Be Real | Joel Osteen

God bless you. It's always a joy to come into your homes, and if you're ever in our area, please stop by and be a part of one of our services. I promise you, we'll make you feel right at home. These are the finest people in all of Houston, Texas, right here at Lakewood. But thanks for tuning in. Thank you again for coming out. I'd like to start with something funny. I heard about this mom. She was cooking breakfast for her two young sons. Ryan was five and Kevin was three. They began to argue over who should get the first pancake. She saw it as an opportunity to teach them a lesson. She said, boys, boys, if Jesus were here, he would say, let my brother have the first pancake. Ryan turned to his little brother and said, okay, Kevin, you be Jesus. Hold up your Bible. Say it like you mean it. This is my Bible. I am what it says I am. I have what it says I have. I can do what it says I can do. Today I will be taught the word of God. I boldly confess my mind is alert. My heart is receptive. I will never be the same in Jesus name. God bless you. I want to talk to you today about being real. It's easy to go through life wearing different masks. Instead of dealing with the issues that we know are holding us back, too often we keep them covered up, pretending that everything is okay. We're more concerned about the outside, what people are going to think, our image, than we are the inside. It takes a lot of work to deal with the inner issues, our character, our motives, our attitude, our behaviors, things that we know are not right. It's much easier to put on a mask and pretend. Some people have a mask for every situation. They're professional pretenders. They have a mask for work, a mask for home, a mask for this friend, even a mask for church. They come in on Sundays. They're not speaking to their spouse, mad at their neighbor, can't pay their bills, greet or ask how you're doing, blessed and highly favored. Couldn't get any better. And I'm all for having an attitude of victory, not being controlled by circumstances. But in order to get well, you have to get real. You have to take that mask off, get honest with yourself and say, okay, I have some things to deal with. This is not normal. When you get down to the real you, not the pretend you, that's when God can turn things around. But it's tempting to go around wearing different masks. We don't want people to think less of us. So we hide behind that mask of pride. I don't have any issues. I don't need any help. God will not bless who you pretend to be. God blesses people who are real, not people who are perfect, not people that don't have any issues, but people who are honest

enough to say, God, I have this bad habit. I need your help. I'm taking off the mask that everything is okay. Oh God, I'm struggling with my temper. I made a mistake. I blew it. God, I need your forgiveness. When you're honest, you open the door for God to come in and begin to change things. But as long as we're pretending not dealing with the real issues, it's not going to improve. This is what happened with the Pharisees in the scripture. They were the religious leaders. They did the right thing, but they didn't get a reward because they did it for the wrong reason. They went to the temple each week like they were supposed to, but they didn't go to worship. They went to be seen, to be well thought of, to impress people. They would pray these long, fancy prayers out loud, not because they were sincere. They wanted everybody to hear them. They gave their money. They supported the poor, but it was only to make them look good. They were doing the right thing, but they had wrong motives. They were wearing masks. Here's the key. Your inner life is more important than your outer life. It's easy to put on mask and disguise what's going on on the inside. But Jesus said, blessed are the pure in heart. On a regular basis, we should ask ourselves, why am I doing this? Why am I being nice to this person? Because I like them and I want to help them? Or do I want something from them? Am I trying to impress them? Why am I working 80 hours a week? Because I need the funds? Or am I trying to prove to people that I'm successful, trying to gain my self-worth by what I do? Well, Joel, I've been volunteering in the nursery for six years. Nobody's told me thank you. Nobody's given me any credit. Well, somebody should thank you, but the bigger issue is, are you doing it for the applause, for the credit, or are you doing it to be pleasing unto God? You got to pull that mask back and examine your inner life. Don't go like the Pharisees year after year, doing the right thing, giving, serving, helping others, but not receiving a reward because you're doing it for the wrong reason. And facing truth about ourselves can be uncomfortable. It's hard to admit, maybe I didn't have the right motives. Maybe I am playing up to this coworker

so they'll put in a good word for me. Maybe I am smiling on the outside, telling my friends, congratulations on your big promotion. On the inside, I'm thinking, you didn't deserve it. That depresses me, you're just lucky. You got to pull that mask back. If you look inside and get honest, you can overcome the things that will hold you back. I know people that are very talented. They work hard, they're doing the right thing, but they can't seem to get ahead. It's because there's a problem on the inside. They're not addressing the hidden issues, motives, character, pride, jealousy, things like that. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 4, we refuse to wear masks and play games. We keep everything out in the open, the whole truth on display. That's the kind of people we should be. Our life is an open book. We're not wearing any mask, thinking one thing and saying something else. Our motives are pure. We're not perfect, but we're dealing with the issues, not pretending, not disguising it, we're real. When you live like that, open and honest, God will make you and mold you into a vessel of honor used for his highest purposes. He'll take you further than you ever imagined.

