Tonight I've come to share a message with
you that I trust will be an inspiration
and a blessing.
It's one that's based on the Word of
God and an analysis of the way in
which people operate.
I function on a simple premise, and that
is that when a natural, everyday, ordinary human
being has a supernatural power within him, he
ought to be different.
You believe that?
As a matter of fact, I think the
best test of whether or not you're born
again does not occur in this building, but
in your home.
Because if Jesus Christ has done anything for
you and for me, it ought to show
itself at home.
How we are at home is what we
really are.
We can come here, you know, and put
on a good front.
But as our children see us, as our
partner sees us, that's what we really show.
And you see, we shouldn't be just showy
Christians.
We should be demonstrations of the power of
God within us.
If a tree has life, you don't have
to tell it in the spring, well, it's
time to show buds and grow leaves.
It just does what life demands.
Well, if the Holy Spirit of God is
within a believer, then he is going to
demonstrate it without even trying.
I'd like to show you what makes us
tick.
And to begin with, Pastor, I need your
help.
This is a fancy...
Will you just grind this up?
Well, can we move it up?
Or do you have to tilt the whole
thing to move it up?
All right, let's live dangerously.
There's a commission for this.
Right.
In heaven, I'll sign your check.
All right, now this is a diagram.
Can everyone see this all right?
I want you to...
I'll move it up here where you can
get a little better picture of it.
This is what you really are.
This is the real you.
Jesus said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy
God with all thy heart, with all thy
soul, and with all thy mind.
Now, the soul is the seed of the
will.
And the thing that makes us different from
animals is we have a will.
We don't have to obey God.
We're miserable if we don't.
But if we choose not to obey God,
we don't have to.
And that soul, together with the free will
that God has given us, makes us different
from the animal kingdom.
This is the unique part of us that
we communicate to our children and through them,
successive generations.
Now, Jesus said, We're to love the Lord
our God with all of these.
Now, I'd like to show you what an
unsaved person looks like.
In symbol form, here we have a little
picture of the big eye or the ego
of man sitting on the throne of his
will.
And he is saying, I will do as
I please.
I will ascend into heaven.
I will be the master of my fate.
I, I, I.
Sounds like a familiar story if you know
Isaiah 14.
Then, Jesus stands on the outside and he
knocks at the door of a person's heart.
Well, Jesus doesn't come along and knock like
this.
Let's understand, we're in a battle for the
mind.
And the Holy Spirit of God uses these
eyes and these ears of ours to penetrate
the mind.
And whenever you hear the word of God,
it's Jesus knocking on your heart's door and
saying, Open the door, open the door.
Or, whenever you as a Christian hear the
word of God, it's the Holy Spirit speaking
to us, telling us, This is my body.
I have purchased this.
It belongs to me now.
Walk ye in my ways.
Continually, through this vehicle of our mind, one
of the most phenomenal mechanisms known to man,
man has never been able to duplicate anything
as phenomenal as the human mind.
And if we, with our will, choose to
put in our mind those things that are
pleasing to God, it is going to create
our feelings.
But this man has chosen to disregard God.
He is the master of his faith.
And so he uses whatever he wants into
the eye gate, to his mind.
But whatever he puts in his mind will
cause a feeling here.
Be sure of that.
Now, let's suppose this fellow comes to your
church.
He hears the Gospel message.
He's deeply under conviction for sin.
And he repents of his sin and invites
Jesus Christ into his life as Lord and
Savior.
Let me show you what happens.
Jesus Christ comes in to take over the
throne of this man's life.
And I'd like to explain something.
He does not cease to live.
He still has a will.
But Jesus Christ is Lord of his life.
And please understand that no one accepts Jesus
Christ as Savior today and Lord ten years
from now when he grows a little bit.
Now, it looks like that with many Christians'
lives.
But that's not what happens.
At the moment of salvation, the Bible says,
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
And when we invite Jesus in, it isn't
just to forgive the mess we've made of
the past, but it is to become the
Lord and Dominator of our lives.
And that is conversion.
You see, repentance isn't, Lord, forgive me for
those lies that I told and for those
things that I stole that are bothering my
conscience.
That is not repentance.
Repentance is a turning around from the position
of self-will, I will lie and I
will steal and I will do as I
please, to instead, I will give my life
over to Jesus Christ and he becomes the
Lord and Master of my life.
And every time we assert authority over our
lives from that point on, we are reneging,
so to speak, on the transaction we made
with him.
Now, this man is a Christian and when
he has received Jesus Christ as Lord of
his life to become his Dominator, then a
miracle also takes place.
He becomes a new creation.
I'm going to ask you to say a
verse of Scripture with me.
I do it boldly because I know in
a church like this, you know it.
It's one of my favorite verses in the
Bible.
If you don't recognize the tag when I
give it, then when we start saying it
together, you'll recognize it and we can all
say it together.
But I want you to say with me
a verse that describes this experience.
2 Corinthians 5, 17.
How many of you know that verse?
Great!
I knew I was in home country.
All right, let's say it together.
Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he
is a new creature.
All things are passed away and behold, all
things are become new.
Isn't that a phenomenal verse?
When Jesus Christ sends his Holy Spirit into
our lives, we become a new creature.
We have a new motor within us.
You see, the heart of man is the
motor of man.
All function of the heart or all function
of the body is motivated by the heart,
not the mind, but by the heart.
You see, the heart is the feeling sensation.
And scientists tell us that in from our
temples and back from our forehead, we have
an electronic switchboard, so to speak, which they
call the emotional center.
That's what Jesus meant when he said, the
heart, as a man thinketh in his heart
and out of the abundance of the heart,
so everything happens.
So, we can control this heart by feeding
this new nature.
He comes in as a baby nature.
If you were saved last Sunday, you have
a brand new baby nature.
Don't expect to act too much like a
Christian right away.
Why?
Because this old fellow has so many entrenched
habit patterns set in motion that it won't
be long and you'll be acting more like
him than you act like him.
You say, well, what should I do?
Go back to the church and see if
I can't get another installment?
No.
I've gotten an education in the last nine
months.
Nine months ago, I became a grandfather for
the first time.
And you know, that is a frightening experience.
