1 CORINTHIANS 14 MINISTER TO ONE ANOTHER2015 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: 1 Corinthians 14 Minister To One Another

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2015.

We're going to be in Romans chapter 1 to start out and then next week we'll officially begin the book of Romans and start working our way verse by verse through the book of Romans. But we're going to start here tonight to introduce something that God wants to do in our midst and part of the vision that God has for us as we go forward in the book of Romans this coming year. And

And so Romans chapter 1, if you'll look at verse 11 and 12, I'd like to read that with you. It says,

Now, Paul, as he's writing this, he's writing to the church in Rome, and he's never been there before. He's, of course, established a lot of churches up in the Asia Minor area, but he's never made it all the way across, and his plan is to make it to Rome. Now, we know that he did make it to Rome, as we read through the book of Acts, probably not the way that he had originally planned, but he made it to Rome as a prisoner, and

But he's writing this ahead of that. He's writing this in expressing his desire to make it to Rome, to share the gospel there, and to minister to the church, the gathering of believers that is established.

Now, I think it's interesting here in verse 11 and 12 that he expresses this desire to go with a specific purpose. He has something specific in mind as he goes to Rome. That is, he desires to impart a spiritual gift.

And not only to impart a spiritual gift, but there in verse 12, he talks about being encouraged together with them by the mutual faith. He says, both of you and me. And so it's not just for their benefit that he desires to go to Rome and impart a spiritual gift. But as he goes, his expectation is he will get to minister to them and they will minister to him and they will both grow. They'll both benefit from

as he spends some time with them in Rome.

Now, as he expresses this desire here in Romans chapter 1, I share that this evening, and you can turn now to 1 Corinthians chapter 14, as an introduction to, well, we are going to be changing things up for our Wednesday evening services. And for those who have been around for a while, you won't be so surprised by this, but we're going to be going back to a format that we used to use before we started the Bible in three years.

And that is that we devoted a time, a portion of our service every week for ministering to one another in a similar way to what Paul is describing here in Romans chapter one, where he was going with that expectation of ministering spiritual gifts to the church of Rome, and they were going to be ministering to him in the same way. It was our practice for many years to have a time on Wednesday evenings where the church

end part of the service would be devoted to that kind of one another ministry. And I want to encourage you as we go forward and we go back into this format or this structure for our Wednesday services, I want to encourage you to have the same kind of desire that the Apostle Paul had as he expressed this in Romans chapter 1. That we would come to service with this desire to impart a spiritual gift.

That is that we would come with a desire to be used by God to impact other believers, whether it be corporately or one-on-one, but every week we know we'll have the opportunity. And so we can come with this expectation and this desire for God to work through us to impact other believers.

And so we can come expecting to bless others, but then also with the expectation that not only do we desire to help others, to encourage them, to pray for them, but then also that, well, like Paul said, the mutual faith between us and we're going to be both built up and encouraged and established that

as we come each week, not only do we have that desire to minister to others, but we also get the opportunity to benefit from others ministering to us. And there will be this growth on both sides as we seek to minister to one another. And that's why we're going to be now in 1 Corinthians chapter 14 and talking about one another ministry or ministering to one another.

How do we do that? And what does that look like? And so this is really kind of an overview of spiritual gifts and

regarding a gathering of believers or in the context of a gathering of believers. And this is important for us as we go forward and have this opportunity to minister to one another. This kind of lays the groundwork for us to give us understanding of what that's supposed to look like and what we should be expecting both from ourselves and from others as we engage in this time of ministry.

Now, we've talked a lot about spiritual gifts and even not so...

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And then we also talked about the manifestations of the Spirit in 1 Corinthians 12. And these are manifestations that the Holy Spirit can give to any believer to fulfill their role, to help them do what God has called them to do.

Well, what we're looking at here in 1 Corinthians chapter 14 is related to all of that, but it's looking at a very specific context. And that is the operation or the use of the manifestations of the Spirit. We often refer to them as the gifts of the Spirit.

in a gathering of believers. And so it's one thing for us to operate the gifts of the Spirit in our workplaces or, you know, between one another individually, but it's a quite different thing to operate in the gifts of the Spirit in a corporate gathering of believers. And that's what 1 Corinthians chapter 14 is all about. And so we're going to take a quick look at this. I say quick, not because we'll spend a short time in the Word, but because there's a lot here that we could dig into.

And I want to encourage you through this, well, to prepare yourselves and to take this next week and as we come back in the following week to dig into the book of Romans, but come back with a heart like the Apostle Paul.

with a desire to impart a spiritual gift. And keep that in mind as we work our way through 1 Corinthians 14 this evening. So the first point that I'd like to share with you from 1 Corinthians 14 is that we are to desire spiritual gifts. Look with me at 1 Corinthians 14, verse 1. It says, Pursue love and desire spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy.

And so Paul here, he's continuing a discussion that he's been having with the Corinthians. It started in 1 Corinthians 12.

And he talked about the manifestations of the spirit. He talked about the body of Christ. And we could relate that to the roles in the body of Christ, the different members, the different functions. But then he transitioned that into the love chapter and talked about the importance of love in 1 Corinthians chapter 13 and what it is and described it for us.

But now he continues that thought. And so he says, okay, here's the manifestations of the spirit. And also here's a more excellent way, love. And so now he's kind of tying it all together and applying it to their gathering together, their weekly services. And so here's what he says. Put those two things together. Pursue love and desire spiritual gifts.

