When God Wants to Speak | Pastor Jason McKinnies | Purpose House Church

I'm Jason McInnis, the pastor here at Purpose House Church. I wanna thank you for joining our broadcast on the Pando app. We love you and we're praying for you. All right, if you have a Bible, I'm gonna read a lot out of the New King James Version, 1 Corinthians 12, 13, and 14. And then we're gonna go to Galatians chapter five. You gotta memorize all of these. If you don't, there'll be up, you can also scan that QR code. You can follow along with my notes. A couple of just personal announcements. August the 2nd, I got another book coming out. It's about the culture of the church. And then the end of the month, end of August, we're gonna release the first, I think, of 10 volumes of the devotionals that I've been writing. And so really, the devotional is just all the old sermons that I don't wanna re-preach again. And so you're reading things that I preached back in 2004, 2005. That's been a season ago. And I'm like, man, some of this stuff's pretty good. I probably should bring it back out. So we just started writing it instead. But today, for today's notes, we're gonna dive back into the series called Move and talk about the gifts of the Spirit. So, and it's in my mind to tell you,

people email me and ask me, and some of you may be even asking my mother. I talked about my health a little bit last week. And I got, I didn't get the news I wanted to get with it. I don't have anything, I don't have cancer or anything like that. I just have a condition in my body. It's been going on for 23 or 24 years. It goes away, then it comes back. So I'm really fidgety this morning. I'm trying to deal with this new injection they gave me. My hands and my arms are just on fire from the injection. And so if I'm doing this number, just focus on your Bible and we'll get through this. But they're doing everything in their power to get me off of prednisone. So prednisone has damaged my heart and it's damaged my colon. I've been on prednisone for 23 years, sometimes 10 a day. And so thankfully, I've not had to take any prednisone this week. We'll just get through whatever they're injecting me with. So until the Lord heals it completely. So, all right, let's go. Last week, we've talked about stirring up the gift of God that is in you. And this week, I wanna talk about what happens when the gifts begin to be stirred and then the gifts start speaking, the gifts start manifesting or speaking

because some of the most misunderstood or argued about, and then because they're misunderstood and they're argued about, they become avoided gifts in the whole church or the ones, the gifts that God uses through the person's mouth. It's prophecy, tongues, and interpretation. And I do wanna say this because when people do give an interpretation, remember, it's not a translation, it's an interpretation. They're not doing it word for word. They're doing it and using their way and their own experiences to try to describe what God is saying. They are interpreting it, not translating it. And so earlier we had a tongue and then we had an interpretation and John was interpreting it like John would say. So it sounded a lot like John and not Tina because Tina was not the one giving the interpretation. John was giving the interpretation. And so sometimes we get fear thinking we have to translate it. But really you are just trying to interpret what God is saying to the church. So I wanna talk about this topic and I wanna be intentional about it. I don't wanna rush into it. I have a lot of ground to cover. I'm gonna try to get you out of here

before you freeze to death. But I would rather take my time than cover this fast. So I wanna, before we get into the specific mechanics of what I wanna talk about, I wanna lay down just a couple pieces of groundwork and they apply to every gift that we're gonna talk about. But they matter probably the most on this week that we talk about the gifts that speak. And I will talk about this in that the gift or the gifts of the Spirit and the fruit of the Spirit are two different things. The gifts of the Spirit and the fruit of the Spirit, they are not the same thing. So Galatians chapter five, I know you got your finger probably in first Corinthians, but Galatians chapter five, verses 22 and 23, that the fruit of the Spirit is love, it is joy, it is peace, it is long suffering, it is kindness, it is goodness, it is faithfulness, it is gentleness, it is self-control. Against such, there is no law. That's fruit. That's character. That's who you are to become as you walk with Christ. And every believer, every believer, everybody say y'all. Everyone, is supposed to be growing in all nine of those all the time. Now, gifts are different.

Gifts are not what you are becoming. Gifts are what you are equipped to do. Now, you may not operate and function in all nine of the manifestation gifts. The Bible says the spirit of God distributes those as he wills. One situation at a time. Not as a fixed set that you carry into every room and you know today I'm going to operate like this. No, you don't know because the spirit will then give you an unction. That's an old King James word. That's an old church word. It's how the spirit would move upon us. So, we need to think about the nine gifts of the spirit less like a personality test. Like something you settle into. I said this last week. It's more like a toolbox. And every good toolbox has a DeWalt hammer in it. Might as well stir up the controversy now because I know some of you, well, no, it's not a DeWalt. Well, I'm a DeWalt guy. So, but every good toolbox has a hammer. It's got a set of pliers, a screwdriver, a wrench, and probably a good phone number for your dad. But if all you ever reach for is the hammer, you'll eventually convince yourself that every job in front of you is a nail because that's all a hammer knows how to see. Hand that same person who always believes that they're a hammer, hand them a strip screw or a fitting that needs to be turned

not struck and if the hammer is the only tool that they trust, then they'll begin to use a hammer inappropriately and they will break and bend something that God intended for it to be fixed. So, when we begin to insist on only operating in our one gift regardless of what the moment in front of us actually calls for, we could have good intentions, use a familiar tool, but be completely wrong in how we do it. So, we want to grow in all nine of the fruits of the spirit, the attributes, because it is a fruit, but it has nine attributes. And those are not optional and they are not selective. So, I hear people say, well, I'm just working on being, well, you need to work on that a little bit more and start becoming, being like Christ. So, don't confuse though growing in your character and in your walk with God as discovering your gift. You need both and they are not the same project. Keep the toolbox picture in your mind because tongues and prophecy that we're going to talk about are two different tools. They're very specific tools, but they are two different tools. And part of what's gone wrong in a lot of churches and in some circles is people are always reaching for one of them no matter what the room actually needs. So, I want to, again, just clarify this. I am not against anything that's happening. I'm just trying to help you because it's happening more and more and more and I want you to walk in understanding of what's happening in this place because God is speaking to us, okay? So, Paul actually tells us to do some things.

