In this sermon, the speaker shares a powerful story about a man named Jonathan Edwards. Edwards was a preacher who had a profound encounter with God during a three-day period of fasting and prayer. After this experience, Edwards went on to deliver a sermon titled "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God," which had a tremendous impact on his congregation. The sermon led to the conversion of 437 people who were convicted of their sins and turned to God. The speaker emphasizes the importance of personal encounters with God and the need for the Holy Spirit's power in our lives.

Turn around and find your seat again if you will. Just for the sake of our time, I want us to turn into the Scriptures. Let's open our Bibles at Acts chapter 1 and Acts chapter 2, as we began there last night. And we're going to change our positions because we've been sitting so long. I trust that you have your Bible with you. If you don't have your Bible with you, you're going to need to say in your heart to God, will you please have mercy on my poor, wretched soul. But let's turn to Acts chapter 1 and also to the 2nd chapter of the book of Acts. Why don't we stand for the reading of the Word of God. Chapter 1, verse number 1, The former treatise hath I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach until the day in which He was taken up. After that, He threw the Holy Ghost and given commandments unto the apostles whom He had chosen. To whom also He showed Himself alive after His passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God. And being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but that they should wait for the promise of the Father. Which sayeth He, ye have heard of me? For John truly baptized with water, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days since. When they therefore were come together, they asked Him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? And Jesus said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the Father hath put in His own power. But you shall receive power, after that the Holy Spirit is come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. Chapter 2 verse number 1 And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all full to the Holy Ghost, and they began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. And they were dwelling at Jerusalem, Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven. Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and they were confounded, because every man heard them speak in his own language. And they were all amazed, and they marveled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galileans? And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born, Parthians in the Medes, in the Elamites, the dwellers of Mesopotamia, and in Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus in Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes, Cretes and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our own tongues the wonderful works of God. And they were all amazed, and they were in doubt, saying one to another, What? What meaneth this? Now there were others, they were mocking, and they said, These men are full of new wine. But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and he said unto them, Ye men of Judea, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, Be this known unto you, and hearken unto my words. For these are not drunken as you suppose, seeing that this is but the third hour of the day. But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel. And it shall come to pass in the last days, Sayeth God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh, And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, And your young men shall see visions, And your old men shall dream dreams. And on my servants and on my handmaidens, I will pour out in those days of my Spirit, And they shall prophesy. And I will show wonders in the heaven above, Signs in the earth beneath, Blood and fire and vaporous smoke, The sun shall be turned into darkness, And the moon into blood, Before that great and that notable day of the Lord shall come. And it shall come to pass, That whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. You may be seated. There are some of you who have not been with us last night when we began to explore this amazing book in the New Testament. And those of you that were with us, you will remember that we see that in the New Testament we find 7,957 glorious verses that have been given unto us. And when you study those verses and you allow them to become part of your life, will you discover that the Acts of the Apostles and the Gospel of Luke and the New Testament are those two New Testament books that when you put all those verses together, that you are almost dealing with something like 30% of the New Testament that is coming from the life and the lips and the pen, being inspired by God the Holy Spirit by Luke the physician. It is amazing when you study the book of Acts and you study the Gospel of Luke, that you will discover that there are about 50 technical medical terms in the Greek language that you and I will discover. When Luke is speaking to us about the eye of the needle, he does not use the same word that you and I would discover in the other Gospels. But he is using a very unique word in the Greek language that is the word for the surgeon that was using the needle during surgery in those days. And so when we study the Acts of the Apostles, we said last night that in the Acts of the Apostles there is a key verse that we began to focus our attention on. And that is also the verse that opens unto us