Discernment
Sermon • Submitted • Presented
0 ratings
· 13 viewsNotes
Transcript
Meaning:
Meaning:
The word discern means to distinguish or to seperate or examine. Discernment is being able to come to the correct conclusions on whats happening. Another word for Discern is making a judgment.
Discernment is related directly to Wisdom because in order to discern you must have wisdom.
Discernment is very important for us as Christians to have on board in our thinking as it helps us with decision making and it helps us to know the difference from Evil and Good and even whats almost right compared to what is truly right.
12 For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.
At the start of my journey with Christ i used to perceive things and not be able to tell the difference to things that were right and things that were wrong.
How i felt in the moment would determine some of my decisions. So i would go by my feelings alot and not by what Gods truth said instead because i didnt know it yet.
I would make decisions while i was angry or frustrated.
I would make decisions based off what sounded good and felt good.
But this was only because of my lack of understanding and lack of knowledge of the bible.
This is the same for any Christian , a believer that doesnt yet understand what is evil and what is good or the difference between what is good and what is best is not because your dumb , its not because of your upbringing , its not because of your weaknesses.
But its because you havent learnt how to discern.
As we read earlier in the verse it says “the Word of God it judges (some translations say it discerns) every thought and every attitude of the heart”. Its alive and its sharp.
To have discernment we must know the Word of God.
One thing we have to know about discernment is that before we discern others we must learn to discern ourselves first.
Decision making
We are not to make decisions based upon how we feel. Feelings go up and down. One moment you feel happy then one moment you feel sad. One moment you got butterflies , one moment you feel bored. One moment you feel like your making progress in whatever your doing , one moment you dont.
I remember speaking to some Mormon missionairies and we discussed alot of scriptures and i asked them , how did you end up becoming a Mormon? They replied “we just read the scriptures and we prayed and we felt good and thats when we realised this is the true church”.
I thought to myself “wow thats so sad”. That regardless of all the truth in the bible that we discussed they were still willing to throw truth away and just go by how they felt.
We cannot make decisions like this in the things we do family, otherwise we can be led astray. Alot of things feel good and sound good but they are not God.
When sometimes we are angry or have bitterness towards others we can make decisions based on those very things and we just stamp Gods name on it. Family we have to discern these things.
Do the decisions we make and the opinions we have glorify God or glorify something else?
14 The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.
Have you noticed that in the world before coming to Christ we would not understand Gods goodness , we would not understand what the scriptures meant , we would make a whole lot of bad decisions.
The reason we wouldnt understand the things of God and his reason behind things was because we were still living according to the flesh.
Paul says here that the person without the Spirit cannot accept the things that come from the Spirit of God and they look at it as silly or we underestimate it.
He also says that we cannot understand it because it can only be discerned ONLY through the Spirit.
Two things Accept & Understand.
When we make decisions in life or when we are confronted with the things of God and we struggle to understand them. Its because we are not discerning with the Spirit we are discerning with the Flesh.
We are making decisions according to our fleshly desires rather than what the Spirit desires.
Thats why its hard to accept and understand the wisdom of God.
God says some things in the bible that are challenging sometimes for example in 1 Cor 5 God through Paul says there is a man in sexual immorality in the church with his step mum and he says to throw him out of the church.
To the carnal or fleshly mind we would see that and be like “what thats not love” but Paul seeing and discerning things Spiritually he says no he has to be removed because if this is tolerated its going to eventually creep onto others in the church.
Spiritual discernment is insight that goes further than what you can see and hear.
Family in the decisions we make in our walks with God, discern and make sure your decisions line up with Gods word and not our feelings.
To have discernment as i mentioned earlier is to know the Word of God and to have the Spirit or live by the Spirit.
Dont make a decision based upon what is good, but make a decision based upon what is best.
3 things to do instead of making decisions based on your feelings or on your flesh.
Go to Gods Word. If you cant find it, pray about it and use wisdom. Seek counsel from the elders.
9 And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight,
10 so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ,
11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.
As we read here we see what Paul says to the church in Philippi and he says that his prayer is that the church grows more in love, more in knowledge and more depth in insight. Why?
he says in verse 10 so that the church is able to discern what is best and that they may be pure, blameless and righteous.
Paul says being able to discern what is best makes you pure , blameless and righteous. When we dont discern what is best and just go with what we think is good that puts us at risk of disobeying God and bringing trouble upon yourself.
21 My son, do not let wisdom and understanding out of your sight, preserve sound judgment and discretion;
22 they will be life for you, an ornament to grace your neck.
