In this sermon, the speaker begins by asking the audience to turn to Luke chapter 4 in their Bibles. He emphasizes the importance of reading and standing for the Word of God. The speaker then shares the story of CT Studd, a missionary who spoke passionately about Africa and consecration to Christ. He encourages the audience to surrender their lives to God and live for Christ alone. The sermon concludes with a call to pray for one another in small groups.

I just would like to say it's been a tremendous blessing and an encouragement for me to be able to be with you this morning and again this evening. And it's a delight for me to be associated and be part of multi-ministries. It's been quite a number of years since I met Harold Peasley. And you know, we are both of them, of what the Canadians would refer to, we are kind of art balls. And so sometimes, you know, those kind of people really work well together, but it's been a tremendous encouragement to travel with him to Zimbabwe. And I'm so thankful to them because every time when I come to South Africa, they just take all the time that we have available and put me into some wonderful, wonderful churches. Appreciate if you pray for us. We've just been asked to spend a week in prayer with churches outside of Pretoria called Moroleta Kerk. And what we do in different countries, and I'm gonna give you a little taste of that this evening, because you never know, maybe some year would come that we would be able to spend a week in prayer in a place like this. But when we go to different countries and also in Canada, sometimes we bring up to 60 churches together. And we spend a week with these people. And in the mornings, we have sessions in what we would refer to second level lectures on intercessory prayer. Now the word intercession is a wonderful word in Latin. It's a combination of two words, intera and sidra. Intera means when I step in between. Sidra means that once I step in between, I face the reality of my responsibility. And my responsibility is my response to the ability of God. And then I intercede. But that's what we will do in the mornings. And then in the evenings, the churches come together and we have what we refer to as concerts of prayer. That means that we're not just exposed to teaching as it relates to prayer, but we also spend some time in prayer together. And I can't tell you this evening of some of the great things that God has been doing as we pray together. You know, when you study the Acts of the Apostles, you discover the emphasis that is laid upon prayer. And you know, one of the things about the life of prayer is the fact that you cannot separate the answer of prayer from the dealings of God in your own life. And one of the great things about prayer is that there's nothing spectacular about that. I mean, no one is gonna come to us and pat us on our backs and say, isn't it amazing that God is waking you up at one or two, three o'clock in the morning. And suddenly the burden of God is coming upon your life. And God just laid this burden upon your heart. He set you apart to spend time in prayer. I'm collecting books on prayer. And I've got quite a couple of, probably as many as five, six, seven, 800 wonderful classics on prayer. Let me tell you this evening, my brother and sister, we can read everything that we want on prayer, but at the end of the day, we just need to get on our knees and we need to do it. One of the great books in my library, I don't think I will sell it for $500. Don't try a thousand because maybe I'll let it go, which means the currency of Rand in South Africa, you lose everything you've got, by the way. So watch it. But the life story of a man with the name of George Muller of Bristol. I don't know if you know that he was a secret in the life and the ministry of Charles Haddon Spurgeon. And there were times that Charles Haddon Spurgeon would preach on a Sunday morning and Spurgeon would make this statement. I love Spurgeon. You know, he suffered from gout. And there were times that he was in such agony when he preached that the tears would just stream down his cheeks. But Charles Haddon Spurgeon struggled with private prayer. And George Muller of Bristol came alongside Charles Haddon Spurgeon and taught Spurgeon how to pray. In fact, there were times in a Sunday morning when Charles Haddon Spurgeon would preach and 6,500 people that came to hear him would just rise to their feet. And when they were asked afterwards and said, why did you do that? Did they respond by saying, you know, when we sense the unction of the spirit of God upon him. And Spurgeon used to make this statement and he would say, I would sense the wind of the spirit of God in my wings. And when God would come upon Spurgeon, those people would rise to their feet. And when they were asked afterwards and said, why did you do that? Did they make this statement? And this is what they said. They said, when we sense the presence of God upon Spurgeon's life and ministry and upon his preaching, they said, we rose to our feet because we were afraid that we would miss one word that would come from the lips of this man. You know, Spurgeon was once asked, what was the secret of his ministry? And you know what he said? He said, it was the heating system of my church. And people were wondering what he was speaking about. And he said to them, come and see on Sunday morning. And when they came to his church on a Sunday morning, he took them into the basement of the church and there were 400 people praying. And he said, this is the heating system of my church. You know, George Muller of Bristol, there were two books written about his prayer life. One of them had the title, 35,000 Answers to Prayer in 24 Hours. And there was another book that had the title, 50,000 Answers to Prayer, that took him longer than 24 hours to see God answering those prayers. You know, the longest that he prayed for someone? 62 years. You know, when that person became a Christian? Three weeks after George Muller of Bristol died. And you know, someone came to George Muller, we don't have time to go into those 12 aspects of New Testament prayer as it comes out of the Greek New Testament. But one of those aspects is routine praying, when you pray for the same people every day. And someone came to George Muller one day and said, Mr. Muller, do you ever stop praying for people? And he said, no. He said, as long as God keeps the burden in my heart, he said, I pray for those people. And they would ask him and they said to him, Mr. Muller, do you plead the promises of God? And George Muller would say, no, I don't plead the promises of God. And they would say, what do you mean? He said, no, the promises of God pleads me. And they would say, what do you mean? He said, God gives me all these promises to pray for people. But he said, when I pray for people, I become so discouraged because sometimes so little is happening and sometimes things need to get worse before they will get better. And so George Muller said, I