Authentic Christian Living Series

“AUTHENTIC CHRISTIAN LIVING”

TEXT: Romans 8:12-17

INTRO:

With so many beliefs and denominations in our society, a question that we must ask ourselves is: Am I a REAL Christian? Now I am not asking you to question your Salvation, as much as I am challenging you to look at your life, and see if it resembles a true believer.

What makes a person a REAL Christian? How does your personal life reflect what God expects of you?

ILLUS: There is an old saying: If being a Christian were a felony would there be enough evidence against you to bring a conviction? Unknown

PROP.SENT: The Bible teaches us that true Christianity comes with True change in our live. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!(2 Cor.5:17)- The New, the Change the different from before is the badge of our Christianity.

A. Righteous lifestyle!

Isaiah 64:6 All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.

Webster’s defines Righteousness as, acting in accord with divine or moral law : free from guilt or sin.

Now I love this definition: Notice it does not say: Being Perfect, it says:

Acting in accord to divine or moral law. Acting would suggest that there is effort on our part needed. It is something we have to do on purpose. Free from guilt or sin.

2 Timothy 3:16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,

Righteousness is a pursuit!

Before we started a relationship with Jesus Christ, we were unclean in the eyes of God. Even the good deeds we preformed were like filthy rags.

Now lets be honest about something here. What was the number one reason Jesus came to earth? To pay the penalty of our unrighteousness!

Galatians 2:21 I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!"

Now, I do not know about you, but when I received Jesus Christ as my personal savior, (saved from the penalty of my sins) when I realized that all of my sins were washed away, I felt a huge burden being lifted off my shoulders.

Before, my own righteousness was worth nothing. Now my righteousness is the ticket to heaven, because it is not my righteousness, but Christ’s that now covers

me.

Paul states this in Philippians

Philippians 3:8,9 What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ--the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.

To be a real Christian, means that we need to PURSUE Righteousness- We need to stop justifying it as a right. We need to look at sin through the eyes of God, rather from our own sinfulness

ILLUS: What is Sin?

· Man calls it an accident; God calls it an abomination.

· Man calls it a blunder; God calls it blindness.

· Man calls it a defect; God calls it a disease.

· Man calls it a chance; God calls it a choice.

· Man calls it an error; God calls it an enmity.

· Man calls it a fascination; God calls it a fatality.

· Man calls it an infirmity; God calls it an iniquity.

· Man calls it a luxury; God calls it a leprosy.

· Man calls it a liberty; God calls it lawlessness.

· Man calls it a trifle; God calls it a tragedy.

· Man calls it a mistake; God calls it a madness.

· Man calls it a weakness; God calls it willfulness.

Seeing sin as God does, as the one thing tht will keep you from a healthy relationship with Him, will help enable us to live righteous lives.

B. Evangelical passion!

Acts 1:8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."

A Non-Evangelical Christian is an Oxymoron!

When Jesus left the Earth He gave all the “Christians” them and us the most important marching orders. GO AND MAKE DISCIPLES!

Now I know some of you are thinking, “Pastor is on His Soap Box again”- and my response is- You Got It!

Except it is not my Soap box- it is God’s instruction to every Christian- Don’t get upset at the messenger!