(Wednesday) The King's Speech: Discernment in a Deceptive World

In this episode, we unpack one of the most unsettling teachings of Jesus from the Sermon on the Mount:

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven…” (Matthew 7:21-23)

If you’ve ever wondered, “Am I actually following Jesus, or just playing the part?” this conversation is for you.

We explore:

• What a real prophet is—and how to recognize a false one
• Why spiritual “hype,” platforms, and miracles aren’t proof of authenticity
• How to test spiritual voices (including pastors, influencers, and ourselves) by their fruit
• The difference between activity for God and an authentic relationship with God
• Why discernment is one of the most crucial gifts in a noisy, online, spiritual-but-confused world
• How to honestly examine your own heart without slipping into shame or fear

You’ll hear practical stories—from COVID-era “prophecies” that went wrong to moments when a prophetic word brought clarity and life—and real talk about humility, repentance, and spiritual growth.

This episode is especially for you if:

• You’re skeptical of “Christian celebrities” and spiritual influencers
• You’ve been hurt or confused by bad teaching or spiritual manipulation
• You serve in church and quietly wonder, “Do I actually know Jesus, or just church culture?”
• You want a faith that’s real, growing, and rooted in Jesus—not image, emotion, or performance

At the end of the day, it’s not about impressing God, sounding spiritual, or doing enough.
It’s about this: Does Jesus know you, and is your life bearing His fruit?

Listen in and take a fresh, honest look at your own walk with Christ.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

