When the Spirit Falls - Part 2

Understanding the Gifts of the Spirit, When the Spirit Falls, Part Two. And Part Three will be this coming Sunday, of course, Lord willing. And the reason I want to talk about this is we're seeing throughout the book of Acts, the supernatural working of the Holy Spirit.

That's pretty clear. The gifts are being revealed. They're going to continue to be revealed where people have word of wisdom, word of knowledge.

We just read last Sunday this gift of tongues and things like that. And we're seeing the Spirit in operation. And so, what happens though is some people say we don't need the supernatural gifts anymore because we have the Bible.

And I'm going to work through that in just a minute. And this group that says that, 90% of what they say I agree with. Because they usually go after the phonies and the fakes and the weird things.

I don't even know what the right word is. Just a perversion, a sickening, a disgusting type of element where when people are given free reign to just say what they want, do what they want, act weird, all in the name of the Holy Spirit. And some people on TV or YouTube, I can't even watch.

But to say that the supernatural gifts have ceased, in other words, we don't need them anymore because we have the Bible, that's tough for me and I know the elders at this church because just reading that in the Bible, you would not come to that conclusion on your own. It makes it sound like that they are still available. So if they are, let's talk about that for a minute.

How can we better understand them? And again, I want you to pray, God, show me. God, you show me. Through your word, Lord, I want you to show me, reveal what the truth is on the subject.

And I believe God will honor that. But let's look at 1 Corinthians. I did use the NIV on this.

I normally use the New King James. And this is so important, guys. Young adults, listen here.

This is God's word speaking to you profoundly and powerfully in ways to where you can really know God in an intimate way. So now to each one, the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. So to each one of us, the manifestation, that just means God revealing Himself, of the Spirit is given for the common good.

So if God gives you a gift, it's not for you. Who's it for? The body. So if God gave me whatever the gift that is, that preaching, it's not for me.

It's for the body of believers. A word of wisdom, prophecy, things like that. Gifts of healing.

The gift of healings, actually. And those are for the body. What's interesting though, is when we get into this a little bit, when the Bible talks about tongues, it's actually a personal gift.

It has other operations, but it's a personal gift that a person can use to even build that intimacy with the Lord. And again, I'm just gonna read Scripture. Because if you're like me, you're conservative, right? Things like tongues and speaking a language you don't know is... Okay, Lord, I get it.

It's Your Word. You're doing it. It must be beautiful.

But, you know, I have a tendency to be a little apprehensive because of abuses in the church. However, knowing it's clearly in God's Word. And if you've ever experienced genuine gifts of the Holy Spirit, and they line up with Scripture, you're in good company.

There's nothing to be afraid of. What God's doing in you is Paul talks about. He talks about how to steward it, how to exercise it, what's the purpose of it.

And that's, I believe it was D. Martin Lloyd-Jones said that we do not interpret Scripture based on our feelings. We interpret our feelings based on the Scriptures. And so if the Scriptures talk about what I'm about to talk about, then I think we are in good company.

So the Spirit gives to each one of us the different gifts. To some, He will give the message of wisdom. To another, knowledge.

Calls it the word of knowledge. By the same Spirit. To another, He gives extraordinary faith.

So the word of wisdom, the word of knowledge, right? God, what it is is God is spontaneously bringing something to mind for you to help somebody else. And that's what I talked about on Sunday. Paula was in the prayer room.

She felt this need to go, and I'm not gonna get into details yet. I haven't got permission necessarily. And it was incredible, the results of that.

Because she lived what they call promptings or leadings of the Holy Spirit. And when you obey in that area, God's using her to go help someone else. And you've seen that before.

A word of knowledge is God gives you something to tell somebody that really helps them in their situation. Now why doesn't God just tell the person? I don't know. That's been my question since day one.

But He wants to use us to minister to others. It's all one body. So a word of knowledge would be, I know something about some situation or somebody, and God's put it on my heart, I'm ignoring it.

And then I go to them, and I share this with them, and it really helps them. Or a word of knowledge, a word of wisdom, something that you need to know, something that's coming up maybe. And again, we don't live on these every day.

We're not running around looking for words every day. We live on the word of God. We obey the word of God.

It's our fuel, it's our food. That's all we really need to live godly in Christ Jesus. But these other things will come alongside sometimes, and the helper will help via the gifts of the Spirit.

And so He goes on. Some people are also given gifts of healing by the one Spirit to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy. Prophecy would be not only forth telling, the big thing about prophecy is people predict future events and things like that.

