In this sermon, the speaker shares a personal experience of encountering the presence of God in his life. He describes a moment of brokenness and cleansing that lasted for three and a half hours. The speaker emphasizes the importance of allowing the truth of God's word to break our hearts and bring us to a place of repentance. He also shares a story about a fire that threatened his childhood home and reflects on the image of Jesus as a hen gathering her chicks. The sermon encourages listeners to seek a deeper prayer life and to be open to the work of God in their hearts.

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 freewill offerings of God's people. A special thank you to all who support this ministry. Surprise to some of you, but God, He's such a good God. We had scheduled Brother David Smith from Brunson, Michigan to come and speak to you tonight and he has a very, very sick child that progressed ever worse and developed pneumonia and is in intensive care or was, and he called and canceled. That he could not come. On top of that, our dear brother Gerard Dutoit from Western Canada, Vancouver, British Columbia, I'm not sure, somewhere over there, who spoke at our leadership seminar in 1996. That's six years or five years ago, almost six years ago until February. And I haven't seen him since, till tonight. So it's a special joy for me to see my brother Gerard. But Gerard called and said he was in Philadelphia area and he would have Thursday free and thought he would come and see a little what's happening here. Well, we asked him whether he would speak to us tonight and he consented that he would. So tonight, Brother Gerard Dutoit is with us through the marvelous hand of God that so fitted this together in our need and I'm sure he can express himself from there as to what God is doing in his life. Come, Brother Gerard, and we'll have prayer with him and for him before he takes the pulpit. Father in heaven, God, we come to you in Jesus' name. We thank you how you work in sovereign ways beyond which we can comprehend. And tonight here we are and our brother has agreed to speak to us and we pray for a special anointing upon him by the Spirit of God. Touch him, and I know he hasn't been here all week, but I pray, God, that you would have already spoken to him and will tonight to say the things that we need to hear. We pray for that. We ask you and we know you're able to do that and we're going to trust you, Lord, that he will speak to our hearts. And we know if he preaches the word of God, it will always be right and will always be to our hearts. And we thank you for that. And so we ask you, Lord, to bless the congregation, everyone that is here. There are many needs here tonight yet. We know that. And we pray that tonight the young folks who have held out thus far would have the grace to let go and to let God take over in their life. We pray that in Jesus Christ's name. Amen. God bless you. I just want to say it's a wonderful joy and a tremendous privilege to be able to be with you here this evening. It was, as Brother Mo said, six years ago that I had the privilege of being at the Leadership Conference together. And ever since that time, I have with great interest followed that which God has been doing. In between the last six years, Brother Denny and myself, a few times had the privilege of spending weekends in prayer together down in Idaho. But I often say to people, you don't need to be in touch with people in order to pray for them. You just need to be in touch with God. And so it's wonderful for us to be able to pray for one another. And I'm involved in what we call prayer conferences. You know, there is this great truth that if we can't get through to God, we will never be able to get through to the lives of people. And so what we do in places where I go to is that if we have a conference from a Sunday or a Saturday that goes through to the next Thursday or the Friday, every morning we come together for prayer. And we climb underneath the burden of God in the place of prayer. And the very first thing that always happens is that God begins to break our hearts. Because God can only use us to the degree that we have become broken before God. And as we climb underneath the burden of God in the place of prayer, every morning and every afternoon, we trust God to help us to systematically pray through for every aspect of that which we are doing that week. And I just finished a conference like that last night. And last night, the blessing to me is that the evening sessions like this is always the outflow of a day in the presence of God. And last night God came in such a precious way and just broke into our midst and broke our hearts in His presence. There is nothing so wonderful that you and I can bring to the God that we are serving as when we bring to Him a heart that has been absolutely and totally broken. And if you sit here tonight and you say, Well, what will it cost me to serve God with a broken heart? I need to tell you it will cost you absolutely everything. But it cost us more to miss the will of God for our lives than it will cost us to find the will of God for our lives. And so it's so wonderful to be able to share with you this evening. Brother Denny has asked me to speak on brokenness. And the more I've been seeking the face of God, although we will look at some aspects of brokenness, God has been drawing my heart to this whole concept of what the Scriptures is saying to us about prayer. So if you have your Bible with you tonight, which I know you do, I want you to turn with me to two passages in the Old Testament. I'm going to read from the 18th chapter of the book of Genesis. And then also just a few verses from 1 Samuel chapter 1. Genesis chapter 18 and then also from 1 Samuel chapter 1. Genesis chapter 18, verse number 16. Bible says, And the men rose up from thence and looked toward Sodom, and Abram went to them to bring them on the way. And the Lord said, Shall I hide from Abram that thing which I do, seeing that Abram shall surely become a great and a mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? For I know him that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment, that the Lord may bring upon Abram that which he has spoken of him. And the Lord said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous, I will go down now and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which is come unto me, and if not, I will know. And the men turned their faces from thence and went toward Sodom, but Abram stood yet before the Lord. And Abram drew near and said, Will thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked? For adventure there be fifty righteous within the city. Will thou also destroy and not spare the places for the fifty righteous that are therein? That be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked, and that the righteous should be as the wicked, that it be far from thee, shall not the judge of all the earth do right? The Lord said, If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare all the place for their sake. And Abram answered and said, Behold, now I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, which I am but dust and ashes. For adventure there shall lack five of the fifty righteous. Will thou destroy all the city for the lack of five? And he said, If I find there forty and five, I will not destroy it. And he spake unto him yet again and said, For adventure there shall be forty found there. And he said, I will not do it for forty's sake. And he said unto him, O let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak for adventure, there shall thirty be found there. And he said, I will not do it if I find thirty there. And he said, Behold, now I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord. For adventure there shall be twenty found there. And he said, I will not destroy it for twenty's sake. And he said, O let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak yet but this once. For adventure ten shall be found there. And he said, I will not destroy it for ten's sake. And the Lord went His way, and as soon as He left, communion with Abram. And Abram returned unto his place. And then if you turn to the first chapter of 1 Samuel, just a few verses from that chapter, 1 Samuel chapter 1 verse number 4, verse number 3, And this man, that was Elkanah, and this man went up out of the city yearly to worship and to sacrifice unto the Lord of hosts in Shiloh. And the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, the