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00:02 Thank you. It's my joy to be here and to um
00:08 share fellowship with you and to be able to explain something from God's word. Um
00:16 there was a man who was convinced his wife was deaf.
00:25 So he went to the doctor and he said to the doctor, "I think my wife is deaf, doctor. What can I do?"
00:33 And the doctor said, "Well, let's find out whether she is deaf."
00:38 So while she was cooking the dinner, he went up into the bedroom
00:44 and shouted out, "What's for dinner?"
00:50 He got no reply. He wandered out onto the landing and
00:56 said again, "What's for dinner?" No reply. He walked downstairs to the
01:02 front door, shouted out to his wife, "What's for dinner?" No reply.
01:10 He walked to the kitchen door and said, "What's for dinner?" No reply.
01:17 He walked up to her ear and said, "What's for dinner?
01:22 And she said, "For the fifth time, chick in."
01:33 If you didn't get that joke, sleep on.
01:40 Just wait for the second service. You may get it by the time the second service
01:47 because that's all about listening. Um before I get into what I want to
01:54 share, I just want to share some books that uh Harry has brought with us. We're we're with OM. Um and there's a book
02:01 called Jesus, the path to human flourishing, the gospel for the cultural
02:06 Chinese, which is available at the back written by a friend of mine called IQing.
02:11 And then a book by u George Voa who is my ex boss great guy American big
02:20 personality and he's written a book called hunger for reality uh how to escape from spiritual pretense
02:27 and double living a really helpful book. And then a really really really helpful
02:33 book is one by me um called Wisdom Road. Um, and some of what
02:40 I'm going to teach this morning is going to come out of this uh this particular book, Making Decisions in Company with
02:47 God. So Lord, help us
02:53 as we think about discernment. Uh, lead us and guide us by the power of
02:60 your spirit that we may be full of light this morning
03:05 in Jesus name. Amen. So I want to share some thoughts with
03:12 you this morning from this passage in John in Matthew chapter 7 around how to
03:18 become a discerning person. Um I love what the band have just done.
03:25 They played us Star Wars. If you've watched any of those films you
03:30 need you know that those guys needed a lot of discernment. uh Indiana Jones.
03:37 Um I don't know how long he's been around, but it feels like about a hundred years,
03:42 but in all of his movies, he's needed a lot of discernment.
03:48 And if we are going to live well, we will need to
03:53 encounter wisdom and discernment. We will have to see things uh clearly in
04:02 an unclear world. Uh we'll need to pay attention to things that we've not paid attention to.
04:10 Um many years ago, I was 22 years old
04:19 and I said to my brother, um I'm going to leave my church and I'm
04:25 going to join a group called Operation Mobilization. He's not a Christian. And he said to me,
04:32 "What do they do?" And I said, 'Well, they go around the world preaching the gospel,
04:39 um, planting churches and encouraging people and trying to transform societies.
04:45 And then then he said, "Great. How much do they pay you to do this?"
04:52 I said, "Well, it doesn't quite work like that. What happens is that people give money
04:58 to the organization or give it to me. It goes into the organization. They take
05:04 10% of it and then they give it back to me.
05:09 He said, "Uh, what sort of organization is this?
05:14 What sort of deal is this that you get money and then they take 10% and then
05:20 you work for them and get 90% back?" And he said to me, you are about to make
05:26 a foolish decision. You should be focusing on money. You
05:31 should be focusing on um building your career. Uh but my decision was to join
05:38 OM. Uh here we are many years later and what
05:44 my brother called a foolish decision was actually a great decision. certainly for
05:50 me transformed my life and has opened up so many doors throughout all the years.
05:58 However, my decision-making has not always been so good. I was pastoring for a while a few years
06:05 ago, again, many years ago, and there was a gifted member of the church who
06:11 was a widowerower. Um, he smiled a lot. He was very happy.
06:18 He'd suffered heavy loss in his family. Um he had leadership potential
06:26 and I needed somebody with leadership potential to come and work with me.
