In this sermon, the speaker shares his experience of having his personal notes and quiet time sheets accidentally shared with the congregation. He emphasizes the importance of the communication of the Word of God and challenges the listeners to be able to explain God's plan of salvation to someone in a systematic manner. The speaker also highlights the need for consecration and surrender to God in every aspect of our lives. He encourages the audience to examine their actions and ensure that they are living in a way that is pleasing to God.

I just would like to say this morning it's been a tremendous encouragement and a privilege and a blessing to be able to be with you in these few days that we have been able to spend together. Those of you who have not been with us, what we have done, because I have the privilege of being involved in seminaries and Bible colleges and conferences for missionaries and pastors and then of course churches in about 30 to 40 different countries of the world. And there is a love in my heart for Australia, just a great encouragement because it reminds me so much of my own country. I was born and brought up in South Africa. If you maybe recognize the accent, it's quite possible that you have a South African doctor. You know, we live in Western Canada and I've been told that there could be as many as a million Southern Africans in Canada and the United States, which of course is North America. And just in Canada itself, I've been told that we could have between five and six thousand South Africans that are in the medical field. I sometimes find myself in towns or cities where we could have 27 South African families in the service and most of the time those people would be in the medical profession. In fact, I often in some of those churches out there in Western Canada would say to the people, how many of you recognize this accent? And then a whole bunch of hands would go up and I said, it's because you have a South African doctor. And then I would say to them, well, if you don't treat me well these days, you could end up with seven flu injections for the winter. And then you know it's just a blessing to be amongst these people when we are there. And often they say to me, well, you speak with an accent. And then we would say, well, we don't have an accent. You've got an accent, you know. But it's been tremendous to be able to be. And if you've not been with us, what we have done, we explore this whole understanding from Thursday night, Friday morning, Friday night and twice yesterday and again this evening, this whole concept of how do I learn the language of prayer? And what I've tried to do in these few days is to take 120 hours of material that we sometimes share in these countries, in seminaries, Bible colleges, and try to just bring the cream of that material into what we were about. 11 tremendous words in the Hebrew language that is speaking to us about prayer. Some of the great understandings of Old Testament prayer. When you study the prayers in the Old Testament, that you can't just study those prayers, because they really only give you 25% insight in what the Old Testament understanding of prayer is about. Because it's initiated by God, He answers prayer not necessarily because we are asking, but He answers prayer because He is a covenant keeping God. And when you want to study those Old Testament prayers, you need to come to the understanding of the revelation of God to those saints that we're going to pray. And as a result of the revelation of God, it brought them to an encounter with God. And the combination between the revelation of God and an encounter with God brought them to exploits. Something that they would do for God. And then you will discover the prayer that they prayed. And when you study that prayer, it takes you right back to that first 75% of what it means to come to grips with that prayer. I wish we would have had a Sunday to a Sunday because, of course, we can't do that because of the conference and because of our own schedule that takes us five, seven years sometimes in the future. But you know, it would have been tremendous to explore the 16 moral imperatives of God as it relates to prayer. The different kinds of prayer within the Old Testament. The understanding that three times in the Old Testament, that when the prophets in the Old Testament prophesied about the coming of the Messiah, that they were so affected by the fact that He was going to be the fulfillment of Old Testament prayer. That God was going to become flesh and dwelt among us. And we would have beheld His glory, the glory as the only begotten of the Father. That three times in the Old Testament, that when they prophesied about the coming of the Messiah, that they were so affected by this concept that they used one of those Hebrew words and they referred to Christ as a prayer. Yesterday in our times together, we were going through the New Testament. You know, we just scratched the surface because our minds are so feeble. And some of us in Canada, we don't even have enough brains to give us a headache. And sometimes we can't comprehend all of this. But I said yesterday, because I have the privilege of teaching New Testament theology, and have a great interest in the New Testament, 7957 glorious verses. And when you plow into the Greek New Testament as it relates to prayer, there is the possibility that you can look at almost 24 words in the Greek language that is relating to the understanding of what prayer is about. 261 passages related to the work and the ministry of the Holy Spirit. And we explore the New Testament tabernacle of prayer. Six possible words that became the pillars as they relate to prayer. The roof of this New Testament tabernacle, which takes us to maybe 12 possible words. The ropes that is holding that roof down, which will take us to another six words in the New Testament. I am so glad my wife Janice is not with me this morning, because she always says to me, Danny, don't become too analytical. I love figures and numbers, you know. 180,552 words in the New Testament. 4,366,405 letters in the Scripture. Don't you tell my wife I told you that. But you know, brother and sister, it's tremendous. Because when you bring the New Testament together, In fact, let me tell you something, you know. I sit in planes for 80 to 90 days of the year. And I can't stand flying. God gave me a promise one day and said, Lo, I'm with you. I can't stand flying. But you know, I've learned to utilize the time. And if you spend three hours every day on the New Testament, you will be able to listen through the New Testament 40 times every single year. Maybe you think this is absolutely ridiculous. But I've been doing this for about 35 years. You say, what have you been doing? If you write out 17 verses of the Old Testament every day by hand, every four years you write out the whole of the Old Testament. Because I have an interest in languages and the beauty of pictures that is coming unto us from the Hebrew and the Greek texts of the New Testament, I just love to do that. In fact, you say, how do you do that? Fifteen verses of the Old Testament, I should say every day, takes you through the Old Testament every four years. And about 17 to 18 verses of the New Testament takes you through the New Testament every 15 to 18 months. And so you say, how do you do that? I've got other writers in my right hand, so I write the Old Testament out of my right hand, and I write the New Testament out of my left hand. Thank God, He's the only one that's able to understand my writing when it comes to that. And my dear precious wife often says to me, Daddy, I think what is happening with your left hand is that you are developing this side of your brain. You know, she's a typical, calm, cool, calculated Canadian. Anyway, brethren and sisters, it's God's Word, you know. And that's why Paul said to Timothy, study to show yourself a proof unto God, a workman not needeth to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. That's why Paul said to Timothy, Timothy was the young man in whom he invested his life and mentored him. And he said to Timothy, all Scripture is given by inspiration of God. It is profitable for reproof and for correction and for instruction in righteousness. That's why the Apostle Paul said, when he spoke about the spirit-filled life, and he said in