these 28 chapters. Because there was a moment when Christ turned to those early disciples and He said to them, you shall become witnesses unto Me. But He said to them, you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit will come upon you and you shall become witnesses unto Me and Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the world. And we came to the realization that during the first seven years, those early disciples became witnesses in Jerusalem. And from chapter 8 to chapter 12, a period of approximately ten years, that they become witnesses in Judea and Samaria. Chapter 13 onwards, they became witnesses unto the uttermost parts of the world. You know, there are seven great themes in the Acts of the Apostles. And you will discover that the Acts of the Apostles is a book with tremendous historical and dispensational value. You say, Gerard, why do you say that? If we would have had the Gospels and the epistles of the Apostle Paul, the general epistles, and the book of Revelation, and we didn't have the Acts of the Apostles, my brother and my sister, there would have been 31 years of history that we didn't know a thing about. It's a book with tremendous personal value. In that 1,007 verses, you will come across no less than 71 different names of individuals that was used in the Acts of the Apostles. It's a book of tremendous doctrinal value. Because Christ came, and He was the fulfillment of the Old Testament, and in His teachings in the four Gospels, that He laid down the basis of New Testament doctrine. When the Acts of the Apostles came, New Testament doctrine came alive. And it manifested itself in the lives of those people in the book of Acts. Now last night I said to you that I wanted us to consider what we would look upon as the key verse in the Acts of the Apostles, and we turn to Acts 1.8. And Jesus turned to those early disciples, and He said to them, you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit will come upon you. And in Acts 1, brother and sister, and in Acts 2, we are dealing with the founding of the early church. The days of personal preparation, and we are looking at the day of Pentecost, when the Spirit of God comes. And I want us tonight, in these few minutes that we have together, I want us to try to consider those things, but let me remind you that we said last night, that when we look at that statement, when Christ turned to those early disciples, and He said to them, you shall receive power, that He was speaking about the Holy Spirit of God as a person. And that when He spoke about the Holy Spirit of God as a person, that He explained the personality of the Holy Spirit. And that He said in John 14-16, that when My Spirit come, My Spirit will be with you, and My Spirit will be in you. He said that when My Spirit come, My Spirit will testify of Me. He said when My Spirit come, My Spirit will become your teacher. And He said when My Spirit come, My Spirit will convict the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. And as He introduced the Holy Spirit of God to them, He said to them that the Holy Spirit of God is a person. And within the realm of personality, do we discover the mind of the Spirit? Do we discover the will of the Spirit? And do we come to the realization of the emotions? Now, brethren and sisters, when you and I receive the Holy Spirit of God into our lives, we receive the Holy Spirit of God as a person. And you can't divide up personality. You say, Gerard, what does that mean? It means that He came into my life, and I received that which there was of the Holy Spirit. So the mind of the Spirit, the will of the Spirit, the emotions of the Spirit, the fact that I am a trichonomy, that God has given to me a body, He has given to me a soul, and He has given to me a Spirit. And so when He came into my life, I received the totality of the Spirit of God. But, brethren and sisters, the difficulty in the Christian life is simply this, that there is the possibility that God the Holy Spirit can be resident in my life, that I have received Him, that I have been sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise, and that He is in my life as a Christian, and He is resident, and yet He is not precedent. You say, what do you mean? There is the possibility that there could be areas of my Christian life that has never been surrendered to God. And I want to ask you this Friday night, and this little gathering together, that as a husband, have you laid your wife on the altar for God? As the mother of your children, my sister, have you lost the spirit of motherhood? And have you surrendered those children on the altar for God? As a young person, I see these beautiful young lives here this evening, and I want to say to them tonight, it's going to cost you more to miss the will of God for your life than it's going to cost you to find it. That's why I've got one life to live, and I need to give myself totally to God. Listen, you can't spend your life in bitterness. You can't spend the Christian life and living a deceitful life. You can't spend the Christian life wasting your life when it comes to the greatness of the life of Christ. So you say, what needs to happen? I need to come to the place where I need to surrender myself to God. Why do I have to do that? Because the Apostle Paul said, I beseech you by the mercies of God. And the mercies of God is everything that He is saying to us. And those 11 chapters are the epistle to the Romans as He's building up this understanding that there is a life in the Spirit. That there is the possibility that I can be born of a Spirit of God, and yet, my life is not at God's