“Getting
Something Out Of Church”
LAGRANGE BAPTIST CHURCH
April 22, 2007
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I'm looking at you.
How many of you went to "Thunder" yesterday? Raise your hand.
Okay. That
explains something. That
explains some of the empty seats because there are not many of us
here who went to Thunder.
I wonder, I just wonder if you are a bit distracted today, or
possibly burdened, maybe we should just ask God to help us focus.
Father in Heaven, I pray in the name of the LORD Jesus that
your Holy Spirit would come, would help us focus, would lift our
burdens, would help us in this unusual passage of scripture to get
something out of church today, and to see that you are God, to see
that your Son is the savior, to see that your Spirit works right
now, today, in our hearts.
Lord awaken us, take away distractions, and let not the Devil
steal away the seed, for we pray in Jesus' name, Amen.
Let's take our Bibles and turn to Chapter 14.
We have our work cut out for us.
I have wrestled, and wrestled and wrestled with how to deal
with this chapter as far as breaking it down into pieces because it
is such a tight knit unit, I am deciding to go with the whole
chapter. Obviously we
are not going to hit all the details; we cannot do that in a year's
time, but we will hit the important issues.
The main thing is I want you to see that the Apostle Paul is
discussing details, but he writes a letter with a meaning.
He has intent in what he is writing and it is in chapters
like these where we get so caught up in the leaves on the tree, we
don't see the tree nor the forest the tree is in and we miss the
simple truth of scripture.
So we call it this morning, "Getting Something Out of
Church," and when I begin reading this scripture, you're going to
wonder, "Man, am I going to get anything out of it today or not"?
But I think if you will stay with me and listen to what God
is saying in his Word, there is something for all of us, if not a
LOT for many of us.
Now, let me give you a little context to remind you where we
are, so when we begin reading it makes at least a bit of sense.
This church is a wonderful church, it's a gifted church, but
it is, at this point, a troubled and immature church.
Immaturity typically expresses itself through people who
think they are mature. A
maturity that wants to show off is an immaturity.
You got that? It
goes back to some of the principles of the Proverbs that the wise
man conceals what's in his heart, but the fool makes everything
known. So we don't need to show off our maturity if we are
mature, and there was a lot of showing off going on in
The chapter divides itself very naturally into two sections.
In the first section, we will see that we are having an
explanation of prophecy and tongues in the church.
This is teaching about them in the church, what they are,
what the reason for them is.
In section 2, we are taught about the expression of
these gifts of prophecy and tongues in the church; when they are
used; how are they to be used? Now, let's read a bit and we'll come
back and walk our way through the chapter.
1 Corinthians 14:
1
Pursue love, [Now that's a
2-word sermon - is that the pursuit of your life? Let me remind you
of some of its qualities: Love is patient and kind, love does not
envy or boast, it is not arrogant or rude.
The scriptures say pursue love. Then, and only then,
and after the pursuit of love] and earnestly desire the spiritual
gifts, especially that you may prophesy.
[The chapter, itself, will explain why he says that]
2For one who speaks in a tongue speaks not to men, but to God; for no one
understands him but he utters mysteries in the Spirit. 3On
the other hand, the one who prophesies speaks to people for their
upbuilding and encouragement and consolation. 4The one
who speaks in a tongue builds up himself, but the one who prophesies
builds up the church. 5Now I want you all to speak in
tongues, but even more to prophesy.
The one who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in
tongues, unless someone interprets, so that the much may be built
up.
6Now, brothers, if I come to you speaking in tongues, how will I benefit
you unless I bring you some revelation or knowledge or prophecy or
teaching? 7 If even lifeless instruments, such as the
flute or the harp, do not give distinct
notes, how will anyone know what is played? 8And
if the bugle gives an indistinct sound, who will get ready for
battle? 9So with yourselves, if with your tongue you
utter speech that is not intelligible, how will anyone know what is
said? For you will be speaking into the air. 10There are
doubtless many different languages in the world and none is without
meaning, 11but if I do not know the meaning of the
language, I will be a foreigner to the speaker and the speaker a
foreigner to me. So with
yourselves, since you are eager for manifestations of the Spirit,
strive to excel in building up the church."
And I pray we are all eager for manifestations of the
Spirit. Now, first let
me tell you want is not here. Okay, and that will clear up a whole
lot of confusion and I think you'll understand it as I explain it.
