Deepening Faith
Colossians 2:6-8, 2 Peter 3:18, Hebrews 6:1
Billy and Ruth Graham were driving through a long stretch of road construction and encountered numerous slowdowns, detours, and stops along the way. Finally they reached the end of the construction, and smooth pavement stretched out before them. This sign caught Ruth’s attention: "End of construction. Thanks for your patience." She commented that those words would be a fitting inscription on her tombstone someday. As a matter of fact, those words fit all of us as believers, because in this life we are "under construction." When we accept Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, we begin the lifelong process of spiritual growth called sanctification. Sanctification is a fancy word meaning to become more like Christ. The Holy Spirit works in us to remove our selfishness (Philippians 2:4), to renew our thinking (Romans 12:2), and to develop qualities in us that are more and more Christlike (Colossians 3:5-14). Paul described this process as a work of God. He said, "He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ" (Philippians 1:6). You see, God’ accepts us as we are but calls us to become like him. That’s why one of our core values is deepening faith.
In Scripture, we find three basic levels of faith. John 2:12-14 uses the analogy of physical human development. The first level of development is as children “I write to you, dear children, because you have known the Father.” Now the Greek word he uses is literally translated “babies.” We begin as an infant in the faith. What is the first thing a child recognizes? His parents. A brand-new Christian realizes that he is a child of God—and not much else. Spiritual children do not have the word of God abiding in them strongly—they know only the basics. Consequently, they can be “blown here and there by every wind of teaching” (Ephesians 4:14). The second level of development is a young adult or teeneager. This level is strong in the word of God and understands it but the challenge is in applying it. The last level of spiritual development is as an adult. It’s one thing to know that you belong to the family of God and to know the word of God, but it’s another thing to know God intimately. Spiritual fathers not only know the Bible, but they also deeply know the God who wrote it. Spiritual growth progresses from knowing you are a Christian to knowing about God to knowing God personally.
No matter where we are: a child in the faith, a teenager or an adult, God calls us to spiritual maturity. He wants us to grow by deepening our faith. Spiritual growth is one of God’s greatest desires for us. In fact, spiritual growth is essential to the life of a Christian, just as physical growth is essential to the life of a child. If you are not growing then you’re dying. It’s so important that God commands us to mature spiritually. That’s why the apostle Peter ended his letters with this exhortation: “But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” (2 Peter 3:18).
Today, I want to talk to you about the process of deepening your faith. First, deepening faith is PLANNED – intentional. A single middle aged man went on a Caribbean cruise. On the first day out he noticed an attractive woman about his age who smiled at him in a friendly way as he passed her on the deck. That night he managed to get seated at the same table with her for dinner. As the conversation developed, he commented that he had seen her on the deck that day and he had appreciated her friendly smile. When she heard, this she smiled and commented, "Well, the reason I smiled was that when I saw you I was immediately struck by your strong resemblance to my third husband." At this he perked up his ears and said, "Oh, how many times have you been married?" She looked down at her plate, smiled demurely, and answered, "Twice." Now that is a woman who has a plan! Spiritual growth is planned and intentional. You must make a choice to grow. You must plan to grow. At Gretna UMC, we ask people to commit to growing spiritually. Let me ask you a question, what are you doing to grow spiritually. What do you think the top 10 New Years resolutions are for 2009?
Make more time for family and friends
Quit smoking
Start exercising
Go back to school / take a class
Get out of debt
Advance in your career, make more money
Get into philanthropy and community involvement
Quit drinking
Lose weight
Get out of a bad relationship / find true love
Where is spiritual growth in that list? That’s the way it is for most Christians. Spiritual griowth is usually happenstance at best. You see a new study and so you take it. You pass a book on the bookshelves and you read it. But we never really consider where we are in the spiritual journey and what we need to be doing next to grow more like Jesus. If you are going to grow spiritually you need to have a plan. Where you are at today and whatt’s the next commitment you need to make to move to the next level.
Second, deepening faith is a process. Growth is not instant – it’s incremental. We know that children grow through developmental stages. They learn to breathe first. Then they learn to eat, then to walk and finally to talk. No child has ever taken those out of order. They are developmental steps. Likewise, the Christian has certain development steps too. You’ve got to learn to breathe, then eat, then walk and then talk. They always come in a certain order. There are no short cuts to maturity. Rick Warren writes, “The development of Christ-like character cannot be rushed. Spiritual growth, like physical growth, takes time. When you try to ripen fruit quickly, it loses its flavor. In America, tomatoes are usually picked unripened so they won’t bruise during shipping to the stores. Then, before they are sold, these green tomatoes are sprayed with CO2 gas to turn them red instantly. Gassed tomatoes are edible, but they are no match to the flavor of a vine-ripened tomato that is allowed to mature slowly.” It takes a lifetime for us to grow to maturity. Even so, there is always room for growth. John Wesley believed we grew through sanctifying grace which enabled us to grow into the likeness of Jesus with the goal being perfection, that is, where the only thing we desire is the will of God in our lives. Phil 3:12-13 says, “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. 13Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead..”