And I've learned a lot of things.
One is that babies haven't changed much in
the last few years.
They still cry.
And they still smell.
And you know, they're very demanding.
But they all have one thing in common.
They need to grow.
And they have this insatiable appetite.
You know, two o'clock in the morning
or two o'clock in the afternoon makes
no difference.
They want to eat.
Now, a baby Christian should do exactly the
same thing.
Want to eat, eat, eat.
Now, what does he eat?
He eats that which will help him through
the eye gate and through the ear gate
primarily.
And you will find what you put into
your mind will cause you to feel.
That's the reason that you feel so great
when you've gone to the house of the
Lord and heard the Word of God.
You don't analyze it and say, am I
just having an emotional kick or something?
No, no.
You're feeding your spiritual nature and he is
strong in the Lord.
That's one of the reasons many of us
who have gone to young people's camps would
come away after a week of concentrated study
in the Word of God.
And we were strong in the Lord.
We go back into school in a secular
situation.
And if you didn't have a continual feeding
station and you weren't regular about your your
Sunday church habits so that you could continue
to supplement your spiritual diet, it wasn't long
before your battery ran down spiritually.
And you couldn't understand it.
Why?
Because the Word of God wasn't dwelling in
you richly when you were back at school
like it was when you were at camp.
We need this continual service station.
And may I just pause here to point
out that that's what the Church of Jesus
Christ is doing today.
The church is a spiritual service station.
We take all the wrecks and all of
the accidents and all of the new Christians
and all of the old Christians and we
feed them the Word of God.
And then we send them out into the
highways and hedges and the factories and the
places of business to communicate the good news
that more and more people need to accept
Jesus and come to the house of the
Lord to feed on the Word of God
that this new nature might grow thereby.
Which of these two natures?
Now I'm assuming everyone in the house on
a Thursday night is a born-again Christian.
I hope I'm not making an invalid assumption.
If you're not, what you need to do
is invite Jesus Christ in as Lord and
you'll have this same new nature.
Now, which of these two natures controls your
life right now?
You say, well, this one.
In some cases it's a big nature because
you've been a Christian for a long time
and you've quit feeding this old nature.
Well, I'll tell you which one controls you.
The one you feed the most.
If you feed as a Christian, if you
feed through the eye gate, the rubbish of
this world, and I mean it is getting
more and more like trash than ever before.
If you feed the news media and the
boob tube and the movies and all of
the things of the world into your mind,
be sure of this, it isn't going to
do one thing for your spiritual nature, but
it will sure do a lot for your
sensual appetites.
And I want to point out one thing,
that you as a free moral agent decide
what you will let your eyes and your
ears absorb.
Let me illustrate something.
Pastor, may I use this as an illustration?
May I use it as an illustration of
pornographic literature?
Now, it isn't.
I know I've read this.
It's a very fine and excellent paper.
I'm flabbergasted you could put out such a
fine paper.
But that didn't come out the way I
meant.
It speaks well for this local church.
I've read it, he's been sending it to
me, and I really appreciate it.
But now, as a free moral agent, let's
just assume that this is a piece of
pornographic literature that used to be against the
law.
Today you can pick it off any newsstand.
And as a Christian, I walk into the
newsstand, you walk into the newsstand, and I
make a choice, do I not?
I can walk over there and I can
look at it.
But I'll tell you one thing, whether I'm
a Christian or not has not one thing
to do with the results.
If I read pornographic literature, how do you
think I'm going to feel?
Pornographic.
I'm going to have my baser man respond.
I have an old nature.
Now, some of you may be so wholly
sanctified you think this guy is dead.
Well, you come and see me afterward and
I'll tell you, we'll get into an argument,
and before long you'll prove he's very much
alive.
And every time, every time we put in
our minds that which feeds this nature, we
only make him stronger to overcome this new
nature.
Now I have another choice.
When I go to bed tonight, I can
decide I'm too tired to read the Word
of God, program my mind for slumber, and
just crawl in and go to sleep.
And you know what my subconscious mind will
do all night?
Your subconscious mind never shuts off, never underestimate
its power.
You know what my subconscious mind will do?
It will mull over all the things that
have happened, and if I've read something of
a sensual nature, that's what my food will
be during the night.
In fact, one of the reasons I'm convinced
so many Americans are emotional and neurotic and
on the verge of a nervous breakdown is
very simply because the last thing they do
every night before they go to bed is
watch the news.
That's right.
Eleven o'clock news, you know, we've just
oriented ourselves.
We used to go to bed at a
decent hour.
Now we have to sit up and watch
the eleven o'clock news, you know.
And so the bright-eyed guy comes on,
you know, and he looks at us through
those horn-rimmed glasses and he tells us
what a dismal status the world is in.
The world news, you have the skyjackings over
here and the thuggings and the muggings and
the, you know, all the rest over here.
And then he says in a cheerful voice,
now we'll turn to the national news.
So someone up here is being attacked and
molested and all kinds of thievery.
And then we hear about this gate that's
going on in some watered villa in Washington.
And we begin to wonder, who can you
trust?
And people go through all of this.
And then now let's have the local news,
you know.
You hear about someone that was shot down
the way and someone whose house was burned
down.
And all these nice, juicy tidbits.
And then they switch to the sports news
and you found your favorite team just lost
its last game.
And so you crawl into bed with all
these negative thoughts rattling around.
Now, how do you think you're going to
wake up in the morning?
Depressed, discouraged, despondent.
And people wake up all across America the
next morning and they say, oh, another day.
Hey, may I offer you a suggestion that
will be very helpful?
I have in my counseling ministry dealt a
great deal with depressed persons.
God just has given me a very compassionate
heart for these needy people.
And I have tried experiments with suggesting that
every night before they go to bed, they
sit down and read a couple of chapters
of the Word of God and then bring
out their handy little list of ten things
for which they are grateful in their life.
Always have a list of at least ten
things that you're grateful for.
And if you couples are having problems in
marriage, I can tell you how to change
it in two weeks.
Just make a list of things you thank
God for in your partner.
And then go over that list every night
before you go to bed.
And the last thing you say before you
go to sleep is, Lord, I want to
thank You for Mary or Bill.