go to those promises. And he said, I allow those promises to refresh my heart and allow them to purify me and to cleanse me and to set me apart. And he said, those promises are flowing through my life. And he said, as they are flowing through my life, I don't plead them. He said, they are pleading me and the names of the people that I'm praying for are flowing out of the promises of God. And George Muller said, whenever I do that, he said, I never get tired in praying for people. You know, people often ask me about George Muller because sometimes I do a paper or an hour of teaching upon the secret of his life. And they always say to me, you know, Gerard, it must be the answers to prayer. And I said, no. And they said, must be the times that he spend with God. You see, folks, it's not the times that we spend with God. That's not the issue. The issue is, is the times that God is spending with us. That's what make the difference. And people say, it must be the times that he spend. I said, no. And they said, so what is the secret of his life? And you know what I say to them? It was his understanding of the nature and the character of God in prayer. And as he discovered the will of God and he pray according to the will of God, he consistently prayed again and again and again. And when he was ready for the answer, because sometimes God answers prayer, but you know what happened? The answer is delayed. And the great Andrew Murray said that when the answer is delayed, then there is something that God needs to do in our hearts and in our lives so that he can prepare us so that he would be able to take the glory as it relates to prayer. We're gonna do something before I turn to the scriptures and I'm conscious of our time this evening, but I'm gonna ask you to do something that we do in our prayer encounters. And this is what I'm gonna ask you to do. I'm gonna ask you to turn around and find three or four people. And this is what I want you to do because we have chairs and we are able to do that. I want you to turn to those people, introduce yourself. And then I want you to ask him and say it, how can I pray for you tonight? And we're gonna share some things with one another. Don't want you to be too long so that we can share in our little group. And then I want us to pray for one another and I will close in prayer and we go right into the scriptures. So can we do that? Just turn around and find three or four people. I think our chairs are of such that we maybe can do that. And then ask him how you can pray for them and that's what we will do. Our heavenly father, we are so immensely grateful this evening for this marvelous day that you have been giving unto us. Thank you for the greatness of your presence. Thank you father that we so seldom are able to find ourselves defining the greatness of the presence of God, but we always know when it is not there. And it's been a tremendous encouragement for us and father to the inadequacy of my own understanding of the Christian life to somehow today in our sessions together, to sense the greatness of the presence of God. We are reminded tonight of Moses of old when he beseeched thee and he said, if thy presence do not go with me, then I will not go. And father, we are so deeply indebted to the possibility of humbling ourselves before God, asking you to come and minister to us and give unto us not just the consciousness of God, but the revelation of the greatness of scripture. And father, we submit ourselves under the authority of your word. It's tremendous for us to know that when God is speaking to us through his word, that something deep within our hearts just melt like butter in the sun and our hearts become broken and we recognize the depth of our need before you. So tonight we want to pray that when we take the final minutes of this Sunday night service and we ponder upon your word again, come and minister to us through your word, give unto us an understanding. Father, we wanna be like those two disciples on the way to Emmaus that when you expound to them the law and the prophets and the writings, that when you departed out of their presence, that they were able to turn to one another and they said, did not our hearts burn within us when he spoke to us on the way? And tonight we pray that you will give us that burning heart. That's the longing of our hearts. And God, we say to you this evening, we long to live a Christian life that will demand a supernatural explanation. We long to be broken before God. We long to be set aside and set apart so that our lives will become intoxicated with the greatness of the presence of God and that the excellencies of Christ and the priority of the work of thy spirit will minister in every aspect of our relationships with you. And so we thank you this evening in Jesus name, amen. Just take your seat again and I would like you, if you have your Bible with you to turn with me to Luke chapter four. If somehow you don't have your Bible with you, will you please say, may God have mercy on my poor wretched soul. Let's read from Luke chapter four and let's stand for the reading of the word of God. We've been sitting for quite some time and just a couple of verses from that wonderful chapter. Luke chapter four, reading from verse number 16. And Jesus came to Nazareth where he had been brought up and as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up to read. Now there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, the spirit of the Lord is upon me because he have anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to heal the broken hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives and the recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those that are bruised and to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And he closed the book and he gave it again to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all of them that were in a synagogue were fixed upon Christ. And he began to say unto them, this day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. And all of them bearing witness and they wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said to one another, is this not the son of Joseph? But Christ said unto them, you will surely say unto me this saying, physician, heal thyself. Whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also in thy country. But Jesus said unto them, verily I say unto you that no prophet is accepted in his own land. But I tell you the truth that there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah the prophet, when the heaven was shut up for three years and for six months, when great famine was sought throughout all the land, but unto none of them was Elijah sent, save unto Sarephta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow. Now there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elijah the prophet, but not one of them was cleansed, saving Neon the Syrian. And all there in the synagogue, when they heard these things, they were filled with wrath