In this sermon, the preacher discusses the importance of understanding the parables of Jesus in the New Testament. He specifically focuses on the parable of the prodigal son. The preacher emphasizes the need to not only focus on the spiritual aspects of the parable but also on the practical application of our Christian testimony. He highlights the idea that as Christians, we are called to grow in our relationship with God and protect and promote that growth. The sermon references Luke chapter 15, where the parable of the prodigal son is found, and encourages listeners to reflect on their own Christian journey.

Hello, this is Brother Denny. Welcome to Charity Ministries. Our desire is that your life would be blessed and changed by this message. This message is not copyrighted and is not to be bought or sold. You are welcome to make copies for your friends and neighbors. If you would like additional messages, please go to our website for a complete listing at www.charityministries.org. If you would like a catalog of other sermons, please call 1-800-227-7902 or write to Charity Ministries, 400 West Main Street, Suite 1, EFRA, PA 17522. These messages are offered to all without charge by the free will offerings of God's people. A special thank you to all who support this ministry. When you come to this service tomorrow night, you will receive a little sheet like this. There are 20 free passages of scripture in these sheets that I would like you to look at because underneath every one of those passages of scripture, there are questions that you and I need to answer. I have been using this at conferences for men, leadership in places where I've had the privilege of being. And God, just in a wonderful way, has been using this. And so, what I do in my own devotional times and my choir times in the mornings, I take one passage of scripture and then I allow the Spirit of God to search my heart. And so, we will make copies of this and give it to you and maybe you can take it back to your fellowships. Let me give you just one or two of these. Matthew 6, verses 14 and 15 For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. These are the questions that you and I need to answer. Is there anyone against whom I am holding a grudge and I need to answer yes or no? Is there anyone that I have not forgiven and I need to answer yes or no? Is there anyone that I do not love and I need to answer yes or no? Are there any misunderstandings that I am unwilling to forget and I need to answer? Is there any person against whom you are harboring bitterness or resentment or jealousy and I need to answer? Anyone you dislike to hear praise or well spoken of and I need to answer that. Do you allow anything to justify a wrong attitude towards another? Let me give you another one. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples. If ye have love one for another, are you secretly pleased over the misfortune of someone else? And I need to answer yes or no. Are you secretly annoyed over the accomplishments or advancements of another? Are you guilty of any contention or strife? Do you quarrel or argue or engage in heated discussions? Are you a partaker of any divisions or a party spirit? Are there people whom you deliberately slight and I need to answer? And I would love you to take this and I trust that every one of us have a personal devotional life where you and I spend time alone with God and when we do that I allow God to search my heart in those times. I want you tonight to turn with me if you will in your Bible to Luke chapter 15. Luke chapter 15 and just for the sake of our time we are going to break into that chapter. Luke chapter 15. Tomorrow night God willing in our time together I want us to look at the subject of Christian growth. How do you and I grow in our relationships with God as Christian men, as families, as we pray together and as we seek the face of God together when it comes to the responsibility of my Christian life. Turn with me this evening if you will to Luke chapter 11 or rather Luke chapter 15 and we will begin to read at verse number 11. Luke chapter 15 verse number 11. And he said, A certain man had two sons and the younger of them said to his father, Father give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living. Not many days after that the youngest son gathered all together and took his journey into a far country and there wasted his substance of righteous living. When he had spent all there arose a mighty famine in that land and he began to be in want. And he went and he joined himself with a citizen of that country and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would fain fill his belly with the husks that the swine did eat and no man gave it unto him. When he came to himself he said, How many hired servants of my father has got bread enough to spare? And I perish with hunger. I will arise and go to my father and I will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against seven and before thee. I am no more worthy to be called thy son. Make me as one of thy hired servants. And he arose and he came to his father, but when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against seven and in thy sight. And I am no more worthy to be called thy son. But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best rope and put it on him and put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet. And bring under the fatted calf and kill it and let us eat and be merry. For this my son was dead and he is alive again. He was lost and he is found. They began to be merry. Now his elder son was in the field and he came and drew nigh to the house. And he heard music and dancing and he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. And he said unto him, Thy brother has come and thy father hath killed the fatted calf because you have received him safe and sound. And he was angry and he would not go in. Therefore came his father out and entreated him. And he answered him and said to his father, Lo, these many years do I serve thee. Neither transgressed I at any time thy commandment. And yet thou never gavest me a kid that I might make merry with my friends. But as soon as this thy son was come, which hath devoured thy living with harlots, thou hast killed for him the fatted calf. And he said unto him, Son, thou art ever with me. And all that I have is thine. It was neat that we should make merry and be glad. For this thy brother was dead and he is alive again. And he was lost and he is found. Now, Father, as we bow this evening again in the greatness and in the preciousness of what thy presence has been about, as we have gathered these days simply to be able to humble ourselves again and again under the mighty hand of God. Now, God and Father, we are reminded again that thou didst say to us in thy Word, If my people which