What is not in 1 Corinthians 14 is a comprehensive guide for
worship in the local church.
Many people take a passage like this and they read it and
they say, "Why isn't church like that today?"
Look at…drop all the way down to verse 26; this is in the
second section but this serves the point right now.
Paul says,
26"What then, brothers? When you come together [he's talking about coming
together as a church] One has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a
tongue, or an interpretation. "Let all things be done for building
up. 27If any
speak in a tongue, let there be only two or at the most three, and
each in turn, and let someone interpret.
28But if there is no one to interpret, let each of
them keep silent in the church and speak to himself and to God.
Then he goes on and he talks about prophets, and some people
look at that say, "Well why don't we have a spontaneous
hymn in church today? Why don't we have someone speak up in
tongues, give us a revelation and the interpreter interpret that?
See, we're not even following the Bible at all.
This is what you're supposed to do in worship service."
Remember, I said if you left the mainstream that Paul is
dealing with one church and one conflict, the conflict over prophecy
and tongues. He's not
even dealing with the issues of worship as a whole; he's not dealing
with all the gifts of the Spirit, but two.
You look at that and you say, "Well, where's the reading of
scripture? And where is praying? And where is there speaking to one
another in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs?"
You see, prophecy and tongues are permitted in the church
when they are provided by the Holy Spirit.
Prayer, scripture, preaching and teaching are commanded by
God to be in the church according to many places in scripture,
particularly the pastoral epistles, and they should always be there.
So, this is not a comprehensive guide for worship in the
local church at all. So,
now let's look at what is there.
The explaining of prophecy and tongues.
There was no way I could put down all of my thoughts and what
I have read over the days preparing for this.
Let me just give some general information about prophecy and
tongues that is gleaned from this and other places in the scripture.
Prophecy and tongues are both embattled gifts today.
There are some people who think that when the New Testament
was completed, that the sign gifts, the miraculous gifts, including
prophecy and tongues, were done away with.
They ceased. That
view is called cessationists.
They think they are done away because we have a complete
scripture.
There are others who are on the way other extreme; they
think God still gives revelation from the Lord that is a bit
authoritative, that tongues are a sign of being filled with the Holy
Spirit, and that everyone needs to speak in tongues.
Neither of which do I think is correct.
This is a difficult passage of scripture, but it was
not difficult for the Corinthians.
The difficulties lie in the fact that we are two millennia
away from them, and we don't understand their culture and we don't
have all the language understood and we don't know the specifics and
the names of the people dealing with these troubles in the church,
Paul did. But, when you
dig into it, you begin to find out, Oh, it's much simpler than I
thought it was. And
since some of you are already looking a little sleepy again, wait
till we get to the point where Paul says, "Let a woman be silent in
the church!" At least you'll listen to me when I get there!
[Laughter]
Prophecy, I think, is still a gift alive in the church
today. That scares a lot
of people and, indeed, could be a bit frightening to me.
The more frightening thing is to me, after my study, I
believe that prophecy has a bit of a revelatory note to it.
Now, let me explain, because when you use the word,
revelation, you think that means scripture. No, not at all. In
the Old Testament, there was one kind of prophet in prophecy.
In the New Testament, there is a different, a highly
different kind of prophecy that was subject to the scrutiny, the
weighing of, and the disagreement of the church.
You did not disagree with Jeremiah and Isaiah; they had a
word from the Lord.
It was like scripture.
There is a huge difference in the New Testament between
scripture and prophecy.
Look with me, if you would, I'm not even going to stay with my
outline, but let's go to uh, Verse 29: Verse 29 says this:
29Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others weight what is said.
So, there's no such thing in the New Testament as a prophet
who stands up and says, "The Lord has spoken to me and this is what
he said." It is someone
who has the noticeable gift that I think God can reveal something to
them, and then it is open to the scrutiny of the church in the light
of the apostolic authority, which is the scriptures, now let me show
you why. Now look at
verse 36:
36Or was it from you that the Word of God came? [They were a little too
proud of their prophecy here; Paul is asking rhetorical questions,
to their shame] Or are you the only ones it has reached? 37If
anyone thinks that he is a prophet, or spiritual,
[now he is nailing them as their pastor and apostle.
They saw themselves
as a spiritual church; they saw themselves as
giants and he's already told them earlier, I can only speak to
you as babes; I'm not even sure I can
speak to you as spiritual, one having the Holy Spirit.]
