The School Of The Spirit - Session 4

Just appreciate everybody coming out tonight.

I'm Tyler, one of the pastors here and I've been looking forward to our time together for the last couple of weeks.

So let's look at 1 Corinthians, 12, 5 through 11.

We'll just remind ourselves quickly of what we talked about a couple of weeks ago.

It says to each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good, for to one is given, through the Spirit, the utterance of wisdom and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit to another.

Faith by the same Spirit to another.

Gifts of healing by the one Spirit to another, the working of miracles to another.

Prophecy to another, the ability to distinguish between spirits to another, various kinds of tongues to another, the interpretation of tongues.

All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.

So last week or two weeks ago, you remember that we began to talk about the gifts of the Spirit and what was the main gift that we focused on last time?

Do you remember what was it?

Weren't here, that's okay, you're here now.

Anybody remember what was the main gift that we focused in on?

Prophecy, exactly, right Prophecy.

And what is the definition of prophecy?

It's right there in your notes, yep, speaking a message from God in a known language for a particular person or people in a specific moment in time.

Okay, and then we talked about the fact that they're also along with that gift, there's a tandem gift that is similar in the way that is supplied, and that's the gift of tongues and the interpretation of tongues.

Gift of tongues is the supernatural ability to speak to someone in a language known or unknown, but that the person speaking has not learned it as of yet.

And the interpretation of tongues is the supernatural ability to understand and explain messages spoken in tongues into the language of the hearers.

Okay, so, just as a reminder, there at the beginning of your sheet, what is it that should always be the motivator when we use the gifts?

It must be love, amen.

Without love, we're nothing.

God is love, and so everything that he does there's a loving element to it.

Now, it doesn't always feel like love, but it always is love, and that should be our heart, that should be our motivation.

We should not be looking to use the gifts to somehow benefit ourselves or to manipulate or try to control somebody else.

Right, we're also commanded to earnestly desire the spiritual gifts.

What does it mean to earnestly desire something.

It means to desperately want something Right.

And Paul tells us in the book of 1 Corinthians that we are to desire to be used by God in the gifts of the spirit.

Now it's interesting.

We talked about the fact that Holy Spirit desires to speak to His church, especially that you may prophesy and here's the fill in the blank true, true, true prophetic words, strengthen, encourage and comfort.

And the verse there is the one who prophesies speaks to people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation, thank you.

Prophecy is not to be used in the New Testament as a means of causing destruction and damage and devastation in people's lives.

In the Old Testament, if we're going through the book of Joel, there's a lot of devastation happening around the prophecy that Joel is giving.

We see that.

But in the New Covenant, in the New Testament, there is still that element, but it's reserved for those who have not yet believed on the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now, the Lord corrects us and disciplines us, just like good parents correct and discipline their children.

But he is not out to destroy us or to devastate us, and so he's not going to cause His children, his people, his servants, to use a gift that he's given them to do something that he doesn't want to do.

Does that make sense, right?

And so we need to remind ourselves of that.

The motivation is so important.

We are called to edify.

What does it mean?

To strengthen or edify, to build up, to encourage, to comfort all of those types of words that we can use.

Prophecy may include warnings, it may include, like I said, correction or discipline, but for the most part, it's going to be something that encourages somebody, that confirms something to somebody that they've already heard from God.

But God's saying yes, you've heard from me, and this I'm confirming it to you by somebody else sharing.

And when you guys prayed for me last time, at the end, several of the things that were spoken over me were confirmations to me, things that I had already been considering or that I had been asking of the Lord, and the Lord used you to speak those truths to me as a confirming way for me to know that I was on the right track.

So, several years ago, when I first came to Trinity Chapel that's what it was called we were in a building over on Haines-Sturkey Road, and I you remember that building?

Yes, yeah, it's still being used for the kingdom of God, which is good news, right.

But anyway, I was really kind of a lot of times in behind the scenes most of what I was doing was behind the scenes, but I felt like that God was still calling me to be a pastor and to minister, but it just wasn't happening.

I mean, for a year and a half I didn't give a sermon of any kind to anybody anywhere.

I guess I probably practiced some on my family, maybe my kids in the car, occasionally at the car driving next to me, but never up front.

And I remember Clem Ferriss.

Everybody most of you know who Clem is.

Obviously he was at camp last year and then conference this year.

But Clem Ferriss came to our church and he called me up front and he prayed for me and he said to me that the Lord is making you like the leader of a wagon train and that there are going to be a lot of wagons that are going to come around you and that are going to follow you as you lead, moving forward.

And it was just, it was all about.

And I'm from Wyoming, I'm not a cowboy, my dad was a cowboy, my grandpa was a mountain man but I understand the terminology of wagon trains.

I understand what all of that means, and so I would have had no way of knowing at that moment in time that God was going to allow me the privilege of being able to serve in the role that I'm serving in now.

But the Lord used prophecy to edify me, to build me up, to encourage me at a time where I was like wondering.

I even asked Neil one time are you ever going to?

You know, are you going to need, do you need me, are you going to like put me in coach, you know?

And he said he said, oh, you're going to, you're going to be busy, and I wish I would have thought to take those next six months and just really enjoy, you know, not having a lot of activity and stuff going on, because, man, he was right when the flood gates opened up, it was like man, a lot was happening.

So another example of encouragement there was a time when I was questioning my faith and also questioning whether or not I should be a pastor.

A lot of things that happened within my family.

