Is Your’s An Entry Level Faith? 7/11/99
II Peter 3:17, 18
Jesus Christ offers abundant life. That is a meaningful life with super additives. The new birth, like physical birth, is an event that results in a process. The process is growth.
When we come into the family of God we are spiritual infants. Even the weakest of faith invested in Christ brings us into the kingdom. It is enough to save us. It is not enough to sustain us. We are instructed to “grow in grace and in knowledge.”
When a person trusts Christ as Savior and is born again the challenge of growth awaits. In medical science if a child experiences arrested growth there is concern. Reasons and responses are sought.
While learning a new computer program I felt defeated almost before I began. I knew so little and there was so much to learn. The person instructing me said, “Take your time, you are at the base of a steep learning curve.” That is where we all are spiritually. Being there is wonderful. Staying at the base is tragic.
If we got spiritual growth reviews like many employees reviews would we rate any better than these which actually appeared on reviews:
“This young lady has delusions of adequacy.”
“Since my last report this employee has reached rock bottom and has started digging.”
“Works well under pressure and when cornered like a rat in a trap.”
“He would be out of his depth in a parking lot puddle.”
“He sets low personal standards and constantly fails to reach them.”
“This employee should go far and the sooner the better.”
Is your faith in Christ an entry level faith? There are ways you can answer that for yourself.
I. SYMPTOMS
Certain faith based misconceptions reveal a need to grow.
A. CHRISTIANITY IS A PAIN FREE ZONE
Health, wealth, and prosperity will be mine if I trust Christ as Savior. NOT! That would be a poor motive for coming to Christ and it can’t sustain you. Yet, some new believers are given the impression trusting Christ gives immunity to problems.
Perhaps some mature Christians unintentionally give this impression. Being mature they know how to deal with defeat, survive suffering, overcome obstacles, and enjoy spiritual victories. That doesn’t mean they don’t have problems and often grow through travail to resolve them. It means they look “cool” and new Christians feel it because they have no problems. It is simply because they know their spiritual resources for handling problems.
“And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment” (Phil. 1:9).
Early followers of Christ left us a heritage that helps explain our suffering. After being ridiculed for Christ ….
“So they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name.” (Acts 5:41)
B. GOOD CHRISTIANS ARE ALWAYS STRONG
This is a grin-and-bear-it mentality. It is a big-boys-don’t-cry philosophy. Persons who adhere to this concept can’t acknowledge they are afraid when they are. They are reluctant to be transparent about their problems. Check this text:
“Whenever I am afraid, I will trust in You” (Psalm 56:3).
“Whenever” means there are times we are afraid. Most of the “fear not” passages in Scripture are in such a verb tense as to mean “stop being afraid.” Some of the Lord’s strongest servants had moments of apprehension, tension, and uncertainty that tested their strength. Such tests are comparable to weight lifting. It is not to produce failure but to develop more strength.
C. IF GOD DOESN’T ANSWER “YES” TO MY PRAYERS HE DOESN’T ANSWER
A child might ask, “Did you ask you mom if we could go? What did she say?” “She said, no!” We need to learn “no” is an answer. God responds to every prayer in one of several ways:
YES, NO, WAIT A WHILE, YOU’VE GOT TO BE KIDDING, I THOUGHT YOU WOULD NEVER ASK. All are answers.
Paul had an unidentified “thorn in the flesh” which he prayed on three occasions would be removed. It wasn’t. Did God answer His prayer? Yes, He said, “My grace is sufficient for you” (II Corinthians 12:8, 9).
Every answer is predicated on two things: 1] God’s love, and 2] God’s knowledge and it is intended to make us all the more reliant upon Him.
D. GOD DOESN’T LOVE ME UNLESS I AM GOOD
God likes for you to be good, but He loves you even when you aren’t. We are not saved by works:
“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast” (Ephesians 2:9).
Ours is not a performance or perfection lifestyle. God likes for us to be good because He knows that’s best for us. However, when we aren’t good He still loves us. Don’t go loosie goosie because of that. When we aren’t obedient He loves us with a tough love. He disciplines us as a process of discipling us.
Some Christians who still have an entry level faith tend to withdraw from Christian friends and the church when in a state of rebellion. They feel unworthy. That is the very time they need the church.
Obedience is for our good!
A little child had the words to a Christian song wrong but his theology right when he sang, “Trust and OK, for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust and OK.”
Whatever our Lord says do our response should be “OK, Jesus.”
II. SOLUTIONS (To the problem of an entry level faith.)
Take the initiative in three ways.
A. REMEMBER WHAT YOU KNOW
Most don’t need to know any more than they know, they just need to do it.
Make deposits in your memory bank that you can draw interest from for the rest of your life.
If we become forgetful of Biblical precepts we are in a danger zone.
B. BEWARE LEST YOU FAIL TO BE STEADFAST (VS. 17)
This is an appeal to be stable in the Christian faith.
Having withstood the persecutions of Nero from without, an appeal to be alert to deception from within the church is given.
Under the persecution inflicted upon Christians by Nero one of the worst was to be sent to work in the mines of New Media in Africa. The prisoners were brutally whipped, burned by the sun, branded on their brow by a hot iron, forced to work long hours, and endure unimaginable suffering. When Roman persecution ended and those mines were opened to tourists they found the prisoners had left carvings on the mine walls. The one word that appeared most was “Christ,” the second most frequent word was “life.”
Jesus is the Christ that comes to make abundant life possible.
Consistency in Christ is needed today.
To be steadfast means to have a set of core values not for sale. It is to establish your own credo based on Scripture, a personal “This I believe and stand for.”
I believe Sunday is God’s day and I will respect it as such and devote it primarily to my spiritual development and bodily renewal.
I believe the Bible to be God’s divine revelation and I will not be ignorant of it.
I believe in the stewardship of all my possessions and will give, spend, and save them in a Christ honoring way.
I believe in the dignity of human beings and will treat all with courtesy and respect seeking to be a friend to all.
I believe my body to be the temple of the Holy Spirit and will not pollute it with alcohol or any other drug.
I believe Christ’s church to be His body and will serve Him through it. I will give it a place in my priorities.
I will attend those events designed for my spiritual growth.
I believe in the efficacy of prayer and will spend time each day alone with the Lord.
“Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall” (I Corinthians 10:12).
To be able to REMEMBER and be STEADFAST we must —
C. GROW IN GRACE AND IN KNOWLEDGE (VS. 18)
To have something to remember we must grow in knowledge.
To remain steadfast we must have grace.
“As newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby” (I Peter 2:2).
No one is born mature. Tourist in a small beautiful village asked, “Were any great men born here?” The answer, “No, only babies.” We are spiritual infants at the time of salvation in need of growth.
Longfellow wrote: “Great men are not born great. You are born with the capacity of greatness. It is up to you to discover and develop the person God created you to be.” In partnership with the Lord this life-long process is a joy.
We are to grow in knowledge. Not just knowledge about Him but experiential knowledge of Him.
Great athletes don’t necessarily make a good team. It is by practicing and playing together they learn one another’s ability and style. This enables them to bond and become a unit. So our experiences with Christ enable us to experience His grace to acquire His knowledge.
As a result: “To Him be the glory both now and forever. Amen.”