Pleasing God With Your Conversation (pt-2) - [Ephesians 4:29-30]

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Ivory soap, to me, has three uses. Number one, it washes your hands.
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Number two, it floats, and it creates a mystery for kids. And I thought, you know, I never researched ivory soap, so I just typed it into Google and found out that William Proctor and James Gamble, in 1879, introduced ivory soap.
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And it was originally called white soap, although that didn't sell that well.
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And what happened in time to come, Harley Proctor found a
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Bible verse in Psalm 45 that says, All thy garments smell of myrrh and aloes and cassia, out of the ivory palaces where they have made me glad.
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And he gave it the name because of that verse, ivory soap. The reason why it floated, it was an accident.
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Some workmen went out to lunch and without thinking left the machines going, and a bunch of air got into the soap.
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The product was manufactured, and they cut it all up and shipped it out, and everybody began to think, it floats, and we can even take baths in the middle of the
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Ohio River and not lose our soap. And so it has been a bestseller ever since.
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Ivory soap. But it has a third use as well, and I was on the receiving end of that third use when
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I was a teenager. We usually got spanked with a hand when we would drive in the car if we were acting up, my brother and my sister and I.
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We all said, we called the spot behind Dad's seat. We all wanted to sit behind Dad because it was harder for him to reach back and spank our grab hair, so we all wanted to sit right behind Dad.
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And my father was away, and I said some sassy things and some foul things, and my mother marched me into the bathroom, and she washed my mouth out.
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I've never forgotten that to this day. She only had to do it one time. My question for you this morning is, since we speak so much, one man said we even speak from 12 ,000 to 25 ,000 words a day, how do you control your speech so you can speak well for the
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Lord? What do you do? Are you a legalist and say, if I just try hard, maybe
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I won't even talk? You're like certain Trappist monks who don't say anything. Or I just wake up in the morning, and every time
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I see that bar of soap, I hearken back to those days or that day. What do we do?
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And certainly, if God has given us this instrument to praise, He's told us exactly what we should do with our tongue.
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So if you'll turn your Bibles to Ephesians chapter 4, let's find out what the Bible says about our tongue and how to speak properly in conversing for the
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Lord. Now sometimes people think, well, there are certain passages in the Bible that aren't very relevant to me.
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I would disagree, but certainly today we would know for sure, everyone here, that a message about how to talk properly, how to speak rightly, and I don't mean diction or syntax, although that's fine.
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I mean to speak in the hearing of God. To speak with pleasure and with purpose. This is not pie in the sky at all.
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How do we talk so God is pleased? And certainly when you think of salvation, what is the thing that changes the most in your life?
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You may say, well, affections. I now love Christ, and I didn't have those affections. That is true, but I would say that one of the things that changes in your life the most after you get saved is what?
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The way you talk. You talk about different things than you used to, and that is a sign of salvation.
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I mean, who can take a guttered -mouthed person and then all of a sudden let him be turned in or let she be turned into one who praises
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God? Ephesians, the book of Ephesians, all six chapters is about the saving grace of God through Christ Jesus.
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The first three chapters, here's God's plan. Here's kind of the architectural drawings of how
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God in His masterpiece saves sinners. He chooses them. He has
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His Son redeem them. He seals them with the Holy Spirit. He not only saves Jews, but He saves
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Gentiles, and He gives preachers like Paul to preach to Jews and Gentiles. And then out of this great saving grace, we are to live.
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Remember from our discussions in times past, the gospel is not do better and obey so God loves you.
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The gospel is Ephesians 1, 2, and 3. God loves you, and He's shown it through Christ. Now obey.
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Did you get that? It's crucial. It's not you do this and I'll love you. It's I loved you, so obey.
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1, 2, and 3, I love you. 4, 5, and 6, out of that love, obey me. Very, very important.
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In all of chapters 4, 5, and 6, it's summarized by two words, unity and holiness.
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God says, I've loved you. You used to be a disunified bunch and you used to be unholy, you used to be ungodly, agodly, exactly opposite of God.
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Now I want you to be like me. So here comes the Bible verses of chapter 4, 5, and 6 with all kinds of imperatives and things that we are to do.
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If you look at verse 17 of chapter 4, he says, don't live the way you used to. You used to walk like the
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Gentiles walk, people that worship trees and animals and idols, don't live that way anymore.
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You used to have false idols and you walked in them and you worshiped them, don't live that way anymore. He says in verse 20, if you look at Ephesians 4, you did not learn
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Christ in this way. He says to the church, God has redeemed you and saved you, so live like who you are.
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Don't live this other way. You've learned Christ in a way where he's Lord, he's the Savior, he changes everything about your life.
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He says in verse 25, don't lie, tell the truth. Verse 26, be angry and don't sin.
