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Harvest Bible Chapel Pittsburgh North Sermons - Harvest Bible Chapel Pittsburgh North

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June 28, 2026

What About Speaking in Tongues? - Part 2

<img data-load="false" data-mode="cover" data-image-focal-point="0.5,0.5" src="https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/562af9b0e4b0b7066cf407f8/1759094520535-1WFOB6XYZ58VGB1MZCB0/1+Corinthians+copy.png?format=1000w" /> <h4>Introduction:</h4> <figure class=" sqs-block-image-figure intrinsic " > <img data-stretch="false" data-image="https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/562af9b0e4b0b7066cf407f8/6d390cc5-49cf-4287-8ec5-d9245cd18b38/2025-OCT-TheChurchUnifiedAndPurified_Podcast1400sq.jpg" data-image-dimensions="1400x1400" data-image-focal-point="0.5,0.5" alt="" data-load="false" elementtiming="system-image-block" data-sqsp-image-classic-block-image src="https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/562af9b0e4b0b7066cf407f8/6d390cc5-49cf-4287-8ec5-d9245cd18b38/2025-OCT-TheChurchUnifiedAndPurified_Podcast1400sq.jpg?format=1000w" width="1400" height="1400" sizes="(max-width: 640px) 100vw, (max-width: 767px) 50vw, 50vw" onload="this.classList.add("loaded")" srcset="https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/562af9b0e4b0b7066cf407f8/6d390cc5-49cf-4287-8ec5-d9245cd18b38/2025-OCT-TheChurchUnifiedAndPurified_Podcast1400sq.jpg?format=100w 100w, https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/562af9b0e4b0b7066cf407f8/6d390cc5-49cf-4287-8ec5-d9245cd18b38/2025-OCT-TheChurchUnifiedAndPurified_Podcast1400sq.jpg?format=300w 300w, https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/562af9b0e4b0b7066cf407f8/6d390cc5-49cf-4287-8ec5-d9245cd18b38/2025-OCT-TheChurchUnifiedAndPurified_Podcast1400sq.jpg?format=500w 500w, https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/562af9b0e4b0b7066cf407f8/6d390cc5-49cf-4287-8ec5-d9245cd18b38/2025-OCT-TheChurchUnifiedAndPurified_Podcast1400sq.jpg?format=750w 750w, https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/562af9b0e4b0b7066cf407f8/6d390cc5-49cf-4287-8ec5-d9245cd18b38/2025-OCT-TheChurchUnifiedAndPurified_Podcast1400sq.jpg?format=1000w 1000w, https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/562af9b0e4b0b7066cf407f8/6d390cc5-49cf-4287-8ec5-d9245cd18b38/2025-OCT-TheChurchUnifiedAndPurified_Podcast1400sq.jpg?format=1500w 1500w, https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/562af9b0e4b0b7066cf407f8/6d390cc5-49cf-4287-8ec5-d9245cd18b38/2025-OCT-TheChurchUnifiedAndPurified_Podcast1400sq.jpg?format=2500w 2500w" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-loader="sqs"> </figure> <h4>Tongues and Prophecy: Remember Their Purposes. (1 Corinthians 14:20-25)</h4> <ol> <li> The Purpose of Tongues: Sign of JUDGMENT for ISRAEL. (1 Cor 14:20-23) Deuteronomy 28:49 - The LORD will bring a nation against you from far away, from the end of the earth, swooping down like the eagle, a nation whose language you do not understand... Jeremiah 5:15 - Behold, I am bringing against you a nation from afar, O house of Israel, declares the LORD. It is an enduring nation; it is an ancient nation, a nation whose language you do not know, nor can you understand what they say. </li> <li> The Purpose of Prophecy: MANIFEST God's PRESENCE. (1 Cor 14:24-25) </li> </ol> Sermon Notes (PDF): <a href="https://www.harvestpittsburghnorth.org/s/2026-06-28-ChurchUnifiedAndPurified-QnA-WhatAboutSpeakingInTongues-Part2-BLANK.pdf" target="_blank">BLANK</a> Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers! Questions and Answers: What About Speaking In Tongues? - Part 2 Jeff Miller <a href="https://media.blubrry.com/harvestpittsburgh/static1.squarespace.com/static/562af9b0e4b0b7066cf407f8/t/6a4176138a01eb768a7d2c22/1782674969348/0787+-+2026-06-28+Church+-+Unified+and+Purified+-+QnA+-+Wha" download="Questions and Answers: What About Speaking In Tongues? - Part 2" class="download" target="_blank">Download</a> <ul data-should-allow-multiple-open-items="false" data-accordion-icon-placement="right" data-is-last-divider-visible="true" data-is-expanded-first-item="false" data-is-divider-enabled="true" data-accordion-title-alignment="left" class="accordion-items-container" data-is-first-divider-visible="true" data-accordion-description-alignment="left" data-accordion-description-placement="left" > <li class="accordion-item" > <h3 class=" accordion-item__title-wrapper " data-sqsp-accordion-block-item-title > <button id="button-e8b05377d5957235e2cc-1" class="accordion-item__click-target" aria-expanded="false" aria-controls="dropdown-e8b05377d5957235e2cc-1" > Audio Transcript </button> </h3> 00:36Open up those Bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter 14. Do you remember when we got all that snow a few months ago? You remember that? How cold it was? You remember that? Think about that when we feel a little stuffy this morning. Stuffy, that's the counterpart of chili, right?01:0614. Please take a moment and pray for me to clearly communicate God's Word accurately and clearly. And I will pray for you to receive what it is the Lord wants to teach us in His Word today. Let's pray. Father, I pray that Your Word, as our Lord taught, it's like that seed, Father. I just pray that it takes root in our hearts and reproduces in a way that glorifies your name and a way that advances your kingdom. Father, keep us from any distractions, especially over these next few minutes. Father, let our hearts and minds be laser-focused on you and your word. We pray in Jesus' name.02:06And all of God's people said, Amen. 1 Corinthians 14. Recently, at youth group, we had our breakout time with the kids and we were praying. And one young man in our group, in his prayer, was praying for Pastor Taylor and Pastor Chris. Let's stop there for a second.02:360% bothered by that at all. Right? Because there is nobody that mixes up names more than I do. And I thought, I don't know who Pastor Chris is, but maybe he needs prayer more than I do right now. I don't know. But great kid, just wrong name, right? So he's praying. I want to pray for Pastor Taylor and Pastor Chris. And right then in that moment, another young man in the youth group, hollers, it's not his name!03:11I laughed about that for three days.03:13It was like the ultimate shot block, right?03:17It was like, Pastor Chris, it's not his name!03:20Knocked into my house, right?03:26Like, I could have just let it slide.03:32But there was somebody in our group that absolutely was not going to let that slide. Why am I telling you that story? Because when we approach the subject of speaking in tongues, it is easy for us and it is easy for me to sort of adopt the attitude that I had during that youth group prayer. To be like, well, you know what? People believe different things about speaking in tongues and some people may Maybe have this private gibberish prayer language. Whatever. I can just let it slide. And I've got to tell you, through the study of God's Word, especially the last month, God's Word has sort of been like that other kid that was shot blocking to say, that's not what it's for. Speaking in tongues, right? Gibberish before God, right? That's not what it's for. So truth does matter.04:33And let's let the word of God block the shot on any lies. Right? People are all over the board. We talk about speaking in tongues. People are all over the board on the topic. One of the biggest churches in the area. It is a regular practice. Speaking in tongues.05:03What does the Bible say about it? Well, we've been talking about it a lot as we've been going through these chapters in 1 Corinthians. Speaking in tongues, there's a biblical gift. There's a spiritual gift. And speaking in tongues is speaking in a real language that you never learned. Right? We learned that from Acts chapter 2, Pentecost. People were speaking in languages they never learned. People were hearing in their own language.05:35It would be as if I got up this morning, I never studied Mandarin, but I got up and I just started supernaturally. I had the ability to speak Mandarin. That's what speaking in tongues was for, speaking a known language. We're going to cover that today. But the question, before we get to the purpose of the spiritual gift, I think we have to ask, well, you know, this, gibberish thing where people, you know, either in church or in their private prayer language and they just sort of let loose with a, it's not a known language, it's just like gibberish and a bunch of ecstatic speech. Like, what's the purpose of that? And if you ask somebody that believes in the gibberish prayer language, speaking in tongues, if you ask them, like, what's the purpose?06:34you'll hear things like, well, it's for prayer. It's for prayer. That's just not taught in the Bible. Not by direct instruction and not by example. You just don't see that. Some people say, well, no, it's like this highly exalted form of praise. Well, if that's true, then why does he tell us that tongues will cease? If it's such a great way to praise God, why would he put an end to it?07:03But some people say, no, no, no. Speaking in tongues is about evangelism, right? It's not. Like, later, check this out, Acts chapter 2. Was tongues for evangelism? No. Acts chapter 2 tells you what the people said and what was heard in tongues. What were they talking about? What was the message being communicated? Acts 2.11 tells us they were declaring the mighty works of God.07:33about the things that God did in the Old Testament. That's what they spoke. That was what the languages were communicating. What God had done during Old Testament times. And you see, that caught the attention of the Jews. But when it comes to evangelism, Peter got up, Acts chapter 2, he didn't preach in tongues. He didn't preach in gibberish. Like, how do you know? Well, because the sermon is recorded for us in Acts chapter 2.08:04And there are some people, and I've had some lively discussions with people about this, but there are people that believe that speaking in tongues is the baptism of the Holy Spirit. That's how you know you're baptized in the Holy Spirit, right? That is so easily disproven. Because in 1 Corinthians 12, Paul says, we've all been baptized in one Spirit, right? What was that? Verse 13.08:32We've all been baptized in one spirit. Then he says in verse 30, we don't all speak in tongues. So speaking in tongues is the evidence of baptism in the Holy Spirit. That doesn't wash with what Paul taught in 1 Corinthians 12. So, in the first 19 verses, we covered them last week, speaking in tongues, Paul says gibberish is nothing. Even the real gift, Paul said, it's not that important. Look at verse 19.09:02This kind of sums it all up. Paul says, nevertheless, in church, I would rather speak five words with my mind in order to instruct others than 10,000 words in a tongue. And that was the message last week. He says, look, church, something else, when you get together, something else needs to be the focus of your worship services. And he said it, remember, over and over and over.09:32What we need to focus on is building each other up. And that happens through prophecy. That's speaking before. That just means preaching. It's speaking the Word of God. Teaching and preaching. That's what we need to be doing when we get together as a church. Well, as we approach the text we're looking at today, he's continuing the thought. Why? Why is prophecy greater than tongues?10:02Just very simply in this passage, he says the reason prophecy is greater than tongues is that you have to consider the purpose of prophecy and you have to consider the purpose of tongues. Like, why did God give us these things? So, on your outline, tongues and prophecy. Remember the purposes. Right? Number one, the purpose of tongues. Why did God give that spiritual gift? The Bible.10:32is clear on this. It's a sign of judgment for Israel. That is the purpose of speaking in tongues. It is a sign of judgment for Israel. Look at verse 20. He says, brothers, you don't be children in your thinking. Be infants in evil. But in your thinking, be mature.11:02He's rebuking them. He goes, you don't understand. You don't understand. And Paul's like, you're thinking like a bunch of children. Do you know how children think? Do you know how children think? Let me give you an example from when I was a child. Alright? Like, this is like second grade. There was a kid in my class. I'm not going to say his name. He might be watching the stream. He's going to be really upset. But there was this kid in my class like in the second grade and he was going around telling everybody the one day.11:32He's like, I'm 67% Indian.11:38That means I can run faster than anybody in this class.11:42And I'm like, there's no way.11:45There's no way.11:47There's no way you're faster than me.11:50He's like, I am.11:51I'm 67.11:52It was like some decimal.11:53I don't remember, like 67.3 or whatever.11:55He goes, I'm 67.3% Indian.11:58I can run faster than you.12:00I'm like, there's no way you can run faster than me.12:04But he was maintaining that. I'm like, all right, recess. Recess, it's on. You, the me, we're going to race. So we did. We got out to the kickball field, standing on first base. I said, all right, we're going to run to second base and back to first base. All right? Settle this once and for all. On your mark at second, I don't think I'm any percent Indian, but I was fast. And I was to second base and back to first before he was to second base. Smoked him. So I go to him afterwards. I'm like, now what? Like, I beat you by a mile. Do you know what he said? He said, well, I couldn't run fast because I'm wearing cowboy boots.13:02And