Well, these two days have been very special. In fact, they've been wonderful. I'm sure you like me, I've been stirred, I've been rebuked. Some messages have been bittersweet because I've had my sins exposed. And then I've had Christ preach to me, and the one who comes and cleanses my sins. And there's that wonderful fountain opened up for sin and uncleanness. And we go there again, and again, and again. I sometimes feel like I'm a, there are footmarks where I've come out of the far country, returning to the Father, returning to the Father. But it's been a very blessed time, and surely our prayer is that if we are changed, and we go back to our churches, they won't just be the ripples that go out, but if we are men and women on fire for Christ, then the fire would spread and what's been kindled in our hearts might be kindled in the hearts of others for the glory of God. What I'm going to speak on is life-giving preaching and prayer. I'm not going to begin with a reading because we're going to be looking at various passages of Scripture as we go through the message. Life-giving preaching and prayer. Now, why do we preach? That's a good question, isn't it? And the answer is, it's because preaching and the kingdom of God are conjoined twins. When God is at work, He calls, commissions, and sends preachers, those who have fire in their bones. And as they are sent, they declare the word of the King. So Paul says to the Romans, chapter 10, how then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it's written, how beautiful are the feet of those who preach good news. Without preaching, we perish. So what is preaching? Well, I'm told in the New Testament there are four key words. associated with preaching. The first is caruso. It means the preacher is a herald. He is sent by the king, clothed with the king's authority, to declare the word of the king. The second word is euangelizo. It conveys something of the spirit of the preaching. The preacher proclaims good news. The preacher bears witness to the great facts of the gospel. That Jesus Christ came into this world to save sinners. Christ was born. He lived. He died. He rose again. And finally, Didasco. We open the Bible and we teach. What do these verses mean? What does this passage mean? What does this book mean? And what are the implications But how are we to respond? It is all about change. There are things I have to unlearn. And there are new things I have to learn. And through it all I am learning of Christ. So the preacher is a herald. He proclaims the message of God. A message which is good news. A message which is rooted in truth. facts, events. We're not postmodernists. And it's a message to bring me to God through Jesus Christ. Therefore, in that sense, all preaching ultimately is Christ-shaped. Okay, preaching. But not all preaching is preaching. Why are some sermons life-giving and some are not? You know what I mean. A preacher on paper can have a wonderful sermon, has all the right ingredients. There's a fine exegesis of the passage. It's full of doctrinal meat. There's a clear structure, vivid illustrations. The applications are sharp, they're pointed, they're arrows that seem to go to the heart. And it's an experienced preacher. He delivers the message with an urgency. Maybe there's a sort of dramatic power in the preaching. And yet for all that, the sermon is dead. And the people under it are dead. Why is that? And equally, a preacher can have a message, and you might say to any budding preacher, never ever preach like that. And yet for all its faults, when it's preached it's a message that transforms it gives life so what is life giving preaching what is that something extra that's something more that actually makes preaching preaching and without which the message is dead a friend of mine in the ministry is going through a A very difficult time, his church had kicked him out, they didn't want him anymore, and he went back to secular employment, and he was in the doldrums, and he didn't know quite what to do, and he received an invitation to go and preach in India. So what did he preach? Well, he preached the sermons that he preached at his old church, the church that had rejected him, the same messages. And what happened? Large numbers were saved. In fact, it was a loudspeaker system. As people were passing, who had nothing to do with it, they stopped, they listened, they drew near, and they too were converted. So sermons which had absolutely no impact on an evangelical church, a Bible-believing, Bible-preaching church in the UK, the hearers under it had been dead. Those same sermons gave life to hundreds in India. So what was the difference? What is life-giving preaching? We divide our time into two. Point number one is very simply, what is life-giving preaching? What is it? So come with me to 1 Thessalonians and chapter 1. 