Identity Crisis

Identity Crisis

Thesis: The modern Christian in America has an identity crisis in their faith. They don¡¦t know who they are in Christ. The solution to this problem is the Christian needs to attain a Christian Biblical Worldview and then live by it.

Texts:

2 Timothy 3:1-9:

1But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. 2People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God¡X5having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them. 6They are the kind who worm their way into homes and gain control over weak-willed women, who are loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires, 7always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth. 8Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so also these men oppose the truth¡Xmen of depraved minds, who, as far as the faith is concerned, are rejected. 9But they will not get very far because, as in the case of those men, their folly will be clear to everyone.

Introduction:

Charles Colson writes in his book How Shall We Live the solution to the modern day identity crisis of the American Christian, ¡§How do we redeem a culture? How do we rise to the opportunity before us at the start of a new millennium? The answer is simple: from the inside out. From the individual to the family to the community, and then outward in ever widening ripples. We must begin by understanding what it means to live by Christian worldview principles in our own behavior and choices. Unless we do, we will interpret the biblical commands according to the spirit of the age and will therefore be conformed to the world rather than to God¡¦s Word¡¨ (307).

Many people in America are very worried about the direction our society is going with their morality. Colson notes that many express in polls that Americans worry most about social and moral decay-crime, family breakdown, drug abuse, sex and violence in the entertainment media-all results of moral choices made ultimately by individuals (308).

Remember what researcher George Barna told us 80% of America claims to be Christian. But look at the decline in morality and biblical living in our society? It is committed by those who claim to be Christian, they contribute to the decline but the individual does not make the connection. They don¡¦t associate the fact that when they fail morally it leads to a ripple effect across the United States and impacts the very society they worry about. Listen to this statistic from George Barna at Barna.org:

Percentage of Adults Who Consider A Behavior To Be ¡§Morally Acceptable¡¨

All Adults Evangelicals Born Again Other Faith Atheist/Agnostic

gambling 61% 27% 45% 69% 75%

living with someone of the opposite sex without being married, sometimes called co-habitation 60% 12% 49% 70% 87%

enjoying sexual thoughts or fantasies about someone 59% 15% 49% 71% 78%

having an abortion 45% 4% 33% 45% 71%

having a sexual relationship with someone of the opposite sex to whom you are not married 42% 7% 35% 47% 69%

looking at pictures of nudity or explicit sexual behavior 38% 5% 28% 49% 70%

using profanity 36% 7% 29% 46% 68%

getting

drunk 35% 8% 24% 44% 61%

having a sexual relationship with someone of the same sex 30% 5% 20% 41% 55%

using drugs not prescribed by a medical doctor 17% 6% 11% 25% 38%(Base: 1024 adults)

* indicates born again Christians excluding evangelicals

C.S. Lewis stated, ¡§The Christian and the Materialist (The secular mindset) hold different beliefs about the universe. They can¡¦t both be right. The one who is wrong will act in a way which simply doesn¡¦t fit the real universe.¡¨

This is what is happening to the Christian in America they have lost their way and are blending with secular society and buying in to their way of life. This lifestyle does not fit the real universe designed by God for mankind.

In our American Christian society today in is imperative that we develop a Worldwide Christian Mind Set aligned with Biblical principles. Blamire states, ¡¨There is no longer a Christian mind (in America).¡¨ He¡¦s right our society even though claiming Christianity is not a Biblical society because Christians have adopted their own view of morality ¡V in contradiction to the Bible. They have bought into the secular mindset that says anything goes. George Barna enlightens us on this mass deception in a recent survey he did; Listen to his findings on the paradoxes he discovered in a recent survey. We will look at each paradox and discover that there really is an identity crisis happening in the Christian community in America: