Faith Baptist Church
11/30/25 Worship Service
      • 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18KJV

  • Christ Receiveth Sinful Men
  • Since I Have Been Redeemed
  • We Gather Together
  • Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing
  • The Doxology
  • PRAY
    Good afternoon. I hope you’re all recovering well from your food coma! It’s officially that time of year… How many of you have already put up your Christmas tree? Or at least begun decorating? It’s that time, the time for trees and holly and garlands and lights and cookies and time with family. And when Christmas morning comes and all the little children invade the bedroom and bounce up and down on your bed at 6am begging you to get up and get moving, what is it they really want? THE GIFTS! Everybody loves getting presents. It’s one of the five supposed “love languages”—one of the ways you know someone loves you is that they sometimes give you gifts as a token of their love for you. And as a family member or a spouse or as a parent, you take joy in giving out of your own resources to be a blessing to someone you love, especially at Christmastime but also around the year.
    This is exactly the point Paul makes to the Corinthian church in his first epistle to them. They had been fighting and bickering over who was the most spiritual person, who had the best clique, and who was the most spiritually gifted—all the while forsaking unity in the Body of Christ and humility for receiving everything they had. Even though God had given them everything in Jesus, they were using it to self-promote. They had knowledge, but not love. Look at 1 Corinthians 8:1
    1 Corinthians 8:1 ESV
    Now concerning food offered to idols: we know that “all of us possess knowledge.” This “knowledge” puffs up, but love builds up.
    So Paul had to address this problem. He corrected the Corinthians’ wrong thinking about the Holy Spirit’s gifts to them in chapter 12, explaining that the purpose of these manifestations of the Spirit’s power were primarily for building others up—not for themselves. And when it comes to miraculous gifts like prophecy, speaking in other languages, and interpreting these outpourings of the Spirit, their purpose is not only for believers but also for unbelievers—to authenticate the Gospel message and advance it until all the new revelation in the New Testament would be completed.
    In fact, all spiritual gifts are meaningless apart of an attitude of self-sacrificial love, as Paul explains in chapter 13. None of the church’s amazing abilities were worth anything if they used them for selfish gain or popularity, especially considering that some of those gifts (like predictive prophecy and speaking other languages) would eventually cease to manifest in the church entirely. And even virtues like faith and hope, when compared to love, would eventually cease—faith when it becomes sight and hope when it is fulfilled—but love is eternal, making it “the greatest of these.” 1 Corinthians 13:13
    1 Corinthians 13:13 ESV
    So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
    It is against this backdrop of sacrificial Christ-like love that Paul enters chapter 14 with nuts-and-bolts teaching on spiritual gifts, which is what we will examine today. Here Paul instructs the Corinthians about how they should use their gifts in the church—and what real love for others looks like. The big question we’re answering as we walk through this text is this:
    “How do I know I love my church?”
    You give your loved ones gifts at Christmas as an expression of your love for them; but how does it look to give spiritual gifts to your church family? Paul shows us three ways we can know. Let’s look at the first.

