Are You Lacking Discernment?

Real life presents the Jack Hibbs podcast with intention and boldness to proclaim truth, equip the saints and impact our culture. Hey did you know that Jesus said be careful what you hear? Wow that ought to be like on the front door of our brains in this day and age of just the internet and the news and everything so much. Jesus said be careful what do you hear? So let's take a listen let's take a look what is he talking about how does it apply to our lives hopefully you'll get a lot out of this okay let's see what happens you can get the outlines of this podcast by going to jackhibbs.com slash podcast today if this podcast lifts you up and encourages you to live a more fulfilled life in Christ then make sure you leave us one of those five star ratings to us that's like saying amen or yes then that rating will encourage others to listen now open your hearts to what God's word has to say to you here is Jack Hibbs. We're everybody welcome to Jack Hibbs show we are glad that you are with us today we're gonna run through some things quickly lot of static out there I saw the other day in a health food store that you can you can get some pills you can you can get these natural pills right it's all the natural labels and you need to get this and maybe I should have gotten it but it says it removes confusion and static and makes makes your brain work more clearly look if it does or if it doesn't I have no idea but boy regarding spiritual issues regarding things of the spirit realm things of the Bible what people believe isn't it remarkable let's all agree on this people used to say it doesn't matter what you believe remember those crazy days those days are long gone it doesn't matter what you believe hey listen up everybody news flash your eternity matters based on what you believe and so if you I'm assuming if you can go down to your local health food type of store right and they tell you there that everything's organic so eat their carrots and eat their broccoli and they have their pills section that this will bring you mental clarity this will really help you think straight and think clear so you need to buy this and take three of them a day imagine imagine if that was the need as well for spiritual things guess what it is the need I'm gonna argue with you today that it is more important for you to have spiritual discernment and knowing what to do with what you hear and should you even be hearing it or reading it then taking the beautiful wonderful healthy pill that is going to make your brain fantastic because your soul your spirit of who you are yes is true your soul your spirit lives forever I know is a debate going on right now about is heaven forever first of all it's beautiful for me to be an old guy now because after time you live long enough to to hear all the arguments and they just now mold enough to where it's like I remember that the 80s I remember that in the 70s I remember when that was going on so here's a deal there are people that I was looking for a prop of some sorts where they're they're now pontificating what it all means and it's like okay what do you mean by that what does it all mean I've read my Bible and it mentions heaven but what does it really mean have you seen these knuckleheads it's happening everywhere right now all of a sudden there's this big push and pressure for you to suddenly after millennia to you have found the answer to the real meaning of what he turned it is wow none of the none of the previous scholars that have come thousands of years before you could ever figure it out but you did you got it and and your view your conclusion is it's completely different than historical biblical understanding and interpretation even to the point where it takes the simple words of Jesus who says for example that you will abide with him in heaven forever oh but what what is heaven well it's where he's at but really what is it listen what is forever is forever really forever let's start here everybody be very very simply smart it's not hard the opening chapters of the Bible you don't have to go very far until you hear someone begin to think what did God really mean by that don't you know that God doesn't want you to know secret truth there's secret revelation that you don't know about and God knows that battle God that made you he knows that the day that you eat of this knowledge you'll be just like him and he doesn't want that to happen do you understand that lie is picking up more it's always been popular but it's picking up more traction right now more than ever and it's but yet it's more dangerous now more than ever because it's found a home in the so-called Christian community Jesus said you must be born again well what is that really mean the Bible says that the wicked shall inherit eternity hell but but yeah that's what the Bible says but what does it really mean okay Peter encountered this in his day and in first and second Peter both read both of his epistles he's gonna warn you that there there will be those who will seek to bring to you a private or personal interpretation Peter says the scriptures have not been given to give anyone the ability for a private interpretation did you know that you know when people say something like well that's that's your interpretation this is important it's a very good thing it's actually a really good thing when people say that when they say well you know Jack that's your interpretation for example I could say for God so love the world that he gave gifted his only begotten son that whosoever would believe on him would not perish but have everlasting life so you need to trust Christ you need to make sure that that's how you avoid parishing is to trust Christ and to revel in the joy that God loves you well Jack that's your interpretation that's not my interpretation it's not an interpretation it's a regurgitation I am regurgitating what Jesus had you think listen do you think God left his truth for those smarty code breakers to figure it out and those are the guys that have got the market on truth are you kidding Jesus if anything told us you got to become like a child if you're going to enter the kingdom of heaven while everybody's trying to stoke up intellectual isums to really