INTRO – (Simple Life)
So we’ve been talking about the SIMPLE LIFE and noting how modern life does not set
us up to live like Jesus did, with joy and freedom. Jesus could be the busiest person, at
times seemingly overwhelmed with others needs… but then we read over and over that
he withdrew to quiet places to pray. And he would come from those times with strength,
direction, comfort.
Many of us run around surprised by how exhausted, angry, sad, distracted and fearful
we’ve become. It’s like we know somehow as Christians we’re meant to be high
performance engines but we’re trying to run on fry oil. SO some of us are by the side of
the road someplace spiritually stuck. You haven’t grown in months or maybe years.
So how to get unstuck spiritually?
THE GOAL
The first thing we need is a refocus on the goal of our spiritual lives in the first place:
- The goal is not to LOOK spiritual to others
- The goal is not the appearance of holiness driven by a new set of habits
o Though new habits will a play a role
- The goal is or a set of theological facts crammed into your head.
The goal of our faith in Christ is not first about any of those things, but it is ALL about
our relationship with Jesus Christ. We could lay out the goal in three core scriptures:
- Phil 3:10 I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the
fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death,
o So the first part of our goal is to know Jesus Christ.
o That’s a Relationship deal. A friendship thing. Now you can’t KNOW a
person without knowing ABOUT that person, so knowing implies
knowledge. But Jesus was adamant about this, that in eternity you will be
judged specifically on whether he knew you, not how much you knew
about him.
- Rom 8:29 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the
likeness of his Son
o The second part of our goal is to become like Jesus Christ.
o That’s a Character deal.
- 1 Peter 2:21 To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving
you an example, that you should follow in his steps.
o So the third part of our goal is to follow Jesus Christ
o That’s an Obedience deal. Our goal is to live a life where we do what
Jesus says. “Why do you call me Lord, but do not do the things that I
say?” he once asked.
So that’s the target on the wall, friends. To know Christ, to become like Christ, to obey
Christ. Now, what would we call this goal? You hear the Bible use several terms, High
calling (Eph 4:1) Maturity (Phil 3:15, Eph 4:13) Being Made Perfect (Col 1:28) We like
to use a term around here that the Bible used of David and Solomon when they were on
track spiritually and the phrase is:
FULL DEVOTION
Are you fully devoted? Fully devoted, such that your whole life is Christ centered? I
mean where everything in your life, is looked at through the lens of your faith in Christ.
To From your career, to your parenting to what you’ll do this Friday night to your self
worth. From your money management to how you spend your free time, to where you
volunteer. From your thought life, to your education, to your marriage to your whole
worldview.
Is your life altered because your whole program now is:
- To know Christ?
- To look more like Christ?
- To seek to obey him in every area?
o That’s FULL DEVOTION. That’s your goal as a believer.
MEASURING SPIRITUAL PROGRESS
Now, if that sounds SIMPLE it is. If that sounds easy it is NOT! In fact, Paul himself
who was fully devoted was not all the way there yet:
Phil 3:12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made
perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.
So assuming that if Paul hadn’t reached perfection, none of us probably have either.
Yet some measure of maturity, full devotion and Christ centeredness is clearly not only
possible, but doable and ought to be our goal as Christians. But just as clear is the fact
that you don’t start the Christian life this way.
I have a friend who writes me all the time and says that any Christian who isn’t a fully
devoted Christian isn’t really a Christian. But I think the Scripture says that no one
starts out fully devoted. You start as a baby Christian. You can start your walk excited,
zealous perhaps, but no one begins fully devoted.
So if you start immature, that will mean you start with gaps in
- your knowledge,
- your character and in
- your obedience to Christ.
Now, if that sounds shocking and demeaning, it’s not. Some people are shocked by
new Christians. They’re shocked by their lack of character, or knowledge or obedience,
but I’m not. I expect it because Scripture legitimizes this stage of spiritual development
as normal. Peter says:
1 Peter 2:2-3 Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you
may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.
So, to be shocked by a baby Christian’s lack of character, knowledge and obedience, is
like being shocked and horrified that your baby can’t walk and talk yet, or that your 7
year old doesn’t know calculus yet.