I said, why is an Indian wearing cowboy boots? What do we learn from that exchange? That's how children act. That's how children act. Immature. Showing off. Like, look at me. Look at what I can do. Look at what I can do. And that's what the Corinthians were doing. They were wanting to show off. Look at how spiritual I am. I'm going to speak in this language. Me and God have our own private language.13:31And they were just constantly showing off. And Paul's like, you're acting like a bunch of kids racing on the kickball field. Knock it off. And continuing with the maturity metaphor, he says, be infants in evil. I love that. Be infants in evil. You ever been around a baby? I know you have.14:01Babies are not mean spirited. In the same playpen, you can put a white baby, a black baby, an Asian baby, a Latino baby. They're not going to fight. There's no racial hatred. There's no mean spirited attitudes about them at all. Babies are just like, you know, I eat, I poop, I'm happy. And Paul's like, you need to be Infants.14:34In evil.14:35He says, but you've got to grow up in the way you think.14:40Paul's pointing out to him, you're backwards.14:42You're infants in your understanding of God's Word, of God's purposes, and you're mature in evil.14:52So, the biblical gift of speaking in tongues.14:57Speaking in an existing language that you never learned.15:04Here's the million dollar question. What is it for? What is the purpose? Why did God even make that a thing? Well, to get the answer, you've got to go back to the Old Testament. Right? And that's exactly what he did. Look at verse 21. Paul's clearing it up. In the law, it is written.15:30By people of strange tongues and by the lips of foreigners will I speak to this people. And even then, they will not listen to me, says the Lord. Stop there. There's the purpose of tongue. What are you talking about? Alright, we're not going to turn there. But I encourage you to do this later. Alright? Paul is quoting Isaiah chapter 28.16:0011th verses, what you want to focus on. I'm going to give you a quick history lesson so we understand why Paul is quoting this verse. Isaiah 28, we're talking about the prophet Isaiah, we're talking about the southern kingdom, Judah, we're talking about the days of King Hezekiah, we're talking about 705 B.C. Now in 722 B.C., just a few years prior, Assyria conquered the northern kingdom. It was called Israel. The southern kingdom was called Judah. Assyria conquered the northern kingdom as an act of God's judgment because of their idolatry and unbelief. So when you get to this passage in Isaiah 28, 705 B.C., years later, Isaiah goes to the southern kingdom, Judah, and says, you're committing the same sins that God just punished Israel for. You're doing the same stuff. And Isaiah warned them, you're doing the same thing.17:00the same sins, and God's going to bring the same judgment on you. Well, Isaiah 28. Isaiah goes to the leaders, specifically the priests and the prophets, and he finds them at a party, and they're all drunk. And not only is their drunkenness impairing their decision making ability, but they are vomiting all over the table. That's what it says. It's a disgusting scene. So Isaiah comes to give the message and the Bible says they mock Isaiah. They make fun of him. They're like, Isaiah thinks we're babies. Do you hear what he's saying? Isaiah just keeps preaching the same message to us over and over and over.18:00Isaiah thinks we're babies. Isaiah thinks he's our kindergarten teacher. Well, Isaiah 28.11, the verse that Paul quotes here in 1 Corinthians 14.21, God is speaking through Isaiah and he's saying, okay, Israel, you're not going to listen in a language that you know. I'm going to speak to you in a language that you don't understand.18:31And the Babylonians came and they conquered Judah, the southern kingdom. They conquered them 586 B.C. When you hear God is saying, when you hear the Babylonians speaking in their language that you do not understand, you're going to know that God is bringing His judgment. That's what He's saying. And by the way, this wasn't the first time Israel was warned about this. Deuteronomy 28, 49, God warned in the law, the Lord will bring a nation against you from far away from the end of the earth, swooping down like an eagle. Look at this. A nation whose language you do not understand. God promised him this is what's going to happen. Again, Jeremiah 5.15. I think we talked about this a couple weeks ago. Behold, I'm bringing against you a nation from afar, O house of Israel, declares the Lord. It is an enduring nation. It is an ancient nation. Look, a nation whose language you do not know, to understand what they say. So here's the point. Hearing a foreign tongue, Israel, is a sign to the unbelieving Jews among you that God is moving in judgment against you. And you see, if God judged Israel in 725, 2. And God judged Judah in 586 BC. What do you think God is going to do to the unbelieving Jews in the first century that completely rejected the Messiah of Israel? God says you won't listen in your language. You're going to hear languages you don't understand. That's Pentecost. Tongues was a sign that Israel was judged. Romans 11.20:29temporarily set aside. And Revelation is so clear about that. Temporary. But now God is at work through Gentile nations as well as Israel. The focus shifted. That's why Paul tells us in 13.8 the tongues will cease. They're not needed today. Because they were a sign of judgment against Israel during the transition from the Old Covenant.20:59to the new covenant. There's a sign. He goes on. Look at verse 22 here in 1 Corinthians 14. He says, thus, tongues are a sign not for believers, but for unbelievers, while prophecy is a sign not for unbelievers, but for believers. He couldn't be more clear. Tongues are not for other believers.21:29From the Old Testament, we learn it was, as he says in verse 22, it's a sign for unbelievers. You're like, what unbelievers? Unbelieving Israel. It's the sign. He says prophecy, though, preaching the Word of God, that is for building up believers. That was last week's message. We're going to see that more again in a minute. Look at verse 23. He says, If therefore the whole church comes together and all speak in tongues and outsiders or unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are out of your minds? You see? There's something very interesting about the wording here. This phrase, to say that you're out of your minds. Maybe your Bible says something like, they'll say that you're mad. Does your Bible say something like that if you have a different translation? It's interesting. The word, this word mad, this word out of your mind, that same word is used in other places in ancient literature to describe Pagan worship services. The gibberish. That's the same word used to describe that. When everybody got together and was just shouting stuff that nobody understood, they're like, that's mad. That's this word. They're going to think you're crazy. Everybody's shouting words people don't understand. What Paul's saying here is, you know what's going to happen? Is an unbeliever is going to come to church and he's going to say, Huh! They act just like the pagans. They are no different than the way the pagans worship. That's exactly, literally what Paul's saying here. So that's the purpose of tongues. It's not gibberish shouting at church. It's not some secret ecstatic prayer language. Paul reminds us it was always a sign of judgment against Israel.24:00Tongues and prophecy remember their purpose. Tongues is a sign of judgment for Israel. Number two, let's talk about the purpose of prophecy. What is the purpose of prophecy? Why do we preach? Why do we preach? I mean, it seems a little archaic, doesn't it? In our day of 15-second video, clips that we doom scroll through and our 30 second antacid commercials. It doesn't seem a little archaic that somebody would stand up for however many minutes we stand up and talk. Why do we do that? What is the purpose of prophecy? You're going to see here in the text exactly why we do this.25:01It manifests God's presence. Look at verses 24 and 25. You're going to see it. He says, but if all prophesy, teach, preach the word. But if all prophesy and an unbeliever or outsider enters, he is convicted by all. He is called to account.25:28By all the secrets of his heart are disclosed. And so, falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that God is really among you. It's the same point he made in the first 19 verses. He's like, church, look. Church, you know what you need to focus on?25:58You need to focus on preaching and teaching. That's what you need to focus on. So what's the purpose of prophecy? Well, he made a very clear point in the previous section. The purpose of prophecy is to build up believers. And also, speaking of unbelievers coming to church, which he brings up in this section, Paul says, when an unbeliever hears the word of God rightly proclaimed, something happens. What happens is God moves. I want you to look at this sequence. This is why we preach. Look at the sequence. He says, an unbeliever, outsider enters the church, and you are preaching the Word of God rightly. That's why we always ask for prayer. Please pray for us to preach the Word of God accurately. But look at the first thing that happens. He says he is convicted by all. He's convicted by all. The first thing that happens, and I know, I know, this isn't popular in our day, but this is what the Bible says. The first thing that happens, is that person feels guilty.27:28And listen, that has to happen.27:35Some people just want feel-good messages.27:38We've had people leave our church because they just want a feel-good message.27:47And we live in a day more than ever, and you see this in front of you every day, Make me comfortable in my sin. Affirm me. Don't tell me I'm wrong. Look at my sin and tell me I'm special. They just want the feel-good messages. Give me the pep talk. Give me the five ways to be happier at work, four ways to be happier at home.28:23feel bad.28:29By the way, do you know why the world hated Jesus?28:33Do you know?28:35Do you know why the world hated Jesus?28:37Just write this down.28:38Look this up later.28:39John 7, 7.28:41Just write that down.28:41Look it up.28:43Why the world hated Jesus?28:47Well, you should feel convicted.28:50You should.28:51You should feel a sense of I'm wrong. I'm guilty. That's the first part of the sequence. Look at the second thing. He says, he is convicted by all. Secondly, he is called to account by all. Called into account by all. Now listen, that doesn't mean that when like a person, stuck in a sinful lifestyle comes to church. We all get to take a shot at them. That's not what that means. Like somebody comes in and they're like, I'm struggling with an addiction. And I'm like, okay, stand here. Everybody line up. Take a shot. We're going to call them to account. Everybody just comes through the line. You're a loser. You need to repent. You stink. That's not what that means at all. What does it mean to be called into account by all? It's positive peer pressure. It's somebody looking.29:51and Christ alive through you and recognizing the need to change. To say, these people are different. These people live differently. This is who I need to be. They need to be looking around and saying, man, I need to know the Bible like him. You know, I need to get away from this addiction that's been destroyed.30:24I need to get away from the bad influences. I need to make choices. The choices to follow Jesus that I see her making, I need to make those same choices. That's what he's talking about. Everybody sort of calls them into account, like positive peer pressure. Right? What else happens when the Word is proclaimed? Look at verse 25. The third thing. The secrets of his heart are only God's word can do that. I can't do that. Pastor Taylor can't do that. Nobody can do that. The word of God is the only thing that can disclose the secrets of your heart. It's through the preaching of the word. Those secrets are disclosed and that's what brings the feeling of guilt. I've been a hypocrite. I've been faking. You know what? I've been lying.31:22I've been lying to other people. I want everybody to think I'm so noble. I want everybody to think I got my act together and I don't. I see now that my problem is me. I have a sin problem in my heart. I am the problem. The secrets of the heart are disclosed.31:51The next step. He says, and so, falling on his face. What's that? That's humbling yourself. Right? It's when you realize I'm such a hypocrite. I'm guilty. I'm a faker. And I'm a sinner. And I'm not the man that I need to be. Oh God, help me.32:21I have tried so hard to be the person that I think I need to be and I fail every time. I can't do it. And I just, all I can do is get on my face and say, say, God, help me. I can't do it on my own. That's what he's talking about here. Falls on his face. Look at the next one. He says, he will worship God. He will worship God.32:51You see, God saves those and changes those who confess their sin and believe in Jesus Christ. See, Jesus died in your place on that cross. That should have been you nailed to the cross. That should have been me nailed to the cross. Jesus took your place on that cross to bear the wrath of God, not for anything He did, because He lived.33:21a sinless life. He bore the wrath of God for the sins that I committed and the sins that you committed. He bore God's wrath for those. And if you turn and believe in Him, you become a child of God and He changes you and you never, ever, in all of eternity have to experience the wrath of God for your sin that you deserve. You