Orderly Gatherings to Build Up the Church

I'm going to lean into 1 Corinthians chapter 14. Really, maybe more importantly, is to try to put a nice little bookend on all of the last few weeks. So it's 1 Corinthians 12 all the way through the end of 14 is really Paul addressing the church in Corinth saying, look, you guys are made up of this huge collection of people. And yet each of you have been given a specific gift to build up, to build up those around you. The whole purpose of your gift is to build up those around you. And And so I will illustrate it for you this way. Growing up as a kid, we did not eat a ton of cereal in our house.

I've come to find out that that made us very strange. Todd, don't bring up cereal around Todd. That guy gets way too excited about cereal. He used to eat it out of like the giant bowl, which was like the barf bowl in our house. But that's what he was eating his morning cereal out of. But cereal, big deal. We got, here's why cereal was not a huge thing for us.

We got good cereal one week a year on our birthday. We got to go pick out what she called garbage cereal, my mom. So that's where we'd get like Lucky Charms or something else. Everything else was like Corn Flakes, Raisin Bran, all stuff a good growing eight -year -old needs. But let me bring my friends out here just as a quick illustration. Maybe this is too juvenile, but for me, it helps make a ton of sense. You see, there are four key ingredients to a good bowl of cereal. And if you pull any one ingredient, you're going to get a whole bowl of cereal. of cereal. The whole thing falls apart. What is required for a good bowl of cereal?

Well, you need a spoon to eat it with. You need a nice glass of cold milk. You need cereal. For our purposes, honey nut. And you need a bowl. Any one of these chooses not to show up to this party, we are left lacking. So if the bowl decides, you know what, taking the morning off, Cardinal game's on at one, got a pregame, we are left, how are we going to eat our cereal? Maybe he could sprinkle some in my hands, Ryan could pour the milk in there, and then, I don't know, Hannah's going to try and get it with a spoon, but it's going to be all over the floor.

Maybe Tim decides, you know what, I'm a singer, I don't come to this stuff, and I know he's out. Now we're eating milk out of a bowl like we're animals. It's called drinking milk from a cup. You don't eat it from a bowl with a spoon. If you show up at somebody's house, you're like, what are you eating? I'm just eating some milk.

Watch list, right? It's strange. You need all of them. Come back up here, Tim. You need all of them in order to work. No, no, you guys here.

I'm the puppet master. You can do what I tell you, okay? Here we go. Now what you're going to hear from Paul today is not only is every gift important, and if one gift doesn't show up, it all falls apart, you're going to hear him use a phrase, decency and order. He's going to make the argument that God is not a God of chaos, but a God of peace. When we use our gifts, they need to be done with decency and order. Same goes for our delicious, healthy breakfast thing of cereal, right? If Brian goes, I got here early today. I'm going to use my gift first and just dumps his milk out on the stage.

And then bang, here comes, Daniel comes in and puts his bowl on top. And then we got the spoon clanging around on top of that. And then we just sprinkle cereal over the thing. What do we have? We have a mess. We don't have a bowl of cereal. We have cereal all over the place. Decency and order. So what's the order? We're going to find out what kind of crowd we got right now. I would argue, first thing is the bowl. Bowl first, then here we go. Now this is going to be a line of delineation. What do you think? 50 -50, 60 -40. What goes next?

Told you, cereal. Cereal next, because only an animal would dump milk in there and then sprinkle cereal on top. Then goes the cereal, then the milk, then the spoon. Decency and order. You do it any other way, it doesn't quite work. Same thing with our spiritual gifts. Whether you realize it or not, you have something to bring to this party. And you may sit there and go, I got nothing. I'm a box of cereal. Honey nut Cheerios. Honey nut Cheerios doesn't show up to this party. What are we left with? If the bowl goes, you can't even, I'm not even, I'm healthy, you can't even use me to feed the soul. Nothing comes out of me, I'm a glass bowl.

