Foundations of Leadership II, Developing Discernment

Lord Jesus, in the midst of all of those eternal and magnificent declarations, we thank you tonight, Lord, that you are so personal to us, that you shed your own blood, even gave your life to save me tonight, Lord, to save each one of us by name, Lord, you've called us forth. We pray tonight, Lord, that we would give you the honor and the glory that's worthy of your name. That we would be a people tonight, Lord, that are moldable and interacting, Lord, with your holy Spirit. That we would see taking shape in our lives, Lord, the very changes in the character of our own being, Lord, that would be after the image of our beloved Jesus. Thank you, Lord, for tonight. And we just pray even now as we join hands, Lord. We pray tonight, Lord, that you bless the one on our right and on our left, Lord, that you just send forth right now through this room the anointing of your holy spirit and power. We pray, Father God, that each one here would have a sense in them tonight, Lord, that they are called forth, that they are named as special Lord, because you have put your hand upon them. And, Lord God, that there would not be withheld any good thing tonight that would make for godliness and release of love and power and mercy and justice and kindness in our ministries and lives, Lord, we. We bless you, Father. We thank you for this time. Now set it apart, Jesus. Hallelujah. Wonderful. You're glorious. You're excellent. And you love me. You forgiven me. Shed your own blood. Even gave your life to save me. Amen. Praise the Lord. May be seated. Thank you. While we're shifting around, there's about 10 good seats up in the front if you age it in the back. Want to move up? Can hear better. They didn't hear that. See, it didn't bother them at all. They're talking back there. They don't. Yes, you. Would you like a front seat? We have a good. All right. A couple very, very brief business items. Who didn't get a folder last time? Okay, we got some more folders, as many as we could get our hands on. Andy, do you have them? 27 cents apiece. Okay. Ken will give you a folder if you didn't get one. Put your hand up quickly. Someone else holy. Yeah, let's get a couple more hands going on that one, please. There's a bunch of material from last week. If you happen to be absent or maybe you didn't get some for whatever reason. We have extras, duplicates. Okay. One more thing, and that's about the books. May I see your book, please? Dale, who did not get a copy of Called and committed about 15. We have ordered another 40 or 50 copies, so they'll be more than enough. And they will be in as of, we believe, Thursday. So you can either pick one up at the office or certainly pick one up on Sunday. There were a few left, by the way. Did anyone check back in the back room? Ruth? Did they get picked up? Okay. And you sold them on the black market probably, didn't you? These are going for $10 here this week. Okay. You were to read through what tonight? 26, page 26. Okay, let me. How many of you found those challenging words? Really an excellent book, isn't it? Put some meat on our faith and working out of our faith. Now, what we're going to do is kind of have you respond to this as part of the discussion, but we're a little hesitant to do that tonight because many of you didn't get a chance to read it, I can see, because many of you didn't have it. But by all means, for certain, for next Tuesday, be sure to have read through chapter. Well, I'll tell you what, just read through chapter three, which is only another 15 pages or so. Then next time in our groups, we will have time to discuss the book a little more in depth than we would tonight since a lot of you haven't had a chance to read it yet. Okay. Through page 40. Okay. Come on, Dennis. Oh, one other thing. I forgot about the book. On our table in the rear there, we have one of the old offering boxes out. We're not going to keep name lists and all that stuff on these, but we really think that it's an appropriate investment. So if you could contribute something to defray the cost of those books, we'd appreciate that. They're $5 or something like that, so we'll be watching. Okay. All right, I need hands again. All right, Hotlines for tonight, Sam. All right, everyone set? All right. Tonight we're going to study. A topic that I don't know that I've ever had addressed per se in all of my opportunities of receiving teaching. And yet it's a subject that I feel is really crucial toward the fulfillment of what we launched out into last week. Remember last week we had said that one of the key ingredients of the ministry of Jesus, the first one on that list of five things, was what Jesus ministry was a. No should be on your outline there. It was a ministry that focused on individuals. There you go, right on your outline. How about that? I can see you've looked those over since last Week. All right. And we want to pursue ministry to individuals. I can't overemphasize enough how important it is that we not lose sight of the fact that God's called us to love people, not to run our meetings. I was really encouraged today as Fred and Blaine and I went out to have a little lunch together at Ponderosa. And we walked in, and here was this table of six or seven gals who had all congregated there, which I found out later was one of the small groups after the