23 Then you will go on your way in safety, and your foot will not stumble.
24 When you lie down, you will not be afraid; when you lie down, your sleep will be sweet.
Having the right judgment and disernment in everything has so many benefits.
Ive seen alot of people move to quick, move out of feelings , not consider the word of God , not consider their decisions and come to ruin and come to pain and suffering because of not being able to make a correct judgment on their decisions.
Family we must also be able to discern eachother, loving eachother is not just staying in your line when people say something concerning but loving is discerning eachother when we speak to one another and bringing what weve discerned up to their attention.
“I want to go here , wait have you prayed about it?”
“Im gonna have a break from the church for a season, wait your not having a break from church your having a break from God”
“I can feel in my heart this is what i want to do, wait dont trust your heart the heart is wicked”
“Im gonna go hang out with these people, wait arnt those the very people that cause you to fall into temptation?”
These are just some small examples of what it could look like when we discern eachother through love, we know one another and we know eachothers strengths and weaknesses and it gives us the ability to discern eachother when we begin to start going in different directions in our walks.
11 We have much to say about this, but it is hard to make it clear to you because you no longer try to understand.
12 In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food!
13 Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness.
14 But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.
Prior to verse 11 the writer here is talking about how Jesus is our priest and how he suffered and became the sacrifice for us then he says its hard to make this clear to you because you no longer try to understand.
The writer of Hebrews here tells us how those are more mature in the faith should have more discernment compared to someone who is new to the faith.
But some people even though they have been in the faith for a while can still lack discernment and still be gullible so the writer says here you need to go back to milk , by now you should have been a teacher in the scriptures but you need to go back to the basics
In verse 14, solid food or the meaty of heavy things in the scriptures are for the mature and they constantly train themselves in it so that they have strong discernment.
Discernment is something you have to constantly train yourself in as you grow more and more mature in your faith with God.
You train yourself in discernment by “trying to understand”, questioning everything, comparing every thought and everything you hear to the word of God and last one. Knowing the word of God.
Again something can sound almost right but it can still be wrong.
1 Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
2 This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God,
3 but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.
4 You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.
5 They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them.
6 We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood.
Look at what Apostle John says here , he says to not believe every Spirit but to test the Spirits to see wether. How do you test them is that every spirit that says Jesus has come from God is from God but every spirit that says Jesus didnt come from God is not from God.
That is to say any person or spiritual influence that says that Jesus never put on flesh, Jesus is not who he says he is or says something about Jesus that doesnt line up with his own words is a false spirit or a false teacher.
He carries on to say more ways to reccognize them and he says that these spirits or people are of the world and so they only speak from the viewpoint of the world.
Jesus warns us in the gospels saying there will be many false prophets, many people coming his name , many people saying they have the Christ but they are false. We have to have discernment otherwise we can be decieved family.
Even to the point with these cults out here in the streets of Auckland saying to come have a “bible study” but really trying to push their agendas on you. I had a phone call last year from a church called Pathway church saying they want a bible study. When i asked them how does someone get saved? simple question right. They responded with works and joining their church to get saved.
Family there is great deception in this world even this example that ive just used with this so called church they come even with hidden names to what their real names are , they come with things they sound good but we must know the word to have discernment of these things.
Even with this passage we can use to help us see the difference between things of the Holy Spirit and things that are Demonic.
16 Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a female slave who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling.
17 She followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved.”
18 She kept this up for many days. Finally Paul became so annoyed that he turned around and said to the spirit, “In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!” At that moment the spirit left her.
Many times i have read this and was like “Lord how could he have seen this” Discernment. He seen that even though she kept saying the right things , he noticed she kept repeating it and he realised that her proclamation wasnt from a genuine place and that it was from a demonic influence.
We can hear good things and maybe even the right words but it still doesnt mean its from God. Right things but wrong Spirit.
Its the same as us family some times we justify our actions that are bad or wrong intention with how we feel but we fail to discern that there is a demon behind it.
If you are enslaved to something and you dont want to let go of it, its not always because its hard , it could be because there is a demon in your life manipulating you.
We must discern these things and call them for what they are.
Feelings and Emotions
Flesh and Sin
Spiritual and Demonic
Understanding the things of the Spirit with the Spirit
Knowing the Word
Practicing your Discernment
Discerning False teachers and Demonic Spirits.
15 and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
Let us continue to study the scriptures and understand the scriptures so it can make us wise unto salvation.
Without the Word we wont be able to see the difference between evil and good.
Amen.
