If you would remain standing and flip over to First Corinthians, chapter 14 in your Bibles, First Corinthians, chapter 14, we'll start in verse twenty six. Why are why you're turning there? Before we begin, I want to do a very quick review and then get into reading this text this morning, if you remember. Paul, back in verse chapter 12, started talking about spiritual gifts and we looked at spiritual gifts and how they are to be used in the church. Then we we saw Paul talk about speaking in love and dealing with each other in love. And then in chapter 14, he's. specifically started probing and pushing back against their use of two of the gifts, prophecy and tongues. And we've looked at that the last two weeks on how they have handled themselves wrong, actually hurting those in their body and not helping those or building them up. And that leads us up to where we are here this morning. And Paul's going to close out this section speaking about orderly worship. So we pick up in verse 26, hear the word of the Lord. What then, brothers? When you come together, each one has a him, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up. If any speak in a tongue, let there be only two or at most three and each in turn and let someone interpret. But if there is no one to interpret, let each of them keep silent in church and speak himself into God. Let two or three prophets speak and let the others weigh in what is said. If a revelation is made to another sitting there, let the first be silent. For you can all prophesy one by one so that all may learn and all be encouraged. And the spirits of prophets are subject to prophets. For God is not a God of confusion, but of peace. As in all the churches of the saints, the women should keep silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak, but should be in submission. As the law says, if there is anything they desire to learn, let them ask their husbands at home for it is shameful for a woman to speak in the church. Or was it for you that the word of God came? Or are you the ones it has reached? If anyone thinks that he is a prophet or spiritual, he should acknowledge that the things I'm writing to you are a command of the Lord. If anyone does not recognize this, he is not recognized. So my brothers earnestly desire to prophesy and do not forbid speaking in tongues. But all things should be done decently and in order. Let us pray. Father, we come to you this morning. We approach a tax that has been confusing It has been difficult to understand for the church throughout the ages. And even now, contemporarily in our culture is difficult for us to understand. It's difficult for us to stomach and some of the things that you say. And father, we ask that today you would help us to to hear from you. We ask that you would soften our hearts, that you would send the Holy Spirit to work among us. To change us, to renew us, to build us up in our faith and understanding of the gospel of the Lord Jesus. Father, most of all, we ask that today, not only in this time of proclaiming your word, but in all that we do here, that you would be honored, that you would be glorified and that you would be the object of our worship. Father, we ask that you would convict us where we where we worship you incorrectly, that you would encourage us where we have things done right. that you would always be working on us, molding us and shaping us to do the things that please you. Father, we pray all these things in Christ's name. Amen. You may be seated. I said in previous sermons that I think it's last week in particular, I said I could have just read the read the passage and said amen. And it was like really good sermon outline. Paul does really well and it's great. And there's it's wonderful to read and see this week is a little different. All right. It's one of those that honestly, I have been looking forward at for some time on the calendar and not really looking forward to to getting through this text. And it's going to have some difficult parts to it. So just hang with me. We'll we'll get through this and it'll be good for us before we begin. Let me ask you, have you ever been to a gathering of a large number of people and you arrived early before this event or whatever was happening started? Maybe it was a concert or a basketball game or the cafeteria of a middle school before the day starts. Possibly it was a church conference that you went to. One of the things you often notice is that everyone is chatting in their own conversations. Some may be up walking around, going to the restrooms, seeing their friends, whatever the case may be, before the event starts. Picture yourself in this place that you've been. Do you remember the low rumble of noise and seeing the people moving around as they interact in small groups? Now, contrast that with the scene Which happens right after the event starts. What's the difference? Well, most likely there is a difference. In the beginning, there were people moving around and talking on their own. And in those situations, we see groups of people that aren't functioning together. But then. When the event starts, this disorder, this low rumble stops. And the whole group of people comes together for whatever event that they're there for. At a basketball game, all the fans cheer together when the star hits the three-pointer from half-courts. When the concert starts, all the fans sit down. They cheer when the band comes out together in one accord. At football games, everybody