HOW TO MAKE THE HOLY SPIRIT HAPPY
Ephesians, Part 8
Eph 4:17-30
We’re in a series on the book of Ephesians.
If you have your bibles turn to Eph chapter 4.
I titled this message HOW TO MAKE THE HOLY SPIRIT HAPPY,
The reason is verse 30,
it says,
And do not bring sorrow to God’s Holy Spirit by the way you live.
Other versions translate it, do not grieve the Holy Spirit.
We can make the Holy Spirit unhappy,
we can grieve him,
by the way we live.
And if that’s true,
then it also has to be true that we can make the Holy Spirit happy
by the way we live.
You can go home from church today
and live in such a way,
that you will make God’s day,
you’ll make him happy.
He’ll be sitting there watching you with a big old smile on his face,
because of the way you live.
Now how can you live like that?
The apostle Paul wrote this letter to the Christians in Ephesus,
and he tells them in this chapter,
some very practical ways
to start living so that they will make the Holy Spirit happy.
So we’re going to look at those today.
When I was being trained as a Navy pilot, about 20 years ago, one of the schools you had to go through was a Survival school,
which trained you to survive in case you got shot down behind enemy lines.
At the end of the classroom portion,
they transported us out into the California desert for 3 days, and the only thing we could bring along was the clothes on our back. We were living off the land,
eating roots, and cactus.
In fact the best meal I got was when we caught a rattlesnake and a rabbit, we added a bunch of roots, and we made a stew out of that, but since we had near 100 guys out there, we didn’t get much of that stew,
so we were pretty hungry,
but we were also filthy dirty.
After 3 days in the wilderness, living and sleeping in the same clothes
with no water to wash in,
you can imagine how dirty we got.
in case you can’t imagine….. (SHOW PIC)
Think of a time when you looked like that.
When you were really, really dirty,
and you just could not wait
to throw off those clothes and jump in the shower,
and soak for a while,
and then put on some nice clean clothes.
Well that’s the image Paul uses in this chapter.
Its like he’s telling you to take off your old grimy, smelly clothes
that you’ve been wearing way too long,
and get a shower and then put on sparkling clean clothes.
In Verses 22-24
Paul tells us to do 3 things,
Paul tells us in verse 22 to take off, or put off, our old self,
that’s like taking off old clothes
verse 23 he says our minds have to be renewed,
that’s like getting a shower,
and in verse 24 he tells us,
then put on our new self.
that’s like putting on new clothes.
Talking about clothes,
I was talking with Pastor Chris last week,
and he told me how he can get away with packing a lot less clothes when he goes on a trip.
He told me, I’ve found a way to pack only one-fourth as much underwear as I used to. I can make the underwear last 4 times as long.
I asked him, how do you do that?
How do you make your underwear last 4 times as long.
He said, Oh, its easy.
Right side out, wrong side out,
frontwards, backwards
Paul says, first,
1. PUT OFF YOUR OLD SELF.
Eph 4:22-24 NIV
put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires;
NLT
throw off your old evil nature and your former way of life
This is like taking off those dirty smelly clothes.
Every time we do a baptism here at the Vineyard,
I read from Romans chapter 6,
because it describes what baptism is all about.
But these verses also talk about our old self.
In Rom. 6:5 it says,
Since we have been united with him in his death, we will also be raised as he was. Our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. NLT
When you became a believer,
its like your old self (or your old way of living)
died with Christ,
so that sin doesn’t have any power over you now,
you’re no longer a slave to it.
The reason that you can take off that old self, that old way of life,
is because when you become a believer,
that old self dies,
and doesn’t have any power over you anymore.
You’re freed from it.
There’s a picture of this in the Bible.
Remember the story of Lazarus?
Lazarus was a friend of Jesus He dies while Jesus is out traveling around,
and by the time Jesus gets back to town,
Lazarus has already been buried for 4 days.
So Jesus says,
roll the stone away from the tomb,
he shouts Lazarus come forth,
and Lazarus is raised from the dead,
and comes walking out with the graveclothes still wrapped around him.
Great miracle.
After he comes walking out,
what’s the first thing Jesus says.
John 11:44 Jesus said to them, "Take off the grave clothes and let him go."
Jesus says the same thing to you and me today.
Take off the grave clothes.
Take off your old self,
that’s full of death
Get out of those stinky old clothes.
Throw off your old evil nature and your former way of life.
