SPEAKER_00: Uh during the 4th of July holiday, I was in a truck with one of my friends who attends this church who will remain unnamed.
SPEAKER_00: But he acted like now that I was in his truck, he had me cornered.
SPEAKER_00: And he said to me, Hey, um what are the odds that we could do away with the meet and greet?
SPEAKER_00: What are the chances that we could just stop meeting and greeting one another?
SPEAKER_00: And I said, Well, they're not good.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, But what are the chances that you could become more social?
SPEAKER_00: And he was like, Yeah, it's it's not good.
SPEAKER_00: It's not good.
SPEAKER_00: I said, Well, looks like we're just gonna have to continue on together.
SPEAKER_00: So I don't know if that part of the service is painful uh for you, but I promise it's on purpose because we're the people of God and we're here to actually be together.
SPEAKER_00: And so that's part of it.
SPEAKER_00: I've also known that through the years, um, expressing your worship in song is something that's awkward for people as well.
SPEAKER_00: Some of us love it, and it might be the quickest way into God's presence.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you that's you?
SPEAKER_00: Like, I just can't wait to sing with the saints.
SPEAKER_00: I know for others it's a little bit bizarre to sing corporately with others.
SPEAKER_00: I've often thought about the reality for somebody who's new to church, like you're exploring faith.
SPEAKER_00: You don't know if you believe these things about Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And the first thing that we ask you to do is come in and sing them together with a group of people to a God you don't know and things you maybe don't believe, we're like, yeah, sing it at the top of your lungs, you know.
SPEAKER_00: So I know that that can be pretty awkward as well.
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever worshipped at a house church?
SPEAKER_00: Talk about awkward, that's rough.
SPEAKER_00: Because if you sing, it's obvious.
SPEAKER_00: If you don't sing, it's obvious, right?
SPEAKER_00: If you sing poorly, it's really obvious.
SPEAKER_00: There's no sound system to drown you out.
SPEAKER_00: If you don't know the lyrics, it's obvious because they don't have a projector putting the lyrics up, and guess what?
SPEAKER_00: Everybody there knows the lyrics except for you.
SPEAKER_00: And you're just trying to wing it, make it up as you go.
SPEAKER_00: I went to worship once at a house church in Los Angeles, and uh even as a pastor, it was pretty awkward for me to show up in someone's home.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't know them, I didn't know anyone there.
SPEAKER_00: And then we began to sing together songs that I didn't know.
SPEAKER_00: But as the worship set went on, I found myself more and more comfortable, and I finally got to the place where I like risked it.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's a risk to lift your hands here, like it's scary.
SPEAKER_00: It's really scary in a house church.
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, you know what?
SPEAKER_00: Forget it, man.
SPEAKER_00: Like I love God and I'm gonna lift my hands.
SPEAKER_00: I don't care where I'm at, you know?
SPEAKER_00: And I put my hands right up into the ceiling fan.
SPEAKER_00: So again, I don't know anybody, and I'm like, Lord, I love you.
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, oh gosh.
SPEAKER_00: I closed my eyes like so hard, like trying to disappear, you know?
SPEAKER_00: There's closing your eyes, and then there's trying to vanish.
SPEAKER_00: And I just held my hands, closed my eyes so hard.
SPEAKER_00: Don't look at me.
SPEAKER_00: The house I was in uh was a leader uh by the name of Sean Bowles, and Sean Bowles is a famous kind of Christian uh name, and in fact, some would have described him as a prophet.
SPEAKER_00: So Sean had a ministry where he would travel from church to church and he would give prophetic words.
SPEAKER_00: So he would come as a stranger into an environment like this, and he would know details about someone's life, and as he shared details about people's lives, they would feel encouraged and comforted, and they would have a sense that God knew them and was speaking to him about them.
SPEAKER_00: Sean Bowles has become even more famous in the last couple years because they found out that some of the things that he knew, God didn't reveal those things to him.
SPEAKER_00: The internet did.
SPEAKER_00: So he was mining information on social media and then coming into settings like this and saying that he knew people's birthdays, but in fact, he looked up your birthday on Facebook and then was sharing that this is something that God said to him.
SPEAKER_00: So I bring this up not to throw Sean Bowles under the bus, but to ask you a question.
SPEAKER_00: What do we do when the legitimate gifts of the Spirit are being used in illegitimate ways?
SPEAKER_00: What do you do with something that's been abused, something that's being misused, maybe it's being manipulated and used towards an end that God never designed it to be used towards?
SPEAKER_00: What do we do with that?
SPEAKER_00: Because some churches have just rejected it altogether.
SPEAKER_00: And that's not just a normal reaction in the church to reject what's been abused.
SPEAKER_00: Every one of us does the same even outside of the church.
SPEAKER_00: When authority has hurt you and been abused in your life, you just rebel and reject authority altogether.
SPEAKER_00: No one's gonna tell me what to do.
SPEAKER_00: And if husbands or fathers have been abusive, we can find ourselves going forward in life, rejecting our need for a father and saying, I don't need a dad.
