This sermon emphasizes the importance of churches being filled with people who are full of God, not just with a large number of attendees. It delves into the significance of deepening our relationship with God through prayer, seeking intimacy with Him, and understanding the essence of true discipleship. The message highlights the transformative power of prayer, the need for persistence in seeking God, and the profound impact of encountering the risen Christ in our lives.

This morning we want to thank you that the longing and the burden of our hearts is not to have churches full of people but, oh God, to have churches that will be full of people that will be full of God. And we recognize today that we don't long for something that's a mile wide and an inch deep. And there is a sense in which it's maybe awful to say to you this morning that I'm not sure if we really need more Christians, we maybe just need better ones. But dear God, we are so thankful that we have a morning like this that has been set aside because the yearning and the longing in our hearts is the cry of the disciple of old when he saw you praying at a certain place and your word said to us that he came up to you and said, Lord, will you teach us to pray? And dear God, we confess to you today, I'm so thankful to be allowed to identify with this incredible group of men and women this morning because the absolute reality is that none of us would ever get to the place where we know how to pray. But that prayer will bring us to the place where he gets to know us so that we can understand that you are the initiator of prayer. And Father, that it's not the time that we spend with you, but it's the time that you come to spend with us. We're so grateful this morning that we are your responsibility. And someone once said that my responsibility is simply my response to the incredible ability of God. And I'm so thankful that we can say with a hymn writer of old when it comes to the concept of developing intimacy with you and learning the language of prayer, that really what we can say is nothing in our hands do we bring, but simply to the cross do we cling. Father God, you need to teach us this thing. We can't try and manufacture or bring the spirit of God down or try to stir something up. This is something that is coming out of the sanctity and the majesty and the supremacy and the sovereignty and the unbelievable understanding of the righteousness and the holiness of God that flow from the throne of God when you are collecting the brokenness that came from the hearts of people who have an understanding that observation affects intercession and that the prophet in the Old Testament virtually said, my eyes has affected my heart. Father, we are reminded that Jesus said, the harvest is ripe, the fields are ready. And then suddenly he stopped and he said, look up. And we know that when we look through the eyes of God, that we would see things the way that God sees them. And that as we said to one another, that he that often speaks to God about people will probably often speak to people about God. And we know in our hearts that you don't want us to have worldly friends that dragged us away from the depths of the intimacy of the life of Christ. But oh God, you want us to have friends in the world where we carry with us an atmosphere and a fragrance and a saturation of being immersed in the beauty of the presence of God that creates a hunger and a thirst after righteousness. Lord, I thank you for this passage that has been burning in my heart these days again about the prophet Elijah and the Old Testament and how the woman and her husband passed the house or how Elijah passed the house to this woman and her husband and some of it seems that there were very little interaction with a prophet. And yet one day as as she passed the house, she suddenly turned to her husband and she said, I behold that this man is a holy man of God. And we are conscious that he carried with him an atmosphere that demanded the supernatural explanation. Father, I don't know about my brothers and sisters here this morning, but you know the inadequacy of my own heart. You know that this morning in my heart I yearn that there will be a moment when you open the heavens above and come down. Because we know in 20 minutes of an outpouring of the Spirit of God, we will experience probably more than that which we have tried to accomplish the last 20 years. And when the prophet of the Old Testament came and he said, oh, that I would revive us again so that my people might rejoice in you, do we sense the depth of the yearning of the God who said to us in the Old Testament, I will pour water upon him that he's thirsty and floods upon the dry ground. God, we confess this morning in your presence that if there is no hunger, there is no life. And if there is no thirst, there is no life. And I said last night to the young people that Duncan Campbell used to say, if you fall to the Spirit of God, you can't be full of anything else. And so I pray as we spend this morning together, Lord, I didn't come into this community because I have nothing to do. I've simply come because we want to meet with God. And we can't do this. And so we pray that as we communicate these, try to