"he should acknowledge that the things I am writing [the
things is pleural, I believe it refers to the whole of this letter]
the things that I am writing to you are a command of the Lord."
[He is putting his writing, that is scripture, so far above what
they understood the gift of prophecy to be that it always is
submissive to that.
It never adds to
that. There's a curse
for adding to scriptures in the Book
of the Revelation.]
And then he says, "If anyone does not recognize this, that
these are the words of the Lord, he is not recognized." You are
nothing in the church. So, that's a little bit about prophecy.
Tongues? I think
when tongues are examined and the very word used for tongues is
examined in the New Testament, you have to come away with the
conclusion that when someone spoke in "an unknown tongue" the
unknown-ness was to the people in the room. In some ways, it would
similar to me delivering a sermon in fluent Russian.
I think there are probably 2 or 3 people in this congregation
who could understand that having Russian training in the military.
But to you it would be a strange tongue and I would be
speaking into the air.
I'm not saying that all tongues were given in that manner, but what
I'm saying is, in studying tongues, when someone spoke in an unknown
tongue, according to the scriptures, they were always conveying
cognitive content. It
was not gibberish. They
were in control of themselves.
The prophets and tongue-speakers both were.
Look back to what Paul gives in order, and I'm out of order
here, but it's fitting for the moment.
Paul says, at the end of Verse 26, "Let all things be done
for building up." And then Verse 27, "If any speak in a tongue, let
there be only two or at the most three, and each in turn, and let
someone interpret."
Those are clear directions for church worship.
So, he's saying that if you have the gift of tongues, bigger
than the gift of tongues is the fruit of the Holy
Spirit who has gifted you, and the fruit of the spirit is love, as
well as it is self-control, so when it's your opportunity, you
stand, you speak and you sit, and no one else speaks in a tongue
when you speak, and then the interpreter interprets, and if there is
not an interpreter present, you keep your tongue to yourself
in church. It's not for
that, even in praying; some people wonder if praying is a tongue,
and evidently that is what tongues are chiefly for in worship.
Look at Verse 13; Paul says:
"Therefore, one who speaks in a tongue should pray for the
power to interpret." He
says, "For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays but my mind is
unfruitful." He says
there is a possibility that I may have the gift of tongues, but not
the gift of interpretation. What am I to do? I will pray with my
spirit, but I will pray with my mind also.
I will sing praise with my spirit, I will sing praise with my
mind also."
Paul is admitting that we praise God, thank God and pray to
God in an unknown tongue, but what he is saying is in the church if
I pray in a tongue, then I am going to also pray what I just prayed
in my tongue in a language everyone else can understand.
That's what he's saying here.
For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays but my mind is
unfruitful. What am I to
do? I will pray with my
spirit, that's his tongue, but I will pray with my mind also.
That's the known language of the people worshipping.
He is the interpreter of his own praying.
It really is that simple and we’ve taken this and greatly
complicated it. Tongues,
I think, are available today along with prophecy.
Is God obligated to give every church the gift of prophecy
and every church the gift of tongues? No!
The Holy Spirit assigns gifts as they are needed, when they
are needed, where they are needed.
Now I can tell some of you are listening because your brows
are furrowed and you're saying, "I'm not certain that I agree with
my pastor here." As, a matter
of fact, I'm not even certain that I'm hearing him say this.
When I come to you, I do my very best to never come to you with my
personal preference. Had
I done that I would never be saying what I'm saying presently.
I come to you to teach you what the Word of God says.
And, as I understand it best, this is what it teaches us.
However, that's not all it teaches us.
Take a look at the main vein. Verse 5.
As you will notice, Paul is not negative towards tongues; he
is negative towards the misuse of tongues.
In Verse 5, he says:
"Now I want you all to speak in tongues."
[Now, I'm not certain; he's doing one of two things.
He's either speaking
in an exaggerated, hyperbolic way to say that he approves of
the gift, or he's only speaking to those with the gift that
they can speak in tongues], and then later, in verse 18, he says
these words:
"I think God that I speak in tongues more than all of you.
So, for Paul it was a very positive, Godly thing.
It was not a psychological
worked up experience. It wasn't something ecstatic, out of
his control, but this is what he wanted us to come away with: Verse
5 again:
"Now I want you all to speak in tongues, but even more to
prophesy. The one who
prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues unless
someone interprets so that the church may be built up."