SPEAKER_00: It's not true, but it's what we tell ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: It's true outside of the church, it's true inside the church.
SPEAKER_00: Most of you, some of you are old enough to remember that you couldn't use drums in church because drums were used for satanic heavy metal.
SPEAKER_00: And so we had to reject the drums altogether because it's been misused.
SPEAKER_00: They've been abused.
SPEAKER_00: People worship Satan with those drums, and so we can't use them to glorify God.
SPEAKER_00: Do you remember that?
SPEAKER_00: Anybody?
SPEAKER_00: Are drums a new thing for anyone here?
SPEAKER_00: So both outside and inside the church, when something's been abused, we can reject it.
SPEAKER_00: And some of the church has done that with the gifts of the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: They've just said those things, the revelatory gifts, things like tongues and prophecy and miracles and healings, that's not for now.
SPEAKER_00: That's not to mark the life of the church today.
SPEAKER_00: We just reject that stuff altogether.
SPEAKER_00: It's been abused, and we want nothing to do with that charismatic chaos.
SPEAKER_00: It's not for us today.
SPEAKER_00: Another response in the church is just to get silent about it.
SPEAKER_00: So you don't attack it or teach against it or say that shouldn't be a part of the life of the church today.
SPEAKER_00: You just go quiet.
SPEAKER_00: And that's how some of your families work too, right?
SPEAKER_00: Rather than talk about it, rather than fight it out, rather than hash it out, you just sweep it under the rug.
SPEAKER_00: And you go, that's too messy, that's not neat, that's not tidy enough, we can't control it, we can't measure it, and so we're not gonna have it.
SPEAKER_00: And I know some of us grew up in churches that were just silent on the gifts of the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you grew up in churches where these were rejected, taught against.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you grew up in churches where these things weren't talked about at all.
SPEAKER_00: Another response is possible, which is right use.
SPEAKER_00: So to not just swing over into non-use or rejection, or to remain silent on the subject, but to use these gifts the way God designed them to be used.
SPEAKER_00: And I think this was Paul's approach.
SPEAKER_00: As he planted, started, and led churches, I think the answer to abuse was not non-use.
SPEAKER_00: The answer to abuse was right use.
SPEAKER_00: If sex, money, and power, these things have been abused, the answer is to use them the way God designed us to use them, not to reject them wholesale altogether.
SPEAKER_00: The reason I can confidently say that that's Paul's approach is I can read his approach to a church that I would say has been abusing the gifts.
SPEAKER_00: Like, there's a real mess in Corinth.
SPEAKER_00: Corinth is notoriously messy.
SPEAKER_00: Corinth is like church gone wild.
SPEAKER_00: Corinth gets two letters.
SPEAKER_00: You know you're in trouble when you get two letters from Paul.
SPEAKER_00: Most churches get one.
SPEAKER_00: Corinth is like, dang, we gotta write you another letter.
SPEAKER_00: In one of the letters to this church that was a mess, Paul says this to a church that, by the way, is abusing these gifts.
SPEAKER_00: And the answer is not shut it down for Paul.
SPEAKER_00: The answer is to do it the way God designed it.
SPEAKER_00: He says, pursue love and stop it with the spiritual gifts.
SPEAKER_00: Especially prophecy, you're making a real mess of the place.
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: Pursue love, earnestly desire spiritual gifts.
SPEAKER_00: Come on, Paul, don't pour gas on the fire.
SPEAKER_00: Pursue love, earnestly desire spiritual gifts.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, especially that you may prophesy.
SPEAKER_00: For the one who speaks in a tongue speaks not to men but to God, for no one understands him, but he utters mysteries in the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: On the other hand, the one who prophesies speaks to people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation.
SPEAKER_00: The one who speaks in a tongue builds up himself, but the one who prophesies builds up the church.
SPEAKER_00: Now, Paul would say, I I wish all of you would speak in tongues, but even more.
SPEAKER_00: I wish that everyone in the church would prophesy.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, I found myself thinking as I read Corinthians, if I was leading this church, this is I would have said something very different.
SPEAKER_00: I think I would have said, Hey, cool it.
SPEAKER_00: I I would probably say something like, earnestly, desire to read your Bible and keep your mouth closed.
SPEAKER_00: You've lost your privileges.
SPEAKER_00: You're in a timeout.
SPEAKER_00: This has been abused.
SPEAKER_00: This trust has been broken, right?
SPEAKER_00: And instead he's saying to this church, I wish you all could prophesy.
SPEAKER_00: And I wonder if God Himself, through the Apostle Paul, would want to say something similar to our whole church.
SPEAKER_00: I wish you all would prophesy.
SPEAKER_00: We're in a series called Is This Thing On, where we're talking about the power of our words.
SPEAKER_00: And today I want to talk about the power of prophecy.
SPEAKER_00: But I also just want to encourage you that I don't think that prophecy was for then, just Bible times, or for them, just the apostles.
SPEAKER_00: I actually think it's something that every one of us can eagerly and earnestly desire.
