In this sermon, the speaker reflects on the stark contrast between the living conditions of people in different parts of the world. He describes seeing individuals living in cardboard boxes and small houses, yet still finding pride in their humble dwellings. The speaker also highlights the materialistic mindset prevalent in North America, where people often complain about not having enough possessions. He contrasts this with the story of a preacher in India who had nothing but a small Bible and rags. The speaker emphasizes the need to walk in love and not grieve the Holy Spirit. He shares powerful testimonies of individuals experiencing deep repentance and pouring out their sins before God. The sermon concludes with a call to love and a reminder to seek the Spirit's activity in prayer.

And then we had cottage prayer meetings going, and we were just utilizing every idea we could insofar as praying was concerned. I remember I used to go into the church on Saturday night, and I'd kneel by every pew, just go right down all the pews in the church, and kneel by every pew and call upon God to bless every person sitting in that pew. And we prepared by praying. We did practically nothing as far as advertising was concerned. I think if satyrs knew how little advertising we did, they wouldn't even have come. We prayed. I cried. He answered. Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things that thou knowest not. I think God gave us just a little glimpse of what he can do when we pray. I don't think I've ever seen such, at least I certainly hadn't up until then, seen such deep and powerful conviction of sin. I think of one man. Life was filled with sin. We tried to reach him. We got nowhere at all. Two of us were talking with him. So I said to my partner, I said, let's pray. So we prayed, and while we were praying, God touched this man, and God just tore him to shreds. He ran to the wall, and he beat on the wall with his fists, and he begged God to have mercy on his soul. He poured out a fountain of sin that had been hidden away in his heart for years and years and years. It was just like a storm. It went on for ten minutes. I remember before one of those meetings, a man from my church came, a firefighter, and he just stood there tumbling. Finally, he made me understand. He said, Pastor, can you pray with me? Then he fell on his knees, and all he did was cry. Piteously, with the water finally running across the desk, and I knelt beside him, he showed me every sin I'd ever committed from the time I was a child until that day. We saw something of the hand and power of God. One of those meetings, we'd moved to an Anglican church building seating 500. We packed 700 or 800 in there two nights in a row, and then we moved to the Alliance Church. One night, suddenly a boy about ten years of age, he walked up or rather darted up on the platform, and Soterios moved over, and that boy gave a thrilling exhortation to the people. He called on the sinners to give their hearts to Christ. He called on the Christians to get their lives right with God. Then he just stood there behind the pulpit crying piteously, and his father came up and put his arm around him and led him down to a seat. We'd never seen things like this before. I remember one time a girl came to one of those meetings, 16 years old. She asked if she could sing her testimony. There were 1,400 people in the meeting that night, and she wasn't the least bit afraid. She sang without accompaniment that old song, O to thee, like thee, blessed Redeemer, at the closest I ever expect to get to heaven. I said to my wife afterwards, how did that touch you? She said, I never ever expect to get as close to heaven again as long as I live. A lady's trio sang one night. They'd been touched by God. That meeting, we talked to numbers of people afterwards, and people told us they thought they were going to fall right off their seats. The power of God was so manifest in the meeting. Oh, that the Spirit of God would come and take the work out of our hands and make the community aware of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what revival is. Let's keep praying. I want to talk tonight about praying in the Holy Spirit. There's a teaching abroad today, and very popular in some quarters, that praying in the Spirit is praying in tongues. I find it very difficult to understand the philosophy behind this. I don't see it in the Bible, for one thing, but when talking with people who believe this, they tell me, well, it's a marvelous way to pray. You don't even have to think. The Spirit of God does all the praying through you. And I wouldn't want to sound disrespectful, but when people talk this way, I get to thinking in terms, well, then I become a robot. I could be a pipe. In the Holy Spirit, then you have God praying to God. And I'm just, why am I there? I'm totally passive. I'm not doing anything. I'm not really praying at all. And one lady told me, she said, you know, I pray this way 30 minutes every day. I said, what are you praying? She said, I don't know. I said, then how do you know you're praying? Oh, she said, I know I must be because I cry all the time. Praying in the Holy Spirit. Ephesians 6.18. Then over in Jude, verse 20. Praying in the Holy Ghost. What is it? First of all, there's a problem we have. And it's put very clearly in Romans 8 and verse 3, what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh. God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned or judged sin in the flesh that the righteousness or requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit. See, there was nothing wrong with the law. As we said in one of the other meetings, there was something wrong with me. The law was weak through the flesh. And in Romans chapter 6, Paul says, I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh. Then in Romans chapter 8, he says, We know not what we