Lessons from the Corinthian Church Part 14

In this message, Paul challenges the Corinthians about their pride and self-importance. He reminds them that they are not the only church and should not think of themselves more highly than they should. Paul encourages them to pursue love and desire spiritual gifts, but to use them in a way that edifies and builds up the church. He emphasizes the importance of allowing prophecy and speaking in tongues, as long as everything is done properly and in order. Paul addresses the immaturity of the Corinthians in their understanding of spiritual gifts and emphasizes the simplicity of these teachings. He urges them to embrace the gifts of the Spirit and not to focus on the negative aspects, but to promote and allow the manifestation of these gifts. 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. Praise God. Open your Bible to 1 Corinthians 14. We are finally coming to the end of this series. Have you enjoyed this series? Do you remember the series? The 14 parts is a long time and there have been some breaks in the middle of it, so hopefully you have your notes, and you can go back and look over them. Remind yourselves what was said in the previous chapters and meditate on the things that God would teach you throughout this series. We have 5 verses left. In verse 36, Paul gets pretty personal with them and he goes directly at their opinion of themselves. He challenges them, he confronts them, he exposes them in regards to the way that they have approached these things of God. The way they have approached each other, the way they have approached their times of communion and congregating together. He really just says to them, you are not as special as you think. In other places, in Paul's letters, he says, do not think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but think of others as better than yourselves. In verse 36, he says, or do you think God's word originated with you Corinthians? Are you the only ones to whom it was given? If you claim to be a prophet or think you are spiritual, you should recognize that what I am saying is a command from the Lord himself. But if you do not recognize this, you yourself will not be recognized. So my dear brothers and sisters, summing everything up, be eager to prophesy and don't forbid speaking in tongues. Be sure that everything is done properly and in order. And Paul ends his time of instruction, his answering their questions with that phrase. Make sure that everything is done properly and in order. If you look at verse 1 of 15, he changes gears per se. So we can take this as a definite shift point in what he is saying. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this day. We thank you Lord God for your presence here, for your anointing. We thank you Father for this new year and the opportunity Lord God to start it in your house. We thank you Father for the declaration that we will proclaim this year of abundant harvest. We pray Lord God that you would cause that word to get deep within our hearts, that you would help us Father, through the revelation of the Holy Spirit, to apply it by faith to our lives and to have an expectation Lord God of what you are going to do in this year. To keep our focus Father on allowing you to be glorified in every circumstance of our lives. Father, we pray that as we look at your word and as we discuss things tonight, we pray Lord God that you would give us understanding by your Spirit. That you would challenge us, that you would instruct us, and that you would draw us closer to you. In Jesus' name, Amen. So he says, do you think the word originated with you Corinthians? In other words, he's coming to them and he says, do you think you're the only church? Do you think you're the ones that get to set the standard? Do you think that you are isolated from the rest of the body of Christ? Do you think that since you are so spiritual that everyone else is wrong and you are right? I think this verse, these couple verses, could actually be very applicable in the church as a whole today as we have come into so many different denominations of believers and those that confess that Christ is Lord. There are those denominations that are absolutely convinced that they are the only ones that are going to get to heaven. That any other denomination is false and that people aren't really saved. That's that mentality of, we are right and everyone else is wrong. The revelation that we have is the correct one and everyone else is wrong. And this is what was being propagated in the Corinthian church as they would stand up and remember in this chapter, Paul is dealing with the benefit of the prayer language of the tongues. He's dealing with the benefit of prophecy in the congregation. And he's dealing with the benefit of a message in tongues along with interpretation for the edification of the body. And what was happening in them and among their ranks were people were standing up giving these revelations that they were getting as a display of their own holiness and their own proximity to the Holy Spirit. And Paul says, you're just making fools of yourselves. You're not doing anything to edify each other. You're eager to have gifts. You're eager to be used. You're eager for the things of the Spirit. That is great. He doesn't deny that in them. What he's correcting is their use of it and their perspective of themselves as God uses them through