yells at the referees together because they're always against your team. The middle school students file out to their classes and they sit together in unison participating in class. In an ideal world anyway, the conference goers come together, they sing in one accord, they listen, they take notes. What was disorder before with a group of people now becomes a group that functions together. There is order to what they're doing. And they as a group of people, even if they don't know each other, are working together towards a common goal, just depending on where they are, what that goal is. Now in Corinth, the church has a problem with worship that is disorderly. We've seen that in the last few weeks. Paul has hinted to the disorder and the nature of the way that tongues were just being used and spoken over the top of each other. And Paul said that if people from the outside come in, they would think you're mad. Mad, completely mad, because you're in a an activity, an event that's happening and no one is participating together. They have this this disorderly worship problem. So like a good leader, like a good apostle, Paul not only corrects what they are doing wrong, but he's also going to provide them with principles to follow in their gatherings for orderly worship. I don't normally like the subheadings in Bible text that you'll look at your Bible, depend on your translation. There's different subheadings over paragraphs. I like the ESV one for this one. It's orderly worship. That is what Paul's addressing here. And he gives in these three principles. The first thing is, as he's correcting their problem, he says that, number one, you should worship with a purpose. So worship with a purpose. And we'll talk about what that purpose is. Number two. You should worship with proper leadership, the proper structures in place, and we'll talk about that. And number three, you should worship in submission. We're going to see you should worship in submission to the word of God. So Paul brings these solutions, not just correcting the problem, but he brings solutions to their problem also. So let's let's look at this. How are how is the church supposed to fix orderly worship? And then as we're doing that, how are we supposed to evaluate what we do in a church when we gather together to make sure that we have orderly worship that honors the Lord Jesus? So we come to this first principle is worship with a purpose. So we should say up front, we should be worshiping with a purpose. Now, our first purpose is assumed in the text. If you look back through the context of what Paul has done in the previous chapters, the assumption is, and I think it should go without saying in a Christian church, that our worship should be of the triune God, the creator. He is the object of our worship. Our purpose in coming here is to actually worship, to bring praise and glory to the one that has created us through the Lord Jesus. We worship him because he has saved us. That is always the assumption when we get to these parts of Scripture that we are actually worshiping this Lord, this Savior, this mighty God who has created us. Because we see in Scripture clearly that he is holy, that we are not, that Jesus has come to save sinners, that died on the cross, has borne the punishment of the Father, and all those who repent and believe will be saved. As we said in the last few weeks, we should look to Jesus. We should savor him. We should we should revel in the glory of who Christ is and the salvation has been given to us. And then we should turn and we should worship God who has done this for us. This is our first priority when we gather, our first purpose is to worship God himself. There are people. And there are churches who think that they are doing this and it may even look like on the outside that they are doing this, but they're not. I've been part of these churches, you've been part of these churches, if we don't stand on guard, we could potentially become one of those churches and we do not want to run afoul of that. We must make sure that what we do here is actually worship of God and nothing else. Now, secondly, that's underlying. Paul has already discussed this. Don't go to the other temples. Don't do these other things. You are worshiping God himself, the God we see all the way through scripture. Now, secondly, he says in verse 26, he says, What then, brothers, when you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up. So our actions, the worshiping God actually have a should have a secondary effect, and that is to build each other up. We're to be doing things in the worship service that build each other up and Paul with some of them singing, giving a lesson. Revelation tongue and interpretation with that, this new revelation is what he's pointing to and their context are supposed to be supposed to be building each other up in our context. Now we sing, we pray together, we hear sermons proclaimed, we hear scripture read. All of these things are worshiping God, but they are also to be done in a way that builds up the beloved. Why? Why would why would Paul say that? Because ultimately, we see the purpose of worship in any religious experience is to worship or to bring honor and glory to a deity. So why would Paul say that there's a secondary effect of building up the beloved, building up the church and their faith? Well, the results of us building each other up and to strengthen their faith is that it would result in more worship. It would