Introduction:
Three Signs You Aren't Mature (Hebrews 5:11-14):
- You can't Teach . (Heb 5:12-13)
- You have no Discernment . (Heb 5:14)
- You aren't Applying God's Word. (Heb 5:14)
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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01:01-01:12
Hebrews chapter five, we're gonna be picking up in verse 11, but we're going to pause and I'm going to ask if you would please pray for me to be faithful to communicate God's word.
01:14-01:21
And I will pray for you to open up your heart to receive it for what it is, the word of God.
01:22-01:23
This is serious business to God.
01:25-01:26
Should be serious business to us.
01:27-01:28
Let's pray.
01:31-01:32
Father, this is your Word.
01:35-01:42
There's not a person here or a person watching the stream that cares what I have to say.
01:44-01:45
We're here because of what you have to say.
01:47-01:53
And we want to be faithful, Father, to handle your Word, to preach your Word, and to receive your Word.
01:57-02:00
in a life-changing way that you work with your word.
02:02-02:25
Father, we open our hearts before you and ask, Father, that you would speak truth into our lives, even if it hurts, even if it's stretching us to maybe think differently about you and your word than we've grown up with or been accustomed to.
02:26-02:31
Father, what your word actually says, what you actually meant, Father, that's what we're going after here.
02:35-02:37
So Father, speak to us.
02:38-02:40
Through your word, we pray in Jesus' name.
02:41-02:44
And all of God's people said, amen.
02:44-02:53
Many, many years ago, Aaron and I had foster kids, and we had a five-year-old foster son who came to us.
02:53-03:01
He was severely abused, but he also had some very severe developmental delays.
03:02-03:06
And he could barely speak to us, speak at all or speak with us when he came.
03:09-03:11
We had him for a year and a half.
03:13-03:21
But when they first came to us, him and his sister, I remember the one time we were sitting in church, we were at North Street and they were passing communion.
03:22-03:27
And I had to wonder what that looked like to him.
03:29-03:50
This tray of little pieces of bread come by and then this other tray with these little cups of juice come by and I said, "No, no, that's not for you." I said, "I'll explain later what that means, "but that's not for you." So later I sat down with him and like I said, five years old, severe developmental delays.
03:51-03:54
How do you explain the Lord's Supper to somebody like that?
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I took a swing at it.
03:56-04:14
I sat down with him and I said, well, you see, Jesus died on the cross and the bread and the juice sort of represent his sacrifice.
04:17-04:19
And we do that.
04:19-04:25
And when we take that as a church, I'm like, how do you explain this?
04:26-04:32
I said, this is for people that love Jesus, okay?
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And we do this to remember what he did for us.
04:36-04:38
I'm like, that's kind of the best I can do here.
04:40-04:42
But I thought that maybe he got it.
04:43-04:47
Until the next Sunday at church, communion was being passed.
04:47-05:17
And as it came in front of him, he leaned up to me and he said, "Hey, I love Jesus, can I have a snack?" I'm like, I'm not sure how to explain this because you don't have the capacity to really understand what that means.
05:19-05:21
I could explain it, but you wouldn't get it.
05:22-05:28
Right? We're going through Hebrews, and last week he introduced a concept about Jesus.
05:29-05:32
Jesus is the High Priest.
05:33-05:44
He is a man, and he is appointed by God, and he offered a sacrifice, and He understands people.
05:48-05:56
And he says, "And Jesus is actually a high priest after the order of Melchizedek." And here he stops.
05:56-06:03
He pauses because he says, "I'm about to lose some of you.
06:06-06:10
I could explain it, but you wouldn't get it." That's what he's saying here.
06:10-06:17
Verse 11, "About this, this what?
06:18-06:25
Jesus, priesthood, Melchizedek, all that that means." He goes, "About this, we have much to say.
06:26-06:35
And it is hard to explain since you have become dull of hearing." Dull of hearing.
06:35-06:46
Hebrews is one of the most profound books in the Bible, Because you see, to really understand Hebrews, you have to have a pretty good understanding of the Old Testament.