In the parable of the prodigal son, the young man asked his father for his inheritance. He went out and spent all of his money partying, living wild, hanging out with the wrong people. He blew his inheritance. What should have lasted years only lasted a matter of months. There came a great famine in the land. He had no money, no place to live, and nobody to blame. It was only his fault. The only job he could find was working at a hog pen, feeding the hogs. It was hot, dirty, smelly. To make matters worse, he ended up having to live in the hog pen, eating hog food to survive. That could have been the end of the story. Too bad, he brought the trouble on himself. He missed his destiny. But the scripture says, when he came to himself, that means when he took off the mask, when he quit pretending, when he quit making excuses, in other words, when he got real. He said, my father has servants that live better than me at home, I will arise and go back to my father's house. When the father saw him a long way down the road, the father took off running toward him, gave him a hug. He told his staff, let's have a party, my son has returned home. The father represents God. He saw him coming a long way off. That means he was looking for him.

When you take your mask off, God will come running towards you. When you get honest to say, God, I need help with this addiction. I need help with this anger, this temper. Oh God, I've made a mess of things. I need help in my marriage. God won't say, I'm not gonna help you. You made the mess. Just the opposite, he'll come running. When you're humble enough to say, God, I've come to the end of myself. I can't break this addiction in my own strength. I can't straighten up my life just in my ability. When you acknowledge you need God's help, he'll make things happen that you could never make happen. Are you wearing any masks today? Hiding behind a mask of pride, not wanting to ask for help, too embarrassed to admit that something is wrong. God is not going to fault you for where you are. He knew every mistake we would make before we ever made it. He knows our flaws, our weaknesses, our failures. You don't have to pretend, you can be honest. Like the prodigal, when you go to God, you take off that mask. That's when you'll see things begin to turn around. This is what David did. You remember, he made a pretty major mistake. He committed adultery with Bathsheba.

He tried to cover it up. It only made matters worse. He sent her husband out to the front lines of the battlefield. He was killed. Now that her husband was gone, he took Bathsheba as his wife. David acted like nothing was wrong. Life is good, no big deal. He was wearing the mask. He and Bathsheba knew anything about it. David tried to ignore it, go about his business. But the problem is when you're wearing mask, you step out of God's favor. You step out of his protection, his blessing. For one year, David was miserable. He was sick. He became weak. All kinds of things came against him. Normally he could overcome them. He had defeated Goliath. He had survived Saul chasing him through the desert. He'd overtaken great armies. But now the tables have turned. Deep down, David knew what the problem was. He was smart enough to get honest with himself. He took off the mask. Psalm 51, he said, God, I acknowledge my transgressions. I'm not covering it anymore.

I admit that I've done wrong. The first step to recovery is you have to accept responsibility. You have to own it. You can't overcome what you won't admit. It's easy to go around hiding things, hiding an addiction, hiding a failure, hiding an area that you're struggling in. Like David, what you hide, all that's gonna do is eat away at you on the inside. It's like poison. It's much better to be real and go to God and say, God, I acknowledge that I've made this mistake. Or God, I acknowledge that I'm still struggling in this area. David went on to say, God, you require truth in the inward parts. He was saying, God, you require us to be real. You require us to take off the mask. You can't pretend and have God's blessing at the same time. If you're covering the issues, not dealing with them, it's not going to magically go away. But there is a way out. God is not holding your faults, your mistakes against you. He has mercy, forgiveness, new beginnings, but you have to do your part, take off the mask. Quit pretending and go to God and be real. He already knows what you're dealing with. It's not a surprise to God. When you ask for his help, his forgiveness, his mercy,

that's when he'll begin to restore you and put you back on the right path. This is what David did. He said, God created me a clean heart. Restore unto me the joy of my salvation. He got it out in the open, asked for forgiveness. God forgave him, restored him. He went on to do great things. God will do the same thing for you. Not only did David take off the mask of pretending everything was perfect when it wasn't, under that mask was a mask of shame. I can't believe I did this. What was I thinking about? I'll never become who I was created to be. The mask of shame can keep you from your destiny. Voices will constantly whisper, you can't take this mask off. You're paying God back for your mistakes. You're showing him that you're sorry. You should live guilty, ashamed, embarrassed, unworthy. Look what you've done. Friends, the price has already been paid. You don't have to pay God back. You don't have to live guilty and condemned. God has mercy for every mistake you've ever made. He didn't disqualify you. He can still get you to where you're supposed to be. Take off the mask of shame. A friend of mine was raised in a very dysfunctional home.

