The Helper – 1 Corinthians 12:1-11

Mark Smith preaching from 1 Corinthians 12:1-11 in our The Helper series.Connect with us here:Website: citychurchdublin.ieFacebook: facebook.com/CityChurchDublinYouTube: youtube.com/c/CityChurchDublinPlaylists of all the Sermon Series can be found on Spotify at City Church Playlists

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:19

Our passage this morning is 1 Corinthians chapter twelve, verse 1 to 13. Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be uninformed. You know that when you were pagans, you were led astray to mute idols, however, you were led. Therefore, I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says, Jesus is accursed. And no one can say Jesus is Lord except in the Holy Spirit. Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are varieties of service, but the same Lord. And there are varieties of activities, but it's the same God who empowers them all in everyone. To each is given manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit. To another, faith by the same Spirit, to another, gifts of healing by the one spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. All these are empowered by the one and the same spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills. For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are the one body, so it is with Christ. For in one spirit we are all baptized into one body, Jews or Greeks, slaves or free, and all were made to drink of one spirit. So reads God's word.

SPEAKER_02 2:18

What is Mark going to say about 1 Corinthians 12 and summer 14 and a little bit of 13 as well? So we've uh we have a lot to get to. First of all, uh I need you to help me finish the line for me. Uh shout it out. You better watch out, you better not cry, you better not pout. I'm telling you why. Santa Claus is coming to town. He sees you when you're sleeping. What a creep. He knows when you're awake. He knows if you've been bad or good. So be good for goodness sake. Why?

unknown 3:07

Santa Claus is coming to town.

SPEAKER_02 3:09

Because Santa Claus is coming to town, this manipulative sky grandeur that uh only rewards the good and punishes the bad. This version of Santa is only concerned with merit. Which is really sad actually, because that's not what Santa's about at all. Santa loved Jesus. Santa gave gifts, gives? Gifts to naughty boys and naughty girls like you and me as an act of grace. Because he believed in the one who was graciously, undeservedly kind. Saint Nicholas points beyond himself and shows us how our God acts as he gives to believers the grace of forgiveness, the grace of new life, not because of any good that we have in ourselves, not because of any good that we might perform, but in order to make us good, in order to transform us from the inside out. That song, as fun as it is, is not the gospel message that Santa points to. Our lavish Jesus gives gifts. And he gives us his Holy Spirit. And the Spirit comes with further blessing, with further gifts to encourage and to strengthen us. Like I said, maybe this is the week that you've been waiting for. What's the deal with the spiritual gifts? What does Mark, what does City believe about the gifts? Well, here we go. Okay? Let's dive right in. First point. The Spirit gifts every believer. The Spirit gifts every believer. Paul in 1 Corinthians 12 begins not in fact with the gifts themselves, they come in verse 4. In verses 1 to 3, he begins with the giver of the gifts. You see, the Corinthians, uh all of the Corinthian church were on uh social media, they all had TikTok accounts, and they were all longing for the dopamine hit of the likes and comments. The Corinthian church is all about the image that they put across. That's the thing that they obsessed about the most. And if you looked powerful, if you looked spiritual, you accept you ascended into leadership in the church. But if you looked weak, if you didn't look very impressive, if you didn't have very many followers, you were just seen as dirt on the heel of the more important people's shoes. The Corinthian church was obsessed with image and looking super spiritual. So some of the people in the church were elevating the more spectacular gifts. And they, it's only if you've got these more spectacular gifts of prophecy in tongues that you're really a true Christian. Others, because if everybody if anybody kind of goes to that extreme, what do you get? You get the kind of the inverted snobs, the ones who kind of look down their noses on the people who are expressing the more spectacular gifts, and they kind of go, well, I don't have that, but I actually don't need to have that in order to have Jesus, right? And so you had this inverted snobbery as well. And both were failing to see the spirit's true purpose. And Paul corrects both attitudes when he pens verse 3. Therefore, he says, I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says