result in more worship. When we are built up on our faith and we see the Lord Jesus more clearly and we are applying the gospel and walking through our lives in a way that is honoring and pleasing to Him, we are more apt to worship Him. So in this building up, it's not a selfish act on the church or self-centered. It actually is bringing more worship to the Lord Jesus. So we are to worship with a purpose. and to build each other up. And this is why, starting in verse 27, Paul gives some regulations, some rules on how you are to worship. He regulates the use of tongues, these other known languages, the interpretations. We've discussed some of those. He also attacks or outlines the way that they are to handle prophecies, they are to speak. And then everyone's to be quiet. And then they're going to have people judge to make sure that what this person is saying is an actual true prophecy and not false to compare it to the word of God. He lines out these rules for a reason. So in this is not madness. And if the church is built up through these things and then ultimately people are strengthened in their faith and then that results in even more worship of the Lord Jesus. And we see at the very end also in verse 33 that these regulations reflect the very nature of who God is himself. And we worship in an orderly way with purpose, we are actually modeling and reflecting the Lord and the God and the creator that we worship, because we see here for God is not a God of confusion, but a God of peace. That's clearly seen around us. Walk outside anywhere. Everything is ordered. Trees, everything is very specifically ordered and done. It may look like chaos to us, but the creation is very much ordered so that it works together for what it's supposed to do. So, brothers and sisters, when we come together to worship, we're going to have purpose and it's not to be a time of confusion. It's not to be a time where people run around while we're in the act of worshiping. It's different before we begin. You're free to talk, obviously, then. But it's supposed to be orderly when we pray, when we sing, not to have people having these individual worship experiences. I think a lot of times in church services, and I hope that when you come here, you're moved by God and he works in your life. But corporate worship is never intended to be a bunch of individualistic worship experiences all going on in the same room. That's not corporate worship. That's individuals worshiping together. We see very clearly that Paul is lining out here that when you come together, you're to build each other up. And he lists out how these things are done and notice that they're done as a group. No more of these individuals just spouting off whatever they're doing. Do it for the building up of others. So to apply this as a church, we need to make sure that we worship orderly with a purpose, that we come here And our thoughts and minds, when we're participating together, are actually pointed towards God alone. When you're singing these songs in the hymnals, when you pick up these handouts, be singing this, but be singing it together in one accord to the Lord. Worshiping him, your thought shouldn't be on the next word necessarily. Of course, you have to do that, but you should be focused on what's being said and say that to the Lord. And we do this together in an orderly fashion now within these parameters of purpose, there is freedom, there is freedom to to do some things. Paula said you can bring him a lesson, a revelation, a tongue interpretation. This is not an exhaustive list. In Colossians chapter three and verse 16, Paul adds to the list of worship. He says, let the words of Christ dwell richly in you, richly teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God. So Paul says within this, having this purpose of building up the beloved while you're focused on worshiping the creator, there's freedom to do different things, teach, admonish, sing. Not just seeing one thing, sing the songs, sing spiritual songs, sing hymns. Also notice that he doesn't give an explicit order of worship. He doesn't give the number of songs that we are to sing. He doesn't give the musical style in which we are to sing. There are many ways that we can order our worship within these boundaries. We can use different types of music that fit into the culture that we live in. If you take the music that we use here to another country, it is going to be a very odd experience for them. It's OK to use the cultural music to sing the music secondary as long as it brings people together to meet these purposes that we have in worship. You can worship in churches that have a piano and organ or no instrument at all to have a full orchestra or a full band, any of those ways and be doing it absolutely wrong. Because it becomes a show, becomes not building people up and the focus turns upon people and not worshiping the Lord. You can also worship in churches that have a piano or an organ, a full orchestra, a full band, a guy on a guitar, any of those styles and be doing it exactly right. Those things can be used in a way that does exactly what Paul says here, to be worshiping the Lord in a way that builds up the beloved. It's possible to worship in churches, as I said, with different orders of worship than ours and still be worshiping God and building up our others. You can use different prayers, different purposes in those prayers, and it still be fitting in to these purposes that Paul has outlined