Guard the Fire Audio

You're listening to the sermon podcast for the Gate Church in Lethbridge, Alberta. For more information, to contact us, or to support this ministry, please visit thegate.org. In a sense, this service is the conclusion of the Guarded Treasurer Conference, and let me tell you that you will be blessed this morning as Mr. Gareth Evans speaks with us, speaks to our hearts, shares God's Word, shares his heart as well, so it's my privilege now to invite him up to share with us once again this morning. And just before he shares, I'd like to pray.

Would you bow your heads as we pray? Oh Father, what a gift that as a church we've had this man and other people here as well traveling to visit in Lethbridge and minister to us. It's, yeah, it has been nothing short of profound and deep and of you and your Spirit. So as we gather again in the name of Jesus, Lord, we pray for your words, your anointing, and we thank you for that, God, that you're faithful in this place and time as we submit it all at your feet, at the feet of Jesus, at the cross, with faith in him.

In the name of the Father and the presence of the Holy Spirit, we ask these things. Amen. Thank you.

Good morning. Good morning. Such a joy to be with you.

Thank you, Pastor Greg, for the invitation to speak here. It's been a great blessing to me, great privilege to be here. The theme of this weekend has been God the treasure that has been entrusted to you.

Paul's writing to Timothy in 2 Timothy 1. A message on Friday was God the message that has been committed to you. The church today seems to me to be so much into historical adrift, far away from the truth of the message that was first committed to the church. A message last night was God the giftings that have been given to you.

Every one of us has received a gift from the Holy Spirit, every one of us, for the building up of the body of Christ. Tonight I want to speak, this morning I want to speak about another treasure that is probably the most important of them all. Today is Pentecost Sunday.

Pentecost Sunday was a time when Jesus said to his disciples, carry in Jerusalem until you receive power to be my witnesses. So they did. Then as Pastor Greg read on that wonderful day, when suddenly there was a roaring noise and tongues of fire came down upon each of the disciples, empowering them to do the work that he called them to do.

They went out, they began to speak in other languages, so everybody, Greeks, people from far away, all different people heard him speak in their own language. They began to see miracles of healing, they began to see demons cast out because they had power that had been given by God, symbolized by tongues of fire. I want to call my message today, God the fire.

God the fire. Do you ever see fire in your church? Do you ever see tongues of fire? No, no, of course not. I want to take you back seven weeks.

We've got a group of people, just the same disciples, who gathered together on a kitchen bench seven weeks earlier. The seven weeks earlier while they're waiting together, they're in a locked room because they're afraid that the Jewish authorities are going to come and take them and do to them exactly what they've done to their master Jesus that weekend. Jesus has just been crucified.

The disciples are gathered in a locked room for fear of the Jews. Two on the road to Emmaus discussing what had happened in Jerusalem when Jesus approaches them and joins them and goes in and has supper with him. As he speaks to them, he's revealed to them who he really is and they rush back to Jerusalem.

They find their friends locked in an upper room. They come and we've seen Jesus. He's alive.

Oh, come on, come on. You're hallucinating. No other said, well, we saw him at the tomb.

I told you before the tomb was empty. He's alive. But the disciples, all of the 120, the most of them just don't believe this.

And Thomas said, come on, unless I see the marks of nails, I'm not going to believe. And Jesus suddenly appears among them and they're afraid. He said, do not be fearful.

Look at his eye and he shows them the marks of nails in his hands and feet. Touch me. Then they were so glad because this was their glorified resurrected Jesus.

And then he said these words, as the father sent me, I'm now going to send you. Listen to these words. And he breathed on them and said, receive the Holy Ghost.

Now, you're not going to go from here this morning and say, Gareth, breathe on us. Unless, of course, you and I get into conversation and I've got a very bad cold. And tomorrow you wake up with a very bad cold.

And you say, well, how on earth did I get this cold? Gareth, breathe on us. Otherwise, you're never going to say Gareth. But the scripture said, Jesus breathed on them.

He said, receive the Holy Ghost. The Greek word there is labete. I'm not a Greek scholar.

I have studied Greek, but I'm not a Greek scholar. But I can tell you this. The Greek word there, receive, is labete.

It is what they call in Greek the Aorist imperative. Now, in English, which is not a classical language, it's a very poor language, actually, to express many things, we have one imperative tense. It's called the present imperative.

If any English teachers here, present imperative says pass the butter, close the window, come and see me. That's the imperative. And you may respond positively, or you may ignore the comment.

