Taking The Message

We're learning what the early church was like and all that was going on there in the first generation of Christianity, New Testament Christianity. So let's turn in our Bibles to the book of Acts. We were starting last week, if you weren't here, we went through chapter 1, verses 1 through 8. And I know we have our mid-week meetings and one of the goals is to make application to our life.

And I just was thinking this week, I know Brother David and I have been working. He worked a couple of days down with me in Columbus and down in the lower end of town there. And just seeing the need and having vision of maybe us as a congregation just putting into practice these things on a practical level.

And having thoughts of renting the apartment I'm remodeling and using that as a base for what we're going to see here in the New Testament. I think it would be exciting, this is the way I think, I think it would be exciting for us to set up a post there in inner city Columbus, a difficult area. And I can envision, I think this would be exciting for us to obviously do evangelistic work there.

But also have a place there where we have a building, a complex, an apartment where we feed people maybe two days a week. Maybe start there and open it up for meals and then move to a men's Bible study one night a week with two meals and a Bible study and then a women's Bible study. And then a children's day of ministry for the youth so that four or five days a week there's things happening there.

People begin to recognize this place as a place where good things are happening. And we can meet needs and try to help, I know it's a lot of drugs down there and a lot of influences. But when the Lord said go into all the world, when He said that 2,000 years ago, He understood what kind of world that would be.

And there's a lot worse places I've been to than inner city Columbus. But it would be a step in the right direction toward New Testament Christianity. And I think we could spend maybe Friday evenings there as men preaching on the street corner near there.

There's bars, there's things that are going on there, people are out and about. We could have a testimonial light in the midst of that darkness, a little Jerusalem per se. So it would cost us some money, it would cost us some time, but it would be beneficial.

And if anything else, you know, even in Noah's day there was no converts per se, but we do need to train people. We need to train people in ministry. If we're going to send them, they need to have some training.

And so to drop people into the inner city and have them spend time there is a good training ground. I spent four years in inner city Chicago as a young man, going door to door, spending weekends there until late at night. It was a great training time.

So some ideas. So I'm remodeling, there's actually two apartment complexes. A man who I know well up here in Mount Vernon owns them both.

So probably if I would say to him, hey, I'd like to rent one and here's what we're going to do with it, he'd say go for it. Because he hardly gets any rent from the other places he's renting down there because he has, like he says, he has like eight renters, but five of them he's in court with them, trying to get money from them. So it's a difficult area.

So with that in mind, I think it would be beneficial as we go through the book of Acts that we're not only just putting facts in our head and seeing what could be done, but actually reaching out and doing it. And establishing a church in Jerusalem. A church in Antioch and Iconium and Lystra.

And as we go down through this. So that's a thought. If any of you have thoughts.

I know Brother Cleat had passed around the time of prayer and just talking. We wanted to talk about some of these things. We have some young people I think that are ready to go and would be chomping at the bit to get involved in something that is challenging.

And I think it's good for us as Christians to be challenged deeply with our faith. And we're not going to get that much challenge here. Alright, so here we come again to the book of Acts.

And Luke is writing the book of Acts. He has already written his gospel. And in Acts chapter 1, verse 1, he says, The former treaties, he's talking about the gospel of Luke, Have I made, O Theophilus, and we talked about Theophilus, a lover of God, of all that Jesus began both to do and to teach.

And so the gospel of Luke was a testimony of the life of Jesus. And now Luke is writing this testimony to the same individual. And this is a testimony of the life of the apostles and the early church.

And that first generation that sprung up after the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I share here this morning, and I'll just remind you again, How that always life springs forth out of death. And you're never going to be resurrected until you die.

And I know we can talk about physical death, and praise God that there's going to be a resurrection. But spiritually speaking, you can never have a resurrected life in this world until you first are willing to die. And that corn of wheat falling into the ground, Paul talked about the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his suffering.

If we're not willing to suffer and lay down our life for Jesus' sake in the gospel, we can mark it down, there's not going to be a willingness for God to give us that power to quicken us and to raise us up. Except the corn of wheat fall into the ground and die to bite us alone. But if it die, here's the blessing, if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.

So look at your life, look in the mirror. Is your life a fruitful life? Is your life of life that's bringing forth much fruit? There's much influence, there's much fruit coming out of this life. If it's not that way, it's because you're still living.

