Transcription
[Music] Well, the Lord be with you.
If you have a Bible, and I hope you or someone around you does, would you turn with me? We are going to be in 1 Corinthians chapter 14 this morning, and we're going to be looking at verses 26 to 40. So 1 Corinthians chap 14, 26 to 40.
And what we've been finding in this series so far is Paul is writing to a church in the city of Corinth. And what we find with this church is that they are divided. They are greatly divided on a number of issues. And so throughout this letter, Paul is just addressing each issue one after the other. And since chapter 12, what we've seen is that Paul has been really zeroing in, laser-focused on the issue around spiritual gifts. And what we find is, just like all of these other issues, the church is divided and somewhat ignorant around the topic of spiritual gifts. And as I've shared in the previous messages, we also find in the church today a lot of confusion and a lot of ignorance around this topic. And we see extremes and abuses on both sides of the aisle when it comes to this topic. And so Paul is starting to kind of unravel some of these issues and start to explain the principles in which how we are to think about spiritual gifts.
And one of the most important things that he wanted to get out at the very beginning is that we need to remember that all those who confess Christ as Lord have been baptized by the Holy Spirit. Which sometimes is counter to even what some churches teach today, that the baptism of the Holy Spirit is a special experience for only a select group of believers. Where Paul completely throws that out the window. Where he literally says, if you confess Christ and that is genuinely confess Jesus as Lord, you have already received the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The baptism of the Holy Spirit is the indwelling of the Spirit where you are immersed with God's Spirit. And then whenever you receive the Holy Spirit, it says he doesn't come empty-handed. He actually comes bearing gifts. And that means that every single believer also has a spiritual gift, maybe even multiple spiritual gifts. But then on the other side, he wants to be very clear, but you as a believer do not have every gift, which is why we need one another. So he's explaining, in Christ, you have the Spirit. The Spirit gives you gifts. They're for the edification of the body. And you need others in the church because you don't have every single gift. So, we have interdependence going on within this.
Then he starts to really start to zero in on the main issue that we have is that what the Corinthians were doing with spiritual gifts. They had these gifts and they were actually, by the way, a really gifted church. They had people that could speak in tongues. They had people that could interpret. They had people that could prophesy. There was a lot of these different gifts going on within this church. But what he starts to point out is that though they have the gifts, though they are gifted, they aren't allowing love to drive the church. They aren't letting the fruits of the Spirit guide the gifts of the Spirit. And so what he shows is that if you have all of these gifts, if you are speaking in tongues and prophesying and everyone is just doing this all at once and there's no interpretation, you guys just become a noisy, confusing church. And that doesn't edify anyone. That doesn't glorify God. If we want to glorify God and if we want to build one another up, there has to be some sense in the assembly. Craziness is not holiness, is basically the point that he was making. And so we have to understand that the purpose of the spiritual gifts was for us to build one another up. It was for us to evangelize the world, and it is to magnify Christ. So it's a three-fold purpose, right? To build the church, to evangelize the world, and to magnify Christ.
And so he's been explaining that if there ever were to be a tongue, that it must always necessitate an interpretation. Where once again, we see that being an issue in many churches today. I'm sure many of us are familiar with this, where there are some churches where there will be people that are speaking in tongues openly, maybe even directly behind the pulpit, and there will be no interpretation given. And so there is no edification given. He starts to address these specific issues.
Well, now that we get to the end of chapter 14, what we find is kind of Paul's summarizing of this section. So, as we've been thinking about spiritual gifts, he's been starting to unravel some of their misconceptions. He's starting to make it clearer for them so that they would not be ignorant. Likewise, so that we would not be uninformed. He has been giving us these principles and now he's summarizing it for us to encourage the church to worship in a way that is decently and in order. He wants us to have church that is worshiping in a way that is spirit-filled, scripture-based, and structured. And so that is what his encouragement is for us this morning.
And so the first part is in verses 26 to 33. And I think what Paul shows us in this passage is that order, church order, worship that is orderly, reflects God's nature. So you might be like, why is it so important that we have order in the church, that we have some type of structure in the church? Well, it's because God is not the author of confusion, but of peace. And you actually see this specifically said in verse 33. It says, "For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace." And can we not just say, "Praise God, that that is who we worship." Would it be worth worshiping a God who is an author of confusion and chaos? But that's not who our God is. Our God is a God of peace, a God of order, and a God of purpose. He gives you peace and order, structure to your life and meaning, significance, the reason why you exist for your very being, your essence. And so what we have to understand is that it's so essential to our worship that order would reflect who our God is. Our order must reflect God's nature, being the author of peace. Because where there is confusion and disorder, hear this, you will find the absence of God. Once again, if you see confusion and disorder in your assembly, that is not a sign of the presence of God. And I hope that we all come here wanting to experience the presence of God. Once again, this is not a book club. This is not a country club. This is a place where we come to experience the presence of God and that we would feel Him, that we would obey Him, and that we would go and proclaim Him to the world so that they would be able to experience His presence as well. But the thing is, confusion and disorder are counter to His character. Confusion and chaos, disorder, these things do not bring God glory.