Ephesians 5, be not drunk with wine wherein there is an excess, and he used the present imperative mood, and he said, be being filled to the Spirit. And then he gave us these incredible consequences of being filled to the Spirit. You say, what did he say? He said, singing to yourselves in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. You say, what is that? That's spiritual worship. Then he would go further and he spoke about spiritual submissiveness. He said, wise, submit yourselves to your husbands as unto the Lord. That's spiritual submissiveness. And then the Apostle Paul speaks of spiritual sacrifice. What did he say? He said, husbands, love your wives as Christ loved a church, and He gave Himself for it. Why? So that He might sanctify it by the washing of the Word. That's why he said to the church at Colossae, he said, let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly. That's why Jesus said, heaven and earth shall pass away, but my Word shall abide forever. That's why Christ said in John 15, if you abide in Me, and my Word shall abide in you, you shall ask whatever you will. And I sometimes find seminary students, and they would say, isn't that amazing? I can ask what I will because Jesus said, if you abide in Me, and my Word abides in you, you shall ask whatever you will, and you shall receive it. And I staggered, you know, at the arrogance of the ignorance of the simplicity of the foolishness in understanding Scripture. And I said, you have no idea what you are speaking about. Because the condition is, Jesus said, if you abide in Me, brethren and sisters, that means that God has come and put the sentence of death upon the self-life. And that means that His Word abides in me. And if we come to the place where we have abandoned ourselves to Christ, and come to the place in the life of the Apostle Paul, when he said, I am crucified with Christ and nevertheless I live, and yet not I Christ, liveth in me. And he said, the life which I now live in the flesh, how do I live it? I live it by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me. That's the crucified life. You say, what does it cost? It costs absolutely everything. If you are a young person in this service this morning, or a student that is studying theology, you only have one life to live. You can't mess around with it, because it's going to cost you more to miss the will of God than it's going to cost you to find it and your relationship with God. And so you say, what is it? Brethren and sisters, it's the Word of God. Why are you saying that, you say to me this morning? Do you know why I'm saying that to you? Because you can't take people forever spiritually than you are yourself. We can only impart to people that which I possess. Seventy-five percent of my growth is determined by what I read. God does not bypass the mind. I've been born with a personality, but it's in the process of building up Christian character. And I need to saturate myself with the reality of what Scripture is about. And you know, in those 248 passages in the New Testament, there are 12 aspects of New Testament prayer that we will be able to contemplate. And we've begun to do that. And this evening, we're going to try and bring this thing somehow into the harbor. I mean, it's impossible to be able to share the depth of you when it comes to the understanding of prayer. Can I share with you a secret this morning? Brethren and sisters, I learned to pray on a mountain on our farm in Africa with six black African pastors. Men that would say to me that you can't walk with God on the basis of what you're trying to accomplish for God. But they would say to me, ministry is the consequences of walking with God. And they would spend days and nights of prayer and fasting on that mountain. Fasting to them was praying without words. When I learned to pray with these men, you know what I learned about prayer? I'm collecting books on prayer. I have about 800 old classics and books in my library as it relates to prayer. But you know what I learned about these men? You never get to the place where you know how to pray. It's not the times that you spend with God. It's the times that God is spending with you. You see, we know so much about the Word of God, and yet the Scriptures know so little about us. And I would ask these men and say, how many hours do you spend in prayer? And they would look at me in astonishment. I mean, they would go for 40 days of prayer and fasting. They would come to grips with the Hebrew word, which is the word masah that speaks about the burden of God and how this burden of God, theologically speaking, brings brokenness and cleansing and brings into our lives a realm of the Spirit of God. And now it leads us to a spirit of prayer. And now the spirit of prayer leads us to the will of God in prayer. And now the will of God in prayer is surrounded by the promises. And these men would say to me, we don't know how many hours we spent in prayer, but we very seldom go through an hour without praying. So what was about them? They were intoxicated with the consciousness of the centrality and the supremacy and the purity and the passion and the unction of God that brought them to a place where they live a Christian life that demanded a supernatural explanation. You say, what did it cost him? It cost him absolutely everything. Absolutely everything. And it's been great to be here in this tonight. I really trust... You know, there are some of us here and you only come to church on a Sunday morning. Listen, brother and sister, it's not what you've come to receive this morning, it's what you've brought into the service. And you see, when we speak about the concept of a Christian life, there's a staggering statement that breaks my heart. And I find myself many times weeping in the presence of God. Because Jesus turned to those early disciples and He said to them, as my Father has sent me, He said, so sent are you. Do you know what that means? It means I only have one life to live. And only that which is done for Christ is going to last. We're not taking anything with us, you know. Nothing. I mean, you can have a million dollars in the bank and you're not going to take one cent with you. You can bury it with yourself, but you're not going to take one cent. Just one life. We have some material there. I was a bit frightened last night. We've been giving out a lot of material. And last night all my notes and stuff were there and I was speaking to Dr. Paul as we were standing there and I watched people and they were jumping into my own personal notes and I got frightened, you know. Because we often are in a Chinese church in the lower mainland of Vancouver in British Columbia. You need to come to this church. They have eight Sunday services. They preach the same message eight times on a Sunday. 6.30 in the morning till almost 9 o'clock at night. And I gave them a lot of material and I don't know how this happened, but one of the sheets in my own quiet times where I wrote down a lot of things that God was speaking to me personally about. Things that I was struggling with and God was dealing with me about those issues in my life. And that sheet of notes got into those notes and these Chinese people grabbed it and they made copies, brother and sister. And when I got the copies afterwards, here's one of his copies, I thought, oh no! And I said to them, I said, listen, that one copy is personal. Oh, they said, we read it and we liked it and we apply it. And I thought, I'm never going back to that church again. I want to speak to you this morning and you know our time is limited. This country of Australia, you know time runs twice as fast because you're down under. And people keep calling me mate and I'm not sure if it's cellmate or what kind of a mate is it. But I need just three other brothers to come. I want to speak to you about Christian growth this morning and I would like us to give out this material. And so, if you could just run it through us. I think we have enough copies. Can you give our brother some of this and then we just go quick. Just so that we don't waste our time. I think we should have enough copies this morning. And if we do not have enough, maybe you can share with your husband or your wife. If you can't do that, you need to come to us for counseling. But I think you should be able to do that. So, turn with me in your Bible. You should have a sheet in front of you. Really want to encourage you to be with us this evening in our last session together. But turn with me in your Bible to 2 Peter 3. 