Beyond The Basics 8: Spiritual Gifts (part 2)

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Spiritual Capitalism (part 3) - [Matthew 6:20-23]

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Our Father, we bless You. We praise Your name.
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We're thankful for all that You have accomplished for us in Your Son, Jesus Christ.
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As we turn to Your Word this morning, we pray that You would bless our time as we look at what it means to really to be saved and to be gifted by You.
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Lord, would You bless our time in Christ's name? Amen. Well, you know, as always,
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I like to read things so that you don't have to. And, you know, it's funny, I think we've been on the...
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How many know what TBN is? I know what it is. That's why
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I brought it up. Trinity Broadcasting Network. That is exactly right. And we got on their newsletter years and years ago.
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And it doesn't matter, you know, if we move, change our names, we've assumed many disguises, and they still track us down.
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It doesn't really matter. And I just thought, you know, this is interesting in light of what Pastor Mike's been teaching. The headline of this one, you probably can't see it, says,
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Ask Me for Anything. Ask Me for Anything. And he goes on and he says, in Matthew chapter 7, it says,
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Ask and it shall be given to you for everyone that asketh receiveth. Matthew 7, verse 7 and 8.
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Then he's kind of walking through the passage, and you go, Well, that's interesting. He's keeping it right in context. And then he goes back and he says,
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How do you get what you want? Well, the answer is in Matthew 6, back a few chapters, right where we are.
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But seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. Then he says, Wow, here it is, take hold.
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And all these things shall be added unto you. And you say,
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But I have sought the kingdom of God first. I am saved, sanctified, and filled with the Holy Spirit.
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And still no answer to that need, that life or death miracle.
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You need a miracle. Now, dear partner, let us turn that key to that locked door once and for all.
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What's the key? Understanding what the kingdom of God is. It's going to seek and save the lost, he says.
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Then he starts skipping around, Luke 19, John 15, Hutt, Hutt, Hutt, 2
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Chronicles 7 .15, on and on it goes. Now listen to this. The moment you decide to call or pledge, you become an instant soul winner.
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Just by giving to TBN, you're a soul winner. TBN reaches vast numbers of souls with nine great networks, etc.,
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etc., etc. Then he goes on to cite how Solomon proved his faithfulness by giving.
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But here's the thing. You become an instant soul winner by giving to TBN. TBN, the same corporation that puts
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Catholic priests on the air, that puts Oneness Pentecostals on the air, who say that they're not
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Protestants because they're not protesting anything, who basically stand for nothing. And, you know,
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I mean, they've got pictures of, and you hear everyone from Pat Robertson to one of my favorite
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Christian evangelists, Tim Conway, although they do just call him a comedian here, but you just go, okay, why is he here?
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Why was he on the show? And one final note on them. We were in Orlando here a month ago, and, you know, you drive by the
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Holy Land Experience, just FYI, it's owned by TBN.
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In fact, if you look at the sign, it says that right on the bottom of it. It says Trinity Broadcasting Network, so. And here they've got, you know,
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I really wish I'd used a projector this morning because this is just really priceless.
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This picture here, it's a man portraying Jesus, and there's a Roman centurion, and there are some other people in colorful garb.
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And then standing next to Jesus, this portrayal of Jesus, is this guy in this giant, like, camel costume standing there like this.
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I don't know what that's all about. And then, of course, Jan crouches over to the side, you know, with a microphone, but really weird stuff.
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Anyway, the bad teaching experience of the day. Holy Land Experience owned by TBN. So we're talking about spiritual gifts.
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Does anyone need a copy of the notes? It just so happens I have a few up my sleeve.
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Thank you, Pastor. Talking about spiritual gifts, and so far what we've talked about is what it means to have a spiritual gift, the
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Greek word, because it's important that every week you commit to memory at least one Greek word. We've also talked about what the purpose of it is.
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And really, you know what, if you get nothing else out of the next few weeks, although I think next week we will take a quiz so that you can discover what your spiritual gift is.
