Do not be children

Good morning and a blessed new year to you. Before we step into the passage, just a couple of things. One is we have a handout, guess where, on the cabinet to the right as you exit this room, that has chapters 12 and 13 as expanded and explained. For those of you who may not know what that means, what we typically do as we go through these New Testament books is to kind of have a version that uses some additional words. In some cases, it's even more than the usual lengthy sentence in order to further explain the passage. And we'll continue to do that. And anyway, so chapters 12 and 13 are out there, and we'll continue to follow along with that.

The other thing, it's just a kind of a humorous thing I took note of, we were going through that one song, you know, there to my heart was the blood of Clyde. And you know how kids are, how they understand things a little differently? My mom has a story where she said when she was a kid, she'd heard that song and she thought it said, there to my heart was the blood of Clyde. I don't know who Clyde is, but.

So as we step into the passage, I want to tell you that the end is near. And so as we come to the 14th chapter, we're finishing the end of a section, chapters 12-14, that have been talking about spiritual gifts. Sandwiched in the middle of that very intentionally is chapter 13. which is often called the love chapter. And yes, it does have application in lots of areas. Often times read it at weddings and things of that sort. The truth is though that the passage addresses spiritual gifts, both in the chapters each side of it, as well as the content of the passage itself. So here we come to the end of chapter 14, the end of this section on spiritual gifts. So this is the end, almost.

Paul's been telling the believers at this church here at Corinth about the spiritual gifts that the Holy Spirit gives graciously. There is no earning them. At least one to each believer. Every single believer here this morning has at least one spiritual gift. It is the Holy Spirit's doing entirely by grace. It isn't something that gives us some special value. It isn't something that puts one at some better place than another, but they're given graciously as the Holy Spirit wills.

Chapter 13, he told them two primary things about love. The first part, the first seven verses, talks about the need and the nature of love, and particularly verses 8 through 13 of chapter 13 talk about the enduring nature of love. between all the gifts which will eventually pass away, all of the spiritual gifts will eventually pass away, and between faith, hope, and love, even those things. And by the way, you're saved by faith, so that makes it important.

Faith and hope will one day pass away. Why? Because they will be fulfilled. We cannot hope for that which has already happened, right? I don't hope someday to be married to Nancy. Well, at least I hope not. Why? Because we've been married. It's been fulfilled. And Paul spells that out here. Faith, hope, and love. The greatest of these is love. Why? It is enduring forever. And why that? Because it is of God's own character. That's why the New Testament tells us explicitly God is love. It is part of who He is. Which is why love endures forever.

Chapter 14, he began by giving them guidance on the gifts of tongues and prophecy particularly. Those two, he continues that into the passage, the last half of chapter 14 that we're looking at here today. Those gifts were gifts that were given temporarily for the New Testament era church and gifts that ended by the time that John, the last apostle, went home to be with the Lord, or before. So, what's Paul been saying?

He says in this chapter, the use of the spiritual gifts in the church ought to be, and we spelled out these things last week, expressed such that there is a building up of the body of Christ. It is in a living out of the life of Christ between one another such that there is a building up of the body of Christ. Other believers are strengthened, encouraged, taught, and grown by the exercise of these gifts among us.

Secondly, those speaking do so to convey understanding to the ones hearing. We joked last week about if I come up to you and say, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, that doesn't particularly help you, right? Okay, I assume you agree. It is to convey understanding to the ones who are hearing, and he emphasizes that is very important here.

The third thing is that the gathering of believers has order, and that's something he's going to bring into focus in today's passage. The gathering of the believers is to be orderly. There is to be, not necessarily some sort of a rigid ritual, but there is to be orderliness in the sense that it doesn't look like sheer mayhem. Everybody isn't talking or exercising one gift out in the open all at once.

Along with that, and we saw at the end of last week's passage, Paul has also emphasized the use of one's mind. We saw that last week, and the way we did it was this. We said there's been, and this has been true throughout church history, there's been a tendency towards this pendulum swing. On the one hand, swing to spiritual data storage and analysis. This has been particularly the emphasis of seminaries and Bible college.

Pack your head. Stuff your cranium. It doesn't matter how much you grow, you need to know it for the test. You need to have it down in the paper. And some churches can get that way too, where it's just simply a matter of stuffing your head full of spiritual information. You become little more than a spiritual hard drive.

