Pursue Love, Preach Jesus

1 Corinthians chapter 14. Yes, that is the tongues and prophecy passage. Normally, I look at the preaching calendar over the year and I figure out which ones are the hardest and I give them to Kevin Ewell.

Somehow, I forgot about that one. So here we are today. And I'll be honest with you, the more I've studied and read and listened and prayed and tried to figure out what in the world is going on in 1 Corinthians chapter 14, the more and more I got confused. The more and more maybe I was able to step inside someone else's point of view and see like, yeah, I could see how they get there. I could see why they do that. I could see why they pray that way. I could see. And then if I stepped in this other guy's shoes or this other girl's shoes and looked at it from their perspective, I'm like, yeah, it makes sense from that perspective too.

And what I love about that, a passage like 1 Corinthians chapter 14 oftentimes just divides people. We draw these lines in the sand and we say, man, you are like this. And you believe this. Therefore, we cannot like be congregants together. We can't commune together. We can't do life together. Or this side over here says, no, I can't do life with you. You're way too boring, right? You're too boring. You worship hands in pockets. I worship Holy Spirit rockets. We're just so, I'm a tongue talking, spirit walking. And this person over here is like, yeah, you're crazy. So therefore, we cannot. And what I think is beautiful, each and every one of us, like, we just saying all of us can come together under the banner of Jesus Christ.

And we can say, do you know what? We might see some things like tongues and prophecy a bit different, but I'm so thankful. My salvation is not contingent upon what I believe about spiritual gifts. I'm so thankful this morning as a church that we can stand on the foundation, the solid rock out of who Christ is and what Christ has done. I'm so thankful. Maybe this morning we can look at someone who sees a non -essential theological topic differently than us. And we could say, do you know what? I disagree. I see it different. Pass the cheese. We're still friends and we're still going to do life together. And I think it's a wonderful thing.

I hope we as a church can always be a strange bird like that. That we as a church would never just be pigeonholed exactly into this is exactly who Highlands is. And this is exactly what Highlands believes about A through Z. I hope and pray we can always unite around Christ as King. Yeah. Amen. We're going to talk about amen and yeah. And a little bit. I like that some of you are in this service. Normally ameners are in first service.

So thanks for spicing up the second service with us. We like that. My goal this morning is for us to unite around that as we discuss a topic that's maybe a bit hard to understand and maybe that's a bit confusing. Man, I'm so thankful to have Brendan Anderson back with us. He just went on sabbatical for the last three months. I'm really excited that he's back with us. First service claps for that. You don't have to. It's fine. We're different.

Sabbatical is great. It gives you an opportunity to rest. And it also, as a pastor, gives you an opportunity to attend other churches and just experience, man, what is God doing in other local assemblies? We ask the question sometimes, you know, how many churches are in Phoenix? And we try to rack our head and figure it out. It's a trick question. There's one church in Phoenix. It's Jesus's church. And maybe it looks a bit different from house to house, but it's still one big family. And it's fun sometimes as a pastor to be able to go and experience that. Some of these other places. So I've been picking Brendan's brain, man. What was your church experience like?

Like, tell me, where did you go? What did you see? And they were in a few different states while they were on sabbatical. He went to California and was telling me about this one church in California. He dubbed it the lunch church. The lunch church. And I said, man, why is that lunch church? And he said, man, that church loves lunch. What do you mean? Well, in like the welcome, man, so glad you're here with us at lunch church. That's not the name, but the names have been changed to protect us. That's not the innocent or guilty. I'm not entirely sure yet. Welcome to, you know, such and such a church. We're so glad you're with us.

If you knew, blah, blah, blah, all the things we're going to get to worship and sing about. I do want to let you know, you know, we got lunch after church. He's doing great. It's like special Sunday. We got barbecue. Like, no, this was every Sunday lunch. Okay, great. These guys love their lunch. You know, towards the end of worship, you know, before we close in prayer, I do want to remind you of lunch. We got lunch coming up.

I'm getting hungry. I'm getting hungry. Just think about lunch, right? Pastor gets up, gives the message. Middle of the message finds a way to wiggle lunch, right? Main point, go to lunch after church, right? Get into the worship at the end. Final benediction. One more reminder, you know, don't forget, we got lunch. He's like, I get it. This place loves lunch. There ain't nothing wrong with lunch. It's that lunch is a beautiful, beautiful thing. But I think what he experienced in that church was a good thing.

