Build Up the Church - 1 Corinthians 14:1-25

Well, church, You need to build your platform. You gotta get your click count up on your social media accounts. That's the goal. That's the purpose. At least that's what our culture is going to tell us, that you need to build your platform. You need to get more and more eyes on you in the age of social media. That's how people become famous, not by actually just selling a product but by selling themselves. And they do that on things like TikTok and X and YouTube and Facebook. They build a platform around themselves. There's people watching them, liking them, looking at them, paying attention to them, and then they monetize that, and then they make themselves famous. and important. And they get a lot of eyes on them. And this is a phenomenon of our modern culture, or at least we want to tell ourselves that. But 2000 years ago, it was happening also, right in the church at Corinth. But there were some Corinthian believers who weren't using X or TikTok to get eyeballs on themselves. They weren't manipulating those sites, they were using the Holy Spirit's gifts that he had given them to get eyeballs on themselves, to build up their own platform, instead of building up others and caring for others. And pursuing the love of others, they were wanting eyeballs on themselves. And before we get too holy and think, we would never do that. Ask yourself a simple question, and your service to God if any sort of applause stopped. Would your service stop? If people weren't recognizing you. Would your service stop? Or are you simply doing the things you do? Because, you know, at some point someone's going to say, thank you. And someone's going to pat you on the back. And you realize, I'm doing this actually for that attention, for that compliment so that I can fit in as opposed for caring for others and pursuing love for others. Our message today in 1st Corinthians 14. If you have your Bibles, you can turn there, is really about pursuing love and how we do that through our speech and through what we say. The main idea I want you to take away from. The message today is this. We should use our spiritual gifts to build up the church, not our own platform. Should use our spiritual gifts that God has given us to build up the church, not our own platform. We'll do that by looking at kind of 3 things. We're going to see that love builds up the church. Love also speaks so others can understand, and love seeks the salvation of others. Now a little background of what's going on in 1st Corinthians 14. Paul has started way back in 1st Corinthians chapter 12 to talk about spiritual gifts. These were ability skills that the Spirit gave to the members of the church, to enable them to accomplish the work that God has for his church. And they were to use it to create unity and care for others, but in Corinth, like in a lot of churches, they were being used to create division. Now, before we kind of just think the Corinthians are the worst people ever. Paul calls them saints in chapter one. He deeply loves the Corinthians. They are an extremely young church. They all had come out of pagan backgrounds mostly. And they're trying to figure out what it means to serve Christ, what it means to follow him. And they're doing a lot of things wrong. If you've been with us through the 1st Corinthians series, you realize they are doing a lot of things wrong in that church. Paul isn't saying, you're doing all these horrible things. God hates you, he's done with you. He keeps correcting them and helping them to grow up and learn about him. One of the things that they had been given in the way of spiritual gifts was a gift called tongues. We'll talk about that in a second. This is a very outward focused gift in the sense that people can see it. They know that you're doing it. A gift like administration. That's listed as one of the spiritual gifts, someone who can really administrate things. Well, almost no one, unless you're really close to what's happening, knows that someone's a great administrator, because you have to like get right close to him and then watch it happen. But if someone can speak in this tongue, you can instantly see that. And the Corinthians were abusing this gift. to put eyeballs on themselves, weather intentionally, like they knew what they were doing, and they're thinking, I know what I'm doing. I'm just trying to make a big deal of myself, or kind of in an immature way going, I'm not aware I'm doing this, but they're doing the same thing. And they were putting eyes on themselves. And so Paul writes in one Corinthians chapter 12, he says, many of you used to pursue mute idols, or idols without a voice, who couldn't say anything. And now you've come to the living God who speaks and is speaking through them. And he says, I've given you gifts, and you're using it to create divisions among yourself. Some of you are claiming you're better than others in the church. That's chapter 12. Then chapter 13, which was last week's sermon, is all about love and how we should love each other. And what love is, and then he comes in 14 to talk about how that gets played out in a very specific situation that was happening in Corinth around the spiritual gift of speaking in tongues. Look what he says in verses one to five. Well, he wants to say love builds up the church. It says this, pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy. 