburg, a petrol place there, and we were in this small little house in Parais. And I'm not kidding you, brother and sister, there were times that we hardly had food. We would go to my mother, and we would say, Mama, I was the youngest of four children, and I would say, What are we having for breakfast? And she would say, Bread and coffee. And at night we would say, What are we having for supper? And she would say, Bread and coffee and jam. I mean, we were really poor those days. In fact, to be honest with you, I didn't even have shoes. And I was there in the primary school in Parais, and one day the teacher, or rather our principal came, and he brought all the children together, and he said to us in the school, he said, Listen kids, I want you to know that two of the classes are going to be chosen to go to the great city of Johannesburg. Now, I want you to know this. I mean, we were so poor that when you speak about having a Coke or having chocolates, we didn't have those things. Maybe at Christmas time, but the rest of the year, there was just no money for that. And so he said to us, I'm going to go, we're going to go to the city of Johannesburg, and two classes is going to be chosen. And I mean, I was so excited, you know. I ran to my teacher and I said to her, Madam, if my class is chosen, what do I need? And she said, listen man, she looked at me, she said, you're going to need some shoes. And then she said, you're going to need some pocket money. And lo and behold, you know what happened? My class was chosen. I mean, I was so excited. This is so great. I went to my dear mother and father. I mean, God bless them, you know. And I said to Mama and Papa Achman, Mama and Papa Achman, I need shoes. And that's why I said, we've been chosen to go on this tour. We're going to this great city, Johannesburg. And Papa said, what else do you need? I said, I need a bit of pocket money. And my dad used to collect the old tickets, you know. Everyone was after the 1931 ticket. You remember those days, you know. Of course, it was the days of the party, so watch it. Anyway, you remember those days? Ah, brother and sister, my dear father got together and mother, and they got me some pocket money. We never had chocolate, we never had coke. But I was allowed to go on this great trip to Johannesburg. And the bus took off. I still remember, it was a green bus. And we took off to the city of Johannesburg. And there I was. And I said, young boy of 10 years, I'm going to see all of this. And do you know what happened? I'll never forget. One night, our teacher came into the room. And as he came into our room, he turned to us and he said to us, children, how are you doing? We said, oh, we're doing great, sir. And then I said to him, he said, I've got some news for you about tomorrow. And so I said to him, what's happening? Well, he said, tomorrow we are going to go to a Coca-Cola factory. I mean, we never had money for coke, you know. Man, I tell you, I hardly slept that night. So, because we're going to go to the Coca-Cola. And the next morning, you know what happened? I tell you what, they took us to the Coca-Cola factory. And you know, brother and sister, they showed us how they made it. I mean, it was fascinating for my 10-year-old mind. They showed us the ingredients of it, then the bottles, and then they filled it, and how they sealed it and everything. And I was just taken up by this whole thing. And then I thought, man, this must be great. And then at the end, the manager came, and he said, now children, come with me. And he took us into a room. And when he brought us into his room, guess what, it was full of coke. And he turned to us and he said, children, you see all this coke? And we said, yes, sir. He said, listen, you can drink as many cokes as you want. Oh, brother. I mean, forgive me for saying this, you know. I had a blather about the size of a tennis ball, I guess. Well, I tell you, it just went bigger and bigger. It was about the size of the rugby ball. Although the free stage was lost yesterday anyway, but it was the size of the rugby ball. You say, what is it? You know what happened? Just coke after coke after coke. You say, where did you spend that night? I'm not going to tell you. Listen. Next morning, he came into our room. He said, so how are you doing? I said, we're doing okay, sir. He said, we're going to another factory today. I said, which factory? He said, a chocolate factory. Listen, we never had money for those things, you know. Well, he said, what happened? They took us to that chocolate factory. I need to tell you this morning, I had no interest in how they made the chocolate. He said, were you sick? No, there was a room. And they took us into that room. And when they took us into that room, you know what? They turned to us and they said to us, children, do you see all these chocolates? And we said, yes, sir. He said, you can eat as much as you want. He said, where did you spend that night? Just about in hospital. He said, what was it? It was a storeroom. A storeroom. Let me ask you a question this morning. Do you still love this book? There's nothing wrong to shed tears over the infallibleness of scripture, you know. It's the word of God. Tonight, when we look at prayer, you will discover that prayer is initiated by God. 104 times he spoke to Moses. Moses only spoke mere 25 times to him. He wants to spend time with us. He said, where? In the secret den. Alone with God. Let's close in prayer. Our Father God, we thank you this morning. Father, you know that when we get into the wonders of scripture, it just seems to us that time just runs twice as fast as normal. And yet this Sunday morning, we we want to thank you that you are the one that is speaking to us through your word. And we want to say to you this morning, like Augustinus of old, that when the scripture speaks, that's when God is speaking. And we love your word. And father, we want to live a spiritual life. And we know this morning that there is no power without purity. And we want you to come and cleanse us through the efficacy of the blood. And we just want you to minister to us. Thank you for your presence with us this morning. In Jesus name. Amen. Thank you so much. Now may the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up his countenance to you and give you his peace. Amen.