October 20, 2025 • 40 mins
What if church felt less like a show and more like a team mission? We open with the thrill of escape rooms and use that energy to reimagine worship as a fully participatory space where love leads every word and action. Drawing from 1 Corinthians 14, we unpack why prophecy—defined as Spirit-led encouragement, exhortation, and comfort—does the most good in a gathered community. We contrast that with tongues as a deeply personal prayer language to God, helpful for private devotion and edifying when interpreted, but confusing when it dominates public moments without clarity.
Across the conversation, we keep circling one question: does this build people up? That question reframes everything from microphone time to hallway talk. We explore how clear speech brings courage to the weary, how order protects peace, and how boundaries actually make room for the Spirit to work through more voices, not fewer. We also tackle the tricky verses with cultural context and a simple principle—minimize distractions so people can learn, respond, and be strengthened.
By the end, you’ll have a grounded path for healthier gatherings: pursue love first, prize understanding, and practice organized freedom where multiple people can contribute without confusion. Expect practical takeaways you can try this week—asking God for a person to encourage, offering a simple word that builds, and letting your private devotion fuel public care. If this vision resonates, share the episode with a friend, hit follow, and leave a review with one insight you’ll put into practice. Your voice helps more people find a church that truly builds them up.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:26):
Today's sermon is called Why Do I Like Escape
Rooms?
I love escape rooms.
Raise your hand.
Have you been to an escape room?
Hey, we got quite a few in here.
Well, my wife and I have been tomore.
Right?
We're on 33 now.
Yes.
And I keep a note, a notebook ofall our escape rooms.
(00:49):
We've been all over the world.
We've been in escape rooms fromFlorida to Pittsburgh to New
York City to Denver to notCalifornia, but I think, yeah.
Anyway, we've been to a lot.
We've been to the best one.
Oh my goodness.
The best one's in Pittsburgh.
If you ever can go to theImaginarium, it is another
level.
It's like the entire size of alike a like a warehouse, like a
(01:12):
Walmart or whatever.
And it's it's incredible.
So, but why do I like escaperooms?
I'm sure you're just wonderingwhy do you like the why are you
so obsessed with the escaperooms?
Because they are interactive.
I participate in the story.
One time we were police officerstrying to catch drug dealers.
(01:35):
One time we were spies trying tosave the world from a nuclear
submarine.
And we made it out of that onewith one second to go.
One second I pushed the button.
It was so epic.
It was so epic.
I remember that one, like, ohman.
We were like, she's literallyyelling the code from the other
room, and I type it in, or shetypes it in and stops me.
(01:59):
One second to go.
Oh, legendary.
I love participating in thestory.
Now that doesn't mean I don'tlove movies, because I love just
sitting and getting fatter andvegging out.
Because sometimes I watch amovie, and has this happened to
you where you're just watching amovie and you're like start just
like just crying, just liketearing up because it's so the
(02:22):
dog is a person too.
Dogs are people too, or when mywife and I have this thing when
a movie impacts us emotionally,we say, you know, whatever it
is, because robots are peopletoo, or chickens are people too,
or whatever the movie's about,we always are like, man, this
this is impacting us, so we sayblah blah blah is people too.
(02:44):
Um but I love participating, andtoday we're gonna learn how the
church church service issupposed to be participatory.
There's your two dollar word forthe day.
Now, in America, we have adoptedthings that were brought to us
from England, who in turnbrought things that were adopted
(03:07):
from Germany, who brought thingsthat were adopted from Rome, who
made up a whole bunch of wackostuff.
This is not how church wasintended to be.
The church was originally justthey met in people's homes, they
met in in other synagogues, theythey met wherever they could,
(03:28):
and they would gather togetherand they would they would share
and they would talk.
And and that was how it wasdesigned.
And so we're gonna talk aboutlike what church looked like
back then a lot today, and thenhow we can kind of apply it to
what we do and what we'recomfortable with and what our
our um culture is today.
(03:50):
Okay, so what does it look liketo participate in church?
Well, there's basically two waysthat you can participate in
church.
You can participate spiritually,or you can participate
practically, or both, orneither.
I guess that's four.
(04:11):
We'll just say two.
And today we're gonna kind ofsee these lines drawn where
there's a spiritual way that youcan participate in church, and
then there's a practical waythat you can participate in
church and be part of what'sgoing on.
And so what that looks like iswe're gonna look at the gift of
prophecy, which is actually thepractical way, and then we're
(04:31):
gonna look at the gift oftongues, which is the spiritual
way.
Now, right away, so many redflags.
I saw all the red flags go upover all your heads.
Like, well, we're gonna talkabout the gift of tongues.
Well, yeah, this chapter is likeall about the gift of tongues.
So I want to just preface thiswith saying there's a whole lot
of different views on what thegift of tongues is.
(04:52):
Okay, so there's people whobelieve it died out right after
the apostles, and nobody everspeaks in the gift of tongues,
even though the Bible talksabout it all the time.
Nobody does it.
So those are calledcessationalists.
I don't follow that, but I wantto present that.
Some people are that.
I don't care.
It's fine.
You can believe that if youwant.
(05:13):
Some people believe that thegift of tongues is like so
vitally important that everyChristian should do it.
And if you don't, you're noteven saved and you're gonna go
to hell.
And again, that I don't think isscriptural, I don't think it's
biblical, and so you can believethat if you want, but I'm gonna
talk about what the Bibleteaches today.
(05:36):
And so that's what we're gonnago into today.
You'll see what my view is as Iteach it today.
All right, so let's begin.
It says in chapter 14 of 1Corinthians, it says, pursue
love and desire spiritual gifts,but especially that you may
prophesy.
Notice he doesn't say desire orpursue spiritual gifts.
(05:57):
Uh, we're supposed to have onefocus, and that is our love
relationship with God.
One thing that we strive for,one thing that we pursue.
If we're gonna be a churchthat's known for anything, we
should be known as the churchthat loves and has a love
relationship with God.
(06:18):
And that is what the gospeltruly is all about: a love
relationship with God.
We can always discover moreabout his love for us.
We're gonna study the Bible fromnow until the world blows up.
And we're always gonna betalking about the love of God.
We're gonna be experiencing thelove of God, and it's gonna meet
our needs, and it's gonnadevelop us and it's gonna
transform us.
It works.
(06:38):
It is life, it is the only thingthat matters in life.
When he blesses us, we can givethanks and rejoice in the
blessings he gives us.
When we go through difficulttimes, when we're in need, we
can bring our needs to the Lord,and he can meet our needs
through his love.
So, see, everything, whetherit's good or bad, we're engaging
with God on his love.
(07:00):
Both good or bad can can help usgrow in our love relationship
with God.
So love is supposed to be ourfocus, but we can desire the
fruitfulness uh and uh ofspiritual gifts.
Like it's good.
And we studied spiritual gifts,we had a list of all the
spiritual gifts, you guys tookyour spiritual gifts test.
So we should definitelyunderstand spiritual gifts and
we can know that we want them.
(07:22):
Um, but if we focus on them,you're not gonna experience
them.
That's the principle that we'velearned.
If you focus, hey, I'm I reallywant to be fruitful for God,
that's the one guarantee I canmake that you're probably not
gonna be fruitful for God.
And this is what happens all thetime with Christians is we're
like, oh, I I oh, I'm just soexcited about what God's doing
in my life.
So I'm gonna try super hard tobe the best person I can be, to
(07:46):
be the best Christian I can be.
And then what happens the nextday?
We s we mess up, we screw uproyally, and we're like, why did
this happen?
I really was trying hard thistime.
And God says, ah, it's becausewe departed from the path of
receiving love and a loverelationship with God, and we
moved over to works.
What are you gonna do to try tomake a difference, to try to do
(08:10):
better or be better?
We have to rest in the gospel,rest in what Jesus has done, the
finished work of Jesus.
Yes, we should desire to befruitful, we should desire the
gifts of God, but we need towait upon God to receive those.
So our focus is again on waitingupon God.
(08:31):
Uh in the last chapter, it said,wait eagerly.
How do you wait eagerly bydiving into your relationship
with Jesus, putting your hopeand trust in him with humility
and faith?
So when nothing makes sense,when it hurts, when you doubt,
when your world is fallingapart, when all seems lost, when
(08:55):
when the tears are falling, whenyou feel abandoned, what do you
do?
You wait, delighting in hislove, delighting in your
relationship with him, receivingwhat he has freely given you.
