Let All Things Be Done for Edification

I want to invite you to turn to 1 Corinthians, Chapter 14; let us go from verse 20 through 33. I am going to read this word. Pay attention as it is read, because at some point in the message I am going to begin an exposition of that word, and my introduction is based on that word. And I want to continue with the sermon series that we interrupted for Christmas and other things that came up, that sermon series I entitled “Complex Faith,” with the aim of continuing to explain what it is that we believe, what I believe as senior pastor of this Congregation, and why we do things the way we do them and why we do not do them the way we do not do them, and why it is sometimes difficult to place us—whether we are Pentecostals, whether we are dyed-in-the-wool evangelicals, what it is that we are, and why it is sometimes difficult to determine where we stand. And I hope it is because we are within the complexity of the word of God, which is complex.

Listen to how Paul reasons, because through the Holy Spirit we must learn that he is reasoning. And you say, well, if the Holy Spirit leads Paul to reason this way, then this is how I too must learn to reason in my own life and in the things of the Spirit. Verse 20 says:

“…brothers and sisters of Lion of Judah and those who are also listening to me over the internet and the radio, brothers and sisters, do not be children—in other words, do not be immature—in your way of thinking, of reasoning, of studying the word, of analyzing the word of God—do not be children in your way of thinking, of reasoning about the Bible, of living the life of the Spirit, but be infants in evil…”

There are some in the church who have a doctorate in evil, but need to go to kindergarten when it comes to spiritual wisdom. Forgive me if you feel that applies to you, but if you feel that it applies to you, it is because you need something there, because I am not saying it to anyone in particular.

“…but be infants in evil, yet mature in your way of thinking…”

There you have what I am pursuing, what I want for our church; that is why we have the Crown classes, the discipleship classes, and everything we do in social justice work with our young people. We want to produce a culture of mature, balanced Christians, not merely people with a false Pentecostal fire, but people with the fullness of the word of the Lord—mature people, balanced people, sober-minded people.

And Paul says—he is now reasoning and illustrating what he has just said. Because he is talking about tongues and the use of tongues, but Chapter 14 is about more than tongues. I see there a way of bringing together the things of the Spirit in general, and that is what interests me. This is simply an administrative case involving tongues that points to something much broader than that.

“…In the law it is written—that is, in the Bible they knew, which was the Torah, the Old Testament, as we call it—…in the law it is written, ‘With other tongues and with other lips I will speak to this people, and not even then will they hear me, says the Lord’…”

That is found in Isaiah 28, incidentally, verses 11 through 12. He is quoting a text from Isaiah.

“…With other tongues and with other lips I will speak to this people…”

He is saying that tongues were already prophesied by Isaiah—what we are now practicing… Paul is speaking about a Pentecostal church. Pentecostal Paul is speaking to a Pentecostal church in Corinth.

“…‘And not even then will they hear me, says the Lord.’—then look at the conclusion; when he studies this biblical passage, he says—…so tongues are a sign not to believers but to unbelievers…”

Why? Because of what he has just quoted: not even then will they believe me. That is, they are unbelievers, and that is why the Lord speaks to them in tongues, so that they may believe him. Then Paul says, well, if that is so, then it seems that tongues are a sign not for believers, but for unbelievers.

“…But prophecy—there is a difference in Paul’s mind between tongues and prophecy—but prophecy is not for unbelievers but for believers…”

Now, in Paul’s mind the word prophecy meant many things. Essentially, from what we can understand in the Bible, the word prophecy is a word that comes directly from the mouth of the Lord for a person, for a community. That word may be something about the future, but it may simply be a word of correction or a word of encouragement, yet it comes directly from the mouth of God for a particular person.

Because sometimes we think prophecy is only predicting the future. It is not merely prediction; it may also be correction, confrontation. Some prophets wrote, and there is nothing there about the future; it is simply a confrontation concerning sin, concerning injustice in the nation, or whatever it may be. The difference, Paul says, is that a tongue, among other things, is… I speak a language that sometimes is not understood, whereas prophecy is indeed a word in Spanish, in our case, or in English for an English-speaking community. So,

“…Prophecy is not for unbelievers but for believers. Therefore, if the whole church gathers in one place, as in this service, and everyone speaks in tongues—everyone is speaking in tongues; there is no prophecy, only tongues—and uninstructed people or unbelievers come in…”

Who are the uninstructed? The immature, people who are still green in the Gospel. People who are not learned, who have not been instructed in the word of God, who do not know much about the Bible. As in our church, where many people are only just coming into the Gospel. They are still searching, trying to find their direction, their place in the Gospel.

If uninstructed people come in, people who are new to the Gospel, or unbelievers, people who are simply there because someone brought them, or because their wife dragged them there and threatened to divorce them or never cook for them again if they did not come to church that Sunday, or they are simply searching but have not yet made a decision for the Lord—if people like that, uninstructed people or unbelievers, come in and see all of you in a complete free-for-all, shouting and speaking in tongues, with no order, everything a free-for-all, a mess, it says:

“…Will they not say that you are crazy?—how many people have gone to a church and said, ‘I went to that church and came out of there with a headache, and I said, “I am never going back.”’ There are people who wake up one morning with a burning desire to seek God, and they ask, ‘Where shall I go? Oh, there is a little church over there in the neighborhood.’ They go there and come out scandalized because they did not understand what was happening, and what they saw actually frightened them. Yes or no? That happens. And of course, when people leave, the response is, ‘Ah, that person is ungodly. The ungodly know nothing about God. May the Lord rebuke them. Let them go to hell, because we are the true ones. We are the marines of the faith here,’ and so on. That is simply making excuses for spiritual incompetence.

