In this sermon, the minister reflects on a previous day of ministry and feels like it was a failure. However, his perspective changes when his daughter interrupts his thoughts and reminds him that breakfast is ready. In that moment, he realizes that he can still give thanks to God even in difficult situations. The minister emphasizes the importance of having faith rooted in the sovereignty of God, which leads to a transformed life. He also quotes Hudson Taylor, who highlights the need to come to the end of oneself in order to experience the reality of God's presence. The sermon concludes with a reminder to prioritize one's relationship with God and not neglect family and personal responsibilities.

Alright, how many of you have been to all the meetings but one? All the meetings but two? One, thank you. How many of you have been at all the meetings here? Not the latest meeting, no. Just the meetings here in the evening. Thank you very much. How many of you are here for the first time tonight? Well, it's awfully nice to meet you. And to see you. We've been here since last Wednesday, I don't think. But it's good that you've got in on it, this evening. I want to take just a minute to thank especially Mr. Edson for all the arrangements he's made for our coming to Queensland. My wife and I are very, very grateful to him and Joan for their kindness and for their thoughtfulness for us in all the arrangements for hospitality. And looking after visiting preachers, which is always very difficult because we're very difficult people to get on with sometimes. But he has done a great job and we're most thankful to him. Grateful for various pastors whose churches we've preached at. I've never preached at so many churches in such a short time in all my life. But I've always had people to support me, so all has been well. Thank you so very much. This is probably our last meeting in Australia. And so it is goodbye till we get to heaven. Unless, perhaps, you come to England, which I hope you will do. We'd love to see you. Come to Kirkenridge sometime, northwest England, and visit our Bible school. All expenses paid by you. And we would love to see a good crowd of you there. And perhaps if God has been blessing you in these days, the best reward for us will be if we can find a little corner in your prayers for us as we continue on our journey to New Zealand, to the Bible Training Institute at Auckland and other places, and then to Africa for the Africa Inland Mission for the field conference at which place we shall meet our elder daughter who is a missionary there. In spite of the fact that we've enjoyed the trip, you can understand it when I say we're longing to get home. It'll be wonderful to be back in the old country again, in spite of all its snow and wet and rain, and there'll always be an England. I'm very glad indeed. Thank you so much for having us. Now I want to speak to you tonight about a very controversial subject, a very difficult one to deal with adequately in one's meeting, but I've no alternative but to try, and one in which I'm bound to find that many people will disagree with me. I hope you won't trouble to come up and contest the point. Just leave it till we get to heaven, and then you'll come up and tell me after all you were right. Excuse me. But will you turn with me to the passage of Scripture which we read together in Ephesians chapter 5, Ephesians chapter 5. And I just want to read one verse, two verses I think of the portion which was read, Ephesians 5, verses 17 and 18. Speaking mellid in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now I would like you, if it's not too much trouble, just to stand for a moment of prayer. Would you please echo in your heart the prayer which I offer on your behalf and on my own? Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth. Speak just now some message to meet my need which thou only dost know. Speak now to thy holy word and make me see some wonderful truth thou hast to show to me. For Jesus' sake, Amen. Thank you so much. A year or so ago I was visiting the mission field in Ethiopia with the Sudan Interior Mission. They are doing a tremendous job there. S.I.M. really means Sure I'll Move. And that's just a little indication of how about 250 missionaries are trying to do a task that needs about four times that number. And they move from place to place because of shortage of staff. One family I stayed with had moved to four different locations in the last five years, constantly on the move, just to plug a gap as other missionaries went home on furlough. And in one place I stayed, it was at a town called Jimma, and I was staying there with the mission builder. And he just had his 25th wedding anniversary. And celebrating it he had given his wife a present of course. And when I came into the house he said, I want you to see straight away what I gave my wife for a silver wedding anniversary. Now I'm quite sure that if I asked each one of you to put on a piece of paper what you thought that present would be, I'm certain that not one of you would guess. Because not many husbands would dare to give their wives this present for a silver wedding anniversary. Do you know what he gave her? A bathroom. Just think of the implications behind that. He gave his wife a bathroom. And I went and saw this bathroom and I was just thrilled with it. It had chromium plated taps. It had chromium plate all over the place. The tiling was magnificent. It was a built-in bath with green tiles, I remember. And it was really an exquisite bathroom with a shower bath and a tub and everything you could possibly require. And I was especially thrilled because for the last, for the previous two weeks, I had been living in very primitive conditions. And