these things. In verse 1 of chapter 14, he says, pursue love and desire, spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy. He gives this encouragement. Do this. Pursue love. Pursue spiritual gifts. He doesn't negate that. He doesn't tell them not to do it. He tells them to go after these things, but go after them with love in a manner that edifies. And so he brings this correction to them here at the end and he says, let's remember that you're not the only church in this great move of God. All of the other churches that are your brothers and sisters, this is how things are being done. I said one week, I don't remember what week it was, but we don't find these instructions in any of the other letters that Paul wrote. Why? Well, it could be that those churches didn't have problems with these. When Paul wrote a letter to each of the churches, he was dealing with what was going on in their congregations. For us now, we take the collection of those letters because in any given congregation, one of those things is happening. That we need instruction on, that we need correction on, that we need revelation from, that we need to grow in. We take it as a whole, and God made sure those letters were in his holy scripture so that as a whole, those things would instruct our lives. But the thing that we find within the Corinthian church was an immaturity when it comes to spiritual gifts. In chapter 3, let me show you this really quickly. Turn to chapter 3. It's not up there. You actually have to look at it. Chapter 3, verse 1. And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people, but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ. I fed you with milk, not with solid food, for until now you were not able to receive it. And even now, you are still not able, for you are still carnal, for where there are envies, where there are envies, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men? Aren't you still struggling with this? Aren't you still immature? Can't I come to you and bring to you this spiritual truth? But no, I've got to feed you with milk. What does that say about what comes after that statement? What does that say about the rest of this letter to the Corinthians? If he said to them, I couldn't come to you and speak to you spiritually deep truths. I had to come to you and bring you milk. I had to come to you and bring to you things easy to understand, because you weren't able to receive the meat, I have to give you the milk. To me, what that shows us is that everything that follows from the rest of chapter 3 and through the rest of this letter, these are the simple things of God. At the beginning of this series, I made the statement that the church throughout history has done a marvelous job of making these things difficult. We've done a marvelous job of putting in obstacles for people. The church has done a marvelous job of even going to the point of saying, no, this isn't for today. And there's nowhere in these verses that says it isn't for today. We're the ones that made it difficult. Paul's perspective of the things that he's teaching the Corinthians is that these things are milk. This isn't even getting into the meaty things of God. This is milk stuff. And yet we have taken the milk and choked on it and made it difficult and made it hard and made it something that is restrictive instead of something that brings life and freedom. A lot of people will take this teaching of 1 Corinthians 14 in regards to prayer language and the use of the gifts of the Spirit in the congregation and focus on the things that Paul says not to do. They focus on the things of, well, if tongues are spoken in the congregation, there better be an interpretation. If there's not, you're out of order and you need to stop and be quiet. What about providing an environment so that those things can happen? We are quick to put a clamp on it and very slow to open the door to it. We focus, just because we are humans, on the negative aspect of things rather than focusing on the positive. Paul says, I thank my God that I speak in tongues more than all of you. And here in verse 39, he says, allow prophecy and don't forbid speaking in tongues. We have to address that. We have to be mindful of that verse. We have to understand that it is there and it is instruction and embrace it. So then we should allow prophecy. We should allow the manifestation of the gifts of the Spirit. We should allow and promote speaking in tongues because as we've read in this chapter, it edifies us personally when it's a prayer language and it edifies the congregation whenever there's interpretation along with it. We can't negate verse 39. We can't pretend like it's not there. And the interesting thing is that there are people that will take that verse and say, well, this was a specific instruction for the Corinthian church. Okay, well, then you have to apply that to the whole chapter. And in this chapter it says women should keep silent in the church. So then if you're going to negate the gifts of the Spirit, then you also have to negate that women should be silent in the church. But the ones that want to negate the use of the gifts of the Spirit in the church also want to embrace that women should be silent in the church. It goes together. You can't pick and choose what you want and what you don't want. You either take the Bible as a whole or you don't take any of it. All scripture is given