06:32 And um we appointed him as a lay
06:38 temporary pastor. And as soon as he got the job, he
06:43 changed. From my perspective, as soon as he got power, he changed into
06:51 some other person. I've heard brides say that the man that walked into the church
06:57 to meet them at the front was different to the man who walked out of the church with them because somehow
07:05 the relationship had changed and I found myself in a terrible
07:11 situation. Knew I'd made a big mistake. appointed the wrong person to the wrong place
07:17 and within three months I had to say to the church, "Sorry church, I've made a
07:23 big mistake. I've made a bad decision and we need to exit this." And it all
07:30 got very complicated. Uh I found out that he was actually building a relationship with the deacon's wife,
07:36 which I didn't know about. But I made a terrible decision.
07:41 A decision without discernment. A decision without wisdom. Not paying attention to the right things.
07:48 So our ma our lives are made up of these sorts of decisions.
07:53 Some of them go swimmingly well. Others of them we make those decisions
07:59 and we're desperately trying to get out of those decisions in one way or other.
08:05 That's why the Boys Brigade and the Girls Brigade is such a great organization because at least they teach
08:11 you what you need to pay attention to in making a great decision.
08:17 So this morning I want to lead you a bit through this text and ask the question
08:24 uh what does it mean to make a discerning decision? What's Jesus
08:29 telling us to pay attention to? So how do you become a discerning
08:35 person? What do I mean by discernment or being discerning?
08:40 What I mean is that you have the ability to separate.
08:46 You have the ability to sift. You've got the ability to distinguish,
08:53 the ability to weigh something and try and find out whether it's real or
08:58 whether it's false. that you've got the ability to notice what's going on around you so that
09:05 you'll be able to live your life to the maximum glory of God. That's what I mean
09:10 when I mean discernment. Uh it's got a huge biblical history.
09:18 King Solomon prays for himself in one Kings three. He says, "So give
09:24 your servant a discerning heart to govern your people to distinguish
09:29 between right and wrong." Paul in Philippians says, "And this is
09:36 my prayer that you may that your love may abound
09:42 more and more in knowledge and in depths of insight,
09:47 so you may be able to discern what is best." and may be pure and blameless
09:55 until the day of Christ filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes from
09:60 Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God. So this subject of discernment is
10:06 critical material scripturally. It's critical material for us if we're going to be able to live our
10:14 lives well. It is the most precious gift. If
10:19 somebody offers you 20,000 ringit today
10:24 and says, "Do you want discernment or 20,000 ringit?" Which one should you choose?
10:30 Pardon? Pardon?
10:36 Say to them, "Keep your money. Keep your money." Because without
10:41 discernment, you will lose that money very quickly.
10:48 So this is the most precious gift and if you have it working in your life albeit
10:54 not perfectly lots of pain can be avoided. A wonderful life can be encountered.
11:02 You can live well with yourself and you can live well with others.
11:08 So what's Jesus saying as he leads us through some of this?
11:14 So I want to give you four foundations of a discerning life out of this text. The first one is this. Follow Jesus.
11:22 Follow Jesus. Very simply, if you're going to develop
11:28 a life of wisdom and a life of discernment, it will be because you follow him.
11:36 It says in 7:24, "Therefore, everyone who hears these
11:41 words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built
11:46 his house upon a rock." Um, I am
11:53 6'4 and I was a great surprise to my mother.
12:00 She was 5'2. I think I was bigger than her as soon as
12:06 I got out of the womb. But that's that's another story. But one of the things that's happened to
12:12 me because I'm tall is because I've been drawn to basketball as a sport.
12:19 And I played a lot of basketball over the years. And uh one game I was playing
12:25 for my school um many years ago
12:30 and as I'm there's certain times in basketball when you play a certain type of defense.
12:36 So the other team get the ball and then you play man-to-man marking
12:42 which means that your job is to attach yourself to one man
12:48 and to make sure that man does not get the ball. That's the idea.
