SPEAKER_00 0:04

Welcome to Lambs and Company, a podcast about life. We will feature guests and friends on the podcast to have quality conversations and wonderful fellowship. We hope you will join us. It's a life worth living, and it's a life worth giving.

SPEAKER_04 0:24

Hey, good morning. Welcome to Another Lambs and Company. Life worth living is life worth giving. And uh Hall and I are sitting here and we're going to pick back up. We got our coffee and we're going to pick back up this morning and uh do our third installment on this area that we originally started in the first on uh based out of 2 Thessalonians 2 and verse 11, where the word of the Lord says, Therefore God will send them strong delusions that they should believe the lie, but that they might be condemned who do not believe the truth, but have pleasure in unrighteousness. And so part of what we've been addressing is the area of um of deception and delusion. And yet what we're going to kind of try to pinpoint or be more specific about this morning is the area of discernment. And um I wanted to quote something that Oswald Chambers cautions us about. He says, God never gives us discernment in order that we may criticize, but that we may intercede. And Corey Tanboone likewise affirmed discernment is God's call to intercession, and it's never fault-finding. And genuine discernment does not lead us to judgment, but it actually leads us to prayer. And you remember what Paul prayed for the Philippian church in the first chapter. Yeah, I think in Philippians chapter 1 and verse 9 through 11. Um specifically says that the Lord would give us knowledge and discernment. And discernment. And, you know, 1 Thessalonians 5 and verse 1 talks about you know the the times and the seasons. And I believe that we are in a time and a season where we need to know and be very discerning because we're in such a saturation of information age where everybody's an expert on everything and anything. And yet Paul said to the Corinthian church, he said, you know, you have 10,000 teachers, but few fathers. And he wanted the whole concept there was not just to uh create a position, but it really had a reflection on people that walked into maturity in Christ and understood what they were facing and dealing with and helping bring other people along the way and developing them and bringing them through these different seasons and times of life. And in writing to the Corinthian church, he also said that, you know, there are 10,000 voices. I thought it was interesting. 10,000 voices, and none are without distinction. But yet, what is the one voice that we need to learn how to recognize? I think it's what Jesus said in John's gospel, that his his family, his flock, his sheep know my voice. They know my voice. You know, I think six times in the book of Revelation, uh, could be more, but right offhand, about six times I can think of that it says, let he that has an ear hear what the Spirit of the Lord is saying to the church. And so we're in a moment of time where we need to be able to hear, but it's not just to be able to hear, it's an ability to actually discern. And discernment begins with a real self-knowledge, and we cannot discern truth or error without discerning the error many times of our own lives. And so I want to just kind of let Artie jump in here and he can kind of pick up, and then I want to, we'll kind of bounce back and forth some on some verses that could be verses that you can learn from, you can grow from, and you can pray over and actually benefit from because um this area is not just something that you can think up in your head. Your head can help you, but trust me, we're in a operating in a level of life right now that you've got to be able to hear what's being said and recognize, wait a minute, that's close to the truth, but that's not the truth. And that's one of the things that Spurgeon actually said about discernment. He said it's not just an ability to know the difference between right and wrong. He said it's an ability to recognize truth and what's close to truth. And we're living in a time where people are making things so close to truth that they're able to push that over to people, and people are buying into it. And a lot of times what they're buying into is not the truth, they're buying a lie. Very thing that Paul said to Timothy. So, Ordy, you want to jump in and straighten all this out?