Hospitality. That became the main thing. And when a good thing becomes a main thing, friends, that's a bad thing. When a good thing becomes the main thing, it's a bad thing. And this happens sometimes in churches with different spiritual gifts, especially like hospitality, lunch church. Let's talk about generosity. Is generosity a good thing? Of course it is. God calls us to be generous. There's even a spiritual gift of generosity.

There's even a couple of churches where it's like, well, how many times are we going to pass this plate? It's the third time. The plate's gone around three times now.

Generosity is a good thing. It's a good thing. But when a good thing becomes the main thing, well, then it becomes a bad thing. Spiritual gifts are good. One of the problems that we see in 1 Corinthians 14. 1 Corinthians 14, by the way, is not intended to be a theological expose on all things, tongues and prophecy. 14 is a correction to a church where a good thing, gift of tongues, became the main thing.

And when a good thing becomes a main thing, it becomes a bad thing. That's what's gone on in this church in Corinth. Their use of this gift we know as tongues became the main thing in their gathering place. And Paul says, that's not good. Your good thing has become a main thing, and in doing so, you've allowed it to become a bad thing.

Let me pray for us real quick, and we can see what 1 Corinthians 14 holds for us today. Father God, we come before you

Just recognizing who it is that we even speak with. God, a sense of reverence and awe that the creator of the universe wants to commune with us, that

The one who creates and sustains life itself knows us by name, knows the hairs on our head.

Father, we come before you with awe and wonder. In reverence, in a sense of gratitude, God, that you would send your son to live for us, to die for us, that we might live abundantly with you now and eternally with you later. Holy Spirit, I pray today that you'd open our eyes, that we would see things clearly, our ears, that we would hear them clearly, our minds, that we would know and understand, our hearts to love. God, you open our mouths to go out into the world and preach the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ, for your glory and your glory alone. God, we love you, we praise you, we thank you. It's in Christ's name we pray.

Amen. 1 Corinthians chapter 14, verses 1 through 25. We're going to cover some ground this morning, so we'll have to boogie a little bit. He opens up with this in verse 1. Pursue love and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy. Pursue love. He's made this point a handful of times now. Spiritual gifts are cool. Love is cooler. Spiritual gifts are great and all. Love is greater. You get the end of chapter 12. He lists all of these wonderful, spectacular spiritual gifts, things that God gives people for the benefit and good and upbuilding of his church. But chapter 12 ends with verse 31. It says, 1 Corinthians chapter 12, verses 1 through 25.

That's great. And I will show you a still more excellent way. What way is more excellent than all these gifts that God's given us? The most excellent way is the way of love. It's who God is, right? God is love. For God so loved the world. That's what we should pursue. We ought to pursue love. Chapter 13 ended this way. Now, faith, hope, and love abide these three, but the greatest of these is love.

Chapter 14 begins, pursue love. This is an interesting word, pursue. It's the same word as hunt. Any hunters, huntresses, let me be politically correct these days, right? Anyone in church this morning, like outdoors person, me and my brother and seven other people. That's good. The nine of us, we're going to be locked into this together. The rest of you, you can just listen in on this.

Uh, it's interesting. Pursue love, hunt, or love, uh, not to be loved, but to give love, man, what a different mindset we would have as people. If our goal was to wake up every morning and man, this morning, I'm going to hunt for opportunities to love people this morning. I'm going to pursue opportunities to love people. That's going to be the goal. It's kind of reminiscent of Hebrews chapter 12. Fix your eyes on Jesus. That's this like soul focus or Matthew chapter six, seek first the kingdom of God. It's got that same thrust behind it. Pursue love. That's where this whole thing starts. Desire the spiritual gifts. Yes, but pursue love.

And he says, especially that you may prophesy, especially that you may prophesy. Ooh, freaky word. We'll talk about it in a minute. What Paul's going to present in the rest of the verses two through 25 is four reasons prophesying takes priority in a church service. Four reasons prophesying takes priority in a church service. You could say four ways that prophecies better than speaking in tongues in a church service. That's what he's going to lay out for us here. The first reason is this prophesying builds up the church.

Prophecy builds up the church. He begins in verse two this way 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. On the other hand, the one who prophesies. speaks to people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation. There's two things he's going to compare and contrast to one another here. This idea of the gift of tongues and then secondly, the gift of prophecy. Let me give you two buckets and categories by which I think may be helpful for us to understand. There's two types, you could say, that people advocate for when it comes to tongues. There's this public version of tongues, which is similar to what we see in Acts chapter 2.

