Significance, Security and Identity – A Snippet.

 

For those who desire eternal significance and unconditional security in this life without Christ will find a substitute for it in power and pleasure which will ultimately end in violence and immorality.

Dr Larry Crabb presents a society that has abandoned universal absolute truth in its quest for power and pleasure:

Our western culture is now in a perpetual “Stage C’:

 

Romans 1.28-32 (Abandoned by God)

28 And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper,

29 being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips,

30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents,

31 without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful;

32 and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.

 

2 Thess 3.1-4

1 But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come.

2 For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to 

parents, ungrateful, unholy,

3 unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good,

4 treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God…”

 

Defining Significance, Identity and Security in Christ:

 

SIGNIFICANCE (in relation to “todays” Identity):

Though both significance and security compel us all, we may be driven to one more than the other.

 

I will come to feel significant as I have an eternal impact on people around me by serving them and demonstrating the indwelling Christ under the authority of universal absolute truth.

 

If I fail in business or struggle in my occupation, if my spouse leaves me, if I work in what some may consider a menial occupation, or if I fail to achieve my most desired goals, if I can afford only a small house, or one used car I can still enjoy the thrilling significance and satisfaction of belonging to the Ruler of the universe, who has equipped me and will use me for His eternal work.

As I mature by developing Christ-like traits, I will enter more and more fully into the significance of belonging to and serving the Lord.

 

LIVING IT OUT: 

SIGNIFICANCE is the sense of Eternal Purpose, Everlasting Importance, Abundant Adequacy in whatever one does. Only in Christ can one have meaningfulness and lasting impact. My significance has little to do with my occupation. My occupation is a means by which God demonstrates through me to a languishing and desperate world that only He can fulfill this identity crisis that seems to consume mankind. As He said about His servant Job, “Have you considered My servant Job? For there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, fearing God and turning away from evil.”, He will also say about you. The world will watch you in your occupation and wonder at the depth of abundance you bring with you and authenticity you enjoy at what you place your hands to do. NO job, no occupation is meant to give you identity – it is too small a thing to fill up one’s heart with what only God Himself can fill. 

Be filled with the Spirit and demonstrate His filling in that occupation. 

If I struggle in having a sense of Eternal Purpose, Everlasting Importance, and Abundant Adequacy in what I “Do”, then I am confusing my identity and significance with my job.

 

SECURITY:

Though both significance and security compel us all, we may be driven to one more than the other.

 

My need for security demands that I be unconditionally loved, accepted, and cared for from now and forever. God has seen me at my worst and still loved me to the point of giving His life for me. That kind of love I can never lose. I am completely acceptable to him regardless of my behavior.

 

I am under no pressure to earn or keep His love. My acceptability to God depends only on Jesus’ acceptability to God and on the fact that Jesus’ death counted as full payment for my sins and any and all blunders after that.  

  

As I mature by developing Christ-like traits, I will enter more and more fully into the security and significance of belonging to and serving the Lord.

 

Now that I know this love, I can relax secure in the knowledge that the Eternal God of creation has pledged His infinite power and wisdom to insure my welfare. That is security. Nothing can happen to me that my Loving God doesn't allow. I will experience nothing He will not enable me to handle. 

When problems mount and I feel alone, insecure, and afraid, I am to fill my mind with the security-building truth that at this moment a Sovereign, Loving, Personal, Infinite God is absolutely in control.

 

IN SHORT:

SECURITY is the sense of LOVE – Unconditional and Consistently Expressed, Permanent Acceptance. There is no wrong that I could ever do to shake my identity in Christ. I am His and He is mine, FOREVER.

 

CONCLUSION (with redundant, staccato-type statements): 

 

WE MUST NOT CONFUSE WHAT DEFINES US WITH WHAT WE DO. OUR IDENTITY IS NOT MY “JOB” OR WHAT I DO. 

 

OUR JOBS DO NOT AND CANNOT DEFINE US OR GIVE US OUR IDENTITY!

 

MY JOB ONLY DEMONSTRATES MY RELATIONSHIP AND IDENTITY IN CHRIST.

 

MY JOB ONLY DEMONSTRATES TO THE WORLD MY SIGNIFICANE AND SECURITY IN CHRIST.

 

MY JOB IS A CONDUIT FOR THE GLORY OF GOD IN ME. 

 

MY JOB IS ONLY ONE OF MANY WAYS GOD DEMONSTRATES HIS POWER AND PURPOSE IN AND THROUGH ME.

 

I DEMONSTRATE MY IDENTITY IN CHRIST TO THE WORLD – 

BY ENJOYING ETERNAL SIGNIFICANCE AND UNCONDITIONAL SECURITY IN HIM WHEREVER I AM AND IN WHATEVER I DO. 

 

HOW I DO WHATEVER I DO IS WHAT DEMONSTRATES WHO I AM IN CHRIST.

 

MY IDENTITY IS DEFINED IN CHRIST AND WHAT I DO AND HOW I LIVE DEMONSTRATES MY IDENTITY IN HIM.

 

ETERNAL SIGNIFICANCE AND UNCONDITIONAL SECURTIY IS THE FRUIT/THE DEMONSTRATION OF MY IDENTITY IN HIM. 

 

THE WORLD NEEDS TO SEE CHRIST AND THEY SEE HIM DEMONSTRATED IN YOU.