06:47-07:02
Because Hebrews shows us Jesus' connection to the law, and Jesus' connection to the sacrifices, and Jesus' connection to creation, and Jesus' connection to the subject on the table, the priesthood.
07:08-07:10
But you see, we have a problem.
07:12-07:14
I could explain it, but you wouldn't get it.
07:17-07:30
Look, in this church, just like every other church on the planet, there are people that are saved.
07:30-07:34
There are people that are born again, relationship with Jesus Christ.
07:34-07:37
And there are people that are not saved.
07:37-07:39
They are church goers.
07:43-07:52
They like church and they like the people and they like getting involved in some level, but they've never truly received Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.
07:55-08:02
You know, you've heard the gospel and maybe you even understand the gospel, but you didn't respond to the gospel.
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You're a churchgoer, not a born again believer in Christ.
08:08-08:15
You see, there was such people in the church that the Hebrew writer was writing to.
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And as we echo the message, there's people like that in this church.
08:23-08:30
And you see, you can't understand spiritual truth without the Holy Spirit, according to 1 Corinthians 2:14.
08:33-08:44
And we're going to see the context in this passage, and then as we get into the context of the next passage as well, these messages are directed towards professing Christians.
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For years, you're in the church, but you're not in the kingdom, and you're deceived.
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You don't see a problem.
08:56-08:57
Like, what is he blathering about?
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I'm here, aren't I?
08:59-09:00
I get involved, don't I?
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This is who he's addressing, church goers.
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And this is who we're addressing, the church goers here.
09:13-09:13
Now, please hear me.
09:15-09:17
I'm not condemning you, all right?
09:18-09:19
I'm not trying to shame you.
09:22-09:28
But as we preach the word of God as presented, this passage is a wake up call.
09:28-09:29
Did you see that?
09:29-09:43
He goes, "I got a lot of stuff I'd like to tell you, but some of you can't hear it." So this is a wake-up call, because with immaturity comes obliviousness.
09:44-09:44
Do you know that?
09:47-09:55
Immature people not only don't think that they're immature, but immature people think that they are mature.
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And I'll be honest with you, These are the hardest messages to preach.
10:00-10:08
These just are, 'cause if I walked around the room and said, "Are you mature?" I guarantee you 100% of the people in here would say, "Yeah, I'm mature, I'm mature.
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"I'm a mature believer.
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"I'm mature, yeah, yeah.
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"Are you saved?
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"Yeah, I'm saved, I'm, yeah." That's hard to preach.
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So today as we go through this passage, I just simply want you to ask yourself, "Could I be deceived into thinking that I'm a believer when I'm actually just a churchgoer.
10:38-10:40
And you're like, well, how can you tell?
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How can you tell if you're just a churchgoer or if you're a born again believer?
10:46-10:47
How can you tell?
10:47-10:48
How can you tell?
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Well, the Bible gives us some clear marks to identify.
10:57-10:58
if you are not mature.
11:00-11:04
So I just wanna ask you, can you be honest enough with yourself to take a real assessment?
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Can you?
11:10-11:12
The Bible says your heart's deceitful above all things.
11:15-11:17
Can you take an honest assessment of yourself?
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As we go through this, on your outline, I want you to jot a few things down here.
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These are three signs you aren't mature, okay?
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If you're like, "I'm a mature believer." Maybe you're not.
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Like, how would I know?
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Well, here's three signs you are not mature.
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Number one, write this down, you can't teach.
11:39-11:40
You can't teach.
11:40-11:43
Look at verse 12 and 13.
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Okay, remember he says, "I got a lot to tell you "about Jesus, priesthood, Melchizedek." He goes, "You're not gonna get it." because you're dull of hearing.
11:57-11:57
Look at verse 12.
11:58-12:08
"For though by this time you ought to be teachers, "you need someone to teach you again "the basic principles of the oracles of God.
12:10-12:28
"You need milk, not solid food, "for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled "in the word of righteousness since he is a child." So the first sign that you aren't mature is the inability to teach.