The Spirit of God is poured out on a God's people and they preach, they prophesy, they proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ. And what's heard by those listening is their own native tongue. You could say this is like me going to the Netherlands and me just preaching and everyone hearing it in their native tongue of German, I believe.

Let's just say that's the right answer. In Acts chapter 2, there's two types of tongues. There's two types of tongues. 2, there's two types of tongues. There's two types of tongues. In Acts chapter 2, you have these Gentiles, these men who spoke probably Greek, stand up, preach the gospel, and what's heard is whatever native language these other people spoke. So perhaps it was Hebrew. How are these Greeks speaking Hebrew? That's the first example of tongues. Public proclamation. Known languages for the benefit of the gospel going forth in our world. That's the first bucket. The second bucket, first one public, second one people advocate for is this kind of private and personal tongue. Those who believe in this, they say it's their private prayer language.

And I don't mean this to be a negative way of portraying it or saying it, but it'd be like utterance or some would say it's like babble. It's gibberish. And I don't mean that to be negative whatsoever. That's just how it's oftentimes explained. It's just expressing sounds that come to mind and they just come out of your mouth. As you pray in the spirit, Romans chapter 8, it says that the spirit intercedes for us. With groanings too deep for words. People who practice this private personal prayer language, that's what they'd say is happening. I don't even have the words for this. So God is just speaking through me in this language that I don't even understand, that no one even does.

And Paul says, as you speak in a tongue, you may edify yourself because it's uplifting to you. It's upbuilding to you. We all encounter the Lord in different ways, right? I went and did a little day of solitude and silence on Friday this week. I went out into the world and I did a little day of world and I did a little day of silence on Friday this week. I went out into the woods all by myself. Didn't talk to anyone for 24 hours.

For me, I find if I get lost in the woods, I end up finding Jesus. And when I find Jesus, it's like I find myself. It's this beautiful thing that happens. For you, that sounds like a nightmare. Not the finding Jesus part, the getting lost in the woods part.

Some people would say, no, when I get like lost in my prayer language, it's like, man, I just, I just commune with the Lord. That's how people would advocate these two things here. Tongues, public declaration, preaching of God's word. And then secondly, this private prayer language. Then we get into prophecy. I think those same two categories apply. There's prophesying, which is different than what you'd think Old Testament prophets. Old Testament prophets, you hear guys say things like, thus saith the Lord, and then they speak God's words for him. It's as if God is speaking himself. Nowadays, what I believe prophesying publicly looks like is standing before people, opening up God's word and saying, let me tell you what God said.

So in a very real way, you could say even what's happening this morning in church, this is prophesying. Why? Because we're professing what God's word says about life and godliness. We're professing God's truth. So that's a public prophesying. There's also a private or a personal prophesying. Oftentimes this looks maybe like this. I'm praying one day.

I'll use my friend Brian, because I always use Brian. I'm praying, and for some reason, you know, Brian comes to mind. And I, man, I don't know why. I wasn't thinking about him before, and all of a sudden, I feel like I'm hearing from the Lord. You know, call your friend, encourage him in X, Y, and Z. So I call Brian. Hey, I don't know, you know, if this is real or not, but I just feel like I'm hearing this from the Lord, and I just wanted to pass it along. So you need to test the spirits, and you need to see if that falls in line with what you feel like God is trying to do in your life.

If it doesn't, my bad. Ate some bad tacos last night, and I'm feeling all sorts of weird stuff right now. But that's on him to decide. Is that God ministering to him through a gift of prophecy that he's gifted a believer? So in both of these categories, we have a public version, and we have a private version. He says we ought to especially prophesy the one who speaks in a tongue builds himself up, but the one who prophesies builds up the church. The one who speaks God's words into people builds up the church. Now, I want all of you to speak in tongues, but even more to prophesy. This whole chapter, by the way, I file away in a category, and on the file of that category, it just says, huh, not

Sure what that means. There's so much in chapter 14 where someday we'd love to have a church, but we don't. church, but we don't. We'd love to have a conversation with the Apostle Paul and be like, hey, bro, maybe I'd use something more respectful than bro. Brother in Christ, we'll say. I'd say, hey, so chapter 14, you really told the church in Corinth how to not do it? Would have been kind of helpful for you to tell us exactly how.