That is why I asked the Lord this morning, ‘Father, help me to be measured in what I say, not to beat people over the head, not to let myself become too intoxicated by words.’

“…Will they not say that you are crazy? But if everyone prophesies—if everyone speaks in a comprehensible, edifying, coherent way, with something that can be understood and that contains digestible spiritual substance—but if everyone prophesies and an unbeliever or an uninstructed person comes in, he is convicted by everyone, he is judged by everyone…”

Look at this precious moment here when these brothers and sisters were up here, and suddenly the Spirit moves me… because I had told Omar, ‘Omar, ten minutes, or else on Wednesday at the pastors’ meeting you and I are going to pull each other’s hair out.’ But I am standing there listening, and something happens here, and within me the Spirit blazes up, and I say, ‘No, how is it possible that among believers…’ I understand… look, I understand very well; I am not alluding to anything concerning that, but I say, if we are here and we are growing in the Lord, how is it possible that someone should not be able to give a testimony? Of course they can.

And then there is this sister, Bethany Esther. So Bethany begins to speak about her life. In one sense she is prophesying because she is speaking in the Spirit. It was not something prepared or anything like that; rather, the Spirit moves the spirit. She speaks about her life, she speaks about her experience. Then another sister also testifies, another brother over here, moved by what God has done in his life; another speaks about the difference Crown has made in his life and how he has changed, and he speaks about prudence in finances, about how God has built up his life. That is prophecy, brothers and sisters; say amen even if you do not believe it.

That is prophecy, because prophecy is not: ‘Thus says the Lord to you, people of God. Oh, I feel the Spirit at this moment…’ That is not necessarily prophecy. Prophecy is a word that comes out of the Spirit of God, passes through the spirit of a man or a woman, and reaches the lives of God’s children freshly baked. That is prophecy.

For me, that was a prophetic moment. Now think of a person who comes in from outside and is sitting there, a coherent, thoughtful person, listening to all of that. Do you not think that person will be moved? Either that person is dead, or God has already destined that person for hell, or that person will leave here touched by the Spirit. Yes, Lord.

“…He is convicted by everyone, he is judged by everyone…”

What does ‘judged’ mean? Convicted. ‘Listen, why am I not involved in this too? These people look so wonderful. Look at how they speak. Look at how God is blessing them, while I just came from a nightclub last night, drunk, and I am here with a hangover. No, I need to do something with my life.’ He is judged by everyone, convicted by everyone, confronted, reproved, built up; there is blessing. Amen.

That is what Paul is saying. Brothers and sisters, frankly, I prefer that. If I have to choose—because the good thing is that we do not have to choose between one thing and the other—I prefer that to a lot of tongue-talk that no one understands, with everyone tugging and shoving and falling, and there is nothing there. A lot of dust, and afterward everything remains exactly the same. I prefer transformed lives to a spiritual party that I enjoy but that leaves nothing behind. Yes or no? That is the difference.

So Paul is saying to these people, “…he is judged by everyone when there is prophecy. But if everyone prophesies and an unbeliever comes in, he is convicted by everyone, he is judged by everyone, and the secrets of his heart are revealed…”

As people listen to all of this… something here comes to light. ‘Now I understand. Yes, of course.’ He is confronted.

“…And so, falling facedown, he worships God, declaring that God is truly among you…”

Who can deny that God is among this body of people? Who can deny that the church making this possible has the Spirit of the Lord within it? That is what Paul is saying. Do you understand? And that is how one must judge the things of the Spirit, brothers and sisters.

It is not only what is striking, mystical, spectacular, or thunderous—fire and brimstone. The question is: what remains when the dust settles? What remains? When we go home and the devil is out there waiting for us with three demons smoking a cigarette, waiting for us to come out so they can fight us, did you leave with more strength than when you came in? That is what truly counts, not how much you jumped or how much tongue-talk there was. No, no. Did you leave built up, strengthened, better prepared to live the Christian life, to evangelize someone else, to be an example to your community, to bless your family? That is the difference, brothers and sisters.

