A Cross-Shaped Identity
Notes
Transcript
The world tells us that we get to, that we have to create our own identity. We hear things like:
“Be true to yourself. Find yourself”
“You can be anything”
“Follow your heart”
“Do you”
“All you need in already inside you”
Story - Girl’s t-shirts
A Cross-Shaped Identity
A Cross-Shaped Identity
The problem is, the world’s version of identity is finicky and shallow. Either leads to pride and self-entitlement (“I deserve the best”) or low self-worth. (“You’ll never be good enough”)
Take Elsa for example - After a childhood riddled with fear of failure, her icy powers are exposed. In her break though song, “Let it Go” she sings:
“It's time to see what I can do
To test the limits and break through
No right, no wrong, no rules for me
I'm free”
A Cross-Shaped Identity
A Cross-Shaped Identity
But the problem is, we are not free. Humanity was hopelessly in bondage to sin, death and the devil and Jesus paid a great price to rescue us.
The cross is where we find our true identity.
The Cross Shows Us The Depth of Our Brokenness
The Cross Shows Us The Depth of Our Brokenness
Story - Broken Wedding Vase
Humanity is is powerless to free ourselves from our brokenness.
Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.
Slaves are not free. We cannot free ourselves from sin, we cannot right our own brokenness, we cannot prevent our own death. Humanity, by ourselves, is desperately and hopelessly broken. We are powerless without Jesus.
because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh,
Humanity could not free itself and the law also could not break the power of sin and death.
Humanity was so hopelessly broken, that we needed to be rescued. And not rescued by anything or anyone, by God himself - Jesus Christ.
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father,
Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil—and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.
The Cross Shows Us The Depth of Our Brokenness
The Cross Shows Us The Depth of Our Brokenness
When we recognize our inability to “pull ourselves up by our boot-straps” it leads to humility.
Maybe we don’t have everything inside of us.... maybe there is more to our identity than “following our hearts”
The cross clearly shows us there is.
The Cross Shows Us The Magnitude of Our Value
The Cross Shows Us The Magnitude of Our Value
Story - Micah falling into the water on vacation
God, like a good parent loves his children and will go to any lengths to rescue us.
But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.
It is God’s great love for us that motivated his sacrifice that rescues us from sin, death and the devil.
But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.
We are loved beyond measure.
The Cross Shows Us The Magnitude of Our Value
The Cross Shows Us The Magnitude of Our Value
We did no thing to deserve God’s love and we cannot earn it.
God’s outrageous, rescuing love for us shows the magnitude of our value.
This gives us confidence!
A Cross-Shaped Identity
A Cross-Shaped Identity
Having a cross-shaped identity means that we realize both our brokenness and our value.
It means that we are neither prideful and self-entitled nor are we self-loathing or worthless.
We are humble because cross shows us the depth of our brokenness that the very son of God would have to die to rescue us from sin, death and the devil.
We are confident because the cross shows us the magnitude of our value, that God loves us so much that he would sacrifice himself to bring us into his kingdom.
Let us walk in our Cross-Shaped Identity.