don't have to experience it because Jesus has taken your sin away from you and that when you really get that that leads you to worship thank you god thank you god for doing what i could never do thank you god for pronouncing me not just not guilty but pronouncing me righteous in jesus christ thank you god for the promise of heaven thank you god thank you god you are so awesome and you are so worthy and you are so holy Thank you. It leads you to worship. And then finally, he says, then declare that God is really among you. That's what happens when the Word of God is rightly preached. And somebody is broken over their sin. They realize their guilt. They humble themselves. They worship. They walk out.34:47the doors and say, I met God at church today.34:54God was there.34:56I met God in the worship, in the preaching.35:00I encountered God through His Word.35:02I saw God through the people.35:09They walk out.35:10I met God today.35:14That's why people stop going to church, by the way.35:17That's why people love going to churches where the gospel isn't proclaimed. Because they don't want to change. That's the reason. They don't want to change. But every single time that I encounter God, I am moved to change.35:47single time. Read your Bibles. Read your Bibles and look at every single person who encountered God. Every single person who encountered Jesus Christ. They changed or they fled. But an encounter with God will change you. That's why we just preach the Word. That's why anybody who stands up here, the job is always the same.36:17Represent the text. Represent the text. That's what we go for. And we strive to live it because this right here is what we want for this church more than anything. For people to declare that God is really among us. For people to see God do what only God can do. If our worship team would make their way back up front, Speaking in tongues. Speaking in tongues. Speaking in tongues. It's kind of my own private gibberish prayer language, right? It's not what it's for. It's not what it's for. But does it really matter? Yeah. It matters. The purpose of tongues mattered.37:17For God's plan for Israel. The purpose of preaching matters for God's plan for the church today. And the purpose of a sermon like this isn't to equip you to win an argument, but rather to keep us all on track of what we should be going after every single Sunday and why.37:46Let's pray. Our Father in Heaven, this church was planted on the belief that the Word of God does the work of God. And Father, I thank You for this passage we looked at today because You have explained it here so clearly, what needs to happen when Your Word is proclaimed. Father, we aren't trying to put on a show. We're not trying to make a name for ourselves.38:17more in this church than for people to walk out the doors and say, God is really there. God is really among them. God was made manifest through His people, through worship, through the proclamation of the Word. Father, I pray where we would be tempted to act like children and fight about this, make us mature in our thinking.38:47to go after the things that matter to you. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. </li> </ul> Small Group Discussion Read 1 Corinthians 14:20-25<ol data-rte-list="default"><li>What was your big take-away from this passage / message? </li><li>Explain, in your own words, the purpose of the spiritual gift of speaking in tongues. (1 Cor 14:21-22). </li><li>How exactly does prophecy (preaching) manifest God's presence (end of 1 Cor 14:25)? How does the sequence flow (1 Cor 14:24-25)? </li><li>Does this passage change your view on speaking in tongues? Why or why not?</li></ol>BreakoutPray for one another.

June 21, 2026

What About Speaking in Tongues? - Part 1

<img data-load="false" data-mode="cover" data-image-focal-point="0.5,0.5" src="https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/562af9b0e4b0b7066cf407f8/1759094520535-1WFOB6XYZ58VGB1MZCB0/1+Corinthians+copy.png?format=1000w" /> <h4>Introduction:</h4> <figure class=" sqs-block-image-figure intrinsic " > <img data-stretch="false" data-image="https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/562af9b0e4b0b7066cf407f8/6d390cc5-49cf-4287-8ec5-d9245cd18b38/2025-OCT-TheChurchUnifiedAndPurified_Podcast1400sq.jpg" data-image-dimensions="1400x1400" data-image-focal-point="0.5,0.5" alt="" data-load="false" elementtiming="system-image-block" data-sqsp-image-classic-block-image src="https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/562af9b0e4b0b7066cf407f8/6d390cc5-49cf-4287-8ec5-d9245cd18b38/2025-OCT-TheChurchUnifiedAndPurified_Podcast1400sq.jpg?format=1000w" width="1400" height="1400" sizes="(max-width: 640px) 100vw, (max-width: 767px) 50vw, 50vw" onload="this.classList.add("loaded")" srcset="https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/562af9b0e4b0b7066cf407f8/6d390cc5-49cf-4287-8ec5-d9245cd18b38/2025-OCT-TheChurchUnifiedAndPurified_Podcast1400sq.jpg?format=100w 100w, https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/562af9b0e4b0b7066cf407f8/6d390cc5-49cf-4287-8ec5-d9245cd18b38/2025-OCT-TheChurchUnifiedAndPurified_Podcast1400sq.jpg?format=300w 300w, https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/562af9b0e4b0b7066cf407f8/6d390cc5-49cf-4287-8ec5-d9245cd18b38/2025-OCT-TheChurchUnifiedAndPurified_Podcast1400sq.jpg?format=500w 500w, https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/562af9b0e4b0b7066cf407f8/6d390cc5-49cf-4287-8ec5-d9245cd18b38/2025-OCT-TheChurchUnifiedAndPurified_Podcast1400sq.jpg?format=750w 750w, https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/562af9b0e4b0b7066cf407f8/6d390cc5-49cf-4287-8ec5-d9245cd18b38/2025-OCT-TheChurchUnifiedAndPurified_Podcast1400sq.jpg?format=1000w 1000w, https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/562af9b0e4b0b7066cf407f8/6d390cc5-49cf-4287-8ec5-d9245cd18b38/2025-OCT-TheChurchUnifiedAndPurified_Podcast1400sq.jpg?format=1500w 1500w, https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/562af9b0e4b0b7066cf407f8/6d390cc5-49cf-4287-8ec5-d9245cd18b38/2025-OCT-TheChurchUnifiedAndPurified_Podcast1400sq.jpg?format=2500w 2500w" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-loader="sqs"> </figure> <h4>What About Speaking in Tongues? It's Not That Important. (1 Corinthians 14:1-19)</h4> <ol> <li> Tongues Are FRUITLESS. (1 Cor 14:1-5) </li> <li> Tongues Are USELESS. (1 Cor 14:6-12) </li> <li> Tongues Are MINDLESS. (1 Cor 14:13-19) </li> </ol> Sermon Notes (PDF): <a href="https://www.harvestpittsburghnorth.org/s/2026-06-21-ChurchUnifiedAndPurified-QnA-WhatAboutSpeakingInTongues-Part1-BLANK.pdf" target="_blank">BLANK</a> Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers! Questions and Answers: What About Speaking In Tongues? - Part 1 Jeff Miller <a href="https://media.blubrry.com/harvestpittsburgh/static1.squarespace.com/static/562af9b0e4b0b7066cf407f8/t/6a4175e26e27560da139c23a/1782674921481/0786+-+2026-06-21+Church+-+Unified+and+Purified+-+QnA+-+Wha" download="Questions and Answers: What About Speaking In Tongues? - Part 1" class="download" target="_blank">Download</a> <ul data-should-allow-multiple-open-items="false" data-accordion-icon-placement="right" data-is-last-divider-visible="true" data-is-expanded-first-item="false" data-is-divider-enabled="true" data-accordion-title-alignment="left" class="accordion-items-container" data-is-first-divider-visible="true" data-accordion-description-alignment="left" data-accordion-description-placement="left" > <li class="accordion-item" > <h3 class=" accordion-item__title-wrapper " data-sqsp-accordion-block-item-title > <button id="button-fd360fb41920757f46d4-1" class="accordion-item__click-target" aria-expanded="false" aria-controls="dropdown-fd360fb41920757f46d4-1" > Audio Transcript </button> </h3> 00:36Open up those Bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter 14. When I was a very young Christian 30 years ago-ish, I had a very strong conviction. I had a very strong conviction that the death penalty was a horrible thing. Why?01:06Why in the world should the government determine if someone lives or dies? I thought the death penalty was an absolutely horrible thing. And then someone lovingly challenged me to see what the Bible says on the subject. Do you know what I found? The first man-to-man law that God gave was the death penalty. The death penalty is in the Mosaic law, and the death penalty is after the Mosaic law.01:36Law, Romans 13.01:39So my convictions about the death penalty radically changed.01:46And I'm saying all that to say, look, it's okay.01:52It's okay after a closer study of the Word of God to let the Bible change your mind.02:04And the subject we're looking at today is the gift of speaking in tongues. And there are some of you that maybe have a very strong conviction about it. And I'm sure there are a lot of you that maybe didn't think very much about the subject at all. But if you've been coming here for any period of time, you know that we want the Word of God to shape our beliefs and convictions. So by God's grace, let's go after His Word today to see what He has to say about it. So just please pray for me to communicate God's Word clearly and accurately, and I'll pray for you to have a heart open to see and receive what it is that the Bible actually says.03:04on the subject. All right? Let's take a moment and just go before the Lord together. Father, please open our hearts to what Your Word says. Not to what we experienced growing up or heard somebody say about Your Word, but let's take some time and really look and examine what it is that You actually said. Father, let us shape our convictions on that. We thank You, Father. We thank You for Your Word. And even when it's challenging for us living in a different culture and a different time, the truths of Your Word are eternal. And I pray that You would give us the wisdom by Your Spirit today.04:05to really grasp and embrace what it is that you've said here. Thank you ahead of time, Father. For what you're going to do today, we pray in Jesus' name. And all of God's people said, Amen. Amen. We go through God's Word verse by verse. Because context is important in anything you read. Especially.04:34the Word of God. And we're looking at one of the hardest chapters in the whole Bible today. This passage is so misquoted. And it is so misunderstood. But we're going to get through this together. Right? So before we look at the text, I want you to jot some things down. This isn't like the outline, but you can write it on your outline. But these are, I just want to give you four truths to help us understand 1 Corinthians.05:0414. With context in mind.05:11As we approach this, there's four absolute truths here that we have to keep in mind as we go to the text.05:21And this is the foundation that sets the stage.05:26All right?05:26So four truths.05:28First of all, we need to remind ourselves of the truth of what is the purpose of the gift of speaking in time?05:35It was a miracle, first of all, to affirm the apostles, and it was a sign of judgment against Israel. We talked about that last week, and we're going to talk about it again next week. But remember, tongues were real languages, not made-up gibberish words. They were actual real languages. And this is the way the gift operated in the early church.06:04The preacher gets up to preach and there are some unsaved Russians present. Well, the preacher never learned Russian, but he miraculously started speaking Russian. Well, the Russians were amazed. But then somebody else in the church had the gift of interpretation so they could translate what the preacher said for the non-Russian speakers in the church. That's the way the gift worked.06:34of tongues will cease. And we talked about that word means they will end by themselves.06:44Interestingly, tongues is never mentioned in the New Testament.06:48It's not mentioned at all after the book of Acts and after 1 Corinthians, which is the earliest epistle written.06:58It's just not mentioned at all.07:00But that was the purpose of the gift of tongues in the early church.07:04Second thing to help us understand this passage, let's talk about the gibberish prayer language. There are some people that believe the gift of tongues is speaking a gibberish prayer language, words that aren't any existing language. It's just a private, unknown language that you speak to the heavens. Where did that come from?07:34The truth is that practice came from paganism. And you can study this, but in Corinth, they had a temple to Diana, and that was how they worshipped. Everything there was about feeling and emotions. It wasn't about truth and engaging your mind. Everything in that worship was about experience and emotions. Right? Remember, the priestesses were prostitutes. It was about feeling something.08:02And part of their worship was shouting an ecstatic, gibberish language because they believed that was the way that you communicated to the gods. And church, that is never taught in the New Testament as a gift of the Holy Spirit. It's just not. Well, some people believe there are two kinds of tongues. You know, speaking known languages and them being interpreted and praying a gibberish.08:32language. But I can't see anywhere in the New Testament where tongues is redefined. From known languages to speaking gibberish. I just don't see it anywhere. So there was a gibberish prayer language that was part of paganism. All right? Third thing to keep in mind as we approach 1 Corinthians 14 is this truth. The Corinthians messed up just about everything. Have you noticed in our study?09:02They were like the Pittsburgh Pirates. Hitting, fielding, base running. Like, was there an aspect of their game that they didn't mess