priests of the Lord were there. And when the time was that Elkanah offered, he gave to Peninnah his wife and to all her sons and their daughters portions. But unto Hannah he gave a worthy portion, for he loved Hannah, but the Lord had shut up her wound. And her adversary also provoked her sore to make her fret, because the Lord had shut up her wound. And as he did so year by year, when she went up to the house of the Lord, so she provoked her, therefore she wept and did not eat. Then said Elkanah her husband to her, Hannah, why weepest thou, and why eatest thou not? And why is thine heart grief, and not I better to thee than ten sons? So Hannah rose up after that, eating and strolling, and after that drank thou. Now Eli the priest sat upon a seat by a post to the temple of the Lord. And she was in bitterness of soul. And she prayed unto the Lord and wept sore. And she vowed and said, O Lord of hosts, if thou wilt indeed look on the affliction of thine handmaid to remember me and not forget thine handmaid, but will give unto thine handmaid a man child, then I will give him unto the Lord all the days of his life. There shall no razor come upon his head. And it came to pass, as she continued praying before the Lord, that Eli marked her mouth. Now Hannah, she spake in her heart, only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard. Therefore Eli thought that she had been drunken. And Eli said unto her, How long wilt thou be drunken? Put away thy wine from thee. And Hannah answered and said, No, no, my Lord, I am a woman of a sorrowful spirit. I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but have poured out my soul before the Lord. Count not thine handmaid for a daughter of Belial. For out of the abundance of my complaint and grief have I spoken hitherto. Then Eli answered and said, Go in peace. And the Lord God of Israel granted thy petition that thou hast asked of him. Our Father, as we just bow again this evening for another moment in the greatness of what the presence of God has been about this day, is it such a wonderful privilege for us to recognize again this first day night that the greatest desire in the heart of God is that You will bring us to a place where as Your people we would be in the dust before You. We are reminded that Your Word is said unto us that if my people which are 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 God and our Father, we thank Thee tonight that we are Thy people. We thank Thee that we have been called by Thy name. This evening we want to come and we want to humble ourselves before You. And God, I confess tonight in Your presence that there are so many times in the inadequacy of my own life that I don't really understand the depth of what it means to sit in the dust before God. But Father, this first day night to the best of our ability, do we want to come and sit before You and we want to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God. We thank You this evening for that which You are able to do within our hearts and our lives. We thank You tonight that we are serving a prayer answering God. We thank You this evening that there is absolutely nothing that You are not able to do. And Father, Thou knowest this evening the tremendous sense of fear and tremble that has been reigning in my heart as I contemplated this evening, realized the responsibility of coming in as an outsider in the midst of what God is doing. And yet God, I am so grateful to know that our responsibility is the tremendous ability, is our response to the tremendous ability of God. So this evening we pray that as we ponder upon Your Word, we ask that there will be a moment in this gathering tonight that somehow that the Spirit of God will come to break our hearts. And Father, we confess before Thee that we cannot break ourselves. But we acknowledge this night that when the Spirit of God comes, something deep within our hearts will begin to break and melt. And we would recognize the depth of our need before Thee. We ask that You would sanctify this place this night. We thank You for these beautiful young lives. Lord, I walk into this meeting tonight and as I saw these young lives, I felt if I could go and climb underneath a blanket somewhere for days and sought my heart out before God for the tremendous potential that is in store in every one of these precious lives. So this evening we pray that You will come, and that our lives will become intoxicated to the presence of God. And that we would become saturated to the life of Christ, so that we would be ablaze for the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank You for Your Word that You have given unto us this evening. We submit ourselves under the authority of Scripture. And Father God, we pray this night that we would be like those disciples of old that when You departed out to their presence on the way to Emmaus, that they turned to one another and they said, did not our hearts burn within us when He spoke to us on the way? We ask tonight in Jesus' name that You will give us the burning heart. And as You give us the burning heart, we pray that You will give us the broken heart as we submit ourselves to the blessedness of what Your Word is about. In Jesus' name, Amen. You know, so often when we begin to ponder and contemplate the greatness of the subject of prayer in Scripture, do I find people coming to me and say to me, Brother Gerard, the Bible is not saying to us an awful lot about prayer. In fact, if I can be absolutely honest with you, whenever I hear someone saying that I stagger in the depth of my own heart, because when you and I begin to study the subject of prayer in the New Testament, will you discover that prayer is one of the most spoken of doctrines in Scripture? And one thing that we need to realize when we begin to think about prayer is the fact that prayer is always initiated by God. God is always the instigator when it comes to a life or a ministry of intercessory prayer. They say to us that when a baby is born in our family, that sometimes it takes up to six months for this little bundle of life to be able to discern between different noises and voices and sounds that would come to this precious little life in our homes. They say the first six months or so, that child is not able to discern between the noise or the voices of brothers or sisters, and to a certain degree the voice of even the mother and the father, and the different noises that takes place in the house. A dog that is barking, or a cat, or the sound of something in the house, and that little bundle of life cannot discern the difference. And then they say to us that after a period of approximately six months, would that baby come to the place where he or she will begin to distinguish between these different sounds and voices, and the voice of what we would refer to as the primary caregiver, which is the father and the mother. And there is a word that they use to describe that. And it's the word saturation. Now if we have a baby in our family, and you and I would say that for the first six months, there is not going to be any sound. And after six months we anticipate that somehow that child will be able to recognize and discern and distinguish between our voices. It just will not happen. But the process that is taking place, and the life of that little precious God-given bundle of life, is a process that we refer to as saturation. And my brother and my sister, when we begin to speak about prayer, the only possible way that you and I would become a person, a man or a woman, or a young person of prayer, will simply be then when that which God is saying to us in His word, will become part of my life as a Christian. And when that which God is saying in His word about prayer becomes part of my life as a Christian, and I found myself being saturated with that which God in His word is saying, I discover that prayer becomes just a normal aspect of my relationship with God. So you say, what does the Bible say to us about prayer? Well, the Old Testament is revealed for us, and the New Testament, and the New Testament lies hidden for us in the Old Testament. One of the most wonderful things that when you begin to study prayer in the Old Testament, that somehow you will discover that the way to come to grips with prayer, and I trust this Thursday night, that there is an unquenchable hunger in your heart for the word of God. But when you begin to study prayer in the Old Testament, the way that we need to do that is that we