Do Not Grieve the Holy Spirit of God

the following message is made available by truth for life for more information visit us online at truthfortheworld.org we're going to read from the Bible just the section that we read earlier today Ephesians in chapter 4 from there's 25 to the end Ephesians 4:25 therefore having put away falsehood let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor for we are members one of another be angry and do not sin do not let the Sun go down on your anger and give no opportunity to the devil let the thief no longer steal but rather let him labor doing honest work with his own hands so that he may have something to share with anyone in need let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths but only such as is good for building up as fits the occasion that it may give grace to those who hear and do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you along with all malice be kind to one another tender-hearted forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave you amen let's pray together now speak Lord in the stillness while we wait on the hushed our hearts to listen in expectancy for Jesus sake amen well we look this morning and verses 25 to 28 under the overarching heading from verse 27 at least as it is translated in the NIV I do not give the devil a foothold and now as we come to these closing verses 29 through to 32 we want to look at this from the perspective of not grieving the Holy Spirit which comes right there in much the same way as the directive concerning the devil comes in the heart of that opening section and don't let this corrupt talk come from your mouth do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption let's just start with the Holy Spirit if we may and then come back up to 29 and then back down to the concluding verses we would do well to have a series I think on the doctrine of the Holy Spirit and we should tuck that away for the future we could acknowledge this evening I think that we routinely make mention of the person and the work of the Holy Spirit recognizing all that God the Holy Spirit does in making us alive with Christ and filling us in enabling us in guiding us and teaching us and so on and I think that that recollection and emphasis on our part is both understandable and wonderfully helpful and right I sometimes think that as I listen to myself and then as I hear others speak as well that we may not give just as much attention to the fact that we're dealing with a person when we talk about the Holy Spirit it's not uncommon to slip into the mistake of referring to the whole spirit not as a person but as it or its or this and in point a fight nothing could be more wrong it's clear from the Bible and particularly clear I think from this verse that the Holy Spirit is someone who can be grieved that's why Paul gives the directive in this way and it is a staggering thought when we put it in these terms it it is possible for us to make the Holy Spirit sad it is possible for us to make the Holy Spirit sad if that were not the case then the directive would make no sense at all make sure he says that you do not grieve the Holy Spirit with whom you have been sealed for the day of redemption that reference to the ceiling goes back to chapter 1 and 2 verse 13 and we mentioned it this morning in him that is in Christ you also when you heard the word of truth the gospel of your salvation and believed in him were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit the Holy Spirit was given to us as a sign and the seal of the fact that we are no longer what we once we're but we are now made new in the Lord Jesus Christ it is an important emphasis and one that we do well to dwell on namely the fact that not only and again mentioning chapter 1 not only have we had redemption and through his blood verse 7 and the forgiveness of our trespasses but also God has poured out the blessing of the indwelling Holy Spirit on and in our lives in fact if anyone does not have the Spirit of God says Paul when he writes to the church at Rome then he doesn't belong to God at all the the indication of the presence of God in a life is the indwelling spirit and so it is important for us to simply acknowledge the fact that we are not then referring merely to a power or to a force but to a person the coats for example the Jehovah's Witnesses in ticular do not have a trinity as you will know and they give the name Holy Spirit to this on misunderstood and denied force as they put it when we read our Bibles we find that that is completely wrong so he is a person and also he is God you will notice that and do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God that Father Son and Holy Spirit are co-equal and they are called eternal and also the adjective is important he is the Holy Spirit he's the Holy Spirit and consequently because he is holy he is grieved by impurity it is therefore inevitable that he will be grieved by your sin and by mine he is the spirit of truth and therefore he will inevitably be saddened by falsehood that's why as we saw this morning Paul has said having put away all falsehood make sure that you speak in truth to one another because not only does it have an effect on you and on your brother and sister but it actually impacts the living God the Holy Spirit is grieved when this takes place when we get to chapter five we're going to see that when we are filled with the Holy Spirit in fact if your Bible is open there your eyes can scan it in verse 18 don't get drunk with wine that's debauchery but be filled with the spirit and what is the impact well then we will be addressing one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs and singing and making melody to the Lord with all your heart and giving thanks always and forever than to God the Father I'm living in a mutuality of submission to one another that is quite remarkable in a world that is full of broken