This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

This is Pastor Tom Holliday and I want to welcome you to 1 Corinthians chapter
14. This is day one of our look at this chapter. We're going to look at verses 1
to 5 today.

As we look at this chapter, it really comes in beginning back in chapter 11,
we've been talking about the same thing in many ways, and that is that the
Corinthians were having problems with their worship services. Back in chapter
11, we saw that they were eating before one another and taking of the Lord's
Supper. They were promoting themselves instead of the Lord.

Here in chapter 14, we're going to particularly see that they were speaking all
at once instead of listening to what God had to say to them. 1 Corinthians 14 is
a chapter that's all about being more concerned about what you have to say in
worship than what God has to say to you in worship. Now the issues they were
facing, Paul's going to go through these in this chapter, were they were trying
to speak all at once with tongues, with preaching, with questions to one
another, but what was really behind this issue was worship and how they
worshiped together.

Now since tongues and this gift of speaking in tongues was one of the problems
they were facing in Corinth, Paul has a lot to say about that gift in this
chapter. What is the gift of tongues? Why is it used in some churches and not in
others?

Why don't we speak in tongues in our worship services? He goes through some of
those questions, but really the chapter is not about tongues. It's about
worship.

As we walk through this chapter, we're going to see in 1 Corinthians 14 three
major principles that form the framework for how we worship. So that means it
forms a framework for how we speak in tongues in worship, for how we would
prophesy in worship, how we would speak to one another in worship. They tell us
about how to have a worship service that glorifies God.

Three principles we're going to look at throughout this week. The edification
principle is the first of those three principles. How do you have the best kind
of worship service you can possibly have?

Principle number one is the edification principle. You see it in verses 1 to 19.
We're going to look at this for a few days.

To edify in the Bible means to build up. In these first verses, Paul begins to
ask some questions. He actually asked four major questions concerning the
ability of tongues that they were using in the worship service and sometimes
prophecy and the way they were using prophecy.

Does it have, he says, the ability to edify? Do they have the ability to build
up? That's the question.

And a lot of those questions involve a comparison that he's going to make
between tongues and prophecy. First of the four questions he asks, you need to
ask in worship, is who are you speaking to? In the things that you say in
worship, who are you speaking to?

Listen to these verses, verses 1 to 3. Follow the way of love and eagerly desire
spiritual gifts, especially the gift of prophecy. For anyone who speaks in a
tongue does not speak to men, but to God.

Indeed, no one understands him. He utters mysteries with his spirit. But
everyone who prophesies speaks to men for their strengthening, encouragement,
and comfort.

So, he talks about tongues and prophecy here. You have to understand what they
are in order to understand what he's talking about. The use of the gift of
tongues that Paul is speaking of here involves speaking in a language unknown to
those who were listening, an unknown language to anybody that was hearing it.

Now if you look through the scripture, there are at least three specific ways
that the gift of tongues or speaking in tongues is talked about in the New
Testament. First you have Acts chapter 2, where you have the apostles speaking
in a language that they may not have known, but those listening knew. They may
not have known the language of those who had come from some other region of the
world, but they were able to speak in, let's say, for our picture, let's say
Spanish or French even though they didn't know those languages or Chinese.

They spoke in a language that those who heard could hear it in their own
language. That's one presentation of speaking in tongues. A second is here,
speaking with a language that you and others do not know.

Someone has to interpret it and say, "This is what's being said," in order for
somebody to know. And then a third use of this idea of speaking in tongues is
later in this chapter, and that's praying in a spiritual language, just you and
the Lord together, and you're talking to him with your spirit in a language that
you don't know. We're going to see more about this as we walk through this.

Here we're talking about speaking with a language that you and others don't
know. That's this gift of tongues that Paul is talking about. And then he talks
about prophesying.

That's from a root word in Greek that means "to cause to shine," refers to the
idea of taking the word of God and making it shine. Now we get messed up on this
word, prophecy, because we think it just means telling the future. Even in the
Old Testament, the prophets didn't mostly tell the future.

They just told the truth, the truth about God and who he is. And in the New
Testament, the gift of prophecy is not at all about telling the future. It's
primarily about focusing on telling the word of God, telling the truth about who
God is so that that truth shines in people's lives.