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. Now, I want you all to speak in tongues, but even more to prophesy. The one who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues, unless someone interprets, so that the church may be built up. So look very closely at how he starts this section. He says, pursue love. And if you're here last week, you heard the 1st Corinthians 13 love chapter, and if you weren't here, you probably have heard this. This is one of the more famous chapters in the Bible, but it tells us what love is, how love behaves, how love reacts. He says, love is patient and kind. It's not jealous, it does not brag or boast, it's not arrogant or rude. It's not self seeking, it's not irritable, or resentful, does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but in truth, it bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. If you are listening to that and paying attention, You would go, mm. Sometimes. Sometimes I do that. Now, love does that and sometimes I do that. But sometimes I'm irritable. And sometimes I'm arrogant, and sometimes I'm resentful, and we try to get better at it, and sometimes we mispronounce love, so to speak. We garble the grammar. Paul says, pursue love. Love is not something that just happens. Like, oh, it's just just a natural thing. It just happens. You don't think about it. Like your heart's beating right now and you're not really doing anything to control that. It just happens. Your heartbeats. But love isn't like that. Love is something that we work at and pursue. By show of hands, how many of you have tried to learn a different language before? Raise your hands. Yeah. We had 1st service had a lot of people. How many of you, when you start, say, I just have a desire to learn a language, and you spoke that language fluently right away, with no effort. Nothing. No, all of you pursued that language, right? And you studied and you worked, and you fumbled through the language, and you mispronounced words, and you had people who came around and said, that's not how you say that. That's not how that, you say it this way. And you got better and better. And if you spent time really pursuing it, you become more and more fluent, it feels more natural. Paul says pursue love. And earnestly zealously desire the spiritual gifts. He's calling them out for how they've misused a gift. And he wants to make sure he's telling them. The spiritual gifts aren't bad. The misuse of them are bad, but the spiritual gifts are good because God gives them to build up the church, to strengthen the church. And so he says, pursue love. That's the overarching theme he has in this chapter. And he says, and then earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy. It says, if for one who speaks in a tongue speaks not to men, but to God. For no one understands them, but he utters mysteries in the spit. On the other hand, the one who prophesies, speaks to people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation. So what are these 2 things that he's going to talk about? So prophecy was a message from God that was meant for the people. Sometimes it could be as simple as telling someone like in the book of Acts, hey, go do this thing. Tell Paul and Barnabas to go on a mission trip for me. Could be whether they're consoling someone or encouraging someone. But the person would understand what you're saying. That's prophecy. Tongues, we 1st encounter this in Acts chapter 2. If you go back and we had a whole sermon on this when we did our acts series. In Acts chapter 2, the 120 believers are gathered in this upper room, waiting for the Holy Spirit to show up. Jesus had said, wait here. And I'm going to sense the spirit, God himself, God the spirit, to you. When the Spirit comes upon them, it says that they began to speak in other languages, and those languages would have been languages that people knew, they went out from that upper room, out into the crowd that was there for Pentecost, and people who spoke Parthian and other languages said, I'm hearing this person speak my language. And yet they don't look like the kind of person that would speak my language. And there was all these different languages, hearing these people speak in their language. So one of the believers would be speaking Parthian, and some people who heard Parthian would kind of gather around. If you've ever been in a crowd with a lot of languages being spoken, and you hear your language, you're like, I know that language, I think I'll go over there and listen to what they're saying, because I recognize it. That's what was happening in the book of Acts. When we come to 1st Corinthians 14. I think that's likely what's happening in Corinth. There is an argument that it could be angelic languages. So if you look at the beginning of chapter 13, Paul says, if I speak in the tongues, same word, of men and of angels, but I have not love, I'm nothing. I'm just making noise. If I don't have love for these