You may not pass the butter or close the window. But in the Greek, there is a present imperative, just like the English, but there's also an Aorist imperative. And when the Aorist imperative is used, as here, it demands immediate response.

It's a command from a superior to an inferior. Come and see me. You come and see me.

It's not an invitation. It's an order. And Jesus says to disciples, receive the Holy Ghost.

And they received the Holy Ghost. And they were born again. Hallelujah.

At that moment. They could not have been born again before because He had not been crucified. He had not been resurrected.

The church was in embryo form before that, but the church was birthed right there among those 120 people when Jesus breathed His Holy Spirit upon them. Has Jesus breathed His Holy Spirit on you? I pray that every one of you has known the new birth of Christ, that you receive the Holy Spirit and have been born again. We talked the first night about the need for contrition, confession, repentance as the doorway into all the blessings that God has for us.

I remember the time as a 16-year-old boy in my bed, I gave my heart to Jesus. I meant it. Three days later, I knew without a doubt that He had come into my life.

And I knew that His Spirit was in me. And I was a child of God. Hallelujah.

That's when the church was born. Now, I hear people say quite often, I heard a man on TV last night say, of course, praise God for Pentecost. That's when the church was born.

The church was not born then. It was in embryo form when Jesus called His disciples. He came with a new birth of 120.

He breathed His Spirit into them. The purpose of Pentecost was power, not new birth. He walked with them for six weeks.

They were so delighted to walk with Jesus after His resurrection. Then He said, I'm going now to my Father, but I want you to tarry in Jerusalem until you receive power. And that power became evidenced by tongues of fire that came down upon them.

Oh, God, send the fire. I come from Wales, the land of Wales. You may know if you've been in the church much time that Wales is noted for the great moves of God's Spirit and revivals in Wales.

There's a mighty, mighty revival in Wales in 1904. It swept over Wales. It swept over Europe.

It swept into Korea. The church in Korea looks back to those days. And God put out His Spirit upon my country in a mighty, mighty way through a young man called Evan Roberts.

My heart longs for revival. Did you know that the last great move of God's Spirit in Canada occurred about 20 years ago? When people talk about revival, they talk about the Nunavut revival. Have you heard of the Nunavut revival? 20 years ago in Pond Inlet, a little small community, a small Anglican church, people were there praying to God to change a society because there was so much drunkenness and so much crime in that community.

It was a lostness among the people. People in this little Anglican church began to cry unto God. And suddenly one night while they're in that meeting, a youth meeting, a young woman is standing praying.

This is in Pond Inlet, Canada, about 20 years ago. Oh, God, and as she's praying, she starts crying, it's coming, it's coming. And they heard a mighty, mighty sound like a roaring airplane coming close.

And people outside saw the church with fire coming down upon it. And God did a mighty work in Nunavut. Read it, read on the internet, it's in your own country.

I long to see the fire of God fall upon his people. I was home in Wales a few years back and a young woman with me from Canada, she and her husband sadly had partied and she came over to Britain to her daughter's wedding. I met her there, took her down to Wales and sat at a little table with my brother-in-law and sister-in-law, Vivian and Betty.

They were missionaries in Lapland, but they were both Welsh, sitting at a little table eating Norwegian waffles. And my friend was here, Nancy, my Betty, my brother-in-law and my brother-in-law sitting at this small table. And Vivian's father came to Christ in the Welsh Revival in 1904.

So Vivian knew all the stories of the Welsh Revival. Betty, my sister-in-law, her mother, my mother-in-law came to Christ in the Welsh Revival. So she knew all the stories.

So I said to Vivian and Betty, tell stories to Karen, Karen was a friend's name, of the stories you know. So they're telling their stories of the Welsh Revival when God visited my country. And I watched my quiet introverted brother-in-law Vivian get what we in Wales call the hoyle, the passion, as I probably got as well, for telling the story.

And I watched tears in his eyes as he's telling the story. Then I said, Viv, Betty, what was the main characteristic of the Welsh Revival? Was it the hymn singing? We noted for our hymn singing in Wales. Was it the preaching? We know very little about Edward Robertson's preaching.

What was the main characteristic? And both spoke together and said, oh, Gareth, it was the awesome presence. Don't you long for the presence of God in your congregation? Why do you bother to go to church if God is not present? Do you go for community, for a fellowship, for a nice social life, or do you come to meet God? God wants his presence to be known among us. I want to go back to another story much, much earlier from the book of Exodus.

You know the story well, so I'll just repeat it to you. Exodus 3, Moses grew up in the palace of Herod, not of Herod, of Pharaoh, brought up as an Egyptian, but he's truly an Israelite. At the age of 40, he has to flee for his life because he kills a man.