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Verse 28, stop stealing and work. Matter of fact, work for so much that you can share with other people.
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I love John Stott, he said, none but Christ can transform a burglar into a benefactor.
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And now for our passage today, none can transform someone who just runs the mouth with four -letter words and everything else to now someone who praises
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God. Look at Ephesians 4, verse 29 and 30 for our passage today.
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Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word is good for edification, according to the need of the moment, that it may give grace to those who hear.
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And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Just like in the past he has said, here's something you shouldn't do, here's something you should do, and now here's the reason.
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A great way to teach. Do this, don't do that, here's the reason. Now two weeks ago,
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Kim and I and the kids went to New York for Thanksgiving for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.
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And I don't know if you've ever been there or not, but they have these huge floats, these huge balloons, but they can't all be one lined after another because it would just be the string of balloons.
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So they have a huge balloon and then they have what I call filler. There'll be some clowns on unicycles or people handing out balloons, a lot of people on rollerblades, clowns on rollerblades, marching bands, and I know, although I didn't ask the kids,
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I know that the band stuff is good, the filler stuff is good, but the balloons are what you're waiting for.
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I mean this three gazillion pound Barney floating down the street.
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I love you, you love me kind of thing. You're like, that's what you want to see. The other stuff is, okay, fine.
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On a spiritual realm, my challenge to you this morning is this. Have you viewed
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Ephesians chapter 4 verse 30 as the big balloon or have you just read it as you've passed by kind of like filler?
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Of course we believe the Bible is inerrant and infallible and we affirm that this is a good passage.
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But Ephesians chapter 4 verse 30, unlike ivory soap will transform the way you speak.
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This is big. Last Sunday we didn't have very many people show up and I had this message ready, but I didn't preach it because I wanted the congregation at large to hear.
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So important, Ephesians chapter 4 verse 30. Now before we get there, let's review verse 29.
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And the way we did it several weeks ago was four key words to look at these two verses. The first word was careful.
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When it comes to speech, Christians should be careful. We're different on the inside, so it should flow out of our hearts with something different, and so the first one's careful.
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You notice the text, verse 29, let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth. He's already covered lying and now he said all the other corrupt words, the putrid words, the foul words, don't let it even come out of your mouth.
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And if you think about it, don't let it pass. As Thomas Watson said, God has already given us two protectors, our teeth and our lips to seal out bad words.
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Now he gives us another one, the command of Scripture, don't let anything come out of there that you shouldn't. If God in fact has changed you on the inside and you've learned a new way of living, then it should follow that it comes out the same way.
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This is a book I read in, I don't know, junior high. That was then, this is now. That was the way you used to talk, this is the way you're supposed to talk now.
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Unbelievers, Romans 3 says, their throat is an open grave. They're a poison of asp under their lips, and their mouth is full of cursing.
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So Paul, you can just imagine him, Paul who loved the church, saying, don't talk that way anymore.
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How can we talk that way? Don't let it proceed from your mouth. And may I make a point
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I didn't make several weeks ago? When it comes to emails and letters, do the same thing even though it's not coming out of your mouth, it's still in your heart.
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It's just so easy to write one of those blasting emails with corrupt speech. You say, should
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I send that or I shouldn't? Or should I not? Just don't send it. If you ask that question, don't send it.
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By the way, the good rule of thumb is, if you want an email to be sent to all the people you don't want to read it, send it to the person you did want to read it.
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Did you get that? It can go all around, just forward, cut, and paste, and off you go. So when it comes to our speech, it comes to our writing, it comes to our emails, we have to be careful.
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How would we want to say something to someone else and destroy God's work of the bride? This is all in the context of a local church.
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World War II, loose lips sink ships. They also destroy local fellowships.
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That was the old way of thinking, selfish talk. Now it's unselfish talk. And when it comes to slander and divisiveness and innuendo and criticism, we are to be very, very careful.
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Secondly, the word needful. Straight out of Ephesians 4, verse 29.
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Not only careful but needful. But only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment.
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Something that's useful, beneficial, building up. If you're an architecture, you design the building, and then if you're the carpenter, you're building it up.
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When we're building up other Christians in this body by the way we talk. 1
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Thessalonians 5 .11 says, Build up one another. And what's one of the best ways to do it? By talking, by speaking.
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And if you notice the passage, it's according to the need of the moment. Now we're all needy people, and this is by the way a side note of a reason to come to church.
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Why do you come to church? To worship? Yes. But other people have needs in their life, and you can come while we fellowship before and after service, and give them the need and meet the need, what they're lacking.
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It's like the person maybe sitting even next to you, in their life now is going through a struggle, and they've got a 500 piece puzzle done, except they've lost one piece.
