in your scheduled plan. It thrills me just watching you walk in the door and pulling into the parking lot. And I'm just, I'm humbled and grateful for your attendance. I love the name of your church. I really do, a Bible church, but it's not just a name. I know this to be true that you are a church that puts total, complete stock in what the Bible says for your life. And it's critical. It's not just in name only. What good are we if we're not following the instructions of the one who designed us and designed our world? And so I'm thankful for that. I'm glad you've come tonight to hear the Bible. In my stumbling, squawking voice to hear it because we all need the Bible. to be taught to us regardless of the quality of a man's voice or whatever the case may be. It's just good to be among God's people. You know, the church is a family, you know that. And the family, we need one another. And we are strengthened by one another and we're helped by one another. We grow together, we weep together, rejoice together, grow together, and all that goes on with being a part of the family of God. If by chance, I mean, I've not said this already, but if by chance you are here and you're not a associate, you're not a member of a Bible teaching, preaching church, I mean this, no one's asking me to say it, you need a church family. You really do. We all do. Not just to bury your loved ones when they pass or marry your kids off. We need what the church gives to one another and we need you as a believer to give what you have as gifted individuals to the rest of the church family. And so it's important that we sing together and have the ministry of music. Rejoice, the Lord is King was the special song. And I love that. I was thinking while she was playing Rejoice, the Lord is King, I was thinking, I'm glad I know who sits on the throne of heaven. and not fret about the White House because I can get pretty disturbed sometimes about all that. And I know who's in charge. I know the one who is, we use this word, who's sovereign. He's overseeing and he is in charge. Anyway, if you're not a member of this church, If you don't even live in this area or whatever the case may be, you need to find a Bible teaching preaching church. But if you do live in this area and you're looking for a church, I think you found one. There's some dear sweet people around here. I've enjoyed having so many good conversations with many of you, overwhelmingly gracious and kind. Hey, this afternoon, excuse me, this morning, I had the privilege of preaching over at the Christian school that's connected with you. And GCCS, is that the initials of that? All right. And I got the joy of preaching to the teenagers over there. We had a great time. We really did. I didn't want to quit. And you're thinking, yeah, that sounds familiar. Yeah, I know. I mean, we just had a great time with the teenagers over there. And it was wonderful. And they listened so intently. It was great. I enjoyed it. Would you take your copy of the Word of God tonight and turn to the letter that Paul, the human author, wrote to the church at Ephesus? Just turn to the book of Ephesians with me tonight. We're gonna part in chapter four, but I do wanna address the whole letter as a whole because it's important that you get the context of what this letter brings to the table. The people at Ephesus were people that had been influenced by the culture of that day. Does that sound familiar? Of course. They were influenced. Seriously, being in a Mediterranean area, they had the Grecian, the former empire of Greece and its emphasis. still spreading among the people. They lived under the domain of the Roman empire. And by the way, you think sometimes you get upset with the American empire, the Roman empire was, it was a mess. Nero the Caesar was a heinous, immoral, godless man. And in his ruling, was just literally, it would have been a difficult time to live. And they didn't even get a chance to, they didn't have the right to vote. They just were told, here is your Caesar. Nevertheless, the people in Ephesus were living under that cultural influence. And as a result of that, here is a church in Ephesus that Paul was instrumental in knowing of its existence, knowing of the people within that church family. And so he writes this letter to them. He's in a prison. It's one of those prison epistles. And in this prison epistle, it is a It is incredible how well distributed this letter has been written. Here's my point. Like a lawyer, Paul declares foundational truths at the beginning of his letter. In the, you got six chapters. The first three chapters are very doctrinal in nature. Who we are, I love this, in Christ. And he speaks about all the privileges that we have to be in Christ. You know, if someone is filled with troubles and anxiousness and they sense that they're, and we live in this kind of a day, people feeling as if they don't have much value, you may sometimes feel that way. feeling as if there's no worth to your life. Nobody seems to care about you and so forth. I'm not saying this of any individual tonight, but we live in a day in which it is. driven down our throats to take mind-altering drugs, mind-numbing drugs. I'm not against medicine or medical professionals. My point is the answer that some people look for is found in a pill to just kind of dull your senses. Well, in the first three chapters of this letter, Paul tells you how blessed we are. We are in the heavenlies. What does that mean? We're in the presence of the Lord. Let me think. All the time. We're never out of His gaze. He never looks away from us. We are in His presence. It's not like when you accept Christ as Savior, you walk down the hall and you get to meet God the Father, and after, oh, a few minutes there in His presence, you think, okay, I guess maybe I need to leave now because, I mean, this is God. Maybe I can come back from time to time. No, no, no. You are seated together in the heavenlies right there with him at all times. You are of great worth. You are of great value. We need you. This world needs you. And Paul is declaring to these people that it all took place by a Sealing, that is like the sealing of an envelope. You moved into a relationship with God and you were sealed by the Holy Spirit. The second set of chapters, chapters four through six, are