25th January 2026 - Brendan Hurley

G'day everyone. There's some tricky things here

to understand, aren't there? So let's pray, let's

ask God for help as we dig into this tricky but

important passage. Heavenly Father, we thank

you that you're a speaking God. We thank you

that your word is life -giving. And we pray,

Father, that as we look at it now, that you would

give us clarity and understanding. about the

things that you are saying to us. We ask this

in Jesus' name. Amen. All right, well, let's

do a fun little exercise. Word association games.

Do you know those ones? Word association games.

So you say something, the first similar thing

that pops into your head. So if I were to say

cow, you might say milk. Some men would probably

say steak. You know, beef. And really, you know,

you get some deep revelations about yourself,

don't you, when you have these word association

games. You know, we now know who's lactose intolerant.

So let's warm up. Call them out. You know, if

I said Jesus, what words come to mind? All right,

cool. We just understood everyone's theology

pretty well now. Excellent. No, that was good.

Church. Good, yeah. Mission. Tom Cruise, yeah,

yeah, cool. What about spiritual? It's a trickier

one, isn't it? For some people, it might be sort

of like spiritual thinking, mystical, supernatural,

experience, personal. The word I doubt that you

came up with or jumped into your mind when I

said spiritual was construction, building, intelligible,

ordered. But today I want to show you that's

part of what being spiritual is about. See, as

we've seen in 1 Corinthians 12 to 13 so far,

as we've been working through these passages,

we've seen that true spirituality is God's spirit

at work. But it's very different to what most

people think it is. They're playing that word

association game. It doesn't usually match up

with what they're thinking. We saw in 1 Corinthians

12 that belonging to the body of Christ, submitting

to Jesus, serving and depending on one another

as the body of Christ, that is what being spiritual

is about. We saw in 1 Corinthians 13 that pursuing

Christ -like love is the heart of being spiritual.

If you don't have love, you don't have anything.

The Spirit's not really at work. And 1 Corinthians

14, again, what is spiritual is not what you

would expect. Here's the big thing we're going

to see today. Building the body of Christ is

crucial to being spiritual. That's what spirituality

is about. Building the body of Christ is crucial

to being spiritual. And there's three aspects

that we're going to look at as to what building

the body of Christ is all about. Here's what

spiritual people will do. Spiritual people will

strive to build the church, not themselves. They'll

strive to build the church, build the body of

Christ. Spiritual people will speak intelligible

words because they build the church. And spiritual

people will seek ordered gatherings, ordered

gatherings. Because again, that builds the church.

Now, before we begin, it is worth mentioning,

this chapter sparks a lot of debates. Because

everyone's here trying to define what do tongues

and prophecy mean? Are tongues and prophecy around

today? Did they cease when the apostolic foundation

was laid? There's so much ink that's been poured

over this. And I don't want to get bogged down

in the debates. Now, we've got to remember the

Corinthians didn't have the full New Testament

as we do. We're in a different situation to them.

But whatever your view on this stuff, can I just

say there's some things that all Christians should

agree on, actually one key thing, and that is

that Scripture is sufficient. God's Word is sufficient.

It's all that we need. Look with me at verses

36 to 38. Paul himself makes that point. He says,

If you're a Christian, the Bible is God's word,

isn't it? It's the ultimate authority. It's all

we need. And when there's disagreement, it needs

to drive us back to the Bible, back to the Lord's

command. If we can't answer all our questions,

I mean, that's okay. But what we can do is distill

principles and work out what it looks like to

be spiritual people by going back to the Bible.

And that's what we're going to do this morning.

The way forward is to go back to the Bible. So

let's start with our first point. Spiritual people

strive to build the church. If you've got a Bible

there, it'd be great to have it open in front

of you. And we're going to look at verses one

to five. Have a look there what it says. Follow

the way of love or pursue love. And eagerly desire,

and the word gifts isn't actually there in the

original, eagerly desire the spirituals, especially

prophecy. For anyone who speaks in a tongue does

not speak to people but to God. Indeed, no one

understands them. They are the mysteries by the

Spirit. But the one who prophesies speaks to

people for their strengthening, encouraging,

and comfort. Anyone who speaks in a tongue edifies

themselves. but the one who prophesies edifies

or builds the church. I would like every one

of you to speak in tongues, but I'd rather have

you prophesy. The one who prophesies is greater

than the one who speaks in tongues unless someone

interprets so that the church may be edified.

