and hide to, and then I am thankful that when we leave this world, we have a place to hide for eternity. Amen? What a privilege that is. So if you would turn your Bibles tonight to the book of 1 Corinthians, 1 Corinthians chapter number 14, and moving right along in this passage of Scripture, I'm going to tell on my wife just a few minutes. I don't think she'll mind a bit. But she said, you preaching on tongues again tonight, honey? She said, I promise you we will not speak in tongues. She said, you don't have to worry about that. She said, we definitely won't. We'll be afraid you'll preach on it again. But I'm not necessarily preaching on tongues tonight, I'm just going verse by verse through the Scripture. And the Lord gave us many verses concerning this passage of Scripture. Amen. Y'all pray for me, I may be in trouble when I get to the house. Amen. She knows me. She's been with me this long. She ought to know that I am apt to say anything at any time, and usually at the wrong time. Amen? But I'm glad we're here tonight, and we're going to get back into this chapter that deals in detail on what was going on in the church of Corinth concerning the speaking in tongues. But yet, I think we're going to see not just that, but see some other issues tonight that this will relate to. We don't have that problem in our denomination for the most part. We definitely don't have that problem in our church, and I'm thankful for that. You may have friends and family, and I know some people that have been involved in this over the years, and I hope that maybe through this study you can be a help to them. I found out something. When I was a young Christian, I used to get angry with people and upset with people that did not believe things right, and I found out God's not pleased with that. I don't agree with them if they're wrong, and I'm not going to side with them, But I feel like a lot of times when we get angry and upset, we miss an opportunity to witness to them, and we miss an opportunity to talk to them about it. There are a lot of people that have not had the same foundations that many of us have had, and they've not had the same privileges that we've had to be in the churches we've been in, or grew up in, or the families you've been in. And God may have put you in their path to be a witness concerning the Scripture in matters like this. So when you run into somebody that doesn't agree with you, be careful that your flesh doesn't rise up and get angry. Now there are some people that love to debate, and I try to stay clear of those people. Sometimes people will, and you'll pick up on it, whether they really want to know the Scripture, or whether they just want to argue with you. And I don't waste my time arguing with people. If I believe they just want to argue, I just agree to disagree and go on. But sometimes you can speak to somebody, and God opened that door, and if you have a knowledge of the Scripture, you can be a help to them, and you may be instrumental in changing their life. And that's what this whole thing's about. It's about us making a difference in the life of others while we're living here. So I pray tonight as we go through this Scripture that I know that you think we've seen everything there could be about it, but God has these truths in here for a reason. So tonight I want to pick up in verse number 12. We left off in verse 11 the last time we were in the passage, and we'll go down about verse number 20 tonight. and then we'll pray together and see what the Lord has for us. So if you can, let's stand together while we read the Word of God beginning in 1 Corinthians 14 verse 12. The Bible said, Even so ye, forasmuch as ye are zealous of spiritual gifts, seek that ye may excel to the edifying of the church. Wherefore, 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 occupieth the room of the unlearned say, Amen, at thy giving of thanks, seeing he understandeth not what thou sayest? For thou verily givest thanks well, but the other is not edified. I thank my God, I speak with tongues more than you all. Yet in the church I had rather speak five words with my understanding, that by my voice I might teach others also, than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue. Brethren, be not children in your understanding. Howbeit in malice be you children, but in understanding be men. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father, I thank You for another opportunity to be in Your house tonight. Lord, as this year is quickly winding down, coming up on Christmas and the New Year, Lord, what a privilege it is to be able to come worship You this evening, be able to fellowship with God's people. Lord, it was good when we came in just to talk to some of Your people. It was good to sing together in the choir, pray together in the altar. Lord, I thank You for establishing the house of God and the ordinance of worshiping together. Lord, help us tonight as we just continue verse by verse through this truth. And Lord, may You just impart knowledge to us through Your Word. And Lord, equip us and strengthen us to be the Christians we need to be. Lord, we know that all Scripture is given by inspiration. Lord, we know it's profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for instruction. Lord, everything You've given us in the Word of God will benefit us in some way. Lord, I pray You'd help us take it to heart. Lord, we don't know the day or hour when we're going to have to recall it and use it in our life. But Lord, if we get it and put it in our heart, it'll be there when we need it. Lord, I pray You'd help Your people tonight. Lord, I know there are some here struggling, discouraged, I pray you encourage them. In Jesus' name we ask. Amen. Thank you for standing. Now, we begin this chapter looking at the church of Corinth in light of them being a destructive church. Because of their disorder, it brought a lot of destructiveness in the house of God and in the church there. Very carnal situation in the church of Corinth. Remember that the society of Corinth and the church of Corinth, you really couldn't tell a whole lot of difference between