women's ministry. Now, I could be naive, and maybe women are doing that all over the place, but it was just encouraging to see that those gals had wanted to continue to build the bond of that relationship. There was at least two gals that I didn't even recognize. So relationships are being formed. People are becoming a focus, and that's really encouraging. Praise the Lord for that. Discernment has to do with. With a lot of things that will ultimately determine the effectiveness of our ministry. Have you ever heard a conversation between a couple, and maybe you just stop in for a visit one evening, and the couple starts talking back and forth, and you sense the tension in their voice and the barbs in their comments and the criticism that's being in some ways just communicated by the lack of eye contact or the lack of affirmation. Have you ever felt that what happens inside of you, you discern that there's something not right? Something just isn't right in that situation? Just. I guess a couple of you knew that. We were launched up to Michigan on Sunday afternoon because my younger brother had a baby, and he and his wife had their second child and walked into the hospital room, and we arrived sort of an awful, disgusting, weary family sort of ambled into this hospital room. And the baby was adorable and all that stuff. His babies are. But right away we sensed this. There was a tension, and I couldn't figure out right away. And as things went, it turned out that they hadn't named the baby yet. And so it was going back between Christopher Glenn and Benjamin John and something else. And we were feeling this going on without it even being spoken. And you've had that kind of experience. What do you do in those times? Discernment, of course, can be natural. Now, I'm not on the sheet at all. I'm still just giving you some opening thoughts here. But we all have natural discernment. We all can use our mind, our intellect, our emotions and our wills to sort of discover things that people are saying based on our value systems. And our background. It's not uncommon for somebody who doesn't know the Lord to talk to someone and say, well, they're a little distant. But you see in the natural being a little distant or a little shy, you just sort of accept that and go on as a believer with the inside of the Holy Spirit, you may recognize that that distance represents the fact that. And God might give you this discernment. That person was once hurt very badly by a relationship and they're unable to open up. They're unable to draw into a relationship and be open. And there's a big difference, isn't there, between natural discernment and that which God gives by the Holy Spirit? And of course, we're going to look at that tonight. True discernment comes from God. It's not from the fallen nature of man. It's not from his mind. It's by the renewing of our minds through Christ Jesus and the natural flavor. I love this. What God is after is that we are so imbued with the life and the thoughts of Jesus that when something comes alongside of us that doesn't jibe with that, that in us immediately is quickened, a stirring, a sense that that's not right. And it is discernment in us that the spirit of the Lord has been disturbed in us. And we're asking, lord, what is it? What can we. What are you telling me to do? Have you ever been in a meeting and someone said, I really sense the presence of the Lord in that place? Was there a time when you were a Christian when you always thought that people who said that were weird? But how many of you know what it means to sense the presence of the Lord in the meeting? Well, that's what we're talking about, is discerning the spirit. How many of you ever sense the presence of evil and discern that in a situation or of occult spirits and things like that? Certainly these are all realities to us who are renewed in Christ Jesus. And what we're endeavoring to come into, beloved, is the condition when we all, in our walk with Jesus Christ are so flavored with who Jesus is, that we naturally, everywhere we go, are discerning the situation. And what you will see as we look through the Scriptures this evening and as you discuss some of these things, is that Jesus ministry is absolutely filled with illustrations of his supernatural discernment from God. You just think right off the top of your head, you can think of illustrations. Remember Fred talked 10 days ago on the Rich Young Ruler. Remember that? What was the discernment that Jesus exercised there, that his real problem wasn't the fact that he was a paralytic, but that he was what, lost in sin. And Jesus, time and time again, the rich young ruler. Every time I read that parable or that story, I think of his eyes riveting on that young man. And his discernment got him right down to the heart of the issue. It wasn't keeping the commandments, it was his wealth. And Jesus spoke right to it. End of conversation. Jesus exercised that discernment. And beloved, sometimes he did it so powerfully that we even say, I don't know if I could stand up under that. What we have to come into is the understanding that we can be discerning in love. We're going to talk a little bit about that tonight. Jesus, time and time again, remember when the mother of James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him and said, lord, grant it that my two sons could sit, one in