Sometimes in life when we come across certain situations and circumstances, we all of a sudden find we have to slow down in all areas of life. Something as simple as eating a meal, there's some types of food you can just gobble down, just almost inhale and swallow sometimes. And I, I'm a fast eater too. And sometimes at the meal time, Anna says, did you even taste it? You just, you just inhaled it. And yeah, I did for the taste
buds that I've left. And so I sometimes eat too fast, but there's certain meals I eat slow. I eat really slow because I want to not just enjoy them, but because the way the food is made or the way just the type of food it is. There's a, there's a parallel in Scripture here. The Bible is some of it's light reading. It's fairly easy reading. It's just a story. Well, not just a story, but it's a story that's easy to follow, easy to comprehend. And we just read it and that's that.
But there are other passages of Scripture. We read them and then we start slowing down. We start really going slow. I think the book of First Corinthians is one of those. Sometimes you just have to slow down and really dig in. What is this passage trying to teach us? This morning? We're in First Corinthians 14. And again, this for me again
this week. I'm so glad we have multiple preachers here, pastors who preach on this so I don't have to preach all of it. And this morning we're in chapter 14. And this for me is again, slow chewing. And so I want to hopefully slow down enough that we can just get this. And even then we'll have questions that we won't have answered because I don't have all the, I don't even know all of this, what this exactly means and how to work it out.
And neither does anyone. And if you read commentators on this, neither do they. There's a lot of stuff here that people look means this. No, it means that. Well, what's the core the message of what Paul is trying to teach the Church of Corinth in this passage. We've heard already of spiritual gifts that Paul describes in in in First Corinthians. But here we come across an elaboration and an expansion on the gift of tongues and prophecy. And both of these gifts are are
special. They're they're important. But I want to make a comment here and a lot of gifts that God has given us that come through by way of the mouth that we the words we use, the things we say. Do you know what the most powerful thing in the world is? It's the tongue. There's nothing more powerful than the tongue. You've heard this little quote that says the sword is the tongue is mightier than the sword. The tongue can be used for both. Very, very powerful.
Encouraging people, blessing people, worshiping God happens through the use of the tongue. The mind of the heart, yes, but the tongue is the way it comes out. The same holds true on the opposite side. The tongue can also be used for very destructive, very hurtful and harmful things. And I won't go into the passage, but in James chapter 3, if you've read that in the past sometime, James talks about the vital use, the vital, the importance of the use of the tongue.
He says it's, it's, it sets the whole world on fire. It sets our whole life on fire. It's set on fire by hell. He says it can't be tamed. It's, it's, it's a restless, deadly poison. On the same token, however, we find how the Psalms talks about it, how with our voice in our mouth, we bless and we incur. We, we, we worship, and it is God's will that we use our tongues for the gifts of ministry that he's designed us for. You see, when a person becomes a follower of Jesus, that person
has now been saved. That person is no longer under Satan's domain. That does not mean the person's now mature. This person now has got everything under control. Satan can still test that person, attack that person, and if not into outright doing sin, but doing stuff that doesn't make sense or doing stuff that
doesn't help. And some of that stuff seems to be going on in Corinth. And Paul describes that in First Corinthians chapter 14. Satan knows well this person's now lost to me, but maybe I can distract him so he won't influence others, or maybe I can cause diversion. And that's what sometimes happens.
And that some of that was happening in the Church of Corinth. And so the gifts of God were not used well or wisely or even properly, and it resulted in confusion and chaos and disorderly conduct. And so our sermon title this morning is the importance of Orderly Worship. Now, I want to say, and I believe this, I don't want to say it in the bragging voice, I think we have orderly worship. Everybody agree we have orderly worship, right? I would say so.
However, this does not mean that we are out of the woods or that we have nothing to learn from this passage. I really believe that this is deeper than that. So when we worship in the morning, is my heart in a place of orderly worship? Or is my mind anywhere and everywhere else zigzagging through whatever goes on through the week? Is my heart here? Is my mind here? Am I here? Yes, I'm here physically, but mentally, emotionally, spiritually, am I here? Am I am I orderly worshipping
God in my heart? I've said this in the past, and especially this last sermon series that we've begun here. I have grown fonder and more appreciative of this letter of First Corinthians because you know what? We fit right in. It's like us, we too have struggles and problems and obstacles that we wrestle with and deal with and stumble and fall and repent and all the rest. They had to, and so do we. And it's a wonderful past, wonderful book.
