Wednesday Night Lesson Recap: The Masks We Wear

Most of us have felt rejected or unaccepted before.  It’s not a good feeling.  Actually, its one of the worst feelings in the world.  We as humans have a deep internal need to feel accepted and loved.  The feeling of love is critical to our survival at a young age.  If babies don’t receive love they become sick and can even die from it.  But as we grow up and develop into rational people, we still desire love but sometimes we begin to question the reasons why we are not loved.  Is it because I’m ugly, or my figure?  Perhaps we feel like the things that we have done, or things that have been done to us will not be accepted by others.

So, logically, if humans have an internal need to be loved and accepted, but don’t think that they will be because of some “thing” they have done or that has been done to them, what will logical people do?  They will try to hide that thing.  They will try to cover it up.  They put on a mask.

The nice thing about masks is that they disguise reality.  They present a picture to the world that is believable to those looking at it.  The mask says to the world, “see I’m ok and just like you and so you can accept me and love me.”  But we believe that we can’t be loved without it. 

Two problems with masks:

-       Masks make it hard to breathe.

o   When you are behind a mask, you can never breathe as well as without it.  Your face gets sweaty and you may even start to feel a little closed in.  Have you ever felt closed in and hard to breathe?  Its not a good place to be.

-       Masks only cover up, they don’t fix.

o   Masks are made to conceal, but they are not permanent.  They are temporary.  No matter how long you wear it, the same person is still behind the mask.  Masks don’t fix things, they hide things.

But God sees everything and he knows everything and he knows everyone.  Read these verses.  (Matthew 10:30  Psalm 139:4  Job 28:24)

We buy into the idea that the rest of the world is perfect and we are not.  The rest of the world is put together and we are not.  No one else has been through what I’ve been through, and so on. 

But God says to us “Hey, I see you.  I know you, and I can help.”  God says “I’ve seen what has happened to you and I love you.  I’ve seen what you’ve done and I love you despite that.”  When we accept that God loves us for who we are and that we don’t have to wear a mask around him, it is a relieving thing to know.

Jesus loves us and has provided a way for us to have life and to be healed from out hurts.  This is good news.

Two Things Jesus Does…

1.     Jesus accepts us as we are (Psalm 31 1-10, 21-24)

2.     Jesus restores life (John 10:10 and Psalm 23)

After we have dealt with our own masks, we then need to turn around and love those that are around us that are wearing masks.  They are everywhere.  They are in your schools, and at work, and even here at church.  Do you love those people and show them that they don’t have to hide from you because you won’t judge them because God didn’t judge you, he loved you?  Are we willing to help the hurting.

Youth Group Craziness: Video 1

I have begun to document some of the craziness that takes place in youth group and plan on create a video series that highlights these happenings.  Below is episode 1.  Enjoy.

Wednesday Night Lesson Recap: What Would You Ask For From God?

If you had the opportunity to stand before God for a moment and ask him for something, what would it be?  Lets say that this was the only thing, outside your own salvation that you could ask for, what would it be?  It’s a pretty tough question when you stop and think about it.  We live in a society where we ask for things all of the time.  We ask him for good health, for safety, for friends, for all kinds of things.

In Proverbs 30: 7-9 the author of the chapter asks God for two things.

1.     To keep falsehood and lies far from him.

2.     Give him only what he needs, not making him rich or poor.

The first request is important because we know that God hates liars. He calls Satan the father of lies.  We see in both Psalm 101:7 and Proverbs 6:16-19 that God hates liars and says they have no place in him. If we are deceitful than how are we supposed to be effective and useful examples of Christ.

If people can’t believe what we say about the everyday, how can we expect them to believe us when we talk about God?

The second piece to this is falsehood, which is connected to lying.  It is easy to be lead astray and sometimes it’s hard to know who to believe because the lie sounds almost better than the real deal.   If we listen the wrong teaching we quickly find ourselves being lead in a direction that is away from God.

The second request from the author was for God to not make him rich or poor but only give him his daily bread.  What does that mean?  What is the problem that the author says about being too rich?

The problem with being rich = forgetting about God and becoming prideful which leads to thinking only about myself.

The problem with being poor = becoming jealous of others and stealing what they have and then sinning against God.  Also thinking of myself with jealousy.

Being given what I need = understanding that what I have comes from God alone and not from my own doing. 

So if you notice if we have too much or too little our attention is only on ourselves and not on God.  The challenge is for us to live in such a way that we are in constant focus on God.

So How would you pray to God or what would you ask him for?  It’s challenging and sobering to ask God to give me only enough to survive.