Somebody made me and they put me on a shelf. If he doesn't show up, what do we got? We do not have a complete nutritious breakfast provided by General Mills, celiac approved, right? We don't, we can't get it done. Takes everybody coming, everybody utilizing your gift. So as you sit out there and look at these people uncomfortably standing up here on the stage, you got to ask yourself, what's your gift? What do you bring to the party? Because without you, it doesn't quite function the way God intended it. We all have something to bring. What are we bringing? And what are we bringing to build up those around us? The whole purpose of the gift God has given you is to build up the people around you.

Would you give these guys a hand? You don't have to keep standing up here. Poor Brian's like, I got milk. I don't know what I'm doing.

Thank you, guys. Tim, I still think you could be a serial model on one of those commercials.

You got a gift. The moment you put your faith in Jesus Christ, God said, you are now my child, a son or daughter of mine, eternally secure. Heaven awaits. But for now, until I come back for you or I call you home, I'm going to trust you with this gift so that you might build up the family of God, the body of believers around you.

What's your gift and how are the people sitting right around you being blessed by the gift God gave you? That's the whole point that Paul's been trying to make. You have a gift. Use it to serve. What's the motivation? That's chapter 13. Motivation is, I love the people sitting around me too much to sit on my gift and to not use it as a blessing to those around me. So here we go. First Corinthians chapter 12 or chapter 14. We'll pick it up in verse 26.

Last week, Thomas talked all about the idea of tongues and prophecy and how to use those in this form of orderly worship. Continues it on verse 26. What then, brothers? What then, brothers? Come together. Important for us to note that this is all talking about corporate worship. When we gather together as a church, here's how these gifts are to be practiced. Each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up. Everything we do with the gifts we've been given are to build up those around us.

If anyone says, oh, I'm going to do this. oh, I'm going to do this. If anyone speaks in a tongue, let there be only two or at most three and each one in turn. And let someone interpret. But if there is no one to interpret, let each one of them keep silence in the church and speak to himself and to God. Why is this so important? Well, because, look, if you have the gift of tongues and you begin to speak in a tongue that we don't understand and no one can go, here's what this brother or sister is saying, how are we built up?

How am I built up by, if someone came in here and started telling me that my daughter McKinley, who's in the kids' building, fell down and skinned her knee in Mandarin and was just full tilt Mandarin, you've got to come help me. Your daughter fell and hurt her leg. Dude, I don't know what you're saying. I have no idea what the need is. I have no idea what you're asking me to do. I don't understand. Can anyone interpret what he's saying? And if everyone's, if we all are in here going, man, I don't know. We don't speak Mandarin yet. I don't know. Maybe Google's got an app for that. I don't know. If no one can interpret, how is anyone built up?

How is anyone benefited? How is anyone receiving the message he's trying to deliver? And has any good come of that? It doesn't. So if anyone speaks in a tongue, it's got to have an interpreter. It's got to be interpreted. Why? Because every gift is meant to build up, to build up. What was going on in the Corinthian church? What did they pride themselves on? Being a big deal. Status, knowledge, look what I know. So what most people believe was going on in this church is the church would gather like this. And if all of a sudden, right now in this moment, all the attention was on me, if you were out there going, hey, I don't really like that, all of a sudden, someone back here would pop up and start speaking in a tongue.

And all focus would go . And then someone over here . And it's just ping -ponging around. And pretty soon, everyone's just yelling whatever. And it's like, where is the glory of the Lord in that? All that is just. It's just self -glorifying. If you're going to use your gift of tongues, in this case, someone needs to interpret. Why? Because every gift is meant to build up people around us. Here's maybe the best example that I could think of. One of the spiritual gifts, gifts of generosity. You guys aware of this? Spiritual gift of generosity. What if I came to you and I said, look, I got the spiritual gift of generosity.

