We don’t want to think of ourselves as foolish.  After all, most of us have been told our whole lives, “You can do anything you want!”  You can be anything you want as long as you believe in yourself and work hard”.  This is called the philosophy self-determination.  We love it!    

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In the context of our passage we are going to see God’s Word reminding us of the cross and the reason is there is power in the message of the cross.  This morning God’s Word is going to show us there are two types of people in this room.  You are either the type of person who is convinced of the power in Jesus’ life, death and resurrection or you are convinced the cross is foolish.  You can’t be in both groups.  You can’t be in neither group.  You either see the cross as powerful or you see the cross as foolish.

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Last Sunday we kicked off our new series in 1 Corinthians and learned about the messiness of the Corinthian church. We learned about a people who have inconsistent beliefs, inconsistent behaviors. In a day like today, when people are arguing, criticizing and sometimes cutting people out of their lives because of beliefs and behaviors.  

This morning we are going to continue in 1 Corinthians and look at division in the local church.  Sometimes people in Christ struggle to get along with one another and God’s Word meets us in the practical areas of life.

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Join us as we kick off a new series in 1 Corinthians about what it means to be a healthy church because in the context of the Corinthian church they are a mess.    

In chapter 5 we have a man sleeping with his step-mother.  In chapter 6 we have church family members taking one another to court.  In chapter 11 they are getting drunk off communion.  In chapter 15 there are people denying the resurrection of Jesus.  This doesn’t even touch on the in-fighting within the local church.  The arrogance of the Corinthians.  The lack of love and compassion toward others and the Corinthian catch phrase, “Let us eat, drink and be merry because tomorrow we die!”  Could you imagine how you might respond if these types of people showed up in your newsfeed?  Can you imagine the types of things we might type in the comments section?  Can you imagine how we might respond to those types of people if they walked in on a Sunday morning or showed up in our community group?

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It’s possible you might be focused and ready to chase after all your dreams in life but it seems like most people are struggling to find motivation, struggling to find optimism and when we find ourselves in that place we dream big, start small.    

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Relationships take work. This is why our church is rallying around the focus “Build and Belong.”  We want to put in the relational time today, so that when we start go sideways in life, when we get ensnared by the sinful traps of this world we need people in our life that we can trust to help us get free.

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We are busy with work, busy with life, struggling through marriage, wrestling with children, seeing our own personal character flaws in life, so that when we show up on a Sunday morning or even open God’s Word on our own it’s like God’s voice was just getting lost in all the white noise of life.    

As a result, we started a tradition where every year in January we set aside time to focus on the four foundational markers, guardrails, lighthouses, key areas of life that guide the decisions we make, no matter how rough the waters might get in life.

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In our passage this morning we are going to look at Luke 2, the birth of Jesus, and see God’s hand at work in places we would never expect and in ways we would never expect, so that this morning we are going to see:

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Do you know those moments when you are with little kids and you say to them, “Don’t touch.”  They nod their head in agreement but then as soon as you look away, they slowly reach their hands out to touch.    

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Throughout God’s Word we see trees singing, stars singing, Jesus’ singing, the Apostle Paul singing, so that singing is a central part of our faith as followers of Jesus and singing about Jesus has shaped the majority of music we listen to today, even if those people don’t acknowledge those historical roots.    In our passage this morning we are going to see:

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