SPEAKER_00: And I wish all that, I wish this whole church was speaking to one another to build up, stir up, and cheer up the work of God inside of us.
SPEAKER_00: So prophecy, this is a simple definition from a guy named Sam Storms, is a human report of a divine revelation.
SPEAKER_00: It's speaking forth in human words, something God has spontaneously brought to mind.
SPEAKER_00: By the way, if some of the charismatic gifts is new to you, I would encourage you to grab a book by Sam Storms.
SPEAKER_00: Sam Storms was raised in a really conservative Baptist setting where they taught that the gifts had ceased.
SPEAKER_00: He was trained at Dallas Theological Seminary.
SPEAKER_00: He's a Calvinist to this day, but he often speaks in defense of the gifts, how the gifts are to mark the life of the church today.
SPEAKER_00: So if this is new to you, I'd grab this book.
SPEAKER_00: Don't be off put by the cover.
SPEAKER_00: I feel like if what he was trying to do is help people who didn't know anything about the gifts, I don't really love the cover.
SPEAKER_00: But if you want to learn how to walk on lava, this book will tell you how to do it.
SPEAKER_00: So, prophecy, it's not based on like your personal insight.
SPEAKER_00: It's not based on your intuition, it's not based on your illumination.
SPEAKER_00: It's revelation that comes from God.
SPEAKER_00: You didn't know it, you didn't think it up.
SPEAKER_00: It's a human report of a divine revelation.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul says in this passage that one of the ways you'll test and know this message is from God is that a prophetic message will cheer up, stir up, or build up the church.
SPEAKER_00: And so you can think through what you're thinking through and go, is this gonna cheer up?
SPEAKER_00: Is this gonna build up?
SPEAKER_00: Is this gonna stir up?
SPEAKER_00: And this is one of the ways that you know that it might be from God.
SPEAKER_00: Now, one of the things that I want to clear up before we go forward trying to all prophesy to one another is there's a real big difference between foretelling and forth telling.
SPEAKER_00: And when people think about prophecy, they usually think about knowing the future.
SPEAKER_00: And that's one component of prophecy in the scripture.
SPEAKER_00: Fortelling and predicting the future is kind of revealing these events before they happen, but there's also a dimension in the Bible of forth telling, which is speaking forth God's message for the present moment, explaining the present from God's perspective, and bringing strength to God's people to overcome in the situation, and then to actually understand and move into his purposes in the moment.
SPEAKER_00: And so you'll see this part of this gift of prophecy at work in exhortation and at work preaching and teaching.
SPEAKER_00: It's a pretty common experience to come on a Sunday morning and for me to debrief the morning with you and for you to say, Why were you looking at me?
SPEAKER_00: It was like you were talking right to me.
SPEAKER_00: And I have to tell you, I wasn't purposely looking at you.
SPEAKER_00: And if I was thinking in my mind that you need to hear this, I wouldn't have the audacity to look right at you.
SPEAKER_00: So I would have, I'll divert my eyes for fear that you're gonna feel honed in on.
SPEAKER_00: But most of us feel like when we open God's word that something is helping us understand God's perspective for the situation that we're in right now and God's speaking to us.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm not inviting you on this day to predict the future, but I do want us to be open to hearing what God might say and speaking to one another, to build one another up, stir one another up, cheer one another up, to understand what God's doing in this moment and help lead people through the situation.
SPEAKER_00: So prophecy is just one of 20 gifts, over 20 gifts listed in the New Testament.
SPEAKER_00: The whole Trinity is involved in gift distribution, so it's not just the Father who gives gifts, Father, Son, Spirit, all involved in giving gifts.
SPEAKER_00: The gifts of the Father you can find in Romans 12, the gifts of the Son in Ephesians 4, and the gifts of the Spirit in 1 Corinthians chapter 12.
SPEAKER_00: Just a few things on gifts, they're sovereignly distributed.
SPEAKER_00: So you don't get to pick what gifts.
SPEAKER_00: It's sad.
SPEAKER_00: It's not like a fantasy draft.
SPEAKER_00: And you always want the gift you don't have.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: You're like, man, I wish I had that on my team.
SPEAKER_00: I I think one of the more miraculous gifts is the gift of mercy.
SPEAKER_00: It's miraculous when you meet someone who can forgive quickly and easily.
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, dang, my life would be better if I was you.
SPEAKER_00: If I had that gift.
SPEAKER_00: So amazing.
SPEAKER_00: We don't get to pick what gift, but the Bible does say we should be eager and earnest, like we could desire and we can ask.
SPEAKER_00: God, give me the gift of mercy.
SPEAKER_00: It's going bad down here.
SPEAKER_00: Everyone has at least one.
SPEAKER_00: Paul would argue that the unseen ones, the lesser gifts, the ones that aren't happening on stage, are just as worthy of honor as the ones that are.
SPEAKER_00: You're told not to neglect it.
SPEAKER_00: There's this sense in the New Testament that if you don't use it, you lose it.
SPEAKER_00: You can be out of practice, right?
SPEAKER_00: Also, the gifts given by God are different than natural abilities, but you can grow in them in the same way you would grow in natural abilities.
