Grieving, Quenching and Stirring up the Spirit

I asked the question, how real? How real is God to you? And you might have thought that was a strange question. I know that we all believe that God exists. I know that we all believe that God is working out a plan below. I know that we all believe that God is involved in every single one of our lives. And we know that without God in our lives, we wouldn't know what we know. None of us would be sitting here gathered before Him today. But the question is, how real is God to you? I know that we know He exists. I know that we are aware of His presence in our lives. But how real is He on a day-to-day basis in our lives? Do we see Him as someone who is with us every single minute of every single day? Very interested in everything we do. Very interested in our progress. Wanting us to succeed and overcome and be developing along the lines that He wants us to develop. Do we see that and do we feel that? Every day. I mentioned Ezekiel 1 in the letter yesterday. But let's turn over to Revelation 1 this morning and get a picture from the Apostle John of the vision that he had as he was in Christ's presence and saw Him as He is. Revelation 1 and verse 12. John writes, he says, I turned to see the voice that spoke with me, and having turned I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the seven lampstands, one like the son of man, clothed with the garment down to the feet, and girded about the chest with the golden band. His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like a flame of fire. His feet were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace, and his voice as the sound of many waters. He had in his right hand seven stars, out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and his countenance was like the sun shining in its strength. When John saw this vision, when he saw Jesus Christ, the real living Jesus Christ, he says, when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. And Christ said, don't be afraid, it's me.

Over and over in the Bible, when we see Moses encountering God, Ezekiel in a vision of God, Isaiah, Daniel, when they see Him as He is, the power of the majesty, that we in our minds, we can read the words that are here on the pages of the Bible, they fell in awe at Him. This powerful being that transcends our thoughts, who is all-knowing, all-present, all-powerful, who commands more than this physical earth that we live on, He's interested in you and He's interested in me. Isn't that an amazing thought? He's interested in us. With all the other things in the universe, this loving God is interested in us and He's with us every day, hearing every prayer, His Holy Spirit in us, leading us, prodding us, guiding us, because He wants for us what He knows your potential and my potential to be.

This God, when the men of old, and He even here in the New Testament, John, they trembled at His Word. And we read that verse in Isaiah 66, verse 2, and we read the words of God, and we know that's the words of truth, we know that this Bible is the only source of pure truth on the planet earth today.

But do we tremble at His words? John trembled at His words when he recognized His presence, when he knew who God was. Daniel trembled at God's words. Isaiah did, Ezekiel did, Moses did. And God wants us to have that same recognition. We serve a God that is so much bigger than we can imagine.

So much more powerful, so much more loving. And for some reason, God, a Loeb of the Old Testament, God the Father and Jesus Christ as we know them today, determines some time way into the past and put together a plan to create a physical earth and to create a physical mortal man to live on that earth, you and me. He equipped us with everything we need to do to survive on this earth. He even gave us a mind that we can think and we can reason and we can unlock the secrets of the physical universe.

But He didn't make man, mortal man, complete. He made Him so that He could have dominion of the earth, but He didn't make Him complete. And He didn't make Him immortal. He gave Him life, a temporary life on this earth. And it's only through Jesus Christ and only through His willingness as part of that plan to come to earth to live and die for our sins that we can be complete. And that all that our existence writes is not just the seven, the eighty, ninety, or a hundred years we may live on this earth, but in Him is eternal life.

Words that we say all the time. But all the future and everything that we know and everything we hope for is wrapped up in Him. He makes us an incomplete man today, complete. And some point in our lives He opened our minds to see the truth.

That when we look in the pages of the Bible, we understand truth. And so we sit here today on a day different than the rest of the world sits and thinks that they should be gathering together, if indeed they even do gather before God. And we see, and God opens our minds, and we can see the plan.

We see what the purpose for man is. We see what the purpose for this world is. We know that Jesus Christ is returning. This God, this God who made man in His image. And when He created us, He created us with all the physical attributes we need. I mentioned the mind that He gives us. He also equipped us with emotions. Emotions that can cause us joy and emotions that sometimes trip us up. We've all experienced happiness and joy. Of course, when we have God's Holy Spirit, we experience joy in a way we never understood it before. But we have happy times in our lives, where we're just on top of the world and everything is just going right.

And then we have other times where things aren't so good. People disappoint us. Maybe we disappoint ourselves. And times just aren't good. Other people may hurt us by the things they do, or that they say, or that they sin against us in some way. And when they do, that causes us hurt.

God equipped us with all of those emotions. And He has those emotions, too. When you read through the Bible, you see God, and we know Him as love. He loves more than any of us are capable of loving today. With His Holy Spirit as it leads and guides us as we yield to Him, we grow more and more in that type of love that He had, that He was willing to give up everything for us.

