Latest / Living Waters of Grace / Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland Sunday Services / 1 Corinthians 14 - Order In Spiritual Gifting - Part 2

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1 Corinthians 14 - Order In Spiritual Gifting - Part 2 · Living Waters of Grace / Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland Sunday Services

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So pray for me as I teach this chapter today.
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It's a very challenging chapter, First Corinthians 14.
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I know we have people in our church that believe that the
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gifts are still here today, and we have some folks that believe
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they aren't. Some of them aren't anymore.
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And I pray the way I teach this won't bring confusion or
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division or anything like that. I'm just going to teach the
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Bible as the Bible is clearly written and I'm not going to add
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my own thoughts in or anybody else's.
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I just want to teach what Paul wrote here and why he wrote it
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this way. So a little bit of background in
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regard to the church in Corinth. It was a mess.
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A lot of activity. Boy, these lights are bright
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here. I feel like I'm under
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inquisition. Turn that down a little bit.
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So anyway, the church was really not a healthy church.
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It was full of all kind of pride and self centeredness.
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People were using the gifts to make themselves seem spiritually
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important and other people not important.
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They had issues of drunkenness at their spiritual agape feast
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when they had the Lord's Supper. They had issues of cliques in
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the church where certain people followed, certain leaders, this
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all kind of stuff, sexual immorality.
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Hard to believe this was going on in this church in Corinth.
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So Paul had to bring correction. This is why this letter was
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written, the spiritual gifts for being abused and taken advantage
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of and being used in an unbiblical way.
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And so Paul needed to address these things.
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Now we talked a little bit about spiritual gifts in First
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Corinthians 12 and Paul clearly delineates the fact that not
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everybody has the same gift and everybody has some gifts.
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Some people have more than one gift, but not everybody has many
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times the same gift, especially in regard to the gift of tongues
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and the gifts of gift of prophecy and the gift of
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healings. Now when we study the Bible, we
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see in the book of the Acts in the Apostolic age and time,
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things were really rolling. I mean, there was miraculous
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things happened, thousands of people getting saved, a lot of
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energy, a lot of activity. Whenever the apostles showed up,
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there was usually a miracles that were occurring all the
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time. The apostle Paul had physical
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affliction himself. He was able to be used by the
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Lord to bring healing to other people, but he didn't get healed
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of his own need. And that was a fascinating
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issue. He says at the end of First
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Corinthians 12 regarding the body of Christ that were members
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individually and God has appointed these in the church.
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At that time there was apostles. No longer is there apostles
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anymore. That was the people that Christ
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originally raised up to lay the foundation of the church.
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Second, prophets in the early stages of the church, before the
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Scriptures were written, prophetical utterings would come
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forth, and some of them were from the Holy Spirit and some of
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them were from this human flesh as kind of stuff.
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So the apostles had to discern which things were from the Lord,
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and excuse me, which ones weren't.
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Now we have the Bible, so we have clear prophetical overview
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of everything that God wants us to know.
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It says that God has given us all things that pertain to life
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and godliness in Christ Jesus, so there's nothing we're
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lacking. He also says in Timothy, all
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Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is
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profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction and
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instruction and righteousness, that the man of God may be
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thoroughly furnished unto all good works.
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It tells us to study, to show ourselves approved under God,
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workmen that need not be ashamed, rightly dividing.
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The word of truth. And that's what we endeavour to
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do every time we teach in this church.
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Whether it's the women teaching the women or mixed studies with
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men teaching to kids or young people or adults, we study to
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show ourselves approved unto God.
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We don't want to be ashamed of our teaching and we certainly
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don't want to teach things that are false.
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So we take these things very seriously here.
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So then he says there's other gifts teachers and they are
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still on in place and on on the planet and in the church.
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We have many gifted teachers here at Calvary Chapel to have
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the gift of teaching has the ability to teach.
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The Bible in a way that. Feeds the flock of God and
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builds them up and strengthens them to understand how to first
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of all come to know Jesus, but then how to follow Jesus.
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And then there's miracles, and there's still miracles that
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occur. Some of you have had miracles in
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your lives. You've prayed for something
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whenever the doctor said that you had a certain amount of time
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to live, and you've outlived those years because God's
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touched you for a season and you're still alive and you're
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well. Sometimes you have a headache
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and you ask God to heal you of the headache.
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That's sort of a simple 1, isn't it?
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But whenever someone tells you you have cancer and you only
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have so long to live, that's when you start to get desperate.
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For prayer and miracles, right? You want God to intervene, you
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want him to act. And that's why the Bible says,
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if any are sick among you, let him call upon the.
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Elders of the church. And the elders will anoint them
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with oil. And the oil is a symbolic
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picture of the Holy Spirit. Nothing magical about the oil,
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but the oil represents the fact that the Holy Spirit will be
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touching you in the way that he desires to touch you.
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And it says that the person will confess sin if they have sin in
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their life, if there's a problem that they're living in a way
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they shouldn't, they'll repent because many times sickness is
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brought on because of our rebellion against God.
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Many times we just get sick because that's part of being a
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human being. But the elders will anoint that
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person and pray for them. And it says the prayer of prayer
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of faith will save the sick. And so it could be a physical
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healing, a spiritual healing, an emotional healing, a
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psychological healing. But nonetheless, you, you're
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able to do that. And I encourage you if you are
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ill or if you have illnesses, let us know as elders in the
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church. And after the service is over,
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we'll have you come up and everybody else can go home.
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But if you have specific needs, we'll, we'll pray and counsel
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you and pray and, and see what the Lord may desire to do in
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your life at that time. Sometimes God uses doctors to
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bring healing right. Sometimes he supernaturally
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touches us as well. I've been touched diagnosed with
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a rare type of cancer years ago. It wasn't lethal at that time,
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but could become lethal sometime.
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But I had a platelet issue where the platelets were raising above
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what they need to raise. All the other blood work was OK
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and. So whenever I I heard about
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that, I thought, well, Lord, I'm going to ask you to touch me and
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heal me and give me more time if that's your will.
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And he did. And my platelets have been
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stable for the last five years. And it's a miracle of God.
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And I give him praise. And I tell you that because God
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still does miracles. And there's been people in the
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church who have had serious illnesses that we've prayed and
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intercede for. And they're clear now they're
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cancers. This, this isn't good luck or
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this isn't circumstantial. This is God's intervention.
