In this sermon transcript, the speaker discusses various topics related to the preaching of the word of God. He mentions the importance of leaders having a clear mission and being focused on it. The speaker also talks about the concept of temptation, providing definitions, reasons for its existence, and the process of overcoming it. Additionally, he emphasizes the significance of the infilling of God's Spirit and how it can empower believers to face persecution and opposition. The transcript concludes with a prayer and gratitude for the work of the Holy Spirit in people's lives.

Hello, this is Brother Denny. Welcome to Charity Ministries. Our desire is that your life would be blessed and changed by this message. This message is not copyrighted and is not to be bought or sold. You are welcome to make copies for your friends and neighbors. If you would like additional messages, please go to our website for a complete listing at www.charityministries.org. If you would like a catalog of other sermons, please call 1-800-227-7902 or write to Charity Ministries, 400 West Main Street, Suite 1, EFRA PA 17522. These messages are offered to all without charge by the free will offerings of God's people. A special thank you to all who support this ministry. You can't plow with a jacket on, can you? So, I want to say that I should ask before I say, what time are we finished here? Okay, Denny is the disciplinarian. He's the one that keeps you. So, you still have your fingers? Okay, quarter to four. I'm sure you've heard of a little boy who sat in the church and the minister took his watch off and he said to his daddy, what does it mean? And his daddy said, it doesn't mean anything. I've had two wonderful experiences in the last five years. My watch stopped in the middle of my message. You say, well, it probably stopped every night here, didn't it? Well, I tell you, the day when we will be in heaven, there won't be any watches. And the fellows that complain about time would be glad that they made it. Let's pray, shall we? Father in heaven, how we thank you this afternoon for the tremendous way that the Spirit of God has been working in many of our lives. And thank you for the blessedness of the way that you search us. Thank you for so many of these men that has come to me during today, these few minutes since I've come and last night and yesterday and have shared some of the deep ways in which God has been dealing with him. And Lord, we are deeply humiliated. God, I believe that eternity alone will reveal what God has done for us this week. And we know tonight that you are going to allow us to be tested in the days to come on very, very deep levels. And so we pray that you will prepare us, Lord, when we go back tomorrow and next week. God, I pray in Jesus' name that every face that I have seen these days will be deeply imprinted into the depths of my prayer life. And as we spend a week in prayer and fasting next week, to trust God to settle his workings into our lives like cement, I pray that you will bring face after face after face of his precious brethren back to my heart, my life. Lord, five times the Apostle Paul said, brethren, pray for us. And we've got an awesome responsibility. And we thank you that you can help us to do that. God, we want you to meet with every one of us. And I pray if there's anyone of us who are struggling this afternoon with something, God, I pray that the Spirit of God will give complete victory in Jesus' name. Amen. Sorry, I missed that. What time did you say again? Quarter to four. Okay. You help me when the time is gone. I think I've got too much volume here. So, that's great. Thank you. I would like to try and do three or four things with you this afternoon. I would like to take a minute or two to speak to you on what is the consequences of being full to the Spirit of God. And then if time would allow us, I would like to share with you how do you and I maintain the fullness of God's Spirit in our lives. And then if we can do that, I want us to look at what is God's perspective when it comes to subsequent infillings to the Holy Spirit in our lives as God's people. I mean, what is the Bible's perspective of that? We know the Word of God is speaking about it, but how can I experience that in my relationship with God? And then I also want us to look at maybe what is the purpose of the anointing of God's Spirit in my life that I never got to on Monday night. And I don't think we will be able to do this, but my heart has been burning to share with you something on leadership that I call ten transformative characteristics in developing leadership in my life. You see, a leader is a monomaniac with a mission. Do you want me to do this? Anyway, you said I only have to call past four. I mean, we're best of friends, you know. I'm staying in his house, and we nail each other, and then we hug each other, and then we pray for each other. Anyway, so these are the kind of things. And then I've got some material on the subject of temptation, boy, that I would have loved to share with you. Maybe if you want copies of this, we can do it. The definition of temptation, the reasons why God allows us to be tempted, the process of temptation, and then the biblical concept of victory over temptation. Anyway, I tell you what we do. Let me just say this. Why don't I go through this material, and then what we can do, this whole concept of what is the result of the infilling of God's Spirit. We make copies of this, and then we can give it to you, and you can take it home, and you can read it. Let me just say this, my brethren. The Spirit-filled life is not a goal. It is a gateway in your relationship with God. And if you have a difficulty with us, you know, God has given us different convictions, and maybe you sit here with an absolute open mind, and I mean, that's the wonderful thing that we can have, that we can differ with one another, and that there is diversity within unity. And I think God wants us to sometimes, maybe have different opinions about different things. And maybe you are here this afternoon, and you say, you know, I don't see it like this. I don't see that the infilling of the Spirit of God can be a subsequent experience from being born of the Spirit of God. Neither do I necessarily see it like that. From God's perspective, I believe that it is possible for God to do it for us if we have a thorough preparation in our hearts. But I don't come across many people like that. And if you study the history of revivals of religion, and I mean, I am saying to you this afternoon with a broken heart, because if it was possible that God could save everyone and sanctify and fill them with the Holy Spirit, which I believe it is, but if it would have happened in the lives of people, it would have saved me hours and days and weeks and months of counseling. I mean, I would have spent a lot more time in prayer than I am at the moment. But I think there is a wonderful distinction, and what I would suggest you to do, and I am sure many of you have an interest in the Greek New Testament, go to the two concepts