Our church had kind of blown up with sin and things that were going wrong, and so we went to Myrtle Beach and we went to Walmart to go shopping.

It was like Christmas shopping, you know, and we were getting ready to walk into Walmart, kind of head my head down.

We were just walking in.

The lady who was the greeter was a young lady and she stopped me and she said you're a pastor?

And I'm looking at my shirt there's no, you know no, indications of any kind of church merch, you know, on me.

Or.

And I said well, how do you know that?

And she said I can just tell that God has called you to be a pastor.

And I'm telling you she had no idea how desperately I needed to hear those words at that moment in time, because I was about ready to just say you know, maybe it's time to sell some real estate.

I think we can do that, you know.

So, anyway, edification, exhortation, comfort Another example this happened just within the last couple of years.

I don't know how many of you ever deal with thoughts of insecurity or feeling like that you're not good enough for God to do his work.

And we know that, we know what the truth is.

And yet sometimes we have these feelings, these these waves of emotion that come over us and three times, within like a week, different people came up to me and said to me, because I was crying out to the Lord, saying Lord, I want to be closer to you, I want to be pleasing to you and every, all three of those people, independently, not having heard the other person said it saying it, said to me the Lord is pleased with you, the Lord is well pleased with you.

And I'm telling you again another moment in my life, when those were the words said I you know it was like he does see everything, he sees it all.

So prophecy is important, it really is.

God uses it a lot In 1st Timothy 1,.

Does somebody want to come up and read the verse for me?

A young person in the room.

Come on, josh.

Welcome home, josh.

Oh, I forgot.

We're not allowed to call you Josh anymore.

I'm sorry, josh.

You what?

Yes, josh.

Yeah, the purple one.

There's Timothy 1, 18, 9, a dash.

This charge I entrust to you, timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies previously made about you, that by them you may wage the good warfare, holding faith and good consciousness.

Awesome, thank you.

Yes.

So Paul is telling Timothy, his son in the faith, to remember the words that God has spoken over him over the years and to remember the calling that he had on his life, because he was getting ready to go.

He was going through, was getting ready to go through great persecution, a lot of trouble, difficult things.

And what did Paul say?

Remember the words encourage yourself in the Lord.

David encouraged himself in the Lord.

He remembered what God had said, and that was the voice that he chose to believe over the voice of this world or the voice of his flesh, the voice of Satan.

So prophecy is more valuable than tongues in a corporate setting, unless the tongues are interpreted.

We talked about that too.

Let's move on now.

Let me get to my next page.

Maybe I don't need a page.

Yeah, bless you Lord, bless you All right, let's turn to 1 Corinthians 14.

We're going to move past prophecy now and we're going to move into a new area.

Okay, 1 Corinthians 14.

Everybody have it All right, who wants to come up and read it Might take.

Let's do three people.

Three people can read parts of it.

So, josh, you already read.

Nice, try, I need a lady, a young lady, and maybe, how about Will?

Do you want to help us out?

Will Come read the Bible?

All right.

And then, lainey, you want to?

No, okay, you don't have your Bible.

Okay, that may not be God, because she's turning red, so I don't think that that's a word from God tonight, right?

Who else?

Who said that Lainey should do it?

Who is the first person to say it?

How about Elsie?

No, you didn't say that.

I thought I heard your voice.

No, it was Jada.

You have a Bible, all right, come on, come on down.

See, he's prepared, he's ready.

So turn it.

Turn in your Bible.

To back in the back, almost to the back.

It's 1 Corinthians 14.

Okay, 1 Corinthians, and we'll let you and Mr Will read some and then see how far we go.

Where are you at there?

Yep, a little bit further Romans, so you're going to chapter 14.

Did we have any more of the sheets left?

I need one because my notes have vanished, so I just need to use a sheet.

All right, come on up.

That way everybody can see you.

You're beautiful.

You can just start in verse 1 and read a few verses and then we'll take turns, okay.

Follow the way of love and eagerly desire gifts of the Spirit, especially prophecy, for anyone who speaks in a tongue does not speak to people, but to God.

Indeed, no one understands them.

They utter mysteries by the Spirit, but the one who prophesies, speaking to people for their strengthening, encouraging and comfort, anyone who speaks in a tongue edifies themselves, but the one who prophesies edifies the church.

I would like every one of you to speak in tongues, but I would 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.

Now, brothers and sisters, if you come to you and speak in tongues, what good will I be to you unless I bring you some revelation, or knowledge, or prophecy or word of instruction?

That's good for now.

Man, that's powerful right there.

I love that Great version too.

I don't know which version that was, but I liked it.

Will you want to come up and take it from there?

This is Will Trout, if you don't know him yet.

Is it verse 7?

What verse did you stop with?

Bella Naomi, my God, naomi.

Sorry, I should have a word of knowledge.

What verse did you stop at?

Okay, so we're starting with verse 7.

And even things without life giving sound, whether pipe or harp, except they give a distinction in the sounds.

How shall it be known what is piped or harped For?

If the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?

So likewise, ye, except ye utter by the tongue words easy to be understood.

How shall it be known what is spoken For?

Ye shall speak unto the air.

There are, it may be, so many kinds of voices in the world, and none of them is without signification.

Therefore, if I know not the meaning of the voice, I shall be, unto him that speaketh, a barbarian, and he that speaketh shall be a barbarian unto me.

