You're very welcome to today's Triumph Church podcast.
We pray that you enjoy the message.
Well, I'm really excited about today.
This morning I'm going to be introducing a a new topic.
We've been on the book of Ephesians for a lot of weeks.
I actually don't know when we begin that, but we just finished
that this past weekend. I hope it was a blessing to you.
If there's some weeks that you missed, I really would encourage
you to go back and listen to those because every week was
just really power packed and it'll be a blessing to your
life. This morning I wanted to reduce
the topic of spiritual gifts. It's not really something that
we've talked a lot about before in the church.
There's just been a lot of other things that the Lord has had on
my heart to talk about. And really we only have one
service A A. Week.
On Sunday mornings predominantly.
So there's just so much what we can get through and I've been
wanting to talk on this subject for a long time.
And finally, the Lord is like, OK, talk about it, now's the
time. But there are different ministry
gifts. These are different.
Sorry. Then the ministry gifts that we
talked about in Ephesians chapter 4 and verses 11 and 12.
That's the apostle, the prophet, the teacher, the the evangelist.
And I think I'm leaving one out there, the pastor, the apostle,
the prophet, the teacher and the evangelist.
But spiritual gifts are ministry gifts.
The the, the other things are like a position.
It's an office in the body of Christ, but spiritual gifts are
for everyone. Those are those other things are
ministry gifts in the body, but spiritual gifts are things that
the Holy Spirit gives to everyone in the church.
And we're going to talk about those things.
And both the ministry gifts and the spiritual gifts, those are
decided and distributed by the Holy Spirit.
It's not something that you can decide one day.
I'm going to be a pastor or I'm going to be an apostle, or I'm
going to be a prophet or a teacher, or I'm going to walk in
this spiritual gift or that spiritual gift.
These are things that the Holy Spirit gives.
He decides. All right.
It's not like you can go. And you know, like my son Aiden,
he's getting ready for university and he has to.
Choose, you know, kind of what field that he wants to go and
he's picking, you know what I want to go to university for.
All right, but in the body of Christ, it doesn't work that
way. God's the one that picks those
things for us. He's the one that determines
those things. But we're going to begin here in
One Corinthians chapter 12. The Apostle Paul spent a a a lot
of time in the book of Corinthians, his letter to the
Corinth church talking about. Spiritual gifts really, because
the. Church in Corinth was kind of a
mess, all right. They had a lot of things going
on. They were very excited about the
things of God and and operating in the things of God, but they
kind of did it recklessly and without order.
And so the Apostle Paul. Spent a considerable amount of
time in this first book of Corinthians addressing those
issues in chapter. 1213 and 14 and it begins in one Corinthians
chapter 12 and verse one saying this.
Now, dear brothers and sisters, regarding your question about
the spiritual abilities the Spirit gives us, I don't want
you to misunderstand this. And it's really not that
surprising that there are misunderstandings about
spiritual things. It's not like something that we
can we can see or or or really go to school.
And and and study and see these things and experiment like we
can with things in the natural right?
Like it's easy to experiment with gravity.
I can take this tissue box and I can drop it and see the law of
gravity happened. It's something we all can
observe, right? Well, spiritual gifts are a
little. Different, but there's
misunderstandings with spiritual things sometimes if they're not
taught biblically or if they're not taught at all.
And you have that happening in a lot of places where things
aren't really taught biblically. In other places, they actually
don't teach on those things at all because it's spiritual.
There's some misunderstandings there, and it's something that
people have a difficult time wrapping their mind around,
right? But it's not something you can
wrap your mind around. These are.
Spiritual things, not natural things.
It's easy to wrap. Ourselves, our minds around the
law of gravity, isn't it because we see it, we can touch it, we
can experience it how many of you have fallen that's the law
of gravity happen right? But spiritual things are are
different. So it's important that we.
Stick with scripture, this is what God has given us as our
manual. I can go to IKEA and I've done
this a few times. Oh, this is going to be an easy
enough piece of furniture to put together.
I don't know how many times I do this.
You think I'd learned my lesson, right?
Go to IKEA, you know, and the, and the instructions are really
simple. You don't have to read anything.
It's just pictures, you know. It's pretty simple and easy.
Right. But I don't know how many times
that I started. It's just simple enough.
I start putting something together, I get, you know, like
through it a little bit, and then I realize I did that wrong.
I probably should have just stuck with the manual, You know,
don't have time to do it right the first time, don't have time
to do it right the third time, but you have time to do.
It right the you know the the third time, right?
It's better just to do it right the first time.
Just. Stick with the manual, right?
Is there any other people that have?
That same issue and and problem right?
It's like I've got this one. Just stick with the manual,
it'll save you a lot of time and energy.
I just actually experienced this not too long ago.
I put on some piece of a Kia furniture.
I put the board on wrong and I'm like I have to.
