Tactics of Satan — Gareth Evans

Preparing for God's Anointing

I introduced to you the idea of anointing. I was pleased to see a couple of our songs today address that same word. I define anointing at that time as the evident presence of God in a person's life or ministry.

Last week after our excellent presentation by our missionary guest here, I just briefly started off by saying there is a process of preparation to seek God's anointing on our lives. I think it is imperative that we commit ourselves to seek to live according to the precepts, the mandates of God's word.

Much of my teaching over the two months I've been with you has been concerning many of those things, dealing with offences, dealing with attitudes, seeking to walk in a right relationship with one another and the Lord.

I think that's vitally important. Then last week I introduced you to the thought of making sure our vision is correct. We need a right vision of God. We need a right vision of who we are in Christ. We need a right vision of this world.

I'm not surprised when the world acts like the world, I keep saying. I'm just saddened that the church doesn't act like the church. Then we need a right vision of the church. I want to continue today with a new thought.

Carrying Our Own Burden

I'm going to take my text from a verse found in the book of Galatians. If you have your Bibles you can turn to it. I'm going to turn to the scripture several times this morning. Verse found in Galatians chapter 6 verse 5 and Paul writes these words.

Let everyone carry their own burden. Now you heard me correctly, I'll repeat it. Let everyone carry their own burden. Now you've probably heard it said many times that we should share one another's burden and that is true and in chapter 6 just three verses earlier in verse 2 it says there, let everyone bear one another's burden.

There are burdens that we are supposed to bear and share with one another. When somebody carries a burden of mourning then the people of God should come around to help them carry that burden. A sense of loss.

When somebody is going through a struggle, when somebody is going through a deep valley, when circumstances weigh in heavy upon another believer we should come alongside and help bear that burden. But there are burdens that we are supposed to carry ourselves.

A burden that God places upon his people that you are supposed to carry yourself. It is of this burden that Jesus spoke when he said words like this, learn of me and take my yoke upon you for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

My burden, I have a burden for you. My burden, I have a yoke for you. And when you take my yoke upon you and you take my burden upon you that yoke is easy and that burden is light. Now a yoke is that which yokes together two oxen as they pull a cart.

If you've got an oxen and you want to pull a cart you yoke them together so that they're pulling together. They're not pulling against one another. That is what a yoke is. And Jesus says I have a yoke for you.

It's got your name on it. It's custom made just for you and I want you to be yoked together with me to carry my burden for you. There is a burden we are supposed to carry. There is a yoke that is custom made for us.

The problem is this, that the yoke that God made for me has my name upon it and you cannot wear it. It will chafe upon your shoulders if you try to bear that yoke. It's custom made. And Larry there's a yoke made for you that I will find difficult to carry because God designed you to carry that burden with that yoke.

I have a burden that God has placed upon me. I have a burden to teach his word. I have a burden to see health come to the body of Christ. I have a burden to see people set free into the fullness of the spirit of God.

I have a burden to see a healthy church. I have a burden to see people discipled in the word. I have a burden to see the people of God come together in unity. That's why I preach as I do. It is not birthed out of my head.

It is not birthed out of books I'm reading. It is not birthed out of something I've read on the internet last week. It is birthed out of a passion, a burden that I have deep within myself to see these things through in the church.

And you've given me the privilege for these few months to be with you to express my burden. It may not be your burden, but it's certainly my burden. I became a pastor in 1979. I was invited to pastor a church in Kitchener, Ontario.

I don't know how many of you know Kitchener. I know one or two of you do. When I went to the church, it had been in existence, it was a Christian Missionary Alliance church. It had been in existence for about 25 years.

And the most they'd ever had in that church over those 25 years was about 20 people. Very small, struggling church. The year before my going there, there was a street evangelist in the town of Kitchener who was pastor of this church, and he had brought 50 to 60 young people, street people into the church.

They'd come to Christ, and they were in the church. He wanted to move them out of the denomination. There was some conflict, so he left the church. He had abandoned basically these young people in the church, and they invited me to become their pastor.

Now, I was very happy with that, because all my life I had a burden at that time for young people. I still love being with young adults. They're my favorite group. So I went to this church, and I found that I had 60 young people who knew nothing about the Scriptures, who were brand new Christians.

