Carry The Fire - Week 7

6 · A pastoral expression of personal hunger for more of the Holy Spirit, modeling vulnerability and setting the tone for corporate pursuit of spiritual gifts

But we just had 2 months of teaching on the Holy Spirit. So the odds are that when you start teaching something from God's Word, that births a hunger in our hearts for whatever we're teaching on. So I don't know about you, but as I've had the privilege to teach and also be taught by John and Joe, I've gotten just more of a hunger for the Holy Spirit in my life in all these various areas and aspects that we've been studying that the Holy Spirit works on through regeneration, our salvation, through sanctification, for joining us in unity into the body of Christ, for drawing us near to the Father so that we can call God the Creator Father.

Now into the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Joe did a great job last week teaching on the empowering gift of the Holy Spirit, how He gives us the power to shine forth with our testimony. So I'm just hungry for more. I'm hungry for more of the Lord, and I'm excited about tonight.

7 · Transition to the biblical text and announcement of the sermon's focus on prophecy and tongues

So let's look at 1 Corinthians 15.

And I want to start with the tail end of 1 Corinthians 12.

We're going to focus on the gift of prophecy and the gift of tongues. So as we read through this, I want you to listen for that, because this is what Paul focuses on.

8 · Reading of 1 Corinthians 12:31 and noting its connection to the love chapter

Look at verse 31, 1 Corinthians 12:31. "But earnestly desire the higher gifts. I will show you a still more excellent way." And then he goes right into 1 Corinthians 13, which is the love chapter that we talked about last time.

Let me turn this off real quick.

9 · Exposition of the context of 1 Corinthians 12-14: the Corinthian church was operating gifts in disorder, necessitating Paul's teaching on proper order, maturity, and the primacy of love

And then he gets down to chapter 14. And he says this: "Pursue love." So he's just defined love for us in 1 Corinthians 13. And remember the context of this. Is that the church of Corinth was all out of order in how they were operating the gifts. I said this last week or the week before, and I want to say this again.

The Lord does not give his gifts just to mature, wise people. He distributes his gifts to the church, and he expects us to learn to be wise and mature as we operate the gifts. But that takes teaching. It takes time. Look at this verse.

This is very interesting. Look at verse 31. 1 Corinthians 14:31. We'll get to this a little bit later. Paul says in verse 31, "For you can all prophesy one by one." He's talking about in the church service.

'You can all prophesy one by one so that all may learn and all be encouraged.' So I want you to think about that. Paul is teaching here, and he's teaching about what the gifts are. He's teaching about how they should operate. He's talking about the function of the gifts. And he makes this interesting statement that you can all prophesy one by one so that you may learn and be encouraged.

We need to learn about the gifts of the Holy Spirit. The church at Corinth had not done a good job learning. They were just exercising their gifts. They came together in their Sunday morning service. Those people who had a gift of tongues were speaking out in these languages.

There was no interpretation. Others were trying to prophesy. It was chaos. There was not good teaching going on in the church. That's why Paul wrote 12, 13, and 14 in 1 Corinthians.

He was setting things in order. And in order to set things in order, he had to teach as to what these gifts were and what they are not. So that's what we're going to read about tonight.

10 · Transition from exposition to testimony, introducing John's and Joe's stories as practical examples of prophecy in action

John is going to give us a testimony of how the gift of prophecy worked in our youth camp last weekend. So John, would you come up?

And this— what I want to give you guys a flavor of tonight is how we would see as a church the gift of prophecy working in different contexts. So I want John to share what he experienced up at youth camp, and then later on Joe's going to give a number of examples out of his life, because the Lord has used Joe throughout the years in this gift of prophecy in a number of unique ways. And the more faithful that Joe has been stewarding the gift that God's given him, the more faith the Lord has given Joe to operate that gift in different ways. So I'm really looking forward to Joe sharing. And John shared this with us in our pastors meeting last week about how the Lord moved up at youth camp.

So maybe give it the context of what was going on and then how it happened. You can do whatever you want to, sure. Oh yeah, he just said I could do whatever I want to. Yeah. Cherry's like, watch it.

Uh, I want to give that story in just a second, but I want to just, uh, take just maybe 2-3 minutes to tell you a little bit of my testimony about how I am— I came to be what we kind of call a continuationist.

11 · John's personal testimony of moving from cessationism to continuationism through scriptural conviction and witnessing proper use of gifts in the church

I came to be a believer in the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit in all of his ministry and giftings. I grew up in a denomination of churches that has its roots in Pentecostalism, but it kind of moved away. A.B. Simpson founded the Christian Missionary Alliance in the late 1800s.

Assemblies of God was formed in 1914, but before that, A.B. Simpson's ministry was really rooted in the Pentecostal movement. There was a lot of kind of common root there. And then the denomination I grew up in kind of went away from all of the sign gifts, focused just basically on mission. They call it— they say even to this day, seek not, forbid not.

They're not going to really talk about the gifts. You could have a cessationist church, you could have a continuationist church, kind of, but we just never talked about it. So I grew up functionally cessationist and then in college rabidly cessationist. I refused to believe because I grew up in the Northeast and there was this thing, the Toronto Blessing, which maybe turned into the Toronto who knows what. And it was a real challenge and I saw things abused.

I saw the gifts abused. I heard stories of people that I knew who went and witnessed not great things there. And so I Throughout my childhood, as I got more aware of these things, I was shaped by abuses and misuses of the gifts. That's what my experience with the Holy Spirit was. So I got into college, discovered Reformed theology, and made sure everybody knew it, and then also fought everybody I knew on charismatic theology.

Then I got to El Paso. And the Lord in His providence gave me a pretty charismatic roommate who we fought a lot on this issue, but also he was very gentle with me. And so, I got to El Paso after college, graduated, and I met with Ricky at Kinley's Coffee Shop. I was like, "Look, I'm Reformed. I'm like Reformed-ish.

I kind of dig the music at the church, but what's this continuationist thing?" I got to tell you, I'm not like— I'm a cessationist. He goes, why are you cessationist? And I told him exactly what I just told you. And he goes, okay, I get it. Could I encourage you to go to the scriptures and make an argument for cessationism from the scriptures?

So I went to a couple, I did some study, I went to a couple, but this pesky scripture of earnestly desire the gifts, especially that you may prophesy, kept coming up. I was like, I can't I cannot go through the Scriptures and find a definitive place where the Lord says this stuff has stopped, but I keep seeing things, encouragements to desire these things, to practice these gifts, to move in this. And I got stumped. So I went back to Ricky and I was like, I don't know where I am. He's like, okay.

And I was on a journey where I had a seat belt and a helmet in my theology, and I had bubble wrap. And then the seat belt kind of— I took off the helmet and finally, like, took off the seat belt but kind of held a close grip on the seat belt of theology. I was like, okay, I think I'm a continuationist, but not into the crazy stuff. If the crazy stuff happens, I don't know what I'll do. And so, but then I've been served through stories, sitting with Chuck, listening to the story, the history of our church, listening to the moves of the Spirit throughout his life, sitting with Joe, seeing how the, seeing how the Lord works in these ways, uh, sitting with so many people in this church hearing and seeing and witnessing the proper utilization of the gifts in so many ways.