should pray for as we ought. And that's a true starting point of prayer. To understand that I really don't know what to pray for as I ought to. You know, there's a verse in the Bible that says, We are but of yesterday and know nothing. Well, that's not very much. And if any man thinks that he knows anything, the Bible says, he knows nothing yet as he ought to know. We can be so proud of attainments in the secular world or in the spiritual world as far as that's concerned. Not many of us are like Samson, you know. Samson killed a lion with his bare hands. He was walking by the vineyards of Timnath and a young lion roared upon him and he ramped the thing like it was nothing and he threw it over in the bush. You know what the Bible says? And he told not his father nor his mother who were walking along behind him. They were together, but he was somewhat confronting, young and strong, and they were in behind. He never even told his father and his mother that he killed a lion. And when they passed by the same way, days or weeks later, he turned aside to see the carcass of the lion and there was honey in the carcass and he took the honey in his hands and he waited out in the path and when his parents came along, he gave them the honey and he still didn't tell them where he got it, lest they should find out that he killed a lion with his bare hands. Do you know what Spurgeon's comment on that was? He said, oh boy, if that had been a modern Christian, say, if he'd have killed a mouse, he would have published it in the Gospel Gazette. Many of us are so proud, God can't do anything through us because we take all the glory, subtly perhaps, but we take all the glory, get our dirty, grubby little hands on God's glory. God can't use us when we are this way. All right. We know not what we should pray for as we are, but the Spirit Himself, He makes intercession for us. It says there in Romans 8, the Spirit also helps our infirmity. It's in the singular originally. He helps our infirmity, the infirmity Paul spoke about in chapter 6, the infirmity, the weakness of the flesh, with drownings which cannot be uttered. Well, the problem is I don't know how to pray. And some of us haven't learned that yet. I mean, we just rushed into prayer. I heard of a prayer that a man actually prayed in a church one time. There had been an air crash and everybody on this aircraft had been killed and he'd been asked to lead in prayer on behalf of the families that were bereaved. And I get up there and here's how he prayed. He said, Lord, you know about that air crash over in... Lord, over in... Lord, you know about that air crash over in... Well, God, didn't you read the newspaper? And he actually prayed this kind of a prayer. And I get a little pain sometimes when I'm in a meeting and somebody will be talking at the pulpit about something and before you know it, they're praying. They rush into the presence of God like he wasn't there and they rush out of the presence of God like he wasn't there. Maybe he isn't. We know not. That's a starting point to recognize and realize that I don't really know what the needs are. I don't really know how to pray, but the Spirit of God does. And he lives in my heart. And that brings us, of course, to the second thought then. We are to pray in the Holy Spirit. Going over to Jude 20, there's only one chapter in the book of Jude, as you may know. He says, But you, beloved... And the contrast there is to the world who do not have, he says, the Spirit. They don't have the Holy Spirit. We do. But you, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ until eternal life. Building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost. Do you want to build yourself up? Do you want to be strong as a Christian? Then we must learn how to pray in the Holy Ghost, in the Holy Spirit. Now, someone has said that the Spirit is the breath of prayer in your soul. Andrew Murray has some beautiful teaching on this. He said, As a Christian, you must understand that the Holy Spirit dwells mysteriously, but actually deep within your being. And He's the author of prayer. And you have to allow Him to bring the prayer to your heart. Those groanings that He can't utter, He groans and I articulate them. He breathes. Prayer is the breathing of the Holy Spirit in a Christian's life. Did you ever think of it that way? And sometimes what we do, we grieve the Holy Spirit and He stops breathing. And we wonder why it is. It's so difficult to pray. So oftentimes we totally ignore the ministry of the Holy Spirit, fall on our knees and start to pray. We don't wait on God. Wilbur Chapman, a famous American evangelist, was holding meetings in London, England years ago. And Praying Hyde, the man of prayer from India, was there in the area, attended one of the meetings. And so Wilbur Chapman asked him to pray for him. He said, We knelt together. And he said, That day, for the first time in my life, I learned how to pray. He said, For five minutes. All that Praying Hyde said was, Oh, God! Oh, God! And he said, Every time he said it, we were lifted a little closer to heaven. And all of a sudden we were at the throne of grace. And he said, The man poured out his heart in a prayer like I'd never heard in all my life. I learned what praying in the Spirit was that day. Have we learned to honor the Holy Spirit in our praying? No, we have a prayer list, and we rattle off the prayer on the list, the names on the list, or the organizations, or whatever, and then we call it praying. It's not praying in the Holy Spirit. Beloved, building up yourselves in your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, or as in Ephesians 6.18, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints, praying in the Spirit. No wonder people are prayed out in five minutes when they do it in their own strength, when we don't look to the Holy Spirit for those groanings that can't be uttered. And there will be times when we learn how to pray in the Spirit. There'll be times when you can't even articulate the groaning of the Spirit. You've groaned as well. Yet you're thinking that the time you're groaning will be directed towards perhaps some part of the world. It may be India, or it may be Africa, or some other place. But the Spirit of God, he's in control of everything. Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them. The field is the world, and the Holy Spirit is in control, and he knows what the needs are. And it must grieve him terribly that he can so seldom find a person who will wait on him for his guidance and leading in this matter of prayer. In fact, we say words, but it's not praying. Certainly not praying in the Holy Spirit. Now, there's an old saying that prayer that's born in heaven will end in heaven. Start in heaven, it'll end there. If my praying is born of the Spirit, then that prayer is certainly going to get through to God. That's another great thing to think about. To put it differently, it's worth the price, whatever the cost is, of learning how to pray in the Spirit. It's worth it. I won't be praying a lot of useless prayers that don't really do anything, that don't get anywhere, that discourage me from future praying, because I don't see any reality and I don't see God doing anything. It'll save me from that. So whatever it is, and however I get into it, whatever the cost, let's spend it gladly so we can enter into the presence of God in this way. Maybe it'll be just five minutes and all we say is, Oh God, Oh God. There's a teaching nowadays about conversational prayer. I'm not saying it's all wrong, but I'm saying that the book doesn't take into account certain things in the Word of God. For example, Daniel's prayer, in Daniel chapter 9. Now conversational praying, they say you shouldn't be bringing in the name of God all the time. You shouldn't be saying, Oh Lord do this, Oh Lord do that, Oh Lord, Oh Lord. You shouldn't pray that way. You should just talk in ordinary conversational patterns and terms and so on, because God is listening and He's a person. And there's an element of truth there. But there are prayers in the Bible where they're brought in the name of the Lord 25 times in a short three minute prayer. Oh Lord, cried Daniel, hear, Oh God, forgive, God do, God word. Well, praying in the Spirit may be very much like that. And I'm sure at times it is. Now then, if the Holy Spirit breathing in my soul, groaning in my heart, if that's true praying, and I just respond to that, and I articulate it, I put it into words, then I must be very, very careful not to grieve the Spirit of the Lord. Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God. Ephesians 4.13. What's the context there? Have you ever noticed it? Well, he says, putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. Do Christians lie? Yes, sometimes they do. Because you know, sometimes it's easier to tell a lie than to tell the truth. I mean, temporarily it's easy, but later on it may cost you a lot more in the long run. But the Bible says, put lying away, lying grieves the Spirit of God. And if I grieve him, what happens? He stops breathing in my soul. And I find it hard to pray. Putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. The next thing is this, be you angry and sin not, let not the sun go down upon your wrath. If you're angry longer than overnight, you're angry too long. You're guilty then of grieving the Spirit of God. Now I know people do strange things sometimes. I remember a fellow in one of our meetings down in Binghamton, New York, and he had a real problem because he had a wealthy uncle, and the wealthy uncle had told him, I have remembered you in my will. Not only did he tell him that, he told him how much. Now he was not as a Christian, he wasn't sitting around waiting for his dear old uncle to die. What he didn't know was this, that some Christian relative got a hold of the old uncle before he died and got him to change the whole will and remember them and cut this young man totally out. And when the will was read, he never got one dollar. And oh, he was so filled with anger and bitterness toward his relative, and it was just destroying him. As a Christian, you can be as angry as you want. It doesn't hurt the other person, but it sure hurts you. What happened? Well, God spoke to his heart in one of the meetings. He saw the whole thing and he committed his life totally to God, asked God to forgive him, made things right with his relative. I remember his testimony one night. You could just sense the love of God bursting out of the pores of his skin. He said, I just love those people that took that money away from me because I've got more of God now. It was beautiful. The anger was all gone. But you can't have anger and the love of God in your heart at the same time. People may do things that provoke you. As much as life in you, it says, live peaceably with all men. Well, sometimes you can't. I mean, sometimes you're provoked beyond measure. But don't let the sun go down on your anger. Get the things squared away and taken care of before you go to bed at night. I read about a couple of Hollywood people that had been married 25 years and they call it the perfect marriage because in Hollywood they crack up after 2, 3, 4, 5 years. Anybody that lived together in Hollywood for 25 years, that's a miracle. So they call it the perfect marriage. These people were not Christians but they asked them, what is the secret of the fact you've been able to live together in the same house for 25 years? You know what they said? When we first got married we promised each other that no matter how angry we got with each other we would never raise our voices. And it's not like that in some Christian homes. Some Christian homes, they really get mad. A preacher friend of mine was calling at a house