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Right in the middle. And God has given you that piece. And you give that piece to the other, and they put it in there like,
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Yeah, I really needed that. Maybe it's a rebuke, maybe it's exhortation, maybe it's comfort, maybe it's encouragement.
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And God says when you talk, first of all be careful, and secondly, talk so you can meet the need of someone else.
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And I began to think about this passage, and a while ago I had some in my office about four weeks ago, and I thought to myself,
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Lord, I want to talk and give this person what they need. That's my goal.
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It's not to hear myself talk, it's not to hear myself recite theology in alliterated form. It is,
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I want to talk for them. When's the last time we thought about that? If the Bible doesn't help us, we don't think that way.
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I'm going to talk today to everyone after service. We close in prayer, there's the benediction, and God use me today to fill in that puzzle piece for other
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Christians at this church. I want to talk. Instead of talking about the
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Red Sox, and Schilling, and the Yankees, and all that stuff, that's fine. But we talk for them, because there are hurting people in this church.
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There are people that need to be rebuked at this church, etc. Something needful and necessary that they lack.
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Thirdly, not only should we be careful, needful, but purposeful. This is the motivation here.
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Look at verse 29 at the end. That it may give grace to those who hear. It may give grace.
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You can think about your mouth as a big PVC pipe. Well, don't think about that too much.
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Too detailed. But we are a conduit for the grace of God. God is not on earth now in a bodily form.
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That bodily form is in heaven. That's why when people say, well, I saw Jesus. You did? In a body?
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Well, I thought he was at the right hand of the Father, but that's another story. Jesus isn't on earth now, and so what we do, his children are on earth, his body is on earth, the church is on earth, and we want to talk to other people and speak the words of God.
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What other better way than to be wholesome in our talk and needful and gracious? We are the PVC pipe conduit.
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It was said of Jesus that they wondered of the gracious words that were falling from him.
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Gracious. Speaking for the purpose of others. Ephesians 4 .12
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says, to the building up of the body of Christ. So you can think, this is right along the same lines as the last one.
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What do these other people need when I talk? Turn to Proverbs chapter 24. This is one of those verses that you just zoom by all the time, and it's just a sweet verse.
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When it comes to lips, we can use them to enunciate and to speak, but lips are also good for something else.
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Good for kissing. That's what the Bible teaches, and take a look at Proverbs chapter 24.
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And when someone gives you some good words, and again, it might be a rebuke, it might be,
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I love you brother, but you can't keep going that way. Or it might just be encouragement, I love you, and God's sovereign,
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I've been praying for you. Whatever the words might be, this proverb says, that when you receive those good words, it's just as if somebody gave you a big old kiss.
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You received it just like it's a kiss. Just take a look at the passage, it's neat.
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Proverbs 24 .26, the NAS says, he kisses the lips who gives a right answer.
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King James translates it, every man shall kiss his lips that giveth a right answer. King James says, he who gives a right answer, kisses the lips.
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Boy, this makes a whole new outlook for greet one another with a holy kiss. In those days, it was real kissing.
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So for you legalists out there that don't want to do a lot of kissing, why don't you kiss them with your words? Like somebody just gives you a kiss with just this good word.
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Isn't that a good way to just picture it? Hebrew language is so picturesque. We are to speak edifying words with words that show love.
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God says, be careful what you say, speak words that other people need and speak with a purpose. All right, let's come to the fourth one, the new one now, found in verse 30.
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The next word is personal. Speak in a way that's personal. John Calvin, who is no slouch, theologically said about this verse, no language can adequately express the gravity of this statement.
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This is a verse to memorize. If you'd like practical homework for this week, would you memorize this verse? Ephesians chapter 4, verse 30.
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It will help you. And when you memorize verses, there's something about it that when you're getting ready to sin a certain way,
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God floods your minds with verses. Don't you hate that? No. Don't you love that? How great it is to know so much
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Scripture that you can't sin with pleasure. This is a verse that needs to be memorized.
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A, it's overlooked. B, it is one of those huge Macy's balloons that you just go.
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Say, well, are you going to preach a whole sermon on this verse? It's like the lady who went to Spurgeon and said, you use too much humor.
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She said, you should be glad that I don't use as much humor as I want to use. You only want one sermon. I want to preach two on this.
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I mean, it is so rich. Personal speech. Personal to others, yes, but here is what
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I want to bring across. God is listening. You're speaking to a person. To God.
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Or, I could say it this way, God takes your speech very personally. Now look at the verse in verse 30 and we'll break it down a little bit.
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Ephesians 4, verse 30. And you have to be careful when you break things down when you preach, don't you?
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You could say to your spouse, I love you. I, personal pronoun. Love.
