A Supernatural Community and A Personal Word

hi Pastor Matt listen thank you for downloading or streaming this sermon pray that it blesses your heart two quick things that I want to lay before you before we get started in the proclamation of God's Word the first is and I love that you're dialing in to hear what the Lord's put on our heart here at TVC but I ask that you would only consume these messages as supplemental and in no way replacing your commitment and your listening to your local church pastor these are good gifts of God's grace for the people of God to grow in and yet they are not to replace ever meant to replace our belonging to a covenant community of faith where we are the the second thing want to lay before you is is that there are a lot of man-hours that men and women here at the village church put behind not just the creation of this but the creation of all kinds of resources that are meant to help you grow and develop as a disciple of Jesus Christ and so if this blesses you or the other resources that have been created have blessed you would you consider giving back to the village church to support not just these things but the creation of even more resources for you and really for anyone who wants to indulge in them now I pray that God stirs your affections for Jesus Christ as you listen now to the proclamation of God's Word [Music] all right 15 years that's my favorite bumper music video ever alright if you have your Bibles let's go first Corinthians 15 if you're with us for the first time in a while this morning this is week four in a six-week series on first Corinthians 12 through 14 and we've really just been talking about how God has gifted all of the children of God with some manifestation of the spirit for the common good and so we argued in week 1 just that that everyone who's a Christian has been gifted by the Holy Spirit with the gift that is to be used for the building up of the body and that if you are a Christian spectator then then you are not actually stepping into what God has designed you for what God has saved you for and what God has put into you by the power of the Holy Spirit so that all of us need to reject what I called in Week one the LeBron James rule and instead everybody play their part so that it's not just these men and women that we look at and we can like look at gen Wilkin here and just go man what an unbelievable gift of teaching I can't do that so I must not be able to do anything like we can't afford to do that that in the eyes and in the heart of God the one that practices hospitality and administration is every bit as needed and necessary for the flourishing of the body than a teacher like gen we'll Kannur a leader like Josh Patterson or or on and on and on I could go that was week one everybody's got a gift and and I just wanted to press gently and say if you're bored in your Christian faith and might have something to do with you being a spectator rather than a participant right nobody wants to read about a game all the time and not actually play the game right and so many of us are guilty of that I'm not as gifted as this person or that person so there's probably no space for me we rob ourselves of God supernaturally using us in ways would blow our minds if we would just surrender to it practice hospitality use your gift of administration do the work of an evangelist on and on I could go and then I headed out for my two weeks and I thought Trevor Droid did just an incredible job and there's still not quite sure how he preaches sermons in 27 minutes don't expect that today I'm back alright but he does in fact the last me there was a song in the middle of a sermon it was still like 30 minutes all right that's like a devotional that's not a sermon anyway this one's going longer because of that I loved how Trevor worded it he said first Corinthians 12 is about pulling all of us as God's instruments unique in design and contribution onto the same sheet of music loved that and then last week he said chapter 13 is how love is the music of heaven that we make together in the here and now and I just loved his Burbidge now 1st Corinthians 14 I know some of you have been really eager for first Corinthians 14 and others you've been real nervous about first Corinthians 14 and and regardless here we go okay let me just so we can all breathe tell you exactly where I'm headed here's what I want to do today I'm gonna do it probably 42 minutes I want to show from the Bible and church history church history part a bunch of names than unless you're a theological nerd you might not have ever heard of that the Church of Jesus has always been a supernatural community always it is more odd when she is not than when she is you tracking with me I want to show you that and then I want to get into what prophecy is and what prophecy isn't and how to step into it as the children of God let me quote Andrew Wilson real quick the early church was a charismatic community of that there can be no doubt from the day of Pentecost onward the book of Acts is a story of Holy Spirit breakthrough speaking in other languages prophesying healing casting out demons and gellick encounters miraculous prison breaks vision dreamz evangelistic preaching building shaking the dead being supernaturally brought to life and on occasion the living being supernaturally brought to death boldness in the face of persecution joy and even one story of teleportation III think if we I think what happens in the book of Acts because of our experiences is we read book backs then we look at our own lives we're just like gosh man my faith and I mean that's not what mine that's not what things look like at my house at my church so then you you do okay is is the book of Acts descriptive or