Masks

When you were a little kid, what was your favorite character to dress up as or play pretend as?

Even though Halloween is over, we’re still dressing up, still wearing masks a day later. But tonight’s lesson is about the mask you might still put on tomorrow, just less obvious than the one you may be wearing tonight.

When you act or talk in a way that’s different depending on the people that are around (or when people aren’t around,) then you’re wearing a mask; hiding the “real” you. And sometimes when you have one mask for one group and another mask for another group, and so on, you sometimes can forget who the real you is.

What are some of the things we do or say that is different from how me might act around family? Friends?

When you mask different areas of your life, you are covering the real with something fake. You are playing pretend. You are hiding things from the light of day and living in the dark.

God’s word talks about masks and living double lives...

1 John 1:5–10 NLT

This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all. So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are not practicing the truth. But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin. If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that his word has no place in our hearts.

1 John 2:1–6 NLT

My dear children, I am writing this to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate who pleads our case before the Father. He is Jesus Christ, the one who is truly righteous. He himself is the sacrifice that atones for our sins—and not only our sins but the sins of all the world. And we can be sure that we know him if we obey his commandments. If someone claims, “I know God,” but doesn’t obey God’s commandments, that person is a liar and is not living in the truth. But those who obey God’s word truly show how completely they love him. That is how we know we are living in him. Those who say they live in God should live their lives as Jesus did.

1 John 2:1-

1. God is who He says is.

2. Telling the truth about who you are helps keep you close to God and other believers.

3. Confession is removing your mask and living in the light.