So we're but we're gonna learntoday about two of the ways that
(09:18):
we can interact with church andwith you know how we can see God
using us.
And so the best gift foreveryone we're gonna learn today
is prophecy.
Uh, it's very practical.
Like I said, prophecy is thepractical way to serve God.
So, what is prophecy?
When we say prophecy, do we meansomeone stands up and says, Thus
says the Lord, tomorrow therewill be an earthquake in
(09:40):
Colorado?
Well, there was one yesterday,which never happens.
But no, that's that that is aform of prophecy, okay?
But that's not the kind ofprophecy that we're actually
talking about here.
Prophecy is someone who speaksthe word of God, God's words,
(10:02):
God's heart, to people as theSpirit inspires you to speak,
and they're practical words ofhow someone can be encouraged.
Well, there's three ways.
It encourages people, it callspeople to trust in the Lord and
in his promises, and it bringscomfort to people.
(10:23):
So that's it's kind of soundslike just speaking with God's
heart of love towards people,right?
Can you encourage people?
Yes, you can prophesy.
And he says, here, that's whatwe should desire is that we
should desire to speak thesewords of encouragement,
exhortation, and comfort.
(10:45):
Desire that.
Give God your mouth and say,God, I want to encourage people
around me.
It's not about just me today,it's about the person next to me
that's going through this orgoing through that.
And I want to have a mouth, Iwant to have words, but I'm not
gonna speak until you encry youinspire me by your love.
So I need to receive your lovefirst so that I can be giving
(11:07):
your love.
That's the practical way you canparticipate in church, and it
requires you to talk to people.
Oh, that's where I draw theline.
I'll go to church and I'll sitthere and I'll even stand, and I
might even sing a song.
(11:29):
God is so wanting you to have aheart for people.
He says, I would love to useyou.
I'd love to make you myinstrument to prophesy.
He's willing to do that throughyou.
Why?
Why is prophecy the best gift touse?
(11:51):
Well, because it blesses otherpeople.
So when the church getstogether, this would obviously
be best for everyone if all ofus were focused on everyone else
and not ourselves.
You know what churches areawesome to go to?
Churches that are soself-focused they never come and
talk to you.
No.
Right?
That was sarcastic, just soyou're aware.
(12:13):
I use sarcasm a lot.
No one wants to go to a churchwhere it's completely
self-focused.
Where do all the church splitscome from?
Self-focused hearts.
It's a blessing to other people.
Now we're gonna contrastprophecy with the gift of
tongues, which is basicallywe're gonna contrast two good
(12:34):
things, one of them beingpractical and the other one
being spiritual.
So, first we're gonna learn thedifference between the two is
who are you speaking to?
So when you come to church,you're speaking to somebody, who
are you speaking to?
He says, For he who speaks in atongue does not speak to men,
but to God.
(12:54):
So, the gift of tongues, who areyou talking to?
To God.
Okay, so no one understands him.
However, in the spirit, hespeaks mysteries, but he who
prophesies speaks edification,exhortation, and comfort to men.
Right.
(13:14):
So who are you talking to?
Tongues speaks to God, it'sspiritual.
So what I think is that tonguesis actually a spiritual language
that you can speak to God, maybespoken, maybe just unspoken.
Have you ever just like lookedat your husband and just gone,
(13:35):
that's probably somewhat similarto what we're talking about
here.
God understands all the groans,He understands the sighs, He
understands the unspoken,broken-hearted prayers that we
pray.
No one understands out loud.
(13:55):
It's an unknown language.
So if you hear aninterpretation, so we're gonna
talk about people can you caninterpret, God can give an
interpretation for tongues, butif you hear someone speaking
tongues, blah, blah, blah, blah,I'm not making fun of it.
I just it sounds like thatsometimes.
Um, and then someone says, Ihave an interpretation for what
that means.
Like I really feel it in myheart, and they say, Thus says
(14:16):
the Lord, right there, stoplistening to him.
Because the gift of tongues isnever God speaking to us, it's
us speaking to God.
Who is speaking?
We are speaking his praises,we're talking to him, maybe
about him, maybe aboutsomething, big feelings you have
going on.
(14:36):
You that could be somethingthat's going on.
Well, that's what you can alwaysknow.
It's not going to be thus, saysthe Lord.
That's not the real gift oftongues.
Tongues is without words, andand what's cool about it is it's
disconnected from the limits ofour mind and our language.
Sometimes you need to expresssomething to God that's bigger
(14:57):
than all language.
Sometimes it's it's just deeperthan words of English, just
would fail to communicate.
And so there is a way, God cangive you a way to communicate to
him in that situation.
You don't have to, but it'sthere if you need it.
Um, prophecy, on the other hand,speaks to men.
(15:17):
It's practical.
Again, we saw it was ekedification, encouraging people,
exhortation, building people up,or comfort.
So edification actually meansbuilding people up.
Isn't in Spanish edificio?
Isn't that a building?
Yeah, it is.
In my first two years ofSpanish, I know it.
(15:41):
Um so it's a construction term,edification, that means building
people up.
And a word of prophecy wouldbuild someone up, not tear them
down.
I have a prophecy for you, yousuck.
I don't think that's from theLord.
Um exhortation is encouragement.
It's like a the speech from acoach at a excuse me, as a at a
(16:05):
uh half halftime in a lockerroom, rallying his team to go
out there and do what they weretrained to do, you know, and uh
so prophecy can encouragepeople, not discourage them, you
know what, you should just stayhome.
You're terrible.
That's not doesn't work.
All right, so coming alongsideour our family to point them to
(16:25):
follow Jesus, trust in him, livewith humility.
That that's the new covenant ofgrace that we can encourage
people to live in.
Oh thank you, you're sothoughtful.
What's your number?
That's right.
(16:46):
Comfort is the third wayprophecy works, which is um not
only just consoling, but alsostrengthening uh people.
It doesn't just cry whensomeone's hurting, putting your
arms around them, butstrengthening them to carry the
load with them.
That's another way you can bepractically engaged with the
service.
You see people coming in andthey are bearing a heavy load,
(17:08):
bear that load with them.
That's it can be you can do thatwith your words or practically,
and it can be a ministry ofprophecy.
Um it says here, he who speaksin a tongue edifies himself, but
he who prophesies edifies thechurch.
Here's a clue to what tongues isand and what prophecy is.
Tongues is an edifying prayerlanguage that's spiritual.
(17:31):
So it's like you're again, youare built up when you connect
with God anytime spiritually,whether you use words or you
just in the spirit, you're justconnected with Jesus.
That's cool, and you are builtup.
But in church, it's he says it'sbetter if you are engaging not
(17:51):
just invisibly, spiritually,yes, I'm here with Jesus, but
practically I'm gonna pullsomeone aside and I'm gonna I'm
gonna pray that God gives me aword to encourage them, edify
them, or comfort them.
He says, I wish you all spokewith tongues, but even more that
(18:12):
you prophesied.
For he who prophesies is greaterthan he who speaks in with
tongues, unless indeed heinterprets that the church may
receive edification.
So here we see both are goodways to participate in church.
So if you come to church andyou're just quiet and you're
just connecting with Jesus,great.
He says it's even better if youtake that relationship with
(18:34):
Jesus and make it practical andlove on people in with practical
words.
That's even better in a churchmeeting.
And that's a subject here is howwe have our church meetings, how
we operate in church.
People are supposed to be ableto speak and to participate, but
and I do truly believe that, buthow?
Well, look at the last verse ofthis chapter.
(18:54):
If you zoom down to the lastverse, it says, Let all things
be done decently and in order.
Now, you may have seen churchesthat don't look at this verse
and don't honor it, and theirtheir service is just a wild
free-for-all.
Okay?
I'm not judging, but I'm justthis is an important verse we
(19:17):
need to remember.
This is how church is supposedto look.
Why?
Because it's loving.
Boundaries are like hugs, youtell your kids, right?
Boundaries are like hugs.
Well, that's what church too.
You know, don't be all crazy inchurch.
Um, that's the goal.
So back into our text, it says,but now, brethren, if I come to
(19:40):
you speaking with tongues, whatshall it profit you unless I
speak to you either byrevelation, by knowledge, by
prophesying, or by teaching?
So there's a lot of ways that Ican uh spiritually lift you up.
Okay?
But tongues is not one of them.
I I can't impact you when I'mjust speaking in tongues to God.
(20:04):
Um, because it's my focus is onme.
Again, this isn't bad.
Sometimes I need to focus on me.