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And we give him the praise and the glory for what he does.
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The ministry of helps our sister mentioned, if you want to help,
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we, we can use helper all the time and all kind of different
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ministries. And I think it's one of the most
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powerful gifts because it's behind the scenes.
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No one sees what you're doing, but God does.
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And it's a blessed gift because it really strengthens and helps
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the church become better what it does.
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My wife Cindy has a ministry of help.
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She's always wanting to help, whether it's family or people in
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the church or whatever. And I got to tell her sometimes,
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like you got to take a break. You know, you can't be helping
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everybody, but she just has that call of God, the desire to help
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people. And I'm so thankful because I
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need a lot of help. So she's my wife and she says
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you're helpless. I said, that's right.
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That's why you have the gift of help.
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You're my wife, right? So that's a good thing.
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It says that there's gifts of administrations and
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administration is the ability to organize a group of people,
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whether it's in a job, a career, a business, a church, and get
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everybody moving together in the same direction and and helping
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everybody be connected. And, and Karen and Diane Flow
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and those gifts in this church and we're so grateful for them
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and their administrative gifts. Then it says there's different
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types of tongues, and we're going to talk a little bit about
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that this morning. And then he says, and I love
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this section, are all apostles, are all prophets, are all
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teachers, are all workers of miracles?
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Do all have the gifts of healing?
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Do all speak with tongues, do all interpret, but earnestly
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desire the best gifts. And yet I'll show you a more
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excellent way. So it really clarifies the fact
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that not everybody has the same gifts.
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We'll study about tongues this morning.
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Not everybody has that that prayer language and that's OK.
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And we'll see how Paul talks about that versus praying in a
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known dialect of your own language to the Lord or or
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praying in a supernatural prayer language.
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Either of those accomplish the same purposes as far as God's
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concerned. But we'll get into that.
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But then in chapter 13 he says he though I speak with tongues
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of men and of angels, and have not love, I've become a sounding
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brass and a clanging symbol. And if I have the gift of
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prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and
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though I have faith that I could remove mountains, but have not
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love, I'm nothing. And so we have to understand
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that the most important thing in our personal walk with the Lord
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and our ministries is the love of Jesus Christ, the agape love
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that he puts into our hearts or through the Spirit that we have
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that love to love one another. Because Jesus said that's the
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most important aspect of being a believer is he said by this love
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will people know you're my disciples, right?
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And so we all have to ask the Lord to help us flow in that
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love. It's it's it's part of the gifts
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of the Holy Spirit and it's the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians
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5 Lovejoy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness,
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goodness, meekness and self-control.
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And so. We have to be actively involved
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in pursuing, as he'll tell us here in the beginning of First
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Corinthians 14, spiritual gifts. And I think about that.
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Love. It's easy to love people when
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everything's going good, but whenever things aren't going
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good, you have to make a choice to love your your flesh or human
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ability. Wants to get mad?
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You want to smack someone off the side of the head, right?
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You got road rage, whatever you might have.
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And then you had to say, Lord, this isn't the way I'm supposed
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to behave. I'm, I'm a child of God.
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I'm supposed to love. Help me, Lord, to love my
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enemies. And I want to be able to do
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that. I can't do that apart from your
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empowerment and your strength. And so he begins in chapter 14,
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verse 1. He says pursue love.
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That's the most important thing to do and most important gift.
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Make sure that's happening and occurring in your life and
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desire spiritual gifts. It's not wrong to desire
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spiritual gifts to ask the Lord to enable you to be able to flow
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in these spiritual gifts if it's His will.
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But remember that the Holy Spirit gives the gift severally
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as He wills, not as we will. He chooses and determines what
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he wants to do in each of your lives and through each of your
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lives. So don't be jealous if you don't
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have this one or that one or someone else has something you
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want this be content with whatever it is that the Lord's
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given you and allow him to use you in that specific gift.
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So he says, but especially that you may prophecy.
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Now this gift of prophecy isn't so much this idea of, of
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foretelling the future. Of course, sometimes God will
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give someone an insight if something that's going to
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happen, perhaps not so much the the, the date of the return of
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the Lord. We know he's coming back and and
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that's that's a a done deal as far as the scriptures are
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concerned. We just don't know the day or
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the time or the hour, but we know he's coming back.
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But sometimes the Lord will put something on your heart, and
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you'll tell someone something that you're concerned about
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possibly occurring. Not everybody that says
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something like that to you is on target with the Lord, but you
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listen to him and, and you consider it whatever, but you're
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you're not going to look at it like the scripture that's black
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and white. But some people have that
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ability to have that intuitive skill to descend something that
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the Lord wants you to know about.
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And so they're going to share something and maybe it's
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something about something you're dating or what what something
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looks like in the future if you happen to marry the wrong
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person. And and these things are
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obviously in in the scripture talked about don't be unequally
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yoked and those kind of things, but.
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Sometimes someone just has some discernment that we need to hear
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from the Lord on. But really the gift of prophecy
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is the ability to edify. That means to build up the
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church. So what we do here Sunday
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through the word of God is to teach in a way that builds your
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faith up in the Lord. OK, to edify you, to build you
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up exhortation, that's to lift you up and to encourage you in
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the things of God and to help you to keep on keeping on.
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Basically not to give up, not to get discouraged, not to get
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depressed or despondent or apathetic or complacent.
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But to this, keep staying in the word and staying close to Jesus
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so that you can just keep walking with him and enjoy your
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relationship with him. And then comfort, being able to
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come along, someone who needs comforted during crisis.
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They're in some kind of tragedy. Maybe they lost a loved one or
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they got a diagnosis that they don't know how to handle, or
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they're dealing with something that they just had surgery with.
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And you're not any going to let them know you're praying for
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them. But maybe you're going to hold
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them for a little bit. Maybe you're going to hug on
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them a little bit. You're just going to provide
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that comfort. And I see you guys do that in a
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church with one another. Many of you have this gift of
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prophecy in that sense. The people that teach the Word,
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I believe, have that gift too. Not only they teach the
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Scriptures, but the Holy Spirit put something on their heart to
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build them up and to encourage them and to help them to
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persevere and to comfort them whenever they get downcast or
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discouraged. So Paul says that's the one you
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really want to go after. And then he says in verse 2, For
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he who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men, but to God,
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for no one understands them. However, in the Spirit he speaks
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mysteries. If you have a pen underlined in
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your Bible. He who speaks in a tongue does
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not speak to men, but to God. This is a conversation to the
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Lord and it's about him. It's praising him.
