Cancel What's Fake

Intro

I don’t know if you’ve ever been on instagram and you’re scrolling, you’re in a zoom class and you’re holding your phone under the camera like this so you can still look like you’re kinda paying attention, you’re trying to be sneaky. And you get a notification and you look and you got a new follower. Sick. But then you look at their profile you begin to notice some things about this profile. Maybe they don’t have a profile pic, their bio says something about getting rich in 30 days with bitcoin or maybe it just says something nasty. That’s a bot that’s a fake follower.

Jesus is giving the Sermon on the Mount, it’s the first sermon recorded that Jesus ever did. So what Jesus is saying is what’s been on his heart for the first 30 years of his life on earth. And he’s challenging everyone’s way of thinking about life and God. And so I want you to picture this in your head, Jesus has a huge crowd following him, so huge he has to stand at the top of a hill for everyone to see and hear him. And the people who listened were followers of Jesus. Some were legit followers of Jesus, they wanted to follow him and his teachings, but some were fake followers. They were only curious, or only wanted what he could do for them. And this is how Jesus wraps up his sermon.

13 “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14 But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

Jesus commands us to enter the narrow gate. He says there are two doors and everyone will enter one of them. Most people will enter this gate, this big, wide one that can fit everyone. This one that is attractive to the world. It seems nice. But then there’s this other gate, it’s small, difficult to find. And Jesus, Lord of all, says few will enter it. And so he commands you Via Youth, enter through that gate.

Fake Paradise

CEREAL TOY STORY

And that’s exactly how this wide gate is. Both gates represent paradise. The world and the devil are trying to bait you in and make the wide path seem attractive. Come on, you don’t need to follow those rules, live a full, fun life, why should a book tell you who you can and can’t have sex with or what you can and can’t do. And it tries to bait you in with pleasure, and money and the pursuit of happiness and the ease of living a life ignorant of your own sin. It looks like paradise, but when you look closely, But when you open up that cereal box, you see there’s no toy. When you walk through that gate you’ll see it was all a lie. Promises that couldn’t be kept, and instead of fulfillment it lead to death and destruction. But the narrow gate, the Christian life, leads to true paradise. Eternal life that doesn’t just start when you die. It starts now, it starts the moment you accept Christ. Jesus in John 10, says I am the door, all who enter by me will be saved. He’s the only way.What path are you on? Are you living in unrepentant sin, walking without Jesus, headed down the easy way that leads to death? Or are you striving through the narrow path that leads to life. Don’t buy in to the false advertising of the world. Cancel it. Don’t give it a chance in your mind.

Fake Prophets

15 “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. 16 By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 17 Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.

And so Jesus brings up this gardening analogy of fruit. Here’s how I’ll explain it. If you have an orange tree it produces oranges. So fruit is what you produce. So the fruit of a prophet or a teacher is the behavior he produces in his life and the life of those that follow him. Because what the teacher loves, the student will love

The New International Version Chapter 5

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24

In context he was talking about the Pharisees.

The New International Version Chapter 23

15 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of hell as you are.

You religious people you are so self centered. You go on these missions trip and you go evangelize and you don’t even make them know God, you make them know you. You don’t lead them to worship God, you lead them to worship you. And because of that, you Pharisees lead them to death.

Now what does that mean for us. What does false teaching mean for us?

3 If anyone teaches otherwise and does not agree to the sound instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ and to godly teaching, 4 they are conceited and understand nothing

So what fruit comes from their teaching? People becoming conceited. Overly concerned with themselves. I think some of you have given into false teaching. Their faith is centered around themselves. I do things for God, so he better do good things for me. I’m a Christian so I should have the best life ever. I think some of us we pursue God just because we want a better us, just because we want him to bless us. God’s not offering you your best life, he’s offering you him forever. Its conceited. We center our lives around ourselves. And this is why anxiety and depression are so high. And Jesus is telling us, don’t focus on yourself so much. Focus on me. Focus on loving God.

And so anything, any worldview that preaches anything other than being saved by the grace alone of Jesus Christ, is false teaching.

So I want to ask you, so I want to ask you who are you letting pour into you

21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ 23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’

Fake Profession

What is Jesus saying? A verbal confession alone of Jesus as Lord or as God, does not save you. Identifying as a Christian, telling people you love Jesus, mental knowledge that Jesus is God that’s not enough. Reading your bible, going to church, coming to crew nights, that’s not enough.

Saying that Jesus is Lord, that Jesus is God is necessary, but not enough. It requires more. Hear me out

Jesus says in verse 21, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.”

what is the will?

English Standard Version Chapter 11

6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

English Standard Version Chapter 10

9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.

I say this out of love. Some of you are not Christians. And you’ve faked yourselves.

Maybe you said a prayer in Sunday school when you were a kid, you got emotional during worship, you had a summer camp high, you’ve called yourself a Christian because your parents are Christian. That’s good, but that does not save you.

You call him Lord on Wednesday and maybe Sunday, but you don’t talk to him, you don’t think about him on any other day.

I’m telling you this because that was me.

English Standard Version Chapter 2

And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. 4 Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him