12:54 So, I'm doing this. The other team's got the ball. I've attached myself to a man.
13:01 I'm running around after him, but somehow he's always getting the ball.
13:07 So, I'm not doing my job well. And so, my um
13:13 coach stops me at a break and says, "Viv,
13:18 you're not doing this well." I said, "So what do I do?" He said, 'What you are doing is that you are watching this
13:25 guy's shoulders where in fact if you want to pay
13:31 attention to him and where he's going to go, you need to watch his hips.
13:39 I said, "Watch his hips." He said, "Watch his hips
13:45 because in sport you can fake with your shoulders. But you will always go in the direction
13:52 of your hips. I still don't understand it. But that's that was his
13:58 that was his point. So there I was.
14:04 Soon as the other team got the ball, I attached myself to a man and I watched his hips.
14:12 Really weird just looking at this man's groin
14:17 until we got the ball. But he was saying to me,
14:22 uh, pay attention to the right things. Don't be deceived.
14:29 Pay attention to the right things. And that's what Jesus is saying here.
14:36 He's saying, pay attention to the right things. Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into
14:42 practice is like a wise man who built his house upon a rock.
14:47 There's two things there. Hearing his word
14:55 and doing his word. Hearing.
15:00 To follow means to hear and to follow means to do.
15:09 And our great deception is we hear
15:16 we become experts at hearing. We can explain what Calvin said.
15:23 We can explain the history of the church and the
15:28 history of scripture. We can speak because we hear.
15:36 But Jesus is saying here, if you're going to follow me,
15:42 it's to do with what you do, not what you hear. And this is a great
15:49 deception that you think you can grow as a Christian because you hear and you hear
15:58 and you hear when in reality
16:03 the way you develop as a Christian is certainly by hearing
16:10 but you grow by doing. Um, some of you may be aware of Eric
16:16 Little, uh, who, uh, the story of Chariots of Fire. He was a runner and he
16:23 wouldn't run in the Olympic Games because his event was on the Sabbath day
16:28 and he had certain religious um, ideas around what Sabbath day meant.
16:36 Um, and his family said to him, "Run on this day." and he said, 'N no, I'm not going
16:43 to run. But one of the great lines that comes out of Eric Little's life when people
16:50 asked him, why are you running when you really God's called you to be a missionary? He said this,
16:56 "God has made me fast, and when I run, I feel his pleasure."
17:05 God has made me fast. And when I run, I feel his pleasure. In other words, it's
17:13 not enough just to get the gift, just to receive it. If you are a runner, you're
17:20 meant to run. You do that with your body. It gets embodied.
17:26 It can't just remain an idea. And that's what happens in our Christian
17:32 lives. We are called, as Jesus explains here, not just to hear these words, but
17:40 to put these words into practice, to move them into the reality of normal
17:47 life. I've got a friend called Alice. It's not a real name,
17:54 but I'll call her Alice for now. Um she is a
18:00 45year-old mother of four in London.
18:06 She is a great woman married to a great man. However, their marriage is a little
18:12 bit stormy. It gets loud.
18:19 And uh one night as they were going to bed, they fell out.
18:27 And he said to her, "I'm not sleeping with you tonight. I'm going to take my
18:34 um sleeping bag and sleep on the seti,"
18:39 which is what he did. He wouldn't sleep with his wife. Got his
18:45 sleeping bag, got on the seti, and got in it. and then went to sleep.
18:52 Alice said to herself, "I'm not going to put
18:57 up with this." So, she went downstairs and she slept
19:03 next to him on the couch. Now, he was angry before
19:09 and now he felt the body of his wife next to him and he was even more angry.
19:15 So he got up, went into the spare bedroom, got into the spare bed,
19:22 and within about five minutes, suddenly he felt his wife next to him again.
19:28 And he was even a bit more angry. But he knew, now I've got to deal with
19:34 this. She is not going to let me go.
19:40 And Alice was practicing a scripture when she was doing that. Can you can you
19:46 think of what scripture that she was practicing? Anybody?