I want to thank You for this in
their life and that.
And do you know how you're going to
wake up in the morning?
With a bright new hope.
It is absolutely cathartic the way this has
a transforming effect on your mind.
Try it.
And you see, the Bible teaches us that
we should let the Word of God dwell
in us how?
Richly in all wisdom.
But I'll be sure of one thing.
Whatever you let dwell in your mind is
going to cause you to feel.
Our culture is so brainwashed into thinking that
anything we feel like doing, we should do,
you know.
Boy, that is a lie.
There are fellas in jail for doing that.
The best way I know to destroy your
life is just be a spontaneous combustionist of
the feeling variety.
Just do anything I feel like.
You know what I would do if I
felt like it?
I would eat everything in sight.
I have an insatiable appetite.
You know my favorite food?
German chocolate cake.
I once told someone my vision, my very
carnal vision of heaven is I'm going to
dive off a diving board into a German
chocolate cake and eat my way out.
Now that's what I feel like doing.
But I know I wouldn't get through the
back door if I did.
And so I have to deny myself that.
There are all kinds of things that we
deny ourselves.
And the Bible tells us that we're to
keep, we're to keep our body in subjection
and put off the old man.
Now how in the world do we do
that?
By putting on the new man.
By walking in the Spirit.
You see, as we feed our mind so
we cause this new man in Christ Jesus
to react.
And I'd like to point out tonight that
we have plenty, plenty of equipment and material.
I have a diagram here that I want
to preach to you.
You didn't think I was going to use
the Bible, did you?
Well, let's turn to the Book of Galatians
and I want you to read a passage
with me.
In the light of this diagram, by the
way, in my opinion, this is one of
the most important passages in the Bible for
Christians to master.
Now we should learn the Word of God.
And you can't learn the Word of God
just by going to church once in a
while and listening.
Or just sitting.
You have to study the Word of God.
And I've never known God to use anyone
in or out of the local church that
didn't study the Word of God.
Because if you don't study it, you don't
have anything to communicate.
And if God is going to use your
life and mine, directly or indirectly, it has
to be in the battle for the mind.
Alright.
Now in verse 16 it commands us something.
Galatians 5.
This I say then, walk in the Spirit
and ye shall not fulfill the lust of
the flesh.
Alright, now the secret of the Christian life
is in that verse.
What is it?
Walk in the Spirit.
You cannot be miserable if you walk in
the Spirit.
Alright, let's turn that around.
When you're miserable, what does that tell you?
You're not walking in the Spirit.
Right?
Alright, when you're not walking in the Spirit,
notice you have a warfare going on.
For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit and
the Spirit against the flesh and these are
contrary to one to the other.
So that ye cannot do the things that
ye would.
Let me show you how that works.
Here we have the flesh.
Here we have the new nature.
Let's keep it simple because I'm not much
of a mathematician.
Let's suppose that this fella is 21 when
he accepts Jesus Christ.
How old is this old nature?
21 years old.
Let's suppose that was 21 years ago.
He's 42 now.
That means he's almost halfway through life.
And that almost gets further and further away
every year.
Anyway, here he is at 42 years of
age and he's 21 years old in Christ.
Now, which of these two natures is the
strongest?
Depends on which one he fed the most.
But he is going to have both of
these natures within him and at 42 years
of age, be sure of this, he can
feed either one.
He can feed either one and the one
he feeds the most is going to dominate
his life.
And you will find that these two war
one against another.
And the only way as a Christian you
and I can be happy and successful is
to walk in the Spirit.
Do you know who the most miserable people
in the world are?
They're Christians who do not walk in the
Spirit.
You see, an unsaved person doesn't have this
new nature in here reminding him every time
he's going contrary to the Word of God.
So if you're here without Christ tonight and
you say, good night, why do I want
to be a Christian?
Christians are uptight.
I just point out I've met a lot
of uptight Christians.
I've been uptight.
I know what it's like to walk on
both sides.
I've walked year for years in this man
and I know what it's like to walk
in this one.
And any Christian who's walking under the motivation
of the flesh is a lousy illustration of
Christianity.
But that's not God's will nor God's plan.
God's plan is that we walk in the
Spirit.
Walk in the Spirit as we feed our
mind the Word of God and as we
yield ourselves to the control of the Spirit.
There's going to be a warfare within us.
Okay, now look at verse 18.
If you're led by the Spirit, you're not
under the law.
Now, get this.
The works of the flesh, that is the
manifestations of the flesh, are these adultery, fornication,
uncleanness, lasciviousness.
We don't have to go into a long
debate about that.
Anyone that's motivated by this old man to
commit adultery, fornication, lasciviousness and uncleanness, it's obviously,
it's the sinful, carnal nature.
Idolatry, witchcraft, oh yes, we can see that.
Notice this next one.
Say that out loud to me, would you?
Hatred.
Hmm, that's one of those nice, respectable Baptist
sins that we don't mention very often.
But he lists it in the same class
as adultery, fornication.
I hope that gives us a new perspective
of inner rebellion and bitterness and animosity and
unforgiveness that we are prone to harbor.
Variance, going around trying to create some variation
whether there's no cause.
Emulations, wrath, that's hatred.
And strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revelings,
and such like.
By the way, if we didn't read your
pet sin, it's covered right there.
And such like.
Of the witch, I tell you before, as
I've also told you in time past, they
which do such things shall not inherit the
kingdom of God.
Let me point out something here.
He's not saying those who occasionally do those
things.
He's talking about those who as a habit,
pattern, and life's motivation do those things.
You'll find that unsaved people do those things
because they don't have a new nature.
Now notice the breath of fresh air in
verse 22.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love,
joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness,
temperance.
Against such there is no law.
And there suddenly you find an exciting concept.
There are nine, nine strengths of the Spirit
-filled life.
Nine strengths of the Spirit-filled life.
Love, joy, and peace.
Anyone ever been hurt by love, joy, and
peace?
Don't you enjoy being around people that exude
love, joy, and peace?
And then long-suffering, that's patience.
And then gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, self-control.
This is the Spirit-filled individual.
This is the individual that is committed to
the Spirit of God.