And then of course, the Bible, we're actually gonna get into that next. I think his name is Agabus. And he told Paul that there's gonna be a famine.

He also says you're gonna go to Jerusalem and be persecuted. He spoke into the future to prepare him for that. Now it does get dicey because who do you listen to? Who don't you listen to? How do you assimilate all this? And I'm gonna hopefully shed a little bit of light on that.

But there's also prophecy that is, even looking at the Reformers, the Puritans you might have heard of. And the gift of prophecy would be like a prophetic voice for our nation. The A.W. Tozer's, Leonard Ravenhill, that speak prophetically and boldly.

And it's just, it's taking God's word and it's putting it right into the heart of the hearer. And it just knocks them back, so to speak. It's a prophetic type of preaching.

And that's also a gift. Not everybody has that. It's who God is choosing to pour these gifts upon.

And to another, he gives the distinguishing of spirits. The new King James calls it the discerning of spirits. So, you know those people that just can really read people pretty well? And they know, that's just, I just don't have a good feeling about them.

I just, I don't know. And God is really using them to bring clarity to a situation, to discern the spirits. It's a gift from God.

And he gives you that gift. And then what's it go on to say after that? Then, speaking in different kinds of tongues. And to still another, the interpretation of tongues.

So in Acts, when tongues was first introduced, it was people filled with the spirit. And then what were they doing? They were praising God. They were praising God.

And people heard them speaking in these different languages that knew the language. And they heard them glorifying God. And so it was a gift of praise and glorifying God.

And if we had time, of course, each one of these could take a whole sermon. But tongues, there's a couple different functions. Paul talks about it also, if there's interpretation, then somebody, it's like a prophetic word.

There's interpretation that really hits home with somebody. It's God's using that to confirm different things. But he also goes on to say, I'd rather speak just five words in church than thousands in tongues.

Because nobody understands, it's not beneficial. And if somebody were just to start to stand up right now and start to speak in tongues, some people say amen, but others would say, what in the world is going on? If they sit down, there's no interpretation. What was that about? It was disruptive.

And so that's why there are, so you're not quenching the spirit when you're following the word of God. I've had people tell me that over the years. Pastor, you're just quenching the spirit by not letting this just roll.

Well, I got scriptures here. You're actually going against the scriptures. There's no interpretation.

You can't just stand up and be disruptive. That's more, you have self-control, by the way, as a fruit of the Spirit. Now, can we navigate this gift perfectly? Of course not.

If you ever want to plan a church and try to navigate these waters of ministry perfectly, go for it. You're either too conservative, you're too this, you're too loose, you're too tight, you're too strict, you're too, you know, it's just you're always, there's a tension there with the gifts and other things and we just have to look to the word of God on these issues. We've had in prayer meetings, we have in different meetings where people have spoken tongues and there's somebody there who has the gift of interpretation of those tongues.

And he says, all these are the work of one, the one and the same Spirit. And he distributes these gifts to each one just as he determines. So these gifts are given by the Holy Spirit of God.

Most gifts, by the way, we just celebrate Christmas, you know this, most gifts come with an instruction manual. And that's what I do love about the Bible. It talks about things like the gifts or church governance or church discipline.

It gives direction because it knows us just left to our own devices can kind of do whatever we want. So we need boundaries, we need some guardrails. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones actually caught a lot of flack.

He was in the 1900s, very solid theologian, reformed. John MacArthur actually recommended one of his books as his top 10 books. It was called Preachers and Preaching.

Devoured it, loved it, tried to go over it every couple years and highlight it. And he talked about the gifts of the Holy Spirit. And he actually believed that they were still active in the church today.

And he would kind of chide those dead churches that were stifling the move of the Spirit. And he said something that was pretty, at that time and even now, it's a little convicting. Churches that did not need 1 Corinthians 12, 13, 14, they did not need to teach on the gifts.

They didn't need to know the boundaries, the rules, right? He would say living children need rules, dead children don't. Ouch. So he would say, hey, if you don't need the rules for the gifts of the Holy Spirit, dead children don't need rules.

You're dead to the things of the Spirit. But living children, vibrant, to fill up the Spirit of God, you need some boundaries on there. You need to, oh, okay, the Bible tells me how to do it.

Because if not, 1,000 opinions, 1,000 different ideas, 1,000s of ways we should be doing things. It comes down to what does the Bible say? So we have to remember this. The Word is the foundation.

Without it, we can easily become misled. A lot of people I know, because I've grown up in the area here. I went through charismatic churches, hyper-charismatic, conservative, Baptist, fundamental Baptist, right? I've got friends in all kinds of things.