believe to really understand what God's word says those people are buffoons and doing the exact opposite of what Jesus said needs to happen and so I would say this get ready folks strap on your seat belt put on your helmet moving forward in life because I don't care who says there are Christian I don't care how many books they've written or whatever status they have and have brought it over into the into the theological realm and so we're supposed to listen to this person or to that person because because what you know Paul warned about that to the Corinthians he said you guys have created personality cults some say you're of seifas some of you guys say that you're of a Paulus some of you say that you're of Paul and some of you I'm I'm embellishing this next one because I think they were the worst ones Paul said and some of you are of Christ I think those guys were the worst ones because they were the they were the ones where all these other guys were saying well I'm on team Paul and I'm on team of Paulus and then there's the super duper's they come along and say well we're of team to be of team Christ is the antithesis of what Jesus Christ is all about okay so there's there's there's not to be these personality cults that you should listen to this person or that person because they are this name or that name no we are to judge everything against the Bible everything against the Bible hey I'm going to shameless shamelessly I think that's the right word plug my own book because I wrote it because I believe in it and that is living in the days of deception if you don't have if you don't have a copy get a copy it covers this stuff living in the days DAZ living in the days right living in the days of deception so much out there and it might I might help you so heaven is on the chopping block now for interpretation hell hell can't be real that's too harsh we'll talk about that more toward the end spiritual reality is there spirituality is there physical reality so of course there's physical reality well which one's going to last longer physics reality or spirit spiritual reality which one's going to last longer think of that which one was it exists which one was it in existence before the other think of that and what about this area where we need to really be growing in discernment discernment is so lacking today in the Christian community it's pathetic there is the gift of discernment mentioned in scripture that is a supernatural gift given by the Holy Spirit to the believer and that believer operates that gift of discernment within the body of Christ it's a gift listed among the gifts pastor teacher evangelist so on discernment but all Christians are to exercise discernment can we develop it can we build up and strengthen our discernment the answer to that is absolutely yes and in a very quick answer Romans 10 17 says faith comes by hearing hearing by the word of God you want to build discernment stop allowing so much stuff to be poured into your life through your eyes and through your ears and start taking in Bible in your through your eyes and through your ears and watch what happens and I want you to consider asking yourself this question or these questions do you actually know truth are you sure do you actually know truth now I know that our natural response is of course I know truth just slow down for a moment you'd be very wise person to say do I actually know truth and then the next question should be do I do I factually do the truth do I actually know the truth so I'll unpack that do you know the truth yes because I read so and so's book and this is what I've come to the conclusion it's not what I'm asking you you can read the encyclopedia and you can skip you can skip truth you can miss it in fact you could actually wrongly read the Bible you could read the entire Bible 10 times over and read it wrong and have no more discernment and have no more grip on truth why I'll tell you why listen and Mark chapter 4 verse 24 listen what Jesus said Mark chapter 4 verse 24 then Jesus said to them take heed what you hear oh my gosh wait a minute if we apply Mark 4 24 to news conversations articles broadcast podcast newscast you know what has happened our culture has become or we've allowed ourselves to become like a dump like people go to a dump and they dump stuff in it that they don't want they they back to truck up and they just poured into a dump it's a big hole and they've covered up in dirt we when we start having all of these things being blabbed into our lives if you don't have discernment listen friends listen if you don't have discernment you are a sucker for deception you will be deceived if you don't have excellent discernment so Jesus is take heed what you hear so I want to ask you and you can ask me so what are you hearing Jesus said take heed watch out the word take heed is scrutinize what you hear wow take heed watch out what you hear right now people I'm talking just about Christians Christians think that they have to hear everything about everything so that they can be what I'll tell you what Christians who believe that they've got to listen to everybody and hear everything mark my words you will watch them decline into a path of confusion they will become less and less confident in what they believe in and they will become more and more confused and have uncertainties about things like heaven hell salvation the cross sin gender you name it there is some sort of psychological spiritual emotional fact that what you and I allow ourselves to hear Jesus says take heed what you hear by by hearing certain things I think we can conclude from the Bible that it will affect us Jesus says take heed what you hear in other words beware so so how are you being aware of what you're hearing are you being discerning oh I've been fishing for a word that I should know but I'm having like a senior moment discretion that's the word I've been looking for you should be very very discrete and discretionary about what you hear that's not my opinion Jesus says take heed what you hear what you hear here he goes on to say with the same measure you use it will be measured to you and to you who hear more will be given he didn't say to you who hear the most or hear more he's telling you take heed to