And may I point out that this is
what God the Holy Spirit wants to do
for you and me today.
One day on an airplane out of Dallas
going to Austin, Texas, I was seated next
to a psychiatrist.
And I of course wanted to talk to
him about Jesus.
And the minute I mentioned Jesus' name he
became so incensed I thought for a moment
he was going to leap off the plane.
But when he saw how high up we
were he changed his mind.
And he instantly got into a heated debate.
He just jumped all over me because of
the Christians he had met and blah, blah,
blah.
And he said to me, by the way,
he was half plastered.
His bloodshot eyes and his breath smelled such
that I knew he had had a few
before he got on the plane.
And then the girl came, you know, one
of those half-clad girls that came along
with one of those dresses that, well, I'm
not sure it is a dress.
Like my daughter said, Dad, I think that's
just a wide belt.
Anyway, she came along and she said, would
you men like a drink?
And I said, no thanks.
And he said, I'll take his.
And downed them both.
And then when we got into talking about
Christ he got so nasty and then turned
to me and I could just sense he
shifted into a habit pattern.
He asked a question that he had probably
asked a hundred people before.
He said, if you claim to be a
Christian, I want to ask you a question.
What has Jesus Christ done for you today?
How do you answer that?
Did he have a legitimate right to ask
that question?
Drunk as he was, he had every right
to ask that question.
If I claim to be indwelt by the
supernatural power of God, then he ought to
have done something different in my life.
Have you ever thought about that?
What has Jesus Christ done for you today?
I'd like to show you what he can
do for you today, depending on the raw
material you started out with.
What Jesus does for us is dependent upon
what we are to begin with.
And you'll find that we all have a
variety of besetting sins.
The sin that does so easily beset us.
And have you ever noticed that some Christians
are all hung up on a sin that
is no temptation to us?
Isn't it nice to feel self-righteous whenever
you see that?
I don't understand why that Christian falls into
that sin.
I never have that problem.
Of course, he probably doesn't have a temptation
in an area where we have a problem.
You see, we all have one.
And you know, interestingly enough, it will follow
a temperament pattern.
I'd like to give you a very quick
overview of the four temperaments concept.
It will be very quick, and I think
you'll find it interesting.
And then I'll sum it up by showing
you, taking us where we are, God the
Holy Spirit is able to lead us out
into a full, rich life.
For example, the theory of the four temperaments
is the best concept or theory of why
we act the way we do that's ever
been propounded.
It's not original with me.
It's a little older than I am, in
fact.
It's 2,400 years old.
But this theory is that there are four
basic kinds of people that are born this
way.
You're born with a certain kind of temperament.
And it has strengths that we have on
the outside of our circle, and weaknesses on
the inside.
Now, those of you in the back, don't
feel bad.
I'm going to blow this up in a
minute, and you'll be able to see it.
And these four basic temperaments, the sanguine, super
salesman, the cleric, hard-driving executive, or leader,
and the melancholy mystic, and the easy-going,
nice phlegmatic, all of these people have strengths
and weaknesses.
The problem is their weaknesses are so powerful,
they overshadow their strengths, and they're rarely able
to be used of God unless they walk
in the Spirit.
And God's use of your life is dependent
upon your gaining the nine strengths for your
many weaknesses.
And I don't care who you are or
what temperament you are, whatever your weakness, there's
a strength in the Spirit-filled life on
a practical, everyday basis.
Now, before I go into an analysis of
this, let me just give you a couple
of thoughts to think about.
One is, no one is all one of
these.
You know, we just don't come out that
way.
Both your mother and father have made a
contribution to you.
And since opposites always attract each other in
marriage, that's why we have such an interesting
adjusting to do, then your children are going
to be kind of a composite.
But you'll find that the genes that have
produced our color of eyes and color of
skin and hair and body style and so
on, those genes also produce the kind of
temperament we have.
And that temperament is the raw material from
which God will save us by the working
of His Holy Spirit.
Now, that's one of the things I want
you to remember.
Another is, if you've been a Christian a
long time, you may find it difficult to
diagnose your temperament.
And you know why?
Because the Holy Spirit has already done so
much for you.
So that today's behavior won't give you a
good picture.
I have found that unsaved people, I can
diagnose their temperament in five minutes.
But I know Christians intimately and I still
can't figure out what is their basic temperament.
And to me that's a thrilling illustration of
the Holy Spirit.
Another thing I want to warn you, don't
use this as a psychological club to examine
all your friends.
I want you to use this for self
-analysis and then maybe to help you understand
why other people do what they do.
It makes it much easier to get along
with them.
Okay, first of all, meet my friend Sparky
Sandwin.
Sparky Sandwin is that effervescent, supersonic, extrovertish salesman
type that could sell refrigerators to the Eskimos.
In fact, I'm sure he could even sell
rubber crutches to the crippled.
But this man, this man is a natural
born actor and speaker.
I mean, he can talk off the top
of his head or wherever he speaks and
make it sound interesting.
Here are some of his strengths.
He is very outgoing and personable and responsive
to everything around him.
He is what I call a people people.
If you watch a Sandwin, when he's alone,
he's just kind of glum.
But the moment he sees a people, his
face just sparks up and he just comes
to life.
And one of the problems a Sandwin's wife
has is, why is it he can sit
like a big blob of gelatin in the
living room chair and then all it takes
is the doorbell and he just jumps into
action and, you know, he's just a whirlwind
of activity.
And she thinks, wow, what turned him on?
I can tell you what turned him on,
a people.
Really.
Sometimes a bird will do it, you know.
They're very responsive to everything around them.
By the way, if you have some of
these Sandwin people, enjoy their spontaneity and their
happiness.
I believe personally their major contribution in life
is to just spread good cheer.
Don't look at all the things they forget
to do.
Enjoy that.
They're carefree.
They never worry about the past.
They never worry about the future.
I have a very dear friend whose life
has been a disaster.
He had an unhappy marriage.
He was saved.
That was a difficulty.
He lost his son when he was 12
years of age.
His wife turned bitter and she re-divorced
him.
And here we are driving through the city
of Portland, Oregon.
He's all alone, been single for six years
and happy as a lark.