Go through an undo, you know, literally like 40 minutes of
work to put it back together the right way.
So let's just stick with the manual.
It's the same thing with the things of God, all right?
This is our manual, right? This is the beginning point.
This is the end point, right? This is everything.
This is what as Christians, we are supposed to live our lives
by, right? This is what we stick with.
If we don't stick with this. Then what are we putting our
faith in, right? This is what we put our faith in
because this is the word that God has given us.
You know, don't put your faith in someone's opinion, right?
It's OK if someone's opinion is founded on the word and it lines
up with scripture, right? If their opinion differs from
this. Then stick with the Bible,
right? Don't stick with an opinion that
isn't biblical, right? So here in the the New Testament
church in Corinth, Paul is instructing this church in verse
in chapters 12/13 and 14 in his letter and to every other church
by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit on spiritual gifts.
And it begins by saying, I don't want you to misunderstand
spiritual gifts and I don't want our church to misunderstand
spiritual gifts either. So we're going to spend some
time talking about this. So to begin this topic, so there
is no misunderstanding, we're going to talk about these three
points today. First, we're going to talk about
what are spiritual gifts. The second thing we're going to
talk about is the box that Jesus operated within.
And then the third thing is we're going to talk about the
box that. We.
Operate within. All right, so let's go to this
first point. What are spiritual gifts?
What the apostle Paul began to line out for the church in
Corinth and for all future generations is he's lining out
that box all right. He began to line out the the
framework, the guidelines, the rules that govern these
spiritual gifts. All right, Not to control them,
not to suppress them, but that they would.
Be a blessing to a. Church, you know, there's a lot
of different, different churches that because there's either been
some strange things that people haven't been responsible with
spiritual things and have done different things and really they
were acting naturally, not spiritually.
There's been some churches that OK, we're just done with
anything spirit. No spiritual gifts happening in
in this church, right? But spiritual gifts are of God.
Spiritual gifts are something that the Holy Spirit.
Places in the body of Christ that places in each one of us,
and its purpose as we're going to.
See is to be a. Blessing to us.
To help us, to encourage us. So to cut that off is to cut off
a part of the Holy Spirit. Blessing and encouraging us.
So we don't want to do that. Listen, I know there's a lot of
weird. People out there, right?
There's a lot of people that drive crazy.
Does that mean that I'm not going to drive?
Right. You just want to rely on public
transportation the rest of your life.
Good luck. It's a blessing, right?
But sometimes it's just nice to drive somewhere, isn't it?
So Paul's lining out some guidelines, some rules to govern
these these spiritual things. Everything that God does all
right has an order to it. Right.
Everything that God does works within some kind of box.
All of nature, everything we see.
All right, has an. Order to it, a very specific
order to it. If anything in nature operated
outside of what it was specified to work within, life would cease
to exist. On this planet, right, there's
an order, there's a box that everything operates in.
That's what God does. Scripture provides us with this
guidance, beginning with the pastor and then the
congregation, so that. We can keep.
The church within a biblical framework so that everything is
a blessing. To the church.
Right, We want things to be a blessing.
So Paul states the purpose of spiritual gifts in One
Corinthians chapter 12 and verse 7.
He says a spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can
help each other. Do you know you all been given a
spiritual gift? Whoa.
I didn't know I'd been given a spiritual gift.
I just found out this morning, Pastor Brad, that spiritual
gifts are actually a thing. This is the first time I've ever
heard about them. All right, well, the Holy
Spirit. He gives you a spiritual gift.
And that spiritual gift is for the purpose.
Of helping each other to be a blessing, right?
The gifts the Holy Spirit distributes to believers in the
body of Christ are for the purpose of building his church
up and advancing the. Kingdom of God, but what are
those gifts? Pastor Brad, you're talking
about these spiritual gifts. You've mentioned spiritual
gifts, spiritual gifts, spiritual gifts.
What are those spiritual gifts? Would you like to know?
Paul lines these out clearly in one Corinthians chapter 12 and
verses 8 to 10. He says, for one is given the
word of wisdom through the Spirit to another, the word of
knowledge through the same Spirit to another, faith by the
same Spirit to another. Gifts of healings.
By the same spirit and verse 10 to another the working of
miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of
spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, and to another
the interpretation of tongues. So there's nine different.
Gifts listed here and there really can be grouped into three
different categories. All right, you have the
Revelation gifts. These are.
God revealing something. This is the word of wisdom.
This is the word of knowledge. This is the discerning of
spirits. All right, it's God revealing.
Something. And that's for the purpose of
helping someone, isn't it? Then you have the.
Power gifts. It's God doing something.
This is the gift of faith. It's the gift of healings.
It's the working of miracles. And again, that's God doing
something to help. Isn't it to be a blessing?
Then you have what's called the utterance gifts.
