Order for the Sake of Freedom

So we're in this thing of a section of instruction that Paul's putting around how the gifts of the spirit should be operating inside the church.

And what he's doing is placing order.

He's placing order into a confusing, chaotic place.

Because that's what he's trying to step into and instruct.

The Corinthian church has uh bred confusion in the way that they use spirit gifts, which has led to chaos in the midst of the congregation.

And Paul's stepping in under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, writing this epistle to create order here.

And I thought about how does this kind of parallel to us in the real world?

Where how does order create freedom?

And one of the ways that I think that this is true is that in traffic, right?

So traffic is a way where order creates freedom.

Now, I've been to Kosovo a few times, and I can tell you there is almost zero order in the way that they understand traffic in driving.

They are a mess.

There's a few signs and a few lights, but overall, traffic is understood this way.

How much can you beep and how much courage do you have to ensure your beeping will get you to where you want to go?

They just bump into each other.

They don't understand signs or turn signals or anything else.

They just park.

There's not a lot of parking in Kosovo, so they just straight up park on the sidewalk.

So you could be walking in front of a business, and a car just and just parks on the sidewalk in front of the business.

They even park like touching each other, and if they want to get out of spaces, they will literally bump your car out of the way until they can get out of their space.

There's just chaos.

And so like traveling in Kosovo is always an interesting experience because you're like on edge the whole time, terrified of what's going to happen.

But for them, now for them, there's some normalcy, but it's still confusion and chaos at best, even though it's normal to them.

When we come over to the States, right, we have this deep appreciation and value for order, for lights and signs and lanes that are supposed to be used for certain things.

Now, granted, not everybody does, and we experience that little bit of road rage that happens when uh when we encounter one of those people.

But by and large, that order creates freedom for us.

You see, me and my wife, we celebrate our 14-year anniversary this week.

We, yep, thank you, thank you.

It was wonderful.

And we got to go down to OTR to check out one of the new Italian restaurants down there.

And guess what?

The order of traffic made our experience more peaceful, pleasurable, enjoyable, had more freedom because we didn't have to worry about the navigating confusion and chaos, right?

We were able to just go and enjoy ourselves, come back safely, enjoy one another's company where the kids were at the grandparents' house and all that fun stuff.

So this is a reality where we have to understand order creates freedom.

Oftentimes we don't think that way.

We think of order as restrictive, we think of order as enslaving, or we think of order as something contradictory to the nature and person of God.

But actually, order is established so that freedom might reign.

And so when we look at the beginning of this text and we look at verse 26 by itself, what I think that this is really trying to communicate to us is that each person has been gifted to build up the church.

Each person has been gifted to build up the church.

Paul's working to bring order to the church gatherings in view of spiritual gifts.

And he's painting a scene for us.

He's painting this scene of a vibrant, spirit-gifted church community, right?

So when you come together, each one of you maybe has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, an interpretation.

So he's painting this scene of this vibrant, spirit-gifted church community, and he affirms, I think, at least four things in this opening statement alone.

The first thing that he affirms is the diversity of gifts.

So he looks, he says, maybe have a hymn, a lesson, revelation, tongue, interpretation.

So he looks at distinct gifts that are expressed uniquely toward the common goal of edification.

So he's saying, look at the diversity of gifts that people could bring to the church and the church gathered.

And each one of those gifts are uniquely expressed with inside the congregation, but they're uniquely expressed for the common end purpose.

So while there might be diversity and distinctiveness, they don't have their own end goals.

They have one common end goal that they're pursuing collectively together, which is the building up of the church.

So that in alone helps to bring order to how the gifts are supposed to function within the body.

They're supposed to function distinctly, yet in commitment to one another toward the end goal of building up the church.

Number two, there's the expectation of gifts.

Paul affirms the expectation of gifts to be present when the church is gathered.

So when you gather, each of you having, there's this expectation that's established, right?

And we don't really have that expectation within the modern day church.

We kind of come here expecting some gifts to be used, but we really minimize what gifts those are.

Probably to the person behind this big wooden block or the people on that big wooden stage or the people behind that big wooden box, right?

Those are kind of the people that we think, I don't know why everything has wood in front or behind of it.

