Fact or Fake: Faith

I Know You

Hello everyone!

It is so good to be with you all tonight!

We are going to be finishing up our series on Fact or Fake tonight.

As this series has been about how at time we can tend to be fake or at the very least we drift towards pretending rather then being who God made us to be.

Recap

Appearance

Friendship

Social Media

This week we are going to be covering faith as we wrap up our series fact or fake.

Faith is a really interesting one.

As we talk about faith tonight I want to make sure we all have a good definition of what faith is.

Faith is: movement of trust going out to, and laying hold of, the object of its confidence.

It is very simply put our beliefs.

It is a genuine belief what God has revealed is true will issue in a true faith.

Faith takes a man out of himself and put him into Christ.

One of the great examples of faith is a chair.

When we see a chair we very rarely examine the chair right, we just sit down on it.

We believe that it will hold us

It is Never gonna give you up Never gonna let you down Never gonna run around and desert you Never gonna make you cry Never gonna say goodbye Never gonna tell a lie and hurt you.

Now it can be easy however to fake like you have faith.

What are some ways that we can fake our faith?

Going to church or youth group— and not reading our Bibles, praying, or growing in our relationship with God.

We can be over spiritual— we know all the answers but yet our lives looks like everyone else.

We have a good standing with those at church but truth be told we get hammered on the weekend to show up on Sunday or Wednesday with arms raised and zero suspension.

While it is important to not be fake when it comes to appearance, and friendship and yes even social media, it is another thing to be fake with our relationship with God.

Because here is the deal— you are either in with God or you are out with God.

This becomes very clear when we look at Matthew chapter 7.

Jesus is giving one of the best sermons ever preached.

It started in chapter 5 and it comes to the conclusion that we are going to look at tonight.

Jesus spent a good amount of time talking about being salt and light, That He came to fulfill the law, how anger and adultery begin in the heart and our outwardly acted upon.

The problem with divorce, and how we need to love our enemies.

He also explained with giving, fasting and praying is suppose to look like instead of looking to the religious leaders of the day who only did it for the attention.

Lastly leading up to how we can’t serve God and money, how we need to trust that God is in control, and a good reminder that we are not God and we need to hold our judgment.

And Jesus is going to end this sermon of his teaching with some comparisons.

And the comparisons are stark in opposition.

They are at odds with each other.

It is like sweet and spicy.

Tall and short.

Good and evil.

Right and wrong.

Meaning that their is a correct response.

There is a true answer that Jesus calls his listens to.

A clear calling into how they should live their lives.

So if you have your Bibles lets open up to Matthew 7:13 and we will read until verse 27.

Matthew 7:13–27 ESV

“Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few. “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will recognize them by their fruits. “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, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’ “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”

Let’s pray.

—“Father we thank you for gathering us tonight. Holy Spirit we ask you into this place and we pray for wisdom as we begin to dive into Jesus’ teaching. Spirit give us clarity, soften hearts to hear your truth. Jesus we thank you for your teaching and we pray that we can come to grips that there is only one way to get to heaven and it is through you. Lord we love you and we ask all of these things in Jesus name. Amen”

So with this text we see some groupings here right.

We see Jesus making some comparisons here.

What are those comparisons?

There are four of them can you name them?

We have

—Two Ways

—Two Trees

—Two Claims

—Two Foundations— same may say builders as in wise or foolish but I believe that text is really relating to the foundation rather then the builder as we will see.

Now as we break these down I want us to ask some questions.

So each point tonight is going to be in a question.

So number one question is What is your direction.

It is about the two ways and what is your direction.

WHAT IS YOUR DIRECTION?

What path are you currently on?

Let’s read that verse again, verse 13.

Matthew 7:13–14 ESV

“Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.

Jesus starts off with this idea of a narrow gate and a wide gate.

Does this mean there is a literally gate?

No Jesus is using figurative language here.

He is giving us an example.

So we have a wide gate and a narrow gate.

And what is interesting is how he describes these gates.

Because I don’t know about you but wide sounds like a better gate.

If I want to see many people going to heaven then I want that gate to be huge!

So we can cram the people through.

But that is not what Jesus is saying.

