Do Not Grieve The Holy Spirit - Pastor Daniel Batarseh (Ephesians Series)

Ephesians four thirty. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let's pray. Father, we pray that as we speak of the spirit of God, that he would manifest in this place. Lord, we we want this more we need this to be more than just doctrine and just theology.

Lord, help us understand that this is about relationship. Lord, bring us to that place through this study, through this message, Lord, through your word. Bring us to that place. Sanctify us by your word. Change us, Lord.

Help us see you the way you want us to see you. Help us see sin the way you want us to see sin. Help us see holiness the way you want us to see holiness. And, Lord, we just pray that every mind and heart would be captivated by these truths, that no bird of the air would rob any person of the life giving seed that is given today. We pray these things in the precious name of Jesus Christ.

Amen. You may be seated. One of the basic fundamental elements of flourishing in any type of relationship with another individual, one of the basic fundamental elements of flourishing in any type of relationship with a certain individual is that one must develop the ability to grow in their understanding of that person. One must grow in that understanding and greater understanding of that person that they are in connection with, in relationship with. And once that knowledge and that understanding develops, so will your perception and your understanding of what that person likes, what that person doesn't like, determining for you what you will do and what you won't do, and what you will say and what you won't say in order to keep that relationship in a place of harmony, joy, and peace.

And this simple rule is true on any scale of relationship, whether it's with friendship. If you wanna grow in friendship with an individual, you're gonna have to grow in your understanding of that person. And if you want to stay in relationship with that person, if you want to flourish in that friendship, you're gonna learn not to say certain things that might bother that person. You're gonna learn what to do and not to do. Things that you will do to flourish that relationship and make it grow in love in different aspects.

It's true for family members. It's true for your spouse. It's true for your coworkers. It's true for every type of relationship, including your relationship with God. And this relationship rule of growing and understanding cannot be pinned on God.

Why? Because he knows all things. He knows you better than you know yourself. He knows your weaknesses. He knows your strengths.

He knows your gifts. He knows your desires. He knows your worries. He knows the depths of your inner man, and so he does not need to grow in knowledge of who you are. But we are held to that rule concerning God.

We are called to grow in our understanding of his person. We are invited in order to flourish in our communion with him. We must develop the understanding of what pleases him, what doesn't please him, what we say, what we don't say, what our attitude should be in order for us, again, to develop a growth, to develop a nearness, to develop a life in which we can walk with him day by day, hand in hand. So with that thought in mind, Paul the Apostle says, do not grieve the Holy Spirit. Do not grieve the Holy Spirit.

And before we understand what it means to grieve the Holy Spirit, I believe we need to lay a foundation down today of first understanding who the Holy Spirit is. There are many misconceptions and today there are many people who have used the name of the Holy Spirit and have associated him with certain things that don't necessarily line up with the word of God. And so we need to just lay down this foundation. Who is the Holy Spirit? What do I need to know about him?

Well, here's the most important thing. He's God. The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity, co eternal and co equal with the Son and with the Father. His divinity is affirmed and confirmed through the revelation of the scripture. You see it in the manifestation of his ministry and the multifaceted works that he has presented from Genesis to Revelation, from creation to his dealing with the nation of Israel through the wilderness, to the works of salvation, all the things that are involved with it, The indwelling, and the sanctifying, and the adopting, and all those things.

Even the resurrection, the Holy Spirit was a part of Christ's resurrection. All these things, he is God. You cannot deny it by the titles. You cannot deny it by the very things that are presented here. And we can spend the next three weeks just giving text after text proving that he is, in fact, God.

Why is that important? Because many people have reduced the Holy Spirit down to the terms that describe his activity and his workings in the world and in our lives. So you see these terms, and there's almost an image that comes to your mind when you think of the Holy Spirit. He's like the wind. He's like a fire.

He's water. But we have to be very careful. Though those things describe his works, they do not limit who he is. He is more than just a manifestation of the power of God. He is God.

And that's, again, very crucial because we've almost treated him as the junior of the Godhead. The father is the senior, he's one of the main. The son is one of the main, and the Holy Spirit is just kind of there in the background. And people are almost even afraid of the Holy you mentioned Holy Spirit, some people they get tense. Please don't forget he's God.

He's not a lesser version of God. He's not a sidekick to the Godhead. He is fully God. And there are some important details about him as a specific distinct person, though he is, God is one. And we won't touch on all of them, but one of them that is important in line with this text, one of the things that we have to understand about the Holy Spirit is that he is holy.

His very name is holy. I mean, think about all the things that could have been given to him as a name, the love spirit, the long suffering spirit, the gracious spirit. No. It's none of those things. Though he is those things, and he produces those things in a man when he has full control of your life, he's holy.

He's holy. What does that mean? It means he's perfect. He's not, we have a pursuit of holiness, but there's still sin that we struggle with. No.

He's perfectly holy. He's transcendent. He is like no one else. He hates sin. He loves purity.