You're still pursuing an agenda, you're still wanting to have life for yourself. You're not willing to lay it down. And I shared with you last week how Jesus is the head of the church, he was the chief cornerstone, he is the foundation, he and the apostles, and he himself laid his life down.

He was the first seed. If you picture the life of Jesus as the first seed that went down into the ground, he was buried and then God raised him up. And then the apostles were the next generation.

They all laid their life down. I understand from history that 11 of the 12 disciples were martyrs. They all laid their life down and out of their life came more fruit.

And we see this in the book of Acts. Jesus first, then the apostles, then the first generation. And as these people lay their life down and die for the gospel's sake, God is able to raise them up and give them power and life.

And so we see this power that's expressed in the book of Acts. And this is why Jesus said, if you want to follow me, you need to take up a cross. We're going to go down this direction.

You're going to have to deny yourself. You're going to have to lay your life down. You're going to take up a cross and you're going to lose your life for my sake and the gospel's.

You're going to hate your life in this world, that you might keep it unto life eternal. So those are realities. I know that many people are frustrated.

They're frustrated about Christianity. It doesn't seem to work. I've had many kids on college campus come to me and say, I tried that.

I tried that Christian thing. It don't work. It never got buried.

I tried those seeds. You know, I put those seeds on my countertop and I tried them for a couple of years even. I tried them and nothing came out of those seeds.

See? Ain't no good. Yeah, that's right. Nothing's going to come out of them unless you put them in the ground and bury them.

You've got to try it. So I would encourage you to bury your life. Just bury it.

I've got all kinds of plans and I want to do this and that and I want to get married and I want to have a business and we're going to prosper and we're going to do all this stuff. And I've got plans. Well, those plans need to go under, about six feet under.

Bury them. Then all of a sudden when you bury them, something inside of you is going to get quickened, like that embryo in that seed and it's going to start shooting forth. But it takes a burial.

Paul learned this lesson in 1 Corinthians 12. He said, Most gladly will I rather glory in mine infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmity, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake, for when I am weak, then am I strong.

So I know I'm trying to encourage us all to be weak. We don't like to be weak. We like to be strong in our own strength.

But the Bible encourages us to go down, to be willing to be weak, to be willing to be humiliated, to be willing to be persecuted, to be willing to bear infirmity. So we talked about that some last week. This is just a review for those of you who weren't here.

But I want to also review, just mention to you, how the Word of God was growing in three different places. It seems like it's evenly laid out in the book of Acts. It says in Acts 6-7, And the Word of God increased, and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem.

This is a war going on. God trying to send His Word out into the world. The devil trying to stop it.

In Acts 12, about seven chapters later, in verse 24 it says, But the Word of God grew and multiplied. You know, seeds multiply. They grow and they multiply.

The corn ear produces a hundred seeds and it multiplies. And then in Acts 19, we looked at this last week, Acts 19 verse 20, by the way, repetition is the key to learning. It's good to go over things again.

Acts 19 verse 20, So mightily grew the Word of God and prevailed. So the Word of God, this is what's happening. The Word of God is going forth and it's spreading.

The entrance of Thy Word gives light. And who hates light but the darkness? Darkness hates light and darkness will try to put out the light. So throughout the book of Acts there is hatred.

Hatred coming from these people who are spreading the Word of God under the power of the Spirit of God and the darkness is trying to stop it. So as I shared last week, if you read the book of Acts, you want to read it accurately, you read it as a war between light and darkness. God's Spirit filling up His people to give them the boldness and courage to go forth and spread the Word of God and the devil trying to stop it.

And over and over, every chapter, there's this war. God's people are ending up in prison. Some of them are getting killed and stoned.

So that still is a war today. It's still going on. And let's not be AWOL.

And let's get on the front lines and fight. This is a war. Well, let's go to Acts chapter 1 here and we'll pick up in verse number 9. Acts chapter 1 verse 9 is where we're at.

Lord, help us this morning as we look at Your Word that You would enlighten our hearts and minds and more than that, that You'd motivate us to go forth. Lord, thank You for vision. Thank You for stirring up in our hearts what we can do.

And Lord, may we send people to the ends of the earth to be a light, to share the glorious gospel, to teach people the Word of God. And may we do it here in our community and also even in Columbus, Lord, in Cleveland, in those areas that we can reach as a congregation here locally. Lord, give us that passion and that vision.

