Isn't Christianity Full of Hypocrites?

A hypocrite is someone who says one thing and does another

Mark 7:6 ESV

And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, “ ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me;

1. Admit that all Christians, because they're imperfect humans, sometimes fail to live up to the standard Jesus set.

Romans 3:23 ESV

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

1 John 2:1 ESV

My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.

All of us have certain principles or values we would say are good ways to live, yet most of us would admit to not fully living them out. This does not make someone a hypocrite.

A true hypocrite is someone who tries to give the impression that they are passionate about something that they don’t really care much about

“To preach at a higher level than you perform is not hypocrisy. To claim a higher level of performance than you have attained is hypocrisy.

QUESTION: Have you been guilty of this? When have you tried to seem like something different than what you really are?

2. True Christians Do Not Claim to be Perfect

THE CRITERIA FOR BEING A CHRISTIAN ISN’T PERFECTION, IT’S GOSPELDRIVEN TRANSFORMATION.

Two of the most fundamental beliefs Christians hold are:

A) that we are inconceivably broken sinners in need of a Savior, and

B) a person who puts their trust in Jesus will be increasingly made new from the inside-out.

2 Corinthians 4:16 ESV

So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.

A CHRISTIAN IS SOMEONE WHO HAS ACKNOWLEDGED THAT THEY ARE A BROKEN SINNER AND HAS PUT THEIR WHOLE LIFE’S TRUST IN JESUS AS THEIR SAVIOR, MASTER , LORD, AND KING.

QUESTION: Have you actually put your complete trust in Christ, or have you been playing religious games, trying to fool yourself and those around you? Can you identify areas of transformation in your life?

TESTING OF OUR CHRISTIAN AUTHENTICITY

1 Peter 4:17–18 ESV

For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God? And “If the righteous is scarcely saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?”

2 Greeks words for time

Chronos - measured time. Chronological

Kairos - The opportune moment, the perfect moment , a special season.

This is Kairos time - time that you need to pay special heed to

64 AD Nero set fire to a merchant’s shop in Rome.

He set the fire, but he did not want the blame - so he blamed Christians

Christians not were assaulted and harm

Culture went against them because of a lie

Peter wrote DON’T THROW IN THE TILE

1 Peter 4:17 ESV

For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?

There is cultural attack - simultaneously judgement will begin in the house of the Lord

I know you’re listening to local news

Don’t be so fixated on what is a happening around you that you miss what God is trying to do with you.

We are living Today in a Kairos Moment - A Post Christian Culture

The clearer you are about your faith the more abuse you are going to receive

We are living in a time when you choose to be a full-time Christian and not a part-time Saint, a doer of his word and not a hearer only - you will be persecuted

We are living in a time when you reject the moral standards of the culture, REJECT efforts to pull people apart, REJECT a non-christian world view, When you REJECT what the culture has deemed to be legitimate and excepted.

Fire around me

The time is designed to show how is for real and whose fake news.