Major principle No. 1: The expression of tongues and
prophecy in the church are always so that the church may be built up,
and that would hold true for all spiritual gifts; that the church
may be built up.
Now, remember, we're only talking about prophecy and
tongues, and Paul is not teaching in this chapter that prophecy is
the best of gifts. He's
comparing it to tongues and the relative use of that.
Paul virtually said, he got as close as he could get in
inspired writings to say, "I will never speak in a tongue in the
church," without saying it.
He didn't say he wouldn't do that, and he tells them not to
forbid it, but look at what he said, there we go, thank you, Sam,
Verse 19; Sam has the gift of tongues and I just interpreted!
[Laughter]
"Nevertheless in church I would rather speak five words with
my mind in order to instruct others, than ten thousand words in a
tongue." We need to
weigh that issue out, and here's why.
A gift, we've seen, is valued in relation to how its use
builds up the church.
Not what it does for me.
Second, in explaining prophecy and tongues, Paul wants us to
know gifts best build up the church when the distinctly help us
learn and live.
Christianity is a faith of living.
It's not a time where you come get nice pieces of nuggets and
you can go home and you've got this, "Oh, I understand about
prophecy, I understand about tongues; I know the end times
prophecies, too, and when Jesus is coming back.
It is so that you can live for Christ.
It is distinct , it is to have clarity and you are to be
known as a Christian just by people observing you, and the only way
for that to happen is for the gifts in the church that the Holy
Spirit has given distinctly help us learn and live.
Let me show you where we get that from.
It's all throughout the chapter, but look at it in his
metaphor. Verse 7:
"Even if lifeless instruments, such as the flute or the
harp, do not give distinct
notes, how will anyone know what is played?"
If there is not a distinction in all the speaking gifts in
the church that make the truth of God plain, it is a waste.
It must be clear and plain so you and I can understand the
will of God for our lives, the truth about God, so we can serve him
and honor him properly.
We've got to know, but, not only that, when we know, we must live.
The second metaphor: "And if the bugle gives an indistinct
sound, who will get ready for battle?" And if you don't think
there's a battle to stay morally pure, to tell the truth, to live as
you should live, you don't live in the same earth or the same kind
of body I live in. The church, the teaching, the verbal expressions
of the church, must be clear and distinct that we may learn in order
that we may live.
Now, there's more to be said about that section, and if you
have questions, you are free to ask me those, but I want to go on to
the expression of prophecy and tongues in the church.
First, there are defined practices.
Typically, in the American church this is radically ignored,
and God would call that insubordination and rebellion.
It says, in Verse 27:
"If any speak in a tongue, let there be only two or at the
most three, and each in turn."
That is a specific direction of God through his apostle to
say if, in your church, there are those gifted with tongues, in any
given service, the most that can speak in a tongue are three, and
they must go one at a time.
Anything other than that you have no biblical warrant for in
the church. And then he
says, "And let someone interpret, but if there is no one to
interpret, let each of them keep silent in the church and speak to
himself and to God."
I don't know if this was the right or wise thing to do, but
in my study I discovered that there was a rather scholarly man who
went to a church who had tongues speakers and interpreters in it,
supposedly, and when it was tongues-speaking time, he gave a
revelation in tongues and he just quoted a rather, well, just a good
section of 1 John in the Greek language, and two different people
interpreted, two different things.
That was a little sneaky on his part, but there has to
be validity to the gifts of God and all gifts can be imitated.
The tongues speakers were to go, three at the most, one at a
time, must have an interpreter, or they are to keep silent which
tells you that in defining practices, both the tongues speaker and
the prophet are always in control if they are of God.
He gets to the prophets and gives them their directions,
their defined practices:
"Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others weigh
what is said." We're
dealing with prophecy and tongues, so, if there is a movement of God
to one of these prophets and they have a word to the church of
comfort, encouragement or direction, while one is speaking, then
there is another order.
If a revelation is made to another sitting there, let the first be
silent. For some reason,
the order then is the guy speaking is to let the next guy speak, I
don't know if it is so they can analyze them, if it's to affirm it,
or to contradict it, for you can all prophesy one by one, not
everybody in the church, not all the prophets in the church, no more
than three, so that all
may learn and be encouraged, and here's the control part, and the
spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets, "For God is not
a God of confusion, but of peace."
There are defined practices.
And then, there is a difficult problem.
Now you'll wake up.