are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and I will forgive their sin and I will heal their land. And as we come to thee this night, as we are closing or coming to the close of this and other leadership week in which we as men have come not just to be exposed to the reality of what the Word of God is about, but we have come because we do not just want to be informed by Scripture, but we long in our hearts to be inflamed by the reality of what God is about. Father, as we humble ourselves tonight under the mighty hand of God, do we want to say to thee that there is a longing in our hearts to crawl within the greatness of the presence of God in a way that we have never done it before? We want to say to thee tonight afresh, our God and Father, we do not look for fellowships all over this land who will just be full of men and women and children, but we are looking for fellowships that will be full of men and women and children, that will be full of God. And so tonight we pray that somehow in this gathering, as we expose ourselves under the greatness of the communication of what the Word of God is about, we ask that You will help us this night to somehow draw a circle around ourselves, to ask of You that You will pour out Your Spirit within this circle. Father, we say to Thee this night that we do not want meetings for the sake of meetings, but we long to have meeting places with God. We long to become men that will be intoxicated with the presence of God. We long to become men that will be drenched in the life of Christ. We long to become men that will be saturated in the holiness of God. And we want to be the fathers that You want us to be. We want to be the husbands that God wants us to be. Father, we confess tonight in the greatness of Thy presence that it will cost us absolutely everything. And so we ask in these days that once more that You will come and pour out upon us Your Spirit. You have said unto us in Your Word, You have said unto us, I will pour water upon him that is thirsty. I will pour floods upon the dry ground. Jesus stood up and said, If any man thirsts, let him come unto Me. He that believeth into Me, as the Scripture says, rivers of living water shall flow from the innermost of his being. Lord, we are amazed tonight at what will be able to happen in our fellowships all over the country when God will come and visit the men, when God will pour out His Spirit upon us, when we will be in the midst of the greatness of conviction as sin, when we will be exposed to the beauty of the glory and the holiness and the majesty of the omnipotence, of the omnipresence, of the omniscience of the God who has given unto us His Son. And so tonight we pray, somehow that You have come to break in our hearts. Father, we cannot break ourselves. God, we cannot work the power of the Spirit of God up. We cannot bring it down into our midst. But we can come and sit in the very dust before Thee, and we can ask that Thou would have mercy upon us. And so we pray, in the midst of the years, that Thou would have mercy, that Thou would remember us these days, so that we could become a men, a group of men and women, saturated with the greatness of the conviction of God the Holy Ghost. We thank Thee tonight for Thy great work. Lord, we love this book. Thou didst say to us in Thy Word, Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My Word abideth forever. Thou didst say to us, Is My Word not like a hammer that breaketh a rock? Is My Word not sharper than any twitched sword, cutting through the dividing asunder of soul and spirit? Thou didst say unto us, Study to show thyself a proof unto God. Worth may not need it to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. Father, we confess tonight in the beauty of Thy presence that the Spirit of God is but nothing else to witness to but the infallibleness of Scripture and the efficacy of the precious blood. And so we ask that as we look upon Thy Word, oh, we pray, that the Spirit of God through the Word would come and melt us in the beauty of Thy presence. And we know tonight for us as men, as fathers, as husbands, as mothers, as children, as young people, it is going to cost us absolutely, absolutely everything to walk with this God who has given unto us His Son. Bless Thy Word to our hearts, we pray, in Jesus' name. Amen. It's amazing when you and I begin to study the New Testament that you will discover that the Lord Jesus Christ gave us something like 38 beautiful parables in the four Gospels. And the reasons why He gave unto us these parables was simply to be able to explain unto us some of those great riches of what the Kingdom of God was all about. So often when you and I as a Christian look upon this, what we would refer to as the parable of the prodigal son, is there the possibility that we would look upon this passage and we spend so much of our time looking upon what I would refer to as the spiritual righteous son. I want to say to you tonight, my brother and my sister, as you study these verses, and I trust this first night that there is still a hunger and a longing in your heart for the greatness of the Word of God, and that it is still in the process of becoming part of your life. But when you study these verses, will you discover that the Bible is not just speaking to us about what I would refer to as the spiritual righteous son, but the Bible is speaking to us also about His brother. The Bible is speaking to us about a third person, and that was the Father. If you and I would look at the life of the spiritual or rather the prodigal son, is it amazing when we study His life and we study what we would refer to as the biblical doctrine of the unfolding of the conviction of sin, and the life of someone who has been enlightened by God, will you discover amazing things that compare them one with another? You say, Brother Gerard, why do you say that? I am saying that because you see, the moment when this prodigal or rather the spiritual righteous son came to the place where he sat or he made his statement, and he went into the presence of his Father, and he said to his Father, give me the portion of my inheritance, that moment was God the Holy Spirit in the totality of Scripture there saying to him what he was planning in the presence of his Father was wrong. As he was leaving towards the far country, God the Holy Spirit in the totality of Scripture would have been there to say, you are stepping outside of the will of your Father. It was only by God the Holy Spirit that he was able to come to the place where he could say, how many hired servants of my Father has got bread enough to spare and I perish with hunger? It was by the Spirit of God that he would have been able to come to the place where he said, I will arise and I will go to my Father and I will say to my Father, Father, I sinned against Thee even in Thy sight, and I am no more worthy to be called Thy son. But my brother and my sister, the Bible is not just speaking to us about what I would refer to as the life of the spiritual righteous son. The Bible is speaking to us about the spiritual weary son. You see this son had a brother. I want to say to you tonight as a husband and as a father, I want to say to you tonight as a Christian, there is the possibility that you can sit here this Thursday night and you say, I have never gone to the far country. I have never wasted my life away from God. And yet my brother and my sister when this prodigal was coming back into the presence of his brother, you will discover that his brother was in a spiritual weary state. You say, why do you say that? Let me explain to you. There was the radical change in his attitude. You see, when the prodigal was coming back from the far country, the Bible makes a statement about him. The Bible says he refused to go in. There was the self-righteousness that came from the lips of his brother, because when the father came into his presence and the father said to him, your brother has come, and the Bible says he said to his father, he said, how many years have I served thee? He said, you never gave me a kid so that I could be married with my friends. And I wonder this Thursday night if I would be allowed to ask you, because I am so confident that you are sitting here and you say, brother Gerard, I am not the prodigal who has gone to the far country. I have given my life to Christ, as we have heard in this testimony. But if you are absolutely honest with yourself, is there a leanness? Is there an emptiness? And the depth of your relationship with God? You see, my brother and my sister, why have we come together this week? We did not just come together to sit under the greatness of what the teaching of the Word of God is about, but we have come so that God and the greatness of His Spirit will be able to break into our hearts and into our lives. And I wonder tonight if I would be allowed to ask you. You see, you dare not go back to your fellowship on Saturday or Sunday or Monday unless you have met with God. There was the brother. I want to suggest to you tonight there was not just the prodigal, the spiritual wretched son. There was not just the spiritual weary son. But, ah, brother and sister, there was the father. You see, so often what you and I do as a Christian, we focus so much of our attention upon the lives of these two sons. I wonder tonight if you have ever looked at the life of the father. You see, sometimes we sit in gatherings like this, brother and sister, and we are so concerned about those areas of our lives where we need the greatness of the conviction of God, the Holy Ghost upon our lives. But can I ask you this Thursday night, have you ever asked yourselves, how does God feel in His heart about my walk with Him? So you say, what happened to the father of these two sons? You know what I've discovered in the heart of the father? There was a number of great tears in the heart of the father. My brother and my sister, there was a tear of amazement when the son came into the presence of his father and he said to his father, give unto me the portion of my inheritance. There was a tear of compassion in the heart of the father. If you look at this passage in the Greek New Testament, you will discover that there is the structure of the tense that is saying to us day after day, it seems to us that the father was going towards the gate and he was looking for the day that the son is going to come back to the father. But there was another tear in the heart of the father, and I want to speak about that tear this evening. Brother Gerard, which tear was it? It was the tear of joy. You see, there was a moment when the son said, I will arise and I will go to my father and I will say to my father, I have sinned against heaven and in thy sight, and I am no more worthy to be called thy son. And do you know what the Bible is saying to us? The Bible says, and he arose, and he went to his father, and when he was set a great way off, his father ran towards him, and his father fell on his neck and he kissed him. And the Bible says his father had compassion about him and he kissed him. And what did the father say? He turned to the servants and he said to the servants, Bring unto my son the best rope. He said, Bring unto my son the ring. He said, Bring unto my son the shoes. Ah, you say, Brother Gerard, what did the father do? My brother, my sister, the father did three things. First of all, the father clothed the son. Secondly, the father completed his work in the heart of the son. And thirdly, the father commissioned the son. Ah, you say, why can you say this evening that the father clothed the son? You remember he said to the servants, Bring unto my son the best rope. I wonder this Thursday night if you would allow me to suggest to you that it seems to me that when you and I begin to study this rope in the Scriptures, that my brother and my sister, the rope is speaking unto us about the greatness and the righteousness of God. I think in that wonderful little verse or rather that statement that we come across in the Old Testament, and this is what the prophet Isaiah said. He said, I will greatly rejoice in the Lord. He said, My soul shall be joyful in my God, for He hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, and He hath covered me with the rope of righteousness. Listen to what Job is saying unto us. He said, I put on the righteousness. He said, and it clothed me. He said, My judgment was like as a rope. I want to say to you this evening, my brother and my sister, if you sit here tonight and you say, Brother Jurat, I remember there was a time in my life when I was born of the Spirit of God. Every one of us tonight, we are sitting here with a rope that God has given unto us. So I want us to look upon that rope this evening. What about the rope of my testimony as a Christian? The Apostle Paul said, If any man is in Christ, he is a new creature. He said, All things have passed away. He said, Behold, all things have become new. Tomorrow night when we look at this great reality of Christian growth, one of the things that I want us to look at is this understanding that God, when it comes to the demands of Christian growth, that God wants us to protect it. And God wants us to promote it. My brother and my sister, I want to tell you something tonight. The most precious thing that God has entrusted to me is the beauty of my testimony. Do you remember when the Apostle Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5, he said, Therefore, if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature. He said, Behold, all things have passed away and all things have become new. Do you know that word, Behold, is a wonderful word? Brother