more practical in nature. The first three are more doctrinal. in nature, teaching oriented. The last three chapters are more exhortive in nature. It's like this. It's like a builder who lays a foundation, who now starts building the walls and the and the structure on that foundation. Paul says, because all of this is true, therefore, this ought to be flushed out in your life. This ought to be evident in your life. Now, wait a minute. That doesn't mean that there's no practical in the first three chapters, but it leans more toward the doctrinal. Nor does it mean that there's no doctrine in the last three chapters. It leans more toward the practical. And if I've not lost you by now, and if you're not bored to tears now, We need to get into the passage. You say, okay, you're in chapter four. Is that what you said, Morris? Yes. Okay, so good. We're going to just have practical, practical, practical. No, I'm going to stay true to the instruction and the guidance of this particular letter. We need to see the doctrine so we can therefore make the application. Looking at chapter four, would you pick it up with me in verse 29? where Paul is exhorting and teaching, and he says, let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister or serve grace unto the hearers. Here comes some doctrine. and grieve not the Holy Spirit of God. Then he refers back to something he had said way back in chapter one, whereby you are sealed unto the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice and be ye kind. one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you. Be ye therefore followers or imitators of God, as dear children, and walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor." Verse 15. See then that you walk circumspectly, not as a fool, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time because the days are evil. Wherefore, be ye not unwise, that is, don't be foolish, but understanding what the will of the Lord is. And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to yourselves in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God. Maybe you've walked into a retail store like a Walmart or a big general store like this and you've seen up on the local communication board, a cork board that's advertising upcoming events in the community and advertisements for some particular, maybe a magazine subscription you can take and so on and so forth. You may have seen some pieces of eight and a half by 11 pictures and up there on the board, usually of a child, maybe a teenager asking this question. Have you seen this child? Have you seen this person? Sometimes I've seen even an adult up there, but primarily it's a child. Have you seen this child? And underneath the picture will be a small description. They'll give their birth date so that you can figure out, okay, this is a nine-year-old boy. Last seen in Philadelphia, New York City, Atlanta, Georgia, Houston, whatever. Last seen wearing a green T-shirt, blue jeans, and wearing a ball cap, blonde hair, green eyes, goes by this name. You know, sometimes I've stopped to look at those pictures. We kind of walk right by them. We've got other obligations, and we almost don't even think about it. It's frightening, is it not, to think about some youngster that has been kidnapped, that's missing? It's gone away. It's always huge, big news when a child has been relocated and reinstated with their parents. I mean, that's big news. You know, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children are trying to make us aware that there are many, many children that have been kidnapped and taken away. And sometimes you get an Amber Alert on your phone or somewhere else telling you that someone has been kidnapped and taken away. It is a disturbing thing. You know, I don't think my mom had to watch every car drive by our street when I played out in the front yard when I was a boy. You know, like I'm sure moms have to be aware these days of everything. Maybe you're one of those moms who, when you're a kid, you've gone shopping with your little munchkin in some store, you've got one of those bands on your wrist and connected to it is a A bungee cord leash is primarily what it is because on the other end of that cord is another wristband, usually attached to a boy. But anyway, that mother is trying to stay connected because that boy, when they get in the store, he wants to take off and look at candy and toys and whatever he can and take off running, singing, free at last, free at last. And the mom just kind of gives a jerk to it. And like an animal, he's brought back under control. Maybe you've had one of those kind of kids, and you've had to keep them under control. All right? I understand. I understand. Have you ever misplaced something, misplaced your glasses, and you go, has anyone seen my glasses? Yeah, I've seen them. Where are they? On top of your head. You took them off when you got them up there. Oh, yeah, there they are, right up there. Or you can't find your favorite ballpoint pen. You say, anybody seen my ballpoint pen? Yeah, no, I hadn't seen it. Ran over it with the lawnmower. I don't know, but I hadn't seen it. Sometimes you can't find your car keys. Sir, don't punch your wife in the side. I mean, she gets lost in her purse. It's down in there. Sometimes you can't find your car. You go shopping so long or something, you can't remember where you parked. You've been one of those people walking around the parking lot with your key fob saying, talk to me, car. Where are you? I can't find you. I've been there. I've joined it, that crowd before. You know, sometimes it's something that you can laugh at and just endure the misplacement of something that is of value, something that is... Am I losing battery strength up here? I feel like I'm going in and out there. Okay. Sometimes it's frustrating when you misplace something. It would be frightening to lose a child. But Paul is trying to declare something to us as God's people that is of a more somber Burden and a graver Subject matter when he says back in chapter 4 if you look at it with me again in verse 30 he says a connecting word and that means it connects with the pre the past verse and Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God What's he saying there? He's saying, do not live in such a way that the Holy Spirit, the one who has sealed you. Can I say something parenthetically here really quickly? Do not ever look at the Holy Spirit as someone who is an it. He is a unique person of the Godhead. He is a co-equal with God the Father and God the Son. and he moves in the moment you accept Christ as Savior. The Bible calls it being baptized in the Holy Spirit, immersed in the Spirit of God. He moves inside, and He is there permanently. If you'll notice verse 30 again, look at it in chapter 4. Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby you have been sealed unto the day of redemption. The word sealed there is a word that means a transaction has taken place. Like a man says who's a businessman, we sealed the deal. We closed the deal. We sold the car, we sealed the deal. A transaction's taking place. We're talking about salvation. A transaction that takes place between us and God the Father. We've accepted Christ's work, his redemptive work on the cross. Not only has there been a transaction, there's been a transfer of authority. I'm no longer running my life. I have surrendered my life over to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. this transfer of authority, and it is total security. You and I have been sealed. You cannot lose eternal life. Your fellowship may be broken, but the relationship will never be broken. You are in the family of God. Paul talks about it being adopted into the family. All right. But we can grieve the Holy Spirit. You say, well, what do you mean? You know what the word grieve means. I was talking to some dear friends here just a moment ago about the loss of loved ones. You know what it is to grieve the loss of a parent? Some families grieve the loss of the family pet. And they have a little funeral out in the backyard, burying Fluffy out there in the backyard. I get it. You know what it means to grieve? It's a human quality that everybody in this room understands. Notice this is a human quality that's been given to the Holy Spirit of God. It's an anthropomorphism if you want a theological term. Here's the point. Paul is simply saying quit grieving the Spirit of God. What's he talking about? He's giving us doctrinal principles. Is he saying that that we can come out of that relationship with God? No, no. He just goes on to say you've been sealed. It's a permanent, eternal salvation. But you can't grieve him. What does that mean? We can live in such a way. Now, please hear my whole statement. We can live in such a way that it is as if the Holy Spirit becomes a missing person. Oh, he's still there. But he's been grieved. He has been pushed aside. He's not being listened to. He's been ignored. He has been unheeded. He has been disobeyed. A harmonious passage that Paul writes to the church in Colossae, he says in Colossians 3 and verse 15, he says, he says, let the peace of God rule in your hearts. In that same passage, he talks about being under the control of the Holy Spirit, and he's saying there, through the work of the scriptures, let the peace of God rule in your hearts, and the word rule there is the word that we get the English, it gets translated in our English language, the word referee. You know what a referee does? A referee gets in the way and makes my cowboys lose to the Eagles far too many times, I'm just telling you, all right? I gotta keep you away somehow. A referee keeps order on the field. What does he do? He blows the whistle when someone steps out of bounds. He blows the whistle when there's been an infraction of the rules. And he's under the authority of somebody up in New York who, if there's a real question, they've got it on video and they're watching it. He's just fulfilling the rule book. And the Holy Spirit is our referee who blows the whistle when you and I step out of bounds. It's like this. A man says something to his wife in the middle of a discussion. He raises his voice. He says something that he firmly believes, but he has spoken harshly to his wife. And he goes back and sits down in the recliner and he pops on the TV and he starts looking at ESPN, trying to see what's happening. And the whole time he's watching, He's got a whistle going off on the inside of him. The referee is saying, Morris, you didn't talk right to your wife, and you have a choice to make. You listen to him and go make it right, or you grieve him. You ignore him, and it is as if he is a missing person. Paul told us in chapter one that we have been sealed. Here in chapter four, he tells us don't grieve the Spirit of God. And in chapter five, verse 18, could you look at that once again? He says, be not drunk with wine, which is debauchery, that's excess, it's a messed up life, but be filled with the Spirit. Now don't get nervous. Don't start thinking, oh, good. He's gonna start talking about things, about being filled with the Spirit. Friends, we're not talking about anything that's spooky here. Don't let the joy boys on TV confuse you about what the Bible teaches about the filling of the Holy Spirit. You say, Morris, have you ever seen this guy? He raised his hands to the crowd, he waved at them, and they all fell back. I believe he was filled with the Spirit. Yeah, he was filled with the Spirit, but it wasn't holy, all right? I'm just telling you. You say, Morris, I think being filled with the Spirit, that's when I get more of God, right? No, sir. No, ma'am. To be filled with the Holy Spirit means He gets more of you. If I took a baseball glove down here and threw it down there on the middle of the aisle there, and I took a baseball and I threw that baseball at that glove, it's not going to roll over and snatch the ball out of the air. Why? It's without life. It can do nothing on its own. But, If Brother Ben over here comes out over here, and I'm just making an assumption, and he fills the glove with his hand, and then I throw the ball at him, he can catch it, I hope. You know, he can go up, he can go down, he can go from left to right, he can move around. Why? Because he's in control of the glove. Jesus said, it is the spirit who quickens, who makes alive. But without me, You can do nothing. And so Paul is telling people like, excuse me, you and me be filled with the spirit. Don't go out of line and say, Oh, I need a zap from heaven. No, it's a matter of saying, God, I want you to be in the control room. I