by God and inspired and profitable. All of it. You may not understand all of it. I don't understand all of it. You may not agree with all of it. You may not like all of it, but that doesn't change that it's God's Word. And you take it as a whole or you don't take it at all. We can't pick and choose. We have to pursue understanding. We have to pursue revelation. And all of that comes through the Holy Spirit. In 1 John, John says this anointing that is in you will teach you. You have no need of a teacher. John says you have no need of a teacher, but in Ephesians Paul says that Jesus gave teachers as a gift to the church. So which is it? Do we not need a teacher or do we need a teacher? So again, we have to come to this place of understanding that scripture is the best commentary on scripture, right? The Spirit speaks through our teachers. And He speaks to us. And as this anointing that resides in us through the Holy Spirit teaches us and guides us in all truth, as Jesus said the Holy Spirit's job is, He confirms in us what is being said is actually the truth. There are false teachers out there, but there are really good ones too. And it's the Holy Spirit inside of us as we develop that relationship with Him, as we develop that communication with Him, that we're able to recognize when something is right, when something is wrong, and even when it's just something that we don't understand yet but need to pursue more understanding of. I asked one week how many have a prayer language and a certain number raised their hand. Not everybody did. Does that mean that it's not for everybody because only a portion of people here have a prayer language? No. It means that we need to pursue things more. I know people whose understanding of the gifts of the Spirit and of prayer language is different than what others have because their understanding of it has only reached a certain point of maturity, where others have gone beyond that and received more understanding from the Spirit. But we kind of get into that place where the Corinthians get into, thinking that our understanding is the correct one. And that when somebody else brings something else beyond what we understand, they're wrong because what I understand is correct. And Paul says, no, no, no, no. Do you think you're the only one God's speaking to? Do you think you're the only one that the Holy Spirit is bringing revelation to? Are you the only one that God communicates with? Absolutely not. I remember years ago when we were first doing ministry here in Honduras, I got a newsletter from somebody and he said in his newsletter, he made this statement, this is the only place in Honduras where revival fires are burning. And I thought, well, that's a pretty arrogant statement and a pretty ignorant statement because his ministry was focused in that area. His knowledge of what was going on in the rest of the country was limited. So how can you make that statement? This is the only place that God's moving. This is the only place where God is showing his power. Why do we do that? Why do we get into that place where we just think that our level of spiritual understanding is it? That we have reached the top? That we have perfect knowledge of everything? We hurt ourselves when we do that. And inevitably we hurt other people when we do that as well. Because we look at them and say, oh, they're wrong. How foolish can they be? We look at them and we're like, we're better than them. Because we have perfect understanding of all things. Can we as a congregation, I'll make this very personal, can we as a congregation make the commitment that this year, in spite of where each of us is in our maturity and understanding of scripture, that together we will pursue the Holy Spirit to bring us more revelation and more understanding? Is that something that we can commit to? Amen? Paul also says, if you claim to be a prophet or think that you are spiritual, you should recognize that what I'm saying is a command from the Lord himself. In other words, if you are so connected to the Holy Spirit, if you are so desirous to be used by the Spirit to benefit others and not just lift yourself up, if you really are somebody who is spiritual, then you understand that these things are from God. How many in here are spiritual? Are you sure? Nobody wants to raise their hand. I'm trying. There's a series that we're going to do in February. It's on identity. When we understand who we are in Christ, who God has made us, what his intention was when he sent Christ to save us, everything in our spiritual lives starts with that. Identity. The people that I have encountered in my lifetime, those who understand who they are in Christ, it's not that they don't go through difficulty. It's not that there aren't times of torment and tribulation. Jesus said, in this world, you'll have trouble. The New Testament tells us it's our privilege to share in the suffering of Christ. There will be suffering. But the ones who understand who they are in Christ, the ones who understand where they are in Christ, the ones that understand what they have been given through Christ are the ones that we see make it through those trials and tribulations with much greater victory. Because once we understand that foundation, from that solid foundation, everything else grows. Everything else is built. But where does that come from? Where does that understanding originate from? Where does