disposal. And that I do not know the Spirit of God and all the greatness of His fullness. And that I do not understand that there is a crucified life that is not a goal, but it's a gateway where I am totally at God's disposal. You say, what will it cost me? It will cost you absolutely everything. And so the Apostle Paul came in. Then we see the example and his life in 2 Corinthians 11, when he explained unto us the cost of discipleship. And it reminds me of those great words of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, that German theologian that suffered so brutally under Adolf Hitler in Nazi Germany. And when he got brought to this place of absolute consecration, that he came to this place where he said, Jesus Christ bids you to come to Him and die. And I want to tonight, if I may ask you, I want to ask myself this question. Is my life totally at God's disposal? God comes to your life in the hours of this night and He wants to separate you unto Himself. You know, my heart has been so burdened these days for Australia. I said to my wife, when we traveled to 30 to 40 countries, I said, listen, I don't go to any of these countries if my heart is not broken for those people. But there are some countries, you know, it's different. I don't know if it's because it's so much like my own land of South Africa. I don't think so. But there's such a burden. I said to my wife today, I said, you know, my darling, I would come to Australia in a heartbeat. And I wonder tonight, if your life is at God's disposal. You say, what does it mean? It's my life and its relationships. It's my body and its instincts. It's my heart and its affections. It's my mind and its thoughts. It's my personality and its prejudice. Brother and sister, I need to surrender them to God. Why do I have to do that? Because I just have this one life. I share conferences with a man that is well known in the 80s, written quite a number of books. And we were together in the British Isles. His name was Dr. Alan Redpath. And we were together at this conference. He was speaking about surrender and consecration to God. And he used this great illustration when he was speaking to us. And he said to us, he said in his younger days, he and his wife, they had these two little girls. And one of them was nine years old and the other one was seven years old. And Alan Redpath said, he said, you know, I came back to my house from a conference. And you know the houses in England, they kind of stack together in two or three stories quite often. And he said, I came to my house after a conference and I was looking forward to being with my wife and the two little girls. And Alan Redpath said, when I came home, he said, I opened the front door of the house. And as I opened the front door of the house, he said, the door opened. And as the door opened, there was my nine year old daughter. And he said, she was so delighted to see me. And he said, she came running down those stairs because Daddy was back home. And he said, when she came close to me, he said, she just about dove into my arms. And he said, as she came down, he said, she grabbed me around my legs and she kept saying, I've got all that there is of Daddy. And Redpath said, you know, it was wonderful. I was so glad to see her. It was just great. And he said, as she was holding on, he kept saying, I've got all that there is of Daddy. He said, the door opened. And as the door opened at the top, there was my seven year old. And she looked down and she saw Daddy. And she was so delighted to see Daddy that she wanted to come down. But as she looked down, there was her nine year old sister, I mean, taking every possible room, holding on to her Daddy and kept saying, I've got all that there is of Daddy. And then she looked at her little sister and she's got this grin on her face and said, I've got all that there is of Daddy. And Redpath said, I look into that seven year old's eyes and he said, I saw the helplessness. Oh, I saw she wanted to come down, but she was not able because of her sister. And he said, my heart went out to her. And he said, as I was looking at her, there was a moment when I said, my darling, just come. Just come. And he said, slowly she came down and he said, I could feel it as she was coming down. These little arms of the nine year old, they got tighter and tighter. And she looked up and said, I've got all that there is of Daddy. And he said, as that seven year old came closer, he said, she was hesitant, not sure. And he said, when she came close, he said, I bent over and I lifted her up into my arms. And her nine year old sister was holding on to my legs. And now she was looking up and said, I've got all that there is of Daddy. He said, something happened. That seven year old in my arms looked down at her sister and she smiled. Do you know what she said? Daddy has got all that there is of me. I want to ask you tonight. You know, there are so many of us, brother and sister, we are clinging to the Christian life. Can I ask you tonight? Does God have all that there is of us? What is it? It's consecration to the will of God, you see. Consecration. You say, Gerard, what is the spirit-filled life? Brother and sister, the spirit-filled life is not a goal. It's a gateway. You will never be able to come to the place when you get an understanding. Listen, let me clarify this. Because, I mean, there's so much junk floating around today in what is considered as theological circles. That's got nothing to do with theology. When we speak about the spirit-filled life, we are not speaking about manifestation. We are speaking about the person of Christ. And when He puts