This is God saying something to encourage, to exhort, to
comfort. This is the gift of prophecy.
It's the gift of tongues. It's the interpretation of
tongues. You ever read this the book of
Corinthians before? How many of you?
Have ever heard. Any teaching on spiritual gifts
before raise your hand? Yeah.
How many of you have never heard any teaching on spiritual?
Gifts. Yeah, few of you.
Hey, I get it to introduce you a scriptural, biblical spiritual
gifts. So this is a privilege.
After listing these things, Paul gives a very important,
important statement which is really key here to all of these
spiritual gifts. He says in One Corinthians
chapter 12 and verse 11, he says, but one in the same spirit
works all these things, distributing to each
individually as he wills. It's an important key there.
That's in the new King James translation and the new Living
translation. It says it is the one and only.
Spirit who distributes all these gifts, He alone decides which
gift each person should have, right?
He alone decides, not me, not you.
Not a personality test. Not some spiritual gifting quiz
that you might have taken on some social media thing.
The Holy Spirit alone determines what gift he gives you.
And scripture says that he's given us all a gift, right?
At least one, right? We're each of us the Holy Spirit
gives us. When we become baptized in the
Holy Spirit, He gives us at least one gift for us to operate
in, to be a blessing to people around.
US, it's he alone who decides that.
And this is very important for us to keep in mind.
We can't simply decide I'm going to operate in the gift of
prophecy, right? Sounds really cool.
I think I'm going to operate in this gift.
No, it's the holy. Spirit who decides, right?
We can't just decide I'm going to operate in the spiritual gift
of the Word of Knowledge. It's the Holy Spirit that
determines which gift that we operate in.
He alone decides. They are given as He wills.
And each of these gifts fall inside a framework.
They fall inside a box that God intends for them.
To. Operate within all right, and
that box begins and ends. With Scripture and we'll go over
some more more things here in Scripture, but the.
All those spiritual. Gifts operate within Scripture.
Scripture is what? Defines that anything outside of
that is called unscriptural, right?
You want to remain within the confines, the box of Scripture.
This is where God. Those things are a blessing and
are a help to people when people.
Operate outside of Scripture. That's when things start to not
be a help, not be a blessing to people.
So that box begins in the framework of Scripture.
All right. Now, the second point here is
the box that Jesus operated within.
It's kind of hard to picture Jesus operating within a box,
isn't it? But he put.
Himself in that box he came down from heaven and operated as a
man in humanity right he operated within a box so let's
look at John chapter 3 and verse 34 this kind of shows some
different things here John chapter 3 and verse 34 and it
says for. Jesus is sent by God.
He speaks God's word, for God gives him the Spirit without
limit. So Jesus was given the Spirit
without. Limit.
Isn't that amazing? Wow.
Imagine having no limits on anything.
Would you like to have like a debit card without?
A limit on it right? Like.
Anything. Everything you needed, wanted,
you could just use it. Could never ran dry.
It was without. Limit That would be amazing,
wouldn't it? I'd.
Like that kind of debit card? But Jesus, God gives him the
Spirit without. Limit right now, soon as.
Jesus begin his ministry is 30 years old and he was filled with
the Holy Spirit. Scripture says that he operated
in the Spirit without limit, but we'll see here that even Jesus
operated his ministry within a box.
So let's look at that box, all right, in John chapter 5, just a
couple chapters later, John chapter 5 and verse 19, it says,
then Jesus answered and said to them, most assuredly I say.
To you all right, the Son can do nothing of himself but what he
sees the Father do for whatever he does.
The Son also does in like manner.
Then a couple of chapters later here in John chapter 8 and verse
28, then Jesus said to them, when you lift up the Son of Man,
then you will know that I am. He, for I do nothing of myself,
but as the Father taught me, I speak.
These things I first noticed the the parameter of this box.
Here I guess this. Is the box that Jesus is saying?
This is the box, lads, that I operate in all right?
I do nothing of myself. That's the first thing.
Like he put a limit on himself. He was given the Spirit without
measure, right? That's what Scripture says.
That's what we. Read.
But he says here that I do nothing of myself.
He only ever did these things, what the Father directed him to
do. That's the first thing.
And what the? Father directed him to say.
Right. That is the box that Jesus
operated within. Whatever the father shows.
Me, whatever he tells me, whatever he wants me to do that
I'm going to do, I don't do anything outside of that.
If he hasn't told me to do it, I'm not going to do it.
And what the father tells me to say, those are the things that
I'm going to say. If he has not told me to say
these things, then I'm not going to say them.
That's the box. That Jesus operated within,
right? Do you see that now?
Could he have done things outside of the Father's
direction? He could have, right?
That's a really. Good question, but what would be
the reason and what would be the motives for him operating
outside of what God told him to do and outside of what God told
him to say? Why would Jesus do that right?