He hates falsehood. He loves truth. And there's nothing that the Holy Spirit will affirm or confirm or advocate that goes into direct contradiction to the scriptures. If anybody in this life, anybody that you know claims that he is doing something, and pins it on the name of the Holy Spirit, and it comes into contradiction with this word, you better understand this, that though he may clean that he is working by a spirit, it's not the Holy Spirit. He may be operating under a spirit.

He may be saying that this is a work of this, but it's not holy. The Holy Spirit. It's his very name. Why is that important? Because if that's the very name that he carries, it's the very person that he is, and if that's who he is, then we better understand, be holy as I am holy.

It's not just that, though. We have to understand that this person, this God, according to Acts two thirty eight, is given a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful title. Remember what Peter said in that fiery sermon? What did he say? He said, Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

And though one of the ministries of the Holy Spirit is to dispense and give gifts unto men in the church for the purpose of glorifying his name and edifying the brethren, we cannot fail to understand that the Holy Spirit himself is a gift. He give gifts. Yes. But he is a gift. Remember what Jesus said in John seven thirty seven to 39?

If any man thirst, let him come to me and drink. If you're thirsty, come to me and drink. And what will happen as a result of that? Out of your heart, out of your innermost being will flow rivers of living water. What does he say in the next part?

John makes commentary and he says, of this he spoke of the spirit, And the spirit would be given to those who believe, but could not be given yet until Christ was glorified. And so you would probably ask this question. So are you saying that the Holy Spirit was not present, was not manifested before Christ was glorified? Where was the Holy Spirit? Oh, he was always there.

He was always there. He was there from Genesis. But what Jesus was saying was that, I am going to send the Holy Spirit, and he's going to be able to live in your life, manifest in your life that has never been true before the new covenant has been established. That you, believer in Christ, will have a relationship with the Holy Spirit that could not have been a reality before I was glorified. So he's a gift, a precious gift.

And the gift, the idea of him being a gift is that he would always be with us and he will be in us. And if you want to understand what this gift is according to Acts two, many people debate what it means that the the Holy Spirit is a gift. I believe one of the understandings is in Ephesians one. Turn your Bibles to Ephesians one thirteen. We cover this together.

In him in who? In Christ. When you're in Christ, in him, you also, when you heard the word of truth, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him. What is the result of your belief in the gospel? We're sealed with the Holy Spirit, the promised Holy Spirit.

The the same Holy Spirit that Jesus promised, you now are sealed with him. Meaning what? Let's just do a recap. That the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit is God's permanent seal in your life in order to claim ownership of your life. And it's not like the Holy Spirit comes when you get saved and respond to the gospel and he signs his name on your heart and then leaves.

No. The very seal of the Holy Spirit is the Holy Spirit. The very ownership mark on you, knowing that you are sealed until the day of redemption, that you can take comfort, that you can have that blessed assurance over your life because he has made that permanent mark on you, is not just some signature on a contract. No. It's a person living inside of you.

This is the gift that he would abide in us and abide in us forever. And why is that important? We come full circle to Ephesians four thirty, because this is the very incentive that Paul uses to stir us to obey this command. Do not grieve the Holy Spirit. Why?

Because you were sealed by him until the day of redemption. I want you to understand believers, Paul says, of who this person is. That he's not some distant God. No. He sealed you and he lives in you, and he's a gift because that gift of his seal gives you that blessed assurance.

And it's not just this assurance. There is life, there's river, there's life giving power, there's satisfaction. All these things that come with the Holy Spirit living in us. What is he trying to say? Don't grieve the Holy Spirit because he's moved into you forever.

He's there. Before Christ, you were vacant. Before Christ, it was about you and whatever you wanted to do, but no. The Holy Spirit has now moved in. When you said yes to Christ, you said yes to the person.

And the person wants you, so he comes and lives in you. So be careful how you live because he is trying, and he is, he will be, faithful to the ceiling. He's not going anywhere. But how you walk this journey will determine how you experience him in this life. Between that moment when you gave your life to Christ and the moment where God will fulfill his adopting work, and bring you, your body, to glory.

That's the ceiling of the Holy Spirit. I'm gonna keep you until Christ comes. I'm gonna keep you until that day of redemption. But he says, don't use that as an excuse to live how you want. Let that be the very reason why you live in a certain way, because you can live in a certain way in which he's not just, again, some sign off on your life.

No. He's a person to be experienced. He's a person to be experienced. I remember when I was going into my second, third year of college, and I was moving into an apartment. And if I had lived by myself, I could live to my own liberty.

I can do certain things. Right? I'm not limited by anybody else and their standard of living, and and I have all that freedom. But I'm a college student. Rent is cheaper when you have a roommate.

Is it not? And so a believer who was a roommate came and moved in, but guess what? That changed things. I can't live how I want anymore. I can't do as I please.

I don't have those freedoms necessarily. And we signed a contract that for this length of time, we will be roommates and we have that relationship. Roommates. He's not going anywhere, I'm not going anywhere. We're we're bound by a contract.