However, uh, we kind of limit what gifts will be expressed or understood inside of the church gathered by a select few rather than coming to the church with an expectation that each of us would have a gift to give for the end goal of building up the body.

The church gathered should have an expectation for the demonstration of spirit gifts.

Number three, the proportion of gifts.

The proportion of gifts in that the Spirit has gifted as he wills, proportionately to each individual gifts.

So each member are gifted, each one gifted by the Spirit for the building up of the church.

And then the fourth thing I think that he affirms is the purpose of the gifts.

The purpose of the gifts are for what?

For building up the church.

So we see the diversity of gifts, we see the expectation of gifts, we see the proportion of gifts, but we also see the purpose of gifts.

Now, again, we're being introduced to this list of gifts, right?

Gifts, hymns, uh lessons, revelation, tongue.

Some of these have been listed in other areas of this epistle and other writings of the scripture.

Some haven't, right?

A hymn is one of the ones that's introduced to us inside of this text itself.

So we have this list, but these here are to demonstrate diversity and complexity of a church-gathered experience, not to try and give us an exhaustive, complete list of spirit gifts.

Our focus for this passage doesn't need to be on the gifts themselves that are mentioned, but it needs to be on the all things.

All things, a much broader reality of spirit gifting and the for building up, which sets the scene for the instruction to follow.

So another way that we could say this verse, right?

This introductory 26, another way, if I was going to kind of do the Justin Translation version, uh, I would say it this way.

Even though all will come with a diversity of gifts, there is an order placed upon each one's conduct to achieve the end goal of building up.

Even though all will come with a diversity of gifts, there's an order placed upon each one's conduct to achieve the end goal of building up.

I think that's what Paul's trying to get at in labeling these types of gifts, understanding that there's an expectation for them, but also creating and establishing the purpose behind them.

27 through 28, then, we will see that an uninterpreted tongues is not for the church gathered, but is for the individual.

Uninterpreted tongues is not for the church gathered, but is for the individual.

So there's a qualifier there, uninterpreted.

And that's an important qualifier to have in front of this gift which is listed.

We're encouraged to contend again in this section for intelligibility.

We've talked about this in the last two sermons in regards to how gifts are given inside of the assembly of the church.

Intelligibility is our kind of common rule that we're pursuing.

And Paul again contends for that when he says that an interpretation must be present in the midst of tongue speech.

So we're encouraged to contend for intelligibility for the building and maturity of the church.

Anyone who desires to express their gift of tongues must contend for this intelligibility as well.

So there's this communal effort and understanding that the church collectively is contending for intelligibility, for proclamation that can be understood, received, processed, faith applied to.

And anyone who has the gift of tongues has to submit and contend for that intelligibility also.

Interpretation is a necessary complementary gift to a corporate use of tongues.

Interpretation is a necessary complementary gift to a corporate use of tongues.

That's what Paul's establishing for us in these instructions here in this passage.

Now there's some things to consider about tongue speech in the assembly.

I have three things to kind of consider as we look at this passage.

Number one, it's presented as a gift that can be controlled and put under discipline by the person.

At least it appears to be that way.

The way that Paul presents its use, it can be controlled and put under discipline by the individual.

He says, only allow two or three at most.

So what that means is that there's an expectation that there's more than two or three who are gifted and able to proclaim a tongue's speech.

However, discipline should be applied so that only two or three at most do so.

They should also do it in turn, not speaking over top of one another, or not speaking in conjunction with one another, but should do it in turn.

Then there's another part that if no interpretation is present, they should keep silent.

So again, tongue speech seems to be presented as a gift that can be controlled and put under discipline by the person.

In my own experience, I would affirm that.

And I would say that anybody who would say that that was unable to be controlled or was so compelled by the Holy Spirit that it disrupted the order which the Holy Spirit himself was applying through the Apostle Paul to the church at Corinth.

Well, that wasn't the Holy Spirit then.

Number two, interpretation is either known beforehand or discovered afterward.

Now, I put both in there because we've talked about through this sermon series, there's no real manual for spirit gifts in the Bible.

There's these bits and pieces where the uh apostles try to speak directly to situations and instances within the local church.

But as a prescriptive, collected manual of what the gifts are, how they're to be used within the church, and so forth, we don't have anything real clear and exhaustive.