19:54 What about do not let the sun go down on your wrath?
20:00 That's what she was practicing. She was saying to herself and to her
20:07 husband, "We're angry. It's not going well,
20:13 but I'm not going to let the sun go down on my rough. If it takes to 3:30 in the
20:19 morning, we're going to get this sorted."
20:24 In other words, it's to do with doing. It's to do with what you practice, not
20:30 just what you think. It's not a head game. Christianity is not a head game.
20:37 It's a life game. It's living this through your life.
20:43 So Jesus is really saying, "Hear my words.
20:49 Put them into practice." Second thing,
20:54 anticipate all conditions. It says, "The rain came down and the
20:60 streams rose. The winds blew and beat against that house, yet it did not fall
21:09 because it had found its foundations on the rock."
21:14 And here's a key thing around discernment and wisdom. Anticipate all conditions.
21:23 Anticipate in your life that you can experience almost anything.
21:30 Anything is possible. I haven't got the time to tell you my own story of of
21:35 coming to faith through foster parents and all the wonderful things and complications that that brought.
21:42 But the truth is that if you're going to develop discernment,
21:47 you will need to anticipate all conditions in your life.
21:53 Uh in this story there is house building going on.
21:58 There's a wise man building a house. There's a foolish man building a house.
22:03 And it's all in preparation for something. It's in preparation for bad weather.
22:11 It's in preparation. That's why you build your house primarily. It's not so you can listen to your stereo system.
22:18 That's secondary. The primary thing is keeping out the bad weather.
22:24 And you can anticipate in your life rain, storm,
22:31 wind, as well as sunshine and glory and light
22:37 and wonderful things. We live in a world of various
22:44 conditions. At some point the rain is going to come.
22:49 At some point the storm is going to hit. I wrote a book called Second Choice
22:55 which we don't have copies of uh here which is about Daniel.
23:01 Daniel wants to live in Jerusalem
23:06 and he ends up living in Babylon. It's second choice. He doesn't want to
23:13 be there. But that's where he ends up. And you may think, "Well, God, what I
23:20 want from you is to deliver me the very best. Give me that job. Give me that
23:26 man. Give me that woman. Give me that house."
23:32 And in one way or another, he says, "No, he gives you something else.
23:39 He gives you another set of conditions. And it can make you really, really
23:45 angry. It can make you cynical. It can make you feel, I'm going to give
23:52 this up. Who is God not to deliver to me the best life?
23:58 And the answer is he is God. He leads you through
24:05 all sorts of conditions that are going to test you and try you and develop you
24:12 and grow you. And scripture is full of people whose
24:17 lives were engaged in this sort of activity. Let me just go through a few
24:23 of them. Abraham Abraham finds himself uh called of God
24:29 led into the desert pioneer but tough life absolutely
24:37 Joseph blessed child lovely coat.
24:43 The coat was no substitute for what he was about to go through. And he went through the all of the
24:49 twists and turns of Egypt before God brought him to where he wanted him to be. Sarah in a childlessness,
24:57 blessed of God, but in the end childless until God does something really special.
25:02 Peter comes to faith and then suddenly realizes this gospel is not just for
25:08 Gentiles. It's also for Jews. And he has to face the reality that he's a he he's
25:16 a Jew. It's not just for Jews. It's also for Gentiles. And he has to realize that
25:21 now he has to go on this journey from being a Jew to open up his heart, opening up his heart to Gentiles.
25:29 Big journey with all sorts of different conditions. Paul right in the middle of
25:36 all of what he was going through, God breaks through and says about him that I
25:41 will teach him basically how to be an apostle of suffering.
25:47 So there are all these realities of our lives. And if you're going to be able to
25:54 discern your life, it will be because as Jesus warns us,
25:60 you'll be ready for the rain. You'll be ready for the bad weather. You
26:05 will construct your life house in a way that you are ready for the good
26:12 times and you're ready for the difficult times. uh one of the church fathers said this
26:18 and I love this so pay attention. He says this that freedom
26:26 freedom is where people no longer desire health
26:32 more than sickness, wealth more than poverty,
26:38 a long life more than a short life, honor
26:43 more than dishonor. But instead they desire what brings them
26:48 closer to the end for which they are created.