And in fact, just think about this. When we think about the most fundamental things about who our God is, I think of creation and I think of redemption. I think of Genesis at the very beginning. He created everything, right? He is the source of life. He is the source for our existence. And then likewise, he is the author and source of our salvation. He is the reason that we not only exist, but that we can have eternal life. That we can have abundant life. Right? Life to not just the full in the quantitative sense, but in the qualitative sense, right? That is what God offers us. But listen to these two passages and see how God, how He brings order out of chaos. In Genesis chapter 1, verses 1 to 2, it says, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters." See, when God starts this creative narrative in Genesis 1, it describes the earth being without form and void. And then as we follow along in this chapter, you see the creation days where He's starting to do things. He's starting to fill the void. He's starting to form the earth and to produce life in this chaotic universe. See, in creation, we literally see God being a God of order, a God of peace. He takes this formless void that is the earth and He gives it and makes it something beautiful. He brings shalom. He brings peace, structure to the planet.
But likewise, when it comes to redemption, what does Jesus do for us? Well, Jesus came into our chaos to offer us peace. And some people actually need that this morning. There's some people here that maybe Sunday morning in your home was chaotic. Maybe your last week has been chaotic. Maybe the last several years have been chaos, confusion, disorder. And if that is you, hear the words of Christ here in Matthew 11:28. He says, "Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Rest for your souls. See, that's what redemption is about. See, Jesus, He is not a distant deity who doesn't care about your problems. He is a God who came to the earth knowing our chaos, knowing our struggle, knowing all the ways that we cause disorder, that we have rebelled, we have sinned against Him. But instead of rejecting us, instead of condemning us, the gospel says He comes and says, "Come to me. I will offer you peace. I will bring order to your life. I will build you back up."
So just when we think about those two pillars, creation and redemption, both of these say that our God, at His very core, at His very nature, at His very character, He wants to offer you peace. He wants to give you structure and order to your life. And so if our God is a God of order, if He is a God of peace, then our worship must mirror His nature. How can you glorify a God who is all about peace and order and structure and then be like, you know what would honor Him? Let's do the exact opposite. Let's be unlike Him in every way possible. See, it's just seems counterintuitive.
And so that's why in verse 26, now Paul shows us everything must be done for edification and for encouragement. Once again, edification, that can be a big word, just means building up, helping one another out, right? So everything must be done for edification and encouragement. It says, "How is it then, brethren, whenever you come together, each of you has a psalm, has a teaching, has a tongue, has a revelation, has an interpretation, let all things be done for edification." See, what he's showing is that in this church, what they were doing is that they're like, every single person that comes in the door, they wanted to do something. They wanted to say something, right? "I got a song this week. I have a word that I need to share. I have a prophecy. I have a tongue." Every single person was wanting to get in. They were wanting to boast themselves up. Once again, as we've seen in this church, they're constantly all about self. They're all about exalting themselves rather than exalting Christ, right? Rather than building up the church. And so, what we see here is that that's what they were doing. And he has to explain to them is that though it's not bad to have a psalm, to have a word, to have a teaching, these aren't bad. These actually can be very good things. But if it's not for the edification of the church, if it's all about your own pride, making yourself known, then it's not for the church. It's not to be done. In fact, you are to remain silent in this way because it doesn't bring order or structure or peace to people. Once again, if every single person starts shouting out and saying, you know, what they want, what's on their heart, and there's no interpretation, there's no pausing in between, it wouldn't be very helpful, would it?
