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A Deep Dive into 1 Corinthians 12-14 and Galatians 5
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Father, we thank you for your word. So many came here tonight from all over the city, fighting traffic because they know your word is important. We have people watching online who believe your word changes our lives.
Your word is the plumb line to our lives when we begin to drift off course. Though our voices can sometimes drown out your Spirit, your word always remains true. It's what we return to when we feel ourselves getting off track.
I pray tonight for simplicity in our approach, that we would let the word shine for what it is. May your sons and daughters see you more clearly, and may Jesus be glorified. Give us wisdom, as you promised. Help us gain understanding and follow you in all that we do.
I'm passionate about nights like this because they give us a chance to talk candidly about things we don't have time for in Sunday services. In regular services, new people are experiencing church for the first time, and there's a limited window before attention wanes.
Nights like tonight are valuable because we can dive deeper into scripture. This is especially important in a world driven by personalities. Everybody has a different personality, and sometimes we get attached to someone's charisma. We need to be careful—anybody's personality can take you off course.
Anytime we can return to the word, it's a powerful endeavor. In a world full of opinions, we need the objective truth of Scripture.
My goal tonight is to help you become a self-feeder. There's been extensive study showing that in American churches, many believers rely entirely on pastors to feed them spiritually. At some point in your spiritual journey, there must be an inflection point where you become a self-feeder.
I'm not saying you should stop wanting to be fed by good teaching. I'm saying you shouldn't come to Sunday on fumes because you haven't read Scripture all week. Sunday should be an overflow—when you've been reading, praying, and studying all week, then Sunday becomes a time to rejoice together as the word is broken and you celebrate how good Jesus is.
I want you to rhythmically see how you can study Scripture at home, the way we'll do it together tonight: read a little, unpack it, read a little more, unpack some more.
We're starting in 1 Corinthians 12-14. Paul is writing to the Corinthians to address serious problems in their church. Let me be honest: this church was jacked up. There was gross sexual misconduct—a man was being intimate with his father's wife. The church was in the midst of a polytheistic, pagan city with temple prostitution and all kinds of chaos.
But in the midst of all this, one of their major problems was fighting over spiritual gifts. They were having the same conversation the disciples had with Jesus: "Which one of us is the greatest? Which one of us is most important in the hierarchy?"
They wanted to know which gifts were most important, probably because they thought: Whatever the most important gift is, that's what I want. So they started fighting, and that's why Paul writes with clarity.
In 1 Corinthians 14:1, Paul says: "Pursue love and earnestly desire spiritual gifts."
Notice the two commands:
There should be a hunger and desire for more of God in the church. But Paul uses two different words: he tells us to "pursue" love and "desire" gifts. This is the proper balance.
We need hunger and desire for spiritual gifts to be manifested, but always in accordance with the pursuit of love and the other fruit of the Spirit. Love is the context. When God established everything—marriage, relationships, community—he always placed it in the context of love.
There needs to be a loving environment for people to lay down their burdens at the feet of Jesus and give their whole lives to him. If there's gossip, backbiting, and infighting within the church, it's hard for us to flourish the way God intends.
Over the last three weeks, we've focused on:
The big idea: The gifts of the Spirit reveal the power of Christ. The fruit of the Spirit reveals the personality of Christ. Both are needed for a healthy, Christ-centered ministry.
"Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be uninformed... Now there is a variety of gifts but the same spirit. There are varieties of service but the same Lord and there are variety of activities to be done but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the spirit for what? The common good." (1 Corinthians 12:1, 4-7)
Gifts are given by God for the common good, not personal glorification.
I grew up in a Pentecostal environment where we could create spiritual hierarchies. "Sister So-and-so can read your mail!" "Brother So-and-so is so close to God!" While I absolutely respect people's spiritual journey, gifts are not for elevating individuals. If someone has great prophecy but no fruit of the Spirit in their life, they shouldn't be elevated just because their gift manifests supernaturally.
Remember the story from The Ten Commandments: Moses had a staff that turned into a snake. The Pharaoh's magicians could do the same thing. Just because something seems supernatural doesn't mean it's from God.
Gifts are not given to cause distractions. They're not given to draw attention to ourselves or create spiritual celebrities.
From 1 Corinthians 12:8-10, the nine gifts are:
"For to one is given through the spirit the utterance of wisdom, to another the utterance of knowledge, to another faith, to another gifts of healing, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of languages, to another the interpretation of languages."
I break these into three categories:
1. Prophecy
Prophecy is a Spirit-inspired message that strengthens, encourages, and comforts. In the Old Testament, we had prophets, priests, and kings. Prophets delivered God's message to the people.