His father was an alcoholic. And when he would drink too much, he would become angry and violent and mistreat his mother, bring all kinds of turmoil in the home. My friend, this young man grew up just like his father, addicted to drugs, angry, violent, couldn't hold down a job. But in his mid-twenties, he gave his life to Christ. And he had this major turnaround. He ended up becoming the pastor of a church. It's well-respected in the community. He'd go around telling people what God had done, his story. But what people didn't know is he still had this anger problem. He was free from the drugs, from the addiction, but the smallest things would set him off. Just like his father, he would go into fits of rage and mistreat his wife, his family. He knew it was wrong, but he was too embarrassed to ask for help. His wife told him again and again, honey, you can't keep living like this, pretending everything is okay. He would answer, I know, but I'm supposed to be the example. What are people gonna think of me if they find out I have this anger problem? Sometimes we're more concerned about what people are going to think than we are about what God thinks. One day, like the prodigal son, he came to the end of himself.

Got tired of pretending he found a trusted friend and went and told him everything that was going on The scripture says to do this confess your faults one to another and you will be healed But if you keep hiding things Ignoring it covering it up. It's not gonna go away. You have to take off the mask Well Joel, what are people gonna think if they find out I'm dealing with this issue What if my co-workers learned that I'm struggling in this area, can I tell you Everybody is struggling with something. There are no perfect people. Don't be embarrassed by it The enemy would love for you to go your whole life wearing mask Pretending not dealing with the real issues. There is a freedom when you take that mask off and you get real That's what my friend did. He got involved in a good support group Something like celebrate recovery that we have here today He's totally free one of the kindest most gentle people you'll ever meet But he would still be pretending still be dealing with that anger issue if he hadn't made the decision to take off the mask Paul said in 2nd Corinthians 3 we see God's glory with unveiled faces As long as your face is veiled as long as you're wearing that mask you won't see God's glory If you're wearing the mask of perfection Pretending everything is okay when it's not or like my friend wearing a mask of pride not wanting to ask for help That's going to keep you from God's best. I'm asking you to take off the mask You don't have to pretend when you're real You'll see God's favor when there's truth on the inside, you'll see things begin to turn around That same verse goes on to say God changes us from glory to glory Notice God doesn't change us from shame to glory If you're wearing the mask of shame, you're gonna get stuck. You got to take that mask off He doesn't change us from pride to glory But from glory to glory when you're not wearing any mask you have God's glory on your life When you're open and honest, that's when God can change you and take you to the next level of your destiny But maybe like my friend you've been wearing a mask for a long time You have some issues you're not proud of you don't want anybody to know the easy thing is to keep covering it Pretending everything's okay But the problem with wearing a mask your whole life is you will miss your destiny

God will not bless who you pretend to be but he will bless who you are false and all when you're real an Unveiled face doesn't mean that we're perfect. We're not struggling in any area simply means we're an open book We're not pretending. We're real There was a man in the scripture named Zacchaeus He was a tax collector. They were known for being dishonest for cheating people. They were looked down on despised nobody liked them Zacchaeus was the chief tax collector. That means he was in charge of all the dishonest people You can imagine how disliked he was but Zacchaeus was very good at what he did. He was a wealthy man One day he heard that Jesus was coming through his city and he was so excited Couldn't wait to see him. But the problem was Zacchaeus was very short. He couldn't see over all the people in the crowd But being at a disadvantage had never stopped him before he knew how to manipulate things and get his way He went over to a tree and started climbing up wasn't easy He had to work hard to strain put forth a lot of effort Eventually, he had the best seat of anyone Zacchaeus was not only short physically, but symbolically you could say he came up short He wasn't making good decisions in life. He was a fraud. He had made his living by deceiving people Now he was up in this tree to make up for his weaknesses. He looked good up there Impressive once again, he had positioned himself for an advantage People may not have liked him, but they couldn't argue. He had the best seat around His whole life he had pushed others down to get what he wanted He didn't care about people he cared about position about what's in it for me. He was an expert at getting the upper hand Finally the big moment arrived Jesus came passing through the city. There were hundreds maybe thousands of people there Everybody's screaming waving trying to get his attention About that time out of all the people there Jesus stopped looked up in the tree and said hey Zacchaeus They had never met before, but Jesus called him by name. Isn't it interesting that Jesus knew the main sinner in the crowd? This shows us the heart of God.