SPEAKER_03 5:55

You know, I I think a real key to understanding good discernment is having a good basis in the Bible. We've said that many times for over a lot of years. And uh but the the verse in Hebrews where it says that you know the word of God is living and active and it's able to pierce your heart and go in and divide, and and you're able to really come and understand all of that. And I I think if anything, the uh and not hurt anybody's feelings, but the biblical ignorance, you know, and ignorance is not a bad word, it just means you don't know. Now, there's some biblical stupidity going on out there too. Not much you can do by that, but biblical ignorance, you just need knowledge and need to understand some of that. Uh but it it that's a real remedy, I think, to a lot of the discernment. Because that's the measuring. That that's the that's the the in fact, the very word that's used for the Bible is called the canon. And the word canon means measure. You know, it's just it's it's the standard, it's the measure. And uh I I you know, Lord help us. We just across America, uh, we we need the Spirit of God to come and revive some of the dead places we have, and and we need the Spirit of God to bring an awakening to those who are not saved. But we also need a real revival in the area of biblical teaching and and to go through. I mean, how many pulpits across the country do anything like you remember Vernon McGee years ago on the radio? The guy literally, he was out in Pasadena, California. He the guy literally preached through the whole Bible. Took him years in this church where he was, but he started in Genesis and went all the way to Revelation. Every verse in the Bible preached all the way through it. And and I don't know how many churches even do that. Of course, they put it on the radio, but that's that's what that's what the man did. And uh I what else do we have to talk about, really?

SPEAKER_04 7:55

Well, well, you know, and and it, you know, I think what what you also said about ignorance, I I think that uh, you know, again, when I Paul was onto something and dealing with a lot of this same nature when he was dealing with the Corinthians in the Corinthian or Corinth area, and you know, he he starts out in 1 Corinthians 12 and he said, You you formerly serve dumb idols. You know, he he called them dumb idols, in other words, and and that there was but there was ignorant, other words, there was an ignorance there. Yeah, but then he goes to the 14th chapter, and he and I've always been fascinated by what he did with this because he's instructing the church on how to flow and how to function as body life, but but he does point something out I think is valuable. He he he shares about three categories. He said there's the believer, there's the believer that's uninformed, and then there's the unbeliever. So, really, there's basically three categories people can be in. You want to be in the first and the second, because if you're in the second of being a believer that's uninformed, at least you can be informed and become a believer. If you are an unbeliever, you're really in trouble. You better you you better you better uh stop dropping a pray. Yeah, go ahead.

SPEAKER_03 9:20

Yeah, it it because because often uh people our age grew up with Bible stuff around us. Yeah, you know, I I remember when I was in the seventh grade, my teacher, right after we'd come in from lunch, she'd read the Bible to us. Wow. You know, that and and uh that that was seventh grade. And then generally she would read the Old Testament because there were Jewish kids in there. So she didn't want to hurt anybody's feelings. So we we learned about Elijah and Elisha and all all these things. She'd read the Bible, these Bible stories. You know, and so a lot of people our age, in fact, it at that very it was the in those years called uh grammar schools. Nobody knows what those are anymore in Bishopville, and it doesn't exist anymore. There's a park there. But uh all of the teachers there, at most of them were Sunday school teachers. The principal of that school was the Sunday school superintendent at the Methodist church in town. You know, so you you you went to church on Sunday, you had the same faces that you had during the week when you had school teachers. So there was a saturation of biblical, just generalized biblical knowledge, particularly folks our age. That's been lost. You know, it as the generations began to progress, it was just less and less, less and unless you went to a Christian school or school where they would do some of that. Uh it it it so there's just not that generalized knowledge anymore. And if you say something about the Bible, there is a generation out here, they are clueless. They have no idea what Bible was that and you are you even say a concept that came into our lives just sort of by by process. Everybody in town, you know, you know, everybody in Bishopville, everybody in town, even the pagans, thought you should obey the Ten Commandments. You know, you know, I mean, they didn't know what it all was, but you know, it's just it's just the way it was. It's not like that now. And and uh that is a difficult thing to deal with, and and it also makes the whole culture susceptible to deception if they have no basis.

SPEAKER_04 11:30

You know, when you we were talking about your upgrade upbringing in Bishopville and the influence of what was happening on Sundays in church and in the lives of those people carried over to Monday through Friday in their secular professions.