And that we might have a future. The world, or the world's society, you know, we'll talk about, or you see the placards at the sports events on John 3, 16. They don't really fully understand the scope of that verse, though.

But God is love. God is merciful. If He wasn't merciful, none of us would be sitting here today. And He is compassionate. Let's turn back to Matthew 23, 37. Just look at that aspect of Him. He created mankind. He watched Adam and Eve reject Him right at the outset of their time on earth. He sent prophets to warn the people because what He very much wants is for mankind to be able to achieve what He has in mind for them to achieve.

He Himself came to earth and He talked to His people who should have known who He was. And yet, as He was on earth, working and talking to the Jews at that time, they flat out rejected Him and wanted Him dead. Verse 37 is just one of those verses that you can see the compassion in Jesus Christ. The one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her.

You think it kind of hurt Jesus Christ when all He wanted was to help those people, and yet they weren't willing. Haven't we had that happen in our lives where we just wanted to do good for someone and they just wouldn't listen? They just wouldn't take what we had to offer. And you see them going about the same, doing the same thing that they always did, and it kind of hurts. It kind of deflates you. And you think if they would just take the advice of the Bible, if they would just look into the pages of the Bible, if they would just do what God said, or if it's something in a family situation, if one of your children will just follow what you have to say. They could save themselves so much pain, so much heartache. And it hurts when you see them going the other way or not taking that, and that's how Christ was feeling here.

I wanted to help you. I came to help you, but you weren't willing.

God, a luim who created us in His image, who has washed mankind, go against Him and reject Him. He's still loyal to us. He's still loyal to mankind. He tells you and me He'll never leave or forsake us. It's always us who leave Him by our attitudes, by our indifference, by our rejecting His Word or just counting it not important. He never leaves. He's there to see you through right to the very end. He's there to see you complete the course that He put you in, to complete the training program that you or I are in from now until the day that we die.

He'll never leave. He'll never forsake. If we ever feel out of touch with God, if we ever feel out of sync with Him, we don't blame Him. We look at ourselves.

And He feels joy. We don't have to turn to Luke 15, verse 7. It says there, there's joy in heaven whenever one sinner repents. So much joy because what they see is that person turning from their way that leads to death and embracing the way of life that leads to everything that God had planned. Not just seventy, eighty, or ninety years on this planet, but eternity and things that we can't even imagine. We believe it. Sometimes we just need to stop and think about it and think about what God is doing for us. All those things that He has in mind for us. But He has emotions that aren't so great either. God can get angry. He can get angry. And He does get angry with His people. Just like you and I get angry when something goes not the way we plan. When something happens that we just get angry and frustrated because if that had just, if we had just done it another way, or if someone else had just done it another way, or someone else had just paid attention to what was important, they wouldn't have suffered what they did. Over in Hebrews 3, first we have the Old Testament. We're told that all those things happened to ancient Israel and to the people that they encountered as examples to us. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He was the God of the Old Testament. And what He said back then still applies to us today. There is one way of life that leads to happiness, joy, and eternal life, and only one way. We can't tamper with it. We can't make adjustments to it. We can't do 9 out of 10 or 8 out of 10. We've got to do everything that God says. Ancient Israel. God looked down on them, and He took a slave people, and He gave them the potential to be on the high hills of the earth, it says, to give them everything they wanted. And He appeared to them. They trembled, remember at Mount Sinai? They trembled when they saw God's power. But then they went on life, and they didn't pay attention to what was going on. Let's pick it up in verse 8. Today, looking at the last verse, or the last line in verse 7 here, today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts, as in the rebellion.

Listen. Keep your hearts soft. Listen to what God is saying. Let His Holy Spirit that's in you guide you and direct you and follow those proddings. Do not harden your hearts, as in the rebellion, in the dale of trial in that wilderness, where your fathers tested Me, they tried Me, and they saw My work forty years. They saw all those things, miracles that we haven't seen. They saw them. And yet they didn't follow. And He says, I was angry with that generation. And I said, they always go astray in their heart, and they haven't known My ways. He was angry with them. They didn't follow. He gave it all to them, and they didn't listen. They just kept going back and following their own principles, doing their own will, wanting to look back at the way things were done in Egypt, and saying, it's good enough for them, and it doesn't seem so bad, so why can't we do it that way? We can't do it that way. The only way to what God has in mind for you and me is His way. He was angry with that generation. And He says in verse 11, so I swore in My wrath, they will not enter My rest.