So look at those two verses again: they define the 2 ends of this thing: spiritual
beginner, to fully devoted follower. But we could even identify a phase in the middle
between these two, and call that a Growing or Intermediate Christian. Paul defines a
group in the middle when he says:
Eph 4:14-15 “Then we will no longer be infants…Instead, speaking the truth in
love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ.” So
that could be like an intermediate phase, the Growing Christian.
BEFORE CHRIST
Let’s go further and identify another stage of spiritual development that is so obvious
that perhaps you think it doesn’t need mentioning, but I think it does. The phase is,
spiritually dead. Scripture describes this stage quite bluntly:
- Eph 2:1-2 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which
you used to live
- Eph 2:13 Though you once were far away from God, now you have been
brought near to him because of the blood of Christ
- Eph 5:8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.
- Col 1:21 Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds
because of your evil behavior.
- 1 Peter 2:10 Once you were not a people… once you had not received mercy…
So a fourth category of spiritual maturity is the category of outsider, nonbeliever, non
Christian, far from God. So now that we’ve got all the stages of spiritual development
lined out, let’s just chart this out in a little diagram so we get it locked in.
MEASURING SPIRITUAL PROGRESS
First, on the left side of the Cross you have all those who are not Christians yet. But
just like Christians, all non-Christians are also not at the same stage on their journey.
So this stage could further break down into three sub categories starting on the far left:
- HOSTILE: those who are hostile to faith in general and Christianity in particular,
let’s call them -3
- SEEKING: those who are spiritually sensitive and seeking answers, let’s call
them -2
- OPEN: those who are open to becoming a Christian. Let’s call them -1.
- There’s biblical examples of each
o The Pharisees and Sadducees were clearly HOSTILE. Today it might be
avowed agnostics or Muslims, the non-religious, then it was the super
religious.
o The Rich Young Ruler was clearly seeking. He was spiritually attuned to
God, lived a good life. Even thought he was on his way to heaven, until
Jesus popped his bubble by putting loyalty to himself as a condition for
heaven.
o Then there was a teacher in Mark 12:34 who was clearly OPEN. He came
to Jesus open minded and after a short conversation Jesus told him,
“you’re not far from the Kingdom.”
So there’s people on the left side of the cross. When a person is draw by God they start
to move, sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly from -3 to -1 where Christianity is
looking like your only option. Maybe someone here is in that camp and today might be
the day you step over that line of faith.
And if you do, then we’ve already identified these 3 stages of development on the other
side, represented by these three circles:
- NEW: First you have a NEW or BEGINNER Christian. Let’s call them +1.
- SECOND you have a GROWING Christian. Let’s call them +2
- THIRD you have a Christian who is a FULLY Devoted. This is our goal. Let’s
call this person +3
If you’re curious here’s the statistical breakdown of where people at AC3 fall in this
continuum of spiritual growth:
- -3 – 0%. That means there is no hostile non-Christians at church. This has
huge relevance for our 5 year plan. If we’re constructing programs inside this
church building thinking that hostile -3’s are checking it out, they just aren’t. So if
we want to present the gospel to them, we have to find ways to touch them and
break down their barriers to the gospel outside these four walls because by the
time they get here, there in the next group:
- -2 – 3.5%. So less than 4 % of our attenders would say they’re spiritual, and
seeking, but not specifically Christian.
- -1 – 2%. A very few of us said we were open to becoming a Christian, needing
more information.
- +1 – 24.6% one in every four of us in a newbie, a beginner Christian.
- +2 – 57.9% by far the majority of us self identify in this camp. We have a
suspicion that this number is inflated… more on this later, but it might explain the
relative lack of seekers in our seeker targeted church.
- +3 – 12.3% or only one in every 8 AC3’ers see themselves as Fully Devoted.
SPIRITUALLY STUCK AT -2
Now this talk is about getting unstuck spiritually, and the first place people get spiritually
stuck is at -2. You might think the biggest jump is from -1 to +1 – and that is a big jump.
But really, I think I could make the case that the most from -2 to -1 is a huge step where
many get stuck and confused and I’ll tell you why:
If you press people, maybe some in this room even, they talk as if they have always
been Christians. They talk as if they were always saved. They talk as if they always
knew God intimately, as if being a Christian was synonymous with coming out of the
womb in America, or synonymous with being a decent person.
