In many Christian circles, you will hear talk about the quest for authenticity. It permeates our conversations and thoughts as people do not want to be fake in their walk with the Lord. But my question is simply, “What do you mean by saying you want to be authentic?”

Being authentic is usually defined as: “not false or copied; genuine; real,” or “representing one’s true nature or beliefs; true to oneself” That means to be an authentic follower of Jesus, we do things that align with our beliefs. Our actions represent our true nature as a believer without feeling fake. We often use phrases like “be real” or “real life” to demonstrate the concept. A person who is willing to share their struggles in their faith is authentic and being real with us.

There is an ugly flipside that I have seen emerge from this movement for authenticity. Some Christians are unwilling to do certain activities because they can feel fake. If you are an introvert and you push yourself toward people, then you are not authentic to the way God created you. If it feels unnatural to be a part of a Church community, then don’t be fake and force yourself to attend. If it hints of feeling fake, then I am not going to participate, because I would not be authentic.

My quest today is to challenge you to redefine authenticity to include this one concept. Being authentic also means that I act in ways that produce who I want to become. If I really want to be this one type of person in the future, then I am going to have to do things that feel fake now.

This is always easiest to illustrate with the human body. If I genuinely want to be healthy and fit a year from now, that means I will need to do things today that feel fake or inauthentic. I must get up and exercise when I don’t want to do it. I need to eat healthy even when I don’t feel like doing it. My actions now may seem inauthentic to my feelings but not to the person I am trying to become in the future.

I want you to be real and share your life in a way that is not false with the people who follow Jesus. This does not mean that everything will feel right at the moment. To achieve what I authentically want in the future, I may need to do things that feel fake right now. Doing the right thing each day is the only path to a better future, no matter how you feel about it.

All Christian lives are interconnected through their faith in Jesus. Maybe nowhere is this truth more specifically stated than in Paul’s letter to the Church in Galatia. Galatians 6:2 says, “Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.”

This passage says three things to the community of believers about what it means to follow Jesus together. (I will start at the end)

1. There is a law to following Jesus. Most of us think of being a Christian as a journey of grace. God loves us, forgives us, and gives us freedom. While those are true, the New Testament states that there are rules to following him too. I believe this passage is a reference to John 13:34-35 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. (35) By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” The one primary requirement for being a believer in Jesus is that we love the other believers. We care about one another on this journey of faith.
2. We are to carry each other’s burdens. Each of us has a weight that we are carrying through life. It might be one enormous burden we have carried since childhood like an absentee father, or it might be an ever-changing burden with the passing of years. Some people struggle in their marriage, then with their children, then with aging parents and then with the difficulties of age. Everyone had a burden, and the imagery is that as a community, we come around the struggling person and help to lift that weight off their shoulders.
3. We must be willing to share our burdens. This is only implied in the passage, but it is significant. For me to help carry your load, you must tell me about the weight you have on your shoulders. What is it that you are carrying that is about to crush you emotionally? I think these two things are deeply connected. For me, many times, when I have finally opened up to someone about my difficulties, it was like a burden was removed just in talking about it. That weight you are feeling is hurting you, and you need to tell someone about it.

The community of believers is a place where we can find someone – it can be a leader, or it might be a friend – who can help to carry our load. If you are not sharing your struggles with someone, it is not healthy for you. If you are not contributing to carrying someone’s burdens, then you are not fulfilling the law of Christ. It is easier to stay out of other people’s lives and not help lift the weight, but that is not what it means to follow Jesus. We are all in this together.

One of the most powerful tools you have in your religious tool bag is your personal story of transformation by Jesus. This is often referred to as your testimony or conversion story.

The power of this story comes from two places. One, it is a tale that you know intimately, so you do not need any special reminders or notes; therefore, it never sounds like a canned speech. Second, your current life serves as a reference point as to how far you have come as a believer.

Since this is such a magnificent tool, I get to hear people share their stories all the time. The problem is that most of them have never been instructed on how to share their testimony in a way that brings maximum impact. Let me give you a three-step plan to share how Jesus has changed your life.

1. Here is where my life was before Jesus. Tell people about your struggle without faith. This should be less than one-third of your entire presentation. The biggest mistake I hear people make when sharing their life story is they talk about all the evils of their life before Jesus, but they do it in a way that makes me think they miss it. For example, “Every night before I was a believer was just one party after another and nothing but fun. I stayed up late, ran around with wild women, drank too much, and had way too much fun.” Does that sound like life was bad or good? You are better to share stories of the emptiness after the fun. Share about the void in your soul that kept you chasing unfulfilling pursuits.
2. Here is how Jesus found me. Tell people about who shared Jesus with you the first time. Talk about why you went to Church after all those years. Tell me about how the gospel was explained to you in detail and why it made sense. I rarely hear this in a conversion story, but I believe it has the most impact of all that you say.
3. Here is how my life is different. It is easy to talk about life before Jesus, but the challenge comes with sharing the transformation since you started following him. Talk about what you do differently now. Tell me about how your feelings have changed. Even share your struggles with this new life. This should be a little more than one-third of your testimony. Many times, I hear it added to the end as an attempt to cut your speech off rather than deliver the final truth of the gospel.