Why is prophecy important? We live in a loud city full of opinions. If we're not careful, the church starts using the same worldly strategies and manipulative means as everyone else. Sometimes the Lord needs to intervene with a word of clarity, correction, or encouragement.
But here's the key: Prophecy is always for building up, not tearing down. It's for edification.
"If you have a word from the Lord, just give the word. Don't get pompous about it. Don't add extra spiritual language to it. Just say: 'Hey, I was praying and I felt like the Holy Spirit gave me a word. Here's what it is. You pray about that and see if it resonates with your spirit.'"
Don't say "Thus saith the Lord" unless you really know it's from God. The two things to remember:
If someone gives you a word and you feel attacked, condemned, or worse—reject it. That's not prophecy according to Paul.
2. Languages (Tongues)
I prefer the word "language" to "tongue" because it's clearer. Whether it's a heavenly language or an earthly language, God gives us the ability to speak.
There are two dimensions:
Many people pray for a prayer language but are hindered because they're waiting for the Holy Spirit to make them speak, instead of listening to the Holy Spirit and speaking what he leads them to say.
"The spirit will give you what to say, but he will not make you say it. The Holy Spirit will never force you. You might feel an unction, an overwhelming sense, but he will never override your will."
When you pray in your spiritual language, you edify yourself because your spirit is praying mysteries to God—things you don't consciously understand, but the Holy Spirit is praying a perfect prayer for you and situations you don't even know about.
3. Interpretation
Interpretation is the Spirit-given ability to communicate the meaning of a language. If someone speaks in a language publicly, someone must interpret, or the church is not edified.
4. Faith
Supernatural confidence in God for a particular situation. Sometimes the Holy Spirit rises up in you and you can believe God for something that seems too big to be true. This gift often goes unnoticed but happens frequently.
5. Healing
Note: It's gifts of healing (plural), not just one. Physical, emotional, relational healing. A reconciliation of families is healing.
For example, my wife Stella and I have seen God work in an amazing way. At one point in New York, we had five couples who couldn't have children despite years of trying and medical treatments. The church prayed. All five couples now have children.
When you've seen God do something repeatedly, you develop faith for that specific thing. God gives you a grace to believe him in that area.
6. Miracles
Supernatural acts that demonstrate God's power. Not just having faith to buy something, but God showing up in a crazy way—when you needed the rain and it came, when you needed food and provision appeared out of nowhere.
God is a God who makes a way where there seems to be no way. We see this all around the world right now—in the persecuted church in Nigeria, the underground church in Iran—millions are saying the same thing: "I had a dream. I saw Jesus Christ."
7. Word of Wisdom
What to do in a gray area where it's not clearly spelled out. Knowledge is like a single Lego block; wisdom is understanding how all the pieces fit together.
Think of Solomon: two women claiming the same child. He had supernatural wisdom to know what to do when normal logic wouldn't solve it.
8. Word of Knowledge
A specific piece of information God gives you for someone in that moment. It's different from prophecy. A word of knowledge is like someone comes to mind and you feel the Lord wanted you to tell them something specific.
9. Discernment of Spirits
This is like a spiritual carbon monoxide detector. Carbon monoxide is deadly precisely because it's odorless—you can't detect it. Deception is like that. The problem with being deceived is you don't know you're deceived.
Discernment comes in when everything looks good, everything points to it being right, but something in your spirit says: "I just don't feel like this is from the Lord." These are the wolf in sheep's clothing situations.
Let me say this: If someone is overly spiritual in their language all the time, sometimes they're hiding something. Also, people often go hardest after the sin they struggle with most. Overcompensation is a sign.
Discernment is crucial because when deception weaves into the church, God will eventually prune it out, but there are casualties in the process. Satan wants to steal, kill, and destroy.
"God is not a God of confusion, but of peace." (1 Corinthians 14:33)
Some of you grew up with:
But Paul is clear: Gifts should be exercised in order.
In our church, if someone feels they have a word of prophecy, they clear it with me or Pastor Stella. Why? Because I'm not going to let a wolf in sheep's clothing give false prophecy to our people. If it's someone I know, someone with whom I have relationship and whose character I understand, and I discern that it's from the Lord, we'll share it—probably at the end of service.
The spirit of the prophet is subject to the prophet. You can choose when and how to share. The Holy Spirit doesn't override your will and make you do things.
"But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control." (Galatians 5:22-23)
Power without character becomes dangerous. Character without power becomes incomplete.
I love this Proverb: "Where there's no ox, the trough is clean. But much increase comes through the work of an ox."
Translated: Ministry, work, and business are easier and cleaner without people. But there's no increase without people. When you allow spiritual gifts in a church, it gets messy. People do weird things. But without the power of God, we just have a country club.
