John K. Jenkins Sr - Discerning The Voice of God - Part 1

I want you to open your Bibles to the book of Hebrews, chapter 5. I want to give you a little background on this particular book before we get into it so you understand what it’s about. The book of Hebrews is penned by an unknown writer; we don’t know his name, but we know to whom he’s writing and why he’s writing. He’s writing to some Messianic Jews, some Christian Jews-these are Jews who have converted to Christianity-and they are contemplating quitting Christianity and reverting back to Judaism. He 's writing to them to encourage them not to quit. I think this is an important topic. Our churches celebrate 98 years of existence; there are a whole lot of churches that don’t make it 98 years in our country. A lot of churches don’t last 5 years, so he is urging them not to quit. I thought I ought to talk about this because we live in the midst of a quitting culture. People quit everything: they quit their jobs, they quit their marriages, they quit friendships and relationships. People quit everything. It’s a quitting culture; people quit ministries, quit preaching, quit singing in the choir, and quit the choir if someone makes them mad. I quit! We act like children. Children do that: you play marbles, and if someone does something you don’t like, you pick up your marbles and go home. On the basketball court, if you’re losing, you take your ball and go home. Children quit; grown people stick it out. Mature people stick it out. Children quit. He’s writing to them because they’re acting like kids.

Here, what kids? Hebrews 5 says, «I want to start at verse 12.» Are y’all with me? Hebrews 5:12 says, «For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food.» Let me, can I pause right there? This is the 12:00 service; I can take my time. I’ve got to remind myself: by this time, he’s saying to them, by this place in your journey in Christ, you ought to be teachers. You 've been around the kingdom and walking with God long enough that by this time you should be able to teach others how to live a Christian life. He said by this time you ought to be teaching, but you need someone to teach you again. You need to be retaught the first principles of the oracles of God and need milk and not solid food. You should be on solid food by now, but you need someone to take you back to the breast and drink some milk.

«For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe» (verse 13). «But solid food belongs to those who are of full age» (verse 14). Somebody say «full age.» Full age: solid food belongs to those who are mature, seasoned; that is, those who, listen to this, who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. That 's a profound thing. Here 's what he’s saying to them: by this time, you ought to be at a place in your journey that you can discern between what’s right and what’s wrong. Y’all do know we live in a culture where people are calling wrong right and right wrong. He says by this time, you should be able to discern both right and wrong between what’s good and what’s evil, what’s right and what’s wrong, what’s holy and what’s not holy. I wanted to talk to you about this because I feel the need. I think part of one of my responsibilities as your pastor is to help you be able to make your journey in life with Christ and mature to a level where you don’t have to continue being spoon-fed. You’ve got to get to a place in your walk with God where you can, as John says in the Gospel of John, go in and out and find pasture. You ought to be able to go into the word and be able to feed on it without having someone to feed you from the word all the time. Thank all 20 of you for that; I appreciate it.

So I want to talk to you about having the ability to discern God’s voice because one of the things you’re going to need in life is how to hear God’s voice. You’ve got to be able to discern when God is talking to you and when God is not talking to you. How many of you know that God will talk to you? How many of you know God is still in the talking business? Amen. But how many of you also know that the devil is in the talking business? How many of you know that when the devil talks to you, it’s not with a demonic voice? The devil doesn’t come to talk to you with a-he first of all, if he comes and shows up, he’s not going to be in a red suit with a pitchfork, a tail, and horns. He’s going to be dressed as an angel of light. When the devil comes and talks to you, he’s going to sound like an angel of light; he’s going to sound saved. The devil could quote more verses than all of us in here put together.