Take off the grave clothes.
He’s saying that to you and me, this morning.
Jesus tells you and me today,
take off the graveclothes.
Stop doing the things you used to do
when you were a slave to sin,
because that’s not who you are anymore.
You can throw off that old evil nature.
Now how do you do that?
Well Paul tells us how.
Lets go back to my Navy example.
When I came back from 3 days in the wilderness,
do you think I rushed home,
threw off my dirty smelly clothes,
then immediately put on clean clothes?
No.
Before I put on clean clothes,
I had to get a shower first.
Because it wasn’t just my clothes that were dirty.
What’s underneath was dirty too.
So Paul says, verse 23 after you take off that old self,
the next step is to be renewed in the spirit of your mind.
This is where the power to change comes from.
This is the key to freedom,
This is the key to living as a believer,
This is the key to becoming more like Jesus,
which of course, is the ultimate goal for you and me.
The key is to
be renewed in the spirit of your mind.
You see, a believer in Christ has to start thinking differently than they did before.
If you don’t change the way you think,
if you don’t renew your mind,
then you will never see lasting change in your life.
But if you do change the way you think,
then you won’t constantly be tempted to sin,
over and over again.
When I was a pilot in the Navy,
I flew a plane called the S-3 Viking,
which is a little jet designed to protect the carrier from submarines.
My first cruise was on the aircraft carrier Enterprise.
When you take off from a carrier,
it’s better than any roller coaster ride ….
because you’re catapulted off.
What happens is, when you’re ready to go flying, these deck handlers in yellow shirts signal you to taxi the plane onto one of the carriers 4 catapults, and when they’ve got you positioned just right, they tell you to stop, and then some other guys run under your plane and they attached the nose wheel of your plane to the catapult. Next you look for the catapult officer out front and to your right side, and he gives you a signal to run your engines to full power, and if everything looks good, you salute him, and then he gives the signal to fire the catapult. When that catapult goes, it is so powerful that you don’t even try to control the plane --- its like you’re in a big slingshot, and it pins you to the back of your seat till you’re off the end of the carrier going about 130 mph.
All aircraft have something that’s called trim – on my jet it was a little button on the stick, and you use the trim to help you fly straight and level without any pressure on the stick.
If you’re not trimmed up, then you have to put constant pressure on the stick just to fly straight, and that’s a pain after a while.
So one of the things you do before you get catapulted off the end of the ship, is you set the trim for what you’ll need when you leave the catapult at 130 mph, so that when you start actually flying it off the end of the ship, its already all trimmed up. Now 130 is pretty slow for a jet, so the first thing we do off the end of the carrier is speed up to about 350.
But that trim is set to keep you at about 130,
so when you start to speed up,
the nose of the plane starts coming up,
to slow you back down to 130.
That’s where the trim is set.
In order to speed up,
You’ve only got 2 options.
you can just force the stick to where you want it.
(eventually take all your strength to hold the stick in place).
and the first time you get distracted, or tired, you’ll be off of your altitude, or off course.
Or the second option is,
you can adjust the trim, reset it for a faster speed.
You’re asking, Ken, what’s the point.
The point is,
our minds need to be trimmed in the same way.
When you become a believer,
you take off from the end of the ship,
and you’re excited because you see God working in your life and doing good things,
but you don’t want to stay just the way you were,
you don’t want to stay at 130,
you want to speed up,
and see God’s power working in your life.
you want to start becoming like Jesus,
and have the kind of love and joy and peace in your life,
and the fulfillment and purpose that Jesus planned for us.
So you start trying to speed up,
and do all the right things,
and throw off that old way of life,
and live for God,
but then all the sudden your life is out of trim.
Because your mind says, what is this, I’m not used to these changes,
I’m getting tired of trying to do all the right things,
I don’t really want to obey God.
I want to go back where we were before,
the same kind of lifestyle I had before.
And your mind is out of trim,
and wants to force you off course,
so you start to feel this pressure,
and constant temptation.
Its trying to force you back to your old ways.
You’ve got 2 options, just like in a plane.
You can try to force yourself to stay on course,
and do what’s right,
but you’re constantly feeling this pressure pushing you,
and eventually you get tired or distracted,
and then you’re right back to your old self,
your old lifestyle,
and you’re thinking,
I’m a lousy Christian, I just can’t do it.
The other option is to trim your mind,
or as Paul would say, to renew your mind.