your right hand and one on your left. And Jesus said, you don't know what you're asking. But really, then what did he address the root of the issue? He who would be greatest of all must be the servant of all. It wasn't eschatology that they were asking about, it was exaltation. And Jesus ended that conversation in a hurry, too. Now, let me give you. I think I listed here eight reasons why discernment is crucial. We have those on an overhead. I think we do. Okay. Number one, you must have discernment if you're going to be effective in your ministry, if you're going to use your energies and your talents and your time wisely. Brothers and sisters, you've got to have discernment. Otherwise there are thousands of ways that you can spend yourselves on things that will produce little or no fruit. Have you ever wondered why Paul was so careful to say that he built with gold, silver, and precious stones and not wood, hay, and stubble? Why was he so careful in saying that he took the time not to pummel the air, but to move decisively in situations? Because why? He knew that it was possible to go through his ministry and at the end have nothing to show for it. And I believe that there are a lot of people that are going through ministry, a lot of people in leadership such as you are, who are going to come to the end and hear Jesus say, you have nothing to show for it. And being a discerning leader is one of the safeguards that will prevent you from wasting your energies in pursuits that produce nothing. How many people do you know that have chronic problems and you know that you could spend every waking hour virtually on the telephone or in the car or doing something to alleviate the felt needs of that person? And it's no secret that there are as many people to fill up our need baskets as we could ever imagine. There are always people who always have needs. Now, does that mean we turn our back on the needs? Not at all. It means that we learn how to be effective in our ministry and discern what the real need is. And we're going to look at that in a little bit here. The second thing, the second reason why discernment is crucial, that it does help us to avoid the trap of ministering to felt needs. Only. Some years ago, when I was in youth ministry, there was a young gal that would call the office or my home three, four times every day just for reassurance, just to know that I'm not talking about this after she was just born again or something. This was for weeks. Finally, my wife and I talked to her and one of the sisters, I guess it was, we talked to her and said the felt need was, I need someone to talk to. I'm lonely. The real need was she needed to have peace in her heart. Once the peace was ministered to her heart, the phone call stopped. And it's very possible. And you think you're doing a great thing for God if you just are constantly going after the things that are on the surface. But beloved, that doesn't change people. And what Jesus set out to do was to change the heart of men. And through us he is still changing hearts today. And that's what we're about. The third thing is that, and this is related, discernment helps us to break the cycles of bondage for those that we're ministering to. Turn quickly to Mark five, would you. Mark five, the story of the gerosene demoniac one is a very familiar story to us. Verse two. And when he had come out of the boat, there met him out of the tombs, a man with an unclean spirit who lived among the tombs. And no one could bind him anymore, even with a chain, for he had often been bound with fetters and chains, but the chains he wrenched apart and the fetters he broke in pieces. And no one had the strength to subdue him. You know, I was thinking about those verses, and I believe that a lot of the ministry that we would get caught into, brothers and sisters, is no more than really putting a fetter on somebody. In a sense, we try to minister something of A legal. If you do this, then that'll take care of that kind of problem. And there's a whole ministry of bondage, really. The people can't help. There are things about themselves that they are not able at that level to help. But if you could minister at the deeper level, you could set people free. Look what Jesus did. When he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and worshiped him. And crying out with a loud voice, he said, what have you to do with me, Jesus, son of the Most High God, I adjure you by God, do not torment me. For he had said to him, come out of the man, you unclean spirit. And then we know the rest of the story. Jesus set him free. He broke the cycle of continued bondage. That man would have been destined to roam up in the mountains for the rest of his life. There are people. Listen. There are people who are destined to roam through life in bondage unless you minister freedom to them. And I want you to know, I mean each of you people that may never come to North Way, the pastors or elders may never see, and God would have you to deliver them from the cycles of bondage. The fourth thing that discernment does is it enables us, enables the leader to move in the gifts of the Spirit of God. Some interesting things here to see. I'm not sure if I really understand completely the force of the scripture in First Corinthians 2. I studied it, thought about it. It's interesting when it says in First Corinthians 