We have to try to piece some of the uh kind of um partial revelations together to get an understanding for spirit gifts.

So there is this kind of wild west reality, to some measure, of spirit giftedness and how it would function in the church or these unknown territories that the spirit might take us to.

However, the principles can still apply.

Principles such as that therefore the building up of the church, principles such as order is supposed to be demonstrated, principles such as uh uh preferring one another over yourself.

These are all principles that even as we venture out into the realms of where the spirit would desire to take us, they can be applied to their practice within the congregation.

And so I put that interpretation is either known beforehand or discovered afterward because that's a common question that we kind of wrestle with when it comes to the use of spirit uh of the use of tongues inside of a congregation.

Personally, here's where I want to submit this.

Personally, I would defer to it's known beforehand.

Personally, I would lean toward known beforehand for two primary reasons.

And I've wrestled with this a lot throughout many years, and I'm willing to submit this as I'm wrong, right?

But here's how I would personally lean toward this for two reasons.

Number one, knowing beforehand would achieve the highest level of order as to who and when they should speak.

So therefore, if only two or three are supposed to speak at most, and they're supposed to do it in turn, the ability to have the interpretation beforehand or knowing that someone was able to interpret would lead to a highest level of order that's given to us through the scriptures.

Then we wouldn't have just, well, maybe you.

Well, you didn't?

Okay, how about you?

You didn't either.

Okay, we got one more shot here, guys.

Three at most.

Maybe you, right?

So there's first kind of way that I would understand.

Second way is that it would support and uphold the command to remain silent if no interpretation is present.

So there seems to be this prerequisite of understanding that there is an interpretation present and available, or if not, you're to remain silent.

So that doesn't seem to facilitate this space where we're giving these tongues messages by the gifting of the Holy Spirit and then praying and waiting to see if there was an interpreter present.

It seems to be the reverse of that.

That knowledge or of or absence of an interpretation means that we either speak up or we remain silent.

So I would submit that, however, I'm open to being wrong.

Number three thing about tongue speech is that it can and should be used individually as a prayer language without interpretation.

So Paul again affirms this gift can be used privately without interpretation.

In fact, he continues to encourage that.

He doesn't say remain silent if there's no interpretation forever or in all circumstances.

He says only in the assembly or in the church gathered.

If there is no interpretation, to remain silent.

We have to understand that tongues is fundamentally a language of man to God.

Tongues is a language of man to God.

Now, most of us might look at what happened in Acts 2, where the Holy Spirit fell upon the 120 in the upper room, and this sign of tongues of fire was above them, and they began speaking in languages not known to them.

But those who were outside, who were there for the feast of Passover, would have recognized in their own language the mighty deeds of God being proclaimed.

Now, listen here.

What happened?

They heard the mighty deeds of God being proclaimed.

They heard these individuals, these 120 in the upper room, glorifying and magnifying God.

It took Peter standing up in intelligibility proclaiming that Christ Jesus had died, was buried, but rose again.

And it was under that proclamation of the gospel, the intelligible proclamation of the gospel, that 3,000 were added to the church that day.

So it took a distinct function of the church to proclaim intelligible gospel proclamation for salvation to be experienced by the hearers who were also hearing the get the tongue speech, glorifying God in their own language.

So this language of if we're going to declare tongue speech and it's going to be interpreted, even in the church, I would make the argument that what you would interpret would be how wonderful and majestic and holy and mighty God is.

It would be declaring and magnifying who God is and what he has done for his people.

But it'd be this language of man to God.

The church still needs the giftedness and proclamation of man to man to be able to see salvation among his people.

So, in that understanding, tongues can and should be used as a private prayer language, even in the absence of an interpreter.

Now we look at prophecy.

So he switches from tongue speech over to prophecy in 29 through 33A.

And I would say this that prophecy must be weighed, judged, and done in order.

Prophecy must be weighed, done uh judged, and done in order.

Again, we send limitations in order placed on the use of spirit gifts in the church gathered.

Just like the gift of tongues, prophecy seems to be a gift that can be disciplined and controlled by the individual.

Because there's supposed to be order.

There might be many beyond three who have prophetic ability or utterance to give to the church, but Paul still restrictions places order that two or three at most speak.

