The Performance Trap

NOTE:

This is a manuscript, and not a transcript of this message. The actual presentation of the message differed from the manuscript through the leading of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, it is possible, and even likely that there is material in this manuscript that was not included in the live presentation and that there was additional material in the live presentation that is not included in this manuscript.

Engagement

I live in a family that thrives on competition. We can make pretty much any activity in life into a competition. Perhaps you don’t do that quite to the degree we do, but I think at least to some extent all of us are caught up in what many have called the “performance” trap.

We live in a culture that is steeped in measuring performance. We go to school and we measure our performance with grades and SAT scores. We measure the performance of our investment portfolios and IRA’s. We go to the doctor and we evaluate our health by measuring our blood pressure and our cholesterol. Our phones measure how many steps we take each day.

For the most part, unless we take it to an extreme, there is nothing wrong with those kinds of measurements. But the problem is that many of us have a natural tendency to use those measurements as a way to seek the approval of others. And without a doubt, social media has made this problem even worse. Look at all the things people post about their lives to try and impress others.

Tension

And if we’re not careful, living in this performance-based culture can also impact the way we live out our faith. Intellectually we understand that the heart of being a disciple of Jesus is not about us and what we do. It’s about what God has done for us. But practically and functionally our discipleship, our service, our giving, our obedience and our morality can all be turned into performance-based Christianity that makes our faith more about us than about God.

As we’re going to see this morning, this problem is not new. It plagued the early church as well. But the good news is that we don’t have to be stuck in the “performance trap” when it comes to our walk with Jesus.

Truth

This morning, we’re going to continue our study in the book of Galatians. So if you have your Bibles or your devices, go ahead and turn to Galatians chapter 3 and in a moment you can follow along as I read.

Before I do that, let me take a moment to remind you where we are in our study. Paul is writing here to churches in Galatia that had been planted by Paul on one of his missionary journeys. The churches there consisted primarily of Gentiles, but after Paul left, a group of Jewish Christians known as the Judaizers had crept into the churches and were teaching that in order to become a disciple of Jesus, one first had to become a Jew and follow the Jewish law.

The first two chapters, which Ryan has covered over the last several weeks, are primarily Paul’s defense of his own apostleship and of the gospel itself. Beginning in chapter 3, Paul is going to go more deeply into the doctrine behind the gospel.

With that in mind, go ahead and follow along as I read beginning in verse 1 of chapter 3:

Galatians 3:1–14 ESV

1 O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. 2 Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? 3 Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? 4 Did you suffer so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain? 5 Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith— 6 just as Abraham “believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”? 7 Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. 8 And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.” 9 So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. 10 For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.” 11 Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for “The righteous shall live by faith.” 12 But the law is not of faith, rather “The one who does them shall live by them.” 13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”— 14 so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.

Here is the main idea we’re going to develop from this passage this morning:

Living out the gospel is a matter of trying less and trusting more

Paul doesn’t hold back at all here, does he? He calls the Galatians “foolish” and claims that they have been “bewitched”. Today we might say something like “What were you thinking?”.

And then he gets to the heart of the issue right away in verse 3:

Galatians 3:3 ESV

3 Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?

The Galatians had begun their walk with Jesus by trusting more, but now in their day-to-day lives, they had gotten stuck in the “performance trap” of trying more. They had been listening to the Judaizers who were teaching a gospel of Jesus plus. According to their false teaching, it was okay that these Galatian Christians had begun their faith journey with faith in Jesus, but now they needed to do something more than that to maintain the relationship.

But Paul counteracts their arguments by giving...

Three illustrations of why trusting is more important than trying:

Their own experience (vs. 2-5)

Paul reminds his readers that they began their walk with Jesus by faith alone. And, as we’ve talked about before, even their ability to put their faith in Jesus was a gift from God.

If you have made the decision to put your faith in Jesus, you can’t take any credit for that. Without the Holy Spirit coming into our lives and showing us our sin and convincing us that we need a Savior, none of us would have made that decision on our own.

