GIFTED // The SIGN Gifts // Pastor Richie Fike

Welcome to the Movement Church Podcast. We want you to

know that God is for you and so are we.

You're about to hear a sermon from one of our

weekend services in the tri-lakes of Southern Colorado. God is

not a monument. He's a movement. So we're praying that

this message will move you in a meaningful way. Listen

closely after the message for ways to get connected with us.

God bless you. Thanks for tuning in.

We are in a series called Gifted where we are

talking about your spiritual gifts and your spiritual gift is

not for you. It's for us. For me. It's for me. No,

just kidding. Your spiritual gift is not for you. It's

for us. We've been talking about this through that lens

and kind of, you know, talking about all the different

spiritual gifts. And now today we're going to deal with

what's called the sign gifts, the sign gifts. I don't

know if you know this, but Christians are really, really

good at coming up with different topics for us to

disagree about. Have you noticed this? There's all kinds of

things like women in ministry, end times, interpretations, predestination and

free will. Baptism, do we sprinkle, do we dunk, what

do we do? Communion, who gets to do it? And

of course, the most divisive topic, church picnics. Are we

going to allow you to bring that one weird dish

that you put raisins in that you shouldn't put them in?

There's all kinds of topics that we can divide each

other about. And one of those is these two words,

cessationism and continuationism. Who here before this morning have heard

those words, cessationism and continuationism? Good. This is going to

be an educational experience for a lot of us, which

is cool. These two words are incredibly divisive and debated,

and I'll tell you what they mean. Both of these

words are trying to answer the same question. Here's the question.

Are all the spiritual gifts described in the to the

church today? Do people still get these gifts? Do they

still use these gifts? Do they still manifest these gifts?

Here's what cessationism would say to that question. Cessationists believe

that certain miraculous and revelatory gifts ceased, that's where the

word cessation comes from, ceased after serving their foundational purpose

during the apostolic age, which is basically everything up until

the scripture was canonized. And so we'll talk more about

the apostolic age next week. But cessationists believe that these

signed gifts that we're going to discuss today were needed

up until that moment and that they're not needed anymore. Continuationists,

on the other hand, believe that the New Testament never

tells us that these gifts are ceased. The Holy Spirit

still distributes gifts according to his will. Do you see

the debate? This is where they live. They're arguing about

really these four terms, these four sign gifts, and arguing

about whether they fit or don't fit in our Christian

world today. Now, last week, we talked a little bit

about 1 Corinthians 13, which, as you've heard me say

throughout this whole series, where we learn mostly about spiritual

gifts is in 1 Corinthians 12, 13, and 14. And

chapter 13 has been co-opted by Big Wedding. They've used

it for every Christian wedding you've ever been to and

turned it into this passage that's all about husbands and wives.

But actually, Paul hasn't changed the subject in 1 Corinthians 13.

He's still talking about spiritual gifts. And 1 Corinthians 13

has a very important passage that is kind of at

the core of this debate about cessationists and continuationists. Paul

is writing this whole book of 1 Corinthians to correct

a bunch of Christians who are living in ways that

are contradictory to proper orthopraxy. They aren't practicing their Christianity

in a way that he would deem correct. And in fact,

they had become so enamored with the spiritual gifts because

they used it as a way to compare one another.

My gift's better than your gift. Her gift's better than

my gift. I'm more important. She's more important. They would

argue about these things. Their question was who appears most spiritual?

And Paul's correction was what builds up the body in love?

If you're going to use a spiritual gift, that had

better be the purpose. He says this in 1 Corinthians 13.

He says, love never ends. But as for prophecies, they

will come to an end. As for tongues, they will cease. Cessationist.

As for knowledge, it will come to an end. For

we know in part and we prophesy in part. But

when the perfect comes, and if you have a Bible

open or if you're looking at On a tablet and

you can take notes. That's the phrase to circle, underline,

put highlights by. When the perfect comes, the partial will

come to an end. When I was a child, I

spoke like a child. I thought like a child. I

reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I

put aside childish things. For now we see only a

reflection as in a mirror. But then, when the perfect comes,

then face to face. Now I know in part, but

then I will know fully as I am known fully. Okay,

so you see these phrases, when the perfect comes, I

used to think like a child, I've laid aside those things,

I'm going to see him face to face. So the

passage definitely, absolutely, certainly communicates that all of our spiritual

gifts will come to an end. The question is, when?

Cessationists believe that the perfect means the fully canonized, scripture

of God, that when those guys got together for that

council and they said this, not that, this, not that,

after that moment, once we had the revealed word of God,

we had no further need for the gifts to be

expressed in this way. This is what a cessationist would articulate. Now,

they don't just use this passage to bring that idea.

They use other passages as well, but this is the

crux of their argument. To be fair, they would say

that this doesn't mean that God no longer performs miracles.

Many of them, in fact, pray fervently for healing. They

intentionally distinguish between God performing a miracle and an individual

possessing the spiritual gift of miracles. This is how a

cessationist believes. I'm just trying to articulate it for you

so you can make your own mind up. The cessationist's concern,

and it should be all of our concern, is that

claims of Holy Spirit manifestations could function as fresh or

authoritative revelations. and attempt to compete with Scripture. How many

of you think that's a good idea? Anybody think it's

a good idea to compete with Scripture? Right, neither do they,

and neither should you. Through his written word, God has

given us everything we need to know about who he is.

And so anything that happens in this sign gift area

has to line up with Scripture or something's off, okay? Now,

here's the continuationist argument. They would say... that the phrase,

when the perfect comes, most naturally points to the second

coming of Christ, when we will see Jesus face to face.

