Podcasts about pastor taylor

In the message Pastor Taylor preachers on the Bible character UZZAH and the undeniable weight and obedience we ought to have when it comes to Gods calling! Passion shouldn't be override the calling that God has for your life!follow us on instagram @reallifechurchwa 26201 180th Ave. SE Covington, WA 98042 Sundays @ 8:30 | 10 | 11:30

New to Zion City? Click here: https://bit.ly/3QhTbrz Find a time and attend a service with us: https://zioncity.me/locations NEXT STEPS Have you made a decision to follow Jesus? You may be wondering what's next on your journey. We want to help! Let us guide you to your next steps in your walk with Christ: https://bit.ly/3AnlHme Tucson Church, Arizona Church, Zion City, Assemblies of God, Christian Podcast, Spirit Filled Tucson Church FIND US ON SOCIAL MEDIA Instagram:   / zioncity.me   TikTok:   / zioncity.me   CONNECT WITH PASTOR WAYLON & DANA Pastor Waylon's Instagram:  / waylonsears  Pastor Dana's Instagram:  / danamsears

Introduction: 1 Corinthians 10:6 - Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did. 1 Corinthians 10:11 - Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come. My Idolatry... (Exodus 32:1-35) Disgraces ME and Dishonors the LORD. (Ex 32:1-6) Exodus 20:3 - “You shall have no other gods before me.” Exodus 20:4 - “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath.” Exodus 20:7 - “You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain.” Exodus 20:14 - “You shall not commit adultery.” Will Not Go UNNOTICED . (Ex 32:7-14) Cannot Be EXPLAINED AWAY or BLAMED ON OTHERS. (Ex 32:15-24) Leads to SERIOUS CONSEQUENCES . (Ex 32:25-29) Can Be FORGIVEN . (Ex 32:30-35) 1 Timothy 1:15 - The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. Titus 2:11-12 - For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age... Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANKHint: Highlight blanks above for answers! For Our Example: Ancient Warnings for the Church Today - Do Not Be Idolaters Taylor Brown Download Audio Transcript 00:48So please turn your Bibles to Exodus chapter 32.00:52Exodus chapter 32.00:57Have you ever been warned against doing something, but you did it anyway?01:02Have you ever been given the option between learning the easy way or the hard way and chosen the hard way?01:11Every single one of us would say yes to both those questions.01:16Do you want to hear about a time when I had to learn the hard way? When I was warned against doing something, but I did it anyway. Well, in 2018, my side of the family planned a vacation to Hilton Head, South Carolina. But there was one problem. The trip went from Saturday to Saturday, and my wife Kate and I were booked to photograph a wedding on that first Saturday. So we were already going to miss a big chunk of the vacation.01:44And I thought to myself, I have a great idea. That ended up not being so great. My idea was after working a 12-hour day in the hot sun, let's drive 12 straight hours through the night to Hilton Head, South Carolina. I'll be fine. Every single person I shared that plan with said that's a really bad idea and you shouldn't do it. I heeded none of those warnings and I took a risk.02:13And again, I was totally fine until about 5 a.m. At that point, Kate had been asleep for hours, and I was trying to keep myself awake with caffeine and true crime podcasts, but my eyes were heavy. I was trying, I was opening my eyelids, I was slapping myself, I was trying everything. And I kept thinking to myself, this isn't good, this is going to be bad, but then I kept telling myself, just a few more minutes, just a few more miles.02:43Everything will be fine.02:46As it turns out, everything would not be fine.02:48One moment, I was conscious and kind of alert.02:53And then one minute, I was awakened by the sound of slamming into multiple traffic barrels on the highway.03:01Worst wake-up call in the history of my entire sleeping career.03:06Thankfully, I was able to steer away from the traffic barrels and get over to the shoulder.03:10I checked on my wife who had woken up and was not very happy with me. And I went out to inspect the damage. Our entire hood was destroyed. There was a traffic barrel shoved under the front of the car. I was able to get it out and put it back where I found it. It wasn't as good as new. It looked pretty bad. But the car was drivable. So Kate said, I'm driving. So I get in the passenger seat while mentally beating myself up while Kate drove the rest of the way.03:40And no, I was not able to fall asleep during the rest of the trip. Learning the hard way isn't a fun road to drive on. But many of us willingly drive down it anyway, don't we? Learning the easy way is a far simpler path, but for some reason, it doesn't appeal to us in the moment. It doesn't seem like the best route to take on the journey of life. Thankfully, the Lord knows.04:10our destructive tendencies.04:13And he fills his words with warnings of what we shouldn't do.04:17He fills his word with warnings of where we shouldn't go.04:23And many of these warnings take place in the Old Testament.04:27As we see the Israelites make the same mistakes over and over and over again.04:34A few months ago, Pastor Jeff preached on 1 Corinthians 10, verses 1-13, in which Paul makes it clear that Israel's shady past of disobedience should cause us to be obedient today. We should look to their negative examples and avoid what they did. Listen to what Paul says in verse 6 of chapter 10. He says, these things took place as examples for us that we might not desire evil as they did. And he goes on to say, now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instructions. The Israelites learned the hard way so that you could learn the easy way. This morning we are starting a brand new series called For Our Example, Ancient Warnings for the Church Today. We will study the books of Exodus and Numbers that we can receive four specific warnings from God Himself. Do not be idolaters.05:39Do not be doubters. Do not be fake repenters. Do not be complainers. And this morning we're going to focus on the first warning from God. Do not be idolaters. Do not give other people and other things the worship and love that God alone deserves. Do not put anything or anyone else on the throne of your heart. Do not take God off the top of your priority list.06:10I know what some of you are thinking at this point. Pastor Taylor, I don't want to obnoxiously call you out, but Pastor Jeff did preach a sermon on idolatry pretty recently. I guess you weren't paying attention. You know what? Pastor Jeff, you did preach a sermon on idolatry, didn't you? That was a good sermon. Let me ask you, have you committed idolatry since you heard that sermon? You have?06:39Me too. Have you committed idolatry many times since hearing that sermon? Yeah, me too. It sounds like we need to hear it again. It sounds like we need to receive this warning from the Lord again. So let's go to the Lord and ask for His help. Please pray for me that I will faithfully proclaim God's Word while I pray for you that you will faithfully receive it.07:10Father, we come before you as your people to acknowledge we so often forget what you say.07:17We do not live in light of what you say.07:20We've heard this kind of sermon many times, but we often fail to keep it.07:26Lord, give us eyes to see, ears to hear, a heart to receive, and hands and feet that are willing to do what your word says this morning.07:35May your word do your work.07:37May you bring transformation and change because I cannot. We ask all these things in the mighty name of Jesus Christ. Amen. So before we dig into Exodus chapter 32, we have to rewind to the beginning of the books that we can understand the backstory. The Israelites were slaves in Egypt. For years they were mistreated, abused, and sentenced to back-breaking labor.08:07Pharaoh even commands the Egyptians, yeah, get the Hebrew boys and throw them into the Nile River whenever they are born. They are suffering. The worst fate imaginable. But God did not forget them. God heard their cries for help. He saw their suffering and he raised up Moses to deliver them out of Egypt. He told Moses, tell Pharaoh to let my people go. And Pharaoh repeatedly refused.08:38that command. So God sent ten plagues upon the nation of Egypt. And eventually Pharaoh said, fine, get out of here. The people of God pack up and head out. And they are led by a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. And at one point Pharaoh's sitting there thinking, what have I done? My entire workforce is gone. I've made a huge mistake. So he stalled up his army and they went after the people of God.09:07Did that go well for Pharaoh? Was that a great plan? No. The people of God pass through the Red Sea by a miracle and then the Egyptians are swallowed up by that same water. And after this divine intervention, the Israelites are brought to Mount Sinai. They're commanded, stay at the base of the mountain while Moses goes up for 40 days and 40 nights to receive the Ten Commandments and other instructions from God.09:37Backstory leads us to one of the most depressing stories in the entire Bible. In Exodus chapter 32. After experiencing God's goodness and provision over and over and over again, the Israelites quickly lose sight of God and they turn to idolatry. And as we move forward, I want to encourage you to resist the temptation to look down upon the Israelites. To feel superior to them.10:07Instead of thinking, yeah, they did this horrible thing way back then, I want you to instead think, yeah, I do this horrible thing all the time. I want you to honestly evaluate yourself and make this admission, my idolatry is no better than their idolatry. Actually, in a lot of ways, my idolatry is worse than their idolatry.10:37So on your outline, let's get personal, let's get specific by focusing on my idolatry. My idolatry. First up, my idolatry disgraces me and dishonors the Lord. My idolatry disgraces me and dishonors the Lord. Let's pick up the story in verse 1, chapter 32. When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, Up, make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him. Have you ever noticed that when you are impatient, you forget a lot of basic facts? You make a lot of dumb decisions. You believe a lot of untrue things. You come home from a long day of work.11:37Your family's too excited to see you. You get impatient with them because they seem rude, so you act rude in response. You get the rumbly in your tumbly. You get impatient. You get hangry. You start getting snippy with people. That's what happens in this passage. Dad is away on a business trip with God, and the Israelites get restless. They get impatient. They forget that God is the one who who rescued them from slavery and will go before them into the promised land. They believe the ridiculous lie that they have no idea how long Moses will be gone and when he's going to come back because he told them exactly what the plan was in Exodus chapter 24 verse 14. And they make an extremely dumb decision. And they corner Aaron and tell him, make us gods who will lead us from now on.12:36We don't want God anymore. We want new gods. And sadly, Aaron goes along with their really dumb decision in verses 2 through 4. So Aaron said to them, take off the rings of gold that are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me. So all the people took off the rings of gold that were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. And he received the gold from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made a golden calf. And they said, these are your As I said before, this is one of the saddest passages in the entire Bible. Aaron collects the earrings of the people, and with that gold, he makes a golden calf. I have to ask you, how are the people able to have these earrings in the first place? Who gave it to them?13:35God allowed them to plunder the Egyptians as they left. They twist, abuse, misuse God's good gifts for their evil purposes. When you commit idolatry, you use God's gifts to worship what is not God. You use the gifts of waking up and being above ground to worship at the altar of greed. Money.14:08You abuse the gifts of breath in your lungs and active vocal cords to mistreat others with your words. To lie and deceive because your idol is the praise and opinion of others. You use the gift of a mind that God has given to you and instead of using it to trust in Him, you use it to be anxious, to be worried, to stress out about versions of the future that God is not in control of.14:40You misuse the precious gift of time by giving next to none of it back to the Lord.14:47You act like a rebellious teenager who takes advantage of his or her parents' kindness by using his or her allowance money to buy alcohol to party with underage friends.14:59You take advantage of God's kindness to you, and in the process you disgrace yourself.15:06and you dishonor God.15:09You disgrace yourself and dishonor God by abusing His good gifts.15:12You also disgrace and dishonor God by believing that idols can provide you something that He cannot.15:20Look again at the end of verse 4.15:22And they said, these are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.15:28Isn't that a devastatingly wicked thing to say and think?15:34The Israelites actually believe that these false gods, this idol, can do something for them that God cannot. That this idol that can't move is capable of things that God is not capable of. You and I convince ourselves the same exact lie all the time.16:04or a married guy in this room and you are facing extreme sexual temptation right now. Instead of turning to the Lord for help and fleeing from sexual immorality, you are turning to pornography and fleeing from the Lord's help. You think to yourself, this will fulfill me, this will satisfy me, this will meet my needs. But the more you give yourself over to it, the deeper and deeper deeper into the hole of addiction you find yourself. It gets worse and worse and worse. You believe that the idol of lust will provide you with something that God cannot. Maybe some of you have a spending disorder. Your idol is the idol of more. You think more and more money will make you happy. More and more stuff will solve your problems. A bigger and better trip.17:04will scratch that itch for adventure and rest. A new car, a new upgrade to your house, that will do it. You think the idol of more will give you what God cannot. Maybe you are amusing yourself to death. You're living for the weekend. Your primary passion is your hobbies. And this idolatry is negatively affecting you and your entire family. You neglect your duties at home, or even worse, You draw your kids into this idol. The most important thing in their lives becomes their travel team, their sport, their activities, and not the Lord. You think the idol of fun will give you and your family what God cannot. But no matter the idol, no matter the addiction, the result is always the same. You lose out on joy, and God is shortchanged of the glory.18:04he deserves every single time.18:10You not only disgrace yourself and dishonor the Lord by abusing his good gifts and believing that I can provide something he cannot, you also disgrace yourself and dishonor the Lord by allowing sin to take you further than you ever expected.18:27Look at verses 5-6.18:30When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it, before the calf. And Aaron made a proclamation and said, Tomorrow shall be a feast day to the Lord. And they rose up early the next day and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. So while the Ten Commandments are being written onto stone by God Himself at the top of the mountain, the Israelites are breaking at least four of the Ten Commandments.19:00At the base of the mountain.19:02The first commandment is broken.19:04You shall have no other gods before me.19:09Strike one.19:10The second commandment is broken.19:13You should not make for yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath.19:20Strike two.19:22The third commandment is broken.19:24You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.19:29Aaron tries to make the best of a bad situation. He tries to salvage this whole thing by rolling the worship of this idol into the worship of God. But by doing so, he broke the third commandment and took the Lord's name in vain. Strike three. I know in baseball you'd be out by now, but they have one more strike. The seventh commandment is broken. You shall not commit adultery. And you may be thinking, wait a minute.19:58They break that commandment.20:01Look again at verse 6.20:02And they rose up early the next day and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings.20:06And the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.20:11The original Hebrew, sat down to eat and drink, doesn't bring to mind a peaceful and innocent meal with family and friends.20:18It brings to mind a drunken party.20:21And the rose up to play phrase doesn't bring to mind a game with your friends on a Friday night.20:28It's detailing sexual sin.20:34That escalated quickly, didn't it?20:36One minute, Israel is impatiently waiting for Moses at the base of the mountain, and the next minute, they're worshiping false gods and committing gross acts of sexual immorality with one another.20:50That's how sin works.20:52It escalates. It jumps to the next level.20:55It gets worse, worse, worse.20:57You drift further and further away. You break more and more commandments. Until one day you look in the mirror and you don't even recognize yourself anymore. You look at your sin. You look at what you've done and you think to yourself, how did I get this bad? I never thought this would happen. Brothers and sisters, you have to snap out of it and calculate the costs of your idolatry. Consider what you are doing.21:27to yourself. Consider what you are doing to your God.21:35My idolatry disgraces me and dishonors the Lord. Secondly, my idolatry will not go unnoticed.21:45My idolatry will not go unnoticed.21:51Let's read verses 7-10.21:55And the Lord said to Moses, go down your people whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves.22:01They have turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them.22:05They have made for themselves a golden calf and have worshipped it and sacrificed to it and said, these are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.22:15And the Lord said to Moses, I have seen this people and behold, it is a stiff-necked people.22:21Now therefore, let me alone that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them in order that I may make a great nation out of you. Does this blasphemous and immoral party escape the attention of God? No, it does not. Is he pleased with what he sees and hears? Not one bit. The first hint that God is upset comes in verse 7 when he says, go down for your people whom you brought to the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves. Throughout Exodus, God He constantly refers to Israel as my people. Now what is He calling them? Your people. You know what this reminds me of? When the kids are over the top obnoxious and bad, and your spouse calls or texts you to say, you wouldn't believe what your kids have been up to today. Your kids have been a real treat. Exactly what's happening here in this passage. The Lord instructs Moses to back away because he's about to clear the board of these stubborn idolaters and start over with a new nation for Moses. Put yourself in Moses' feet. How would you respond to that? What would you say back to God? Moses' reaction in verses 11 through 13 may surprise you. Look at what he says. But Moses implored the Lord his God and said, O Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people?23:57whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand. Why should the Egyptians say with evil intent that he bring them out to kill them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from your burning anger and relent from this disaster against your people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self and said to them, I will multiply your offspring as the stars of the heaven. In all this land I have promised, I will give to your offspring.24:26and they shall inherit it forever.24:31Moses could respond in a much different way than he does.24:36He could say, you know what, God, I'm going to take you up on your offer.24:40These people stink.24:41All they do is nag and complain.24:43I could really use some new recruits.24:47Is that what Moses says?24:50Is that how he responds?24:52No, he asks the Lord for mercy.24:55He points the Lord back to His past investment in Israel, His promises to Israel, His reputation among the nations pleads for mercy. Let's see how God responds in verse 14. And the Lord relented from the disaster that He had spoken of bringing on His people. God hears this passionate plea and He chooses to show mercy.25:26upon his idolatrous people.25:30I really don't want you to learn the wrong lesson from this passage.25:35I don't want you to read this and say, well, I guess idolatry is not that big of a deal.25:39God let them off scot-free, so whatever.25:42I can do it and have no consequences.25:48Sure, Israel is not wiped off the map instantly, but there will be consequences.25:54They will have to answer for what they have done. God has noticed their idolatry. It's the same today. Your idolatry is noticed by God, even if no one else notices. You may be able to fool your friends. You may be able to fool your wife, your husband, your kids. You may even be able to fool Pastor Jeff, myself, and the other elders.26:24You cannot fool God.26:28Do you realize He hears every thought that you think?26:34He hears every word that you speak.26:38He sees every action and reaction that you carry out.26:43You can hide nothing from Him.26:46Don't try.26:48My idolatry disgraces me and dishonors the Lord.26:52My idolatry cannot be explained away or blamed on others. My idolatry cannot be explained away or blamed on others. So Moses has heard about the people's idolatry, but now he's about to come face to face with the people's idolatry. We all know that hearing about something and seeing something horrible bring about very different reactions, right? Hearing that your house has been vandalized is much different than seeing the results of the vandalism. Hearing that your dog has made a massive mess on the carpet is much different than stooping down and cleaning up the mess yourself. Check out Moses' response to seeing their idolatry in verses 15 through 20.27:52and the two tablets of the testimony in his hand. Tablets that were written on both sides, in the front and on the back they were written. The tablets were the work of God and the writing was the writing of God engraved on tablets. When Moses heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, there is a noise of war in the camp. But he said, it is not the sound of shouting for victory or the sound of the cry of defeat, of singing that I hear.28:24And as soon as he came near the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, Moses' anger burned hot.28:30And he threw the tablets out of his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain.28:34He took the calf that they had made and burned it with fire and ground it to powder and scattered on the water and made the people of Israel drink it.28:47Moses gets why God is so angry.28:49In verse 11, God was burning hot. And in verse 19, Moses is burning hot. You may think that Moses overreacts here by breaking the Ten Commandments and making an idle smoothie for the people to gulp down. That may seem harsh, but I have to tell you this is not an overreaction. This is the guy who just got on his knees and begged for these people not to be turned to a massive crater.29:20He cares for these people. There has to be a response. And what He does is not senseless. It has great purpose. By physically breaking the Ten Commandments, He is showing the Israelites, you have spiritually broken the law of God. By force-feeding them this idol smoothie, Moses is showing the people how disgusting and bitter idolatry is to God.29:53And after these public demonstrations, Moses turns to his brother Aaron, who he put in charge while he was gone, to see how this could have happened.30:04Sadly, Aaron does not respond in the right way.30:07In verses 21 through 24.30:10And Moses said to Aaron, What did these people do to you, that you have brought such a great sin upon them?30:16And Aaron said, Let not the anger of my Lord burn hot.30:19You know the people. They are set on evil. For they said to me, Make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him. So I said to them, Let any who have gold take it off. So they gave it to me, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf. Aaron acts like a victim and shifts the blame. And he makes the worst excuse in the history of excuses.30:49This is worse than the generic, my dog ate my homework. This is worse than an excuse I heard as a library collector, library debt collector years ago in seminary. I told this woman on the phone, you return your book, your fine will go away. And she said, well, I can't return the book. I said, why? She said, well, it, It burned up in my boyfriend's meth lab. Bad excuse. Not an acceptable excuse. But here's the doozy that Aaron gives to Moses. I took the earrings from the people and I threw it into the fire and the melted gold formed in the image of a cow and just hopped out of the fire. Isn't it crazy when those things happen? When was the last time you threw some leftover food and garbage in to a fire and an idol jumped out against your wishes. It's never happened and it will never happen. Again, it's easy to come down on Aaron for the things that we do all the time. You and I give Academy Award winning performances in playing the victim. You and I are expert blame shifters. You and I are professional excuse makers.32:19Instead of accepting responsibility for your bad decisions, you blame your past. Oh, it's not my fault. It's how I was raised. Well, it's not my fault that I lie. I had to lie growing up to survive in my family. My overdrinking isn't an active choice that I make. It's just a family disease that I cannot get away from. Listen, past hurts can explain present behavior. But past hurts can never explain.32:49Excuse present behavior. Past hurts cannot excuse your present behavior. You also cannot blame your present behavior on current challenges. Work is just so overwhelming right now. I'm so stressed out. My spouse never encourages me. My spouse never supports me. I feel so alone. I need something to get me through the day. Well, my health and the health of people I care about is really bad right now.33:19I have a lot of bad influences around me and they keep pressuring me to do the wrong thing. Hey, hey, the excuses end today. Sin can never be justified. Sin can never be explained away. Avoid Aaron's negative example and refuse to say my idolatry is everyone else's fault. Instead, own your sin.33:49and say, my idolatry is my fault and no one else's. Mine alone. My idolatry disgraces me and dishonors the Lord. My idolatry will not go unnoticed. My idolatry cannot be explained away or blamed on others. My idolatry leads to serious consequences. My idolatry leads to serious consequences.34:23The idle smoothie is not the only consequence. The people of Israel will suffer. A much worse penalty falls upon them in verses 25-29. And when Moses saw it, the people had broken loose, for Aaron had let them break loose, the derision of their enemies. Then Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said, Who is on the Lord's side? Come to me. And all the sons of Levi gathered around him. And he said to them, Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, put your sword on each side of you and go to and fro from gate to gate throughout the camp and each of you kill his brother and his companion and his neighbor and the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses and that day about three thousand men of the people fell and Moses said today you have been ordained for the service of the Lord each one of you at the cost of the son of his brother so that he might bestow a blessing upon you this day 3,000 are put to death by the sword. Most likely, these were the ringleaders of the idolatry. These are the men who pressed upon Aaron and led this immoral rager. But once again, you may be thinking to yourself, 3,000 people dead? That seems so harsh. The judgment of God always seems harsh to those who do not fully appreciate the character of God. God is holy. God is pure. God cannot stand the sight of sin. God must punish sin or he would not be God. 3,000 seems like such a big number on its own, doesn't it? But compare it to how many Israelites there were. Two to three million. I'm not a math guy, but I crunch the numbers.36:19is.1 or.15% of the population. Does that seem harsh now? Does that number seem too big now? Imagine during service someone hacks all of your various accounts and takes away.1 or.15% of all your money. Would that be hard? Would that be difficult? Would that be a concern? Sure.36:49Would you be destitute financially? No, because it's such a small amount in comparison to what you could have lost. And these 3,000 dead are such a small number in comparison to what God could have done because 100% of them deserve to be dead. 100% of the Israelites deserve to be wiped out, but God shows mercy.37:19as they deserve.37:22But God still needs to demonstrate that sin leads to serious consequences.37:26He needs to prove that idolatry invites injury.37:32I have to ask, what consequences are you experiencing right now for your idolatry?37:41What injuries have you invited into your life?37:46Maybe you've convinced yourself that your anxiety is not that big of a deal. Being stressed out and worried all the time, not a big deal. It gives you some semblance of control, but all it's doing is hollowing you out and making your life miserable. Maybe your sexual sin has isolated you, created distance in your marriage and devastated your spouse. Maybe no one really wants to be around you right now because you constantly blow your top and the idol of your wants and your preferences is not met. Maybe you're dealing with the physical consequences of a lifetime of bad decisions. Are you going to learn the lesson that God is teaching you through these consequences? Or will you continue in your rebellion? Will you open your eyes to the warnings of the Lord that are all over your life and all over His Word?38:46to what He wants you to see.38:50Will you pay attention to the consequences?38:54My idolatry disgraces me and dishonors the Lord.38:57My idolatry will not go unnoticed.39:00My idolatry cannot be explained away or blamed on others.39:05My idolatry leads to serious consequences.39:08Finally, and most importantly, my idolatry can be forgiven.39:15My idolatry can be forgiven. Moses gathers the people for a quick meeting in verse 30. The next day Moses said to the people, you have sinned a great sin. And now I'll go up to the Lord. Perhaps I can make atonement. I can make payment for your sin. The people have messed up big time. And Moses isn't sure if he can atone or pay for their sin on himself. He's not sure if God's going to rubber stamp this plan that he has. Let's see what God has to say in verses 31 to 35. So Moses returned to the Lord and said, alas, this people has sinned a great sin. They have made for themselves gods of gold. But now if you will forgive their sin, but if not, please blot me out of your book that you have written. But the Lord said to Moses, whoever has sinned against me, I will blot out of my book.40:16But now go, lead the people to the place about which I have spoken to you.40:20Behold, my angels shall go before you.40:23Nevertheless, in the day when I visit, I will visit their sin upon them.40:28Then the Lord sent a plague on the people because they made the calf, the one that Aaron made.40:35As it turns out, Moses himself cannot pay for the sins of the people.40:40The people do experience God's merciful forgiveness to a certain extent, but they will continue to suffer the consequences for what they have done. God sends a plague upon the people, and we're not told how bad this plague was or how devastating the results were. And that is the end of the chapter. And you may be thinking, that's it? That's the end? Where's the hope in this passage?41:10is the hope. Well, I can tell you this. Moses is not the hope in this passage. He's a great leader. He tries to clean up Israel's mess, but he can't. Moses was used as a savior during the exodus out of Egypt, but he is not the Israelites' ultimate savior. He cannot pay for their imperfection before a perfect God. The only hope in this passage is the only hope in your life.41:42The only hope in this story is the only hope in your story.41:47This hope is a leader far greater than Moses.41:50This hope is a savior far greater than Moses.41:53Moses could not go up the mountain to pay for Israel's sin.41:57But there is one who came out of heaven to pay for your sin.42:04To take the penalty for your idolatry.42:08Who is this hope?42:09Who is this savior?42:10Jesus Christ, God Himself. Paul cruelly spells out the mission of Jesus and shows how this mission personally affects Him. In 1 Timothy 1.15, the saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners of whom I am the foremost. You see the personal language there?42:40I am the worst of sinners. Christ came to save me. Can you say that this morning? Jesus Christ came to save me. Jesus came to live the idol-free life that you never could. Unlike you and me, He always put His Father first in everything. Jesus came to pay the penalty for your idolatry upon the cross so that you would not have to pay the penalty Penalty in hell. Jesus came to rise again so that the idols in your life could be smashed to pieces and have no power over you. You know, this passage, this sermon has been very personal. It's focused on my idolatry. But as we end this morning, I want you to answer a very important question. Has my idolatry been forgiven?43:43It's the most important question you're going to answer today. Has my idolatry been forgiven? If your answer is no, I want you to understand that it can be. Your idolatry can be forgiven by Jesus Christ if you ask Him to. Reject your sin and receive Jesus as Savior. Smash your idols and submit to Jesus as Lord. He alone can give you what you are looking for. He alone can give you peace with God. He alone can secure your position in heaven. Has my idolatry been forgiven? If your answer is yes, live in the awareness of your forgiveness. Remember what Jesus has done for you. Rejoice in what Jesus has done for you. Be empowered by what Jesus has done for you.44:40Listen to what Paul says about this in Titus 2, 11-12. For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in this present age. Christian, walk upon the conquered ground that Jesus secured on your behalf. In Christ, you are not helpless. In Christ, you are not hopeless. In Christ, you can't be can learn the easy way instead of learning the hard way. In Christ, you can avoid the negative examples of the Israelites in your past self. In Christ, you can say no to idolatry and yes to godliness. Let's pray. Father God, we come before you and we acknowledge our sin. We acknowledge our idolatry.45:40We acknowledge that we deserve nothing from You except Your judgment. We deserve nothing from You except eternal punishment. But we thank You that You sent Your Son to take that punishment upon Himself. To take Your wrath as rightly ours. In exchange, we receive His perfection. We receive His holiness. We receive all that He has.46:10doesn't make sense, but we thank you that it's true.46:15We thank you that there is more mercy in you than sin in us.46:20Father, if there's anyone in this room who has not truly accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, may today be the day.46:29May today be the day when the idols are set aside, the idols are cast down, and Jesus Christ is worshipped.46:38Jesus Christ is loved and served. And for the rest of us, Lord, help us to not put anyone or anything in your rightful position in our lives. May you be most important because you are the most important. We ask all these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Let us stand and worship the Lord together. Small Group DiscussionRead Exodus 32:1-35What was your big take-away from this passage / message?What is idolatry and why is it so serious?How are you using your God-given talents and resources to worship false gods?What excuses do you make for your sin? How have you blamed others for your sin? BreakoutPray for one another.

