The Gospel in Contemporary Culture — George Verwer

The following message was recorded at an event hosted by Desiring God. More information about Desiring God events, conferences, and resources is available at www .DesiringGod .org.

George Verwer is a man who has been used by God to ignite pastors around the world and to ignite young people and not-so-young people. And it's the force of his passion, you're going to hear his passion.

It's his radical understanding of Christian discipleship that is just a no-holds barred, that there's nothing worth more in life than to give your life away for the sake of the gospel and the sake of the nations.

Also, his commitment to literature. He's written many books, and you can see some on the table back there in the corner of the commons. But everywhere he goes, he promotes literature. It's a huge part of the ministry of his organization, that they distribute literature everywhere.

He is the founder and international coordinator of Operation Mobilization, which began work in 1961. Today, there are over 2 ,800 workers right now scattered throughout the world in many different ways, in church planning, in literature distribution, in health and medical, in all kinds of ways.

They have two ships that many of you have heard about that just go around the world doing medical work and mercy ministry and literature distribution. Operation Mobilization is a great place to direct your people when they're looking for relevant short-term experiences.

My most memorable experience with George Verwer, although there have been many, he was here several years ago, and I'll never forget that. But in 1995, I was invited to be one of 4 ,000 delegates at the Global Consultation on World Evangelization in Seoul, Korea.

And 4 ,000 leaders came from 186 countries, which made it the broadest represented gathering, we believe, in church history. And the nations came together to strategize of how we can cooperate and work together as the global Church of Jesus Christ to see the gospel for every people and church for every people.

And they asked George Verwer there to coordinate the Mobilizers Workshop because of his proven track record of mobilizing thousands of people into missions. But what I remember most is during one of our sessions, we were invited, these 4 ,000 delegates were invited to go to the Urbana-style conference that the young students of Korea were having in the soccer stadium.

80 ,000 Korean students were gathered to give their lives for missions. And they invited all the delegates to walk into the stadium and the Koreans just burst into celebration. And the person they chose to address these 80 ,000 students and these 4 ,000 delegates from around the world was George Verwer.

And I'll never forget him holding a globe like that, except I think it was a bigger one. And he was standing way at the top somewhere in the stadium of 80 ,000 people and he just preached his heart out with this globe in his hands the whole time.

And then when he was done, he just threw the globe and just got batted around the soccer stadium as these students and these delegates from around the world were committing themselves to missions. He's married to Dreena, his wife, and he has three adult children.

He lives in England where the OM International headquarters is. So he's going to come and share with us. I want to pray for him one more time and then there'll be time for questions and answers afterwards.

So let's pray for George. Father, we ask you to give supernatural energy to George. You've done it again and again and again. He's come from Moody. He's going to Washington, D .C., tomorrow to England, the next day to South Africa.

And Lord, how we ask you to sustain him. And Lord, you have a word for us through him this morning. And I just pray that you'd give him maximum freedom and that you would give our hearts maximum receptivity and that seeds would be planted that would trickle down and flow down to our congregations and to our communities.

And beyond. We love you, Lord. We love what you're doing. We thank you that George can be with us. Anoint him, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

Amen. What a challenge to be back in one of my favorite cities, Minneapolis. It's in my top 1 ,000 favorite cities in the world. It's the Lord who said, go into all the world and preach the gospel to every person.

This is not my thing. It's not a missionary thing. But it's for all who love the Lord Jesus and who want to obey his word. There are many nations of the world that are suffering right now in such a phenomenal way that probably if that kind of suffering entered your town, you would not perhaps be able to function.

If you think of what's going on in Algeria. If you think of what's happened, and it's a little easier right now in Afghanistan. If you think of Sri Lanka, 50 ,000 dead. No one knows when they're going to be blown up.

And many other parts of the world with less publicity, phenomenal suffering. And before I share from God's word, I would like to pray for some of the nations of the world. My big thing is in world missions.

I'm actually not a good mission speaker and don't accept very many missions conferences because my big thing is just Jesus and God's grace. But we know as Jesus works in our lives, and as we experience his grace, and we start turning the other pages in the Bible, we do find a few other little challenges.

Like he shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the even the uttermost part of the earth. Back when that was stated, Minneapolis would have been considered the absolute uttermost part.