Lord, bless the teaching here this morning. According to Your will, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

All right, we come here to verse number 9. And I'm going to get motivated here by the time I get through this book. I hope I'm a different person by the time I get to the book of Acts. You check me out and make sure.

Look at me real close now and then about a year and a half, look at me again. So let's all get motivated and raise our standard of Christianity. Verse 9 here.

And when he had spoken these things, he told them they're going to receive power. After that, the Holy Ghost has come upon them and they're going to be witnesses. Remember that word witnesses means a martyr.

It's the word martyrio. You're going to be a martyr. You're going to suffer through this witness.

In Judea and Jerusalem, Samaria, and the other most parts of the earth. Verse 9. And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up, and a cloud received him out of their sight. Now the Lord here returns to heaven.

And this is reality, but it's also in a sense symbolic because He returns to heaven now to sit down at the right hand of His Father. And His ministry is now finished. And so these disciples see Him leave the earth.

He has come to the earth. As a matter of fact, in Hebrews 10, Jesus says God told Him to go and to be a sacrifice that the blood of bulls and goats could never take away sins. Then Jesus says, I'll come.

I'll go to the earth and I'll offer up Myself as a sacrifice for the sins of the world. And the Father agrees. The Son comes.

And He comes into this world and He lives a perfect life and then He lays Himself down. He fulfills what John the Baptist said. The first day He saw Him, behold, the Lamb of God which takes away the sins of the world.

And so Jesus becomes the Lamb. Now He is raised up. He has redeemed humanity.

And He now is ascending up. And these disciples see Him leaving. And He is going back to heaven.

And so His ministry, His work of redemption is fulfilled and it is finished. Now the work of salvation is a twofold work. Number one, Jesus needs to redeem us by His blood.

No human being could redeem humanity outside of the Lord Himself. And so the Lord Jesus has redeemed us by His blood. Now though, the body of Christ, the church, has to fulfill its part and that part is to take this message of redemption to the world.

Take the message. Both of these parts require suffering. Jesus suffered and the church is going to suffer.

In order to die for the sins of the world, Jesus was humiliated. He was persecuted and He was martyred. In order for the church to take this message to the world, they will be humiliated.

They will be persecuted and many of them will be martyred. And so we have this ministry. And it's not a small thing.

Many people try to make a little deal out of it. Many other things they make a big deal out of. But this is a big deal.

This is a major thing. This is having to do with the very purpose of redemption. Can you imagine purchasing a field, that field out there, maybe a hundred acres, and having your investment in that and seeing a beautiful harvest and yet having no one to bring it in? What a waste.

And so when the Lord thought about sending His Son to die and to purchase a field, He also thought, boy, I better get someone to bring it in. I better get someone to harvest this field. And so, that is the work that you and I have.

And so the Father sent the Son into the world to suffer and die and we are sent also by Jesus, go ye into all the world, to suffer and to die in taking the message of the Gospel. And you're going to see that these disciples are going to suffer for that message. John 20, 21.

I emphasize this as we went through John. Jesus said this twice in the end of the book of John. As My Father has sent Me, even so send I you.

In His mind, My Father in Heaven sent Me down here to die and to redeem the souls of humanity even in the very same way. Now I'm going to send you all into this world to lay your life down to take the message of salvation to the world. And I don't find any better life than that.

If you want to have a good life, give your life to taking the Gospel and teaching people the Word of God. That's a good life. And being a minister, whether you're a man or a woman, just teaching and sharing the Word of God and raising up children to the Lord.

So after Christ's work of redemption was done, this is interesting, He is raised up. He ascends up before the disciples and the next chapter says He is seated at the right hand of God. In other words, He is given a place of reward and a place of authority.

And He says to us, Follow Me! Follow Me! You saw Me. I was humiliated. I was persecuted.

I laid My life down. You do the same thing and God's going to raise you up and set you up here with Me. And you and I will be rewarded if we're also willing to follow the example of Jesus.

And so when our work is done, we'll also get a reward. If we suffer with Him, we shall reign with Him. So I would encourage you to follow Jesus.

And I know you think about following Jesus. That means being honest, like Brother Cleves said. That's right.