Then Paul says, “…What then, brothers and sisters? When you gather together, each of you has a psalm, has a teaching, has a tongue, has a revelation, has an interpretation…”

In other words, he is referring to—look at everything we have done in this service: there has been worship and praise, music, testimonies, announcements, preaching, who knows what else, and offerings and tithes have been collected. There has been a little bit of everything: hymns, revelation from God. I believe there was even a little revelation here. It says:

“…Let everything be done for edification…”

Say it with me: ‘Let everything be done for edification.’ Say it again: ‘Edification.’ That is what we seek in everything the church does. At the end, you must ask: Was there edification? Was there growth? Was there instruction? Was there progress? I always ask that. Our community, these beautiful people gathered here—is there a difference between what it was five years ago and what it is today? I believe there is. As with the Gadarene, I now see that many demons have left, and the people are sitting in their seats, in their right minds and well dressed. God is carrying out the work of cleansing. Our children are growing; they are worshiping the Lord better. Our young people are studying, disciplining themselves, getting involved in things, with a few hard falls now and then, but they keep moving forward in the name of the Lord. There is edification. I always ask that—not how much noise was made in the service this Sunday, but how much edification there was. Because the devil does not care how many leaves the fig tree has, but how much fruit you have. And neither does God. God cares about fruit, blessing, growth. So, do you understand how the word of God judges and reasons?

“…If anyone speaks in a foreign tongue, let it be by two, or at most three, each in turn, and let one interpret. But if there is no interpreter, let him keep silent in the church and speak to himself and to God…”

Many times tongues are for building yourself up directly. It is like going home, scooping out two balls of ice cream, and quietly eating them where no one can see you. In other words, many times, if there is no interpretation of the tongues, God is going to feed you intravenously, directly; he is going to give you nourishment.

Now, if there is a service here, for example, and a sister begins speaking in tongues, I say, Sister, please sit down, because I am prophesying and the Spirit of God is speaking through me, so wait your turn. Come to me at some point and say, Pastor, God has given me something, a message, and I want to share it with the church. I say, Yes, sister, tell me. And then I judge it in the Spirit, I wait, and then I make a determination... Things have to be done in an orderly way. Do you understand?

Now, does that contradict the Spirit? Not at all. The things of God are coherent. Now, from time to time there may be an exception; something unusual may happen. Amen. And we also have to be open to discerning the Spirit at that moment. But normally there is order, there is coherence in the way things are done when the Holy Spirit is at work and there is an understanding of the word of God.

“...Likewise, let two or three prophets speak, and let the others judge—that is, interpret, examine, measure whether it is from God or not—...and if something is revealed to another who is sitting down, let the first keep silent, because you may all prophesy one by one, so that everyone may learn and everyone may be encouraged, and the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets, for God is not a God of confusion, but of peace...”

There are people who tell me, when I try to bring some order to something, to some manifestation, that this is why the Holy Spirit does not manifest himself more in this church. And they want to make me feel guilty: because you are not Pentecostal; you do not know whether it is in the Spirit. No, sometimes we believe that there has to be disorder for the Spirit of God to manifest himself. And that is not so. Things in the Spirit are orderly; there is a pattern that is followed.

I violated my own intention not to get into biblical exegesis while I was reading it. But that is all right. What I want to talk about, brothers and sisters, is a spirituality that keeps its eyes on the things of the Spirit but also keeps its feet on the ground. It is both things.

What I see here is Paul, a man filled with the Spirit, who has all the gifts of the Holy Spirit, wrote two-thirds of the New Testament, went up to the third heaven, and heard things that even he was not worthy to tell others; he knew the Lord in a tremendous way. Jesus Christ appeared to him several times; he was chosen from the foundation of the world; and he also speaks with impressive order, coherence, and sobriety. His feet are on the ground. This is a man who has planted many churches; he is a Pharisee and studied at the finest universities and seminaries of his time. He has traveled; he is a citizen of the most powerful country, Rome, although he is also Jewish. He is a man who has seen it all. Been there, done that, as the saying goes, and bought the T-shirt, too.

And by now he knows what is true and what is not. He has been in every kind of church, has seen everything, and now, as a mature man writing for the Lord, he knows what is truly important and what is not, what is straw and what is solid, what is good—whether it has other elements—and what is not necessarily good in and of itself, merely for its own sake.

And that is what I want to form in you, my brothers and sisters: a spirituality that, while living in the realm of the Spirit, also keeps its feet on the ground. As a pastor, I want to give birth to a practical people with a healthy spirituality that enables them to prosper and live a wise and prudent life.

Listen, where are those brothers and sisters from the worship team, missing these jewels and pearls of teaching that I am giving? Tell them to come over here for a little while and sit where I can see them. Forgive me, brothers and sisters. I said to the Lord, Father, have mercy on me this morning. I assure you, I did not have a fight with my wife, I ate a good breakfast, and I am not in a bad mood.

A practical people with a healthy spirituality that enables them to prosper and live a wise and prudent life. Have you noticed something, brothers and sisters? In the evangelical world there seems to be a division into two parts. On one side is the Pentecostal world, with a great deal of apparent anointing and a great deal of apparent power, yet often poor, relatively uneducated, with little impact on the world and society, and with small, weak churches. Forgive me; I speak as a Pentecostal, but is it true or not? Those who supposedly have the great anointing, the power, and the gifts—you see that their financial lives, their marriages, and their family lives, honestly, when you observe them objectively, do not have the supposed blessing and prosperity they preach so much about—or rather, that we preach about.

On one side there is that world, and I know I am going to catch flak when all of this goes out on the radio and the Internet, but know that I am speaking out of love, and because I love, I speak the truth.