2:14, the unspiritual or natural man does not receive the gifts of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discern. So the gifts of the Spirit of God are spiritually discerned. And I believe that one of the characteristics of a man or woman who's moving in discernment is the ability to exercise the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Do you remember the interesting story in Acts, chapter eight when Peter confronts. Now his name is escaping me, Simon the sorcerer. Remember that story? And Simon's falling. He's saved and baptized, and he's following them around, and he sees them ministering the power of the Holy Spirit on people. And people are prophesying and apparently speaking in tongues we can gather from all the uproar and so on. And Simon says he wants to buy the power to do that. And he says, just give me that power. And he dangles some money in front of him. Remember what Peter does. And just a flash of discernment you don't remember? Turn to Acts 8. You're all I don't remember. Acts 8. 18. Now when Simon saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles hands, he offered them money saying give me also this power that anyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit. Now I want to read this and I brought another translation because it just brings it to life so much more. This is my testimony Bible. I go witnessing with this one. Give me this power too so that if I were to put my hands on anyone, he would receive the Holy Spirit. This is the Phillips. But Peter said to him, to hell with you and your money. And down here in the note says this is really what the Greek says. How dare you think you could buy the gift of God for money. You can have no share or part in this matter, for your heart is not honest before God. All you can do now is to repent of this wickedness of yours and pray earnestly to the Lord that if possible the evil intention of your heart may be forgiven. Beloved, we are saying, the scripture is saying that it is possible to know the intent of the heart and to discern that. And the leader that grows in their ability to discern will find themselves rather than wasting time. Peter didn't jump up and down and saying oh no, no you can't do that, that's not what it's all about. He discerned the intention of his heart and in so doing he got right down to the substance of that matter. We don't know what happened to Simon, but we know that he no longer was able to pull the charade off. Discernment enables the leaders to move in the gifts of the Spirit. I think that Peter had basically a word of knowledge there. Next item. Discernment brings about maturity in the body of Christ. Now in the context of First Corinthians 2:14, 3, 15, you'll see that what Paul is talking about is that spiritually discerning the things of God gives rise to the maturing of the body of Christ. It enables us to learn how to build with gold, silver and precious stones. You see it's just a natural thing that when you're discerning in your ministries, you don't waste time with the superfluous and the the things that don't matter, but you're able to move right down to the heart and to cause people to be able to grow quickly. Ever wondered why some people can meet Christ and two years later be past where you are? I mean really and their fervor, their knowledge of the word of God, their ministry. There's people in this room tonight that have known the Lord less than two years. Am I right? Anybody? One, two, three, four. Okay, five. You're just on the fringe, Paul. Three. Okay. I was looking for you to put up your hand. Some of us have walked with the Lord for 20 years, and it's just been the last two that we've really decided this was worth following. Right. Do you ever wonder why that is? I believe it's because somebody discerned the things of the Lord and helped minister that to them and got them on the way. And once you break loose in that beloved, people can run. Once the cycles of bondage are broken, they don't need you to be carrying them along with it. They can just run with it. I can say that's for Paul and others, just a few things had to be ministered, and not necessarily even by people here, but among others. And they took off. And so I just feel, you see, that ability to put your finger right on the issue and move on is just so important. It helps the whole body to mature. It's kind of like Nautilus, right? Nautilus focuses on certain muscles, but the whole body. No, we're not. No exhibitions. Fred was finding that the running wasn't working, so now it's Nautilus. He figures he has more physique for Mr. America than. Okay, number six. Discernment protects the leader from deception and deceptive pursuits. This is important, you see, if you're discerning, you're not about to get pulled into a lot of expenditure of your time and your love and all of your energies into things that aren't going to amount to anything. But beyond that, you're not nearly as likely to be tripped up and ensnared by the enemy, not about to get into useless and vain discussions. Isn't it interesting in Luke 11? You don't need to turn there, but this is where the. The Pharisees and the scribes were coming and asking Jesus for a sign. Remember that? And he said, there's only one sign that's going to be given to this generation. It's the sign that was given to the age of Noah. I mean, of Jonah. Three