out. Much of our worship has to do with our attitudes and our purposes and our reasons for being there. We read Jesus say in John. And we're to worship in spirit and truth. We come together to worship, we worship the Lord Jesus in spirit and truth, working to build each other up. There's a great variety of ways that we can do that. One of the things that I run into personally as I talk to other pastors and other Christians around the area and actually talking to some of you also over the years, there's always this angst when it comes to church music. There's always this this nervousness when it comes to the order and the style of worship and the things that we do. And those things are important. And we do need to think through those things. But the way that we think through them is to make sure that they are in submission, the word of God, that they fit these purposes, that they point the beloved towards worshiping God himself and that they are used to build up those around us. Well, that's Paul's first point, we should worship with a purpose. Let me encourage you, when you come here to worship week in and week out, come with a purpose. Don't just show up to go through the motions to go through. Well, we're going to do the call to worship and then we're going to do the praise and then someone's going to pray and we're going to confess our sin and come with a purpose. Don't just go through the motions, come with a purpose to actually worship God. And through singing and through everything else that we have going on here, participate and build up the beloved around you. Now, Paul's second point has to do with proper leadership in the church. And you talk about passages that I wish I could skip. If we weren't preaching all the way through books without skipping things, this is probably one I would skip over just because it's easier not to have to deal with it. We're going to deal with it. So let's read what Paul says, starting to verse the second half of verse thirty three. As in all the churches of the saints, the women should keep silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak, but should be in submission, as the law also says, for if there is anything that they desire to learn, they should ask their husbands at home for it is shameful for a woman to speak in church. No one likes to hear that. They don't. As we've read it twice now and probably both times we've read it, you've been a little bit uncomfortable with those words. That's OK. If if you were to read this out in our culture, the feminist movement, other churches would bristle at this and say, see, God's word can't be true. He's saying that women should never speak in a church. And that's ridiculous. And they would they would use all these other arguments. And on the surface, Out of context, as people use this, it looks exactly like that, that Paul is being very much anti women being a part of the church congregation and worship. But if you read it in context, we see that's not what's meant here. And I bet even in context, you forgot about what came directly before this, because you got here, you were so focused on looking at how in the world is there going to handle this thing about women being silent that you probably forgot the immediate context. We're talking about worship and orderly worship and immediately preceding this, Paul has said. When you have people that are going to give prophecies. They are subject to other prophets or other prophecies. So let someone speak and then two or other however many other people listen to those prophecies and determine if they're true or not. There are Bible believing evangelical churches that practice this to this day, I've heard. I've heard people talk about that. So this is our immediate preceding context. And then he says right after that, apparently this wasn't happening. He says, as in all the churches of the saints, the women should keep silent in the churches. He's referring directly back to this corporate prophecy setting. When there's a prophecy that's being said, let the women stay quiet on this. Let them stay quiet. Now, this is not a Paul enacting a strict policy for women to never speak in a church gathering. That would be in conflict with what he said in chapter 11, verses five and 13, when he says, when the women pray and prostrate, have them cover their head and might preach through all of that. So Paul has the assumption that women are participating in worship. We would agree with that. We have women here participating in worship. I saw you all singing there earlier. Well, Paul speaking to or speaking about. Is it when these tongues and prophecies are spoken? that the church, like all the other churches, should follow the proper order of submission that has been outlined in other parts of scripture. Meaning women are not to speak out in authority in the church, being one of the teachers, being one of the leaders, one of the elders of the church that's listening to these prophecies. We see in First Timothy chapters two and three that Paul is written And in chapter three, he gives this outline of who is in leadership in the church and that and that the elders are the men of the church. And right before that, in chapter two, people always skip over this when they say, well, see, Paul's just hating women. No, that's not at all. Right before that, he says there's a reason for this when we had this functional subordination. Men and women equal in God's size as far as their worth as humans, as far