1 Corinthians 14:1-25

Eagerly desire spiritual gifts. Eagerly desire spiritual gifts. If we drop the word "spiritual", it almost sounds childish. Eagerly desire gifts. Kids love gifts. It doesn’t matter if it’s Christmas, or birthdays or whatever, a kid is always ready to receive a gift. If it’s not their birthday, if it’s not Christmas, they don’t ask the reason for the gift. They don’t hesitate a second. If you’re giving a gift, they’re taking it. It can be a big expensive gift. It can be a little trinket. Doesn’t matter. They got a gift. Kids eagerly desire gifts.

And then 1 Corinthians 14 adds that word "spiritual" and we get all funny about it. Already, as adults, we’re a little suspicious of gifts. Someone gives us a gift out of the blue, and immediately we’re wondering why? What does the person want? Do I have to give a gift back to them? We’re not so eager about gifts as we get older.

Even less so when it comes to spiritual gifts. For many of us, spiritual gifts sound a little hokey. Especially in our tradition, we focus on the work and we get the work done. That’s good. A lot of people do a lot of ministry around here, giving to the Lord with their time and resources.

But when it comes to eagerly desiring spiritual gifts, we get a little confused. When we ask about spiritual gifts, the response that we usually hear is, "Well, I know we did a class on that a few years ago." When we ask, "Okay, what is your spiritual gift", we often don’t know. We know we have one, at least we did when we took that class back then. We know we have a paper somewhere telling us what our gift is, but we’re not really sure where that paper is right now. We don’t eagerly desire spiritual gifts.

Especially when it comes to chapter 14 here. Chapter 14 is the big chapter about speaking in tongues, and for most of us, that gives us the willies. For most in the Christian Reformed church, speaking in tongues is a strange and mysterious experience that we’ve only heard about. Some of us, some of us here, are more familiar. Some of us may have spoken in the mysterious, angelic language we call tongues. But for most of us, we’re just not sure what to think about it all. So we try to not to think about it at all. And we miss chapter 14 here.

Over the summer, when I’ve been here, which I know hasn’t been a lot, we’ve been looking at some texts that get skipped over a lot. "All scripture is profitable", but a lot of scripture seems strange. Texts about not getting drunk with wine, but being filled with the spirit, or that all Israel will be saved, they throw us for a loop, or they lead us into some strange thinking, some bad theology.

This is what happens with 1 Corinthians 14. Speaking in tongues has divided churches, making brothers and sisters in Christ ignore and label and look down on each other. The gift has divided. And the gifts, the spiritual gifts were supposed to build up, bind together, make us stronger.

And they will do exactly that when we eagerly desire spiritual gifts. This gift of speaking in tongues was dividing the church already in Paul’s time, in the city of Corinth. People were already taking the attitude that if you could speak in this heavenly language, well, you were really spiritual. We know that this attitude is not Christ-like, but then we tend to go the other way and treat with suspicion this whole idea of speaking in tongues. We think it’s weird. We avoid it.

Paul pulls both sides to the middle and gives us the balance. He tells us that speaking in tongues is a gift that God gives, and if we are mocking this gift, if we call it weird, then we’re being quite rude to God. We’re mocking His gift. Paul writes, in verse 5:

This kind of speaking is a deeply personal experience. It’s a moment of holiness beyond description. It’s a taste of heaven.

But as wonderful as that sounds, and as envious as we might be about having that kind of experience, Paul says there’s something even better. Again, verse 3:

Listen. Jesus Christ came to save us from our sins. And He did that through three functions, three offices. He came as a prophet, bringing the word of God, BEING the Word of God. He came as a priest, offering Himself as a sacrifice for our sins. And He came as our King, reigning until every last enemy, even death, was conquered.

And if you have given your life to Jesus, if you believe that He died to take away your sins, you hold the same offices. You are a priesthood. You are a royal priesthood. And you are a prophet. And Paul says that prophesying is more useful, more beneficial for the church than the heavenly experience of speaking in tongues.