them. They had so intermingled. And that is very much the day that we're living in. We have a lot of churches tonight that used to be strong. They've opened the doors and let the world in. Then we have some that never were strong. They started off on a bad foundation and it's a trap from Satan. A lot of people will come knowing they need to go to church, but they'll wind up in a church that's very worldly and they'll fit comfortably and fleshly, they'll think that's where they're supposed to be, and then if they are saved, they're never equipped for the battle, and if they're not saved, many of them never hear a clear presentation of the gospel, God's not moving in that church, and therefore many of them die lost and go to hell. So it's a dangerous day we're living in when we have churches such as the church of Corinth. I was talking to a preacher friend this week, and I'd mentioned to him that I was studying and preaching out of this book on Wednesday nights, and he made this statement I thought was pretty interesting. He said, the church of Corinth was the type of church that you would have showed up for one service and said, wow, this is a happening church. This is a lively church. And if you had not thought about it, you may have quickly joined that church saying, this is it. This is what I've been looking for. Then he said, about six months down the road, you'd have looked around and said, what in the world have I got into? Amen? And I fear that is where a lot of churches are tonight. They'll have charisma and they'll have a substitute of the fire of God and the real worship of God, yet there's no foundation of doctrine and of the Word of God, and therefore there's nothing solid. And they're just up and down and in and out. And God help us we never be that kind of church. I don't believe Little Ivy's ever been that kind of church, and I pray it'll never be that kind of church, that we'd be steadfast and solid upon the Word of God. Now, we began looking at the communication in the first five verses. We saw how their communication was wrong, and that they were majoring on a so-called unknown tongue. There really was no unknown tongue, that that was of the devil when they spoke of something that was not a language. And then we saw in verses 6 down through verse 11, we saw the confusion that that brought. The apostle Paul dealt with how that it was no prophet, he dealt with there was no preparation, and that there was no perception. when there was not a clear message that was given in the worship service. Now tonight I want to pick up in verse 12 and look at the third portion of this chapter. My thought tonight is the childishness of a destructive church. I find in these next few verses we're going to look at this evening that this desire of spiritual gifts above being spiritual themselves and walking with God brought a childishness into the church of Corinth. Now, when you have confusion, you have immaturity. And that's one of the main characteristics of a child. We have some little ones here, and I've had little ones, and many of you have, and they're immature when they're children. That's natural. You don't expect a two- or three-year-old to act like a 20-year-old. And the church of Corinth, though, their problem was they were childish when they should have been grown up. You remember the apostle Paul said earlier in the book that he could not give them the meat that they needed because they were babes, and they were not able to handle it. So they were very childish, and through that childishness, that immaturity, it brought a lot of problems into the church. Do you know a person, and I know there's birth defects and certain things like that, an individual that never grows up, maybe they have a developmental problem, and they remain acting like a child in their twenties, thirties, forties, that individual can be destructive. Those things can hurt themselves. I have known of some people that have had children with terrible birth defects and issues, caused a lot of problems when they were up in age. They had to watch them as if they were just a little child. And looking at that and looking at the spiritual condition of the church of Corinth, that's where they were at. This childishness brought a destructive atmosphere into the church of Corinth. And that's why it's so dangerous that God's people not be mature. When God's people are not mature, it's dangerous. We must mature. We must grow. We must get a hold of the truths of the Word of God and have a maturity in our life. Now, we're going to continue looking at the fault of tongues. That's the theme of the chapter, but I want to look at it in light of this childishness, and maybe tonight God will give us some things here just concerning the general fault of childishness in our life. It may not be tongues. I don't think there's anybody here tonight that is struggling with speaking in a tongue. I don't think there's anybody here that I know of that is having an overwhelming urge to jump up and speak in a foreign language. Most of us here have trouble with English, so don't try that. Amen? We have a hard enough time with that. But tonight we'll look at some things about childishness. Now, first of all, beginning in verse 12, I want you to notice their childish desires. And we dealt with this just a little bit at the end of chapter number 13. In verse 11 of chapter 13, Paul said, when I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child, but when I became a man, I put away childish things. And of course, that was in light of being childish concerning charity. And charity and childishness doesn't go hand in hand. So here we are tonight over in these verses in chapter 14, seeing this thought of childishness coming up again concerning tongues. Now in verse 12, the Apostle Paul deals with their misled devotion. A child sometimes is misled in how to operate and how to act. And that's where the church of Corinth was at. They were not being led by the Spirit. It's not that God misled them. It's the fact that they didn't listen to what God had to say. That's something we harp on our children about. Listen to