as their salvation goes. But we have this subordination in families and churches. It models the Trinity, it models the created order, he refers back to Genesis. And so we do this in a church, in our homes, what we're actually doing is proclaiming God's created order and we're submitting ourselves to God himself. So Paul says women should not question these prophecies or speak out or be in the ones who are judging them in the church that is reserved for the husband. Instead, they have questions about that, or maybe they seek to correct that prophecy. They perceive something's not right about it. And I will submit that women, a lot of times in my experience, maybe it's just my wife, is really good at perceiving things that aren't quite right. Paul says, have them do this at home. And in their culture, this would have fit in absolutely perfectly. All right. In home, a lot of times the women probably weren't as familiar with a lot of the scriptures and other things that were going on. Not that that's the way it was supposed to be, but it's the way it ended up being. So they are to ask these questions and they are to learn to judge prophecies at home and not speak out to speak against the order of the church. Now, don't hear me wrong. I'm afraid some of you have heard me wrong and the culture hears us wrong when we say this. This does not mean that women are second class human beings or citizens. Absolutely not. We just have different roles and purposes in the church. And it doesn't mean that there's not a place for women to function in the church. A church without women functioning seems like a very sad and unhealthy place to me. We see this in Scripture, Paul has Paul has already said that they are to they are to pray in the church in chapter 11 to speak. There's definitely roles. And one of the most important roles is outlined in Paul's letter to Titus. Starts in chapter two, verse three, he writes this older women likewise. Are to be reverent behavior, not slanders or slaves to much wine, they are to teach. Hear me teach. They are to teach what is good and so train up the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, to be pure, working at home, kind and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled. That is a credibly, credibly important task that is given to women in the church. They are to teach. To be good models and to and to do all this work, not notice what it says, not is not in service as a slave to their husbands, but that the word of God might not be reviled. So Paul is not saying that women have no role in the church and can never speak once they enter the gathering. Paul's saying when it comes to worship, there's this division of leadership and these divisions of things that happen within the church. And I'm assuming he's had the same conversations that he writes in First Timothy and Titus when he was there. He's already outlined all this. This is not new to them. They are to function in a way that points back to the created order, points to this triune God. And brings honor and glory in worship through this through this proper leadership. Let me encourage you, women, as as you come here, don't hear me say you have no role in the worship. Don't hear me say that you have no part in this church because it is an incredibly important part of this church. We can't function properly without this part being done that Paul specifically speaks of in Titus chapter two. So let me encourage you, since we're here on Titus for a moment, women, if you don't have another younger woman in your life or someone that is around you that you can encourage and build up and to teach, Especially women who are a little bit further down the road than others. Let me encourage you to find someone to do that. Younger women, if you don't have someone that can can help sharpen you in a peer to peer relationship or an older woman, find someone. Men do the same thing. Do the same thing. Be the church and love upon each other. All right. Well, back to where Paul's talking about worship specifically, we've seen that That we have purpose in worship, we have proper leadership and worship and and women submitting to the leadership of the men. But that really brings us into our last point that we are to worship in submission. We all are in submission. And he says, starting in verse 36, Paul picks up and he says, or was it from you that the word of God has come? Or are you the only ones it has reached? If anyone thinks he is a prophet or spiritual, he should acknowledge that the things that I am writing to you are a command of the Lord. If anyone does not recognize this, he's not recognized. So my brothers earnestly desire to prophesy. Do not forbid speaking in tongues, but all things should be done decently and in order. He levels two arguments against them. Did the word of God come from you? Are you basically saying, are you the ones that get to decide how worship is done? No, that is the assumed answer, no. And then he says, or are you the only ones that have the word of God? Paul seems to be saying, he says earlier, as in all the other churches of the saints, he's pitting them against everyone else. What you're doing is completely different than everyone else. So there's one of two options. One, the word of God comes from you or you're the only one that's received it. Or maybe a third option. You're wrong. And that's the third option. In fact, God speaks through the apostles. And Paul says, these are commands to you. And