Introduction: Tongues and Prophecy: Remember Their Purposes. (1 Corinthians 14:20-25) The Purpose of Tongues: Sign of JUDGMENT for ISRAEL. (1 Cor 14:20-23) Deuteronomy 28:49 - The LORD will bring a nation against you from far away, from the end of the earth, swooping down like the eagle, a nation whose language you do not understand... Jeremiah 5:15 - Behold, I am bringing against you a nation from afar, O house of Israel, declares the LORD. It is an enduring nation; it is an ancient nation, a nation whose language you do not know, nor can you understand what they say. The Purpose of Prophecy: MANIFEST God's PRESENCE. (1 Cor 14:24-25) Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANKHint: Highlight blanks above for answers! Questions and Answers: What About Speaking In Tongues? - Part 2 Jeff Miller Download Audio Transcript 00:36Open up those Bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter 14. Do you remember when we got all that snow a few months ago? You remember that? How cold it was? You remember that? Think about that when we feel a little stuffy this morning. Stuffy, that's the counterpart of chili, right?01:0614. Please take a moment and pray for me to clearly communicate God's Word accurately and clearly. And I will pray for you to receive what it is the Lord wants to teach us in His Word today. Let's pray. Father, I pray that Your Word, as our Lord taught, it's like that seed, Father. I just pray that it takes root in our hearts and reproduces in a way that glorifies your name and a way that advances your kingdom. Father, keep us from any distractions, especially over these next few minutes. Father, let our hearts and minds be laser-focused on you and your word. We pray in Jesus' name.02:06And all of God's people said, Amen. 1 Corinthians 14. Recently, at youth group, we had our breakout time with the kids and we were praying. And one young man in our group, in his prayer, was praying for Pastor Taylor and Pastor Chris. Let's stop there for a second.02:360% bothered by that at all. Right? Because there is nobody that mixes up names more than I do. And I thought, I don't know who Pastor Chris is, but maybe he needs prayer more than I do right now. I don't know. But great kid, just wrong name, right? So he's praying. I want to pray for Pastor Taylor and Pastor Chris. And right then in that moment, another young man in the youth group, hollers, it's not his name!03:11I laughed about that for three days.03:13It was like the ultimate shot block, right?03:17It was like, Pastor Chris, it's not his name!03:20Knocked into my house, right?03:26Like, I could have just let it slide.03:32But there was somebody in our group that absolutely was not going to let that slide. Why am I telling you that story? Because when we approach the subject of speaking in tongues, it is easy for us and it is easy for me to sort of adopt the attitude that I had during that youth group prayer. To be like, well, you know what? People believe different things about speaking in tongues and some people may Maybe have this private gibberish prayer language. Whatever. I can just let it slide. And I've got to tell you, through the study of God's Word, especially the last month, God's Word has sort of been like that other kid that was shot blocking to say, that's not what it's for. Speaking in tongues, right? Gibberish before God, right? That's not what it's for. So truth does matter.04:33And let's let the word of God block the shot on any lies. Right? People are all over the board. We talk about speaking in tongues. People are all over the board on the topic. One of the biggest churches in the area. It is a regular practice. Speaking in tongues.05:03What does the Bible say about it? Well, we've been talking about it a lot as we've been going through these chapters in 1 Corinthians. Speaking in tongues, there's a biblical gift. There's a spiritual gift. And speaking in tongues is speaking in a real language that you never learned. Right? We learned that from Acts chapter 2, Pentecost. People were speaking in languages they never learned. People were hearing in their own language.05:35It would be as if I got up this morning, I never studied Mandarin, but I got up and I just started supernaturally. I had the ability to speak Mandarin. That's what speaking in tongues was for, speaking a known language. We're going to cover that today. But the question, before we get to the purpose of the spiritual gift, I think we have to ask, well, you know, this, gibberish thing where people, you know, either in church or in their private prayer language and they just sort of let loose with a, it's not a known language, it's just like gibberish and a bunch of ecstatic speech. Like, what's the purpose of that? And if you ask somebody that believes in the gibberish prayer language, speaking in tongues, if you ask them, like, what's the purpose?06:34you'll hear things like, well, it's for prayer. It's for prayer. That's just not taught in the Bible. Not by direct instruction and not by example. You just don't see that. Some people say, well, no, it's like this highly exalted form of praise. Well, if that's true, then why does he tell us that tongues will cease? If it's such a great way to praise God, why would he put an end to it?07:03But some people say, no, no, no. Speaking in tongues is about evangelism, right? It's not. Like, later, check this out, Acts chapter 2. Was tongues for evangelism? No. Acts chapter 2 tells you what the people said and what was heard in tongues. What were they talking about? What was the message being communicated? Acts 2.11 tells us they were declaring the mighty works of God.07:33about the things that God did in the Old Testament. That's what they spoke. That was what the languages were communicating. What God had done during Old Testament times. And you see, that caught the attention of the Jews. But when it comes to evangelism, Peter got up, Acts chapter 2, he didn't preach in tongues. He didn't preach in gibberish. Like, how do you know? Well, because the sermon is recorded for us in Acts chapter 2.08:04And there are some people, and I've had some lively discussions with people about this, but there are people that believe that speaking in tongues is the baptism of the Holy Spirit. That's how you know you're baptized in the Holy Spirit, right? That is so easily disproven. Because in 1 Corinthians 12, Paul says, we've all been baptized in one Spirit, right? What was that? Verse 13.08:32We've all been baptized in one spirit. Then he says in verse 30, we don't all speak in tongues. So speaking in tongues is the evidence of baptism in the Holy Spirit. That doesn't wash with what Paul taught in 1 Corinthians 12. So, in the first 19 verses, we covered them last week, speaking in tongues, Paul says gibberish is nothing. Even the real gift, Paul said, it's not that important. Look at verse 19.09:02This kind of sums it all up. Paul says, nevertheless, in church, I would rather speak five words with my mind in order to instruct others than 10,000 words in a tongue. And that was the message last week. He says, look, church, something else, when you get together, something else needs to be the focus of your worship services. And he said it, remember, over and over and over.09:32What we need to focus on is building each other up. And that happens through prophecy. That's speaking before. That just means preaching. It's speaking the Word of God. Teaching and preaching. That's what we need to be doing when we get together as a church. Well, as we approach the text we're looking at today, he's continuing the thought. Why? Why is prophecy greater than tongues?10:02Just very simply in this passage, he says the reason prophecy is greater than tongues is that you have to consider the purpose of prophecy and you have to consider the purpose of tongues. Like, why did God give us these things? So, on your outline, tongues and prophecy. Remember the purposes. Right? Number one, the purpose of tongues. Why did God give that spiritual gift? The Bible.10:32is clear on this. It's a sign of judgment for Israel. That is the purpose of speaking in tongues. It is a sign of judgment for Israel. Look at verse 20. He says, brothers, you don't be children in your thinking. Be infants in evil. But in your thinking, be mature.11:02He's rebuking them. He goes, you don't understand. You don't understand. And Paul's like, you're thinking like a bunch of children. Do you know how children think? Do you know how children think? Let me give you an example from when I was a child. Alright? Like, this is like second grade. There was a kid in my class. I'm not going to say his name. He might be watching the stream. He's going to be really upset. But there was this kid in my class like in the second grade and he was going around telling everybody the one day.11:32He's like, I'm 67% Indian.11:38That means I can run faster than anybody in this class.11:42And I'm like, there's no way.11:45There's no way.11:47There's no way you're faster than me.11:50He's like, I am.11:51I'm 67.11:52It was like some decimal.11:53I don't remember, like 67.3 or whatever.11:55He goes, I'm 67.3% Indian.11:58I can run faster than you.12:00I'm like, there's no way you can run faster than me.12:04But he was maintaining that. I'm like, all right, recess. Recess, it's on. You, the me, we're going to race. So we did. We got out to the kickball field, standing on first base. I said, all right, we're going to run to second base and back to first base. All right? Settle this once and for all. On your mark at second, I don't think I'm any percent Indian, but I was fast. And I was to second base and back to first before he was to second base. Smoked him. So I go to him afterwards. I'm like, now what? Like, I beat you by a mile. Do you know what he said? He said, well, I couldn't run fast because I'm wearing cowboy boots.13:02And I said, why is an Indian wearing cowboy boots? What do we learn from that exchange? That's how children act. That's how children act. Immature. Showing off. Like, look at me. Look at what I can do. Look at what I can do. And that's what the Corinthians were doing. They were wanting to show off. Look at how spiritual I am. I'm going to speak in this language. Me and God have our own private language.13:31And they were just constantly showing off. And Paul's like, you're acting like a bunch of kids racing on the kickball field. Knock it off. And continuing with the maturity metaphor, he says, be infants in evil. I love that. Be infants in evil. You ever been around a baby? I know you have.14:01Babies are not mean spirited. In the same playpen, you can put a white baby, a black baby, an Asian baby, a Latino baby. They're not going to fight. There's no racial hatred. There's no mean spirited attitudes about them at all. Babies are just like, you know, I eat, I poop, I'm happy. And Paul's like, you need to be Infants.14:34In evil.14:35He says, but you've got to grow up in the way you think.14:40Paul's pointing out to him, you're backwards.14:42You're infants in your understanding of God's Word, of God's purposes, and you're mature in evil.14:52So, the biblical gift of speaking in tongues.14:57Speaking in an existing language that you never learned.15:04Here's the million dollar question. What is it for? What is the purpose? Why did God even make that a thing? Well, to get the answer, you've got to go back to the Old Testament. Right? And that's exactly what he did. Look at verse 21. Paul's clearing it up. In the law, it is written.15:30By people of strange tongues and by the lips of foreigners will I speak to this people. And even then, they will not listen to me, says the Lord. Stop there. There's the purpose of tongue. What are you talking about? Alright, we're not going to turn there. But I encourage you to do this later. Alright? Paul is quoting Isaiah chapter 28.16:0011th verses, what you want to focus on. I'm going to give you a quick history lesson so we understand why Paul is quoting this verse. Isaiah 28, we're talking about the prophet Isaiah, we're talking about the southern kingdom, Judah, we're talking about the days of King Hezekiah, we're talking about 705 B.C. Now in 722 B.C., just a few years prior, Assyria conquered the northern kingdom. It was called Israel. The southern kingdom was called Judah. Assyria conquered the northern kingdom as an act of God's judgment because of their idolatry and unbelief. So when you get to this passage in Isaiah 28, 705 B.C., years later, Isaiah goes to the southern kingdom, Judah, and says, you're committing the same sins that God just punished Israel for. You're doing the same stuff. And Isaiah warned them, you're doing the same thing.17:00the same sins, and God's going to bring the same judgment on you. Well, Isaiah 28. Isaiah goes to the leaders, specifically the priests and the prophets, and he finds them at a party, and they're all drunk. And not only is their drunkenness impairing their decision making ability, but they are vomiting all over the table. That's what it says. It's a disgusting scene. So Isaiah comes to give the message and the Bible says they mock Isaiah. They make fun of him. They're like, Isaiah thinks we're babies. Do you hear what he's saying? Isaiah just keeps preaching the same message to us over and over and over.18:00Isaiah thinks we're babies. Isaiah thinks he's our kindergarten teacher. Well, Isaiah 28.11, the verse that Paul quotes here in 1 Corinthians 14.21, God is speaking through Isaiah and he's saying, okay, Israel, you're not going to listen in a language that you know. I'm going to speak to you in a language that you don't understand.18:31And the Babylonians came and they conquered Judah, the southern kingdom. They conquered them 586 B.C. When you hear God is saying, when you hear the Babylonians speaking in their language that you do not understand, you're going to know that God is bringing His judgment. That's what He's saying. And by the way, this wasn't the first time Israel was warned about this. Deuteronomy 28, 49, God warned in the law, the Lord will bring a nation against you from far away from the end of the earth, swooping down like an eagle. Look at this. A nation whose language you do not understand. God promised him this is what's going to happen. Again, Jeremiah 5.15. I think we talked about this a couple weeks ago. Behold, I'm bringing against you a nation from afar, O house of Israel, declares the Lord. It is an enduring nation. It is an ancient nation. Look, a nation whose language you do not know, to understand what they say. So here's the point. Hearing a foreign tongue, Israel, is a sign to the unbelieving Jews among you that God is moving in judgment against you. And you see, if God judged Israel in 725, 2. And God judged Judah in 586 BC. What do you think God is going to do to the unbelieving Jews in the first century that completely rejected the Messiah of Israel? God says you won't listen in your language. You're going to hear languages you don't understand. That's Pentecost. Tongues was a sign that Israel was judged. Romans 11.20:29temporarily set aside. And Revelation is so clear about that. Temporary. But now God is at work through Gentile nations as well as Israel. The focus shifted. That's why Paul tells us in 13.8 the tongues will cease. They're not needed today. Because they were a sign of judgment against Israel during the transition from the Old Covenant.20:59to the new covenant. There's a sign. He goes on. Look at verse 22 here in 1 Corinthians 14. He says, thus, tongues are a sign not for believers, but for unbelievers, while prophecy is a sign not for unbelievers, but for believers. He couldn't be more clear. Tongues are not for other believers.21:29From the Old Testament, we learn it was, as he says in verse 22, it's a sign for unbelievers. You're like, what unbelievers? Unbelieving Israel. It's the sign. He says prophecy, though, preaching the Word of God, that is for building up believers. That was last week's message. We're going to see that more again in a minute. Look at verse 23. He says, If therefore the whole church comes together and all speak in tongues and outsiders or unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are out of your minds? You see? There's something very interesting about the wording here. This phrase, to say that you're out of your minds. Maybe your Bible says something like, they'll say that you're mad. Does your Bible say something like that if you have a different translation? It's interesting. The word, this word mad, this word out of your mind, that same word is used in other places in ancient literature to describe Pagan worship services. The gibberish. That's the same word used to describe that. When everybody got together and was just shouting stuff that nobody understood, they're like, that's mad. That's this word. They're going to think you're crazy. Everybody's shouting words people don't understand. What Paul's saying here is, you know what's going to happen? Is an unbeliever is going to come to church and he's going to say, Huh! They act just like the pagans. They are no different than the way the pagans worship. That's exactly, literally what Paul's saying here. So that's the purpose of tongues. It's not gibberish shouting at church. It's not some secret ecstatic prayer language. Paul reminds us it was always a sign of judgment against Israel.24:00Tongues and prophecy remember their purpose. Tongues is a sign of judgment for Israel. Number two, let's talk about the purpose of prophecy. What is the purpose of prophecy? Why do we preach? Why do we preach? I mean, it seems a little archaic, doesn't it? In our day of 15-second video, clips that we doom scroll through and our 30 second antacid commercials. It doesn't seem a little archaic that somebody would stand up for however many minutes we stand up and talk. Why do we do that? What is the purpose of prophecy? You're going to see here in the text exactly why we do this.25:01It manifests God's presence. Look at verses 24 and 25. You're going to see it. He says, but if all prophesy, teach, preach the word. But if all prophesy and an unbeliever or outsider enters, he is convicted by all. He is called to account.25:28By 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. It's the same point he made in the first 19 verses. He's like, church, look. Church, you know what you need to focus on?25:58You need to focus on preaching and teaching. That's what you need to focus on. So what's the purpose of prophecy? Well, he made a very clear point in the previous section. The purpose of prophecy is to build up believers. And also, speaking of unbelievers coming to church, which he brings up in this section, Paul says, when an unbeliever hears the word of God rightly proclaimed, something happens. What happens is God moves. I want you to look at this sequence. This is why we preach. Look at the sequence. He says, an unbeliever, outsider enters the church, and you are preaching the Word of God rightly. That's why we always ask for prayer. Please pray for us to preach the Word of God accurately. But look at the first thing that happens. He says he is convicted by all. He's convicted by all. The first thing that happens, and I know, I know, this isn't popular in our day, but this is what the Bible says. The first thing that happens, is that person feels guilty.27:28And listen, that has to happen.27:35Some people just want feel-good messages.27:38We've had people leave our church because they just want a feel-good message.27:47And we live in a day more than ever, and you see this in front of you every day, Make me comfortable in my sin. Affirm me. Don't tell me I'm wrong. Look at my sin and tell me I'm special. They just want the feel-good messages. Give me the pep talk. Give me the five ways to be happier at work, four ways to be happier at home.28:23feel bad.28:29By the way, do you know why the world hated Jesus?28:33Do you know?28:35Do you know why the world hated Jesus?28:37Just write this down.28:38Look this up later.28:39John 7, 7.28:41Just write that down.28:41Look it up.28:43Why the world hated Jesus?28:47Well, you should feel convicted.28:50You should.28:51You should feel a sense of I'm wrong. I'm guilty. That's the first part of the sequence. Look at the second thing. He says, he is convicted by all. Secondly, he is called to account by all. Called into account by all. Now listen, that doesn't mean that when like a person, stuck in a sinful lifestyle comes to church. We all get to take a shot at them. That's not what that means. Like somebody comes in and they're like, I'm struggling with an addiction. And I'm like, okay, stand here. Everybody line up. Take a shot. We're going to call them to account. Everybody just comes through the line. You're a loser. You need to repent. You stink. That's not what that means at all. What does it mean to be called into account by all? It's positive peer pressure. It's somebody looking.29:51and Christ alive through you and recognizing the need to change. To say, these people are different. These people live differently. This is who I need to be. They need to be looking around and saying, man, I need to know the Bible like him. You know, I need to get away from this addiction that's been destroyed.30:24I need to get away from the bad influences. I need to make choices. The choices to follow Jesus that I see her making, I need to make those same choices. That's what he's talking about. Everybody sort of calls them into account, like positive peer pressure. Right? What else happens when the Word is proclaimed? Look at verse 25. The third thing. The secrets of his heart are only God's word can do that. I can't do that. Pastor Taylor can't do that. Nobody can do that. The word of God is the only thing that can disclose the secrets of your heart. It's through the preaching of the word. Those secrets are disclosed and that's what brings the feeling of guilt. I've been a hypocrite. I've been faking. You know what? I've been lying.31:22I've been lying to other people. I want everybody to think I'm so noble. I want everybody to think I got my act together and I don't. I see now that my problem is me. I have a sin problem in my heart. I am the problem. The secrets of the heart are disclosed.31:51The next step. He says, and so, falling on his face. What's that? That's humbling yourself. Right? It's when you realize I'm such a hypocrite. I'm guilty. I'm a faker. And I'm a sinner. And I'm not the man that I need to be. Oh God, help me.32:21I have tried so hard to be the person that I think I need to be and I fail every time. I can't do it. And I just, all I can do is get on my face and say, say, God, help me. I can't do it on my own. That's what he's talking about here. Falls on his face. Look at the next one. He says, he will worship God. He will worship God.32:51You see, God saves those and changes those who confess their sin and believe in Jesus Christ. See, Jesus died in your place on that cross. That should have been you nailed to the cross. That should have been me nailed to the cross. Jesus took your place on that cross to bear the wrath of God, not for anything He did, because He lived.33:21a sinless life. He bore the wrath of God for the sins that I committed and the sins that you committed. He bore God's wrath for those. And if you turn and believe in Him, you become a child of God and He changes you and you never, ever, in all of eternity have to experience the wrath of God for your sin that you deserve. You don't have to experience it because Jesus has taken your sin away from you and that when you really get that that leads you to worship thank you god thank you god for doing what i could never do thank you god for pronouncing me not just not guilty but pronouncing me righteous in jesus christ thank you god for the promise of heaven thank you god thank you god you are so awesome and you are so worthy and you are so holy Thank you. It leads you to worship. And then finally, he says, then declare that God is really among you. That's what happens when the Word of God is rightly preached. And somebody is broken over their sin. They realize their guilt. They humble themselves. They worship. They walk out.34:47the doors and say, I met God at church today.34:54God was there.34:56I met God in the worship, in the preaching.35:00I encountered God through His Word.35:02I saw God through the people.35:09They walk out.35:10I met God today.35:14That's why people stop going to church, by the way.35:17That's why people love going to churches where the gospel isn't proclaimed. Because they don't want to change. That's the reason. They don't want to change. But every single time that I encounter God, I am moved to change.35:47single time. Read your Bibles. Read your Bibles and look at every single person who encountered God. Every single person who encountered Jesus Christ. They changed or they fled. But an encounter with God will change you. That's why we just preach the Word. That's why anybody who stands up here, the job is always the same.36:17Represent the text. Represent the text. That's what we go for. And we strive to live it because this right here is what we want for this church more than anything. For people to declare that God is really among us. For people to see God do what only God can do. If our worship team would make their way back up front, Speaking in tongues. Speaking in tongues. Speaking in tongues. It's kind of my own private gibberish prayer language, right? It's not what it's for. It's not what it's for. But does it really matter? Yeah. It matters. The purpose of tongues mattered.37:17For God's plan for Israel. The purpose of preaching matters for God's plan for the church today. And the purpose of a sermon like this isn't to equip you to win an argument, but rather to keep us all on track of what we should be going after every single Sunday and why.37:46Let's pray. Our Father in Heaven, this church was planted on the belief that the Word of God does the work of God. And Father, I thank You for this passage we looked at today because You have explained it here so clearly, what needs to happen when Your Word is proclaimed. Father, we aren't trying to put on a show. We're not trying to make a name for ourselves.38:17more in this church than for people to walk out the doors and say, God is really there. God is really among them. God was made manifest through His people, through worship, through the proclamation of the Word. Father, I pray where we would be tempted to act like children and fight about this, make us mature in our thinking.38:47to go after the things that matter to you. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Small Group DiscussionRead 1 Corinthians 14:20-25What was your big take-away from this passage / message?Explain, in your own words, the purpose of the spiritual gift of speaking in tongues. (1 Cor 14:21-22).How exactly does prophecy (preaching) manifest God's presence (end of 1 Cor 14:25)? How does the sequence flow (1 Cor 14:24-25)?Does this passage change your view on speaking in tongues? Why or why not?BreakoutPray for one another.

