Becoming A Super-Natural Servant VII, Go For Your Gift II

Give you the red outlines, actually not outlines, they're study guides. If you were here last week, you already got one, but if you weren't, you'll want to get one. Ushers, if you'll come. That's these, that's right. Let's come on up. And if you didn't get one of these last night, please raise your hand, or last week rather, raise your hand. And the ushers will serve you with one of these. This is an outline of what the spiritual language is. Now, I'm not going to teach from this. There's lots of references here you can study for yourself. I need to move quickly, so permit me just to ask you to do something. Use the back of this as a place to write your notes, or get your own sheet of paper out. And then, if you read this while I'm teaching, you'll be thoroughly confused, because I don't say what's on here. Let's just pray that I have everything together here. All right. Now, I don't want to apologize about giving a shortened teaching on the spiritual language tonight, because in fact, this is not a focus of this whole series on being a servant. We're in a series called Supernatural Servants, the focus of which is how God wants to raise up an army of people committed to serving the kingdom of God in their generation. That includes me, I know it includes most of you as well. As part of the enablement of that, the Lord, we've been saying over the last several weeks, gives us gifts of the Spirit. And one of those gifts is the spiritual language, or speaking in tongues. Now, there's a very interesting phenomenon I want to comment on right off the bat. Some years ago, if I'd announced this topic, we would have had difficulty getting everyone in the place. Speaking in tongues was a hot item. Probably at no greater intensity than when I was a seminary student. The Charismatic Movement, the Jesus People Movement, they were in full swing. TV and radio ministries were popping up all over the place. Conferences and retreats, even mainline denominational people like some of you were, were going to such conferences to learn about what it meant to be filled with the Holy Spirit, and particularly this issue of what was the prayer language. I remember as a hungry seminary student, being conservative in my background, and somewhat cautious about some of the craziness that was out there, and being Presbyterian to boot, it was difficult for me at first to even accept that this was a reality, a possibility. But, a number of my closest friends were touched by the Holy Spirit in those early 70s, and that opened me to the possibility that it was real. And then I moved to Southern California, and I had more options, more choices, more places to visit than you can imagine, where these things were taking place. I can remember more than one prayer meeting where I was gathered together with seminary students to pray, to seek the fullness of the Spirit, to listen to God, and every once in a while we'd invite somebody with the gift. And then we'd kind of say, well, who's going to sit beside the person with the gift? Maybe the gift will spill over. This is before a lot of books were written. Dennis Bennett was just new in the scene. You couldn't go out and buy a whole shelf full of things like you can now. But over the years, things have changed. God has given us much revelation in this subject, and I want to say that 20-some years later now, here's what I feel. Here's why it's not such a hot topic. Let's show this overhead, if we might. Today's tongues are for real. Did you know that it's fairly accurate to say that about a quarter of a billion people speak in tongues around the world, speak in a prayer language to God around the world today? And the fastest-growing segment of the Christian population by far is what is known as Pentecostal or Charismatic Christians. In South America today, I mean, you read even the secular journals, they're marveling at the numbers of people who are coming into this Christian experience and being filled with the Spirit and speaking with tongues. You go into Korea, you go around the world, you go into China, you go into Africa. I mean, it's practically all Pentecostal growth. So tongues are for real. People who think it's made up mean that they're saying that 250 million people are making it up. It's pretty impressive. Number two, lines have been drawn. Another reason why the controversy doesn't exist is a lot of lines have been drawn. Major denominations have taken on, you know, the slogan of the anti-drug people, just say no, we're not going to do it. If you want to be part of our denomination, go somewhere else. And they've just made it real clear, that's where they stand. On the other hand, some have made room and have opened themselves up, and so they've clearly come out. And alongside that, some very powerful movement has been in place in a non-denominational kind of way. That's what this church is. But the lines are drawn, so there's no need for controversy