26:54 Instead they desire what brings them closer to the end for which they have
27:01 been created. In other words, whatever the circumstances of your life,
27:07 the idea is God, may your desires for me be lived out.
27:16 May I be everything you've called me to be. May I live out the end for which
27:22 I've been created. So follow Jesus. Anticipate all
27:29 conditions. It's a bit confused there. Uh but that says track your heart.
27:37 Keep track with your heart. If you're going to become a discerning
27:42 person, you will need to pay attention to your heart. And now I want to put focus on the guy
27:50 who's the foolish guy who built his house upon the sand. In 7
27:55 verse 26, he says, "But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish
28:02 man who built his house upon the sand." Why would you build your house on sand?
28:11 Why would you do that? What possesses your heart and your head
28:18 to build your life on sand? But maybe because it's quicker.
28:26 Maybe because you want to build it quick and sell it as fast as you can to a passing idiot.
28:36 Maybe you're not bothered about research. Maybe you just focus on image and you
28:44 want people to admire your house and everybody goes, "Oh, it's what a wonderful house."
28:50 until the weather changes and then they laugh at you because the house was built on sand and
28:56 the house collapsed. Maybe you are just insecure.
29:04 Maybe you're just dumb and you don't know what you're doing. That's entirely possible. Which is one
29:10 of the reasons why I'm speaking this morning to maybe help
29:16 resolve dumbness. Uh to be able to develop discernment,
29:25 you need to understand where your treasure is.
29:31 Where's your treasure? In the innermost part of your heart, in
29:38 your gut, where is your treasure?
29:43 What's really pulling you along? Uh Paul said this, "I do not understand
29:50 what I do. For what? For what I want to do, I do not do,
29:57 but what I hate, I do." That's the great apostle.
30:03 He's saying, "There's stuff going on in my heart and I don't quite understand it."
30:11 But if you are going to live a discerning life, you will need to become familiar with your own motivations,
30:18 familiar with your own heart, even your darker instincts,
30:25 even the bits you really don't like, even those selfish bits.
30:31 I flew here last night or yesterday. I'm not quite sure,
30:37 but I know I flew here. And flying for me is always a little bit
30:42 of a dark experience because when I'm going down the tube to get on the flight, my goal is, can I
30:50 turn left on the plane or do I have to turn right?
30:57 And the answer is right because that's where economy class is
31:05 and left is business class and first class.
31:11 So I always have a bit of darkness in my heart when I'm praying. Lord, you've given me a big long body. Why do I have
31:18 such a small little seat? How come?
31:25 and I'm living through these sorts of emotions. Um,
31:33 where's your treasure? If you know where your treasure is, if
31:38 you are sufficiently aware of yourself that you know where your treasure is,
31:44 you'll find your heart there. If you've lost your heart, find out
31:50 where your treasure is. and discover your heart.
31:58 Men over 30, maybe getting a bit cynical. You've
32:05 learned the ways of the world. Your heart's got hard. You're a tough, resilient man. And you
32:12 maybe can think well, but you're feeling life has disappeared.
32:20 Attract your heart. Otherwise, you end up building your life on sand
32:28 rather than the rock. You enter into zones of foolishness that
32:34 you think are maybe to do with the young, but really they're to do with all of us.
32:40 Quickly moving on, there's another one which isn't there.
32:48 It's got jet lag.
32:53 Uh, live inside out. Live inside out.
32:60 This man is building a house. A house is a part of a community.
33:06 A house is not just an individual thing. It's part of a community.
