A Call for Discernment.

Happy Sunday. My name is Nermalis, and I am the associate pastor here at New Culture. And today we are continuing with our sermon series on letters from John.

We're still in 1 John, but before we get into today's message, I'd like to tell you a story. My story today is about my big sister. My big sister Kimberly, if you don't know her, she has a scar on her thigh right here, goes from one side of her thigh all the way across to the other side of her thigh. She's had it as long as I can remember. She's had it since she was really little and had a minor run-in with a shark. I'm from Florida, if you didn't know that. She did not have a minor run-in with a shark. That is just the story she tells everyone when they ask her what this big scar on her thigh is. And she really goes in on this story. Like she has an elaborate plot line. There are details. If my dad's around, he backs her up. He tells all about his perspective as the father of a young child that was attacked by a shark. It's like a whole thing. Okay, we like to have fun.

But yeah, she tells people this story and they're typically through reactions to the story. Reaction one, we're going to call the Ashley. When my sister told this story to my best friend, Ashley, before Kimberly could get like halfway through the first sentence of the story, Ashley says, "So you're lying. What really happened?" This is just the immediate no.

Reaction two, we're going to call the Amari. When my sister told Amari her story, she was like, "Wow. Yeah, what else?" And then my sister kept telling all these details and Amari was listening and nodding. "Yeah, yeah, yeah." But was really suspicious the whole time. And then my sister was like, "Yeah, I wasn't..." like told her the truth. And Amari was like, "Yeah, I figured. I just didn't want to invalidate this whole traumatic life experience that you had. So I was just kind of going with it and I was going to ask Nedma later."

This is the reaction that wants to make sure she's lying before they accuse her. And reaction three, we'll call the Elmer. It is by far the most entertaining of the reactions, and it is the die hard believer. Elmer is a guy that we grew up with in church. At this point we're in high school. He sees the scar at some church function we were at. He asked Kimberly what it is. She starts telling the story and he's like fully engaged. Like, "What? He's asking questions." Kimberly's coming up with stuff. I don't know where she's pulling these details from. He takes off running across the church, finds my dad. So now we're in the church lobby with like an audience. My dad and my sister are like giving this story. Elmer is in the lobby of the church with his jaw on the floor. And I finally had enough and was like, "It's a joke. It's not real."

This is a very gullible but very entertaining reaction that he will never live down. I know you all want to say that you were Ashley. You immediately said no when I said my sister's scar was from a shark attack. But I saw all of your faces. There were a couple Elmers in here. There were a couple Elmers in here. We want to believe the things people tell us, especially when it's said just the right way by just the right person, especially if the lie is what we want to hear.

Testing the spirits

You can join me in 1 John 4, verses 1 through 6. It says:

Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God. For many false prophets have gone out into the world. 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, 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. 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. They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. 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.

1 John 4:1-6

Our "so what" and our "now what" for today: our "so what" is that truth is the basis for faith and love. Our "now what" is to discern.

Something that I think is true and is very prevalent is that there's a great tendency to elevate what we like to call love above truth. Without truth, there is no love. Love that's based in lies is nothing but a cheap counterfeit for the real thing. When we look at this passage, we immediately see that Christians are commanded to exercise discernment.

It says, "Do not believe every spirit." This initial commandment is stated negatively. He's essentially saying, don't be gullible. Listen to me. Are you listening? Everybody listening? Do not confuse niceness for love. Love does not mean compromising the truth. We have such a cheapened understanding of love. We like to think that love can exist where truth is absent, if that truth makes us uncomfortable or challenges us to be better. If a lie is making you feel good, that doesn't make it any less a lie.

In context, John is warning against preachers who are preaching something against the gospel truth of Jesus. Essentially, the prevalent false teaching that was happening in this church community was the idea that Jesus was not God. That he was not God in flesh incarnate. And that's why he uses the phrase Antichrist, because their message was anti-Christ. As a result of this teaching, he's challenging the church: do not believe everything you hear. Test every spirit. It's also important to note that John is talking to believers in the church, not just the leaders of the church. All believers are responsible for exercising discernment, not just the leadership.

The command to test

Oftentimes we are overly impressed with what people have to say. They're speaking in prophecy and they're saying all the right things, and they're really good speakers. Or they do all the right things that make us feel great, and we call talent anointing because we lack discernment. John's readers may have been tending to accept without question all teaching which claimed to be given by God, just because it sounds good, just because it feels right, just because the person saying it has a place of authority or reputation of influence.

Just because the person saying it has a place of authority or reputation of influence doesn't mean it's from God. Beloved, do not believe every spirit. Then John gives the same commandment, but he states it positively. He says, "Do not believe every spirit. And then he says, test the spirits. Test the spirits."