1 Thessalonians 1. Now Paul comes to Thessalonica, as you know he's there for a very short time, extraordinarily short time, but during that short time there's a remarkable work of God and a church is planted. So what happened? Well we're just gonna cut in to verse 5, chapter 1, 1 Thessalonians 1 verse 5. This is what Paul says, Our gospel came to you not only in word but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction." Chapter 2 verse 13, and we also thank God constantly for this, that when you receive the Word of God which you heard from us, you accept it not as the Word of men, but as what it really is, the Word of God, which is at work in you believers. So the Gospel comes to Thessalonica in Word. Paul opened the Old Testament, his Old Testament Bible, Acts chapter 17 we read, he reasoned, explained, proved that Jesus, that the Jesus of history is the Christ of Scripture. And that far from his death needed to be explained away, Paul proved that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead. It was all very simple. There was no apostolic roadshow, no special methods. It was just a man, an open Bible, the Old Testament, and he's preaching Christ. The gospel came to them in word. But of course that's not the whole story. Verse 5, because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit. and with full conviction. Nothing impressive about the preacher or his method, or for that matter, nothing terribly impressive about his message. Jews stumble over it, Greeks laugh at it, and yet when Paul preached, something happened. There was a power An invincible, irresistible power. A power that conquered the hardest skeptics, the greatest sinners. It was a divine power. The power of the Holy Spirit. When Paul preached, heaven came down. God was in the gospel. The divine filled out the preached Word. God is here, says Paul, we felt it. You felt it. Our gospel came to you not only in word but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. The word as it was preached was self-authenticating. Now how do you know the sun shines? Do you take a torch? and shine it on the sun to find out if the sun is shining. Well, it's absurd, isn't it? Because it self-evidently shines. You don't have to stand in the light of the sun to know the sun shines. Paul says, the Word spoke for itself and we stood in its light. And standing in its light, the invisible world could be seen. And invisible realities could be felt. And this great sense that God is here. God is speaking. God is speaking to me. All at once hearts were conquered. The glory of Christ was seen. Sinners were drawn irresistibly to the cross. Our gospel came to you not only in word but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. So it may have been Paul that was preaching. But they heard the voice of the shepherd, and followed him." Life-giving preaching. We learn the same lesson at Corinth, so come with me to 1 Corinthians. Chapter 1. Now Paul comes to Sin City. It's an intimidating place. Maybe there's a sense, well, the gospel here will never get a hearing. Because to modern Corinthian ears, this message is literally moronic. It's stupid. The Jews are looking for signs. The Greeks are looking for some transcendental knowledge. And all Paul is going to give them is Christ crucified. To the Jews it's going to be a stumbling block, because whoever heard of a crucified Messiah? And to the Greeks it's foolishness, it's madness, because what sort of God gets nailed to a cross by His enemies? And yet when Paul preached, life came. So 1 Corinthians chapter 1, verse 22. For Jews demand signs, and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to the Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God." Then going down to chapter 2 verse 1, And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. for I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling. And my speech and my message were not implausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God." When Paul preached, there was spiritual power. It was life-giving preaching. Think of it. It's an unacceptable message. An unacceptable message coming from an unimpressive preacher. And yet when he preaches in Sin City, it's an intimidating place so that Christ has to give a special revelation. Read about it in Acts 18, a special revelation to Paul saying, don't be afraid Paul, you preach on. I have many people in this city. When he preaches, heaven comes down. There's a special anointing on the preaching. The Spirit, he filled the Word. Again, it's that sense that God is here and God is speaking. and God is speaking to me." The Word came with a holy violence. There was a persuasive power and sinners were saved. It is a life giving preaching. It is when God Himself is here. It is when heaven comes down. Our forefathers called it unction. It's hard to describe what it is. You know when it's not there, and you know when it is there. But if someone asked you to say what it is, you couldn't say. I think the nearest we've got, I remember preaching at a young people's camp, and I preached on Christ and His cross, and all the young people got up and went, and there were two of the leaders sitting there, and they were weeping. And one just said to me, he was here. He was here. Maybe that's it, isn't it? God is here. My speech and my message were not implausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power. And of course the preaching of our Lord Jesus Christ. We read in Luke chapter 4, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me. because He has anointed me to proclaim the good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind and to set at liberty those who are oppressed to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor, the year of jubilee. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. Life giving preaching is Spirit anointed preaching where the Spirit Himself comes down and therefore the message crackles with spiritual power and urgency and authority. Now think about how the Holy Spirit is described in Scripture. He is spoken of as the fire. So the fire of the Spirit comes down. And the fire of heaven burns inside the preacher. It is locked up. He has to break out. All the Spirit he has described is oil. The oil of gladness. With the oil of the Spirit he anoints the preacher and therefore the preacher is perfumed with the presence of God. The Spirit, he is the breath. And the breath of life breathes into the preaching. and dry bones live. He's the river. The river of the water of life flows through the message. Sometimes that message goes out, the water gets deeper and deeper and deeper, and the desert is turned into blue. Or Psalm 104, I like this. I like it all, but the Spirit, it talks about the Spirit renewing the face of the ground. It's talking about the coming of the spring. When has the spring come? Don't be an atheist and say, well it's because of the cycle of the seasons and the way the earth rotates. The seasons come, the spring comes, because the Spirit renews the face of the ground, says the Bible. So after the long, dark winter of sin and the curse and death, through the preaching, the spring breaks in. The realities of the life of heaven break in upon the earth. The King is here. The King is taking over. The kingdom of God is coming with power. And after the long winter, it's the springtime of our souls. Life-giving preaching. It doesn't always mean the preacher will be noisy. You can be filled with wind, but it's not the wind of the Spirit. Remember, the Lord was not in the wind, the earthquake, the fire. Elijah wanted judgment. Destroy the Baalites. Destroy the compromising Israelites. And God's answer is a still, small voice. Can I not speak to sinners, says God, in a gentle, winsome voice. Amongst those Baalites, Elijah, I have many of my people. They'll be converted. Maybe not under your ministry, maybe under Elijah's ministry. God so often speaks gently to us, doesn't He? He comes as the dove. It doesn't come as the crow, or the vulture, or the eagle. The Spirit comes as a dove, there's healing in His wings. And a bruised reed He will not break, and a smoking flax He will not quench. The Lord opened the heart of Lydia, didn't He? So gentle, it's unlike the Philippian jailer. The Philippian jailer needs an earthquake. It's like being awakened with a kiss, isn't it? That was what happened to Lydia. So it's not always noisy, but it does mean the preacher is filled with spiritual urgency and there's a supernatural authority because it's not the preacher who's speaking. Maybe his words that you're hearing, but God is here. God is speaking. God is speaking to me. Life-giving preaching. So to our second point. Where then do we get this unction from? We get it from God. How? We ask Him. Yesterday, what did we read? If you then who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him? we ask. I've got three things to say. Thank you for your patience every time I have to step down and go, but I'm just afraid of knocking it flying if I stand here. Three things to say. The first thing is this, personal prayer. Now as a young preacher, Stuart Aldate recommended this book to me. He said, read it, Read it very slowly, take it all in. It's my original copy, Power Through Prayer, E.M. Bounds. And its impact upon me has been profound. Let me just read some words from the opening chapter. He says, What the Church needs today is not more machinery, or better, not new organizations or more unnovel methods, but men whom the Holy Spirit can use." Men of prayer. Men mighty in prayer. The Holy Spirit does not flow through methods, but through men. He does not come down on machinery, but on men. He does not anoint plans, but men. Men of prayer. The man, the whole man, lies behind the sermon. Preaching is not the performance of an hour. It is the outflow of a life. It takes twenty years to make a sermon because it takes twenty years to make the man. The true sermon is a thing of life. The sermon grows because the man grows. The sermon is forceful because the man is forceful. The sermon is holy because the man is holy. The sermon is full of divine unction because the man is full of divine unction." Perhaps we could stop there. God's Spirit anoints men. Not methods, not machinery, not plans, but men. Men of prayer. And therefore if I am a preacher, and there is to be life-giving preaching, I must be a man of prayer." So brothers, am I? How well do I know God? Psalm 25 verse 14 says this, The secret of the Lord is with those who fear Him. Does God confide in you? Does God tell you His secrets? Does God come and disclose, unveil Himself to you in all His majesty and grace in His person? Do we through prayer get our souls within the veil and stay there? Do we walk with Him in the Garden of Eden? After all that is what is behind the veil, isn't