SPEAKER_00: Guys, so good to see you.
SPEAKER_00: As you're making your way back to your seat, we got a lot of new students in the room.
SPEAKER_00: So say hello to somebody around you.
SPEAKER_00: Make sure that nobody in this space is sitting by themselves.
SPEAKER_00: We are a family here.
SPEAKER_00: We are one unit.
SPEAKER_00: So let's make sure that we are all united as a family is.
SPEAKER_00: You guys can head back to your seats.
SPEAKER_00: Sweet.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, real quick, if we've never met before, my name is Zach Hudson, and I serve as the college pastor here at Definition Church.
SPEAKER_00: I absolutely love my job.
SPEAKER_00: I love getting to pastor y'all.
SPEAKER_00: But tonight we are gonna be spoken to by a very special guest, someone who I love dearly, someone who genuinely has awakened this idea of the Holy Spirit within me.
SPEAKER_00: Like if you think I'm charismatic, just wait a couple minutes.
SPEAKER_00: But truly, this is a genuine man of God who fears the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And is we're talking about spiritual gifts, and I knew there was not a single other man who I'd want to speak on these things than this man.
SPEAKER_00: He is on staff here at Definition.
SPEAKER_00: Y'all please give it up for Pastor Steve.
SPEAKER_00: All right.
SPEAKER_00: What's up, dude?
SPEAKER_00: We have a tradition here at the collective.
SPEAKER_00: Anytime someone speaks, we pray over them before they speak.
SPEAKER_00: So, collective students, if you could extend a hand, I'm gonna pray over Steve, and then we're gonna hop right in.
SPEAKER_00: Father God, thank you for Steve.
SPEAKER_00: God, thank you that his identity is not rooted in his performance or anything that he could do, but in everything that you have done.
SPEAKER_00: And so, Lord God, I just pray you bless him from the top of his head to the bottom of his feet, anoint him, anoint his words.
SPEAKER_00: May he speak on behalf of you tonight, God.
SPEAKER_00: But God, I also just pray the simple prayers.
SPEAKER_00: God, I pray that you will bless him as a father.
SPEAKER_00: God, I pray you will bless him as a son.
SPEAKER_00: I pray you will bless him as a husband.
SPEAKER_00: And God, I just pray for any insecurities, worries, doubts, anything like that, that he will just be rooted in who you say that he is.
SPEAKER_00: And God, may his words bless us tonight in your holy, almighty name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Y'all give it up for Steve.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Thanks, y'all.
SPEAKER_01: I was a college student once.
SPEAKER_01: Uh I grew up in Nebraska.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, but I've I've lived, some of y'all don't even know where Nebraska is.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, and uh, are you from Nebraska?
SPEAKER_01: Let's go! Um, I can't do that cool like snap thing with your hands, so I just pretend like I thank you.
SPEAKER_01: Somebody's helping me out.
SPEAKER_01: Um so I grew up in Nebraska, but I've lived in North Carolina for 20 years now.
SPEAKER_01: I moved here to attend UNCG.
SPEAKER_01: Music school?
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: Music school.
SPEAKER_01: Uh I'll pray for you especially.
SPEAKER_01: Um listen, it is hard to exaggerate uh how big of a part music played in my life growing up.
SPEAKER_01: I started uh learning piano when I was four years old.
SPEAKER_01: I was performing in front of people by age seven, uh, was playing in groups by fifth grade, and um as I continued going through uh going through high school, uh I started learning a bunch of different instruments.
SPEAKER_01: I was uh like the leader in any way that one could be in all of the groups that one could be in.
SPEAKER_01: I was in marching band, concert band, jazz band, orchestra, uh Pops choir, um classic choir, musical theater, literally never home.
SPEAKER_01: I was just always rehearsing.
SPEAKER_01: Uh I auditioned for every group, like special group that one could audition for.
SPEAKER_01: Um, ended up in typically was one of the top players, uh, trumpet players.
SPEAKER_01: That trumpet was my thing.
SPEAKER_01: And uh and so I ended up coming out here to UNCG on scholarship as a freshman, was in the upperclassmen and graduate level performance groups, as a sophomore, was a soloist in those groups.
SPEAKER_01: And I mean, it was my whole life.
SPEAKER_01: I I was in bands, I toured across the West Coast one summer, uh playing drums, I play all sorts of stuff.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, it's hard to exaggerate how big of a role music played in my life.
SPEAKER_01: Uh as I neared the end of my college career, I had been involved, I grew up in church, I had, as a lot of people who grow up in church do, a time where I kind of was like, I don't know about all that, and did whatever I wanted to do.
SPEAKER_01: That did not work out.
SPEAKER_01: And uh got addicted to a lot of different things, um passing out drunk all the time.
SPEAKER_01: God saved me out of that, and my faith became my own.
SPEAKER_01: And by the time I was nearing the end of college, to be honest, I was a little bit burned out on music.
SPEAKER_01: It was all I had ever known, all I had ever done, all I had ever wanted to do.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, but I just wasn't sure that I wanted to give as much of myself to it as I had my whole life.
SPEAKER_01: And so I was just really struggling with what am I, I would I was double majoring in jazz and classical performance and trying to figure out like what am I what am I gonna do with this?