And we were talking about the miserable people
that come to me and ask for counseling
as we were holding meetings and so on.
And he turned to me and very spontaneously
said, You know, God has been so good
to me, I've never had a problem in
my whole life.
Only a Sandwin would look at life like
that.
They're super compassionate.
You tell this fellow a sad story and
he'll break down and cry right there.
And they're friendly, enthusiastic.
They love to please people.
They'll go out of their way to do
anything for people.
They're just people-oriented creatures.
Now, if I could stop there and that's
all there was about it, it'd be neat,
wouldn't it?
By the way, I always give the strengths
first.
You know, put a little sugar coating on
the pill.
And when you make up your mind what
you are on the basis of strengths, don't
be so carnal as to change it when
we get to the weaknesses.
That's a natural tendency.
Here are some of his weaknesses.
Number one, he's emotionally unstable.
He can not only weep with those that
weep, but he can get mad at the
drop of a hat.
And you step on his toe or you
do something and he just blows his cork.
He gets red in the face.
You've heard the expression, he turns livid with
rage.
Well, it's Sparky Sandwin.
Now, one thing about it, he never carries
a grudge.
Once he's blown up all over you, he
forgives you.
And he never carries a grudge.
In fact, he never gets ulcers.
He gives them to everybody else.
He's undisciplined.
He just never finishes anything.
That's why he's unproductive, always on the move,
and usually voted man most likely to succeed
in college, but fails in life because he
doesn't follow through and finish.
He's got a jillion things going.
His wife will usually say, our garage is
filled with unfinished projects.
And he's weak-willed.
He's always going to go on a diet,
or he's always going to quit doing this,
or he's always going to turn over a
new leaf.
And he's loud and egocentric and very undependable.
The only thing you can depend on him
to be is late or forgetful or whatever.
And exaggerate?
I mean, this fellow's a great storyteller.
And some of you department superintendents, you love
to have Sparky Sandwin go down there to
the junior department and tell the kids a
story.
You know, that is always a calculated risk
for several reasons.
One is he may forget to show up.
Another is he never studies in advance, and
so you're just not sure whether it's going
to be a Bible story, a Bible-related
story, or a parallel story, or something totally
different.
In fact, I know one Sandwin who had
Goliath killing David.
This individual is prone to be fearful.
He's prone to be fearful in his lifestyle.
He has a bold exterior, but underneath there
is a basic insecurity.
The Holy Spirit of God can do a
lot for this kind of individual.
I'll show you in a moment.
Now meet the second of the four basic
temperaments, Rocky Kalerick.
I'm sure you've met him.
He is an extrovert.
He's not as excessive an extrovert as Sparky
Sandwin, but he is an extrovert as a
rule.
He's a natural-born leader and builder and
producer.
He knows where he's going.
He's a goal-conscious person, and he's always
got his plow on the ground doing something.
One of his strongest characteristics is strength of
will.
When he makes up his mind to do
something, he is determined, and he finishes the
job.
In fact, Kalericks are usually more successful in
life than any other particular temperament.
You know why?
Not because they're smarter.
They're usually given credit for being smarter, but
they're not.
They just finish what they start, and other
people don't.
And they're very visionary.
He can hardly enjoy a nice rolling hillside,
because all he can see is streets and
sidewalks and schools and houses and, you know,
buildings.
Very optimistic.
He has no analytical ability about him.
He just sees something that needs to be
done, and let's go on with the show.
And someone says, well, you know, there's a
big chasm up there.
Well, we'll build a bridge, you know.
Somehow it'll all work out.
Let's just get on with the program.
And very practical.
He has no aesthetic appreciation.
Music, he can't stand it.
And he could never understand why anyone would
ever waste money on art.
You know, paint, you know, paint the wall.
And no frills and anything like that.
Everything has to have a utilitarian purpose for
him.
And very decisive.
Makes up his mind quickly.
He can make it up wrong quickly, but
he makes it up.
Very courageous.
And he's a leader because he's self-confident.
Have you ever noticed people will follow a
leader, good or bad, right or wrong?
You wonder, why do they do it?
In fact, people with a greater intelligence will
follow a leader with lesser intelligence.
Why?
Because he exudes self-confidence and they don't.
People will never follow an insecure person.
Okay, here are some of his weaknesses.
He's unemotional.
Cold.
Quit crying when he was 11 years of
age.
Self-sufficient and independent of God and everyone
else.
In fact, if you don't lead this fellow
to Christ by the time he's 11 or
12 years of age, it's very doubtful he'll
ever come to Christ unless his whole world
collapses.
I've had the joy of leading several clerics
to Christ over 40, but in every case
they had nothing but tragedy before they finally
came to Christ.
And they're impetuous and proud and domineering in
their characteristics.
They bulldoze over everyone.
And in fact, if you work for a
cleric, you know what he wants you to
do.
He's already told you ten times today.
And inconsiderate.
These people are so inconsiderate they have no
sensitivity to other people.
They're thick-skinned.
They have natural rhinoceros hide.
And when you insult them, they don't even
know they've been insulted.
And in fact, I have a friend who's
a cleric sanguine salesman.
A good salesman.
He's one of those insurance salesmen that no
is not in his vocabulary.
You tell him, no, I've already got insurance
up to here.
He doesn't even hear you.
Well, he went to a conference one time.
Fine Christian fellow.
Went to a conference one time, and he
all of a sudden saw how insensitive he
was to the needs of his family.
So he came home from that weekend and
he told the family he was going to
be more sensitive.
And so at the dinner table that night,
he whips out his little notepad and he
said, family, the Lord has revealed to me
that I'm insensitive to the needs of my
family.
So I've come home determined and I look
at my 15-year-old son and said,
son, what are your needs?
Two days later, he's in my office and
he looked at me rather perplexed and he
said, Pastor, I just don't understand my family.
They're real neat people.
And unforgiving.
Now sanguine, you know, he forgets it out
of sight, out of mind.
Not this fellow.
If you bump his car door out in
a church parking lot and you did that
when he was driving a Model T, he
can remember it to this day.
In fact, when he's looking down at you
in your coffin, he's saying, well, too bad
about him.
If he only hadn't hit my car back
in the 30s.
Sarcastic.
