Spiritual Gifts (part 2)

Alright folks, welcome back again. For those who were not here,

Ralph, I actually have a copy of last week's notes I can give to you. Thank you, John. The notes are here for this week.

I appreciate it. I'll give them to you later. There's two of them. Thank you. Just in review, what we're doing right now is a three -week session on the spiritual gifts.

1 Corinthians 12 .1. Loretta, if you would pull that out while we get there. Last week, we did two things.

We overviewed what the concept of spiritual gifts, what we would be talking about.

And then we actually got into the first, which was to understand the biblical concept of what spiritual gifts are. 1

Corinthians 12 .1 kind of gets a cornerstone as we move into this class.

So, if you would read that. We are all concerned with spiritual gifts, brothers.

I do not want you to be uninformed. So that's kind of why we're here.

Now, in reality, the word in the Greek at that point is not the charismata, but that chapter goes on and uses the word charismata, so it's appropriate to use it.

We should not be ignorant. The question is, well, why? I mean, they're there. Knowing about spiritual gifts, knowing what they are, knowing what my spiritual gifts are, knowing why

I should know them. It's important for two reasons. What are the two reasons we kind of talked about last week?

Why it's important to know and use our spiritual gifts. That's the primary one, is to glorify

God. There's a second one. And to put it into a bigger context, to build a body.

Yes. Okay, thank you. Okay. So it's for the one another, which is the answer

I want to make. Spiritual gifts, we're going to talk about one of them today. But spiritual gifts are not for you.

They're for the one another, but primarily they're for the glory of God. That's kind of what we talked about last week.

Last week we worked on the definition of spiritual gifts. We talked about the difference between gifts and fruit.

Spiritual fruit is something we all should manifest. All nine of them. And last week,

Eric and Carrie serenaded us with a Steve Green version of spiritual gifts.

Galatians 2. Galatians 5, I should say. We talked about the role of the

Holy Spirit. These are not things that are... The power does not come from within us.

The empowerment comes from God. And we talked about the purpose. This week, we're going to shift more into what are they?

And what do they mean? So I'm going to ask Bill Fletcher.

Would you open us in prayer this morning? Heavenly Father, we thank you that you are good and gracious and kind and loving.

That you haven't dealt with us according to our sins and the woes of mankind. And you've given us grace and mercy and a purpose to serve you and to have joy.

So we are thankful, Lord. We have the privilege of knowing you. I pray you direct the past and the future.

We've had this discussion this morning. In the almighty name. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Ephesians 4.

Rich, if you would get that. What we're going to do first... There are four...

There are four key chapters that are going to give us listings, indications of what the gifts are.

We're going to look at those and identify within the various passages what gifts are in the scriptures.

So that's what we're going to do first. Ephesians 4 is one of the chapters. Verse 11 is where they're actually listed.

So give me verse 11. Indicating some as apostles and some as prophets and some as evangelists and some as pastors and teachers.

Okay, five of them listed in there. What are they? Apostles, evangelists, prophets, pastors, teachers.

Pastors and teachers. There are versions that you may have that will use the word shepherd instead of pastor.

Same thing. And there are versions that you will have that will say shepherd, teacher. Okay, but the concept is those are the five,

Ephesians 4. We're going to talk about what these are in a minute, but for now we're doing fishing expedition.

We're going to find out what's there. 1 Corinthians 4 .12 verses...

Well, let's read the whole 4 through 11. Verses 8, 9, and 10 are where they're listed. But Jen, give us 4 through 11, please.

There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are different kinds of service, but the same

Lord. There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them and all men.

Now to each one, the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. To one, there is given through the

Spirit the message of wisdom. To another, the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit.

To another, faith by the same Spirit. To another, gifts of healing by that one

Spirit. To another, miraculous powers. To another, prophecy.

To another, distinguishing between Spirits. To another, speaking in different kinds of tongues.

And to still another, the interpretation of tongues. All these are the work of one and the same

Spirit. And He gives them to each one, just as He determines. Just as He determines.

There are nine different gifts listed in this passage. Verse 8, there's two of them, verse 8.

