Fake Faith

I started thinking about this for, Palm Sunday. As you turn to I John chapter two, I want to give some context to where my heart has been. It’s palm Sunday and we find in all four gospels the triumphal entry. . In Matthews Gospel, Jesus descends from the Mount of Olives towards Jerusalem, and the people lay their clothes on the ground, and along with tree branches and they begin to have this procession with shouts of Jubilee, Hosanna!

Hosanna, is a word of adoration, praise and joy. Verse 10 in Matthew chapter 21 has people singing and praising and the people of Jerusalem are like, who’s this guy? And they reply, it’s the prophet, Jesus of Nazareth! From Galilee! Now, Jesus comes in, Cleanses the temple, the blind and the lame come to the temple, and Jesus heals them. In Matthew account, Jesus has many run ins with the chief priests, he talks a good bit about the end times, and the signs of the end of the age.

Judas makes a deal to to betray Jesus, and Jesus is taken, and then goes on trial. This whole week of passion week, I suggest reading this account, it leads us into why Easter is so important to us. But here’s what caught my attention: In Matthew 27, the crowd went from singing hosanna to then yelling, Crucify Him! And I wondered why? Why would people go from, Hosanna to crucify Him?

Why would anyone, after all Jesus has done, lose to another guy named barbabbas? I think, one thing we can pull from this moment, that there was no authenticity in the hearts of those there. I’ve learned on this grace filled journey with Jesus, that: “Authentic Love is the Fruit of Authentic Faith!” Authentic and real saving faith in Jesus helps us to love those we deem unloveable, and even those who are invisible.

It’s like a radical love that we learned a couple weeks ago. Radical love isn’t forced upon others, and it’s perseveres, it endures. Yes, we want to see people come into this church but not at the expense that they are lured in here by eloquent words and no substance to faith. Jesus tells us in johns Gospel, “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” I dunno about you, but I wanna be a friend to everyone, Perhaps it’s my extrovertness..

I dunno Just this week, I made two new friends at Starbucks on two different days. CS Lewis once said, ”Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art, like the universe itself... It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival." Here’s what he means… Friendships add meaning, joy, and richness to our lives, and they make our experiences more valuable and fulfilling. Do you remember the hymn, “What a Friend We Have in Jesus?” What a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear!

What a privilege to carry; everything to God in prayer! O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear; all because we do not carry; everything to God in prayer! It’s a tender song in my heart because the writer, Joseph Scriven wrote the hymn to assure his mother that; though he couldn’t be there with her, Jesus is with her and he is a friend like no other.

And I know, my mom can testify to that. She understands that my calling calls me to be here. Because Authentic love is a love that stands true even when there is distance between two people. You see, I’m a firm believer that intimacy isn’t just spacial, but intentional and relational. Intimacy doesn’t depend on how close or small something is; it depends on being genuine in love for the other person and being a friend no matter the circumstance.

Even when two people are worlds apart, relationship can keep deepening with intnetial love for the other. Even when sin creeps in and you find that you or the other person are faltering in your friendship, Authentic love still covers all sins. Grace is still sufficient. My prayer, for the last few months has been, “Jesus.. help me to not forget that there’s enough grace for anything, and for anyone. Even myself.” Authentic love, always produces the fruit of authentic faith.

How? Well., first “by avoiding being a fake by having authentic faith” I’m working on a paper right now that talks about how my generation and the next generation is deconstructing faith to find authenticity. It dangerous because some are deconstructing doctrine, and they are walking away from faith all together. But one thing I can testify about the Millennial generation, is that this generation can sense when something is fake.

They can enter a place that feels forced or sleek, and it feels weird. It feels unauthentic and forced love. That’s why I hate going to car lots. That’s why I feel more comfortable just searching online, finding a car, and just driving around the lot in the comfort of my car, because many times I feel the salesman's job is to either get me into anything, or to up-sell me, or to get me in a car like the one I wanted, but it’s not the one I came for.

The Millennial generation just wants to find the truth. We want the truth; just tell me as it is. Love me for me, not for any other surface reason. So to have authentic love, there must be authentic faith in God who is love. When we love God, and Love others with a god given, authentic love, it’s usually found when we’re transparent and we have honest motives. We’re losing the younger generation because churches haven’t always been that way.

