Welcome to the Believer's Bible Assembly This is the day that the Lord has made and

we're going to rejoice and be glad in it Open your Bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter 14 verse 3 and

it says but he who prophesies speaks to men for their edification encouragement and comfort And

that's why I want to talk to you today about edifying one another building up and strengthening each other As

believers in the body of Christ we are to help each other grow spiritually in our faith And

one way to do this is by edifying building up strengthening one another God in His word exhorts

us to do this and he gives us the wisdom on how to do it So today we will

examine the word to see how we as believers can learn to edify one another to build

one another up to strengthen each other in our faith In our text this morning Paul is

contrasting the use of spiritual gifts specifically about prophecy and tongues The context of chapter 14 is Paul

setting order in the church and he starts off with the proper order of the spiritual gifts He contrasts

tongues with prophecy and he said that I would rather in the church that you

prophesy In the New Testament context it means to speak forth the word In the Old

Testament context it was to foretell future events But Paul is saying when you speak for a

word of prophecy that word has a purpose and there's three things It's for evocation encouragement and comfort

and that word evocation means to build up it means to strengthen So when someone speaks a

word of prophecy from the word that word is designed to build up and strengthen another And it's designed

to promote spiritual growth in the life of the believer So that's what the world

is designed to do To edify to build up to strengthen and promote spiritual growth in

the life of the believer That's what Paul was emphasizing in the first part of

chapter 14 the purpose of prophecy speaking for the word that's gonna bring forth evocation exhortation

and comfort to those who hear it And in the context of what Paul is writing

he said that without edification the building up and the strengthening of believers ministry now has

become ineffective and it will not produce cornea fellowship So we're gonna talk about what this

edification is all about because it's important to us We need to know it This is something

that we should be doing on a daily basis edifying building up and strengthening one

another So when you look at the word education it literally means building of a

house In this context we're talking about the building of a spiritual house The process of building up believers

in their faith and this building of a spiritual house is designed to be constructive

and not destructive It's designed to leave people stronger in the Lord And not discouraged That's the

purpose of evocation and speaking words that's going to build up First Thessalonians chapter 5

verse 11 says this therefore encourage one another and build up edify one another just as you are doing

When we edify other believers we are building them up and helping them grow spiritually Romans

edify another This vocation this building up the strengthening uplifting of one another It has to be intentional That's

why we have to pursue it My objective as a teacher as a pastor is

to minister a word to you that's gonna build you up that's gonna strengthen you not to beat

you down and to tear you down with the word When you encourage people with the word

edify them with the word strength and build them up You're building their faith in the

word and what Jesus said and what God has done and that's going to inspire

them to do better To increase their walk with the Lord But we have to be intentional when

we speak words to other people to build them up and encourage them Paul wrote to establish the goal of

the spiritual gifts to build up and strengthen the church Number one he said the purpose of

the spiritual gifts prophecy speaking the word of education is to build others up spiritually

Colossians 2:6-7 talks about being rooted and built up in him and established in the faith

That's the purpose of evocation to help people be rooted and grounded and built up in Him and

established in the faith A strong Christian life is like a house that's built on a rock It stands firm

and is able to resist any storm And how do you help people to stand firm

to be able to resist any storm Speak words that edify Ephesians chapter 4 verse 11 says

that God gave the church apostles prophets evangelists pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints for the work

of ministry He goes on to say in verse 12 that these ministry leaders not only are

they to equip the saints for work of ministry but they're supposed to build up the

body of Christ So the purpose of ministry is twofold To equip and to build people up

not to impress them Ministry leaders that are to equip people and to build them

up Instead of doing that they are trying to impress them with who they are

and this is dangerous Because now the individual has a relationship with the ministry leader and that Christ They

have a relationship with the church but not the kingdom So that's very dangerous So any

ministry leader that puts themselves first and foremost in front of the people is not a

ministry leader that's called by Christ because the attention now is on them Where the attention

should be on Jesus Christ The purpose of these ministry leaders is not to impress

the people with their ability to keep to preach Their job is to equip and

build people up and this building up of the abiding Christ involves spiritual growth and maturity and unity

in the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God That is the purpose of

building spiritual maturity through edification in the body The second thing that advocation is to do is to promote

unity in the body Ephesians chapter 4 verse 15 to 16 talks about speaking the truth

and love And when you speak the truth and love this causes the body to grow and be edified in

love True evocation will bring people closer to Christ and to each other Number 3 to strengthen our faith and

our hope Jude 20 says this but you beloved building yourself up on your most holy faith

praying in the spirit We are to build ourselves up in our most holy faith Yes the ministry leaders

have a role but we also have a role and that is to build ourselves up on our most holy

faith meaning you can't be dependent on just the ministry leader alone to give you

what you need in order for you to be encouraged edified and strengthened in your faith