The first thing I want to point out here is the nature of the test. True faith examines its object before placing its confidence in it. I know it probably feels like maybe that's a little contradictory, right, because we talk about faith. What is faith? It's the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not yet seen. So how does true faith examine the object before placing its confidence in it? Well, because faith is not a scapegoat for just following blindly. Especially because faith actually has nothing to do with having faith in what will be done in our lives or how the circumstance will look. Our faith is in one thing and one thing alone, and that is in Christ.

And our faith calls us to examine that. Jesus doesn't call us to believe him without thinking. He gave us the proof. He showed the scars. He did the things, and we believe and have faith in a God that we know, that we've seen, and that knows us. Our faith examines the object before placing our confidence in it. My faith in God is what propels me to examine every word. It's what propels me to examine every action. It's what propels me to examine every spirit to make sure it is God. You have to test it.

This does not mean to examine with a suspicious attitude. I am not encouraging being a skeptic. It's not intentionally always looking for fault. It doesn't mean expecting a lie to be around every single corner. It just means to make sure what you believe in is trustworthy.

Three levels of discernment

The next thing I want to point out is the subject of the test. It says, "Test the spirits." This is not about putting a person on trial. You are discerning the spirits. There are different elements and levels to discernment. I kind of want to talk about like three levels. There is discernment of right or wrong. Is this decision I'm about to make right or wrong? Is what this person just said right or wrong? Is the way I was just treated right or wrong?

Then there is discernment of wise versus foolish. Maybe I can do this thing, but should I do this thing? Maybe there isn't anything wrong with this friendship, but maybe this friendship isn't bringing me closer to Christ. Maybe this friendship is damaging me. But there's nothing wrong with them. But is it wise or is it foolish? Maybe that teaching wasn't bad, but did it lack wisdom or was it immature?

Then there is the discerning of the spirit. What was behind what's being said? What's the motivation? What is the spirit behind it? Was it selfish ambition? Was it jealousy? Was it comparison? Was it prejudice? Was it spite? Because all the prettiest words and all the right things at that first level of discernment, but motivated by anything other than the Holy Spirit, well, it just isn't God.

And with that being said, all those same questions of discernment. Was it jealousy, was it comparison, was it prejudice. Are we willing to ask ourselves that about our own motivations and discern our own hearts and our own words and our own actions?

The goal of the test

This leads me to the next thing to hone in on here. And that is the goal of the test. It says, "To see whether they are from God." Because that's kind of the whole point. That's the important part. Is this God? Was this good thing that you wanted to be true, God? Was this hard thing that you don't want to be true, God? The point of the test isn't to have someone to accuse. The test isn't to justify your decisions or your feelings. The point of testing the spirit behind every word is to know whether the word is true. Is it from God?

Then the need for the test. It says, "These many false prophets have gone out into the world." I'll give you an Old Testament example. In 1 Kings chapter 22, there are 400 prophets on King Ahab's payroll. They had all the comforts and all the respect of the people. They regularly performed supernatural acts and prophecies. And none of them were from God.

And then there was one Micaiah, the prophet of the Lord, that had the Spirit of God on him. It takes discernment to know the difference between God and good.

A more recent example is the letter of Martin Luther King Jr., written from Birmingham jail. In that letter, he addresses eight church leaders who spoke with scripture and all the right things and all the right reasons to say, "Don't pursue justice." And yet in that letter, Martin Luther King expresses that as much as there is a need for repentance for those full of hatred and the bad people, so there should be repentance for those that use morality to cover up their silence. It takes discernment to know that just because someone's using scripture doesn't mean what they said was of God.

Does it acknowledge Jesus in fullness

The tool of discernment is this: Does it confess to Jesus Christ in fullness? I know Jesus. Is this Jesus? Holy Spirit within me, we've been given the Holy Spirit. Is this Jesus in his fullness? The passage says, "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, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God."

Simply put: Is this contrary to the character, the teachings, and the life of Christ? This is your first line of defense in testing the spirits. I grew up in a very, very charismatic Pentecostal church, so we had like all sorts of crazy things. That's like my preface before I say anything. Maybe your experience was different than mine, so I might say stuff you're like, "That's wild." That's okay. I would just like to preface that.

But in the church context I grew up in, there was always something wild happening on Sunday. And every now and again, there was like the regular, "You know, like maybe this is demonic." And I remember they used to tell us like that you would use this scripture about like, "If it doesn't confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, that spirit's not from God." So my friend Valeria used to like sit there and she would say, "Jesus is Lord, Jesus is Lord, Jesus is Lord, Jesus is Lord," to like check herself, to like make sure that like she wasn't like demonically possessed, because she could confess that Jesus is Lord.

That's not what this is. Just like this is not: I can literally physically confess with my mouth that Jesus is Lord. Demons can do that. That's not at all what this is saying. This is not about a confession of mouth that Jesus is Lord. This is a confession lived out from the core, from the heart, in everything you do. This is a foundation for every single teaching. Does your life confess that Jesus is Lord? Does the fruit of the things you say confess that Jesus is Lord? Does the way you treat your friends confess that Jesus is Lord? Does the way you treat your employer confess that Jesus is Lord?