a claim upon your life, when He comes to you and He said to you, if you want to be My disciple, you need to follow Me. When He looks into the eyes of Peter after he denied the Lord Jesus Christ and there was this concept of eyes that connected, of Him saying to Peter, I don't condemn you, but I need you to know that you are going to need to experience Pentecost. So you say, what is it? It's the fullness of God, you see. It's our inheritance, brother and sister. You say, when I gave my life to Christ and He came into my life? That's when the assurance came. Ah, here comes Ephesians 5. Be not drunk with wine, wherein there is an excess. But be continually full to the Spirit of God. Brother and sister, that's why God needs to come to us. I mean, if I were to have a glass here this evening of water, and you and I would look at this, and I would have this glass full of water, and you would say, Gerard, how do I know it's full? I would say, the only way that you're going to discover it's full is if I have another jar of water, and I'm pouring it in, and it's overflowing. You see, that's why Jesus said, I have come so that you might have life and abundance of life. So what is it? It's the Spirit of God, you see. It's not just personal, and our time is gone. It's not just personal. Don't look at your watch. It's not just personal. You're going to lose it. It's not just personal. I collect watches. Watch it. It's not just these highway... I've got this list, you know. It's an awful thing. Do stand still. Do not perspire. Stay in the Scriptures. Do not get excited. Do not use too many... Apply the Word. Do exposition. Do not analyze too much. Don't give Him too many numbers. And do not pray too long. And there we are. Stick to your message. Stick to your time. Okay. Stay calm. Okay. Here we are. We're going to close. I shouldn't say this. But you know, when I came to Canada... Oh, brother and sister. And you know, I was an African. In Africa, we get excited about things. And we were part of a large church. And I was asked to speak on this church. And my doctor is a Christian fellow. And after the services I spoke there, he came to me and he said, do you think you could make an appointment with me? I said, sure, David. He's the son of a missionary. Made an appointment with David Anderson. And I came into his practice. And we sat down. And he said to me, you know, I really appreciate what you said on Sunday. I mean, it's just about 2,000 people. He said, I appreciate what you said on Sunday. But then he turned to me. I just came into Canada. Married to Janice. I was in Canada. Got married to Janice. And just been in the country for a year. And he turned to me and he said to me, I really appreciate. But he said, I need to tell you something. I said, what is it? He said, you are too intense for our Canadian culture. I said, oh brother. You know? I said, I mean, he's my doctor. A lovely Christian fellow. And I said, David, what do you mean? He said, we can't handle that. And I said, what do you think? You know what he said to me? Typical doctor. You know what he said to me? He said, I'm going to give you a tablet. You know what he said, brother and sister? He said, I'm going to give you a tablet. And he said, you know what's going to happen to you? He said, it's going to calm you down. And you know what he said to me? He said, you're just going to be like the average Canadian pastor. I thought, goodness me. I mean, who doesn't want to be like the average Canadian pastor? You know what he said? You'll be calm. You'll be collected. He said, you'll be controlled. You won't get excited. He said, you will just speak nicely. You know this business. So, you know, I sat there. I thought, well, I'm in Canada, you know. The Lord crucified me. He gave me a heart like vine. I'm married to a Canadian. And what do you do? I said, well, David, if you think it helps, let's go for it. So I took it. And he said, take it an hour and a half before you preach. And Sunday morning, service time came. I was asked to speak in a Baptist church. Thank God it was a Baptist church. Anyway, I was asked to speak in a Baptist church. Hour and a half before the service, I said to Janet, what do you think? She said, well, pop one down. Bang. Swallow this little tablet. You know, brother and sister, we came to the service and we sat in front of a church. And she said, how do you feel? And I said, I don't feel any different. You know what my wife said? Take another one. Oh, man. You know, when I got up to preach, I was ready for bed. Just like the average Canadian pastor. And when I got up to speak, you know, I was flaring away. Just like the average Canadian pastor. You know, I mean, I came home. He phoned me the next week. He said, how are you doing? I said, doing great. He said, how's those tablets? I said, they've gone into the toilet. Brother and sister, let me tell you something. This thing of the Holy Spirit, it is so rich, you know. Now, let me close. You see, it's personal. But there's something else about it. You say, what is it? It's penetrating. Listen to what Jesus said. He said, you shall receive power. Can I ask you this, Friday night? When last have you been broken in the presence of God? When last has there been a moment in your relationship with God when somehow the Spirit of God began to penetrate your heart. And as God was penetrating your heart, something deep inside began to break. And you recognized your desperate sins of need of God. Christ turned to them and He said to them, you shall receive. Oh, I wish I had time to tell you about one of my great favorites. You say, who is it? His name is