God's blessed me with a ton of stuff. And I just love to give it all away. I give it all away to myself. I buy myself all sorts of stuff. I am very generous with myself. Is that the gift of generosity? No. That's selfish. I don't know. You can come up with a word for it. Why? Because I'm glorifying me. I'm using my gift on me. I'm building myself up. No benefit to anybody else. That's what was going on here with tongues. We're going to hear in just a second, too, I think, some argument prophecy. So then the question for us is this. God's given you a gift of generosity. of generosity. A gift. A spiritual gift to build up to people sitting around you.

Are we using it? Are we using it to build them up? Or is there any version where we're using it to glorify ourself? Now we're back. Go back and read 1 Corinthians 13. Maybe we're a noisy gong, a clinging cymbal, doing it for the wrong reason. That's of no value. Clearly, these people, if you're going to do it, do it in order. We keep going. Verse 20. Where did we stop? We'll go 28. No one to interpret. Let him keep silent in the church. Verse 29. Let two or three prophets speak, and let others weigh what is said. We're going to come back to this idea of weighing what is said. If a revelation is made to another sitting there, let the first one be silent.

For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all may be encouraged. And the spirits of the prophet are subject to the prophets. All of this under the heading of this, for God is not a God of confusion, but of peace. Now, what's this talking about? Well, just like tongues, prophets would roll in. I got a word from the Lord.

Great, let's hear it. Someone over here would shout theirs out. And then someone over here would go, I got a word from the Lord. And maybe it was countering that one. Well, I got a word. And all of a sudden, it's just ratcheting up. And it's who can yell the loudest.

You ever, I used my kids earlier, though. It was probably low -hanging fruit. I'll do this one, because this is also equally fun. You ever gotten about? 10 or 12, 8 to 10 -year -olds together, 10 -year -old boys in particular, and say, hey, let's go play football or basketball.

After about 3 and 1 half hours of fighting over the rules, you may play one play. And then that one play will then turn into, wait, you did this, you did this, and then they just yell at each other, until someone finally gets tired of yelling and either takes their ball and goes home, or they figure it out. But it's just a yelling match, and who can yell the loudest? No one's making any good points. It's just who talks loudest. Same thing. Prophets would stand up, they'd say this, they'd say this, and it was just all about the show. So Paul says, look, stop. When you come together as a church, if anyone's going to prophesy, and prophesy would be this.

I got a word from the Lord. Let him stand up, let him share it, and let everyone else weigh what was said. Very important. Weigh what was said. How do we today weigh what was said? This time, Corinth, they would weigh it against what was said. What they knew to be true, Old Testament scriptures, certainly. They might bring it to Paul and go, Paul, we heard this. What do you think? Paul would weigh in. What do we do today to weigh what is said? We hold everything up to the word of God. Everything up to the word of God. If anyone were to come in and say, this is what God told me, and we can't find it in scripture,

We're not going to listen. And I will give you a not so funny and yet very real scenario, and I bet you every pastor in here would tell you the same thing. Heard this before. And I've had to look a man in the eye. Man, we went toe to toe, and it got ugly. But he looked at me and said, God told me to divorce my wife.

And I said, well, do you have a biblical argument for that? Has she been unfaithful? No. Is she want to leave you because you're a believer and she's not? No. I'm not happy with her, so God wants me happy. God told me to divorce my wife. Brother, I don't care what you tell me. That doesn't line up with scripture. I don't think that's God speaking to you. I think someone's lying to you.

Well, God told me. He did not. Because it's not in the word of God. Everything, when we say weigh what is heard, what is said, you've got to weigh it with scripture.

We've also got to be very careful. Anyone that says, God told me, this comes sometimes, too. Hey, God told me to tell you this. Ooh, we've got to be careful. We've got to be careful on that. We've got to be careful. But I do think there's other times where God does move in some pretty powerful ways. Maybe you've been in a conversation,

And all of a sudden, a question gets asked, and you remember some passage of scripture that you didn't even know was in your brain. All of a sudden, God brings it to light, and you're quoting scripture in a way that you never knew possible. And you walk away from that, and then you go, man, I didn't even know you knew that verse, neither did I.