And you even see that in that passage. Now I

see it like this, then when face to face, I'll

see it like that. Many thoughtful cessationists agree that, of course,

Paul must have been talking about the second coming of Christ,

but he still wants to articulate, they still want to

articulate the ending of the gifts. So, I want you

to know where I've landed on this, just so you

know where your pastor is. I am a continuationist. I

believe that when the perfect comes, that all of that

language is communicating the second coming of Christ. And that,

of course, in that moment, when we have full completion

in Christ, we won't need all of the things that

we need. We won't experience God in the same way

then that we do now, because then it'll be face

to face. But if you are a cessationist, God bless you.

You are welcome here. I don't see that to be

a reason why we shouldn't, you know, co-mingle and have

community with each other. I don't see that as a

reason for us to divide. I see it as a

reason for us to keep wrestling with the Word of God.

You with me? Amen? Okay, so, now, after having said

all of that, I think it's important to know that

the Spirit distributes His gifts according to His will and

not to ours. You know the four, right? Everybody gets

a gift. God's the one that chooses your gift, right?

Remember this whole thing, and your gift's not for you,

it's for us. And by the way, you are needed

and you are needy. The Spirit distributes his gift according

to his will, not ours. Our responsibility is to remain available, obedient,

and discerning. Really, really important. There's a reason why we

named our church what we did. Maybe you don't know

this story. Maybe you do know this story. The first

sermon I ever preached way, way, way back in the day,

I was talking about the fact that most of us

live in a town called Monument. where there is Monument Hill,

there is Monument Lake, there is a Monument Rock. This

town looks backwards. Monument. It's something that has already happened.

But God is a movement. He's not a monument. And

we get to be a part of what he's doing.

That's what it means to be willing and accessible and

available to whatever he wants to do in and through

your life. I believe that God is still on the move.

How about you? Do you believe that? Amen. We believe

here at the movement in the supernatural. And I love this.

As much of God's spirit as he deems necessary to

manifest through each of us, that's how much of him

we want to experience. Anybody want to say amen? Okay. Now,

my caution to all of you continuationists, you're officially continuationists. Congratulations.

We have cards. Is the same as proper cessationist. It's

that this attitude right here, this doesn't work. This right

here is bad orthodoxy. It's bad orthopraxy. It's bad theology.

God is my co-pilot. Well, that means that you're God

and that he's not. God is nobody's co-pilot. You can

sit alongside of him and be a part of the experience,

but God is nobody's co-pilot, right? God is the pilot

and he's inviting us to join him in what he's doing.

The two most challenging words that Jesus ever spoke to anyone,

and he would say it often throughout the gospels, Two,

what sound like really simple words, but really difficult to do.

Follow me. Follow me. That's who Jesus is. You know

what Jesus never said to anyone ever? I would like

to follow you. Jesus never did that. And I would

just say, I am so excited and thrilled to see

God move in and through your life. I am not

excited at all to see you fake it. I am

not excited at all to see you move. I want

to see God move. That's what this church is all about.

So remember, this spiritual gift, this whole series is not

a study of personalities. This is not about your personality.

This is how the Holy Spirit shows us who he

is through your life. We've said this, spiritual gifts manifest

when who you are yields to whose you are. When

who you are yields to to whose you are. What

happens next? Powerful. The Holy Spirit shows up. So let

me give you just one more guardrail before we get

into these signed gifts. Being a continuationist doesn't mean that

we accept every supernatural claim without question or testing. When

someone comes up to you and says, I feel like

the Lord said this to me, or I want to

pray for your healing, or I want to pray for

a miracle, or I saw a miracle, or I saw

a healing, when they begin to share these really wild, supernatural,

incredible experiences, your job is to be discerning. Your job

is to not just immediately embrace it, but to say, okay, well,

let's see how it lines up with scripture and let's

watch how it plays out. That's what it is to

be a mature Christian. No true Holy Spirit manifestation will

add to, contradict, or compete with scripture. And every claimed

manifestation must be tested. The Bible says that we are

supposed to be innocent as doves, but shrewd as a serpent.

That's what we're talking about here. So We wanna be open,

not gullible, expectant, not performative, and supernatural, not unbiblical. Are

you in with me on all of that? I know

that's a big, big chunk of thought to think through

before we even get to the sermon. We haven't even

started the sermon yet, just so you know. It's gonna

be a good one, okay? So today we're talking about

the sign gifts, the sign gifts, probably the most controversial

little chunk of gifts in this teaching. And the first

two we're gonna talk about It's miracles and healing. Miracles

and healing. How many of you would say, I believe

that God can do a miracle right here, right now?

Anybody believe that? Okay. How many of you say, I

believe that God can heal anyone, anytime, anywhere he wants?

Anybody believe that? And here's the question. How many of

you believe that he does it through people? Okay. A

few of you. Some of you are like, I'm not.

That's a trick. Is this a trick question? Are you

tricking me? Right? Okay. This is where it gets dicey.

Because what the Bible is telling us is not only

can God heal, but he can do it through you.

He can do it through me. If, in fact, that's

the way that he chooses to manifest himself, through me.

Look at what it says in 1 Corinthians 12. It says,

to another faith, that was the last one we ended

with last week. Faith is a spiritual gift by the

same spirit. To another, gifts of healing by the one spirit.