So the big thing here Paul's saying is, I want

you to desire, I want you to prioritise prophecy

over tongues because it builds the church. And

we've got to go, well, what is prophecy? Now,

there's some clues here that really help us out.

He says in verse 3 that it strengthens, it edifies

and comforts the church. We see later in the

chapter that prophecy convicts unbelievers. It

exposes them and even converts them. And then

we see that throughout the passage, prophecy

is at various points synonymous with instruction,

with knowledge. It's not at the same level as

scripture because it must be weighed. So it's

a bit like a Venn diagram. You know a Venn diagram?

We've got here the gospel, or you could say Bible

or preaching, and then prophecy. And a Venn diagram's

where, you know, they kind of overlap, but they're

not fully overlapped. That's what we've kind

of got here with prophecy. It's not scripture.

It's not the gospel, but, gee, there's a fair

bit of overlap. So what is it then? Well, I think

perhaps the idea here is that prophecy is people

applying the gospel to the people around them.

Have you ever had that experience? Someone says,

just what you needed to hear by telling you the

gospel. You've been wrestling for months with

guilt and doubt and you're sitting there in a

growth group and someone says, do you know, when

I'm feeling guilty, I remember Christ died for

all our sins and I just hang on to that all and

I focus on that all and gee, it gives me great

comfort. And you go, oh. So good. Or you've got

a secret sin that you keep indulging in and you're

at church and the preacher's preaching the sermon

and without knowing that this is something going

on in your life, he calls you out on it. That's,

I think, prophecies about. Or maybe you're suffering

horribly. You're at morning tea, you know, and

you're going around and you want to be polite.

So you do the whole smile thing, you know. Oh,

yeah, I'm going okay. Inwardly, it's all agony.

And someone talks to you and they just speak

sweet gospel truth. They just say those gospel

truths. And they're not meaning to. They're just

talking. But those words just soothe the wounds

that you're going through. That's what I think

Paul means here by prophecy. It's applying the

gospel to each other. Now maybe there was more

to it and in our day and age we have less of

that. We don't need a new revelation. We've got

the Bible, don't we? But we need to be applying

that word to one another. And what a loving and

beneficial thing that can be. And it's something

that all God's people can do, can't they? See,

the key is not to discern, oh, do I have the

gift of prophecy? It's to get on with lovingly

building up the church. That's what you're meant

to be doing. That's what we're meant to be doing.

I love how the ESV translated in verse 12. Here's

what it says. So with yourselves, since you are

eager for manifestations of the Spirit. Strive

to excel in building up the church. Do you see

what he's saying? Do you want to have a spiritual

experience? Like I mean it, do you want to have

a spiritual experience? Build up the church.

That's a spiritual experience. Build up the church.

How? Point people to the comfort, the joy, the

grace of the Lord Jesus. That's the mindset that

Christians should have every time they come to

church. We should look around and go, is there

someone over there who I can meet with and have

a one -to -one with because they're really struggling?

Is there someone who's sad or lonely that maybe

I could just go talk to this morning? and encourage

them by pointing them to Jesus? Is there someone

I can go and say, wow, I'm so thankful to God

for the great ministry you're doing here? That's

building the church, isn't it? Being spiritual

is about construction. It's about building up

one another. It's about growing the church. But

in order to do that, There's some spiritual engineering

principles that we need to have in place. So

all the engineers, this is your time to shine,

okay? Here's our next point. Spiritual people

strive to build the church, but how are they

going to do it? Well, we speak intelligible words.

We speak intelligible words. Now, Paul uses the

metaphors of musical instruments. You can't really

play in a band if you don't know what each notes

are and you've got to understand all of that.

The bugle in the war, you can't know when to

retreat or when to attack if you don't have distinctive

sounds. And even different human languages. How

can I understand you and you understand me if

we don't have distinctive sounds and we understand

what those sounds mean? We can't get understandable

meaning. if we don't have distinctive communication.

And it's the same in church. And it's not just

for the Christian, it's the same for the outsider

as well. Look with me at verses 20 to 25. Paul

says there, brothers and sisters, stop thinking

like children. In regard to evil, be infants.