And so he commands us here to have this kind of desire, the word desire, it means to burn with zeal for, to strive for. And so we're to have this burning desire for spiritual gifts, for the manifestations of the Holy Spirit, for us to be used by God in this way. And so it's a command that we are given to desire spiritual gifts.

He also tells us in chapter 12 of 1 Corinthians verse 31 to earnestly desire the best gifts. And so again, there's this command and he reinforces it here to desire these things, to have a passion for these things. And he connects this idea of love and spiritual gifts together. And so the idea of, well, like Paul expressed to the Romans, you know, I want to go there and impart a gift to you.

It wasn't so that he could be famous for his exercising of spiritual gifts. It wasn't so that he could be well-known or liked, you know, because, wow, he always prophesies. He always gives great exhortations. I love his prayers or whatever. But the motivation always has to be connected to love.

That is, I love you. And because I love you fervently, I desire fervently for God to work through me to minister to you. And that's how Paul is weaving this together, that it's love and gifts together because I love you.

I want to minister to you and I want God to work in your life. And God has designed it in such a way that, well, he can use any of us to minister to any of us. It's really about us ministering to one another.

And so as we talk about desiring spiritual gifts, we're talking about the manifestations of the Spirit that Paul goes through in 1 Corinthians chapter 12. And so we talked about it in Equipped to Serve. These are like tools in a toolbox. That is, the Holy Spirit has this toolbox with these manifestations. And he's with you. And whatever you need, whenever you need it, he's able to give you any of these tools at any time.

Every believer can operate in any of these gifts according to the Holy Spirit's desires and will. And so these are for all believers and the Holy Spirit will give them to us as we need it. And so there's the word of wisdom, the word of knowledge, faith, gifts of healing, the working of miracles, prophecy, discerning of spirits, kinds of tongues, and interpretation of tongues.

And so these are gifts that the Holy Spirit can give to you or any believer at any time according to his will. Now, we talked a lot about these manifestations in the past, and so I'm not going to define all of them, and I would encourage you, you know, you can dig into that on your own, but

But these are things that the Holy Spirit can give to you. Now, this may change from moment to moment and he may, you know, use you in one way and then never use you in that way again. Or he may use you in the same way over and over and over again. It's really up to the working of the Holy Spirit and what he desires. But these are available for us. That is, he can give any of these to us.

And so whatever your role is, whatever your, you know, whatever you think of your Christian walk or whatever you think of how your day was or whatever, any Wednesday or any time that you gather together, any time that you're doing God's work, the Holy Spirit can give you any of these gifts. And he will because he wants to use you to bless others and impact others for the kingdom of God.

And so first off, I want to encourage you to desire spiritual gifts. This is a command that we have. And we sometimes need to stir up this desire in us because, well, it's much more comfortable. It's a lot easier to not be used by God. It's a lot more comfortable to just sit there and not do anything and just say, okay, you know, you guys do worship. You guys teach me. You know, you guys do what you do. And I'm just here to attend. And so I want to encourage you to desire spiritual gifts.

That's a lot easier than, well, taking steps of faith and desiring to be used by God with the gifts of the Spirit. And so I want to encourage you. This is something where you're going to need to challenge yourself and you're commanded to stir up this desire to

I shared before, you know, I think a lot of times I have a burning desire not to be used by God. It's like, Lord, please, no, don't send me to pray for somebody. Don't, you know, send me to share a scripture with somebody because it's scary, it's intimidating. And we fight all kinds of emotional and mental battles in that.

But we need to stop allowing our feelings and how we think about it to dictate how we live. And we need to obey the commands of scripture. And so stir up within you this fire, this desire for spiritual gifts. Now then going on in the chapter 14 here, we see desire especially to prophesy. So that's the second point. Especially desire to prophesy. We see that at the latter part of verse 1.

He says, And so all of that being said about desire and this fervency that we're to have, this passion that we're to have, he says, Right?

Now, as he deals with the gifts of the Holy Spirit in a gathering of believers here in chapter 14, you can divide it into two types of gifts that are used in the gathering of believers. There's prophecy and

and then there's tongues. And so in a gathering of believers, in a service, as we have on Wednesdays or other services throughout the week, these are the two types of gifts that are going to be in use. These are the two types of gifts that we should expect to see in operation. But what Paul is saying here is between those two types of gifts, prophecy and tongues, prophecy has the priority.

And so especially desire to prophesy. Why? Well, he tells us in verse 2 and 3, it says, But he who prophesies speaks edification and exhortation and comfort to men.

And so you'll notice the reason for this preference given to prophecy, it's based on the direction of the communication. Prophecy and tongues have different directions. The gift of tongues is directed to God. It is, well, it's a prayer language, a language that is spoken to God in prayer. And so it's words that are spoken towards the Lord, right?

Prophecy, on the other hand, is the opposite. It's from God directed towards us, directed towards people. And so he says in verse 2, you don't speak to men if you speak in a tongue, you speak to God. That's the direction. That's what that is accomplishing. But in verse 3, he tells us, if you speak prophecy, well, then that's edification, exhortation, and comfort to people.

And so the direction is different. And that's why prophecy has the preference, has the priority in a service because, well, it's God speaking to us. And that's what we are gathered together for, to hear from God and for God to minister to us in that way. The word to prophesy, it means to speak forth a message from God.