and sister, it's exactly the same word in the Greek language when John the Baptist saw the Lord Jesus Christ. And the moment when he saw Him, he made the statement, he said, Behold, the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. You see, every one of us tonight, we have a garment. And you know, my brother and my sister, in our little fellowships, some of them larger fellowships, one of the great burdens upon my heart, because I know that this movement is in the process of growing. And I was so excited tonight as we were coming towards this gathering, found out that there's maybe something like 50 to 60 fellowships all over the country. And I remember, was it 6 or 7 or 8 years ago, when I had the privilege of being here, realizing the possibility of what God is able to do. But He has given unto us a rope. It's the rope of righteousness. Can I ask you tonight as a husband, my brother, how is it going in the work with that rope that God has given to you and the relationship of the beauty of your precious wife that God has entrusted to you as a leader? Can I ask you this first tonight in those moments of the godly, sanctified, broken, saturated, baptized responsibility as a husband when I take responsibility for every aspect of the needs of my precious wife? The Apostle Paul came to us, and do you know what he said? Ephesians 5. He said, Be not drunk of wine wherein there is an excess, but he said, Be full to the Spirit. He said, Redeem the time, because the days are evil. That means God wants us to analyze time. God wants us to utilize time. Brother and sister, God wants us to maximize time. Time is a piece of eternity. And then he's coming to the men later on, and do you know what he said? He said, Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved a church. He said, Brother Gerard, what is that? It's sacrificial love. I do a lot of traveling, and the last year I probably spent 60 or 80 days in airports and in planes and delays and all kinds of things. And about four times a year I have this wonderful privilege to have my wife with me when I'm in a conference. I just came out of the city of New York and was in what they told me the largest Spanish church in the country. And Sunday morning, free morning services amongst these Spanish people, the Spirit of God. And Sunday morning came and broke into our midst in the most amazing way. And at the end of that second service, I just got behind the pulpit and God just came and just washed afresh through my own life. And this last week was one of those weeks that I had the privilege of having my precious wife with me. And when I said goodbye to her at the airport because she needs to go back to our daughter out in Western Canada, I said, My darling, I want you to phone me from Montreal. And when she phoned me from Montreal, I turned to her and I said, I just want to tell you that I really love you and it's been wonderful for you to be with me. I want to ask you a question tonight as a husband. Are you taking your wife for granted? Brother, can I ask you tonight in this meeting, when last have you been broken in the presence of your wife? Listen to what the Scripture says. It says, Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church. Listen to the Apostle John. He said, Here in His love, not that we love God, but that He loved us, and that He gave His Son as a propitiation for our sins. You see, we are speaking about sacrificial love. The garment of that beautiful relationship. The garment of our relationships with our children. Oh, you sit here this Thursday night and you say, Brother Gerard, I spend time with my wife and my children. You know what's my great concern? Because I want us later to look at this garment of consecration to God. You see, brother and sister, listen, we are here this evening, and we believe in separation. We are taking God upon His Word when the Apostle Paul said in 2 Corinthians 6, he said, Come out from among them and be separate, sayeth the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing. And he said, I will be a father unto you, and you shall be my sons and my daughters. Now, chapter 7, verse 1 says, Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and the spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. And you sit here and you say, Brother Gerard, I believe in separation. But you know what? It's possible for you this Thursday night as a husband and as a father to be separated from this world and not being separated unto God. And you are caught between these two. And you sit here tonight and you say, Brother Gerard, I'm not living a spirit-filled life. I find myself in the wilderness of sin. I don't go out and commit those brutal sins that the world is speaking about, but deep in my heart and in my mind and my emotions as a husband and as a father, there in the realm of my secrecy, I find myself struggling with sin. So God has given unto us this garment. I will never be able not to remember this. I think it's about, I don't know, maybe four or five years ago now. And one of the fellowships that was done in Idaho got in touch and said, is it possible to come for a weekend of meetings? And I was able to go down. We live out in British Columbia and Western Canada. And I was able to go down and it was always a great blessing to drive down there. It took me 14 hours to drive down. And I listened through the whole New Testament on my way down. I tell you, if you ever want to keep a speed limit, you listen to the Word of God when you drive. And I listened through the whole New Testament on my way down. And then I arrived there on a Friday night, quite often at 8 o'clock. And I would meet Brother Danny there and we'd get on our knees and we'd spend time in prayer. And then about 4 o'clock in the morning we were back at it again. And 9 o'clock the meetings start. And what great times those were. And I would never forget, I was asked to go down there a number of years ago. And about two weeks before I went down, I had a call from a church in the city of Spokane. And so the pastor phoned and he said, will you tell me about these prayer conferences we are doing? Prayer conferences. Because Brethren and Sisters, if you can't get through to God in prayer, you're not going to get through to people. I mean, you can't separate the answer to prayer from what God is doing in your life. And so I began to talk to him on the phone about prayer. And so he turned to me and he said, well, if you come to my church to do a prayer conference, he said, what is it going to cost us? And I just turned to him and said, it's going to cost you absolutely everything. Oh, he said, no, no, I'm thinking of money. I said, no, no, no, no. It's not a question of money. It's a question of meeting with God. Well, I tell you, we were talking and I could sense this man, you know, he didn't