When your mind is renewed,
then you’re not constantly fighting to stay on course,
the constant pressure goes away,
and it becomes more and more natural for you to do what God wants.
So how do you renew your mind?
By filling it with the truth, every day.
By filling it with the bible,
and Christian books,
and worship music,
by meditating on scripture,
by going to a bible study.
All those things affect your mind,
they renew your mind over a period of time,
they bring it into trim,
so that you’re not constantly feeling the pressure
to get off course.
Because Physically, you are what you eat, but spiritually, you are what you think.
If you’d say this morning that
you’re constantly battling temptations,
and constantly feeling pressure in your mind
to do things you know you shouldn’t,
and you’re constantly giving in to the same sin time after time,
it doesn’t mean you’re a bad person or a weak person,
It just means your mind is not yet renewed,
It means you’ve got to fill your mind with more truth,
and let God’s truth change your mind.
When you do that,
You’re adjusting the trim in your life.
so that you’ll eventually want to do what’s right,
you won’t have to fight it any more,
you’re not always struggling against sin,
it becomes natural.
But you’ve got to fill your mind with good things in order to renew it.
Its not a matter of will-power,
or making a decision that from now on I’m going to think differently.
That doesn’t work.
There’s a true story about a chemist who sold villagers in Africa a special powder that he claimed would turn water into gold.
The only requirement was that when they mixed it, they must not think about red monkeys.
Well, he sold a lot of powder,
but of course, no one ever got the gold, because you can’t tell yourself to stop thinking about red monkeys.
In fact,
all of you right now are thinking about red monkeys.
The more you tell yourself to stop thinking about red monkeys,
the more you find yourself thinking about red monkeys.
That’s why you cannot renew your mind
by willpower.
It doesn’t work to say, "Well, I’m just not going to think about those things. I’m going to put all of that out of my mind."
It doesn’t work.
If you want to renew your mind,
you have to fill it with something else,
fill it so full of good stuff,
that the bad stuff gets crowded out.
If you’re serious about renewing your mind,
You should be trying to read the Bible at least a little every day.
If you don’t understand it,
get an easier translation like the NLT.
If you’re serious about renewing your mind,
You should constantly have a Christian book that you’re working on.
If you don’t like to read, they’ve got audio-books on cassette tape.
If you’re serious about renewing your mind,
then instead of just depending on Sunday mornings to teach you,
get involved with a bible study
where you can ask questions
and discuss things.
These are all a part of renewing your mind.
And if you’ve been struggling with temptation,
I challenge you to spend more time each day,
renewing your mind,
filling it with good stuff.
You take off your old self,
you take off those dirty, smelly clothes,
you take off the graveclothes,
and then you get a shower,
by renewing your mind.
Then there’s a third step Paul talks about.
When you take off the old clothes and get a shower,
now you’ve got to put on some new clothes.
Verse 24 put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
Its not enough to just stop doing bad things.
That’s not the goal of a believer,
to just not do anything.
Our goal is not just to take off the old self,
Paul tells us to then
put on the new self, which is created to be like God.
In other words,
we start doing the things Jesus did,
that’s what it means to be like God,
to do the kind of things Jesus did.
put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
If any of you have been trained as a lifeguard,
you know that when you pulling a drowning person out of the water,
you don’t immediately start giving them mouth to mouth resuscitation.
Why?
Because their lungs are probably full of water.
You’ve got to squeeze the water out of the lungs,
before you can get any air in.
Taking off the old self is like squeezing the water out of a drowning man’s lungs.
You don’t get the water out
because you want his lungs to be empty, you do it because you want the air to get in so that he can live. The Bible tells us that our old self, our old way of life,
has been drowning us, its been killing us.
It has been cutting off the breath of the Holy Spirit in our lives,
which we were designed to breathe.
But once we take off the old self,
and renew our minds,
then the next step is to breathe in that new air,
and put on the new self,
which acts like Jesus.
I want to take a minute and get a deeper on this area.
If we were in bible college,
and a professor was talking about sin,
he would divide it into two categories.
The first category is sins of commission,
the 2nd category is sins of omission.
Sins of commission are the sins we usually think about,
when we do something we shouldn’t have.
If I cheat on my taxes,
or I gossip at work,
or look at pornography on the internet,
or tell a little white lie about why I’m home late,
those are sins of commission.
I co-mitted a sin.