On one side is that Pentecostal world, which is a living contradiction between what it professes and preaches and what it ultimately lives out. And then there is the non-Pentecostal evangelical world—the Presbyterians, Methodists, Lutherans, and this entire group—which, although they supposedly do not emphasize the gifts, the power of God, the anointing, and all these things as much, are usually more prosperous, more orderly and disciplined, with long-established churches, well-educated people, greater financial success, and more impact on the culture than those of us who possess knowledge of the gifts and the Holy Spirit.

Why? It is because there is a contradiction within us: on the one hand, the anointing of the Spirit enters us, and on the other, there is a huge hole through which it all drains away, and we squander what God has placed in our hands. We talk about prosperity—oh, the Lord prospers us—and then we go back to lives that are completely devoid of that prosperity. And these evangelicals who often do not even believe in electric lights get into their Mercedes-Benzes and drive back to their neighborhoods, to a five-hundred-thousand-dollar house. I say, Well, Lord, either you are failing to fulfill your promises, or there is something we are not doing that we ought to be doing.

Will you forgive me? So I think, for example, look at Park Street Church. It is a non-Pentecostal church; not even a dime makes a sound there during worship. Everything is very orderly: three hymns, or two at most, and not even a single chorus. In the afternoon they have what they call contemporary music. I love Park Street Church; I respect its pastor, Gordon Hughenberg, an educated man of God.

But look: even though that church supposedly has nothing involving the gifts and all of that, it recently celebrated its 200th anniversary. I believe I have said this before: that church has been there for 200 years, in the very center of the City of Boston, beside Boston Common. Billy Graham has preached there. In the 1950s, that church’s pastor helped establish Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and Christianity Today, a very influential magazine here in the United States, also came out of that ministry. They have had a national impact. It is a historic church, and for 200 years they have kept the word of God alive there; they have not become liberal. And it is a prosperous church, a church that makes an impact on the city.

And yet there are so many other churches that supposedly have the gifts and the Holy Spirit but do not cause even the slightest blip on the radar of the culture. And Pentecostal churches last 20, 30, or 40 years, and then they dissolve and disappear. They do not have the longevity that many of these supposedly non-Pentecostal evangelical churches have.

Where is the contradiction? Look at another case. There are two magazines that, to me, illustrate this horrible contradiction: Charisma Magazine and Christianity Today. To me, these two magazines are examples of what happens in the charismatic world and the non-charismatic world.

Christianity Today is a solid evangelical magazine, with great journalistic excellence, solid articles, tremendous writers, and a multimillion-dollar budget. It is very scrupulous about what it teaches and the advertisements it runs. In so many respects, I would put that magazine up against any religious magazine in the world. It is solid, but evangelical, not Pentecostal. And sometimes it teaches things that bother even me. I read it because I like to read everything, but sometimes I come away with indigestion. Yet it also contains many very good things.

And then there is Charisma Magazine. How many of you have read Charisma magazine? It is a Pentecostal magazine. It is the magazine that represents the Pentecostal world. And the truth is that it is an inferior magazine, sometimes written, I think, by high-school journalism students. What they do there is excerpt articles from books and other things, and to me it is a cash cow—forgive me—it is as though everything revolves around advertisements and making money for the magazine’s owner; it belongs to a family and is run for profit. And it is an inferior magazine. I have canceled my subscription twice already, and somehow, for some reason, I subscribe again; then I get upset again by what I see and cancel it once more. I have a love-hate relationship with it.

And I say, what a shame that a magazine which supposedly recognizes the anointing of the Spirit and is devoted to exalting the gifts is inferior to one that is not moved by those things. Where is the contradiction? Something is wrong. I say that there is something...

Look at this: I am not necessarily interested in the kind of evangelical spirituality I am pointing to, the non-charismatic kind. I believe in the gifts, and I would not trade worship like what we had this morning for anything in the world. I believe in the gifts, and that is why I am speaking this way. It is to stir people up, to declare the truth of God.

I respect that non-charismatic evangelical spirituality, but the point, brothers and sisters, is that we do not have to choose between one thing and the other. We can have the best of both worlds; that is what I want to point out to you. And that is what God wants. God wants the mindset of Paul, which is spiritual but also thoughtful. It is a spirituality that is aware of the mysterious and the supernatural, but that also possesses the mind of Christ, which thinks clearly, systematically, strategically, and coherently.

And I tell you, brothers and sisters, if we as a church manage to hold these two elements of Christian spirituality in tension, one day this church is going to explode and the roof is going to fly off in every direction, because the glory of the Lord is going to manifest itself in an extraordinary way. We are going to see our church prosper and grow, our children prosper, Chevrolets replaced by Cadillacs and Mercedes, and houses—little apartments—turned into large, luxurious homes, for the glory of the Lord.

Now, let us not lose our love for the Kingdom of God—that we must not do. Because God prospers his people. Our children will be better than we are, more spiritual and more prosperous, more blessed, more thoughtful than we are. We are sowing for the future.