2 Peter 3. And just for the sake of our time, let's break into that chapter. We've been sitting for quite some time. And I'm going to ask you that we stand for the reading of the word of God. And we'll just be able to change our positions. 2 Peter 3. 2 Peter 3. Verse number 12. Looking for and hastening unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with a fervent heat. Now, nevertheless, we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of Him in peace, without spot and blameless. And on account of the long suffering of our Lord Jesus, His salvation, even as our beloved brother Paul, also according to the wisdom given unto Him, have written unto you. As also in all His epistles, speaking in them are these things in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are in learnt and unstable rest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction. But ye, therefore, beloved, seeing that ye know these things before, beware, lest ye also be led away where the error of the wicked. Fall from your own steadfastness, but grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, to Him be glory both now and forever. Amen. You may be seated. Let's just pray together. Our Heavenly Father, it's been a tremendous encouragement to be able to be in this beautiful little congregation over this weekend. We want to humble ourselves again this morning before you because there has been moments in these sessions when there were many of us at the altar of our church and many of us on our knees and our hearts became broken in the presence of God because we came to the realization that as it relates to prayer, that we will never really be able to know how to pray. Father, that being in the school of Christ as it relates to prayer, that one of the things that would happen to us is that we would feel that we are running into the ocean and we've gone so deep as it relates to prayer. And then we feel we can't go any further and when we stopped, we looked and it seems to us the water has just come to the ankles. And God, I'm so grateful that You've never allowed me to be involved in a conference like this weekend without meeting with God in my own personal relationship with Him. Father, I've been so thankful that there has been moments in that room where I have stayed that my own heart has become so humiliated and smashed up and I found myself, spiritually speaking, disintegrated under the awesome understanding that the God that we are serving is the One that initiates prayer. And Father, my heart has been burdened. And I want to ask You again that as we understand the burden of God, that You will help us to learn how to dissect the burden of God and that You will help us to systematically persevere and prevail and pray this thing through to You. And Father, my heart has been burdened for these men and women that I have been in these services. And we want to say to You this morning, Father God, we are not interested in a church that will be full of people, but the longing of our hearts has been that we will be in a church that will be full of people, that will be full of God. And we do not want experiences, Father, that is a mile wide and an inch deep. But it's the burden of our hearts that when You come to us, that You will reach into the depth of our relationships with You and that we will be able to surrender ourselves to You and that we will never be the same. And Father, You know this Sunday morning that there is probably a very small possibility of being able to have the privilege of being back in this fellowship for possibly many, many years. And yet, it's been a marvelous blessing to be able to spend time with men and women who know what it means to be hungry and thirsty after God. We want to pray this morning for our pastor and for his wife. And Father, I felt so awful these days not having the privilege of meeting them and the struggle of coming to the church without the senior pastor being here. And yet, God, it's been a blessing upon my heart to trust You every single day that in this time of refreshing for them physically and emotionally and spiritually there in the beautiful land of Israel, that all that God the Holy Spirit who is omnipresent, God is omniscient, and that God is omnipotent, that somehow, Father, the same consciousness of the presence of God that we experienced here, that You would reach down into their hearts and in their lives. And we know that they have been praying for us. And Father, I pray this morning as they will probably listen to this material in the days and the weeks to come. Oh, God, we pray that You will bless our pastor in an abundant way. We thank You this morning for his life and his ministry. We thank You that in his heart is there a longing to see this church becoming a praying church. This church becoming a church where people would live a Christian life that will demand a supernatural explanation. That this will become a place where men and women will not sit here on a Sunday morning and be half-born, but men and women will sit here with a desire and a passion to become intoxicated with a centrality and a hunger and a thirst after the life of the Lord Jesus. We ask You this morning that this would not just become a praying church, but, oh, God, we pray that this church will become a soul-saving agency. Men and women who drive past here probably 5,000 or 10,000 cars easily every day, that there will be a moment when You would pour out Your Spirit upon this place. And that the amazing, unexplainable reality of the immersion of the presence of God will draw them into this sparking lot. And they will come into this place with an unquenchable hunger and a thirst to make peace with God and their relationships with You. Father, thank You this morning. Now we've come to Your Word. Our time is so brutally limited. And yet, Father, we ask of You, as we spend these few minutes in the Scriptures, that You would come to minister to us fresh and anew in our relationships with God, because we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. The life in the ministry of the Apostle Peter in the New Testament is an unbelievable and an unexplainable life that determines to us an understanding of what Christian growth is all about in the Scriptures. From the moment that he was invited to become a follower of Christ and he was instructed by the Lord Jesus Christ and he was inspired by the life of Christ, will you discover that in the life and the ministry of Peter, if there is a word that dominated his relationship with God, then it's this word Christian growth. And when you study the life of the Apostle Peter, and I've often said to my wife and daughter, you know, Peter was one of those disciples because of the impulsiveness of his personality and the fact that he was a total extrovert. He was one of those followers of Christ that, brethren and sisters, when someone or when there was an aspect of pressure upon them, if there was someone that wanted to say something, it was the Apostle Peter. Quite often he said things that was totally out of place. In fact, I looked some time ago at the life and the ministry of the Apostle Peter and as I was looking at, you know, I was so struck by that moment. Do you remember when Peter and James and John came out of Gethsemane with the Lord Jesus? In the Gospel of Luke, who was written by Luke the historian and the physician, who gave us around 15 technical medical terms in the Greek language, but Luke gives us such an incredible description of what happened in that incident. And you remember when Christ came out of Gethsemane and as He was coming out of Gethsemane, Peter and James and John were with the Lord Jesus. And when Judas Iscariot and that group of people who came to capture the Lord Jesus, when they came to Him, Judas kissed the Lord Jesus Christ, and when he did that, you remember Peter, the disciple, did an amazing thing. The Bible says he took out a sword and he cut the ear of a man with the name of Malchus. And I look at that incident and I was so struck by this. And I said to my wife, I said, you know, I suspect that the only reason why he cut that man's ear off was probably because he simply