Even so, ye, for as much as ye are zealous of spiritual gifts, seek that ye may excel to the edifying of the church, and let him that speaketh in an unknown tongue pray that he may interpret.

For if I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prayeth, but my understanding is unfruitful.

What is it then?

I will pray with the spirit and I will pray with the understanding also.

I will sing with the spirit and I will sing with the understanding also.

Else, when thou shalt bless with the spirit, how shall he that occupyeth the room of the church say Amen at the giving of thanks, seeing he understandeth not what thou sayest, for thou verily giveest thanks.

Well, but the other is not edified.

Okay, that's good, that's awesome.

So which verse did you end with?

17.

17, okay, who wants to finish it up?

Huh, all right, ben, come on.

What do you mean?

oh no, oh wow, so that's weird.

The problem is I don't have the verses on here, I just have.

Oh, you have, Is it there?

Yeah, just read this part here from there for, from there for.

Therefore, one who speaks in a tongue should pray that he may interpret.

For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful.

What am I to do?

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?

For you may be giving thanks, well enough, but the other person is not being built up.

I think, god, that I speak in tongues more than all of you.

Okay, All right, very good, that's a statement right there.

Thank God, I speak in tongues more than all of you.

So what is Paul doing here in 1 Corinthians 14?

He's giving a roadmap for how to use the gifts of the spirit within a church setting, a church meeting setting.

Okay, now, the church at Corinth already was using the gifts.

This wasn't brand new to them.

They were exercising the gifts of the spirit and using them on a regular basis.

But the problem was they weren't using love.

They didn't have love as their motivation, and a lot of times they would use the gifts to tear others down instead of to build them up.

And also, their services were very chaotic, because people at any point in time, might stand up and say something or do something without there being any kind of even being led by the spirit as far as a coordination of effort.

And so he didn't.

It's interesting, paul didn't come in and tell them to stop doing all of that.

He just gave them some instruction.

This is how you're supposed to do it, and decently and in order.

So I've waited this long We've had I think this is our fourth meeting of this group.

I've waited this long to talk about the gift of tongues, and the reason I've done that is because, typically in my generation, when I was raised up, whenever we talked about the Holy Spirit, tongues was the immediate thought that came to our minds.

Tongues is a part that I want you to know about tonight and I hope that we could answer some questions for you.

But it is not all that.

Holy Spirit is he's way more than that.

He's complex, he's a part of the Godhead, he has a personality, he feels, he thinks, he sees, he speaks, he develops character and fruit within us, and that's.

You know, if we're talking about what's going to last forever, those are the things that are going to last forever.

Now, having said that, the gift of tongues is in the Bible.

I believe that it is real, I believe that it is for today to be used today, and I want to teach you what the Bible doesn't say and what it does say.

Okay, so take out of your mind any kind of caricature you might have.

Any kind of idea that you have is not actually.

That isn't actually from God.

Let's talk about language for a minute.

Just a quick history lesson.

When were the first words spoken here in this earth that we know of at least?

God said let there be light.

And there was light.

Now, he probably didn't speak in English, just so I don't want to blow your minds, but God is able to speak in multiple languages.

Okay, in fact, if we read on right in the book of Genesis, we come to a story about the Tower of Babel, and what happened at the Tower of Babel Everybody know.

People got together and they said to themselves we're going to build a tower up to God and nobody is going to be able to stop us because we're unified around this purpose.

And so God said did you say nobody could stop me, because I can stop you?

And so what he did was genius.

He separated people out and he by tribe and nation, and gave them languages that were distinct from each other.

So what you had to do?

Can you imagine that, like you go to the first day of school and three people in your class speak English, three people speak what's another language?

Spanish.

What is it?

Swahili?

That's great, that's a good one.

Yeah, swahili.

Is there a Turkish?

Yeah, I guess Turkish.

I don't know, that's not actually.

I don't think that's actually language.

Was that at the Tower of Babel?

We can check with our official tray.

You don't know.

No, okay, all right, just making sure.

Yeah, but can you imagine trying to go around through your class to find out who understands you and who you can understand?

Right, that's what it was like on that day when God confused the languages and separated the nations out and sent them out from there to populate the earth, and so all of the nations of the earth came out of that experience the Tower of Babel.

Pretty amazing right Now.

When did God restore the gift of language as far as from a unifying standpoint?

Can you think of when that happened?

It's in the New Testament, the Book of Acts, on the day of Fennel Kost.

Yeah, fennel Kost, that's right.

You remember that?

Yeah, so that's what it was.

On the day of Pentecost, they were all together in one place.

The followers of Jesus are 120 left of them Says that over 500 saw him before he left the planet and ascended into heaven, but 120 decided to obey him.

So those are about.

The odds are probably about right there, right, so 120 of them are in the upper room and there's a promise that was given that the Holy Spirit was going to come, and it says that the Holy Spirit came and that tongues of fire were on each of them and each one of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.

So it wasn't something that they just invented themselves.

They didn't just say, you know, ba, ba, ba, ba.

It wasn't you know.

They didn't say banana backwards three times.

It wasn't anything like that.

It was a language that God gave to each one of them.

Now here's the interesting thing.

Do you know what happened as they began to praise?

They were praising and worshiping God in these new languages that they had never learned before.

They didn't go to school to learn them, they hadn't heard anybody else speak them.

But as they're standing up and praising and worshiping God in these languages, what began to happen?

Do you know Acts 2.

People heard them and the first thing they said is y'all are drunk.