SPEAKER_01: Where do I want to go?
SPEAKER_01: And so I I shifted gears just a little bit and thought maybe I'll go into recording.
SPEAKER_01: Wanted to be a recording engineer in a studio and also wanted to get into composition.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, but I'd been involved in this this college ministry for four years, and in that college ministry, I had begun to preach a little bit, I had begun to lead groups, I had actually ended up part-time on staff at a church in the Greensboro area as a college and youth pastor.
SPEAKER_01: Um, wasn't by myself, I was alongside the uh this other guy that had started the ministry.
SPEAKER_01: And so I'm at the end, I'm in my senior year of college, I've met the the girl who's who was gonna become my wife.
SPEAKER_01: We were dating.
SPEAKER_01: Um I think we were actually engaged at the time.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, and I I'm trying to figure out what I want to do next.
SPEAKER_01: Do I want to, because I I still liked music, but I was a little burnt out.
SPEAKER_01: But I there was this thing in my heart about ministry, about being in the church, being with the body of Christ, speaking the truth of God.
SPEAKER_01: There was something that kind of called to me about that, but I didn't really understand what that was or what that could look like.
SPEAKER_01: One day, my my fiance, Rachel, she said to me, Steve, there's a prophet coming to my parents' church, we gotta go hear him.
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, I don't know what that is, but okay.
SPEAKER_01: Now, I don't know what your background is.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know if you've been in church a lot or a little, and which church you've been in, I don't know.
SPEAKER_01: But I had never really heard anything about the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Uh I I knew sometimes he was called the Holy Ghost, but I thought we weren't supposed to talk about ghosts in church.
SPEAKER_01: And uh and so I'm trying to figure that out.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, Rachel grew up in a very different church environment than me.
SPEAKER_01: She's like, we gotta go see this guy.
SPEAKER_01: And so I'm just like, all right, you're pretty, I'm going with you.
SPEAKER_01: And um yeah, that got more amen than anything else I've been saying.
SPEAKER_01: Uh listen, so we went to this church service, and this guy preaches, and you know, it's a great message.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, the whole church was probably smaller than this group of y'all.
SPEAKER_01: Props to y'all.
SPEAKER_01: Um, but uh there nothing and nothing bad about that church, it just was a smaller group, so he could do something a little bit different than we probably could here on a Sunday morning.
SPEAKER_01: At the end of his message, he starts pointing to people in the crowd and talking to them and saying apparently what he was hearing God say to him about them, and he points to me.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm a little bit, I'm a little bit uh nervous.
SPEAKER_01: Now, I didn't grow up with the Holy Spirit, but I had invited him, like those of you who were here last week did.
SPEAKER_01: I had invited him to fill me, to immerse me in who he was, to baptize me.
SPEAKER_01: The word baptize means to immerse.
SPEAKER_01: And so I was open to this idea, but I was a little bit nervous and certainly not experienced.
SPEAKER_01: And this guy looks at me, I've never spoken a word to him before, and he said, Your gift of words is gonna surpass your gift of music, and you're gonna put ideas together in people's hearts like puzzle pieces.
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, Rachel, who told him about me?
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: How do you explain that?
SPEAKER_01: Uh fun fact about that story: I ended up uh becoming really great friends with that guy.
SPEAKER_01: He mentored me uh for a number of years, and now he and I travel around the country sometimes doing ministry together.
SPEAKER_01: So that's really, really cool.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, but how do you explain that?
SPEAKER_01: What what in the world is going on?
SPEAKER_01: Is that a coincidence?
SPEAKER_01: How do we make sense of that?
SPEAKER_01: Well, listen, uh next week, Zach is gonna give you kind of a broad overview of something called spiritual gifts.
SPEAKER_01: These are things that we find in the Bible, three places in particular in the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, and they're ways that the grace of God in and on our lives, when we give our lives to Jesus, God's grace comes and covers us and his spirit comes to live inside of us.
SPEAKER_01: But it's not just for you.
SPEAKER_01: See, God wants to equip you to be a little Jesus to the rest of the world.
SPEAKER_01: If our Christianity is only ever about self-help and feeling good, we've missed the point.
SPEAKER_01: Because I'm gonna get a lot of feeling way better than I ever have when I get to heaven.
SPEAKER_01: And so, if that's all there is to it, God would have just zapped us up there already.
SPEAKER_01: He's got a mission for us to accomplish.
SPEAKER_01: And he actually wants to give you some tools to accomplish that mission.
SPEAKER_01: These are called spiritual gifts.
SPEAKER_01: Zach's gonna talk about a bunch of them tonight.
SPEAKER_01: I want to talk about uh just a few that I think are more controversial or misunderstood.
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: Uh so what I want to do is just I'm gonna I'm gonna keep it as simple as possible.
SPEAKER_01: I will not answer all of your questions about all these things tonight.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, no one could.
SPEAKER_01: The more you walk with God, the more you realize you don't know what you thought you knew.
SPEAKER_01: And you learn to walk in humility and surrender instead of pride and a pursuit of knowledge.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, you learn to live by faith, and that's not a giving up on reason or understanding, it's being carried by something that is actually bigger and better than what my mind can comprehend.
