As we continue to experience the Word of the Lord together, Let us Pray. Wonderful Sincere God, you are the definition of Authentic, and in you we find our Genuineness. Help us to find the freedom to be real, so that we might be whom you intend us to be. Speak Lord, your servants are listening. If these words are not Your Word, may they be forgotten and come to naught. But if they be Thy Word, may they adhere to our hearts, forever transforming us from glory into glory, into the creatures you would have us be, Thou who art our Rock and Redeemer, Amen.

When I was looking at this series, the Life above the Fog of Conformity and Fear series, I debated about whether or not to preach in that series while we were out here, without a pulpit, without a podium, with no place to leave my notes. And it would make for a nice sermon, to hear about being outside or something. But when I thought more about it, what more appropriate place to talk about the freedom to be real than in the real outdoors, in the midst of God’s sanctuary. So.

Recently I was talking with a friend who was describing his new neighbors. After several futile attempts to get it across, finally he said, “The thing I like most about them is that they are real.” Instantly I knew exactly what he was talking about, because some people are real, and some are not. Last sermon was on the Freedom to Fail. No one can be free to fail unless they are a real person. And, conversely, no one can be a real person unless they are free to fail.

Socrates, or So-crates if you watch your Bill and Ted, said the ultimate goal for people was to know thyself. Admittedly, no one can really know everything about him or herself. But we can ask the tough questions. Why am I here? Where am I going? What am I to do with my life? Who am I? Where do I belong? By asking these questions, you might figure out who you are. After all, it was Socrates who also said, “The unexamined life is unworthy living.”

The unreal person is forever playing a role, living out a charade, because they don’t really know themselves in honest analysis. They wear a mask for so long, that they become like the mask they wear.ⁱⁱ

Being Un-real is no way to live. You aren’t yourself if you aren’t real. It’s like being a visitor in your own skin. You’ll never be satisfied, because you aren’t you, you are only someone who plays a series of games.

Being real is a wonderful way to live. Real people experience self-confidence because they aren’t worried about who likes them. They don’t go around second guessing every action wondering what people think. Real people are who they are, and the world can take or leave them, but they aren’t going to stop being who they are, secure in the love of God.

The unreal person is always egocentric. Their personal needs are the most important things going on in the world, and they will resort to all manner of manipulation to satisfy fragmented desires. Therefore, the unreal person does not heed the needs of others. Actually, the unreal person is usually oblivious to the needs of others.

Which brings us to Joseph. In Genesis, this is Joseph, you know Joseph, the one with the coat. The one who is, by chapter 42, in power in Egypt because his brothers had sold him into slavery. So, when they come back to him, to ask for food, it is no wonder that he carries a little bitterness. But he is so focused on his emotions, on his feelings, on his needs, that he is unable to see the emotions and needs of his own flesh and blood, including his father, on whose behalf Joseph’s brothers have come. So, hear now The Word of the Lord as it comes to us in Genesis. Listen. Genesis 42.6-17. The Grass withers, the Flower falls, but the Word of the Lord endures forever…Thanks be to God.

Joseph ends out, after a long and drawn out matter, making up with his brothers. But only when he realizes that he is real in the power of God. He must let go of the hurts of the past. Unreal people are constantly saying things about the past. Good or bad. Unreal people cannot let go of past failures, either by themselves or when other people have failed them. Neither can they go beyond the triumphs of the past. “Those were the good old days, when the sky was bluer, the grass greener, the snow whiter, apples tasted better, people were more honest, and everyone went to church.” Everything in the past seems better, especially through the rose colored time machine glasses. You know, the ones that only see the good in the past, but somehow happen to miss it in the present. The past beckons enchantingly to sacrifice our precious moments of aliveness in the now, in order to recreate a remembrance, that is at best a distortion of the truth.ⁱⁱⁱ You can’t be real and live only in the past.

There is also the lure of the “When it shall come to pass.” This is a life lived only in the future. When this happens, or we get through that, then I’ll be able to, whatever. When the kids get out of the house, or when we finally get out of debt, or when I get out on my own away from my parents, or when I finally meet that special someone, or when or when or when. Again, the present is totally missed, and the future is where the unreal live.

Real people live in the present. They don’t disregard the past, nor the future, but hold both dimensions in a perspective of proper balance. They recognize that both past and future experiences contribute to the present, but realize that the need for full, effective living is always demanded for the present. You know, it never becomes yesterday. Nor does it ever become tomorrow. Its always only today.

It’s not easy being real. Only a fool would tell you that it is. Being real means recognizing that life is tough. But it allows for the freedom for life to be great too.

Let me offer some suggestions. You might find these helpful, you might not. But I offer them to you with hope that one or some of them will be.

First, ask yourself the hard questions. Why am I here? Where am I going? What am I to do with my life? Who am I? Where do I belong? Only in asking those questions will you find answers. Here’s a hint. Don’t expect the answers to come in one sitting. You have to be aware, and self-aware, and situation aware of what is going on around you, to hear the answers.

B. Check out meditation, prayer, and devotional bible study. And I’m talking about the personal kind. If I want my lawnmower to run right, and I can’t get it to start, how silly is it to try again and again and again, to wait a day, and then try again. I mean, that’s what I do, but it won’t ever work. Why then, do so many unsatisfied people continue to try the same things, and then complain about how they get the same results? If I want my lawnmower working, I’d better take it to the shop, where they build lawnmowers. If I want my life fulfilled, shouldn’t I go to the Creator of Life, who probably knows a thing or two about what life is for?

First, B, this makes red then. Next try corporate participation. That is, try Sunday School, fellowship groups, and worship, Bible Studies, like on Wednesday night. You’d be surprised how much the discipline of being with other people, who may not think the same way you do, will keep you real, and keep you growing to be even more real.

Lastly, try an intimate relationship with one or a few people. You need soul mates to challenge you to learn to grow, to not stay stagnate, to not accept the normal. You can be real if you have relationships with a few people who will keep you honest at it.

In some ways, real people have the capacity to give that unreal people do not. If you can attain a certain sense of non-self centerdness, then you are free to truly give. Not that unreal people don’t give. They do. But usually it is in seeking some sense of self goal. The unreal give to show what great givers they are, or to further their cause. Unreal people give to get something back. Two churchgoers were sitting over lunch about 12.30 one Sunday afternoon. The one says, “You know, I didn’t get a thing out of the service today that I could carry home with me. Not in the sermon, not in the music, and not in the liturgy. I got nothing out of it.” The friend replied, “Perhaps you didn’t bring anything to put into it.”

Real people know that giving is its own reward, not a means to an end.

Real people are aware. Real people live in the freedom offered in God’s grace. Real people know who they are, and whose they are. From that knowledge, real people find confidence, courage, and conviction for living above the fog of conformity and fear. Let it be so for us all. Amen.