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Now understand, he's not talking about, he's not addressing like a first timer here.
12:34-12:39
Somebody just came to church for the first time and he's not addressing a CEO Christian.
12:39-12:41
Do you know what a CEO Christian is?
12:42-12:43
Christmas and Easter only.
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He's not addressing those people.
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He's addressing people that have been going to church every week, every week, every week.
12:53-12:59
And they sit in the seat and they listen to the message, but they've never truly received Christ.
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That's what he's saying.
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He goes, you've been exposed to so much truth.
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At this time, you should be teaching.
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He said, instead of teaching, you know what you need?
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You need the ABCs.
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You need somebody to take you back to square one.
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He says, it's like showing up to algebra class and you can't count to five.
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And I just wanna ask you, church, individuals, and this is one of them self-test kind of things, but could you teach someone?
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Could you?
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Could you do it?
13:54-14:01
If you were asked to jump in and fill in for a small group leader, could you do that?
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Would you have the ability to do that?
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What if we needed you to fill in for Harvest Academy, teaching the third through fifth graders back there?
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Hey, teacher no-shed, we need you to jump in and teach.
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Could you do that?
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What if a coworker said, "Hey, I hear you go to church.
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"Can you explain the gospel to me?
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"Like, what do you believe at that church?
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"Could you do that?" What if you were asked to help lead a fisherman group or jump in ladies, maybe a Marine asked you to lead a session of mom to mom.
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Would you be able to do that?
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Could you jump in and help teach?
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Again, I'm not condemning, this is reality, this is truth.
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But some people sit in church for years and the sum total of your involvement is just attending.
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But hear me, I'm not condemning because maybe you want to get involved.
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Maybe you're sitting there going, I think he's talking about, maybe he doesn't understand.
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I would love to, but I can't do it.
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I couldn't teach a class.
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I wouldn't know what to say.
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I feel like there's no way that I could do this.
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And I'm saying, according to God's word here, if you can't teach in any capacity, That's a danger sign.
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You can't help anyone, you can't counsel, you can't disciple, you can't evangelize.
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You only understand the very simplest doctrine.
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Sunday school answer, right?
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Jesus died on the cross.
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You're like, that's as far as I understand doctrine.
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You're just a child that can only handle milk and it's a sign that you're not mature.
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So that's the first sign, you can't teach.
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The second sign, number two, write this down, the sign that you are not mature is you have no discernment.
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Look at verse 14.
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He says, "But solid food is for the mature, "for those who have their powers of discernment trained "by constant practice to distinguish good from evil." Solid food, what is that?
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Those are the deeper doctrines.
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It's for the mature, who's that?
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Those are people who truly know and are growing in Jesus Christ.
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You know what the difference is between adults and babies?
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He tells you here, and it's something you know from experience, it's discernment, right?
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Babies have no discernment.
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they will stick anything in their mouth.
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And I get to tell you, it is stinking adorable, right?
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If I had one of our church babies up here with me on stage and he was sticking everything in his mouth, you'd be like, oh, oh, you'd be waving at yourself.
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And not just because it's a thousand degrees in here, but you'd be like, that's adorable.
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That's adorable.
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Isn't it mock?
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That's adorable.
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But you know, if I stood up here sticking everything in my mouth, I (mumbles) that's not adorable.
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That is not precious in the least.
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And if you don't have discernment, you're not mature.
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And it's a sign that you don't really know Jesus.
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Like, well, what is discernment?
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Well, he tells us right here.
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I love when the Bible just like defines it right there in the passage we're discussing.
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Discernment is distinguishing good from evil.
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Do you see that?
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Yes, yes, yes, yes, right and wrong, yes.
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Discernment means you should be able to tell the ability or be able to have the ability.
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Excuse me, can you tell I communicate for a living?
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Let me start that over.
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Discernment means that you should have the ability to be able to tell the difference between what's right and what's wrong, what's good and what's sinful.
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Yes, that's true.
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But as discernment grows, so does that refinement, that you should be growing in your Christian walk, if you're a Christian, as you're maturing, you should be growing to be able to tell the difference between what's good and what's better.