up? Well, if you've been through this study with us, that's what we have seen over and over and over. What the Corinthians did was they dragged paganism and worldliness into the church. That's been our whole year of studying this. Right?09:32Everything they did was from paganism and worldliness. Like hero worship, sexual sin, lawsuits, marriage fails, idolatry. Oh, and the pagan use of speaking gibberish language to communicate to the gods. They dragged that into church. Something else to keep in mind, very important. Last one. 1 Corinthians 11-14. These chapters are about church conduct, individual conducts. Do you notice that? People want to take these passages and sort of make them like an individual application, but these chapters are about the church collectively, the body of Christ. These chapters are more about us than me. So chapter 14 was written to correct the Corinthians, and Paul was saying the pagan way, the gibberish language isn't really a thing, and let me tell you how the real gift, the real spiritual gift of speaking in tongues works. Interesting thing to note. You're going to see throughout the passage here that sometimes Paul uses the word tongue singular and sometimes he uses the word tongues plural and he seems to be very specific and I spent so much time this past week studying this. He seems very specific about when it's plural and when it's singular.11:02scholars to believe that when Paul uses tongues in the plural, he's talking about the real spiritual gifts, speaking a real language that you never learn. Tongues, plural. Why? Because there's many languages, right? There's many languages, so tongues is plural. But when he speaks about tongue singular, he's talking about the pagan gibberish language because gibberish isn't something that can be plural. So just take a note of that. So this is going to feel like Sunday school today.11:32But this is so critically important to our understanding of a very sensitive subject to a lot of people. So on your outline, what about speaking in tongues? And here's the whole sermon. This is the whole sermon. You can leave after this statement if you want, but I'll unpack it for you. But here's what he says in chapter 14. What about speaking in tongues? He says, it's not that important. That's this whole passage. He says, it's not that important.12:05See, in Corinth, like in churches today, speaking in tongues was the thing. There are people today that believe unless you speak a gibberish prayer language, then you do not have the Holy Spirit. That is not true biblically. In this passage, you're going to see that Paul says, the gibberish really is nothing. And even the real gift of speaking known languages, the real spiritual gift that he's been talking about, he's like, even that's not that important. That's not that important. So let's look at it together. Number one, write this down. Paul says, first of all, tongues are fruitless. Meaning this, as far as accomplishing anything ministry-wise. He says it's fruitless. No spiritual fruit comes from speaking in tongues. That's the first point. That's the first five verses. What's the purpose of having a church service, by the way? The purpose of us having a church service is to edify believers. That's what church is for. The goal of church is to edify believers. Make note of that because he says that over and over.13:32and over in chapter 14. We'll talk about that in a few moments. Edification of believers. Look at chapter 14. He says pursue love. That's where we left off last week. Seek love. That's chapter 13. The love chapter. He gives your problem, church, is you're not loving each other. You need to go after that. Pursue love. Look at the rest of the verse. He says, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy.14:06Paul says, yes, love each other, but also, yes, seek to use your spiritual gift, especially prophecy.14:13We talked about this.14:14Prophecy, the word literally means speak before.14:18It's just somebody that stands in front of people and says stuff.14:22And it's talking about saying the word of God, explaining the word of God.14:26That's what prophecy is.14:30See, Paul reminds us here again, church is to be the place where you hear the Word of God. If nothing else happens when we get together on Sunday morning, this has to happen. We have to get in the Word of God together. You see, tongues was never for that. That's why Paul comes right out of the gate and says it's better when you get together that you hear something that you can actually understand.14:59Look at verse 2. He says, For one who speaks in a tongue speaks not to men, but to God.15:11For no one understands him, that he utters mysteries in the Spirit.15:19Notice tongue is singular there.15:23He says, when you speak the gibberish language.15:25Oh, by the way, he says, speaks not to men, but to God.15:29That's really not a great translation. It literally should be translated to a God. Little g God.15:41When you speak in a tongue you're speaking to, you think you're speaking to a God.15:47Also interestingly in the verse, he says, but he utters mysteries in the spirit. That's not a great translation of that either.15:55The Word for Spirit, he's not talking about the Holy Spirit here. The Word for Spirit is pneumatai, which literally is breath. He's saying you're speaking into the air. And I believe that because he says the exact same thing later in this passage. You're going to see it. All right? So what's he saying? He's saying this. Spiritual gifts were to edify man. All right?16:25Common Good.16:26Chapter 12, verse 7.16:27Spiritual gifts are for the common good.16:30Spiritual gifts were never given to speak to God, a God, the God, who's ever up there.16:36He's like, that was never the purpose of the true God giving us spiritual gifts.16:47God never teaches us to speak to Him in an unknown language.16:54You just don't see that in the Bible. Look at every prayer in the New Testament. Every prayer and every teaching about prayer, there's nothing about speaking to God in an unknown language. And I would say, look at Jesus Himself. We have accounts of Jesus praying. Did Jesus have a private prayer language with God? Did He? No.17:24How do you know? Because the Bible writers told us exactly what Jesus prayed. Jesus used regular language and in all of Jesus' teaching about prayer, nothing says pray in a private prayer language. Actually, in Matthew 6, verse 7, Jesus said, don't heap up meaningless phrases.17:55So what you have here in Corinth is you had some of the people who considered themselves elite. And they said, you know, you pray in church and you speak Greek and all that. That's all well and good. But you know, I pray to God in my own private prayer language. Aren't I spiritual? And Paul's like, spiritual gifts.18:24Gifts aren't about you. Spiritual Gifts are given to edify everyone else. Look at verse 3. He comes back to it again. He says, on the other hand, the one who prophesies speaks to people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation. Paul says that's what needs to be happening in church. That's what prophesying is for. He says it's for edification. You're like, well, what's edification? He defines it right here.18:54upbuilding, encouraging you in your faith, encouragement, consolation. That word is comfort. You know, the Word of God should be challenging us and convicting us and encouraging us and comforting us. That happens when the Word of God is proclaimed. Look at verse 4. He says, the one who speaks in a tongue builds up himself. But the one who prophesies builds up the church. Again, he says, When you show up and you're just speaking your private prayer language to God, all you're doing is putting the spotlight on yourself. Look how spiritual I am. Look, I'm God's favorite. He gave me this super spiritual gift that I communicate to Him in our own private secret language. Now, the true gift of speaking in tongues has an interpreter that benefits others. Spiritual gifts aren't for God. They're not for you.19:54You, therefore, other people. Right? Again, verse 5. He keeps hammering the same point. You're going to see it again. He says, no, I want you all to speak in tongues. But even more to prophesy. The one who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues unless someone interprets so that the church may be built up.20:24Yes, this is the Pentecostal's favorite verse here. Look, right there, right there. Paul says, I want you all to speak in tongues. Paul was being sarcastic. He was saying, I wish you all did the real thing, but more so, I wish you all prophesied. You're like, wait, wait, wait, time out. Time out, Pastor Jeff. How do you know Paul's being sarcastic? How do you know that? Well, just go back a page. Look at chapter 12 and verses 29 and 30. Look at this. Paul says, are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? What's the answer to that? No. No. Paul just said in chapter 12, everyone doesn't possess one particular gift. He just said, do all speak with tongues?21:24No, obviously not. So Paul's not going to turn around and say, okay, now I want you all to do this. He's not contradicting himself. He's making a point in comparing. What he's saying in this verse is this. He goes, oh, I could wish that you all actually used the real spiritual gift and spoke in other languages. I could wish you all did that. But you know what's way more important than that? You know what would be so much better for the church than that?21:52is if you all were able to preach a real sermon. That would be better than everyone speaking other languages. He's being sarcastic here. So this private prayer gibberish language, Paul says here it's fruitless. He says, what does anyone get out of it? There's no edification, nothing's learned, no knowledge is given. It's fruitless because No one is being built up. And that is what has to happen in the church. All right? So what about speaking in tongues? He says, it's not that important. First of all, tongues are fruitless. They don't accomplish ministry purposes. But then he digs even deeper. Number two, he says tongues are useless. Tongues are useless. Look at verse 6.22:52He says, Now brothers, if I come to you speaking in tongues, how will I benefit you?23:00Unless I bring you some revelation or knowledge or prophecy or teaching.23:08He says, If I came speaking a foreign language, and again, assuming there's no interpreter when he does it, he says, What good would that do you?23:17If I came speaking Russian, you all speak Greek, it's not going to accomplish anything.23:22Verse 7, he says, he's illustrating his point. He says, if even lifeless instruments, such as the flute or the harp, do not give distinct notes, how will anyone know what is played? See the illustration? He says, even musical instruments have to play a melody or it doesn't make sense, right?23:51Didn't the worship team do a fantastic job today? Yeah. Yeah. They absolutely did. But you know, let's pick on my man Miles up here. So good at the guitar. When Miles plays the guitar, he can play a melody. And did you notice when Miles played, we were all able to sing along because we recognized the song. It was a tune, right?24:22What would happen if you went back to Harvest Academy and brought a toddler out and gave that toddler Miles' guitar and says, okay, now you're leading worship.24:31How would that go?24:33Whang! Whang! Whang! Whang!24:36Like, would we be able to worship together?24:39No.24:40And that's Paul's point.24:42He goes, even musical instruments have to play a melody or you don't know what's going on.24:46But if it's just meaningless noise, he's like, nothing is happening.24:49It's useless. Right? Another illustration. He wants to make sure we get this. Look at verse 8. He says, and if the bugle gives an indistinct sound, who will get ready for battle? Okay, now it's like a military illustration. Like the guy blowing the bugle for the military. It's like you better play a song that the soldiers recognize. Right? Because there's like a song for get up, a song for go to bed, a song for time to eat. How about a song for, It's time for battle. And if he just gets up there blasting the trumpet and nobody knows, wait a minute, what are we supposed to do now? I think we're either supposed to fight or go to breakfast. I'm not sure which sound that is. He goes, they're going to be so confused. It has to be a melody. You see, he's making a comparison between languages we can hear and understand versus any language.25:49We have no idea what's going on. What's his point? What's his point in all this? He explains in verse 9. He says, so with yourselves, if with your tongue you utter speech that is not intelligible, how will anyone know what is said? For you will be speaking into the air. There it is again.26:18You'll be speaking into the air. Paul's saying, look, gibberish is useless. Look, tongues are useless unless the real spiritual gift is used and someone is present that speaks that and someone interprets for the rest, it's useless. Do I believe that tongues happen today?26:48I do. I have heard many stories of people on the mission field that they were asked to get up and speak. And they're like, well, I don't speak their language. And they're like, well, just get up and say something in English and they'll just be glad to hear from you. And the guy got up and spoke and everybody heard it in their own language. I believe that. That's not what he's talking about here. And even that gift that I mentioned is not normative.27:18He's like the gibberish is useless. You show up in church and you just scream a bunch of syllables that aren't words. What are you doing? What are you accomplishing? Look at verse 