Everything that the Holy Spirit does is to help people and to be
a blessing to people. The Holy Spirit knows the
perfect things to do to be a blessing to people.
The Holy Spirit knows the perfect things to say to be a
blessing to people, right? So we should want to stick
within that box, right? Because we trust that the Holy
Spirit has the perfect way to do the perfect things, to say
anything outside of that, I'm not moving.
If Jesus didn't move outside of those parameters, all right,
then who am I to think that it would be OK for me?
To operate outside of those parameters.
I'm not. I'm following Jesus.
Example. Right.
He's who I'm emulating. He's who I'm following.
So that's the box that Jesus operated within.
Does that make sense? The third thing is the box that
we operate within. All right, so let's look at this
box because this box is smaller and it's tighter than Jesus box
is Jesus was given the Spirit without measure.
Jesus operated at different times in all of the gifts of
the. Spirit in his ministry.
Well, the Holy Spirit distributes us to at.
Least one, but the odds of word? Probably not ever.
Going to be operated in all of the gifts of the spirit in our
life Jesus operated in those all the time right he was given the
spirit without measure but we. Have it in measure all right so
our. Box is is a little smaller and a
little tighter, right? Jesus had this bigger box.
The parameters that he operated within, well, ours is a lot.
Smaller, I move this way, I move this way and that's the
confines. That's where I'm supposed.
To operate within, when we try to operate outside of that box,
you know, maybe step into a spiritual gift that the Holy
Spirit. Hasn't placed in our lives?
Well, that's outside of our box. Let's not do that, OK?
It never turns out good for the people that you're trying to
minister to, and it never turns out good for you.
Just stay within your lane. Stay in your box.
Amen. So Paul kind of talks throughout
chapter 12 about these amazing gifts, but ends this chapter
with this. In One Corinthians chapter 12
and verse 31 he says so you should earnestly decide desire
the most helpful gifts, but let me.
Show you a way of life. That is best of all.
So all these spiritual gifts are amazing, right?
But the apostle Paul says well. Let me show you.
All right, the best way of all. And then he goes right into one
Corinthians chapter 13 and verse one.
All right, we put chapters and we put verses in here, so it's
easy to find, right, If you're trying to thumb through
someone's letter and find the exact place.
You know, it can be kind of difficult.
It's nice having easy reference points where we can just go to 1
Corinthians chapter 13, verse one.
We can all. Go there really shortly, right?
But this is a continual letter that the apostle Paul was
writing. So in One Corinthians chapter
13, verse 1, he tells us what the best way of life is.
He says. If I could speak.
All the language of earth and of angels, but don't love others.
I would be. Only a noisy gong.
Not kind of funny, a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
Now, if you're a drummer like my son is, you know, like most,
most cymbals, most gongs, like it's a, you know, music to his
ears. You know, he'd love to wake up
to that every morning. He'd love to go to bed with
that, you know, every night, you know, others of us.
It's like, that's just annoying just to hear Dong Dong Dong
Dong. My daughter, we went to the zoo
yesterday and she got this, this, you know, new little
stuffy, a bird, you know, and it's pretty cool.
It's, you know, it's like looks like the actual bird and they
recorded the sound where you push a button, you know, and
it's the, and it's the sound that that bird makes and it's
really loud, right? And it was really cute at the
zoo. And I'm thinking I'm going to be
listening to. This a lot coming up here like
you know where I take her downstairs before church.
We're going to Dunn's, you know, and she's doing it down the
lift. We're walking through the the
car parked in the basement, pushing that button, the birds
making it sound we're going up. Going up to the shop, you know,
making that sound, I'm like you might want to when we get in the
shop, you know, just keep your bird quiet.
You know, people are going to be looking around to see if there's
a bird. Around, you know.
Whoa, what was that? You know so, but sometimes
things can just be loud and and obnoxious.
That's not what we want to be. That's what we don't want, the
spiritual gift that the Holy Spirit is having us operate in
to be loud and obnoxious. Right, and so part of that box,
all right, we, we have, you know, that's the same thing that
Jesus whatever, you know, we see the Father do whatever he
directs us, whatever he tells us to say, whatever he tells us to
do. That's the box that we operate
that within. But also it's the motive, you
know, in there and it's love. Everything that God does is
through the motive of love. Spiritual gifts operate through
the motive of love. You have chapter 12, you know,
the apostle Paul. Whoa, lad, you guys are a
serious mess. You're like, you guys have some
serious misunderstandings about spiritual gifts, right?
Let's start, you know, trying to tighten this up.
Let's start giving you some framework and some guidelines.
And he starts giving, you know, those framework and those
guidelines in in chapter 14, right?
But in the middle. Of that chapter 13, it's all
about love. Right, that's that cream, that
cream feeling in the Oreo, right?
