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📝 Transcript of “Nick’s Sermon”

I’m just processing what Mike said, that it’s sad the notices are finished because Nick’s coming to speak. [laughter]

Uh, yeah, buckle up. Um, we are on a, we’re still on the “Life in the Spirit” series, and Jonathan spoke last week about the, uh, about being filled with the Spirit and being continually filled with the Spirit. And there was a great response and people came forward, and people were touched and blessed by the Holy Spirit. And so it falls to me this morning to pick up the subject of grieving and quenching the Spirit.

And, uh, yeah, we’ve got to, we’ve got to take things from all angles, haven’t we? And my, my main passage that I want us to look at this morning is in Ephesians chapter 4.

When I say passage, it’s a verse, actually. It’s Ephesians chapter 4, verse 30. And it says this: “And do not bring sorrow to God’s Holy Spirit by the way you live.”

“Remember, he has identified you as his own, guaranteeing that you will be saved on the day of redemption.”

“Do not bring sorrow to God’s Holy Spirit by the way you live. Remember he has identified you as his own, guaranteeing that you will be saved on the day of redemption.” And I want to slightly misquote Spider-Man by saying, “With great blessing comes great responsibility.”

It’s essential that we are hungry for God’s Spirit. It’s essential, as Jonathan was saying last week, that we are continually asking him for more. And so much of what we expect is, is positive. We don’t even think sometimes of the angle where God might be, might have a, have a view on how we, how we are living, or how we are thinking, or, or how we are dealing with him, because it’s always blessing. The prophetic words are always, “I love you,” says the Lord. Everything is so positive. And it’s right, it’s good that we get encouraged by things, but we have to remember the responsibility that comes on the other side of how we deal with the Holy Spirit of God.

It’s essential that we, we reach out to him for the times of refreshing that come from the presence of the Lord. Acts 3:20 it says, but just as we’re eager to receive everything good from him, we must be eager to make sure that we don’t live in a way that in any way offends him or grieves him or brings him displeasure. We don’t want God to withdraw from us. Because the frightening thing is that we can continue in all that we do. You know, the way that we gather on a Sunday, and the way that we sing, and the way that we interact, and the way that we listen to the Word, we can do all of that without actually having the presence of the Spirit with us.

And sometimes we, we might not even be aware if he’s withdrawn himself.

And so we have to be really alert and to wait on the Lord as the Word says. Now, what do you think of when it, when we talk about waiting on God? Sometimes it can be a quite a passive approach, and we sit back and we fold our arms, we say, “Well, I’m waiting for you, Lord. Waiting here. Waiting here for you. Let’s see what you’re going to do. Let’s see what you’ve got.” You know, and then we, we wait and we think, “Well, where is God? Where has he gone? You know, what, what’s happening? Why doesn’t there seem to be anything happening?” And we have this sort of passive approach to waiting.

But there is another verb to wait: to be a waiter, if you like, like in a restaurant or in a hotel. We begin to see our relationship with God differently. When I was in Nepal, I stayed in a hotel, um, which was actually, it was quite cheap compared to hotels that you can stay in around the world. But what stood out in that place was the attitude and the approach of the people that worked there. Every time I stepped out of my room into the lobby, there was somebody that said, “Are you all right, sir? Can I help you with anything, sir? Is there anything I could do for you?” Any question that I had, they could answer.

Apart from, um, why I was having curry for breakfast, they didn’t answer that one, but they, they, [laughter] they were really there to serve me. They were like, there was, there was like a real genuine interest in my welfare, what did I want? And they were able to anticipate in advance what I wanted. In Zambia, um, there’s a ministry of being an usher.

You know, we have welcome people here at the door, and it’s all very British, you know, we shake hands, we give a hug, “How are you doing?” whatever, and that’s, and that’s it, and then we go and we find our seat. But in Zambia, there’s a real ushing ministry where people will actually attend to your every need, not just pastors and, and, and bigwigs, but, but everybody. I’ve been in situations where I’ve, I’ve had, I’ve had no idea that people have been aware, but I’ve, like I had a headache, and maybe I was showing it, maybe I was like grimacing or whatever, and somebody would turn up with, “Here’s the paracetamol for you.” And like, you know, there’s just that, that awareness and that concern to, to be able to meet the needs that you have.