You know, that's where you want to be childish

when it comes to evil. But in your thinking,

be adults. And here's what it looks like to think

like an adult. In the law, it is written with

other tongues and through the lips of foreigners,

I will speak to this people, but even then they

will not listen to me, says the Lord. That was

our Isaiah 28 reading. Tongues then are a sign

not for believers, but for unbelievers. Prophecy,

however, is not for unbelievers but for believers.

So if the whole church comes together and everyone

speaks in tongues and inquirers or unbelievers

come in, will they not say that you are out of

your mind? You're crazy. But if an unbeliever

or an inquirer comes in while everyone's prophesying,

They're convicted of sin and are brought under

judgment by all as the secrets of their hearts

are laid bare. So they'll fall down and worship

God, exclaiming, God is really among you. Now,

I remember reading this passage for years and

going, huh? What is he talking about? They're

a sign not for believers, but for unbelievers.

And then someone said something that just made

the whole thing click for me. Not all signs are

positive. Not all signs are positive. This is

a negative sign. The tongues are a sign, a negative

sign for unbelievers. They're a sign of defeat

and exclusion. In my teens, I read a book, Tomorrow

When The War Began. Anyone else read John Marsden?

Yeah. I think I had to read it, so I didn't enjoy

it as much. That's what happens with school books.

But, you know, it's all about these teenagers.

They're returning from a camping trip and they

find that Australia has been invaded by some

nearby country. Now, imagine that you were them.

You've come back from this camping trip and you

look around and there's foreigners everywhere.

They've invaded your country, your home. And

they're all speaking in their own tongue. You've

got no idea what they're saying. You can't understand

what's going on. That's a sign. That's a sign

that your people have been defeated. That's a

sign that you're on the outer. That's what unintelligible

words signify in the church. It was a sign of

judgment to Israel and Judah, and it's a sign

of judgment when anyone comes into church and

they don't understand what's going on. They feel

left out. They feel so left out they go, you

guys are crazy. What are you doing? But if at

church the gospel is preached, prayed about,

sung about, Applied, it's clear, it's understandable.

That's powerful, isn't it? That convicts believers

and unbelievers of their sin. That even takes

unbelievers so that they go from sceptics to

worshippers of Jesus. Wow, I didn't think I was

a sinner. I didn't think that Jesus is Lord and

Saviour and the God of the universe. But that's

what happens when the gospel is applied to people.

And if you're not yet a believer, I hope that

you will have that experience here at Northern

Hope, and I hope that you'll keep coming until

you do, until you see how glorious Jesus is.

But this gospel power is muted. if no one understands

what is said. Go to a charismatic or a Pentecostal

church. Watch them speak in tongues. If there's

no translation, how can that help you? That's

not a sign of spiritual maturity or depth. It's

actually the opposite, isn't it? Go to a Catholic

church. Where the service is in Latin. Oh, that

feels very spiritual, doesn't it? Sacred. No.

That's going right against what Paul says. It's

not intelligible. Gospel words clearly spoken

so that people understand them, that is spiritual.

Because spirituality is about truth. It's about

the truth of the Lord Jesus. And that's why it's

so crucial here. When we're preaching from the

front, leading a service, praying, whatever we're

doing from the front, singing songs, what have

we got to do? Let's make sure we don't use Christianese.

I'm glad we're all here and we're speaking in

a language we can understand, but sometimes we

can make it confusing for people. So if we're

going to use Christianese, hey, guys, let me

tell you about propitiation, you know, we explain

it. Don't we? We want to make our services as

intelligible and clear and understandable as

we possibly can. There's a great rule that I

heard someone say once. It's the 90 -13 rule.

Have you heard that one? The 90 -13 rule in church,

that 90 % of what is said should be understood

by a 13 -year -old. That's being clear. That's

when the spirit is at work through the gospel.

But being clear is not all that we need to do.

Here's the next thing we need to do. Here's our

next engineering principle. Seek ordered gatherings.

Seek ordered gatherings. It goes so against what

people think of spirituality today, isn't it?

It's not this transcendent, chaotic experience.

And we see this in verse 33. This is how God's

people do it. They reflect their God. Now, why

does he say God's a God of order? Well, think

back to Genesis 1. Do you remember Genesis 1?

In the beginning, God created the heavens and

the earth. The earth was without form and void,

and darkness was over the face of the deep. That

is chaos. There's no form. It's void. It's everywhere.

