Lessons from the Corinthian Church Part 13

At CCI Fellowship, they emphasize the importance of reaching God, each other, and the community. The speaker reflects on their favorite part of Christmas, which is singing traditional carols that contain the gospel message. They mention the significance of understanding the words and believing in the Word of God. Then they recommend a book called "The Walk of the Spirit, The Walk of Power" that discusses the role of praying in tongues. They emphasize the need to trust the Holy Spirit and not rely on intellect when it comes to the gifts of the Spirit. They encourage the congregation to be open to being filled and empowered by the Holy Spirit in the coming year. They also mention the upcoming testimony service and the importance of sharing what God has done in their lives. In 1 Corinthians 14, they discuss the importance of edification in the church service and the need for everyone to come ready to give and receive. Welcome to CCI Fellowship's Podcast, thank you for joining us. At CCI Fellowship, we are reaching God, reaching each other, and reaching our community. We pray that this week's message challenges you in your walk with the Lord, causes you to grow in your faith, and encourages you in your love for the Word of God. We can go to 1 Corinthians 14. I will say this regarding Christmas, in Fellowship group on Thursday, one of the questions was what is your favorite part of Christmas, and mine is, I would have to say, Christmas carols. The traditional ones, because contained in those songs is the gospel. And it always amazes me, the artists that record these traditional Christmas carols, who have no idea what the words mean. They sing it, they get the money from it, whatever, but the words are not life to them. The words mean nothing to them, and similarly, the Word of God itself, if we don't believe it, it doesn't produce life in us. But these songs tell the story that we needed a Savior, and He came. My favorite Christmas carol is O Holy Night, and just the words in it are just beautiful. I think that one tops all of the Christmas songs for me. One of the lines is, Here is your King, bow low before Him. And this is amazing, because it reminds us of our desperate need for a Savior. And even when we have been saved, even when we have walked with God for so long, it keeps it fresh for us. It keeps it so that we are not just doing this out of habit. We needed a Savior. And Christ came to this earth for the sole purpose of giving His life so that we could live. And that is the amazing part of Christmas. Amen? Alright, we are in 1 Corinthians 14. We are going to do verse 26 to 38. Maybe, if we get there. How many of you know how I feel about reading? I don't love to read. I don't love to read at all. Whenever I am reading a book and I get to page 100, which is usually like a month after I started. Some of you are at page 100 the first day. Fabulous, congratulations. You are great. That is not me. It takes me a long time to read, so every time I finish a book is a personal victory. So, having said that, if I recommend a book, you know that it is a good book. So, I want to recommend this book. It is called The Walk of the Spirit, The Walk of Power. And the subtitle is The Vital Role of Praying in Tongues. Currently on Amazon, it is free for Kindle. So, you don't even have to pay anything. You can get this book for free. It is a very good book. You know, I haven't read a whole lot. Let alone read a book a second time. I started reading this book again the other night and it is just as wonderful as the first time I read it. So, The Walk of the Spirit, The Walk of Power, The Vital Role of Praying in Tongues. I have shared this book with other people before. It has helped them a lot in understanding the purpose of praying in tongues. One of the things that makes me so upset at the enemy is how close people get to allowing the Spirit to baptize them, fulfill them, to empower them. How close they get to getting this prayer language. And then all of a sudden, he comes and tempts us with the thoughts of, well, I can't understand. If I can wrap my brain around it, then I will receive it. He gets us over into the intellectual aspect of things. And when it comes to the baptism of the Spirit, when it comes to the gifts of the Spirit, it is not about the intellect. In fact, Paul says, when I pray in the Spirit, my mind is not engaged. My mind is not fruitful. And then there are people that say, well, are we supposed to be mindless? No, we are supposed to be led by the Spirit. What the Scripture teaches us through the Gospel of Christ is that before Christ we are dead in our spirits. And he came to give us life so that our spirits would live and so that we would live in eternity with him. And our spirits are supposed to dominate the rest of us. We are a three-part being, spirit, soul, and body. We are a spirit that has a soul and lives in the body. And whichever one is in control, the spirit or the soul, the body follows. Our actions will follow whichever one is in control. And so Paul is saying, yes, when I am praying in the Spirit, yes, my mind is fruitless, but my spirit, which is the