Look, I don’t care if you grew up in the lap of Billy Graham, went to church in your
mother’s womb during your entire gestation, and were born by emergency C section in
the Chapel narthex! There was a time that each of us were on the left side of the cross.
- Once you were lost, in Christ you were found.
- Once you were not a people, once you had not received mercy.
- Once you were a hell bound sinner.
Get used to talking that way about yourself because if you accept the gospel, you
accept this is the truth about yourself. I meet Christians all the time who are so
squeamish about acknowledging that there was a day that they were in the minuses,
that they were spiritually dead and far from God. They say,
“I’ve sort of always been a Christian”.
Wrong answer! You’ve NOT always been a Christian.
- You maybe always had some doctrine about Jesus as far as you can remember,
or
- You’ve always been raised in a home where Jesus was talked about,
o but you were NOT, repeat NOT always a Christian!
o Not until you confronted the cross and expressed personal faith in Jesus.
I’m not suggesting that everyone has to know the specific DATE that the transfer of
ownership happened and you were filled and washed new by the Holy Spirit. Some
adopted kids don’t know their own birth date, but they know they’re alive, right? And
they know there was a time there were not yet born, right? It can be like that spiritually.
You may not know the day you crossed over, but there WAS a day. Again, why is this
important to get spiritually unstuck? Here’s what happens:
Some people who are spiritual, who get a little educated about church and about
Jesus think of themselves as Christians, when in fact there has never been a
decisive moment
o when they confronted their sin,
o when their ego was fatally bruised in the light of God’s purity and
goodness and
o when in humility they bowed the knee of their heart and in full repentance,
and happy morning, they rested on Christ and Christ alone for their
righteousness and hope.
This is relevant to our findings in preparation for our 5 year plan. We realized based on
people’s responses to what they understood about God and specifically about the
Christian faith that many who self identify as Christians are probably not. Only God
knows if they’ve passed form death to life, but based on the raw data, it appears many
who think of themselves as +2 are really -2.
Why would we assume that? Because by their responses,
- they do not seem to have embraced their own fallenness,
- they don’t think they were ever lost,
- they see the Christian life as a set of good morals and God as a vender in the
sky to help them through problems,
o RATHER than as a rescue operation for people lost in sin, hopeless to
earn their way into God’s favor and having no hope of the Kingdom of
Heaven except for the unmerited, unearned favor bestowed by the work of
Christ on the cross.
So one of the first places AC3’ers get stuck, is in the -2 phase. They get spiritual
enough to feel good about themselves and they might even think of themselves as
Christians. But because this spirituality has nothing to do with God’s Grace and Christ’s
Lordship, and because they don’t feel the gratitude of one saved from certain death,
they never feel any great need to
grow:
- In knowledge
- In character or
- In obedience to Jesus Christ.
Why don’t they feel this overwhelming, life altering gratitude to Jesus? Because he’s
not really their Messiah. He’s their good advice giver. Their guru. But he’s not a
Savior.
To realize you might be stuck here is a sober wake up call, I know. But if you’re stuck
here, there’s only one way to get unstuck here and that’s the research the gospel as it
is, not as you wish it to be. It’s a scandalous grace that denies you your right to claim
any part of your salvation as your own work. And if this grace is operative, it leads to a
FULL devotion to Jesus that will change everything.
So research Romans, and research Ephesians and get on board the grace plan. It will
wipe you out, but in the most beautiful way. You’ll find spiritual life come out of your
humble confession of spiritual death. And guess what? Your spiritual life which was
stalled out in a boring, bland, self righteous moralism, will give way to wonder and
worship and gratitude as you realize the lifetime set before you to plumb the depths of
God’s mercy.
Welcome to the plus side!
SPIRITUALLY STUCK AT +2
But now, there’s another place along this continuum that AC3’ers are getting stuck
which we found in our research for our 5 year plan. It’s in +2 phase. We said earlier
that we should never be shocked or dismayed by people in the early stages of Christian
growth. But we should be dismayed by EXTENDED infancies.