SPEAKER_01: They actually work in tandem, they're not opposed to one another.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, so I'm gonna give some simple definitions, give you some biblical context and some practical, like what is that even like when that happens, so that maybe you can identify it.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, and I want to end with two closing thoughts about how to approach this idea of God being supernatural, miraculous.
SPEAKER_01: How do I make sense of all that?
SPEAKER_01: Now, listen, I I know that some of you in the room right now might not even believe in Jesus at all.
SPEAKER_01: You might not be on board with Christianity yet.
SPEAKER_01: That's okay.
SPEAKER_01: I want to talk about these ideas tonight because uh they're not essential to Christianity.
SPEAKER_01: I wouldn't say I don't think when you get up to heaven, God's gonna be like, hey, what do you think about prophecy?
SPEAKER_01: That's the deciding factor, whether you're getting in or not, right?
SPEAKER_01: I don't think that it's that.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, there are people smarter than all of us that have kind of debated and wrestled with some of these ideas for hundreds, even thousands of years, and have not all come to the same conclusion.
SPEAKER_01: So it's gonna be okay if you don't agree with some of the things I say tonight.
SPEAKER_01: You can still come to the collective, everybody.
SPEAKER_01: You can still come to church.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, we want you to, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Uh, but what I why I want to talk about these things is because I do think sometimes they cause hurt and skepticism, both inside and outside the church.
SPEAKER_01: Whether you're a Christian or not, you've heard about some person talking about when Jesus is coming back and the end of the world.
SPEAKER_01: It probably increases as we see things going on around our world right now.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: And so that's why I think it's important.
SPEAKER_01: I don't have time to dig into all of this in detail.
SPEAKER_01: So, what I'm gonna first do is give you three books.
SPEAKER_01: If you want more, here are your steps.
SPEAKER_01: Book number one is called Beginner's Guide to Spiritual Gifts.
SPEAKER_01: It's by a guy named Sam Storms.
SPEAKER_01: Fantastic introduction to these ideas.
SPEAKER_01: If you read that and you want to dig in a little bit more, the next book is called Practicing the Power, also by Sam Storms.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, if you want more than that, there's a uh listen, you're it's gonna feel like you're in school, but it's a great school.
SPEAKER_01: There's a book called Our Miraculous Gifts for Today, four views.
SPEAKER_01: And it's by Wayne Grudom, is the the editor of that collection.
SPEAKER_01: But here's what I what I want to start with.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know what your experience has been and what stories you've heard or what what things you've gone through as it relates to things like prophecy and miracles, and we're gonna talk about speaking in tongues tonight, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Uh I don't know what your experience has been.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what I do know: the church should never be manipulative, the church should never become exclusive, the church should never think of itself as elitist, and the church should never be unrepentant when they do it wrong.
SPEAKER_01: That's what I know for sure.
SPEAKER_01: And and the solution, I have experienced and heard some horrible abuses of some of the things we're talking about tonight.
SPEAKER_01: There are stories of mainstream, well-known, published Christian authors who it turns out they weren't hearing from God.
SPEAKER_01: They were looking up stuff about people on the internet before they would go on stage.
SPEAKER_01: I've heard stories of people being told you can't leave the room until you speak in tongues.
SPEAKER_01: I've been told, heard stories of people saying the reason your body is still not working right is because you don't have enough faith.
SPEAKER_01: I know all this is true, but the solution to the misuse of something is not avoidance, it's proper instruction and use.
SPEAKER_01: If you're trying to build a house and someone smashes their finger with a hammer, you don't tell the crew, you gotta build the house without hammers.
SPEAKER_01: Good luck.
unknown: Right?
SPEAKER_01: No, we go, hey everybody, somebody got hurt.
SPEAKER_01: We don't want that to happen again.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the right way to use a hammer.
SPEAKER_01: Now let's get to work.
SPEAKER_01: That's what I want to do for you tonight.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, as simply and quickly as I can in the next 14 minutes and 17 seconds.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, so I'm gonna read a passage real quickly.
SPEAKER_01: This is 1 Corinthians chapter 12.
SPEAKER_01: Uh I'm reading verses 7 through 12.
SPEAKER_01: It says this a spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other.
SPEAKER_01: Somebody say, help each other.
SPEAKER_01: A lot of stuff goes wrong when people forget that's the whole point of spiritual gifts.
SPEAKER_01: To one person, the spirit gives the ability to give wise advice.
SPEAKER_01: To another, the same spirit gives a message of special knowledge.
SPEAKER_01: The same spirit gives great faith to another, and to someone else, the one spirit gives the gift of healing.
SPEAKER_01: He gives one person the power to perform miracles, and another the ability to prophesy.
SPEAKER_01: He gives someone else the ability to discern whether a message is from the spirit of God or from another spirit, and still another person is given the ability to speak in unknown languages, while another is given the ability to interpret what's being said.
SPEAKER_01: It's the one and only spirit who distributes all these gifts.
SPEAKER_01: He alone decides which gift each person should have.
SPEAKER_01: The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up the one body, and so it is with the body of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Alright, so what I want to do is define six of those things that he just mentioned, and I'm gonna go faster than you probably want me to.
