[SPEAKER_00]: Well, again, we're in Romans chapter 12, and I'm just gonna do even, not even a full verse.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's just seems crazy, but it's the gift of prophecy.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, the gift of prophecy.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, again, spiritual gifts are divine enablements.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know what?
[SPEAKER_00]: Someone thought that the janitor showed up
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, man, we're two took my drill.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, all right.
[SPEAKER_00]: People are really nice and tidy and helpful, but so, oh, Mark!
[SPEAKER_00]: Woohoo!
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, this guy, this guy, praise God for Mark.
[SPEAKER_00]: Mark is so efficient and he cleans the, he makes sure it's all presentable and ready and I didn't tell him these are props, okay
[SPEAKER_00]: Listen, about several years ago, my daughter, Emma and I, we are going to build something together.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it was one of these flower potting benches.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know what I'm talking about?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's place where you fix your little poted plants and flowers and it's something to put it on.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we got all the lumber together and we bought all the materials and we got back and there were three inch screws
[SPEAKER_00]: And it was fun putting it together, but could you imagine me trying to turn those babies with this?
[SPEAKER_00]: It would have taken a long time, would have given me tennis elbow, and a lot of the other thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: When this can do it so much quicker.
[SPEAKER_00]: Hey, man, chat.
[SPEAKER_00]: So much quicker.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: Frances Chan.
[SPEAKER_00]: In speaking about the Holy Spirit, told the story to illustrate our need.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the story is called the big red tractor.
[SPEAKER_00]: In this story, it goes like this.
[SPEAKER_00]: There was a farming village with one big tractor that was used to plow their fields.
[SPEAKER_00]: And each year, the community gathered around that tractor.
[SPEAKER_00]: Every day, villagers would take their turn, polling, and pushing the tractor throughout the fields.
[SPEAKER_00]: Some day, they were able to plow 10 feet.
[SPEAKER_00]: Other days, a whole 20 feet.
[SPEAKER_00]: It took the villagers three months to plow all the fields, just in time to put the seed in the ground
[SPEAKER_00]: and the rich soil always produced enough food for everyone.
[SPEAKER_00]: They loved the big red tractor.
[SPEAKER_00]: But one night farmer Luke was cleaning out his attic and he found the owner's manual for the red big tractor underneath his grandfather's belongings.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he began to read all the things that the tractor could actually do.
[SPEAKER_00]: And to his surprise, the tractor didn't need to be pulled or pushed.
[SPEAKER_00]: It could do the field in one day, one day.
[SPEAKER_00]: If properly, running properly, it could actually plow the whole field in one day.
[SPEAKER_00]: So he next day, he told all the villagers, they didn't believe him.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so, farmer looped decided to plow it all night before anyone awoke.
[SPEAKER_00]: and everyone woke to see all of it done.
[SPEAKER_00]: And for men on out, they began to take.
[SPEAKER_00]: They were able to produce more and more crops.
[SPEAKER_00]: More and more produce came in.
[SPEAKER_00]: They were able to take their proceeds to other village areas where the food was scarce.
[SPEAKER_00]: And they eventually became known as the most generous village in the whole region.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now spiritual gifts, like that, are divine enablements for us to carry out the mission of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the mission is to declare Jesus, develop Jesus followers in this region, around the world, the Lord wants to take it all the way out to the ends of the earth.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the only way that that's possible is divine enablement from the Holy Spirit.
[SPEAKER_00]: We could do it naturally, I think, but God would buy it just like, okay, if you want to do it that way, but it's going to take a lot longer, lot more effort, and the Lord has given these gifts to us that are called spiritual gifts, and every believer has been given a gift for this purpose.
[SPEAKER_00]: Everyone, some of the gifts seem more extraordinary, like prophecy, like gifts of tongues,
[SPEAKER_00]: which some believe have served their purpose in the first century and then went our no longer needed.
[SPEAKER_00]: Others believe that these gifts continue until Jesus comes, okay?
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, both groups are represented on our elder group and our pastor group, okay?