God can get angry. I have a feeling in my life there's been times where He's been angry with me by choices I've made and things that I've done. Chances are He's been angry with you by things that you've done and you said where we've hurt Him and frustrated Him and just happened and chose a way different. Didn't follow the prodding of the Holy Spirit in us, but did something, but then, hopefully, repented. And when we repent, God forgets that anger. Mercifully He forgives us. Mercifully we get back on the right track again. We don't want God to be angry with us. Back in Ezekiel 6, and we'll be looking at verse 9, God gave Ezekiel many prophecies for the nation of Israel. The nation of Israel had gone into captivity at that point. So many of the things that we read here through Ezekiel we know are written for Israel today. And, of course, in Ezekiel 1, God gave him the vision of his throne. God got Ezekiel's attention, and he paid attention, and he followed him implicitly. But over here in Ezekiel 6, verse 9, God is talking about Israel and how they've gone astray. And he's talking about the things that will happen to them because of his anger and because they didn't follow what his way was. Verse 9 says, Then those of you who escape will remember me among the nations where they are carried captive. Because I was crushed, crushed by their adulterous heart, which has departed from me, and by their eyes which play the harlot after their idols, I was crushed. I hurt. It made me sad, God says, when I saw what Israel did. Frustrated? Yes, but it hurt him. Don't we feel our spirits crushed when we see someone, maybe someone we love, go down a path, and we know where that road is going to lead. And maybe you've talked to them, and maybe you've worked with them, and they still make a decision that when it becomes obvious that they're going to go a different way. It crushes your spirit. It makes you sad. It kind of hurts inside. And you want that person to not do that. And that's what God feels. That's what he felt when Israel, who he gave everything to, when they just would look back or around at the nations around them and say, Okay, well God cautioned us not to do things the way the people around us worship their gods. He said, worship me this way. And he warned them, if you don't do this, this is what's going to happen. And then they just went out and did it. And it crushed him. And they did it over and over and over. God was disappointed. Every single one of us in this room has disappointed God sometime in our life. Hopefully, as the years go by, as we yield more and more to God's Spirit and as we grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, we disappoint Him less and less.

God is real. God is really with us. When He sees us do things that are apart from the way He would want it done, it hurts Him. Because what He wants is for you and me to be in His Kingdom. And unless we know that He's real, unless we know that He's watching, and I don't mean watching in a negative way, but watching because He's very interested and very supportive and very encouraging and very much wants us to be in His Kingdom. If we just take it for granted, if we just kind of let our minds wander, if we just kind of coast for a while, it hurts. And He may think, you're just not getting it. He's real. His plan is real. His calling for us is real. The training that He's giving to us, it is real. And it's every single day that He's working with us and getting us ready. God has invested a lot in you and me. He invested the life of His Son. Now, you know, we live in a world where business is there. You know, people can invest in people, too. And if I invest in someone, if I bring them into a company, if I'm, you know, in a sports thing, and I invest big dollars into someone to come and be on my team, I expect them to be a good team player. I expect them to perform at the highest level. I expect them to have their mind in the game every single day. God has invested so much more in you and me. And, you know, as you watch the NBA playoffs and you see some players really perform and others just kind of cakewalk through it, it's got to be disappointing to their owners, disappointing to their fans. What does God see in you and me? Are we really... Do we really have our mind in the game? Do we really see every day that what He's called us to is real? Not just on the theory of things that somewhere off in the far distant future, who knows when and where, that this might happen, but it is going to happen.

Any one of us in this room could find the end of our training program over tomorrow. We could be in an accident. We could have anything happen to us. Our training program is over. And what we've written in the script in our lifetime is what God is going to judge us on based on what we've done. Are we ready for what He has for us? He's invested a lot in us, and He's invested His Holy Spirit in us as well.

When we respond to His call, when we repent, when we tell God and commit to Him, I will follow You the rest of my life. I will be with You. I will do what You say. I will let You change my life, and I will correct my course in life to become more and more like You. That's what we tell Him. We commit to Him for eternity at baptism.

And He invests in us at that point His Holy Spirit. His Holy Spirit, that is, if we're going to list all our assets, no matter how many we have, if we wouldn't list the Holy Spirit as the number one by far in our life, then we're not thinking right. It's the thing that completes us. It's the thing that gives us eternal life. It's the thing that God invests in you and invests in me, that takes us from physical, incomplete man that will die without it after 60, 70, 80, 90 years on this earth. Or if we have it, or once He's given it, and if we use it and if we follow it, then that will translate into eternity. Let's look at Ephesians. Now, let's look at Colossians. Colossians 1, verse 19.

Colossians chapter 1, verse 19.

