Lord, You Know

I'd like to welcome everyone to Bridge Gospel this morning.
I'm glad you're here.
If this is your first time, I'd especially like to welcome you.
We have a little gift for you in the lobby after service,
just a way to say thank you for coming and hanging out with us this morning.
I'd also like to welcome everyone who's visiting online.
We have a ton of people traveling this week,
so I pray that God is with you as you travel,
that your travels are joyful and safe,
and we look forward to seeing you very soon.
So I don't have any other announcements to go over this morning.
Except for we've had some people ask about volunteering.
There's always things to do around the church.
So you're always welcome to come and talk to me or Pastor Jesse
if you want to get involved in some way.
It can be small.
It can be something you do before service.
It could be something you come in and help with during the week.
Greeting is hospitality.
Kids' church, taking care of the building is always,
it just keeps on giving.
If you're interested in worship or anything technical,
we're open to all those things.
We'll train you.
We'll get you going.
So we just want to put that out there.
I always, I think I started serving in the church right when I got saved,
and it was always neat to be a part of what God was doing
and to be moving my hands and seeing what God was doing in the service,
and I got to be a part of that.
So that made an impression on me when I was really young.
So we're not going to pass a plate or a bucket or anything like that or put anybody on the spot.
If you'd like to make an offering, you can give online, or you can use our box in the back.
Just make sure if you write a check, make those out to Two Rivers Church.
They're the ones that so gracefully helped us get this started.
So I will pray for the offering.
Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you that every good and every perfect gift comes from you.
Lord, we thank you for the ways that you provide for us in ways that we cannot.
Lord, you open doors of opportunity.
You give us skills and talents.
You give us relationships that advance our careers.
You give us so many things, Lord.
So we honor you by giving back.
And we know that when we give back, it may leave our hands,
but it never leaves our life.
In Jesus' mighty name, amen.
All right.
So we're going to be in 1 Corinthians chapter 12 for the most part today,
between 12 and 14.
They might even land right next to each other, kind of on the same pages there.
So I encourage you to join me in your Bibles in 1 Corinthians 12-ish.
So a couple weeks ago, Jesse talked a little bit about,
kind of give a background of the baptisms that we see in the Bible.
There's actually three baptisms, if you will, in the Bible.
The initial coming to faith, it sometimes is described as a baptism.
Water baptism is the one that we think of when we think about baptism.
And you also see this other baptism called baptism in the Holy Spirit.
I encourage you to watch her teaching from a few weeks ago if you missed it.
That message was kind of the back story and kind of the why of what I want to talk about today.
You know, we asked the question, you know, why does God give us the Holy Spirit?
And, you know, what is he trying to do through that?
And, you know, there's a thing that when you get saved, the Holy Spirit, it comes and lives in you.
We all get the same Holy Spirit when we get saved.
I didn't get a better one than anybody else.
You didn't get a better one than anybody else.
It's all the same, right?
So the Holy Spirit comes and lives in us when we're saved.
Now, when you get baptized in the Holy Spirit, we see that in Acts 1.8.
It says, you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.
So you see that language is different.
The Holy Spirit lives in us, but it can also come upon us.
So the Holy Spirit comes upon believers with power in a way that we can bear witness to Jesus
and we can demonstrate his kingdom.
And we see that all throughout Acts when the disciples are going and praying for people.
They're getting healed.
They're seeing miracles and things like that.
And that's because the Holy Spirit was upon them.
So I'm going to start in 1 Corinthians 12, starting in verse 7.
It says,
So this week, we're going to talk about something that a lot of people have asked me about.
And it's the gift of tongues and the gift of interpretation of tongues.
And I think some people hear that and they get really excited.
And then some people are kind of curious.
And some people are like, yeah, this is kind of where it gets weird.
So I want to acknowledge that right up front.
And, you know, some of us grew up in churches where that wasn't talked about,
it wasn't a thing, or it was something that was over with.
And I think that comes from a really sincere place.
I know plenty of people that hold that position, that they love the Word of God,
they believe in God, they honor God with their lives.
And, you know, that's the position that they've taken.