The other extreme is to say, oh, let's just scoop away and sweep away the content and we'll just sit there and have some sort of meditation. And the tendency is to go towards some kind of mysticism. I kind of tend to term it Christian Buddhism. Still others try to balance out the two by grabbing the extremes but not understanding what is supposed to be the case.

This is something very common in today's Christian colleges and seminaries. Colleges and seminaries that might have been very good places to go some years back. But a great many of them. Everywhere from here in Colorado to both coasts to the southern to the northern part of the United States to on up into Canada have been swept into this mysticism.

Some of the terms you'll hear is spiritual formation. Notice the term spiritual growth and spiritual maturity has been replaced by spiritual formation. If you google spiritual formation and Buddhism you will find many hits. Christianity is gravitating towards Buddhism in many of these so-called Christian schools. It's also happening in a great number of churches. The reality is we are to use the mind not simply as a place to park information. God intends that we use the mind so that we behold the Lord through his word.

It is by that that we are transformed. No empty, I'll use that word, empty, no empty spiritual contemplation will transform you. It is beholding the Lord through his word, using the mind, but that's not where it stops. That transforms us. Remember the two processes that we are in process of. One, we're being conformed by the circumstances, Romans 8. We're being transformed as we behold the Lord through his word. We must use the mind.

That's the reason the New Testament was written. Now, so verses 12 through 40 in summary contain Paul's insight into God's intended audience for the gifts of tongues and of prophecy. He is giving them insight and understanding as to how are these to be used. Followed by some specifics on how things are to be done in the church. He gives particulars here. on how it's supposed to be done. He also, in this passage, calls them again, and as we'll see it's a repeated thing, to recognize His words as God's words. What I'm writing to you is God's own message. What I'm writing to you is God's commandment.

He started off in 1 Corinthians 4.1. Let a man regard us in this manner, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Mysteries is not something that remains mysterious, but something that is a truth now revealed, previously unknown.

Now, the one thing that he does in this chapter as well, is he reaches out with his words and embraces them. He says, my beloved. He tells them, you are my beloved. He tells them he loves them. And we've given some of the passages here, and it's also on your handout. But there's actually even more where he tells them he loves them. He is saying these things not to put some kind of constraints on them. Not to say, I'm Paul and I'm really uptight. But I, Paul, love you. You are my beloved. That's why he's writing these things. He loves these people. First thing, in verse 20, I think this is a really cool verse. Basically, the message is there, be growing up. Verse 1 might sound like he's asking for instant maturity. Be mature!

But, Paul chose his words carefully, and he was inspired by the Holy Spirit, and very interestingly, when we look carefully at the words that he has, The words that he has chosen, he actually wrote very deliberately some words in there that says, brethren, do not be becoming children. It's not a question of being instantly mature. He's not saying, you know, you guys are acting like children. I want you to be mature by day's end. No. He says, what process are you headed towards? He says, be maturing. Brethren, do not be becoming children in your thinking. Oh, certainly, with evil, be infants. I don't want you to go down that path. That's not going to grow you up. But in your thinking, be becoming mature. Be growing up.

And this is consistent with the rest of the message of not only Paul, but the rest of the apostles. Right? But grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Peter. Right? Long for the pure milk of the word, that by it you may grow." Which, by the way, requires the mind.

This is the message of the apostles. This is what Paul wrote. This is what Jesus talked about. This is what Peter talked about. Spiritual growth. The author of Hebrews speaks about it as well. This is a consistent teaching. Be growing, is the message here. Paul is presenting here a spiritual principle. It has many applications. Obviously, he's wanting them to apply it with regards to their living and loving among each other. But this is a general principle. Be growing up. Be maturing. And this also goes along with that principle.

We grow out of our problems as we grow up into Christ. Nancy and I have been blessed with the privilege of counseling in many cases. And one of the pieces of good news that we have for people, if you've got problems, you're probably not going to be done with your problem by sunset today.

Probably not. Some of them are pretty snarled and gnarly. If you've got problems, join the crowd. How is the Lord going to deal with your problem? By taking all the difficult circumstances away? Not likely. Not likely. What is He going to do? You are going to grow out of the problem. That's how it's going to happen. Spiritual growth is indeed the answer to what you're dealing with. You're struggling with something? God's intent is not to simply take the problem away like that. God's intent is that we grow out of the problem. Spiritual growth. It's Paul's message. It's Peter's message. It's the message of Christ. It's the message of the author of Hebrews. It's John's message.

