This past weekend at Southeast Christian Church, Dave Stone continued the sermon sermon series entitled, “The Pretenders” with the fourth sermon of the series, “The Respectable Fraud” based on Matthew 23.
Imposter, deceiver, cheater, pretender, actor … “The Respectable Fraud” is a person who is highly respected but he has everyone deceived. On the outside “The Respectable Fraud” appears to do and say the right things but on the inside he is a different person. His life is not the way that it appears.
As a Christian we must be authentic — you see what you get. Christian authenticity is not about being yourself but rather dying to yourself. Take an introspective look into your life and see where you stand. Are you authentic or are you the pretender?
This past weekend at Southeast Christian Church, Kyle Idleman continued the sermon sermon series entitled, “The Pretenders” with the third sermon of the series, “Religious Bully” based on Matthew 23.
Kyle begins with a quote from Ghandi, “I like your Christ but I don’t like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” When I think about this statement, it makes me sad — sad that because we don’t always say and do the things that Jesus would do. Sometimes as Christians we get caught up in the legalism rather than loving the person. We care more about pleasing God by obeying all the rules.We become a religious bully. Jesus dealt with religious bullies by confronting them and setting them straight.
Religious bullies make it hard for people to come to God. There are too many rules to follow and too much to do. Religious bullies lead people down the wrong path. Religious leaders make rules more important than relationships. The leaders often miss what matters most. Listen Kyle’s sermon now as he talks about religious bullies.
This past weekend at Southeast Christian Church, Kyle Idleman continued the sermon sermon series entitled, “The Pretenders” with the second sermon of the series, “The Self-Righteous Superstar” based on Matthew 23.
Matthew 23: 5 Everything they do is for men to see…
Kyle goes on to explain that the sin of self-righteousness generally displays symptoms that you cannot see in yourself. The self-righteous seek to impress people by doing the right thing rather than doing it for God.We must genuinely live your life for God. God does not look at the outward appearance as men do, but rather He looks at the heart. In order to have a relationship with Christ, we must be authentic in our daily lives.
What is the best remedy for being self-righteous? According to Kyle, service is the best remedy — service without being identified.
Superstars are self conscious but they are not self aware.
Superstars love to compare themselves to others.
Superstars love to boast about their accomplishments.
The question that we must each ask ourselves is… Is your motivation to impress people or to glorify God?
This past weekend at Southeast Christian Church, Kyle Idleman began a new sermon sermon series entitled, “The Pretenders” with the first sermon of the series, “The Professional Con Artist” based on Matthew 23.
Kyle begins the sermon by telling of a college student who interviews him. The last question the student asks is this, “Do you ever have a hard time practicing what you preach?”
According to Wikipedia, hypocrisy is the act of pretending. Do you ever pretend? Think about it for a minute. Do you ever cover up something within your life because you do not want others to know? You live as if everything is fine, your marriage and your family are great or so it appears on the outside. Are you covering up something in your life that you need to confess?
According to Kyle there are two kinds of pretenders when it comes to being a Christian. First there are pretenders who see their faith as something they were born into — going to church, baptized as a baby but never made their own decision for Christ, etc. Being a Christian is something that we each must choose for ourselves. There are also pretenders who see their faith as intellectual knowledge and behavioral compliance. They say and do the right thing but it is not a reflection of who they really are. Their hearts are far from God.