know where we are going here. And I just got to a place where I said, well, you know, I think you need to pray about this. But God began to create a hunger in his heart. And as we were talking, he said to me, when are you coming through Spokane? And I just said to him, I said, well, I'm coming through there in the next few weeks. And he said, what day of the week? I said, well, as a matter of fact, I said, it's on a Sunday afternoon. And he said, where will you be? I said, I will be coming out of Idaho. Ah, he said, can you speak at my church Sunday night? And I said, no, I can't. And he said, why not? I said, you don't know those people there in Idaho. I said, when you begin to pray with them and you pour your heart out, I said, you know, when you finish there, you feel you need a week of holidays just to recover again. And he said, I said, I'm not interested in speaking in your church. But you know, he just kept on. He said, I want you to come to my church. He said, I want to know about prayer. And brother and sister, I just said, no, I won't do that. And I put the phone down. And the moment when I put the phone down, God got a hold of my life. And God said, just as we heard what I was saying earlier tonight, God just convicted me and said, no, you're going to go to that church. And I just picked up the phone and I phoned him and I said to him, listen, I'm willing to come and spend Sunday night in your church. And I really didn't want to preach, to be honest with you. But that Sunday night, it was with brother Denny and with brothers down, sisters down in Idaho, and I was coming into Spokane. The service started about 6.30 that night and at 6 o'clock, I drove and stopped at the church, got into the pastor's study, and he said to me, ah, we've got about 30 minutes. Let's have a little bit of fellowship and get to know one another. I said, no, don't do that. He said, what do you mean? I said, let's get on. I need to pray. I said, listen, we pray for five minutes and you know where I am and I know where you are with God. Well, that night, you know it's wonderful, brother and sister, God don't need us, you know. Ah, you laugh. Wait till God gets a hold of your life. I want to tell you something tonight. God can do His work far better without us. He gives us this great privilege to be involved in this marvelous work. And that Sunday night, I got up and I could hardly speak and I just tried to share with them about prayer. And God did something in that Sunday night service. That pastor made 50 copies and he circulated through the city of Spokane. And then he got in touch. He said, we need a prayer conference. And we prayed about it. And I will never forget, I went to this independent Baptist church. I mean, it was so independent, it was just about independent of God. Well, I'll tell you what happened. We started with the meetings. God began to work, brother and sister. Not because I was there, but you know why? Because for hours we climbed underneath the burden of God in the place of prayer. People said, why do we spend these many hours in prayer? You know why, brother and sister? Because we want to get out of the way so that God can do something. It was a Tuesday morning and he came to me that Tuesday morning and he said, you know, brother Gerard, I don't know what's going on. I said, what? He said, my wife has been crying. Hour after hour. Tuesday night he came. He said, I don't know what's going on. He said, my wife has been crying. And I realized God was breaking her heart. Wednesday morning the same thing. Wednesday night he came to me at the service and he said, you know, brother Gerard, he said, I don't know what's going on. He said, God, my wife has been crying all day. Thursday morning he came into the morning of prayer and he was standing behind his desk and he just looked at me and he said, I can't understand this. I said, what do you mean? He said, my wife has been crying through the night. I've been talking to her till 3 o'clock in the morning and I knew that God was giving unto her a broken heart. And I stood there and he was standing behind his desk and I didn't say this to him, but in my heart I just said, brother, wait till he teaches you. We began to pray that morning and do you know what happened? I was kneeling in the corner there and he was kneeling behind his desk. It was just the two of us. And I tried to pray. And you know, brother and sister, I've been at this thing for 30 years. You never get to the place where you know how to pray. It tears you apart every day. And I was there in the corner trying to pour my heart out before God. 15 or 20 minutes, maybe half an hour. And when I got to the end of my prayer, there was brother Bill behind his desk. He's a big ex-navy officer, a big man and been a pastor for 18 years. And there he was behind the desk and he began to pray and suddenly God came. God began to break into the life of this man. Brother and sister, forgive me for saying this, it was an awful mess. He was lying behind his desk on the floor and the floor was wet and it was just terrible. I got to a place, in fact, I've been in the revival twice in my life and the revival is not a series of special services. I want to tell you something, if God sends revival, you and I are not going to laugh or clap. We will be crawling in brokenness in the presence of God. And I was there in the corner and the presence of God became so real, I got frightened to death. I thought this man was going to lose his mind as he waves of the conviction of the Spirit of God which is sweeping through his life. And there was a moment when I began to crawl over and I just wanted to put my hand around his shoulder and I just wanted to say, you know, Brother Bo, I just want to tell you I'm here and I want to pray with you. And as I was crawling over, you know what Oswald Chambers said, when God is convicting someone of sin, you don't go near that person. And as I was crawling over, the Spirit of God said, get back to that corner. For three and a half hours, these waves came washing through his life, sobbing, agony, weeping. And about two o'clock that afternoon, he stood up behind the desk in his office and the floor was just a mess. Eventually, I went and got a towel because it was such a mess. And he stood up and I look at this man and he was totally new. He came to me the next day and he said to me, Brother Gerard, he said I don't know if I was ever really born of the Spirit of God. I want to ask you a question tonight. We are exposed to some great teachings day after day. Brother Mose and Brother Denny and some of the other brothers in the fellowships and they are expounding the Word of God to you and you are listening to the Word of God. Can I ask you tonight, is God meeting with you? I was asked in the beginning of last year to spend the morning, a day, with