But the thing that convinced me was Scripture, and then the Lord bolstered that belief with the stories of proper use of the gifts.

12 · Extended testimony of prophetic ministry at youth camp where multiple leaders received the same word independently, students responded, and the Lord confirmed His work through immediate fruit

So earnestly desire the gifts, especially that you may prophesy. This weekend— last weekend in Prescott, Arizona Frank Lundy is one of the pastors at Gilbert Sovereign Grace Church in Gilbert called Center Church. As we've been planning the youth camp, we said one of the— one of the defining values of Sovereign Grace is that we are continuationist. This is a youth camp of Sovereign Grace kids.

We want to walk in that appropriately, model that, model pursuing the gifts appropriately. So we met with the parents and the leaders at the beginning of the camp. He said, hey, we have a ministry mic up here. We have a prophecy mic. Josh Payne, one of the pastors in Colorado, and Frank Lundy will be up here every session.

At any point in the service, if you have— if you feel like you've got a word from the Lord, you have an encouragement, you've got a word of prophecy, come up and talk to Frank and Josh, and then we'll discern discern whether that's of the Lord. So parents are excited, we're excited. We've been praying about this since October. Night 1, I'm just going to tell you 2 specific stories, but tell you I've not experienced this number of— this amount of prophetic ministry that I can remember witnessing this and seeing it confirmed immediately, which was just a gift. So a couple, a couple parents and leaders come up with, uh, with some encouragements, with some words rooted in Scripture.

Then Steve Whitaker, who's a pastor in Louisville, comes up and says, hey, I've got, uh, I've got this word. We're singing about the gospel, we're teaching about the gospel, talking about how Christ is over all of our life. And so he said, you may be here and you, you believe that you need to turn your whole life to the Lord. You may believe that the Lord loves you, but the, the word that keeps coming to mind is fear. There's a fear of if you turn your whole life to the Lord, what are you going to lose?

If If you turn your whole life to the Lord, what will that mean for how you live life? And you're afraid to fully surrender. So that happens, we keep singing, the service goes on. That night, I'm out with a couple of pastors. Those of us who are kids serving went out to kind of debrief in that moment, that evening.

And Steve was there, and another pastor from Pasadena was there. And Tim Owens from Pasadena said, "Steve, man, I'm so grateful you shared that word because when you shared that word, I was thinking the exact same thing and wondering if I should come share, was kind of praying about it, and then you shared exactly the word that I had." That was awesome. We thanked the Lord. How cool is that? Super grateful.

The next morning, we were debriefing with leaders, and the youth leader, lay leader, former prison guard, in Yuma, Arizona, Mike, said, hey man, we were saying, just how'd your discussion groups go? How are things going with the kids? And he goes, man, that word that Steve shared last night was really helpful. I was actually praying about the exact same thing right before Steve went up and was gonna come up, but then Steve delivered that word. So the Lord had, it seemed that the Lord had given the same picture to 3 different— at least 3 different people.

And then Mike continued and said, and actually some of the kids shared that that word was for them in their discussion groups. I mean, how kind of the Lord to pinpoint something like this.

So more ministry is happening through the weekend. And then on Saturday night, we had prepped the kids like, look, we're gonna have a worship night. You are here to meet with Jesus. We don't want to— we're not going to manipulate you in this way. We're not going to try to like surprise you.

Surprise, we're going to do ministry this week. Like, you are here for the Lord to minister to you. So Friday night we had a worship night and we said, we want you to sit with the teaching, sit with what the Lord has been teaching you this week, this weekend, and we want you to encounter the Lord. Ask him for help.

Thank him. Pray with your neighbors. Pray with the people you came with. Just spend some time with the Lord. That's why we're here on the mountaintop.

So we're singing, and I'll share the slightly longer version of this story. The band had only— we had only prepared 3 songs. We were planning on maybe an hour of things. We were like, let's just— let's plan the first 3 and then figure it out from there. So we play the first 2 songs and people start coming up.

With encouragements, with words. And then I see over here— I'm up on this kind of area of the stage— and I see Steve Whitaker, Frank Lundy, and Josh Payne, all three pastors. They're just— they're like in some pretty deep conversation over here while we're singing. So Steve comes up and says, look, so it would seem that we have a Holy Spirit twofer here. Because— and then the band, we're starting to talk, just, okay, what are we gonna— what are we gonna do next?

We had two songs, How Deep the Father's Love for Us, and one other song. And Steve said, I have a very specific picture. I should also say that fear thing kept coming back all weekend, and the Lord really worked through that to work on that. Thing in a lot of kids' hearts. Steve comes up and he said, I have a very clear picture that there would be some of you here tonight at this moment, students, that need to repent and reconcile with your parents, like now.

So we were talking about that, and the context of that was we had been talking about the kindness of the Lord, the mercy of the Lord to forgive us of our sins, that we, when we repent, how does the Lord respond to us in our repentance. And we are also called to repent when we sin against others. And so there's this real clear— it was right in line with what we were talking about. And then he said, and then Pastor Frank, as I was sharing that with Pastor Frank, had kind of a flip side of that, which was there are some who here this weekend who your father— in terms of relationship with your parents— your father has turned his back on your family. He's abandoned you.

He's walked away. Um, and this was, this was crazy because we're talking about it. And then so he said, Pastor Frank's going to come up and share a little bit more about that, what the Lord's put on his heart. So Pastor Frank comes over and is expounding on that a little bit. And he goes, just have this picture that the Lord would want you to know how deep that his— he is the perfect heavenly Father and that he would want you to know the depth of the Father's love for you.

And we were back here going, okay, that's what we're supposed to do. This was the— this was the song.

So we keep going. Some kids come up with some really specific scriptures in that moment, and then we end the night. The kids pray. I've never at a youth camp seen all the kids be undistracted and engaged. So we broke into prayer groups to end the night, and there was not a single kid that went to the bathroom.

There's not a single kid that went outside. There's not a single kid that was fidgeting. We were standing in the back, and the Lord allowed for all of the kids to be focused. So the next morning, we're meeting with the leaders. How'd small group time go?

How did, like, How did— how are the kids processing? How are you processing? And one of the leaders says, hey, just so you know, that word about reconciling to the parents, we had two students immediately when that word was given go to their parents who were there and repent and begin reconciling with their parents, and they were met with forgiveness and mercy.

Then we knew— and I'm gonna just be a little bit careful here because it's other people's story to tell— but we know of at least of a couple in that second category whose fathers have turned their back on the family. And there was a few kids, one in particular who I'm thinking of, who was visibly shaken by that and was able to be ministered to by his youth leader and then experience the love of God the Father, the perfect Heavenly Father, in the absence of his own father's love.

So I would say I've been an anti-continuationist and a skeptic for the majority of my life until the last probably 6 or 7 years. And these types of stories, watching it, witnessing it, hearing it, seeing it done in order as Paul delineates, he puts the bumpers up, he puts the guardrails really helpfully up. And then seeing the Lord work in this way has been a helpful confirmation of what I seem to be reading in Scripture. What I believe now to be true in Scripture. And so even just this weekend, it's a beautiful picture of how the Lord continues to work using gifts like prophecy.