Likewise, I think when it comes to life in general, life depends on pattern and structure. Some people are like, why is order so important? Or maybe some people are a little resistant to order and they're like, I don't want to fall into tyranny, which is good, right? We don't want order for order's sake, right? Because order for order's sake is tyranny. But on the flip side of that, freedom for freedom's sake is anarchy. And so what we actually need is what? We need order for freedom, which is true liberty. We need to have order that can allow us to truly thrive in our freedom. And just an example for this, imagine if I came up here this morning to preach and I didn't come with any order. I didn't come with any preparation, any structure. Would any of you really be happy with me? Imagine I come up here and, by the way, sadly, I know that there are pastors who will do this. They will come up here and maybe they had a verse or maybe they had a word, a topic on their mind. They come up here, they haven't done any due diligence. They have not been praying over their text. They have not been asking the Lord to help them with this. They haven't been laboring in scripture. And then they come up here and then they just kind of just start talking, start telling some stories, you know, they try to maybe encourage you. Maybe they heard something on YouTube or on the internet and so they're just sharing an encouraging word, but that's it. Or imagine if I came up here and everyone expects me to start and give them a maybe a reference of where we're going to be and I just immediately come up here and I say, "All right, amen," and I walk off the stage and they say, "Oh, at the, you know, later I was going to preach like whenever everyone's gone." I mean, that wouldn't make any sense. It'd be confusing. What if someone asked you, "Oh, what church do you go to?" "Oh, I don't know. We don't have an address." It depends. We just have to kind of feel the spirit and figure out where everyone's going to gather today. Or, "What time does church start?" "Well, every week's different. Whenever people feel like going to the church, that's when church starts." Do you see how just crazy this would be to think if you don't have order? Or how many of you drove a car to get to church today? I'm sure many of you wouldn't appreciate if the lights on the four-ways meant different things every single hour. Like, what if green actually meant speed up or slow down? Or what if green meant stop? What if, you know, what if yellow meant turn left regardless of where you're at? I mean, it would be insane to think about. And so though sometimes we can kind of be resistant about order and structure, we have to understand that it's literally just the basic necessity of life. If you don't have order, you can't have life. You can't. I mean, imagine if you go to a restaurant and someone is taking your order and what they decide is that whatever you order, they're going to give you what they feel like rather than what you ordered. You wouldn't be very happy with that either. See, there are so many examples of where we need order. We need structure.
And so likewise, not only does life depend on pattern and on structure, on routine, so does healthy worship. Why is it that when we come to worship, we think we need all spontaneous worship? We can't have a structure. We can't have a plan. See, I think that that is going counter to God's word here. He says that, no, what you need to do is you need to have a plan. And we as a church, we try to be intentional with our worship, with why we do things, when we do things. Not only on when service starts, but to why the building is the way it is, to why we have certain things at one part of the service than others. All of this is meant to glorify God and to bring and edify the church. It's meant to be helpful. It is using order for healthy worship.
And the thing is, once again, when we don't do that, what we find on the flip side. So if order reflects God's nature, what does disorder do? It misrepresents and dishonors God and His nature. If someone comes in here, and there might be people like that in here right now who don't know Jesus, that don't know God personally as their Lord and Savior. And if they come in here and we are crazy. If they come in here and we don't make any sense. If we are just literally just whatever people feel like today, and maybe we'll sit here for three hours and nothing will happen, or everyone has to immediately, every single service, everyone has to fall to the altar. Every single time I preach a sermon, everyone has to be crying. If that's literally what we're expecting, what we're really wanting is an experience rather than a relationship with God. What we're really wanting is just to get an emotional moment rather than true obedience. And so what we have to do is be so careful to not misrepresent and dishonor God.
And the thing is, I know of examples like this because what Paul gives specifically here in verses 27 to 32, he gives examples of what they were doing. Once again, there's tongue speaking, there's prophecy going on. And you know what he says here? And by the way, there are so many churches that I never hear this taught. And especially in the churches that you see tongue speaking and prophecy going on, is he limits them. Do you see that? He says two, maybe three, but no more. How many churches do you know that have tongue speaking that it's like everybody in the building? I've been to a worship gathering. My friend invited me there. Didn't know what type of it was like a revival night. Didn't really know what was going on. And I go into this building. The service ends up being three hours long. And by the last 30 minutes to an hour of the event, every single person in the building, and it was a packed, hot church building, I was the only person not speaking in tongues. I am looking around, literally everybody. Literally, I think this is probably what they were probably seeing, this ecstatic utterance where every single person has a revelation, has a tongue, and I'm like, "Am I the only one that doesn't know Jesus or something? Like, did I not get the powerful spirit? Like, what's going on here? I believe in Jesus. I love the Lord, but I feel like this is confusing and chaotic, and now I'm having questions about my own relationship." And I feel like that's not a good thing. That's what was going on here. But Paul is saying that there should never be more than three prophecies or three speaking of tongues. And once again, he says in this passage, and if you speak in tongues, there must be an interpretation. There must be an interpretation. And if it is not going to be interpreted, they are to remain silent. By the way, I know many of you know this as I'm saying this. This is literally calling out so many different churches, so many different denominations because they are not following God's word here. But so were the Corinthians. They were doing the same thing. They were going with their own experience rather than what God's word says.
