Hi, everybody, welcome back to another edition of Ignite. I want to talk to you for just a few moments here about discernment. Discernment is a gift. I’ll let you find all the scriptures on it. But it’s, it’s, it’s having a spiritual understanding this is not dictionary wise, but just my own thoughts having have a spiritual understanding where somebody is and you want to, it’s not about judging people judge not lest you be judged. But that’s not saying you shouldn’t know where people are, in fact, have to say he tells us to be fruit inspectors, you should know them by their fruit, so but you can’t really help somebody unless you know where they’re at. And today it’s a it’s a different world in it. I mean, there are a lot of a lot of pastors, mulata denominations, universities, they’re saying can be family members, that you thought they were with us. But the pressures of our time we’re starting to divide the wheat from the chaff, aren’t they? And I don’t know that we’ll ever get to the point I think the rapture is going to happen first. But, you know, we might someday get to where they are in other parts of the world where people who are acting like they’re Christians are turning other Christians in for bonuses and social credits and whatever, and they’re a Christian. And so it may come to a time when we’re gonna really need to know who our friends are. That’s to the extreme. I don’t want to dwell on that. But that would be the down the road. We do need, who to know who it is. And then there’s a we could have a lot of heroes in our lives. And I suppose you’re like me that I have had some people that I was hugely impressed with by their demeanor by their guardedness by their quoting scripture, by their ability to have decorum and all this and and then all sudden, I pick up on something that if you do have no scripture, you wouldn’t know it. But the moment they cross over and it’s something that that’s against scripture, you start that gives you discernment. That’s not That’s not scriptural. And once you see so that you start listening, and also you start saying there’s something wrong and I have found that is you pray for discernment. It comes more quickly. And you know, there’s you could sense there’s a, there’s something going on, there’s something spiritual going on, it’s in your spirit, you feel it. And, and it’s not to condemn that person at all. We don’t condemn anybody. We’re all condemned. Because Jesus Christ died on the cross are we saved? I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about being concerned for others and understanding where they’re at. And, and beyond that, to the point of not following people who are, you might call them antichrist, false false doctrines that are getting a whole lot of people into a whole lot of trouble today. There’s never been a time when you need to be in the word more than today. If you’re not in the word, then you don’t know when they’re saying something that’s not scriptural. So if I guess, am I gonna do anything with this way, the short message of this podcast is get into the Word, start reading the Word, start understanding the word, come up with questions, if you don’t want to be a methodical reader, then come up with questions in your mind. And quite frankly, sharing your faith is a wonderful way to do that. Because you will be asked questions, somebody will say, I don’t want to share my faith, because then I’ll get asked a question and I won’t know how to answer is gonna be horrible. I’m gonna embarrass God. No. When they asked you questions that you don’t have answers for, that’s where the fun starts. Okay, I’ve been sharing my faith for 50 years. So I’m not at that point anymore. Well, of course, wish I was because I remember back in the early days, I’m just telling you, you know, that’s a great question. And I don’t know the answer to oh my god does Would you allow me to pray for me? Pray for you for the next several days, we would get together on Thursday and, and I know God, give me the answer for you. They always say yes. And then guess what you’re doing between now and next Thursday, and nobody’s going to have to tell you to do the fraying and nobody’s gonna tell you need to be in the word man every chance you get it breaks through the day you’re searching like treasure trying to find and then you find it there it is the answer to that that question and you get so excited and you’re praising God and then you sit down with the verges share with them and it impacts them and it changed their lives before your very eyes. You see the tears and the emotions and the broken G rated God just use you. And it all started with a question you didn’t know how to answer. So I mean, the all these fears about share your faith there, that’s just Satan putting fear into you. As debilitating, and it’s stopping you and sterilizing you it’s it’s preventing you from reproducing yourself. The most important thing Satan wants to do is stop you from Reaper Do it yourself so it all goes back to discernment to begin with and understanding where people are. The first part would be are they a Christian? I saw after that for you that’s a friend of yours you’ve known for a while are they a Christian? I’m not really sure, they’re your How long have you known them? You know when when you say I don’t know if somebody’s a Christian what you’re really saying is I don’t care might get into one of the members of our team hit this about three years ago at a meeting Why are the people not sharing their faith? We came up