SPEAKER_01: But I'm gonna do my best to be as clear as possible, just so you know what we're talking about, and then end with two thoughts that I think are really helpful guiding principles.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, so here we go.
SPEAKER_01: Prophecy.
SPEAKER_01: That's where we're starting.
SPEAKER_01: What is prophecy?
SPEAKER_01: Here's my simple definition: prophecy is God speaking to someone through someone.
SPEAKER_01: It's as simple as that.
SPEAKER_01: God speaking to someone through someone.
SPEAKER_01: You know what prophecy is not?
SPEAKER_01: Prophecy is not controlling people.
SPEAKER_01: Prophecy is not some spiritual trump card.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes people go, Well, I I don't really care what you say, God told me this.
SPEAKER_01: That's not prophecy, that's not that's manipulation, that's control, and God doesn't do those things to us.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, in in 1 Corinthians 14, verse 3, it says, the one who prophesies strengthens others and encourages them and comforts them.
SPEAKER_01: And if the words that someone is using and calling it prophecy, if they don't do at least one of those things for you, I think we should have some second thoughts.
SPEAKER_01: We don't need to just but just because someone said it doesn't mean that we need to, we have to take it.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, the Bible encourages us in 1 Thessalonians 5, it says, don't scoff at prophecies, but test everything that's said.
SPEAKER_01: We need to be a church that tests when people say they hear from God.
SPEAKER_01: Not because we doubt them, not because we don't think God speaks, but because if God really is speaking, I want to know and I want to follow with everything that I can.
SPEAKER_01: And if he's not, I don't want to be misled.
SPEAKER_01: Listen, I can see a video that looks as real as y'all sitting in front of me today because of AI.
SPEAKER_01: I want to know if it's God or not.
SPEAKER_01: I want to test it.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Where do we see this in scripture, particularly in the life of Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: Does Jesus ever do anything like this?
SPEAKER_01: Well, great example is in Matthew chapter 16, verse 18.
SPEAKER_01: He's talking to one of his disciples.
SPEAKER_01: He's the disciple's name is Peter.
SPEAKER_01: And here's the thing that Jesus says to him He says, Now I say to you that you are Peter, which means rock, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the powers of hell will not conquer it.
SPEAKER_01: That is a prophecy.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is speaking a word that is strengthening and encouraging and comforting Peter in a supernatural way.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus, see, prophecy isn't just telling the future.
SPEAKER_01: That's a lot of times not what prophecy is.
SPEAKER_01: It's when we hear from God what someone else is like.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Because you grow up and you get covered up by all these experiences and we start living with this false self.
SPEAKER_01: It's not actually the real you, it's you trying to avoid being hurt again.
SPEAKER_01: And prophecy is God's way of getting under all that mess and saying, hey, I know that you think you're broken.
SPEAKER_01: I know that you think nobody actually wants you.
SPEAKER_01: I know that you you interpreted that experience that you had as a kid as this, but it actually was that.
SPEAKER_01: Actually, you are lovable, actually you are valuable, actually, there's a purpose in your life.
SPEAKER_01: That's what Jesus is doing for Peter.
SPEAKER_01: And when you experience prophecy, it's not like the heavens open and you hear a choir of angels.
SPEAKER_01: A lot of times it's just a word or a phrase or an idea or a mental picture that as it comes into your mind, you go, that's not my idea.
SPEAKER_01: And it is consistent with everything the Bible teaches and the God that I see in Scripture.
SPEAKER_01: If you feel that, you should share it.
SPEAKER_01: Now you shouldn't probably be like, Thus saith the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: You got to have that at the end.
SPEAKER_01: You know what you can do?
SPEAKER_01: You you don't need to draw attention to yourself by saying, I have the gift of prophecy, I've got a word.
SPEAKER_01: Listen, I don't want attention on me, I want attention on Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And so what we're gonna do is say, hey, I I feel like God might be speaking to me about you.
SPEAKER_01: I just want to encourage you with this thought.
SPEAKER_01: Boom.
SPEAKER_01: Great, it's easy, it's accessible.
SPEAKER_01: Uh why would God give us prophecy?
SPEAKER_01: I think one of the main reasons is God wants to demonstrate the church's interdependence.
SPEAKER_01: That last verse that we read, verse 12 in 1 Corinthians chapter 12, says the human body has got all these parts and they work together, and the body of Christ is the same.
SPEAKER_01: And you know what's cool about prophecy is that God's not always gonna tell you everything you need to know directly.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes He's gonna tell you something through someone else.
SPEAKER_01: There are times when I can tell myself God loves me, but if somebody else tells it to me, it kind of comes off differently, right?
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes God's gonna do that in a moment that's really supernatural and empowers you in a supernatural way.
SPEAKER_01: Uh just recently, this was uh back in November, I was doing some ministry in another church and um and I saw this guy in the crowd.
SPEAKER_01: I went up to him and I said, Hey, uh God says that you're like a defensive coach in the NFL, and you have this ability to look at What people are doing and give guidance on how they can defend themselves, on how they can uh they can stay on guard better, how on how they can keep things from advancing into their life.
SPEAKER_01: And God's going to use you to speak to other men in a way that helps them understand the things that are trying to attack them and keep their feet stable.