What are they? Wisdom and knowledge. Some say the words wisdom and knowledge.

Again, we'll talk a little bit about these in a minute. In verse 9, there's two. What do we see in verse 9?

Faith and healing. And then in verse 10, there's actually five of them.

Miracles. Prophecy. Tongues is just a minute.

Distinguished between Spirits. That often has been identified as discernment. Distinguishing between Spirits, discernment.

And then you said tongues is the next. And what's the last one in that list? Interpretation.

Okay, we're building a list. 1 Corinthians 12, 28. Nate, I guess you're next.

And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, administrating, and various kinds of tongues.

I see a lot of replication, redundancy showing up as we go through these passages. But again,

I think there's eight in this one verse. What do we see there?

Apostles, prophets, teachers, miracles, healing, helping, administrating, and tongues.

Tongues, excellent. That's a pretty powerful list in one verse right there.

Romans 12, Paul just continues on in verses 6 through 8.

Bob, if you want to do that. We have different gifts according to the grace given to each of us.

If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith. If it is serving, then serve.

If it is teaching, then teach. If it is to encourage, then give encouragement. If it is giving, then give generously.

If it is to lead, do it diligently. If it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully. Some interesting items show up in these lists of gifts, if you would.

There's one in verse 6. It is prophesying. Yes, prophesying.

Interesting it's different than prophet, but it's very similar. We'll talk about that. Verse 7, there's two.

Serving and teaching. Yes, some will say ministry. There's different words in there, but service is the essence of what that is.

Service and ministry. And there's four more in verse 8.

Exhortation. And mercy, excellent.

I hope some of these, as we've been reading them, just kind of like, really?

That's a gift I thought we all... What were those four again? Exhortation.

Go ahead, Ralph. Contributing, leading, and mercy. I'm sorry, what was third? Leading. 1

Peter 4. So we hear from somebody other than Paul. Bill, verse 11.

7 through 11, actually. Lift up all things at hand.

Therefore be self -controlled and serve your mind for the sake of your prayers. Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.

Show hospitality to one another without bundling. And each has received a gift.

Use it to serve one another as good stewards of the gods of the various greats. Whoever speaks has one who speaks the ripples of God.

Whoever serves has one who serves by the strength of the gods of God. In order that, in everything,

God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. So there's two gifts given in verse 11. Speaking and service.

Speaking and what else? Service. Service, yes. Okay. Go to the other page.

This page here. This is what we just did in slightly different format. Down the left column are all the gifts that we've just identified.

The columns are labeled with passages that we've read. And the entries within the matrix of the verse were there.

I've grouped them to a certain extent. The first grouping, apostle, pastor, teacher, prophet, evangelist.

They almost sound like the title of a person or an office. We then move into a large section of prophecy, ministry, or service.

Teaching, exhortation, giving, leadership, mercy, discernment, and speaking.

Then there's a couple of significant sign gifts. Miracles, healing. Tongues and interpretation are almost their own category to themselves.

And then there's almost these qualities of faith and wisdom and knowledge. And then there's this gift of help.

And you can see where they're identified. We're going to go specifically through a handful of them.

Prophecy, tongues, miracles, apostles, and that's it.

But let's touch a couple of others before we get there that I think are interesting and we should talk about.

One of them would be the gift of giving. Explain to me how giving is a spiritual gift.

And again, let's put this in the context. Spiritual gifts are given by who?

By God. The Holy Spirit, by God. How many people have the gift of giving?

We should all be givers. I didn't ask that. How many people have the gift of giving? Not everybody.

Gifts are given according to God's proportion. Not everybody has the gift of giving.

How about faith? Not everybody has the gift of faith.

Yeah. So explain it to me. You were starting, Rich. We all have different degrees of faith. Some people have very strong faith.

Some people have a faith like a mustard seed. But I think, I don't know about the gift of faith, but I believe faith grows as we trust in the promises in the

Scripture. The more we absorb the promises of God, the more faith we have in God and in his promises.

So our faith can increase. The Apostle said, Lord, increase our faith, right?