So, last week we talked about that the gifts are already in you, everybody has them. But Paul does not just stop at describing the gifts. Across chapters 12, 13, and 14 of 1 Corinthians, he gives the church a working set of instructions for how to actually operate in what they had been given. So, let me ask you a question. Do you have a gift? They say, uh-huh. Let me ask you again. Do you like Krispy Kreme? All right. Okay. Some of you need to get saved and sanctified, okay? Do you have a gift? Are you going to use your gift? Okay, there we go. The center section is on fire, all right? If you're cold, run to the center section, all right? So, Paul says, listen, everybody's got a gift. Now, we're going to teach you how to operate or work in your gift, what you've already been given. Now, these rules were not just written for a first century congregation alone. They're still exactly what a healthy, gift-active church needs even today. And every one of them applies to what we're going to do. So, he says, first of all, desire the gifts on purpose. This is chapter 12, verse 31. Earnestly desire the best gifts.

Desire spiritual gifts, especially verse 1 of chapter 14. Desire spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy. So, let me say it like this. When people want to operate in the gift, they are not being presumptuous, nor are they being selfish. are they being self-promoting? They are not being selfish. Paul commands for people to want to desire a spiritual gift. And so what I see sometimes is people going, yeah, look at them, they just wanna, careful. You're doing the work of the devil by telling people that because they want to be used by God, that they are being presumptuous or being filled with pride when in fact they're doing what Paul commanded us, which is to desire a spiritual gift, to desire them. So you're after them. So Paul's commanding it. Then number two, he says, love has to be the environment that the gifts operate in. Okay, love is not an afterthought of them, it's the motivating factor behind them. Because chapter 13 sits in the middle of chapter 12 and chapter 14 on purpose. It's sandwiched between two chapters on gifts, is an entire chapter on the fruit. So if you're going to operate in gifts, you want the gifts to be manifested, then the fruit should be evident. Because any emotion put behind a gift of the Spirit

that is not of love is dangerous. Because if you don't love me, I don't want you correcting me. I mean, if your mom and dad, after they got done spanking you, that's a new thing in this world, they'd be like, no, I really love you. And I'm like, sure, sure. Now this hurts me more than it hurts you, then let me do the whipping. You grab that chair, dad. I never said that and he's been dead eight years and I'm still fearful of saying it. Okay, okay. Because gifts, Paul even says, gifts without love are just noise. Now it's interesting, and get ready to turn to the book of Exodus and it'll appear on the screens. If you don't know where that's at, it's the second book of the Bible. It's interesting, Paul would write this this way in first to this church at Corinth and for us. Because Exodus chapter 28 and verses 33 through 35 give an interesting little detail about how the priest robe is supposed to be constructed. Now, why would that be important when we're talking about the gifts of the Spirit and the fruit of the Spirit? Because we are now the priesthood,

the body of Christ is now the priesthood. And they're instructed in the book of Exodus that when they are constructing the robe of the priests, that they are supposed to design the bottom of the robe. Now, we could get into a whole discussion about pants and all that. The men wore robes and the women wore robes. And at the bottom of the robe, there was all this gold plating and all this, but he said, there's a specific design that we want you. You wanna, on the hem, we want you to put a pomegranate, then a bell, a pomegranate, and then a bell. So every other, between the bells, set a pomegranate. So let's get this right. So when the priest would walk, the bells would ring. And without the spacing between the bells, they would become exactly as the apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 13, where he said, they would just be sounding brass and tinkling cymbal. They took the fruit in between the bells to keep it spaced correctly so that as the priest walked, it made a sound that was letting them know that the priest was in the holies of holies. So as the priest would walk, there was a sound. It was not annoying. Why was it not annoying? Because between the gifts of the bells was a fruit there that kept it in balance and kept the rhythm to it and made it sound right. So the apostle Paul is writing to the church

and he's like, let's talk about gifts. Let's talk about a bell. It's the sound of the church. It's the sounding of the church. And then he says, okay, I'm gonna go through a whole chapter, chapter 12, and write to you. And then he says, wait a minute, let's put a fruit, 1 Corinthians chapter 13, the love chapter, in between there, and then he picks up again in 1 Corinthians chapter 14, and he says, all right, let's talk about how we sound again, how we sound. What is he doing? He's saying, listen, if you're gonna operate in the gifts, I don't need you sounding like two cymbals banging together next to me, because you don't love me. But if we'll put fruit, so you see 12 is a bell, 13 is a pomegranate, 14 is a bell, and it creates a rhythm in the church. It makes it sound just right. And so he says, listen, make sure you're operating in the gifts with love, or it's just a bunch of banging cymbals, all right? Then he says, all right, now, operate in love. Then he says, aim every gift at building up the church, not showcasing yourself. In chapter 14, verse 12, let it be for the edification the church that you seek to excel, not that you would be edified, that the church would be edified. And those guys that preach here, you hear me talk to them, you know, they'll come in and ask me and I say, listen, be careful that you don't preach for the preacher blessing.