And then He speaks to us, and you who once were aliens or alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death to present you holy and blameless and above reproach in His sight. He's given you that down payment, as it says in Ephesians 1, verse 13, that down payment of His Holy Spirit. That Holy Spirit, Christ living in you, as it says in verse 27 of this chapter here, Christ living in you that makes you complete. You have the Spirit in man, then you have the Spirit of God that gives you the understanding of the things of God that imparts to you eternal life. Verse 23, if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard and which was preached to every creature under heaven. That down payment, you can write down Ephesians 1, verses 13 and 14, that guarantee, if you will. God has said, I will give you eternal life if you follow through, if you don't depart, if you grow in the grace and knowledge of your Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, every day.

That guarantee, it says in Ephesians 1, verse 13, it really is earnest money, or earnest. You know, when we buy a house, we put money down on it, don't we? Now, what that does is, the owner is saying, fine, you put earnest money down on it, the house is yours. But the house isn't yours the day that you put the money on it, is it? It's yours. It guarantees it's going to be yours. He's not going to sell it to someone else. But you have to complete the process. You have to go through all the financing arrangements. You have to go through all the paperwork and all the steps that a mortgage company puts you through. You have to go through and pay off that house. You have to complete the process. And when you do, at that closing day, when they stamp those documents and you sign all those documents, then the house is yours. But any time during that process, if you fail to complete the process, if you don't follow through with what the lender asks you to do, if you don't get the paperwork in, if you don't return the phone calls, that house isn't going to be yours. And eventually you're going to lose that house because you're going to miss the closing date. And your earnest money will just disappear. In the same way God invests in us, you've repented. You've paid attention to what I've asked you to do. You've committed to me. I will give you your Holy Spirit. It is the power that will make you be able to change. Without that power, you cannot possibly follow me. Israel proved that. Without that power, you cannot love the way Jesus Christ lived. Without that power, you can't have a sound mind the way God wants us to have a sound mind. Without that power, you can't develop the fruits of the Spirit, and you can't change the internal parts of you the way that God can. When Christ is living in you. But it's earnest money. You have to keep up the work. And when Christ returns, if you've continued to follow Him, if you continue to have that important, then He gives eternal life. Then He will reward you. And use that word reward in the right way. Then He will give you eternal life, and then He will bestow on you. Many of the religions of the world around us think, once you're baptized, you're sealed. You don't have to do anything else the rest of your life. Not true. Not true. The Holy Spirit's in you, but you must follow through to the completion of the process that God has for you. And when He returns, if the Holy Spirit is in you, then, then He will give you eternal life and the things that He has promised.

Along the way, we have a lot of learning that we have to do. And a lot of times that we disappoint ourselves and we disappoint God. But if we keep coming back to Him, if we use His Holy Spirit to guide and direct us, He's faithful to forgive because He wants us to complete the process. Let's look at Ephesians 4 and verse 30.

We should be very grateful to God for what He's done, for the investment that He's made in us. We should look at the Holy Spirit as far, so far more important than anything that the world can bestow upon us. There's no amount of money. There's no friends. There's no family members that can give you what God has given you. None. Ephesians 4, verse 30. Paul says, highlighting the importance of the Holy Spirit, he says, Don't grieve the Holy Spirit of God by which you were sealed for the day of redemption. Don't grieve it. It's in you. Let it continue to be you in you until Jesus Christ returns. But don't grieve it.

What do we do when we grieve the Spirit of God?

No one wants to be the cause of grief for God, I would hope. A very real God who has very real feelings, who's so invested in you and me, that He wants us to be who He knows we can be. Don't grieve the Spirit of God. Well, the Greek word grieve here is lupayo, l-u-p-e-o, or lupayo. It means to distress, to make sad, to cause sorrow or grief.

God is sad when we grieve Him. We don't want to grieve God. We owe Him everything. We're nothing without Him. He literally has plucked us out of a nothing existence and given us promises in the future that we can't even really fully grasp what He has, but we believe and we know, and we know He's faithful to deliver. We don't want to grieve Him. How do we grieve God? Well, how do we grieve? Sometimes when people hear the word grieve, the first thing that comes to mind is death. And when we hear of a loved one or a friend dying, it does cause us grief. But that doesn't happen every day. It's real grief, but we grieve in other ways as well. I mentioned some of them to you. We can grieve because of things that people do to us. If we go back to our single days and when we ask a girl out, and we hope, really hope that she likes us and then she doesn't show up on the date or has an excuse, a flimsy excuse, grieves us, doesn't it? When someone, an employee, says, you know, they're going to do something and you believe in them and you trust in them and you're working with them, and then you find out that there's something else in the back of their mind, something that comes to your attention that says, oh, well, they're not the loyal employee. They don't have the same goal for this company that I have. They've got something else in mind. That's grievous. It hurts. When we begin to see what others that do, the same thing happens with God. We tell him when we're baptized, I will follow you. Everything that you say, I will do. I will let you change me. I will let you transform my mind into your mind. But then, as we do things, we can grieve God. Here in Ephesians 4, the book of Ephesians is a good book to read on the Holy Spirit, but here is Paul speaking in chapter 4. He talks about a number of things, and then he says in verse 30, don't grieve the Holy Spirit of God. And as you look back through the chapter here, you can see some of the things that do grieve God. Let's go back and look here earlier in the chapter to see the context that Paul is talking about that leads to him saying, don't grieve God's Spirit. And then some things that he says after that following up as well. Let's pick it up in verse 14 here of chapter 4. He writes, we should no longer be children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine. We should know that the Word of God is truth. We should know the Bible. We should be studying the Bible. We should be absolutely convicted and committed to the Word of Truth.

