Discernment

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Growing and Exercising Discernment

What is discernment?

Today we’re going to talk about discernment. Does anyone know what discernment is? Discernment is the ability to judge well, and it’s a necessary skill for navigating not just life generally, but also your faith. Discernment empowers us to make wise decisions that align with God’s will.
My goal today is to look at how we can use discrenment to make decisions that honor God and how we can cultivate our discrenment. This topic differs a bit from what we’ve been doing which is focusing on a particular cultural topic and what the Bible has to say, but it is still relevant in that we need discernment when we’re out in the world. Discernment will help us as we are faced with the topics we’ve discussed, but also topics that we may not have discussed.

How do we grow in discernment?

Question for the group, is Discernment a gift of the spirit or something we all have? This is a little bit of a trick question. It is definitely a gift, some people have an abudance of discernment or find being discrening to come more easily to them and that’s as a result of the Holy Spirit. For those of us without the gift, and really, even people with the gift, it is something that can be strengthened similar to muscles. We can pray, as the Psalmist writes in Pslam 119:66, that we be taught good judgment and knowledge. What are some ways that we can cultivate discernment? We can pray, read scripture, and seek counsel from other believers.

Biblical Examples of Discernment

I want to look at a few examples in the Bible where we can see discrenment being modeled and then move into some examples of ways we might need to be discerning in our current culture.
Let’s look at Solomon and how he asked for wisdom rather than wealth and power. 1 Kings 3:9-12 tells us the following: ““Give me an understanding heart so that I can govern your people well and know the difference between right and wrong. For who by himself is able to govern this great people of yours?” The Lord was pleased that Solomon had asked for wisdom. So God replied, “Because you have asked for wisdom in governing my people with justice and have not asked for a long life or wealth or the death of your enemies—I will give you what you asked for! I will give you a wise and understanding heart such as no one else has had or ever will have!” We see in this passage that Solomon went to God in prayer and a posture of humility or supplication in asking for wisdom. Solomon’s focus was on aligning himself to governing the people in a manner that God wanted because he recognized that ultimately the people belonged to God. No matter how smart we think we are, God is smarter so we should be going to Him for guidance and asking for God’s guidance. When we are aligning our desires to God’s will, we will find clarity, peace, and direction.
Hebrews 5:14 explains to us that “solid food is for those who are mature, who through training have the skill to recognize the difference between right and wrong.” This verse is connected to a series of verses chiding the reader for their spiritual immaturity, likening the reader to a baby that isn’t capable of eating solid food. It serves as a call to spiritual growth and a recognition that there is a training involved with that growth. A strong spiritual life is sustained by the solid food of sound doctrine and it is protected by that spiritual and ethical discernment which is the fruit of an ever-deepening knowledge and constant exercise of faith. As weve alreday hit on, discernment can grow through practice and exercise.
Paul also prays for the Philippians and askes that their love would overflow more and more, and that they would keep growing in knowledge and understanding. Paul wanted them to understand what really matters, so that they could live pure and blameless lives until the day of Christ’s return. Knowledge here is spiritual wisdom found in Scripture and depth, some translations use insight, is application of this spiritual wisdom to practical living. Sounds an awful lot like Paul was praying for discernment for the Philippians, right? Paul’s description of love overflowing here is also a call not just for reading Scripture, but serving others as well. What are some ways that we could be serving?
We also have some examples in ways that Jesus tells us to exercise discernment. Matthew 7:15-20 says: “Beware of false prophets who come disguised as harmless sheep but are really vicious wolves. You can identify them by their fruit, that is, by the way they act. Can you pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? A good tree produces good fruit, and a bad tree produces bad fruit. A good tree can’t produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can’t produce good fruit. So every tree that does not produce good fruit is chopped down and thrown into the fire. Yes, just as you can identify a tree by its fruit, so you can identify people by their actions.” What we’re getting here is a warning about people and a call for us to be able to identify wolves from sheep. Jesus explains that as believers we can discern or judge what type of fruit a tree will produce. This laso goes back to our lesson on judgment when we discussed how believers should or shouldn’t judge. Remember, we are called to judge rightly otherwise we wouldn’t be able to discern a wolf from a sheep. The common theme between the two metaphors outlined here in Matthew is the attempt to deceive, but an inability to do so. A wolf may get away with his deception for a time, but the wolf’s true nature will become apparent when his hunger forces him to act like a wolf. In the same way, a thorn bush or thistle cannot keep up the deception of being a grapevine or fig tree, especially when the time to bear fruit arrives. Jesus had an important reason for inserting the wolf metaphor, he wanted to alert his listeners to the danger of false prophets. If the false prophets were thought of as just a source of bad fruit, then the disciples might think it was enough simply to recognize and ignore the false prophet, refusing to consume his bad fruit, and await God’s judgment on him. But the wolf metaphor attributes a more active and malicious motive to the false prophet. He is actually an enemy of the sheep, and, if not confronted, will get his way by destroying the sheep.