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Self -sacrificial love. You, object of love. You kind of break it down.
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And so we want to break it down and then open it up again so you can see what it says and what it means. And remember, when you study the
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Bible, it's not, well, what does this verse mean to me? It's what does this verse mean to God? What does this verse mean when the author wrote it to the recipients?
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And that's what we want to get into. And then once you learn it, if you say, alright, I haven't learned any practical things today except I know that if I speak incorrectly, it grieves the heart.
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Well, that's enough, but we can talk about more as well. Do you notice the context? How it's not a new thought.
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What's the first word there, both in the original and in your English? And, do not grieve the Holy Spirit. He's tying in the cause and effect.
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He's saying, here's the issue of unwholesome speech and then speaking grace to those who are in need. Being that conduit.
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Careful speech. Needful speech. Purposeful speech. And now there's something in addition. It's linked together.
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It's connected by that conjunction there. And, 1984 big brother,
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George Orwell, big brother's listening. Here it's not big brother, it's Heavenly Father is listening.
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Let me give you several things that you can do in the next few weeks to help you with your speech, if you'd like.
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Number one, it's going to sound strange, but I hope to show you that it's true. How can you be helped in not grieving the
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Spirit of God when you speak? Number one, would you study the Trinity? Would you study the
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Trinity? Say, oh, that's kind of odd. I could put it this way. When's the last time you studied the
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Trinity? Could you articulate what the Trinity is? We live in a world now where there are people on TV all the time that don't even believe in the
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Trinity. And they're number one best sellers. T .D. Jakes does not believe in the Trinity. Gwen Shamblin, way down, does not believe in the
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Trinity. Trinity Broadcasting Network, half the people on there don't believe in the Trinity. Maybe not half, but quite a few.
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The attack of the Trinity. And so, would you study the Trinity? The Father, the Son, and the
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Holy Spirit who is in this very verse. If the
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Trinity is a force, then how can we grieve a force if he's not personal?
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But did you know in the Bible the Spirit of God is used with words not it, but he and him?
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He's a person. The Spirit of God is a person. And you can study on your own that the Spirit of God has a mind, a will, and he has emotions.
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A mind, and will, and emotions. And I think this is very important for our church here at Bethlehem Bible Church.
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Why? Because we don't want to run around and say, well, the Charismatics and they believe in all these things and we're cessationists and we don't go for that and somehow then we have one of those t -shirts that actually exists that has a big dove on it with a kind of no -smoking bar across it with the circle and the big bar so we're walking around going, no
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Holy Spirit. I mean, our church would have the tendency to be that way versus run amok with the excesses of the
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Spirit of God. Mike Horton said this, Do you worship the
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Holy Spirit? How long did it take you to answer, he says.
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Do you have to think about it for a second before answering? It is time we seriously reconsider what we mean when we say in the
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Nicene Creed, I believe in the Holy Spirit who with the Father and the Son is worshiped. The Holy Spirit and the doctrine of the
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Holy Spirit within the Trinity needs to be recovered. The Holy Spirit can be quenched, vexed, blasphemed, lied unto, resisted, but He is not impersonal.
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Sometimes I'm just saying it because if you think of Spirit you think of it, but when you say Holy Spirit you better say He or Him.
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I think in our church we won't overdo the Holy Spirit, but I think we may underdo it much to our chagrin and even the way we speak can be affected.
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Study the Trinity, number two. Remember that your relationship to the Holy Spirit is one of love.
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Study the Trinity, number two. Remember that your relationship to God is one of love. Look at the passage there in Ephesians 4 .30.
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And do not grieve the Holy Spirit. Now it's one thing to make your friend mad, make your spouse mad, but how about if you grieve them?
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The passage there, it's an imperative. It means do not ever grieve the Holy Spirit. Ongoing, continual tense, don't ever grieve or pain or injure the
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Holy Spirit. This word in the Old Testament in Lamentations 1 .22 says, for my heart is sick.
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It's also translated in that same passage, my heart is heavy. In the
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New Testament, the same root for grieve is found in Matthew 19 .22. When the young man heard this statement, the rich young ruler, he went away grieved.
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Matthew 26 .21 They were eating, Jesus said, truly I say to you that one of you will betray me.
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And being deeply, same word, grieved, they each one began to say to another, surely not
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I Lord, to cause mental distress and mental anguish and hurt and pain when we speak improperly, that's what happens to the
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Spirit of God. Martin Lloyd -Jones says, the analogy that we must bear in our minds is obviously this, that our relationship to the
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Holy Spirit is a relationship of love. When a Christian sins, what he should be most conscious of is not so much that he's done what is wrong, and if you don't think about the
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Holy Spirit, that's where it ends. Or even that he has broken God's law, what should really trouble him is this, that he is offended against love.