is it prescriptive right maybe it's just a history but maybe he's just telling us what happened not what should be happening and that's one of the ways that some people deal with the book of Acts I think though what you can't look past is that when the Apostle Paul is writing to the churches and when James the half-brother of Jesus writes to the churches they assume that the churches are experiencing miraculous manifestations of God's power via the Holy Spirit they always assume it let me show you this in Romans one twelve through six Romans which is in a book known to be loved by the Mystics says having gifts that differ to the grace given to us let us use them if prophecy in proportion to our faith so it's weird that he starts this lifts with the prophetic but will define that here in a bit first corinthians man we're right in the middle of first corinthians we were reading about all sorts of crazy things ephesians 5:18 and do not get drunk with wine for that as debauchery but be filled with the spirit now let's chat for a second when the Bible talks about being filled with the Holy Spirit of being drenched in the Holy Spirit or being immersed in the Holy Spirit it's not talking about salvation are you tracking with me on that like to be a Christian is to be indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God if you are a Christian the Holy Spirit is inside of you I don't believe there's a second baptism there is salvation and then what happens is the the Spirit of God will like black out like a temperature gauge or a volume gauge all of a sudden like bang up to 10 that and then maybe back down to a two or three and then back up to ten or back down to a five and the filling of or the drenched in or this language that's happening in the New Testament it's not that all of a sudden you get the spirit in a way you haven't had it but the spirit begins to manifest in a way then you haven't experienced in the normalcy of Monday and Tuesday are you with me so I want to be careful that when we say don't be drunk with wine because it leads to debauchery but rather be drunk in the spirit we don't start believing that in order to be real Christians there's gotta be some second mystical baptism because that's not true you with me it's not true Galatians three five does he who supplies the spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law or by hearing with faith so so it's just so it's just a sentence but do you notice what like he doesn't Paul doesn't feel the need to address why miracles are what miracles but he just assumes there are miracles happening in Galatia right he doesn't say does that thing that happened two years ago with Jill does that does that happen because you're doing good or because God is good he just says does God do miracles plural among you is that happening because you're a good person or because God's a good God in 1st Thessalonians 5:19 through 21 I picked this one out on purpose do not quench the spirit do not despise prophecy and I picked it because of verse 21 but test everything and hold fast to what is good first Timothy 1:18 I'll be fair first Timothy might be cheating and here's what I mean by that Timothy is actually an elder in Ephesus we already quoted Ephesus is a place that supernatural activity is going so maybe this is cheating but at least I'm letting you know first Timothy 1:18 this charge I entrust to you Timothy my child in a cordon with the prophecies previously made about you that by them you may wage the good warfare and this is a fascinating text if you want to kind of dive in and dig around here notice that no heat Timothy is jammed up like Ephesus is going through some things that are not ultimately good and we know this because if you read in Revelation chapter 2 there neither hot nor cold like God's really struggling with Ephesus get in or get out and how does Paul encourage Timothy with the prophetic word that was spoken over to him by his grandmother don't forget that that prophetic word he's not quoting Jeremiah 29:11 to him he's reminding him of a prophetic word that was given to him via his Grande Manny and it emboldened him and then from there James 5:14 through 15 is anyone among you sick let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord and the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick and the Lord will raise him up and if he has committed sins he will be forgiven there is an assumption in the biblical writers that the Church of Jesus Christ is experiencing at least in some regularity miraculous Holy Spirit stuff they don't ever try to kind of take a deep dive and defend this position they're just saying does God do miracles among you remember that prophetic word remember it just seems to be normal and then bouncing off of this and we could we could do more text I'm limited in time and scope here even though I'm not because you're in the 12:30 but I won't do that to you if we then because there's a whole school because here's what might just happen to you like if we're thinking this way then there's there's a confrontation that has to take place the confrontation is if this is New Testament Christianity then why why are we not seen what seems to be normal there's that question haunt anybody else haunts me haunts your pasture so then what happens when you're confronted by this is you got to do some things with it right one of the things that becomes the easiest thing to do is to just say something like well all this was just a sign given to the Apostles so that they could validate the Word of God and then once the Word of God was written we no longer need these things that's actually a theological framework called cessationism and it's there I think because not textually but experientially we