How To Grow In Spiritual Discernment — Melissa Kruger | Word First

so I'm Melissa Krueger if this is the place you're supposed to be you're in the right place I know this Coliseum sometimes you can be going backwards and forwards to try to figure out where you're supposed to be I get turned around I'm glad I made it because I need to be here I think I'm gonna go ahead and get started so just feel free to keep getting seated if you're coming in thank you all for being here I'm really excited about this topic today that we get to talk about because and I'm assuming you all are as well because I think it's so important for the church today that we dig into this topic of discernment and so the way I'm gonna go about kind of looking at this topic is to talk about why we need discernment what is the servant how we get it and what are the results of having discernment so why do we even really want it so the first thing I want us to think about is why we desperately need discernment and the first thing I want to say about that is that we desperately need discernment because we have decisions to make each and every day that are not specifically told to us in Scripture so you may know that it is good to work at everything as though you're working for the Lord but that does not tell you whether you should take the job in Nashville or Orlando you still have to make a decision about where you should work and there's not a verse that says Nashville or Orlando in the whole scripture it's not in there and so you may know that it's a good thing to be married but that doesn't help you figure out who am I supposed to marry in this world I mean it's not just the big decisions of life each and every day we have decisions that are shaping our lives what will we what will I spend my time on today what will I spend my money on today what will I use my talents for today and these small decisions end up becoming our life they end up forming what we do with our whole life these little decisions you had to make a decision months ago to register for this conference to be here you had to then figure out how to get here we all are making decisions each day about what to do with our time in our efforts so we need to serve it to know what is best we can see a lot of good things out there but we need to know what is best so the second reason I think it's really important that we study this topic of discernment is the reality in our day and age we have access to an unprecedent unprecedented amount of information when my husband and I first moved overseas we lived in Edinburgh Scotland for a few years while he was pursuing pursuing his PhD when we lived overseas it was in the late 90s we used paper maps to figure out how to get around the city I can remember taking myself to the bus depot to figure out and just looking and there were so many bus options but I could not google anything because it wasn't it wasn't around I had to go physically and figure out where things were and ten years later we ended up living in Cambridge England for a semester it was amazing what was different just on my phone no longer did I have a big paper map you know I could Google anything how to find peanut butter and I could find it not only that when we were sitting at our home in Charlotte we could actually satellite Google the house we were moving to you in Cambridge and see it oh that's what it's gonna be and show the kids and all that it was amazing the access to information we have the reality about that access to information is now we need to sermon because we know that yes we have information but we also have a lot of sauce information as has been shown in these past years we know of false news we have to have wisdom as women to discern truth from error when we see things in the world so we need to have an understanding of that and the Scriptures speak to this even though we have so many voices calling out to us the Proverbs to us there are actually two voices calling to us so if you have your Bibles which embarassingly I forgot my Bible and I had to go buy one in the bookstore and then there was such a long line it was really hard for me to get it but I did get it so if you turn to proverbs proverbs 9 is where we're gonna be looking for just a moment and it talks about these two voices that are calling out to us and this is what it says proverbs 9 1 wisdom has built her house she has hewn her seven pillars she has slaughtered her beasts she has mixed her wine she has also set her table she has sent out her young women to call from the highest places in the town whoever is simple let him turn in here to him he lacks sense she says come eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed leave your simple ways and live and walk in the way of insight okay this is really encouraging there is wisdom in the world calling out wisdom is out in the marketplace it is out there saying listen to me and love listen but let's go down to proverbs nine thirteen because another voice in the midst of wisdom that's calling out is another voice the woman folly is loud she is seductive and knows nothing she sits at the door of her house she takes a seat on the highest places of the town calling to those who pass by who are going straight on their way whoever is simple let him turn in here and to him who lacks sense she says stolen water is sweet and bread eaten is CN secret is pleasant but he does not know that the dead are there that her guests are in the depths of Sheol ok so notice what wisdom and folly both do both stand and cry out they are both trying to lure you in both of them are going for you and then secondly I want you to compare verse 4 and verse 16 if you look at them they both say the exact same