And I know we're going to talk about— you'll talk about the guardrails and what happens when they're misused or abused or when we're stepping out in faith and maybe it's not confirmed like that. But this weekend it was a really good example of things being— and the Lord in His kindness immediately confirming things. Out loud. He doesn't have to do that, but it was kind of him to do that this weekend. So, that's the story.

13 · Exposition connecting John's testimony to 1 Corinthians 14:24-25, demonstrating that prophecy reveals the secrets of the heart and leads unbelievers and believers to worship

Thank you, John. Yeah. Isn't that encouraging? Yeah, so I want you to see where— maybe that's not what you were expecting when you hear the term gift of prophecy.

But here our kids are opening their hearts to the Lord. Our leaders are praying, and the Lord just starts impressing upon people's hearts a specific thing for that moment. And so when that happens to us, I mean, whenever it happens, we're wondering, is that just me? Is that just a good thought I had, or is that the Lord? And a lot of times we talk ourselves out of it.

You know, well, that's just probably me. That's not the Lord. But situations like that are really helpful to build our faith, because the brother that gave it first, when he started hearing later on in the evening and the next morning that the Lord was speaking the very same thing to other men in the group, that's confirming that the Lord was moving. That's what the Lord wanted to do that evening. That was one of the things.

The Holy Spirit wanted to do was address that bondage in kids' hearts. I don't know if I can give my heart to the Lord. I'm fearful. What does that mean if I give myself wholly to Jesus? The Holy Spirit knew what was going on in the hearts of those kids.

Look at this Scripture. What did I do with my glasses? Here we go. Look at the Scripture in 1 Corinthians 14.

Verse 24.

So throughout this chapter he is talking about the difference between the gift of prophecy and the gift of tongues. And he's making the argument throughout the chapter that if someone comes out with a gift of tongues and if there's no interpretation, It's just confusing. It's totally meaningless. It doesn't benefit the church.

So he's contrasting the gift of prophecy, which is done in the known language, in our case English, right? He's contrasting prophecy, which is spoken in the known language, to the gift of tongues, which is an unknown tongue, unknown to the person speaking it, most of the time unknown to the people hearing it. So it requires an interpretation. So he gets down and he says in verse 24, "But if all prophesy and an unbeliever or outsider enters, he is convicted by all. He is called to account by all.

The secrets of his heart are disclosed. And so falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that God is really among you." So that's a very accurate description of what happened that night at youth camp. The secrets of our kids' hearts were being exposed by the Holy Spirit through the word of prophecy. And when that word comes, the Holy Spirit convicts. It's like the kids are sitting there saying, that's exactly what I was thinking.

I couldn't give my heart to the Lord because what would happen? And so the secrets of their hearts were unveiled to them. And the Lord moves on them to come up and ask for prayer and ask for ministry. That's one way that the gift of prophecy works.

14 · Return to systematic exposition of 1 Corinthians 14, beginning with verse 1

Okay, let's go back. We made it through verse 1. Here we go. 1 Corinthians 14: Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy.

15 · Exposition of 1 Corinthians 14:2 establishing that tongues is prayer directed to God, not man, and that Paul is not criticizing tongues but explaining its function in contrast to prophecy

For one who speaks in a tongue— this is the gift of tongues— speaks not to men, but to God. So I want you to notice this.

He's going to say some things about the gift of tongues that some have interpreted as being a criticism of tongues. Paul is not criticizing the gift of tongues. Anywhere in here. He is explaining the function of the gift of tongues compared to the gift of prophecy, but he is not criticizing the gift of tongues, which we will see as we read through this. He is contrasting and comparing the differences between the two, contrasting the differences between the two gifts.

Now some of our friends that hold the cessationist view read through these verses and says Paul is criticizing the gift of tongues. He's not criticizing, he's explaining the function to the Corinthians who are totally out of order. Okay?

Reading on. Verse 2: For one who speaks in a tongue speaks not to men, the direction is not from man to man, It is from man to God. What would you call that? What would you call something that's from our heart to God? Prayer.

And we'll see that as we move through here. For no one understands him, the person who's speaking in a tongue, no one understands him, but he utters mysteries, note the next term, in the Spirit. So the person who's speaking in tongues isn't speaking to man, but to God, and he's uttering mysteries in the Spirit. Underline that phrase if you would.

16 · Exposition of 1 Corinthians 14:3 defining the three functions of New Testament prophecy: upbuilding, encouragement, and consolation, with application to how pastors discern prophetic words

On the other hand, the one who prophesies— again, this is prophecy coming in the known language— the one who prophesies speaks to people, not to God, but to people, for look at this, 3 functions of New Testament prophecy.

You say, what is prophecy? When we think of the Old Testament, we think of foretelling. We think about the Lord being prophesied in the Old Testament. Old Testament prophets looking forward to when Jesus would come. Old Testament prophets looking forward to when Jesus would come again.

We study Old Testament prophecy. We study end-time prophecy. New Testament prophecy primarily in the church is not that type of prophecy. Paul gives us the function of New Testament prophecy right here. On the other hand, verse 3, the one who prophesies speaks to people for what purpose?

For their upbuilding, for their encouragement, and consolation. So upbuilding, another word for that is edification. So prophecy edifies, it builds up, it encourages, it consoles, it brings comfort. Three main functions of New Testament prophecy. So when someone comes up and says, "I've got a word," and they share it with us, as pastors we're thinking, we're screening it by these three things.

Is it encouraging? Is it uplifting? Is it bringing comfort and consolation? If it doesn't fit into those general categories, we might tell the person, well, hold that, we'll talk about it after the service. But this is what prophecy does.

Can you see that in the example that John gave? That word that came forth that these kids were locked up, by fear.

It brought edification, it brought comfort, it brought encouragement to them to deal with that.

17 · Exposition of 1 Corinthians 14:4 clarifying that tongues edify the individual while prophecy edifies the church, and that this is functional distinction, not criticism

So Paul says, "The man who speaks in tongues speaks to God, mysteries in the Spirit. The person who prophesies speaks to people for their spiritual upbuilding, encouragement, and consolation. The one who speaks in a tongue builds up himself." Again, not a criticism. He's not saying tongues is a selfish gift.

Don't do it. He's not criticizing. He's defining the way that the gift of tongues works. He says, "The one who speaks in a tongue builds up himself." That's the function of speaking in tongues as a part of a prayer language. You are built up within yourself.

It's a beautiful gift that the Lord gives for us to be built up within ourselves. It's not a criticism here. But he says the one who prophesies builds up the church. You see what he's doing? He's saying when someone speaks in a tongue, it's meant to build that person up, but the one who prophesies benefits the church.

All right?

18 · Exposition of 1 Corinthians 14:5 and response to anticipated objections, clarifying that Paul desires all to speak in tongues but values prophecy more for corporate edification, and that interpretation makes tongues equal to prophecy in church benefit

Now, look what he says in verse 5. 'Cause you might be— Paul is very good at anticipating our questions. So he's already thinking, well, since I've told you that the person who prays in a tongue is edifying himself, you're probably seeing that as a negative thing. You probably think I'm criticizing.

