In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of hungering and thirsting after righteousness. He encourages the audience to surrender their lives to God and not hold back. The speaker shares his own experience of wasted years before becoming a Christian and urges young people to give their lives fully to God. He also highlights the significance of meekness and mercy, using the example of Moses and his prayer life. The sermon concludes with a reminder that when God becomes our shepherd, there is nothing else we need.

It's a terrible thing, you know. I mean, when you're 52 years old, and you look back, I only became a Christian when I was studying in Bible College, and I was 21 years old, when I was saved. And to me, there were 17, or 18, or 16 years prior to that, and you know what? They were wasted years. I will never be able to recapture those years. Never, never, never. And you sit here as a young, young person, a young man, and a young woman, and you've got such a precious life ahead of you. How dare you not give it all to God? I mean, how dare you not do it? Ah, Brother Gerard, what is it going to cost? Absolutely everything. Bless it. Poverty of spirit, brokenness of heart, meekness of life. Go to the life of Moses. If you study his prayer life, 104 times God spoke to Moses. Do you know how many times Moses spoke to God? Only about 25 times. The meekest man. Where did he learn it? He learned it from the voice of God, you see. You see, what is meekness? What is mercy? It's when I see someone else without the grace of God, when I see someone with the grace of God, and I see myself without the grace of God, and all that would flow from my life is meekness and mercy. Listen to what Jesus said, Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness. Hunger and thirst after righteousness. Have you ever asked yourselves, why did the psalmist say, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want? Why did Jesus say, I am the good shepherd? My sheep hear my voice. You see, when he has become our shepherd, brother and sister, there is nothing else that we want. I sat in a plane yesterday, and people around me were talking, and you know, they were talking about the sin of this world, and I sat there and it made me so sick, so sick in my spirit, you know. It was so awful, and I just sat there and I thought, isn't it great to know the abundance of life? Isn't it great to know that if this plane is going to crash, I'm going to land up in the presence of God. I don't have to fall 30,000 feet. My body would fall, but my spirit don't have to go. It just can go straight up, you know. Hunger and thirst. After what? Righteousness. What is it? What is it? It's the blessed life, you see. It's the life that God has in store for us. And I wonder, you know, there's some of us tonight, and you need to say, God, I just want to make sure my life really belongs to you. Maybe you sit there as a young fellow, young son, and you are holding back, and you are holding back, and God is confronting your will, and the battle is on, and the battle is on, and you need to surrender. Maybe as a father, God needs to take you deeper of Himself. As a mother, and as a daughter, and my question is, are you going to wait and say, God, I'm not going to do this, and go through nights of restlessness, wrestling, sweating in the reality of the agony and the presence of God. No, you say, what is it? Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness. Let's stand to pray, shall we? Heavenly Father, we want to thank Thee this evening. Thank Thee for the greatness of Thy presence. Oh, what will we do without the presence of our God? How will we survive without the brokenness of the heart being yielded to Him? And I just pray that as we spend these few days together, God, we just don't want this to be another conference. We don't want this to be another series of services. Oh, God, our Father, we long for these days that You will change our lives and that we will go deeper with You. We thank Thee this evening that Thou art able to do that. My brother and my sister, I just wonder tonight in this very, very, very first little gathering together,