Some of them have seen a lot of abuse of those things.
They've seen disorder and chaos.
So I want to respect that.
But I also want to, you know, teach what I feel that the Bible has to say about this,
the way that I understand it.
I think the question that I want to answer today is,
what does the Bible actually teach about tongues and interpretation?
So my first point is that spiritual gifts are given by the Spirit for the good of the church.
It says,
It's in verse 7.
So Paul opens this whole section by teaching that these spiritual gifts, they're not human.
They don't originate with us.
They're manifestations of the Holy Spirit through people.
That means that spiritual gifts are not proof that someone is better or worse or different than anyone else.
They're not spiritual titles.
They're not spiritual trophies.
They're not personality traits or skills.
They're completely gifts that we get from the Holy Spirit.
They have nothing to do with our ability or even, I would say, our strength of our spirituality.
I think we see, you know, the disciples were not very far along in their spiritual development in Scripture.
And we see them, you know, laying hands on people.
And people were getting healed.
And, you know, these guys were just off the fishing boat and the tax collecting booth.
And here they are laying hands on people.
So I think that, you know, there's not like this thing of spiritual achievement that opens the door for us to participate in what Jesus is doing.
And Paul says these are given for the benefit of all.
So when we talk about this gift, when we talk about tongues and interpretation, I don't think the question is, you know, who's the most spiritual person in the room?
And we all line up in front of them for prayer.
I think it's not about us.
It's about God.
It's about God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit and what they're trying to do through us.
And it's a privilege and an honor to be able to participate in what God is doing.
And the greater question is, is through all of this, is the church being built up.
You see, the gifts of the Spirit are not given to make us look impressive.
I think Jesus is the impressive one.
And who are we?
We're just, we're vessels, we're tools, we're carriers of the Spirit.
And Jesus gives us these gifts to make us useful and to help us to build up the church.
So my next point is that tongues can be a language that are unknown to the speaker.
1 Corinthians 12.10 says,
To another, different kinds.
I think that different kinds is really important.
To another, different kinds of tongues.
And to another, the interpretation of tongues.
So the phrase that Paul uses, it means there's different kinds.
In Acts 2, we see them speaking in what was called tongues, but they were recognizable human languages.
They were amazed that there were people that emphasized from all over the world there at Pentecost.
And it gives a huge list of all these different nations where people were from.
And it said they could understand what was being spoken.
And the most important part of that is that God was being glorified because what they were hearing about were the mighty works of God.
So it was used to glorify God and to share the gospel.
Now tongues can also be spirit-given prayer that's not naturally understood.
1 Corinthians 14.2, it says,
For the one speaking in a tongue does not speak to people, but to God.
For no one understands.
He is speaking mysteries by the Spirit.
And 1 Corinthians 14.14, it says,
If I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unproductive.
I like that verse a lot.
It helped me.
When I was first kind of approached with this idea of praying in the Spirit or praying in tongues,
my mind fought this for a long time.
And it was this little guy that popped.
That's stupid.
That's stupid.
That's stupid.
And it's this little thing.
It would just kind of show up and kind of deter me.
And for a number of years, it kept me from really enjoying, I think, what God had for me.
But this passage really defines it clearly as it says it does not speak to people.
That means it doesn't have to be something that we understand.
It can be.
But like Paul said, there were different types of this gift.
And as we see in Acts 2, they're speaking in known languages.
And he also says he does not speak to people and no one understands.
So there's multiple things that Paul is talking about.
But he's saying that the person is speaking to God.
He's speaking mysteries by the Spirit.
And he says that the person's spirit is the one doing the praying,
even though their mind may be unprofitable or unfruitful.
Now, I'd like to apply this practically.
You ever just run out of words?
You ever just get frustrated with something?
And you're flustered and your mind is trying to deal with whatever's in front of you.
And you don't even know where to start.
You don't know what to ask God.
And, you know, some of us, our mind is like a web browser, right?
And there's like all these tabs that are open all at the same time.
And like half of them, there's like music playing and people talking.
And you're trying to close them and stuff like that.
You ever, anybody?