A lot of times we connect the idea of prophecy with future events or telling the future. But that was just one component of the way that God spoke to the prophets. The idea of prophecy really is about speaking forth for God, on behalf of God, that God is speaking through a person and delivering a message to the people. And so the gift of prophecy is when the Holy Spirit gives you a message that

that edifies, exhorts, and comforts the people around you. It's directed towards the people around you. Again, verse three, he who prophesies speaks edification and exhortation and comfort to men. It's God encouraging, it's God building up, it's God comforting the people around you. And so Paul says, you should especially desire that.

You should have a fervent desire for God to use you to encourage and build up and comfort the people around you. That should be your priority. You should desire it especially. In verse four, he goes on to say, he who speaks in a tongue edifies himself, but he who prophesies edifies the church. So again, you see the difference here. The direction, the gift of tongues is directed towards God.

Now there's still edification that results, but it's primarily edification of yourself. Now it's a valid gift. And if God's given you the gift of tongues, then use the gift of tongues because what God has given that to you because you need to be built up in that way. But in a gathering together of believers, there's the priority of prophecy because it edifies the whole congregation and

It edifies all of the people there. Now, Paul is making sure that we understand that tongues is a valuable gift. In this specific context, prophecy has the priority. And so we are to prefer it. We are to especially desire it. In a gathering of believers, it's not as beneficial as

as prophecy, the gift of tongues. But he also wants to make sure that we understand he's not, you know, belittling that gift. And so in verse five, he says, I wish you all spoke with tongues and

but even more that you prophesied. So it's, it's a gift. It's a good gift. It's an, it's a needed gift. And I wish you spoke in tongues, Paul says, but especially in this context that you prophesied. In verse six, he says, if I come to you speaking with tongues, what shall I profit you unless I speak to you either by revelation, by knowledge, by prophesying, or by teaching?

The point is, if I come and I speak in a tongue to the congregation, what benefit do you have? You don't understand what's being said. And so you don't get to participate in what's happening. It edifies the person who's speaking in the tongue, but not the general public, not the people who are there. Instead, it's really meant to be a personal prayer language.

In verse 18, Paul says, So again, Paul wants to make sure it's clear. He thanks God that he speaks in tongues. He thanks God for that. It's a good gift. It's a needed gift. And so Paul says, I thank God for that. But in this specific context, Paul,

He says, I'd rather speak five words with understanding than 10,000 words in a tongue. So five words that make sense, five words that I can understand, that people can understand, that's more valuable. And so again, this is why he's saying it is a valuable gift, the gift of tongues, but

But the gift of prophecy in this context has greater value. And so desire especially to prophesy. In this specific context, that's what we're to desire. Now, what does that look like? What is he talking about when he says that we are to desire to prophesy? Well, let me show you again the manifestations of the Spirit. Again, these are from 1 Corinthians 12.

And these are the gifts of the Spirit that we should expect to be in operation in a gathering of believers. Not all of them all the time, but this is the toolbox that the Holy Spirit can give to us according to the need. Now, the last two that he lists go together. Different kinds of tongues and then the interpretation of tongues.

And so we'll talk about that in just a moment. But these work together. And there is this opportunity for the gift of tongues to be an operation in the gathering together of believers. But it needs to be joined with the interpretation of tongues.

And then the two above that, prophecy and discerning of spirits, also go hand in hand. They work together. And again, we'll talk about that in the next couple verses, where he talks about the order. And so there needs to be the prophecy, but there also needs to be discernment along with it. But what I'd like to point out here on this slide is that the rest of those manifestations of the spirit are

The word of wisdom, the word of knowledge, faith, gifts of healing, and the working of miracles. These manifestations are not left out in this idea of prophecy and tongues in a church service. But these manifestations become prophecy when they are spoken. And they're not always spoken, but sometimes they're spoken.

Sometimes God gives you, let's say, a word of wisdom. Now that's insight. That's understanding on what to do or how to do something. And so sometimes God will give you that. The Holy Spirit will gift you with the word of wisdom so that you can go and do it. You don't have to talk about it. You don't have to announce it, but you just go do it. And so let's say you're praying about how to minister to this guy across the street. And so the Holy Spirit gives you a word of wisdom on how to do it. And so then you go do it. You don't have to announce it.

But sometimes in a gathering together of believers, God will give you a word of wisdom to share with the congregation, to share with the body, or to share with a specific individual. And the same things with word of wisdom or faith or the gifts of healing. Think about the gifts of healing, for example. Again, the Holy Spirit may use you and choose you to be the one who prays for somebody and they receive healing. He could do that through any of us. He could do that through any believer.

Now, he may give you the gift of healing and he might say, go pray for that person and then they're healed. Or he might speak through you. And so in a context like this, you might be prompted by the Lord to share, you know, I believe God wants to do a work of healing in this person and we should pray for them. And so that becomes now a prophecy. You're speaking forth from God, his desire to work in this person's life in that way.

And so these gifts or manifestations of the spirit become prophecy. They become a word from the Lord when you speak them out in a gathering of believers. And so that's what this is talking about.

And so as we talk about prophecy within this context of a gathering of believers within a church service, we're talking about these kinds of things. God giving you a word of wisdom to share, a word of knowledge to share, some specific instruction for healing, for miracles. It could also be a verse, a scripture that God has been putting upon your heart or something that he has been speaking to you about. Or it could be something personal.

that we wouldn't necessarily tie and attach. Sometimes we work too hard to categorize things, I think. But, you know, like you might typically think of if you're kind of from different denominations or some different backgrounds, you know, the thus says the Lord, where God just gives you a message. And it's not necessarily a verse scripture that you quote. Maybe you can't figure out if it's a word of wisdom or a word of knowledge, but you just know God's put something on your heart to share. And

And so that it can come in that form as well. So it can be a verse. It can be a, thus says the Lord, a word of wisdom, a word of knowledge, faith, healing, miracles. And it's something that God gives you. The Holy Spirit gives you to speak forth. Again, Paul says, this is what you should desire earnestly within a gathering of believers. And so I want to encourage you to desire to prophesy.