communicate these great concepts, that we will be like those two disciples on the way to that. When Christ came alongside them and asked him what they were talking about after the resurrection. And now they turned to him and said, have you not heard of Jesus of Nazareth, the one who was crucified? And now the rumors is going that he's been risen from the dead. And they have no idea that it was Christ that was walking with him. And Father, how you came and you began to explain to them in the life of Christ about the law, the prophets and the writings and the fulfilling of the reality of the Messiah, not knowing in their hearts that this was actually the risen Christ. But somehow that there was a moment when you departed out of their presence and your word came and your word said to us, they stopped and they turned to one another and they recognized that they just encountered the risen Christ. And your word said that they turned to one another and they said, did not our hearts burn within us when he spoke to us in the way. Oh God, I don't want to miss it. I don't want to be like the dog or the blacksmith that was sleeping under the table and the sparks was flying and the noise was unreal. And the man walked into his shop and said, what's going on with this dog? Is he dead? Is he blind? How is it that he's lying under the table with the noise and the sparks and the heat? And now the blacksmith turned to him and laughed and said, you don't understand. This is my dog. The first day I could not get him close to the shop, but every day he came closer and closer. And now he's sleeping under the table while the sparks are flying. And he laughed and said he got used to the sparks. I pray, oh God, don't let us ever become used to the greatness of the sanctity and the transparency and the brokenness in the manifestation of the consciousness of God that will crush every aspect in our intimacies with you and give us a vision of the risen life of Christ. Thank you for this time. We come to your word, dear father. Augustinus used to say that when the scripture speaks, that's when God speaks. You said to us in your word, is my word not like a hammer that breaketh a rock? Is my word not like a fire? You said to us in your word that my word is sharper than any two-edged sword, cutting through the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, bones and marrow. You said to us, heaven and earth shall pass away, but my word shall abide forever. Paul said to us, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. He said to Timothy, study to show yourself approved unto God. A word were not needed to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. He said to us all scripture is given by inspiration of God. It is profitable for reproof and for correction and for instruction in righteousness. And so we pray this morning that as we contemplate the greatness of scripture, oh that it would advance upon our souls, that it will grab us by the throats, that it will stand in front of us and that it will scream at the top of the voice of the son that the other spirit of God and said, let me in so that I can work in your relationship with me. Bless us, we pray in Jesus name. And God, I pray as we come together this evening and probably going to open up this leadership session tonight for whoever is here this morning. And as we go into tomorrow, I long for you to come to church. And as we go through those three sessions and come together for our prayer summit tomorrow evening and want to climb underneath the burden of God in prayer and ask you to systematically help us to dissect it and pray things through and pray in the realm of the word of God and the spirit of God. And somehow that we would be conscious that the God that we are serving is the one that answers prayer, not because we are necessarily praying, but all because he's a covenant keeping God. Thank you father in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Could you take your seat and uh in your Bible? I want you to uh, uh, take your seat and turn around and I want you to open your Bible. So what I want you to do is to open your Bible. If you don't have your Bible with you, please say, my God have mercy on my poor little soul. But if you have your Bible with you, turn with me to two passages in the new testimony. No, you're okay. Mary's going to fix it. So Matthew chapter six, if you will. And then uh, Luke chapter 11. Matthew chapter six. Are you telling me you can't understand my accent? Oh, welcome to humanity. Yeah. And you should have some notes there before you, uh, that you're welcome to take home. As we begin to glance through these truths. Matthew chapter six. And uh, let's read saying from verse number six. And then we're going to read, um, also the chapter 11. Matthew chapter six, we're going to go on for about 45 minutes or so. And then we're going to give you a little break. Um, so let's do that. Matthew chapter six, verse number six, Jesus said, now when you will learn the language of prayer, I'm just going to give you my own translation from the way I understand it from the Greek language. When you learn the language of prayer, I want you to enter into your inner chamber. And once you've entered into your inner