SPEAKER_02 11:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 11:50

And I think the other thing that's happened today is there's been such an effort to separate the spiritual from the secular and make sure that you keep your spiritual out of the secular when really that was never the concept that God had in the old covenant or the new covenant. If anything, he'd clearly defined how both were functioned and operated, but they were not to be without his oversight and influence in the lives of daily people from your sacrifice you brought to the temple to the way that you dealt with your neighbor and your ops getting out of your yard and your fence and going over and destroying your neighbor's crop.

SPEAKER_02 12:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 12:35

There were certain responsibilities for restitution and things of that nature. And I don't, you know, I know that that that's foreign to most people today, yeah, but they don't understand that God really does care about humanity. He really does care and love life and blessing. He really does. He he's really against death and cursing. Yeah, and you know, and I think there's certain things that happen because when people start down that track, God knows where that's headed. He's saying, you know what, you're headed into destruction where you're going. Yeah, you just can't see far enough down the road to realize it.

SPEAKER_02 13:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 13:19

And you know, and I think that's why discernment is so important, and discernment um, you know, can keep you out of a lot of situations you don't need to be in in the first place.

SPEAKER_03 13:30

You know, one of the first things you need to discern what's right and what's wrong. And and we've sort of lost that. And and even a sense of community, there there's a story, um, early depression. This is in Lee County again, where I grew up. Uh this would have been 1930, 31, 32. Uh, there's a Jewish guy, a fellow named uh Sally Krasnov, had a grocery store seat feed store in Bishopville. And the guys would all gather there after you know planting season and all that, and they would they in the wintertime wasn't much to do. So they'd gather around the stove in his store and talk. And at some point, he realized that all of those guys, those farmers, owed him a lot of money. And uh because they'd bought seed or whatever, and and you know, they would they would pay him off, you know how that goes with farming and all that was there. And he realized where things were financially in the in the situation. These guys can't pay all this off, and it's gonna be bad. So at some point he just walked in the room and said, Well, boys, I tell you what, why don't we just all start over? I'll cancel all of your debts. I've got enough stuff here in the store for us to kind of pick up where we are here, and I've got enough inventory, and we'll just all start over again. And a lot of those men did not lose their farms because of his kindness. Generosity. You know, and and but and I mean people could do that now, but I don't know that it happens very much anymore because you I don't know that you have that small town atmosphere, but even then there was a sense of he knew what was right and knew what was wrong. And and uh and in that case, he was just very kind to his own self-hurt. But but it it is uh those kinds of things, if if if there is no God, if there is no Bible, if there is no sacrifice of Jesus, why we do any of this stuff? How did how in the world do you even know what's right and wrong if there's no standard? You know, and and I it it breaks my heart to see where the culture is and all that, with the I mean, there used to be some business ethics where people would sort of at least try to do the right thing. And that seems to really be out the window. And yeah, everybody now just either they're gonna sue each other or they're gonna have a contract that's got 16 pages that nobody can read, or nobody knows what it says anyway, and and you sign all those pages and you still sue each other, you know, and and it and so uh the all of that ties into understanding uh a true discernment of what's true, what's false, what's right, what's wrong. And all of that's based in discernment and understanding, being able to read people, being able to understand the situation, being able to see what's there. And and it's hard. It's just it's just a hard place we're in.