    1. You use your gifts to edify other believers. v1-19

    This is the big idea Paul’s been arguing for the whole time. He repeats this theme several times. (SLIDES) 1 Corinthians 14:5
    1 Corinthians 14:5 ESV
    Now I want you all to speak in tongues, but even more to prophesy. The one who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues, unless someone interprets, so that the church may be built up.
    1 Corinthians 14:12 ESV
    So with yourselves, since you are eager for manifestations of the Spirit, strive to excel in building up the church.
    1 Corinthians 14:26 ESV
    What then, brothers? When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up.
    The Corinthians had knowledge—they were gifted with incredible, miraculous abilities to bear witness to the truth. But they lacked love. They needed to super-glue their knowledge and love together.
    A. Read v1. 1 Corinthians 14:1
    1 Corinthians 14:1 ESV
    Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy.
    Paul uses “prophecy vs. languages” as example gifts in his explanation. (So this isn’t really a discussion about sign gifts, but along the way, we will have to understand what’s going on with these gifts, since we don’t have them anymore.) “Especially that you may prophesy...” In the early church, the Holy Spirit gave some saints the ability to miraculously speak a language other than the ones they already knew—usually to communicate a Gospel truth to someone who needed to hear it in their own language. He also gave some believers the special ability to proclaim truth about God, whether that was predictive prophecy or simply reiterating what had already been revealed by the Lord. And the Corinthian believers started using these sign-gifts in their church services. v2-4 Compares the results of rightly expressing these gifts. So Paul says these gifts are good and should be desired (v1), but love is the more important thing. What was the situation like? Look at v2-4.
    Quote 1st verse of Erlkonig. Wer reitet so spät durch Nacht und Wind?
    That’s what it might have looked like back then. Someone in the church service just suddenly starts speaking in a language they don’t normally know how to speak. I’m cheating a bit because I actually learned some German for some performances in college. But here’s the problem with this—look again at v2-4, for real this time. 1 Corinthians 14:2-4
    1 Corinthians 14:2–4 ESV
    For 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. On the other hand, the one who prophesies speaks to people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation. The one who speaks in a tongue builds up himself, but the one who prophesies builds up the church.
    So Paul says using our gifts selfishly is ineffective because the speaker only builds up himself. On the other hand, gifts used rightly are better because they result in “upbuilding and encouragement and consolation.” Again, tongues and prophecy are just example gifts here, and Paul is addressing them because they were the most egregious examples in the church at Corinth; but you could apply this idea to music or service or giving or encouragement or anything else we do as a church.
    So when we use any of our gifts, we should ask ourselves—whom does this benefit? v5 1 Corinthians 14:5
    1 Corinthians 14:5 ESV
    Now I want you all to speak in tongues, but even more to prophesy. The one who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues, unless someone interprets, so that the church may be built up.
    I played a very dangerous prank on my wife a couple Christmases ago. I told her, “this year, I’m giving you the gift of having me as your husband for another year.” That didn’t go over very well. Thankfully for our marriage (and my physical safety), she had already seen where I stashed the real presents and knew I was just joking.
    One positive example of this in our church is one that doesn’t get a lot of attention. I recently visited the church property during the week to meet with someone for 1:1 discipleship and noticed one of our members repairing the curbstones around the parking lot islands out here. This member was redoing the mortar or rearranging the stone blocks or something to beautify and maintain the church property. Now you may not think of manual labor as a spiritual gift, but let me ask you this: whom did that act of serving benefit? (Every one of us!) Imagine what might happen if all our more handy members only used their abilities to maintain the parts of this property they use themselves. Eventually, my Sunday school class would have nowhere to meet, because that part of the other building would fall apart (because I have no clue how to fix that!). So using our gifts for others, not just ourselves, builds up the whole community.
    B. v6-19 further explain a key consideration in using our gifts to edify others. Paul turns back to the idea of miraculously speaking foreign languages in the church service and offers some instruction on how to make it beneficial for everyone. 1 Corinthians 14:6-12
