Pastor Leandro Speaks to the LF Men's Group

Good morning, men and women, such an awesome privilege to be able to come and speak to you again on the Pando app from Life Fellowship Church, right here in McKinney, Texas, to your tablet, wherever you may be. Man, my name is Logan Williams, my TDC number is 1490218, and I was just thinking how much I wish I had a tablet when I was incarcerated and could just have access to the, I think 150 plus churches was the last time I counted. There's probably more in all the Chosen and the Bible Recap and all the books, and man, you guys are so blessed. And we are blessed to be able to make you a part of our church family by giving you our services, by telling you how much we love you. Just want to remind you again that when you get out, even if you don't live here, if you're anywhere near the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex on a Sunday, man, we want to meet you. Maybe this can't be your home church, but man, we want to meet you, we want to get you some coffee, we want to get you, we want to have lunch with you, I want to introduce you to Pastor Chris, and a lot of guys have been coming, they want to meet Nathan, they want to meet, you know, and everyone wants to meet you because we do love you. Our heart is truly for you, not just me, everyone here. We're praying for you, we're constantly wondering what we can do to pour into your lives more, and we mean that. When we say you're a part of our church family, we mean that. And so please come visit us if you can. Tell your friends and family to download Pando on their phone so they can have access to the same stuff you have access to. And I know you might think, well, I can just look at sermons on YouTube or whatever. It's important as a family to at least have one service or one teaching or something that you can watch together. And then when you see each other at visitation or when you talk on the phone, or when you write letters, however you communicate, you can discuss it together, what the Holy Spirit say to you during that message. Oh, that's cool.

I never thought about it like that. And you can grow as a family, even though you're incarcerated. See, the enemy wants to tell you that you can't do that. The enemy wants to tell you your family is ruined. Your family is, there's division, it's over. That's not true. We serve a God that loves to restore families. Even in the midst of a situation like this, God can take it and just turn it for the good. And your family can, you can come out the other end of this even more solidified as a family unit, Romans 8 says that. And so I want to give you just a scripture that the Lord put on my heart. It's one of my favorite parables to Mark chapter five. I'll just start reading and verse 21 says, Jesus got into the boat again and went back to the other side of the lake where a large crowd gathered around him on the shore. Then a leader of the local synagogue whose name was Jairus arrived. When he saw Jesus, he fell at his feet. This is a leader. This is a, this is a guy that's got standing, right? But he goes and he falls at Jesus's feet, pleading fervently with him. My little daughter is dying. He said, please come and lay your hands on her. Heal her so she can live. You know, this, this guy probably had some pride. He probably had some arrogance. He's, he's a leader, leader. He's a leader of leaders in the, in the, in the church there in the synagogue and sometimes it takes situations, right? Desperate situations for us to become desperate, for us to, to go in, fall at Jesus's feet per se in your heart and, and, and plead with him fervently to do something in your life because you're just at your wits end.

You don't see any other way. You don't see any other path. It doesn't matter who you are or how high up you may be or how important you are or how much money you have or what, what job you may, what title you may hold. Life has a way of bringing us to our knees. And so my question is, are you to that point in the situation that you're in? Is it possible that God has plucked you out of a situation where you may be, we're going to die or things were going to get way, way, way worse and is preserving you right now is trying to get you to a point where you can fall at his feet and say fervently. Help me And so Jesus went with him says and all the people followed Jesus pretty popular, you know There's an amazing rock show going on the Jesus show. He's healing people. He's he's he's feeding 5,000 he's doing all these crazy things and everyone loves him and it's great. I wish often wish man I could just get in a time machine and and go back and just just hang out for a few days during that Time period and just how amazing that must have been So this crowds following him Crowding around him. He's like a celebrity almost And it says a woman in the crowd had suffered 12 years with constant bleeding she's bleeding right this menstrual bleeding We think She had suffered a great deal for many doctors and over the years had spent everything she had to pay for them But she had gotten no better You know when I when I read that how the woman Was just continuing to bleed even though she went to many many doctors and she spent all her money She just got worse. I think about all the things that I tried to do to In my drug addiction To relieve of the drug addiction. I would go to treatment centers. They would send me to counselors They would send me to all these things and it just seemed to get worse. I Can relate to this woman in that respect? I Didn't want to just ruin my life and do drugs for 25 years and go to prison four times. I didn't want to do that

