(South West Baptist Church 2008) Broken for Missions — Gerhard Du Toit

Goeiemorgen, het is een wonderlijke voorraad om u samen met ons te hebben vanochtend. I'm not speaking in tongues but I'm speaking a heavenly language. So you know my wife is Canadian, which means that Janice can only, does not understand this language, but when we met I was able to teach her two sentences in my native tongue.

And the first one is, and the second one is, and I'm tempted to teach you the second one this morning but you will not forgive me because the first ones mean, the first one means I love you and the second one means I'm a baboon.

And we haven't had, there's been no need for 20 years for any marriage counselling because of those two statements. It just keeps the balance in an immense way but it's been tremendous to be with you.

This is our last morning that we have been together and we want to thank you for the interest in these mornings. If you've not been with us, the kind of format that we are following is that we share with you some things, just practical things as they relate to prayer, then we pray together and then what we do, we turn to the scriptures.

A Ministry of Prayer Among the Nations

I haven't had time to mention this to you but people often come to us and they would say, is there a way that we can pray with and for you? And we send out a prayer letter once, four times a year and just sharing with people what God has been doing and then we will never ask people to support us financially in our prayer letters.

That's something between them and God and their churches but we ask them to pray for us. If you are interested in that, we would like to send it on to you. I visit an average of about 7 to 13 countries every year and God has opened between 30 and 40 countries for us where we are able to travel to.

Biblical Prayer and the Work in Peru

I wish you could have been with me in Peru in South America. They've asked us for a 15 year commitment to ask about 500 churches in Peru to see the church becoming a movement of prayer. They saw the charismatic movement trying to get into Peru.

They didn't feel that this was of God. They saw all this other stuff. The seeker sensitive movement tried to get in the purpose driven life and all of us you know and they just said no we don't feel this is of God.

And then I went to Peru three years ago and just came with this biblical understanding of prayer and say when you speak about prayer you can't go from experience to exposition. You can't isolate the Word of God as it relates to prayer and what needs to happen is that God's Word need to be rightly looked upon and the consequences of when that becomes part of my life because we are born of personality.

God is building up Christian character. 75 percent of our growth is depending upon what we read with 96 slots of 15 minutes in every day and time is a piece of eternity. And so I went there and we just got into the theology of prayer and those Peruvian churches came to me and said this is what we want.

And so they said can you help us for five years and then they came back this year and they said can you help us for 15 years and last year you know there is what they call the Lima encounter where they bring about 6 ,000 pastors and leaders from all over Peru together in the city of Lima and we had four glorious evenings with them and the problem with the Peruvians if you get to know them you know they are amazing people.

They never on time and I said to them the last night you know if Christ would come back and depends on what your theological perception is about the second coming I said but if Christ come back and he will take the Christians with him if you believe in that and I said if Christ would come back and take the Christians with him I said he's going to take them all and then he looks down and he would say oh we need to go back there's the Peruvians coming because they're always late never on time you know but you know we dealt with 6 ,000 leaders and they didn't have a big enough church.

I was in a church in Peru about four weeks ago and they have seven services with more than a thousand people in each service and you had to preach the same message seven times starting 6 30 in the morning and finish by 8 30 at night you know I was preaching until three o 'clock the next morning same message I don't want to touch that message ever again you know but these Peruvians when we were with them last time because they don't have churches loud enough we have to be in two churches every night and so we would go to one church and they packed the place out with about 3 ,000 people and I had an hour to lecture and to speak to them on prayer and then my translator would rush me over in 10 minutes time to the other church so they started two different times and so we're out and he had this little what we would call skedonka the car I mean the thing just about falls apart and it's driven by faith and watching and prayer and Francisco Beltran is my translator would rush me over to the other church and one night we were late we got into the car and he said to me we have six minutes to get to the other service and I said Francisco I watch and pray and you drive and so he was flying me.

And if you know anything about driving in South America brother and sister the way to discern the essence of time in South America is to find out how many people would blow the horns of their cars between the light being red turning from right from red to green that's how you descend time.