We've been walking through uh for the last couple of months what is known as the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus' uh welcoming uh followers into the kingdom of God and the ethic of Christ and how to live and how to conduct ourselves as the people of his kingdom. That right now we are people of God's kingdom, and we carry his ethic and his ethos, and we carry this culture of his kingdom, and it is a culture that is counterculture to the world in which we live in. And I don't know about anybody else, but I'm thankful that there is a counterculture to the culture that we're gonna live in today. That there is a culture that isn't angry, isn't vengeful, isn't resentful, but there is a culture of people that is full of love and grace and mercy and compassion, and they live beyond themselves, they live for the glory of God and serving one another in care. That's the culture that you and I have the privilege of living in and growing in and being transformed by and through the Spirit of God. Well, tonight we come to one of the most uh startling statements Jesus ever made to me, made to any of us. I'm telling you, it causes me to shiver. It causes me pause. So, Matthew chapter number seven, we're gonna look at verses 15 through 23, and we're gonna walk through it together. I hope you have your outlines together. We'll go together. Here we go. Verse number 15. Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount, with all these people gathered around, they've been listening about the beatitudes and loving your neighbor and praying for those who persecute you and not worrying. Then he says these words Beware of the false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits, or grapes gathered from thorn bushes or figs from thistles, so every healthy tree bears good fruit. But the diseased tree bears bad fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown in a fire. Thus, you will recognize them. You will recognize the who? Prophets that are true prophets or false prophets. And the way you'll recognize them is say it with me, by their fruits. Verse number 21, and this grips us. Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven. But the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? Did we not cast out demons in your name? And did we not do many mighty works in your name? And then I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you workers of iniquity. Here's the big idea we're going to try to dig down to and allow God to speak to our hearts. Not everyone who appears spiritually actually belongs to Jesus. True faith is revealed by the fruit that comes forth out of our life, and it is rooted in a real, authentic, growing relationship with Jesus. Not based on if I know the insider's lingo or if I follow all the right presubscribed ideals, but that I have a relationship that is authentic with Jesus. So let's jump in here and take a look. There's a danger of being close but yet still being lost. There are a few passages that are more unsettling in our scripture than the one we just read. Jesus describes people who speak in his name, serve in his name, and even perform miracles in his name. Yet in the end, he says to this group, depart from me, I never knew you. The issue that we'll discover is not activity, but the great need for authenticity in our walk with God. It's not about appearance, it's about truly being in relationship, covenant relationship with the Lord. Jesus begins the section that we read by saying this beware of false prophets. Beware of false prophets. So let's define for just a moment what is a prophet. That's something that they would have been very accustomed to hearing and would not have needed a definition. In the Western, modern 21st century church, we may not really understand what a prophet is. Simply, in the most succinct way I can say it, is a prophet is one who stands on behalf of God to speak to the people. One who claims to have the mind of God, knows the will of God and the purposes of God, and he speaks under the authority of God, the direction of God for one's life, or for the church, or for a decision. That this person of prophetic anointing is someone who is dialed into God and is able to speak God's will, mind, and heart with clarity. The office of prophet we think most often about in the Old Testament, because there are so many prophets. But in the New Testament, the Bible says, of all the spiritual gifts that we should desire, and when you think about the spiritual gifts, there are nine charismatica gifts, those supernatural gifts, like the gift of tongues and the interpretation of tongues, the gift of faith, the gift of discernment, the gift of word of knowledge, word of wisdom, the working of miracles, the gifts of healing. It says the one that we should desire more than anything else, do you remember what it is? That we would prophesy. And in the New Testament, it's not so much we're foretelling the future, but we are standing in a place on behalf of God, declaring God's word, God's direction, God's will for this moment in our life. And that's why he says, above all things, make sure you prophesy. And then, interesting, he says, Paul would say, do not despise prophecy. And for a long time I wondered, what does this mean? Don't despise prophecy. Why would anyone despise prophecy? You despise prophecy when it's not true prophecy, but it's called prophecy. And I really honed into this during COVID, because during COVID, you had all these guys that got up and they proclaimed to be a prophet and they knew God's word concerning COVID, that it's going to be, it's going to be gone in three weeks, and this is going to happen, and this is going to happen. And they just got up and prophesied, and they prophesied about elections, and they prophesied about this and this and this and this. And over and over and over again, we discovered that they were what? They were wrong. They missed it. And I believe that probably for the very most part of