And it was in southern Israel.

So they were saying y'all, but anyway, sorry.

And then they said no, no, no, no.

It's only nine in the morning, we're not drunk.

We're not drunk, as you suppose.

We've been filled with the Holy Spirit.

And what did they hear?

What were the words that the people that were listening to them, what words did they hear in their own language, was it?

It was the gospel.

Rob, you're my right hand man tonight.

We need to get you a microphone.

Seriously, this man is on it.

I love it.

So, yeah, they began to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ being preached in their own language and remember what happened?

They stopped.

Peter was preaching like most preachers do.

He was going and going and going and they stopped him.

They said what must we do to be saved?

What are we supposed to do?

And what did he tell them to do?

Yes, repent and be baptized in the name of the Lord and you will be saved.

And what's the promise there that's given?

You will receive the Holy Spirit.

And it speaks about generations there in Acts, chapter two your children, your children's children, and on and on and on.

It's the promise of Holy Spirit that's given to us.

So we see the evidence of that happening in Acts, chapter two, when the Holy Spirit descended.

Can you imagine being in this room?

You've been praying for days and fasting.

You're asking God to show himself, to reveal who Holy Spirit is.

He shows up in this loud wind, in this roaring wind, and then fire sets on each one, and then they are all filled and begin to speak in other tongues that they don't know.

The Bible says the most important part of the story, in my opinion 3,000 people were saved that day, and that wasn't the end of it, because every day from then on, the Lord added to their numbers those who were being saved.

And you know what?

Not only did these people have the gift of speaking in tongues, but their lives changed as well.

They were not selfish anymore If they had a pair of you know, fancy headphones.

What's the name of it?

Airpods yes, thank you.

I knew that I was thinking could not come to me right now, but AirPods.

They had two pair of AirPods and share One with somebody else.

Right, if they had.

If one family didn't have enough food, then the other families would bring the food that they needed.

They met together and they had fellowship with each other.

They preached the gospel, they prayed together, they fasted and they saw God do tremendous, amazing things.

If you read the book of Acts, what makes it different than any other book?

If you read the end of the book of Acts, do you know?

Okay, we're going to find out, though You're going to find out right now what's different with the book of Acts?

It doesn't actually end.

There's no conclusion to it.

And why is that?

Why did God choose to put a book in the Bible that doesn't seem to have an ending point on it?

Because the book of Acts continues.

Because the Holy Spirit continues to work and operate and flow and move and manifest Himself in the earth.

Okay, I want you guys to know that God wants to move in your life, in your lifetime, in your life, just as powerfully as what he did in the book of Acts, and I believe we're going to see it very soon.

There are many places around the world in Iran, turkey, iraq.

God's giving people dreams about Jesus.

Men and women who have been worshiping false gods are falling to their knees and accepting Jesus as their Savior, knowing that that probably means that they're going to lose their life for the gospel.

My friends, holy Spirit is alive and well and he's moving today and he's right here.

You brought Him with you.

You brought Him with you if you're a believer in Jesus, okay.

So what does Scripture not teach?

Let's go through these.

Number one it does not teach that a person is not filled with the Spirit if they don't speak in tongues.

Okay, when I was growing up, speaking in tongues was sort of like a status symbol.

It was like the churches that did speak in tongues and the Christians who did speak in tongues were kind of adversaries of the churches who didn't speak in tongues.

Right, and we would talk about each other from the pulpit.

You know those churches, those people, and they would talk about us, those churches, those people.

Right, it was before Internet.

It was before, you know, you could fact check everything and people could listen to each other's podcasts and say, wait, they're talking bad about us, what's going on?

No, so that is not true.

It's absolutely not true.

When does a person receive the Holy Spirit, according to Scripture?

When when you want to.

When you want to.

That's good, it is true.

That is true when you want to, because you know what happens.

You know what happens.

Holy Spirit comes to an individual that it doesn't yet know Jesus.

Maybe you've and I'm only using you as an example, okay, I'm not picking on you but maybe you've grown up hearing about Jesus.

You've been around people who know Jesus, but you yourself have never fully believed in who Jesus is for yourself.

Holy Spirit comes to you.

You're not aware of who he is or what he's doing, but he begins to work on the inside, in here, and he says to you come and follow Jesus, come, believe on the Lord Jesus, come.

He speaks to you in a way that you can hear it and understand it.

He uses your words, your vocabulary, and then, when you respond to that by repenting and believing on the Lord Jesus, the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 12, which is just a few verses after the gifts verses it says what?

That we are all baptized into the body of Christ by Holy Spirit.

And so in that moment in time, when we repent of our sins and believe on the Lord Jesus, the Holy Spirit is right there.

If that sounded like spit, it wasn't spit, it was like I was trying to make it sound effective of wind or something.

Yeah, yeah, you do it better, anyway.

So he lives on the inside of you and he brings you in community with other people that he has saved as well.

Okay, so don't get that confused.

If a person does not speak in tongues, that does not mean that they're not a Christian.

Okay, another thing it doesn't mean that a person who speaks in tongues is weird.

Now, they might be weird and they might speak in tongues, but it doesn't mean necessarily that the two things have anything to do with each other.

Right, we don't have to be weird to speak in tongues.

Okay, it's a gift from God.

It's not a gift of weirdness, it's a gift of speaking in tongues.

All right, what scripture does teach?

Now?

Let's focus on that for a few minutes.

First of all, let me give you a definition for speaking in tongues.