It's just an atrocious situation. And my translator and six minutes time he got us there. And the last night when everything was over we were driving back to my hotel room and he said to me he said brother Gerard he said what would you consider as the greatest miraculous happening of the last four days.

You know what I said to him that we didn't kill anyone just because of the way these Peruvians are. But oh I wish I can take you with me to some of these countries brother and sister it breaks your heart.

Albania Eastern Europe you know which has been brutalized by communism for so many years. And the country of Albania was under communism for 51 years. One of the most brutal communist dictatorships that you would have been able to see in Eastern Europe here was a man that took his philosophy of communism from Mozart and the brutality of what was happening in that country.

The suspicion that a child couldn't go to school and say to his friend at school my father said that the meat of the government is bad because his father would land up in prison. And the suspicion that was in the families of the land of Albania.

And when I was asked to go to Albania about seven years ago dealing with missionaries and pastors of the country Albania the church is very very young not many Christians in the country majority of Christians are 40 years and younger.

But you know what happened in Albania. Missionaries from Switzerland for 25 years would go from Greece to Italy. And in order for them to take a ferry from Greece to Italy they had to go through the Adriatic sea on these ferries.

And four times a year those missionaries would do that. And what they did when they came close to the coast of Albania they had gospel tracks and this is how they looked. And they would seal it in a plastic envelope like this totally that the water would not be able to get into it.

Those little white yellow things is the kind of a thing that helps it to float. And four times a year for 25 years when they would come close to the coast of Albania they would throw thousands of these gospel tracks into the Adriatic sea.

And the wind would come and take these gospel tracks to the coast of Albania. The communist dictator would find out about this he would send out the army to confiscate this and to burn it. People were not allowed when they see that.

But right through those years there were men and women that secretly when they saw it they would take it and they would hide it where no one else would be able to see it. When Albania became independent in 1991 and communism fell apart incidentally the communist dictator of Albania found these last days of his life.

He was dying of cancer. He found the last days of his life being cared for by a Christian family because no one wanted to do anything to do with him. He was such a brutal man. But when communism fell apart in Albania I so deeply love that country because it's so poor.

Average income in Albania is about 30 Canadian dollars a month. If you are a general practitioner or a doctor in Albania your income is about 200 Canadian dollars a month. And 25 years they did this four times a year.

And when communism fell apart they came into Albania. And they came into a community about an hour and a half from the city of Tirana a community with the name of Druas. And when they came into that community because they figured out that was the area where these gospel tracks went to brother and sister they found about 45 people that gloriously got saved.

And when they said to them how did you find Christ and how did Christ come into your life. These people say we found these gospel tracks and we hide them. We were reading them through the years and the Holy Spirit of God knows the best counselor they were wonderfully saved.

I was speaking in the city of Tirana last year and a man came to me who was in the army and he said to me you wouldn't believe what happened to me. I said what he said. I was in the army. I was sent out to confiscate those gospel tracks and he said to me I took one in the winter in my army coat.

I hide it in the basement of my little house. I supply it now and he said every now and again I would he said if they would have found me it could have cost me my life. But he said every now and again I would go and read it.

And he said as a result of that I was I was gloriously converted. And oh brother and sister it's tremendous. You pray for us we are trusting God in November. This has never been done before but I've been asked to bring believers in the city of Tirana together for a week of prayer in the month of November.

Now the Albanians are kind of slow. I'm not sure if we're going to bring this thing together but they said we wanted to spend a week with us in prayer. And as we were discussing that we will do it in the national hall in Tirana.

That was the place you can see it's about 5 000 people. That's the place where the communist dictator had his meetings when he was when he was in control of Albania. They said we want to do it right there to make a statement about the Christian life and God gave birth in my heart to take a hundred thousand new testaments into Albania because the scriptures has been only translated for about the last nine years and people don't have the scriptures.

And to say to those believers we're going to give you a number of new testaments some gospel tracts and we want you to go in and you need to pray for us because many of these eastern European countries brother and sister is very volatile.