One of the problems in the church in Corinth was disorderly worship. How does one address it now? Our disorder in some ways may not be the same as theirs was, but we need to still ask, does our worship service always glorify God or does my worship always edify the Saints? As Paul writes, we're never out of the woods. We're never in a place where we can just rest easy.
OK, got this, let's go home. I want us as church, as LEMC, to be a church where when we leave this service this morning, my being here, your being here has been a blessing to another. Your being here has edified another maybe by a simple good morning. Your worship has honored God and
you've been blessed. And if you've read chapter 14 closely, you've read about the all the disorderly conduct mentioned in in chapter 14. And it all happens through the tongue and what's goes on in the heart and mind. The tongue is the gateway out of which it comes. There's an issue that needed to be addressed in Corinth and it's the issue of tongues and the way I understand tongues.
What Paul is referring to here is meaning different languages or strange foreign languages and maybe some have different interpretations, but that's the way I find it. And you're welcome to chat with me and ask questions and so on. And I'm not here to to debate this here. Just this is the way I see it. Paul is writing about foreign tongues, foreign language that nobody understands except not even the one who's who's speaking them and so on. Let's read first Corinthians chapter 14.
Paul writes, pursue love earnestly, desire the spiritual gift, especially that you may prophecy. For one who speaks in a tongue speaks not to men, but to God, for no one understands somebody utters mysteries in the Spirit. On the other hand, the one who prophecies speaks to people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation. The one who speaks in a tongue builds up himself, but the one who prophecies builds up the church.
Now I want you all to speak in tongues, but even more to prophecy. The one who prophecies is greater than the one that speaks in tongues, unless someone interprets so that the church may be built up. Now, brothers, if I come to you speaking in tongues, how will I be benefit? How will I benefit you unless I bring some revelation or knowledge or prophecy or
teaching? If even a life, if even lifeless instruments such as the flute or the harp do not give distinctive notes, how will anyone know what is played? And if and if the bugle gives an indistinct sound, who will get ready for battle? So with yourselves, if with your tongue you utter speech that's not intelligible, how will anyone know what is said? For you'll be speaking into the air. There are doubtless many different languages in the world, and none is without
meaning. But if I do not know what the meaning of the language, the language, I will be a foreigner to the speaker, and the speaker a foreigner to me. So with yourselves, since you're eager for the manifestation of the Spirit, strive to excel in building up the church. Therefore, one who speaks in a tongue should pray that he may interpret. For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful. What am I to do? I will pray with my spirit, but
I will pray with my mind also. I will sing praise with my spirit, but I will sing with my mind also. Otherwise, if you give thanks with your spirit, how can anyone in the position of an outsider say Amen to your Thanksgiving when he does not know what you're saying? For you may be giving thanks well enough, but the other person is not being built up. I thank God that I speak in
tongues more than all of you. Nevertheless, in church I would rather speak 5 words with my mind in order to instruct others than 10,000 words in a tongue. Brothers, do not be children in your thinking be infants and evil, but in your thinking be mature in the law. It is written by 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. Thus tongues are a sign not for believers but for unbelievers, while prophecy is a sign not for unbelievers but for believers. If, therefore, the whole church comes together and all speak in tongues and outsiders or unbelievers enter, will they not say you're out of your minds?
That if all prophecy and an unbeliever or outsider enters, he is convicted by all, he's called to account by all the secrets of the heart are disclosed, and so falling on his face, he'll worship God and declare that God is really among you. What then, brothers, when you come together, each one is a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue or interpretation. Let all things be done for building up. If any speak in a tongue, let there be only two, or most at most 3, and each in turn, and
let someone interpret. But if there's no one to interpret, let each of them keep silent in church, and speak to himself and to God. Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others weigh what is said. If a revelation is made to another sitting there, let the first be silent. For you can all prophecy 1 by 1, so that all may learn and all be encouraged. And the spirits of the prophets are subject to prophets.