need to look at the vocabulary of Old Testament Scripture. And as we systematically go through the Old Testament, we come to a place where we just don't look upon the words that is speaking to us about prayer, in fact, there are between 7,000 and 8,000 possible passages in the Old and the New Testament when you study it in its original language that is speaking to us about this great relationship with God in prayer. And when we look at those words, those words will take us to the people that pray. And the people that pray will take us to those words that came from the depths of their hearts in the place of prayer. And once we look upon the lives of those people, and once we look upon the words that came from their lips, and once we look upon the prayers that we pray, we discover their understanding of God in the place of prayer. And when we come to grips with their understanding of God in prayer, we discover the way that God entrusted them as He was answering prayer. And my brother and my sister, the most wonderful thing is when we study prayer, and you look for prayer, for instance, in the first five books of the Old Testament, and then you go to prayer in the historical books of the Old Testament, and then you study prayer in the books of poetry in the Old Testament, and then you study prayer in the prophets of the Old Testament, when you bring it all together in the Old Testament, you discover that in the life of the Lord Jesus Christ, everything that the Old Testament was saying to us about prayer was manifested in the life of Christ. You say, why do you say that? Because He was prophet and He was priest and He was king. In fact, there are indications in Old Testament Scripture that some of the prophets look upon Christ in the Hebrew text, and they refer to Him as a prayer. And you and I will never be able to understand the greatness or the teachings of Christ on prayer unless we have come to grips with His own prayer life. So you say, well, brother Gerard, what about the Old Testament? I think, for instance, just in the very, very first chapters of the book of Genesis, do you know what the Bible is saying to us? The Bible is saying to us that God came in the cool of the evening so that He could have communion with Adam and Eve. And do you know what's that word, cool? It's the Hebrew word ruach. It is the word for spirit. You see, there is no possibility that you and I, as a Christian, can come to the place where we discover this secret of a life of prayer, this secret of a spirit of prayer resting upon my life, where I live a life as a Christian, where it's not just the hours that I spend in prayer, but it's a lifestyle where I very seldom go through an hour without praying. So God said it's the work of the Holy Spirit. And I would say to you tonight and these beautiful young people this evening, as we sat here, my young friend, let me say to you that there would be no possibility that God would entrust your life and my life with what we would refer to as a spirit of prayer, this longing to spend consistent time in the times and the places of God, unless we have come to the place where you and I know that we are living a life in the fullness of the Spirit of God. And I wonder this Thursday night if I can ask you. You say, well, what is the crucified life? What is a life in the fullness of the Spirit of God? It's a life where God has come to my life and He has put the sentence of death upon the self-life. It's a place where God has brought me, where I have abandoned every aspect of myself to God. It's a place where God has brought me, where I lay my life and its relationships on the altar for God, where I lay my heart and its affections on the altar for God, where I lay my family on the altar for God, where every aspect of my life becomes at God's disposal. I came across that great statement the other day by a man with the name of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. He was that great German theologian that suffered so greatly under Hitler in Nazi Germany, and he made this statement, and he said, Jesus Christ bids you to come to Him and die. You see, my friends, the Bible is saying to us, unless a corn of wheat falls into the ground and die. And the only way that you and I will know the secret of a life of intercessory prayer is when God brings us to this place where we come to grips with God the Holy Ghost. And so when the Spirit of God is in my life, it's an Holy Spirit. Everything that I listen to, I'm forcing the Holy Spirit to listen with me. Everything that I read, I'm forcing the Spirit of God to read it with me. I can't help but think of that marvelous missionary to Africa. His name was C.T. Stutt, and you know when C.T. Stutt wanted to go to Africa, he was a missionary in China, and when he came back from the British Isles, he was so sick that there was no doctor, no physician in Britain that would give him permission to go to Africa. And he would go from one place to the other because he wanted to become a missionary in Africa. And he was so sick that they looked upon him and they said to him, you are nothing else than a museum of diseases. And C.T. Stutt made some great statements. And one of those statements that he made was this, he said, if Jesus Christ was the Son of God, then there is no sacrifice too great for me to offer. Someone went to C.T. Stutt one day, and he said to him, C.T. Stutt, why is it that you want to go to Africa? Why do you want to waste your life in Africa? And do you know what he said? I love that. He said, I want to go to Africa because I want to see God walking around in black bodies. And what happened is C.T. Stutt, he went to Africa. And my brother and my sister, he came back from Africa as a missionary, and he was at the Kissing Convention in England, and the main speaker at the Kissing Convention was a man with the name of Dr. F.B. Meyer. And when they found out that this tall missionary from Africa, this man that was so sold out to Jesus Christ, this man that lives such a broken life in the presence of God, when they found out that he was there at the Kissing Convention, they asked him one night, and they said, C.T. Stutt, will you come and take 15 minutes to speak to us about Africa? And then F.B. Meyer is going to come and preach the Word of God. And that man from Africa came, and he stood there tall, big missionary stood up, and he began to speak about Africa. And my brother and my sister, because his life was so broken before God, because he was so sold out to Jesus Christ, because he was so set apart unto God, because he was so uncionized with God the Holy Spirit, because he was totally available for God, when he began to speak those 15 minutes, suddenly the Spirit of God came upon those meetings, and that whole 7,000 people was in disarray, as the conviction of the Spirit of God settled upon them. And after he spoke that night, Dr. F.B. Meyer had to get up, and he had to try and preach, and he could hardly open his mouth, because of the depth of the presence of God. He said, Brother Gerard, what is the presence of God? It's that something that we sometimes can't define. But my brother and sister, we always know when it is not there. And F.B. Meyer said he got up to speak, and he could hardly open his mouth, because of the depth of the presence of God. And when that gathering was over, Dr. F.B. Meyer went to sit, he started the storm missionary, and he said to him, What is the secret of your life? And the great said, he started the missionary, he turned to him and he said, I've got one question for you. And F.B. Meyer said, What is it? He said, Have you given all the keys of your life to God? And F.B. Meyer said that night, He said, I went alone with God. And he said, One after the other of His keys, I gave the key of my future, and the key of my ambitions, and the key of my possessions, and the key of my family. I laid everything on the altar for God. But you know what my brother and sister, there was one key that he couldn't give. You know what it was? It was the key of his reputation and his popularity. He was a very well known preacher, and he couldn't give a key, and the Spirit of God came to him and said, F.B. is everything or nothing. Partial obedience is disobedience. And that night he surrendered his life to God. And do you know what happened? F.B. Meyer and C.T. Stott became great friends. And years later, they began to call one another F.B. and C.T. And years later, they were together at the Casey Convention again. And one