Yet that's what happened So she had heard about Jesus I Heard about Jesus too so she heard about Jesus so she came up behind him through the crowd and Touched his robe before she thought to herself if I can just touch his robe. I'll be healed Immediately the bleeding stopped and she could feel in her body that she had been healed of her terrible condition So There's this great crowd around him There's this woman who's bleeding who would be considered unclean people would would want to get away from her She would kind of be an outcast but she heard about Jesus. She tried everything else She'd spent all her resources trying to to relieve her condition and and she just said man. I Again, like Jerry is like like the like the the leader that we just read about who fell at his feet She was also at her wits end and she and somehow this faith rose up in her man If I can just touch his garment, I can be healed. And so I picture this woman Elbowing her her way through the crowd Pushing people out of the way Bleeding, you know people looking at her crazy probably like oh my gosh. What is this? look at this crazy woman just Mauling people over to try to get to Jesus and she touches his robe Do We have the same tenacity in our walk to get to Jesus or do we say to ourselves Man, I don't care what it takes. I don't care who I got a nudge out of the way who I got a What crowd I've got to get through? I'm touching Jesus Because I heard about him and I believe that he can heal me Guys he can heal you But but we've got to get through the crowd and get to him It's sometimes that crowd can be our own thinking it can be the enemy coming against us It can be our family that doesn't believe there's gonna be all kinds of people that might come against us That's gonna try to hinder us to get to Jesus

But we've got to have this mindset like Jarius and like this woman that I don't care what it is I'm getting to Jesus and yeah, there may be people around your life that look at you crazy There may be people are like who is this lady? Elbowing people out of the way bleeding all over the place. Oh my god. She's nuts but because of her crazy Because of her nuts she got to Jesus and got healed forgiven and set free in that moment because of her crazy Do you have some crazy in you to get to Jesus? Do you have something in you? That's like I don't care what other people think. I don't care what other people say I'm getting to Jesus. I'm doing this You can see that they both did that Jarius fell at his feet she elbowed through the crowd bleeding on people It says Jesus realized at once that the healing power had gone out of him So he turned around in the crowd and said who touched me And his disciples said to him Lord look at the look at the crowd pressing around you. How can you ask who touched me? Did you? In other words, there's lots of people touching you. There's lots of people bumping into you. But he kept on looking around to see who had done it. Then the frightened woman trembling at the realization of what had happened to her came and fell to her knees in front of him and told him what she had done. And he said to her, daughter, your faith has made you well, go in peace. Your suffering is over. I don't know what you're gonna have to lay down. I don't know what you're gonna have to do. But I know that God has you in the position that you're in for a reason. There is a plan and a purpose on your life. And the life that you were leading before, okay, was not a part of that plan. And so I can see that now,

having done nine and a half years in prison and having come out on the other side of that, I can see that, man, I can honestly say that I'm thankful that God put me over there all those times. Because if I would have kept going, man, like who knows what I would even look like today. Would I have any teeth in my mouth? Would I have any, what kind of diseases would I have from the life I was living, the drugs I was doing, the crazy women I was sleeping around with, all that stuff, man. And so I can see that now. And so could it be the same for you? Could God in his love, in his perfect plan for your life, have you in the place that you're at right now so that he can preserve you, so that he can mold you and shape you. But he's looking for our yes. We're gonna have to get a little crazy like Jarius and like this woman and chase after Jesus with the desperation of a drowning man. And that's what I wanna encourage you with today. Don't waste this time. I don't care if you're in the county jail right now and you just got booked in, or if you've been in prison for 15 years. There is a plan and a purpose on your life that you can't even think, ask, or imagine. And it's hard to believe that I know right now. It was hard for me to believe that as well.