You get blessed and the church doesn't. What I found is when you walk out and you feel like you've done the worst, the church got fed and you feel like you've done terrible. I would say the same thing in operating the gift. Make sure you're not doing it so that you get blessed. You're doing it so that they get blessed. The church is edified. The church is lifted up. Then he says in verse 26 of the same chapter, chapter 14, let all things be done for edification. I hear all kinds of people. I just want to correct them. Is that really lifting them up? Is it really bringing them up to a higher level? And the test is whether for a gift being operated correctly is did it build someone up? Okay. Then he also says it like this in verse 19, value, these are my words, value what everyone in the room can actually understand. Paul would have said, I would rather speak in five intelligible words than 10,000 in a tongue when the church is gathered. So in public settings, we should prioritize what the whole room can receive. Everybody can receive it. So then he says, if you're going to bring a tongue, something that nobody understands, if you're going to bring a tongue out over the top of everything, bring a tongue publicly, you should come with an expectation that it's going to be interpreted. If you're just doing it to show everybody you can talk in tongues, you're wrong. You need to expect that it can be interpreted. Verse 13, let him who speaks in a tongue, pray that he may interpret. Now I'm old school. I like it when the person who gives the tongue is not the one who does the interpretation.

I like it like that. But just because somebody gives the tongue and the determinants doesn't mean that they're biblically incorrect. It says, pray that he may interpret it. It would be all right if they did it. It's not incorrect. I just, I'm just old school. I like it because I've been in services. I've been in church a long time. I've seen a lot of stuff. I've been in services where somebody had an ax to grind. Anybody else been in around a church person that has an ax to grind? And then all of a sudden there was just this lull in the service, Pastor Pete, and they gave a tongue and then they interpreted. Bless God, Pastor Pete. I'm like, woo, that ain't from God. They're going after Pastor Pete. So I'm just old school. I'm not saying that, I just like it better when a person over on this side and a person on this side, because then I'm like, oh, that's God, because sometimes our flesh can get in the way. I don't know if y'all know that or not, but sometimes people can be a little fleshy. Expect for it to be interpreted. Then he says, take turns. Don't dominate the room. Let two or three prophets speak. Let the others judge, meaning what are they judging for? Well, what they're doing is saying, okay, does that word line up to God's word, to God's character, to the will of God? Does it edify the church?

Now, this is where love really comes in because a lot of us, if we said, hmm, maybe we need to think about that word or pray for that word, people get all huffy and puffy and go home and write a connect card back to the church and say, they're against me. No, it just didn't line up to the word. And it's okay. Sometimes we miss it. I think the church has gotten too much into the cancel culture. When somebody messes up, we want to cancel them on everything. And then what do we get? We get a church without the gifts because everybody's afraid to step out in faith. So there's a sit back and judge. And so like for me, you may see me move around the building. There's times I'll walk across the building. I'll talk to John Gordon. There's times I go talk to Pastor Pete. I had to move Pastor Pete up front because I was walking, I had to go find him all the time. Y'all kept stealing his seat and I couldn't find out where he was at. And I'm like, Pastor Pete, I need you up front. Why? Because when God begins to speak to me and it's different than what I had been studying for praying for throughout the week, I need confirmation that I'm not in my feelings. You know, pastors have feelings too. I can get my feelings. So he says, listen, so then if someone else received something while another is speaking, verse 30 of chapter 14, let the first keep silent. So listen, no one's gift entitles them to run over everybody else's gift. Let others judge. That's where maturity matters. As is operating in love, the words are supposed to be judged.

See if they align with the word, God's character. Does it build up the church? Does it honor God? Does it edify the person? And he says, hey, by the way. You're also in control of your own gift. The spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets. So a gift never overrides your self-control or your judgment about timing. If it isn't the moment, you're able to wait for one that is. Can I just give us all a little bit of advice? A funeral visitation is not always the best time to want to speak in tongues and prophesy over the bereaved. Well, if I were you and the Lord said, we're just trying to grapple with mom's death right now and we don't need all this stuff right here, right now. And he come hooking an untied bow tie over somebody while they're trying to grieve for somebody. I could have spelled medicine too because some of y'all fake it till you make it. All right. So then he's like, listen, then you're in control of your own gift, but also remember what God's character actually sounds like. Verse 33, God is not the author of confusion, but of peace. If the operation of a gift is producing confusion instead of peace, something in how it's being carried needs to change,

not the gift itself. And what we've done over the years is because people have miscarried God's gifts, we've thrown them out of the church. Why don't we deal with the behavior of the people instead of eliminating God? You know why? Because it's easier to throw God out than it is to offend people. And I've just made a decision, right, with the critics. They used to say I preach too short, so I started preaching longer. Then I started preaching too long and then they didn't like, you know what you gotta do? Eventually, you got to ignore the people and trust God. And that's what you have to do too. So then he says, just understand God's gift is not confusing, it's peaceful. So don't shut the door on the gifts, but keep them in order. Then verses 39 through 40, desire earnestly to prophesy and do not forbid to speak with tongues. Let all things be done decently and in order. That's two halves of a verse that are both confusing. And then he says, That's two halves of a verse that are both commands and we shouldn't lose either one of them. So we'll come back to that verse at the close today. So with that groundwork laid, let's go into just a particular topic