don't see it we got to do something with that because we can't be the problem so something must have gone wrong because we've memorized the Book of Jeremiah and two of the four Gospels now it's a good idea but it doesn't work and it doesn't work because in here's remember my first argument that the Church of Jesus has always been a supernatural community John the Apostle is the last apostle to die and for the next 500 years the early church fathers the patristic s' testify the miraculous working of the Holy Spirit in the local church you might not care about these names they're huge names when it dealt with early heresies in the church Justin Martyr 160 ad for the prophetic gifts remain with us even to the present time and hence you ought to understand that the gifts formerly among your nation have been transferred to us and then I love the word of warning and just as there were false prophets contemporaneous with your holy prophets so are there now many false teachers among us of whom the Lord forewarned us to be aware they'll always be far false prophets always which is why we have the book you with me just why we have the book more on that in a moment this is Tertullian of Carthage this is 208 ad I'm putting these dates on for a reason I'm trying to just head-on class with the idea that all this miraculous stuff ceased when John the Apostle died and then we didn't have anything until it Sousa Street and the you know the the breakout of the Holy Ghost in California you know millennia later Tertullian of Carthage 208 ad let Marshawn then exhibit as gifts of his God some prophets such have not spoken by human sense but with the Spirit of God such as have both predicted things to come and have made manifest manifest the secrets of the heart so so easy saying let let Marshall so this is a this was a big heresy in this century basically Marshall and it would would come to be known as Marconi is amore Marconi ISM would would be the idea that the God of the Old Testament is not the same God as the New Testament there that although he would say marShon would say Jesus is the savior of the world and Paul his chief pasal apostle he would say that the God of the Old Testament is a lesser God and not the God that you and I worship as Christians so that this lie still permeates to this day where people try to unhitch the old testament from the new testament can't be done it was deemed a heresy early on by the patristic fathers and this is teratogens confrontation of Marsh Onan here he's basically saying show me the power if you're right show me the power and he's saying hey can you produce like we can so easily those who can see into the future those who can expose the workings of the heart let him produce a psalm a vision a prayer only let it be by the spirit in an ecstasy that is in a rapture whenever an interpretation of tongues has occurred to him let him show to me also that any woman a boastful tongue in his community has ever prophesied from among those specially holy sisters of his now all these signs of spiritual gifts are forthcoming from my side without any difficult and they agreed to with the rules and dispensations and the instructions of the Creator he's referencing the Bible there right so teratogens going show me the power in accordance with the Word of God it's easily coming from my side of things let him show us such things if he be a man of God in an origin of Alexandria this is 248 ad we have to say moreover that the gospel has a demonstration of its own more divine than any established by Grecian dialects and this diviner method is called by the Apostle the manifestation of the Spirit and of power of the Spirit on account of the prophesies which are sufficient to produce faith and anyone who reads them especially in those things which relate to Christ and a power because of the signs and wonders which we must believe to have been performed both on many other grounds and on this that traces of them are still preserved among those who regulate their lives by the precepts of the gospel so I love his argument he said you want to know who sees this stuff still those whose whole life is consumed by the precepts of the gospel you know who walks in the miracles those who are fully abiding in the presence of power of Jesus that's who and then if you're like oh man please quote Basil the Great okay okay Basil the Great says through the rebirth from above the Spirit enlightens all inspires prophets gives wisdom to lawmakers consecrates priests empowers Kings perfects the just exalts the prudent is active and gifts of healing gives life to the dead frees those in bondage turns foreigners into adopted sons and then I'll go with my ancient friend a Gustin who is not considered to be a mystic by anyone whose books City of God devotes an entire chapter where Agustin is indignant at the idea that God was not miraculously moving among his church and then he would argue that he had personally witnessed an extraordinary of healing from blindness to breast cancer to gout to paralysis to hernia to demonization and even death now I thought about trying to put all this on a map for you and put a timeline up there so you could see that across five hundred years to the Far East of the Empire and the Far West of the Empire to the far north of the Empire to south of the Mediterranean the the sign gifts of the Holy Spirit the miraculous power of the Holy Spirit is working among the people of God and he seems to be working not among just kind of elite super Christians but everyday common folk like what's amazing to note about all these patristic fathers is they're not saying they did it they're saying they saw it like terror totally is not gonna drove out a demon he's like wow demons were driven