One thing can go wrong and they write back into communism. I mean that's really what is happening in Russia. Poverty is brutal. I don't want you to misunderstand me. But there are communities in Albania where people would go on a Friday night in the middle of the night to look for stray cats or dogs because they don't have meat in the table.

And I'm not kidding you. There is a there is an industrial city that when you go through the mountains and you look down there are the city of about 400 000 people. And when my translator took me through the mountains and as we were coming he turned to me and he said to me do you see that city.

And I said yes. He said you see how it's clogged in with pollution. I suggest he said the average lifespan could be between 45 and 55 years. It's almost worse than Zimbabwe. And they said it's so bad.

I stayed in a little house in the village you know I'm not fussy about these kind of things. I just need a quiet place where I can pray. But I stayed in a little house in the village and with a young man and his wife and all we had was bread and coffee.

And once they gave me a boiled egg it was just a precious thing to them. You can't drink the water. It's so polluted. When they went down into the village I went and I thought I just want a glass of water and I opened the fridge and there was virtually nothing and I was so I felt so bad.

And I at the end of my time where they might want to give him 50 euros. I said it's just a little gift of appreciation. And they were so offended. They said you don't understand. This is our gift to you.

I was in one area and there was an elderly lady a grandmother a wonderful little woman of God and she came to her son and said I want to know what he really likes. And you know they don't have the money you know.

And so I said listen I'm not fussy. I mean you learn you learn just to live the way. And I said I. And she said but what is he really like. And I said you really want to know. And she said sure. I said listen.

I'm an African I was brought up in Africa. I was a farmer's boy and there's something that I really like. And she said what is it. I said it's tripe. You know what's tripe. My dear wife you know she makes she's a Canadian.

She makes me tripe once a year I call it the gray day of the atonement. And Janice would say in fact last time when she made it I got sick. I think she did something to herself. This dear elderly lady she made me.

She said let's go to the butcher. I said where's the butcher. Oh he's out there in the field. I said what do you mean let's go. And they went and here's a sheep standing you know ready for the slaughter.

And uh so they gave us and brother and sister she made a whole pot of tripe. Hey listen I'm not going to tell you how many times I went to the washroom but I had a great time you know just eating tripe.

Prayer for Churches Facing Poverty and Violence

You say what is it sheep stomach. You can't go to eastern Europe if you don't eat that stuff you know but pray pray for us when we go to these countries Romania Ukraine Kosovo. I will take you into a village of Kosovo before the ethnic cleansing took place.

There were 2000 people. You know how many people are there today. 200. You say what happened. A thousand to those people were found in mass graves. About 800 of those people has never been found. We don't know what happened to them.

You and I have no idea you can pray for us. You know for 25 dollars I'm able to take a pastor for three days of prayer. And countries that can't afford that you say what do you do in the three days. We find them a camp we find them a bed we're able to cover their meals.

And one day is prayer and fasting and we bring them and I let me just say this because I don't want to dwell on this but let me tell you in the mountains of Peru about four weeks ago five weeks ago I should say in northern Peru outside of the city of Trujillo we took 239 pastors and their wives for three days of prayer and we had many different ways that I pray with them.

And we spent about five sometimes six hours a day just in prayer. And then I spent four or five hours teaching them about prayer. And you know what happened the Wednesday morning. We broke up in groups and I said the senior pastors six of you take your chairs here is some material go and sit under a tree go through this material ask one another questions and then you pray for one another.

Senior pastors wives and associate. And so we broke 239 pastors and their wives. You know what happened in one of the group in the national leadership plus the senior pastors they were about six or eight of them together.

Reconciliation Among Peruvian Pastors

A senior pastor stood up now we I was in his church the Sunday morning two morning services of about a thousand people that 800 to a thousand people in his services and 31 people were gloriously converted.

Brother and sister they they were not half born you know they were really saved. But this pastor got up in this little group and you know what he did. He looked at these other pastors and he said to them I need to put things right this morning.

And he turned to them and he said you know my heart has been full of bitterness and anger against some of you and others within in this group of pastors and he just stood up and he turned to them and he said will you please forgive me for that which I've said and done.