That is why I tell you: sow for the glory of God, sow for the long term, sow with a vision. You see non-Pentecostal churches building forty- or sixty-million-dollar sanctuaries. We have to pry every last penny out of people to build a sanctuary—which, by the glory of the Lord, we are building because he gives us wisdom—but that sanctuary would cost a fortune. But where is it? Do unbelievers have more of God’s anointing than we do? Can those who know only one part of the Kingdom of God accomplish more than those who have the fullness of the Kingdom of God? It is impossible. Something is wrong.

And that is why we have to say to him, Lord, have mercy on us. Help us to think in the way your word reasons. Are you following me so far? Have I said anything scandalous or false? I do not think so.

That is what I want, brothers and sisters: for people to understand why I speak the way I speak, think the way I think, and practice the Christian life the way I practice it. What is needed is a healthy, balanced spirituality—a spirituality that has passion and anointing, but also makes use of reason and of the wisdom found in the word of God; that thinks sensibly, draws on all the principles contained in Scripture, and not merely on its most appealing and eye-catching part. Balance. It knows the word and knows how to take a subject and break it down in light of the Old Testament and the New Testament; it knows how to think theologically and systematically.

And it does not merely latch on to one little verse and, with that, attempt to manipulate God and force him to do what one wants him to do. We stand before the Lord holding up that little scrap of paper: Look, here it is... No—did you read everything else I said in the Bible? And that is why our prayers are sometimes ineffective. And that is why we talk and talk and talk, yet produce nothing, because we are falsifying and violating the word of God.

My pastoral methodology seeks a healthy balance between both extremes. That is why it is difficult to understand. The super-spiritual people do not understand, because they say, No, this man is not Pentecostal; this church says... but they are not Pentecostal—because they are accustomed to a superficial kind of spiritual reasoning.

Super-spiritual people are not going to understand León de Judá. And some of them are in our church; I say that honestly before the Lord. By the way, what is a super-spiritual person? I would put it this way: someone who pays attention only to what is supposedly, superficially spiritual and does not temper his judgments and decisions with prudence, the whole of the Word, the observation of human behavior and the rules of human coexistence, common sense, and theological reflection. Everything is spirit, spirit, spirit. And I don’t know, but if there is anyone here who is spirit, spirit, spirit, that person is a ghost, and we are going to rebuke him in the name of Jesus and send him back to the place he came from. Because I believe that here we have body, mind, intellect, spirit—all of that packed inside you.

And this is a spiritual church, but it is also an institution, and so far God has not made us spirit alone. We have a building; we have to put heat into it and air conditioning in the summer, and we sweat, along with a whole host of things we do not like but that are reality: we are human.

So the super-spiritual person sort of ignores the body, ignores the flesh, and believes that everything is spiritual, spiritual, spiritual. By the way, I like that scene when Jesus rises from the dead and appears before the disciples... I once preached about that on a Resurrection Sunday, and they think He is a ghost. And the Lord says to them, hey, find me a little fried fish around here with two tostones, and let’s see what happens. And the Lord picks up the knife and digs into His fish and His little bit of salad, and they see it go into Him and not come out everywhere like Casper the Friendly Ghost. And He says, see whether a spirit does that.

In other words, it was a body; the Lord’s body was a real body. He was not a ghost floating around in a robe that reached down to His feet. No, the Lord has a body. Up there in heaven, He has a glorified body, and He still bears the marks of the cross on it. Because the church is not merely a ghost; it is not something disembodied—it takes flesh in reality. It is a corporation, it is a legal institution, it is a teaching school, it is a place of discipline and confrontation. Bills have to be paid; it is a reality. And the principles of the Gospel have to take flesh in that body.

But super-spiritual people live only up there in the clouds, with two imaginary little wings, flying through the stratosphere and wanting services that are simply “spiritual,” in quotation marks. And when they are confronted with order, discipline, and the system, they do not know what to do with them.

Total silence. I see brothers and sisters in the church of Jesus Christ who have fallen into this error of super-spirituality. They want to please the Lord so much that they become mystics, and everything is spirit, prophecy, gifts, ecstasy, trances, revelation, superficial holiness, and they forget the practical considerations of the Gospel, the constraints of marriage, family, congregational life, the limitations of the physical body, the duties of work, and everyday obligations. Do you understand?

A wife, for example, has children and a husband to whom she is accountable, and vice versa. But if that wife says, “No, I have to serve the Lord,” and comes home at midnight every day because she was preaching the Gospel and attending discipleship class and preparing for ministry, when she gets home what she finds is a bad-tempered husband who wants to divorce her and is cursing the Gospel, because where is his wife when he needs her? And the children are running wild and the whole house is a mess, because she is supposedly serving the Lord. We must be prudent, brothers and sisters. Yes or no?

We have to think sensibly. The Gospel has to come down to earth. And that does not impoverish it; on the contrary, it impacts the earth. So, for salt to season, it has to mix with the substance. If it merely remains outside being salt and does not mix in, it does not season. Yes or no? A word to the wise is enough.

As the Lord says, whoever has ears to hear, let him hear. There are many churches where everything is a service here, a service there. Services seven days a week so that people will have no time to sin. But you know what? It is the opposite. The flesh is not put to death that easily, and that is why there are divorces, scandals in the church, young people who want nothing to do with the Gospel, and little fruit, because no attention is being paid to the other things in life. We need a balanced spirituality, a healthy spirituality, a biblical spirituality.