of what does it mean to be born of the Spirit and the New Testament, and write them down alongside one another, and then go to all the concepts in the New Testament where the Bible speaks of being full to the Spirit. And you compare those with one another, and you see that God does make a possible distinction between those two. I mean, I have got a great love for New Testament theology, and I have got a great love for word studies in the New Testament. I want to find out what the Word of God is saying about something. I remember a fellow a number of years ago came to me, and he was very strong in the gifts of the Spirit of God, and he was trying to convince me about the gifts of God's Spirit, and I said to him, I said, well, let me get hold of my Greek New Testament and give me three weeks, or rather three months. And I spent three months studying that subject, and I went to every place in the New Testament where I came across the Greek word for gift, and I wrote every place down. Then I went to every place in the New Testament where I came across the word gift that was connected to the Holy Spirit with a possible implication upon my life as a believer, and I came up with about 500 pages of material. And when I brought it all together, and separate everything that I was able to separate, I came to the conclusion that the Bible is speaking to us about probably, possibly between 21 and 24 gifts and graces of the Spirit of God. And I got him out, and I said, come here, I need to talk to you. And boy, was that an eye-opener to him. You see, we need to find out what the Word of God is saying, because the Word of God is God's Word. And let me just say this to you, that my brethren, from God's perspective, the Spirit-filled life, and if you've got a problem with the Spirit-filled life, I mean, you just need to open your eyes and see the wickedness in the world, and say to yourself, if I'm going to survive, I need to live a life in the fullness of the Spirit of God. But the Spirit-filled life in the New Testament is not a goal. It's a gateway. It's a place where my will has been given over to God. And through a lifelong process, God is going to work in my relationship with God. But the difference is, the struggle from within has ceased. And someone came to me the other day, and we talked about temptation, and he said, explain to me the difference. I said, if you struggle with lust, and I mean there are thousands of Christian men that are struggling with lust, and if you struggle with lust, and that is sin in your life, when temptation comes, there is a point of contact, and there is a civil war going on in your relationship with God, and quite often you don't, and I would almost say probably 90% of the times, you don't have the ability to resist it. But God is able to cleanse you from that. So that when the temptation, and you say, Gerard, will this temptation still come? Of course it will still come. I mean, you can't avoid the birds flying over your head, but you can't stop them from making nests in your head. And you will not be able to avoid temptations coming to you. I mean, there is a process of temptation. And temptation only becomes sin when my will yields to it. But if my will is in bondage by sin, I mean, I am in deep trouble as a Christian, and that's why God needs to cleanse us. And I want to say to you again this afternoon, my brother, I want to live as close to God as it is possible for a sinner saved by grace to live. Don't you be afraid of the holiness of God. I mean, you try and live as close to God as it is possible for you to live. And I firmly believe that in my heart. Okay, what does it mean to be involved in leadership? Well, you say, maybe I am not involved in leadership. The moment when you gave your life to Jesus Christ, you've become involved in leadership. And to be involved in leadership means that Jesus Christ said to you, as my Father has sent me, He said, so sent are you. I mean, don't even think of becoming a Christian if you are not going to be involved in leadership. Because God wants to pour out His Spirit in your life, and as a result of God pouring out His Spirit in your life and your relationship with God, it means that you are going to become a leader. And there is going to be a fragrance about your relationship with God. And the Bible is saying to us, to some it will become the fragrance of death, and to others it will become the fragrance of life. You see, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, in you and my life as a believer, my brother, never ever neutralize people. It just never happens. So what does it mean? A leader is a person who knows where he is going. And he's got clear cut objectives. He is a conceptual thinker. He is a person who is able to persuade others to go along with him. He is a motivator. And he is a relational individual. He is a man who has got a compass in his head, and he has got a magnet in his heart. That's what leadership is about. He is a relational individual. If you sit here today and you think of the pastorate, and you want to go out into full time ministry, I would suggest to you that if God has not given you the ability to relate to people, that you should really rethink your position. And if you think of full time ministry, if you can do anything else, before going into full time ministry, I would suggest that you go and do that. You see, there are sometimes people that say to me, well, you know, full time ministry is a wonderful thing to be involved in. If God hasn't called you, don't even think of it. I think of a fellow that once said to me, what are you doing? And I said, well, I'm preaching and all kinds of things. And he said, well, it's all that you're doing. And I was tempted to say to him, like a friend of mine who said to someone who asked him the same question, and he said, just come with me for a weekend of ministry. And this man went with him, and he preached about seven or nine or ten times over the weekend, and the man sat there all the time. And at the end of the time, they came back, and he saw him two weeks later, and he said, how are you doing? And he said, well, I'm just recovering from that weekend. And my friend said to him, well, you were just there. You were just doing, I was doing all the preaching. And the man said, well, I was doing the listening. I don't know about you, but the ministry takes everything from me. And I'm going to be pretty absolutely honest with you. My brother, if you think of full-time ministry, you need to think of committing at least three hours a day to God on a daily basis. I mean, I'm absolutely adamant about it. And I'm almost kind of a belief, you know, that when God is speaking to us about tithing, I believe maybe God is speaking to us about giving a tithe of our time, which is almost three hours a day. Can I say that to you again? If you're going to spend three hours with God on a daily basis, you're almost going to spend 46 days of 1996 in the presence of God. It's powerful stuff, you know. He's a motivator. He's a relational individual. He's got a compass