Sometimes my heart is broken,sometimes I'm really struggling,
and I need to connect with Jesusand I need to receive from him.
Uh, but everything has his timeand its place, and God says,
Hey, if you need to get alonewith me, then come get alone
with me.
You don't need to do it out loudfor everyone to see.
(20:26):
The people don't need to see youshouting out tongues in church
because they're gonna thinkyou're weird, which is what he's
gonna say here in a second.
Even things without life,whether flute or harp, when they
make a sound, unless they makeit a distinction in the sounds,
how will it be known what ispiped or played?
(20:48):
And I've seen some worship teamswho need to read that.
Uh for if the trumpet makes anuncertain sound, who will
prepare for battle?
So likewise you, unless youutter by a tongue uh the tongue
words easy to understand, howwill it be known what is spoken?
For you will be speaking intothe air.
There are, it may be, so manykinds of languages in the world,
(21:10):
and none of them is withoutsignificance.
Therefore, if I do not know themeaning of the language, I shall
be a foreigner to him whospeaks, and he who speaks will
be a foreigner to me.
This is pretty easy tounderstand, right?
If you say gobbly gook, it's notgonna mean anything to anybody,
they're gonna think you'reweird.
So he says, again, tongues isnot able to be understood unless
(21:33):
God gives someone a specialinterpretation.
So if God, if you like, man, Igot this message in my heart and
it's coming to me through thegift of tongues, but you know
what?
I'm not gonna say it until Godgives me an interpretation.
There you go.
And then God tells you, okay,this is what is kind of in your
heart.
Then you could communicate thatto people, and then it would
help people out.
(21:53):
That's how it works.
Even you, so you, since you arezealous for spiritual gifts, let
it be for the edification of thechurch that you seek to excel.
Therefore, let him who speaks ina tongue pray that he may
interpret.
For if I pray in a tongue, myspirit prays, but my
understanding is unfruitful.
So this church was acting, hischurch that he's dealing with
(22:15):
was acting too spiritual and notactually loving people
practically.
Uh so again, if you know you cankeep speaking tongues and you
got a message from the Lord,keep it quiet and pray that God
will reveal to you somethingthat you're able to speak out
loud in a in a way that canimpact people.
You don't have to speak it outloud, and you shouldn't in a
(22:37):
group unless God gives you theinterpretation.
Um very simply, you shouldn'treally hear the sound of tongues
unless there's an interpretationin a meeting.
Um, okay, so what is theconclusion then, he says?
He says, I will pray with myspirit.
There's a time for that, and Iwill also pray with
understanding.
(22:57):
I will sing in the spirit, Iwill sing with understanding.
Um, what is tongues then?
Why are we talking about this?
Why is it important?
Well, I want to just help youunderstand a little bit.
Sometimes there needs to be thisbypassing of understanding.
Your brain gets in the way ofyour relationship with God
sometimes for some people.
(23:19):
Because maybe your brain doesn'twork right, maybe your brain is
just bothered by a lot of stuff.
Maybe you get just have ADD,maybe you just ate a bad
mushroom.
Who knows?
While we value our intellect andunderstanding, and that's a fine
way to connect with God, andGod's given you a wonderful
brain and a wonderful mind.
Sometimes uh you can needsomething that's limitless, and
(23:44):
your connection with God istruly limitless.
He understands you if you needto bypass that.
So that's what it is.
And I can tell you justpersonally, I do not always
speak in tongues.
I don't speak in tongues veryoften, but there have been times
in my life where my heart wasdevastated.
(24:04):
Where I was had no words for howmuch guilt and shame that I
felt.
And me and God had someconversations then that I cannot
recount to you.
But I shared things with Godthat were in my heart that He
put there and I cannot give putwords to them for you.
(24:27):
And that's that's and I ithelped me to process through
those things, to get throughthose things.
It edified me.
It probably wouldn't edify you,but it edified me.
And so I've have experiencedthat type of thing.
All right.
Um let me give you some warningsabout tongues.
(24:48):
It doesn't happen when you justopen your mouth and God just
takes over.
Okay, that's not how it works.
Um it doesn't happen as youbegin to wiggle your tongue.
Some people literally say that.
Just wiggle your tongue, andthat's what it means.
And it doesn't happen as youjust repeat nonsense words or
(25:08):
phrase faster and faster untilGod takes over.
That's not how it works.
So it if you want to understandhow it works, it it it's as
you're praying, you may reach apoint where you the words do not
express all that you have inyour heart, and so a word or a
sound may occur to your mind,and you can just speak that word
and and that would be God givingyou something to meet your need
(25:33):
in that moment.
Um and then the last principlethat we need to talk about with
the gift of tongues is that uhthe gift of tongues never makes
you do weird stuff.
Like bark like a dog or dancelike a chicken or any of these
other weird things that you seesometimes in churches.
(25:56):
Um it says that this yeah no, achurch would be a lot more
exciting, wouldn't it?
A lot more interesting anyway.
Um in in verse 32 it says thespirit of the of the prophet is
subject to the prophet, whichmeans you're always in you
should be in control if you haveso you don't have to just go
(26:17):
into a trance and speak bizarrethings in the middle of church.
Why is that?
Because God's already speakingthrough the Holy Spirit through
one person.
Right now it's me, as I'vestudied and I've prayed and
asked the Spirit to speakthrough me.
He is doing this, so he's notgonna interrupt himself, right?
That's that's the principlehere.
(26:37):
The spirit would never interrupthimself.
But if you're in a meeting whereit's open for everyone to speak
at various times and you believeGod has something for you to
say, then that would be theappropriate time for something
like that to happen.
All right, going on, it says,Otherwise, if you bless with the
spirit, how will he who occupiesthe place of the uninformed say
(26:59):
amen?
Which means totally cool.
I understand what you're saying,at your giving of thanks, since
he does not understand what yousay.
For you indeed give thanks well,but the other is not edified.
So this verse tells us that istotally cool when people say
amen in church.
That was in the Bible.
(27:19):
You guys are totally cool to sayamen.
I like it.
Amen.
Yeah.
I love it when people just getit right when you preach it.
People think you're uh peoplewill think you're crazy though,
if you start speaking nonsensein a public meeting.
Uh, I think he says, I thank myGod, I speak with tongues more
than you all.
So Paul says, I'm a reallyspiritual dude.
(27:41):
Yet in the church, I wouldrather speak five words with my
understanding that I may teachothers also than 10,000 words in
a tongue.
So here's the thing is likepeople get like really weird
about this, and they're like, Igotta, I I gotta speak what's
inside me.
No, you don't.
You're cool.
(28:01):
Just keep keep that between youand the Lord.
And show me your connection withGod, your spiritualness by how
much you love weird people.
And how and people that aredifficult to love.
Show it through your love, whichwould be what he's calling
prophecy here.
Um so Paul's use of tongues wasfocused focused on his
(28:24):
devotional life, his privatetime with the Lord.
And so he's focused on otherpeople.
That's how he participated inchurch was through the teaching
gift, that part of prophecy.
So then he says, Brethren, donot be children in
understanding, however, inmalice be babes, but in
understanding be mature.
(28:44):
In the law it is written, withmen of other tongues and other
lips, I will speak to thispeople, and yet for all that
they will not hear me, says theLord.
Therefore, tongues is for asign, not to those who believe,
but to unbelievers.
But prophesying is not for theunbelievers, but for those who
believe.
Therefore, if the whole churchcomes together in one place and
(29:06):
all speak with tongues, andthere come in those who are
uninformed or unbelievers, willnot they say that you're out of
your mind?
But if all prophesy and anunbeliever or an uninformed
person comes in, he's convincedby all, and he and he's
convicted by all, and thus thesecrets of his heart are
(29:27):
revealed, and so falling down onhis face, he will worship God
and report that God is trulyamong you.
What does all that mean?
It means it's immature orchildish to put yourself above
other people.
And then he quotes this passagein Isaiah that says that when
the people of Israel were goingto be taken into captivity, they
(29:49):
would hear people speaking otherknown languages, and it was a it
was a sign of judgment uponthem.
So they didn't know God, theywere rebelling against God, and
then they would hear tongues andthey would realize we're really
missing out on something.
It was a picture to them thatthey were missing out on a
connection with God because theywere going into this foreign
country.
And so here it seems like Paulis saying the opposite of
(30:12):
everything else he says in thechapter.
Did anyone else catch that?
It's like, wait a second, youjust said that tongues was for
just Christians to use likeindividually and privately, and
then now you're saying it's asign for unbelievers.
