The Love One Another Podcast | Episode 04 - The Foolishness of the Cross

This is the Love One Another podcast from Beach Point Church.

Together, we're exploring the first letter to the Corinthians with the hope that we will be formed by the way of the cross and the love of the one who bore it.

Admitting, as this letter says, that we are nothing without love.

Love empowered by the Spirit through the work of Jesus is an unstoppable force.

It invites each of us to join God in the work of redeeming all things back to God.

With that in mind, let's open our hearts to God's Word today.

Today's scripture reading comes from 1 Corinthians 1, 18-31.

Let's read it.

Verse 6.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things and the things that are not to nullify the things that are so that no one may boast before him.

It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God.

That is our righteousness, holiness, and redemption.

Therefore, as it is written, let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.

world loves a good redemption story.

Movies, books, and headlines celebrate the underdog who rises to success.

But while we admire those stories from afar, most of us would rather skip the part where we're weak, overlooked, and desperate.

We want to be seen as strong, successful, and secure without ever admitting what it took to get there.

The believers in Corinth weren't so different.

In the first century, Corinth was a city fascinated with power, wealth, and social climbing.

Many in the church longed to look and live like Roman Their obsession with status was driving division and pride within the body of Christ.

It's not hard to see the parallels in Orange County today.

1 Corinthians 1.26 He invites them and us to remember are before.

Before Jesus called you, who were you?

What defined you?

Were you wrapped up in performance, trapped by pride, addicted to control, or hungry for approval?

Maybe you're still wrestling with those issues.

But the point is this, Jesus met you in that place, not when you had it all together, but when you needed grace.

In Matthew 9, Jesus calls Matthew, a tax collector, and a social outcast to follow him.

The religion This is the heart of the gospel.

Jesus came for the broken.

He came for the overlooked.

He came for us.

Paul reminds the Corinthian church and us that God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise and what is weak to shame Why?

So that no one may boast about their own strength.

Instead, we boast in Christ, who has become for us wisdom from God, that is, our righteousness, holiness, and redemption, from 1 Corinthians 1.30.

The message is simple, but life-altering.

You don't have to strive to be enough.

Jesus already is.

Today, let Paul's words remind you of who you were and who you are now in Christ.

You were once far off, but now you've been brought So in a culture obsessed with power and status, let's be a church that holds tightly to the cross.

Let's be a people shaped not by image or income, but by Jesus, the one who gave up everything so that we could gain life in him.

If you find yourself chasing after influence, wealth, or recognition, pause and breathe.

Think of what you were when you were called.

Grace met you then and it still holds you now.

The cross teaches that God doesn't recruit the impressive.

He redeems the willing.

So much of our energy can be spent trying to prove we're worth something, worth hiring, loving, trusting, following.

But God saw you before the accolades, before the striving, and he called you his own.

So today, invite the Holy Spirit to help you let go of what the world says makes you valuable.

Lay down the burden of performance.

Embrace the beauty of being chosen, not because you were strong, but because you are known and So today, invite the Holy Spirit to help you let go of what the world says makes you valuable.

Lay down the burden of performance.

Embrace the beauty of being chosen, not because you were strong, but because you were known and loved.

Let's pray.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.