I did something I shouldn’t have.
We are all aware when we blow it with these sins of commission. And when we do commit them, we’re aware that we need to ask for forgiveness for them, and so we do.
In fact,
think back to the last time you asked God for forgiveness.
What sins did you mention?
I will bet they were all sins of commission. Things you did that you shouldn’t have.
But the bible says there is another kind of sin.
The 2nd category is sins of omission,
when I didn’t do something I should have.
Omission, means I omitted something that I should have done.
James 4:17 NIV
Anyone who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins.
James tells us that "not doing what we know we should do" is also a sin.
In other words, God not only holds us responsible for breaking His laws and rules like the 10 Commandments, but He also expects us to make the most of every opportunity to do good!
God doesn’t want us to sit back and say,
well I’m not doing anything,
so at least I’m not sinning.
God isn’t looking for monks who live in a cave and separate themselves from people,
so that they’ll never sin.
He does not want us to shut ourselves off from our community and culture so that we don’t ever come in contact with a situation that might prove tempting, so we can avoid all sins of commission.
James shows us here the other kind of sin, which is the sin of omission, or overlooking those good things that we know we should do but we don’t.
When we think about sin,
we think about the 10 commandments,
which are all sins of commission.
But what did Jesus say were the 2 greatest commandments?
Love God and Love your neighbor.
If you break those 2 commands,
what kind of sin is it?
Sin of omission.
You didn’t do something you should have.
You didn’t love God,
and you didn’t love your neighbor.
And then Jesus gives us an example of what that might look like.
Remember his story of the good Samaritan?
A man is traveling on the road,
he gets mugged and left for dead.
and 3 different people come by and see him.
The first one is a priest, who just walks on by.
the second is a levite, who also walks on by.
the third is a Samaritan, who stops to help the man.
Jesus says,
those first 2 broke one of the great commandments,
they didn’t love their neighbor,
That priest and levite were both religious leaders in Israel,
they knew what the bible says about loving your neighbor
they knew they should stop and help this man,
and they sinned,
because they didn’t do something
that they ought to have done.
It was a sin of omission.
Jesus tells another story in Matthew 25 about a servant who’d been given one talent to invest,
but instead he just hid it away and didn’t do anything,
and so he’s punished as a sinner.
Sin of omission.
He didn’t do anything,
when he should have.
There’s a famous poem by: Margaret Sangster called
The Sin of Omission
It isn’t the thing you do, dear,
Its the thing you leave undone
That gives you a bit of a heartache
At the setting of the sun.
The tender work forgotten,
The letter you did not write,
The flowers you did not send, dear,
Are your haunting ghosts at night. The stone you might have lifted
Out of a brother’s way;
The bit of heartsome counsel
You were hurried too much to say;
The loving touch of the hand, dear,
The gentle, winning tone
Which you had no time nor thought for
With troubles enough of your own. Those little acts of kindness
So easily out of mind,
Those chances to be angels
Which we poor mortals find~ For life is all too short, dear,
And sorrow is all too great,
To suffer our slow compassion
That tarries until too late:
And it isn’t the thing you do, dear,
It’s the thing you leave undone
Which gives you a bit of heartache
At the setting of the sun. Now lets apply this to us,
because here is where it gets tricky.
Does that mean that (like the good Samaritan),
when you pass a homeless guy on the street in Hamilton,
and he obviously needs help,
that you are sinning if you don’t help him?
Does that mean that if your neighbor is out of town on vacation,
and has no one to cut her grass,
that you ought to volunteer?
Does that mean that if your wife is stressed out and having a hard time with the kids,
and you decide not to help out,
that your sinning?
(all the wives are saying, yeah …)
The answer to these questions is, I don’t know if it’s a sin for you.
These are not black and white type questions.
These are situations when you need to ask
what does it really mean, right now, in this situation,
to love that person.
And you ask, what would God want me to do in this situation.
Because if I ignore that persons need,
and fail to show love,
it might be a sin.
I can’t assume its not.
But obviously I can’t help every poor person in Hamilton
I cant meet every need I see.
so there’s not an automatic answer here.
In fact, the real answer is back in James 4:17 Anyone who knows the good he ought to do….
If its something that you know you ought to do,
and you don’t do it,
then it’s a sin for you.
If you run across a person with a need,
and you know you ought to help him,
you feel like God is saying to you,
you should help this person,
then you better do it.