But when I finally got all in, when I finally said, I don't care who, I gotta push out of the way, I'm touching his robe, metaphorically, then his plan started coming together. And so I wanna encourage somebody today to do that thing that he's asking you to do, to lay that thing down, that sin down that he's asking you to lay down, to wage war, to try to live a righteous life. We have to try. Yes, we're not gonna be perfect. We're not. We're humans. We're gonna fall. We're gonna fail. But we need to try to be perfect. He tells person after person after person after he heals them, go and sin no more. He didn't say, well, okay, hey man, go. And when you do sin, then repent again. No, no, no. He's like, you gotta try not to sin. I don't know, that's weird thinking to a lot of people. Well, how can I possibly? You have to try. You have to try. But when we fall, he's right there to pick us back up. And so I just wanna encourage you. I don't know what it's gonna look like for you,

but get through the crowd, get to Jesus, touch his robe. Heavenly Father, I love these men and women who faithfully watch us. That you've picked out, hand-picked out, God. Man, I just pray that there would be a mindset change in their hearts of how they look at the time that you've got them incarcerated right now, that maybe it is a blessing, that it could be that my most catastrophic day that I had, that I thought life is over and nothing worse could possibly happen to me than getting arrested right now has turned out to be the biggest blessing in my life. And God, I just pray that you could give them a glimpse or a vision or impart something into their hearts where they can maybe start changing their mindset around the time that they are incarcerated and that they could start using this time, man, to chase after you, to get through the crowd, to do whatever they gotta do to get to you, to fight against sin. In one of your scriptures, you painted a beautiful picture of how you want us to view our sin when you said, if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. And I know you didn't actually mean that you wanted us to pluck out our eyes and cut off our hands, but that's how you want us to look at sin.

You want us to hate it. You want us to hate that thing that we bring to your feet and do everything that we can to sever that from our lives, whatever it takes. And so God, I just pray that fresh fire, fresh tenacity. would just rise up in these men and women to chase after you, to go after the things of God, and to deny the things that we know grieve your heart. And so God, I just ask that you would bless them, that you would just fall on them right now with conviction. I pray that they would shake off any religious spirit of condemnation. We know there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ, but where conviction lands, God, I pray that they respond. And I ask that you would bless them, bless their families, and let them know, God, how much you love them, that you bankrupted heaven for them, and that you would do it, even if they were the only person on planet earth, you would do it for them. And so we love you. We give you all the praise and glory in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. I got one question for you. Whose house? God's house. Let's give him some praise. All right. All right. Everybody here? You guys miss anybody? All right. Hey. Good evening, everyone. Good evening. Come on. Come on, brothers. Come on. Starting the new semester. Praise God. Come on, guys. That's great. That's great. Last week, we had that, I mean, that it's not even snow, right? I mean, it was more of a sleet than snow. Goodness. Yeah. So we had some fun, had some fun with the kids, but yeah, but too much time at home. I don't know how you guys feel about that, but like, man, I got to do something, you know. Anyways, so good to be back. Good to be in group. Good to be with you guys. I do believe God has great things for us this semester, and I want to encourage you to stick to the whole semester because God is going to really speak to you. There are a lot of things that we are praying for this semester. We believe that God is going to reveal a few important things for us as men here in this church, and also for us to be able to just reflect his character, his love, who he is, in our community, in our homes, in our work, in whatever we do, so we can reflect God in all the things we do. Every time that we start a new semester, I like to explain a little bit how it works. I know that many of you, if not, maybe we have a few new people, but I would like to explain a little bit of the dynamics. So this semester, we're always going to have live worship. So we used to have the video in the past. Now, we're going to have