That's a part of it. It teaches them to observe all things, but the main aspect of following Jesus is to come into the world, to lose your life, to be raised up, and to be seated in a place of reward and authority. That's following Jesus.

Well, you know the story of Zebedee's children, the mother of Zebedee's children. You know, my boys, my boys, I want them to sit way up there with You, Lord, on the right hand and the left hand and the Lord reminds them, you know, you don't know what you're asking for because you don't understand that I've got to go through great suffering to get to that high place. And so Christianity is a message of losing your life and laying down your life for the Lord's sake.

So we have a privilege, and I call it a privilege. It's a privilege to suffer. It's a privilege to lose your life taking the Gospel to the ends of the earth.

I won't turn to it for the sake of time, but we know this passage, and I quoted it before Moses in Hebrews 11, the book of Faith. Moses chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season because he had respect under the reward. He understood the reward of it all.

He said, I have a choice here. I can live up here with the king in the palace, eat steak every day, I mean, have everything I want, have luxury and ease, or I can go down there with the Israelites and be a slave with them. And Moses made a choice.

He said, you know what, it's better to be down there and suffering with these people because the reward in eternity is far greater than for me to stay up here in the palace and live a life of ease. So if you want to really see God work in your life, do like Moses and say, I'm going to go down and suffer. I'm going to be willing to take that road and suffer to lay my life down.

And that's a step of faith. The step of believing. As Brother David mentioned this morning, that there is a world to come and that we're not living for this present world, we're living for the world to come.

You know, Moses and Abraham, these were men who had faith. They were men of faith. Abraham was a friend of God.

He was a man of faith. But he saw a city whose builder and maker was God. And he lived in tents.

He didn't want to enjoy this life. Just give me a tent. Because he was laying everything down for the life to come.

Here's something else amazing I think. This whole thing is a beautiful thing. We're only scratching the surface.

But Jesus does not leave us alone. I love what Jesus said to the disciples. My Father has not left me alone.

I've come down here and my Father is with me. And I'll tell you what, I'm going to send you into the world and you're going to suffer, but I'm not going to leave you alone either. I will not leave you comfortless.

I will come to you. And I will not leave you alone. And that's exactly what happened.

The Holy Spirit has come. And He is the Comforter. He needs to comfort us in all our affliction that we are going through.

He came on the Day of Pentecost to empower His body for this great task. And it's interesting, as soon as He came, He spoke in languages. The Spirit of God spoke in languages through His children that everyone could understand and 3,000 people were converted.

It's amazing. That's the work that God is trying to do through each one of us. And the harvest was begun.

And it's continuing even to this day. So let's just be practical. Christ is living in you.

He's living in you. If you're a Christian, to give you the power and the grace and the comfort to go forth to labor in the harvest. There's only one prayer request Jesus ever made of His disciples, and that was to pray for labors.

Pray for labors. So if there's anything, we as a church, this is my goal. I know what your goal is.

If there's anything, we as a church, after 100 years, if we're here that long, I won't be here that long. But after 100 years, I think if there's anything that people could say this was a good place, it would be because we sent out labors into the field. I think that's the goal that we ought to have.

We ought to be sending people out. We ought to be sending people out locally. We ought to be sending people out into the cities in here.

And we ought to be sending them to the ends of the earth. And if we just sit here in a little group and we enjoy ourselves and our houses and our lands and our families and we don't reach out to anyone, we fail. It may look good.

It may feel good. But someday you're going to stand before the Lord and you're going to realize that was a total failure. So, you know, Brother Cleats, they're thinking about going to Serbia, possibly, and it's going to be a sacrifice, a great sacrifice.

And are there other families who are willing to reach out and to sacrifice and to go? I mean, we can sacrifice here. I'm not saying you have to go anyplace else to sacrifice, but it is a great sacrifice to lose your life for Jesus' sake and the Gospels. We're all getting older.

By the way, it should be easier for us who are 60, 65, to sacrifice. We don't have too much time left. I look back at these young people who are 20.

I remember when I was 21, 22, they got this whole life ahead of them and there's many, many wonderful things ahead of them. Are they willing to just lay that all down and say, I'm giving it all up for Jesus? Here I am, 62 years old. I've been married.

I have children. I may have grandchildren someday. I've had a business.

I've enjoyed all kinds of things. Hey, the Lord says to me, time for you to sacrifice. I don't have a whole lot left.

