In this sermon, Pastor Josh kicks off our new Fall series, “Why Us, Why Here?”. We look at our first value as a church: being Jesus-Centered. Tune in to find out why our identity in Jesus should be the most important thing about us.
KEY IDEAS:
- Our lives in the 21st century are driven by the quest for identity. But the Christian can only know who they are when they first know who Jesus is.
- One major piece of knowing who Jesus is is to know that he is preeminent. He is preeminent because he images the invisible God, applies the purposes of God, and accomplishes the salvation of God.
- When we see how big Jesus is, we can receive from him an identity that covers all of life. Every other option for identity only covers a portion of who we are, but Jesus covers all of life.
COMMUNITY GROUP QUESTIONS:
- How have you experienced the personal search for identity that our culture is so set on?
- The only way the Christian can really know themselves is if we know who Jesus is first. And one key thing we know about Jesus is that he is preeminent, and the identity we receive from him can span all of life. Are there any areas of your life that you either purposefully or unintentionally leave Jesus out of? What would it look like for you to apply the truth of Jesus to that area of life?
- The offers for identity that our culture gives us through politics, sexuality, or career can’t give us what we need because they only cover a fraction of our life. And it’s painful when we try to make a single piece of life bear the weight of our whole person. How have you seen or experienced this pain? Why is it that these other offers for identity don’t hold up?
- As our church, and in our personal discipleship, we want to be Jesus-centered. Take a moment to dream or think: what would a Jesus-centered church be like or feel like? What adjectives or environments would you use to describe that? Now, take a moment as a group and pray that Icon Church becomes those things as we seek to be Jesus-centered.