This Fathers Day Pastor Taylor Murray preaches on the Father, reminding us that throughout our growth and through every season we had our father there with us and guiding us through it all. No matter what happens whether we fall off or turn away for a second we know who we need to turn back to! follow us on instagram @reallifechurchwa 26201 180th Ave. SE Covington, WA 98042 Sundays @ 8:30 | 10 | 11:30

A stark warning stands in this passage of Hebrews to all who would hear it. A warning not to provoke the living God to anger by disdaining His greatest gifts of love and grace. How many of us miss this warning our entire lives in spite of being at church. In this episode, Pastor Taylor talks about the grace of God to save us from his wrath in Hebrews 10:26-31.Get Connected! https://linktr.ee/reachtulsa

Introduction: What About Speaking in Tongues? It's Not That Important. (1 Corinthians 14:1-19) Tongues Are FRUITLESS. (1 Cor 14:1-5) Tongues Are USELESS. (1 Cor 14:6-12) Tongues Are MINDLESS. (1 Cor 14:13-19) Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANKHint: Highlight blanks above for answers! Questions and Answers: What About Speaking In Tongues? - Part 1 Jeff Miller Download Audio Transcript 00:36Open up those Bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter 14. When I was a very young Christian 30 years ago-ish, I had a very strong conviction. I had a very strong conviction that the death penalty was a horrible thing. Why?01:06Why in the world should the government determine if someone lives or dies? I thought the death penalty was an absolutely horrible thing. And then someone lovingly challenged me to see what the Bible says on the subject. Do you know what I found? The first man-to-man law that God gave was the death penalty. The death penalty is in the Mosaic law, and the death penalty is after the Mosaic law.01:36Law, Romans 13.01:39So my convictions about the death penalty radically changed.01:46And I'm saying all that to say, look, it's okay.01:52It's okay after a closer study of the Word of God to let the Bible change your mind.02:04And the subject we're looking at today is the gift of speaking in tongues. And there are some of you that maybe have a very strong conviction about it. And I'm sure there are a lot of you that maybe didn't think very much about the subject at all. But if you've been coming here for any period of time, you know that we want the Word of God to shape our beliefs and convictions. So by God's grace, let's go after His Word today to see what He has to say about it. So just please pray for me to communicate God's Word clearly and accurately, and I'll pray for you to have a heart open to see and receive what it is that the Bible actually says.03:04on the subject. All right? Let's take a moment and just go before the Lord together. Father, please open our hearts to what Your Word says. Not to what we experienced growing up or heard somebody say about Your Word, but let's take some time and really look and examine what it is that You actually said. Father, let us shape our convictions on that. We thank You, Father. We thank You for Your Word. And even when it's challenging for us living in a different culture and a different time, the truths of Your Word are eternal. And I pray that You would give us the wisdom by Your Spirit today.04:05to really grasp and embrace what it is that you've said here. Thank you ahead of time, Father. For what you're going to do today, we pray in Jesus' name. And all of God's people said, Amen. Amen. We go through God's Word verse by verse. Because context is important in anything you read. Especially.04:34the Word of God. And we're looking at one of the hardest chapters in the whole Bible today. This passage is so misquoted. And it is so misunderstood. But we're going to get through this together. Right? So before we look at the text, I want you to jot some things down. This isn't like the outline, but you can write it on your outline. But these are, I just want to give you four truths to help us understand 1 Corinthians.05:0414. With context in mind.05:11As we approach this, there's four absolute truths here that we have to keep in mind as we go to the text.05:21And this is the foundation that sets the stage.05:26All right?05:26So four truths.05:28First of all, we need to remind ourselves of the truth of what is the purpose of the gift of speaking in time?05:35It was a miracle, first of all, to affirm the apostles, and it was a sign of judgment against Israel. We talked about that last week, and we're going to talk about it again next week. But remember, tongues were real languages, not made-up gibberish words. They were actual real languages. And this is the way the gift operated in the early church.06:04The preacher gets up to preach and there are some unsaved Russians present. Well, the preacher never learned Russian, but he miraculously started speaking Russian. Well, the Russians were amazed. But then somebody else in the church had the gift of interpretation so they could translate what the preacher said for the non-Russian speakers in the church. That's the way the gift worked.06:34of tongues will cease. And we talked about that word means they will end by themselves.06:44Interestingly, tongues is never mentioned in the New Testament.06:48It's not mentioned at all after the book of Acts and after 1 Corinthians, which is the earliest epistle written.06:58It's just not mentioned at all.07:00But that was the purpose of the gift of tongues in the early church.07:04Second thing to help us understand this passage, let's talk about the gibberish prayer language. There are some people that believe the gift of tongues is speaking a gibberish prayer language, words that aren't any existing language. It's just a private, unknown language that you speak to the heavens. Where did that come from?07:34The truth is that practice came from paganism. And you can study this, but in Corinth, they had a temple to Diana, and that was how they worshipped. Everything there was about feeling and emotions. It wasn't about truth and engaging your mind. Everything in that worship was about experience and emotions. Right? Remember, the priestesses were prostitutes. It was about feeling something.08:02And part of their worship was shouting an ecstatic, gibberish language because they believed that was the way that you communicated to the gods. And church, that is never taught in the New Testament as a gift of the Holy Spirit. It's just not. Well, some people believe there are two kinds of tongues. You know, speaking known languages and them being interpreted and praying a gibberish.08:32language. But I can't see anywhere in the New Testament where tongues is redefined. From known languages to speaking gibberish. I just don't see it anywhere. So there was a gibberish prayer language that was part of paganism. All right? Third thing to keep in mind as we approach 1 Corinthians 14 is this truth. The Corinthians messed up just about everything. Have you noticed in our study?09:02They were like the Pittsburgh Pirates. Hitting, fielding, base running. Like, was there an aspect of their game that they didn't mess up? Well, if you've been through this study with us, that's what we have seen over and over and over. What the Corinthians did was they dragged paganism and worldliness into the church. That's been our whole year of studying this. Right?09:32Everything they did was from paganism and worldliness. Like hero worship, sexual sin, lawsuits, marriage fails, idolatry. Oh, and the pagan use of speaking gibberish language to communicate to the gods. They dragged that into church. Something else to keep in mind, very important. Last one. 1 Corinthians 11-14. These chapters are about church conduct, individual conducts. Do you notice that? People want to take these passages and sort of make them like an individual application, but these chapters are about the church collectively, the body of Christ. These chapters are more about us than me. So chapter 14 was written to correct the Corinthians, and Paul was saying the pagan way, the gibberish language isn't really a thing, and let me tell you how the real gift, the real spiritual gift of speaking in tongues works. Interesting thing to note. You're going to see throughout the passage here that sometimes Paul uses the word tongue singular and sometimes he uses the word tongues plural and he seems to be very specific and I spent so much time this past week studying this. He seems very specific about when it's plural and when it's singular.11:02scholars to believe that when Paul uses tongues in the plural, he's talking about the real spiritual gifts, speaking a real language that you never learn. Tongues, plural. Why? Because there's many languages, right? There's many languages, so tongues is plural. But when he speaks about tongue singular, he's talking about the pagan gibberish language because gibberish isn't something that can be plural. So just take a note of that. So this is going to feel like Sunday school today.11:32But this is so critically important to our understanding of a very sensitive subject to a lot of people. So on your outline, what about speaking in tongues? And here's the whole sermon. This is the whole sermon. You can leave after this statement if you want, but I'll unpack it for you. But here's what he says in chapter 14. What about speaking in tongues? He says, it's not that important. That's this whole passage. He says, it's not that important.12:05See, in Corinth, like in churches today, speaking in tongues was the thing. There are people today that believe unless you speak a gibberish prayer language, then you do not have the Holy Spirit. That is not true biblically. In this passage, you're going to see that Paul says, the gibberish really is nothing. And even the real gift of speaking known languages, the real spiritual gift that he's been talking about, he's like, even that's not that important. That's not that important. So let's look at it together. Number one, write this down. Paul says, first of all, tongues are fruitless. Meaning this, as far as accomplishing anything ministry-wise. He says it's fruitless. No spiritual fruit comes from speaking in tongues. That's the first point. That's the first five verses. What's the purpose of having a church service, by the way? The purpose of us having a church service is to edify believers. That's what church is for. The goal of church is to edify believers. Make note of that because he says that over and over.13:32and over in chapter 14. We'll talk about that in a few moments. Edification of believers. Look at chapter 14. He says pursue love. That's where we left off last week. Seek love. That's chapter 13. The love chapter. He gives your problem, church, is you're not loving each other. You need to go after that. Pursue love. Look at the rest of the verse. He says, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy.14:06Paul says, yes, love each other, but also, yes, seek to use your spiritual gift, especially prophecy.14:13We talked about this.14:14Prophecy, the word literally means speak before.14:18It's just somebody that stands in front of people and says stuff.14:22And it's talking about saying the word of God, explaining the word of God.14:26That's what prophecy is.14:30See, Paul reminds us here again, church is to be the place where you hear the Word of God. If nothing else happens when we get together on Sunday morning, this has to happen. We have to get in the Word of God together. You see, tongues was never for that. That's why Paul comes right out of the gate and says it's better when you get together that you hear something that you can actually understand.14:59Look at verse 2. He says, For one who speaks in a tongue speaks not to men, but to God.15:11For no one understands him, that he utters mysteries in the Spirit.15:19Notice tongue is singular there.15:23He says, when you speak the gibberish language.15:25Oh, by the way, he says, speaks not to men, but to God.15:29That's really not a great translation. It literally should be translated to a God. Little g God.15:41When you speak in a tongue you're speaking to, you think you're speaking to a God.15:47Also interestingly in the verse, he says, but he utters mysteries in the spirit. That's not a great translation of that either.15:55The Word for Spirit, he's not talking about the Holy Spirit here. The Word for Spirit is pneumatai, which literally is breath. He's saying you're speaking into the air. And I believe that because he says the exact same thing later in this passage. You're going to see it. All right? So what's he saying? He's saying this. Spiritual gifts were to edify man. All right?16:25Common Good.16:26Chapter 12, verse 7.16:27Spiritual gifts are for the common good.16:30Spiritual gifts were never given to speak to God, a God, the God, who's ever up there.16:36He's like, that was never the purpose of the true God giving us spiritual gifts.16:47God never teaches us to speak to Him in an unknown language.16:54You just don't see that in the Bible. Look at every prayer in the New Testament. Every prayer and every teaching about prayer, there's nothing about speaking to God in an unknown language. And I would say, look at Jesus Himself. We have accounts of Jesus praying. Did Jesus have a private prayer language with God? Did He? No.17:24How do you know? Because the Bible writers told us exactly what Jesus prayed. Jesus used regular language and in all of Jesus' teaching about prayer, nothing says pray in a private prayer language. Actually, in Matthew 6, verse 7, Jesus said, don't heap up meaningless phrases.17:55So what you have here in Corinth is you had some of the people who considered themselves elite. And they said, you know, you pray in church and you speak Greek and all that. That's all well and good. But you know, I pray to God in my own private prayer language. Aren't I spiritual? And Paul's like, spiritual gifts.18:24Gifts aren't about you. Spiritual Gifts are given to edify everyone else. Look at verse 3. He comes back to it again. He says, on the other hand, the one who prophesies speaks to people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation. Paul says that's what needs to be happening in church. That's what prophesying is for. He says it's for edification. You're like, well, what's edification? He defines it right here.18:54upbuilding, encouraging you in your faith, encouragement, consolation. That word is comfort. You know, the Word of God should be challenging us and convicting us and encouraging us and comforting us. That happens when the Word of God is proclaimed. Look at verse 4. He says, the one who speaks in a tongue builds up himself. But the one who prophesies builds up the church. Again, he says, When you show up and you're just speaking your private prayer language to God, all you're doing is putting the spotlight on yourself. Look how spiritual I am. Look, I'm God's favorite. He gave me this super spiritual gift that I communicate to Him in our own private secret language. Now, the true gift of speaking in tongues has an interpreter that benefits others. Spiritual gifts aren't for God. They're not for you.19:54You, therefore, other people. Right? Again, verse 5. He keeps hammering the same point. You're going to see it again. He says, no, I want you all to 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.20:24Yes, this is the Pentecostal's favorite verse here. Look, right there, right there. Paul says, I want you all to speak in tongues. Paul was being sarcastic. He was saying, I wish you all did the real thing, but more so, I wish you all prophesied. You're like, wait, wait, wait, time out. Time out, Pastor Jeff. How do you know Paul's being sarcastic? How do you know that? Well, just go back a page. Look at chapter 12 and verses 29 and 30. Look at this. Paul says, are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? What's the answer to that? No. No. Paul just said in chapter 12, everyone doesn't possess one particular gift. He just said, do all speak with tongues?21:24No, obviously not. So Paul's not going to turn around and say, okay, now I want you all to do this. He's not contradicting himself. He's making a point in comparing. What he's saying in this verse is this. He goes, oh, I could wish that you all actually used the real spiritual gift and spoke in other languages. I could wish you all did that. But you know what's way more important than that? You know what would be so much better for the church than that?21:52is if you all were able to preach a real sermon. That would be better than everyone speaking other languages. He's being sarcastic here. So this private prayer gibberish language, Paul says here it's fruitless. He says, what does anyone get out of it? There's no edification, nothing's learned, no knowledge is given. It's fruitless because No one is being built up. And that is what has to happen in the church. All right? So what about speaking in tongues? He says, it's not that important. First of all, tongues are fruitless. They don't accomplish ministry purposes. But then he digs even deeper. Number two, he says tongues are useless. Tongues are useless. Look at verse 6.22:52He says, Now brothers, if I come to you speaking in tongues, how will I benefit you?23:00Unless I bring you some revelation or knowledge or prophecy or teaching.23:08He says, If I came speaking a foreign language, and again, assuming there's no interpreter when he does it, he says, What good would that do you?23:17If I came speaking Russian, you all speak Greek, it's not going to accomplish anything.23:22Verse 7, he says, he's illustrating his point. He says, if even lifeless instruments, such as the flute or the harp, do not give distinct notes, how will anyone know what is played? See the illustration? He says, even musical instruments have to play a melody or it doesn't make sense, right?23:51Didn't the worship team do a fantastic job today? Yeah. Yeah. They absolutely did. But you know, let's pick on my man Miles up here. So good at the guitar. When Miles plays the guitar, he can play a melody. And did you notice when Miles played, we were all able to sing along because we recognized the song. It was a tune, right?24:22What would happen if you went back to Harvest Academy and brought a toddler out and gave that toddler Miles' guitar and says, okay, now you're leading worship.24:31How would that go?24:33Whang! Whang! Whang! Whang!24:36Like, would we be able to worship together?24:39No.24:40And that's Paul's point.24:42He goes, even musical instruments have to play a melody or you don't know what's going on.24:46But if it's just meaningless noise, he's like, nothing is happening.24:49It's useless. Right? Another illustration. He wants to make sure we get this. Look at verse 8. He says, and if the bugle gives an indistinct sound, who will get ready for battle? Okay, now it's like a military illustration. Like the guy blowing the bugle for the military. It's like you better play a song that the soldiers recognize. Right? Because there's like a song for get up, a song for go to bed, a song for time to eat. How about a song for, It's time for battle. And if he just gets up there blasting the trumpet and nobody knows, wait a minute, what are we supposed to do now? I think we're either supposed to fight or go to breakfast. I'm not sure which sound that is. He goes, they're going to be so confused. It has to be a melody. You see, he's making a comparison between languages we can hear and understand versus any language.25:49We have no idea what's going on. What's his point? What's his point in all this? He explains in verse 9. He says, so with yourselves, if with your tongue you utter speech that is not intelligible, how will anyone know what is said? For you will be speaking into the air. There it is again.26:18You'll be speaking into the air. Paul's saying, look, gibberish is useless. Look, tongues are useless unless the real spiritual gift is used and someone is present that speaks that and someone interprets for the rest, it's useless. Do I believe that tongues happen today?26:48I do. I have heard many stories of people on the mission field that they were asked to get up and speak. And they're like, well, I don't speak their language. And they're like, well, just get up and say something in English and they'll just be glad to hear from you. And the guy got up and spoke and everybody heard it in their own language. I believe that. That's not what he's talking about here. And even that gift that I mentioned is not normative.27:18He's like the gibberish is useless. You show up in church and you just scream a bunch of syllables that aren't words. What are you doing? What are you accomplishing? Look at verse 10. He keeps hammering the same point. He says, 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 a foreigner to the speaker and the speaker, Same point. Paul's like, if you don't talk to people in a language that they understand, it's kind of useless, right? We had dinner with Barnabas last Wednesday. If you were here, that was so fun. Our missionary in Thailand, Barnabas, he speaks ten languages. Ten. Seven fluently, and he says three about half. And I think he's being modest.28:18Why does he know ten languages? Because when he goes all over to these tribes, the Lisu, the Lahu, the Acha, he goes to China, he goes all over that area of the world, and he knows when he goes, he's going to have to speak a language that they understand. Otherwise, they're just making sounds at each other. That's Paul's point here. Right? Look at verse 12. He says, so with yourselves. Look at this. Since you are eager for manifestations of the Spirit, to excel in building up the church. He's back to the exact same thing he said in verse 5. He goes, do you want the Holy Spirit to work through you? Christian, do you want the Holy Spirit to work through you? All in favor? Yeah! Like, isn't that the number one thing that a Christian desires? Is it the Holy Spirit? Is it work through them? That's what any true Christian wants. Paul's like, is that what you want? You want the Holy Spirit to manifest through you? Great!29:19Because whether it's a foreign language or whether it's speaking gibberish, speaking anything people don't understand is useless. Paul says in this section, if real communication isn't happening, it's just noise. It's useless. The tongues are useless. And finally, number three, Paul says tongues are mindless. Mindless. More sarcasm. Look at verse 13. He says, therefore, one who speaks in a tongue should pray for the power to interpret. Again, that's sarcasm. How do you know that's sarcasm? Because of what he already said. Didn't he just say that the Holy Spirit is the one who gives people gifts as he wills?30:18He just said that.30:20So we don't see any example in the Bible of, you know, God, this is the spiritual gift that I want.30:25Please give that one to me.30:26He made it clear.30:27The Holy Spirit determines who gets what.30:30So He's obviously being sarcastic here.30:32He's saying, hey, if you speak gibberish, you better pray that you can explain what you're saying.30:41Verse 14, He says, for if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful.30:47What am I to do? He says, 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. 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?31:17Here, Paul's just saying, look, prayer and praise must be done with our whole being, spirit and truth. We've talked about that before, spirit and truth. Jesus said the Father is seeking those to worship Him in spirit and truth. And for that to happen, your mind has to be engaged. Your mind has to be engaged. You know, people that believe in private prayer language will say, well, no, My mind is just kind of shut off and it just comes from my spirit. And I would push back on that and say, when has God ever told us to turn our minds off? You have to have your mind engaged in what's happening. I think a little humor on Paul's part. He's like, you just get up and you speak as she speaks something people don't understand. He's like, how are you going to get an amen? Who's going to amen that? Somebody gets up and just says a bunch of nonsense words. Paul's like, that's not a good way to get an amen. Verse 17, he says, for you may be giving thanks well enough, but the other person is not being built up. Again, you see, he keeps driving that nail down.32:47Again, there's no edification happening. You can't do that, church. You have to go to church with the mindset of edifying others with spiritual gifts. And someone would say, but prayer language is a private thing. Spiritual gifts aren't meant to be private. Spiritual gifts are to be used for the body. Verse 18. See, I heard an amen because somebody understood what I was saying.33:17saying. See how that works? Again, the Word of God is coming, just being fulfilled in your eyes. He says, I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you. Paul had the true gift. Paul had the true gift. You think that came in handy on his missionary journeys? Traveling around all these different people. He had the true gift. God gave him the ability to speak in languages he didn't know. He says that he speaks in tongues.33:48And I'm so glad he said that here because what Paul's doing with that statement, he's like, look, look, look, I'm not saying the true gift isn't legit. I'm not saying the true gift isn't useful. Verse 19, he says, nevertheless, in church, I would rather speak five words with my mind in order to instruct others than 10,000 words in a tongue.34:20Back to that same point. He says, in the church, five regular words are greater than 10,000 words that no one understands. You know, the 10,000. In the Greek, that was the largest number that had a word. You know what I mean by that? What I mean is, that would be today like somebody saying, a bajillion. Is that a real number? No, it's just like a bajillion.34:47like a figure of speech. Like, oh, you know, I must have seen a bajillion of them. Like, 10,000 was their biggest word for a number. And Paul says five regular words. What he's saying is five regular words are greater than an infinite number of words that nobody understands. Right? You get that. I mean, if two guys get up here on a Sunday morning, And one guy speaks gibberish for an entire hour. Words that nobody understands. But for a whole hour you listen to gibberish words. Then you have the other guy get up and he says five words. Jesus died for your sins. Which person benefited the church?35:49The one that wasted everybody's time making his noises? Or the one that actually communicated the most glorious truth that there is? Jesus Christ died for your sins. If you'll turn from them and receive Him, you can be a child of God. That's the benefit.36:17here saying any edification is better than many words that no one understands. So some have made gibberish, unknown languages, private prayer language. Some people have really made that the thing. And after countless hours of studying these chapters, I'm less confused.36:47that it's a thing.36:50But look, here's the thing.36:55You can believe completely different than me about this.36:58And that's okay.36:58I don't want to fight with you.36:59I really don't.37:01And I'm not, I don't, I don't get any kind of like excitement trying to shot block people or pound people down.37:12I'm not at all.37:15All I want to do is clearly communicate the Word of God. If you want to have a nice discussion about this section and talk about some of these phrases and words and what it means, I'm always happy to do that. But I don't want to fight with you. Listen, whatever, whatever you believe about tongues. I think it's pretty obvious what Paul is saying about it.37:46Whether it's speaking gibberish privately in prayer to God, the pagan practice, or the biblical gift of speaking a known language, a real language that the speaker never studied or learned, whatever. I think it's pretty clear in this section. Paul's stance is, it's just It's not that important. Here's the thing, church. Tongues isn't even the real issue here. Sometimes I think we can look at this passage, we can quote this passage, or we can misquote this passage, and we miss what's really going on here. Tongues is not the real issue in this passage at all.38:45Do you see what the real issue is? The real issue is this. What do you go to church for? That's the issue. Why did you come here today? If you're like, well, I'm not coming here anymore. Okay. So if you go to another church next week, why would you go there? What do you go to church for?39:21This is the real point of this passage. Church is the place you go to give, not go to get. Church is the place you go to give, not go to get. You had to have noticed how repetitious this passage was. Do you notice how many times Paul talked about this passage?39:45He talked about edifying, building up. Did you notice? I went back several times and was counting. How many times in this passage did He keep going back to that concept? It's in verse 1, verse 3, verse 4, verse 5, verse 6, verse 9, verse 12, verse 13, verse 16, verse 17, and verse 19. Just in the passage we read today. All of those verses have something to say about the us thing in church. Building up.40:14Every one of those verses has something in them to emphasize serving other people. And look, I've been in ministry for a very long time, and this is the thing that we keep hitting in this culture, especially in this culture, as we have brought the consumer mentality into church. See, that was the problem in Corinth. They showed up to church to say, hey, hey, Church is a place where it's about me, more spotlight on me, look at me, what's in it for me. And we're like, oh, shame on those people. No, shame on us because we have brought the consumer mentality into church. We evaluate churches based on what is in it for me. You know, we've heard so many things, haven't we, Pastor Taylor? We've heard so many things. We've heard people say, well, yeah, oh, I love her.41:14and people there are super nice. But you know, we go to such and such church because they have a concert atmosphere. Okay. I guess if that's what you're looking for, a concert atmosphere. We want smoke machines and laser lights and I haven't been to a concert in a while. What else happens? They still do mosh pits, t-shirt cannons.41:44We want that stuff. People hop from church to church looking for the one that meets their needs. Another one that I've heard, oh, Pastor Jeff, we love this church, but you know, we go to such and such church now because they have better playground equipment for the kids.42:16I can't compete with that. Someday we're going to have a church on this property, New Swickly, and someday we're going to have like, what, 10 acres of green space for the kids to run around on. Someday we're going to have that. I hope it's someday sooner than later. We're praying. We're seeking the Lord. Things are in motion on that. But right now, I can't offer you great playground equipment. We can, you know what the kids do. They go out here and play David and Goliath and throw rocks at each other. They play Humpty Dumpty and get on that wall. They did fix the wall. That is not a pass. Don't tell your kids, hey, they fixed the wall. Let's see how many of you we can get up there. But that's how some people evaluate church. They've got better playground equipment. You know why people do that is because of the consumer mentality. Church is the place.43:15where I should get something.43:20Why go to such and such church?43:22Because they have better coffee.43:23Okay, whatever.43:25Whatever.43:28Church is where you go to give, not where you go to get.43:32Look, that's the problem in Corinth, and that's the problem in Wexford.43:41In church, we need to get to the place where we're like, The Church needs to be about how can I serve others? Not, hey, I'm here for what I can get. And do you know what the beautiful thing is about that? When everybody shows up to church with this mindset of, I came here to give. Do you know what's so beautiful about that? Is when everybody gives, everybody gets. Look, you have a spiritual gift.44:13a few weeks ago. We all need you to be pouring into the rest of us. Your knowledge of the Word of God, we need that. Your experience in walking with Jesus Christ, we need that. On Sunday morning, in our small groups, in our youth group, all of these little people back here, they need to see in you what it looks like to follow Jesus.44:43you married couples. They need to see from you what it looks like to love your spouse. They need to see from you what it looks like to have a Holy Spirit gift that is used in the church. These little people back here need to see what it looks like to live a life serving other people, not constantly seeking to be served. So if our worship team would make their way back up front, Yeah.45:19I pray that this passage changes your mind.45:25Maybe about tongues.45:29But definitely about why you come to church.45:35Let's pray.45:38Father in heaven Father we're sorry For all of the times we try to make it about us, that we can look at the Corinthians and we can wag our heads and we can tsk, tsk, and we're no better. We look at their worldliness. And so often, Father, we're no better. So I pray, Father, that we don't get So caught up in this one particular spiritual gift that we miss the point of this passage. The church should be a place where I go to build others up. Comforting, encouraging, loving one another. Father, you see the culture we live in. It's a consumer culture. And I pray, Father, that you would bring a great conviction on us. That we look at this as the place where we come to serve. Not just simply come to receive. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Small Group DiscussionRead 1 Corinthians 14:1-19What was your big take-away from this passage / message?Before studying this passage, what was your personal belief on speaking in tongues? Did this passage change anything you believe about tongues? Why or why not?The theme of this passage is “tongues aren't that important”. What exactly does Paul say is more important?BreakoutPray for one another.

