Gv4340 Gv the Divine and the Human Factor — George Verwer

Sharing Christian Literature and Audio Resources

What a challenge those testimonies were to our own hearts, I would think that Vincent Price's was more of an explosimony than a testimony, and it's the kind of thing that I need on Sunday morning. I visited some of the missionary exhibitions, and I'm amazed at some of the things these people are giving away, and I get all kinds of magazines with all kinds of maps and information and pictures, and all of this costs money, and in our own work we had tremendous struggles deciding how to put anything in print about our work because we wanted to put all of our money into scriptures, and we're always short at least five million pieces of literature in O .M.

We're never running, but we also put money into this kind of literature now, yes, always have a little bit, and I hope that you won't just read this material and throw it away, but you'll become a person who passes material on.

I always like to get free copies of Prairie Overcomer, so every time I walk by these little giveaways, I get one, here's a May 84 issue that somebody put back there, it's even got their name on it, but it's being recycled for Jesus.

Many of us, even who read English in Europe, have never seen a Prairie Overcomer. I'm trying to get a hold of a thousand right now, I haven't yet been successful, but we take this kind of material for granted here in the Western world, the affluent society, the waste-makers.

A guy named Packer or somebody once wrote something, the waste-makers, true. Pass it on, give it to others, share. I think of these cassette tapes that are being offered, of these very meetings. I don't know how they do it, they offer you the tape the moment you finish, and some of these tapes, as you know, are dangerous, but what an opportunity to share with people who cannot be here, some of the ministry of these different men that God has given.

To me, the greatest invention since the printing press is the Walkman, and I'm sure some of you more conservative types don't even know what I'm talking about, but I think the Walkman is the greatest invention since the printing press.

Some of you know that I jog a little bit, but I found jogging after a while, I've been doing it 15 years, a bit boring, and of course, I always just did it very briefly, a mile or two, until I got a Walkman and could take the Word of God with me, and so now sometimes I go 7, 8 miles, get through the whole book of Romans on one run, memorizing it, listening to it.

It's good when you go in the streets, across the street, to take one ear off, just in case somebody's beeping their horn, because they can be a little dangerous. Like everything in life, they can be abused.

We have the whole Bible now on tape. My brother, John Wright, who also produces these cassette albums, has been producing the Bible on tape. I'd ask you to pray for him, because he's just been put out of business by someone who bought up the copyright on this particular series, and overnight he is out of business.

His other ministry of carrying my wife and I around in his old motorhome isn't anything dealing with profit, just something he does as unto the Lord. So take your final visit to the missionary exhibitions, order your tapes to give away to friends.

Personal Ministry Updates and Operation Mobilization

Take your last visit to our little OM exhibition. Very much appreciate your asking about my wife. She's still recovering from major surgery, and I had some opposition to bringing her on this trip, but as usual, they lost, and she's with me.

But she's not really so well. She's been visiting with people morning, noon, and night. I spoke in the dormitory last night, got back late to the motorhome. I thought, surely she's going to be in bed, and there she was counting all the book sale money.

She's the team treasurer. But if you want to know about my wife, she writes this little family letter. She always tells me it's not a prayer letter, it's a family letter, and it has a picture of her. In case you wonder what she looks like, at our 25th wedding anniversary, a little surprise party my children pulled off for us just a few months ago.

So that's available on the OM literature table. Some of you didn't get my calendars, and you're confused about what my name is. Some of the calendars say George Vermer, but the printer made a mistake, and so I got a thousand more with my name corrected.

George Verwer, that is my name. But anyway, there's a few of those on that table, and there's a new leaflet just printed. I almost didn't get this one in Canada, and an interesting time at the border, but we've got it.

It's about next summer, how to get involved in summer work in Europe, Belgium, Austria, Eastern Europe, England, and that's available there. I wanted to just mention this little leaflet called Seven Major Emphases of Operation Mobilization.

Really it doesn't have anything to do with Operation Mobilization. You could call it Seven Major Emphases in many of these missions, because they have these same practices. But if you have a chance, pick this up, because it's a sermon in print, it gives me another opportunity to share with you.

One of the seven major emphases of OM, one, worship and prayer, two, love and forgiveness, three, victorious living in the fullness of the Holy Spirit, four, the Lordship of Christ and the all-sufficiency of Christ, five, honesty and true openness, six, discipline and brokenness, seven, world evangelism.