one that God intended to be in control in the first place, is very active and very fruitful and very productive. We cannot logic our way into the gifts of the Spirit. We can understand them. We can receive the knowledge of it. We can receive the instruction of it. Paul is giving them lots of instruction in these four chapters. So there is a place for that. But when it comes to walking it out, when it comes to moving into being empowered by the Spirit, when it comes to getting to this place where this heavenly language begins to flow through us, it is not by intellect. It is not by what we understand. It is by what our spirit connects with God. Well, I just don't understand what's coming out of my mouth. Obviously, that's what Paul said. That's not abnormal. That's not shocking. Well, hey, I've talked to a number of people, I've prayed with them, a number of people to get filled with the Spirit, to start praying in tongues, and then they get to this place and say, well, I didn't understand what I was saying and I didn't know if I was making it up or if it was actually the Holy Spirit. Walk it out in faith. Trust the Holy Spirit. You're not going to reason it out. Neither can we reason out salvation. We have to accept it by faith. By faith are you saved through grace. Not by reason are you saved through grace. By faith are you saved through grace. So as we talk specifically about this, and as we've talked in the whole of the gifts of the Spirit, which is the point of this series in the first place, is that in this next year we allow the Holy Spirit to come and fill us, to empower us as a congregation, so that these gifts that he wants to use through us for the benefit of each other can begin to flow so that we can grow as a congregation, so that we can be ministered to, and as we go out of this place we can then minister to other people. Amen? Before we start reading these verses, next week, as was said, we'll have a testimony service. So what I want you to do, if you have a testimony, send Adriana a message this week and get on the list. The format that we will have is that each person will have three minutes to give their testimony. Why three minutes? Because we want people to have an opportunity. Any one of us could stand up and take up the whole time giving testimony. So we want to hear from as many people as possible. So go ahead and send a message to Adriana. We will, next week, come in a line, and one by one we'll give our testimonies. And I'll give more instructions next week on that. Don't lose the opportunity to share what God has done in this year. Amen? Let's pray. Father, we glorify you and we magnify you. We thank you, Holy Spirit, for being here among us. We thank you, Father, that you have given us the Spirit as our teacher. We thank you, Lord, that we can understand all things, and we can understand what is your mind, because you have given us the mind of Christ, and you have given us wisdom and revelation through the Spirit. So, Father, as we look at these verses tonight, I pray that you would enlighten us, that you would instruct us, that you would help us, Lord God, to understand what it is you desire of us as we go into this new year. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. All right, instead of reading the whole section, we're going to go verse by verse or a couple of verses at a time. So, verse 26, this is where we are. How is it then, brother, whenever you come together, each of you has a psalm, has a teaching, has a tongue, has a revelation, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for edification. So, this is the first verse that we really have an idea of where Paul has been trying to work toward in his instructions of what the service is supposed to look like. Now, in some translations, you'll have this verse read this way. How shall it be, brethren? In other words, the concept is that Paul is giving an instruction that everyone should come with a psalm, or a teaching, or a tongue, or a revelation, or an interpretation. However, that doesn't follow the logic of what Paul is getting ready to instruct us in. So, this verse is actually understood as Paul saying, okay, let's summarize. What is happening in your services is that when you all come, everybody has a tongue, everybody has an interpretation, everyone has a psalm to share, everyone wants to get up and show what the Spirit is doing in them, and he is going over again and starting from the standpoint of this is what you are experiencing, but now I'm going to tell you what it should be. And the key, obviously, in this verse is let everything be done for edification. So, he's not encouraging, as some would say, that everyone come with something specific. I would say what he is encouraging through these verses is that everyone come ready to be used in one way or another. A lot of times we want to come to church and just receive. I'm just there to receive. It's been a hard week, especially with people in ministry or in missions, that's a common mentality. It's been a hard week. I've been ministering to other people all week long. I just want to come and sit and receive. And that is good. But we are also called to