anymore. Number three, balance has emerged. And I trust that here in our church, this will be the overriding principle when it comes to this and any issue that has to do with spiritual experience. We here at North Way believe that the spiritual language is available to everyone. And the reason I say that is because Paul said, I would that you all speak in tongues. If you believe he wrote a third of the New Testament, which he did. If you believe that he was the greatest theologian that ever lived, and he was. If you believe that he was God's anointed apostle to the Gentiles, he was. He said, I would that you all spoke in tongues. You can argue with him. But it doesn't mean, he does not say, you all must speak in tongues. He doesn't say, if you don't speak in tongues, you're not as spiritual as I am. He doesn't say, if you don't speak in tongues, you're a second-class Christian. So all those kinds of things have kind of merged into a balance. And that's where we want to be. We at North Way see the spiritual language as an enablement. And I'm going to tell you what it enables you to do in just a minute. But not as a specific evidence. It's an enablement, but not an evidence. You ought to write that down, because someone's going to ask you what that means. And you'll be able to tell them. And it doesn't mean, it's not a mark of spirituality that you speak in tongues. But it is an enablement to do an awful lot with God that maybe you couldn't do otherwise. And I'll talk about that in a moment. And number four, it seems that the full range of spiritual gifts are now more acknowledged. People talk about, you know, I see lists anywhere from 14 to 39 spiritual gifts. I mean, we talk about all kinds of things. We talk about leadership. We talk about giving. And we talk about teaching. And we talk about wisdom. And all these different gifts. So the spiritual languages fit in. It's part of what God gives, but it's not the focus. So consequently, we can talk here tonight sanely about this. But I also want to say we can talk with a fair amount of confidence that God desires for us all to enjoy this enablement. And if you don't tonight, I want you to perk your ears up in your heart and say, God, is this something you want me to be aware of for my own life? And by the way, let me just pause here. I'll say something from a fairly well-exposed point of view. It has nothing to do with how intellectual you are. You may think that you're too intellectual to speak in tongues, and I want to tell you, you're not. In fact, tongues is God's way, more or less, of going around your intellect and letting you communicate directly. Some of the most brilliant people I've ever met were charismatic or Pentecostal Christians, spoke in tongues. It had nothing to do with your intellect. So let's be grateful that whether you have a little tiny one or a great big one, it doesn't matter. You can enjoy this gift that the Lord gives. Now, what are the basics? Since time is limited, let me move right on, please. What are the basics of the spiritual language? Well, let's look at 1 Corinthians 14. I had to admit, you know, I wondered why the Lord had us speak on this subject when we were having a candidate for Congress in here. And, you know, figure, well, that's what these churches always talk about. It's not. First time in a long time that I've done this. But here we go. Basics. Number one. Let's read 1 Corinthians 14. Verse two, for anyone who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men, but to God. First of all, the basics of the spiritual language is that you're speaking to God. You're speaking directly to God. He's hearing what you say. God knows what's coming out of your mouth. He understands it. You're communicating with them. And people who speak in their prayer language regularly will tell you, you have a sense of communicating. You have a sense of, many times, a sense of peace and well-being in your spirit because you know you're communicating with God. And by the way, folks, there's lots of ways we communicate without using intelligible words. Some of you are doing it right now very effectively. You don't have to speak languages to communicate. You know that. You don't have to speak something you understand to communicate. The Bible says, indeed, verse two, no one understands him. He utters mysteries with his spirit. That's number two. He utters mysteries in the spirit. Now, for the longest time, I said, well, what's the value of it if you don't know what you're saying? How do you know if you're being effective or not? Just out of curiosity, a little poll here, how many people could give a testimony, if we had time tonight, and could tell of a story where someone asked you to pray, and you didn't know how to pray, and you prayed in your prayer language, and people came back and said later, God did something special because the thing you were praying for was taken care of. How many people had that happen? There's a way in which the Lord uses that to speak