Church Builders Series

Church Builders

1st Corinthians Series

March 1st, 2026, CCCAG

Scripture- 1 Corinthians 14:1–32

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Introduction:

I’ve shared before I got saved outside of a church service. It was through the faithful witness of several coworkers who had to take a lot of abuse and sarcasm from me to finally break through my natural sarcasm and cynicism.

It was my second church service in a Pentecostal church that wasn’t A/G, but very AG in beliefs and practice. I was alone as Tammie worked the previous night and also really resistant to my conversion.

At that service, that I saw something that freaked me out little.

We are in the middle of a powerful worship service, people are dancing, singing loudly, and really into praising Jesus when all of the sudden, some older gentlemen starts shouting in some weird language, and then says “Thus saith the LORD God of hosts”

Immediately, everything stopped.

I had no idea what this was- I grew up Lutheran, and you never ever talk in church in anything other than a monotone reciting of “The brief order of confession and forgiveness on page 56 of the hymnal”.

All I saw was a huge disruption to the service. I’m waiting for the ushers to grab this guy and drag him out of the sanctuary.

But instead, people bowed their head, while this guy loudly proclaimed what God was speaking to us through him.

The pastor staff then changed the entire course of that service around what this person had just said.

It was my first exposure to the public speaking in tongues, and prophecy.

When I brought it up to my friend and coworker that led me into the faith, he pointed me right here to this chapter in 1st Corinthians.

Over the last few weeks, we’ve read about how the Holy Spirit moves in the church through the offices of the church- Apostle, prophet, Evangelist, Pastor/Teacher. We’ve seen the gifts that the Holy Spirit listed out for us, and how we will see how these offices and gifts interact within the church service.

Chapter 14 is mostly about the gifts of the Holy Spirit being used within the church service. Keep that in mind.

The other point we have to keep in mind when we read this chapter, is seen in verse 1-

Pursue Love (Agape).

Pursuing love is the primary pursuit of all believers in Jesus.

Not holiness,

not religion,

not spiritual gifts.

Agape Love is the nature of Jesus Christ being formed in the hearts, minds, and spirits in the church.

Everything else flows from that. Obedience and Holiness is easy if you are passionately in love with Jesus.

We will get into this more later, but keep that in mind as we read further, because it’s the framework of everything else in the chapter.

So let’s explore Chapter 14,

1 Corinthians 14: 1-5

Pursue love and desire spiritual gifts, and especially that you may prophesy. 2 For the person who speaks in a tongue, is not speaking to people but to God, since no one understands him; he speaks mysteries in the Spirit.

3 On the other hand, the person who prophesies speaks to people for their strengthening, encouragement, and consolation. 4 The person who speaks in a tongue builds himself up, but the one who prophesies builds up the church. 5 I wish all of you spoke in tongues, but even more that you prophesied. The person who prophesies is greater than the person who speaks in tongues, unless he interprets so that the church may be built up.

Prayer

The verses we just read talking about the spiritual gifts of tongues and prophecy being formational in the church to build the lives both the corporate body and the individual Christian.

When you stand on a construction site, there’s noise. Movement. Power. Sparks. Dust.

But nobody walks onto a job site and says,

“Look at that incredible nail gun.”

The nail gun is not the goal.

The structure being built is the point.

And in 1 Corinthians 14, Paul addresses a church that had fallen in love with the tools.

They were passionate about spiritual gifts.

They were expressive.

They were zealous.

They were even competitive about it- comparing one person’s gift to other people with the same gift.

But they were not strengthening one another.

So Paul anchors the entire chapter with this sentence in verse 12:

1 Cor 14:12 “Since you are zealous for spiritual gifts, seek to excel in building up the church.”

That is the north star and anchor of this chapter. Building the body of Christ to shine the Gospel into a dark world.

We are holding up Jesus Christ as Savior, and to do that the church has to be a center of saints edifying one another.