Jonathan Edwards. And as a young man, he didn't want to go in here, the great George Whitefield preaching in New England. Whitefield was the man who spoke to 27,000 people in Cumberland in Scotland without a microphone. God used him in the revival, brother and sister, two centuries ago. And you know what happened? There was no church that was large enough for Whitefield. And he came to New England. And people came to Jonathan Edwards. He was a congregational minister in New England. Just a young man. And they came to Jonathan Edwards. And they said to him, you need to go and hear Whitefield, the great evangelist. Whitefield was the man who used to pray and say, God, give me soul, so take my soul away. And they said, you need to go and listen to him. And he said, I would not. He said, I would not listen to a man that preached in the open air. And they said to Jonathan Edwards, Mr. Edwards, you need to go and hear this man. There is a consciousness of God. And Jonathan Edwards did not want to go. And do you know what happened, brother and sister? Jonathan Edwards was standing in the distance. He went eventually. And George Whitefield was preaching in the open air. And as he was preaching in the open air, Jonathan Edwards was standing a long distance away. Sometimes they said they could hear Whitefield a mile away. You say, was it the strength of his voice? No, it was the atmosphere of God. And Jonathan Edwards was standing under a tree. And as Whitefield was preaching about justification by faith, you know what happened, brother and sister? The Spirit of God arrested the young Jonathan Edwards. And this is what Ian Murray said about him. He said he was standing under a tree. And he was weeping like a child. And as he was standing there, the young Jonathan Edwards turned around and he went back to his study in his church. And he spent three days in the presence of God. And in those three days, as God was penetrating his soul, you know what happened? God gave him a sermon. Jonathan Edwards was no dynamic expositor. He was one of the greatest Christian philosophers. I will tell you that. But he wasn't great. He was a good expositor. But he was no dynamic preacher. And Jonathan Edwards, after those three days, you know what happened, brother and sister? He came that Sunday morning into the pulpit of his church. It was a church of more than 800 people. And that Sunday morning he had a sermon. And the title of his sermon was Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. And he was holding on to the pulpit. And all he did, he was reading his sermon. And brother and sister, as he was reading his sermon, suddenly the Spirit of God came and broke into the lives of people. You say, what happened that Sunday morning? They were in the midst of an organized disorder. Men and women were clinging to the pillars of the church under conviction of sin, crying that we are slipping into the flames of hell. Men and women said, it was as if we were looking into the eyes of God. And in one service on a Sunday morning, you know what happened? 437 people were swept into the kingdom of God being gloriously converted. You say, what happened? Because God penetrated one life. I don't know about you this Friday night, but you know when I read the life story of a man like Edwards, I just want to crawl into a little corner somewhere. And I just want to cry to God and say, is it possible that You could come and visit me in the same way? Brother and sister, it is not what we are doing for God. Listen, it is who we are. And who we are determines the effectiveness of being entrusting with the greatness of the presence of God. What is it? It is penetrating. Let me close. Jesus said, because we want to move on tomorrow night, Jesus said, you shall receive power. You say, what do you mean? Christ said you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit will come upon you. Will you allow me to take you into the Greek language for just a moment? You say, why do you want to do that? Well, let me explain to you. You see, this word for power is an amazing word in the New Testament. And when you study this word, brother and sister, you will discover that there are two words in the New Testament that is speaking to us about power. Now, I want to say to you this evening, both those words can be applicable to our relationships with God. The first word is the Greek word exousia. And the Apostle John said, but as many as received Him, to them has He given the authority, the power to become a child of God. That's the Greek word exousia. And if you sit here tonight and you see the witness of the Spirit, it's quite possible that you sit here and you've never been born of the Spirit of God. But if you know the witness of the Spirit of God, how do you know that? It's because you've received Christ, and you've received the authority, the power to become a child of God. But brother and sister, there is another word. It comes from the root word dunah. It's where we get our word dynamite from. It's the verb dunamai. And when you study this word, you will discover that this word is found at 119 places in the New Testament. And so when you go to the New Testament, and you go and study those 119 places, in our translation of the Bible, you will discover 16 different words in the English language trying to explain to us this understanding of the power of God. Now let me just give you one or two examples. You know what? It's not power to do great and wonderful things for God. Wonderful as that may be. You say, Gerard, what is it? It's power to live right 24 hours of the day. That's why the apostle Peter said, we are kept by