Led By Discernment - Luke Kennedy

Ps Luke Kennedy is continuing our "Led by" series. We have learnt about being Led by a Limp and Led by the Spirit; this is Led by Discernment. 

We pray you’re blessed by this message—and we’d love to see you in person. Join us every Sunday at 10am. See you there.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey everyone, good morning. So good to have you with us. Um hey, if we haven't met, my name is Luke. I'm one of the pastors here. It's great to have you with us. Welcome this morning. How's everyone feeling? This side's feeling pretty good. How are we doing over here? We're feeling good? Ready for to jump into some scripture. Who loves the Bible? If you bought your Bible, give us a wave if you bought your Bible. I see a couple Bibles. Alright, alright. Gen Z bringing back the paper Bibles. I'm vibing that. Bring back the paper Bibles. Let's go. Um, what's that thing you got there? No taker. Note taker, you've got your Bible back there. Alright, alright. I believe you. Um okay, so we're in the middle of a series. We've been talking about how God leads us. Is anyone interested in being led by God, the creator of the universe? Rather than yourself. Anyone interested in that? Um, I'm interested in that. Um, I want to talk today about the concept of discernment. Discernment um in some contexts means um I just criticize everyone else. Um that's not the gift of discernment in the Bible. Finding other people's problems is not the gift of discernment. Um, the gift of discernment in the Bible, it's both a it's both a gift, a spiritual gift, meaning that God's spirit enables or gives grace to be able to see things clearly. But it's also a practice in that you get better at it the more that you listen and you look for it. Okay, so I want to talk to you about both the both the gift and the practice, and we're gonna have a look at some scriptures together. But really, let me frame it like this uh I love um uh Henry Nowen's book on discernment is one of the best small books on discernment that you could read it, you could read it in a couple of hours. It's a very good book, but really the thesis of the book in the very early part of it is discernment is about finding your place in the world, finding your place in God's story. What is God doing right now, and what is my part in what is God doing right now in the world? That is a that is the heart of discernment. How can I partner with God in what he is doing in the world right now? Let's have a look at Acts chapter 16. Last week we uh read from Acts chapter 13. We're gonna continue on Acts chapter 16 today, verse 6 to 10, about Paul being led to a new country and discerning the way forwards of how the gospel is going. Is everyone okay? We're doing good? Is your mind in the room? Just tune in because I'm here to encourage you, okay? About your life. Um, Paul, Paul and his companions traveled through the region of um Pyrigia and Galatia. Maybe you've heard of the book of Galatians, having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia. That's not Asia as we would see it today. It's it's actually ancient Turkey in that kind of region. And when they came to the border of Mysia, they tried to enter enter um uh Bethnia, but the spirit of Jesus would not allow them to enter into it. So they passed by Missa and went down to Troaz. During the night, Paul had a vision of a man in Macedonia standing and begging him, come over to Macedonia and help us. After Paul had seen the vision, he made a strategic plan, he got everyone together and he rolled out a five-year plan about moving slowly, moving the church towards maybe sending someone to sorry, that was a different version. He says, he says he got ready at once, he got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them. Hear the heart of this? I want what God wants. I want to do what God wants me to do. That's my heart, that's my motivation. That's why I get up in the morning, that's why I come to church and want to worship God with a loud voice, not a mumbly voice, but a loud voice because I want what God wants. I want to worship God, I want my my life is gravitated towards God. And that is where discernment begins. I want what God wants. God, show me what you want. I think some of us would like to be led by God, but we'd sort of we could take it or leave it. Ah, if it's, you know, if he makes it clear, I'll, you know, sure, we'll have a go. If not, I'll just do my thing. That could be your disposition. It's it's not the heart that's easily led by God. A heart that's easily led by God is a hungry heart that desperately wants God's ways to become our ways. I want Jesus' ways to become my ways. God can work with that heart. God can lead that heart. So recognizing my place in the world starts with recognizing what God is doing in the world and a heart that says, I want to be part of that. God, if you're working in Macedonia, I want in on Macedonia. If if you say, God, this workplace you've called me to for this season of my life, you're you want to do something in this place, I'm in for it. I'm not gonna go to work and complain. I'm not gonna join the gossip group, I'm not gonna join the slander of my boss group. I'm gonna be all in for making something happen in my workplace. If God, that's what you want, that's what I want. Yeah? I love um, I love what Josh has got. Josh has got a Bible group study going on in his gym at the moment down in the south. They do boxing, so they beat each other, and then they talk about Jesus after that. Let's go. And I'm praying more revival in that gym. I'm praying more guys with black eyes finding Jesus. Yeah? Let's go. If you got if you got me there, I want to be a part of something where God is doing something, I want to be part of that. Have in on what God is doing. Here's the here's the reality. Sometimes God leads us through closed doors. Have you ever had God close a door on you and you're not be happy about it? Have you ever had that? Or is it just me? Maybe God closes a door on you and