always live worship. The last Tuesday of every month, we're going to have what we call community nights, and those are nights that we're going to have a service together, both men and women, here in this auditorium, and we're going to have full band live worship. It's going to be great, and 90% of the times, we're going to have a guest speaker coming and speaking to us. I mean, there are some great speakers coming. One of them was my pastor at seminary. He's coming. Thank you so much, Nash. Appreciate you, man. Hey, by the way, let's give it up for Nash. He put it all together, all slides, and man, all that. Thank you so much, Nash. You're the man. So yeah, so one of them is Pastor Brendan Holler. He was my professor at the seminary, and honestly, when this guy speaks, man, it's so, so, so good. We're going to have many great speakers coming, so please come join us. Invite friends. Invite other men. Invite other couples to come and join us on those Tuesday nights. Amen? Amen. And we also like having the service in our correctional facilities, and I want to say thank you so much for clicking this video, for joining us. I know that's going to be a blessing to you too, so stick to the end because I know that God is going to speak to you and to your life. Okay, great. So today, we're going to talk about a very important thing for us, as obviously, right, got to be important. We're going to talk about discernment. Discernment. When I was praying for the service, when I was praying for men, for the men of our church, one of the words that God gave, that God put in my heart was discernment. And I know that the first thing that maybe come to your mind, like, okay, I know how to discern good and evil. It's easy for me. I know how to simply choose between right and wrong. It's it's easy But that's not the case many times You know there are some times that you need to discern between a thing that it's merely a good thing or a real God direction thing But how can you and I have that discernment coming from the Lord? and Today I want to invite you to open the Bible with me in John chapter 10 So Jesus is talking about the Good Shepherd, and he's gonna talk about himself. He's gonna talk about

How the sheep listen to his voice and all those things and that's gonna help us to understand How we can discern the voice of God So John chapter 10 Verse 1 says this Truly truly I say to you the one who does not enter by the door But by the door into the fold of the sheep, but climbs up some other way Some other way he's the thief and a robber but the one who enters by the door is a shepherd of the sheep To him the doorkeeper opens and the sheep listen to his voice and he calls his own sheep by Name and leads them out When he puts all his own sheep outside He goes ahead of them and the sheep follow him because they know his voice however a Stranger they will simply will not follow but will flee from him because they will not know the voice of strangers Jesus told them this figure of speech But they did not understand what the things which he was saying then to them meant So Jesus said to them again truly truly I say to you. I am the door of the sheep all Those who come before me are thieves and robbers But the sheep did not listen to them. I am the door if anyone enters through the door enters through me He will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture the thief comes only to steal Kill and destroy I come so that they would have life And have it abundantly. I Am a good shepherd The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd who is who is not the owner of the sheep Sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and fleas and the wolf snatches them and

scatters the flock He flees because he's a hired hand and does not care about the sheep I am the good shepherd and I know my own and my own Know me Amen Hey When we have discernment In The Lord we're gonna be able to make better decisions we're gonna be able to lead well to lead our homes to lead our or our Lives we're gonna be able to set the right priorities in place We we're gonna be able to walk in in the purpose that God has for us But we just read the Word of God and Let me start with a question for you from the Word of God that that we just read Who comes to kill and steal and destroy The devil the thief Those are right right answers. Yes hundred percent Now if you say That is only the devil that is a partial, right? There is there's a There's the the the context here from what we read Shows that it's it goes way beyond the devil For example when somebody When you see a news about a murder You just say such-and-such Such person did murder that person. You don't say the devil murdered that person.

When you hear news about somebody robbing a bank or something like that, you say such and such person actually robbed the bank. So what Jesus was saying here, he was pointing to people. Definitely what motivates people to rob another people will be the devil. What motivates, what encourages people to kill another person, most likely, if it's not self-defense, will be the devil. And on and on and on and on and on. So it's not wrong to say the devil. But the meaning that Jesus wants to bring to you and I, it goes way beyond the devil. He's saying here that it will be false teachers, will be false prophets that will teach you things, that will try to lead you in a way, in a specific way that will deceive you. And even though the word is saying that the enemy, that the thief came to steal, kill, and destroy, that's not necessarily something that happens right away. It's little by little. So when you see all those things, okay? For example, you see Jesus saying, he's not referring to Satan only. He's referring to this false prophets, people, leaders, people that have some sort of influence over your life. But that doesn't need to be only one person specific. For example, if you go and see the culture that we are in, if you let that be influenced by the culture, by the pop culture,

