In Pursuit of the Spirit

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] well good morning how are we doing well all right if you could do me a favor we've got a line stretching out this door almost to the other door and scoot towards the middle and then if you are able in the future there is some room in the 8:30 there is quite a bit of room in the 12:30 if you could drift towards those if you can I totally get it but if you could drift towards those that would exponentially help us as a church as this the 10:30 is getting just slams like we thought it would and so if you can move towards the middle that will help us get people in more quickly and then in the future week specifically as school is about to start if you are able to attend the 8:30 and 10:30 I know that doesn't work for everybody but if you are able and could do that that would certainly help our church if you have your Bibles let's go to first Corinthians chapter 14 we have been in a six-week series on the gifts not not just the sign gifts of the Holy Spirit but how God gifts his children and I want to kind of briefly just remind you of the context of this passage before we dive into I think one of the more controversial topics in the Bible and so if you're like what what what then then welcome to the village right we're just gonna dive in and and see what the book says but I want you to be able to see that we're just reading this from the Bible so if you don't have them there's a hardback black 1 somewhere around you grab that first Corinthians 14 is where we will be the church in Corinth that this letter is being written to is a train wreck you have never no matter what your backstory is you have not been a part of a church as dysfunctional as immature and as foolish as the church at Corinth in fact upon reading the letter to the Corinthians you would wonder why that Paul didn't just disband the thing right just so toxic that it's a marvel that the letter just doesn't end with and this is our last gathering amen but Paul doesn't do that what's going on in court or at least one of the things that has happened in Corinth is that the sign gifts are the miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit are making an appearance through certain men and women and so the church begins to view the supernatural has this kind of varsity level that's what real Christianity looks like and then the other gifts is kind of subpar gifts and Paul is rebuking that as absurd he is saying that you cannot take the more spectacular gifts right enough and I've even got problem with that language and say this is what everyone should look like in fact Paul is passionately arguing that no one has all of the gifts and all of us have at least a gift and God's plan is to bake a cake in a certain space with the ingredients that he put there so that no one as desirous as we might be of another gift should not delight in the gift that God has given them are you tracking with me and so what I've tried to do is put together a summary sentence of our time and I'll put it on the screen for emphasis we must never lose sight of the purpose behind the gifts of the Spirit in the first place the building up of the whole church through the spirit empowered Ministry of what the whole church so the whole church is built up by the spirit empowered Ministry of who the whole church not not like an elect few there's not like varsity full-time professionals and then junior varsity or sophomore C team third string tight ends right in Texas that doesn't use tight ends anymore right there's not that discrepancy in the more in our minds we distort the lines and pretend that there is professionals and then the rest of us the more we forfeit the good gift of God's grace on our lives to not be spectators but to be performers we must never lose sight of the purpose behind the gifts of spirit in the first place the building up of the whole church through the spirit empowered Ministry of the whole church no individual receives all gifts so we need each other in the body of Christ you are not disqualified from Christian ministry because you can't teach like gen Wilkin and you can't sing in the key of Bleeker or grant that does not disqualify you from ministry you're not disqualified from ministry because you are not as smart as JT English with a PhD in the Trinity or that's not a joke that his PhD is on the Trinity right so I didn't make that it's not like I hahaha that's how smart that dude is right or are unable to preach a sermon in Trevor Joyce 27 minutes right that's not that's not an indictment on anybody I'm not sure why you're applauding that I'm not sure I appreciate it so you are not disqualified in ministry because as you look around you don't fit this mold or that mold in fact you have and we've covered this you have been uniquely wired by God for the purposes of God in this place which means for us to be us we need you to be you it's not a good thing to despise the gift that you've been given for the desire of another one it's not a bad thing to desire another one in fact gosh I want them all and I even know the Bible says that it ain't happening but I want them all like I want that gift and that gift and that gift and it's okay to desire in fact even earnestly desire other gifts you just not it's sinful to despise the one you've been given and to to lay let that gift lay dormant while you prey on another one are you tracking with me at this point so you've been given a gift and it's not a good thing for you to go well since I don't have this gift I'm not gonna use my gift until I get the gift that I want if you're a parent almost all of us have had that moment on Christmas morning where the kid opened up they're giving like I want the blue one right now what does that do to your soul as a parent some of you answered and I will not I will not quote some of the answers that I just heard but it gives us an opportunity than its parents to thank God that we are not God because God in light of our hospitality I want to be able to fly and and call dead people to life I don't want hospitality I don't know God gave