SPEAKER_01: The guy comes up to me afterward, and and uh he's like, he's so he he's like so excited.
SPEAKER_01: He's like, You have no idea what happened when you said that.
SPEAKER_01: I played on the defensive line in college, and still to this day I watch reels of games and I come up with what I would have done for the defensive line.
SPEAKER_01: And when you said that to me, it just clicked, it made sense.
SPEAKER_01: I felt like God was affirming me.
SPEAKER_01: That's what prophecy looks like.
SPEAKER_01: And so, if you want to prophesy a little bit more, let me give you a simple thing that you can do today.
SPEAKER_01: You might not feel like you have something like that.
SPEAKER_01: What you can do is encourage people.
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't have to feel like it's divinely inspired, just practice encouraging people.
SPEAKER_01: And I promise the more you do that, there will be times where God comes in and puts his breath behind it.
SPEAKER_01: All right, we're moving on.
SPEAKER_01: Miracles.
SPEAKER_01: Miracles is next.
SPEAKER_01: Miracles are when God does what would not be naturally possible.
SPEAKER_01: Real simple.
SPEAKER_01: When God does what would not naturally be possible, you know what miracles are not?
SPEAKER_01: Miracles are not purposeless, and miracles are not a spiritual slot machine.
SPEAKER_01: I think sometimes people talk about like God did this, God turned my refrigerator on.
SPEAKER_01: It's like, well, I mean, maybe.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: And I'm not saying that maybe there's some like really meaningful, you got all this history with refrigerators, I don't know, okay, but but when we are pursuing and praying for miracles and talking about miracles, God is not just this magician, God is not up there giving us the things that we want at random.
SPEAKER_01: God is king, I am not, and God sometimes will show the world that he is king and we are not, and that is what a miracle is.
SPEAKER_01: When God comes in and says, hey, natural law and past experience would say this is gonna happen and I'm gonna do it differently.
SPEAKER_01: It's when the Red Sea is parted, right?
SPEAKER_01: It's when, in fact, let me give you an example.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, in Matthew chapter 14, this there's all these people and they're hungry, and Jesus takes this one kid's meal that he's got just for his family and feeds over 5,000 people with one meal.
SPEAKER_01: That's a miracle.
SPEAKER_01: And there's purpose in it, and it's not done randomly.
SPEAKER_01: You know, sometimes people read verses like John 14, verse 13, where Jesus said, You can ask for anything in my name, and I'll do it so the Son can bring glory to the Father, and think, well, if I just say something and say, in the name of Jesus at the end, it's gonna happen.
SPEAKER_01: That's not really what it meant.
SPEAKER_01: In the time of Jesus, sometimes people would come up and say, they'd give a proclamation in the name of Caesar.
SPEAKER_01: And what it meant is this is coming from the authority that Caesar carries.
SPEAKER_01: And when we say in the name of Jesus, you can say that phrase and not even believe in Jesus, it's not gonna do anything for you.
SPEAKER_01: I believe there's power in Jesus' name, but I think there's power in Jesus' name because Jesus is king over all.
SPEAKER_01: And so if I'm trying to give commands and make things happen that are not aligned with the rule of Jesus, I'm trying to bring glory to me and not the Father.
SPEAKER_01: And that's why it won't happen.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: So uh how do I what does a miracle feel like?
SPEAKER_01: Well, it's just a prayerful act of faith.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, what's it feel like when a miracle is about to happen?
SPEAKER_01: I it's just me going, I think God could do it.
SPEAKER_01: All right, it's as simple as that.
SPEAKER_01: Why would God do miracles?
SPEAKER_01: To demonstrate his sovereignty.
SPEAKER_01: We said that.
SPEAKER_01: Listen, if you want to move toward miracles, a thing that you can do, none of y'all can do miracles.
SPEAKER_01: Just Jesus does miracles.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: He works through us, he lives in us, but he's the one who does it.
SPEAKER_01: But what I can do is practice thanksgiving.
SPEAKER_01: Because if I can learn to see every moment as a blessing, then I have a lot more access to divine blessing than if I live every moment complaining.
SPEAKER_01: I heard a pastor say once that complaining is to the devil the same thing that praise is to God.
SPEAKER_01: It brings attention to destruction rather than bringing attention to restoration.
SPEAKER_01: And if you want to move toward miracles, you need to be a thankful person.
SPEAKER_01: Alright, moving on.
SPEAKER_01: Healing.
SPEAKER_01: I've got two minutes.
SPEAKER_01: Woo! Healing.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not, it's gonna be longer than two minutes.
SPEAKER_01: Y'all gotta buckle in a little bit.
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: Healing is when God corrects a physical ailment through spiritual intervention.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: What healing is not is me making a decision on God's behalf.
SPEAKER_01: Healing is also not a spiritual superpower.
SPEAKER_01: Spiritual gifts are not a thing that is separate from God, that he just hands to you and is like, yeah, go do whatever you want with this one.
SPEAKER_01: Spiritual gifts are God in you, working through you.
SPEAKER_01: It is Him.
SPEAKER_01: It's not a thing, it's it's Him.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, in 2 Corinthians 4 verse 10, it says, Through suffering, our bodies continue to share in the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies.