one time and he came up, it was the summertime and the windows and doors and stuff were open and he came up to walk and he heard this screaming going on in the house and this woman, she was a Christian woman and she was screaming at her boy and she was trying to hit him with a broom apparently and she'd missed and she'd hit a light and she was so mad she didn't care. She was breaking dishes and swat, swat, swat and he was running for his life and she came out the door with a broom like this and the boy running and she saw the pastor and she said, well Pastor, praise the Lord. Oh boy. I called at a house one time and it was something like that and it was summertime and the door was open, screen door and I said, just going to, I'm going to push my finger in the doorbell and I heard this woman, she was a Christian and her husband was not and that day I learned why he wasn't. She was calling him down, she was skinning him up one side and down the other and throwing on salt. Oh, she beat him to death. Well I just had to discreetly wait until the storm subsided somewhat then I rang the doorbell and she was embarrassed because she didn't know if I had heard or not. But, it didn't seem to matter that God had heard the whole thing. Her poor husband, he eventually became a Christian. You know how he became a Christian? By hearing his youngest son give his testimony one day. That was beautiful. I think he would have become a Christian long before had she been different. Now I'm not her judge. Let not the sun go down upon your rock because otherwise it greases the spirit of God. Then the breathing in the soul ends until we confess it and make it right. He says, don't give any place to the devil. Let him the stole steal no more. Rather let a neighbor working with his hands a thing which is good that he may have to put it in the bank and get twelve percent. Isn't that what it says? No, it doesn't say that. Here's what it says. That he may have to give to him that needs. Did you ever think in terms like that that money you can save you have to give? I remember hearing a Christian one time and I found out he had a business a mushroom business and he was grossing two hundred thousand dollars a year. And he was giving less than fifty dollars a year to the church. And again I'm not his judge but it seems he was always unhappy. I was in a church in South America and the pastor said and this was unusual he said, you know that everybody in my church tithes at least gives a tenth except for two families and he said the two families that don't he said they are miserable and they are cranky and they're always critical of the program and they never seem to have enough money to pay their bills. Give and it shall be given unto you. We have to give. I had a treasurer in one of my churches and he was a gem. He was Irish. You know when they get excited they get excited. He was excited about God and excited about giving. And if he got an extra fifty or a hundred dollar bonus he was just jumping in the air and clicking his heels together because now he had some extra money to give to God. That was the old thing. We get it to sock it away in the bank. For what good reason? Do you know what John Wesley said? He said if when I die I leave behind me more than five hundred dollars history will bear me record that I died a dishonest person. He said how can I have so much when others have so little? George Whitfield could have been a millionaire so could John Wesley in terms in their days financial terms in their days. The assessors came the income tax assessors to talk with George Whitfield. They fancied he had a lot of money a lot of things put away here and there and they said we want you to declare your assets. And he said I have a silver spoon in Bristol I have a place in London I have my horse and saddlebags and a bible and a few books. And they just walked away. It was true. Moody and Sankey could have been wealthy men through royalties and hymn books they gave every dollar of it away. That he may have to give if you're hoarding it if you're grieving the Holy Spirit you'll have difficulties praying in the Spirit. Not a gift place to the devil well people think that means witchcraft well it could mean that of course that would be included it may mean more than that. There are other ways of giving place to the devil Jesus Christ said the prince of this world comes and has nothing in me has he got something in you some area of your life that he is controlling? If he has why don't you deal with it tonight by the power and grace of God because greater is he that's in you than he that's in the world. Then it says let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth but that which is good to the use of edifying let it may minister grace unto the hearers. Are you careful at the kind of things that come out of your mouth? I knew a man he was a deacon in a church of which I was pastor at one time but I didn't know this he was a high school teacher and in the classroom he sometimes told dirty stories because he got a big laugh he could really tell stories clean or unclean do you know what happened? A girl had been attending our church her mother was a Christian the girl was not she was becoming interested and one day she was in the classroom when that teacher told this dirty story and she went home and told her mother and she said I will never go back to that church again and she never did she drifted far away from God that man never knew for years how the devil had used him it's by things like this that we grieve the spirit of God and he stops the breathing in the soul and we wonder why it is that prayer is so dry let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth there are some stories that have a double meaning and sometimes they say well if they've got a low mind you know and they take the double meaning the wrong meaning well that's their problem