Identity Crisis | Week 2 | Jeff Moors · Rewind

Pastor Jeff Moors · May 1, 2022 · 66 min watch · 3 min read

Identity Crisis | Week 2 | Jeff Moors

Big Idea

A rediscovered identity in Christ brings a new humanity — a new person, power, perspective, and purpose.

Because Christ died and rose again, every believer has been made a new creation whose identity is no longer rooted in titles, achievements, or the flesh, but in who God says they are. Pastor Jeff Moors argues from 2 Corinthians 5:14–21 that this rediscovered identity is not merely positional — it reshapes how we see ourselves, how we wield the Spirit's resurrection power, how we view every person around us, and how we carry the ministry of reconciliation into the world as Christ's ambassadors.

Key points

1
1We are delusional about our own goodness and desperately need the honest revelation that we require a Savior, forgiveness, and a God-given identity.
2
2In Christ we become a new creation — the old is gone and the new has come — and baptism is the marked moment that declares this new identity publicly.
3
3We must stop dwelling on the past, because God is continually doing a new thing, and His mercies are new every morning.
4
4Believers carry the same resurrection power that raised Jesus from the dead, making them thermostats — not thermometers — who change the climate of every environment they enter.
5
5Our new passion is compelled by Christ's love, reorienting us away from consuming anxieties toward seeking God's kingdom first.
6
6With a new perspective we see every person — including newcomers and strangers — not as an inconvenience but as a future brother or sister in Christ and a mission field.
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7We have a new purpose: the ministry of reconciliation, calling people back to God through the message our lives speak every day.

Application

Pastor Jeff calls every believer to stop anchoring their worth in roles, titles, accomplishments, or even past failures, and instead to daily live from their true identity as a son or daughter of the Most High King. Practically, this means letting baptism's declaration sink in, resisting the enemy's pull toward past regret, and walking into Monday morning — the workplace, the neighborhood, the family dinner table — with the conscious awareness that the same Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead lives inside you. Rather than retreating from a darkening culture, be a thermostat: change the climate. See every new face around you not as a bother but as a future brother or sister in Christ. Let your whole life speak the plea of 2 Corinthians 5:20 — 'Come back to God.'

Take it into your week

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Scripture in this message

From the transcript
“In the book of second Corinthians chapter five, if you have your bible, it's going to open up there. Second Corinthians chapter five, we're gonna read verses 14 through 21”
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From the transcript
“even Paul, the one who wrote second Corinthians chapter five, he gets this and he actually writes about it in Philippians chapter three verses four through seven. And he says this, if anyone thinks that they have reason to put confidence in the flesh, I have more”
From the transcript
“That we get to live as it says in in John chapter one, if we have placed our trust and our belief in God, we get to live as children of God. We've been given the right to become children of God”
From the transcript
“It says in Isaiah chapter 43 verse 18, it says that forget the former things, do not dwell on the past. See I'm doing a new thing. Now it springs up, do you not perceive it”
From the transcript
“it says in Lamentations, the book of Lamentations in the Bible that his mercies are new every morning. So every day is a brand new start for us people”
From the transcript
“This new power comes from the Holy Spirit. It says in Ephesians chapter one that when you give your life to Jesus, are now sealed with his Holy Spirit. It is marked on your life”
From the transcript
“it's the same Holy Spirit as it says in Romans chapter number eight. It's the same spirit. The spirit of God who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you and just as God raised Jesus Christ from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by the same spirit living within you”
From the transcript
“I love what it says in Matthew chapter six verse thirty one and thirty three. It says, So don't worry about these things saying, will we drink? What will we wear”
From the transcript
“I love it at the at the end of this passage that we read in second Corinthians five. It says that we have the ministry of reconciliation that God makes his plea through us”

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7-day devotional

A personal reading plan from this message — scripture, reflection, and prayer for each day.

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Pastor Jeff opened by doing something uncomfortable: he held up a mirror. Before we can understand what it means to be a new creation, we have to reckon honestly with the old one. The apostle Paul doesn't ease us in gently — Christ died for all, he says, which means all were in a condition that required dying for. That's not flattering, but it is freeing. The moment we stop pretending we had it together on our own is the moment we can actually receive what God offers. There's a particular kind of exhaustion that comes from defending your own goodness, from keeping the performance going. The good news is you don't have to maintain it. Christ's death on your behalf is the honest verdict and the loving rescue all at once. He didn't die because you were impressive; He died because you were worth it to Him. That changes everything about where you stand. You are not someone who almost made the cut. You are someone the Son of God considered worth every cost. Today, let that land somewhere below your theology and into your actual chest. You don't have to earn what has already been given.

For reflection

Where in your life are you still trying to earn something that Christ has already freely given you?

Pray

Pray for the courage to stop defending your own goodness and to receive the honest, loving verdict of the cross.

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Small-group discussion guide

For leading a group conversation about this message.

Open

This message centers on one of the most disorienting claims in the New Testament — that in Christ, you are not who you used to be. Take a minute to think about the last time someone's honest words about you genuinely surprised you, for better or worse.

Discussion questions

1
In 2 Corinthians 5:17, Paul writes, 'Anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new creation. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!' What do you think Paul means by 'old' and 'new' here — and why does it matter that he uses the word 'creation'?
2
Pastor Jeff pointed to Philippians 3 — where Paul lists his credentials as a Jewish leader, then calls them all worthless compared to knowing Christ — to illustrate how deeply titles and achievements can shape a person's sense of self. What does Paul's list tell us about the kinds of things people in any era tend to anchor their worth to?
3
In Isaiah 43:18–19, God says, 'Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing!' Pastor Jeff connected this to the way past failures or regrets can keep believers from walking in their new identity. What tension do you think people feel between honestly remembering the past and genuinely letting go of it?
4
Pastor Jeff used the image of a thermostat versus a thermometer — one changes the temperature, the other just reflects it — to describe how Romans 8:11 applies to everyday life. What might it look like, practically, for a community of people to function as thermostats rather than thermometers in the spaces they already occupy?
5
Second Corinthians 5:18–20 describes believers as ambassadors carrying a ministry of reconciliation — essentially, a plea of 'Come back to God.' How does thinking of ourselves as ambassadors, rather than judges or critics, change the way we might approach someone who seems far from God?
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Pastor Jeff challenged us to see every new face — the stranger at a gathering, the new coworker, the neighbor we haven't met — not as an inconvenience but as a potential brother or sister in Christ. What would need to shift in how a group of people thinks about outsiders for that kind of vision to become natural?

Pray together

The courage to live from who God says we are — not who the past says we were — and eyes to see the people around us the way Christ does

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Go deeper

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Identity Crisis

Week 2 · 5 messages

Where these passages are preached

2 Corinthians 5 Philippians 3 John 1 Isaiah 43

Explore related topics

Being God's Ambassador Identity in Christ New Creation Reconciliation Resurrection Power

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