To another, the performing of miracles by And I'm sure

that there's a part of you that even as I

say that, you're thinking about the televangelist, right? You're thinking

about the guy that claims he can heal you. And

you're going, I'm not so sure. That thing in you,

that's discernment. That's you testing what someone claims to be

a manifestation. It's right. People with the gifts of miracles

or healing see God show up in extraordinary ways from

daily little events to major public displays. I don't have

this gift. I don't know anyone that has this gift.

If you have this gift and you're here today, I

don't know this about you. And I would love to

hear more about this. But this is what the Bible

is telling us. Healing is God's supernatural restoration of broken

bodies and broken minds. Nothing's impossible for God. Healing is

what happens when he defies, when he confounds whatever science

says about your body, about your mind. He says, I

can fix that. That's who our God is. Miracles are

extraordinary acts of God's power that cannot be adequately explained

by ordinary human capacity and that reveal his character and

his kingdom. The Gospels record roughly three dozen distinct miracles

of Jesus in the Gospels. In Mark alone, a third

of the Gospel of Mark is about and devoted to

miraculous works. Jesus commanded nature. storms ceased, winds and waves stopped.

He walked on water. He healed the sick. He delivers

people from demonic oppression. The blind see, the lame walk,

the deaf hear, the mute speak, the dead rise. That's

my king. Anybody else here today? That's who Jesus is.

And this is not a minor part of Jesus's ministry.

It wasn't just, oh yeah, by the way, he healed

a few people. This is a major emphasis in the

life and the ministry of Jesus Christ. He wanted us

to see him touching the leper, healing the sick, raising

the dead. He wanted us to know that he has

that kind of power. And by the way, it continued

in the book of Acts. It's powerful when you read

the book of Acts because these young leaders who really

are kind of clunky with it, they don't really know

exactly how to do it. They watched Jesus do it.

They heard him teach on it and they go, let's

try it, right? And you see the Holy Spirit manifesting

through these guys in powerful ways. This book, the book

of Acts, was written by a medical doctor. His name

was Luke. And it's as if, as Luke is writing it,

because 12 of its 28 chapters include a healing. It's

as if Luke is trying to communicate to us that

medicine is not against prayer and faith. They don't work

against each other. That the Bible advocates for both. Sometimes

God works through a physician and other times through the

great physician, amen? You with me? So whether it be

a physical, emotional, or spiritual ailment, what we see throughout

the Bible is that life has a way of presenting

us with all kinds of torment and trial. Jesus made

a promise. He said, in this world, in this life,

you will have trouble of many kinds. And we see

it playing out throughout the Bible. And Christians, people who

have chosen to put their faith in Jesus, not just

as Savior, but as Lord, Christians are instructed and encouraged

to bring their torment to their Savior, to their Father,

to their Lord, and to say, fix it. Help me.

We're encouraged to do that. And people with the gift

of healing or miracles, they need to remember this. And

this is where I think some of our tension lives.

The gift isn't the person doing the healing. Healing happens

through the person by the one Holy Spirit, amen? Okay,

so I love the story in the book of Acts

where John and Peter are walking around town and there's

a guy who is sort of brought, carried to this

one spot every day to beg for money, not to

beg for healing, but to beg for money at the

temple gate. John and Peter come across this guy and

of course he begs for money. And Peter's like, I

ain't got no money, but I got an idea. Listen

to this. This is Acts chapter three. It says, I

don't have silver or gold, but what I do have,

I'll give it to you. In the name of Jesus

Christ of Nazareth, get up and walk. Can you imagine

the boldness of that moment? Just to say that out loud?

In the name of Jesus Christ, get up and walk.

Have you ever tried that? Try it with a teenager.

Verse seven, when they're sleeping in on Saturday mornings. Then

taking him by the right hand, he raised him up.

And at once his feet and ankles became strong. So

he jumped up and started to walk and he entered

the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God,

wouldn't you? All the people saw him walking and praising God.

And they recognized that he was the one, I love

this phrase, that used to sit and beg at the

beautiful gate. Like three minutes ago, that's who this guy was.

The guy that used to sit at the temple gate.

So they were filled with awe and astonishment at what

had happened to him. Now this is a moment where

John and Peter could have very easily built a platform

for themselves. Look what we did. Look at our power.

Look at our strength. Look at the way that we

can manifest the Holy Spirit. at a word's whim look

at us instead this is what happens beautiful they did

exactly what jesus would do in verse 11 while he

was holding on to peter and john all the people

utterly astonished ran towards them they ran towards peter and

john oh my gosh This is incredible what you've just done.

I'm utterly astonished. It says in verse 12, when Peter

saw this, he addressed the people, fellow Israelites, why are

you amazed at this? Why do you stare at us

as though we had made him walk by our own

power or godliness? He reminds them in the next few

verses about how they treated Jesus. how they had an

opportunity to know this same power that they have, but

they rejected it. And then he says in verse 16,

by faith in his name, in the name of Jesus,

his name has made this man strong, whom you see

and know. So the faith that comes through Jesus has

given him this perfect health in front of all of you.

The Holy Spirit had manifested himself through these young leaders,

and they made sure that God got the glory. And guys,

that has to be the way that we treat all

of our gifts. If you have the gift of faith,

if you have the gift of discernment, of exhortation, whenever

the Lord uses you to manifest himself, to make what's

invisible visible, don't let it be about you. Always make

sure it's about him. Amen? You with me? And we've

seen the opposite, haven't we? Some of you remember late

night television. We don't really have that anymore, but maybe

you remember guys that want to sell you a prayer

cloth Or they want to send you a vial of

anointing oil, right? And for the low, low price of $ 29. 99,

I will pray for your grandmother. Like, things like this.

