Month: March 2019

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Counterfeit Authority :: Counterfeits

Presented on 3/25/2019 at Curwensville Alliance by Pastor Steve Shields

We all like to think we are “an authority” on something.

Get a bunch of people together and start talking about music and you’ll hear things like, “Clapton is overrated!” and “The blues are the only kind of music with any heart!” and “If it’s not hip-hop, it’s not worth producing!” The more they speak, it’s likely that you’ll realize it’s just a bunch of opinions; no one there is a real authority on music.

Get a bunch of guys together and you find a room full of authorities, on hunting, fishing, hockey, football — you name it. After a while, you realize it’s all a matter of posing. Guys are great at posing in that context.

Counterfeit authority. It’s all around us.

It’s even prevalent in spiritual matters. Most people tend to feel they are a spiritual authority.


Thinking Christians believe that Jesus is the only authority.

But are you looking to him?

This podcast speaks of our tendency to look to counterfeit authority, and leads us to look to genuine authority.

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Counterfeit Knowledge :: Counterfeits

Presented at Curwensville Alliance by Pastor Steve Shields on 3/17/2019

One of my many embarrassing moments came my freshman year in college.

I am a fan of Beatles music. I have been since my childhood. I was ruining my brother’s vinyl LPs when I was barely tall enough to see where to place the needle on the record.

So my freshman year, I was sitting in one of the townhouse apartments listening to the Beatles with an upperclassman we called Monk, when he pointed to one of them and said, “John is my favorite Beatle.”

I laughed and said, “That’s George!” I went on, as freshmen sometimes do, and named each Beatle pictured on each of his albums. Showing him that he was wrong.

Then he got out a book on the Beatles — and it was I who was mistaken.

Being wrong wasn’t the problem. Laughing at him because I thought he was wrong…. that was embarrassing.

Getting the names of a couple pop musicians wrong is trivial. But there are other areas of life where, if we get it wrong, the consequences can be staggering.

This podcast addresses counterfeit knowledge and genuine knowledge, and speaks of how to tell them apart.

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Counterfeit Security :: Counterfeits

Presented at Curwensville Alliance on 3/3/2019 by Pastor Steve Shields

A few decades ago, a Christian author proposed that people have two basic needs — beyond the physical. Security and Significance. He went on to say these are often gender specific. Okay. Maybe. But we all know that, whatever your gender, you want to be secure. And whatever your gender, you want your life to have meaning.

And often, as we work to make our lives secure, we grab some counterfeits — things we think make us secure, but don’t really.

This podcast speaks of counterfeit security and shows us how to find genuine security.

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