And I think there’s something in waiting on God that is that, that is very active, not, not passive, not sitting back with their arms folded waiting for him, but actually thinking, “What does he want from me? How does he want me to live? How does he want me to approach this situation? How does he want me to think here? How does he want me to act? How does he want me, what does he want my attitude to be? Lord, how can I bless you with my attitude, with my approach to life?”

Being aware of him, considering what he wants, considering what he needs. Don’t ever take him for granted. We’re very British, aren’t we? Where you think, oh, well, you know, we, we, we step back and we, and we become very, like I said earlier on, we become very passive and very, uh, non, non-engaged. But in actual fact, God wants us engaged with him and to live and to act and to speak and to deal with him and relate to him in a way that, that not only satisfies him so he can tick a box, but actually brings pleasure to him, rather than grief.

And it affects the way we seek and respond to him every day. It’s what it means to actually love God, to take care of how we live, not because we’re afraid of him, not because we’re afraid of punishment, but because of how much he’s done for us, because of how much he has achieved in our lives.

Not taking an attitude that says, “Well, I wonder how much I can get away with.” You know, I think, um, it’s uh, it’s interesting, I’m not, not getting party political, but you know, it’s interesting seeing the government sort of jumping through hoops saying, “How can we put up taxes without putting up taxes?” And, you know, “How can we, how can we say we’re not going to put up income tax, but really we’re going to put it up, you know, here?” And it’s like, and then if we, if we spin it this way, everybody will believe us. And it’s like, and it’s that we can be like that with God. “How can we, how can we just get away with stuff? How can we, how can we, we, we live how we want to do, but still do it in a way that appears to be pleasing God?”

Yeah, not “how can I get away with it?” but “how can I please him?” We have the opportunity to make God smile. We have the opportunity to bring pleasure to the heart of God. We talk about Christianity is not being a religion, but it’s a relationship with God.

A relationship is about interaction. A relationship is about bringing pleasure. A relationship is about smiling. A relationship is about laughing. A relationship is about interacting and talking and communicating and all of that. How much of that is a feature and a hallmark of our relationship with God, and how much of it is just going through the motions?

And it’s that relationship that brings pleasure to the heart of God, and it’s that absence of that relationship that brings him grief. Because the reason that he did what he did, when you think of what Jesus went through, and how he suffered, and how he died, the reason that he went to that extent was because he loves us, and because he wants a relationship with us, and because he wants that fellowship with us, and because he wants that interaction, and because he wants to know us, not because he wants us to just sit back and try and keep our nose clean and, and hope to get to heaven at the end of it all. That’s, that’s a poor reflection of the quality of the relationship that God has called us to. And so the question that we ask when it comes to, uh, not grieving and not quenching the Holy Spirit is, “How can I actually make the most of my privileged relationship with him? How can I make the most of what God has made possible for me in my life?” And if we don’t do that, then we can bring grief to the heart of God, and we can bring grief to the Holy Spirit.

It’s really important that we engage. Like we said before, in so many areas in life, there’s no neutral ground. We have to actually ask ourselves, “How do we go as far as we possibly can in that relationship with him?”

Because, as I’ve said before, a Christian life can go on perfectly well in form and function without the Holy Spirit, and without any sense of knowing what it takes to please him. He can withdraw from us and we might not even know. When we take time to ask the question, “Is God here?” You know, that, that picture of God as, as a dove, the Holy Spirit as a dove settling on his people, and how easy it is for a dove to flutter away and for us not to be aware.

Last week, I saw a video on YouTube. I don’t know if you follow this guy. Well, not follow him because he’s not really a very positive person to follow, but there’s a guy called Professor Richard Dawkins who’s an atheist, who’s a, like a really, uh, what’s the word, like a militant atheist. He really, his atheism is his evangelism. He really wants to make sure that people don’t believe in God.