You have those crunchy outsides, you know, but you have that, you
know, like my my daughter, sometimes she'll take the Oreo
part. She just eats the cream feeling
and like discards the, you know, the crunchy part on the outside.
You know, that cream feeling is nice.
Well, what is that? Cream feeling in One Corinthians
chapter 13. It's love, right?
That's how everything is supposed to.
Operate is through the motive of love and the apostle Paul is
saying listen if you're. Not operating with that motive
of the spiritual gifts operating through that, being filtered
through that. Then it's just an annoying
noise, right? Am I the only one that sees it
in that light? That's how I, when I read that,
that's how I see it, you know, So in chapter 14, Paul begins
defining our our box further. This box is kind of getting a
little tighter and tighter, isn't it?
It's supposed to. In chapter 14, Paul begins
defining our. Our box and he says that that
box begins with order, right? Everything that the Holy Spirit
does is to help is to be a. Blessing.
And it has an order. All right.
With that in mind, Paul gives us this instruction in One
Corinthians 14 and at the end of that chapter in verse 40 he says
this One Corinthians 1440. But be sure that everything is
done properly and in order, right?
Spiritual gifts should be operated in properly and in.
Order and a massive part of doing everything properly and in
order. Paul gives this rolling things
back a few scriptures in one Corinthians 14 and verse 26, he
says well my brothers and sisters, let's summarize.
When you meet together, one will sing, another will teach,
another will tell some special revelation God had given them,
one will speak in tongues, another will interpret what is
said. But everything that is done must
strengthen all of you. The apostle Paul has given this
instruction because the Corinthian church was coming
together and they were all wanting to give a.
Song and all, wanting to give a word and it was just crazy and
chaotic. Can you imagine if all of us
came together and all of us came?
I'm going to give a. I'm going to this morning, I'm
going to have a song, I'm going to teach, I'm going to give
someone a special revelation. I'm going to speak in tongues
and I'm going to interpret right.
Like if all of us. Came with that.
This is going to be a crazy meeting, right?
And it's going to go a long. Time, if you have your, if you
have your roast in the oven, it's going to be burnt by the
time you get home. This thing is going to go a long
time, right? The apostle Paul is telling us
that these spiritual gifts operate within a box.
They operate in order, right? They're not disruptive.
They're not going to detract. Or take away what the holy?
Spirit is wanting to accomplish in a service, right?
And, and every service can be different because we're bringing
in different needs. We all, we all have different
needs. We're all living complete
different lives, right? And sometimes we need to hear
something. We need to be ministered in a
way. Sometimes the Holy Spirit may
tailor and design a service for one individual and everyone else
is like, wow, that was an amazing service.
But one individual is like, Lord, that was that was for me.
I needed that. Thank you.
Right. But if we're coming together and
we're just running this thing with no order, right?
There's not going to be that ministry that's going to be able
to take place. That's not going to be helpful
to us. It's not going to be a blessing
if it's chaotic. Right.
Everything the Holy Spirit does has an order to it.
A massive part of doing everything in order is, as Paul
said in One Corinthians 1426, US doing our part in turn, right.
You ever, you ever been to like an orchestra?
You know, you have the the maestro, the the director of the
orchestra stand up there. You know, they, they're not even
playing an instrument. You know, sometimes you're like,
what do they do? Actually, you know, they have
this little wand. What are they like a magician?
You know, like. What are they doing with that?
With that thing, you know? Well, they're directing the
entire orchestra, aren't they? They're keeping in time.
You know, they're pointing sometimes to a section.
Oh, our cues coming up, you know, pointing to another
section. They're direct and everything.
And sometimes if you watch a director, sometimes they're
really into it. Like, aren't they?
It's fun to watch them. I spend half the time watching
them than the than the orchestra because they're like.
Really into their their job, you know, but that's kind of like
what, what a pastor does, right? There's the behind the scenes
things that no one else has been seen.
You know this. Isn't the first time the
orchestra got together was the performance right They've been
getting together a long time, they've been working out the
parts, they've been working out different things well.
Well, the director is the one that's directing that, so on
the. Day of, he's just really helping
them keep time and help keeping them in the place that they're
supposed to be. They all know their parts,
right? They all know what they're
supposed to do. They practice it.
You know who knows how many times before that performance,
right? Well, that's what a pastor does,
equipping you like right here in a church service, right?
We're coming together, being equipped, and then you go out
there in your life and you're doing your ministry, and I'm
just standing here watching you. All right, All right, you do
your part. Oh, spot on.
He nailed it. All right.
That's really good. All right.
You nice? All right.
Yeah. But it's all.
With order, the Holy Spirit's amazing, right?
We all do our part right. It's a.
It's a really. Boring performance, you know, if
only one, if only one instrument is playing.
Well, why isn't all the rest of the organs?
They're just sitting there, right?