I was in great need of sharing the benefits of this silver wedding present. And so when I saw this, I thought to myself, well, isn't that a real answer to prayer. Praise the Lord. Well, as soon as we got talking and settled down, I went to my room and prepared to enjoy myself in this bathroom. And when I went back to it and got into it, I turned on the tap. Nothing happened. So I tried, turned them both on and waited, but not a sign of anything coming. So I dressed and went to see him and I said, excuse me, I just had gone into your bathroom to enjoy a bath and I couldn't get any water. And he said, oh, I'm very sorry, I forgot to tell you the local council haven't connected the water supply and they say it won't be available for about three months. So I did not share in the benefits of his silver wedding anniversary. What a remarkable thing, that in that bathroom there was everything but water. Everything, but the one thing needful. And I suspect that in many of our lives, there's everything but life. Everything but Holy Spirit life. I'm not being sarcastic when I say there are hundreds of churches in Britain and I suspect in Australia, from which if the Holy Spirit was withdrawn, nobody will know any difference. Because we're simply going on all the time with the monotony of playing church. There's a tremendous lack of every evidence of life. You remember what the Lord Jesus said once to a woman? If you knew the gift of God and who it is that speaks to you, you would have asked of him and he would have given you living water. And later in the conversation, if you go on drinking of the water in that well, you'll soon be thirsty again. But if you drink of the water that I will give you, you'll never thirst because it will be in you a fountain of water springing up into eternal life. And later on in the same gospel it said, if any man thirsts, let him come to me and drink. An overflowing life. These were three things that Jesus offered to all people in a sense of need and despair. Let's face it, frankly, we are afraid of the Holy Spirit today. And yet, I'll shock you, I know, when I say this, I've traveled round, I think, about three times in the last three years in the world, and the greatest break of the last twenty years has been made in Pentecostal churches. Seventy-five percent of the life of the Evangelical Church of Brazil is in Pentecostal churches. And the same kinds of life I find in certain parts of Africa and in the Far East and in many different countries where there is life. Whenever God does something unusual, the devil is very much on the lookout and is always prepared to launch a counterfeit. Happening in many of these areas, there is the counterfeit which is obvious to all of us to see. It is known as the charismatic movement in which in some areas an insistence is placed on speaking in an unknown tongue as an evidence of being filled with the Spirit of God. Now I have every sort of respect for that movement. I thank God for all I've seen and all that it means as a gift and who practice it personally and privately and it has been a great means of blessing to them. But when they insist that everybody has got to come their way, then I find myself facing problems. For one thing, it isn't in the Bible. Prominence of the teaching of any doctrine in the Word of God is an evidence of its importance. As I think it would be right to say it is. I would remind you dear friends that the gift of tongues is referred to in only one New Testament letter and in only two chapters. First Corinthians, chapters 12 and 14. And if this was the major thing that the Church needed today, it would be surely emphasized throughout the whole of the New Testament. But it isn't. So bless your hearts. If any of you here rejoiced in that gift and you have the gift of speaking in an unknown tongue, the Lord bless you. And use and exercise of this gift in a scriptural way. But please don't insist that everybody else must come your way into blessing. That's a totally different thing. That refers not to a gift but a character. The fullness of the Spirit is Jesus Himself. Galatians 5, 22. Love, joy, peace, long-suffering, meekness, gentleness, and so on. This is being filled with the Spirit of God and this is what the Church needs to reflect the character and the beauty and the loveliness of Christ. Thus may it take me all my time to speak right with the one tongue I have got. Without having a special gift of speaking, an ability to speak in an unknown tongue. You can't have all the gifts. But you can have all the characters. You can't have every gift of the Spirit. They are distributed sovereignly in the will of God. Some people have the gift of tongues. Some people have the gift of healing. Some people have the gift of prophecy. Some have the gift of teaching. Some have the gift of evangelism. Some have the gift of the beauty of the Lord Jesus. Now it's this that I want to talk to you about tonight. I hope I have not offended anybody's susceptibilities in saying this but I've simply been saying what I believe the New Testament teaches. I have many, many friends in the Pentecostal Church. One of the greatest preachers in the Baptist churches in England is a man called David Parson in Guildford, Surrey. He has a tremendous work and he's doing a terrific job with his life. And he has this gift. He never propagates it, never demands that everybody else should have it but he himself rejoices in this gift and as a preacher he's unequalled in Britain today. In the Pentecostal Church rejoices. I also, strange to say, have friends in the Church of England too. Many friends in the Church of England. Oh, we don't talk too much about the subject of baptism if we did, we might have differences