with all these scriptural reasons are all over Mike Sr. and he said, I thought about a lot you know, the basic line is they don’t care. They don’t care. Do you care? Let me tell you how you can find who a Christian is real quick. You do it. You know, you qualified about 30 seconds. The moment you meet somebody, all you have to do is mention something about your church. And you don’t have to do it directly I use. You know, I you know, this Mexican restaurant out of cholo. That’s my favorite Mexican wrestler. I go there every Sunday after church. Now, that didn’t offend them at all. But what did I tell them? I tell them I go to church every Sunday. They know I’m a Christian. I might say, you know, I met Bob, Bob’s one of my great friends. We know each other from church. I mean, there’s a million ways to say you can just I mean, you could think there’s all kinds of ways. I mean, there’s no one way to do this. But the fact being at winter, once you mentioned you go to church, if they are a Christian 1,000% of the time without exception. They’re gonna say, Oh, you’re Christian, where are you going to church? Because it’s celery you find a Christian anymore? When I was a kid, it wasn’t a matter of do you go to church no matter what shirt you wear, what church do you go to? But today you can’t find any way to go to church so when somebody says oh, I go to church you the immediate they’ll say to you Oh, you’re a Christian Wow, where do you go to church? If they don’t ask you that which is most of the time then you know, they’re not a Christian that helped you with you to serve so you now have I’ve qualified them you’re not judging them you realize that they’re apart from God and that’s why you can start your ministry and then I caught shoving and every time I would these people I know that I want to move in closer move everybody every day closer to Jesus. So I just start shoving every time I wear them I mentioned something about God I don’t get preachy. I don’t I don’t ever make it like I condemning them or that I know that they’re not a Christian. I just, I just throw it out there alopecia do God was so good to me. He did this the other day. And it was God, it was just guys, I mean, he’s so good. And then you go on, and you don’t say anything more. If you do, you’re gonna start getting preachy, they’re gonna start running from you. I did that back. Then whatever you can do with it. I realize, okay, I got a Overbury. Here’s, bag it out and just let her know, some people have this. They were there in the face of everybody. Hey, do you know Jesus. I’m not condemning them. Everybody has their own style. But most of us are not going to do that. It’s so easy love on people. It’s just so easy to love on people, and have discernment of where they are and how they’re progressing. And when, when the Lord gives you discernment, that they’re ready to take that next step, you get a little more bold. It’s just amazing. Discernment plays such an incredible role in our lives right now. Everybody around us? Well, first off, I understand about 90% of our population is lost, okay. And it takes about 20. They say somewhere, some say last, maybe 10. We can easily take 20 different interventions or whatever you want to contact with a spiritual person, I’m touching that person before the person finally comes to the point of accepting the Lord. And you never know where you are in that chain. You may be the very first person or you may be the last. I mean, it’s really exciting. It doesn’t happen very often. But on occasion, I get to lead people across that last line. And I’m so proud and so excited. I beg you God, but I know that there was probably 20 people before me. That had been part of that process. It’s a team. It’s a team sport. It really is. My point being though, that it takes a sermon figure out where they are on that continuum, are they just right? Close? Are they just starting off and having to serve it so that you use your thoughts? And quite frankly, a script does not allow you to do that you’re gonna say that same script over and over and over has nothing to do with where that person is. So, folks, I just want to encourage you pray for discernment. So that God can tell you where every person your life is whether they’d be the stranger in line at Starbucks, or they’ll be a longtime friend or somebody you work with. It’s, I hate to say it most Christians walk through life every day. And they have no thought of that. And we have responsibility for everybody around us. In the beginning, that responsibility comes to serve it pray for discernment. And particularly when something’s going on in somebody’s life, that’s tragic. And people smile, I find it so often. They’re smiling, they’re laughing and all sudden I asked him a simple question, and they break into tears. It’s a veneer over looking like we’re happy but underneath people are hurting. You ask you Is there anything I pray for you about? More than half of the time they say yes I’m a well balanced guy. I have all kinds of faces. I have a business. I have. I have friends. I love doing all kinds of things. I’m not just a flat side guy just preaching all the time. That’s not you might normally that’s not the at all. You’re not gonna hear that from me. But if I sent it, you’re hungry. I’m gonna go accordingly. It’s a sermon, folks. This is a precious gift to Sir, I pray. I pray I pray that every one of you will start right today, praying for discernment as you move everybody every day. Jesus, Okay, see you next time.