me. Obey me. Do what I tell you to do. It's for your good. And the church of Corinth was not listening to the Word of God. They were operating in a wrong way. And their devotion was not where it should have been. Notice verse 12 with me, if you will. The Bible said, even so, ye, forasmuch as ye are zealous of spiritual gifts." And I underline that in my Bible. That was the heart or the desire of the church of Corinth. They were more interested in spiritual gifts than they were in spirituality. And I want to spend a little time on that this evening. There's a difference between spiritual gifts and being spiritual. You say, what do you mean? Well, I'll give you an example. The best way I know how to give it to you. Men that are called to preach are given spiritual gifts. God has called a man to preach, and He's given him the gift to preach the gospel. He's given him the calling. And then I know there's other gifts in the church. We dealt with several of those, but I'm just going to use the preacher for instance, because I am one, and maybe this little analogy here will make some sense to you. How many times have you known of a preacher that was a tremendous preacher? I mean, they got in the pulpit and they delivered a tremendous message, and the altars filled up. and folks got saved, and lives got changed, and they were right on target, their preaching was very fluent, and it made sense, and you just stand back in awe and say, wow, that's a tremendous preacher. And then a little while down the road, you found out that preacher was in immorality, and they were in sin. Have you ever had that happen? Have you ever scratched your head? I've done it many times. I've scratched my head and said, Lord, now wait a minute, I just heard that fellow three or four months ago, and boy, he was preaching good, folks were getting saved, lives were being changed. How could that have happened if he had been involved in immorality? Well, there's a difference between spiritual gifts and spirituality. God gives spiritual gifts. That is issued to the individual by God. We dealt with that. I believe it was in chapter 12. But spirituality comes from us walking with God. It comes from a consistent daily life of living with God. A man can have a spiritual gift and not be spiritual. Now eventually it's going to show up on him. Eventually it's going to come out. But a man can operate in the realm of the flesh with that spiritual gift for a while, and everybody thinks everything's alright. And that's what was going on in the church of Corinth. They were coming in, supposedly speaking in tongues, having a big time while there was one, according to chapter 5, that was having a relationship with his mother-in-law and all kinds of ungodly sins that were going on. But yet when you showed up at the church, it looked like everything was alright. So Paul tells them, he said, listen, your devotion is misled. You're more interested in the outward gift than you are in having a real spiritual life. I can see your spiritual gift. You can see my spiritual gift. But you cannot see my spirituality. My spirituality is between me and God in private, amen? And if my spirituality is not right, eventually it will come on the outside. I can fool you for a while, and you can fool me for a while, but eventually it's going to come to head, and it's going to come out, and people will be exposed for what they are. So if you'll understand that, Paul was saying here, they were zealous of spiritual gifts. That's a good thing, but they were putting that in front of actually being spiritual. They were putting that in front of walking with God, having a consistent private life with God. What you are in private is what you really are. What I am in private is what I really am. I am not necessarily what you see of me three times a week. Now, I hope I'm real all the time. But the person I really am is the person, if you were with me, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Amen? That's sobering tonight. Amen? I mean, you think about that when nobody's around. I heard somebody say this one time, character is what you are when the lights are off. Amen? And I thought, wow, I mean, that's every thought, every deed, everything that we may do when we think nobody's around, that is a sobering thought to our heart. So we need to be spiritual people, not just zealous of spiritual gifts as they were. We find their devotion was misled. I asked myself this question today in studying this. How is my devotion? Am I more interested in looking spiritual or being spiritual? There's a vast difference. I want to be spiritual. And if you are spiritual, it will come out in your life. If you're not spiritual, eventually it will come out in your life. So Paul deals with this misled devotion here. They wanted their way, just like a child. There was something they wanted. You ever had one of your children say, give me, give me, give me. We were eating a bite last night. We revealed for a minute, me and the boys, and we stopped and got a bite of supper, and there was a little child about two years old, a couple of tables down, and all that youngin' did for 30 minutes was, give me, give me, give me, give me. I wanted to go over there and say, listen, if you'd take care of this youngin', I mean, I wasn't mad at him, but it was just sad that mom was ignoring the child and screaming, give me, give me. I said, give me, just pitching a fit. That's the nature of a child. That's what the church of Corinth was doing. They were saying, give me the gifts, give me the gifts, give me the flashy things, give me the big things, give me the prideful things and the things where I can step up and look real big in front of somebody else. And when we're childish, that's what happens in our life. Now, they had a misled devotion. We should examine our devotion tonight. Are we misled? Are we after things? Or are we devoted to Christ and Christ alone? Also in verse 12, I noticed they had a misplaced dedication. And that goes along with it. Look at the last half of verse 12. Paul said, "...Seek that ye may excel to the edifying of the church." Now, we've seen this term