October 24th

Good Afternoon Meadowbrooke,

Take a moment and read the following scripture passage thoughtfully and slowly to really hear the message of 1 Corinthians 1:26-31,

For consider your calling, brothers and sisters, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the insignificant things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are, so that no human may boast before God. But it is due to Him that you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, so that, just as it is written: “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

This is the great theme of the Bible: God does not look for the prettiest, best, or the brightest to be a part of His kingdom.  God’s wisdom and power in rescuing lost sinners leaves no room for pride. We brought nothing to our salvation. God alone saves. He reached into the grave of my spiritual deadness and breathed new life into me through Jesus Christ. The beauty and glory of the cross is that in Christ, God becomes our wisdom, our righteousness, our sanctification, and our redemption.

Think about the wonder of this: God chooses the foolish and gives them Christ as their wisdom.
He chooses the weak and gives them Christ as their righteousness. He chooses the lowly and despised and gives them Christ as their sanctification. He chooses the nobodies of this world and gives them Christ as their redemption—so they may become sons and daughters of the Most High God.

The believers in Corinth needed this reminder. They lived in a culture that celebrated clever thinkers and powerful rulers, but no wisdom of their age and no power of Rome could save them. Only Christ—the wisdom and power of God—could give them what they most desperately needed: life with God. Their hope was not in philosophers or empires but in the One who could stand in their place before a holy God.

And this is our story too. No modern ideas, no human strength, no government can meet our greatest need. If you are a Christian, you were spiritually dead, helpless to save yourself. But through the power of the cross, God made you alive in Christ.

Here is what matters most: in Jesus, you can know the God you were made for. In Jesus, God no longer sees your sin but the perfect righteousness of His Son. In Jesus, you are forgiven, transformed, and made new. You no longer stand as an enemy before God, but as a beloved child of God.

All of this is pure grace—not because of anything you have done but because of what God has done in Christ. And so, at the end of the day, you cannot boast in yourself. The only boasting you can do, is to boast in the One who rescued you—the One who saved your soul.

May this truth quiet your heart, lift your eyes, and remind you that everything you truly need is already yours in Jesus.  I look forward to seeing you in our 9AM and 11AM worships services this Sunday.

Grace and peace,

Pastor Keith