For just a moment I want us to try to identify and feel a specific emotion. When I quote the apostle Paul and say “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit . . .” what is the first thing that you think and feel? Don’t make it theological and don’t try to make it right, just consider what you feel, grab hold of the emotion that is created within you by thinking of you causing the Holy Spirit to be grieved. I asked a handful of random people to share those thoughts and emotions with me this week. I believe that some of their responses will be similar to some of ours here today. Some of the words shared with me were disappointment, loss, sin, fear and disobedience. Some of us respond in fear, fear that we have done something wrong, some in shame, shame that we know we have done something wrong, some of us respond in guilt, guilt that He has done so much for us and we still seem to do so little to show our gratitude to Him, some of us respond in indifference, indifference to whether or not the Holy Spirit is grieved because as far as we are concerned we have done all we can. Some of us simply don’t respond, we try to avoid the idea and the reality that the Holy Spirit can be and might be, at this very moment, grieved by me. There is a reason I have asked us to feel these uncomfortable emotions, I don’t think that our emotional response to the grief of the Holy Spirit is always or even often in line with the character of God and the purpose for which the Holy Spirit was sent to live in us. I believe that for some reason, either a lack of teaching or maybe a bit of bad teaching or maybe a personal experience that we can’t seem to fully release or find freedom from/in, many of us believe that the grief of the Holy Spirit is a reason for fear, a sign of failure and even a point of doubt in the security and strength of our redemption. Today I want to talk about the Holy Spirit as a person who grieves and I want to talk about grief as a response of love and I want to talk about love as the purpose of conviction. I want us to see that grieving the Holy Spirit is not something we should live in fear of, it should be a reality that we give thanks for because if He was never grieved He would never expose our sin and if He didn’t expose our sin He would not be the Spirit of truth, the Spirit of adoption or the love of God that has been poured out within our hearts. It is not good for us to grieve the Holy Spirit but it is good for us that the Holy Spirit is a person who grieves. If the Spirit within us is grieved it is only because the Spirit that lives within us is full of love for us. I want us to hold those emotions we started with very loosely for the next little while because I want many of us to let those emotions go so that we can grab hold of the one who grieves over us and yet still does not ever let us go.