not mine no it isn't if you know it has a double meaning you shouldn't tell it at all more than that let's look at the positive side of it it says only speak those things that will minister grace that will edify that will build up that will minister grace to the ears then we won't run into this problem at all then he goes on to say in the context following the text he says let all bitterness and wrath and anger got any bitterness in your heart towards anybody for any reason at all five days or fifty years is it there let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor you know seeking for personal attention hey you guys look at me people have different ways of doing this let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking and John Wesley defined evil speaking as saying something about a person that you would not say if they were standing right there be put away from you with all malice malice that secret hatred in the heart where you shake their hand and wish them well but you wish they dropped dead malice put it away and be you kind are you a kind person tender hearted have you got a tender heart I said in a meeting one time if you are really going to serve God you have to have a heart so tender well that if a leaf fell on it it would leave an imprint and there was a preacher's daughter sitting at me do you know how hard hearted she was after she heard me preach a couple of nights and she heard about being crucified with Christ she was so offended that she talked with her sister and her sister's husband and the three of them decided this is what they were going to do they were going to blow my mind they were going to construct wooden crosses and tie them on their backs and come in late in the meeting one night and come marching down to the front and sit right in the front where the whole church could see these crosses sticking up you know just to mock me well the night before they were going to do that I said that little thing you know about if a leaf falls in your heart it should leave an imprint and God used that and she went home and she prayed and she said God would you do better than that for me would you transplant yourself into me and God did in some way those people were so changed it was just beautiful kind tender hearted forgiving one another did you ever stop to think what that means that means this that the Holy Spirit foresaw that Christians would sometimes sin against Christians and there would be need for this kind of instruction in the word of God kind tender hearted forgiving one another even as God for Christ's sake has forgiven you be you therefore followers of God as dear children and walk in love as Christ also has loved us and has given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for sweet smelling fragrance we're to walk in love because Christ has loved us we're to forgive because Christ has forgiven us I was called once to a home two o'clock in the morning two of us went there pastor and I and here was a woman sitting there and her husband he confessed to the sin of adultery he just got his life straightened out and he felt he should tell her he'd sinned in this area and she couldn't forgive him matter of fact when he told her she ran to the wall and she beat in the wall with her fist and finally she fell on the floor and she was actually biting the carpet with her teeth and when we got there she was telling get out, get out, get out I want to see you again don't even talk to me don't even look at me and she would have nothing to do with him and I waited a little bit and I told her a little parable that Jesus told I translated into modern dollars and cents so she would understand here was a man that owed $50,000 and he had nothing to pay and they were going to throw him in the debtor's jail and back in those days they had debtor's jails and the creditor felt sorry for him because the fellow asked him to forgive him so he said alright, I'll tell you what I'll do you don't owe me a dollar you don't owe me anything and he was so happy and he went tearing out of there then he found a guy that owed him $5 and he took him by the throat and said pay me what you owe and he said well have mercy with me and I'll pay you all he said exactly what this fellow had said to the man to whom he owed $50,000 and he said he wouldn't do that but he threw him in the debtor's jail and somebody went and told the original creditor and he heard about it and he came down and he said you wicked servant I forgive you all that debt because you asked me and you wouldn't forgive your friend this into the prison you won't come out until you've paid everything and I said now the $50,000 represents your sins and my sins against God and God wiped the slate absolutely clean and the $5 represents your husband's sins against you and you won't forgive the $5 when God has forgiven you the $50,000 I said sister listen what did Jesus Christ call you he called you wicked servant and she just broke and she looked at her husband and smiled and he came across the room like he was on a rocket and he landed on his knees by her knees and put his head in her lap and she ran her fingers through his hair and it was all over listen God has forgiven us the whole thing freely everything a Christian who doesn't forgive grieves the Holy Spirit grieves the Spirit of God walk in love be kind tender hearted forgiving one another even as God for Christ's sake has forgiven you no matter what they do no matter how many times they do it forgive them forgive them keep on forgiving be not overcome of evil but overcome evil with good I said something over at the Bible College about George Whitefield maybe I should say maybe I should be here again you know he was not very popular with some preachers because he was so successful in his preaching some of them couldn't stand it they just ground their teeth I mean the churches would be empty