that's probably caused more confusion than any other conversation about the gifts. And that is the gift, or we would just say without the word gift, we would just say tongues. Now, there's the gift of tongues and then we would say then there's tongues. A lot of people would say. So the gift of tongues is a message given publicly in a language that might be unknown to the speaker. It could be known by the listener, but it is definitely unknown to the speaker and it's meant to be interpreted so the whole church can be built up. Then for today's, let's just use this. There's the grace of tongues often what we would call a prayer language, okay? Which is private, it is personal and doesn't require an interpretation. You're in a non-denominational church with a Pentecostal flair. So I've had to, now listen, I'm not against tongues. I would almost say that I'm like the Apostle Paul. I probably speak in tongues more than you all. Why? Because I pastor you. I need some help, I'm up in my feelings. Now, that being said, I have a rule as pastor that if we're gonna speak in tongues, we don't do it in a microphone. Because if it's in a microphone, it is public

and it would need interpretation. You all heard it and it doesn't do you any good for me to stand up here and talk the whole service in tongues. It doesn't do you any good. Now, I've had people say, well, pastor, I've heard you speak in tongues in a microphone. Well, there have been some moments where we went into warfare prayer and I didn't have a choice because if I don't know how to pray, the Spirit would make an accession for me. As a matter of fact, Ephesians chapter six, the whole armor of God at the end, it says, and praying always in the Spirit. So there are times when we just ain't gonna control it and there are times when Pastor Melissa will do it and you'll see her apologize to me on the front row and I'm like, who cares? It's in the moment, let's go. But our normal operation of this church is that if we're gonna do it in a microphone, it better have an interpretation. If we're gonna do it publicly. Now, that being said, people say, well, I heard somebody talking in tongues next to me. Man, let them build themselves up all day long. Have you seen the world we live in right now? And you have no idea what's going on in their life and I'm gonna tell you this, I'm not gonna forbid people to speak in tongues in church.

Everybody good? All right, so. The gift of tongues given publicly, language unknown, then there's the grace of tongues, it's private, it's personal, doesn't require you speaking to God, not God speaking through you to others. Now Paul lists, as one of the nine gifts of the Spirit in 1 Corinthians chapter 12 verse 10, different kinds of tongues. Two chapters later in chapter 14, he spends most of the chapter instructing the church on how the public gift should and should not be used. While at the same time, he's repeatedly encouraging the private use of the grace of tongues, a prayer language. So you gotta separate those two things. There's the grace of tongues, then there is this gift of tongues. 1 Corinthians 14 will sound like it's contradicting itself if you don't realize we're talking about two different things, and it happens all the time. So he says, hey listen, I want you to pursue love. This is how he opens the chapter, 1 Corinthians 14. He said, pursue love, desire spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy. He who prophesies speaks edification and exhortation and comfort to men. He who speaks in a tongue edifies himself, but he who prophesies edifies the church. So I want you to notice the order Paul goes. Paul says love first, desire gifts second.

See, a lot of people desire the gift without pursuing love first. Whenever gifts get disconnected from love, they turn into something to prove instead of something to give. Okay, and again, I've been in church a long time, especially Pentecostal churches, a long time, and all of a sudden we gotta prove how spiritual we are to each other. No we don't. We need to allow the grace of God to operate in our lives so that we can give the gift instead of proving we got it all the time. I wanna be a gift to people, not a burden to people. So the Corinth church had the same problem. So if you've been in a church like that, they had it too. They were a wealthy, sensation-hungry city, and so they loved sensationalism. Ooh, you know why, this is in my notes, but I'm gonna go ahead and say it. You know why I appreciate that most of you don't even see the deliverances that go on around here? Because the devil likes to make a spectacle. He'll throw himself in the floor, make people froth at the mouth. That's not the Holy Spirit. That's an evil spirit that does that. Beats people up, all kinds of stuff. And when the enemy does that out in a public spectacle so that you become afraid of anything spiritual.

The Holy Spirit is a gentleman. He doesn't like people being thrown on the floor. Doesn't like them being frothing at the mouth. He doesn't like them sick. He doesn't like them ill. He doesn't like them, and he wants to come in, and all it takes is the name of Jesus, and those spirits have to leave. So let me just give some instruction to some folks that may be dealing with some things. We can pray in the name of Jesus all day long, but if you are messing with it in your flesh, we can't cast out your flesh. And if you have to come back in every week and go through deliverance, it isn't the power of the name of Jesus. It isn't the name of Jesus that's the problem. It's you. I'm gonna stand here just for a moment. Just let that kind of sink into your sponge, okay? It's like the second bite of a Krispy Kreme donut. The first one's still in your mouth, and you think it was so good, you just threw a second one. So I just wanted you to savor that just for a moment, because what we have is the enemy saying, well, God can't cast that spirit out. No, we cast it out last week, but you went back, and you got back in the porno. You got back in the chat room,