SPEAKER_00: So gifts are just that.
SPEAKER_00: They're gifts.
SPEAKER_00: They're not merit badges.
SPEAKER_00: You don't earn them for being holy.
SPEAKER_00: That's not how the gifts work in the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: Even undeserving people get these gifts from a good father.
SPEAKER_00: But I want to zero in on this gift of prophecy, and we're gonna use Acts 21, because I think it's probably the most helpful passage on how the gift of prophecy is to operate in the church.
SPEAKER_00: Acts 21, you can turn there, or I'll throw it up on the screen.
SPEAKER_00: Acts 21 is about a guy named Agabus.
SPEAKER_00: He's a leader, a lesser-known leader in the New Testament church, and he's described as a prophet.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to throw the name Agabus out there as a legitimate contender for your next child.
SPEAKER_00: Paul's played out.
SPEAKER_00: There's so many Matthews, Marks, all those New Testament names are used up.
SPEAKER_00: Agabus is for real.
SPEAKER_00: Think about it.
SPEAKER_00: I prophesy over your next child.
SPEAKER_00: Sorry.
SPEAKER_00: That's not cool.
SPEAKER_00: I that was, I crossed the line.
SPEAKER_00: Acts 21, 10.
SPEAKER_00: While we, and the we here is uh Paul, the apostle, Luke, Philip, while we were staying for many days, a prophet named Agabas came down from Judea.
SPEAKER_00: And one of the questions that we ask when we read the Bible is what's the difference between a person who gives a prophecy and a prophet?
SPEAKER_00: Like, how does one become a prophet?
SPEAKER_00: And it seems like the way that Agabus became a recognized prophet is he rightly predicted a natural disaster.
SPEAKER_00: And so if you rightly predict a natural disaster, you level up immediately.
SPEAKER_00: And you go from being a person who gives a prophecy to being a recognized prophet and a recognized uh leader in the church.
SPEAKER_00: And coming to us, he took Paul's belt and bound his own feet and hands and gave a prophecy.
SPEAKER_00: But I want to stop right here and talk about the use of props, pictures, and dreams in the prophetic.
SPEAKER_00: So the scene here is that Agabus shows up in the room, points out Paul, and says, Give me your belt.
SPEAKER_00: And then he wraps the belt around his hands and his feet.
SPEAKER_00: And it's been my experience in my own life that one, um, God often uses things that I can see and touch to talk to me about things that I can't see and can't touch.
SPEAKER_00: And it's often that he speaks to us through dreams, and it's often that he speaks to us through pictures, and it's often that he speaks to us through props.
SPEAKER_00: I've had God speak to me while petting a dog.
SPEAKER_00: I've I felt like he asked me to pet the dog.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, and I know crazier stuff has happened to you.
SPEAKER_00: Where you feel like there's something that God's wanting to show me, using something very ordinary that's in front of me.
SPEAKER_00: So this is common for the prophetic to use pictures, props to help us understand what God wants to say and do.
SPEAKER_00: So he wraps Paul up.
SPEAKER_00: Then he says, Thus says the Holy Spirit, this is how the Jews at Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.
SPEAKER_00: Paul, you're gonna be uh bound when you go to Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: When we, the group that was there, heard this, we and the people there urged Paul not to go to Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: And then Paul answered, What are you doing?
SPEAKER_00: What are you weeping and breaking my heart for?
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Maybe like um Brent Gary feels this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Like, look, I'm I'm moving to Arkansas, why are you making this harder?
SPEAKER_00: For I'm ready not only to be imprisoned, but even to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And since he would not be persuaded, we ceased and said, Let the will of the Lord be done.
SPEAKER_00: So interesting, right?
SPEAKER_00: This text starts with, thus says the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Then it ends with, since he would not be persuaded, we ceased and we said, Well, then let the will of the Lord be done.
SPEAKER_00: I thought Agabas just shared the will of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And then after these days, we got ready and we did it.
SPEAKER_00: We went to Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: The very thing Agabus said, Don't do this.
SPEAKER_00: Thus says the Lord, don't do it.
SPEAKER_00: Paul done did it.
SPEAKER_00: Verses 17 through 26 record what happened while in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: And then here's the arrest.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what actually happened.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the prophetic word playing out in Paul's life.
SPEAKER_00: When the seven days were almost completed, the Jews from Asia, seeing him in the temple, stirred up the whole crowd and laid hands on him, crying out, Men of Israel, help.
SPEAKER_00: This is the man who's teaching everyone everywhere against the people and against the law and this place.
SPEAKER_00: Moreover, he even brought Greeks into the temple, and he defiled this holy place, for they had previously seen Trophimus the Ephesian with him in the city, and then they supposed that Paul brought him into the temple.
SPEAKER_00: Then all the city got stirred up, and the people ran together, they seized Paul, they dragged him out of the temple, and at once the gates were shut.
SPEAKER_00: And as they were seeking to kill him, word came to the tribune of the cohort that all of Jerusalem was in confusion.
