Real Life Radio

Jack Hibbs: When you have things going on in your mind, maybe you pray and you hear an impulse. Is that impulse Satan trying to trick you or is that God leading you and speaking to you? How do you know? How can you know for sure?

David J: Welcome to Real Life Radio with Pastor Jack Hibbs. I'm David J, thanking you for joining us today as we listen, learn, and are challenged by God's word, the Bible.

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David J: On today's edition of Real Life Radio, Pastor Jack now continues his series called Disciplines of Life and a message titled Discipline of Discernment. We live in a very confused world these days, filled with darkness, false ideas, and deception. So spiritual discernment is really more important than ever. You see, without discernment, we can easily be misled in the important decisions about life, faith, relationships, even our beliefs. It's why learning to think and choose in a way that aligns with God's will is how we can avoid the consequences of costly mistakes.

So today, Pastor Jack teaches that discernment is the ability to tell the difference between truth and lies, between right and wrong, or God's way versus other influences. It's a discipline that takes a renewal of our minds through prayer, scripture, and relying upon the Holy Spirit to guide our decision-making process. Now with his message called Discipline of Discernment, here's pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs.

Jack Hibbs: Bless your word to our hearts now. Fill us, Lord, with your Holy Spirit. Fill us with your strength, fill us with your insight. Father, what a topic tonight. What a great, great topic: discernment, the discipline of discernment. Lord, it is more needed now than any other time in church history, and that sounds like a big statement, but it is true.

We are living in dark days. We are living in perilous times. We are living at the age, at the end of the era of the church, and soon, maybe tonight, your coming will be. The trumpet will blow and the dead in Christ will rise, and we who are alive and remain shall be caught up to meet you in the air. Maybe tonight. But Lord, if not tonight, then we need discernment. So Father, bless now we pray. In Jesus' name, and all God's people said, amen.

Grab your Bibles and turn tonight to the 21st message in a 31-message series, The Disciplines of Life. We are now at number 21, the discipline of discernment. Go to Matthew chapter 28 as our theme verse for this entire series. Matthew 28 verse 18, you know it well. Jesus said, "All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you." We'll hear a lot about that tonight. "And behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the world."

Now move to the right, keep going to the book of Ephesians where we have our verse for our topic tonight. The discipline of discernment. Ephesians 5:17, Paul said to the church at Ephesus, "Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is." That is the verse for tonight regarding discernment. You say, "Jack, what is discernment?" I thought you'd ask, so as I want to do every week as much as possible, I want to give you the definition of discernment.

The word discernment means that you would have in your possession the faculty of mind by which you are able to distinguish one thing from another, from light and from darkness, as with truth from falsehood. It means to be able to divide with the ability of judgment or to judge rightly. It means to render a correct and accurate judgment regarding an issue. It means to have the power to know and to perceive the difference between two things. Discernment. Noah Webster says that the errors of youth are often proceeded from the lack of discernment.

Very, very important. Discernment is to know what you should do in any given state. Church, listen, let's set it up like this. If you're sick or you get sick, is it from God or is it from Satan? Financial issues, is it from God or is it from Satan? When you have a job decision to make, you're presented with a challenge, is it from God or is it from Satan? When you have things going on in your mind, maybe you pray and you hear an impulse, is that impulse Satan trying to trick you or is it God leading you and speaking to you? How do you know? How can you know for sure?

That's why over and over again the Bible informs you and I that we are to wait, to wait upon the Lord. Wait upon God. It's the hardest thing for us to do. By the way, Satan has no sensitivity regarding that area when it comes to answering you and I with deception. Now listen, Satan is very good at waiting to spring his tricks on you and I. But when it comes to you perhaps praying or you perhaps seeking God, maybe you're going to determine tonight to get up and move out for the glory of God, Satan will not hesitate one moment to try to discourage you.

He's very smart. But God has given you and I the ability to discern. Many young people tonight, you need to listen because you need to be discerning like never before in your life. You need this more than anything. There's nothing worse though than seeing a young man or a young woman be silly about their decisions. What's worse than that is to see an older person silly about their decisions. It's a very tragic thing to see.

