In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of making God the king of our lives. He encourages listeners to have a heart that is perfect towards God, as He is constantly looking for people through whom He can pour His power. The preacher shares a story about a pastor who invited a well-known speaker to hold meetings in his church, highlighting the speaker's dedication to prayer and reading the Bible. The sermon also emphasizes the need to be ready to serve God and seize opportunities to share the gospel. The preacher concludes by sharing a story of a pastor who transformed his church by encouraging unity and eliminating criticism.

Good morning all. Barbara and I are glad to be here with you, and we have a good friend with us, Rick Negrich and his wife Mila. He's my chauffeur, so we're glad to have them with us. They're great friends of ours. I'm going to read a few verses from 1 Corinthians chapter 6, actually the two last verses, 19 and 20. Paul is asking a question of the church at Corinth. What, he says, don't you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which you have of God, and you are not your own? For you are bought for the price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. Many years ago, when I was working with the Chinaman's Christian Association, I was a member of the Grand Memorial Church here in Winnipeg, and they'd fallen hard times. They had a building then seating six or seven hundred. The church was down to about seventy. They'd been fighting for years, it seems, and just kept going down, down, down. They didn't know what to do. And then I met a man called Gerald Splinter. I preached in his church down in the States. I suggested they call him. They did. And here's what he said. I'll never forget, I chaired the meeting where he spoke to the church. He said, forget the past. It has nothing to do with the future, absolutely nothing to do with the future. Forget the past. And then he said, I want twelve months with no criticism at all. You know, he told me personally, he said, I absolutely hate gossipers. He said, I can't stand them. He said, I'd rather have six drunkards in my church than a couple of gossipers. Anyway, what happened? Well, the first year he was there, they took in 105 members. And for the five years he was there before he was killed in a plane crash, they took in at least 100 members a year. They had rallies with 1,200 people. And he was so concerned, forget about the past. He kept a little black book, by the way. I wouldn't suggest that to any other preacher, but he kept a little black book. And if you were gossiping and he heard, he wrote your name down in his book and what you had said. If you got two entries in his book, he called you into his office and it went like this. Either you quit this gossiping or you go out the door. And he got away with it. All preachers might not get away with it, but he did. So, you know, the church at Corinth, I went through those two books, 1st and 2nd Corinthians, and I found there were 30 things wrong, things they were doing they shouldn't be doing, or things they should be doing they were not doing. So people often say, well, the church at Corinth was backslidden. No, it wasn't. They had some backslidden people in it. How do I know that? Because in going through those two books, I discovered there were 30 good things they were doing as well as the 30 bad things they were doing or not doing. It was not a backslidden church, but it had some people in it that were not really walking with God. That's why Paul asks the question, what? Don't you know? Have you forgotten that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you and you're not your own? You're a bond for the price? Therefore, what? Glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. So the Bible says, let no corrupt communication come out of your mouth. But that which is good to the use of edifying, that I may minister grace to the hearers. So the Spirit of God lives within us believers, and the Bible speaks in a number of places about sins against the Holy Spirit. I want to refer to a few of these today. Now, we know there were people who resisted the Spirit. These were sinners who didn't want to hear the gospel. And Stephen said, you uncircumcised and heart and ears, you'd always resist the Holy Spirit as your fathers did. So do you. So sinners may resist the gospel and never get saved. That's not a sin that Christians might commit in that way. But we have other things mentioned. For example, it says, do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God in Ephesians 4.30. Don't grieve the Holy Spirit of God, whereby you are sealed to the day of redemption. The day of redemption is the second coming of Christ. The Holy Spirit who lives within you has sealed you to that very day. You can believe that and stand on it forever. Then in 1 Thessalonians 5.19, it says, don't quench the Spirit. The word quench, it really means, it has the idea of throwing water on a fire. Now, when John the Baptist began preaching, one of the things he said was, he, that's the Messiah, Jesus, he will baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire. Fire is always connected with the Spirit of God. On the day of Pentecost, when the Spirit was poured out on