But just because I had a roommate did not mean that I could know him, didn't mean I automatically knew him, didn't mean that I automatically had a relationship with him. That had to be developed. Oh, I'm I'm safe by the contract, but how am I gonna experience the relationship? And you need to understand when you said yes to Christ, legally, justified, sealed, the contract, so to speak, is there. But you don't live for yourself anymore.

You realize that. Right? Before that, you had your own liberty. You can do whatever you want. It's my life.

But Corinthians tells us that you were purchased, so you don't live for yourself. Somebody has moved in now. Somebody's in your life. Somebody's walking with you where when you walk to work. Somebody's driving with you when you're driving to school.

Somebody's there when you're doing grocery shopping. All those things now, you have somebody living in you. You are the dwelling place of God. And so listen, the contract's there. It's not for two years.

It's not until school's over and over. It's until you see Jesus Christ. But how will you experience that relationship? The same way I had a choice, and my roommate had a choice, we can just mind our own business and do our own things and just have that have that assurance that the contract is there, but how can we can we get to know each other? Can I know you?

Let let's sit down and eat. Let's talk. And that developed, and guess what? It was enjoyable. And so we have that same invitation.

So So we know who the Holy Spirit is on a foundational level. We understand that he lives in us. We understand his purpose and redemption that he will seal us. Paul doesn't threaten us with the Spirit's abandonment if you grieve him. You see that?

He's not saying do not grieve the Holy Spirit if you do. He's he's moving out. He doesn't use that. But he's using intimate language to provoke us. You can't grieve a thing, you grieve a person.

And so he wants us to get it. So the question is, what does it mean to grieve? Do not grieve the spirit. What does it mean to grieve? To grieve is simply to be consumed with sorrow, to be wounded, to experience a deep emotional pain.

But remember, this is relational language. It's a pain that is experienced by one who loves somebody else and has experienced hurt from that person that he or she has loved. It could be a pain from a spouse who has been unfaithful to their spouse, and they discover that unfaithfulness, that deep sorrow. That's what we're talking about here. It's something that's experienced between those who are in relationship with one another, and one who deeply loves the other person is experiencing that pain from the person in which they love.

And all I can tell you that many times I've stood before godly parents and looked at them in the eyes, and they did not even need to see say much. I can just see the pain in their eyes when they describe their desire to see their children live for Christ. And this is not some legalistic thing. I mean, they're not they're not wanting their kids to be good. They want their kids to be holy.

I know a lot of parents that want their kids to be good, and they'll try to use Jesus to bring them there. They just want their kids to have a good job, they want their kids to have good health, they want their kids to stay out of trouble, they want their kids to find a nice wife, a nice husband, and just move on. No. I'm talking about those parents that want their kids to live like Christ, No matter what job they find, whether they get married or not, they they want so much for their children to live according to the word of God. You look at the pain in their eyes, you see the grief, and you can hear it in their trembling voice.

I just want them to live for the Lord. That's the pain we're talking about. That's the grief that the Holy Spirit feels, That he longs for you to live in a certain manner for your good and for his glory, and when you don't, it grieves him. Sharp pain. This is love language.

And perhaps you can't relate to that, so let me just ask you a very simple question. Have you ever been hurt by somebody you deeply loved? Has there ever been a moment in your life in which you trusted somebody, loved somebody, you've invested so much in somebody? I mean, this is the Holy Spirit of God. Hear this.

This is the one who is sinless, and he comes and he makes a commitment to live in jars of clay. And we think of Christ who's come, yes, in the body, who's left heaven and all the glories and all the worship that we cannot even come close to, to to to feel hunger and pain and to be whipped and to have his beard pulled and spat upon. But have you ever thought about the Holy Spirit who comes, though he is omnipresent, to make his life and to make him dwelling inside of me with all the wickedness that's involved? He's committed to sealing me. Have you ever ever been hurt by somebody you deeply love?

This is what we're talking about, the Holy Spirit's pain. And so what grieves him? All those verses that we've been talking since Ephesians four twenty five, all of those things. Go back to Ephesians four twenty five and look. Our direct relationship with Ephesians four thirty.

So verse 25, putting away falsehood. When we're when we're when we're living in falsehood, when we when we lie, it grieves the Holy Spirit. Verse 26, not allowing anger to lead to sin. When we allow our anger to consume us to a place in which we sin in our anger, it grieves the Holy Spirit. Giving any opportunity to the devil grieves the Holy Spirit.

Verse 28, when we are thieves, and we steal, and we refuse to be hardworking people, it grieves the Holy Spirit. Verse 21, when we are speaking with corrupt talk, as we discussed last week, when we let filth come out of our mouth, and we let gossip and all these different things spew out of us, guess who's in pain? The Holy Spirit. Verse 31, after this verse, when we are bitter, when we have wrath, again, when we are consumed with anger, slander, malice, all these things grieve the Holy Spirit. And so, what is Paul trying to say here?