So we wouldn't have these risks and temptations for division and different points of view and different understandings, because he says, here, I want you all to speak in tongues. Well, which version? Which bucket? Does he want us all to speak in this? Like public declaration of speaking God's truth, preaching God's word so that people who hear the gospel preached in their own native language and their own tongue can believe and profess and be saved? Maybe that's what he means.

Or does he say, when I want you all to speak in tongues, is he saying, I wish you all practiced a private prayer language? I don't know. I don't know which one he means, but he does say, but I want even more. I want you to prophesy. The one who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues unless someone interprets, so the church may be built up. This makes me think of Mark chapter 9, Jesus' disciples there. Jesus is leading them. They're ministering to people all over the area where they were at. And they're back here having this discussion, trying to figure out, hey, which one of us is the best? Which one of us is the greatest?

And you kind of want to be like, ding dong, Jesus is in front of you. He's the greatest. You are not the greatest. He is the greatest. Jesus over here, as he knows the conversation that they're having, he says, hey, the Gentiles, their lords, lord their greatness over them. It shall not be so among you.

If you want to be great, you got to be a servant. Oh, wow. Mind blown. That's a total mind shift. That's just completely, completely different from what these people grew up with. One chapter later, same conversation happens. Jesus, we want to be great. Would you tell us how to be great? He says, the one who will be the greatest, among you must be a servant of all. For even the son of man, Jesus Christ himself came not to be served, but he came to serve and give his life as a ransom for many. What does greatness look like? What does a great life look like? A great life looks like someone who's committed to the service and the upbuilding of others.

That's what he says, even right here. What's greater is that you prophesy. Why? Because it works for the benefit. It works for the building up of those around you. There's a second reason. He says, prophesying benefits the church. Verse six, now brothers, if I come to you speaking in tongues, how will I benefit you? Unless I bring you some revelation or knowledge or prophecy or teaching. In other words, speaking or praying in tongues would benefit the individual doing it. But if the goal is to go out to other people and be a blessing and build them up and be a benefit to them, how would it build them up? He says it would, and I would have to bring a word of knowledge or revelation or encouragement or some type of profession of who Christ is.

And he gives us three examples. First one's in verse seven. If even lifeless instruments, such as the flute or the harp, do not give distinct notes, how will anyone know what is played? If some instruments just make a noise, all you hear is noise. How many of you remember the day where your child was born? How many of you remember the day was born? How many of you remember the day when your child brought home that dreadful recorder from school?

Yeah, children, when you brought that home and you were like, I'm the best, we affirmed you in that, you were not. It was awful. It was awful.

Dad, I'm playing hot cross buns. Sure you are. And then you go to that performance and it's 57 kids, all with recorders. And you're like, what song is that? Thank God for that song playing in the background where you can actually recognize what's being played. Because without it, you'd be like, what's that?

It's kind of what he's talking about. It's just noise. Verse eight. And if the bugle gives an indistinct sound, who will get ready for battle? There's a second illustration. Let's talk about going to war. Okay, you're at war and you're squaring off with your enemy and you hear this bugle. And it's kind of indistinct and you're left wondering, hey, was that the charge? Bugle? Or was that the retreat bugle? It'd kind of be good to know.

It's indistinct. It's unhelpful. So with yourselves, even with your tongue, if you utter speech that's not intelligible, how will anyone know what's said? How will anyone know what's said if you're just doing your own thing? For you will be speaking into the air. Third illustration. There are doubtless many different languages in the world and none of them is without meaning. But if I do not know the meaning of the language, I will be a fool. I will be a fool. I will be a fool. I will be a fool. I will be a fool. I will be a fool. I will be a fool. I will be a fool. I will be a fool. foreigner to the speaker and the speaker a foreigner to me.

If you're someone speaking a language to you, you don't understand, and you're speaking a language to someone else that they don't understand, there's no connection. There's no encouragement. There's no building up. There's no real benefit. And if you've been in that situation, what you end up doing, right, is you talk louder and slower, thinking that's going to fix it. And it does nothing.

Because you're speaking different languages. If the goal is to build each other up, if the goal is to encourage one another, the Apostle Paul says, when the church gathers, it's better to prophesy. It's better to preach Jesus. It's better to keep the main thing the main thing. Tongues is a good thing. He affirms that. Desire these gifts.