you hospitality God gave you administration God gave you the gift of helps God gave you the gift of generosity God gave you those gifts because he put the kind of gifts in this place to make us all that he would want us to be and nobody gets all of them all of us gets at least one of them many of us have multiple gifts but we don't not spend those gifts until we get the one we want we happily give ourselves over to the good gifts God has placed inside us in a given location for the build up of that location for the glory of Christ and our joy and I just believe with all my heart that most Christians are bored because they still believe they're spectators and not actors and none of us have been called to be spectators so this version of Christianity where this kind of elite Christian East uh kind of performs for you as you watch us perform and then we leave this place and we're kind of encouraged cuz that was funny or you had a good point there I love that song but we're not leaving this place and an understanding of God's call on our life has to lead to boredom just has to but God's called you up into more than that now the topic today is wildly controversial right we've been reading this and I know some of you you've been longing for me to dive into this one what's where we go in okay and then others of you're like oh god please just skip it just skip it and get to the Gospel of John I'm already wigged out from last week and my preference would be just that you would skip this passage altogether and let's get in the Gospel of John I don't think you'll freak me out quite as much in a Gospel as you are right now so let's just say that the topic is tongues all right well it's just out of the get-go that's kind of weird tongues is kind of weird I'm just saying I don't I don't have that gift I see that it is a gift I'd like it I prayed for it God has not said yes in fact most frequently the Lord says yeah yeah okay I hear you now study and preach I quit being greedy just study and preach Ryan on my hand the rest of this out I know you won that that's all I gave you this be satisfied with this and I'm like I am satisfied with this but this one it's so all I want that one and God patiently endorsed me so let me define tongues just so as we read the passage you know what we're saying and if you're our fifth graders welcome to your first kind of big church sermon I'm sorry it's just where it fell that must mean the Lord has something for you fifth graders so glad that you hear here's how tongues is defined in the Bible in fact here in a minute when I read a passage I'll go see where we got it so here's our definition of tongues it is a spirit inspired utterance again if you're one of our fifth graders you like utter utter what like a language right a spirit inspired language and so that's when we use the word tongue and when the Bible refers to a tongue it's referring to a spirit inspired utterance and now with it defined let's look at it by the way I want to point this out even as we dive into it I'll unpack this more fully in the next 30 minutes but most of the information we have about the gifts of tongues the gift of tongues is found in a rebuke around the usage of the gifts of tongues right so most of the information we have about the gift of tongues is found in this text which is a rebuke of the wrong use of the gift all right so with that said this is a loving rebuke I don't have you ever been lovingly rebuked or something very kindly tells you you're wrong but that's what we're about to read 1st Corinthians 14 starting in verse 6 now brothers if I come to you speaking in tongues how will I benefit you unless I bring some revelation or knowledge or prophecy or teaching if even lifeless instruments such as the flute or the harp do not give distinct notes how will anyone know what is played and if the bugle gives an indistinct sound who will get ready for battle so with yourselves if with you tongue you utter speech that is not intelligible how will anyone know what is said for you we'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 the meaning of the language I will be a foreigner to the speaker and the speaker a foreigner to me so with yourselves since you are eager for the manifestations of the spirit strive to excel in the building up of 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 pray with my spirit but I will also pray with my mind also I will sing spread 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 there's a weird this is the Apostle Paul only can get away with sentences like this I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you nevertheless in the church I would rather speak five words with my mind in order to instruct others than ten thousand words in a tongue brothers do not be infants in your thinking be infants in evil but in your thinking be mature in the law it is written by people of a strange tongues and by the lips of foreigners while I speak to this people and even then they will not listen to me says the Lord thus tongues are assigned not for believers but for unbelievers while prophecy is a sign not for unbelievers but for believers if therefore the whole church comes together in all speak in tongues and outsiders or unbelievers enter will they not say that you are out of your minds but if all prophesy and an unbeliever outsider enters he is convicted by all he is called to account by all the secrets of his heart are disclosed and so falling on his face we will worship God and declare that God is really among you now in the Bible there are two types of tongues that's it there's not a third type there is a Missy illogical use of tongues and what I mean by that as many of us have have heard this type of tongue it's when someone doesn't know a language and supernaturally they are given that language so that others might hear in their own language and come to Jesus Christ this is what we're seeing in Acts chapter 2 and so in Acts chapter 2 when tongues of fire fall on the Apostles they speak in tongues and the tongues that they are speaking in are the languages of the nations that are present at Pentecost