And uh, he had a friend or has a friend who was a colleague of his in his atheism, a lady called Ayaan Hirsi Ali, and she uh, has actually recently become a Christian. [congregation murmurs, someone says “Hallelujah”]

And uh, and so the two of them are having a debate and a conversation on YouTube. It’s really interesting if you look it up. And uh, and you know, and he was saying, “You know, surely you don’t believe in Jesus rose from the dead.”

And uh, she was saying, “Well, I choose to believe that. Yes, I do believe that.” And uh, and he was saying, “You know, the problem with Christianity is…” (He knows everything about everything. He’s a professor.) “The problem with Christianity is, it’s obsessed with sin.”

And she said, “Well, you might say that,” she said, “but I prefer to see that it’s obsessed with love.”

And as I thought about that, and I listened to, I thought, actually, it’s not just like The Beatles, you know, “All you need is love.” It’s all very, it’s all love, love, love, love is all you need.

But what she’s saying is that, yes, there, there’s sin, but Jesus has done away with sin. Jesus has done away with its power, and he’s opened the doors of heaven to all who will believe. And the Holy Spirit, who used to be hidden away in the temple behind a big curtain, now lives in the hearts of men and women.

And so there’s that opportunity that we have. And so when he says it’s obsessed with sin, actually, no. Sin was there, sin was the barrier, sin was the, was the issue, sin was the thing that kept us from God, but now sin, the power of sin, is broken. Broken by the cross of Jesus. That’s why Jesus, when he hung on the cross, in all that pain and all that agony, the last thing he said was to cry, “It is finished!” It’s finished. Sin is finished. So, Christianity is not obsessed with sin. Christianity breaks the power of sin. Christianity opens the door to life. Christianity opens the possibility of life.

And sometimes it’s not Christianity or or Jesus that’s obsessed with sin, it’s Christians that are obsessed with sin. We are obsessed with, you know, I’m not saying sin is not important, but sin is dealt with. Sin can be put aside. In the, in the second, the second verse after the one I read, it says, “Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, and slander, as well as all types of evil behavior. Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven ¹you.” What’s he saying there? Is get rid of it. Just put it aside. Just don’t live in that anymore. Why? Because we have the power to walk away from that because Jesus has declared, “It is finished!” And so there is no obsession with sin. There should be an obsession with love, with life, and with hope.

And so the question is not, “Are we good enough for heaven?” I remember somebody, years and years and years ago, in one of the first services I was ever involved in, and one of the preachers was doing this interactive thing, and he was asking people, you know, “Are you, are you confident of your future, of your eternal future?” And one of these chaps called, uh, George, he said, “Well, I, I jolly well hope so.”

“I hope to, I hope to, I hope that everything will be all right in the end.”

He said, “You, you’ve missed it.” He was very bold preacher. “You’ve missed the point. You’ve missed the point that God has given you that opportunity for life.”

And the question is, “How are we responding?” Our response to it, this is what gets back to our subject of grieving and quenching the Holy Spirit, our response to his grace, our response to his power, our response to his gospel and the open door that he’s given us into his presence is the key to whether we bring pleasure to the heart of God or we bring grief.

Our sin is not so much the issue. Grieving and quenching the Spirit is not so much about bad things that we do. We’ve got this whole list of, like the, gets dangerously close to Father Christmas, doesn’t it? And the naughty and nice list. We’ve got a, a naughty list. “Well, you’ve got all of this stuff and all of these things against you, and uh, and these things have grieved the Holy Spirit.” Well, in actual fact, it’s not about the bad things that we do, but much more about the good things that we don’t do and the opportunities for life that we don’t step into. Because where there is sin, there is a solution. If we sin, we should confess our sin, and he’s faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. That’s the key. If you sin, confess it. Get rid of it. Put it aside. Put it away. And don’t live in that anymore. Jesus said to the woman caught in adultery, “Go and sin no more.” That was the, that was the prescription. It wasn’t, “Now you need to go through this, and you need to go through these hoops and, and pay for this, pay this penalty,” or whatever. He just said, “Go, and sin no more. According to the law, you should have been stoned, but now there’s a new covenant in action. Go and sin no more. Be free.”