in that mystery that kind of takes your pride out of it. Sometimes if we knew that we were praying for something exactly the way it came out, and we did that over and over again, it can really start to pop us up quite a bit. Sometimes I think the Lord would have us pray in the spirit because the devil tunes in sometimes, folks. Did you know in wartime, there's codes that go back and forth? Communication happens that the other party can't understand. When you speak in your prayer language, I want you to know the devil does not understand it. You've got a secret code going to God, and you can trust that the Lord knows and hears and moves you. Number three, look at the next verse. But everyone who prophesies speaks to men for their strengthening, encouragement, and comfort. That's the verse we used last week. He who speaks in a tongue, verse 4, edifies himself. In other words, he who speaks in a tongue builds up his own spirit. It isn't something you can accumulate and say, well, I'm a little stronger today than I was yesterday. But I want to tell you, over time, your inner man has more confidence, more strength, more ability to move it with conviction. The wonderful thing about edifying yourself is you can do it any time. You can be driving in your car. Have you ever pulled up alongside someone whose windows were up and their mouth was moving? You figure they're probably listening to the radio. Well, maybe they are. But I pulled up alongside some of you sometimes, and there was something else that was moving and something else coming out. You can edify yourself when you're exercising. You can edify yourself when you're cleaning, when you're working. You can build up your spirit just letting that prayer language be uttered any time, any place, anywhere. Now, obviously with discretion, especially if it's out loud. I'm not one who curries the idea or favors the idea that you make a display of this. I've seen people who walk up and they greet someone and they start speaking in tongues like it's a spiritual moment. I don't like that. Somebody just looked at another person and laughed there. All right. Edify yourself. How many people think it's selfish to edify yourself? How many think they need to edify? Number four. It's praying in the spirit. Two verses come to mind. 1 Corinthians 14, verses 14 and 15. I will pray with my mind like you just did, and I will pray with my spirit. There's another verse that really comes to mind here. Mark it down. Romans 8. This could easily be an entire teaching in and of itself. Romans 8 is one of the most special scriptures to those of us who get into situations where we don't know what to say or how to pray. May I read that for you? Romans 8. It says this. In the same way the spirit helps us in our weakness, we do not know what we ought to pray for. How many times does that happen? We do not know what we ought to pray for. Someone's in an accident. We don't know what we ought to pray for. Someone needs a job but keeps getting their door shut. We don't know what to pray for. But the spirit himself intercedes for us with words. Groans, rather, that words cannot express. The spirit of God groaning inside of you. In a language that words, words that you would make intelligible cannot express. I've always taken great encouragement. I pray for missionaries all the time. Usually I pray in the spirit. Because I believe that's how we can be most effective. By the way, can I say that I think the key to all things working together for good, Romans 8.28. How many of you love that verse? That's one on my refrigerator. You know what? I think Romans 8.28 comes to pass because you do Romans 8.26. And that is, you know, if you miss that tonight, you're missing an important principle. Things don't automatically work together for good. They do if you're praying, committing to the Lord. All right? Number five. The other basic is the Bible says that it's a sign. Back to 1 Corinthians. Verse 22. Tongues then are a sign not for believers but for unbelievers. Prophecy, however, is for believers not for unbelievers. And then it goes on and describes it a little bit more. Here's what I believe. That's a rather debated verse or two in there. It's kind of interesting. But there are several scriptures where people came in and heard the believers gathered speaking in tongues. You can think of one chapter where that happened. I'm embarrassed. Acts 2. Right? And what did they hear? They were extolling God in their own languages. In other words, the tongues that were coming out were not known to the speakers but the hearers understood them. I've been in meetings where that's happened. And there are times when no one understands the language and someone will stand up and interpret that tongue. In other words, someone will come and they'll speak in a tongue. Most of us have had that experience that someone will speak in a tongue and someone else will come up and interpret it. And I can't tell you how many times someone else who had