thing here's who they're calling out to whoever is simple let him turn in here to him who lacks sense she says okay this tells me something about us there's only one option for us there are two voice crying out to the simple people we are the simple people and so both of these are calling out and vying for our attention and notice the result one results in life and one results in death and this is one of the biggest reasons we need discernment we are living in a world that is crying out with folly and it is crying out with wisdom and knowing the difference between the two is life and death and I know we don't think about these little decisions that we're making each day to be life or death but they sum up our life it matters the little choices we make each J equal a lifetime of making certain choices so these decisions matter and it's not just out there that voices are calling out to us it is actually in the church the third reason we desperately need discernment is because Jesus and the Apostles warned us that in the church itself there would be false teachers there are people trying to lead you astray within the church and the first point I want to make about this is that boss teachers will look like Christians Jesus said this inner by the narrow gate for the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction and those who enter by it are many for the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life and those who find it are few beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves you will recognize them by their fruits here's the thing what you don't recognize them is immediately fruit is born every years they were gonna come and they look like sheep they look like you they say I love Jesus they are gonna come to you and they are going to be warm and engaging people they don't look like wolves that's the exact reason we fall for them if they were if it was a wolf you'd know to run away but these false teachers are gonna come in and their goal is to destroy the flock and now one thing I want you to think about is this happened in the Ministry of Jesus if you remember on the night before Jesus died he watched others disciples feed and as he was sitting at the table with him he said one of you is going to deny me and you know what didn't happen at that table Peter didn't lean over to John and say no one knew do you remember what they said they said is it I is it I Lord no one knew it was Judas who is going to portray it was the fruit of his behavior that later showed that he was a traitor but he was doing ministry with all of them just as they had been doing for three full years and no one knew that he was secretly pocketing that money no one knew and so we have to be concerned they are among us and we don't always recognize them immediately that's the first thing the second thing people will want what the false teachers are giving second Timothy tells us for the time is when people will not injure sound teaching but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions and they will turn from listening to the truth and wander off into myths so it's not just that there are false teachers among us people will want what they are giving them they will flock to them and they will make you at times feel like everybody's Glynn there maybe I'm wrong they will cause us to wonder have we missed it and but they are just feeding itching ears to suit people's passions third eventually their fruits will expose them they will have done a lot of damage normally but eventually their fruits will expose them second Peter 2 tells us this false prophets also rose among the people just as there will be false teachers among you who will secretly bring in destructive heresies even denying the master who bought brought bought them bringing upon themselves Swift destruction and many will follow their sensuality and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemes and in their greed they will exploit you with false words their condemnation from long ago is not idle and their destruction is not asleep I want you to hear two things about this the first thing it says again they will be among you these are not people outside the church these are people inside the church what I want to say about their people inside the church who have an outward connection to the church but they have no inward relationship with Jesus they are outwardly connected they say they remember but they are not inwardly connected to Jesus and they will deny Jesus in three ways and it basically comes down to pride sex and money pride they will deny Jesus is teaching they will say they have a better way they know better you know when people like to say they better than God I always like if I could use this big board behind me and if I were to greatly limit God and say this is everything that God knows about the universe and that would be greatly limiting him because we know that God's knowledge is infinite and his wisdom is infinite and if I were to explain the amount of knowledge I have and I were to go up to that board and put it tiny tiny tiny tiny dot on that board I would be greatly over emphasizing my knowledge in comparison and I like to say it is like the dot telling the infinite God of the universe you don't quite have it right let me tell you what is best it's equivalent to the two-year-old toddler history in the tantrum and saying I do it myself you know and that's what we're doing we're looking at the infinite God of all the universe and we're saying we know better that would be called pride and that's essentially what we're doing when we deny Jesus is teaching second people will follow their sensuality this will have sexual implications in nature they will often