it? heaven on earth? Do we come to the throne of grace to commune, to wonder, adore? Do I really believe that a day in His courts, Psalm 84, a day in His courts is better than a thousand? And maybe you say, well, a day in His courts is better than a thousand, but it doesn't actually say what it is. Better than a thousand what? Better than a thousand lifetimes? one day communing with God better than a thousand lifetimes? Is He my song, my joy, my laughter, my delight, my God, my beloved? Are we in pursuit of God? Because if we are, it is a two-way thing. as we pour out our souls to God in prayer, God will pour Himself into you. So when I come to the Word, when I prepare the message, I don't come as a professional. And as I'm looking at the Word, I'm contemplating Christ, but soon the contemplation of Christ becomes communion with Christ. And I've moved from the detached exegesis to worship. I'm in communion with Him as I'm preparing the message. I'm face-to-face with Him as I'm putting these things down. Remember the words on the Emmaus Road, the disciples, they said this, did not our hearts burn within us while He talked to us on the road, while He opened to us the Scriptures. See when we prepare a sermon, it's not a formula, is it? It's a dialogue. It's a dialogue where I'm getting my message from Christ. And so I'm constantly talking with Him, relating to Him, discussing it with Him. What does He think? I'm on my knees, I'm up again, on my knees, I'm up again. I'm not getting anywhere, nothing's happening. So I'm on my knees. Maybe I need to go make a cup of tea, a cup of coffee. Maybe I need to have a walk, get some exercise. Maybe I need to go and find someone and tell them the good news. Actually, I'm on my knees. The point is this, our preaching doesn't stand alone. It's the outflow. It's the outflow of my walk with God. It's the outflow of communion with Him. Do you see the point? What I am with the Lord is what I am. If you are little with God, you will be little for God. But if in prayer I am in the pursuit of God, then God will fill me with Himself. If I am much with Him, He will be much with me. If I am filled with the Spirit of Jesus Christ, then Christ will stand in my preaching. And when I open my arms, and invite people to come to Christ, the reality is that Christ will stand in my preaching with arms open. It will be my voice they hear, but it will be the voice of the shepherd. They will come. Now, of course, before we preach, we pray, don't we? And just before we preach, it's a short prayer. But a short prayer is effective only if it is the outflow of a life of prayer. You can't just have a short prayer and preach. It's got to be a life. The short prayer is resting on the life of prayer. Charles Spurgeon, somebody asked him how long he prayed for. He said, I prayed for 10 minutes. They were thinking, oh, the great Charles Spurgeon only prays for 10 minutes. Then he says, but I never go more than 10 minutes without praying. And isn't that the point? There is a man who is in constant communion, constant communion, constant communication. You see it in the Son of God, don't you? Things happen and immediately he doesn't have to step into God's presence, he is in God's presence. I can enter the veil and spend the whole day within the veil, can't I? It's not a physical thing. I go in there and I remain in there all day, even though I'm doing all sorts of other things. I'm walking with God. I'm living in the presence of God. Let me suggest an application. Brothers, when did you last spend half a day alone with the Lord? Away from all distractions. Your phone's off. You're away from anyone, anything. You're away from the noise, the hubbub, the places, the people. There's a quiet place. You can go. Nobody can find you. They don't know where you are. Well, you can tell them where you've gone. But no one can get to you when you're half a day there. And it's you and the Lord and nobody else. Maybe go for a walk. And you just walk and you talk. And maybe you take your Bible with you, begin with some Psalms, begin with Psalm 51, confession. Psalm 25, however I feel, whatever mood I'm in, however grumpy and miserable I am, Psalm 25 takes me from there into the presence of God. And I'm a different man. Whatever it is. And walk with the Lord. and talk to Him and tell Him all your heart. And maybe it's only when you really get going you realize just how much has been left unsaid between you and the Lord. How much has gone on without you ever really having communion and fellowship with Him. Give yourself to Him and He will give Himself to you. Our forefathers used to talk about praying ourselves empty. Do you know what I mean by that? You have a burden, a weight, and you cannot stop praying, you cannot stop breathing that to the Father until it's gone. Until you've got nothing left to say. Until you've prayed yourself empty. All your heart has been brought to the Lord. Everything has been laid before Him. And you find that when you pray yourself empty, He will fill you with His Spirit. The soul of life-giving preaching is prayer, men who are mighty in prayer. But number two, our churches too must pray for us. Our church prayer meetings are the engine So here's the Apostle