or if you let it be influenced by the media, by the news, you're gonna be fearful. You're not gonna make decisions based on that. You gotta be based on what God tells you. And that's the thing. There'll be a lot of deception in this world. A lot of people, bad intention to influence you to make bad decisions. Some people do that because they don't know better. But some people do that also because they want to lead you to destruction. And that's because they are led by the devil. But how you and I, we can discern those things. How can we actually be protected against the lies of the enemy and be able to discern? Because here's the thing, here's the temptation. When you define that this text says, no, it's Satan. It's Satan is the devil. You're saying this. Well, when the evil comes, I'm waiting him with those big horns with the sting, you know, like, and that's not the thing. The devil will come to destroy little by little. He'll come beautiful. He'll come with a good proposal. He'll come with something that is appealing to you, that is attractive to you because he wants to try to deceive you little by little. In fact, if you go to the root word here, it's kleptos. The word kleptos means that one that distills

without you noticing. And that's exactly what it is. It's little by little. You don't even notice when you see destruction, when you see killed, when you see robbed. So Jesus is saying that, but he also is saying that he came to give life and life abundantly. So our focus is really to understand it, to hear God's voice, to understand in him how we can recognize his voice better than anything else. Yes, you need to be able to discern what is a bad leader. Yes, you have to be able to discern what is bad news, what are news that are trying to drive you astray from God's way. But more than that, the way you're gonna do that is by listening to God's word, by listening to him. And that's why he calls you to walk closer to him. So, Let me ask you this guys, I know this can sound just for some of us, it's already in your heart, you understood that. But let me ask you this, what is driving you? What is the driver of your life? What wakes you up every single day and makes you feel like, man I gotta get it, I gotta do it, I gotta win. Is it because you gotta be better than somebody, you gotta be the winner, you gotta be the hero, you gotta be, what is driving you? Is it because you're fearful, then I need to protect myself, I need to actually work more and more and more and more and more and more and the more you work, the more you need to work because now you need to make money to protect yourself against all the

news and things that are happening and my God what's gonna be of my life if this war starts and this happens and blah blah blah blah blah blah. What is that? How's your heart? How's your heart? Who is really leading you? Is it the Lord? Is the Lord leading you? So I want to bring a few things for us to reflect and analyze and see who is leading us and how we can listen to the voice of God and I'm sure that's gonna be really helpful, that's gonna bring you closer to the Lord. So the first and very important thing and the basics of it is that what he says here in the verse four, the sheep follow him because they know his voice. The sheep follow him because they know his voice. So we need to walk with God so we can know his voice. I have four kids and all of my kids, yes, even though they were born with us and in my home and all that, they needed to know that I am their dad. So now they can be blindfolded and I can speak. You all can speak and I can speak. It's easy because of the accent, right? But they will know this is my dad, this is my dad because they know me, because they walk with me, because they listen to my voice every single day. So my brothers, if this was not important, Jesus wouldn't tell us that, there'll be many things trying to lead you astray from his path, many distractions and things that look good. But Jesus is saying, listen to my voice. Walk with me so you can recognize when I come and say, hey, it's time to go. Walk with me, walk alongside me, man, that's Jesus' calling for you. You want to lead better your home, follow Christ, listen to his voice. You want to be a better steward at your work, going to treat better your clients, listen

