Sermon Tone Analysis

DON’T BELIEVE EVERYTHING YOU HEAR

INTRODUCTION:

The bible warns us that in the last days false teachers & prophets would arise…and that the last days would be days of deception.

2 Ti,

Well, those days are here & it’s not going to get any better…and we need to be aware of what’s going on so that we aren’t deceived ourselves.

B/C all around us there messages being preached that are not true…and we need to be able to discern the truth from the false.

Now, part of what prompted this message is a movie I watched on Netflix entitled, Come Sunday.

The movie is based on Carlton Pearson, who was a classical Pentecostal minister in the COGIC.

He attended Oral Roberts University & was mentored by Oral Roberts.

He formed his own church in Tulsa, Oklahoma which became one of the largest churches in Tulsa, with an average attendance of over 6,000 people.

But it all fell apart when he had a crisis of faith.

One night, after watching a television program about the conditions of people suffering and dying from the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, and considering the teachings of his church that non-Christians were going to Hell, Pearson believed he had heard from God…and that God told him that hell was a place in life & not a place of eternal torment…and also that all people will be saved.

The following Sunday he stood in his pulpit & stated publicly that he doubted the existence of hell as a place of eternal torment…and said that hell is created on earth by human depravity and behavior.

From there everything began to fall apart & today he is still preaching a gospel of inclusion…meaning that everyone will be saved whether you believe in Jesus or not.

Let me share with you some of the questions that he answers from his website.

Are you a Christian?

I love God and follow the Christ Principle and Person, Jesus, but I do not worship him, something, he would have deplored.

I love God and follow the Christ Principle and Person, Jesus, but I do not worship him, something, he would have deplored.

Is the bible the Word of God?

The Bible is the word of man about God, as best as a finite being can describe an infinite reality...That which we revere as the most sacred lexicon of truth on the planet is not necessarily-- as any true scholar will tell you -- infallible or inerrant.

The only ones who insist that are those who haven’t fully read and studied it.

Does hell exist?

It is assumed that as an Inclusionist I do not believe in hell?

I do believe in hell; but NOT the mythological hell of people burning in pits of fire and brimstone for all of eternity with weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth.

Hell is a place you go through, not to...We all go through it.

There are people who are profoundly tormented right now in a hell that we created for them or that they created for themselves and they can't imagine a worse experience.

Does heaven exist?

No one knows the precise answer to that question and anything we say about it will only be speculative and based on imagination.

I do believe in life after this one as I do in life before it...But this is only because I choose to.

If in fact, there is a heaven, it would be only in consciousness and not necessarily like the one portrayed in religious mythology, Christianity included.

Jesus said in the Fathers House, meaning in the metaphysical realm of realities, there are many mansions.

I interpret that to mean many dimensions, spheres, floors, places and spaces of consciousness and reality.

I interpret heaven as metaphorical referring to the higher and farthest reaches, regions and rhythms of consciousness.

Jesus said in the Fathers House, meaning in the metaphysical realm of realities, there are many mansions.

I interpret that to mean many dimensions, spheres, floors, places and spaces of consciousness and reality.

I interpret heaven as metaphorical referring to the higher and farthest reaches, regions and rhythms of consciousness.

What is God?

I no longer believe in a God or “the” God, I just believe in God, an ultimate transcendent Omnipresent Reality full of love, light, intelligence and order.

Rather than perceiving a personal God, I prefer the personification of an ultimate Good, expressing itself as God or Divinity.

The most dangerous and destructive misconceptions people have embraced is that of a caricature God, who is biased, bigoted, jealous, judgmental, vengeful and who has a severe anger management problem, who throws violent temper tantrums ranging from natural disasters to cancer, AIDS and ultimately hell.

Belief in, and worshipful devotion to such an image leads to the proliferation of that same dangerous habit of acting out such vitriolic behavior and attitude towards others.

The most dangerous and destructive misconceptions people have embraced is that of a caricature God, who is biased, bigoted, jealous, judgmental, vengeful and who has a severe anger management problem, who throws violent temper tantrums ranging from natural disasters to cancer, AIDS and ultimately hell.