That's available free. One of the reasons it also has our address, there's a lot of other material, of course Burt has an old office full of OM material, and I hope some of you who are interested in OM will talk to Burt, and who knows what will happen.

I wanted to bring greetings, I've forgotten this every day, from Don Maxwell. Pray for him, because he's on my team this year, a little team of people who have to do anything, anytime, anywhere, and that can include hazards.

Some of you have walked by my motorhome, not mine, but my friend John Wright's, smugglers used to have that, Florida, the police got the smugglers, and John got the motorhome, for a tenth of what it's worth, and it's really a bookmobile.

But that's the motorhome that John, Don Maxwell, fell off and almost was killed. In God's mercy, there was no damage to his spinal cord, and some of you saw Don walking around with this weird thing, looked like a Star Wars helmet, he's got all that off now, I saw it actually laying over in the home of the Maxwells, he even has the smaller neck brace off, he traveled with me just before I came here, he's also part of the OM subcontinent presentation team, but he'll be traveling with me again in November, we'll be going to Asia together in February, and he will be remaining out there to give himself to Muslim evangelism, research, and finding God's place, as he has committed himself long-term to reaching Muslims in the subcontinent.

So I bring greetings from him, from others whose names I'm unable to remember. To me it's so exciting, not only the people God is sending out of Prairie, but the people that God's bringing here. I had breakfast with a man, except he didn't eat anything, named Ed Yeager, and every time I used to drive through Iran, Ed was there doing something, translating the Bible into Persian or winning souls or teaching, and he arrived at my doorstep a couple of years ago with his little clan early in the morning, some of the way we get accommodation in OM is we move into houses that are derelict, nobody wants them, and the owner says you can live here until it falls down, rent-free.

I'm in a little rent-free house in London, but mine's not falling down much, it's leaking a little bit, and Ed came there and we had a great time of fellowship and I haven't seen him much for years, and sometimes you do lose contact with people, and lo and behold I find out he's here on the faculty teaching missions here at Prairie Bible Institute and using his summers to get out in other parts of the world, and really, I just say this to you young people, it's easy to take for granted a lot of the things that you have here, the people that God brings you, so don't do them.

Rules, Maturity, and Christian Cooperation

Some of you, I always find when I go to Prairie and all these Bible schools, same as Moody, some are mumbling about the rules, rule mumblers, don't worry so much about the rules, it's no big deal. Life is full of rules.

You drive down the road, United States is ridiculous, 55 miles an hour, what do you think this is, a horse and car era? So you know, keep the rules to the best that lies in you, keep your attitude right, that's more important than the rules, and when I got to Moody Bible Institute and I saw the rule book, you can imagine a character like me, I didn't know they had any rule book, and they had this orientation, and they gave me this rule book, and I just about flipped out.

I said, what is this, a kindergarten? You know, God dealt with me, and all my time at Moody, this loud mouthed rebel kept almost all the rules, that's right, now a couple of them I couldn't understand, but to the best of my ability, I kept the rules.

I never went to a movie, imagine that, I'm a movie nut, I never went to Moody, it crossed my heart, my whole time at Moody Bible Institute, anyway, I didn't have any time, so much to do, so many souls to win.

So don't let the enemy get you, you know, in a hassle, because no Bible college, no seminary, no movement, especially OM is perfect, we're all learning, we're all growing, everything keeps changing except the basic doctrines and the basic foundations of the Word of God, and I know so many men here, and they're sincere men who want God's plan, but you cannot have a movement like this, and this is still a movement, not just an institution, without some basic rules, and no matter what direction you take, you got problems, believe me.

I've seen the schools that have taken off a lot of the rules, they got more problems than they had before, it's a human heart, and I thank God for the privilege of being here and for working together with you, and it's so clear that OM and Prairie have been called into a special exchange working together program for World Evangelism, we need each other, and I hope that you will have a right attitude.

When you do something that you agree with, you're not doing much, it's when you learn to do something that you don't agree with, for the sake of the Gospel, that you come into a little more maturity in your spiritual life.

Now, I even write verve quotations in my Bible, that's a bit, could be an ego trip, I hope it isn't, but I don't have many verve quotations, but I want to read one to you, that's helped me stay on target, and will help you if you don't agree with something in the mission you join, or here at Prairie, or if you come on OM.