Third, deepening faith is personal – individual. Your plan for spiritual growth must be customized directly for you. There is no one size that fits all spiritual growth plan. You cannot mass-produce disciples because everybody’s different and we are all at different places along the spiritual journey. What may be my next step in spiritual growth may not be yours and vice versa. In addition, we don’t grow spiritually the same way. Some people grow best by listening. Others grow by reading. Others need to talk through things while still others learn by doing. You need to discover how you learn best. The second part of this that you are responsible for your own spiritual growth. Too often we have looked to the church and made it their responsibility for our own spiritual growth. It’s up to the church to offer the programs, the teaching and ministries which feed me. We see this attitude when you hear people say about their last church, “I just wasn’t being fed there.” What the church offers should only be looked at as a supplement to what you do to grow your relationship with Jesus. That may include your own Bible reading, prayer times, service projects and on and on. The church is not meant to feed you as a parent feeds a baby but to raise you as a parent raises a child so they may learn to feed themselves.
Fourth, deepening faith is practical – involved. We grow by developing good habits. One of the goals of this church is to help you develop good spiritual habits. They’re called spiritual disciples, or devotional practices, but they’re really just habits. They include among others prayer, personal Bible study, devotions, meditations, fasting, service, and tithing
Fifth, Spiritual growth is public – investments in relationships. We grow best in community with others. Many Christians think they can grow on their own. They believe that if they have a Bible and Jesus, then they do not need anybody or anything else. There’s a reason Jesus left us the church. You cannot grow to full maturity without the church. You can get head knowledge. You can listen to Bible studies on the radio all day or watch worship services on TV but that is not growth. Growth is all about love and relationships. It’s not just abot growing individually. It’s about growing corporately because the faith is lived out in relationship to others. That’s why Jesus said to two most important things in life are Loving God with all your heart and loving your neighbor as yourself. You can’t learn to love unless you’re with other people. We grow best in community. Community helps us to grow spiritually.
Gene Gregory writes, Growing up is so common and predictable it’s taken for granted. Until May 1975, when our first child was born, my wife, Mary, and I thought we could just stand back and watch it happen. We had been eagerly planning and anticipating the miracle as only first-time parents can. We had prepared the room, taken prenatal classes, and saved for the down payment. The work was done, and we were ready! Our anticipation heightened when Mary went into labor. Driving to the hospital, we looked forward to getting through the birthing event so we could begin the exciting process of rearing a family. We had spent hours talking about what it would be like to have a baby that grew to be a toddler, then a child, then a young adult, then a father or mother. We reminisced about our own childhoods – what parts were difficult and what parts were enjoyable. And we critiqued the parenting practices of our folks, eventually deciding what to use and what to discard. Many hours after arriving at the hospital that morning, Bryan came into our world and opened this long-awaited new chapter of discovery and growth. However, we had barely laid eyes on him when nurses swaddled our baby boy and whisked him to another room for observation. After awhile, the pediatrician gently broke the news. “Bryan is having some difficulty breathing,” the doctor began. “We have checked his heart and lungs, and they are okay. We think it’s his brain.” Bryan is now twenty-five years old but he has never walked, never seen the sun, and never said “Dad” or “Mom’ he has never played basketball, run through a sprinkler, or given us a hug. Bryan became a prisoner in his own body when severe brain damage created multiple handicaps that permanently stopped his maturation process. Consequently, he has had twenty-five years of living, but only nine months of normal, healthy development. As his parents, we love him deeply-as much as we love our other three children, but there is a sadness. And then he writes, God must feel a similar sadness and pain when His children get “stuck” at spiritual infancy, childhood, or adolescence-when they never reach spiritual adulthood with all the privileges and responsibilities it entails. Of course, God’s love remains constant and immeasurable regardless. But like a human parent, God can also feel disappointment, pain and loss.”
Juan Carlos Ortiz writes, “We have a phenomenon in the church today which I call the ‘eternal babyhood of believers.’ We have members of our churches who, after years of hearing messages are just the same. They continually need a minister to keep after them, changing their diapers, putting talcum on them, and checking their milk isn’t too hot. The church (has become) a hospital more than an army. Sometimes we fool ourselves because we grow numerically. We tend to think that this is growth. But tio grow just in number alone is not necessarily spiritual growth. If this is true then cemeteries also grow. To have 100 people without love (and deepening faith), then 200 people without live (and deepening faith) is just getting fat.”
If we grow as persons, then the church will grow too. And if the church grows, then we will grow as persons. One thing reinforces the other. But it starts first with our commitment to deepening faith. If you and I become more and more mature, then we will be able to help our church grow, both in numbers and fulfilling our mission. But the reverse is true, too. If the church will grow, if the church takes significant steps forward in fulfilling its mission, then you and I will grow as well. Each reinforces the other and both together pleases God. Amen.