anyone who thinks differently is not recognized as someone who's spiritual or a prophet, they are false. And the implication is here, if they don't believe, Paul, they are showing themselves to not really be true prophets or or people who really trust in the Lord Jesus. I would I would go that far to say that they're not they may be believers, not trusting in the way things are lined out. And so. We are to be submission in submission to God's word. We are to be in submission to the apostles. Paul has lined out to us here that orderly worship has a purpose. It has leadership and it's done in submission with the word of God. And that's not only true. For current, but it's also true for us, we must do things in a manner that is consistent with what God has said. Even if we prefer to do it another way. Now, that doesn't mean that we don't have freedom. We do. We've covered that. But we have to make sure that what we do is actually in submission to God's word and to these principles in First Corinthians 14 and Colossians chapter three. What Jesus says about worship in John four and other places where we see the church gathering together. Now, I recently saw a skit by a group of people and they were making fun of the church and how they've been to every whim and desire of the people around them. So just for the fact that people might come in. This skit showed the church and the Pacific Northwest specifically being a play, a group of people that didn't care about anything else except for people showing up. And it was like a fake commercial. And the pastor was even saying, it doesn't doesn't matter. We normally do this here. But if you want to do it, too, then we'll do it, too, just so you'll come. That's totally wrong mindset on worship. It's OK if we switch times and that kind of stuff, but it's not to bend to the whims to have people show up so we can get people here together to worship correctly. We got to be careful not to bend into the culture around us or doing things that that aren't in submission to God's word, just so we'll have people show up. We can't go to the other extreme also to make such a hedge around these principles that we turn into the Pharisees, the way that they hedged around the law. I think for a lot of people in this area of Houston, And I would say throughout the last 40 or 50 years of the conservative church, in an attempt to be orderly and an attempt to have things the way that they want them, they built a hedge. And they've they've gone above and beyond what Scripture says about how worship is to look and how it's to be done. We need to be careful not to do this, because by building a hedge, we are adding to God's word and thus doing the very thing that we are trying to avoid. Now, we can we can outlaw certain types of music, for example, in an effort to control our our preferences. But we have to be careful that we don't run amok and we don't grow to love our rules and we don't grow to love our preferences more than we love the worship of our Lord and our Savior. I know there are some people that that freak out if there's any sort of musical instrument that requires electricity. It's true. I've met those people. I've been one of those people before. There's others that I've seen that will, I've heard this said, literally turn and walk away at the mere sight of any type of drum or percussion on stage. Others will walk in and see a guy with a guitar and freak out. Others will walk in and see this grand piano and immediately dread the next hour. We need to make sure that we keep our preferences on some of these things in check and that our main purpose in worship is to have God as our object and then to build up the beloved here that which brings more worship and to be done in submission and proper order so that we are following the commands of scripture. And that we not make our hedge the things that we submit to our preferences. Now. There is one other topic. Well, before we get to that topic, let me one last thing, let me let me encourage you to examine your own heart in this. Have you had a view of corporate worship that was incorrect, maybe one that preferred more disorderly types of worship or maybe one that is constrained to your own rules? Both of those are wrong. Our call today is the same call as the Corinthian church, and that is to make sure that we are we are doing worship. We have some freedom, but it is orderly and it's done in the proper manners as outlined here and that all the things that we choose to do line up into those categories. Now, before we close out from this whole passage in this whole section on tongues and prophecies, We would be remiss not to at least touch on those for a minute. That's the more I've studied this. That's not Paul's main concern. His main concern is the way that they're gathering together in their worship. But we have to talk about tongues and prophecies because they are part of their big part of what's going on here is the issue that Paul addresses. And so I want to turn for a minute and give a short statement on how throughout the history of GRBC and going forward, how we have and we stand on the tongues and prophecies and how we understand those. It's just a brief overview. One thing that I don't want to do here, because we don't have time and it's not really part of what we're trying to accomplish in this sermon text. I'm not going to give a full systematic theology treatment of tongues and prophecies. We don't have enough time, nor is that the