Let me read this to you, because of World Evangelism, because of World Evangelism, because of World Evangelism, and the reality of the spiritual warfare, get that, the reality of the spiritual warfare, we need to agree on a plan of action, that's what your board members and leaders here at Prairie do, we need to agree on a plan of action, and strategy and policy to carry out that action, even when there are things we don't like, or even agree with.

Television, Christian Liberty, and Major Doctrines

I'm not known for getting in trouble, you know, I'm a very carefree character, in my soul it doesn't matter if I'm ever invited back here again, I love you, I believe in you, so I take risks, so I'm going to say a word about television.

I know you've been through a crisis over television, and you're looking at Mr. Hardliner against television, and many years ago, God showed me in OM, where we fought television and kept television out, that we should give adults and families freedom to have television in their home if they want it.

We fought that years ago. I know some are upset that there's now television at Prairie Bible Institute, and I just say this to any of you who are Hardliners against this, because I've talked with Paul Maxwell, and I know the Lord has given him victory in this, and he and I are similar in some ways.

But if there are any of you Hardliners that are still upset about the fact that there's television now in some of the homes, I would beg of you, beg of you to just submit to what the majority seem to sense was God's way.

It's not a big issue. Don't make this thing into a huge issue. Television in our society is like a wristwatch. It's like a wristwatch. And the great thing you can do now is learn how to handle it, learn how to turn it off.

And I believe many of you will come into more maturity through freedom in this area than without the freedom. That's my own personal opinion. And if you're a Hardliner like me, I still have no TV. Crazy thing.

In my house, my daughter's now grown up. How can I force her at 21 to keep my policy? So she has a TV in her little tiny room. We have a little house. Her room is like a little closet. And I tell you, the craziest thing in the Verwer household is all of us sitting in her bedroom watching the TV.

So don't let this thing become bigger than it is. Many, many mighty men of God. I think of Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones. And we have a lot of false ideas about men of God. He was esteemed as such a mighty man of God, such a prophet.

But you know, I found out Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones, you know what his favorite thing was sometimes when he went home? I couldn't believe it. To watch hours of snooker on television. You know what snooker is?

You know, pool. Some kind of pool they practice in England. You know, it's about as boring as watching chipmunks carry acorns. But that was just something that relaxed old Dr. Lloyd-Jones and he ran the race to the end.

It is an issue. The enemy knows how to use it. But I want to tell you, listen, hear me out. The enemy can use some of your big mouths far more than that cotton picking television set. Believe me, the enemy in the church today, we've seen it in OM, most of us OM leaders who have, the ones who do have TVs, I've done research, they hardly ever watch it.

You got cobwebs growing on the tombs. But I'll tell you, far more destructive in the Word of God. Big mouths, judgmentalism, mountain climbing over mole hills, and all that kind of thing. And so, in Christian work, on the minor issues, some people win, some people lose.

I've lost in OM on some of my issues. Never the big things. And God showed me years ago, I'm not going to shoot mice. You know what that means? I'm not going to shoot mice, I'm going to shoot elephants.

How many know what that means? Don't waste your energy and your resources on small things. Go for the big targets. The major doctrines of the faith, if they start getting questioned, then you start shooting.

The major biblical principles of morality and love and reality, many other things, righteousness, that's where use most of your ammunition. We can talk about the small things as well. Praise the Lord.

In all things, love is the rule. That's what old Brother Maxwell emphasized with me. In all things, love is the rule. And I tell you, if you make love the rule, and you hold fast to the basics God has given you here at this great institution, nothing will stop Prairie Bible Institute from going into the next generation with power and reality and thrust even more workers out into the harvest fields than perhaps in the past.

And we'll be praying with you as you go. Let me read the quote again. Because of world evangelism and the reality of the spiritual warfare, we need to agree on a plan of action, strategy and policy to carry out that action, even when there are things we don't like or maybe even agree with.

Elijah, the Divine Factor, and the Human Factor

Turn with me now in your Bibles to the book of 1 Kings, chapter 18 and chapter 19. And relax, we are not planning to run into your lunch hour. We want you back here on time because we always like to save the new wine for the end.

Now, whenever there's a group like this, surely there's got to be someone that I have turned off. Do you know that expression? The people that I have often loved the most are the people that I turn off.

Because when I listen to my tapes, I get turned off, at least to some degree. And if I've turned you off through some dumb thing that I've said, because with any message I give, you get the verwer straw together with the wheat.

You just burn the verwer straw. You can even take sections of the tape and erase over it. But I'll tell you, if somehow I have turned you off by some mannerism, forgive me, I've got to be real, I've got to be myself in the sense of not trying to copy others, letting Christ work through me.