come to that meeting realized that that was a message for them. And they were brought to conviction before God or they were brought to hopefulness before God. And they were ministered to. And it was a sign to them that God cared about them. So, there's lots of other things that could be said. But these are the basics. These are why tongues are so important to us. I mean, these are things that we shouldn't devalue or minimize. And, you know, I had someone say to me recently, Well, I don't worry about it. Well, you shouldn't worry about it. But, dear one, if God gives you something, he makes it available to you, and it helps you to walk a Christian life, it's pleasing him, how many of you think you should take it? Take it. Now, let me clarify something. I know this is probably in your notes. There's a difference between the prayer language and the gift. This is where most of the controversy comes. Any scholar will tell you that there's a difference. We don't have an overhead for this. I'm kind of shooting from the hip right here. But, you see, the prayer language is God's, the Holy Spirit in you praying. That's how I see that. The gift of tongues is that particular grace that rests on a believer who believes that the Lord is using him. Remember last week, the three levels of prophecy? Well, there's a level when the Lord moves you to speak to the congregation. And then, that is when it must be interpreted. It's inappropriate for someone to stand and speak out loud in their tongue and have nobody interpret. Because the Bible says, you know, no one's helped. Nobody gets anywhere with that. And 1 Corinthians 14 is very explicit about that. There's no value in it. Verse 13. For this reason, anyone who speaks in a tongue should pray that he may interpret what he says. Verse 16. If you're praising God with your spirit, how can one who finds himself among those who don't understand say amen to your thanksgiving? He doesn't know what you're saying. So, you need to have interpretation. Now, basically, I've been taught that speaking in tongues with interpretation equals prophecy. How many have heard that before? Let me say it again then. A lot of you haven't. Speaking in tongues, the gift of tongues with interpretation is the same as prophecy. It's the same as foretelling or foretelling the word of God. And in its proper setting, it can be very encouraging. Now, someone asked me not long ago, well, do you believe that someone could just stand up back here and speak in a tongue and someone else interpret over here? And my answer is, do I believe it could be? Sure. In fact, it's the kind of thing that we've had here numerous times. But what we began to discover was, let's say the brother back here stood up and said something, no one over here can understand or hear what he's saying. So, it just became what the Bible says, disorderly. It wasn't edifying. It was confusing. It wasn't building the body up. So, that's why we favor the idea if you have a message, you come up and tell one of the pastors here that you have a message from the Lord at the appropriate time, we'll go ahead and give that message, and then someone will have the interpretation. That's the way those things would work. It's all a matter of moving with the flow of God in an order that brings about fruitfulness and not just confusion. And I know that you know that that happens a lot in different places. Now, let me just conclude and leave a couple minutes for questions. Here you go. Twenty years of the spiritual language, this is my own conviction, convinces me that, number one, it helps to build childlike faith. Can I say to you folks that on more than one occasion, I've had to explain why I believed in speaking in tongues to people who probably felt it was intellectually inferior to do so, and really with no sense. And I want you to know that that little expression on my part has done a great deal just to keep me simple before God. Number two, speaking in tongues helps to control mind. Are you with me? Good chance you're not going to get yourself in trouble if you're praying in your tongue. A lot of things I wish I'd not said if I'd been speaking in my prayer language, I wouldn't have said. Number three, after 20 years, I'm convinced that the prayer language helps to build intimate communication with my Heavenly Father. There are times, many, many, many times, I don't know what to say. I don't know how to verbalize it. I just let my spirit talk. And I feel drawn to God. I sense his presence. Romans 8.26 assures me that I can pray effectively because the Holy Spirit is praying. The Holy Spirit is praying. By the way, if you want to pray for me and you don't know how to pray, pray in your spiritual language because it's going to be effective. I request it from you. And finally, number five, it prepares me for miracles. Let me end with this thought. You see, the reason why there was such an emphasis on the prayer language as being the mark of the filling and fullness of the Spirit