33:13 And he's building this house to build a community. He's really saying, "I'm building this
33:19 house, but I realize as I'm building this house, this house is not primarily about
33:25 me. This house is about the community. It's
33:30 about me living inside out, not outside
33:35 in." And if you want to develop a discerning life, it will be because
33:43 you learn how to live inside out and not outside in. I'm with Operation Mobilization. It's a big mission around
33:50 the world. This is one of our messages. Live inside out, not outside in. In
33:58 other words, don't be a consumer. Don't just think that the world's there
34:03 to be sucked up and drawn into your own life. that rather we live in a world where you
34:11 build your house on the rock. You build your house into a community.
34:16 You're not going to live your life like an ego drama.
34:22 Do you know what I mean by that? Uh the whole of life is a drama
34:28 from beginning to end. And you can live your life in an ego drama. In other
34:34 words, me, ego, it's all about me. So, my life is all about me. I'm living my
34:40 ego drama. Rather, one theologian that I like says
34:45 we need to be living a theodrama. Theo means God.
34:52 A God drama. That we're not living ego drama, but theod drama. That we're living this life
35:00 that we give before God. We live our lives inside out.
35:09 So follow Jesus, anticipate all conditions,
35:15 track your heart, live inside out if you want a discerning life. Have I got two
35:21 minutes more? I'm going to make a lot of points in two minutes,
35:30 maybe. Can you click it?
35:36 Framework for discernment. Very briefly. Number one. Thank you. Next point.
35:44 There are authentic and unauthentic prompings of the spirit.
35:49 If you're going to live this practically, be aware that you will need to practice discernment.
35:56 There are certain things that are of God and not of God. And you need to become
36:01 familiar with what's of God and what's not of God um in some way or other.
36:07 There are false things and there are authentic things. Number two,
36:13 be true to scripture. If you're going to develop a discerning life, you will need to know scripture. You'll need to get
36:19 scripture into your heart and into your head. You'll need to know the story, the big story, and live your life in the
36:25 middle of that big story and not ignore any part of scripture. You will need to become familiar with the biblical story
36:33 and grow in it and develop it. You'll need to pay attention to what is
36:39 the fruit. If somebody suggests something to you or some movement comes in your direction or
36:47 some prophecy comes to speak to you, what's the fruit of it?
36:54 What is the does it look like, feel like? Love,
37:00 where does one Corinthians 13 fit into what's coming towards me?
37:06 Inner authority. Is there a sense of Holy Spirit presence in the decision I'm
37:14 about to make in the discernment I'm about to exercise? Is it here that there is a sense of God
37:23 and his authority which doesn't mean you become very dogmatic but it means you
37:29 become humble. You get humility as the spirit moves in you and on you.
37:36 unity in the church. The thing you're trying to discern, even if it's your own life, does it bring unity to the church?
37:44 Does it bring unity in the family?
37:50 Glory of God, does the life I'm living and the thing
37:56 I'm trying to discern my life around, uh, does it bring glory to God or does
38:01 it not? Is it theodoo drama or ego drama?
38:08 And then lastly, uh is there integrity in the process of discernment? And by
38:14 that I mean that you're not afraid to look at the alternatives
38:19 that you're not afraid of somebody else speaking into your life.
38:24 That you're not running from scripture because it speaks in a way in which you don't want it to speak to you.
38:32 You're not suppressing your emotional life. You're living your feeling life in the middle of your head life as you pay
38:39 attention to what's going on around. So, my brothers and sisters, for what
38:44 it's worth, uh, some thoughts on living a discernment life, a discerning life,
38:52 it's more precious than gold. It's more precious
38:58 than fame. Discernment is richer, will make you more of a millionaire than anything else
39:06 I know. And it's Jesus who teaches us the way.
39:11 Let's pray.
39:22 Lord, prevent us from being fools.
39:28 prevent us from fantasies.
39:35 Prevent us from building our lives on sand.
39:42 May we build on you, be rooted in your story.
39:55 save us from self-indulgence,
40:01 cause us to live in this big theod drama which is
40:07 bigger than Star Wars and bigger than Indiana Jones
40:15 in Jesus name. Amen.