in his head and he's got a magnet in his heart. Now, my involvement with people who are involved in leadership is quite significant because leaders differ so much. I mean, some of them are small and some of them are tall. But I have found that as I study leaders and as I look at leadership in the Word of God, that there are what we would consider ten transformative characteristics in developing leadership. And the first thing that I've discovered, if I want to allow the Spirit of God to develop leadership in my relationship with God, is that the Spirit of God comes to my life and the Spirit of God brings me to a place where God gives me a very strong sense of purpose. So you and I come to the place where we find out the reason for our existence. And a leader is a person who knows exactly what they want to achieve and how they want to see that being accomplished. I mean, you look at the life of the Apostle Paul and as you study the life of the Apostle Paul, you discover that here was a man, I mean, he knew why he was existing. Here was a man that was able to say, for me to exist or for me to live as Christ. In other words, if you and I see God developing leadership in our lives, my brethren, what has happened to us, God brings us to a place where we focus all our strength and our energy to accomplish our objectives. You see, the Apostle Paul didn't say, these ten things do I try to accomplish. He said, this one thing I do. And if God is developing leadership in our lives, He gives us a strong sense of purpose. I mean, if you ask any person who is involved in leadership, what is your aim and your purpose, they will not give you some vain and uncertain answer. There will be a sense of determination and the answers that that person will give you will be specific. Someone has said that a leader is a monomaniac with a mission. There is a difference between someone who is involved in managing something and a leader, because a manager is concerned about the details and a leader is concerned about the big picture. A manager is someone that does things right and a leader is only concerned about doing the right thing. Someone once said that a leader spends 15% of his time thinking. I love sometimes in my office, if I have time to spare in the afternoon, and I mean, maybe you say, you know, it's highly unchristian to do that, but I love just to sit back and to put my feet on the desk and I just dream. And I dream about the possibilities of what God is able to do. And my personal interpretation of Acts chapter 2, you remember when the Bible is saying to us, in the last days I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy and your old men shall dream dreams. I believe that what God maybe is trying to say to us, by your old men shall dream dreams, that God is speaking to us about men who have been in ministry for maybe 30 or 40 or sometimes almost 50 years and I look for those people and I try to find those people and I go and sit at the feet of those people and I ask them to dream. And I sat at their feet and I listened to them. I love to pray with people like this because, I mean, when these people pray, I tell you sometimes it's just theology that is flowing from their souls because they've had years of experience and they've been involved in some of the dear things of God and you discover the tremendous blessing by the lives of those people. So there is a strong sense of purpose in my life. And I wonder this afternoon if you would allow me to ask you, my brother, have you found the reason for your existence? I mean, why did you come to this week? I'm so much looking forward to this time of prayer this evening because every one of us individually are going to pray for ourselves and we're going to ask God that whatever we heard this week, during the sessions, during the day and the evenings as we came together, we're going to ask God that He will help us to pray those things through so that there would be this wonderful balance in our relationships with God so that your relationship with God when you go back next week and you settle back into your normal circumstances, you need to remember, my brother, maybe God has touched your life in a very deep way this week but your circumstances has not changed one bit. We are going to trust God that it would settle in. And I believe the Spirit of God has done tremendous things. I mean, the few minutes that I've had the privilege of listening to Brother Mos and to Denny and others that were here, I mean, I just sense the awareness of the presence of God and I felt as I listened to them and I'm taking all these cassettes home and going to listen to them in the days to come and I probably will feel like as I listen to them in the days to come, I will feel my worth. I wasn't worthy to stand up in the evenings and to try and share the Word of God after I heard what I heard from these men. And God has done some tremendous things in our lives, you know. He's done a work in our lives and we need to find out, I mean, what was the purpose of my coming here? And we need to pray those things through. And if God hasn't given you victory yet, there is still an afternoon and an evening left for you to persevere and to seek God and to say, God, I really want to get through to you about some of these issues of my life. The second aspect about leadership and developing it in my life is simply this, to be involved in leadership will mean that God gives me a strong sense of persistence. If you and I are going to allow the Spirit of God to bring leadership into our lives, my brethren, one of the great things that is going to happen into our lives is simply this, we are going to become long-term individuals. And I trust that as you look at your own life, as you look at commitments that you've made to God, maybe on Tuesday night when God dealt with you in your life about prayer, and when God dealt with you in your life about cleansing, and these kind of commitments that you and I have made to God, that these are going to be long-term commitments in our relationship with God. You remember in Hebrews chapter 12, the Bible is saying to us, let us run the race with patience or with endurance. And the word endurance in the Greek New Testament is a military term, if I can say that. And if I need to describe that Greek word to you, it really means to hold courageously under consistent fire. And I mean we are out in a battlefield, and I mean the bullets are flying and the casualties are high, and there is a war going out there in the realm of spiritual things. And when God is speaking to us about commitments, God is speaking to us about long-term commitments. He said, Gerard, how will I be able to hold myself accountable? I will take that list that we gave you the other day, and I will find someone to whom I can become accountable. And say, listen, I want you to help me. I came back from a conference where God really turned my life around, and I made commitments to God. And many of you have come and said, you know, God spoke to me by His word. Why are we so strong that God needs to