of views about that. But after all, don't you think that we ought to be able to disagree agreeably? The shame is that we disagree so disagreeably that we break fellowship. If we hive off and form another independent Baptist church and believe me, we need that like we need a hole in the head. ...preacher in South Carolina. I remember he came up to Moody Church to preach in a convention and I'll never forget when one day he was speaking about fellowship with other believers who don't agree in every point of doctrine as you do. He said, you know the trouble is this, that when the tide is out every shrimp has its own puddle. My, that's saying something. With a polish and a prophetic utterance, that is the trouble. We've all got our own little work, our own little group. It's our group and it's all centered round us. And then he said, but oh, when the tide comes in. What happens to the shrimp then? And my prayer is that I might live long enough somewhere on earth to see the tide coming. Because most of my life has been spent in days of a receding tide of blessing and the church fighting with its back to the wall against the receding tide of people who think that Christianity is outmoded and unnecessary. Oh, that God would send the tide in and perhaps begin it in your life right now. All I do in my ministry and all you need, my dear friends, is for a new touch, a new breath from heaven, a new sense of the power of God the Holy Spirit. I'm not going to allow my fear of fanaticism and fanatical fire to keep me back from all that God has for me in His Word. What on earth's the use of exchanging the false fire of fanaticism for the no fire of orthodoxy? And well, everything in our heads but nothing in ours. Believing everything correctly but somehow so cold, spiritually, that we're dead. Now I'm not accepting for that. For Jesus said that He satisfies the longing soul and fills the hungry with goodness, not madness, but goodness. And therefore I want to press in for all that God has for me. And I'm sure that one encounter with God isn't sufficient. I need a day by day meeting with Jesus, fresh every day that He may fill me up with all the fullness of God. Now you remember that before this Ephesian letter was written, about thirty years before, one hundred and twenty people had been gathered in an upper room praying. They had been with the Lord Jesus for three years. They'd been to college, to the college of Christ. They'd been taught His speech. They'd been eyewitnesses of His death and of His resurrection and of His ascension into heaven. But none of this was sufficient for the task that was facing them. They were afraid, they were unsure of themselves, and they didn't know what to do next. So they were behind closed doors and they had a ten day prayer meeting. And then suddenly there was a sound as of a rushing mighty wind and the Holy Spirit came and fell upon them and entered their house. He did not come in answer to their prayer. He came in answer to the prayer of Jesus who had already said, I will pray my Father and who will send to you another comforter that He may be with you and in you forever. And when our blessed Lord ascended into heaven He didn't need anybody to plead for Him. He went in by virtue of His own goodness and obedience and submission to the will of God. And for the first time in all history there stood before God a man, a perfect man who made a demand upon His Father, a demand that all who loved Him, all who obeyed Him, all who trusted Him should live. And He in answer to prayer received a gift from the Holy Spirit and the day of Pentecost He was shed abroad by the Lord from heaven. And that gift came at the day of Pentecost. And you notice when He came, He came with a great sense of joy and thrill and wonder and praise and quite clearly the church is continued to be continued like that. Listen to Paul. Here he says, Understand what the will of the Lord is. Don't get drunk with wine, but be filled with the Spirit. Be drunk with God. Be intoxicated with Jesus. Let Him fill your heart. Speak to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs and make melody in your hearts of the Lord. Isn't that a happy verse? The happiest verse. My, that's a happy lot of people we ought to be. Look at us all. Excuse me. I mean, I didn't mean to say that. Well, you know. All right, just a second. You're smiling. Everybody's better looking when they're smiling. But how miserable the average Christian looks going around looking miserable and looking as if he's got the whole world to carry around with him. Something gone wrong somewhere. Making melody in your hearts of the Lord. Giving thanks always for all things unto God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. I can give thanks to God sometimes for some things, but can you give thanks to God always for all things? You see, you see this is character we're talking about. This is the result of being filled with the Spirit. A man is always thankful for everything. Oh, boy. Is that possible? Oh, yes. Excuse the humor. But I knew a man not so long ago who lived, oh, he was visiting the town of Birmingham, Alabama, in the southern part of the state. And he was in a bus. On a hot day, the temperature was 100. And he was waiting for the bus to stop. Greyhound bus. And he sat in a corner seat. And suddenly there came into the bus a lady and sat beside him. Now, if you'll pardon me, thank you. She was a very large lady. And she occupied more than her fair share of the seat. And she sort of oozed over onto this man. And presently five children arrived and sat on her knee. Five of them climbed on her knee. Leaves you to your imagination to fill in a lot that I wouldn't like to say. But there was this little