Here is the the link to this week's sermon on Authenticity.

Authenticity as a Christian, we’ve been discussing this a great deal the last several weeks.  We started based on 14 statements of what an unauthentic Christian does.  Since that time, we have been breaking down the statements one at a time.  Last week, our discussion focused around authentic Christians being those who were committed to sharing their faith, being salt and light in a dark and flavorless generation.  That lesson followed our previous lessons:

• Authenticity means obedience; knowing what the word of God says and doing it.
• Authenticity means wholeheartedness; knowing you have to follow God with all heart, and not comparing your righteousness to others.
• Authenticity means good stewardship; handling God’s resources righteously.
• Authenticity means genuineness; that we live privately the same way we live publicly.
• Authenticity means intimacy with God rather than going through religious rituals of trying to relate to God

I want us to turn our attention to one of Paul’s warnings about the last days in 2 Timothy 3.  He says that men will become apostate, meaning they who once held to a strong faith in Christ, would abandon it.  In verse 5, he describes these people as, “having a form of godliness, but denying its power”  His intent is to characterize people who still want to appear to have some measure of respect for religious things, but are not divinely connected at all.  Unfortunately, the church boasts of many “Christians” already in this state of mind.  They outwardly want to appear “righteous” but want nothing to do with an all powerful, all consuming, mighty God.

This is a bit scary, because it can happen to anyone who currently professes a faith in Christ.  Today, we will discuss it some more and see what we can do to prevent going down this dangerous road and remaining as one who embraces the power of God.

Kingdom Blessings, Pastor John