Again, it's a command. To desire spiritual gifts is a command. It's something we're instructed to do and to stir up within us this desire, this zeal, this burning passion to

to be used by God in the lives of others. And Paul says, as you do that, especially pray for and especially desire to prophesy. And again, as Paul expressed this idea to the church of Rome in Romans chapter one, I want to encourage you as you come to service now, understanding these things, come to service, come to church with this desire, desiring especially to prophesy. Now,

Paul will go on to give some specific instructions so that you don't let this desire cause you to disrupt the service. You could get really worked up and you're so excited about what God's put upon your heart to share that, well, you become a distraction and a disruption to the service. And so the next point that Paul goes on to share is that we need to keep order in the service.

So there is the gifts of the Spirit. There is the use and operation within the context of a gathering of believers. But there's also a principle that we need to follow. And that is, well, there needs to be order. Check out verse 26.

He says, And so here Paul talks about the content of their church services. What kinds of things should we be engaged in as we gather together as believers? Well, the content is,

is very similar to what we practice in our services. He says, a psalm, a teaching, a tongue, a revelation, and interpretation. This is the content. This is what we should expect to see in a church service. And so we have a time of worship. And Zach did a great job in leading us in worship and singing songs and psalms to the Lord.

And we also have a time of teaching, and that's what I'm doing right now. And we always have a time where we get into the word as we gather together. It's a time of teaching. But again, going forward on Wednesday nights, we want to reinstitute this opportunity as well for the gifts of the Holy Spirit to be in operation. Now, we also do this on Sunday evenings, and so it's not that this is the only time. The Lord has stirred it up in our hearts to do this again for Wednesday nights.

And Paul says, how is it that when you gather together, everybody has a psalm and a teaching and then also these gifts of the spirit, the tongues and interpretation, and then a revelation, or we could also refer to that as prophecy. And so you see these two components, the prophecy and tongues, as well as the teaching, as well as a time of worship. And so Paul is saying, look, this is right. You have the right content, but you,

The Corinthian church was not executing it very well. And he's saying to them, you need some structure. You need some order. You need some order.

The way that he's describing it gives us the understanding that, well, you could imagine if I'm up here teaching and I'm about to get to the next point and then Jeff stands up and says, wait, I have a song that I want to share with you guys. And so it's kind of awkward, Jeff, kind of right in the middle of a thought here, but okay, I guess, you know, the Holy Spirit gave you a song. So why don't you come up and do your song? And then while Jeff is doing his song, Jake starts shouting out prophecy. Thus says the Lord.

And so I'm here looking at Jeff doing his song, and now Jake's speaking prophecy, and you're there thinking,

what's going on here? And maybe, you know, some people do get excited about that. There's like, wow, there's like so much happening, you know? It's like our ADD selves get excited. Like, yeah, I can like look around and watch what's going on. And then someone else stands up and begins to share in tongues. And Javier begins to try to show us YouTube videos. And so we're just like, you know, this chaos that's going on. And that's the picture of what was happening in the Corinthian church, right?

And so Paul's saying, okay, you got the content right. Worship, teaching, the operation of the gifts, that's good stuff. That's what belongs in a gathering of believers. But you need to add some order so that it's not chaos, so that things are organized.

And so he goes on now to describe some specific order for the operation of the gifts. In verse 27 and 28, he talks about the order for the gift of tongues. Verse 27 says,

Now again, Paul is talking about a specific context, a gathering of believers, a church service. This is the order. On your own, between you and the Lord, you can speak in tongues all day long if you want to. But in a gathering of believers, well, Paul says, here's the order. There needs to be some limitations. There needs to be some structure. And so first of all, he says, let two or three speak together.

So if there is the exercise of the gift of tongues in a church service, and that is appropriate, it is, you know, right for God to do that. He's able to do that whenever he desires. But the whole service is not to be a speaking forth in tongues from a variety of people. Let it be two people. Paul says three people max. And that's it. Let it be constricted to that. And not only that, but he says each in turn, right?

Sometimes we get the idea in our heads that when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, you know, you just can't control it. You can't contain yourself. And so if he gives you the gift of tongues, you just start speaking out no matter what's going on. But Paul says, no, that's not the case. That's not the reality. You may feel that way, but that's not what God is calling you to do.

No, it needs to be each in turn. And not only that, but he says, in addition, it must be interpreted. So not only does it need to be each in turn, but there needs to accompany. So if someone does bring forth a word in a tongue, then what we are to do, what we're instructed to do by Paul here is to wait for the interpretation for that word in a tongue to be shared.

And then if someone else shares, then we wait for that interpretation. And then if someone else shares, we wait for the interpretation. And Paul says, let that happen two times, maybe three, and limit it to that. This is the order that is appropriate for a gathering together of believers. There needs to be order. There needs to be some structure so that, well, the people are edified and built up. Now, he goes on in the next couple of verses to talk about the order for prophecy. Look at verse 29.

He says, So here again, Paul gives us order. He says, let's give some structure here.

It's not good, although prophecy is good, and your desire especially to prophesy, it's not good for it to happen all at once. And it's not good for it to just take up the whole service. No, again, let two or three speak.