But look what he says. Now I want you all to speak in tongues. He says, I desire that you would all speak in tongues, but— even more to prophesy. The one who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues, unless someone interprets so that the church may be built up. So Paul, again, Paul's concern here is that the church, the gathered church on Sunday morning or whenever they gathered, that the church be edified.

And if people who had the gift of tongues are just standing up speaking out, in these languages that no one understands, no one is being edified. Listen, even the person who is supposed to be edifying himself with the gift of tongues, if they're standing up and speaking in tongues, they're not edifying anybody. It's just all really a pride trip. It can get out of hand really quick. Yeah?

Is because they're seeing the gift of tongues as a claim as to who is more pious. More spiritual. Yeah. Yeah, because it's a more supernatural gift, right? And it is.

It's a more mysterious gift. I mean, he says it here. The one who speaks in tongues is speaking mysteries in the Spirit. So it's seen as a more mystical gift. And so what he's trying to do is put it down into place.

And so when he says in verse 5, he says, "Now I want you all to speak in tongues, but even more that you prophesy. The one who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks." He's not talking about like if I prophesy and Brent speaks in tongues that I'm greater than Brent. He's talking about the effectiveness of ministry to the gathered church.

Okay? He's not even saying that prophecy is a better gift than the gift of tongues, because he said tongues with an interpretation serves the same purpose to build up the church. Yeah, Larry. So the gift of interpretation would be— I mean, interpreting— interpretation would be a gift. Yeah, the gift of interpretation is a parallel gift, a pairing gift with the gift of tongues.

As it pertains to the Sunday service, to the gathered meeting. Okay? In the gathered meeting, Paul is saying that if someone has a tongue and gives a tongue, there should be someone giving an interpretation so that we all understand what that tongue is. Now he's not saying that in your personal prayer language you need interpretation, and we'll get to that as well. There's two different functions, at least two different functions, 3 different that Ricky references in his teaching, but 2 different main functions of the gift of tongues.

One is to a group of people, either the church itself or to even a group of unbelievers. Like we saw that in Acts chapter 2, where the gift of tongues was given in known languages, not known to the Galileans, not knowing to those who were filled with the Holy Spirit, but as they started speaking in tongues, these people from various countries heard these guys speaking in their languages.

So in that case, it was a known language. Remember in 1 Corinthians 13, look back up to the first verse, Paul says, "If I speak in the tongues of men," meaning a human language, "and of angels." So there's human language, there's heavenly language. So the gift of interpretation, Larry, functions with the gift of tongues in a public setting where there should be an interpretation so that the hearers know what's being said. Okay?

19 · Transition indicating the section to be covered (verses 6-12) without full reading

All right, let's continue reading.

Now brothers, so from verse 6 all the way down to 12, I'm not going to read the whole thing. But he gives some examples of how an unclear sound doesn't benefit anybody. And what he's saying is if there's tongues, there needs to be interpretation.

20 · Exposition of 1 Corinthians 14:6-12 using Paul's analogies to emphasize that unintelligible speech without interpretation provides no benefit to the church

I'm going to read through it quickly. Now brothers, if I come to you speaking in tongues, how will I benefit you unless I bring you some revelation or knowledge or prophecy or teaching?

If even lifeless instruments such as the flute or the harp do not give distinct notes, how will anyone know what is being played? If the bugle gives an indistinct sound, who will get ready for battle? So he's saying that tongues without interpretation are not productive. So with yourselves, if with your tongue you utter speech that is not intelligible, how will anyone know what is being said? For you will 'For you will be speaking into the air.

There are doubtless many different languages in the world, and none is without meaning. But if I do not know the meaning of the language, I will be like a foreigner to the speaker, and the speaker a foreigner to me.' Again, he's just again and again emphasizing this point that speaking in an unknown language to a group of people is totally out of order and not productive and not right. He's trying to set these people in order.

21 · Exposition of 1 Corinthians 14:12-13 commending eagerness for spiritual manifestation while redirecting that zeal toward edifying the church and praying for interpretation

He says, "So with yourselves, since you are eager—" Now note this, he's commending them. "You are eager for the manifestation of the Spirit." He's not criticizing their eagerness.

He wants them to be eager for the manifestation of the Spirit. "So with yourselves, since you are eager for the manifestation of the Spirit, strive to excel in—" What? The building up of the church. Verse 13, therefore, one who speaks in a tongue should pray that he may interpret.

22 · Exposition of 1 Corinthians 14:14-15 defining praying in tongues as spirit-led prayer where the mind is unfruitful, and introducing the practice of singing in the Spirit

And then Paul gets personal.

For if I— now listen to this. He starts describing what praying in tongues is. He said, for if I pray in a tongue, now he defines it, my spirit is praying. If I pray in a tongue, it's my spirit that's praying, but my mind is unfruitful. In other words, it's not like a normal prayer in English where we pray something that we think about.

When we pray in tongues, it's our spirit that prays. If I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful. What am I to do? He says, here's what I'll do. I will pray 'with my spirit.' He's not talking about a spiritual prayer.

He's talking about praying in tongues. This term 'with my spirit,' 'in the Spirit,' he's talking about praying in tongues. He says, 'What will I do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will pray with my mind also. I will sing praise with my spirit, but I will sing with my mind also.' I don't know if you've been in a service where in between songs in English, the band just goes into playing and the people in the congregation start singing in the Spirit, in tongues.

We've not done that in a while in our church. If you tune your ear a little bit, you might be next to someone when John goes into like an interlude where we're not singing the words to a song. But the band is just playing and people start lifting their hands and they're singing out. If you tune your ears, you might hear someone singing in tongues. Paul calls it singing in the Spirit.

He said, "What shall I do? I will sing with the Spirit. I'll sing with my understanding." Singing with our understanding is what we do every Sunday morning, singing the words that are up on the screen. But there is a singing in the Spirit that's a beautiful, beautiful experience. When done properly in a congregation.

23 · Exposition of 1 Corinthians 14:16-17 returning to the necessity of interpretation so that others can affirm and be built up by what is being prayed

And that's what Paul's commending them to do. He's giving them examples of how the Corinthian church should allow the Spirit to move in their services. Okay. Verse 16: Otherwise, if you give thanks with your spirit, how can anyone in the position of an outsider say amen to your thanksgiving when he does not know what you are saying? Again, now he's going back to there needs to be an interpretation.

He said you may be giving thanks to the Lord, a prayer of thanksgiving in tongues, but how can anyone say amen to that? Because they don't understand what you're saying. Right? Okay.

Verse 17: For you may be giving thanks well enough, Again, a commendation to praying in the Spirit. But the other person is not being built up because he doesn't understand. I added that.

24 · Exposition of 1 Corinthians 14:18-19 where Paul affirms his personal practice of tongues while prioritizing intelligible instruction in corporate worship

Now look at this, verse 18. This is Paul.

I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you.