witness from His word to us? Because, my brethren, when the Son of God was in the wilderness of temptation, and He faced the onslaughts of the evil one, that He relied upon His relationship with His Father, He didn't necessarily rely upon it, but He relied upon the Word of God. He said again and again to the enemy, He said, It is written. He said, It is written. He said, It is written. And your defense, and your foundation, and your strength, and the thing that is going to carry you through, and I really would like you to get hold of this, the thing that is going to carry you through in the days to come, as you leave this conference and you go back to your home, it's not necessarily the things that you have trust God for, precious as they are experiences and moments when you have sought your heart out, but, my brethren, the thing that is going to carry you through when we are speaking about long-term commitments, is going to be the Word of God. In fact, I'm so serious about this that I would say to you that I would challenge every one of you, within the next one or two or three or four months or so, to get hold of the New Testament concept and listen through it every single month. You say, Gerard, why should I do that? So that the Word of God would be able to settle in my relationship with God. And while I'm saying this, let me bring something in about one of the points that I wanted to mention. You see, the Bible is speaking to us about these subsequent infillings of the Holy Spirit of God. In Acts chapter 2, they were full to the Spirit of God. And in Acts chapter 4, the Bible is saying to us that they were full to the Spirit of God again. And in Acts chapter 11, and in Acts chapter, which chapter is it? The Bible says, Peter was full to the Spirit of God, and he stood up. So there are these subsequent infillings of the Spirit of God. And you say, what is God's perspective of it? Now, let me take you into Ephesians chapter 5, because you remember in Ephesians chapter 5, the Bible is saying to us, be not drunk with wine, wherefore there is an excess. But He said, be full to the Spirit. In His present imperative mood, He's saying to us, be being full to the Spirit of God. What is the consequences of being full to the Spirit of God? And Ephesians chapter 5, He's saying unto us, singing to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. What is that? That is spiritual worship. But He's saying to us, He said, why submit yourselves to your husband? What is that? That is spiritual submission. Then Paul is going on and he's saying to us, husband, love your wives, even as Christ loved a church. What is that? That is spiritual sacrifice. And if you and I are going to be consistently full to the Spirit of God, and we are speaking about this, the sense of persistence in our relationship to God, my brethren, what we are referring to is that the consequences, or this consistent influence of the Spirit of God is speaking to us about spiritual worship. It's speaking to us about spiritual submission. And it's speaking to us about spiritual sacrifice. And spiritual worship is time. Now, if you want to know my philosophy of worship in the New Testament, you know there is so much talk these days about worship in churches. It's not worship, it's the style of music. I mean, if you want to understand New Testament worship, you need to come to grips of Acts chapter 2. Because when God poured out His Spirit upon those early disciples, what did the Bible say to us? That in Acts chapter 2 the Bible says, and they came together for what? For the apostles' doctrine, for fellowship, for breaking of bread, and for prayer. Those are the four pillars of New Testament worship. And out of those pillars of New Testament worship, the apostles' doctrine, what is it? It's the Word of God. And out of those four pillars of New Testament worship, is coming this concept. He said, singing to yourselves in psalms, in hymns, and spiritual songs. You know, this morning at the house, at the Kenniston house, I was talking to the young people, and oh, there's a great precious bunch of them, and when you have a few spare minutes, I mean, you're just there investing time in their lives. And I was telling them about the Highlands of Scotland. And in the islands in the Highlands of Scotland, they never ever make invitations. I mean, there was a man that went up and he preached the first night, and there were 800 people in Stornow at the meeting, and he made a public invitation, and the next night three people came back. I mean, they feel that you are doing the work of the Holy Spirit if you make an invitation. He said, Gerard, do you agree with that? I'm not necessarily saying that I agree with that, but I think today we are living in a time where we are making invitations, just for about every possible reason that we can get of. But they don't make invitations. But the other thing about the Highlands and the Highlands of Scotland is simply this, that they don't have music as we hear. In fact, last night, let me tell you something. Last night when you were singing, I phoned my wife and I opened the door. I said, my darling, just listen to this. Isn't this powerful? Isn't that powerful stuff? But when I was there, they don't make invitations. And when they sing, they only sing the Psalms. I mean, they don't sing anything else. They simply just sing the Psalms. And when I asked him, I said, you know, why do you just sing the Psalms? I mean, if you say to an Islander, you are not in line. I mean, if you say to a Calvinist, you are not in line with the Word of God. I mean, you are in for deep trouble. But I turned to them and I said to him, listen folks, I want to ask you a question. Why don't you sing Psalms? And they said, oh, well, why don't you sing hymns and spiritual songs and all those wonderful things. And they said, oh, well, we just sing Psalms. And so then I took them to Ephesians chapter 5 and I said, you know, how do you explain that? And they said, what do you mean? I said, the Bible says, sing to yourself in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. I mean, you are dealing with distinctive Greek words there. So I turned to my Reformed friends up there in the highlands, in the islands of Scotland. And I said, you know, how can you fellows do that? And they said, well, you know, Gerard, what it really means is that God said, sing unto yourselves in Psalms and Psalms and Psalms. So I turned to them and I said to them in a sanctified way, rubbish. But what does it mean? I mean, they don't make invitations. Because they are scared to death. And I was in a place where I preached for a whole week. Every night with 1,700 people. It was like preaching in Spurgeon's Tabernacle. Oh, it was tremendous. I mean, the downstairs was full and the balcony was full. And the balcony was about 4 or 5 feet from me. And people just sat. And I love preaching without notes, you know. And they couldn't understand where my notes are. And I mean, I would love to just stretch and grab a hand there and say, how are you doing, buddy? But I mean, you