God showing up in that moment, giving you the words to share to advance his kingdom. Why? Because what does that gift do? It builds up, brings glory to God. Every gift is used to build up other people. If you're using your gift to glorify self, if there's any version where you're using your gift to bring gain upon yourself, I think we're missing it. Every gift is used to build up other people. But we've got to use them and do it with decency and order. We're not going to pour milk on the ground and then sprinkle cereal on top and go, enjoy your breakfast. Decency and order, bowl first, cereal second. Milk third, then the spoon.

God is not a God of confusion, but of peace. Now to continue the chaos of what was going on in these church services, he makes this statement next. As in all the churches of the saints, the women should keep silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak, but should be in submission, as the law also says. If there is anything they desire to learn, let them ask their husbands at home. For it is shameful for a woman to speak in the church.

This is why many people just skip this whole chapter in general. What is he possibly talking about? I'm going to give you what I believe is absolutely what's going on. And it makes a lot more sense when you understand it this way. What is this whole chapter about? When you gather together, run your service with decency and order so that everyone might be built up, so that God might be glorified, so the gospel might go out. What's interesting, I looked this up, and I still have yet to figure it out. Give me another lifetime and I'll get the answer.

The word here where it says that women, right? Women is the word it uses. In verse 34, the women should keep silent. And then in verse 35, woman to speak in church, is the word gune, Greek word gune. I never give you Greek because I think most of the time it's not important. Here I think it's important. It's the Greek word gune, gune. What's interesting to me is that in Ephesians chapter 5, where Paul is also writing and he says the wife, 1

Peter, husbands live with your wife in an understanding way. Even in 1 Corinthians 7, just a couple of chapters before, when he talks about the wife of a nonbeliever or the wife of a believing spouse, it's the same Greek word, gune, translated wife or women. Why? Why they chose to translate it women here, I don't totally understand yet. That's what I haven't been able to figure out. But read it this way with this understanding. And here's why I think this makes a lot of sense.

As in all the churches of the saints, wives should keep silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak. Also, a Greek word that could mean argue. Wives are not permitted to argue, but be in submission, as the law also says, if there is anything they, wives desire to learn, let them ask their husbands at home. Another reason why I think this is talking about wives. What do single women not have? Husbands. All of this seems to be under the context of wives. I'm getting there in just a second. Nobody throw anything at me yet.

Let them ask their husbands at home, for it is shameful for wives to argue in church. Okay? What's going on here? You got these husbands that would get a word from the Lord. This is what God is telling me. And it's possible that you had these wives standing up and going, are you kidding me? You tell people to love each other, and you know how you are at home with me. And Paul's going, stop. It can't be women are not permitted to speak in church. Go look at 1 Corinthians 11, verse 5. Paul gives a whole description on women. When you come to church, to pray and to prophesy, here's how you were to do it.

Remember, he asked them to do what? Cover your head. Cover your head. Why? Because it's a sign of respect to your husbands. So there he's clearly giving an order of when you speak, when you prophesy, when you pray, do it this way. So there's no version where Paul is now coming back and going, no, scrap that. They don't talk at all. No, no, no. What I think is going on here is you had these wives and these women weighing what their husbands were saying. And what Paul is going to say is, can you guys keep, can you weigh that at home so as not to bring your arguments before the church? Because God is a God of peace, not chaos.

So the warning here is to wives. Wives, don't come in. And I'll be honest with you. She loves me too much, and she loves you too much. But she typically sits in that very, very, very, very, very, very back table, way in the back, my wife, Brooke. I can think of two occasions that I've stood on this stage in the last year and a half where her and I have not been on the same page.

One was pretty ugly. I did something dumb. We got into a pretty lovingly heated argument on a Saturday night.

I woke up early. I got dressed. I came to church. No resolution. And I had to stand up here and I had to preach God's word. And God does what he does, independent.