fellow all squeezed into the corner with these five kids and this great, big, large woman that he had in his prime time this morning, which is the verse I've just read. Giving back. Always. He said, Lord, what can I thank you for right now? And then he said, I know. Thank you, Lord. This woman is not my wife. Oh, excuse me. Just take that off the tape. Oh. You see, he'd found something to thank God for, even in that situation. Oh, but seriously, seriously, fellow Christian, seriously. A Christian can always give thanks to God for everything when his faith is deeply rooted in the sovereignty of God. And then he knows that all things work together for good to them that love God. So a Christian knows on the praising side of life, on the praising side of prayer, he's not coming to God in prayer, sort of begging and asking continually. He's coming thanking and rejoicing in all the promises of the Word. He's a praising Christian. He's a happy Christian. Sometimes he'll shed tears. Sometimes he'll uphold and put even. Of course his heart will be broken, but deep, deep down there's a deep peace and a deep joy in a man who loves the Savior and who's filled up with the Spirit of God. Now, of course, when I speak to somebody like this, you are going to say to me and say right now, well, of course, this is terribly emotional. Really, I didn't think I was coming to a meeting like this. This is terrible. I think I'd better be safer outside. You know, it's so emotional. And somebody else is saying, oh, but look here, I tried this before and it didn't work. Hold it a minute. What do you mean by it? It didn't work, wasn't it? What do you mean by it? It never was not speaking to you about it. The Holy Spirit is not an it. How many times in a prayer meeting do I hear people praying for it to come into my heart? It's not an it. It's a presence. God himself, the third person of the Trinity. Of course, it didn't work. An experience never lasts. Jesus always will. An experience, if you're looking for it, will soon let you down. But Jesus never says. He's the same every day. So I'm not talking about an it. I'm talking about a presence. And none of these reactions can possibly, possibly stand the test of Scripture if you are saying, well, it's not for me. Because God's commands are not to be admired, but to be obeyed. And in response to our obedience to his command, we're always sure of his enabling. And therefore it is essential that we should be clear what we mean by being filled with the Spirit. Not a mere emotional upheaval. Not a lot of excitement. But a consistent walk every day of my life in which other people see the reality that God is alive. And is alive in my heart. It would be a wonderful thing if tonight marked the end for somebody in this church of the unsatisfactory, defeated, empty life that has been your portion, maybe, and marked the beginning of a new life of power and stability. And the Holy Spirit can do this for you. So will you prayerfully listen as we talk together about this subject? You may forget me and hear only his voice. Now let me speak first of all about the meaning of what it is to be filled with the Spirit. I take it that I'm speaking to people who have at least a knowledge of some of the background of the Word of God. And you won't find it difficult to follow me when I say that there are two categories of verses in the New Testament referring to the Holy Spirit. One of them refers to the experience of conversion, and the other to something else. Let me deal with the first group first of all. The Holy Spirit was the agent through whom I believed in Christ. It was he who led me to the Savior. It was he, if I have not the Spirit of Christ, says the book, I am none of his. That's Romans 8 and verse 9. And it was he who convinced me of sin. What sort of sin? Sin because I believe not in Jesus. John 16 and verse 8. And it was he who quickened me into life. The Holy Spirit quickeneth the flesh from the nothing. John 6, 63. And in that hour I was sealed by the Spirit. Ephesians 1 and 13. I was indwelt by the Spirit. Know you not, said Paul, that your bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit. And I was baptized by the Spirit into Christ. 1 Corinthians 12, 13. All this happened the moment I was born again. And therefore let me say, underlined about twenty times, to be absolutely sure that we understand this and agree with it, it is impossible to be a Christian without having the Holy Spirit. He who led you to Jesus, he who baptized you into Christ, he by whom you are sealed as belonging to Christ, he dwelt in your heart at the moment of your new birth, or else you're not born again at all. When you came to Christ, he came to you and indwelt your heart. It is impossible to be a Christian without having the Holy Spirit. Mind you, it is possible to be a believer without having the Holy Spirit. I told some folks, I don't know, one of these five churches, I don't know which it was, perhaps you'll remember, Jim, but I told them about your mutual friend, our mutual friend, Ian Thomas, coming to preach one Sunday at Moody Church in Chicago for me, and he preached on the subject, Unsaved Believers. It took us about three months to recover from that one. Unsaved Believers, the church had never heard of such a thing. My goodness to me, we're fundamentalists around here, we're dispensational, we're correct in our doctrine, we do right to divide the word of truth, we believe the Bible from cover to cover. Oh, we are the people, Unsaved Believers, who have everything in their head and nothing in ours. It thrilled me so much, one Charlotte Chapel before I left in Edinburgh, a nurse had been coming to our services for a couple of years, and she came from Holland. She was nursing in a hospital in Edinburgh. She said to me after the service, in broken English, she said, you know, Pastor Ed, something's happened to me tonight. The Lord Jesus dropped from here to here. That's wonderful. He, again, of the Spirit of God, then, He dwells in you. But we have another category of verses in the New Testament which obviously have to do with something more than conversion. Listen to them. Galatians 5.16, walk in the Spirit. 