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If you get nothing else out of this, what is the purpose of spiritual gifts? Right there, 1
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Corinthians 12, verses 4 to 7. It's for the common good. It's for the body. So this whole idea of, and TBN is just a prime example of this, you know, the speaking in tongues for self -edification, all those things.
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Well, if you read the Scriptures, if you study it through, it is for the body, is to build up the unity of the body of Christ, not for your own personal benefit.
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We talked about how the gifts are distributed, that the Holy Spirit does it, which kind of, his giving of spiritual gifts kind of belies the fact, it counters the idea that you can somehow demand a gift, that you can, you know, practice until you get a particular gift.
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It's just not the way it is, biblically. We talked about how there are some temporary signed gifts.
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We talked about how, if we trace the development of the gifts in the
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New Testament, we would see that as time went on, the miraculous gifts, the signed gifts, fade from the writings of the apostles.
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We did talk about the three eras of history where miracles were, you know, and again,
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I think it's always, you always want to tread lightly when you say, miracles were normative in this era.
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Because that doesn't mean, you know, you're walking down the street and you go, it's another miracle, you know, another day, another miracle.
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It wasn't that normal. Miracles are still miracles. But, you know, the clusters of miracles throughout history really are condensed into a period that spans about 100 years.
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So now we're at the bottom of page 36, talking about apostles.
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Now, typically, I don't think we think of apostles as spiritual gifts, but they are. And to just kind of highlight that for a minute, this isn't in your notes, but let's just look at Ephesians chapter 4, verse 11.
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And talking about Jesus, Paul writes, and he gave some as apostles and some as prophets and some as evangelists and some as pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints for the work of service to the building up of the body of Christ.
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Again, the idea of what? That it's for the good of the body, but it lists in there apostles.
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And there is a movement today to say that we have apostles among us.
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And I come from a background in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter -day Saints, the Mormon Church, where we had 12, actually 15 apostles, if you want to get picky.
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But we had apostles, messengers, allegedly from Christ.
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That's what an apostle is, a messenger. Let's go ahead and look at Matthew chapter 10, verses 1 to 4, and I'll ask somebody to read that when they have it.
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But again, a kind of a novel concept. I don't think typically we think of apostles as spiritual gifts, but that's exactly what they were.
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Imagine where the church might have gone were it not for the apostles. Of course, that was
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God's plan, but I mean, we would be really hurting without the apostles.
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Anyway, Matthew 10, verses 1 to 4. Who has that? Pretty, you know, lately,
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I don't know why, but I've just had this thing about baby names. You ever wonder why nobody names their kid Thaddeus?
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I mean, what's wrong with that? It's a fine name, one of the apostles. We need more
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Thaddeus, Thaddeis, whatever. Anyway, I digress.
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It's interesting to note, and I have that in your notes there, that in Matthew chapter 10, verse 1, they're referred to as disciples, and then in verse 2, they're called apostles.
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What changed? Jesus gave them authority.
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I mean, they were his disciples, his followers, and then he gave them authority. Interesting to note, too, that he gave them authority over what?
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Unclean spirits, and to heal every kind of disease and every kind of sickness. Makes you wonder, what would a modern -day apostle look like?
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What's that? Faith healer? Well, a modern -day apostle, well, what would be the problem with having a modern -day apostle?
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What's that? And there are no apostles today, because Jesus isn't appearing to people, is that what you said?
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You have to have seen the risen Christ. I mean, we know that because of Acts 1.
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Let's look at that. This idea that you could be an apostle today, and you know what?
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The reason I think it's important to discuss apostles in the context of spiritual gifts is because there are those that say the spiritual gifts, all of them, must be in the church today because they were in the church at the beginning.
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Well, according to that line of thinking, what must we have today? We must have apostles.
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If no spiritual gift can vanish, then we must have apostles. But there's a problem with that.
