SERMON// The House that Jesus Builds – Who are you…really? // Matthew 16:21-28

We live in an age of “crisis.” Sit down and watch the news and you will be bombarded with one crisis after another: a humanitarian crisis; the Ukrainian crisis; the border crisis; a health crisis; an economic crisis.

All of those crises are real and big — they are macro forces that sweep whole peoples away. But perhaps the deepest, and most personal crisis of our age is individual — the identity crisis. 

In our passage today Jesus touches on some of the deepest realities of identity, and therefore of life: 

• Who are you…really? 
• Whose impressions and opinions of me matter? 
• What would be left of me if all the props of my identity- the things I pursue- ambition, goals, roles, etc… were removed?
• What happens to me if all my dreams and aspirations are unfulfilled?

And he offers a pathway to a stable and secure self. But it is NOT the path that most would choose, or even know about. It is the polar opposite of our current culture’s gospel of self-fulfillment and self-actualization. 

But if you know and walk this path, it can: 

• douse the destructive pessimism that threatens to engulf us all
• instill in you a sense of value when you feel worthless
• steady your life when you feel it is coming off the rails

Today, Jesus will give us that path and process to become our true selves- which is the process of becoming more like Him.
It is the path of slowly being transformed by the gospel. 

It is the process of progressively thinking more and more like God and less and less like the world.

And then we will conclude with a time of prayer for one of those crises: the crisis in Ukraine.

Brad Supple will share what his organization Unto, and other organizations are currently doing to help meet the humanitarian needs and lead us in a time of prayer for them.