So if we have an opportunity, we have a time of worship and we allow for the operation of the gifts of the spirit in this way, someone stands up and shares a prophecy, shares something from the Lord for the congregation. That's appropriate. That's good. Paul says, let that happen two or three times. But then notice what he says in verse 29. He says, and let the others judge.

And this is an important part that sometimes gets overlooked. So someone stands up and says, thus says the Lord. We're not just to say, well, I guess that's what God says and believe it without really thinking about it. He says, let the others judge. And here's where I would suggest to you, remember the manifestations of the spirit. You have tongues and interpretations of tongues listed right together. You also have prophecy and discerning of spirits listed right together.

And I would suggest to you that when a prophecy is given forth in a corporate setting, that, well, the rest of us who are listening to it are to be praying for the gift of discernment, that we would discern, is that from the Lord? Now, sometimes it's clear. Sometimes it's obvious. If it contradicts the scripture, it's not from the Lord. But sometimes we can't tell. And so we pray for the discerning of spirits. And there is to be a judgment on our part, not judging the person's heart, but judging

But judging the message, does this line up with what God says? Is this really a word from the Lord? And so as prophecy is given, you and I, the rest of us, we are to be seeking God, desiring spiritual gifts, right? And desiring the discerning of spirits that we would be able to recognize. And let's say something is shared that is not from the Lord. Then God,

In this kind of context, we would need to address it and say, that wasn't from God. You know, here's how it contradicts the word of God. Here is where it is not appropriate or according to what God has said. And so that's what we would do. And so pray for the discerning of spirits that we would be able to do that. Now, again, just like he did with tongues, Paul says, you can do this one by one.

And so if all of a sudden the Holy Spirit gives you a word to share, but somebody else is speaking, he says, wait till that person stops speaking. Now, this is important. He says in verse 32, the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets. If the Holy Spirit gives you a gift of prophecy, and now he's called you to speak forth to the congregation, then

It's not going to be in a way where you are overtaken, you have no control, and you just have to burst forth in this message. No, you have control. You are able to wait until the time is appropriate and then share that word from the Lord. Now, this is one of the reasons why I encourage you to be praying ahead of time.

Again, one of the reasons why we're going through this passage today is because while going forward on Wednesday evenings, we want to set aside a portion of our service for God to work through us in these ways. And I would encourage you to be in prayer, not just when you get here, or not just when I'm like wrapping up the message and I invite up the worship team and you know, okay, there's going to be opportunity to, okay, now Lord, do you want me to share something? But I would encourage you to be praying throughout the week.

Because sometimes we think that a word of prophecy has to be given in the instant. But that's not really the case. God can give you the word of prophecy Wednesday morning to share Wednesday night. Or Monday morning to share Wednesday night. Or January to share in March. Or, you know, God can give you a word of prophecy at any time.

to share when the time is appropriate and when the opportunity is there. Just like he did with the prophets of old. You think about Jeremiah, you think about Isaiah or Elijah. God would give them a word of prophecy and then they would have to run, you know, from one side of the nation to the other side of the nation. They'd have to travel for days or weeks to get to where the person was so that they could deliver the message that God had given to them.

In a similar way, as you desire earnestly to prophesy, well, don't just wait until Wednesday night to do that, but desire earnestly throughout the week and prepare yourself to come with something from the Lord to share. And then it will happen one by one.

That you will have opportunity, and then when your opportunity is right, when it's made available, then you're able to share what God has given you to share. He goes on in verse 33 to say, for God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints. And so this is applying to all churches.

that God is the author of peace, not confusion. And so this is order that is necessary so that there's peace, that there's harmony, that there's not confusion within the church. And so this is what it's going to look like for us on Wednesday evenings. Here's some structure. Here's some order for us that you understand and that we can keep the order that God has given to us.

Our services going forward are going to begin with worship as we usually do, but it will be a shorter time of worship. We'll probably do about two songs normally. And again, you know, the Holy Spirit's welcome to rearrange this at any time he desires, but this will be, you know, the order that will follow unless he says otherwise. And so we'll have a time of worship, which will be about 10 minutes or two songs. And then we'll have a time of worship,

And then we'll continue to have the time of missions prayer. We do believe that that's an important part of, you know, who we are as believers and who we are as a church. And so we'll continue to lift up our missionaries and pray for them. We'll continue to have the missionaries of the month and be connecting with them and lifting them up before the Lord. And then we'll have a time in the word, the message.

Again, this is an essential part, and so we'll be going through the book of Romans, and it'll be a verse-by-verse teaching from wherever we're at in the book of Romans. But then the end of the service, we'll have another time of worship, and this will be an opportunity for what we refer to as the one-another ministry.

And this is where the gifts of the Holy Spirit will be encouraged that we want to allow opportunity for this to take place. Now, again, some of you guys, you haven't been around. Some of you have been around for a long time. This is what we used to do. And this is the format that we used to follow. And so I'm looking forward to what God's going to do as we go back to this. But it will take some time and it will take some adjustment. So don't be surprised by that.

But we, as we have this time of one another ministry to conclude the service, it will take place in two forms. Sometimes it will be corporate ministry. That is, we'll give you an opportunity to be used by the Lord to minister to the whole congregation. That is, we would give an opportunity. We'll say, okay, they're going to lead in a song. After this song, you'll have an opportunity to stand up and share your

a word of prophecy, a word in tongues with the interpretation that this is going to be available at the end of this song. And so you can be seeking the Lord at the end of the song. You'll have an opportunity to share what God's put upon your heart. And so that's the corporate ministry to one another.