And not when we read something on the Internet about some idea that someone else has about a doctrine, we think, oh, well, how about that? No, no, no. That grieves God. We're committed to Him. We understand that this is the Word of Truth. This is what we live by. Not carried away by every wind of doctrine.

Not carried away by the trickery of men in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting. When we're carried away by those things, when we give into those things, it grieves God. He wants to know we are committed to Him, that we believe with all our hearts and minds and souls, and that we love Him with all our hearts, minds and souls. He says, don't be carried away by those things, but speak the truth in love and grow up in all things into Him who is the head Christ, from whom the whole body joined into together by whatever joint supplies. You can read the rest of the verse there. Let's go down to verse 17.

This I say therefore, in testifying to the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk. You've been called out of the world. The way the world does things, or society does things, is no longer the way we do things. We don't look to the society on, is this right or wrong? We look to the Bible as the source of morality, as the source of guidance, as the source of our conduct. Don't walk the way the rest of the Gentiles walk in the futility of their minds.

They're incomplete. They have the spirit of man. They can figure out things that are tremendous and wonderful to use, but they don't have the spirit of God. They don't understand the things that God has opened His people's minds to. Don't listen to them in the futility of their mind having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God. Let's go down to verse 22. He says, When we lie, it frees God. It's apart from the life and conduct and behavior that He's looking for us.

He says, instead, let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor. Verse 26, be angry. God gets angry. We're going to get angry. But don't sin. Don't let that anger turn into something bitterness, or cause you to do something or say something that results in sin. It's okay to get angry. Just don't let it turn into sin.

Don't let the sun go down on your wrath. Don't give place to the devil because in anger, He can certainly enter our minds and enter our imaginations. We can imagine all sorts of things that we would like to say back and do to people. Boy, when we look at the news and we see some of the things that go on in the world around us, in this recent occurrence in Santa Barbara, and how anger and a feeling of rejection with that young man, He just let it fester and fester and fester in His mind.

And He didn't let it go. And look what He did and how much pain He brought everyone. Verse 28, don't steal anymore. Rather work with your hands. Do what's good so that you have something to give to someone else. Verse 29, don't let corrupt communication come of your mouth, but speak what is good for edification. And then He says, after all this, don't grieve God's Spirit. When we grieve God's Spirit, when we act against the things that it prods us to do, that it urges us to do, we grieve Him.

Verse 31, let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice. Instead, be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving, even as God in Christ forgave you. Be imitators of God. Walk in love. First chapter 5, verse 2. Verse 3, but fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be named among you as is fitting for saints. That's not part of the conduct that God has called us to.

That's not what the Holy Spirit leads to. Christ living in you would not do those things. And when we do those things, it grieves God. Verse 4, neither filthiness or foolish talking or coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but give thanks. And then He says in verse 5, people who do these things, people who haven't and aren't letting God purge and clean those things, but continually grieve Him and give into their own nature rather than the Spirit of God, they're not going to be in the kingdom of God.

Their earnest money will be canceled, not because God left them, but because they didn't follow God. Don't grieve God. Israel grieved God over and over and over again. King David grieved God when he committed his sin with Bathsheba and then arranged for Uriah to be murdered. He grieved God.

And when it came to David's attention, he repented. And do you remember what he said? Don't take your Holy Spirit away from me. He knew he had sinned against God, and David even said, against you and you only have I sinned. He felt that responsibility to God because he knew what God had invested in him. He knew that God was leading him and wanted everything good for him. And David was, don't take your Holy Spirit away from me. Restore the joy. He realized, I've lost it. I've lost the joy of salvation.

No matter what happens in our life, there should always be the joy that we are walking with God. Now, we may fall and we may stumble, but God is very faithful to forgive. Don't sin against him. Don't develop a habit of thinking it's okay.

Just don't let it become something that defines you.