We call it preaching today. That's what the gift of prophesying is in the New
Testament. And so Paul says, "Seek to prophesy, seek to preach.

" Because in the worship service when you preach, you're speaking to those who
are present to hear the word of God. And he just walks through this. He says,
"Somebody who speaks in a tongue, they speak to God.

" And in essence, he's saying, "That's great. It's a good thing to speak to God.
" But in a worship service, Paul had some concerns.

Others couldn't participate, he's saying, in what you're doing as you worship.
No one else understands what you're saying. So worship is becoming, when you're
all together, more individual and less corporate, more about me and less about
us.

And as we walk through this chapter, we're going to see that one of the things
Paul is pleading for is that when we come together to worship, it's about us
worshiping God. Yes, God is working in me as an individual, but it's not just
about me. So he says, "Why would you do something that's just for you in the
worship service?

In fact, in your spirit, you're speaking mysteries to other people. " And he
goes on and he says, "Somebody who prophesies, they're speaking to people and
they can hear. " And he goes through a list of what they hear.

He talks about edification and exhortation and consolation. Edification, that's
the building of Christian character. Exhortation, that's the encouragement of
Christian action.

Consolation, that's the comforting of Christian hearts. That's what happens when
you preach. Your character is built, actions are encouraged that glorify God,
and your heart is comforted in Him.

That's what God wants to happen in a worship service as we're together. And so
Paul says, "This is what I do in worship because it's about us together. " He
asks, "Who are you talking to?

Make sure that you're talking to somebody to make sure you're building them up.
" That gets to a second question that he asks in verse 4 and 5, and that is,
"Who is being built up? " Verse 4 and 5.

"He who speaks in a tongue edifies himself, but he who prophesies edifies the
church. " I would like every one of you to speak in tongues, but I would rather
have you prophesy. He who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in
tongues unless he interprets so that the church may be edified.

Paul walks through this and he says, "Who is being built up? " He says, "The one
who speaks in a tongue is building himself up. " Now, I'm not saying that in a
prideful way.

I'm saying that in a spiritual way. He is helping himself to grow by connecting
with God and the use of that gift. Is there anything wrong with building
yourself up in that sense, with edifying yourself, with building your faith?

No, absolutely not. But Paul is saying here that public worship is not the place
to edify yourself alone. Sunday worship, for instance, is not the time for you
to sit down and do your personal Bible study.

Take out all your books, take two or three chairs around you, totally ignore
everything else that's going on. It's just me and God. I'm doing a study on a
chapter that the pastor's not talking about, and I don't have time to sing
because I'm here.

It's just me and God. No, you're with other people. Because you're with other
people, you participate together in worship.

One who speaks in a tongue edifies himself, Paul says, but the one who
prophesies edifies the church. Paul continues to emphasize this need in public
worship to be interested in building up other people. And what he's saying here
is we have to be careful about any attitude or form of worship that's only about
me getting a blessing from God.

When I begin to grow as a believer, part of maturing as a believer is realizing
I must also be concerned about God giving a blessing to the others that are
there. Worship that's just about me is not New Testament worship. Worship is
about us when we come together, connecting with God.

That's what worship's going to be about in all eternity. We together are going
to glorify God around his throne, singing together, glorifying him together. And
worship on earth is to be a picture of that that's going to be in all eternity.

So when you worship, the question is, is it just about you or is it about us?
Let's take a moment to pray together. And Lord, as we pray, we realize how easy
it is for even our worship experiences with other people to be just about us.

We think about what we're going through. We think about what we're singing.
We're thinking about what we're hearing.

Lord, remind us. Help us to grow in our worship. Remind us that it's not just
about me alone.

It's about those who are around me. So remind me to sing with people. Remind me
to pray for others.

Remind me to hear not just for myself, but also to realize your blessing the
lives of other people that are around me. Lord, thank you that we get the
privilege of coming together to worship. And I pray that through this chapter,
you would deepen, my, you would deepen our ability to worship you together.

We ask this in Jesus' name, amen. Tomorrow we're going to continue to look
together at the power of this edification principle, the power of us building up
one another in experiences of worship.