1 Thessalonians 5.19, quench not the Spirit. Ephesians 4.30, grieve not the Spirit. Ephesians 5.18, be filled with the Spirit. This is written to Christian people, to people who know Jesus, who are born again, be being filled with the Spirit. Now, there's no indication in the New Testament that it's impossible to be filled with the Spirit of God at the moment of my new birth, but this is exceptional. And the important distinction to observe is this, that whereas at conversion I receive all of Him, He doesn't necessarily receive all of me. You can't possibly think of receiving Christ on the installment plan. You get all of Him at the moment of your new birth. He lives there Himself completely, but He hasn't necessarily got all of you. And therefore at conversion we are indwelt by the Spirit, but we're not necessarily filled with the Spirit. And whereas there is a once and for all incoming of the Holy Spirit who's come to indwell our hearts and will never leave us till we get to heaven, let that be clear, never will He go, I will be with you and in you forever. And I may disobey Him, I may quench Him, I may grieve Him, but He'll be there. He'll plead with me, talk with me, He'll seek to direct me and seek to bring me back into His will, and constantly, constantly He'll plead with me in my heart. He'll never leave till I get there, if I'm truly born again. But whereas there is a once and for all incoming of the Spirit, there is no such thing as a once and for all filling of the Spirit of Christ. You see, whereas we receive Christ at conversion, and we do so by an act of faith, which appropriates or takes Jesus to be my Savior and my Lord, at the moment I'm saved. This must be followed by an attitude of surrender and yieldedness and trust and obedience, by which I claim His life to dwell in me and fill me every day. Is this a second blessing? Do I believe in a second blessing? Yes, because I believe in a first, and a fourth, and a fifth, and any day without a blessing would be an empty day for me. Of course I believe in a second blessing. But let me be very careful of not doing the very thing I want, that some Pentecostals are doing. I want to say to you this, that there was a day, ten years after I was converted, when I suddenly saw the truth. And I heard the truth, and I heard it from the lips of Maguire and Thomas, a much younger man than me, when he told me what I knew in theory, that God expects nothing of me but failure. That God has given me the Holy Spirit that I need never fail. Not that I cannot fail, but that I need never fail. Oh, that's tremendous. And that state changed the Christian life for me from drudgery to luxury. From the awful drudgery of trying to match up to God's standards and finding me break down every time, when I realized that God doesn't expect me to do anything but fail, but God has made provision in the Holy Spirit for me to live. And that to me was a crisis. Ten years after my conversion. Saying that you've got to come through that way. What I am saying is, just to ask you this question, Jesus, you have all of him, but how much of you have he got? I know a minister very well, who has two daughters. And at one time, one was age 14 and the other was age 4. She was a post-it. And one Monday morning, that minister was sitting in his home, reflecting upon the ministry of the previous day. And thinking it had been an awful failure and such a flop. Ministers have Monday morning feelings, you know. And as he was thinking of this, he heard his wife say to the children, go upstairs and tell Daddy breakfast is ready. So the two girls came pounding upstairs. And the big one and the tall one, the 14-year-old, got there first. It was long legs. And rushed into the study and dashed onto her daddy's knee and put her arms around his neck and said, Daddy, breakfast is ready. And then little post-it came up the stairs. And she huddled along and arrived at the door and looked inside and stopped. And then big sister said something rather catchy to little sister. You don't need to come any further. I've got all the rest of Daddy. So the daddy saw a little lip begin to quiver and a tear come into one eye. So he held out a spare arm and stuck out a spare knee and said, come on, darling. And she ran across the floor and jumped onto his knee and he hugged her tight. And that daddy would never forget what she said, that little girl. And she looked across at her sister only six inches away and said in not a very Christian spirit, she said, you may have all the rest of Daddy, but Daddy's got all the rest of me. See? That, that, that and only that is the initial experience of the fullness of the Spirit of God. It's like two sides of a coin. When I have all of Jesus and he has all of me and I yield myself to him utterly, then he fills what I'm prepared to empty. God can't fill unless I'm prepared to empty. Now this, again let me repeat, is not a once and for all experience. One of the great preachers in Britain of a generation ago was a Methodist, a man called Charles Inwood. And at Keswick he put it this way, and I would like to quote, this is taken from a Keswick Week, one of the Keswick Convention books, and Charles Inwood is speaking. And he says this, there is no such thing as a once and for all fullness of