and you're like, I'm gonna cast that spirit out. You got back in the chat room. You got back to the bar. You went back to it like a dog returning to its vomit, and then you say it's somehow a Jesus problem. No, it's not. In the name of Jesus, it can come out, and it will come out. You just keep going home and grabbing ahold of it again and bringing it back into your life. You know why we're called disciples? We develop disciplines to keep those things from happening. So pursue love. Don't get disconnected. And then now he says, we don't want all that sensationalism in the church, especially from the evil side. And we live in a world right now that is very about, our senses are so numbed right now, that like your kid, it used to be, we had to have seven streams of information to compete with what your kid sees on their screen. Go home, watch ESPN, and look at all the different streams of information that are coming from one screen. There's a ticker at the bottom. Then there's a banner. Then up here, they got stuff. And over here, they got stuff. And you're looking at one screen

and at least seven flows of information. And then you bring them to church, and they have to watch this. This guy get up and talk and I'm not an Xbox and I'm not all this so the enemy is Oversensationalizing everything their senses are numb and so then when something powerful happens they gravitate towards that and it's just the enemy throwing somebody on The floor frothing at their mouth, but they're like, oh, there's some power there But then we walk up and say in the name of Jesus and that spirit comes out, but we're not Oversensationalizing it and the enemy's going but I have more power. No, you don't you had to leave at the name of Jesus You know, I'm up and what I'm dropping So he says let's just not over sensationalize it and then he says hey listen the church and horns started treating tongues Like a badge of spiritual status Instead of a tool for building people up Now the problem is is that there's a word but in that scripture and it trips a lot of people up He said he who speaks in a tongue edifies himself but He who prophesies edifies the church and people read that and they're like Paul saying tongues. You're being selfish and I'm prophesying. I'm spiritual you selfish. I'm spiritual problem is we need to make a full stop We in what they say is don't bother with a lesser one Don't bother being selfish only prophesy, but that's not what the scripture actually says in the Greek the word translated but B U T is the word day de is actually translated and and so when you run across to the New Testament most often is translated as and in this they put it as but and so the A lot of your translations will say on the other hand He's not saying don't don't don't speak in tongues. He said but on the other hand, he's not ranking these two things against each other He's distinguishing where each one actually belongs one builds you one builds the room and There are times where you have to build yourself and there are times you have to build the room but it would do no good for purpose house if I didn't build myself until I got up on the stage and when y'all say Turning your Bibles to 1st Corinthians and then I get down and I'm like, hey MEDIC any MEDIC any Emmy and I'm what is good that I'm supposed to have built myself up Before I come to build you up

Can't tell the church this stop coming to church trying to build yourself up all the time You should be doing that on Monday Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday and Saturday And then when you come to church, we come together to build the whole church up But if you come to church and I gotta get saved again, oh You want a hamster wheel baby and I learned a lot about hamsters this week Whatever junk they put in me came from a Chinese hamster So it's on my brain get off the hamster wheel. You're doing a lot of running but not going anywhere If you come every week, can you go through the same thing every week? It might be the problem is not the church and the pastor and the Word of God in Jesus name It might be what you're doing on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday just saying And pastor don't preach nothing. Well, if you stop living that way, I wouldn't have to stop Okay, so let me ask you a question then if one builds you one builds the room and both matter is There's something wrong with building yourself up No, we tell new believers read your Bible Get involved in this get it build yourself up Paul even says himself a few verses later verse 18 He said I think my God I speak with tongues more than you all. He is not banishing tongues in the church He wasn't ashamed of a private gift. He just knew where it belonged. So what is prophecy? Is it prediction? Biblically It's a word from God through a person for edification for exhortation and for comfort Let me go back over those three words again edification Exhortation and comfort now some of you more skilled folks are like that I'm talking about the gift of prophecy is for edification Exhortation and comfort. So can I tell all that new y'all you new folks? Somebody comes up and says I got a word for you to correct you That is not biblical The Bible says that a word from God to you about me would edify me. It would lift me up It would exhort it would encourage me to do what you want me to do The Bible says that a word from God to you about me would edify me it would lift me up it would exhort it would encourage me

And it would comfort me Now I know some of you're like, but I want to correct them Exhort them encourage them and comfort them now Listen that being said the Word of God being quoted over somebody corrects them just fine Our job is to bring them back to the word and not our personal opinions about things and say but the Word of God Says use the word and it will bring them up to a higher level. What is encouraged? Encouragement brings people up to a higher level. They were down and you said something to them and you bring them up to a higher level of living. People are down. I don't know if you know this, we don't need to be depressing people. We need to be uplifting people. Uplift them to a higher level. But I want the pastor to get them. That's why the churches are empty. The pastor been getting everybody. What we need to do is let the Word do its job. And our job is to exhort, encourage, edify them and comfort them. And the thing that I know, the only thing I know that can do all three at the same time is the Word of God. Get it back to the Word of God. But we want to say, you know, when I was a kid, they used to preach against that and you're out there doing that and I don't like it. And I came here to correct you. The Lord said, I got up at three o'clock in the morning. No, you did not.

