Have you heard the little commercial that says, "Aren't you glad you used Dial?" Well, aren't you glad you know Christ? What would life be like if you did not know Christ?

Have you ever wondered what life would be like if you did not know Christ? Suppose that you did not know Christ at all, just think for a moment, what standard would you have in life to live by? What standard would you have for your marriage? If you saw someone else that you temporarily felt a craving for, what standard would you have to tell you what to do and what not to do? If you wanted to drink or eat certain substances that would hurt your body, what standard would you have? What would your life really be like if you had no standards except just a natural cravings of the flesh? Moreover, suppose you had no power to break the lusts of the flesh. Not only no standard, but no power in your life. I think of that hijacker this week, who just had to get an American. Suppose that that was your character and you had no power to break those feelings of hatred, the feelings of lust, the feelings--you know, the lusts of the eyes, of the flesh, the passions, the desires--what would life be like if you had no standard and no moral power in your life?

You know Jesus said that those who sin are what? Are they free people? They are slaves, aren't they? Without Christ, we are all slaves to the lusts of the flesh, to the passions, whatever we strongly desire. We have no control over what we think and eventually what we do. Think what life would be like if you had no one you could turn to if you were down and out or when things were not going right. When things begin to fall apart, we sort of instinctively know, as Christians, at some time they are going to come together again and so we hold on. You know, if we are real smart, we will go to the Lord in prayer and pray about it. But suppose that when things began to fall apart, you had no hope that they would ever come back together again; they just kept on going down. Suppose that you had no hope that "all things work together for good to those who love the Lord." What would life be like? You know, the difference between God's and the devil's programs are that the devil's programs look real good and enticing at first, but they begin to fall apart as time goes on and they end in misery and death and hardship and it is a never-ending spiral downward, like an alcoholic on skidrow. Whereas, God's program often begins just the opposite. It often begins with hardship and trial, as with Jesus in the wilderness when He began His public ministry. It often begins with trial, but God works it all out for good.

Now which program do you like the best? Which would you rather have? A million dollars in a paper sack or a few worthless slugs in a pretty coin purse? Which would you really rather have, an old rickety, sagging bed to sleep on, but with a strong back and a strong constitution? Or would you rather have a big, beautiful, gold-plated bed that did not sag a bit, that costs thousands of dollars, that they call a coffin, to sleep in? That is the difference between the devil's programs and God's. The devil's programs look attractive, but they house death. God's programs, on this earth, involve a certain amount of hardship, but they lead to eternal life. Which program are you interested in? Aren't you glad that you know Christ? Wouldn't you hate to open up that coin purse and find that it only holds a few worthless slugs? Wouldn't you rather open up the paper sack and find a million dollars within? Aren't you glad you know Christ? Don't you wish everyone did?

You know we only have Christ, if we are willing to share Him with other people, did you know that? Look with me over at John 15:1,2 and 8, "I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit. . ."

It is when a branch is bearing fruit that the roots send up an extra amount of sap in order to give life to that fruit and it flows through the branch and so it is with us and Christ. We are all called to be witnesses for Christ. Jesus prayed to His Father, in the hearing of His disciples on His last night on earth, He says, "Father I am coming back to You now. I have left these disciples and I have taught them Your name. I have taught them Your character." Now He says, "As You sent Me into the world, so I am sending them into the world to take My place, now that I am not going to be here physically anymore." John 17:18. "As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world." They are taking My place. If we are glad that we know Christ, if we love other people who do not know Christ, more than anything else in the world we are going to wish that they also knew Christ just as we know Him, aren't we? The Bible says, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." John 3:16. Do we have that same love that Jesus had?

Now it is like breathing. Jesus used many illustrations to illustrate the spiritual nature. I think of it like breathing, this witnessing thing. God gives us His Spirit so that we can share it with other people. It is only as we share it that we can receive it. Have you ever realized that you can only breath in as you breath out? Ever tried breathing in without breathing out? Can't do it, can you? It is only as you breath out that you can breath in. And so it is only as we share that we can receive. It is only as we give what we know that God gives us more. Have you ever noticed it is as you are trying to explain truth to other people that all of a sudden it becomes so crystal clear to yourself and you understand it like you have never understood it before? It always happens that way. The Holy Spirit comes down and teaches us truth so we can teach other people truth. And if we love them, we are going to desire more than anything else to win them.

