New Year's Message 2022-رسالة عام 2022- اذهب-١

several weeks we have gone through three different topics the first week you'll remember we spoke about kindness and the power of kindness the second week we spoke about the power of words and why words matter last sunday we spoke about presence and the importance of being present with other people sometimes words are not enough sometimes our words actually can possible can cause more harm than good and so sometimes it is sufficient and it is good to just be present the fourth christian theme that we're going to be looking at this morning from the movie is the book is the uh the theme authenticity uh the importance of being real if you will we've been saying throughout the last several weeks our main message for this series is simple things can make the world a more beautiful place simple things can make the world a more beautiful place now we know how kindness and nice words uh can make the world a more beautiful place but authenticity being real uh is an important part of us also impacting the world around us so what exactly is authenticity to be authentic is to be true about yourself it's to be transparent and tender to yourself and to others to be authentic is to be a real you okay and part of being that real you and not hiding behind masks is to extend who you are as a real person created in the image of god uh with tenderness gentleness and kindness not only to others but also to yourself authenticity is more than just being honest since we can be brutally honest sometimes we can rip ourselves and others apart uh ever communicating without ever communicating honor and value to others authenticity is not being two-faced it's being real it's not being a hypocrite it's not putting on masks it is being the truest version of who god intended you to be it's not just being the real person that you want to be but it's being the real version of who god wants you to be and created you to be what does it mean to be real it means more than mere talk and so when we talk about the power of words yes words are important but being a real you is also very important but people are not always the same are they and sometimes we may not always be the same check out this first clip from the movie this piece will be for an issue about heroes do you consider yourself a hero what about mr rogers is he a hero i i don't understand the question well there's you and fred and then there's the isn't that something there's you fred and then there's the character you play right and sometimes there might be the real there's might be the us at home and then there might be us at work or the us when the cameras are on or the us when we're around our friends and mr rogers are fred he was confused he's like what do you mean i don't understand right because being authentic and that's why lloyd the other protagonist he was he realized maybe in his own life and maybe in what he's observed around others is people tend to put on two different faces the world needs an authentic church community the world needs people who are real and who are willing to be witnesses of jesus christ why why is this important i believe the church is god's solution for a broken world and broken people and if we are not real if we're not if we're just putting on a show we want others to know about jesus but it's not the real christ working in us then eventually people read through that okay eventually if i'm just saying nice things and showing up and being present and doing acts of kindness but it's not coming from a place of authenticity it will have much less impact on the other person because what ultimately will be happening is i will be sharing a version of me and my self-will rather than the work of god going through me the grace of god working through me as a channel god uses authentic communities and people that are acquainted with their brokenness and they're assured of christ's healing work and have experienced that in their own lives they go beyond the walls of superficiality they move beyond putting on a show because they know who they are they know their brokenness but they don't stop there they don't hide behind their brokenness they don't hide behind their wounds but they also seek healing in the work of christ in their own lives but we as humans we tend to hide behind masks the first time man learned to hide was in the garden of eden genesis chapter 3 verse 7 to 10 then the eyes of both of them were open and they knew that they were naked and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings they heard the sound of the lord god walking in the garden in the cool of the day adam hid his what hid his wife adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the lord god among the trees of the garden and the lord god called to adam and said to him where are you so he said i heard your voice in the garden i was afraid because i was naked and i hid myself sometimes we don't hide because we want to be fake sometimes we hide because we're afraid of showing our real self okay and so part of this process of being authentic is realizing what we truly are and our wounds and our hurts and our mistakes and our sins and our brokenness and not trying to hide behind something but coming to the lord rather than trying to flee from him people have learned to hide behind masks and so sometimes we just don't know who we're dealing with i and they're so kind and so good and so loving and you just don't know but you want to know you want to figure it out is this person for real and that's exactly what lloyd is saying something struck him about his interaction with mr rogers there's something striking about a person who is kind and loving and gentle with their words and is doing it authentically but what lloyd here is saying is i want to figure out if this is real i can't just continue to be superficial in my own understanding because i think what he understood is when we deal with authentic people that it can have an impact on us because we realize that this is possible and i think we've all interacted with people who have been their truest self in christ and that impacts us and at first we're like is this person for real are they real do they really love god that much are they really kind all the time are they really loving when they mess up do they hide or do they acknowledge it and apologize because if you watch the movie you're going to realize that mr rogers talks about his own like shortcomings and how he messed up even with his own kids you know and and so he kind of he he acknowledges that he works with it right so i want to talk about three aspects of authenticity this morning number one is being authentic with god we need to be real with god saint peter tells us in his first epistle since you have purified your souls and obeying the truth through the spirit and sincere love of the brethren love one another fervently with a pure heart it's truly refreshing but confusing when there is sincere love that we see or that's shown to others but this is what christians ought to do is extend an authentic sincere true love being authentic in our relationship with god saint polycarp of smyrna he was a church father from the beginning of the second century for those who have heard the name ignatius of antioch he was a contemporary he ended up being martyred around the year 105 110 a.d he was questioned one time about his commitment to christ and he was just told you know what just deny jesus just deny christ just just this one time just deny him and