SPEAKER_01: There are times when I pray for healing and it doesn't happen, and I just have to trust that God is sovereign.
SPEAKER_01: I can't understand that.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible doesn't teach us what to do when someone isn't healed, it just teaches that God is a healer.
SPEAKER_01: And so I'm not gonna let the moments of disappointment dictate my theology.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna read the Bible and pursue what it says and wrestle with my questions without turning from the word.
SPEAKER_01: And in the word, I see, like in the life of Jesus, Matthew chapter 4 says, Jesus traveled throughout the region of Galilee teaching in the synagogues and announcing the good news about the kingdom, and he healed every kind of disease and illness.
SPEAKER_01: And so if we want to be like Jesus, we want to release his healing power.
SPEAKER_01: I I can't heal anybody, I'm not even a doctor.
SPEAKER_01: The best I can do for you is give you a band-aid and a couple ibuprofen.
SPEAKER_01: But what I but I know someone who can do more than that.
SPEAKER_01: And so I'm gonna release him to you when I pray.
SPEAKER_01: And uh God does this to demonstrate his compassion.
SPEAKER_01: That doesn't mean that when someone's not healed, God's not compassionate.
SPEAKER_01: It just means there's probably more going on than I can see or understand in the moment.
SPEAKER_01: And so uh I I remember uh there was this one time I was in a small group and we were kind of ending the group.
SPEAKER_01: I we were praying together, and uh we were praying for this one girl in the group specifically, and I felt like the Holy Spirit told me that she had pain in her leg.
SPEAKER_01: And so I just paused.
SPEAKER_01: I was like, listen, this probably sounds weird.
SPEAKER_01: Do you have anything going on with your with your leg, your right leg?
SPEAKER_01: And she goes, basically, my whole life I've had this issue in my knee, and every time I sit down or stand up, I feel it.
SPEAKER_01: It's kind of this sharp pain that goes through as I as I put pressure on that and bend down.
SPEAKER_01: I said, Can we pray for that?
SPEAKER_01: She's like, Yeah, sure.
SPEAKER_01: So we prayed for it.
SPEAKER_01: And listen, my prayer was not 14 minutes long.
SPEAKER_01: Uh my prayer was, God, you're a healing God, and I just asked that the healing power of Jesus be released to to her right now.
SPEAKER_01: I pray that you would move and fill her with your spirit and restore her body to the way it was supposed to be.
SPEAKER_01: And then I asked her to stand up, and she stood up, literally started running around the room because the pain was totally gone.
SPEAKER_01: There was listen, I got another one.
SPEAKER_01: Just just last uh, what was this?
SPEAKER_01: Last December, there was a woman who came into our church one weekend with a cane.
SPEAKER_01: She needed help getting down those steps because she had this neurological damage that made her unable to walk without assistance, and even doing so uh was very painful for her.
SPEAKER_01: And we had a group of people pray for her, and the next day she was baptized at our church and walked up the steps of the baptismal with no cane and no pain.
SPEAKER_01: How do I move toward that?
SPEAKER_01: What if I want more of that in my life?
SPEAKER_01: I I don't, we can't control when that happens.
SPEAKER_01: What you can do is be a generous person.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: You can start to give what you have.
SPEAKER_01: And the more generous you become, the more you realize I can also give what God has.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: All right, let's talk about tongues and interpretation.
SPEAKER_01: Tongues is when your spirit prays in a way your mind doesn't understand.
SPEAKER_01: It's not uncontrollable, it's not spiritual hype.
SPEAKER_01: 1 Corinthians 14 teaches that people can control themselves and you're supposed to take turns, you're supposed to know what's going on.
SPEAKER_01: Things should be done orderly.
SPEAKER_01: When this comes to you, it feels like just an inspiration inside of you to pray in syllables or sounds that aren't natural or normal or that make sense to you.
SPEAKER_01: It isn't a thing that takes over.
SPEAKER_01: It's not a thing that feels totally alien.
SPEAKER_01: You actually have to take a step of faith and say, Okay.
SPEAKER_01: Now, why would God do that?
SPEAKER_01: I think the best and simplest answer to this is it's an act of holy surrender.
SPEAKER_01: It's a way for me to practice stepping out in faith to say, God, I don't know what's gonna happen, I don't know what this is about, but I'm surrendered to you.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes I have to let go of control, and it's a way for me to practice that.
SPEAKER_01: Now, scripture also teaches that we probably shouldn't do that in the whole big group because nobody's gonna make any sense of it.
SPEAKER_01: And as we navigate some of these things that we're talking about tonight, we have to understand that other people's reception is just as important as our intention.
SPEAKER_01: What I mean by that is if I'm doing something that puts someone off to Jesus or the church, it's not actually helpful.
SPEAKER_01: And so there's also this gift of interpretation, which is when your mind understands what someone else's spirit is praying.
SPEAKER_01: Scripture says that this is a thing that be that can be given.
SPEAKER_01: I I remember um one time I was in a church meeting and there were a few people praying in tongues together, and it just really felt like the spirit was moving.
SPEAKER_01: There was this girl here who had the gift of interpretation, and she was explaining to the people around what these other people were praying about.