Growing out of our problems is the way to grow. Paul says, set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on the earth. That's a growing principle, isn't it? The believers in Corinth had a boatload of problems. After the first nine verses, where Paul kind of says, hi, I'm me, you're you, you know, those kinds of things. And he did have some significant things to say. He started off on the problems, verse 10 of chapter 1.

So you guys are all split up and going different directions. I urge that you say the same thing and be of the same mind and the same judgment. They had, in many cases, been taking the evil path towards solving them. Now, interesting, evil isn't always something that appears overtly to be wicked. The evil in this case was they were saying, oh, I want a spiritual gift that's going to make me look better. I want a spiritual gift that's going to be prominent and put me as the focus of attention. I want to have a spiritual gift that's going to give me all sorts of social support and really put me on top of the heap.

That was evil enough. The truth is, it kept making them more immature, and the truth is, it created more problems. Paul saw that their only path out of the problems, and oh did they have a lot of them. We have 1st and 2nd Corinthians. By the way, the evidence from inside those letters is that there were at least four letters. One, two, three, four. So we have probably the second and the fourth letter.

Paul saw that their only path out of the problem was for them to grow out of the problems, not just to grow, but to grow up into Christ. Into Christ. It's growing up, not just out of the problem, but into Him. Into Him. and it explicitly involves as an essential, not an optional, as an essential item, God's Word. One of the things he spells out in the next couple of verses, 21 through 22, tongues is assigned primarily for Israel and the unbelievers.

We have here a timeline. It's not included in your handout, but it was included in the supplement that we made available. Kind of the timeline going back to the time of Moses and when the Jews were told that they would have, for their unbelief, a warning sign of foreign languages. And that continues into Paul's quote in 1 Corinthians here. Paul quoted, and actually in kind of a paraphrase, Isaiah 28 and 11, to say that the gift of tongues was intended to have unbelievers as a primary target, especially as a warning to Israel. Deuteronomy 28, 49 and Jeremiah 5, 15.

You can look those up if you like. Also give that same warning. In contrast, the gift of prophecy allowed them to speak directly. It was an interim gift because they had not but a small part of the New Testament. But they were allowed through the gift of prophecy to speak directly to the other believers so that the believers would be built up. He was saying, certainly the gift of prophecy is one that ought to be exercised there, because the New Testament letters have not been entirely written, nor distributed, nor gathered. For the last 1900 years, we haven't had that. But they were given to edify, to build up the body, to exhort and to comfort. And guess what? That's what the Word of God does as it's spoken and exercised among us now. Now, here's the one time when we care what unbelievers think. I say that somewhat with a wink.

Because in verses 23 through 25, he talks about if an unbeliever should come among you. And he has just said that tongues was primarily assigned for unbelievers, but even in a church context, as Paul puts it, tongues is not likely to have a biblically-based appeal to them. Why? What happens is someone says something unintelligible, and then someone must come up with an interpretation. It's rather indirect. Is it appropriate for the time it was? However, it was an inefficient use of time. You didn't understand what the person said until the interpretation came.

Acts chapter 2, the first use of tongues in a church age context, was for evangelism of unbelieving Jews. It was used as these people who are the first people of the church to gather. It was used there in a church context 3,000 were saved that day. It was primarily a ministry to the unbelievers. In that case, unbelieving Jews were the ones who were saved.

Paul isn't saying you shouldn't have tongues, but it is a question of what's the right tool. Just as we would not use a saw to cut up the pizza. Tongues, he was saying, is just not the most efficient and effective tool for building up the body of Christ. Does it have a place? Yes, it does, within certain constraints. But it's just not the best choice of tools. Just like a saw wouldn't be your best choice for cutting up a pizza. So Paul's instruction and guidance on the use of tongues was like selecting the right tool for the job.

Prophecy, on the other hand, or in our own day, direct communication based upon God's word, It's far more likely, Paul spells out in these verses, to have a biblically-based appeal to the unbelievers who might come among us. And that's the next point. If unbelievers come among us as we meet, that's the context in which he writes it. So it answers briefly the question, should we do as some churches have done and simply disband the gathering of the church here and say, instead, let's make everything to get the unbelievers in. Should we do that?

That's what's called the seeker-sensitive approach. Many churches have gone to it. When Nancy and I were in Carson City, there was a seeker-sensitive church that went and planted itself just south of Carson City. It attracted unbelievers by having things like raffles for a stereo system, things like that.