What holds a church together?In this sermon, Pastor Taylor reflects on five years of ministry at Horicon Baptist Church and walks through Paul's description of the church as the household of God, the church of the living God, and the pillar and buttress of the truth.The church is called to hold the Gospel firm and hold it high, but the Gospel is also the foundation that creates, sustains, and preserves the church.Pastors come and go. Members come and go. Generations change. But Christ remains. Our calling is not to chase numbers or make a name for ourselves, but to order God's house according to God's Word, confess the Gospel clearly, and remain faithful.#HoriconBaptistChurch #1Timothy #HouseholdOfGod #TheGospel #FaithfulChurch #ChurchRevitalization #Sermon

What is the source of our confidence? Is it our merit? Is it our sanctification? Is it how long I've gone without feeling shame? There is only one person our hope should be in, and it is not ourselves. In this episode, Pastor Taylor speaks about our living hope in Hebrews 10:19-25.Get Connected! https://linktr.ee/reachtulsa

Pastor Taylor is back with a message reminding us that our life and our relationship with God isn't just about us it's about the impact it will have on future generations. We all need a reminder to grow and flourish with God consistently so we can start having consistent fruit! follow us on instagram @reallifechurchwa 26201 180th Ave. SE Covington, WA 98042 Sundays @ 8:30 | 10 | 11:30

In the final message of the “TEN: Not Just Rules. A Way of Life.” series, we uncover the heart behind the tenth commandment: coveting. In a culture shaped by comparison, envy, and the constant pressure for more, Jesus invites us into the freedom of contentment.

Introduction: Love > Any Spiritual Gift. (1 Corinthians 13:8-13) Spiritual Gifts Are TEMPORARY. (1 Cor 13:8) Jeremiah 5:15 - Behold, I am bringing against you a nation from afar, O house of Israel, declares the LORD. It is an enduring nation; it is an ancient nation, a nation whose language you do not know, nor can you understand what they say. Isaiah 28:11-12 – For by people of strange lips and with a foreign tongue the LORD will speak to this people, to whom he has said, “This is rest; give rest to the weary; and this is repose”; yet they would not hear. 1 Corinthians 14:21 – In the Law it is written, “By people of strange tongues and by the lips of foreigners will I speak to this people, and even then they will not listen to me, says the Lord.” Spiritual Gifts Are PARTIAL. (1 Cor 13:9-12) Deuteronomy 29:29 – The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law. Love is FOREVER. (1 Cor 13:13) Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANKHint: Highlight blanks above for answers! Questions and Answers: Why Do I Love? Jeff Miller Download Audio Transcript 00:36Open up those Bibles with me please to 1 Corinthians chapter 13. While you're turning there, I would again ask that you would please take a moment and pray for me to communicate God's Word clearly and accurately as I should. And I will pray for you to have a heart open to receive a very difficult passage, but we are going to get through this together.01:05All right? Let's pray. Father, I pray that You would remove any distractions from our minds or hearts right now. All of us. You've called us to love You with our minds, and that happens through the study and understanding of Your Word. And I pray, Father, that Especially over these next few minutes, we would love you with all of our minds. As we lock in to see not what we think your word says or what we heard somebody else say that your word says, but help us all to just lock in and see what your word actually says. And Father, this is a passage where it would be real easy for us to miss the point.02:05Holy Spirit, by the wisdom of Your Word, that we would get what it is that You're communicating here. I thank You ahead of time, Father, as You're continuing to make us a church unified and purified. Make us a loving church, Father, we pray in Jesus' name. And all of God's people said, Amen. 1 Corinthians 13, are you there?02:35or so, a little boy from our church, I will not mention his name, a little boy from our church after the second service runs into my office and he goes, Pastor Jeff, how do I get the girls? And I thought to myself, well, isn't this just precious? Little Lambie comes into Pastor Jeff's office at such a tender age.03:05Wanting relationship advice. Pastor Jeff, how do I get the girls? So I knelt down and I said, the most important thing for you right now at this stage in your life is to always be kind. And he looked me in the eye and he said, we're playing tag.03:39And I knelt down again, and I said, you've got to be fast.03:47And that little anecdote reminds us of a very important truth about life. Context makes all the difference. I was ready to have this heart-to-heart about something that he had no interest in talking about.04:05Context makes all the difference. And it never matters more than when we come to the Word of God. Understanding the Word of God in its context. And we're going through 1 Corinthians verse by verse. And you could sum up the first 12 chapters very simply. Lack of love. That was the problem. That was the bottom line. Lack of love. Paul's like, you're not loving each other the way that you need to love each other.04:35So we get to chapter 13 where Paul, under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, gives us the solution. And the solution is love. Love. Love each other. We talked about this last week. Agape love. Self-sacrificing love. Yes, there are feelings involved, but it's a word more about doing. Right? And then he talked about 15 ways that real love Love acts. Why is this so important? Well, look at verse 8. He says, love never ends. What Paul's doing here and what I'm trying to just echo in representing the Word of God is church, can we grasp the matter of love. Can we really wrap our minds and our hearts around how utterly essential and huge it is for us as a church to get this? He says love is eternal. It's never going away. Now, through all of eternity. Listen, this literally should be translated, love never ends.06:02Some translations say things like love never fails. And that's not what he's saying. He's not saying love always conquers the day. He's not saying that because in that sense, love does sometimes fail. I mean, come on, let's not lie to ourselves. Love does sometimes fail. Have you ever loved a family member?06:32and everything went south anyways. Have you ever loved somebody in the church? And you were still met with hostility. In that sense, love does sometimes fail because here's the thing. Love can be rejected. Just ask Jesus. Right? Jesus loved everyone perfectly. But sometimes even in Jesus' Jesus' interactions, his love was rejected. But, that's not what he's saying here. He's not saying love always conquers, he's saying love lasts forever. And he makes that point clear in these subsequent verses. Because their emphasis, we've been talking about this the last, what, two or three weeks or whatever, their emphasis was on the spiritual gifts. They were so, like, obsessed with this.07:32Who has the best gift? Who's the most important person in the church? You're not as important as me. And this gift, that's way more important than this gift. And they were so out of joint about spiritual gifts. And Paul's coming along, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. All that stuff, all that stuff's going to be over someday, all right? But you know what won't ever be over? Love. That's what he's saying here. So, on your outline, love is, greater than any spiritual gift. That is the greater sign, right? Okay, thank you. The one person here who knew. Okay, Brian. Brian Krauss, thank you. He knew that one. That is the greater sign. It's been a while. Thank you. He's always got my back. Love is greater than any spiritual gift. That's the point. Number one, spiritual gifts are temporary. That's Paul's first point. He goes, love never ends.08:32Love never ends. But look, you're all tied up about these spiritual gifts. He goes, that stuff is all temporary. Look at the rest of verse 8. He says, as for prophecies, they will pass away. As for tongues, they will cease. As for knowledge, it will pass away. They're all going to end someday. And Paul gives three examples. They were spiritual gifts that were a big deal.09:02church and there are three spiritual gifts that are a big deal in a lot of churches today.09:07Do you see them?09:08Let's talk about it.09:09First of all, he's talking about prophecy.09:13Jump over tongues for a second.09:16Prophecy and knowledge.09:18That's putting those together.09:20That's knowing and speaking God's truth.09:25It's a big deal.09:26It's a big deal in this church.09:27It was a big deal to the Corinthians because we talked about this a few months ago.09:31In that culture, public speaking was the cool thing. It was competition. It was entertainment. Public speaking was the thing. Right? So prophecy and knowledge, knowing and speaking God's truth. And right in the middle there, he talks about tongues. What are tongues? We talked about this briefly. We're going to really take a deep dive in this starting next week. But what are tongues? Tongues are literally known languages. All right?10:01It's not gibberish. Tongues are a known language. The spiritual gift was to be able to get up and speak in a language, an existing language that you didn't know, that you never learned. Like if I got up and all of a sudden I started speaking Mandarin. I don't know any Mandarin, but all of a sudden I start speaking it. That's what the gift was. And there would be an interpreter to have the gift to translate what was said. But it was a known language. Acts 2.10:31Look at Pentecost. That's what happened. We're going to talk more about that in a second. But Paul's point here is just simply this. All these gifts, prophecy, tongues, knowledge, they're all temporary. They're all temporary. All right, let's not get too excited about these. Like, they're all temporary. Yes, they have a purpose. Yes, used in the church. Yes, a gift from the Holy Spirit for the edification of the body. Yes, but, but, They are not the most important thing because they don't last forever. Alright, we're going to go to Sunday school here for a second. I want you to notice in your Bible, this is so important, notice the different verbs that are used talking about prophecy and tongues and knowledge. Did you see there are different verbs used describing them? One verb is pass away.11:31What that means literally, I'm not going to bore you with a grammar lesson, you can study this out yourself. Take me to Chick-fil-A and I'll show you my homework. But pass away literally refers to something coming along and putting an end to it. Like this is happening, but something's going to come and stop this. All right, that's pass away. The word cease though literally means something that stops all by itself. It just ends.12:01Nothing puts an end to it. It just stops. So notice he says here in verse 8 that prophecy and knowledge will pass away. They're temporary. Something will stop them someday. You're like, well, what's going to stop prophecy and knowledge? Oh, he tells us. We're going to get to that in verse 9. He tells us what puts an end to it. But he says tongues will cease. Again, tongues also temporary. He says tongues, literally, His wording is tongues will stop by themselves. So that is the question, isn't it? When will speaking in tongues come to an end? Well, here we go. Speaking in tongues. Speaking a language you didn't learn. This is the purpose of tongues. Tongues was actually a sign of judgment against the people.13:01the nation of Israel.13:05See, Israel had rejected God, and in Paul's day, Israel rejected Jesus Christ as Messiah, so God was moving on to people of other languages.13:18With speaking in tongues, God was saying, you're not going to listen to a language that you understand?13:23Well, I'm going to speak a language you don't understand.13:27And this isn't something that I came up with.13:29This wasn't my idea.13:30this is from the Old Testament. I want you to consider a couple of verses here. This has always been God's way. Jeremiah 5, verse 15. Behold, I am bringing against you a nation from afar, O house of Israel, declares the Lord. It is an enduring nation. It is an ancient nation. Look at this. A nation whose language you do not know. Nor can you understand what they say. Do you see as a sign of judgment?14:00God's saying, people are going to be coming and speaking a language, you don't have any idea what they're saying. He says the same thing, Isaiah chapter 28. He says, for by people of strange lips and with a foreign tongue, the Lord will speak to this people. To whom He has said, this is rest, give rest to the weary, and this is repost. Yet they would not hear. There it is again. God says judgment is going to be connected with, I'm going to bring people speaking a language that you're not going to understand. It's their language, but you're not going to understand what it is. You're like, yeah, yeah, yeah, Pastor Jeff, okay, okay, that's Old Testament. But is that really connected to the New Testament? Well, absolutely, because in 1 Corinthians 14, which we're going to be getting to real soon, Paul quotes Isaiah 28 in talking about tongues. He says, in the law, it is written, there it is, by people of strange tongues, And even then they will not listen to me, says the Lord. You see, Paul directly connected speaking in tongues with this sign of judgment from the Old Testament. All right? So tongues was a sign of judgment against Israel, and it was to affirm the apostles, their teaching and their message. We talked about this a couple of weeks ago. Quick review.15:29Speaking in tongues was actually a miracle. And God used miracles through the apostles to verify the new covenant gospel message because the New Testament wasn't completed yet. You see, these apostles didn't get up and say, open your Bibles to the book of James or whatever. They didn't have the Bible completed yet. It was being written at this time. So to verify their message, God backed them up with miraculous gifts.15:59Tongues was one of those. So miracles, including speaking in tongues, speaking a language you didn't learn, miracles ended, now listen very closely, they ended as normative with the apostolic era. What do I mean as normative? Do I believe that God still does miracles, including the biblical gifts?16:29The Gift of Speaking in Tongues today? Yes, I do believe that. I do believe that these miracles still happen on occasion. When God wants them to happen, they happen. But it's not normative as it was in the days of the apostles. In fact, you go through the rest of your Bible, there's zero mention in the New Testament after the book of Acts, after the book of 1 Corinthians, which is the earliest epistle written. There's zero mention of speaking in tongues moving through the rest of the New Testament. Zero mention. Why? Because it was a miracle gift connected with the apostles. Look, you might have a different understanding of speaking in tongues. And you're like, I want to fight about it. And I would say, I have no interest in fighting about it.17:28Because if we were to fight about it, we are going to completely miss the point, right? The point was, the church was fighting about it! And Paul's like, it's temporary! We don't fight about spiritual gifts, he's just reminding us, look, these things are not going to last into eternity! The spiritual gifts are all temporary! But love never ends!17:59All I can do as a pastor is tell you what the Bible says about it. Right? And I know that's why you're here. This is what the Bible says about spiritual gifts. Paul says, prophecy and knowledge will pass away and tongues will cease. But love never ends. Alright?18:28So spiritual gifts are temporary. And number two, write this one down. Spiritual gifts are partial. They're partial. Look at verse 9. He says, for we know in part, and we prophesy in part. Stop there. Knowledge and prophecy. Notice he dropped tongues in the conversation. Tongues has exited the chat.18:59Right? But knowledge and prophecy are always going to be needed in the church age. Right? Not new revelation. I'm not getting up anytime, nor is Pastor Taylor, Pastor Rich, or Brian, or anybody who gets up here to speak. Nobody's getting up here saying, hey, here's this brand new word from God. No, the revelation has been completed with the word of God. So knowledge and prophecy have to do with understanding and preaching the truth.19:28that's revealed in God's Word. But notice he says, we know in part. And we prophesy in part. I don't know everything. I didn't even know the little boy was playing tag. I don't know everything. And I certainly can't preach everything. Because knowledge and prophecy Not only are they temporary, but they're also partial. Look at verse 10. He says, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. All right, here's the question. What is the perfect that he's talking about here?20:32Well, you know what? I did a lot of reading this week. I did a lot of reading. And there are scholars and commentators and theologians, they are all over the board on this. Some people say that the perfect is the completion of the New Testament. That knowledge and prophecy pass away when the Bible is completed. Some people say, that the perfect is the rapture.21:05That's the perfect.21:06When the Lord returns and takes His church, that's the perfect.21:10And I've got to tell you, I don't see how either of those make any sense at all.21:16Knowledge and prophecy passing away.21:18First of all, when the New Testament is completed, even though the New Testament is completed, They're still preaching, right? Have you ever heard somebody preach? Have you ever experienced preaching? Okay. Thank you. They're still preaching. The Bible's complete, but there's still prophecy. We talked about this. Prophecy literally just means speak before. Talk before people. It's sharing the Word of God with people. That's what prophecy is.21:58That's still happening? Yeah. Okay. So prophecy's still a thing, right? And knowledge has to be a thing because I'm not getting up here, nor is any of our other preachers getting up here just talking about ourselves. We're talking about this. So we have to have preaching based on the knowledge of the Word. So that's still a thing, right? So the completion of the New Testament doesn't really, that doesn't make any sense. All right? I was so worried that I was going to get up here and say, you know, is still happening, right? And you're like, huh? Like, no. Like, it is! Right now! And then the rapture. People are like, well, the perfect, obviously, it's the rapture. Is there preaching during the tribulation? The tribulation will be the most evangelistic time in the history of the world. Yeah, the Bible's clear.22:58be preaching during the tribulation.23:01Now that doesn't make any sense either.23:05The context is clear, and it's going to be even more clear as we go through the verses.23:09What is the perfect? He's talking about heaven.23:12He's talking about heaven. Here's what he's saying.23:14Listen, he's saying when we're in glory, when we're in heaven, we are not going to need this partial knowledge of God.23:22We're not going to need it.23:24And we're certainly not going to need to preach in heaven.23:26That's what he's talking about.23:29I want you to listen very closely. Lest I be misquoted. Listen, the Word of God is perfect. But the knowledge is still partial compared to what we will know in glory. Prophecy also is partial.23:57Compared to all that there is to know. In a church like ours, every church has their thing, right? Every church has their thing. This church was planted on the belief that the Word of God does the work of God. And we have committed since day one to do nothing but straightforwardly proclaim the Word of God verse by verse.24:28That's expository preaching. And even though we proclaim God's truth verse by verse, it's still only partial. You can find this on our website. I looked this up. I don't track this stuff. I think Murph does. But go to our sermons tab on our website.24:57some time. Not now. But go to our sermons tab on our website. And they put up a tracker. You know, there are... Do you know how many chapters are in the Bible, by the way? Do you know how many chapters are? There's 1,189 chapters in the Bible. Since 2011, and this is what's tracked on the website. Since 2011, Harvest Bible Chapel, what?25:2715 and a half years, something like that. Okay, in that time, we have preached 214 full chapters in the Bible and 120 partial chapters. You know what that is percentage-wise? Since this church was planted, percentage-wise, of all the chapters in the Bible in 15, almost 16 years, we have preached 28.1% of the Bible.25:57Bible. Do you know what that means? Again, that's just Sunday sermons. That's not even talking about like, you know, Folsey preaching on Wednesday night or any of our conferences or anything like that. That's just our Sunday sermons. So to this point, we preach 28.1% of the Bible. Do you know what that means? That means if we're going to get to 100%, I get to go, more than 30 more years. I don't think I got it in me. But hypothetically, let's say we do. Let's say we do make it 100%. We covered every single verse in the Bible. Do you know what that means? That's still only part of what there is to know about God. Right?26:58Deuteronomy 29.29 says, the secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.27:10Look, this is partial, but we know everything that God wants us to know here.27:18Right?27:19So in saying the knowledge is partial, I don't want you to leave here thinking the Bible is deficient anyway.27:23It's not.27:24This is perfectly what God wants us to know here. But this isn't everything. But it's what He wants us to know here. Like, from the Bible, we know enough to be saved, don't we? I mean, isn't that clear? We know what it is to be saved, right? The Bible's clear. We are born with a sin nature, a rebellious nature. We are lost. We are dead in our sin. And Jesus Christ came and lived a perfect life and died on the cross.27:55That should have been me on the cross.27:57That should have been you on the cross.27:58Jesus said, I will take their place.28:00I will be punished for their sin.28:05And then Jesus rose from the dead three days later, conquering death.28:09And it is through turning from our sin and receiving Jesus Christ by faith, believing in Him that we are saved.28:17That's in the Bible.28:19We know enough to be saved.28:21Oh, do we know enough to live the redeemed life? Do we know what it looks like to live a Christian life? To be a Christian neighbor? To be a Christian spouse? To be a Christian parent? Yeah. But no matter how much we know and preach in the Bible, it's still only partial compared to all their will be to know in glory. So, you got all that? Well, for those that maybe are still a little unclear on the temporary and partial nature of spiritual gifts, Paul gives two illustrations respectively. Listen, verse 11 illustrates the temporary nature of spiritual gifts. And verse 12 illustrates the partial nature of spiritual gifts. He gives us illustrations so that we can understand what it is he's talking about. Alright? Look at verse 11. He says, when I was a child, I spoke like a child. I thought like a child. I reasoned like a child.29:50When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. See here, Paul's illustrating the temporary nature of spiritual gifts. And this is an easy illustration to grasp. Super easy. He's just simply saying this, I did things as a kid that I no longer do as an adult. Right? That should be all of us adults, right? Should be.30:21I did things as a kid that I no longer do as an adult.30:25You know, if you would have, if you go back in time, if you got some DeLorean or something that would take you back in time, and you would find me like in the early 80s, you know what I would have been doing? I would have been in the arcade. Oh, I love the arcade. Amen. Thank you. Yeah, I love the arcade. Dad would give me a dollar, and you'd go get the quarters, and you'd play your Pac-Man.30:50And oh I love the arcade. I spend so much time in the arcade. If you would have found me back then, you know what else I loved doing as a kid? Trick or treating. You know why I mentioned that? Because I know there are going to be people upset about this message. I figure I don't want to miss anybody.31:23It's true. I got on my Spider-Man costume. And it was, trick-or-treat was an hour in Shakura. And we made it our goal to hit every house. Maximize the time in Shakura you could hit every house in an hour. But, yeah, that's what I did as a child. Oh, as a child, I remember going to school. I had a blue He-Man lunchbox.31:51I do kind of miss that. Did you see Paul's point? He goes, when you grow up, you don't do the things you did as a kid, right? Well, this is the illustration. He says, our life on earth here now, this is our spiritual childhood. Because we are all, we are all right now, spiritually, we're like children. We're immature. We don't know a ton.32:22And what we do know, we struggle to understand it sometimes. And it's hard for us to sort of take it all in, right? But spiritual gifts are sort of like the ABCs for childhood. Notice, he says, I spoke like a child. I thought like a child. I reasoned like a child. Do you see what that is? Spoke like a child, that's tongues. Thought like a child, that's probably knowledge. Reason like a child, That's prophecy. What's he saying? He's just simply saying this. In glory, we're going to be grown up. So we're going to put away the earthly things, the childish things, the spiritual gifts. We're not going to need earthly spiritual gifts in heaven. That's what he's saying. We need them now, obviously. We're not going to need them in heaven. Because they're temporary. Verse 12 illustrates the partial nature of spiritual gifts.33:22He says, For now, we see in a mirror dimly, but then, face to face, now I know in part, then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.33:44Here He's illustrating partial nature of spiritual gifts.33:47He's talking about a mirror.33:48When we hear mirror, we think of the one that we have in our bathroom, right? The big, shiny. You can see all the imperfections and whatever. You can see all of that. It's so crystal clear. But understand, in Paul's day, their mirror was really just shiny, polished metal. That's really all it was. It was just shiny metal that when you saw your reflection in it, listen, the image, was true, but it wasn't clear. It was partial. That's why he says dimly. That's why he says right now we see dimly. Oh, oh, we see the glory of Christ now, don't we? Do we see the glory of Christ now? In His Word, we see the glory of Christ.34:48In a transformed life, we see the glory of Christ. In worship, we see the glory of Christ. We see now, but as glorious as it is, it's dim. But then in glory, he says, it's face to face. And think of how overwhelmed we will be with the glory of Christ.35:19when we're actually looking at His face. How well will we really get it then? All I know is it's not going to be partial then. That's why He says, look at the last part of verse 12 again. He says, now I know in part. Then, see that's glory, that's the perfect. Then I shall know fully even as I know.35:48I have been fully known. You see, now I know Jesus in part. Then I will know Him fully. You're like, well, how much? How much? How much? He says, I will know Jesus even as I have been fully known. He says, I will know Jesus as Jesus knows me.36:23Do you know what this means?36:28It means that someday It means that someday I'm going to be out of a job You know, like right now, I've dedicated my life to this I strive to tell you how glorious Jesus Christ is. That's all I try to do. Tell you how glorious He is. As revealed in His Word. His love for you. Oh, we don't deserve it. But He has demonstrated a love for us that nothing compares to. Oh, His love. All He's done. Laid down His life. Suffered disgrace and humiliation and insults.37:16and to raise from the dead triumphantly so that we could be adopted children of God. But you know, someday I'm not going to need any spiritual gift of prophecy or knowledge or exhortation in heaven because everybody there is fully going to know Jesus. Do you know how frustrating that's going to be for me? Do you even care?37:46I'm getting a strong vibe that you don't. Because this is heaven. Here's a preview of heaven. I'm going to be like, isn't Jesus awesome? And you'll be like, dude, I'm looking right at him. Yeah. Yes, he is awesome. Love is greater than any spiritual gift because they're temporary.38:17They're partial. But, but, but, number three, but love is forever. Love is forever. You probably know this verse. He says, so now faith, hope, and love abide. These three. But the greatest of these is love. Shifted gears a little bit, didn't he?38:47He says, so now faith, hope, and love abide. Like spiritual gifts, we use those sometimes, right? We use our spiritual gifts sometimes. But these three, faith, hope, and love, we're using those all the time, right? He says, but love is the greatest. Love is the greatest. Why? Why is love the greatest? Verse 8, because love never ends.39:16That's why it's the greatest. Faith, hope, and love. Oh, faith. Yeah, faith is pretty important. We need faith because according to the Bible, that's the only way we're saved. We are saved by faith. It is by faith in the person and work of Jesus Christ. We need faith. We need it for salvation. Hope. What do we need hope for?39:46We desperately need hope. You know what we need hope for? We need hope for perseverance. Hope is the only thing that keeps me going. It's knowing that things will not always be as they are right now. Knowing that there is a glorious future for everyone who loves Jesus Christ. That keeps me going. We need hope for perseverance. But you know, faith and hope, those are just earth things. They're temporary.40:16Because someday faith is going to be replaced by sight. You're not going to need faith in heaven. Oh, and someday hope is going to be replaced. Someday hope is going to be replaced by reality. Look, I'm here. Everything he promised, I got it now. But what's going to replace love? Nothing.40:49Spiritual gifts, ministry, stuff, even faith and hope are all temporary things. And they're all partial things. Love is the only thing that is for now and for eternity. That's why I look at chapter 14, first two verses, here it is.41:16That was the introduction. Here's the sermon. Look at chapter 14, verse 1. He says, pursue love. Pursue love. We talked about this before, right? Last week. Pursue love. Become like God. That's what it means to pursue love. Become like God. Be imitators of God. You know, the Bible doesn't say God is faith.41:47The Bible doesn't say God is hope. The Bible does say God is love. Pursue love. Pursue love, church. Hey, examine yourselves. Examine your relationships. Meditate on what it means to love. Go to God and say, God, make me love the way that you have called me to love. Pursue love.42:15That has to be your goal. It has to be. It takes us right back to love is patient and kind. You know, all that stuff we talked about last week. Remember that exercise last week? Put your name in where it says love. Put your name in there and see if the passage still makes sense because where it doesn't, it shows you where you need to grow. Remember that exercise? That can't be a one and done.42:4715 ways real love acts. Put your name in where it says love. See if it makes sense. Remember that exercise last week? Yeah, I think we should do that again, right? You're like, no, no, no, no. Hang on, hang on. You're like, hang on. Time out. Pastor Jeff, before you do that, that's a lot to remember, right? 15 is a lot to remember. Like, Pastor Jeff, could you maybe exercise some spiritual gift?43:17and summarize it for me. And the answer is no. I don't need to summarize it for you because the Bible already did. All of it can be summed up in one thing. And that is, love your neighbor as yourself. That's all through the Bible, right? Leviticus 19.18, Matthew 22.39.43:459, Galatians 5, 14, James 2, 8, over and over and over and over. Love your neighbor as yourself. That's what you need to meditate on. How do you want people to love you? How do you want people to forgive you when you mess up? How do you want people to talk to you? How do you want people Because the only thing that we have here on earth that we're also going to have in heaven is each other.44:29So, pursue love.44:35Our worship team would make their way forward in our communion servers.44:40We're going to close our time here around the Lord's table because again, Love isn't something that you can muster up. Love isn't something that you can try harder. The only way you can love is it has to come from God. It has to be the rivers of living water flowing through you. The Bible says we love because He first loved us. And there is not a more thing that I could think of, than to gather around the Lord's table and remember and participate in the reality in how He loved us.45:29We're going to ask you to stand, and when you are ready, come down the center aisles, receive the elements, and return to your seat via the outside aisles, and hold on to the elements, And when everyone has received as a sign of church unity, we will receive the Lord's Supper together. So please come when you're ready. We love because He first loved us. God demonstrated His love in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.46:11The Bible tells us that on the night that Jesus was betrayed, He took bread and He broke it and He gave thanks. And He said, this is My body, which is given for you. Eat this in remembrance of Me. After the meal, Jesus took the cup and He said, this is the new covenant in My blood. Pour it out for the forgiveness of sin. Drink this in remembrance of Me.46:44Would you please stand as we close our time in worship. Small Group DiscussionRead 1 Corinthians 13:8-13What was your big take-away from this passage / message?What is the difference between “pass away” and “cease” (1 Cor 13:8)? How does this help us understand these spiritual gifts listed?What does “the perfect” refer to in 1 Cor 13:10? Defend your answer!Explain Paul's 2 illustrations in 1 Cor 13:11-12.How is love greater than faith and hope (1 Cor 13:13)?BreakoutPray for one another.