For the next 40 years, he's looking after sheep in the wilderness. This man, educated in the royal household, has become a shepherd, one of the lowest callings. At the age of 80, he's tending sheep when he sees a remarkable sight.

He sees a bush on fire. As he goes through, he realized the bush is not being consumed by the fire. He draws close to see this phenomenon of a bush that's on fire, but it's not being consumed, and then he hears a voice.

Take the shoes off your feet, the ground on which you stand is holy ground. Moses is immediately startled, and God speaks to him from the bush. I've seen my people in bondage in Egypt.

I want to go and set my people free. I can't do that. I'm but a shepherd.

I can't speak well. Well, take your brother with you, but I want you to go. You know the story.

Maybe you've seen the film. Pharaoh refuses to let the children of Israel go. It makes their bondage worse, and so God sends plagues, and Moses sees these plagues.

Finally, after the plagues, the last plague is that the firstborn in every house is going to die, except those houses upon which the blood has been applied. You know the story. It's a Sunday school material.

Moses sees the children being set free, and he leads them out to the country, to the borders of the country, when he's trapped by the Red Sea in the mountain, and the people are fearful because they do not know how to get across, and they see the pursuing dust from the pursuing Egyptians. They cry out to Moses, Why did we bet if we stayed there? We had food back there, at least. And Moses says, Stand still.

Do not fear. Behold the salvation of God, which he will show to you today. And he touched the waters, and the waters parted.

Now, the way to go, By, if I wanted to see miracles, Moses, show us all a lot of miracles. He comes across, and they come across some dry land, and all the pursuing Egyptians are slain in the waters. And Moses and God are in intimate terms.

They're talking to one another. And the next 20 odd chapters of the book of Exodus is all about God speaking to Moses, giving him the commandments, giving him instructions for building the tabernacle, giving him instructions about the priesthood, and the laws, and how the ceremonial laws, and all these things are going on. And Moses is hearing all this up on the mountaintop, Mount Sinai, while the rest of the children of Israel are down below in the valley.

And because Moses has been away too long, they make for themselves a golden calf. They had no vision of God. They had no apprehension of God.

This was their God. And God says to Moses, I'm going to go before you. I'm going to send my angel before you.

Oh, wonderful. I want you to go into Canaan, but I'm going to send my angel before you. Oh, thank you, Lord.

We're going to have a good guide. And then Moses comes down the mountain, and he sees the golden calf. And he breaks the tablets of stone, the Ten Commandments.

And he berates the people and the leaders. What have you done? Goes back up the mountain to speak with God. He's broken the tablets.

He wants new tablets. And God says, I've seen the evil, and I will destroy these people. But I'll make of you a great nation, Moses.

Moses, no, no, God, please, please, please, please, please, please don't. And he pleads on behalf of the people. And God says to him, okay.

Okay, I hear you cry. I will go before you. I will go before you.

And Moses, no way. I'm not going unless you go before me. You promised me an angel.

That sounded good. But now I can see what the people will do if an angel goes before us. God, we ain't going unless you'll go with us.

Then in Exodus 33, as he cries, he says, God, God, please, please, please go with us. And he says, oh, Lord, please show us your glory. I've seen the burning bush.

I've seen all these miracles. I've seen the plagues. I've seen the waters parted.

I've spoken to you face to face and we've talked and we've communed. But God, all it has done for me is create a hunger in me to see more of you. I long to see your glory.

And God says, I cannot show you my face. But because I know who you are, I know your name. I'm going to tell you who I am.

I'm going to reveal myself to you. And I will lead you. And he led them by a pillar of fire.

I have been in places where I've seen the fire. When I was in university, I had a wonderful experience with God. In worship one day, I just, God's presence was so real to me that a fire was lit within me.

Some call it the baptism of the spirit, whatever you want to call it. I know that I have met God in a very special way. May the 4th, 1961, and a fire was lit within me.

And I've been very careful for the last 60 odd years. I'm now 87 years of age to maintain a fire. I know how easy it is for the draughts of this world to dampen the flame.

And so I've become passionate about the fire. I was walking with a pastor brother in Victoria, 10 years ago. He said to me, Gareth, I love being with you because you have a fire in your belly.

It's meant to be a compliment. But my response was this, why doesn't everyone else? Particularly pastors who spend time preaching the word of God. How come so many of them are burning out? So many of them are frustrated.