[SPEAKER_00]: So, as I explained last week, we divide our doctrine into three categories, primary doctrine, which every member needs to believe.
[SPEAKER_00]: At secondary doctrine, those who are in leadership need to believe.
[SPEAKER_00]: And tertiary doctrines, we don't have to see eye to eye.
[SPEAKER_00]: But we're going to hold these things and we're going to love each other in charity and we're going to come together in unity.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is one of those things, spiritual gifts.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now I personally believe that they continue until Jesus comes.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I will teach what I believe on prophecy, which is the first of the list in Romans chapter 12.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you didn't get a chance to listen to my sermon last week, please go back and listen to it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because it provides the foundation.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to be in the spiritual gifts for at least a month.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, because I think it's necessary.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to open this thing up.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to borrow some of the gifts from First Corinthians for 12, because we might as well talk about the spiritual gifts when it comes to us.
[SPEAKER_00]: So go back and listen to it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think it'll be helpful for you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let me read verse six, because that's where we find
[SPEAKER_00]: the verse that we're going to look at.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to read from verse 4.
[SPEAKER_00]: For as in one body we have many members and the members do not have the same function.
[SPEAKER_00]: So we, though many, are one body in Christ, individually members of one another, having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let us use them, ooh, emphasis, underline that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let us use them, that's the whole purpose of these messages.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want the gifts to flourish in our church, every one of them.
[SPEAKER_00]: If prophecy in proportion to our faith, that's it?
[SPEAKER_00]: That's what I want to speak on.
[SPEAKER_00]: If prophecy in proportion to our faith, now, first, what is it?
[SPEAKER_00]: What is prophecy?
[SPEAKER_00]: What is prophecy then?
[SPEAKER_00]: Prophecy is a divine revelation given to human beings.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's what it is.
[SPEAKER_00]: A divine revelation given to human beings.
[SPEAKER_00]: First Corinthians 14 lays this out in verse 29 and 30.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let two or three prophets speak.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let the others weigh what is said.
[SPEAKER_00]: Verse 30, if a revelation is made to another sitting there, let the first be silent.
[SPEAKER_00]: Prophecy in its core is revelation from God.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, prophets, then, were people who received revelation more often, okay?
[SPEAKER_00]: Prophets hear something, a spoken word, a vision, a dream, and then they convey it to whomever it is intended.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's prophecy.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, some have equated prophecy with preaching.
[SPEAKER_00]: Some have argued that prophecy is preaching, expounding on an already received revelation, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: And prophets did that in the Old Testament.
[SPEAKER_00]: They would bring the people, they would speak, bring in them back to the initial revelation or the covenant before God that God had given the people.
[SPEAKER_00]: So they did that too, but initially, and essentially, prophecy is revelation from God.
[SPEAKER_00]: And there has to be a difference because Paul makes it clear in 1 Corinthians 11 that both men and women could prophesy in the church, but he forbids women to preach and teach in the church when men are present.
[SPEAKER_00]: conveying a revelation from the Lord, the prophets being a mouthpiece for the Lord, whereas teaching is pressing the truth into the souls of the listeners and requires authority in the church.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, when someone received a revelation from God, whether it be Abraham, you know, Jacob Moses, Nathan, Elijah, Elijah, it would come in dreams, it would come in visions
[SPEAKER_00]: Like you remember in Acts, or Luke chapter 2, after Jesus is born, Jesus is taken to the temple, and there were two individuals there, Simeon and Anna, who were told by the Lord that they would see the Lord before they died, that's pre-special.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's a word of prophecy, okay?
[SPEAKER_00]: Or Acts chapter five, remember when Ananias and Suffira came with their gifts, but they were truly lying before the Lord that this was the entire amount, and Peter was told that they had lied, and that they would be put to death and sure enough it came true.
[SPEAKER_00]: Acts chapter 13,
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, there were prophets and teachers together, worshiping the Lord and fasting and the Lord spoke.
