One of the longings we have as elders
of this congregation, those entrusted to guide us
and lead us into deeper intimacy with God
and obedience to Him and accomplishing His command
and commission, is that we get together and
pray and seek to know what God would
have for us for the coming year in
terms of different activities that we will do
as a congregation.
And one of the things the elders want
to continually emphasize is our desire to be
a place that is fully dependent on God,
that prays that this would be a house
of prayer.
And so as we prayed, we decided to
set aside a Sunday.
We always have our prayer summits, the one
Saturday a quarter, and we had that yesterday,
and Gerard was there and helped us to
go into the presence of God there.
And then to have one Sunday where we
spend time together talking about prayer and praying
together tonight, our concert of prayer.
And so we set aside this Sunday to
do that, and we're so glad you're here
as a part of our family seeking to
do that.
As we did that, we talked back and
forth, and we have a world-leading expert
on this subject.
He goes around the world.
I think he's been to Zimbabwe and Germany
and a number of other places.
Gerard, you can come on forward.
Gerard goes to these places and leads prayer
conferences, goes to a number of different Bible
colleges, those sort of things around the world.
And because he's ours, we feel we can
once in a while demand him to do
those things here.
And so we asked him if he would,
and he replied graciously.
And so we have an amazing privilege this
morning to hear from the Word of God
and to hear from God's man, to respond
and to deepen our own walk with God
and desire to please Him.
Gerard is someone I wish would travel a
little less because I delight in getting together
with you.
You are a good friend.
It's a delight to have you in our
congregation, and we look forward to hearing from
God from you this morning and tonight as
we come back with no snow in the
afternoon.
I wonder if you
will forgive me if I be a little
bit closer to you, that we can make
more eye contact.
But it's a great privilege to be here,
Janice and myself.
We're part of the church here, and when
we are in the country or when we
are home, it's such a blessing for us
to know that here is a place where
we can receive spiritual food ourselves.
I felt when Tim mentioned a little bit
about sunny Bray, surely I would be forgiven
if I tell you a little bit on
how to pray for us.
If you're with us tonight in the concert
of prayer, yesterday morning we came together and
it was just great.
We spent two hours together and time just
went like this.
Let me tell you something, brother and sister.
Once you are in the presence of God,
time is just something that doesn't figure itself
out right.
I felt like that yesterday morning.
We had a marvelous time together.
We prayed together, shared with them about the
depth of what was shameless persistence in prayer,
persistence in prayer, that there is a great
spirit of prayer, the centrality of Christ, the
prayer of faith, and what it means to
pray in the will of God.
Because the way that God answers prayer is
when we pray in his will.
You see, that's why Jesus was able to
say, Father, I thank you that you always
listen to me.
And the issue of answers to prayer, I
mean, they're wonderful.
Men like George Miller of Bristol had 85
,000 answers to prayer and all these great
things are tremendous.
But brother and sister, the great thing about
developing and cultivating intimacy with God is for
us to get to know God.
You see, if you get to know God,
you're going to discover what his will is
about.
And the marvelous thing that when it comes
to praying on the will of God, there's
this incredible passage in the first epistle of
John, when he made the statement and said,
this is the confidence that we have in
him, that if we ask anything according to
his will, and I love a construction of
the Greek language, that he is in the
process of listening to us.
And then the next part, because there are
three parts to this concept of praying on
the will of God, and then the next
part of this that he said, if we
know that he's listening to us, we know
that we are the petitions of those things
that we are asking of him.
I mean, this is a massive statement.
Because to me, it's like two mountains that
is being connected with a bridge.
And the first mountain is that this is
the confidence, the confidence that we have in
what?
In him.
That if we ask anything according to his
will, and here's the bridge, climbing the mountain,
now we are at the bridge.
What is the bridge?
If we know that he listens to us.
And here's the consequences.
If we know that he listened to us,
we know that we will receive those things
that we are asking for him.
Why?
Because we are asking that which is in
his will.
That's why Jesus said in John chapter 15,
if you abide in me and my word
abides in you, he said, you shall ask
whatever you will.
And you and I know, I mean, we're
not so stupid as that.
You and I know that if we abide
in Christ and his word abides in us,
we won't ask anything that is outside of
his will.
I mean, how dare we do that?
And so I'm so thrilled that the elders
have allowed Janice and myself not just to
be part of the church because we're part
of Life Action.
I find myself in all these different countries.
I tell you, I go to countries sometimes
where you say, you're going to teach people
to pray.
No, you don't go and teach them to
pray.
You're going to learn to pray the way
that they pray.
And many of these people are serious with
God, brother and sister.
It just blows every circuit in your mind
and it gives you a new lease on
life.
And the church has been a great blessing
to us financially when we go to this.
I go to places where other people won't
go.