SPEAKER_00: Here at once, oh, he at once took soldiers and centurions and ran down to them.
SPEAKER_00: And when they saw the tribune and the soldiers, they stopped beating Paul, and then the tribune came up and arrested him and ordered him to be bound with two chains.
SPEAKER_00: He inquired who he was and what he had done.
SPEAKER_00: Some in the crowd were shouting one thing, some another.
SPEAKER_00: And as he could not learn the facts because of the uproar, he ordered him to be brought into the barracks.
SPEAKER_00: And when he came to the steps, he was actually carried by the soldiers because of the violence of the crowd.
SPEAKER_00: For the mob of the people followed, crying out, Away with him.
SPEAKER_00: Away with him.
SPEAKER_00: Once again, I would say Agabas is pretty spot on, yeah?
SPEAKER_00: In many ways, what Agabas prophesied came to pass.
SPEAKER_00: He basically said, Don't go to Jerusalem, it's gonna go bad for you.
SPEAKER_00: And in one sense, it's very true, but then I don't know if you notice this, but Agabus misses on some of the details.
SPEAKER_00: Agabas says that the Jews at Jerusalem are gonna bind you, and they're gonna put you in the hands of the Gentiles, but it's actually the Gentiles that bind his hands and rescue him from the Jews.
SPEAKER_00: So the prophecy is pretty right in a general sense, but the details are a little off.
SPEAKER_00: And I have so many questions about this interaction and this experience.
SPEAKER_00: One is that Agabus says, Thus saith the Lord, and Paul says, nah.
SPEAKER_00: Which I think is an indication of the type of authority that a New Testament prophecy is given.
SPEAKER_00: That it's always to be weighed against what God has already spoken.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to do a prophecy.
SPEAKER_00: If that guy comes up to you and he says, God said we're supposed to be married, you don't have to do it.
SPEAKER_00: But here's what you have to do: you have to test it.
SPEAKER_00: And then the Bible says you can't despise it, but you don't have to do it.
SPEAKER_00: You weigh it against what God has already said.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what I think happened.
SPEAKER_00: There's three components to every prophecy.
SPEAKER_00: There's the revelation that God gives.
SPEAKER_00: Because one of the questions I had as I read this, did God make a mistake?
SPEAKER_00: Did he reveal something that at to Agabas that didn't come to pass?
SPEAKER_00: You can imagine Agabas getting a picture and seeing Paul beaten and bound in Jerusalem, and this is the revelation that God gives.
SPEAKER_00: But the second piece of any prophecy is interpretation.
SPEAKER_00: The human reception of what God has disclosed.
SPEAKER_00: And unfortunately, this is where things can get a little fuzzy.
SPEAKER_00: Agabus gets this right as well.
SPEAKER_00: If you go to Jerusalem, you're going to be beaten and arrested.
SPEAKER_00: That's the interpretation.
SPEAKER_00: I got the revelation, which was this picture of you bound and beaten.
SPEAKER_00: And then the interpretation means if you go to Jerusalem, you will be beaten and arrested.
SPEAKER_00: But here's where Agabus gets it wrong.
SPEAKER_00: He does the application.
SPEAKER_00: And he attempts to apply the revelation.
SPEAKER_00: And he basically says, for the love of all that is holy, God says, Don't go to Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: And I think what went wrong for Agabus is he collapsed the three.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't understand that there was a revelation, an interpretation, and an application, and he should have left the application alone.
SPEAKER_00: But instead he says, This is what I see, this is the interpretation of it, and this is the application of it, don't go.
SPEAKER_00: Well, Paul decides to go to Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Why does he ignore the plea from Agabas?
SPEAKER_00: Why, when Agabus says, Thus says the Lord, does Paul say, Oh, I'm gonna chew on that?
SPEAKER_00: No, I think I'll go to Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: Well, that's because Paul had other words from God.
SPEAKER_00: And he took what Agabas was saying to him and he put it up against what God had already revealed to him.
SPEAKER_00: And he said, No, I don't think that's the application.
SPEAKER_00: I don't think that's what God's saying.
SPEAKER_00: I think I'm still supposed to go.
SPEAKER_00: I believe you that I'll be bound.
SPEAKER_00: I believe you that I'll be beaten.
SPEAKER_00: I think you got it right on.
SPEAKER_00: But I don't believe that the application of this word is that I shouldn't go.
SPEAKER_00: I still think I'm supposed to go.
SPEAKER_00: Here's why Paul thought he was supposed to go.
SPEAKER_00: At his conversion, this is the first thing God says over Paul's life.
SPEAKER_00: He's a chosen instrument of mine.
SPEAKER_00: He's gonna carry my name before the Gentiles.
SPEAKER_00: He's gonna carry my name before kings and the children of Israel, and then this is what God says that Paul's destiny is gonna be.
SPEAKER_00: I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.
SPEAKER_00: So Agabus goes, hey, there's suffering ahead, that must not be God.
SPEAKER_00: Paul goes, there's suffering ahead, that's probably God for my life.
SPEAKER_00: Because he told me from the beginning.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna show you.