morning, very, very early, C.T. Stott woke up, and F.B. Meyer woke up, and there on the little camp bed next to him, on his knees with a candle, was C.T. Stott, the missionary. And F.B. Meyer turned to him, and he said to him, C.T., what time did you wake up? And he said, very, very early. And he said, have you been on your knees all these hours? And the great C.T. Stott turned to him, and he said, yes. And he said, what have you been doing? And C.T. Stott turned to him, and he said, F.B., I woke up this morning early, and a word came to me. For Lord Jesus said, if you love me, he said, keep my commandments. And he said, I've been going through these commandments of Christ. And he said, there are so many of them that I've never obeyed. I wonder this Thursday night, my young friend, if I can ask you. We want to speak about prayer. But if your life is not sold out to God, you will not know a spirit of prayer. You see, you don't realize this Thursday night the tremendous potential that is in store for your life. In fact, your life is so precious to God that you dare not mess around to sin. You say, what is it? The Spirit of God. The Ruach of God. Or you say, what about the prayer lives of others in the Acts and the Book of Genesis? You know, I just spent hours studying the prayer life of a man with the name of Enoch. Oh, you say, there is only eight verses in the Bible speaking to us about Enoch. You know what you will discover? The Bible says, Enoch walked with God. How can you walk with God and not be a man of prayer? How can you be a man of prayer and not walk with God? And then we come to the epistle to the Hebrews and listen to what the writer to the Hebrews said. He made this great statement. He said, By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death, because God translated him. And before his translation, he had this testimony that he pleased God. You know, look at chapter 9 at the Mount of Transfiguration. You remember Lucas the one that gave us so much information about the prayer life of Christ and in the Mount of Transfiguration. Matthew chapter 17 mentioned that. Mark chapter 9 mentioned that. But look in his Gospel when he spoke about the Mount of Transfiguration. You know what he said? He said Jesus was praying. And as He was praying, the Bible says He was translated. You say, dear, I am here tonight as a young, beautiful Christian. You say, brother Gerard, how is God going to change me? Do you know where God changed you? God changed you in the place of prayer. What about the life of Abram when it comes to prayer? Do you study this prayer life? A trail of alters in the book of Genesis. Do you remember in Genesis chapter 17, God came to him and what did God say to him? God said to him, walk before Me and thou shalt be perfect. It's the best description in the Old Testament that we get of the New Testament perception of a life that is being sold out to God. Do you remember what happened in Genesis chapter 18? Suddenly God came to Abram and what happened? God made a statement. And this is where the concept of prayer comes in. You know what God said? God said, shall I hide from Abram that which I contemplate to do? You say, Brother Gerard, what was that? You see, it's this concept of the intercessor. You say, what is an intercessor? It's a combination of two words in the Latin. The word intercedera it means that I come alongside. And the word cedera it means that I step in between. And God looked upon Abram and God said, because he's going to be a great nation, because he's going to have family life that is blessed of me. God said, I need this man to let me know about this. And you remember how Abram began to pray. And in those first five books of the Bible, we look upon prayer and this great concept of a conversation and a dialogue with God. And we see it being real in the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. And do you remember when he began to pray? There's a wonderful principle. Do you know what it is? He didn't come to God on the basis of the sin that was so relevant in the cities of Solomon Gomorrah. But brother and sister, listen. He came to God on the basis of the righteousness of God. You say, how will God answer prayer in my life? Do you know how God will answer prayer in my life? When I live righteous in His presence. Do you know what's the problem when it comes to prayer, my brother and my sister? You and I can sit here tonight and we can do so many things for God without being rightly related to God. I mean, we can work ourselves to pieces without being rightly related to God. But listen, brother and sister, you can't pray without being rightly related to God. You say, what was it? He came to God on the basis of the righteousness. You say, brother, how does prayer work? Listen, brother and sister. God is not obliged to answer our prayers, but you know what? God is a covenant keeping God. I look at these beautiful young people, maybe some of you are coming out of the land of Canada this evening, a God-forsaken country. Some of you sit here tonight and you've got parents, a mother and a father, and they're not saved and they know Christ. You say, what is it? You need to come on the basis of the righteousness of God, the fact that He has promised household salvation. You need to climb underneath the burden of God for your mother and your father and your brothers and your sisters. You need to ask God to give you promises. You need to systematically pray them through to God. You say, what is it? It's prayer. It's prayer, you see. Brother and sister, we can't take people further than we are ourselves. Listen, we will produce people who are just like us. If you and I don't have a hunger for God, they're not going to have a hunger for God. If we are not thirsty for Christ, they are not going to be thirsty for Christ. You say, what about those historical books of the Old Testament? Well, let me share with you some. Oh, look, think of the prayer life of Moses. Remember Moses? The man, twice in his life, 40 days and 40 nights, spent in the presence of God. Do you remember when Moses came down from the mountain? Remember what the Bible says? He's there to put a veil in front of his face. Why is it? Because of the greatness of the presence of God. Oh, my brother and my sister, I want you to know, those of us who are adults, those of us who are fathers, my brother, can I ask you, are you in the process of becoming a man of prayer? Ah, you say, what about the historical books of the Old Testament? Listen to this. A wonderful little word comes to the surface. You say, brother Gerard, what is the word? The Bible says, they cried unto the Lord. And you see the deep of the longing, of the agony of their heart. What about the prophets in the Old Testament? That's the beauty. Do you know what we discover? And this is where this concept of brokenness is coming in. You say, what is it about the prophets? Listen to what the prophets say. The Bible says, the prophets make this statement, and there's this little word that comes to the surface. And you say, what is that word? It is the little word, O. O. And the moment when they come to that place, when they say, O. Do you know what you discover? They make this statement, and they say, the burden of the Lord is upon me. The burden of the Lord is upon me. I wonder this Thursday evening, if you would allow me to ask you, do you and I know something about the burden of God? You say, brother Gerard, what is this concept of the burden of God? Do you know what we discover when we study the burden of God? In fact, there are seven words in the Hebrew language of the Old Testament trying to communicate to us this concept of the burden of God. And when you study that, do you know what you discover? It takes you right back to the book of Exodus, and the burden of God is based upon revelation. You say, revelation of what? Do you remember what happened to Moses? It was the revelation of God. Moses, he was a moment. Forty years, he was the prince in Egypt. Forty years, he was the shepherd in Midian. And then God brought him to this little revelation of the bush that was burning. And that was not uncommon to him, brother and sister. But he came to the place where he saw the bush. And the Bible says, the bush was burning and it was not consumed. And God said to Moses, take off thy shoes from thy feet, because the place where thou art standing on is holy ground. So you see, when we speak about the burden, and the word is based upon revelation, first of