No, you got a personal pet peeve about that. And then you're going to go lay that on that person. And we're trying to build a church and you're trying to destroy one. Pastor, I don't like the way they're living. Me either. But if I stick my hand into it and try to pull up the tear in their life, I'm also going to pull up the grass in their life. So my job is to preach the Word instant, in season and out of season, edify, exhort, and comfort, and let God do the rest of it. I'm feeling better up here. Okay? So when we edify, exhort, and comfort, we're building them up, we're calling someone forward, and bringing comfort into a hard place. It doesn't require a title to do that. Doesn't require pastor before your name to do that. It requires the spirit and a willing mouth. See, Paul actually pictured a whole gathering of people full of this happening. First Corinthians chapter 14, verse 26. Listen to this. How is it then, brethren, whenever you come together, every time you come, each of you has a psalm, has a teaching,

has a tongue, has a revelation, and has an interpretation. Let all things be done for edification. Now notice what he says. He says, each of you. He didn't say the pastor only, the people on the platform only. He said, each of you is coming with this. We're coming for it. Everybody has the ability to do it. Everybody has the ability to exhort, to edify, and to comfort one another. Now, I wanna gently correct something. A lot of us grew up hearing. This church heard it, I heard it, because I think it's caused a lot of unnecessary pain for a lot of sincere people, and you're all bracing in your seats. It'll be all right. I'm not coming out as a Cubs fan. Okay? Maybe you, but here it is. Maybe you've heard someone talk about being baptized in the Holy Spirit, and they'll use it like this. I got baptized in the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues. That's, I understand the premise of it, but I wanna help a lot of you in the room, because I think what's happening

is that the initial evidence of speaking in tongues, that line, or sometimes even the initial physical evidence, it gets super glued onto Acts chapter two to the point that what God meant as a gift is now being used as judgment. That make sense to everybody? Okay. Acts chapter two, verse four does not contain the word evidence. It says they spoke in tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. It gave them the ability to do it, but it does not use the word evidence. In fact, the word evidence only shows up a handful of times in the whole Bible, mostly in Jeremiah, once in Hebrews 11, chapter one. Now, the pattern in the book of Acts, where the outpouring of the Spirit and speaking in tongues show up together repeatedly, it's real, and I'm not saying we shouldn't follow that pattern. That's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is that people say, if I didn't have the evidence of you speaking in tongues, then you didn't receive the gift, and because you didn't receive it the way I think you received it, now I'm no longer thinking you got a gift, I'm judging you. Make sense?

If I didn't hear you do it, then I don't believe you got it, and now you are now sitting in judgment with me, and anything you do in the church that would require the baptism of the Holy Spirit, I don't think you can operate in it because you don't have the evidence that I need to prove that you got the gift. You see what I'm saying? So we've taken a word that is not there, and we've implanted it there, even though there is a pattern of it for sure, but now it becomes the judge and the jury of whether or not I think you're qualified. But Acts chapter 2 verse 38 says, if you repent of your sins, you are baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit in your life. Where does it say that I get to judge whether or not he gave you the gift or not? Some of y'all help me with that. In other words, I need to trust the God that saved me and gave me the gift, that the same God that saved me and gave me the gift is the same God that saved you and gave you the gift. See, there's a whole thing we don't like, faith. And what we wanna do is start putting it into a pattern that we can understand. It is a gift.

I'm not the giver of it. And I would tell you that if you wanna stop living by faith and you wanna operate in a measure way above faith in receiving it, then you need to exercise the gift and it'll be revealed in your life. So like with any gift, okay? Any gift, I could give you a gift to tell you what's on the inside of the box. Big old gift in the end, say, man, it's a fortune on the inside. Until you operate and exercise your faith in what I've given to you and unwrapped it, you have no idea what it's capable of on the inside. The gift of the Holy Spirit in your life is received by faith, but through exercising, it is revealed. You have to unwrap it and find out what it can do for yourself. And I can tell you all kinds of things that it can do, but that's for me. And it's proven to me that God is real. I would like for you to exercise your faith and watch what God can reveal in your life, what he can do. But what do I care? Listen, let me just talk as a human being. As pastor, I wanna know and I wanna be thrilled with you. But as a human being, what bearing is it on my walk with the Lord,

whether you do or do not talk in tongues? Unless I wanna be a judgmental church person and disqualify you so that I can look better than you because I speak in tongues and you don't. I am fair, you see. Okay, so faith receives it, exercise reveals it. You shall receive to give to the Holy Spirit. You receive it, exercise your faith, it'll reveal it. So before we look at the last verse today, I wanna show you just something about this. And so I'm gonna use Brian and Pastor Michael. They got my handy dandy walkie talkies today. Pastor Melissa says I should use more object lessons. So here's my object lesson for the day. Last week it was my fire pit and Melissa was out of town so I thought, hey, I can build a fire. It's the same result whether she's in town or out of town. I'm sitting by the fire by myself. And then I forgot my fireplace was here. So, you good? All right, you're gonna probably have to get a little closer to me. So we got these little two-way radios and they're designed to operate in a very specific function. If we operate them the way that they should operate, then Michael, per the instruction manuals of this that I read 10 years ago, these should operate on a clear sight line for 27 miles. So, you take off running that way and let's see if it works.

You walk that way slowly and just see who gets tired first and then radio each other and tell. But the way they were designed was that in an emergency or in a crisis, when the phone lines are down, those have weather radio in them so we can find out what the forecast is coming, a lot like the Holy Spirit, and find out what trouble is. It gives us a warning and then we can communicate with each other whether we're in the same room or not. We can communicate with each other about where we're at, what our location is, what we're going through, what our condition is and this is where we're at. If we operate them the way that they were designed to operate. So, I think you're gonna say go dogs. Come on, man, you can't tell everybody what I'm saying. They all knew it too. And you're gonna say yes, Blaine. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The two most common phrases that I hear these two say, they work with me every day and I hear go dogs,

more times I hear roll tide and I say here, yes, Blaine. So, I wanna keep it natural. So, go ahead and say go dogs. I'm not going to say anything, but he just called you Blaine. That's kind of weird. All right, so I taught you how to operate these this morning. So now what happens if you both push the button at the same time and you try to talk to each other? I probably should be on this side of you. It's not transmitting. You're saying it. You think he's receiving it, but because he's not operating right, he's not hearing your annunciation of dogs. The A-W-G-S. Or oil, or boil, or boil. What was the other one we said this morning? Ruined. Yeah, can you say ruined? Ruined. Say it again. Ruined. Because in my office it was runt. I'm like, you want some candy? That's what I ate, because you are what you eat. All right, so let's try it again. See, he's still not operating right. So you need somebody to come into your life and say, when he's trying to talk to you, when you end, what you should say is, go dogs over.