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And as you continue to grow, you see, you're able to tell the difference between what's better and what's best.
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Right, that is growing discernment.
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You're like, well, what determines that?
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What determines what's right and wrong?
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What determines what's good and better?
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What determines what's better and best?
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It's the Holy Spirit working with the word of God in you.
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That's how discernment grows, you see.
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I want you to listen to me real close because this is so important.
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This is like life or death important.
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Okay, so reach over and lovingly punch the person next to you and say, "Pay attention." Okay, some of you, that was too hard.
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This is very important.
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I want you to hear me.
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Discernment is being able to filter everything through the Word of God.
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I'm gonna say that again.
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Discernment is being able to filter everything through the Word of God, being able to spot unbiblical teaching.
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Church, listen to me.
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Some people think that anything labeled Christian is Christian, and it's not.
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Some people think as long as this claims to represent God and His Word, then this This is good and it is not.
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I got saved in '95.
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I just remember as that young Christian, I was so excited.
21:01-21:07
I was so excited and I was reading my Bible and I'm like, I wanna know more, I wanna grow more, I want more.
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And somehow I came across this catalog that had these Christian magazine subscriptions, right?
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And I was, I'm like, oh, this will help.
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And I read there was a description of this magazine that was like, "Read all about the work "that God is doing in the world today." And I was like, "We have a winner.
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"This sounds great." So I bought a subscription to Charisma Magazine.
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You're laughing because you know something that I didn't know then.
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Well, like I said, this was in '95, And you remember what happened in '94?
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How many, show of hands, how many people remember the Toronto Blessing?
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Show of hands if you've ever heard.
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Okay, a few of you have.
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The Toronto Blessing.
21:57-22:27
Apparently there was this guest speaker giving his testimony at this church in Toronto, and there was this manifestation of the Holy Spirit, allegedly, that resulted in people having this uncontrollable laughter, and people were barking like dogs, and growling like lions, and some people experienced spiritual paralysis.
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I don't even know what that is.
22:35-22:39
But there were so many articles in Charisma Magazine.
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I was so excited to see what's God doing in the world today?
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And it's like, well, God showed up at this church in Toronto.
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(dog barking)
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And I'm like, look, I don't know anything, but that just doesn't seem right to me.
22:56-23:03
So every month I get this magazine in the mail and it was my monthly reminder that I need to grow in discernment.
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Not everything that calls itself Christian as Christian, immaturity is being blown away by every wind of doctrine because you have no discernment.
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And as long as the speaker says that they're teaching the word of God, you're gonna believe it.
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That is not discerning, okay?
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And church, we gotta get on board with this.
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Filtering everything through the word of God.
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Like you have some examples?
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I had to limit my examples.
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Here's a couple.
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Several years ago I was invited to a men's group that met down at Genarosta's.
23:53-24:08
It's like from a whole bunch of different churches, men getting together and there's worship and this guy's gonna preach and the place was packed to the rafters with just men, Bible in hand, and just packed out.
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And the speaker, he gave this message somehow differentiating between the mind of Christ and the mind of God, as if the mind of Christ was just like the human physical fleshly brain in the body of the incarnation, but it wasn't the supernatural spiritual.
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He had this whole thing in his sermon about that.
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And he said, "The mind of Christ is only good for earthly things.
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Jesus' mind could help you get to places in Israel, but that's not the mind of God." And I'm like, "What are you even saying?" I mean, I was... My skin was crawling that this guy was preaching this.
25:00-25:01
And that wasn't the worst part.
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The worst part was I looked around the room.
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I'm like, surely, surely we have other people ready to explode in here, right?
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I looked around the room and every guy in there was sitting there taking notes and nodding.
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Oh, oh, oh, yeah.
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I'm like, what is going on?
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It was so dangerous because I realized as ridiculous as this was, This guy could have been saying anything and all these men were gonna be like, "Oh, he's the preacher they brought in, so it must be from God." No discernment.
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Embarrassing.