So God has called us to be soul winners. You will notice in the bulletin that the title of what we are studying today is "How to Win a Soul for Christ". Now I suppose we could think of many styles to witness. Some people may give Bible studies; some people may invite people to meetings; some people may hold meetings; some people may invite people to church. There may be all kinds of styles, but there is only one way to do it. There is only one true way to win a soul for Christ. And Jesus tells us how over in John 12:32, Jesus said, "And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself." I will draw all men to Myself if I am lifted up. Can we draw people? It has to be Christ.

Jesus gave us the same truth to Nicodemus over in John 3 when He was talking to him right at the beginning of His ministry. Look here in verses 14 and 15, "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life."

The only way to witness is to lift up Jesus Christ. There is no other way. Whatever style of witnessing you may do, whatever methods of witnessing you may choose, or that God may choose for you, the only way that those styles or methods will work is if they lift up Jesus Christ. That is the only way that any sinner can be won. That is the way you were won, if you are won; the way I am won, if I have been won. And if you are going to win someone else to Christ, there is only one way and that is to lift up Christ, to lift up Jesus Christ.

Now, of course, there are many people who think they are lifting up Christ. They talk about Him all the time. I am not talking about those who even are using His name in jest or swearing because they use His name all the time, too. I am not talking about them. I mean religious people. There are many religious people who use the name of Christ, "Praise God for this and that", they are going to meetings all the time, who think they are lifting up Christ, but who are, in fact, not lifting Him up at all. Now I am not judging anyone, but I am just meaning what Jesus said. Look with me over at Matthew 7:21, Jesus talked about a group of people who claimed and who verbally said that they were lifting up Christ and everything they did, they did in the name of Christ and they talked about Christ and were very, ultra-religious.

He says, "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. May will say to Me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?' " They did all these things in the name of Jesus Christ, not in their own name, but in the name of Jesus Christ. Surely they must have been uplifting Christ. "And then I will declare to them," Jesus said, " 'I never knew you; [it wasn't Me you were lifting up] depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.' "

Now, a few verses earlier, Jesus said it would only be a very few that were actually saved. That is a sad thing because everyone can be saved that really desires to be saved. And yet, it will only be a few who will choose God's way to be saved. Have you ever noticed that there are a lot of people who want to be saved, but they all want their own way to be saved? They want their own day to worship on, they want their own way to worship, they want their own way to eat, they want their own way to do all kinds of things. They want to be saved, but they are going to worship on the day of their choice, they are going to do it in God's name, of course, but they are all doing it in their own way, their own style.

If we could only learn one little, simple principle, it would make things so easy; "He who does the will of My Father, he it is who will be saved." He says in verses 13 and 14, "Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it." Not just many worldlings, but Jesus said, many Christians, many of those who say to Jesus that He is their Lord. Many who are claiming to be saved by the blood of Jesus Christ, verbally claiming. If you were to ask them, they would say, "Oh yes, I was saved. I was saved on February 7, 1941." They are saved and they may even say that they have been saved every Sunday since. These are Christians, many Christians, going the broad way. But "narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are" how many? A few, moderate or many? "Few." You notice Jesus contrasting the many with the few. He is contrasting the fact that there are many Christians who will not be saved, many Christians, those are calling Jesus Christ. He is not talking about the Hindus or Moslems or all these others. He is talking about those who call Jesus Christ their Lord. There are many Christians who are going to be lost, but only a few who are going to be saved. Because they have not learned that one tiny, simple, little principle of doing what God tells them to do. It is a simple little thing.

Of course, we realize that this refers to Sunday-keepers, I suppose, or those who are openly violating the law of God. But I wonder if this could refer to those who are keeping the Sabbath and outwardly keeping the Ten Commandments and claiming to believe them, even Seventh-day Adventists or whoever. Notice something down here in Matthew 7:23, "And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.' " I am reading from the New King James, the Old King James says, "you who work iniquity." The literal Greek word there is law-breaking, who break My Father's law. Those who did not keep the law. Have you ever heard people say that the law cannot be kept? Not only are some people breaking the law, some people say that you cannot even keep it at all, even it you wanted to you couldn't keep it. It is impossible to keep it. What a delusion of Satan. People are being taught that they cannot keep the law when Jesus says that those who do not keep them He does not know.