missed his head. You see, if you look at the life of Peter, brother and sister, that was what his life was all about. That's why when you would study his life in the Gospel of Mark, that was to a degree, theologically speaking, dictated as the young Mark probably sat at his feet and he was telling them about the life of Christ. In the first 12 chapters of the Acts of the Apostles in 1 and 2 Peter, you will discover that he often speaks about development. He often speaks about Christian growth. And so he's coming unto us in his epistle and he's saying unto us in that 105 verses in 1 and 2 Peter, he speaks about adding unto your faith. He speaks to us about cultivating. And then, brother and sister, he's coming unto us this morning and this morning's service and he makes a statement and he said to us, but grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Savior, the Lord Jesus. He didn't say grow into grace, but he said grow in grace. I want to speak to you in this little time that we have available about the subject of Christian growth. You see, I do not know this Sunday morning if we will be able to see one another again in five or ten years' time if the Lord would have tarried to come. But if we would have been able to sit down and I gave you those 20 questions on accountability that we share with men in different countries and pastors, and I would ask you those questions, where are you in your relationship with God? What have you been reading in your times, in your personal times with God? What has God been saying to you? Do you have friends in the world? Or do you have worldly friends? Friends in the world that you reach out for Christ? And I would ask you, and we would look at one another and I would say, have you been growing in your relationship with God? I wonder what you and I would be able to say to one another. You see, life is an ongoing process. Brother and sister, life never stands still. And you and I cannot receive Christian growth unless we have received the life of Christ. I want to speak to you this morning in the little time that we have available on three possible aspects of Christian growth. I want us to look at the dynamics of Christian growth. Secondly, if we would have the time, I want us to consider not just the dynamics, but the direction of Christian growth. And thirdly, if we would have had time today, I want us to consider the demands of Christian growth. You know, when I was a student at seminary, my professors always used to say to me, you always will have enough too much material. And you know, my dear and precious wife Janice, she would often say to me, because what happens in countries where we get to the first point of the first point of the first point of the first point. And we were in the city of New York in a Korean church of about 6,000 people. They prayed together every morning from 5 to 7 o'clock. And every morning from 5 to 6, I had to speak to them, not in Korean through a translator, for an hour in the theology of prayer. And then they would pray. And one night I was speaking on Christian growth and my wife turned to me and she said, Daddy, I want to challenge you. And I said, what is it? She said, I want to challenge you tonight to finish your whole message. You know what I did, brother and sister? I took the last point first and I worked my way back up and I did it. And she lost it. She had to pay for lunch the next day, you know. Well, listen, we're not going to have time here this morning. I wish we would have had time to look at the demands of Christian growth. How do you and I promote Christian growth? How do you and I protect Christian growth? You say, what is the direction of Christian growth? Brother and sister, it is incredible. Because you see, when the Apostle Peter came and he said to us, grow in grace, you know what he said? This understanding of growing in grace, you will discover that the grace of God is not only God's unmerited favor towards us, but it's also God's unmeasured fullness in us. And when you and I would speak about the direction of what growing in grace is all about, you will discover three things. It is a downward growth in my capacity to receive the fullness of God. It is an upward growth in my capacity to perceive the fullness of God. And you know what happens? The combination between a downward growth when God comes to my Christian life and He puts the sentence of death upon the Christian life, and He brings me to the place where He cleansed me from the sin that I am conscious of, and He put me into a life where I began to live a life in the fullness of the Spirit of God, and the understanding of complete surrender, and the crucified life. When that happens, my friend says, it's wonderful. He is not just leading me in the understanding of cleansing. But the second aspect of the direction is simply this. He brings me to the place where it becomes an upward growth in my understanding to perceive the fullness of God. And I discover the fullness of the life of Christ. And you say, what's the consequences of that? Ah, it's tremendous. The combination between this downward growth as it relates to the grace of God and this upward growth brings me to the place in my relationship with God, brother and sister, where it becomes an outward growth in my relationship with God. That's why the Lord Jesus said in John 7, the last day, the great day of the feast, when He stood up and He said, If any man thirsts, let him come unto Me. He said, He that believeth into Me, as the Scripture says, rivers of living water shall flow from the innermost of his being. Why did He say that? He spoke about the Spirit because Christ was not yet glorified and the Spirit was not yet come. And He spoke about the force of this river. And He spoke about the source of this river. He said, If any man come to Me, and He spoke about the cause of the greatness of the river of God. So you say, well, what is it? I want to touch down on the dynamics. Our time is limited, but you're not allowed to look upon your watch, otherwise we take up an offering and you lose it this morning. Give me a few minutes to explore this with you. You say, what are the dynamics of Christian growth? How do I know that my life is changing? Brethren and sisters, three things. There is the communication of the truth of the Word of God. There is the fertilization of the seed of the Word of God. And there is the manifestation of the life of the Word. You say, Gerard, what do you mean by the communication of the Word of God? My friends, would you allow me to suggest to you this morning, there is no possibility for you and for me to be able to grow as a Christian, unless we expose ourselves to the communication of the truth of the Word. You see, if I do not expose myself to this, and I don't want you to misunderstand me, but this is the weakness of some of these so-called evangelical movements today in the church that are focusing upon manifestations and experiences and everything that you can think of in the Christian church today. You say, what is their deficiency? They move from experience to the exposition of Scripture. And you say, Gerard, what do they do? They interpret God's Word in the light of experience. And they isolate the Scriptures. And if the Scriptures does not fit into the realm of their experience, you know what they do? They simply bypass it and they would not accept it for one single moment because of the weakness of the theological understanding of what the Scriptures is all about. So you say, what needs to happen? I need to expose myself to the communication of the Word of God. And I wonder this Sunday morning if you would allow me to ask you in this service, my brother or my sister, are you spending time in God's Word? Can I ask you this morning, is God still speaking to us through His Word? Are you afraid of the great doctrines of what Scripture is all about? Would you allow me to ask you in this morning's service, if someone would come to your house three o'clock tomorrow morning and stand at the door of your house and you open that door, and as you would open that door, suddenly this person would stand there and say, you know, I only have thirty minutes to live. Can you explain to me God's plan of salvation? Would you be able to sit down with that person and systematically explain to them God's plan of salvation? It takes me