Listen, if you're not provoked to live in obedience where every detail of your life reflects Christ, I want you to understand this, people of God. You are not just breaking God's law, you're breaking God's heart. That's a completely different perspective. When you get out of that realm of laws and rules that I'm breaking when I sin, and you enter into a completely different place where it's not these rules and commands, it's a person's heart, oh, you'll respond to sin differently. When you realize it's a person that I'm in relationship with, and he has a standard in which I must keep in order to flourish in my relationship, you will live differently concerning this pursuit of holiness.

And so that's what Paul is trying to say, saying, listen guys. All these things that I'm telling you, that your mouth may be pure, that your hands may be busy, that your heart may be right. All those things comes down to this. There's a person that I want you to experience, and it requires you to eliminate certain things from your life that would grieve him. So I don't feel condemnation there, neither should you.

I hear invitation. That there's something I'm invited to. He's not keeping me from certain things. He's inviting me into something greater. But this is not the only place in the scripture that describes and tells us that we can grieve the Holy Spirit.

Turn your Bibles with me to Isaiah chapter 63. Isaiah chapter 63. Beginning in verse seven. Isaiah 63 verse seven. And this is a recounting of the steadfast love of the Lord concerning the nation of Israel and how God has dealt with them in their wilderness journey.

And look at verse seven down with me. I will recount the steadfast love of the Lord, the praises of the Lord, according to all that the Lord has granted us, and the great goodness to the house of Israel. And he has granted them according to his compassion. Now listen to this language. Doesn't that sound familiar?

According to the abundance of his steadfast love. For he said, God, surely they are my people, children who will not deal falsely. You know what he's saying there? I've delivered them, and in his heart he was saying, surely they're not gonna deal with me falsely. Surely they will respond appropriately to my deliverance.

Surely they will walk in obedience because I've acted with such power and grace and compassion. Surely they will obey. And he became their savior. And all their affliction, he was afflicted. And the angel of his presence saved them.

In his love and in his pity, he redeemed them. He lifted them up and carried them all the days of old. Does that not sound like redemptive language? I saved you. Compassion, I led you.

I set you free. That's what Christ did for you and me. But look at verse 10. But they rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit. They rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit.

And we're going through Exodus on Fridays. Are we not? And those moments of disobedience that the people of Israel, provoking God to anger, and we just kind of see these immediate acts of judgment, severe judgment. Right? Because of the consistent rebellion, the complaining, and the associating with idols, and and and the the wanting to turn back, provoking God.

But listen, this is a commentary. Because we see that. We see these these judgments being in this discipline that's being implemented, and we go, man that's severe, but you don't you don't realize that this verse tells us that he's doing it out of a heart that's broken. So even in all those things and all those acts of discipline, his heart is heavy with grief, pain, and sorrow. As though there was no redemption.

As though there was no deliverance. As though there was no provision. As though there was no manifestation of his power in your life. As though you did not have a testimony of before Christ, and you just rebel and it breaks his heart. Even the Old Testament tells us the Holy Spirit was grieved.

The Holy Spirit was there when he was walking them through the wilderness journey. The same way he's with us when we're walking through this journey. But that does not just confirm to you and me that, yes, you can grieve the Holy Spirit. Just not it's not just further clarification. You have to read on to realize that we just not see that we can grieve the spirit, we can see what happens when we do grieve the spirit.

So, okay, don't grieve the Holy Spirit. I get it. I don't wanna hurt the person, but there's something that comes out of that that I believe is found in the second portion of this verse. That when you and I grieve the Holy Spirit what happened when they grieved the Holy Spirit when they were in rebellion, the nation of Israel? Verse 10, But they rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit.

Therefore, as a result of grieving the Holy Spirit, as a result of hurting his heart, what did the Holy Spirit do as a response? He turned to be their enemy, and himself fought against them. The ultimate result of the consistent rebellion of the people of God caused God to be like an enemy to them. And instead of them experiencing his guidance, instead of them experiencing his provision and his interventions on their behalf, they experienced something quite different than what God intended. And though we cannot be too literal and think that God will deal with us as his people in the new covenant the same way he dealed and judged them and disciplined them in the old covenant, There is a principle from Isaiah 63 verse 10 that is true for us as those who possess and walk in the Holy Spirit.

What is that? That when he does get grieved, and we do continually walk in rebellion, and we do continue walk in those things that he calls us not to walk into, In a sense, he does act like an enemy. In a sense, he does respond as an enemy. Say, how? He he sealed me.

He's my God. How can he be like an enemy? Like an enemy. In what sense? Well, you don't enjoy fellowship and joy with an enemy.

You can't commune intimately with an enemy. An enemy is somebody that, in fact, you have a separation, a sense of separation with. And that's what I believe happens when we grieve the Holy Spirit, who's supposed to be our friend, who's supposed to be the lover of our souls, but when we continue to walk into the things that hurt his heart, he doesn't leave you. Paul doesn't threaten us with that. The Holy Spirit doesn't threaten us with that.