10. He keeps hammering the same point. He says, 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, Same point. Paul's like, if you don't talk to people in a language that they understand, it's kind of useless, right? We had dinner with Barnabas last Wednesday. If you were here, that was so fun. Our missionary in Thailand, Barnabas, he speaks ten languages. Ten. Seven fluently, and he says three about half. And I think he's being modest.28:18Why does he know ten languages? Because when he goes all over to these tribes, the Lisu, the Lahu, the Acha, he goes to China, he goes all over that area of the world, and he knows when he goes, he's going to have to speak a language that they understand. Otherwise, they're just making sounds at each other. That's Paul's point here. Right? Look at verse 12. He says, so with yourselves. Look at this. Since you are eager for manifestations of the Spirit, to excel in building up the church. He's back to the exact same thing he said in verse 5. He goes, do you want the Holy Spirit to work through you? Christian, do you want the Holy Spirit to work through you? All in favor? Yeah! Like, isn't that the number one thing that a Christian desires? Is it the Holy Spirit? Is it work through them? That's what any true Christian wants. Paul's like, is that what you want? You want the Holy Spirit to manifest through you? Great!29:19Because whether it's a foreign language or whether it's speaking gibberish, speaking anything people don't understand is useless. Paul says in this section, if real communication isn't happening, it's just noise. It's useless. The tongues are useless. And finally, number three, Paul says tongues are mindless. Mindless. More sarcasm. Look at verse 13. He says, therefore, one who speaks in a tongue should pray for the power to interpret. Again, that's sarcasm. How do you know that's sarcasm? Because of what he already said. Didn't he just say that the Holy Spirit is the one who gives people gifts as he wills?30:18He just said that.30:20So we don't see any example in the Bible of, you know, God, this is the spiritual gift that I want.30:25Please give that one to me.30:26He made it clear.30:27The Holy Spirit determines who gets what.30:30So He's obviously being sarcastic here.30:32He's saying, hey, if you speak gibberish, you better pray that you can explain what you're saying.30:41Verse 14, He says, for if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful.30:47What am I to do? He says, I will pray with my spirit, but I will pray with my mind also. I will sing praise with my spirit, but I will sing with my mind also. Otherwise, if you give thanks with your spirit, how can anyone in the position of an outsider say amen to your thanksgiving when he does not know what you are saying?31:17Here, Paul's just saying, look, prayer and praise must be done with our whole being, spirit and truth. We've talked about that before, spirit and truth. Jesus said the Father is seeking those to worship Him in spirit and truth. And for that to happen, your mind has to be engaged. Your mind has to be engaged. You know, people that believe in private prayer language will say, well, no, My mind is just kind of shut off and it just comes from my spirit. And I would push back on that and say, when has God ever told us to turn our minds off? You have to have your mind engaged in what's happening. I think a little humor on Paul's part. He's like, you just get up and you speak as she speaks something people don't understand. He's like, how are you going to get an amen? Who's going to amen that? Somebody gets up and just says a bunch of nonsense words. Paul's like, that's not a good way to get an amen. Verse 17, he says, for you may be giving thanks well enough, but the other person is not being built up. Again, you see, he keeps driving that nail down.32:47Again, there's no edification happening. You can't do that, church. You have to go to church with the mindset of edifying others with spiritual gifts. And someone would say, but prayer language is a private thing. Spiritual gifts aren't meant to be private. Spiritual gifts are to be used for the body. Verse 18. See, I heard an amen because somebody understood what I was saying.33:17saying. See how that works? Again, the Word of God is coming, just being fulfilled in your eyes. He says, I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you. Paul had the true gift. Paul had the true gift. You think that came in handy on his missionary journeys? Traveling around all these different people. He had the true gift. God gave him the ability to speak in languages he didn't know. He says that he speaks in tongues.33:48And I'm so glad he said that here because what Paul's doing with that statement, he's like, look, look, look, I'm not saying the true gift isn't legit. I'm not saying the true gift isn't useful. Verse 19, he says, nevertheless, in church, I would rather speak five words with my mind in order to instruct others than 10,000 words in a tongue.34:20Back to that same point. He says, in the church, five regular words are greater than 10,000 words that no one understands. You know, the 10,000. In the Greek, that was the largest number that had a word. You know what I mean by that? What I mean is, that would be today like somebody saying, a bajillion. Is that a real number? No, it's just like a bajillion.34:47like a figure of speech. Like, oh, you know, I must have seen a bajillion of them. Like, 10,000 was their biggest word for a number. And Paul says five regular words. What he's saying is five regular words are greater than an infinite number of words that nobody understands. Right? You get that. I mean, if two guys get up here on a Sunday morning, And one guy speaks gibberish for an entire hour. Words that nobody understands. But for a whole hour you listen to gibberish words. Then you have the other guy get up and he says five words. Jesus died for your sins. Which person benefited the church?35:49The one that wasted everybody's time making his noises? Or the one that actually communicated the most glorious truth that there is? Jesus Christ died for your sins. If you'll turn from them and receive Him, you can be a child of God. That's the benefit.36:17here saying any edification is better than many words that no one understands. So some have made gibberish, unknown languages, private prayer language. Some people have really made that the thing. And after countless hours of studying these chapters, I'm less confused.36:47that it's a thing.36:50But look, here's the thing.36:55You can believe completely different than me about this.36:58And that's okay.36:58I don't want to fight with you.36:59I really don't.37:01And I'm not, I don't, I don't get any kind of like excitement trying to shot block people or pound people down.37:12I'm not at all.37:15All I want to do is clearly communicate the Word of God. If you want to have a nice discussion about this section and talk about some of these phrases and words and what it means, I'm always happy to do that. But I don't want to fight with you. Listen, whatever, whatever you believe about tongues. I think it's pretty obvious what Paul is saying about it.37:46Whether it's speaking gibberish privately in prayer to God, the pagan practice, or the biblical gift of speaking a known language, a real language that the speaker never studied or learned, whatever. I think it's pretty clear in this section. Paul's stance is, it's just It's not that important. Here's the thing, church. Tongues isn't even the real issue here. Sometimes I think we can look at this passage, we can quote this passage, or we can misquote this passage, and we miss what's really going on here. Tongues is not the real issue in this passage at all.38:45Do you see what the real issue is? The real issue is this. What do you go to church for? That's the issue. Why did you come here today? If you're like, well, I'm not coming here anymore. Okay. So if you go to another church next week, why would you go there? What do you go to church for?39:21This is the real point of this passage. Church is the place you go to give, not go to get. Church is the place you go to give, not go to get. You had to have noticed how repetitious this passage was. Do you notice how many times Paul talked about this passage?39:45He talked about edifying, building up. Did you notice? I went back several times and was counting. How many times in this passage did He keep going back to that concept? It's in verse 1, verse 3, verse 4, verse 5, verse 6, verse 9, verse 12, verse 13, verse 16, verse 17, and verse 19. Just in the passage we read today. All of those verses have something to say about the us thing in church. Building up.40:14Every one of those verses has something in them to emphasize serving other people. And look, I've been in ministry for a very long time, and this is the thing that we keep hitting in this culture, especially in this culture, as we have brought the consumer mentality into church. See, that was the problem in Corinth. They showed up to church to say, hey, hey, Church is a place where it's about me, more spotlight on me, look at me, what's in it for me. And we're like, oh, shame on those people. No, shame on us because we have brought the consumer mentality into church. We evaluate churches based on what is in it for me. You know, we've heard so many things, haven't we, Pastor Taylor? We've heard so many things. We've heard people say, well, yeah, oh, I love her.41:14and people there are super nice. But you know, we go to such and such church because they have a concert atmosphere. Okay. I guess if that's what you're looking for, a concert atmosphere. We want smoke machines and laser lights and I haven't been to a concert in a while. What else happens? They still do mosh pits, t-shirt cannons.41:44We want that stuff. People hop from church to church looking for the one that meets their needs. Another one that I've heard, oh, Pastor Jeff, we love this church, but you know, we go to such and such church now because they have better playground equipment for the kids.42:16I can't compete with that. Someday we're going to have a church on this property, New Swickly, and someday we're going to have like, what, 10 acres of green space for the kids to run around on. Someday we're going to have that. I hope it's someday sooner than later. We're praying. We're seeking the Lord. Things are in motion on that. But right now, I can't offer you great playground equipment. We can, you know what the kids do. They go out here and play David and Goliath and throw rocks at each other. They play Humpty Dumpty and get on that wall. They did fix the wall. That is not a pass. Don't tell your kids, hey, they fixed the wall. Let's see how many of you we can get up there. But that's how some people evaluate church. They've got better playground equipment. You know why people do that is because of the consumer mentality. Church is the place.43:15where I should get something.43:20Why go to such and such church?43:22Because they have better coffee.43:23Okay, whatever.43:25Whatever.43:28Church is where you go to give, not where you go to get.43:32Look, that's the problem in Corinth, and that's the problem in Wexford.43:41In church, we need to get to the place where we're like, The Church needs to be about how can I serve others? Not, hey, I'm here for what I can get. And do you know what the beautiful thing is about that? When everybody shows up to church with this mindset of, I came here to give. Do you know what's so beautiful about that? Is when everybody gives, everybody gets. Look, you have a spiritual gift.44:13a few weeks ago. We all need you to be pouring into the rest of us. Your knowledge of the Word of God, we need that. Your experience in walking with Jesus Christ, we need that. On Sunday morning, in our small groups, in our youth group, all of these little people back here, they need to see in you what it looks like to follow Jesus.44:43you married couples. They need to see from you what it looks like to love your spouse. They need to see from you what it looks like to have a Holy Spirit gift that is used in the church. These little people back here need to see what it looks like to live a life serving other people, not constantly seeking to be served. So if our worship team would make their way back up front, Yeah.45:19I pray that this passage changes your mind.45:25Maybe about tongues.45:29But definitely about why you come to church.45:35Let's pray.45:38Father in heaven Father we're sorry For all of the times we try to make it about us, that we can look at the Corinthians and we can wag our heads and we can tsk, tsk, and we're no better. We look at their worldliness. And so often, Father, we're no better. So I pray, Father, that we don't get So caught up in this one particular spiritual gift that we miss the point of this passage. The church should be a place where I go to build others up. Comforting, encouraging, loving one another. Father, you see the culture we live in. It's a consumer culture. And I pray, Father, that you would bring a great conviction on us. That we look at this as the place where we come to serve. Not just simply come to receive. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. </li> </ul> Small Group Discussion Read 1 Corinthians 14:1-19<ol data-rte-list="default"><li>What was your big take-away from this passage / message? </li><li>Before studying this passage, what was your personal belief on speaking in tongues? Did this passage change anything you believe about tongues? Why or why not? </li><li>The theme of this passage is “tongues aren't that important”. What exactly does Paul say is more important?</li></ol>BreakoutPray for one another.