three hours in North America to do it because we look at man's condition, we look at God's provision, we look at man's responsibility, we look at the promise of God, and three to four hours sometimes I systematically go through God's plan of salvation. I let them read it. We discuss it. You say, why do you do that? Because when you lead someone to Christ, you are doing the most important thing that you can ever do in your life. And you're going to stand before God for what I've done with this person. A pastor said to me some time ago, why do you spend so much time with people that want to come to Christ? Do you know what I said to him? It saved me so much time in the future. You don't have to run after them to find out that they have been half-born, Brethren and Sisters. No, no. I share conferences in my homeland of Africa with a man that was regarded as one of the greatest men of God amongst the African people. His name was Dr. William Murray. And he was a brilliant man. I mean, he could quote the Hebrew and the Greek texts to you without even thinking about the reality of what he's speaking about. And we were doing conferences together. You know, I was just a little poor, poor fellow. I often felt I wish I could just clean his shoes. I mean, this man was amazing. But you know, he was in Cape Town and he was in a church. And while he was in this church, the Sunday night after the service, a nurse came into the vestry of his church. And as she came into the vestry of his church, she turned to me and she said to him, Dr. Billy, she said, you know that I'm a Christian? And he said, yes. And she said, I'm a nurse. And he said, yes. And he said, I look into her eyes and as I look into her eyes, he said, there were these terrible dark marks underneath her eyes. And he said, I knew there was something wrong. She said, I haven't slept for days. And he said, but you're a Christian. What is wrong? And she turned to him and she said, Dr. Billy, she said, I'm a nurse and I'm in the Groteskir Hospital. And she said, this last week while I was there, there was an awful accident. And she said, while that accident took place, she said, I heard the siren of the ambulance coming in. And she said, while I was in the hospital, she said, I knew that they were going to bring this person into the emergency surgery. And she said, as the ambulance stopped and the doors opened, and of course, they were rushing him, there was this long passage in this hospital and she said, I was coming down this passage and she said, when the doors opened and they were rushing this man through, she said, I knew that this was so urgent. And she said, when they were coming, she said, I had to stand like this. And she said, as I was standing like this, they were bringing this man. And in a distance, she said, he was covered with blood. She said, I knew that this was life or death. And she said, as I was standing there, I saw him in a distance and as they brought him, she said, he had been covered with blood. She said, it was awful, but he was able to shout at the top of his voice and all that he was able to say was, I'm dying, I'm dying. Is there someone who can help me to find God? And she said, as I was standing like this, oh, she said, there was a moment when he came. And she said, when he came close, she said, he was just blood. She said, the one eye was gone. And she said, I knew. And she said, through the other eye, somehow he was able to see me. And when he came to me, he just stretched. And she said, he grabbed me like this and he held me. And she said, as he was holding me with his nails in my flesh, he looked at me and he said, nurse, I'm dying, I'm dying. Can you help me to find God? And she said, I took my hand away because I didn't know what to say. And she said, five minutes later, he was gone. I want to ask you this morning, Reverend Sister, where do we stand when it comes to the exposition of God's Word? Communication of the truth of the Word as it relates to consecration. Would you allow me to ask you this Sunday morning, have you surrendered your life totally to God? It's my life and the other for God. Listen, Reverend Sister, there must be a reason why the Apostle Paul said in Romans chapter 12, I beseech you by the mercies of God. And these are two incredible words in the Greek language. The word beseech is the depth of a cry of the heart of the Apostle Paul when he speaks about this abandoned life for the Lord Jesus. When he said, for me to live is Christ and to die is gain. And when he said, Lord, what do You want me to do on the way to Damascus? And when he said, Lord, what will Thou have me to do? He called upon the Lordship of Christ. He said, Lord. He was concerned about the will of God. He said, Lord, what will? He called upon the presence of God. He said, what will Thou? He called upon the activity of God. He said, what will Thou have? He called upon His own responsibility. He said, me. He called upon the work of God. He said, what will Thou have me to do? And he sold himself totally out to God. Consecration. Can I ask you this morning, brother and sister? Is our lives consecrated to God? Totally surrendered? Totally given over? Nothing in my hands I bring simply to Thy cross-cycling. My life and its relationships, my body and its instincts, my mind and its thoughts. You see, everything that you are watching, if it's a movie on a video where no one else could see you, when you are supposed to be doing something for God, what are you doing as a young person? You are forcing the Holy Spirit to watch it with you. My heart and its affections. My mind and its thoughts. You say, what? They need to be surrendered to God. The communication of the truth of the Word. Do you know what I think this Sunday morning? I think there are some of us here this morning and if you absolutely be honest with yourself, you've never been born of the Spirit. You're not saved. You do not know Christ as your personal Savior. You say, I made a commitment. Listen, I've gone through the waters of baptism. I sat there this morning and I thought, now that must be baptismal. And I thought, how do they get in there and how do they get out? And I'm not going to ask you. You don't have to tell me. Okay? That's between the pastor and the leadership of the church. And probably his son. So, you can sit here. Brethren and sisters, you could have gone through the waters of baptism. It didn't do a thing to you. You could have become a member of a church. Listen, I find myself in hundreds of independent Baptist churches. Don't spend all my life because you're in 30, 40 other countries. But I find myself in hundreds. And some of them, listen, I can take you to churches and we could sit to 6,000 people on Sunday morning. You know how many comes to the prayer meeting on Wednesday night? About 300 or 200 people. And I want to tell you this morning, I don't want you to misunderstand me. But if you sit here this morning and there's no hunger for God, you are doing things because of that which is legalism. You say, what is legalism? Legalism is when my convictions determine my relationship with God. You say, Gerard, what is the opposite of legalism? It's when I have a relationship with God and my life is so vibrant with the presence of God that there are things that I do and there are things that I don't do as a Christian. And the things that I don't do is because I've got no desire to do them. And the things that I do is because there's an intoxication of love in my heart for God. We talked about Romania this morning. I wish I could tell you about Romania. We don't have time. But let me tell you something about Hungary. We are involved in Eastern Europe and it's an amazing situation. And brother and sister in Hungary, that incredible country, you know what happened? Hungary was under the most brutal communism and when Hungary was under communism, there was a young man in Hungary that we discovered some time ago and his name was Thomas Bouras. And Thomas Bouras was against communism. And so when communism came, when those Russian tanks at the end of the Second World War moved into Eastern Europe and they took a bunch of young communists, a handful of them, and they put them in charge of the countries. They took a young man with the name of Ceaușescu, who was 19 years old, and they put him in charge of Romania. And the brutality