Because that was stated near Jerusalem. Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost part of the earth. Let's just have a few more moments of prayer. There's no Bible verse that says you have to close your eyes when you pray.

So I'm going to point to some of these suffering places that are on my heart. And as we pray, let us pray. Lord, I pray, especially for Algeria. This land in North Africa where the church just barely exists.

We thank you for some signs of breakthrough among the cabal people. We thank you for the workers who are there risking their lives. And oh God, we believe you want to do something greater in Algeria. We want to be under the burden of this country.

All those who have lost loved ones, a thousand more slaughtered in the past few weeks. We cry out that somehow, somehow peace would come to this nation. And that the gospel may go forward. And Lord, we pray for Libya where there's not so much suffering on one level, but where we have one of the more, even more unreached nations of the world.

We pray for Gaddafi. We pray for this nation. We thank you for tent makers that are there sharing their faith. And God, we pray for the Middle East, Syria, and Israel, and Lebanon. So many have died. And Jordan, Egypt, the terrible massacre in Luxor just a few weeks ago.

We pray for Egypt, for Israel, for the Middle East, that somehow this thing will not come unglued. And we pray for Iraq and especially the Kurdish people who have suffered without a nation and who are so needy right now with almost no church among them.

Lord, we think of people speaking on television and radio here yesterday as if soon we're going to be at war with this land of Iraq. Oh God, spare us. And by your spirit, work in that country. We think of Iran and Afghanistan.

We think of all the Afghan refugees living in Iran and very, very hard to reach. And we pray for Afghanistan. Lord, I think of my own nephew living there and his wife and children under the Taliban rule.

The few believers in that whole nation, we pray for Afghanistan. And Lord, for Kashmir and all the strife and suffering there in Sri Lanka. We think again the increase of suffering in Cambodia and pray for Cambodia and Laos.

We think of the increased persecution on Christians in China and we would pray for China. And somehow there'd be greater breakthroughs there, and especially among the unreached Muslim groups of China.

Lord, there are many, many other nations on our hearts right now. And we believe that by your grace, what we do here locally will affect what happens globally in other parts of the world. Help us to grasp this in the name of Jesus.

Amen. Well, I think I spoke a little too loud at Founders Week last night at Moody Bible Institute when I see a couple of thousand people. Even with a sound system, I tend to speak too loud. So it might take a few minutes for my voice to level out.

I've had 40 years of voice trouble, three operations on my vocal cords. But I've never hardly lost my voice. So you can relax if you think the meeting is going to end early because of my voice. It is intimidating to speak to pastors and Christian leaders.

Somehow I got into this when I was about 19. And somehow the Lord just gave me such a wonderful linking with so many pastors. First in the States, but then in Mexico where I learned Spanish, and then in Spain and then in France and then in Great Britain and then in India and Nepal and Bangkok and different countries where my wife and I have lived.

We just celebrated our 38th wedding anniversary a few days ago in the airport before I left London. Had a special breakfast together. And my heart really is linked with those who are pastoring God's people.

And I counted a tremendous privilege to share with you this morning. I don't just say that. And I know that what we do locally, what we decide and what we do locally does impact the world globally. So I believe this is an important hour.

And if you have a notebook and you can write a few things down, that would be encouraging. I know you probably are on information overload and all of that. If you get at least 10 points from what I say, and we know any good sermon should never have more than what, four or five.

So I'll think I'll forget about trying to preach any kind of a sermon. But if you get 10 points and one year from now mention those points, I will send you free 10 challenging, motivating Christian books.

How many of you still read? I know that's not a popular sport. That's great. And you probably noticed that we have brought a few books on display because you'll need some books between now and when you get the 10 other free books.

Actually, the book I wanted to mention the most is John Piper's book, Let the Nations Be Glad, The Supremacy of God and Missions. About to, excuse me for that. Maybe I should switch over to this microphone.

Can I do that? Who's a sound person? Just switch over to this. I think I find that a little easier. I was preparing to speak at Urbana. And I was really struggling. The two messages I had written out and submitted, something I never do except for Urbana.

They were expecting, by the way, 19 ,000 there. And I had two of the evening meetings. I just sensed they were not the message, the messages that I was to share. And I had known about this book for some time.

