Joshua Harris ~ Discernment

(Note: These posts which are notes taken from the New Attitude '07 conference may not be entirely complete, but they are all taken straight from my note-book...as I scribbled furiously away. P.S. I tend to use bullets to organize the points of a message, so that's what I am going to do here.)

• Humble Orthodoxy is: Applying the established truths to our lives. We want this truth - that has always been - to transform us.
• You can't have humble orthodoxy without discernment.
  
• What IS discernment? Discernment is the ability to judge well. It is close to possessing wisdom. It is the ability to separate apart and distinguish between good and evil, sound doctrine and unsound doctrine etc.
• 1 Thess. 5:21-22
• We need to act on what we see.
• Discernment isn't always easy. You aren't told (if something is wrong), "THIS IS EVIL!" The "evil" in this world is often subtle and mixed in with different things that come towards us.
• Whether or not we have spiritual discernment is a matter of life-and-death.
• When it comes to spiritual discernment, it's about our souls. Will we know God for who he is? Will we walk the wide or the narrow path? Will we follow true or false gods?
• There are 2 paths to choose from: Broad and Easy, or Narrow and Hard. Broad=death. Narrow=life.
• Discernment matters because our souls are at stake.
• ALL of us can grow in discernment.
• We should ask for discernment. (1 Kings 3:9)
• We are to WORK at discernment. STUDY HIS WORD.
• Psalms 119:104, Ephesians 5:10, Hebrews 5:14.
• If you lack discernment, study God's word.
• If someone has "powers of discernment", that just means they have been practicing it - exercising their "discernment muscles".
• Romans 12:1-2
• Discernment: Grabbing hold of the truth and grabbing hold of the life we are to live in discernment.
• Give God everything that you are - in light of all he has done for you. Not just a Sunday morning or a conference weekend, but every day...giving EVERYTHING that you are as a living sacrifice.
• How do you stay a living sacrifice, so that you are pleasing to Him?
• (The reason we want to grow in discernment is to know and follow God's will.)

1. Discernment requires RESISTANCE.

• ("Do not be conformed to this world.")
• One aspect of discernment is understanding how the world is trying to shape your thinking. You need to know this if you want to faithfully resist it.
• It takes a lifetime of hard work. We need those who are older and have more experience to help us along.
• Following God's way involves being rejected by his world.
• Not being conformed means, most of the time, not fitting in.
• Discernment dies when we allow our minds to be shaped by the culture just to "fit in".

2. Discernment requires RENEWAL.

• Renewing takes action, and we have to conscientiously choose to review and renew the truths.
• The Bible is the truth that needs to reset our thinking.

3. Discernment requires ACTION.

• Discernment not played out in "real life" is not discernment.
• We must ACT on God's truth to grow in it.
• It requires application.
• We need test God's Word by applying it.
• We must exhibit to the watching world that we take truth seriously. If the theology you hold doesn't shape how you live your life, you don't really know it.
• The reason you aren't growing in discernment may be because you aren't applying the truth that God has already shown you. Discernment can crumble.
• The best way to grow in discernment is to obey God in the ways that he has already made clear in his word. (Even the small ways.) If you don't, discernment will die in your life.

4. Discernment requires THE GOSPEL.

• We cannot live a Christian life, love, or be discerning if we don't understand that it's not what we have done, but what GOD has done.
• Discernment is only possible because of the gospel.
• The only way we can have discernment is because HE first chose us. It was not ANYTHING in us - but he chose to pour out his grace in our lives.
• If we practice discernment in view of God's grace, we will be practicing humility.
• Let's not be pre-occupied with discernment, but the mercy of God in our lives.
• Give up any claim we have on our own lives, and give it all to God.
• Discernment is just the fruit of living our life for God.