relationships when we're filled with the Holy Spirit then what is to flow from our lips is that which is stirred in our hearts namely praise to our God therefore it is inevitable that he will be grieved when what flows from our lips is actually corrupting talk he is also the spirit of unity and therefore he will be inevitably saddened by our disunity now Paul addressing it in this way it has probably in his mind the prophecy of as isaiah youn in turn to but i'll tell you where it is you can find it later in isaiah chapter 63 the people are said to have grieved the holy spirit they rebelled and grieved his holy spirit God had given them clear direction they went against his direction and as a result of that the Holy Spirit was grieved and so Paul recognizing what has happened with the people of God as aware in the past is essentially saying to the Ephesians now you are the new people of God you are a new creation God lives in you by the Holy Spirit and make sure that you do not do what those folks did way back there 600 BC the last thing I want to say by way of introduction is and it is an important thing and it is this that Paul's exhortation that his appeal here is based on the security of our position based on the security of our position it's based on the fact that he says you have been sealed with the Holy Spirit and it is because you have been sealed with the Holy Spirit and have been sealed notice in the phrase here in 29 and 30 I should see we have been sealed for the day of redemption and Paul makes much of this all the time for example in Romans chapter 8 and those whom he predestined he also called and those whom he called he also justified and those whom he justified he also glorified the certainty and security of the completed work of Christ being confident of this he writes of the Philippians that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ so his appeal to them in this way is not on the basis of any insecurity but rather on the security that is theirs the same thing actually later in Philippians where he says to them we're not like the the folks around us here whose destruction whose end is destruction their God is their belly they glory in their shame their minds are filled with earthly things but our citizenship is in heaven and from it we await a savior the Lord Jesus Christ what is he doing he will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself so he is making it perfectly clear that the security of the believer is not in our health the security of the believer is not in our wealth the security of the believer is not in our giftedness the security of the believer is in Christ alone the Holy Spirit reminds us through the word he says I you have been sealed with me I have been placed in you as a guarantee of all that is still yours to come and the Magnificent thing about the sealing of the Spirit when you think about it and because I often posed this question to your rhetorically and it was in my mind again as I was reading my notes before this evening I was thinking again about what it is that gives gives one such an assurance of salvation what is it that gives one subject conviction about the authenticity and the reliability and the sufficiency of the Bible why is it that we come together in this way and listen as we turn to the Scriptures again and again well it is an indication of the fact that you have been sealed with the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit assures you of these things as you hear the word of God the Spirit of God is saying - this is true they saying to you this must be applied he's saying to you see to it and so on it's a magnificent and a wonderful thing and it is not only that to which we look back but also to which we look forward when he talks about our redemption in Chapter 1 around verse 6 and 7 he's referring to what we sing about when we sing all perfect redemption the purchase of God to every believer the promise of God the vilest offender who truly believes that moment from Jesus apart and receives that's what he's referring to in the beginning the verses in chapter 1 what he's referring to here is the end of our Redemption we presently know what it is to have been removed from one kingdom into a new we presently know what it is to have been sealed with the Holy Spirit we presently know what it is to be forgiven but we also know that there is a new day coming we also know that he has saved us not only from something but he has saved us for something he has taken us not only out of a realm but he has taken as into a new realm and to prepare for us a realm that is beyond our ability to comprehend I has not seen nor ear heard neither has it entered into the heart of man the things that God has prepared for them who love him then finish the verse but his Spirit has revealed it to them so our friends and our neighbors said what are you talking about you're going to be with Jesus what do you mean your sins are forgiven where do you get all this stuff from well we get it in the Bible you say well I read the Bible I never saw any of it no you didn't because the Spirit of God has not opened your eyes you should cry out to him that he might open your eyes and show you who you are and show you who Christ is and show you why you even exist this is the great glory in it and that is the context Isaak Ward wrote a hymn that begins come come ye that love the Lord and let your Joy's be known it's a no it's a golden oldie and it has the freight the refrain we're marching through Emmanuel's ground to fairer worlds on high and we don't sing any of these hymns anymore I fear and and here's the stanza that struck me when I was when I referenced it there we shall see his face and never never sinned there from the rivers of His grace drink endless pleasures in and here before we rise to that immortal state the thought of such amazing bliss should constant joy create its good him come ye