Our Personal Relationship With God Part 2
Do Not Grieve The Holy Spirit Of God
Scripture: Ephesians 4:30; James 1:21; John 7:3-5
Introduction
Last week I started this sermon series that is focused on how we can build a better, more fulfilling personal relationship with our Heavenly Father. I shared with you that the first step is to understand that we are not alone. When we became a child of Father’s, He implanted within us His Holy Spirit who is with us everywhere we go. His Holy Spirit loves us so much that He wants to be a part of everything we do and everything we become. I also shared with you our foundational scripture that is found in Ephesians 4:30 which says “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.” This scripture when understood correctly helps us to focus on the fact that the Holy Spirit is always with us and by our actions we can cause Him to grieve. This grieving comes from His understanding of what Father would have us to do and become and having to see us choose to do otherwise. In last week’s message I gave you some examples of things that we do that grieve the Holy Spirit. This week I want you to take a closer look at our attitude(s).
Attitude is defined as “a bodily posture showing mood, action, etc; a manner of showing one’s feelings or thoughts; one disposition.” Although some people classify everyone with just one attitude “good or bad”, in reality each of us have several attitudes that we display depending on the circumstances we are in. We can have what I call a “core attitude” that is like our foundational attitude for responding to situations, but we have many attitudes in general. An example of a core attitude could be someone being describes as optimistic or pessimistic. Again, this core attitude has an impact on the other attitudes that we display throughout our lives in every situation we encounter. Regardless of the core attitude that we have adopted as our own, when we yield ourselves to the Spirit of God, we may be faced with a crucial decision of change. Remember, the Holy Spirit knows our thoughts, even the bad ones that we never speak. He knows that the “real” us would like to respond one way to a situation although what we show everyone else is the opposite. Because He is so intimate with us, our true attitudes can grieve Him. So this morning as part 2 of this series, I want us to look at our attitudes and determine “if” they need to be adjusted.
The Scripture we are going to look at this morning is James 1:21.
I. Bad Attitudes Affects Those Around You
“Therefore putting aside all filthiness and all that remain of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your soul.”
James 1:21
James said that we should put aside all filthiness and what remains of wickedness and receive with humility the word of God which when implanted will save our souls. I want you to concentrate on the “putting aside” part of this verse. James understood what it meant to put aside “bad attitudes” and receive the word of God with humility. This James was the brother of Jesus and a leader of the Jerusalem council (Acts 15), not the Apostle James. It is believed that he was the oldest of Jesus brothers based on Matthew 13:55. At first James did not believe that Jesus, his brother, was the Messiah and even challenged Him concerning His mission. Look at John 7:3-5.
“Therefore His brothers said to Him, ‘Leave here and go into Judea, so that your disciples also may see Your works which You are doing. For no one does anything in secret when he himself seeks to be known publicly. If you do these things, show Yourself to the world. For not even His brothers were believing in Him.” John 7:3-5
James initially did not believe in His brother. Based on Scriptures in the books of Acts and Corinthians, Jesus appeared to James after His resurrection and this caused James conversion. He joined the Apostles after He saw Jesus. His conversion was sure, as Paul referred to him as a “pillar” of the Church in Galatians 2:9. Paul would visit James when he had the opportunity and when Peter was released from prison, he told his friends to tell James of his release (Acts 12:17). Although James started out as a non-believer, once he was converted, he became a prominent leader in the Church winning the respect of the Apostles and other disciples.
I shared this history of James so that you can better appreciate what he is saying to us in verse 21. James was telling us to change our attitude as he had to change his attitude. When he speaks of humility, he is speaking from experience, what he went through when he finally accepted that his brother was the Messiah. Remember, it wasn’t until after Jesus died and rose again did James accept Him. And just so you understand the full extent of his conversion, he was martyred for his belief. So when we read the book of James, we can identify with him because he was speaking to us as one who has experienced first hand what he was trying to tell us to do.