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Our relationship is now a personal one. And it is because we forget this personal relationship that we get most of our troubles and problems in our
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Christian lives and experiences. God is not up there as this big robotic ice cube in his veins
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God. Eskimo God. God has emotions.
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Now this is a theological study sometime, if you want to study does God have emotions, and if God never changes, how can all these things happen?
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Certainly in the text, let me read you some of the divine emotions that come out in Old and New Testament. Anger, compassion, comfort, delight, displeasure, grief, jealousy, love, rejoicing.
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Certainly on earth, did Jesus not have? He did have all kinds of emotions.
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Hebrews 4 .15 says, we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, share with our feelings.
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God is called in 2 Corinthians 1 .3, the father of mercies, the father of passion in his bowels.
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That's what that means. Phil Johnson writes a great article on the website, if you'd like to read it sometime, email me.
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If God appears to change his moods in the biblical narrative, it is only because from time to time in his dealings with his people, he brings these various dispositions more or less to the forefront.
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God never changes, but when we speak wrong, you can see the text brings it out that he's grieving.
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Showing us all the aspects of his character, but his love is never overwhelmed by his wrath. In other words, he doesn't fly off the hook, you did that, so I'm going to do that in reaction, involuntary retort back.
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No, but God has feelings, God has emotions. Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God.
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And again, I would rather make somebody mad than make somebody hurt. How about you? He says, with your speech, don't hurt
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God. Baptist preacher in England said there's something very touching in this admonition, grieve not the spirit.
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It does not say do not make him angry. A delicate, more tender term is used. Grieve him not. When I commit any offense, some friend who hath but little patience, suddenly snaps asunder his forbearance and is angry with me.
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The same offense is observed by a loving father and he is grieved. You perhaps would not care much if you made one angry without a cause, but to grieve him, even though it were without a cause and without intention, would nevertheless cause you the distress of heart.
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And that's exactly right. Proverbs says, a foolish son is a grief to his mother. Proverbs also says, a foolish son is a grief to his father.
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And a foolish talker is a grief to the Holy Spirit, right? He loves us.
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How can we do that against someone who loves us? That's his point. What's he called?
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Do you notice in your text, Ephesians 4 .30? Number one, study the Trinity. Number two, remember it's a relationship of love.
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Number three, remember how serious sin is. He's called the what spirit? The Almighty Spirit. He's called the great and powerful spirit.
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He's called the merciful spirit. He's called the what?
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Holy Spirit. That's his name. The Holy Spirit. And don't you see the difference? Corrupt speech, the
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Holy Spirit. Unwholesome words, the Holy Spirit. Separate and apart.
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It's like His Majesty, the Holy Spirit. The person of God, the
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Spirit of God characterized by holiness. And you don't understand sin, and neither do I, unless I realize that it's against God and God mainly, right?
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Bathsheba was sinned against by David. Uriah was sinned against by David. And even though those were heinous, horrible sins, when he was praying to God, he said, in comparison to all those sins,
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I haven't even sinned against them, God. I've sinned against You. I've sinned against You and You only.
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By the way, holy just means to separate, to mark off, to cut off. That's why when you hear the word, it's a cut above.
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That's right from the word holiness. It's different. What do you do when you're sinful and God's holy?
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Isaiah 6, 5. Woe is me, I'm unruined. I'm ruined, because I'm a man of unclean lips.
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The first thing he thought about is he said, God, I have to speak for You, and when I see Your holiness, I realize I'm sinful, and it's not even my hands
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I notice, it's not even my feet, it's not even my thought life, it's my what? Lips. And God said,
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I love you. Burn your lips and cauterize the sin right out. If there was an area cordoned around the burning bush where God says, it's holy, take your shoes off, how much more should it be with our tongue?
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If they put a little fence around the bottom of Mount Sinai, and if a cow comes there, he should die, how much more should there be a cordon around our tongue?
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In the Bible, I found holy ground, holy objects, holy temple, holy crown, holy ark, holy mountain, holy
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Jerusalem, holy of holies, holy heaven, the holy habitation, the holy assembly, holy people, and now
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God is saying, speak in a way that's what? Holy. For one sin,
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God said to Adam and Eve, one single solitary sin, out. One single solitary sin, ham, remnant, cursed.
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One single solitary sin, Moses, no promised land. One single solitary sin,
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Elisha's servant, leprosy. One single solitary sin, Ananias and Sapphira.
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One single solitary sin with our mouths causes grief. And if we are called the temple of the
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Holy Spirit, how much more should we reflect who we are? Let's keep reading in the passage.
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Number one, study the Trinity. Number two, it's a relationship in love. Number three, he's holy. Remember how serious that is.