their fruit will often show forth in those ways as well so we will see pride in their lives we will see sensuality in their lives and then money we will see greed in their lives and again these are not always shown at first but eventually these will come into play you know one thing I want to say about this just to clarify every incorrect teacher is not a false teacher and this is where discernment comes in I wrote a book called Envy Aviv and one of my friends reviewed it and she said the one thing I disagree with is she says in the book meaning me that we take glory away from God and she was right God's glory can't be taken from I should have said it we failed to glorify God as we should when we covet she was exactly right I had not worded what I said correctly so now when I teach it I don't say it that way anymore but that was an instance when I hope I'm not a false teacher y'all should run out of here but I was a mistaken teacher I just didn't say it as I should and we will all make those mistakes as we teach God's Word we are imperfect people on this happened in the scripture and Acts there was a Jew named of polyps and the Scriptures say that he was an eloquent man he was competent in the scriptures and he said that he taught accurately the things concerning Jesus but he only knew of the baptism of John he began to speak boldly in the synagogue but when priscilla and aquila heard him they took him aside and they explained to him the Word of God more accurately and then he went on for there and kept preaching correctly so there are people who we won't get things wrong sometimes so that is different than a false teacher so I want to give you just for signs of false teachers just so you have them and I just want to say allow your discernment not to make you overly critical be charitable we need to sermon so that we realize where we give charity and where we say that's just wrong and we need charity in that first false teachers do not respond to correction so Apollo's when he was corrected taught the way of God more accurately after that - they sit above God's Word rather than under God's Word they come into God's Word and say let me see if I can figure out how to make it say what I wanted to say and they're gonna manipulate God's Word and there's someone else we know who did this and his name is Satan the father of lies and when he came to Jesus how did he tempt Jesus using Scripture so it false teachers are gonna take Scripture and they're gonna use them to suit their own ends thirdly their growth and the faith usually means as a departure from historic Christianity be warned against anyone who is telling you after 2,000 years they've now figured out a new Christianity because it is not Christianity be warned against it we are a historical church and while we can understand things in new ways meaning how we explain old truth we can explain old truth in new ways but we are not in the process of discovering new truths we are delighting in the old truth and we are understanding it in our current context third fourthly their lives will eventually show the fruit of their belief our unbelief will eventually come out of our lives and obviously as we just saw it will obviously it will often deal with money sex and power those are gonna be certain ways that we see it okay so this is a point one why we need it I hope I've convinced you we need it you have choices to make you say two voices cry out to you each day and then there are actually false teachers in the church who are vying for your brain they want you to think differently so that you will live differently okay so then what do we actually mean when we talk about discernment clearly it's important that we define what we are after the first thing I want to make really clear is discernment source is God we often think that we get more discernment as we age or as we have all these experiences or as we travel or as we live life that can be true if we're walking with the Lord but the Lord is the source of discernment so what we can do is just get really old and still be making really bad choices okay age does not always give us discernment so if you look back at that proverbs 9 that we were in just a minute ago I find this fascinating about this passage we looked at how wisdom called out and then we looked at how folly called out and what I want you to look at verse 10 its smack in the middle of those two passages and this is what it says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight if we want to choose choose between wisdom and folly it will begin with the fear of the Lord just like Jackie talked about last night not this Craven fear of fear of judgment but this righteous fear that he knows best and I will live my life in obedience to him because I love him and because he loves me a right fear that I am NOT the Creator surely the creator of you and me knows how you and me work best and so I'm gonna trust him when he gives the law it's good to me he is showing me how I work best it's like my owners manual for me that's what the Scriptures are and so it is his love and it is his gift to us that he gives us the law but it begins by this fear of the Lord if we're gonna have discernment its rooted and God's wisdom not our own the second thing it's not just discernment it's not something we just get after a knowledge treasure hunt Philippians says it this way this is what Paul prays and it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more with knowledge and all discernment so it's yes our source is God but it's an affection affectionate relationship with him that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and all discernment so the source is God and it is relational the other