don't do it in the Highlands of Scotland. But it means the long term individual. Now, let me share with you this concept of the other aspect of being full to the Spirit. Sing to yourselves in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. Which is the sister epistle of the epistle to the Ephesians? Can you tell me? Colossians. I mean, I sometimes read Ephesians and I read Colossians. And I sometimes wonder, am I in Ephesians or in Colossians? And Colossians chapter 3 is saying to us, and I'm saying this to you because in the laws of Biblical interpretation, there is a law that we speak of as the law of Biblical parallels. It speaks of Biblical truths and principles that goes hand in hand together. You can't separate the one from the other. Now listen. Ephesians 5 said to us, be full to the Spirit. What is the result? Singing to yourself Psalms in Spirit. Spiritual sacrifice, spiritual submission and spiritual worship. Colossians chapter 3 is saying to us, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. What's the result? Exactly the same. Spiritual worship, spiritual submission and spiritual sacrifice. You say, how does God fill you with His Spirit on a consistent basis? I mean, we talk about long term involvement here. My brother, I want to say to you that Acts chapter 4 was a crisis in the early church. I mean, persecution and opposition broke loose about them and they were going to keep their mouth shut if God didn't fill them with His Spirit again. You say, how does God fill me consistently with His Spirit? He does it in two ways. He does it through His Word and He does it through His Spirit. You say, when does God do it? When I commit myself to the Word of God. When I worship God in His Word. When I submit myself to the Word of God. When God speaks to me out of His Word and He brings me to the place where I make sacrifices in the preciousness of God. And I become a long term individual. I'm sometimes amazed, you know, when you come across pastors and, you know, I don't know, it's a shocking thing in what is so called the evangelical church today. And I sometimes wonder and you say, well, you know, isn't this a destructive criticism? No, I think it's an assessment. I think it is possible that 60 to 70% of people that are sitting today in the evangelical churches, it's quite possible that they've never been born of the Spirit of God. You say, well, where did you get that from? A.W. Tozer. I think he was probably right. I shared with the young people this morning that the very last day in my church, I've pastored in a church in Canada for close to two years. And I don't think you can be a proper evangelist if you have not been in the pastorate. I mean, you need to see it from a pastorate perspective. The very last Sunday morning in that congregation, I preached in the doctrine of regeneration. I mean, in the great doctrines of salvation, you deal with repentance, the doctrine of repentance, of regeneration, of adoption, of justification, of assurance. And I spent one whole Sunday morning in the doctrine of regeneration. And Sunday night after the service, there was a farewell for me by the church. And after the service, my Sunday school superintendent's husband, she was involved with the children. He came to me and he said, when I listened to you this morning, he said, my life just absolutely disintegrated in front of me. I said, what do you mean? He said, I don't know if I've been born of the spirit of God. And I said, Paul, we need to talk about this. And I went to his house that night, nine o'clock, and we sat down from nine o'clock to twelve o'clock. I systematically shared with him God's plan of salvation. You say, why do you share so many scriptures with him? Isn't it going to confuse him? Not in your life. I mean, the more you can give him the word of God, the better for him. And we got to about twelve o'clock and we've gone through the whole plan of God's salvation. From Genesis to Revelation. And I turned to him and I said, Paul, this is all a revelation that you've never been born of the spirit of God. Or this has been a confirmation that you are experienced and that you've got the true experience. And he just dropped his head and he broke down and his wife sat there and wept right through the time. I mean, she knew what was going on. He said, no, no. He said, I'm not saved. And he was converted that Sunday night. Man, I tell you, the last night in my church and I was driving back to my parsonage and I thought, good night. I should stay another six months and see the other half of the church being converted, you know. So what does it mean? It means God wants us to be long term individuals. I don't understand why a man gets involved in ministry and after when the first crisis hits him, he runs. I mean, my brethren, you need five years in the ministry to find out where all the bodies are buried. And God is speaking about long term commitment. So what does it mean? It means leaders are tireless. They are dedicated workers who are willing to spend years to see their dreams being fulfilled. I was in an independent Baptist church last year in January. And the man who was the pastor of that church started the church about 27 years ago with 25 people. And the Sunday morning when I preached in the church there were about 800 people. And the Saturday morning when we had a men's breakfast, I turned to him and I said, I didn't know the church and I said, what is the greatest need of your church? And he said to me that my people will become soul winners. So Sunday morning I got into the church and I mean there was hardly room for a mouse to sit. And Friday I don't go to a church if I can't spend extensive time with the people who are involved in the congregation. And the Friday I spent hours with the leadership of the church and asked them questions. And I tell you, boy they don't like it. I turned to the music pastor and I said, tell me about your personal relationship with God. And he said, what do you mean? I said, what's going on there? I said, are you involved in a performance whenever you lead the music, the choir and the singing? How much time do you invest in the lives of them? How much time do you spend in praying for them? And I turned to the associate pastor and I said, tell me about your ministry in the church. And boy by that time I could see the youth pastor being ready to crawl under the seats because I mean he knew it was coming to him. But we became absolutely vulnerable with one another. And I asked him, I said, I mean what are you struggling with? And I tell you when we got to about lunch time there was a great sense of brokenness there and a sense of openness in the hearts of his men. But the senior pastor, I turned to him and I said to him, I said, my brother, I said, you said to me last Saturday that the greatest need in your church is if people are not so with us. I said, you know, I don't need enough brain cells to give me a headache. But if I sit in your church on a Sunday morning and I said to myself, I need to win people to the Lord Jesus Christ but the