leaders of one of the large denominations in North America. And they are very well-known names, so-called. And here was this little poor, poor fellow and they wanted me to spend the day with him on the subject of prayer. And I just went and tried to pour my heart out. And you never know how to do it, brother and sister. I mean, you crawl to it and try to get up and share something. And I went and I poured my heart out all morning. And one of the very well-known individuals in this country, and there are maybe millions of people listening to him on the radio every day, he stood up and he said, this thing that you are talking about spending time with God, what do you mean by that? And I will never forget, I just took the pulpit like this and I just looked at him and I said, it's not you spending time with God, it's God spending time with you. And I ask you tonight, the garment of purity, without the sharing of blood is there no forgiveness or sin? The soul of the flesh is in the blood. When I see the blood, the Lord Jesus Christ came in the Gospels and you remember what He said, brethren and sisters, four times in John 4, you know what He said? He said, unless you drink the blood of the Son of God and you eat His flesh, you shall not become part of Him. Why did He say that? Because there were crowds of people. And do you know what they did? They followed Him because of the miracles that He did, and not because of the meaning of His life. And there was a moment when He said that to them that they turned. Do you know what the Bible says? Many of His disciples left Him and they didn't walk with Him anymore. And do you know what the Lord Jesus did? He didn't run after them and say, well, you know, maybe there is a different translation of the Bible. Maybe the Greek New Testament means something else. He didn't do that. He looked them straight in the eyes and He said to them, why don't you also go away? Listen, brethren and sisters, you and I, we are God's responsibility. And responsibility is my response to God's ability. And your life and my life tonight as a Christian is so vital and so precious in the presence of God, that I can't mess around to ascend the rope of my purity. We were away for 10-11 days, my wife and daughter and myself. And God helped us to get into the sun in December. And I don't look upon this as holiday or vacation. Every time when we go, I say to my wife, you know, the plane is going to be like this with all these suitcases of books that I'm taking with me. And I have marvelous books on the blood of Christ. And I turn to my wife and daughter and they said, oh, daddy, we're going to be on vacation. I said, yes, we're going to walk. I go with you where you feel we should go. I said, but I want eight hours every day. And they said, I said, I want to plow into the Scriptures. And I fresh began to study the efficacy of the blood. You go to the four Gospels and you come across three different people that pay the consequences because they played with the blood of Christ. You say, who was it? Judas? He said, I betrayed innocent blood. And he hanged himself. Pontius Pilate, he said, I'm innocent of the blood of this man. He paid the consequences. But you standing at the cross or standing in the trial of Christ, and what did they say? They said, let His blood be upon us. And they're still paying the price. You don't mess around with the blood. So I wonder tonight if I can ask you, brother and sister, where do I stand when it comes to the beauty of this rope that God has given to me when it speaks of purity? Purity. Have you lost the vision of God? You say, Brother Gerard, why have I lost the vision of God? Let me tell you. Matthew 5 says, Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Observation affects intercession. You see, my perception of God is a reflection of my relationship with God. The garment of my purity. We have a conference ground out there in Western Canada, in a camp. And when God gave His place to us 10 years ago, we got some people to help us and we built this place up. And now our time is over with this place and it's time for us to move on. But when God gave us this beautiful piece of property, 7 1⁄2 acres right there at the ocean, and we began to pour our lives into it. And we want to see people meeting with God. Sixty percent of the groups that are coming are Chinese and Korean. We find them 3 o'clock in the morning praying and seeking the face of God. And we had the place for about 4 or 5 months when the cooks came to me one day in my office and they said, they said, Brother Gerard, we've got a problem. And I said, what? And they said, it's the pipes, the water that is coming into the kitchen. And they said, it's getting less and less. And then people came with the showers and they said, there's not enough water coming through. And I thought, now what's going on here? And then I went up to the road and I opened the valve so that more water... I said, what's it like? Oh, they said, now there's lots of water. Three weeks later it was exactly the same. So I thought, well, there must be something wrong. I got in touch with a Christian plumber. And I said, Gordon, can you come and help us? And he came. And I said, what do we want to do? He said, get the maps of all the pipes. So I got the maps from the city council. And so one day he came and he said, ok, here is a pipe going. And he said, it's underneath, probably about 2 feet or so. And so with shovels we began to dig around and lo and behold, there was this one and a half or two inch pipe. And so I said, so what do you think? He said, well, we need to find out what's going on. I said, what do you mean? He said, we need to cut a piece of the pipe off. And I said, you can't do that. Oh, he said, listen man, you're a preacher, I'm a plumber, I know what I'm doing. So we dig around it and we turn the water off. And Gordon came and he cut, I don't know, about 8 or 10 inches of the pipe, this one and a half, two inch pipe. And he cut it off. And when he cut it off, he held it like this. And he said, ah, Brother Gerard, I know exactly what's wrong. He said, it's all eroded. I said, what do you mean? He said, look, and I look, and you know, this one and a half or two inch pipe, I could hardly see this, but half an inch. So I said, what happened? He said, well, it's probably 25 or 30 years old. And the water that's gone through and all this stuff in Western Canada, it has gone through. And he said, it's all eroded. And so I said to him, I said, listen, Gordon, maybe it's just here. And he just laughed. He said, it's obvious that you're a preacher, but I'm a plumber. I didn't believe him, you know. It took off. And I dig another hole further closer to the sanctuary and dig there. And I saw how he fixed the pipe. And I cut another 12 inches off. And I look and it was all eroded. You