So Paul is not, again, he's not criticizing the gift of tongues. It's a beautiful gift. And Paul says, I speak in tongues I speak in tongues more than all of you. And back in verse 5, again, he says, now I want you all to speak in tongues. So he is not prohibiting speaking in tongues.

He's not criticizing it. He's saying it's a beautiful gift. He's trying to put it in order in the church at Corinth. Nevertheless, he says, I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you. Nevertheless, in church, I would rather speak 5 words with my mind in order to instruct others than 10,000 words in a tongue.

25 · Exposition of 1 Corinthians 14:20 emphasizing the need for mature thinking in handling spiritual gifts, reinforcing that God distributes gifts regardless of maturity but expects mature administration

Verse 20, Brothers, do not be children in your thinking. Be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature. Now he's driving this point home, the point that I was making, that God gives His gifts to all of us, whether we're mature, immature, old in the Lord, new in the Lord, selfish, humble. He just distributes His gifts, and He expects us to administrate them in a mature way, to learn, to learn from the Word, to learn from one another, to instruct one another so that gifts are used in a way that the church is built up. And not harmed.

26 · Transition from exposition to testimony, introducing Joe's stories as examples of how prophecy operates in the church over time

All right, I want Joe to come up. I'm going to pause right there, and I want Joe to come up and share with you some of his experience with the gift of prophecy to encourage you in how we've seen it used in our church. Now Joe has a number of stories, and I asked him to share all of these not so that we can say, wow, Joe, you're a— but his examples of how the Lord has used him are typical of how through the years we've seen the gift of prophecy work in a variety of people in our church. So I think because Joe has experienced this in a number of ways, I think his stories and his examples will encourage all of us. Yeah, thanks, Joe.

27 · Joe's first testimony: the Lord giving a specific word of comfort (2 Corinthians 1:3-4) while praying for a grieving woman, ministering to her directly in her suffering

Okay, so yeah, and in the book Speaking about prophecy, I think it is helpful when he says theologian Wayne Grudem, he defines it as telling something that God has spontaneously brought to mind. Okay, so that is New Testament prophecy. So yes, Chuck mentioned over the years that the Holy Spirit has worked in my life in various ways, and so one of the ways the Holy Spirit has worked He impresses a word of encouragement on me as I have prayed for people. So here is one story. Does anybody remember Joe Calabello?

Joe Calabello used to be one of the pastors here. So there was a time when Joe Calabello's wife, Rhonda Calabello, her mom had passed away. And so, you know, it was difficult. She is separated. Her mom had lived in Florida.

She was hurting. And so we were having a time of just praying for her as pastors. And as we were praying for Rhonda, I felt like the Lord gave me this word from 2 Corinthians 1:3-4, which is a word of comfort. And so I just, I shared it. I read it to Rhonda.

I prayed it for Rhonda. And it just, it helped her. It ministered to her. It encouraged her. And it helped her to know that the Lord saw her and was with her.

And even as she was suffering, he was there to help her and to comfort her.

28 · Joe's second testimony: the Lord giving a specific scripture (Acts 18:9-10) for a pastor under threat, resulting in protection and courage to continue ministry in Juárez

There was another time during the worship service here several years ago. You remember all the violence we had in Juárez, 2008, 2009, 2010? It's a really terrible time, terrible time of violence in Juárez. And so it got so bad, you know, we have a sister church in Juárez.

Do you all know we have a sister church in Juárez? We have a sister church in Juárez. And the pastor of that church is Carlos Contreras. So he was starting to actually get threats to his life and to his family. And so for a time, he relocated to El Paso to live in El Paso for his safety and his family's safety.

So one time he's here, he's sitting over here in this section. I'm sitting over here in that section. And as I like to say, I'm just minding my business, right? I'm just worshiping the Lord. I'm enjoying the service.

And as I'm doing that, I felt this sense of a very specific word to give Carlos as we were worshiping. And the word was this. It was Acts 18:9-10. And it says this: Do not be afraid. 'But go on speaking and do not be silent, for I am with you and no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many in this city who are my people.' So, I mean, Carlos, I mean, he thanked me profusely.

He said he needed to hear that. It helped him. It gave him courage. He was able to go back to Juárez and the Lord fulfilled that word. He protected him and never got threatened again.

Nobody harmed him or his family.

29 · Joe's third testimony: a prophetic word about church growth from 160 to 300+ people, which was fulfilled and continues, demonstrating the Lord preparing leadership by faith

There was another time we, as pastors— this was Ricky, he was a pastor maybe, I don't know, 3 or 4 years. We were a pretty small church at that time, maybe about 160 people. We were having a retreat up in Ruidoso. We were up at this retreat and we were doing planning and praying and trying to strategize.

And so I had this sense. I said, "You know, guys, I have this sense from the Lord that our church is gonna— it's gonna grow to 300+ people." And all the pastors just kind of looked at me like, "What? Are you crazy?" I mean, but I just, you know, I just in faith, I shared that word with them. And by God's grace, the Lord did that. You know, so I think the Lord was trying to help us to prepare for that and to give us faith.

The Lord is going to do something and we're gonna be amazed at it. So that is what happened.

It is still happening. Yeah, it is still happening. So praise God.

30 · Joe's fourth testimony: a prophetic vision of his son Ricky preaching to hundreds, held in trust until its fulfillment became evident years later, encouraging Ricky in his pastoral calling

So many years ago we used to have celebration conferences at Flagstaff, Arizona, where several Sovereign Grace churches in the West region would gather for praise and worship and teaching. There was a session with the youth.

John was just talking about the youth session earlier at Prescott. Well, this was at this conference. All the youth were encouraged to go to this session where there was a young guy that was going to be speaking to them, preaching to them, and they were encouraged, hey, one of your parents is here, ask them to come with you. So, so Ricky was there. He was about 14 years old.

He said, hey, Dad, would you come? Sure, of course. So I go with him. The pastor, the young pastor finishes the session, and it's about what does God have for you? What does God want to do in your life?

Have you ever thought about it? He was just trying to envision the young people that were there to seek the Lord. And so he said, if your parent is here, why don't you ask them to pray for you? And so, you know, Ricky immediately turns to me and says, hey, Dad, would you pray for me? Sure, absolutely.

And so, you know, I just laid my hand on Ricky and I I just started to pray for him. Just, "Lord, just lead Ricky. Just guide Ricky." And as I am praying, I get this vision in my mind of Ricky preaching the gospel in front of hundreds of people one day. And I'm just— but I just keep on praying for him. I keep praying.

Then I thought, "Well, what am I going to do with this?" So I am thinking, "I am not going to tell this to my son." So I talked to Kim, let her, you know. So we agree, "Hey, if this is from the Lord, then let the Lord bring it to pass." Okay? Let the Lord do this. So as his dad, I tried to just encourage him, disciple him, From that moment on, we really tried to read books. I think we read about 21, 22 books together, but he read more on his own without his dad because the Lord was just stirring him up.

And so Ricky was going to college. He had an internship in Maryland. That's where he met his wife, Jen. Came back, graduated from college. And then he was doing an internship here at our church.

And then there was an opportunity for him to go to the pastor's college. So, you know, our church sent him to the pastor's college. He's married now to Jen, and they were actually able to live in her mom's basement. So that really helped out. And then he graduated from pastor's college.