He said many other things you don't know about some of them. You do and brother and sister he just wept and wept and wept and I didn't know what was going on. You know I was sitting under a tree just praying alone with God and I saw them there and I thought well God is working.

And my translator came to me and Francisco Beltran said to me he said listen I need to talk to you. And I said about what he said. I need to tell you what happened to Becentos the name of the pastor. And I said what do you mean.

He said God broke into that gathering and he said he put things right. And he said God did something there and I said that's wonderful. Francisco we came into the main meeting and when they were all together I called him aside and I said Becento.

I said how are you. He said he said you wouldn't believe how God broke my heart this morning. And I said Becento if you want to share with the other pastors I'm willing to give you a moment or so to do that.

And you know brother and sister I got up and I took the microphone and I turned to these other pastors. He's highly respected he's been asked to be the president of those 500 churches and he kept said he kept saying no but he's highly respected been in that church for 25 years and he took the microphone and he just turned to these pastors and he began to share you know the bitterness and the unresolved issues and things that God is speaking to him about.

And he asked forgiveness for all those pastors. And the moment when he did that you know what happened the next three hours we were in the midst of an organized disorder. You say what happened. I just got up and I said maybe there are some of you here and there are some unresolved issues and for the next three hours you wouldn't believe this.

And these are kind of things you know that I wish you could see on on a dvd. But sometimes they are so precious as these pastors would go from one to the other and ask for forgiveness and pray together.

There was this old pastor in his 70s and there was someone there and he couldn't find this person. And he walked up and down. I was just standing at the front seeing what's happening in this denomination and up and until he find this pastor and he had said some things about him.

And that pastor knew that. You know the bible says if you bring your gift to the altar and it reminds you that your brother has got ought against you leave your gift at the altar and go and reconcile yourself with your brother.

And he found that pastor and they walk out there and with with their chairs and sat under a tree and and it went on for three hours. I've been in revival twice in my life. You know revival is not a series of special services.

Revival as an Outpouring of the Spirit

Brother and sister I want to tell you something if you've ever in your life been in revival 20 minutes of an outpouring of the spirit of God will do more for us and all the years of the kind of stuff that we've tried to do for God.

You know lunchtime came. They didn't want food. I said what is it. They said we just want to pray. I couldn't stop them you know went right into the afternoon right into the the president came to me and he said to me we are in a touch of revival and Vidal is a wonderful little Spanish godly pastor and president.

He said how far do you think we are from a real outpouring of the spirit of God. Because by the grace of God I've been there and I said Vidal we're far away. And he said what do you mean. I said this is just a touch a state of God coming to visit us.

I want to be honest with you this morning I don't know I don't know Australia but you know I would love to see what will happen in this country if God will come to us as his people and God will come to visit us and God will begin to stir our hearts to pray for revival.

I don't know if you any if you know anything about Scotland but in 1948 to 1953 in the islands in the highlands of Scotland God poured out his spirit in revival. He said Gerard what happened. Two elderly ladies on the island of Lewis made a covenant with God and they said God you are the God of revival.

And they said we're going to pray for revival from 10 o 'clock at night until three o 'clock in the morning. And those two elderly ladies I've had a picture I've got a picture of them in my library with a man of the name of Duncan Campbell and they made a covenant with God and they prayed from 10 o 'clock to three o 'clock in the morning for revival.

And brother and sister you know what happened. There was a night when they got through to God. And when they got through to God for revival you see revival is in the sovereignty of God but he's given unto us the privilege to pray.

And his word said if my people which are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face in and turn from their wicked ways. He said that then will I hear from heaven and I will forgive their sin and I will heal their land.

That's what the scriptures is saying. And you remember when Solomon prayed in the old testament and he prayed a prayer in the moment when the fire of God fell upon the altar. And those two ladies prayed through for revival to see the free church and the high church of Scotland and the island of Lewis.

They said what happened. They called the minister the next day. And they said to the minister they came to. He came to see them and they said to him minister and if you see these two ladies brother and sister they were both in their 80s.