There were no healthy relationships. Most of them were struggling. None of them had employment. My three elders were 30 years of age, all unemployed. That was exactly the church I needed to be in. The first year, I taught.

They gave me an hour every Sunday to teach, my hour, and I taught. We saw some change, and we saw some conflict, and we saw some very strange things of some counseling needs. But I started attending the ministerium in Kitchener, the pastor's ministerium, every month.

I noted one man there. About 40 pastors met. His name was Ron Smith. As I got to know Ron, I found he was rather different. He was a bit of a radical. He wasn't a pastor of a church, and yet all these pastors received him among them.

Not only was he not even a pastor, he didn't even attend church. Yet he came every month to the pastor's ministerium. I discovered the reason why he was so well-received was because Ron and two of his friends every Friday night spent all night in prayer.

All night in prayer, every Friday night. And then they'd go in the streets of Kitchener, Waterloo, and they'd stop and speak to university students and anybody who would stop to talk to them. And in their ministry, they led people to Christ.

Releasing Gifts Within the Church

One day in my church, a man came in. His name was Roger. He was big. He was dirty. He was uncouth. It's a good old English word meaning he wasn't cultured. He looked more as though he'd been agricultured than cultured.

And he had gravy stains all down his shirt front. And he comes in, Pastor Gareth! Big embrace. Good to see you. His father was in prison. His three brothers were in prison. And probably Roger should have been in prison.

That kind of guy. Let me just add a little comment. He was so faithful in the church the next three years. He's one of those guys who, though he'd never been to church before, had such a deep understanding of Christian principles.

When I asked the question at the Bible study, it was usually Roger who answered correctly, you know, and understanded. He comes in and he says to me, Pastor Gareth, he said, Ron Smith led me to the Lord last night on the streets and he told me to come here and get disciplined.

I think he meant disciple. Great guy. The following week, I met Ron Smith. And I said, I see, Ron, you're in the business of producing illegitimate children now. What do you mean? I said, well, you fathered this guy on the streets, but you want me to bring him up.

And I guess I got under Ron's skin because the following Sunday, he's in my church. Sitting at the back corner. Little church. Only held about 100 people maximum. Ron's at the back corner. And the following week, and the following week, and four weeks, and the fifth week, I went out for lunch with Ron.

And over lunch in a little restaurant in Kitchener, I said, tell me, Ron, what's your burden these days? What is your burden? He said, prayer and intercession, Pastor Gareth. I said, you pray and intercess all the time, I understand.

He said, that's my burden for the church. I said, tell me, any church in Kitchener doing this? No, he said. They're all playing games. They're real cynic. I like cynics. I'm a bit of a cynic, I guess.

I like cynics. He said, no, they're all playing games. So I said, I assume that means our church too. Well, and now he tries to be diplomatic, you know, which is very hard for Ron to be diplomatic. The bottom line is, yes, our church too.

So then I said to him, Ron, forgive me, Larry. Ron, I know a guy who's got the same burden as you. He said, who? I said, what's his name now? He said, he's in our church. He sits at the back. He's about six foot two.

He's got blonde hair, thin, blonde, curly hair. And of course I'm describing him. And he's sitting there trying to think, well, I sit in the back, he said. I said, he's been coming about five weeks. You know, he must think.

And then it dawns on him, maybe I'm talking about him. Then I said, I know, I said, he's got a business downtown. He's a commercial artist. He said, well, I'm a commercial artist. And now he thinks I'm.

He said, I'm a commercial artist. He said, you're talking about me. That's right, I said. You're the guy with a burden for prayer and intercession, aren't you? He said, yeah. I said, tell me, Ron, why is it that you've got the burden, but you want me to carry it?

Did you hear that? All you're doing is griping and complaining about other churches in the city because they're not carrying your burden. But I've got a burden. I've got a burden to see my church grow healthy.

I want to see these young people discipled in Christ. I've got a burden, Ron, but I can't carry your burden. God did not give me your burden. He gave me my burden. And if I take your yoke upon me, it will chaff on my shoulders, brother.

But God gave you a burden for you to carry. So he said, well, what should I do? I said, you tell me. He said, well, people need to be taught how to pray and intercede. So I said, when are you going to do it?