want you to be in the driver's seat of my life. I don't want to grieve you. Did you have two kids growing up in your home in which, as I described my sister on Sunday night, where one older sibling is trying to control the younger one, and the younger one will many times say, you're not my mother, la la la la, I'm not listening to you, la la la la. Don't look at me like you had angels in your family, you know what I'm talking about. The Bible is saying don't do this. to the Holy Spirit. You say, now, Morris, I would never do that. Okay, then let me ask you something. Why would a church here in Ephesus be told and commanded to not do that if it's not possible? And why are we told to be filled with the Spirit as a command unless there are times in which we are not filled with the Holy Spirit? Now, I'm going somewhere with all of this, I promise. We're gonna turn the corner and start putting on some clothes on the flesh. Go back to chapter five and look at verse 18. Look at the end of verse 18. He simply says, but be filled with the spirit. Would you help me out tonight? Do you have a period at the end of verse 18? No. Why? Because this is one of those Pauline lengthy sentences. The sentence is not over. It flows right into verse 19. Speaking to yourselves in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. Stop right there. I don't have a picture for you to put by all the doors that you may exit tonight. No one could come up with the picture of the Holy Spirit. put it on a piece of paper, put him on that piece of paper, and then ask the question like he's a missing person. Have you seen the Holy Spirit? I can't do that. But biblically tonight, I want to ask you something, child of God. Have you seen the Holy Spirit? And I'm not being spooky. Have you seen the Holy Spirit in your marriage? Have you seen the Holy Spirit in the way in which you raise your kids or influence your grandkids? Have you seen the Holy Spirit in the way in which you teach your Sunday school class or any class you may teach? Have you seen the Holy Spirit in your influence upon other people, your respective ministries? Have you seen the Spirit of God using you to reflect Jesus Christ? Because that's why He's been given. Have you seen the Holy Spirit use you at work influencing other people? Have you seen the Holy Spirit in your moral choices of life and what you choose to do? You say, I don't know, preacher. What am I looking for? Well, on a practical basis, this is not exhaustive, but notice what Paul simply declares. He comes right out of verse 18, saying, be under the control of the Holy Spirit, and he kicks right into verse 19, and he tells us, first of all, when he's in control, number one, you get a new song. That's what he says. Oh, you say, okay, so you're going to preach to us and teach us on what kind of music we should and should not listen to? No, sir. No, ma'am. That's not my role tonight. Now, there may be a time for someone else to teach on that. But that's not my purpose tonight. In fact, you may be forgetting something that's first stated in verse 19. Look at it with me again. He says at the very beginning of verse 19, speaking to yourselves. And that's the old Elizabethan English. Let me just tell you what it's saying there. It's saying talking to one another. Remember, he's talking to the church. interacting with people in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs that doesn't mean I walk up to you and go hey how you doing amazing grace how sweet to sound huh how about that and you come back and say yeah boy blessed assurance Jesus is mine now I guess there's nothing wrong with that be kind of weird would it not No, that's not what he says, interacting with one another with psalms and hymns. What's he saying? He's saying this. Here we go. Let me put it on the bottom shelf. Ready? Your life is a song. You have a song, joyful disposition. You're someone who is enjoyable to be around. You're not filled with sadness. You have joy to your life. You're not easily depressed with life. You ever read a Winnie the Pooh book and been introduced to Eeyore? Boy, you didn't come to church not to hear that, did you? Are you like that individual pigpen on a Peanuts cartoon that always walks around with a cloud of dust hanging over him? You know, some people, it's said of some people, I'll tell you what, they light up the room when he walks in the room. You ever heard that about somebody? They just light up the room. Some people light up the room when they leave the room, you know? They take the darkness with them. Have you seen the Holy Spirit at home? Or is there a lack of joy in your home? In your marriage? Have you seen the Spirit of God marking your interaction with people with joy, with peace, pleasantness? And it's not phony. It's legitimate. Did you know the first churches in the book of Acts were known for a number of things? Were they not? They were known as people of great power. I mean, people couldn't understand what makes these people tick. I mean, they have an unusual power and they're just simpletons. They're just from the other side of the tracks. They're just a bunch of Galileans. That's what they were known for. And yet, they have great power. And they were also known for great wisdom. Where'd they get this knowledge? Where did they learn these things? Where'd this come from? You go read the book of Acts. They're not just known, these early people, early believers, these early churches, were not just known for great power and great wisdom. Friends, they were known for their great joy. You couldn't snatch it away from them. Everywhere they went, they had joy. And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' teaching and in prayers and in breaking of bread and in fellowships. And they ate their bread with gladness. And they departed from the presence of the council rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name. And there was great joy in that city of Samaria when the gospel came there. And the Ethiopian eunuch, after he was baptized, went on his way rejoicing. When Paul wrote the church at Philippi, he told them, get your joy back. What's happened to you? Are you a joyful person? Yeah, but Morris, have you seen the news lately? No, I really hadn't, but I understand the point. Have you seen the rising cost of bacon? What are we going to do? Well, I don't know. I'd do without something else. I don't want to stop eating bacon. I just, I love it too much. I don't know. Are we going to allow that to take away our joy? Have you seen the Holy Spirit? Speaking to yourselves in Psalms and hymns, you say, but Morris, how about the types of music we should listen to? Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's being taught here. But if I could talk you into a certain kind of music, somebody else could come along and talk you out of it and make you listen to another kind of music. I'm not here to do that. I'm here to tell you tonight, listen to the Holy Spirit. Before you crank up a song on your CD player or your downloads, why don't you stop and say, Spirit of God, blow the whistle. referee in my heart, let me know if I'm listening to something I shouldn't listen to. But before you even get to the part about what kind of music you listen to, is your life filled with a new song? Do people find in you something that they're looking for? When your problems are bigger than God, then you're going to lose your joy. And you won't enjoy life and you can't understand why others do. Paul was telling this church, be filled with the spirit. And the first thing he said was, let your life have a new song to it. Let there be a delight to your life. Let other people see that your life has been changed. But would you look at the end of verse 19? Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing, making melody in your heart to the Lord. Did you notice there's still not a period? Why? Because the sentence flows right into verse 20. Now we're gonna, I'm gonna kick it into high gear, but we've got a lot of ground to cover here. Look at verse 20, he says, giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. The sentence still isn't over, submitting yourselves one to another in fear of God, period, finally. Not only do we get a new song, he says you're giving thanks. Let me just tell you point blank what he's saying. You also get a new speech. When the spirit of God's in control, you're going to talk different. You get new music, your life is filled with music, and you get a new mouth. Hey, wait a minute. It reminds me about what we just read back in chapter four. Would you look back at chapter four? What did he say there in verse 30? Grieve not, wait a minute, and what does that mean? Well, any grammarian will tell you it's connected to the previous statement. So you gotta go back to verse 29. Verse 29 says, let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but let it be that which is good to the use of edifying, building up, that it may minister or serve grace unto the hearers. and stop grieving the Holy Spirit of God. You get a new way of talking. Have you seen the Holy Spirit? You say, well, can you be more specific? Not only can I, the scriptures are. Let me tell you what's gonna happen when the Holy Spirit has moved in like a hand in a ball glove. When he's sitting behind the wheel, the driver's seat of your life, he's in control of your home, he's in control of your being, your testimony, your interactions with people. Here's what's gonna happen. First of all, and we may not get much further than this, there will be no negativity. Uh-oh. You say, nega what? Negativity. Back in chapter five, what did he say? He said, giving thanks, being grateful. Son, I'm telling you, you can't get more practical than this. He's saying here that when God is in control of my life and your life, my mouth is gonna communicate gratitude and thanksgiving. What is the opposite of gratefulness and thanksgiving? Spectrum comes all the way over to ingratitude, not thankful. Griping. When the spirit of God's in control, there's no negativity. Ready? There's no griping. Now you may be quietly in your heart sitting there going, I didn't come to church tonight to hear you talk about don't gripe. Don't sit there and gripe in your heart as I preach on the sin of griping. There's something about being an American, is it not? We almost think it's a part of the preamble to the Constitution. We the people have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, I agree, and to gripe. I don't know, but from page one to page last, I can't find any place where the Lord God approves of a griping, murmuring tongue. Can I show you how you can take away the spirit of God's presence in your home? complain a lot. I'm not a marriage counselor, but I'm gonna tell you what marriage counselors will say. They will say, when a husband and wife and a wife and a husband stop expressing gratefulness for one another, you're ripping down the boards of a healthy home. You say, well, he knows, I appreciate him. Has the Holy Spirit spoken to you about expressing that? Like a plant that responds to water, we all respond to gratefulness. It's easy to complain. It comes out of us, and I use this word on purpose, naturally, in the flesh. We gripe. But when we are supernatural, filled with the Spirit, we won't be griping. We gripe about traffic. Where'd these cars come from? Same place you came from. You know, work, school, home, restaurants, place of business, whatever. Why won't this light turn green? I've been sitting here for about an hour and a half. When's it going to turn? And then when the light finally does turn green, the car in front of you won't go. They're up there checking their phone, finding out if somebody's kid is sneezing yet, you know, looking at pictures. And you're going, come on, let's go. You sit in a restaurant and your water glass or Dr. Pepper glass gets a little low, and you go, where is that waitress? If she thinks I'm gonna give her a good tip, she better get on over here. Boy, you know, we really got it bad, don't we? Our water glass runs low. You ever gone to a third world country? We are wealthy people. And we allow the simplest of things cause us to start griping. Griping's a sin. The children of Israel wandered in the wilderness for 40 years. Why? Well, they committed idolatry. They committed adultery, and they murmured. You say, what does murmur mean? Well, just listen to the word, murmur. It kind of explains itself, murmur. And I'm not trying to sound like a frog. It's griping. Judas Iscariot in John chapter 12 walked into the house where Mary was and who'd broken open the