Speaking in tongues is the God given ability to speak in a language unknown to the one speaking it for the purpose of blessing God, blessing others and building yourself up.

Now, I believe that scripture teaches in 1 Corinthians 14 in particular teaches that there are two applications, two ways that the gift of tongues can be used the first way we've already talked about in a public setting like this, if somebody were to begin to give a message in the prayer language that God's given them the gift of tongues that God's given them, then that would need to be interpreted in English in order for those that are here to be able to be edified, encouraged and comforted all of those things.

But Paul also indicates throughout this chapter that there is a personal use for the gift of tongues.

So I break the two up.

I call one prayer language a prayer language and I call the other the gift of tongues.

You can call it whatever you want.

The Bible isn't really clear on have you noticed that the Bible doesn't get stuck on titles a lot, or on it's more about the function what does it do?

And so let's talk about the distinction now for a few minutes.

What scripture does teach?

Number one when a person speaks in tongues, god knows what they're saying.

Why is that important?

Why is it important to know that God knows what a person's saying?

Some people have come out of traditions that have taught that tongues is actually from Satan and that it is false, that it is not from God and it not intended for us to use it for his glory.

It's important to know that the gift of tongues, the prayer language, especially the time that we spend with our Father is given to us so that we have the ability to communicate with him in a language that he understands fully and it is perfect, because he's the one that gives it to us and allows us to speak it forth out of our mouths.

So, when you speak in tongues, you're speaking the language of heaven, the language of God.

Now, my prayer language.

What does your prayer language sound like, rob?

Should.

I do it, sorry.

So mine, I'm just gonna and this is for just does actually sound like banana backwards.

That's amazing.

Rob is the exception to the rule.

If there's anybody that God would use to say banana backwards, it would be Rob Ellis.

It must mean something in some language, somewhere.

Right, I'm gonna speak in tongues a little bit on the microphone and I'm not doing it just as a display, but I'm giving you an example.

Okay, now, I was six years old when I received that language from God and I've used it.

I'm almost 50.

Pray for me.

And I've used it ever since then and I don't know what it means.

It sounds like it's repeating to me some.

We're not meant to focus in on what the meaning of the words are.

It's a language given to us by God for our benefit and also to be a benefit to others.

Okay Now, rob, did you remember your prayer language?

Okay, I'm going to let him just for a minute.

And this again, not trying to make light of anything, but I want you to be able to tell the difference, okay, dambari yussam baria gothobosubari edabarabityusupadam.

Okay, amen.

Amen, amen.

So you see the distinction between the two tongues, the two languages.

I don't know what he was speaking.

It sounded to me like maybe a version of French, or maybe even Eastern Europe, who knows, we don't know.

The main thing is he doesn't know it.

He didn't learn it, okay, but God gave it to him.

How long have you been speaking in tongues About the same?

Yeah, quick story.

So I had heard about being filled with the Holy Spirit and I'd heard about tongues, and so we were at home.

It was just my brother and I and my parents.

I said to my dad pray for me.

I want to speak in tongues, I want to be filled with the Spirit.

Of course, as a kid, that's the part you recognize, because that's an evidence of it.

Okay, and so they began, my parents began to pray for me.

I was very serious, very sincere.

I was thinking about it, trying to figure out all about it.

You know, trying to do I make something happen, do I say something?

What do I do?

My brother, who's a year and a half younger than I am, gets up on the table and he goes Tyler, you do it like this.

And he starts speaking in tongues.

And I'm like no, they didn't even pray for you.

That is not right.

And so, anyway, my dad pulled me aside into the other room and said I'm so embarrassed.

No, he didn't say that.

He prayed for me and he told me just to be quiet and just worship the Lord.

And then, all of a sudden, it just started coming to me and it's never left me.

I'm so grateful, and I'll talk more about that as we move forward.

Okay, all right.

Next thing is speaking in tongues is a way to build yourself up.

It says here the one who speaks in a tongue builds up himself, encourages himself.

Jude 20, building up yourselves on your most holy faith by praying in the Holy Spirit.

First, corinthians 14-5.

Now I want all of you to speak in tongues.

It's not that Paul was saying that he clearly made a distinction, that in a public meeting, where we don't know whether everybody's saved or not, that it's better for a word of prophecy to be given so that everybody can understand.

But he's not saying you know, you really it doesn't even really matter if you speak in tongues or not, or if you have a desire to speak in tongues.

It doesn't really matter.

He wasn't denigrating it either.

He was saying this is an important gift.

I want all of you to pray in tongues.

He said I thank God that I am praying in tongues more than you all.

That was not a brag.

It wasn't bragging.

He was just talking about the importance of it in his life, in his experience.

Okay, let's move on.

Tongue speech is primarily a form of prayer.

So when we're praying in the language that God gives us, typically, we're praying, we're actually praying, we're talking to God.

Prayer doesn't have to be religious.

Prayer is a conversation, it's communication.

We're speaking to God, we're listening to God.

Right, and the Bible especially says that when we don't know what to pray for, that the Holy Spirit himself will speak inside of us with groanings that can't even be uttered or understood.

The Spirit helps us in our areas of weakness when it comes to our desire to pray and to help people.

Let me give you a quick example of that.

I always say quick.

It needs to be quick.

So there was a time where my wife and I were friends with the family.

We're still friends with them, but they weren't.

They were not fully, I don't know how to describe it.

