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