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It's not trying to communicate some kind of special message to
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another person. That's not the purpose of it.
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It it's a conversation. With the Lord Himself.
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And if if you heard someone speak in tongues and you're
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beside someone, you're not going to understand what they're
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talking about. But the Lord understands, He's
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listening. He knows.
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And this reminds me of of something over in Romans chapter
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8, whenever we live in times of suffering.
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And we have to understand that right now, even as we live, no
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matter how good your life might be right now, Paul says in verse
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18 of chapter 8. I consider that the sufferings
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of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the
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glory which shall be revealed in us.
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For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for
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the revealing of the sons of God.
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For the creation was subject to futility, not willingly, but
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because of Him who subjected it in hope.
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Because the creation itself also will be delivered from the
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bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children
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of God. So we know that the whole
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creation groans and laborers with birth pangs together until
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now. Not only that, but we also who
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have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves grown
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within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the
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redemption of our body. For we are saved in this hope,
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but hope that is seen is not hope.
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For why does 1 still hope for what he sees?
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But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it
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with perseverance. And so when I was reading that
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and thinking about this, how earnestly are you waiting for
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the redemption of your body and wanting to be with Jesus?
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That's usually not the first thought we have.
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Career, new car, house, I'm going to date this woman, I'm
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going to marry this person, whatever.
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I'm going to go to this Steeler game next Sunday.
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And all these things are part of living life and enjoying life.
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Nothing wrong with that. But where's our focus is our
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focus? Like I can't wait, Jesus to you,
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you Take Me Out of here. Not that I don't like life and I
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don't enjoy life and all that, but like you put in me wanting
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to be with you, right? When I listened to the worship
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this morning, I thought, boy, that was just like a sort of a,
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a preview what it's going to be like in heaven one day when
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we're going to be like shot now Jesus's name and excited to be
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there. And we're never going to get
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bored of it. We're just going to be
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enthralled with his beauty and His Majesty and his grace.
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But I, I, I read this section in Romans and I think I don't meet
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AI, meet a lot of people and let's say, let's, they're in the
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hospital getting ready to die and they're like, Hey, I can't
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wait to get out of this body, right?
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But usually healthy, wealthy, successful people, they're not
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usually talking about waiting earnestly for this adoption and
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redemption of their body. And maybe that's something we
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need the Holy Spirit to put in US, right?
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And a deeper way because this isn't our home, right?
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We're looking for a city. Like it says in Hebrews, his
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builder and maker is God. We have to think about that.
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So it says likewise. Then the Spirit in verse 22nd 26
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also helps in our weaknesses for we do not know what we should
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pray for as we ought. You ever in a situation where
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you just don't know how to pray, you're so overwhelmed that
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you're just, I'm just crying out to God, help me, oh Lord, have
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mercy. I don't know how I'm going to
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get through this. I'm so broken.
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I'm so desperate or whatever. And, and, and it says that the
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Spirit himself makes intercessions for us with
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groanings which cannot be uttered.
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I'm so thankful that the Holy Spirit knows how to really
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intercede, right? He knows how to get a hold of
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the Father, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit.
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He's saying, God, look what Clark's going through or look
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what this sister's going through or this brother or this person.
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He's praying in groanings that can't even be comprehended or
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uttered. Now he who searches the hearts
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knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because he makes
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intercession for the Saints according to the will of God.
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So when you have this gift of speaking in tongues and you're
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basically speaking in a language to God that he understands, it's
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not gibberish. It would be that way maybe to me
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if I heard you or you heard me, but to God, it's making sense.
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And the Holy Spirit's involved in this.
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And and so God's allowing this to go on and he's unburdening
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the person's heart and their soul and the pressure that
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they're under. And he he does that too.
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When you pray in English and you say, Lord, I need your mercy, I
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need your strength. You're quoting Scripture, you're
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reading Scripture, you're reminding God of his promises to
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you. And you hold on to this verse
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and it sustains you and it lifts you up.
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But we'll see another benefit of the people that have this gift
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of tongues here it it's a blessing.
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And verse 3 it says, but he who prophesized speaks edification,
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exhortation and comfort to to men.
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So that is what is most important here today is that you
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guys are edified and encouraged and comforted in your
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relationship with the Lord. In verse four, he who speaks in
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a tongue edifies himself, but he who prophesized edifies the
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church. So a person that has this
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opportunity to pray this way in the Spirit is building
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themselves up. They're getting strengthened,
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they're there. It's just a blessing to them and
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their relationship with the Lord.
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That's a individual quiet thing in your prayer closet.
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You're praying to the Lord and you're being built up as you
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pray in the Spirit. And Paul says in verse 5, I wish
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you all spoke with tongues because he spoke with tongues.
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He loved it. But he also said, do all speak
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in tongues? No, they don't.
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But don't feel like if you do or you don't, one's better or
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whatever than the other. OK, there's an advantage to a
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lot of these different gifts in different ways and how God uses
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them in your own life and in the church.
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I wish you all spoke with tongues, but even more that you
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prophesied. So he puts the elevation of the
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emphasis on. Not myself, even though if I'm
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praying in the Spirit, I'm building myself up.
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His emphasis is on I'd rather be edifying you guys.
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I'd rather be edifying the church.
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It's not the self-centered thing then, he says.
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For he who prophesizes greater than he who speaks with tongues,
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unless indeed he interprets that the church may receive
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edification. Now I, I got saved when I was
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20. I grew up in the frozen chosen
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church, Presbyterian. You know, I didn't know what
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anybody believed or what they felt or it was like, it was like
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uptight man, uptight. We're good people, love the
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Lord, many of them, don't get me wrong.
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But anyway, I, yeah, I start reading the Bible and the New
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Testament and I'm as a young guy and not knowing anything about
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anything at the time, I'm reading things like this and I'm
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saying, well, I never heard of this kind of stuff.