And of course, close to people, Calvary Chapel movement, they would call it afterglow parties. Or not parties, but afterglow services where they would seek the moving of the Spirit very good. And so over the years, and I've noticed all this, a lot of people who, what they would consider very, I don't even know what the right word is, excitable in the moving of the Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit and the prophetic Word and all these things, a lot of times they're not grounded in the Word.

So if it's odd, it's God, right, type of thing. If it's weird, it must be Him. And there's not that grounding, right? They'll come and they'll sing, they'll jump up and down, they'll get the flags out, but then they'll go home and they'll cuss out their children and they'll steal money somewhere.

There's no character to back. Does that make sense? And so we have to have the Word as a foundation. And then from that, you build the house of spirituality.

That, and then you can, because also here's what happens as you're going through the Word systematically, Old Testament, New Testament, you know, you're going through it, it's the heart of God. It's the Word of God. It's, you're not being conformed to the world, you're being transformed by the renewing of your mind.

So I believe you actually begin to think more like God wants you to think as you're pouring into His Word. And then you're able to discern what is right, what is godly, what is disruptive, because the Word is the foundation. You have to have that.

Without that, we can easily become misled. And test, test, test, test, prophecy. Test the gifts.

Did you know it's okay to test? I've been healed. Can you bring me the doctor's CT scan with contrast? Can I see it? You test. Oh, you said such and such is gonna be pregnant.

We're gonna test you. We're gonna test it. Pastor, that's quenching and grieving the Spirit.

No, it's not. A lot of people get out of things by saying, you're just quenching and grieving the Spirit. You won't allow tongues in the church.

No, I bet you're quenching and grieving the Spirit more than I am by that spirit of rebellion. We're supposed to test. Leaders are called to discern things.

Discern things and to test the Spirit. Test what's being said. Somebody can't just say, oh, God told me in this, and okay, I'm gonna call you on this.

That's how we grow. That's how we learn. That's how we be careful what we say.

I shared this before. I think it's okay. It's two years now, I think.

A friend of mine, ex-NFL player, spoke right here and told the guy, called him out and said, this time next year, you and your wife are gonna conceive, conceive, conceive, conceive, have a baby, and they eventually, they're not here anymore, that couple, and that didn't happen. They're still not pregnant, and so I had to make that call. I told Phil, I said, I'm gonna have to give it, I'm gonna give it some time, and I had to make that call and say, hey, you missed it.

It hurt this couple. It hurt our church, and you gotta call this stuff out. This is how people grow.

What you'll see a lot in the charismatic communities, these so-called prophets miss it, miss it, miss it. How many missed Trump in 2020 reelection, right? How many missed this and missed that? We got so many fake voices, or maybe God used them before, maybe younger in their ministry. Maybe God used them, but then they begin to build the ministry and charge money.

It doesn't work like that. You can't just turn on the prophetic whenever you want. God turns it on.

God puts it in your heart, and so it kind of ruined our relationship, and he understood, but we gotta call those things out. That's leadership. It's much easier just to ignore things, but that way, you'll make sure it's God, because in charismatic circles, I've seen places where they just, they'll just, oh, Lord told me, Lord.

Oh, praise God, Lord told me. No, no, no, guys, guys, guys, guys. I would never say, thus saith the Lord.

I'd say, you know what? This has been on my heart. It's strong on my heart all week, and I feel really impressed to share this with you, because if I say, God told me, oh, well, people have used that against me. Well, Pastor, God told me.

Well, he didn't tell me. Now, you just fold out the God told you card. I guess I'm wrong.

It doesn't work that way. People will manipulate. I've had this happen a lot.

They go, well, God told me this. That's not true. That's not true.

A year ago, we had a big fracture between two families here, and the lady was adamant, and she told me, God told me that that person told you guys on us. I'm saying, you're listening to the wrong spirit, because it's not true. I was there, I know.

I know firsthand. You're being led by the false spirit. Be careful in this area.

Every little prompting is not of God, because I have my own promptings, don't you? Huh? God told me it's okay to get some ice cream tomorrow, and go to Chick-fil-A. That's probably shame. Or people will use things to manipulate.

Be careful. Hey, God told me, and just be careful the God told me. I've never said, told somebody, God's told me, just because of that very reason.

You gotta be very careful. You gotta, before you say, thus saith the Lord, you can say it according to the word. I've said that before.

Hey, God says it's clear. So just be really careful, because we will test prophecy. We will test the gifts.