But I don't know about the gift of faith. It's fed like babies. It says, start with milk. So, I think that's the beginning of the progression of faith once we believe.

Faith is a result of God's grace. There's nothing within me.

It's really a result of God's grace. But everybody who has come to Christ, Ephesians 2 .8,

for by grace are ye saved through faith. That's who we are. That's what we are.

So all believers, we do have faith. It is small g.

It's the gift of God's grace. It's not the gift of the Spirit. The gifts are given for two reasons.

What are they? Glorify God and edify the body.

There are individuals within a group, within the body. Not everybody is a little pinky finger, whatever.

But not everybody has the gift of faith, but some do. And that gift is to glorify

God and to edify, to love the body. So what do you think?

This now is just what do you think, because I can't get to you in Scripture and give you a better definition.

But what do you think the gift of faith looks like? Abraham, when he went to sacrifice his son.

That's a lot of faith. Yes. That's a pretty good picture of the gift of faith.

I can top that one. I just knew a preacher, Robert Morris.

His gift was such that he gave everything of her. His house, his money, everything. He trusted, he had that much faith to believe that God would give him what he needed.

He gave it all back to him, because he said it's all his anyway. I would almost ask that as the gift of giving.

Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm. And again. He had a lot of faith to do that. He had a lot of faith to do that, yeah. It's interesting, in Acts 5, they all gave everything they had.

Yes, and shared in common, yes. And did they all have the gift of faith?

All believers. It seemed that it was a group dynamic at work, led by the

Spirit. Led by the Spirit. All believers should understand that what they have is from God.

And we are nothing more than the stewards of what God has given to us. And it's a blessing and a privilege to give back to God's work.

All believers, all believers. We could get into a debate of the

Old Testament mandate for tithing, the New Testament, New Church.

We could get into that. But scripturally, we are to give to God's work.

And not just rely on those who have the gift of giving. That would be kind of,

I don't think, biblical. But there are those who have the gift of giving. I think it's not just money either.

It's time and talents and that sort of thing. Right, that's very well said.

That's very well said. It's all that we are we give. And there are those who are, they don't even perhaps even perceive it as a sacrifice.

It's a gift. It's a gift to be able to give. Other than the ones that are on this list that we're going to talk about, if we decide to come back to this list, we will.

But I want enough time to go through some of these more interesting ones.

They're all interesting. But some of them just have a reason to really go into them. The first one we're going to talk about is prophecy.

Deuteronomy, I don't know who's next for you. I think you are. If you would get

Deuteronomy 18, Joel 2. Rich, have that. Deuteronomy 13. Joel 2? I'm sorry,

Rick. Joel 2, Rick. Ralph, you got

Deuteronomy 13, 1 John 4. Yeah, that's 1 John 4. And there's a whole bunch in 1

John 14, if you would have those little verses. Give me a definition of prophecy.

Forth -telling or fore -telling? Oh, you read what I wrote there. No. I remember it from previous days.

You could either speak out God's word, which is forth -telling, or say what's coming in the future, which is fore -telling.

Is a person who... Actually, never ask yes, no questions. Too bad. Is a person who has the gift of prophecy always prophesying?

About the future? No. I can't show you this scripturally.

This was a kind of a quote, my paraphrase of a quote. And it makes a lot of sense to me.

The prophesying is a spontaneous revelation from the Holy Spirit that you express to others.

Which is to say, somebody who has the gift of prophecy isn't necessarily always prophesying.

But when the Holy Spirit gives you a spontaneous revelation and you express it to others, that's prophecy.

And as Rich said, there are two types of prophecy in Scripture. And you're not going to find these two words in Scripture.

You just have to understand them in passage. Joel 2, 18, if you would give me that.

Or Deuteronomy 18, I'm sorry. Deuteronomy 18. When a prophet speaks in the name of the

Lord, if the word does not come to pass and come true, that is the word that the Lord has not spoken.

The prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him. Okay, we get into the test of the prophet in there and trying to counterfeit the gift of prophecy in the

Old Testament was a dangerous thing. But that clearly talks about foretelling.

