This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

We're looking at 1 Corinthians chapter 14 this week. This is day four. We're
going to look at verses 26 to 23 today.

We're walking in this chapter through some principles for healthy worship,
corporate worship that Paul gives us. He's talked to us about the edification
principle, that we're building each other up in worship, the maturity principle.
I've got to be concerned about the maturity of those speaking and also the
maturity of those who are being spoken to in worship.

And now he talks beginning in verse 26 about a third principle, and that is the
unity principle. We are unified together in worship. Listen to what he has to
say beginning in verse 26 and then reading through the first half of verse 33.

What then shall we say, brothers? When you come together, everyone has a hymn or
a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. All of
these must be done for the strengthening of the church.

If anyone speaks in a tongue, two or at the most three should speak, one at a
time, and someone must interpret. If there's no interpreter, the speaker should
keep quiet in the church and speak to himself and God. Two or three prophets
should speak, and the others should weigh carefully what is said.

And if a revelation comes to someone who is sitting down, the first speaker
should stop, for you can all prophesy in turn so that everyone may be instructed
and encouraged. The spirits of prophets are subject to the control of prophets,
for God is not a God of disorder, but of peace. In these verses, there are
powerful principles for worship, and much of the truth behind this unity
principle is in those last couple of verses, 32 and 33.

The spirits of the prophets are subject to the control of the prophets. We are
subject to one another in worship, and then God is not a God of disorder, but a
God of peace. So if God is a God of peace, that means that in the unity
principle, peace must reign in the worship service.

It can't be a place of chaos, there must be a sense of peace. There has to be
peace in the worship service, there has to be peace between Christians in the
worship service. And Paul walks through that.

He talks about peace in the worship service. Now he knows that freedom in
worship is important. He has a whole book, Galatians, is all about our freedom
to worship God, and that we should not let anyone take our freedom from us to
worship.

But he's pointing out here that sacrificing order in the worship service,
creating chaos and confusion is not the way to achieve freedom. In fact, he goes
through very specifically, and he says, here's some guidelines for worship, for
freedom in worship. He says, if somebody's speaking in tongues, two, maybe three
people can do that in a worship service.

It has to be in turn, not all at once, and somebody has to interpret. Paul says
that so that he can create peace. Now he doesn't command that tongues be spoken
in a worship service.

He says, if it happens. He said earlier, I'd rather speak in prophecy, but if
you're going to do it, he says, here's how to do it. Prophecy, he says, same
thing, two or at the most three.

In most churches today, it's one person who brings a word of prophecy. Sometimes
it's two or three. Sometimes people, one will do a scripture reading and talk
about it, someone else will preach.

Sometimes a testimony can also be a prophecy from God, speaking about how God's
word has changed a person's life. So it doesn't have to be the sermon that is
the prophetic word from God in a service. Paul says two or at the most three,
and he says, then you weigh what's said, and each person should do it in turn.

It's not all at once. Now in their day, they were coming from a Jewish
background where one person would speak and then another person would speak and
another person would speak in church. This is the way that it was done.

If you've ever been in a service where you have maybe two or three people
speaking, the idea here is that one person shouldn't speak too long if you're
going to have two or three. If one person speaks too long, if two or three are
going to speak, that means the others don't have time. So if you're going too
long and another person stands up and says, I have something to say, you sit
down and let them speak.

The point is, how do we look at God's word in a way that changes our lives? And
the point is, confusion doesn't help that to happen. There has to be some order
to the worship service.

There is freedom to worship, but there's an order to the worship. There's peace
in the worship service, but there's also peace between Christians in that
worship service, in our relationships. Nowhere in the Bible are we commanded to
speak in tongues, all of us.

And certainly nowhere are we commanded to speak in tongues, any of us, in a
worship service. But we are commanded toward unity. We are commanded to love one
another.

And because of their misuse of the gifts, they were becoming disunified and they
were expressing not love for each other, but selfishness towards each other. And
obviously it was leading people who came to the worship service away from Jesus
rather than towards Jesus. Same thing is true of preaching.

Nowhere are you commanded to preach a sermon in a particular worship service,
where the Bible says, hey, on June 14th of this date, you are commanded to
preach this worship service. But you are commanded to unity in the scripture.
You are commanded to love, you're commanded to respect the pastor of that
church.

What Paul is saying here is that tongues, the selfish use of tongues just for
myself or my selfish desire to speak cannot be allowed to become a wedge between
me and another believer. It's peace between Christians. And if it's becoming a
wedge, there's something dramatically wrong.