Just let Jesus turn you off. And beware if I have turned you off, because a lot of our long-term leaders who have been with OM 15 or 20 years are all people I initially turned off. There's something fluky about that.

So just rejoice and realize that this treasure is in earthen vessels. I did have one other burden, just to bring things in perspective. I want to give you one prayer request before I read this scripture.

I've been praying for many of you this morning. Instead of going jogging, I went praying through the papers that you've been giving to me. So many papers. A couple hundred. And praying for different people.

And I thought, well, I want to ask them to pray something for me. And I've never done this, any September in 25 years. It's the first time. Coming into New Liberty. Growing. OM is changing. I love biblical, sane, spirit-controlled change.

It's tremendous. Anything that's growing, anything that's alive, got to keep changing. And I wish I could talk to you about some of the changes in OM. Nothing throwing away our basics, but fine-tuning, keeping us young and fresh on the wavelength of this generation, so that we have more young recruits than ever before.

Four or five hundred new recruits. Now, here's my prayer burden. These recruits have been through our training, our month conference, summer orientation, interviews, tapes. It's quite a process. There are now hundreds of them in London, Brussels, Paris, Northern England.

Their trucks are ready. We travel in trucks. There's eight or seven or eight trucks ready to drive through Iran and go overland. The Afghan team, the Indian team, the Pakistan team. As of last Monday, they were ready to move, together with many other people who are on their second, third and longer term people.

There's about 600 people ready to move. A mighty invasion army. And as of last Monday, they started prayer, because they don't have the resources to move. They don't have the fuel. They don't have the food.

They haven't paid the bills yet from last month. We have a policy in OM. We don't launch the new OM year in October without paying our bills. We don't believe in indebtedness and we don't borrow money.

And I would ask you to pray for these teams. They're now going into the second week of prayer, some fasting, not whole weeks of fasting, but some fasting, to see the heavens open. These young people are out there on the limb.

Many of them don't have proper support. Some of them already cancelled going because they haven't seen their own personal finance breakthrough. OM is a combination of personal faith and corporate faith.

And so there's four or five hundred young people. They've got some training. They're ready to go. There are not the resources there. They're in Europe, most of them all in Europe. So you pray. Maybe I'll just pray for them right now.

I'd be a liar if I didn't say to you, every single day this has been on my mind. I've been on the phone to England trying to see if there's a breakthrough. These are very hard days for many of us out in overseas missionary work.

You talk about forgotten people. The missionaries themselves become forgotten people. We think once they're out there, well, you know. We had a lady once, she came to an OM leader. She said, I was going to give you a large donation for the work but I know you're a great faith movement and I didn't want to interfere.

You could have killed me with a pea shooter. It's unbelievable the crazy things people believe when you're classified as a faith movement. So let's pray for these young people right now. Some of them are from Prairie.

Let's pray. Father, you know that I've never mentioned that in public and we've had this problem before. I don't think I've ever mentioned in a big meeting in public in twenty-five years. But Lord, you know, I'm so extreme on anything about resources.

I have trouble even pronouncing the word money in public. But Father, I don't believe that it's just prayer. I believe it's prayer and people. That you work through people and that you use information because there are people that want to do things but they don't know.

They don't know. And so they do something else. And we pray for the resources, for this four or five hundred men and women, all the vehicles almost ready. Few of them can't go through Iran like the Americans.

They need the airfares. And Lord, I pray that you'll release the resources there in Europe, wherever. We're not fussy. That this army may go forward to Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal, India, Sudan, Egypt, Jordan, Turkey, communist countries, France, Belgium, Austria, other parts of Europe.

That Dulles also held up may be able to sail around Africa. That people may be able to fly to Lagos in South America to reinforce the crew there. It's impossible. It's ridiculous. But nothing is too hard for you.

We are your people. We're not a secret society. So we unite together and we believe for a breakthrough for these men and women and other missionaries who are held up in their support. Some of them banging around Canada for two years trying to raise support.

Father, we ask for breakthroughs for these people, for churches to awaken to the real need and the real challenge. For we ask in Jesus' name. Amen. May God do it. First Kings, chapter 18. You want a title for this little talk?

You could call it the divine factor and the human factor. If you want a New Testament reference, and I've often preached on that New Testament reference, it's in the book of Hebrews. Our God is a consuming fire.

