Everyday Church
The Evidence of Discernment
(upbeat music) - Hello, friend. Welcome to today's podcast, Everyday Church, with Pastor Jason Kiefer. Everyday Church is a daily podcast where believers learn together, grow together, and serve together. - Hey, my friend. It's great to be with you today on the Everyday Church podcast, and I hope you have a great day. And what a great way to be able to not only start the day, but to start the week. And so this is Monday morning, and hopefully you had a great weekend, and I hope you spent some time in church. And, man, I tell you what, I'm always thankful to be able to get together with believers in worship and be encouraged. I just be honest with you, when I go to church, man, I am greatly encouraged by being around other believers. And I hope you had that opportunity this weekend to do that. And so, yeah, man, what a great way to be able to start the day off together in God's Word. Hey, I wanna invite you to check out astatuababtus.com. That's a great place to find other resources where you can get connected in God's Word, where you can grow together with other believers and things like that. I think it's so important that we get into the mindset that our walk with the Lord, us being the church, the body of Christ is just an everyday thing. It's an everyday thing. And so, I hope and pray that you're connected with other believers, and that helps us. When we're connected with other believers, it really helps us to not get in a rut, and it helps us to just not get complacent in our walk with the Lord, but really to grow. The Bible says iron sharpens iron, so I always think it's real important to be connected with other believers. And obviously, if you're listening to this today, you probably think similarly. So, we're gonna pick up in first John chapter four. So, the last couple of times we're together, we talked about the effect, or I'm sorry, the basis for discernment. We talked about what does that even look like? What is discernment, the definition? What is discernment, kind of the purpose of that? And today, we're gonna talk about the evidence of discernment as we continue in first John chapter four, and I encourage you to get your Bible, and if you can, and read along, if not, come back later and read some of these verses, and we know it'll really help you. So, first John chapter four, and I'm just gonna start reading in verse one, but I'm gonna just get it's caught back up and for context sake. So, first John four, verse one, "Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirit." So, we talked about knowing that that is discernment, you mean discerning of other spirits. Whether they have be of God, because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby know we are know ye the spirit of God. Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God. And every spirit that confesses not that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is that spirit of Antichrist, where you have heard that it should come, and even now already is in the world. Year of God, little children, and have overcome them, because greater is he that's in you, than he that is in the world. Man, what a great statement that is, what was we think about the evidence of discernment, picking up in verse four. Ye honor God, year of God, little children, and have overcome them. You've overcome the false teaching, and the temptation, or the snare, that Satan had laid for them. He said, look, you overcome that. You passed the test. I mean, you were able to sniff out false doctrine, and understand that that's not true, and you've overcome that. And so, because, and here's why, because greater is he that's in you, than he that is in the world. So, the first evidence, I think, of having a spirit of discernment, is an individual is an overcomer. You're not deceived by false teachings. You're not deceived by someone that could take the word of God, and either maliciously, or even accidentally, just use it in the wrong way. We're trying to interpret something wrong, or incorrectly. I think, you know, there's a lot of, that goes on today, I think, of the prosperity doctrine. I think, you know, when you hear that, and man, that God just, he wants you to have all these material things, and there's a lot of people that are deceived by that. And so, therefore, they would have a, I would say they lack discernment. They had no discernment, but I know many people that hear that, they even went out of preacher telling them, or another pastor, or something telling them, they know, that's not right. Someone that would take scripture, and not rightly divide the truth. That's why the Bible says, of study to show that self approved unto God, a workman that needed not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. And so, discernment is key in rightly dividing the word of truth. And when we do that, we see that people are victorious in their walk. Well, why? Well, in verse four, he continues to say this, because greater is he that is in you than he that's in the world. So, the whole reason, the whole basis of discernment is the spirit that lives within us. We have discernment because of the Holy Spirit that lives within us. And so, therefore, we're not deceived. We're not overcome by the enemy. We're not overcome by false doctrine, by false teachings and things like that. Rather, we are there to speak against that, and to speak the truth in love, because we discern that that's wrong. So, if you hear something and discernment tells you that's wrong, that's not right. The Holy Spirit in you is like, you know, that's not right. You should verify that with God's word. And by the way, that's what the Brienne's did, right? When Paul went in and he preached, and the Brienne's when they heard the gospel, or when they heard the message that Paul preached, they went home, and the Bible says they were more noble than the rest because they went home and they searched the scriptures. They wanted to make sure. So discernment doesn't just say, look, you're right, because the Holy Spirit within you says you're right. It says you're right because the Holy Spirit confirms what God's word has already said to be true. It's gonna line that up with God's word, and that's how you can know that it's true. So, the evidence would be of discernment is that you're an overcoming. One of the other ones is it affects our communication in truth, so look at verse five and six. So they are of the world, therefore speak they of the world. So those that teach false doctors, those that had that wrong spirit, the spirit of Antichrist, and they're saying that Christ is not the Son of God, look, they speak of the world. They're not gonna speak truth, and therefore they speak of the world and the world hearth them. So there's communication between a false teacher and the world makes sense that they can communicate with one another and understand one another. That's why when the world says wrong is right and right is wrong, what they to get together, and they among