Spiritual Discernment

Recently I've been attending a new church. The people are really nice, the teaching is solid, the music is uplifting. It's been a wonderful experience. The last few weeks, other then a break for Easter, we've been going through the letter of 1 John. Last week we looked at 1 John 4 and talked about spiritual discernment. It's one of the most encouraging and convicting sermons I've heard in a long time. 

I won't even try to go over everything that was in the sermon. There was just too much. I would like to go through and highlight a few of the points that were made.

1) False teachings can be found inside and outside the church.

I loved this point because it brings up some really interesting points. Paul preached against false teachers in the New Testament. And there are still false teachers in the world today. They come from everywhere, including ministries. Not everyone who is in leadership is going to be teaching the truth. There are all sorts of false teachers in the world. Pastors and teachers are still human-even if they're trying to teach the truth they may make mistakes. 

That brings me to point 2. 

2) We have to learn to discern things for ourselves.

One of the great verses that the pastor brought up was Acts 17:10- "Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true."

What I said earlier is so crucial friends, pastors, teachers, those in leadership or authority, including myself when I talk about the Bible on here, we're all human and we do at times make mistakes. Don't trust someone who tells you not to do your own research! Anyone could be wrong. This is why we need to be studying for ourselves, praying for discernment for ourselves, so that when something sounds off we can find out if the Bible backs up what a leader is teaching.

3) The One living in us is greater then the one living in the world- 1 John 4: 4. This is probably one of the most quoted verses since the song came out but it's also true. It's a great reminder. As believers we have the Holy Spirit living in us. We believe in the Trinity and the Holy Spirit is part of the Trinity. The Holy Spirit is God and lives in us. Can we just take a moment to reflect on the amazing truth of that?

And God is greater then Satan. Always has been, always will be. So whenever things get tough or the devil's offensive team has you feeling discouraged this is a great verse to remind yourself of.

So there it is friends, a reminder to be discerning, an encouragement of who is living in us and a instruction to make sure you're studying and learning and questioning things so that you're on your guard and making sure that you're filtering everything through the word of the Lord and not the word of men.