And I want to sacrifice, by the way. That's my desire. So it's the call of God.

As my Father has sent me, even so send I you. And so the Lord is returning. And I just love this idea of the Lord in His body.

He came and He died for us in His body. Then He went back to heaven, sat down and sent the Holy Spirit of Christ in us. Now He is in His body here.

And He's fulfilling not only the redemption of our soul, but He's fulfilling through us the propagation of the Gospel throughout the entire earth. So the Lord's still doing it all. All we have to do is just thank Him and acknowledge Him.

That's why we always say it's always by the grace of God. It's not about me. It's about me just giving in.

Verse 10 And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men, their angels actually, stood by them in white apparel, which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand you gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven shall so come in like manner as you have seen Him go into heaven. And so here we have this promise that the angels give these disciples of His bodily return. This same Jesus.

And so I believe the Bible is true. It's not obsolete. It's absolute.

And that this same Jesus that they saw standing there, 6'2", 185 pounds, I'm just guessing, that same Jesus in His glorified body ascended up. They stood there. They watched Him go up into the clouds.

He went back to heaven. And these angels say that this same Jesus which you have seen go up in front and before you is going to come in the very same way as you've seen Him go. So I believe in a physical bodily return of the Lord Jesus Christ.

He left in a glorified body. He's going to come. The same Jesus that left.

The Bible says He comes here in the same manner. And that means He's coming back the same way He left. The Bible says He's going to get up one day from His seat on the right hand of God.

He's going to descend into the clouds. Remember, He went from the Mount of Olives into the clouds and then up to heaven. He's coming from the heaven to the clouds.

It says He'll descend in 1 Thessalonians into the clouds and we'll get called up to meet Him in the air. And then He's going to continue. He's going to put His foot down on the Mount of Olives.

Same spot. I believe there's a spot over there in Jerusalem, on the Mount of Olives, that the Lord is going to put His foot the same place it was when He went up. He'll return the very same way.

Zechariah 14, we don't have time to read it. You can read it. It talks about His foot shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives, and the Mount of Olives shall split, and the Lord my God shall come and all the saints with Him.

So He's coming back in the very same way that He left. Now you young people and some of you older ones that were there on Saturday mornings that year, we talked about the second coming of Christ. I just want to remind everybody again, I may not be here when it happens, so I won't be able to remind you then, but just remind you this.

He is coming back the same way He left. He is coming back from Heaven. Because Jesus said in the book of Matthew, Matthew 24, that there's going to be a great deception in the last days, and they're going to say, behold, He's in the secret chamber.

Behold, He is in the desert. Go not after them. In other words, Christ is not going to come from here, from this earth, from down here.

Our Christ is going to come from Heaven. Many false Christs are going to come, and they're going to rise up here and here, but they're all from down here on the earth. The Lord says don't go out there in the forest if they say Christ is sitting out there and He wants to talk with you or in some secret room somewhere or some temple.

He says, No, as the lightning comes and shines from east to west, so shall the coming of the Son of Man be. I am coming from Heaven, and every eye will see. That's a visible coming.

Philippians 3.20, I like this verse. It says, For our conversation is in Heaven, from whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body. So, He is coming from Heaven.

We're looking up that way. That's why the Bible encourages us to always look up, not down. You know, when God made the ark, He told Noah to build it a certain way.

He said, I want one window. And that window wasn't on the side of the boat, it was on the top. It was in the roof.

Because the only place they could look was up. So the Lord is coming from Heaven. Let's keep reading here in verse 12.

Then returned they unto Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is from Jerusalem, at Sabbath day's journey. They are told here by the Lord to tarry in Jerusalem. And I'm wondering here, maybe this is the same room where they had the Lord's Supper.

And here's a good question for us. Do we tarry? Do we tarry? Do we need a tarrying meeting? A lot of people have tarrying meetings. Let's tarry.

Do we tarry in Jerusalem? We have to go over to Jerusalem and tarry. And wait for this promise of the Holy Spirit to come. Well, they were tarrying there because the Lord had told them to tarry there.

The Holy Spirit was not yet come. And they were to tarry there until He came. But today, that flow of the Spirit of God has been rushing for 2,000 years.

We don't have to tarry for it. It's already here. So they were tarrying.

