Getting Real With God Series

“Yes, God is Real” Don’t you like singing that song? You

sing that with relish! So do I! “Yes, God is real, real in my

soul.” We believe that. That’s our faith.

Or is it? Do we truly believe that God is real? If we believe

it, why do we play games with God? Why do we hide from

God? Why do we put distance between ourselves and our

God? Why don’t we get honest before God?

Yes, God is real. God is the ultimate reality -- more real than

you and I are, for we shall die one day, but God is eternal;

more real than this earth, for the geologists tell us that earth

is deteriorating, and one day will collapse and fail. But the

Lord God is from everlasting to everlasting, and will not fail.

Do you believe that? Do you believe that God is more real

than galaxies upon galaxies, winging through space for

billions of miles, from that Alpha point where it all began with

a “big bang”, on its way to some distant Omega point, where

it will all burn out? I read the other day that our sun will burn

out in a few hundred million years; kind of got me worried, so

I stocked up with some extra firewood, just in case! Oh, God

is real, God is beyond time, God is beyond failure, God is the

one who needs neither sun to shine by day nor stars by

night. Isn’t that right? God is ultimate reality. God is real.

Do you agree?.

Then why do we ignore Him? Why do we set Him aside?

Why cannot we deal with God honestly? Why can we not

get real with God?

Let me play out a little scene with you. Picture a home in

which there is a parent and a teenager. They live in the

same house, they inhabit the same space, they sometimes

even eat at the same table. They are family. But listen to

their conversation:

Dad: Hi, how was school today?

Kid: Okay.

Dad: Any grades to report? Anything special going on?

Kid: No, nothin’ happened.

Dad: Well, do you have any homework? Do you need my

help tonight?

Kid: No, I’ll be okay.

Dad: Are you sure nothing special happened today?

Kid: Not really.

Dad: Then what’s this I see on the evening news about a

disturbance over at your school and about the kids tearing up

the place? Why is your principal screaming at the TV

camera, and isn’t that you standing over there?

Kid: I dunno.

If we can live in the some house and not connect, if we can

be at the same dinner table and treat one another as if we

didn’t exist, maybe it is no surprise that we treat God the

same way! Maybe it is no surprise that we barely even

acknowledge that God is around. A number of years ago, J.

B. Phillips wrote a little book called, “Your God Is Too Small”.

He said that our ideas of God are way too limited. If Phillips

were writing today, he might call his book, “Your God Is Out

To Lunch” or “Your God Has Gone on Vacation.” For we live

as though God did not matter; we act as though God were

not a factor; and even in our prayers we pray as though God

were not real.

We need to get real with God, for He is the ultimate reality.

He will deal with us, whether we deal with Him or not. In His

own way and in His own time, He will take us on. We need

to get real with God.

Jesus got real with God. Jesus, the most authentic person

who ever lived, got real with God. Jesus not only believed in

His mind that God was real; Jesus actually treated God as a

living reality. Jesus played no games, but brought His own

self before God. And the results were spectacular! The

results changed human history. You and I can learn from

Jesus how to get real with God.

I

First, notice that Jesus got real with God by admitting His

true feelings, even though they were not pretty. Jesus got

real with God by acknowledging exactly how He felt, without

varnishing anything over or putting on any airs. Jesus let it

all hang out; Jesus trusted God with what He really felt. He

said,

“I am deeply grieved, even to death.”

I am deeply grieved. Now that’s real. That’s a genuine

feeling. Jesus didn’t have to say that. He could have done

what many of us do. We put on a front, we come to church

dressed in our Sunday best, but with all kinds of pain inside,

and make up our minds that come what may, we are not