Anybody, right?
And you can't figure out which ones to close to get like the sound to stop.
Well, there'll be prayer after service for that.
But Paul is saying, Paul is saying that you can, for a moment, you can step out of your mind.
You can get your mind out of the way and you can pray towards God.
And I think that's a spiritual gift if I've ever seen one.
So tongues does not have to be a known language.
It can just be this spirit-given prayer that we have with God that goes beyond our natural understanding.
Because he says, my mind is unprofitable or unproductive in verse 14.
That doesn't mean we have to stop thinking or stop praying in a known language.
Verse 15, he says, what should I do?
I will pray with my spirit, but I will also pray with my mind.
I will sing praises with my spirit, but I will also sing praises with my mind.
So Paul wants both.
He wants prayer with his mind and he wants prayer with his spirit.
Because there's a type of prayer that we can understand and I think we can find a certain sense of peace.
Wow, I prayed about this situation.
I prayed for this person today.
I believe God heard that and will answer that.
But I also think there's a kind of a peace that when we pray in our spirit,
that it goes beyond what our mind can articulate.
You know, I think I have problems and desires and visions that go beyond my own understanding.
So I find it easy to believe that God gave us a way to somehow get past the limitations of our carnal minds,
our minds that we worry and we carry fear and doubt.
He gives us a way to get past all those things and to pray with our spirit.
And I find when I pray in the spirit, I find that God reveals things to my natural mind.
Sometimes he'll speak to me about a situation or a story or something I should talk about up here
or something, a big decision I'm making in my life.
He'll speak to me in those moments because I don't always know what to ask.
And I find that a certain peace comes through that and a certain hope comes through that
beyond where my mind is situated.
And our minds are gifts of God, but they are very, very limited.
And even if we're with Christ, our minds are still being renewed.
Romans 12 says, be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
So when Paul says, my spirit prays, but my mind is unproductive,
he's not insulting the mind.
He's not saying it's a less than thing, but I think he's acknowledging the fact
that our mind is still being made like Christ.
It hasn't been fully redeemed yet.
And he's saying that there is this form of prayer
where the Holy Spirit helps us pray beyond our own words
and beyond our own understanding.
Now, I think this can be uncomfortable for us because we like to stay in control.
We like to know what's going on.
But I think that following Jesus has never been about control.
It's been about surrender.
You know, how many of you brought your cell phone to church today?
How many of you?
Everybody, right?
Everybody brought their phone.
And by faith, you believe that there would be some signal in the atmosphere
that your phone could pick up, right?
Maybe there's a game I don't know about that y'all are watching right now.
I don't know, right?
But we're believing in something that we cannot see.
And when we believe in God, we believe in something we cannot see.
And we trust a Savior that we weren't there to watch him raised from the dead.
And we're led by a spirit that, you know, we cannot manipulate, we can't manage.
So the question is not, you know, can I understand this?
Paul is saying you can't.
You cannot understand it.
He's saying it goes beyond your understanding.
And these things are spiritually discerned.
But the question is, is this a biblical way to approach God?
And I believe that the word demonstrates from an intellectual perspective that it is.
And if it's centered on God and it's done on love, it brings glory to God.
So tongue strengthens the believer, but interpretation strengthens the church.
1 Corinthians 14, 4 through 5, it says,
The one who speaks in a tongue builds himself up, but the one who prophesies builds up the church.
I wish you all spoke in tongues, but even more that you would prophesy.
The one who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues unless he interprets,
so the church may be strengthened.
So Paul is saying that tongues can build up the individual believer.
I know that's true.
Personal prayer can build us up.
Reading scripture can bring us up.
Worship builds us up.
Coming and seeing all y'all builds me up, right?
Silence and just sitting before God can build you up.
But when everybody's gathered publicly, Paul's concern isn't about just the individual person.
His concern is about whether the whole church is strengthened by what's going on.
And that's why this little interpretation thing matters.
He's saying that uninterpreted tongues or people just, you know, talking without any regard for other people,
it might strengthen the person speaking, but the interpretation is what strengthens the whole body.