all, it's the revelation of God. And do you know what? God made this statement, and this is what God said. God said to Moses, I have seen, I have seen the affliction of my people. And God said to Moses, I want you to go. But you see, this burden of God, it's the revelation of God. And it's the revelation of the need of the people of God. So the prophet said, the burden of the Lord is upon me. Can I ask you tonight, and this Thursday night gathering, you have such a deep fear in my heart to come in just one evening. I mean, even if we came out of a conference of prayer, and every day we're saturating ourselves in the place of prayer, and coming in tonight as a complete stranger, and in a sense, coming in one sense, as someone who was not part of this. But listen, my brother and my sister, listen, dear young people, can I ask you tonight, do you know something about the burden of God? I was in Australia a number of years ago, and when I went to Australia, I have difficulty flying long distances, and my wife and our family and our officers came to me and said, Gerard, when you fly to Australia, why don't you break the trip, and instead of flying right to Australia, why don't you fly through the Hawaiian Islands, and then stay over one night in the Hawaiian Islands, and then it's only 10 hours of flight to Sydney and Australia. And so we prayed about this and felt it was right, and so my officers booked me, and I came into the Hawaiian Islands one night about 10, 11 o'clock, and they gave me a room close to the airport, and my wife phoned me and she said, Daddy, now that you are there, she said, tomorrow take a bit of a break and relax a little bit, because of the long flight, and she said, don't study and pray, and she said, why don't you go down and just see what's it like there, and Honolulu and that city and the beaches and things, and so I said to my wife, sure, I can do that, and the next morning I had my quiet times, my times alone with God, and I took a bus and I went down, and I was walking a little bit around, wasn't impressed to be honest with you, and then I got the bus back later on, and I was on my way back, and as I was on my way back, something happened, and that afternoon my wife phoned me, and she said to me, Daddy, so tell me what Honolulu is like, and I turned to my wife and I said, my darling, I wish you wouldn't have done this to me, and she said, what do you mean? I said, I was sitting on the bus coming back with my little New Testament, and suddenly God came to my heart, and I said, suddenly God broke my heart, and she said, what do you mean? I said, suddenly I saw those Hawaiian people, the way that God looked upon them, and I just sat there and sobbed like a child, you know they must have felt sorry for me, you see the burden of God, you know what's happened to me? I'm preaching there at the end of this year, you see the burden of God walk, can I ask you tonight, you see sometimes we've got such a burden, because of the sin in our lives, that we don't have the perception of the burden of God, I said to Brother Denny this afternoon, one of the reasons that I found it very difficult, to even come here today, was six years ago, when I had the privilege of being here, and seeing what God is doing, and the different fellowships, and people that are coming to Christ, in the colonies, it's the awesomeness of the burden of God, and yet my brother and sister, I meet people, and you know what happens to them, they go from place to place, and they've got no sense of burden, can I ask you this evening, have you got a burden? You say, Brother Gerard, what does the burden of God do? Listen, brother and sister, the burden of God brings brokenness, you see there is no possibility, and these beautiful young lives, my young brothers and sisters, you sit here tonight, if God is going to bring His burden upon your life, maybe you're coming out of some colony, maybe you can't even go back, maybe things just happen, and you're not even welcome there, the only way that God is going to change it, is when you climb underneath this burden, and systematically, you're going to pray this thing through to God. We were in Africa last year, in South Africa, and when we went to South Africa, we had these prayer conferences, amongst the Dutch people in South Africa, and when I was in South Africa, years ago I was brought up there, and spent 25 years there, I prayed for many, many years, for the president of that country, and you know the very first conference that we did, the Saturday night, I spent the Saturday night in prayer, with a man who was leading this large congregation of Dutch people, and when we spent that night in prayer together, the evening about 11 o'clock, he turned to me and he said to me, he said, Brother Gerard, I just need to warn you about tomorrow morning, and I said, what? He said, tomorrow morning, the former president and the prime minister of the country, is going to be in the service, and I turned to him, and I wasn't sarcastic or arrogant, I just said, Brother, it's more important that God is going to be there, and we make such a fuss at people sometimes, but you know what happened that Sunday morning, I haven't preached in that language, it's the Afrikaans language, I haven't preached in it for years, and that Sunday morning I came into the pulpit, and this man, and his wife, and all their bodyguards, were sitting there, and I never looked at them, but you know brother and sister, every day, we climb underneath the burden of God, for those meetings, and I was reminded of this man, because I prayed for him, for so many years, and he only comes to a service on a Sunday morning, he never comes back on a Sunday night, and so that Sunday morning God spoke to him, and Sunday night he was back in the service, and so Monday night he was back in the service, and Tuesday night, and Wednesday night, the spirit of God came, and the spirit of God broke us, and I will never forget, I was trying to preach my little simple message, and as I was trying to preach, I just heard sobbing, and as I looked to my left, I saw this man being bent over, sobbing in the presence of God. He said, what happened? Do you know what happened that night? God saved him. We had a phone call the next night, and the man who was leading this church said to me, he phoned me and he said, the president wants to see you, and you and your wife and daughter, is going to have lunch with him tomorrow, and I said to my daughter, I said to my daughter, Monica, if you ever behaved in your life, it needs to be tomorrow. You know God convicted me. In fact, you know, the Lord really convicted me. I said to my wife, I said, my darling, you need to put the best dress on that you have. You know, God said to me, where do I come into this? God just broke my heart. And I came and sat in his house, and he took me into his office, and I turned to him and I said, I just have one question for you. He said, what is it? I said, what happened Wednesday night? Do you know what happened brother and sister? God saved him. I just had an email from him, I am back in that city next year, and he asked me to come and stay in his house. I said to him, I won't stay in your house unless you are going to pray with me. He said, yeah, I want to learn how to pray. The burden of God. Do you know something about the burden of God? He said, Brother Gerard, what does it do? The burden of God brings brokenness. Brokenness. You know, this thing of brokenness is beautiful. This word brokenness, can be translated by shattered. Shattered. You see, when God comes to us, when you study this word in the Old Testament for brokenness, it's speaking of the breaking up of a ship, and the prophecy of Jeremiah. In the book of Daniel, it speaks of the horn of a goat that has been broken. And so, God comes to your life, and God comes to my life, and do you know what happens to us? God begins to break us. Brokenness. Well, you say, Brother Gerard, how do I come to grips with a broken heart? What is this biblical concept of brokenness? Listen, my brother and sister, you will never be able to understand the consequences of having a broken heart unless you've come to grips with two things. You say, what is it? The first is the depravity of sin. I wonder tonight if I can be honest with you. If God in one little second will come into this auditorium, in this building, this first day night, and in one little second, will show to you and me what happened when Adam and Eve sinned. What happened when