and they rose up and they thrust him out of the city, led him unto the brow of the hill where on the city was built so that they might cast him down. But Jesus passing through the midst of them went his way. And he came down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee and taught them in the Sabbath days and they were astonished at his doctrine for his word came to them with great power. We trust that God will bless unto us the reading of his word. You may be seated. You know, this morning, one of the things that we mentioned in our time together was the fact that we said that 75% of our growth as Christians will be determined by what we are reading. And so I love to read. And some of the things I love to read comes out of the early church fathers and the reformation. And then after them, there came a group of men that we would refer to as the Puritans. One of the reasons why many of us somehow cannot comprehend the greatness of the Puritans is because quite often we will discover that they were trying to write in English while they were thinking in Latin. And so in order for us to be able to really understand the Puritans, we need to read them really on our knees and to allow their works or their words to become part of our lives. And some time ago, I was reading the life story of a Puritan with the name of Thomas Boston. Thomas Boston one night had a dream. And in his dream, he saw Satan preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. And Thomas Boston was so affected by what he saw in his dream that he went up to Satan and he said to him in his dream, why are you preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ? He said, surely you are doing harm to your own kingdom. But Satan turned to Boston in his dream and he said to him, Boston, I am preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ without the unction and the anointing of God, the Holy Spirit. And he said, I have found myself being effective instead of bringing people closer to God, have I found myself being effective in actually driving people away from the gospel of Christ. If you will continue to read the life story of Boston the Puritan, you will discover that from that night on, his life was never ever the same. I wanna take a few minutes this evening if I may and speak to you about this great subject. What does it mean for us to live a life under the unction of God, the Holy Spirit? Now, whenever I study a subject in the New Testament, I always ask myself, what is the Old Testament saying to us about this New Testament subject for the simple reason that the Old Testament is revealed for us in the New Testament and the New Testament lies hidden within the Old Testament. And if we would have had time this evening, it would have been possible for me to be able to take you to about 144 Old Testament passages where we would have been able to explore four wonderful Hebrew words that is speaking to us about this concept of anointing. And if we would have had time to study this, you and I would have been able to discover that there were no less than eight material objects in the Old Testament that was affected by this word anointing. The altar of God in the Old Testament was anointed. The pillars of God of the temple was anointed. And when you study this in great detail, you will come to the realization that there were a number of classes of people that was affected by this word anointing. The prophet in the Old Testament was anointed so that he could become the mouthpiece of God towards the people of God. The priest in the Old Testament was anointed so that he could be wholly set apart unto God. And the king in the Old Testament was anointed so that he could become the leader of the people of God. And my brother and my sister, there were three different kinds of anointing. There was the anointing with spices. Then there was the anointing with oil. And then in the Old Testament, we discover this concept of the anointing of God, the Holy Spirit. I don't think this Sunday night, is it possible for you and for me to be able to understand the subject unless we would see it as it manifested upon the life of Christ. Now, maybe you will sit here and you will say to yourself exactly what I said to myself when I sat in my library and I began to explore the subject because there was a moment when I went and I sat in the corner of my library and I began to weep my heart out before God. And I remember saying to the Lord, Father, I cannot compare my life with the life of Christ because first of all, he was sinless in his birth and he was supernatural in his life. And yet as I sat there, this word keep coming back to me that there was a moment when Jesus turned to those early disciples. And this is what he said to them. He said to them, I want you to tarry in Jerusalem until you have received this endowment from my father. I love the Greek New Testament when it comes to this concept because what really happened is that Jesus turned to those early disciples and he said to them, I want you to sit down until you have received this something from my father. What I would like us to do this evening in the few minutes that we have available. And if we would have had time tonight, I would have loved to explore all those concepts with you. But I want to mention to you, first of all, I want us to look at the promise of the anointing of the spirit of God upon the life of Christ. If we would have had time this evening, it would have been tremendous for us to explore the purpose. Why was he anointed with God, the Holy Spirit? And if time would have allowed us, it would have been marvelous for me to explore the power of the unction of the spirit of God and go to the root understanding of the word do now in the New Testament and to discover that 119 times in the New Testament, do we come across the word dunamis, where we get our word for power from and how that word manifests itself in 16 different words in our translation of the Bible. We don't have time for that. You know, my wife, Janice is with me tonight and I'm so delighted to have her with me. We haven't seen each other for five weeks and it's such a blessing to have her with me. But she often say to me, daddy, you're just like one of those 747 jumbo jets. She said, you never have a problem to take off, but you always have the problem to land again. So what I want to do this evening is just to touch on one of these great aspects. You sit here and you say, Gerard, what was the promise upon the life of Christ? Now, I want to mention to you two aspects of that promise. First of all, we would need to consider the secret of the unction of the spirit of God upon the life of Christ. And secondly, my brother and sister, it will be tremendous for us to look upon the symbol because you remember when the Holy Spirit came upon Christ, the Bible says the spirit of God came upon Christ in the form of a dove. And the dove is speaking to us about four things. The dove is speaking to us about purity. The dove is