that love the Lord so sealed remission of our sins forgiveness of our trespasses redeemed and about to be redeemed and in between we need the Spirit of God at work within our hearts in order to make sure that we are following hard after the Lord Jesus Christ our prayer and our perspective in these things is based upon our position in the Lord Jesus Christ now I actually there's a random thought but I was I was thinking as I was studying this again earlier in the week about when you used to go to the doctor he told you to stick out your tongue I don't know if doctors do that anymore but I always I was the only time I was allowed to stick out my tongue when I was small well if I go to the doctor can I stick out my tongue yes in fact it would be it would be demanded of you but in other words let me let me let me have a look at what's going on inside you I think I think I'll get it I'll take I'll get something just by such a simple scan and here in these verses we were kind of sticking out our tongues and we give an indication of what's going on inside us that's why a declarative instruction regarding falsehood and anger and stealing is now followed up by his return to the matter of speech again back he comes and we understand why don't we at least many of us do because our our tongues get us into so much difficulty James reminds us of what a restless evil the tongue is how easily we find he says the blessing and cursing comes out of the same source and he says now my brothers and sisters that should not be so Paul says makes sure that there's no corrupting talk that's coming out of your mouths the word there for corrupt is the word in Greek safra's which means rotten rotten it's the word that would be used of a rotten apple or a rotten piece of fruit which if you found it in a barrel you would tend to say I think this should simply be removed for Shirley to leave it in there it may impact some of the rest of the fruit around it and of course that is in part the point Paul is essentially saying if we can summarize it it's imperative that you say no to destructive talking and you say yes to corruptive talking because after all the concern of the believer is for the building up of the body of Christ for the maintaining of the unity for the expression of purity and so on so when in a congregation we begin to tolerate corrupting talk and what we discover is that instead of it actually building people up it actually tears things down and it is insufficient as we said this morning looking at the issue of stealing it's insufficient simply to say that there is no corrupting top coming out of my mouth that that's the negative side but the positive side is that they're supposed to be good a building talk that comes and that it is to be fitting to the occasion as fits the occasion it's kind of proverbial isn't it the Proverbs have a lot about the importance and the timeliness of words a word in season says Solomon how good it is in season that's fits the occasion that's an interesting little phrase that because some of us are pretty good at saying the right thing at the wrong time or in the wrong way well the only reason I'm saying this is because it's true the fact that is true doesn't demand that it is said well you said the Bible says that you're supposed to make sure that you speak in truth yes you are that's fits the occasion would this be the right occasion to say this is this the time to say this in front of somebody that's fits the occasion is it kind is it true is it necessary as fits the occasion and elsewhere we're told that our words are supposed to be full of grace and seasoned with salt some of us have got that completely upside down our words are full of salt and season with a little grace I've told you before that one of the lasting phrases out of my father's mouth for me as he heard me preach as a younger man was this son it's not what you say that gets you in trouble it's how you say it Here I am all these years later still his words rang in my ear still confronted by it I'm encouraged by the fact that Isaiah who was the great prophet of God when he encountered God said I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips I think each of us has something we might learn in this from there to verse 31 and 32 if we can try and take them together we can summarize his exhortation or his appeal in a simple phrase kindness should replace bitterness kindness should replace bitterness he starts with bitterness and then he comes to kindness he starts with the negative and then he comes to the positive in verse 31 we have as john start refers to it six unpleasant attitudes and actions and they are unpleasant aren't they he'd come to this and you remind herself again that the call for this new behavior is consistent with the fact that we've been made new people so make sure he says that all bitterness he likes that word all it's so challenging not some bitterness or a little bit of bitterness but all the bitterness and all the wrath and all the anger and all the clamor and all the slander and all the malice the whole shooting match this is a zero tolerance program if the church is going to live together in unity and purity in effectiveness if it's going to reach the world it will not be able to tolerate this stuff within it because when the world comes in they will say but this is exactly what we get in our office this is the exact same kind of nonsense that I have with people talking behind their backs this is the same stupid slander that exists everywhere else if this Jesus thing really transforms people why in the world are you as you are that's the challenge over you see bitterness Aristotle referred to it as an embittered and resentful spirit which refuses to be reconciled an embittered and resentful spirit which refuses to be reconciled the writer to the Hebrews warns the his readers about a ver about a root of bitterness which if not dealt with