Verse 34. I'll read the last phrase of Verse 33 because I
think it goes with 34 better:
33b"As in all the churches of the saints, the women should keep silent in
the churches. 34For
they are not permitted to speak, but should be in submission as the
Law also says. 35If
there is anything they desire to learn, let them ask their husbands
at home. For it is
shameful for a woman to speak in church."
What I thought we'd do here is I'm going to have the staff
come up and stand here. We're going to do an open panel.
I'm just going to facilitate and you can ask them any
question you want about that. [Laughter]
Anytime a passage about women or men inflames us, it is a
sign that we are more culturally infected than we are Biblically
infected. Now, depending
on where you are, if you are leaning to the Archie Bunker kind of
guy, when I read that, you went "YEAH!"
Or you just cowered under and started to make some excuse
for Paul. One writer
said he was "amazed at how so many contemporary authors are trying
to rescue Paul from himself."
What does he mean?
Strong words, Yes, but he's dealing with obedience to the
Word of God as well as a reflection of God's created order.
Distinction is important in the church in every aspect of
life. When you remove
distinction, such as you want everybody to have one gift so we're
all plain vanilla, you take dimension and color out of the church
and we become predictable, bland and boring.
When you take dynamics
and differences out of men and women, both in the marriage
and in the church, we become predictable, bland and boring.
Let me give you an illustration:
My wife was at a school meeting the other day for a field
trip. They were going
through the rules for the chaperones on the field trip and there was
talk about a second field trip coming up also and there was a
handful of women there saying that they could go on both, or that
they would ask their husband if they could go on the second one, to
which some other ladies chimed up and said, "Oh, just go ahead and
put them down. That's
the way we do it." For
the poor ignorant male species that can't think enough for himself,
or isn't smart enough to know how to put a dish in the dishwasher
rightly, he always stacks them backwards."
Do you know where I'm going with that?
I'm going at the fact that we despise the very differences
that God has made. And
it makes us compete with one another.
When everybody is supposed to be the same, then you've to
find a way to stick out so you're gift of tongues is better than
somebody else so you're going to show off more.
We need to revel in our distinctive differences all the way
around. That's what
gives life dynamic, color and dimension.
But, here's what he's talking about.
Why in the world did he say, "As in all the churches of the
saints, the women should keep silent?"
Some people think that means women should never speak in
church public gathering.
I don't think it's anywhere close to that, according to what
Paul said in this book.
Turn over quickly to Chapter 11.
Remember we are talking about the gift of prophecy and the
gift of tongues.
He says in Verse 4 of Chapter 11:
"Every man who prays or prophesies with his head covered
dishonors his head, but every wife who prays or prophesies with her
head uncovered dishonors her head --"
Now, wait just a minute.
How is a wife going to pray or prophesy in church and not
talk? If all the prophets have the privilege of speaking in church,
and he doesn’t say anything about male or female prophets, then
what's the deal here?
And then how in the world does he turn around letting them prophesy
with guidelines, as the men had guidelines, in one chapter and then
turn around in the next chapter and say "The women should keep
silent in the churches."
Frankly, men, through the years, for those of us who really like for
the women to be quiet, that was just a safe position because we
didn't want to be intimated.
It does address silence here; there's no question about that.
But, remember we're talking about prophecy, and in the
context, we are talking about the church weighing prophecies to see
if they are true.
Therein comes the rub.
That's when the authority of the church begins to take over and a
teaching responsibility comes in, in deciding if that is true or
not. So, in the weighing
of these prophecies is the time that Paul says the women should be
silent. Why? Because the
man is the head of the wife.
Suppose the man gives a prophecy and his wife disagrees.
And she's right…..and she confronts him in the church
assembly. Do you think
it would honor God when they had their fight out over who is right
and who is wrong? God is
guarding distinctions as well as peace in the flock.
When they got home, she had every right to say her opinion to
him, but he did not want family squabbles aired in the church.
He did not want the issue of responsibility and authority of
teaching the church to be out from under those he had given the
responsibility to. There
was a time, ladies, and I know this is difficult in our day, that
because of the created order, because of how God wanted worship
done, to make sure things were distinct, things were clear and
things were helpful for life, that the ladies in the church were to
be quiet for the sake of peace and mostly for the sake of honoring
how God made us.
Difficult pill to swallow.
Third, in expressing prophecy and tongues, there are defined
practices. There is a
difficult problem and there is divine principle, and I didn't get a
single "Amen" on that point about the women there.