them, they didn't want to miss it. But because of our own hubris and our own pride, and for some of them, their need to raise money for their ministries, you don't get up and say I was wrong. What do you do? You double down and you make it a bigger prophecy. You make it more scandal or more sensational. And what I discovered in my own life is when I would hear these guys and gals get up and they say, I have a word from God and they're prophesying. I felt my own self rejecting that. Just, ugh. Anybody, anybody else ever felt that? And you're just like, Good. You know what I really wanted them to do? This is what I, this is really all I think my own heart and life needed is for them to get up after they missed it and say, you know what? I really thought I heard from the voice of God. I really thought I heard the Holy Spirit in that. But clearly I missed it. And I want you to know I'm sorry. And I wasn't trying to miss it. And I'm going to spend some time fasting and praying, trying to discern why I did miss it, so that in the future I won't miss it again. And I pray that you'll be gracious to me. Now let me ask you, as a believer, if someone who is on a platform were to say that to you, would you think less of or more of that person after that moment? Absolutely. Yet we somehow kind of buy into this idea. No, I've got to. For all of you who operate in the gifts of the Spirit, and all of you who have experienced the gift of the Spirit, one of the best things I can tell you is this the giver of the gift is perfect. The gift itself is perfect, but it's got to work through imperfect people. And sometimes along the way, in our imperfection, in our own humanity, we we just miss it. And one of the most beautiful things we can do is just say, sorry, missed it on that one. So a prophet is someone who is able to speak the mind of God, the will of God, under the anointing of God for the moment. I'll tell you one that happened in me and Trisha's life just a few weeks ago. Trying to figure out how to make sure I don't tell too much detail here. But when our daughter was at a church service in Atlanta, in the church she goes to, Passion City Church. I'll just frame it in like that. Many of you know Louis Giglio, and Louis's a great brother in Christ. I just love Louie. At the end, and she was really working through some decisions in her life, and there's like 3,000 people at the service that morning. Louis gets done preaching and he says, Let's bow for prayer. And then he backs up and says, Hold on. He says, If you know me, you know I never do this. Or almost never. And he walked over and he says, I feel like God has a word for someone, and this is it. My daughter and Louie have never met. And I'm telling you, dropped a word. Like could not have been in our living room and been more accurate. And it was just this breath of God that came. Yes. So we often hear be careful of false prophets, thus we should, but we can also overswing that and believe that all prophecy has no place. That's not what Jesus says. You gotta be aware of false prophets. Well, if a true prophet is a person who stands and helps discern the mind of God, the will of God, the direction of God, the word of God, a false prophet is just the opposite. It is someone who purports to be under God's anointing, under God's leadership, under God's guidance, and they are not speaking on behalf of God. They are not speaking God's mind, God's will, God's purposes. And and a true prophet can miss it, and it will be identified through their own humility to own it. But when they cannot see it, that I missed it, and they're I'm telling you, that that needs to be a red flag for you. You find a guy or a gal who says they prophesy and they never miss it, you need to do two things. Number one, grab your wallet. Number two, run. And Jesus is saying, I need you to be careful of those who might be false prophets. He says, because outwardly they can look like a sheep. Notice what he says. The problem with a false prophet is they function in deception and they oftentimes look like something of which they are not. And he says, they they come and they're in sheep's clothing. They look safe, they look spiritual, they look trustworthy, but inwardly he says, they're ravenous wolves. They're just waiting for the opportunity to devour you, a sheep. He says, not all spiritual voices are safe in our life. Not everyone with a Bible or a platform or has a gift of speaking or speaks with the charismatic ability is a person of the truth. Culture says this. Hey, just follow your heart, whatever feels right. Can I tell you, feeling right can get you in a mess. Jesus says, this is the way you deal with it. You test the fruit. And it is interesting in this world today, as soon as you begin to do a little taste testing, people will begin to accuse you of what? Judging. I'm not judging, I'm just doing what Jesus said. He says, I need to be aware because there are false prophets. And as we've read in the New Testament, as he talks about the end times and in the last days, we see that this happens more and more and more and more is that there are these false words and there's these false movements that look as though they're of God and they're not of God. And he says the way you're going to get around that and figure that out is it's going to be found in the fruit of the ministry of their lives. He says the responsibility to this is each of ours personally. He says, be aware, which means to stay alert, that you and I are responsible for discernment. Here's one of those spiritual gifts. After prophecy. After prophecy, and I say this because the Bible says, you know, seek all the spiritual gifts, but in particular that you prophesy. I believe in the hour we live in, after prophecy, the most important spiritual gift you can have is discernment. Just discernment. This is of God or this isn't of God. So here's the question we begin with: is this who are who are we listening to? And you're saying, we're