We're going to go to Zimbabwe, 250 pastors,
five days of prayer.
You say, how do you spend five days
in prayer?
That's not the question.
It's how you're not doing it.
We bus them in from all directions.
Some come on bicycles and very intense sessions,
9 to 12, 2 to 5 and 7
to 10 at night.
Share within the depth of the theology of
prayer because you can't go from experience to
truth.
You need to go to the depth of
truth to experience because Satan, if he can't
keep us back, he's going to push you
over the edge.
The secret is balance.
So we value the church.
And so tonight when you come to pray
with us, we are going to spend an
hour and a half.
You know, when it comes to this church,
there's so much that we need to pray
about.
Do you know how I feel about our
church?
I feel I can get underneath a blanket
and spend 40 days in a cabin somewhere
when it comes to Cloverdale Baptist Church.
You're sitting with a massive hole behind this
church and there's going to be a new
sanctuary.
We don't want people flooding from all kinds
of other churches and the circulation of the
saints coming to a great new building.
We want to see people saved.
My question to you this morning is, when
last did you lead someone to Christ?
Are there people that know that you are
a Christian?
We're so saturated with ourselves, you know, and
they go into hell in a basket all
over the place.
My wife and myself yesterday drove through this
community and I just feel I could weep
because I kept saying to Janice, do you
realize how many people are here in this
area?
And I'm trusting God that this church tonight
will be full of people.
We can climb underneath the burden of God
and we can pray, see God.
Now we're going to give you a little
taste of that and this is what I'm
going to ask you to do.
I'm going to ask you to get up
and I want you to find three other
people and if you come tonight and there
are things upon your heart that you feel
this church need to pray for you, we
want to do that.
This is where we're going to just give
you a little taste.
Now I don't want you to feel uncomfortable.
I don't want you to sit here and
say, you know, I've never done that, I've
never done that in my life.
If you just want to sit there and
say, I don't want to pray with anyone.
I just feel I'm okay.
That's okay.
We understand it.
We don't want to stretch you when it
comes to that, but I just think it'd
be great if we can, because we're focusing,
the elders should ask me and say, hey
Gerard, let's focus this weekend on prayer.
So this is what we're going to do
and it's going to take a few minutes
of my time.
We're going to get up and I want
you to find three other people and I
want you to turn to those people and
I want you to ask a very quick
question.
Here's the issue.
I want you to ask him and say,
is there anything I can pray for you
about?
You don't need to be long.
I once introduced a man and he got
up and he said, I don't know where
to start and I jump up and said,
as long as you know when to stop.
You don't have to do that, but let's
just do that.
Get up and find three other people all
over the church.
You stand up, turn to them and say,
is there anything I can pray for you
about?
And let's take about five or ten minutes
and we spend some time in prayer.
So can we do that?
Would you mind if we do that?
So just get up wherever you are and
right at the balcony, wherever, find three other
people.
Ask him if there's a way you can
pray for them and then we spend some
time in prayer.
Our Heavenly Father, we are so grateful that
this desire in the hearts of the leadership
of our church and the elders to take
time in the beginning of every year to
to focus on this cultivating of intimacy with
God is such a huge encouragement to the
inadequacy of my own heart because what we
are really trying to do is to say,
God, we can, it's not possible for us
to do this thing on our own when
it comes to ministry.
And I'm so grateful that this last week
in my own times with you that one
morning this one great statement just came flooding
into my soul and grabbed me by the
throat and advanced upon my being when Jesus
said to God, nothing is impossible.
And you said to us that faith is
the substance of things hoped for, the evidence
of things not seen as yet.
And you said to us, without faith it
is impossible to please God, for he that
cometh to God must believe that he's the
rewarder of those that diligently seek him.
Thank you that the Apostle Paul, when he
said, I'm crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live,
yet not I but Christ liveth in me,
that he said, the life which I now
live, I live by the faith of the
Son of God who loved me and gave
himself for me.
Thank you that the writer to the Hebrews
said, let us run with patience the race
that is set before us, looking upon Jesus,
the author and the finisher of our faith,
who for the joy that was set before
him endured the cross, despising the shame, sitting
down at the right hand of the throne
of God.
And then you made this staggering statement that
you said, so consider him.
Lord, we know this morning that if you
help us to take care of the gazing
upon Christ, you're going to be responsible for
the growing in the life of the Lord
Jesus.
And you have put this church here at
a very strategic place, and we are surrounded
with people, and we long to see these
people coming to Christ.
And so this morning we pray, as we
spent really this day in prayer, dear God,
as we come together this evening, as we
ask you to help us to climb underneath
the burden of God for this church, as
we ask you to help us to systematically
dissect this burden, and that in the days
to come that we would be able to
say that we don't believe that prayer is
everything, but everything should come through prayer.