25:51-25:58
Many years ago, I attended, or her whole family, many years ago, attended one of the largest churches in the area.
25:58-25:59
I'm not going to say its name.
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But it rhymes with, I'm just kidding.
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(congregation laughing)
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But we attended one of the largest churches in the area.
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And this was the sermon.
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The sermon was God answers yes to every prayer.
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Every prayer that you make, God answers yes to every prayer.
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And he's like, "And I know that doesn't gel "with some of your experiences.
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"So what happens if you pray for something "and you don't get what you ask for?" Because God gives you everything you want, according to this guy.
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He says, "What happens if you pray "you don't get what you want?" That's the parable of the sower.
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Either your heart is hard, your heart is weedy, your heart is shallow, and that's why you don't get what you want.
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Like, what are you even saying?
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Do you realize in the parables that Jesus taught, there's not a parable that is explained in a deeper way than this one.
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Jesus actually went back and explained what this parable meant.
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How did you butcher that that bad?
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How?
27:21-27:23
This guy's preaching this stuff.
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And Aaron looked over at me.
27:25-27:30
You know, man, you know how you can tell everything your wife is thinking just by a look she gives you?
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You know what I'm talking about, right?
27:32-27:33
Yeah, Dr. Andrew, you know what I'm talking about.
27:35-27:40
So I should have said, I just see him really nodding like, you two get each other.
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But anyways, Aaron looked over at me and I knew that look.
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It was, do you wanna get out of here?
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And I'm like, you grab a kid, I'll grab a kid.
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And we were like, stay fresh cheese bags, and we were gone.
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(congregation laughing)
27:55-28:06
And it wasn't like, "Sir, would you like us to hold your seat for you?" Like, "No, I want you to burn that seat." Oh my goodness, I could go on and on and on.
28:06-28:16
Big conference out in Chicago, where the guy gets up and preaches about his soul being in prison and Jesus and the devil fighting over his soul.
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And everybody just sitting around like, "Oh, this is so fascinating.
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And wow, wow, what great spiritual insight." I'm like, "What are you even saying?" Nationally famous pastor, a few years ago giving a sermon about the crucifixion of Jesus, saying that God loves you so much he was willing to break his own law to save you.
28:45-28:46
That's blasphemy.
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The glory of the cross is that Jesus fulfilled the law reconcile you to God.
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As a pastor, I've got to tell you, I have grave concern for this church.
29:03-29:17
Because in our day, there is so much sewage being spewed at these so-called church conferences and some joker on YouTube and Bible studies, and I use that term loosely, Bible studies written.
29:18-29:21
And if you don't have discernment, you're gonna buy into anything.
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It's my passion that you are so familiar with what the Bible actually says.
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God's whole word as presented straightforwardly that as soon as you hear the nonsense, you immediately recognize it for what it is.
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Like that isn't what the Bible says.
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And his point here is this, If you're buying into what everyone's selling and you don't know how to recognize error, you have no discernment and you're not mature.
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Three signs you aren't mature.
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Number one, you can't teach.
29:59-30:01
Number two, you have no discernment.
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Number three, you aren't applying God's word.
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You see, look at verse 14 again.
30:12-30:16
It says, "But solid food is for the mature." That's the Christian, the born again believer.
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For those who have their look at this powers of discernment trained by constant practice.
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To distinguish good from evil.
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Trained by constant practice, a believer in Christ is growing in their application of God's word.
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If you hear the truth and don't believe the truth, therefore, you're not going to apply the truth, you're going to lose the truth.
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That's what he's talking about here.
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That's what he means when he says, you become dull of hearing.
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How'd you get dull of hearing?
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It's use it or lose it.
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That's how truth works, use it or lose it.
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By the way, call back.
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That's what the parable of Matthew 13, Mark 4, the parable of the sower.
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Jesus explained it.
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The seed is the word of God.
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And part of that parable, he says, "The seed fell on the hard ground." That's a hard heart.
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"And a bird snatched it away." Jesus said that's Satan taking it away.
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Same principle, use it or lose it.
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You're not taking God's truth and applying it.
