Latest / The Daily Word / August 23 – Test Everything
Transcript
- Brandon: Well, good morning, good afternoon, good evening, whenever you are listening to this, and welcome once again to the Daily Word podcast. My name is Brandon, and I am one of the pastors here at our church. And again, thank you so much today for tuning in. Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. We hope that every time you tune in, it is an encouragement to you. in case you're new to the podcast, our format is we take time every single day to share a scripture. what we're observing or seeing in that scripture, how it applies to our life, and then leading you in in a response or a prayer. it simply is the method that we use for our journaling, our daily Bible reading and journaling. We call it the soap method, scripture, observation, application, prayer. And it simply is a method of reading the scripture and prayerfully journaling and studying the scripture on a daily basis. And so on the Daily Word Podcast, we're taking the New Testament reading of our life. Journal reading plan. And today, August the 23rd, our New Testament reading is first John chapter 4. And I want to just share share with you from the very first verse in this chapter. Here's what it says: Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. Read one more time. First John chapter 4, verse 1. Beloved, do not, do not, emphasis here, do not believe every false spirit. Or every spirit, rather, but test the spirits, whether they're of God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. here the author of 1 John is speaking to his audience, and he simply says, Listen, you can't believe everything you're being told. You can't believe everything that's coming across your feed. You can't believe everything your neighbors telling you, everything every person tells you. You don't believe it all. But rather, you need to test. You need to test the spirit, test what they're saying, test what's coming out of their mouth. You need to test what you're hearing because many false prophets, many people who are telling you things and going to try to convince you of things. Many false prophets, they're they're they've gone out into the world, and if you are not careful, you might be deceived, get wrong information, and start interpreting the scripture, interpreting relationship with God, interpreting and living life from a a false premise. I think the ultimate false prophet it's the enemy, it's the it's it's the devil. We see this in the book of Genesis. Genesis, the serpent comes to Eve and he starts twisting the scripture. Well, you know, did God really say? Well, you know, what God knows and what and he starts twisting God's words, bringing a false report. And the the reality is kind of observation and application all in one is that we're living in a world right now where there is so much misinformation. Now, I I I don't I don't mean and I'm not just talking about, you know. misinformation like news media, fake news. I don't know where you land on all the fake news and conspiracy and big brother. I was getting a haircut a while back and the lady cutting my hair was very, very into all of the conspiracy and was telling me all the reasons why I should be into it too. And so may maybe you live in that world. I if you do, that's not really the point. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about just the opinions of people on life. And and here here's what I realize in my own life, and it's true, true for you too. All of us to some degree, from the movies we watch, the music we listen to, what's on the the the the radio, if we listen to talk radio, if we're on social media, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, whatever it may be, we we have content that is coming at us that is preaching, teaching, oftentimes A message, a way of thinking that is not in alignment with the words of God or with the ways of God. It's it's a false narrative, a false narrative. Also, let's think about this. All the people around you are listening to the same, dare I say, garbage. And you might go to work and let's just say that maybe you've done a good job at guarding your heart and your mind from all the content that's cut that's coming your way, but then you go to work. And you got Bob. And Bob is eating up hook, line, and sinker, all the garbage he's consuming on Facebook and on Instagram and listening to the news and and he's talking to his neighbor who's doing the and all of a sudden Bob he he does he's not trying to be a false prophet, but but he's prophesying, he's telling you, he's teaching you, he's he's he he's encouraging you stuff that's like that that that that's not that's not true, that's not right. And here here's what the scripture says. Listen, don't believe every spirit. Well, you know, it just seemed right. It felt no, don't don't do that. Don't believe every spirit. Don't believe everything you hear. Don't believe everything that's coming across your feed, but test it. Test it. How how do how do we how do we test things? This is a longer topic than just this podcast, but I'll just give you the number one way we test things. The number one way we test things is by going back to the word of God. What did God say? And I would say we we go back to like church history and early church fathers. Hey, what is historically for the last 2,000 plus years? How has the church of Jesus Christ interpreted this scripture? Let's not get duped into thinking, well, you know, it's 2026, almost 2027, and we got like a new way of, no, no, no, let's let's let's not do that. Let's let we're not doing that. Let's go back to what does the Bible say and what has the classical interpretation been for thousands of years? That's how you test things. Well, you well, you know, actually, I think the best way to do it is well, hold on, Bob, Sue. that's not what the scripture says. Well, you know, God is love, and so I I just think you know, God just wants me to be happy. well, the Bible says God wants you to be holy. And God does care about your happiness, but He knows that ultimately you will be happy when you live a holy life in alignment with His Word and His. We gotta test things. And so my encouragement to you today is maybe number one, try to avoid the content you're consuming that's giving you a false narrative. Secondly, make sure you're testing, make sure you're not just believing things and taking things at at face value. Make sure you're going back to the Bible. Make sure you're going back to the scripture, the, the, the classical interpretation of scripture and to pastors and leaders and like go back and test the things that you are being told, lest you be deceived into a wrong way of thinking and a wrong way of living. I'd also encourage you that you'd be someone that you'd start helping other people test things. hold on for a second, Frank. what why do you think that? Hey, before you just buy into that way of thinking and living, can I ask you, have you have you considered what the scripture says? Have you have you can help help help be someone that's helping other people test things? Because ultimately what we want is we want to live a life that is in the truth. Our thinking is truth, our living is truth. We don't want to be consumed by the culture so much so that we end up living in deception, ultimately out of God's ways, out of God's will, and dare I see, dare I say, even out. out of eternally being with him. Hey, I hope this has been encouraging and insightful to some degree to you. I love that we just get to kind of casually do this. This is not scripted. It's not you know, overly polished. We're just w we're talking on the Daily Word podcast. And I hope it's an encouragement to you. We love you so much. let's just let's pray together. Lord Jesus, thank you today for giving us your Holy Spirit and and the Word of God. Help us to test everything we're hearing, everything that we're seeing. Help us to test the things that are That are coming at us that we might live in the truth of your word in ways, ultimately in the life that you want us to live. In Jesus' name, amen. Again, love you so much and can't wait to talk to you again on another episode of the Daily Word Podcast.