After I finished teaching you this lesson today You have to now take what was imparted to you and apply

that to your life to build yourself up in your most holy faith praying in the power

of the Holy Spirit Now the Spirit intercedes the spirit empowers and the spirit edifies and builds you up as

a believer We're praying in the power of the spirit We're asking for the Holy

Spirit now to help me do what I've been called to do to help me live the life that

I've been called to live to help me resist the temptations that are right in front of

me each and every day You need the Holy Spirit to do that And we need to build ourselves up

spiritually so that we can edify build up and strengthen others Because the reality of it is you can't

build nobody up if you're not built up yourself We need to build ourselves up so we can help

build up and strengthen others So the question is how do we ever find one

another Number one speak life not death Remember I told you it's intentional We have to speak life not death

Proverbs 18:21 says life and death are in the power of the tongue Every time

we speak a word to somebody we either speak a life to them or we're speaking

death to them The purpose of education is to build up is to strengthen is to

uplift So every word we speak to each other should lead to edification building up others spiritually not

putting them down Ephesians chapter 4 verse 29 says let no corrupt communication or words proceed out of your mouth

but what is good for necessary edification that it may impart grace to the hero

Edification building up not tearing down strengthening not putting down and the words that you speak will

not only edify but Impart grace To the hero The same grace you receive now

we have responsibility to impart the word of grace to the hero Number 1 speak life not death Number 2

we have to use our gift with the right motives 1 Corinthians chapter 8 verse 1 says this knowledge puffs

up but love edifies builds up Are you using your gifts to puff yourself up

or are you using your gifts to edify build up another Cause that's what Paul was talking about

in this verse He's saying that love should guide our usage of our gifts to build one another up

in the body of Christ Love is the motivator Love is the reason why you do

what you do because you truly love this person and you want the best for

them Although you have knowledge the words that's coming out of your mouth now are words

that are motivated by love to build up to strengthen The goal of using your spiritual gifts is not

to show off your gifts God did not give you spiritual gifts for you to show off

your gift That's not the purpose Like I said earlier now who's the focus you are The preacher now

is the focus The singer is the focus That's not the goal for the gift God did not give

me those gifts for that reason Any gift that you have we all have a gift is

to lift up your brothers and sisters in Christ to encourage them and to strengthen them and

to build them up Number 3 to teach and to share God's word Acts chapter 20 verse 32

says I commend you to God and to the word of His grace which is able to

build you up The reason why we have the scriptures God gave us the word as a tool

to help us be edified and to build up and strengthen others That's why here in this

ministry I encourage you to read and study your words Why So we can build you

up and now you will be able to strengthen and edify someone else And it's the word that's going

to do this The word is designed to strengthen to edify to build up and to encourage And the

reason why you need to be built up is so that you can encourage others The fourth

reason how we use education to edify one another is to encourage one another That's the goal Hebrews

chapter 10 verse 24 to 25 talks about how we are to encourage each other

as the day approaches and we are not to forsake the assembling of one another I

don't even know the word to describe the times that we're living in right now

All I know is Christ is coming back and he's coming back soon People are falling away from the

faith and they are losing hope So when we assemble together it's not just to check

a block but to encourage edify build one another up strengthen one another and be able to edify and

encourage others as the day approaches There's some benefits to education Number one believers will be built

up spiritually and be stronger not weaker When you speak a word to someone to go to leave somebody

better than they were when you found them They might come to you with a problem or

situation And you give them a word and when they depart your presence they're built

up spiritually the stronger and focused Number 2 There's growth in Christ's likeness when you speak evocation to another

That's the goal of every believer to help each other grow in Christ's likeness That's the building

up of the body that we talked about in Ephesians chapter 4 The third benefit is that believers will

be eager to serve and to edify others You're fine now You want to encourage somebody you want to edify

somebody You can't wait to share a word with someone And there's ever a time that we

needed a sure word is today The days of all this prosperity gospel and all this social

gospel and all of this me myself and I gospel people are seeing right through that today It

gives you a temporary high but in the long term when the rubber meets the road and the nitty meets

the gritty That type of gospel is not going to stand But a true word

from God in the right context will stand And when you speak that word to people they'll be

motivated to serve and edify others And the 4th benefit of edification which is key Our faith will

be deepened not shaken or crushed which leads to church hurt and others falling away from the faith