There are believers who spend all their time at work witnessing. Witnessing, because supposedly the Gospel must be preached at all times. And what do they get from that? They bring people’s ill will upon themselves, the condemnation of their bosses, and a pink slip. And then they blame the unbelievers instead of their own lack of prudence and wisdom.

If you are working, work. And from time to time, during your lunch hour, go ahead and preach. But what good does it do for you to be preaching while stealing money from your boss? That man does not even believe in electric light; he is not going to understand it that way. It is better to give him what he is paying you for, be the best worker possible, and that will be a testimony to him and to everyone around you. Amen.

There is a kind of spirituality, brothers and sisters, that does not judge things properly. And what we seek is a balanced, coherent, harmonious, solid spirituality, and that is what we strive for.

I have already preached the sermon, and I still have not gotten to the text I told you I was going to examine. Give me just another moment. In this passage, in 1 Corinthians 14, we have an example of the sound wisdom that characterized the Apostle Paul.

What is happening in this passage? There was a controversy among the Corinthians. The super-spiritual ones said, “Let us not grieve the Spirit; let us give the gifts complete freedom in the service. Keep at it until the place explodes. Don’t worry; let’s press on. Let’s do everything here, because this is the Spirit. Let everyone speak freely in tongues and do whatever they supposedly feel in the spirit, as the spirit leads them.”

So every service was quite a spectacle... there was no order, there was no coherence. Because if there is coherence, then supposedly it is not of the Spirit. If there is a starting time, if there is a well-organized service, then supposedly that is not of the Spirit. And that seems to have been causing tension in Corinth.

But there were others in the church who may have been wiser, more prudent, and more thoughtful, and they noticed that visitors came to the church and left upset. People came in, but they did not come back. The church had a great deal of prophecy and many things going on, but it did not grow, it did not prosper, it could not pay the bills, because it could not buy a sanctuary. They were renting a building somewhere in a tiny little place where no one even knew the church was located, and there was no progress, despite all that was supposedly happening—lots of tongues, lots of talking, lots of commotion.

Those visitors left upset, alienated by what they perceived as a lack of order and harmony in the Christian services, and with a sense that we do not know what is happening here. Nothing but tongue-talk, with nothing to which we can relate.

I think that perhaps, for a while, everyone in the church enjoyed that disorder, that exciting atmosphere of great intensity. But over time they began to realize that such unrestrained spontaneity was actually impoverishing the church’s evangelistic work. Instead of people being blessed and the church experiencing growth, the church consisted of an elite club, of a few people who, like drunks, talked among themselves and understood one another, but no one else around them could understand what they were saying.

Because this is very important, brothers and sisters: the church’s long-term work requires strategic parameters; we have to adopt a strategic way of acting. It is not only about the moment; we must think long-term: how can we win our city, how can we win young people and retain them, how can we impact the halls of government, how can we make a change, make a dent in this world ruled by the devil?

So there was this struggle in the church at Corinth. They sent Paul an email and said to him, “Paul, give us some advice about this.” And Paul wrote to them and sent them Chapter 14 of 1 Corinthians to counsel them pastorally.

And so, in that teaching, Paul calls them to be mature in their thinking, and that is what so many Pentecostal believers lack: maturity, complexity, balance, sobriety. And I am speaking as a Pentecostal. That is why, by the way, brothers and sisters, I tell you that many people did not understand Paul, even in Corinth itself, and did not accept his apostleship.

They compared him with other super-apostles, with that striking, mystical spirituality, and when little Paul went there to teach them a Bible study, an expository sermon with three points, they said, “Oh, no, we thought it would be something else. So much is said about Paul, and look at him here, giving a Bible study. We want red meat; we want people falling down, people speaking with a thunderous voice, people who eat children raw.” That is what the people wanted.

Then Paul would come—teacher, pastor, church planter, strategic thinker, theologian, inspired by the Holy Spirit—to instruct, teach, and edify, and they would say, “We do not want that. We want a plantain with two fried pork chops on top, and don’t come to us with all that stuff.”

And that was troubling. Because many times, brothers and sisters, people get confused; they believe that anointing is all this dust-raising commotion. And that is not necessarily anointing; many times it is manipulation. Sometimes, yes, it is anointing. I believe, brothers and sisters, I believe in the gifts of the Spirit. I believe that many times God inspires us and moves us to set aside a sermon and everything else and simply get down to spiritual business. But that cannot be the practice every Sunday.

Life is much more complex than that. Church life has existed on earth for thousands of years, and it needs something... edification, teaching, and the celebration of the things God is doing among God’s people. It cannot always be one nonstop party. That wears anyone out; it will burn out the nervous system of even the finest person, brothers and sisters.