thing I want to say it is a skill that is developed my son this week is in driver's ed and he is going to those classes every day and he is learning how to drive a car yeah and they will teach him how to drive a car but if you ever have taught a teenager how to drive a car you know that what they learned in those classes can apply here but it does not apply to the absolute terror you feel sitting in the driver's seat beside them when my daughter was doing this I kept saying you're about to run off the roads because she didn't have discernment for where she should be correctly in the road that is something that's gained and sometimes you have to fit it hit a few cars before you really get discernment yeah you have to say oh yeah you're supposed to look both ways yes okay you know it takes time it is a skill that is learned Hebrews talks about this Hebrews five 11 through 14 pas or the writer to the Hebrews is talking about how they are some of them ought to be teachers but they actually need to learn the basic principles again and he said solid food is for the mature for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil so it's something that we're constantly practicing and this is what I was talking about earlier when I was talking to all the little decisions you're making each day add up to a life each day as you walk through this world we have choices to make there are better choices and there are less good choices there are actually sinful choices and there are right choices and so every day as we're living we are practicing the art of discernment for me an example of this was when I first began to cook I did everything by the book I would read recipes I actually like to sit and read recipe books I don't know if anybody else likes to do this it's just fun to think about what extra things you could eat and so I read and the more I read the more I started to be able to try new things when I would cook but it was also the more I ate before I knew oh this needs a little more oregano in it or maybe some more salt and pepper or let me put this season in it cuz little extra red pepper flakes will make this a little spicier it was the practice of doing it over and over every day that helped me discern better what was needed and that's what's gonna happen to us as we are making choices in our day over and over as we walk with the Lord and in the fear of the Lord we make them so it's gonna take time because some people you you sit with them and they just seem to quickly know you're having coffee and you share your problem and they aren't they just have this it what seems like instantaneous wisdom usually when I really talked to those people we're going to talk about this in a minute they have spent hours reading the scriptures and the reason they have situational wisdom is because they have spent time with the God of all wisdom and so these are the people the women we want to become but let me actually give you a definition over the sermon Tim chao-li's has a great book called the discipline of spiritual discernment that really goes through what we're talking about what is discernment and here's the definition he offers discernment is the skill of understanding and applying God's Word with the purpose of separating truth from error and right from wrong okay so let me say this again it's the skill of understanding and applying God's Word with the purpose of separating truth from error and right from wrong so truth from era is what we believe truth from error and then right and wrong from wrong is how we live and those are going to be related because normally what we believe is true is gonna affect how we live the definition I actually like to use is a lot shorter I like to say that discernment is wisdom making a choice so discernment is taking that wisdom and it is making a real life choice and how we think and how we live so the question for all of us how do we get discernment that's what we all want to how do we become women who are discerning women I have a good friend named Angela when she first graduated from college she went and worked as a bank teller and when she worked as a bank teller one thing they had to learn how to do was learn to recognize counterfeit money and she told me that when they initially take her in for almost an entire month all they showed them was real money they would sit there and they would show him like they would show him little markers that you're supposed to look at for real money and so she would be going through real money every day and Counting it out and doing all these things and slowly they would start to slip and counterfeit money and she said immediately you knew counterfeit money she had spent so much time looking at the true money her eyes could see the false money quickly much more quickly than any of us can because she had been trained in what was right she could see what was wrong and she said there was a reason they did this there were so many different ways you could be counterfeit but there's only one way you can be right so by learning what was right she could easily count figure out all the different ways we could be wrong and so this is why there are so many books out there that we could go and look at in hopes of finding every counterfeit book in the whole world and making sure no one reads them or something but that's not the goal what we want to do is immerse ourselves in truth so then when we happen to be a reading a book that has error we can spot it so how do we do that first thing first we have to be people who are reading God's Word it's almost like putting a lens on to help us see the world clearly so how do we learn it go to church when I was a teacher we were taught you learn in a few