Sermon Cloud

Who are you?  What’s the first thing that comes to your mind when you try to answer that question? Do you answer it by your heritage?  “I’m an American.”  Do you answer it by you do everyday? “I’m a student.”  Or do you answer it by how God sees you?  What I’d like you to do is write out the first thing that comes to you mind when you hear that question: who are you?  So go ahead and take a few moments and use your message notes to write out your answer…  Now, I’m curious, so I’m going to come around and ask some of you what you wrote down.  If you’re shy you don’t need to share, but if you’re willing to share your answer that’d be great.  Who are you?  What do you say?

I was hoping some of you would say that you are the Apple of God’s Eye – that you are His beloved child: that your identity is grounded in how God sees you, not in how you see yourself or how others see you.  If you were here last week, that’s what we were trying to nail down.  That if you’ve received Jesus as the forgiver of your sins, then God says you’ve become His child – You are the apple of His eye.  But we don’t always live there.  We don’t always see ourselves this way.  Why is that? Well there’s something wrong with us – something’s not quite right.  And today, I want to help us deal with that.  I want to help us see how God rights the wrong in us and sets us free to be who He called us to be.  So, let’s get to it.  

1.  What’s wrong with us?  Why don’t we live in the freedom and security of our identity as God’s beloved?   Why don’t we live full throttle with the confidence that God for us? Why do we need to impress each other with what we know or what we have or how cool we are?  What’s wrong with us?  I really think that’s a legitimate question – because each of us knows that we just don’t live like we’re the apple of God’s eye.  So what’s wrong? Well, for many of us…

WE ARE PARALIZED BY OUR PAST   Perhaps you did something foolish when you were younger and the consequences still haunt you.  Maybe you failed in your marriage or got fired from your job.  Maybe it’s a DUI or bankruptcy or an addiction.  Or maybe you just came from a totally dysfunctional family. Whatever it is, there’s shame from your past keeps that shackles you.  Lewis Smedes, in helping us understand the difference between guilt and shame explains it like this:  “We feel guilty for what we do.  We feel shame for what we are.  A person feels guilt because he did something wrong. A person feels shame because he is something wrong.”  Shame doesn’t let us live free the way God intended. In fact, shame often controls our feelings and even makes us say stuff to ourselves that we’d never say to a friend.  Things like “I’m such a loser, I’m so stupid, I’m fat, I’m ugly, or I’m not worth loving.”
 
Listen to some the ways we’re shackled by shame:
•    Shame tells me I’m defective, there’s something wrong with me
•    Shame says that because I’m flawed, I’m unacceptable
•    Shame believes other people’s opinions are what matters
•    Shame claims I must be perfect to earn approval
•    Shame makes us hide  -  Shame’s greatest weapon is fear of judgment

But if shame tells me that I’m unacceptable, God’s grace tells me I am valuable. And even though shame might cry out that I am flawed, God’s grace says I am pure!  And that’s the truth that’s at the core of your identity if you have become a child of God through faith in Jesus. Through Jesus Christ God does something for us that changes our essential nature.   And that’s the truth I want to help us see today: 2. How God Fixes Us!  How God changes what we are!  How God rights the wrong in us. And that truth is found in 1 Corinthians 1:1-9 If you have a Bible go ahead and turn there.  If you don’t have one, there’s a pew Bible in front of you and you can be find this passage in that Bible on page 870  

Let me read verse 2, as it sets the tone for how God fixes us  You gotta love how the writer gets right to the point.  He says, I am writing to God’s church in Corinth, to you who have been called by God to be his own holy people. He made you holy by means of Christ Jesus, just as he did for all people everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours.  1 Corinthians 1:2

Immediately God’s Word tells us how God rights our wrongness.  He changes us by making us holy through Jesus Christ.  There are two ways He does this.  First, HE WIPES AWAY OUR PAST   Because Jesus went to the cross and died for you, the blood he shed there obliterated the wrong in us.  Just listen to the pictures God’s Word uses to describe how Jesus wiped the slate clean. In Isaiah 44:22, God says,   “I have swept away your sin like the morning mists.  I have scattered your offenses like the clouds.”