the twelve, there were tongues of fire that rested on each one of those men at that time. So, quench, that means don't throw water on the fire of the Spirit. Which is to say, when the Spirit is leading you to do something, or to make some change, whatever, or to witness, whatever, don't quench Him, don't throw water on the fire. And many times, as Christians, we fail in this area. There's many ways of doing it. Riding in a plane recently, the lady sitting next to me was probably in her fifties, reading a book. I wanted to talk to her about the Lord. So, how do you start? It went like this. I said to her, good book? Yeah, she said, a great book. And she closed the book and we started to talk. We got into the Gospel. She was teaching a Bible class in a church and wasn't a Christian herself. And she was really disturbed because a Jewish witness lady attending the studies was asking questions she couldn't answer and she was really having a fight. So, I was able to help her. But I might just have said, well, she's reading a book, let her read the book. You have to find ways of communicating with people about the Lord. But don't quench the Spirit. Then do you know it's possible to flatter the Holy Spirit? Psalm 78. It says they flatter the Lord. How in the world can you flatter God? Well, you could do it like this. Like sometimes you might tell some person, my, that's a great suit you have on. And you say to him, what a horrible suit you see in your heart, you know. So, you're flattering Him. Do we do that with God? I still think we do. We can say things like this to Him. Hey, God, You're a great God. You're a loving God. You're a kind God. Then we walk about Him and forget about Him for a month. Or maybe never pray to Him. So, it's easy to flatter God. In the same context in Psalm 78, it says they lied to God. Is it possible to lie to God? Well, yes it is. That's what the Bible says. Ananias and Sapphira tried it and they both woke up dead in Acts chapter 4. They were trying to deceive the Spirit of God by lying about a certain matter that was dealt with by God immediately. I don't like flattering, lying. Can we deny God? I think we can. If you think back to the Scripture we read. You're not your own. You're bought with a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. So, by denying His ownership, and many times as Christians we do that. We should not be doing that. You're not your own. You're bought with a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. Are you doing that? Or are you denying His ownership? This often happens to Christian believers. They don't allow the Spirit to lead them. Over and over the Bible says as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. Walk in the Spirit and you won't fulfill the lust of the flesh. And many times we don't allow the Spirit to lead us. He's leading us to do something, to give something, to be something. And we say no. So we're denying the Spirit of God. We're really saying to the Spirit of God, I know better than you do. I'm wiser than you are. He'll never lead you to do anything you can't do. You see, the will of God is called three things in Romans 11. It's good, it's acceptable, and it's perfect. If it's good, it's not bad. If it's acceptable, it's something you can do. If it's perfect, you can't improve on it. So why not go for it? The will of God. So we deny the Spirit of God sometimes. I think one of the most important sins, or a sin that's most committed by Christians is this. They just simply ignore the Holy Spirit. They don't wake up in the morning and say, as Dr. Washington Carver, that famous black Christian scientist in the States used to do. He said, I would go out in the morning to the Institute. That's where he worked. He was a famous scientist. He said, I would sit down, put the Bible on my knees, and pray this prayer. Dear God, what do you want me to do today? He was so well known that the Stalin in Russia asked him to become the top agricultural person for the whole of Russia, although they knew he was a Christian and they were a communist country. He didn't go for that. He explained that he wanted to stay with his own people. Then some company, they asked him to come. They offered him. The initial offer, I think, was $100,000 a year. He said, it's not enough. So they got it up to $150,000 a year. He said, it's still not enough. They finally sent him a check, a blank check. They said, you fill in the amount and we'll pay it to have him work for them. So he wrote them a letter saying, listen guys, you just don't have enough. You know what he worked? He worked at that Institute for $100 a month. That's all he would take. He said, I'm not married. That's all I need. Greatly, mightily used of God. But he wasn't ignoring. He knew what God wanted him to do, and he was satisfied and happy with that. So don't ignore the Spirit. Every morning when you awaken, you should pray and ask God, please lead me today. Holy Spirit, you live within me, I know. Please lead me today. What would you have me do today? And God may lead you to some person. You know, I know of homes where they have a track rack sitting by the front door. Whoever happens to call there, if there happens to be a salesman or saleslady, they're given the gospel track after the