[SPEAKER_00]: A prophecy came set aside, Paul and Barnabas because I'm gonna send them out on a missionary tour.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, these are examples of prophecy or word of knowledge, word of wisdom, which I think is in the same kind of category.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think that would be helpful for the church.
[SPEAKER_00]: Don't you?
[SPEAKER_00]: I think it would be helpful for a demer.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's my opinion.
[SPEAKER_00]: Do you know that Paul tells us to earnestly desire for the gift of prophecy?
[SPEAKER_00]: First Corinthians 14, this is what it says, verse one.
[SPEAKER_00]: And again, this is Corinthian church.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you know anything about Corinthian church, they're very selfish.
[SPEAKER_00]: They were loaded with spiritual gifts, and they were abusing the spiritual gifts, and you would think Paul is going to say, no, I'm going to take those gifts away from you.
[SPEAKER_00]: You are not behaving well.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, he actually says, I want you all to seek after gifts that you would prophesy.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is what it says, for screenings 141, pursue love and earnestly desire of the spiritual gifts, especially the June prophesy.
[SPEAKER_00]: Why?
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, he says it down at the end of chapter 14, verse 24 and 25.
[SPEAKER_00]: But if all prophesy,
[SPEAKER_00]: And an unbeliever or an outsider enters.
[SPEAKER_00]: He is convicted by all.
[SPEAKER_00]: He is called into account by all that the secrets of his heart are disclosed.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so falling on his face, he will worship God into clear that God is really among you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, do you have someone come in to Redeemer and say, the Lord is among you?
[SPEAKER_00]: The Lord is truly among you.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's just like an overwhelming sense what I see going on in the church that the Lord is among you.
[SPEAKER_00]: And these are unbelievers, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: So that's what it is.
[SPEAKER_00]: How does it function?
[SPEAKER_00]: And this is where it varies.
[SPEAKER_00]: It functions various ways in the Old Testament, New Testament.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's point number two.
[SPEAKER_00]: How does it function?
[SPEAKER_00]: First, there were,
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to give you word, canonical prophets, that it made it into the canon, canonical, canonical, not a, not a, but canon.
[SPEAKER_00]: Canon means the collection, or the measure, the list that became the Bible.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was clearly came with authority of the church early, recognized it.
[SPEAKER_00]: There were prophets that were canonical, meaning they wrote books in the Old Testament, like Moses wrote the first five.
[SPEAKER_00]: Or like Jeremiah, Isaiah, Daniel, Ezekiel.
[SPEAKER_00]: Their prophecies were meant for all times all people because we're reading them right now and benefiting from them, okay?
[SPEAKER_00]: In the New Testament,
[SPEAKER_00]: Listen to Ephesians chapter 2, verses 19 and 20.
[SPEAKER_00]: It says, so then, you are no longer strangers in aliens, you Gentiles, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone.
[SPEAKER_00]: So there you see it, even the New Testament is built upon this foundation of apostles and prophets.
[SPEAKER_00]: And those who are riding the New Testament can in the Scripture were the Apostle Prophet types, okay?
[SPEAKER_00]: A specific group.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, in fact, in the Greek, there is a definite article, you know, like the instead of a, okay, that's a definite article, the apostle, okay, so there's a definite article before the word, a apostle, but not before the word, profit.
[SPEAKER_00]: Leading some to conclude, it refers to the same group.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's this apostles who prophesied.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think that that undergirds what I'm trying to say, pretty clearly, that the ones that made it into the canon were from apostles who prophesied, okay?
[SPEAKER_00]: Those who were setting down the foundation of Christian doctrine.
[SPEAKER_00]: So you got the canonical prophets.
[SPEAKER_00]: But then you have the non-cononical prophets.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's even longer to say.
[SPEAKER_00]: People like Nathan, who confronted the King David,
[SPEAKER_00]: He was a prophet, or Elijah, Elijah, no writings, but they had authority because they spoke for God.
[SPEAKER_00]: You also have Agabus, kind of interesting.