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I never was around any of this. What, what's this mean?
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How does this work? Most of the churches I was
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involved in after I got saved were Baptists.
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Good churches, but they were cessationists.
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They believed that the gifts of the Spirit were over and that's
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just the way it was, right? We, we wouldn't spend much time
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in first Corinthians 12 or 14 because it was almost like you
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just cross those chapters out and just move on.
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And to be honest with you, I wish I could move on today.
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This is a, this is a challenge here, but I, I got to be
24:16
faithful because we, we brag about how we talk about every
24:20
verse, every chapter, every book.
24:22
But believe me, there's a lot of us as pastors.
24:24
Lord, can I skip that 1 today? You know, I do a topical and
24:28
they'll forget that last time I was in chapter 13 and they're
24:31
waiting for me to go to 14 and well, how come you didn't talk,
24:34
talk on 14, You know, so I'm not going to do that.
24:37
I'm talking on 14. But anyway, so I'm in this
24:42
element of my early Christian development.
24:46
But I often said to pastors, and I mentioned it last time I
24:49
spoke, but why can't like where? I don't know, Clark, is this the
24:54
way it is? You know, that's what he told
24:55
me. So then I got involved in the
24:58
Pentecostal side for a while, the charismatic side.
25:01
And it was funny, man, I, I was out there and I like, I hate to
25:06
say, very little teaching a lot of emotional emotion.
25:09
People running around with flags and hype and dancing and, and
25:12
singing and, and boy, God really moved today.
25:15
We worshipped and we praised God.
25:17
We didn't have time to teach the word.
25:19
I'm thinking like that's the most important thing.
25:21
Teach the word right. So you have the, the other
25:24
extreme, right? And, and I'll just, I'll just
25:27
tell you this, I was so desperate for these gifts and I
25:30
didn't know whether I had that gift or not, but I went to
25:32
Assembly God Church one Sunday when I was like 23 years old.
25:35
Cindy, no way was she going with me, right?
25:39
And I was in there and the church sort of seemed dead.
25:41
So I figured I'll speak in tongues.
25:44
So I stood up and I spoke in tongues.
25:46
But I was smart enough to know that I need to give the
25:48
interpretation. So I gave an interpretation of
25:51
who knows, you know, I didn't know anything about when an
25:53
interpreter. I can hardly.
25:55
Even speak Spanish, I learned Spanish and I don't even know
25:57
how to interpret what I was learning how to speak right.
26:00
But anyway, the pastor was so gracious he didn't have dead
26:03
silence. And he says this is an.
26:06
Example in the book of the acts of and he's going on and on like
26:09
that so. I didn't go back to that church.
26:12
And he was probably glad I didn't, you know, But anyway,
26:16
that's sort of like my learning experience.
26:18
And, and then, you know, I, I don't know, at times I thought I
26:24
was and at times I thought I wasn't.
26:26
And, you know, I was so messed up in so many ways in, in my
26:30
early Christian development. I mean, I was dealing with all
26:33
kind of personal issues as a man.
26:37
I wanted a quick fix and if I could speak in tongues and all
26:41
my problems were gone away and I was a perfect Christian, no
26:45
problems, I'm all in, right? Well, I found that wasn't the
26:48
case. There is no easy path.
26:50
It's death to self. It's denying self.
26:54
It's living in continual repentance and humbling yourself
26:58
before God and before others. That's how we grow in the grace
27:02
and the knowledge of the Lord and.
27:05
So I come to Calvary Chapel. 36 years ago and I knew they
27:15
weren't cessationists. I knew they believed the gifts
27:18
were still here. So I, I, I sort of took a, a
27:20
breath of fresh air there. Like, wow, I can be in a church
27:23
where there's some balance, not extremes over here and over
27:27
there. And all the times I was with the
27:30
pastors and the leaders, some of them had a a prayer language,
27:35
some didn't. And it was never the issue
27:37
whether they did or you didn't. We didn't talk about that stuff.
27:41
And we never in all the meetings I was in, ever had anybody
27:45
publicly stand up and speak in tongues in a meeting.
27:49
And we'll, we'll get into why Paul doesn't recommend that in
27:52
this chapter. In a small group, maybe you have
27:57
6-8 people and 10 people and you know the people, you know their
28:01
walk, you know their lives. Maybe the Lord shows up
28:03
sometimes in a small group in a different way, but not in a
28:07
larger audience. And, and people come here, I
28:09
don't know who they are. Say someone stood up and they
28:12
started speaking in tongues. And I'm like, you know, there's
28:14
no interpretation. Well, first of all, you can't do
28:17
that here. I'm sorry.
28:18
Please sit down and then and then say there's an
28:21
interpretation, but the interpretation isn't what what
28:24
is supposed to be in the sense it's supposed to be language and
28:27
praising and worship to God, not like my little children.
28:30
God wants you to know today that if you follow him, he will bless
28:34
you and he's going to prosper you.
28:36
You know that that's not the point of, of the interpretation.
28:39
And, and, and so you can get into this study much deeper than
28:42
I'm going to go through it today.
28:43
I'm just giving a sort of an overview of, of my studies and,
28:47
and my experiences in these things.
28:50
So he says. And, and in these churches I've
28:54
been in with Calvary, they're never once in a pastors
28:57
conference anywhere. I hear any of that as someone
29:00
drawing attention to themselves in a meeting and and then some
29:04
kind of interpretation. And I, I believe, to be honest
29:08
with you, it is less today than it was in Acts.
29:11
It's just the nature of the development of the church.
29:13
It's not the priority is it was in that early church because
29:17
they didn't have any Bible in the early church, you know, and
29:20
it must have been really complicated to be an apostle and
29:24
an elder to try to discern what was of the Lord and what wasn't
29:28
of the Lord testing the spirits as the Bible says.
29:33
And so he says in verse 6. But now, brethren, if I come to
29:36
you speaking with tongues, what should it profit you unless I
29:40
speak to you either by revelation, by knowledge, by
29:43
prophesying, or by teaching? He's saying what would be the
29:46
preference? Because he already said if I
29:48
spoke in tongues, you don't understand what I'm saying.
29:51
But he's giving these other alternatives, even things
29:54
without life, whether flute or harp, musical instruments here
29:58
that make a sound, unless they make a distinction in the
30:00
sounds, how it will be known what is piped or played.