One was so crippled with arthritis she could hardly walk. One was virtually blind. And they called the minister and they said to him he came to see them and they said he said what is it. And he said we've prayed through for revival.

And he said what do you want me to do. And they said there is a man that God can trust with revival. His name is Duncan Campbell. We want you to ask him to come to the island. And they called this man Duncan Campbell he was in Ireland when this happened they called and they said we want you to come to the island of Lewis.

And when Duncan Campbell came to the island of Lewis brother and sister I heard Duncan Campbell many times I heard him say this many many times he said I never brought revival to the island of Lewis. He said the island of Lewis was a community at prayer.

And when he came to the island of Lewis the the elders of the church of Scotland and the free church some of them they waited for him as he came from the ferry. And as he came from the ferry they turned to him and they said to him Mr. Campbell we only have this one question.

And he said what is it. They said uh Mr. Campbell do you walk with God. And Duncan Campbell turned to them and he said to them and the light that I have my life belongs to God. And that night the services start in the island um a nest a little community outside of Stornoway and the place is full of the people.

Because you see there was the stirrings of revival and God was stirring the island of Lewis. They speak Gaelic which is a dialect. And that night the church was full of people. Duncan Campbell preached and you know what.

Nothing happened. Brother and sister I want to tell you something this morning if preaching in itself would have bring revival the church would have been ablaze for God. If preaching in itself would have saved souls I think the world would have been saturated to have converted people.

There's something more you know you see what he said it's prayer. And Duncan Campbell preached and nothing happened. And as they came out of the service the elder turned to Duncan Campbell and he said to him Mr. Campbell I trust that you are not disappointed that God did not come.

And then suddenly stopped. And you know if you know the islands of Scotland uh Rachel who's been here she's from one of the islands of Scotland. But if you know the islands you know people walk. The reverence for God is unbelievable.

On the island of Lewis Sundays shops are closed. On the Sabbath we used to say the docks wouldn't even bark on a Sunday in the island of Lewis I mean everything is different. And as they came out of the church the elder turned to Duncan Campbell and he said to him he said Mr. Campbell I trust that you're not disappointed that God didn't come.

And as people were walking back to their house and their crops which is little farms as it were. And as they were walking he stopped and he said Mr. Campbell see. And suddenly brother and sister just like Jonathan Edwards suddenly the Spirit of God came and it swept into the island of Lewis.

Duncan Campbell said I could count on my one hand the people that was saved and converted in the island of Lewis from 1948 to 53 there were hundreds of people that were converted. But you know what he said 75 percent of the people that were converted in the island of Lewis were not converted in the services.

They came under conviction of sin. They came to one service and the conviction of sin was so brutal that many times before they came back they were gloriously saved. I visited the island of Lewis 35 years after the revival.

Can I be absolutely honest with you this morning because for years I we have been search researching revival. Brother and sister I long to see and trust God to see this happen again. When he poured out his spirit in revival 35 years after the Lewis revival I went to the island of Lewis spoke for 10 days in a marvelous churches and and stored away for those days.

And I went from place to place to interview people that was saved 35 years ago. And you know what and all those days of interviewing people and listening to their testimonies after 35 years I did not find one backslider not one single one.

And Duncan Campbell when he lost his voice during the revival you know when God poured out his spirit in the revival. And listen brother and sister it's not this junk that we hear about forgive me for the word.

But it's not the stuff today that you hear today that is considered revival has got nothing to do with it. When God sends revival I want to tell you something this morning God the Holy Spirit will break into this little gathering and God sends revival.

I tell you you won't fall on your back. We will be in our faces. You won't do all kinds of funny things you know but we will be sobbing in the presence of God. I think it's possible that some of us will wonder if we've ever been born of the Spirit of God.

The Power of God Beyond Human Effort

And Duncan Campbell when he lost his voice in the Lewis revival he went to stay with a man that was one of my great mentors. His name was Dr. Stephen Alford. He was in Duke Street Baptist Church in the city of London and Dr. Stephen offered when Duncan Campbell stayed in his house his vocal cords was totally gone.