Jesus is accursed. And no one can say Jesus is Lord except in the Holy Spirit. This Paul says is the true mark of the Spirit's work. The Spirit is all about magnifying the Lord Jesus. And if the Spirit, if the Lord Jesus is being magnified, that is by the Spirit. If someone uses their gift instead to elevate themselves rather than Christ, Paul says, doesn't matter how gifted you are, doesn't matter how impressive you look, if you're not pointing away from yourself and pointing to Jesus, you're not doing the Spirit's work. Equally, if a believer confesses and treasures Jesus as Lord, you've got to know that that's something that they cannot do apart from the Holy Spirit, even if they don't exhibit the more spectacular gifts. Which means that every believer, every Christian, somebody who has put their faith in Jesus, is a beneficiary of the Holy Spirit. You have the Holy Spirit, even though you might not have expressed some of the more ecstatic gifts that we're going to get on to talk about. That's what Paul is saying. If you believe that Jesus is Lord over your life, you have done that with and through and by the help of the Holy Spirit. Every Christian is gifted by the Holy Spirit. And so every Christian who trusts in Jesus is in that sense, to use the kind of tribal language, we're all charismatics. We're all people who have the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. You have all, if you're trusting in Jesus here this morning, you have experienced a miracle. Do you know that? What's the miracle that every single one of us has experienced? You were dead in your trespasses and sins, hostile to God, and God made you alive. There has been a resurrection in your heart, in your soul. You heard the voice of the Son of God, as Jesus says in John 5, and you've come back to life. A miracle has occurred already in your heart. Amen. Amen. Right. So we've got to begin, not with the gifts, but the giver. That every believer is a recipient and a beneficer of, infused by, strengthened by, empowered by the Holy Spirit. And Paul continues from that point into verses 4 to 11 to talk about the vast range of gifts: words of wisdom, words of knowledge, faith, gifts of healing, working of miracles, prophecy, distinguishing between spirits, tongues and the interpretation of tongues. And then on down in the chapter, in verse 28, he talks about the gift of apostleship, of prophecy, teaching, working of miracles again, helping, administration, hospitality, tongues is mentioned again. And in the midst of this list, Paul is emphasizing a number of key things. So without kind of going through and going, what's words of wisdom, what's words of knowledge, because there's enough. They're not Santa Claus song gifts. It's not that the Holy Spirit only gives gifts to the to the nice boys and girls and brings spiritual cool to the naughty boys and girls, right? They are gifts of undeserved kindness from God. In fact, the very word gift is the word charisma from which we get the word grace. They are grace gifts. They are not earned, they are not rewards, they are not conjured up from within us, they are simply God's kindness overflowing in the believer's life. Second broad principle point the whole Godhead, Father, Son, and Spirit, is united in giving gifts to the believer so that the believer, with other brothers and sisters, would be united in their expression of the gifts. And so verse 4, now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are varieties of service, but the same Lord. That's the Son, that's Jesus, right? And there's varieties of activities, but the same God, that's the Father, who empowers them all in everyone. That just as the uh the Godhead, Father, Son, and Spirit is united in gifting the believer, so the believer, as he gathers with other brothers and sisters, should be united in the expression of the gifts. They're not supposed to be used to create a kind of spiritual rivalry or a two-tier system of you've got the you've got the kind of the superpowered, leveled up Christians, and then you've you've got the guys over here who have the gift of administration and you know wish that they'd kept the receipt. Okay, do you know? It's not like that. And then thirdly, Paul says that everyone is gifted. To each, he emphasizes. To all, all are in power, verse 11, by the one and the same spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills. There is no such thing as an ungifted believer. We are united in our giftedness and diverse in our gifts. So, if you sit here this morning and you feel somewhat insignificant or unimpactful for the kingdom, let this correct your thinking. The Spirit has gifted you. If you feel a sense of pride at the gifts that God has given you, if you're tempted to feel a little bit superior, remember that they are grace gifts, not given by merit. If you're just confused and you're thinking, I don't know what gift I've got. Perhaps