Sins against the Holy Spirit

Hey everyone!

Tonight, I am speaking in Orange County, California, with the next message in my series Essentials: What Every Christian Needs to Know. The title of my message is “The Holy Spirit and You.”

If you are in the O.C. tonight, please come and join us for fantastic worship from the Harvest Praise Band and a message from God’s Word.

Understanding the Holy Spirit

I think it is really important for us to better understand the person of the Holy Spirit.

Sometimes people think of the Holy Spirit as more of an “It” than a “Him.” But according to Scripture, the Holy Spirit  is not only God, but He has a will, a personality, and can even be offended!

Sins against the Holy Spirit

There are six specific sins that can be committed against the Holy Spirt. Today, allow me to focus on one that can be committed by believers.

Grieving the Holy Spirit

One of the places in Scripture where we read about grieving the Holy Spirit is in Ephesians 4:29-32. The apostle Paul writes:

Don’t use foul or abusive language. Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them. And do not grieve God’s Holy Spirit by the way you live. Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, and slander, as well as all types of malicious behavior. Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you.

To “grieve” means to make sad or sorrowful. It means to cause sorrow, pain, or distress.

But what makes the Holy Spirit sad or sorrowful?

1. Foul and abusive language makes the Holy Spirit sad.

Verse 29 says, “Don’t use foul or abusive language.” The word used here speaks of something that has gone “rotten.” This includes obscene Language, profanity, dirty stories, vulgarity, double entendres, etc.

When did it become “cool” for preachers to speak this way from a pulpit? This is thought of as being “real” and “authentic.”

Guess what? You are not to speak this way, privately or publicly.

How about being “authentically godly”?

2. Bitterness makes the Holy Spirit sad and sorrowful.

The definition of “bitterness” is “an embittered and resentful spirit that refuses to be reconciled.”

Some people just “like” to be mad. They live for conflict, arguing, and fighting. This, as with all sin, only gets worse if left unchecked and unrepented of.

The sad thing is that bitter people rarely want to keep it to themselves. Instead, they spread it around. The Bible speaks of “a root of bitterness defiling many” (see Hebrews 12:15).

I have a better idea–forgive!

More on this tomorrow.