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Let's look at Acts 1. And I don't want to just read verse 22, so I'm going to start with verse 15.
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At this time, Peter stood up.
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This is after the ascension of Jesus. At this time, Peter stood up in the midst of the brethren, a gathering of about 120 persons, which still just kind of is amazing when you think about what happens then in Acts 2 and Pentecost.
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Here are 120 people. That's the totality of the church. And then on the day of Pentecost, 3 ,000 get added to that.
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Verse 16, Brethren, the Scripture had to be fulfilled which the
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Holy Spirit foretold by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested
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Jesus. For he was counted among us and received his share in this ministry. Now this man acquired a field with the price of his wickedness.
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That's 40 pieces of silver. And falling headlong, he burst open in the middle and all his intestines gushed out.
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You know, this is Luke telling us, you know, viscerally. I mean, this is like Law and Order. We have to see all this,
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I guess. Verse 19, And it became known to all who were living in Jerusalem, so that in their own language that field was called
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Hakodama. That is, field of blood. For it is written in the book of Psalms, Let his homestead be made desolate, and let no one dwell in it.
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And let another man take his office. Therefore it is necessary that of the men who have accompanied us all the time that the
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Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning with the baptism of John, until the day he was taken up from us, one of these must become a witness of his resurrection.
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And that's... Well, I'll just finish reading it. So they put forth two men.
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Joseph, called Barsabbas, who was also called Justice. I mean, this guy had a lot of names.
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And Matthias. And they prayed and said, You, Lord, who know the hearts of all men, show which one of these two you have chosen to occupy this ministry and apostleship, from which
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Judas turned aside to go to his own place. And they drew lots for them, and the lot fell to Matthias.
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And he was added to the eleven apostles. He was added.
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Why? Because the lot fell on him, but also because he was an eyewitness to the resurrection.
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Now, why can we not have modern -day apostles? Because, as far as I know, nobody as Pam was even saying, nobody's seen the resurrected
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Lord. There are people who have claimed to have seen him, but no one has seen him. So to be an apostle, you had to see the resurrection.
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Number three. They're given absolute authority. Let's look at Jude 17.
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Or, for those of you not familiar with it, Jude chapter 1, verse 17. You know, it is funny because your computer programs always put that chapter 1 thing in there, and I always delete it because I think it's just annoying.
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Philemon chapter 1. Who has verse 17?
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Yes, ma 'am. Go ahead, Deb. So what's he saying?
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You know, if we were to put it all in context, ought to remember the words that were spoken beforehand.
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In other words, it's the key, because he's talking about these false teachers coming along, and he says, ignore what everybody else is saying.
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We have the words of the apostles. They are authoritative. They are supreme. They are the ones who you should listen to.
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They also have a unique place forever. Revelation 21 .14.
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I mean, some things in Revelation it's kind of hard to exactly figure out what they're going to look like.
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I mean, I think we have a hint here in 21 .14, but I don't think we'll fully comprehend it until we're there and we go, oh, okay.
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I really get it now. Let me back up just a little bit and read a little more of it.
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Go ahead and start in verse 9. The heading here in the MacArthur Study Bible says the
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New Jerusalem. Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and spoke with me, saying,
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Come here, and I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb. And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the holy city,
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Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. Having the glory of God, her brilliance was like a very costly stone, as a stone of crystal -clear jasper.
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It had a great and high wall with twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names were written on them, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel.
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There were three gates on the east and three gates on the north, and three gates on the south, and three gates on the west.
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And the wall of the city had twelve foundation stones, and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the
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Lamb. The apostles are going to be memorialized apparently forever.
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They're pretty important individuals. They're a spiritual gift to the Church. They are, they were given great authority by the
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Lord Himself. And if we looked at, if we went through the book of Acts, we would see that in the early
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Acts, those who were sick were healed. The apostolic period, apostolic period, during the early days of the
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Church, there were a lot of healings. But near the end of the apostolic period, when the apostles started dying out, there are unhealed people.