out as we gathered right he's not saying I prayed for God he was healed like agustín's not saying I healed a blind man he's sayin a blind man was healed by who don't have his name that awesome like Agustin the Bishop of Hippo northern Africa Aswan of a man of God I saw it this seems to be normal Christianity so what are we to make of this I'm glad you asked because that leads me into the second part of the sermon first Corinthians 14 starting in verse 1 pursue love and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts especially that you may prophesy 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 in consolation the one who speaks in a tongue builds up himself but the one who prophesized builds up the church now I want you to know or I want you all to speak in tongues but even more to prophesy the one who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues unless someone interprets so the church may be built out now just for expectation sakes I don't plan on tackling or talking about tongues at all today that's all next week all right I'm not tackling prophecy and tongues on the same weekend right we need a mind diaper it would go bad so we're just gonna tackle prophecy today good and then tums is all next week okay so here's here's what I want you to see the first thing is that the pursuit of all of these gifts and we're coming out of you know first Corinthians 13 which is the love chapter as to what pursue love what's the motivation to love how does that work where do we get that love we are recipients of that love that love begins to transform us and then overflows out of us and an extension of the love that we have experienced in the forgiveness and presence of God in Christ in us with me the motivation of the gifts is always love now will God gift those whose motive isn't love look at me yes he will which is why this stuff gets really really confusing because why would God use a man or woman that is clearly in it for their own self exaltation you know why because it's about God not about that person and God will do what God will do and people's ego maniacal narcissism doesn't stand in the way of God flexing his godness right I mean there's just one of the biggest kind of what in the world Lord when God powerfully and profoundly uses people that that it seems clear to us whether we're judgmental or not or either in it for money or fame and not walking humbly before the Lord and that's where things get really confusing for us but it shows that we still believe in a merit system rather than a GREs system doesn't it I hate that oh I hate it but it's there it's good it's right now let's talk about this that that the gift of prophecy is given to the church according to this text to build up to encourage and to console so let's talk about what prophecy isn't what prophecy isn't the thus saith the Lord look right at me is over look at me when this text is talking about prophecy it's not talking about the way Jeremiah prophesied or Isaiah prophesied or know that that's closed that's kin and I so you will never prophesy in a way that's on par equal to anywhere near the inerrant infallible Word of God that's closed shut and so the best you've got the best you've got is the humility to say I think the Lord would have me lay this before you and even then only as much as it would encourage and build up so look at me God will never give you a prophetic word for your stingy selfish sister about how God's gonna destroy her if she doesn't repent it's not how prophecy works but that's how selfish people who use it admit then I had a dream about you last night in that dream you were apologizing for to everyone for being the two-faced liar that you might be I don't know it's a dream right like like that's not what this is it's not what this is now three times in the last month I or in the last year I've taught on rule of life here's what I mean by rule of life it's that slowing down and creating space so that we might hear from the Lord and commune with him I think the first step into super natural holy spirit presence and power in the life of a church and a life of a believer involves slowing down and asking the Lord to speak when this thing says pursue love so that you might build up console and encourage it's tapping into a reality that all of us have experienced the sheer volume of heartbreak loneliness despair sickness confusion and and brokenness if I haven't already used that word is so immense among us and around us that when it comes to light it's overwhelming like when we have our encounter night so we pray for the sick you use I mean there are people all around Jew who are suffering in silence their marriages are difficult they they've been sick for a decade and I can't get out of it on top of that you've got all the quick questions that tend to haunt us just because we're humans questions like am I loved am I wanted is God as disappointed in me as I am and me has he forgotten me does he see me and as much as we'd like to put on our Jesus cave we ask these questions these questions haunt us now now here's I want to just keep coming back to this the Bible answers every one of those questions you hear me the Bible that the quite am I loved the Bible's got something to say about that God hadn't left me hanging God God hadn't left me at the really just in a desperate need for somebody to get a word from the Lord and come to know he's given me the book and the book answers the question does God love me as he forgotten me is he for me is he disappointed in me I go to Romans eight who can separate me from the love of God in Christ Jesus Canaan JAL's can demons can famine can persecution connect in this consort know in all these things we are more than conquerors and Christ who