You're talking about standing up and proclaiming what will happen, foretelling.

You look at the prophet Isaiah and the things that he talked about, foretelling.

If you look at all of the prophets foretelling what will happen. And again, as they had the prompting of the

Holy Spirit, they lived. Did David know he was prophesying the crucifixion in Psalm 22?

And did Isaiah know his prophecy in Isaiah 53?

They didn't always know. No, they didn't always know. Yeah, that was kind of a rhetorical question. They couldn't have envisioned it,

I can't imagine. But that was an example of their foretelling without even realizing it.

And the fulfillment could come hundreds of years later. I figure Daniel, with all his visions, he didn't know what those visions represented.

And we still don't. And we know more than he did. Wow, yeah.

Often they spoke in multiple mountain peaks and didn't even realize it. 1

Corinthians 14, 2 -4, you have that, if you would just read that. For one who speaks in the 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 their urgement and consolation.

In that case, and significantly when we get into 1 Corinthians 14, actually we see that the fourth telling side of the prophecy.

There are two sides to it. We need to take a look at it. One of the questions that does come up in the study is the question of have gifts ceased?

Do they continue as prophecy relevant in the foretelling today?

Or only in the foretelling today? These questions are not explicitly described as we go through scriptures.

We have to read and read into almost some certain passages. Let's look at Joel 2, 28 -29.

And it succumbs to pass afterward that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh. Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy.

Your old men shall dream dreams and your young men shall see visions. Even on the male and female servants in those days

I will pour out my Spirit. That passage is frequently identified as an end time prophecy.

If so, there is a clear indication that foretelling is not over.

That at least within the end times foretelling would take place. I can't give you any clear scriptural context as to whether foretelling exists today.

I'm going to throw it out. What's your all's thought on that? These are very dangerous when we're trying to do biblical exegesis.

But do you have any insights on the concept of foretelling? I've done a lot of reading, but I'd like to hear what you have to say.

I'm reading a book right now by Terry James called Rapture Ready or Not. He interprets

Daniel's prophecies in chapter 2 and chapter 7, Revelation of Prophecies.

He's got a prophetic gift to understand these prophecies made by these men.

I don't know if he's actually foretelling. He's expounding on what they had spoken in the past.

What we're getting into that scenario is a combination of the gift of knowledge, the gift of wisdom, and the gift of teaching.

We're taking words that have already been recorded in scripture and taking a level of understanding to what they have to say.

The wisdom taking it into context of what's either to be or will be and the gift of teaching to be able to express it to others.

I can't dogmatically tell you that foretelling does not exist today.

But I can definitely tell you that foretelling exists today. As we go through the list, it shows up two different ways.

It shows up as either prophets. There's a gift of the prophets

That individual enters the gift of prophecy. Why would they be listed differently?

What is the difference between the gift of being a prophet and the gift of prophecy? I think the gift of prophet was to build up the foundation of the church at its beginning.

It was a man. It was an office. You had the gift.

It was a position you had. And as you're using your terms, you're using past tense, which almost implies that you believe that the gift of prophet does not exist today.

And as you use the word foretelling, perhaps that's true.

But if you're using the word foretelling, maybe it does exist. It's a gift.

That person is recognized as an individual who has the gift of foretelling could be a prophet.

But not the office of prophet. Not the office of prophet as expounded in Ephesians 4 .11.

Go ahead. The gift of apostle, prophet, evangelist. The gift of apostle, prophet was to build up the church.

It was to lay the foundation. And I think we will see that later in Ephesians and under apostle.

But since you're there, Loretta, if you would get Ephesians 2 .19

-20. That's kind of where Rich is going right now. This discussion is redundant to the discussion.

Well, it's not exactly redundant to the discussion of apostle because the concept of apostle has its own.

But there's a commonality. Go ahead. Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone.

That passage seems to lay an expectation that apostles, prophets,

Jesus Christ is the cornerstone foundation. There is not an express continued building blocks on top of them.

That would lead you to believe that the office of apostle, the office of prophet along with Jesus Christ himself does not continue to replicate itself.