June 14, 2026

Why Do I Love?

<img data-load="false" data-mode="cover" data-image-focal-point="0.5,0.5" src="https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/562af9b0e4b0b7066cf407f8/1759094520535-1WFOB6XYZ58VGB1MZCB0/1+Corinthians+copy.png?format=1000w" /> <h4>Introduction:</h4> <figure class=" sqs-block-image-figure intrinsic " > <img data-stretch="false" data-image="https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/562af9b0e4b0b7066cf407f8/6d390cc5-49cf-4287-8ec5-d9245cd18b38/2025-OCT-TheChurchUnifiedAndPurified_Podcast1400sq.jpg" data-image-dimensions="1400x1400" data-image-focal-point="0.5,0.5" alt="" data-load="false" elementtiming="system-image-block" data-sqsp-image-classic-block-image src="https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/562af9b0e4b0b7066cf407f8/6d390cc5-49cf-4287-8ec5-d9245cd18b38/2025-OCT-TheChurchUnifiedAndPurified_Podcast1400sq.jpg?format=1000w" width="1400" height="1400" sizes="(max-width: 640px) 100vw, (max-width: 767px) 50vw, 50vw" onload="this.classList.add("loaded")" srcset="https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/562af9b0e4b0b7066cf407f8/6d390cc5-49cf-4287-8ec5-d9245cd18b38/2025-OCT-TheChurchUnifiedAndPurified_Podcast1400sq.jpg?format=100w 100w, https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/562af9b0e4b0b7066cf407f8/6d390cc5-49cf-4287-8ec5-d9245cd18b38/2025-OCT-TheChurchUnifiedAndPurified_Podcast1400sq.jpg?format=300w 300w, https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/562af9b0e4b0b7066cf407f8/6d390cc5-49cf-4287-8ec5-d9245cd18b38/2025-OCT-TheChurchUnifiedAndPurified_Podcast1400sq.jpg?format=500w 500w, https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/562af9b0e4b0b7066cf407f8/6d390cc5-49cf-4287-8ec5-d9245cd18b38/2025-OCT-TheChurchUnifiedAndPurified_Podcast1400sq.jpg?format=750w 750w, https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/562af9b0e4b0b7066cf407f8/6d390cc5-49cf-4287-8ec5-d9245cd18b38/2025-OCT-TheChurchUnifiedAndPurified_Podcast1400sq.jpg?format=1000w 1000w, https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/562af9b0e4b0b7066cf407f8/6d390cc5-49cf-4287-8ec5-d9245cd18b38/2025-OCT-TheChurchUnifiedAndPurified_Podcast1400sq.jpg?format=1500w 1500w, https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/562af9b0e4b0b7066cf407f8/6d390cc5-49cf-4287-8ec5-d9245cd18b38/2025-OCT-TheChurchUnifiedAndPurified_Podcast1400sq.jpg?format=2500w 2500w" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-loader="sqs"> </figure> <h4>Love > Any Spiritual Gift. (1 Corinthians 13:8-13)</h4> <ol> <li> Spiritual Gifts Are TEMPORARY. (1 Cor 13:8) Jeremiah 5:15 - Behold, I am bringing against you a nation from afar, O house of Israel, declares the LORD. It is an enduring nation; it is an ancient nation, a nation whose language you do not know, nor can you understand what they say. Isaiah 28:11-12 – For by people of strange lips and with a foreign tongue the LORD will speak to this people, to whom he has said, “This is rest; give rest to the weary; and this is repose”; yet they would not hear. 1 Corinthians 14:21 – In the Law it is written, “By people of strange tongues and by the lips of foreigners will I speak to this people, and even then they will not listen to me, says the Lord.” </li> <li> Spiritual Gifts Are PARTIAL. (1 Cor 13:9-12) Deuteronomy 29:29 – The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law. </li> <li> Love is FOREVER. (1 Cor 13:13) </li> </ol> Sermon Notes (PDF): <a href="https://www.harvestpittsburghnorth.org/s/2026-06-14-ChurchUnifiedAndPurified-QnA-WhyDoILove-BLANK.pdf" target="_blank">BLANK</a> Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers! Questions and Answers: Why Do I Love? Jeff Miller <a href="https://media.blubrry.com/harvestpittsburgh/static1.squarespace.com/static/562af9b0e4b0b7066cf407f8/t/6a4175b11c60ee745e5c129d/1782674873248/0785+-+2026-06-14+Church+-+Unified+and+Purified+-+QnA+-+Why" download="Questions and Answers: Why Do I Love?" class="download" target="_blank">Download</a> <ul data-should-allow-multiple-open-items="false" data-accordion-icon-placement="right" data-is-last-divider-visible="true" data-is-expanded-first-item="false" data-is-divider-enabled="true" data-accordion-title-alignment="left" class="accordion-items-container" data-is-first-divider-visible="true" data-accordion-description-alignment="left" data-accordion-description-placement="left" > <li class="accordion-item" > <h3 class=" accordion-item__title-wrapper " data-sqsp-accordion-block-item-title > <button id="button-7c036f5256d6026f6025-1" class="accordion-item__click-target" aria-expanded="false" aria-controls="dropdown-7c036f5256d6026f6025-1" > Audio Transcript </button> </h3> 00:36Open up those Bibles with me please to 1 Corinthians chapter 13. While you're turning there, I would again ask that you would please take a moment and pray for me to communicate God's Word clearly and accurately as I should. And I will pray for you to have a heart open to receive a very difficult passage, but we are going to get through this together.01:05All right? Let's pray. Father, I pray that You would remove any distractions from our minds or hearts right now. All of us. You've called us to love You with our minds, and that happens through the study and understanding of Your Word. And I pray, Father, that Especially over these next few minutes, we would love you with all of our minds. As we lock in to see not what we think your word says or what we heard somebody else say that your word says, but help us all to just lock in and see what your word actually says. And Father, this is a passage where it would be real easy for us to miss the point.02:05Holy Spirit, by the wisdom of Your Word, that we would get what it is that You're communicating here. I thank You ahead of time, Father, as You're continuing to make us a church unified and purified. Make us a loving church, Father, we pray in Jesus' name. And all of God's people said, Amen. 1 Corinthians 13, are you there?02:35or so, a little boy from our church, I will not mention his name, a little boy from our church after the second service runs into my office and he goes, Pastor Jeff, how do I get the girls? And I thought to myself, well, isn't this just precious? Little Lambie comes into Pastor Jeff's office at such a tender age.03:05Wanting relationship advice. Pastor Jeff, how do I get the girls? So I knelt down and I said, the most important thing for you right now at this stage in your life is to always be kind. And he looked me in the eye and he said, we're playing tag.03:39And I knelt down again, and I said, you've got to be fast.03:47And that little anecdote reminds us of a very important truth about life. Context makes all the difference. I was ready to have this heart-to-heart about something that he had no interest in talking about.04:05Context makes all the difference. And it never matters more than when we come to the Word of God. Understanding the Word of God in its context. And we're going through 1 Corinthians verse by verse. And you could sum up the first 12 chapters very simply. Lack of love. That was the problem. That was the bottom line. Lack of love. Paul's like, you're not loving each other the way that you need to love each other.04:35So we get to chapter 13 where Paul, under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, gives us the solution. And the solution is love. Love. Love each other. We talked about this last week. Agape love. Self-sacrificing love. Yes, there are feelings involved, but it's a word more about doing. Right? And then he talked about 15 ways that real love Love acts. Why is this so important? Well, look at verse 8. He says, love never ends. What Paul's doing here and what I'm trying to just echo in representing the Word of God is church, can we grasp the matter of love. Can we really wrap our minds and our hearts around how utterly essential and huge it is for us as a church to get this? He says love is eternal. It's never going away. Now, through all of eternity. Listen, this literally should be translated, love never ends.06:02Some translations say things like love never fails. And that's not what he's saying. He's not saying love always conquers the day. He's not saying that because in that sense, love does sometimes fail. I mean, come on, let's not lie to ourselves. Love does sometimes fail. Have you ever loved a family member?06:32and everything went south anyways. Have you ever loved somebody in the church? And you were still met with hostility. In that sense, love does sometimes fail because here's the thing. Love can be rejected. Just ask Jesus. Right? Jesus loved everyone perfectly. But sometimes even in Jesus' Jesus' interactions, his love was rejected. But, that's not what he's saying here. He's not saying love always conquers, he's saying love lasts forever. And he makes that point clear in these subsequent verses. Because their emphasis, we've been talking about this the last, what, two or three weeks or whatever, their emphasis was on the spiritual gifts. They were so, like, obsessed with this.07:32Who has the best gift? Who's the most important person in the church? You're not as important as me. And this gift, that's way more important than this gift. And they were so out of joint about spiritual gifts. And Paul's coming along, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. All that stuff, all that stuff's going to be over someday, all right? But you know what won't ever be over? Love. That's what he's saying here. So, on your outline, love is, greater than any spiritual gift. That is the greater sign, right? Okay, thank you. The one person here who knew. Okay, Brian. Brian Krauss, thank you. He knew that one. That is the greater sign. It's been a while. Thank you. He's always got my back. Love is greater than any spiritual gift. That's the point. Number one, spiritual gifts are temporary. That's Paul's first point. He goes, love never ends.08:32Love never ends. But look, you're all tied up about these spiritual gifts. He goes, that stuff is all temporary. Look at the rest of verse 8. He says, as for prophecies, they will pass away. As for tongues, they will cease. As for knowledge, it will pass away. They're all going to end someday. And Paul gives three examples. They were spiritual gifts that were a big deal.09:02church and there are three spiritual gifts that are a big deal in a lot of churches today.09:07Do you see them?09:08Let's talk about it.09:09First of all, he's talking about prophecy.09:13Jump over tongues for a second.09:16Prophecy and knowledge.09:18That's putting those together.09:20That's knowing and speaking God's truth.09:25It's a big deal.09:26It's a big deal in this church.09:27It was a big deal to the Corinthians because we talked about this a few months ago.09:31In that culture, public speaking was the cool thing. It was competition. It was entertainment. Public speaking was the thing. Right? So prophecy and knowledge, knowing and speaking God's truth. And right in the middle there, he talks about tongues. What are tongues? We talked about this briefly. We're going to really take a deep dive in this starting next week. But what are tongues? Tongues are literally known languages. All right?10:01It's not gibberish. Tongues are a known language. The spiritual gift was to be able to get up and speak in a language, an existing language that you didn't know, that you never learned. Like if I got up and all of a sudden I started speaking Mandarin. I don't know any Mandarin, but all of a sudden I start speaking it. That's what the gift was. And there would be an interpreter to have the gift to translate what was said. But it was a known language. Acts 2.10:31Look at Pentecost. That's what happened. We're going to talk more about that in a second. But Paul's point here is just simply this. All these gifts, prophecy, tongues, knowledge, they're all temporary. They're all temporary. All right, let's not get too excited about these. Like, they're all temporary. Yes, they have a purpose. Yes, used in the church. Yes, a gift from the Holy Spirit for the edification of the body. Yes, but, but, They are not the most important thing because they don't last forever. Alright, we're going to go to Sunday school here for a second. I want