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Number four, look what the Holy Spirit's done. Remember his work, if you want to write something down. Number four, remember his work.
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What has the Holy Spirit done for you? Not what have you done for me lately, but what has he done for you? Think about it.
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Does the Holy Spirit illumine your mind so you can understand Scripture? Yes. Does the Holy Spirit in Ephesians 4 keep the body of Christ unified?
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Don't sin with your tongue because he keeps you unified. Don't sin with your tongue because he lets you understand Scripture.
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Did the Holy Spirit help us even get Scripture? Yes. Don't sin with your mouth because he helped put the
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Bible together and move men. 2 Peter 1. Don't sin with your mouth because he regenerated you and he made you born again.
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Don't sin with your mouth because he convicts you of sin. Don't sin with your mouth because...
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What does the text say? I wouldn't put this down there. I'd put the other ones. I'd say, don't sin with your mouth in the local church because God is a great unifier.
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The Holy Spirit, Ephesians 4. But what does he say? Something that struck me odd.
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He says, don't sin with your mouth and grieve the Spirit of God because he's sealed you.
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He's sealed you. Isn't that amazing? He's branded you.
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He's put his mark of ownership on you. He's said, you know, I'm going to seal you like Daniel's cave back in Daniel and the lion's den.
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The king sealed that cave stone so no one could break it. This possession idea of sealing.
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This ownership idea. And safety idea of sealing. Flip back to Ephesians 1.
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Remember it there? Ephesians 1 .13. Just a couple chapters over to your left. It says in 1 .13,
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you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise. And here, he even says all the more in Ephesians 4 .30.
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He says, you are sealed for the day of redemption. God has made you till the day of glory safe and secure.
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God has protected you. God has owned you. And when you hear that word redemption, what does it mean?
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Just think about even the English word. It was a slave. Slave bought me out of my slavery.
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And now I'm free. So we should think of slave and free. And the biblical analogy is, we're slaves to sin.
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We've sinned all the time. We didn't care about God. God bought us out of the slave pit of sin and redeemed us.
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He set us free. The captives are now free. But always involved in the word redemption is the payment price.
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This person had to buy me out. And what was the purchase price? That's what Paul is getting at.
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The purchase price for you to go to heaven was the blood of Christ. How could we talk in such a way where we're grieving
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God now when you remember the ultimate price? That's what he's after. To be grateful.
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To be conscientious about this whole thing. Our sins are gone. God's protected us. God's taken care of us. He's done everything for us.
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Now, here's a quiz question for you. The rest of our time is going to be here. Can you think of an Old Testament verse that has both grieving and the
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Holy Spirit in it? And what is the context? You may say to me, well, this is about speech, and I know
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I should talk better, but give me some kind of concrete illustration. It's like the guy who was in the office for counseling, and his wife said, he's not considerate.
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And he said, yes, I am considerate. And she said, well, you're not considerate. He said, I am considerate. So the counselor said, well, why don't we get something that's very tangible?
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What do you mean by inconsiderate? Well, he doesn't throw his socks in the dirty hamper. He throws them on the ground. The guy said, all right,
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I'll work on that. Come back a week later. How many times have you been considerate? Yes, I have. No, he hasn't. How many times have you put the socks in the hamper?
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Five times. Yes, but he hasn't put them in there two times. And she said, well, you know, I want something more concrete.
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And then the whole joke was about the socks, who, matter of fact, are very concrete. But you get the point. These dirty old socks were concrete, blah, blah, blah.
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I know I shouldn't have said that. I read a preaching book this week. It says, don't tell jokes in the pulpit. Okay. But something concrete.
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Here comes the concrete. You can take that out of the tape. It's going so good up to this point.
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Old Testament grief and the Holy Spirit. I could find one and only one. And there's a certain sin of the tongue that's there, and it is convicting.
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Why don't we turn to Isaiah chapter 63, verse 9. In the Greek translation of the
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Old Testament, called the Septuagint, it's not the same word for grief, but it's the same idea. Isaiah chapter 63, verse 9.
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The only place that I can find in the Bible where God is totally loved on His people, and they respond in a wrong way where it says
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His Spirit, His Holy Spirit, is grieved. It's an amazing thing.
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Now you think about the correlation. Israel, redeemed by God, taken up out of Egypt.
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He loved His people. They're the objects of God's love. Now we have been redeemed out of the slave pit of sin, and you see a lot of analogies between the redemption of Israel and the redemption that we have in Christ.
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Isaiah 63, verse 9. God has loved them to the end. In all their affliction, He was afflicted.
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Isaiah 63, verse 9. And the angel of His presence saved them. In His love and in His mercy,
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He redeemed them. And He lifted them and carried them all the days of old. If I gave you a New Testament illustration, it would be, and He has sealed you to the day of redemption.
