The Sunday Morning Masquerade

One of the guys at our early morning Bible study here in Van Buren was talking about how getting to church used to be a battle for him and his wife. They’d wake up late, frantically get themselves and the kids ready, snapping at each other the whole way there. Tense car ride. Everyone on edge.

But the second they hit the church parking lot, it was like a switch flipped. Instant “everything is amazing” mode. The fake face went on. Someone would ask how they were doing and the automatic answer was always, “Oh, I’m so blessed.”

I hear that story more than you’d think. A lot of us grew up with an unspoken rule that you have to clean up your act before you walk through the church doors.

The Exhaustion of Performance

The problem is we carry that performative mindset straight to God. We look at our week, see our mistakes, and think we have to fix our behavior before we’re qualified to sit at His table.

But the hardest lesson in faith is this. You cannot qualify yourself. You believe in your heart that God absorbed all the evil of the world on the cross and conquered death. You confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord. That’s it. Jesus becomes your righteousness. He becomes your holiness. He becomes your exact qualification to the Father. You don’t earn the right to be called a friend of God. He gives it to you freely.

Come As You Are

Mission This Week: Drop the masquerade. Stop trying to manage your image in front of God and the people around you. If you had a terrible morning, be honest about it. If your life feels like a mess right now, bring that mess directly to the Father. Stop focusing on your own religious performance and start boasting in the rescue that Jesus already provided. He is your qualification. And if the masquerade has crept into your marriage, our Marriage discipleship resources will show you how to rebuild on a foundation of honesty.

See you Sunday,
Pastor Jeremy