For God is not a God of confusion, but of peace in all the churches of the Saints. The women should keep silent in the churches, for they're not permitted to speak, but should be in submission, as the law also says. If there's anything they desire to learn, let them ask their husbands at home, for it's shameful for a woman to speak in church. Or was it from you that the word of God? Was it from you that the word of God came? Or are you the only ones it has
reached? If anyone thinks he's a prophet or spiritual, he should acknowledge that these things I'm writing to are a command of the Lord. If anyone does not recognize this, he's not recognized. So my brothers earnestly desire to prophecy and do not forbid speaking in tongues, but all things should be done decently and in order. That is slow chewing. You'll have noticed in this whole chapter, Paul is really emphasizing honing in zeroing in on the prophecy and tongue
gifts. The Corinthian church had struggles with their worship services. They needed to be brought back on track. As I studied and I processed this passage throughout the week, I struggled with how to outline in depth and the vastness and explore that to cover all of this without being shallow. And I started reading what other writers have said and outlines they made and so on.
And I wondered, how do I best form this for to an outline this morning that it works for us. I came across one outline that in a step by step form, I decided, you know, I'm going to follow that not word for word, but I kind of model my outline after that. And so the first thing we notice here, prophecy is a desired gift. Paul begins with prophecy as an especially desired gift. But notice the backdrop in verse 1.
He says pursue love as Paul is switching themes in his letter from writing about having love, as Pastor Joe mentioned last Sunday. Now he's writing, he's starting with pursue love in light of what he wants to write next. He says pursue love, and the word pursue here is given as hunting after chasing an animal, as when you try to hunt something. We were supposed to have love as our base foundation. That's our goal. So much rides on it. If love is missing.
And as we heard last night, if love is missing, everything else will not matter. If we have everything else but not love, we have nothing. Love plays such a key role in all of what we do. It's the foundation of everything else. It's the foundation of which everything else comes from. Paul knew without love, nothing really adds up to anything. As we pursue love, there's an ever growing foundation in stability and strength on which the gifts of the Spirit can work and and grow.
It's in the context of love that God gives gifts of service to his people to build the church, to honor God and edify one another. What is also noteworthy is that not all gifts are equally in an equal category, equally special or applicable. Obviously the gifts of tongues is important. Well known was practice in the Church of Corinth, but it had come to a point where there's confusion there was disorder because of it. Paul wants them to have all these gifts, but it says seek
especially after prophecy. And prophecy here does not mean as OK, Jake, can you tell me what's going to happen next to the economy? None of that kind of prophecy. This prophecy simply means expounding the word of God. This is what the Lord says. This is how we should respond in light of these circumstances. That's what the prophecy here means. Prophecy here means preaching God's word and it's a gift. And Paul writes in verse 2, and this now kind of separates it. So let's go move on.
It says in verse 2, prophecy is better than speaking in tongues. He says verse 4, the one who speaks in the tongue builds up himself. It's not a bad thing, it's a good thing. But the one who prophecies builds up the church. There's almost a devotional element to the Speaking of tongues here. Notice the two different ways this goes. Now we have two different uses of the tongues mentioned here.
The gift of speaking mysteries, tongues, as Paul says that no one understands, the gift of prophecy that everybody can understand. People have really argued over this passage and it's been, have been divided about it. Some believe even. I'll go, I'll just mention something here. I read an article on time that there's some people who actually believe if you have not spoken in tongues, you're not saved. Because there's instances in Acts where people got saved, they're baptized in the spoken
tongues. And that's the benchmark. If you have been saved, you've spoken in tongues, you've not spoken in tongues, you've not been saved. That's an extreme overreach, I believe of that passage. I disagree with that. Can you imagine how many people who've professed Christ died for their faith? If speaking in tongues was the benchmark for salvation, then how many here would not be saved? Who are godly people who are repented of confessed sin? Who are followers of Jesus Christ?
I agree with Warren Weirsby who says if it takes speaking in tongues to be saved, what about First Corinthians 1230? Paul writes there. He says do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpreted interpret? In other words, not even the Church of Corinth did everybody speak in tongues. And some people go on the other extreme and say that all gifts of tongues, that's history. It never happens anymore.