So after he graduated, all our family went up, you know, to see him graduate and have a little family vacation. And so we go to Colonial Williamsburg and we're having lunch. And so I said, "Hey Ricky, I've got a story I need to tell you." And so I just begin to tell him this story. I said, "Do you remember one celebration that I went with you and asked the parent to pray for you?" He says, "Oh yeah, yeah, I remember that." I said, "But what you don't know is this is what happened." And so I share the story with him and he just looks at me And he looks at my mom, his mom, and he says, "Wow, I guess it's good to know this is what I'm supposed to be doing." So it was very, very encouraging for him, especially at that moment in his life. And he still, you know, he wasn't a senior pastor yet.

He had just graduated.

31 · Joe's fifth testimony: multiple instances of the Lord giving a specific word (Psalm 113:9) to pray for barren women, resulting in pregnancy—a pattern of healing through word of knowledge and faith

So one of the other ways the Lord has used me is in, healing, word of knowledge, and faith. So here's a few stories about that. So several years ago at a rehearsal dinner at our house, you know, we're having a great time with some friends. Their son was gonna get married.

So I was helping, I'm serving, I'm just walking around. Again, just minding my own business, okay?

And as I'm walking around, I see this young woman and I get this sense the Lord wants me to pray for her to have a baby. And now I'm just thinking, "Okay, Lord." Oh yes, I knew her very well. I knew her from the time she was a little girl and had grown up. And I'm saying like, "Lord." and then I feel like he gives me a specific Psalm to read to her. And it says this: He gives the barren woman a home, making her the joyous mother of children.

Praise the Lord. Okay, so you gotta know, this is a Psalm that I've read maybe once in my life. Okay, it's not a Psalm I'm going to be meditating on a lot as a man on this scripture, right? I mean, so now I'm just like, the Lord— so now I'm really— so now I'm convinced, okay, I got to do this. I've got to pray for her.

And so I just go up to her. I said, hey, would it be okay if I prayed for you? I feel like the Lord's given me a sense to pray for you and faith to pray for you. Would that be alright? So she says, "Sure." So I pray for her, I read her the Psalm and I pray for her to have a baby.

As we leave there and she thanks me, she is very thankful and then I continue on the evening and then it happens again this same night to her sister-in-law. And I'm like, "Really, Lord?" And so I do the same thing. I read her the Psalm. I pray for her. And they both had babies.

Praise God.

So for me, I just want you to know, this isn't me looking around to say, "Hey, can I pray for women that having trouble getting pregnant. This is the Lord impressing this on me. Yeah, from time to time. I mean, it has happened several times. It has happened at a wedding, different times it has happened to me.

32 · Joe's sixth testimony: praying for an unbelieving woman to have a baby, resulting in pregnancy and birth, demonstrating God's kindness in revealing Himself to the lost through answered prayer

I want to share with you one of the last times it happened.

Emma and her husband, McInnis, and our family were having a dinner downtown. We were just celebrating that they are engaged and everything. And her husband, McInnis, and Emma had invited this other couple who was— so her husband is a Marine, but he's stationed at Holloman Air Force Base. Now, this other couple, the husband was a Marine. And so, the husband is there and the wife is there.

And again, we're just having a nice Dinner together. You know, just enjoying ourselves. Again, I'm minding my own business. I just get this impression.

I want you to pray for this woman to have a baby.

And I am just like, I am now just like, Lord, how can I? I don't even know this woman. She's gonna think I'm absolutely crazy. What am I gonna tell her? I'm just having this conversation with the Lord and just, you know, and I'm thinking, no, no, this isn't the Lord.

I'm just gonna ignore this. I'm sitting there and it just, it's not going away. It's not going away. It's not going away. I said, okay, all right, all right.

I give up, Lord. And so we get up, we're all walking out of the restaurant and I just, I stop her and I said, hey, I said, "This might sound a little odd." I said, "But I just want you to know, I'm a pastor at my church. Ricky's the senior pastor. But sometimes we pray for people for certain things. And I just felt like the Lord wanted me to pray for you to have a baby.

Would that be okay?" So she just kind of looks at me like, "Oh, oh, okay, okay." So, you know, what is she gonna say?

So I just, you know, I said, "Can I just put my hand on you?" She said, "Oh, okay." So I put my hand on her and again, I get this Psalm out. I read it to her and she's not a believer, okay? She's not saved. So I read her this Psalm and then I pray for her to have a baby. That was last year.

In, I think it was September or August, late August. Just yesterday she had her baby. Praise the Lord. So, so I think it definitely, in that case, it is the Lord reaching down to this young woman to reveal Himself to her and to let her know, "Hey, I am real." And you were having a problem. And I didn't really know this, but she had had a miscarriage before.

So she was hurting. I mean, if I had known that, I probably wouldn't have done that. Or I would have been a lot more convincing. But anyway, at times God does this. He will just drop in and speak a word of encouragement.

Or healing word to somebody, just to let— it's how God reveals his love to us, his grace to us, his mercy, and his unbelievable power to do above and beyond what we can think or ask or imagine. So anyway, those are 3 of my stories.

33 · Joe's seventh testimony: a very specific word of knowledge about a financial debt that one person confirmed, demonstrating the Lord's precision and kindness even when confirmation is delayed

My last story is this. One time I'm here and I'm closing out. The service, and I get this crazy word, and it is, "There is someone here who has got a debt of this amount of money, and the Lord wants to help you with that." And it is a very specific number.

And you know, I share it with the pastors, and they say, "Well, do you feel like—" Yeah. So go ahead, share it. So I share it. And I just, you know, service ends, people leave, and I think, well, I guess that was, you know, we know in part and we prophesy in part, right? I thought, I probably missed that one.

So almost everyone is gone. And then this one guy comes up to me. He goes, that was for me. That was for me. Would you pray for me?

I said, sure. So Sometimes that's what the Lord does. Isn't He good?

34 · Transition from Joe's testimony to exposition, affirming Joe's faithful stewardship and encouraging the congregation to exercise their gifts with growing faith

Yeah, so again, I've known Joe for what, 40 years, 45, something like that. And I've seen Joe faithfully steward this gift of prophecy.

From little impressions to very specific impressions. I mean, I've heard the story about him going up to this lady who he didn't know and saying, "Hey, can I pray for you to have a baby?" I cannot see myself doing that. I mean, the Lord would— But through the years, Joe has learned to hear the Lord's voice to him. And he's practiced obedience to that. So he's got faith growing in his heart for when the Lord speaks to him.

And it's a great example for as the Lord starts moving through you in gifts, whatever kind of gifts— serving, administration, kindness, hospitality— the more that you exercise those gifts, the more faith you'll have to do it again. And especially in these gifts where the Lord just puts an impression on your heart. Can you imagine up at youth camp if that pastor who first shared it about the kids having fear, if he would have just said, "Nah, nah," you know, and just let it go? He would have missed it. But in that case, the Lord had two backups.

You know, if he hadn't said something, one of the other guys So the Lord really wanted to get that message to the kids. So he had at least 2 backups to the first one. But thanks, Joe, for being faithful with the gift.

