You might be the “good church kid.”

You never miss church, Bible study, or youth group. Any and every opportunity there is to do something with the church family, you are there. No one is suspicious of you. In fact, lots of people come to you for advice and counsel.

What they don’t know is that you struggle with sin, too.

But you are okay with people not knowing that about you. After all: if people knew you struggled, then they wouldn’t come to you for advice, right?

So you don’t tell anybody.
You keep it a secret.
And it rots to the depth of your soul.

You don’t want to be identified with all those other people who struggle with self-righteousness, gossip, porn, masturbation, or whatever “it” may be. The expectations of others has become like a jail cell in your life and you have to be perfect to keep your identity as the “good church kid” who has it all together and has all the answers.

1. No Such Thing. Can I tell you something? There is no such thing as a “good church kid!” In fact, there is only one person on earth who was ever good, and his name is Jesus! (Check Mark 10:18 if you don’t believe me.)

2. Behavior Modification. The Bible says to confess our sins to one another (James 5:16). Here is why we don’t. Our reputation is worth more to us than Jesus. It becomes an idol. We worship our reputation instead of worshiping Christ. We put our identity in our reputation instead of putting our identity in Christ. Our reputation with the church crowd becomes more important to us than our relationship with the Lord.

3. New Identity. The Gospel has an incredible invitation. To let go of the sin that so easily entangles, and give them all to Christ. Let go of the need to please people and start being obedient (Galatians 1:10). First, confess your worship of reputation. Second, confess the other sins in your life you don’t want people to know. This will be hard, but will help you find spiritual health and freedom. Christ didn’t die for us to live under a false identity, he died to give us a new identity in him.

This is why we can confess our sin to each other. Our identity is no longer in what we have done, it is in what Christ has done!