You would be shocked and dismayed by a 17 year old in diapers, yes? You’d be
shocked by a college student who only ate apple mush from his mother’s hand, and
slept in a crib, yes? * Well, this is cause for concern for the apostles too. The writer of
Hebrews bemoans:
Heb 5:12-13 In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need
someone to teach you the elementary truths of God's word all over again. You
need milk, not solid food!
They were spiritually stuck. Not a good thing. Some of you are spiritually stuck.
How does it happen? When you understand grace, growing believers start to take
comfort from knowing “God is for me.” As the bible says. But a kind of screwy thing can
happen. We mistranslate the “God is for me” and start to think:
“So the deal is that God is for my all-American dream in this world. God is for my
intuition, my feelings.” Jesus is savior, but he’s not their LEADER.
A second way this +2 blockage manifests is when a Christian finds their way back to an
old habit or hang up, because of a crisis in their life. They let suffering drive them off
the road, instead of pressing further into the resources of the Holy Spirit inside. They
have no resiliency in persecution or trial.
And there’s still another way that this +2 blockage shows up. As a growing Christian the
church thing is so exciting, the worship, the teaching the skits, the community was all
you seemed to need to keep on growing. Then, suddenly, you stall out. Church
activity and services ain’t cutting for you anymore.
And you start to say those four words that decisively prove you’ve stuck and not moving
into that FULL DEVOTION Phase:
I’m Not Getting Fed.
You say, why would that be a symptom of being spiritually stuck? Aren’t they wanting
more? Yes, and that’s good.
But there are two changes that happen in a baby’s relationship to food as it matures.
- One is the food changes. From milk to solid food. But
- Two is, you change the delivery vehicle. From others feeding me, to me feeding
myself. I hold the spoon, I bring it to my mouth.
How do you do this? The spiritual disciplines. Again we looked at our survey data and
found that only 17.5 percent of AC3 attenders practice daily spiritual disciplines. The
core ones we teach in Life on Purpose:
- Bible reading
- Prayer
- Community, small group
- Tithing
- Silence, Solitude, Fasting.
You look at our +3’s and they are committed to daily disciplines at more than double the
rate of all others. That’s what Hebrews means, by “CONSTANT USE” they have trained
themselves to mature.
See friend, if you’re going to become more like Jesus in your character, and know him
more intimately and obey him more fully, your relationship to spiritual food has to
change in two ways:
- One the content needs to go deeper. You need to dive deeper into Scripture,
you need to practice more intensive disciplines more regularly, you need to open
yourself up to new spiritual inputs, like from a mentor or small group or
accountability, or service.
- But then you also need to expect others and yes even AC3 to do this for you
LESS and expect to take your own initiative MORE.
CONCLUSION
And like last week, when we talked about living on less, some of you said “I can’t”. And
maybe I ruffled your feathers when I said, you can’t, or you won’t? Let me ruffle them
again. Some of you are stuck. And here’s what you’re doing. You’re calling fouls on
the church, and you’re calling fouls on God.
I’m in trouble, I’m in pain, I don’t have the skill sets, I don’t have the tools, I don’t
have the relationships, the right teaching, the right programs, I can’t.
But wait a minute. You can’t, or you won’t? As of today I’m calling us all out; not
extended infancies, please! * It’s your call friend, but if you want to be unstuck and
move toward the SIMPLE LIFE of freedom and joy – you have to commit to a total
surrender – no excuses. That’s a +3 life.
We must resolve to live like Jesus did, getting away to be with his father.
- He didn’t wine about the poor teaching in the Synagogues, he knew the Scripture
intimately from childhood.
- He didn’t bemoan the pace of life in 1st century Palestine, he broke away
regularly to be with the Father for intimate communion.
- He didn’t rail against corrupt pagan Roman influence on the culture, he just found
a need and met a need.
He just did it.
Because Jesus modeled PERFECT full devotion. And for him, there was no excuse
that would get in the way of his devotion.
- No church program that he finally needed to launch himself into intimacy with the
Father,
- No pain that could derail him from studying the Scriptures for months on end,
- No disappointment with church people that kept him out of community for a year
or two.
No, friends, he was fully mature because he was fully FATHER centered. And we must
be Christ Centered to know him more and to look more like him, and to follow where he
leads.