you to notice in your Bible, this is so important, notice the different verbs that are used talking about prophecy and tongues and knowledge. Did you see there are different verbs used describing them? One verb is pass away.11:31What that means literally, I'm not going to bore you with a grammar lesson, you can study this out yourself. Take me to Chick-fil-A and I'll show you my homework. But pass away literally refers to something coming along and putting an end to it. Like this is happening, but something's going to come and stop this. All right, that's pass away. The word cease though literally means something that stops all by itself. It just ends.12:01Nothing puts an end to it. It just stops. So notice he says here in verse 8 that prophecy and knowledge will pass away. They're temporary. Something will stop them someday. You're like, well, what's going to stop prophecy and knowledge? Oh, he tells us. We're going to get to that in verse 9. He tells us what puts an end to it. But he says tongues will cease. Again, tongues also temporary. He says tongues, literally, His wording is tongues will stop by themselves. So that is the question, isn't it? When will speaking in tongues come to an end? Well, here we go. Speaking in tongues. Speaking a language you didn't learn. This is the purpose of tongues. Tongues was actually a sign of judgment against the people.13:01the nation of Israel.13:05See, Israel had rejected God, and in Paul's day, Israel rejected Jesus Christ as Messiah, so God was moving on to people of other languages.13:18With speaking in tongues, God was saying, you're not going to listen to a language that you understand?13:23Well, I'm going to speak a language you don't understand.13:27And this isn't something that I came up with.13:29This wasn't my idea.13:30this is from the Old Testament. I want you to consider a couple of verses here. This has always been God's way. Jeremiah 5, verse 15. Behold, I am bringing against you a nation from afar, O house of Israel, declares the Lord. It is an enduring nation. It is an ancient nation. Look at this. A nation whose language you do not know. Nor can you understand what they say. Do you see as a sign of judgment?14:00God's saying, people are going to be coming and speaking a language, you don't have any idea what they're saying. He says the same thing, Isaiah chapter 28. He says, for by people of strange lips and with a foreign tongue, the Lord will speak to this people. To whom He has said, this is rest, give rest to the weary, and this is repost. Yet they would not hear. There it is again. God says judgment is going to be connected with, I'm going to bring people speaking a language that you're not going to understand. It's their language, but you're not going to understand what it is. You're like, yeah, yeah, yeah, Pastor Jeff, okay, okay, that's Old Testament. But is that really connected to the New Testament? Well, absolutely, because in 1 Corinthians 14, which we're going to be getting to real soon, Paul quotes Isaiah 28 in talking about tongues. He says, in the law, it is written, there it is, by people of strange tongues, And even then they will not listen to me, says the Lord. You see, Paul directly connected speaking in tongues with this sign of judgment from the Old Testament. All right? So tongues was a sign of judgment against Israel, and it was to affirm the apostles, their teaching and their message. We talked about this a couple of weeks ago. Quick review.15:29Speaking in tongues was actually a miracle. And God used miracles through the apostles to verify the new covenant gospel message because the New Testament wasn't completed yet. You see, these apostles didn't get up and say, open your Bibles to the book of James or whatever. They didn't have the Bible completed yet. It was being written at this time. So to verify their message, God backed them up with miraculous gifts.15:59Tongues was one of those. So miracles, including speaking in tongues, speaking a language you didn't learn, miracles ended, now listen very closely, they ended as normative with the apostolic era. What do I mean as normative? Do I believe that God still does miracles, including the biblical gifts?16:29The Gift of Speaking in Tongues today? Yes, I do believe that. I do believe that these miracles still happen on occasion. When God wants them to happen, they happen. But it's not normative as it was in the days of the apostles. In fact, you go through the rest of your Bible, there's zero mention in the New Testament after the book of Acts, after the book of 1 Corinthians, which is the earliest epistle written. There's zero mention of speaking in tongues moving through the rest of the New Testament. Zero mention. Why? Because it was a miracle gift connected with the apostles. Look, you might have a different understanding of speaking in tongues. And you're like, I want to fight about it. And I would say, I have no interest in fighting about it.17:28Because if we were to fight about it, we are going to completely miss the point, right? The point was, the church was fighting about it! And Paul's like, it's temporary! We don't fight about spiritual gifts, he's just reminding us, look, these things are not going to last into eternity! The spiritual gifts are all temporary! But love never ends!17:59All I can do as a pastor is tell you what the Bible says about it. Right? And I know that's why you're here. This is what the Bible says about spiritual gifts. Paul says, prophecy and knowledge will pass away and tongues will cease. But love never ends. Alright?18:28So spiritual gifts are temporary. And number two, write this one down. Spiritual gifts are partial. They're partial. Look at verse 9. He says, for we know in part, and we prophesy in part. Stop there. Knowledge and prophecy. Notice he dropped tongues in the conversation. Tongues has exited the chat.18:59Right? But knowledge and prophecy are always going to be needed in the church age. Right? Not new revelation. I'm not getting up anytime, nor is Pastor Taylor, Pastor Rich, or Brian, or anybody who gets up here to speak. Nobody's getting up here saying, hey, here's this brand new word from God. No, the revelation has been completed with the word of God. So knowledge and prophecy have to do with understanding and preaching the truth.19:28that's revealed in God's Word. But notice he says, we know in part. And we prophesy in part. I don't know everything. I didn't even know the little boy was playing tag. I don't know everything. And I certainly can't preach everything. Because knowledge and prophecy Not only are they temporary, but they're also partial. Look at verse 10. He says, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. All right, here's the question. What is the perfect that he's talking about here?20:32Well, you know what? I did a lot of reading this week. I did a lot of reading. And there are scholars and commentators and theologians, they are all over the board on this. Some people say that the perfect is the completion of the New Testament. That knowledge and prophecy pass away when the Bible is completed. Some people say, that the perfect is the rapture.21:05That's the perfect.21:06When the Lord returns and takes His church, that's the perfect.21:10And I've got to tell you, I don't see how either of those make any sense at all.21:16Knowledge and prophecy passing away.21:18First of all, when the New Testament is completed, even though the New Testament is completed, They're still preaching, right? Have you ever heard somebody preach? Have you ever experienced preaching? Okay. Thank you. They're still preaching. The Bible's complete, but there's still prophecy. We talked about this. Prophecy literally just means speak before. Talk before people. It's sharing the Word of God with people. That's what prophecy is.21:58That's still happening? Yeah. Okay. So prophecy's still a thing, right? And knowledge has to be a thing because I'm not getting up here, nor is any of our other preachers getting up here just talking about ourselves. We're talking about this. So we have to have preaching based on the knowledge of the Word. So that's still a thing, right? So the completion of the New Testament doesn't really, that doesn't make any sense. All right? I was so worried that I was going to get up here and say, you know, is still happening, right? And you're like, huh? Like, no. Like, it is! Right now! And then the rapture. People are like, well, the perfect, obviously, it's the rapture. Is there preaching during the tribulation? The tribulation will be the most evangelistic time in the history of the world. Yeah, the Bible's clear.22:58be preaching during the tribulation.23:01Now that doesn't make any sense either.23:05The context is clear, and it's going to be even more clear as we go through the verses.23:09What is the perfect? He's talking about heaven.23:12He's talking about heaven. Here's what he's saying.23:14Listen, he's saying when we're in glory, when we're in heaven, we are not going to need this partial knowledge of God.23:22We're not going to need it.23:24And we're certainly not going to need to preach in heaven.23:26That's what he's talking about.23:29I want you to listen very closely. Lest I be misquoted. Listen, the Word of God is perfect. But the knowledge is still partial compared to what we will know in glory. Prophecy also is partial.23:57Compared to all that there is to know. In a church like ours, every church has their thing, right? Every church has their thing. This church was planted on the belief that the Word of God does the work of God. And we have committed since day one to do nothing but straightforwardly proclaim the Word of God verse by verse.24:28That's expository preaching. And even though we proclaim God's truth verse by verse, it's still only partial. You can find this on our website. I looked this up. I don't track this stuff. I think Murph does. But go to our sermons tab on our website.24:57some time. Not now. But go to our sermons tab on our website. And they put up a tracker. You know, there are... Do you know how many chapters are in the Bible, by the way? Do you know how many chapters are? There's 1,189 chapters in the Bible. Since 2011, and this is what's tracked on the website. Since 2011, Harvest Bible Chapel, what?25:2715 and a half years, something like that. Okay, in that time, we have preached 214 full chapters in the Bible and 120 partial chapters. You know what that is percentage-wise? Since this church was planted, percentage-wise, of all the chapters in the Bible in 15, almost 16 years, we have preached 28.1% of the Bible.25:57Bible. Do you know what that means? Again, that's just Sunday sermons. That's not even talking about like, you know, Folsey preaching on Wednesday night or any of our conferences or anything like that. That's just our Sunday sermons. So to this point, we preach 28.1% of the Bible. Do you know what that means? That means if we're going to get to 100%, I get to go, more than 30 more years. I don't think I got it in me. But hypothetically, let's say we do. Let's say we do make it 100%. We covered every single verse in the Bible. Do you know what that means? That's still only part of what there is to know about God. Right?26:58Deuteronomy 29.29 says, the secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.27:10Look, this is partial, but we know everything that God wants us to know here.27:18Right?27:19So in saying the knowledge is partial, I don't want you to leave here thinking the Bible is deficient anyway.27:23It's not.27:24This is perfectly what God wants us to know here. But this isn't everything. But it's what He wants us to know here. Like, from the Bible, we know enough to be saved, don't we? I mean, isn't that clear? We know what it is to be saved, right? The Bible's clear. We are born with a sin nature, a rebellious nature. We are lost. We are dead in our sin. And Jesus Christ came and lived a perfect life and died on the cross.27:55That should have been me on the cross.27:57That should have been you on the cross.27:58Jesus said, I will take their place.28:00I will be punished for their sin.28:05And then Jesus rose from the dead three days later, conquering death.28:09And it is through turning from our sin and