speaking to us about passion. The dove is speaking to us about power. And the dove is speaking to us about peace. But I want us to look at this first aspect. You sit here tonight and you say, what was the secret upon the life of Christ? Why was it that every time when the Lord Jesus Christ opened his mouth, that men and women would stop and they would listen and they would say, no man ever spoke like this man. Why was it that when they listened to him, that they would make a statement like this and said, what gracious words were coming from the lips of the Savior? I've discovered three things that I would like to mention to you. First of all, I've discovered that he was anointed with God, the Holy Spirit, simply because of the life of holiness unto God. And I wonder this Sunday night, if you would allow me to suggest to you, and I want to say these words to the inadequacy of my own relationship with God. My brother and my sister, there is no possibility for you and for me as a Christian to know the depth of the presence of God and to know the sense of the unction of his spirit upon your life and upon my life, if our lives are not totally set apart unto God. You say, why do you say that? Well, let me take you to the life and the ministry of the Lord Jesus. And you remember when he prayed in John chapter 17, that he made this profound statement. And this is what he said to the father. He said, father, I sanctify myself for the sake of my disciples. You see my brother and sister, the meaning of the word sanctification and the New Testament is not so much for us to be set apart from this world as it means for us to be set apart unto God. Because you see, if my life is set apart unto God, you will discover that my life will be so taken up with the greatness of the life of Christ and the sense of hunger for God and the sense of passion that my life automatically will be set apart from this world. I think in that marvelous statement that came from the writer to the Hebrews about the life of Christ. And this is what he said about the Lord Jesus. He said he was holy, he was harmless, he was undefiled and he was separate from sinners. You see in his relationship with God, he became the holy son of God. And his relationship with his fellow men, Christ became, was blameless. And his relationship to himself, he became the prophet and the priest and the king. And you say, what does it mean? It means that he was set apart unto his father. You and I would sit in this gathering this evening and you say, Gerard, what about us? Well, let me take you to that marvelous little epistle in the New Testament. When the apostle Paul wrote to the church at Thessalonica, and when he wrote to the church at Thessalonica and all the New Testament epistles were written to believers. And when he wrote to the church at Thessalonica and 1 Thessalonians chapter one, he's speaking about that proper commendation. And he's speaking about a witnessing church. And he was speaking about a sacrificing church. And he was speaking about a giving church. And yet my brother and sister, in the third chapter of 1 Thessalonians, the apostle Paul made this statement. And do you know what he really said? He said, there is a burden upon my heart. And he said, I'm praying for you day and night. And then he take it one step further and Paul made this statement. And he said, I'm praying for you day and night because I sense that there is something that is lacking in your faith. And 1 Thessalonians chapter five, he brought this concept of the burden of his heart, because in the third chapter he said, this is the will of God, even your sanctification. And in the fifth chapter, when he brought this to a moment of climax, when he prayed for the church at Thessalonica, this is what he prayed. He said, I pray that the very God of peace sanctify you through and through. I love a German translation because of my background. You say, well, what is he saying? Heilig und durch und durch. Now there are two wonderful words in the Greek language that I would like to mention to you. Because when the apostle Paul prayed and he said, I pray that the very God of peace sanctify you through and through. Those are two distinctive words in the Greek texts. You say, Gerard, what is those words saying? The first word is the word halokleros or rather the word halotilos. You say, what does it mean? It means my brother and sister that God is able to sanctify us extensively in our relationships of God. Now, the second statement, it's another wonderful word. And you say, what is the word? It's the Greek word halokleros. You say, what does that mean? It means that God is not just able to sanctify us extensively, but it means that God is able to sanctify us experientially in our relationship with God. And may I say to you something this Sunday night, my brother and sister, the structure of the language in the Greek texts is emphatic. It's what theologians would refer to as not linear, which is ongoing, but it's punctiliar, which means to the point when it's in the aorist imperative mood. And what he is saying to the Christians at Thessalonica, he said, God is able to sanctify you to the point. And I wonder this Sunday night, if you would allow me to ask you, is God in the process of sanctifying us to the point? You see, we are a distinctive people, you know. We are separated unto God. I said this morning about to Rosh Hashanah, that marvelous friend of Robert Murray Machen, who so often used to say, I went to look for the world and I found her in the church. He said, I went to look for the church and I found her in the world. You see, we are a distinctive society. My brother and my sister, may I say to you this Sunday night, when we are speaking about the sanctifying work of the Spirit of God, and when we are considering the holiness of God, when we are speaking about a life of holiness unto God, it's not a life that is driving people away from God. You say, Gerard, what is he doing? It's a life that is making people hungry for the life of Christ. So what was it? It was a life of holiness unto God. I will never be able not to remember this, you know. I was speaking to one of the larger churches out there in Canada. I tell you in North America, you know, we've got sometimes churches of five, six, 7,000 people. And I need to tell you tonight, it doesn't mean anything to God. You cannot make an assessment by looking at Sunday morning's attendance. The only way that you're going to find out what's going on in the church is when you look at the people that are committed to pray for the church. And listen, brother and sister, it's not what you've come to receive today, it's what you've brought into this place. That's the secret of the Christian life. And I'll never forget that Sunday morning, quite a large church, about close to 800, 900 people. And I was speaking in that church and about three o'clock that morning, God woke me up and I was so burdened with that Sunday and about five o'clock that morning, I