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Let's look at, we don't have to look there, 2 Timothy 4 .20. He leaves
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Trophimus sick at Miletus, one of my favorite passages, because it just sounds like Paul didn't care about Trophimus, I guess, you know.
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Maybe Trophimus didn't have faith. I mean, none of those things are in there. It just says, I left Trophimus sick at Miletus.
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Brutal. You're just brutal. You could have healed him and you didn't. I don't think so. I think the point of, as we've been talking about, the point of the sign gifts, the point of being able to heal someone was to establish their credentials to, in a very real sense, say to unbelievers and to believers.
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These are the men that God has appointed. Then later on, as we go through church history, as we go through the book of Acts, we see church stalwarts martyred, actually put to death.
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Stephen is murdered in Acts 7. In Acts 12, James the apostle is executed. So, we see the apostles, we see the gift they are to the church, we see the authority they're given, and we see over time some of the spectacular gifts that they were enabled to do, the signs and wonders, as it's phrased, beginning to fade from the scene.
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Let's talk about speaking in tongues. Speaking in tongues. Let's look at Acts 2.
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Again, it's a really long passage, so I'll go ahead and read that. Acts 2, verses 1 -14.
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When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place, all the church.
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All the church and some more, too. Big crowd, eventually.
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Because this is one of the major holidays where everybody would come in from all over Asia Minor, everywhere they would come into Jerusalem, all the
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Jews would. And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting.
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And there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves, and they rested on each one of them.
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And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with other tongues as the
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Spirit was giving them utterance. So here we have the 120 people gathered outside.
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There are all these other Jews in for the celebration.
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And the people of the church are given these tongues. Now, were they speaking random words of gibberish?
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Were they speaking in a private prayer language? Let's just keep reading. Verse 5.
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Now there were Jews living in Jerusalem, devout men from every nation under heaven. And when this sound occurred, meaning this rushing of the wind, the crowd came together and were bewildered.
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Each one of them, oh, because each one of them was hearing them speak, these
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Christians speak in his own language. They were amazed and astonished, saying,
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Why are not these who are speaking, or why are not all these who are speaking
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Galileans? And how is it that we each hear them in our own language to which we were born?
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Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Persia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the districts of Libya around Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both
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Jews and proselytes, meaning God -fearers, Cretans and Arabs. We hear them in our own tongues, speaking of the mighty deeds of God.
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So were they babbling, these Christians? No, it says right there they heard them in their own languages and what were they talking about?
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They were talking about, they were, they were all filled with the Spirit.
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Oh, right, I skipped, I'm on the wrong page there. Speaking of the mighty deeds of God.
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So it was obviously understandable to the people who were listening. They heard them in their own languages and they were stunned.
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Why? Because these were these dopey Galileans, these uneducated these country bumpkins who didn't know all these languages.
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How could they do this? It wasn't like they sent them to, you know, six months intensive training in languages okay,
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I want you guys to prepare it's a short -term language short -term mission of Mozambique and we're gonna have preparations and there was none of that.
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It was a movement of the Holy Spirit. Look at verse 12. And they all continued in amazement and great perplexity, saying to one another what does this mean?
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Many heard of the mighty deeds of God in their own language and they were stunned.