Romans chapter 5 is saying to us, for us by one man, sin entered into the world, and death by sin. And so, death passed upon all men. Why did the Apostle Paul say, for us by one man? Well, I'll tell you what happened. When Eve took the fruit, the Bible says, Adam was standing right there in the Hebrew text. It's beautiful. Do you know what happened? He saw what happened. And he took a willful decision of his will. And he said, I'm not going to let her go on her own. And Paul comes and he said, for us by one man, sin entered into the world. Listen, can I tell you something? If God in one glimpse of the moment would come, and take us to those seven words in the Hebrew text, hundreds of places, revealing to us the depth of sin, none of us would be able to get out of this place this evening. You say, why? Because of what it has done to us. I will never forget, you know, about, I don't know, about four, maybe five years ago, one morning in my choir time, God came to my inadequate heart, and God began to speak to me about spending more time in prayer. And I was on my knees in our old house down at Crescent Beach in British Columbia, as I was seeking the face of God, and I felt God impressed upon me out of His Word to spend more time in prayer. And I look at everything that I had to do every day, and I just said, God, I can't, I don't know if I can do this, but you know what I've learned, brother and sister? Through the years, when God speaks to me about something, I write it down on my prayer list, and I pray about it. And I wrote this thing down, spending more time in prayer. And every morning, every morning, I would come and say, Lord, I want to pray about this thing, of spending more time in prayer. And do you know what happened, brother and sister? For six months I prayed. Every day I came. You see, when I develop a personal, when you develop a personal private prayer life, there is routine praying. You say, Brother Gerard, what do you say? It means you pray for the same things every day. You say, don't you get tired? Of course you get tired. So why do you keep going? Because the Bible says, men ought always to pray and not to faint. And you see, when the Spirit of God comes, God makes it fresh. So for six months I prayed. And I didn't realize what was happening. But do you know what was happening? I was praying myself, ready to meet with God, for six months. And one Thursday night, my wife and my daughter and myself, so much away from home, and we are a private little family, and our family times are precious together, and evenings, and we sat in our living room, and I sat in the middle, and my wife was sitting next to me, and my daughter, who was about six, seven years old by that time, was sitting next to me. And brother and sister, suddenly God came to my heart. And suddenly this burden, this thing that I was praying about, spending more time with God, suddenly God came. And everything deep in my heart began to break in the presence of God. Everything. And I began to sob like a child, and did not know what to do, and my wife turned to me, and my wife is just a wonderful, calm, and cool, and calculated, controlled Canadian, you know. Just wonderful. She sat next to me, and I was just sobbing, and sobbing, and sobbing. Eventually I got on my knees, between my wife and my daughter, and just crying my heart out. And my wife turned to me, and she said, Papa, Daddy, you're going to mess the couch up. And I said, Mommy, God is dealing with me. She got a towel, and put it under my face. She turned to me at some point, and she said, Do you think you're losing your mind? I said, No. I said, God is breaking my heart. I remember my daughter, seven years old or so, put her hand around my shoulder, and whispered into my ear, and said, Daddy, are you okay? I said, Yes, Monica. God is just breaking Daddy's heart. Ah, you say, what happened? Suddenly, small little things became awful sins. Listen, my young friends, listen dear folks, it's not our actions, brother and sister, it's our reactions. You are what you are in the inside. And you see, sometimes we are guilty of slandering. You say, what is slandering? It's when I say something behind someone's back, and I can't say it in their face. And sometimes, we are guilty of flattering. You say, what is flattering? It's when I say something in someone's face, and I can't say it behind his back. And as I was there, sobbing before God, small little things, little attitudes, little statements that I made to my wife, my daughter, the people that are helping us at our conference, suddenly those things became awful sins. So you say, what happened? Three and a half hours, these waves of brokenness and cleansing, these waves of the dealings of God washing through my life. I will never forget about half past eleven that night, I was through and I got up and got into my pyjamas and washed my face and cleaned myself up and Monica was gone to bed and my wife was in bed, but she was not asleep, she was just lying in bed quietly crying, realized that the presence of God has filled her house afresh. And I would never forget that night when I got into bed, next to my pyjamas, I took her hand. She said, what is it daddy? And I said, mama, isn't it wonderful to be clean? Can I ask you this morning, you know, you know the thing that I'm so afraid of? We hear so much of the truth of the Word of God. Brother and sister, how dare we listen to the truth of the Word of God and don't allow the truth of the Word of God to break my heart. The burden of God, it brings brokenness. And I ask God to give you a broken heart for God? You know what's going to happen? You remember the prophet Isaiah, the year when king Isaiah died, he said, I also saw the Lord. He was high and lifted up and he's praying for the temple. And you remember those seraphims came. And what did they cry? They cried a beautiful word in the Hebrew text. It is the word, KWADESH, KWADESH, KWADESH. They say, what is it? It's holy, holy, holy. You see, when God gives me a vision of Himself, and He breaks my heart. You know what happened to the prophet Isaiah? Five times in the previous chapters, my brother and my sister, he cried out these woes against the people. But suddenly when he saw God, and do you know who he saw? The apostle John in John's Gospel said, he saw the Lord Jesus Christ. And he said, Woe to me! A broken heart for God. A broken heart for Christ. Have you ever seen Him? Have you ever seen Him in the Gospels when He made the statement and said, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how did I try to gather you as the hen had fixed you, and you would not? And the Bible says, he burst out into tears. Donald Barnhouse told of an incident when he was a boy of about 14, 15 years old. And he said, there was a fire at the area where they lived. And when that fire was there, the grass was burning. And they were afraid the fire was going to destroy their house. And then he made the statement, he said, when the fire went through, it didn't destroy their house. All the grass was burned. And he said, as a boy of 14, 15 years old, in the afternoon, he was walking in the field, and he said, the ground was still hot because of the fire. And he said, as he was walking, there was this chunk of some black thing lying there. And he said, as a young boy, he was just walking around and looking at this and that. And he came across that, and he looked at it, and he thought it was just a chunk of wood or something that burned. And this young boy came, and he came closer to it. And he kicked it with his shoe over. And the moment when he kicked it over, do you know what happened? The moment when it rolled over, the little chickens ran out from underneath it. He said, what was it? It was the mother hen. And so when the fire came, she called those little chickens to her. And she engulfed her underneath her wings. And the fire came. And do you know what happened? The fire killed her. But they survived. Listen, my young friend. When God brings the burden of His heart to your life, and when God begins to break your heart, do you know what's going to happen? You're going to die to every aspect of yourself. You say, why? So that others would be able to live. A broken heart for the life of Christ. Have you seen the brokenness of our Lord Jesus? Oh, you say, Brother Gerard, brokenness in the life of Christ? That word is never found. That's right. But you see, when you want to understand brokenness, and you see the depth of the depravity of