give. If Sunday is the only time that you fill yourself spiritually or that you feed yourself spiritually, you have a bad spiritual diet. Sunday should not be the only day that you are finding encouragement. Sunday should not be the only day that you are receiving instruction. Sunday should not be the only day that you open your Bible. And you don't even have to open your Bible anymore. We have it up there for you. How lazy can we be? We should come ready. Ready to receive from God, but also ready that if the Holy Spirit would say to us, I want you to go share something with somebody. It doesn't have to be some great spiritual revelation. It doesn't have to be some, thus saith the Lord God Almighty. Sometimes the Holy Spirit just wants you to go, Sometimes the Holy Spirit just wants you to go and say, Hi, how are you doing today? So that people know that they are seen. Know that they are loved. Know that they are a part. We get so scared that God is going to ask us to do something huge that we sideline ourselves from being used by God at all. Don't be so focused on the big that you miss the simple things that the Holy Spirit would lead you to do. And one is not better than the other, or greater than the other. Not everybody can stand up here and preach. I've heard some preachers. They shouldn't preach. It's not their gift. Not everyone is meant to be behind the pulpit. But that's why there are multiple gifts. So we are still supposed to come ready. But ready to be used in whatever way. So, verse 27. Let me say this about verse 26. This verse, instead of being prescriptive, is descriptive of what was going on. So verse 27 and 28. If anyone speaks in a tongue, let there be two or at the most three, and someone must interpret what they say. But if no one is present who can interpret, they must be silent in your church meeting and speak in tongues to God privately. Remember as we've been going through this, we've found that there is the prayer language of tongues where Paul says at the beginning of the chapter, you do well to speak in tongues. You're edifying yourself. You're speaking the mysteries of God through the Spirit. You are speaking by the Spirit. But if it's in the context of the congregation, then there must be an interpretation. But Paul says no more than two or three should speak in tongues. And speak one at a time. And there must be an interpretation. Why do you think two or three? Why does Paul put a limit on it? So that's why I say that verse 26 is not descriptive as, or prescriptive as of everyone should have a word. He comes and he says, next, two or three. Why? Well, throughout Scripture, it is very well established that things be true in the mouth of two or three witnesses. And so the instruction from the Holy Spirit through Paul is, let this pattern continue. That in the mouth of two or three, let things be established. But at the same time, we don't need 30 people giving a message in tongues. We would never get through the service. We would never get to the things that God would want. And quite honestly, it keeps things in a way that is manageable for us to accept and receive and process. We've been in services where somebody has prophesied over us. And just by the end of that prophecy, we're like, what did he say? I hope somebody recorded that because I don't remember what he said. Because when he got to this part, that part really struck a chord, and I was thinking about that, and I forgot to listen to the rest of what he said. So let's just look at this logistically. Logistically, two or three is enough. But spiritually, it's a principle that is throughout Scripture. Deuteronomy 19.15, a single witness shall not suffice. Only the evidence of two witnesses or of three witnesses shall be established. John 8.17, in your law, it is written that the testimony of two people is true. Matthew 18.16, but if ye will not hear, take with you one or two more, that by the mouth of two or three witnesses, every word may be established. 2 Corinthians 13.1, by the mouth of two or three witnesses, every word shall be established. There's even one other verse that says, don't receive an accusation against an elder unless it is in the mouth of two or three witnesses. It is God's design that there be confirmation. So if somebody comes to you and says, honey, God wants me to share with you this and this and this and this, and it's the first time you heard it, the temptation, if we don't understand this principle, is to say, oh, well, he said that God said this, and so I guess I must pattern what I do next after this. No. You wait for confirmation. Because God will confirm things in the mouth of two or three witnesses. He even did so with Christ. Multiple times. There's a verse in 2 Peter 1 John that says, In heaven there are three witnesses, the Father, the Word, and the Spirit. And on earth there are three witnesses, the Spirit, the water, and the blood. Three. Three. God works that way. So if somebody comes and says, well, God wants me to share this with you, then you say, thank you. Appreciate your obedience. And then you say, Holy Spirit, I'm just going to put this aside until you bring confirmation. But if two