SPEAKER_01: Now it wasn't translation, it's not like it's you know, Spanish to English kind of a thing.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, generally speaking, it's it's kind of the same sense that what's happening in their spirit is the same thing that's happening in my spirit, and I can make sense of it.
SPEAKER_01: She said they're praying for this town in Mexico.
SPEAKER_01: We didn't really understand that until the next morning when we saw a headline of a mass shooting that took place in a small town in Mexico.
SPEAKER_01: And sometimes God's just doing things that we don't understand, and it's good for us to have a way to surrender, not to go crazy and give up control and be emotionalism and spiritual hype people, but to say, God, you know better than me.
SPEAKER_01: And I want to let you lead me instead of myself.
SPEAKER_01: And so, how do we make sense of all this?
SPEAKER_01: I think as we've talked about all this, some of you are excited, some of you are confused, some of you are like, this church is crazy, I ain't coming back.
SPEAKER_01: Can I end with just a couple thoughts?
SPEAKER_01: What we should do in response to all this, regardless of how you feel about any of this or what you think about any of this, is that we should pursue God more than gifts.
SPEAKER_01: In Ephesians chapter 3, verses 16 through 19, it says, I pray that from his glorious unlimited resources, he will empower you with inner strength through his spirit.
SPEAKER_01: And then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him.
SPEAKER_01: Your roots will grow down into God's love and keep you strong.
SPEAKER_01: And may you have the power to understand, as all God's people should, how wide and long and high and how deep his love is.
SPEAKER_01: May you experience the love of Christ, though it's too great to understand fully, and then you'll be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.
SPEAKER_01: Do you see in that prayer?
SPEAKER_01: It's really all about the love of God.
SPEAKER_01: That's where the power comes from.
SPEAKER_01: That's where the that's what the power is.
SPEAKER_01: It's love that carries more weight and more power and more glory than any love I could muster up for somebody.
SPEAKER_01: It's God's infinite, unending love.
SPEAKER_01: And if I separate myself from the character of God and just try to pursue the gifts of God, I've missed the point.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes we sort of think that if oh, if it's more mysterious, it's more spiritual.
SPEAKER_01: And that's not true.
SPEAKER_01: I I would actually argue that if it's more loving, it's more spiritual.
SPEAKER_01: In Matthew chapter 11, Jesus said, Come to me, everybody who's weary and heavy burden, and I'm gonna give you rest.
SPEAKER_01: And so if what you're calling spiritual gifts aren't bringing you rest and lightness in your soul, are they representing Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: In Galatians chapter 5, verses 22 through 23, we see something called the fruit of the spirit.
SPEAKER_01: And comparing that to spiritual gifts, I think if sometimes if what we're calling spiritual gifts are not making us more loving and joyful and peaceful and patient and kind and good and faithful and gentle and self-controlled, are those really the gifts from the spirit?
SPEAKER_01: I think the church has gotten this wrong sometimes, which is okay, I've gotten a lot of things wrong.
SPEAKER_01: I don't have I love the church, even in as broken and messed up as it is sometimes.
SPEAKER_01: Because God loves the church and God's patient with the church, just like he's patient with me.
SPEAKER_01: So pursue the heart of God, and eventually you'll see him working in ways you never thought possible.
SPEAKER_01: And the last thing I want to end with is this uh we we ought to pursue God more than gifts.
SPEAKER_01: It's really not possible to separate the two, but sometimes we think that we can.
SPEAKER_01: We want to pursue God first.
SPEAKER_01: We also want to prioritize people more than power.
SPEAKER_01: 1 Corinthians chapter 13.
SPEAKER_01: This is the next chapter, by the way.
SPEAKER_01: Paul talks about all these crazy things, all these spiritual gifts, all these things that are very unfamiliar and foreign to us.
SPEAKER_01: And and in the next chapter, uh he says this if I could speak all the languages of earth and and of angels, but didn't love others, I'd be noisy gong or a clinging cymbal.
SPEAKER_01: If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God's secret plans and possessed all knowledge and had so much faith, I could move a mountain, but I didn't love others, I would be nothing.
SPEAKER_01: If I gave everything I had to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it, but if I didn't love others, I would have gained nothing.
SPEAKER_01: And we've got to recognize that the spirit seeks to unify and not divide.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes these topics are, I mean, they do cause division in the church and outside of the church.
SPEAKER_01: And we have to be people that fight to stay unified, that fight to come together, that don't put, that don't reach for division just because we think we're right.
SPEAKER_01: We've got to love other people, we've got to prioritize people.
SPEAKER_01: I'll close with this idea or this story, actually.
SPEAKER_01: I was once at a conference and I saw this this woman.
SPEAKER_01: She was in a wheelchair and she was missing one of her feet.
SPEAKER_01: And I got it in my dumb, passionate mind that I should pray for her foot to grow back.
SPEAKER_01: Listen, if you ever have that thought, that is not dumb.
SPEAKER_01: I don't want you to hear that.
SPEAKER_01: I'm making fun of myself, but I want you to be a person of faith.
SPEAKER_01: And I was trying to be a person of faith, but my heart wasn't exactly ordered right, and I'll tell you why.
SPEAKER_01: I I saw this this lady and I had this thought, and I was like, I gotta pray for her.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, but like, that's you know, how do you do that?