or this word, edify, edifying, several times that it's mentioned in the Scripture. Again, the word edify gives us the thought of building up. It gives us a thought of a house builder. He would edify, go from the ground up and build something upon a foundation. And tonight, that is what our desire ought to be as a child of God if we're right with God. Our desire should be to edify, to build up. Everything we say, everything we do, if you have a spiritual gift tonight, and I believe everyone that's saved does, that gift should be used in light of edification. Whatever it is, preaching, teaching, whatever God's given you to do in the body of Christ, the main thrust of that gift is, can I or do I edify the body of Christ with what I'm doing? Now if you're edifying yourself, it is a sign of selfishness and a sign of childishness. I'll use preachers again because I am one. And I'll talk about myself. A lot of times we as preachers, especially when you go to a different church or you preach a revival meeting or jubilee or something, The flesh wants to perform good. Now, that's just the way it is. If a preacher denies that, I'll tell him he's wrong, because we all deal with it. The fleshly part of man wants to hit a home run. I mean, you want to get up, deal with the Scripture. People say, wow, that's a good message. Get in the altar and get some help from God. But that's the fleshly side of man. We should not go with that intention. We should not go with being the best preacher in the meeting. We should go to exercise the gift that God gave us to edify the church. That should be the thrust of it. That devotion or that dedication should be to the work that God has put us in which is concerning the church. Now that goes with preachers, but that goes with everybody tonight. Whatever your place is in the body of Christ, when you do whatever you do, think about it. Am I edifying the church? Am I building up the local congregation that God put me in? Or am I just being selfish and doing my own thing? And when we do that, a lot of times, inadvertently, we tear down. Have you ever had a young'un that maybe just had a fit or had a problem and they were whining and crying and you couldn't get them settled? You couldn't get them quieted? I'm telling you, it just got to the point where you got frustrated. You got to the point where you had to walk off or something, you were just so upset. That's what happens when we are childish. We cause frustration or irritation in the body of Christ. Now you love that child and you wouldn't... do anything to hurt that child, but you're irritated. And you have to just get away for a moment, collect yourself, get calm, and say, okay, I'm the adult here, and I'm going to go back in here, handle the situation. And so it is in our spiritual life. When we operate, as the church of Corinth was operating, in a childish manner, we're becoming an irritation to the body of Christ. And we don't want to be that way. I mean, we want to be mature. So they had a misled devotion. They had a misplaced dedication. They were not dedicated to edifying the church. Now in verse number 13, we find the ministry of the individual church members that needed development. It's almost as if they had no growth in the individual members. Now I'm not sure that every member at Corinth was as bad off as every other member. It may have been just a good number, I believe it was a good number, or this epistle would not have been worded the way it was. I'm sure there were some individuals in the church of Corinth that had a measure of maturity. I doubt all of them were in the same boat, but a good number were. So Paul says this in verse number 13. Notice what he said. He said, "...Wherefore," and that's just meaning because of these things, "...Wherefore, let him that speaketh in an unknown tongue pray that he may interpret." Now, we'll get into interpretation in next week's message, Lord willing, as we look at the layout of the speaking in tongues, the part that was scriptural and the way it should have been. And of course, you remember this word unknown here doesn't mean a language that is unknown, doesn't mean a gibberish or some kind of unintelligible language. It just means a different language that was not known to that local congregation. So he said, "...wherefore let him that speaketh in an unknown tongue pray that he may interpret." Now what he's saying here is he's saying, listen, you need to be more developed than just seeking after the flashy gifts. They were wanting that speaking in tongue. They wanted to get up in a congregation in front of everybody, put on a show, so that when they left, everybody said, wow, that's the most spiritual person in our congregation. Paul said, you're wrong, you're not developed, you're not growing. Your growth should be to something greater than that. We're going to see in the next message next week that there was a position for an individual to interpret. And what would edify the body more? Think about it. If you divided it. And really, you wouldn't divide it because a genuine speaking in tongues in Bible days in this time would have had an interpreter there. That was one of the qualifications for this to be genuine. And of course, they didn't have that. It was not a genuine thing. So here he says, listen, you ought to pray to be an interpreter. He said it'd be better for you to be an interpreter than it would for you to be the one speaking in tongue. He's saying you're choosing a gift that is flashy to edify yourself because you're not developed in the body of Christ. We need to be developed. Say, how do we get developed? We get developed through our prayer life. We get developed through the study of the Word of God. We get developed as we let the Holy Ghost work in our life. Every time we're chastised by the Spirit of God, it's part of our development. Raising children is a lot like the spiritual life. How do we develop our children? We take our children when they're wrong, we correct them. When they get out of line, we use the rod of correction and we instruct them and we deal with them and we try to teach them to grow up and be