Is it legitimate? Does your character match up with your calling? Do you have the character to support the supposed gift? And guys, please, please, number three. Please, number three. Please, please, please, stop being gullible.

Christians are so hungry spiritually that we consume anything. Do you see these guys on TV? Who supports them? They should've been off the air years ago. Man.

They got plastic surgery and an $8,000 suit, and they're airplane, and they're just bling, bling all over their fingers, and they're prophetic. It's like, shut up. Shut up.

Humble yourself before God. These are charlatans. These are wolves in sheep's clothing.

We do not need to be gullible. You don't need to send them $1,000, and you'll be blessed, and you'll sow your seed into their ministry. Don't sow your seed into their ministry.

Buy some gold or silver. Well, not now. You should've a couple years ago, but you know what I'm saying, right? Gold, and I've been there.

I just want to trust everybody, and believe everybody, and they say certain things, but I've been bamboozled a lot. Haven't heard that word in a while. Just tricked, because we're gullible, and we should have that.

We shouldn't always be judgmental, but there should be a testing of the spirits, and not always just gullible in certain areas. And then four, stay low, stay humble. Stay low, stay humble.

And I was just talking to somebody, I think, today about this. What happens a lot of times is God will use somebody that we don't even know. You know, usually the most gifted, the most spirit-filled people, believe it or not, in churches, are people you don't know.

They're not on YouTube with a million followers. You don't know them very well. They're not famous.

But what happens is God will use them, and then maybe, because of social media now, especially, this video goes viral. Charisma News wants a story. CBN News wants a story.

And now they become the prophet of God. And they've got podcasts. And now, they're self-elevated, so it's not really hearing from God as much as they used to anymore, because it's about self-elevation.

It's about self-promotion. You have to be so careful in this area, because the lower you go, the closer you get to humility and spending time with God, then He begins to lay things on your heart. The more you begin to grow in ministry, and it's all about you, and you're supposedly this great prophetic voice, the more, actually, you won't hear from God.

And that's why a lot of these people fall. A lot of these people fell. But I also believe that God gives voices to our nation.

Voices to the churches as well. But they're usually solid. They are humble.

And there's a track record of consistency there. There are always abuses against God's Word in many areas, always abuses, when it comes to the gifts of the Spirit and anything else. But let's look at church history real quick.

Ignatius, a spiritual gift, especially tongues, are reported to have been common among the Moravians, especially under the leadership of Count von Zendendorf. You don't hear that very often. The French Huguenots in the late 17th century.

John Wesley defended the ongoing operation of tongues in even millions of people today. And then Sam Storms has an interesting quote. He's a very solid theologian.

Those who insist that the relevatory spiritual gifts, meaning reveal, supernatural, cease to function beyond the first century have a very difficult time accounting for the operation of these gifts in the lives of many who are involved in the Scottish Reformation. And here's some names up here on the next slide. George Wishart, he was a mentor of John Knox.

John Knox himself, John Welsh, Robert Bruce, Alexander Pendon. All of these people experienced the supernatural gifts of the Spirit. So why don't people believe it anymore? Okay, I'm gonna tell you why.

You ready? We're gonna look at the amped up version. Amped up version of Scripture. First Corinthians 13.

Love never fails. In other words, it never fades nor ends. But as for prophecy, they will pass away.

And as for tongues, they will cease. As for the special gift of knowledge, it will also pass away. So these gifts will pass away.

And that is true. They will pass away. Now this is Paul.

He's saying, for now, we see in part, correct? I don't know if you have perfect vision right now, spiritually speaking. It's still cloudy. And we prophesy in part because our knowledge is fragmented.

It's incomplete. In other words, we look through a glass. It's kind of dimly, it's dirty, I should say.

And we don't see things perfectly. But when that which is complete and perfect comes, that which is incomplete and partial, meaning these gifts of the Spirit, they will pass away. So the debate is really this.

What is complete and perfect? They say, now that we have the Word of God, we don't need the spiritual gifts. But that would mean that we now see better than Paul. When that which is perfect has come.

But most theologians, even John Calvin in his commentary, and many others say that that which is perfect is when Christ returns. Hello! That makes perfect sense. When He comes, we will see clearly.

We won't need prophecy and words of wisdom. Of course, we'll need love. Love never ends.

Think about it. You make a whole doctrine around this verse. And when it really doesn't say that.

That which is incomplete and partial, the gifts will pass away. For now, in this time of imperfection, we see in a mere dimly. We have a blurred reflection.