chamber, I want you to shut the door of your inner chamber. And I want you to pray to your father, which is in that secret place. And your father was the one that is able to see in that secret place. He is the one that will be able to reward you opening. Now, when you pray, I don't want you to use a consistent repetition, uh, as the, the vacancy, because what they think is that they will be hurt because they're not speaking. Be not therefore like unto them for your father, know what you need, even before you ask him. We should have time to explain that statement because it's so precious. Verse number nine. This is the way that I want you to learn the language of prayer. I want you to set our father who art in heaven. Hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done in earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from that which is evil for yours is the power and the kingdom and the glory forever. Now, if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly father will also forgive you. But if you have not learned the spirit of forgiveness, neither will your father be able to forgive you. Now, Luke chapter 11, verse number one. The Bible says that he came to pass that as Jesus was praying in a certain place, that when he came to the end of his prayer, that one of his disciples came to him and asked him or said to him, Lord, teach us to pray as John also taught his disciples. Now Jesus said to them, when you pray and you repeat to us what we would consider as the Lord's prayer, let's jump into verse number five. And Jesus said to them, which of you shall have a friend? And he will go to him in the middle of the night and he will say to him, my friend, I want you to lend me three loaves of bread for a friend of mine in his journey has come to me and I have nothing to say before him. Now he from within will answer and say, I don't want you to trouble me now because the door is already closed. My children are with me in bed. I'm not able to rise and give it to you. Jesus said, I say unto you, although we will not rise and give it to him, but because of his friendship and because of his shameless persistence, he will rise and he will give him as many as he needs. I say unto you, ask and it shall be given unto you. Seek and you shall find, not then it shall be open unto you. For everyone that asks receive and to him that seek find and to him that not it shall be open. If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give unto him a stone? Or if he shall ask for a fish, will he for a fish give unto him a serpent? Or if he shall ask for an egg, will he offer to him a scorpion? If you then who are evil, and I should explain this, this word evil in the Greek language, it doesn't mean there's no hope for us. It's a word, it's a context of the word that relates to Romans chapter 8, when Paul said, the Spirit of God helped our infirmities. He said, we do not know what to pray or how to pray, but the Holy Spirit comes and intercedes for us according to the will of God. It's the same concept that we find in Hebrews 4 when he said, we do not have a high priest that cannot be identified with the feeling of our infirmities and our weaknesses, but one who was tempted in all points like us we are, and yet without sin. So we need to see the context of that. And then Jesus made this statement, if you then who are evil know how to give good peace unto your children, how much more, in this present imperative mood, how much more shall your heavenly Father keep on giving the Holy Spirit to those that ask Him. Let me just lay a little bit of foundation to you before we get into this passage. You know, the Gospel of Matthew is quite unique, because you will discover that Matthew's Gospel said about Christ, he said in chapter 4, after these things Jesus departed into Galilee, and there is a degree in which it is possible for us to contemplate the reality that from chapter 4 right at the end to chapter 18, from Matthew's perspective, Christ spent most of his times in Galilee. Now why do I say that? Because chapter 4 said, after these things Jesus departed into Galilee, and chapter 19 verse 1 said, after these things Jesus departed out of Galilee. So then what we need to ask ourselves, just from a Biblical perspective, is what did Christ do? And you come across three aspects of his ministry. That which, and Dr. Sybil Baxter has an excellent concept of this, he said in Matthew 5-7 we're dealing with what, that which Jesus taught, from Matthew 8 to chapter 10 we're dealing with that which Jesus wrought, in other words 10 miracles, and from chapter 11 to chapter 18, that which Jesus taught, how people reacted when the Son of God spoke. Because you see, here was the problem, the Bible says no man ever spoke like this man. None of you are conscious of this, but no word that came from the life of Christ ever neutralized people. Isn't that amazing? They knew exactly what they stood for. So what happened here, in Matthew chapter 5, 6 and 7, we are dealing with a teaching surprise, and here's the picture, the classical Greek gives us a wonderful illustration of some pictures, and here's the picture in chapter 4 or chapter 5 verse 1, when the Bible says, when Jesus saw the multitudes, he went