You are called to stop relying on your own strength and start embracing the freedom found in your union with Christ. Take time this week to read Romans 4 through 8 and let the truth of your death to sin set you free from the desire to gratify the flesh. Embrace this truth today and watch how the Holy Spirit leads you in every aspect of your life.
1, says, "do not grieve" the spirit, and the other says, not quench the spirit. You've heard those scriptures before maybe? If not, I'll show you in scripture. You can pull these up. This is Ephesians-4:30.
I think it's towards the end there, Sarah. Ephesians-4:30. If you got it, great. If not, no worries. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God with whom you are sealed for the day of redemption.
What does it look like to grieve the Holy Spirit? Grieving the Holy Spirit is doing something negative. Yeah. It's doing some kind of sin thing. Like, at the context around it.
29, do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. Do not grieve the Holy Spirit with whom you were sealed on the day of redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, brawling, slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to 1 another, forgiving each other just as Christ forgave you. Follow God's example, therefore, as dearly loved children and walk in the way of love.
I mean, but but so grieving the Holy Spirit is to cause when you grieve someone, you cause them grief. You're you're bringing deep sorrow and pain. 1 of the definitions is even annoyance. I don't wanna annoy the Holy Spirit. You know?
So, why does it grieve him when we sin, or when we make a mistake, or or say it grieves him because it's not who he is. He's residing we've been washed clean, and and we've been made new. And so, when we sin, or we we do something dumb like that, it's it's walking out from ourselves something that's not in line with the nature and character of God. And so, just not good. But also, it'll stress you out if you continue to do that.
If you're living outside of who you are, you will be conflicted, and your conscience will be messed up. When your conscience is messed up, you are hesitant to go to the father to worship him. You're even hesitant to go to church or with other believers that are walking with him because you have an unclear conscience. That doesn't mean you're not clean. It means your conscience isn't clean.
And in Hebrews, says, when you have an uncleared conscience, you just go back and you remember. You you're you let your conscience be cleared by the blood. You remember that man, he paid the price for all your sin, so you remind yourself of what God has done, so that you can walk confidently, get back up, and walk with a clear conscience and not grieve the Holy Spirit in the same way. So when I I'll give you like just a I don't know, example of what could happen or what has happened a lot for me. Oh, this morning, I get done in the office, like wondering, alright, God, what are you gonna say today?
Because you usually tell me to write this thing out and it's not written Lord Jesus so I get done with all that. And I walk in, and I see 3 plates with 5 French toast sticks on them each for my 6 year old, my 7 year old, and my 10 year old, And, it's just way too much. And so, instead of being kind and gentle in my correction, I was unkind and ungentle. I correctly corrected them, but it was correction from the flesh. I allowed the way that I shouldn't have fathered to come out.
I listened to that flesh that was at war with the spirit, and submitted to it. Make sense? So when I did that, in my mind, as I'm listening, and they're explaining what happened and stuff, I'm thinking, man, I really shouldn't have said those things. And really, the Holy Spirit was kinda like, hey, that's not who you are. I felt a lack of peace here because I fathered from a place that wasn't the place he fathers from.
So when you feel a lack of peace, you're grieving the Holy Spirit. If you did something wrong, what do you do? You go back to where you that lack of peace started, and you repent. You change your mindset. So that looked like me humbling myself to my son, saying, hey, son, doing what I should have did in the first place, asking him why did he do that.
And the reason he did that, the reason he fixed so many was because the direction said to do that, and he's a rule follower. So not only that, I grieved the Holy Spirit, but I was too hard on my son. So then, I had to humble myself and not just repent here, so that I learned to listen first, but I also had to repent to my son. That was wrong. I shouldn't have got so frustrated at you, and I should have asked questions first.
Do you forgive me? That's what it looks like in my life. Man, every day, sometimes not every day, praise the Lord. But, a lot of days, the Holy Spirit is bothering me in ways that I negatively mess up. And he's not saying, you filthy rotten sinner.
That's not who I am. I'm the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. I'm clean. He's saying, that's not who you are. Why would you do that?
And I'm supposed to respond in humility and repent, change my mindset for whatever that came from, and follow him forward. Amen? The other part is "do not quench" the Holy Spirit. That is in I think it's 1 Thessalonians-5? Yeah.
19. Do not quench the Holy Spirit or the Spirit. Capital s is Holy Spirit. It says, do not treat prophecies with contempt, but test them all. Hold on to what is good, reject every kind of evil.
You know, quenching is like a fire extinguisher. You're extinguishing a fire. Quenching is preventing the Holy Spirit from doing the good he wants to do in you and through you. Grieving the Holy Spirit is you doing negative, quenching the Holy Spirit is preventing him from doing the positive. Baptism of the Holy Holy Spirit and fire.