phoned the pastor. And he picked up the phone and I said to him, Roy, I'm sorry to wake you up. He said, no. He said, Gerard, I've been on my knees already. I said, I need to talk to you. He said, about what? I said, it's about this morning. And he said, what about this morning? He said, I said, you know, there's an immense burden upon my heart. And you know, he just broke down on the other side of the phone and he just wept. He said, you know, that's exactly how I felt. Well, I tell you, my brother and my sister, that Sunday morning service start. And do you know what happened that Sunday morning? God came to church. You say, what do you mean? There was suddenly a moment in that morning service then when they were not listening to a message, they were not listening to some special speaker, but there was a moment when my heart became so broken before God, I could hardly get a word out. And God was moving in that church. It was a conservative church, but men and women were broken at the altar of that church as they were seeking God. And I would never forget that morning. I was praying with some people and we were just spending time together. And out there out of the gallery, a man in his late thirties, who was a kind of a teddy bear of the fellow, he came down from that gallery. And I knew as I saw him that he was in desperate need of God. And he came down. And as he was coming down the aisle, he was in such a rush to be able to get to me. And he got to me and he just took me in his arms and he just wept and he wept. And when he got to himself, I said to him, what's your name? And he said, Peter. I said, Peter, what is happening? And he said, pastor, he said, God broke my heart this morning. And I said, so tell me about it. What's taking place? And he turned to me and he said to me, Gerard, he said, 24 months ago, he said, I gave my life to Christ. And he said, when I gave my life to Christ, he said, you know, the first 22 months of my Christian life, he said, I was ablaze for God. I said, what do you mean, Peter? He said, you know, I study God's word. He said, I spoke to people about Christ. He said, I couldn't wait for the services to start. He said, when the prayer meeting was on, he said, I was committed to see God. And I said, Peter, that's wonderful. And so I said, what happened? And he just dropped his head. And when he got himself together, he turned to me and he said to me, Gerard, he said, you know, eight weeks ago, one Sunday morning after the service, one of the older men in the church came to me. And he said, he took me into a corner. And as he took me into that corner, he put his arm around me and he brought me close to his ear, to his mouth, and he whispered into my heart. And he said, Peter, he said, it's time that you calm down. One of these days, you're just gonna be like the rest of us. And he threw his arms in the air that Sunday morning and he said, can you please help me? I wonder this morning, this evening, if I can ask you, my brother and my sister, we don't know one another tonight, but can I ask you this Sunday night, is there a distinction? Does my Christian life demand an explanation? Is there a sense of the presence of God in my relationship with God? You say, what is it? It's a life of holiness before God. Don't you ever be afraid of the holiness of God. You know what I've discovered? It was not just the life of the holiness, a life of holiness, but my brother and my sister, you know what I've discovered? It was also a life of yieldedness to God. You see, when we speak about the life and the spirit, and this morning at our time together, we made this great statement in saying that the spirit of God just does not want to be resident in my life, but the spirit of God wants to become precedent. I need to yield my life to God. I need to live a life being controlled and under the influence and the fullness of the spirit of God. And we are not speaking about some second blessing or some manifestation. I am speaking to you about the inheritance of the greatness of the life of Christ. And yet, you see, when we speak about the fullness of God's spirit, my brother and my sister, the fullness of God's spirit has never meant to become a goal. It has simply meant to become a gateway. You say, why do you say that? Well, let me take you to the Bible. You remember in Acts 2, those early disciples, when the spirit of God came, they were full to the Holy Spirit of God. Now they were manifestations. You say, what were they? Well, the Bible says they were tongues of fire that came and sat upon each of them. And when the spirit of God came upon those early disciples, something else happened. They spoke in 16 known different languages. The word in the Greek New Testament is the word dialectos. Now, incidentally, they never ever did that again. But you know what happened? Ah, in Acts 2, when the church was born, they were born and full to the spirit of God. And yet, my brother and my sister, in Acts 4, they were full to the spirit of God again. And in Acts 11, they were full to the spirit of God again. And you remember in Ephesians 5, when Paul came to the church at Ephesus in Acts 19, and he said to them, did you receive the Holy Spirit since you believe? And they were the converts of the apostles, and they did not even know that there was a Holy Spirit. And the Bible said Paul prayed for them, and they received the Holy Spirit. Now the apostle Paul came in Ephesians 155 wonderful verses, and 12 times, twice in every chapter, he spoke about the Holy Spirit. You remember in chapter 5, he made this marvelous statement, and this is what he said. He said, be not drunk with wine, wherefore there is an excess. But you know what he said? He said, be full to the spirit. And the structure in the Greek language is emphatic. The apostle Paul said, be being full to the spirit. You say, what does it mean to be full to the spirit? Let me explain to you, my brother and sister, because this is what Paul said. He said, be full to the spirit. Now he gives us the consequences of being full to the spirit. And this is what he said. He said, sing unto yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. You say, what is that? That's spiritual worship, you see. Now he goes a little bit further, and he said, why submit yourselves to your husbands as unto the Lord? You say, what does it mean? That's spiritual submissiveness. Now he takes it one step further, and you say, what did he say? He said, husbands, love your wives as Christ loved a church, because he gave himself so that he might sanctify it You say, what's that? That is spiritual sacrifice. Can I ask you tonight, are you living a spiritful life? You know, I love a man who was a missionary in Africa. You say, what was his name? His name was C.D. Statt. And I don't know if you know this, he was a great cricket player in England, and he went to China to become a missionary. And when he went to China to become a missionary, he came back and he wanted to go to Africa. But when he