listening to you, or it's concerning us. Yes, I know. What voices are shaping your theology and your lifestyle? Who are the people that you are following maybe on social media or on platforms, and you're getting sermon bits or you're getting statements of leadership, whatever that might be. The danger with that is it can be dressed up and polished up very quick in a 37-second clip. But what does the whole of that life and that ministry look like? Jesus says in verses 16 through 20 that we are to inspect the fruit. He says, you will recognize false prophets by their fruit, and you will also recognize inverted true men and women of God by the fruit of their life. See, the fruit reveals the root. Grapes don't grow on thorn bushes. Whatever is on the inside will eventually press through the outside. Fruit is not protection but direction. So we look for patterns. We look for patterns, not just isolated moments. So here's some here's some fruit that you can check on. And I'll tell you this, I will tell you this unashamedly, without anxiety. You should check this in my life. If we're reading the text accurately, those who teach you, those who stand in the space that say they have the voice of God, it's not about sinless or not having any imperfections, but it's saying, is there fruit that is aligning with a life that is submitted to the Lordship of Christ and the transformative work of Holy Spirit through the Word of God happening in that? And we see that. Here's a few of them. Character. And we see this character seen in Galatians chapter 5, verse 22 and 23. And the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, long suffering, or patience and long suffering the same thing. Gentleness, self-control. And we're saying, does the person who's trying to speak into my life, do I see the character of Jesus in their life? And it's not about perfectionism, it's about I see growth. I see more and more of Jesus in you. I see more of his love, more of his grace, more of self-control in you. One of the there are two things that are compliments that mean the most to me at this point in my life and my journey. Number one is when people move away from grace fellowship, they get relocated or what have you, and they come back and they say this, wow, so much has changed. I love hearing that. Obviously, you don't, but I love hearing that. Because you know what growing things do? They change, they transform, it looks differently. If your marriage looks like it did 20 years ago today, there's a problem happening in the marriage. If your relationship with Christ looks exactly like it did 15 years, there's something not happening there. Because if you're in a loving, growing relationship where there's honor and respect and submission and all that to your husband or wife or to the Lord, there is going to be transformation in your life. Can I get an amen from anybody on this? I mean, I'll preach it without it, but it's encouraging to hear it every now and then. So when people come and say, Tony, this church is, it's it's just changed. They don't even have to say it's really grown. I just, I mean, it's changed. You just you just sense. Hallelujah. Number two is this when they say, Man, you've grown so much. I've seen you grow so much, Tony. From the last time I saw you to five years ago to who you are today. Man, I I can see your maturity, I can see your growth, I can see more of Jesus in you. I mean, you asked me 15 years ago what mattered, it was like, well, just tell me I preached good because that's why you're hiring me, right? I still want to preach well. Thank you. I got you. But now, more than anything, I want the character of Christ. Because you are to test the fruit of my life and the other people in your life. Number two is this is there obedience? Is there obedience to the Lord? Secondly, is there humility? Is there humility? And let's define humility. Humility isn't self self-deprecation. Humility, true biblical humility is deep dependency upon the Lord. So you may meet some people that just kind of have a humble, quiet spirit about them, you know what I'm talking about? Or you might meet someone with a very um gargarious uh personality, loud. And you might think the quiet one is humble and the loud one is not. But loud or soft doesn't define humility. Dependency on the Lord is the picture of humility. Dependency on the body of Christ is a picture of humility. The ability to hear, I think you were wrong there. Can we talk about it? That's spiritual life maturity. Here's another one love for others. One of the problems with false prophets is they have love, but it's only for self, it's only for their own name, it's only for their own gain. But you can look and say, wow, this person really has a love and a care for other people. Now, some of us, by our own disposition, you're just a compassionate and a loving person. And some of us we have to work much more diligently, allowing the Holy Spirit to press love through us. How many of you have ever experienced love just that it becomes transformative in a person's life? That they're walking with high. You ever just seen that in life? I was sharing this, Miss Dean, with Pastor Coleman Smart here at the church the other day. If you don't know, Miss Dean's widow was Ed Farmer. And Ed was Ed was Ed Ed was uh Ed was a lot. Right? He was a lot. Like Ed, you didn't want to cross Ed up. Matter of fact, Ed went to federal penitentiary. Because there was a skirmish with part of his story, and he went down to the jail and asked the sheriff to go let him get into the cell, went in there and had a conversation with the assailant. You can't do that, by the way. Ed got arrested. Ed went to prison. Ed was a tough, tough old bird. But then Ed got saved. And when Ed got saved, he got it all, didn't he? And like there was this one, there was this one moment we had a man in our church at the time who struggled deeply with alcoholism. I mean, like the sheriff called me a couple times and said, can