Earnestly desire these gifts. But when the church gathers, prophesy. Why? It builds up. It encourages. It comforts. So with yourselves, since you are eager for manifestations of the Spirit, strive to excel in building up the church. Notice he doesn't knock them for their desire for manifestations of the Spirit. Never here does Paul tell the church, stop it with the tongues. Not once. Whether that's the public declaration or whether that's the private prayer language. Never does Paul say, knock it off.

He says, desire those things, but make sure we're desiring things that builds up the church. Make sure we're doing things for the benefit of others. We're not looking out to our own interests, but we're looking to the interests of those God has placed around us. Therefore, the one who speaks in a tongue should pray that he may interpret. What does that mean? Oftentimes, never experienced it here at Highlands Church. And I've grown up in the church here at Highlands. So my church experience, you could say, is a bit limited. But I've heard stories from people who they'll be sitting in a congregation and someone will stand up or during worship, they'll give an utterance. They'll speak in a tongue.

And the pastor or an elder or someone nearby will ask this question, does anyone have interpretation? Because now if someone can interpret this utterance, if someone can interpret this tongue, it moves from just tongues into this category of prophecy that then can be used for the benefit, the upbuilding of people in that church. So someone stands up, gives utterance, manifestation of the spirit, an elder pastor, someone asked, does anyone have an interpretation?

And if someone has interpretation, and by the way, what is prophecy? Prophecy, Paul outlines that it's upbuilding, which is the word academia, which means it instructs people. Secondly, it encourages them, doesn't discourage them. And then thirdly, consoles, it comforts. If someone says, I do have an interpretation, God is speaking this, and it does all three of those things, it very well may be interpretation of a manifestation of the spirit expressing itself through tongues.

If no one stands up and no one gives interpretation, well, now we just have an individual using their prayer language or speaking in a tongue, whichever one it is, for their own benefit, their own building up, not for the building up of God's church. And why does God give interpretation? Because if someone stands up and gives utterance, anyone, 1 Peter 5, we're gifted for service for the good of God's people and the glory of Jesus. That's why we have gifts. And we ought to use them for the benefit of others, never for the benefit of self.

Therefore, the one who speaks in tongues should pray that he may interpret. Why? Because that would work for the benefit of someone else. For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful, and the Lord does not want us to have unfruitful minds. I think of Romans chapter 12, verse 2.

Jesus says, Never does God want us to take our brain out. Never does God want us to take our mind out. He wants us to engage him, even with our mind. If I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful. What am I to do? I'll pray with my spirit, but I'll pray with my mind. I'll pray with my mind also. I'll sing praise with my spirit, but I will sing with my mind also.

There's a third reason he says prophesying is better. Prophesying instructs outsiders. Prophesying instructs outsiders. Now, there was this whole movement not too long ago called the seeker -sensitive movement where the church tried to really cater to those who were outside of the church. And it was great for a while, and then people were like, that's not good. The church is for Christians.

Sure. But also what you see here is the Apostle Paul writing to a church in Corinth telling them, hey, you ought to be mindful that sometimes there's people who show up in church who aren't used to church, and y 'all already do some stuff that's a little weird.

Let's stand and sing. Oh, okay. Well, we're standing now. Got a guy reading from a book up there. What's he doing? We're all just going to sit down and look at that guy? That's weird. What do we do next? What do I do with my hands? That guy's happy hands club over there, and this one over here looks a little frustrated and upset. So how are we supposed to do this thing?

Outsiders come into services, and the Apostle Paul says you should be mindful of that, that there's people who aren't used to this whole thing showing up to the gathering. You should be sensitive to them.

Verse 20, brothers, no, sorry, I'm in verse 16. Otherwise, if you give thanks with your spirit, how can anyone in the position of the church be sensitive to you? of the church be sensitive to you? of an outsider, say amen. What is amen? Amen means some variation of surely. It means let it be. Some say just means yes. Sometimes it means I agree. What amen is an affirmation of something that's already been said.

Okay, so preacher's in church, and he's ripping and roaring and getting after it, sweat rag the whole bit, and finally he stops this whole thing, and the church says amen. Yeah, truth. Preach. It's just this, like, it's basically telling everyone, like, I'm with you. Yes. Me personally, when I'm listening to someone preach, and I feel like the Lord moving in my heart, oftentimes it just comes out like this.

It's good. Some of us aren't used to that. Now, I joked, first service, first service got some ameners in it. Second service, not so much. And that's fine. It don't matter.