will trouble not only the individual who is the source of the bitterness but all of the others who are affected by it Paul in Romans talks about when he talks about the kindness of God I think it's in that context in yeah do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance if the gospel doesn't soften your heart it'll harden your heart but because of your heart and in penitent heart your story not Roth for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed and he will render to each one according to his works to those who by patience in well doing seek for glory and honor and immortality he will give eternal life they didn't earn it but by these things they revealed the fact that they had been sealed with the spirit and made new but here we go but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness there will simply be wrath and fury the progression is clear you hear the gospel if God's kindness does not soften your heart and bring you to repentance if you continue down that path if you continue to seek your own glory if you do not obey the truth if you commit yourself to one righteousness the only end result is wrath and fury come back to Ephesians what does he follow bitterness with wrath and anger wrath and anger let all bitterness and wrath and anger the word for wrath here is the word for the flaring up of passion the the temper when it is provoked anger the word or gay in the Greek is a reference to a kind of more settled and sullen hostility a kind of smoldering resentment that is certainly as damaging as the fiery outburst infighting may actually be even more damaging at least if you're dealing with mr. fiery outbursts that usually passes you know it's like a big thundercloud that comes and just just it's not nice not nice but we get it over with as opposed to the mm you can just you just it's just there it just what is that noises that's that's resentment I am angry now he says you've been sealed with a spirit of God you've been made new you're not gonna make the Holy Spirit side are you by carrying on like that you're not he would say to us tonight gonna saying take my lips and let them be and then let your lips be other than what you sang about that's hypocrisy but so easy to do bitterness wrath fury or anger and clamor it's an interesting word clamor isn't it how many times last week did use the word clamour I think I think the only time I use the word clamour eyes are talking about those who would clamor for attention they use it in that way but when I looked at it the word clamour actually is is it's a noun that couldn't speak of the kind of loud aggravation 'el assertions of an angry person who has decided that it is important that everyone is aware of their grievance okay so it's not simply somebody who's doing it mm-hmm this somebody's doing that and I want everybody to know I am mad about this and you should know and since I'm mad you know that's clamor not nice and just when you thought we were doing well slander slander the devil's work the devil slanders God to us he slanders ours to God he slanders us to each other and when slander becomes part and parcel of a life it proves the fact that we are leaning far on the wrong side Peter when he writes in in a similar vein refers to it doesn't he when he has spoken to them about the wonder of their salvation again you've been chosen by God the Father you are sprinkled by the blood of Christ you are sanctified by the Holy Spirit and and and they look at what a wonder it is you're a new creation in Christ and see now what God has done sending his only son Christ the beloved one and can it be that a dad led so on all everything's perfect there's swimmingly beautiful these scattered Christians must have been a fantastic group and then he gets to chapter 2 and he says so put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander there's a measure of encouragement in this isn't there right that that for example the way that Paul writes so for when he writes to the Corinthians as he begins the Corinthian epistle he says you know you folks in Christ are terrific you know you're a wonderful group and I and I really jazzed about you but the same group that he refers to as the Saints are the people of whom he has said there's stuff going on at your communion services that the pagans don't even do so the exhortation and the appeal is not theoretical it's intensely practical and when we take to heart the instruction of God's Word as we do here we realize that if we're going to grow together if the Ephesians believers were going to make sense of all of this if they were going to maintain unity then any kind of negative speaking in this way the kind of slander where we speak of one another rather than to one another when we under you know a sort of pseudo Christian ease use the old introduction again you know the only reason I'm mentioning this to you of course is I know that you care immensely about brother Freddie you know it's like okay what do you got for me we love prayer we love prayer circles prayer groups prayer trios and everything else but there's more gossip passed along in prayer services than in most other places in the Christian Church the fact that something has been disclosed to you does not give you the freedom to disclose it to somebody else and certainly not under the disguise of prayer no he says the slander must go and along with that all malice all malice I wonder if malice just isn't the collective term what what is malice well I think is bitterness wrath anger clamor and slander and they're all thrown together in a very very ugly pie or if you like if bitterness is the kind of sourness that can be concealed for a while within the human heart it will eventually reveal itself and when it does it will be in a kind of unconcealed ill-will that is malicious and plots the downfall of others well it's thoroughly depressing isn't it it really is it's dauntingly