Verse 23 says,
So if the whole church comes together and all speak in tongues and unbelievers or uninformed people enter,
will they not say that you have lost your minds?
Hallelujah.
This is why we don't come in here and just yell out whatever, right?
In private, you know, we can pray the tongues to God, we can pray in tongues,
but publicly, if someone addressed the whole congregation in tongues,
Paul would say there should be someone there that's ready to interpret it, right?
Because here's the reason, here's the why, and this is the part that we miss,
is that love wants people to understand.
He wants people to be able to grab hold of what's happening and do something and be encouraged by it.
He doesn't want people to be confused.
So Paul is not against the speaking in tongues publicly.
He's against people being selfish and other people being confused and not understanding
and people walking in here thinking that we have lost their minds
because the secret is going to get out.
So without an interpreter, you're just building up yourself and that's okay.
But the concern is that the spiritual gift, when everybody is gathered,
actually serves people.
Verses 13 through 19 says,
So then, one who speaks in a tongue should pray that he may interpret.
If I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unproductive.
What should I do?
I will pray with my spirit, but I will also pray with my mind.
I will sing praises with my spirit, but I will also sing praises with my mind.
Otherwise, if you are praising God with your spirit, how can someone without the gift,
this is the person we're concerned about,
how can the person without the gift say amen to your thanksgiving,
since he does not know what you are saying?
For you are certainly giving thanks well, but the other person is not strengthened.
I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you,
but in the church, I want to speak five words with my mind to instruct others,
rather than 10,000 words in a tongue.
So the gift of interpretation is not necessarily translation.
Translation is when someone knows both languages on each side
and can translate one into the other.
But interpretation is a spiritual gift that makes the meaning understandable to the church.
And it might just sound like praise or a prayer or encouragement.
It may refer people to a scripture,
but it should always be consistent with scripture and the character of Jesus.
You know, interpretation doesn't replace scripture.
It never replaces scripture.
It doesn't outrank scripture.
It doesn't add to scripture.
This isn't God speaking outside of what he's already spoken.
So every interpretation must be weighed by the scripture we already have.
Because if the scriptures aren't true, then God's a liar.
And we know that's not true.
So everything that is spoken, whether it's an interpretation of a tongue,
if it's a prophecy, if it's a word people give,
it is subject to every word of God.
Amen?
So interpretation turns the mystery of tongues into encouragement for the church.
And I think that's what Paul is trying to teach here.
So how do we practice this?
So here, if someone says,
well, I want to publicly share something, you know,
and you've seen that.
We saw that this morning.
Someone came up and they shared a scripture.
Now, if someone wanted to share something in tongues,
we would say, hey, do you have an interpretation to go with this?
And if they did, okay, let's go for it.
But if not, we'll decide, well, is there someone here that maybe has an interpretation?
We might mumble about ourselves and say, hey, what do you think?
You think you'd have an interpretation if somebody gave this?
And if there's not, we would say, well, there's probably not a good time to share this
because nobody feels like they would have an interpretation if you gave this.
Does that make sense?
So I want you to see that love is the atmosphere
that the spiritual gifts are operating in and intended for.
1 Corinthians 13.1 says,
So Paul is saying that you can speak in tongues,
you can prophesy, you can understand mysteries.
Maybe you could come up and preach the most beautiful message people have ever heard.
But if you do not have love, you're missing the point.
And you're making noise.
A useless noise is what Paul is describing.
You know, imagine if we were all singing the same song and someone came in here and just started,
you know, banging on a tambourine or a cymbal or shaking their car keys or whatever it may be,
right, to their own beat and their own thing.
It wouldn't make things better.
It would be out of order.
It would be distracting.
And Paul is saying that spiritual activity without love can be like that.
It can be loud and noticeable,
and it may even feel spiritual for the person that's doing it.
But if it's not building people up, it's not done in love.
It's noise.
It's spiritual noise.
So, if we're going to practice these gifts, they have to be practiced in order.
1 Corinthians 14, 27 through 28, it says,
If someone speaks in a tongue, it should be two or at most three, one after the other,
and someone must interpret.