But what he says here is we should communicate in such a way that people actually understand what's going on. People need to know the truth, and who is the truth? His name is Jesus. Jesus is the way. Jesus is the truth. Jesus is the life. No one comes to the Father except through Jesus.

Okay, here's what, we're gonna run out of time here. This is a tangent. We were at some conference, and sometimes you get a little carried away with the amens. Okay, not you personally. Sometimes other people do. Guys telling a story, you just flew in, you know, to such and such airport. Oh, amen. I was like, that's not appropriate for that. That doesn't matter.

That's good. Okay, sure. Yeah, whatever. Stop. Let him talk. Amen. I'm with you. I agree. So we preach the truth so outsiders can understand it so that they might be able to say, amen. Yes, I'm with you. I believe that.

You may be giving thanks well enough, but the other person's not being built up, and what's the goal of the gift God gives us? To build up other people.

I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you. What's that mean? Not sure, but that Paul spoke in tongues more than all of them. The church he's correcting for telling them, hey, when you gather, there's too much tongues going on, and you're doing it the wrong way. He tells that church, I'm thankful that I speak and pray in tongues more than all of you.

Again, never just Paul say, it's a bad thing. He just says, your good thing has become the main thing, and that's a bad thing. Nevertheless, in church, I would rather speak five words with my mind in order to instruct others. Why? That's what prophesying does. Academia instructs, builds up.

I'd rather speak five words with my mind to instruct others in 10 ,000 words in a tongue. You know, those 10 ,000 words, in your own tongue, may edify you. It may build you up, may make you feel close to Jesus, like me going out into the woods makes me feel close to Jesus. But Paul says, but for the benefit of the people around me, I'd rather say, Jesus loves you so much.

Jesus loves you so much. Why? Because it builds the people up who are in church.

There's a fourth thing he says, prophesying, convicts unbelievers. Prophesying, convicts unbelievers. Brothers, do not be children in your thinking. Be infants in evil, but in your thinking, be mature. In the law, it is written, by a people of strange tongues and by the lips of foreigners will I speak to this people, and even then, they will not listen to me, says the Lord. This is a quotation from Isaiah chapter 28, 11, 12, prophesying God's thing. I'm going to speak to my people through other languages, and my own people are going to reject them.

Makes me think of Acts chapter 2, Pentecost, Holy Spirit of God poured out on God's new people, because the people has expanded. It's not just the chosen. It's not just the Jews. It's not just the Israelites. It's every tongue, tribe, nation. It's the Gentiles too. And these Gentile believers show up, and they begin preaching the gospel in native tongue, foreign people, to a Jewish audience. And that Jewish audience, many of them get saved. Many of them reject the message.

He says this, thus tongues are a sign, not for believers, unbelievers. Normally signs in the Bible are a good thing. I think this may be a bad thing. It's a bad sign. Someone shows up and preaches Jesus, and you reject it. It's a sign that you're an unbeliever.

Not for believers, but for unbelievers, while prophecy is a sign not for unbelievers, but for believers, both that public kind and the personal kind, that God loves you, that God is speaking to you, that God is communicating to you. If therefore the whole church comes together and all speak in tongues, and outsiders are unbelievers enter, will they not say you are out of your minds?

I'm going to invite the band out. We're going to get to communion in just a moment. I want to stay here for one sec. Will they not say that you are out of your minds? Man, I wonder when outsiders and unbelievers come to Highlands Church, what's their experience?

What do they think of us? Not that that's everything. It's not, but it's something, according to the Apostle Paul. When people experience Highlands, when people experience Highlands, what do they think?

What do they think? You know, we got great donuts and coffee. Are we the donuts and coffee church? Is that it? Like, that's not enough.

Donuts. Are you lunch church? Are you pass the plate church? What kind of church are you?

We've got an excellent band. I'm so thankful for our excellent band. Our band is great.

I hope we're never a great band church. When a good thing becomes the main thing, it's actually a bad thing.

Man, I love that we preach through God's word. I love the other men who are up here preaching God's word. Co -laborers with Christ. I hope you'd say our preaching is good. Don't clap. That'd be really self -serving. I hope you'd say, yeah, it's good. When a good thing becomes the main thing, it's a bad thing. I don't want to be the great preaching church.

When people experience Highlands, what do they experience? My hope and my prayer is that we would be that church loves Jesus. Those people are Jesus people. Those people are Jesus people. When they get together, what do they talk about? They preach Jesus. They're Jesus people.