We all have a part. The Holy Spirit has given us
each a part to play, all right, But all of these things have to
be operated in responsibly and in order.
All right, so I'm about ready to close here.
But before we we close, there's something else that I want to
get into. Then.
This is really just an introduction to spiritual gifts.
There's no way that you could really talk about spiritual
gifts on just one Sunday morning.
I promise this isn't going to be a 20 part series, all right, but
we will talk about this. Some more and kind of go through
those spiritual gifts because we listed, you know, gave the list
of the 9 spiritual gifts there and kind of told a little bit
about it. Well, OK, you told me there's a
word. Of wisdom what is word of of
wisdom right well, we'll get into some of those things but
before I end this morning I want to zero in a bit on properly and
in order within Triumph church all right I pastor Triumph
church. I don't pastor another church.
They may they're properly and in order may be a little different
than our properly and orderly might be.
You know, as long as it's scriptural, like that's cool,
right? Like your personality is
different than mine. If you.
You know, like Sean's come up here and he's preached different
times and he does a great job. He he preaches differently than
I do, doesn't he? Right.
And I enjoy listening to him because he is different.
I don't want to look in the mirror and just listen to myself
preach. I can do that at at home, right?
Like I love listening to Sean preach.
We'll have him minister again here soon.
Or Pastor Amy, when she ministers, she ministers
completely different than I do, right?
Right, we, we each. Operate differently.
Well, churches may have like a different flavor, a little bit
different of a personality. And that's fine as long as it
remains within that box of of Scripture, right?
But it's the Holy Spirit. Who gives these gifts?
And all of them are for our benefit and within the church,
they come under the biblical authority of that church and
within a church they're subject to. 1st the authority of the
pastor OK, and then the authority of.
The congregation, right? And it's everyone holding things
accountable that make sure it lines up, that those things
operating are scriptural and biblical.
What does that mean, Pastor? Anything that's done under the
umbrella of a church is subject to the authority of that church,
all right? Because it represents that
church, right? So if we have someone come, come
in here who's never been here before, and they start going
around and giving a prophecy to everyone after service, right?
Well, people don't know. Like it's within.
Triumph Church, right? And so if they're giving some
things that are really strange, you know, spend everything on
your, you know, credit card limit, you know, thus saith the
Lord, and then you go out and spend your credit card limit,
you know, and then you're like, well, Pastor Brad, you know,
that was someone came in Triumph Church.
And you know, yeah, that would be wouldn't be a blessing to
you. It wouldn't be helpful, right.
So there's things that operate under the authority, under the
umbrella. Of a church in Hebrews chapter
13 and verse 17 because we want spiritual gifts to be a
blessing, right Hebrews chapter 13 and verse 17 says obey your
spiritual leaders and do what they say their work is to watch
over your souls and they are accountable to God.
I'm accountable. To God for you, dear Lord Jesus,
help me. Just kidding.
Just kidding because this next. Part, you know, give them reason
to do this with joy. You guys are such a joy.
Like really honestly, we have a really great.
Congregation. But then he goes, and not with
sorrow. All right.
But really quickly, before we. Close I want to give direction
for any anybody operating in a spiritual gift within Triumph
Church. All right, Firstly, churches
should desire that gifts of the Holy Spirit be present within
our services because those things are to build.
Us up. They're to encourage us, they're
to help us. We want spiritual gifts in
operation within Triumph Church. Right.
And that means that all of us have been given.
A spiritual gift. Not just me, not just Pastor
Amy, not just Sean. All right, God's given.
Our church, every person, every believer, a spiritual gift, and
we're supposed to walk in those, but in that box because the Holy
Spirit has a purpose. For them, all right, but that
purpose is never going to violate the order and the
authority of a church. So let me give you a few.
Steps. Some guidelines, and I'm going
to just use the word of knowledge, the Word of wisdom
and prophecy as examples because you see these real commonly.
The word of knowledge is the Holy Spirit revealing something
to you either present or in the past.
All right, that's what the word of knowledge is.
The Word of Wisdom is the Lord revealing something to you in
the future. OK.
And then prophecy is a message. To edify, to build up and to
encourage. The word of knowledge is the the
Holy Spirit revealing something so.
If you receive. Something from the Holy Spirit.
It might be in a dream, it might be in a vision, it might just be
that in your spirit you're, you're receiving something from
the Lord. All right.
A good rule of thumb for you to follow is never to act on that
immediately, all right, Unless the Holy Spirit is.
Telling you now you know. Otherwise you just sit on it and
this is the first thing that you should do.
The first thing is ask the Holy Spirit what he what does he want
you to do with what he's revealing?
OK, often times it's. Just that he simply wants you to
pray to intercede. He's given you some information
about something so that you're equipped to.
Pray for that, all right? Sometimes he may have you take a
step further. He may want you to.
