 Good afternoon, everybody, and welcome to Unfiltered. Pastor, I have a question. I received a question, but I wanted to put it in the context of Calvary Chapel. And Calvary Chapel firmly practice and operates within the gifts of the Spirit. It's obvious with the movement back in the day and that there's evidence of operations of the gifts in our church. But I want to ask you specifically, is the gift of tongues the primary evidence of being baptized in the Holy Spirit? That's a common question. That's something that's been asked so many times. I still remember an opportunity to answer a question like that that came about years ago when we were renting the Ontario High School for our Sunday, morning, Sunday night services. And a lady walked up to me at the end of the evening service and said to me this. She said, I'd like to ask you a question. I'd like to know when the Spirit moves here. And she said, this is my first time here. And I just would like to know when the Spirit moves here. So I said, oh, I said, well, we're here for the worship. You know, and she says, oh, yeah, she says, I felt it was uplifting and it was beautiful. I said, great. I said, were you here for the Bible study? And she said, yes, I heard it. I said, did you see the people receive Christ at the invitation? And she said, yes, I did. I said, look out there right now. You see those people praying? She goes, yeah, I said, you see those people over there who are fellowshiping? And she said, yes, I do. I said, now you're asking me, when does the Holy Spirit move here? And she said, yes, I am. I said, what you really mean is when do we speak in tongues? I said, because the Holy Spirit is moving, he moved through the worship. He moved through the word. He drew people to himself by conviction at the invitation. You're seeing people exercising their love and compassion for one another as they're fellowshiping and praying with one another. I said, the gifts of the Holy Spirit are not just one gift. There are many. I said, and so the Holy Spirit is moving here, but perhaps not in a way that you're used to. And I really feel that that is a common kind of thing that people will ask as it pertains to the Holy Spirit, the baptism of the Spirit and the movement of the Holy Spirit is usually reduced. And in Pentecostal circles, some Pentecostal circles is always reduced to a single gift. And that is the gift of tongues. And yet Paul says, do all speak with tongues? And that was what is called a rhetorical question. It was begging the answer. The answer was being provided in the question. The question was actually expecting to hear the answer. No, not all speak in tongues. That's the point he was making. He said, God, the gifts of the Spirit are distributed severally as he wills. So the Holy Spirit's gifting is evidenced in the body of Christ. But in many ways, people have looked at it as being a single gift when in fact it's a variety of gifts in operation. So do we as Calvary chapels believe in the perpetuity of the spiritual gifts? Yes. Do we believe that the gift of tongues is one of the gifts of the Spirit? Yes. Do we believe that it is the primary evidence of the baptism of the Holy Spirit? And I would say no. Well, if tongues is not the evidence of the presence of God in somebody's life, then what would be the evidence? And I would say, well, the evidence is found in 1 Corinthians 13 because 1 Corinthians 12 and chapter 14, obviously have what we have called 13th chapter, when in fact it was a letter that was broken into chapters. But chapters 12 and 14, which speaks specifically of the gifts as well as their operation, it's interesting to note that in the center of that discussion of gifts is the declaration of what love is. And so what is the evidence that somebody has been baptized in the Holy Spirit? Well, I do believe that God can and does very often give people the gift of tongues. Should you seek for it? Yes. He says, pursue all gifts. But he goes on to say, especially love. He says, especially that you may love. What are you saying, Paul? Well, I'm saying that the operation of the Holy Spirit should be operating under the fruit of the Holy Spirit and the fruit of the Holy Spirit is love. Jesus said, by this all men shall know that you're my disciples, not if you speak in tongues, but if you love one another. And so love is the primary evidence of the power of the Spirit living in resident within somebody exercised through faith in the distribution of the gifts that God has provided to the body of Christ. And so, yeah, we believe and have seen that God has done a variety of works here that, you know, people have been healed. And I'm not saying every time that we pray for them, but they have been over the years. We see people exercising other gifts like even administration or the gift of helps. We've seen that the Holy Spirit moves through the teaching, the exhortation of the word of God and so many various other gifts that are mentioned in Scripture. And so the primary evidence that someone is walking in the Spirit isn't simply that they have the ability to exercise gifts, because even people who are carnal can still exercise gifts of the Spirit. Somebody who has the gift of tongues may be living a carnal life, but can still exercise tongues, you know? And so we as Calvary chapels, I speak for my fellowship here, but in a general statement, we do believe in the perpetuity of the gifts of the Spirit. We do believe in baptism. The Holy Spirit is a second experience that is subsequent very often, maybe almost immediate, but subsequent to the salvation. We've become the temple of the Spirit of God. We're baptized into the body of Christ, but the Holy Spirit comes upon us. And in that coming upon experience that we have with the Holy Spirit, we receive an added dimension of our faith and our walk with the Lord. And so we do exercise a variety of gifts. And especially, you'll see that gift operating through the baptism of the Holy Spirit. You'll see the gift of teaching and a prophetic utterances that very often are part of a message because very often what the Lord does is inspires your speech. And as you're sharing his word, he inspires you to illustrate or sometimes it gives the knowledge where you'll say, you know, there's somebody who needs to hear this right now. And I believe that I've done that many times, many times, but I don't have drum roll please, you know, gift of knowledge, you know, because I think that what we've done is we've seen this natural flow of the Spirit has been overshadowed by the theatrics of certain television personalities that clear their throat and then proclaim some prophecy in King James or whatever. And for some reason, the people get thrilled by the flesh when the Spirit is subject to the will. We, in other words, we determine, I will speak in tongues, I will not speak in tongues. It's a determination that takes place because there's a proper place for the exercise of the gifts and all of that. And so, yeah, I believe obviously in the power of the Holy Spirit, it's the Holy Spirit who has held me up all the years that I've walked with the Lord. And he's the one who gifted me and he's gifted you, John, and anybody who's opened up and said, God, please give me all that you can give me. I want as much as you will pour upon me, you know. And so, I encourage people, get on your knees and say, God, I just want more of you and see what the Lord does. Amen. Well, thank you, Pastor David, for sharing that with us. And because there's a lot of people, well, not a lot of people, there's some that go around saying, you know, speak in tongues. Oh, there's a lot. They're denominations. So no, you're right. There are a lot of people who do that. But the greatest gift is love. Well, thank you, Pastor. And church family, we want to invite you to our Sunday morning services at 8.30 and 10.45. Good opportunity to invite your friends and family. But as we close today, Pastor David and I were speaking and we're going to take a break from our unfiltered, we're going to re-evaluate some things and take a look at some things. So we're going to be closing this down for a while. I appreciate all of you who have taken the time to watch. But there are so many, there aren't that many who do. And this takes some time and effort and all. And I just don't want to be sewing into a field that isn't producing fruit. And we have so many things that we need to do. And so many things I have to put aside in order to do this. And people don't seem to care that we're doing this. And it's okay, you don't have to watch this. And so we are going to re-evaluate whether or not this is something we should do. And I'm good with that. So thank you for those of you who do watch this. And now you know that how I feel about that. I just think that I don't want to waste my time of the Lord's time doing something that people don't benefit from. That's simple. Well, thank you guys for tuning in. And we love you. God bless you. And we'll look forward to seeing you on Sunday.