Prayer Summit — Gerhard Du Toit

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.

Welcome.

Cultivating Intimacy With God Through Prayer

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 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 San Hebre, surely I would be forgiven if I tell you a little bit and now 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 the 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.

And 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, persistent 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 in 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 we ask, 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 in 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.

We'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 Janet, 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 to see God. And 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 needs to pray for you, we want to do that.

This is what we're going to do. 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 would be great if we can because we're focusing.

The other 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 jumped 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 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, it's not possible for us to do this thing on our own when it comes to ministry.

Faith, Prayer, and the Sufficiency of Christ

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 is 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 offer 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 spend 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.

The Historical and Doctrinal Importance of Acts

It's a book of unbelievable values. There are a 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 this scripture 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 of the depth of that question that they asked 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 thirteen chapters that was, twelve 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 two-fold 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. Three thousand were swept into the kingdom of God. Oh, 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.

Acts as the Continuing Work of the Holy Spirit

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 we said it at the end of the Gospel of Luke.

You remember he turned to them and he said to them, I want you to tarry. He said to them, in Luke chapter 24, he said, I want you to wait upon the promise of the Father. 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? Brethren and sisters, 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 with him 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 cost 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?

The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit

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 it 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's service, and I believe there are probably some of us in this morning's service, and you sit there in the Sunday morning's 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, I shouldn't say contemporary, but he worked with the great D. L. 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 it? Of course he can read it, but he needs to come and read it at my house.

Of course, 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 is in what he does. Now, 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 born 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, 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 in my Sunday school classes. 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 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 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 is distraught.

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 in front of Dr. 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.

Salvation, Conviction, and the New Birth

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 Reed, came to me one morning. We did nine sessions from Luke 11 lectures. And he came to me and said, hey, Gerard, I want you to do something.

I said, 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. He said, 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.

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.

Pentecost and the Empowering Presence of the Spirit

Now, brother and sister, 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 has 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 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 filled 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! 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?