S2 Ep 11 | Concerning the gift of tongues

S2 Ep 11 | Concerning the gift of tongues. In this episode Leon Tackles the controversial topic of Speaking in unknown tongues.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:08

But that's alright. That's all right. We're gonna be in 1 Corinthians chapter 14 tonight. So just to kind of set it up a little bit, there's a lot of confusion when it comes to the gifts of the Holy Spirit. And 1 Corinthians, if you read chapters 12, 13, and 14, it really covers a lot of that ground and clears it up. Where the problem comes in is where we try to put our own personal private interpretation to things and where we try to where we really try to put the us into it. And we fall victim to a lot of the tradition instead of what the Bible actually says. Now, Paul in in chapter 12, he's telling you, you know, like understand that there's different types of gifts. That these gifts are are for the edification of the church and the glory of God the Father. That these gifts are given by the Holy Ghost for the reason of edifying the church, to help you to be part of the church. And he describes the church as as the body, you know, and he and he says uh things like, can the hand say to the foot, I'm more important than you, or can the hand, can the foot say to the ear, you know, you're not important because you can't hear, or however that goes. And and the argument that is within the members, Paul's speaking blatantly about. And so in uh chapter 14, we'll start in verse 1, he says, follow after charity and desire spiritual gifts, but rather that ye may prophesy. We'll keep reading, for he that speaketh in an unknown tongue speaketh not unto men, but unto God. For no man understandeth him, howbeit, in the spirit he speaketh mysteries. So when he's talking about speaking in tongues, remember on the on the day of Pentecost, how the Holy Ghost came into the room like a rushing mighty wind and sat upon their heads, and it was like cloven tongues, and they were able to speak in unknown tongues. What that means is the tongue is not known by you. So the person, unless they have the gift of interpretation, and Paul covers that too, has no clue exactly what they're saying. But what they are saying is their spirit groaning to the Father. So the idea that everybody, when I was raised, I was raised Pentecostal, y'all. I was raised in a Pentecostal church with with uh old Kentucky folk who who, you know, that that's their origins, and and it was a uh on, you know, they were great people, awesome people. I love them. I sound like Trump there. Beautiful people, great people. But uh the the problem is that when there was confusion, the confusion became tradition, and the tradition muddied the water. And when that that tradition starts muddying the water, guess what it makes some people do? The people who don't speak in tongues want to be a little further away from the people who do because they're like, I don't want to be like that because I don't believe that's real. Or that there's such a stigma attached to a gift, they don't want it because these people have made it weird. I mean, how many people know? Uh it doesn't matter how what you like, you might like cartoons, you might like uh collecting Legos or and building Lego stuff, you might be one of those people like Pokemon cards, and you know, you might be a gamer, you might be a uh you might love trombones and you play trombone, but the people who play trombones like you, they're weird. And so you don't even tell somebody, so you're a closet trombone player now. Or the or the people that build Legos, they made it weird. So I I build Legos by myself because I don't want to be around them. Does that make sense to anybody? The people who collect baseball cards, they got so weird about it. The people that do Pokemon, they're so weird, the gamers are weird, and everybody got all mainstream and weird, and now I don't want to be around them, I don't want to be associated with them because they made it weird. So I'm I'm a closet Lego gamer and Pokemon guy. And that's that's the way this is. The problem with that is that it wasn't ever meant to be this way. You see, we as people have a have a tendency to pervert things. Not in some like weird sexual way. I'm saying that we divert from what it was intended to be. And what Paul's saying right here is he that speaketh in an unknown tongue speaketh not unto men. So it's not for you, but unto God. It's a language that the Holy Ghost gives some people, not everybody. I've never spoken in tongues, I'm just saying. That if he gave that to me and I'm to use it for him, for no man understandeth him, how be it in the spirit he speaketh mysteries. Those are things that are between me and God. My spirit speaks these things to God, and God hears it. You know, when you can't pray, God hears it. When you don't have the words, he understands you. When you feel like you're