That is it. If you are willing to share these three parts of your life, you will never lack in conversation about your faith.

This week someone is watching you. Your life is bearing witness to Jesus, his salvation and transformation. When someone asks you about it, I believe you are equipped to share the gospel simply by using your own story.

Occasionally throughout my ministry, an attendee of the Church I lead will come to me with an interesting statement. They will tell me they are leaving so that they can attend someplace and go deeper in their faith. Often, they are direct and say that they need sermons that are deeper in content. The quest usually seems genuine enough. People want to be spiritually mature, and they think the way to obtain that goal is to expose themselves to a particular type of preaching and teaching.

Unfortunately, this is not the way to develop spiritual maturity. Once we have received the basics of the faith, what the apostle Paul calls spiritual milk, then there are two things that will help us to mature more in religious life.

1. Learn to Feed Yourself.
   When our children were moving toward physical maturity, one big step was that they could feed themselves. If my wife or I prepared the food, then they could pick it up, bite it, chew it, and finish a meal. The second step in their maturity is when they were able to go into the kitchen and cook their own food. They were no longer dependent on anyone other than themselves. In fact, one of my life goals as a parent is to train them well enough that they no longer need me to survive.
   The same is true spiritually. Real growth is happening when you move beyond needing someone else to feed you the meat of the gospel. When you can read, understand, learn, and apply the scripture on your own, you have made a massive step in your growth. You don’t need someone to feed you, because you can do it yourself.
2. Learn to Feed Others.
   There is a second level of breakthrough when your children find a mate and eventually have children. Now they need to not only be able to feed themselves, but they also need to start the cycle over by feeding someone else.
   The same is true spiritually. The pinnacle of maturity is when you can take what you are learning and teach it to someone else. Nothing grows you in maturity more than be responsible for helping another person grow.

So, when someone comes to me and says, “I need to go somewhere else so that I can grow.” I smile and wish them the best. They don’t need to go anywhere else, they need to move to the next level of their faith, but that is difficult to do. Going out to eat every night is much more fun.

The details are sketchy, but it still stands as an ugly page in the history of the Church. Paul writes a letter to the Church in the city of Corinth. In chapter five, he addresses an issue that is taking place in the community of believers. “It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that even pagans do not tolerate: A man is sleeping with his father’s wife.” 1 Corinthians 5:1.

A man has come to the Church community, and he is openly involved in what the New International Version calls “sexual immorality.” It is probably better translated as “fornication.” The Greek word is where we get our English word pornography. Paul’s letter addresses a situation in which one of several things has happened. Either a man has taken up in a sexual relationship with his mother and is living in an incestuous relationship, or he has taken up with his stepmother in an inappropriate sexual relationship. Personally, I think it is about incest, as Paul mentions that not even pagans tolerate it. Whichever one it is, Paul says it is outside of God’s sexual plan for human sexuality. It is not between a man and a woman inside of the commitment of marriage.

Then Paul adds two perplexing statements. His next line in verse two is, “And you are proud!” A couple of lines later, he adds, “Your boasting is not good.” It appears that the Church was proud of this guy coming to their worship meetings. They were boasting and bragging about their inclusiveness. This Church saw themselves as so full of grace that anyone could be a part of their fellowship. Should believers not be known for who we include rather than who we exclude? They were proud that their grace has no limits.

Paul tells the Church in Corinth, “Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough?” 1 Corinthians 5:6 (NIV 2011) Once the Church opened the door to sin; soon, sin would become prevalent. He goes on to explain that we must still associate with sinful people; otherwise, we would have to leave this world, but we do not have to tolerate it inside the Church. Public sin must be addressed.

Corinth was a place where the grace of God was exchanged for a license for sinful behavior. Christians and the Church must always be careful of the misapplication of grace. Sometimes our boasting is not good. Sin is being sown, and we are required to address it rather than glorify it. Believers are to be careful about being graceless but also about being too grace-filled. It is a delicate balance of grace and holiness all the followers of Jesus must walk. Something as beautiful as grace can be cheapened, abused, and misused. If you are not continually evaluating your stance, you might be on the wrong side of grace.