What does he do though? He gets quiet. And the things that he wants you to experience, the things that are available in relationship with him are pulled back. And I can tell you this, that there are many people who are Christians who are walking weeks and months and perhaps even years, yes, perhaps sealed, but not experiencing the fullness of what the Holy Spirit has available for them. Do not grieve the Holy Spirit.

Our words, our actions, our attitudes can create a barrier between us and him. Oh, he's there. He's there, but not really there. You know, you can live with somebody, perhaps you've experienced this. You live in the same house, and you're still siblings, but, oh, you had an argument.

And though they are there, they're not really there. No communication, no communion, no conversation. This is what happens to the Holy Spirit when we grieve him. And if we don't desire to make much of our relationship with him, then he will he will he will commit himself to sealing us. But again, any wounded person cannot come near to a person who has wounded them, unless there is repentance and forgiveness.

Right? And so I wanna stop here and ask this. Before we move on the rest of the message, and it's very it's not a very long one. You have to ask yourself right now as you sit in these chairs, how much of the Holy Spirit do I want in my life? Is there anything within me that says, I want to know you know, there's that verse in Ephesians three nineteen that talks about the fullness of God.

Paul praying for the people of God is saying, I'm praying that you would know the fullness of God. Is that a desire? Because if it's not a desire, then Ephesians four thirty and all those verses that surround it are not important to you. But if you have come to terms with yourself, where you said, I want to know everything that he can offer me. I want to know how near I can come to the person of the Holy Spirit on this side of heaven.

I want to experience his bursting joy and his life and his power, then this is for you. Oh, and I can tell you, even in my own life when I first got saved, sitting in a chair, not knowing much of the Bible, but hearing about this person called the Holy Spirit. And when that preacher talked about the Holy Spirit, and he brought some verses alive, I didn't have all the answers. I didn't know all the things, but I knew one thing. That is my inheritance because I am in Christ.

And I'm not gonna let people who have taken the name of the Holy Spirit and have associated with things that grieve the Holy Spirit to rob me of my inheritance. I hope that he's not gonna those things won't rob you. So much of our doctrine and so much of our theology is reactionary. Is it not? We see something and what do we do?

We create a theology that makes us go the other way. And then we go into another extreme. Forget it. You put your finger on the Bible and you're safe. I want the fullness of God and the Holy Spirit.

I remember sitting in that chair and hearing those words, not even remembering the full message, but I remember looking to my friend on my left and saying, saying, if that's available to us, why don't we pursue it with everything within us? And he honored that. He honored that. Is there anything within you that says there is something more and I wanna know it? If this Holy Spirit is my inheritance, and if he's a person, he's not just something, then I wanna know the Holy Spirit in his fullness.

How do we do it? Go to Leviticus chapter six with me. Leviticus chapter six beginning in verse eight. God in these portions of scripture, he's giving the instruction of how they ought to perform the burnt offering. Remember, there are different offerings.

And and if you're intimidated by the book of Leviticus, here's one way that that helps. The book of Leviticus is not necessarily just about sacrifice, it's about worship. It's about worship in one sense. Yes, there's it's prophetic about Christ and all these things, but in reality, these sacrifices, yes, they covered sin temporary, all these different things. But really, these things are what God required of the people to perform worship in his way.

And so from eight to 13, we see here that the Lord gives the law concerning the burnt offering. And I'm not gonna read all the verses, but if you take the time to read it, you will realize that there are three things, a phrase that is repeated three times, and it is this. That the fire on the altar may never go out. He says that more than once in five verses. Don't let the fire go out.

Don't let the fire go out. Don't let the fire go out. And we have to understand, as we talked in the beginning of the message, that the Holy Spirit is like a fire. First Thessalonians five nineteen tells us, do not quench the Holy Spirit. Here we talk about do not grieve the Holy Spirit.

That verse tells us, do not quench the Holy Spirit. They're very similar. We're not going to talk about the differences. But that language of quench, it could be replaced with the word extinguish. Don't extinguish the flame of God in you.

Don't put out that fire. Don't reduce his activity and his warmth in your life. Don't do it. And he surrounds that verse with different instructions, positive and negative, how we can not quench. So we we talk about the fire here in the old covenant.

We talk about this fire on the altar, and look at verse 12. The fire on the altar shall be kept burning on it, it shall not go out. The priest shall burn wood on it every morning. So he had a responsibility. Guess what?

Fire doesn't magically stay there. It is your duty and mine, daily responsibility, to take wood and to feed that fire. Oh, and we all know that. Right? Practically?

Yes, brother. I agree with you and I know it. Read my word every day. Feed that fire every day. Fan into flame through the oxygen of prayer.

Yes. I'm doing it, man. I'm doing it daily. And here's probably why you're doing it, and you're still frustrated with your Christian walk. Because you went to verse 12, but you did not stop in verse 10.

And the priest shall put on his linen garment, and put his linen undergarment on his body, and he shall take up the ashes to which the fire has reduced the burnt offering on the altar, and put them beside the altar. Before you can feed the fire, you gotta first remove the ashes. Because the ashes had the potential of quenching and diminishing that flame to its fullest potential. That burnt offering would be burnt to a place into as a pile of ash, and they had to understand something. He said, listen.

Move the ash, and then feed the fire so that it can have its fullest effect. When you have that on top of it, it's not gonna be able to get to that point. And so you have many people today, they're praying, and they're praying, and they're reading. They're coming to prayer meeting. But throughout the week, they've been gossiping, and they're wondering why they're not possessed with a person.

And so they're doing, they're adding, they're trying, and they're continually frustrated because, listen, it's not just about adding things to your sanctification. It's about removing things. We so emphasize add and add and add and add. Do more. Pray longer.

Read more scripture. Those are all vital. And anybody in here that wants to take care of their body and has this in their mind, they go to the gym, they have a diet, you realize this, whether you wanna lose weight or whether you want to add weight, you can go to the gym for hours, but unless you change your diet, you're just wasting time pretty much. You talk to any fitness instructor. They'll say you can lift all the heavy weights, and you'll get little improvement, but until you change, they say 80% of the change in your body comes through your diet.

And so many people say, okay. I'm just gonna do I'm gonna lift heavy weights. I'm gonna read this much. I'm gonna pray this much. I'm gonna come all the conferences, all that.

But listen, unless you remove the ashes in your life, does it make any sense? Right? Oh, you can shut yourself in your room all day if you want. And the moment you leave that room, your heart I'm not talking about falling into sin and then being convicted of it and repented. I'm not talking about sinless perfectionism.

I'm talking about the habits and the things in our life that we cling to, that we know grieve the Holy Spirit, and we're trying to let those things walk hand in hand, and the Holy Spirit says, I will have nothing to do with that. And I think that is really the case of a lot of people that know that they can grow in Christ, that know that there's more for them, but they just can't remove certain things from their life. And they're wondering why they're not experiencing what Christ wants them to experience. And so this is what we have to develop in our minds. It's not just, okay.

Yeah. Okay. Do this now. No. It's recognizing and evaluating the things that could hinder and quench him, and saying, I'm gonna remove this, clear the stage.

I'm gonna remove all the things that would hinder that flame because I want the fullest fire available to me. That's what it's about. So what's the ash in your life? I mean, how can we be praying for revival when we're entertaining ourselves with things that we need revival for? It just doesn't make sense.

And so we we we come, we say, Lord, I want more of you. He goes, I would love to do it. I would love to do it, but there's ash on the altar. You gotta remove the ash. I'm waiting for you to make that decision to remove things in your life in order to give me the room to do what I wanna do in and through you.

And so we see that here. And that tells me something wonderful about Ephesians four thirty. It tells me something so glorious about the perspective on the pursuit of holiness, that my pursuit of holiness is actually the drive to a greater intimate relationship with the person whose name is holy. What others may consider sacrifice and removing things from my life, in light of that, it's a privilege and an honor. It's my pleasure, Lord, that if you were to show me anything that's a pile of ash and it's messy in my life that you do not want and that's hindering you from doing what you wanna blooming fully in my life, I will gladly pick up the broom and sweep it as fast as I can.

Not because I am bound by do's and don'ts, but because I want to know the flame of your love. And if it grieves you, I kiss it goodbye. If it hurts you, it's out the door. If there's any hint in which it makes you uncomfortable, sayonara, I'm doing nothing with it because I want you. Changes the pursuit of holiness, does it not?

Changes our understanding of personal holiness, does it not? Listen to this, a preacher said it this way and I think it's absolutely fabulous. Holiness to the soul is what health is to the body. Anybody in here afraid of perfect health? Anybody would dare to lift up their hand and say, I'm afraid of perfect health.

I'm scared of having full mobility in my body. I'm scared for all my muscles working. I'm scared of living a long life. I'm scared of of not being sick. I don't want that.

Any Would anybody dare to say that? No. You have people investing money, trainers, and medicine, and vitamin, and all these things so that they could experience the fullness of life in the flesh. But here's the amazing thing. When we take that principle to the spiritual life, we immediately deem it legalism.

And we go, that's just too much. That's just unnecessary. Well, you might be afraid of perfect health, but I'm not. And so we look at somebody who takes care of their body from head to toe and we applaud them. When somebody does it in the spirit, we condemn them.

Is there a type of legalism? Absolutely. I believe legalism stems down to this, that you're pursuing holiness outside of the revelation that you want more of God, you just want the praise of man. That's what legalism is. I'm not concerned about God being pleased.

I'm I'm not concerned about my convictions concerning how I relate to him. I want other people to applaud me, and to give me glory and praise, so that I look some look like some pious Pharisee in 2018. But a person who pursues holiness says, I want God. I want more of him. I want perfect health in my relationship with him, the same way a person would try for perfect health in their body.

Don't be afraid of holiness. Please see it as health. So if grieving the Holy Spirit is possible, then the opposite is true. If I can grieve him, then that means I can please him. I can please him.