challenging there's none of us are able to step back from him and say although I did have a number of people come to me this morning say it was a wonderful talk I wish mr. so-and-so had been here and and I understand how to do that as well this is this would have been terrific for her this would have been great for him well let's just stay with the me for the moment and let's turn finally to the positive side of it if this stuff is to go what should be in its place you see because it's not simply enough to take the weeds out of the garden the flowers are to be cultivated and that's again the wonderful thing stop stealing do honest work with your hands so that you will be able to give stop telling lies and be a man or a woman of the truth and make sure that you're dealing really vociferous Lee with these elements which are so undermining to the well-being of spiritual discipleship and growth and in grace and so on and instead here's what to do be kind the word in greek is Christos which is just one vowel away from Christos which is of course Christ the name of Christ and many when they would have used it in the Greek in that way he would have would have remarked on what I now remark on to you that kindness and Christ's likeness ago go together and the kindness of the Lord Jesus the kindness of God is not a select of kindness when when Jesus is giving instruction in this way to his followers in Luke chapter 6 he makes he makes this very point it's in the section where he talks about loving your enemies and being good to those who hate you and blessing those who curse you and so on which is like oh come on you know this is tough what know if you do good to those who do good to you that's no big deal sinners do that if you give if you lend to those who are paying you for and a half percent what credit is that to you even sinners lend to sinners but love your enemies and do good and lend expecting nothing in return in your ward your reward will be great and you will be the sons of the Most High here we go listen to this for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil he is kind to the ungrateful and evil love your neighbor they said to him who is my neighbor tell me who it is tell me who the little group is that I have to love so that I can exclude all the people that I don't like and I don't want to love especially the evil ones and the ungrateful ones and the people are on the wrong side of this equation and remember what Jesus says he says okay I'll answer that question a man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among thieves who stripped him of his raiment and departed leaving him half there and then he describes the arrival of the people who most ordinarily would be the ones that you would expect to do something and then he says but a certain Samaritan as he journeyed came to where he was and bound up his wounds pouring in oil and wine and set him on his own donkey and brought him to an inn and asked the innkeeper to take care of him and he said to him and if you spend any more than the money I've left with you when I come back through this way I will pay the rest to you and the Pharisees and the religious leaders were offended because Jesus used as a picture of genuine neighborliness a man who didn't fit their framework now you see this kindness is not selective kindness kindness to the ungrateful and to the evil tender-hearted tender-hearted not hard-hearted this word actually has only found two places in the New Testament here and again in first Peter is it's amazing how much Peter and and Paul have a unity in this fight finally all of you have unity of mind sympathy brotherly love a tender heart and a humble mind and how will that be expressed do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling but on the contrary blast for to this you were called that you may obtain a blessing in other words it's a radical radical holy spirit created transformation and forgiving one another cares oh man or a charism and i Kerris grace in other words acting in grace towards one another but I don't want to I would prefer not to okay I would rather harden my heart I've been disappointed before I went to the individual and I spoke to them and they they turned their backs on me they threw me out okay well you notice what it says here forgiving one another not because God forgave you but as God in Christ forgave you in other words he says the forgiveness of the believer and he's going to go on to begin chapter 5 and exhort the the Christians to become imitators of God the the the forgiveness in the life in our lives as believers is supposed to have a god-like dimension to it in other words it's a kind of forgiveness that can only altom utley be found in the family of God because it is not simply the logical I think things will be better if they well pragmatically I think this is anything for a happy life kind of stuff no this is that which the Holy Spirit who has sealed us for the day of redemption produces in our lives well let's try to oppose our time is gone isn't it a seven o'clock the chapter has been all about unity and purity and harmony and when we get this right when when to the extent that we get it right as the Ephesians were exhorted to get it right then the evil one who is behind all this bad stuff the evil one Screwtape Letters now right CS Lewis and and and and all he sends out all his nephews and and everybody to do their dirty business and they keep coming back and go and we can't get these guys we can't get him you see when the Spirit of God among the people of God creates this reality then it sends a signal to the evil one of what the Bible says is true he is a defeated foe he's a defeated foe it's checkmate there is no way that he can alter the outcome from Calvary but he still wants to play the moves out on the board and as he plays the moves out on the board he seeks to live in the realm of wrath and slander and