And we watched that. And I don't know how you

felt about it when you saw it. But I would

always feel like people were being suckered by these people.

Like they were being tricked, manipulated by these people. I

have no idea whether any of the people that used

to be on the television shows actually had the spiritual

gift of healing. and let it get to their head.

How would I know that? None of us can know that,

but you know the real thing when you see it, right?

The most recent story that we've heard about people tricking

folks in the church was a church in California where

they were doing a prophecy gathering, and the guy that

was putting on the prophecy gathering got all the attenders

to sign up first, and then he went on social

media and learned all about their stories so that he

could articulate little details, little arcane details. Someone has a

mini golden doodle named Sparky and they're in the room.

And a lady goes, I have a mini golden doodle

named Sparky, right? And now he's into her. And now

he's going to manipulate her and treat her poorly. Guys,

that's not the Holy Spirit. We have to test these things.

Praise God that that man got revealed for the charlatan

that he was, that he is. And I pray that

he will repent and that he will receive the grace

of that all of us wish to receive when we

make mistakes. You with me? Amen. I was watching a

show with Judah last week. You ever seen this show,

Penn and Teller Fool Us? You ever seen this show?

The premise of the show is that these two guys,

Penn and Teller, have been around the world of magic

for so long that if you do a magic trick

in front of them, they know what trick you're doing.

And if you fool them, then you get a prize. Well,

every trick fools Judah. I mean, just watching it with him,

Judah's like, that's amazing! And none of the tricks fool

Penn and Teller. Why? Because miracles and healings aren't magic.

Magic is an illusion. Miraculous healings are supernatural. And they're real.

And I believe in them. Miracles cannot be conjured by

human power. They are the manifestation of God's divine power.

So just so we're clear, miracles and healings aren't anti-science.

They're supernatural. They simply testify that God isn't limited by

what science can explain. That's who our God is. We

too often, church, we too often over-domesticate the Savior. We

make him too small. We make him too palatable, too pocket-sized,

too explainable. Do you remember the scene in the Chronicles

of Narnia where they're asking about Aslan, the great lion king,

and the one person says, is he safe? And the

answer is no, but he's good That's who God is.

God is powerful and his power cannot be tamed. He

is the lion of Judah. He is the roaring lion

of eternity. Is he safe? No, he's gonna mess your

world up. The moment you say yes to him, I'm

telling you, get ready for the ride of your life.

But is he good? Oh, he's so good. Amen? So

the Bible is a supernatural book and God is a

supernatural God. Please stop domesticating your God. Please stop turning

him into a house cat, right? He is not your co-pilot.

You get to be in the boat with him. You

get to be on the ride of your life following

after him. And here's another kind of just guardrail. The

existence of corruption doesn't disprove the validity of God's gifts.

Anything God does, the enemy wants to imitate, right? And

anything God does, other people go, ooh, that's powerful. I

want power. I want to imitate it. That's what happens

in our world. God is powerful, living, free, and good,

and he gets to do what he wants to do. Amen.

End of story. So the bottom line, God still heals people,

so it would be silly not to ask him to.

And I just want to say this as a caveat.

If you have prayed for someone you love or for

yourself to be healed for a long time and you

continue to pray for God to heal and it hasn't

happened yet, don't let anyone ever shame you for those prayers.

And don't let anyone ever put shame on you for

continuing to pray those prayers. God wants your heart. And

he wants for you to come to him and say, Lord,

this is what my heart wants from you. Will you

do it? Don't ever let anyone put shame on you

for asking him to do something. But understand that all

throughout the Bible, there are several people who prayed with

wholehearted devotion and didn't see the results they wanted. Timothy

suffered frequent illnesses. There's a guy named Trophimus who Paul

left because he was sick. Paul himself pleaded three times

for God to remove the thorn in his flesh and

it didn't happen. Sometimes, and we don't know why, God

says no. And that's hard, isn't it? It's hard when

we don't hear the answer we want. But God's purpose

for prayer is not that you get what you want.

God's purpose for prayer is relational connectivity. That's why he

wants you to pray to him. not so that you

can get the result you're after. Who made you God?

He wants for you to know that he loves you

and he's in it with you. So keep trusting him

with your heart. Ask boldly, trust humbly, leave sovereignty in

the hands of God. You with me? Amen. Okay. Every Christian,

by the way, will be fully and eternally healed forever

upon the second coming of Jesus Christ. If you are

a medical practitioner, I have bad news for you. You're

going to be out of work in eternity Right? There

is no more pain, no more sorrow, no more weeping

when we're with our Father face to face. You're going

to be out of a job and you're going to

love it because everybody's going to be excited about their

full health. I'm going to have abs in heaven. That's

not in the Bible, so we might need to test that. Anyway,

the Lord's like, if you didn't have them on earth. Anyway,

I said that once and a lady came up to

me and she said, honey, you do have abs. They're

just hidden. Thanks, sweetie. Anyway, so if you have this gift,

prayer ministry, man, is where we need you in this church.

Pray for people. By the way, if you sense that

there's someone that you need to pray for for a healing,

go get to know them first. Communicate. Get in relationship

with them. And then just ask them, can I pray

for you? Can I pray with you? Can we pray

that the Lord would do something powerful in your life?

We need you. Your gift is not for you. It's

for us. Okay. Deep breath. Tongues and interpretation. Who's excited?