I'm a person of many books and I had not read it carefully. Even though I had a number of people urge me to do so. But somehow in preparing for Urbana, about a year and a half ago, I picked up this book by John.

It's so amazing because I think you actually gave me a copy four years ago when I was here. I know John's written so many books, lost track of him himself. But I believe this is one of the most significant books that has ever been written about world missions.

We know no book is as significant as God's word. And God's word is about missions from Genesis to Revelation. But John has been inspired of the Lord and has put down his thoughts about the supremacy of God.

We need to be God focused in our missions and, of course, in everything. And so if you don't already have 10 copies of this book, I want to encourage you to go to their bookstore. Don't confuse it with my little tiny book display.

And get some copies of this book and get it into the hands of other people. And I just believe God will use that. You see, God's glory is tied into all of this. And I can't even begin to express it the way John has.

But I believe this is the bottom line. The supremacy of God in missions. Too much missionary work gets very man-centered. Maybe even in your own ministry, you find things getting very man-centered. 35 years ago, as a young Christian, or no, it's actually 40 years ago, God brought into my life some books by a man named DeVerm Frompke.

I didn't understand all that I was reading, but the whole focus of those books was becoming God-centered. And through that man's writings and Dr. Lord Jones, his writings, the Sermon on the Mount and spiritual depression, its cause and cure.

And then through other people like A .W. Tozer, I learned more about repenting and I learned more about becoming God-focused and God-centered in every aspect of my life. And of course, I'm still learning that.

We have a unique way of distributing books in OM and in the meetings I take. And some of you have already taken advantage of that. The books are just there on a donation basis. I have a lot of struggles with God's people.

And I'm a reluctant Christian, saved in a one-night Billy Graham meeting in New York City. One of my struggles is everything seems to go too slow. And certainly selling books is a very slow process. So we like to give books away.

And we want to give every one of you two books completely free, no strings attached. The first book is a book that I just got a hold of, written by a pastor, When Good Men Are Tempted, Bill Perkins. It's a book for men.

It's the most raw, straightforward book on the challenge of our sexuality that I've looked at in a long time. I've always wondered why the church was so strangely silent on this subject. When there's 500 verses in the Bible about sex, actually many whole chapters.

Proverbs alone has three chapters, all about sex. Amazing verses. I know some of you are into Bible exposition. How many of you are Bible expositors? At least you're trying, praise God. How many of you have expounded verses like, Be thou satisfied with the breasts of the wife of thy youth?

Raise your hand. Praise God, not many hands. Chapter one in this book, part one is understanding the struggle. Chapter one, why naked women look so good. That did catch my attention, I must admit. Two, why other women look better.

Three, I'm caught and I can't get loose. And it goes on, raising the white flag, drag it into the light. Your family, choosing your master, discovering the new you, breaking the addictive cycle. Why locking arms is tough, the lost art of buddy ship, pure sex, tools for tight corners.

I only have 90 copies. I know there's far more here than that. But some of you already have this book. It's free, just go over there. But I would encourage you, if you take it to read at least part of it.

I don't expect pastors to finish every book they start. I remember when I got into this book, before this great grace awakening epistle of yours came out, John, I got into Charles Swindoll's book on grace.

I just started in the middle. Have you ever done that? It's a good way to read. And the first chapters of this are fairly boring, but they're okay. Whatever you do, don't get Swindoll. He's speaking at Moody tonight.

Don't get Swindoll mixed up with John Piper. But you're not into motorcycles, are you? This is really more of a book about love and loving one another in some ways than it is about grace. That's why it's called Grace Awakening.

But as I read it in the middle and read both directions, it was really confusing. But it was a blessing as well. And I think my favorite chapter here is called The Grace to Let Others Be. And that will especially be an encouragement in your marriage.

So that's another one you can pick up free. I do little deals with a publisher. I bought 5 ,000 of these for cost price. And this was a hardback, $20. I don't like to spend $20 for a book, because generally I don't have $20.

So I got my own edition, special edition of a very special book. I got 10 ,000 copies for $1 .26. It's pretty good for a $20 book. I want to say that so that if you just even leave a dollar, I know many of you are broke, quite a few of you look very broke.

But even if you leave a dollar, because after you get past the first two books, they're free. After that, we would ask some kind of donation, even if it's a postdated check. Up to the year 2000, we're part of the 82 ,000 movement.