But listen, also this, you can't separate this verse. It's almost a second theme verse. It's Romans chapter 12. You guys all know this verse. It's a great verse about discernment. Romans 12, beginning at verse one. Paul said, "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service." That word can also be translated worship. It's your reasonable worship. "And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove..."

That's the key. How do you know what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God? Notice that. We know right now from the beginning that God's will for your life, God's plan, God literally has a plan for your life. That number one, it is good. It's acceptable, meaning you should receive it. You should hang on to it, you should grab it. You should be, listen, groping for God's will. I tell you, I think I speak for all Christians, there is a sense where the Holy Spirit within us causes you and I to pursue God's will.

And we will go to great lengths to find it. Listen, some of you young people tonight that are growing in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, one of the great things is what I would say is a struggle in your soul. It's a disruption. It is an earthquake, a seismos in your consciousness and you would think, "How can I be a Christian and have so much difficulty in this area?" What is that area? It's knowing the will of God. The Holy Spirit does that in your life. It's awesome.

Some of you are just saying, "I've got to know what God is saying to me about this or that or the other thing." That's a great place to be. You may be in a great struggle, but that's a soul struggle. It's almost as though you're going faster and faster and faster, and you know when Chewie and Obi-Wan Kenobi hit warp speed. Remember what happens on the window of the spaceship when they hit warp speed? Everything just turns bright and just goes 'woosh.' When the Christian is pursuing the will of God, all the flesh and stuff goes flying by, and you're grasping onto the will of God. There's nothing like it in the world.

It's the greatest thing. And in that, by the way, I might add, is the key to this deep awesome thing called the death to self, the death to our flesh. It's a wonderful experience to know the will of God. We know this, that in Genesis chapter two, God tells Adam and Eve, he says to them that the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you're not to eat of it, because if you do eat of it, that's the day that you'll die. Somebody will say, "Well, why did God put that tree in that garden in the first place?" Ah, you have to have that tree there.

Don't be so naive. God put that tree there and then he turns to his perfect creation and he says, "Now look, everything's just right on. Don't mess with that tree." Why did he do that? Because you cannot have true love and true relationship, true experience one with another without choice. If you remove choice, you have a dictatorial rule. If you remove choice, you have things like rape rather than love. Our God is not like that. The tree was there and he said, "Now don't do that." The whole thing was: Do we love God more than that tree?

And everything was fine, and Satan came along and he put those thoughts into Eve's head and he says, "Listen, go eat that tree." She says, "No way. The day that we eat of it, we're going to die." What did Satan say? He said, "Listen, God doesn't want you to eat that tree." Notice this, superseding God's authority and usurping Satan's authority over man. He says, "God knows that the day that you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will know good from evil, and he doesn't want you to know that because the day that you do that, you will be like gods."

And as soon as she heard that, she said, "Man, I want it." She chose in that moment to love her desires more than the will of God. And that's the issue tonight in your life and mine, is to love what I want more than the will of God, then I'm going to wind up experiencing a life of death. That is the age-old lesson from Eden to this moment, to be discerning. And so we need to be very wise. Mark it down, number one is this, church, the discipline of discernment is number one: Why do I want his will for my life?

You might be here tonight saying, "Why do I want his will? Why do I want God's will in my life?" Well, number one, we can learn something from these examples in Jesus. Matthew 16:1, then the Pharisees and the Sadducees came and they were testing Jesus and asked him how he would show them a sign from heaven. Jesus answered and said to them, "When it is evening you say it will be fair weather, for the sky is red, and in the morning it will be foul weather today, for the sky is red and threatening. Hypocrites! You know how to discern the face of the sky, but you cannot discern the signs of the times."

Jesus is challenging us right now that the will of God, first of all, we understand, allows us to be guided. I want you to write that down. Because he knows how to guide my life, that's why I want God's will done in my life. I want God's will done in my life because he and he alone knows how to guide my life. He knows how to lead me. The Bible tells us in the Old Testament, this is a great verse, he says, "Don't be like the donkey, where I've got to put a bridle and bit in his mouth and pull him and jerk him around to get him to go." He says, "I want to lead you with my right hand." That's what God wants to do in your life.