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But others were mocking and saying they are full of sweet wine. Listen, there are always going to be naysayers you have this great miracle going on and there are people who have hard hearts you might have met a few in your day they're going to try to find some kind of objective answer for the work of God and so they say well wait a minute these guys can't really be doing this it must just be the action of sweet wine they must be drunk verse 14 but Peter taking his stand with the eleven raised his voice and declared to them men of Judea and all you who live in Jerusalem let this be known to you and give heed to my words for these men are not drunk as you suppose for it is only the third hour of the day but this is what was spoken of through the prophet
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Joel and it goes on to tell how this is a fulfillment of Joel chapter 2 so speaking in tongues there is the let me phrase this correctly the only example we have a graphic example of somebody speaking in tongues there are other references to it but this is the only time we have it explain exactly how it the mechanics of it as it were how it works so the term there for speaking in tongues indicates that it is a known language it is a known language remember they were from all over Asia Minor down to Egypt out into Mesopotamia all these different regions and each one heard testimonies of the greatness of God in their own languages why because that's what the
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Holy Spirit brought to these 120 believers gave them this gift so that they could do this and it is a signed gift let's look at 1
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Corinthians 14 22 it is to confirm the message that they are hearing talk about a miracle
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I mean these people had no respect for Galileans whatsoever not for their intellect not for their knowledge like I said it was like they took a bunch of you know
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I don't know rubes from let's just pick a state Nebraska and they just a random choice and they taught them all these languages but that's not what happened it was people who could not have possibly known these things being worked being given a gift by the
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Holy Spirit 1 Corinthians 14 22 Steve so tongues are a sign for unbelievers so then what would be as I note here what would be private about it what would be private about it in fact a great book that we used during our gift our class it was a gift our class on charismatic theology by Dr.
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Edgar Thomas Edgar and he says you know basically in there he goes through the history of speaking in tongues the use of the word glossolalia he goes through it in all of the literature of the ancient world and he says well you know what there is a time where it or there were times where it referred to some kind of a private babbling language but it was only in pagan history it was only in pagan rituals never had anything to do with Christianity and there is absolutely no indication in scripture that it is to be practiced today where does it say that this is how we should speak in tongues and when we should do it
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I mean there are rules given to the Corinthian church but there is no indication anywhere that it should be normative for today and clearly if we look at the book of Acts, Acts chapter 2 and the way it was used there and just ask ourselves is that how churches employ it today and I think the answer is no that's not what they do any questions or comments about speaking in tongues brother
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Bruce one who speaks in a tongue edifies himself but one who prophesies edifies the church now
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I wish well again whatever that means and it's a tricky passage but whatever it means well let's just keep reading one who speaks in a tongue edifies himself now let's keep in mind what is the purpose of spiritual gifts but one who prophesies edifies the church now
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I wish that you all spoke in tongues but even more that you would prophesy and greater is one who prophesies than one who speaks in tongues unless he interprets so that the church may be edified it would be the interpretation that does that not the speaking in tongues verse 6 but now brethren if I come to you speaking in tongues what will
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I profit you unless I speak to you either by way of revelation or of knowledge or of prophecy or of teaching what's he saying
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I wouldn't profit you at all unless I gave you revelation or knowledge prophecy or of teaching yet even lifeless things either flute or harp in producing a sound if they do not produce a distinction in the tones how will it be known what is played on the flute or the harp and I think ultimately he concludes all this again in the
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I'm trying to in verse 22 when he says so then tongues are a sign not to those who believe but to unbelievers for prophecy is a sign not to unbelievers but to those who believe verse 23 therefore if the whole church assembles together and all speak in tongues and ungifted men or unbelievers enter will they not say that you are mad but if all prophesy and an unbeliever or an ungifted man enters he is convicted by all he is accounted to or he is called to account by all again
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I don't want to dissect all of the first part of 1st Corinthians 14 I will just simply say that the purpose of gifts is to edify to build up the church and he says one who speaks in a tongue edifies himself so he was discouraging speaking of tongues he did that over and over again he said you know what would it benefit you if I spoke in a tongue except unless I brought some kind of revelation or teaching to you so he does not encourage it and in fact
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I think the overall context of 1st Corinthians 12 to 14 is very clear that the purpose of signs sign gifts was and spiritual gifts generally is for the building up of the church not so that we could practice private prayer languages which has nothing to do with building up the church other questions seeing none permanent edifying gifts those are the sign gifts basically healing speaking in tongues forgetting to shut off your cell phone those are
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I hear that funny noise in the background I know what that is it's because you didn't shut off your cell phone permanent edifying gifts building up gifts given to the church to be practiced throughout the church age how do we know because we're given instruction on exactly how they're to function now we don't have to guess about whether we should have them now, they're not just described in the book of Acts but they're actually talked about in other places again
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I've already read Ephesians 4, 11 -13 they were given to minister and to perfect the spiritual work of the saints, the church exists in fact we could say what's the purpose statement of Bethlehem Bible Church I think there are plenty of places we could go but one of them would be that those verses
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I read in Ephesians chapter 4 that the purpose of the church the purpose of the elders the purpose of the pastors is to equip the saints for the work of ministry that's the purpose, that's why we're here in fact
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I think that's the purpose of all spiritual gifts is we come here together to mutually edify one another on and to worship the
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Lord number three, these gifts are not for self edification they're not just to build you up it's not a question of I feel better about myself
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I feel more godly, it is for the benefit of the church, there are two categories of gifts, let's look at 1
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Peter 4 verses 10 and 11, and who has that go ahead
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Maureen so Peter gives two categories of gifts, what are they?
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if you look deeply in your notes like right down below it says speaking and serving listen to this
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BKC is the Bible knowledge commentary it says Peter divided Christian service into two general categories, the one who speaks the
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Greek word is lale and the one who serves diakone which of course is from where we get diakone, servants this division relates to the distinction
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God's leaders made between ministry roles Acts 6 2 -4 where it basically talks about the prototype of diakones and taking the load off those who were teaching these two general ministry functions often overlap both groups function through dependence on God's gracious provision the reason for relying on God's words and strength is that God will receive the praise through Jesus Christ, the praise and credit for Christian ministry should always be given to Christ if I could summarize that, it is fine to say you know what, thank you for the sermon you gave today
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Pastor Mike thank you for the class Pastor Dave thank you for the conference
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Bob Andrzejczyk but ultimately what is who does the credit go to?
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the credit goes to Christ who has equipped the different people within the church to function as they do,
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I think it's great to thank people because certainly they do the work but it's Christ who has given them the gift to do these things let's talk a little bit about the different gifts and you know what is interesting when you think about it,
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Peter said here are the two kinds of gifts speaking gifts and serving gifts, he didn't say healing gifts he didn't say, he could have said a lot of different things but he didn't say them and again
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I would argue that it is because those miraculous gifts have passed from the scene by the time he writes this letter speaking gifts which would include prophecy, word of knowledge word of wisdom, teaching and exhortation
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Leland Ryken says at its core however, prophecy in the
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Old Testament and New Testament is essentially the same it is proclamation of the divine word first in oral form and sometimes recorded in writing prophets are channels for God's revelation of his perspective on right and wrong his displeasure with sin his pleas for people to repent his judgment of sinners and his promise for future salvation
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MacArthur writes this, the word of wisdom anyway let me just say something about prophecy quickly there are those today who say because we must have apostles because the
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Bible talks about apostles we must have prophets and for those who were in the class they already know this but what's the difference between what people say qualifies as a prophet today and say an
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Old Testament prophet anybody know? anybody who wasn't in the class and then I'll ask the class who
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I'm sure remembers everything that was ever said in that class no pressure
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Scott yeah that's the
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Old Testament standard right but yeah but today there are a group of people who say that we don't have prophets quite the way they had them in the
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Old Testament we still have prophets they're sometimes fallible prophets, they can make mistakes and we don't have to stone them we just tell them hey, better luck next time
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I don't know what to say about that except for there's nothing in the
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Bible that would indicate you know there's some smart men who believe that but there's nothing in the Bible that would indicate yeah we still have prophets but sometimes they get things wrong what good is a prophet who says thus saith the
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Lord and then it turns out you know a couple weeks later you find out oh well he was wrong let's move on you know
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I guess that wasn't God maybe next time it will be not good
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MacArthur writes the word of wisdom word of knowledge is a broad term the use of logos or word indicates this is a speaking ability in the apostolic age it may have been revelation at times in the
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New Testament wisdom Sophia is used most often to refer to the ability to understand
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God's will and apply it obediently wisdom then refers basically to applying truths discovered to the ability to make skillful and practical application of the truth to life situations just stopping right there if someone has the ability to apply what the
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Bible says we would call that wisdom and as he's describing it here when
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I read it I'm like able to make skillful and practical application of the truth to life situations it sounds like someone who ought to be involved in discipleship or biblical counseling coming alongside people who are struggling with various issues and walking them through what the