the Spirit of God in a man's life. It's a continuous appropriation of a continuous supply from Jesus Christ himself. A moment by moment faith, and a moment by moment cleansing, and a moment by moment filling. As I trust him, he fills me. The moment I begin to believe, that moment I begin to receive. And praise the Lord, as long as I keep on believing, I keep on receiving. I think that's wonderful. And that's received. As long as I keep on believing, I keep on receiving. No such thing as a once and for all fullness of the Spirit. But it's an act, an act, an act of absolute abandonment to God, an act of absolute commitment to Him, yielded completely, moment by moment followed by an attitude of day by day obedience and surrender of heart, soul, and body to Christ. Now this is what the fullness of the Spirit means, but let me just quickly say, now why do I need this? This is all very well, you say, for the preacher, and all very well for the missionary. Oh, but wait a minute. Did you notice the context of this chapter? And what follows? Paul is speaking about relationships between husband and wife, parent and child, employer and employee. In other words, I need all of His fullness to make my home what God intends a Christian home to be. And it's tragic, and maybe you've noticed it too, how many Christian homes you go to, and they're only held together for the sake of appearance. And something's gone out of them, and there's no real love at once. Oh, it's so sad. I don't need the fullness of the Spirit merely, merely for some particular job, and dangerous task, or lonely job. I need the Holy Spirit to be a father and a husband who can bring glory to Jesus in my own home. One of my favorite authors is Oswald Chambers. Perhaps you know his book, My Utmost for His Highest. I quote from it. Some people imagine, says Oswald Chambers, that a Christian is expected to do exceptional things in unusual circumstances, whereas the fact is that a Christian is expected to be an exceptional person in usual circumstances. Something about that man and that woman in their home, in the most sacred, precious relationship of life, which is the outcome of the fact that he has been filled up with the Spirit of God. That's how I buy me the Holy Spirit. I need Him in my home, and so do you. I need Him for every kind of Christian work and Christian service in the Church. We've got the work of God so constituted these days that we don't need to rely on Him anymore. Yet His verdict is still true, without me you can do nothing. And we've got the whole thing all organized in a rut and we go on week after week and we don't need Him anymore. But you know there's a right and a wrong way of doing everything. And that applies to the way you play the piano, the way you teach in your Sunday school, the way you look after the funds of the Church, everything. In every church you need the fullness of the Spirit in your heart. But above all, you need His fullness to make you like the Lord Jesus. Now that's on Sunday evening with that in this pulpit, and I don't want to go into it again, but you know the whole object of the Christian life is to make us like Christ. It's to reproduce the Savior in all our lives. Some people think they can make themselves like Jesus by trying, but they get worn out before very long, because the secret of being like Christ is not imitating Him, it's having Him imparted to your heart. Not imitation, but imparted. And I need the Holy Spirit every day to make me more and more like Jesus. We sing a chorus that I'm very fond of, but I don't agree with one line of it. I'm not being heretic, looking for heresy and all that sort of thing, but listen to this chorus. You know it. Let the beauty of Jesus be seen in me. Oh, His wondrous compassion and purity. Oh, Thou Spirit divine. Do you agree with that? I don't. Oh, Thou Spirit divine. All my nature afines. When I sing that chorus, I sing it this way. Let the beauty of Jesus be seen in me. All His wondrous compassion and purity. Oh, Thou Spirit divine. Make all Thy nature mine. Till the beauty of Jesus be seen in me. See? Because, you see, when He comes into my heart, I'm so thrilled about this, I'm so thrilled about it tonight, I could hit the roof. I really could. He doesn't come to make me better. He is not in the self-improvement plan. He is in the Christ-replacement plan. And He wants me to move over, out of the way, in order that He may come and fill me with His life. I'm telling you. Don't you think that would be a tremendous release of tensions, if we understood that? Have you read Romans 7, 18, maybe? And, as a matter of fact, I've preached on that verse about 51 times. Not the same sermons, but, you know, that's easy. I know that in me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing. But do you know what Living Letters paraphrase says? How it translates it is this way. I know that in my sinful nature, I am rotten through and through. Praise the Lord. Have you ever come to terms with God about that? Have you ever honestly admitted that that's you? Do you know what it took to bring me to come to terms with that? A cerebral hemorrhage. Nine months on my back. Out of the ministry altogether. Absolutely helpless. Couldn't speak. Couldn't walk. And I was reduced to a mere cabbage. Oh, hit me. Just like that. Never known a day's illness in my life. Always busy in the ministry. Busy in the work of God. But one day, one afternoon, in one minute of time, I'd lost my speech. Lost the use of my limbs. Lost everything. You know what your reaction when that happened? Oh, it did happen. You know, when we preach, we always say, Now, you must never ask why. You must only ask why. Never ask why this happened to you. You know perfectly well