couldn't see. Hardly see through. And so he phoned me. He said, Brother Gerard, we're going to need to replace the pipes. And so we brought a bobcat in, and he dug the trenches and everything, and we laid the pipes and all those things. And I mean, I'm a preacher, but not a plumber, but I became a plumber. I was helping with everything I could. And we lay all the pipes. And do you know what happened, brother and sister? There was a day when they were all laid, we closed them up, and everything was fine. And all our staff was in the kitchen and in the sanctuary. And I sent them all. I said, listen, I want you to go to the kitchen. And they went to the kitchen. And they said, where are you going to? I said, I'm going up to the road. They said, what are you going to do? I said, I'm going to open the water. And so I went to the road, and I took the valve, and I began to open it, and open it, and open it. And I ran down to the kitchen. And when I came in the kitchen, I said, open the taps. And oh, they opened the taps. And they smiled. They said, Brother Gerard, we've got lots of water. I'm going to ask you tonight, what's happening with the pipe? Those little foxes. Those little foxes that crawl in. The pastor phoned me yesterday, and we were talking, and he said, what is the most important aspect of your walk with God? And I couldn't wait to tell him. And I just turned to him, and I said, Bobby, the most important thing is that God will come every morning and wash through my life. Brother and sister, can I ask you tonight, do you still have the blood? Listen to the writer to the Hebrews. How much more shall the blood of Christ... Now listen very carefully. How much more shall the blood of Christ through the eternal Spirit? You see, the Spirit witnessed through the blood, and the blood witnessed through the Spirit. The blood is not effective in your life, in my life. You know what's happening with us? The Spirit of God has got nothing to witness. And you say, what have I done? I've grieved the Holy Spirit of God. Do you remember in Ephesians 4? The Apostle Paul said, Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby you are sealed until the day of redemption. And that word seal, the Apostle Paul is using an understanding of what happened in Ephesus that they took the trees, and they stamped them, and he used the concept. He said, you've been sealed to the Holy Spirit. So why did he do that? You see, the deity of that passage, my brother and sister, or rather the context of that passage is speaking to us about the deity of the Holy Ghost. He said, grieve not the Spirit. You say, how do I grieve the Spirit of God? I grieve the Spirit of God because of His sensitivity. He's the Holy Spirit. I grieve Him because of His sanctity. I grieve Him because of His sufficiency. Do you know what happens to us sometimes when we come to conferences like this? You and I, we can sit through meeting after meeting after meeting after meeting after meeting without meeting with God. You say, brother Gerard, how does it happen? It's like the layers of an onion. And God needs to come to your life and my life, brother and sister, and He needs to take them layer after layer after layer, so that there is a moment where we just see ourselves. The efficacy of the blood. How much more shall the blood of Christ, through the eternal Spirit, cleanse what? Your conscience. Purge your conscience. From what? Dead works to serve the living God. You see, we are going to stand before the judgment seat of Christ. We won't stand before the great white throne. That's for the unconverted. But the Christian will stand before the judgment seat of Christ. And our works are going to be revealed. Hay, stubble and wood. Flesh. Carnality. Silver, gold, precious stones. The Spirit of God. I want to tell you something tonight. My heart is broken for these fellowships all over the country. I mean, I may be standing here tonight and ordering another beer, but I tell you, I've got suspenders. I may be moving different circles, but brother and sister, I want to tell you, I've got a burden. Because I believe, if God can send revival to this land, that this is a group of men and women that God is able to visit. You say, why brother Gerard? Because I've seen all the junk out there. So you say, what do we have to watch for? You know what we need to watch for? It's that we never get to the place where we think we've got it together. The garment. The garment of my purity. My time is gone. I was in a place some time ago and my watch broke. Oh, it was wonderful. I want to tell you something tonight. You see, God has given every one of us a garment. And now you sit here and you say preach with brother and you. Say amen and everything. Let me ask you a question. What is going on deep? Deep. Not just there. Not just there. Down deep. Do you know the presence of God? Do you know the brokenness of the Spirit of God? You know, I always thought I had some understanding of what brokenness is about in Scripture. And do you know what happened to me in the month of December? God, in my unquiet times, just began to lock me away in a little corner in the secrecy of a closet, spending time with Him. And for days, I found myself from the moment that Jesus went to Gethsemane, and as He went to Gethsemane until the moment that He died on the cross, and I spent days plowing through those verses, and I discovered brokenness in a way that I never even thought it could exist. The garment of my purity. Robert Murray McChain used to say, I love that man. Do you know what he said? He said, how can the Holy Spirit in me criticize the Holy Spirit in you? He was the man that used to say, so much of my time of praying is preparing myself to pray. He was the man that used to say, I want to be as holy as it is possible for a sinner saved by grace to be. My garment. When last has it been washed, my brother and sister? When last did the Holy Spirit of God come? You know, I say this to God many times because we're praying for the fellowships. And I may be moving in other places and circles, but we're praying for the fellowships. There is a brokenness in my soul. I mean, you can give me a bucket to take home and I'll probably fill it in the next few weeks because we're praying for these fellowships and we've often said to God, God, these people, they are so precious. They are so valuable. They are so important in You. But God, the great thing is they need to be filled to the fullness of God. They need to be broken. They need to be transparent. They need to be hungry. They need to be thirsty. That's what you need to do in their heart. And let me ask you tonight a question that's coming out of months of seeking God. Is it true in your life? Purity. The garment of souls. Souls. I was in the airport today. In fact, it was the airport that one of the planes