you come help our deputies? This is and I yeah, of course. And um, and this man at one point in a drunken binge, he was on a big bender for about a week. He had um called up the church and like cussed out everybody. And um, and then I got to the office and they're telling him about, then he called me and let me have it. And um, and he said, Bring me some food. And I said, All right, give me just a minute. And I called Miss Faye and Al Ruth, um, and I said, Miss Faye, I got a situation where a man in our church is like hammered drunk. You got any of that good Filipino food that can sober him up? And Miss Faye said, Hallelujah, Pastor Tony. I got just a thing. I got just a thing, Pastor Tony. It's sober him in Jesus' name. I am not lying in my mouth. She said, Give me 30 minutes and pray and God will do a miracle, Pastor Tony. And I said, All right. I call him back, or I go over there and I pick them up. She comes out in this red Tupperware bowl. You know what I'm saying, or this Tupperware bowl. It was kind of that opaque color with that blue burpee lid. And she gets in the back of the truck and sort of stumbles, and the lid comes off. And there is this red soup in it. It's as bright as Steve's shirt. And I smelled it and felt it before I saw it. I mean, it was like straight cayenne pepper or something. And like immediately I begin to cry. And it I can't breathe. It is locking me down. And uh I said, Dear Lord, Miss Faye, we don't need to kill him. We just need to sober him. Oh, just sober him up in Jesus' name. We drive over there, we get out, and he had a big arsenal. I said, I need y'all to stand behind me. Don't know what we're walking into. Knock on the door, he shuffles himself there. Kind of just gives us down the country, or gives me down the country road. And then Miss, I say, Miss Faye, why don't you get by that point I didn't care. Right? It's like, give him a big bowl with a big spoon. And we sat, and that brother, I'm telling you, sat down and he just started eating that soup like it was chicken noodle soup. And I can't breathe, it is so strong. Somehow he got it all down, and I thought, well, I'll give you 30 minutes and we'll see how you're doing. But well, that next Sunday, Ed Farmer comes up to me at the back of the church. And he and he and he ain't been saved that long. And he said, Preacher, I got a question for you. And did so-and-so cuss my preacher? I said, listen, you I you don't worry. Preacher, preacher, are you telling me that so-and-so cussed my preacher? He said, You can hear him saying it now, can't you? And I said, Ed, let it go. I done dealt with the cops one time this week. I don't want to deal with them with another member. And he just walked out going, ooh, cussing my preacher. He made it through that. And Ed just kept leaning in and keep leaning in. And there in the last six months of his life, nine months of his life, he became one of the most gentle men I'd ever been around in my life. And I would watch him sit about the third row, fourth row, and about halfway through the message, he would just be wiping tears away. As the Spirit of God was doing this work in his life. See, when you are synced up with the living God, with covenant relationship with Jesus Christ, and you are willing to lean into his work, he transforms your life, and it becomes evident. These are the fruits that we talk about. Is there a submission to God's word in my life? See, bad trees, the scripture says, cannot produce good fruit. You say, Well, Tony, I'm a bad tree. Good news for you, he's the transformer of dead trees to live trees. And when you become a live tree, you will produce a godly fruit, which becomes the testimony of God's hand and direction on your life. But if you're a bad tree, you may be able to fake it for a minute, but eventually the season will change. And what is on the inside will bear forth on the outside. And Jesus says, we got to know this because there are eternal consequences. He says, when a bad tree produces bad fruit, it is cut down. It's thrown in the fire. So here's an application point, and let's bring this home to us a little bit. Don't just examine others. Make sure we're spending some time examining ourselves. God, is there something in me that's not conforming to the likeness and the image of the Son? Am I still driven only by my own selfish ambition? Am I still only about my self-aggrandizement? Is it, God, I'm trusting you to change me and transform me. And then Jesus says, you got to be careful of the empty profession. He says these words, listen to this. Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven. He's saying to us here, words alone are not enough. This person that he's describing, he's using very strong verbal profession. Lord, Lord, Master, Master. It's passionate, it's emotional, it even sounds sincere. But Jesus is not impressed with our talk. He is glorified through a walk that is transformed by his power and through his spirit. Activity alone is not enough. Listen to what they said on that day. They weren't lying. They said, hey, listen, we prophesied, we cast out demons, we did mighty works. These, in other words, were not just casual churchgoers, they were active in ministry. The sobering truth is this: you can preach sermons, lead ministry, serve faithfully, and yet still not know Jesus. In our staff devotion this week, as we're working through evangelism, I challenged our staff. I said, are you certain those that are with you and working in your ministry and serving in your areas, are you certain they have a relationship with Christ based on grace and faith? Not just there's someone that we got to plug and play because we need more volunteers this weekend. And I said, because we need 150 volunteers on a weekend to make this place work. And the danger is what? We just look to fill slots, just plug them in there. Just we got to have someone hold the door and park the cars and watch the children and turn on the lights and do all the other