You may think that God would never have anything to do with you, you made too many mistakes. You have too much negative baggage, too many hangups. No, just like Zacchaeus, God is calling your name. He has a destiny for you to fulfill, an assignment for you to accomplish. God will pass over all the people that have it together. All the people that everybody else would write off to find that one person that's struggling. That's why you're here today, that's why you're listening. It's not by accident, God is calling your name. God looks beyond the failures, our mistakes. He looks beyond our mask, what we pretend to be. God knows who you really are. He's the one who breathed life into you. He put seeds of greatness on the inside. He sees your potential, what you're capable of. No matter what you've done in the past, God has not written you off. He can still get you to your destiny. Zacchaeus was shocked. He looked down and asked somebody, did he just call my name? They said, yeah, he said, Zacchaeus. He scratched his head thinking, how does this man know my name? I'm not a religious person. I haven't lived an upstanding life, I'm a fraud. I've made a living cheating people. Yeah, I look impressive, I look important up here,

but I know this is not who I am. He had worn that mask for so long, for so many years. He had convinced himself that's who he was. When Jesus called his name, he felt a conviction. Something down in here said, this is not who you are, you're better than this. What was happening? The mask was being exposed. See, God knows who you really are, not who you pretend to be. There will be times like Zacchaeus, you'll feel conviction. Down in here, you'll know, this is not who I am. This anger, this addiction, this compromise, this mediocrity, I've been covering it up for years, but it's a mask. It's not the true me. Zacchaeus had to make a decision. Was he gonna get honest with himself and be willing to make changes, or was he going to keep pretending? Jesus looked up, Zacchaeus, come down from that tree. I wanna go to your house and visit today. Jesus was saying, I wanna turn your life around. I wanna set you on a new path, but as long as you're up there in the tree, as long as you're trying to look impressive, covering the real issues, pretending everything's okay, I can't do anything. But if you'll come down to the ground, if you'll get real,

if you'll quit hiding the areas where you come up short, quit making excuses, if you'll come down, then I'll come in. If you'll take off the mask, I'll change areas that you could never change. I'll help you break the addiction. I'll help you make better choices. I'll help you live confident and secure. Maybe like Zacchaeus, because of your shortcomings, your failures, your weaknesses, you've climbed up in that tree, so to speak. You've worked hard to gain an advantage, look impressive, not let anybody see your weaknesses. The easy thing to do is stay up in the tree. It's safe. You don't have to deal with anything. You can keep pretending, but you have to come to that point where you say, I'm tired of pretending. I'm tired of wearing these masks. I've covered it up for years. I thought I have to, but now I realize like Zacchaeus, I have to come down. I have to get real. Friends, God already knows what you're struggling with. You don't have to cover up your inadequacies, your failures, come down out of that tree. The people who get the help are the people who are real. The people who are honest enough to say, I don't have it all together. I keep coming up short.

God, I keep giving into this temptation. I'm struggling in my marriage. I'm dealing with this discouragement, but God, I'm not going to go around wearing any more masks. I know when my face is unveiled, I'll see your glory. I know that's when you'll change me, make me and mold me. When there's truth on the inside, God will change areas that you could not change before. He'll make things happen that you've not been able to make happen. Zacchaeus came down from the tree finally. He took the mask off, quit making excuses. He admitted that he had done wrong. He didn't say, Jesus, I don't have a good reputation. These people don't like me, but really I'm a good person. No, he accepted. Responsibility he owned it. He said in effect. I've cheated. I've been dishonest, but I'm ready to change I will pay everybody back four times that I've cheated Jesus looked at him and said today Salvation has come to your house If you will be bold enough to come down out of that tree be open and honest You will see God's favor in a new way. The pure in heart will be blessed Are you wearing any masks today a mask of pride a mask of shame a mask of trying to impress people Trying to be cool as long as you're pretending Covering the real issues. It's going to cause you to get stuck on a regular basis Examine your inner life Make sure your motives are pure that you're doing things for the right reason If you'll make this decision with me that you're going to be real I believe and declare like Zacchaeus Salvation is coming to your house today. That means freedom

Breakthroughs deliverance healing the fullness of your destiny in Jesus name If you receive it, can you say amen today? We never like to close our broadcast without giving you an opportunity to make Jesus the Lord of your life Would you pray with me? Just say Lord Jesus. I Repent of my sins Come into my heart. I make you my Lord and Savior Friends if you prayed that simple prayer, we believe you got born again get in a good Bible based church. Keep God first place He's gonna take you places that you've never dreamed