[SPEAKER_00]: Hey, Agabus, Acts chapter 21, you have Philips Daughters in Acts chapter 8.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Paul is urging the Corinthian church to seek the gift of prophecy.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now I think it's important to note
[SPEAKER_00]: When prophecy takes place, a revelation from God, it doesn't automatically end up in the canon of Scripture.
[SPEAKER_00]: Even in the New Testament, it doesn't.
[SPEAKER_00]: Here's my point, prophecy could be happening today without equating it with Scripture.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Apostle prophets were being used by God to do that, the canon is closed.
[SPEAKER_00]: The scriptures are complete.
[SPEAKER_00]: We don't need to add to it.
[SPEAKER_00]: So there are canonical prophets, non canonical prophets.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then, ones that are not recognized as a prophet, yet they prophesied.
[SPEAKER_00]: You think of Joseph, Joseph and Genesis 17.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, he was receiving dreams.
[SPEAKER_00]: They were prophesies of what was going to happen.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, the everyone's going to bow to him.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he kind of told his brothers too soon.
[SPEAKER_00]: But it was a prophecy nonetheless.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then Saul.
[SPEAKER_00]: For Samuel 10, for Samuel 19, he's a king.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's not a prophet, but yet he prophesied, and even Caiaphas, the high priest in John chapter 11, he prophesied that one man would die for the world, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: One man.
[SPEAKER_00]: In the New Testament, then you have apostles who are recognizes prophets,
[SPEAKER_00]: You have Agabus who is called a prophet and daughters of Philip who are called prophets because they were recognized as prophets because they routinely operated in this gift.
[SPEAKER_00]: But then you have people like Ananias in Acts chapter 9 who received Word to help
[SPEAKER_00]: Though he wasn't a prophet, he had a word from the Lord and now, again, Paul, urging the Corinthians to seek the gift of prophecy, yet when it arrived, they were to weigh and test what was said, interesting.
[SPEAKER_00]: Some prophecies came with us strong.
[SPEAKER_00]: thus say at the Lord, or go to the street called straight, and at the House of Judas, you'll find a man of Tarsus named Saul, or set aside Paul and Barnabas for the work I have, you know, is really clear, really, really, I with high authority without testing and weighing the prophecy, but then in Corinth, it says, wait, tested.
[SPEAKER_00]: And perhaps there must have been a number of poor quality, highly questionable prophecies given to the church in Paul's day.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because Paul had to exhort the church not to despise, think about that, prophecy.
[SPEAKER_00]: Not to despise it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, can you imagine the church members of Bethel and Ike, you know, saying to themselves, oh no, oh no, not Thelma,
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, no, not another prophecy from Phelma.
[SPEAKER_00]: Lord, pastor, please stop with that woman.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because he says in 1 Corinthians, our first testimony is 519, do not quench the Holy Spirit.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like the Holy Spirit is like a fire and water would quench the Holy Spirit, do not despise prophecies interesting.
[SPEAKER_00]: But test everything, hold fast to what is good.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, I can't imagine anyone in the first century despising prophecy, like at least not agibus when he visits or the apostles, I mean, I'd be hanging on everywhere they say, wouldn't you?
[SPEAKER_00]: Which leads me to believe that there were false prophecies going on in the first century and also poor quality, highly questionable prophecy going on too.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, John then, point number three.
[SPEAKER_00]: What are the safeguards?
[SPEAKER_00]: Because certainly there's got to be safeguards, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Because this is the sure word of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: This has been given to us.
[SPEAKER_00]: How do we have safeguards for a church that we prize the word?
[SPEAKER_00]: We love the word of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: We want to hear the word of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: And yet prophecy going on at the same time.
[SPEAKER_00]: So how do you protect the church from disruptive harmful
[SPEAKER_00]: this book, discernment, and the pastors and elders of the church, because in the first century just think about it.
[SPEAKER_00]: In the first century, they were to test in way prophecies by the established Word of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's when the New Testament was being written, I mean it was being written, and the fact that you had to test at the same time.
[SPEAKER_00]: We have more truth to go on than they did.
[SPEAKER_00]: because we have the completed canon.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I think the Lord will help us.