So we see these restrictions of two or three speaking.

We see the restrictions of let others weigh what is said.

Now we have to think about this.

Who are the others?

So Paul says, let two or three of you speak and let the others weigh what is said.

Who are the others?

Now there's a lot of ways that we can look at this of who the others are.

Are they the other prophets present within the congregation?

Are the others the elders who are appointed and placed into the office within the local church?

Or who are they?

Well, I think it's best to understand that the church as a whole are the others.

It is this communal collective discernment that Paul is calling to be weighed upon what is spoken.

Even though in next week, we're going to see Paul put restrictions upon who those people are.

So when he says the others, he does not mean everyone present within the assembly.

He does put restrictions on who can weigh and judge what is prophesied.

We're going to talk about that next week.

Even if those same people are able to prophesy, they are restricted from judging the prophecy that is given.

But I still think that the best way to understand the others is the church collectively coming together for communal discernment on what was declared.

Also, weighing what is said speaks directly to the type of utterance Paul is setting as an expectation for the use of the gift.

Now, let's think about this.

Paul, he is a contender for authoritative doctrine.

I talk about this quite a bit, but when you look at the epistles that Paul wrote, there's always two anchoring realities to every letter he wrote.

Number one is remember the gospel.

You will not find an epistle that Paul wrote where he does not remind his hearers of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Second thing he always does is he fights for sound doctrine.

Paul loves and contends for authoritative doctrine.

But he establishes this different culture when it comes to the gift of prophecy within the church.

There's an expectation to have many who can prophesy.

Even though only two or three at a time in a gathering, there's still this expectation that there might be more than two or three who are present and able to prophesy in the assembly.

He just limits it to two or three at most.

So he sees this broad reality of many who may be able to prophesy.

He also affirms the necessity for communal discernment, which speaks to the type of prophecy he's working through here in this text.

Paul is not a guy that says, all right, everybody, get together and what you think is true is going to be true.

Paul never actually tells the church to exercise that when it comes to authoritative doctrine about who Jesus is and what he's accomplished on behalf of his people.

He never does that.

In fact, Paul even himself submits himself to the discernment of the Jerusalem Council before he starts his public ministry.

So he's preparing for years and years to go out and prepare to preach the gospel.

And before he lets loose, he goes to Jerusalem to submit himself to other apostles to affirm that what he is going to go and preach is true and accurate, that it is sound doctrine able to produce salvation in God's people.

So Paul's not about, hey, if we all think this feels good, then it's good.

Paul's not ever about that.

However, in this passage, he seems to create space to produce a culture where there is communal discernment about the utterances given within the church.

Gathered.

And this creates another thing.

It creates the space and freedom to be wrong.

It creates the space and freedom to be wrong.

You see, what I think that Paul is referring to when he refers to prophecy is not a thus saith the Lord revelatory, authoritative, Holy Spirit-inspired revelation from God.

But I think it's this: it's a Holy Spirit prompted, subordinate revelation that was expected to be both partial and fallible at times.

Holy Spirit prompted subordinate revelation that was expected to be both partial and fallible at times.

And there's some of us, including myself, that is not okay with that.

Not okay for having a space where people get it wrong.

Not having a space where people can step out in faith and what they utter as what they have been prompted by the Holy Spirit to be partial, not total, fallible, not infallible.

We're not okay with that space.

We're gonna talk about that sin in our heart in just a moment.

You see, though many may have the ability to prophesy, a demonstration of order would be seen in mutual submission and preference.

Paul says there's other restrictions.

Let the first be silent.

If someone has a revelation, let the first be silent.

Prophets subjected to other prophets.

It's this language of preference and submission to one another, so that all may learn and be encouraged.

Why should prophets, why should those who have gifting of the Spirit for utterances of the church gathered, prefer one another over self, be humble in their use of the gifts, exercise and demonstrate love in the congregation so that all may learn and be encouraged.

That's what Paul tells us is the emphasis, the thrust of this instruction.

These instructions of order are to reflect the character of God as well.

He says, Do you know why this is supposed to take place?

Because God himself is not a God of confusion, he is a God of peace.

So the conduct of the church is there to reflect the character and personhood of God Himself.

