Jesus The High Road Leader: “Jesus Embraced Authenticity” (10/20/24)

Jesus The High Road Leader

“Jesus Embraced Authenticity”

10/20/24

Pastor Mark England

Jesus knew who He was. He never required any pretense, no pomp and circumstance.

Without authenticity, there will be a gap between what you you believe and what you are

Are you the same person who on Sunday morning, and the person at work or the comfort of your own home behind closed doors.

Matthew 23:2-3 (CSB) “The scribes and the Pharisees are seated in the chair of Moses. ³ Therefore do whatever they tell you and observe it. But don’t do what they do, because they don’t practice what they teach.

Jesus was comfortable with who He was because He knew His true .

1. Jesus said: “I Am the .”

John 6:35 (CSB) “I am the bread of life,” Jesus told them. “No one who comes to me will ever be hungry, and no one who believes in me will ever be thirsty again.

Therefore, I say: “I will others through my contribution.”

2. Jesus said: “I Am the .”

John 8:12 (CSB) “I am the light of the world. Anyone who follows me will never walk in the darkness but will have the light of life.”

Therefore, I say: “I will and make things .”

3. Jesus said: “I Am ”.

John 10:9 (CSB) I am the gate. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will come in and go out and find pasture.

Therefore, I say: “I will open doors and show others the .”

4. Jesus said: “I Am .”

John 11:25-26 (CSB) Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me, even if he dies, will live. ²⁶ Everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

Therefore, I say: “I will bring new to every encounter with others.”

Before you try to get real with … get real with .

Matthew 7:3-5 (NIV) “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? ⁴ How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye?⁵ You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

This dark world does not need anymore “”.

When we avoid the vulnerability of authenticity and choose the safety and of hypocrisy, we create barriers to our with ourselves, others, and God.

People far from God need to see Christians being , instead of always .

2 Corinthians 4:2 (CSB) Instead, we have renounced secret and shameful things, not acting deceitfully or distorting the word of God, but commending ourselves before God to everyone’s conscience by an open display of the truth.

We know that our weakness is made perfect in His strength. We can risk being .

Open the Window To Authenticity.

(Johari Window)

Four Areas of Awareness:

Arena

Mask

Blind Spot

Potential

Arena: The public “”.

If we prioritize this aspect of ourselves above all others, we resort to superficial living, trying to appear bigger on the outside than we are on the inside.

Matthew 23:5 (CSB) They do everything to be seen by others: They enlarge their phylacteries and lengthen their tassels.

Mask: What we about ourselves but from others.

People stay as as their secrets.

To be like Jesus we must be transparent and vulnerable.

“Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another, ‘What! You too? I thought I was the only one.’”

C.S. Lewis

James 5:16 (CSB) Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is very powerful in its effect.

Blind Spot: Things can see about you, but you can’t.

For you to develop authenticity, you must be in relationships with people you trust. You need friends who will point out your .

Proverbs 27:6 (CSB) The wounds of a friend are trustworthy, but the kisses of an enemy are excessive.

Real friends are with you. They see through the masks and the real you.

Potential: Represents what you and others about yourself. These are the things that only God knows.

You have unrealized , and you will never reach it .

Becoming authentic begins with the , and running , not .

John 17:17 (CSB) Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.

Old Testament: ( Sanctification)

God wrote His law on .

New Testament: ( Sanctification)

God writes His law on our .

Jeremiah 31:33-34 (CSB) …“I will put my teaching within them and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. ³⁴ No longer will one teach his neighbor or his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they will all know me, from the least to the greatest of them”—this is the Lord’s declaration. “For I will forgive their iniquity and never again remember their sin.

The Word of God will to look less like this world, and more like .