In Week 8 of the “TEN: Not Just Rules. A Way of Life.” series, we explore the deeper meaning behind “You shall not steal” and discover that theft is often far more than taking money or possessions. From stealing peace, trust, honor, and attention to living with scarcity and self-protection, this message reveals how the enemy works to rob us of the life Jesus offers. Through the gospel, God transforms closed-handed people into people who reflect the heart of Christ.

Introduction: Mark 1:8 - I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” Since I'm a Member of the Body of Christ… (1 Corinthians 12:12-31) I shouldn't DOUBT the Part I Play (1 Cor 12:14-20) Because That DENIES My Purpose (1 Cor 12:14-17) Because That DISHONORS God's Design (1 Cor 12:18-20) I shouldn't DOWNPLAY the Roles of Others (1 Cor 12:21-26) By Acting Like I Don't Need ANYONE ELSE (1 Cor 12:21-24) By Exclusively Focusing on My NEEDS (1 Cor 12:25-26) By Shining the Spotlight onto ME (1 Cor 12:27-31) Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANKHint: Highlight blanks above for answers! Questions and Answers: How is the Church Like a Body? Taylor Brown Download Audio Transcript 00:36Please turn your Bibles to 1 Corinthians 12, verses 12-31. 1 Corinthians 12, verses 12-31. Isn't it frustrating to witness someone not do his or her job correctly? Maybe you have an employee or a direct report who constantly comes late, makes excuses, or has a suspicious number of grandparents that he has funerals he has to attend.01:06How many grandparents do you actually have? You hire a contractor to carry out a project in your house and he makes huge mistakes. And he acts very inconvenient when you come, when you ask him to come back and fix those mistakes. Your waitress has a horrible attitude and never checks on your table because she is constantly texting. You know what's even more frustrating than that? Witnessing or experiencing someone else.01:36not allow others to do their jobs correctly. You watch your favorite team lose yet again because one key player can't get his act together and he messes it up for everybody. You have a boss who is an expert in incompetence. He expects everyone to do their jobs as well as his job. You have a co-worker who makes your job so hard you can't finish this project at work because she has constantly dragging your feet and she is not communicating with you.02:10And instead of accepting that blame, taking it on herself, she points the finger of blame at you and says that it's your fault.02:19You know what's infinitely more frustrating than all the examples I've given already?02:24Witnessing a Christian refuse to do his or her job in the church.02:30or experiencing another Christian attempt to hinder you from carrying out your job in the church. Instead of contributing to the team, this person backs away, tries to go solo and do his or her own thing. Instead of building others up and encouraging them, they tear others down and diminish them. Wasted potential is a sorry sight to behold. Misused talents are squandered resources.03:02Missed opportunities for ministry are to be grieved. As you learned over the past eight months in 1 Corinthians, the church is commanded to be unified and purified. Unfortunately, this unity is undervalued, ignored, and tested by many who should know better. This purity is jeopardized, abused, and cast aside by many who claim to know and love Jesus Christ.03:30Excuses are made and commitments are unkept. Complaints are spoken instead of genuine praise. Zooming in on me and what I want is far more common than focusing on us and what we need. Am I describing you? Am I describing your contribution to the church?04:00Ask yourself, am I contributing to the unity and purity of Harvest Bible Chapel, or am I subtracting from it? Are you neglecting to do your job in the church? Are you standing in the way of others and making it hard for them to carry out their jobs in the church? Take a moment to go before the Lord and consider those questions.04:32Quiet your heart and ask God to convict you today. Ask God to challenge you today. Ask God to change you today. Go to the Lord in prayer. Father, we come before you as your people for the most important appointment of the week. May we not be distracted. Or may we truly dial in to what what you want to teach us this morning. Lord, may you show us who you've called us to be and what you've commanded us to do. I pray we'd all walk out of this room with a different vision of the church and a different idea of what we are called to do individually in the church. I ask all these things in Jesus' name. Amen. We are in the Q&A section of 1 Corinthians. Paul is addressing questions that this congregation asked him in a previous And last week, Pastor Jeff showed us Paul's answer to the Corinthians' question about spiritual gifts. Every single believer is given at least one spiritual gift that is to be used to bless the church and advance the gospel. No one is skipped over. No one is forgotten. No one is left giftless. And these gifts are to unite, not divide.06:00And Paul continues to answer this question in chapter 12, verses 12 through 31, by providing a powerful illustration. He compares the unity of the church body to the unity of a physical human body. Check out what he has to say in verse 12 of chapter 12.06:30So it is with Christ. I'm going to ask you a very easy question, and I'm even going to let you cheat to get the right answer. So everyone, look down and give yourself a quick once-over. Come on, go do it. Are you ready for my question? How many bodies do you have? It's not your question. Just one, you got the answer right. Great job.07:01I'm asking you an easy follow-up question. You can look down again if you have to. How many body parts do you have? Do you have more than one body part? Yes, you have more than one. According to Dr. Google, which is never wrong, you have 78 organs, 206 bones, and 30 to 40 trillion cells. You have individual body parts, legs, feet, toes, toenails, arms, Arms, Hands, Hands, Fingers, Fingernails, Heart, Lungs, Kidney, Stomach, Pancreas, Head, Eyes, Ears, Nose, Nose, Nose, Hairs, Mouth, Teeth, Gums, Tongue, Uvula.07:41And on the list goes. Sorry, Pastor Jeff's uvula was swollen this week, and you're talking about it a lot, so I had to add that.07:50He was sick. That was the reason why.07:54But these individual parts do not operate or function independently from one another.08:00Instead, they work together as one body. They serve different roles. They carry out the same mission to keep you alive and kicking. And Paul is saying this truth about your physical body applies to the church body as well. Yes, we all have different roles. We all have different functions. But we do not operate independently from one another. We work together as one body.08:30same mission to lift high the name of Jesus Christ by making disciples.08:37And you may be thinking, hold on a minute.08:39This illustration seems to break down a bit because I've always had my physical body.08:44It's the only one I've got.08:46How did I become a part of the church body?08:48When did that happen?08:50It's a great question.08:52Thankfully, Paul answers it in verse 13.08:55He says, For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body. Jews or Greeks, slaves or free, and all were made to drink of one Spirit. You realize at one point you didn't exist. There was no you. Then you popped into existence and you grew in your mother's womb. And at one point you were born into this world with your physical But if you are a true follower of Jesus Christ, if you have been saved and given new life in Him, you have experienced more than just one birth. According to God's Word, you've experienced a new birth. And on your spiritual birthday, you were brought into the body of Christ. You became a part of the body of Christ. And this second birth is a work of the Holy Spirit, who Paul That sounds really cool. What in the world does that mean? Baptized in the Holy Spirit. Well, 2,000 years ago, John the Baptist baptized men and women in water as a sign of their repentance. But John was up front. He was very clear that he was not the point. He was not the be-all and end-all. He came to point to someone greater than him. He says, He says, I baptize with water, but He will baptize with the Holy Spirit.10:37Who is this greater person?10:39Who baptizes with the Holy Spirit?10:42Jesus Christ Himself.10:46This has massive implications for my life, your life, and the life of this church body.10:52This means that I, Taylor Samuel Brown, wasn't just baptized in water on July 30, 2000 by Pastor Jesse Boggs at Northgate Church. Yes, that was an important day. That was an important baptism. But I experienced an even more important day, an even more important baptism years prior. Before that, I was baptized in the Holy Spirit by Jesus Christ. I was saved from my sins.11:25I was made into a new person.11:27I was brought into the body of Christ.11:32My water baptism was simply an outward symbol of the salvation I experienced.11:39Of this baptism in the Holy Spirit that I experienced.11:45And Paul even says that I drank of the Holy Spirit.11:50Again, sounds great, but what in the world does that mean? Well, think about it this way. When you drink something, you are filled with that liquid, aren't you? Whether it's water, coffee, wild cherry, Pepsi, or kombucha. When you drink a liquid, you are filled with that liquid. When you drink of the Holy Spirit, you are filled with the Holy Spirit. He lives within you. He takes up residence within you.12:20If you have trusted in Christ, you have been baptized in the Holy Spirit. You have been filled with the Holy Spirit. In verse 13, Paul mentions different factors that would divide people back in his day. He mentions ethnicity and social status. In 2026, we live in a world where we are constantly being tried to be ripped apart because of our many differences. We have different backgrounds. We have different skin colors. We come from different financial situations. We have different careers. We have different personalities. We have different temperaments. We are different in so many ways. And as we'll discover soon, that is good news to celebrate. But we are the exact same in the most important ways. We have the same Heavenly Father. We have been redeemed by the same Savior.13:20been changed by the same Holy Spirit. We belong to the same body. Our differences may be great, but our unity in Christ and His Spirit is even greater. So after this long and theologically heavy introduction, you may be thinking, all right, this is all very interesting, but what's the point? I get it. I'm a member of the body of Christ.13:49Now, you need to be encouraged to do your job in the body of Christ. Now, you need to be encouraged to let other people do their jobs in the body of Christ. So on your outline, since I'm a member of the body of Christ, number one, I shouldn't doubt the part I play. I shouldn't doubt the part I play.14:19Some of you in this room and watching online struggle to truly believe that you have an important part to play in the life of this church. You may think to yourself, I mean, sure, this is my church and I'm involved, but if I left, nothing would change. No one would notice. I don't have an upfront role that matters. I don't play an instrument. I don't really matter here. And as one of your pastors, it deeply saddens me that some of you feel that way about you.14:51It deeply saddens me that you believe a lie about yourself instead of believing what God's word says about who you are. You do matter. You do have a part to play at Harvest. This church does need you and it wouldn't be the same without you. And I'm not just saying that to make you feel good. I'm saying that because that's what God's word says. Listen to what Paul says in verses 14 through 17.15:19For the body does not consist of one member, but of many. If the foot should say, because I'm not a hand, I do not belong to the body, that would not make it any less part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell?15:49I didn't doubt the part I play. Letter A on your outline, because that denies my purpose. Because that denies my purpose. You claiming that you have no part to play in the body of Christ because you don't have the gifting of another person is as ridiculous as your foot saying, I have no part to play in the body because I'm not a hand. I'll never be able to hammer a nail into the wall. I'll never be able to type on a keyboard, so I just give up.16:18I mean, sure, your hands can't do, your feet can't do what your hands can do. But your hands can't do what your feet can do as well, right? Walking is pretty important, right? Most of you don't agree with that. Walking is really important, right? Your hands can't do that. Okay, good. Man, you are sitting right now, but eventually you will have to get up and walk away.16:45You claiming that you have no part to play in the body of Christ is as insane as your ears saying, I have no part to play in the body because I'll never be able to look at the Grand Canyon. I'll never be able to stare up at a starry night. So I'm just going to tune out and call it a day. I mean, yeah, your eye is important, but your eyes can't do what your ears can do. Without your ears, you wouldn't be able to hear anything. Just imagine if your entire body was just just one feature. Eyes are beautiful, aren't they? I love my wife's eyes the most, and I could stare into her eyes for hours. But imagine if Kate was just a big eyeball and nothing else. There's a big eye bouncing around my house and sleeping in the bed next to me at night. That sounds like the premise of a horror movie. I mean, yeah, I'd still love her because I made a vow to her 12 years ago, but That'd be pretty rough. That'd be hard. A big eye has 20-20 vision, but it can't really do anything else. A big ear has great hearing, but it can't really do much else. Now imagine if every single person in this church had the same exact gifting and function. Would that be productive or disastrous? It would be a total and complete I have been in a room with thousands of preachers before.18:20Imagine if those thousands of preachers tried to carry out the same function in the same church.18:27There would be arguments about who does what.18:29The bills would never get paid.18:31The building would fall in disrepair and probably burn down.18:34Preaching is an essential function of the church, but is not the only function.18:41Some of you men in this room do have a preaching gift.18:44We are so thankful for you. You realize it's very different. It's very unique to have this many guys who can preach a message in a church. That doesn't happen everywhere. God has gifted this church. But others of you guys do not have a preaching gift. And that is not something to be upset about. That is not a bad thing. Not everybody has the gift of preaching. Not everyone has an upfront role.19:14If your part is behind the scenes, it matters. Maybe your part is in the AV booth. Without Mike back there, without all the AV team back there, no one would be able to hear the sermons. I'd just scream at the top of my lungs for you to hear me. Without Ben and Lincoln working on the sermons afterwards, people across the country and across the world wouldn't be able to hear it, which does happen.19:43Maybe your part is being on the prayer team. You show the rest of the body what it looks like to faithfully lift up the needs of the saints to the Lord. Maybe your part is security. You function as the antibodies of the church that keeps the rest of the body safe. Maybe your part is working at Harvest Academy or working as an adult leader in Arrow. You are training up the future generation in Jesus Christ.20:14is leading a small group. You are on the front lines of congregational care and discipleship. Maybe your part is on the relocation and building committee with Pastor Rich and the others. You help formulate the budget. You count on Sundays. I can keep going and going and going. Without a doubt, you do have a part to play. Stop believing that you do not matter. Stop being envious of others. Stop denying your purpose at harvest.20:45I shouldn't doubt the part I play because that denies my purpose. Letter B, I shouldn't doubt the part I play because that dishonors God's design. Because that dishonors God's design. Let's look at verses 18 through 20. But as it is, God arranges the members in the body, each one of them as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be?21:18When you badmouth a team's starting lineup and strategies, who are you ultimately dishonoring? The coach who decides who starts and designs the place. If you pick apart every single detail of a restaurant and complain about it to everyone that you know, who are you dishonoring ultimately? The manager, the owner, who decides who to hire, who makes all the big decisions. If you complain about your gifting and part in the body, who are you ultimately dishonoring? God himself. He is the one who created you. He is the one who designed his church. Paul says that God arranges the members in the body, each of them as he chose. When you are discontent with your part in the church, you aren't just hurting yourself, and you are hurting yourself.22:13You aren't just shortchanging your fellow members. You aren't just making ministry hard for the pastors, elders, and other leaders. You are accusing God. You are saying something about Him that is not true. You are shouting this message to your Creator. God, you made a mistake with me. I deserve a do-over. You could have done better. Is that a great message to send to the most important and powerful person the universe. No, it is not. Because God doesn't need a do-over. Because he nails everything on the first try. God did not make a mistake with you. He designs you purposefully and puts you into his church with purpose and design. It's a complete waste of time, energy, and effort to resist the Lord. So cut it out. Get on board with his plans for the body. Lean into your God-given part instead of backing away from it. Do your job in the church because it was personally chosen for you. Since I'm a member of the body of Christ, I shouldn't doubt the part I play. Since I'm a member of the body of Christ, number two on your outline, I shouldn't downplay the roles of others. I shouldn't downplay the roles of others.23:44from sabotaging yourself to sabotaging others. It is foolish to stand in your own way, but it is wicked to stand in the way of other people. As we just talked about, many of you struggle with a low view of yourself and how God has gifted you. Others of you have the exact opposite problem. You have a low view of others and how God has gifted them.24:13In the next several verses, Paul warns you to not downplay the roles of others in the church. Listen to verses 21 through 24.24:43which are more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it. I shouldn't downplay the roles of others, letter A on your outline, by acting like I don't need anyone else. By acting like I don't need anyone else. So Paul turns the tables on the Corinthians as well as you and me in these verses. He flips the scenario.25:13First, he says it's dumb for a foot or an eye to say that they're not a part of the body. Now he says it's dumb for the eye or the head to tell other parts of the body that they don't matter. This kind of attitude is arrogant. This game of comparison misses the point. You know, naturally, we all create lists of importance and systems of ranking.25:43a to-do list that you want to complete, right? Where do you put the items that you think are the most important? Top of the list, right? Where do you put the items that you think are probably the least important? At the bottom of the list. Several months ago, many of you took part in the college basketball brackets, right? You decided which teams you thought were the best and which teams you thought were the worst. If I were to ask you your favorite movies, you could list them very quickly. If I were to ask you to list your least favorite movies, you could do it even quicker. We naturally evaluate everything. We're constantly grading other people's performances. We form our own personal rankings. And this was happening in the Corinthian church back in the first century. There were the spiritual elite at the top of the charts who looked down on those they thought were weaker, less honorable, and even unpresentable.26:45Paul says those brothers or sisters who seem weaker are actually indispensable. Those who seem to have a less than honorable role deserve greater honor. Those who seem unpresentable should be treated with the utmost respect. You may be thinking, oh, Pastor Taylor, I'm not spiritually elite. I don't look down at other people. I don't act like I don't need anyone else.27:16Are you sure about that? Are you sure? Do you make excuses for why you can't be in community with other believers? Do you refuse to join a small group or be involved in other ministries that we offer here like fishermen, live, laugh, lunch, precepts, mugs and moms? You say you don't have time or energy for these things, but inwardly you know that's not true.27:43By not joining a small group or participating in any of these ministries, you are communicating a loud and clear message, I'm doing just fine on my own. I don't need anyone else. I am self-sufficient. Maybe you are a part of a small group of one of the other ministries that I mentioned, but as soon as you walk in, you put up your defense shields. You don't share a detail of your life with anybody. No one knows anything about what you're struggling with or how they can pray for you because you don't.28:13tell them. You don't want to trust anybody else because they might let you down. You were hurt in the past and so you think, well, it's going to happen again, so I'm not even going to try. Are you someone who comes in late and leaves early because you are terrified of knowing others and being known? You're acting like you don't need anyone else. Are there people in this room or the other service that you actively avoid?28:45Is there a guy in your small group that you intentionally leave out of conversations and hangouts? Is there a woman down the aisle from you who you are blatantly rude to face to face and make fun of behind closed doors? All of these behaviors are childish. All of these behaviors are reflective of the Corinthians, not Christ. All of those behaviors hurt the body and do not help the body.29:14I shouldn't downplay the roles of others by acting like I don't need anyone else. Letter B, I shouldn't downplay the roles of others by exclusively focusing on my needs. By exclusively focusing on my needs. Let's read verses 25 through 26. That there may be no division in the body, that the members may have the same care for one another.29:44All suffer together. If one member is honored, all rejoice together.29:53Have you ever been walking around your house minding your own business whenever you stub your pinky toe on the bed or a bench or a chair?30:01Let me ask you, in that moment, is it just your pinky toe that reacts?30:07Does the rest of your body think, man, sucks to be pinky, too bad for him.30:11I'm just gonna kinda do my own thing for a little while he calms down. No, when you stub your pinky toe, the pause button is pressed on life and nothing else matters. Your whole body reacts, your face grimaces, your mouth yells out some things that you hope nobody else hears. Your back arches, your hands reach down and grab your damaged foot and you pogo stick around on the undamaged foot and then your eyes inspect the damage. Your whole body reacts to the pain.30:43You ever had a bad back problem? Or a nagging tooth pain? Are you able to compartmentalize that and not think about it? Now when your back hurts, it's game over for your day. If your tooth is throbbing, you have one all-consuming thought, end the pain right now. Your whole body feels the pain of even its smallest member.31:12The same should be true of the body of Christ. If one person is in pain, all of us should be in pain. If there is a need, we should all rise up to meet that need. If someone in your small group has a big surgery or a major medical issue, start a meal train. Go visit them in the hospital. Take care of tasks around the house.31:41If there's someone on your serving team who loses a family member, show up at the funeral. Show up at the visitation. Your presence will speak far louder than any words you could possibly share. Care about the pain of other people. Meet the needs of others. Care about what other people need, even more than what you need. If one member suffers, all suffer together.32:11If one member is honored, all rejoice together. Here's a question that's been nagging at me all week. Do I love to celebrate the victories of other people? Very often the answer is no. What about you? Do you love to celebrate the victories of other people? Do you rejoice with other Christians?32:41When something good happens to another Christian in your life, do you think, praise the Lord, what a blessing? Or do you think, man, when's it going to be my turn? Nothing good ever happens to me like it does to that guy. When there's a couple in this church that has a solid marriage and really great godly children, do you think to yourself, man, what a great example that I want to follow? Or do you think to yourself, when will my family get it together? I'll never be like Mr. and Mrs. Perfect. I wish they'd stop rubbing it in my face.33:13You have to understand that other people's success is not your failure. According to Paul, their success is your success because you are a part of the same body. Let's share in the pain together. Let's share in the joy together. Let's thank the Lord in the good times together. And let's trust the Lord in the hard times together.33:41I shouldn't downplay the roles of others by acting like I don't need anyone else. I shouldn't downplay the roles of others by exclusively focusing on my needs. Finally, I shouldn't downplay the roles of others by shining the spotlight onto me. By shining the spotlight onto me. Let's wrap up with verses 27 through 31. Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, These verses are jam-packed with a ton of stuff that we cannot get into. We don't have the time right now.34:41But it's really important to see that Paul mentions an office that no longer exists today. The office of apostle. Some churches have not got that memo yet. God is not posting apostleship jobs on Indeed. He is not hiring or looking to fill that position in 2026. Paul also talks about the sign gifts like speaking in tongues, miracles, and healing. Thankfully, I don't have to wade into that controversial topic because Pastor Jeff did it last week and he'll do an even deeper dive this summer.35:11Sometimes it pays to be the associate pastor.35:15But for now, catch the principle that Paul is communicating instead of getting bogged down in the details.35:21And the best way to do that is to answer the layup questions that Paul asks.35:25Let's go through the list.35:26And you have to participate.35:27You have to answer the question.35:29There's one obvious answer for all of them.35:31Are all apostles?35:33Good job.35:34Are all prophets?35:36Are all teachers?35:38Do all work miracles?35:39Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? What's Paul's point? God has given every single believer a spiritual gift or several spiritual gifts, but he has not given any believer all the spiritual gifts. That's not possible. You know, we have a lot of talented musicians and vocalists here at Harvest, don't we? Let's give them a round of applause and thank them for all they do for us.36:13You know, Jesse Hogan, he can sing, he can play the guitar, he can play the drums, he can play the piano. He can play three instruments and I can play none. I guess I shouldn't rank our abilities, right? I shouldn't compare. I'm sorry, I'm still learning that lesson myself. I shouldn't compare with Jesse. Jesse can play all those things, but he can't play every single instrument in the world of which there are over 1,500.36:39Also, Jesse can't play all those instruments at the same exact time. If Jesse tried to come up here and do a one-man band and try to run between the guitar, the piano, and run between the drums, he would make a total and complete fool of himself. Because prideful exaltation always leads to forced humility. Jesse needs the rest of the band around him.37:09He needs everybody else. He needs the vocalists who can't reach the notes that he cannot. He needs Chris or Jay on bass. Jesse needs everybody else working with him. You know, the Corinthians were experts in self-exaltation. Many in the church wanted to shine the spotlight onto themselves. Look again at verse 31. Paul says, On a first glance, it may look like Paul is commanding the Corinthians to seek after the biggest and best gifts, but that totally misses the point of what he's actually saying. If you pay attention to the context, he's saying the exact opposite. This word, earnestly, is most often used in the context of envy and jealousy. A better translation of this verse is, But you are jealous for the higher gifts Paul is not commending them He is not celebrating them He is correcting the Corinthians Because they desired the flashy and showy gifts Serving wasn't on their mind because they wanted to show off Paul is telling them You're not the point So stop trying to be You're not in competition with one another You are working together Be in sync with one another do your job and help other people do their job as well. And he concludes by saying, and I will show you a still more excellent way. What is that still more excellent way? It is the way of love, which Pastor Jeff will talk about next week. This whole topic of spiritual gifts and the unity of the body should be viewed the lens of love.39:05The love of Christ for us, our love for Christ, and our love for each other. Otherwise, we'll miss the point of why God even gifted us in the first place. If you have been saved by Christ, never forget that you belong to Christ. Never forget that you belong to Christ's beloved body. Since you're a member of the body of Christ, you shouldn't doubt the part that you Since you're a member of the body of Christ, you shouldn't downplay the roles of others. As this sermon concludes, some of you in this room may feel a bit left out because you're not a Christian. You are not a member of the body of Christ. As of now, you are a detached hand or foot that has no function in the church body. As of right now, you are a detached eye or ear that is not connected to anything greater than yourself. As of now, the life-giving blood of Christ does not flow in you and through you. I have to warn you, if you continue in this state of self-isolation, you will wither away and die in your sins. You will experience a life without purpose, and you will endure an eternity separated from the giver of life.40:35and the other recipients of his life. If that's you, I beg you to turn from your sin and turn to Jesus. Place the full weight of your faith upon him, what he has done through his life, death, and resurrection. And then, and only then, will you be forgiven and given new life. Then, you will be baptized in the Holy Spirit. You will be filled with the Holy Spirit. You will be brought into the body of Christ.41:04you will be placed into the perfect role that you were made for. You will be given the high honor and responsibility of serving Christ and his body. We'd love for you to join us. Let's pray. Father, we come to you and we thank you for your word. We thank you for the encouragement and the conviction that we all experienced. Lord, if there is someone in this room who is currently not a member of the body of Christ, who is not saved. May today be the day where they finally say no to sin and yes to your son.41:43And for the rest of us, Lord, may we do our jobs.41:47May we let other people do their jobs.41:49May we work together and encourage each other.41:51Lord, we thank you for all that you're doing with this new building project.41:57Lord, none of that matters if we can't work together now.42:01May we be faithful now.42:03May we work together now. We ask all these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Small Group DiscussionRead 1 Corinthians 12:12-31What was your big take-away from this passage / message?Re-read 1 Corinthians 12:12-13 - What does it mean that we are baptized in the Spirit and drink of the Spirit? Why is this so important for church unity? Do you ever doubt the part you play in the body of Christ? How can you fight against this discouragement? How do you see professing Christians standing in the way of others and downplaying their roles in the church? How do you see this disturbing trend within yourself? What does it look like to prioritize the needs, hurts, and victories of other members in the church body over your own? BreakoutPray for one another.