up into a mountain, and he called these disciples to him, and he began to teach them, the understanding is almost that when he saw these multitudes of people, that he recognized that the only possible way that he's going to reach them is going to be through the lives of his disciples. You see? And he began to teach his disciples. So that's what you're dealing with. So in the sixth chapter that we've read here, three predominant things happen. He spoke about giving, he spoke about fasting, and then he spoke about prayer, or learning the language of prayer. And the fascinating thing is that when he spoke about learning the language of prayer, my brother and my sister, what really took place is that the most of the emphasis that he put upon was learning this language of prayer. Now let me just try to explain what we are looking at, because we're going to focus on the New Testament today and probably tomorrow. When you and I come to the New Testament, there are two things that I want to mention to you. And I'll be going through the New Testament at the moment in a fascinating way. You say, how are you doing it? I'm taking the whole thing apart, you know. And you say, oh, how dare you do that? Well, you know, it's great. If you've been trying to live in it, you know, it begins to live in you. And so you say, how do you take it apart? I studied the Gospel of Matthew, and I said to the young people, I was like, there are 7,951 verses in the New Testament. And so I grabbed the Gospel of Matthew, there's 1,071 verses in Matthew's Gospel, and I put it aside, and then I take the Sermon on the Mount, or rather the Epistle of James, and I bring it into the Gospel of Matthew. You say, why would you do that? Because the Sermon on the Mount and the little Epistle of James have between 40 and 50 corresponding concepts. You see, Jesus said, I didn't come to destroy the law, but I came to fulfill it. James came when he spoke about the all-perfect law of liberty. And if you really go into the depth of it, there are these great concepts. So I've been studying this together, and then I take the Gospel of Mark. Now, the Gospel of Mark, theologically speaking, we have been told that the one that probably dictated to John Mark was the Apostle Peter. I mean, the key word in Mark's Gospel is the word usus in the Greek language, which is the word immediately. So I take those 678 verses of Mark's Gospel, and I take 1 and 2 Peter, which was written by Peter, and then I take the first 12 chapters of the Book of Acts. You say, John, why would you do that? Because Peter was the dominant leader in the first 12 chapters of Acts, and I brought all of that together, and I said to myself, so what is this saying to me about prayer? So you say to me, what do you do? I take the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles. In the early history of the Church, it was really two parts of one volume, and I bring them together, and I study them, and say to myself, what is it saying about prayer? And so you say, then what is left? Then I think you say the Apostle John. The Gospel of John, 879 verses. I'm so glad Janice is not with me. She can't stand these statistics, and I love it. And 879 verses. My cell phone is not recording. Great, she can't hear me. So here we are, and then the Book of Revelation, first, second, and third John, and you bring it together, and you say, what is it saying to me about prayer? And so you say, what is left? The writings of the Apostle Paul, and a few general epistles. You say, what are you doing with Hebrews? Ah, I tell her what I do. They give me a piece of my mind that I can't afford to lose. I fill it in with the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles. You say, where do you get the right from that? Nowhere. You say, why is it important? There are beautiful concepts of the interpretation of the Greek text in the New Testament that are using vocabulary that connected these two. You know, when I was a student, one of our professors used to say, go and find out who wrote the epistle to the Hebrews, and I was a zealous student. I had 50 reasons and arguments why I believed it was Paul, and I would never forget the morning when we had to give the answers, and our professor got up and said, so who wrote the epistle to the Hebrews? And I jumped up as a student, and I said, I know exactly who wrote it. And he said, who was it? I said, I've got 50 arguments, it was the Apostle Paul. And I'll never forget, he just pointed it out and said, you're totally wrong. Then I said, so who wrote it? The Holy Spirit, he said. I still think it was Paul. So you see what's left? So anyway, we're not going to talk about that. We'll find out one day in heaven, right? So, and we all will be surprised. You know what's special, see? The greatest surprise in heaven one day is that the people that we expect to be there are not going to be there, and the ones that we don't expect to be there, so you better watch out. So, you say, what is left? Here comes the Apostle Paul. Oh my word, 2,033 verses out of those incredible epistles. Have you ever tried to memorize the epistles to the Ephesians? I mean, it's incredible. He started, you know that in Ephesians chapter 1, verse 1 to 14, it's one sentence