30:04
So these worship people up there so gifted in their instruments,
30:09
and if you put me up here on a Sunday to fill in for them,
30:13
they'd be like, what's Clark playing up there?
30:16
I know what the song sounds like or what it's supposed to sound
30:18
like, but when he's playing that keyboard, it doesn't sound like
30:21
anything but insanity, right? So the the musical instruments
30:27
are specific sounds for specific purposes.
30:30
For if the trumpet makes an uncertain sound, who will
30:33
prepare for battle? So the the bugle was you'd used.
30:36
So let's go forward and go to fight, right?
30:39
And if the bugler doesn't know how to play the bugle, right,
30:42
they don't that sound. Are we supposed to go to dinner
30:44
now? Are we supposed to like relax
30:47
for a while? Are we supposed to go to battle?
30:49
Who will prepare for battle? So likewise you, unless you
30:52
utter by the tongue words easy to understand, how will it be
30:56
known what is spoken? For you will be speaking into
31:00
the air. There are, it may be so many
31:03
kinds of languages in the world, and then none of them is without
31:06
significance. And this made me think, think
31:09
about how many languages are out there in the world.
31:12
If you travel on the different parts of the world, you go to
31:15
France, you know, Paris, they're speaking French.
31:19
Now, if you haven't been studying French, you you like,
31:22
hey, how do I get over here to this restaurant?
31:24
They just smile and look at you. They don't know what you're
31:26
talking about unless they know English, right?
31:28
And and they speak back to you in French.
31:31
And now you get these phones. This is sort of cool.
31:34
You can hit the phone and it'll interpret what they're saying.
31:37
That'd be fun to do with someone speaking in tongues.
31:40
Let's get the interpretation from Google right.
31:44
I never thought about that. But anyway, therefore, if I do
31:49
not know the meaning of the language, I shall be a
31:52
foreigner. I'm in France, I'm an American.
31:56
They're they're French. We can't relate to each other,
32:00
to him who speaks, and he who speaks will be a foreigner to
32:03
me. Even so you, since you are
32:05
zealous for spiritual gifts, let it be for the edification of the
32:09
Church that you, that you seek to excel.
32:12
So what can I do and what can you do to make this church
32:17
stronger and more of a blessing to one another?
32:21
Prophecy. Pray that you prophecy and and
32:27
that is the ability to build people up.
32:30
You know, I really appreciate John Kirkland.
32:32
I was Tuesday at his study and I'm usually on the road working,
32:36
but I was able to go and listen and see the other deep
32:39
Christians that were in the meeting.
32:40
Brian, this guys a brain and languages here.
32:43
If you want to know Hebrew, Greek, this guy in the front
32:45
row, talk to him. He really knows how to pull out
32:47
the Nuggets of the word of God. But anyway, I was listening to
32:51
these guys and I was a so overwhelmed the women and and
32:53
the men that were in that study and the gifting of John as he
32:57
was in first Samuel chapter 3 with Eli and his sons getting
33:02
wiped out and all that because of the false teaching.
33:07
So I say to John, John, thank you for serving.
33:11
Thank you for using your gift to build up the church and I know
33:17
that that blesses him to hear him.
33:19
That's what I'm to do to him. I'm for him.
33:23
His wife Amy teaches women Amy, thank you for the hours you
33:27
spend in studying the word and rightly dividing the word of
33:31
truth. Thanks to Lord, glory to God,
33:34
right and many others here. I could thank everyone of you
33:38
for everything you do. That's just an illustration that
33:43
means much more than if I was A and John's like, what's Clark
33:50
saying? You know, that's ridiculous.
33:54
You know, that's what happens in somebody.
33:55
And that was not a tongue, by the way.
33:57
I was being facetious, you know, But you know, it's just like
34:01
goofy. It's weird.
34:03
You know, someone said they got they want they want to get
34:06
saved. I kind of come to your church
34:07
and the person's like, and I don't want you to come to my
34:09
there's another church down the road.
34:11
And the guy said, if you don't want them to come to your church
34:14
because a lot of weird stuff going on, why are you still
34:17
there? And some of you are here because
34:19
you left weird churches. It abused the spiritual gifts.
34:23
Maybe I'll get a testimony once in a while for my brother John
34:25
back there. You know, it took a month before
34:28
his anger went down because of the false teaching and the
34:31
craziness that he had to sit under in the church that he was
34:34
in. And I'm not going to mention the
34:35
church. But anyway, so he says if I pray
34:41
in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my understanding is
34:44
unfruitful. What's the conclusion then?
34:46
I will pray with the Spirit, and I will also pray with
34:49
understanding. So he had the gift of praying in
34:52
tongues, but he also prayed like most of us pray in this normal
34:57
English, right? I will also pray with the
35:00
understanding. I also sing with the Spirit, but
35:02
I will also sing with the understanding.
35:05
Otherwise, if you bless with the Spirit, how will he who occupies
35:09
the place of the uninformed say Amen at your giving of thanks,
35:12
since he does not understand what you say?
35:15
For you indeed give thanks well, but the other is not edified.
35:19
And then listen to this. Verse 18 is very important.
35:22
Paul says I thank my God I speak with tongues more than you all.
35:27
Yet in the church, I would rather speak 5 words with my
35:31
understanding that I may teach others also than 10,000 words in
35:36
a tongue. The some of you came out of
35:39
churches where everybody, OK, let's everybody pray in the
35:43
spirit and everybody's speaking in tongues.
35:45
My, my brother told me last week it was funny that I was down in
35:49
Florida years ago. He's not a follower of this guy
35:51
anymore. He said I went to a Benny Hinn
35:53
conference, right? And you know, I don't know
35:55
what's going. I'm just sitting there all of a
35:57
sudden Benny, everybody's speaking in tongues.
35:59
He said he ran out of there quick.
36:00
He never, never went bad. I'd run out too.
36:03
It's insane. That's not biblical, and if you
36:08
follow what the Bible teaches here regarding these gifts,
36:11
you'll understand why. Paul was grateful for his gift,
36:20
but he never used it in the church setting.
36:24
It was in his private prayer closet that he prayed this way.