The Bible doesn't just promise us eternal provision. The Bible promises us that provision has already been given. It's promised and completed! In this episode, Pastor Taylor speaks about the completed provision of Christ in Hebrews 10:1-18.Get Connected! https://linktr.ee/reachtulsa

Pastor Taylor Murray discusses the importance of reminding ourselves the power of the Holy Spirit on PENTECOST SUNDAY! A strong church seeks the earth and so his people need to immerse themselves in his spirit so we can continue to spread his love to the earth! follow us on instagram @reallifechurchwa 26201 180th Ave. SE Covington, WA 98042 Sundays @ 8:30 | 10 | 11:30

Introduction: What About Spiritual Gifts? (1 Corinthians 12:1-11) Spiritual Gifts are FROM God and FOR Every Believer. (1 Cor 12:4-6) Spiritual Gifts Are to Be Used to BLESS the CHURCH. (1 Cor 12:7) Spiritual Gifts Come in Many FORMS. (1 Cor 12:8-10) 2 Corinthians 12:12 - The signs of a true apostle were performed among you with utmost patience, with signs and wonders and mighty works. Hebrews 2:4 - while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will. Wisdom Knowledge Faith Healing Miracles Luke 9:1 – And he called the twelve together and gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases Prophecy Distinguish between spirits Tongues Interpretation of tongues Spiritual Gifts Are Given at the HOLY SPIRIT'S DISCRETION. (1 Cor 12:11) SEEK God. Consider the INTERSECTION. Take an ASSESSMENT. Take the Spiritual Gifts Test! Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANKHint: Highlight blanks above for answers! Questions and Answers: What About Spiritual Gifts? Jeff Miller Download Audio Transcript 00:38Open up your Bibles with me, please, to the book of 1 Corinthians 12.00:45While you're turning there, let's just pause for a second, and I'm going to ask that you would please pray for me00:53to be faithful to communicate God's Word accurately and clearly as I should.01:01And I will pray for you to be open to receive what it is that God said. All right, let's pray. Father, sometimes we come to your word and I guess some passages seem to hit some of us more than others. And we're about to enter into a section that according to your word literally is for every single one of us. So I pray.01:31That Your Spirit would be the power behind the wisdom of Your Word and that You would continue to conform us into the image of Your Son, not just individually, but as a church body. Father, glorify Your name as we immerse ourselves into Your Word now. We pray in Jesus' name and all of God's people,02:02Amen. Look at 1 Corinthians 12, verse 1. Paul says,02:07Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be uninformed.02:18This section of 1 Corinthians has been a big Q&A section.02:25They had sent Paul questions and he was responding with answers.02:28And up to this point, we've mainly been dealing with earthly matters. We've been talking about liberty and marriage and gender. And now we're on to more, I guess you could say, spiritual matters. And he says, concerning spiritual gifts, look at that verse 1, I do not want you to be uninformed. I don't want you to be ignorant about spiritual gifts.02:58Spiritual Gifts. Wow, that's a phrase that really describes the church today. Right? Because as always, church, we will go to either side of the extreme. When we talk about spiritual gifts, immediately you're going to have some people on one end of the spectrum that just completely neglect or ignore them. And think, oh, that's just like,03:28Goofy, charismatic stuff, but we're like sober-minded people. You completely dismiss the role that the Holy Spirit has in the work of the church. They're just neglected. And we do church according to human intellect and creativity. And then you have people on the other end of the spectrum that don't neglect the gifts. You could say they misrepresent the gifts of the Holy Spirit.03:58And over on the other extreme, people are doing all kinds of goofy things in church saying that it's a work of the Holy Spirit. We're slain in the Spirit and we're hooping and hollering and barking and howling. It's a gift of the Spirit. Excuse me. Absolutely essential in your work for Christ. Absolutely essential04:28in the health of the church, in the health of this church, you have to understand what spiritual gifts are, and you have to use your spiritual gift in the church. All right, look at verse 2. He says, you know that when you were pagans, you were led astray to mute idols. However, you were led. What he's doing here is he's setting up a contrast.04:58by idols.05:00And we're going to see this as we go throughout this section,05:03but the Corinthians in their former pagan lifestyle05:07learned a lot of bad methods of worship.05:11Pagan methods of worship.05:13And they brought those into the church.05:15Like, I guess this is how we worship.05:17And Paul here is making the contrast.05:20Like, look, no, no, no.05:22You used to be led by idols.05:24Now, now you are led by the Holy Spirit of God.05:30The Holy Spirit. Somehow, despite how essential His role is in the church, He just doesn't seem to get the press that the other members of the Trinity get, right? I mean, we talk about Jesus a lot. His sacrifice on the cross for our sins. His resurrection from the dead.05:58We talk about God the Father a lot. But God the Holy Spirit, just is essential. The Bible says that every Christian, every born-again Christian receives the Holy Spirit. That's Romans 8 and 9, among other places. That's God's presence abiding in you. Why? Why does God's Spirit live in you? Well, there's two main reasons. One is for character, right?06:28The Holy Spirit manifests the character of Christ in you. That's the fruit of the Spirit. That's Galatians 5. That's love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. That's what the Holy Spirit does in the life of the believer manifesting those characteristics. So it's character. The other reason the Holy Spirit lives in believers is for service.06:58And that's what we're talking about in this passage today. Every believer is given a spiritual gift to be used in the church. And you're like, wow, you know, how do I know that I even have the Holy Spirit? Well, look at verse 3. Paul says, therefore, I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says,07:28Jesus is accursed. And no one can say, Jesus is Lord, except in the Holy Spirit. So how do you know you have the Holy Spirit? Here's a foundational test. How do you regard Jesus? And I don't just mean what do you say about Jesus here in church on Sunday morning or at small group. I mean in your heart, in your innermost being privately,07:58How do you regard Jesus Christ? In your heart, is Jesus Christ everything to you? Because your true heart disposition towards Jesus is manifest by the Spirit. If you're born again, Paul says, you cannot curse Jesus. And apparently some of that stuff was happening in the Corinthian church. That's a whole other study for another time.08:28Paul says, if you have the Holy Spirit living in you, you absolutely will regard Jesus Christ as your Lord. The Holy Spirit. He's not just for preachers and missionaries, by the way. The Christian life, every Christian's life, is a Holy Spirit-led and empowered life. So the question that Paul's getting into here, and Pastor Taylor's going to be talking about this more next week, here's the question on the table.08:58They asked. He's answering, so what about spiritual gifts? I mean, what are spiritual gifts? And how is it that the Holy Spirit uses spiritual gifts in the church? So on your outline, what about spiritual gifts? What about them? Paul's giving us a great foundational teaching on Holy Spirit gifts.09:28Number one, write this down. Spiritual gifts are from God and for every believer. Look at verses four through six. He says, now there are varieties of gifts, but the same spirit. And there are varieties of service, but the same Lord. And there are varieties of activities,09:58is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. He says there's many kinds of spiritual gifts, but notice he says they all come from God. And he really wants to make that point clear because you notice he mentioned every member of the Trinity as being the source of spiritual gifts. You notice that? He talks about the Holy Spirit in verse 4. He talks about Jesus Christ, the Lord, in verse 5. He talks about God, the Father,10:28in verse 6. Spiritual gifts are gifts that come from God. Now, understand that spiritual gifts are different than talents. Okay? Like a skill that you have to play an instrument or to paint a mural. Spiritual gifts are different, but listen. I can show you biblically, and that's a study for another time.10:58come from God. Absolutely.11:03But here we're talking about ministry gifts.11:06Church ministry must be Spirit-powered, not done in the flesh.11:15Why?11:19Because if we're just doing ministry in our power, in man's power,11:25we're going to get man's results.11:27But when ministry is done in God's power, we get God's results. So which do you want? At the end of the day, I want to see what God can do in this church, not what I can do. But you notice the end of verse 6, beginning of verse 7, to everyone, to each. Listen, because every Christian possesses the Holy Spirit, all Christians, all Christians are given a spiritual gift.11:59It's so fascinating because every gift is a characteristic of Jesus Christ Himself. You realize He had everything perfectly. Think about that. Jesus, God in the flesh, who embodied every characteristic perfectly. You see the Holy Spirit giving us a spiritual gift. What's going on here? Here's what's going on. The church is called the body of Christ.12:29And each member is given a gift so that collectively, we as the body of Christ become a sort of representation of Jesus Christ himself. It's absolutely mind-blowing. But God wants the church to be Christ-like, and this is how it happens. We each use our spiritual gift. We're collectively built up in all of the characteristics that Jesus Christ possessed perfectly in the Incarnation.12:57So, spiritual gifts from God for every believer. All right, number two, spiritual gifts are to be used to bless the church. Look at verse 7. He says, to each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. For the common good.13:28It's kind of funny when you think about it. You're given a spiritual gift, right? But in a real sense, the spiritual gift given to you isn't even for you. Isn't that strange? God's given you a gift, but He goes, oh, that's not for you. That's for everybody else. You see, my spiritual gift is supposed to benefit you.13:57benefit me.14:01And that's why we believe in every member of ministry at Harvest Bible Chapel.14:05If you're attending here, if you consider this your church,14:09we're not shy about asking where do you want to serve.14:15Not because we're like, we need help.14:18We do need help.14:21But that's not the primary reason.14:24It's because if you're part of the church, God has gifted you to bless the church. Right? So I have to ask you, how is God using you in this church? How's God using you? If you've been given a gift that's for the common good, how is that working in your ministry?14:55Now look, I've got to tell you, we are so blessed at this church. We were talking about this not too long ago, but we have a crazy high percentage of people who are actively serving in this church in so many ways. We're not there yet, but that number needs to be 100%. And if you're attending this church and you're not serving, please hear me.15:26I just want to lovingly tell you that God hasn't called anyone to warm a seat. Nobody's spiritual gift is attendance. We need you to be using your spiritual gift for the common good. All right? So spiritual gifts are from God for every believer. Number two, spiritual gifts are to be used to bless the church.15:54And number three, spiritual gifts come in many forms. Here's where we need to spend some time. In this section here, Paul lists nine spiritual gifts. Now, this list is not exhaustive, okay? Actually, we're not going to look there today. We're going to stick in this passage as is our custom. But you can see also Romans chapter 12. You can see Ephesians chapter 4. There are other gifts than the ones that are listed.16:24here. This isn't exhaustive. This is more just representative. Spiritual gifts come in many forms. Let's look at verses 8-10. Paul says, for to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit.16:54To another, faith by the same Spirit. To another, gifts of healing by the one Spirit. To another, the working of miracles. To another, prophecy. To another, the ability to distinguish between spirits. To another, various kinds of tongues. To another, the interpretation.17:24of tongues.17:27Alright, so with spiritual gifts there are two categories.17:31There are speaking gifts and there are serving gifts.17:35But there are also two kinds of gifts.17:38There are permanent gifts.17:40There are gifts that were given that will be active in the church until our Lord returns.17:46And there are gifts that are temporary that were only for a time and purpose.17:51And this is where we get controversial.18:00Because this is where a lot of people have a lot of different opinions. But are you ready to go to Sunday school for a few minutes? Three of you? Okay. Thank you. Tristan always has my back. Always. And some of you are like, I don't know if I want to get out of here.18:23this road. Well, we're going through 1 Corinthians. This is next. And we receive God's Word as presented, right? So let's do it. But I want to talk about temporary gifts. And please hear me out before you storm out. That door's hard to slam, but it can be done. Before you storm out, before you throw anything at me, I would like you to please hear me out for a few minutes, all right?18:53Because this isn't my opinion. This is what the Bible says if you read it straightforwardly. Temporary gifts, sometimes they're called sign gifts. Those are the more miraculous type gifts. Please hear me because this is where I'm going to be misquoted, but not you. Listen, those gifts are not normative today.19:23Do I believe that they still happen? 100% I do. But they are not normative. Okay? So if somebody's like, well, what is Jeff's position on some of these sign gifts? I do not believe that they are normative today. I'm going to show you why. Can God do them? Yes. But, listen close. These sign gifts, are these spiritual gifts19:53that are possessed by people in the day of Paul and the apostles. And the answer is no. They're not possessed by people as they were in Paul's day. God still does them on occasion, not normative, but they're not possessed by people. I want to talk about miracles for a moment. Pastor Taylor and I were talking about this last week.20:23I think when we read the Bible, we get this idea that miracles were just like happening all the time, right? Like Moses woke up and like before his oatmeal, he like fired off five miracles. Boom. Not a man a meal, not oatmeal. But actually miracles in the Bible were actually very rare.20:53And apart from Moses' day, and apart from the day of Jesus in the apostles' ministry, miracles performed through men were actually very rare things. So why did we see so many miracles, especially in Moses' day, and especially in Jesus' and the apostles' day? Because this is why.21:21God performed miracles through people to verify or prove when new revelation was given. That's why it was normative in Moses' day. That's why it was normative for the apostles. Because God was giving new revelation, and that was the way He verified it. Any knucklehead can run around and say,21:51this is the new word of the Lord. And like, how can you prove that? Anybody can say that. God would verify what is actually revelation from him by backing it up with people who were giving not just this message, but performing these miracles. That's why you see that in Jesus. Why did Jesus perform so many miracles? Why did Jesus perform miracles? He's putting on a show, right?22:21He wanted to dazzle people, right? Hey, check this out. Check out what I can do. Anybody got two fishes, five loaves? Let me show you a trick. No! Jesus wasn't an entertainer. Why did Jesus do all the miracles? Actually, He referred to them as signs. Why? Because they were done to prove He is who He said He is. He's like, I'm God in the flesh. And of course, you're going to have people that were like, pfft.22:51I'm not buying that. But when you see this man raising the dead, healing the sick, feeding multitudes, you're like, there's something more to him. Right? Jesus' signs proved he is who he said he is. You're like, awesome, but what about spiritual gifts? Well, same principle here. Listen, to back the apostles'23:21while the New Testament was completed, was being completed, God authenticated the gospel with sign gifts. That's what the Bible says. You're like, where does the Bible say that? Many places. I'll give you a couple. Okay? Like 2 Corinthians 12. Look, the signs of a true apostle were performed among you with utmost patience with signs and wonders and mighty works. You see?23:51the true apostles were performing miracles. It was to authenticate the gospel message. Same thing in Hebrews 2.4. It says, while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to His will. Same principle as God was giving us the New Testament. You see, in those days, they didn't have the New Testament completed yet.24:21was being worked on by the Holy Spirit. So when somebody got up and said, let me tell you this message from God, how do we know it was from God? He backed it up with miracles. That's why when you go through the book of Acts, you see miracles less and less and less and less as you go through the book of Acts. We spent like three years in Acts, and that's what you see. In 1 Corinthians here, the book that we're studying, it was one of the earliest24:51written. So sign gifts were still very much a thing when Paul wrote this, but they were on their way out and they were ending as normative spiritual gifts when the New Testament was completed. That's why in none of the other epistles you see any talk about the spiritual gifts of miracles or healings or tongues or interpretation of tongues. You don't see that in any other25:21book in the New Testament.25:25Because it was phasing out.25:28We have God's word complete in written form,25:31so we don't need to verify it with a miracle.25:35God wrote it all down for us.25:37All right?25:39So, with that backdrop, I'm going to go through these quickly.25:44Each one of these could be a sermon,25:45and that's not the intention.25:49Interestingly, Paul does not explain them. He just lists them. I want to give you a little definition for each, a little understanding. So look at your spiritual gifts here, starting in verse 8. The first one is wisdom. What is wisdom? That's just skill in applying the Word of God. Do you know who typically possesses this gift are people that are counselors, whether it's formally or informally, people that are able to say, I understand how to incorporate God's truth.26:19into my life.26:21I can help you incorporate God's truth into your life.26:23It's applying the Word of God.26:24That's wisdom.26:26Next is knowledge.26:30That's understanding the Word.26:34It's somebody that can see Bible facts and knows how they fit together.26:39You know what's amazing?26:40Did you ever see these Christian authors?26:43They take like one subject and they write a whole book about it.26:46That's always amazing to me.26:48Like, how do they do that? They wrote a whole book about one subject? Well, I think a lot of them have the gift of knowledge. Right? Next is faith. Gift of faith. Now, obviously, this is faith beyond believing to get saved, because every follower of Christ has that kind of faith. Right? But you ever notice that there are some Christians that you meet that just seem to have a deeper,27:20Confidence in the Sovereignty of God. You know what I'm talking about? There's some Christians you meet, they could be going through just the worst trials a human being can go through, and they're just like, you know what? God's in control. He's got this. And they're just completely unflappable. They have the gift of faith. Those people are typically the best prayers. Right? Next on the list.27:48is healing.27:51Now again, I believe that this is one of the gifts27:55for people that was phasing out at this point.28:01But what is healing?28:02Well, it's just supernaturally healing a physical illness.28:12I wish I had that gift.28:14I wish it was still a thing.28:17And you might say, well, Pastor Jeff, I think it is still a thing. Because I saw this guy on TV. He was slapping people on the head deaf and they were getting up with full hearing. Interesting about those people, they never go to the cancer ward or the children's hospital. I mean, if I had the gift to heal people, that's the first place I'd go. You're like, oh, so you don't believe in healing? Oh, yeah, yeah. Look, listen.28:47Let's be clear. God still heals. I believe that 100%. And I have seen in this church God miraculously heal people. I believe that God heals. I'm not convinced that Benny Hinn ever did. All right? So next is miracles. Miracles. Like, wait a minute. What's the difference between miracles and healing? I'm not going to bore you with the long systematic Thompson Chain reference.29:17But here's the thing. That word for miracles, when you trace it through the New Testament, was most often connected with casting out demons. That's the difference. That's the distinction. See, that's what Jesus was talking about. Look at Luke 9.1. We'll have it on the screen. It says, and he called the twelve together, look, and gave them power and authority, here it is, over all demons and to cure diseases. So miracles.29:47In the New Testament referred to casting out demons. Again, I believe that was an apostolic era. Do I believe God still does that 100%? Absolutely, yes, He does. Normative? That a person has the gift and is running around doing that? No. All right, next is prophecy. Prophecy. Now, when we think prophecy, when we hear that word, what's the first thing we think of? Like future stuff, right?30:17Tell us the future. Well, sometimes, actually rarely, that's part of it. But you realize that's not what prophecy literally means at all. Do you know what the word prophecy is? It literally breaks down to a compound word that means speak before. You're like, speak before what? Speak before an audience. That's what prophecy is. It's somebody that stands in front of a group of people and says things.30:47Before Them. That's prophecy. It's the public speaking of God's truth. That's what happens when I get up here, Taylor or Brian or Justin or whoever stands up here proclaiming the Word of God. That is prophecy. We are speaking before. Right? Next is distinguishing between spirits. If you're interested, we did a whole sermon series on this.31:17A couple years back, this is what we more commonly call discernment. It's the ability to evaluate if something is from God or not. And in that sermon series, I'm not going to preach it all now, but I'd just like to remind you that that is something that we are all called to do. We are all called to discern what is from God and what is not from God. And again, I'll remind you that we live in a day that it is more crucial than ever because we live in a day where we have access to more information.31:47than we've ever had. You open up your phone, you're going to have 10,00031:51preachers giving you contradictory31:54message about31:55thus saith the Lord. How do we know31:57what God actually said? Discernment32:00is the gift to be able to32:01tell, he's not saying what God32:03said, but this guy definitely is, right?32:05Right?32:10Some people have that gift.32:13Alright, next gift is tongues.32:18Next gift is tongues.32:21You're like, are tongues for today?32:26People ask that, are tongues for today?32:31Yeah, tongues are for today.32:32How would you eat your ice cream otherwise, right?32:38Listen, I'm not going to go too far into this.32:42Oh, you're scared? No, not at all.32:43We're actually going to be doing a very deep dive in this. We're spending four weeks on this subject. But what is tongues biblically? Tongues is the ability to speak in a foreign language unknown to the speaker. It's a known language, by the way. It's not gibberish. It's somebody speaking an already existing language that that person doesn't know. They're just speaking it. Like I said, we're going to spend so much more time on this. And then interpretation of tongues is just simply that.33:13a person that was gifted with the ability to translate what the tongues speaker says. Many forms. One spirit. Oh, speaking of the Holy Spirit, number four. Spiritual gifts are given at the Holy Spirit's discretion.33:47Look at verse 11.33:52He says,33:54All these are empowered by one in the same Spirit34:01who apportions to each one individually as He wills.34:09As He wills.34:11The Holy Spirit, in His sovereignty, determines who does what. That's the Holy Spirit's job. Understand, as your pastor, I did not get to choose your gift. Like, oh, you want to be a part of our church? All right. Prophecy. Okay, how about you? You want to join the church? All right. Healing. You're like, you totally didn't listen to that sermon, did you? I don't get to determine that gift.34:41get to determine that gift. You know what? Preaching looks like a lot of fun. I think I'm going to ask the Holy Spirit for the prophecy gift. He is the one who determines the gift. It is a gift. And the gift giver determines the gift that he wants to give you. The gift giver determines the gift35:12that he wants to give you.35:19And I know this is a hard sell in our day.35:23I mean, Murph, you get it. You go back. We get it.35:27The gift giver determines the gift he wants to give. We get it. The younger people don't get that.35:33Like, why not? Because you know what we do in our day?35:38You know what we do in our day? We have a big event.35:42We have a baby shower, a wedding, little Joey's birthday party. He's turning five. Going to have his party at the Chuck E. Cheese. Do you know what we do today? We tell people what gifts we want, don't we? We do that. Little Joey's turning five. He's registered at Target. Right? Right?36:10Or, yeah, I'm getting married. Yeah, I'm getting married. Yeah, I'm registered at Target. We tell people the gifts that we want. I'm getting married. I want this toaster. I want this knife set. I want this vacuum. And then, I mean, we've done it. Aaron and I will go and be like, okay, this is the vacuum they want.36:40and we buy it and we wrap it up. And then they act surprised when they open it. They open it up and they're like, oh, you got me exactly what I was asking for. Oh, you shouldn't have. But you go back a generation, the gift giver determined what gift you got. Don't try that with the Holy Spirit, okay? You're baptized.37:11I'm registered at Target.37:15Well, we don't get a say in it.37:17It's His gift, right?37:19It's His gift.37:19Do you think I would have signed up for this?37:25Oh no.37:26Oh no.37:30He'll make a better choice than we would anyways.37:33Alright.37:35That's all well and good.37:36But that's really not the question37:39that we're asking right now.37:40The question that we're asking right now is how do I know what my spiritual gift is right I mean it's clear he's given all of us each of us a gift to represent the body of Christ and we're to use it in the common good we saw the kinds and you're like awesome what is my spiritual gift how do I find out what my spiritual gift is all right I'm going to give you three things we're going to close with this three things how do I know what gift I've been given letter A seek God38:10You're like, that sounds like a cop-out. No, look. If you make your life about on-your-face praying and in the Word and just get serving in the church, the Spirit's going to do what the Spirit does. He's going to be at work through you. You're going to figure that out real quick. So just don't worry about seeking a gift. Seek the gift giver. He'll do what He does.38:40That's what he does. Seek God. All right? Letter B. Consider the intersection. Like, what's the intersection? I was studying for this this week. I came across something. I thought it was super helpful. It's one of those diagrams where everything intersects. What do they call that? A Venmo diagram?39:10Venn. Not Venmo.39:20What's a Venmo?39:23Oh, that's giving money.39:26Also a spiritual gift. Right!39:30So you could Venmo your...39:31Alright.39:33I just feel like I had like an inception moment here.39:37Alright.39:38Consider the intersection.39:39Yeah.39:40All right. So I came across this Venn diagram. And I thought it was helpful. I'm going to try to recreate it here. But there's three things here. First of all, this circle here, we're going to call that, we're going to call this one ability. We're going to call this one ability. What is it that you seem, not complicated,40:10You seem like you're able to do this. Right? Of all the gifts. You're like, you know what? That's something that I seem like I'm able to do. I mean, I'm not boasting or anything. It just seems like something that I'm able to do. Okay? And then, with this one, we're going to call this one affinity. That's an idea. Okay. That's affinity. Like, well, that's an idea. Like, what do40:40I enjoy doing.40:42If somebody was like, you can do whatever you want in the church, whatever you enjoy most,40:46what would be the line I get to the front of first?40:50What's my affinity?40:53And then the third thing here, my circles are getting less and less circle-y, but I think you get the idea.41:01This one we're going to call affirmation.41:12You know, you have people maybe in your small group or other people in the church that are, they say to you, you know what? You seem like you have a real gift for teaching. You really seem like you have a gift for praying with people. So the point is this. Consider the intersection right here.41:39This is very likely your spiritual gift. I would say extremely likely. What you're able to do, what you love doing, and what people affirm that it seems like God has equipped you to do, that is very likely your spiritual gift. All right? Then letter C, assessment. Seek God, consider the intersection or assessment. We have a QR code.42:10Go ahead, take your phone out and give that a scan. Pastor Rich sent this along. But this is an online assessment. And really, I think between seeking the Lord, considering the intersection, doing the online assessment, I think that's going to get you all on your way to giving you a deeper understanding of what your spiritual gift is. So go ahead. Go ahead, do the...42:41Either scan that or Venmo me some money. Since you have your phone out and I just learned what Venmo is. Do I have a Venmo? Never mind. Aaron says I don't have a Venmo. All right. Our worship team would make their way up. While they're coming, you know, when I was in high school, I played soccer.43:11In my junior high year of playing soccer, the coach didn't like me. Why? Because I was unlikable. So I sat on the bench most of the season. Now, I knew I had the ability.43:39senior year, we had a new coach, and I didn't sit for one minute that entire season. In fact, I was co-captain of the team. But I got to tell you, I think back to that junior year of playing soccer, and I just remember feeling incredibly frustrated because I felt incredibly useless. You know, you put your shin guards on, you put your cleats on, you put your44:09your soccer uniform on.44:12And you just, I just sat there and watched the whole season.44:16Just sat there.44:21So many times I thought, why am I even here?44:25Why am I even here?44:26What am I doing?44:29I want to tell you, you don't have to worry about that with God's team44:34because there are no bench warmers.44:39God doesn't tell any of His children, you know what? You're nice and all, but you go sit over there. We don't really need you. Or you just wait, and if we decide there's a place we can squeeze you in, we'll see if we can do that. No, no, no, no, no. God's Word has made it very clear that He has called and He has gifted every single one of you.45:08this church. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, so often we get a gift and we don't say thank you, but Father, we thank you not just for the gift of your Holy Spirit himself who lives within us, but the gift that he has given each of us to serve you and your church. For some people here, Father, this is probably brand new teaching.45:38Never really considered this. And for some people here, Father, maybe we've known this and have sort of strayed from it. But I'm asking today, Father, that your Spirit would grip every heart in this church and grip the church collectively so that we truly, as the body of Christ, might represent the person of Christ.46:08as these spirits are at work in us. So Father, I pray for the person here who maybe has been coming to this church but just hasn't stepped up. Remind them, Father, it's not just a matter of the elders and pastors and ministry team would value your input. Remind them, Father, that you have equipped them to serve your church.46:38We do so to your glory and honor. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Small Group DiscussionRead 1 Corinthians 12:1-11What was your big take-away from this passage / message?What does it mean that spiritual gifts are for the common good (1 Cor 12:7)?Are sign gifts such as healing and miracles still possessed by people today? Why or why not?Why is it important to understand that the Holy Spirit is the One Who chooses what gifts believers receive (1 Cor 12:11)?How do you know if a ministry is done by the power of the Holy Spirit, or done in the flesh (that is, just by “human power”)?BreakoutPray for one another.

We have an amazing message from our lead pastors, pastor Taylor and Noelle! Discussing the 7 Non-negotiables for relationships that attract God. The important role God has inside the relationship and the role we need to take on to see that relationships to flourish!follow us on instagram @reallifechurchwa 26201 180th Ave. SE Covington, WA 98042 Sundays @ 8:30 | 10 | 11:30

When we wait it really matters how we wait. How we wait tells us so much about what kind of person we are and what we value. Many say they are waiting on Christ, but how are they waiting for Him? In this episode, Pastor Taylor speaks on waiting for the Lord in Hebrews 9:23-28.Get Connected! https://linktr.ee/reachtulsa