    1 Corinthians 14:6–12 ESV
    Now, brothers, if I come to you speaking in tongues, how will I benefit you unless I bring you some revelation or knowledge or prophecy or teaching? If even lifeless instruments, such as the flute or the harp, do not give distinct notes, how will anyone know what is played? And if the bugle gives an indistinct sound, who will get ready for battle? So with yourselves, if with your tongue you utter speech that is not intelligible, how will anyone know what is said? For you will be speaking into the air. There are doubtless many different languages in the world, and none is without meaning, but if I do not know the meaning of the language, I will be a foreigner to the speaker and the speaker a foreigner to me. So with yourselves, since you are eager for manifestations of the Spirit, strive to excel in building up the church.
    Note v10— the Corinthians were speaking distinct languages that are all intelligible (unlike what so-called “speaking in tongues” seems to be today). Paul wanted the Corinthians to understand that their knowledge was only useful for building up if it was intelligible to others. Can you imagine coming to church and having the service in six different languages? Or having the sermon in English but not be able to understand it at all? What’s the point of that? So Paul calls the Corinthians to make their gifts understandable to others. Why?
    Our key concept is repeated in v12: if you’re eager to see the Spirit show Himself in the church, “strive to abound in building up the church.” If the church is a building, be a master builder.
    How many of you have been here before? This is the Holy Hill Cathedral in Hubertus. Do we build up our church spiritually like they built this up physically? Did you know they have a whole team dedicated to keeping the property in good condition? They work tirelessly to maintain the brickwork, the supports, the foundation, everything top to bottom. Do you have that effect on our church family? This is beautiful… what are you doing to make our church family appear this beautiful to God? Isn’t that worth the effort?
    1 Corinthians 14:13–19 ESV
    Therefore, one who speaks in a tongue should pray that he may interpret. For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays but my mind is unfruitful. What am I to do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will pray with my mind also; I will sing praise with my spirit, but I will sing with my mind also.
    (Knowledge and love in the same Amazon package at your front door)
    1 Corinthians 14:13–19 ESV
    Otherwise, if you give thanks with your spirit, how can anyone in the position of an outsider say “Amen” to your thanksgiving when he does not know what you are saying? For you may be giving thanks well enough, but the other person is not being built up. I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you. Nevertheless, in church I would rather speak five words with my mind in order to instruct others, than ten thousand words in a tongue.
    In other words, to Paul, the problem wasn’t with speaking other languages—it was doing so uninterpreted. In the case of these sign-gifts, the understanding of the hearers and benefit they received from the speaker was far, far more important to Paul than the speaker’s freedom to express his spiritual gift. The question for us, then, is not, how can I best benefit/express myself? but how can I best benefit my church?
    We just finished our Leading Corporate Worship class. Highly recommend you go to the church site and watch those recordings; much of what I’m preaching this morning appears in those class discussions, and we expand on them as it relates to the corporate worship of our church. If you’re looking to improve how you benefit this church as a worship leader, whether you prepare hearts for worship, play an instrument, or even just sing from where you’re seated, that’s a great place to look.
    Another way for you to determine how you can benefit your church better is to ask your discipler what they think you can do better. If you’re regularly being honest and open about your spiritual walk with someone you trust, that person is perhaps the most qualified to help you explore your spiritual gifts the most. And if you’re not involved in 1:1 discipleship with another member in our church, you’ll find it much more difficult to express the full range of your God-given abilities to bless His church. And if you’re not even a member at Faith but have been coming here regularly for awhile, it’s likely you’ve been enjoying the benefits of other people’s gifts without fully embracing the joy of giving back from a heart of love... Eventually we all reach an age when we start buying gifts for our family instead of being the child who simply receives.
    The big idea this morning is that our spiritual gifts are for edification. If we build each other up, we are using our gifts the way God intended, and it indicates that we love our church.
    So let’s see a second way we can evaluate our Christ-like love.