He's not a God of confusion or chaos, he's a God of peace.

Peace is created through order, where confusion breeds chaos.

Think about this in your own home.

If you have children, you're gonna understand me very well.

But when we have confusion in our home, chaos is bred, right?

When we don't allow for order to be established in our home, chaos is bread.

So what happens is this we'll put order into place, right?

And our ability to put order is kind of like putting this safety fence around our children.

And what happens is this, right?

They when we when we expect them to submit to order, but they don't, they try to see how far they can push that fence out, right?

And every moment of rebellion is them seeing how far they can stretch the boundaries of safety that you provided for them.

And so for the 45 minutes that you took to actually come through on disciplining them over the umpteen times you threatened them, if you don't listen up, if you don't do this, if you don't, whatever, I'm gonna.

So that 45 minutes, you know what they did?

They were pushing the boundary out as far as they possibly could.

And here's what the habit they learn.

They learned that they can always push the boundary out that far.

So you know what that happens the next time that you try to get them to submit to order, they keep pushing the boundary out because they know they can get away with it.

So little parent tip here's the fence.

Establish the fence.

Don't let them keep doing this.

But what we do is we place order within our homes so that our parent, our children can find freedom.

In fact, they can find an exorbitant amount of joy and peace and freedom when order is both established and executed.

Think about when your children are behaving, when they're submitting to the order you've established in your home, when there's clear expectation of what instruction and discipline should look like, and then it's in joy submitted to.

There is peace in the home.

But without order, without instruction, without discipline, there is chaos.

What's our main idea this morning?

We are called to pursue order for the sake of freedom.

We are called to pursue order for the sake of freedom.

Paul does not, Paul does not, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, work to put in place order so that we experience less of the Spirit.

That's not what Paul's trying to do here.

And some of us can be tempted to think that way.

Well, Paul's putting order and restrictions around the gifts of the Spirit and how they can be used in the church gathered.

He's not doing that so that we experience less of the Spirit.

He's doing it so that into the fullness that we are given by the Spirit, we experience him fully.

He says that.

That's the thrust of his uh argument, so that all may learn and be encouraged.

Not so that some, not so that partial, but so that all may learn and be encouraged.

This is again the thrust of his instruction for order in the church.

It's only through order that the church collectively can experience the freedom and benefit that the gifts are intended to provide.

Without order, chaos would reign.

Chaos would reign and it would breed a culture of self-edification and self-glorification.

This is exactly the culture Paul was working to transform.

Transforming a culture from self-glorification to one of communal edification.

So, how should the gifts work within the church?

For communal edification, for the church collectively to be built up by the demonstration of the gifts.

How are they demonstrated?

In submission to the order that's established through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

So, Paul, again, he's not doing this so that we're bound, so that we're re-enslaved.

Paul's doing this so that we experience freedom, so we experience more of the gift of the Spirit together in the way that we were designed and created to.

But we don't believe that.

We tend to fall into two kinds of ways of thinking when we approach this subject matter.

Number one is that we pursue freedom for the sake of freedom.

We pursue freedom for the sake of freedom.

This breeds anarchy when we do this.

When we just chase after freedom, we talk about the wildness of the spirit or the organic moving of the spirit inside of the church.

We tend to see order as enslaving and contradicting to the character of God.

We think of order as putting God in a box.

We would normally contend for a more wild and organic moving of the spirit and relationship with Jesus.

We see doctrine as dangerous because it leads to restriction of who God is or what he could do.

So for those of us who pursue freedom for the sake of freedom, it's not coincidental that they often also dismiss or downplay the importance of doctrine in their life.

Because why?

Doctrine is restrictive.

You're trying to put God in a box.

But the reality is, if there is a box, it's one that was created by his own sovereign hand and he placed himself into.

That's what the revelation of the scripture is.

This is God revealing himself to us through his Holy Spirit and the prophets and apostles of which recorded that inspiration.

God has desired to demonstrate or reveal himself in his character and personhood so that we may worship him rightly.

Who gets to dictate how God is worshipped?

God does.

Who gets to dictate how God should be served?

God does.

Who gets to dictate how man is saved?

God does.

Who gets to dictate how they have relationship with him?

God does.

We don't get to dictate those things.