in Jerusalem let me refresh you by reading Acts 2 1 through 11 when the day of Pentecost arrived there were all together in one place and suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind and it filled the entire house where they were sitting and divided tongues as a fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews devout men from every nation under heaven and at this sound the multitude came together and they were bewildered because each one was hearing them speak in his own language and they were amazed and astonished saying are not all these who are speaking Galileans and how is it that we here each of us in his own native language the party nians and the Medes and the Elamites and the residents of Mesopotamia and Judea and Cappadocia and Pontus and Asia and Frei gia and Pamphylia Egypt and parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene and visitors from Rome both Jews and proselytes cretians and Arabians we here I'm telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God the tongues were foreign languages of those who were far from God who were able to hear in their tongue the mighty acts of God and if we kept reading we would see that thousands believed upon the name of Jesus Christ now the gift of tongues as we see it here has not ceased in 2009 in fact I had to call somebody this week to get the date in 2009 Kyle Worrell agree we're praying and as we're praying there's this this woman who begins to pray in a tongue which is awkward in a place that that's not normal I don't know if you've had that experience where you're all praying by spraying English and then somebody's praying in not English and so I'm just thinking and in my head how to gently help this woman understand that that we're not rolling like that here and so we're we're praying and then when we're done praying for this woman the woman looks at the woman who just spoke in tongues and said I didn't know you knew Hindi and she said I don't know Hindi and she said you just prayed this over me in Andy right so that's not out on some mission field that didn't happen in Iraq that happened at a prayer meeting at the village church and this is how tongues is seen in the Bible and seen among the people of God even to this day it's a different language given by the Spirit of God that exists somewhere in the world this is what you're seeing in this text this is what we see in the Bible but it's not the only way that tongues is taught not the only way that tongues is mentioned and not the only way works the second kind of tongues and it's the one that kind of wigs the salad because I think most people look at that and get real amped up about the gospel going to the nation's they're like yeah I would love to be able to speak in tongues like I want to know all languages now or nobody anybody else I'd love to speak every language ever always and be fluent one of the things I prayed for one of the things that God has said no to he's like you I'm struggling just to get English and you son right we're not expanding your horizons we're gonna stay right here but the other kind of in the other kind of tongues and if you've been around more charismatic folk that they'll talk about it like this they'll talk about it as a prayer language and and they'll say it has something to do with intimacy with God now they're not making that up we actually saw this in our text and not not only do we see this in other parts of the Bible so like Romans 8:26 says likewise the spirit helps us in our weakness for we do not know what to pray for as we ought but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words and when he searches the heart and knows what the mind of the Spirit is because the spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God and and if you were here last week we even in this text if you go back and look at verses 2 through 4 in this chapter of 14 here's what it says for the one who speaks in a tongue speaks not to men but to God for no one understands him but he utters mysteries in the spirits on the other hand the one who prophesized speaks to the people for their up building and encouragement and consolation but the one who speaks in a tongue builds up himself but the one who prophesies builds up the church so you see there's some sort of language here listen if tongues is a gift it is not giving to everyone right so not everyone's gonna have a personal private prayer language but some people get it and and apparently it has something to do with intimacy with God that's all we know from the text but I want to point this out because it's what's happening in the text the last three chapters Paul has been on a rant about the building up of the body the building up of the body the building up of the body not the building up of self the building up of South the building of so this almost comes across like a slam right prophecy builds up teaching builds up hospitality builds up it builds up it builds up it builds up but tongues edifies the person not the body and so it comes across in this tags it's this strange tension we're gonna try to walk today where Paul's like painting a picture of it that's just really beautiful picture in fact he says man I speak in tongues more than anybody which would be cocky if you weren't an apostle but he would even go on later and say don't ever forbid it but he's saying it builds up the person but it doesn't necessarily build up the body so that that's what we see here and then let me show you what else we know from this passage we can see in verse 27 which we'll read next week that tongues doesn't have happen out of an explosion of ecstasy that can't be controlled alright so if in your mind what tongues is is you just get so overly tweaked and so overly emotional that all of sudden like hello or whatever like you just explode in tongues the Bible is pain in a different picture here in verse 27 that says if it happens in the gathering it should only happen two maybe three times but no more and it should be done in order which means this kind of private prayer language if it shows up in a gathering at all shows up