Practical applications of discernment

There are many other verses and examples we can find in the Bible to illustrate the importance of believers exercising discernment, but I’d like to talk about how we can practically apply discernment into our lives. Coming on the heels of Halloween and Christmas, my social media was filled with Christians claiming that celebrating Halloween and Christmas was not okay if you were a Christian. And I think a lot of this is an improper Biblical hermeneutic and lack of discernment or too legalistic of a viewpoint. So I’ll throw some examples out to the group today and let’s talk about whether these things can be okay, should be avoided, or require some modification.
While I mentioned halloween and Christmas, I’m not going to get into those holidays because I spent October and December on those topics in our online Rapid Fire Reasoning videos so feel free to go back and watch those videos on Youtube or scroll back on the Church Facebook page to find those.
Yoga.
My answer on this would be that it depends. If the person was a former follower of Hinduism or Buddhism and yoga was part of their worship as a Hindu or Buddhist then I’d caution that person to perhaps find another means of exercise or stretching. If the person is someone who doesn’t have that background and they are really using it as a means or stretching then I’d be much less concerned. People use stretching to warm up before exercise or as their primary form of exercise and I don’t believe that just by going into a lunge position to stretch your quad or what they call cobra pose to stretch your back that you’re somehow engaged in an improper practice from a biblical standpoint. It’s really important to understand that intention and your heart posture matters.
Tarot card readings or astrology
I’d say for this one that there is no instance or modification in which this can be okay. The Bible teaches clearly against the use of any divination. The Lord put Saul to death for consulting a medium, and gave his kingdom over to David (1 Chronicles 10:13-14). We are taught, in the Bible, to seek guidance from God (Deuteronomy 13:1-5), rather than putting our faith in spirits that are not from God (1 John 4:1-3).
Enneagram
Is anyone here familiar with the enneagram or have you done an enneagram test? For those that don’t know what the enneagram is, it is similar to persoanlity analyses that you might have taken for work or things like that, but part of the enneagram and why it’s supposedly different from other personality assessment is that the enneagram is supposed to be able to tell you what motivates you or drives your traits and decisions. The enneagram test didn’t originally have the personality components integrated into it, those came later. The founder of enneagram, George Gurdjieff, was a mystic or new age guru before new age was new age. Later, Oscar Ichazno expanded on the enneagram and Oscar believed he received guidance from an entity known as Metatron. Oscar also added “ego fixations” to the enneagram which supposedly gives us a false sense of self, and according to Oscar, our goal should be to find the path back to our true self, which is pure and good. Alarms bells should be going off in your head right now. Carlos Naranja, a student of Oscar Ichazno, added the personality components to the enneagram and he did so under some self-induced trance with the intention of contacting a spirit. Somehow the enneagram has infiltrated Christianity and it has done so through students of Richard Rohr who is a universalist that denies objective truth, among many other problematic teachings. So we have books that have made their way into the “Christian” section of bookstores and people don’t realize that they need to exercise discernment when picking their books even if they’re in the Christian section so unspuspecting Christians have fallen into this teaching. When it comes to the enneagram, people make it their entire identity. I’m in some social media groups where someone will do something and be like “oh it’s because I’m an 8 or whatever” so they chalk up everything to their enneagram number or even something they dislike is tied to their enneagram. As Christians, our identity is found in God not some online personality test.
Secular music.
I’d say that they should use discernment and avoid music that promotes immorality, violence, or goes against their Christian values, as the Bible does not explicitly condemn any particular style of music, but emphasizes the importance of choosing content that aligns with God's teachings; essentially, listen to secular music with a "spiritual filter" to evaluate its message. Now this probably means you’re a bit limited in what you can listent to given what secular music looks like.
Tattoos.
As someone with tattoos, of course I’m going to say that it’s okay. When someone says that Christians can’t get tattoos, they’re usually pointing to Leviticus 19:28, but that verse is not directly applicable to Christians today and the historical contest there was a prohibition from engaging in pagan ritualistic practices associated with tattoos at that time.
Drinking alcohol.
We’re not to get drunk. Now of course there will be people that want to walk right up to the line and not cross it, and for that person I’d want to understand more about their motives because that’s not the intention, right? For someone that has a history of substance abuse or alcoholism, any drinking may be a bad thing for them so just because the Bible permits drinking alcohol doesn’t mean that it’s a requirement.
Dance.
David danced so we can certainly dance. I think we still need to be mindful of the way in which we’re dancing so we aren’t being provocative or dressed in a manner that’s inappropriate and against modesty standards.
Any other items to think about?
Abortion.
This is something where the Bible is clear on the value of life. Abortion is not acceptable in any circumstance.

Closing

God calls us to develop the gift of discernment in order to navigate life's challenges and choices, reflecting His wisdom in our decisions. True discernment means not only distinguishing the right from the wrong; it means distinguishing the primary from the secondary, the essential from the indifferent, and the permanent from the transient. And, yes, it means distinguishing between the good and the better, and even between the better and the best. Let’s go out this week and use the tools we’ve discussed today to continue to exercise our discernment muscles and thank God for His grace and mercy when we mess up because we’re not always going to get it right.
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