they were all out there in the field 20,000 people listening to George Whitefield preach he preached to crowds estimated sometimes up to 100,000 people in the open air he had a fantastic preaching voice while Benjamin Franklin on the Boston Commons he stood at a measured mile to see if he could hear the guy preach and he heard the first words of the first sentence before the guy was even warmed up and some preachers couldn't be heard in a crowd of 150 so he had a lot of enemies and these 15 preachers got together and they drew up a list of all of George Whitefield's faults as they saw it and they published it in the newspaper in the New England States and of course thousands of people read this and somebody came running one day with an issue of this paper and showed George Whitefield and he looked at it and he read it yeah he said that's right I've got that problem oh yeah I've got this one too yeah I've got this one yeah mm-hmm he went through the whole list yeah he said they're right yeah I've got all these problems but there are four they don't know about so then he took and he wrote these four in the bottom you know and then he had the newspaper delivered to these men so the next time they published it they'd have an accurate and complete record of all his faults listen Praying Hyde was asked to speak at the famous Keswick Conference in England and people didn't know he was a very slow speaker it took him about 10-15 minutes to get warmed up and he never did really get going into high gear to use that term in relation to public speaking they didn't know that and the crowd got restless they were you know 2-3000 more people and they were used to the best you know the scintillating stars and all and after about 8 minutes of his speaking a lady got to her feet and announced the hymn and they sang him down and he never preached at the Keswick Conference again and after the meeting a friend of his rushed up to him and said oh oh that was terrible brother what did he say he smiled ever so sweetly and he said it is the Lord let him do as seemeth him good isn't that beautiful what did your reaction have been mortified embarrassed angry lashing out at others Jesus Christ you know it says in 1 Peter 2 follow his steps who did no sin neither was guile found in his mouth who when he was reviled reviled not again when he suffered he threatened not but committed himself the martyr reading says he committed his cause to him that judges righteously were to follow his steps who when he was reviled did not revile again oh people listen all bitterness all wrath all anger all clamor all evil speaking put it away let it be gone put off the old man with his deeds put on the new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness otherwise we grieve the Holy Spirit of God and then we can't we can't pray in the spirit the way that we need to the way that we perhaps even want to then it says in 1 Thessalonians 5 19 quench not the spirit we grieve the spirit by sins we quench the spirit by allowing self to have control you know there it says rejoice evermore pray without ceasing in everything give thanks some Christians they're complaining all the time someone said you know the average Christian if God gave him the moon he'd want a green fence around it right away you know some people kick at a football game do all things without murmurings and disputings murmurings toward God and disputings with men that you may be blameless and harmless blameless before God and harmless before men the word harmless really means sincere that comes from two Latin words without wax what did this refer to well you know back in those days here's a person and they're making a they're making a vessel on a wheel and they crack it then they would skillfully camouflage the crack with wax and sell it as if it was complete without any crack in it at all and that's the meaning of the word sincere without any crack that's hidden someone said we Christians should live like a goldfish in a bowl so that we've got nothing to hide no matter from what angle anybody ever looks at us we always look the same do we live that way sincere blameless and harmless as sons of God without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation among whom you shine as lights in the world all things left murmuring and disputing an airplane crashed in northern Manitoba some years ago it was in the summer time and the fellas the search planes were looking in the wrong area and these guys they didn't see any planes so they figured well they're looking in the wrong area so we better just start walking out they knew if they walked south long enough they'd hit a road or railroad or something so they started walking south days on end and one of them must have been a Christian they published it in the Winnipeg Free Press or Tribune or perhaps both the diary that these fellas kept after they got out and it went like this one day they were out and they're walking you know and they were very hungry and they saw a bunch of parkers and they all got rocks and they began throwing rocks at these parkers and finally they conquered a few of them and then they figured well we mean if they hadn't seen much game and this was the first game they'd seen for days we better not eat it all now we better save some but they had no refrigeration and so when they went to eat this meat two or three days later he recorded in his diary he said dear lord he was talking to the lord dear lord we ate the last of the parkers today and the meat sure stunk but I'm not complaining I'm just reporting without murmuring sweet ladies remember what it says whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of fixing up the hair and wearing of gold or putting on a costly apparel let it be the hidden man of the heart and that which is not corruptible even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit which is in the