And so I I'm not gonna lie.
A difficult verse to understand,but I think if we connect it to
that Isaiah chapter 28, likeconnection that he makes, what
(30:34):
we can understand is this thatit's not the primary purpose of
tongues, but they can beassigned to unbelievers that
people can connect with God inchurch, and that can be a good
part of the gift of tongues.
So when people are like, Whatwhy is this happening?
And and they hear tongues andthen they hear an interpretation
(30:56):
and they they're like, What arethey seeing there?
They're seeing spirituality.
And just that there is a spirit,that every human being has a
spirit, can cause people to say,Wow, is that a sign that I am
not that?
Because my life is about me, andI don't have a connection with
God, and I certainly don't havea connection with God that can
be expressed in a supernaturallanguage.
(31:20):
So maybe I need to listen towhat they're saying with their
actual words of prophecy, andthen I can repent and say, God,
I repent of my life.
I need what Jesus has done forme.
I'm gonna, I'm gonna fall on myknees and I'm gonna say, God,
save me.
I need you, Jesus, because ofthe words that were actually
said.
So that's what I think is goingon there.
(31:41):
If you don't believe, we canfight in the parking lot.
We're down with that.
Just kidding.
I'm not gonna fight you.
Okay, so how is any of thisapplicable to our church
meetings today?
Well, it says this How is itthen, brethren, when you come
together, each of you has apsalm, has a teaching, has a
tongue, has a revelation, has aninterpretation.
(32:04):
He says, Let all things be donefor edification.
So what was happening in thischurch is they had a
free-for-all church.
Anybody could come and do theteaching, have a psalm, have a
prayer, and it didn't work.
Okay?
That's all that's going on here.
They needed organization.
So Paul is using a very simplelogic to give them some ideas on
(32:24):
how they can be orderly andloving in their church service.
Because it was taking like 10hours to do a church service,
and you don't want that.
Nobody wants that.
We got football to watch.
This is not gonna be all day.
All right, he says, if anyonespeaks in a tongue, let there be
two or at the most three.
Okay, is this something that'slike a hard and fast law?
(32:47):
Obviously not, because he's liketwo or maybe three.
It's like not.
He he's just helping them thinkthrough the logic of how they're
doing things.
He says, each one in turn andlet one interpret.
But if there's no interpret, lethim keep silent in church and
let him speak himself to God.
Is it could it be any more clearthan that?
Okay, so that's how it'ssupposed to work.
(33:08):
You know, this is like in ourtime of worship, okay, when
we're singing and you know, Nateand Sarah are singing, and we're
just we're really connectingwith God, and it's great.
He says, Don't distract people.
Like let them connect with God.
That's all you got to worryabout.
Um, don't get carried a riot.
It's organized freedom, is whathe's saying.
It's like when we would take oursix kids shopping at Walmart.
(33:33):
They we would have, we would getone of those big carts, and they
would all hang on differentparts of it, and they were free
to do whatever they wanted aslong as they hung onto the cart.
Organized chaos.
Then he says, Let two or threeprophets speak and let others
judge.
So this was the this was thetime of teaching.
So they would have two or three.
They didn't have just onepastor, they had they didn't
(33:55):
have any pastor usually, theyjust had people who were
studying the Bible and wereleaders in the church, and so
that's what he's talking about.
They didn't even have the Biblelike we do, they just had the
Old Testament.
So they relied heavily on theSpirit to give them the words to
say each week.
And uh again, we have kind ofhave a little bit more
established church and churchleaderships now.
Um but if anything is revealedto another who sits by, let the
(34:20):
first keep silent, for you canall prophesy one by one that all
may learn and all may beencouraged.
And the spirits of the prophetsare subject to the prophets, for
God is not the author ofconfusion, but of peace, as it
is in all the churches of thesaints.
So what he's saying here isdon't interrupt anybody.
(34:41):
There's no interrupting of theone speaker.
That's confusing because you'relike, who should I listen to?
This person talking about God orthat person talking about God,
and they're both talking aboutthe God, oh, it's all confusing.
You don't want that.
He says, You're in control ofwhat you speak politely if your
message is from the Holy Spirit.
Okay?
All right, now we get to theexciting verse.
You guys ready?
(35:02):
Let was that was funny becauseof what's coming.
I don't know if you know what'scoming.
Okay, let women keep silent inthe churches, for they are not
permitted to speak, but they areto be submissive as the law also
(35:24):
says.
And if they want to learnsomething, let them ask their
own husbands at home, for it isshameful for a woman to speak,
which means the word in Greek isyell or argue, in church.
Or did the word of God comeurgently from you, or was it
from only was it you only thatit reached?
Okay, what does this mean?
Before you get up and stamp yourway out, calm down.
(35:49):
It's actually not thatdifficult.
In that culture, they did notmix and match men and women in
church.
They had a row of chairs hereand a row of chairs over there,
and men sat over there, andwomen sat over here.
You did not sit with your wife.
There was none of this funnybusiness going on we got right
here.
None of no arms around, okay.
And then I've heard, I've seenshe she we she gives you a
(36:11):
little whisper, whisper sweetnothings into your ear during
church.
Not happening over there, okay.
So, what was happening isteachers saying, Oh, and God
said this and blah, blah, blah.
And the wife is like, hey,honey, what do you think he
means, bro?
Are you listening?
(36:31):
And Paul's like, don't do that,okay?
Ask at home, discuss it at home.
Okay, this does a couple greatthings.
First, it keeps distractions toa minimum during church, okay,
so that people can focus on themessage that's being said.
That's the main thing.
He's not just picking on women,okay.
What was going on here is thatwomen actually loved their
(36:52):
husbands and wanted the input oftheir husbands.
And so what they would do isthey would ask questions as a
way of saying, let's talk aboutwhat was talked about in church.
Let's talk about how it appliesto our life.
And so they would ask thesequestions.
And so that's really healthy forrelationship was when you talk
about those things.
Thirdly, the other thing it doesis when you ask your, let's say
(37:12):
you go home and ask yourhusband, hey, what do you think
about this gift of tongues andthe spirituality?
And your husband's like, I haveno idea what you're even talking
about.
I was sleeping or thinking aboutfootball during church.
You know what it does?
Makes him want to pay attentionbecause he wants, in his spirit,
he wants to lead you.
He's called to be your leader.
(37:35):
He wants to be that guy thatsays, This is what the Lord, the
word of the Lord means, and thisis how we can apply it in our
life.
So let's go, let's do ittogether.
It encourages him.
And guess what?
If he doesn't, if he's thebiggest goober in the world and
he doesn't know anything, youknow what he'll do?
He'll say, I don't know.
(37:57):
And then the wife will say,Well, maybe you should go talk
to the pastor about it.
And he'll say, You really thinkhe'll talk to me?
Yeah, you should go try.
And then he calls up pastor, andthen he says, Hey, I was I I
need to talk to my wife aboutthis, but I don't know how.
I don't know the truth.
I don't know how it all works.
Can you teach me?
And he learns, and then he comeshome and he's like, Hey honey,
(38:18):
guess what I learned?
I learned all this stuff.
And she's like, Awesome, Ialready knew all that, but I
asked you so that you couldlearn it.
Now we're on the same page.
Because husbands want to learn,but they generally want to learn
from a dude.
All right.
Does that make sense?
(38:39):
No apples being thrown at me.
I think we got through it.
It's gonna be okay.
Alright.
So if anyone thinks himself tobe a prophet or spiritual, now I
told you at the beginning, thisis dividing prophecy and
tongues.
He he gives us the this is thetruth.
(39:01):
This is where the the lesson isspelled out for us, right here.
I was excited when I saw thisbecause I was studying it like
this, and then I was like, oh,he actually says it right here.
This is the difference betweenprophecy practical engagement
versus spiritual, just beingspiritual.
If anyone thinks himself to be aprophet or spiritual, let him
acknowledge that the thingswhich I write to you are the
(39:22):
commandments of the Lord, but ifanyone is ignorant, let him be
ignorant.
Means you don't have toparticipate in church, you can
be dumb.
All right, moving on.
If you are wanting toparticipate in God's family, you
will need to do it his way, hesays.
That way is love.
(39:44):
Yeah.
You can you can love, you canspiritually love people or you
can practically love people.
It's better to practically lovepeople so then they can receive
it.
Love is the commandment, hesays.
He mentions commandment.
Acknowledge that the things Iwrite to you, love is the
commandment, right?