the question is not to ask what gift do I have, but to ask, how can the spirit magnify Jesus through my life? Because that's what the spirit's about. That's where you'll begin to walk a road of working, okay, where has the spirit gifted me? Because the spirit wants me to make much of Jesus. How can I do that? How am I being called to show the beauty of Jesus to others? Let me offer some uh clarifying notes as we come to the end of this first point. There is nothing to suggest here or elsewhere in the New Testament that the gifts when they are given are permanent necessarily. Sometimes they are given occasionally, for a particular moment, for a particular circumstance, for a particular occasion. You think of something like the gift of healing. Do we believe that God heals? Yes, amen. We do. Sometimes he uses doctors and medicines. Isn't that right, Rory? Yeah. Sometimes he uses doctors and medicines, sometimes he does it miraculously for his glory. Somebody lays hands upon and prays for somebody to be healed and they are healed. Is that do we then assume that they have absolutely the gift of healing? No. God has graciously intervened and used a person in that circumstance. It's not necessarily something that is given permanently. Secondly, don't fall into the Corinthian trap of elevating either amongst us in the church or even just in our own minds, the spectacular gifts and downplaying the ordinary ones. There are diverse gifts for the building up of the body, which we'll which we'll come to. And it would be wrong to think, oh well, these ones, these are the really cool ones. And you know, we all kind of we all kind of want that one because I like the kind of the sense of being seen and being up front. That's that's Corinthian, right? That's image. God has given you the gift of administration, the gift of hospitality, use it for his glory and be grateful for the way that he has empowered you. Speaking of the gift of hospitality, uh, one thing that I would say by way of clarification is that not having a gift uh is not an excuse for uh following a command. What I mean by that. Hospitality is a command and it's a gift. Do you notice that? Hospitality is commanded in the New Testament. Paul encourages us in places like Romans to show hospitality to people, and then he says in places like 1 Corinthians 12 that hospitality is a gift. And so you might be tempted to think, well, I actually don't have the gift of hospitality, I'm a pretty terrible cook, and I actually don't like people in my house. Um, probably don't have the gift of hospitality, right? Uh just like, get out of my house. It's nine o'clock, why are you still here? Probably not the gift of hospitality, okay? Does that mean that you can should never show uh openness and loving kindness uh to your brothers and sisters and uh and those who you meet? No! Like find your way to do it. Follow the command, even though it hasn't necessarily been gifted to you. Make friends with the people who love to cook and love to host and say, well, actually, I'll come right and I'll speak to people. Uh we're supposed to be hospitable even if we don't necessarily have the gift of it. Paul's whole point is this so far. The Spirit has gifted every believer with something. And in the rest of the chapter, what he goes on to talk about is to tell us why he is gifted. Why does God give such diverse gifts to his people? Why this wide range? Why does every Christian receive something from the Spirit? The answer in the rest of 1 Corinthians chapter 12 is because the church is a body, and so your gift is meant for someone else's good. That's the second point. The body is built up through our many gifts. Uh think of uh Christmas morning. Uh perhaps you have uh small children, perhaps you remember being a small child, remember you perhaps you remember your siblings on Christmas morning, and they uh they receive the gifts under the tree. What is the one thing that they don't want to do in that moment? Share. I'm an only child, I never learned how to share. All the gifts are mine, thank you. Um children don't want to give away their little treasure, their precious object. In fact, it gets worse than that. That's what they want to do is show off the thing that they've got. Look what I've got, you didn't get it. Right? You we use it in order to elevate our status and to do other people down. Imagine if an adult did that. Some adults do do that. But imagine if an adult did that, you'd realize, well, actually, they haven't matured beyond that childlike selfishness and self-absorption. But that was exactly what was happening in Corinth. Some believers were waving their gifts around like spiritual toys, saying, look what I've got, and you don't. Others were shrinking back and assuming that they had nothing of any worth to offer. The gifts of the Spirit might be given to us, but they are rarely given for us alone. Verse 7 of our reading, Paul