loved us and gave himself up for us right there's the book and the books got something to say and yet what this text is teaching is that there are times that God and the Holy Spirit through men and women takes the truth of the word and personalizes it so so let me I'll use an illustration help I'm gonna want to talk about this on the ground about three weeks before I had my seizure maybe a little bit longer than that that revealed my brain tumor I got a call from a charismatic pastor here in town we knew each other weren't good friends or anything but he called he was just like hey man I'm I need to meet with you man it's gonna be weird I feel like the Lord's giving me a word I don't maybe it's a word I just don't know I I've tried to forget about a journal lit after you know I was just praying and the Lord kind of put you in my mind and then I asked him okay what is it with that and I wrote it all out and then I was like now he's gonna think I'm crazy I'm not doing that and then I had a dream and in the dream the Lord's like when you better tell him though and so then I went to my elders because I thought maybe my elders would give me a now and he's like here's the word here's what man I I feel like the Lord is wanting me to tell Matt Chandler and they were like you call that man and so he calls me and so me and and I got him Chris Chavez who was my assistant for a long time we go down to Louisville at Olive Garden in Louisville we sit across from this man and one of his elders and here's what he says to me he says man you're gonna need to pray through this you're gonna need to figure out what this is here's all I know I feel like the Lord has shown me that he's going to circumcise you and through that circumcision he's gonna make you the father of many sons so I'm like okay well that's too late wait is that I need a ruling is that over the line I need an elder is there an elder the non elders like you're fine I don't think we've got one in this service so that means I'm safe either way Greg your deacon are we good there okay so I so I write this down here's what I'm thinking here's what I'm thinking I'm thinking we were at 3,000 pushing into 4,000 and that had happened in four years five years and so we were needing to make some structural changes but I knew if we made the changes that we were trying to make that there were gonna be two or three ministers here that would not like those changes would get frustrated and maybe leave and so I don't know how you see me but my personality type is a harmonizing persister which means I want everybody to get along but I know that's not gonna happen and so I'm always internally conflicted sometimes I wish I was an achiever persister like it's got to get done let's do it but I'm not and I would probably be really mean if I was so I'm kind of glad I might but anyway in in the middle of all of that I think oh my gosh God has heard our prayers we're supposed to make these changes we're gonna lose these brothers and God's gonna raise up more sons because we were obedient to make this hard call so I was geeked up came back to the elders like okay it's gonna sound weird I got this random call and went down to Olive Garden Louisville and here's what he said I think this is confirmation that were to make these changes and it was like okay let's make these changes and then three weeks later had a seizure revealed a tumor in my right frontal lobe it had that cut out and then probably seven eight months later I'm laying on our bathroom floor for what have you been through chemo or anything like that there's something about that cold tile floor that's like a gift from God in heaven I'm laying on that floor it's like thank you and then if it got warm I just I think it hoping that it was over cuz you throw up until there's nothing more to throw up and then you throw up some more and you don't even know what's in there so I would talk like what do you what is there's nothing in me uh and so I'm Elena and while I'm laying there I remember that word I will circumcise you cut your head and through that I will make you the father of many sons and if you know the story of the village and the director even and the ministry God's given me that started right after that so man I got geeked up man and I called him I was like oh my gosh bro I think that word has to do with this and he's like yeah what you're just now figuring that out like when I heard what happened to you I was like praise God like he had this personal worship revival just because he had a word he trusted the Lord and then he heard oh he had brain surgery yeah like he was excited that he had heard from the Lord and he'd given me this word he thought I was gonna be encouraged by and I thought it had to do its organizational structure so the way prophecy tends to work and by let me define and I'm talking my profs the enemy to find it here's how we've defined who died found it here's how we've defined it there might be some debate around this this is JT English Kyle Worley myself this is one more time a prophecy this is what we think the Bible is talking about prophecy consists of spirit prompted spontaneous intelligible messages orally delivered to a person or community intended for edification or encouragement you with me you tracking this is what we mean and this is what we think the Bible means when it talks about prophecy so so we receive from the Lord a word that doesn't contradict the Scriptures doesn't stand in contrast to the sufficiency of the Scriptures but it personalizes the Scriptures on the bathroom floor that afternoon the god of creation bent down and kissed my forehead in the darkest night of my life yeah and that's that's not demonic right that's the other thing well the devil could