As a Pastor, I get to hear numerous people share stories of faith in their lives and the lives of others. They share their experiences in conversations, on social media, and in front of those gathered for worship. Lately, I have noticed there are two distinct types of stories that people share with others.

1. Stories about Failures. Everyone has a time that they have failed God and been sinful. Often, we share these tales to let people know that no one is perfect, as if we had any doubts. The other thing these anecdotes do it lower the bar on righteousness. If we share stories about how someone failed, then we feel better about the struggles in our lives.
2. Stories about Faithfulness. These are little pictures of moments where we saw someone live up to the high calling of following Jesus. We share encounters that let us know that faith can be practical if we put our minds to it. When this type of tale is told, it helps to raise the bar on righteousness. If we share stories about how someone lived a Godly life, then we know it is possible to live a better life.

This observation has led me to listen carefully to the types of stories that people tell repeatedly. Many times, people share encounters that lower the bar, so they do not have to push themselves in their faith. Other times, people share accounts of people living in extraordinary ways to push other people to live in a more Godly way. Our narrative of faith often reveals more about us than it does about Jesus.

Lately, I have been experiencing headaches and dizziness regularly. The issue is that my eyes have changed over the past fourteen months. As my vision got worse, it has led to side effects that are impacting my everyday routine. I went to the eye doctor and explained to him what I was experiencing. He ran me through a battery of tests, and my right eye is deteriorating more quickly than my left. He changed my prescription, and within a week, I will have new glasses to fix the problem.

Here is the point of my story. When I took my symptoms and tried to give a self-diagnosis, my first thought was a brain tumor. That would explain everything, along with other issues in my life. Then I typed them into WebMD, and I received a variety of possible problems. My research left me affirming my brain tumor diagnosis, or possibly it was just the side effects of influenza. The list of various issues was long and hard to distinguish the correct item. Even when I decided to check my eyes first, because I have experienced problems before, the doctor discovered things that had not crossed my mind. Self-diagnosis, even in the age of the internet, is still guesswork.

If this is true of your physical body, might it also be true of your spiritual life?

Is it possible that your thoughts about yourself are wrong? You think you know what is happening, but you are wrong.

Is it also possible that your friends on the internet are misleading you? Not on purpose, mind you, but rather, they are untrained and inexperienced.

Is it even possible that the book you just read might not be the information that helps you in your walk with God? They are not trying to lead you astray, but their ideas don’t accurately apply to you and your situation?

If you think the answer is yes to any of these questions, then you understand why God gave us the Church. When we come to follow Jesus, we are placed into a community of people who are also following Jesus. There are people there who lead who have been trained in the proper way to interpret the Bible, theology, and how those intersect with people. Other leaders help pray for your spiritual needs and provide the advice that comes with years of following Jesus. Some God-fearing saints have walked paths like yours who want to help you on your journey. There are people your age who bring different life experiences that can stand beside you on this journey. There is a large group of people who are here to help you see your shortcomings, overcome your flaws, and move you into a healthy relationship with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

If you try to walk the journey of faith alone, you are susceptible to the limitations of your own experience and research. You don’t know what you need. You need someone with training and wisdom to guide you in paths of righteousness that you would not walk alone. I know the community of faith is not perfect, just like the medical community, but they are both here to help you.

Last week I spoke to a group of teachers as part of a Fellowship of Christian Athletes program called a “Coaches Huddle.” It is an informal devotion that I lead along with the other pastors in our community. As God so often does with lessons, what I wrote for the message also touched my life and challenged me. The topic for the day was waiting on the Lord, and I thought you might find it helpful too.

Psalm 27:13-14, “I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. (14) Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.” (NIV 2011) This Psalm is one written by King David, and the entire thing drives toward one concept. Believers are frequently called to wait on the Lord to act at the proper time in his perfect way.

The Biblical characters underline this truth to us repeatedly. Abram waited 25 years from the promise of a son to its fulfillment. Joseph, in Genesis, waits 13 years for God to give him the place of honor promised to him. Moses spends 40 years in Egypt and then must spend another 40 tending sheep before he is ready to lead the Lord’s people. Even King David, the author of this passage, was anointed as the next king and then spent 14 years waiting to take the throne.

David, understanding the way of God, says two times in one verse, “Wait for the Lord.” He states it and then restates it to drive home his point. This is the equivalent of him shouting at the top of his lungs. He screams this truth to people living a long time ago, and maybe that is so his words will reach clear to future generations like ours. We live in a time of instant gratification. We have microwaves to cook our food in seconds. One TV service now offers “Movies on Demand.” There is high-speed internet where I can get everything from news to entertainment to personal connection immediately.

Yet, believers are willing to wait for God to act in his own time and in his own uniquely perfect way. We submit our will to his leading and his timing. He forces us to trust him day after day, week after week, and often year after year.