like this under control and in order so you know tongues doesn't explode without any control out of nowhere we can also see it is unintelligible both to the speaker and here so think of the faith it requires for the one who's been given this look at verse 14 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 Bible 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 so we know that the tongues in in this place the person doesn't even understand it that's speaking in the tongue nor does the hearer and then lastly we know from verse two that we just read that this prayer language the second kind of tongues it's directed towards God it's directed towards God this is all according to the text now I want to point this out here's the good in tongues and I want to highlight the warning about tongues here's the good our spirit is being engaged in a way that our mind isn't now I don't know what that means don't have this guy I've spent a lot of time on the phone this week with people I love and trust who have this I'm just like help me help me understand there's some kind of building up of the spirit according to Paul that's not happening through the intellect now that flies in the face of my boy Agustin and how I've been trained to think about spiritual formation which is a formation of the mind leads to a formation of the spirit that leads back to a formation of the mind that leads back to a formation of the spirit so the mind informs the heart the heart agrees with the mind and transformation occurs that way but Paul saying tongues this gift in particular it builds up the spirit in a way that's different than how you build up your mind I wish I could give you more I'm just gonna stick to the text we see here that with an interpretation it builds up the body right that would be verse 6 we see in verse 21 that missional II God is going to continue to draw the nation's to himself this way right so that if you know missionaries connected with some of the stuff that's going on globally it's not uncommon to hear the story that people picked up a language quickly or that they picked up a language without picking up the language you tracking with me I just kind of supernatural Wow well I couldn't have Spanish class in high school gone that way for me right now the the amount of warnings in this text below past the amount of encouragement so let me highlight that he says that tongues specifically used in the gathering are like an instrument but doesn't sound any distinct notes he uses the the illustration specifically of the bugle that if the bugle doesn't sound specific notes nobody knows when it's time for war when it's time to retreat or when it's time to do anything it'll just be a single sound so so Paul saying tongues used in the gathering that aren't interpreted it's like a bugle that can't make any distinct sounds we see here that people if tongues are used in the gathering without an interpretation that people feel like foreigners nobody knows what so last week I was in Berlin and I want to share this because I I think maybe if we're not careful we kind of believe propaganda I'm trying to help us not believe propaganda was in Berlin and went to this place called the hangar and the hangar is where all of the refugees from the Middle East kind of come and are processed and so they Jam them in there on these bunk beds it's not an environment conducive to human flourishing and I got to meet with a group of Iraqis and here's what's crazy they were awesome they were friendly and kind and boisterous and loving and I put them right up there with the Italians and the Brazilians as friendly boisterous life-loving awesome people and I met a boxer from Iraq named Muhammad and and I yeah right and here's web learned that there I started asking like what's your nickname right like you know 80% of your Mohammad saw how does this work what do you call yourselves and everybody's kind of got this nickname which is right in my wheelhouse right so now I've got Muhammad's nickname and and Mo was he was a boxer and then he he asked me through an interpreter if I was into fitness which is a question I have never been asked and so he was like feeling my shoulders and clothes talking and asking me if I was into fitness and so I had to say through an interpreter a little and then we had this great conversation and what I learned was that the Iraqis and the Afghani people are beautiful hospitable kind amazing people and not in any way out to murder all of us and they lament and are heartbroken over those slivers of evil born among their countrymen and I say all of that one to maybe help you consider that not all Muslims are trying to murder you and then secondly because there was no way to communicate with that man unless I had an interpreter all right I don't speak German I certainly don't speak broken German right so I don't know if you've been around somebody spoke broken English or broken Spanish both of those things exist think about someone from Iraq who is forced to learn German over a period of nine weeks and now has to try to communicate in German to a woman who's an American who knows just a smidge of journey to an English guy or an American guy who doesn't know hardly English and without an interpreter things don't work and you could feel as friendly as we were this dividing wall of language and Paul's point is said matter if you can't hear who cares if nobody understands what you're saying and then this is huge Paul says I would rather speak five words that are understood than 10,000 words in a tongue yeah that seems a bit hyperbolic but yeah right five words that you'll get then 10,000 that you're not gonna get right so they're all these words of warning he's gonna go on to say it can confuse it can distract the body and and so that this is kind of what we see in the Bible if you've got other questions of how it works or what it's for how I this is all we've got this is literally all we've got and it comes in a chapter about a rebuke for the misuse of tongues in a corporate gathering so that's the good and the bad that's the purpose and how we see the purpose is