to the good shepherd. You want to be a better man to your brothers here at this group, listen to God's voice. In a minute, we're going to break down in groups and listen to God's voice, more than in your own voice. You know, it's funny, this discernment thing. So before I came to Life Fellowship, I was pastoring a Brazilian church, and in this Brazilian church, it was here in Plano, we had this couple that he is one of the top bull riders in the world. And they went to a competition in Las Vegas, and he messed up. He found out, he came back, and they are dear to Dunia and I. We love them so much, and it was really hard to see her heartbroken that way. She was really heartbroken. they came all the way from Brazil, you know, they came together. She always, you know, took care of him while he was, you know, away from home and all those things and, and all of a sudden she got this news, you know. My husband just, just did those things, man. So, my, my heart and my feelings were for her. I was heartbroken, even though I loved the guy. I mean, he's, he was my brother. I was like, brother, what did you do, man? And she was like, pastor, should I divorce? The Bible tells me to divorce. I have no strength in me to continue with this marriage. And, and honestly, the Bible tells us, tells us that, yes, in case of betrayal like that, she could divorce. And, and I remember the voice of God inside of my heart just came and said, yes, but the Bible also says, look, that's what came to my heart. The Bible also says that God hates divorce. And I said, well, even though he allows, he hates divorce. So, I processed that and I said, hey, sister, you know what? You have the right to divorce. You can if you want to. But the Bible tells us that God hates divorce. If there's a little bit of strength in you, I want to encourage you to let the Lord work in both of you. To let the Lord bring you guys back together. And, and I believe God will honor your decision. I know that you don't have strength right now, but I believe God will honor your decision. And I'll tell you guys, today, they are in a great

church in Decatur, Texas. It's been more than three years now. And they are so happy together. They're actually part of the pastoral leadership there. So, God not just restored, but made them stronger than before. So, men of God, listen to God's voice. Sometimes those small little things and details that are in his word would make a whole lot of a difference when you treat, when you deal with people. You're going to be more gracious than just. You're going to be more loving than expecting to be served and all those things. You're going to be serving, having a servant heart for people. All right. Sorry, it was a story that kind of skipped a little bit. All right. So, five filters for us to discern God's voice. Is my decision aligned with the scripture? So, God will never contradict his word. So, if you're making a decision that it contradicts God's word, for instance, you have to lie to get that deal. You have to lie so your wife stop bothering you with something. You have to lie so your friend doesn't discover something. If you do that, something that contradicts God's word, that's not God's voice. That's never God's voice. And believe me, people fake all kinds of things. So, first thing is, does it align with the scripture? Side note, for that, you've got to know the scripture. So, getting to God's word, getting to God's word. How do I recognize God's voice? By being in God's word, by being with him every single day, by taking notes and all those things. Second important thing, what fruit does it produce? Matthew chapter 7, 16. The fruits that from God's voice will be purity, humility, peace, and obedience. Those are the fruits that will come from that. What is it feeding in me? Is it feeding just my flesh, my ego, lust, or is it just... is based on faith, courage, based on holiness. Why we do what we do? Why do we serve people? Do I serve because I want to be recognized? Brothers, I'm preaching not because I want to be a pastor, because I want to bless you. I want to bless you.

I make a point, I want to be here speaking the word of God, because I believe that even though I maybe not be a native with the full English here, but the little that you can understand, I believe God will speak greatly to your heart. And that's not because of Leandro, because there'll be other men here this semester preaching boldly, and that's gonna be even better. And I'll tell you, it's gonna be amazing, because it's all about him. But why we do what we do? Why we seek certain things? Analyze your heart. Why we seek those things? Another question, does it bring conviction or condemnation? And the difference is, conviction is hopeful and leads you back to Jesus. But condemnation will say, you're a failure. It will attack your identity. So if you made a mistake, how do I know if it's God's voice? Hey, if that's attacking you and attacking your identity, that's wrong, that's not God's voice. God's voice will bring you back. God's voice will say, hey, you did wrong. Hey man, you made a mistake. Like that friend of mine that I just told you, man, what did you do, man? How come you could do something like that? But hey, let's keep walking.

So God's voice will bring you hope, will convict you, hey, yes, I made a mistake. But it will also bring you hope for you to come back. Fifth question, does it produce peace with surrender? And when I say peace, it's not just a comfortable peace around you. But even though everything was falling apart, for example, with this couple that I just told you, they felt awkward for a long time, but they knew that they were doing the right thing when they were coming together. So peace is not the absence of battles, but the clarity of the one who trust, you trust in. So you know that, yes, even though I've been walking through the valley of the shadow of death, I'll fear no evil because he's with me. He is with me. There's a lot of things surrounding me. There's a lot of threat. There's a lot of news coming my way, a lot of things that would put my anxiety up there. But when I remember that he's with me, man, calm down, and I'll make the right decision. Now, when you listen to the voice in your heart, the voice in your heart, is that voice leading you closer to Jesus or away from Jesus? Is that voice leading you to the light, to bring sins and mistakes to the light, or are you actually protecting yourself