that revelation initiate in us, in the Holy Spirit? The relationship with the Holy Spirit. And Paul's instruction to them is, pursue the things of the Holy Spirit. Why? Because out of that, everything else flows. Everything else flows. If we are spiritual, we will understand. Even if we are having a hard time understanding, those that are spiritual will say, I don't understand it yet, but I'm going to go to the ultimate teacher, who is the Holy Spirit, and ask him to bring me revelation and understanding. Instead of saying, I don't understand it, so you must be wrong. That's the easiest thing. That's the easiest thing to do. But the other one brings life. The other one brings unity. The other one brings growth. The other one puts us in a position where we can help other people. So I was praying about being reminded that a lot of churches go into three weeks of fasting to start the year. I really didn't feel like we were supposed to do that. Those who have been part of fasts in the past have heard me say that I love food too much to do a fast just because. If I'm going to fast, it's going to be because the Holy Spirit has given us the instruction to do so, especially leading the congregation into a time like that. So I was asking God and saying, I don't want to do it just out of habit or just out of custom because then it loses its meaning. It loses its purpose. It loses its effectiveness. And as I was praying before service, what came to me through the Spirit, because it's the Spirit that brings revelation, it's the Spirit that brings instruction, what came to me was this. If you have a prayer language, it's a challenge, not a time of fasting to seek, but a challenge to incorporate what the Spirit has given us. So I want you to listen through all of it before you allow questions in your mind. What about this? What about that? Just listen. If you have a prayer language already, you're filled with the Spirit, God's given you this prayer language, you know how to use your prayer language. The challenge is, are you using it? Some people who have this prayer language will only use it in a moment in a service where there's a time of praising God. It's very compartmentalized. Tongues happen here in this situation. As I said before, Paul said, I speak in tongues more than everyone, more than all of you, when, at any given time, any given day, in all situations. He's responsible for writing a lot of the New Testament. Where do you think that revelation came from? Where do you think that insight came from? It came from the time that he spent with the Holy Spirit. So our challenge, for those who have this prayer language of tongues, is whatever level you are using your tongues throughout the week, whatever level you are communicating in the Spirit with the Holy Spirit and with God, increase it. If you, in your prayer time every day, you know, you're doing your devotions, you spend some time in prayer, you pray for a half an hour, all of it is in a known language, start using some of that time to pray in tongues. Or a portion of that, you already pray in tongues during that time, increase. Spend more time communicating with the Holy Spirit on the spiritual level, not just our intellectual level. So that is the challenge for those who have this prayer language of tongues. Well, what about those who don't? I'm sure you were thinking that. There's instructions for you, too. So the challenge to you starts with increasing your prayer time, increasing the time that you spend in prayer every day. While you are praying, ask the Holy Spirit to bring you revelation concerning his gifts and concerning this prayer language of tongues. And ask the Holy Spirit to give you this language and submit yourself to that, allow him to do it. Well, I don't know if I want it or not. Well, that's a good thing to be praying about over these next couple of weeks. What's the goal, Pastor? Ultimately, the goal is that we grow in our ability to understand when the Holy Spirit is speaking to us. Well, he only speaks to me every so often, yeah? Well, if you grew in communication with him, he would speak to you more often. Well, how do I know if it's me or him? Well, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. Well, if it's me or if it's him, continue to listen. Continue to open that channel of communication with him, and you will grow in understanding what is from him and what isn't. There's nobody that gets it right 100% of the time. Not one person. So don't let that discourage you. Don't let that detract you. Well, you know, I might be wrong. Yes, you will be. At some point in time, you will be wrong. It's okay. God's grace is sufficient for that. But that should never keep us from not developing a relationship and communication with the Holy Spirit. It should encourage us that he'll just speak again. Well, what if I get it wrong and he stops speaking? No, that doesn't happen. In Luke's gospel, Jesus said, if you being evil know how to give good gifts to your children, if you being natural, if you being carnal, you know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more, one of my favorite verses in scripture, how much more will God, will the Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask? It's a promise. It's a sure thing. To them that ask. It's a promise. It's a sure thing. How much more, if we know how to give gifts to each other, we just had Christmas, right? We gave gifts to each other. We know how to do that. How much more will the Father fulfill his promise to give the Holy Spirit to them that ask? So we're not going to do 21 days of fasting. We're going to do a 21 day, what do I call it? Challenge. We'll just call it a challenge. Prayer challenge. 