But if she was not a woman of character, she could have very easily been in the back going, oh,

Let me tell you, read this, and completely sabotaged everything that was going on up here. Why? Because she's got a different knowledge than the rest of you have. Maybe the better thing for her to do is what she does do. Waits for me when I get home and go, babe, we got to talk. Let's have a conversation. Let's do that at home. Because the last thing that she wants to do is do anything that would cause God's church to suffer or for the body not to be built up. And so she, far better than me and many others, holds her tongue in moments.

And we have that conversation offline. Could that be what Paul is arguing here? I think it is. I think in the weighing process, you got all these wives going, perfect. Paul told us to weigh in. I'll weigh in on everything this guy says. And now he's going, no, no, no, no, no, no. Leave your marital stuff at home. Have that conversation at home. Ask your husband at home if you need clarity around that. But in the church, we're going to glorify the Lord and build each other up. I think that's what's going on here.

Keep going. Verse 36, or was it from you that the word of God came? Implied answer, no. Or are you the only ones it has reached? Again, implied answer, no. If anyone thinks that he is a prophet or spiritual, he should acknowledge that the things, Paul, things that I am writing to you are a command of the Lord. If anyone does not recognize this, he is not recognized.

What's this all about? Well, Paul's flexing his apostolic authority here and saying, look, guys, if you hear all this, and you got some prophet in the back going, who's Paul to tell us what we can do and not do? Paul's saying, I'm the apostle. I'm the one that planted you. I have the authority of the Lord behind me. And so this is, thus saith the Lord, not Paul's opinion.

Paul's way of saying, we've got to get decency and order to how this church functions. Because to do it the other way is chaos, and no one is being built up. And we're self -glorifying. We're using our gifts to benefit ourself. And so Paul says, look, if you're look, if you're going to do it decently, you've got to do it decently. And Paul to do it decently, you've got to do it decently. And Paul says, no, this is my authority. If anyone doesn't recognize it, he is not recognized. Verse 39, so my brothers, earnestly desire to prophesy, and do not forbid the speaking in tongues. But all things should be done decently and in order.

Decently and in order. This is why, for some of us, we have a hard time with some of the way in which these gifts, tongues and prophecy in particular, have been used in other church settings. The argument might be, it's not really done with decency and order. It's Paul's whole argument. Every gift is meant to benefit to build up those people around you. Again, let's go back to our four elements. Bowl, milk, cereal, spoon. Decency and in order. You put them all together, you can have a delicious bowl of cereal, or you can have a huge mess. It all depends on how you use the gifts and in what order you use them. Same thing in the church.

But here's what I know to be true. Every one of you that knows Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior has been given a gift. You've been given a gift. Some of you have multiple gifts, but you've been given gifts to do what? What does Peter tell us? First Peter chapter 4, steward your gift well. You've been entrusted with a gift to steward it. That means God's going to hold you accountable. God's going to look at you someday and go, you are my beloved son. You believe in Jesus. So you are now a part of my kingdom. What did you do with the gift that I gave you?

Man, I just sat there holding a box of cereal. I didn't know what to do. God goes, I gave you that to pour in the bowl so that people could eat. Steward your gift. So what are you doing with your gift? We have for the last five weeks had all these different ways in which you can serve your church here with your gift. Here's what I need you to hear. We are not starving for volunteers. This is not some, please come serve. Because we're so desperate and needy. It is not that at all. This is your church leadership out there going, look, we want our people to use their gift because what God asked them to do and because there is life when you get to use your gift.

When you do what God has wired you to do, you do it. And you go, man, that was great. How do I do that more? We just want to help you figure out what that is.

How are you using your gift? I'm going to come stand way over here because this is just Kevin's opinion. Thomas may back this up. Or walk this back. I think there's a difference between a talent and a gift. I think there's a difference between a talent and a gift. A talent you can get better at. You can work really hard at. You work really hard at something, you can get good at it. That's a talent. I would argue a gift is something that just happens.

And here's why I would say that. Because when you work really, really hard at something and then you finally get good at it, you know what you do? You go, man, I've worked so hard. I did it. You know what happens when you operate out of a spiritual gift?