themselves, it makes sense. You know what I'm saying to them, it makes sense. Because they don't have the truth in them. They have a Holy Spirit in them. Verse six, we are of God, he that knoweth God hearth us. So again, the Holy Spirit living in us, because we know God, we speak truth, people are gonna hear that. People that are of the truth are gonna hear that. They're gonna understand that. I can stand up on a Sunday morning and preach a message out of God's word and a believer. Not only can they understand it because it's being preached from the pulpit, but yet they understand it because the Holy Spirit within their heart confirms what's being said, because the thing God's word, it's there for us to know. And so we are of God, he that knoweth God hearth us. He that is not of God hearth not us. Here by know we the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. We know the spirit of truth because of the Holy Spirit that lives within us. So what does that affect? That affects our hearing and our speaking of the truth. If I have discernment, I not only can hear the truth, but I can speak the truth. I can speak the truth in love. I can speak the truth into a situation that needs truth spoken to it, right? If someone, maybe I go and maybe I sit down with someone and they just start to tell me, they just start unloading a bunch of negative junk on me. And you know, I could just sit there and say, well man, you know, this person's just complaining and they're griping in my word, I can't do all this. Or it's possible because I have the Holy Spirit, that that spirit of discernment could rise up within me and I could discern, hey, there's an issue going on here. There's something, something's not right here, you know? And maybe because the Holy Spirit lives in my heart and I'm filled with the Holy Spirit and I'm sealed with the Holy Spirit and I'm walking in the Holy Spirit. Hey, the Holy Spirit begins to speak my heart. Maybe a Bible verse comes to mind. Maybe I sense that that individual is overwhelmed. And so I'm gonna give them a scripture. Maybe I think of Philippians. Be careful for nothing but everything by prayer and supplication. Let your request be made known unto God and the peace of God. So rule your heart and mind. So maybe that scripture comes up. Maybe I sense that someone feels guilty because of something they've done. And I'm, you know, hey, you know, the Bible says if any man's sin, we have an advocate with a father. And we can take that to the Father. And so as I listen to people, the Holy Spirit would help me to be able to also speak truth. So the evidence of discernment is not only that I overcome but it is also that I can effectively communicate truth to people. And then the other thing is it affects our communication with God. Check this out. Beloved, let us love one another for love. Let me go back to verse six. I'm sorry. We are of God. Sorry about that. He that knoweth God here with us. So I'm gonna be communicating with God. I know God and he's communicating to me and I'm able to communicate to others. So again, it affects my communication with God. So he says in verse seven. Beloved, let us love one another for love is of God and everyone that loveeth is born of God and knoweth God. Beloved, let us love one another for love is of God and everyone that loveeth is born of God and knoweth God. So what is this also? It affects my communication or my fellowship with others. So discernment is going to be able to know when I am around people, when I'm around believers, when I'm around people that are the faith, when I'm around people that, you know, just people in general, people need love. And the Holy Spirit enables me to love people. And so if I have a discerning spirit, I'm gonna overcome some things. If I have a discerning spirit, it's going to affect the way I communicate truth. It should affect the way that you communicate truth. I hope that today, sometimes, throughout the day, you'll communicate truth to someone. And maybe you just need to encourage someone. Maybe you're gonna get on the job site and you're going to realize that, man, you know what? I wonder if this individual saved. And maybe you'll discern that and maybe you'll be able to share some scripture with them or share the gospel with them. What a great thing that would be. Maybe in your family, you'll be able to discern the need to encourage someone or help someone with truth. And ultimately, it affects our fellowship with others. If we love God, we're gonna love other people. And we'll get a little bit in that in our next episode. But I hope that'll help you today and discernment. The discernment is the Holy Spirit. We need discernment. If we don't have discernment, we will be deceived. And there's many people that are deceived by little things. I wanna say, just because you hear something and it sounds good, don't take it for truth. Let the Holy Spirit speak to your heart about that. Verify it with God's word. And there, that way, you know, for sure that it's truth. And so, I hope that I help you today and encourage you today. I want to, again, just challenge you today. Share the gospel with somebody, right? Share the gospel with somebody. And tomorrow, we're gonna talk a little bit about being passionately in love with Jesus. And we've been talking about that in church a little bit and just in our communication with one another, passionately serving Christ. And so tomorrow, we're gonna talk a little bit about that. And so, I hope you'll join us again tomorrow as well. Hey, share this, pass this on. Let's get it out there, right? It takes one another working together. Hey, if you enjoy this and many of you say you do, share it on Facebook, share it on wherever, whatever social media platform you're on. Text it to somebody. Hey, but let's help one another grow in Christ and make a difference in the life of others. I'm praying for you today. Hey, listen, my friend. If you don't know Christ as your Savior, he loves you. He made a way. He's not willing that any should perish but all should come to repentance. And so I'm gonna tell you today that he loves you. If you're not saved, if you never called on him to save you, hey, call on him to save you. The Bible says, "Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." Man, I love that. So, praying for you today. Let's go to the Lord in prayer and ask that he has his way. Father, we thank you for your mercies, for your goodness, for your love for us. And God, we just thank you for loving us. And God, for giving us the spirit of discernment, Father, that helps us to understand truth, to communicate truth, to communicate with one another in the spirit of love. Father, we praise you and thank you. It's in your precious name, we pray. Amen. (upbeat music) - Thank you for listening to Every Day Church, a daily podcast where believers learn together, grow together, and serve together. If this episode was an encouragement to you, be sure to hit like, share it, and subscribe for future content. (upbeat music)