36:29
Someone said in some of these churches because egos and
36:32
psychological imbalance of people, they feel they need to
36:35
speak in tongues publicly and the pastor says well how many
36:39
hours you spend in your prayer closet praying that way.
36:42
Some people are the spiritual show offs and they draw
36:46
attention to themselves and they take the glory from the Lord.
36:53
Brethren, do not be children and understanding, however, in
36:58
malice be babes, but an understanding be mature.
37:03
And the law, it's written with the men of other tongues and of
37:05
other lips. I will speak to the people, and
37:08
yet for all that they will not hear me, says the Lord.
37:12
What happened in this particular section of Scripture in Isaiah
37:22
was the fact that the Lord was bringing judgment on Israel.
37:27
They weren't listening to the prophets anymore.
37:30
They weren't listening to the word of God.
37:34
And so the Lord had to send in Assyrians into that place of
37:40
where they lived, and they heard tongues of the enemy.
37:45
That was to their judgment. It wasn't for their good.
37:52
Therefore tongues for a sign, not to those who believe, but
37:56
the unbelievers. The prophesying is not for
38:00
unbelievers, but for those who believe in the book of the Acts.
38:04
When the Holy Spirit descended was poured out and all those
38:08
people were praying in this language, it was something that
38:13
could be understood by all the listeners because it says they
38:17
heard these people worship God in their own tongue as a
38:21
miracle. It was a real language and they
38:26
heard whether they say they, they said we heard them
38:29
magnifying the wonderful works of God.
38:34
Therefore, if the whole church comes together in one place and
38:38
all speak with tongues and they're coming, those who are
38:41
uninformed or unbelievers, will they not say that you are out of
38:45
your mind? To your point, our brother that
38:49
went to the Benny Hinn thing, they were out of their mind,
38:53
right? That's what you thought and you
38:55
were right. You were a prophet man.
39:02
But if all prophecy and an unbeliever or an uninformed
39:05
person comes in, he's convinced by all and convicted by all, and
39:10
that's the secrets of his heart are revealed.
39:13
And so falling down in his face, he will worship God and report
39:16
that God is truly among you. I don't know how many times and
39:23
this has happened to different people here that teach someone
39:26
will come and they'll say, did my mom call you or did my wife
39:31
talk to you? I said, what are you talking
39:33
about? What you said went right to my
39:36
heart today and I need to deal with something in my life.
39:38
I'll say, well that was the Lord because I had no clue what you
39:42
were dealing with, nor do I know you personally.
39:46
That's how the Lord uses His word to bring the knowledge of
39:50
their need of Christ to their hearts.
39:54
And when that happens, the secret of their hearts are
39:58
revealed and falling down on their faces.
40:00
They'll worship God and report that God is truly among you.
40:04
So order in church meetings, verse 26.
40:06
How is it then brethren, whenever you come together, each
40:10
of you has a Psalm. This is this church was so
40:12
self-centered like I want to get on the platform.
40:15
So I got a Psalm. I want to share my Psalm.
40:18
I want to give my tongue. I want to give the
40:21
interpretation. I want to give the prophecy Has
40:26
a teaching, has a tongue as a revelation has an
40:29
interpretation. Let all things been done for
40:31
edification. If anyone speaks in a tongue,
40:34
let there be two, or at the most 3 each in turn.
40:38
Let one interpret. But if there is no interpreter,
40:41
let him keep silent in the church and let him speak to
40:44
himself and to God. If you're praying in the Spirit
40:51
and you have the responsibility to minister, that's between you
40:56
and the Lord. And so your intercession with
40:58
the Lord and your time with God, he's, he's putting things into
41:01
your heart and your mind that he wants you to use as you teach
41:05
the Word. It's just the way the Holy
41:09
Spirit many times rolls. But if there's no interpreter,
41:17
just be quiet. Let two or three prophets speak
41:21
and let the others judge. I find like in our pastors
41:26
conferences, there'll be 6-8 guys that'll teach.
41:31
They're called to teach. They're not told what they're
41:33
going to teach on. They pray and bring what the
41:35
Lord has put on their heart to bring.
41:39
It always flows together. I've never been there thinking
41:44
like, why did they have that person speak?
41:47
Because if this was out of order, it wasn't like part of
41:50
like what we believe God was wanting to say or to do.
41:54
That's not how the Holy Spirit works.
41:58
It's it all comes together and and as the the different people
42:03
speak, the the leaders judge whether this is of the Lord or
42:07
not. If anything is revealed to
42:10
another who sits by, let him first keep silent.
42:13
For you can all prophecy one by one that all may learn and all
42:18
may be encouraged. And the spirits of the prophets
42:21
are subject to the prophets. For God is not the author of
42:24
confusion, but of peace is in all the church and of the
42:27
Saints. So it isn't like some people
42:31
say, Oh, the Spirit came upon me and I couldn't control myself
42:35
and I I just had to blurt out what that's not biblical.
42:39
The fruit of the Spirit is self-control.
42:42
You're never in a position where God is like, you know, making
42:47
you do something that is strange and weird that you don't
42:49
understand and you have no ability to discern whether God
42:53
is moving you to just be quiet or to actually say something
42:56
about something. The benefit of teaching the
43:00
Bible verse by verse and line upon line is it keeps us out of
43:03
the weeds and beginning to say things that we have no business
43:07
saying. As speakers on behalf of the
43:09
Lord, we bring his message to you guys, not our message.
43:16
And I've been in churches where I never know what the person's
43:18
going to begin to start teaching and talking about.
43:21
And sometimes I'd walk out and I said, Cindy, what was that all
43:24
about? You know, sad.
43:29
There's a famine for the Word of God, and everything the apostles
43:33
taught was teach the people my word.
43:40
That's what the Lord wants. That's the only thing that's
43:42
going to change your life, the Word of God and the Holy Spirit
43:49
applying it to your everyday life and living it out as he's
43:53
directed you. So Paul wrote this because the
44:01
church was abusing all these things.
44:04
I'm thankful. Maybe you aren't.