And it's a gift that was one, one time for a short little time, and and that gift has ceased. That doesn't exist anymore. And so we don't have to think about it. It's yeah, that doesn't pertain to us and so on. I don't agree with that either. There are people who I believe God gives the gift to speak in tongues in some way. I know a very dear Christian friend of mine and I've asked him he he believes that maybe more strongly than I do, but I've asked him his experience
and he shared some of that. I do believe that it's real and there are places and times it happens, although I think it's rare as we look more in depth. That's not the primary gift that Paul is concerned about that the church in Corinth should use. The word prophecy is perhaps easy to understand as the the speaking in tongues. If you're not so much referring to people who go about telling the future. As I mentioned, it's about seeking truth, building up the
church. A person pursuing God's love will be able to use the gifts God has given that person for edifying the body blessing, blessing the church, but also growing himself. And the gift of prophecy is better for the building up of the church than the gift of tongues. He says in in verse two. He says for one who speaks in the tongue speaks not to men but to God. There's a devotional element to it. For what?
For no one understands him but the utter's mysteries in the Spirit. Paul is saying speaking in tongues is not men speaking to to men, but to God. And Paul acknowledges it. He recognized it and he says in verse 5, Now I want you all to speak in tongues, but even more to prophecy, even more to prophecy. The one who prophecies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues. Unless someone interprets so the church may be built up. Paul wants them to be engaged in
building up the church. Tongues is good, prophesying is better. Let's go further. See how this kind of life affected the people. Paul is serious and he used this illustration of the of the instruments. He says if a harp is being played the wrong tune, nobody knows what the harp, what the what the song is about, or if a bugle is the sound is blown for a call to battle. If it's the wrong notes or if it's the wrong tune that's played, nobody knows.
It's time to call to battle. For those who are into music, you know what it sounds like when the instruments just don't line up or don't work. It's distracting. It's annoying. And you, I'm sure you've heard music that's played like that, and you might just, oh, just practice somewhere else. You don't like it. Paul says speaking in tongues can be counterproductive if no one is there to interpret what's being said.
Doesn't say it's not good, doesn't say we shouldn't do it, but it should not be used if there's no one to interpret. The purpose of these gifts, the purpose of tongues is for the gift of edification. In order for edification to happen, there must be understanding of what's being said. The question is not which language, Even the bottom line is, is it understood? Is it, is it explained? Both tongues and prophecy must
edify to those those who listen. He says in verse 12, strive the last part, strive to excel in building up the church. Therefore, one who speaks in the tongue should pray that he may interpret verse 14. For even if I for 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 will pray with my mind also. I will sing with my spirit or sing with my mind also. Both are valid, both are good. But in a church setting, he says verse 19.
In a church I would rather speak 5 words with my mind in order to instruct other than 10,000 words in a tongue. And if you preach normal like I would, some say I've talked too fast. But if you preach normal you would say please speak about 10,000 words in 40 minutes roughly give or take. So a 40 minute sermon in tongues or five words. Paul says those 5 words are better. The purpose of the gift is for the ministry of building up edifying.
Paul emphasizes these that five understandable words are more value than 10,000 spoken in a tongue that no one knows. And so speaking in tongues is not wrong, but don't give a top priority when we wonder where the Corinthian where the where the Corinthian believers not doing what Paul is telling them. Nope. If this if everything had been good in the Church of Corinth and this aspect, Paul would not have written it. And it's very easy to move from.
Order to chaos, it's always easier to get into disorder. It's harder to bring things to order. There's proper places and times for each thing, but it's so, so easy to just let it degenerate or go into all kinds of chaos. And they had to be reminded. You got to get this straight, guys. And churches are very different and this church is different from other churches. And there's churches that have very loud, expressive and very emotional or, yeah, very expressive services.
And there's churches where nobody talks. They all walk in, sit silent. Somebody comes up, announces a song, they sing solemnly. Somebody goes up, prays, somebody goes up and preaches a sermon. And I've had people say, well, what's wrong with your church? We are not either or, but we are too serious in some people's minds. And one person came here one time and said, there's no joy with you guys. You don't dance. And no, you don't express yourself verbally. Well, we don't.