So let's go back to those last couple of things that he said about how peace
between Christians really works. Verse 32 and verse 33, the first part. Verse
32, spirits of prophets are subject to the control of the prophets.

If I have a spiritual gift, that means if I'm truly using it in relationship, in
unity in the body, I'm going to be subject to, I'm going to listen to, I'm going
to learn from other people who have that same gift. The scariest person in a
church is somebody who feels like they have a gift and no one can tell them a
thing about it because they're the only one who knows it. They're the only one
who understands it.

When you meet somebody like that, this verse tells you they're wrong. They're
just wrong. The idea that I have a giftedness that no one else has and so
somehow that means I have a control over the church that no one else gets.

I can demand things that no one else can demand. That's the gift insistence that
we were talking about. One of those immature looks at gifts, if I truly have a
gift of preaching, then if someone else who is a preacher comes up to me and
says, you know, when you preach, I just heard something that I didn't, it didn't
quite fit with God's word.

Instead of saying to them, who are you to speak to me? The first thing I'm going
to say is that's the last thing I want to have happen. What did you hear?

I want me to understand that so I can clarify that, so I can say it better the
next time. So I make sure that God's word is what I'm preaching and not my idea
is what I'm preaching. Now, this is true with prophecy.

It's also true with all the other gifts. The spirits of those who have the gift
of helps are subject to those who have the gift of helps. The spirit of those
who have the gift of administration are subject to those who have the gift of
administration.

There is a sense in unity in the body of Christ where if I have a gift, I'm
going to learn from other people who have that gift. And if I'm not willing to
do that, it shows that something's wrong with me. This is what was happening in
Corinth, this is what Paul is warning about.

And then in verse 33, as he talks about how to have peace between Christians,
we're not only subject to one another, we have a humble attitude towards each
other, but we're also subject to God. God is not a God of disorder, but of
peace. He's reminding us here that the worship service should help us to
understand who God is.

It's a picture, a worship service in one sense is a picture of the character of
God. And so when I think about, when we think about how to do worship services
at our church or when you think about it, one of the things that you think
about, you have to think about is how does this worship service picture the
character of God? You could do crazy things in a worship service, you could make
it all about gimmicks and maybe get more and more people to come.

You could have circus acts going on, you could have animals tromping through,
you could have all these crazy things happening, and maybe it might get a lot of
people to come. But the question is, is it so crazy, is it so goofy, that
somehow it maligns the character of God? Now, I understand.

In different cultures, different ages, different times, we're going to have
different feelings about what we should do and what we shouldn't do in worship,
what songs are right, what songs are wrong. There are some people who would say
we can only sing a hymn in worship because that's the only kind of song that
shows the character of God. Well, that's probably true for them because they
grew up with that kind of a song, and that kind of a song helps them to connect
with God.

But the truth of the matter is there are other kinds of songs. The Bible talks
about psalms and hymns and spiritual songs that we sing in church. So it's not
the idea, I use this, the fact that God is not a God of disorder but of peace to
control other people to worship like I want, but it causes us as a body instead
to think through what are we doing in worship and how does that worship service
reflect the character of God.

If a worship service reflects the character of God, there's going to be an
attitude of reverence about it. There's going to be something in it that makes
me reflect on the greatness of God. If a worship service reflects the character
of God, there's also going to be an attitude of freedom about it, that I am free
to worship Him in a great sense of joy.

The Bible says I was glad when they said to me, "Let us go into the house of the
Lord. " So if a worship service reflects the character of God, there's going to
be an attitude of joy in it. Now we could go down this again and again and
again, but you see how it combines together to become a worship service that
reflects who God is.

And again, Paul is saying worship is not just about you, just what you want,
what you need. It is about others and what they need, but here in verse 33 he
reminds us most of all it's about God and us coming together to reflect who God
is to one another and with one another in a worship service. That's what happens
when we worship together.

So let's worship together right now. Lord, even though we're not all sitting
together right now, as we hear this prayer, we're worshiping you together. And
as we worship, we do want to reflect in our hearts and towards others who you
are, your goodness, your grace, your faithfulness, your power, your love.

There are so many character qualities, Lord, so many characteristics of who you
are that we see lived out in the way you have treated us and the way you will
work in our lives. So Lord, in my private worship, in my public worship, let it
be about you. Let it reflect back into my heart who you are, and then out of my
life who you are.

Let worship change me to become more like you. I pray this in Jesus' name, amen.
Join us tomorrow.

Just when you think we have all the questions answered in this chapter, Paul's
going to throw us a real zinger at the end of the chapter.