comes, three comes, four comes, ten comes, then you know it's from God. Because He will give overwhelming confirmation. And He will cause us to know what is from Him. Verse 29, Let two or three people prophesy, and let others evaluate what is said. That's a great verse. Again, we're on the two or three, because in the mouth of two or three, let everything be established. But then He says, let everyone else judge. Well, what is that? Who's supposed to be doing the judging? Who is qualified to do the judging? Because somebody might bring a message that maybe you feel like, I don't know if that's something I want to receive. It doesn't mean it's not God. So we can judge, oh no, that's not God, simply because we don't like what's being said. That's why it's let everyone judge. More specifically, it's let those who also flow in this gift of prophecy, or in the discerning of spirits, as 1 Corinthians 12 talks about, judge whether what is being said is of God or not. Does it taste good? Does it fit with what you know God would say? Psalm says, oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. We're not supposed to blindly accept things. There's supposed to be a check and a balance so that as a congregation, as a body of Christ, we can move together in what is edifying and build us up in love. So let two or three prophesy, but let everyone judge. Now, but if someone is prophesying and another person receives a revelation from the Lord, the one who is speaking must stop. In this way, all who prophesy will have a turn to speak, one after the other, so that everyone will learn and be encouraged. That kind of sounds a little weird. So who's right, the first one prophesying or the second one prophesying? Yes. Well, how does that work? If you remember back in 1 Corinthians 13, verse 9, it says, now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture. Even when prophecy is given, it's still only a fraction of the whole. I mentioned before that God had spoke through multiple people that I would be in ministry. But this is not what I envisioned. This wasn't the whole picture. Hunter and Fellowship wasn't even on the radar. Nobody goes into missions and starts a fellowship for missionaries. Not heard of. But that's what God did. We only saw part of the picture. So, if two or three prophesy, and the first one gets a revelation from God, but then the second one gets a revelation from God that gives a more clear understanding of the first one, or gives another part of it, it doesn't mean that that person missed God. It means that the Holy Spirit, through two or three, is giving us a more complete picture of what He wants to communicate. Why? Why doesn't He just tell the one? Seems like a bunch of confusion. No. It seems like God is keeping His spiritual laws. In the mouth of two or three, let it be established. But all of it in order. And all of it in accordance with the Holy Spirit. And people can take turns. One after the other. Verse 32, Remember that people who prophesy are in control of their spirit and can take turns. This is a great verse, because there's people still today who don't know this verse is in there. And they think, well, I just became overwhelmed by the Spirit and I had to blurt it out. No, that's why people think we're crazy. Because of your inability to understand that there's discipline in the Spirit. The Spirit of the Prophet is subject to the Prophet. Meaning, you can wait your turn. You don't have to interrupt. And that's what was happening in the Corinthian church. There was a lot of interruption. There was a lot of, hey, look at me. There was a lot of drawing attention. There was a lot of, while somebody was prophesying, someone else stood up and said, mine's better. I have better understanding. You can sit down now. I have a better connection with God than you do. It was all out of pride and showboating. And Paul says, um, no. You can wait your turn. Wow, the Spirit is just burning inside of me. Yeah, the Spirit. The Spirit of God. The Spirit of peace and order. The Spirit that is the one giving the message He's the one that's giving the message. He's not going to create disorder. So it burns within you to say it. But you wait your turn. Well, I have to obey the Spirit. Yeah, the Spirit said wait your turn. Does that, do we get that? Do we understand? I was talking with someone last week about some of this, and it is interesting that sometimes the Spirit will reveal things to us that He doesn't necessarily want us to share. So we have to discern when the Holy Spirit gives us something, do you want me to say this right now? Or do you want me to pray about this right now? Because sometimes the revelation comes just for us to intercede, not for us to actually say. That's the Spirit of the prophet is subject to the prophet. And the Spirit of the prophet must be subject to the Holy Spirit. Let others evaluate. It brings us to this example of Acts 17, verse 11. Those that were in the town of Berea searched the scriptures daily to confirm what Paul was preaching. You see, it is the spiritually ignorant that are so easily deceived by false prophecy and false teachers. Which is why if Sunday is your only