make things confusing it was not confusing in that moment all right it was a beautiful gift of God just to remind you I see you I have not forgotten you I am in this knot you will survive you will be healed and that's not what he said I'm gonna use it then I'm with you and I see you and I new Bible verses for all of that but I felt saw and loved that day I felt saw and loved that day so if this is for edification consolation building up then it involves quieting our hearts asking God to speak and then acting on that so when I pray with the staff at 7:30 on Sunday morning staff and all key volunteers are here and here's it's not a game here's what we do I'll just say hey let's just take a few minutes here quiet our own hearts kind of do a check-in on yourself right are you angry today are you rustle today or there anything you need to lay at the feet of Jesus and we do that and then we move into just asking the Holy Spirit to bring someone to our mind anyway and then when God has brought someone to our mind so we just pray bring someone into my mind that I might encourage I might build up that I might console' today and when the Spirit does that we get a picture in our head then we begin to ask how might I encourage them and and then when we get some clarity on that and sometimes look straight I see no one and that's okay we didn't fail we're just saying I'm I'm listening what would you have your servant do and and then when when we got that person's face then we asked what what the Lord wants us to do and sometimes the Lord speaks to his people and children or in pictures that don't make a lot of sense and sometimes you just you got to step out and trust and just go hey this might sound crazy but the men this is what the Lord put on my heart as I prayed for you so I'll give you a lauren and I on an encounter night the first encounter night we did we were praying for the sick and a woman walked up to us and she began to share in fact she was in the last service she shared with us men that she she had had some significant physical issues that had lasted a long long time and then really what had happened in some way I think shingled the shingles virus had really done some damage and so Lauren sees in vivid pictures in a way that makes me jealous right you know I'm just like come on Lord give me some of that he's like you just hush and preach and then does these really cool things through Lauren and then so she's explaining this to us and and we're just kind of now quieting yeah asking okay Lord how should we pray how would you want us to encourage this woman and Lauren goes isn't your trigeminal nerve now I'm gonna own that woman she can see is 17 she known about no trigeminal nerve and then how do you see trigeminal nerve what does it look like you'll have to explain it to me later baby but so she says it out loud she says is it the trap and then this woman looks and she's got tears in her eyes and we're not like okay the ghost is up to something and we just began to pray over and ask that the Spirit of God would he learned that he might do something miraculous in her and then we asked her is anything happened he said no so we asked again we prayed boldly we didn't kind of hedge our bets if it might be your will and one day would you and when she dies and goes to glory finally will she be set free which all that's true that's not what we were asking for we wanted it now and if God wanted to do it he would do it if he didn't he wouldn't but we're gonna ask and then she found us the next week and she just was like she was totally trying to undersell it was her husband was like how long actually got to hold her grandbaby for the first time in years the pain had significant completely gone but it is significantly lessened so one of the ways that God speaks is he is like through pictures that may or may not make sense to us but be insight into another person in a way that they feel seen known loved and built up now because we're Bible people look right at me this stuff's scary let's see let's have some real talk real quick what if we're only talking to ourselves what if we're like okay Lord will you show me somebody that I might encourage that I might and somebody pop in our head and that's just us okay look at me you got me so oh no you're gonna encourage somebody right like what why would that be this terrible thing and then what what if I'm wrong those are the two big things that just haunt Bible II we're just terrified of everything what if we get it wrong and they stoned me to death I already said that's not the kind of prophecy we're making so we hear and by faith we approach and if it sounds crazy we've lost nothing but imagine what would happen if before we gathered on Sunday morning and I know you're like oh please brother I'm trying to find shoes and not kill a kid but but before you came to homegroup before you went to work before you went into your next meeting you just said Lord spirit of who might I encourage make me aware make me mindful put me in the room so I can see people and then give me a word of life for him and then you walked in faith in that you imagine what might be unleashed like we're people that brag about being sarcastic that's my love language that's a terrible thing that's not a great thing that is not a good brag you know I can really cut people with my words quickly it's how I let them know I love them now listen I'm talking to myself right now what would it be like to be known as someone who always brings life always speaks life always calls out what is true the kind of power that could be unleashed I think would blow our minds and it takes us into other spaces that are good right and beautiful and I just don't think you're ever gonna offend anybody