The church has made it about numbers more than being relational. Let me show you… Watch this: Play Crocker Video. Dr. Crocker is our General Superintendent, and he’s our presiding superintendent right now for our district. Did you catch what he said about the younger generation? Right now, 80% of those coming to Christ are in the age range of 4-18. But churches spend 80% of its budget on those 41 and over.

My question is this: How can we as a church make sure that we hear the call to serve the least of these and still be authentic in our faith? Well, it begins by relationship. A relationship with Jesus. Anything that presents itself as better than Christ is Anti-Christ. Look with me in I John, and I’m gonna read in chapter 2, and verse 18. [18] Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come.

Therefore, we know that it is the last hour. Here is some context, “John emphasizes the importance of having a relationship with God, loving one another, and avoiding loving the world. And he is warning against those who try to do the opposite.” He is also telling them, that there will be anti Christ’s, in this world. People who are counterfeits. Their knock offs… For instance, this microphone I have on.

I bought this microphone back in 2015. I searched different websites to buy a microphone and there were many sites proclaiming they had this microphone, and not only that, it was cheaper. Now, cheaper sounded like my kind of language, right?. I can get a $400 dollar microphone for $300? But then, I happened to go to the website of Rode, who makes this microphone. And right there, on their front-page of their website was a disclaimer.

It said, “If you do not buy our microphones from an approved retailer, we will not honor any warranty.” But, Rode! Don’t you understand I can get it cheaper on Amazon? I can get it easier, and faster. But in the end, if it was broken or defective. I couldn’t get it fixed or replaced. Think about that in the terms of our faith… Would you want a faith that had no warranty, or guarantee of eternal life at the end of life?

Would you want a faith that had an imitated love, and it produced some sort of imitated, or false comfort in life, you lived a good life…but then in the end to find out, it wasn’t real? Of course not… You see, the enemy wants to deceive us from that. Anything that presents itself as better than Christ, is anti-Christ. It’s against Christ. The message John is telling us, is that if you want to true, authentic faith—avoid being a fake—you must be aware that there are going to be people in this life, and there are going to be things in this life that are “Counterfeits.” Get this, anything that God says is good, Satan will find a way to counterfeit it.

If it’s something valuable, someone will seek to recreate it. If you ever watch shark tank, that is one of the reasons why they ask the entrepreneur, do you own the patented. Because if this product or service becomes good and begins to sell, someone will find a way to counterfeit it. But how do we know what is real and what is counterfeit in a world flooded with counterfeits? Well, first it comes from realizing that we have God’s presence.

Find verse 20: “But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth..” To Be anointed by the holy one, is to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Verse 27 confirms this… look with me… “But the anointing that you received from him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie—just as it has taught you, abide in him.” When we read this, in a world full of counterfeits, it could be read like this: “you have been given the Holy Spirit by the Father and the Son, ( that’s verse 20, ) Now couple verse 20 with verse 27…

and when you receive this anointing it’s because you abide in him and he abides in you. John is echoing what Jesus said in the gospel of John: “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” When a person becomes a Christ-follower, by faith alone in Jesus, he or she is given the Holy Spirit.

He is our seal that God’s presence is with us; and in us. He is the only avenue for help, comfort and peace; Right? The Holy Spirit instructs us and the Holy Spirit guides us. Because there is something of value when it comes to being anointed.. this is why we see so many counterfeit anointings… because anointing has value, especially eternal value. The anointing directs our lives to the truth, which is Jesus.

Right, this anointing directs our lives to Jesus. Anything that presents itself as better than Jesus, is anti-Christ. In this chapter, chapter 2 of 1 John, he says, Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son. No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also. This is so important to the life of the Christian because without the anointing, without presence in our life, everything we try in our own effort to accomplish becomes about us…

that’s sin. One of the greatest warning signs that we have sin in our life… is that what we do is aimed to lift me, and not Jesus. Remember one of Peters great embarrassing moments was when Jesus asked, who do you say I am, and Peter goes, you’re the messiah… he gets kind of a pat on the back, but then just after this, Jesus tells the group, I’ve got to go to Jerusalem.

I will suffer, be ridiculed, and criticized, and then Jesus gives them a glimpse of the cross… He goes, I will be killed and lifted in three days… Peter, full of confidence speaks up again… and goes. “Oh No.. this will never happen to you.” And Jesus goes, get behind me Satan. It’s one of those moments, where Peter was being influenced by Satan’s, attempt to get Jesus to avoid the cross.

