1 Corinthians 1:18- 2:5

Skit Guys Identify 3:20

Being someone who follows Jesus
The central thing in our walk with God
Isn't sin management

it is understanding who we are in Christ.

Our identity now in Jesus is not defined by our failures
or by our past
but only by Christ's work on the cross.

We sin and are sinned against
We want and waste in the things we do
So often we fall short of what we know we should be
Or who we want to become

Yet they don't define our walk with God

Jesus death on the cross wasn't for us to somehow manage our lives better

It was so that we would see the God who has come towards us

Who asks us what way is our life facing right now
So when you stand looking in the mirror of yourself
Do you see that God is turning your head
and heart and soul in his direction

Or do you feel the lack
Or the pride in your own achievements

Like has something or someone besides Jesus taken the title to your heart's trust and delight?

Sometimes we need to come back to what feels so basic
Yet what we most need to know is

the cross is where we face the mercy of the God who loves you and me more than we see and more powerfully than we realize

just as Paul writes in his letter to the Corinthian Christians
1 Corinthians 1: 27-29

27 But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28 He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things--and the things that are not--to nullify the things that are, 29 so that no one may boast before him.

God's kingdom turns things on their head
In many ways coming down to how we see ourselves

I don't know if you have ever been asked
Or maybe you've asked yourself
WHY follow Christ

Paul wants us to turn the whole conversation on it's head here

If your trust is in Christ, what we start to see happening
is a work of God,
God goes to work in our lives
The changes are progressive

The areas he changes us in are everyday parts of us
In how we speak, or the way we deal with our ill heath,
think about money or deal with that conflict
or poisonous tongues

in the most basic difficult human situations God comes into,
we get asked how are you reacting
When the heat of your life gets turned up
How do you respond

Because look at where Paul points us
Verse 18

18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
The gospel is a message of the God who turns to face us
Not as we would like him to think we're like
But just as we really are
Broken, inconsistent performers
People prone to hurt those we love
who seek our kingdom to come