it feels like closed doors sometimes feel like rejection. Like God, you just saying no. Paul's got good motives here. He wants to go into a new place and preach the gospel, and God just says no. No. And it doesn't really say how, but it says the Spirit of Jesus would not let him go. Would not let him go. I wanted to go in there, but God just wouldn't let me go in there. Why won't God let me go where I want to go? Maybe that place had nice beaches or something. Everyone feels called to plant a church on the Gold Coast. God, will you let me go? No. No, got something better. I got something in the right order to have for you right now. Interesting thing is, if you look at church history, later on, Paul goes, who he does go back to some of these places God didn't allow him to go to. The church of Ephesus, have you read the book of Ephesians? That was one of the places that God did not let him go to. Later, it becomes a major church planting hub for the world, the then-known world. Becomes a resource church, ascending church, the kind of church that we want to be. It's the book of Ephesus. Book of Ephesians. It's the church of Ephesus. That's the church that he would not let him go and lead in the beginning. But God brings him back to it. See, not every no from God is a rejection. Not every no from God is forever. But maybe it's just not right now. Maybe the people in Ephesus were not ready for the gospel at that very moment. Maybe there were things that God was working out behind the scenes so that when Paul got there, it actually worked. And if you actually keep on pushing, pushing things to happen that God has not let happen yet, it's actually God's grace to you that it hasn't happened yet. It's God's grace. Maybe God needs to work on something inside of your heart to prepare you to be the kind of person who can actually do that thing. Is anyone vibing with this? That God is preparing you, and it's actually God's grace that's holding you back, not his judgment or his anger or his disappointment with you, it's his grace. Sometimes it leads through closed doors, it's not yet. The second thing I notice is God's through about discernment is discernment happens while you're moving and walking. They try to go into Asia, no. They try to go into Athena, no. So they go down to Troash. They don't have all of the map sort of mapped out, but they're moving. They're moving. You know that old saying it's easier to turn a moving ship. What are you doing right now that's saying yes to God in a small thing right now that could lead that could allow God to lead you into a bigger thing? Meaning this. I want to preach one day. Do you read your Bible? How's your prayer life? Do you spend time with God? Are you writing messages for yourself? Not just for other people. That's how you start preaching, is you write messages for yourself. The best message I can tell you, the best messages I ever preached were to myself. On long walks and on my bedroom floor as a teenager. Amazing messages. They weren't for you, they were for me. That's how you start preaching. If you want to be a leader, can you the hardest person to lead is yourself? I can lead other people, but that's easy. Leading myself? That's a challenge. I know me. Are you doing okay? Just thinking? It's okay. We still friends? I'm not insecure, I'm just trying to interact with you. Um but the thing is, you often find God's will while you're walking towards God's general will for your life. That's just reality. Do the basic things now, and God will lead you into more specific things. That's reality. Here's something that really kills discernment, though. I wanted to speak into this a little bit. The thing that kills discernment oftentimes is fear. Fear can often drive you towards decisions that maybe feel like discernment, but they're actually just fear. Like, I don't want to be a failure, so I'm not gonna do that thing. I'm not gonna step out in faith. And we could, Christians could sometimes call that, oh, I'm just discern this just discernment, but actually it's just fear. And we've got to be careful about the voice of fear controlling our lives. Maybe let me get more specific. Maybe there's someone in your life that you desperately want approval from or to please, and that voice is too loud in your life. So you're not stepping out in faith because you're worried about someone's voice in your life. What will they think? And if you get to big decisions in your life and you're worried about what some critic will think, you chances are you're being led by fear. And God's spirit has not, the Bible says so clearly, he has not given you a spirit of fear, but of love, of power, and a sound mind. That's a word for this generation. He has not given you a spirit of fear. And sometimes you need to operate in the opposite spirit as the world. The world is so full of fear right now. The rising generation is so gripped by fear right now. And the opposite spirit of that is not just certainty about everything, it's faith. I trust in God. It's an incredible way to stand out in the crowd right now is to have faith. To trust. So who's the voice right now who's speaking too loudly into your life? Fear of man, fear of um failure. Fear of failure is huge. Um, I have three different I have three children. Oldest child, middle child, youngest child. They all have classic traits. Oldest child, a little bit nervous, bit of a perfectionist. Wants everything done rightly, a little bit nervous. They've always been the first one to step out, right? The third child could care less. Absolute dominator. Just run straight for the road, just whatever. Here I come, adventure, you know. Oh, is there any is there any oldest children in the room here? Oldest children, I see you. I see you. Yeah, I know the types. Okay, yep, that all tracks. Any youngest children here? Wild ones? That's me, yeah. That tracks, that's so tracks. Any forgotten middle children here, forgotten middle children, just God bless you, just put a hand on them. You know, the ones always trying