adults. And that's what the Holy Ghost is doing or trying to do in our life, is to develop us and teach us to be spiritual mature. Not just a child. There are some people tonight that have been saved twenty, thirty years and they've not grown a bit. They're no more mature than they were when they first got in. They're spiritual babies. They sometimes become problems in a church. They're never able to pull their weight and help and be strong. And Paul is admonishing them here, listen, you need to be developed. You need to get off of this thing of just having a flashy gift and get up and get some meat in your spiritual stomach and grow and be something that can be a blessing or someone that can be a blessing to the church. Alright, so you see their ministry needed development. I believe tonight all of us in our personal work in the church, we all need development. I need development every day. That's why I try to listen to preaching and try to study my Bible, because I know I'm weak in a lot of places, and I know I need strength, and you need to know that tonight. We don't arrive until the Lord comes and takes us home. There's always room for growth. You can go find the oldest Christian, the best Christian you know tonight, may have walked with God 50, 60 years, and if they're honest, they'll tell you they need growth in their life. We all need growth and continual development to be more like Christ. Notice this now, something else I want to give you before we move on about their childish desires. In verse 14, all of this childishness brought a discouragement among the members. I mentioned to you before, and if you'll be honest with me tonight, Children sometimes, when they get out of sorts, they can discourage you. I mean, some of you young mamas, you say, Amen. Now's your time to run around and say, Glory to God, somebody understands me. Amen. I watch my wife raise our children, and I see my daughter with our granddaughter, and I watch some of you young ladies, and I know you get discouraged. I know sometimes when your body is saying it's time for bed, but your baby's saying it's not, that's discouraging, amen? And you're tired and you're weary, and what does that do? That pulls you down. You don't think like you ought to. You don't operate like you ought to. You sometimes get short with your husband. Listen, men, if you haven't understood this, if you're a young man, you're just married now, don't get mad if she gets short with you. She's carrying a heavy load. Our lives don't change that much. When I had children, I just kept on going to work. Amen? It didn't change my life like it did my wife's life. And here Paul is saying to them, listen, he's saying these members, because of this childishness, they're discouraged in the church. Look at verse number 14. In verse number 14 he said, for if I pray in an unknown tongue, and here that's what they were doing, he said, my spirit prayeth, but my understanding is unfruitful. And again, you can just get a picture in your mind what happened in a normal service at the church of Corinth. This is going to pop up over here and say something nobody understood. This is going to jump up over here and say something nobody understood. Somebody over here was doing something. It was just a hodgepodge of whatever anybody felt like doing. Can you imagine how discouraging that would be to be in a church like that? Can you imagine being in a church where you walked out the door and you had no idea what went on in that service? And I know we've got some people that think that kind of stuff's spiritual. And I'm not talking about, again, God moving into service and doing what He wants to do. But when we leave the house of God, we ought to have an understanding of what went on. If we don't have an understanding of what went on, then something's wrong somewhere. God, again, as I've mentioned this so many times, God's a God of order. He's a God of knowledge. Amen? And we've got so many people that have got out and left field and attached the Spirit to something that is not spiritual. And then they say, well, you don't have a good church service unless everybody's going crazy and we walk out and we don't know whether we're in or out or up or down. That's not scriptural tonight. I don't believe a minute of that. I believe the things of God will ring true in our heart and we'll know what's happening. We may not understand all the time everything God's doing, but we'll understand that it is God. And here they are. They were getting discouraged. It was unfruitful. Some of these members that had a little bit of maturity about them, they walked out the door and said, wow, you know, we didn't get anything tonight. We didn't understand the preacher. He was in some kind of crazy language. We didn't understand Sister So-and-so. She was talking something nobody understood. If there had been genuine unknown languages speaking or foreign languages speaking, nobody was interpreting. See, it was just an absolute mess. And that's where a lot of people attend churches at today. They attend churches where there's no order, there's nothing out of the pulpit that has any substance to it, nothing in the Sunday school department that has any substance to it. They don't know, they don't have a clue of what's being said, and they live their life on an emotional high or an emotional low without any kind of strength to be able to be what God wants them to be. And it's just childishness, alright? So he said there's childish desires. Let's move on. Secondly, I want you to notice in verses 15 through 17, Paul now gives them a clear direction. He loves the church of Corinth. Matter of fact, I believe it's in chapter 15, we'll see this, or maybe it's in 2 Corinthians where he mentions that about being spent spending all being spent for them. He loves this church. The Apostle Paul does not love any other church any more than he loves the Corinthian church. I think he cares for all of them. But this church was frustrating to him because as the spiritual father of this church, they were off base and they were off course with God's Word. So what he's trying to do is bring