I sometimes think these people didn't get a
tongue, they got a razor blade.
They can leave people slashed and bleeding all
over but their dominant motivation is anger.
I know one woman who used to pick
a fight with her husband every Monday morning.
And I said, well, there must be some
reason that you do this.
Oh, she said, I found that I hate
housework and the only way I can do
it all in one day is to have
a big fight with my husband.
I get so mad I can clean the
house in one day.
Or she was bleeding inside.
And I'll show you that in just a
moment.
Okay, now let's take a look at the
third of the four basic temperaments.
Mr. Melancholy.
This is the first of the introvertish type.
And I'm going to have to speed up.
I notice your clock runs just as fast
as mine at home.
So I'm going to have to speed up
on this.
But I want you to notice that they
produce many of the great good of the
world.
They're analytical.
They have an analytical type mind.
They can anticipate things that are going to
happen.
And they're super sensitive.
They can feel the feelings of other people.
You hurt and they'll bleed.
And they're artistic, of course.
They can appreciate the fine arts.
They can see rocks.
There's always some clown that comes around with
a pile of rocks.
And he'll look at it and he'll say,
can you see the face on those rocks?
You can show that to a cleric.
He can stare at it for a hundred
years and it'll always be a pile of
rocks.
But not a melancholy.
You show that to a melancholy and why
he can see the formation of a face.
You give him a little while and he
can see two or three faces.
He's a super perfectionist.
Everything he does is just exactly on.
Very meticulous and careful.
And, oh, conscientious.
They do superb work and when they turn
it in they still feel inadequate because it's
not perfect.
And they're aesthetic music lovers.
I remember one dear melancholy lady that had
a big poof hairdo on and we were
at someone's home and they were listening to
a new stereo set.
And I was just wondering how she was
going to put that stereo set over her
big poof hairdo.
You know, I never had figured out how
they do that.
They kind of stand over a fan and
let it blow up, you know, and spray
it with all that shellac and it just
kind of zaps there.
But she kind of faked me out.
She took those earphones and just slipped them
under like this.
Now here she is.
She's not an exhibitionist or an extrovert, but
when the music came on she closed her
eyes and she was totally oblivious to the
fact that every eye in the room was
staring at her.
And she, I thought for a minute she
was going to lift right off the carpet.
She took the earphones off and she said,
Oh, that music makes my head come to
a point.
You couldn't tell in all that hair.
Anyhow, they can really appreciate music and they're
super loyal.
If you have a melancholy friend, you have
a friend for life.
And they're self-sacrificing.
They will give themselves away.
No matter what their vocation, they will usually
take the hardest role and give themselves to
it.
And they're very self-disciplined.
Here are some of their weaknesses.
One, they're moody.
Sometimes you meet them and they're happy-go
-lucky.
And sometimes you meet them and they're just
wiped out.
And one of the major reasons is because
they're negative.
They're always thinking negatively and negatively.
And let me pause right here.
I have just finished writing a book that's
going to be out next month entitled, How
to Win Over Depression.
And I wish I had time to give
you some of the thoughts in it, but
I don't, except for this one.
I can give you a formula that I
guarantee if you use this formula, you'll never
be depressed again as long as you live.
Now, there's not a full-blown guarantee in
a day when, today, the number one emotional
epidemic in America is depression.
You know how to avoid it?
First Thessalonians 5.18 In everything give thanks,
for this is the will of God in
Christ Jesus concerning you.
I have never seen a depressed thanksgiver.
And I've never seen a happy griper.
And you won't either.
You'll find whenever you're depressed, it's because of
a negative thinking pattern.
And they're prone to be self-centered and
everything in life revolves around them.
And touchy?
Ooh!
You can offend a melancholy by looking at
it.
Or if you don't look at it.
And he's revengeful.
If you've done something against him, he can
mull it over and feel bad about it
and mull it over.
And they get involved in theoretical, abstract things.
It's fun to be a teacher of the
Word of God.
You go out and you can almost tell
the melancholies.
Any questions you have, and they'll ask some
way out theoretical question that really is immaterial.
But they get off on that side track
and they don't get the practical application.
And they're persecution prone and mental thinking pattern
really is foul.
And they're unsociable when they're in a bad
mood particularly.
And super critical.
A perfectionist is going to be critical of
himself and everyone else.
Usually these people are unhappy because of their
spirit of criticism and negativism.
I was just telling someone tonight, I wrote
Spirit, Control, Temperament for melancholy people.
And had many testimonies of how their whole
thinking pattern could be changed by the ministry
of the Holy Spirit.
And I want to tell you Jesus Christ
through His Holy Spirit can do a lot
for a melancholy.
Now let me show you what a phlegmatic
looks like.
These phlegmatics are the neatest people.
They are so quiet, calm, and easy going
and never get upset.
They make good diplomats.
They love peace.
And teachers.
Who but a phlegmatic could teach kids to
read?
You know, look, look, look, Jane, Jane, Jane.
Jump.
Can you see a, can you see a
cleric first grade teacher?
He'd be leaping out the window.
They make good accountants and technicians.
They're very calm and easy going.
It's not uncommon for a phlegmatic's children to
say, I have never seen my father angry.
They just don't get angry.
They just have a very high boiling point.
And they're very efficient and conservative.
They're usually the last ones in a society
to give up white shirts.
And as one told me the other day,
I'm so thrilled, he said, white shirts are
coming back.
They're very organized.
Whenever they do something, it's always done neat
and trim.
By the way, you can tell the phlegmatics
by going to work next Monday morning early.
And find out who comes early to work.
And you'll find that the people that come
in about 25 minutes before the hour are
usually phlegmatics.
They don't like the hurry and the bustle
of the freeway and rushing through the gate.
Your temperament will be shown by the way
you go to work.
The melancholies go an hour and a half
early to get their work done before the
rest of the working force gets there.
The phlegmatics go about 25 minutes early to
avoid the rush.
The clerics get there right at the stroke.
They give full bore all day and they're
not late, but they won't get there 30
seconds early.
And the sanguins are always late.
You can just watch that.
These people make reluctant leaders.
By the way, we have found in our
Sunday school they make the best leaders of
anyone.