44:07
Maybe you think we should be moving more in Signs and
44:11
Wonders. But this is who we are as
44:14
Calvary Chapel. We don't, we don't try to create
44:17
any kind of activity up here to tickle ears or to get people all
44:23
excited. You know, if the Word of God
44:29
isn't enough, then this isn't the place that tells us in
44:33
Hebrews. The Word of God is sharper than
44:35
any 2 edged sword, nothing sharper than the word piercing,
44:40
dividing asunder of the soul and the Spirit, and is a very
44:44
discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
44:48
That's the Holy Spirit's job, to cut what needs to be cut out of
44:52
my heart and yours and to change us and transform us.
44:57
So my favorite part as we begin to wind down is let your women
45:01
keep silent in the churches. Amen.
45:06
Now we're going to have like, we're going to have like a
45:08
revolution here now. Well, first of all, the context
45:13
of the culture was in the Jewish church in the beginning, which
45:17
was made-up of Jews primarily. The women sat on one side and
45:20
the men sat on the other side. And so whoever's up there
45:25
teaching, maybe the woman didn't understand something and she
45:28
agreed something and she's going to yell over, you know.
45:32
Hey, hey, Steve. But you hear what that guy said.
45:35
What do you think in the midst of the meeting?
45:38
Steve's like, we'll talk about it when we get home.
45:42
Well, I want to know now. I mean, it was that kind of
45:45
stuff being interrupting in the in the service, right?
45:48
It didn't mean that a woman couldn't prophecy because Paul
45:52
said in First Corinthians 12 that they had that gift as well
45:55
to be able to teach and to prophecy and to edify, exhort
45:59
and comfort. We have women here that lead to
46:01
worship. It's totally biblical and they
46:04
pray and they encourage us. They talk.
46:06
That's totally OK. This was the out of order kind
46:10
of communication that the women were having.
46:15
And so he said that they are to be submissive as by the law also
46:23
says. And if they want to learn
46:24
anything or something, let them ask their own husbands at home.
46:27
For it's shameful for women to speak in the church.
46:29
And it wasn't that a woman can't give a testimony or give
46:33
announcements or or pray or encourage or come up here when
46:37
we have intercession for people who are sick and lay hands and
46:39
pray, that is totally within the confines of of biblical church
46:44
order. But it was whenever they were,
46:47
you know, creating some havoc here.
46:50
And then he says in verse 36, or did the word of God come
46:53
originally from you? Or was it only you that reached?
46:58
If anyone thinks himself to be a prophet or spiritual, let him
47:01
acknowledge that the things which I write to you are
47:04
commandments of the Lord. So these aren't suggestions here
47:07
that I'm sharing today in regard to order of spiritual gifts.
47:10
These are commands of the Lord. And if you want to do stuff
47:14
different, you know you'll be called out on it here because we
47:18
won't allow it to happen because it's not within the confines of
47:21
church order and church worship. But if anyone is ignorant, let
47:28
them be ignorant. Therefore, brethren, desire
47:30
earnestly to prophecy, do not forbid to speak with tongues,
47:35
and let all things being be done decently in an order.
47:39
What is that? OK, How did I do on a scale of 1
47:43
to 10? What's what's funny, you know,
47:49
some people say I like that Calvary Chapel, but they're
47:54
they're too Baptist. And then someone else to say I
47:58
like, I don't like that Calvary Chapel because they're too
48:01
Pentecostal. Like you can't please everybody.
48:04
But I believe that in these last days, when you only have certain
48:10
choices to make and where you want to serve and where you want
48:13
to fellowship and where you want to bring your families, I think
48:17
it's critical more than ever, you know, to find a church that
48:21
teaches the Bible. Simply simply teach the Bible.
48:25
Simply not any. Don't add anything to it.
48:30
Don't subtract anything from it. Teach the whole council of God.
48:36
And it's hard to find. That's why Cindy and I planted
48:40
this church in ignorance 30 years ago.
48:44
We had no idea what we were doing.
48:46
We just knew there needed to be a church like this in this
48:48
community. And we had attended a lot of
48:52
churches, nice people and all that, but we there was like very
48:55
little teaching of the Word of God.
48:59
And I'm so thankful that the Lord brought me and Cindy and my
49:02
family into this part of the body of Christ.
49:05
And I'm not saying we're better than anybody else, but I believe
49:08
that we are on track with what God wants his church to be like
49:13
and to look like. And he's using all of you in
49:15
different ways here. And there's more opportunity to
49:18
be used. I'm thankful for the men that
49:22
teach her Wednesday night. And they can have different
49:26
views on these positions. No one's signing a report here.
49:30
You must agree with everything this way.
49:32
Some people have different end time views here.
49:34
Some people believe in a little rapture.
49:37
Some people don't believe in a little rapture, some people
49:40
believe in the pre Trib rapture. Some people believe in a mid
49:44
Trib, a no Trib, all millennial. I mean, but those are secondary
49:50
issues. The primary issue is to preach
49:54
the gospel and teach the word right and sometimes to be able
49:59
to agree to disagree and not make a big deal of it right.
50:04
So that's my prayer. And if you could come up for a
50:10
minute, brother, just come up here and say hi to everybody.
50:13
Come on up, Anita. Matt.
50:27
Matt has the gift of interpretation.
50:29
So we're going to do a little thing here now.
50:34
So tell everybody how you're doing, what's going on.
50:37
Yeah. OK, so we have a testimony from
50:40
the Lord 3 1/2 years ago. The doctors told me I only had
50:44
two years, so we're a year and a half ahead of them.
50:48
Every day is a blessing. So we all need to think about
50:52
that, though we all could be gone tonight.
50:55
That's right. So.
50:56
Like Clark said, if you're not right with the Lord, you need to
50:59
get there big time. So my cancer, I had six months
51:06
of chemotherapy. We ended that up in June and my
51:12
blood numbers were way down. And then in September we had
51:16
blood samples and they're going up again.
51:19
So in December we're starting a new treatment with this new
51:25
treatment method that's out there called Pluvicto, and they
51:29
inject radioactive material into your blood and it attaches to
51:33
cancer cells and kills cancer cells.
51:36
So we're looking forward to that one.
51:38
The only problem with that is I'll be radioactive for two or
51:41
three days and if we're in the car, I got to sit in the back
51:45
seat on the other side and sleep in a separate bedroom.
51:48
So, but we're just so blessed. Every day is a blessing.
51:55
Amen. Thank you for your.