them back to where they needed to be. He's trying to get them back on track with God's Word. Let's see what he says here about their direction. In verse 15, he tells them about a proper operation. Look what he said. He uses a question. He said, what is it then? What he's saying here is, okay, how do we sum this up? What do we do? Notice a tremendous verse right here in verse 15. He said, I will pray with the Spirit. Now, watch your Bible closely. He's not talking about the Holy Spirit. Yes, we do pray. Yes, the Holy Spirit makes intercession for us to God. We understand the work of the Holy Spirit, the work of Christ. But Paul is talking about the spirit of man right here. You see, let me sidetrack just for a moment, run a rabbit. That's why dogs and animals and all that stuff don't go to heaven. They don't have the same spirit man's got. They have a different spirit. A dog has its own spirit, its own life. Dogs know how to bark. Dogs know how to chase cars. Some of them know how to bite, amen? They know all that kind of stuff. The spirit of man is different than any other creature on planet earth that God made. We are a tripart being, body, soul, and spirit. God has made us to worship Him. So in verse number 15, when Paul said, I will pray with the spirit, he's talking about the spirit of man, who I am. What I am, when I pray, when you pray, we're praying with our spirit, who we are. And we're praying unto God. Now look at this. He said, I'll pray with understanding also. I will sing with the Spirit. Now if you sing, whether it be in the choir or specials, and you sing to the Lord, you sing with your spirit. At least you ought to, amen? You put your spirit into it. You put your being into it. He said, I will sing with the Spirit and I will sing with the understanding also. So what's Paul saying? He's saying, I'm not going to do this in an unknown language or in an unknown way. He said, I am going to exercise my spirit in worshiping God. And we won't go to it for sake of time, but John chapter 4 verse 24. Jesus told that woman at the well. He said, they that worship me must worship in spirit and in truth. If you happen to turn over there, you'll see that the spirit mentioned, the word spirit in John 4 24 is little s. It takes spirit and truth to connect with God in worship. You have many people that all they have is their spirit. And that's where they go emotional, they have no boundaries, no guidelines, no anchor points, no doctrine, and it's all emotional. If they feel like doing something, they just do it. Many times it's out of order. Then you have a crowd that may have truth, but yet they don't put their spirit into it. There's no vitality. There's no force to it. There's no zeal in it. They had too much zeal. Some people have no zeal. God said, listen, if you're going to do it, do it in spirit. Spirit and in truth. And Paul is just reiterating what Christ said in John chapter 4. He said, sure, my spirit's going to be involved in worship. He said, but it's going to have understanding to it. I'm going to know what I'm saying. I'm going to know what I'm doing. I'm going to tell you something, I'm not the most spiritual person in the world. The Lord knows that. And you've been around me long enough, you know that. I'm far from it. But I have never worshipped God and not known what I was doing. Amen? This crowd that says they've worshipped God and not known what they're doing, there's something wrong with that. And you can tell them I said it or the Bible said it or whatever. There's something wrong with that. I've had some good times in the Lord. I've had some times just me and the Lord when God just flooded my soul and I wept and cried and said, thank you, Lord. But I knew what was going on. I never lost the control of where I was and what I was doing and all that, and all those things. I understand God can get overwhelming on us, but I'm telling you, when it gets to where we get out of the realm of understanding, we get on dangerous ground. There's an understanding there. You understand what God's doing in your life when worship is right. So these members were discouraged and Paul said, listen, this is the proper operation. Notice something else in verse 16 and 17 concerning his direction. Proper operation brings a proper outcome. Look at verse 16 and 17. He said, He said, if you don't do it like I just told you in verse 15. He said, "...else when thou shalt bless with the Spirit, how shall he that occupieth the room..." He's talking about the sanctuary, the church, wherever they're at. And he says, "...occupieth the room..." He said, "...how shall he that occupieth the room of the unlearned..." Now he's not saying the room of the unlearned, he's saying the person of the unlearned. Here again is a reference to biblical tongues being a different language, not a crazy language. Because Paul is saying that this individual that doesn't understand you is unlearned. Now that's not a bad comment. He's just saying he doesn't know what you're saying. He doesn't understand. If it was a foreign language and you spoke it and there was an interpreter, then he would understand what you're saying. So Paul said, "...else when thou shalt bless with the Spirit, How shall he that occupieth the room of the unlearned say Amen at thy giving of thanks? Now that happens around here all the time. I believe that happens in every Bible-believing fundamental church. Somebody will get up and testify. Somebody else will say Amen. Sometimes we preach something and somebody says Amen. Sometimes a singer is singing or the choir is singing. Somebody says Amen. What is that? That's an acknowledgement of understanding what is being said. Most of the time you don't say Amen unless it's touched your soul. Unless it's been a blessing to you, unless you agree with it, unless it strikes a chord in you, and then you say, hey man, that's right, I agree with that. And Paul is telling them here, he's saying, listen, the proper outcome will only come from the proper operation. He said, if you don't operate right, then nobody's going to understand what you're saying. He said this, he said, seeing, in