[SPEAKER_00]: And in the Old Testament, you can go back and look at these passages.
[SPEAKER_00]: Deuteronomy chapter 13 and verse 18, give us tests for prophecy.
[SPEAKER_00]: It instructed Israel to put to death
[SPEAKER_00]: Prophets who use the office to persuade people to serve another God, or to put to death profits whose prophecies did not come true.
[SPEAKER_00]: Wow, that's one way to eliminate false prophecies.
[SPEAKER_00]: However, we don't live in a theocracy.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's a difference, a theocracy is, you know, a God rule in a state government.
[SPEAKER_00]: We don't have a state government that's putting to death, heresy.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I would probably think maybe the closest thing we would come to is excommunication from the church.
[SPEAKER_00]: If there were prophecies that were just being so disruptive, so divisive, so false, that could be, you know, maybe a corollary.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I want to direct you back to Romans chapter six.
[SPEAKER_00]: It says, it comes with this phrase,
[SPEAKER_00]: in proportion to our faith.
[SPEAKER_00]: If prophecy in proportion to our faith, what does that mean?
[SPEAKER_00]: It sounds like
[SPEAKER_00]: that it sounds like according to the measure of our faith that we can muster in that moment.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think it can mean that because it does take a lot of faith for all of us to use the spiritual gifts toward one another.
[SPEAKER_00]: It takes a step of faith to do that, but consider the literal translation runs like this.
[SPEAKER_00]: If prophecy according to the measure of the faith,
[SPEAKER_00]: not our faith or the faith, okay?
[SPEAKER_00]: And whenever you find a definite article before faith, the faith, there is a good chance it means the body of Christian doctrine.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's the truth of the Christian faith, the faith.
[SPEAKER_00]: You see that in June chapter one, I was gonna say, June chapter three.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, June three, this is only one chapter.
[SPEAKER_00]: June three, it's the faith, the faith wants delivered to the saints.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're talking about a body of truth.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I believe that Paul is giving us probably the most important governor of prophecy.
[SPEAKER_00]: It must accord with the Christian faith already established.
[SPEAKER_00]: It has to be accorded to God's Word.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, that means we got to know our Bibles.
[SPEAKER_00]: Amen?
[SPEAKER_00]: We need to know our Bibles and be brave enough to shut down prophecy when it speaks out of line.
[SPEAKER_00]: That takes courage, too, like brother, sister, that doesn't accord with the Scriptures.
[SPEAKER_00]: So that's not a prophecy from the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: We have to be bold and courageous enough to do that, because we are testing and weighing what's being said, and we are to know even the lives that are giving them, because why?
[SPEAKER_00]: They're in the church.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's part of the body, right here.
[SPEAKER_00]: And this is where things go very wrong, okay, for Prophecy.
[SPEAKER_00]: What do you mean, John?
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, an example, the example of this is Bethel Church at a Redding, California.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you've probably heard about them through their music.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we've sung some of their songs over the years.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're in the news because about three of their profits.
[SPEAKER_00]: People that they have platformed have been exposed as frauds.
[SPEAKER_00]: These folks were famous because of Bethel's endorsement.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you say, frauds, what do you mean?
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, here's what they were doing.
[SPEAKER_00]: They were data mining off of Facebook and social media to find specifics about people in the crowd.
[SPEAKER_00]: a lady right there, Ramp, you, you have a dog named Fluffy, and they would go on and give really specifics, and they learned it all just through social media.
[SPEAKER_00]: Not only that, it was found out that these prophets were living in sexual immorality, all the while, prophesying to large crowds all over the country, all over the country.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, here's what I'm gonna say.
[SPEAKER_00]: Profits should be invested like all the gifts in the local church, in the local church, not on prophetic tours, you know, coming to a theater near you.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, run from that stuff.
[SPEAKER_00]: Their ministry, just like all the spiritual gifts need to be felt in the local church.
[SPEAKER_00]: where they are known and loved, that's going to take, that's going to be really good when they're under the oversight of pastors and elders.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is the local church where your gifts should be felt, that's a safeguard for all of us by the way, all of us.