We can pray that the Holy Ghost would fill us and that we would be controlled by the Spirit of God, but this tarrying meeting that they have here was not going to move the Holy Spirit any faster. The Holy Spirit was coming on the day of Pentecost and they were to tarry in Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit came. It's kind of like a pipeline.

You know, if Canada has an oil well way up in the northern part of Canada and they're piping it into the United States and people in the United States are waiting for the oil and they're tarrying and there's no oil coming and they're waiting, waiting. They're being told that there's oil coming down the pipeline. And so finally the oil comes gushing out.

That was the day of Pentecost. And they say, we don't have to tarry any longer. It's already here.

Let's just enjoy the oil. Well, 2,000 years ago on the day of Pentecost the oil started to come. And we can enjoy the presence of this oil.

As I think Brother David mentioned this morning, breathe on the breath of God. He's already come. Verse 13, And when they were come in, they went up into an upper room, where abode both Peter and James and John and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus and Simon Zelotes and Judas the brother of James.

These are the 12, excuse me, the 11. Actually next Sunday we'll talk about they're going to name another disciple. But these are the 11.

Verse 14 says, These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus and with his brethren. So there were at least these 11 in the upper room, these disciples with the women. God puts that in here.

There's many women who've been following Jesus and ministering unto Him. And these women are there. And if you look down to verse 15 it says, In those days Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples and said, The number of names together were about 120.

And so we've gone from Jesus, one, to Him training 12, to now there's 120. And in a very short time here there's going to be 3,000 more converted. And a few chapters later, 5,000 more.

So this thing is beginning to multiply. So there's 120 now. I think we have maybe 100 here right now.

So 120 people were in the upper room. It says here Mary the mother of Jesus was there. By the way, they weren't falling down and worshipping here and kissing her feet and praying to her.

And it says His brethren were there. These are the same brethren that in John chapter 7 didn't believe Jesus was the Messiah. Obviously the resurrection changed their thoughts, changed their mind.

But they're there in prayer and in supplication. And I don't know here what their prayer, it would be interesting to be there at this prayer meeting, but they've been told to tarry here and to wait. They know the will of God.

They know what's coming. And so they're praying, preparing themselves, maybe praying also as we get down here later on in the chapter for who's going to take Judas' place, who's going to fill his place, but they're praying and they're supplicating. I'd just like to talk about prayer and supplication here.

Prayer is asking. You know, Jesus when He was asked to pray, He said say these words. Say this.

Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. And this and this and this and this. And then He moves on and here it says they were praying and they were supplicating.

They were supplicating. What is supplication? Supplication is this idea of praying through, is holding on, is continuing in prayer. It's this idea of much begging, supplicating.

You see in the Bible examples of this. This widow woman who had no standing, who had no husband, who came to a judge and she kept crying, avenge me of my adversary. And the judge would not.

She asked. She prayed. He would not for a while.

She kept begging, begging, begging, begging. Until finally the Lord tells us the lesson of the story is because this judge got tired of this lady. He got tired of her begging.

He said finally I'm just going to do it for you because I'm tired of hearing you. But the Lord says see, that's a lesson for you. I want you to come.

I want you to pray with supplication. Much begging. Supplication.

We use the word supply. Supplication. The idea of praying through.

Some of you have heard this illustration. It's a wonderful illustration. I've told it throughout the years.

I don't tell it like the man who told it because he actually understood it and lived in it. He actually came out of South Africa. This idea of praying through.

There was a man who was in an accident or was sick and he was in a coma. He was actually a minister. And he was well known in the area of South Africa.

And he had gotten sick. Went into a coma. He was in a coma for a number of months.

And there was question whether or not he would get out of that coma. Whether he would even live. And later on he did come out of the coma.

And he was healthy and he was healed. But he told a story of what happened to him while he was in the coma, which teaches about this idea of praying through and supplicating. He said, one day I was in this coma in my subconscious.

He tells this testimony. And I saw this great crowd of people, some religious gathering. And he recognized it as his brothers and sisters, this great gathering.

And someone got up in front. And he was seeing this in a vision and said, hey, we need to pray for Brother So-and-So in the coma. And that he would be healed.

So they got down on their knees for maybe five minutes and they offered up a prayer to the Lord. And this man was telling us, he's in this coma, he's seeing this vision, that the scene shifts from this congregation that got on their knees for five minutes to pray for him to this room where he was. And there was no one else in this room.