51:57
Prayers. Yes, thank you so much for your
51:59
prayers. We know that many of you still
52:01
pray for us and we really appreciate it.
52:04
We live in Kerrville, TX. If you've heard about Kerrville,
52:07
this summer, there was significant flooding and right
52:10
across the street from where we live, 28 girls were killed at a
52:14
Christian camp. So we're still in a recovery
52:19
mode. I think Tim at West Elizabeth is
52:22
going to send some A-Team down in January.
52:25
If anybody feels led to come and help us, we could use your help.
52:29
The community is still hurting big time.
52:31
There were 120 people that perished during the flood.
52:35
So our little Calvary Chapel is pretty small.
52:38
It's really a loving church. We're really blessed there.
52:42
We miss you guys like crazy. We're we're so happy that we
52:47
could come and visit and say hi to everyone.
52:49
So yeah, just keep up, keep on keeping on and.
52:54
Chugging along with the Lord. Amen.
52:56
Thank you. Is John around?
52:57
John Morris. You.
52:58
John is. Where's John at?
53:02
He was here. He must have left after my
53:04
message. He went back to a Pentecostal.
53:08
Steve, Steve. Steve, come up.
53:10
Steve, come up here. John, come up here.
53:16
John, come on up with Steve there.
53:19
Come on over. Brother.
53:20
Please, please lay hands and pray.
53:22
Pray for our brother as your LED of the Lord.
53:25
OK? Heavenly Father, we do gather
53:33
before you. We do thank you for our brother
53:36
Matt and Nina. We do thank you, Lord, that
53:38
you've provided for them in many ways that are unknown to us.
53:44
But we thank you Lord for his presence.
53:45
We thank you, Lord for his testimony.
53:48
Lord continue to guide him and and bless him and continue to to
53:52
lead that only can come from you.
53:57
It's not us, Lord, that that provide and, and direct and
54:01
leading guide. It's you, Lord, and we give you
54:04
the glory and we give you the honor and the praise, Lord, that
54:07
you deserve in this man's life and in his wife's life, Lord,
54:11
that you've, you've put him where he needs to be.
54:14
We miss him and we miss his time with us.
54:17
But Lord, we ask that you just continue to guide and direct and
54:21
give him the wisdom that he needs.
54:24
Thank you, Lord, for His presence.
54:32
Family, Father, we just truly thank you for this couple, Lord
54:36
God, and what an example of who they are.
54:40
And you, Lord God, that you are all over them.
54:42
Lord God, in the midst of adversities and problems and
54:46
difficult situations, Lord God, they come up here with smiles on
54:49
your face. Lord God, they come up here
54:51
thanking you for who you are in their life.
54:53
Lord, we thank you for that. Lord God, we ask you, Lord God,
54:56
just to continue to touch them. Lord God, continue just to your
55:00
provisions in their life. Lord God, they come with even
55:03
concerns for others, Lord God, as they're going through things.
55:06
Lord God, Lord, we just thank you.
55:09
What an example of who you are in them.
55:12
Lord God and Lord, just bless them.
55:15
Bless them in all that they do in Jesus name.
55:22
Yes, Lord, God, we do thank you for Matt the need of here, Lord,
55:26
Lord, when when they were here, Lord, the example that they gave
55:30
Lord, I know in one instance when we had to move, Matt showed
55:34
up and helped us move. And Lord, we're a huge family.
55:37
And he didn't, he didn't care. He just stepped in there and he
55:39
helped Lord. And so Lord, now it's it's our
55:43
time to lift him up and his and Matt and he's both Lord and just
55:47
as he would just bring healing Lord, this new medicine coming,
55:50
Lord, he looks forward to it and we just ask he would just work
55:53
through this medicine. Lord, we know it's not the
55:55
medicine, Lord, it's you working through Lord.
55:57
So we just ask you to just lift him up and.
56:01
Thank you. OK so one more thing.
56:07
Some of you guys might disagree with me but the Lord blessed me
56:11
with the best wife in the world. OK, Gina, come on up.
56:20
Gina and the team will close service.
56:30
Yeah, yes, yeah, yeah. I'm going to do that.
56:33
Yep. Thank you.
56:34
You got the help. Thank you for helping me.
56:42
Thank you, Lord. So much for your goodness, Lord.
56:44
And it was wonderful. Family here of God, what you're
56:47
doing in people's lives and how much they love you and love one
56:51
another. And that's the greatest example
56:53
of your Holy Spirit working in this church.
56:56
Lord, we're all learning. We're.
56:59
Desiring to be closer to you and to follow you 100%, Lord.
57:04
And we just pray you'd help us in our struggles, our
57:09
downfallings, Lord, Times of doubt, Lord, times of being
57:13
overwhelmed, all the things that can happen to us as human beings
57:16
on any given day. Lord, we're so thankful that you
57:20
tell us You're always there for us to call upon you.
57:23
You say if we draw near to you, you'll draw near to us.
57:27
And that's what we do every Sunday when we gather here to
57:29
draw near to you. And Lord, the the one of the
57:33
most amazing ways you've given us to draw near to you is taking
57:37
the supper with you, Lord, in your presence, remembering what
57:41
you've done for us and how much you love us.
57:44
And Lord, how we can deal with our heart even a few minutes
57:47
before we take this, we can say, Lord, this has to be changed.
57:50
And when I turn from this, I repent of this Lord.
57:54
I want to be yielded to you. I want to surrender to you.
57:58
I want it to be more about you and others and less about me and
58:01
myself. We just want to be more like
58:04
you, Jesus. And we know that's your will for
58:07
us, Lord, that you conform each of us more to your image and
58:11
likeness because we can't do that ourselves.
58:14
It's got to be you. Work your Holy Spirit.
58:17
On the night that Jesus was betrayed, he took the bread in
58:20
his hands and he broke it and he gave thanks.
58:22
He said, take, eat, this is My body which is given for you.
58:27
Eat this in remembrance of me. On the same manner in that night
58:35
he took the cup. He said this cup is a new
58:38
covenant in My blood which is shed for the forgiveness of sins
58:41
of many. Drink this in remembrance of me.
58:48
For as often as you eat this bread and you drink this cup.
58:52
You show forth the Lord's death till he comes again.
58:54
God bless you guys. Thank you for putting up with me
58:57
today.