sin, then you come to the sinless life of Christ. He was at all points tempted just like us we are, and yet without sin. And the sinless life of Christ. And you see His absolute submissiveness to His Father. Listen to what He said. He said, the son can do nothing unless he sees the Father do it. He said, my Father will give it to you. And He said, so do I. A broken heart for the work of the Holy Spirit. Let me share with you a word. Romans chapter 8. You know, the Bible is saying to us in the Romans chapter 8, the Spirit of God groaned with groanings that could not bear. Do you know what's that word? It's the Greek word agonai. It comes from the root word agon. He said, Brother Gerard, what does that word mean? Do you know what that word means? It's a word that came out to the Roman empires of those days. And they were wrestlers. And they would wrestle in the presence of the emperor. And sometimes they would wrestle and they would wrestle themselves to death. And the word that they used was agon. They were wrestling. And so God said, when the Spirit of God comes upon me, and God gives me a burden, and He begins to break my heart, and the Spirit of God is upon me, there's this wrestling in the presence of God. A broken heart. A broken heart for God. A broken heart for the life of Christ. A broken heart for the work and the ministry of the Spirit of God. Listen, my brother and sister. Listen, young people. A broken heart for myself. Do you know what happens when God breaks my heart? I see people the way that God sees them. You say, why, brother Gerard? Because the prophet said, my eyes has affected my heart. You know what? Because the prophet's observation affects intercession. And when your heart is broken, do you know what happens to you? You see people the way that God sees them. So you say, oh, what will it cost me? What will it cost me for God to break my heart? Do you know what it will cost me? It will cost me absolutely everything. Absolutely everything. Can I ask you tonight, these beautiful young lives, you've come to this Bible school. Listen, it will be a tragic thing if you've come to this Bible school and you've listened to all these wonderful messages that is coming during the day. Your heart has been affected. But listen, my young friend, it will be a terrible thing for you to leave this Bible school without trusting God for a broken heart. Brokenness. I walk up and down many, many times in my study and in my library, many, many mornings. The only cry that's up on my heart is that God, I just want you to give me a broken heart. A broken heart for God. A broken heart for the Word of God. A broken heart. A broken heart for my wife. A broken heart for my daughter. You say, why do you need that? Because I can only see what God is doing in their lives to the degree that God has broken my heart for them. But you see, when God gives me a broken heart, what happens? The prophet said, the burden of the Lord is upon me. So you say, Brother Gerard, the burden? The burden of God brings brokenness. So, what does brokenness do? You know what, brother and sister? Brokenness brings cleansing. Brokenness brings cleansing. Can I ask you this Thursday night, do you not know what it means to be clean in the presence of God? Have you studied the efficacy of the blood in scripture? Do you know 99 references in the New Testament to this word? More than 20 possible references that you and I can apply to our lives. You say, Brother Gerard, what is the blood saying to us? Well, do you remember what the Bible says? The Bible says, without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin. The Bible says, God said, when I see the blood. You sit here this Thursday night, and do you know, maybe you are not really born of the Spirit of God. Maybe you are not really saved. Maybe you have made some commitment, and you are here at this Bible school, and you are not really saved. You say, what is this thing about the blood? Well, you see in the New Testament there is a word. You say, Brother Gerard, what is that word? It is the word, redemption through the blood. That is the umbrella in the New Testament. So you say, what happened? You see underneath this umbrella of redemption through the blood there are wonderful things. You say, what is the first thing? It is reconciliation through the blood. And listen, my brother and sister, when we speak about reconciliation through the blood, it is not just us being reconciled to God, the fact that God saved us from our sins, and the fact that God cleansed us from the guilt of sin, but there is the pollution of sin, and there is this reconciliation. And reconciliation is not just when I come to Christ. Day by day, I need to reconcile myself to God. So you say, what does the Bible say? The Bible says, the fire must burn continually upon the other. You know what Archbishop Temple used to say? He said, every morning when I wake up I say, God, yesterday stinks within the light of today. This bed that I am kneeling on is the altar. This life is the sacrifice. Cleanse me today with your Spirit, and cleanse me today in the blood, and fill me today with the Spirit. Reconcile to God. Are you reconciled to God tonight? Now I was so struck this afternoon when I was driving here, and Brother Denny gave me instructions to get here, and as I was coming down, I made one wrong turn. And so I came down 222nd instead of 272nd. And as I came down 222nd, I went on and on and on, tried to get an overpass so that I can turn back. And you know, it really struck me. The only way that I could get back to the highway was I had to turn around and go out the place where I made the wrong decision. Can I ask you this first thing? Is there some little thing and you are not reconciled to God? Is there some little root, bitterness somewhere in your life? Something that has happened? You have never made peace with that? Cleansing through the blood. Listen to what the Bible says. How much more shall the blood of Christ... The writer to the Hebrews says, How much more shall the blood of Christ through the eternal spirit... You see, the spirit of God always witness to the blood, always witness to the scriptures. And he said, How much more shall the blood of Christ through the eternal spirit purge, cleanse my conscience from what? From dead works to serve the living God. Ah, you say, Brother Gerard, what is my conscience? You know, Dr. Andrew Murray said, My conscience is not just a judge that bears down upon my actions, but he said, in my conscience, he said, it bears testimony of my relationship with God and with God's relationship with me. And Andrew Murray said, Once my conscience is cleansed, he said, that's when my heart is cleansed. Brother Moe spoke tonight of a pure heart. Blessed of a pure in heart. Why? The Bible says, They shall see God. They shall see God. Cleansing. And so he said, When God cleanses me, when the burden comes, the burden brings brokenness, and brokenness brings cleansing. What does cleansing do? You know what happens? Cleansing allows the Spirit of God instead of the Holy Spirit being resident in my life, he allows the Spirit of God to become president in my life. You know, we are a family out there in the West Coast and we love animals. And so, I love animals because I was brought up in a farm and my daughter loves animals and my wife doesn't love animals, but whenever we think of getting an animal, we always take up a vote. And there's always a 50% majority. And you know what happens? So we've got a cat and we've got two golden retrievers and we've got two cockatiels. Once we had a snake, didn't last long, thankful to God. But you know what happened? Some time ago, my daughter saw in a little ad in a local newspaper that someone wanted to get rid of a parrot. And so she came to me and said, Oh, daddy, listen about this parrot. So I looked at it and I thought, Oh, that's interesting. So I phoned the man and I said, Why do you want to get rid of this parrot? Well, he said, I don't want it. It's lonely and all kinds. And he just about gave it away for nothing, this beautiful African grey parrot. And so I said to him, Now this parrot, does it talk? And oh, yeah, he said, it talks like a blue streak. I said, now this parrot, does it swear? I said, I don't want it if it swears at my house. He said, no, it doesn't swear. And so we got this parrot in this cage. And I tell her, this parrot talks. She's got three ways of answering a phone. A cell phone, a portable phone, and a normal phone. And I come