points to this. To each, again, every individual believer is gifted, to each is given the manifestation of the Spirit. Why? For the common good, for the good of your brothers and sisters around you. This is what Paul is arguing through the rest of the chapter. It's why he talks about the church as a body. We're all needed, we must all work together in order for the community to flourish. No part is insignificant. Have you ever broken a toe? You don't think about your toes very regularly, do you? I remember uh being in seminary and I fell down the stairs. I was carrying a uh a um a basket of laundry, which is why I don't do it anymore because it's dangerous, right? Carrying a basket of laundry, and uh I was trying to descend some stairs, and there's a little turn in the stairs, and my footing went. Uh and I just and as I fell down, my toes kind of splayed apart, and I jammed a toe into each balustrade as I went down. I broke the middle toe of my right foot. Never thought about the middle toe of my right foot for any length of time before. But tell you, I thought about it for the next few weeks. That insignificant little thing really matters, and you know that it matters when it's broken. So it is with the body of Christ. There are no insignificant parts. Let me read to you from uh 1 Corinthians uh 12, verse 18. If you have it open on your phone, you can scroll down, where Paul says, this is this is beautiful, but as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. Meaning God placed you with your personality, with your gifting, with your temperament, with your proclivities and desires and abilities very purposefully in the body of Christ here at City Church. The question for you to ask is why? How can I serve the body? How can I help others? God has given you your particular personality, your particular makeup and gifts intentionally. He has not made a mistake. He's arranged the body like a master craftsman, deliberately. And so no Christian can say, I'm actually not really needed here. And certainly no other Christian can look at them and say, I don't need you. That is not what the body does. What about the gifts that people deem as being, quote unquote, weaker or less impressive? Well, Paul actually elevates them in 1 Corinthians 12 and says that those gifts, those members of the body, those are the ones that are indispensable. The Corinthians prize the flashy gifts, but Paul flips their value system and says, No, you've got to prize the prize the quiet gifts, the hidden gifts, admin and mercy, helps and hospitality. They are all indispensable. Think of a person here in city, whose name perhaps most people don't know, because they're rarely at the front. They arrive early and they help with the setup. They fill the communion cups when they're on hospitality. They they make the coffee. They notice a newcomer standing in the coffee line and they say hello. They look at who's on their own in the screen and they sit beside them. They're the first to register in the meal trains when there's a new parent and they they send food. They send a text to those who they haven't seen in a while, who are maybe lonely. Would we lose something as a church if we lost people like that? Absolutely. Absolutely. It would absolutely change the culture of the church around us. So don't compare your gifts to others. Don't bury your gifts in the ground. You see, when you withdraw and think, I've got nothing to give, what you're actually doing is you're you're robbing your brothers and sisters of the blessing that you're able to bestow. Don't think of the platform gifts as superior. Often they are the most dangerous. They leave the person feeling conceited. Remember, there's a there's a famous, there's always famous stories about this Baptist pastor, a guy called Charles Charles Spurgeon, right? Uh and so any preacher worth a salt always kind of throws in a Spurgeon story. Okay? So here's my here's the Spurgeon story, okay? Charles Spurgeon was this Victorian Baptist pastor in London, the Metropolitan Tabernacle, where preached to thousands on a uh on a Sunday. And uh he preached this sermon, and the story goes that uh after the service, um this this well-meaning uh older lady came up to him and said, uh, Dr. Spurgeon, allow me to be the first to congratulate you on another wonderful sermon. And Spurgeon looked at him and said, My dear lady, you are not the first. Satan told me as soon as I got out of the pulpit. It's dangerous to be up front. It makes you concede it. Satan loves to whisper in the ears of the teacher or the musician and go, you did a really good job. Because it makes you feel pride. That's deadly. So far, Paul has shown us who gives the gifts and why he gives them. The Spirit equips every believer so the whole body can be built up. Now we must ask, how do the gifts build up the body? And here he takes on the most controversial gifts in carns, prophecy in tongues. And