But then, when the time of perfection comes, we will see reality face to face. Obviously, talking about Jesus coming. And a former leader said, if God is still revealing things and speaking to people, then we can be misled.

All we need is the Bible. That's a good point. But I know a lot of people who do not believe in the gifts, and they read the Bible, and they're misled.

There's religions that read the Bible, and they're misled. Charismatic churches, there's failings, there's fallings. Reformed churches, there's failings, there's fallings.

There's people being misled and deceived. But what they also don't understand about this, what he's saying is, and it's a great point. If God is still revealing things and speaking to people, then we can become misled.

But here's the big thing. Nobody I know, we sure don't, we don't put prophecy equal with Scripture. So we're not saying God is still revealing truth.

God is still speaking truth. We're still writing the Bible today. No, we're not at all.

This is not equal with the Word of God. It doesn't mean that. Here's a key fact.

The gift of prophecy is not equal with Scripture. Scripture is authoritative. Prophecy is not.

Words, right, somebody gives you a word. It must be tested. And they are often individual words and specific words.

Why? The helper is helping. That's what people are saying. It's not a prophetic word.

Let's say God put something in my heart to share with you. That's not Scripture. That's not equal with the Bible.

It's something I'm gonna share with somebody. God presses on my heart. Check it out with Scripture.

Line it up with Scripture. And also, you don't move on that right away. You say, okay, thank you.

Well, I wanna be careful and humble, of course, but I was about to say I've never been misled by somebody giving me a prophetic word. I've been disappointed, but I don't go do this because they said it. I'm the opposite.

I'm like, okay, we'll see. We'll see. So if you ever wanna give me a word, guess what? You're gonna be scrutinized, and we'll see.

Because a lot of people have missed it, haven't they? I remember one lady I love and respect said, we were having a boy. God told her. Guess what? It was pink at the reveal.

It was a girl. Oh, pastor, I wasn't that serious. Come on, come on.

You guys, this is silly. This is not good. I shared this before, too.

I don't talk to this man anymore. He was adamant, adamant, adamant. It actually fractured our friendship a little bit.

He said God showed him in a dream that I'm supposed to run for governor. Morgan, you remember that? I said, I don't think so. It's not the same spirit.

Well, you're just disobeying the Holy Spirit. God told, no, you are disobeying. See how they wanna manipulate you? So in each of those situations, we didn't go make a baby boy's crib and baby boy's room.

I'm saying, I'm gonna test you. Run for governor? You gotta be kidding me. I have enough stress.

That's all, you need a person gifted in that area. But see, what happens is people get excited. Maybe they want somebody in there.

Maybe they have a dream, but that doesn't mean it's God giving. You gotta be careful, guys. I could sit here.

I remember a couple, I think it was right back by that exit door. They don't go in here anymore. I had to talk to them.

They told another couple, was it like within a year you'll have a baby? That was like, we're going on six or seven years ago. They still haven't had a baby. That's dangerous.

You need to watch your words, people. Be careful. You hurt people.

You do more damage. Just because you might've got it right once, be careful, this is not the lottery. When God puts something on your heart, make sure it's God.

Test it in your own heart. Don't try to manipulate or just throw it out there and hope you get it right. Then there's other situations that people, that they say God showed them, and I know He didn't.

God told me to tell you. No, He didn't. He didn't.

And you can watch how they respond. It's a demonic response instead of a humble, gracious response. And you can tell it's the wrong spirit working in them.

And again, this is just years of ministry. Hearing lots of prophetic words over the years. And when it's done right, it's beautiful, isn't it? It's beautiful.

It's to help you. And I hate to be repetitive, but a lot of you are kind of new. But years ago, I think it was like five years ago now, I was right back there at morning worship.

It was six in the morning, 6.30 in the morning, and God had something. It was on my heart. I felt it was the Lord, right? Lord, is this you or is this me? Oh my goodness.

You ever been there? Like, oh, is this you or me? God, please show me. I'm gonna say some hard things today. And Marilyn Enos, she was right there kneeling down.

And as I'm praying, I'm just standing up. I'm thinking, she gets up, she walks back there. I'm like, where is she going? And she comes up and she goes, the Lord just put on my heart right now to share everything you need to share.

Don't hold back a word. I just stood there. She went back down.

I'm like, what? And now, oh, that's coincidence. Guys, that's coincidence? Are you kidding me? And then who's real popular kind of right now? I think he's staying really humble and usable as far as I know. I don't know, but Mario Murillo.

Boy, this is 2003, 22 years ago. I'm digging ditches. I'm a construction.