And so we confess our sins, knowing he’s faithful and just to, to, to forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And so there’s everything that can be done about sin. If there’s sin in your life today, put it aside. Repent of it. Get it out. Walk away from it. The power is there for you to do that. That’s the opportunity that we have.

But the harder thing to deal with is our unwillingness to enter into all that God has for us. Remember, somebody bringing a prophetic word saying, God saying, “I can, I can deal with your sin, I have no problem with that. I can deal with that because the, the, the cross is there, but what I can’t deal with is your unbelief. What I can’t deal with is your unwillingness to trust me. What I can’t deal with are the things that are now still in your hands to do. I’ve dealt with your sin. What about your faith? What about your life?”

And it’s our response to God that impacts his heart, that brings him pleasure or grief. That when we stand before him, will it be the list that he’s got? I saw a funny meme the other day of somebody of the, these people sat looking miserable on the steps and they said, “We’re just waiting for Jesus to go through our WhatsApp feed before he lets us in.” [laughter]

You know, we think, is, is it our WhatsApp feed that’s going to condemn us? Is it our, is it our internet search history? Is it whatever? All of those things. All those things, if they are things that are wrong, deal with it. Deal with it by the power of the, of the, of the cross.

But it’s not primarily those things that God’s interested in because he has dealt with sin. He hasn’t brought us to a point where we need to bring one sacrifice after another in order to bring ourselves to righteousness. There is one sacrifice that stands for all, for all time, and now the, the new and living way has been opened up into his presence. So that’s the, that’s the thing. Now the question is, what are we going to do with that?

The things we have to take care of. Number one: Faith. Hebrews 11:6 says, “Without faith, it’s impossible to please God.” Impossible. Think about that. Let that sink in. There is a difference between labeling ourselves as a Christian and living a life of faith. Without faith, it’s impossible to please God. You can do all sorts of stuff to try and please God. You can, you can give wonderful offerings, you can pray wonderful prayers, you can, you can, you can help old people across the road. You can do anything, but without faith, it’s impossible to please him.

I’ve been amazed recently looking back over life. I don’t know if, it’s not like life flashing before me, I don’t take it too seriously. But, you know, looking back over so many years, looking over the faithfulness of God. And we sing those songs, “All my life, you have been faithful. All my life, you have been so, so good.”

Used to sing when I was young, when I was very young, a young Christian, they used to sing that Ishmael song, “Father God, I wonder how I managed to exist without the knowledge of your parenthood.” And I used to think, I don’t know what that means, really. You know, it’s like, yeah, because I, because I had no experience. Now, I can say, yeah, I do wonder how I managed to exist without the knowledge of your parenthood and your loving care.

But seeing stuff, seeing the faithfulness of God doesn’t equal faith. Even when we are faithless, God is faithful. And so sometimes seeing the faithfulness of God over so many years and so many miracles of kindness and love and grace and provision, brings me a little bit of regret because I know that I didn’t have anything like the faith that he’s worthy of. But he still did it.