so aggravated, do you ever think that the Holy Ghost, the Spirit inside of you, is still talking to God? Maybe that's why he grieves for us. Because we may not understand the emotion that's welling up inside of us. But somewhere deep inside of us, the Holy Spirit is saying, Father, what he's saying is this. And then deep inside of you, a language that is coming out of you, kind of like the hotline to God, emerges, and that's something that we should not alienate from us. But in the opposite, we need to respect it. But if you ain't got that, don't knock on someone who does. And at the same time, my Bible says, know those that labor among you and test the spirit, so that you would have the discernment of knowing what's real and what is not. Next verse, verse 3. But he that prophesieth speaketh unto men to edification and exhortation and comfort. The word prophesy here, just understand this is not just foretelling future events. That's where we go wrong. Is that when we see the word prophesy, we're thinking, I'm not even gonna say a name, I'm just gonna say Prophet So-and-so on TV said that you're gonna you're gonna get uh you're gonna hit the lottery, or you I see a big blank check with a lot of zeros, and and you're gonna get it, and you're gonna cut your hair, and and you're gonna you're gonna grow yours out, and and it's gonna, your image is gonna change, and it's gonna rain where it's never rained before, and it's gonna freeze where it's never frozen before, and and the sky's gonna go dark, and everybody's gonna win, you know, the uh the publisher's clearing house in your neighborhood, and you know, Ed McMahon's gonna be raised from the dead and knock on your door with that big old check, and then you know all this other. And Prophet so-and-so should be stoned according to biblical law because he's a liar. But prophesying, some prophecies do have future events in them. But guess what the rest of them have? Inspiration from God to edify. Look at the look at the the way that the Bible says it. Speaketh unto men to do what? Edification and exhortation and comfort. So if those three things are not the future, what is? Right? If I'm not just speaking the future, that's that's where we go when we talk about prophesying. But let me tell you what a preacher does, prophesy. Because if you're getting your inspiration from God, ipso facto, you're doing exactly what that word has: edifying the church, exhortation, and comfort. Let me remind all of us why we are here on a Wednesday night. Because we need God. We need a word from the Lord. We come in this place to seek a word from the Lord, hoping, praying, and having faith that He's going to put some type of inspiration to the man of God to tell us so that we can make it through the rest of our week and come back on Sunday. That's prophesying. We have perverted that as a people. God didn't pervert it. Skip to the last verse. Here's how you know God didn't do it. Let all things be done decently and in order. So I say that a lot, right? We're going back to verse four. But I want you to keep that in the back of your mind. That the church, and later on in this in this uh chapter, it says uh God is not the author of confusion. So uh I've said those those words before. But understand that this right here, where we're talking about in verse 4, you see, he that speaketh in an unknown tongue edifieth himself, but he that prophesieth edifieth the church. What is decent and in order? Is it that I build myself up or that I build y'all up? Is it that you build me up or that we build each other up? Is it the Leon show? Is it the y'all show? No, it's the God show. It's always been the God show. Nothing we do here. It should be new. It should all be the same thing. We should all be here for one reason to get more God and less us in this life. Verse 5. If somebody don't turn that air on, I'm gonna die. Now, brethren, and I'm cold all the time, so if I know if I'm hot, y'all are burning slab up. Now, brethren, if I come unto you speaking with tongues, listen to this. What shall I profit you except I shall speak to you either by revelation or by knowledge, or by prophecy, uh prophesying or by doctrine? So he's saying that if I come to you speaking in tongues and it's not something that's going to edify you, and how do you know they're edifying you? How do you know that they're giving you some type of revelation or knowledge or anything like that? How do you know that if you don't understand them? That's what Paul's saying. That's the problem in today's church, in the church of yesteryear where I come from, is that folks just get up and then, you know, just blurt out whatever comes to their mind or whatever, and I'm not saying all of it's fake or anything like that. I'm not that guy. I say that I've only ever heard two people ever in my life speak in tongues, and I knew deep in my heart that's the real thing. So, what's everybody else done?