And so that's why in verses 34 to 38, I think what we see is not only are we to remember that order, the purpose is to reflect God's nature, but order actually respects God's word. That's why God wants us to have order in the church. That is how we can glorify Him is that we must respect what His word says. See, true spirituality is always accountable to the word of God. Scripture is the standard, not your subjective experience. How many times do we determine whether a church was, you know, the Spirit was really there based on how we felt? I've heard people do that. You've maybe even done that before. "Oh, I really felt like the Spirit was moving because I was feeling something." Now, it doesn't mean that the Spirit wasn't moving, but you know how the Spirit is moving. You know how it, if it's really moving? It is if God's word is faithfully being proclaimed with conviction, with passion, and that God's people are hearing it and applying it to their lives. That's how you know. Because, by the way, this book is not just separate from the Spirit. Why do we have this book? It's because the Holy Spirit authored it. So you think the Holy Spirit is going to contradict Himself? The Holy Spirit gives us His word to guide us in our worship. And so once again, these spiritual things that happen in church, spiritual gifts, they are valuable, but they are only so valuable when they are consistent with scripture. Everything must be submitted to the authority of God's word.
Because once again, the Corinthians, what they thought is that they could define their worship on their own. And that's why Paul actually, if you notice, he starts to challenge them in verses 34 to 38. He's like, "Does scripture, does God's word come from you? Are you the source?" And he explains basically, obviously not, because the prophets and the apostles are the ones who have authored scripture by the power of the Holy Spirit. And he says, "And likewise, are you the only one who has received a revelation?" Meaning there are other people who have God's word. There are other people who have the Holy Spirit. And so, you can't just go out and decide as a church that you're going to redefine worship. You can't do that. It's always going to be submitted to the Bible. And I think that when we hear this, that's going to challenge us if we really are honest. If we really say, "I want to worship. I want to do what God's word says." Because here's the thing. If you let the Bible speak, the Bible will confront you and correct you. The Bible will confront you and correct you. If you've never been confronted or corrected, if you've never been convicted after hearing a sermon or reading God's word, I don't know what you are reading because God's word is meant to conform us, shape us, mold us into His image. And if you're like me, which I know apart from the grace of God, I am a sinner. I am worthy of punishment and hell. I understand who I am apart from the grace of God. And if I then think, oh, as soon as I say yes to Jesus, that therefore, well, I'm forgiven and I have nothing else to work on and I look exactly like I should be in worship. No, you have things God is working in and on you and so that you can become more like Him. And so we cannot just subjectively think that worship is however we feel. God has an order for worship. There are certain things that can and cannot be done in our assembly.
And so if you ever get offended by a sermon or if you ever get offended by God's word, you need to ask yourself what's going on in your heart first. Now, if I'm being offensive unnecessarily, or if I'm being offensive and it's not consistent with scripture, what do I always say? Pastors aren't Bibles, right? If I am wrong and I'm causing issues, then reject me if I'm not submitting to God's word. But if what I am proclaiming is consistent with God's word, then you are called to submit to it. You are called to obey it. Because once again, God's word is our authority.
And this is where it gets really controversial, as we have been for weeks now, because in verses 34 to 37, some of you have already probably read it this morning. This comes down to how do we submit to God's word and respect it and have order in worship? Well, we see the genders being brought up again. And some of us saw us talking about this a few weeks ago when we looked at headship and the order of authority that God has placed. But Paul talks about this once again in verses 34 to 37. It says, "Let your women keep silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak, but they are to be submissive, as the law also says. And if they want to learn something, let them ask their own husbands at home, for it is shameful for women to speak in church. Or did the word of God come originally from you? Or was it you only that it reached? If anyone thinks himself to be a prophet or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things which I write to you are the commandments of the Lord."
Okay? So, I know as I read that, especially for the women who weren't here for the sermon that we looked at headship and order, you might be like, "What is this saying?" Some women, some people in the church have maybe never even heard this passage before. And sadly, it's because some churches are terrified to preach this. So many pastors are not going to read this passage ever. You know why? Because half the audience might potentially be mad at you afterwards. But here's the thing. Once again, if we really want to say God's word is the standard, we submit to it and we need to preach the whole counsel of God's word. I'm going to preach God's word and I'm going to do it as clearly as I can and be as faithful as I can. But here's the thing. If you leave the church and never come back, I love you. I hope that you are with Jesus. But I'm going to be faithful to God, a God above all else. And so I'm going to preach what God's word says. Okay?