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Verse 10. But they rebelled and grieved His Holy Spirit.
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Therefore, He turned Himself to become... They rebelled and grieved, or greatly upset
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His Holy Spirit. Now I've got this question for you. In what form did the rebellion come?
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What did they do specifically? What did they say? What was the rebellious attitude?
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Or how did it manifest itself through their tongue? What was it? Complaining.
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It was complaining, wasn't it? Here, God has done all this for His people, and He has loved them in His mercy, in His love, and here they rebelled, and they were just ultimate complainers.
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I mean, just listen to this. Talk about hurting someone's feelings. Exodus 15.
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I'm going to go too fast so you can't get there. Exodus 15, verse 23. And when they came to Marah, they could not drink the waters of Marah because they were bitter.
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Therefore, it was named Marah. So the people grumbled against Moses. What shall we drink? You know,
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God has taken them out of Egypt. Exodus 16.
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The whole congregation of the sons of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. Sons of Israel said to them,
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What we had died by the Lord's hand in the land of Egypt when we sat by pots of meats, we ate bread to the full, and you have brought us out in this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.
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Exodus 17. Therefore, the people quarreled with Moses and said, Give us water that we may drink. Moses said to them,
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Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord? But the people thirsted there for water. They grumbled against Moses and said,
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Why now have you brought us up out of Egypt to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst? Numbers 11.
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The people became like those who complain of adversity in the hearing of the Lord. And when the Lord heard it, His anger was kindled, and the fire of the
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Lord burned among them and consumed some of the outskirts of the camp. The people therefore cried out to Moses, and Moses prayed to the
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Lord, and the fire died out. And when the rabble who were among them had greedy desires, and the sons of Israel wept again, saying,
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Who will give us meat to eat? I mean, can you imagine? You were redeemed out of Egypt at the
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Exodus, and now we don't have water. Oh, God, we've got bad leaders. Oh, God. And now God says,
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I'm going to kill a few of you. Here comes a fire down out of heaven, and a few minutes later, it's, Oh, God. And it's so easy for me to look at the
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Israelites, and I go, You big, fat complainers. And then I just go, They were only redeemed temporarily.
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Numbers 14. And why is the Lord bringing us into this land to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become plunder.
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Would it not have been better for us to return to Egypt? For the men whom Moses sent out to spy the land refused and made all the congregation grumble against him by bringing out a bad report concerning the land.
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And now we've went out and checked it out. It's all bad land. On the next day, number 16, all the congregation of the sons of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron, saying,
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You are the ones who have caused us the death of the Lord's people. You just want to shake somebody, don't you?
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Figuratively. 1 Corinthians 10 .10 says, Nor grumble as some of them did.
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Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction. Beloved, may
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I charge you like I've charged this congregation before and tried to charge myself. When it comes to using your language, of course, defamation is bad.
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And slander is bad. And saying words that don't give grace are bad. But certainly does not
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Philippians 2 and James 4 talk about the sin of complaining because you're ultimately complaining against God.
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This wife that you gave me. This job you didn't give me. This health that I have. This and that and the other.
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If God is sovereign, third class conditional, since He is, every complaint is not only against the one you're complaining to, but it's against God.
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And if Israel complained and was chastened and they were redeemed temporally, only how much more than us? And that's exactly what
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God's talking about. And I'm praying for this next year. God, bring us new
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Christians. And you know what's going to happen if God answers that prayer? We're going to have more to complain about this church because we're going to have a bunch of new baby
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Christians. And when you're praying for a brain, no, don't complain about the mud kind of thing. It's like, come on, God.
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I remember one time, the same thing was happening. It was about four or five years ago. I was going through James and it came up to the complaining one.
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It said, don't complain. And between Philippians and James, it says, don't complain this way. And don't complain this way.
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So I preached the whole thing and I said, may it be at this church that if you are going to be a chronic complainer, this be your last day.
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At the door, somebody complained about my message. What?
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Beloved, the complaints against the leadership, the complaints against your fellow people in ministry, the complaints against people who aren't in this church, the complaints against, against, against, against are against God.
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And it hurts him. I complain, you complain.
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We ought not to complain. It is infectious.
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I mean, I used to be in corporate sales and we'd get at sales meetings and they would roll out the new commission program. The word for new translated was smaller.
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Gerrymandering my territory. And then, you know, and I was, here's what
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I would do. I would save and I would go back up to my room and read the Bible every break. And right after lunch, I'd read the attributes of God and I'm like,
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Lord, I can't, I don't want to sin. I don't want to do what all these other people do. And at night, I would go to dinner, but I wouldn't go out for drinks.