The context of this statement in verse 13, where David says he is confident of one thing. If he clings to the Lord and waits for him, we will see his goodness in this lifetime. This is not a health and wealth gospel that says, “Trust God, and he will give you everything you want.” This is “Cling to God over a lifetime, and his goodness will transform you.” You will receive his blessing, even though it may not look like what we were expecting.

Today, at the start of another week, we may find ourselves in the middle of a season where God has not shown up yet. His blessings are delayed, and we feel like giving up. The challenge of David is to keep holding onto God, even when we want to quit. Wait for the Lord, he is seldom early, but he is never late. Trust him while you spend time in the waiting room of life. When we have the least control is when we need to trust that God is in complete control.

Hundreds of articles and posts have been written about the need for Christians and Churches to change their behavior so that we can make Jesus popular. If the followers of Jesus were less judgmental, angry, political, or religious, and instead more loving, generous, accepting, and gracious, then people would flock to Jesus.

On the flip side, there are hundreds of articles about how the Church community is shrinking, fewer people are interested in faith, and most of the younger generation are calling themselves “None” when they are questioned about faith.

Jesus is less popular than ever in the United States, and believers need to do something to turn the tide.

While I agree that we as believers need to represent Jesus well, and we need to make every effort as a Church to reach the lost with the message of grace, I also understand that Jesus will never be popular in the world. Never.

Matthew chapters five through seven, records the longest teaching of Jesus we call “The Sermon on the Mount.” Near the end of this section, he says, “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it. (Matthew 7:13-14 NIV 2011). Jesus affirms that his teaching will never be popular with the majority. Many will take the wide road because it is easy, well-trod, and lots of people are heading that way. While the way of Jesus is narrow, and only a few will maneuver the difficult corridors of this path.

I don’t think that we, as his followers, can do anything to change this reality.

Those of us who follow Jesus and walk the path of faith will always be in the minority. That does not mean that we should become cynical, mean, and fatalistic on this journey. It does mean that we should get used to being rejected, feeling alone, struggling to share something we call “good news.” The way of the believer is a difficult life choice that many people will not make. Jesus asked his twelve closest followers, “You do not want to leave too, do you?” and Simon Peter speaking on behalf of the group responded, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” (John 6:67-68 NIV 2011)

Take heart. Stand firm. Following Jesus will never be popular, but it is significant.

A few years ago, Churches and religious communities started doing something new that was a throwback to days long past. They started having tent meetings on the lawn of their Churches with a revival speaker to challenge the crowd each night. These gatherings were supposed to inspire people and recapture a piece from the past that would help the Church on its mission.

The problem with these events is found in the flawed thinking that stands behind it. The idea is that if we could somehow reproduce this past event, we will get the results back from when they were popular. In the late 1940s through the 1960s, tent revival meetings were a huge boost to the faith. A Church could bring in an outside speaker who had a few compelling sermons, and he would preach stuff to inspire people. His speeches were only compared to the local preachers and were always better in different ways. People who had slowly quit attending Churches for various reasons would be challenged, and their faith revived. They would go back to worshipping regularly on Sunday, bring their family with them, and possibly invite their neighbors. A tent revival meeting meant that God would do something exciting in a town as they would make new disciples and grow old ones.

Today, the world has changed. A Church will decide to set up a tent in the summer and leave their climate-controlled building and go outside to sit in hard metal chairs. They will invite in a speaker, who might be slightly better than the local preacher, but does not compare to the thousands of sermons found on the internet. A few highly committed people will come, and they are usually those who attend every meeting to support their friends in the faith. A handful of people will recommit their life to Jesus often because they feel someone “ought to do something” after all this effort. The local Church is unchanged, but the community feels better that “at least they are trying something” to reach the lost for Jesus.

Tent meetings demonstrate a fundamental concept that the followers of Jesus must understand if we are going to reach people with the gospel message. The issue is that the believers do not need to recapture some past event to get past results. Instead, they need to focus on the future to reach people in the future. Tent meetings are dead activities that give the appearance of life. We need to pour our resources and energy into living events that actually lead to growth.

At our Church, we are pouring our efforts into our website, social media, and learning to create helpful videos. I blog, and I am launching a podcast soon. We are upgrading our children’s ministries with decorations, videos, sound, and lights. I know we are behind large Churches who are doing cutting edge ministry, but we are continually seeking to improve.

A preacher I know describes the Church as a crayfish. We tend to back blindly into the future while looking longingly toward the past. For the Church to reach our children and grandchildren for Jesus, the ministry will not look like anything we have attempted before, and accepting that fact is the first step toward reaching more people for Jesus.