Within the concept of prophecy, there are, and now we're talking, there is the risk of those who speak but they're not speaking by the

Holy Spirit. Deuteronomy 13 .1 -3 If there arise among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth there a sign or a wonder, after the sign and wonder come to pass, whereof he speak unto thee, saying,

Let us go after each other gods, which thou hast not known, and let us serve them.

There you go. Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of the prophet or that dreamer of dreams.

For the Lord your God proveth you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul.

This is a dangerous one. So you have somebody who speaks forth and the words ring true.

Except for what? What was said in verse 2. Verse 2?

3. Let us not hearken unto the words of that prophet or dreamer of dreams.

For the Lord your God proveth you to know whether you love the Lord or not. If the words ring true except...

Tells you to worship someone other than Jehovah. Correct. Run from it.

And 1 John 4. Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God.

For many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the spirit of God.

Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God. And every spirit that does not confess

Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the Antichrist which you heard was coming and now is in the world over there.

Prophecy is perhaps the most commonly counterfeited gift that Satan utilizes.

And the risk to believers and non -believers to subtly start to proclaim things that are encouraging, seem appropriate, and gradually lead you astray.

Test the spirits is a strong, strong encouragement. The gift of prophecy exists today.

The counterfeit of prophecy. Psychics, fortune tellers, mystics, the occult people are delving into it, not realizing it.

But they're giving themselves over to the enemy. Prosperity theology.

That would be part of it. Absolutely that would be part of it. Within the functionality of the body, 1

Corinthians 14. Give me all three of those one at a time. One, two, four.

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.

Within the body, prophesying is intended to do what? Build up the church.

Build up the church. It definitely has a ton of implication to helping me and my own

Christian walk, but we also then get into the gift of teaching, we also get into the gift of preaching.

Build up the church. Give me the next passage. But if all prophecy 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. This talks about a false person coming in, but the secrets of the heart are disclosed.

Where God is living and active, sharper than any two -edged sword, piercing as far as the division of the soul, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

I used to get into discussions with charismatics and said, if you don't speak in tongues, you don't have the anointing and the gift of the

Holy Spirit. And I said, well, 1 Corinthians 14, 19, Paul said, however, in the church

I desire to speak five words with my mind, so that I may instruct others also, rather than 10 ,000 words in a tongue.

Tongues is next. Tongues is a real tough topic. But tongues comes next.

29 and 31. 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 hold the prophecy one by one, so that all may learn and all may be encouraged.

On a gathering, a number of people who are prepared, spontaneous revelation from the

Holy Spirit occurs, and somebody, in an orderly fashion, being motivated through the

Holy Spirit to prophesy, standing up and speaking. It's really kind of cool.

The risk of counterfeit is immense. But in that passage, it has those who are led by the

Holy Spirit should speak, and those who are led by the Holy Spirit should not be squelched, but all things done in order.

Tongues. Okay, let's get into the fun stuff. Okay, question.

What is meant by tongues? An unintelligent and formless speech.

To us. Okay. That is definitely a predominant definition of tongues.

There's another definition that floats around evangelical circles. That's, yes.

There are those who, give me Acts 2, I think, Richard, you're next. 1

Corinthians 14, you've already got 1 Corinthians 14, so you're just going to keep reading when we get there.

Give me Acts 2. What verse? 6.

And this is after Pentecost. Acts 2, 6.

Now there were Jews living in Jerusalem, without men, in every nation under heaven.

And when this sound occurred, the crowd came together and were bewildered because each one of them was hearing them speak in his own language.

They were amazed and astonished. There are those who take the interpretation driven out of Acts 2, 6 that tongues is formless, that others understand.

I don't believe scripture supports that. I'm letting you know that it's out there. There's too much.

1 Corinthians 14 is, again, a passage when you're understanding tongues.

Give me 2, 3 again, please. One who speaks in tongues 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 talks in tongues...

Okay, that's good. I don't know how much clearer you can get. Those who speak in tongues speak a language only to God that other men can't understand.

Do they understand it themselves? I don't think so. As we get into here, we're going to see no.