To tell. Someone, something all right,
but the first step. Is we we take a step back and
say, OK, Holy Spirit, what do you want me to do with this
right because Jesus, how did what box did he operate it in?
I only do what the father tells me to do.
I only say what the father tells me to say.
So we're. Operating within that box.
Holy Spirit, what do you want me to do with this?
Do you want me to say something? Do you just want me to sit on
this? Do you want me to pray about it?
What is that you want me to do? 2nd, if it's something major
concerning someone within the church, you should consult your
pastor, the Holy. Spirit likely has already been
dealing with your pastor. About things.
I pray for you all the time, right?
The Holy Spirit reveals sometimes some things to me
about you that you're going through that I pray for.
Not to talk. To you about.
That, you know, ring, ring, ring, ring.
Hello, this is Pastor Brad. The Lord was telling me
something. How?
About we we meet up. For a coffee and talk about.
No, it's for me to. Pray about right.
I'm your pastor, right? Thirdly, if it's praying or
speaking a spiritual word over someone within the church, you
should have another trusted person with you.
All right? Don't minister to someone alone.
This is for the benefit of you and for the person you're
ministering to. It's accountability.
All right. We have some friends that pastor
in a church in, in the States, and there's been a number of
occasions where they've talked to Pastor Amy and, and myself
where they have someone who's come in, they start coming to
the church and they're going around and they have a word for
everyone, right? How do you?
How do we deal? With this like they're a really
nice person and stuff, but they're going around and and
giving a word to to every person that breathes in the church.
Well, listen, the box that we operate in is if the Holy
Spirit, if God, what are you telling me to do with this?
I'm only going to do. What you want me to do, I'm only
going to say what you want me to say.
Right. But anytime someone comes into a
church, all right, you're operating under that umbrella,
the authority of that church, there's accountability there,
right? You know, so it's, it's a good.
Practice that if the Holy Spirit does have a a word, give us a
word for someone. You know, if it's something
major, like I said, come talk to the pastors about it, all right?
If it's, if it's something that's that's not major.
You know, and, and we love you and we, when we trust you and
we're cool with you going around and, and giving words to people,
then that's cool. But take someone with you all
right? Because sometimes there might be
someone who comes from the outside, right?
They're not of Triumph Church. They don't have, they're not
operating necessarily with the motive or love.
They're not trying to be necessarily a, a help or a.
Blessing to people in the church.
And so if you see someone all right, who's not operating
within that system, the buddy system, right?
If you see. Someone from the outside OK,
well, they're operating outside of the guidelines.
The framework that we have that Pastor Brad is if if that's you,
someone comes up and gives you a word and there's they're not
coming with a buddy, you know, hold on, hold on a minute.
Invite someone over, you know, or.
If you have a word for someone, all right before you go over and
give that word, invite someone with you.
Hey, you know the Lord, I've been praying and Lord's given me
something for this person, you know, can you come over with me
while I'm ministering to them and praying for them?
All right, like that's a blessing that's a help.
There's there's trust in that right.
Like it makes you makes you feel good because listen, another
thing is the way we've been taught and I'm going to close
with with this here is when someone.
Gives you a word you know before we were traveling.
But before we moved over to Ireland many years ago, in 2000,
we were traveling around America and it was really interesting.
You know, we'd stop and we'd meet different people.
We were raising support to move over to Ireland and that three
different places like some. Places gave us a a word.
From the Lord you know they. They told us that.
You know, it was going to be hard at first, but then it was
going to be fun, right? And so Pastor Amy and I joke all
the time, you know, Well, when's the fun part?
You know, but it was like 3 different places right?
Like was. That from the Lord, I don't know
you know, but it's you know when someone gives you a.
Word. It's I.
It's going to do one of two. Things, you know, either it's
going to bear witness with things that you've already been
praying about and talking to the Lord about, and that is
confirmation from the Lord. All right.
If it doesn't, then you put it like in a metaphorically like in
a jar and you and you put it up on on the shelf and you don't.
Move on it, you know, and and you pray about it and you ask
the Lord, you know. Well, if that was from you, you
know, Lord, what should I do with that?
You know, and if you don't get anything, you do nothing with
it, you know? Right, that's good sound device,
isn't it? But usually if someone if
someone, someone has a word or something's for you, let me just
give one more more example. You know, before Pastor Amy and
I moved over to this part of the country, we were working with
her, her parents in her church, her parents church, right?
And a lot of you probably have heard this example before, but
it kind of bears in line with this, you know, and over and
that was like, I don't know, 2015, I think.
And I always move really slow. I don't make quick decisions.
I don't move really quick. I like to spend time praying.
I like to make sure that it's the Lord that's leading us in a
direction or telling us to do something.
It's that box again, right? There's safety there.