He said, what, me? I said, of course, you. You're the one with the burden that Jesus has promised to be yoked together with you to make that burden light, brother. He said, well, anytime. I said, how about next Wednesday?

He said, sure. So on Sunday, I announced in my church that Ron Smith was going to be teaching on prayer and intercession the following Wednesday. The following Wednesday, 15 people from my young people turned up, plus 15 from the University of Waterloo.

Ron, that's 30 people. I was teaching at a home group on Wednesday for the next four weeks. The fifth week, I came along. There were 30 people in a circle. And Ron said, tonight we're going to pray. All he'd done was teach them.

So I sat there and he said, we're now going to wait upon the Lord to hear what the Lord wants us to pray about. And I sat in amazement as I listened to the way they prayed. My church from that day took off.

A year later, we were 150, 170 people. We had a brand new building to seat 300 people, almost totally paid for. We had two full-time pastors. The denomination think I'm the best thing that ever happened in Kitchener.

But now you know the truth. I didn't do a thing except release an eagle to fly. And God put his anointing upon that man as he taught my people to pray. Did you hear what I said? All I did was release him.

And he taught my people how to hear God and how to pray. You know, a man who can spend every Friday night, all night in prayer, I better start believing that he probably can hear more from God than I can.

I'm too busy being a pastor. I'm too busy answering telephones. I'm too busy dealing with counseling in people's lives. This is what my life was at the time. I was working 15 hours a day doing the menial things of the church, plus preaching and teaching.

But I had a man in my church who listened to God. And all I did was give him the freedom to teach my people how to hear from God and to pray into reality what was upon God's heart for Kitchener. There are burdens that we have.

But this burden, says Jesus, if we take it upon ourselves, if we get yoked together with him with a customary yoke, the burden is light. It is light for two reasons. It is light because he bears it with us.

That's why we are yoked with him. I could do this, what I'm now doing, preaching, teaching. I could spend every hour of the day with young adults talking about the law of discipleship because that's my burden.

That's an easy burden. But please don't ask me to sit in your office answering telephone calls and doing administrative work. That is not my burden. And we've got people in the church who have burdens upon themselves.

They want other people to carry it. And then we've got people who are trying to carry burdens that is not God's burden for them. And I'm not talking about Departure Bay Church. When I say across the church, we've got deacons functioning as elders.

We've got elders functioning as deacons. We've got youth workers who are functioning as something else. And so on and so on and so on. We've got men in the pulpit preaching the word who do not have any burden for the real word of God.

And we wonder why we've got no anointing. Why should God put anointing upon you when you're functioning, carrying a burden he did not ask you to carry? But there is, says the scriptures, for every one of us a burden and let every one of us carry our own burden.

The burden is light because it's yoked together with Jesus. It is also light for this reason that he equips us for the burden he's designed us for. What do you have in your hand, David? Or just a sling?

I've been looking after sheep for many years for my father. Good. I'm now going to use you to slay a giant. What do you have in your hand, Paul? Or just my Roman citizenship? Good. I'm now going to send you to Rome to be my ambassador.

What do you have in your hand, Peter? A fisherman's net. Good. I'm now going to make you a fisher of men. What do you have in your hand, Moses? Well, just my shepherd's staff. I've been looking after millions of four-legged, bleating sheep for 40 years.

Good. I'm now going to send you to Egypt to lead a flock of two-legged, bleating sheep for the next 40 years. The gifts we have, the natural abilities we have, God wants us to lay them down. As Moses was asked to lay down his rod, he then saw it was nothing but a serpent when he laid it down.

God then said, now take it back up again. And when Moses took up the rod again that he had laid down before God, it turned into the rod of God by which he crossed the Red Sea, by which he brought the plagues upon Egypt.

It was the same staff, the same wooden staff, but he had laid it down. And God calls us to lay our abilities, our natural abilities down for him, that he can use them. But beside that, he also gives us spiritual gifts to enable us to carry our burdens.

Spiritual Gifts and the Body of Christ

I'm very struck with three portions of scriptures, and you can follow these with me if you like to, in the book of Ephesians, chapter 4. And in these three portions of scripture, you'll find a very striking thing.