35 · Exposition of 1 Corinthians 12:4-11 showing the diversity of gifts distributed by the same Spirit for the common good

I want you guys to look at this. Go back to 1 Corinthians 12, because I think Joe's example is a great example of how at least 3 of the gifts work together.

So go back to 1 Corinthians 12, and he mentioned this, but I just want you to see it. I can see it. So Paul is talking about the variety of gifts. 1 Corinthians 12:4, "There are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are varieties of service, but the same Lord.

There are varieties of activities," he's talking about activities of the Spirit, "but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit." Spirit for the common good. In other words, God gifts us for everyone. For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish or to discern between spirits; to another, various kinds of tongues; to another, interpretation of tongues. All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions each one individually as He wills.

36 · Theological explanation that gifts often work in combination (prophecy, word of knowledge, faith, healing), and that the Spirit distributes gifts as He wills for specific moments, not as permanent abilities we can deploy at will

So let me just use Joe's example. So in Joe's example of giving the word to the ladies who are barren, that's a combination of like prophecy, word of knowledge, something that the Lord's given to Joe's heart that this lady would need prayer for a barren womb. That's word of knowledge. The gift of faith, the faith to actually step out and do it. Right?

And the gift of healing, because in many cases that's a physical problem that needs to be healed. So that's the combination of those 4 gifts working together at one time to enable Joe to minister to those particular ladies. It's a beautiful example. Now one might say, well, if Joe's got that gift of healing, why don't we just put up a sign, "Bare women," enter here.

Look at the very end here of verse— I lost my verse. Verse 9. Chapter 12.

The same Spirit who apportions to each one individually as He wills. So someone says, what's the best gift? Another person says, the one that's needed right now.

So we need to be in faith for the Lord to use us at any time. The gift of healing doesn't work in the way that you might think it would work. Like if you've got the gift of healing, just hit the hospital and start praying for people. That's not the way the Lord works. The Lord heals as He wills.

It's not our gift. It's His gift that He gives to us to minister as He moves on our heart to do it. Especially in these gifts like healing, word of knowledge, word of wisdom. These are specific gifts for specific moments in time. And it's the Holy Spirit working through us to do that.

So I want to build faith in your hearts for you to be positioned to be used by the Holy Spirit in any of these gifts. Now some of them are going to be resident within you, like a serving gift, a gift of mercy. If you have the gift of mercy, you're going to be merciful in just about everything what you do. That has to do almost with your temperament and personality. It has to do with the way that God has built you to be.

Do you see the difference between that and say the gift of prophecy that comes periodically as the Lord would move you to do that? Or the gift of faith and healing where the Lord gives you faith?

37 · Chuck's personal testimony of receiving the gift of faith for healing his wife, illustrating that the gift came sovereignly in a specific moment and has not repeated since

I remember one time I was praying for Judy. I pray for Judy. We've been married for 52 years.

We pray for each other all the time. And we both had physical issues through the years. But I remember one time we were driving someplace, and I can't remember what it was, but she asked me to pray for her. She was having a very specific like ache or pain or something, but it was pretty significant. And I remember I was driving, and I remember as I put my hand over on her, all of a sudden my heart spiritually just enlarged, and I had I had so much faith at that particular— I knew that when I prayed, she would be healed.

I just knew it. It wasn't something I cooked up in my mind. It wasn't something I tried to work up in my heart. The Lord just gave me the gift of faith in a moment, and I knew that when I prayed for Judy, she was going to be all right. And so I didn't say anything to her.

I just prayed for her the way I always pray for her, and immediately she was healed. That pain just went away and never came back. And I thought, wow, that was definitely the gift of faith. It just came on me in an instant. And I've never had that happen before or had that happen since in that way where just immediately I knew that whatever I prayed in that moment, the Lord was going to answer.

So listen, we're dealing with God. We're dealing with the Holy Spirit. And when He moves in us and through us, it's a beautiful thing.

38 · Exposition of 1 Corinthians 14:26-32 providing practical instructions for orderly corporate worship: limit tongues to 2-3 with interpretation, limit prophecies to 2-3 with discernment, and maintain self-control over gifting

And I want to talk in closing, I want us to talk just a little bit about the gift of tongues. Let's go back to 1 Corinthians 15— 14, sorry, 1 Corinthians 14.

Look at verse 25.

What then, brothers? When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, and interpretations. Let all things be done for building up. If any speak in a tongue, let there only be two or at the most three, and each in turn. In other words, one right after another.

And let someone interpret. So he's giving very specific practical instructions about how we should order ourselves when we come together and worship together. He says, "One will have a hymn. One will have a lesson. A revelation." That would be like a word of prophecy.

"A tongue. An interpretation. Let all things be done for building up. If any speaks in a tongue, let it be by 2 or at the most 3, and each in turn, and let someone interpret." But if there is no one to interpret, let each of them keep silent in the church and speak to himself and to God. Let 2 or 3 prophets speak, and let the others weigh what is said.

In other words, judge it. So if you've got the gift of prophecy, say 2 or 3 prophecies per service. And let the other ones judge and weigh what's being said. If a revelation is made to another sitting there, let the first be silent. For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all be encouraged.

And then he says this: And the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets. For God is not a God of confusion but of peace. So he's saying, even though these are gifts of the Holy Spirit, you have control over these. Don't just come together and just say, well, the Spirit's on me.

He's saying the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets, meaning you have control of the gifts that the Lord gives you. You can be silent. You can give them at the proper time.

39 · Explanation that tongues require the believer's active participation (speaking) while under the believer's control, and noting that many in the congregation have the gift but it is rarely exercised publicly

Joe gave you the example of him struggling. Should I say something?

Should I not? With the gift of tongues, The gift of tongues is a very interesting gift because a lot of people think that if the Lord's going to give you the gift of tongues, you're just going to open your mouth and this language is going to come out. But that's not the way it works. That's not the way English works. The way that English works is you think of something, you give breath, comes out your vocal cords, and you speak.

You make an attempt to speak. Same way with the gift of tongues. When the Lord gives you the gift of tongues, it doesn't come from the mind. Paul says the mind is unfruitful. We read that earlier.

It comes from your spirit, but you have to speak. You have control over it. In the same way that the prophets are in control of their own spirit, when the Lord gives the gift of tongues, you have control over it. I would guess that there might be— well, I don't know. If you have the gift of tongues, raise your hand.

So see, there's a bunch of closet tongue speakers here.

And maybe you never would have guessed it, because I think it's been what, Joe, 30 years since we've had a tongue in one of our services? But back 40 years ago, every Sunday morning someone would have a tongue and an interpretation, a couple prophecies. We'd sing in the Spirit for a while. We had like 2.5-hour services. Yes.

No.

40 · Clarification of the directional difference between tongues (person to God, prayer/praise) and prophecy (God to church, edification), with implication for how interpretations should be framed

Yeah, the gift of encouragement is closer to the gift of prophecy. Yeah. So remember, tongues edifies the person. If the tongues comes forth in a public service, then interpretation is needed to edify the church. But the function of the gift of tongues is from the person to the Lord.