things. I said, the danger is we can think all that activity brings us into relationship with God. It does not bring us into relationship with God. We only come into relationship with God when we cry out, as the old song says, just as I am God, with all my flaws and all my brokenness, I lay my life at your feet for your glory. Because none of this other stuff I'm checking off is gonna matter. I mean, if he's saying to people who prophesies and cast out demons that that's not enough to get you in being an usher every six weeks, that's probably not gonna cut it either. So it comes back down to this authentic relationship. Jesus said this the key to this whole deal is relationship, authentic relationship. Notice what Jesus said. I never knew you. I never knew you. He didn't say, well, I knew you once, but rather he said, I never knew you. Jesus is saying, I didn't come so you could do work. I came so that you and I could be an intimate covenant relationship. It's about connecting with the divine, not performing for the divine. He says, the evidence of this relationship that you have with me is obedience. He says, the one who does the will of my father. The one who does the father's will, the one, and what is the father's will? To walk with him, to love God and to love our neighbors with Christ being center of our life. Obedience doesn't save you. Faith in the finished work of Christ does, but obedience proves that you and I belong to him. The great tragedy of today is this is a self-deception. These people were confident. They expected entrance into the kingdom of God based on what they had done, and they were shocked at the rejection. And the most dangerous deception is thinking you're saved when you are not saved. That's why, and we don't we don't teach this much because people get very antsy, I guess. But do you remember when Paul says, examine yourself and make sure you're in the faith? Examine ourselves. I want to know you, and I want you to know me. One of my favorite passages here recently is when Jesus called his disciples, and it said, and he called them that they might be with him. Did you hear that? We think that he just called them to go and do stuff. And in being with him, our lives are transformed. And in being transformed, we begin to function as the people of God in the kingdom that does good works, that brings glory to our Father. But it begins with this authentic being with him. So the right response for us this evening is this: examine our life. It's not, do I go to church? The question that I should ask is, do I know him? To evaluate your own fruit and ask others in your life, am I changing? Are you seeing Christ in me? You know, one of the most important areas that we can have is a group of friends. Guys, you need guys in your life. And gals, you need gals in your life, and guys, you don't need gals in your life that are not your wife, and gals, you don't need guys in your life that are not your husband. And someone ought to shout a big amen on that one. Amen. It was strong. It was late, but it was strong. I've always said if you can't get it here on time, get here when you can. But to be able to sit with brothers and ladies, you ought to sit with sisters and to ask some honest questions. Is there anything going on in my life that you see that's not aligned? Is there anything going on in my life that I have a blind spot that maybe I'm missing it? And if you have a group that loves you well, you know what they'll do? They'll love truth into your life. Yes, matter of fact, let me tell you. Let me tell you, bro, every time a woman walks by, your eyes drop in the wrong places. What? Yep. Well, I'm not even thinking like that. Well, your eyes are. And that doesn't align with who Christ wants you to do. And that can lead you down a. Or that girlfriend says, Yeah, I'll be honest with you. Sometimes you talk to your husband like he is a servant in your life. You're always busting on him. Like always, like giving him off the top rope. Bam. I'm sure women wouldn't say that unless you're deep into WWE. Well, hey, bro, sometimes I notice when the pressure gets on men, your language goes downhill quick. Why? Because our desire should be that God, we are apprenticing to Jesus Christ. And we are under his leadership, and we want his nature and character and righteousness that we might know him. This isn't about sinless perfection. This is about walking with the Lord Jesus in an adjacent relation. That we are walking together and that his truth is transforming our life. And that truth is not just transforming us inwardly, but now our life bears forth fruit that we may stand in our generation and say, thus saith the Lord, and there is validity behind our words because our life is aligned with the Master. Examine your own fruit. Ensure your foundation. Remember, salvation is not our good works. Salvation is not our gifts. Salvation is not even our spiritual activity. Salvation is based on repentance, where we turn to God and recognize our desperate need for Him and our faith in a God who loved us so much He sent Christ to pay the price that we owed so that we could come to Him in faith, believing that that was enough, and thus He reconciling us to the living God. Salvation is based not on my good works, an authentic relationship that I've entered into by the grace of God with Jesus. Here's the conclusion. Here's where it all begins to sum up, and Saint Peter begins to play on the piano as Jesus is landing the sermon on the mount. The big idea of the whole thing of this the kingdom of God is that we know him. We know Jesus. We just don't know about Jesus. We just don't know what he did and what he accomplished. But we come to intimate relationship with him. For the goal is not to impress Jesus, it's not to perform for Jesus. The goal is that we would be known by Jesus. Jesus says, I didn't know you. Because you never entered into relationship. He said, I'm the good shepherd. I know my own, and my own know me.