That's the passion of our hearts.
Bless your word as we take these last
few minutes of this morning and ponder upon
the beauty of scripture.
In Jesus' name, amen.
You know, the Acts of the Apostles is
a tremendous book in the New Testament.
It's a book of unbelievable values.
The thousand and probably seven verses, when it
comes to the personal value of Acts, the
book of Acts, do you know that there
are 71 different individual names that is coming
to the surface, that you and I can
just take the scriptures and let them speak
to us about the names of those people?
It's a book with unbelievable dispensational value.
You say, what do you mean by dispensational
value?
Listen, if we had the four Gospels, brother
and sister, and we didn't have, and we
had the epistles of the Apostle Paul in
the New Testament, and we would have sat
here this morning without the Acts of the
Apostles, do you know what would have happened?
There would have been 31 years of history
that you and I don't have a clue
about of what happened in the New Testament.
It's a book with a tremendous doctrinal value.
You see, the manifestation of the life of
Christ was the fulfillment of the Old Testament
law, because he was the one that said,
I didn't come to destroy the law, I
came to fulfill the law.
And now we know that the books, or
what we call the canon of scripture in
the Old Testament, that there were certain books
in the Old Testament that was very dear
and near to the heart of the Lord
Jesus.
I mean, those are the books that he
just consistently quotes from, but in the four
Gospels, in his teaching and in his preaching,
and yesterday morning when we came together and
we spoke about that question about the disciples
saying, teach us to pray, they didn't ask
him that question because they just wanted to
hear his teaching.
You see, 98 percent of the depth of
that question that they ask the Lord Jesus
came from the scenario that they were so
overwhelmed by the depth of his prayer life,
that they realized that every word that he
was going to say was going to pierce
into the very depth of their being.
And so Christ came and he spoke.
And here in the Acts of the Apostles,
those early apostles, oh my word, have you
studied the sermons that they preached?
The ones in the first 13 chapters, that
was 12 chapters that was dominated by the
apostle Peter to such a degree that when
he preached his first sermon in Acts chapter
2, and he came to the end of
that sermon, and the Bible says those men
were pricked in their hearts.
There are two words in the Greek language
that speaks of conviction, and they have a
twofold response.
And the one when Stephen was stoned and
the Bible says they snatched upon their teeth,
that word in the Greek text speaks of
the reality that they were cut asunder.
I mean, the level of depth was so
immense.
Now what happened?
They stoned Stephen, but when Peter preached, the
Bible says they were pricked in their hearts.
Now this is the other consequences of the
depth of conviction.
There's acceptance or rejection.
Here was acceptance.
And when Peter preached, this is what happened.
They turned to the apostle Peter, and what
did they say?
They said, what shall we do to be
saved?
And Peter turned to them and he said,
repent and be baptized and you shall receive
the gift of the Holy Spirit.
And ah, you know what happened, 3,000
were swept into the kingdom of God.
All that we would have a day like
that in Cloverdale Baptist Church.
And so the depth of doctrine that came
out of the book of Acts became the
manifestation of the New Testament epistles, and all
those New Testament epistles, by the way, were
written to Christians.
So what are we looking at?
We're looking at the Acts of the Holy
Spirit, you know, because you see the Gospel
of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles,
in the early days, some of the manuscripts
are saying to us it was really one
volume with two sections.
And here is a man with the name
of Theophilus.
His name means that he was a lover
of God.
And Luke wrote to him because he wanted
to know what happened after Christ ascended to
be with the Father.
And so here the Acts came into being,
and it began to be called the Acts
of the Holy Spirit.
Do you know there's 261 passages in the
New Testament that deals with the Holy Spirit?
Do you know there are 59 of them
locked into these incredible chapters?
So you say, Gerard, what happened?
I'll tell you what happened.
You see, that which Jesus was doing during
his earthly ministry, brother and sister, what took
place is that now he was sitting at
the right hand of the throne of God,
and he was continuing to minister, but you
know how he was doing it?
Now he was ministering through the Holy Spirit.
And here comes this incredible statement.
He turned to those early disciples.
Now he said it at the end of
the Gospel of Luke.
You remember he turned to them and he
said to them, I want you, I want
you to tarry.
He said to them, and Luke chapter 24,
he said, I want you to wait upon
the promise of the Father.
He said, and the Greek text is emphatic.
What he really said, he said, I want
you to sit down.
Now here in chapter 1 verse 8, he
turned to them and he said to them,
he said, you shall receive power when the
Holy Spirit will come to you.
And he said, something is going to happen
to you.
He said, when you receive the power of
the Holy Spirit, this is what's going to
happen to you.
You will not be able to keep this
to yourself.
You don't need to have worldly friends, but
you're going to have friends in the world.
And he said, this is what happened.
