“FOCUS”
“Are You Real?”
by Donny Granberry
Today I want to begin to help each one of us to gain a new “FOCUS!”
In the first segment, we will “FOCUS” on our Faith, or we will go back to the beginning.
The great English Evangelist, Leonard Ravenhill, who went home to be with the Lord in 1994, has this epitaph on his headstone, “Are the things you’re living for worth Christ dying for?”
As I began preparing for this morning’s message, I felt the direction that I wanted to take was to defend the question that has plagued Christianity through out all of time, “How can I be certain that God is real and that the scriptures are real?”
As I was preparing the Lord said this to me, “The question today is not weather or not I am real, or if my word is real.”
People know I am real and that the word is real.
The real question today is, “Are You Real?”
We need to take a look in a mirror and ask ourselves, are you real?
Far too many people who call themselves Christians have a shallow relationship with God.
The area where sin entered the world was through two individuals who had a shallow relationship with God.
Genesis 3:1-13 NIV
Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, `You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?"
2 The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, `You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.'"
4 "You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman. 5 "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."
6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the LORD God called to the man, "Where are you?"
10 He answered, "I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid."
11 And he said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?"
12 The man said, "The woman you put here with me--she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it."
13 Then the LORD God said to the woman, "What is this you have done?" The woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate."
God’s next words for them should have been, “Are You Real?”
I think that I know why those words were not asked, God already knows weather or not you are real, he is giving us the opportunity to come to the same conclusion.
James 1:19-25 NLT
Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters: You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry. 20 Human anger does not produce the righteousness God desires. 21 So get rid of all the filth and evil in your lives, and humbly accept the word God has planted in your hearts, for it has the power to save your souls.
22 But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves. 23 For if you listen to the word and don’t obey, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror. 24 You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like. 25 But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what it says and don’t forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it.
*ILLUSTRATION, USE THE MIRRORS*
Have a large mirror set up on the platform and ask a few people to look into the mirror and tell what they see. (suit, pants, dress, shoes, etc.) They do see what is within themselves. Just as Adam and Eve, they see "fig leaves."
What do you really see when you look into a spiritual mirror.
There is no make-up, or covering for what is real.
Adam and Eve both knew what they were doing when they ate of the fruit of the tree of knowledge, good and evil.
"Did God really say, `You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?"
2 The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, `You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.'"
Again I remind you, people do not sin accidentally.
James 1:14-15 NIV
… but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. 15 Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.
When you cease to be real, the offspring will be sin.
What does sin give birth to?
1. Sin gives birth to "SHAME" - a painful emotion caused by consciousness of guilt, shortcoming, or impropriety, a condition of humiliating disgrace or disrepute, something that brings censure or reproach.
Shame is an offspring of sin.
When we are not real we will bring shame on ourselves that we will try to blame on someone else.
When they looked in the mirror, they saw shame.
Sin will become exposed. It will expose itself.
After eating of the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, they realized that they were naked.
Before this, Genesis 2:25 “The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.”
Numbers 32:23 “Your sin will find you out.”
Not only is shame an offspring of sin, but so in guilt.
2. "GUILT" – The fact of having committed a breach of conduct or law that involves a penalty.
The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, `You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.'"
Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked.
They both knew better, therefore when they looked in the mirror, they saw guilt.
3. "COVER-UP", hiding their sin? – Hiding it. Pretend that it never happened. Sweep it under the rug. Playing the blame game.
They sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
When they heard God walking through the garden, they hid from him in the trees. God called out to them and said, “Where are you.”
They replied, “We hid from you because we were naked.”
God asked them, “Who told you that you were naked, have you eaten from the tree I told you not to eat from?”
Man said, The woman you gave me, the woman said, the serpent deceived me, and so forth.
There were consequences to their sins.
• Gen. 3:14 – The serpent is cursed.
• Gen. 3:15 – Satan is cursed.
• Gen. 3:16 – Woman is cursed.
• Gen. 3:17 – Man is cursed
• Gen. 3_17-19 – Earth is cursed
• Gen, 3:21 – First death (God made clothes from skin)
• Gen. 3:23 – Man and woman are evicted from the garden.
Every since the first sin, man has tried to cover their sin, but only God can cover the sin of man.
Sin cannot be covered, it can only be cleansed.
Calvary was not about a covering for sin, it was about atonement, or making sin obsolete.
What can wash away my sin, nothing but the blood of Jesus!!!!!
The question today is this “Are You Real?”
Are the things you’re living for with Christ dying for?”