And I'm sitting down with Morgan going, man, this stuff, God's word is just coming. There's this boldness and there's this, like you hear it, right? And it's like, this is, oh my goodness. I go from a motivational speaker to this? Man, this is like, people are gonna think I'm arrogant and bold and I don't know if this is God at all.

And so there's this packed church and he starts and he goes, young man, would you stand up? It's the only thing he said the whole night to people. And the rest he preached. And he put it, I think I saw the recording.

And he said, God is calling you to the ministry. He said, it's not arrogance, it's God. And men of God need to start being bold today.

Like, what? See, those are pivotal moments when you need to hear from the Lord. Those are life-changing anchors that I go back to. It helped me, because God knew I was sincerely seeking.

And I can't turn to 1 John or 2 Corinthians or Matthew. I'm struggling with this internal struggle. Now, the principle's there.

The principle's there. But when I'm reading the principle, I'm like, but Lord, is this me or you? Because this is, you know. And there's other times.

Many times, I've shared before, David Ravenhill, Leonard Ravenhill's son. He talked, there was a missionary who was at dinner, and there was this young lady, they're about 20 years old. And he felt a real strong desire to tell her that God hates mommies and daddies.

He's like, I'm not saying this. But it just got stronger and stronger and stronger. And he finally just shared it, and she broke down and began weeping and crying and was set free.

Because her uncle used to abuse her and said, let's play mommies and daddies. So God used that to say, God wants you to know he hates mommies and daddies too. So she knew exactly.

See, I get goosebumps when it's done the right way. And when it's done the right way, and people speak into your heart, and they just hit the area that you need. So that's the gift of prophecy.

That's words of wisdom, words of knowledge. It's incredible. It's incredible.

So of course, the enemy wants to pervert it and putting things in your mind to go tell somebody, thus saith the Lord. So I wanna look at Acts real quick. What I talked about earlier, Acts 11.28. Then Agapus stood up, and he showed by the Spirit that there was going to be a great famine throughout all the world, which also happened in the days of Claudius Caesar.

Then the disciples, each according to his ability, determined to send relief to the brethren dwelling in Judea. So even if they had the Bible, they wouldn't know to do this. You know what I'm saying? Where are you gonna read in the Bible that says a famine is coming? Prepare.

You don't know. That's the point of the gifts, is they help us in our need. And so he showed them, hey, there's a famine coming.

They sent money to this area and helped support the area. That's the whole point of the gifts. And I'll go quickly, and we'll be done.

Understanding tongues in Acts. So let's talk about this. For he who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God, for no one understands him.

However, in the Spirit, he speaks mysteries. Mystery, basically, biblically speaking, is mystery is something that God reveals that wasn't yet known. But he who prophesies speaks edification and exhortation and comfort to men.

For example, let's say on Sundays when I'm preaching, I'm prophesying to some degree. I'm exhorting. I've got a skeleton like Spurgeon had, but I don't know where these rabbit trails are gonna go.

I don't exactly know what I'm gonna say other than these points. And then you just get preaching and the Spirit of God begins to fill you and things come out based on Scripture. Scripture is your memorizing.

Things that God's put on your heart and you begin to preach. And that's for edification. But if I start speaking in some unknown language, like, oh, hmm, well, pastor must have had some Xanax.

But he who prophesies speaks. Now, many people think, you know, and when you hear somebody do it, it's actually beautiful, right? It's like you're praying, they're worshiping. But not everybody's there.

Not everybody's at that. It would confuse a lot of people, for sure. So he who prophesies speaks edification, but he who speaks in a tongue, check this out, check this out.

He who speaks in a tongue edifies himself. Edifies himself. But he who prophesies edifies the church.

I wish you all spoke in tongues. So is Paul saying this doesn't apply to us, though? I don't know how people go there. But even more that you prophesy, for he who prophesies is greater.

Again, not a greater person, but that gift is greater because it's more edifying to the body. It's for the whole body than he who speaks in a tongues. Unless, indeed, he interprets that the church may receive edification.

Because tongues is a form of worship and prayer, it's often visible right away. That's why in the book of Acts, I mean, we see in chapter 2, chapter 10, we're gonna see in chapter 19, as soon as they pray for them, the gift of tongues. Because you don't need to start giving gifts in word of knowledge, word of wisdom necessarily.

Tongues is just the outflow of what God was doing in the heart. It's a gift that God has given the person. It's a form of prayer and worship, and that's why it's visible right away.

