This sermon emphasizes the importance of recognizing our own inadequacy and emptiness before God, highlighting the need to surrender our self-sufficiency and rely completely on God's strength and guidance. Through the story of Moses in Exodus 3, the speaker reflects on how God chooses the weak and broken to accomplish His purposes, showcasing the significance of being emptied of self to allow God to work through us. The sermon also touches on the essence of true revival, the power of prayer, and the transformative impact of humble dependence on God in personal and family life.

Hey, good to see you. Wow. Well, good evening. Nice to have you tonight. As Dave Carroll said, I also want to say welcome to all the friends of the sermon index. What an incredible ministry the Lord raised up. Greg, where are you? Would you stand for me? I know he's too shy, but when I saw him, I said, camera, focus on him. I told him, he looked very holy and saintly. Greg, blessings on you. Thanks. You know, the Lord used him to launch, I think, along with whoever else he embraced as his friends, the sermon index. I call it an incredible journey that he undertook to touch the world, especially the people of God, with things that really matter. I think he was in India for a few days and I met with him and I told my staff here, seldom do I run into someone that is so authentic and genuine in their faith and their lifestyle. The two things are not easily mixed. We had lunch here today and I talked to him. I said, you know, the good thing about you is that you live quite humble, but please know that the whole world knows you. Do pray for the ministry of sermon index. You know, the early days of my life, when I joined Operation Mobilization, which was in 1966, toward the end of that year, George Worwell had a huge impact on my life. But then what he did, he introduced Alan Redpath and A.W. Chaucer and significant numbers of God's people I will never ever meet in my life personally. But he said, you better listen to them. Read their books. And my formative years of my life growing in the Lord, all these great men of God had huge impact and share in my growing up spiritually. So I know what they are doing is very, very significant. This afternoon we were talking about Roy Hurston. When I went out to serve the Lord when I was barely 17, two books that was given to me. One was True Discipleship by William Macdonald and Calvary Road by Roy Hurston. And I carried those two books with me all these years of my life. And of course, we were talking about what an impact Roy Hurston had on the lives of people. That Calvary Road book is in 80 languages and continued to make huge impact. And again, in that book it talks about true revival. Now, those of you who are new to us tonight as David Carroll mentioned I will tell this to you, 30-40 years ago Gospel for Asia, the movement that we are part of actually started with a Tuesday night prayer meeting. My wife Gisela shared some stories tonight. When the Lord called us, I was passing a church in Dallas and when he said, I want you to walk away from all these things to give you life on behalf of a world that never heard my name. We didn't know what to do except start praying. So we have what he called a holy tradition. Good tradition. So Tuesday nights around the world wherever our people are, thousands of people are gathering for prayer from 7 to 9. First Friday of the month we meet all night here for prayer and around the world. And if you have nothing else to do which you may walk away from a bunch of things join us by streaming also. And those of you that join us by streaming thank you for being part of us and I encourage you to think about November 5th, that is the next month coming up, you will be able to tune in and be part of the all night prayer meeting. Again, you don't have to stay all night long but you can be here for 2 hours with us and that will be a huge encouragement. Alright. Next 10 minutes or 15 minutes or so would you turn your Bibles to the book of Exodus chapter 3. In some ways this is a preparation for our evening of prayer. Exodus chapter 3 verse 11. I'm sure you are quite familiar with the story of Moses and all the other details that go with it. In this particular verse we read like this But Moses said to God Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt? Just a simple question. Who am I? And of course you know the beginning of the book of Exodus is that Moses saw his call and wanted to help his people and he killed one of those Egyptians and then he gets in trouble he runs for his life and 40 years in the wilderness taking care of dumb sheep and finally God shows up in the burning bush and the Lord says take off your shoes, your sandals your brook and stock whatever you are wearing and then God speaks to him and then of course he tells him this significant statement if you are looking at chapter 3 verse 7 then the Lord said I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers and I am concerned about their suffering so I have come down the creator of the universe the almighty God says I have come down but then he turns around and says in verse 10 so now go I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people of Israelites out of Egypt if God is coming down why he need Moses interesting thing isn't it reading in some of the writings of A.W. Chaucer he said this statement every Christian should be looking to the Lord for something to do in the kingdom of God and everyone ought to be asking God to honor him or her with a job too big for him this afternoon was quite an interesting time for me I am good in telling my problems my people know about it if you don't know me welcome to this class I sent two significant letters out to two of my friends that love us and know us in the ministry so after I signed the letters it was supposed to go by federal experts I talked to my secretary and said did that go? she said yeah then she asked the question you don't know the whole background I am not going to tell you either what happened between the time of my signing the letters to go and my asking the question I was flooded with doubts and confusion I was sitting in my chair saying is this the right thing to do I don't know but I prayed for several weeks I sensed that the Lord was in it and I said I don't know then I had to remind me again it is not by might, not by power not by the letter I write not by the telephone calls I make it is not what I can make things happen I just don't know what to do I am lost and helpless and it has to be God and I am so glad she said it is already gone because I was so tempted to say maybe you should hold it, don't do it I was trembling on the inside someday you may find out the magnitude of this decision that we are dealing with but I just want to tell you that 43 years of serving the Lord I