So we take checks. I had a whole load of checks from South Africa, all postdated. And sorry to say, I've lost all of them. So if you do give a postdated check, probably it'll never get cashed. The Great Omission by Robertson McQuilkin, one of the leading men in missions, the man who gave up the presidency of Columbia International University to take care of his wife because she had Alzheimer's.

I was just on the phone with him. Godly man. There's his book, The Great Omission. I would be very encouraged if you took any of my books, which are free, because they don't sell very well. But another famous book that we have on the table is Paul Borthwick's book.

Another great missionary visionary working with Gordon McDonald over in, though he's just left that job, over in New England. How to Be a World Class Christian. Here's a book about the land of Turkey.

How many of you pray for the land of Turkey? 70 million people in Turkey. Raise your hand. A number of you. Not many books about Turkey. So that's a great book. My Big Father. This is one of the books that we're not giving free.

It's just a little too expensive to give free. And I haven't pulled a deal off with the publisher, since we're actually the publisher. But feel free to take Operation World for any donation you can you can give.

How many of you already have this great book? That is so encouraging. I always say all over the world, anybody without two copies of this book is probably backslidden. It's such an incredibly important book.

How's your geography? Anybody? Excuse me. Can tell me what country this is? Whoa, sensitive mic. Whoops. Raise your hand. You get an extra free book. Iran? No, that's a good guess. Come on. John Piper's not included in this.

Yeah. No, you're getting close. Pakistan? No. Afghanistan? No. Kazakhstan? What is that? Getting close. No. Oh, I was really hoping for a more intelligent crowd. It's okay. We're very big into forgiveness.

This is a flag of Tajikistan. Imagine if the American flag was held up in a country way off somewhere. We had a great group of intellectuals together and we asked them what country that was. If you were an American in the meeting and not one single person recognized what country that flag was from, you might have some interesting emotions.

Acts 13 and the Vision for World Missions

Let's now turn to our passage of scripture. If I can find my little Testament. Acts chapter 13. We're just going to read actually the first five verses. In the church at Antioch, there were prophets and teachers.

Barnabas, Simeon called Niger, Lucius of Saray, Menaeum, who had been brought up with Herod the Tetrarch, and Saul. While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, set apart for me, Barnabas and Saul, for the work to which I have called them.

So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and they sent them off. The two of them sent on their way by the Holy Spirit, went down to Seleucia and sailed from there to Cyprus.

When they arrived at Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God in the Jewish synagogue. John was with them as their helper. I try to spend a lot of time in the Bible, and I try to spend a lot of time in the book of Acts, because it's so motivating.

It so helps one, thank you, to increase in vision. And I hope that each one of you, if you possibly can in the next six months, read through the book of Acts. You may want to try it, even one of these really mega modern paraphrases like the message.

Boy, that will stimulate your biblical juices. I know there are some people oppose that particular translation or paraphrase, but at least as a pastor, you can read it once because it does bring in some very interesting ways.

And then you can always go back. I know most of you having your quiet time in the original Greek, you can always go back to that later on. There are five words from this chapter that I'd like to leave with you.

So then you're already halfway to your 10 free books one year from now. The first word that comes out of this chapter is the word church. It's not the chapter, but these five verses. In the church at Antioch, there were prophets and teachers.

The Local Church as an Antioch Sending Church

Somehow in God's providence, shortly after my own conversion, I realized the importance of the local church. And we got linked with some local churches who really believed in world missions and who believed in the Antioch or Acts 13 vision of sending out workers.

Now, this was a very young church. This church has partly been started, it seems, because some believers were scattered through a persecution. I remember when I was in Brazil, I'm back there again soon.

But when I was in Brazil and they were trying to explain why they weren't sending many missionaries yet in some of the churches, they said to me, you see, George, our churches are very young. We don't have the great heritage that you have in America or in Great Britain.

We're just very young and this is going to take a long time. Well, how old was the church in Antioch when they sent Paul and Barnabas? Some of you are from small churches. Some of you are from young churches.

And you're thinking we're not ready to send out any career missionaries. But I believe with all my heart, missions should be implanted within the local church at the very time that the church is born.

Why should we hold back certain truths from young Christians or in a young church? If we are going to be biblical, then we need the Antioch vision from day one. Of course, if your church has now been going for years and they don't yet have this reality functioning, then you have quite a challenging job.