But here he puts it, if unbelievers come among us as we meet. If the unbelievers come among us. We're meeting, we're gathering as the church, doing things that edify other believers. He asks the question, as that happens, if unbelievers come among us. So that gives you the answer, what is the intended gathering here of the church, it is the church gathering with the incidental that unbelievers come among us. Do we ask the question, what's the impact on those unbelievers?

Yes, we do. But primarily, it's us believers gathering together. Now, verse 26, when you assemble, each one has, and what he's doing here, he's giving kind of an assortment of the kinds of things that may, in fact, have a place. He says each one has a psalm. A psalm is one kind of Christian music.

And Ephesians 5.19 and Colossians 3.16, we talked about that several years ago, spell out psalms and hymns and spiritual songs as the three kinds of Christian music.

Now, I've done something on your handout which I prefer never to do. But I'm going to have you go from the last slide of page 1 to the first slide of page 2, and then go back. So don't get confused when you flip the paper over. And flip the paper over, not yourself.

So Ephesians 5.19, Colossians 3.16 spell out three varieties of Christian music. What Paul has done here in the 1 Corinthians 14 is just, since he's giving a sampling, he doesn't list all the gifts. He doesn't list everything that might go on.

Those spell out that there might be psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. And we wanted to say what those are because our cultural understanding of what each of those words means may be different than what he intended. Psalms is from psalmos. It is often used in reference to the psalms, but typically it's songs about God. Not spoken to God, but about God. That's part one. Hymns, hymnos, refers to songs which are sung directly to God. So that's the difference between the two. And spiritual songs, odais, we have our word odes, songs which are spiritual in content.

It might talk about you know, things that we struggle with. It might talk about things that we're learning to do. So those aren't directly to God, and it's not explicitly about God, but those are spiritual songs. The truth is, and I've drawn these diagrams, you might have overlaps.

I might switch between a song that praises God and then talks about my walk as a Christian. I might have a song that is talking about God and then switch to praising Him. So I may in fact have songs that are a mixture of that. By the way, have you ever had anybody tell you you're not supposed to have any instruments in the Christian worship? There are people who teach that. You're not supposed to have any of that, particularly in popular in about half the Church of Christ. churches where they teach, you know, no instruments, can't have that.

Well, this word for psalms is related to the word solo. which is used in Ephesians 5.19, says, making melody. It means to pluck, as in the instruments. And this harp, a cathara in the Greek, was commonly used, especially in the temple there in Jerusalem.

So anyone says, no musical instruments, you got to ignore this fact here. Now, the last thing he does after teaching, which is a gift that we have now in our time, He gives revelation of tongue, and notice he gives less tongue, but along with that interpretation. He pairs those up. He says if you don't have an interpretation, you shouldn't be having tongues in the church.

The church meetings they had then were to have musical worship of some kind, and yes instruments are allowed, not required, but allowed, and some temporary gifts to supply what we now have from the New Testament. We now have both the Old and New Testaments completed And so what he was listing is something, because their teaching could only be from the Old Testament, right? And in very few New Testament books, something to take the place of the New Testament books until they're completed and written and gathered. Now, what he spells out in verse 27-33, rather than open pandemonium, Paul said that when the church met, only two or three would exercise these gifts in one meeting, just one at a time and with understanding. Okay, so get this, even at the time when the gifts were valid, two, or at most three, okay, two or three, one at a time, not all at once, and with understanding.

I mentioned before that my grandparents were both Assembly of God ministers, so that's something I was quite exposed to. I remember going to stay with my cousin one time, and he said, hey, why don't you come to church with us? I said, okay. So anyway, I go to this church gathering, and all of a sudden, everybody in the whole place is speaking in what they call tongues. Couldn't understand a word. It was open pandemonium. It was nuts. And what was really nuts was the gal laying up on the stage with her legs up in the air while she had a dress on. This was really nuts. That is not what's intended.

Two, or at the most three, with understanding. That's the point. Even then, If you read the passage there, the believers present were to discern if what was said by those with these temporary gifts was what was consistent with what was already written and clearly inspired. Due as Acts 1711, the Bereans were more noble. Why?

They checked everything against the Word of God. And the believers, even when these gifts were present, were still to check everything against the Word of God. Remember, we just went through Christmas time, and when the wise men came to Herod, they said, where is Jesus?

Where is this King of the Jews to be born? It said Bethlehem, Micah 5.2.