purpose. But I want to read this very quickly. Here at GRVC, we don't practice speaking in foreign languages or any other types of tongues, for that matter, with interpretations as part of our efforts in worship or in our efforts of building up the church. We do not practice prophecy in the in the manner that is presented here in the text. You probably figured that out if you've been here very long. Since we do not practice these two gifts at our worship at GRBC, you can, as I said, you can probably tell we do not think that these are normative parts of the worship experience. And the main reason being that since we have been given God's word, we do not need to have people provide new revelation from God, which is how prophecy and speaking in tongues function in the first Corinthians 14 passages. These things were to build up the church. that to a church that did not have an entire canon of scripture. Hence, they needed a prophetic ministry. However, we now have God speaking to us through his word. We no longer need this prophetic new revelation being given. Now, if we were to pull the church body. We would probably find some here that would define prophecy in a sense that would include impressions from the Lord and others that maybe would say preaching is the foretelling part of the prophetic office. And based on those definitions, some might even consider themselves continuationists to use the term that's oftenly given or that mean believing that these gifts continue until this day. We would probably find others of you. Who would consider yourself what we call sensationist or those who believe that these gifts have ceased completely and do not believe that the gifts continue on in a normative way after the first century? And I'm sure that there are people here on on on that spectrum between those two ends everywhere in between. And there is definitely room for disagreement on these issues and our definition of prophecy. And this is highlighted by the fact that there are respected theologians in both of these camps. For example, some people you may know, John Piper, Wayne Grudem, Sam Storm, several others would be more in the continuationist camp saying that the tongues and the prophecy continues to this day. Others like John MacArthur and Tom Schreiner would would consider that they had ceased. There are also those from history that would be in the cessationist camp that you may have heard the names of John Chrysostom, Augustine, Luther, Calvin, Edwards, Spurgeon and others also outside that that would be in the cessationist camp. Now, all these men, we would agree, would be redeemed. They committed Christians and they differ on this subject. And that is OK. We, too, here at this church can differ on parts of this debate. But what we should all agree on is that God has not given us new revelation outside of his written word to us. We've got all that we need. This this word to us is is completely sufficient. And I'll say the use of anything that stands against his word is not something that should properly be used in worship. Now, many of you can disagree with me on that and still be members here, and that is OK. That's that's where we have stood from the beginning of our church. And I didn't I didn't think that we could get through this section and not not at least address it. Now, many of you, I know I don't really see it in your faces, but I know in your head you're dying to discuss this more. And I encourage that. Discuss it. Look at all the passages of Scripture. Read people who write on both sides. It's absolutely fascinating. Come down where you need to believe on that. We might even have a position paper to show up on this at some point to help clarify some of these things. It's OK for us to differ, but where we stand as far as what we do in worship is we're not going to change in any of that. We're going to continue to strive to make God our focus and to build up the beloved through that. Now, I want to close a close with a quote here. I found a Charles Spurgeon quote, and I think it relates to to to worship. He says this, When Handel's oriato of the Messiah had won the admiration of many of the greats, Lord Kennell took occasion to pay him some compliments on the noble entertainment which he had lately given the town. My lord, said Handel. I should be sorry if I only entertain them. I wish to make them better. And I read that, I thought, man, that is exactly Paul's heart here to worship the Lord and to make those around us better, to build them up in their faith. So as we leave here today, let me ask you how in your planning, your execution and your participation here each Sunday, are you making people better in Christ? How are you participating in building them up? Let me encourage you to work all week. In preparation for worship. Spend time praying, spend time, spend time in reading God's word and then come and be prepared to to worship the Lord and Savior and to build up those around you. Let us pray. Father, we thank you for your goodness to us and that you allow us to come to worship. And Father, we ask that you would. You would convict us and convince us of where we need to be in the way that we come together and worship that we ask that you would find what we do here pleasing each week. Not in our actions, but in the way in which we go about in our hearts, the way that we order and our purposes and what we do and how we pray all of these things in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.