If you can get them to commit themselves
year after year after year, they'll work in
the Sunday school.
And other people like to work under them
because they're efficient, they're well organized, they're always
prepared.
The rub is to get them to agree
to do it.
And they have the neatest sense of humor.
They have a dry wit.
They can make other people laugh while they're
just very casual about it all.
They're wonderful people.
We'd all like to be phlegmatic except for
some of these things.
Number one, they're just unmotivated.
Blase and spectators, they just don't get involved
in anything.
I have more sanguine or cleric women come
in and say, what do you do to
motivate a phlegmatic husband?
You know, they just sit around the house
like a big bob.
It's just a gift with them.
And they are prone to be self-protective.
If you're a phlegmatic, may I offer you
a quick bit of advice?
Quit protecting yourself from getting over-involved.
I've never seen a phlegmatic in my life
who was over-involved.
The only thing they're over-involved in is
keeping from getting over-involved.
They're stingy and selfish.
They have their original nickel and they're trying
to keep the ones in between.
And they're indecisive.
It's hard for them to follow through.
They make good decisions, but they're so obsessed
with not wanting to get involved that it's
hard to follow through.
And their biggest crime is fear.
They worry about everything.
In fact, their motto is in nothing give
thanks and in everything worry.
Now, let me show you what the Holy
Spirit of God can do for all of
these temperament types.
Again, we see these nine characteristics.
What does a sanguine need?
He's got lots of love, lots of joy,
but oh, does he need peace.
So the Spirit of God is going to
give him peace.
And he needs long suffering to finish those
many things he wants to start.
And you'll find when the Spirit of God
fills a sanguine's life, he is consistent and
enduring.
And he isn't gentle by nature, but he
can learn to be gentle.
And he gets involved in good service for
Christ.
And he needs faith and meekness.
Oh, how he needs that for his giant
ego.
And then he needs self-control.
You see how Jesus Christ through His Holy
Spirit can help a sanguine?
Well now, in the Bible I find a
classic illustration in the Apostle Peter.
If ever there was a sanguine, it was
Peter.
Every time he opened his mouth, he put
his foot in it and said the wrong
thing.
And yet, if you read through the book
of Acts, you will find that the same
man that spoke more than all the other
disciples put together in the Gospels is still
speaking in the book of Acts.
But in the book of Acts, he is
saying something.
And the reason is because in Acts he
was filled with the Holy Spirit.
And then I think of the cleric.
What does he need?
Well, he needs love, joy, peace.
He is long-suffering.
He needs gentleness.
He needs to get involved in the good
acts of serving Christ.
He needs faith in the Lord and not
himself.
And he needs meekness for his haughty spirit.
And he is self-controlled.
The Holy Spirit of God can do a
lot for a cleric.
And Exhibit A is the Apostle Paul.
What do you think he was?
The Bible tells about him before he was
saved.
He was breeding out threatenings and slaughters and
hauling the Christians away to be killed.
Nice, friendly type.
And that same man, when filled with the
Spirit of God, became a flaming evangelist and
a man with deep sensitivity and concern for
the souls of other people.
What about a melancholy?
Well, they need love for others.
And oh, they need joy and peace.
They can be long-suffering and enduring individuals.
They are gentle by nature.
And they need to get involved in the
good acts of Christian service.
You know, I found in the Bible that
God used more melancholies than all the other
temperaments put together because nothing so motivates a
melancholy like getting involved in the work of
the Kingdom of God.
And if you have a problem with melancholy,
I suggest you give yourself body, soul, and
spirit to Jesus Christ to be used of
Him.
And He'll transform your life.
They also need faith.
And they need meekness.
They are self-controlled.
And as I mentioned, there are many illustrations
in the Bible.
I used Moses.
An 80-year-old, sulking, wasted, emotional basket
case.
Spent 40 years getting an education and 40
years wasting it tending sheep out in the
backside of the desert, sulking because the children
of Israel rejected him.
And all God had to do to get
a hold of him was send a burning
bush that wasn't consumed and speak to him
audibly.
Other than that, it was really easy to
get through to him.
And here's this 80-year-old wipeout that
went on.
He went on to become the greatest leader
the world has ever known.
No one has equaled the feat of Moses
in all the annals of history of leading
3 million griping Jews out in the wilderness.
It's a phenomenal thing.
And what about a phlegmatic?
What does he need?
Well, he needs love for other people that
overcomes his stinginess and selfishness.
He is a joyful, peaceful person.
And he needs endurance.
And he is gentle.
He needs to get involved in good acts
of serving Christ and quit saving himself.
And oh, how he needs faith for his
worries and fears.
And exhibit A in the Bible is Abraham
the phlegmatic.
Abraham was so hand-pecked.
If you read in the Bible, you'll find
Sarah said, go into my maid, so he
goes into the maid.
Then the baby is born and Sarah says,
kick him out of the family.
Or before the baby was born.
She said, Hagar is ridiculing me because she's
pregnant and I'm not.
So he had to send her out.
And then after the baby is born, she
said send him out and he sent her
out.
You know, just anything Sarah said, he was
willing to do.
And then you remember, Abraham is the hero
that on two occasions wanted Sarah to palm
herself off as his sister because he was
trying to save his head.
And you'll find that his biggest problem was
fear.
But isn't it interesting, we never think about
Abraham as the man that was afraid to
serve God.
How do we know Abraham today?
As the man that believed God and it
was counted unto him for righteousness.
You say, how did it happen?
The Holy Spirit.
You see, the Holy Spirit is able to
take the biggest weakness in your life and
make it a strength.
That's why suddenly we begin to recognize the
greatest need that you and I have tonight
is to be filled with the Holy Spirit
of God.
You and I are faced with the exciting
opportunity of being transformed human beings.
Being walking billboards of a new resident power.
But I'll tell you, it is not without
the Holy Spirit of God.
When Jesus said, it is absolutely expedient for
you that I go away from you, because
if I don't go, the Holy Spirit can
come.
You know, He was saying, there is something
more important than My being here in the
flesh walking the earth.
And that is that the Holy Spirit come
to live in and dwell and energize every
believer in every age.