unknown 13:02

Sure.

SPEAKER_00 13:06

I skipped which verse? Verse five. Verse five. Let's read it. Verse five, Christian, please.

unknown 13:12

No, I wanted to I wanted to make sure you got that because it talks about somebody interpreting.

SPEAKER_00 13:17

I got you. I would that ye all spake with tongues, but rather that ye prophesied. Look, I want you all to do it, but I'd rather you do this. For greater is he that prophesieth than he that speaketh with tongues, except he interpret that the church may receive edifying. Basically what I just said. But understand, Paul's not saying, I don't want anybody to speak in tongues. That's not what he's saying. He said, I want you all to be able to do it. But I would much rather you prophesy. Verse 7. And even things without, uh even things without life, giving sound, whether pipe or harp, except they give a distinction in the sound, how shall it be known what is piped or harped? For if a trumpet of an uncertain sound uh or should sound, uh, who shall prepare himself to battle? So likewise, ye, except be utter, be ye uh uttered by the tongue words easy to be understood, how shall it be known what is spoken, or ye shall speak into the air? There are, it may be, so many kinds of voices in the world, and none of them is without signification. So he's saying we know we know instruments because of their sound. If they all made the same sound, or if they made unfamiliar sounds, it would be confusion. But since we know the particular sounds, we know all the keys that were hit on this piano were from the piano. We knew it wasn't a drum set, and we know when we hear the drum set it's not the piano, so there's no confusion. That's all that is right there. Therefore, if I know not the meaning of the voice, I shall be unto him that speaketh a barbarian. That means a weirdo, and he that speaketh shall be a barbarian unto me. You're a stranger to me, I'm a stranger to you. If you're confusing me, you're confusing, I'm confusing you, then neither one of us are edified. Next verse. Even so, ye forasmuch as ye are zealous of spiritual gifts, seek that ye may excel to the edifying of the church. Why is this important? Paul wrote to Timothy that in the last days there be a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof. That's why it's important. Because we as the church have put God in a box or in a bubble. And it's like we stare at God and we say, Don't go out the bubble. That's weird. Don't get out of the box, God, because they're not ready for that and we don't understand it, so we don't want it. How many gifts have people gone their whole life and not utilized and not edified the church because they were scared of being ridiculed or judged or something else? How many times has the Lord put some inspiration in your mind or in your heart for someone else and you were mum because you didn't want to be that person? How many times have you felt like testifying and you shut your mouth and sat on your hands and got in the vehicle and God beat you up because you should have said something and you didn't. That's why this is important. Because we are the church bridled like a horse with bits in our mouth, acting like we don't have a God that has never changed. Acting like our God is a different God of Paul than he is for us. Acting like our God didn't part a Red Sea so that people could walk across on dry ground. Acting like our God didn't leave heaven and come down wrapped in flesh on a rescue mission to save our lives. Like it's just some kind of fairy tale God. That you're not a you're not a wicked stepmother, so you don't have to worry, and you're not a fairy godmother, so you don't have to worry. Like we're all just Cinderellas hoping that someone doesn't tell us to clean up something we don't want to clean up. That's not the church. When Jesus said, Upon this rock, I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. He wasn't talking about a weak bride. He's talking about us. He's talking about a power that lives inside of you, and that all of us have spiritual gifts. And if we pray and then we seek the Lord and we fast and we seek the Lord and we pray, there's just a chance that the Holy Ghost might say, This is for you. But here's my question: how many of us have been implanted with gifts? And don't use them because we didn't even think that was a thing. How much power have you been sitting on? Something worth thinking about. Would you agree? Wherefore, let him that speaketh in an unknown tongue pray that he may interpret. Which means, this is a question always brought up among the Baptist circle. Does the person who speaks in tongues, if they're given that gift to speak in tongues, are they also the one to interpret? Well, my Bible just said, wherefore let him that speaketh in tongue or in an unknown tongue, pray that he may interpret. But it doesn't say that you should do that amongst other people. Because what did the second verse say? He that speaketh in an unknown tongue speaketh not unto men, but unto God. Why do we do that? Or why would we do that? Why would we if the Lord gives you some type of interpretation or revelation, or what did the Bible say? If the Lord gives you something particular, then you're supposed to say it. But if the Lord doesn't give you something particular, you're supposed to just chill. Not be weird. For if I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prayeth, but my understanding is unfruitful. That's if I don't understand it, right? What is it then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will 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? And thy giving of thanks, seeing he understandeth not what thou sayest. For thou verily givest thanks well, but the other is not edified. My concern is that all of this is fly over scripture in the church. That's a concern. That we should all share. Not because it's strange and we don't understand it. Or not be we shouldn't fly over it because it's strange and we don't understand it. The problem should be that something like this is strange to us and we don't understand it. That makes me want to read it more. When you tell me something, oh well, we don't really talk about that. I'm reading it all day, every day, three times a day, and I'm praying about it. And I'm gonna talk to the Lord about it, and I'm gonna say, Father, I need to understand this. Why? Because I don't like gifts I'm not allowed to open. I don't like having something I'm not supposed to understand. Because inside my mind there's a loop that needs to be closed, there's a knot that needs to be untied. There's something going on there, that there's some power that the Lord has offered, and we're we're saying uh that's not relevant for our time. You imagine getting to heaven and there being a whole room of blessings you could have opened the entire time? But since somebody else said we don't go in that door, you just took their word for it. Why would they say it if they didn't mean it? Well, maybe because their daddy said it and he didn't know. Maybe because his mama said it and she didn't know. Maybe because some old preacher, some bitter old preacher, didn't want to have that conversation because some old preacher told him that ain't a thing. And we don't do that because we're Baptists. Or whatever. Methodist, Presbyterian, you go ahead and we'll put it all out there. So he goes on and says, basically, I um here's another, for thou verily givest thanks, well, but neither is uh but the other is not edified. Then 18, he says, I thank my God I speak with tongues more than ye all. Uh Paul's a little braggdocious right there. 19, yet in the church I had rather speak five words with my understanding that by my voice I might teach others also, than 10,000 words in an unknown tongue. Why? Because if it doesn't edify the church, it ain't good.