have seen so much of miracles I can write a book with a thousand pages of things I have seen God has done but of all these years this afternoon I stood trembling in my room scared to death saying that I just don't know and I think in serving God my brothers and sisters when we can interpret the ways of God and what he asks us to do for our personal life victory over sin, struggles depression, anxiety worry and care about the future or finances or our children or ministry whatever the Lord calls us to if we can interpret all those things to the limit of our framework again I remind myself it will remain my work, not his work when God had impressed upon Moses heart that he was the one to deliver the people if he had the mindset that he had after 40 years of this being alone and broken and emptied to the place in the book of Acts we read Moses about him he was a brilliant orator well trained but he came to the place and said Lord I cannot even talk please find someone else to do the job 40 years prior to that he was all able and skilled and all the talents and all the money and all the circumstances he can make it happen but then Lord said you know I have to let the people suffer for nearly another 40 years because you are not ready you have to go it is one thing to take care of dumb sheep they go astray all the time but then take care of your father-in-law's sheep that is not very good situation but finally he came to the place and said Lord I cannot talk I don't have the ability and then the scripture says if you read that God got mad at him and said Aaron will go with you so here we understand after 40 years of this brokenness and being emptied of his self-sufficiency Moses said God I just couldn't wait for you to talk to me about it I am ready I think it will take another 40 years but the response is I just can't do it I can't talk, I am scared to death and brothers and sisters these few days here people are here talking about revival and all these different very wholesome aspirations that we have for our life and the church but I think on an individual basis as individuals and families I think the Lord's work continues in the same way that is he seeks to bring us to the place of nothingness so he can be everything why he didn't choose Saul the man he handpicked he was a giant himself I usually call Nathan our giant here among our staff today when I saw Greg I said Nathan you are the midget but then why didn't God pick the brothers of David who were tall and strong and able and well trained the clue I guess is this when the giant said David you little rascal that's my interpretation you come to me to fight with me I'm going to just tear you apart and cut you into pieces and give it to birds he said yeah I know you come to me with all your might but I come to you with nothing in myself I come to you in the name of the Lord why God picked Gideon of all the people among the people of God I mean they were desperate crying out God save us and then he goes and picks Gideon the guy who is hiding himself and the angel appears and says me? maybe you are talking about somebody else I'm not strong I'm not able can't you see what I'm doing hiding away and then of course he got 320,000 people coming out to fight with him big army and the Lord said it's not going to work when it's all done they will say it is by our might, our prayer our fasting, our strength our learning the scriptures, our theology our radical views and being extreme on the right in the political views we made it happen then he find 300 people less than 1% facing a Himalaya size crisis and I think tonight as often we as a people of God a community I call Gospel of Asia our people we are the community of Christ and we gather for prayer and the reason we do that is one to declare to the Lord that we can't make it our own we can't you know there are parents because my wife and I raised two children Daddy and Sarah and of course they grew up they ran off from us got married and they have children three little critters they are cute little kids you should see them somebody asked me I said I don't feel nothing but that is not true I look at their pictures I can't believe they are real creatures but you know those of you who are here parents and grandparents those of you who are watching one of the crisis we all deal with what or not are we going to raise our children in godly ways you can have home schooling you can have the best of books about how to raise your children how to be a good wife, how to be a good husband please understand me I have been in western culture for more than 30 years so I am not naive but I am telling you with all the teachings going on all the how to do things you will fail miserably until you as a dad and mom you come to the place in the middle of the night you fall on your face and say god I am totally helpless please oh god you are the one who can raise these children and you don't engage in the flesh and the indoctrination of the western theology and the psychology and you walk away into the deep nights of waiting, weeping and praying and seeking god and the children when they grow up they will say somewhere in the world it was not the theology and the home schooling and the discipline that made us what we are but the gentle, humble, broken walk that we witnessed in my dad, in my mom and I say this to you we are living in a culture where we are constantly bombarded to take sides of this political party, that party, this theology this new teaching, this that listen, anyone who comes to know god they will come to the place of nothingness and emptiness and that is where god begins to work so Paul said we have this treasure in earthen vessels so that when all is said and done nobody will say wow, he did it, she did it so for me as we go to the lord and pray tonight with the prayer request and different things that we share tonight as we usually do another reminder one, that I cannot make it happen whatever I am dealing with there is nothing in me that can make it happen and god will make sure in eternity, nothing of the flesh or what I do will remain second, reminds me that my dependence is on the lord and he is the one to do it and he is able and he waits let's pray lord, thank you for this evening the joy of gathering like this your sons and daughters what an incredible joy to know that we belong to you and tonight I pray that you lead us and guide us in this time of prayer and may our hearts be drawn close to you and that the things we say in prayer will be because of your burden your concern and our recognition that you alone oh lord, will do all the work and we are only channels thank you for your grace bless your people, those who are here and those who are watching us so far away from us may your grace abound thank you father, we say this to you in the name of our lord jesus christ amen