We have so grossly misunderstood male and female in our
culture today, and so I will even use word in an evil manner because
I think it's of the Devil, eliminated the wonderful differences
between men and women, that we don't know how to teach a man to be
masculine nor do we know how to teach a women to be feminine and
that is when our relationships begin to thrive.
Third thing, there is a divine principle, what do I mean?
1.
In church order
and worship, we should always reflect our great God's nature.
His nature is that of orderliness and peace.
·
Verse 33:
"For God is not a God of confusion but of peace."
·
Verse 40: " But
all things should be done decently and in order."
That's not for a stuffy church service.
It is so that God's nature could
be seen in everything we do.
He gives an illustration of what happens when everything
isn't done orderly. He says,
"If all of you speak in tongues and an unbeliever comes in", he
says, "he's going to think you're all mad, but if everybody is
prophesying" [and he just means each prophet one by one] I'm in
verse 24 if you want to catch up, "But if all prophesy and an
unbeliever or an outsider enters, he is convinced by all, he is
called to account by all, the secrets of his heart are disclosed,
and so falling on his face he will worship God and declare that God
is really among you."
That's what is to happen in a worship service.
They are not doing evangelistic teaching, they're honoring
God and you come into a confrontation with God and you realize you
need him as he reveals what's in your heart, and God is honored and
people are helped.
2.
There is also the
divine principle of God's authority that we saw earlier, far about
prophecy and tongues, and that is God's scripture.
God is sovereign over the church.
So, what do we learn?
Practically, we learn these things.
·
We have to be
aware of our tendency to show off.
That's a principle
gained from these two gifts that goes across the board.
Whatever our best gift of God is, in the world, in business,
in the church, as a spiritual gift will be our area to have a
tendency to show off.
I'm not denying that these people didn't have the gift of tongues
and didn't have the gift of prophecy.
It was how they used it
that was wrong and they wanted to draw attention to themselves.
They had exalted tongues and prophecy to the top of the list
and they were saying, "Look at me" in the exercises of these gifts.
They were edifying themselves; they let the church go by.
We have a tendency to show off, especially in that which we
are good at, but, as he asked the Corinthians at another point,
"What do you have that you did not receive?"
So, how could we ever show off anything?
·
Second, the
Spirit's manifestation in our lives is seen in others.
Verse 12:
"So with yourselves, since you are eager for manifestations of the
Spirit [and by the way when you have the sense of being used of God
and greater than that, when someone comes up to you and tells you
that you were used of God in my life, there is nothing
that can go to your head quicker.
Pride is always at the door of those who are spiritual, ready
to sneak in and say "Look what I did."
No, it's what God did through you.
So, we're to seek the Spirit's manifestation, we want him to
work in us. What's the
evidence of that? Because I'm good at what I do, because people see
me, because you can see a gift? No!
It's what happens in the lives of those around you.
12"So
with yourselves, since you are eager for manifestations of the
Spirit, strive to excel in building up the church."
Are people around you healthy, loving Christ, and loving others
because of you? Are they
looking to Christ because of you or are they looking at you?
·
Finally,
distinction and clarity are imperative in the church gathers.
As we learned from the musical instrument metaphor, so we can
learn and
live. So many churchgoers today are so ill-defined in their
Christianity.
They don't know whether to believe Oprah or Jesus some days.
We could laugh at that, but it's a statement of truth,
not a joke.
Everything done in the church demands distinction and
clarity. Why?
Because there's nothing indistinct about God.
And there should
be nothing indistinct when it comes to giving people
directions
to Heaven or to Hell.
That's why church is so vital!
We are not here to make ourselves feel good. I am not here for you
to like me. I am here so
you can hear from God and we can hear from Him together, so that
heaven could be our home through the shed blood of Christ, who paid
the price, opened the door to heaven, and to all who will bend the
knee to him, he opens that freely.
Not so we can think we're climbing some mountain and if my
good outweighs my bad, I'll go to heaven when I die.
I don't want to wait until the day I die to find out if I'm
going to get there or not.
The boy that shot all those people sent his tape to the news agency
for all the fame he was going to get.
I just wonder what went through his mind when he opened his
eyes in hell? There was
no terror on Virginia Tech's campus compared to the horror of God's
judgment on his heart, and don't think that judgment is only saved
for those who go around killing innocent people.
That's why Jesus died, so we take our sends that would
send us to hell, we place them on Jesus who can pay for them and
throw them into the
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