Sermon Notes 7/3/22 Grieving The Holy Spirit
Grieving The Holy Spirit
John 16:12-16
12 “I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13 But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. 14 He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you. 15 All things that the Father has are Mine; therefore I said that He takes of Mine and will disclose it to you.
Jesus in this passage uses the term He or His 10 times
It reveals that the Holy Spirit is a person
He is not a force or a thing
He is not an inanimate object
Because He is a person, we are able to develop a relationship with Him
It is meant to be an intimate relationship
Because we are in relationship with Him, we can grieve The Holy Spirit through the way we live our lives
Some wonder what does it mean to grieve the Holy Spirit?
Some don’t even know that The Holy Spirit can be grieved
Some also fail to understand when we grieve The Holy Spirit, we not only grieve Him we grieve the Father and The Son as well
There is a reason we no longer live under the law but instead live by the leading of the Spirit
Paul tells us to walk in The Spirit
The Holy Spirit is to lead, guide, and direct every area of our lives
We are to be fully surrendered and yielded to His leading
Paul writes in Ephesians 4:25-32
25 Therefore, laying aside falsehood, speak truth each one of you with his neighbor, for we are members of one another. 26 Be angry, and yet do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, 27 and do not give the devil [a]an opportunity. 28 He who steals must steal no longer; but rather he must labor, performing with his own hands what is good, so that he will have something to share with [b]one who has need. 29 Let no [c]unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification [d]according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear. 30 Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, [e]by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. 32 Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven [f]you.
In verse 30 Paul states Do not grieve The Holy Spirit of God
The word grieve is the Greek word lupĕō, loo-peh´-o; it means to distress; to be sad:—cause grief, grieve, be in heaviness, (be) sorrow (-ful), be (make) sorry
The Tyndale bible dictionary states this concerning grief Emotional suffering brought on by bereavement, mishap, or disaster. To grieve is either to cause or feel sorrow or distress. The concept is found in the Scriptures under a variety of circumstances. Isaac and Rebekah experienced grief when their son Esau married a Hittite woman (Gn 26:35). God mourned the misery of Israel brought upon them by disobedience (Jgs 10:16). Because she had no son, Hannah was sad—so much so that she appeared to be drunk while praying (1 Sm 1:16). Similarly, Samuel, distraught at King Saul’s disobedience, prayed all night. Job was exceedingly sorrowful over his personal loss
To grieve someone is to cause them to feel sadness, heaviness, or sorrow at the actions or circumstances of another
Paul tells us in 1 Cor 6:19 19 Or do you not know that your body is a [a]temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from [b]God, and that you are not your own?
Our bodies do not belong to us
Our lives do not belong to us
We are not to be driven and dominated by our own selfish desires and will
When we come to Christ He is Lord
I believe there are three areas through our actions that we truly grieve The Holy Spirit
1. What is in our heart
2. What we do with our hands or our physical bodies
3. And what comes out of our mouths
Ultimately what is taking place in our hearts will determine the action of our lives and the words that proceed from our mouths
1. The heart reveals who we truly belong to
a. It is the seat of our mind, will, and emotions
b. Proverbs 4:23 Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.
c. Proverbs 27:19 As water reflects the face, so one’s life reflects the heart.
d. Jeremiah 17:9-10 The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? “I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind, to reward each person according to their conduct, according to what their deeds deserve.”
e. Jeremiah 29:13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.
f. 1 Samuel 16:7 But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”
g. Matthew 15:8 “’These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.
h. John 12:40 He has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, so they can neither see with their eyes, nor understand with their hearts, nor turn—and I would heal them
i. Matthew 15:18-20 18 But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile the man. 19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, [a]fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders. 20 These are the things which defile the man; but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile the man.”
j. Everything begins in the human heart
k. The our very lives reveals what is found in our hearts
l. Paul writes in Eph 4:31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.
i. Bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and slander begin in the human heart
ii. It is only God who can change the human heart
iii. But if the heart is not surrendered to Christ it will truly grieve the Holy Spirit
iv. Romans 10:9-10 9 [e]that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; 10 for with the heart a person believes, [f]resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, [g]resulting in salvation.
v. For salvation to take place a person’s heart must be surrendered to the Lordship of Christ
2. We grieve The Holy Spirit when we use our hands and bodies for things that are against God and His word
a. Paul tells us in Ephesians 4:26 to be angry and not sin
b. If we act on our anger in an unrighteous way it will give the devil foothold
c. Paul also writes that we must steal no longer
d. In verse 28 he writes but rather he must labor, performing with his own hands what is good, so that he will have something to share with [b]one who has need.
e. Paul also writes in Galatians 5:19-21 19 Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: [i]immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, [j]factions, 21 envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
f. The word deeds speaks of action or works
g. All of these things that are deeds or works of the sinful nature begin in the heart, but are manifested through our actions
h. All of these things will grieve the Holy Spirit if we continue in them
3. We grieve the Holy Spirit with what comes out of our mouths
a. Paul tells us to lay aside lying or speaking falsehood
b. He tells us to not allow any unwholesome word to come out of our mouths
c. Proverbs 18:21 Death and life are in the [a]power of the tongue, And those who love it will eat its fruit.
d. James 3:3-6 3 Now if we put the bits into the horses’ mouths so that they will obey us, we direct their entire body as well. 4 Look at the ships also, though they are so great and are driven by strong winds, are still directed by a very small rudder wherever the inclination of the pilot desires. 5 So also the tongue is a small part of the body, and yet it boasts of great things. See how great a forest is set aflame by such a small fire! 6 And the tongue is a fire, the very world of iniquity; the tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body, and sets on fire the course of our [c]life, and is set on fire by [d]hell.
e. We saw from Jesus words earlier that what proceeds from the mouth reveals what is truly in the heart.
Our lives should bring glory to God
In all that we say and do we should have the one aim of glorifying Jesus
Jesus has called us to love the Lord thy God with all they heart, soul, mind, and strength and love our neighbor as ourselves
Paul writes this in Ephesians 4:32 Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.
How is this possible?
By abiding in Him
He is the vine and we are the branches
Being closely connected to Jesus results in becoming more like Jesus in every way.
When we are led and guided by the Holy Spirit and fully surrendered to Him we will walk in obedience
We will not grieve The Holy Spirit
The first step towards healing and restoration is obedience
What truly grieves the Holy Spirit is a life committed to disobedience and rebellion