Now what did he do to them?
Brother and sister, can I just say this
from a theological perspective?
You see what happened here, what he said,
and we need to get the clarification on
that, because what happened or what Jesus said
here to those early disciples was what he
said in John chapter 14 to 16.
Because you say, what did he do in
John chapter 14 to 16?
He introduced to them the person of the
Holy Spirit.
Now this was something that they cannot comprehend.
You see, their little lies were centered around
their little Christ.
How did we know that?
Well, let me give you an example.
You remember when Peter and James and John
came on the Mount of Transfiguration and the
Bible came and said, now Jesus was transfigured
into his glorified state, as it were, and
there was within Moses and Elijah.
And guess what happened?
There were three other disciples.
Peter, James, and John was there, and you
know what happened to them?
They fell asleep.
Now here is the issue that you've been
spiritually asleep.
This is the evidence.
When they woke up, you know what they
said?
They turned to Jesus, and they said to
Jesus, this is what they said.
They said, Lord, it's great for us to
be here.
Here is the answer.
Let us build three tabernacles, one for you,
one for Moses, and one for Elijah.
You see, when you're spiritually asleep, you know
what happens?
Everything is centered around your own life, and
it costs a voice from heaven to thunder
out in the depth of reality, saying, how
dare you compare my son with Moses and
Elijah?
This, God said, this is my beloved son.
Now this is what happened.
Christ turned to those disciples, and you know
what he said to them?
He said to them, you shall receive power.
Can I ask you a question this morning?
If you and I think about the Holy
Spirit, I mean, what in the world are
we thinking about?
Brethren and sisters, there is such unbelievable disruption
and chaos and confusion when it comes to
the Holy Spirit.
I read once about a man who had
a tie around his neck, and when he
had this tie around his neck, there were
words on the tie, and he said, boy,
am I confused, but you know confused was
spelled with a K.
And someone went up to him and said
to him, what's going on with you?
Don't you know how to spell the word
confused?
You don't spell it with a K.
And he turned to me and said, didn't
I tell you I was confused?
You see, we have been done an unbelievable
disservice when it comes to presentations today that
is regarded as revival of the Spirit of
God, or manifestations, and all those kind of
things.
And brethren and sisters, we stand back, and
there are times that I perceive some of
these things, and I stagger in the depth
of my being, and I say to God,
what are they doing with the sanctity and
the deity of the Holy Spirit of God?
He's none of those things.
But Jesus turned to them and he said
to them, it will become personal.
Now can I share with you something this
morning?
Because you see, maybe there are some of
us in this morning service, and I believe
there are probably some of us in this
morning service, and you sit there in the
Sunday morning service, and you've never been born
of the Spirit of God.
You say, what are you talking about?
You've never really received the depth of the
life of Christ.
You say, what are you telling me?
I'm telling you, you're totally lost.
The regeneration work of the Spirit of God
has never taken place.
You know, this amazing man, who is a,
I shouldn't say contemporary, but he worked with
a great deal of Moody.
His name was Dr. R.
A.
Tari.
I've got two of his books in my
library.
The first one is How to Pray, and
the second one has the title, The Holy
Spirit, Who He Is, and What He Does.
And you know, Pastor, obviously we have a
wonderful relationship and time that we spend together.
Maybe after today he doesn't want to do
it with me again, but that's up to
him, of course, you know.
Anyway, we've got these times that we spend
together.
Now, you know, here's the issue.
A lot of my books are in his
library.
Will you pray that I get them back?
I thought yesterday morning, the only way I'm
going to get my books back is if
I borrow his books and say, you're not
getting yours back unless I get mine.
There's two books that I will not let
him read.
You say, what are those books?
Are these two books?
You say, how can you not let him
read?
Of course he can read it, but he
needs to come and read it at my
house, because maybe I can straighten him out,
you know.
I mean, who knows?
Hey, you know what's the second book?
It's this incredible book, The Holy Spirit, Who
He Is, and What He Does.
Now, Tari, Dr. R.
A.
Tari worked with a great D.
L.
Moody.
Now, D.
L.
Moody was the man that saw thousands and
thousands of people coming to Christ.
Now, let me encourage you about D.
L.
Moody.
You know, D.
L.
Moody died when he was only 62 years
old, and D.
L.
Moody, he only had one message, you know.
You say, what was the message?
The message was, you must be born again,
and a lady went to him one day
and said, Mr. Moody, why do you always
preach you must be born again?
And he said, why are you doing that?
And he turned to her, and he said,
it's because you must be again.
What a great answer.
He probably didn't know better.
But you know about Moody?
He was hopeless, brother and sister.
You know, when he died, I mean, God
used this man in an incredible, you know,
when he died, he was only 62.
The man who was his Sunday school teacher
must have been in his 80s or his
90s.