So when we have a posture of saying that doctrine is divisive or we dismiss doctrine because it restricts God, here's what we're ultimately saying.

We would rather worship a God of our own imagination than the God of the Bible of how he's revealed himself to be.

Ultimately, we'd rather bow down to an idol than bow down to our Savior King.

So doctrine is important.

We can't see freedom for freedom's sake as being healthy and beneficial.

It will, it does breed anarchy.

But there's others of us, others of us who pursue order at the cost of freedom.

We pursue order at the cost of freedom.

This doesn't breed anarchy, this breeds tyranny.

This kind of order leads to the dismissal of gifts.

We see no space for freedom, and so we quench the manifestation of the Spirit.

We can't be wrong.

We can't mess up.

And I would say this: that where there is no freedom to fail, there is no freedom to try.

So what do we do?

We default to fail to desire.

Right?

Do we remember this prescriptive command earlier in this passage in this sermon series?

That you should desire the spiritual gifts that desire them, especially that you may prophesy.

That is a prescriptive, explicit command from the Holy Spirit through the Apostle Paul for the church to submit their life to.

Just as much as thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not steal or murder.

Desire the gifts of the Spirit, especially that you may prophesy.

That's an explicit command.

But we fail to desire, especially that we might prophesy, an explicit command of the scriptures, because we have so elevated unhealthy order that we have suffocated freedom itself.

And this is the end result.

The church then fails to be edified to the degree of which Jesus desires us to.

The church fails to be edified to the degree of which Jesus desires us to.

Because we can't be wrong.

We can't mess up.

And so what kind of culture does that breed?

Well, no one's gonna try.

No one's gonna try then.

No one's gonna desire to even try because we can't get it wrong.

We can't mess up.

But what should be the culture of the church?

We should create such a space of freedom, bound by order and instruction of the Holy Spirit in the holy text, but so fueled by love.

That what love is patient?

Hey man, you've been trying.

You've been trying to hear from the Holy Spirit, you've been trying to exercise the gifts of the Spirit in your life, and you've gotten it wrong like 10 times.

But guess what?

I'm patient with you, brother.

I'm patient with you, sister, because you're trying.

Love is kind, right?

So we come alongside them to help them and encourage them.

We don't go Old Testament prophet on them and say, see that stack of bricks out there?

I'm gonna meet you in the parking lot.

You got it wrong.

We're gonna chuck them at your face.

Right?

Maybe we're patient, maybe we're kind, maybe we're long-suffering, we bear all things with them, maybe we uh uh never give up.

Right?

That's why Paul wrote the whole chapter of love.

It wasn't so that, like I said, it could be read at people, people don't even believe in Jesus' marriages uh ceremonies uh throughout time.

He wrote that chapter of love so that we would understand that we're supposed to create a space and environment where people try, but they might get it wrong.

But that's okay because what?

Love fills in the gaps.

And so if we we we fail if we pursue freedom for the sake of freedom and anarchy, or we fail if we pursue order at the cost of freedom.

If we create a culture where there is no freedom to fail, then there's no freedom to try, and there will be absent completely of desire.

We can't do that.

I will make the argument explicitly that Paul was not referring to authoritative, Holy Spirit-inspired revelation of God when he's talking about the scenario of the local church.

He's talking about baby Christians who have been gifted by the Spirit and they're trying to work it out and practice it.

Why?

For the building up of the church.

We've talked about this before, but you when your kid is starting to learn how to walk and they fall the first what 27 times, you don't yell at them like you are horrible.

You can't walk, you're bald, you have no teeth, you're useless, right?

We don't do that to our children.

We prop them up.

Way to go, champ.

You tried.

Let's try it again.

Why can't we have that kind of culture in the church?

Now there's a reality where we have to be shepherds of the flock.

There's a reality where we have to put wolves down when they pop up within the congregation, but not everybody's a wolf.

And we don't have to be that abrasive toward every single person who comes in here.

We can actually create a healthy culture where we attempt to be led by the Spirit and use the gifts that He has given us and get it wrong sometimes.

That can still be a healthy culture because in love, you know what you do?

The way that you correct sin in a brother's life or a sister's life in love, and you come alongside them, you correct them where they got it wrong or where they messed up or where they missed the mark.