We are. We are traditional. We don't. And this person actually left because of it. I'm not saying anything in judgment of any church here, but I want to mention the risk of our modern day worship sort of sliding into areas that don't really edify or don't really build up is what we preach here, is what we say is what we do edifying is how I visit with my neighbor in the foyer and, and after the service. Before the service is edifying. But mostly we're talking about
the service here. So God is the one who we worship and our neighbor's the one we help build up with our worship. What's all this pointing to? What is the goal? The goal of the gifts? He says in the law. It's written by people of strange tongues and by the lips of foreigners. I'll speak to this people and even then they will not listen to me, says the Lord. There's some confusion here and I admit I don't fully understand
all this. He says in then verse 22, the tongues are assigned not for believers but for unbelievers, while prophecy is assigned not for unbelievers but for believers. But then he seems to contradict himself and verse 23 and on if therefore the whole church comes together and all speak in tongues and outsiders are unbelievers enter. Would they not say you're out of your minds? I just thought they were for
unbelievers. But if all prophets and unbeliever or outsider enters, he is convicted by all he's called by Count OS. I thought the believers were the ones to benefit from the prophecies. And then verse 25, the secrets of his heart are disclosed until falling in his face, he'll worship God and declare that God is really among you. Now I did read different commentaries and they don't agree how they explain this.
I'm not going to pretend here this morning that I got this all figured out, but there's some things to point out here. This passage does seem confusing and some commentators say, well, it sounds like contradicts itself. If in 23 we're all called to speak in tongues, unbelievers think that we're out of our minds. But then 24 all prophecy. If through all prophecy, unbelievers are convicted, what what I do know is this prophecy
overrides towns. The end goal is that people, no matter what we do, no matter how we worship, how we structure, how we organize, the end goal must always be that someone comes through those doors who's a stranger and unbeliever. Whatever we do here, that person needs to see God is here and become convicted. And so both believers and unbelievers will benefit from it.
Tongues may be a sign of working, but the people in the presence of a tongue, but the people in the presence of a tongue session would not be convicted of their sins unless someone was interpreting. There's a danger for us to focus on one element like the extreme of the other. I want to caution against, OK, now while we speak in tongues, we can't force this. This is spirit generated. This is not something that, well, now you speak in tongues,
let's have a tongue session. It's how the Spirit moves a person. God wants to communicate to us and the whole person. We must not leave it one or the other. And if our service is in session. The purpose of prophecy is that for the whole body to listen, to be uplifted and those who are not yet followers of Christ, they will fall on their face, on their not literally. Maybe they did there that God is among them. So what does an orderly service look like? Well, let's continue, he says in
orderly. The orderly use of the gifts is, he says in verse 26, when you come together, someone sings, has a hymn to announce, someone has a lesson to teach, someone has a revelation to express, someone has a tongue. There it is or interpretation. Don't use a tongue if don't speak in a tongue if there's no interpretation, but let all things be done for building up. And the verse 26, he talks about this, keep this in moderation. Don't just go. I like time. You all know how stuck I'm to
the clock. Maybe that's unhealthy, but have it orderly. To me, that structure, it means a lot. And if there's no one to interpret it, this guy shouldn't even use his tongue. Then the foreign language and when the prophets speak, when the preachers speak, maybe two or three at the most should speak. I think that much longer worship services than we have today. Actually, North America is known for short worship services. I'm not saying they're wrong,
they're just not good. Sometimes I like them longer than shorter in some ways because you get more done. And he says in verse 33, God is not a God of confusion, but of peace. I remember listening to one of my older Bible school teachers, and he'd been part of his service. And so the young pastor that day was a youth pastor. He was preaching a sermon and he was so animated, so excited, so expressive. And he said by the time that service was over, we were all
excited. Nobody knew about what, but we were excited. That's not good, guys. And sure, no sin happened, but maybe something was wasted. Maybe somebody should have ticked him under his arms. OK, tell us what you're trying to say. Tell us trying to. Where are you going? That's kind of, I think what happened in Corinth. They were not trying to sin. They're not trying to do wrong. There just needed to be order. There needed to be structure.