And I want to call to your attention,
Christian, that you and I have no greater
opportunity or more serious responsibility than to be
filled with the Holy Spirit of God.
And one of the reasons I believe there
is more action going on nationwide in the
churches of Jesus Christ today than ever before
is because for the first time, we're beginning
to recognize the importance of the Spirit-filled
life.
I say this to our shame, and I
know this is a broad indictment, but as
Baptists, we have been retarded in relationship to
the ministry of the Holy Spirit.
I know what it's like to be in
the ministry for 15 years and never be
filled with the Holy Spirit of God.
You know what I thought about the Holy
Spirit?
I thought He was a member of the
Trinity.
Well, He is.
And I thought He was a doctrine that
you preach.
And I understood the doctrine, but I never
realized that He was someone that wanted to
come and fill my life and make me
a new creature in Christ Jesus.
And I want to tell you that the
Holy Spirit is more interested in filling your
life than you are in being filled.
I used to read reports about how someone
was filled by praying all night or fasting
or going through some great sacrificial movement.
And then all of a sudden, the Holy
Spirit revealed to me a simple method on
how to be filled.
I'd like to close by giving you just
five simple steps on how to be filled
with the Spirit.
I'm sorry I don't have them visualized.
I just misplaced it.
But I can give them to you.
Those of you who are writing them down,
quickly write this down.
Number one, examine yourself for sin.
Examine yourself for sin.
Acts 20.28 tells us that let a
man take heed unto himself and examine himself.
1 Corinthians 11.27 Alright, examine yourself for
sin.
What do you do if you find sin?
Number two, confess all known sin.
1 John 1.9, very clear.
Whenever you see sin in your life, that's
an evidence that the flesh is dominant, not
the Spirit.
So confess it.
That's number two.
Number three, and this is the vital important
one, give yourself completely to God.
Many times the Bible challenges us in such
words as yield ye your members as instruments
of righteousness unto God, as those that are
alive unto God.
Give yourself, your members, present your body a
living sacrifice.
We could use Romans 6.11, 6.13,
Romans 12.1, and a host of others.
Give yourself to God.
And may I pause right here to point
out that God is a jealous God.
I do not believe you and I can
be filled with the Holy Spirit if we
have one unreserved area in our lives.
It's my observation that most Christians are not
filled with the Holy Spirit, not because they
aren't basically consecrated to God, but because they
aren't fully consecrated to God.
Yielded completely.
We all have strings on our lives.
Lord, I'll do this if you just let
me have this.
You know, like one fellow said, I'm 97
% yielded to God, but there's no power
in my life.
Well, 3% is what it costs him
to be filled with the Spirit.
And then fourth, after you've yielded everything in
your life to God, your vocation, your ambition,
your mind, your wallet, your home, your children,
everything, then number four, very important, ask to
be filled with the Spirit.
Ask.
You say, don't I have to stay up
all night?
No.
Meet his first three conditions and then ask
to be filled with the Spirit.
He didn't say I'll fill with my Spirit
all those who beg me all night, all
those that fast and pray.
You know what he said?
If you being evil know how to give
good gifts to your children, how much more
will your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit
to them that ask Him?
Luke 11 verse 13.
And then, number five, repeat that formula every
time you sin.
Every time you sin.
I never give an invitation for people to
publicly walk down the aisle to be filled
with the Holy Spirit.
Now, you may in this church.
And that's certainly alright.
I don't object if anyone does.
The reason I do not is because you
don't need to be filled with the Holy
Spirit once.
You need to be filled and filled and
filled and refilled.
In Ephesians 5.18 it says, and be
ye continually filled.
In the Greek it literally means the continuing
action.
And be ye continually, continually, continually filled.
As a matter of fact, and please don't
anyone laugh because I don't think this was
intended for that purpose.
He says, be not drunk with wine wherein
is excess, but be ye continually filled with
the Spirit.
What does it take to get a drunk?
Sober.
Absence of liquor.
After a while, it just runs through his
system.
Now that's the simile he's using here.
As a drunk, in order to stay drunk,
has to keep drinking and drinking.
So, for a Christian to be filled with
the Holy Spirit on a lasting basis, he
has to be continually filled.
A man said to me one time, Pastor,
how often should I be filled with the
Holy Spirit?
And I said, every time you're not.
You know, I ask to be filled with
the Spirit when I go to bed at
night.
It's the first thing I ask in the
morning.
And several times during the day, depending on
the consciousness of sin.
The Bible says, walk in the Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is not an addendum to
our doctrine.
He is a living person who wants to
fill and enrich your life and mine.
And the best key I know to a
happy life is the Spirit-filled life.
Now, I'll give you an assignment to go
home in closing.
Read Ephesians chapter 5 and you'll find something
interesting.
The greatest passage in the Bible on family
relationships.
Wife to husband, husband to wife, children to
fathers, fathers to children.
It's all right there.
And the introduction to that whole thing is
be filled with the Holy Spirit.
In 27 years of counseling over 3,500
people, many of them for marriage problems, I
have yet to counsel Spirit-filled couples.
I've counseled some folks who said, well, you
know, we used to live that way and
we didn't have these problems.
Spirit-filled people live Spirit-filled lives.
Let's bow together for prayer.
With our heads bowed and our hearts open
before God, as you look into your own
heart tonight, will you answer this question honestly?
Am I a Spirit-filled Christian?
If you're not, let's follow that simple formula.
Number one, examine your heart.
Is there some sin that you've not committed
or that you've not given to God?
Some habit?
Some thing?
Some desire?
Some person perhaps?
Confess it.
Now, yield yourself completely to God.
Just say, Lord, I want You to have
everything in my life, and particularly that thing
that you have been most reluctant to give
Him.
Give Him that.
Your marriage, your children, your future, your vocation,
everything.
Now ask to be filled with His Spirit.
Father in Heaven, we thank You so much
for giving us the Word of God and
its clarity.
We thank You for the opportunity of knowing
Jesus and for the power of the Holy
Spirit.
And we just pray that You'll apply these
principles to each of our hearts as we
have need.
Father, we commit unto Thy keeping every soul
in this room for the perfection of Your
will to the glory of Jesus Christ, in
whose name we pray, Amen.