church is absolutely packed. Where are we going to put them? And I mean if you sit here this afternoon and you say, you know, my church is basically full on a Sunday morning. I think that it is possibly true that if your church is 65-70% full that they say to us that there is the possibility that 65-70% of new people that are coming to your church on a Sunday morning are not going to come back because they feel that the place is too crowded. So he turned to me and he said, what do you think I should do? I said, well, I said, I will be absolutely honest with you. I said, you should have planted a church 16 or 17 years ago. He said, what do you mean? I said, well, let me tell you something. The Watchtower Society or the Jehovah Witnesses, whenever one of their dens of iniquity gets to 250 people they say it is time to plant another one. And they ask people to leave their occupations and go to live in a town and find an occupation there and they plant one of those, whatever you call them. I am not sure, my brother, if God wants us to have large churches. You say, why? Because people sometimes travel 50 or 60 miles to come sit in a corner where they face no sense of responsibility. Where they can sit there and there are people, and this is our problem today in so many places that we look at people in the church and we find men who have been successful in business and they have been successful in the community and they are people that people look up to and we say, these are the people that are involved, should be involved in the leadership of a church. And sometimes what we do, we allow those people to get involved in leadership and they have got all these wonderful natural gifts but spiritually they are absolutely nowhere. And there are men that are sitting in the church and I mean they have got very little education and they have made a success of their lives. I mean they are financially secure and they are dedicated to the church but they are not maybe an influence in the district and these are the people that God has given the gift sometimes to be involved in the leadership behind the scenes in the church. And I deal with a lot of churches out in Western Canada who every 2 or 3 or 4 or 5 years, they throw the... and they have got this philosophy of thinking that we hire and we fire. And the reason why they have it is because there are people who are involved in leadership who are spiritually nowhere in their relationships with God. I was asked sometime ago to come and meet with the staff of a Mennonite church out in the... on the West Coast of Canada and we sat down that morning with the staff and I began to ask some very personal questions and the more I asked these questions to the senior pastor who asked me to come and he was so glad that I did that. In fact, God met with him in such a way that day that he went alone that afternoon and he phoned me that evening and he said, Gerard, he said, I have been just shaken to my being. He said, because I realized that in our denomination are we screening these men who are coming in but we never ask in these questions that you ask my staff today. And when I turned to the associate pastor and the one who was responsible for helping with the choir and those kind of things and I asked these questions. I mean, these men sat there and I said, hey, let me ask you. I said, where are you in your sexual perspective? I said, are you struggling with fantasies? And I could see these guys, they just about ready to sand through the floor. And then I came to a man who was the moderator of that Mennonite church and I said to him, I said, no I've got to ask you some questions and I said to him at the very outset, I said, listen, if I ask you a question I said, you take the freedom to turn that question around and throw it at me. And I turned to the man who was involved in the lay leadership and I said, now, I said, Peter, I've got some questions to ask you and he just throws his hands up. He said, no, no, I'm not involved in the staff of this church. I said, so what? He said, what do you mean? I said, I want answers. Then he turned to me and I mean, he was visibly upset because no one has ever done it to him in 60 years. He was visibly upset and he said to me, he said, can I ask you a question? I said, sure. Ask everyone. He said, why are you doing this? I said, because I've got the legitimate right to do it on the word of God. Can I tell you something? If you think of full time ministry and there is some areas in your life that has not been sorted out boy, I tell you, you better watch it. Because when you get involved in full time ministry you are going to be open for the attacks of the evil one. I mean, you are going to be in the forefront of it. And he is going to hit you from all directions. And you've got things in your life that's not been sorted out. You better get them sorted out. So what does it mean? I've become a long term individual. It's a person who is able to endure opposition. How do you handle opposition? There is a friend of mine, well, he was my friend, he is still my friend but he is not in the area anymore. He was pastoring a church of about 1,200 people. And he brought me to do some material with his leadership about 70 people, men, in the church. And I poured my heart out one Saturday there. And it took him three months to recover from that. And some of them are still not talking to me about it. But my friend was in that church for about five years. And when they got in together and they asked him to leave. And I mean, he was in disarray. He phoned me the Sunday night and he said, I need you. Monday night I came to his house and walking to his house by seven o'clock on Monday night and I turned to him and I said, OK. I said, talk to me for three hours. And I said, you just tell me everything you want to tell me. And for three hours, I mean, all the hurt came out. And after those three hours I got on my knees before God and I said, God, my friend and his wife are deeply hurting. And I said, God, will you please pour into my life some of this hurt. And I want to identify and carry and pray it through. And we got up and we hugged and we wept and we left. And Tuesday morning I got up early to have my choir time. And it was a time that God just filled my life with himself. And I wondered why God did that. But by nine o'clock on Tuesday morning it was as if hell broke loose upon my life. And suddenly all the hurt and the rejection and the insecurity and the uncertainty about the future of this man began to flood through my soul. And Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday I was in an awful state. In such a way that my wife came to me and she said, Daddy, are you OK? And I said, I'm just carrying something through to God. And Thursday I spent the day in prayer and fasting for my friend and his wife. And Friday morning I got through to God and the burden lifted. It was gone. And Friday afternoon I phoned him and I said, Donald, tell me about your week. And he turned to me on the phone and he said, Gerard, I've just had the most wonderful week