They were around us and around church and around Jesus, but they weren't fully embracing who he was yet Right.

And so she had just had surgery on her nose and I don't know what all they did, but they did a lot of stuff on the inside to help her to breathe better.

And so my wife went over to help take care of she had a bunch of little kids to help take care of the kids and also just to take care of her, and the husband and myself we went out as every good man would do in a situation like that to Walmart and we were just kind of roaming through Walmart, you know, looking at the fishing supplies and stuff like that, and he got an emergency text like 911, need to come home now.

And so we started heading home and we get in the house and my wife looks at me and she goes it's not good, something like that.

And I said where's Lisa?

And she said she's in the bedroom.

So we go into the bedroom.

She's laying on the bed.

She's like frantic because she realizes something is very wrong.

She's bleeding profusely.

I'm not just talking about like a band-aid scratch or something like that.

I mean there is so much blood that is coming out of her nose and mouth and everything.

She's terrified.

Now here's something you may not know about me I don't like blood either at all, and so I'm looking at this in the natural and thinking hold yourself together, come on, man.

And so I started praying for her and I got to a point in English where I just didn't have any more words because I was so overwhelmed by the moment, by the stress of what I was seeing and, without even realizing it, I began to pray in tongues and within like 30 seconds she stopped, not just the bleeding.

I'm saying she settled and my eyes are closed.

I'm like, oh God, did she die, you know?

I mean, I'm like it's like one of those kind of scenarios, right, but I opened my eyes and she's peaceful and the blood has stopped completely.

Now the ambulance had already been called.

Ambulance got there, took her to the hospital, she got checked out, everything was fine.

We brought her back home and a couple of weeks later we're sitting down having a meal and she looks at me and she goes what was that thing you were doing when you were praying for me?

And I'm thinking, oh Lord, they're not even quite Christian yet and I forgot that I had.

So I said well, I was.

I was praying in tongues because I didn't know what else to pray.

And she said the moment you started to speak, I was like I knew that everything was going to be okay Now, that that wasn't me that caused that.

I was just desperate and I was obedient to God, and God had given me that ability to pray in that language, and so this, this lady, benefited from that.

I forgot to tell you one other thing as soon as the ambulance took her out of the door, her husband was still there.

I literally shut myself in their master's closet and wept like a baby Cause.

That was so traumatic.

Everything just happened so quickly.

It was like wow, so just an example for you.

Can we turn the air up a little bit so that it will maybe shut off and not be so loud?

Thank you, plus, I see some shivering and I don't think it's the spirit moving you.

So the case could also be made for the use of tongues and spiritual warfare.

There's another time.

You know, grant and I, and several of us, have been to Haiti a few times, and Haiti, if you don't know, is a very dark place, and it's because many, many years ago, there was a desire.

There was a desire for people to huh, okay, all right.

Okay, lord, we just pray for the scenario whatever it is.

You know exactly what needs to happen, father.

So we ask, in Jesus' name, that you would move.

In Jesus' name, have your way, lord, god.

Thank you for it, father.

Jesus' name, amen, all right.

So, anyway, the island was dedicated to Satan, and so we actually visited the very spot where that happened, and as we were heading back to the place where we were staying Grant wasn't with me this time as we were heading back, I felt this overwhelming presence of darkness, and I was trying to fight through it by resisting it, you know, by speaking to it and all of those things, but it just wasn't lifting.

It was like this urgency, this urgent need to pray, and so I started to pray in English, but I had no idea what to pray about.

I didn't know what the issue was, I didn't know what was going on, and so I just began to.

I changed and began to pray in tongues and prayed that way for an hour on the all the way home Just couldn't stop.

It was just like an overwhelming urgency.

When we got back to where we were staying, we found out that there had been a coup attempt in the town where we were staying and that there was.

There were militias and all kinds of people that were ready to kill as many people as were necessary to take over the government, the governmental places in that city, but the Lord stopped it.

One person was injured, maybe even killed, but the Lord stopped it as we were on our way back through.

Now again, he could have used anybody.

I was just, I just happened to be in that place at that time and really so disturbed that I couldn't avoid it.

It was like I either had to pray or get out of the car and run or scream or something, because it was so intense.

Okay, so sometimes in those kinds of moments we need the gift of tongues is very helpful.

Tongue speech is also a form of praise.

It says here that we are to sing in the spirit and sing with our understanding.

There's nothing more beautiful, in my opinion, than singing out to the Lord in the language that he's given you.

Now I do that on Sundays.

I don't do it on the microphone because I don't need to again, we're following the protocol, the decency and order that is found in the book of 1 Corinthians, but it just in my personal prayer, right there as we're worshiping God together.

I'll pray out in my language, I'll pray and sing at home same way, in the car, driving back and forth to places, and then, finally, the last thing is that speaking in tongues shouldn't be neglected.

It says I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you.

And again, paul wasn't being braggadocious, he wasn't overemphasizing this gift, but he was saying how important it was being used the proper way.

Second Timothy 1.6,.

Paul says for this reason, I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of hands.

So I'm going to put you on the spot just for a minute and I'm not going to make anything happen or even make you come down.

But is there anybody here that desires to receive the gift of tongues?

And you don't have it as of yet.

Okay, I see a few hands, all right, what I'm going to do is I'm going to give you a roadmap that I believe that, if you'll follow this, this isn't a formula.

It's not a formula, it's a process, it's a roadmap that you can use, and we will.