different ways there four different ways we were taught to teach in some ways one was lecture we were also learned by we'd put our kids in small groups because they learn as they discuss things and then we would sink his home with homework because it's actually when you tried to do it on your own that you realized you actually have a question and then the other way we would I would always teach my children was I would make them teach one another and so as they taught one another they actually taught more usually the teacher learns the most about any subject then even the people they're teaching and so I would say that is true for how we learn scripture as well so be it I swear you are hearing the words hot by someone who is trained to teach it and teach us through the Bible don't be content with the church that is just telling you stories or Chicken Soup for the Soul type stuff be in a church that is teaching you the Word of God it is going to help train your mind then read the Bible I looked up a Barna study only 11 percent of Americans have read the entire Bible and of Christians those who are Bible engaged to actually read or use or listen to the Bible four times a week or more with only 20 percent four times if you go to church that's really only three other times okay only 20 percent are reading their Bibles that much we have to read it it is like looking at that currency every day to spot what is true that's gonna help us understand what is false how do you do it I encourage you to read the Bible in a year I love there are some great plans out there that help you do it it will take you 20 minutes a day that is all it will take we can do this we really can do this to read it every day soak our minds up in it other things I love I do Bible study guts all the time and there are so many good ones here I use them because sometimes I come to the Scriptures pretty brain-dead I am busy life is going on and I don't want to think deeply about the scriptures and somebody asking me questions helps me to just say what was this passage about and then you're um thinking about it more deeply now I encourage you use Bible study guides discuss these truths with others I find that I learn much more when I'm in a small group and we're all sitting around talking about it because every time you speak it it gets into your mind even more the more we can talk about with each other and then Colossians tells us let the word of Christ dwell in you richly teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom no matter who you are you're actually called to teach you may not be called to be up on a stage to teach and that's fine I'd rather sit over coffee any day and teach people but we're all called to teach one another and often that does happen on the phone and casual conversations over coffee as we teach one another the truth we actually grow in discernment ourselves I want to give you one application point if you were a woman who ministers to other women if you helped run women's ministries or if you do different things spend more time teaching your women the scriptures then you do making sure they never ever read a false statement in the book okay this is just a practical application point get them in the word rather because yeah you don't have time to read every book Under the Sun but get women in God's Word and that's gonna fortify their minds with truth so they're gonna be able to see what is false and don't just read the word I want to encourage you delight in it delight in it psalm 119 says I will delight in your statutes I will not forget your word we don't just want to be people who know it again we want to have an affection for the Lord that makes us delight in it thirdly pray for discernment ask God James tells us if any of you lacks wisdom let him ask God who gives generously to all without reproach and it will be given to him it's a good thing to ask for God ask for from God he will not deny you ask him for wisdom cry out to him seek him he will give you wisdom and then seek counsel from wise people proverbs tells us whoever walks with the wise becomes wise but the companion of fools will suffer harm so if you see people making foolish choices and you're gonna spend the majority of your time with guess what you're gonna hear a lot of you're gonna hear a lot of folly and it's gonna get in our minds because guess your what proverbs said we're all simple so who were we choosing to listen to and that doesn't mean we don't spend time with non-christians we need to spend time with non-christians we need to hold out the Word of Life to them but I'm talking about who are you listening to in your life it's different to spend time with people and to love on people and to get to know people then it is who are you going to let really influence you let it be the people I love when I see certain older women and I tell you they glow and it doesn't matter that they're getting closer and closer to glory in some sense because all they're doing is shining more they have these faces that light up and I know that it is Jesus in them find those women in your church and talk to them and ask them for wisdom because they are gonna be people who are gonna be able to give you wise counsel okay last thing what are the results of discernment why do we want to get it probably the hardest decision that I felt the most lost in in my entire life happened my senior year of college I was engaged to be married and I was terrified that I was making the wrong choice I I made all my friends to go around we were on the car ride somewhere and I said what would you do you have to tell me yes or no it can't be a maybe because you can't maybe marry someone when there's a date set and you have to