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It's not being incorporated into your life the way that seed would be incorporated into the ground.
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If it's just laying on top of a hard heart, Satan's gonna snatch it away, use it or lose it.
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If you're not applying God's word, it's a sign you don't know him you're gonna get mature.
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So how does discernment grow?
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He tells you it's trained by constant practice.
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Trained by constant practice, and we get this in every other area of life, right?
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What does a professional athlete do to be his best?
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Training and practice, right?
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What does a professional musician do to be her very best?
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Training and practice, right?
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What does a Christian do to become more discerning?
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Training and practice.
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See, in all these cases, training and practice look very different, but it's still training and practice.
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Faith is action.
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We've been preaching this forever.
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Faith isn't just knowing the gospel, and faith isn't just agreeing with the gospel.
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Faith is living what you believe.
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And maturity comes from active faith.
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And true faith is constantly being practiced, constantly in training.
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So brass tacks, here it is.
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If you don't spend time in God's Word, yourself personally, if you're not spending time in private prayer, just you and God, if you're not sharing the gospel in your home, at work, If you don't give, you're not applying God's word and you aren't growing in your faith.
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You're certainly not growing in discernment.
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See, that's what he's talking about.
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Look again at verse 13.
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He says, "Unskilled in the word of righteousness." That's the same principle.
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It's doctrine leading to conduct.
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You live what you really believe.
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You don't know it if you don't live it If you don't live it, you can't teach it.
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I would say that the other way.
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If you don't live it or teach it, you don't know it.
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So don't be deceived into thinking that you do.
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You're not mature.
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And you're not ready for the solid food of deeper doctrine any more than one of these infants around here is ready for a T-bone steak.
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You wouldn't know what to do with it, no matter how hard you try.
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I'd like our worship team to come back up as we prepare to close, but as they do, I just wanna ask, is this for you?
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Did you take an honest assessment of yourself?
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Could you teach someone if you needed to?
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Can you really tell the difference between good and evil, right and wrong, good and better?
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Can you do that?
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How serious are you taking your faith?
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And if you feel the sting right now, I got great news for you.
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Today can be a new day for you.
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Like, what do we do?
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What do we do?
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You just gotta get honest with God about it.
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That's where it has to start.
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You're not fooling God.
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I'm gonna give you that opportunity now.
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I'd like you to bow your heads.
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And maybe right now there are some of you that are saying, you know, God, your word has shown me that maybe I'm not where I thought I was.
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Maybe there's somebody here now saying, you know, I'm not content with being on the outside looking in, worming a seat.
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I wanna be involved.
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and what God is doing.
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I want to receive Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior.
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I want to get real with you God, and real in my walk with Christ.
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I want to grow and mature.
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God only you can make that happen.
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So I'm crying out and asking that you do.
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Father in heaven, I thank you for passages in your Word like this that just stop and give us a reality check.
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And these passages certainly aren't comfortable to preach, and I'm sure they're not comfortable to hear.
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It would be so much worse, God, if you just let us bounce through life, deceiving ourselves into thinking that we're something that we're not.
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So you've given us just this very clear understanding from your word.
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Father, I know that salvation is your business, sanctification is your business, drawing people to yourself is your business.
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So God, I just lift up this church to you, people watching this stream, you know where their hearts are, God.
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I don't, but if there's somebody here who honestly has been a church goer and not a true born again disciple of Christ, Father, I pray that you would bring a kind of conviction on them that would keep them from sleeping until they get on their face and do business with you.
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And allow Jesus Christ his rightful place on the throne of their lives.
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We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.
Small Group Discussion
Read Hebrews 5:11-14
What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
How can you convince an immature person that they are immature?
How do we know that these “immature” people being addressed in this passage are merely “church-goers”, not born again believers? What does the text say that leads to this interpretation? (Note: this will become more clear as we get into the very next passage!)
Why do you think that discernment is so lacking in the church? How can HBC (you) foster an environment of discernment?
Breakout
Pray for the immature in our church to truly get serious about their walk with Christ.