And there was a bunch of leaves on the ground, dried leaves. And as these people are praying, he sees these leaves start to rise and stir. And then these leaves start to go up and start to hit the ceiling.

And he's kind of wondering what's going on here. Then in his spirit he realizes that they're praying and that God wants to heal him. And that these prayers are hitting the ceiling.

And he's hoping that this ceiling will open up and that the prayer will get through. The idea of praying through. So he's observing this in his vision there.

And they stop praying after about five or ten minutes. And the leaves settle down and go back to the floor. He says later on and time-wise, he doesn't know because he's in a coma, but later on he has a servant girl.

His name is Sophie. It's a dramatic story as he tells it. But as he's in the vision, he sees this girl Sophie.

She was a praying young lady. And she got on her knees in the kitchen of their house. And he recognized her and she began to pray for him.

And really pray for him. And pray and pray and pray. And as he sees her in the vision, he also is transported out to this room where the leaves are.

And he again sees the leaves start to stir and stir. And all of a sudden, one by one, they begin to hit the ceiling. And he said in his heart, he began to cry out, Sophie, pray through.

Sophie, pray through. And Sophie kept praying and praying. And the leaves would hit the ceiling harder and harder.

And his heart was, Sophie, pray through. And finally, all of a sudden, he saw in his vision that the ceiling opened up and the leaves just went right up through him. And immediately he woke up from the coma.

Right there. He was healed. Just the idea of supplicating, praying through.

Prayer is asking. And supplication is much begging. And Daniel prayed and supplicated for 21 days.

He fasted and prayed and he supplicated before God. Finally, an angel came to him with his answer. So that's an attitude that we ought to have, an attitude of prayer and supplication.

I'd like you to turn with me to Luke 11. There's an example here the Lord gives in Luke 11. It's about soul winning in a sense, finding bread for sinners.

In Luke 11, verse 1, it says, It came to pass that as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray as John also taught his disciples. And he gives them the Lord's prayer here in verse 2, 3, and 4. And then he gives an example here of supplication. He moves right on to verse 5. And he said unto them, Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go unto him at midnight, and say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves? For a friend of mine, his journey is come to me, and I have nothing to set before him.

It's kind of like this idea, I don't have anything to give to these sinners out here, these friends. I want to feed them. I have nothing to give them.

Verse 7, And he from within shall answer and say, Trouble me not. The door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed. I cannot rise and give these.

So this man comes and he asks, he makes a petition, he prays, He says, Can I have some bread? I got a friend here that's needing some food, and I have nothing. Can you give me something? And the guy from within says, No, I'm tired, I'm in bed. Oh, the kids, I don't have my clothes on.

Just go, go away. It's midnight. What are you doing anyway at midnight? Verse 8, I say unto you, Here's the lesson.

I say unto you, Though he will not rise and give him, because he is his friend. Relationship, relationship. You might have a relationship with God.

You might be a friend of God. This relationship did not motivate him to get up and give him some bread. Even though he was his friend.

Though he will not rise and give him, because he is his friend. Yes, here's why he will give it to him. Because of his importunity, his urgency, his much begging, his pleading, he will rise and give him as many as he needs.

In other words, this guy is bothering me. It's like the judge. This guy is urgent.

He is crying out. He is not going to give up. So even though he is my friend, and I should get up because he is my friend, we have a relationship.

I won't do it for that. But this guy, he is bothering me so much, and he is so urgent. I am going to do it.

So the Lord gives that lesson here. It's a lesson of prayer. Let's keep reading.

There is another lesson here. Verse 9, And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you. Seek, and you shall find.

Knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For everyone that asks, receives. And he that seeks, finds.

And to him that knocks, it shall be opened. If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? How many of you are good fathers, and your son says, Daddy, I need a loaf of bread? Here is a stone. Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent, something harmful? Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? Now here is the lesson.

If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him? Now there should not be any lack in the Holy Spirit of God because the Lord is saying to us, Listen, I'm willing to give the Holy Spirit. Any good father gives an egg, gives a piece of bread to his son. I wouldn't give you something that harms you.

You know, some of us pray for things that will harm us, and God doesn't give us those things. But if it's something like the Spirit of God, and so you have in the book of Acts, Acts chapter 4, the children of God are praying, and they're asking for the boldness, the courage, the power to be a witness. Give us the Spirit of God.