Where's the fire? I'm not asking for charismatic, I'm not asking for that. I'm asking for God's presence among his people. When was the last time you sensed God's presence among your people? And my message today, if you want it very simply, is this, guard the flame.

Because God wants to be here among his people. I've experienced God in many ways. I've experienced the healing touch.

I had collapsed once playing racquetball. They diagnosed I had prolapse, major prolapse. And my mother died from prolapse problems.

I was at a pastor's conference a little while later, and I also prayed for my prolapse. And then three years later, I'm in surgery for a major hernia surgery. And they're doing a stethoscope on my back.

The doctors examined me. And I said, oh, you can probably hear the prolapse. No, he said, your papers say you've got prolapse, but I can't hear it.

God had healed me. A couple of years back, I was in Powell River on the coast, BC. I was invited to speak at a full gospel business meeting.

I'm just giving a couple of examples. I'd never been to Powell River before. And if you go to Powell River from the island, Victoria, where I live, they say, you have to go overnight.

You can't get back the same day. Take a ferry. Got to this hotel where I'm speaking.

And three men greet me in the fire of the hotel. Welcome to me. And we just chat in.

Full hotel with the fire people walking through. The desk was there and everything. And another man comes in.

Let's call him John. Hi, John. How are things going? And, oh, OK.

Because obviously, at John's, things weren't going very well with John. Well, let's pray for you, brother. And typical full gospel business.

Come and link arms. Who cares who's watching us in the middle of the fire? We linked arms. Come and, brother, join us.

So I joined arms with these four strangers as they prayed for John. And obviously, as they were praying, John's problem was his wife. She obviously wasn't very much in support of him going to full gospel business.

I don't know if she was a Christian. I have no idea. But she was the problem.

And as we prayed, a picture came to my mind. And when we finished, I turned to John. I said, John, I don't know if this means anything to you.

I did not say the Lord told me. I will never use those words. I feel as if the gifts of the Spirit have been so abused that we washed them out.

We thrown the baby out to the bathwater. We do not want any evidences of those things in our church. I said, I don't know if it means anything to you, John.

But a picture came to my mind. I saw a house in a rainstorm. And the rain was beating down on the house.

And then I realized it's beating down inside the house. And this man fell on the floor as though he'd been logged. Begins to weep.

Many people around watching this strange thing. And he gets up and he says, guys, I've got to go home. Turns to me and says, thank you, brother.

I said, why? On the way here in the car tonight, I was complaining to the Lord about my wife. And the Lord said to me, you are a leaky roof. And when you get yourself in order, then I can do something about your wife.

That's called a word of knowledge. The gifts of the Spirit. When was the last time you saw God move? When was the last time you heard God speak? When was the last time you went home and said, God was in that service? God, the flame.

God, the presence of God. I've got a soapbox. I'm 87 years of age.

And I have a webpage. And when I was 80 or so, I said to myself, you're old enough now to have a soapbox. So my webpage, I got a soapbox about karaoke worship.

About lack of power in the churches. About. Believe me, it is not from a place of criticism.

It is from a place of sadness. So often. I want to commend the worship team.

I've been so blessed by the worship that you've led us in this week. This weekend. But I've been to many worship services where it is nothing more than a karaoke service.

We sang songs. It was lovely. I was once invited to a palace to see the king's palace.

This is a story, not the truth. And I gather with many others in the courtyard. We're all excited to see the palace of the king.

Then the doors opened and a usher dressed in finest livery took us into the great hallway of the castle. There on the walls are all the paintings of all the heritage of the king, the previous kings and the rulers of the country. We all went, wow.

Then our guide took us to the first room. He opened the door. We walked in and there were pictures of the king as a baby.

There was his cradle. And there were the toys he used to play with. And we said, oh, that's lovely.

It's beautiful. Took us to the next room. And in this room were the books that the king had had as a child as he grew older.

The things he was educated. There were drawings that the king had made. There were the toys that he had had in the books.

And the desk was there where he had been educated. We said, wow. Took us into the next room.

And there were these suits of armor. And there were swords. And this is what the young king used to use in battle.

And the guide said to me, you can pick up a sword. I picked up one of the swords. He was so light.

And I said, wow. It would be such an honor to serve in the army with the king. Took us to the next room.

And the next room was full of treasures the king had been given by embassies from other countries. And it was, oh, wow. But I was so excited.

I moved on. And there was a doorjar. And I looked inside.

And there was a table laden with food. And as I looked, I saw the king standing behind the table. He saw me.

He said, it bid me to come in. I was about to go in when the guide closed the door. He took us to the next room.