Consider others, be thoughtful,not selfish.
In the way the church runs, thisis how it's supposed to work.
(40:05):
Therefore, he says, Therefore,brethren, earnestly desire to
prophesy.
And don't forbid to speak withtongues.
Let all things be done decentlyand in order.
Okay, so there's our study of 1Corinthians chapter 14.
It was a long chapter, right?
Okay.
Chapter 15 is like twice aslong.
(40:26):
So we probably won't be able todo that all in one week.
But we're getting close to theend of 1 Corinthians, and it's
been quite the adventure.
I'm excited about it.
Would you guys all stand up withme?
Today's sermon is called Why Do I Like Escape
Rooms?
I love escape rooms.
Raise your hand.
Have you been to an escape room?
Hey, we got quite a few in here.
Well, my wife and I have been tomore.
Right?
We're on 33 now.
Yes.
And I keep a note, a notebook ofall our escape rooms.
(00:49):
We've been all over the world.
We've been in escape rooms fromFlorida to Pittsburgh to New
York City to Denver to notCalifornia, but I think, yeah.
Anyway, we've been to a lot.
We've been to the best one.
Oh my goodness.
The best one's in Pittsburgh.
If you ever can go to theImaginarium, it is another
level.
It's like the entire size of alike a like a warehouse, like a
(01:12):
Walmart or whatever.
And it's it's incredible.
So, but why do I like escaperooms?
I'm sure you're just wonderingwhy do you like the why are you
so obsessed with the escaperooms?
Because they are interactive.
I participate in the story.
One time we were police officerstrying to catch drug dealers.
(01:35):
One time we were spies trying tosave the world from a nuclear
submarine.
And we made it out of that onewith one second to go.
One second I pushed the button.
It was so epic.
It was so epic.
I remember that one, like, ohman.
We were like, she's literallyyelling the code from the other
room, and I type it in, or shetypes it in and stops me.
(01:59):
One second to go.
Oh, legendary.
I love participating in thestory.
Now that doesn't mean I don'tlove movies, because I love just
sitting and getting fatter andvegging out.
Because sometimes I watch amovie, and has this happened to
you where you're just watching amovie and you're like start just
like just crying, just liketearing up because it's so the
(02:22):
dog is a person too.
Dogs are people too, or when mywife and I have this thing when
a movie impacts us emotionally,we say, you know, whatever it
is, because robots are peopletoo, or chickens are people too,
or whatever the movie's about,we always are like, man, this
this is impacting us, so we sayblah blah blah is people too.
(02:44):
Um but I love participating, andtoday we're gonna learn how the
church church service issupposed to be participatory.
There's your two dollar word forthe day.
Now, in America, we have adoptedthings that were brought to us
from England, who in turnbrought things that were adopted
(03:07):
from Germany, who brought thingsthat were adopted from Rome, who
made up a whole bunch of wackostuff.
This is not how church wasintended to be.
The church was originally justthey met in people's homes, they
met in in other synagogues, theythey met wherever they could,
(03:28):
and they would gather togetherand they would they would share
and they would talk.
And and that was how it wasdesigned.
And so we're gonna talk aboutlike what church looked like
back then a lot today, and thenhow we can kind of apply it to
what we do and what we'recomfortable with and what our
our um culture is today.
(03:50):
Okay, so what does it look liketo participate in church?
Well, there's basically two waysthat you can participate in
church.
You can participate spiritually,or you can participate
practically, or both, orneither.
I guess that's four.
(04:11):
We'll just say two.
And today we're gonna kind ofsee these lines drawn where
there's a spiritual way that youcan participate in church, and
then there's a practical waythat you can participate in
church and be part of what'sgoing on.
And so what that looks like iswe're gonna look at the gift of
prophecy, which is actually thepractical way, and then we're
(04:31):
gonna look at the gift oftongues, which is the spiritual
way.
Now, right away, so many redflags.
I saw all the red flags go upover all your heads.
Like, well, we're gonna talkabout the gift of tongues.
Well, yeah, this chapter is likeall about the gift of tongues.
So I want to just preface thiswith saying there's a whole lot
of different views on what thegift of tongues is.
(04:52):
Okay, so there's people whobelieve it died out right after
the apostles, and nobody everspeaks in the gift of tongues,
even though the Bible talksabout it all the time.
Nobody does it.
So those are calledcessationalists.
I don't follow that, but I wantto present that.
Some people are that.
I don't care.
It's fine.
You can believe that if youwant.
(05:13):
Some people believe that thegift of tongues is like so
vitally important that everyChristian should do it.
And if you don't, you're noteven saved and you're gonna go
to hell.
And again, that I don't think isscriptural, I don't think it's
biblical, and so you can believethat if you want, but I'm gonna
talk about what the Bibleteaches today.
(05:36):
And so that's what we're gonnago into today.
You'll see what my view is as Iteach it today.
All right, so let's begin.
It says in chapter 14 of 1Corinthians, it says, pursue
love and desire spiritual gifts,but especially that you may
prophesy.
Notice he doesn't say desire orpursue spiritual gifts.
(05:57):
Uh, we're supposed to have onefocus, and that is our love
relationship with God.
One thing that we strive for,one thing that we pursue.
If we're gonna be a churchthat's known for anything, we
should be known as the churchthat loves and has a love
relationship with God.
(06:18):
And that is what the gospeltruly is all about: a love
relationship with God.
We can always discover moreabout his love for us.
We're gonna study the Bible fromnow until the world blows up.
And we're always gonna betalking about the love of God.
We're gonna be experiencing thelove of God, and it's gonna meet
our needs, and it's gonnadevelop us and it's gonna
transform us.
It works.
(06:38):
It is life, it is the only thingthat matters in life.
When he blesses us, we can givethanks and rejoice in the
blessings he gives us.
When we go through difficulttimes, when we're in need, we
can bring our needs to the Lord,and he can meet our needs
through his love.
So, see, everything, whetherit's good or bad, we're engaging
with God on his love.
(07:00):
Both good or bad can can help usgrow in our love relationship
with God.
So love is supposed to be ourfocus, but we can desire the
fruitfulness uh and uh ofspiritual gifts.
Like it's good.
And we studied spiritual gifts,we had a list of all the
spiritual gifts, you guys tookyour spiritual gifts test.
So we should definitelyunderstand spiritual gifts and
we can know that we want them.
(07:22):
Um, but if we focus on them,you're not gonna experience
them.
That's the principle that we'velearned.
If you focus, hey, I'm I reallywant to be fruitful for God,
that's the one guarantee I canmake that you're probably not
gonna be fruitful for God.
And this is what happens all thetime with Christians is we're
like, oh, I I oh, I'm just soexcited about what God's doing
in my life.
So I'm gonna try super hard tobe the best person I can be, to
(07:46):
be the best Christian I can be.
And then what happens the nextday?
We s we mess up, we screw uproyally, and we're like, why did
this happen?
I really was trying hard thistime.
And God says, ah, it's becausewe departed from the path of
receiving love and a loverelationship with God, and we
moved over to works.
What are you gonna do to try tomake a difference, to try to do
(08:10):
better or be better?
We have to rest in the gospel,rest in what Jesus has done, the
finished work of Jesus.
Yes, we should desire to befruitful, we should desire the
gifts of God, but we need towait upon God to receive those.
So our focus is again on waitingupon God.
(08:31):
Uh in the last chapter, it said,wait eagerly.
How do you wait eagerly bydiving into your relationship
with Jesus, putting your hopeand trust in him with humility
and faith?
So when nothing makes sense,when it hurts, when you doubt,
when your world is fallingapart, when all seems lost, when
(08:55):
when the tears are falling, whenyou feel abandoned, what do you
do?
You wait, delighting in hislove, delighting in your
relationship with him, receivingwhat he has freely given you.
So we're but we're gonna learntoday about two of the ways that
(09:18):
we can interact with church andwith you know how we can see God
using us.
And so the best gift foreveryone we're gonna learn today
is prophecy.
Uh, it's very practical.
Like I said, prophecy is thepractical way to serve God.
So, what is prophecy?
When we say prophecy, do we meansomeone stands up and says, Thus
says the Lord, tomorrow therewill be an earthquake in
(09:40):
Colorado?
Well, there was one yesterday,which never happens.
But no, that's that that is aform of prophecy, okay?
But that's not the kind ofprophecy that we're actually
talking about here.
