What Masks Do You Wear?

What Masks Do You Wear?

Hebrews 4:13

The Bible is full of religious festivals and celebrations. They’re even authorized by God to have them. And the Jewish people were very serious about following the rules of having such festivals. The Jews were given many feast days in which to recognize. There are many in the Bible, and here are a couple:

- Feast of the Passover

- Feast of Pentecost

- Feast of the Harvest

The Jews were very committed to having these festivals. And there was an air of excitement on being the people of God. There still should be today. David wrote:

Ps 145:7 They will celebrate your abundant goodness

and joyfully sing of your righteousness.

Sounds pretty exciting doesn’t it? You’d want to be a part of something like that wouldn’t you?

Then we should aim to reclaim such an attitude in the church. We should make it our goal to come together as a body and celebrate God’s abundant goodness in our lives. We need to be singing of God’s righteousness. We need to be filled with Joy as we recall all the wonderful blessings God has poured out on our lives and continues to do so.

So why don’t we? Perhaps God’s people have forgotten who they are, whose they are and what they have.

What does it mean to be a part of the family of God? It means, that God knows you and has seen behind your last mask, and says, “I love you anyway,” and invites you to be a part of His family.

You know, it is true that we all wear a lot of different masks these days. Our masks are our protection from a not so nice and unaccepting world. They become a barrier between yourself and others. You meet someone on the street, or at the market or even at church and they ask you how you are doing.

You put on your smile, say fine and ask them the same thing and they put on their smile and say fine and then you both go your separate ways feeling miserable.

Yet the more we get to know each other, the more masks we take off. This is what love is about. Getting more comfortable with one another and hiding less from each other. But we think, I‘ll never take off that last mask. To let someone see me exactly as I am. We feel if we do that, and then someone doesn’t like me exactly as I am, I’m ruined. I won’t take that risk. So we keep playing our games and putting on the masks because we are afraid to tell other who we are.

I think deep down, we all really desire to have that kind of relationship with others, but the fear of rejection or judgment keeps us from doing that. We are afraid to become transparent and vulnerable because as soon as we let our guard down, we might be hurt. The risk seems too great.

Even the elders and I have been talking about this for the last few weeks and realize that we need to take off some of our masks and be more transparent with one another. How else will we learn to trust one another? How do we build our relationships with one another if we don’t let our guards down?

It can only be done by taking the masks off and begin to reveal more of who we are.

No matter how many masks you wear, realize, that God has seen behind them. He knows you exactly as you are and He still loves you regardless. Listen to what the writer of Hebrews says:

Heb 4:13 Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

No matter where you are in life, no matter what you have done, God knows all about it. He is the One you will have to give account of your life to. But don’t forget, God still loves you.

Ro 8:38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers,

Ro 8:39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

There is nothing that separates you from His love. Although it is true that your sins separate you from God and put a huge wedge between you, He still loves you. He wants you to turn away from that sin and live faithfully and obediently to Him. He wants you to humble yourself and confess the sins in your life to Him. Again, He already knows them, but it is a mighty step of faith, to humble yourself before God and share with Him the things you don’t want anyone to know.