that you can ever think of. He said, I don't know what has happened to all the hurt that I shared with you on Monday night. And before he was able to ask me how my week went I was able to put the phone down. We need one another, you know. And it took him six months to recover from that. In fact, he wrote an article in a magazine and it came out the very same week that he was asked to resign. And I laughed my heart out about it because the title of the article was Ten Reasons Why I Won't Resign from the Ministry. But let me tell you what was the problem. I helped work with him for six months and after six months we sat down. And I said to him, I said, I think it's time for us to talk. And as we sat down and we began to talk about it I turned to him and I said, He said, where did I fail in my ministry? I said, can you take it? He said, what do you mean? I said, fasten your seat belt. He said, what do you mean? I said, I'm going to nail you. We began to talk about it and I said, my brother, one of your biggest failures was you couldn't give him enough on a Sunday morning to keep their mouth shut for a week. And I said, your second biggest failure was you stopped growing in your own relationship with God. And you took him so far and you couldn't take him any further. To be involved in leadership means a strong sense of self-knowledge. He said, what do you mean by self-knowledge? Doesn't it sound unsanctified to speak about self? No, no, we're speaking about the sanctified self. Paul said in Galatians chapter 2, I'm crucified with Christ. Nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. And then he went on to say, and the life which I now live in the flesh, the sanctified sex, he said, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself to me. What does it mean to be aware of a strong sense of self-knowledge? Two things, there are people that are aware of two things in their lives. They are aware of their weaknesses and they are aware of their strengths. So what happened to their weaknesses? Their weaknesses developed their faith. What about their strengths? They developed your confidence. You know, I think one of the most amazing things is that I sometimes find gifted people in wrong positions. I had the joy of spending probably 90% of my time with pastors and people who are on full-time ministry and I sometimes meet a man that's just in the wrong position. And I dealt with a fellow like that some time ago and I mean, he's a wonderful expositor when it comes to the Word of God but he's a pathetic relational individual. I mean, he can't talk to people on an individual basis. He's one of those men and he said to me, give me an assessment of your ministry. I said, I would love to do that. And I said, now listen to this. I said, my brother, you are one of those people that on a Sunday morning after you give your people 45 to 50 minutes of sound biblical exposition. I said, I need to be able to sit behind you, behind the pulpit where you are preaching and I need to be able to press a button. And as I press that button, suddenly something happened and you just disappear. And I said, you disappear from the pulpit and we send you back into your study for a week. And next Sunday morning when time for biblical exposition comes, I said, I press another button and you just come out and you present the Word of God. I said, you're not a pastor. So he said, does it mean that God hasn't called me in ministry? I said, no, it doesn't mean that. I said, you need to be involved in a church where you are the preaching pastor. I said, your gift is exposition. And I believe that there are men just like that. I mean, that was his weakness. So what do you do about your weaknesses? You develop them into strengths. You surround yourself with people that can provide coverage for your weakness. I don't know if you will agree with me because I mean, if I ever come to all your churches, I would say, oh, what did I try to tell those men? But I have a secretary and my secretary is a woman. I've got two offices. The one office is the district office and my wife is my secretary there. And then the other office at the conference center, my secretary is there. And when I prayed about a secretary, I trusted God for a woman who is at least 18 to 20 years older than me. Secondly, I trusted God for a person who can be my secretary, who can help me in my ministry. He said, well, how does your secretary help you? She is slow and very methodical. Her husband is a professor. They go to China every year for two months to teach. And by that they reach people with the gospel. They are missionary minded, wonderful people. But she is very slow and methodical. And I would come into the office and I'm a pretty intense individual. And I would meet with God in the morning and man, I'm just ready to turn the world upside down. And she would come into my office for 15 minutes and that's all I give her. And we talked about a day or so. And she would look at me and she said, I can't work with you today. I said, what do you mean? She said, you're too intense. And she said, why don't you go and walk around in the conference center and just settle down? Well, he said, doesn't your wife do that to you? She does it three times as much. So what do you do? Don't get too many people of your own kind. To be involved in leadership means that you are a perpetual learner. Oh, my brethren, I wonder, how much time have I got left? Ten, good night. Okay, to be involved in leadership means that you are a perpetual learner. A perpetual learner. I wonder if you would allow me to ask you. Have you learned the secret of taking charge of what God wants you to do? I don't know if you appreciate me saying this to you. But I feel God will not do for us that which we need to do ourselves. So what does it mean? Leadership means when you take charge of your own personal development. It means that you become a self-starter. You come to the place where you educate yourself. When I meet someone, my first question to this person is, I say, would you allow me to see your library? And I'm five or ten minutes in someone's library and I can tell you if he's a student. Well, he says, what kind of books do you have in your library? Well, I've got the works of John Calvin. Oh, he says, don't listen to him again. Hey, next to the works of John Calvin, I've got all the works of Wesley. I mean, it's the only way you get these people together. And then I've got the works of Alexander McLaren. A man that spent 60 hours in preparation in his Sunday morning service. And whenever my wife has got her birthday, I buy her something for her birthday. But every time I also try to buy her a set of commentaries for her birthday. And I said, mommy, can we put it in your library? Listen, if you and I think of ministry, my brother, I don't know about you, but can I share with you my heart when it comes to preparation? I think of Martyn Lloyd-Jones, and you know what happened to Lloyd-Jones? They asked him, I mean, Martyn Lloyd-Jones, the average time that he prayed on a Sunday morning at Westminster