I had a friend who said he spoke in tongues, and he only did it as a prayer language. That's how he interpreted it, which is what that's saying.

It was between him and God. It was a language, but I don't know if he really understood what he was saying.

That's what I've been told by those that lead to that gift. It's a very scriptural comment.

I've said earlier in this class that the gifts... I've said often in this class that the gifts of the

Spirit have two purposes. They are to fill up the body.

Tongues is interesting because a significant portion of tongues is private between your spirit and God.

It really does not have any direct application to the body of one another.

But it does talk about those who interpret tongues. And it would identify that person, presumably.

There are times when tongues can be used in a one -another context.

Given that, give me verse 5, please. Now, I want to put even more to prophecy.

The one who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues, unless someone interprets, so that the church may be built up.

That's exactly what you said. Within the context of the church, the one -another, if there is tongues, there has to be him interpreting.

That, by the way, is another gift. 12 -16, please. I'm sorry, 13 -15.

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 interpretable.

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.

Yes, prayer is important from the mind. But prayer does occur.

Within the context and the definition of spiritual gifts, how many people have the gift of speaking in tongues?

Oh, we don't know the number, but it's not everybody. It's from the greater definition of spiritual gifts.

Not everybody has the gift of tongues. There are some who say it was only for the beginning of the church, because there was no

Bible. We're going to ask that question.

Give me verse 18, if you would. I thank

God that I speak in tongues more than all of you. That's Paul speaking to the church.

So the gift of tongues is definitely, if we believe in Paul, it's not always wrong.

Again, tongues can be counterfeited by Satan. Give me 19, please.

Nevertheless, in church, I would rather speak five words with my mind in order to instruct others than ten thousand words in a tongue.

But then give me 26 through 28. What then, brothers?

When you come together, each one has a who, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation.

Let all things be done for building up. If any speak in a tongue, let there be only two or at most three, and each in turn, and let someone interpret.

But if there is no one to interpret, let each of them keep silent in church and speak to himself and to God.

The question that you raised, Bob, was the teaching that tongues don't exist today.

Scripturally, there's no support for that comment. There really isn't. Often, in fact, as we get into the next section of healing and miracles, the question of why are they valid today, we're really, in fact, we're out of time.

So I'm going to tease this and we're going to finish this next week. When we get into next week, as we start talking about miracles, healings, and stuff like that, we get into acts.

There's signs that were used to validate the message, and large numbers of people respond and come to faith.

On top of that, we can ask the question, do they still exist today? We'll get into that next week.

But scripturally, there is nothing that indicates that tongues ceased.

In fact, there's indication that tongues have their function between your spirit and God and within the church, given and interpreted.

Just a question. What about those faith denominations that value that and do that on a regular

Sunday basis as a corporate form of worship almost?

I used to be a member of a church like that. It was more emotionalism than it is now. What do you say?

That's what I mean. I guess I'm bringing it up in conversations with some of those.

They feel that those of us that don't do that, somehow they're more closer to God, more sanctimonious, if you will.

I think that... The answer to that question is two. We'll close with this.

If you are in a church, one another, setting, and tongues is encouraged, tested to Scripture, 1

Corinthians 14, for the interpretation. That's it for the interpretation. Go to the passage that talks about everything done in an orderly fashion.

Test it to say that one speaks at a time. Test the Scriptures to these types of things.

And then if you get to the question of, if you're not endowed with the gift of the

Holy Spirit, perhaps you have not reached that level, go back to the passages that talk about the body.

Last week we talked about all the body members with their gifts are to be honored equally.

Go to those passages. It's a good place to be scripturally. We're going to need to stop here.

Next week we'll finish these last two, and we're going to talk about how do I know, and what do I do about what

I know. Ron, would you close us today? Father, thank you so much for having us all here today.

Thank you for John's preparation and his teaching of your Word. Thank you for the people who took your divine

Word and brought it so that we could study it today and learn from it and take it with us through Jeff and his preaching today.

And we ask that you bring us all back safely next week. In Jesus' name we pray.