It's dark. It's chaotic. And the Spirit of God

was hovering over the face of the waters, and

God said, let there be. And we have God. making

light we have God making everything God brought

chaos into order that's what God does actually

it's so intense when you read Genesis 1 isn't

it he made everything in a seven -day structure

and it's all with a backdrop you know the the

backdrop is the sky and the waters and the other

they're all made and then he fills them like

there's such a structure to how God does it He's

ordered. And we also see the word. It's his word

that creates order. The spirit's there hovering

over the waters. It's the word and the spirit

working together to create order. Now, let's

imagine a church service where everyone's talking

at once, where it's more like preschool than

church. Everyone's talking at once. No one's

taking turns. They're talking over each other.

Ask yourself, does that reflect the God of peace?

No. Because it can't build anyone up, can it?

When it's just chaotic like that. So Paul exhorts

the Corinthians and asks and he says, you want

to be spiritual? Be ordered. Speak one at a time.

And if there's tongues, make sure you've got

an interpreter. And cap the speakers at two to

three so that you don't overwhelm everybody.

You know, like you get to speaker number 27 and

you're going, okay, can I go home yet? And he

says, weigh what is said. And then we get that

controversial bit that the women need to remain

silent in church. Now, what's he mean by that?

We need to be careful here. He can't mean that

women be totally silent in church. You know,

Paul's not there going, okay, Bethany spoke.

That's it. You're in trouble. Actually, Paul

says earlier in chapter 11 that women are to

pray and prophesy in church. So it can't be saying

women can't say a word, literally. What's going

on in the context? Well, he's just been talking

about weighing up the prophecies. That's what

he's talking about here. They're not to be a

part of that weighing up process. So he's not

devaluing them. He's actually trying to point

everyone back to how things were meant to be

in Genesis 1. See, do you remember in Genesis?

Man and woman, they're both created in God's

image. They're of equal value. They've got different

roles, but they're of equal value. That's something

our society gets so messed up, doesn't it? We

think your worth, your value is dependent on

what your role is. If I've got more power than

you, I must be more valuable than you. And Paul's

saying, no, it doesn't work like that. They have

equal value. They're both in God's image. Jesus

died for men and women equally. But there's different

roles. There's hierarchy in families. And the

church is a church family, and it must reflect

that to support other families of believers.

So think back to Genesis. Here we've got the

hierarchy of authority, not value, in Genesis

1 and 2. Here's how God did it. He said, you

know, God made the man and the woman from the

man and gave them authority over the animals,

right? And that's why they go around naming all

the animals. But then what happens when the serpent

comes? It all gets flipped, doesn't it? The serpent,

who is an animal, then leads the woman, and the

woman then leads the man. And then what happens?

Where's God in that? Well, he's just not even

in the picture because they don't want to listen

to him. They're listening to the serpent now.

Everything gets flipped. And it becomes chaotic.

So what's this mean for us? You know, what do

we do understand with this? Well, Laura's gone

on holiday today with Jake on the Gold Coast,

so I can't use her as a sermon prop today. But

imagine she was here, if she was sitting right

here up the front, and if throughout my sermon

today she yelled, oh, that is so wrong, or, oh.

I don't think he meant to say that, you know.

That would undermine my sermon, wouldn't it?

Or if people were talking about my sermon after

church and she was going there, you know, yeah,

I don't think you really nailed that one. That

would undermine my leadership, undermine my example,

undermine everything. That would not build up

the church. which is what Paul's getting at here,

that would undermine the building of the church.

It would kind of divide things and cause chaos.

Paul is saying that men and women are equally

valuable, but there are different roles. And

that's why he says for the women to ask their

husbands at home, if it's single, it's different,

but if you're married, Ask your husband at home

because he's saying we want to promote order.

We want to promote order that men be men and

lead as men should. Now, how's this play out

for us as a church? Well, actually, before I

get to that, can I just say, if that is something

that's a struggle for you, I get this is hard.

Please come and have a chat with me. I get it's

hard and it's hard because men so often suck

at leading properly. So if this is a struggle,

please come and talk to me about it. It can be

awful, but please come and have a chat. Don't

just let it simmer. But how does this play out

for us as a church family? Well, a lot of this,

I think, we do do well. We talk one at a time.