All three portions I'm going to take you in to speak about the giftings that God gives to his people. Giftings he gives to enable us to carry the burden we are supposed to carry. The second thing you'll find common in all three of these passages is that each of the passages deals with the subject that we are the body of Christ.

And that's no coincidence, because the giftings are given to us as individuals for us to function and operate within the body of Christ. Ephesians chapter 4. I'm going to pull verse 4. There is one body, there is one spirit.

We should be diligent to preserve the unity of the spirit. For to each one of us, verse 7, grace has been given according to a measure of Christ's gift. Each one of us. Now it is said of him that when he ascended, he gave gifts unto men.

So what are the gifts he has given? Verse 11. He gives some of us to be apostles, some of us to be prophets, some of us to be evangelists, some to be pastors, some to be teachers, so that they might equip the saints for the work of ministry.

If Christ has given me, as I believe to be a pastor, I would not be in the pulpit if I did not believe that, he has called me to equip the saints for the work of ministry. Maybe he didn't call you to be a pastor, but he's given you another gift.

And I am to exercise my gift within the body of Christ to equip the people of God. My passion is to see young adults set on fire for Christ, with a fire I cannot consume. These are gifts given to the body of Christ.

Turn with me to Romans 12. Three portions of scripture. This is the second, Romans 12. Verse 3, through the grace given to me I speak to you. He's speaking of the grace gift given to him as an apostle.

Verse 4, we are many members in one body. All those members do not have the same function. Does it all include you? Yes. But we do not have the same function in the body. One might be an eye, one might be a foot, one might be a tongue, one might be a big toe.

You hear me say that's what I am? I'm a big toe because as a pastor I'm used to being under pressure. I like to bring balance to the body of Christ. But we're all different. We've not all got the same function.

So we, being many, are one body in Christ, but individually members of one another. Verse 6, since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to each of us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly.

If your gift is prophecy, then prophesy. If your gift is service, then serve. If your gift is teaching, then teach. If your gift is exhorting, then exhort. If your gift is giving, then give with liberality.

If your gift is leading, do so with diligence. If your gift is showing mercy, do so with cheerfulness, and so on. Let me take you to my third reference in 1 Corinthians chapter 12. Concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I don't want you to be unaware, verse 1.

Verse 7, sorry, verse 4, there are varieties of gifts, but the same spirit. There are varieties of ministries, but the one Lord. There are varieties of effects, but the same God who works all things in all persons.

Have you noticed each, each, all, all, every, every? Verse 7, but to each one is given a manifestation of the spirit for the common good, for the body's good. And here come some of the gifts. To one is given a word of wisdom, to another word of knowledge, to another faith, to another gifts of healing, to another the effect of miracles, to another prophecy, and to another the distinguishing, the discernment of spirits, to another various kind of tongues, to another interpretation in tongues.

But the one and same spirit works all these things, distributing to each one as he wills. Let me go further on to the end of the same chapter. We are now members but one body. Verse 20, the eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you.

The head cannot say to the foot, I have no need of you. On the contrary, it is true that we all have much need of one another, and those who are weaker in the body are very necessary. Keep on going. Verse 25, so there may be no division in the body, but the members may have the same care for one another.

If we suffer, all members suffer. Now you are Christ's body, you are members of it. And God has appointed in the church, not even denominational superintendent, but God has appointed in the church, apostles, prophets, teachers, miracles, gifts of healings, helps, administrations, various kind of tongues.

We are not all apostles are we? We are not all prophets are we? We are not all teachers are we? We are not all workers of miracles are we? We do not all have gifts of healings do we? We do not all speak with tongues do we?

But God has appointed such in the church. So what is the sum of this? The sum of this is that God, the Trinity, has given gifts. Did you notice in my readings? You probably didn't, but let me draw to your attention in 1 Corinthians 12 it says God has appointed.

In Ephesians 4 it says he who ascended, Jesus gave. 1 Corinthians 12 verse 11 it says the Spirit distributes. God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are all involved in giving gifts to his people in order for his people to carry the burden he has designed them for.

And why is it we keep putting burdens on other people? One of the saddest things I know in the church is when I see people appointed into office or ministry that God has evidently not equipped them for.