Paul. We know he's a compelling personality, he's got a massive intellect, commissioned by Christ to be an apostle. If anyone was sent to preach, it was the Apostle Paul, and yet we find him, Colossians, Romans, Ephesians, pleading pleading for prayer. He wants the local church to pray. So Ephesians chapter 6 verse 19, he says, "...and also for me that words may be given to me in the opening of my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly as I ought to speak." He says, Paul, pray for the preacher. Pray for me, because I can't do it. If God is to be in the preaching, if I'm to speak with boldness, if I'm not to be afraid of their faces, if I am to have this unction, then Ephesians, you must pray for me that I may declare it boldly as I ought to speak. So if the kingdom of God is to come, our churches must pray for the God-appointed means. And integral to that is to pray for those who preach. Now, brothers, you'll know this, we're not Superman. And up here is terribly, terribly lonely, isn't it? Yeah? Do you ever feel at ease when you preach? I'm waiting to get used to it. I'm never used to it. I'm never at ease preaching. Ever. Because when I preach to my people, how can I love them enough to confront their sins? I'm brave enough when Mr. Hardheart is there, again, shaking his head, all stony-faced. And those people, you always know where they're sitting, don't you? You always know where they are. And how can I warn the lost on a sort of balmy summer's evening? A tsunami of judgment is coming this way, but they don't believe it. But on this lovely summer's evening, do I believe it? And Satan's on my back. I don't know about you, but the thoughts that come into my head just before I'm about to preach, terrible thoughts, awful thoughts, dark thoughts, shameful thoughts, where do they come from? It's like the darkness before I preach. So I'm trying to climb out of the darkness, and it lifts as I'm preaching. And I look at my message and go, I've only got the cross to preach, nothing new, they've heard it loads of times. Well, who's suggesting that into my ears? Who's saying to me, oh, they've heard it before, it's only the cross, it's only Jesus Christ and Him crucified, you don't really want to preach that with conviction, they've heard it all before. And it's a spiritual war, isn't it? Because if I listen to that voice, it's a satanic voice. I won't preach the gospel with power and urgency and reality. Sinners won't be told. How can I be tender and compassionate when actually inside I'm worn out and I'm fed up because I'm just a clay pot? and the treasure's in a clay pot but the pot is cracked and broken and chipped and someone sat on me this week and broke me. My heart is sinking. How can I preach with warmth and reality? And how can I untie those knots? I hid away from Romans for years and years and years, partly because I heard lots of boring sermons on Romans, but also because I thought, what am I going to do with Romans 7? What am I going to do with Romans 11? I don't know. What's it about? And you people listening there, and they've heard all sorts of things. How do we untie the knots? And how are we going to be useful to families, and children, and neighbors, and church members bring their friends to hear the gospel? And you can feel the weight of responsibility. And how are we going to be useful to the community? And how am I going to preach on the loveliness of Christ without getting my dirty fingerprints over everything? And how are we going to tell them about Jesus, about the bread of life, as they all feast on the bread of life? And some of them, I want to take the bread and almost push it down their throats. But how can I do that in a winsome, gracious, loving way? To speak to them in the meekness and gentleness of Christ. I look at my sheep and there are some wandering, and there are two sheep butting each other, and there are some that have stopped eating altogether, and some are diseased, and there are wolves circling. How are we going to do it? It's lonely isn't it? It's so lonely. We need our churches to pray for us. We need our churches to understand what's going on, the warfare, the reality that the kingdom of God and preaching are conjoined twins. You can't separate them. If they want to see the kingdom of God advance, they must pray for the preaching. And therefore pack the prayer meeting, that when the preacher wields that two-edged sword of the Spirit, the Word of God, it's not his hands that are moving it, but there are invisible hands holding his hands, the hands of the Spirit. So as the blade moves and cuts and turns and pierces and thrusts and kills. It is the Spirit who has found the mark. Our churches must pray the Spirit of God down. Remember Acts chapter 4, let's turn there. Acts chapter 4. Now it's the first big crisis in the Jerusalem church, isn't it? Peter and John forbidden to speak in Jesus' name. Peter and John forbidden to preach. So question, is the kingdom of God going to grind to a halt? Can the authorities stop this movement by silencing its preachers? Is the Jerusalem church to falter in its calling to preach the gospel? to every nation, to make disciples, the Great Commission. What's going to happen? It's the