Are You Looking at the Door?

Sunday marked the beginning of a series on Spiritual Gifts. I'm excited to see how God shapes the rest of these messages.

I thought that I would share a great illustration with you today that I used in the closing of my message. The illustration came from the book, "They Speak with Other Tongues", by John Sherrill. One day while speaking with Dr. Howard Ervin, a Baptist minister in Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey, Dr. Ervin shared these thoughts:

"I think the mistake is to divorce tongues from the essential whole of which they are a part...Let me tell you a little story. I happen to be fond of church architecture. One day when I was out driving I found an exquisite little Gothic chapel. I stopped my car and got out to admire it.
"But that little church happened to have at its entrance a bright, red door. My eyes would try to follow the soaring lines of the building upward as Gothic architecture make you do, but every time they were jerked back to that red door. It was so flamboyant it kept me from seeing the whole picture.
"Tongues, John, are like that door. As long as you stand outside, your attention is going to be riveted there and you're not going to be able to see anything else. Once you go through, however, you are surrounded by the thousand wonders of light and sound and form that the architect intended. You look around and that door isn't even red on the inside. It's there. It's to be used. But it has taken its proper place in the design of the whole church.
"That's what I'd hope for you, John. I think it's time for you to walk through that door. If you really want to discover what the Pentecostal experience is all about, don't concentrate on tongues, but step through the door and meet the Holy Spirit."

I must say that I have never found anyone to explain it any clearer. How true...powerful...precise. Oh, how I wish that so many others could hear this statement. Do you realize how freeing it would be?

I remember early on in my walk with Christ how easy it was to get distracted with tongues. It wasn't that I feared it, didn't like it, or didn't want it; I just got so focused on it. If I could have seen it as just one part to a whole it would have made my journey a little easier.

It is my prayer that after this series of messages that we can move past the red door. In fact, I wouldn't focus on tongues at all if I didn't have to clarify some of the misleading statements that people have heard. No - I simply want us to walk through the door and meet the Holy Spirit!

What do I hope to see happen in our church as a result? Do I expect to have services where people speak in tongues and someone interprets...healing services...prophetic lines? Do you really want my honest opinion? I want to see freedom. That's all - FREEDOM. Freedom to walk in the Spirit. Freedom to function in the body as God allows and equips. Freedom for believers to experience God in His fullness every day. Freedom to grow into the likeness of Christ. Freedom for every person to discover what God has placed in them so that they can in turn glorify God with that gift.

Please pray for us as we walk through that door. And for those of you walking through that door with me - GET READY!