is that from that point on, people began to discover that they were open to God to do things that they had not seen in the past. It was as though a whole new realm of experience opened up to them. And there's something special about that personal miracle right there on your tongue that elevates your faith to expect God to hear your prayer for healing, to give you the word of wisdom and knowledge. And I have to say to you, many people have found that their faith was raised, that they saw God do other things in their life because they were able to be open to this initial experience of God's miracle working grace in their heart. Now, I want to say again, if you don't speak in tongues or you're not convinced yet, it's fine. Do some study. Please feel free to ask one of our leaders to help you understand God's word on this. I have done some extensive teaching a few years back. And that's up to you to avail yourself of it. I have a couple moments to end. Are there any specific questions I can answer as last week that will help you, that are fair questions? My question was, why do I feel it's not a specific evidence? Because there are stories in the scriptures where when the fullness of the spirit was given, that the tongues followed immediately or shortly afterwards. And there are some illustrations where it didn't happen that way. And I also have to say that, this may sound strange, and I think you'll understand my spirit, but I've known lots of spirit-filled people, servants of God, men and women, who've not spoken in tongues. So I believe it because of the scripture, and I believe it because of my experience. Fair question, Matt. Go ahead. Okay, good question. The question is, does the enemy try to duplicate it? Do we have to be afraid of counterfeits? That was one I used to hear a lot of. I don't hear it too much anymore, but I rarely have seen that. I've seen people make it up themselves, you know, and try really, really hard, and not just kind of relax. But I don't know that I've ever encountered someone who, you know, it's just been like the devil made me do it that way. I think the secret to that is be with someone, pray with someone who you trust in the Lord to be discerning. And it's fairly safe. It's a gift that God gives. Now, you know, I think it's fair to say that there are lots of people who speak in tongues that aren't from God. I believe that. But if you're asking God for his gift, I don't think you have to worry a whole lot about the devil giving you his. All right. All right, one more question. Here we go. Yes. All right, good question. And it's a fair question. And let me encourage you by telling you that I asked for two years. I mean, I had every hand available laid on me in Southern California, all the biggies. Okay. And you know the irony of all? I mean, I went to Kenneth Hagan. I went to Fred Price. I went to all the ones that are still around today. I mean, just because I was hungry. But God knows what has to happen in your heart for these things to take place. And just trust him. And one of God's little ironies, he ended up, I received my prayer language in a little chancel area of a Presbyterian church by myself one night. Boom. No one was there. I didn't. It just happened. So I want to say to all of you who maybe are hungry and you're just not there yet, don't give up. Just say, Lord, you know. But here's what the secret for me was discovering that the Lord had already done it. And I just needed my faith to rise to receive it. That's the secret for me. The Lord's already given. The Holy Spirit's already been given. You just need to acknowledge it with thanksgiving and just say, Lord, I'm anxious. And then maybe talk with someone who you treasure as a mentor of sorts to help you deal with your fears or your doubts. All right. Let's pray. Let me ask you to stand. I think we're ready to have our closing gathering here. If ushers, you'll get ready real quickly for offering. Join a hand with someone. And let's ask the Holy Spirit right now to seal all this. I know it was quick, but let's ask him to do that together. Something up here is going to be designed by God just to remind me of who he is and his lordship in my life. Somebody's going to say something. There's going to be a word, a scripture. There's going to be a song. Something is going to come that's going to make a difference in my life. And, dear ones, I need it. I need to be reminded of the lordship of Christ in my life. Number four, let's remember, and this is the greatest part of it all, that the Sabbath is for you. You see, even though the Lord is very clear about this, it's a commandment, the bottom line is that the commandment is for you. Let's look at that next scripture. Jesus said this, and let's read it together. Then he said to them, The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. Wow, what a statement. Does that liberate anybody? We're not under some law here that's legalistically binding us. Jesus said, wait a minute. This is for