precious box of ointment and poured it over the feet of the Lord Jesus and was wiping his feet with her hair. And he said, why was this great waste made? We could have sold this and given the money to the poor. John declares that Judas didn't care for poor people. He cared for himself because he held the money satchel. And there were other people who joined in with the griping. I don't know about you, but I don't want to stand along with Judas Iscariot. I don't want to be a murmuring group of people wandering around the wilderness like the people of Israel. Griping's a sin. Our focus is completely off of everything that God has done for us that is good. Look, man, I was a youth pastor for 20 years in two different churches, a youth pastor. I loved teenagers. I love them to death. I preach at summer camps every summer all over this country. I enjoy being around them. But I'm going to tell you something, you can have the greatest of activities. You can have kids out there running around chasing a big ball and running around with all kinds of crazy games, but you'll always have two or three kids off to the side saying, I'm not going to play this game. I said, why aren't you going to play? Come on, everybody said, it's a dumb game. I'm not going to play. Well, look at those 180 people out there playing this so-called dumb game. Yeah, well, they're dumb too. I don't want to play this game. Well, what are you going to do? I'm just going to sit here and pick grass. And usually they can convince somebody to sit there with them. I'd take a busload of kids to a McDonald's at the end of an activity, and some kid on that bus would go, oh, McDonald's. I hate McDonald's. I'd say, well, what do you like? I like Burger King. Oh, like there's a world of difference between those two places, you know. I mean, really? Come on. And the same kid, a month later, I'd pull the bus up in front of Burger King, and the same kid would go, I hate Burger King. I thought you liked Burger King. That was last month. I don't like it anymore. What do you like now? I like Wendy's, you know? Where'd those kids learn to gripe? Ouch. They learned from their own flesh, but they learned at home. They learned from the masters. Not only can you destroy a sweet home, friends, you can destroy a sweet church by finding fault. Is there a place to ask questions? Oh, obviously. Hat in hand and say, I just got a question about this. But when your tone and your life, and I don't know of any problems, but if your spirit, your inner man attitude is one of griping and complaining, you're not seeing the Holy Spirit in action. Number one, there's no negativity. Number two, there's no vulgarity. Now, I don't know that I need to preach this, but it's in the text, so I got to present it. Look at chapter four and look at verse 29. Let no, here it comes, corrupt communication come out of your mouth. The word corrupt is the word that means vile, obscene. It is the idea of that which is rotten. And the correct, or the way in which this sentence was written was, every word rotten out of your mouth, not let come. And Paul is saying, quit allowing obscene, uncalled for vulgarities come out of your mouth. Does anyone in this room need this? I don't know. I'm just telling you in the text. God's people are being told that when the Spirit of God is being listened to, and He's not being grieved, there'll be no vulgarity coming out of your mouth. No negativity, no vulgarity, no cursing. You say, well Morris, I grew up around cursing mouths, and I heard it all the time, and it's just kind of stored in there, and it just, it comes out of me. I can't help it. Yeah, I got it. You say, I work around people that when they get mad, they just blow up and they start using those words and so I hear it and next thing I know when something goes wrong, it comes out of me. I can't help it. Exactly. You can't help it. But you have the Holy Spirit who blows the whistle the moment those words are about to come pouring out of your mouth. And you take holy words of Scripture, important words of Scripture, like the subject of hell and use it as an expletive. There's no room for that. Have you seen the Holy Spirit in your mouth? He changes the way we live our life. He changes our song. He changes our speech. There's no negativity. There's no vulgarity. The next, there's no hostility. Look at verse 30 again, grieve not the Holy Spirit of God. Verse 31, let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice. Okay, the word wrath there is the word that means the explosive outburst, like a volcano. You know what I'm talking about. The word anger, how is that different from wrath? The word anger is the slow burn. the seething, the steaming, the stewing on the inside. I'd describe them like this. There's blowing up, and then there's clamming up. There's just a... If I say something, I'm going to say something I shouldn't say, so I'm just not going to say anything at all. Like that's honorable? When the Holy Spirit's in control, there's no steaming, stewing, There is no anger. There's no hostility. Then he uses the word clamor, which means yelling. You get mad and you start screaming and someone says, don't yell. I'm not yelling. They can't even hear themselves. Their veins are coming out of their neck. Charles Spurgeon said that when we lose our temper, it's temporary insanity. What was he talking about? He was saying there are times in which you blow up and say something, and later on when you calm down, you go, did I say that? Boy, I can't believe I said that. Where did that come from? It's like temporary insanity. When things get shook up in you, If I took a bottle of water and put it up here on the pulpit and began to violently shake this pulpit, which I can't, but if I shook this pulpit and in a big way, what was in that glass, it would come out. The water would come out. Well, when your life gets shook up and things don't go the way you want it to go, I've already dealt with the subject of griping. The scriptures have. Does explosive outburst come out of you? You don't raise kids that way. You don't have a joyful marriage that way. You don't conduct your testimony in front of everybody else that you work with and come in contact with with this kind of a testimony. When the Holy Spirit's in control, there's no hostility. How