So Paul argues here that if they began their walk by trusting more, there is no reason to expect that all of a sudden their walk with Jesus would now be based on trying more.

Abraham (vs. 6-9)

The Judaizers, like most of the Jews of their day, ignored the fact that from the very beginning it was God’s plan to bless all people, not just the Jews, through Abraham’s descendants:

Genesis 12:3 ESV

3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

The other problem is that these same false teachers completely misunderstood the purpose of the law. They thought that their righteousness was a result of obeying the law. But again, they failed to recognize that even in the Old Testament, righteousness was a result of trusting rather than trying:

Genesis 15:6 ESV

6 And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.

Notice that Abraham was declared righteous by God, not because of anything he did, but because of his belief and trust in God. In fact, it is not until three chapters later in Genesis 17, that God introduces the practice of circumcision that the Judaizers were trying to force on the Galatian Christians. And the law isn’t introduced until over 400 years after that.

So if Abraham lived out his life by trying less and trusting more, then the Galatians needed to do that, too.

Jesus (vs. 10-14)

Those who rely on trying harder are actually under a curse. Paul quotes from the book of Leviticus to support that claim. The idea here is that if someone chooses to live under the law, that person must do that perfectly, or face the judgment that comes with disobedience. And since no one can do that perfectly, those who choose to live by trying harder are already cursed.

But on the cross, Jesus became that curse on our behalf. So when we trust more, rather than try more, we receive the blessing that God promised to Abraham. That gift is always received by faith in Jesus alone, not anything we can do before or after we are saved.

Living out the gospel is a matter of trying less and trusting more

With that foundation in place, I want to close by making this really practical.

Application

HOW TO TRY LESS AND TRUST MORE

Have a right view of God

Unfortunately some of us base our view of God on our own experiences. Perhaps you grew up in a home where you had to perform in order to gain acceptance. Or perhaps others in your life - teachers, coaches, and maybe even pastors - have based their acceptance of you on what you did.

But God is not like that at all. He is gracious, really gracious. And that grace doesn’t just extend to our salvation. It also extends to our day-to-day walk with Jesus. As I’ll talk about more in a moment, that doesn’t mean obedience isn’t important. It is. But what I am saying is that Jesus accepts you when you perform and He also accepts you when you don’t.

Embrace my own unworthiness

Another way I could phrase this idea would be “give myself a break”.

The first step in entering into a relationship with Jesus is to acknowledge our sin and to admit that there is nothing we can do to deal with that sin on our own. We need to trust that Jesus has done that for us and to be clothed with His righteousness. But just like the Galatian Christians, it seems that once we’ve done that, we can easily fall back into the performance trap and beat ourselves up every time we fall short.

I’m not saying that we should ignore or minimize our sin. We do need to mourn over our sin like God does. And we should confess it and repent when God reveals our sin to us.

But when we continually beat ourselves up over our sin, it usually has exactly the opposite effect than what we think it will.

Thomas Curran, a psychology professor at the London School of economics wrote a book titled The Perfection Trap: Embracing the Power of Good Enough. In that book he cites a study that he did in which he had a group of people complete a certain distance in a certain amount of time on a bike. After the first attempt the researchers told everyone they had failed and asked them to do it again.

The non-perfectionists in the study largely put in a bit more effort on the second attempt. But the perfectionists did the opposite. In order to spare themselves the embarrassment of failure and shame, they simply withdrew themselves from the activity altogether. In their minds they couldn’t fail at something they didn’t try.

I can tell you from firsthand experience, that the same thing can happen in our spiritual lives when we try harder rather than trust more. I’ve done that with my Bible reading on more than one occasion. When I got behind on my reading plan, there were times when it was just easier to give up altogether rather than admit failure.

Part of the solution to that problem has been to change my motivation for reading the Bible from it being an obligation to being something I want to do because I can’t wait to see what God has for me in His Word. But it’s also been important to just admit my failure and move on and not let it keep me from reading my Bible altogether.