what you hear and if you do that you're going to hear more that is by virtue of discernment you're going to be able to take in more truth if you're very very very discerning about taking in truth Jesus says I'm going to give you the ability to even take in more truth now that's pretty cool because that's pretty true in nature and in supernatural realms for example if you're a Ben Franklin said a penny saved as a penny earned okay is that smart or not smart it's smart if you find a penny on the ground do you take it and put in your pocket what do you do that after you have it do you actually believe that you should save a penny I think you should save pennies you say Jack is just a penny I know but it's a good practice it's a good practice because listen if you practice that it kind of becomes a habit and it's pretty cool because for example I was just raising such a way that and I wasn't even raising a Christian home but I was raising in a way that you see a penny you pick it up man somebody else is going to pick it up why don't you pick it up and then later on when I became a Christian I think it was Chuck Missler some of you might remember the guy Chuck Missler said if you ever see a penny you should pick it up for this one thing alone it may not be worth much anymore but it does say and God we trust on it that makes it valuable I like that so a penny saved as a penny earned well if you keep living like that then you're going to have eventually thousands of dollars in pennies not bad so what about truth when you save truth biblical truth it's going to compound it's going to grow because you develop an eye and an ear and a heart and an eyes for truth listen to this Matthew 27 verse I'm sorry Matthew 7 verse 24 therefore whoever hears these saints of mine and does them I will liken unto him as a man who's built his house on a rock and the rains descended and the floods came and the winds blew and beat on that house and it did not fall for it was founded on the rock but listen whoever hears these saints of mine and does not do them will be like an unto a fool or a foolish man who built his house on sand and the rains descended and the floods came and the winds blew and beat on that house and it fell and great was its fall why because they were not careful to take heed as to what they were hearing because what you hear folks is what you build on and so let me just grab the grab the throat here and shake it there's a lot of people in this day and age who think just because they own a microphone and they've got a phone camera that they should be broadcasting something they think it's like some some smart thing to do listen when it comes to spiritual matters boy and I got somebody I got somebody in mind before there was ever a social media world I saw this guy who to this day in my opinion is is nothing but a walking disaster but I'm not going to say the name because everybody loves this person because of a personality cult but I got to tell you man going back 20 years ago this guy God told me God told me yes praying I was praying and God told me to just walk out of the house and go to LAX and get an airplane and flight a by-off run and and he'll tell me the next thing to do and this guy's a pastor of a church man and he's in a lot of people and then the next thing yeah you know it and then God told me that I'm supposed to move to this country and then turns out that they that he never moved to that country and then he's speaking at a conference and the topic that he's teaching on is how to hear God's voice I almost died laughing this dude talking about God's voice and how to follow God and this stuff that he went and dead and said God told me to go do it and then things that I don't know why I came hmm I'm sure I'll find out God told me to come here and then I'll go home or God told me to move to this new location and the guy never moved okay someone's not telling the truth here it was either God or the individual somebody made a mistake I got news for you it's not God and then to have a conference and say here's how you listen to the voice of God that's a disaster there are people out there that are instructing people and they're experimenting with their own lives they don't even got a knock lock down yet in their own life they've never read the verse yet that says take heed what you heard they haven't come across that part yet but they've got cameras they got a microphone and they're talking about what God's telling them and I think you know hmm I've never thought about it that way before and they're living out their Christian maybe it's Christian experiment on camera like it's a reality show like like naked and afraid I don't watch that by the way I've just seen commercials it looks dumb enough to me to not watch okay come on why would you want to walk around naked in Africa or wherever they're at excuse me stupid that kind of stuff who needs a reality show but those Christians who have their shows in their podcast or they're streaming or whatever they're doing and they are actually they don't think we pick up on it but we do they're actually living out their spiritual journey and experimenting on camera live they don't realize because they have no discernment that they are confusing thousands of people because they don't got it they don't got it right yet in their head and so they're not sure about heaven so what do you mean they're not they don't they're not sure about heaven they actually aren't sure if heaven is forever or not they're confused about that because the Bible says that heavens forever but now they have doubts about it being forever because the same word says that hell is forever well that can't be true because that would be mean so I don't like the way that makes me feel so I have to think a new thought hmm yeah this is what I'm gonna go with I'm gonna take the same Greek word or Hebrew word that describes heaven or hell or heaven and hell being forever and I'm gonna apply the forever part because it makes me feel good to the heaven stuff and I'm gonna apply the annihilation part to the spooky stuff because I don't want that to be true and do you know what if you're in a theological course you would have been rebuked because what's happening is that you are