And they struggle, it hurts. I'm not surprised in North America the tenure of pastors in your pulpits of North America is less than two years. The average tenure of a pastor in North America is one year and eleven months or something like that.

That's what Leadership magazine says. How is it that a man can say that God has called him, he comes in the pulpit and yet within two years he feels he is burnt out? Maybe it's because he's not yoked together with God and doing the burden that God has called him for.

We're not all pastors are we? Or is it imperative upon the church to start to discover what each of our burdens is and to start operating in the gifting that God has for us? Why should he put his anointing upon your ministry when it is not what God designed you for?

Then it becomes incumbent upon the church to begin to recognize the burdens upon his people and to release them into the ministries according to their burdens assuming they have the giftings to carry the burden.

Both the natural abilities and the spirit giving abilities to function. I was a school teacher in Germany, the British forces in my twenties. People in my school knew I was a Christian but I didn't have the evangelist heart of being able to challenge them with the gospel.

I remember being in a prayer meeting with two other men, a man and a student. I prayed to God asking him for a burden for youth. I wanted God to give me his burden for youth. Believing that if he could weigh heavy upon me that would be motivation enough for me to do the work of an evangelist.

I never realized what I was asking for because five years later I started a little bible study in a home with young people, four teenage girls. They then wanted to bring their friends and then they wanted to bring their boyfriends so soon I was enrolled in arranging car treasure and some little bible studies for these teenagers.

It led from that over the next two years to me being invited into the local town to come on staff of a church, not on staff, to work with people in a church, a little church. Then one day in a little bit of heated argument, I'm Welsh and so I have a little bit of fire in me and I do not commend myself for my attitude at that time, but the church released me with carte blanche to run the youth work in the town.

Then the YMCA called me and asked me to serve on their board and as I look back now I'm utterly amazed that I can see the doors that God opened in my life. Two years later we saw in our little town, no bigger than Duncan, maybe a little bigger than Duncan, maybe, still not as big as Nalaiba.

The next two years we saw well over a hundred young adults come to Christ. I was not the evangelist that led them to Christ, I was simply an umbrella man of many people who were being released into their giftings and I learned then the joy of serving God and knowing his anointing, not only upon my life but upon the ministry we were doing.

Serving Within God's Calling

Several times during those days I would be telephoned late at night, I can only think of two in particular, two o 'clock in the morning, a young Baptist pastor who had just broken off an engagement with him and he was very distressed and he called me two o 'clock in the morning, Gareth, I have to drive Margaret back to Cardiff 30 miles away and I'm afraid, I don't know if I'll handle myself, what I'll do, please come with us.

So I put my trousers over my pyjamas and he picks me up and I sit between these two ex-lovers and for all the morning I'm walking the beach with him, trying to console him, speaking to him, get into bed about half past six maybe in the morning, half past seven I'm up, quick breakfast, go to school to teach.

Come back home that evening, have my supper, then Anne would say to me, are you going to bed early tonight? I said, why? Well she said, you were up all last night. But I never felt tired. And that happened on a number of occasions when I should have felt exhausted.

Another young man telephoned, he was going to commit suicide, he'd overdosed on the beach. When I asked him where he wouldn't tell me, so I put my pyjama, trousers over my pyjamas, this is also two o 'clock in the morning.

Drove the four miles down to the beach, walk the beach and I see him on the beach. He'd overdosed at speed, which isn't going to kill him, anyway it's a Nachita, but we got him vomiting and I walked the beach with him.

Went to school the next day, same way, came home, Anne said, are you going to bed? No. I did not feel at all exhausted. I began to realise that when I was serving God in my burden, the anointing of God was upon me to the place where I didn't even feel exhausted in the doing of it.

Now if I'd stayed up till 11 o 'clock marking papers all night, I'd have been exhausted. I had to do that, I was paid to do that as a school teacher. I look back at my life and I see the amazing ways that God has blessed me.

That is why I function now simply doing what I know God's burden upon me is. I don't try to be something else. But I long to see the people of God beginning to focus in on what God has called you to be.

Using Ordinary Skills to Serve the Church

I'm going to tell you a story. You love stories, don't you like stories? I was teaching this to a Baptist church men's retreat in Kelowna. There were about 17 men there, I was there for a long weekend with them, and I was teaching this material.