Look with me over at 1 John 3:5,6, "And you know that He [Jesus] was manifested to take away our sins." What is sin? The verse before says that sin is the breaking of the law, lawlessness. There is that same Greek word that we find in Matthew 7, but I think in this case though, the Old King James says transgression of the law. So it is translated a little bit more literally here.

Again the New King James says lawlessness, but sin is breaking the law. "And you know that He was manifested to take away our [lawbreaking] sins, and in Him there is no sin. Whoever abides in Him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him."

Dear friend, to know Jesus Christ, is to be changed inside. To know Jesus Christ is to receive a power from without that changes the life and the character, the motives, the actions. The very processes of thinking, to know Jesus Christ is to be born again, the Bible says. Anyone that is not born again, really has not known Jesus Christ, really has not seen Him.

Look what it says in the second chapter of this book, verses 3 and 4, "Now by this we know that we know Him." A lot of people think they know Him. They will even argue with God about it when He comes. "God, You made a mistake. I am a Christian. I did all these things in Your name." And God will say, "I'm sorry, I think you have the wrong person who made the mistake. It wasn't Me who made the mistake, it was you." So we need to know that we know. And we better know that we know from more than just from personal intuition or feeling. We better know that we know because God says it.

We were over at a friend's home with the youth some years ago, they were meeting on Sabbath afternoon, and a couple of missionaries came by from another denomination. They came by right during the youth meeting so they invited them in and we respectfully listened. They were a very nice couple of young men. They handed out cards that told the beliefs of their church. Interestingly enough, one of the beliefs of their church was the keeping of the Ten Commandments, right there listed as number 3 or 4. I don't remember which one it was, but it was right there at the beginning of the card where it listed the things you needed to do. After they talked, we asked a couple of questions. We did not argue because they were nice people and we wanted to be friends, but we asked them a couple questions about their law keeping, this thing on the law. "Oh yes, you have to keep the law." I said, "What about the law. What about the fourth commandment?" They said, "That one we don't have to do." Naturally. I said, "Well, why not?" They said that the Lord appeared to the founder of their church a hundred years or so ago and told them that He had changed the day of worship from Saturday to Sunday.

I said, "Well, that is interesting. Then how do you know that was God that appeared to him? Because the Bible says that there are lots of spirits and in 1 John 4:1 that we should test the spirits. How do you know? Our church has a prophet, too. We don't base our beliefs on what she says. We base our beliefs on the Bible, but nevertheless, God can send prophets at any time, but the Bible says over and over again to test the prophets. I believe that the founder of your church was a prophet. I have no question in my mind about that. And there is no question that the Lord has sent a prophet to our church, too. But one or the other is a false prophet and how are you going to decide which is false and which is true? That is the question that has to be asked." That was the question I was concerned about. The Bible is not concerned with whether there are prophets. The Bible is concerned with who is true and who is false. That is what we have to determine, you see. I said, "The only way I know to test a true prophet is by the Word of God, if they speak according to God's Word. How do you know?" I found the answer most interesting. He said, "I prayed about it and I feel it within my soul. God has revealed it to me." I said, "Well, how?" He said, "Well, I feel in my soul that it is right."I will tell you, that is a dangerous feeling.

Feelings were not given in the Word of God as a criteria and those people when Jesus comes will say, "Lord, we were saved, we felt it in our soul. We did all these things in your name. We even had power to cast out demons." He will say, "I never knew you." So the Bible tells us how we can know that we might know, and it is not by feelings. How is it? Look with me, "Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments." Why do we look for so many other ways. God has made it so easy and so simple, "if we keep His commandments. He who says, 'I know Him,' and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him." You see, we are not to call anyone a liar, but God can do it because He knows all men, He knows our hearts. He says that if you claim to know God, no matter how much you believe it, you are still a liar if you do not keep His commandments.