sight of god of great price do you have a meek and quiet spirit in the sight of god that's of great price for two reasons one it's so rare and two it's like the lord jesus christ was and to men and women the lord jesus christ said come unto me all you that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest take my yoke upon you and oh that part we don't know about we know these seats and wall text come unto me and I'll give you rest and it's so unfortunate that we break in there because you have to get the whole thing and here's the whole thing come unto me all you that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest take my yoke upon you and learn of me what does jesus want us to learn doctrine you know the average christian if you ask him what he believes boy he can tell you what he believes paul never ever said I know what I believe he said I know in whom I have trusted take my yoke upon you and learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart and you shall find rest unto your soul for my yoke is easy and my burden is light dear people he wants us to be meek people he wants us to be lowly he wants us to be humble not like a christian woman told me one time and maybe this is exaggerated I don't think she exaggerated but I mean it's not a usual thing but her husband was not a christian and she was built like a battleship and so was he and when they disagreed she said we settle it this way she said sometimes he wins sometimes I win I said you fight with your husband and you're a christian and he isn't well sure she said the old goat it's the only language he understands oh she said I was going to go to prayer meeting last Wednesday night he said you're not going to prayer meeting she said try and stop me and she said you know what the old goat did he grabbed my glasses threw them on the floor and clamped them to bits and then he said now let's see you go to prayer meeting because she had to drive the car and she couldn't drive without her glasses she said I showed him I fixed his little red wagon she said I walked out to the car I got in the car I started the motor he was standing at the door watching he didn't believe it because he knew I couldn't see to drive a car without glasses and I just drove very close to the curb all the way around the block and I stopped there for an hour and a half and then I turned the car around and drove back home and he thought I had gone to the prayer meeting he didn't know and then dear people when we got into Ephesians chapter 4 the poor woman was utterly astounded she said you mean that God expects me to be kind and not I said yes and oh what a struggle she had until she broke it was so different to the way she was living now in cultured Christian homes they don't do it that way they develop this deep freeze thing they don't talk for two weeks and that's more devastating I'd rather get all people listen we're talking about praying in the spirit why is there so little activity why is the spirit in my heart why is there so little breathing of the Holy Ghost in our hearts the knees are so vast dear people it's for these reasons we have grieved the spirit and we have quenched the spirit rejoice evermore pray without ceasing in everything give thanks this is the will of God and Christ Jesus concerning you don't quench the spirit don't smother him we've been doing this in everything give thanks rejoice evermore oh listen all things work together for good remember to them that love the Lord there was a lady in one of my churches one time her name was Mrs. Wonky she was Russian she was the happiest Christian I think that I've ever met but she had a very sad story I mean she had ulcers all over her legs and she had other physical problems and rarely got out to church so I used to call on her to comfort and cheer and all this kind of thing every time I went I got cheered and comforted more than she did I'm sure she'd had I think five children or six children all her children and her husband but one child had been taken from her violently in accidents of different kinds drowning explosion fire or whatever I forget what how it happened but she only had one child left a girl who was living somewhere in the states whom she only saw once every two and three years now then supposing that happened to you what would your reaction to God be? what was hers? I asked her one day I said sister have you ever felt that God gave you a bad deal? no she went into this rhapsody of delight about the Lord it took her five or ten minutes she told me how wonderful Jesus was and all that God had done and how great the Christian life was she wasn't even thinking about what had happened there was Jesus she said is that that? and I had her funeral and the place was packed absolutely packed and it's the only time I had a funeral where the sinners were saying amen preacher you know I didn't need to preach at all if I had gone and said I would have stood by her coffin and just pointed at her for half an hour would have been just as effective I said Mrs. Wonky was a real Christian amen preacher that's right preacher Mrs. Wonky lived by the Bible that's right preacher she sure did that's what the sinners were all saying many of us you know we complain endlessly about these little things I remember a girl in the crusade one time they brought her to me and I said what she was crying her heart out 16 years of age or so so what's the problem well my mother won't let me wear this dress I said is that that's the big problem well she was really angry about it I said do you know the kind of problems that face teenagers in some countries and she said no what are they and I said well like how am I going to find enough food to stay alive for another week I remember one place in India where this boy he didn't have a place to stay so he slept under the station I never could get used to seeing people sleeping under