SPEAKER_00: That's a bad prophecy to get, by the way.
SPEAKER_00: I hope nobody gets that prophecy.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna show you how much you gotta suffer from my name.
SPEAKER_00: Here's another thing that Paul was working with just a couple chapters before in Acts 20.
SPEAKER_00: And now, behold, he says, I'm going to Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: I'm constrained by the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not knowing what will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and affliction await me.
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that wild?
SPEAKER_00: The Spirit reveals to him that imprisonment awaits him.
SPEAKER_00: And the Spirit's not revealing that to him so that he doesn't go.
SPEAKER_00: He still has to go.
SPEAKER_00: That's wild.
SPEAKER_00: So by the time this happens and Agabus says there's suffering ahead, Paul's like, well, it's probably God's will for my life.
SPEAKER_00: It's wild.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, there's a couple things I take from Acts 20.
SPEAKER_00: One is this.
SPEAKER_00: Let's not collapse the revelation, interpretation, and application as people seeking to prophesy to one another.
SPEAKER_00: Share what God said and stop short of applying it to people's lives.
SPEAKER_00: Let them apply it to their own lives.
SPEAKER_00: The second thing is that if you get it wrong, you're in really good company.
SPEAKER_00: Aren't we so glad that like Luke wasn't canceled or stoned as a false prophet?
SPEAKER_00: That Agabus lived to report on this and they didn't say, actually, buddy, on a technicality, it wasn't Jews that bound him, it was the Romans.
SPEAKER_00: False prophet! No, the details were fuzzy.
SPEAKER_00: And aren't we so thankful that Paul doesn't write to the church and say, dear brothers and sisters, I'm sure you've heard what happened to me by now in Caesarea when false prophets operated and counterfeit signs and wonders and tried to lead me into error and disobedience by stopping me from going to Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, I tell you, stay away from spiritual gifts, especially prophecy, because some people have once abused it.
SPEAKER_00: That's not the letter.
SPEAKER_00: We can come humbly, offer what we've seen, knowing that a person needs to test it and weigh it, they don't have to do it, but they need to test it and to discern if it's what God's saying to them.
SPEAKER_00: If you've missed it, if you've blown it, if you've tried too hard, if you've applied things that weren't yours to apply, you're in good company.
SPEAKER_00: Other heroes of the faith, like Philip and Agabus, maybe did the same.
SPEAKER_00: They begged him, don't go to Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: This is what God would say.
SPEAKER_00: And it's not what God had for him.
SPEAKER_00: When we talk about engaging in this, I often find in people a resistance to these more spectacular or miraculous or revelatory gifts.
SPEAKER_00: And the two objections are usually that's for them and that's for then.
SPEAKER_00: That was for Bible times and that was for Bible people.
SPEAKER_00: It's not something that we should walk in, it's not something that should mark the life of the church today.
SPEAKER_00: And just honestly, the Bible knows nothing of that.
SPEAKER_00: There is no exclusive link between these signs of the apostles or the times of the apostles.
SPEAKER_00: There is no exclusive link between the gift of prophecy and Jesus' first disciples.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, a whole load of people operating in these gifts.
SPEAKER_00: Philip has four unmarried daughters who are prophesying.
SPEAKER_00: Deacons are prophesying.
SPEAKER_00: There is no link between these special guys and these special gifts.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, the opposite: the Holy Spirit's being poured out on all flesh.
SPEAKER_00: Your sons and your daughters are gonna prophesy.
SPEAKER_00: The other argument that I commonly get from people is like, well, it wasn't an exclusive link to the apostles themselves, but an exclusive link to the times of the apostles.
SPEAKER_00: And when John's heart sputtered out on the island of Patmos, then these gifts ceased.
SPEAKER_00: Once again, the Bible doesn't have anything to say about that.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not just speaking from my experience.
SPEAKER_00: I'm speaking from the Word of God.
SPEAKER_00: That's a really difficult stance to defend.
SPEAKER_00: The Word of God does say that prophecies are gonna cease.
SPEAKER_00: The Word of God says they're gonna stop.
SPEAKER_00: The argument is over when.
SPEAKER_00: When are they gonna stop?
SPEAKER_00: And some people believe that prophecies are gonna cease when the Bible's been completed.
SPEAKER_00: Others believe that prophecy will cease when we see Jesus face to face.
SPEAKER_00: Both groups use 1 Corinthians 13 to back that.
SPEAKER_00: Let me read it to you, since you're a theologian, and you try to put it together, what's being described here.
SPEAKER_00: Love never ends.
SPEAKER_00: As for prophecies, they will pass away.
SPEAKER_00: As for tongues, they're gonna stop too.
SPEAKER_00: As for knowledge, it'll pass away.
SPEAKER_00: For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, there's the key, the partial will pass away.
SPEAKER_00: When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child.
SPEAKER_00: When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.
SPEAKER_00: For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face.
SPEAKER_00: Now I know in part, then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
SPEAKER_00: The perfect being described in this passage, seeing Jesus face to face, is a reference to his return, not the completion of the New Testament.