to prove themselves. Just God bless you. We love you. You we see you, we see you, we care about you, we see you. Amazing, amazing. Sometimes the sometimes you've got to um manage your own personality and understand I have a tendency to be to be driven by fear, to lead out of cautiousness that can be a good thing, but if it's in the driver's seat of my life rather than the spirit of God, it can actually cause me to think I'm in discernment, but actually I'm just living out of fear. We need to come back to a spirit of faith. One of the best things that uh a mentor said to me, Um, Chris Malhev's on our board, a real great encouragement to me. Um, when we first started this church, one of the first things he said to me was, Luke, don't lead out of a spirit of fear. You must lead out of faith. You must lead with a spirit of faith, believing what God can do, not out of a spirit of fear. This is really, really important. So I'm just praying that in this church, God would bring come and bring freedom to people who are bound by fear. Freedom. Freedom to follow God. And one of the best ways you can grow in this practice, let me just get very practical. One of the best ways that helped me so much to overcome fear was to learn how to hear the voice of God for myself. When God speaks to you, it's like fear just melts away. And sometimes you need to pray until you hear God's voice and the fear goes away. One of the best ways to do that is to sit with your Bible, open the scriptures, and say, Come, Holy Spirit, speak to me. And then read until something jumps off the page and grabs your heart. That's probably God. How long do you need to read? One line, ten pages? It doesn't matter. What matters is read with a heart to hear what God wants to say to you. And when it jumps off to you, when it jumps off the page at you, stop. Don't keep reading. Stop and write something down. This is such a simple practice. Just write something down. I started doing this when I was 14 years old. Writing one thing down that jumped off the page at me. Now, how do I know if it's right or not? Wrong question. It doesn't matter if it's right or not. What matters is my heart, here I am, God, speak to me. And now in faith, I'm gonna write something down and I'm gonna trust that it's you. And if it's not you, I'm gonna be back here again tomorrow so you can correct me. If you live like that, I guarantee you, God will lead you over time. I've done this literally with hundreds and hundreds of young men one-on-one, and I can tell you I have not met a single young person yet, or old person, doesn't matter your age, who hasn't heard the voice of God in that context. I haven't met one yet. That's my testimony. Do you want to hear from God? That's not rhetorical. Do you want to hear from God? Do you really want to hear from God? Open your Bible, say, come, Holy Spirit, and wait, read until something jumps out at you and write something down. If you do that for a week and look back to your week and look over your notes, you will start to see a pattern where God is speaking to you. Do it for a month. You will start to see, oh, God really is speaking to me. No matter where I read in the Bible, God's speaking to me about forgiveness every day. I wonder what God's saying. Or maybe it's something about forgiveness. Maybe I need to forgive that person or let them go. Maybe he's speaking to me about faith everywhere. I look in the Bible. I'm reading Lamentations, I'm reading Romans, Revelations, every day is about faith. I wonder what God's trying to say to you. Have faith, son, daughter, have faith. Trust me, believe in me. I could speak to you about this all day. But um, Jesus said this, my sheep will know my voice. If um, I I spend a lot of time um talking to people with their Bibles, okay? One of the things that I notice a lot, when we first start reading the Bible together, and I ask people what they think, many times they will answer with, I heard this podcast say. Or I heard Instagram say. That's what their their application of the scripture is. I heard Instagram say. What did God say to you? If you can learn how to hear from God yourself, you can get through any challenge in your life, any trial in your life. You can overcome basically anything in your life if you can hear from God. Because God will speak to you over and over and encourage you. He God is such an encourager, God encourages me constantly. The voice of encouragement from the Holy Spirit is so awesome. Keeps on speaking encouraging to my life over and over and over and over. He never gets tired of encouraging me. So thankful. That's how God wants to speak to you as well. You can hear from God. And if any teaching, let me say this to you, if any teaching has told you that hearing the voice of God is difficult, you need to get rid of that teaching. Just throw it out. It is unhelpful to you and it is not true. Anyone can hear the voice of God. I used to hear the voice of God when I was 14 years old, and I'm looking at my notes from when I was 14. I still have my notes from when I was 15, 16 years old. I'm looking at those notes and I'm looking at them and saying, that is amazing. I was hearing from God. Just as much as I can hear from God today. I wasn't a junior Holy Spirit when I was a teenager, like a like a B-grade version of God when I was a teenager. It was the same God who was speaking to me then as today. I could hear God's voice just as well then as today. Wherever you're at today, you can hear from God. Do you believe me yet? Because I'll just keep going until you're convinced. Okay. All right. Um, God bringing all the pieces together. Okay, after the doors were closed, Paul has a vision. Um, come over and help us. And he concludes this is what God is saying. Um I love in the message version it says, We concluded that word concluded, it's like a puzzle word, it means putting a puzzle together. And in the message version it says, all. All the pieces of the puzzle had come together, and we knew God had called us. And I wonder today, maybe