people. And so some have argued, maybe what was happening in Corinth was they were speaking this angelic, heavenly language. Either way for what Paul's arguing here, it doesn't matter which one it is. What's happening is they were speaking in a language, and it's a known language. It's an actual language, that no one else in the room understood. And God had given them that ability. And they were using it, but they weren't interpreting it, and it was putting eyeballs on them, and they were trying to say, I am kind of better than you. I'm more spiritual than you, because I have this spectacular gift. And I put them in quotation marks because all the gifts of the Spirit are spectacular. They're all given by the Spirit. But we recognize, and Paul does too, that there are some gifts that people would kind of look at and go, that's different. I don't see that every day. If you could heal someone who was blind, you don't see that every day. That's why when Jesus did it, people paid attention. Paul did healings that people didn't see every day. Speaking in a language you didn't know, like in Acts 2, go, I haven't seen that before. That's unique. Maybe God's working here in a unique way. And in Corinth, some people were doing that, but they weren't interpreting. And that's why Paul says, look, if you speak in the tongue, no one understands you. But if you prophesy, you're building them up. They are being encouraged. The one who speaks in a tongue, verse 4 builds up himself. And I don't think Paul means that in a good way. Like, oh, you're really strengthening yourself. It's like you're making a big deal of yourself, unless you interpret. This whole thing is about someone speaking in a language that no one else understands to build themselves up, to put eyeballs on them. But if someone's interpreting, then he says it's fine because you're actually giving content that they could recognize. He says love builds up the church. Uninterpreted tongues, he says, don't help anyone, that no one understands what you're saying, so stop doing that. It says interpreted tongues work fine. That's why at the end, he says, the one whose prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues. He's not talking about like that person is greater. He's just saying, if you give content that people understand, that's helpful, that's better than speaking in a language that no one understands, but everyone's impressed by and thinks something spiritual is happening. He says, unless there is an interpreter. If there's an interpreter, then that's fine. They're equal. They're equally benefiting. That's why Paul moves, and the next kind of 6 to 19, he says, love speaks so others can understand. He begins to unpack what the problem is. Look what he says. Now, brothers, if I come to you speaking in tongues, in this word tongue, in the original language is glossa, and it just means tongue, like in English. It's the thing you speak with, the thing you taste food with, the thing you stick out at people if you're mad at them, that's what the word means. But it also means like our English word tongue, a language, and it can mean both. It says, if I come to you speaking in tongues, languages that you don't know, How will I benefit you unless I bring you some revelation or knowledge or prophecy or teaching. So if you don't understand what I'm saying, how am I going to benefit you at all? If even lifeless instruments, such as the flute of the harp, do not give distinct notes. How will anyone know what is played? And if the bugle gives an indistinct sound? Who will get ready for battle? So with yourselves. If with your tongue, you are a speech that is not intelligible. How will anyone know what is said? For you will be speaking into the air. There are doubtless many different languages in the world, and none is without meaning. But if I do not know the meaning of the language, I will be a foreigner to the speaker, and the speaker a foreigner to me. So with yourself, since you are eager for manifestations of the Spirit, strive to excel in building up the church, love speaks so others can understand, Paul just lays out. Look, if instruments don't give a clear sound, you won't know what's being played. If I'm speaking a language that you don't know, you'll be a foreigner to me, the actual Greek word underneath that is Barbaros, where we get our barbarian from, but the word doesn't mean someone who's uncouth, who's uncivilized, who just wants to come in and destroy things. It was a Greek way of saying, when we heard people who don't speak Greek, it sounds like bar, bar, bar. And so they called them barbarosis. And he says, I'll be that to you, and you'll be that to me. I'm sure all of you have been the place where you heard a language you didn't know. He went, I don't know what's going on. Maybe heard music you didn't know. You know what? It's easier to actually hear it. What Paula, then just to say it. So pay attention to this video. Tell me if you wrote this song. That's just tuning up. How about this one? Do you know this? Ray Shan, if you know that. Right, I got my culture, people. It's Beethoven's fifth. Way to go, man. How about this one? Raise your hand if you