The Problem

• Many men sense that something isn't quite right about their lives, but they can't put their finger on the answer.
• Forty years of consumerism and media influence has caused a shift in values: we live in a culture dominated by the secular view.

Two Impoverished Views

• Personal peace. To want to be left alone, not to be troubled by the troubles of other people, to live one's life with minimal possibilities of being personally disturbed.
• Affluence. An overwhelming and ever-increasing prosperity -- a life made up of things, a success judged by an ever-higher level of material abundance.

A Third Impoverished Value

• Cultural Christianity means to pursue the god we want instead of the God who is. It is the tendency to be shallow in our understanding of God.
• Cultural Christianity is Christianity made impotent. It is Christianity with little or no impact on the values and beliefs of our society.

Two Kinds of Christians

• Biblical Christians. Those who seek to live by understanding and applying Biblical principles.
• Cultural Christians.
  • Defeated. Those whose association with Christianity is a matter of conscience, but who have been drawn into the secular mold.
  • Counterfeit. Those whose association with Christianity is a matter of convenience rather than a matter of conscience.

Lessons From Elementary School