Back in Isaiah, Isaiah 63, there's a series of verses and the commentaries say that Paul, when he wrote the Ephesians 4, he's talking about the grieving the Holy Spirit, that he likely reckoned back to this reference in Isaiah 63. Again, Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever. In the New Testament, it talks about grieving the Holy Spirit. In the Old Testament, it does as well. Let's pick it up in verse 7, Isaiah 63. Start with the loving-kindnesses of God. The author here says, or Isaiah says, I will mention the loving-kindnesses of the Eternal and the praises of the Lord, according to all that he has bestowed on us, and the great goodness toward the house of Israel, which he has bestowed on them, according to his mercies, according to the multitude of his loving-kindnesses. All he did for them, all he does for you and me. Isaiah 63, verse 8. For he said, Surely they are my people, children who will not lie. So he became their Savior. He sees you and me as children. When his Holy Spirit is in us, it tells us in Romans 8, verses 10 through 17, he sees us as children. And he treats us as that way. He wants us to grow up into what he wants us to be. Verse 9, in all the affliction, he was afflicted. When they hurt, he hurt. And the angel of his presence saved them. In his love and in his pity, he redeemed them. And he bore them and carried them all the days of old. We can say the same thing about us. He carries us. He's with us. He's there. He fights our battles for us when we yield to him and when we trust in him and when we have faith in him. But look what they did in verse 10. They rebelled, and they grieved his Holy Spirit. So he turned himself against them as an enemy, and he fought against them. He turned himself against them because they grieved him over and over and over again. And he came to the point where he recognized this people is a stiff-necked and a rebellious people. They won't do what I say. They won't follow what I say. They always go against the principles that I set for them. If someone burns us over and over and over again, if you have an employee who grieves your heart by something that he does and you talk to him, but you see it happening over and over and over again, you eventually have to cut him loose. God eventually turned against Israel. He never stopped loving them. He never stopped wanting them to achieve what he could lead them to become. But he did end up fighting against them. We never want to find ourselves in that situation. If we keep grieving God, if we keep disregarding His Holy Spirit, if we keep disregarding the urges and the encouragement He has, He gives us to do good, to forgive, to follow Him, to be united with one another, it can lead to dire consequences. Let's go to 1 Thessalonians 5. 1 Thessalonians 5 and verse 19. Again, Paul writing.

In the verses leading up to verse 19 here in chapter 5, he encourages the people, stand strong, work with one another, pursue what's good, rejoice, pray, and everything give thanks. In verse 19, he says, don't quench the Spirit. Don't quench the Spirit. We grieve the Spirit when we sin against God. When we do the things contrary to His will, not in our attitudes or in our actions. Don't quench the Spirit. Now, that's different than grieving the Holy Spirit. What do we do when we quench something? I just took a drink of water. I quenched a little bit of thirst. By drinking that little bit of water, it ended that thirst. When we quench a fire, what do we do? We pour water on it, we cover it up, we want the fire to go out. That's how we quench things. When we quench things, the fire goes out. When we quench things, we're ending its effect. We're ending it. And Paul says, don't quench the Spirit. Now, that verse alone tells us that once God gives us that earnest of His Holy Spirit, we can do things to quench it. It's not a guarantee, once we're baptized, that we will be in His Kingdom. We can quench the Holy Spirit. How can we do that?

Over time, as we grieve the Holy Spirit, as we do the things that we read about in Ephesians 4, the other things that are contrary to what God's will for us is, when we make the decisions that this is okay because I think it's okay, it seems to make sense, rather than looking into God's words and being absolutely sure we're doing things the way He wants done, we grieve His Holy Spirit, and He will prod us. His Holy Spirit will give us the insight. We will come across a verse that answers the question that we have in our minds. A follow will come into our mind, and we'll feel something that, ah, what I did, what I said back then, that isn't the right thing to do. I need to go back and correct that idea. I need to let God correct my thought process in that area. But if we keep doing it, if we keep doing the same thing over and over and over again, and God doesn't see the progress in us, remember where the progress is. Not progress as we define it, but progress as God defines it, working toward the goal He has for us, a very real goal in a very real training program with a very real and powerful God watching every day, very interested in what you do, very interested in what I do, wanting us to succeed, giving us His Holy Spirit, giving us and leading us to truth and the right behavior. If we continually ignore, set it aside, think, this is just too important, I like the way I do these things, that Spirit can be taken away. That Spirit can be taken away. Don't quench the Spirit. When we quench it, we suppress God's Holy Spirit. We may know better, but we do it anyway. And we begin over time, just doing that, and a little bit by a little bit, our conscience is seared, and we quell, and we quench as we grieve God's Holy Spirit, and little by little, the fire will go out.

Let's turn back to Ezekiel here, Ezekiel 18.