Prophecy is someone who speaksthe word of God, God's words,
(10:02):
God's heart, to people as theSpirit inspires you to speak,
and they're practical words ofhow someone can be encouraged.
Well, there's three ways.
It encourages people, it callspeople to trust in the Lord and
in his promises, and it bringscomfort to people.
(10:23):
So that's it's kind of soundslike just speaking with God's
heart of love towards people,right?
Can you encourage people?
Yes, you can prophesy.
And he says, here, that's whatwe should desire is that we
should desire to speak thesewords of encouragement,
exhortation, and comfort.
(10:45):
Desire that.
Give God your mouth and say,God, I want to encourage people
around me.
It's not about just me today,it's about the person next to me
that's going through this orgoing through that.
And I want to have a mouth, Iwant to have words, but I'm not
gonna speak until you encry youinspire me by your love.
So I need to receive your lovefirst so that I can be giving
(11:07):
your love.
That's the practical way you canparticipate in church, and it
requires you to talk to people.
Oh, that's where I draw theline.
I'll go to church and I'll sitthere and I'll even stand, and I
might even sing a song.
(11:29):
God is so wanting you to have aheart for people.
He says, I would love to useyou.
I'd love to make you myinstrument to prophesy.
He's willing to do that throughyou.
Why?
Why is prophecy the best gift touse?
(11:51):
Well, because it blesses otherpeople.
So when the church getstogether, this would obviously
be best for everyone if all ofus were focused on everyone else
and not ourselves.
You know what churches areawesome to go to?
Churches that are soself-focused they never come and
talk to you.
No.
Right?
That was sarcastic, just soyou're aware.
(12:13):
I use sarcasm a lot.
No one wants to go to a churchwhere it's completely
self-focused.
Where do all the church splitscome from?
Self-focused hearts.
It's a blessing to other people.
Now we're gonna contrastprophecy with the gift of
tongues, which is basicallywe're gonna contrast two good
(12:34):
things, one of them beingpractical and the other one
being spiritual.
So, first we're gonna learn thedifference between the two is
who are you speaking to?
So when you come to church,you're speaking to somebody, who
are you speaking to?
He says, For he who speaks in atongue does not speak to men,
but to God.
(12:54):
So, the gift of tongues, who areyou talking to?
To God.
Okay, so no one understands him.
However, in the spirit, hespeaks mysteries, but he who
prophesies speaks edification,exhortation, and comfort to men.
Right.
(13:14):
So who are you talking to?
Tongues speaks to God, it'sspiritual.
So what I think is that tonguesis actually a spiritual language
that you can speak to God, maybespoken, maybe just unspoken.
Have you ever just like lookedat your husband and just gone,
(13:35):
that's probably somewhat similarto what we're talking about
here.
God understands all the groans,He understands the sighs, He
understands the unspoken,broken-hearted prayers that we
pray.
No one understands out loud.
(13:55):
It's an unknown language.
So if you hear aninterpretation, so we're gonna
talk about people can you caninterpret, God can give an
interpretation for tongues, butif you hear someone speaking
tongues, blah, blah, blah, blah,I'm not making fun of it.
I just it sounds like thatsometimes.
Um, and then someone says, Ihave an interpretation for what
that means.
Like I really feel it in myheart, and they say, Thus says
(14:16):
the Lord, right there, stoplistening to him.
Because the gift of tongues isnever God speaking to us, it's
us speaking to God.
Who is speaking?
We are speaking his praises,we're talking to him, maybe
about him, maybe aboutsomething, big feelings you have
going on.
(14:36):
You that could be somethingthat's going on.
Well, that's what you can alwaysknow.
It's not going to be thus, saysthe Lord.
That's not the real gift oftongues.
Tongues is without words, andand what's cool about it is it's
disconnected from the limits ofour mind and our language.
Sometimes you need to expresssomething to God that's bigger
(14:57):
than all language.
Sometimes it's it's just deeperthan words of English, just
would fail to communicate.
And so there is a way, God cangive you a way to communicate to
him in that situation.
You don't have to, but it'sthere if you need it.
Um, prophecy, on the other hand,speaks to men.
(15:17):
It's practical.
Again, we saw it was ekedification, encouraging people,
exhortation, building people up,or comfort.
So edification actually meansbuilding people up.
Isn't in Spanish edificio?
Isn't that a building?
Yeah, it is.
In my first two years ofSpanish, I know it.
(15:41):
Um so it's a construction term,edification, that means building
people up.
And a word of prophecy wouldbuild someone up, not tear them
down.
I have a prophecy for you, yousuck.
I don't think that's from theLord.
Um exhortation is encouragement.
It's like a the speech from acoach at a excuse me, as a at a
(16:05):
uh half halftime in a lockerroom, rallying his team to go
out there and do what they weretrained to do, you know, and uh
so prophecy can encouragepeople, not discourage them, you
know what, you should just stayhome.
You're terrible.
That's not doesn't work.
All right, so coming alongsideour our family to point them to
(16:25):
follow Jesus, trust in him, livewith humility.
That that's the new covenant ofgrace that we can encourage
people to live in.
Oh thank you, you're sothoughtful.
What's your number?
That's right.
(16:46):
Comfort is the third wayprophecy works, which is um not
only just consoling, but alsostrengthening uh people.
It doesn't just cry whensomeone's hurting, putting your
arms around them, butstrengthening them to carry the
load with them.
That's another way you can bepractically engaged with the
service.
You see people coming in andthey are bearing a heavy load,
(17:08):
bear that load with them.
That's it can be you can do thatwith your words or practically,
and it can be a ministry ofprophecy.
Um it says here, he who speaksin a tongue edifies himself, but
he who prophesies edifies thechurch.
Here's a clue to what tongues isand and what prophecy is.
Tongues is an edifying prayerlanguage that's spiritual.
(17:31):
So it's like you're again, youare built up when you connect
with God anytime spiritually,whether you use words or you
just in the spirit, you're justconnected with Jesus.
That's cool, and you are builtup.
But in church, it's he says it'sbetter if you are engaging not
(17:51):
just invisibly, spiritually,yes, I'm here with Jesus, but
practically I'm gonna pullsomeone aside and I'm gonna I'm
gonna pray that God gives me aword to encourage them, edify
them, or comfort them.
He says, I wish you all spokewith tongues, but even more that
(18:12):
you prophesied.
For he who prophesies is greaterthan he who speaks in with
tongues, unless indeed heinterprets that the church may
receive edification.
So here we see both are goodways to participate in church.
So if you come to church andyou're just quiet and you're
just connecting with Jesus,great.
He says it's even better if youtake that relationship with
(18:34):
Jesus and make it practical andlove on people in with practical
words.
That's even better in a churchmeeting.
And that's a subject here is howwe have our church meetings, how
we operate in church.
People are supposed to be ableto speak and to participate, but
and I do truly believe that, buthow?
Well, look at the last verse ofthis chapter.
(18:54):
If you zoom down to the lastverse, it says, Let all things
be done decently and in order.
Now, you may have seen churchesthat don't look at this verse
and don't honor it, and theirtheir service is just a wild
free-for-all.
Okay?
I'm not judging, but I'm justthis is an important verse we
(19:17):
need to remember.
This is how church is supposedto look.
Why?
Because it's loving.
Boundaries are like hugs, youtell your kids, right?
Boundaries are like hugs.
Well, that's what church too.
You know, don't be all crazy inchurch.
Um, that's the goal.
So back into our text, it says,but now, brethren, if I come to
(19:40):
you speaking with tongues, whatshall it profit you unless I
speak to you either byrevelation, by knowledge, by
prophesying, or by teaching?
So there's a lot of ways that Ican uh spiritually lift you up.
Okay?
But tongues is not one of them.
I I can't impact you when I'mjust speaking in tongues to God.
(20:04):
Um, because it's my focus is onme.
Again, this isn't bad.
Sometimes I need to focus on me.
Sometimes my heart is broken,sometimes I'm really struggling,
and I need to connect with Jesusand I need to receive from him.
Uh, but everything has his timeand its place, and God says,
Hey, if you need to get alonewith me, then come get alone
with me.
You don't need to do it out loudfor everyone to see.
(20:26):
The people don't need to see youshouting out tongues in church
because they're gonna thinkyou're weird, which is what he's
gonna say here in a second.
Even things without life,whether flute or harp, when they
make a sound, unless they makeit a distinction in the sounds,
how will it be known what ispiped or played?
(20:48):
And I've seen some worship teamswho need to read that.
