Do Not Grieve the Holy Spirit

It is not often that I am burdened to share a sermon. Sure, there are sermons that I am excited to preach, sermons that I look forward to preaching, and sermons that I am nervous about preaching, but today I am carrying a burden about this sermon.

You have probably figured out by now if you read your bulletin that this is not the sermon I planned to preach today, but God and I have wrestled, and praise the Lord God won.

Today I want to talk about something extremely, extremely serious- the grieving of the Holy Spirit. You see, if you’re like me you want to hear the Holy Spirit, you want to feel the Holy Spirit, you want to know the Holy Spirit…at least I think that a majority of Christ followers want these things....

But alas, many people confess that they themselves do not “feel in tune” with the Holy Spirit. They used to hear from God, they felt the Spirit some time ago, but no longer.... So, what’s the problem? Well, I want to get down to business today and be very blunt and say that most of time in my experience both personally and pastorally when you are not hearing from God most of the time it is a you problem!

I want to examine 2 passages of Scripture today, one from the OT and one from the NT and then give some thoughts on grieving the H/S.

First

Surely not Israel- God’s highly favored Israel?

God delivered them from slavery!

God gave them the promised land

God fought their battles for them....

BUT THEY REBELLED

Nothing good comes from rebelling against God…ask Adam and Eve

If you smoked 3 packs a day and got lung cancer would you be surprised?

If you ate a tub of ice cream everyday and got diabetes, would you be surprised?

If you parked in the same no parking zone everyday and you got a ticket, would it blow your mind?

Then why when we openly defy the commands of the Bible are we surprised when our relationship w God suffers?

I am going to be blunt: Some of you have been rebelling against God for a long time, and the answer to your problem is STOP REBELLING PERIOD

A W Tozer- “Most Christians do not hear God’s voice because they have already decided they are not going to do what He says”

If you ignore what’s in the Bible, why would God give you more?

Paul is quite clear, it is our actions that hold off the H/S

Object lesson with water, saran wrap, and person

I am convinced that if the church would get serious about our unforgiveness, our bitterness, our slander, and our malice God could do some amazing things

I am going to be blunt again: many of us are living powerless lives because we refuse to address these tendencies.

I Don’t get anything out of church; God stopped talking to me, I dont get anything out of the sermons anymore...

God is pouring out on the people around you but rebellion, anger, bitterness, and malice have hardened your heart so much it is like pouring water on a cinder-blockS

So I am challenging you today DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT

Stop complaining about the absence of God’s Spirit and come to this altar, or go to that neighbor, and DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT