Are You Believing Fake News? | 2 Timothy 4:1-5

But what if there's actually an itch that many of us are feeling that's worse than the ones that you can see? and that you might actually be scratching it all day long, day after day.

So we're in the series Deep Fake.

For those, again, who are not as online as others, a deep fake is news, particularly video or photos, that start real and that are adjusted enough with AI to now look like something completely different.

And what it ends up doing... is causing people like Tom Cruise to give you a personal weather report or to be able to say that you made a deep fake that you were somehow at Taylor Swift's wedding.

You know, I know Pastor David was.

I didn't get the invite.

That's why he's got more connections.

And so we're always around all these things now that are fake.

And every time we see something, whether we believe it or we don't like it, we just go, oh, I'm sure that's fake.

So how do we live in this world where fake is increasing intentionally all around us, how do we press past that to live into something real? And so today we're asking the question about how can we press into real truth with faith in Christianity? How can we figure out what is real good news and what is fake good news? What does it look like to get rid of false spirituality in our lives and press into real Christianity? Now, you might be thinking, oh, you know who really needs to hear this message? That one weird person that I follow on Facebook who is always sharing things that have like a Christian word in it, but it's actually just like New Age or something crazy out there.

You're like, oh, not...

Now, if you're thinking, I never see anybody share those things.

I share things.

Maybe listen to this message a little bit more carefully before we hit that.

Or you're kind of looking around wondering if that person from your small group last semester who said that one really crazy thing is here.

And you're like, oh good, they need to hear this message about what is real good news and fake good news.

But you know who this message is not for? You.

Because you know.

when you hear real good news and when you hear fake good news.

You would never fall for fake spirituality, fake Christian sayings.

You'd never fall for anything like God helps those who help themselves or God always gives his strongest battles to his toughest warriors.

You'd never fall for believing something like that, which in no way, shape, or form is a dangerous disposition to have.

to have a mindset that you'd never be tricked, which is probably the one that leads to the most likely to get tricked, to be deceived, to fall for a deep fake.