So it does say here that women cannot do something in the assembly, right? But I do think that it's important that we understand the context. It does say that women are to be silent here, right? That he actually is using pretty strong language here. But what does Paul mean? He does not mean absolute silence. Why? In previous chapters, you remember what Paul said? He says that women can pray and prophesy in the church. Do you remember? Paul is not schizophrenic. He is not saying, "Women, you can pray, you can prophesy, you can praise, you can do all that, but actually, never mind, don't talk, don't say a word." That's not what he's saying here. Now, once again, there's two extremes. You can say, "Oh, so Paul means nothing by it." Or that means Paul means women don't say a word. Right? Because in our church service, if you notice, we have women who will lead praise and worship. We had women on the stage this morning. You'll notice that before I preach, we usually have a woman come and read the scripture before service. We have women who lead children's ministry. We have women who help on the connect team. Actually, at the end of the service, we usually have a man and a woman at the altar for the prayer team. So, we have women active in our service and they are talking. So, what is going on here?
Well, what he is saying here, I believe in context, is when it comes to these spiritual gifts specifically in the form of prophecy. If, because if you notice, he was just talking about if people are prophesying in the church. So imagine someone came to one of the elders in the church and they say, "Hey, I'd like to share a word with the congregation." What the elder would do to be in order would want to hear what they have to say, generally a summary version of it. And they say, "Okay, I think this would be edifying. I think this would be helpful for the assembly." Then they come forward and they speak it. Now imagine they say some things that might be kind of questionable or hard to understand. What was going on in this church is many of the women, what they were doing is that they were usurping the male headship, the men who were overseers of the assemblies, their authority. And they would start to say, "Actually, I disagree with that," or they'd say, "Well, wait, what does that mean?" And so you started having all these women who started to basically take the place of the overseers in the church and act as if they were the church authority. And they were the ones trying to weigh the prophecy. They were trying to weigh the words. Now, that doesn't mean, by the way, that we don't all use discernment here. But what was happening is that some of these women, they were actually trying to take charge of the church. And some of the time, if there was a good prophecy that was received and the elders thought it was good and they were wanting to move on with the service, there were some women that were just really wanting to continue to belabor the point. And what he's saying here is that there are some women that have these questions or these concerns. Go home and speak with your husband on this issue and let that be solved in your home rather than airing all the dirty laundry out in the assembly. So there are times and context for things. So he's not saying, once again, women, you can never talk, you have no purpose in ministry. Once again, women and men are equal in value, worth, and dignity. Both men and women are called to the Great Commission. Women are called to actively serve in the church. But when it comes to specific roles in the church, men and women are not the same. Men are called to be men. Women are called to be women. Men are to be fathers and husbands. Women are called to be mothers and wives. And we cannot replace them because we are complementary. That's actually a good thing, just like order. We need to complement one another. Men bring things to the table. Women, you bring things to the table. But when God has called the church specifically to leadership, He says for those who will fulfill the office of the overseer, they are the ones who are called to lead with teaching and exercising authority and weighing prophecy. So that is exactly what's going on in this context. He's talking about in the context of prophecy. If someone were to speak a word, it's the responsibility of the elders for church leadership to discern if that was a good or bad word. And if it was a bad word, then it's our responsibility in church leadership to deal with that person and to clarify for the assembly what is true and good and faithful doctrine. Does that make sense? So we need to be careful.