And I want to promise you right now, you will always have a problem following God if you want to hold onto the reins. Especially young people, listen. I don't get paid extra for telling you this and your parents didn't tell me to say this. The sooner you give up and follow God's leading, the more blessed of a life you'll have. Hands down. I came to Christ at 19 years of age. I was bummed that I waited so long. All the way through since that time of my conversion, my goal in life is to let God lead, to get out of the way.

Now listen, discernment exposes the spirit of error from the spirit of truth. To discern is to know which way should I go. Is that light or is that darkness? Is this good for me or bad for me? Is this what God wants or is this what Satan wants in my life? But discernment exposes error and reveals truth. Matthew 24:11, Jesus says, "Many false prophets shall arise and will deceive many." Now I want you to hear this. How are you going to know what's true and false in these last days?

Jesus said in the end right before his coming, that's Matthew 24, that's the apocalyptic revelation, you and I are living in these days that Jesus was talking about 2,000 years ago. He said one of the great signs is many, not a few, many false prophets will arise and they will deceive many. But listen, you and I literally do not have to be fooled. In fact, let's be honest very carefully, listen. Are you guys listening? The Bible says that such deception would be coming upon the earth, and it's coming. Miracles, listen, miracles. There's going to be a time coming where people will be doing miracles that will cause your jaw to drop, and it will be of a demonic power.

And right now we sit here because we're comfortable and we say, "Yep, but I'm not going to fall for it." Let me put it in perspective. What if your child is deathly ill? And there's some man that comes to town with his entourage, and you hear that people are getting healed. Their eyes are being opened, their legs are growing, whatever. And your child is sick, but this guy is preaching some other gospel. Are you hearing me? And in your desperation for the love of your child, you go to this guy who's preaching another gospel, a different Jesus, and he performs a miracle and heals your child's fever.

Jesus said there's going to be times coming that are so demonically charged that if it were possible, it would deceive the very elect. Now I want to underline that. Many people quote that verse, but they don't hear it rightly. Did you hear what he said? Jesus said what? "If it were possible." Guess what? Thank you. It's not possible. He says, "If it were possible." That means to the elect, the deception's going to be so profound in the last days that it's going to be this close to deceiving God's own people.

The great thing is why aren't they deceived? Because they know the word of God and the spirit of God is in them, and they're able to discern the days from good and bad, light and dark, left or right, up or down. Oh, we stress over and over again to read the Bible, know the Bible. The greatest thing that you can do to gear up. Imagine for a moment I would issue tonight this decree: we're all going to war. Imagine me saying, "We're going to war. I want you to suit up, I want you to get ready, and in 10 days we go to war." And I would issue this announcement: "You've got to read your Bible every day and get ready and pack it in your heart and be loaded with the Bible." Imagine if I were to say that, because in 10 days we go to war and you're going to need the Bible.

And you do that, and in 10 days or the 11th day, hell as it were visits earth. Who would survive? Those who have hidden his word in their heart. It's not the church you attend, it's not how many times you've been baptized, come forward. It doesn't have anything to do with how much money you've given. It has to do if you have his word in your heart so that you can discern the days to guide your life.

And 2 Timothy 3:1, the Bible says, "But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come." The word perilous means times that will wear down the saints. "For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanders, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good," and on he goes. I think we're living in days like that. And the Bible says it's going to get worse. He says, "Jack, you're really bumming me out." No, I'm not. I'm getting you ready.

You say, "I thought you said Jesus could come back tonight." He could come back tonight. But if he doesn't come back tonight, we have to face tomorrow. And that just sounded like tomorrow. But we live in dangerous days. But your faith doesn't have to fail. Discernment, knowing the way that God would like to lead us and guide us in your life personally, as a church corporately. What an amazing thing. For example, this East Wing expansion. God creates the problem, that is he brings a bunch of people here and young families and their marriages get all excited and happy and healthy, and they start having babies all over the place around here.