It would take a long time to explain, but Paul suffered from that problem. They would say, “No, this man is not anointed. We want the great apostles.” For your edification, let me read only two verses, 2 Corinthians 10, verses 10 through 13. That is why I tell you this is teaching; this is not so that you will go home with your nervous system burned out. No, with your brain burned out—no. Paul says here:

“...For indeed, people say, ‘His letters are weighty and forceful’—speaking of Paul—‘but his physical presence is weak and his words contemptible’—as though there were nothing admirable in Paul’s words—‘...Let such a person bear this in mind: that what we are in word by letters when absent, we will also be in deed when present. For we do not dare to count ourselves among, or compare ourselves with, some who commend themselves; but they, measuring themselves by themselves and comparing themselves with themselves, are not wise...’”

And that continues. Later, read 2 Corinthians, Chapter 11, verses 3 through 6:

“...And I think that I have been inferior in nothing to those great apostles...” —he says it sarcastically— “...For even though I may be unskilled in speech, I am not so in knowledge; in every way and in all things we have demonstrated this to you...”

Paul is defending his ministerial style. Because throughout the history of the church, it has always been the same. There are people who believe that if there is only solid teaching and good, nourishing preaching, that is not anointing. What people want many times, brothers and sisters, is revelry in the services, and if you give them solid food, they say, “No. Talk to people about Christ’s second coming, demons, healing, and prosperity,” and they are happy. They stay for four hours. But talk to them about the fruit of the Spirit, the transformation of the self, true consecration to the Lord, and all these solid things from the Word, and they say, “We will hear you another day. We are not interested in that; we leave that for Wednesday nights.” And then they do not come on Wednesdays.

That is how it is; that is how people are. People want bread with butter and jam. Many times they are not interested in the solid food of the Word of God, and that is one of the great problems of the Pentecostal world, and that is why we are the way we are. That is why we do not grow and are not blessed. We have to be more mature than that, brothers and sisters.

In verse 22, Paul leads the church back to the Word. It says here:

“...Therefore tongues are for a sign, not to believers but to unbelievers; but prophecy is not for unbelievers but for believers...”

If you examine the whole passage of 1 Corinthians, Chapter 14, you see Paul grappling with this: okay, what does the Word say? Let us understand what the Word says. Paul discovers that tongues in congregational worship are primarily a sign for those who do not know the Lord, for visitors, not for believers. He is saying, “Read the Word. What does it say? What are tongues for? And what is the purpose of tongues?”

So apply it that way. It is not for believers; it is for visitors, for those who do not know the Lord. The use of tongues should reflect their original, scriptural purpose.

What I want you to observe is Paul’s reasoning. It is reasoning that is, forgive the redundancy, reasonable. It is sober reasoning. And that is how we must examine the use of the gifts as well. Paul is being practical, brothers and sisters, and that does not make him any less spiritual.

If outsiders who are uninitiated in the things of the Spirit come in and see the disorder, Paul says, they will think we are crazy. We must therefore temper the use of the gifts and adapt it to the practical considerations of institutional life, to the purposes of evangelism, and to winning the world for Christ.

Look at how Paul reasons in verses 18 and 19:

“…I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you—Paul is Pentecostal; he is anticipating those who say, ‘No, it’s because this man has no anointing, does not believe in the gifts, is not anointed,’ and so on. No, I speak in tongues more than all of you put together—but in the church—everyone say, ‘In the church’—in the church, in a congregational gathering like this one, in a time of collective worship, he says, I would rather speak five words with my understanding, so that I may also teach others, than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue…”

Say, “Glory to God.” Paul is saying, look, it is not that I do not believe in tongues; on the contrary, I practice them more than anyone else. I believe in what they produce; I believe in their benefit. But, brothers and sisters, when we are in a congregational gathering, it is not necessarily the time to engage in speaking in tongues; rather, it is a time for the edification of the body of Jesus Christ.

Now, understand me: I am not saying that it is not important and good to speak in tongues from time to time. There are times when the Lord leads us to do that. Many times, while sitting there, I am speaking in tongues because I need to strengthen myself in the Spirit. I believe in that. Now, do not say that Pastor Miranda said that speaking in tongues is no longer allowed during the Sunday service. No. What I am saying is that what we do must be conditioned by considerations of why we gather.

What are we ultimately seeking to accomplish? Look, whenever you exercise any gift and there are people around you, ask yourself: Is what I am doing a blessing to my brothers and sisters, or a stumbling block? Am I serving myself, or am I serving the Lord and my brothers and sisters?

Because what good does it do me to have one great party, get drunk, scandalize people, drive them away from the Kingdom of God, create confusion in their minds, and put on a show? Whom does that glorify but me? I am saying, “Hey, I’m going to enjoy myself, and everyone else can go to hell; that’s their problem. If they don’t like it, they don’t have to eat it.” That is what we are saying. Instead, we should say, “No, what I am doing must bless the people of God; it must glorify God and exemplify the harmonious, merciful, servant-hearted character of Christ Jesus.”

The gifts are not for you to serve yourself and fill yourself up. The gifts are for the blessing of others—at least in the congregational context. Now, when you are at home, close the door, shut the window tightly, and shout all you want. Take off all your clothes if you want; let your hair get all disheveled. It does not matter; it is just you and the Lord. Amen. Glory to God.