But if there is no interpreter, he should be silent in the church.
Let him speak to himself and to God.
Verse 33,
For God is not characterized by disorder, but by peace.
And dropping down to 39, he says,
Do not forbid anyone from speaking in tongues,
and do everything in a decent and orderly manner.
You see, the Corinthian church that Paul was writing to,
they had some problems with the spiritual gifts,
and just with their maturity in general.
They were very immature.
They were disorderly.
They were misusing things.
And Paul's answer was not to shut everything down.
His answer was to use the gifts in love,
to use them for encouragement,
but to use them in an orderly way.
And he said,
Don't forbid people from doing this,
but let's bring some order to it.
You see, it's the difference between like a wildfire and a fireplace.
Right?
A wildfire just burns everything.
It's chaos.
But a fireplace is controlled.
And it warms the home without burning it down.
Right?
So our goal is not just fire.
We like fire,
but our goal is the idea of like a fireplace.
Right?
And you notice that Paul,
he regulates the use of tongues in his writing
because he expects it.
He expects it to happen.
He expects people to be receiving something from God,
whether it's to speak in tongues or to share a word,
to share a scripture that comes to mind,
to share a word of encouragement.
He expects those things to happen in the church.
So he gives a structure and order for us to follow
so that we can celebrate and enjoy those things
and practice those things in a way that builds everyone up.
So Sunday morning for us,
this is a public gathering.
Anybody could come in here.
So we follow this public protocol that Paul gives us.
Now, if you see in Acts 19,
you know, Paul shows up in Ephesus.
They're having a private meeting.
He shows up,
and I think they swung off the chandeliers.
Right?
You know, if you come to prayer on Wednesday night,
that's a little more like family time.
If you come to prayer before service,
that's a little more like family time.
So we do pray in tongues.
And, you know, those are times we do build ourselves up.
We practice interpreting and prophesying.
And even in those settings,
we practice love.
We practice humility.
We don't talk over each other, right?
But those are different from our public Sunday service.
And we do that because, you know,
there's people that will come here
that they don't know Jesus
or they don't necessarily experience
all of these gifts the same way.
So we want to be aware of that
and sensitive to that
and that the Holy Spirit
is still revealing himself to everyone.
Now, some of you may be thinking,
wow, I've never heard about this before.
I think that's understandable.
And I think that, you know,
many of us grew up in churches
that love Jesus.
They love the scriptures.
But they taught us to be really careful.
And I think that we should be grateful for that.
And I think that we should approach everything
that God gives us
with a sense of,
well, we should really test this
against the scriptures.
But a doctrine isn't false
just because it's something we've never heard
or because it's unfamiliar to us.
And we see in Acts 18,
you know, Apollos,
he was out preaching the word.
He was mighty in scriptures.
It says he was fervent in spirit
and he was accurate
in what he was teaching,
but he only knew about the baptism of John.
So Priscilla and Aquila show up
and they heard him speaking
all these things
about the baptism of John
and what have you.
And they pulled him aside
and he said,
hey, there's a whole lot more here
that you haven't taught yet.
And they didn't scold him.
They didn't look down upon him in a way,
but they just explained to him.
They taught him.
And that wasn't shameful.
That's discipleship, right?
So we're not asking people,
well, turn off your discernment
and ignore all that.
We're asking you to bring your discernment
to what scripture already says.
My next point is that
we should desire spiritual gifts
without pressure and without fear.
1 Corinthians 14.1 says
to pursue love
and be eager
for the spiritual gifts.
And 1 Thessalonians 5.19 says,
Do not extinguish the spirit.
Do not treat prophecies with contempt,
but examine all things
and hold fast to what is good.
So Paul is giving us a heart posture.
He's saying to pursue love,
to pursue the spiritual gifts.
He's saying,
don't quench the spirit,
but to test everything
and to hold on to what's good.
You see,
and when someone comes up here
and they share a word,
it's up to us,
the receiver,
to test that and decide,
well, is this from God
and is this for me?
If it's not from God,
ignore it.
If it's not for you,
ignore it.