days and nights in the belly of a whale. Jesus said, I'm not going to give you any signs. I'm not about to be hauled off in some vain mindless kind of discussion. Or actually, in their cases, it was all an intellectual kind of a discussion. There was no spirit to it whatsoever. How many of you have been involved in discussions where you realized after three hours it wasn't going anywhere at all? More amens to that than I did. Is that just today was that. God delivers from treadmill ministry? We just don't need it. We don't work on a time clock in the kingdom. It's not the number of hours we put in with people, it's the quality of what we impart that matters. That's what was true in Jesus life that was true in the disciples. And I believe by the grace of God, it's becoming more and more true with us. The next thing I have here is that it allows the leaders to go on to the better things of the gospel. Now, I put meat in my notes. If you'd rather put meat rather than better things, it's okay. Hebrews 5:14 is an interesting verse that's quite familiar to most of you. Want to leave that up for a minute extra, Paul, Turn there, would you? Real quickly. Hebrews 5. Now, in the context, please note this. This could be an exposition for the rest of the evening and is worthy of it. But in the context of intercession, in the context of coming in before God in prayer and Jesus the high priest after the order of Melchizedek, and so on and so on. The writer of Hebrews throws this in verse 12. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of God's word. You need milk, not solid food. For everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their faculties trained by practice to distinguish good from evil, or to discern is the really equally acceptable translation of distinguish. And then it goes on and gives the elementary doctrines all that sort of a parenthesis between the mature thoughts of coming in prayer in the first part of 5 and look down in verse 9 of chapter 6. Thus we speak. Though we speak thus, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things. Better things that belong to salvation, you see, to the spiritually mature, to the discerning, better things belong. That's my heart. There are better things in ministry than to always be talking about the elementary things. And that's what God wants to bring about in his church. Maturing believers who are able to go on into things that have to do with the motivations of the heart and the the intentions of God and his purpose in the church for today. Listen, you know why the church at large? I'm talking about North Way. Now, do you know why we'll only have really maybe 100 more people on Thursday night at TNT? Of the 600 that we get on a normal Sunday morning, you know why about 200 will come on Thursday night when we talk about spiritual warfare? Because most of them have not come into the better things they are still dealing with. Hebrews 6:1:3, mark that. That's true. And it's our role. Beloved, you're here tonight because God wants to use us all to bring his church on into the better things of salvation. Okay? Now, finally, God would have leadership to move in discernment because it directs you into effective intercession. And please, I saved this for last. It probably should have been first. Intercession should always be the result of discernment from God. It is so easy to use discernment that God plops into your heart. For what reason to criticize. If God shows you something, it's very easy to use that as the basis of feeling like, well, brother, so and so's really got a lazy spirit. God showed me that. And in your mind you'll do battle about, well, do I now judge them for that lazy spirit, or do I use that as a basis for my prayer life? Much of what you'll discern by the grace of God, beloved, no one will ever know because God will just prompt you to pray for that person in that regard. Now, those of you who are schooled in prayer ministry know this, know what I'm talking about. God shows you things about people, but he doesn't show you. So you can walk around and say, well, I know something about so and so. God shows you that so you can be an effective person to pray for them. And you know what's funny? I know of situations where people have been praying for someone else to change and they don't even know why they're changing because somebody else is praying for them and they think they're trying real hard. Do you understand what we're getting at here? Discernment leads to effective intercession. Okay, any questions about these eight items? I have one more little set of things to share with you, and then we'll break up into groups. Grant? Well, I think in my understanding, discernment is a broader covering a word of knowledge, to me, Grant, would more often be a matter of specific revelation on a specific item, more focused. So, for example, if we discern that the presence of the Lord is in this place, it doesn't take a word of Knowledge for that, at the conclusion of this evening, I'm going to give you a sheet on the difference between discernment and judgment, which is an important thing to keep in mind. All right. Stand up. Second. That's how it's going to cut off your circulation, isn't it? Once again, let me just give you another second. Any other questions about those eight items, Dan? Think so. Well, yeah. Yes, that's true. I'm going