came back from China, my brother and sister, he was so sick. I mean, it was unreal, but he wanted to go to Africa. In fact, he would go from one physician to the other because he wanted to become a missionary in Africa. And he was so ill that the physicians in the British Isles would call C.D. Statt and said, he was a museum of diseases. I mean, he was so sick, you know, but he wanted to go to Africa. And you know, he made some great statements. Someone came to him one day and said to him, what's it about your life? And C.D. Statt made a statement. And he said, if Jesus Christ was the son of God and he gave himself to me, then there is no sacrifice for me to give back to him. And then someone came to him one day and said to him, and I love this. Someone said to him, C.D. Statt, why do you want to go to Africa? And you know what he said? I love it. You know what he said? He said, I want to go to Africa because I want to see God walking around in black bodies. I love it. He came to Africa, you know, and he poured his life out and you know what happened? He was on furlough back in England and he went to the great Keswick Convention. And the main speaker at Keswick Convention was a man with the name of Dr. F.B. Meyer. And they heard about this missionary from Africa. I mean, he was just, the way that he walked, he was so intoxicated with the life of Christ that people wonder about who is this man? And they said, who are you? And he said, well, I'm C.D. Statt from Africa. And one day they went to him at Keswick where Dr. F.B. Meyer, and you know at Keswick sometimes they get seven, 9,000 people in the final days of Keswick. And I've had the joy of being at some of those conferences, but you know what happened? They came to C.D. Statt one day and they said the committee met with him and they turned to him and they said to him, C.D. Statt, on Thursday night at the main service, we are gonna give you 15 minutes to speak to us about Africa. And what we want you to do is to share about Africa. How do you give a missionary 15 minutes? I mean, they don't even have clocks in Africa. Well, you know what happened that Thursday night, my brother and sister? The great C.D. Statt got up and he began to speak. And as he was speaking about Africa, God, the Holy Spirit came upon that gathering. People were just shaken out of their comfort zones as he was speaking about consecration, being sold out to Christ, abandoned to the life of the Lord Jesus. And Dr. F.B. Meyer had to speak after C.D. Statt. And when he got up to speak after him, he was hardly able to open his mouth. And when that session was over, Dr. F.B. Meyer went to C.D. Statt and he turned to him and he said to him, what is it about your life? And the great C.D. Statt turned to F.B. Meyer and he said, you know, that's not the issue. He said, I want to ask you a question. And Dr. F.B. Meyer said, what is it? And he said to him, to Dr. F.B. Meyer, he said, listen, have you given all of the keys of your life to God? And Dr. F.B. Meyer said, I got alone. I wish I could read this to you because it's so precious. Dr. F.B. Meyer said, he said, I got alone with God. And I began to give the keys of my life to God. The key of my family, the key of my future, the key of my possession, the key of this. And he said, I hand those keys of my life over to God. And Dr. F.B. Meyer said, he said, there was a key that I was not able to give to God. You know what it was? It was his reputation. He was such a popular expositor. And F.B. Meyer said, I couldn't give that key to God. And God, the Holy Spirit came to him. And he said to him, F.B. Meyer, it's everything or nothing. Partial obedience is disobedience. Do you know what happened that night? Dr. F.B. Meyer gave all the keys of his life to God. Can I ask you tonight, if you hand the keys of your life to God, listen, brother and sister, we only have one life to live, only one life to live. And only that which is going to be done for Christ is going to last. I wish I can take you to a house tonight in Romania, on the border of Yugoslavia, where I sat with a man and his wife and their son who studied at seminary. And now he turned to me and he said, my mother wants to tell you something. And now she turned to me and she said to me, you see this house? It was the first Baptist church in Romania in this area. She said, when I was three years old, the secret police came and they arrested my father. And they took my father away. And she said, 12 months later, they came back and they gave my mother a sheet of paper. And they said to my mother, your husband died in labor camp and in prison. And she said, my mother threw her arms in the air. And she said, you cannot do that. And they said, get on with life, he's gone. And she said, I was three years old when it happened. And she said, I saw my mother going through the grieving process. And three years later, when she was through that, she said, there was a moment when my mother got married again to my father's best friend who was a teacher. And she said, they tried to continue the little ministry. And then she said, something happened. Three years later, they released a man from prison. And when they released this man from prison, when he went to prison, he was 160 pounds. When he came out of prison, he was 55 pounds. And when he came out of prison, he had one passion. I wanna go back to my wife and my little girl. And he found his way back to the other side of Yugoslavia, of Romania, he knocked at the door of the house. And she said, my mother came and she opened the door. And there was my father standing who was supposed to be dead. And he said to her, I'm back. And she said to him, no, you're dead. And he said, she said, as my father stood there, two little ones came crawling around the corner. And she said, it was my mother's two little children that she had with this man. That was my father's best friend. You see, he wasn't dead. So what do you do now? You know what he did? He looked her in the eyes and he said to her, well, I'm supposed to be dead. He said, I want to know if you are happy. And she said, you know, I grieved for three years. And she said, I'm happy now. He turned to her and he said to her, would you allow me to turn around here? You will never see me again, but I'm gonna become a missionary for the rest of my life. He turned around and he walked away. That's consecration, you know. My time is gone. You know, this clock here in Honey Ridge Baptist Church runs twice as fast as the normal Christianity is supposed to last. So here we are, we need to close. You know what I really wanted to speak to you tonight about was it was not just a life of holiness, brother and sister. It was not just a life of yieldedness. Listen to the yieldedness of Christ. Listen to the writer, to the Hebrews. You know what he said? He learned obedience by the things that he suffered. Listen to the Lord Jesus when he spoke about the yieldedness to his father. You know what he said? He said, my father will kill you and he said, so do I. Listen to his yieldedness when he said, the son can do nothing unless he sees the father doing it. Well, let me close. You say, what about a life of holiness, a life of yieldedness? And oh, brother and sister, here's the secret. You say, Gerard, what he said? It was a life of prayerfulness before God. Have you studied the prayer life of Christ? 