Living the New Life: Walk in the Spirit

Ephesians 4:30–32 ESV

And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

Don’t grieve the Holy Spirit

The Spirit is personal.

not a mystic force

has expectations for us

Our actions can grieve the Spirit

-disappoint, hurt, separate ourselves from God.

i. Grieving the Spirit has consequences

c. Act not out of obligation, but gratitude

i. Believers are sealed for redemption

2. The sinful nature grieves the Spirit

a. bitterness, wrath, anger, clamour, slander, malice result from the sinful nature

1 Corinthians 13:1 ESV

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.

i. grow out of a lack of forgiveness

b. Embracing these characteristics feeds a separation from God.

-Basic separation because of sinful nature

-growing or greater separation because of participation in sin.

3. Pursuing the Spirit

a. The Spirit enables us to live for Christ

i. Be Kind, tender-hearted, forgiving

Ezekiel 36:26 ESV

And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

1 John 1:7 ESV

But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.

ii. We are able to forgive because Christ forgave us.

b. Without the pursuit of God, we embrace the sinful

Proverbs 3:5–6 ESV

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.