And, oh, we do not dare try to come into the place in which we talk about pleasing God in the sense of receiving his approval. The very fact that the Holy Spirit has sealed you and abides you is based upon the perfect work of Christ, not yours. But it is this reality again that though he is in me, I wanna walk in the fullness of knowing him, and I wanna please him, and I want him to have full freedom in my life. And whatever has to go, let it go. But now, how do we do that?

We know the verse, don't we not? Romans 12, I appeal to you brothers by the mercies of God that you present your bodies as a living sacrifice. Holy, holy, holy, and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. My body, being a sacrifice to God, is an act of spiritual worship, but we can't forget verse two. How do I act in that spiritual worship?

Yes, give up my body. Yes, add to it. Yes, add the burning wood. But what else? Do not be conformed to this world.

You avoid worldliness like a plague for the sake of your relationship with the Holy Spirit and you'll it will be a joy. If your pursuit of holiness is drudgery, if it's something that's so difficult for you, there are many things that we can examine why that's the case. But here's one thing that will help if you're truly born again. He's a person, and he asks of us that our bodies would be a living sacrifice. And there's a beautiful picture of this in Leviticus chapter one, and this is where we're ending.

Leviticus chapter one again, instruction concerning the burnt offering. And look at verse six when you get to Leviticus chapter one and what it says about that sacrifice. Verse six says, then he, the priest, shall flay the burnt offering and cut it cut it into pieces. And the sons of Aaron, the priest, shall put fire on the altar and arrange wood on the fire. Look at verse eight.

And Aaron's sons, the priest, I love this, shall arrange the pieces, the head and the fat, on the wood that is on the fire on the altar. So take that offering, and this is what's unique about the burnt offering and what I this is why I believe that it's a picture of our devotion to Christ. That burnt offering, all of it needed to be on the altar. There was no piece that was missing. All of that animal was on the altar to be consumed by God.

But he says cut it into pieces. And verse eight says, make sure every piece is on the altar. If you've been with us since Ephesians four twenty five, maybe you've realized that we've been covering different pieces of our lives. We've been talking about the lips. We've been talking about our hands.

We've been talking about our heart. We've been talking about our attitude. Different components of your life. And if you want to be pleasing to the Lord, we have to do in light of this, every not 90% friend, every piece of your life has to go on the altar. Every piece.

Because many people, they'll give their hands and they'll give their eyes, they don't give their lips though. They they give everything, but they the ear belongs to the world still. There are things that go into this that I I still can't put on the altar. That's fine. Enjoy the lack of experience that the Holy Spirit wants to give you.

See, we do not, we do not dictate how we do this thing with God. God sets up the rules. And what he asks of you and what he asked for me, as an invitation into a life of joy and bliss and glory is that every piece of your life, burnt offering, be on the altar. And until every piece is on the altar, what does it say here? That there will be a pleasing aroma to the Lord.

That pleasing aroma only comes when every piece is on the altar. And many people have given so many of them, but are holding on to one piece. You know, like this hand. Right? And this hand and these feet, these feet go where they wanna go.

These hands touch what they shouldn't touch. This heart longs for the things it should not long for. And you're wondering why you're frustrated with your relationship with the Lord. He's waiting for you to put it on the altar. That's what we talk about when when you understand I believe this is I hope this is what they're talking about when they're talking about an altar call.

People vary on what that people should do that or not. That's not the point. I like the concept. When you come into the altar, the whole idea, when you come forward, you're the idea is you're jumping on the altar and you're sacrificing everything. But you don't need to come forward to do that.

You do that now. You do that in your chair. You do that in your bedroom. You're saying, Lord, here am I. Sacrifice unto you.

Every piece is yours. The same way every piece was required to get on that altar in order for it to be a pleasing aroma to the Lord. And so today, you have to determine that, brothers and sisters. How much of the Holy Spirit do I want in my life? Am I satisfied, yes, with him sealing me?

We should be. But do you not want more? Do you not want to explore? Do you not want to experience what it means to walk daily with the Holy Spirit? Where he longs to glorify Christ in your life, and he longs to empower you, and he longs to bear fruit in you, so that you look like the one that you worship, that's the invitation.

And Paul says, don't grieve him. All the pieces that we've been talking about has a direct relationship with this verse. Give it up and let it be sanctified and wholly dedicated unto the Lord. And that's what we're gonna do. Would you agree with me this morning?

Would you agree with me that a verse such as this would demand some kind of a response from the people of God? Would you agree with me on that? That we are talking about a person, not some doctrine. And this person, the same person that we just read and studied about is the same person who lives in you and is in this room. Would you agree that it seems appropriate to respond to this person today?

I hope so. Here's your opportunity without music, without anything to do with stirring emotion, just with the truth. Let the truth this morning stir your heart to make a decision. That you believer in Christ would come to terms with this reality, and examine every piece of your life and say, you know what? If that's my inheritance, I want it.

So Lord, here it is. And maybe you have to remove some ash in your life. You know what it is. And the Holy Spirit is so loving and so faithful, he'll point it out in your life and say, I want it gone. Why?