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Bible says about those things communicating wisdom is the function of the expositor the preacher the one who digs the truths out of the
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Bible who draws not only from his own study of scripture but from the many insights and interpretations of commentators and other
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Bible scholars it is also the ability of a counselor or the ability of a counselor must have in order to apply
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God's truth to the questions and problems brought to him it is a feature in the gift of the pastor who must know understand and be able to apply
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God's word in order to lead his people as he should this is critical to be able to do that serving gifts those are just a couple of the speaking gifts serving gifts leadership service giving mercy faith discernment helps
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I'm going to give you a brief snapshot how do you know if you have these things how do you know if you have these kind of gifts would you say that again that's very wise of you get involved in ministry serve you know you want to know what you're good at or maybe you think you know
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I don't know what my spiritual gift is well the short answer is serve you'll find out you absolutely will find out
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Roman numeral number 7 there how do we deal spiritually with sickness today we call pastor
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Mike and we hold a healing service let's look at third john verse 2 first john or third john chapter 1 verse 2 beloved
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I pray that in all respects you may prosper and be in good health just as your soul prospers now that is really intriguing to me he prays for their good health why why don't you just say you know what hey tell you what you guys ever get sick drop me a note
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I'll come down there and heal you or you know what I'll send somebody else or you know my brother -in -law whatever his name is come over and heal you why not or go to the special healing service on Friday night
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I would argue again that it's because those gifts had waned they had faded because they were no longer needed to establish the truth and what we do for people who are sick is we pray for them
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I'll never forget though you know along those same lines I had a seminary prof whose wife had cancer and this was years later she survived the cancer but he said you know during that period of time
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I had so many people come up and say oh we're praying the lord would heal her and we're praying for you know the doctors to be able to heal this and heal that and he said listen he says please don't pray for that he says please don't pray for that he says you love my wife and I know that and he goes
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I think I love her more and he says what I know for a fact is god loves her infinitely more than I do and I want to pray for her best for what god precisely what god wants for her in her life and he says it may be a healing but I don't know that he goes don't pray for her healing pray that god would be glorified and that she would be strengthened in whatever the situation is and I just remember sitting there
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I mean he preached quite a little mini sermon on it and I was just like I don't know if I could pray that you know if it was my wife but I get what he's saying he's saying listen
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I mean I was just I've been reading about marriage it's funny what you do when you know there are weddings in your future and just the concept you know when we die we love our husbands or our wives
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I have a wife we love our mates it's
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Massachusetts you have to be clear we love our mates immeasurably it seems to us like nobody could possibly love them more than we do and yet when we get to heaven what happens that's our dear brother or sister in Christ it's not our wife our mate our spouse anymore but god says this is my son or my daughter he loves them as much in the future as he does right now that relationship never changes his love is perfect our love however strong it may be is never perfect ever
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I think it's fine to pray for people's health I think it's fine even if you want to pray for their healing but understand one thing the god who has brought this situation into their life loves them infinitely more than you do it's always a good thing to keep in mind alright what's the other thing we do
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James 5 another tricky passage of scripture that I really don't want to explain if you want to read further on James 5
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I would highly recommend Dr. Mayhew's book I think it's something to do with healing it's a great book he did a great much better job on this than I mean he actually makes sense out of this passage which a lot of people struggle
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I mean he has a really simple explanation but let's just read this and talk about it a little bit
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James 5 verses 13 to 16 who wants to read that Fred so I'm going to keep this a little bit brief and then we can talk more about it next week if we so desire anybody have any thoughts on this passage first of all