like this and if they don't understand what's being said then just let it sit maybe in time God will reveal it to him what I'm asking you to do is be brave ask here step out approach and just say hey while I was praying the Lord brought you to my mind and even if it sounds crazy you just trust him so if you're like oh I saw Danny Spencer over here and I love him and so I'm just gonna use you Danny say I'm praying in the morning I'm just like Lord just bring me somebody to encourage us I want to be used by you I want to pursue love I want to push out dart and someone exposed the lies of the enemy and I want to use my mouth to build up your sons and daughters and he puts Danny Spencer in my mind and then I don't do that well is that me is that gosh Danny texted me earlier this week so am I is that bad chicken is that well you know no it's going okay Danny let's do it Lord what would you want me to encourage Danny with and then I quiet again trying to listen and then automatically in my head there's a picture of a ship a pirate ship and then there's there's like cannons on the pirate ship and there's a shark chasing the pirate ship not at that point like nope no not gonna happen right and here's what I want you to do I want you just step out and you can even emit like we're growing together we're gonna fail and there's gonna get weird it's gonna be awesome like I'm just gonna go to Danny and I'm gonna be like hey brother you heard my sermon I was praying Danny was a pirate ship it's a shark chasing it over cannons I'm not gonna interpret that for him I'm not gonna be like what I think that means is that maybe you're stealing some stuff from people and Jesus is the shark and you need to repent I'm not gonna interpret that form I'm just gonna go and in a great deal of humility I'm just gonna be does that make any sense to you and and it's perfectly okay to go that doesn't make any sense at all but here's what we need to be but thank you for being so bold as to step into what the Holy Spirit prompted you to step into I'm proud of you for even having the courage to do that because I think but thousands of times a week that somebody flashes across your mind or you get some impulse to say this or to encourage this person to reach out that's right but there's something divine there going on and you chalk it up to just stuff flowing through your head it's not it's an invitation to play Yeah right this is okay all right so take the risk and and here's what's fun about doing it this way 6,000 of you here in Flower Mound I've been given the same challenge this week pray ask listen step out in faith what might be unleashed if there were 6,000 words of encouragement building up and consoling among the body of Christ at the village church Christianity isn't just knowledge about its relationship with this is what takes that step into operating that way doing the word not just hearing it so let's let's practice as we conclude why don't you bow your heads close your eyes a if you're not a believer and all this is too weird for you just stare at me I'm I'll stare back and we'll see what happens so here's what I want you to do same thing we did this morning at 7:30 I want you to just ask the Holy Spirit to bring someone to your mind just confess to the Lord that you want to be used by him you want to pursue love you want to be used to build up the sons and daughters his sons and daughters and ask the Spirit of God to bring somebody to your mind you don't have to overthink this or second-guesses if nobody comes to your mind you're not a failure you're fine now once you have that face that might have just invaded or just been a fleeting thought I want you to ask the Lord how you might encourage them and it might be a text of Scripture it might be a picture of something in your head it might be something else all together and now I want you to set your intent on finding them and sharing this with them God has not given you a word of judgment that's not what prophecy is God's not ask you to expose in someone some shortcoming and failure that's not what prophecy is certainly isn't what it is in this text it's for building up it's for encouragement it's for consolation I want you to set your intent on getting face to face with this person and you can even leverage technology for that and looking them in the face and saying at my church or you know what Matt did as I was praying God brought you to my mind I asked him how I might encourage you and and this is what I felt like the Lord asked me to do it maybe that sounds crazier maybe I'm way off but I just want to I want to take a chance at failing here and and I want to start kind of operating this way where I asked the Lord to use me to speak life into people father I thank you that we're never alone you do not forget us or forsake us or leave us and so I thank you that all over this gathering today faces and lives real people flashed across our minds and then you encouraged us with a word that doesn't stand in contrast to your scriptures doesn't make your scriptures insufficient but actually personalizes them and delivers them like a kiss on the forehead I pray we not take ourselves so seriously I thank you that you are not a weary tired father that gets angry when his children don't nail it the first time pray that you would unleash in our congregation words of life as the norm grow us in these things as we fumble forward when it's for your beautiful name I pray amen

Channel: The Village Church Resources

Views: 22,472

Rating: 4.0752091 out of 5

Keywords: Matt Chandler, The Village Church, Gifted for Love, A Supernatural Community and A Personal Word

Id: n0aB1lolHn0

Length: 47min 3sec (2823 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 16 2018