Intro to Corinth: The Messy Church | A Church Shaped by Culture or by Christ?

In this week's message, we started the origin story of the church in Corinth by first understanding the culture they were living in. Corinth was a place that loved power, wealth, physical gratification, and success—a culture where identity was something you earned, not something you were given. And that culture didn't stay outside the church—it started shaping it. Paul writes to a church marked by division, pride, and immaturity. People were aligning themselves with different leaders, elevating status and gifting, and losing sight of what actually mattered. They were focused on the outward, while God was concerned with the heart. They had information, but it wasn't leading to transformation. At the root of it all, they had forgotten their identity. As believers, we don't work for value and worth—we work from value and worth already given to us in Christ. The same tension exists for us today. Are we being shaped by the culture around us, or by the truth of who we are in Jesus? Because when we remember our identity, it realigns our purpose, restores unity, and changes the way we live.