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I'd go to the gym. All of a sudden, one of the other guys would say, yeah, this commission program's weak.
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You know how many times I'm going to have to sell to make X amount? And before I knew it, it was just like, yeah, yeah, that is.
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And I was just right in there. And can you imagine the local church too? Oh, we don't do this or we don't like this. And it's just so infectious.
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He sealed us to the day of redemption. We used to do that. We ought not do that anymore.
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It's a bad testimony. Sidetracks the church from her real mission. To get as blunt as I can, listen to this.
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Complaining is really a question. It's questioning God's power. God, you're not almighty.
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Listen to this. Numbers 11 .23, And the Lord said to Moses, Is the Lord's power limited? Now you will see whether my word will come true for you or not.
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Complain, complain, complain, complain, complain. God, you don't have enough power. You don't understand. You haven't walked in my shoes.
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You don't understand my situation. And basically it is saying, God, you're not all powerful. I don't want to say that.
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But I do when I complain. God, you're not powerful enough to take care of all these issues. I mean, think about it this way.
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This is even more in your face. The Lord said to Moses, Numbers 12 .14,
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This is Miriam and her whole thing complaining against leadership. If her father had but spit in her face, would she not bear the shame for seven days?
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Let her be shut up for seven days outside the camp and afterwards she may be received again. Complain, complain, complain, complain to a father.
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The father says to this complaining daughter, I spit in your face. Get out of my face. Out of the town you go for seven days.
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And God said, Miriam, it's like you spitting in my face. You're out of town for seven days. And the great news is for us as Christians, what's the opposite of grief?
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Pleasure. You don't only have to worry about the negative one. Don't greed God with your speech, which includes complaining.
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You can give pleasure to God. Look at Ephesians chapter 4 again. The converse.
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If there's grief, there can be pleasure. We can delight God with our speech. We get together with other
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Christians and we bring them up and we're careful and needful and purposeful. It pleases God. I want to please
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God. I know He's pleased with me, positionally in Christ. But as I walk, I want to be a pleasing vessel for God.
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Piper's new book, Don't Waste Your Life. Who wants to waste your life just complaining? We all get caught up in that and someone says, well, this happened to me.
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And it's almost like built in to our fallen old nature that's not even eradicated all the way where our flesh is still there.
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And we're like, well, you got a bad? I'm one -upping you. It's like an art now. You think you've got a bad? Well, wait until you hear my story.
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We can please God with our speech. Compared to what we deserve, we should be praising
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God all the more. I think one of the reasons why God gives us trouble is because He reminds us this isn't heaven.
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That's always a V8 moment for me. Oh, this isn't heaven. I took a walk yesterday. I was praying. I said, God, you've saved me.
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You've given me the desire in my heart to preach the gospel. I have a wonderful wife who's saved. I got four kids.
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I'm fairly healthy and all these things. I'm like, God, you're the best. Dr. Mayhew has a little section in his book and it's a real letter from a lady.
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I spent one and a half years on a kidney machine before getting a transplant. At first, I did a lot of complaining like everyone else.
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Then one day I stopped all the complaining when I read the account of the crucifixion. In the kidney center, they helped me get out of my coat.
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With Jesus, they stripped off His robe. When entering the kidney center, the nurses would always speak a kind word to me, but Jesus heard, crucify me.
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Sometimes on the machine, I would develop a headache. They would give me something for it and bring me an ice pack for comfort.
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Jesus got a crown of thorns. Sometimes they would bring me juice and ice water, but Jesus got vinegar and gall.
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I laid on a comfortable bed for four or five hours, but Jesus hung on a cross. I hardly felt the needle they put in my arm, but He had nails painfully driven through His hands and feet.
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My blood was cleansed and recirculated, but His ran out on the ground. Jesus had turned my days of complaining into days of praising.
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A careful look into the events that took place that day on Calvary should stop all our complaining, if only we would look in that direction.
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Sealed to the day of our
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Heavenly Father, we need help. Father, we need help as a congregation and individually, and it is so easy to look around and complain about everything from politics to our friends, and we,
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Father, need to have a healthy dose of this verse. In love would you chasten us and reprove us.
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We know you love us when we get that. Father, maybe the reproof is this message. Maybe the reproof is having our friends when we begin to complain stop us.
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Father, help us of this church. God, would it please you to give us 20, 30 new
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Christians in the next year. And Father, with the 20 or 30 new Christians, all their troubles and all their problems and all their dealings with complaining and other issues, but Father, it would be worth it.
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And Father, I pray too that you would help us of this church minister and we might have less time to complain.
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And Father, would you bring this verse to our mind every time we start to say something that would displease you.
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And Father, on the flip side, would you fill our words with praise today, beginning with this lovely storm that you're going to dump on our lap.