Session 4 - Confessed and Yielded — Ephesians 4-5

0:00 Let's have let's have a word of prayer here before we get going. Our heavenly father, we we do give thanks. We're thankful for opportunity to be here this morning. We're thankful for the safety that was provided in in in getting here. We're are so thankful for the word, for the lord Jesus Christ, for the gift of the holy spirit that has been given.

0:26 Father, we're we're thankful that we can glean from the word, search the word, study the Word and find out more truths that are a help to us. We know that you've not left us here comfortless. We know you've not left us here without the tools to accomplish your good and perfect will. And we we know that we have a great hope and expectation of being with thee for eternity and these things do encourage us along life's way. So, this morning, we want to commit ourselves and our time to thee and we pray this in the name of our lord Jesus Christ.

1:04 Amen. Now, we it would be probably appropriate for us to do a brief review, Okay? If you've if you've not been with us for our our times yesterday, that's okay. We're gonna we're gonna just highlight some things that that we did discuss. We we talked about the Holy Spirit's work in in three different areas and though there's a little bit of description about that on the screen of some notes from yesterday.

1:35 Before we're saved, the Holy Spirit draws us and then at the point of our salvation, we talked about five things and so, why not maybe someone different than gave an answer last night. If you are, if you gave an answer last night, it's fine to give an answer again. What was the first one we covered? The three Rs. Sorry Nancy?

1:59 Regeneration. Yeah, regeneration, renewal, and rebirth, right? That was the first one. Second one, who can do that one for us? Baptism by the spirit into the body.

2:12 Alright. The third one. Indwelling. Fourth. Sealing.

2:20 And then the fifth. Filling. And we... So those five things happen at salvation. And we recognize that four of those happen once.

2:31 The first four happen once with no need to be repeated because they're they're permanent in a sense. You know, they're they're they're they're there's they've got a longevity to them. However, the filling would reoccur. So, that was a difference or uniqueness. The first four were god's work, god's doings.

2:51 The the last one is god's work and god's doing but we have an influence or impact on that. Now, then we talked about several different things that the spirit does once we've been saved or as we're a Christian, we're walking the Christian life, we talked about several acts of the spirit, actions that the spirit does. Now here's what I'm going do. I'm to ask you if you would perhaps if there's one that you liked, tell us and tell us why you liked it. Alright?

3:51 What's another action that the spirit does in this Devin? Okay. Spirit makes intercession on our behalf. Romans chapter eight, we saw that. Another one, another action of the spirit.

4:13 Mindy? He brings conviction. Okay. Yep. Truth, spirit convicts, leads us into truth.

4:21 Josh? He guides. He guides. Yes. I like that one because I.

4:26 He's a guy. There you go. Yep. So, we have these these things that the spirit does. The spirit is working.

4:36 The spirit is doing these things sometimes on our behalf, sometimes to help us along and it's a it's a tremendous benefit to us as a believer, right? So, the spirit does these things. Recently, there was a survey taken and people in America, so it's us, People in America that they buy things but do not use them. Here's some of the things that people bought and do not use. Canned soup.

5:14 Estimated that 85% of Americans have unopened cans of Campbell's soup in their cupboard. Gym gym memberships. Buy em, don't use em. A bread machine. Extended warranties, home exercise equipment, you knew that was going to be on there didn't you?

5:46 Mobile apps, a swimming pool, the latest kitchen gadget, books and rounding off the list, workout CDs. Alright. Things that that and maybe I I know I've bought some of those things and I've not used some of those things too. So we're talking about the Holy Spirit and it's not that we buy the Holy Spirit, right? But can we think about it in this context for just a moment?

6:22 Do we have the Holy Spirit and we don't use him? Not that we use him, abuse him kind of thing, but we have the Holy Spirit and we don't use the spirit. So, there's two things about the study that we've been doing is that one thing is that we identified several of these actions, quite a few of these actions that that the spirit does. The spirit guides, the spirit prays on our behalf, intercedes for us, the spirit gives us a love that we can use toward others. All these different actions that the spirit's doing.

7:00 Maybe some of those you haven't considered before, right? Maybe some of those that we covered last night, you didn't think about like, wow, I didn't know the spirit did that and guess what? If you didn't know the spirit did that, you may not have even like engaged in that aspect of the spirit's work. You've been missing that, right? And that's...