There's the odd little heckling that Trevor used

to do and I do. But most of the time we're one

at a time and our services are sharp. We haven't

got 27 preachers, which is great, all at once.

But there's a subtle yet important challenge

here to husbands and wives that I think we do

need to take on board. Husbands, are you growing

in your love and understanding of God's word?

Because you can't lead your wife well. If you're

not. You can't lead others if you can't lead

yourself. You can't answer your wife's questions

if you haven't done some thinking on your own.

Now, not that you get it right all the time or

know all the answers, but it's a good thing to

be a person who's deep in their spiritual maturity.

Because as a husband, what's your job? It's to

build up your wife, isn't it? As Ephesians 5

says, it's to present her before Christ, blameless

on the day that he returns. So build up your

wife. Husbands, are you emotionally safe? If

your wife comes and asks you something about

Christianity, do you go, oh, I don't know, you

know, I'm busy right now? Can you be emotionally

safe with her and talk with her calmly? Can you

lead her well? And wives, are you respecting

your husbands? If you're both at church, what

happens on the car ride home? Do you ever ask

your husband questions or discuss the sermon?

Hey, sweetheart, what did you think about today's

sermon? I know Brendan's hair needs work, but

what did you think about what he was saying?

I didn't understand that bit. Are you raising

things? Are you talking to him? Letting him have

the opportunity to lead you like that. Are you

doing things in your marriage where you're undermining

his leadership? Stepping in where you really

need to hold back. All right, well, let's recap.

Let's recap where we've been. We asked today,

what is being spiritual about? We saw in the

last few weeks it's about belonging to the Lord

Jesus. It's about love. Today we saw it's about

construction. It's about building. It's about

growth, both reinforcing what exists and adding

to it by bringing new people in. We're not just

building up. We're building out. Spiritual people

strive to build the church, build up, build out.

Spiritual people speak intelligible words. They

speak clearly. The truth, the gospel truth, clearly.

And we seek ordered gatherings. What is spiritual

being about? Next time you play word association,

one word that should jump into your head. No,

it's not there. Well, there you go. Here's the

big idea. Building the body of Christ is crucial

to being spiritual. That's what being spiritual

is about. It's about building. Or putting it

another way, it's all about being centred on

the love and lordship of Jesus. It's making Christ

clear to people. It's removing obstacles that

mute, distort or dishonour Christ because that's

what builds the church, isn't it? That's when

the spirit is at work. So Christians who are

here today, are you being spiritual? Are you

here on Sunday speaking to one another, serving

one another? Have you signed up to a growth group

so that you can do that throughout the week?

Are you inviting non -Christians to church? These

are spiritual things to be doing. And if you're

not yet a Christian, have you seen the glory

of Jesus? Have you seen how great it is to know

him and love him? Please keep coming until you

do. It will change not only your life but your

eternity if you do. But let me close with this.

Imagine if every regular, when we walk through

that door each Sunday morning, imagine if they

came to church with their construction radar

on. Scanning the room for opportunities. Who

could I build up this week? What way could I

serve someone else this week? Or serve today,

just even informally? Who could I invite? Is

there a new person I could talk to today? I know

I want to talk to my friends, but I'll get to

them. I'm going to talk to that new person who's

sitting on their own. Imagine if we all came

to church with that construction radar on. Jen

would be happy. Rosters would be easier to fill.

Less people would slip through the cracks. There'd

be a magnetic love about how we do church, wouldn't

there? I think we've got a lot of that. But let's

pray for more of it. Let's all strive to do that

because that's the sort of church I want to go

to and actually that's the sort of church that

can have a huge impact on any city. Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we want to thank you for the

Lord Jesus. We thank you for the message of the

cross that all our sins All our sins have been

paid for by him. We thank you that through his

mighty resurrection, Jesus is Lord of all. Father,

we know the truth of the gospel is what builds

your church. And we ask, Father, that you would

help us to share that good news every week here

from the pulpit, in the conversations we have.

in the way we pray, in the way we sing, in all

that we do, please may it be centred on the lordship

and love of the Lord Jesus. And please, Father,

help us to be a spiritual church because we are

striving to build the body of Christ. Help us

with these things, Father. We can't do it on

our own. We need your help. We bring these things

before you now. In Jesus' name, amen.