he uses them as a case study to show us what it looks like to build up the body of Christ, to show us what ministry amongst us looks like. So this is our third point. How do the gifts build up? Okay? So we're now over in chapter 14. We didn't read it, but it'd be helpful for you to have it on your phone, okay? Or to flip over to it in your Bible. Because everybody wants to know, right, what's the deal with prophecy in tongues, right? Chapter 14, Paul chooses prophecy in tongues as two examples, not because they're the most important gifts, but because they're the most misunderstood gifts. In fact, one of the things that we think uh is happening in 1 Corinthians, and we'll we'll actually close the sermon with this, is Paul talks about all of these other gifts in 1 Corinthians 12 and leaves prophecy in tongues right to the end in order to correct the over-emphasis. Uh and in the middle, he writes chapter 13, which is his chapter on love, and how the gifts must be used on love, and actually that's where we're going to end our time this morning. And so he's actually kind of, he's not saying these are the most important, these are the most spectacular, he's saying, No, no, you're over-emphasizing them. Let's create, let's bring them into the whole uh into the whole uh bodily makeup of the of the gifts, because people were using them to feel superior. Others were uh dismissing them as simply spiritual nonsense, and Paul says that they both are missing the point. The purpose of every spiritual gift is the same. He uses the word edify or build up. That the gifts are designed to strengthen faith, to encourage obedience, to bring comfort and consolation to weary believers. So, chapter 14, verse 3. On the other hand, the one who prophesies speaks to people for their upbuilding, their encouragement, their consolation. That is why Paul keeps on repeating throughout chapter 14 words like edify, build up, encourage, comfort. That's what the gifts are supposed to do. Now, what do we mean when we talk about prophecy and tongues? Okay, and do they still happen? Right? Prophecy, first of all. Paul, when he talks about prophecy in the New Testament, is talking about something that is similar to but distinct from Old Testament-style prophets, right? This is his command to you, with the expectation of complete and utter fealty and obedience. The successors to that type of prophecy, the successors to the thus saith the Lord prophets in the New Testament, are not those who are gifted with the gift of prophecy that Paul talks about, but the apostles. It's the apostles who are writing the thus saith the Lord, you must listen to the commands that I am telling you in the New Testament. So, what is the gift of prophecy that he is talking about? New Testament prophecy comes from God and carries with it an authority that must be weighed by the scriptures. So I cannot come to you and say, Marianna, thus saith the Lord, mustard is not a good color on you. Um, if we could go with teal next week, that would be great. And if you don't obey me, you're actually disobeying God. Okay? I can't come and do that. I think the mustard is lovely on you, actually, it brings out your eyes. Um that would be an inappropriate use of prophetic authority, right? Mariana would need to weigh. Is mustard is that kind of is that a good color for me? Maybe teal would be better. Uh it's got to be weighed by the word of God. I do not have, thus saith the Lord, authority, beyond what is written in the scriptures here. It must be weighed. It's still given from God, but it must be weighed against the scriptures. The scriptures are our yardstick for any prophecy that happens in and amongst us. Also, we must remember what prophecy is designed to achieve. What does it do? You see, we have this idea that prophecy in the Bible is kind of like uh kind of like mystics kind of staring into crystal balls, kind of tell you foretelling the future. We come up to people, let me tell you what's going to happen next week. Prophecy in the Bible is often less about foretelling and more about forthelling, declaring who God is and what we're required to do to Him in obedience. You think of the prophecy, the prophets of old. The prophets of the Old Testament were reminding God's people what he has already said and calling them back to obedience. It's reminding them of the covenant that they are in and calling them back to faith and to trust and to love of God. And so prophecy, as we express it, should have that same goal in mind. It's much less about, let me tell you what's going to happen next year, but about encouraging and calling people back to greater trust, to greater fealty, reminding people of the father heart of God and his love for people. So Paul uses this forth telling idea. That's what I think he has in mind when he talks about New Testament prophecy. It is spirit-given insight that brings the reality of the gospel close to