day for spiritual food, you put yourself in danger. You need to be seeking God throughout the week, in the Word throughout the week, in communication with the Holy Spirit throughout the week, so that we can recognize when there is falsity. So we can recognize when there is the enemy coming in trying to, I just want to say the word in Spanish, engañar, trick, deceive, lie to us. You know the example of those who can detect counterfeit money. They don't study all of the versions of the counterfeit. They study the real one. Because it's impossible to study all the counterfeits because they keep coming out with other twisted versions of it. But if you know the true one, it's a whole lot easier to recognize the false ones. So if we keep ourselves in a place where we know the true word of God, then when the false comes, we're able to recognize it. When someone stands up and says, Thus says the Lord, we can know whether it's from him or not. And if the topic of tongues wasn't fun enough and created enough division in the church, then we come to verse 34 and 35 where Paul says, All you women, stop talking. Like I said at the beginning of this series, the church has done an amazing job at screwing up what was meant to be a gift from God for the benefit of the body. And when we get to this verse, it's no less the case. There are those who want to say that the first part of this chapter was only for the Corinthians, that the gifts of the Spirit aren't for today, that tongues is not something for today, but yet they want to enforce verse 34 and 35. You can't have it both ways. You either take the word of God as it is, or you don't take it at all. We can't pick and choose which ones we want and which ones we don't want, what we like and what we don't like. Well, Pastor, do you believe everything in Scripture? I believe it because it's the word of God. Do I understand all of it? Not yet. Do I like all of it? Probably not. But that's not up to me. It's God's word. All of it is His word. So we have to take all of it. But remember, Scripture is the best commentary on Scripture, right? Scripture is the best commentary on Scripture. Why? Because in the mouth of two or three, let it be established. So you will find within Scripture that there are two or three things that can corroborate everything else. Verse 34. Women should be silent during the church meetings. It is not proper for them to speak. The word proper in the original Greek is actually disgraceful. It's a pretty heavy verse. It's disgraceful for a woman to speak in public. They should be submissive, just as the law says. If they have any questions, they should ask their husbands at home, for it is improper for women to speak in church meetings. What in the world does this mean? Well, let's consider some other things before we consider what this means. In the two minutes that I've got left. And my wife is shaking her head. Deep subject for two minutes, but I'm going to make it very easy for you. This whole section of Scripture, chapter 11 to chapter 14, has to do with what? Disorder. He starts off in chapter 11 by saying, Women who pray or prophesy with their head uncovered. Right there is enough to make us pause in this verse where women should be silent in the church and say, Oh, wait a second. What has become the popular teaching doesn't seem to go along with what the teaching is that Paul has given us in chapter 11. Women who pray or prophesy without their heads covered. People are so focused on the head covering that they miss the fact that Paul said, Women can pray or prophesy in the assembly. So what does that have to do with women should be silent during the church? Is he not contradicting himself? No, because the word does not contradict itself. The word confirms itself. What was happening then? Well, that's a good question. Because we have where Paul says, Women can pray and prophesy. We have in the book of Acts where Philip the evangelist had daughters that prophesied. We have in the Old Testament where there were women who were prophets. So we don't have the God who is the same yesterday, today, and forever, speak through women in the Old Testament, and then get to this side of the cross and say, Nope, women have to shut up. So what does it mean? It means there can't be disorder. And what was happening in these congregations is that in the culture, obviously you had women sit on one side and men sit on the other. I've been in churches here in Honduras that are the same way. Men and women don't sit on the same side. Husband and wives don't sit on the same side. They don't sit together as families. Women on that side, men on this side. We went in a church. Adriana sat down beside me. And then she realized she was on the wrong side. This unholy woman. And she moved to the other side. Why? Out of respect. But women on this side, when they didn't understand something, called over to their husband. I don't understand. Can you explain it? Which what? Causes what? Disorder. Paul wasn't saying women are stupid and should be quiet in the church. I know stupid is a heavy word. But that is what has come with this ungodly teaching that has sidelined women from being used