We also will have, though, times where there's one-on-one ministry. And that is, as we conclude the service, there'll be probably about three songs to conclude the service. Then we'll be encouraging others

us as the body to go to each other individually and personally. And so it's not sharing something with the whole congregation, but maybe going to pray for somebody specific or sharing that word of prophecy that God has given to you with someone else, or maybe even, you know, sharing it with one person and then sharing it with another person and sharing it with another person. But it's that one-on-one individually connecting together and encouraging and building up one another.

And so as the Lord leads week by week, we'll just be led by the Spirit as far as whether it's going to be a corporate time of ministry or an individual one-on-one time of ministry. But either way, we want to devote the last portion of the service to give the Holy Spirit opportunity to use you to impact other believers. Now, as we go forward with this,

Again, we're looking here at 1 Corinthians chapter 14 and Paul is saying, keep order in the service. And this is something that we will follow because it's important. There is misuse of spiritual gifts.

And I, you know, I've seen it. I'm sure many of you have seen it as well. There's things that I've seen where, you know, worship teams are singing out in tongues, which is not according to what Paul is describing as appropriate. I've seen situations where people are speaking to one another in tongues, and that's not at all what Paul is describing either, as he describes the gift of tongues as speaking to God. Um,

There's been times where I've seen, you know, people on stage as well as in the congregation, all speaking tongues in tongues all at the same time. And that's out of order according to what Paul is describing here in chapter 14. Same thing true of prophecy. We've seen that as well where there's, you know, a lot of things happening all at once. Now that's the misuse of valid spiritual gifts, but then also we've seen throughout the years in the church fake gifts.

works of the Holy Spirit. You know, people saying that they are drunk in the Spirit, or there was the holy laughter movement, or barking in the Spirit, or slain in the Spirit, or dancing in the Spirit, or gold dust in the Spirit, you know, falling from the ceiling, and all kinds of fake things that are not at all biblical, that are not at all in alignment with what God has declared. And so that's why we'll be looking at chapter 14 of 1 Corinthians, and

for our order, to understand that there is a requirement, there is a need for order in

These are examples of those who disregard the order that God has established in his word. But for us, as we go forward on Wednesday evenings, we're going to be following the order and we want to hold fast to the word of God and what he has allowed for as far as the content of our services, but also the order, the structure of our services so that all things are done correctly.

for edification. In verse 40 here of 1 Corinthians chapter 14, Paul kind of concludes the whole thought that he's talking about saying, let all things be done decently and in order. And so that's the overarching principle for us that there needs to be order and it should not be disruption or distraction of

There will be things that we maybe are, you know, nervous about because we're not experienced with and that type of thing. But it should not be in a disorganized chaos, but it will be in an orderly fashion. And so we'll set the order, you know, here's the order of our service and we'll keep the order of our service. We'll follow the prompting of the Lord and changing it, but in a way that is orderly and decent and not chaotic.

And so we need to keep order and service. Well, finally, the fourth thing I'd like to highlight here from 1 Corinthians chapter 14 is to build up one another. Again, verse 26, he says,

Now this idea of edification is a major part of Paul's instruction here in 1 Corinthians chapter 14. One of the reasons and the necessity for order is so that there can be edification. The reason why he says, all right, limit it to two or three, let there be interpretation or let the others judge in the case of prophecy, let it be one by one. Why is that?

Well, because the goal is for people to be edified. This word edified, it means to build up. It's spiritual profit or advancement, right?

And that's what Paul is saying, that we should be seeking. This is the goal of the manifestations of the Spirit in the context of a gathering of believers, that there would be spiritual advancement, that people would grow, that they would be built up and strengthened. And so he uses different forms of this word edification seven times here in 1 Corinthians 14.

You'll notice in verse three, he says, he who prophesies speaks edification and exhortation and comfort to men. In verse four, he says, he who speaks in a tongue edifies himself and

but he who prophesies, edifies, builds up, advances the church. In verse 5, he says, I wish you spoke in tongues, but more that you prophesied. For he who prophesies is greater than he who speaks in tongues, unless he interprets that the whole church may receive edification.

In verse 12, he says, even so, since you are zealous for spiritual gifts, let it be for the edification of the church that you seek to excel. You see the emphasis over and over again. He says, it's about building up others, advancing them, helping them grow. The exercising of spiritual gifts is not so that you can become popular. It's not so that you can become famous. It's not so that you can get some glory.

It's so that others can grow. And that's why going back to the beginning, it's attached to pursuing love. That I love you, I care for you, I want you to experience God's best. And so I want to be used by God to minister to you, to pray for you, to impact you, to help you grow and overcome and find victory or stay the course and not give up or whatever's appropriate for what a person is going through.

Paul says, let all things be done for edification. The misuse of spiritual gifts is done in a way, well, it's not edifying. It doesn't build up the congregation. It doesn't build up the body of Christ. And so when building up the body is not the goal, well, we can guarantee there's gonna be dangerous things. There's gonna be things that are out of line. But when the gifts of the Spirit are used appropriately,

When these manifestations are brought forth in the order that God has established, there's great value for the church. There's great value for the people of God. It's edifying. It helps us to grow. It helps us to advance. And so we grow as these gifts are exercised, whether it's us exercising them or others. As we are ministered to by others exercising the gift, we grow.

But then also, as we take steps of faith and minister to others as God prompts and leads, well, not only do they grow, but we grow as we step out in obedience to God. And even as we watch God work in other people's lives, we grow. And so this is designed by God for our benefit. And so we're studying these things because, well, God wants to build you up.