What a powerful verse in chapter 12 of Hebrews, verse 29. But let's look at our God who answers by fire. First Kings, chapter 18, we read in verse 24. And call ye on the name of your God. This is Elijah challenging the prophets of Baal.

And I will call on the name of the Lord. And the God who answereth by fire, let him be God. Isn't that powerful? And all the people answered and said, it is well spoken. God who answereth by fire. Let's continue reading.

We won't read about the prophets of Baal, but we know what happened. They prayed and no fire came. Elijah even engaged in a little bit of mockery. Then Elijah took 12 stones, verse 31, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob.

Don't tell me that numbers don't mean anything in the Bible. Unto whom the word of the Lord came, saying, Israel shall be thy name. And with the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord. And he made a trench about the altar, as great as would contain two measures of seed.

And he put the wood in order and cut the bullock in pieces and laid it on the wood and said, fill four barrels with water. Talk about cockeyed strategy. Talk about extremism. You got to put water on the offering.

Pour it on the burnt sacrifice and on the wood. When I was a boy scout, I learned how to light fire with flint and steel. Have you ever done that? Get an old piece of flint, bang it away. And I entered a firefighting contest with flint and steel and won the contest.

But I tell you, I didn't put water on the wood. This is really asking for a miracle. A miracle. I'm thinking of preaching about miracles this afternoon. I haven't finally got God's go-ahead. Seven major miracles we need in the church today.

Anyway, we'll wait until 2 .15 before we worry about that. But Elijah believed in miracles. The water ran round about the altar and he filled the trench. Oh, my land. Trench. Also with water. And it came to pass at the time of the offering and the evening sacrifice that Elijah the prophet came near and said, Lord God of Abraham, Isaac and of Israel, let it be known this day that Thou art God in Israel and that I am Thy servant and that I have done all these things at Thy word.

At Thy word. So important isn't it? And we today, some of you are only here for today, we want a word from God to our hearts. We believe the Bible is the word of God. We don't believe in adding to the Bible, but we believe the Spirit of God applies the word of God to our heart.

And I believe God wants to minister to each one of us in a personal way, not just in our minds, but in our hearts. According to Thy word. Hear me, O Lord, hear me. That this people may know that Thou art the Lord God and that Thou hast turned their heart back again.

They were backslidden, they were wayward, they were confused. You may be backslidden, you may be drifting, you may be cold. That's nothing new in God's work. That's nothing new among God's people. God specializes in characters like you.

God’s Love, Restoration, and Perseverance

You know, I, with all communication, I miscommunicate. And probably some of you who, maybe I haven't been able to get through to your heart. God's word through me has not gotten through. I'm sure some other speaker hopefully will get through.

But if that's not the case, please understand that if you are a believer, He still loves you. You may be in a state of rebellion. He still loves you. He still loves you. You may have sensed the last night you should have stood to your feet and made a deeper commitment to Jesus Christ and let that fire come down upon your soul as it did upon many people here last night.

But you didn't do it. You didn't do it. You rebelled against it. You're confused. You're hurt. You were unable to. Let me tell you good news. He still loves you. You're going to have to run much further than you are now before you get away from Him.

One of my closest friends, a couple of years ago, went through a divorce. He was a full-time missionary. He was used mightily of God. His wife ran off. It was partly his fault. He admitted it. You know, when the innocent partner in a marriage is breaking up, the innocent partner can easily see where the other partner is doing the thing wrong because that person, of course, before God, is more guilty if they are living in adultery.

And that's what happened in this case. This woman went off into adultery. It's a terrible thing. Now, they had left our work. They had been caught up with an extremist, a very extremist group that sort of believes they're the only group, the only true church.

I don't know if you've met some of them. And then he got caught up in the business world. He'd been out of our work a couple of years. But we were still in contact. And then he came out of this extremist group.

He discovered it was a dead end. He had enough brains to see that. But at that time, she was already involved and the marriage ended. I tell you, two children involved. He'd been on the mission field quite a long time, well known.

And we kept praying. You know, in our little fellowship, and I hope you have that, we have what we call holy ghost stickability to one another. I don't know who it was, but some woman of God some time ago said, the church is the only group in the world that shoots its wounded.

The only group in the world that shoots its wounded. And we prayed for that couple. For four years, he waited for the woman to come back. He followed all the rules. I spent a lot of time with him during those years.