you. The real purpose behind the Sabbath is for refreshing and for the enjoyment of man. If you've ever traveled in nations where people work seven days a week, and I have, you observe something. I remember getting into a taxi cab with a man in New Delhi, India. And I asked him what he did, and he was a rather educated man. He spoke English, and he says, I drive a taxi. I said, where do you live? He said, well, it takes me an hour and a half to get to work, and I drive the taxi for 12 hours, and it takes me an hour and a half to get back. 14 hours a day. I said, wow, I bet you enjoy weekends. He said, oh no, seven days a week. Seven days a week, he had four kids. I mean, he broke my heart. I gave him a $50 tip, I might add, because I was so touched by that. This guy was just pouring out his life. And I said, I looked around, and I saw what seven day a week kind of mentality does to people. It makes them depressed. It saps their motivation. They don't want to work. They're unproductive. Look at the Soviet Union. Seven days a week. They live less satisfied lives. On the other hand, when we honor God and enjoy life, creativity comes along. Blessing flows. Some of you who walk the malls on Sunday may notice that one restaurant up in the court up there is closed every Sunday. Chick-fil-A. Chick-fil-A is owned by a Christian entrepreneur. And he made a decision to shut down, even if the malls and supermarkets and all those kind of places are open, he shuts down. And they've discovered, they've done a lot of studies, that in the average mall, their store makes at least as much, if not more, than every other restaurant six days a week. And they honor God, and he blesses them. You see, God wants us to enjoy rest. Exodus 31, 7 says that God refreshed himself. Why? Because he was whooped? No. I think it means he did something different on the seventh day. And we need to do some different things. We need to do the things that rejuvenate us and refire us and refresh us. You know, a day like this, take a long walk. Go down to the park. Sit out on your porch or whatever you want to do just to be refreshed. Take a nap. Rest. The key word is rest and refresh. Don't line up a pile of projects a mile long. I want to just, you know, I'll just say it. And you can send me letters if you want to. I think it's an aberration of the Sabbath to have a long list of chores that you do all around the house on Sunday. Husband, you can look at your wife right now and say, there you go. I don't think we should spend the whole day on the Lord's day at the malls. And in the supermarkets and doing all that stuff. Now, there may be necessity. And again, it's not legalism. But you need to know it's a day unto God. It needs to be a day where you are refreshed in who he is. And this scripture came so vitally alive to me. Here's what God says about this Sabbath day. And let's read it together as we conclude. Isaiah 58, 13 and 14. Read it with me. If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath and from doing as you please on my holy day, if you call the Sabbath a delight and the Lord's holy day honorable, and if you honor it by not going your own way and not doing as you please or speaking idle words, then you will find your joy in the Lord. And I will cause you to ride on the heights of the land and to feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob. The mouth of the Lord has spoken. I read that and I say, wow. God cares about this day for our sakes. And do you notice there's a blessing with this. He says if you honor the Sabbath and get refreshed and re-fire yourself the rest of your week, God's going to mark it with his blessing. And frankly, folks, I'd rather have six days when God's blessings on my life than seven that I'm trying to hack out on my own. And when we do those things. Now, this commandment more than any other one to me says, God, you really love me. You really know me. You really know what I need. And by your grace, I want to do differently. And I want to say to you as a church, I'm going to do some things different on my Sabbath. My Sabbath happens to be Monday. And I want to do some things differently because I desire to know the fullness of God's blessing. And I know you do, too. Let's stand together, shall we? And just a moment of quiet prayer. Would you go ahead and ask God to pinpoint to you what you need to do differently? And if the gals will please put up those four points again, those four remembrances. What do you need to remember most in your life? And go ahead and pray it over your life right now. That work is not what life is all about. You need to spend more time remembering who God is. You need to align your life with the Lord of the Sabbath. Or you just need to do things that are more refreshing and less exhausting on the Sabbath. Go ahead. Pray right now for your life, would you? His strength is perfect when our strength is low. He'll carry us where we can't carry on. Praise Him in His power. Because He is perfect.