And he's leading us in this direction again for Wednesday evenings because he wants to do a new fresh work of you being part of his work in each other's lives and building up one another for the body of Christ. This is a huge benefit to the body of Christ and it's an important subject. Think about it this way. God devoted a whole chapter of the Bible to this subject, not just spiritual gifts, but

but spiritual gifts in the context of a gathering together of believers. He devoted a whole chapter to it. If I were to ask you to turn to the chapter in the Bible that talks about marriage, where would you turn? Some might turn here, some might turn there, some might turn to other places. There's not one chapter in the Bible that gives everything that we need to know about marriage. There's different passages. And as we look at all the different passages, we understand God's design and plan for marriage.

But I could tell you, well, turn to the chapter where God talks about the operation of the gifts of the Spirit in a service. And God's devoted a whole chapter to it. If I were to ask you to turn to the chapter that deals with everything you need to know about parenting, where would you turn? Well, some would turn here, some would turn there.

But if I were to ask you to turn to the chapter that deals with everything that you need to know about exercising the gifts of the Spirit in a service, you could turn right here to 1 Corinthians chapter 14. It's an important subject. It's a valuable part of what God has designed for us that we would grow. There needs to be order. It needs to be done decently. It needs to be for edification.

That's why he's, you know, given us all of these guidelines here in 1 Corinthians chapter 14, so that we can benefit from it, that the Holy Spirit could use us, that the Holy Spirit could minister to us through one another. I want to share kind of a couple side notes or exhortations for you, and this is kind of just some practical thoughts as we prepare for the coming weeks and what God will do in these times.

First of all, I would say that it takes time to grow in these things. It takes time to grow in the operation of the gifts of the Spirit. And you stepping out and sharing a word from the Lord, don't be surprised and don't be discouraged if you have a hard time with this and you get really nervous about it and your mouth gets dry and your hands start to shake and your heart starts to pound and you chicken out.

Don't be surprised by that and don't be super discouraged by that. Listen, this isn't so that we can apply all kinds of pressure to people. This is so that we can give you an opportunity to grow. This is so that God can give you an opportunity to grow and be stretched. Now, we, again, we used to have this style of service before we switched over to the Bible in three years. It was about seven years ago that we started that.

And as we started it seven years ago, there was maybe a couple people, maybe two or three that were comfortable with the use of the gifts. And so those two or three people, when we had the one-on-one ministry, they would get up and they would go and pray for people and encourage people and they would do that during the closing worship. Or when there was the opportunity for corporate sharing, then those same two or three people would share.

And that was, it was that way for months. And then as people became more accustomed, as you know, they got used to it, or even more often what would happen is you would be there. And let's say you're, you're, you're not even thinking about sharing or ministering to anybody else, but someone comes and ministers to you. And then it's meaningful and it's impactful. And you're like, wow, that was a blessing.

And then a couple months later, you're in a spot, you're hurting, you're in need, and then someone comes and ministers to you and you're like, wow, man, this is amazing. And that happens a few times over six months or so. And then you start to think, man, I want to be used like that. I want to bless somebody else in the same way that I've been blessed. And so don't be surprised and don't be frustrated if this takes time.

You know, we just are starting to take steps, taking baby steps sometimes, learning to trust the Lord and obey his word. But listen, God loves it when his children take steps of faith. Sometimes we don't take the step because we're so afraid of the failure, but when we step out in these things, God loves it. He's excited about it. Think about Peter walking on water, right? The Lord wasn't like angry with Peter. He's like, good job. You got out of the boat. You know, then you took your eyes off me and you started to fall, but

But good job. In the same way, God's going to be stirring you up and encouraging you to step out of the boat. Yeah, you're going to be freaked out and there's going to be some waves. There's going to be some emotional waves. There's going to be some mental waves. There's going to be all kinds of spiritual battles. Yeah, but if you step out, you're going to grow and you're going to be used by God to help others grow. You're going to be blessed. Secondly, I would encourage you that, you know, the gifts are supernatural, but that doesn't mean that you have to be super spiritual.

And way too many people kind of just take themselves out of the running. Like, well, you know, I don't even need to pray about desiring spiritual gifts or desiring to prophesy because, you know, I sinned today. And so I can't be used by God. You know, it doesn't work that way. Think about the context as Paul is writing to the church of Corinth. I mean, you read through the book of Corinthians, you find out that was a carnal church. It wasn't just like,

They had a couple little problems. They had some serious problems. They had some flat out rebellion against God problems. They had chaos happening in the services because they were so caught up in glorifying themselves and operating the gifts this way. They had all kinds of issues and carnality and divisions and problems and sin. But the Holy Spirit was working in the gifts of the Spirit in the midst of this carnal church. I like the word carnal.

that Paul uses to talk about spiritual gifts. It's the word charisma in the Greek. Probably not pronounced that way, but it's how I pronounce it. Charisma. Now it's related to the word charis, which is the word grace. So spiritual gifts are related to grace. It's God's goodness that we don't deserve. And so yeah, you might be carnal. Raise your hand if you're a carnal Christian. I'm just kidding, don't do it. You might be a carnal Christian, but you know what? That doesn't mean that the Holy Spirit can't gift you

and equip you to minister to somebody else at any time. I know that's like offensive to some of us, right? It's like, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. But the Holy Spirit's not limited to us. He's not limited to our good works. He's not limited to our perfection. He can use any of us at any time, no matter what your condition is, no matter how awesome you think your spiritual walk is or how terrible you think your spiritual walk is. The gifts are supernatural, but they're given by God's grace. It doesn't mean you have to be super spiritual.