And it's not going to happen overnight as you just go back and tell them now that you've become a visionary and you get yourself a balloon and a global jacket and prance around your church, telling everybody to go to the 1040 window.

We don't want to start unnecessarily a major martyrdom movement in your churches. And I believe it takes tremendous wisdom when you go home as a pastor, starting with your wife, how you share what God does in your heart at a conference like this.

And I know in our own movement, so many of the problems, and we've had many, are linked with communication, how we go about sharing what we feel, what God has done or what we feel we should do. And I pray that you'll take extra time when you get back home to be with your wife.

And first of all, listen to her because God could be working in her heart while you're away in a very powerful way. We should not assume that God is always saying more to us than our wives. Various kinds of chauvinistic arrogance are still traveling at quite rapid speed.

And then we wonder why increasing numbers of women are walking away from their husbands. I don't know if you saw the film, First Wives Club, very important film, especially I'm sure for reformed ministers.

But it's interesting that as that film came out, statistics show that now more women are walking away from their husbands than husbands away from their wives. And my great burden, as much as, and I'm not going to say much about it, but my great burden, wherever I speak about missions, is to also speak about marriage.

Conspiracy, Temptation, and the Preservation of Ministry

Because our marriages in America are under assault. They are under attack. Many times when I speak to Christian leaders, I speak from Acts chapter 23. I wonder if you could just turn there. Acts 23, verse 12.

The next morning, the Jews formed a conspiracy and bound themselves with an oath not to eat or drink until they had killed Paul. More than 40 men were involved in this plot. They went to the chief priests and elders and said, we have taken a solemn oath not to eat anything until we have killed Paul.

Now, then you and the Sanhedrin petitioned the commander to bring him before you on the pretext of wanting more accurate information about his case. We are ready to kill him before he gets here. And when the son of Paul's sister heard of the plot, he went into the barracks and told Paul.

Then Paul called one of his centurions and said, take this young man to the commander. He has something to tell him. So he took him to the commander. The centurion said, Paul, the prisoner sent for me and asked me to bring this young man to tell you because he has something to tell you.

The commander took the young man by the hand, drew him aside and asked, what is it you want to tell me? He said, the Jews have agreed to ask you to bring Paul before the Sanhedrin tomorrow on the pretext of wanting more accurate information about him.

Don't give it to them because more than 40 of them are waiting in ambush for him. They have taken an oath not to eat or drink until they have killed him. They are ready now waiting for your consent to this request.

I think in some of the subtitles of various Bibles, it says conspiracy to kill Paul. I believe you are apostolic man. I'm sure God's anointing is on most of you. Hopefully all of you. You have a ministry.

And I believe there is a conspiracy to destroy you, to destroy your marriage, to destroy your family. I don't speak like this easily. I'm not a person who emphasizes Satan or conspiracies. I'm not a demon under every bush kind of a character.

Like Tozer said, if you're going to survive the present day evangelical world, you need a lot of reverent skepticism. Hallelujah for reverent skepticism. So, you know, when you read in your little gospel gazette that, you know, a tree out in the woods just got baptized in the spirit is manifesting the gifts.

You might just be a little skeptical. At the same time, the Bible says Satan as a roaring lion seeketh whom he may devour. The Bible says Satan sometimes comes as an angel of the light, the angel of light.

The Bible talks about resisting Satan. And I believe there is a conspiracy brewed in hell to destroy your ministry. I've been involved with hundreds of churches. Many of them have gone through serious splits in Great Britain.

We lose a Christian leader every week, just on adultery every week. On an average, that is an understatement. In America, we lose a Christian leader every hour of every day through adultery alone. That, of course, is also an understatement.

We are a huge nation. We have huge numbers of churches. The percentage is still small, but it concerns me. That's, of course, why I'm urging you to pick up one of these books, Books When a Good Man is Tempted.

I'm sure some of you have other books along that subject. One of them that I love, I wish I had it with me today, is written by a woman who lost her husband when she gave him a birthday present of a hot air balloon ride and the balloon exploded and he plunged to his death.

And from the moment she stood there, Lois Mowdy, now married to a man named Steve Raybay, experienced supernatural grace of God to handle the grief and the sorrow. And then as a single woman, she discovered the slippery path there is in ministry, in ministry, into moral compromise and wrote that amazing book published by the Navigators called The Snare.