Anybody excited about tongues and interpretations? I have been sweating

over this all week. I'm excited about it. Here's what

the Bible says. 1 Corinthians 12. To another, the performing

of miracles. To another, prophecy. To another, distinguishing between spirits.

And here it is in your Bible. To another, different

kinds of tongues. And to another, the interpretation of tongues. Now,

I'm going to give a really broad definition and then

we're going to get deep, okay? Here's the broad definition.

Speaking in tongues is when the Holy Spirit manifests himself

in an unknown language to the speaker, which is why

when it's exercised publicly in the church, interpretation is required. Okay,

is that clear? Are you with me? A person receives

this prompting to speak this phrase, these words, they don't

know what they're saying, but someone else in the room

is hearing it and they interpret it. That's when we

use tongues publicly okay now could that language be a

language that exists on the planet earth and the person

just doesn't know it yeah could that language be a

heavenly language which is our best way of articulating this

idea of a language that doesn't fit on earth but

must fit from heaven because that's who's speaking it? Yes,

of course, that's possible. But the guideline for this idea

of there having to be an interpretation is that that

only happens when it's public. When we are gathered together

as a church, if one of you all of a

sudden feels like, I think the Lord's prompting me to

speak out right now, and then you speak out, and

then if no one interprets, then it's time for you

to stop speaking. We'll see that here in a minute.

Tongues is a manifestation of the Spirit for the body

of Christ. So it's the same principle here. Your gift

is not for you. The idea that you would stand

up and speak in a tongue, it is not about you.

It is about us. We are to receive this manifestation

of the Holy Spirit. There are roughly 7,000 languages on

planet Earth right now. Did you know that? 7,000 languages.

How many of you speak more than one language? Anybody here?

A couple of languages? Donde el baño. Anybody with me?

That's the only phrase I know in Spanish. You have

to know that one if you're going to be in Mexico.

Donde el baño. I had the agua. Anyway. Language can

be a tremendous barrier. Have you ever had a friend

that doesn't speak English? You're trying to get through to

them and you're trying to find words. You start speaking

real slow to try to hopefully that'll help and it

doesn't because they don't know the language. Language can be

a real barrier. It can be powerful. It can evoke identity.

Dialects and languages tell us who we are. Anybody here

grow up teenagers or students in the 90s? Come on,

we had the best slang. Come on, it was awesome. Girl,

you are all that and a what? A bag of chips.

Come on now. What about this one? Talk to the

hand because the face ain't listening. That's right. How many

of you said as if? Anybody ever say as if?

How about word up? Anybody ever say word up? Or

bling bling? Anybody say bling bling? Come on, the 90s

were the best. I'm worried for the kids of the

Gen Z. I'm worried for their language. I've been listening.

I've been a student of what they say. It doesn't

make a whole lot of sense. And really all they

do is they just chop a word in half and

call it slang. Like charisma became riz. Yeah, that's dumb.

They have this thing called cap. That's cap. Don't be

capping me. You know what that means? It means don't lie.

And then I think they watch the Food Network too

much because they'll say let him cook. Then they'll say

she's cooked. And then they'll say he's chopped. I just

think they're watching Food Network all day. That must be

what it is. The newest one that I learned, have

any of you heard this one? That person is spazzing emotes.

Anybody ever heard this one? That person, my man John, okay.

He is spazzing emotes. You know what it is. It's

this thing where like you do this dance and it's

like that you are spazzing an emote. You're welcome. All right,

so Gen Z, you know, their language has kind of

spoken their values. We have a value here at the

movement that's kind of an internal language that we use

called Elevate the Conversations. which is to say that no

matter what culture has to say about a topic, what

does the culture say about sexuality, about politics, about success,

we're going to try to elevate the conversation to what

the word has to say about those things. This is

the way we think about language. Because hearing things through

God's mouth or from God's perspective changes the way language lands.

If you think about things the way the world thinks

about it, then of course you're going to be affected

in one way. But if you enter into the Lord's perspective,

it changes the way language lands, or as the Gen

Z folks would say, it hits different. Okay. Think about

the Tower of Babel. You know the story in Genesis 11?

It's this really powerful moment where all these people gather together,

they bond together, and they're going to build this great

big tower that's going to reach the heights of heaven

because they want to live independent of God. And God's

not pleased with it. This is in Genesis 11, four,

it says this. And they said, come, let's build ourselves

a city and a tower with its top in the sky.

Let's make a name for ourselves. Otherwise we'll be scattered

throughout the earth. God doesn't like this. In verse six,

he says, if they begin to do this as one people,

all having the same language, then listen to how powerful

this is. Then nothing they plan to do will be

impossible for them. That's how powerful language is. That's how

powerful common language, common values are. Verse seven, come, let's

go down there and confuse their language so that they

will not understand one another's speech. This is where all

of the different languages in the world came to be.

This is why Rosetta Stone is such a powerful idea

because there are 7,000 languages across the planet and this

is where it started. This is where the language barrier began.

This is why In the book of Acts, Acts chapter two,

this moment, Pentecost, is so powerful. This is where tongues happens.

This is where the Holy Spirit happens. This is where

the Holy Spirit leaves heaven, comes to earth, arrives on

the scene, inhabits his church, and powerful things start to happen.

In one powerful moment, God bridged multiple language barriers for

the purpose of salvation. Here's what happened. I'll read it

to you in Acts chapter two. When the day of

Pentecost had arrived, They were all together in one place.