SPEAKER_00: That's stretching this way too far.
SPEAKER_00: So prophecies, for sure, they're gonna cease.
SPEAKER_00: They're gonna cease when we see Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Until then, you better believe that the church needs to be built up, stirred up, and cheered up.
SPEAKER_00: So, one of the other objections that I get is like, how is this not contrary to the word of God or devalue the word of God?
SPEAKER_00: Aren't these signs and wonders or prophecies against the word of God?
SPEAKER_00: And that's true.
SPEAKER_00: People can do and say things that are absolutely against the word of God, but it's also possible for these prophecies to harmonize with them beautifully.
SPEAKER_00: One example that we've used over the years is that the Bible says to go into all the world and make disciples.
SPEAKER_00: But a prophetic word can come to you and say, go to Ecuador.
SPEAKER_00: And they harmonize in a wonderful way.
SPEAKER_00: So here we go.
SPEAKER_00: How would you go about?
SPEAKER_00: Because you're gonna go here, we're we're gonna prophesy.
SPEAKER_00: Right now.
SPEAKER_00: How would one go about giving a prophecy?
SPEAKER_00: Let's just say I was open to the idea that God could speak through me prophetically.
SPEAKER_00: Let's just say.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not saying I am, but let's just say I'm I'm exploring the idea that I could prophesy.
SPEAKER_00: How would you go about giving a prophetic word?
SPEAKER_00: Well, I think the first thing is genuinely to eagerly and earnestly desire it.
SPEAKER_00: That's what the scriptures teach.
SPEAKER_00: Don't just be open to it.
SPEAKER_00: Eagerly and earnestly desire to build up, cheer up, and stir up the church through prophecy.
SPEAKER_00: I think that's the first step.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if it's just gonna happen to you, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Like your eyes don't roll back into your head.
SPEAKER_00: You know, and God does something through you against your will.
SPEAKER_00: That's not the way this works.
SPEAKER_00: So you eagerly, earnestly desire it.
SPEAKER_00: That's the first part.
SPEAKER_00: The second part that I think is really helpful, because every one of us has asked for something in prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Is there anybody here who hasn't asked for something in prayer?
SPEAKER_00: I I mean, I I know people who uh don't believe in a God and they've asked for something in prayer.
SPEAKER_00: So we've all asked, right?
SPEAKER_00: We've all uttered the sentence, God will you.
SPEAKER_00: And I think prophecy most often is us getting so confident in the Spirit of God because God's revealing something to us that we change the question mark into a period, and instead of saying, God will you, we say, God you will.
SPEAKER_00: And it's interesting because we're not bossing God around because he's revealed something to us.
SPEAKER_00: So we're not telling him what to do like you tell your siblings what to do.
SPEAKER_00: Pick that up.
SPEAKER_00: You know, that's not what we're doing with God.
SPEAKER_00: God's revealed something to you.
SPEAKER_00: You have a strong sense in prayer, and you know this harmonizes with what God's revealed.
SPEAKER_00: You know this is the heart of God.
SPEAKER_00: And instead of saying, God will you, you start proclaiming, God you will.
SPEAKER_00: And any one of you who have prayers that you're praying can turn your prayers into prophetic utterance by just switching a few letters.
SPEAKER_00: And I don't know about you, but these come with a little zing on them.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so it'd be common for us to come to the dinner table and say, God, will you bless this food to our body?
SPEAKER_00: And God, will you provide?
SPEAKER_00: God, will you be with us as we go?
SPEAKER_00: God, will you reveal yourself?
SPEAKER_00: Will you save, heal, and deliver our kids who are up at New Day Camp?
SPEAKER_00: God, will you reveal your glory in our city?
SPEAKER_00: And then every once in a while, you get in a prayer circle with someone who's so stirred up in the spirit and so confident in what God's gonna do that they start praying with a different edge.
SPEAKER_00: And it feels almost like presumptuous, but there's a there's a weight on it where you're like, oh my bad, because now we're at the dinner table.
SPEAKER_00: And instead of saying, God, will you bless this to our bodies and will you please provide?
SPEAKER_00: They're declaring, God, you will bless this to our body, and you will provide because you will be faithful.
SPEAKER_00: You can't be anything but faithful.
SPEAKER_00: And then you're like, whoa, what happened to dad?
SPEAKER_00: How come he's not just blessing the food?
SPEAKER_00: It's got this edge to it.
SPEAKER_00: And all of a sudden we're in a prayer circle and we're not just asking, well, God, would you, if it be your will, save, heal, and deliver?
SPEAKER_00: Someone's saying, God, you will save, heal, and deliver.
SPEAKER_00: You can't do any other.
SPEAKER_00: You will be faithful to do what you said you've done.
SPEAKER_00: And Holy Spirit, you're incredible at revealing Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Reveal Jesus to our kids.
SPEAKER_00: Do you understand that the question mark is gone?
SPEAKER_00: And there's a certainty in the spirit where we're not bossing God around, but we're sure that this is his will and we're proclaiming it.