receiving Jesus Christ by faith, believing in Him that we are saved.28:17That's in the Bible.28:19We know enough to be saved.28:21Oh, do we know enough to live the redeemed life? Do we know what it looks like to live a Christian life? To be a Christian neighbor? To be a Christian spouse? To be a Christian parent? Yeah. But no matter how much we know and preach in the Bible, it's still only partial compared to all their will be to know in glory. So, you got all that? Well, for those that maybe are still a little unclear on the temporary and partial nature of spiritual gifts, Paul gives two illustrations respectively. Listen, verse 11 illustrates the temporary nature of spiritual gifts. And verse 12 illustrates the partial nature of spiritual gifts. He gives us illustrations so that we can understand what it is he's talking about. Alright? Look at verse 11. He says, when I was a child, I spoke like a child. I thought like a child. I reasoned like a child.29:50When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. See here, Paul's illustrating the temporary nature of spiritual gifts. And this is an easy illustration to grasp. Super easy. He's just simply saying this, I did things as a kid that I no longer do as an adult. Right? That should be all of us adults, right? Should be.30:21I did things as a kid that I no longer do as an adult.30:25You know, if you would have, if you go back in time, if you got some DeLorean or something that would take you back in time, and you would find me like in the early 80s, you know what I would have been doing? I would have been in the arcade. Oh, I love the arcade. Amen. Thank you. Yeah, I love the arcade. Dad would give me a dollar, and you'd go get the quarters, and you'd play your Pac-Man.30:50And oh I love the arcade. I spend so much time in the arcade. If you would have found me back then, you know what else I loved doing as a kid? Trick or treating. You know why I mentioned that? Because I know there are going to be people upset about this message. I figure I don't want to miss anybody.31:23It's true. I got on my Spider-Man costume. And it was, trick-or-treat was an hour in Shakura. And we made it our goal to hit every house. Maximize the time in Shakura you could hit every house in an hour. But, yeah, that's what I did as a child. Oh, as a child, I remember going to school. I had a blue He-Man lunchbox.31:51I do kind of miss that. Did you see Paul's point? He goes, when you grow up, you don't do the things you did as a kid, right? Well, this is the illustration. He says, our life on earth here now, this is our spiritual childhood. Because we are all, we are all right now, spiritually, we're like children. We're immature. We don't know a ton.32:22And what we do know, we struggle to understand it sometimes. And it's hard for us to sort of take it all in, right? But spiritual gifts are sort of like the ABCs for childhood. Notice, he says, I spoke like a child. I thought like a child. I reasoned like a child. Do you see what that is? Spoke like a child, that's tongues. Thought like a child, that's probably knowledge. Reason like a child, That's prophecy. What's he saying? He's just simply saying this. In glory, we're going to be grown up. So we're going to put away the earthly things, the childish things, the spiritual gifts. We're not going to need earthly spiritual gifts in heaven. That's what he's saying. We need them now, obviously. We're not going to need them in heaven. Because they're temporary. Verse 12 illustrates the partial nature of spiritual gifts.33:22He says, For now, we see in a mirror dimly, but then, face to face, now I know in part, then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.33:44Here He's illustrating partial nature of spiritual gifts.33:47He's talking about a mirror.33:48When we hear mirror, we think of the one that we have in our bathroom, right? The big, shiny. You can see all the imperfections and whatever. You can see all of that. It's so crystal clear. But understand, in Paul's day, their mirror was really just shiny, polished metal. That's really all it was. It was just shiny metal that when you saw your reflection in it, listen, the image, was true, but it wasn't clear. It was partial. That's why he says dimly. That's why he says right now we see dimly. Oh, oh, we see the glory of Christ now, don't we? Do we see the glory of Christ now? In His Word, we see the glory of Christ.34:48In a transformed life, we see the glory of Christ. In worship, we see the glory of Christ. We see now, but as glorious as it is, it's dim. But then in glory, he says, it's face to face. And think of how overwhelmed we will be with the glory of Christ.35:19when we're actually looking at His face. How well will we really get it then? All I know is it's not going to be partial then. That's why He says, look at the last part of verse 12 again. He says, now I know in part. Then, see that's glory, that's the perfect. Then I shall know fully even as I know.35:48I have been fully known. You see, now I know Jesus in part. Then I will know Him fully. You're like, well, how much? How much? How much? He says, I will know Jesus even as I have been fully known. He says, I will know Jesus as Jesus knows me.36:23Do you know what this means?36:28It means that someday It means that someday I'm going to be out of a job You know, like right now, I've dedicated my life to this I strive to tell you how glorious Jesus Christ is. That's all I try to do. Tell you how glorious He is. As revealed in His Word. His love for you. Oh, we don't deserve it. But He has demonstrated a love for us that nothing compares to. Oh, His love. All He's done. Laid down His life. Suffered disgrace and humiliation and insults.37:16and to raise from the dead triumphantly so that we could be adopted children of God. But you know, someday I'm not going to need any spiritual gift of prophecy or knowledge or exhortation in heaven because everybody there is fully going to know Jesus. Do you know how frustrating that's going to be for me? Do you even care?37:46I'm getting a strong vibe that you don't. Because this is heaven. Here's a preview of heaven. I'm going to be like, isn't Jesus awesome? And you'll be like, dude, I'm looking right at him. Yeah. Yes, he is awesome. Love is greater than any spiritual gift because they're temporary.38:17They're partial. But, but, but, number three, but love is forever. Love is forever. You probably know this verse. He says, so now faith, hope, and love abide. These three. But the greatest of these is love. Shifted gears a little bit, didn't he?38:47He says, so now faith, hope, and love abide. Like spiritual gifts, we use those sometimes, right? We use our spiritual gifts sometimes. But these three, faith, hope, and love, we're using those all the time, right? He says, but love is the greatest. Love is the greatest. Why? Why is love the greatest? Verse 8, because love never ends.39:16That's why it's the greatest. Faith, hope, and love. Oh, faith. Yeah, faith is pretty important. We need faith because according to the Bible, that's the only way we're saved. We are saved by faith. It is by faith in the person and work of Jesus Christ. We need faith. We need it for salvation. Hope. What do we need hope for?39:46We desperately need hope. You know what we need hope for? We need hope for perseverance. Hope is the only thing that keeps me going. It's knowing that things will not always be as they are right now. Knowing that there is a glorious future for everyone who loves Jesus Christ. That keeps me going. We need hope for perseverance. But you know, faith and hope, those are just earth things. They're temporary.40:16Because someday faith is going to be replaced by sight. You're not going to need faith in heaven. Oh, and someday hope is going to be replaced. Someday hope is going to be replaced by reality. Look, I'm here. Everything he promised, I got it now. But what's going to replace love? Nothing.40:49Spiritual gifts, ministry, stuff, even faith and hope are all temporary things. And they're all partial things. Love is the only thing that is for now and for eternity. That's why I look at chapter 14, first two verses, here it is.41:16That was the introduction. Here's the sermon. Look at chapter 14, verse 1. He says, pursue love. Pursue love. We talked about this before, right? Last week. Pursue love. Become like God. That's what it means to pursue love. Become like God. Be imitators of God. You know, the Bible doesn't say God is faith.41:47The Bible doesn't say God is hope. The Bible does say God is love. Pursue love. Pursue love, church. Hey, examine yourselves. Examine your relationships. Meditate on what it means to love. Go to God and say, God, make me love the way that you have called me to love. Pursue love.42:15That has to be your goal. It has to be. It takes us right back to love is patient and kind. You know, all that stuff we talked about last week. Remember that exercise last week? Put your name in where it says love. Put your name in there and see if the passage still makes sense because where it doesn't, it shows you where you need to grow. Remember that exercise? That can't be a one and done.42:4715 ways real love acts. Put your name in where it says love. See if it makes sense. Remember that exercise last week? Yeah, I think we should do that again, right? You're like, no, no, no, no. Hang on, hang on. You're like, hang on. Time out. Pastor Jeff, before you do that, that's a lot to remember, right? 15 is a lot to remember. Like, Pastor Jeff, could you maybe exercise some spiritual gift?43:17and summarize it for me. And the answer is no. I don't need to summarize it for you because the Bible already did. All of it can be summed up in one thing. And that is, love your neighbor as yourself. That's all through the Bible, right? Leviticus 19.18, Matthew 22.39.43:459, Galatians 5, 14, James 2, 8, over and over and over and over. Love your neighbor as yourself. That's what you need to meditate on. How do you want people to love you? How do you want people to forgive you when you mess up? How do you want people to talk to you? How do you want people Because the only thing that we have here on earth that we're also going to have in heaven is each other.44:29So, pursue love.44:35Our worship team would make their way forward in our communion servers.44:40We're going to close our time here around the Lord's table because again, Love isn't something that you can muster up. Love isn't something that you can try harder. The only way you can love is it has to come from God. It has to be the rivers of living water flowing through you. The Bible says we love because He first loved us. And there is not a more thing that I could think of, than to gather around the Lord's table and remember and participate in the reality in how He loved us.45:29We're going to ask you to stand, and when you are ready, come down the center aisles, receive the elements, and return to your seat via the outside aisles, and hold on to the elements, And when everyone has received as a sign of church unity, we will receive the Lord's Supper together. So please come when you're ready. We love because He first loved us. God demonstrated His love in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.46:11The Bible tells us that on the night that Jesus was betrayed, He took bread and He broke it and He gave thanks. And He said, this is My body, which is given for you. Eat this in remembrance of Me. After the meal, Jesus took the cup and He said, this is the new covenant in My blood. Pour it out for the forgiveness of sin. Drink this in remembrance of Me.46:44Would you please stand as we close our time in worship. </li> </ul> Small Group Discussion Read 1 Corinthians 13:8-13<ol data-rte-list="default"><li>What was your big take-away from this passage / message? </li><li>What is the difference between “pass away” and “cease” (1 Cor 13:8)? How does this help us understand these spiritual gifts listed? </li><li>What does “the perfect” refer to in 1 Cor 13:10? Defend your answer! </li><li>Explain Paul's 2 illustrations in 1 Cor 13:11-12. </li><li>How is love greater than faith and hope (1 Cor 13:13)?</li></ol>BreakoutPray for one another.

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