[SPEAKER_00]: So what about reading your church then, John?
[SPEAKER_00]: What about redeemer church?
[SPEAKER_00]: How is this play out in redeemer church?
[SPEAKER_00]: You will even prophecy for today.
[SPEAKER_00]: I do, though not canonical prophecy.
[SPEAKER_00]: How is it going to be used in the church that?
[SPEAKER_00]: How would it be used in the church?
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, we don't make room for it on Sunday mornings because the teaching gift needs to be the priority when the church gathers once a week.
[SPEAKER_00]: The setting that best supports a prophetic word would be probably like a first Wednesdays when the structure is a little looser and the pastors and elders are there to weigh and test what's being given.
[SPEAKER_00]: In fact, if it, you know, if you receive something that you believe is a word for the church, the best thing to do is to tell a pastor or an elder and let them sift it and weigh it and maybe bring to the rest of the elders.
[SPEAKER_00]: will tell you.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think that's the best way to have a safe guard and yet really be open to the gift of the Holy Spirit, the prophecy gift.
[SPEAKER_00]: If we believe it is for the church, we're going to convey it, obviously, to you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, if you have one for an individual, you don't need approval for us, you just need to go to them.
[SPEAKER_00]: However, I would just give you some instructions, okay?
[SPEAKER_00]: If you have a prophecy for an individual, or even a little group of people, then I would say try to avoid phrases like, thus say at the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, doesn't it come from the Lord?
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, yes, but you what you don't want to do is bind the conscience of someone by doing that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because you don't want to convey that they would be in sin if they reject your prophecy, because they need a time to test and weigh it, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe introduce what you say with something like this.
[SPEAKER_00]: I sense that, or I feel moved of the Lord to tell you, and maybe I will let you discern whether it's from the Lord or not.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think you could probably say it that way.
[SPEAKER_00]: There you go.
[SPEAKER_00]: Wow, John.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know about this.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think you're introducing crazy into the church.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well,
[SPEAKER_00]: Listen, there's always going to be restraint practice that Redeemer because of my own caution.
[SPEAKER_00]: And my brothers, my pastors and elders who hold a different view at this church.
[SPEAKER_00]: But what I want is to be charitable toward one another if you hold a different view than I do for us to be charitable because we have put it in the third category because we believe that we can talk about these things
[SPEAKER_00]: We can have good dialogue about these things.
[SPEAKER_00]: We can challenge one another about these things, which I am doing to you right now.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we can be in the same family.
[SPEAKER_00]: So here's the thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: I do believe that prophecy comes with a range of strength and clarity.
[SPEAKER_00]: Again, there's not a lot of here's how you do it in the New Testament.
[SPEAKER_00]: They just say there's a gift of prophecy and you get a few little instances of it.
[SPEAKER_00]: But through my reading and through my understanding, I believe it comes with a range of strength and clarity.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, though teaching and prophecy are different gifts.
[SPEAKER_00]: I do believe on occasion, my sermons can have an element of prophecy in them.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, when speaking about the will of God about, I don't know, three or four weeks ago, you remember that sermon, discerning the will of God, on the third service.
[SPEAKER_00]: I felt strongly compelled to get back up on the platform after everything was done.
[SPEAKER_00]: The final song, Joseph was ready to say, you were loved and I got up and I said no, I felt so compelled to say something because I felt like,
[SPEAKER_00]: I sense that there were people in the audience that felt that they had no hope finding the will of God because of all the drama in their life caused by someone else close to them.
[SPEAKER_00]: So the world is just in chaos.
[SPEAKER_00]: How could the will of God even come true for my life and I just felt no, I got to get up there and say it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it was only the third service.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now was that prophecy?
[SPEAKER_00]: Was that a word from the Lord?
[SPEAKER_00]: I think it was.
[SPEAKER_00]: uh... excretation and encouragement can have also an element of prophecy in it when you know as you're coming to church as you're coming to life group you just sense somebody you think about someone and there's a sense like i got to share this verse
[SPEAKER_00]: I gotta show this first.