You get done doing whatever that was and you go, God, I don't know how that just happened, but praise be to God that God used me because there's no way I could do that on my own. And God gets all the glory. Difference. How has God gifted you? And how does he want your gift to bless the people around you? That's what everyone out there in the lobby, that's what their job is to do. For you to walk up and go, here's how I think I'm gifted. I'm a bull. Where's my gift? my gift? Where could you use a bull? All I can do is sit here and hold cold beverages in me with some floating chunks of whatever, but I can do it really well.

Where can you use me? There's 13 ways you could be a blessing and build up the people sitting right around you. I've made fun of them earlier. Not made fun. I brought them up earlier. Some of you guys were late getting into service because of them. The Pangborns. I don't know if you know them or not, but you know what they do. Pangborns get here about 6 o 'clock every single Sunday. They wash their hands, they put on some gloves, they roll up their sleeves, and they cut probably 55 ,000 donuts a year so that you and I can walk in here, look for their favorite donut, pick it up, and enjoy it. They don't even know who they are.

They're using their gift of service to build up us. Maybe not physically, but you know what I can guarantee? Because I've heard this before. We've heard it up here on the stage as people have shared their testimony. We've heard it up here on the stage as people have shared their testimony. We've heard it up here on the stage as people have shared their testimony. I heard it up here on the stage as people have shared their testimony. I came to church. I met some guy in the lobby. We just started talking. Next thing I know, three or four years later, he's been discipling me for the last three years. I'm a different husband. I'm a different father.

My marriage is different. I'm leading my company different. I'm a different person as a result of this man in my life. And you know where that started? Over a donut with sprinkles that the Pangborns cut up at 6 a .m. All part of the process. I'm just a bowl. The bowl doesn't show up. This doesn't work. God's gifted you. How does he want to use you? You may be going, I don't know how he wants to use me. Perfect. Just say, God, here I am. Use me. And watch what he does. And then let's go tell stories of how God's using us to do incredible things. It's how the body of Christ works. But we've got to do it all with decency and order.

Decency and order. Let me pray for us, and we'll close out our time today. God, thank you. I'm so grateful.

God, I thank you for all the men and women who you have seen fit to gift that have interacted with me in my life. God, I can think of names and faces specifically, but God, I know that every one of those names and faces comes with a hundred names and faces of people I don't even know. And yet they are all a part of my story, of my journey with you. God, you have used your church to impact your kingdom. For thousands of years. And God, we are now a part of what you're continuing to do. God, we long to be a church that makes an impact for your kingdom, both here, near, and far.

God, to live lives on mission. But God, you have gifted each of us differently. God, I would pray for my brothers and sisters in this room, whatever their gifting is, God, that they would steward it well. God, they would not be motivated by obligation

Or guilt. But God, they would be moved by conviction of your Holy Spirit. God, to lean in and do what you have called them to do. And God, that they would just receive so much joy and life and encouragement from operating in their gifting. God, I pray that we would tell stories for years to come of the impact you have used your church, your church family here at Highlands, to have on your kingdom. Because we just simply trusted you and did what you asked of us.

So God, thanks for meeting us in this place. God, I thank you now just for the privilege of getting to continue to worship you and be in a family together. We love you and we pray all of this in Jesus' name. Amen. You got a gift. Maybe you're just a spoon. Man, we need a lot of spoons.

God wants to use you to build up his church. Ask yourself, God, how have you wired me? And how can I be a blessing to the people sitting around me? There's a place for you. We are a church. We love you. We've got people up front. We'd love. We'd love to pray for you. It's been a hard week. If you just want a shoulder to pray on, someone to encourage you, we are here. We're always here. Right now in particular, you can come up front, pray with any of these folks. Service is not over until you love somebody. All of you that have kids, best way to love our children's team is to get over there and scoop them up because I went two minutes too long and they're over there with your kids.

Out of goldfish, no snacks left. Man against the world. Go over and love your children's ministry. Love you guys. Have a great rest of your week. We'll see you all next weekend.