19 active references to his prayer life in the four gospels. You see, you will never be able to understand the teachings of Christ as it relates to prayer and they are absolutely magnificent. But you will never be able to understand the teachings of Christ as they relate to prayer if you don't understand his prayer life. Listen to the gospel of Mark. Early in the morning, deep in the night, he went into a secret place and there he prayed. You know what Dr. Campbell Morgan said? He said it can also be translated as it was his daily custom. Do you remember in Luke chapter 11? You know, the gospel of Luke is giving us about 60% more information about the prayer life of Christ than the gospel of Matthew and Mark together. Now, in Matthew's gospel, we've got 1,071 verses and in the gospel of Mark, we've got 678 and in Luke's gospel, we only have 1,151 verses. But Luke's gospel gives us 60% more information about his prayer life. You say, why? Well, let me tell you why. In the gospel of Matthew, we see Christ as the king of the Jews. In the gospel of Mark, we see Christ as the servant of God. In the gospel of John, we see Christ as the son of God. How do we see Christ in the gospel of Luke? Luke was a physician, you see. There are more than 50 technical medical terms in the Greek language, which is speaking to us in the gospel of Luke. And Luke comes and what does he do? He gives unto us the humanity of Christ. Listen, brother and sister, deity do not have a necessity to pray, but humanity has. So, say what? He became a man of prayer. Now, you remember in Luke chapter 11, those early disciples came to him and he was praying at a certain place. And you remember what happened? They never asked him to teach them how to preach. They never asked him to teach them how to raise funds. They never asked him to teach them how to become great missionaries. But you know what the Bible says? He was praying at a certain place. And when he ceased to pray, one of his disciples came. And you know the context of the Greek language is emphatic. It almost, it gave unto us the sensation of desperation when he came to him and he said, Lord, teach us to pray. May I ask you tonight? When last did someone come to you and me and said, will you please teach me how to pray? I close. I never will be able not to remember this precious name. You say, what was it? Her name was Aunty Tuti Riso. I studied in the Cape province and I got involved in evangelism for a few years. And I was working in the Western Cape and the man under which I was working was a godly man. And while I was there in the Western Cape, he came to me, we were in the stront. And he came to me one day and he said to me, Gerard, he said, I want you to meet this lady. And I said, what's her name? And he said, her name is Aunty Tuti Riso. I said, sir, why do you want me to meet her? He said, she's one of the greatest intercessors in South Africa. I said, what do you mean? He said, you won't understand this, but she spends between eight to 10, 12 Sundays, 14 hours in the presence of God in prayer. Now, I want to explain something to you. She did not spend all those hours in prayer, although she was in prayer. That's why Robert Murray McChain said, so much of my time of praying is preparing myself to pray. But brother and sister, if you study the eight principles that are coming out of the teachings of Christ and prayer, you will discover that those eight principles are based upon eight words in the Hebrew language that is speaking to us about waiting upon God. And they are saturated with activity. And he said, some days she's 14 hours in the presence of God. And he said, I want you to meet her. And do you know, I was just a young fellow out in the ministry and I said to him, so where does she live? And he said, she just lives around the corner. And I said, Achman, I just jumped in the little bucky and I can go and see her. And he just smiled and he said, no, you can't do that. I said, why not? He said, I need to set up an appointment for you. That first day afternoon came, it was two o'clock in the afternoon. She was living with her daughter at that time. She was about 81 years old. I knocked in the door of that house. And when I knocked at the door of that house, her daughter came and the daughter opened the door. And I said, I have an appointment with your mother. And she said, yes, I'm aware of that. My mother is expecting you in her prayer room. And so I was following her daughter and she came to this room. The door was closed and she opened the door and she said, mother, this young man is here. And I came and you know, the moment when I came into that room, I don't know about you tonight, but you know, when I sense the presence of God, something always breaks in my heart. And the moment when I walk into that room, brother and sister, my heart just broke before God. In fact, to be honest with you, I just went and sat in the corner. And here she was, auntie Tutti Rousseau, 81 years old. You know, she was just a small little woman, thick glasses. She had a gray little ponytail and she sat in a chair that her son made for her. And he made a plexiglass kind of a table. And she was able to swing it in front of her. And on that table were the names of around 400 people that she prayed for every day. I sat in the corner and she was just sitting like this. She didn't even say anything to me. She had those little glasses like that. And she kind of look at me like that. And she said, young man, I just have one question for you. And I look at this little woman, you know, and I said to her, what is it? And she took a little finger and she pointed at me and she said, do you mean business with God? Yeah. And I tell you, I just crumbled, you know. And when I got myself together, I look at her, I said, I think so. And she said, what's your name? I said, my name is Chara Retwee. And she wrote it down and she said, let me pray for you. For the next 15 minutes, she climb underneath the burden of my life. And can I be honest with you tonight? I felt she knew me from the day that I was born. She did not, but she knew God. And after she prayed, she looked at me and she said to me, you can go now. And I crawled out of that room, you know. Well, I'll tell you what happened. Three months later, she phoned the headquarters and my superintendent picked up the phone and Aunty Duterte Rizzo was on the other side of her phone and she said, I want to see that boy. And so he came to me and he said to me, Aunty Duterte Rizzo wants to see you. And I said, why? He said, I don't know. But he said, you need to go. I walk into that room that day and to know the