Right after this moment.. what does Jesus say in Matthew chapter 16? He says, if anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. Without the cross, without the anointing, without the Holy Spirit and God’s presence…without seeing sin for what it is in our life, and abiding in Christ, everything else we do in our walk is powerless. We must constantly seek God's presence and guidance to truly live a life authenticity.

But it isn’t just presence, there’s another part to what John is saying in verse 20… “But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth..” John says, we have the anointing, and we know knowledge, which is truth. Truth is important because without it, we would live a life falsehood and deception. “Jesus said, ‘If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples.

Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.’” John 8:31b-32 (NIV) When I was 16, I woke up one morning to my mom asking me to come in and sit down. My older brother had showed up to our house, and kind of unexpectedly. He began to tell me that two of my best friends was in a major car accident. My friend who was driving had his seat belt on, and my other friend in the passenger seat did not.

As they were coming home after a late night at work in the early morning, the driver fell asleep and they went over an embankment, hit a tree right which saved them from being thrown into the river and the passenger was ejected face first from the car as he was sleeping. My brother was there to take me to the hospital to see the passenger who was ejected because he had some major injuries to his face from going through the windshield.

The truth is… seat belts save lives. That night, I had one friend practicing that truth, and one friend who wasn’t. C.S. Lewis wrote, “You never know how much you really believe anything until it's truth or falsehood becomes a matter of life and death to you.” In that moment, both of my friends experienced truth. And Regardless of any personal opinion… my passenger friend never knew how important the truth, “that seatbelts save lives” was, until it became a matter of life and death for him.

The truth is, the gospel should be so precious to us. Because we know it’s a matter of eternal life and death for every living soul. David writes, “If your law had not been my delight, I would have perished in my affliction. I will never forget your words, for by them you have preserved my life.” Psalm 119:92-93 (NIV) The ultimate delight…. In other words, David is saying, if it weren’t for your truth, I would perish in my affliction in my troubles.

I dunno about you, but that’s a matter of life and death for me. I’ve made many mistakes in my life, and I’m humble to know I have Jesus as my savior… but My one burning delight, which I spent years running from but could not run away from anymore, is to ultimately weave the saving gospel message into the tapestry of every heart I come into contact with for the glory of Christ Jesus.

Jesus is my greatest joy! When Jesus becomes our greatest joy, When we know that our identity is in Christ, then… we will ultimately long for purity…. morally, ethically and theologically. IN layman’s terms..We would crave holiness. So we have the anointing, and we have truth… and finally, we need one more thing… look with me in verse 28: “[28] And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming.

[29] If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him.” We have the power of God in us when we abide in Him. Abide in him helps us to avoid shrinking shame and to increase our confidence. (28). When we are in Him, we become like Him—not counterfeit, not a fake, but authentic in love and faith. Verse 29 says that the righteousness in our life is the fruit of Christ in our lives.

Do you know wha tit means to have the righteousness in our life, and the fruit of Christ? It means there’s authentic faith showing in your life. It is one thing to testify that we know Christ and are in Him; it is quite another to have a life that reveals that He is our righteousness. We recognize other believers by their lives, not their lips. Because Righteousness is a family characteristic, in the Father and His children.

I had no clue how I wanted to finish this sermon today and even this morning I prayed for clarity… All I could think about last night as I laid in bed praying this message, was this letter I read one time form a an article written by a young college lady. She wrote a letter to the church members, not to the pastor. Is said, “Last Sunday I attended your church and I heard your preacher.

When he spoke he said everyone and sinned and turned away from God. Because we rejected God we all face eternal separation from God. But then he said that God love us so much that he sent his Son, Jesus Christ, to reconnect us with God and forgive us of our sins. All we have to do is believe in Him and we will go to Heaven and live with God forever.

My parents recently died. I know they did not believe in Jesus Christ. So if what your preacher said was true, they are damned to hell. After being with you, I am convinced that either you yourself don’t believe this message, or that you don’t care. We have live only three blocks from your church my whole life, and no one ever told us about your Jesus.” Authentic faith will always produce authentic love.

We hold within our hands and our hearts the gospel. We hold within us the anointing of the Spirit. Just like my friends knowing the truth about seatbelts, we daily make choice on whether we will act on that truth or not. If we have authentic faith, wouldn’t that also produce authentic outreach? Be light, and Go shine. *