If you can't find it, write to me. I'll send it to you free. I'm convinced if The Snare and other similar books were read by men, preferably at seminary, that we would cut the immorality in ministry at least by 30 percent.

If some of you feel in your ministry you're under pressure and you'd like someone to pray for you personally, I would count it a privilege to add you to my list of people that I would like to pray for, because I believe you and your church will be attacked.

Somehow, in God's mercy, the Apostle Paul was spared. Imagine if you got back to your house day after tomorrow, whenever, and there was a little petition on your door. I know some of you are probably very laid back kind of characters, not easily upset.

We need such people in ministry. They often need a spiritual bomb put under them, but we need these kind of phlegmatic people. They make tremendous church planters in the Muslim world. But if you got back home and there was a list of 40 people that were not going to eat, not even a Big Mac, until you were dead, I dare to say some of the most laid back among you might have a slight metabolistic uplift at that moment.

Mature Missionaries and the Holy Spirit's Call

Let's get back to our original passage. Acts 13, the first word, the church. My prayer, my prayer for this meeting this morning is that every one of our churches could be Antioch churches. You don't have to start big.

You can start small. Send one in the next year, one intermissions. I don't believe mission work is some kind of a volunteer youth movement where we look for volunteers who are 18 years of age. I believe we should be sending some of our best, most mature, godly people into missions.

Where Paul and Barnabas, just the latest two just kicked out of the youth fellowship for misbehaving. Can you imagine in some churches if suddenly two of the senior people in the whole church claim that the Holy Spirit is sending them into overseas missions?

I will tell you, you will have an interesting elders meeting, especially if one of them happens to be the chairman of the elders board. But I believe the Holy Spirit is wanting to lay his hands on mature, seasoned people.

That's not against young people getting involved. God operates sovereignly in the lives of so many people in so many different ways. Let me get to that second word, which is not really a word, it's a person, the Holy Spirit.

While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them. So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them away.

Look at verse four. The two of them sent on their way by who? The Holy Spirit. Went down to Seleucia and sail from there to Cyprus. The Holy Spirit is the chief executive officer of all missionary work.

And brothers and sisters, if we're going to plant churches in America, or if we're going to see our churches strengthened in America, and if we're going to send out missionaries, we need an ongoing directorship from the Holy Spirit of God.

One of my great fears for some of us, like myself, a fairly conservative person, theologically, a fairly conservative person, even in terms of practice and different avenues of ministry, quite conservative.

I'm, for example, in connection with the whole Catholic question, which is a huge thing over here in the United States. I've written a book against extremism in the church. I have seen so many people hurt by extremism, even sometimes under the name of the Holy Spirit.

But I'll tell you, there's another danger. It's overreacting to what you may think is extremism in connection with the Holy Spirit, overreacting into the deep freeze of dead orthodoxy. Don't do it. Don't do it.

D .L. Moody was a great man. I guess I have him on my mind because next year is the 100th anniversary of his home going. And I studied at Moody Bible Institute and graduated there. And just I'm here now because they brought me over from England to speak there last night.

But D .L. Moody is described in a secular encyclopedia. This might encourage some of you overweight American evangelist who depopulated hell by two million souls. Not bad. How are you doing? I'm not speaking of the weight.

I'm speaking of the souls and D .L. Moody. Long before it became more popular to speak so extensively about the Holy Spirit, long before that, around 1904, the birth of the Pentecostal movement, D .L. Moody constantly emphasized the need to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

Acts 4 .31. I think some at the prayer meeting in Acts 4 .31 had actually been at Pentecost. And yet, in Acts 4 .31, we find them gather together praying. Place where they were praying was shaken and they were what?

Filled with the Holy Spirit. Went forth and spoke the word of God in boldness. D .L. Moody used to emphasize the need to be filled again and again. And one day, so I've heard a woman said to Moody, why do you keep talking about the need to be filled again and again?

I know some of you have heard this. It's a great story. He looked a lady in the eye and he said, Madam, because I leak. Can any of you relate to that? Praise God for free refills. And in much weakness, in much weakness, I share with you my conviction that the spirit filled life is the normal Christian life for every believer.