And I’m still worrying about things now that God proved to me that he could take care of 25 years ago. There are things like the, you know, he feeds the 5,000, and then the next day, they meet another crowd, and they say, “Where are we going to feed, where are we going to get the food to feed these people from?” It’s like, it just goes from one thing to another. And I am aware that I, God has been so faithful to me over so many years, and yet some of the basic lessons of faith I still struggle with. And I’m sure you’re in the same boat there as I expose myself here and, uh, my lack of faith. Because we struggle with faith. But it’s faith that brings pleasure to the heart of God. Without faith, it’s impossible to please God. Without faith that says, “Actually, I believe you, God.” Not, “I believe you, but I understand the realities,” or, “I believe you, God, but, you know, there’s this and that problem to take into consideration.” “I believe you, Lord. I believe you.” Not necessarily for a particular outcome, because that, that sort of pins everything on. But we just believe God. Believe God in what he’s able to do. Believe God that he will see us through. Believe God that we will not, we will not crash and burn. Believe God that he will do what he says he will do, and we will accomplish what he says he will accomplish. Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see, and that attitude pleases God. And the opposite grieves him. Unbelief grieves him. When we don’t actually trust him, when we don’t put out, when we don’t try to put our faith and our, our confidence in him, then that grieves his heart and it grieves his Spirit.

Secondly: Love. “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” John 13:35. “Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.” It’s so easy to bypass things that are actually so close to the Father’s heart, to justify discord, hatred, and division in the name of Jesus. We feel if we’re doctrinally correct, nothing else matters, does it? If we’ve, if we’ve got the absolute truth, then everybody else can just do one! Because we are God’s soldiers, and we’ve got his, we’ve got his truth. And it doesn’t really, and yet, meanwhile, God is saying, “Love one another.” It’s more important to love one another than to win an argument. That’s really tough, because we love to win arguments.

Believing we are God’s favored ones. Everybody else is numpties, but we are God’s favored ones. Just like his disciples. You know, these people, they’re all pre- He said, “Well, if they’re not, if they’re not against us, then they’re for us.”

Fight for love, fight for unity, value one another even more than we value ourselves. And you know what? That brings pleasure to the heart of God. Where there is unity, God commands a blessing. Where there is disunity, the opposite must be true. It grieves the heart of God. It pains his heart. He suffers with it because when his people are divided, when his people don’t love one another, when his people don’t care for one another, when his people don’t value one another, when they don’t see that he loves each and every one, the person that you are at odds with, he loves as much as he loves you, because he made, he made them in his image as much as he made you in his image.

Love brings pleasure to the heart of God, and division and disunity grieves the Holy Spirit.

Obedience. In 1 Samuel, King Saul was given the task of completely destroying the Amalekites. This is where our sort of ancient biblical history and modern day sort of cross over, and we think, “Oh, these, all these, uh, you know, battles and fights are fairly gruesome.” But King Saul was given the task of completely destroying the Amalekites. He was told to destroy them and everything that they owned. All the cattle, the sheep, everything had to be gone. And so he said, “I’ll do it,” and he went.

Except, they, he kept the best sheep, and he kept the best goats, and he kept the best cattle. And the Bible says they only destroyed that which didn’t have any value, didn’t have any worth. And when the prophet Samuel, who’d been told by the Lord what, what Saul had actually done, went to find him the next day, he was told that Saul was out building a monument to himself because of all that he’d achieved in the name of the Lord. And he’d, he’d destroyed the Amalekites. So he built this monument. And when Samuel turned up to challenge him, Saul had no idea that he, what was about to happen. And he went out, he said, “The Lord bless you, Samuel. We’ve carried out everything. We’ve done everything that the Lord commanded us to do. I’ve carried out the Lord’s command.” And then there’s a some of the most devastating words in the Bible, I find it really challenging and convicting. Samuel said to him, “Then what is this bleating of sheep that I hear?”

And Saul says, “Oh, oh, yeah, yeah. Well, we did keep the best of the animals, but we’re going to offer them to the Lord as a sacrifice. Don’t worry, everything’s good.” He’s made up his own theology. Where God said, “Destroy everything, get rid of everything, I don’t want everything, be obedient to me.” He said, “Actually, well, I know what we’ll do. We’ll take some of them and we’ll make you an offering. You’ll like that.”

And then Samuel delivered this devastating judgment. He said to him, “To obey is better than sacrifice, and submission is better than the fat of rams. Because you have rejected the command of the Lord, he has rejected you as king.”