If you’re sitting in the recliner reading the paper,
and you know you ought to be helping your wife with the kids,
you better do it.
But there will be times when you’re not sure
if you ought to help someone,
or do something.
You don’t hear God whispering in your ear,
you ought to help that person,
you’re just not sure.
And if you’re not sure whether you ought to do it or not,
then you should ask God,
but you may not hear a clear answer,
and you may not know.
This is a tough area.
Because this goes way beyond just avoiding doing the bad stuff,
just avoiding sins of commission.
When you talk about loving your neighbor as yourself,
that’s tough.
We don’t like to think about this area too much, because how many of us,
even in the past week, have sinned by failing to do something good
that we knew we really should do.
If you are at all like me, there’s probably a lot of sin in your life
that you haven’t really recognized.
My goal this morning is not to make everyone feel guilty,
and leave here bummed out about how much sin is in your life.
My goal is to encourage you,
to renew your mind and put on that new life,
that makes you want to do the things Jesus did.
Back to Ephesians chapter 4.
Taking off your old self deals with
those sins of commission,
the things you want to stop doing.
Putting on your new self,
deals with doing the things you ought to be doing,
loving people,
and helping people,
and serving God.
So Paul tells us,
take off those old clothes,
get a shower,
and put on new clothes,
or in his words,
Put off the old self,
be renewed in your mind,
and put on the new self.
Then Paul applies this to life
in the rest of the chapter.
He gives us some examples.
(very quickly, won’t read all the verses,
but on outline and on screen)
He says, first,
vs. 25
stop lying (that’s the old self, sin of commission)
start speaking the truth (new self, that’s a part of loving your neighbor, you speak truth to them)
vs. 26
stop letting anger control you (old self)
start forgiving each other quickly (new self)
Don’t let the sun go down on your anger.
Forgive quickly, the same day.
Vs. 28
Stop stealing (old self)
Start using your hands for honest work, and then give generously to others in need. (new self)
vs. 29
Stop using foul or abusive language (old self).
Start letting everything you say be good and helpful, and encouraging (loving your neighbor).
vs. 31 Stop all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, slander, and malicious behavior. (old self)
Start being kind to each other, tenderhearted, and forgiving one another.
You see in every case,
you don’t just stop doing something,
you don’t just throw off the old self,
you’ve got to replace it with something,
you put on the new self.
And that’s what makes the Holy Spirit happy.
Last question, before we close:
and this is the “So What” question.
Because some of you are thinking,
its going to take some effort to do things like
renewing my mind,
by filling it with the Bible and other good things,
and its going to take a lot of effort
to make the Holy Spirit happy.
Why should I bother?
So what?
There’s a lot of reasons I could give you,
But let me tell you what God promises,
if you’ll make that effort.
Deut 28 is one of the most powerful chapters in the bible.
Verse 2 it tells us “so what” ----
You will experience all these blessings if you obey the LORD your God:
This is Gods promise to us.
You could substitute right there:
(If you make the Holy Spirit happy by the way you live, You will experience all these blessings)
You will be blessed in your towns and in the country. You will be blessed with many children and productive fields.
with fertile herds and flocks. bowls filled with bread. You will be blessed wherever you go, both in coming and in going. "The LORD will conquer your enemies when they attack you. They will attack you from one direction, but they will scatter from you in seven! "The LORD will bless everything you do and will fill your storehouses with grain. "The LORD will give you an abundance of good things You will lend to many nations, but you will never need to borrow from them. the LORD will make you the head and not the tail, and you will always have the upper hand.
I don’t know about you,
but I want those blessings in my life.
And I believe God will do it,
because He has done it in my life.
So my question for you this morning is,
Do you believe God has the power
to bring those kind of blessings into your life?
Do you believe that
the God who created the whole universe,
is able to follow through on those promises, in your life.
I want to challenge you to test Him,
starting today,
and see if He will do what He promises,
and bless your life in all those ways.
You can test God by simply doing what Paul says,
First,
by throwing off the old self, your old lifestyle,
then by renewing your mind,
by spending time every day filling your mind with the Bible,
and Christian books,
worship music,
And then put on the new self,
by becoming like Jesus,
by doing things every day to help people,
serve people,
show love to people,
do the things Jesus did.
I challenge you to test God,
starting today,
and see if He doesn’t bless your life when you start making the Holy Spirit happy.