Here in the Old Testament, you'll read this series of verses and then see what God says in the New Testament as well. In Ezekiel 18, God is giving admonitions to people. What he's really saying here in the latter part of Ezekiel 18 is, keep walking in the course that God has given you to do. Don't ever think that just because you've got this resume that says, at one time I did this, this, this, and I was walking with God, that you're going to be in the kingdom. Verse 24, Ezekiel 18. When a righteous man turns away from his righteousness and commits iniquity, and thus according to all the abominations that the wicked man does, shall he live? Up until this point in his life, he's been doing everything the right way. He's been following God when we understand what righteousness means, but then he starts turning and doing things differently. All the righteousness which he has done shall not be remembered, God says, because of the unfaithfulness of which he is guilty, and the sin which he has committed, because of them, he will die. Got to keep walking in the same path right until the end of time. Now let's go back to Hebrews, Hebrews 10. Hebrews 10, verse 26. If we sin willfully after we receive the knowledge of the truth, and perhaps we sin willfully after we grieve the Holy Spirit a few times, when we kind of let down our guard and we do something, and we don't experience any swift retribution, then we do it again. And we allow this to just become a pattern with us. And then after a while, we just do it. We just do it. Something has changed in our mind. We've lost something in our minds when we do it. If we sin willfully after we receive the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment and fire indignation which will devour the adversaries. Can you lose salvation? Absolutely. Absolutely. By the choices you make. Back in Ezekiel 18, as you read through the rest of that chapter, Israel and God would say that would say you're not fair. And he goes, I'm not fair. You're the one who committed the sins. You're the one who departed from the way. You're the one who stopped following the Holy Spirit. And if you don't have the Holy Spirit at the time you die, and if you're not living by it, then there won't be the eternal life. Anyone, verse 28, who has rejected Moses' law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will be thought worthy, who has trampled the Son of God under foot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace?

Didn't really count it important enough. Didn't understand how important God's love is. Didn't understand how important His Holy Spirit is and what a gift it is He's given us. And insulted Him by our actions, by our decisions, by choosing self over God, our way over His way, what's important to family more than what's important to Him, what's important to friends more than what's important to Him, what's important to employers more important than what's important to Him.

What are some of the things that we look like when we are in danger of quenching the Holy Spirit?

Well, we might find ourselves separated from the people of God. We might not find it inspiring to be with them. We might not want to talk to them. We may just not even want to get to know the rest of the people in the church. We may have our own little group and think that's what we're going to do, and we'll be a church unto ourselves, rather than being part of what God has called us to be part of. We could find ourselves thinking on the Sabbath day when God says, Be there in front of Him. Well, there's something else more important. I'm too tired. I've got this to do. I've got that to do.

And if we find ourselves doing that, we can grieve the Holy Spirit. Hopefully we pull ourselves up by the bootstraps and realize it's not a suggestion that God gives us in His commandments. He expects us to do those things. Again, a very real God looking at us, you and me, in a very real situation, gauging what's in our hearts, seeing how committed we are to what His calling is and how committed to the training program He has for us is. And when little conflicts come, do we choose Him, or do we choose the conflicting entity?

Well, we may do that once in a while, but over time it becomes easier to just not be where God wants you to be. At Sabbath services, in His presence in prayer, in His word of truth on a daily basis, as you read through the Bible, it just becomes easier. And over time we quench the Spirit.

One day or two days or three days without study can turn into a week and a month without Bible study. One or two or three days of prayer because we got up late and we have to be to work on time can turn into a week and two and three weeks without prayer. And pretty soon it's not important to us at all. It's quenching God's Holy Spirit. Doing things and continuing to commit things that are contrary to what His will is. Pretty soon we find ourselves going back into our old habits. Maybe language, filthy language, reappears in our lives. That wasn't there before. Old habits and old things begin to resurface, and maybe a spouse or maybe family member begins to notice. Well, you kind of look like the old person that was there.

The Holy Spirit, you'll hear on Pentecost, is like a fire. Remember back in Acts 2, when the Holy Spirit came on that church, it came as clothes of fire that they saw. And for a fire to stay lit, it needs someone to pay attention to it. The Holy Spirit gives us eternal life, but God's Spirit requires us to be doing something to keep that fire lit. If you find yourself drifting, if you see that you're grieving God's Spirit, if you see yourself on a path of your own choosing, making decisions to benefit you as a part to God, thinking it just doesn't matter, maybe you need to go back and think. God is watching what I do every day. A very real God has me in a very real training program, and He wants me to grow in His grace and knowledge every day.

And this is not His will that we would quench that fire. It's what we do that quenches it. So by the same token, Paul says over here in 2 Timothy 1 and verse 6, he says, I remind you, writing to Timothy, but writing to us, I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands.