first real crisis, isn't it? Well, let's read Acts chapter 4, verse 23. When they were in East Peter and John, they went to their friends and reported what the chief priests and elders had said to them. And when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said, Sovereign Lord, who made heaven and earth and the sea and everything in them. And on they go. Are we going to stop preaching? The church, when they heard the report, they prayed. They met to pray. It was one heart, one voice. And if you read it, they plead the certainties of Psalm 2. So it's not just praying generally, it's praying with understanding. It's praying the promises of God. It's taking God's words and bringing them back to Him. They pray the certainties of Psalm 2. Lord, are you really going to let these people resist your rule? Are they really going to be successful in turning back the advance of the kingdom? I prayed as one. The many prayed as one. All these weak arms. But the weak arms, they unite together into one mighty arm that's strong enough to wrestle with the God of Jacob. And they wrestle the blessing down. Verse 31, And when they had prayed, the place in which they were together was shaken, and they were filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness. The first major crisis, is the kingdom of God going to be pushed back? What are they going to do? They have a prayer meeting. They are all there. The church prays. They pray the promises of God. And God comes down. They don't say, oh protect us from what they are saying. Give us boldness. And God's Spirit comes down and everyone in the prayer meeting is filled with the Spirit They continue to speak the Word of God with boldness. The kingdom rolls on. You all know the story of Spurgeon Trace, the success of the gospel, of his preaching. So the prayer meeting, I'm quoting, he says, when I came, it was a mere handful of people to whom I preached. It was about 200, but there we are. Yet I could never forget how earnestly they prayed. Sometimes they seemed to plead. so they could really see the angel of the covenant present with them, as if they must have blessing from him. You see it is the language of Jacob wrestling with the Lord. Then down came the blessing and the house was filled with hearers and many souls were saved. We must remind our people, remind our churches, do they want life-giving preaching? Do they want to see folks saved? Lives transformed? What is the kingdom of God? When you see Christ coming, healing raising the dead. He's saying, this is what happens when the King takes over. This is what happens when the King takes charge. Of course, ultimately at the consummation, there will all be resurrection and all that goes with that. But, it's a sign, isn't it? When the Kingdom of God comes, when the King takes over, the dead are raised, lives are transformed. Do our people want to know that the beauty of the Lord is upon them? that they by their lives in all their difficulties and troubles and problems and all the grind of life in this world nevertheless they can adorn the gospel by the lives that they live. And are we a people who want communion with heaven? I must have the Lord or I will die. And supremely do they long to see God glorified. Then they must pray And they must pray for the God-ordained means. They must pray for the preacher. They must pray for the preaching. They must pray for the hearer. So the Spirit comes down on preacher and hearer. And then we know the Kingdom of God has come with power. If they don't pray, they will get the sermons they prayed for. So finally, number three. wrapping these things up. God gives His Spirit to His servants as they obey their calling. So come with me to John chapter 20. John chapter 20 and verse 21. This is after the resurrection. Jesus said to them, to his disciples, Peace be with you, as the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you. When he said this, he breathed on them and said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit. As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you. Yours is to be a continuation of my ministry, says Jesus. It's the continuation of my ministry, and for that He gives His Spirit. But what did it mean for Jesus to be sent by the Father? And therefore, what does it mean for us to be sent as He was sent? We're just a few pages back to John chapter 12. John chapter 12, verse 24. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves me, he must follow me." For Christ to be sent, it meant a cross. It meant death. and says, Jesus, for you to be sent, it means a cross. It means death. Now, in the UK, as kids, we played conkers. I asked Stevie if he knew what a conker was, and he looked at me blankly. Old men knows what conkers are. Conkers, they're the large brown nut of the horse chestnut tree. And horse chestnut trees are great big leafy trees, and they shed thousands of these conkers, which land on the ground. Schoolboys get them. They're these beautiful, they're about that big, beautiful shiny brown nuts. And what you do is you drill a hole through the middle of it, and you get a piece of string and put it through the hole, tie a knot in the end, so your conker is now on a string. So you've got your conquer