    2. You use your gifts to convict unbelievers. v20-25

    1 Corinthians 14:20 ESV
    Brothers, do not be children in your thinking. Be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature.
    A. This next idea is a matter of spiritual maturity for all of us. Look at v21.
    1 Corinthians 14:21 ESV
    In the Law it is written, “By people of strange tongues and by the lips of foreigners will I speak to this people, and even then they will not listen to me, says the Lord.”
    Paul quotes Isa. 28:11-12, in which God proclaims that even Gentiles, who speak different languages, will be part of God’s plan to reveal to Israel her brokenness—and as a nation she still will not believe.
    1 Corinthians 14:22 ESV
    Thus tongues are a sign not for believers but for unbelievers, while prophecy is a sign not for unbelievers but for believers.
    So Paul uses a play on words with the word “tongues” or “languages” to say that speaking the truth of God in another language could be used in the church service to call to repentance unbelievers who happen to be present with us, as a sign of their unbelief! (Even if some will reject the truth of God!) In Paul’s day, the miraculous ability to speak in another language was a sure-fire way to grab the attention of an unbeliever!
    Sadly, most churches today don’t want unbelievers to feel convicted. They’re primarily concerned with making unbelievers feel comfortable in church.
    Like they fit in. Like they belong in God’s presence. And in a sense they do belong here, sinners like the rest of us and in deep need. But an unbeliever doesn’t worship our God with us! He doesn’t have a relationship with the One we’re worshipping! So when we proclaim the truth of the Gospel to each other in our services, how we’re all born sinners in need of saving from ourselves, and how Jesus came to live a perfect life, taking on Himself the punishment reserved for our evil deeds at the cross—should an unbelieving person feel comfy in a setting like that? Welcome, yes. Convicted by truth? I certainly hope so. So gifts rightly used call unbelievers to repent.
    B. But unbelievers shouldn’t feel uncomfortable in our church because of anything we did to distract them from the truth. 1 Corinthians 14:23
    1 Corinthians 14:23 ESV
    If, therefore, the whole church comes together and all speak in tongues, and outsiders or unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are out of your minds?
    Again—if they can’t understand the truth at all, they’ll be uncomfortable for all the wrong reasons—because we were too obsessed with our own glory to notice the spiritually needy person among us!
    Instead, as v24 explains, if we wrap the truth of God in understandable language, can they receive that gift from us?
    1 Corinthians 14:24–25 ESV
    But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or outsider enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all, the secrets of his heart are disclosed, and so, falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that God is really among you.
    When you get sick with a stuffy nose, you might take some Nyquil to get relief from the symptoms. And while it’s not the primary purpose, Nyquil is also a one-way ticket to Sleepytown for about 8 hours.
    Friends—when we let the Holy Spirit use us the right way, He uses us to build up other believers. But he might also use us to convict, call, reveal, and regenerate unbelievers who happen to be visiting in our services. The impact of rightly-used spiritual gifts is that great.
    It’s like getting together with extended family on Christmas: your relative gets their son or daughter a really expensive toy, and your child looks up at you, like “Hey, I want one of those!” when we edify each other with our gifts, it makes unbelievers curious about God’s gift to them.
    So the conviction unbelievers is one side-effect of using our gifts the right way. But how does this happen? How do we know if we’re doing it the right way? Well, we certainly have some hints in these verses, but Paul gets into the specifics of church worship in the remainder of the chapter. Here’s the third way to know that you love your church:

