The Real You
Sermon Review
29 October 2000
Reading - Matthew 22:34-40

Apparently, GEC uses about 2 million sapphires a year for bearings in their meters and other delicate apparatus. To separate the real from the synthetic they use a cathode ray tube, which, when turned on a tray of stones in a dark room, makes them all glow. But when the ray is turned off, the artificial sapphires continue to glow, whereas the genuine gems do not, and are therefore easily sorted.

This has a parallel in relating to God. When God’s spotlight focuses on us, He easily recognises that which is true, genuine and real, as well as what is false, fictitious, and phoney. Heb. 4:13 says, "Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account." He not only knows the difference between ‘sheep’ and ‘goats’, but the difference between reality and fiction when it comes to his sheep. This morning I want you to be asking yourself what is God saying to me, and how does he want me to apply that to my life – personal application at the end.

What Does It Mean To Be Real?

Being ‘real’ is about being authentic. It is about being honest with one's self and being honest with others. It is about having the courage to be yourself in your relationships instead of trying to play games, or pretend to be other than what you are. It is about being willing to be yourself instead of trying to be what others want you to be, or what you want to be for others.

Becoming a Christian is the start of a journey in personal honesty:

Acts 2:37,38. Becoming a Christian involves repentance – that moment of honesty where we realise that there are things wrong with our lives, attitudes, heart that we must turn away from and seek forgiveness for. This honesty is not intended to be a one-off; it is the beginning of a journey into authenticity – honesty with God, others, and ourselves so that the process of holiness begun at conversion can be fully realised. This process is none other than being transformed into the likeness of Christ Rom.8:29. This transformation occurs as an outcome of cooperation between the Holy Spirit and ourselves Phil.2:12,13; 2Cor.3:18. However, without honesty on our parts, we will quench and grieve the Holy Spirit: Eph.4:21-24 says, "You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness." You cannot ‘put off’ with God’s help what you deny exists!

Being real with God is important then because:

The Real You

What then is the ‘real us’ who God wants to relate to? It is the conscious ‘you’ that tries to hide behind defenses, social masks, and regulated behaviour. It is easy to find the real you. Focus in on where your real thinking takes place, where you talk to yourself, decide what to do, where you feel shame, embarrassment, joy, hate, love, pain; where you judge yourself, God, and others. That is the real you, and that is where God wants to engage with you – with all of you, and not just parts or pretences.

What Does It Mean To Love God With All Your Heart, Mind etc.?

In Matt. 22:34-40 we are told to love God with all our heart, mind, and soul. Basically, this means loving God with all that we are – mind, emotions, and will. Mind & will by themselves will never fulfill this command. The word used for love is ‘agape’. This is a term especially used in the Scriptures to primarily describe God’s love towards us. He is said to be ‘Agape’ 1John.4:8-10. This ‘love’ is often put forward as being a love based on choice. That is, God chooses to love us. However, the unspoken conclusion for many is that this means an unemotional love. The simple resolution to this conclusion is to ask the question, ‘how does God love us?’ Is it passionless, emotionless and cool? No it is not.

Jesus was God expressing Himself in human form. Jesus said if you have seen him, you have seen the Father John.14:9. Because we are told that God is love, then the life of Jesus must be viewed as ‘agape’ in motion. Jesus was neither cool nor calculating in his interactions with people. He was often moved by compassion, reduced to tears at times, as well as experiencing grief and distress on more than one occasion. His love for people was emotional and real. As like Jesus, so God is changing us to become.

The truth is that when we are called to love God with our entire mind, heart, and soul, we are called to be emotionally connected to God as well. If God wanted anything else he would have made us machines, not human beings – so don’t try to reduce your relationship with God to the level of a machine! Learning to relate to God emotionally helps tremendously towards being real, for it is in the area of emotions that we most want to hide. The reason is that it is through our emotions that things like guilt, resentments, hostilities, embarrassments, shame, fears, griefs, failures, memories etc., can hurt us. However, it also in our emotions that the presence of God and the fruit of the Spirit is experienced. Keeping our emotional life out of bounds will keep the reality of God at bay, and close us off from significant healing encounters with God.

Conclusion

God desires to relate to the real us, not the fiction that we often present to him. Attempting to hide our true state of being from him will simply result in feeling phony and empty. It halts the process of transformation for it ultimately hides what we are really like from ourselves, and we cannot ‘put off’ what we deny really ‘exists’. Loving God with all our heart means journeying into personal honesty, as well as connecting with him emotionally. Although it is a command, it is actually one of God’s best gifts to you.

Surely you want to be real? To find the freedom and the pleasure of being yourself? To be able to be real with others? To find the fruit of the Spirit in your life? Then drop any pretence and start relating to God as a real person, a whole person; emotionally as well. Share your deepest heartaches as well as your deepest joys with him in prayer, and stop keeping him at a distance because you are hiding from what you dislike about yourself. Replace fiction with fact and not only will you never be the same again, you will never wish to be the same again. We need to learn to love God with our feelings as well as our mind and will.

This applies to us as a community of believers also. We need to give people the right to be real with God in our services – to be emotionally free enough to express their love, devotion, or even tears, without fear of judgment or censure from others. Loving God with all of your heart, mind, soul, and strength is not simply a command for the individual, but for the Body of Christ as well. This may be scary, but we need to learn to loosen up with God as a body, not just as individuals. The truth is that the more real you are with God the more real He will be to you. And the more real we are with God as a body, the more real and evident He will be to us all.

Personal Application

‘Transformation not Education’ How real are you with God? How real are you with yourself? How real are you with others? What is out of bounds to God in your life? What has God been saying to you? What do you think God wants you to do as a response to Him today?

Blessings

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