Suddenly a sound like that of a violent rushing wind

came from heaven and it filled the whole house where

they were staying. They saw tongues like flames of fire

that separated and rested on each of them. Then they

were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to

speak in different tongues as the Spirit enabled them. And

that would have been amazing enough just to be in

that room, right? To be in that place, to be

in that moment, to see it, Friends that you've known

your whole life starting to speak in Swahili and in

other random languages. And you go, when did you learn that?

What language am I speaking? You know, that moment would

be incredible. But God wasn't just showing off. He was

showing up. Look at this in verse 5. It says,

now there were Jews staying in Jerusalem, devout people from every,

everybody say every, from every nation under heaven. When this

sound occurred, a crowd came together and was confused because

each one heard them speaking in his own language. It

was very common in this day for Galilean Christians to

understand and speak a couple of languages, Aramaic and Hebrew.

But to speak every language under heaven, that's wild. This

is a crazy moment. And this instance changed everything. This

was supernatural. And it was super effective. As soon as

this happens, everybody starts going, what's going on? This is incredible.

And then Peter goes, I have an idea. And he

preaches a sermon. He articulates the gospel to these Jews

who had come for this festival. And first they heard

in their own language. And now they're hearing him speak

in a way that they've never heard before. And 3,000

people came to faith in Jesus Christ in that moment.

And the church of Christ was born and the spirit

lit the flame.

Amen.

Amen. powerful moment now i've said all that now let

me tell you this this is interesting because this whole

series i've been trying to tell you about how jesus

manifests all the gifts guess what there's no tongues in

the gospels not a single moment where a single person

speaks in tongues in the gospels doesn't happen we have

no scriptural evidence that jesus ever spoke in tongues or

any unknown languages here's what we do know jesus was

absolutely and unquestionably filled with the Holy Spirit. Here's what

Luke says. He says, Jesus was full of the Holy Spirit.

He was led by the Holy Spirit. He was in

the power of the Spirit. And the Spirit of the Lord,

Jesus says, is upon me. When he was baptized, the

Holy Spirit descended like a dove upon him. And from

that moment on, he walked with authority and power like

they had never seen. Jesus was filled with the Holy Spirit.

And I tell you that to tell you this. You

and I cannot use tongues as the definitive evidence that

you are or are not filled with the Holy Spirit.

You with me? That seems like a very simple idea

that is a divisive reality that I just mentioned. Because

in some camps of Christianity, there is a pressure that

is put upon Christians that if they're going to experience

the fullness of the Holy Spirit, then they need to

speak in tongues. And if you're not speaking in tongues,

then you really haven't achieved the fullness of of Christianity.

The conversation goes like this. And there's one really divisive

word in this conversation. I want to see if you

can pick it out. One person says, have you embraced

Jesus Christ as the Lord and Savior of your life? Yes,

I have. Have you received the Holy Spirit? I sure have.

With the evidence of tongues? What's the divisive word? Evidence

isn't the divisive word. This is the divisive word. The.

The evidence of tongues. Do you see why? Because if

you don't have the evidence of tongues, I guess you

don't have the Holy Spirit. I don't see that in

my Bible. I put it at my computer. Sorry. I

don't see that in the Word of God. Now, our tongues,

speaking in tongues... and evidence of the Holy Spirit you

better believe it I believe that wholeheartedly the evidence no

I don't see that and what this has done is

it's created this hierarchy there's like ninja level Christians and

then there's like not you know what I mean there's

like these people that are experiencing God and people that

are just really trying hard And so there's this distance

that has been created by the word thee. And it's

ugly and it's divisive. In the context of spiritual gifts,

tongues is just one of the ways that the Holy

Spirit manifests through people. What if I said, have you

experienced the Holy Spirit through the evidence of exhortation? Well, no,

I don't encourage anyone. Well, then I guess you don't

have the Holy Spirit. That doesn't work that way, right?

We all have different gifts and your gift is not

for you, it's for us. Paul makes this point with

this rhetorical rant that he goes on in 1 Corinthians 12.

He says, are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers?

Do all do miracles? Do all have gifts of healing?

Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret? This whole

metaphor is that the body of Christ is interdependent and

interconnected and we need the feet and we need the

hands and we need the spleen and the kidney and

the knee bones connected to that. All of it is

important and it all matters. And the Bible absolutely presents

tongues as an evidence of the Spirit's activity, but not thee.

And I'll tell you why this is important. Some of

you have been in experiences with certain kinds of Christians

who have really pressured you and really manipulated you and

really shamed you for not being able to speak in tongues.

And you felt like, well, I must not have it.

I must not be there. And then you try to

force yourself into it. And that's happened to me. I

remember when I was 22 years old, I went to

this like college retreat. I was a brand new baby Christian.

I got saved the day I turned 21. So I've

been saved for like a year and two months. And

I went to this retreat and it was a very

charismatic retreat. And the guy told us on the first

night of the retreat, hey, by the end of this weekend,

everybody here is going to speak in tongues. And I

was like, sick, let's do it. Like I was, I

was fired up, right? So Saturday night's the big night.

Get out of your seat, come to the altar and

just begin to kind of pray that the Holy Spirit

would speak in tongues through you. And I was like,

this is awesome. I can't wait. Let's get up there.

And I got up there and I'm standing at the

altar and I was like, am I doing it? Nothing's

coming out. I even tried to kind of like mutter

some sounds and noises. And I was like, I don't know, man.

I don't think this is happening for me. I'm looking

around the room. And people who I've known for a

long time, who I believe in the sincerity of their faith,

are speaking in tongues. And it's real. And I'm going,

I want that. How come I can't do that? And

many of them, this was a very real manifestation of

the Holy Spirit. It wasn't happening for me. And so

I started praying this prayer. I remember so vividly. This

is the prayer I prayed. Lord, if you want this

from me, I want to give it to you. And

if you want this for me, I want it too.