Hey, look, you gave that a shot.

That was awesome.

I love seeing you try.

I love seeing you try to listen and be prompted and follow in obedience the leading of the Holy Spirit.

Let me come alongside you where I think that you you missed the mark.

Boom, boom, boom, boom.

But you know what I want you to do?

I want you to try again.

Don't let this stop you.

I want you to try again.

What a healthy culture that could bring.

Why?

Because we're submitted to the authority of the revealed word of God.

We're not submitted to prophets who speak on whims.

We're submitted to the revealed authoritative word of God.

And by that, we are able and sufficiently able to create a culture of healthy failing.

What's the beauty of the gospel for us this morning?

It's that Jesus died in orderly submission to bring his people into freedom.

Jesus died in orderly submission to bring his people into freedom.

Jesus suffered under the chaos of our anarchy.

He suffered under the evil of our tyranny to liberate us from the slavery of our own sin.

He willingly subjected himself to the will of the Father, not in weakness, but in strength and joy, so that the church collectively will be blessed and edified.

God's order in the church is to reflect himself in that community.

It's a portrait of the gospel itself.

You see, the Trinity is an ultimate picture of an ordered, free community where the persons give themselves freely for the good and joy of the others.

Jesus is not less than the Father because he submits himself to the Father's will, nor is the Spirit less because he is sent by the Son and the Father.

It is through this order that freedom is actually lived and able to be given to his people, the church.

God is not a God of chaos or confusion.

God is a God of peace.

How is that peace established?

That peace is established through order.

So order actually gives us more freedom, not less.

Now there can be order that is oppressive and that suffocates freedom.

But we have to navigate those things and hold them in tension and walk out submission to the revealed word of God in the Bible to be able to understand that more completely and holistically within the church.

So if we were to believe this and try to live this out in our lives, I have three ways that we would do this.

Number one, we would discover how you have been gifted by the Spirit.

Discover how you have been gifted by the Spirit.

Look, I believe that we are pe if you have been saved by Christ, you have placed your faith in his death, burial, and resurrection, what does that mean?

It means that you have been made alive by the Holy Spirit, where you were once dead, you are now alive.

You have been filled and sealed by the Holy Spirit for the day of visitation so that your salvation is secure, and you have been gifted by the Holy Spirit, for he gifts to each one of the members as he wills for the benefit of the church.

So here's what I believe as I survey the scriptures about you.

You are gifted by the Holy Spirit distinctly and uniquely for the building up of the church.

You have to discover that.

How many of us have gone weeks and months without meditating on how have I been gifted by the Holy Spirit to be able to build into the maturity of the church?

And we realize that that list of giftedness is so expansive.

We believe that any talent or ability that is spirit-empowered for the building of the church is a gift of the Spirit.

And we believe that even that list is being developed and expanded in today's modern church.

And so you have to discover how that is.

And you discover that in community.

Hey, look, if you think you're really good at something and a lot of other people think you're not good at it, maybe you don't have that gift.

Just a thought.

Just a thought as a way you try to discern some things, right?

You get some young guys, oh, I'm gonna I'm called to preach.

Brother, you can't, I can barely preach.

You can't preach for nothing.

You got it, you're that's not your gifting.

I love you, but I'm gonna help you.

Here's where, and maybe I this is where I see some strength and encourage.

So in community, look around and ask one another, man, where do you see strengths in me?

Where do you see giftedness in me?

Sometimes that's gonna be a laborious task to try and discover that, but I believe that God will be faithful to reveal that to you.

And then when we do, when we understand how have I been distinctly gifted to serve the building of the church, we have to demonstrate your gift for the building of the church.

Now we have to actually demonstrate it.

You see, you're not gifted just to sit on the sidelines, you're not gifted just to sit stagnant as a consumer within the body of Christ.

Imagine, if you will, if this church, sacred mission, didn't just rely on the gifts of few, but each individually demonstrated their gifts to the maximum capacity they were able.

What kind of gospel impact would that create on our city around us?

What kind of impact would that be seen in our culture where the kingdom of God actually is advancing and shaping the culture around us?

Because we're not just sitting and being fed and becoming these spiritual fat gluttons where we're just sitting there unable to move, right?