get a dress and you have to do all of this and I was just desperate for wisdom I could not figure out what to do and I realize now looking back I wanted discernment in that decision because I wanted it to feed my idolatry and my I dog she was I wanted an easy life where I made the choices of my life and I figured in my head that marrying somebody else might cost me my autonomy I might not be able to do what I wanted and go where I wanted and because I was unsure I gave the ring back to him and we cancelled the wedding by God's grace gave me the ring back a year and a half later and a lot of patience on his part and I think I made a really good choice but what I want to say is that discernment doesn't promise us ease okay whatever your idol might be discernment doesn't promise you success getting discernment doesn't promise you that you're gonna be rich and famous okay that's not the goal of discernment so I want to make that clear I wanted it to promise that if the scroll came down and said marry him that then all would always be well we'd never have an argument and that didn't happen because we have some arguments sometimes that's not the goal let me read you what the goal is and again this is from Philippians 1:9 that passage I read earlier and this is my prayer that your love may have down more and more with knowledge and all discernment so that you may approve what is excellent and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Christ to the glory and praise of God so we want discernment so that we can approve what is excellent and why do we want to approve what is excellent ultimately to the glory and praise of God so the goal the end of our discernment matters because sometimes we will make choices that are right choices that lead to really hard consequences and I think this day is going to come more and more in our culture that we will make right choices and we may lose our job so it is not always that we discern we can discern what is best and it still be really really hard but it is the right thing to do and it gives glory and praise to God we are going to be able to improve what is excellent I read a story recently it was about a firefighter and he was going and he was the chief firefighter he was going in to fight a fire in a kitchen and all of the sudden he yelled to all of his men get out and just as soon as the last man had gotten out in the Laure that they had been standing in fell in and what had really happened was the fire had been in the basement even though it looked like a kitchen fire the fire had been in the basement was coming up from underneath and when they asked the firefighter how did you know to get out he said all I knew was that it was strangely quiet and my ears were really hot and that but he had here's what had happened he had fought so many fires before that he could feel that something was off and so as we let our love forgot about more and more and knowledge and all discernment we will be able to improve what is excellent and sometimes we won't even know why we know but we will know and we will be able to feel there's something not right in this situation and that's how it's going to grow let me say this I am less concerned that there are bad books out there and I am more concerned that we can't easily spot them I want us to be able to sniff out that they're bad I'm not afraid to read them because if we know God's Word we shouldn't be influenced by them we should be able to spot it and say this is not true and so I want us to be women who can smell when something's off and that's gonna lead us to be pure and blameless filled with the fruit of righteousness to the glory and praise of God when I was in college I lived all four years with the same roommate and people on campus used to get us confused all the time they'd be like y'all look alike now we started talking alike we started walking alike we dressed like even years later she came to my house and we were wearing basically the same outfit but the reality is that time with Jesus helps us know what Jesus loves I could tell you to this day where she'd probably want to go eat dinner even though I can discern well what she would like because we live together so long so if we want to discern what God likes we live with him day in day out we walk with him we make our decisions by constantly reading the word and what I don't mean by that is don't just say oh I need to make a decision on X so let me go let's see what scripture says about X it's not that type of wisdom it's reading the Bible Jay and day-out taking it in that is gonna make us women who can discern what is best - the glory and praise of God so just to close God is the source of our discernment god's word is the means of our discernment and god's glory is the goal of our discernment may he be praised in all things let me close us in prayer father we thank you we thank you that you love us we thank you that you long for us to listen to wisdom that your wisdom cries out day after day after day to us who are simple and do not know which way to go and that you give us your word as your grace to us so that we may know you the author of all things who can guide us and give us wisdom for all things help us be women who are wise help us be women who choose what is best help us be women who loved you with all that is in us and who pursue you each day in every way that we can help us I know there are women here right now who have decisions to make and they are hard decisions give them wisdom help them choose wisely Lord we thank you for Jesus who most importantly came to show us the way to you thank you for salvation thank you that you care about us we love you and we praise you it's in your name we pray amen