the power of God. You say, what are you telling me? Listen, if God is able to keep us from sin for an hour, is it not possible for God to keep us from sin for two hours? You say, are you speaking about sinner's perfection? No, no, no, no. I'm speaking about abiding in Christ. Power to live right 24 hours of the day. You know what he means? Power to do something for God. You say, what do you mean? You remember Christ in the Gospel of Matthew. Matthew gave us a parable. It was called the parable of the talents. This is what he said. He said he gave unto them talents according to their several ability. A lover's work is the word dunamis. You say, what does it mean? It's the ability. Brother and sister, listen. You're not on your own. You are involved in ministry. There's something that God wants you to do. And maybe you're like me. I need tons of encouragement because I always feel so inadequate. You have no idea how sometimes I get physically sick when I need to stand in front of people. Someone said to me sometime ago, after 35 years, do you still get butterflies? And I just look at them and I said, you don't understand. After 35 years, they just fly in formation. I mean, that's all they do. And I'm one of those people. I mean, you love, brother and sister, I weep. Because I'm one of those people, I find it so difficult to stand in front of people because this message tonight, I will never be able to bring it to you again. It's an ability to do something for God. Have you ever asked God what He wants you to do for Him? Oh, I was asked to speak in a church in Chicago. It's called Murray Church. The great church where the great John Murray spoke. It's a famous church in the city of Chicago. And you know, I read about this elderly man in the city of Chicago. And he was in his 70s. And brother and sister, this man wanted to know what God wants him to do. He was shy. He had a problem trying to speak and communicate in private communication about Christ. But he was in a gathering like this. And God touched his life. And he said to God, God, what do you want me to do? I need to do something. And God, the Holy Spirit, brother and sister, laid it upon his heart and said, listen, what I want you to do is to give out gospel tracts. And he thought, how am I going to do this? And you know what he did? The Lord laid it upon his heart to stand at the corner of a street in Chicago on a daily basis with a whole bundle of gospel tracts. Now, he would spend hours in prayer. And he would be praying over those tracts. And then he would stand there. And he had such a fragrance about this Christian life. He didn't force it down people. He would just stand there. And when someone walked by, they would say, would you mind if I give you just one of these? I mean, he was a nice guy. People couldn't say no, you know. And so they just took the gospel tract. And you know what happened one day? He passed a house. And brother and sister, when he passed this house, God, the Holy Spirit, spoke to him. You say, how does God, the Holy Spirit, didn't speak in an audible voice, but he'd become a huge conviction. 99% of the time when God speaks to me, you know what? He speaks to me out of the Scriptures. And I feel so safe. Oh, man, I feel so safe here. But God impressed upon him, and he was convicted. And it was, God said to him, listen, I want you to go to that house. He was passing a house. And he thought, no way. And he kept going. And God just convicted him, and convicted him, and spoke to him. And as God convicted him, he thought, I'm not going to be able to sleep tonight. And he turned around, and he had some tracks left. Turned around, and he knocked at the door of his house. And he knocked, and you know, no one opened the door. And he thought, what's going on, you know? Am I hearing voices, or what's going on? And he kept knocking on the door. And brother and sister, the seventh time that he knocked on the door of their house, a man comes and says, open the door. What do you want? The little guy is standing there, you know. And he's looking in his seat. Just take this and read it please. And the man grabbed it and slammed the door. And he walked back to his room, and he got on his knees, and he said, I did it! You convicted me. You spoke to me. I did it! And he prayed. And 14 days later, he passed the house again. Do you know what happened? That same little inner voice spoke in his heart and said, go back to the house. He went back to the house, brother and sister. He knocked at the door of the house. The door opened, and the man stood there. The man looked at him and said, oh, it's you. And he said, come in. He came in and brought him into the kitchen. And he turned to him and said to him, 14 days ago, when you knocked at the door of my house, he said, do you see that box? I was standing on this box. Do you see that beam? There was a rope around that beam. He said, I had this rope around my neck. I was on the point of committing suicide. And he said, you knocked at the door of my house. And he said, you knocked and you knocked and you knocked. And I said, I was not going to open. And then he said, the seventh time that you knocked, he said, I took the rope off. I got out of the box. I went to the door. He said, I was so nasty to you. But he said, I took this strap. And he said, as I looked at it, he said, I sat on this box. And I read it. And he said, I got on my knees. And I said, God, if you can save me through Christ Jesus, save me now. And he said, I know Christ. Brethren and sisters, we are precious to God. Just a little word. Just a moment of prayer. I'm staying at a place here where I just