I mean, how do we know?
But he was still alive, and when they
were at the funeral service of the great
D.
L.
Moody, when they were there, this, they asked
this man, they said, now, this boy, Moody,
when he was a young boy, he was
in your Sunday school classes.
Oh, yeah, he said, yeah, he was my
Sunday school class.
Oh, they said, tell us a little bit
about him.
Well, he said, can I tell you something?
This young boy, Moody, when he was just
a young lad, he was in my Sunday
school classes, and he said, you know, I
looked at him, and he was the most
stupid piece of human flesh that there was.
I mean, he was as dumb as a
donkey.
Don't you laugh?
It could be the love of identification.
But, you know, God used him, and he
had this man that worked with him.
His name was R.
A.
Torrey, and he wrote this incredible book, The
Holy Spirit, Who He Is, and What He
Does.
And do you know what Torrey said when
he wrote that?
He said, I was in a place, and
there was a kind of a hotel complex,
and the owner was a Christian, and when
I came into this place, the owner said
to me, I've got all these people that
are working for me, and Torrey said, he
said, would you have an evangelistic service?
And he said, we brought them all together,
and Torrey said, as he asked me to
do that, I had this question in my
heart, and the question was, was everyone who's
working for the owner of this complex really
in the service?
And Torrey said, I turned to him, and
I said to him, is everyone in the
service?
And he said, well, virtually everyone is in
the service, but there's one servant girl, and
she's not here, and Dr. Torrey said, I
insisted, and said, bring her, and that night,
that servant girl sat, and as she sat
there, she listened to Torrey preaching the gospel,
and when the service was over, she responded,
and she came to Dr. Torrey, and R.
A.
Torrey turned to her and said, hey, I
want you to pray a prayer, and do
you know what was the prayer?
He turned to her, and he said to
her, I want you to pray this prayer
for the next 12 months, and she said,
what do you want me to pray?
He said, I want you to pray, and
said, Lord Jesus, show me myself, and 12
months later, he was back, and when he
came back, they asked him for another service,
and R.
A.
Torrey turned to the owner, and said, tell
us, tell me what's happened, what's happened to
the servant girl, and the owner said, oh,
it's been terrible, he said, she is in
distress of soul, she's distraught, she's, she seems
so troubled, he said, it's been going on
for 12 months, and that night, she was
back in the service, and Dr. Torrey preached
the gospel again, and after he preached the
gospel, she came to him, and she said,
Dr. Torrey, she said, last year, you told
me to pray a prayer, and the prayer
was, Lord Jesus, show me myself, and she
said, you know, for a year, I've seen
myself, oh, I've seen the depravity of sin,
I saw the awfulness of going to a
lost eternity without God, and Torrey turned to
her, and he said to her, young lassie,
I want you to pray a prayer, and
I want you to pray for the next
12 months, Lord Jesus, show me thyself, and
Torrey said, years later, he was speaking in
a place, and this beautiful woman, young woman,
came up to him, and stood through, before,
in front of Dr. R.A. Torrey, and
she said, Dr. Torrey, do you remember me,
and he said, no, I'm afraid not, and
she said, I was the young girl, and
you taught me a prayer, show me myself,
and she said, I saw myself, and then
she said, I pray, Lord Jesus, show me
thyself, and she said, God began to show
me what he has done for me, and
she said, I found Christ, and she said,
my life has been sold out and abandoned
to Jesus Christ.
You see, I probably believe that there are
people this morning in this church, and you've
never been saved.
You've made a commitment, but there's been no
possessions of the life of Christ.
It's possible that you've gone through the waters
of baptism.
I just experienced this at Cape and Ray
in New Zealand, in Germany, we teach at
these Cape and Ray schools, there's 26 of
them in the world, and we were at
this place, Janice and myself, in Germany, and
106 students, and 60 of them were Canadians,
I mean, these Canadians, you know, they crawl
out everywhere, and the rest were Americans, and
some from other countries, and the principal, Peter
Reid, came to me one morning, and we
did nine sessions on Luke chapter 11, lectures,
and he came to me, he said, hey,
Gerard, I want you to do something.
I said, what's that, what is it?
He said, I want you to take one
lecture, and systematically share God's plan of salvation,
and I said, wow, really?
He said, yes.
I said, well, I'm supposed to speak on
prayer.
He said, just take that one.
I said, I'll take the one if you
give me one extra.
That's Christian, you know.
That guy can't steal my lecture.
Well, you know what happened the morning?
We began to share with these 106 students
this thing, that the Holy Spirit comes, and
he convicts of sin, and of righteousness, and
of judgment, of sin because they do not
believe in him, of righteousness because I go
to my father, Christ said, and of judgment
because the prince of this world has been
judged.