taking the justice and righteousness of God and you're diminishing the power and sacrifice and value of the atonement of Jesus Christ and the price offered on the cross when you say there is no real forever hell that there's annihilation that you vanish there's no consciousness after you die without Christ I want you to know that you are taking an absolute heretical stab at the value of Christ offering here's the reason why hell is so bad and so forever that it warranted God coming from heaven to earth born into this world live in a perfect human life and dying on the cross to meet the demands of the law in his perfection and dying for our sins in his atonement for us because we are absolute sinners doomed to hell without him and then on the third day being resurrected from the dead for justification it's all doctrine so important but if you say there's annihilation at the end of life if you don't accept Christ it's too bad that somebody didn't tell Jesus that before he left heaven to come here that's that's a shame it's too bad Jesus didn't know that because here's my point if there's only a heaven for those who believe and there's annihilation for those who don't then dude you don't need to come to Christ just go out and eat drink and be merry have a blast sleep with as many people as you want drop or do the the drugs do whatever you want eat drink and be merry for tomorrow you die don't worry about it there's no consciousness after death you're good good to go there's only consciousness for those who recent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ trust in his atonement they go to heaven non-believers go into annihilation and they've it says though they never know consciousness no recollection zero blank dark nothing no existence over wow really doesn't that make you feel good the only problem is it completely attack scripture the fundamentals of scripture and the work that Christ did at the cross for you and I for the world to have the opportunity to repent and be saved completely takes the power of the gospel away of which in Romans chapter 1 verse 16 posted that he was not ashamed of of the gospel of salvation the cross of Christ because it's the power of God into salvation but listen if there's annihilation who cares about salvation I wouldn't I would just I just go men live it up right now why not come on why not this is insane thinking you can't apply the Bible to one side that makes you smile and change it redefine things even though it's the same word and to try to explain it away well you know this author this scholar said this this person who cares who cares what does this Bible say and so this listen I'll land it this way for now this is how you develop discernment how do you know if I'll just please forgive me in advance I'm just going to make up a name who's famous in the world right now like who's really famous in the world just name who's Taylor Swift so let's say Taylor Swift says hey I became a Christian I'm born again believer and I read my Bible and it seems to me that this real this this this this thing I've been thinking really makes sense to me and here here it is and Taylor Swift that the gospel according to Taylor Swift I'm making this up Taylor I'm just using your name because I asked the staff the team here who's famous they said your name so if Taylor Swift says I'm now a Christian and I believe I believe that you should have to you you should have to buy my latest album to be saved people without discernment will go yeah where do I buy it I mean do I get on the apple amazon is a Spotify word I buy it now it's a ridiculous example but when somebody says hey I used to be or I am the I am the the dean of of what's so ever university college of you know Christian theology and this is now the way that we understand what Jesus really meant about male and female and you redefine that okay you're bad enough but you're in a place of authority and let's be honest everybody if you have a microphone and a camera all of a sudden you are in some way an influencer even if it's one person that you influence and if you're not influencing them toward truth then you are influencing toward error and the Bible old and New Testament read Deuteronomy and read the book of Revelation about those who lead people into error oh that's right it's okay because I was going to say they're thrown into hell but it doesn't exist that's convenient almost got stuck there no actually hell is for real and it's really hot and when I say for real it's not like it's long like people and excuse me people are not in hell going it's taking so long do you know what eternity means timelessness which if you're into physics it's kind of cool because time is a physical property of a physical universe that means that time only is occupied or constrained within a physical realm it's so fun to think outside of the physical realm there's no time there's no time in the spirit realm if the spirit realm wants to communicate to us and the Bible does this it will communicate that there was silence in heaven for the space of a half hour but heaven's eternal so in the book of Revelation what was what was John being told John a human was being told that there was silence to his understanding as a human because he's bound by physics half hour in eternity there is no time so somebody is not in hell for a long time somebody is not in heaven for a long time people are in hell that's where they're at people are in heaven that's where they're at the moment we start talking about long time short time part time we're looking at it wrong the realities Jesus said both of those places are forever Jesus says the righteous shall inherit eternity the Bible says Jesus tells us that the wicked will inherit hell for eternity so stop listening to people who are trying to learn stuff for themselves and they don't have it down yet but they have a camera and they have a microphone you're going to be led astray folks one more time march chapter 4 verse 24 Jesus said take heed what you hear you didn't say take heed how you hear he said take heed what and the what is everything that's out there so be very very careful all right Bible build your discernment up in the Bible you'll do great stick to the Bible always the Bible