walk away from him just for this one time for the emperor and listen to what saint polycarp says he says for 86 years i have served jesus christ he's never abandoned me how could i curse my blessed king and savior right he was offending he said it doesn't matter if it cost me my life i can't deny him he was authentic with god he was real with god he was true in his commitment to god and i want to tell you one of the things that is important is when we go to god in prayer is to also be authentic and real sometimes we hide behind words but god sees the hidden chambers of the heart the inner parts of the heart he knows our thoughts and so going to him not just saying well this is who i am but this is yes who i am this is where the brokenness is and i'm in need of you that's step number one number two is being authentic with ourselves being true with ourselves this next clip um is a clip where mr rogers talks about his dealing with his own kind of authenticity with within himself describes like an incident when he was a little kid when i was a boy i was very chubby and the other kids would chase me and call me names like fat freddie it made me very sad sometimes when i was by myself i would cry and other times it may be very angry sometimes we get angry and sometimes we get sad and sometimes we completely ignore what's going on inside of us we don't pay attention we don't know the real us there's an important thing to be fully authentic knowing ourselves examining our souls understanding what's going on within ourselves saint augustine of hippo he talks about the importance of being authentic with ourselves from head to toe he says the christian should be an alleluia a praise to god from head to foot right saying that there should be an authenticity but part of being authentic with ourselves is knowing what is going on what angers us what hurts us what scares us so that we can bring that to god and we can deal with that within so that our lives can be fully authentic all the time that we can be authentic we can be an alleluia praise to god with our thoughts with our desires with our actions with our work with our interactions with others the places that we go and the things that we say how we respond when we're angry the scripture tells us be angry and do not sin so how do we do that we've got to understand what it is that's going on this is not just self-help guys this is truly about examining and knowing ourselves knowing our hearts if you read the psalms david was well acquainted with his heart with his soul he would sit and have dialogue with his soul he interacted because he examined himself fully and he didn't ignore what was going on with his fears he didn't ignore because sometimes when we're afraid if we don't fully understand what's going on rather than dealing with that what we can do is we can lean on sin as a place of comfort rather than being a praise to god and alleluia with our lives and thirdly is being authentic with others there's a my favorite clip in the whole video in the whole movie is this um uh this this interaction that mr rogers has with this little boy you know when something is authentic because it's a consistent part of that person's life thank you thank you so much for coming down and visiting us in the neighborhood she's clearly thrilled right she's clearly so happy because they're behind schedule but he does this every day this is an authentic part of who he is and when we are authentic it's not just like i said when it's convenient or when the cameras are rolling but when we have to put the cameras on hold like he did to deal with someone who's broken in front of us saint john in his first epistle he says by this we know love because he laid down his life for us we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren whoever has this world's goods and sees his brother in need and shuts up his heart from him how does the love of god abide in him my little children let us not love in word or in tongue but indeed and in truth by this know that we know that we are of the truth and shall assure our hearts before him part of being authentic with others is extending the love of god to those who are around us it's seeing someone who's in need and it's reaching out and offering to them c.s lewis he comments on this passage and he says that we shouldn't waste time overthinking whether you love your neighbor simply act as if you did sometimes we sit there and we ponder i'm like huh do i do i love them do i really love them enough do i love my wife or my husband do i love my children do i love my parents i love my neighbor he says you know what quit thinking about it and just do it act as if you did as soon as we do this we find one of the great secrets when you're behaving as if you love someone you will presently come to love him right because if you're showing love to someone then you're loving them love is not an emotional i feel like gooey inside about you love is extending sacrifice and offering ourselves for the sake of the other let me wrap up here with a few quick points about authenticity number one is to be authentic we have to be truthful to god about ourselves we have to choose to take responsibility over who we are and who we would like to become number two is sometimes authenticity requires that we risk truth-sharing with a few trusted friends in church we want to be wise here and not be unwise to bear our soul to those who gossip or speak too much but perhaps trusted friends who can guide us and encourage us in our own walk and our own desire to become image bearers number three is to be authentic we have to be available to others we must be willing to be interrupted out of our own agenda and uh public confession this is a struggle that i have and i'm speaking this reminding myself of the importance of this point this last friday i was in the midst of of writing a paper and i was like i need to stop and uh i told more i'm like we need to we need to step out we need to go and just took the day to just be available uh to and with my wife's we just went inside the beach for like four or five hours sometimes we've got agenda we've got things that have to get done they're important things but to be authentic in our relationship with others requires that sometimes we have to put those things on hold in order to be available um with others number four is to be forgiving there's always a potential for wounds when we risk authenticity or when we're in community or when we deal with others we may misread authentic believers as wounding us sometimes people are looking to be sincere when that happens we're invited to extend forgiveness and seek reconciliation number five and finally be authentic requires that we would be humble and teachable it takes a posture of humility and teachability when others share life with you when others provide inputs and you allow yourself to be in a space with others who would encourage you to live life as an icon of christ it requires for me and you to have the humility and the teachability when someone speaks into our life that we listen that we think about it that we reflect and that perhaps we say you know what there's opportunity for me to grow here next week we're going to continue with humility we're going to actually cut this series short one week we're going to discuss humility next week and i believe the last two weeks we're going to be looking at actually the last two weeks are going to be humility and forgiveness and i think that's it all right all glory to god forever amen