often do you lose your temper? Do you use anger to get people to do the things you want them to do? Can anyone approach you without you blowing up? Can anyone talk to you about something that may be of a sensitive nature? Do people walk on eggshells on particular subject matters around you because they've seen you? You say, Morris, you keep preaching on it. You're about to find out. Yeah, I know. I know. I'm preaching to myself as much as to anyone else in this building. We've been there. When the spirit of God's in control, there's no hostility. Don't grieve the spirit of God. Let all anger and wrath and yelling and evil speaking, which is blasphemy, be put away from you with all malice. What's malice? Wishing for the hurt and harm of somebody else. You might never commit homicide, but we commit verbicide and we attack someone's character. We go after them. Do you try to intimidate your children to be obedient? Do you go after your husband to make him become what you think he ought to become? To every young person in this room tonight, do you talk to your parents with harsh tones? Are you slow to obey and you come, you roll your eyes back in your head and slam the door of your room as if to say, my parents. There's no Holy Spirit control in any of that. He that is soon angry dealeth foolishly. Be not hasty in your spirit to be angry, for anger rests in the bosom of a fool. A Spirit-controlled individual has no negativity, no griping, no vulgarity, no cursing, no hostility, No losing your temper. One more thing. There's no animosity. Go back to chapter four with me and notice what he said in verse 31. I skipped over a word. Let all, here it comes, bitterness be put away from you. The subject matter of being bitter and holding a grudge truly calls for its own time, its own sermon on its own. I'm just trying to give an overall view of what these passages are telling us tonight. But you can't be honest with the text without describing the subject matter of bitterness, animosity. Let all bitterness be put away from you. Let me just cut to the chase. Is there someone who's hurt you? Your family. Someone you love, your church. And you can't forgive them. There's bitterness down in the depths of your soul. At the very mention of somebody's name, the proverbial smoke comes out the nose and the ears. It changes your disposition. There's bitterness. You say, but Brother Morris, you don't know what that person did to me. No, of course I don't know. Nor is the Bible excusing abuse. Do not misinterpret what's being said here tonight. There's no excuse. There's no flippancy. There's no treating trivially abuse. But I'm gonna tell you the worst cancer that will eat you alive, and that's the cancer of an unforgiving, bitter spirit. You say, but they need to know that they hurt me. Okay, is that what the Lord was talking about when he said, vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord? You say, but they've never asked for forgiveness. Yeah, can I give you a human example? In the Old Testament, there was a guy that you all admire. His name was Joseph, mistreated by his older brothers, sold off into slavery for death purposes. He got down into Egypt and 22 and a half years later, his brothers walk in the door and they bow down, not knowing the man they're bowing to is Joseph. And when Joseph says to them, I am Joseph, Is my father alive? The Bible makes his statement. And the brothers could not speak unto him, for they were fearful in his presence. I feel like writing in the margin my Bible. No kidding. He has the authority to chop their heads off. He could have done it. And they said, Joseph, you want to know about father, if he's alive, how about us and are we going to be alive much longer? Oh, brethren, he said, come here, come here. What does Joseph convey? He conveys, I forgave you long ago. I'll prove it. Let me introduce you to my two sons. Manasseh, you know what Manasseh means? Forgetting. His firstborn son was named Manasseh, meaning I'm going to just forget the mistreatment that brought me down here to Egypt. And my second son, his name's Ephraim, which means fruitful. Joseph said, my life is fruitful because I forgave you a long time ago. And what you meant for evil, God turned it around for good. Is there somebody you need to forgive tonight? You say, well, they need to know what they did to me. Maybe they already know, but why don't you back out of the way and let God do it? There's not a person in this room who's not been hurt. There's not a person in this room who won't be hurt again. And yet the truth is. You can become a person that's literally tied up in a spider web of unforgivenesses. There are some husbands and wives, they would say, I don't believe in divorce. And so they endure life together. They don't enjoy life because they've got a web of unforgivenesses toward each other. Have you seen the Holy Spirit? Let all bitterness be put away from you. Well, what am I supposed to do? Okay, I'm just a delivery boy. Look at verse 32. And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another. You say, I don't know how to do it. Paul figured that was what we would say. So he said this, even as God for Christ's sake has forgiven you. Oh, has anyone done anything to you and to your family, to your loved ones? that would come anywhere near the amount of grief that you've brought to God for all of your sin, then we have to forgive, even as God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you. The Spirit of God can either be grieved and not listened to, or we can be under His control. You get a new song. Your life, you're a delight to be around. And you get a new speech. No griping, no negativity. No cursing, no vulgarity. No blowing off your temper. No hostility. And no bitterness. No animosity. I was preaching at a Christian camp. A few years ago, I love the privilege of doing that in the summer months. And I had just preached the opening service on Monday night. After the service was over with, I was making my way back to the truck to go back to my room that had been given to me. And it was dark outside, and as I was walking in the parking lot, all of a sudden I heard the voice of a young lady. She said, hi, welcome back. And who it was was one of the counselors, one of the camp counselors. That means she was a college