You don't have to make rush decisions, you know, unless the
Lord says I need. You to move right then you move
but we. Were kind of, we were kind of
struggling because there was a lot of emotion.
We were working with Pastor Amy's parents and we loved it.
We loved Limerick. Where we were, we really thought
that we would. Spend the rest of our lives
living and ministering in Limerick, right?
And so when the Lord told us, you know, we really felt like
the Lord was leading us away from that.
We're like, OK, Lord, what do we do with this?
Like we were really struggling emotionally with it.
The Lord. Didn't give us a lot of.
Direction, you know on the. Way that we where we should go,
what we should do. You know, so we were at this
meeting and I don't know if you remember Pastor Sam, who was
here in September speaking at our church, but he had a word
from the Lord. He didn't know it.
Who, who he was talking to, you know, but he was reading our
mail the exact situation that Pastor Amy and I were in and he
was saying if you don't move, you're going to miss the window.
You feel like a square, square peg trying to fit in a, in a
round hole. You know they're.
Like, these are all exact words that I was talking to Pastor Amy
about, you know? And as Pastor Sam was talking, I
just felt the Spirit of the Lord.
Come on me. Like such a thick.
Presence. I've never, you know, it's only
a handful of times that I felt the holy.
Spirit like physically? Naturally, you know, like, come
on me like that. And I just started bawling like
a baby just crying uncontrollably.
You know, I was thankful that I didn't like fall on the on the
ground because I felt like it, you know, and I'm seated on the
front row, right, crying uncontrollably.
You know, Pastor Sam is probably like like here to Pastor Amy
from me and I'm crying uncontrollably.
He probably knew at that. Point who he was talking to, you
know, it was to me, but I needed.
That. All right, because we were
dealing with a, a situation that was very emotionally difficult
for us to do, to separate ourselves from her parents so
that we could. Walk in the call of God that He
had for us. Right.
And so it was really difficult. I needed.
That all right. So sometimes the Lord the Lord
will minister to someone else. With a a word of knowledge, a
word of wisdom, you know whatever it is so that you know.
That's the Holy Spirit talking to me.
I need to begin to. Move on this right?
We didn't move that quick because of the next year.
We went to this meeting and Pastor Sam was there again.
He knew it was us now. He actually called us to the.
Front right And he turned off his mic and just had a
conversation with us. If you guys.
Don't move, you're going to miss the Lord, all right?
And the cool thing was all right.
Like the Holy Spirit was trying to talk to us.
I need you to start moving, you know?
I know. You move slow.
You want to follow me? Well, this is me.
Hello. What do I need to do here?
All right, you know, And it wasn't long before, you know,
like too many. Years afterwards, all right, we,
we moved over from Limerick, you know, stepped down from the
church there, moved over here to the, the Dublin area to, to
Klain here. And then COVID happened right.
And we started the church after right after COVID.
Well. We could have missed that
window, right? Like if we didn't move, you
know, COVID happened and we know what the lockdowns were here in
Ireland. Like we had to move before
COVID. The Lord knew that He started a
process in 2015, right? Wow, Pastor Brad, you move slow,
don't you? I do all right, but I needed
that. All right, so these spiritual.
Gifts are to be a help to you, to be a blessing to you, and
when someone operates in them, all right, it's going to be a
blessing to you if they're operating within that box, all
right, and if they're operating through the motive of.
Love. To help you and it's so good
when a when a church body is operating like that.
We need that all right. We want to not.
Be just us four and no more. There is a lost world out there
who needs equipped believers, right?
Who are founded on God's. Word and know how to follow the
Holy Spirit. In their life and ministry.
That's so important. Amen.
Well, I have gone long enough here, Children's.
Workers are probably like Pastor Brad, when you going to end?
All right, so I need to I need to wrap this this up here.
Let's close our eyes. We're going to pray here.
Definitely, Father. Lord, I'm so, so thankful for
your word, so thankful for the the Holy Spirit.
I'm thankful for all these members in our church, Lord,
Father, who are being equipped, who are being sharpened, who are
being prepared for the ministry that you've called them to and
their lives. Lord, thank you for what you're
doing through us at Triumph Church.
Thank you for what you're doing through the the congregation at
Triumph Church, Lord, and we just welcome you, Holy Spirit,
to move in this church, to move in our lives.
Lord, use us. Let us be a vessel that you used
Lord Father, to reach those around us, whether it's our
neighbor, whether it's our Co worker, whether it's someone on
the street. Lord, help us to be sensitive to
the Holy Spirit. Help us to walk through those
doors with boldness that you open and help us to know not to
walk through doors that are closed.
Lord, we just give you all the praise and all the glory and
honor. Jesus name Amen.
Thank you for listening to the Triumph Church podcast this
week. If it was a blessing to you,
share it with someone you know. For more information on Triumph
Church, you can visit us at www.triumphchurch.ie.