And brother insisted, at the end of that
45 minutes, do you know what happened?
God came to church.
That's what happened.
You say, what are you talking about?
Our hearts became broken.
I couldn't look these students in the eyes.
I mean, they just sat there and sobbed
like children, and I said, listen, kids, let's
get on our knees, and by that time
the whole staff was there, and the whole
school, we were on our knees before God,
and this, you know, they were supposed to
have a 15-minute coffee break before the
next lecture.
You know what happened?
There was no coffee break, none of them
remember about coffee.
If you want to know if God is
in a place, you figure out when young
people say, I don't care about coffee, and
you know what happened?
35 of them came to Christ.
Let me ask you a question this morning,
because we don't know one another.
Listen, I don't want to scare the life
out of you, but I need to tell
you something.
There's a time you know not when, a
place you know not where.
You say, what about it?
It seals the destiny of men, and this
is your problem this Sunday morning.
If you're not saved, you won't be able
to stand before God one day and say,
I've never heard this stuff, because this little
service will crawl into your presence, and God
will say, you remember that stupid African who
tried to tell you that you need to
be saved?
It's the work of the Holy Spirit.
You see, my time is gone, because the
worship team took too much time, and Pastor
Rob introduced me too long.
No, let me try to close this thing.
You see, Jesus said, you shall receive power
when the Holy Spirit will come upon you.
Now, brethren and sisters, here is the issue.
This is personal.
You see, every one of them, we were
just in the adult Sunday school classes, looked
at Acts chapter 2, that incredible passage when
the Bible says, when the day of Pentecost
was fully come, they were all with one
accord in one place, and guess what happened?
The Bible says, suddenly there came a sound
from heaven.
Oh, I will long for a sound from
heaven, not from all these other junk places,
a sound from heaven.
There came a sound from heaven like of
a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the
place where they were together, and what happened?
Tongues of fire came, and it sat upon
each of them, and they were all full
to the Holy Spirit.
Now, you know what the Greek New Testament
says?
It's emphatic, because the Greek text in its
context and in its explanation is so incredible.
This is the picture.
These tongues of fire came, and as they
came, they just didn't come.
They distribute themselves upon each and every one
of those disciples that was in the upper
room.
Now, here's a wonderful issue.
They began to speak in tongues.
Wow!
So, what in the world happened there?
Why did they speak in tongues?
What in the world were they doing when
that happened?
Well, let me tell you why we're saying
that.
They spoke in 16 known different languages.
You say, how do we know that?
It's right in the passage.
Why in the world were they doing that,
brother and sister?
Let me try to explain to you.
Do you know there were three feasts in
the Acts of the Apostles?
There was the feast of the Passover, there
was the feast of the tabernacles in October,
and then there was the feast of the
first fruits.
You say, when did that happen?
That took place in the month of May.
You see, Pentecost is the Greek word for
pente.
Pente means 50, and on the 50th day
and that amazing feast, suddenly the Spirit of
God came, and they were all filled with
the Holy Spirit.
Now, why did they spoke in those languages?
It's the Greek word dialectos.
Let me try to explain to you.
You know what they say to us in
the history of this incident, because brother and
sister, that never happened again in the context
of the coming of the Holy Spirit.
Why did they do that?
They said there could have been about a
million people in and around Jerusalem.
Jews.
You say, did they preach the gospel?
No, they didn't.
You say, what did they do?
The Bible says that when they spoke in
these languages, these dialects, this is what happened.
They spoke about the wonderful works of God.
They said, we hear them speaking about these
wonderful works of God.
You say, what happened?
They received the Holy Spirit personally.
You say, really?
Yeah, they were filled with the Spirit of
God.
You say, how far did it go?
Let me explain to you.
It went to their lives and its relationships.
Can I ask you a question this morning?
You see many of us, probably most of
us who sit here, you sit there and
you say, I know that I'm a Christian.
Can I ask you about your relationship with
God?
I've been asked to do a Bible study
for Monday nights and group in White Rock,
about 20, we're limited to about 20 people.
And, you know, they do this and they
do this.
I mean, they do all kinds of stuff.
And then they came and they said, would
you come and do these Bible studies?
And I said, well, on one basis, you
know, we really come to become transparent and
honest before God.
And so they said, sure, come.
And we came and we sat in this
beautiful house and incredible table and all these
people sat around the table.
And so they said, what are you going
to do with us?
I said, well, we're going to spend time
in Hebrews chapter 11, 12 and 13.
Do you know that all the 33 quotations
that is from the Old Testament and the
epistle to the Hebrews is coming from the
Greek text of the Old Testament?
I mean, this is a fascinating reality.
And so they said, so you're going to
study it?
And I said, yes.
So they say, oh, okay, you've got an
hour and a half talk.
I said, no.