SPEAKER_04 16:31

You know, um a couple of couple of things that's uh very scriptural that uh you know, and what Artie was just said, that's that's out of Hebrews chapter five and verse 14. If you wanted to know a place to go to, because it says that when you ought to be teachers, you have need to be taught because they weren't uh they weren't actually operating or exercising discernment between right and wrong. Specifically says exercising discernment between right and wrong. And so it definitely impairs your your growth patterns and your uh ability to function and operate in life. And um, you know, we we we seem to be more entertainment based sometimes in life, but in entertainment, the truth is you're you're actually uh I'm not against entertainment. I appreciate entertainment, especially good entertainment, but but the thing is a lot of times you're really checking out so that you're not having to think and you're not really having to discern, and you're not really having to process things. But you know, here's something to think about in Luke chapter 6 and verse 41 and 42, Jesus asked the question, he said, Why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, brother, let me take out the speck that is in your eye? When you yourself didn't do not see the log that is in your own eye, you hypocrite. First take the log out of your own eye, and then will you see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother's eye? And you know, Jesus there was actually uh he was actually uh pointing out the fact that it was a type of hypocrisy in our life when we're able to look at other people and see the problem in them, but we never are aware or conscious of the problem that may be in us. And I I've at this stage of my life, I've learned the reason I see things so clearly in other people's lives sometimes is because I was so familiar with it in my own life at some point or another. But the truth is, Jesus didn't say, Don't deal with the thing that was in your brother's eye. He said, Deal with what's in your life so you can turn around and help your brother. Yeah, you know, that was important. And you know, a verse that Artie and I both love, I think is in Psalm 149, verse 23 and 24, where it says, Search me, O God, and know my heart, try me and know my anxious thoughts, and see if there's any hurtful way in me. Yeah, lead me in the everlasting way. Um humility, I think, is a vital part and a necessary part of discernment.

SPEAKER_02 19:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 19:44

And you know, there are just several areas I think that indicate this because we're exhorted not to trust our own understanding and our own wisdom in Proverbs 3, 5 through 7, specifically. Lean not to your own understanding. You know, you know, I I was going back this week and I was looking at something because one of my children was speaking to me about when Solomon took over. Solomon didn't ask for riches. Solomon didn't ask for, you know, his heads, the heads of his enemies on a platter. He didn't he didn't ask for a lot of the temples of covenant. He asked for two things. He asked for understanding and discernment that would result in wisdom. And I thought that was interesting because I d I I, you know, I always heard Solomon was the wisest man, but I was specifically looking at scripture and it says specifically understanding and discernment.

unknown 20:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 20:56

And that's what he asked for. And then the Lord turns around and says, Because you did not ask for this, this, and this, and this, I'm gonna give you this that you've asked for, but I'm also gonna turn around and give you this, this, and this, and this. Yeah, yeah. Everything that he didn't ask for, God said, I'm gonna give it to you. I'm gonna give you even honor. You you're gonna get honor because you asked for understanding and discernment.

SPEAKER_02 21:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 21:23

And so I think that's important. God's thoughts and ways are beyond us. One of the things Isaiah 55, 8, and 9 tells us, it says, uh, he said, My thoughts are not your thoughts, my ways are not your ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways, and my thoughts your thoughts. Well, that's one reason I know I need discernment. Because if it's not just based on my ability and my thinking and my thoughts, that I need the Lord's intervention. I need the Lord's importation. I need the Lord's revelation. And I need the Lord's insight that he gives us by way of his word and his Holy Spirit to help us. And I'm just, you know, both of us are getting to be older guys at this point in our lives. And one is from Sumter County and the other's from Lee County. And their right county's right beside each other. But the thing is, what I realized is, you know, um, there's so many things in my life that I used to just kind of approach, and I can do this. And, you know, and almost like, well, here, hold this while I do it, you know, which never turned out really good. And yeah, and I've learned at this point, you know what? There's a lot to be said about prayer. There's a lot to be said about the Lord's uh wisdom and knowledge and understanding that he gives us. And I think that's one of the reasons why Proverbs 3 says, lean not to your own understanding, but acknowledge the Lord, acknowledge the Lord in all your ways. And that's something a lot of people are not doing today. They're not taking the time to pause and ask the Lord, Father, you know, what do you desire in this? Already, you know, the the story of David when he was um going down into the valley, remember, and and so he's going down into the valley, and he's he's he's gonna go up against the Philistine army. And it was the time that you know kings should go to battle, and he's going down, and they're gonna have, you know, I guess it's springtime or whatever, and they're going to battle. But David didn't just approach that as a king against another king, an army against another army. David was going down and he saw what was there, and it says, and David inquired of the Lord. Yeah, he took the time to ask the Lord, Lord, what do you want in this? Should we even do this or not?

SPEAKER_02 24:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 24:04

And the Lord said, Pursue.

