Masquarade - Unmasking our Relationships

(2 Corinthians 4:2) (MSG) “We refuse to wear masks and play games. We don't maneuver and manipulate behind the scenes… Rather, we keep everything we do and say out in the open…” "Live your life as if there are no secrets."   Title of message:  Unmasking Our Relationships   “If you try to build intimacy with another person before you have done the work of getting whole on your own, all your relationships become an attempt to complete yourself.” -Dr. Les Parrott   Living Mask Free:   1.    Understand Your Significance.   (Romans 5:8) “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”   (Acts 17:26-27) "From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us."   (Ephesians 3:17) (NLT) “Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong.” (Ephesians 3:18) (NLT) “And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is.” (Ephesians 3:19) (NLT) “May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.”   2. Unswerving Confidence.   (Psalm 27:3) “Though an army besiege me, my heart will not fear; though war break out against me, even then I will be confident.”   (Psalm 27:13) “I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.”   (Philippians 1:16) “…being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” (Ephesians 4:1 MSG) “I want you to get out there and walk—better yet, run!—on the road God called you to travel. I don't want any of you sitting around on your hands. I don't want anyone strolling off, down some path that goes nowhere.”   (2 Corinthians 4:2) (MSG) “We refuse to wear masks and play games. We don't maneuver and manipulate behind the scenes… Rather, we keep everything we do and say out in the open…”   3. Unselfish Love. (Matthew 5:41) (NLT) “If a soldier demands that you carry his gear for a mile, carry it two miles.”   (Matthew 5:43-44) “You're familiar with the old written law, 'Love your friend,' and its unwritten companion, 'Hate your enemy.' I'm challenging that. I'm telling you to love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the energies of prayer, for then you are working out of your true selves, your God-created selves. This is what God does. He gives his best—the sun to warm and the rain to nourish—to everyone, regardless: the good and bad, the nice and nasty. If all you do is love the lovable, do you expect a bonus? Anybody can do that. If you simply say hello to those who greet you, do you expect a medal? Any run-of-the-mill sinner does that.”  (Ephesians 4:2-3 MSG) “And mark that you do this with humility and discipline—not in fits and starts, but steadily, pouring yourselves out for each other in acts of love, alert at noticing differences and quick at mending fences.”