someone's heart. That's my best definition. Do you want to say that again? New Testament prophecy is this it is spirit-given insight that brings the reality of the gospel close to someone's heart. One of the most wonderful uh parts of my job is when some of you will come up to me on a Sunday morning and you will say something like, I felt like I was the only person in the room. Like, how did you know? That was just speaking right to me. Do you know what the answer to that question is? The answer to the question is I didn't know. I was I was on my third cup of coffee at 11 o'clock in the morning, and I'm working away on a Friday, writing the message for for Sunday, and I'm trusting God and I'm praying into it, but I'm trusting God to use me. But when He brings a word, when He just so puts a finger on something from something that I have said, that's that's Him. That's Him working through me to bring the gospel with greater clarity to your heart. You're like, I get it now. You have these kind of penny drop moments. You have this, don't you? When you you read a passage that you've read dozens of times, and you read it again, you go, ah that's what that means. That's that's exactly what I needed to hear. That's what prophecy is. That if a believer speaks timely, wise, gospel-shaped words that help other believers to see Christ more clearly, they're exercising the gift of New Testament prophecy. This can happen during preaching, this can happen in a community group, it can happen in a conversation over coffee. And the goal is the same, to build faith. Now, what about tongues? Biblically speaking, tongues as a gift seems to be a single gift that is expressed in two uh different ways. One way is the way of earthly languages. So you see that in Acts chapter 2, the giving of the Spirit of Pentecost, and the people from all over the ancient world are hearing them praising God in their own language. You see it again in Acts chapter 8 and Acts chapter 10. Then in 1 Corinthians 14, Paul seems to have a broader category of what tongues is as a private prayer language. So 14 verse 2. For one who speaks in a tongue speaks not to men but to God, for no one understands him, but he utters mysteries in the spirit. Okay, so it seems to be the same thing in uh in two different expressions, right? What purpose do those two different expressions serve? Both expressions of the gift of tongues, the gift of languages, is designed to build up and strengthen. So, when the Spirit is given in Acts chapter 8, it is designed to build up and strengthen the church. Let me just give you a brief excurses, right? Acts chapter 8 is where the Holy Spirit comes upon Samaritan Christians. We kind of think, well, what does that matter? That matters hugely because the Jews hated the Samaritans. It was a massive cultural barrier. The only one that's bigger than it is for the gospel to go to full-blown Gentiles, which is what happens in Acts chapter 10. And so what we read in Acts chapter 8 is that Philip, uh one of the uh one of the apostles, he goes and he takes the uh the message of Jesus to Samaria, to the Samaritans, and they believe. But we're told that the Holy Spirit doesn't come. Why doesn't the Holy Spirit come? Well, it doesn't come until Peter and James arrive at the church, until they go and see what's happening in Samaria. Why? Because they're Jews, they're leaders of the Jerusalem church. And if the Holy Spirit had come upon the Samaritans, there is the risk of two different factions of the church growing up, that you'd have the Samaritan church and you'd have the Jewish church, and they continue the cultural hostilities. The reason why God delays in this particular instance, and I think we're in a place of where what is happening here is descriptive rather than something that we ought to expect to continue to happen, right? Um, that he delays in giving the Spirit until the leadership of the Jerusalem church are able to go there, see the genuineness of their faith confirmed by the coming of the Holy Spirit, in order to keep the whole church, the Jew and Samaritan united, to keep it together, to strengthen them as one body growing together, that they're supposed to look beyond their cultural hostilities, their ethnic boundaries, and see actually the gospel's crossing it over. Exactly the same thing happens in Acts chapter 10, when Cornelius, a Roman, a Gentile, and his household come to faith in Jesus. Again, Peter's there. Why? Because he's an apostle, he's the leader of the Jerusalem church, and he realizes oh, hold on, we're not supposed to have a Jewish church and a Samaritan church and a Gentile church. We're supposed to have one holy Catholic and apostolic church, as we say in the Creed, right? One church united together, built up by the Spirit. That's why the Spirit does what he does in those particular instances. It's for the strengthening and uniting of the church as a body. In the context