Oh, what are you going to do about
it?
I said, we're going to pray.
Oh, we understand.
I said, how are we going to do
it?
I said, we start right here.
This man sat next to me.
I said, you're going to start to pray.
And then they said, well, may he pray,
maybe someone else.
No.
I said, you're going to pray and we're
going to pray all around the table.
Well, I mean, that scares the life out
of the average Canadian.
And so we got praying all around the
table.
And when we were done, they said, now,
can you study?
Can you, can you help us now with
Hebrews chapter 10, 11?
I said, no.
They said, what do you want us to
do now?
I said, I want to know what God
is doing in your life.
Oh, that's not what we asked you to
come and do.
I said, oh, I said, you spend time
with God on a consistent basis.
Oh yeah, I spend time with God.
I said, okay, tell us what's happening.
Oh, and the man next to me said,
where are we going to begin?
I said, with you.
He's never going to sit next to me
again.
And we went all around the table.
Do you know the second time when I
did this?
I couldn't get him to stop for two
hours.
We talked about our relationships with God.
You see, it's your life and it's relationship.
Young people, it's your body and it's instincts.
Everything that you read, you are forcing the
Holy Spirit to read it with you.
It's your heart and it's affections.
It's your mind and it's thoughts.
It's your personality and it's prejudice.
It's being socially, totally, solidly abandoned to Jesus
Christ.
I think three weeks ago, we sent this
young fellow, his name is Brendan Hull, we
sent him to Cape Verde, New Zealand.
I was so glad we were preaching in
another place and I was so glad this
Sunday morning, Pastor Rob said, Brendan, stand up
and he stood up and the church prayed
for him.
And I'm getting these little notes from him.
Oh man, it's incredible.
Oh Gerard, this is just great.
Thank you for allowing me to come to
Cape Verde.
There were people, I mean, some are here
to help us to send him there.
And you know what he's discovered?
He's discovering the indwelling life of Christ.
Can I ask you a question this morning?
Where is the Holy Spirit in your life
and in my life?
Is he resident or is he president?
Is there someone that you've never forgiven?
Is there someone that's not forgiven you?
You see, the Christian life and Christianity is
about relationships.
The affections of my heart.
You know, we're living in a planet where
inequality is a brutal thing.
You say, what are you talking about?
Do you know that the 85 richest people
in the world, in this planet, do you
know that their assets and all the money
that they possess is the same amount of
money that the 50 percent of poorest people
in this whole planet possess?
Do you know that the billionaires or the
billionaires in the United States, it's one percent
of the population of the United States.
Do you know that in the last 15
years they have made a profit with their
money that is more than 90 percent of
the Americans across the border?
In the next two weeks, probably everyone is
going to be glued to a television set.
Why?
Because it's 2,900 young people trying their
best to get a gold or a silver
or a bronze medal.
You know what the Russians have done?
They spend, they say 50 billion.
No, they say it's approximately 70 billion dollars
on a little village with three villages where
2,900 athletes are involved in 15, 16
events over a period of 16 days and
this is what they're going to do and
all those events.
And can I tell you something this morning?
I staggered to tell you this.
Do you know that 75 percent, this is
what they say, and they say it could
be more, 75 percent of those 2,900
athletes at Sochi and that village and the
Winter Olympic Games with a not practice, they're
not going to eat, they're not going to
perform their best.
You know what they're going to do?
They're going to be involved in absolute immorality.
And we sit here this morning as a
church and we've been bought with a price.
My time is gone.
This is the last thought.
Jesus said you shall receive power.
You say what do you mean by power?
You know we're living in a power sick
society and God said the way up is
the way down.
You want to reach high?
You start low.
And you know what Jesus said?
He turned to them and he said you
shall receive power.
I love his word.
You know I love word studies in the
scriptures in the New Testament.
Now your problem, there's 4,525 words in
the Greek New Testament and your problem with
word studies is difficult to do proper exegesis
because first of all you don't have time
and secondly they are so deep and they
are so incredible to look at them in
their context.
But can I just take this one word?
You know this word power, it comes from
an incredible word.
You say what is the word?
It's a word with four letters in the
Greek New Testament.
It's the root word dunamis.
It's the Greek word dunamis.
You say what does this word mean?
You know what it means?
It is where we get our word dynamite
from.
That's what Jesus said.
You know what he said?
He said when my spirit takes position of
your life it's going to blow every aspect
of your life apart because you're going to
be totally becoming intoxicated with the supremacy and
the centrality and the majesty of the greatness
of the life of Jesus Christ.
That's what he said.
119 places in the New Testament.
16 words in our translation of the Bible.
Here's the word that I'm closing with.
You say where do you find it?
Ah I find it in the gospel of
Luke.
You say why do you find it in
the gospel?
You know Luke was a physician.