Chapel was between 22 and 25 minutes. That was his opening prayer. And Martyn Lloyd-Jones was asked, he was asked, how much time do you spend in preparation for your sermon on a Sunday morning? And without hesitation he said, I spend 5 days of the week, 8 to 10 hours every day in preparation. Whenever Martyn Lloyd-Jones went on holiday, he had suitcases full of books. And he would sit there on the beach, and he would just read those books. I don't know if I should say this to you, but someone once said to me, if you really want to be involved in ministry, and you become a student, you become to read. Now the Word of God is the most important book in our lives. And I want to be honest with you, sometimes the Word of God throws a lot of light on all the commentaries in my library. But God gives me His Word, and it takes me sometimes 17 to 25 to 35 hours to find out what God wants me to say. And then I need about 10 or 15 or 18 hours to systematically pray everything through. So that when I stand there, that those words that are coming from my heart and from my lips would be unctionized from above. A friend of mine once said to the conference that we were together for Pastor, she said, if you want to be involved in ministry, you need to think of the possibility of reading 300 to 400 pages every week. I'm not sure if I would be able to say that. So what does it mean? You've become a perpetual learner. They are always learning. They read books, they ask questions. A good communicator is someone who spends a lot of his time keeping his mouth shut, except to ask questions. They have an impressive capacity to develop their skills. They don't wait for things to happen, they make them happen. They don't wait for somebody to do something, they do it themselves. To be involved in leadership means that you're going to love your work. I mean, you look at the life of the Apostle Paul and he said in 1 Thessalonians 2, he said, we love you so much. What is the difference between someone who is involved in leadership and someone who is a workaholic? A leader is one who operates on the basis of pleasure. And someone who is a workaholic operates on the basis of pressure. A leader finds work and enjoyment, but a workaholic is someone that finds work and escape. To be involved in leadership means the ability to attract and to energize people. I mean, you look at Colossians chapter 4 and you see that wherever the Apostle Paul went, that there were people that were attracted to him. He was able to inspire them, he was able to motivate those people. Someone who is involved in leadership is someone who has learned the secret of becoming emotionally mature in his relationship with God. What does it mean to be emotionally mature? It means that you will accept people exactly where they are. It means that you are someone that is centered in the present. I mean, I've been involved in consultation with organizations, missionary organizations, and they operate on the basis of the past. And they scare to death about the future. If you are emotionally mature, my brother, you've come to the place where you do not dwell on disappointments of the past. I mean, there are some of you here that are sitting here this afternoon, and the problem that you are struggling with is that you are sitting with the guilt of the past. And the enemy of your souls is looking at you and is laughing. And your problem is not necessarily a spiritual problem. Your problem could be that there is a lack of emotional maturity. I mean, the Bible is saying to us in Micah chapter 7, he said, I've cast your sins and your iniquities in the depths of the sea. And I mean, my brethren, how deep is the sea at its deepest spot? It's seven miles, and you go to that beach, and you put a little sign up, and you say, no fishing. If you are emotionally mature, you give people a second and a third chance. You never ever take people for granted. You respect people. If you want to know if I'm emotionally mature, you go and find out how I treat my secretaries. They are people that can go without consistent or constant approval and recognition. To be involved in leadership, and I'm just about through, to be involved in leadership means to be willing to take risks. Do you remember the parable of the talents? The only person that the master was upset about was the one that took his talent and he hid it. Now in this afternoon, if you would allow me to ask you, my brother, are you scared to death when it comes to risk taking? I'm always blessed by the life of the apostle Peter. Do you remember when he was walking on the water to the Lord Jesus? I mean, oh, actually people just nailed Peter for all the things that he didn't, because he was an extrovert. But boy, he was a risk taker. And the son of God spent a night in prayer and they find themselves in the little boat. And the Lord Jesus came walking up on the water towards them. And I mean, it scared the life out of them. And they saw the son of God and the Lord Jesus said, listen, it's me, be not afraid. And there was Peter and he said, Lord, if it's you, Lord, will you allow me to come? And Jesus said to Peter, come. And boy, he took the risk and he began to walk towards the Savior and everything was wonderful. And then he began to look around and his eyes were taken up from Jesus and he found himself sinking. And he said, Lord, save me. And the Lord Jesus raised him up. And how did he get back into the boat? He walked. He ran, I guess. Boy, I better get back there before this happens again. People that are not willing for leadership, I tell you what they are. They are always cautious. They always want to take a safe approach. They always wonder what they can lose instead of what they can gain. They are very safe and predictable. And they will never ever inspire people. To be involved in leadership means that they are fail-safe individuals. Jesus said to Peter, I pray for you that your faith will not fail. Peter failed, but his faith didn't fail. If you are involved in leadership, can I share with you something? Your failures will turn you on. And they always think in terms of learning. To be involved in leadership means that they are always followers. If you and I want to become a leader in the presence of God, we first need to become a follower. Thank you so much. Okay, let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for some wonderful lessons that we can learn. And Lord, we feel that there is so much for us to learn. And even Father, as I was glancing upon this material today, I felt in my heart of hearts that I know so little about this great subject of leadership. But thank you that Jesus said to us, come unto me and follow me and I will make you to become fishers of men. Lord, we thank you for the great leadership of the Spirit of God. And Father, so easily we can grieve the Spirit of God because of His sanctity, and because of His sensitivity, and because of His sufficiency. And God, I pray in Jesus' name that you will help us to become long-term individuals in our relationships with you. In Jesus' name, Amen.