Those of you who would like for us to pray for you, we will pray for you tonight, even that you'll receive that.

So, first of all, let me give you the first thing is you do not have to be afraid.

God is not going to give you a gift that's not good for you.

So when you come to him and you ask him sincerely, father, I desire to receive everything that you have for me, including the gift of tongues.

Okay, and we could ask for that.

Now, what do you do if you don't get it, if it doesn't appear, if nothing changes?

Right, keep asking, maybe, yeah, and also discern what other gifts it is that God's given you, because it may be that God wants to use you primarily in the gifts of healings, or in the working of miracles, or word of knowledge, or discerning of spirits.

Maybe you don't have the ability to pray in tongues yet, but you know when something is right and something is wrong.

There's like this knowing on the inside of you that's called discernment.

Okay, so these gifts are not in competition with one another.

They work together for the common good, right?

So, number one, you do not have to be afraid.

God is not going to give you a serpent.

Luke 11.

Somebody can look that up Luke 11, 11 through 13.

And just read that quickly Luke 11 versus 11 through 13.

We're going to have to start doing Bible drills.

We're so used to punching it into our phones.

You know Luke 11, 11 through 13.

You got it, judy.

Okay, okay.

You're fine.

What father among you, if his son asks for a loaf of bread, will give him a stone, or if he asks for a fish will, instead of a fish, give him a serpent, or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion?

If you, then, evil as you are, know how to give good gifts, gifts that are to your advantage, to your children.

How much more will your heavenly father give the Holy Spirit to the ones who ask and continue to ask him?

Wow, that's a powerful image.

You know, no good father is going to give their kid a poisonous snake if they ask for something to eat, or a scorpion.

Right, they're not going to give them a rock in the place of bread.

They're going to give them what's very best for them, okay.

And it's the same thing.

When we ask God to give us the gifts of the Holy Spirit and we earnestly desire those things and we're willing to receive whatever it is that he chooses to give to us then he's pleased with that and he's not going to hold back.

He's going to give the gifts that you need.

Second thing is you will not lose control.

Some people are afraid because they feel like that when they receive the gift of tongues, that they're going to just lose control of themselves, that their minds are going to check out, that they're going to be like just blank, that it's going to be like they're in a trance.

They won't be able to start speaking in tongues or stop speaking in tongues.

It's just going to be overwhelming.

They're going to be in the middle of the drive-thru lane at Taco Bell ordering your tacos and then you're going to just start ripping it out in tongues and then hoping that somehow there's a believer on the other end of the thing.

So Holy Spirit is a gentleman and he's not going to force himself, he's not going to force his way.

Now again, there were some times that I told you that I didn't even realize I was speaking in tongues, but it wasn't that God made me do that or that it was something that I even chose to resist, because there was no desire for that to resist, that I needed it.

So you're not going to lose control.

You're not going to have to put your brain on ice.

Seriously, these are misconceptions that people have about using the language that God gives to them.

Fourth, if you don't speak in tongues and I've already said this, but you don't have to force it by repeatedly saying banana backwards or whatever it is Used, back in the day people would say who stole my Honda?

Who stole my Honda?

I should have bought a Chevy.

You know there was a lot, and I'm not even kidding.

People would like have you repeat after them tongue twisters and say them enough in rapid succession so that maybe you would prime the pump and God would see past you talking about Chevys and give you the actual prayer language.

Now, god's amazing.

He can do whatever he wants, and even in people's foolishness and not understanding things, if there's a sincerity of heart.

I mean, I know people who have received their prayer language, even though they were instructed and said speak after me, say this, say this, and yet the Holy Spirit was so good and kind to them that he gave them what they needed the actual gift of tongues.

So don't get religious on either side is what I'm saying, right Fifth, persevere in prayer.

This is not the type of thing where you can just say I prayed for that in 1987 and God did not answer.

If it's still a desire of your heart, satan's not giving you that desire.

And if God's giving you that desire, then he wants to fulfill it.

He wants to fulfill it.

The timing is up to Him, the way that he does it is up to Him.

All of those things, okay, no-transcript.

And then finally, devote yourself to extended times of praise.

Why is it important to?

If you're seeking the gift of tongues, why would it be important to spend time praising and worshiping God?

Yeah, that's good, that's so good.

Amen, he knows what's best for us.

Yeah, yes, when we begin to worship and praise God.

I don't know what you experience, but for me it's like it's not that I'm losing myself or that I can't think, because obviously all of us have thought about what we're going to eat for dinner or whatever while we're praising and worshiping God.

But there are times when it seems like I'm captivated in the moment by the presence of God, to the point to where it's like that's all I want to focus on Peace, all I want to focus on.

God inhabits the praise.

Yeah, god inhabits the praises of his people, and so it's sometimes in those moments when gifts like this seem defined, like they're.

What is it called?

When you have chickens and then you want more chickens and you put the eggs in a what is it?

Don't count your eggs before the hatch.

No, incubator, right.

Incubator is something that you can put an egg in to give it a chance to develop enough so that it can come out of the egg and be a chicken Right.

And then we name it nugget and no, I won't go, I won't go there, that's too gross, don't?

Yeah, don't do that, that's right.

So in some ways, in some ways, when we're in the presence of God, when we're worshiping and praising God, it's like that egg being in that perfect environment with proper heat, proper sunlight, proper, all of I don't even know what it is, but all of the proper things for that egg to develop to the point to where it can become a full blown chicken Right.