of the local church, the emphasis is the same. This is why Paul prioritizes in uh 1 Corinthians 14 orderly worship and tongues and their expression can be expressed, but should be expressed with an interpreter in the context of a mixed gathering. Or if there's no interpreter, the person is encouraged to uh to be kept silent on their own. They're not given a microphone, okay? Because what's happening is they're building up themselves, and that's okay. That's good. It's good that they should be upbuilt, it's good that they should commune with God in the Spirit. But what Paul is saying is don't put it in, don't give them a microphone on a Sunday morning because it's not edifying the whole body. Do you see? But even if there uh if there isn't an interpreter, um edification is still the goal because it builds up the individual believer. Paul's emphasis, however, is that it would be better to speak intelligible words in the mixed gathering, in the corporate gathering, what we're doing on a Sunday morning. So verse 19, he says, Nevertheless, in church, I would rather speak five words with my mind to instruct others than 10,000 words in a tongue. So, do I, does City Church believe that the gift of tongues is still given today? Yes. Do you need to take notes? Y? E. S. Yes. Yes, we do. As the Spirit wills, within the framework that Paul lays out biblically here. Interpreted of public, freely used in private, never used as a badge of true spirituality or as a marker of true faith, always directed towards God, always used in the service of love. Tongues and prophecy are not simple are not the only markers of true faith, and using them as a litmus test has spiritually harmed people. I would encourage you all to be very wary of using the phrase in your own life to others of God told me. Dot dot dot. God told me that uh you and I should go on a dick. Well, if you say no to that proposition, you're not actually saying no to the person, are you? You're actually saying no to God. Be very careful about throwing God at people in order to try and get them to do what really it is that you want to do. I really think that God has told me this thing that I really want to do anyway. Prophetic impressions must never override scripture or manipulate others or bypass discernment. Spectacular gifts should not eclipse the ordinary ones. Often the quietest ministries produce the deepest fruit. And so we ask ourselves, Lord, give me the words to strengthen up somebody today. We must be open. Perhaps we must be more open to the Spirit's prompting, but always anchored in God's word. We must have a sensitivity to the spirit married with a discernment. Do not fear the spiritual gifts, but do not idolize them either. Let's scripture shape our posture, not our past experiences, not our past church traditions. Let's finish. Paul has shown us who the giver is, how he gives, what they're for. But in chapter 13, he inserts a chapter that's all about love. And love is the culture in which all of our gifts should be exercised. I'm not going to read the whole chapter. You've probably had it at your wedding or intending to. Don't do that. Paul's actually rebuking the Christians. I really show when people come, could you preach 1 Corinthians 13 at our wedding? Love is patient, and you're not. Love is kind and you're not. Do you want me to preach it like that at your wedding? It's wonderful to be. Here. I see Stefan kind of smiling at Anna. Love is patient, Stefan, and you're not, and gracious, and you're not. He's correcting them. He's saying this is the culture that needs to exist for all of the expressions of the gifts. That in between all the talk of giftedness, Paul writes the greatest treatise on the nature of love, because the gifts are nothing without love. Amen? They're nothing without it. He says, if I speak in the tongues of men or of angels and have not love, I am what? I'm a clanging symbol, a resounding gong. I'm just noise. If I have all prophetic insight and have no love, I am of no value, Paul says. The gifts might reveal the Spirit's power, but love reveals the Spirit's heart. Love outlasts every spiritual gift. Prophecies will cease, tongues will be silent, knowledge will pass away, but love will never end. Desire, brothers and sisters, desire the gifts. But desire love all the more. Love is what keeps us from vainglorious self-promotion. Love is what drives us to build up others and not ourselves, because Jesus, the truly gifted one, used all of his power not to exalt himself, but to serve us even to death upon a cross. He gives us his spirit. The spirit has given us gifts, and these gifts become beautiful when they are shaped by love. Let's pray. Father, fill our hearts with the love of the Holy Spirit, that as He has gifted us, so they might be used for the upbuilding of your people, for the strengthening of faith, and for the making much of the Lord Jesus. In whose name we pray. Amen.