Bodybuilding God’s Way
I. God Measures Gifts by Outcome, Not Expression
• Outcome Is Prioritized
1 Corinthians 14:1 – Pursue love, and desire spiritual gifts, BUT ESPECIALLY that you may prophesy.
• Outcome Is Contrasted
1 Corinthians 14:2 – For he who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God, for no one understands him; however, in the spirit he speaks mysteries.
1 Corinthians 14:3 – But he who prophesies speaks edification and exhortation and comfort to men.
− The Outcome: Edification, Exhortation, and Comfort TO MEN
1 Corinthians 14:4 – He who speaks in a tongue edifies himself, but he who prophesies edifies the church.
− The Outcome: One Builds Himself, the Other Builds the Church
• The Desired Outcome – The Edified Church Body
1 Corinthians 14:5 – I wish you all spoke with tongues, but even more that you prophesied; for he who prophesies is greater than he who speaks with tongues, unless indeed he interprets, that the church may receive edification.
II. God Measures Gifts by the Understanding Not by the Instrument
• God Seeks Our Profit
1 Corinthians 14:6 – But now, brethren, if I come to you speaking with tongues, what shall I profit you unless I speak to you either by revelation, by knowledge, by prophesying, or by teaching?
• Understanding Produces Meaning
1 Corinthians 14:7 – Even things without life, whether flute or harp, when they make a sound, unless they make a distinction in the sounds, how will it be known what is piped or played?
• Meaning Produces Movement
1 Corinthians 14:8 – For if the trumpet makes an uncertain sound, who will prepare for battle?
• Without Meaning, You Are Speaking into the Air
1 Corinthians 14:9 – So likewise you, unless you utter by the tongue words easy to understand, how will it be known what is spoken? For you will be speaking into the air.
• Real Doesn't Mean Profitable
1 Corinthians 14:10 – There are, it may be, so many kinds of languages in the world, and none of them is without significance.
III. The Gift Given to Make Us Family Has Been Used to Make Us Strangers
• Pentecost Tore the Wall Down; Corinth Built it Back
1 Corinthians 14:11 – Therefore, if I do not know the meaning of the language, I shall be a foreigner to him who speaks, and he who speaks will be a foreigner to me.
• The Focus Restated and Reinforced
1 Corinthians 14:12 – Even so you, since you are zealous for spiritual gifts, let it be for the edification of the church that you seek to excel.