This is the foundation for everything that we believe: that Jesus is God in the flesh, that Jesus lived a life without sin, that Jesus willingly died on the cross, paying the price for the world's sin, making way for your forgiveness, your healing, and for your shame to be taken away. He rose again, incarnate, giving us victory over death, hell, and the grave. By grace, through faith, we are saved. Jesus is Lord, and if that's not what is confessed through what we live, what we say, what we're discerning, it's not God.

What clouds our discernment

There's a lot of different things that cloud our discernment. I just want to touch on four.

One is the person, the very person that we're trying to discern their words. Different people hold different value in our lives. They mean different things. They play different roles in our life. It's really easy for somebody that I don't like very much to tell me something and be like, "Wrong, wrong." It's really hard for someone I don't like very much to tell me something and for me to still have the discernment to say that was God, even though I don't like you. It's really easy for someone you love and respect to tell you something and you take it to heart right away without thinking twice. It's harder to acknowledge that someone you love, someone you respect, maybe just said something that wasn't in line with God's heart for you.

The person can cloud our judgment. Our emotions can cloud our discernment. I say that as queen of being emotional. I'm emotional all the time about everything. Our emotions cloud our discernment because anger will make us think that God is telling us that they're wrong, but they're not wrong. You're just mad. You're offended. That's offense, not the Holy Ghost.

And excitement, because it's the thing you wanted to hear and the thing that you think is best for you, will make you feel like God is swinging that door open for you, and you'll go running in a direction God has not sent you. Our emotions cloud our discernment.

Our past clouds our discernment. And I say that sensitively, because I understand that there's a million reasons that our past affects us. Trauma has a real impact and a real imprint on our minds, on our emotions, on the way we do things. That's all very real and very important. And I believe God cares about all of those things. And I believe that the Holy Spirit is with us so that even though we have things in our past, we can make decisions based on the Holy Spirit. We can live out our lives based on Jesus and we can overcome the things from our past instead of repeating the same mistakes because our discernment is clouded by the past.

And the other thing that I think clouds our discernment is our desires. Our desires. If every door for what you want is opening, that has to be God, right? If you show up at a real charismatic church like I was talking about and somebody goes and lays hands on you and gives you a word from God and it's exactly the thing you wanted to hear, that has to be God, right?

And I know you're really upset about what this person did, so you go and you vent to this person and tell them all the things and they tell you everything you want to hear and add all the fuel to your fire. And that had to be God, right? I was right, I was justified, that person's trash. That had to be God, right?

Our desires, what we want to hear, what we want for our lives, can cloud our discernment. Our core desire for love. We've talked a lot about love in the sermon series because if you've read 1 John, there's a lot of stuff about love in it. It's about the love of God for us, our love for God, loving others. 1 John is very lovey-dovey. But truth is the basis for love. If it is not true, it is not love, no matter how badly we want it to be. If the way that we love others, if the way we talk to others, if the way we talk about others is short of the gospel of Jesus, we lack truth and we lack love.

Discern and be discerned

My now what for you today was to discern. Discern others. Discern situations. Discern the words that come out of people's mouths. Discern their actions. Discern. And discern your own motivations. Your heart. Your words. Your actions.

We won't do things perfectly. And neither will others. As much as we're here and we want to be like Jesus. We say it all the time here in New Culture: be with Jesus, become like Jesus, do what Jesus did, all the things. We want to be like Jesus. But we aren't Jesus. There's a core difference here. Jesus is God. And we are human.

So again, this isn't a call to suspicion and a pointed finger. It's a call to hold other believers and ourselves to a holy standard founded on Jesus and humbled through repentance. These love demands truth.

Closing prayer

I'm going to invite you guys to go ahead and stand up on your feet, and I'm going to pray over us. And if you're comfortable, I'm just going to ask that you open your hands out in front of you as a sign of surrender.

We talked about a lot of different things that cloud our discernment, things we want to discern, things we don't want to discern. But tonight I just have a simple prayer that starts with a prayer out of the scriptures:

Search me, God, and know my heart. Test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me and lead me in the way everlasting.

Psalm 139:23-24

Holy Spirit, give us a fresh infilling. Sharpen our ears and soften our hearts to know and sense where you are and where you are not. Surround us with community that can help us in discerning. Lord, give us hearts that are willing to hear the truth so that we can experience your true love rather than just what makes us feel good. And give us hearts willing to love others in truth.

Help us to not confuse your spirit with any other. And when we should fall away, when we move and speak without your spirit, lead us back to you and your ways. Lead us in the way everlasting. In Jesus' mighty and matchless name, Amen.