For the wide gate is the gate that is easy and it leads to destruction.

And many will enter through it.

But the narrow gate the gate that may only be wide enough for one person is hard but this gate leads to life.

Life and destruction?

Which one are you picking.

Life of course!

I don’t know if you have ever been on a trial in the woods but it can be hard sometime to navigate trails.

and the trails that have the least amount of people that go on them are the trails that are the hardest to stay on.

But the trails that are most visible are the trails that have the most action.

It is flat and it has no roots sticking out, it is easy to find it because it is super wide and easy.

You guys remember beauty and the beast.

Maurice and his horse Flippi come to a fork in the road and I have the clip I want to show you.

That horse did not want to take that dark road/scary road.

Maurice did.

Now here is the deal— we look at these two roads in life.

and one looks bright and sunny and the other may dark and scary.

And out of comfort we pick the easy one.

We pick the path of least resistance.

The wide gate allows numerous people to walk through but that path does not lead to life.

It may seem like it will, that it is a life of comfort and ease and many want that.

That sounds pretty good.

And what Jesus is saying here is not pick the path that looks like death.

That when we say yes to Jesus that path of picking up our cross and carrying it through the narrow gate is going to be really hard.

It is looking through the narrow gate and seeing that persecution lays ahead and saying yes anyway.

The Narrow gate is not something one goes through by accident.

It is a choice they make knowing full well this is going to cost something.

No one just drifts into the narrow gate but it is entered into by a choice.

For the narrow leads to life, it leads to heaven and few find it.

It is a narrow gate that many will skip right over.

Their direction in life is taking them this way and all is great and merry but eventually that road is going to turn out wrong.

The narrow road however will look hard but it leads to the kingdom of God and that is what a true disciple of Christ will decide to follow.

Why you may ask?

Acts 14:22 ESV

strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.

The Narrow gate strengthens and encourages— you may have tribulation but the narrow is what leads to life.

So what is your direction in life currently?

The second comparison is the two tree’s.

And the question I want to ask is what is your identity?

WHAT IS YOUR IDENTITY?

Let jump back to the text.

Matthew 7:15–20 ESV

“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.

Now the start of this comparison is not about trees but rather false prophets who come in sheep’s clothes.

For they are not sheep’s but wolves.

This passage is a warning.

Jesus is telling his listeners to pay attention.

Jesus doesn’t tell them to seek them out because false prophets seek the disciples out.

They come in to a group or a church as harmless and innocent animals.

A wolf in sheep’s clothing sounds like a story or a maybe even the start of Little Red Riding Hood, but the implications are most sever.

A wolf is designed to kill and to seek to destroy.

They have unsatisfied appetites as they will kill because they do not know when the next meal will come for them.

This is a very powerful statement by Jesus calling out false prophets.

He calls them wolves as they have a selfish mindset.

While the outside may look nice and everything is on the up and up they truly are covering up their true self.

Inward character reveals selfishness.

It was not uncommon to have false prophets try to deceive others.

It was pretty common in both the OT and the NT.

And Jesus goes give us a bit of hope however.

He tells us how we can tell if someone is a wolf in sheep’s clothes or is actually a sheep.

One must look at their fruit.

As Jesus then gives an example it may be easy to over look this this but honestly I think it helps push the point even further.

He ask a question:

Are grapes gathered from a thornbush or a fig from a thistle?

Here are some photos of a thornbush with blackberries on them and here is what a grape vine looks like.

And now a fig flower as it blooms and a flower of a thistle as it blooms.

As you can see if you do not know what each of these are— it may be hard to tell.

This is the example that Jesus is getting at.

Grapes only come from a vine it has no thrones.

A throne bush is only deceiving the outside world.

The wolf is only deceiving the outside world.

How do we tell what is what?

How do we know?

It comes down to the fruit being produced.

While the fruit on a thornbush may be great— it still is not a grape.

And it never will be one.

For it is impossible for a grape to come from a thornbush.

Just like it is impossible for good fruit to come from a bad tree.

It is equally as impossible for bad fruit to come from a good tree.

And Jesus does not give us clarity on what is a bad fruit and what is good fruit.