into the house and she say, Gerard? And then I think it's my wife. And I said, yes, my darling, what is it? And it's a simple bird. But you know what happened? When we just got this bird, do you know, she was so afraid of us. She didn't know us. We tried to get near her. You put your finger in and she would nip your finger. And we thought, now what are we going to do? And so I said to my wife and daughter, I said, you know mommy, Monica? We just need to befriend her. And I would put a glove in and I would open the cage and I would go in there and I just befriended her. And after about two, three days, she kind of got used to it. And I would open the cage without the glove and I would put my hand in and eventually she became friendly. And then one day I opened the cage and she wanted to get out of the cage. And she got out of the cage and she was hanging in her claws like that. Just like that and looking at me. And I was looking at her. And I thought, now what am I going to do now? And I went very, very slowly and I put my two hands underneath her. She didn't bite me. So I lifted her up. But she wouldn't let go. And I just stood there and I assured her that I was there. And she would look at me and I lifted her up. But she still held on with those two little claws. And I just kept doing it. You know what happened? There was a moment that the one claw would come. And she was still holding on. Not sure if she could trust me. And I was just standing there holding her, holding her. And I said to Janice, I said, what are you going to see? She is letting go. And I was holding her. She would look at me and wouldn't let go. And I just kept lifting her and lifting her. And you know what happened? There was a moment when the other claw would go. And she was lying in my hands. And I went to my wife and daughter and I said, she is trusting me. Listen my young friend. You can trust the man that died for you. You can trust him with every aspect of your life. Wouldn't you ask him tonight? Say, Lord Jesus, could you give me a broken heart? Could you break my heart for God? Could you break my heart for the life of Christ? Could you break my heart for the work of your Spirit in my life? Could you break my heart for my own life? Could you break my heart for my family? He said, what is it going to cost you? It's going to cost you absolutely everything. I close. Tell you about the man who became my spiritual father. He said, what was his name? His name was J.B.B. Friend. I was a student, studied at the same school that Keith Daniels studied. And he was studied there a long time before me. And one of the the vice principal of our school was a little man with the name of J.B.B. Friend. Just a short little man. And you know, when I got saved, I was saved in Bible school. And so when I got saved, no one else in my family was saved. And so I needed a spiritual father. I needed a mentor. And I prayed about it. And Mr. Friend, every morning at around 3 o'clock or 3.30 in the morning, if you as a student would wake up, and you look up, and as you look up to Mr. and Mrs. Friend's apartment, Mr. Friend's light was on because Mr. Friend was on his knees seeking the face of God. And every afternoon at 3.30, we would watch him as students. At 3.30 in this Bible school where I studied, we would watch him as students. Mr. Friend would come out of the apartment and he would have tracts in his pocket and he'd take these long walks. And he spent 2 or 3 hours in prayer as he was walking, having fellowship with God in the presence of God. And you know as students we were so stupid. We would say to one another, if Mr. Friend die, there's not going to be a funeral. Mr. Friend, God is just going to take Mr. Friend. He'd just walk with God. So I needed a spiritual mentor. And I went to Mr. Friend and I went to him one afternoon, I said, Mr. Friend, I said, would you become my spiritual father? Would you adopt me? Would you become my mentor? Mr. Friend looked at me and he said, let me pray about that. One day after class, Mr. Friend came to me and he said to me, he said, Brother Gerard, I need to see you. And I went to sit in his office and he looked at me and said, he said, I'm willing to spend time with you. And so Mr. and Mrs. Friend adopted me. And I felt I became their spiritual son. He prayed for me until the last days of his life. Then what happened? Mr. and Mrs. Friend retired. And they went to live in a little cottage on a farm of a Christian farmer. I went out and became an evangelist and preached in different places. And they wrote to me and I would write back to them. And they prayed for me every day. And one day I was about three or three and a half hours away from this little cottage. And I had been longing to spend time with Mr. Friend and I stopped at the phone booth and I picked up the phone and I phoned Mr. and Mrs. Friend. And Mrs. Friend picked up the phone and I said, Mrs. Friend, this is Gerard Toyin. And Mrs. Friend, I said, Oh, Gerard, we've been praying for you. How are you doing? And I said, Mrs. Friend, I said, I'm about three, three and a half hours away. I said, can I come and spend time with Mr. Friend, this man that became my mentor, this man that became my spiritual father. And Mrs. Friend just said, come along. She didn't even ask him. She said, just come along. And for three or three and a half hours, I drove. Great expectation. I'm going to spend time with this man who is my mentor. You know what happened? I arrived at three o'clock in the afternoon at the little cottage. Knocked at the door of the cottage and Mr. and Mrs. Friend came to the door and opened the door and there I stood. And they said, oh Gerard, wonderful to see you. And they just stuck me in. They were just loving me to death. I came into the living room and I just sat at Mr. Friend's feet. He was sitting there on the couch. I just went and sat. I said, Mr. Friend, just talk to me. Just talk to me. Because he walked off guard. So when I got to the house, it was three o'clock. Do you know what happened? I will never forget this. Three thirty came. And he just, look at his watch like that. When it was three thirty and he said to me now, Brother Gerard, he said, I can't stay any longer. He said, I need to go now. And I remember three thirty was the time when he got to pray. But listen, I drove for three and a half hours. And he just looked at me and he said, you going to stay for supper? I want you to stay overnight. But I need to go now. And he just got up and he walked out. And I will never forget this. I sat there. Mrs. Friend sat there. Do you know, she was embarrassed. She knew what it took for me to get there. I sat there. I couldn't look her in the eyes. I just sat there and she sat there and we didn't look at each other I don't know, maybe five or ten minutes, whatever. We just sat there. And eventually, you see, he got up and I looked through the window. There he was walking, praying, seeking the face of God. And I looked up and she looked down and our eyes connected. She was embarrassed. She felt for me. And she looked down at me and she said, I guess he hasn't changed one bit. I would never forget. I just looked up and I said, Mrs. Friend, I don't want him to change. He said, why not? He walked with God. I wonder tonight if I could ask him, do you want to walk with God? Do you want a broken heart? Do you want to pay the price? Mrs. Friend, I don't want him to change. You know why? He prayed for me up to the last days of his life. Let's stand to pray. Shall we? I wonder tonight as we're standing in the presence of God, somehow deep in your young, beautiful life, God has been stirring your heart. Do you want God to give you a broken heart? Want God to touch your life? Want God to come to you? Do you want to walk with God? I wonder tonight as we open the altar to this beautiful auditorium, you maybe would like as a young life just to slip out and say, I just want to come and spend some time alone with God. Would you like to do that right now? Just wherever you are. We're just going to wait for you. You come. Find a place somewhere. Say, God, I want you to break my heart. It's going to cost me absolutely everything, but I want you to break my heart. Just come and find a place right here next to the pulpit or somewhere. Just come and find a place somewhere. Say, I want to do business with God tonight. Just come through there in the passages to stop people to come. Let's just make room for those to come and find a place somewhere to come and kneel.