carts or sleeping on the sidewalk or sleeping in the field I mean home for thousands tens of thousands of people in some countries where they lay down at night 250,000 people in Calcutta India they don't have a house at all and someone said it's a god sin that they invented plastic because they can usually afford not always but usually they can usually afford a 6 foot square piece of plastic so in the rainy season they can get out from under the rain I mean they put their thing over and that's their house well I saw a fellow sleeping in a cardboard box that was his house stuck on the sidewalk a cardboard box open on the front it was just big enough for him to barely get into the stadium I saw another man he had a little house he was so proud of it it was this high with a thatched roof and two people could sleep in there that was his house and he stood there with one tooth or two teeth maybe and his head just grinning away he was quite proud of his little house and we complained because we've only got three bedrooms instead of four we haven't got a two car garage like other people have and we've only got two TV sets we haven't got four like some people have I talked to a preacher in India oh he was going out as a pastor of a church he didn't have a car he never had a bicycle for books all he had was a bible and the bible was about 4 by 6 inches in rags and patters he didn't have a concordance or a book because he couldn't afford them I wonder how God looks at Canada sometimes North America let's say the way we complain we grieve the spirit we smother the spirit dear people again and again and again praying in the Holy Ghost you beloved building up yourselves in your most holy faith praying in the Holy Ghost keep yourselves in the love of God looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life and so just to just to conclude love walk in love if you want the spirit's activity in your heart in relation to prayer then we must learn how to walk in love that's one thing secondly the father is seeking for people that will worship him in spirit and in truth get to know the word of God get to know the bible you know this reading a chapter a day it's not really very significant it's a lot better than nothing I'll admit but we Christians there's one book in the world that we ought to know if it's a tossup between books and the bible we'll make it the bible we ought to know this book I remember one time I quoted a verse and the fellow was there he's been a Christian for a year matter of fact he taught a funny school class if I remember correctly and he said Bill is that verse in the bible I said yes boy I said that's funny I know the bible pretty well where is it I said in the book of Hebrews oh yeah he said I knew it must be in the old testament I don't know the new testament off by heart let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom does it I don't like these bibles pardon me saying this I don't like these bibles that have the words of Jesus in red because it creates a false impression it gives you the idea that the only things Jesus said are the things that you find in red and it's not true the spirit of Christ was in all the old testament prophets it says in 1 Peter 1 the spirit of Christ was in them it says so the spirit of Christ was in Daniel and Jose and Joel and Amos and Obadiah and Joan and Mike and Naaman and Habakkuk and all these people he was in Isaiah and Jeremiah and so on the spirit of God the spirit of Jesus Christ was in those men and the word of Christ begins in the opening verses of Genesis and goes right through to the book of Revelation don't ever forget it let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom this book we must know and if I neglect it I'll grieve the spirit of God and I can't expect to have much power in prayer and then remember this Jesus said about the Holy Spirit he shall glorify me not you he came to glorify Jesus Christ and if I try to take the glory how much he has glorified herself and lived deliciously so much torment and sorrow give her or it's like Daniel said to Belshazzar the God in whose hand is your breath and whose are all thy ways hast thou not glorified don't you know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you which you have of God and you are not your own for you are bought with a price therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit which are God's and hence we have the statement of Paul in Philippians 1 20 according to my earnest expectation and my hope that in all things as always so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body whether it be by life or by death are we living to glorify God living to magnify Jesus Christ by living or even by dying that's why the Holy Spirit came any person who is willing to give God the glory the Holy Spirit is willing to work with that person I'm willing to give Jesus Christ all the glory take none to myself you know one time it was after revival the Lord asked me it was such a clear thing he said would you be willing to rejoice if some people took credit for something you did and I said well it would be hard on the flesh but I'd enjoy it and the very next night I was in the home and they were talking about a certain family that I just the Lord had used me to win them to himself and this fellow said wasn't it beautiful the way that brother so and so and he mentioned a preacher that had nothing whatever to do with it the way he went into that home and led that family to Christ and I just looked at the Lord and I grinned I didn't know it was going to happen that soon but oh when you get a glimpse of the glory of God the person of Jesus it really doesn't matter someday we'll hear his voice well done thou good and faithful servant enter thou into the joy of thy Lord all right walk in the Spirit pray in the Spirit worship God in the Spirit the Father seeking for such to worship Him