the last part of verse 16, seeing, he understandeth not what thou sayest. The moral of this, or the whole point of this right here, is if we're worshiping God in the right way, then those that are saved are going to understand it. If I'm preaching right, you're going to understand it. You may not know everything about it. If that Sunday school teacher is right, you're going to understand it. It's going to make sense to you. It's going to click. You're going to have general understanding of it. The choir is singing, and the folks are singing songs, and worship is right. There's going to be an understanding. We're going to be blessed by it and know what's going on. Now remember, Paul is dealing Most of chapter 14 with what's going on in the church. See, a lot of people get their mind outside of the church and say, well, this was a tool to be used for... and we know this was used for the unbelieving Jews. It had no place to be in the church among believers. There was no need for it. It was a sign gift, and we'll see that as we go on in the chapter later on. Alright, so Paul gives them clear direction. Now let's look at this final point tonight. Now he charges them. Beginning in the next verse, in verse 18, down through where we finished reading in verse 20, he gives a charge to them concerning what they need to be, and he delivers it to them and says, okay, listen, I've told you you're childish. I've told you that all you're worried about is having this flashy gift where you can get up and everybody look at me. What are children like? Children like attention. Some people never grow out of that. Amen? Children like attention. Children like drama. They like all eyes being on them. When you grow up, that should go away. When you become mature, that should leave you. And it was not leaving them because they were not spiritually mature. When they came to church, they didn't want eyes on God, they wanted eyes on them. And if you've ever been in a church like that, you know what I'm talking about. If you know anything about the Lord. I've been in some churches where you couldn't see God for the people. Amen? You know what I'm talking about? You couldn't see God for the preacher. I don't want you to see the preacher when I'm preaching. I don't want you to go out and say, man, we've got the greatest preacher. I'm telling you, he's just the best preacher in the world. What does he preach on? I don't know, but he's the best preacher in the world. It's crazy, amen? I want you to go out and say, hey, we've heard from God. We've seen God. That's where the eyes need to be. In Corinth, there were no eyes on God. It was eyes on people. And notice this charge. I'll give you this quickly. We'll be done tonight. Verse 18. Look at Paul's gift. I like this verse. Let me catch verse 17 with you. He said, For thou verily givest thanks well, but the other, speaking about the congregation or the other believer, is not edified. There's that word edification again, or edified. It's a must in the church. Verse 18, he said, I thank my God, I speak with tongues more than ye all. Now somebody will read that and say, whoa, wait a minute, Paul, what are you talking about? Paul is not talking about speaking in what they would call an unknown tongue or a gibberish. He's talking about part of that apostolic power that he had. Those apostles had power to touch and raise up the sick. You remember Peter and John, Acts chapter 3, they're at that lame man at the gate of the beautiful gate of the temple, and he reached down and touched him, such as I have, give I thee, and rise up and walk. Those gifts were given to the apostles, and they died with the apostles. So Paul is just saying, hey, I've got the gift of speaking in tongues. Now his was the biblical gift, the right gift, but you don't read anywhere where the Apostle Paul exercised that in the church. You don't read anywhere where he had come to church, and if there was ever a man that had authority to do that, it would have been the Apostle Paul. But he didn't do that. So he lets him know, listen, I have a gift also. This gift you're glorying in and these things that you're puffing yourself up in. He said, listen, I have that too. But Paul did not magnify that gift. That was not the main thing. What do you find the apostle Paul doing? Read about him through the book of Acts. What do you find him doing? He's what we call prophesying. He's preaching. He's giving out a message that is understandable. So he mentions his gift. And this gift was an ability, no doubt, to speak another language. But in verse 19, look at his goal. This is where every Christian should be. He said, yet in the church. There's the point, amen? These apostolic gifts were used in many times outside of the church as a sign to unbelievers. But in verse 19 he said, yet in the church, in the worship service, I had rather speak five words with my understanding Notice this, that by my voice I might teach others also. That's the key right there. That's the theme. Paul said, yeah, I've got the gift of speaking in tongues. He said, I wouldn't dare use it to confuse anybody. I wouldn't dare use it in an atmosphere where it was not proper. Of course, we know nowadays it's not proper anywhere. But in Bible days, at this particular time, in that transition, there was a proper use of the gift of tongues according to the Scripture. But Paul said, I'm not going to do that. I'm going to speak with understanding. Here's this truth again, this comparison. He said, five words of my understanding. that by my voice I might teach others also than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue." He's saying, all this you're doing is just foolish, it's no good, you're not helping anybody. And here's what I want to say to us tonight. Our goal should be like the Apostle Paul. It doesn't matter how much we know, how good we are at something, how much we think that we're important here. Whatever we do should be for somebody else's edification. Whatever we do should be to help somebody else. I, as a preacher, and I'm sure I've done it before. I haven't really meant to, but I'm sure I've done it before. I'm