Belief in, and worshipful devotion to such an image leads to the proliferation of that same dangerous habit of acting out such vitriolic behavior and attitude towards others.

We believe that experience is not only what happens to you, but what you do with what happens to you.

Faith is an action and fear is a reaction.

We endeavor to always act in faith and never react in fear.

Questions are answers in seed form.

It takes talent to answer them, but genius to ask them.

We don't seek to be a place where every question is answered, but a community of faith where you can feel safe asking them.

We endeavor to not only answer questions, but question answers and continue our personal and collective ongoing evolution.

We take the Bible seriously, just not always literally.

We think it is more important what Jesus said about God than what the church tends to say about Jesus.

We seek to help teach and remind people of their personal and powerful and often forgotten Divinity…Jesus said, “Ye are gods.”

When my detractors interpret , "I am the way and the truth and the life.

No one comes to the Father except through me.” they tend to interpret that mean, "No one comes to God except through 'Christianity' rather than Christ Consciousness, or in Christian doctrine, the “finished work of the cross.”

Now, I have said all of this just to give you a little bit of information of what is out there concerning false teaching today.

They think it means "no one can get to God, except you (they) get down on their knees, confess Jesus, and jump through all the traditional religious hoops in order to reach, appease and please God."

And we in the church need to exercise spiritual discernment to determine if what others are saying is from God or from the enemy.

So, tonight I want to give you 3 observations from our text and talk about Spiritual Discernment.

However, that scripture doesn't mean that at all.

1) YOU CAN’T BELIEVE EVERYTHING YOU HEAR (v 1)

The phrase “do not believe every spirit” means that believers shouldn’t believe everything they hear just b/c someone says it’s a message from God.

“Do not believe every spirit” means that the believers should not believe everything they hear just because someone says it is a message from God.

Just b/c someone has credentials, says they’re a pastor & speaking on God’s behalf means they really are.

Barton, B. B., & Osborne, G. R. (1998).

1, 2 & 3 John (p.

83).

Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House.

Everyone with a bible in their hand isn’t a messenger of God.

Not everyone with the title “pastor” “teacher” or “prophet” is to be given your undivided attention.

Everyone that uses Christian terminology isn’t teaching Christian truth.

Satan can masquerade as an angel of light & he knows the bible…but he is nothing but a liar.

Satan can masquerade as angel of light.

His false teachers & prophets will do nothing but twist scripture & mix truth in with lies.

NOTE: Just b/c it comes from a pulpit doesn’t mean it’s true.

We have to be aware of the fact that not every spiritual teacher is a credible teacher.

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ware of the fact that not every spiritual teacher is a

credible teacher.

work hard to earn ou

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There are spiritual deceivers and liars out there, and they work hard to earn our trust & our allegiance.

trust, our allegiance.

NOTE: YOU CAN’T BELIEVE EVERYTHING YOU HEAR!

2) YOU HAVE TO TEST WHAT YOU HEAR (v 1-3)

John says, “test the spirits to see whether they are from God.”

This means that we are to test the message & the messengers to see if it’s truly from the Lord.

But how do we do that?

First of all, we should check to see if it matches God’s Word.

If it doesn’t line up with the entirety of the bible, and verses are being taken out of context to form a particular teaching...then most likely it’s false.

If verses are being taken out of context,

Now again, most false teachers don’t teach blatant lies & heresy…They will have some truth to their teaching & mix their false doctrine in with it.

This is why we have to know what the bible says.

If we don’t the truth - we won’t be able to spot what is false.

If someone comes along, & they claim that God told them something new that no one else has ever seen before…most likely it’s false.

God will never contradict Himself…If He says something in His Word - He will never give a prophecy or a revelation that contradicts the written Word.

Another test is to look at the messenger’s commitment to the body of believers.

1

John tells us that there were false teachers in the church that left b/c their teachings weren’t accepted…and when they left it proved that they didn’t really belong to the Christian community.

Iow’s, they weren’t true believers…If they had been true believers, they would have repented & stayed.

False teachers won’t hang around if they’re ever called out.

Iow’s, if their teaching isn’t tolerated & they are confronted…they will leave.