Over meaning, I'm done. Now you can speak back. What happens in the church is the same thing. People start talking over the top of each other, and there's no clear communication. And he says, well, I said it to them, but they were talking and trying to talk back and didn't receive the instruction. And now their life is a mess, because we were trying to talk to you, but you were trying to talk back and not listen. Everybody mopping what we're dropping? Okay. What happens is, we're all tuned into the Spirit. Thank you, gentlemen. We're all tuned into the Spirit, and God's telling us, there's a warning coming, there's a warning coming, there's a warning coming, there's a warning coming, and people are trying to say, hey, there's a warning coming, there's a warning coming, but you got the mute button pushed. And we think you're hearing what we're saying, but you're not hearing it, because you're trying to come over the top of it. And Paul is saying to the church, hey, listen, a lot of times why there's trouble is that we're not allowing room for each other to be able to operate in our gifts. So what God has to do then is interrupt the entire service. This is one of the reasons why we have tongues and an interpretation, is because God has been trying to use somebody to speak to you, to exhort you and to edify and to comfort you, but you've had your button pushed, and you're not listening. And God says, okay, you're not listening to me that way.

I'm going to interrupt the worship service when it's the loudest in the building, and there's going to be a tongue come forth, and I'm going to interpret it so that you'll finally hear what I'm saying to you, because you wouldn't receive it as a word of prophecy. Now I'm going to do it with a tongue. Why is the tongue there? The tongue is there for the nonbeliever or the unbeliever to recognize that God is getting ready to say something. And the reason why we recognize that God is getting ready to say something is that there is an interpretation that happens afterwards that tells us what God just said in the heavenly language. And so God is interrupting our services because either you're not listening, you have your mute button pushed, or you're ignoring the signs that God is saying. And today God said, you have stagnant water, you have polluted water, and you need to pour that out so that you have rivers of living water flowing through you. And notice, as Pastor Melissa was saying, you need to let it out. You need to open up your mouth. You need to express your worship. God's saying, they're not listening. She was exhorting the church. She was edifying the church. She was trying to comfort the church. She's saying, come on, open up your mouth and worship. And people weren't getting it. And God said, okay, tongue. And somebody yielded to that grace. And to the best of my knowledge, this is the first time,

at least in my experience, that you've ever interpreted, at least in my experience in the church, where the man who actually sits in the office of the prophet actually gave the interpretation. And God's saying, okay, listen, I need you to pour out what's in you. I'm trying to get you to pour it out. I'm asking you to pour it out so that I can fill you because God doesn't give stagnant water. God doesn't give polluted water. Peter said it like this. He said, wells they are without water. That's not a well. That's a cistern. God said, I want to give you a well of living water to come into your life. And I'm trying to communicate with you and talk with you. And it's happening more and more frequently. Why is it happening? We do not know what's going on in our world today. The alarm bells are going off everywhere. There are meetings and councils and wars and rumors of wars that are happening all over the world and God is saying, I'm trying to get you ready because I'm going to present to myself a church that is without spot, without wrinkle, and without any such blemish. I'm trying to communicate with you the body. So as much as the enemy has ratcheted up what he's doing in the spiritual realm, God equally is ratcheting up what he's doing in the spiritual realm. There's more gifts and tongues happening

and prophecies happening in this church than have ever happened in my almost 18 years of pastoring here. It's happening more frequently, why? Because God is saying, hey, the alarm bells are going off and I need you to recognize that I'm trying to get you ready. Why am I trying to get you ready? Because I need you like a bride adorned for her groom. I'm trying to get you ready and the only way I can get through to you is to let the gifts operate. And so what then we have is people saying, nope, I'm gonna mute that. I don't believe in the gifts. The gifts have ceased. The gifts have been all the stuff. And then God is saying, listen, I'm trying to show you and tell you I'm getting ready to come back for you. And I need you to get rid of all that stuff and be holy for I am holy for without holiness, no man shall see the Lord. Everybody good? So I just want to end here. He said, therefore, desire earnestly to prophesy. Do not forbid to speak with tongues that everything be done decently and in order. Notice it needs to be done. It has to be done, but it has to be done in order. So we're not silencing people. We are doing it in order because God is not the author

of confusion, but he is a peace. So there is a command. It must be done and do not forbid. Do it in order, no confusion. If you're gonna have tongues, have somebody interpret it. We don't need people confused. We need them curious. What's God saying? What's happening is the church starts abusing the gifts. Then we start silencing the gifts. We do not want to forbid in tongues. We also want to prophesy. And you may not even recognize it as prophecy when it's coming forth, but then you have to step back and go, wait a second. And just a few weeks ago when Pastor Pete came on the stage, there was no tongues ahead of that. Everybody in the building knew that what Pete delivered came from God and not from Pete, right? Let me say it to you like this. I've been picking on Pete and John and Tina. I'm gonna pick on Gigi. She's almost 80. She can handle it. Now, Sherry, be careful. Your social security number is two. There's the third bite of the Krispy Kreme right there. That's a jelly-filled one right there. I've been working on that one for three weeks, Sherry. See, when worship goes on, Gigi's a little demonstrative.