You said the Holy Spirit is going to come and He's going to give us the power to witness. We need the power. They're threatening us.

We're going to pray. I wonder how many people pray those kinds of prayers. God, give me the Holy Spirit of God that I can have the boldness to witness in the midst of threatening.

That's a good prayer, isn't it? And of course, you know, the Lord then filled the house, and the whole place was shaking. And they received. I think a lot of times we, you know, we miss the mark.

A lot of times our prayers are more self-centered than they are Christ-centered, His purposes, His desires. That reminds me of my hunting story. I didn't know how to hunt.

I still don't know how to hunt to this day. But they handed me a gun probably 15 years ago and said, let's go hunting. I went with a bunch of brothers down south in the southern part of Ohio.

And I was just out there to enjoy the scenery and nature. And I wasn't planning on shooting anything. Just fellowshipping and being with the guys.

And I was doing a lot of the driving. Fine with me. Let them shoot the deer.

Well, I got situated in some place where they had me sit along a certain place where the deer were supposedly running. And I wasn't planning on shooting anything. I don't like to kill animals anyway.

And so I'm sitting there behind this stone. And all of a sudden this nice doe comes and stands right in front of me there sideways. Kind of waiting for me to shoot it.

So I sit there. I don't know if I shoot it. Because if it runs down, somebody else will shoot it.

You know, there's a couple other guys down the way. Thinking, well, I might as well just take a shot. See if I can hit it.

So I got the gun up. That deer just stood there for me. Just looked at me.

So I aimed it. Shaken a little bit, you know. Pow! That deer just kind of jumped up.

Started to run. Went about 100 yards down there. And I heard, bang, bang, bang! I got shot.

So later on, I was telling the guys, then I must have missed that thing. I thought I had it lined up perfect, you know. And just standing broadside.

It was maybe, I don't know, 100 feet away. It was an easy shot. Anybody who knew anything about hunting would have hit it.

So then we were practicing shooting. And I was practicing my shot. And someone who knew about hunting said, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

Wait a minute. You got the wrong eye closed there. I was looking down the barrel with this eye.

And this eye was closed. And he said, no, wait a minute. Wait a minute.

You closed this eye. And you looked down the barrel. And all of a sudden, things shifted way over here.

Oh, that will make a difference, doesn't it? So needless to say, I didn't have much of a chance to hit the target with the way I was shooting. And many people pray, and they don't hit the target. Because the target is what God wants.

That's the right eye. That's the single eye. The target is not what you want.

And you need to say, Lord, it doesn't matter what I want. Not my will, but yours be done. And then we can hit the target.

The Bible says if we ask anything according to what? His will, he hears us. And if he hears us, we have the petitions that we ask of him. And so one brother, a Baptist brother, a preacher, told me this.

He said this, that the goal of prayer is the will of God. That's the goal. And if you can hit the will of God, you're going to hit the prayer.

You're going to get it right. And so the Holy Spirit of God, ask your Heavenly Father, because the Holy Spirit is going to ask him. So the Lord has returned, and he's even sitting at the right hand of God today.

And he has fulfilled his ministry. And he is now in us, working through us to fulfill taking of this message to the end of the earth. Are we going to be willing as a congregation, as individuals, to say, here am I, send me.

Here am I. I'm going to give up my body. I'm going to let this body die. I'm going to bury it.

My desire is my will. I'm going to bury it, and I'm going to watch that little embryo in there. I'm going to watch that thing come to life.

And Jesus manifests himself in me. Remember the verse we looked at a few weeks ago? Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. And you look at that seed that's laying on the top there, it's just there's no life in it.

You tell me there's life in there. You say there's life, and there is life in that seed, but I don't see anything happening. So Christianity ought not to be there's life in there, but nothing's happening.

There ought to be a lot happening in there. Roots being shot down, a stem up, root, good thing. So we're setting the stage for what's going to happen here as this group of 120 say, it's all yours.

We've left our occupations. We've left in some cases our families. We've left it all.

We've forsaken everything, and we're here. We're waiting for the promise of the Father. So we'll see over the next, oh, my, year, year and a half, what happens when people are surrendered to the will of God.

Let's close this evening or this morning with a prayer, and we'll open it up for anyone to share.