SPEAKER_02 24:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 24:07

And and and I think that that maybe a lot of things, even we as a nation and families and individuals get into, yeah. We can look back and say, you know what? I should have really asked God about what he thought about this before I jumped off. You know what I'm saying? For I jumped in. That's right. I need that and all.

SPEAKER_03 24:28

But but you know, yeah, I think you hit on something, particularly talking about humility, because part of part of discernment, it it just in itself means you're admitting you don't know what to do. You don't know everything. I like that. And and and that that's just part of the the we don't. I you there's just times in life I think, Lord, what do I need to do? And and we don't know. And and I, you know, sometimes you can obsess over that and just, well, should I brush my teeth today? Or should I should I get in the car and go, you know, and uh brush your teeth, you know? I mean, just go ahead. You know, some of those things, we we don't need to be that way, but there are those those pivotal moments in our lives where you need to know, and and the Lord will the Lord will let you know somehow. Sometimes it's through circumstances, somehow, sometimes it's it's a voice, a still small voice, uh however you receive that in the Lord. Uh a verse out of the Bible, uh, your wife, your husband, yeah, your children. I God will let you know uh in a lot of those situations what you need to do. But but it all begins, it just you you really point out Solomon, the very thing he did. Lord, this job is beyond me. I don't know everything. Help me. And and sometimes those are the words that we need to say. And it seem it often seems really hard for people to say that. I mean, it's hard for me sometimes. I think, well, I got this. I you know, I'm good, uh kind of like you. I'll hold my, you know, hold my beer and watch this, you know. And and but no, no, no. Yeah, I don't know what to do in this. And and it you just you admit to the Lord, help me, you know, in all that.

SPEAKER_04 26:13

You know, 1 Corinthians 10, 12 says that therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall. And I think that there's there's the possibility sometimes when we just assume because we've done something before, we can do it again. I remember when Judson Cornwall met with us on a Saturday morning here in Florence at Quincy's over on 52 and 95. You remember that? And he met with us, you know, it was one of the early times he came, and we were getting ready to, we had acquired the property we're currently on as our campus, and we were going to have to do our first building. And I'll never forget what Judson said. Judson said it doesn't matter that hundreds of thousands of other churches have built a building. Y'all have never done it. So it's going to have its challenges, it may have some setbacks, it may uh it may require a lot of things from y'all. And he said, so it's great that others have done it, it lets you know it can be done, but nobody should ever assume because y'all have never done it before, this is the first time y'all have had to do this because we were we were in the startup of everything. Yeah, we were on the front side of this, and it was like we were in uncharted territory.

SPEAKER_02 27:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 27:46

And um, and you know, the Lord uh blessed that and and it continues to um seems to have its blessing upon what we're doing, and and you know, and it and it has been a development, and you know, after 38 years, there's there's a lot I I think of blessing and the reward of the Lord upon our lives, but a lot of that did not come because we just assumed you know, you build it, they'll come type mentality. Yeah you know, this wasn't the field of dreams we were doing. This was trying to walk in a vision that we felt that heaven had given us, and we realized it was about prayer, it was about people, it was about areas of the prophetic revelation that God gives, and it was about the presence of the Lord. And so that was a yeah, that was a key thing. And I remember you and I were riding in the pickup truck to New Ideal School Supply in Sumter, South Carolina to go buy the first little tables and little chairs for children for children's ministry. Yeah, yeah, and and we were discussing and praying as we were going, Artie, about the vi and we were we were basically talking through these areas that God had laid upon our hearts.

SPEAKER_02 29:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 29:11

And we kind of jotted those things down and and put that in a little flyer so that people could know and understand that, you know, if if if you feel you're a member here, it isn't because you just joined the club. It's because the Lord joined your heart to the leadership and to the place that you are.

SPEAKER_02 29:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 29:33

And that my responsibility is to watch and to pray for you and do all we can to protect and guard you and do everything we can to equip you and prepare you for what the calling of God and the purpose of God is for your life.