Sometimes the presence of God can be like that for us, and the questions that we've had before the Lord, the things that we've wondered about, the requests that we've had before him, it's like there's a settling that comes in during those times of worship and it's because God becomes bigger than everything else and that's what he wants.

He wants for us to see the fact that he is larger than life, that he is bigger than we can imagine, that he is greater than anything else that we can think of or know about or hear about.

I would say to you, without exaggerating, that besides the gift of salvation which, by the way, is another gift from God the gift of tongues for me has been the thing that has kept me through the darkest moments in my life.

I went through a complete mental breakdown 25 years ago.

27 years ago I couldn't even think or put words together to form proper sentences, but my spirit was fine and I would find myself praying out loud in tongues, even when I couldn't put all my thoughts together in order to be able to say anything to my wife or my children, because the gifts of God are not held or contained within our mind or within our bodies.

The gifts of God are contained within our spirit, and our spirit is perfect.

It's made perfect if we're born again, if we're Christians, our spirit is made alive unto God, and it's made perfect.

Now, the way we exercise the gifts is not perfect, because it still has to find its way out of your spirit, from God's spirit, out of your spirit, and then, through the lens or through the person, your personality, all of those things.

But the gifts of God themselves are perfect and so he gives those to us.

And even in moments like I said great trauma, great tragedy, great, whatever you want to say, even the best of times, I still find myself praying in tongues.

There was a time when Levi, a few years ago, was very close to dying and everybody had prayed all the prayers that we could pray in English, we had said everything that we thought we could say, and I just got in the car by myself and I was driving around aimlessly.

I don't even know where I was going, but I was having a moment with God and I was crying out to Him, saying God, give it to me.

If you've got to kill somebody, kill me.

And you know, if any parents in this room have ever experienced something difficult within your family and children, you know that if there was a way that you could possibly switch places, that you would do that.

And I'm just crying out and saying God, I don't get this, I don't understand.

And I've stopped the car and I just screamed at the top of my lungs and the peace of God just came over me and he didn't tell me the leave.

I was going to be all right, but he said everything's going to be okay and again, all I could do was turn on worship music and sing in tongues and thank God.

And what I had no way of knowing until years later.

We were having a family devotion, we were talking about hearing the voice of God and we asked our boys to give us an example of a time when they had heard the voice of God for themselves.

And Levi said I did.

And we said when?

And he said it was when I was sick.

There was a time where I didn't think I knew that things were bad and I didn't.

I don't want to put words in his mouth, but basically what he said was the Lord spoke to me and said you are healed.

And his change, the change in the way he was thinking about things and his behavior, happened almost simultaneously with the time that God and I had that discussion.

And again, please don't hear me saying that I'm something, I'm anything, special.

What I am saying is that God's gifts are awesome and amazing, and the thing that I had cried out to God for and asked for him to do, he did.

And now he's almost as tall as I am and his skin is perfect and he's just a.

I mean, he had a disease that was affecting his skin.

He is a and he cares about everybody.

And most of the time you're like I'm not going to go there.

Huh, I don't know.

I don't know.

Yeah, I know.

So I just want to finish up tonight by praying, if you wanted to play the keyboard a little bit again.

This is just nothing.

We're not trying to manipulate anything.

It's just a way for us to focus in on the Lord and if you are tonight, here tonight, and you would like for us to pray for you, we can actually lay hands on you and pray for you that you receive the gift of tongues, and also we pray that you would receive any gift that God wants you to have, because they're all great in their own ways, but tonight, obviously, we're focusing in on the gift of tongues.

That's what we were speaking about tonight, and this is not just something that was belonged to grandma and grandpa or something that Paul and Timothy and all of those people encountered.

This is not something that goes out of style or that changes just because generations change.

This is a promise from God to those who believe and who desire to be used of God in whatever way that he wants to use them.

So if you're here tonight and you would like really prayer for anything but especially prayer if you'd like to ask the Lord to give you the ability to speak in tongues, we'll pray with you for that.

And again, the results are in his hands completely, but he's a faithful father and when we exercise faith toward him, he loves to move.

He loves to move and to bless us.

So let's just close our eyes, so we just pray right now for everyone in this room.

Father, I'm so grateful, for the Scripture teaches us about the Holy Spirit and Lord.

We know that tongues is just a portion.

It's just a part, a percentage of a part of who Holy Spirit is.

But, lord, you didn't discount it and we don't want to discount it either.

And so, father, for those who are curious, tonight, I pray that you would speak to them, that they would find in Scripture your words of truth and life.

I pray that they would have the courage to ask you to give them every gift that you desire for them to have, and especially tonight, because we're talking about the gift of tongues, Father, I do pray, in the name of Jesus, that you would fill us with your spirit again.

Lord, we thank you that Ephesians 5 tells us that we shouldn't just be filled once, but we should be filled over and over and over again.

And so, lord, we open our hearts up to you, we open our minds to you, we open our spirits to you and we ask you to fill us.

Lord, give us boldness and courage to be followers of Jesus Christ and to be witnesses everywhere, where that we go.

We know that the power of Holy Spirit is primarily to be used to give us the courage to stand for truth and to stand for Jesus.

Jesus, we give you glory.

Thank you Lord.

Just encourage us to ask Him for whatever it is that you desire.

Open up your heart, father.

We love you.

You're the giver of all good things.

Thank you Jesus.

Thank you Lord.

Thank you Lord.