You see, it is more than just repeating the name of Jesus Christ that counts. It is not just repeating a name. It is not just repeating a name over and over. It is not just giving thanks or praising the Lord for everything that happens in life. It goes far deeper than words. We must know the character of Jesus Christ. That is the point. It is not just an outward name. We have got to know His character. That is what God wants to teach us. And if we really know God's character, we are going to want to be like Him. Because His character is so lovely, if we really understand it, we are going to want to be like Him. Have you ever been around someone that was just so pleasing to be around, you wanted to like that person, at least in some ways? Are you like that? Do people want to be like you because you are just so lovely? That is the way God is. If we are around Him for any length of time, when we understand Him, we are going to want to be like Him. That is why Jesus said that whoever sins really doesn't know Him, they have never gotten acquainted, have never been drawn or lifted up in their mind, in their hearts, in their sights.

If we are around Christ for any length of time, we cannot help but love Him because He is love. Love attracts love. Look at what John says over here in 1 John 4:8. He says, "He who does not love does not know God, for God is love." Now that is what the commandments are all about. That is why it says that anyone who does not keep the commandments is not a Christian and does not know God. Now the Bible makes provision for those who are in ignorance and who think that they are living up to all that they know. The Bible makes provision for that. Do you remember in Matthew 22: 36-40 and Luke also records it, when a lawyer came to Jesus and asked "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?" Do you remember what Jesus said? He said, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind." A lot of people make that second or third or fourth. Quite a few people make loving your neighbor first. You see the loving God first involves the first four commandments, but they do not want to have anything to do with those. Love to God is first. "And the second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets." That is what it is all hinged upon, love.

Paul says that love is the fulfilling of the law. We cannot merely keep the commandments outwardly or we are not keeping them at all because the commandments involve a change of character and a change of heart. Jesus said that if you hate your brother, you have already broken the intent of the law; what the law is really referring to. You may not have already murdered him yet, but you are guilty. Because the intent of the law is that you love your brother. You cannot love him and hate him at the same time. Once God's law is written in our heart and once Jesus is abiding in our heart and we become like Him, we would not think of hurting someone else, not intentionally. In fact, we would try in every way we could not to because we love the other person. We cannot get jealous over someone else. If they get some church office or some cash of money or whatever it may be, some fortune or good luck that we wish we had, we cannot get jealous because we love them. We are just happy to death that they got whatever they got or that whatever happened to them happened. We love them, we cannot get jealous, envious, or fault-finding. If we really love our spouse, why we could not even think of committing adultery because we love our spouse and they have all of our heart, as far as our human love is concerned.

If we really have love, we would not even think of stealing from our neighbor much less than stealing, we would not even think of cheating them or even taking advantage of them when they are down and out because we love them. You see, that is the intent of the law. If we really love God, we would not even think of breaking the Sabbath. Because He has asked us to meet on that day. That is a date, a special date that He has asked us out to. We are not going to stand Him up because we love Him. Now someone might ask, "Why can't I love my neighbor's wife? That is love, isn't it?" Well, it may be love and it may be lust. But beyond that, that is why the Ten Commandments were given so that we might regulate our love. God knows what is true love and what is not true love, and that our love needs regulating. It goes far beyond mere feelings. Love must be based upon principle.

God has given us the Ten Commandments in order to teach us how to love the way God loves. It is not enough to just go "love" any woman or any man, no, no, for the Ten Commandments says that we should love the one that God has given to us, our spouse, in that special kind of love, our children, too. We have to love everyone else, too, in a different sense. Oh someone says, "Why can't I worship on Sunday and love God then?" Oh, for the same reason that God says I cannot love my neighbor's wife. Because God has given me one to love and the others are not included in that same type of love. The same way it is with the Sabbath. We serve and worship God on every day of the week, but there is one special day that God has reserved for Him alone. And we could no more choose our own day of the week to worship God on then we can choose any man or woman of the street to love when we are once married to someone. You see, when we are baptized, we are married to Christ. Then we cannot just choose any more. We have to worship on the day that God has given to us because that shows that we love Him; we trust Him; we obey Him; we are willing to do what He says without arguing.

Now, you know however, (and here is where the real test comes in sometimes) there are many men and women who are married who may, at least not physically, commit adultery with somebody else, but who at the same time may not love their spouse either. Have you ever seen that? That is not keeping the law either, is it? What the law is all about is love. And just not committing adultery is not fulfilling the whole law. The Bible says that Jesus came down to magnify the law and make it honorable and show us the full intent of the law. The law does far more than just not having a relationship with someone else. The Bible amplifies and explains the Ten Commandments, it goes on to say, "Husbands, love your wives." That is a specific command that explaining and ennobling and filling out what all the meaning of the Ten Commandments really are.