And as I taught, a man at the back put his hand up and said, Gareth, can I give a testimony? And I said, elderly man. He said, I've retired about three years ago, and he said, I was in the church, I've been in the church most of my life, I've never held office in the church at all, he said, I've never taught Sunday school or been a deacon, nothing like that, because I didn't feel I was capable of doing those things.

He said, I've never really had ministry at all, until about a year ago, less than a year ago, he said, as we came up, by the way, the Baptist church in Kelowna is well over a thousand people, a big, big church.

He used to sit at the back, and he said, as always, you know, you don't really get to know many people in a church that big. But he said, there was a young lady often sat in front of us, and I didn't know, I didn't know her name, but one Sunday I noticed she wasn't there.

And the following Sunday, as I'm coming out at the end of service, I just happened to be standing right by this lady as we were walking out, so I said, I missed you last week. So yes, she said, my car, I have problems with my car, the brakes need redoing on it, I couldn't get you last week.

She said, oh, how did you come today? Oh, she said, a friend brought me. He said, what, is your car still needing the brakes? Yes, she said, I can't afford to get it done. He said, I went home and I thought to myself, gosh, I can do the brakes.

That's what I've done all my life for service cars, I can do the brakes for her. She said, I went to a friend of mine who owned a garage and said, Jack, can I borrow your pit on Saturday? I want to do a brake job on a car.

Jack said, sure, but have you had your brakes done recently? Yeah, he said, but it's for a young lady in the church. And I told him the circumstance, and Jack said to me, I'll tell you what, you bring the car along and I'll supply the parts to you at cost.

He could use my pit. So he said, I picked the car up and went and did this job at cost. I just paid for the parts and did the labour, took it back to the young lady. She started crying when I took her the car.

She was so thrilled that I'd cared enough to do her car. And I was so blessed in doing this, I said to her, look, if any of your friends need their cars done, tell me. She said, over the next few weeks, she said, I found myself preparing to do a little odd jobs on some cars for some of the young people in the church and for some of the seniors.

It went on for a few weeks, and he said, I enjoy it because it's what I enjoy doing. This is what I've done all my life is fiddle with cars. I love this. Then one day the pastor calls me to his office.

He said, I've never been in the pastor's office. I've never even spoken to the pastor before, but he called me and he said, John, I understand you've been servicing cars for some of our young people. Yes, pastor.

Well, he said, we've discussed it at the board and we're not very happy about this. Oh, he said, why pastor? He said, well, he said, I understand that these young people are bringing some of their friends now to church and they come in to know Christ, he said, but we're concerned because why should you get all the blessing and none of us be able to share it?

Why, pastor? He said, John, I'll tell you what I want to do. I want you to form a group of fellows like yourself who would love to spend their Saturdays doing odd jobs like this, repairing lawn mowers for some of our senior people, doing odd jobs.

And he said, we want you to form it. And then he said, we'll sit down together and see how we as a church can fund you for this work. Why, pastor? Releasing a man into his burden. He said, I've been doing that now, he said, for the last three months, he said, it's the most fulfilling part of my life to do this.

I'm serving God and seeing people come to the church through it. That was a wonderful story. A year later, Anne and I were driving back from the Rockies and we stopped off with friends of ours in Kelowna and we went to this church, Baptist Church.

During the announcements, a man stood up and he said, I want to thank all the men who turned up yesterday for our car repair day at the church. So I said, oh, that's the fellow I met at the men's retreat last year.

And then the pastor got up to speak and before he spoke, he said, I just want to take a moment to explain one of the announcements. He said, those of you who have visited our church probably don't know, but he said, we had a day at the church yesterday and our men serviced 70 cars for our seniors, oil changes and some of these things.

But he said, I want to understand, he said, when I knew this was happening, I went to Evans, it happened to be Evans, Evans' garage, the big garage in Kelowna, and I saw Tom Evans, whatever his name is, and I said to Tom, look Tom, I need to explain something to you.

We're going to be doing these cars at the church tomorrow and I'm concerned that you don't think we're robbing you of business and we're trying to do this. And the man said to me, who's not a Christian, Pastor, he said, all the town is talking about your church doing these things.