disappointment in hatred and heartache and so on all the things that we are just so naturally susceptible to and often if we're honest very glad to entertain but when the Spirit of God is at work filling and transforming and renewing then the devil himself realizes these folks have got me beat and isn't it great that there's nothing particularly flamboyant about any of this I mean this is just ordinary stuff this is ordinary stuff in the lives of ordinary people in the in the in the routine of life in fact what he's really saying is by the Enabling in the Spirit of God you ordinary folks can live in an extraordinary way as a result of the grace and goodness of God let me give you three illustrations I'm done one is from Fred Mitchell whom I feel you all very we're off Fred Mitchell was the general director of the China Inland Mission after de host who was the general director after Hudson Taylor and and my thought here is here we all are it's Monday tomorrow same old stuff right most of our lives are routine they are me to your socks on check your emails do your stuff Tuesday socks emails stuff tonight's a little different no socks but that's that's just breaking the routine you see and that's where we were that's where we live our lives and as Lou that's why I wanted this here is the abiding message of Fred Mitchell's life he accomplished no great thing his name was linked with many Christian organizations but he founded none of them he turned the feet of many into paths of righteousness but not more than others of his contemporaries he made no spectacular and inspiring sacrifices he effected no reforms for the first 45 years of his life the pathway he traversed was similar to that of thousands of other modern successful businessmen from village school to chemist shop what drug to the pharmacy yeah from village school to the pharmacy would have been an appropriate summing up of his outward course here's the sentence on that ordinary humdrum track however he walked with God climbing steadily in spiritual experience on the ordinary humdrum track okay ts Mooney my favorite Irish Presbyterian who's been gone for a long time now was a crusader leader you don't need to know all that means but he taught boys for 50 years on Sunday afternoons in this little biography that they did of him one of the one of the chapters is on his role as the leader in this class his prayerful concern for his boys led him to take a real practical interest in each one of them so what are you doing that's spiritually effective Mooney well I'm a bank manager I teach a Bible class hmm no one's ever heard of you Mooney mmm-hmm he was always at class at least half an hour before the starting time to give himself plenty of time to greet the boys on their arrival to chat to them and find out more about them for years the junior boys were invited in small groups to have son DT at number nine Clarence Avenue that their leader would take an interest in the made a profound impression on many of them and once said from first going to Crusaders mr. Mooney got to know my name and from then on he too took a consistent interest in my life another States I will always remember TS as being someone who took a personal interest in me as an individual if I ever missed class for one reason or another he would be at my door during the week to say missed you last Sunday and this is a sentence I was looking for sorry to read so much after my father died mr. Mooney asked me about my mother every Sunday for a year as we filed out at the end of class tender-hearted Ambrose was the Bishop of Milan Ambrose was by all accounts a powerful character very effective in his Proclamation he was greatly used in the conversion of Augusta and agustin reflecting on how he came to faith under the bishops ministry said it was not your great teaching I scarcely expected to find that in the church in any case but that you were kind to me by that you were kind to me I see we overestimate that which is apparently gifted and spectacular and we underestimate what God actually is accomplishing on the humdrum traffic of life and I see it by observation in you as I move among you someone said the other day of someone is the gray the greatest way in which they approached me meant a great deal to me someone again and again and again and so we want to pray that the Spirit of God will be increasingly a work within us as individuals and as a church we're certainly not a finished product but we do have a sense that God has his hand upon us for good and so let's take to heart His Word to us in these closing verses of Ephesians let us pray well Lord we do want to say again may the mind of Christ my Savior live in me from day to day him exalting and self abasing for surely this is victory we pray that you will come and visit us by the Holy Spirit that as we come into the summer months Lord when we have a lot of coming and going going here and going there we prayed for a for a lovely sense of your hand upon us as we gather in worship and in the study of your word that is life groups are set aside for a while that instead of it being the occasion of disappointment or the absence of something that it may actually become the occasion of people have an opportunity to bind with one another in ways that hadn't happened because of the structured way in which so much is done only you can accomplish this and we pray for your grace and in doing so and we ask it in Jesus name Amen message was brought to you from truth for life where the learning is for living learn more about truth for life with Alistair beg visit us online at truthfortheworld.org

Channel: Alistair Begg

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Keywords: Truth For Life, Christian Living, Holy Spirit, Loving Others, Security of the Believer, Alistair Begg, Ephesians

Id: YQjHQxIVDRU

Length: 45min 53sec (2753 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 12 2020