same sense of the presence of God. Oh, brother and sister, when someone is saturated to the spirit of prayer, it's very precious, you know. I came and I sat in the corner again and she looked at me through those thick little glasses and she just said to me, young man. I said, yes, Aunty Duterte. She said, God has given me a special burden to pray for you. I said, aren't you praying for me? She said, I pray for you every day. But she said, I want you to know something. Your name is on the right side of my table. I said, what does it mean? She said, I'm gonna pray for you three or four times a day. She prayed for me and I left and I knew it was gonna be different. You know what? She took an interest in my life. How I thank God for that. And I would come to the headquarters and she would phone and she began to call me that boy. And she would phone and she said, I wanna see that boy. And I would come here crawling in this room and she would say, where are you going? And I said, I'm going to Armanis. And she said, how many days are you gonna be there? I said, I'm gonna be there 14 days. You know, there were times when I would come back and brother and sister, I'm not kidding you tonight. There were times when I would come back and she would phone and she said, I wanna see that boy. And I would come into the room and she would say to me, there were nine people saved, weren't there? And I would say, how did you know that? And do you know what she would say? She said, I prayed through for every single one of them. She prayed for me. Well, you know what happened? I was in Worcester. About 10 o'clock the night, the phone rang and I picked up the phone, it was my superintendent. And he said, Gerard, I've got bad news, bad news. And I said, what is it? He said, it's auntie Tutti Rousseau. By that time, she was about 83 years old. And I said to him, what is it? He said, she had a stroke. I said, no. He said, if you wanna see her alive, he said, you need to come. And do you know the next morning early, I just went flying back to the stront. And as I came to the stront, I went right to the hospital. And when I came to the hospital, they said, how can we help you? And I said, listen, I need to see auntie Tutti Rousseau. And the doctor came. And he said, what is it? I said, I would like to see auntie Tutti Rousseau. And he said, you know, she had a stroke and she's paralyzed on the one side of the body. She's in a coma. She's gone blind, she can't see. And he said to me, to be honest with you, sir, he said, we only allow family to go in. And he looked at me and he said to me, are you family? Ha ha. You know what I said? I think so. He said, what do you mean? I said, she prayed for me every day. And he saw the absolute Afrikaner determination on my face. I was not gonna let go. And he said, young man, I will let you in there. There's one condition. You're not allowed to say a word. He said, we're gonna close the door. She's in a coma. Every now and again, she comes out of this coma, but we know the end has come. And he said, you can stand there, but you're not allowed to say a word. And you know what? They let me in. They closed the door behind me. And there she was, 83 years old, just a little bundle of flesh and bone now. Paralyzed on the one side of her body, eyesight was gone, coming in and out of the coma. And all I did was I just winked. And as she was lying there, I just winked. And I was just standing next to the bed. And all because I knew the time has come for God to take her. And do you know what happened, folks? As I was standing there, something happened. She came out of this coma. Now she couldn't see. And she recognized that there was someone in the room. And as I was standing there, I didn't say anything. I was just standing there. And she was lying on the bed. Now she couldn't see, but she recognized there was someone in the room. And this little hand went up and she just said, who is this? Who is this? I broke the rule. You know what I did? I took my two hands and I brought it close to her ear. And I whispered, it's that boy. And before I could say another word, that little hand that was still mobile went up. And she took it into her hand. She said, give me your hand. And I put my hand in there. And she took it and she said, let me pray once more for that boy. And three hours later, she was gone. Do you know why you are here tonight? Because someone prayed for you. And you've got family members and they lost. Can I ask you, brother and sister, is your heart still broken for those people? We've got millions of people in South Africa tonight. And forgive me for saying this, they're on their way to hell in a basket, they lost. And God is gonna need to break our hearts. Who is that boy? A few days later, I was standing at the grave site. And as I was standing at the grave site, the little coffin was going down. And as the coffin was going down, I just wept. You know, the family didn't know me. I mean, they didn't know who I was, but I was just standing there and I was watching this little coffin going down. And as it was going down, I was crying to God. And I said, God, who's gonna pray for me in the days to come? What about you? Can I ask you tonight? When last were you broken, broken before God? So what is it? It's a life of prayer. What does it cost? It will cost you absolutely everything. It's proud to pray. Shall we? Let's pray. Father, we know that it's been a long night for some of us and yet it's been a wonderful day. And I have no idea if in the inadequacy of my life, I ever will have a privilege to be back here at Honey Ridge Baptist. But I just pray tonight. God, could you come and break our hearts? Could you make us a broken people before God? My brother and my sister, I wonder tonight if you would allow me to challenge you. And we're gonna close our service in a very unique way. I'm gonna ask you as a Christian, wherever you are, if you would just turn around and go on your knees, and we're gonna close our service tonight in prayer. Would you mind to do that wherever you are? Just turn around and find a little spot on your knees. Just a little spot where you can be totally on your own. No one is gonna pray with you. You're just gonna spend some time alone with God. And after a minute or two, as we prayed, I'm gonna ask Robin, and he's just gonna come and close our evening in prayer. We won't have a closing hymn, because our time is gone, but you just take some time and ask God to just search your heart. You have spoken to us tonight. Lord, it is our prayer that as we go into this week, that indeed we might hand over the keys of our lives to you. We thank you, Lord, that in fact, your spirit has come down upon us as a church family tonight. Thank you for our brother here, Lord. May you continue to use him in his ministry, as he continues to minister to the people of this, our land. Lord, we add our prayer to that. Oh, Lord, heal our land. Thank you, Lord. Go with us in this week. Thank you for who you are. Amen.