But I refuse to force it. I refuse to pretend.

And just at that moment as I'm praying this prayer,

this guy who actually officiated our wedding, his name's Ryan Moon,

he walked up to me and he put his arms

around me. He could tell I was struggling, sweating. You know,

I can't make it happen. And he goes, hey, Fike,

do you love Jesus? And I just started weeping. I

was like, yes, I love Jesus. Of course I love Jesus.

And he said this. He said, that's all that matters.

Just tell him that. And keep telling him that. And

I would say to you, if you've ever kind of

strained in the spirit to get this thing to happen

for you, like take the pressure off of yourself. Just

tell the Lord you love him. I felt such freedom

and such peace. And by the way, no judgment for

the people around me. No judgment for these people who

were experiencing this manifestation of the Holy Spirit. Jealous a

little bit. Like I wish I had that. But I

couldn't make it happen. I couldn't force it to happen.

And I would say to you, You shouldn't either. Don't

force it to happen. But man, if it's a part

of your spiritual life, praise God. I want to pray

with you. I want to experience that with you. I

believe it's real. This is the gospel. Here it is. Ready?

You were dead in your transgressions. If you're here today

and you don't know Jesus, can I just tell you,

I'm going to walk you through the gospel right now.

This is what Christians believe. It wasn't about good or bad.

It wasn't about moral or immoral. It was about dead

and alive. The Bible says you were dead in your

transgressions and that you were unable to save yourself. There's

nothing you could do to bring yourself to life. No power.

You were living in and moving towards separation from God.

That's what sin is. Sin separates a human being from

a holy God. And you were living in that separation

and there was nothing you could do to fix it.

And by the way, you were walking towards eternal separation.

But God... But God sent Jesus. And you know, this

is the prophet Cermix a lot. This is a big but,

and I cannot lie. Come on, this is good news.

But God, I'm just seeing if you're still awake. But

God did something incredible. He sent Jesus. He sent Jesus.

And somehow, some kind of way, we're not sure, maybe

you're not even sure, but you heard the gospel. It

penetrated through the noise. You understood what it meant. And

you said, I want that. I'm in. You repented of

your sin. You accepted the free gift of grace. And

you became a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. Not

just the Savior, but the Lord Jesus Christ. And you

were given the gift of the Holy Spirit. In that

moment that you accepted his free gift of grace, you

were inhabited. We call it the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

The counselor that Jesus promised took residency in your life,

in your soul. And the Holy Spirit distinctly reveals himself

through you. He makes what is invisible visible through you.

That's what we believe. That's the gospel. He does not

manifest himself identically through everyone. He distributes the gifts to

each person as he will. So if you're a true person,

a true believer in Christ, a true follower of Jesus,

there will be evidence of the Holy Spirit's residence. There

will be evidence. of the Holy Spirit's resonance within you.

This is how the conversation ought to go. And if

you ever get into one of these conversations, feel free

to correct this language. Hey, have you embraced Jesus Christ

as the Lord and Savior of your life? Yes, I have.

Have you received the Holy Spirit? I sure have. How

does the Holy Spirit manifest himself through you? That's what

the series is about, is to help you get to

an answer to that question. Because how the Holy Spirit

manifests himself through you is needed in this community. And

you ought to say, amen. With all of that said,

I just want to give you three biblical functionalities of tongues.

I've talked a lot about this idea of the spiritual

gift of tongues and interpretation. There actually are two other

ways in which we see tongues showing up in the

New Testament that I would be doing you a disservice

if I didn't talk to you about them, okay? So

let me show you these ones. And it's the same

idea that Paul says, I don't want you to be

unaware of these things. This Corinthians passage is corrective. He

says this, if anyone speaks in another tongue, there are

to be only two or three at the most. And

they each take their turn and let someone interpret. But

if there is no interpreter, that person is to keep

silent in the church and speak to himself and God.

The idea here is that if you feel like the

Lord's prompting you to speak in tongues, do it. If

nobody interprets, be quiet. Now here's what's interesting. What if

you don't have the spiritual gift of tongues, but you

do have the spiritual gift of interpretation? And what if

somebody stands up and speaks in a tongue and you're like, ooh,

I know what that means, but I ain't saying it.

You're not doing your job, right? And now none of

us get to experience what the Lord just spoke because

you're bashful. Speak up if you have this gift. So

three functionalities. The first one, of course, is the spiritual gift.

Here's the second one. It's what we saw at Pentecost,

that people are speaking in language that they have no

business speaking in. How do you know this language? I

didn't know you knew Spanish. I didn't know you knew Portuguese.

How are you doing this? I heard a story about

a missionary named Kathy Buckles who went to Costa Rica

to do mission work. And this one really troubled Costa

Rican lady walked up to her and asked her to

pray for her. Well, Kathy said, sure, I'll pray for you.

And she began to pray in perfect Spanish. Kathy had

never taken a Spanish lesson in her life. And this

man who was in the room watching this happen asked

her afterwards, when did you learn Spanish? She had no

idea that she was even doing it. She just thought

she was praying in English and the words came out

in Spanish. And this young woman gave her life to

Jesus Christ in that moment. It still happens. Acts 2

isn't merely something that God did. It's something that he

can still do. I believe that. That's the second functionality

is supernatural impartation. Here's the third. Maybe the most confusing,

maybe the most divisive, maybe the hardest for some of

us Baptists in the room to really embrace, but I

want you to know that we can be Baptocostal in

this church, okay? That's okay. The third kind is personal

prayer language. And this doesn't come to us from the sky.