of communism came. And here this is 25 year old, young Hungarian, Thomas Bouras. And because he was against communism, you know what they did? They put him in prison. Do you know what happened to Thomas Bouras? He spent 50 years in a prison cell. And when communism fell apart in Hungary, this man, Thomas Bouras, now was 75 years old. And when he was 75 years old, when communism fell apart, they went through the prison cells and they found this young man who was a brilliant young man at the age of 25. But now he spent 50 years in a prison in Hungary. And when they found him, brother and sister, he was in a terrible state. He couldn't speak the language anymore. He was speaking a gibberish kind of a thing. And the psychiatrist and the psychologist in Hungary that looked at the situation after communism, they said about Thomas Bouras, listen, the best thing, he's mentally totally disturbed. His faculties are just about... he's an emotional basket case. And they said, listen, the best thing that you can do with him is to take him into a psychiatric asylum and lock him away for the rest of his life. And you know what? There was a psychiatrist. And that psychiatrist went to them and he said, I want to spend time with this man. This man who went to prison when he was 25, sat for 50 years in a prison cell in Hungary, and now he's 75 years old. And they said, what do you want to do with him? Do you want to do experiments? He said, no. He said, I believe that there is a way that we will be able to see this man coming back to society. And brother and sister, this psychiatrist began to spend time with Thomas Bouras. He sat in a prison cell for 50 years. And you know what? Day by day, he associated himself and he spent time with him. And he discovered that the gibberish that he spoke was a dialect. It was a Hungarian dialect. And he was able to say some things. And this psychiatrist began to spend time with him, and time with him. And slowly he was bringing him back into everything. I mean, they never spoke to him. He was just there. And he brought him back into everything. And he was busy for three months working. And they said, how are you doing? He said, I'm getting somewhere. Leave him to me. And day by day, he spent time with Thomas Bouras. And I think, it was about something like six months, when the psychiatrist came to the rest and he said to them, he's ready to go back into society. And they said, what do you mean? There's no way. He said, I think he's ready. And they said, what do you mean? He said, he's speaking the language. I have spent an extensive time with this man. He said, I think it's ready. And they said, could you prove it to us? He said, absolutely. There was a day when all those psychiatrists and psychologists came together. And this psychiatrist went and he got Thomas Bouras. And here was a man, brother and sister, who spent 50 years in prison. Do you know what? In those 50 years, he never saw his face in the mirror. And when they brought Thomas Bouras out and they put him down there, and all those psychiatrists, they were there. And here was this man that was working with him. And he went to him and he said to him, Thomas Bouras, how are you doing? And he said in Hungarian, he said, I'm doing fine. He said, Thomas Bouras, what do you think of society today? And he answered his questions. And then he turned to him, and I don't know if he expected that, but he turned to Thomas Bouras and he said, what's the greatest desire in your heart? And Thomas Bouras turned to him and he said to him, I want to see a mirror. A mirror. You see, for 50 years, he's never seen his own face. You know what happened? They brought him a mirror that was about six feet by about 24 inches. And the psychiatrists didn't expect that, but they brought Thomas Bouras this mirror. And as they brought this mirror, he sat there, and all these people were there, and they brought this mirror and they put it in front of him. And here was a man who was 75 years old, brother and sister. And for 50 years, he hasn't seen his own face. And there was a moment when he looked up. And as he looked up and he saw his own face, it was awful. The last time when he saw himself, he was 25 years old. And when he saw his own face, you know what they said? He was sitting and he looked up, and as he looked into this face, suddenly everything disintegrated. And Thomas Bouras threw his face in his hands. And for the next nine hours, he sobbed in a way that no one could control him. You say, what happened? For 50 years, he's never seen his own face. You say, why do you say that? You know, I meet Christians. I meet men and women that say they know Christ as their personal Savior. And for years, they've never seen themselves in the light of God's Word. Do you ever ask God to give you a vision of yourself? Our time is way gone. Oh! The fertilization of the seed of the Word. Listen. The communication of the truth of the Word as it relates to consecration, as it relates to cleansing. 99 passages in the New Testament speaking about the efficacy of the blood. You say, how do you know that? There's an umbrella in the New Testament. You say, Gerard, what is it? You know what it is, brother and sister? It's called redemption through the blood. And you know what? Under that umbrella, there are nine aspects of the ministry of the blood. Cleansing through the blood. Reconciliation through the blood. Dwelling in the presence of God through the blood. Unity through the blood. Victory through the blood. I mean, these are all passages of Scripture that is saturated in the New Testament about the blood. You say, what do you mean? Cleansing through the blood. Listen to this. The writer to the Hebrews said, how much more shall the blood of Christ cleanse our conscience? From what? From dead works to serve a living God. Ah, you say you missed something. Yes, I did it purposely. Listen to what the Scripture says. How much more shall the blood of Christ through the eternal Spirit... You see, brother and sister, the blood witnessed to the Spirit and the Spirit of God witnessed to the blood. Now the epistle to the Hebrews comes. And it says, how much more shall the blood of Christ through the eternal Spirit cleanse or purify our conscience? From what? From dead works to serve the living God. You say, can you expound this passage to me? Listen to this. You see, the cleansing of the blood, what does it do? It cleanses the conscience. You say, what is my conscience? Dr. Andrew Murray said, my conscience is not just a judge that bears down upon my actions, but he said, in my conscience it bears testimony with my relationship with God. And he said, God's relationship with me. And Murray said, so when the conscience is cleansed, he said, then so is the blood. So is the heart cleansed. You know, the conscience, if you have an interest in the Greek New Testament, is fascinating. You say, what do you mean? Listen, the word conscience is found 32 times in the Greek New Testament. When you study it, brother and sister, there are 12 different kinds of consciousness. Listen to the Apostle John. He said, if we walk in the light, as God is in the light, we have fellowship one with another. And he said, what is happening to us? He said, the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses us from all sin. Would you allow me to explain to you the structure of the beauty of the land which is expressed in imperative moods in the construction of the tents in the New Testament? And you say, what does this mean? He said, the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, keeps on cleansing us from every sin. Brother and sister, if God can keep us from sin for an hour, don't you think it's possible for Him to keep us from sin for two hours? I mean, why do I need sin in my life to become humble before God? It's absolutely rubbish, man. You say, how do I practice this? Let me explain to you. If we walk in the light as God is in the light, what happens? The blood of Jesus Christ keeps on cleansing. You say, Gerard, how does it work? You know how it works, brother and sister. If we put a stone in the river, and I'm not sure if I would put it in the Murray River, that place would look pretty dirty. The politicians fight, and then the companies come and dump all the stuff, and you drink it, and you don't live long. You say, but if there's a nice clean