And the next room was full of great honors that the king had received over his lifetime. But everybody was so excited. And then he opened the door.

We're back in the courtyard outside. And everybody said, oh, wasn't that wonderful? But my heart ached because I'd seen the king. I was not allowed to enter his presence.

I challenge the worship leaders here. And I say this in a gracious way because you have been a blessing to me this week. Your job is to lead us to see the king.

That's the purpose of praise and worship. It's not just to sing songs. It's to lead us into the presence of the king.

And how many times I've listened to songs. And my heart responds. And I want to.

And then we're told to. And then suddenly somebody gets up and makes announcements. I say, oh, God, please leave me here.

I want to be in the presence of the king. Well, I moved from Kitchener. I passed through the church in Kitchener.

And God did wonderful works there. I came out to Victoria. To Victoria Christian and Missionary Alliance Church.

And the previous pastor had just left suddenly because of issues with his worship team. There had been some unfaithfulness there. And big issues.

And there'd been an explosion. And so when I came to the church, I inherited a church of wounded people concerning worship. All I had was a man at the keyboards, Rob.

We didn't have any instruments left. Didn't have anybody playing guitar. We just had a keyboard, Rob.

And I knew how wounded the people were. And so I came to the time of the service. I said, we're now going to come to corporate worship.

Corporate worship is individuals worshiping. You're free to sit. You're free to stand.

Free to raise your hands. If you want to dance, there's an area at the back where you can dance. If you're interested in people performing.

If you want to dance, dance. Just remember the man next to you, the woman next to you, needs to be given the space to worship as they want to. Do not intrude on their space.

But I want you to worship. I said, Rob, Rob, you choose the songs. But take us into the throne room of God.

And when you bring us there, leave us there to worship him. Take us into the room where the king is inviting us to go, Rob. Whatever songs you choose.

I have a lapel mic on and I will do this. And if you see me do this. In fact, I always came down off the platform.

I stood on the floor deliberately. So I'd be with the people in worship. I said, Rob, if you see me do this, I want you to go quiet.

So I said to the congregation, this wounded, hurting congregation. So Rob started leading. And those are the days when I love you, Lord.

And I lift my voice to worship you. It was very popular. Why did three of you say, I love you, Lord? Because there was silence.

100 people, silence. I waited. And somebody said, I love you, Lord, because you died on the cross for me.

And somebody else said, I love you, Lord, because you've been so faithful. And they're all sitting. Second week, I did exactly the same thing.

You're free to sit. You're free to stand. But this time, there were 10 people standing.

And half of them had their hands in the air. Oh. Oh, Lord, you're beautiful.

Is he beautiful today? Three of you, what adjective would you use to describe Jesus today? And I didn't wait for the longest time. The three people came quickly. Enough to say that by the end of five weeks, almost everybody was standing, worshiping God.

I had to stop them after three, because three people went. But the people had come into a liberty of worshiping. And people said, God is here.

God is here. There were always some who sat there, negative. But that church came into healing.

Many years later, I'm back in Victoria. I've traveled a lot. I'm speaking at the church.

And I'm sitting in the entranceway. And Rob comes in. He's married.

He moved away many years ago. He sees me there. And he comes up to me.

Pastor, God, it's so good to see you. Are you speaking this morning? Oh, wonderful. His next words were these.

Pastor, thank you so much for teaching me how to worship. You come to church. You're a message.

You come to church to meet friends. You come to church for good community. And all of these are good.

But surely, surely, surely, do you not come to church to meet God? And worship him. Let me repeat again. How blessed I've been by your worship.

But I challenge you. To take us into the throne room of God. But I add this to provide you.

You can never take us where you've never been yourself. Worship him. I speak to you from my heart.

As one who loves worship, make sure you spend time in the presence of God so he can lead us into his presence. I'm not interested how good you are at the guitar or the drums or the keyboard. I'm not at all interested in that.

I had one man on the keyboard. But we went into the presence of God. I'm not interested where the lights are dark and down, where the noise is up so bitter you have to have earplugs.

There's one church gave me earplugs when I entered. That doesn't tell me God is present because you're loud. You're copying the world.

You're trying to get me to worship God in the ways of the world. It's never going to happen. That's a golden calf.

But please, please, please take me into his presence. I was in Fortaleza, Brazil at the privilege of working with Youth of the Mission and the young leader there, Tony Camara, at 20 years of age, not a pastor. He worked as an engine man on the ship where I served in Africa, a missionary ship.