That's where he's to be born. So in the century right after the New Testament, a fellow by the name of Montanus comes up and claims to exercise the gift of prophecy. He says, Jesus is coming back to where? To use a modern term, Western Turkey. Is that where the Bible says that Jesus is coming back? No. He's coming back to Israel. His feet will land, Zechariah 14, on the Mount of Olives, which matches exactly what was said in Acts chapter 1. Right? This is where the disciples see Jesus go up, and the angels tell him right there, way that you've seen him go up, he's going to come back in the same way, and in the same place.

Not Western Turkey. Therefore, Montanus, who claimed to have the gift of prophecy, was wrong. And the Christians at that time called him a heretic, as they should. All of us are to be biblically discerning. That's the other thing about the passage. It is not simply the elders who are to be biblically discerning. It's not simply the elders and deacons who are to be biblically discerning.

The way Paul writes that is everybody checks. Which is why, now that it's a new year, guess what? I get to tell you, because the clock starts over again, don't believe anything I tell you. Don't believe anything I tell you. Now I've used up one time, later this year I can say it again. Don't believe anything I tell you. Check everything that gets God's Word. Be discerning, every single one of you. Don't say, well, fair and sad. Bah humbug! Don't believe anything I tell you. Check it. Now, I've used it my times.

The use of the gifts is not a matter of letting loose of one's self-control. That's in verse 32 and 33. It makes the point. It's not a matter of let go, let God. It is not a matter of letting loose of one's control and whatever feelings come upon you, let those have it.

But it is self-control. I don't mean sin nature control. I don't mean selfish control. But it is a matter of control that is part of the fruit of the Holy Spirit. The person who walks by the Spirit will be self-controlled. This gift of prophecy was not something that came over a person, as happened in the pagan religions, and just made them blather out whatever they thought they were supposed to say. It is indeed under the control of the person. You don't have to have two or three or four or everybody standing up and exercising the gift all at once. It is indeed something that, as he says, the spirits of the prophets, have control over the exercise of the gift. Exercising the gift is not a matter of letting everything go. Now, here's one other point. I'm going to take what seems like a rabbit trail, but I think it's an important one.

When Paul says that God is not the author of confusion, he is not referring to confusion inside here. It's not mental confusion. That word means more chaos and external chaos and mayhem. Outrageous behavior outside of our bodies. It's not mental confusion. That's what was happening with the saints in Corinth. You go into the church and it was pandemonium. It's the chaos that he was saying shouldn't break loose. No biblical doctrine is to be set aside because someone says it's confusing.

The reason I bring this up with you, there are some guys who come to your door. They always come at an inconvenient moment, I guarantee it. They come often two by two, not always, often two by two, and they have magazines that are titled Watchtower or Awake. Those people will have this teaching.

As a matter of fact, here was a book, the cover of which is shown here, Should You Believe in the Trinity? They printed that about 20 years ago, and they quote from it from time to time. And one of the things that they use as an argument against the idea that Jesus is deity and the Holy Spirit is deity, because they say God the Father is deity, Christ was a created being, Michael the Archangel, and the Holy Spirit is simply an impersonal force. They say that the Trinity can't be because it's confusing. Well, first of all, God has blinded the minds of, excuse me, this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers. So of course they don't understand it. If they find it confusing, it's because they don't believe.

But, here is the literal meaning of 1 Corinthians 14.33. God is not a source of external confusion, mayhem out here, not in here, but in sharp contrast of peace as a matter of character as in all the churches of the saints.

Now, so take the piece of paper that you have that's a handout there. It is bulletproof. When the guys come to your door with bullets, hold this paper up. Take the paper out and refer to them. Tell them this is not about mental confusion. What they have told you from the Watchtower headquarters is wrong.

That's not what the Bible is saying here because they'll use it as a proof text. First, the word not is actually the first word in the Greek sentence. Why do I tell you that? Because they didn't have underlining and italics and bolding like we do. And they couldn't undo it with an icon click either. But what they did have was they would pull the emphasize word first.

So it's not. for that God is a source of external confusion. Second thing, see how the same Greek word is used for external confusion, conflict, agitation, mayhem, and tumult. And here are the other passages where that word is used. Look them up. You can check it out yourself.

In no case does it mean mental confusion. Now, the next passage, 34 and 35. So how are the women to learn? So, in this, is Paul saying that all the women must keep absolute silence in all church meetings, always. Is that what he's saying? Zip it up. I would suggest to you, this is not what Paul is saying in context. And here's why.