Culture is the environment you create, and it has everything to do with how people experience church. Imagine the best meal you love, prepared perfectly. But before serving it, they pull the plate from the trash can, wipe it off without fully cleaning it, and serve your perfect meal on that filthy plate.
Even though the food is perfect, the plate ruins the experience. That's what culture is.
You can have the greatest messages, the best worship band, perfect sermons. But if the culture is wrong—if people don't feel welcome, if there's no genuine community, if the fruit of the Spirit isn't evident—people will sense it even in the parking lot.
When the fruit of the Spirit is prevalent, people feel it. They can't quite explain it: "There's just something about this place. It feels right."
You'll constantly battle between:
One of the best leadership qualities is self-awareness. I always look for this in leaders because many people have no idea how they're coming across.
What is the sin that so easily ensnares you?
Most people know their "big" sins because everyone around them sees them. But here's what's tricky: Ask yourself how many of you think greed is a huge problem in our world? (Hands up)
Now, How many of you think you're greedy? (No hands)
The other person is greedy. Not you. In 20 years of ministry, I've never had someone come to the altar and say, "Pray for me—I'm greedy." But people will come for lust, for things everyone sees.
The gospel critiques all of our lives. If you're not self-aware, if you don't recognize where you struggle, the fruit of the Spirit won't be evident to you because you'll think the problems are in someone else's life.
"If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and I will heal their land." (2 Chronicles 7:14)
God didn't say "if the world gets it together." He said if my people—those already called by my name—will humble themselves.
The problem is me. The solution starts in my house, not somewhere else.
Important truth: These practices do not earn God's favor. They position us to receive God's grace.
"You are saved by grace through faith, lest anyone should have the ability to boast." (Ephesians 2:8-9)
I'm not favored by God because I read three chapters this morning. I'm favored because of Christ's sacrifice. I don't earn grace; I receive it.
The means of grace are:
These position us. We show up. We open our hearts. But God does the heavy lifting. God gets all the glory.
No matter how powerful the gift, gifts are not the final sign of spiritual health. Fruit is.
Think of ornaments hung on a dead tree versus fruit growing on a living one.
I used to think I could staple good works onto my life—serve the homeless, read the Bible, disciple people. But I was hanging ornaments on a dead tree.
Once I gave my life to Christ, once I understood that he is my good works, my gospel, my joy, my salvation, that nourished my roots. And then fruit naturally started growing.
That's the gospel. That's how the Holy Spirit works.
From 1 Corinthians 14:1-40, Paul lays out how to function as a body:
"Let all things be done for building up. If anyone speaks in a tongue, let it only be two or three at most, and each in turn, and let someone interpret. But if there's no one to interpret, let each of them keep silent in church and speak to himself and to God. Let two or three prophets speak and let others weigh what is said... For God is not a God of confusion, but of peace."
God is a God of order. When God spoke to chaos in Genesis, he brought order out of chaos. He is not the author of confusion.
When the Holy Spirit moves in a congregation, it's in order. I want more and more people prophesying, but with wisdom and oversight. We're not doing this to create spiritual celebrities or chaos. We're doing this because:
"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." (1 Corinthians 14:25)
When gifts function in order, even unbelievers recognize that God is real.
If you want to walk in spiritual gifts, practice in the context of close relationships.
Don't try to prophesy for a stranger. Start with:
This is humble. This is relational. This is safe.
The tone matters. If you come authoritative and dogmatic, people feel controlled. If you come with humility and genuine care, people receive it.
You have three voices competing for your attention:
Your own voice is the loudest—telling you when to eat, when to rest, when you're uncomfortable. God's voice is the still, small voice.
Your voice gets louder when you focus on something. If I lined up potential spouses and asked you to pick, your preferences would drown out the Spirit. You're noisy.
You hear God best when you're not focusing, when you're still, when you're submitted.
Submission is not the same as obedience. Obedience is doing what someone says. Submission is having a good attitude about it.
To be led by the Holy Spirit into all truth, you must constantly learn to submit yourself to his will over yours.
Submission doesn't even start until you disagree. When you disagree with God but say "Okay, Lord. Your way, not mine"—that's submission.
That's when you know you're truly being led into all truth: when the deepest, most dogmatic parts of you convert to what God wants.
Lord, I thank you for the attentiveness of your people tonight. Thank you for those here and those watching online. In all my ramblings, illuminate our hearts and minds. Give us solutions we haven't even considered. Lead us into all truth. Help us see things the way you see them. Help us become more Christlike. Let the fruit of the Spirit be manifest in our lives. In Jesus' name, amen.
