America is in an identity crisis. People are searching for their identity and going to all kinds of drastic measures to change their identity in the desperate hope that with a new identity they will finally overcome their feelings of depression, anger, frustration, and lack of self-worth. .

You can simply look at some of the best selling books to find evidence for this. Last year the book “Untamed” was published by Glennon Doyle and has remained in the top 5 on the New York Times best seller list for 68 weeks straight. The book is a memoir that describes how she, a discontent wife and mother of 3, in her late 30’s suddenly falls for a woman, realizes she’s lesbian, divorces her husband and starts a new life with a new identity. The tagline of the book says “This is how you find yourself.”

Unfortunately, her story represents millions of Americans.

But what do we see when we go back to the founding fathers of the United States? Where did they find an identity for a new nation. We discover that there was no question in their minds about the identity of the United States because they based that identity upon a strong and unwavering faith in God.

John Adams the 2nd president of the US speaks about this foundation of faith in a letter to Thomas Jefferson

“The general Principles, on which the Fathers Achieved Independence, were the only Principles in which, that beautiful Assembly of young Gentlemen could Unite, and these Principles only could be intended by them in their Address, or by me in my Answer. And what were these general Principles? I answer, the general Principles of Christianity, in which all those Sects were United: And the general Principles of English and American Liberty, in which all those young Men United, and which had United all Parties in America, in Majorities Sufficient to assert and maintain her Independence.

Now I will avow, that I then believed, and now believe, that those general Principles of Christianity, are as eternal and immutable, as the Existence and Attributes of God: and that those Principles of Liberty, are as unalterable as human Nature and our terrestrial, mundane System.”

Sadly, those “immutable” principles of Christianity and the existence and attributes of God are quickly fading today in the USA. What many don’t realize is that when belief in the truth of God’s identity is lost, we also lose our own identity. Personal identity crises will always follow a public faith catastrophe. That is to say when the common population rejects God, the individual is left with no means to understand his existence and will resort to all new, strange, and extreme ways to obtain a meaningful identity apart from God.

Another way we could look at it is like this, all identity crises are really about losing the identity of God, not of self! Find God and you will find yourself! Loose God and you will lose yourself! This is why God begins his very first written words to his chosen people with:

Exodus 20:2-3 “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. 3 “You shall have no other gods before me.

God was creating a new people and their identity would be the foundation for their nation. God knew that if their identity was not grounded in the nature of God himself then it would sooner or later veer off track. God’s very first words were words that clearly, uniquely, and undisputedly identified himself as God and God alone!

If you don’t get anything else out of this sermon I want you to understand and to do one thing. Stop searching for your identity, stop looking for that elusive change you think you need to make in order to fulfill your desires and longings. Stop going to extremes to change your body, your lifestyle, you dress, or your home, or something else in search of identity. None of these things will ever bring you fulfillment and lasting identity. Stop searching for your identity and start searching for God because when you find him you will find your true identity.

What happens when a nation or group of people lose the truth of who God is?

2Ki 17:15 They rejected his decrees and the covenant he had made with their ancestors and the statutes he had warned them to keep. They followed worthless idols and themselves became worthless. They imitated the nations around them although the LORD had ordered them, “Do not do as they do.”

It is no surprise that those who are seeking an identity in themselves and for themselves struggle with self worth. Millions in the US struggle with feelings of worthlessness. Without the infinite value of God they are forced to dig within themselves to find value. They will find all kinds of things within themselves if they go looking for it but they will never find the infinite value of an everlasting, everloving, and everable God.

Paul describes what it looks like when people turn from the truth of God’s identity and instead pursue their own passions.

Romans 1:21-28

21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles. 24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25 They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator–who is forever praised. Amen. 26 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. 27 In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error. 28 Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done.

Always at the forefront of the loss of identity is sexual deviance and confusion. Why? Because your sex/gender is a core aspect of your unchangeable God given identity. Furthermore procreation, marriage and family are also divinely ordered elements of our society and a Biblical part of our God given identity. To live according to my god given gender, the nature that God gave me is to acknowledge that someone or something else has sovereignty in my life, because I didn’t choose the gender I was born with and I can’t change the gender I was born with.

The existence of family itself is a testimony to God’s order, God’s plan, and God’s control of our lives. Thus, it is no surprise that when a society rejects the identity of God, rejects the authority of God, and rejects the sovereignty of God they will simultaneously reject the natural gender God has given them and the order he has put within creation.

Man will go to all means and all methods to become his own creator and then worship himself!

So how did American culture in particular get to this point of identity crisis? It is vital for the Church to understand where the thinking of the country is today. This identity crisis has in a big way crept into the church. We must identify it’s mistaken claims of truth and counteract them with what the Bible says. This is vital for each of us lest we also are caught up in the futile search for identity. It is vital for parents, in order to give their children a foundation upon which they can build their lives. And finally, it is vital for the gospel. We must understand that any presentation of the gospel must confront these new realities of American popular thinking. Let’s look at three popular American lies that are at the root of this rejection of the truth of God’s identity and his sovereignty in our lives, and that have led to America’s identity crisis.

Lie #1 You are good! You are good

Truth: only God is good. Luke 18:18-19

We moved to Tacoma in 1999 where we found a little apartment across the street from Wright Park. The following summer a group of young people spent the summer months attacking unsuspecting victims after dark and beating them until they were unconscious. On August 19, 2000 they attacked Erik Toews as he walked through Wright Park after dark on his way home from work. They did it just for the fun of it, they beat him beyond...