through the gifts of the Spirit. It's stupid doctrine is what it is. Paul says they can prophesy. They can pray. But if they have questions, remember that women were not educated. Didn't have opportunity to be educated. In fact, what we find in these verses is instructions from Paul that enable women And he says to the husbands, by saying they should ask their husbands at home, he puts upon the husband, upon the man, the responsibility for spiritual formation in his own house. Where in the culture, women were just treated as objects. And Paul says, no, men, you're responsible for this woman. She's a person whom Christ came to give his life for. She's not an object. Remember in chapter 11, he was talking about headship and authority with the whole head covering thing. Because women, in the freedom and equality that they found through Christ, threw off all order and submission and decency. And came in not with this desire to worship God and to be used by God. They came in with this freedom of, I'm my own woman, you can't tell me what to do. I can hear God just like you. You know this happened in the Old Testament too. Moses' sister and his brother got to the place where they said, well, who's Moses? Who does Moses think he is, that he's the only one that can hear from God? He didn't know what happened. They got leprosy. And Moses prayed for them and the leprosy went away. God takes order seriously. He takes headship seriously. So Paul is not saying women have no place to be used in the church. He's saying, let's get to decency and order. Pretty easy, right? He says women can learn. Women can be used. Women should learn. But you men, stop treating your women like objects. And start taking responsibility for their formation. Well, what if I'm not married? That's a good question. There's nothing here that says that you can't ask the person that was preaching. You can't ask the person who was given the message in the first place. God desires that we learn. He's not up there with all these rules and regulations of no. This chapter is not a chapter of strict restriction. This is a chapter of freedom. It's a chapter of revelation. It's a chapter of empowerment. So that, as we've read in Ephesians chapter 4 multiple times, 4.16, 4.16, that every joint will supply and that through love the body causes itself to grow. That's what we want. That's what we want. Paul affirms that women are encouraged to learn. If they have questions, that's fine. Questions are good. And in the context with other instructions Paul gives in the rest of the counsel of Scripture, this is not a verse that limits, but a verse that gives structure. So then verse 33, going back to that, we have this that gives us our foundation. For God is not a God of disorder, but of peace, as in all the meetings of God's holy people. You're not special, Corinth. And that's actually the verse that follows the one that we have read. He tells them, you're not special. The word of God didn't originate with you. All the other churches have this down. How do we know that? Because there's not a letter to the other churches talking about this. There's a letter to the Corinthian church talking about this. Paul says, just be like the rest of the churches. There's order. Because God's a God of order and peace. I was preaching about this one time, and I only tell this story as an example of what was happening in the Corinthian church because it happened here in our church. As I was preaching about this, as I was talking about the Holy Spirit, over in this section over here, somebody who did not agree with what I was saying, got together with the people around him, he drew their attention to him, to spend the whole time while I was preaching, refuting the thing that I was saying, based on what he believed. And it created disorder. And it robbed the people that were around him of their faith. And it robbed the people that were around him of hearing what the Holy Spirit would teach them, because he was more interested in proving himself right, and proving me wrong, than just allowing the Holy Spirit to do his work. That's what was happening in the Corinthian church. That same spirit is around today. That same spirit of division, disorder, it's around today. So let's pursue what God wants, while we are cognizant, while we are aware, so that the devil cannot bring division in, he cannot bring disorder in, and we can be formed and trained and used in the way that God wants us to be. Amen? Let's stand together. As the worship team comes, let me just pray. Father, we glorify you and magnify you. We thank you, God, for your Word. Your Word is spirit and it is life. Your Word is power. Your Word is deliverance. Your Word is freedom. And I pray, Lord God, that your Word would be implanted in us today. That we would go from this place meditating on these things that are in your Word, so that you can teach us, and you can form us and shape us more into the image of Christ, in Jesus' name. Amen. For more information about our church, contact us at fellowships.cci at gmail.com. That's fellowships.cci at gmail.com. Or follow us on social media. We hope to see you or hear from you soon. Blessings.