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I think it's interesting first of all to notice that the first word there I haven't looked this up in the Greek I apologize for that but if you look at verse 13 is anyone among you suffering it's not exactly the same as sick right
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I mean I guess it could be sick but is anyone among you suffering then he must pray in other words your first response if you're sitting there and you're not feeling well whatever the situation is then you should be praying is anyone cheerful he has to sing praises then he goes to verse 14 is anyone among you sick then he must call for the elders of the church and they are to pray over him and he will instantly be healed
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I don't see that they are to anoint him with oil I mean we get the idea that this is an ongoing situation that it is chronic and the prayer offered in faith there becomes a sticky point because whose faith is it is it the person who is sick is it the elders will restore the one who is sick
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I've heard all kinds of explanations for this it has to do with spiritual infirmity it has to do with a lot of things which
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I think it well could be the spiritual infirmity and if he has committed sins they will be forgiven him therefore confess your sins to one another the effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much or the
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King James says availeth much it's funny how the King James just sticks in your head verse 17 though is interesting and I think this is what
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Mayhew uses Mayhew uses to explain it Elijah was a man with a nature
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I mean this Elijah thing just comes out of nowhere well it's an explanation of what he's just written Elijah was a man with a nature like ours and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain and it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months now did
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Elijah cause that obviously the Lord did but Elijah prayed for it and it happened this is divine sovereignty and human responsibility
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Elijah prayed and it did not rain for three years and six months three and a half years then he prayed again and the sky poured rain and the earth produced its fruit what we have here is a situation where someone is suffering someone is sick and it may be a spiritual issue look at verse 16 therefore confess your sins to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed it may be an illness a matter of suffering brought on by unrepentant sin may be an issue where the person knows that they're doing something wrong they can't conquer it on their own so they bring in the elders of the church to help him it's a difficult situation maybe
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I'll just come a little more prepared with the Mayhew thing and we'll walk through that very tricky but the key issue the main thing
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I want us to understand is and I'm sure that you do get this healing is not something that we can demand of God as we often see on TBN or that we can throw around as we would see on TBN and it's not something that necessarily is even the will of God just think about this theology for a minute that says listen if you have enough faith you can be healed of anything then why the question would come back to me why would anybody die why would those people die every single person on TBN who says you don't need to be sick will one day die and almost all of them will die of what some kind of sickness it's lunacy it is absolute lunacy we live in a cursed earth a fallen earth, an earth filled with disease because of sin we're all going to die and ultimately the only question is not how we die meaning of what disease or what heart attack or whatever whatever weakness or infirmity comes upon us, that's not the issue it's not the method it's the way that we bring glory to Christ in our conduct leading up to it well we'll pick it up here in James 5 next week and Dottie raised a great point she had a daughter who was ill with tumors and they prayed for her healing and she was healed she went to glory we read
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Isaiah 53 it's interesting and we will talk more about this next week it's interesting how you can read the same passages of scripture and come to different conclusions depending on whether you believe in the sovereignty of God or not
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Isaiah 53 says by his stripes by the suffering of Christ we were healed so the question is does that mean that we are not to suffer in the current world or does it promise us in eternal life in heaven that we have
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God's promise that there will be no suffering that he'll wipe away every tears that our bodies will not suffer tumors aches, pains ingrown fingernails anything there's no suffering, no disease, no infection that's eternal life and that is the ultimate deliverance and that is the ultimate healing thank you
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Dottie let's pray Father thank you for this morning we thank you for your grace we thank you for the love that you have poured out on the church in the realm of spiritual gifts we thank you that you have equipped your church to serve one another to edify the body to glorify you
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Lord make us a people who will actually do this who will look for ways to serve who will look for ways to be involved in one another's lives who will bring glory to you and how we look at every aspect of life even illness