It doesn't mean that you have to live a flawless life. It doesn't mean that you have to be perfect. Now you're going to mess up. And then God in his grace is still going to use you to minister to other people. It's grace. It's amazing. And then finally, the last thing I would encourage you is this is practice. Although there's great benefit to us, and I don't want to diminish that. There's great benefit to you as you exercise the gifts. There's great benefit to you as other people exercise their gifts.

Along with that, though, I would encourage you that what we do here on Wednesday evenings, it's practice for the real thing. It's not the real thing. The real thing is outside of these walls, off of this property, where God has us in contact with other people. So as we do our flashlight fellowships, think about it like this. Our ministry to one another on Wednesday evenings is practice for

for our flashlight fellowships where we go to a parking lot and connect with people and offer to pray for them. And I refer to it that way, again, not to diminish the value of it. No, it's incredibly valuable, but it's practice in the sense that this is a safe environment. You know, as you seek to be used by God in these ways, it's like the mats are out, we've got our pads on, we're practicing. I can go pray for Jeff and I know I'm not gonna get laughed at. I know I'm not gonna get mocked or rejected or beaten, right?

So I can practice because, well, later on, I'm going to be out in the parking lot. I'm going to offer to pray for somebody and I might get laughed at and I might get mocked. I might get rejected. That's the real thing. That's the real game. That's game day. But here we get to practice. We get a safe environment where we can learn to hear from the Lord. Lord, you want me to pray for that person? You want me to share the scripture with that person? You want me to encourage that person? It's going to be scary and our heart's going to be pounding and we're going to be nervous about it and we're going to be shaking.

But it's practice. We get to go do it in an environment that's safe. And then later on, God will be using what we've built, what he's taught us in that, in hearing his voice. And he'll be using that to help us then minister to people we don't know in environments that are not so safe. And so I would encourage you to practice. You don't have to have, you know, some like lightning strike practice.

But when we have opportunity in the coming weeks, when we have opportunity on Wednesday evenings, go pray for somebody. You have a scripture that's on your heart. You've been reading, you know, through the Bible in three years with us. And the scripture really just has been ministering to you. And just go and share it with somebody. Or maybe go share it with a couple people. Or when there's opportunity, share it corporately. It's practice. It's a safe environment. Take steps of faith. Try it out. See how it goes. And yeah, yeah.

you might mess up. You're probably going to stutter. You're going to be nervous. But think about it like practice. That's what practice is for, right? Athletes don't get it right every time, you know, a baseball player doesn't get right every time they're up to bat. They're practicing. In the same way, we're going to practice. We're going to learn how to hear from the Lord. We're going to learn how to minister, how to respond, how to know when he's speaking to us and recognize that he wants to do a work.

And so as we have these opportunities in the coming weeks, I want to encourage you to follow what Paul instructs us here in 1 Corinthians chapter 14. Desire spiritual gifts. Stir up within you a passion for these things, a zeal for these things, and you can know.

Every Wednesday, you're going to have opportunity, whether it be corporately or one-on-one, you're going to have opportunity. And so be seeking God, be asking God to use you, to stretch you, to grow you, that you could be a great impact, a great blessing to the people around you as we gather together for service. At the same time, we're going to keep order. That's not contrary. Sometimes we

Think of order and the working of the Holy Spirit as like, you know, well, if there's order, the Spirit can't work. No, there is order and the Holy Spirit wants to work. And so we're going to keep order. We're going to follow what God has given us here in 1 Corinthians chapter 14. But the whole goal, the whole idea is for us as the body to build one another up, to minister to one another.

And so let me close with the same thing I started with. Romans chapter one, verse 11, Paul says, I long to see you that I may impart to you some spiritual gifts so that you may be established. That is that I may be encouraged together with you by the mutual faith of both you and me. And that's our desire. And I would encourage you to have that desire.

As we go in the coming weeks, we're out of time tonight. We weren't planning to do that tonight. We didn't wanna put all that together as like a pressure type thing. Okay, now everybody go do it. But now you have the week. Read through 1 Corinthians chapter 14. Ask God to stir up this desire in you and develop this longing to come back next Wednesday and to be used by God, to impart a spiritual gift, to minister to somebody else because we wanna allow God to work through us. Amen.

Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for your word. We thank you, God, that you desire to use us, even though we're imperfect and we're flawed, yet you've designed it in a way, Lord, that we are desperately in need for one another to minister to us, to help us grow, to strengthen us and develop us, to help us overcome. Lord, we need each other, and I pray that you would develop us in this

Lord, that reliance upon one another, but that ministry towards one another as well, Lord. I pray that you would grow us in this area. And as you pour out your Holy Spirit upon us, I pray that you would work in these ways and that you would pour out the gifts of your Spirit and that you would impact us

us through one another. And Lord, even we know that you're incredibly big and you don't have to wait until next Wednesday. And so Lord, if you desire to work tonight and to use us to minister to somebody else, I pray that you would give us the boldness to share with someone, to pray with someone according to as you speak to our hearts, Lord. And Lord, throughout the week,

If we encounter other believers or unbelievers and you want to use us in their lives, I pray that you would help us to be open and receptive and obedient as you prompt our hearts to take those steps of faith, to practice, to take those steps and be obedient as you speak to our hearts, Lord, that you might be glorified and that others might be benefited. So Lord, increase our love for one another and help us to go forward in these things. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.

We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of His Word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.