unknown 23:30

That's right.

SPEAKER_00 23:31

If it doesn't edify the church, you're just showboating. And if you're showboating, it's about you, it's the you show, not the God show, and that deserves to be down the street, not in God's house. We're gonna move on a little bit more. Verse 22, wherefore tongues are for a sign not to them that believe, but to them that believe not, but prophesying serveth not for them that believe not, but for them which believe. If someone prophesies to you or prophesies over somebody's life and says, the Lord uh tells me that you are everything's gonna be okay, that he's got you in the palm of his hands, that he loves you, you can align that with this Bible, it's probably the truth. But I can dare say that if the if someone is speaking over your life, and I've had people speak into my life, and and speak over my life, and I could tell what's the truth, and I could tell when somebody was making it up, because I didn't call 1999, call Dahlia or whatever, and and be like, well, I see a person with red hair, and they're gonna bring you a check, and it's got all these zeros or whatever. No, it ain't something like that. It's something specific that I needed in my life at that time. And it's not general. When the Lord sends a message to you, he doesn't always speak to you. Sometimes it's through someone, and they say, I don't know why I'm telling you this. Here's one. Someone walks up to me with tears in their eyes, and they say, I don't know why I'm telling you this, and I don't know what it means. But blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Instantly, as they're saying it, I'm welling up. Tears in my eyes, I start crying. It's exactly what I needed to hear. It's what I just got done praying about. Next thing you know, I'm like, thank you so much for being obedient. I give them a hug and I drive home, and the Lord just feels like it's He's just hugging me all around. And as I'm driving and just praising Him and thanking Him, the confirmation is there. The Holy Ghost is all over it, and I can feel the discernment through discernment, knowing that this person isn't having some kind of ill will. They didn't shout it out loud like, I'm telling you, bro, it's nothing like that. It's like, I'm not, I don't know why I'm telling you this. But this is what I have on my heart. And they hug you, tell you, move on. The problem is we despise these type of people because it's strange to us. But what my Bible says is despise not prophesying. Why does the Bible say that? Honey, because there's a time coming, and that time is now. That people who speak to you on behalf of the Lord are seen as heretics and weirdos. They're seen as those Lego kids we were talking about at the beginning of the service, uh, and they just want to hang out in a big pile of Legos and Pokemon cards and all that, and they're just strangers and they don't bathe or something like that. That's what they want you to believe. That the people who are chosen by God to have certain spiritual gifts are weird. But the truth is, there's a lot more of them than you think. The problem is we don't see it. Because we have a form of godliness, but deny the power thereof. And that's the Bible. You just read it. You read it. I hope. We're gonna keep going. Uh let's see. Here we go. How is it then, verse 26? How is it then, brethren, when you come together, every one of you hath a psalm with a doctrine, hath a tongue, hath a revelation, hath an interpretation, let all things be done unto edifying. And then read the next verse. If any man speak in an unknown tongue, let it be by two, or at the most three, and that by course, and let one interpret. Why? But if there be no interpreter, here's why. This is the why. Let him keep silence in the church and let him speak to himself and to God. That's where I have a problem with those who are in the signs movement who think that if you have the Holy Ghost, you should be speaking in tongues. That's where I have a problem with the folks who say that if you don't speak in tongues, you don't have the Holy Ghost. That's how I was raised. Oh no, he don't have the Holy Ghost. I'm it in fact, they used to brag about it. Oh, well, I'm saved, sealed, filled with the Holy Ghost, sanctified, and speaking in tongues and all this, and that was their thing. Like if you did, if you said this, you had to say that. And if you said you had the Holy Ghost, then you had