that all things work together for good, so never ask why. But always ask why. What lessons have you got to learn? Well, I asked why. I was so rebellious. I said, Lord, you must have made a mistake. You can't do without me. You know, it's amazing how we come to think we're indispensable. The biggest shock of my life was to see evangelical works going on exactly the same as if I'd been there. Quite humbling experience. But, Lord, I said, here, we've got a full church in Edinburgh. You can't afford to do this with me. And I'm busy in the ministry. Oh, but he could. And for weeks I was on my back, incapable of saying a thing. But, you know, I reverted to charters. Just went back to what I was as a young fellow. All the temptations came back. All the bad language and the filthy thoughts. Everything that I thought I'd finished with years ago, it all hit back. Came back like an absolute avalanche. I had no power. And my Bible didn't make sense. And my prayer life had gone to pot. I wasn't used to praying. I couldn't pray. Couldn't read my Bible. I lay like that on a bed for weeks and weeks and weeks. Just absolutely crying day after day. And one day, I remember so well, saying to Lord, Oh, God, get me out of this. I can't stand this attack of the devil anymore. Satan seems to get at me when I'm down. He's always done that. Now, Lord, take me home. Take me home to heaven. I don't want the last memory my wife and children have of me is of being like a cabbage in Euclid. I've never had any visions. Deep convictions. But the Lord drew very near to me that day and said, You've got all this wrong. I have had to do this to you to show you that this is the kind of man you really are. With all your foul thoughts and all your temptations to sin and all your bad language, it's what you really are and always will be but for the grace of God. The only good thing about Alan Redfarth is he's... You'll never be any different. And he said, I had to bring you to this because over all these past years of ministry, you know what you've been doing? You've been putting work before worship. You've been so busy in the Lord's work and you've been neglecting worship. I took a day off. You can ask my wife. She's here. But I never took a day off. I thought it would be unspiritual. I go to working seven days a week, night and day. That was really spiritual. It's really sin. I neglected my family. That was sin. My children grew up without knowing their father. That was sin. The responsibility was left to my wife. That was sheer, downright sin. And the Lord had to do this to me, put me on her back to show to me that that's the kind of man I was who got all his priorities wrong. Does that ring a bell? Is it down to earth? And is it real in your own life? Do you see what I mean? God can only fill what I am prepared to empty. And when I get to the end of my rope and the end of my tether and down to rock bottom, that's where I meet him. That's where he becomes me. Oh girl, Christian work, business. What's your priority? And don't say that it's spiritual to work for God seven days a week. It's not. It's downright sin. And coming out to meetings every night doesn't prove you're spiritual either if you're neglecting your home and your family. You know, I'll never forget a fellow coming up to speak to me after a service once, not that long ago. Very well-dressed man, very wealthy obviously by the way he's dressed. And he said to me, he was, he was, I've listened to all you've said this morning. And he said, all you've said, Jesus was there, it was real to me. In business. I've got 300 men under me. And they've got to get them out to work every day about 6.30 and I go to my office early and I'm never home till 10 o'clock at night. And it's work, work, work, work, work until, oh, I said it's been a huge success. I'm a millionaire now. But you'll forgive me quoting him precisely when he closed his conversation, he looked at me and with a choke in his voice he said, but my God, what a price I've paid. That man was a successful failure. He won't let us off the hook. Has to lay us aside like he did to me. I'm not again saying that you've got to do what I've got to do. But sometimes it's drastic treatment for whom the Lord loves, He chases. And to the end of himself that he might draw a new day in his life. When he's a different kind of husband and a different kind of preacher and a different man altogether. When he's a man filled with the Spirit of God. Well, I've just one more thing to say. I'll speak in shorthand so as to get through in time. It's all very well to fill this, but I must of necessity say, well now, how can this happen to you? And how can it happen to me? How am I filled with the Spirit of God? I'm quoting another great man. I love to read and think of the biographies of great men of God, Hudson Taylor. The great founder of the CIA. He oversees missionary fellowship. And this is what he says. You've probably read this. You've read his book, The Growth of a Work. Well, this is there. Listen to this. I prayed. I fasted. I agonized. I strove. I made resolutions. I read my Bible more diligently. I sought more and more for retirement and meditation, all without effect. God didn't meet with me. I sought the blessing of His fullness in my heart long and earnestly, but it did not come. At last I found the reason was because I had no room in my heart for Him. Sitting in China as a missionary, sitting on the beach at Brighton near London, thinking that He's a complete saint, and suddenly realizing He's got no room for God the Holy Spirit. How much room have you? How much room have you in your church? What's the smallest meeting in your calendar every week? Your prayer meeting? That's the answer, isn't it? How