[SPEAKER_00]: Or I need to encourage so and so with specific things.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the more specific and the more urgent the closer I think it gets to a word of knowledge and a word of wisdom, perhaps prophecy.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like this range, you know?
[SPEAKER_00]: And so when you have information that you should not know apart from supernatural means, you're definitely prophesying then.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I think there's a full range of that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Pray before meeting a friend, ask God to share a word and there could be an element of prophecy and sharing, even a song.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, you know, Saul was numbered among the prophets in, for Samuel 10.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you know what he was doing?
[SPEAKER_00]: Thinking.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, that's crazy, but you're singing.
[SPEAKER_00]: So it could, the song could have that, an element of that, and could encourage or a passage of scripture you could give.
[SPEAKER_00]: And as you seek the minister in this way, with stronger impressions of a specific verse or a specific application or a revelation that comes to you, we don't need to be all up in our heads, whether or not this is a prophecy or not.
[SPEAKER_00]: Is that all right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Just move with stronger impulse to help one another because you are supposed to be doing that anyway with your spiritual gift.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I believe as you move, as you're praying, as you're trying to be helpful to another believer, God may give you a stronger, stronger word.
[SPEAKER_00]: It may be prophecy.
[SPEAKER_00]: And if so, I'm excited about that.
[SPEAKER_00]: You might not be.
[SPEAKER_00]: I would be because we have the sure word to test it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you have brothers and sisters here that know the Word of God and I don't think we're going to go off the deep end.
[SPEAKER_00]: I believe that God wants to do some really special things in our midst.
[SPEAKER_00]: Here's the bottom line.
[SPEAKER_00]: I pray for revival.
[SPEAKER_00]: I do.
[SPEAKER_00]: I pray for revival.
[SPEAKER_00]: What is revival?
[SPEAKER_00]: I believe when the Holy Spirit not only feels individual, fills a church, fills a group of people.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, we do have the intimacy of the Lord, but there are moments I've heard it explained where the filling of Holy Spirit is like, you know, a father's walking with a son, their hand in hand, but all the sudden the father reaches down and just takes the child in his arms and gives him the big hug.
[SPEAKER_00]: Kind of like that, where filling of the Holy Spirit is just everything goes up a notch.
[SPEAKER_00]: where, again, fear gets removed, joy floods.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you say, well, you don't live like, it's not like 24, seven.
[SPEAKER_00]: No one lives in that, 24, seven.
[SPEAKER_00]: We are looking to prayer, getting into the word, communion of the saints, sacraments, being shared, those are the regular ways of deepening your walk and maturity.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I think like Acts 4, when the Holy Spirit filled those folks, there were signs and wonders, you know what they said?
[SPEAKER_00]: Do it again, Lord, do it again, do it again.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because you want closeness, intimacy, you want the Holy God to be magnified in this city.
[SPEAKER_00]: And when people are lit up with the glory of God, and their gifts are being used, watch out.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think the Lord wants that.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I pray for that, and I'm asking you to pray, Holy Spirit, fill us to the brim with extraordinary power for mission.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can pray with me, pray for revival for the church, pray for a spiritual awakening in this region before Jesus comes back.
[SPEAKER_00]: Why not, we're seeing a lot of great things here.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you go, John, I mean, we're seeing it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Why are you asking for more?
[SPEAKER_00]: Because there's more.
[SPEAKER_00]: I know there's more.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, there are so many people who need Jesus in this city and the region.
[SPEAKER_00]: Amen?
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, well, then,
[SPEAKER_00]: We need to radiate the glory of God, and we do that by moving in the power of the Holy Spirit through the spiritual gifts that are given to you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Whether it's teaching or prophecy or encouragement and serving, which we're gonna get to, which are pretty exciting gifts, do that to the glory of God and watch the Lord be magnified.
[SPEAKER_00]: Nothing will fill our hearts with greater joy than the Lord being magnified in this place.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, let me pray.