6/4 Sermon on 1 John, Part 8

The sermon series Let There Be Light, focusing on the New Testament book of 1 John, continued last Sunday at The Family Church here in Gainesville with senior pastor Philip Griffin delivering the eighth installment, titled Spiritual Discernment.  The Bible text was from Chapter 4, Verses 1-6...displayed below in the New International Version via Bible Gateway...

1 Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. ² 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, ³ 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.

⁴ 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. ⁵ They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. ⁶ 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.

There are a lot of lies in this world of ours.  Some of them we hear and some we speak to ourselves.  Philip mentioned some examples of self-deception: "If I fail I'm a failure", "I must have people's love and approval", "If things get bad they won't get better", "I don't belong", and "If I feel rejected I withdraw".  And in this political world of alternative parallel "realities", each side accusing the other of "fake news", it is certain that we cannot believe all we hear...and need to be able to test it all for veracity.  This is also true within the church itself, with...as the pastor noted...the loss of absolute truth and tolerance of anything as growing problems needing redress.  So how can we effectively test a spiritual teaching or philosophy?  Pastor Philip gave three questions: does it diminish Jesus, does it reflect this world's value system, and does it add to or take from scripture.  Diminishing Jesus as being merely a teacher or prophet, at least to me, would be the most telling indication that there is an aberration from the truth being taught.  But since today's world is in some ways much different from when the scripture was written (and in some ways not at all), it might at times be necessary to prayerfully work to make its applications more relevant for the times we live in.  And any interpretation of scripture, by its very nature...including this very sermon and my article about it...will add something to it.  But I get the gist of what Philip was saying, and this leads to his final point: developing discernment...

How does one develop spiritual discernment? Pastor Philip made it simple, but sometimes simple things are difficult to undertake if one isn't used to them: pray for guidance, study scripture consistently so that diverging teachings can be recognized...and participate in the church body with others, which can provide a healthy check to one's self-taught lies.  In all of this, Philip stressed that our actions stem from our hearts...and what is in our hearts stem from our beliefs...and Jesus should be the foundation of those beliefs...

You can watch Pastor Philip's message...including many others...on the church's YouTube video website, which you can access through this link: [link].  The Family Church conducts its Sunday morning services, which include the weekly message, praise music, and opportunities for prayer and fellowship...along with complimentary coffee...at 9:30 and 11...