    3. You use your gifts to display God's character. v26-40

    1 Corinthians 14:26 ESV
    What then, brothers? When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up.
    A. (Peace) Paul restates the problem and his solution. Notice that the Corinthians were even doing their music spontaneously without any sense of organization.
    Imagine if we came to church every Sunday and we had three different people other than Pastor Jon preaching their own impromptu sermons, at least one of which wasn’t even in our language! And Pastor Jason gets going with “Amazing Grace” when suddenly someone else stands up and starts blasting “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” on the bagpipes. (No one in our church plays bagpipes, right?) That’s what was going on at Corinth. It was chaos.
    So in these verses, Paul gives some more specific guidance to the Corinthian church, leaving us with some principles regarding peace / order for our own services here at Faith. Let’s see what that looks like.
    1 Corinthians 14:27–33 ESV
    If any speak in a tongue, let there be only two or at most three, and each in turn, and let someone interpret. But if there is no one to interpret, let each of them keep silent in church and speak to himself and to God. Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others weigh what is said. If a revelation is made to another sitting there, let the first be silent. For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all be encouraged, and the spirits of prophets are subject to prophets. For God is not a God of confusion but of peace.
    Here’s the basic idea of what’s happening here:
    i. Paul limits the number of speakers for other languages and requires someone interpret for the speaker for the benefit of all.
    ii. Similarly, Paul limits the number of speakers for prophecy as well and requires someone to evaluate or apply it.
    In other words, we should use our gifts to serve, not self-promote; and church services shouldn’t be chaotic, but peaceful. Paul isn’t precluding the possibility of being spontaneous—I’m sure the Corinthian church would be allowed to take favorite hymn requests at family service—but Paul was emphasizing the importance of intentional, well-ordered worship.
    Why? v33 - “For God is not a God of confusion but of peace.” Explain “Confusion” = “rebellion”/”riot” 2 Corinthians 6:5:
    2 Corinthians 6:5 ESV
    beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger;
    Back in Paul’s day you might have heard certain news networks describe the Corinthian church services as “mostly peaceful”! God does not delight in mob-rule worship. He delights in peace. Same word that occurs in Romans 5:1:
    Romans 5:1 ESV
    Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
    God wants harmony and well-being in our services. God is pleased when we give our gifts for each other, not for ourselves. So, how does this work for us? We must eliminate from our services anything that would distract us from God’s Word.
    When I traveled for Maranatha, my team and I visited a church where the pastor’s wife told us she always cries out loud during the invitation at the end of every sermon he preaches, then comes forward to the front of the sanctuary for the altar call, regardless how the sermon benefited her that day. And sure enough, when we were in the service with them the next day, she suddenly had this ecstatic response to the sermon and came forward for prayer during the altar call. It was a Gospel message, by the way, geared toward unbelievers.
    It was the most distracting thing, and we were pretty sure that pastor had required his wife to go forward so that others would feel more comfortable or more convicted in coming forward themselves—surely if the pastor’s wife needs to do business with God, so do I!
    But it was all theater! It was just to promote the preacher and manufacture a response apart from the work of God by “priming the pump.”
    That’s a bit of a ridiculous example, to be sure. And none of us has ever done anything distracting and inappropriate in church before, right? Of course, we’re not saying you can’t blow your nose in church for fear of distracting someone; but we should be concerned about the way we dress, both men and women (1 Tim. 2:9). We should be intentional about the balance and variety of hymns we sing, what and how much we say when preparing hearts for worship or leading in corporate prayer, what song we select for special music or instrumental offertory, how lock-step we are with the slides back in the AV booth. (Our AV folks do such a great job, by the way! You don’t even know they’re there until they make a mistake.)
    Here’s the idea: let’s strive to make the whole worship service present a coherent message about God every week.
    Let’s encourage each other to prepare to worship together in a meaningful way. Sit down and pray with someone during the five minutes before the service starts, or just find your seat and pray quietly to yourself. Get involved as a greeter. Volunteer to help tame the chaos that can be children’s church on Sundays and Wednesdays. Talk about last week’s sermon with your family on the way to church so that you’re more prepared for this Sunday’s meal. And especially if you’re involved in leading the worship of our church—work hard to prepare well. Eliminate anything that could distract from the worship—wrap your spiritual gifts with the finest ribbon so that others can truly benefit. That’s peace.
    B. Paul is also concerned about the lack of order at Corinth. 1 Corinthians 14:33-35
    1 Corinthians 14:33–35 ESV
    As in all the churches of the saints, the women should keep silent in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak, but should be in submission, as the Law also says. If there is anything they desire to learn, let them ask their husbands at home. For it is shameful for a woman to speak in church.
    Here’s the first example Paul gives regarding order at Corinth. To be clear: women in the worship service were NOT prohibited from speaking in church entirely—Paul assumed that both men and women were prophesying and praying publicly according to 11:4-6. Instead, just like Paul is asking for silence from those who have an utterance in another language, but no interpreter; or a prophecy, but no one to evaluate it; so he asks wives to keep their questions reserved for when they get home. The problem of interpretation here is, under what circumstances are wives to be silent in church? Well, we’re not sure. Good men differ on the details here.
    i. It’s possible Paul is simply asking a wife to avoid evaluating a man’s (especially her husband’s) prophecies to avoid shaming him in front of the whole church when one of them is mistaken. This would also be a violation of Paul’s rule that men are to be leaders in the church (1 Tim. 2:11-15).
    Today it might look like this: I finish preaching this morning and my wife Isabella gets up after me with a clipboard listing all the things I didn’t say right in my message. (She usually doesn’t do that until we’re at least half-way home!)