Uh for if the trumpet makes anuncertain sound, who will
prepare for battle?
So likewise you, unless youutter by a tongue uh the tongue
words easy to understand, howwill it be known what is spoken?
For you will be speaking intothe air.
There are, it may be, so manykinds of languages in the world,
(21:10):
and none of them is withoutsignificance.
Therefore, if I do not know themeaning of the language, I shall
be a foreigner to him whospeaks, and he who speaks will
be a foreigner to me.
This is pretty easy tounderstand, right?
If you say gobbly gook, it's notgonna mean anything to anybody,
they're gonna think you'reweird.
So he says, again, tongues isnot able to be understood unless
(21:33):
God gives someone a specialinterpretation.
So if God, if you like, man, Igot this message in my heart and
it's coming to me through thegift of tongues, but you know
what?
I'm not gonna say it until Godgives me an interpretation.
There you go.
And then God tells you, okay,this is what is kind of in your
heart.
Then you could communicate thatto people, and then it would
help people out.
(21:53):
That's how it works.
Even you, so you, since you arezealous for spiritual gifts, let
it be for the edification of thechurch that you seek to excel.
Therefore, let him who speaks ina tongue pray that he may
interpret.
For if I pray in a tongue, myspirit prays, but my
understanding is unfruitful.
So this church was acting, hischurch that he's dealing with
(22:15):
was acting too spiritual and notactually loving people
practically.
Uh so again, if you know you cankeep speaking tongues and you
got a message from the Lord,keep it quiet and pray that God
will reveal to you somethingthat you're able to speak out
loud in a in a way that canimpact people.
You don't have to speak it outloud, and you shouldn't in a
(22:37):
group unless God gives you theinterpretation.
Um very simply, you shouldn'treally hear the sound of tongues
unless there's an interpretationin a meeting.
Um, okay, so what is theconclusion then, he says?
He says, I will pray with myspirit.
There's a time for that, and Iwill also pray with
understanding.
(22:57):
I will sing in the spirit, Iwill sing with understanding.
Um, what is tongues then?
Why are we talking about this?
Why is it important?
Well, I want to just help youunderstand a little bit.
Sometimes there needs to be thisbypassing of understanding.
Your brain gets in the way ofyour relationship with God
sometimes for some people.
(23:19):
Because maybe your brain doesn'twork right, maybe your brain is
just bothered by a lot of stuff.
Maybe you get just have ADD,maybe you just ate a bad
mushroom.
Who knows?
While we value our intellect andunderstanding, and that's a fine
way to connect with God, andGod's given you a wonderful
brain and a wonderful mind.
Sometimes uh you can needsomething that's limitless, and
(23:44):
your connection with God istruly limitless.
He understands you if you needto bypass that.
So that's what it is.
And I can tell you justpersonally, I do not always
speak in tongues.
I don't speak in tongues veryoften, but there have been times
in my life where my heart wasdevastated.
(24:04):
Where I was had no words for howmuch guilt and shame that I
felt.
And me and God had someconversations then that I cannot
recount to you.
But I shared things with Godthat were in my heart that He
put there and I cannot give putwords to them for you.
(24:27):
And that's that's and I ithelped me to process through
those things, to get throughthose things.
It edified me.
It probably wouldn't edify you,but it edified me.
And so I've have experiencedthat type of thing.
All right.
Um let me give you some warningsabout tongues.
(24:48):
It doesn't happen when you justopen your mouth and God just
takes over.
Okay, that's not how it works.
Um it doesn't happen as youbegin to wiggle your tongue.
Some people literally say that.
Just wiggle your tongue, andthat's what it means.
And it doesn't happen as youjust repeat nonsense words or
(25:08):
phrase faster and faster untilGod takes over.
That's not how it works.
So it if you want to understandhow it works, it it it's as
you're praying, you may reach apoint where you the words do not
express all that you have inyour heart, and so a word or a
sound may occur to your mind,and you can just speak that word
and and that would be God givingyou something to meet your need
(25:33):
in that moment.
Um and then the last principlethat we need to talk about with
the gift of tongues is that uhthe gift of tongues never makes
you do weird stuff.
Like bark like a dog or dancelike a chicken or any of these
other weird things that you seesometimes in churches.
(25:56):
Um it says that this yeah no, achurch would be a lot more
exciting, wouldn't it?
A lot more interesting anyway.
Um in in verse 32 it says thespirit of the of the prophet is
subject to the prophet, whichmeans you're always in you
should be in control if you haveso you don't have to just go
(26:17):
into a trance and speak bizarrethings in the middle of church.
Why is that?
Because God's already speakingthrough the Holy Spirit through
one person.
Right now it's me, as I'vestudied and I've prayed and
asked the Spirit to speakthrough me.
He is doing this, so he's notgonna interrupt himself, right?
That's that's the principlehere.
(26:37):
The spirit would never interrupthimself.
But if you're in a meeting whereit's open for everyone to speak
at various times and you believeGod has something for you to
say, then that would be theappropriate time for something
like that to happen.
All right, going on, it says,Otherwise, if you bless with the
spirit, how will he who occupiesthe place of the uninformed say
(26:59):
amen?
Which means totally cool.
I understand what you're saying,at your giving of thanks, since
he does not understand what yousay.
For you indeed give thanks well,but the other is not edified.
So this verse tells us that istotally cool when people say
amen in church.
That was in the Bible.
(27:19):
You guys are totally cool to sayamen.
I like it.
Amen.
Yeah.
I love it when people just getit right when you preach it.
People think you're uh peoplewill think you're crazy though,
if you start speaking nonsensein a public meeting.
Uh, I think he says, I thank myGod, I speak with tongues more
than you all.
So Paul says, I'm a reallyspiritual dude.
(27:41):
Yet in the church, I wouldrather speak five words with my
understanding that I may teachothers also than 10,000 words in
a tongue.
So here's the thing is likepeople get like really weird
about this, and they're like, Igotta, I I gotta speak what's
inside me.
No, you don't.
You're cool.
(28:01):
Just keep keep that between youand the Lord.
And show me your connection withGod, your spiritualness by how
much you love weird people.
And how and people that aredifficult to love.
Show it through your love, whichwould be what he's calling
prophecy here.
Um so Paul's use of tongues wasfocused focused on his
(28:24):
devotional life, his privatetime with the Lord.
And so he's focused on otherpeople.
That's how he participated inchurch was through the teaching
gift, that part of prophecy.
So then he says, Brethren, donot be children in
understanding, however, inmalice be babes, but in
understanding be mature.
(28:44):
In the law it is written, withmen of other tongues and other
lips, I will speak to thispeople, and yet for all that
they will not hear me, says theLord.
Therefore, tongues is for asign, not to those who believe,
but to unbelievers.
But prophesying is not for theunbelievers, but for those who
believe.
Therefore, if the whole churchcomes together in one place and
(29:06):
all speak with tongues, andthere come in those who are
uninformed or unbelievers, willnot they say that you're out of
your mind?
But if all prophesy and anunbeliever or an uninformed
person comes in, he's convincedby all, and he and he's
convicted by all, and thus thesecrets of his heart are
(29:27):
revealed, and so falling down onhis face, he will worship God
and report that God is trulyamong you.
What does all that mean?
It means it's immature orchildish to put yourself above
other people.
And then he quotes this passagein Isaiah that says that when
the people of Israel were goingto be taken into captivity, they
(29:49):
would hear people speaking otherknown languages, and it was a it
was a sign of judgment uponthem.
So they didn't know God, theywere rebelling against God, and
then they would hear tongues andthey would realize we're really
missing out on something.
It was a picture to them thatthey were missing out on a
connection with God because theywere going into this foreign
country.
And so here it seems like Paulis saying the opposite of
(30:12):
everything else he says in thechapter.
Did anyone else catch that?
It's like, wait a second, youjust said that tongues was for
just Christians to use likeindividually and privately, and
then now you're saying it's asign for unbelievers.
And so I I'm not gonna lie.
A difficult verse to understand,but I think if we connect it to
that Isaiah chapter 28, likeconnection that he makes, what
(30:34):
we can understand is this thatit's not the primary purpose of
tongues, but they can beassigned to unbelievers that
people can connect with God inchurch, and that can be a good
part of the gift of tongues.
So when people are like, Whatwhy is this happening?
And and they hear tongues andthen they hear an interpretation
(30:56):
and they they're like, What arethey seeing there?
They're seeing spirituality.
And just that there is a spirit,that every human being has a
spirit, can cause people to say,Wow, is that a sign that I am
not that?
