Following Spectacles : Sermon 1 of 1st timothy

Following Spectacles

Following Spectacles

Opening Dialogue:

Students! We are back! Come on, make some noise!

Super excited and thrilled to see everyone here. It fills my heart with joy. If you are new here, welcome to student service! We did things a little bit differently since we wanted to welcome our 6th graders today.

We are just honored to have you guys here. I pray that you open your heart to this wonderful community! (And you guys were wonderful team captains today.)

I have a question for you guys, raise your hand if you feel this way, but you are tired of “FAKE THINGS.”

Fake news, fake filters on your phone, or you use the term “fake people” which really means someone is saying they live one way, but they live another. In our James series, we learned that means double-minded.

I would hate to buy something online, and it comes in fake. There was a moment where I bought a fake pair of Yeezys to impress my friends in middle school. (They could light up, so they were fake.)

But I wanted to make friends and show them I got drip, and I could be a part of their friendship group.

Because I thought being fake, in a way, is a better life to live.

But God, the creator, the one who SEES ALL, sees through people who try to live or talk one way but really live another.

God doesn’t intend for us to live a life that is fake or a double life, if you will. He wants us to be authentic!

That is the series we are going into this Fall for the next couple of weeks—how to live authentically for God.

What is interesting is this whole trend of fake or false ways of living and teaching isn’t new. There have always been people being fake or teaching a false thing.

Usually, when something is fake, it is false. Not true, not its authentic self.

In the Bible, Paul writes a letter to a church that is dealing with false teaching. FALSE TEACHING ON THE BIBLE!!

There were people twisting the Old Testament and convincing people they must do things with their diet and hair in order to be right with God.

**Let’s take a look at the passage:**

Opening Passage:

1 Timothy 1:1–11

“Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus according to the command of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope, to Timothy, my true child in the faith. Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. Just as I urged you when I traveled to Macedonia, remain in Ephesus, so that you may instruct certain people not to teach other doctrine, and not to pay attention to myths and endless genealogies, which cause useless speculations rather than God’s plan that is by faith. But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a faith without hypocrisy, from which some have deviated, and have turned away into fruitless discussion, wanting to be teachers of the law, although they do not understand either the things which they are saying or the things concerning which they are speaking confidently. But we know that the law is good, if anyone makes use of it lawfully, knowing this, that the law is not given for a righteous person but for the lawless …” (Cont)

Brief Explanation of Passage:

Paul is urging people to go back to the truth of the gospel, which is THROUGH FAITH!

It is not traditions or rules that save you, it is a relationship with Jesus through faith, like Paul is urging.

He wants the people to turn away from fruitless discussions and focus on having a pure heart through the Lord.

**Application of Passage to Today (What is the main point the author is making that we need to know how to apply?):**

Paul wants the people to go back to the Truth of faith and Jesus. To put away distractions of fake and false things.

We have a lot of fake things around us. False teaching EVERYWHERE!

Share one example of false teaching:

I have experienced this when I was on social media, different people telling a MILLION different ways to live.

**Examples they tell you:**

1. This is how you should talk.

2. This is how to ask someone out.

3. This is how you dress.

4. This is what it REALLY looks like to be a Christian. Read this many verses and chapters.

5. This is what this Bible passage really means! (But really they just take it out of context.)

There are many examples, but the point is, there is a lot of false teaching around. And Paul was trying to get the people to focus on the main thing—JESUS. And the truth of Jesus for us today is found in the Bible. Not in posts that look cool, not in anything else except God’s word.

So, the first step for us to start living an authentic life is to go to the one who made you.

The one who knows everything about you.

The only one who can offer you salvation, forgiveness of sins, joy, and peace.

Why be fake for people who can’t save you? Or really change you like God can?

Let us go back to the one who knows us and loves us for who we are.

Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates his own love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

God knows we are sinners, he knows who we truly are. AND HE STILL LOVES YOU. And the reason why he died on the cross for you is so you can have an authentic relationship with him through faith.

Romans 3:23–25 “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by his grace, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, whom God made publicly available as the mercy seat through faith in his blood, for a demonstration of his righteousness, because of the passing over of previously committed sins.”

My question to you is: What is stopping you from living an authentic life for Jesus?

His arms are open for you to have a relationship with him just by trusting and following Him.

That is where your life really starts—with a relationship with him.

If you want to know how to have a relationship with Jesus, it is simple. You believe that Jesus is God, that he died on the cross for your sins, rose from the grave, and you have placed your faith in Him and choose to follow Him.

That is it. No flashy things, or spectacle, just an authentic relationship, awaiting to happen.

**(Close with invitation)**

**Transition to Small Groups:**

Let the questions be about what false things are they believing or being influenced by and ways to go back to the truth.