He who speaks in a tongue edifies himself. First Corinthians, do we all have the gift of healing? Do we all have the ability to speak in an unknown language? No. Do we all have the ability to interpret this language? The Bible says, of course not.

So this is where the verse, because some Pentecostal churches will say, unless you speak in tongues, it's the evidence of being saved. Have you ever heard that? Boy, that's a hard one to prove. What do you do with Billy Graham, Dale Moody, and countless other people who are solid, who don't speak, I guess John MacArthur's not saved.

Right, of course, I mean, think this through. So this is the verse, though, that counteracts that. Do we all have the gift of healing? Do we all speak in tongues? Do we all do? No, these are different gifts that God gives people.

Now, I often wonder, I think more people could receive it if they desired it, because if you're like, nope, that's not for, I don't, nope, you're not gonna receive if you're closed off. Yes, you have to be open, say, Lord, whatever you wanna pour into me. Whatever you wanna pour into me.

Look at Paul again, First Corinthians. I think, my God, I speak with tongues more than you all, but in church, I would rather speak five words so I can teach others than 10,000 words in a tongue. And if I had time, we could teach on it, but that's why in a church, it says, do not speak in tongues.

Do not just get up and start speaking in tongues, because somebody who's uninformed's gonna come in, they're gonna think you're out of your mind. The Bible says that. Shane's not quenching the Spirit.

The Bible says it. We have to honor that. And then if you cross-reference, this is very interesting.

I think I'm gonna share this Sunday, actually, but I wanna share it with you tonight, and I'll wind down. I know I said that, I'm trying to get there. Acts 19, check this out.

And finding some disciples, he said to them, did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? And so they said, we have not so much heard if there is a Holy Spirit. And he said to them, and to what then were you baptized? So they said, into John's baptism. Then Paul said, John baptized with repentance, saying to the people that they need to believe on Jesus.

And so when they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and then Paul laid hands on them. Then the Holy Spirit came upon them. Well, that's a little confusing, isn't it? Were they disciples, or weren't they? And what did they do when they were filled with the Spirit? I know one, I remember one pastor, I showed him all these things in Acts.

He said, I didn't know what to do. He goes, well, the book of Acts is not for doctrinal education. It's just a history of the church.

We need to look at these books of the Bible. I'm like, if it happened there, it's probably good for us too, but because it's not a book of doctrine, right? A Pauline epistles, a book of teaching, it doesn't have any validity. So they spoke with tongues and prophesied, and there's about 12 of them.

So number one, they were either not saved because they didn't believe in Jesus, right? But why are they called disciples? Or number two, they were saved, but they had not yet received the fullness of the Spirit. Those are basically our two options, and you can choose one or two. John the Baptist was the last Old Testament prophet, so they were baptized by John the Baptist, and so if they had faith, just like the Old Testament saints had before Christ, it would be reckoned to them as righteousness.

Thank you, David Theis, for sending me that sentence. I asked him last week what his thoughts were on that. I think we're on the same page.

They call them disciples, so a lot of people argue and write books on this type of thing. All we know is they did not have the fullness of the Spirit yet. We know that for certain.

They did not receive the downpour of the Holy Spirit. So the question for us this evening is have you believed to receive? Have you believed to receive? Have you surrendered to be set free? Have you emptied yourself to be full? Have you yielded to be guided? Have you humbled yourself to be lifted? And are you thirsty to be satisfied with God? See, the measure of the fullness of the Spirit in your heart and your life is directly related to how much you surrender. Is it not? Very simple formula.

You surrender this much, you get this much. You surrender all, you surrender all. Watch out.

God will use you in profound and powerful ways. No, it doesn't mean life is easy. Sometimes it's very challenging.

But if you're thirsty for more of God, you will be satisfied in Him. You have to be thirsty. That's why I love Psalm 42.

As the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for you, oh God. If there is no thirst, that means there is no activity pursuing God. That's how you generate thirst, right? You're active, you're jogging, or whatever you're doing, you're thirsty, you're active.

Same thing, if there's no thirst for God, you've gotta get active in pursuing Him. You've gotta make it your life's purpose to get back into the Word of God and get away those things that are pulling you down, and that music, the friendships, the worldliness, the carnality, and say, God, I want more of you, and more of you, and more of you. And the more active you get, the more thirsty you become for who He is and what He has.

And then finally, I've quoted this a lot, but I want you to see it. Check this out. This is Jesus Christ.

On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out. Can you imagine this? He's probably up on some precipice or a mountain area, a little hill there, and it's the last day, there's lots of people there, and He cries out. He cries out, if anyone thirsts, if anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.