Because my life is about me, andI don't have a connection with
God, and I certainly don't havea connection with God that can
be expressed in a supernaturallanguage.
(31:20):
So maybe I need to listen towhat they're saying with their
actual words of prophecy, andthen I can repent and say, God,
I repent of my life.
I need what Jesus has done forme.
I'm gonna, I'm gonna fall on myknees and I'm gonna say, God,
save me.
I need you, Jesus, because ofthe words that were actually
said.
So that's what I think is goingon there.
(31:41):
If you don't believe, we canfight in the parking lot.
We're down with that.
Just kidding.
I'm not gonna fight you.
Okay, so how is any of thisapplicable to our church
meetings today?
Well, it says this How is itthen, brethren, when you come
together, each of you has apsalm, has a teaching, has a
tongue, has a revelation, has aninterpretation.
(32:04):
He says, Let all things be donefor edification.
So what was happening in thischurch is they had a
free-for-all church.
Anybody could come and do theteaching, have a psalm, have a
prayer, and it didn't work.
Okay?
That's all that's going on here.
They needed organization.
So Paul is using a very simplelogic to give them some ideas on
(32:24):
how they can be orderly andloving in their church service.
Because it was taking like 10hours to do a church service,
and you don't want that.
Nobody wants that.
We got football to watch.
This is not gonna be all day.
All right, he says, if anyonespeaks in a tongue, let there be
two or at the most three.
Okay, is this something that'slike a hard and fast law?
(32:47):
Obviously not, because he's liketwo or maybe three.
It's like not.
He he's just helping them thinkthrough the logic of how they're
doing things.
He says, each one in turn andlet one interpret.
But if there's no interpret, lethim keep silent in church and
let him speak himself to God.
Is it could it be any more clearthan that?
Okay, so that's how it'ssupposed to work.
(33:08):
You know, this is like in ourtime of worship, okay, when
we're singing and you know, Nateand Sarah are singing, and we're
just we're really connectingwith God, and it's great.
He says, Don't distract people.
Like let them connect with God.
That's all you got to worryabout.
Um, don't get carried a riot.
It's organized freedom, is whathe's saying.
It's like when we would take oursix kids shopping at Walmart.
(33:33):
They we would have, we would getone of those big carts, and they
would all hang on differentparts of it, and they were free
to do whatever they wanted aslong as they hung onto the cart.
Organized chaos.
Then he says, Let two or threeprophets speak and let others
judge.
So this was the this was thetime of teaching.
So they would have two or three.
They didn't have just onepastor, they had they didn't
(33:55):
have any pastor usually, theyjust had people who were
studying the Bible and wereleaders in the church, and so
that's what he's talking about.
They didn't even have the Biblelike we do, they just had the
Old Testament.
So they relied heavily on theSpirit to give them the words to
say each week.
And uh again, we have kind ofhave a little bit more
established church and churchleaderships now.
Um but if anything is revealedto another who sits by, let the
(34:20):
first keep silent, for you canall prophesy one by one that all
may learn and all may beencouraged.
And the spirits of the prophetsare subject to the prophets, for
God is not the author ofconfusion, but of peace, as it
is in all the churches of thesaints.
So what he's saying here isdon't interrupt anybody.
(34:41):
There's no interrupting of theone speaker.
That's confusing because you'relike, who should I listen to?
This person talking about God orthat person talking about God,
and they're both talking aboutthe God, oh, it's all confusing.
You don't want that.
He says, You're in control ofwhat you speak politely if your
message is from the Holy Spirit.
Okay?
All right, now we get to theexciting verse.
You guys ready?
(35:02):
Let was that was funny becauseof what's coming.
I don't know if you know what'scoming.
Okay, let women keep silent inthe churches, for they are not
permitted to speak, but they areto be submissive as the law also
(35:24):
says.
And if they want to learnsomething, let them ask their
own husbands at home, for it isshameful for a woman to speak,
which means the word in Greek isyell or argue, in church.
Or did the word of God comeurgently from you, or was it
from only was it you only thatit reached?
Okay, what does this mean?
Before you get up and stamp yourway out, calm down.
(35:49):
It's actually not thatdifficult.
In that culture, they did notmix and match men and women in
church.
They had a row of chairs hereand a row of chairs over there,
and men sat over there, andwomen sat over here.
You did not sit with your wife.
There was none of this funnybusiness going on we got right
here.
None of no arms around, okay.
And then I've heard, I've seenshe she we she gives you a
(36:11):
little whisper, whisper sweetnothings into your ear during
church.
Not happening over there, okay.
So, what was happening isteachers saying, Oh, and God
said this and blah, blah, blah.
And the wife is like, hey,honey, what do you think he
means, bro?
Are you listening?
(36:31):
And Paul's like, don't do that,okay?
Ask at home, discuss it at home.
Okay, this does a couple greatthings.
First, it keeps distractions toa minimum during church, okay,
so that people can focus on themessage that's being said.
That's the main thing.
He's not just picking on women,okay.
What was going on here is thatwomen actually loved their
(36:52):
husbands and wanted the input oftheir husbands.
And so what they would do isthey would ask questions as a
way of saying, let's talk aboutwhat was talked about in church.
Let's talk about how it appliesto our life.
And so they would ask thesequestions.
And so that's really healthy forrelationship was when you talk
about those things.
Thirdly, the other thing it doesis when you ask your, let's say
(37:12):
you go home and ask yourhusband, hey, what do you think
about this gift of tongues andthe spirituality?
And your husband's like, I haveno idea what you're even talking
about.
I was sleeping or thinking aboutfootball during church.
You know what it does?
Makes him want to pay attentionbecause he wants, in his spirit,
he wants to lead you.
He's called to be your leader.
(37:35):
He wants to be that guy thatsays, This is what the Lord, the
word of the Lord means, and thisis how we can apply it in our
life.
So let's go, let's do ittogether.
It encourages him.
And guess what?
If he doesn't, if he's thebiggest goober in the world and
he doesn't know anything, youknow what he'll do?
He'll say, I don't know.
(37:57):
And then the wife will say,Well, maybe you should go talk
to the pastor about it.
And he'll say, You really thinkhe'll talk to me?
Yeah, you should go try.
And then he calls up pastor, andthen he says, Hey, I was I I
need to talk to my wife aboutthis, but I don't know how.
I don't know the truth.
I don't know how it all works.
Can you teach me?
And he learns, and then he comeshome and he's like, Hey honey,
(38:18):
guess what I learned?
I learned all this stuff.
And she's like, Awesome, Ialready knew all that, but I
asked you so that you couldlearn it.
Now we're on the same page.
Because husbands want to learn,but they generally want to learn
from a dude.
All right.
Does that make sense?
(38:39):
No apples being thrown at me.
I think we got through it.
It's gonna be okay.
Alright.
So if anyone thinks himself tobe a prophet or spiritual, now I
told you at the beginning, thisis dividing prophecy and
tongues.
He he gives us the this is thetruth.
(39:01):
This is where the the lesson isspelled out for us, right here.
I was excited when I saw thisbecause I was studying it like
this, and then I was like, oh,he actually says it right here.
This is the difference betweenprophecy practical engagement
versus spiritual, just beingspiritual.
If anyone thinks himself to be aprophet or spiritual, let him
acknowledge that the thingswhich I write to you are the
(39:22):
commandments of the Lord, but ifanyone is ignorant, let him be
ignorant.
Means you don't have toparticipate in church, you can
be dumb.
All right, moving on.
If you are wanting toparticipate in God's family, you
will need to do it his way, hesays.
That way is love.
(39:44):
Yeah.
You can you can love, you canspiritually love people or you
can practically love people.
It's better to practically lovepeople so then they can receive
it.
Love is the commandment, hesays.
He mentions commandment.
Acknowledge that the things Iwrite to you, love is the
commandment, right?
Consider others, be thoughtful,not selfish.
In the way the church runs, thisis how it's supposed to work.
(40:05):
Therefore, he says, Therefore,brethren, earnestly desire to
prophesy.
And don't forbid to speak withtongues.
Let all things be done decentlyand in order.
Okay, so there's our study of 1Corinthians chapter 14.
It was a long chapter, right?
Okay.
Chapter 15 is like twice aslong.
(40:26):
So we probably won't be able todo that all in one week.
But we're getting close to theend of 1 Corinthians, and it's
been quite the adventure.
I'm excited about it.
Would you guys all stand up withme?
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