Quit judging others

If the last point could be phased “give myself a break”, then this one could be “give others a break”. One of the best indicators that you’re trying too hard and not trusting enough is that you tend to demand perfection from others. Once again, this is something that I’ve certainly been guilty of in my life at times, maybe even with some of you. Please forgive me if that is the case.

But I have to quit expecting of others what I’m incapable of myself. When I free others from the performance trap, I also free myself. We must quit trying to “fix” other people - our spouses, our children, our families, our bosses, our co-workers - and trust that God will change them when and how He wants.

Let me be clear here. I am not saying that we don’t have a responsibility to build into the lives of others. Obviously parents are responsible for raising up their children, for instance. And at times, we do have to lovingly rebuke the sin in the lives of our Christian brothers and sisters. Be we need to make sure we recognize that we’re no more capable of fixing others that we are of fixing ourselves. so we just have to leave the results to God.

Beware of the trap of “something more”

Although it happens in different ways for us, we can be “bewitched” just as easily as the Galatians. In today’s culture, we are constantly enticed by something that promises to be new or better. And unfortunately that even happens in the church. I think many churches have good intentions. They really do want to reach people for Jesus. But often they attempt to do that by always needing to have the latest and greatest - a new sound system or video wall, fog machines, professional musicians, and good looking young pastors in their skinny jeans.

None of that is particularly enticing to me personally. I can guarantee that you won’t ever see me in skinny jeans. However, one of the temptations I face every time I preach is to try and find some new innovative way to present the gospel in order to make it more palatable to others.

I don’t want to pick on Bruce Wilkinson because I think he has made great contributions to the kingdom of God through his writings and teaching. But a book that he wrote in 2000 called The Prayer of Jabez in an example of how easy it is for Christians to be sucked into the trap of “something more”. The premise of the book was that every day every Christian should pray a specific prayer that Jabez prayed and that if they did that God would bless them. For a lot of Christians, that was an attractive “new thing” since most of them had probably never even heard of Jabez. But the problem with that, and almost anything else that is new and exciting, is that it leads to more trying and less trusting.

Obey for the right reasons

As I mentioned earlier, nothing in this passage negates the need for obedience in our lives. Obedience is not optional. But what I hope is evident by now is that it is the motivation behind our obedience that matters.

If I’m caught up in the performance trap and I’m trying more than I’m trusting, then I will obey to earn God’s acceptance and favor. Or I’ll do it to make myself look good to others. When I do that I’m making my obedience all about me.

But when I’m trusting more than I’m trying, I will obey out of a deep sense of God’s love for me. I will trust that He alone knows what is best for my life and that His commands, even when I don’t understand them or don’t feel like obeying them are God’s best for my life and for His glory. I will obey out of a sense of gratitude for what Jesus did for me on the cross. So my obedience becomes all about God.

Action

We’ve seen this morning that...

Living out the gospel is a matter of trying less and trusting more

I want to ask you to honestly think about your own life for a moment? Are there areas of your life where you’ve gotten caught up in the “performance trap”? Or even worse maybe you’ve taken it one step further and have been ensnared in the “perfection trap”. Maybe you’ve done that with your health, or in your job, or even in your own family. And probably most of us, if we’re completely honest, have done that at least to some degree when it comes to our walk with Jesus.

Fortunately, the solution is simple, but it’s not necessarily easy. We are to live out the Christian life exactly the way we started - by trusting in Jesus and not by just trying harder. That process begins with just confessing to God that we’ve fallen into the performance trap and asking for His forgiveness. As we’ve talked about today, God is a gracious God and He would delight in granting that forgiveness. Then we need to pray and ask God to help us trust Him more each day.

I really like the way Steve Ponzo worded this idea in our Monday morning Bible study. I didn’t copy it down word-for-word but here’s the idea:

Our walk with Jesus is a matter of progressively yielding more to the Spirit every day

Inspiration

I pray that is something God would do in my life and in yours. So as we close will you join me in asking God to help us all try less and trust more.