Now, understand, the prophesying we’re talking about is not foretelling the future. We’re talking about speaking truth to each other. We’re talking about speaking Godly words to one another. When our brother, our sister is weak, they’re despairing, we’re prophesying words to them like 2 Corinthians 12:9:

When someone is discouraged, just ready to give up, we prophesy words like Deuteronomy 31:8

When someone needs comfort, we prophesy words like Romans 8:38,39

This is what we do for each other. We speak to one another, with God’s words, to strengthen and encourage and comfort. Doesn’t that sound better than having the ability to speak the heavenly language? Verse 4:

But then, all of a sudden, Paul does a little play on words, in verse 21. In the first part of the chapter, he seems to be talking about this mysterious, heavenly language. But then, all of a sudden, he switches the meaning of speaking in tongues. Verse 21:

This phrase "speaking in tongues" means two things. It means the deeply personal, intimate conversation with God in a spiritual language. But it also means speaking in different languages. We hear the apostles speaking in tongues in Acts 2, when the Holy Spirit first comes to them, and when they’re speaking in tongues, people from all over the world can understand what they’re saying. And when they understand the gospel, they believe the gospel. 3000 people were added to the church in that single day, because people were speaking in tongues, they speaking the languages people could understand.

This is why Paul writes, in verse 22:

Now, when we’re thinking tongues, we’re thinking missionaries learning languages. Dean and Grace go to support people who are writing the Bible in different tongues. Greg and Ruth needed to learn new languages when they became missionaries.

But even hear in Hollandale, sometimes we need to speak a different language so that people will understand. It might be English, but it’s a certain kind of English. If we’re speaking with people who don’t go to church, and we talk about the fellowship we all enjoy, the inspiration we receive, the growth we experience, all of those things mean something to us, but they don’t mean anything to them. It’s like we’re speaking another language.

So we try to speak the language, we try to use the tongue of people who don’t know Jesus and don’t see the reason for church. We talk about truth, because they want to know truth, they’re tired of being lied to. We talk about security, because they live in a very insecure world. We use their language, their tongues, because tongues are for believers.

But Paul brings us back to the better gift, to prophesy. And we’re reminded of where we began, eagerly desiring spiritual gifts. Eagerly desiring to use those gifts. Mike, you just stood up here today and you told us that Jesus is your Savior and Lord and that you are part of His body, His church. And we are so thankful. Even though you don’t live close by, we are united in Jesus, and you make the church stronger. Mike, eagerly desire your spiritual gifts. Go after them. Learn how God has gifted you. Don’t be shy. Don’t buy into this mindset that we so often have that says we’re being proud if we use our gifts. Talk to us. Prophesy to us. Tell us what we need to hear. Eagerly desire them. Eagerly put them to use. We need them. We need you to build us up.

Frank, Vonnie, David, you joined this group, and we are thrilled. God has given you gifts to use. Frank, Vonnie, David, eagerly desire your spiritual gifts. Eagerly look for ways to use those gifts. Eagerly watch for new gifts, or new expressions of your gifts. We need them.

Elders, deacons, not just Doug and Carl, you have gifts. We’ve seen those gifts, and we’ve elected you to lead us. God has given you those gifts and He’s appointed you to use them. You have the right to eagerly desire your gifts. You have the right to speak to use, to comfort us, to strengthen us, to encourage us. Don’t be silent. Prophesy. If that’s not a word you want to use, then just talk to us. We need to hear from you. We might not always listen like we’re supposed to, but we’ll try. Elders, lead us to learn, to reach out, to remain pure. Deacons, lead us to be merciful, to care. Eagerly desire your gifts.

And congregation. You knew you wouldn’t be left out. Congregation, eagerly desire your spiritual gifts. Don’t be embarrassed. Don’t be suspicious of the gift. Don’t hesitate. Be eager. Talk to one another. Encourage one another. Comfort one another. Strengthen one another. You have the right.

Talk to people outside of this church, using their language, their tongues. The Holy Spirit gives us that ability, and we can’t expect people to want the gospel unless we’re telling them the gospel in their language.

Eagerly desire spiritual gifts, and watch how God will use you, how God will use this church. We will see people lifted up and encouraged. We will see people broken and saved. We will help each other, with the gifts God has given to us.