So it is with the Sabbath. Do you know that is not just enough to not work on the Sabbath, is it? We may decide, "Well, I'm not going to work on the Sabbath." But is that really what the Sabbath is all about, just not working? The Sabbath was given to us for us not to do our own work on the Sabbath, but, as Isaiah 58:12,13 says, it was given to us so that we could do something else. Now we are not to love our neighbor's wife, so we can love our own wife or our own husband. The Bible says you cannot love two, not in that realm. You are either going to hate one and love the other or despise one or hold to the other. You cannot do both. There are some aspects of the heart that are single-minded, that are focused and cannot be divided. Sooner or later you are either going to hate your own wife and love your neighbor's wife or husband, or whatever; you cannot do both. And so it is that God asks us not to work on the Sabbath; He wants all of our affections on that day. But it is not enough to just not work on the Sabbath, God wants us to spend that day in developing a love relationship with Him. That is what it is all about.

There is no true keeping of the Sabbath by just not doing something on that day. True Sabbath-keeping is to do the work and the words of God. That is what Jesus did on the Sabbath. He said, "My Father works on this day, and that is the work that I do, too, My Father's work." As Isaiah 58, says, "If you will call the Sabbath a delight and do His works, and His will, and His words, then the Lord shall bless you and the Sabbath will be a joy and delight." Just like a happy marriage. It will be a day that we look forward to.

The theme of all the Ten Commandments is to love God and to love our neighbor. We learn that love from Jesus Christ. He said, "And I, if I am lifted up. . . , [I] will draw all peoples to Myself." John 12:32

He was the embodiment of love for God and love and Jesus, of course, is the character of God made manifest to us. If we will gaze upon Christ, if we will make Him the center of our thoughts, if we will spend that time with Him morning by morning, and retain Him within our thoughts throughout the day. We have tasks and work that has to be done, we may be working in a print shop or in a hospital or wherever else where we have to concentrate on what we are doing, but in those spare moments when our minds run here and there, what is it running on? What is occupying your thoughts? Is it, as was shared in Sabbath School today, rock and roll, radio, television? Where do our thoughts run in their leisure? If our thoughts would be centered upon Christ and if we will study that Pattern every day, we will be drawn to Him until we become like Him. And then Christ will be lifted up in us and we will become winners of souls because we will be lifting up Jesus Christ and not self anymore.

Christ must be lifted up in the body of His saints. When Jesus left, as we already looked at, He said, "I have sent them into the world to take My place. I came and lifted you up, now they must lift you up." And so we win souls to Jesus Christ by lifting up Christ in our characters, by precept and example. Let me read you two most interesting quotations. First from Ministry of Healing, 469, 470; "It is our character and experience that determine our influence upon others. In order to convince others of the power of Christ's grace, we must know its power in our own hearts and lives. . . .By the power of His grace manifested in the transformation of character the world is to be convinced that God has sent His Son as its Redeemer. No other influence that can surround the human soul has such power as the influence of an unselfish life." That means a life of love. You see, selfishness and love are the opposite of each other. "The strongest argument in favor of the gospel is a loving and lovable Christian."

"If I be lifted up." Jesus said. In the body of His saints, "[I] draw all peoples to Myself." I will read another short quotation from Testimonies to the Church, Vol. 9, 189, it says, "If we will humble ourselves before God, and be kind and courteous and tenderhearted and pitiful," you know, all those steps we studied in Peter's ladder, if we will climb that ladder which ends in love, brotherly kindness and love, if we will climb that ladder "there would be one hundred conversions to the truth where now there is only one."

We may think we know how to win souls. We can have all the gimmicks we want. We can spend all the money we want, but when it comes down to the bottom line, there is no other way than to exemplify Jesus Christ in the life and in the character. When that is done, the power of the Holy Spirit fills the life, it fills the church, and God draws people with the Holy Spirit. He draws them; He convicts them; and He brings them to a point of salvation, those who are willing.

