Discernment That Drives You to Jesus

``If we follow this false promise of worldly freedom, we will be enslaved to it. You see, worldly freedom is not the absence of a master, it's choosing the wrong one. Worldly freedom is not the absence of a master, it is choosing the incorrect master. If we live this life of self indulgence, we run the risk of being slammed right into pride, where we think that through our debauchery that we are too far gone for God to reach, as if God has a limit. We might find this worldly promise comforting or normal, mean, after all, everybody's doing it. This is a lie. [00:26:06] (63 seconds)  #TrueFreedomInChrist

We also are led astray through worldly promises. The world teaches us that God's decrees and his word are a limitation to our freedom in our lives and how we wanna live it. Like God's word is full of rules and that somehow stops us by pulling putting some stranglehold on our lives. So the world promises this freedom to do whatever you want. Go ahead. If it feels right, do it. And it's rooted in self indulgence. It comes from pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath, and sloth, and they end up being the very thing that enslaves us. [00:25:08] (57 seconds)  #BewareFalseFreedom

One reality that this passage teaches us is that the Christian life is a discerning walk with Christ, not some stagnant standstill with him. Obedience flowing out of love, not obligation. So, the first question that we must answer is what is biblical discernment? Biblical discernment is the spirit empowered skill of understanding and applying God's word to distinguish truth from error, right from wrong, and best from good. It enables believers to see situations through God's eyes beyond outward appearances to make wise and Godly decisions to avoid spiritual deception. [00:06:41] (52 seconds)  #BiblicalDiscernment

Eisegesis is in opposition to this, and this means to lead into. In other words, you're reading the text and you say, what does this mean to me? It is never, what does this mean to me? Never. I've said that to people and people have said that to me, you know, through counseling or whatever, or bible study, or discipleship. You know, what does that mean to you? And that's the wrong way to ask it. If you want to ask somebody something about a scripture, that's okay, but it's always, what does this text mean, and if you wanna get personal with it, how can you apply that to your life? [00:15:37] (40 seconds)  #LetScriptureSpeak

Now hear me when I say this, rather than performing, rest in Jesus' performance. Do the things today and every day out of love because we do the hard things for family, not obligation. I mean, what a glorious reality it is that Christ has given us his word through his apostles to form our discernment, anchoring us in truth and securing our stability and faith. [00:37:15] (42 seconds)  #ObedienceFromLove

Like, okay God, I'll let you do this much in my life, but I'm gonna perform and I'm going to try harder. Maybe there's some sin that you can't overcome, and so you you try harder, and you're performing instead of resting in the power that is in you to overcome that. To understand that God's holiness is far greater than your sin. It's flesh driven, or you might say, I wanna repay God through good works, so I'm gonna earn that through performance. So we bring God's holiness down. [00:28:25] (41 seconds)  #GraceOverPerformance

Inversely, on the bottom side of this vector is the deeper knowledge of our sinfulness, so we pretend, we hide, we blame others, we justify our sin, and therefore what happens is the cross of Christ remains the same size our entire lives, And, we forget how much he actually covered. And, this is the wrong way to grow, beloved. There's good news. There is. There's such good news. Christ has given us his word through his apostles to form our discernment, anchoring us in truth and securing stability in our faith. [00:29:06] (53 seconds)  #CrossCoversAll

Like, you might be sitting there today thinking that you're isolated and that the sin that you have is you're the only one that's ever experienced that. Well, you'd be wrong. That's what community is for. We're also healed through the community with other believers. God's really not that interested in you saying that I can do this on my own. He's not interested in you saying that. In fact, he would rather you say, Lord, I cannot do this without you. And even if I were able to do it through performance, I don't want to. That's what God wants from us as believers. [00:32:30] (41 seconds)  #NotAloneInFaith