SPEAKER_02 29:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 29:50

And, you know, it's easy to say now with more clarity and more understanding, yeah. But in all honesty, we've had to spend a lot of time in the word of God and in prayer to be able to be able to be in the seat that we're in today, to talk about the things we're talking about today. But in that, one of the things I really recognize that has been so, so critical in our lives is the discernment that God has given us because of things that we've had to walk through. And he's he's literally done what he said in the Psalms, he's literally delivered our feet from the snare of the fowler and the trap that the enemy would lay. And Marianne Brown's husband, Buddy, uh, when we were trying to decide where to uh began first with the purchase of a piece of land for you know for this local church. Buddy traveled one day with us around different places. And at the end, and Buddy uh Buddy's job was to train people as air traffic control uh people. And that was his job. He was a trainer of the people that had to be air traffic control uh operators, and uh and buddy Buddy was very methodical and he was very logical and he thought, but he was a praying man. And we walked around that whole day, and at the end of the day, kind of uh he just he said, Wellani, I really don't think that the Lord is going to be displeased with any choice that y'all make of a location right now. He said, I think it's your choice to make. He said, But what I really think you need to be aware of and he said, this is where discernment comes in and wisdom comes in.

SPEAKER_02 31:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 31:53

He said, What you really need to be aware of is the moment you move from the storefront that's temporary in the minds and the eyes of people to actually having a piece of property and you begin to grow and develop. He said, the level of spiritual warfare will immediately change. He said it will immediately change. And boy, I've had to think about that a lot of times on Monday morning.

SPEAKER_02 32:22

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 32:23

You know what I'm saying? I've had to think about it a lot of times on Monday morning because I realized today what Buddy said. He was talking about, you know, you you've got to be a discerning person and a discerning man or discerning woman many times to walk in the vocation and the calling of God because it's real when there's a wrestling that happens, like Paul spoke of in Ephesians 6, where he said we wrestle not against flesh and blood. But the truth is, most of the time we get pulled into stuff, it's because of flesh and blood. But we don't look beyond on the back side of the curtain. It's kind of like in the Wizard of Oz, when they finally got to Oz, and you know, and his voice is bellowing out, and you know, when talking, and a little Toto goes over and pulls the curtain back. And all of a sudden the boy said, Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. You know, well, it's it's almost like that discernment lets you really see what's going on.

SPEAKER_02 33:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 33:31

There wasn't this, you know, imperial or superior being there in Oz. It was a man behind the curtain with a microphone and a speaker.

SPEAKER_02 33:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 33:42

And, you know, sometimes the enemy is really trying to get people to buy a lie that's not really the truth.

SPEAKER_02 33:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 33:51

And it affects people. And, you know, and I think of what Peter said in First Peter, he said, you know, he says Satan is as a roaring lion.

unknown 34:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 34:03

He didn't say he was, he just said he's as it.

SPEAKER_03 34:06

Yeah, he really is toothless. But he's as a roaring lion.

SPEAKER_04 34:09

Well, and you know what? Sometimes that roar has been intimidating to me in my life until until the light came on, yeah, and the word became alive and living inside of me.

SPEAKER_02 34:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 34:21

And I realized, man, wait a minute. Uh this is my posture and position in Christ. This is where I need to be standing. And uh, you wanna you want to wrap this up for today with maybe some faults that the Lord has placed in your heart?