I don't wanna quench his fire in any way. So a lot of people will treat prophecies with contempt. It's in direct opposition to this, and it's part of what it looks like to quench the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit wants to work in the gifts, and and abilities of powerful supernatural stuff in your life. And just because you're uncomfortable with it, doesn't give you the right to quench it.
Don't. Learn from it. Grow in it. If it's in line with the scripture, submit. Come under his mission in the way that he wants to walk in power, in every aspect of of this thing.
But it's not just that. It's not just the gifts of the Holy Spirit. And and by the way, I had a call from Olivier who prophesied over my life yesterday. I had another call from from Sandy who prophesied over our church today. You know what I did?
I listened and I honored them. I test them by scripture. If it's not in line with the principles of God's word, if it's not confirming what he's already said, or there's not a peace there, hey, you know? But, I don't treat it with contempt. Contempt is not saying this is worthless.
It doesn't matter for my life. I don't want to do that with anything that is biblical. Amen? But, it's not just the gifts. Right before it says, do not quench the Holy Spirit, it says, rejoice always.
The Holy Spirit is a spirit of joy. When you recognize that he's with you in the midst of the circumstance, you can rejoice always. And to quench joy just because there's no joy in the circumstance is to quench the Holy Spirit. Oh, me? Don't quench joy anymore.
Rejoice. God's good. He loves you. We can be light and fluffy no matter how heavy the sick situation is. Pray continually, and so you can listen and hear him and "walk with him".
And then, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will. I've already said that earlier in worship, but I just want to rehash it. Give thanks in all circumstances. I'm not giving thanks for the circumstance, I'm giving thanks in the circumstance. And I can only do that if I recognize that his spirit is with me in the midst of it.
So I can thank him because I see him there, and so I can walk with him no matter what I'm going through, and know that if he's in the circumstance with me, he's gonna work it out for good for me because that's what his word says. Amen? Amen. Alright. So let me tell you what Romans-6 says, and we'll get to it next week.
And I'll just I'll say it, and I'll I'll and hopefully, it'll cause you to go and read it to see if it's true and seek after. Maybe the Holy Spirit will reveal it to you. Romans-6 says, Christ was crucified. The very same paragraph, it says, you were crucified with Christ. That's not just some mental ascent thing.
That's truth. It actually happened. You were in him. So, Christ was crucified, you were crucified. And, it's just as true when you were crucified, Christ was crucified.
So, you have been made dead to sin and dead to your flesh. What does it mean to be dead to something? It means, Romans-6:7, I think, or 6 14, 1 of them, you're "set free" from it. So the Bible actually says, because you have died with Christ, you have been set free from sin. Never again say you're not.
Don't let your religious box ever again say you're not set free from sin. Because scripture says that you are because you died with Christ. And to say the opposite is to prevent yourself from being led by the spirit. Because you can't follow the flesh, and think you're still a sinner, and think you're still not set free from sin, and follow the leading of the Holy Spirit. To follow 1 is to reject and war against the other.
And I'll just I'll leave it with this question. Do you believe that Jesus died on a cross for your sin February ago? Yes. Do you? Yes.
How do you know? You just know. You weren't there. You didn't see it. You just know it because his word says.
You realize the same scripture, the same passage that says that Jesus died 2000 years ago on a cross is the same 1 that says you did too? So you believe the whole word? Do you believe that you were crucified with him? How do you know? Well, I just I feel that I'm my sin is very much still alive.
That's great. You can feel that. But are your feelings true or is his word? Word. And if his word is true, I'm gonna believe him until I get better and better at looking like Jesus in my daily life because I realize because I'm dead to sin, I'm free from it.
Sin is still very much alive, but I don't have to choose it anymore because I've been set free. I have the capacity now to follow the leading of the spirit in every aspect of my life. And when I mess up and fail, man, it's okay because he's already washed me clean. I can get back up and keep walking with the spirit. Okay.
I'm done. I would encourage I wanted to unpack that more. Go read Romans-6. Read Romans-4, 5, 6, 7, and 8. Pray, and God will show you.
Thank you for tuning in today to the Real Church podcast. I pray that you walk away from today encouraged and with a deeper understanding of how much God loves you. If you'd like to connect with us, we can't wait to reach out to you and pray for you. You can go to www.realchurch.us/connect. And then also, if you would like to give to what God is doing in and through our ministry, you can do so at www.realchurch.us/giving, or you can text any amount to 84321, and then just search in the link that comes up.
Search for Real Church Clearwater. God bless you, and the best is yet to come.