Man, they're people who pursue people. They pursue love. They look for opportunities to love. Why? Because God is loving. God pursued us. And if we're Jesus people, Jesus is the kind of people who loves people. Therefore, we will be Jesus loving kind of people. That's what I want us to be as a church.

I think that's what the Lord would have us be as a church. A church you might see things a bit differently, right? The temptation's there to divide over non -essential theological topics and say, we don't see eye to eye on this. Therefore, we cannot commune with one another.

I don't ever want to be that church. I want to be a church that says, man, we're different in that. What do you believe about Jesus? King of kings, Lord of lords, Prince of peace, Savior of the world. Can we agree on that? And then all of us can fall under that banner of Jesus as a church? I think that would be a beautiful example to the world. A church that says, you know, we're incredibly united. No, we're not uniform. We're all different.

But we unite under the person of who Christ is and what he's done. That's what I want Highlands to be. Jesus people. Jesus people living on mission for the glory of the Lord here in our own neighborhood, near all over our country world and far all over the world. That's what I think God's asking of us. Just love. That we pursue love. Earnestly desire gifts for the purpose of building up the people God's placed around us. Two more verses. But if all prophesy, an unbeliever or outsider enters, he's convicted by all.

Outsider, unbeliever enters, and here's prophecy. The profession of who Christ is and what he has done, what does it say? They may be convicted. The secrets of their heart is disclosed, and so falling on their face, they will worship God and declare that God is really among them. God is really among them. God is really among them. God is really among them. God is really among you. Why do we preach Jesus? Because people come to church, and in doing so, they become the church.

People come to church. They hear the profession of who Christ is and what he's done. The Holy Spirit moves on their heart, seals their eternity forever, become a Christian, and they become a church. It's an amazing thing. That's many of your stories. I'd ask you if you're courageous enough. If you prayed the prayer to receive Jesus, if you prayed the prayer to receive Jesus in a church service, would you raise your hand?

Isn't that amazing? I know we talk a lot about get out into the world and share your faith, but there's something beautiful about God's people gather, Jesus is preached, hearts are convicted, and people are saved.

It's a cool thing we get to be a part of. The upbuilding, edification, and encouragement of the people that God has placed around us.

And we're going to take communion in just a moment here. You should have received a communion cup on your way in. If you didn't, there may be one in the seat back in front of you. If there's not one there, you can slip your hand up and we'll bring a communion cup to you. It's got a little cracker and the juice all in one.

Communion is an opportunity for us to express our common union. The union we have with Christ because of what he's done, but also the unity we have with one another. That while we may have some theological differences from one another, we can all fall under the name of Jesus Christ.

The night Jesus was betrayed, he was enjoying a meal with his disciples. And during this meal, he stopped, he grabbed bread, he broke it. And he said, this is my body, which is broken for you. Friends, we do this in remembrance of who Christ is and what he's done for us.

In the same way, he took a cup and he said, this represents my blood. It's a new covenant, which is poured out for you. Friends, we do this as an expression of our union with Christ and our unity with one another as well. We do this in remembrance of who Christ is and who he is. In remembrance of him.

Father God, we are so thankful for what you've done for us through your son, Jesus.

God, thank you that you love us. Thank you that you see us. Thank you that you know us.

Thank you that you invite us into relationship with you just as we are. God, thank you that you love us too much to just leave us right where we are.

God, we thank you for your Holy Spirit who guides us to truth, who gifts us for ministry, who helps us glorify your son, Jesus Christ.

God, that has been our aim this morning. That will be our aim every time we gather. So, Father, would you be glorified and would you work all things for our good as well? We love you. We thank you. We praise you. It's in Christ's name we pray. Amen. Friends, our prayer team is going to be down front. Maybe you need someone to mourn with. Maybe you need someone to rejoice with. Maybe you have requests. Maybe you've got something to celebrate. They would love to minister to you and with you through prayer this morning. For the rest of us, let me remind us. Let's keep the main thing in mind. Let's be Jesus people. Let's go out into the world and when people encounter us, when they experience us, they say, yeah, there's some weird things about that guy.

But you know what? That guy loves Jesus. That church loves Jesus. And don't forget, service isn't over until you love somebody. Love somebody well. Then go out into the world and live on mission for the glory of Christ and Christ alone. We love you. God bless you. We'll see you next week. Bye -bye.