there's a piece of the puzzle that's missing for you where God would like to speak to you about that thing. Where it's got you know, when you're putting a piece of the puzzle together, at first it looks kind of blurry or you can't really see it, but then you get start piece by piece, it starts coming together, and then you've got the whole picture. Maybe for today is another piece. Maybe reading the scripture at home tonight, another piece. Maybe the prayer on Tuesday night here, there's going to be prayer here, it's going to be another piece. When God speaks to you. And all the pieces are coming together where it becomes clear. I would love the rising generation in our church to be able to say, I know what God has said to me, and I'm following God. That's my goal for everyone I spend time with. For me to be able to say to you, I often say to the guys, What saith the Lord to you? I want everyone to be confident to say, what is God saying to you? And you can say, This is what God is saying to me, and this is what I'm doing. What a wonderful place to be in. That's also a wonderful church to preach to. Because they're awesome and responsive and full of the word of God. Yes, where I'm not here to impress you with my preaching skills. I'm here to encourage you in your hearing from God. Okay. The sermon is also confirmed in community. Let me say this community. Um it talked about how they were going together, um they were on their way together, Jesus said no to them, and we concluded that God was saying we should go. Private guidance is definitely real, but collective discernment is a thing in the Bible. Yeah? That's why I said last week. Many times someone will see the call of God on your life before you do in the church. And it's our job to speak into that and call that out of you and say, we see more in you. And I want to encourage you, if you're a person in our church who's been here for a while, I hope that you come to church with those eyes. Not just for what you can what you can get out of it, but looking around the room and saying, who here needs some encouragement? Who here needs some speaking into? Yeah? This is a family of God. Speak into it. And the lastly I just wanted to say is um the fruit of discernment, it's mission. It's mission, guys. Seeking God, the end result of that is not we become navel gazers. Let's just do one more worship session and we just like get inward. Like it's not that. It's we we come together and we worship so that God can send us out into the world to go and make a difference. If you were around Paul, chances are you were not going to stay in the same church for very long. You were gonna get sent out to go and do something in the world. What an exciting place to be in. I pray that our church doesn't get too comfortable building a place where we have everything we need. I've got all the friends I want, all the ministries work. And so now we can all just take a breath and go, ah, isn't this so nice for us? I pray that is never our heart. I pray that our heart is always, let's go out into the world and make a difference. Let's start new churches, let's start new ministries. Next month, at the end of July, the last week in July, we're starting a youth ministry in this church. Let's go. That's a small clap for a big deal. Yeah, it's a big deal. Steps forward, let's keep on reading. There's gonna be so many young people coming to this church, into this space. This alleyway is gonna be just full of teenage young people. We're taking over this alleyway. Um, full of teenage people meeting Jesus. Man, that's that's something I can get excited about. So let me finish with this. We're just gonna land the plane. Maybe um Elise can come help me. We're gonna pray. If you're starting, if you're really wanting to be discerning the voice of God in your life, I'd love to take a moment to pray with you, okay? Um, I've got a couple questions that I'm just gonna throw out there. Can you just um maybe you can just focus on God a little bit right now? Where is God saying no to you in your life right now? Maybe you're you're searching for ways forwards and God saying no in your life, and instead of fighting God constantly, would you just see it as the grace of God for your life? Maybe fighting for a relationship that you know is wrong, it's not what God wants, but you just keep fighting for it to make it happen. And it's time to surrender to God's know, his care for your life. Um here's another question: where do you need to keep walking? Have you been waiting for all of the map before you take a step? And God's saying, No, I want you to take steps of faith now, and I'm gonna lead you on the way. Number three, where is where is fear distorting your discernment? Maybe there's a voice that's too loud in your life that is not the voice of God. A voice of control, maybe even just a voice that's just putting you down, saying you can't do it, you're not good enough, or a voice of discouragement? Would you just place that at the foot of feet of God right now? Number four, who's helping you discern? Is it is there who's God brought into your life? Surely there's people in this room, in this community, that God has brought into your life this moment to help you make courageous decisions. And lastly, who's saying come and help us? If God's discernment leads us to mission, where is God calling you to? If you had no fear, were only led by God. Come on, what would you be dreaming about right now? Zero fear. If there was zero chance of failure, what would you be throwing your life at right now with God? I wonder if God's calling you into that right now. To throw off the fear of failure, to throw off the fear of people, maybe the fear of criticism. So we pray, come Holy Spirit, lead us. We go into this week. You would lead us. Lead us in faith, God. Pray every Tuesday night here as people gather, God, that you would be here speaking to us, leading us, God. We come humble, teachable, ready to be led by you. In Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.