We're actually demonstrating, exercising, and practicing the gifts of the Spirit, not relying on the gifts of a few, but leveraging the gifts of all so that the culture around us is impacted and transformed for the glory of God and the good of our neighbor.

That's like why we exist.

But so many times in church culture, we just rely on the gifts of a few.

Rather than saying, I'm going to take responsibility to not just discover the ways God has gifted me, but be active in demonstrating the way God has gifted me for the building up of the church.

And this is something that was awesome, even in just the last series.

I had a brother come to me after the gathering and say, Hey, I think God might gift me in this way.

I and I I want to try to put something together.

Hey, brother, do it.

Do it, because this is the reality.

There might be however many of you in this congregation that say, I wish Sacred Mission did X or I miss, I wish Sacred Mission did Y.

Guess what?

Number one, me and other leaders in this church cannot do everything.

We will, I have like an like average to mildly above average capacity level to be able to do even what God has given me the responsibility to do.

So, one, we can't do everything.

Two, I'm actually not that passionate or gifted about everything that you are.

And three, if God, if that's something that you want to see, maybe God has gifted you uniquely to be able to demonstrate that gift for the purpose of seeing people blessed by the kingdom in our city.

So, hey, if we think that there should be some type of ministry to the people in our homes over here.

Praise the Lord.

Sounds like the Lord has gifted you and put a passion in your heart to do something.

You should do it.

Don't stop me.

You don't need an announcement or a graphic or some type of endorsement by my name or whoever else inside of this church to go do what God's called you to do.

Right?

And how do we do it for the building up of the church?

Well, even in the previous text, we see that part of the building of the church is to bring people who are not yet apart into the church.

And so if you say, I think we should blank, I'm going to say, hey, great.

Sounds like the Lord has gifted you and given you passion for that thing.

How can we leverage that for you to be able to do it?

I'm going to focus on what God's called me to focus on, and I want you to focus on what God's called you to focus on.

Because if we all got up and out of our seats and demonstrated our spirit gifting in the culture around us, not only would the church mature to the place that Jesus has desired for her to, but the church would grow and expand to incorporate the people that Christ has purchased through his blood.

Number three, we have to define order so freedom can be joined, enjoyed by all.

We have to define order.

No matter what gift is present, no matter what gift you believe you have, there has to be defined order around it.

How is it to be used?

How is it to be demonstrated for the building up of the church?

Now there are gifts like prophecy in tongues where we get very explicit instructions to define the order of how they went around.

But there are spirit gifts even mentioned in the Bible where we don't have that.

We don't have that definition of order of how they're to be used.

But I can tell you this anytime there's order established, there's a greater maximization of freedom, peace, and joy.

I'll give you an example.

I used to lead worship for like almost two decades.

And when I first started out, I was still in that kind of charismatic movement.

And I thought, man, freedom for freedom's sake.

Hey, band, we're gonna get up here and we're just gonna play.

Wherever the Spirit takes us, that's where we're gonna go.

And uh that was usually just chaos.

Confusion, chaos.

People were not playing the right things.

I was getting frustrated.

I remember one time I had a verbal like outburst to one of the bass players because they weren't doing what I thought they should do, but I never communicated what I thought they should do.

They should just listen to the Holy Spirit like I am and go with me because I'm obviously listening more than he is, right?

So that's kind of my mentality.

So freedom for freedom's sake, bread, confusion, and chaos.

But here's what I understood that that was my gift.

I need to define order around it.

And when I was able to mature in that, and I was able to equip them with their music ahead of time, when I was able to set expectations that were clear and communicable, when I was able to champion and build into their gifts collectively for the common end goal of the church participating in expressive, vibrant worship unto the Lord, when I was able to place order around that team, they thrived.

And what's crazy, not only they thrived, the congregation thrived.

There was more freedom in the midst of order than in the midst of confusion.

There was more joy in the midst of instruction than the absence of it.

There was more peace, there was more fruit that lined up with the Holy Spirit and what he desires for us when we when I placed order around the gift.

And so I think that we have to define order so that freedom can be enjoyed by all.

So our call to response is to discover how you've been gifted by the Spirit, then demonstrate your gift for the building up of the church, and then define order so freedom can be enjoyed by all.

Let's pray.