Because you will have all of this to its fullness. What an invitation. Determine within yourself before God as you bow your head in this moment and ask the Lord. And so I testify before you today, not as a way of putting any light upon me, but to just tell you that that day when I sat in that church, and it wasn't just that day, just talking to different people and hearing how they spoke of this person called the Holy Spirit. It produced this appetite within me not to search for something that's out there, but to just know what I read in this book.

And when you see somebody walking in that, I had questions. But no man could offer it to me, and it wasn't something that you can't buy. Remember who did that? Simon the sorcerer. He attempted to buy the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Peter was like, you have no idea what you're talking about. You can't buy this. He's a person. And so it was just this pursuit. Lord, let me know the Holy Spirit and what it means for him to have full control of my life.

And what does that look like? Simply, it looks like this. There is no sense of being clogged in your inner man. It's just joy, and I'm not talking about you don't go through moments of despair or no, no, no. It's just this freedom, it's just this knowing, this inner knowing that God is there.

And there are moments in which you've heard me say this, those little slip ups in life, your mind immediately goes to the person that has sealed you saying, Lord, I know. I know that that hurt you. You can sense the conviction of the Holy Spirit. I wouldn't trade that for a million dollars. That's available to you.

A nearness to him, a nearness to him that you can agree with that goes beyond a doctrinal statement, but something that you know that is confirmed through this book. And so the invitation as you sat there and prayed was not into some legalistic bondage, but into a lively relationship. Always see it that way. Always. Any cancellation of temptation that comes over your life.

Any invitation into worldliness. Don't sit into, can I do this as a Christian? Ask, does this please the Holy Spirit? Makes all the difference. Makes all the difference.

I'm gonna ask you to pray something with me, but it's a dangerous prayer. Whenever you ask for more of God, it will always require less of something else. And that less is less of self, less of sin, less of the things that the world glories in. There is always a price, but really is it a price? In comparison, you see, when you taste and see that the Lord is good, again, it's not a price.

It's a privilege. And my prayer for you is that not just one, hopefully everybody, including myself, would say, Lord, if that's my inheritance, I'm chasing after it more and more. This is not some merely experiential thing. It's just an inner knowing. Just studying this took me back.

I'm telling you, I said this for the third time, but sitting there and listening. And the way this preacher, not perfect, but God uses imperfect people, is the way he was talking about how he knew the Holy Spirit in line with scripture. How he would talk about how he would walk. He would take a walk every day and just talk to the Lord. He would just walk as though he was there as a person.

Just I'm just sitting there, newborn, believing something. That's possible? To know him so intimately, that's possible. You mean it's it's more than just a Sunday morning thing. Right?

He's oh, so he just when you say this is God's house, it doesn't mean that he just lives here and he stays here and he can go outside, you mean? Oh, he lives in me. And it just sparks something within me. There's this, I just want it all. Whatever it is.

Whatever whatever give me the price. I'll pay it. Whatever it takes to I know you paid the price for me to be saved, but in this life, whatever price I have to pay to know him more, I'll pay it. When he sees that, when he sees every every piece, every piece is there, that's when he works. Don't hold that piece back, that one little thing.

Give it all. Give it all. If you wanna pray that with me, God, I want more of you. Do not be surprised if he presses his finger upon certain things in your life that says, I want to do it, but there's ash. Could you sweep that ash away?

And I'm willing to burn in your life. Father, we pray for more of the Holy Spirit as we sing. That's a prayer. And that's a right prayer. That's an appropriate prayer.

Lord, I want more of your Holy Spirit. So we ask that he would be the very person that we are continually aware of in our lives and that you would make him more real in our lives. Lord, we know we don't live by sight but by faith, but we also know that we are invited into moments in which we can sense his goodness. And the truth of his word that he has authored and breathed upon becomes so alive to us. Lord, we want it all.

Whatever it is, we want it all. Whatever that fullness of God is, we might have an idea, we can bring some verses to it, but we want it all God. That's what we're asking for. Whatever needs to go, show us. Lord, if there's any sense of condemnation, remove that and Lord let them, let anybody who senses that, sense invitation into something awesome in God.

We thank you for our inheritance. We thank you for the gift of the Holy Spirit. We thank you that he's in us, but Lord we want him to live through us. More of him. More of him.

That's our prayer today. Thank you for guiding us through this holy book. Thank you for speaking to us in Ephesians four thirty. We say yes to it. We say we'll be doers of the word.

And if we have grieved the Holy Spirit, whether individually or corporately, Lord, would you forgive us? Forgive us of our sin. Forgive us if we've rebelled in the wilderness. We've complained and we've grown and we've talked about how it's better to live in the land of Egypt. And, Lord, whatever it may be that has grieved him, forgive us.

Here's the peace of our mouths, Lord, let it be sanctified. Our hands, our minds, our hearts, we give every peace and we say, Lord, sanctify. And we pray these things in the name of Jesus who has made this reality of the Holy Spirit available to us. In his name we pray, Amen.