know that. It's amazing, Grace. And not a lot of my old time gospel people. How about this one? You need to know what people say. Raise me if you know what they're saying. Denzel had got the weights... Der an in glautt, nicht in sver derden geit, zonden iwigeslieiten. Il a tanto a mattu i mundo der der iisuoni cofilio, per quiqui quiqui de iluinum muyama, via vita iterna. Konoyoniste kamiva, okina ayo, konoyonishimeste. For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him told, not perish, but have eternal life. Get it, right? It's the same thing. Every one of those was John 316 in German, Italian, French, Japanese. Spanish. Some of you probably picked up on a few. I saw some. I kind of recognize, maybe that's it. All of them said the same message. Paul saying, look, if you come if I come to you speaking Japanese and say, John 316, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. It doesn't help you at all. It's true, it's right. It just doesn't help you. Paul says, love speaks, so others can understand. Look what he keeps saying. Follow with me in verse 13. Therefore, one who speaks in a tongue should pray that he may interpret. So if you're going to do this thing, speak a language that no one knows, you need to be able to interpret that. For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful. What am I to do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will pray with my mind also. Also, praise with my spirit, but I will sing praise with my mind also. Now, know this that Paul, everything he's writing is in the context of their worship service all the way from 1st Corinthians 11 with the Lord's Supper. All the way through this. He's talking about gathered worship. He's not talking about you by yourself in a room. But even then, he would say, if you're by yourself and someone was had this gift and they were using it to pray, you don't know what you're saying. You need to pray with your mind, but he's talking about a gathered group. He says, if I'm going to pray, I need to pray that I interpret. If I'm going to pray in a language, I don't know, that God's gifted me for some reason, then I need to pray also in a language everyone knows, because look what he says. Otherwise, if you give thanks with your spirit, how can anyone in the position of an outsider say, amen to your Thanksgiving when he does not know what you are saying? For you may be giving thanks well enough, but the other person is not being built up. I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you. So Paul had this gift and he says, I use it. But look what he says, nevertheless, in church, I would rather speak 5 words with my mind, in order to instruct others, than 10,000 words in a tongue. Paul says, I do this, but if I had a choice between 10,000 words, that no one would understand, but you would be impressed. He said, I would rather speak 5 words that you would benefit from that would help you. This is the same Paul, by the way, who had said, hey, if me eating meat, sacrifice to idols, would cause my brother to stumble. I'll just be a vegetarian. That's Paul. He's the Paul who wrote to the Philippians who said, you should consider other people more important than yourself. Have the mind of Christ who had that same attitude. It's the same Paul, who in one Corinthians 11, when they were dividing up the Lord's supper, he said, wait for each other. Let others go first. Have some table manners. Don't be the 1st in the line and take all the chicken, wait for other people. Make sure they get fed. Care about others more than you do yourself. That's what he's saying here. He said, I'd rather speak 5 words of intelligence to you than 10,000 words in a tongue. And this language that you don't understand, unless there is an interpreter there, love speaks, so others can understand. And then finally, in verses 20 to 25, we see Paul say that I think love seeks the salvation of others. Paul kind of turns up the pressure on the Corinthians at this point. And again, we're not there. I've told people, if I could time travel, I want to go spend about 6 months in Corinth with this church to go, what was going on here? What exactly is happening? I do know this. Paul loved these people. I imagine this is my guess. I'm speculating. There were some people who had this gift who were abusing it, and they weren't trying to be malicious. They just got caught up with, hey, I have this gift, and I'm doing this, and people are paying attention to me, and they think I'm better, and I think there's probably some that were probably a little more intentional in their use. And they were trying to put eyes on themselves. They kind of knew what they were doing. And Paul here, at the end, shows them that what you're actually doing, you think you're building yourself up and building your platform, but what you're doing is chasing away unbelievers and actually giving judgment to them. Look what he says. He says, brothers, do not be children in your thinking. That's a sharp rebuke. I mean, telling grown people Quit acting like children. Quit thinking like children. Do not be chilling. Be infants and evil. What a what a great line. I wish we could all be infants and