Walk Worthy / Week 7 / Do Not Grieve the Holy Spirit

Do not Grieve the Holy Spirit

Ephesians 4:30 February 28, 2021

I. Introduction:

A. Listen to what Jesus said in John 7:38-39 about the Holy Spirit.

1. Let me ask you a few questions and I want you to answer very honestly to

yourself –

a) Does the Holy Spirit feel like a mighty river flowing within you and out

of you or does He feel more like a drip coming out of a faucet? Think

about that for a few moments!

b) An older friend of mine many years ago asked me essentially the same

question like this – if the Holy Spirit were removed from your

life/ministry would anything be different? Repeat! Think about that for

a few moments!

2. We have the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Jesus, the Holy Spirit living in us to

be our helper and comforter, the one who transforms us, dismantles the

power of sin in our lives and enables us to live for God! The same God lives

in us who:

a) Spoke the universe into existence

b) Split the Red Sea for Israel to cross and on the back hand destroyed the

whole Egyptian army with the whole sea

c) Who sent food from heaven to Israel when they were in the wilderness

d) Who caused a young virgin girl to conceive a child

e) Who turned water into wine

f) Who fed over 5000 people with just a few fish and loaves and had

basketsful of food left over.

g) Who raised Jesus from the dead

B. If you are a believer and you are not seeing evidence in your life of His powerful

work in and through you, this is very serious and should be addressed

immediately.

1. This picture helps explain the problem. Do you see it?

2. The water faucet is on full blast but something is blocking the flow of it so it

only comes out as a trickle!

3. The problem is that the elephant himself is standing on the hose and blocking

the flow!

C. We as believers do the exact same thing when we let sin continue in our lives and

we do not address it! We are the problem and thus we move from rivers of living

water coming out of our hearts to trickles of the Spirit’s work in our lives!

D. My point this morning is simple –a lifestyle of sin grieves the Spirit resulting in

quenching His work in our lives!

• Let’s see this in the Bible. Let’s start with

II. A lifestyle of sin

A. Turn to Ephesians 4 in your Bibles.

B. This whole section in Ephesians, from chapter 4:1 to Ephesians 6:9, is about our

walk as Christians, our habitual way of life, and e lifestyle!

C. In chapter 4 we learn

1. From verses, 17-19 that we are not to walk like the Gentiles whose lives are

driven by a way of thinking that excludes God and His Word.

2. Then we saw in verses 20-24 that we are to put off the old lifestyle because

we have already put off the old self and put on the new self.

3. Then in v25, he begins a series of specific applications and commands that

flow from the new man you now are!

a) In verse 25 – no lying but telling the truth

b) Verses 26-27 having a righteous anger and not hanging onto anger

c) Verse 28 – rather than stealing, work hard so you can share with others

d) In verse 29, we saw not speaking hurtful words but rather helpful words.

• Now we move to my second point which helps us see that a lifestyle of sin

III. Grieving the Holy Spirit

A. Listen as I read v30

B. Now we do not see it in the New American Standard but almost every other

translation rightfully starts the verse with the word “and.” This makes it a specific

link with the verse before it about harmful words and in general a link to all the

sins above: lying, anger, stealing, and hurtful words and even to all the sins listed

after it.

1. Read v31-32

2. Simply stated, when we have a way of living that reflects the world rather

than Christ, a lifestyle of sin or stuck in a habitual sin; we grieve the Holy

Spirit.

C. To grieve the Holy Spirit means to make Him sad and sorrowful.

1. This word is taken from a word that denotes a pain, a grief that can only be

experienced between two people who love each other deeply.

2. It is a word that was often used to picture what a husband or wife feels when

they discovered their mate has been unfaithful to them.

3. One scholar translates it like this: stop deeply wounding and causing such

extreme emotional pain to the Spirit of God!

4. We must remember the Holy Spirit is not an it but a person with real

emotions! Actually, He is not like us but we are like Him in that we have

been made in His image!

D. So bottom line when we act like the world, or talk like the world, and respond the

same way the world does, we cause the Holy Spirit to feel deep hurt and grief!

1. Note this also in this passage – most of these sins have to do with hurting

other people in the body of Christ.

2. So when we hurt other believers or treat them no differently than someone in

the world would treat them, we grieve the Holy Spirit!

• I believe that …

IV. Resulting in quenching His work in our lives!

A. Turn to 1 Thessalonians 5. Listen as I read v16-20.

B. In Ephesians 4, we grieve the Spirit when we sin against God and other believers.

Here in 1 Thessalonians 5 we quench the Spirit when we do not give Him the fuel

to keep the fire going in our hearts. The fuel is rejoicing, praying, being grateful

and receiving His word.

C. To quench means to extinguish a fire. This is how we cause the fervent activity

of the Spirit to stop in our hearts.

D. So my point today is when we sin against God by doing what we should not do –

sins of commission; or sin against God by not doing what we should do – sins of

omission it not only grieves the Spirit of God but it throws a wet blanket over His

working in our life!

E. I believe that grieving the Spirit and quenching the Spirit are two sides of the

same coin. See that displayed for us in Isaiah 63

1. In v7-9, we see God’s lovingkindness, goodness, compassion, His love and

mercy being poured upon Israel. Read

2. V10 starts with but – something happened that changed all of this.

a) Read 10a-b.

b) They sinned and it grieved God’s heart!

3. Then something changed and their sin that grieved God’s heart resulted in the

quenching of His work in their nation.

a) Read 10c-11

b) This reminds me of Psalm 30:6-7

(1) When God’s favor or face was shining upon them they felt strong

and unmovable

(2) But when God removed His favor and hid His face from them,

they were dismayed!

F. While in our time of the new covenant, God does not turn against His people or

withdraw His Spirit from them when they grieve Him by sinning. But it does

quench the work of the Spirit in our lives so what once felt like rivers of living

water flowing through us has become a drip from the faucet.

• So what do we do if we realize this is going on in our lives?

V. Application

A. So let’s look back at our original picture and see if we can find the answer.

1. Do you see it?

2. Get off the hose. – that is called repentance – change the way you think about

the way you are living in such a deep way that it changes the way you are

living.

3. When we go to God and deeply own our sins and open our hearts for the

Holy Spirit once again to burn brightly within us, He will burn away the sin

that is blocking the flow of the Holy Spirit.

B. So when we consider all the sins we have seen today, remember we are not

talking about a mess up here and there but rather a lifestyle that traffics in these

things.

1. We saw in Ephesians 4 earlier lying, unrighteous anger, stealing, and

especially our tongue are directly linked to grieving the Spirit

2. Add to those the ones in 1 Thessalonians 5 not rejoicing, not praying, not

being grateful and not receiving His word with an open heart

3. We must then add the rest of Ephesians 4 after the passage about grieving the

Spirit – read Ephesians 4:30-32

C. If this is true of you this morning then open your heart to the ministry of the

refiner’s fire!

D. Pray