Tony called together all the pastors of the city for a missions and evangelistic crusade to the city of Fortaleza. Fortaleza is near the Amazon and the CBC, Canadian news, I saw a series on the vice capitals of the world. Fortaleza was there as the vice capital for child pornography.

A lot of tourists from Europe. It's the nearest point to Europe. I was there overseeing a Y1 base where they were developing this outreach.

Again, it was three days of football stadium. And there was a worship team there from Belo Horizonte, a brother and sister, a drummer, a couple of guitarists, much like I was here. And they led us in this football stadium in worship.

I noticed that every so often the girl, brother and sister, would disappear to the back of the stage in the middle of a song. Then I noticed the drummer would put his sticks down in the middle of a song. When the crusade was over, I was at the beach with my host.

And there was this team from Belo Horizonte swimming. So I went up to the leader and I thanked him for his work, for the blessing he'd been to me. And I said, I noticed that you stopped very often when you said my team had been told, if ever they sense that our singing has become secular, that the response to the congregation of the crowd, 20,000 people has become secular, I tell them to turn and seek God's face because we want to present Jesus here on the platform.

Were they anointed? Let me tell you, we counted and we stopped counting at 35,000 decisions for Christ. Did you hear that number? Because God made his presence known, not only through the preaching, but through the worship. Pastor Greg, it's been a joy to meet you.

But I want to speak to you. I was a physics teacher for 20 years. I came to Canada to teach physics.

In 1979, sorry, 77, I was head of department at the Hebrew Academy in Toronto. I was the only non-Jew in a staff of above 40. I was the highest paid teacher in Canada, other than principals.

The Jewish school paid way above the norm. I was in a big salary with a big pension when God suddenly started tugging my heart for pastoral call. My district superintendent invited me to become a pastor.

I was with the Christian Missionary Alliance. I said to Mel, I was considering no greater honor, but there's no way I'd become a pastor unless I knew God had called me. He said, what are you waiting for? A flash of light from heaven? I said, yeah.

He said, all I'd look for is a witness of the brethren. Then I said, Mel, I said, I got three teenage daughters. I'm earning big money, but it's the first time I've earned money.

I've got no savings. I can't afford to go to seminary. He said, Brother Gareth, I do not want you to go to seminary.

I want you as you are. His job as a district superintendent is to send men to seminary. I wrestled with that for the next six months, and I had many men, miracles speaking into my life, confirming what God was calling.

They did not know of my conversation with Mel Silvestre. After eight months, I said to my wife, Anne, I think God is calling me into the pastorate. And my godly wife, who grew up in the home of an itinerant evangelist in Norway, they lived in a pittance, very, very poor family, though her heart cried out against ever becoming a pastor's wife.

My godly wife replied and said, if God is calling you, you better obey. So I stepped down from a high salary with a big pension to a half salary and a half pension. I came to Kitchener, and I knew nothing about being a pastor.

I'd never been to seminary. I knew I was totally ignorant about pastoring. So Greg listened to me.

I went into my building in Kitchener, a little building, 30 by 50, maximum seating 100 people. I had 40 in my congregation, young people, my 40, my heart, young people, young adults. I locked the door behind me, and I pulled the phone out of the wall, and I spent all day, Tuesday, in God's presence.

I read my scriptures. I walked around singing, worship. I was on my knees praying, asking God for a message.

I did not want to preach a Bible series. I got a plan that month, and I wanted to speak to my young people relevant to their lives right today. I wanted God's word for Lent Sunday, and that's where God molded me as a pastor was in that room.

If he needed to contact me, people would call the church, get no answer. They'd call my wife. My wife would say, I'm sorry, God, it's not available.

Talk to one of the three elders, and I met God in that room. I would go to preach on a Sunday. It was a Sunday afternoon service.

The elders took the first hour and worshiped. The second hour was given to me. The third hour was a communion time.

The fourth hour was fellowship again. So it was a four-hour Sunday afternoon. That's what I came into, and during the first hour of that time, George would be at the piano, leading us in worship.

Charles Neunkirk and Dr. Charles Neunkirk and lectures now at Regina Bible College would get up and read a testimony or read a scripture. PhD doctor. And my wife says 12 times in that first year, and I say six times, somewhere between the truth and truth, Charlie Neunkirk read out my text for that morning.

There is no way in the world he could have known what I was going to preach on. He'd stand up and he says, today I feel led to read from the book of Habakkuk. And I go, mm-hmm.

Chapter two, mm-hmm. Can you imagine the first time that happened? Boy, what a coincidence. The second time it happened, my young people go, wow, God's done it again.