Stir up the gift of God which is in you as God gave it to you when you were baptized, when you committed to Him and you had lands laid on you. Stir it up. If you grieve God, and even if you haven't grieved God, continually stir up that Spirit. Keep it alive. Keep it burning. Don't let yourself be one of those five virgins that the oil went out. They didn't have enough oil in their lamps at the time that Jesus Christ returned. How do you stir up the Spirit? What are the things that we can do to stir up the Spirit? Well, let's look at Acts 5, verse 32.

If the Spirit is in danger of going out, then we've been doing something to cause that fire to go out.

We've been throwing water or sand on the fire a little bit at a time, but the flame is beginning to waver a little. Acts 5, verse 32. We are as witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, which God has given to those who obey Him.

Want to stir up the Spirit? Obey Him. If you've been letting down what God has said to do in His clear commands, start doing it. Make yourself do it. No matter how hard it is, make yourself obey Him. Ask Him for the strength. He's given you the Holy Spirit, that power that enables you to do what doesn't come naturally, to do what He says.

If you find yourself compromising in some part of the law, start obeying it exactly. Start asking God for the power to get that back, and start doing it, because when you start doing it, you're stirring up that Spirit. You're showing God, I still realize you're there. I know I'm part of this training program. I know what you're preparing for me for. I must do what you say, even though my nature and my will is someplace else. I have to start doing your will. Obey.

And read. Read the Bible. Jesus Christ said, man doesn't live by bread alone. He lives by every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.

If we don't eat for days and days and days, we're going to quench our own spirit. We're going to go out. We're going to die. We're going to starve to death. How much more the Holy Spirit if we fail to feed it?

Go back. Make yourself read the Bible. Make yourself study it. Ask God before you start reading the Bible. Make these words live in me. Start that fire again. And when you read the Bible, you will see. You will see the Word of God come alive. You will rekindle your beliefs. You will feel on fire again. And do the things that you can do that we try to help you for, these Bible study lessons we're doing on a monthly basis that are designed to help you study at home.

Do those. Follow them. Write down the Scriptures. We live in an age where you can find any numbers, any number of sermons that you can listen to any time during the week. You can go on the website and find thousands of sermons. Listen to those. Turn the radio off and pay attention to those. Turn the TV off for an hour and listen to a sermon.

Start feeding your mind with the things of God again, and you will find that the Holy Spirit comes back to life again. The things that brought you to repentance, the things that brought you to baptism, the things that brought you to commit to God, you'll see that important in your life again. But you've got to do it. God's right there, and He encourages you to do it. And His Holy Spirit will encourage us and lead us to that, but it's us who has to make the decision. I won't turn to Mark 2, but in Mark 2, verses 18 to 20, Christ said, after He would leave, His disciples would fast. Fasting is not a pleasant thing for any of us, but when we fast, we're showing God we are interested in you.

We want what you have to answer or what you have to give. Let's turn to Colossians 3, verse 16. Let, there's that little word again, let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching, and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. Talk to one another. Sing to God. I heard someone say recently that they heard someone singing one of the psalms that we sing in our hymn book. And when they heard that, they knew what they believed.

Do we ever sing those songs during the week? Do we ever think about those words that we sing during the week? Do we ever find those tunes pop into our minds and listen to the words that we're singing? Admonish one another. You know, God, there's a reason that He gives us this, the hymn singing before services, an integral part of our services here. We sing praise to Him and it stirs up the Spirit. If during the week, turn off one of the radio stations, put in a tape of some of the hymns that you hear.

Let God back in. Let's turn back to Acts 16. Let me show you an example of this here. Acts 16 and verse 23. This is when Paul and Silas were thrown into prison and they could have been very distressed over the situation. They could have complained to God and said, this isn't fair, this shouldn't have happened to us, we were only doing good, and on and on and on. But they found themselves in prison in dire straits at midnight, Chapter 16 of Acts, verse 25. At midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and they were singing hymns to God and the prisoners were listening to them.

You know what? God was listening to them as well. An earthquake came and the doors were opened. They were stirring up the Spirit of God. They were in a distressed situation. They could have been very depressed of what was going on. They prayed. They sang hymns to one another. Stir up the Spirit of God by being with other people, too. There's a reason that God commanded us to be together on a Sabbath day. He wants us to get to know each other. He wants us to encourage each other. He wants us to be there for each other.

And if we neglect that, we're kind of pouring a little sand on the Holy Spirit. Do the things that God wants us to do. In short, know that God is real. Think about Him that He's there, a real living being. A more powerful being that we can imagine all knowing, all caring. And He wants you and He wants me to be in His kingdom.

And He's invested the time and He's invested His Spirit. And He wants to see that what He has started will finish. But we have our part in it. We have to keep the Spirit alive. We have to do the things that God asks us to do. Don't grieve the Spirit. Don't quench the Spirit. Keep it alive. Keep God alive. And keep Him and His plan very real in your everyday life.