evil. We are blessed at North and have a lot of babies here, and the little babies come in, and you just see me go, that baby's not about to lie to me. That baby is not about to stab me in the back or that baby's not out trying to just connive and get it. She says, as a baby, he's, he said, we should be infants and evil. He said, we need to grow up in your thinking, he tells the Corinthians, and quit doing these things that are wrong. Quit behaving in this way that is wrong. And here's why he says it says, in the law, it is written now. Where he's getting this from is Isaiah 28. So write that down, go home today and read all of Isaiah 28. He says, in the law, it is written, by people of strange tongues. And by the lips of foreigners, will I speak to this people? And even then they will not listen to me, says the Lord. Let me give you the background of what's going on here. So in Isaiah chapter 28, Isaiah was a prophet, and he was speaking to the northern tribe of Israel, the 10 tribes who had broken away from the southern tribe. And God had been warning this group of 10 tribes, that if you don't change your ways and quit worshiping false gods and quit behaving in ways that are opposed to God's ways, he said, I'm going to send judgment on you. And he had sent prophet after prophet who spoke their language. They understood what they were saying, and they had rejected them. They just said, nope, we don't want to hear that. We don't want to hear that. Isaiah was one of those prophets. And so in Isaiah 28. He says, I've sent people to you and told you the message, in your language, and you didn't want to hear it. So pretty soon, I'm going to send a people to you, the Assyrians. They don't speak your language. And when you hear their language in your streets, you'll know that judgment has come. And you're not going to listen to them either because you don't understand them at all. But at that point it's too late. You're already going to be defeated and you're going to be kicked out of the land. And he says, the sign that that's going to happen is you're going to hear a language you don't understand in your streets because you wouldn't listen to the language you could understand. So that's what's happening in Isaiah. Paul takes that and look what he says. He says, it's written in the law. He says, thus tongues are a sign, not for believers, but for unbelievers. Well, prophecy is a sign, not for unbelievers, but for believers. If therefore, the whole church comes together. So they're in a worship service now, and all speak in tongues. That's in languages that no one understands. And outsiders or unbelievers enter. Will they not say that you are out of your mind? So the picture he's giving them is this outsider who's not a believer comes into the church, and he hears languages that aren't the language of that place. Because the people are misusing this gift. He says, if all of you are doing that, if he walks in, his response is going to be, you're out of your mind. He's taking this Isaiah passage and saying, it's like judgment has come upon that person. He has no chance to respond to it. He has no way to say yes to it. He doesn't know what you're saying. You just said, God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son in a language he doesn't know. And he says, what you're doing is showing that you don't want that person there. You think he's a foreigner. He's an outsider and he needs to stay that way. that he's not welcome in that place. And then he says this. But if I'll prophesy and an unbeliever or outsider enters, he is convicted by all. He is called to account by all. The secrets of his heart are disclosed, and so falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that God is really among you. Says this outsider comes in and everyone's prophesying, speaking the language that they know and giving God's message, then this person can be convicted. He could repent. He could accept Christ. So he's telling the Corinthians. If you want to keep doing what you're doing, the end result of that is if everyone did it, was it an outsider would never hear the gospel. Even if you're saying the gospel, he would never hear it. And effectively, you're like the Assyrians who are telling the Northern Kingdom's judgment has come. And he says, don't be the Assyrians. It says, be the prophets who are telling people the way to live, how they should respond to God's message. Then it's up to that person who walks in who hears the message, who understands the message, who recognizes it, to respond. to it. and fall down and worship God. We should use our spiritual gifts to build up the church, not our own platform. Now, we are 2000 years removed from Corinth, and Corinth situation is not Northland Baptist churches situation. This is not our church here. This is not our situation here at our church, so it's not a problem that we have. We've had on occasion. Some of our interns who will speak a different language, and maybe you'll hear someone pray in a different language. You won't interpret that. Matt, one of our pastors was just done in Ecuador and he preached, I think 2 or 3 times. And he preached in English because he's trying to