Introduction: How Should I Receive the Lord's Supper? 3 Things You'd Better Get Right: (1 Corinthians 11:17-34) PURPOSE. (1 Cor 11:23-26) What is the Purpose of the Lord's Supper? REMEMBRANCE. (1 Cor 11:24-25) PROCLAMATION. (1 Cor 11:26) ANTICIPATION. (1 Cor 11:26) Luke 22:15-16 - And he said to them, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you I will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.” POSTURE. (1 Cor 11:27) PREPARATION. (1 Cor 11:28-34) Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANKHint: Highlight blanks above for answers! Questions and Answers: How Should I Receive the Lord's Supper? Jeff Miller Download Audio Transcript 00:36Open up your Bibles with me please to the book of 1 Corinthians. So 1 Corinthians chapter 11 and let's just bow our heads and I'm going to ask that you would please just take a moment to pray for me that I would be faithful to do nothing but clearly communicate the Word of God as presented. And I will pray for you to have your hearts open to receive what it is the Lord wants to teach us today in this passage. Let's pray.01:07Father in heaven, we are talking today about something that is very serious to you and therefore should be to us. So I pray we would all be dialed in. That we would, as Pastor Taylor prayed earlier, our hearts would be ready to receive what it is you want to tell us and that we would, respond accordingly.01:41Thank you, Father, for being a God of truth, being a God of grace, the love that you've shown us, Father.01:51We praise you in the mighty name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.01:56All of God's people said, Amen.01:591 Corinthians 11.02:01Many, many, many years ago at a previous church, before our Wednesday night kids activities, one time a month, we would have a potluck. And somehow, this particular potluck Wednesday snuck up on us. And Erin was like, oh no, tonight's the church meal thing. And she was running around the house trying to find something.02:31to take over. And lo and behold, Mother Hubbard's cupboards were bare. And she goes, what are we going to... Well, she found in the cupboard that once upon a time, she bought a whole bunch of rice bowls from Big Lots. They were on clearance. She bought a whole bunch of these. They were like these individual serving thing, you know, you put water in it and throw it in the microwave and ta-da, cheap lunch.03:01So she bought a whole bunch of these on clearance. And she's like, this is all that I have to share at the meal. So she made a whole bunch of rice bowls. And by the way, they were all different flavors. She's like, I'll just make them all and just mix them together. Like I said, it came in several mouth-watering versions.03:33So we had jasmine and teriyaki and salmon and I don't know, chocolate caramel. And anyway, she took all of these rice bowls and put them like in a casserole dish. And she goes, all right, now here's what I need you to do. She says, I need you to get over there early and sneak this in so that nobody knows where it came from. And I'm telling you this because you need to know that I was an accessory to this crime.04:00So mission accomplished. I snuck the bowl in. I was poof gone like a ninja. Nobody knew where that dish came from. So we had our meal. We had our kids program. And at the end of the night, I went to sneak back to get our casserole dish. And inside the dish was a note. And the note said, whoever made this, please give me the recipe.04:35So today we're going to be talking about a good old-fashioned potluck because Corinth had a fellowship meal. Sort of like the one we had that one Wednesday night a month. And they would have this fellowship meal. They'd have their potluck and then afterwards they would take the Lord's Supper together and they made it a Real Seen.05:03Look at verse 17.05:06Paul says, But in the following instructions, I do not commend you.05:12Because when you come together, it is not for the better, but for the worse.05:20Paul's like, You guys, you're ruining worship.05:28You're ruining your worship time.05:30And that's a theme that goes through chapter 11, 12, 13, 14. Paul's like, you're ruining it. Look at verse 14. I'm sorry, verse 18, excuse me. He says, for in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you, and I believe it in part. Divisions. We spent a whole lot of time talking about that. There were cliques. Everybody had their favorite preacher, and there were divisions.05:59Literally, the word divisions means arguing over opinions. And there was a lot of that. Paul says, yeah, I certainly believe it. Verse 19, interesting side note, he says, for there must be factions among you in order that those who are genuine among you may be recognized. As I said, we spent a lot of time talking about the factions.06:29the cliques and the divisions in chapters 1-4.06:34But Paul points out here, you know, there is one good thing about factions.06:42He says all of the fighting has a way of showing you who is genuine.06:50Who's an authentic, mature believer and who's not.06:56But Paul says, you want to learn who's spiritual?06:59You want to learn who is unspiritual and probably unsaved? Paul says, just watch how people handle disputes. And that is 100% true. Watch how people handle disputes, and you'll see how spiritual they are. But he goes on. Verse 20, he says, when you come together, it is not the Lord's Supper that you eat, For in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal. One goes hungry, another gets drunk. You see what's going on here? Paul says you're making the Lord's Supper into something that is not the Lord's Supper. At their fellowship meal, first of all, we saw there's cliques. Everybody sit with their people.07:59Don't sit with anybody else. Make sure you sit with your people. And Paul pointed out some of them were, they were showing up early and just eating all the stuff that they brought to share. They're showing up with their casserole dish full of the hodgepodge rice bowls, and they're just sitting and eating it all themselves. They got their tuna noodle casserole or their beef stroganoff that they meant to share with everyone.08:29and they're just hogging it down themselves.08:35He says, you're not sharing.08:37And as a result, some of the poorer people were going hungry.08:44Oh, and if that's not enough, some of them were showing up early, not only eating too much, but they were drinking too much.08:52He says, some of you are drunk.08:53I mean, can you see this scene?08:56You're showing up for church for a fellowship meal before the Lord's Supper is even served. Some people were drunk. Paul was rightly outraged. Look at verse 22. He kind of lets them have it. He goes, what? Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate?09:26those who have nothing. What shall I say to you? Shall I commend you in this? No, I will not. Paul's like, what are you doing? Can't you be a hog at home? Like, what's going on here? Do you hate the church? Is that what's going on here? Do you get happy about being cruel to poor people? Paul's like, what do you want me to say? What do you want me to say?09:57I'm not going to say that.10:01It's a serious rebuke.10:04Because there's a serious problem.10:07They were making a mockery of something that should be absolutely sacred to the church.10:14And that's the Lord's Supper.10:19What is the Lord's Supper?10:23You read about the Lord's Supper in all the Gospels.10:26But it was Jesus' last meal with His disciples before He died on the cross. They were Jews celebrating the Passover meal. So what is the Passover meal? Well, that was a sacred observance that God gave the nation of Israel to remember that they were hopeless slaves in Egypt and God saved them. He sent someone to deliver them from bondage.10:56The Passover meal would have four different cups at different intervals in the meeting. You would eat bitter herbs together. There would be a retelling of the Exodus story. They would eat unleavened bread. They would sing some of the Psalms. That's what the Passover meal was. And in the Lord's Supper, when Jesus had it with His disciples, He made it new. You see, it went from, remember, the Exodus to remember that Jesus Christ came to save you from your sins. And you can trace this in your Bible. The early church did it on a regular basis, Acts 2.42. And at some point, the early church started doing it weekly, apparently, from Acts 20.7.11:52But in Corinth, the Lord's Supper was tacked onto a meal of gluttony and drunkenness and selfishness. So in the section we're looking at today, Paul says, you, Corinth, are greatly dishonoring the Lord with your conduct. And he says, if you're coming together to take the Lord's Supper as a church, you better get a clue as to what the Lord's Supper is about.12:26All right, so on your outline, how should I receive the Lord's Supper?12:31This is something that we do as a church.12:34We are going to do it in a few minutes.12:36So I think this is something that we should really tune into.12:43How should I receive the Lord's Supper?12:44Well, there's three things you better get right.12:48All right?12:50I alliterated them for you so that something not just for today, but every time we take the Lord's Supper together, these three things, you've got to get these right if you're going to do this. Number one is purpose. Purpose. What is the purpose of the Lord's Supper? Why do we do this? Well, Paul, That's where he starts. He goes, maybe you need reminded. Maybe you've been so off base you just need reminded of what this is about. Look at verse 23. He says, for I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you. That the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread. Stop there for a second. Most scholars believe that 1 Corinthians was actually written before the Gospels were completed. So this information that Paul is giving is directly from Jesus. So Paul says, let me remind you what the Lord's Supper is about, the purpose. On your outline, what is the purpose of the Lord's Supper? It's really about three things he's going to show us here. Letter A, why do we take the Lord's Supper? Letter A, R is for remembrance. Remembrance. Look at verse 24.14:20He says, when Jesus, the night He was betrayed, He took bread, verse 24, and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, this is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me. The body, the bread represents the body.14:49The bread represents the body of Christ, the incarnation, the glorious mystery that God Almighty, the creator of heaven and earth, became a man. But notice in verse 24, Jesus said, this is my body which is, what are those last two words? I'll give you another run at that. This is my body which is for you.15:19You should have that underlined in your Bible for you. Do you realize everything that God did in the incarnation was for you? Why did God become a man?15:49It was for you. Why did he suffer the way that he suffered? For you. Why was he willing to lay down his life as a sacrifice? For you. And he says, do this. Do this. That's a Do this. Why do we receive the Lord's Supper? We're commanded to do that. Do it, church. Do it, small groups. Do it. This is something that we are commanded to do. Verse 25, he says, in the same way, also, he took the cup after supper, saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.16:49It's a new covenant in the blood of Christ. What is a covenant? It's just a promise. It's an agreement. There was an old covenant where sins were atoned with the blood of animals. But this is the new covenant. This is a new promise where Jesus said, I will take away all of your sins forever with one sacrifice.17:19It's the covenant of blood. See, blood speaks to the violent death that Jesus endured. It made the new covenant possible. But notice both the body, the blood, the bread, the cup, and both do this in remembrance.17:49on this because we talked about this three weeks ago. But in the Jewish mindset, remembrance was more than just recalling something. You know, it's not like we come to church like, wait, who are we worshiping? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, Jesus, that's right. Now I recall. Remembrance is so much more than that. We saw this back in chapter 10, verse 16, where Paul said, taking the Lord's Supper together as a church is participation.18:19That's what remembrance is about. It's embracing everything that the body and blood means.18:30See, the Lord's Supper isn't just about reminding ourselves of an event that happened so long ago. This is about our life right now. This is who God is. This is how He has revealed Himself. This is what He has done because of His love for me. He laid out his life for me.18:51He calls me to carry my cross and follow him daily.18:57The Lord's Supper brings us to that place where we're engulfed with all of that.19:05It's remembrance.19:10What's the purpose of the Lord's Supper letter B?19:11It's proclamation.19:13Look at verse 26.19:17He says, For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes.19:29As often, He says that again in verse 25, there's no magic number.19:36As often, some churches do it weekly, some monthly.19:39As often as you do it, what are you doing?19:43He says you're proclaiming the Lord's death. You realize when you take the Lord's Supper, you're giving a sermon. It is a beautiful and profound thing that when we take the Lord's Supper together, church, it is as if we together are giving a sermon together. Every time you take it, you're preaching a sermon. You're like, well, what's the content of my sermon? When you take the Lord's Supper, you're saying, I believe that Jesus is the Messiah.20:15I believe He is the Son of God.20:18I believe that Jesus died for me.20:22I believe that my sins are forgiven, not by anything that I can do, but by everything that He did on my behalf.20:29I believe that.20:32You're preaching a sermon every time you do this.20:36You proclaim the Lord's death.20:40So the purpose of the Lord's Supper is remembrance, His proclamation, letter C.20:43It's anticipation.20:46You proclaim the Lord's death until He comes.20:49Do you see that? Until He comes.20:52We believe that Jesus is returning.20:57Do you believe that?20:58Do you believe Jesus is coming back?21:01Well, when you take the Lord's Supper, you're saying that you believe that.21:05Right?21:06That we are going to...21:08When we take the Lord's Supper now, We are communing with Jesus. We are participating in this together. But do you realize what we're saying? We're saying that we believe that someday we will commune with Him personally at the marriage supper of the Lamb. You know that's how the Bible describes heaven. That's how the Bible describes the return of Christ and the The Bible describes as the marriage supper of the Lamb. Have you ever been to a wedding? Have you ever been to a wedding reception? They are a real hoot. It's a big party and there's so much laughter and joy and celebration. And that's exactly how the Bible describes our ultimate reunion Jesus Christ when the church is brought into His presence and glory.22:17Jesus talked about this.22:18Luke 22 verses 15 and 16.22:22And He said to them, I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.22:29Look at this.22:30For I tell you, I will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.22:37So we are communing with Christ spiritually.22:41now in the anticipation that today's going to come when we are communing with Christ in His actual presence. Can we grasp how sacred this is? Do you see why this is such an important remembrance that the Lord has given us?23:11One of them we celebrated last week in baptism. This is the other one. Do you see why this is so important? And that's where Paul starts. He's like, remember the purpose of the Lord's Supper. It's remembrance. It's proclamation. It's anticipation. So how should I receive the Lord's Supper? Well, three things you've got to get right. The first one is purpose. This is why we do it. Number two is posture.23:41Posture.23:47Talking about the posture of your heart.23:50What is your heart's attitude in going into the Lord's Supper?23:56Because it matters.23:57Look at verse 27.24:00Paul says, Whoever therefore eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Unworthy manner. Did you realize that you can take the Lord's Supper in an unworthy manner? Did you realize that? That's what the Bible says. Let's be clear. It doesn't mean sinless. The Bible is crystal clear on that. If you had to be sinless to receive the Lord's Supper, none of us.24:38would take it, right? We just leave the trays up here and look at them. None of us could do it. Well, so how can we take the Lord's Supper in an unworthy manner? Well, there's really two ways. One way you can take it in an unworthy manner is being unrepentant. First of all, the Lord's Supper is not for unbelievers.25:09And if you're here, and we are so glad that you are here, but if you're here and you're like, you know what, I have not personally received Jesus Christ. I think I'm seeking right now, and I'm trying to understand, and we're so glad that you're here. But if you are not a born-again believer in Christ, you absolutely should not take the Lord's Supper. This is for His people. Okay? But, If you are here, and you say that you are a born-again believer in Christ, but you have resolved yourself to some sin. Meaning this, look, we all sin, but we're talking about being committed to the sin. You know what I'm talking about. It's, I'm not committed to seeking repentance right now. There is a sin in my life right now that God has been speaking to me through his word his spirit has been bringing great conviction in me there's the sin in my life and i have just been telling god no i have been just flagrantly disobeying god and i know what he wants me to do and i've refused to do it if that describes you you should not take the lord's supper you should not take the lord's supper if you are in a state of being unrepentant flagrant Rebellious, Unrepentant Sin. The second way you can take the Lord's Supper in an unworthy manner is being not just unrepentant, but being irreverent. Meaning, you don't receive it in an attitude of worship. And church, I think we can be so prone to this, that it's time to take the Lord's Supper, we just mindlessly go through the motions. That we line up, we take the elements, we have our seat, we bread, cup, done, and we've given like no thought to it. We never really stop to think about what was happening. That's just what we do. We go through the motions. That's irreverent. And when you do that, notice he says, you're guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. When you do that, when you take the Lord's Supper, unrepentant or irreverent, you are dishonoring Jesus and all that He's done. Because you didn't receive the Lord's Supper in a posture of worship. You understand the gravity of