SPEAKER_00: It's a human report of a divine revelation.
SPEAKER_00: If you're wondering how to prophesy, get before God.
SPEAKER_00: Get confident in what he said in his word.
SPEAKER_00: And when you know that what's on your heart harmonizes with what he's wanting to do, take the question mark off of it.
SPEAKER_00: This morning I was driving here.
SPEAKER_00: I haven't been to church in a while.
SPEAKER_00: I usually come every week.
SPEAKER_00: So it feels weird to come back.
SPEAKER_00: So I've been gone two weeks.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm driving and I'm like, maybe I forgot how to preach and this isn't gonna go well.
SPEAKER_00: And this prayer comes out of me, and I'm like, God, help me to enjoy your presence and to enjoy your people.
SPEAKER_00: And then right about that time, I thought about my sermon, and I was like, wait a second.
SPEAKER_00: God, I will enjoy your people, and I will enjoy your presence.
SPEAKER_00: And again, it's got this edge of presumption to it that you're kind of like, am I allowed to say this?
SPEAKER_00: But I think the spirit bears witness in us, and I wish I had better words than just saying, I just think you know and you're knower.
SPEAKER_00: Would you stand with me?
SPEAKER_00: Worship team, would you guys come?
SPEAKER_00: I want to tell you a story of another LA prophet.
SPEAKER_00: 1999.
SPEAKER_00: I am 19 years old, and we have another visit from a Christian leader who's well known.
SPEAKER_00: And he's well known because God reveals things to him, and he would even say, and others would say around him that he has a prophetic gift.
SPEAKER_00: And I come to church, I don't go to this church, I go to a church that meets in the CBC gym.
SPEAKER_00: I go to Savior's Community Church.
SPEAKER_00: I'm one year into having surrendered my life to Jesus as my Lord.
SPEAKER_00: I would say probably Savior happened earlier in my life, but my life became his when I was 18.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm 19 years old.
SPEAKER_00: We get another prophet from LA.
SPEAKER_00: And he's in the middle of praying, but he opens the service in prayer, and it's not just the cheesy bless the reading of your word prayer.
SPEAKER_00: He starts overflowing and he goes on this rant where it doesn't even seem like he's talking to God, it's like he's talking to us.
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever heard one of those prayers before?
SPEAKER_00: Where you're like, Are you talking to God or are you talking to me?
SPEAKER_00: Like that prayer.
SPEAKER_00: And he starts blessing the leaders.
SPEAKER_00: He I bless you, Mark, and we bless the worship team.
SPEAKER_00: And then he says, We bless the prophetic fire in the youth leaders.
SPEAKER_00: I would have been one of those youth leaders, and apparently my youth pastor had talked to him about me.
SPEAKER_00: I had never spoken to the man.
SPEAKER_00: Then the man yells in a room that's about this size, Travis.
SPEAKER_00: Travis, God's calling you to father a young generation of sons who are rootless.
SPEAKER_00: But God says you're gonna give them roots, and they're gonna become shoots and they'll bear fruit.
SPEAKER_00: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_00: And I remember thinking, what was that?
SPEAKER_00: That is wild.
SPEAKER_00: But you better believe I felt built up, stirred up, cheered up, like God's got a purpose, God's got a call on my life.
SPEAKER_00: This is what he then goes on to say.
SPEAKER_00: I bless the dreams in the church right now.
SPEAKER_00: I bless the young kids.
SPEAKER_00: I would have been one of those along with many here: Matt, Tiffany, Cat and Heath, Eric and Lori.
SPEAKER_00: This was the youth group.
SPEAKER_00: And he says, I bless these young kids that are gonna carry the fire.
SPEAKER_00: I tell you, the kids are gonna go far beyond us.
SPEAKER_00: They're a double portion son.
SPEAKER_00: I believe that this church is gonna be like that man who has a quiver full of kids and from a fully bent bow on acres launches them into the heart of the city.
SPEAKER_00: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_00: 1999.
SPEAKER_00: And here we are.
SPEAKER_00: 156 kids in a youth group.
SPEAKER_00: We were the youth group.
SPEAKER_00: Here we are, gathered downtown in the heart of this city.
SPEAKER_00: But listen, there's two kinds of prophets in LA, and this whole thing is a mixed bag.
SPEAKER_00: But we can't throw this thing out.
SPEAKER_00: Just because there's been abuse or manipulation, that doesn't mean that the real thing doesn't exist and we shouldn't go after it with God's grace.
SPEAKER_00: He can redeem anything.
SPEAKER_00: And as you come to the table, would you please remember that a Roman torture device called the cross was redeemed by Christ's touch.
SPEAKER_00: So if there's something in your mess, if there's something in your life or your mess, if there's something in your life that is a mess, remember that God can take something like a crucifixion and work it for our glory.
SPEAKER_00: Take the body of Christ broken for you, his blood shed for you.
SPEAKER_00: If you're here and you want to be built up, stirred up, cheered up, there's a group of people willing to pray with you and over you.
SPEAKER_00: But let's worship, take the bread, receive prayer.