And so we need more room for babies. So God creates the problem, and God never creates the problem without first providing the answer. And so, "Lord, we need your help. God, you did this, it's your thing." And really, that's how we've all been praying. Lord, you did it, you fix it. It's yours. And so what happens? We pray, we seek his face, we worship, and he provides. And so the faith of the believer is strengthened. He guides, he leads, he provides.

In Hebrews 5:14, the Bible says, "But solid food belongs to those who are of full age," he's talking about spiritual depth, "that is those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil." You say, "Wait a minute, I thought God said don't eat of the tree, Eve, because if you do you'll know good and evil." Yes, that's true. She already bit the tree, I mean bit the fruit. That's happened. God, isn't this great? God doesn't leave us alone. I know, Jack, your first mother bit the avocado or whatever. Couldn't have been an avocado, those are wonderful. It had to be a grapefruit or something. She bit it and ruined the race, okay, fine, but here's, I'm not going to leave you guys abandoned. My Holy Spirit will lead you and guide you.

Listen to my spirit who will use the word of God. By the end of this message, you'll see how God leads us and guides us and teaches us. He uses his word and the spirit of God will draw it up and lead you and I on the path that we should go. He guides us. But we'll be able to discern. This is a promise. Hebrews 5:14 is a promise. Christian, listen, you don't have to make a dumb, evil decision. Wait on the Lord. Seek his face. Pursue him. Stop falling for the stuff that we all are tempted by, and that is to have it quick, microwave, presto, fantastic, ready now. Wait, and he will answer. He will guide you.

And by the way, that word in Hebrews about discern is to make a judicial estimation, a critical decision. He says, "I'll give you that." Secondly, under this point, is why do you and I want his will for our lives? It's because of this: because he wants you and I to have fulfillment. Every one of us, we want to have a fulfilled life. It's what we pursue.

Have you ever been really hungry? I know you've been, of course we have been really hungry. Now when I was young and didn't care, I was a sucker for, I've always been a sucker for ice-cold milk. Even now, still, I love it. But I could get a bag of potato chips and eat the whole bag with a carton of milk, and it's perfect for me. But that is so bad for your blood, it's not good for your body, and the next day you wake up, if not sooner, you'll be feeling very lethargic and sick. Your liver goes nuts. It's horrible for you.

But if you eat good stuff, have you noticed if you eat the right proteins, you're full. And you don't need to go, you don't need a snack because you're full. Why? Because you've eaten the right stuff. Your blood's happy, your liver is singing, everything's great. Now that's important because fulfillment causes deep satisfaction of life. There are people who, you know this, there are people in Hollywood with unbelievable amounts of money. You think their life is fulfilled? They're not fulfilled.

David J: Pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs here on Real Life Radio with his message called Discipline of Discernment. Thanks for joining us today. You know, this message is part of Pastor Jack's series called The Disciplines of Life. It's a series that highlights the disciplines of a Christ-follower and the high cost of sharing our faith with others. And we'll continue on the next edition of Real Life Radio.

Jack Hibbs: Do the children in your life know why America is worth celebrating? The faith that founded it, the heroes who fought for it, the God who blessed it. The Free Happy Birthday America Kids' Guide from Real Life Network puts that story in their hands. Beautifully designed, faith-centered, and yours for just the cost of shipping. Get yours at jackhibbs.com/kids250.

David J: Hey, thank you again so much for listening. And if you'd like to hear or see more of what we do here, you can always go to jackhibbs.com for all the latest on what's going on with this ministry. And please, if you're ever in the Southern California area, come see us at Calvary Chapel Chino Hills. We'd love to see you there in person. It has been so good to be with you today, and I pray you find yourself in the grace and mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ. See you on the next episode.

This program is made possible by the generous contributions of you, our listeners. Visit us at jackhibbs.com. That's jackhibbs.com. Until next time, Pastor Jack Hibbs and all of us here at Real Life Radio wish for you solid and steady growth in Christ and in his word. We'll see you next time, here on Real Life Radio.