And first, we need to accept God's word even if it's hard to understand. But then two, we need to make sure that we have context and clarity and see how God is framing it in context. And so we do have a God-given authority in the church as we are seeking to understand God's word. And so just a couple of passages in 1 Thessalonians 5:12-13, it says, "And we urge you, brethren, to recognize those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love for their work's sake. Be at peace among yourselves." So this is literally saying that there are people who will labor among you, those who will be over you in the Lord. God has set up leadership in the church. And once again, this is not talking about tyrants. These are good, faithful leaders who submit to the word of God, right? We're not. Because, by the way, if you have a bad leader who does not submit to the word of God, don't go to that church. Do you understand that? You're like, "Well, I don't want to follow church leadership because they're going to be this way or they're going to..." Well, that's because you're at a bad church with bad leadership. But if you find a church that has men of God who love the Lord and who submit to His word and are doing everything they can to serve God's word, well then, as long as they're being faithful to scripture, you shouldn't have a problem with it, right? And so we see here that there are individuals who have been called to a high task in leadership. Likewise, Hebrews 13:17, "Obey those who rule over you and be submissive, for they watch out for your souls as those who must give account. Let them do so with joy and not with grief, for that would be unprofitable for you." So what is this saying? If you're someone who does step into leadership ever at this church or any church, guess what? You are going to be held accountable for the way that you lead God's people. I am accountable for every sermon that I preach. And that is a heavy order. That is a serious responsibility because if I do say something that is wrong to you and you take that and apply that to your life, that is my fault. And so that's why not everyone should be a teacher. James says we shouldn't all strive to be teachers or everyone try to be in leadership. But once again, the Corinthians, they were all wanting to be the leader. They were wanting to be the one that everybody heard. And so we have to see that God's word shapes our worship. We must respect God's word. And He has given in His word authority to specific individuals who must proclaim God's word faithfully and weigh every word that is said in the assembly.
And the final thing on this point in verse 38 is because of this. God will ignore those who ignore His word. And that is a sober warning there. Look at verse 38. "But if anyone is ignorant, let him be ignorant." Now, I don't think the New King James does it as great as I think in translation-wise. I think the ESV may be a little bit better on this because what it's actually saying is, "If anyone does not receive this, he will not be received." And what that's really talking about is this. If we as a church family, we don't respect God's word when it comes to our worship. If we're like, "I know God's word says this, but I'm going to do this," or "Culture lets me do this," or "You know, I just want to go with whatever the Spirit is leading me personally." If that is you and you just completely reject or neglect God's word, you know what God says? I reject your worship. God doesn't just take anybody's worship. Now, that doesn't mean that it has to be perfect, but it has to come with a heart that is postured saying, "I want to submit to God's word. And if I know God's word says this, I am not going to be in rebellion against His word." Because God, once again, He will ignore those who disrespect or ignore His word.
Which leads to the final thing that I want to share this morning, which not only does order reflect God's nature, does order respect God's word, but order also refines our worship. If you want to worship God the way that He deserves to be worshiped, then we must worship Him on His terms. And so in verses 39 to 40, it says, "Therefore, brethren, desire earnestly to prophesy, and do not forbid to speak with tongues. Let all things be done decently and in order."
See, what I think He's showing us here is that true worship is to be done in spirit and in truth. That's what Jesus says to the woman at the well in John 4:23-24. It says, "But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth." What does that mean? It means that in spirit, that means with who you are, with sincerity, with your heart, you must worship God. But likewise, truth also, what does God's word say? What is His revelation? What is the standard? What is true? That is also important. So you can't just say, "Let's go worship Jesus. It doesn't matter what their doctrine is." No, we worship God with sincerity from our spirits, but we also must worship Him in truth. That is what it means to do decently and in order, with proper reverence and proper structure. That is what we are called to.
And one very small thing, but it's so important when we hear this, because sometimes when I'm preaching all about order and structure, some are like, "Are you going to quench the Spirit doing this?" Maybe some have thought that, like, "I just feel like if we try to say that our service time is trying to be around a certain time frame or we try to keep certain things moving at a certain pace." If you're like, "I just feel like if you do that, you quench the Spirit." And there, by the way, there can be a time where if the Spirit really is guiding you and saying you need to continue or there needs to be more, then we could. But here's the thing. Having a structure in place, a typical norm for worship that does not quench the Spirit. Rather, I believe it gives room for Him to move freely. I think true biblical structure allows the Spirit to do things and be the most effective because that is how He works in and through us. And so that is my encouragement for us this morning. Whatever you do when you walk in these doors, when you are a partaker of the assembly in worship, whether you are active in ministry of some form here, your job is to do everything, everything decently and in order. How you make coffee, how you say hi to people, how you come into the assembly, when you leave the assembly, if you preach, if you sing, if you help with children's ministry, if we do outreach events, when we do mission work, everything we need to do needs to be intentional and focused on how do we do this decently and in order. How do we worship God in spirit and in truth? Because orderly worship will always, always strengthen the church and exalt Christ. And that is what we are called to do. And so that's what Paul has been showing us in this passage. So when our worship, when we reflect God's nature, when we respect His word, and when we are refined by order, every gathering becomes a display of His glory and peace. And that's what I pray for us this morning, that you would experience His glory and that you would know His peace.