We can maybe come down to a couple of suggestions but I am going to leave that to you and your small group.

I think that would be fun to discuss.

But what Jesus does speak to is the usefulness of a bad tree.

There isn’t one.

The bad tree is cut down, rejected, and thrown into the fire.

But it really has nothing to do with being a bad tree but Jesus states that every tree that does not produce good fruit is cut down.

The bad tree is not allowed to live— discipleship means more then just religious activity.

But what I do want to say about this is that it is hard to tell if someone is a good tree or a bad tree.

It is really hard to know with certainty the spiritually state of any other individual.

What I don’t want us to do right now is to be thinking in our minds of all the people we would label as good trees and bad trees.

The only question I want us to ask is what am I?

At the very root what type of tree am I?

Jesus centered on our direction first— where are we going and he centers up here with who are we.

It is about our identity.

Who are you and what do you produce?

Only you can truly answer that.

The last questions I want us to ask tonight is what is your claim?

WHAT IS YOUR CLAIM?

This is the scarest verse in all the Bible right here.

Matthew 7:21–23 ESV

“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, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

What Jesus is saying is that there are going to be people on the day of judgement, as in the day he comes back to this earth who will claim they know Jesus but Jesus will have never known them.

Upon reading this passage early in my faith I would ask Jesus into my heart about every time I want to youth group or church.

So twice a week.

So I do not want anyone to freakout and think that they are not going to heaven.

Jesus is really clear on the people who are coming to him.

They are the wide gate, bad trees who think they know Jesus.

While true Christians cannot lost their salvation there are those who never possessed belief in God.

Because here is what Jesus says to them— He says leave me, for I NEVER KNEW YOU.

No relationship was built ever.

These false christians will say didn’t we do all of these mighty works in your name, didn’t we cast out demons, and prophesy in your name?

They think that what they did will earn themselves into God kingdom.

Being active in religious affairs is no substitute for obeying God.

And those wonders and sign could be done with false intentions.

2 Thessalonians 2:9 ESV

The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders,

These passages were not meant to be admired but to be obeyed.

Content is not admired but Christians makes it their guide and model in their life.

You can’t lose your salvation if you never had it.

I believe these people never enter into a saving relationship with Christ.

As in they never surrender their lives to Him.

They always pick the wide gate, they always produce the bad fruit, they make false claims— for they build their foundation on the sand instead of the ROCK.

For that is how Jesus ends the sermon on the mount.

Matthew 7:24–27 ESV

“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”

The man of lawlessness is the fool who thinks sand is better than the rock.

While the one who hears God and obeys Him will be like the wise man who build his house on the ROCK.

While wise and foolish may build the same house the foundation is different.

The builders may look the same and even build the same house, but the foundation is what is different.

Even the circumstances of life may be the same.

AS in the rain fell, the floods came, and the winds came— there is no difference in circumstances.

LIFE HITS HARD!

And when your life is built on sand it is going to crumble with a sandcastle.

It will be swept away and you will be cut out— rejected— sent away for you are the foolish one who had every chance to put your faith in something real and true but you thought you knew best.

But if you listen to God and do what he says then you will be called beloved, you will enter the narrow gate not because you feel like but because you are obedient to God, you will be a good tree that produces good fruit because of your willingness to be obedient.

You will be welcomed into the kingdom of God as faithful servant!

FOR YOUR FOUNDATION WAS ON THE ROCK!

THE ROCK!

THE ROCK!

THE ROCK!

It cannot move, It won’t move!

THE ROCK OF OUR SALVATION!

So my last question tonight is WHAT IS YOUR FOUNDATION?

Is it on the sand or is it on the ROCK!

There are only two ways to go in this life.

You can go through the wide gate, be a bad tree and produce bad fruit, and be a fake believer, and come out looking like a fool who is a terrible builder of houses.

Or you can be one who picks the narrow gate, you surrender to be a good tree who produces good fruit, you will be know by Christ for you will be called wise builder who built his life on the ROCK!

What is your faith say about you tonight?

***Your direction in life will determine your identity and your identity will determine your actions— and it is only then that you will determine where you put your faith in and it will either be on the rock or it will be on the sand.

Pray