with layers and layers and not being held accountable by other brothers, by other people? Are you bringing your mistakes to light or are you avoiding that? Because here's the thing, the Bible tells us that the one that isolates himself, he seeks his own desires. But for us, we bring to the light because we wanna fix it. If you hide, if you hide things, you're not gonna fix it. Even though you think you're gonna manage it, but let's be honest, you're not gonna manage it by yourself. You haven't managed it till now. Bring to the light, let's fix it. This decision, this voice will protect my family. or weaken my family? Does this build integrity or feed compromise? So when you hear that voice, what are the things that happens with that voice? So we need to understand that there are three different types of voices and I'm gonna wrap up in a minute. One is God's voice, the other one is your flesh, and the other one is the devil. So God's voice will speak truth, will speak peace, will speak clarity, will speak life. The flesh, your emotions, and will seek comfort, will seek instant gratification, but will compromise. The enemy will lie, will bring accusation, deception. So in order to listen to God's voice,

we need to learn and be deep in his word so we know, okay, this is the truth. This is what's gonna bring me peace. This is what is gonna bring me life, true life, real life. Hebrews chapter five, verse 14. Let me open here really quick. Hebrews chapter five, verse 14. It says this, but solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to distinguish between good and evil. Let me read that again. But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to distinguish between good and evil. So it shows that because of the practice, so discernment is something that we exercise, and the more we exercise, the more we get solid food. And solid food here is the deepest concepts of the scripture. So the more you exercise that discernment, the more you exercise this, God is gonna give you more and more food. So if you feel like you got to the point that you know everything about the Lord, ah, my brother, you're wrong, man. There's so much more that God can give you. Keep exercising those things. Go study, exercise, failed, no problem. Come back, pray, exercise, and do that again,

and read that again, and bring to the light, and talk to other men, and fast, and pray. Practice those things. Put that as priority in your life, and I know that you're gonna listen to His voice. What are the three areas we must discern? The voices we listen to. Are you turning into God's voice or to the world's voice? The condition of our hearts we need to discern. We need to discern, do a self-check. Why am I reacting like that? Is it because of fear? Is it because of pride? Is it because of offense? And what is the fruit of what we're building? Is what you are building is a godly fruit, or it's stealing your life? Because that's the goal of the enemy, to slow steal your life. My brothers, I want to encourage you to saturate yourself with God's word. Listen to preaching while you commute. Listen to podcasts, read the Bible, talk to other brothers, journal. Hey, man, one of the best advices I got is journal. Think about this. If the Lord, creator of the universe, wants to speak to me, I better have my notebook and a pen because it's gonna be important. So journal, slow down before make big decisions.

Slow down, slow down. Be careful because there will be a lot of pressures and things trying to influence you to make decisions. Quick, but at the end of the day slow down and ask God what it's what is your will? Pray for wisdom not just for breakthrough pray for wisdom not just for breakthrough wisdom learn Enjoy the face that you don't know yet to learn how to listen and Stay accountable to godly counsel. Amen Yeah, I had other things for example Okay, it's not working. Oh, yeah So, where is up? Where is Waldo here you find it? Yeah, so man This is how the world is today. There's so many things man. How can discern God's voice? How are you gonna find God's voice in the midst of all this craziness, right? You got social media. You got all this crazy things. How are you gonna find man? That's how it feels sometimes, right? Okay, so we're gonna break down in groups We have few questions here five quick questions Today we have to 815. So every week is gonna be a 2 815. So we do have more than 35 minutes that's what we have 35 minutes that what it is. Yeah, so Uh leaders joey, can you lead a group today? All right, logan daryl How many guys we have here today I didn't come can you quit do oh Oh, perfect, let's do groups of five then. Yeah. Okay. So one in each section That's it perfect, thank you guys god bless you