Do you know there are 50 technical medical
terms in the Greek text that he's speaking
about the fact that he was a physician?
When he speaks of the eye of the
needle he's using the word that the surgeon
used.
I mean it's a different word.
It's incredible and in you remember in the
gospel of Luke in the eighth chapter there
was a little woman brother and sister.
You remember her because there's a hymn that
we used to sing in the old days.
I only touch the hem of his garment
if I can only touch the hem of
it.
You know we used to sing that that
song in the old days before all the
new music came and captured our hearts and
affected us in a way that we can't
even recover today.
What happened to this little woman?
She suffered from an issue of blood.
You know what the other gospel said?
They said you know this little woman who
suffered from this issue of blood?
They said she spent all her money on
physicians and brother and sister surely she did
that.
I mean we know she did that but
guess what?
Luke was a physician.
I mean this guy was smart.
He said I know that she's spent all
her money on physicians but you know what
he did in the greek language?
I mean his use of the greek vocabulary
is unbelievable magnificent.
It's like the Himalayan mountains.
It is so incredible.
When he come and he said yeah she
suffered from she spent all her money on
physicians but you know what Luke said?
He said no she had a disease a
disease that was incurable.
There was no answer and you remember what
she said?
She heard about Jesus.
Oh when last did people hear about Jesus
from your lips and she said if I
can just touch the hem of his garment
I just want to touch him.
Now today you can't do that because a
new church is going to pop up.
It won't be called the village church.
It will be called the touching church and
that's the society in which we live.
No no she just said if I can
just touch the hem of his garment and
you remember what happened?
She got through the crowd and there was
Jesus and she came closer and closer and
in the midst of the crowd she got
through and the moment when she touched the
Lord Jesus she was healed and you say
oh well everything just went on like that.
No Christ just stopped in his tracks.
Only the Son of God can do that.
Do you know what he did?
He said someone touch me.
You want the disciples?
The Greek text is emphatic.
They said you don't understand.
Everyone is trying to touch you and Jesus
said no no.
He said someone has touched me and you
know what he said when I love us?
You know what he said?
He said someone has touched me and I
love this word in the Old King James
Version.
You know he said?
He said someone has touched me because virtue
has gone from me.
Do you know what's that word virtue?
Dunamis.
Let's close in prayer.
Our Father the leadership of this church has
asked us to have a weekend in prayer
and oh God I feel we're not getting
anywhere and all for the day that we
would be in this Cloverdale Baptist Church and
I thought about that 20 years ago when
I spoke in this church that this place
would become a house of prayer that this
thing that Rob and myself are saying to
each other all the time we don't want
a church full of people.
We want a church that will be full
of people that will be full of God.
That's the longing of our hearts and my
brother and sister as we bow before God
this morning and you sit here and you
say you know Gerard it's the beginning of
the year and I just want to give
my life afresh to God.
I'm not going to ask you to stand
up.
I'm not going to ask you to come
to the front of the church but maybe
you just sit here this morning and you
say you know I just wonder if you
can pray for me that my life in
2014 will be totally abandoned to Jesus Christ.
That it will not be what I come
to receive in a Sunday morning but all
that it will be what I'm bringing with
me in my relationship with God.
I'm not going to ask you to stand
up.
I'm not going to ask you to come
to the front but maybe you sit here
because our time is so limited but maybe
you sit here and you say you know
what can you just pray for me because
that that's what I want to do.
Our eyes are closed.
Our heads are bowed.
All I'm going to ask you is could
you just put up your hand and say
would you pray for me for this year.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
I see the hands up there.
Thank you.
Put it down again.
I see it.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Anyone else?
Thank you.
Last question.
You sit here this morning and this is
really serious stuff.
Our eyes are closed.
Our heads are bowed.
You sit here this morning and say you
know what I don't think I'm saved and
you say will you please pray for me
because I want to come and see one
of the pastors this week or maybe yourself
and I want you to sit down with
me and explain to me how I can
know that I'm a Christian and you sit
here this morning and say would you please
pray for me.
I'm one of those people.
I'm not sure that I'm saved.
Can you just put up your hand please?
Is there anyone like that?
Thank you.
I see that hand.
Anyone else?
Thank you.
I see that hand.
Thank you.
I see that hand.
Anyone else?
Thank you.
I see that hand.
Is there anyone else?
So I'm not sure that I'm saved and
I want to make sure.
If you've just put up your hand it
is absolutely vital that you come to one
of us and say I want you to
spend time with me and that's what I'm
asking you to do.
Heavenly Father thank you for this morning.
We want to be a church that will
be full of people that will be full
of God.
Come and do it for us and when
we gather together tonight at 6 30 to
pray can't you come and fill this place
with men and women that are hungry for
God in Jesus name.
Amen.