Maybe it was for somebody else.
Maybe someone came up
and said that, you know,
God is working behind the scenes
to give somebody a job
and you've had the same job
and you love your job.
Well, maybe it's not for you
and you can just ignore it.
That's okay, right?
But the power
always lies in the person
who's receiving the word.
So, Paul gives us
that heart posture
of testing everything
and seeing where it goes
and there's things
that people have said to me,
you know, five years ago,
people said,
hey, this is what I see God
doing in our life.
I'm like, okay,
that sounds great,
but it hasn't happened yet
and those things,
they sit in my heart.
They come to mind
from time to time.
I have some things written down
and I wonder, you know,
what is God going to do with this?
We're also not going to be
a church that, you know,
fakes spiritual things
or makes anything weird
for people,
but we're also not going
to ignore what Paul
has very clearly
told us to pursue
and given us instructions
of how to use it.
You see, the posture
is not hype,
it's not fear,
it's having love,
the desire for the gifts,
the discernment,
and some order.
Now, if this is all
new to you,
if you've never prayed
in tongues
or you've never experienced
the gifts of the Spirit,
I really encourage you
to seek God on that
and I encourage you
to consider asking God
for those gifts.
You see, in Acts,
people would receive the gift.
We would oftentimes
see that through the laying
out of hands
and through prayer.
We're always happy
to pray for people
to receive the Holy Spirit.
You know, but we also see
God is not limited
to just that.
There were a number
of ways that that happened
that we see
in the book of Acts.
So, today,
I think my invitation
is very simple.
Is to bring a hunger
for God
and to bring a hunger
for the Holy Spirit
but to leave all
the pressure behind.
And to bring your questions
and maybe even your doubts
and to sort through
those things with God
and maybe with other people
but leave the contempt
and the skepticism aside
for just a moment
and ask yourself,
you know,
what is God trying to do?
And you can still be cautious
but you don't have
to be fearful.
And we're not asking
anyone to perform.
We never like to put people
on the spot.
That has never been my heart.
We're asking God
to give something
that only He can give.
And some of you
may want to ask God
for that.
But we're not going
to force anyone
to do anything.
We're not going
to fake anything either.
It's not our heart.
And we're not going
to make this into a thing
and well,
this is how you prove
that you're saved
or prove that you're this
or prove that you're holy
or righteous
or any of that stuff.
We're going to take
all that away.
I know that God
loves everyone.
And every believer
belongs to Christ
by grace through faith.
But Paul says
to be eager
for the spiritual gifts
and he says,
do not forbid.
Do not forbid
speaking in tongues.
So we're going
to make room
for the ask.
So in Acts,
people received it
through the laying of hands
so we're always open
to that.
Acts 2.4,
it says,
they were all filled
with the Holy Spirit
and began to speak
with other tongues
as the Spirit
gave them utterance.
I think that's
an important passage.
It says there's two parts.
They began to speak
and the Spirit
gave the utterance.
So some people
will say,
well,
I sat there
and nothing happened.
Well,
God didn't move
your mouth.
It says you speak,
God gives you
the utterance,
right?
You see that
in Acts 2.4.
That means
you don't have to
wait for God
to force your mouth
to move.
You can move your mouth,
you use your voice
and you begin
to speak in faith
and you trust
that Holy Spirit
will supply you
with whatever
your natural mind
does not.
For me,
it was very unusual
at first.
I remember
getting baptized,
I think it was
2004-ish
and they invited me,
you want to receive
the Holy Spirit?
I said,
yeah,
it sounds good.
I didn't know
anything about it
and they prayed for me
and I'm in a room
with like,
I don't know,
30 or 40 people
that are all getting baptized.
They're all speaking
in tongues.
I'm like,
I had no grid for this.
I had no theological
framework for it.
I grew up in a house
we didn't talk about
this kind of thing
so I'm like,
what is going on here?