have some quietness to spend time with God. And I've befriended the man and his wife. And you know, today I just said to him, hey Greg, why don't we spend some time just talking? I want to spend speaking to him, to God. Because you know, I probably, being an Australian, I will never see him next time he's out there in boggle boggle land amongst the dingoes, you know. I mean, who knows? And he's got a soul, brethren and sisters. You say, what is it? It's an ability. Must I go in empty handed? Must I sow my Saviour's need? Not one soul I've led to Jesus. Not one soul I've brought at His feet. Last word. Sixteen, you know. Let me give you the last one. You remember the Gospel of Luke? Oh, I love this. He was a physician. There was a little lady in the eighth chapter of the Gospel of Luke. You remember her? She was suffering from, the Bible said, the issue of blood. You say, what was it? It was a blood disease. Now, the Gospel of Matthew comes and the other Gospels, they would come to us and they would say to us, she spent all her money on physicians, which she did. But Luke, who was a physician, who had insight and the beauty of Scripture, he said, she spent all her money on physicians, but you know what he said? She had an incurable disease. That's what happened. And you remember that little woman? She came to the place where she said, if I can just touch the hem of His garment, the moment when I will do that, she said, I'm going to be healed. And you remember Christ was in an area and this little woman came to the Lord Jesus and as she came to the Lord Jesus, she got closer and closer and closer. And there was Christ, brother and sister. And she said, if I can just touch the hem of His garment, I'm going to be healed. And I could see, I just wonder tonight, how many of our neighbors who know that we know Christ would say, do you know if I can just touch them? If I could just find out what makes them tick. What is it about their lives? But this little woman came and she got closer and closer and closer and she got through. And as she got through to the Lord Jesus, there was a moment that she touched Him. Do you remember what happened? The moment that she touched the Lord Jesus, He stopped. And when He stopped, He said to the disciple, someone has touched me. And do you know what the Greek language said? The disciple said to Him, they said, Lord, everyone is trying to touch you, but in the Greek language, they said to Christ, literally, they said, you don't understand. You are mobbed by people. Everyone is trying to touch you. And Jesus said, no. He said, someone has touched me. And then He said this. I love a statement in the congenial version of the Bible. He said, virtue is gone from me. He said, what happened? Do you know what such word is, virtue? Do you know this? Touching the lives of people. I know I said in closing, but let me just tell you this, okay? Brethren, sister, when I became a Christian, an old man gave me an old translation of the Bible. And he said to me, young man, saturate yourself in this book. I was brought up in a village where we didn't like the English, you know. I mean, the Dutch came in, what's it, 1652. And the French, you know, came. Papa was part of the 12th family, Detroit. And then the German settlers came. And then the British settlers came. My people say, that's when the trouble started. We didn't like them. And if you know the history of South Africa with the Anglo-Boer war and all that stuff. And so it was just that way. I mean, we were farmers. And we were Afrikaners. And so I took English at school, but I stayed as far away as I possibly could. And this elderly man gave me an old translation of the Bible. And God, I had to go to Scotland. And I began to go through the congenial version of the Bible. And as I was going through it, I got myself the Old and the New Testament cassette. I thought, I need to get acquainted with the Scriptures. And for seven years, the first 90 minutes of every morning, I listened to the Old Testament. And the last 45 minutes of every night, I listened to the New Testament. I think in those seven years, I was able to go through the Old Testament about 49 times. And I think about 87 times through the New Testament. I mean, I discovered the value of Scripture. I mean, so precious. And he said to me another thing, this old Christian man. He said, you need a list to pray for your family. I said, what do you mean? He said, write them down. Tomorrow morning, and I trust you're going to be with us, we're going to explore these 12 aspects of prayer. And one aspect is routine praying. Discover what the Bible is saying and apply and illustrate this. But I began to pray for my family. Mama, Papa, my brother, my two sisters. And for 14 years, I prayed for my elder sister. Of course, you pray for... But you know what, brother and sister, when you pray for people, God gives you promises. And so I would pray for my sister. And when I would pray for my sister, God would give me a promise. And I would take out my pen. And as I take out my pen, I would write it around the name of my sister. And you come into the presence of God. And you say, God, look upon all these promises. I mean, they're so precious. And you are pleading the promises of God. And brother and sister, for 14 years, I prayed for my elder sister. Now, when I went to Scotland, you know, I was the youngest in the family. I was kind of a little black sheep and wandered into one sense. And I'm sure they see it in their typical Afrikaner way. Can any good thing come out of Israel? I mean, I was just a little brother, you know. So when I went to Scotland, to them