God is a God of order. God is a God of structure, and the Old Testament services were very carefully prescribed. You do the sacrifice this way, and you do the washing that way and on and on. And the New Testament we're free, but that doesn't mean we're free in the sense nothing matters. We still have to have orderly worship services. But then here in the passage we come to a bump in the road into our modern Western ears. This is a serious bump, some of which people trip and fall.
Why would God this God's command? Paul says I'm this Lord's command. What I'm telling you here, why would he say orderly roles in the church that women should keep silent? That cuts out half the congregation right here. If you follow it literally. They should be signed for, not be permitted to speak in submission as the law also says. If they want to learn, ask your husband at home.
Poor singles. Then how are you going to learn anything Then he says it's shameful for a woman to speak in church. What do we do with a passage like this? Now we have to here's where it's so important that we have to take the Scripture in context. We have to read not just one passage. You don't explain one passage by one passage. You take the whole and you find, OK, what else is he saying? What other passages are in line with this?
And we we know in Chapter 11, I believe it is in Chapter 11, yes, he says Paul writes again, it's the same same letter. He says when a woman prays in the church and she prophecies all also in the church, she's speaking, let her hair be covered when she praise her prophecies, Is he contradicting himself? No, we cannot say that because that's not what Paul is doing. He wouldn't do that. He would not contradict himself. So what's the problem?
And again, when you read a letter, you have to realize some of the stuff in the letter is written with the with the understanding that they know what they're, what they're going to read. And so we don't know what exactly happened in Corinth except that there was disorderly conduct. And somehow in the words of service, there was conversation going on or interruptions maybe going on, or women were talking in the way they shouldn't be
talking. We're interrupting our different expositors, different, different commentaries have different comments there. But all I want to say is this, they knew what Paul was mentioning to them and they didn't really like, OK, we got to shut up now. That's not what they were thinking. They were thinking, OK, those things we were saying in the church were not in place. And so we should now not be
taking the leadership role. When he says they should ask their men, that's implied a leadership level here. And if the service had been peaceful and had not been, if the women had not been causing verbal disruption, Paul would not have written this. Now, I don't want to say here this, OK, guys, listen to you ladies. You need to tone it down. That's not my pointer this morning, OK, But this means there's order God was at.
God was ordaining for the men to take leadership and the things that were discussed and not saying women can't praise God. Women can't prophecy or or teach. That's not what he's saying. Women have a voice. But here there was a problem and then in verse on and down the road a little bit further, verse 37, he says if anyone thinks he's a prophet or spiritual, he should acknowledge that the things I'm writing to you are a command of the Lord.
That's it. If anyone does not recognize this, he says he's not recognized. So my brothers earnest a desire to prophecy and do not forbid speaking in tongues. There was a host of issues in Corinth that they had to deal with. This was one of them. So what's our take away this morning? What difference does this passage make to us? How will our lives be different when we leave here now than we came earlier? Why do you and I come to church when we worship? Why? What's our goal?
What do we feel needs to happen in our hearts? What do we want to see happen in someone else's life? It's important, as Paul began, pursue love in that context, on that foundation everything else should flow from. But if love is lacking, all kinds of disorder and chaos can creep in. God wants us to be a church that preaches and lives out the gospel and is a light to a hurting and struggling world around us.
Maybe some are here this morning who are not even part of the body of Christ. They've never experienced the fellowship and oneness of the body of the Saints. They're not benefiting from being part of the body. I would encourage you, You don't have to worry about not being perfect. Just come, repent, believe we're all on a journey. You'll be in good company. We want to invite everyone to come to Jesus to repent and
surrender. And then with the gifts God blesses us with, bless us with, and he'll bless you with 1-2 or more with the gifts God blesses us with, use them in a way that brings us closer to God and in a way that blesses the body. And together we grow into one glorious body, the church. Let us pray. Lord, thank you for the gifts of the Spirit. We're grateful to you that you use us in your Kingdom on this earth.
Lord, may we be found faithful, committed, loyal, humble and repentant living out your gospel in this world where there's so much pain and there's so much hurt. We praise you in Jesus name, Amen.