So self-confidence in ourselves is not enough. We have to be attentive to exactly what God wants of us if we’re going to avoid grieving him. Saul was rejected as king because he didn’t have an interest in being obedient to the heart of God. He only had an interest in doing his thing. And yet he dressed it all up. “We’re going to make sacrifices. We’ve done the, we’ve done everything the Lord said.” And we might have thought, “Yeah, good man.”

But the Holy Spirit was not pleased.

Thankfulness. “Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” 1 Thessalonians 5:18. “And he who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me.” Psalm 50:23. Some of them, these things are so simple, and yet so hard.

A grateful heart pleases God. An ungrateful heart grieves the heart of God.

Gratitude and compassion bring him pleasure. It’s so easy to accept the grace of God and never think to say, “Thank you.” Like the ten lepers that were all healed and only one of them went back to say, “Thank you.” There is power in gratitude. Not only power in gratitude, but it, it opens the door to our relationship with God. That’s the thing that makes him smile. That’s the, that’s the thing that he loves when we actually look at our lives, and instead of complaining, instead of moaning on about it, we actually say, “Actually, Lord, I thank you. I thank you for what the life you’ve given me. I thank you for the breath that I take. I thank you for the way that you’ve cared for me. I thank you, Lord, and I praise you.”

And that brings him pleasure.

Perseverance in faith. “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest.” Galatians 6:9. “Well done, good and faithful servant.” Matthew 25:21.

Much of our blessing in the future tracks back to our attitude here today, in what we and how we look at things. When God says, “Well done, good and faithful servant,” at the end of all things, it is at the end of all things. It’s after we’ve gone through everything. It’s not that first time we run up to the front of the church with our arms in the air and tears running down our face, and we say, “I love you, Jesus,” and he says, “Well done.” He says, “Well done,” after you’ve been through all the ups and downs, all the challenges, all the issues, all the stress, all the things that would try and attack your faith and undermine your faith, all the things that you’ve had to fight through and battle through. At the end of all that comes the “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

How are we going to respond? Jesus told Peter about all that he was going to suffer, and how he was going to die, and he was, uh, he didn’t say he would save him from it. But one thing he said is, “I have prayed for you, Peter, that your faith won’t fail.” Faith is the one commodity we can take with us from this life. Nothing else will make that journey with us. “I have prayed for you, Peter, that your faith won’t fail.” What a prayer, what a powerful prayer for Jesus to, to be by the side of the Father saying, “I pray for Peter. I pray for MCF. I pray for those people that their faith will not fail.” That we, that through our perseverance in faith, we will bring pleasure to the heart of God.

One of the things that afflicts the church the world over, and we’ve come across it in Zambia, is a sort of a twisted sort of prosperity gospel. We know God wants to bless his people, but there’s this sort of prosperity that says, you know, “If you’ve got, if you’ve got a car, if you’ve got a big house, if you eat meat every day, you know, you are truly blessed of God.” And uh, and I remember one of the bold preachers there saying, you know, “When, when Jesus is praying for us, he’s praying that our faith won’t fail. He’s not praying for a new Mercedes.” He’s not praying that you’ll get everything that you’ve ever dreamed of. He’s not Father Christmas, as I said earlier on. But he is praying that through it all, through everything that you walk through, your faith will not fail.

1 Peter 1:6-7: “So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you must endure trials for a little while. These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold. Though your faith is far more precious than mere gold, so when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to² the world.”

And so this life of bringing pleasure to the heart of God, not grieving, not, not, not stressing the Spirit, if you like, is, is all about how we live, about what we do with the wonderful gift that’s been given to us, the opportunity that we have, the possibility to grow in faith, the possibility to be thankful, the possibility to persevere, the possibility to love one another against all the odds. All of those things are the things that when God looks on his people, they cause him to smile. Not just that people have ticked and said, “Yes, I believe in Jesus, so I’m going, I’ve got my ticket to heaven,” but it’s about how we live our life in the here and now and in the in-between.

And so the question is, where do we stand today? Are we resting on the fact that we wear a Christian badge, or are we active in seeking a life that pleases God?