to share with you how you can develop that. That's one of the things that I suggest is learning how to listen and ask questions. Let me show you what I mean. For example, where's the overhead about the different. No, the one about. That's the one, yeah. Just in case some of you aren't familiar with what we're talking about here, a good illustration of a surface problem that will arise. Here it is. Someone says, I have a financial problem. Or it may come out in a lot of different ways. You sense that your child or daughter is maybe stealing or lying. It may come out in the surface problem. And someone comes in the office and says, well, I just can't get my priorities right. I'm spending all this time at work. And they'll go on and on and on about that. It could be that there's just a continual argumentativeness that's coming out in the family, or it might even be literally physical illness is manifesting itself. Nothing serious, but just a constant kind of a thing that goes on for weeks and months. That's the surface problem. It's external and it's usually visible. But really the next thing, the surface cause of that, which is at the emotional feeling level, is insecurity inside. Worry, perhaps, envies at work to stir up the inner feelings, jealousy, tension, all those things that you can't see. But there are what's causing the stir underneath that's bringing about some of those surface problems. But if you dig a little deeper, you'll find that the root problems are what's going on in the heart, the motivational things. And there are things such as, really, in this person's case, particularly the one that I talked about in money, their real problem is that they have a real desire for it. And it isn't so much a matter of priorities in the sense of giving God the time that he's due. It's a matter that they just love to be successful so much that it's created a tension in their life which perhaps has led to argumentativeness and so on. And if you probe down just a little Bit farther, you'll find that the root cause is ultimately. Listen, this is really the root cause is very often that they've resisted the grace of God in their life that would bring about the change. And they've really refused to give God what he rightly deserves from them. And that is full access to their possessions. That's illustration from Bill Gothard's material that I think is helpful. It shows the kind of progression so often. Now listen, Dan, let's use your illustration of counseling. A person comes in in your home group and says, you know, I just can't get my finances in order. Well, if you sit down with them and work on the budget, first thing, you may work out a great budget. Three months later you've got this great budget, but there's still anxiety. There are all those things there. And really you come down three months later to realizing you haven't even touched what the root cause actually is. So this is just one little illustration that we all have to grow in and see that. Okay, now let me go. And I want to do this in pretty short order so you can have ample time to discuss some things in your group. How do we develop discernment? I think we have a sheet on this one, don't we? Okay, another sheet, guys. You get extra exercise. How do we develop discernment? It. Yeah, I need it to look at. Yeah, I need it to look at. Okay. Discernment. Discernment is not something beloved that we simply wake up one morning and are loaded down with. A five year old child discerns the value of a toy on its flash, its color, its sounds and its noise. A 10 year old discerns the value of a toy based on its potential for creativity. And in this current season, on the number of ways you can bend its arms and make trucks out of it, things like that. And in their minds, just the possibilities that are latent within it. And a 20 year old discerns his toys based on their durability, power, speed and insurance rates. Okay? We do not grow into discernment overnight. Above all else, the first thing on the sheet. Discernment is a reflection of care. There's an extremely powerful verse that shows me why the Lord Jesus was the most discerning of all men. Would you Note this please? John 2:23, 25. Now, when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs, which he did. Now listen to this. But Jesus did not trust himself to them because he knew all men and needed no one to Bear witness of man, for he himself knew what was in man. Well, that's saying to me that Jesus knew the heart of man. He knew it. He had perfect discernment, perfect character, perfect discernment. That is the explanation to me of how Jesus Christ functioned in perfect discernment. He himself was flawless in his character, you see, because all discernment basically is in a sense is a reflection of what we in our character have come to know. Truth to be. Discernment is, is our perception based on the truth of the word of God. As I said before, the life of Jesus being lived out through us, all that we are gets reflected in our discernment. That's why beloved, very often the more mature the older brothers and sisters tend to be, the more discerning, because through life their character has been shaped to where they have become mature in character and thereby mature in discernment, balancing out the things of life. So this isn't to discourage those of you who are 22 years old and you're not go