played out in the scriptures but but here's where I want to spend my last 10 12 minutes with you as a church we have for quite some time now eagerly wanted to see Supernatural break through out your pastor certainly does I man I want to see more people healed than we've seen healed I want to see more breakthrough into the ordinary from the Spirit of God I just want if there's more to be had I want all of it and I'm gonna pester and cry and fast and seek and want it until I get to go home and see it face to face and and hear if we could have an anchor for how to think about the miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit not just all the gifts but specifically those kind of supernatural Wow what was that I think verse 12 is our anchor let's look at verse 12 so with yourselves since you are eager for the manifestations of the Spirit so I think that's our community of faith we're eager to see God do God's stuff yes and amen to every bit of salvation there's no greater miracle than salvation ever you will never see a greater miracle than death to life the Spirit of God regenerating dead souls into living souls I mean we're longing to see is the body gathers and homegroups in this kind of gathering supernatural breakthrough where diseases are healed and anxieties are breakthrough and demonic oppression it's broken and things are put back together so Paul says this to a church that's high on the supernatural you want to see it you eager to see it well then he says how you go about seeing it since you are eager for the manifestation of the Spirit strive work so you're not passive stri strive to excel and building up the church now why does that lead to the kind of breakthrough that we want well if we're driven by love for God and love for other like if I can walk in and see you hurting and suffering and be so brokenhearted for you that I can mourn with you and I am compelled out of empathy for your hurt for your sadness for your anxiety for your brokenness in your wrestle that I began to cry out to God of a pure heart longing for God to set you free because I know he can to heal you because I know he can that I'm in a position of faith or I know that my words will not heal you but the Spirit of Christ can and that's different so you want to experience we want as a community of faith to see these kind of breakthroughs then we strive we work we labor to excel at the building up of the body of Christ in this location so what does it look like to strive to excel in the building up of the church again you always ask the right question here's the first thing it makes Church less about you and more about us Jeremy it makes Church less about you and more about us so here's the day in which you live if I can I want to expose this as often what you are being pelted with all day long is your own unhappiness as you know that like everybody trying to get you to buy their product is selling to you that you're not happy right so every image you see on a magazine every commercial everything on your Facebook kind of pages hey you're not happy but this will make you happy so work harder go into debt get this thing that's gonna finally make you are sold unhappiness and what will make you happy is this product or this product and when that's the air you breathe you start to approach church that way what will make me happy I'm not at what's gonna make me happy but but the Bible saying that's the complete wrong way to approach the body in fact I've said this for maybe 12 years now the more your life is about you the more miserable of a human being you're gonna be the more you are uppermost in your own affection the more miserable you're going to be you will use people rather than know people you will try to manipulate people rather than love them everything will be personal um I don't know if you've been able to travel the globe but almost everywhere else in the world when somebody honks at you there's trying to let you know they're there right in our country that's a sign of personal disrespect and could get you shot I'm not making a joke like people are crazy right now right like no he did not you know like we're insane what because the world's about us and if the world's about me you better get the world's about me I'll go and I please nobody thinks that way we just believe that way and it erupts in anger when things don't go our way because we're uppermost on our own affection but the church in about you it's about us that's what this means the second thing and I want you to hear this is this if it's true gives you a mission every time we come together so I've had a wrestle with this this week I mentioned it last week the Lord's beat me up on it this week so misery loves company sarcasm is not a love language you should just stop saying that about yourself yes our chasm smile like you're I'm gonna identify your weakness and publicly make fun of it and I'm gonna be seen as clever and you're gonna feel loved does it work that way here's what happens all the sarcastic people go yeah that's exactly how it hurts right but people who aren't witty like that they're not sarcastic like that they would just strongly disagree with us right so huh your mission my mission is when we come together whether that be in the large gathering whether that be in home group whether that be for a dinner a lunch a cup of coffee or whatever is I'm coming into that with this mission how might I speak life into this man this woman how can I call out their gifts how can I tell them what I enjoy about how can I bless them in this gathering which means when you pull into this parking lot we're thinking how do I bless how do I encourage you've got a mission you are not passive in the body of Christ you're active you're called and we're better when you own that rather than hiding behind that my love language is sarcasm its wounding and cutting and might we be known as a place that doesn't do that but rather just has words of life how refreshing and life-changing with that alone being how simple is that let me say something kind how broken is the day that we live where that's the apologetic