SPEAKER_01: And like, if it doesn't happen, what's my exit strategy?
SPEAKER_01: And you know, like I was just anxious and nervous, and I I literally was kind of like walking around and and like glancing over where is she, where is she?
SPEAKER_01: Okay, she's there, okay, okay.
SPEAKER_01: God, come on, you gotta help me.
SPEAKER_01: I'm trying to build up my faith, build up my courage.
SPEAKER_01: And and and I did that for I bet literally, I bet 10 minutes.
SPEAKER_01: I'm I'm just like nervous about this prayer I'm trying to pray.
SPEAKER_01: And all of a sudden I heard the Holy Spirit so clearly in my heart, and he said, She's a person, not a project.
SPEAKER_01: And I realized that I didn't love her.
SPEAKER_01: I wanted to see God do something cool.
SPEAKER_01: And my heart broke because I realized that my heart wasn't the same as Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: He wants her to feel loved and seen, even in the middle of whatever caused that and whatever her life is like.
SPEAKER_01: Shortly after I went up to her and introduced myself, and I did pray for her, but before I did, I asked her, What's your name?
SPEAKER_01: Where do you come from?
SPEAKER_01: Why are you here today?
SPEAKER_01: What's your life like?
SPEAKER_01: And I ended up praying for all of those things, and it was such a better prayer.
SPEAKER_01: I did pray for her foot to be healed.
SPEAKER_01: It didn't happen when I was there.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know, maybe she's walking today.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
SPEAKER_01: I haven't ever seen her again.
SPEAKER_01: It was some other state.
SPEAKER_01: But my point is that we've got to prioritize people overpower.
SPEAKER_01: All these things that we're talking about tonight, they're not intended to entertain you.
SPEAKER_01: They're intended to give glory to Jesus and to demonstrate his love to the world.
SPEAKER_01: And if you will focus on loving people, you'll prophesy more than if you try to prophesy.
SPEAKER_01: If you'll focus on loving people, you'll see more people healed than if you focus on healing.
SPEAKER_01: If you try to love people well, you'll have moments where you hear God speaking to you more frequently than if you try to hear as hard as you can to hear God.
SPEAKER_01: Just love people.
SPEAKER_01: And tonight, maybe you've had experiences with these sorts of things, and they've helped you fall in love with Jesus, and they've helped you become more like him.
SPEAKER_01: And if that's your story, I celebrate with you.
SPEAKER_01: I know some of you tonight probably have had experiences with these things that have put doubt and skepticism in your hearts about God and about his church.
SPEAKER_01: And if that's your story, I'm mourning with you.
SPEAKER_01: The church isn't perfect, and we won't be until Jesus comes back.
SPEAKER_01: But even if you've had no experiences with these sorts of things, what I want everybody to hear tonight is that there is an invitation.
SPEAKER_01: There's an invitation to a God who is powerful.
SPEAKER_01: He's also wise and patient, he's also understanding and compassionate, he's also kind and gentle and loving.
SPEAKER_01: He's not gonna pressure you, he's not gonna be angry at you if you don't sign off on any of the things we've talked about tonight.
SPEAKER_01: He loves you, and if you'll move toward him, you'll understand what that means.
SPEAKER_01: You'll see that it means far more than you thought.
SPEAKER_01: You'll find out that Jesus is better than you think.
SPEAKER_01: So, what I want to do as we close is give you an invitation to step toward God again.
SPEAKER_01: If you were here last week, I know a lot of you came up to get prayer, to be filled with the Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: If you weren't here last week, or if you were and you just want more, I want to give you that opportunity.
SPEAKER_01: If you if you're wrestling with some of these things, I want to give you an opportunity to just get prayer for God help me to not run away and not be blind, but to move towards you with faith.
SPEAKER_01: And so I want everybody to stand up.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna move into a final time of worship together.
SPEAKER_01: And uh and I just want to pray if we can have our leadership team come up uh toward the front.
SPEAKER_01: I want to pray for everybody in the room, and then if you want prayer specifically for anything that we've talked about tonight, maybe there's a gift that you hear and you're like, I want that in my life.
SPEAKER_01: I can't promise you it'll start.
SPEAKER_01: Happening right the second, but we can pray about it.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you hear all that and you go, I don't know what I think about the church, or I've been hurt, or whatever it might be.
SPEAKER_01: We can pray about it.
SPEAKER_01: And so, wherever you're at tonight, if you'll if you're willing, I want you to put your hands out like this.
SPEAKER_01: And Holy Spirit, I pray that you would come down on everybody's heart who is open to you tonight.
SPEAKER_01: I pray for a fresh filling of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: I pray that you would move in power in this room right now, that the wind of your spirit would fill the sails of our hearts.
SPEAKER_01: God, I pray that you would bring peace to those who are walking in confusion and doubt and skepticism.
SPEAKER_01: I pray that you would bring healing to those who have been hurt.
SPEAKER_01: I pray, God, that you would open up people's hearts and minds to the to understanding things that have maybe caused them confusion.
SPEAKER_01: And God, I pray that you would gift people tonight, empower them, that you would stir up in their hearts all the ways that you want to work through their lives and redeem their stories.
SPEAKER_01: In the name of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.