She likes to throw her shoes at me. She'll dance across the front. She'll dance with me. She'll dance across the front. And I've known Gigi for about 15 years. I've never had anybody ever email me and say, you should tone that person down. I've never had anybody say, she's a show-off and she's about herself. She does it and it causes other people to want to do that and then they enjoy it. Why? Because you are already showing me that the Spirit of God is operating on you and the Spirit of God is operating on the inside of you without you ever speaking in tongues. Why? Because the Spirit of God on the inside of you is testifying to you that what she is doing is decently and in order. Then there are other things that'll go on and people send me emails, get her, pastor, get them. What you're saying is, my spirit on the inside of me knew that whatever that was, that wasn't of God. See, and to me as pastor, that is encouraging to me because it testifies to me that without you ever speaking in tongues in front of me, that the Spirit of God is judging and correcting what's going on everywhere around you and you're filtering it through the Holy Spirit

and God is saying, that's of me, that's not of me. That's of me, that's not of me. And what I need some of you to do is to have that same practice on Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday and Friday and especially on Saturday night that when you get that invitation to go out and go back into what you used to be in, the Holy Spirit rises up on the inside of you and says, that's not of me. And I'm not going to do that because invitation didn't come from God. Do you see? It isn't just about speaking in tongues. It's about judging all things and the Holy Spirit being a guide and a lead in your life. Pastor, why don't you do those things? Because the Holy Spirit inside of me will not allow me to do those things. Pastor, you need a standard in this church. No, the standard is the Holy Spirit. Because if the standard is the Holy Spirit, then you won't do those things because the Holy Spirit lives inside of you. And if it's only what I tell you you can and cannot do, when I'm not in your presence, then you feel like you can do those things. Everybody good? I'm trampling on a whole lot of sacred cows, but I'm also trying to help you live your life. May the Holy Spirit be our leader and our guide. So here's what I want to do today. You notice how calm it is in the room? I mean, it's almost like at a Cubs World Series game. It just never happens. That's a boomerang joke. It's coming back around. You're gonna get it. You're gonna get it. So, and the reason why I'm still thinking, God answer my prayer. Because sometimes we can get caught up in the hype and the emotion of church and we miss the moment of church. The Holy Spirit is a comforter. He comforts. He comforts all the time. He's a paracletus. He walks beside us. He guides us and He leads us. So as our prayer teams get ready to come, when we stand, if there's any area of your life where you need help, you need help. Let's start with this

right here. How do I know whether or not I have the gift of God in me? Can I help you with that? Have you believed on the Lord Jesus Christ? Have you repented of your sins? Have you ever been water-baptized? If you have, then my Bible says, and I believe the Bible, you shall, you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit in your life. That's by faith. Maybe you're in this room today. You say, Pastor, I would like to go from living by faith. Just every time you talk about it, I live by faith. I would like to go to that next level of living. It's the one that Romans 8 talks about, and we know. That I would know without a shadow of a doubt that I have every gift that God has given to me. Maybe you're in that room. Then I would like for you, when we stand, I would like for you to step out of your seat and I would like for you to come. And I would like for the elders of the church, I see Ernie is in the room today. So if we could help Ernie get down front, even though he's not on the scheduled prayer team. We never schedule the Hound Dog of Heaven. He's always on the schedule. Will y'all indulge me a moment? And Ernie, I know you're listening to me. So the reason why I call you that is because in 1985, I was just a wee little boy. There was a guy in my church, his name was Lee Silvers. He operated the same gift that you operated in. And the revival had come, and Brother Silvers, I called him Brother Silvers. I didn't know anybody's first names until they died. They were brother and sister. Brother Silvers had that knack of when God was moving on a heart, he'd walk up and just encourage you to receive what God had for you. And every time I watch Ernie LaCroix operate, it takes me back to when I was just a little boy in church, and I watched one of my heroes of the faith operate. And when Ernie operates that way, it just takes me back. And so selfishly, I love to watch Ernie operate because it just takes me back. And I want to give you honor, Ernie, for being such a mighty man of God. Just such being, just such a loving man of God. You know what I know? I know God just started moving because Ernie's like, I don't care what he just said. Take me down front. Take me down front. So let me ask you, right now in this building, if you've never received your

prayer language, you've never operated in your prayer language, you've never operated in that measure of the gift of the Holy Spirit in your life, right now the waters are troubled in this place, and God is giving you... This mighty man of God Not just not just in Honduras, but right here in America So the rest of our prayer teams would come But if you need a gift of the Holy Spirit to operate in the gift of the Holy Spirit This is a moment right here. I would come right now For the rest of us if we have a need in our life physical mental spiritual Emotional financial whatever that need is. This is the moment for you right now And so if you make your way down front here our prayer teams will pray If Ernie is available, I'd step in front of Ernie and I would say Ernie I want you to lay hands on me and may God stir up the gift that is within me right now Pastor Melissa lead us right now in a song Our prayer teams are available