You know it's sad when I talk to people and I'm on social media and I look at some

posts The devil is deceiving people left and right today with church hurt Now first of all church didn't

hurt you Some heathen in church hurt you Some religious zealot in the church hurt you Somebody instead

of edifying you with words seasoning with grace felt compelled to tear you down Because of how you look

or what you was wearing or you didn't move the right way or say the right words That has nothing

to do with the church that Jesus Christ said he would come to establish That

has nothing to do with you maintaining your relationship with God but the devil has found ways

to inject church hurt into unbelievers and believers When I talk to people I don't want

nothing to do with the church because somebody in the church hurt me They talked

about me They gossip behind my back When I had a need they didn't help me So they fell out

with the church and in essence by falling out with the church they fall out with God and eventually

fell away from the faith What if that person would have went to a church where they were welcomed

What if that person went to a church where the people spoke words of grace evocation to strengthen them and

build them up Our purpose is not to leave people away from the church but

see the devil uses this as a trick today to keep people away from God and His

word It's sad It breaks my heart but just the world that we live in right now But

listen The good news is God is still on the throne and the Holy Spirit is still

drawing people to Christ each and every day I'm saddened when I hear things like that but it's a reality

That's why you need to be an edifying believer That's why we need to be

an edifying church Because that's going to draw people to Christ That's going to help people

increase their faith They won't be shaken or crushed and instead of falling away from the

church they want to unite with a body of believers and be part of the unified body of Christ And

that's the 5th benefit to vocation unity in the body of Christ will increase Unity will increase and gossip and

division will decrease A lot of people won't go to certain churches because there's wretchedness in

there from the pastor on down Gossip division It reminds me of the church that Paul

dealt with in 1 Corinthians chapter 3 verse 3 This church was full of division this church

was full of strife this church was full of jealousy this church was full of fighting

and quarrels Paul had to rebuke them because their focus was not on Christ The focus was on

following certain individuals that were in the church and not on Christ And because of that

Paul said they were cardinal the church was full of vision stripe jealousy and fighting but the purpose of

evocation was to bring unity not increase division Let me leave you with this When Paul says that

prophecy brings application he's given us a measuring tool for ministry Does what's being spoken

build up the healer in Christ or does it tear down the hero Does it minister grace

to the hearer or is the person now discouraged That's the measuring tool for individuals and ministry

So the bottom line is this If the words we speak don't result in edification building up strengthening uplifting one

another then we are missing the heart of ministry We're missing the heart of God

If the words that we speak to one another and I'm not just talking about church folks I'm talking about

people in general people are not in the church people who have been church hurt they want nothing

to do with the church If we don't speak words that's gonna edify them and build them up and

strengthen them then we're missing the heart of ministry and we're missing the heart of God People were

drawn to Christ because of the words that he spoke Now yes he had to check

a couple of Pharisees and sagduces and religious zealots Because they were doing the opposite of love They were

under the law They were trying to dictate mandate what people ought to do but Jesus spoke words

of vocation love and that drew people to him Proverbs 15:4 says this a soothing tongue speaking words that

build up and encourage is a tree of life but a perverse tongue crushes the spirit

Every time we speak words to someone Are we building them up Are we encouraging them Or do we have

a perverse tone that's crushing their spirits And I'm telling you right now there a lot of people around here

with crushed spirits in and out the church So as believers we are to speak words that build

up and encourage strength and uplift So before we speak a word to anybody post anything on social media

that counts too Or a minister to someone one on one We have to ask ourselves is what I'm about

to say to this person would it lift them up build them up and encourage them or will it tear

them down Will this help build someone's faith Or will they fall from the faith Now if the answer is

yes go ahead and speak words that's gonna edify that's gonna build up and strengthen If not pray and

keep silent We have the fruit of spirit self-control that will enable us to speak words that build up

that strengthen that edify And by doing this we are showing God's love to each other and to the world

By speaking words of faith that build people up and not tear them down And let's continue to edify

build up and strengthen one another and help each other grow spiritually in Christ Amen