Here is Today's Message

Don't Believe Everything You Hear

1 John 4:1-3 The Message My dear friends, don't believe everything you hear. Carefully weigh and examine what people tell you. Not everyone who talks about God comes from God. There are a lot of lying preachers loose in the world.

Here's how you test for the genuine Spirit of God. Everyone who confesses openly his faith in Jesus Christ--the Son of God, who came as an actual flesh and-blood person--comes from God and belongs to God.

And everyone who refuses to confess faith in Jesus has nothing in common with God. This is the spirit of antichrist that you heard was coming. Well, here it is, sooner than we thought!

1 Corinthians 14:26-33 So here's what I want you to do. When you gather for worship, each one of you be prepared with something that will be useful for all; Sing a hymn, teach a lesson, tell a story, lead a prayer, provide an insight.

If prayers are offered in tongues, two or three's the limit, and then only if someone is present who can interpret what you're saying.

Otherwise, keep it between God and yourself.

And no more than two or three speakers at a meeting, with the rest of you listening and taking it to heart.

Take your turn, no one person taking over.

Then each speaker gets a chance to say something special from God, and you all learn from each other.

If you choose to speak, you're also responsible for how and when you speak.

When we worship the right way, God doesn't stir us up into confusion; he brings us into harmony. This goes for all the churches--no exceptions.

Spritual Gifts

1 Corinthians 12:1-3 What I want to talk about now is the various ways God's Spirit gets worked into our lives. This is complex and often misunderstood, but I want you to be informed and knowledgeable.

Remember how you were when you didn't know God, led from one phony god to another, never knowing what you were doing, just doing it because everyone did it? It's different in this life. God wants us to use our intelligence, to seek to understand as well as we can.

For instance, by using your heads, you know perfectly well that the Spirit of God would never prompt anyone to say "Jesus be damned!" Nor would anyone be inclined to say "Jesus is Master!" without the insight of the Holy Spirit.