•    He has removed our rebellious acts as far away from us as the east is from the west. Psalm 103:12

•    Now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. Romans 8:1

You see God had to wipe away the wrong in us so He could give us a new beginning.  In fact, this passage tells us that through Jesus Christ, he’s given us a brand new life. 

HE GIVES US A NEW START.   Here’s just a few of the things God’s grace gives us:

•    We get a new community 1 Corinthians 1:2
We get to enter the fellowship of the flawed, but God no longer sees us that way, he sees us as his people who’ve been made holy by Jesus.  Anytime anyone calls on the name of Jesus in faith, you are immediately united with God’s family. We are all part of the universal church.  You were created for community, for relationship, not just with God’s people.  So through faith in Jesus God includes you in His new community.  Part of your new identity grace provides it that you are no longer a lone ranger, you get to begin your new life with His people.

We get a new calling:  1 Corinthians 1:5-6   God has given us a new spiritual capacity.  He has given you a spiritual gift to improve the quality of life for others in this new community.  God’s grace gives you the ability to make a difference with your life.  Your calling might be to encourage others with your words or serve others with you hands or to bless others with your wisdom.  Whatever it is, the gift you possess makes you a necessary piece of the puzzle.  Everyone who calls on Jesus is called to serve, and God gives you a gift to use for your part to play.  

We get a new future:
•    He will keep you holy to the end  1 Corinthians 1:8-9a  
Once God wipes the slate clean and gives you a new start with Him, it is Jesus that will keep you clean until He returns.  He made you holy with His death and He will now keep you holy because it’s His strength in you that will do it.  We have a part to play but it is Jesus who will carry us to the day. I love what verse 9 says, “God will do this, for He is faithful to do what He says.”  His word is golden.  Your future is not dependent on how good your behavior will be, but on how good His Word is.  And we can count on that. So, He will keep you to the end.  Your future is secure in Jesus.
 
•    He will be with you to the end - 1 Corinthians 1:9b
The last part of verse 9 simply says, “an he has invited you into partnership with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.”  In others words, the greatest gift of God’s grace in giving us a new start is that we get Jesus. We don’t just have His Word, we get to enjoy His presence. He will never leave us not forsake us.  And finally,


•    We get a new identity: We become one of “His Holy Ones”
1 Peter 2:10 says, “Once you had no identity as a people; now you are God’s people.”  God no longer sees you as a sinner – you are no longer a condemned outsider – a transaction has taken place – the slate wiped clean – now God sees you as holy.  Whereas before, shame said that it’s other people’s opinions that matter, grace now says that it’s God’s opinion that counts.  And what God thinks of you is this:  because He made you holy in Christ, you are as valuable to Him as Jesus.  Whereas before, shame said you were unacceptable, God now accepts you completely.  Whereas before, shame said you were defective, God thinks of you as perfect.  God has changed what was wrong and made it all right – he has made you holy in Jesus, because He loves you.  God wiped the slate clean and gave you everything in Jesus.  God has fixed what was wrong in you. He’s given you a new community, a new purpose, a new future, a new identity… a new beginning with Jesus…  

3.  So Let Go of Your Past and Embrace the Freedom of Your New Identity!                                   That’s what I believe God would have each of us do today – to simply start living like we belong to Him.  If that means connecting with God’s people by joining a small group or rolling up your sleeves to serve or making that commitment to become a member with us, then maybe that’s where you need to start. Or perhaps for you, it means that you need to take the step of obedience to tell the world that you are a new person and be baptized, just like these ones who are about to be baptized today.  Or perhaps it means that you can just simply let go of the shame that has defined you and let God love you.  Whatever God’s Spirit is saying to you today, remember this:  you can a experience a fresh start as His Holy One all because of what Jesus has already done.  All God’s Word says, is that you need to answer the call of the one who calls you to belong to Him.

And the good news for us today is that we get to hear and see five people who have answered that call, who believe in Jesus and have embraced their new life in Him.  In just a few minutes you will hear how God has wiped away their past and given them a new start with Jesus. They have chosen to express their new life publicly by being baptized. As we listen and watch, let us also thank God for what He has done, celebrate with these who have come today, and let God’s love for you sweep away your shame, restore your soul and embrace your identity as His Holy Ones.
 
Let’s pray.