river in Australia, which I don't know if there is, I mean, this is just bogger, bogger land for the bush and the sticks here in this country. And these animals are jumping around, they're called kangaroos. I've just been eating the tail of a kangaroo, you say you're a monster. It's some of the greatest things you can eat in this country. There's a lady here that brought it out there, out of the boonies, and I've been eating this kangaroo tail, and my wife said, you better pray before you eat that stuff. Hey, listen. Listen, brother and sister. You put that stone in the river, what happens? You say, Gerard, what happens? I tell you what happens. The moment when you put it in, the process of cleansing is taking place. And so, as long as you leave it in the river, cleansing is going to take place. You take it out of the river. Listen, this is so simple. I mean, this is just Sunday school stuff, but it's relevant. Can I ask you, have you learned the secret of abiding in Christ? That's how God is keeping us clean, you know. You say, why is it? Because, brother and sister, the Holy Spirit in me is the Holy Spirit. Robert Murray M'Cheyne used to say, I want to be as holy as it is possible for any sinner saved by grace. M'Cheyne used to say, how come the Holy Spirit in me criticised the Holy Spirit in me, and you? M'Cheyne used to say, so much of my time of praying is preparing myself how to pray. The communication of the truth. The fertilisation of the seed. You say, what is that? That's the Holy Spirit. He fertilised the seed. Is there some seed in your life this Sunday morning? Is there? The Spirit of God want to fertilise it? If there's nothing, listen, it's not going to work. But when the seed is there, He fertilise it. He fertilise it. Why? We study the personality of the Holy Spirit for one night when we started on, I think it was Thursday evening, the Holy Spirit. He testifies the life of Christ. He will be in you and He will be with you. He shall become your teacher. He convince of sin and of righteousness and of judgement. You see, that's His ministry. He fertilised. And then, brother and sister, you know what's the consequences. Let me tell you this. This is wonderful. You say, what is it? It's the manifestation of the life of the world. I love that word in the Greek language. You know what it is? It's funeral. We don't have time. 38 times in the New Testament you find this word. Manifestation. Manifestation. God comes and He manifests Himself. My time is gone. And I want to close. And you're still not allowed to look at your watch. Let me close. You know, my dear wife and my daughter, Janice and Monica, I've got a picture of them here. And Monica is 70. She's going to go to Bible college. And I said, you are the first young man that wants to come and visit her. One day needs to spend five days with me in prayer and fasting. And when I was in Peru, there were a whole bunch of pastor's sons that said, we do that. So, I changed the philosophy. It's 40 days now. But there she is. She's just a beautiful little thing. Why? Because, of course, you know, all our daughters are beautiful. But you know what? Janice and Monica and myself, we are a small little family. And Janice, Monica and myself, we love animals. I mean, we absolutely love animals. My wife is a typical Canadian. She don't care one bit about animals. Last night, I mentioned to the folks that were here, there was a time when we had a hamster and he died. And Monica still believed that he went to Jesus. I was ready to have him for breakfast. And because we love animals, we had a snake and he got out of the fish tank. And Janice was up the wall, ready to sleep on the ceiling to get rid of a snake. And so, we love animals. We've got two golden retrievers. And we've got a cat. Because I wanted to become a vet. And I was brought up in Africa. And we were on horseback and those kind of things. And do you know what happened, brother and sister? I think Monica was about, I don't know, exactly maybe 12 or 11 years old. And she came to me one day when we lived out there in British Columbia. And she said to her daddy, you wouldn't believe it. I said, what? She said, I've got the local newspaper here in my hand. I said, oh. She said, here in the local newspaper there's someone who wants to get rid of a parrot. I mean, you live in a beautiful country. I saw six parrots in one day at the Easter weekend. I couldn't believe it. Different kinds of parrots. And she said, they want to get rid of this parrot. I said, Monica, there must be something wrong with it. She said, daddy, you wouldn't believe it. It's an African grey. You know, they're amazing. They speak up to 1,500 words. And I said, Monica, I don't think it's going to work. Oh, dad, she said, just look at it. And I saw this ad. This fellow said, I'm looking for a good home for my African grey parrot. And it was virtually nothing. Hardly wanted anything for the thing. And so she said, what do you think? And you know, if it was just a normal Australian parrot, you know, I would say, oh well. But it was an African grey. And I read it and read it. And she said, let's talk to mommy. Now, in our little house, there are three of us in the house, and we live in a democracy. Anything that takes place, we take up a vote. Monica and myself, we love animals. And mommy is in trouble. 50% majority all the time. Just like Australia. You say, what happens? I said to Janice, what do you think? She said, I don't want it. I said, well, my darling, you know, we just go the democratic way. And here we go. And so I phoned this fellow up, and he lifted the phone up, and I said, you've got a parrot? I said, yes. He said, how do you do with animals? I said, well, to be honest with you, we love animals. We've never had a parrot. He said, what do you have? I said, we have two dogs. We've got a cat. We've had some other things. We did have a cockatiel, and this thing laid egg after egg after egg. He just thought there's something medically wrong with this thing. We have to get rid of her. Her name was Daisy. And so he has this parrot, and he discovered that we love parrots. And then he said, you know, I really would like you to take this. And I said to him, why are you doing this? There must be something wrong with this bird. No. He said, there's nothing wrong. We had it since it was a baby, but my girlfriend and myself have split up. The parrot is alone in an apartment, and he said, the thing is lonely, but I'm very careful to whom I would let this parrot go. And so we kept talking, and you know what he said? He said, listen, I really think this could be the place. We were about five or six persons that phoned. He said, I think this is the place. He said, in fact, he said, would you let me do that? I said, what? He said, can I bring the parrot to your house, in its cage, and you leave it there for a number of days, and if you don't want it, I take it back. And so I said, well, there's one other question. He said, what is it? I said, this parrot, does it talk? Oh, yes, he said, this thing talks like anything. I said, ok, I understand. I said, this parrot, I said, does it swear? I mean, I don't want a parrot in my house that swears, you know. I mean, the thing is lost anyway. And so he said, no, no, this parrot doesn't swear. And do you know what happened, brother and sister? He brought the parrot into our house. It's African grey. I said, what is it? Is it a male or a female? Oh, he said, it's a male. I said, what's his name? His name is Spike. Ha! You know what we discovered? We did a DNA test. It was a female. Janice said, what do you think? I said, you know, Canada, such a mess with homosexuality. I said, I guess they don't care. You know? Anyway, we had to change the name and we called her Abby. And Abby was in our house. And you know what happened? Folks, that parrot came into our house, beautiful cage, but you know, she's never seen a cat. She's never seen a dog. And she didn't know us. And here she is in the house, and this thing wouldn't say a word. And Janice said to me, he lied. I said, what do you mean? She said, this thing is as quiet as a mouse. I said, man, listen. She doesn't know us. She needs to get to know us. I said, let's just check it out. And brother and sister, you know, for three or four days, all that this bird would do, would sit there in every movement in the