IDENTITY: Are the things which make me "full" what I have done, or which Christ has done?

 

Said Musa

Are the things which I have done, or which Christ has done that make me complete?

Today, the sermon was about identity. Mark Brett discussed how hollowness is deceptive.
Mark talked about as a kid he was going to do a trick on a tree branch only to find out the tree branch was hollow and caused him to fall. If our identities don't represent the good inner core given to us by Christ, then aren't we serving the world and not him? Aren't obsessions to look cool, to be better than someone else just a game?

Our circumstances don't define who we are. If we are cranky one day, we will be forgiven because we are new creations in Christ. We are also sinners, prone to repeat the same sin, fall into the same temptations, but through Christ we can overcome those temptations.

As Mark explains from Colossians, Christ=fullness. Having a relationship with Christ is what is important.  Spiritual discipline isn't to DEFINE us, but to remind us. Therefore, missing church isn't a sin, but continuing to skip church and taking Christ out of #1 priority in our lives can lead to sin.
Those who complicate the formula by adding variables are tempted to believe that we need more than Christ:

 Jesus + x + y + z^3 + a ^3 + b/2 = fullness is not correct.
When we add praying, going to church, volunteering, etc as conditions to make us full, we are sidestepping that Christ makes us complete, trying to become full from something other than Christ. Life becomes a competition, we see that if I do this + this and that person only does that, then I am more pleasing to God.
How is comparing ourselves to others Godly? It's not. We were born as we are with special gifts, we can't all be "the best" and we can't compare to Christ's blemishless body being shed for us. God made us all as individuals, so that our talents would be used for his benefit, not that we would look to ourselves and our actions for completeness when Christ alone can bring us to heaven.

When our sin and hollow selves break, the branch, who are we?

The Ministry of Reconciliation 2 Corinthians 5:7-11

  ⁷ For we live by faith, not by sight. ⁸ We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. ⁹ So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. ¹⁰ For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.

¹¹ Since, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade others. What we are is plain to God, and I hope it is also plain to your conscience. 

 See what God is doing in the world today:

http://www.afghanmedia.org/

News in Afghanistan:

Shoaib Assadullah-Death penalty for giving a Bible to a friend: 
http://www.persecution.org/2011/01/03/afghan-christian-faces-potential-death-sentence-for-apostasy/
Said Musa, Afghan Christian, just released from prison after nearly a year of relentless dedication to Christ
http://www.persecution.org/2011/02/24/imprisoned-afghan-christian-released-from-prison/
Reference to Said Musa at Riverview:
http://rivchurch.com/resources/videoplayer/gqUwgqewcwA
Christ in Flushing, New York:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PjGuqo_iG8