The third and fourth and fifth and sixth and seventh and eighth and ninth and 10th and maybe to 11th and 12th times a day, we began to realize that God was speaking. Can you imagine how I preached on those Sunday mornings? I knew that I had God's word. I knew I had God's word because God was confirming it through the words of Charlie Neunkirk.

God was present. And we saw that church grow from 40 to 140 in four years. We started to build a new building.

We built a new building to seat 280 people, 380 people totally paid for in three years because God's fire was present in our services. On the strength of that, they heard about it all across Canada. So I invited to Victoria to pastor the church and I inherited this wounded church.

And for the next many years, I found myself living in a wilderness, seven years. The church became healthy, but we never saw any of the miracles I saw in Kitchener. And then in 1990, I was sick.

I was not sleeping. My doctor ordered me out of work, put me on a sickness pension. And then I got a telephone call from Texas asking me if I'd go on the Anastasia, a ship with youth of the mission, medical mercy ship in Africa.

I became their pastor for the next four years. And suddenly God opened up fields for me and I was teaching pastors conferences. Speaking to some of the biggest churches in Europe and America.

And God gave me great liberty. Two years ago, I'm back home. Since COVID, I've not been traveling.

I traveled a great deal. I'm at home feeling well. I'm now 80 so I can retire.

When a pastor's got a flame burning in his belly, he can't retire. So I'm with a group of my friends and they're praying for the street people in Victoria. And the government of BC and the federal government about whether they should allow drugs in hospital with those who've overdosed.

One of my friends says at this prayer time, he said, when is the government going to realize they got no answer for the street problems? Only Jesus is the answer. So I go downtown the following Monday. I walk into our place, which is a nice clean, we can get coffee and food for street people.

Walked across the street and there were these people dressed in leather jackets with tattoos all over them. I asked what's going on. They said, we deal with drug addicts here.

This is a warming shelter. It's November a year and a half ago. So I said, well, can I talk to someone? You need to talk to Jimmy.

So Jimmy came across to me. He's a skinhead. His father was a leading light in Hell's Angels in Quebec, a very violent man.

Jimmy's been in prison 15 years, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. I said to Jimmy, Jimmy, I'm a pastor. I'd love to pray for these people.

I want to see God move on the streets. Jimmy said to me, Jesus is the answer. And James is here, my friend.

And he is now part of a group as a development ministry around Jimmy and Megan. And God is moving on the streets of Victoria. We've seen the flame lit in the streets.

Pastor, spend time with God. Congregation, give your pastor time to spend time with God. Did you hear what I just said? So many pastors burn up because they're so busy doing work that God never, ever intended them to do.

Shortly after this Pentecost experience, as the church is growing, complaints have been made by the widows that some of them are not receiving a fairer portion of the food. So the apostles come and they say to the rest of the apostles, find out for yourself seven men of good repute, filled with the spirit. Choose them and set them over this task.

While we will dedicate ourselves, pastor, to what? To prayer and the preaching of the word. I want to see your pastor set free to dedicate himself to prayer and the preaching of the word, to seek God's presence so he can come here and present to you what God is saying so that you will see God's flame start operating in the church. Oh, I can give you so many stories.

Alistair Smith. Alistair Smith, an officer with the Salvation Army in Wales. And nobody, never heard of him.

I'm doing my university degree in physics. And so I say to my fiancée, and I said, I can't see you until next weekend because I've got all my exams this week. So on the Thursday, she telephones me and said, Gareth, I don't want to disturb you.

I hope you're, what are you studying tonight? She said, any possibility of you coming to hear this man called Alistair Smith? He'd come to the local Salvation Army. He was too small for the meetings, so he went to an apostolic church that was too small for him. So he moved to the largest church in the city.

The next day was my practical exam for my honors degree. And you can't really study for that. So I decided to go to this meeting.

And I'm sitting in a congregation of maybe a thousand people listening to this unknown man speaking. After an hour and a quarter, he glances, he watches, oh my goodness, is that the time? Hey, I'm so sorry. I've overspent my time.

I'm so sorry. I need to stop right now. Because he knew that the last buses was at nine o'clock.

We didn't have a lot of cars in those days. A lot of people needed to catch that last bus home. So I need to stop right now.

And nobody moved. Then a man gets up and he said, Major Smith, you cannot leave us here. You cannot leave us here.

And Major Smith said, look, he said, I've got about 20 minutes more I need. If you need to leave, I understand. It's my fault.

I've been too long. I'm sorry. He went on and not one person left the building.