conversation has ended. And so there's many ways in which we can serve God. But we need to be ready. You never know when. God may call you. God may give you an opportunity. I've had people say when they finally repented, I have missed hundreds of opportunities for serving God just because of my fear. The fear of man brings a snare. Whoso puts his trust in the Lord shall be set on high. The Martial Reading says there. So don't ignore him. Take him into your life. Let him be what he wants to be. We sing it. King of my life, I crown thee now. Thine shall the glory be. Make him king of your life. He wants to be that. He can use you. He says in the Old Testament that the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is perfect towards him. That is, God is looking for people through whom he can pour his power. Be one of those people. You'll be surprised at what God does. Have you ever heard of Sammy Tippett? Maybe not. He wrote a book called Fire in Your Heart. Wonderful book. I mention him because here's what happened on one occasion. A pastor asked him to come and hold meetings in his church. Now, Sammy Tippett, he's been in the biggest auditoriums in the world. In Brazil, a place seating 120,000. Packed through the doors. They went for a whole month, I believe. He's been greatly used of God. But he didn't start that way. He started by obeying God. Anyway, this pastor asked him to come. Since it wasn't far away, he went to see him. So he asked him, How many people do you have? He said, We have 60 people. And how big is your prayer meeting? Well, we've got about 20. Well, Sammy said, I don't think you're ready for a revival. I think we ought to wait a while until you have more people attending your prayer meeting. And the pastor said, But Sammy, we are believing God for revival. Well, he said, Yeah, that's fine. That's a good thing to do. But you have 60 people and only 20 attending prayer meeting. And he kept saying, Sammy, listen, we're believing God for revival. And finally, Sammy went. They ended up after four weeks in the largest auditorium in the city, seating 10,000. Hundreds were saved. The city gave them this building free of rent when they saw what God was doing. But that's how it started. It started because the pastor was believing. And you have to do the same, believing for the future. Believe God. He's a great God. He gives us sometimes trials to test our faith. When Jesus said to the woman who asked Him to heal her daughter, He said, It isn't right to take your children's bread and to cast it to dogs. How did she handle that? How would you handle that if God said something like that to you? She handled it this way. Truth, Lord, what you're saying is true. I'm just a dog. But even the dogs eat of the crumbs that fall from the master's table. And He said, Woman, great is your faith. Be it unto you even as you will. And her daughter was healed at the same hour. So, we don't want to make the sin of ignoring or neglecting. Perhaps we can neglect sometimes the Lord by neglecting His Word. Shall we read of George Mueller? One of the busiest men in his day. Two thousand orphans, a staff of three or four hundred. At the same time, he had to look after this. And then he was co-pastor of a church with twelve hundred people. And he said he had to pray three hours a day in order to get the work done. Oh, yes, he said, I have to pray an hour with my wife, too. That's four hours a day to get the work done. Somehow, he managed to read the Bible through two hundred times. If you read the Bible, if you read sixteen chapters a day, you can read the Bible through in one year. I'm not suggesting you take sixteen chapters, but we should be doing a lot more with it than we are. I was in a church, in a gospel preaching church, supposedly. I was in the area holding meetings. And they didn't have any Sunday mornings. They spoke in the big rallies in the evening. So, I went to one of the churches that were cooperating in the crusade. The preacher brought a message. He somehow managed to not even use one single Bible verse, not even one. I sat there. I couldn't believe it. I thought, well, maybe before he finishes, he's going to get a Bible verse. He didn't get even one. I suppose he would call it preaching the gospel. We need to follow the Bible here, too. You know, on the day of Pentecost, when Peter preached, have you ever noticed, half of his preaching was quotations from the Old Testament Bible? Half of it. And over in Acts 13, Paul preached a sermon, and just about half of that was quotations from the Old Testament. The sword of the Spirit is the Word of God. It's the only sword we have. And he blessed his half, as he did in the day of Pentecost with three thousand converts. And Paul saw converts wherever he went as he preached the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. So don't neglect that sword. Get to know it. Sharpen it up. That is, get to memorize as much of it as you possibly can, and be ready to talk to people. Oftentimes, Christians have said something like this to me. I never witness to anybody because I'm afraid they might ask me a question that I can't answer. That's not a good reason for not witnessing. So you don't know the Bible? Well, get to know it well. Muslim children, by the time they're ten,