7:22 So that's a benefit of going through this study of saying, okay, wow, I didn't realize that the spirit did this and this and this and and so now I can be more aware of that and engage in that, right? The second thing is that we that we want to that we want to understand what the spirit's work is and then we want to say, hey, am I taking full advantage that? Why why am I not seeing the spirit lead? It is clear. We we looked at about, I don't know how many, six or eight references last night about how how the spirit would lead, how the spirit is a guide, and then we say, I'm not being led.

8:05 Why is that? Alright. So, we we've looked at the spirit's work in these different areas. We've looked at spirit's actions. Now, there's there's some instruction concerning the spirit.

8:41 One, looked at last night and it was in Ephesians chapter five. Be filled with the spirit. That was an instruction to us. Be filled with the spirit. Now, we're going to look at two more instructions that we have with our responsibility concerning the Holy Spirit.

8:57 The first one is... Or the next one would be in Ephesians chapter four and verse 30. Look at that verse with me if you will. Ephesians chapter four and verse 30. And grieve not the holy spirit of god whereby you are sealed until the day of redemption.

9:17 So, that instruction is right there in that first verse and or in the first part of the verse, grieve not the holy spirit. You know what? I want to pick up a little bit here on the context. Just slide back up to verse 23 and be renewed in the spirit of your mind and that you put on the new man which is after god is created in righteousness and true holiness. Verse 25, where per for putting away lying, speaking every man truth with his neighbor for we are members of one another.

9:53 Be angry and sin not. Let not the sun go down upon your wrath. Neither give place to the devil. Let him that stole still no more but rather let him labor working with his hands the things which is good that he may may may have to give to them that have need. Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of the edifying, that it may minister grace into the hearers.

10:18 In our verse here, verse 30, so we're seeing it in context and grieve not the holy spirit of god whereby you are sealed unto the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath, anger, clamor, evil speaking, but put away from you with all malice and be kind one to another, tender hearted, forgiving one another even as god for Christ's sake has forgiven you. So, this instruction, grieve not the spirit. I'd like to ask what grieves you? What's something that grieves you?

10:57 Abortion. Yeah. That's definitely a weighty, a weighty matter. It breaks your heart, doesn't it? Yeah.

11:11 Jim, what were you going say? Disobedience children that require discipline. Okay. Yeah. Yeah.

11:19 The heart of a parent, dealing with the discipline of a child, what's something else that grieves you? Roger? Least an opportunity. I don't think that's there, but it's not yours. Yeah, yeah.

11:40 Let's take one more. Another, what's something, Don? When I find myself letting my flesh work and then Okay. And I say a quick word or something. Yeah.

11:52 Okay. Right. Yeah. And you get that sense of like, right. Regret.

12:26 I think probably an ultimate type of degree would be the death of a loved one, right? That's... When we say grief, and we talk about it in the context of that, right? And those of us that have lost loved ones in our immediate family, we can say, I I know what grief... I I grieved, right?

12:47 So, let me ask you this. You you answer the question in your own mind. What what what grieves me? How do you feel when that's going on? What do you feel like doing when you're experiencing grief?

13:16 We, I can tell you how we don't feel, right? And I can tell you how we probably feel. We don't feel like all happy and energetic, ready to go. We're we're kind of... We're we're paralyzed in a sense, right?

13:35 At the death of a loved one, everything falls aside, Right? You you know what becomes important then. And then you're like, you got to take some time, you got to reorient, you got to figure out what's going on. You're grieving. You take a day off work, you take a week off work, you let the laundry go.

14:01 I mean like, so if we start to get a handle on what grieving is, then we we read this verse. We read this verse and to the believer, the instruction concerning the Holy Spirit is don't grieve the spirit. And this is something. Hey, I hadn't got this figured out, okay? I don't have this figured out.

14:24 I don't understand why this is that an all powerful god would allow me to grieve him. Why would he allow me to grieve him? Why would he allow me to put him in the situation where he doesn't feel like doing anything? He's paralyzed in a sense. That same experience of just connecting it with what the word means and what we've experienced as humans and we say the spirit has been affected.

15:02 It's been slowed. It's been grieved. Now, the spirit it's hard to, I think what we've already talked about like 10 actions of the spirit and so it's hard to rattle off all 10 of those and and so maybe we'll just talk about a few. We talked about one of the first ones we talked about was the fact that the spirit is a god. The spirit is grieved and so that work of guiding is not happening in my life.

15:33 Does that make sense? I mean, and so, so, the when I grieve the spirit that doesn't the spirit's hampered. In all of his actions, And maybe you've got a favorite one, but he's hampered in that. He's he's he's hampered and we're responsible. Now, look at the context here again and we say, okay, well what grieves the spirit?