age young lady and she had her little flock of about eight girls that were in her cabin with her. And she came up, she goes, welcome back. And I said, hey, it's good to be back. How you doing? And I turned and I looked and I thought, whoa, I had not seen her in the service. My first thought was, you are a camp counselor? You say, why would you say that? Because I knew this girl. I'd had a talk with her a few years back. She looked up at me with a smirk and a smile, and she said, I bet you you didn't think I'd ever be a counselor, did you? I didn't want to say, yeah, boy, man, is that the, I didn't want to say that. I just simply said, well, what's going on? Tell me about it. She said, do you remember the last time we talked? I said, I do. She said, it was three summers ago. I said, has it been that long? She goes, yeah. She said, I was a camper here at this camp. I said, I remember. She said, do you remember what we talked about? I said, I do. Why? She was one of the angriest girls I'd ever been around as a teenage girl. She was full of rage and anger. She pounded the desk or table that we were sitting at. And she said, and she wasn't talking about her parents, but she was talking about some other people elsewhere. And she said, they've hurt me and my family. And with hot tears coming down her face, she said, I will never forgive those people for what they did. I just let her talk. When she finally gave me a chance to speak, I took her back to the cross of Calvary. The answer's always in the gospel of Jesus Christ. I took her back to the cross, and I reminded her how much she had been forgiven as a believer, which she said she was, and she was. And then I told her the story of Joseph, just like it did you. And after I told her that three years ago, I said, let me pray for you. I prayed quietly for her and I said, God, help her to get over this anger and bitterness, it's gonna destroy her. I got up from the table and I said, I'll be praying for you. I turned and walked away and left her. And here I am three years later, she's a camp counselor and she said, didn't believe I'd ever be here, did you? And she said, I couldn't wait to see you again to tell you something. She said, when you walked away from me that day, I couldn't get over how much I have been forgiven. As I thought about what Christ did for me, and then I thought about Joseph, he could do it. Who am I to be so filled with rage? And she said, I just, I forgave him. And she said, it's not been an easy journey, but I let it go. And she said, I would have to go back and remind myself I've forgiven those people because forgiveness is usually a process. And she goes, I let it go. I said, I'm so happy for you. You have to take my word for this. For the whole week of camp, this was incredible. I watched that counselor. When she sang with all the other college age kids, She glowed, she had a big smile on her face the whole time. She played a musical instrument, and so she would play that instrument during the camp services with a smile on her face. When she would play games with her girls out there in the competition, she would run around, always had a big smile on her face. She just glowed. And she didn't have to, but she just did. While I was preaching every night, she just sat there with a big glowing smile. You could just see her glowing during the service. I've seen her more than once since then. She's still a glow for the Lord. You know what I saw in her that week? I saw the Holy Spirit who changed her. No, I'm not saying you walk around with a continual smile. Nothing wrong with that. But there ought to be a genuine presence of God in your life and in mine. You have a new song and you have a new speech. Do you need to talk to the Lord tonight? Let's bow our heads for prayer. No, I don't have a picture. I don't have a picture of the Holy Spirit, but we have a Bible description of what happens when the Holy Spirit's in control. You know, friends, all exhortation from the scriptures is more than just teaching. I love that. But teaching or slash preaching of that which has been taught demands A decision, it calls for a verdict. What are you gonna do with what Paul told us? More importantly, what the Lord told us. It's not between you and me. It's not between you and your fellow congregants. It's between you and your Lord. And if the Holy Spirit sat down beside you tonight and began to speak to you about what's in this passage, then would you talk to your Lord tonight? In a moment, we'll stand. In a moment, I will pray. And after that, the music will begin. And I'm going to ask you as God's people to find a place to seek the Lord. You may want to just stay seated. You may want to get on your knees. You may want to find some open space to just talk to the Lord. And don't worry about anybody else in this building. You take care of things with you and the Lord tonight if you need to. and let the spirit of God be evident in every walk of our life. Would you stand with me if you're physically able? All over the room. If you'd like to stay seated and pray, feel free to do so. I'm gonna pray. After I pray, the music will begin. You need to talk to your Lord tonight. Find that place to seek his face. Take time with him. Thank you for your patience tonight. We've been here for a little bit of time. Let's be honest with our God. And let's talk to Him about what He's talked to us about. Father, I pray together with these, my friends, that you'll help each one of us to be responsive to you. I pray with all of my being that you'll help others to see the Spirit of God in control of our lives. May there not be any disingenuineness to us, but may we sincerely be under your control. May we listen to the referee the counselor, the commander, the comforter, the cheerleader who dwells within us. Spirit of God, I pray that you've done a work in our hearts tonight. May we be responsive to what you've said to each one of us tonight. And may we not grieve you at the opportunity that we have right now. Our heads are bowed. Some have already gone to prayer. If you need to join them, you just find that place to pray right now, would you? As the music begins, would you take time with your God all over this room? I'm gonna be on my knees behind the pulpit. I need to talk to the Lord. You do what you need to do. you