I'm an expert in your strengths you even you got a mission when we go you got a mission when you're heading into home group you got lunch with somebody this afternoon you got a mission you're not a spectator you're in the fire in the middle of the arena what does that look like it looks like words of life and that was my last point I got ahead of myself and get you out of the stands and into the center of action let me just conclude the sermon like this if you are a covenant member of the village church or if you're a regular attender stop regular attending become a member just come on in and be part of the family right that's not a category that exists biblically regular attender right that's just stuff we say because it's hard to get in our membership class and some of you've been here eight years and had Mela do it we've changed things get in it and just belong right at some point we've got to stop dating right I don't know if anybody else ever gave you that ultimatum but at some point right we got to quit dating but but if you're a covenant member or a regular attender here here's what's going on God has led you to this place and he has led you to this place not because we have a bunch of things for you although that ik that's true but because you have something that God wants here to make us fully what he plans for us to be you with me so so if you're like oh like you don't know me that can't be true here's what's great I love saying this I don't need to know you because I I know what the Bible says and the Bible is never lied about you right so here's what I know from the Bible that you have been given a manifestation of the spirit for the common good that means you made in the image of God empowered by the indwelling Holy Spirit have been given a gift maybe it's administration maybe it's works of service I don't know what it is but you've been given it and you've been brought to this place because we needed a - more that here to be all that God would want us to be and if this is true here's a couple of ways I think we can actually walk in this if we're thinking about next steps won't one all the more I want us to be a place that calls out the giftedness that we see in one another even after the first sermon this week I know several home groups got together that's what they did they sat around say I see this in you I want to just affirm this in you I want to tell you do something with that I can see it you're not second-guessing yourself I can see this in you brother sister give yourself over to this I'd set up a meeting with this pastor I'd I'd get involved here there's no ministry there's you just start one right I want us to get good at Halling out of one another the good that we see in one another that God is up to man if you've got a friend or you've got somebody around you that you've seen the Lord has significantly grown in the last three months six months Amen man that she'd be coming out your mouth you should be saying hey I can see the Spirit of God working in you I've seen you grow I'm watching you deepen and it pleases my I'm gonna continue to pray for you I love what Jesus is doing in you right now and then secondly he I am naturally critical okay I wish I wasn't like a like Michael Bleeker I love that man he's always like that's amazing this is incredible it's the best I ever saw I want to be Michael Bleeker when I grow up so another thing I asked for and the guy was like mm-hmm made one of those he's optimistic for everybody all right you just let him but so but here's what I've learned here's what the Lord's taught me painfully so I'm gonna kind of show you my you know my scars and the hopes that maybe you won't have to bleed as bad my criticism and I believe God's giving me that eye so I can sometimes make things better but God has given me a critical eye so that I can step into broken places and help by the grace of God be a solution not someone who complains about the problem so if you're naturally critical I'm not trying to drive by shame you and go shame on you for being critical because I think a critical eye can sometimes be a really good gift of God but you have not been given a critical eye to group up with other critical people and criticize without getting in the middle of the arena God's given you a critical eyes giving you a critical eye so you can be part of the solution not chirping away at those who are doing their best to solve the weaknesses and brokenness as they see around them and so let's be a church that calls the strengths out of one another and let's be a church if you've got that kind of critical bent began to see that bent is God's invitation for you to be part of the solution and I'm part of the problem now if you could use your divine imagination what would it be long for our church to be one where words of life are consistently spoken and where we saw weaknesses we were the first to go I'll help with that hurry I've got an idea about what might make that better hey who do I talk to about this I just noticed this on Sunday I think it can be smoother than that I think man I just think I've got some skills that maybe might work here and what if we were proactive in that I just think what God might do among us according to the text is break loose in the kinds of ways that we're wanting him to wear you are eager for the manifestations of the Spirit strive to excel in the building up of the church let's pray father thank you for these men and women we thank you for your word we thank you that you've wired us and you've gifted us and you called us that none of us are doomed to watch from the stands but called right into the middle of the arena so grant us the courage to do this grant us the wisdom of where to play and where to walk and your mighty and good and gracious and we bless your name Jesus it's for your beautiful name amen

Channel: The Village Church Resources

Views: 40,616

Rating: 4.8377423 out of 5

Keywords: Matt Chandler, The Village Church, In Pursuit of the Spirit, Gifted for Love

Id: hbALb34PZsM

Length: 42min 51sec (2571 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 23 2018