Many missed their buses home. Why? Because God was present. God.

Oh, I've spoken enough. I can go on like this all morning. I've spoken enough.

I charge you, King's Church, to seek the presence of God. Seek the fire. I'm not talking about charismatic mania.

Please, you understand me. I'm talking about the presence of God. That convicts.

That heals. That charges. That motivates.

Seek the presence of God. Pastors, seek the presence of God. Worship leaders, seek to lead us into the presence of God.

How do we do that? Tarry. In Jerusalem. Until you receive power.

Prayer is the fundamental root of this. I've said to so many young people, I've worked a lot with young people, who are seeking God. I say, go for a walk alone with God.

When was the last time you went for a walk with God? I live near the coast in Wales. I tell my young people, huge sand dunes, many miles. Go for a walk alone with God.

Just go and spend time with God. Just talk to him. And so many who came back said they met God on the sand dunes.

My last story. I said my last story. I might try and think of another one, who knows.

You probably gather by now that I'm preaching because I've got a fire in my belly. I'm reading a youth book in Wales and God is blessing it, it's growing very large. And a woman comes up to me in church one day and said, Gareth, I didn't see you in the prayer meeting on Tuesday.

And me and my foolish, wisecracking way said, I didn't see you at the barbecue on Saturday, Mrs. Jones. Barbecue with the young people on the sand dunes. I didn't see any of you and the young people in the prayer meeting, Gareth.

I didn't see you at the barbecue. A bit foolish of me. But I was a bit convicted by that, so I said to my young people, I want to see you in the prayer meeting on Tuesday.

So about 20 of them turned up for the prayer meeting on the Tuesday. The prayer meeting was made up of people sitting in a large square around a heater in the middle of the fall time. And we had a standard prayer meeting.

One of the elders stood up and said, O thou that dwellest among the seventh heaven, we come unto thee this morning or this evening. What are my young people thinking about? When I say young people, I'm talking about young 20-year-olds. And John is a very sincere man, but it's the same prayer I heard last week and the week before.

And I'm waiting for him to finish. I feel a tap on my knee, and it's Phil, one of these young men. He said, Gareth, can you come with me and pray for Hazel, one of the girls present? Now, I should have been correct etiquette and said, Phil, please, wait until John has finished.

But I've always been a little bit outside the box, so I have to talk about something. We went over to Hazel, and while John is still praying, said to Hazel, Hazel, can Philip pray for you? Yes, please. And so Philip and I are there kneeling, and he prayed this prayer, and she starts crying.

She says, how did you know? How did you know? And Philip said, God just told me. And God had told her what Hazel needed, and he came and prayed what he, Hazel, needed to hear. So when I sat back down by the pastor, when John finished, I turned to the pastor, and I said, Pastor Bob, I want to tell you what just happened.

And the pastor was a wise man, he said, please, God, look, if any of you feel God is answering, please do so. And our prayer meeting was revolutionized, and Mrs. Jones left after three weeks, left the prayer meeting. She was a lovely old lady, she was, actually.

But this was so unusual for her, that the young people were praying in different groups, and suddenly our prayer meeting became a living prayer meeting. The most exciting meeting of the week was our prayer meeting. How many churches can boast that? I know churches that don't even have prayer meetings.

Oh, I want to see God move among his people, and I charge you, people of King's Church, this represents the presence of Jesus. Pastor Greg has asked me to pray for you. Father, first, I want to thank you.

Thank you, Father, for the privilege of being here. Thank you, Father, for the burden you've placed on my heart. Thank you, God, for the path you've led me along.

Thank you, Lord, for being all that you are to me. Like Moses, I cry out, oh, God, show me your glory. I look back, Lord, on the path you've led me, and I celebrate your presence.

I worship you, Lord Jesus. Thank you for the death you died on the cross. Thank you for ever choosing me.

Keep me a penitent, Lord, before you keep me close to the cross, I pray. Keep us close to the cross. Father, that you should love us as you do, and be the God, thou art, is darkness to our intellects, but sunshine to our hearts.

So, Father, I pray for Greg, Pastor Greg, for his elders. Pray for the worship team and all others, Lord, who hold office in this church. I pray, Lord, that they might hunger for you as Moses cried out, and I cry out, show me your glory.

You know their names. You know their characters. Lord, transform them by your purging fire, until you're pleased to make your presence known to them.

Bless this church, Lord. May its influence stretch far beyond the walls of this building. May people see this church, and come into this church, and leave saying, God was surely there.

Lord, make your presence known among us, I pray, for your glory's sake. Amen.