HOW TO AVOID GRIEVING THE HOLY SPIRIT?

Text- Ephesians 4:30

Introduction

This morning the text for my sermon is found in Ephesians 4:30 and the title of this message is, "How To Avoid Grieving The Holy Spirit?"

Ephesians 4:30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. (NIV)

When we talk about grieving the Holy Spirit, what do we mean?  The word "grieve" in our text means, "to make sorrowful, to affect with sadness, to offend".  When we talk about grieving the Holy Spirit we mean to make him sad or sorrowful.

Today when people talk about the Holy Spirit they talk about him as though he is some kind of invisible force without a personality.  The Holy Spirit is not an invisible force and he does have a very distinct personality.  When the Bible speaks about the Holy Spirit it uses personal pronouns such as "he" or "him" to describe him.  The reason for this is because the Holy Spirit is a being and not a thing.

In the Bible we find that the Holy Spirit has several different personal qualities.

We find that the Holy Spirit is an INTELLIGENT BEING.

1 Corinthians 2:10-11 but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit.  The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.   11 For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man's spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. (NIV)

We find that the Holy Spirit has a WILL.

1 Corinthians 12:11 But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually just as He wills. (NASB)

We find that the Holy Spirit is capable of LOVE.

Romans 15:30 I urge you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to join me in my struggle by praying to God for me. (NIV)

What does all of this show us?  It shows us that the Holy Spirit is a person not some abstract invisible force, in fact the Holy Spirit is the third person of the godhead or trinity.

Because the Holy Spirit is a person and not a thing, he can be grieved or made sad.  As human beings we can cause the Holy Spirit to be full of sorrow and we can even offend him by the things that we do.

This morning I would like for us to look at three ways we can prevent the Holy Spirit from being grieved in our life.