in the Greek language. Students say to me, so Gerard, tell us what happened. It's one sentence and 14 verses. They say, tell us what happened. I said, I don't know what happened. He started and he couldn't stop. Why do I say this to you? Listen, three people in the New Testament were responsible for almost 80% of New Testament material. Paul, the Apostle John, and Luther's physician. You say, what is it saying to us about prayer? Man, it's incredible. You see, Luke gives us the humanity of Christ in prayer. You know, he gives us about 60% more prayer information than Matthew and Mark in this Gospel together. He was a physician, you see, and he brought in the humanity of Christ in prayer. It is unreal. So, you see, what happened to the Apostle Paul? Ah, you remember he was a Pharisee, sat at the feet of Gamaliel, one of the greatest teachers of those days, and he was gloriously converted. And so, when Paul began to write about prayer, Reverend Sister, do you know what the Apostle Paul did? He gave us the fulfillment of the Old Testament understanding as it relates to the developing of intimacy with God. It is absolutely, absolutely precious. Ah, you say, but you said to the Apostle John, what does John do? Ah, you remember, John was the disciple whom Jesus loved. So, when John came at the end of the first century, and he looked back over a life of intimacy with God, a life of walking with Christ, and the Spirit of God, I mean, how did we get this picture? The Bible says, holy men prophesied as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. And John, as he, as God gave us the Gospel of John, and he reflected back, and he said, that which we have seen, that which we have heard, that which we have looked upon, that which our hands have handled up, the word of life, and the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and we declare unto you that eternal life, which was for the Father, and which was for the Son. And so, when he came, you said, Gerard, what did he do? He gave us the deity of Christ in prayer, and he presents us with a manifestation of intimacy with God. Imagine what it must have been to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. You know, I get these stupid students saying to me, it must have been wonderful to be a disciple of Jesus Christ, and I stagger. I said, can you imagine sitting at someone's feet who knew you before you were born? That's why the apostle Paul, when he wrote to the Ephesians, and he said, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ to the church, which are in Ephesus, the faithful, the Christians, the believers in Ephesus, and the faithful in Christ Jesus, and when he said, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who have blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places, and then he made this incredible statement, and he said, we have chosen us to be blameless before the foundation of the world. Oh, my word, to be a follower of Christ. Yeah. Sitting at his feet, and looking into the eyes of the apostle Peter, when he said, I will never deny you, and said, before the rooster is going to crow, he said, you're going to deny me three times that you even know me, and there he melted around a little fire when a little girl turned to him and said, you were one of those, weren't you? Your speech, and he cursed in the Greek language, and suddenly the rooster, he heard the rooster, and the moment when he heard that, God broke his heart, and he looked up, and Jesus was looking at him. No condemnation. Peter, I understand you. Great thing to know that God understands us. Amen. You can trust the man who died for you. There's no way where you can go where Jesus Christ has not been. I think of Keith Price out here in British Columbia. He's an amazing man of God. Discovered he had cancer, and he was going to die, and got his whole family together, and said to him, there's no cure for my cancer, and he said, I don't have long to live. I'm going to die. He turned to him, and he said, for 38 years, he said, it was the passion of my heart to explain to you how to live as a Christian, and he said, that's what I tried to do, and he said, now I'm dying, and I'm going to explain to you how to die as a Christian. So what happened? Well, let me tell you what happened in the New Testament. We don't have time for this, but let me give it to you. 24 words came to the surface of our prayer. You say, where do you find them? They're right there. Right there in the depths of the Greek understanding of the New Testament. You say, what do you do with those 24 words? I've tried for 40 years to find an understanding. I've never been able to understand them, but they've been understanding me. You say, what's your comprehension of them? I've discovered this New Testament talent of prayer. You say, Gerard, how does it look? Six of those 24 words have become to me the pillars. You say, why did they become the pillars? My brother and sister, they've become the pillars, because they are the words that I found the most in the New Testament. Twelve of those words to me have become the roof of the tabernacle. You say, why did it become the roof of the tabernacle? Because they are the 12 words in the New Testament that we found.