learn Spanish. He's in fluency building states. He's pursuing it. But they had an interpreter. Imagine if he went down and he just spoke for 30 minutes in English and everyone spoke Spanish and they'd go, You were passionate. I don't know what you said, but, you know, it was fun watching you, I guess. But I don't, anything you said. So they had an interpreter. There's always this sense of interpreting going on. We don't have the same situation here, but we can fall into the same type of problem with our spiritual gifts. So what do we do here at Northland Church to respond to what Paul is saying to the Corinthian Church. This specific problem. How do we apply it? Very simple. It was in the message already, but let me highlight this. Pursue love by using your gifts to build up the church. And pursue love is at the top of this. By using your gifts. If you're a follower of Christ, you have been gifted by the Holy Spirit to serve in some capacity to serve others, to care for others, and there's a whole host of gifts, gifts of administration, gifts of evangelism, gifts of teaching, gifts of leadership, I don't think the Bible's exhaustive on this. The Bible says God gifts us to serve in all the ways that a body needs. It's various parts. Go back and read chapter 12. And everyone's been gifted that way and saying, use those gifts to build up the church in all the ways that a body of followers and believers needs to be built up. It says use your gifts to do that. Now, you could be thinking like I was as I was reading this, going, what are the Corinthians thinking? I mean, they have these gifts and they're abusing them. They're misusing them to build their own platform. Who would ever do that? Who would ever think that way? And I submit that we all do that. The Bible says every good and perfect gift comes from God. So all of us, and here I think, speak English. That's a gift from God, that we have the language we can communicate with each other. And unless you're a really little baby, every one of you in here have told a lie. You took God's good gift and you lied to protect yourself. Everyone in here has taken God's good gift. And we distort them. I imagine some of you, if you're like me, God has given you a gift and you've used it kind of for your own benefit. And some gifts are easier to put eyeballs on you and kind of get a following. So teaching is very easy. You stand up in front of people, and you can let people look at you, and there's this temptation to kind of get more clicks, so to speak. The gift of administration, not so much. I won't name names. We have some really gifted administrators who allow things like Parents' Night out to just go really well and smooth. I won't name names to embarrass the person. But you just show up and it works great. But no one's like, oh, man, gift administration, I can turn that into, you know, a marketing thing. I could really get a lot of people following me for that. Unless they love administrating. But without it, nothing happens. We just all show up and wander around aimlessly and don't know what to do and things go poorly. But there are some gifts that using them, you could easily distort them. And maybe you have. I know I have at times, use my gift. to make a big deal of myself and not of God. Pursue love by using your gifts, to build up the church. That means if you're not using your gift, you're going, I don't know what it is. I don't know what I should be doing. pursue that and say, I need to lean into that. I need to find that thing out. And using your gift doesn't mean it happens between like 8 o'clock and 12 o'clock on a Sunday or Wednesday nights from 7 to about 815 when we gather here, it's what am I doing in my neighborhood, in my house, at my job, all the places God places his people to build them up. A lot of you use your gift and it's you're heading over to help people who are struggling and hurting. And you're just there doing it. No one sees it, no one notices it. But that's your gift. And some of you have that gift and maybe you're not using it. And you need to say, how do I lean into that? How do I find that? So pursue love by using your gifts? If you don't know what yours are or how to get plugged in, grab that connect card, fill it out, and we would love to plug you in. Secondly, speak so others understand you. This is Paul's message. Speak so others understand you. It's very easy if you've been in church long enough. We have our own language in church. Christianese. Any of you speak Christianese? Some of Matt does. I can give you a few Christianese phrases that to our ears make a lot of sense, but to people who aren't kind of Christians that don't come to church. They may be confused by what you're saying. We use the word fellowship a lot. All that means is, you know, coffee and donuts. Can we go hang out? Can we just, you know, hang out? We fellowship. I mean, that maybe they may they know what that means. How many of you, you know, have a quiet time? How many of you put your kids in quiet time? Because if you just say to your friends in the neighborhood, hey, I've got to go have my quiet time, you know, you're like, oh, you're in trouble. Your wife said, you