Dear friend, do you want to be a soul-winner for Jesus Christ? You can be. You can be a soul-winner for Jesus Christ sitting right here in the pew because every Sabbath, Sabbath by Sabbath, there are those who come into church, they are here this morning, there are those who come into church who are longing for a deeper knowledge of Jesus Christ, who are not saved and know they are not saved, some who are not saved and think they are saved, but they are here. They may be sitting next to you. It could be your child or spouse or neighbor or a total stranger. They may be sitting in front of you or in back of you or next to you. What do they see in you? Is Christ being lifted up through you or is self being lifted up? What, in you, attracts them? Is it yourself or is it Jesus Christ? And what about in your home, with your children and your spouse and neighbors? When children are unruly or when a spouse is unappreciative, Jesus says, "I, if I am lifted up, will draw all peoples to Myself." Jesus says, "By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another." John 13:35

I invite you this morning, to cast aside that thing that is the opposite of love-- selfishness, pride, bitterness, envy, malice. With the power of Jesus cast it out of your heart, if it is there. If there is someone sitting in this room today that you have malice toward, cast it out. Ask the Lord to come in and cleanse the temple of your soul as He cleansed the temple of Jerusalem and cast it out. Allow Jesus to come in that you might be filled with love. Now you know, it is not when all things are going your way that love is tested. Did you know that? Even the heathen are loving when everything is going their way. That is what Jesus said. Even the Gentiles love when things are going their way as it says in Matthew 5. That is what the Sermon on the Mount is all about. Even the Gentiles and the heathen do that. But, dear friend, it is when things are not going your way that your character is developed and tested. That is why the Bible tells us to rejoice when trials come because that is when Jesus is lifted up, when trials come. It is when things are all against you that Jesus is lifted up. This is what molds our character and what teaches us love. We are told that Jesus' character is perfected in suffering. That is why James 1 tells us "to count it all joy when you fall into various trials" because this is what perfects you and lifts up Jesus. James 1:2

In 1 Peter 1:6,7 it says, "In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ." This is what brings joy and happiness. It is in trial that the character of Christ is produced and is revealed.

Dear friend, would you like to become a winner of souls? I would like to invite you to do three things if you would like to become a winner of souls. Maybe you would like to write these three things down; think about them. I like to make things as practical as I can.

The first is given. I mention as often as I can, that we need to start every morning with Christ. We have talked about that before. If you are not doing it, of course, do not try the impossible. Do not even try doing the impossible if you are not spending time with God every morning. You have to do that first.

The second, however, you may want to think about this one. I will give it to you anyway. Invite the Lord to teach you love and patience. Now the reason I say you might want to think about it, because He usually teaches us through hardship and trial. Where else can we learn except with problems. That is the way grade school children learn arithmetic is with problems. That is where we learn the things that God is trying to teach us, too, is with problems. Do not pray for God to teach you patience unless you are willing for Him to give you something that you will need to have patience about. Do not pray it unless you mean it. I am asking a serious question here? Do you really want to become a soul winner? There may be some education and training and schoolwork involved. Invite Jesus to be the teacher in your life and to give you whatever is needed to mold and perfect your character for Him. To shape off those rough edges, to bring just the things into your life and in your experience that reveal the things in your life that you are not even aware of. Ever found something in your life that you were not aware of before? I will tell you what, if you welcome the Lord, you will be finding them. Invite Him to send trials into your life, if need be. Trust Him. He is not going to cut off your right arm, unless you really need it cut off. He loves you. He has promised that "all things work together for good." He loves you. It maybe a paper sack, but let me tell you, there is something inside of that sack. And those trials may not look like what you asked for, but there is something inside them for you. Invite Him to send you whatever is needed.

And third, when the trials do come, when God answers your prayer, do what Jesus tells us to do and that is what? Rejoice! It may be some church member. Boy, they can bring trials. A church member can be a spouse or child, it may be sickness or a flat tire, something at work or being the only one that shows up at a workbee. It may be monotony, loneliness or things piling up, or no one seeing or appreciating. God says to rejoice. How many this morning would like to become a soul winner? I invite you, if you want to become a soul winner, to invite Jesus to become the teacher in your life. If you are willing to be a student, He is willing to be a teacher and He will make you a soul winner. He will lift up Himself in your life and others will be drawn to Him. I would like to look over that subject for just a few minutes. How to win a soul for Christ.