But if you are in harmony with others, then you must discipline your spirituality. Look, Paul even uses aesthetics in his reasoning, because human knowledge is not necessarily alien or foreign to spiritual reasoning either. Look at verses 7 through 9. I am already landing; the back wheels have touched down, and now only the front ones remain. The Apostle Paul says:

“…Certainly, even inanimate things that produce sound—that is, all inanimate things, for example, a trumpet, a piano—the inanimate things that produce sounds, such as the flute or the harp, the guitar, if they do not give distinct notes, how will anyone know what is being played on the flute or the guitar?”

Think about that. If there are seventeen guitarists, each one playing his own tune, how will people know what they are playing? He says, no, look, there is order in the world of aesthetics. Then he says:

“…and if the trumpet gives an uncertain sound in a battle, who will prepare for battle?”

If there are eight trumpets playing over there, over that way, and over here, where are the soldiers supposed to gather to defend themselves against the enemy? There has to be order. And when the church gathers, it is for warfare; it is to strengthen the soldiers. If everyone is doing whatever they please, there is no edification and no blessing. Then he says:

“…So likewise you, unless you utter by the tongue words that are easily understood, how will anyone understand what you are saying? For you will be speaking into the air…”

And he continues with his very interesting reasoning. Let us learn from that reasoning, brothers and sisters, and then you should apply it to every other area. Paul places edification above everything else. And that is a good question we must always ask ourselves: In what way does what I am supposedly doing in the Spirit edify my fellow believers, my family, my own life, and my spiritual growth? How does this advance the Kingdom of God? What good is it to have a great spiritual party during the service if it leads to scandal and confusion for others?

Where is the supposed benefit? We must judge what we do in light of all the values of the Word of God, including love, mercy, compassion, and kindness. If I am scandalizing my brother, I am not showing kindness and love toward him.

I am going to close the Bible so I can resist the temptation to continue. One last thing—now you really can play a little to inspire the people. We must discern the spirit. Listen to this: I want you to see how these principles apply to many different situations in life.

Let us now turn for a moment to 1 Corinthians, chapter 11, where Paul speaks about the Lord’s Supper. He says that the Lord’s Supper is something sublime, something through which we remember the body, the sacrifice, and the cross of Jesus Christ. And Paul says, many of you, when you come to celebrate that beautiful rite, come to show off, because in those days the Lord’s Supper was a complete meal. Do not think it was a tiny cracker with Welch’s grape juice. No, it was a full meal. There was rice with pigeon peas, pupusas—everything. The pupusas had no beef; they were vegetarian.

And so everyone would come to eat together, and each person would bring food. It was a potluck supper, and everyone would bring their little dishes. They were all supposed to eat at the same time, waiting for one another. How are people supposed to eat? By waiting for one another. When you go to a restaurant and they bring you your food first, do you immediately start eating while the others sit there, poor things, waiting for their food to arrive? No, you wait, and then everyone eats together.

So Paul says, look, when you celebrate the Lord’s Supper, many of you come here and start eating right away, forgetting about everyone else. Some are showing off their chicken and rice, salad, and all sorts of good things, while some other poor brother or sister has a little tortilla with salt and a tiny bit of refried beans on top. And you eat without caring about that brother or sister, instead of sharing what you have with them.

And if they did not arrive on time, you go ahead and eat because you are hungry. And Paul says that this is an insult to the Lord’s table, because you are not discerning the purpose for which it was given. Merely carrying out the ritual means nothing; on the contrary, you are eating, and you are eating poison, because love is not governing what you are doing. You must wait for one another; you must show mercy to one another; you must honor the body of Christ, which was bruised and crushed out of mercy, love, and service to others.

And you cannot eat the body of Christ in contradiction to what that body represents. And if you do, there is a structural contradiction that leads to sickness and death.

And I believe that this is why many churches that supposedly practice the gifts, but do not allow their practice to be tempered by the other elements of the Word, are eating judgment against themselves, and that is why they do not progress and are not blessed. Because they are not doing it in the spirit of Jesus Christ and of the Word of God.

Now, if you know the whole Word, the whole counsel of God, and seek to apply all of it, including the gifts, then those gifts will bless and bring prosperity to the church and to the people who practice them.

Do you see how the reasoning of the Word is so real, so true? And I could take any text of Scripture, or any human situation, bring them together, and examine it in light of the elements of the Lord’s Word, and we could clearly see how these principles are universal. Use this in your life. How is my spirituality blessing my family? How is my testimony blessing the workplace where I do my work? How is my testimony edifying? How do the gifts God has given me result in the advancement of the church, the edification of others, the conversion of unbelievers, and the building up of the body of Jesus Christ? That is the question.

And that is what I call healthy, balanced spirituality. May the Lord bless us. Let us stand, brothers and sisters. Let each of us examine ourselves, as the Apostle Paul says: let each person examine himself before partaking of the Lord’s blessings.

I ask the Lord: Father, help me; help this church; help our spiritual leadership to reflect the harmony and coherence of Your sound Word. Give us a spirit of understanding, a spirit of sound judgment and wisdom in everything we do. And may we, Lord, exemplify and express the character of Christ Jesus in everything. That is what we ask for this church and for this people, whom we bless in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Amen.

Brothers and sisters, may the grace of the Lord be with you. Amen.