    ii. It’s also possible he’s not talking about prophecy at all, but instead about openly asking questions that might bring shame to her husband because of her apparent lack of understanding.
    Today it’d be like this: Pastor Jon is in the middle of his ninth point on his sermon outline (pause a moment)—ninth point? Wow… And suddenly Bella realizes she’s missed points seven and eight, so she calls out to Pastor Jon to go back and re-teach those two points so she can fill in the blanks and understand the teaching. Imagine my shock as she does this instead of just asking me to explain it later!
    iii. Another possibility is that the wives were asking theological or interpretive questions of other men in the church when their husbands were perfectly well-equipped to teach them, and as a result they were bringing shame on their husbands.
    So Isabella has had enough of my preaching and Pastor Jon’s teaching, so she starts asking some other man to disciple with her at church instead of me. That wouldn’t be appropriate! I’m sure the men of our church would be able to answer her spiritual questions...but she should really be asking me, her husband! It’s my responsibility to disciple her more than it is theirs, so going around me to get to someone else when I’m able to help her can really make me look bad!
    Regardless which view we take, it’s clear that Paul is addressing a situation in Corinth that we don’t necessarily deal with as much today. But it is another application of the Knowledge Plus Love formula that Paul’s arguing for: everything we do in church should reflect proper order, the way God made everyone in relation to each other. Wives shouldn’t stop submitting to their husbands when they darken the doors of the church, prophets shouldn’t steamroll those who would interpret their prophetic utterances, interpreters for other languages are required...
    C. Second example. 1 Corinthians 14:36
    1 Corinthians 14:36 ESV
    Or was it from you that the word of God came? Or are you the only ones it has reached?
    Let’s not be arrogant, church! Using our gifts for ourselves instead of giving them to others is a selfish waste. 1 Corinthians 14:37-40
    1 Corinthians 14:37–40 ESV
    If anyone thinks that he is a prophet, or spiritual, he should acknowledge that the things I am writing to you are a command of the Lord. If anyone does not recognize this, he is not recognized. So, my brothers, earnestly desire to prophesy, and do not forbid speaking in tongues. But all things should be done decently and in order.
    Here’s the last idea. This has huge implications. Read v40 again. “decently” = “appropriately, with propriety”; “in order” = τάξις (taxonomy), in correct or proper order, according to its kind (Hebrews: order of Melchizedek). This is what Paul has been getting at the whole time. God designed the church as an orderly, organized body, not some haphazard hangout. When we gather, it’s for a God-honoring purpose: worship. And worship, which permeates everything we do as a church, should reflect who God is through and through. Our God is a God of love, so we should use our gifts to build others up. Our God is a God of truth, so we should use our gifts to convict unbelievers. And our God is a God of order, so we should use our gifts to display that orderliness in everything our church does together.
    Last Friday was “Black Friday,” the pinnacle of consumeristic and materialistic expression here in the U.S. Don’t get me wrong: I’m all for a good deal. But if you’ve ever been Black Friday shopping you know how chaotic it can get. Every year, news footage comes out with people fist-fighting over a flat-screen TV in the Best Buy parking lot. That’s what was going on at Corinth—it was total chaos! That’s not how it should be here.
    Obviously no one at Faith Baptist Church is fighting over the worship service in the parking lot—to my knowledge, anyway. But how can we be more intentional about how we arrange our services so that God’s character is displayed more clearly, so that we are properly and appropriately expressing his excellencies?
    Musicians: When was the last time you started actively practicing a special or offertory so that the next time you got put on the music schedule you’d already have something prepared? Or do you usually only start practicing when Andrea Lodwick hunts you down? Do you tune your instrument to the piano before our worship services? Church member: Do you show up to church on time (at least most of the time)? Everyone here is gracious and does their best to not be distracted, but are you giving them a reason to be distracted from the worship? Every single one of us needs God’s grace in this. Men who help with the offering: are you ready to go by the end of the last verse on the previous hymn? We should be doing everything in the service in an orderly fashion. Why? I’m sure the church would be more deeply blessed by your solo if you worked ahead for weeks instead of days. Do your best to give God’s Word center stage in our church, which is exactly the order it should have—and God gets the glory when you do this in love. (don’t say slide text)
    What are you getting your church for Christmas?
    Paul has argued in 1 Corinthians 14 that we demonstrate our love for the church by using our gifts to build each other up, whether in or out of the worship service. In our gatherings, rightly-used spiritual gifts have a profound convicting effect on unbelievers, sometimes even causing faith to spring up inside them! And in our corporate worship, when we show God for who He really is—a people-loving, peace-loving, order-loving God—every one of us is changed bit by bit into the likeness of Christ.
    I’m sure you’ve heard the old poem, “To live above, with saints we love, O that will soon be glory. To live below, with saints we know, well, that's a different story!” I’m sure you feel that way sometimes about our church, friend. But will you make a commitment based on what you’ve just heard to demonstrate more deeply the love you have for this church? 1 John 4:7-8 say
    1 John 4:7–8 ESV
    Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.
    This week, what’s a new way you can leverage your abilities to bless somebody else in this church? What’s going to be different about the way you worship next Sunday as a result of what you just heard?
    PRAY
      • 1 Corinthians 8:1KJV1900

      • 1 Corinthians 13:13KJV1900

      • 1 Corinthians 14:5KJV1900

      • 1 Corinthians 14:12KJV1900

      • 1 Corinthians 14:26KJV1900

      • 1 Corinthians 14:1KJV1900

      • 1 Corinthians 14:2–4KJV1900

      • 1 Corinthians 14:5KJV1900

      • 1 Corinthians 14:6–12KJV1900

      • 1 Corinthians 14:13–19KJV1900

      • 1 Corinthians 14:13–19KJV1900

      • 1 Corinthians 14:20KJV1900

      • 1 Corinthians 14:21KJV1900

      • 1 Corinthians 14:22KJV1900

      • 1 Corinthians 14:23KJV1900

      • 1 Corinthians 14:24–25KJV1900

      • 1 Corinthians 14:26KJV1900

      • 1 Corinthians 14:27–33KJV1900

      • 2 Corinthians 6:5KJV1900

      • Romans 5:1KJV1900

      • 1 Corinthians 14:33–35KJV1900

      • 1 Corinthians 14:36KJV1900

      • 1 Corinthians 14:37–40KJV1900

      • 1 John 4:7–8KJV1900

  • I Gave My Life for Thee