SPEAKER_03 34:38

It uh uh I I remember an illustration. It may have been it may have been Arthur Byrd uh years back, he's a guy from England, the speaker that we knew. He uh uh He talked about South Africa and sheep and lions, just in speaking of that thing with the the roaring lion, and they would put the sheep in a pen uh that sort of had brambles all around the outside that kind of kept the sheep in the pen and kept the lions out. But what would frequently happen in the night is that often the lion would come, maybe more than one, and they'd start roaring. And the sheep would just get spooked because they just hear this roar, this roar, this roar. The reality was as long as they stayed independent, they're good. You know, as long as we abide in Christ, and I think that was the illustration, abiding in Christ, we abide in the Lord, we stay in Jesus, we're safe from the lion. Lion out there, roar all he wants, won't matter a bit. We're in Jesus. But if we begin, and what would happen, the sheep would start pushing up against one of the sides of the pen, getting away from the distance of the and and they'd finally just break through and get out of the pen. And the lions were all right there, ready to roar quick because they would look in their lips. They had lamb chops right there out in the midst of all that, and we're in a very similar situation. I think in in in our discernment, we need to we need to know, we need to discern, is this just the roar? And we need to ignore that and go on with Jesus, you know, or is this something the Lord's really trying to catch our attention with some of that? And that's where some of the discernment comes in on all that, and uh, because the Lord speaks to us in a lot of ways, and you don't need to ignore it, but there are just times where those fiery darts, you just you well, you got to get the fire extinguisher out and just put them things out, get them out of your head and and go on with life. And that's not always an easy thing to do.

SPEAKER_04 36:49

That's true. Um first John chapter four, maybe good verses to conclude with, and maybe you could pray. But it says, Beloved, it says chapter four, first John, yeah, verse one through three. It said, Beloved, believe not every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God. Because many false prophets have gone out into the world, and by this we know that the Spirit of God, every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, is from God. Every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of Antichrist, of which we have heard that is coming and now is already in the world.

unknown 37:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 37:38

If it was in John's world, it's in our world. Oh, yeah. And a lot of people today are making a mistake because it's spiritual, they think it's okay, but a lot of what is being passed off today is not proven, it's not tested, it it's yeah, it's not passing the as one brother in the fellowship says, it doesn't pass the smell test.

SPEAKER_02 38:05

Okay.

unknown 38:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 38:06

It just doesn't pass the test. And so um I encourage you to desire to be a spiritual man and a spiritual woman. Already same thing. But again, Hebrews 5.14, you want to be a person that is growing, you're exercising discernment between right and wrong. And I realize that even those lines are being erased today because people don't want anybody saying what's right and what's wrong. But truth is, it's already been established. Yeah, God's already established it. Because cultures change and change the boundaries and change the names of stuff, it doesn't change the nature of it. And the nature, uh, you don't want to be operating in a nature that's going to be destructive. You want to be operating in a nature that's going to bring freedom and life to you. And so, you know, um, Galatians 5, 1 tells us that we're to continue in the freedom whereby Christ has made us free. So our our desire and prayer doing these three installments is so that there could be an understanding that there's stuff out there that comes against us and wants to get us to detour off the main path and the main journey. But the detour is not for our deliverance, the detour is for our destruction. And so it's a great time to be bold on the outside, but allow God to break every idol on the inside of our hearts and our lives.

SPEAKER_02 39:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 39:48

And we need to know how to be discerning. And God is the one that's given us a spirit of discernment. No matter who you are in Christ, you know, it's it's about asking the Father, say, Lord, help me see and understand these things in Jesus' name. Yes. Amen.

SPEAKER_03 40:06

And it all comes down to the Lord Jesus Christ, the very thing that John that John says in that in that letter, that is, it's what is their opinion of Jesus? That that the chief discernment, if you want to know where somebody's coming from or what they're thinking about, or what's happening, what do they think about Jesus? And and that if they think Jesus is the Son of God and uh, you know, all of the traditional Christian things we believe about Jesus that are presented in the scripture, then you're probably okay, you might want to pay them attention. If they think Jesus was a hippie or a nice guy or an alien, I you know, Willie, what's sort of an alien, I guess. He was from another realm, but but it it it you know, if if there's something like that, then there's a problem. And and that you can immediately know what's going on. But let's pray. Amen. Lord, thank you for uh giving us understanding in our minds and touching us, Lord. Thank you for your Spirit of God that dwells in us, the Holy Spirit of God. Help us, Father, to understand the world, help us to to know right from wrong, help us to know good from bad, help us to understand good and evil, and Father, help us be able to know your ways and to know you and to make you known in the world. And we pray in Jesus' name, amen.

SPEAKER_04 41:32

Thank you for your time. A life worth living is a life worth giving. God bless you.