21 day prayer challenge. So start tomorrow. Three Sundays from now, we'll fulfill that. But this is what I want from you. One, I want you to join, obviously, and participate. We're a congregation. Let's do this together. If you don't join, we're not going to kick you out of the congregation. I'm not going to force anybody, but I'm going to strongly ask you that we do this together. Be committed to it. And let's grow together. But what I want from you is that over these next couple weeks, as you pray, as you increase your time of communication with the Holy Spirit, he will increase the amount of revelation that he brings to you. And it could be something small. It could be something big that you're really needing revelation on. Let us know what that is. Hey, I was praying the other day, and this is what the Holy Spirit spoke to me. It will be a time that we can testify to each other of what the Holy Spirit has done. And within that testimony, be encouraged ourselves that if God has done it for them, just like we did last week, then God can do it for me. Because not one of us is more special to God than the other. Not one of us has more priority with God than the other. We all have access to his throne through Jesus Christ. We all have access to the Holy Spirit through faith. Just believe. Just believe. So I hope that you'll join us in this prayer challenge. As we wrap up this series, you remember that I had said that there are five recurring themes. And I'll end with this so the worship team can come up. There's a number of people looking at me and looking at the clock. So I am finishing. Five recurring themes throughout these chapters. So whether it is Chapter 11 started out with submission to headship and authority. It went into how to celebrate the Lord's Supper. It went into tongue, the gifts of the Spirit, not being ignorant concerning the gifts of the Spirit, that we are all one body, that the body nourishes itself, builds itself up. Every member of the body is needed. Then it goes into love, that no matter what we do, it has to be through love. Because if it's not done through love, then it's worthless. Then into this chapter of prophecy and tongues and order in the church meeting. All of that, Paul brings us these five things that we can center in on. And the first one is unity. A body that focuses only on one part is an unhealthy body. But a body that focuses on the whole is one that has life and health. The second one is love. To love one another is to look out for the well-being of each other. Which is our motivation for being used by the Spirit. If we love one another, we'll be willing when the Holy Spirit gives us instruction to do something. To do it. It's what compels us. The third thing is order. God is a God of order, disorder and division cause grave harm to the body and dishonor God. The fourth thing is sacrifice. Serve each other out of a pure heart, just as Christ gave himself for us. And the fifth thing is knowledge. Instruction prepares us for serving each other well, if we accept the instruction. Let's stand together. Father, we thank you for this day and we thank you for this time of studying your Word. We thank you, Lord God, for the instruction that has been given to us, the example from the Corinthian church. We thank you that we can learn from their example. And though, Father, the things that we see as unhealthy, and though, Father, the things that we see as problems in their congregation may not be the same ones as ours, Lord, we have now received instruction, revelation and understanding for how to move forward as a congregation, how to support each other, how to pursue you, how to cause growth in unity amongst us. God, we pray that you would take this series as long as it was and as easy as it is to forget what was talked about before. I pray that you would take all of this, that you would cement it in our hearts, that by your Holy Spirit, you would help us to meditate on these things, and that you would cause us to grow and mature so that we might be those who are spiritual. So that we might be those who can recognize the instructions that come from you, so that you can take this congregation and use it, not just to build each other up, Lord, but use us to bring others into your kingdom, that you would cause this body to grow. Father, we bless your name. We surrender these next three weeks to you, this prayer challenge that you have given us, and we pray, Lord God, that you would guide us each from the place that we are, that we would take this challenge to heart, that we would receive the challenge, face it with courage, face it with faith, and the determination to go through it. Father, we bless your name. We thank you for who you are. We thank you for your love for us. We thank you for empowering us. We thank you that you have given us everything pertaining to life and godliness. In Jesus' name, amen. If you would like prayer or more information about our church, contact us at fellowship.cci at gmail.com, that's fellowship.cci at gmail.com, or follow us on social media. We hope to see you or hear from you soon. Blessings.