got to go, you talk too much today. Time for quiet time. They don't know what that means. They're not sure what quiet time means. Have you ever decided you wanted to hedge your protection around you? You say, hey, I need to have a hedge of protection around me. Your neighbor, what that means is we need to put up a new fence and some more bushes because I'm tired of you looking into my yard. I need a hedger protection. This idea that God's watching over us. Here's one that could get you in trouble if you're not careful. You hanging out with some people, don't know the church, and you say something like this, oh, I'm just washed in the blood. That's terrifying, people. If you don't know what you're talking about, I'm just covered in the blood. It's like, okay, I don't know what you do on Sundays, but I don't want to be a part of that because that makes no sense. That's incomprehensible until you explain how that works. And Jesus death on the cross and all of that. In just a little bit, Micah's gonna come up and sing a song. How many of you have raised your Ebenezer. How many of you know what your Ebenezer is? You're going to sing it in a second, and so I'll tell you what it is. It means stone of help. And it's not like a stick you hold up. It was the idea that after God did something, they would raise a monument of stones, and that was an Ebenezer. And he said, there's my stone of help. I can raise this monument up to that thing. And so you're about to sing a song that has words that we go, what does this mean? Hallelujah. God saves. words that we would say? And we go, what do we mean? Don't speak kind of Christianese, speak to ways that the people you're meeting with in your job can understand what you're saying. And then a specific word to our teachers, and our seminary students, is using big words, using fancy words that we learned in school that no one understands isn't helpful. It's like going to the medical doctor in getting this diagnosis. You're experiencing acute viral respiratory syndrome with fibro response, diffuse myalgia, sythology and upper respiratory tract involvement. Do you know what you have, Wally? No. No, because the doctor leaves and you go, that guy's really smart. And then the nurse comes in, you go, what's the problem here? Oh, you had the flu. You know, hears some medicine, go home, you'll be fine. They're both true, just one's useless and the other one's helpful. So don't be don't use fancy words when you don't need to. Don't use words that confuse people that make them think that you're impressive because you know things. Because you have this knowledge. If you're not communicating to the people you're talking to in a way that they understand, You're not that impressive. And Paul would say, actually, you're not using love. One of the smartest guys I ever knew at Midwestern taught 3rd graders. And he said, if I can't teach 3rd graders, I don't know what I'm talking about. If I can't put it in their language, I don't understand the concept. And he's one of the smartest men, I know. Just brilliant, smart, like so much smarter than all of us in this room, I would imagine, unless some of you haven't met yet, you know, just brilliant. But it's like, oh, and he taught 3rd graders at his church because he said, I need to, so I can understand. Speak so others understand. It's our goal to use our spiritual gifts to build each other up. That's the goal. How do I build you up? How do you build me up? How do we strengthen each other through our gifts and not put eyes on ourselves? If you're here and you're like, I don't know how to do that. I don't know what my gift is, or I've been abusing my gift, and I want to change. I'm going to be in this back corner over here, and we're going to have a place where you can come and talk and pray if you need to pray. If you have something else in your life that you're just struggling with, with starting each week back in this back corner, just to have some people back there, one of our pastors, Blake Hearson, is back there. He's going to help pray with us. I'll be back there if you want prayer. If you don't know who Christ is and you want to say, I want to give my life to Christ. You can come back there, we'll pray for you. Mike's going to come up here and lead us in a song. going to sing Ebenezer for us. And now we know what it means. So he's not just speaking incomprehensible language. But if you need to talk, you need to pray, you can come right back here to this corner, and we'll pray with you. Will you join me in prayer? Father, we thank you for this time. Father, we thank you for your word that challenges us to build up your church and not our own platform, that it's not about us, it's about others. Well, to help us to love you and to love others. Jesus, your son said, this is the whole commandment. Your entire list of commandments are summed up in those 2 things. Love you and love others. Help us to do that well, Father. Help us to pursue love, passionately. Father, do you pursue spiritual gifts so we can serve others and build up your church, that you would be glorified. Father, turn our eyes to you and not to ourselves. It's in the name of Jesus we pray. Amen.