Episode 157: November 5 , 2023 - A Pocket Full Of Stones

Eternity Church PodCast

A Sunday sermon by Pastor Brett Deal. On the Way of St. James, the pilgrimage starts in the French Pyrenees and winds to Santiago de Compostela, Spain. For us, we started on this long obedience in the same direction mentally walking the pilgrim’s path alongside the Apostle John as our spiritual guide. Along the way, we’ve found that his first little letter is not for the faint of heart! It challenges us as much as it comforts. It spurs us on when all we want to do is rest and calls us to rest when we are anxious to hurry down the road. This week on the path we come to 1 John 4.1-6. Reading these verses, we realize we need to take our time. It talks about spirits and prophets, and some of us would much rather just press on and not stop here. When we feel like this is, it's good for us to slow down as we ascend the hill of John’s words and wrestle with their meaning. Prayerfully reading these verses will require refining in our own lives (in our own character) so that we will be ready to determine the legitimacy of prophets and be able to discern between truth and error. What becomes evident—when reading passages like this—is we need the Spirit of Jesus to guide us into all truth. It is too easy to reach for easy answers or to lean on imagination to fill the breaks. Left on our own, we can find this to be very discouraging. Be encouraged, friend! Walking on this road of faith with the Spirit of God, the Apostle Paul teaches us we will no longer be “tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes,” (Ephesians 4.14). In the Spirit, we will find security as we heed John’s advice to “not believe everyone who claims to speak by the Spirit,” because as we do will we discern “if the spirit they have comes from God,” (1 John 4.1). That makes this Sunday a meaningful week to be together as we explore this word with one another and the Spirit.