came out on September 11. Tuesday night after the service out there in New York, there was a man and his wife and they said to me, we want to take you somewhere. My wife and myself, we said, where? And they said, Brother Gerard, we want to take you to the place where the World Trade Center was. And I didn't know if I could handle this. Anyway, they took us there and as we stood there, I said, what are you doing, sir? And he said, I'm in a company and we have 150 garages where people park their cars when they come to work. And I said, oh, that's interesting. And then he stopped and he said, you see that building? I said, yes. He said, in that building, that building belongs to us and people park their cars there. It costs them $6,000 to $7,000 a month in New York to park a vehicle there. And he said, people park their cars. And I said, why do you say that? He said, Brother Gerard, there are 24 cars there. I said, oh, what about them? He said, the owners of those cars were in the buildings on September 11. They've never found those people. He said, those cars have been standing there for two years. He said, those cars have never been claimed. He said, the dust is still upon them. He said, my boss refused to move those cars. He said, that's a memorial because of what happened. And I just stood there and I wept. Do you know what he told me? He said, Brother Gerard, there were 300 Christians in this one tower that I work. And he said, can I tell you something? I said, what? He said, every one of us got out alive. Do you know what happened to me today? I was in the airport. And we'd been walking through snow and stuff out there in New York and my shoes were just filthy. And there was this big black fellow cleaning people's shoes. And he's asked four or five dollars. I thought, I can't spend that money to clean my shoes. And I thought I'm going to sit there and I'll say to him, listen, if I give you a dollar, can you give me a bit of polish and I'll just clean my shoes? Of course, he wants five bucks. And as I sat there, he was talking to this other man. And he was cursing and swearing and carrying on. And as soon as he came to me, he said, now I'm going to help you. I said, no, you're not going to help me. And he said, why not? I said, I can't give my money to someone who talks like you. I said, but listen, come here. I said, I want to look you in the eyes. I want to talk to you about God. He asked me a question tonight. Do you see them as trees walking? Do you still weep for souls? Lust! Going to hell in a basket. And we sit there, he doesn't do that to us. I want to read you something through. Black pastor in the land of Zimbabwe. Young pastor. Listen. My commitment to Jesus Christ. I'm part of the fellowship of the unashamed. I have the Holy Ghost's power in me. The die has been cast. I've stepped over the line. The decision has been made. I'm a disciple of Christ. I won't look back. I won't let up. I won't slow down. I won't back away. And I won't be still. My past has been redeemed. My present makes sense. My future is secure. I'm finished and done with low living. I'm finished with sight walking. I'm finished with small planning. I'm finished with smooth knees. I'm finished with colored dreams. I'm finished with tame visions. With worldly talking. With cheap giving. I no longer need preeminence. I don't need prosperity. I don't need promotions. I don't need products of popularity. I don't have to be right. I don't have to be first. I don't have to be recognized. I don't have to be praised, regarded or rewarded. I now live by faith. I lean on the presence of God. I walk by patience. I'm uplifted by prayer. And I labor with power. My faith is set. My gate is fast. My goal is heaven. My road is narrow. My way is rough. My companions are few. My guide is reliable. My mission is clear. I cannot be bought. I cannot compromise. I cannot be deterred. I cannot be lured away. I cannot turn back. I will not fringe in the face of sacrifice. Hesitate in the presence of the enemy. Ponder in the pool of popularity. Or meander in the maze of mediocrity. I won't give up. I won't shut up. I will let up until I've stayed up, stored up, until I've prayed up, preached up for the cause of Christ. I'm a disciple of Jesus. I must go till He comes. I must give till I drop down dead. I must preach till I know and work, till He stops me. And when He comes for me, for His own, He will have no problem to recognize me, because my banner will be absolutely clear. I'm a disciple of Christ. What about you this evening? Have you sat through meeting after meeting? Monday night, Tuesday night, Wednesday night, session after session, you sit here tonight and you say, Brother Gerard, I haven't met with God. You know when God meets with you. I want to say, God, can You just lift these scales up? Just show me my need. It's time to pray. Father, as we bow tonight in Thy presence, You know this evening how difficult it's been in my own heart, because I look upon the lives of hundreds of people, and there is just amazing potential. But You are looking for us, men, women, fathers, husbands, wives, children, young people. You're looking for people that are willing to be broken before God. You're looking for people that want to be clean. And You are looking for people that want to be transparent in the greatness of the presence of God. Tonight, God, we pray that You won't allow any one of us to be in this leadership week and go through these sessions after sessions and not being able to say that God has really met with me. Brethren and sisters, as we come to the end of our time this evening, I'm going to open the altar. I'm going to challenge you tonight. Oh, oh, I'm going to challenge you that you would come and meet with God. Are you willing to come? Step out wherever you are. Brother Gerard, I really want to spend time with God. We're just going to wait. You just come. Some of these old Christians have been saved for many years. God just needs to tear your life apart. I'm going to challenge you tonight as a father, as a husband. We just wait. You just come. We are in no hurry to go anywhere. You just come. No one is going to pray with you. You're going to come and see God. Something deep down, and God needs to deal with it. There's still people coming. You just come out, slip out, wherever you are. And if you're somewhere in the middle, just wiggle your way out. Those of us that are standing, I'm going to ask you tonight, and this is the way we're going to close this service, I'm going to ask you just to slip around on your knees. If you still want to come, you just come. I'm going to ask you just to slip around on your knees. And that's the way we will close this service tonight as we seek the face of God in prayer. You just slip around on your knees, wherever you are. Just find a place to kneel.