much room is there in your life day by day for the Spirit of God? What do I mean by empty? The joy of the Lord comes when we're absolutely miserable. His power comes when I'm absolutely weak. His satisfaction comes when I'm disgusted with myself. Yes? When I see myself in my true color, then God can step in. You see, the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth, of grace, of power, of love. In your life tonight, is there untruth? Do you pretend to be the kind of Christian to other people in order to keep up the show, if you're not really? Australian young people I've found tremendously happy for. One love a giggle. I like your sort of thing-do things, which seems to favor of the joys of the Lord. But listen, inside your heart, what, are you only praying at something and pretending to be what you're really not? He's the Spirit of grace. Are you ungracious? He's the Spirit of love. Are you unloving and unforgiving? Are you all grudging? Do you have bitterness against your fellow Christians? Or has the Lord broken his mercy? You see, when a man empties himself, he's prepared to get rid of his life of everything that is constant with the Spirit of God. Have you ever heard of a place called Ballymena? That's in Ulster. It's one of the most Protestant towns in the world, isn't it? About 10,000 people live there, and I think about 10 Roman Catholics. They have a rough town. There was a lady there who was very keen on having cottage prayer meetings in her home. She planned a series of three. And she invited this Roman Catholic neighbor to them, and she said, sorry, I'm not allowed to come. The next morning, Irish people are curious people. They're interested in what's happening. So a conversation across the garden fence. Had a good meeting last night. Wonderful, she said. How many did you have? Oh, 27. My house was full. Will you come next week? No, I'm not allowed to. Next weekend, she had the meeting. The following morning, there was a conversation again over the garden wall. The Roman Catholic neighbor said, I had a good time last night. Oh, wonderful. Absolutely thrilling. How many did you have? 51. My house was full. The third week, she had the final meeting. Great time. A great time. A festival. She said, look here. You told me your house was full when you're 27. And the next week, you're 51. The next week, 62. That thing's sheer impossible. And this lady said, now, dearie miss, didn't you hear me? And what do you mean, didn't I hear you? Well, all I did was to move every stick of furniture out into the lawn. You're meaning business with God tonight? Listen. What about the unspiritual furniture in your heart that's got to go before God can get in? Have you got to make a confession to somebody for something in which you've wronged them? Have you got to make an apology? Have you got to confess some wrongs, your wife, your husband? You got to put things right? What about the reading ladder in your room at home? What about the book that's just a bit doubtful and you prefer to read it to your Bible? What about it? What about the things in your music? The things are shady. What about your control of the TV knob? What about this? The time you waste. Do you spend more time watching television or reading the Word of God? See? God isn't going to give his church a revival if we don't care. He's not going to pour the life that he purchased for us at Calvary upon a bunch of people who are indifferent. If he sees a hungry heart and hears someone say, Oh, Lord, fill my heart today with Yourself. He'll do it. But you must be prepared to empty before he can fill. You're prepared for that? That's what it means to be filled with the Spirit. That's how. And, of course, following an emptiness, the next step is faith. Simple faith to believe the promises of God. The ceaseless flow of His life in my heart depends entirely upon the ceaseless reception of faith. Moment by moment, taking, taking, taking, appropriating Christ. Moments when I don't feel like anything. When our life is absolutely dead. Thank you, Lord Jesus. You're in my heart. Every day, trusting, obeying, following His command. If I disobey, I lose His fullness. Not my relationship, but my fellowship. Big difference, isn't it, between the two? I remember once our younger daughter at home came into the dining room of our house and she was in a bad mood. Very bad temper. And I believe there's a certain part of a child's anatomy that is destined for punishment. And I gave her a good belting. And she howled. I hadn't heard it. But she howled because her pride had been hurt. And she ran off into the room and howled. Literally pulled the plate down with roaring. And my wife and I looked at each other. We didn't refer it, but I rather think we're both saying, I wonder where she got that from. I think it was most likely from her father. But after about half an hour, there was quietness. And in that half hour, we'd been praying that the Lord would deal with us. And we went into the room. We went up to the room and heard her call, Mommy, Daddy! I went in and she held out her arms and rushed to us and she said, I'm sorry. I'm not saying she hasn't done it since. Certainly never quite as badly. But listen, do you mean to tell me that at that time, in that half hour, she was no longer our child? Of course she was. She was ours by virtue of a relationship which could never be broken. But what had been broken was our fellowship. And that fellowship was restored in response to honest repentance. Like that with God. Pure as child's milk. Oh, but it years, maybe, since you had real fellowship with him. Out of touch, out of the fellowship. But not out of relationship. And he's been speaking to you like nobody's business, Mike.