He who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart, out of his belly, out of his innermost being will flow rivers of living water. So all of you are gonna have to wrestle with this question tonight. Where's the living water? Do you truly have living water flowing out of you? I know sometimes it gets clogged up.

You gotta get the plunger. Me too. But true, shouldn't this be a mark of a Christian? There's the living water.

If there's living water, if you're stagnant, you're dry, you're dead. The Bible's boring. Guys, you gotta surrender.

You gotta recommit. You gotta return to your first love. Let those living waters flow freely again, and you'll cry out like Jesus.

Oh, my heart thirsts for the living God. My soul cries out for the one true and living God. I want, I desire that.

It's an incredible, that's why I love this topic just as much as any other topic in all of Christianity. This is the missing link. This is why some Christians are bored and dead to the things of God.

This is why they haven't led anybody to Christ. This is why they're always a negative Nelly or a critical Kathy. This is why they don't do much for God.

They're not involved in ministry, and they love pointing flaws out at you. They don't pray with people. They've never seen miraculous nothing.

They're dead to the things of God because there's no rivers of living water flowing out of them. Do you know how much division the church would evaporate if we could all come in filled with the Spirit? There wouldn't be any division. The enemy couldn't do much.

I know she didn't mean that. We're just gonna, I love her. And you're just talking, encouraging things.

You're not gossiping. You're not slandering. That's okay, I'm just gonna err on the side of grace.

That's okay. And you're just full of the Spirit of God. There's no division.

Division comes when the carnality takes over. Because if you're divided with people, the Holy Spirit's not divided. Correct? The Holy Spirit in me and the Holy Spirit in you is not divided.

I can be wrong, you can be right, or vice versa. But there's a, and I've seen it over the years. I mean, you take like a rent-in-heaven service.

Man, there's no division in that. I mean, it just feels like the Spirit is just leading people and just incredible. Because why? They've all been hungry all week for more of God.

They're gonna come to church on a Monday night? On a Tuesday and get excited about worship? On a Thursday? And guys, I'm not trying to knock it. I'm just telling you the truth. The people that come to church once a month, maybe twice when they can, there's no spiritual life.

There's no spiritual life. They're not in the Word and they're not worshiping. They're not excited about their spiritual walk with the Lord.

That's just the truth. I'm just telling you the truth. Because I've been there.

And I can go right back there too real quick. Well, how can a pastor go right back there? Just like everybody else. You don't walk in the Spirit.

You walk in the flesh. And that flesh will beat you up. All right, I'm done.

We're gonna have the worship team come up. And we're gonna go into worship for just a bit. Spirit, fall afresh on me.

Would be a great song I think they're gonna do. But guys, I hope you realize the importance of this topic. This is not just getting head knowledge.

This is not head knowledge about Leviticus and Deuteronomy and Joshua and Judges and Exodus and learning the kings and the Jeroboam, the Rehoboams and the Jerusalem and the gates and this is all, that's all good. But we need more than anything, the Spirit to infuse our hearts. Because what I didn't quite get to yet, maybe it's in the other part of this, is the biggest thing that happens from all that is a heart of love and compassion and tenderness and meekness and gentleness.

And isn't that what we need? Just ask your kids if you need more of that. Ask your spouse. But that's the outflows, love.

Love flows out and then of course boldness and holy living. This is the Christian faith without really the Holy Spirit is not the Christian faith. So when people look at you and like, oh, they're extreme, they're a Jesus freak, oh my goodness, they're a holy roller, they're wow, they really are a God worshiper.

That's actually what the Bible says. They're the one that's odd, not you. Did you know that? When you have a passion, a fire for God and others don't, they're the odd one according to the Bible.

They're the one, oh, that looks weird, that's extreme. And then that dude, I've heard, man, that church, you guys are extreme. Shane Idol, that dude is extreme.

Well, based on the Bible, no, it's not. That's average historical biblical Christianity. The problem is you're lukewarm and carnal.

And of course, a church on fire seems extreme. So guys, we need to get on our face before God more and just ask Him to fall afresh on our hearts, on our lives. Parents, this is why it's so important.

When He falls afresh on you, when He begins to work in you, you begin to, that begins to go into your family, spouses, men, you've gotta lead the way. You've gotta lead the way, men. Why do we hardly have any men in the prayer meetings? Most of the time, is it men at the altar? I don't know.

Is it men leading worship in their homes? Saying, turn that garbage off, YouTube. We're just gonna get worship on. Men, you have to lead.

You have to lead and let them follow.