This comes from the Bible. The idea is that there

is a language that manifests in the private prayer life

of a Christian that is unknown to the speaker, but

well known to the recipient. You don't need to understand

what you're saying because God does. Your mind may not

comprehend the words, but your spirit is praying and speaking

directly to God. Listen to how Paul articulates this. In

1 Corinthians 14, he says, for the person who speaks

in a tongue is not speaking to people, but to God,

he's the recipient. Since no one understands him, he speaks

mysteries in the spirit. Now this is where the delineation

between a private prayer language and the spiritual gift comes from.

Look at verse four, the person who speaks in a

tongue builds himself up. Do you see the difference? A

spiritual gift, the test is your spiritual gift is not

for you, it's for me. This private prayer language is

for you. It's not for me. And so that's what

distinguishes the difference. Private prayer does not require a public

interpreter because it's not being addressed to the congregation. It's

a private language used exclusively for the purpose of building

yourself up, edifying yourself. Only when tongues are brought into

the gathered church, interpretation is required so that others can

be built up. These Corinthians, were really into measuring each

other's gifts. They were really into, I'm more powerful than you.

I have more connection than you do. And this whole teaching,

1 Corinthians 12, 13, 14, is all about, no.

No, no, no, no.

We're needed and we're needy. Stop it. Listen to this

in verse six of chapter 14. It says, so now

brothers and sisters, if I come to you speaking in tongues,

How will I benefit you? You guys are so enamored

with this supernatural spiritual thing and you all want to

do it. Okay, well, what if I do this? How

will I benefit you unless I speak to you with

a revelation of knowledge or prophecy or teaching? Even lifeless

instruments that produce sounds, whether flute or harp, if they

don't make a distinction in the notes, how will what

is played on the flute or harp be recognized? In fact,

if a bugle makes an unclear sound, Who will prepare

for battle? In the same way, unless you use your

tongue for intelligible speech, how will what is spoken be known?

For you will be speaking into the air. Now, Paul's

going to do something really interesting here, and it's going

to set the stage for next week. So come back

to next week's service. But look at this in verse 10.

There are doubtless many different kinds of languages in the world.

None is without meaning. Even the Gen Z slang, it's

got meaning. Therefore, if I do not know the meaning

of the language, I will be a foreigner to the speaker,

and the speaker will be a foreigner to me. So

also you, since you are zealous for spiritual gifts, you

guys are so interested in being so important and so spiritual.

Do this. Seek to excel in building up the church. Therefore,

the person who speaks in a tongue should pray that

he can interpret. For if I pray in a tongue,

my spirit prays, but my understanding is unfruitful. What then?

I love this. I will pray in the spirit and

I will pray with my understanding. I will sing praise

with the spirit and I will also sing praise with

my understanding. Paul's saying, guys, stop comparing yourself to one another.

Stop trying to make it about who's more important. Instead,

build each other up. That's what they're for. So I

just want you to hear, hear me say this. All

three of these biblical functionalities of tongues are welcome at

our church. All three of them. Private language, have at it.

In fact, invite me over, okay? I wanna pray with you.

If you have the ability to randomly speak in a

different language when you're praying for someone who doesn't speak English,

that is incredible. I wanna experience that. If you have

the spiritual gift of tongues that requires interpretation in the

public square, it is welcome here. We want everything that

God wants for us. But here's what I want you

to know. And this sets up next week. The Apostle

Paul was a big proponent of the signed gifts. But

there's one gift that he thinks is the most important gift.

Listen to this. He says, pursue love and desire spiritual

gifts and especially that you may prophesy. For the person

who speaks in a tongue is not speaking to people

but to God since no one understands him. He speaks

mysteries in the spirit. On the other hand, The person

who prophesies speaks to people for their strengthening, encouragement, and consolation.

The person who speaks in tongues builds himself up, and

that's important. But the one who prophesies builds up the church,

and that is necessary. I wish all of you spoke

in tongues. How about that? Has anybody ever underlined that

in your Bible? I wish all of you spoke in tongues.

Do you believe that? I know a lot of you

are like, that's spooky. No, thanks. It says it right here.

I wish all of you spoke in tongues, but even more,

that you prophesied. The person who prophesies is greater than

the person who speaks in tongues unless he interprets so

that the church may be built up. So what I

want you to do this week is I want you

to read 1 Corinthians 14, 1 through 5 every morning

this week and just chew on it. Think about it.

Pray about it. Ask the Lord to speak to you

through it. 1 Corinthians 14, 1 through 5, every morning

this week. And think about what is it that the

Lord is encouraging us to do. These sign gifts are powerful.

They're meaningful. They're useful. But you got to remember that

the core verse of our whole series is 1 Corinthians 12, 7,

which tells us that God is the one who chooses

your gift, that everybody gets one, and that your gift

is not for you. You are needed and And you

are needy. You are gifted. Amen? You with me?

So what's God leading you to do next? And how

can we help? Send us an email to info at movementchurch.co

and tell us how we can pray for you and

help you to take the next step in your spiritual journey.

If you'd like to contribute financially to our ministry, you

can text the amount you'd like to give to this number. 833-725-0132.

That's 833-725-0132. Or just look us up online at movementchurch.co.

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And we hope that you'll give us a follow. God

bless you. And remember, God is for you and so

are we.