It's a prayer first and foremost. And so if you ever do hear a tongue in a service, the interpretation should be in the form of a prayer or thanksgiving to the Lord. Prophecy would be from the Lord to the church, the gift of tongues would be from a person's heart to the Lord, praising, thanking, glorifying the Lord, that type of thing.

41 · Theological claim that tongues historically accompany Spirit outpouring and revival, as evidenced in the church's own history and John's testimony, not because of teaching but by sovereign divine initiative

So I want to talk about why is tongues such a big thing? And we don't have time to get into it a lot, but I want you to write down these scriptures, and if you haven't read them, I want you to spend some time.

The reason tongues is such a big thing for charismatic churches is that when the Lord pours out His Spirit historically, not just in the first century, but historically, whenever revival hits and the Lord pours out His Spirit, more often than not, people are going to speak in tongues. Remember the illustration of how these churches started here in El Paso. People are praying for their dying lukewarm churches. The Lord pours out His Spirit, and one of the first things that happens is someone speaks in tongues.

And in these two cases, nobody knew anything about it. They'd never heard teaching out of 1 Corinthians 12, 13, and 14. They'd never— the only teaching they'd heard is that this doesn't happen today. That was good teaching for the church at Corinth, but those things don't happen today, so we don't need to give attention to it. We can look at chapter 13, the love chapter, and talk about how important love is.

But 1 Corinthians 13 was given to the church at Corinth to teach them to exercise love in their church service where the gifts were going out of control. So when the Holy Spirit— and John mentioned it tonight in two of the revivals that he mentioned as part of his story— when the Lord pours out His Spirit, people start speaking in tongues. That's what happens. That's one of the things that is observable throughout the centuries when the Lord pours out His Spirit.

42 · Exposition of Acts 2 and Acts 8 showing the initial Spirit outpouring at Pentecost and in Samaria, where a visible manifestation (likely tongues or prophecy) occurred

And we see it in Acts chapter 2.

This is when the Holy Spirit was first poured out. You can see it referred to probably in Acts chapter 8 down in Samaria. Philip was preaching in Samaria. People were getting delivered. They were getting saved.

They were getting baptized. But it says that the Holy Spirit the Holy Spirit had not come on them, so they sent Peter and John to pray for the people that the Holy Spirit would come on them. There was a sorcerer named Simon who was trying to manipulate the people with mysticism. And when Peter and John came and laid hands on them, they were filled— it says they were filled with the Holy Spirit. And Simon saw something that prompted him to pay money for the gift of laying on of hands to receive the Holy Spirit.

So probably people either prophesied or spoke in tongues. It doesn't say that they spoke in tongues in Acts chapter 8, but Simon saw something happen when Peter and John prayed for these people that he wanted to purchase. So it was probably some— it was definitely a manifestation. It just wasn't people getting excited. It was some supernatural manifestation.

43 · Exposition of Acts 10 where the Gentiles received the Spirit evidenced by speaking in tongues, confirming their inclusion in the new covenant community

In Acts chapter 10, Peter goes to the house of Cornelius. This is where the Holy Spirit was first poured out on the Gentiles. Remember, there was no interaction between Jews and Gentiles. The Lord had to give a vision to Peter and Cornelius, get them together, confirm that, yeah, this was the Lord directing them to get together. Peter preaches the gospel, the Holy Spirit falls on them, they start speaking in tongues, they're speaking in tongues.

Peter says, "How can we deny baptism to these who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have because they are speaking in tongues just as we have?" So that's Acts chapter 10.

44 · Exposition of Acts 19 and application to historical Spirit outpouring in the 1960s-70s, showing the pattern of tongues accompanying gospel advance and revival in spiritually dead contexts

Acts chapter 19, Paul goes to Ephesus, and it says he encounters some disciples in Ephesus, and he says to them, "Have you received the Holy Spirit since you believe?" 'Now that's an interesting question that we don't have time to get into tonight. But we know that the mark of a believer is that we have the Holy Spirit in our hearts. That is the definition of a Christian.' But Paul asked the question, 'Have you received the Holy Spirit since you believed?' Because they were believers. And they said, 'We've never even heard of the Holy Spirit.' So Paul is thinking, 'Well, what kind of believers are you guys if you've never heard of the Holy Spirit?

And they said, we're believers of John. We've been baptized in John's baptism, John the Baptist. John's baptism wasn't a baptism of salvation. It was a baptism of repentance. John called people to repent and to look for Jesus who was coming.

So then Paul knew they were believers, but they weren't Christians yet when they said we're John's disciples. So then he preached to them, they received the Holy Spirit and spoke in tongues. So we see throughout the book of Acts, as the gospel was ministered, the Holy Spirit came on people and they spoke in tongues. So it's a natural occurrence of when the gospel, especially when the gospel goes into a new area or throughout history, a dead area where there's been a lot of apostasy, and the church has grown cold. Back in the '60s here in the United States, a time of tremendous rebellion, turning away from God, turning away from parents.

Remember, that's the whole hippie generation, Woodstock, Vietnam War. Our soldiers came back from Vietnam, they weren't honored. First time that our soldiers had not been honored. Terrible stuff going on in our country. An abandonment of godly values.

In the midst of that, God pours out His Spirit. And throughout this nation, people start speaking in tongues. So thankfully, there were our Pentecostal brethren who believed in these things and had studied it and came and taught. And we started getting educated, just like we've been talking about tonight. I mean, I can't tell you how many times that I've heard 1 Corinthians 12:13-14 taught just like we've been going through it tonight, going through the Scriptures, talking about what is speaking in tongues, what is prophecy, how is it supposed to operate in the church, responsibility for church leaders to govern the activity and not let it get crazy and wild.

45 · Transition toward conclusion, noting the potential for future teaching and reiterating that Scripture-based teaching births hunger for more of God

So I just want to touch on— I was talking to Ricky yesterday or the day before, and he said, you know, maybe we just need to have a series of teachings on the gifts of the Holy Spirit, which I think would be great. Because the more teaching we have, the more Scripture speaks to whatever the topic is, and the more hunger is birthed in our hearts. That's what the teaching of the Word does. Whatever the topic is, when we're taught from the Word, it births a hunger in our heart for more of what's being taught. Ultimately, the hunger is for more of the Lord.

46 · Theological claim that the ultimate goal of all spiritual gifts and growth is knowing Christ more deeply in the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings

Paul says, "Everything that I've accomplished in life, I count as dung that I might know Him." That I might know Him.

"And the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings." And that's the end goal of the Lord in our lives, is that we might grow closer to Him. That we might know Him in the power that He has to save us, to sanctify us, to fill us, to empower us, to give us gifts for the benefit of others.

The power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His suffering, being able to persevere through the difficulties in life, because Jesus was our example, keeping our eyes fixed upon Him.

47 · Opening for Q&A, inviting congregation to ask questions about the teaching

Let's take a few minutes and have some questions. Questions that you might have had coming in, maybe some questions were answered tonight as we talked through this. Any questions?

Don't be shy. So I got a question. When you're saying speaking in the spirit, in the mind, how do I know