sure I have taken my calling, my gift as a preacher, and used it in the wrong way. I know I have. I know there's been a few times I've gotten the pulpit mad. and angry, and used it as a soapbox instead of a place to proclaim the gospel. And that's not right. And when I get to heaven, I'm going to face that judgment seat of Christ. I'm not going to get any crowns for that preaching. I'm not going to get any attaboys for that, amen? It's burned up because I used it in the wrong way. I'm sure singers sometimes, they've got up to sing, thought, boy, I'm just going to belt it out here and just let them hear how good I am. It's not going to do you any good, amen? It's a wrong use of that gift. When we do it to edify, that is when God is pleased, and that's when it's right. So Paul gives the gift, he shows the goal, and then in verse 20, I'll give you this, and we're done tonight. In verse 20, here's his guidance to them. I think this sums up the thought that I'm trying to bring to you tonight. He said, brethren... He's not talking to sinners here. He said, brethren, be not children in understanding. That was where the church of Corinth was. They had no understanding. It was just a free-for-all when they came to church. No doctrine, no order. And I'm not talking about man's order, I'm talking about God's order. No direction from what Scripture they had. He said, listen, brethren, be not children in understanding. We've got way too many people today that are children in understanding when it comes to things of God. They don't know what the Bible says. They don't know it rightly divided. They don't know which portion of the Scripture is speaking to what people because they don't study it and they don't meditate on it and they don't know, they misapply Scripture. They come up with crazy doctrines and ideas because they are children in understanding. He said, be not these children in understanding. He throws this in. He said, how be it in malice be ye children. Now think about that. How many times have you seen two children clawing each other's eyes out? Five minutes later, they're just best friends you've ever seen. Now, if you're going to be a child in something, Paul said, be a child in malice, amen? Being a child in the intention of accidentally hurting somebody or a possibility of hurting or harming somebody, he said, be like a child in that. He said, that way you just get it right and you go on, you're not trying to hurt. But he said this, he said, but in understanding, be men. He's saying, you need to grow up church, Corinne. You need to get out of this childish bassinet. You need to get out of this wanting your own thing. Me, me, me, it's all about me. I want to look good. I don't say we have anybody in here particularly like that, but we've all got it in us tonight. Every one of us that have flesh on our bones, we have the possibility of showing up at church and saying, hey, it's all about me. Look at me. Help me. Fix me. What's the church got for me? And I understand it's for the individual, but I'm telling you, we are for the church. Amen? It's not what the church can do for us, it's what we can do for the body of Christ. If you'll have that kind of mentality, then that's mature Christians right there. But if we have the mentality tonight, it's all about making me look good, and all about what I can do, and get bragged on. I have been around some folks before, honestly, childish people. If you didn't brag on them, if you didn't tell them how good they were doing, they'd get puffed up and get mad, something like that. That is a sure sign of immaturity. We should serve God whether we ever get a pat on the back or not. If we're only serving the Lord, if we're only coming to church to please men, it will never get the job done. Matter of fact, you're going to be miserable and you're probably not going to last, because you're not going to please men most of the time anyway. We need to be pleasing unto God, and when we're mature, that's exactly what we'll be. Amen? So we'll stop right there tonight in verse 20. Next week, Lord willing, we'll pick up and probably another week or two we'll finish this 14th chapter. And I'll quit preaching on tongues. Amen. And we'll get into the 15th chapter and look at some things about the resurrection. Maybe a little bit more relative to the day we live in. This stuff's going on around us. We don't deal with it because of the church we're in and the circle we're in. Most of us, we don't deal with this stuff. But you need to know about it. You need to know what the Bible tells you about this. And there's great application, just like what we saw tonight, about childishness. It may not be the gift of speaking in tongues that we fight with, but every one of us, we fight with childishness tonight. And let's suppress that childishness, and let's let God have glory in our life. Let's do everything we do to lift up the body of Christ, to help the body of Christ, to encourage people to serve God. And that is what makes a mature church tonight. Amen. You have the message. Let's stand with our heads bowed just a moment. God spoke to you in any way and you need the altar tonight. You come. I want to give you just a minute to pray. Maybe you're burdened about something tonight and you need an opportunity to pray. I know most of us did at the beginning of the service, but maybe God has spoken to you in some way through the service tonight. You need to use the altar. You come. If you don't know the Lord as your Savior tonight, you need to know Him as your Savior. You need to be born again. I'm thankful for God's work in our life. I'm thankful for the maturing process that God will work in the life of the believer. The whole thing about it tonight is we must let Him have His work. We must not kick and fight and scream and push against what the Spirit of God is trying to do in our life. Let's close tonight with our hearts on being mature Christians for the glory of God. Amen. I appreciate your good attention tonight. Thank you for being here. Everything done in the service. Anybody have a word testimony or anything before we close this evening?