Someone said that what gives Christianity a bad name is Christians. On its face value, and to a certain degree,

and from a certain angle, this is a true statement. Why? Because there are so many people in our society and our culture

who claim to be Christians and in reality they are not. When you ask them what does it mean to be

a Christian, they'll give you all sorts of vague answers where I believe Jesus and I believe in

Jesus or I'm trying to be good and I'm living a good life and I have my own spirituality

and the rest of it. And therefore, when they act, people think they're Christians and they

judge all of Christianity by them. There are so many professing Christians

in our cultures today who are not truly born again. And born again is about the only

Christianity that there is. There are so many church-going folks whose heart have not been regenerated, has not been

transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit of God.

There are so many who claim to be Christians, and yet they live their lives and their belief

system that is not different from non-Christians.

That is why, in spite of their claim, they are no different from those who are without Christ.

In this message, we're going to see clearly what Jesus says about those folks,

about those who claim to be Christians or not, those lookalike Christians. And in Matthew

25, Jesus tells us that perhaps there is no greater test of a person's true and genuine Christianity

than his or her preparedness for the return of Christ.

That preparedness is lived daily whether they go first or Christ comes back first makes no

difference. They're ready. Their bags are packed and they are

busy serving him and therefore they're looking forward to that day, not afraid of it. Matthew 25 tells

us a profound and a brilliant story about this tragedy of lookalike Christians, this tragedy

of professing only Christians, this tragedy of claiming to be Christians, and yet their lives

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