16:33 I mean, so we look at that and we say, okay, these are things that must grieve the spirit, right? Let me back up just for a minute and mention something else. Why why is the spirit grieved? You know, another element we have to put in there is God loves us. Why do you grieve when you lose a loved one?

17:06 You love em, right? You love em and so, god loves us god the father, god the son, god the holy spirit. There's a love there and now, when this when this sin enters in, there's it grieves the spirit. It grieves the spirit. Now, just a little just a little bonus a little bonus for us for those that were here last night.

17:37 You you see in this passage right now, look at back at verse 23. We're considering the things that grieve the spirit but all all the works of the spirit we see in this in this are are all the things that that we saw that happened at conversion, that happened at salvation in that middle, that middle section. Verse 23, be renewed in the in in the spirit of your mind. That that renewal, that first action. Look at verse 25.

18:07 Where it says, it lying is mentioned. So, that's that would be a sin. Wherefore, we are members of one another. What's that? That's the baptism of the spirit, right?

18:19 The baptism of the spirit being put into the same body. Members of one another. Be angry and sin not is a is a is something that's anger given to taken in a in a in a wrong direction or taken to another direction to become sin. Don't give place or area to the devil. The stealings mentioned, We also in in verse 30, we have the the dwelling of the spirit and we have the the ceiling of the spirit and we'll talk about in a little while how verse 32 would relate to the filling of the spirit.

18:57 So, we have these things mentioned but so, we we've got some of these things were mentioned before. We got sin or or we've got lying, we've got stealing, we've got anger, we've got corrupt communication, then we've got bitterness, we've got wrath, we've got anger mentioned again, we've got clamor, evil speaking, and so these things are mentioned. Now, let's just put this in an easy category. Grief, the things that grieve the spirit are things that we're instructed not to do, right? We have clear instruction.

19:40 Don't steal. Don't lie. And so, that's a clear, a clear clear directive in scripture. So, if we do the things that we're not supposed to do, then, grief, grief of the spirit results, right? Now, we know thankfully that in in understanding all of what god has for us is that when that occurs, when grief occurs, when sin occurs in our life, that what needs to happen next?

20:21 Recognition, I've made a mistake, agree with god that that was wrong, confess it, and and ask for forgiveness, right? I confessed my sin. He is faithful and just to forgive. So, we we see that, hey, just because I just because I lie doesn't mean I lose the spirit's guidance forever, right? I I just get back on track.

20:45 I gotta get back on track. So, confession becomes a very important aspect in walking with the lord in in utilizing the Holy Spirit as the resource that god intended him to be. Confession. I confess, I'm forgiven, the spirit is no longer grieved. That's the solution to the grieved spirit, is confession of that sin.

21:55 If you want to memorize a verse, this is a good one to memorize because it's only four words long, right? Quench not the spirit. That's another direction. It says, quench not the spirit. Let's read the context of this one.

22:08 Let's just slide back up to verse 14. Now, we exhort you brethren. Notice is talking to the believers again. Both of these, well, all three of these, all three of these directives were referenced the believer, right? Be filled with the spirit that's talking to the to the believer.

22:25 Grieve not the spirit. Talking to the believer. Now, quench not the spirit is also talking to the believer. Now, we exhort you, brethren, warn them that are unruly, comfort the feeble minded, support the weak, be patient toward all men, see that none render evil to evil to any man but every but everyone follow that which is good both among yourselves and to all men. Rejoice evermore.

22:50 Pray without ceasing. In everything, give thanks. That is the will of god in Christ Jesus concerning you. Quench not the spirit, despise not prophecies, prove all things, hold fast to all things which are good, abstain from all appearance of evil, and the very god of peace sanctify you holy and I pray god your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is he who called you, who will also do it.

23:23 Quench not. Now, let's think about what is the somebody got a a a working definition of quench. Put out. That's that's a it's a very good definition. Put out.

23:41 Yeah. Extinguish to put out. That would be to quench, right? I just remember that Gatorade commercial from the eighties, you know. The quench thirster or the thirst quencher, excuse me.

24:05 The thirst quencher, right? The guy sitting there like this. He's putting out his thirst, right? He's extinguishing that. Quench, quench not is the directive.

24:17 So let's think about that. And now we look at this, we look at the context here, and it's going to help us. Remember in Ephesians when it's saying grieve not, it was like lying, stealing, anger, things that we're not supposed to do. Notice the context here. These are things that we are supposed to do.