Back to James 1:21. When you look at the word filthiness, the Greek word is raparian. It describes filth that is so bad that it affects everyone who comes into contact with it. Vile is also a word that can describe the filthiness that James is speaking of. This Greek word describes a man whose body and clothes are so encrusted with filth that he emits a disgusting odor that affects everyone who comes near him. In Junior High and High School where I grew up, there were a couple of kids who had nicknames because of the way they smelled. You can also get an idea of this when you think of the Peanuts character “Pigpen”. He always has a cloud of dirt around him. This is what James is referring to, that our attitudes can be so bad that they stink and offend everyone around us, just like a bodily odor. When a believer, a child of Father, is being negative, uncooperative, and cynical, etc, it stinks. Although all of us go through times when we feel this way and actually act this way, this attitude should not become a core attitude shaping who we are and how we respond to situations.
Our lives begin to change when we become Christians. We experience the grace of God, His power in our lives and His over shadowing love that embraces us. We are cleansed of our sins and made white as snow. But with our attitudes, sometimes we tend to keep them, even though we are saved. A mental picture for you would be to be outside working in your yard. You get totally dirty and smelly to the point that no one wants to be in your presence. You go upstairs and take a shower and get all nice and clean. You put on your cologne and your body now smells great. From an attitudinal stand point, after taking a shower and getting all nice and clean, you put back on the same smelly clothes that you just took off. Although no one in this room would do that in the natural, we do this in the spiritual when it comes to our attitudes. Although we do not mean to offend and to us we are operating in a comfort zone, our attitudes can pull people to us or push them away just like a body odor. What should we do with these nasty smelling attitudes once we become clean?
II. Getting Rid of Bad Attitudes
“Therefore putting aside all filthiness and all that remain of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your soul.”
James 1:21
I want you to focus on the words “putting aside”. They come from Greek words that mean away and to place or lay something down. When used together it gives the idea of putting something down and pushing it far away, out of reach. The attitudes that we have that do not line up with Father should be put down and pushed away from us. You can picture this when eating a meal. To keep from overeating, after you are full or satisfied, you literally put the fork down and push the plate away from you. This is what James is talking about. Put the bad attitudes down and push them away from you. In pushing them away from you, you put them out of reach of your hand – so that you cannot just reach back over and pick them back up.
Another meaning in the New Testament for the Greek word describes someone who takes their dirty clothes off at the end of the day. What is important to understand is that your dirty clothes do not come off by themselves – you must do something. When we get home and we know that we are dirty and smelly, we do not go into our rooms and stand in the middle of the floor waiting for our clothes to come off automatically. No, we have to take action to make it happen. Whether we are unbuttoning or unzipping or just pulling off, there is something that is required of us in order to get the dirty clothes off. Once we get the clothes off, we do not just stand around naked waiting for our bodies to all of a sudden become clean. No, we have to do something more. We have to get in the shower with some soap and water and wash in order to get the filth off. This also applies spiritually.
With our attitudes, we must take actions to get rid of the ones that hinder us spiritually. We cannot just pray that it happens; we must do something to make it happen. Often this requires just making different choices and sometimes it will require that we actually stop doing something that is very comfortable for us. What we must realize is that just because we are saved and filled with Father’s Spirit, it does not wipe clean our old attitudes. Those must be dealt with by us individually with the help of the Holy Spirit.
Conclusion
I do not know where you are with your understanding and willingness to deal with your attitude. But for me, I had to take a long look in the mirror. I tried to see what others saw to imagine the impact I was having on them. What I saw was not very pretty. When I think about that and factor in how my attitudes grieved the Holy Spirit of Father, I had a desire to make a change. It does not happen overnight, it can take weeks, months and for some attitudes, years. The first step is to acknowledge that you have some attitudes that are not pleasing to Father and you become willing to change. The next step is to start making different choices about how you will respond the situations in your life. Finally you make the decision to not give up and go back to the way you were.
I will end with another translation of James 1:21:
“You must make the choice to remove those filthy, stinking garments from your life, to permanently lay them down and then deliberately push them out of range forever……”
May God bless and keep you is my prayer.
(Resources: NAS Bible and “Sparkling Gems From The Greek” by R. Renner)