to be speaking in tongues. Well, my Bible says that I'm sealed until the day of redemption. I didn't seal me. Oh no, there was blood that flowed on Calvary that saved a wretch like me. And then when I got saved, the Holy Ghost moved in, and He sealed me until the day of redemption. I couldn't save myself. It's not a decision I make. I didn't, I don't wake up one day and be like, today will be a good day, Holy Ghost. Let's go, and then open my mouth and words come out I don't understand. That's not how this works. The problem is we convolute things, muddy the water a little bit, and we let the history and all this other get in there, tradition get in there, and guess what it does is it perverts the Bible and gives us a wrong interpretation, and confusion sets in. And when confusion sets in, you got to change reigns. Because that's a leadership problem, not a congregation problem. It becomes a congregation problem when you don't hold your leadership accountable, and that's how that goes. I've been to some churches that if somebody shouted, three people would have a heart attack and there'd be only one pallbearer left. But I've also been to churches where everybody was speaking in tongues, nobody knew what they were saying, but everybody was saying the same thing. That's true. Y'all laugh because you know it's the truth. I'm just saying. In this, let's skip, we're gonna we're gonna wrap this thing up. Skip to verse uh 37. If any man think himself to be a prophet or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things are that the things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord. What he's saying is that you shouldn't think you any high of yourself. Uh this is for God. He says, Wherefore, brethren, covet to prophesy and forbid not to speak in tongues. Why is he saying that? Because we should not try to make anybody feel weird about having a spiritual gift. But we should mind the last verse and let all things be done decently and in order. What the Bible is trying to, or what the Bible is saying and what we should be trying to understand is that there is a time and a place for everything. And that this Bible has the answers we all seek. If we want to read it and we pray that we understand it, and we pray that the Lord would give us the wisdom and the knowledge to embody the principles and the characteristics of God Almighty through His Word, then we will be better, and guess what? We'll be better for each other too. But when we try to bridle each other and act like God doesn't give out gifts, then all we've done is cheapen this walk that He gave us. And every single day that we walk with the Lord is a gift, but it ain't just a gift for us. It's a gift that we share with each other. How strong of a church we would be if we would say, I don't know what your gift is, but brother, sister, I want to lock arms with you, and whatever it is, let's grow that thing together. I don't know if the Lord gave you a word for me today, but I want you to know he loves you. If you said nothing else, hey, I don't know if I got a word for you other than God loves you. I don't know if he's given me a wild uh gift like prophecy, but I do know I love you. But whatever he's given you, share that with me too. Why? Because, honey, I need edifying, I need building up, I need encouragement, I need strengthen, I need to know it's gonna be okay and comforted. Just like y'all do. And what a shame, what a waste if we were to keep all of our gifts to ourselves. And honestly, God deserves better than that. We ought to want to do everything within our power and ability to glorify Him. And guess what glorifies God? Jesus said, they will know you're of me because you love one another. And if you read the three chapters we talked about tonight, 1 Corinthians 12, 13, and 14, the love chapters in there. In fact, verse 1 mentions it. That word charity. If you read that, if you look up the word that that came from, the words agape, in that precious, follow after charity and desire spiritual gifts, but rather that ye may prophesy. Lord, give me words to encourage each other. Give me words to comfort somebody, give me words to help somebody. Give me something so that I can share it. Why? Charity. You should desire spiritual gifts. So I challenge you on a Wednesday night, YouTube, you better listen. Follow after charity and desire spiritual gifts. Chief among them, prophecy. I love you and God loves you.