on the end of a string, and someone else has got their conquer on the end of a string, and then you have a conquer fight. Alright? So you hold yours on your string, and they come along, and they try and hit your conquer with their conquer. And then they do, and you do the same, and you keep going. It's death or glory, alright? You keep going until you, either you smash their conquer, or they smash your conquer. Alright? So it's brutal stuff. And if you smash their conker, then your conker goes on to fight another day. And of course, then there's someone who wants to take you on. And now your conker's a two-er, because it's one, it's killed another conker. So you've got a two-er, and you might as well say, my conker's a 20-er. I've killed 20 conkers. So the two-er fights a 20-er. If you kill the 20-er, yours is now a 22-er. Or 23-er, I can't remember how it works. So, you basically, you end up with lots of smashed conkers and a top conker. Alright? You should do a lot of it. That's one way to use a conker. Another way is to take your lovely shiny conker, this beautiful conker, looks perfect, and you bury it in the earth. You bury it in the dirt, where it dies. And then nothing happens. It's dead. But, later on there's a little sapling. A little sapling grows into a tree, into a lovely big horse chestnut tree that produces thousands, tens of thousands of conkers. The death of the one conker brought life to many conkers. There's two things you can do with your conker. You can have one top conker and lots of smashed ones, or one dead conker leading to thousands, tens of thousands of new ones. Do you get that? Do you see the point? So read again what it says, what Jesus says, "...truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat," we might say a conker, "...falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit." Until it dies, all it can ever be is one top conker. But if you bury it, it dies, it bears much fruit. It will produce for you tens of thousands of conquerors. Whoever loves his life, loses it. And whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves me, he must follow me. Which means, brothers, not being taught conquer. It means a cross. It means death. It means burial. A death which will bring life to many. And if you read 2 Corinthians, that's Paul's whole point. That's why he says to Corinthians, he says, so death is working in us, talking of themselves as preachers, so death is working in us, but life in you. Our death as preachers is bringing about your resurrection. The death of the one preacher is bringing about the resurrection of hundreds in Corinth. So brothers, if our ministry is Christ-shaped, what will that mean? It means our ministry will be cross-shaped, doesn't it? It means therefore as a preacher we will die. But our death as a preacher will bring life to our hearers. Our dying will bring life to the many. It will be life giving preaching. Cross shaped preachers, Christ shaped preachers will have a life giving ministry. Of course, as the Father sent me, I send you. Receive the Holy Spirit. It's as though Jesus is saying, by the measure we are willing to follow Him and die to bring life to others, by the same measure He will give to us His Holy Spirit. I'll say that again, by the measure we are willing to follow Jesus and to die, to take up our cross, to lose our life, to die to bring life to others, by the same measure He will give to us His Holy Spirit and life-giving preaching. So as we close brothers, we have a choice, don't we? We can be top conquer We can increase our circle of support. We can extend our influence. We can build our empire. Top Conqueror. Or, like the Master, we can die. The conqueror that's buried. And like him, we abandon every ambition except one. the ambition to glorify God. And that might mean for us rejection, humiliation, obscurity, burial. It means our death, but death that brings life, resurrection to others. And that is the secret of life-giving preaching. Let's pray. Our Father God, we think of our Lord Jesus Christ. And the Spirit of the Lord was upon Him, anointed beyond measure. Yet our God, He chose to be, in human terms, an unsuccessful preacher. We see, Lord, just 120 on that day of Pentecost in the upper room. And yet, Lord, we see that by His death, by His cross, He brought resurrection, a number that cannot be numbered. It's so great. And our Father, we have been sent and commissioned by Jesus Christ. O Lord, we pray, clothe us with authority. Fill us with Your Holy Spirit. Make us willing to die, to lose our life, to surrender all to such a wonderful Redeemer, Savior, and King that it does not matter about me, only that life, salvation, might come to others. and that the King, oh our God, the King might be magnified and glorified. Write these things upon our hearts. Teach us what they mean. And in it all, our Father, give us the grace and the strength. We are weak, frightened, feeble men. We're clay pots. We can't do it. We lack everything. But as Paul says, our sufficiency is of You. O Lord, come and teach us and give us all that we need and bring us into Your embrace and be the lifter up of our heads and our glory, because this we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.