24:37 Okay, see the difference? These are things we aren't supposed to do. Look at verse 16, rejoice. Verse 17, pray. Verse 18, in everything give thanks.

24:52 Despise not prophecy. Prove all things and so you see this this flavor here, this this the tone here is things that are good for us to do, that we should do em, right? And so, grieving is doing the things that we're not supposed to do that would grieve the the spirit. Now, quenching would be not doing the things that god would have us do, right? So, if all that make sense and so here we have this the instructions, be filled, grieve not, quench not and so, I believe the the effect on the spirit, the paralyzing effect, if I could just use that for lack of a better term where the spirit's work is hindered.

25:45 It seems that the spirit works is hindered in a similar fashion. Whether we are grieving the spirit or whether we are quenching the spirit, the spirit is hindered or or or restricted in in some way in our life to conduct all of his his benefits that that he has, the things that he wants to do. Some of the things that we were mentioning yesterday was the the spirit is a guide. The spirit empowers us to witness. The spirit allows the love of god to be shed abroad in our hearts toward others.

26:20 The spirit would make intercession for us. The spinners, the the spirit conforms us into the image of god. The spirit teaches us all things. The spirit would would give us victory over the flesh. The spirit would sanctify.

26:35 There's sanctification of the spirit being being done conducted. It gives us access to the father through the spirit and so we have these these things that would be affected. Schaefer said this, a child of god lives either with a grieved spirit or an ungrieved spirit. The child of god lives his life either having grieving the holy spirit or with the Holy Spirit ungrieved. Now, we said that the solution to the grieved spirit was confession, right?

27:14 We we know we're going to sin. First John tells us that, you know, we're we know we're going to sin. We see other places in scripture. When we sin, we're to do, we're to confess. So, the solution to the grieved spirit is confession.

27:27 There's a preventative measure too, you know, we have we can avoid sin, not that we'll ever become sinless, but we can avoid sin, but then when we do sin, we confess, right? So... But then the solution for quenching would be obedience, would be yielding, would be yielding to what we know we're supposed to do. There's plenty of there's plenty of examples, there's plenty of instruction in scripture of things that we know that we're ought to do. And so it would be yielding to the the to the spirit.

28:37 Confessed and yielded. Those would, that would be instructions for practical living. Instructions for the successful Christian life. Ways to to to to have the benefits that the spirit has for us. Let's see.

29:03 Anybody want to volunteer for something? It's going from Cleveland to Los Angeles via railway. Tammy gets her ticket, sits down, and there's a female in her car. And she says, boy, she looks really familiar. Right?

29:20 But again, she doesn't really, know, just you know, high and just kind of she's got a book she's reading, she's tending to herself. They, you know, it's a long trip across across the West, so it's time for lunch. And so the the conductor, you know, tells everybody they go to the to the diner car and and as she steps in in the room there, she notices that there's very few people and and it's kind of like she's either going to sit with the person that was in her cart or she could just take a table all by herself. And she chooses to take the table all by herself. She just, she sits sits there and and has her meal, enjoys her meal and goes back.

30:07 And the other person, of course, sat at a table by themself there. So she goes back to her cart or to her seat and looks out the window a little bit, you know, sees an antelope running. And then really, they finally reached her destination. And she noticed that there was quite a group of people that were there at the train station. She's wondering who in the world are they here for, you know, like there's hardly anybody on this train.

30:44 And so she asked the conductor as leaving, it's like, was that? And the conductor says, well that was Angelita Jolene. Yes, it was. So so if we could salvage the illustration. And actually, I think you get the point, right?

31:23 That if the opportunity was there to interact with anybody that you would want to interact, you you you can put the plug the figures in. Thanks for making it fun, Tammy. We've got the Holy Spirit. We've got the Holy Spirit right there with us. We talked about the indwelling.

32:06 And so we're all on this train ride of life, so to speak, right? God has given us everything we need to do His good and perfect will. Putting Himself in the spirit in us is huge, right? It's huge. It is such a resource, such a benefit.

32:30 If we could be confessed, recognize sin, avoid it if all possible, but when it happens, confess it. If we could be yielded, recognize the things that we are to be doing, the positive steps that we are to be doing. You know, Christianity has a balance, doesn't it? Mean, sometimes it gets a bad rap because it's all all the bunch of do's or a bunch of do's and don'ts, do's and don'ts. But there's a balance in do's and don'ts.

32:58 The things that are don'ts are really bad for us. I mean, they they're end result is death. I mean, end result is negative, right? And the dues, the end result is benefit and blessing. So, you know, here's some practical, some practical things, some questions to answer for yourself.