She didn't come back. He didn't know what to do on the remarriage issue. And finally he decided he should remarry. Around that time, she married the man she was living with. Right after that, he was stricken with cancer.

And started to die before her very eyes. In a series of coincidences, she moved home and ended up right behind a number of XOM prayer partners and friends. By pure coincidence. And she came weeping back to Jesus Christ.

Her husband, dying of cancer, sat in one of my meetings. He had never heard the gospel. He came to Jesus Christ and died. She came back to Christ. It was too late. My other friend at that time got married.

Life goes fast, doesn't it? And they were all at the funeral of the dead husband of the wife. This isn't, you know, I'm not giving you a novel. I'm not writing fiction. This is true. Today, she's following the Lord.

Today, my friend and his wife are following Christ as a leader in one of the outstanding churches in that area. I know that doesn't fit into some people's book. I'm just telling you the story. I'm not telling you whether you agree with it or not.

And the children, that's the thing that gets me excited, are far more on fire for Jesus Christ than children who have never been through anything like this. They've got two nice, happy, phlegmatic parents who don't even have divorce in their vocabulary.

I want to tell you something you already know. God is God. God is God. And He can overrule our folly. And He forgives. And He cleanses. And very seldom in the life of the believer is that person at the end of the road.

So you don't, don't you give up on anybody. Doesn't mean you have to have an ongoing ministry personally with them because you may not be the right person. You move into situations where angels dare to tread and you just make more of a mess.

But you can love, you can pray, and you'll see God do great things. God who answers by fire. And I just share that, especially for any of you that feel God's left you out this weekend. Your problems are too great.

You may feel your sins are too great. Some people have shared some pretty heavy stuff with me here. And that is confidential material. You can be sure I'm not taking a list of things and problems to anybody around here.

That's between myself and the Lord. But let me just say that God still loves you as His child. And He'll be patient with you. But don't push Him too far. The sooner you get back completely with the Lord, healing of the damaged emotions, healing of the hurts, cleansing of the bitterness, the better off you'll be.

Simple as that. As a believer. Because we know all believers will give account to God for their behavior as followers of Jesus Christ. Verse 38, Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench.

Hallelujah! Do you ever raise your hands in worship and say, Hallelujah? Sometimes I do that. You know, if you think it's only people of certain denominations that do that, you haven't come to Europe yet.

You know, in Operation Mobilization, when the Spirit of God moves in, sometimes our Pentecostal friends put their hands in their pockets. And the brethren lift them up. You know, I don't know why people are so afraid of putting their hands up once in a while.

I mean, how are you going to paint the ceiling in your kitchen? I'm still very conservative, and if I go into a church where they don't believe in putting your hands up, you know, I don't go in there and pull out my six shooters and say, Stick them up!

Stick them up! Because to me, these are not major issues. You can worship sitting, you can worship kneeling. I like to pray a lot walking around. I'm a great walker. Oswald J. Smith had a lot of his praying walking around his desk.

You don't have to pray in any one position. That's a lot of nonsense. It's good to practice different positions. But let's face it, in the Old Testament, it is very clear at times they lifted their hands, and they worshiped.

Some of my things that are a little controversial, I do them privately. But it just breaks my heart when I find people who are not experiencing reality in worship. Worship is not something you just have in church.

I mean, this just blows my mind here, this whole situation. Orchestra, I mean, I was weeping when they were playing. You know, maybe something's wrong with them, and the music just, you know. And this choir, you know.

I mean, you don't get this for your quiet time every morning, do you? I mean, I can imagine some people sneaking in here at about 5 .30 for their quiet time, hoping that the orchestra is going to show up.

Spirit-Filled Worship and the Word of Christ

And I'll tell you, what does the Bible say about the Spirit-filled life? You look over there in Ephesians chapter 5, I think you've already had this this week, but it wouldn't hurt us to go back. Some of you are just here today.

Ephesians chapter 5, be filled with the Holy Spirit. And what does it say right after that? Speak unto yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.

Did you know you had a built-in orchestra in your heart? Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Have you ever compared Ephesians 5 with Colossians 3?

It's not far away. Take a look. This is a favorite section of my Bible. It's all disintegrating and falling out. But look at Colossians 3, 16. You know, there's no mention of the Holy Spirit in the book of Colossians.

Did you know that? No major mention. Doesn't mean the Holy Spirit isn't present. Any more than Ephesians 5, the Word of God is not present. There's not competition in the Godhead. But look at Colossians 3, 16.