house. She would spire it out like the KGB. And I forgot about this thing one morning. I get up normally five o'clock in the morning. I get up early in the morning and I went into the kitchen, want to make myself some coffee, go into my study to have my quiet time. And I came into the kitchen and I honestly forgot about this parrot. And while I was making kitchen, it was dead quiet in the house. And suddenly, hello? Oh, brother. I just about flipped, you know. I don't know if you ever heard of the man who broke into the house. And when he broke into the house, there was a parrot in a cage, covered. And then when he broke into this house, he heard this voice. And the voice said, Jesus is watching you. So the man said, he lifted the thing up and he said to the parrot, What's your name? And the parrot said, Moses. And he said, Who's Jesus? And the parrot said, Jesus is the Rottweiler watching you. I mean, he just got out there. But you know, here's the thing. And he said, Hello. And I just about flipped, brother and sister. And this simple bird began to talk. You know, I couldn't believe it. I mean, you talk about the split personality. Three ways of answering the phone. Cell phone, portable phone, normal phone. And this thing picked words up. You wouldn't believe it. I mean, you watch the functions of the body. Because every sound that you make, doesn't matter where it comes from, the bird picks it up. We began to sneeze. And Janice would say, Gerard. And I would sit down in my study and hear this voice. Gerard. And then I ran out. I said, where are you? And it's the parrot. It's me. And Janice would say, Gerard, I really love you. And exactly, this is voice. I mean, Janice never do that. Ten times in a row. Gerard, I really love you. Gerard, I really love you. And I said to Janice, we've got a problem here in our marriage. She said, don't worry. It's just a parrot. Hey, you know what happened, brother and sister? When we got that parrot, we couldn't get into the cage, you know. Not one bit. She didn't know us the first few days. I would open the cage, put my hand in. Bam! She would bite me. So I would put a glove in and put some food in. And she got to know me. And Abby got to know me and got used to the fact that we've changed her gender and everything. We didn't change it. But anyway, that she's different. And you know what happened? Brother and sister, one day I opened the cage. And when I opened the cage, she was kind of coming towards me. And I put the glove out. And lo and behold, she climbed on my hand. And I thought, oh, this is wonderful. And I want to come out. And she wouldn't. Just jumped back in. And so as I spent time with her, you know what happened? One day I took the glove off and I would go and work away in there. She didn't bite me. I put the food down. She comes down to eat it. And then one day I took a risk, you know. I mean, you only have five fingers. And you know, it's like the butcher when he orders four cups of coffee. That's how he does it, you know. And I don't want to lose my finger, you know. And so I said, what are you going to do? And I said, I'm going to try this. And she said what? She said, I'm going to put my finger in. And you know, I'm an African and I've got loose joints. When I was in school, I sat in front of the class and I would do this, you know. And she said, don't do this. Don't do this. I said, no I won't. So I just went with my hand and boy, the risk. And I came close to her and she looked at me and she climbed right onto my hand. When I bring her out, she wouldn't do it. I just kept going. Just kept going. Put my hand in, she climbed on. And then one day I was allowed to bring her out and I brought her out into the house. Janice Monica was looking and then she looked at us and she flew back into the cage. And so one day I opened the cage and she came and she had the streak. We didn't know this. She had the streak, you see. And you would open the cage, she would come and she hang upside down on the door, not the door, the little bar there. And she hang upside down when the cage is open and she was looking at you and I went to her and my wife said, what do you think she wanted? I said, I don't know, we're going to find out. And I went and I put my two hands under her. And brother and sister, when I put my two hands under her, she would move. And I was lifting her, she just looked at me and thought, no, I don't trust you. And so every day she would do it and that's what I would do. I hold her and I said, Abby, I said, you can trust me. And you know what happened? One day, she was hanging upside down and I was holding her. And brother and sister, there was a moment when that one little claw went. And so I was holding her but she wouldn't let go. She was hanging there and she was looking at me. You know like the man who fell over the cliff and grabbed his branch and he was hanging and he shouted up and he said, he said, anyone up there? And a voice came and it was the voice of God and said, I'm here, right here. And he said, what do you want me to do? And God said, I want you to let go. And the man shouted back up and said, is there anyone else up there? You know, just like that. She was hanging in the water and I went day after day after day after day. And there was a day, brother and sister, when I put my two hands under Abbey and I lifted her up and by that time she knew me. She knew I was not going to hurt her. And she let that one claw go and she was hanging in the other claw and I just assured her and Janice the moniker was standing there and I just assured her and just assured her and when that other little claw and she was lying in the palm of my hand right on her back with those little claws like that and feet like that and she was lying like that and I thought, I see me. And I took her out and I began to walk and walk and walk and walk and Janice the moniker was standing there and I came closer and I said, look at this. I said, she's trusting me. You can trust the one that gave his life for you, you know. He's not going to drop you. There's nothing to fear. So, let me ask you. Where are you? How can I hold my life back from one that sticketh closer than a brother? Who is it? Jesus, the Son of God. Let's stand to prayer, shall we? Our God and our Father, we thank you this morning. It's been such a blessing. I felt so bad right through these evenings because we are dealing with a group of people that are so hungry for you. And Father, we have gone over our time brutally in these times together and legitimately, probably I should never be able to be allowed to come back here. And yet, God has been graciously in our midst. And God has been speaking to us. And God has been touching our lives. My brother and my sister, I want to ask you this morning. I'm not going to ask you to come to the altar of a church. I'm not going to ask you to do anything. But what I want to ask you is one simple thing. If you stand here this morning and you say, Gerard, can you just pray for me because I want to be like Abby. I really want God to have every aspect of my life. And I'm afraid to trust Him. I'm afraid I'm going to get hurt. I'm afraid I'm going to get burned. And yet, in my heart, I know that the will of God will never leads me where the grace of God will not be able to keep me. And so I wonder this morning as we stand, if you are here and you say, you know, I just want to say that to God. Would you just pray for me? Could you just, one moment, while our eyes are closed, just put up your hand and sit. Pray for me and then take your hand down again. Thank you. Many of our hands. Put it down again. So, I really want to let God have everything. Anyone else? Thank you. Father God, You saw our hearts during these days. You know that we really want to walk with You. And I pray this morning that this thing of surrender and consecration to God, I pray that it will become so relevant in every aspect of our relationships with You. And in our final session, this evening, as we explore the theology of prayer, just come and visit us, we ask of You. In Jesus' name, Amen. Our service is over. If you would allow me to do that, because this has probably been one of the longest service that you've been in in a long time. Don't tell your pastor how long I preach, okay? Because I'm not sure he will appreciate. I hope this is not recorded. Anyway.