And I just,
I had that experience
and I kind of touched
on it a couple times
and for years
it just kind of sat
dormant in my life
and it wasn't until
maybe five or six years ago
that someone taught
on this,
went through a lot
of these same scriptures,
taught on this,
just gave this invitation
and I'm kind of sitting
there like,
you know,
I kind of remember this,
you know,
down this road before
it wasn't that interesting,
you know,
it's kind of camping
out somewhere.
So it's like,
hey,
anybody who hasn't
received this,
you know,
can come up
and I'm like,
oh,
that's not me
so I'm good.
I'm kind of sitting
there watching
people are getting
prayed on,
people are getting,
people are crying
and all this kind
of stuff
and then he says,
there's some people
here that,
you know,
maybe you received
this a long time ago
and you haven't done
anything with it
for a long time.
Uh-oh.
Uh-oh.
What are we going
to do about that?
So I start making
my way up front
and I saw somebody
I knew,
he's like,
come over here,
come over here
and he just laid
his hand on my back,
he just started
praying for me,
you know,
he didn't ask me,
hey,
do this or do that,
he didn't force me
to do anything.
I was up there
for a while
and it was,
it came slowly
and I just,
I felt the Holy Spirit
really come into my heart
in a fresh way
and I just,
I felt so many things
leave my life
and my spirit,
things I was worried about,
things I was nervous about,
I felt Holy Spirit
take up more territory
in me
and I felt a lot
of things leave
that had taken up
territory that didn't belong.
You understand
what I'm saying here?
So that was my
personal experience
and I started to speak
in it more
and more
and more
and I,
and I'm a very
intellectual person
so it was very difficult
for me
to engage a habit
where this was something
that I wanted to do
and I would sit
and I would try to pray
and I'd say,
oh,
this is stupid,
this is stupid.
That guy still shows up,
like this guy
has not completely left.
You know,
I say,
well,
maybe this is stupid.
You know,
Paul says your mind
will be unprofitable
so your mind
doesn't understand,
right?
So that's my testimony
about it.
I feel a sense of peace
when I do it.
I feel that God speaks
to me in ways
that he doesn't
through other ways
of praying.
Sometimes he speaks
to me about people
I'm ministering to
while I'm praying
for them.
He'll say,
hey,
you know,
you should pray
for this
or pray for that
and you say,
all right,
God,
well,
I don't know
about saying that.
Last week,
Michael Bologna
was up here teaching.
He said he was
at the grocery store
and he said,
go tell that lady
that God wants
to give him a house.
He's like,
huh?
And he walked up
to that lady
and said it
and then,
you know,
she starts crying
because she felt
that God
was speaking to her
through this person
that she didn't know.
So I want to make
room for that.
I don't want to make
room for things
that are crazy
or a show
or anything like that.
I want it to be
something that's real,
that people believe
that it's God.
So I'm going to pray
and our altar team
will come up afterwards
if you guys want
prayer for anything,
for healing,
if you want to receive
Jesus,
if you want to receive
the Holy Spirit,
if you need prayer
for deliverance,
we want to pray
for your family,
it's anything.
We are glad
to pray with you.
We believe that God
can meet you
in this place.
We believe that he
does miracles,
that he is healing,
that he is saving
people this day.
So dear Heavenly Father,
we thank you
that you give
good gifts
to your children.
We thank you
that you are
the baptizer.
We thank you
for your Holy Spirit
and we welcome
your presence
in our lives.
We welcome your power
and we welcome
your gifts.
So teach us
to pursue love
in everything
that we do.
Teach us to desire
the spiritual gifts.
Help us to overcome
our doubts,
our intellectualism,
and so many things
that keep us
from receiving
what you have
for us.
Teach us to pray
with our spirit
and with our mind.
And teach us
to practice
the gifts
in humility
and love
and discernment
and order.
And Father,
I thank you
for each and every
person here.
I thank you
for their desire
to hear from you
this morning.
I pray that this word
was an encouragement
to each and every person
who heard it.
I pray a blessing
over each household
represented here.
I pray for peace
and hope.
I pray for people
who don't know you
to return to you
or come to you
for the first time.
And Lord,
we thank you
that today is the day
of salvation.
And all God's people
said,
Amen.
God bless you guys.
I love you
and we will see you
next week.