He had to recover from them because sometimes he would preach three o 'clock in the morning when they were seeking souls who who want to be converted. And you know what happened Duncan Campbell was in his house could hardly speak and Dr. Stephen Alford told us that he would go into Duncan Campbell's room and he would sit at his feet and he would say to Mr. Campbell I don't want you to speak because of your voice but all I want you to do is to whisper and he said Mr. Campbell I just want you to tell me what happened in those moments when God poured out his spirit in the revival and Duncan Campbell through a voice that was virtually gone would whisper to Dr. Stephen Alford and said to him you know this is what happened when the Spirit of God broke through and he would try to share with him.

You know one of the greatest treasures in my library is the reports of Duncan Campbell that he wrote himself uh during those times of the revival brother and sister you could hardly read them. You read a page and I tell you you become so broken because of the depth of the moving so the Spirit of God.

And when Stephen Alford sat at his feet and he said Mr. Campbell tell me and Duncan Campbell would be sharing with him what happened in those moments when God came you know this is all of God brother and sister there's nothing to do with man and and Stephen Alford turned to him and he said Mr. Campbell but there were hundreds of people that were converted and Duncan Campbell said yes God graciously was at work.

And then Stephen Alford turned to him and he said uh Mr. Campbell when all those hundreds of people were saved and they came to Christ how did you do follow-up work. How did you disciple them. How did you help them in the relationship with God.

And Duncan Campbell would turn to him and he would say to him Stephen you don't understand. You don't understand. We never did follow-up work. They just followed us. Alford said what do you mean. He said the work of God was so deep that we never had to do those things because of the relationships of God.

I thought I want to share that with you before we pray together. We're going to break up in our little groups to pray. I just want to read you yesterday morning at our time together we tried to look at some aspects of all the Old Testament theology of prayer.

The Burden of God and Prophetic Brokenness

And one of the things we talked about was the Hebrew word Massah which is the word for the burden of God. When the prophet in the Old Testament would say the burden of the Lord was upon me. Now that Hebrew word Massah is based upon revelation as it relates to the future.

You find it in the life of Elijah when when he said to the future king of Israel and he said to him and Elijah saw that he was going to become king. And when Elijah saw that he was going to become king he realized how brutal he's going to be during his reign as king and the prophet Elijah just broke and he was so affected.

And this this future king turned to him. And he said to him why are you weeping. And Elijah said I am weeping because you're going to become king and I will see what you are going to do to the lives of the people.

That's the Hebrew word Massah. That's what you find in the life of Moses when he spent 40 years in the wilderness. Of course when he when he was when when he spent 40 years in Egypt he became the prince in Egypt.

Then he spent 40 years and he became the shepherd of the pastor in Midian. And then Moses after 80 years. Hey you know what brother and sister God is never in a hurry and seldom late. And God is seldom late and never in a hurry.

And after 80 years God came to Moses and when God revealed himself to Moses you discover this understanding of the burden of God the Massah. And it's based upon the revelation. And when the revelation of God came to Moses and he responded and the revelation of the need of the people you discover the fulfillment of the understanding of the burden of God.

And the burden of God brings brokenness. Brokenness is not emotion. Brokenness is a lifestyle of absolute submissiveness to God. And brokenness brings cleansing. When God set me apart unto this burden.

And when God cleans us the Spirit of God becomes precedent and the Spirit of God goes alongside with a spirit of prayer. And the spirit of prayer leads us to the will of God in prayer. And the will of God in prayer is surrounded with the promises of God in prayer.

Marks of a Broken Christian Life

Now you sit here this morning you say how do I know when I live a broken life. Let me read to you something if I may. When my heart is broken before God I'm over since I'm overwhelmed with the sins of my own spiritual need.

When my heart is broken before God I have a spirit of compassion about my life. I can forgive much because I know how much I've been forgiven. I esteem others better than myself. When I live a broken Christian life I have a dependent spirit and I recognize my needs for others.

When my heart is broken before God I've learned the secret of denying myself. There is some motivation in me to serve other people. I'm motivated to be faithful and I want to make others a success. And when I live a broken Christian life I've got a passion to promote other people.