He is addressing the situation where a wife might call into question her own husband's prophecy. One of the reasons why I say in context that it's not what Paul is saying in chapter 11, verses 5 and 6. Chapter 11, verses 5 and 6, he talked about women praying and prophesying in the church meeting. So he is not saying all women all the time have to be absolutely quiet.

But he is looking at a circumstance where there might be a wife questioning her own husband's prophecy there in the church meeting. That's a problem, okay? There's one other thing, and that's that the word that is translated, speak, can in some context mean blabber. Yapping in church, right? And so he's looking at that.

Paul's instruction has to do with, what did he emphasize? Order. Not putting a gag in all the women's mouths. Order. That's the point. Women have no biblical limitation into how much they may learn. That's something very interesting. Some make note of the limitation of a woman's life and behavior, and certainly scripture has some things in place to avoid problems in that area. The fact is, the New Testament underscores the learning of women in the body. That's right. Underscores the learning of women in the body. This is one of those passages that says, let a woman learn Remember I said let doesn't mean allow anywhere from the book of Acts on to the end of the New Testament. It's she must learn. She must learn.

And that same thing is said in 1 Timothy 2.11. She must learn.

We have other passages right in earlier in that chapter, 1 Corinthians 14, Ephesians 4.20, Philippians 4.9. It says all learn. Okay?

So if anything, the Bible underscores the learning of the women. Women, it is not God's intent that you be ignorant. As a matter of fact, it is emphasized that you learn these spiritual truths. Not to pack your head, not just to know a lot of stuff, but that you might behold the Lord through His Word and therefore be transformed miraculously by the Holy Spirit. So by all means, ladies, learn. Biblical learning, Paul underscores, is to have biblical expression. It's not supposed to be packed into your head and stay there. The other point that Paul makes, principles and practices for all the churches in Paul's words are from God himself.

He kept reminding them that they were not the only church And interestingly, he keeps saying that. I have yet to find any church that he had to tell this as many times. Here's 1 Corinthians. He gets into 2 Corinthians, which, as we said, was probably the fourth letter to the Corinthians. And he says it several times again. It is amazing how many times he had to tell them, you are not the only church. You're not the only church in the world.

The other thing he kept telling them was he was writing God-inspired and fully authoritative words. Several times throughout this book, and on into 2 Corinthians several times, he tells them, I am writing to you inspired scripture. What I am writing to you is God's word. God wants me to say this to you.

He's emphatic. Finally, in his summary, my brother, He says, desire earnestly to prophesy, which, as we pointed out several weeks ago, may actually be a statement of what they are doing rather than a command. But along with that, the temporary gift of tongues, though it was to be exercised only within the principles he just laid out, was also not to be totally forbidden. Why did he make this point? It turns out that as you study 1st and 2nd Corinthians, there was at least a group of them, when there was any problem, their answer was to make an absolute prohibition.

Example, 1st Corinthians 7.1. Do we have a problem with immorality in Corinth?

Of course! So what's the solution? A man's never to touch a woman, right? Even if you're married. That was their solution. Whoa, wait a minute, okay? Absolute prohibition? That's not going to fix it. What you need to understand is, what are the biblical principles here? Let's make up some laws. And of course, I have a little bit of a problem with this. Nancy tells me that over the years she's noticed a pattern.

If she says, can I have the window down a crack? Guess how far it goes. All the way down. How about if we put the window up? All the way up. And so I have a tendency this way. But somebody there in Corinth, some group probably, said, Oh, have you got a problem? Let's just go all the way with it. We have a problem with tongues? We'll fix it. We'll just say absolutely nobody can do it here. That's not the fix.

What Paul started with was what they needed to keep on hearing. Grace to you and peace. From God our Father and Lord Jesus Christ, I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God which was given to you. In everything, in all speech and knowledge, you were enriched even as the testimony concerning Christ was confirmed in you so that you were not lacking in any gift. They had everything they needed. You don't need to go clamoring for this one or that. Do you know the Lord has provided all that we need here in this body?

Oh, not because any of us are all that great. We're not. But He is. None of us is adequate for the ministry that God has called us to. But He is. He is completely sufficient. He is adequate. He is our life. Let's pray. Lord, as we look at this passage, we thank you for your sufficiency, for your adequacy. Thank you for what you've laid out here. Because you, as Paul expressed, love us so very much. We thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.