33:20 I mean, we don't want to grieve, we don't want to quench. We don't want to grieve the spirit, we don't want to quench the spirit. We want to be filled with the spirit. And so we might ask ourselves, as we are living life, we might ask ourselves, will this behavior be spiritually profitable to me? That's a good question to ask.

33:44 I mean, we don't want to get into a track like is this right or wrong? A better question might be, will this behavior be spiritually profitable to me? You might... You don't have to turn there now, but just if you're taking notes of first Corinthians six twelve, this principle would be built there. Here's another one, and also in first Corinthians chapter 10, would this behavior be spiritually edifying to me or to others?

34:12 I might ask myself that question. We read in first Thessalonians here, you may be still there. The verse 22 says, abstain from all appearances of evil. Here's a question we could ask. Will this behavior or could this behavior have the have the appearance of evil?

34:34 And I'm asking these questions. I'm evaluating these actions and I am avoiding quenching the spirit. I am avoiding grieving the spirit. Philippians chapter four, some of you are familiar with that verse where it says, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, whatsoever... You know, here's a question, Does this behavior focus on the whatsoever things in that list?

35:07 Right? And so maybe we would consider some of these things just as a practical way to put these things into practice. One other concept that I I'd like to cover here in our our remaining few minutes and that is you know, I said before, I don't understand why god allows us to have influence over this or have why he allows us to affect but we must let the spirit accomplish the work that that he intends to do. We must let him. We we have to be cooperative in that.

36:29 You know, as a parent, they get to that point where it's, no, daddy, I can button it myself, right? And you know, so they're they're buttoning their shirt and it's usually off, you know, it's off one or two or they're they take a really long time, right? I mean, and so because their little fingers are trying to negotiate that buttonhole and everything and usually on Sunday morning, there's not a lot of time to spare, right? I mean, there you're you're running, you're running late, running behind. Now, if the child wants to do it themself, that creates an issue, right?

37:08 If the child is moving around and all fidgety, be, you know, like, that creates an issue. If the child is saying, I don't want to wear this shirt. That creates another issue, right? But if the child is there and you're down there with the child and you're just you're, the child is ready and cooperative, you can button those buttons, you know how to do it well. You've done it millions of times.

37:40 Have you done it? You probably have done it by this point in your life, millions of time, button, have... So you can do it. I think about that in the sense of like, are we being cooperative with the Holy Spirit? He wants all of us.

37:58 We've got to give it to him. We can resist. The same way that little child resists, we can resist. We want to do it ourselves. We want to try it.

38:12 We want a different color. We are too fidgety. We can't. But if we'll let the spirit help us, we'll let the spirit do its work, then the result will be good. We've had that motto.

38:33 I think I'll leave you with that motto. Confess and yield. Keep studying about the spirit and and I I hope maybe, you know, we took a poll last night then and we asked do you know the most about god the father, god the son, or god the holy spirit? And most people is probably a 95% of the people said, we know the most about god, the son, Jesus Christ and that's great But do you see how much there is to know about God the Holy Spirit? And do you see how integral God the Holy Spirit is in our everyday life and walk?

39:13 And do you see the resource that God the Holy Spirit is to us in living our Christian life? And so if we can enter into those benefits, remain confessed, remain yielded, and let God have his perfect work in us, then I think we, you know, we'll all be happy about that. We'll all be be be glad about that about that fact. Let's close in prayer. Our heavenly father, we we do stand back and and we're amazed.

39:46 We we still we can well, we sang this morning, if every stalk on earth were a quill and every man, every person ascribed by trade, We couldn't describe the depths of your love. And we find that true in the same way we can't describe your love, we can't describe your power. It's so great, so far beyond our comprehension. We can't really wrap our minds around the attributes of god and they're they're so vast. But we are we're thankful that you love us.

40:31 Father, we we sense your your love and the fact that you you you desire relationship with us. We you see we see you proved your love in sending your own son to die for us. And we we do enter in. We we can make a connection with what it means to grieve the Holy Spirit because of the love. We can enter into the fact that a parent would desire and want the best for their child.

41:06 They're wanting to give the best to their child, and in the same way, you desire and want the best for us. So, father, help us to realize that. We're we're so thankful for the for the resources we have, the things that you've given us. We would say that every need has been adequately dealt with in a way that we can have the resources to be successful in a Christian walk. So Father, help us, give us further understanding in these things, and may we be a people that are confessed and yielded to thee.

41:44 We pray this in Jesus Christ's name. Amen.