was, I'm leaving the country. That was not the reason. God called me to go to Scotland. And my sister married to a lawyer high up in education in South Africa. And she... They went to church. Husband was an elder. But they were lost. I mean, there was dead as a tree. There was nothing spiritual. And for 14 years, I prayed for her. And she never phoned me. In all those 14 years. I mean, it was just... You've gone. All those kind of things. And that was it. And you know what happened, brother and sister. There was a time in praying for Heta that I really felt in my heart. I was touching the phone of God. 14 years, you know. Virtually day after day after day after day. And I was in Edinburgh, Scotland. And the phone rang. And I'll never forget that day when the phone rang. I lifted up the phone. And on the other side of the phone was the voice of my sister. Never phoned me before. And I thought something was wrong with my father. And I said to her in our native tongue, Is there something wrong with Papa? I mean, I couldn't understand. Why would she phone me? Is there something wrong with Dad? And she said, No. And I said, Is there something wrong with the family? And she said, No. And I thought, Why would she phone me? And brother and sister, as I was on the phone to her, and I was holding the phone close to my ear, as I was doing that, I heard the sobbing. And I thought, What's going on? And I turned to her and I said to her, Is there anything wrong? She said, No. And I said, Are you crying? And she said, Yes. And I began to say to myself, What is this? And I said, I said, Why did you phone me? And she said, I just got saved. I just got through to God. And I said to her, Why did you phone me? And she said, I knew you were praying for me. I never told her that. 14 years. Listen, if you're praying for someone tonight, you've got a family, brother and sister, never give up. Never give up. And so, you know, I was weeping. I mean, you know, first one of my family that came through to God, you know. And I was weeping. And she was crying. Very expensive to cry over the ocean, you know. I mean, she was paying the nickel. But I just didn't know what to say. And I just said, It's wonderful. And she would say, It's wonderful. It's wonderful. And that's all we could say, you know. And then I said to her, I thought, You know, you can't go on like this. I mean, this is expensive. And I said to her, I said, Is there anything I can do for you? And she said, I want you to pray for me. I said, Absolutely. I said, Of course I will do that. And you know, she said, Do you think you can pray for me on the telephone? You know what I said, It's going to cost you $50, you know. Brother and sister, You don't pray for someone for 14 years, day after day after day, and pray to put it into five minutes. I mean, you've got to be kidding. She said, What was it? And I asked her tonight, What about you? What about you? You ever ask God to give you a broken heart? I don't know how you can live as a Christian, an Australian, and not be broken, okay? I don't know. There must be something wrong. She said, What is it? It's God, the Holy Spirit. Have you got a burden? The burden of God. Let's stand to pray, shall we? Our Father and our God, We thank You this Friday night. I know it's been a long meeting for some of us. Yet, God, You've really been with us. We thank You for touching our hearts. I thank You for breaking my own heart. Lord, I don't want to go through a meeting without not being affected. And I don't want to go through a conference without being saying, God really spoke to my heart. And so, thank You for Your speaking voice. My dear brother and sister, as we just bow before God tonight, and our eyes are closed, and you stand here as a Christian, and in your heart you say, I long for God to break my heart. I long for a life in the Spirit. I long for a life of prayer. And I just want to spend some time alone with God. I wonder if you would allow me to ask you, if you would like to come and just find a little spot somewhere here at the altar of this church, and you're just going to kneel, and no one is going to pray with you. You're going to be totally on your own. You're just going to spend some time alone with God. And maybe you are somewhere in the middle, and you say, you know Gerard, I don't know how to get out. You just touch the person to your left, to your right, and you just come. And I wonder if there are some of us, and I'm going to ask you, if you just would like to come and just find a place at the front and spend some time alone with God in prayer. Would you like to do it right now? I'm just going to wait for you. Just come and find a place where you could kneel. Even if you're somewhere in the middle. You say, I just want to spend some time alone with God. Not a soul is going to pray with you. But you're just going to ask God to break your heart, and touch your life. Still people coming? Lord, I just want you to break my heart. Husband, Father, Mother, young person, anyone else want to come? Those of us here in the front, I'm going to ask you not to rush away. Those of us that are standing, I'm going to ask you, if you would just turn around and find a spot on your knees. We're going to close this meeting tonight in prayer. So could you just swing around? Find a little place where you could kneel. God, I just want to humble myself before you. We're just going to spend some time in prayer. When you are through, I'm going to ask you to leave very, very quietly. Tomorrow morning at 10 o'clock we're going to gather together again tomorrow evening at the same time. Just take some time to pray.