that? Imagine I brought an American flag up here. And I just threw it on the ground and stomped all over it. I'm not going to. But I just threw it on the ground and stomped all over it and wiped my feet on it. Would you be outraged by that? You should be. And I said, well, what's the big deal? It's just a piece of cloth. You're like, the big deal is what that represents.28:37That's the big deal. And an even bigger deal is what stomping on that represents. You see, it's the same principle with the Lord's Supper. That's why we are guilty of the body and blood of the Lord when we do it irreverently. It's like stomping on the flag. It's stomping on Jesus. Because God takes this very seriously.29:07If you're in sin, that you haven't confessed to God, you haven't turned from, you sinned against a person, and you haven't made things right with them, you haven't sought horizontal forgiveness, you should not take the Lord's Supper. You should just quietly abstain. All right? And look, if your heart isn't in it, if you're like, you know what, if I go do this today, it's just going to be a mindless ritual. It's not going to be active worship.29:37for me, then you should not take the Lord's Supper. You should just quietly abstain. But we are in a room of peer pressure, right? Where you're like, but if everybody gets up to take the Lord's Supper and I don't, what are people going to think? Who cares? Who cares what people think?30:08By the way, no one's noticing. No one has a scorecard. Well, you didn't get up and take communion today, but I'll write that one down for the record. Nobody cares. All right? What matters isn't what people think. What matters is what does God think? Because if you take the Lord's Supper in an unworthy manner, you're guilty of the body and blood of the Lord, and you should be way more concerned with what God thinks.30:41You should receive this in a posture of worship.30:49So, number three, how should I take the Lord's Supper?30:52Well, we saw the purpose.30:53We saw the heart posture.30:58Three, P is for preparation.31:03Because of the seriousness of this, We should prepare ourselves. Look at verse 28. He says, let a person examine himself then. And so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. Examine yourself. You should do this before church every Sunday anyways. But especially before you take the Lord's Supper, you need to take time for personal inventory. You need to ask yourself right now in my life, am I personally, actively, seeking the Lord.31:42Have I prepared myself to commune with the Lord?31:48And if you refuse to examine yourself, look at verse 29.31:53He says, for anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself.32:06If you take this irreverently, you're bringing judgment on yourself. Now the word judgment is literally chastisement or discipline. Okay? And understand, he is talking to believers here. Like, well, what kind of judgment am I going to face if I irreverently take the Lord's Supper? Well, he tells us, verse 30, he says, that is why.32:36Many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. If you're a believer who takes the Lord's Supper in an irreverent way, God will discipline you physically. Do you see that? All levels. Some end up weak, just not feeling great.33:06Some are ill, like really not feeling great. And Paul says, and some have died. Like done feeling anything. Right? There are so many prayer requests that have to do with health things. Do you notice that? Anytime somebody says, hey, does anybody have any prayer requests. Very rarely do we hear the, hey, I have an unsaved neighbor, pray that the Lord opens the door to share the gospel, or pray that I can better disciple my kids. Those are more rare. It seems to me like 90-some percent of prayer requests, we just drag out all these health things. And there are so many people here dealing with health issues.34:05And I have to ask you, in light of this verse, could it be that your health issues have been brought on by God for taking the Lord's Supper in an unworthy manner?34:33You're like, does God do that? Yeah. Yeah, He does. Now, obviously, listen, listen close. Obviously, no one is saying that that is the cause of all sickness and death. Nobody's saying that. But if you call yourself a Jesus follower and you take the Lord's Supper in an unworthy manner, you are a candidate for God's discipline.35:02And for some of you, that might be exactly why you are sick. That might be exactly why you've had this physical thing going on that you just can't get over. For some of you, that's why. Look at verse 31 and 32. He says, but if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged.35:32But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world. Paul just basically here says judge yourself or God will. Either take an honest assessment of your heart and act accordingly or disregard the state of your heart. Take the Lord's Supper in an unworthy manner and God will act accordingly. You're like, whoa, whoa, whoa.36:01Are you saying I could lose my salvation? Oh, absolutely not. Absolutely not. In fact, he clarifies that in this verse. God will discipline you, even let you die. He says so that you won't be condemned with the world. But that's how serious this is to God. God will remove you from the earth before he allows you to discipline.36:31honor him in the way that you take the Lord's Supper. I'm going to last two verses. He says, so then, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for one another. If anyone is hungry, let him eat at home, so that when you come together, it will not be for judgment.37:01About the other things, I will give directions when I come. Okay, so easy application for the Corinthians, right? Paul's like, so here it is, Corinth. When you have your potluck, can you just wait for everybody to show up? Can you do that? Like, oh, Paul, that sounds so un-American. Wait to eat? We don't do that.37:35I just laugh sometimes I'll hear people say, you know, I got stuck at such and such place. I had to go six hours without eating. Like, wow, I can't believe you're alive to tell the tale. Look, you can wait. You can wait. Right? Paul says, he says, are you hungry? You can't wait.38:01Why don't you just eat at home instead of being drunken hoggers at church before the Lord's Supper? How about that? But you see, there's a principle for them and for us. The Lord's Supper should be worshipful. Prepare yourself for it. Poor worship team would make their way back up.38:33to apply this right now.38:36I'd like you to just bow your heads.38:39I'd like you to just bow your heads and close your eyes.38:41I just want you to focus on your own heart.38:47Because in just a few moments, if our communion servers also would come up, in just a few moments, we are going to take the Lord's Supper.38:57And I want you, first of all, to just, in light of this passage, is to remind us why we're doing this. This doesn't save you. This doesn't make you into a more spiritual person. Paul tells us exactly the purpose of this. We are remembering. We are proclaiming. We are anticipating. That's why we're doing this. Also, your posture. This is a sacred act of worship.39:30And I have to ask you, is that the posture of your heart right now? Are you here to worship? Or have you been checked out even before you walked in the door? How is the posture of your heart right now? In preparation, examine yourself. Is there unconfessed sin that you have committed yourself to?40:05Look, believer, you are forgiven in Christ. You need to live like it. Are you genuinely seeking the Lord right now? Father in heaven, we're about to come to your table. And I don't know of any other teachers in your word that's more serious about this event than this passage that we just looked at. Father, this is a very serious thing to you. So Father, I pray that none of us would take this in an unworthy manner, that we would have the faith to stay in our seats and pray rather than invite discipline on ourselves.41:02Father, we thank you for this meal and everything that it means.41:08That God, you so loved us.41:13And you so wanted our sin removed from us that you came and did the job yourself.41:24So Father, as a church, let us, in receiving this, proclaim the excellencies of your grace as we anticipate the day that we get to sit down with Jesus personally at the marriage supper of the Lamb. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Small Group DiscussionRead 1 Corinthians 11:17-11:34What was your big take-away from this passage / message?How would you explain the Lord's Supper to a brand new Christian, who is completely unfamiliar with the ordinance?Jesus said to take the Lord's Supper “in remembrance” of Him. What exactly does that mean? How does this relate to the concept of “participation” (1 Corinthians 10:16)?What are some ways a believer can take the Lord's Supper in an “unworthy manner” (1 Cor 11:27)? Does this mean you have to be sinless? Why or why not?1 Cor 11:28 says “examine yourself”. What exactly are you examining in yourself before you take the Lord's Supper?BreakoutPray for one another.

Why is there so much talk about blood in the Bible? Why does forgiveness take blood at all? Isn't that kind of primitive? The truth is that we owe our lives for our sin. Our blood is what must be shed. Except that God made a way through the blood of Christ to pay in our place. In this episode, Pastor Taylor speaks on the accomplishing work of Christ's blood in Hebrews 9:15-22.Get Connected! https://linktr.ee/reachtulsa

What does it mean to enter the presence of God? Why has that been impossible until now, and what changed? Jesus said He was the door and Hebrews tells us He was the first to enter through that door. In this episode, Pastor Taylor speaks on the entrance into God's service for all believers in Hebrews 9:11-14.Get Connected! https://linktr.ee/reachtulsa

Pastor Taylor concludes our EMBODIED series with a message on the importance of the GATHERING that is the church on Sunday mornings.follow us on instagram @reallifechurchwa 26201 180th Ave. SE Covington, WA 98042 Sundays @ 8:30 | 10 | 11:30

What does the Sabbath mean for modern life? In this teaching from Exodus 20:8–11 and Deuteronomy 5:12–15, we explore the biblical command to rest and why it still matters today. Learn how overworking and constant busyness reveal deeper trust issues, how Sabbath leads to freedom, and how aligning your rhythms with God's design can transform your spiritual, emotional, and relational health.

Why does it feel like sometimes religion is the thing that stops us from knowing God? Is going to church preventing me from finding Jesus or helping me? Sometimes we need to understand the true purpose of religion so it helps us more than it hurts us. In this episode, Pastor Taylor talks about the objectives and obstacles of religion in Hebrews 9:1-10.Get Connected! https://linktr.ee/reachtulsa

Week 3 of our EMBODIED series brings to the table the idea of being created to BELONG to one another, from the very beginning of creation.follow us on instagram @reallifechurchwa 26201 180th Ave. SE Covington, WA 98042 Sundays @ 8:30 | 10 | 11:30

What does God want us to know about Him? What has He been trying to tell us from the Old Testament through now? We serve a God who wants to know us in a covenant relationship with Him. In this episode, Pastor Taylor speaks on the transformation of God's covenant in Hebrews 8:8-13.Get Connected! https://linktr.ee/reachtulsa

Pastor Taylor continues our "EMBODIED" series with a message on being MADE for freedom, but also being made with limitations & boundaries in order to fully participate in the freedom that God created you for.follow us on instagram @reallifechurchwa 26201 180th Ave. SE Covington, WA 98042 Sundays @ 8:30 | 10 | 11:30

What does it mean that Christ is sitting at the right hand of the Father? Does His current location matter? Does it change something about how He cares for us? In this episode, Pastor Taylor talks about the excellent ministry of Christ in Hebrews 8:1-7.Get Connected! https://linktr.ee/reachtulsa

Pastor Taylor kicks off a NEW series called "EMBODIED" where we explore what it means to be HUMAN. This week, Pastor Taylor started us off with a message on being made in Image of God, and how we were created BY and FOR God.follow us on instagram @reallifechurchwa 26201 180th Ave. SE Covington, WA 98042 Sundays @ 8:30 | 10 | 11:30

Welcome to week three of our series "Nehemiah, Unshaken In The Rubble". This week Pastor Taylor spoke on the importance of being persistent in your walk with the Lord, that even when its hard to push through. Our prayer is that this message would be encouraging to you in your everyday battles and that it may help you press in to God.Pursuit Church on Social Media:facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PursuitChurchDenver/?ref=bookmarksinstagram: https://www.instagram.com/pursuit_church/Pursuit Worship on Social Media:Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Pursuit-Worship-671274439695803/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pursuit.worship/

What if Jesus wants to save me, but He can't? What if He's unable to follow through? What else can we put our trust in that might save us? In this episode, Pastor Taylor discusses Christ as the only one able to save in Hebrews 7:20-28.Get Connected! https://linktr.ee/reachtulsa

Pastor Taylor preaches on EASTER SUNDAY with a message on how God SO LOVED us, that He sent His one and only Son to the grave for us -- but how He didn't stay there.follow us on instagram @reallifechurchwa 26201 180th Ave. SE Covington, WA 98042 Sundays @ 8:30 | 10 | 11:30

The Bible tells us that the law will not pass away. It also tells us that Jesus has fulfilled that law completely. How much of the law am I supposed to keep? Does any of the Old Testament still apply? In this episode, Pastor Taylor speaks on the transformation of the law in Hebrews 7:1-19.Get Connected! https://linktr.ee/reachtulsa

Pastor Taylor preaches on PALM SUNDAY on Jesus being the bread of LIFE, and how sometimes we can chase after him with ulterior motives.follow us on instagram @reallifechurchwa 26201 180th Ave. SE Covington, WA 98042 Sundays @ 8:30 | 10 | 11:30

Welcome to part 1 of our new series "Nehemiah - Unshaken in the Rubble". This week Pastor Taylor taught on the importance of trusting in God when we are dealing with fear. We pray that this message would encourage you to trust the Lord in the face of uncertainty.Pursuit Church on Social Media:facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PursuitChurchDenver/?ref=bookmarksinstagram: https://www.instagram.com/pursuit_church/Pursuit Worship on Social Media:Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Pursuit-Worship-671274439695803/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pursuit.worship/

Sunday's Message: https://youtu.be/xbasXQntdxQ?si=bkL-IDcJBHyabJk1New to Zion City? Click here: https://bit.ly/3QhTbrz Find a time and attend a service with us: https://zioncity.me/locations NEXT STEPS Have you made a decision to follow Jesus? You may be wondering what's next on your journey. We want to help! Let us guide you to your next steps in your walk with Christ: https://bit.ly/3AnlHme Tucson Church, Arizona Church, Zion City, Assemblies of God, Christian Podcast, Spirit Filled Tucson Church FIND US ON SOCIAL MEDIA Instagram:   / zioncity.me   TikTok:   / zioncity.me   CONNECT WITH PASTOR WAYLON & DANA Pastor Waylon's Instagram:  / waylonsears  Pastor Dana's Instagram:  / danamsears

Sunday's Message: https://youtu.be/xbasXQntdxQ?si=bkL-IDcJBHyabJk1New to Zion City? Click here: https://bit.ly/3QhTbrz Find a time and attend a service with us: https://zioncity.me/locations NEXT STEPS Have you made a decision to follow Jesus? You may be wondering what's next on your journey. We want to help! Let us guide you to your next steps in your walk with Christ: https://bit.ly/3AnlHme Tucson Church, Arizona Church, Zion City, Assemblies of God, Christian Podcast, Spirit Filled Tucson Church FIND US ON SOCIAL MEDIA Instagram:   / zioncity.me   TikTok:   / zioncity.me   CONNECT WITH PASTOR WAYLON & DANA Pastor Waylon's Instagram:  / waylonsears  Pastor Dana's Instagram:  / danamsears

What is the Christian hope? Is it like wishing that God would save us when we die? How can hope be considered firm? The Christian hope is in something perfect and enduring. It is in the name of Jesus Christ. In this episode, Pastor Taylor speaks about our hope in Hebrews 6:9-20.Get Connected! https://linktr.ee/reachtulsa

Pastor Taylor speaks on Matthew 25, and encourages us to stay ready for Jesus, because He is coming back, and we need to be prepared.follow us on instagram @reallifechurchwa 26201 180th Ave. SE Covington, WA 98042 Sundays @ 8:30 | 10 | 11:30

New to Zion City? Click here: https://bit.ly/3QhTbrz Find a time and attend a service with us: https://zioncity.me/locations NEXT STEPS Have you made a decision to follow Jesus? You may be wondering what's next on your journey. We want to help! Let us guide you to your next steps in your walk with Christ: https://bit.ly/3AnlHme Tucson Church, Arizona Church, Zion City, Assemblies of God, Christian Podcast, Spirit Filled Tucson Church FIND US ON SOCIAL MEDIA Instagram:   / zioncity.me   TikTok:   / zioncity.me   CONNECT WITH PASTOR WAYLON & DANA Pastor Waylon's Instagram:  / waylonsears  Pastor Dana's Instagram:  / danamsears

New to Zion City? Click here: https://bit.ly/3QhTbrz Find a time and attend a service with us: https://zioncity.me/locations NEXT STEPS Have you made a decision to follow Jesus? You may be wondering what's next on your journey. We want to help! Let us guide you to your next steps in your walk with Christ: https://bit.ly/3AnlHme Tucson Church, Arizona Church, Zion City, Assemblies of God, Christian Podcast, Spirit Filled Tucson Church FIND US ON SOCIAL MEDIA Instagram:   / zioncity.me   TikTok:   / zioncity.me   CONNECT WITH PASTOR WAYLON & DANA Pastor Waylon's Instagram:  / waylonsears  Pastor Dana's Instagram:  / danamsears

It's easy to be a Christian in our society. All you have to do is attend church and own a Bible. You don't even have to attend church that much. But what if you're wrong? What if it takes so much more, and you're missing it? In this episode, Pastor Taylor talks about the obstacles to growing in and knowing Christ in Hebrews 5:11-6:8.Get Connected! https://linktr.ee/reachtulsa

Pastor Taylor concludes our series "HARD TO KILL" with a message on how carrying Jesus' death with us will inspire and bring life to somebody else.follow us on instagram @reallifechurchwa 26201 180th Ave. SE Covington, WA 98042 Sundays @ 8:30 | 10 | 11:30

Pastor Taylor speaks on what happens when we get knocked down, and how who we are before and who we become after matters.follow us on instagram @reallifechurchwa 26201 180th Ave. SE Covington, WA 98042 Sundays @ 8:30 | 10 | 11:30