Frequently avoided questions of the Christian faith, Can Christianity be reduced to simple steps or stages?

"Frequently avoided questions of the Christian faith."
"Can Christianity be reduced to simple steps or stages?"
1 Corinthians 2:6-16, Mark 4:10-12, Eph. 3:1-6, 6:18-20
Intro…In Seminary I took a class on Spiritual formation…We used the Richard Foster book, “The celebration of discipline.”
• Yet over the years I’ve learned that just like it’s hard to systematize theology, it’s hard to pin down exactly how we mature spiritually.
• Messy Spirituality…is unstructured, unpredictable, unstable, like the real life most people know.
Text: 1 Cor. 2:6-16
Big Pic: How someone comes to Christ and then continues to grow in their faith includes many diverse events and encounters that in retrospect, are obviously the work of God’s spirit and not man’s engineering.

The theme of 1 Cor. is that Paul wants the church to put aside its differences and work together for the advancement of the gospel.
• Paul wants them to drop the one-upmanship, build the faith of those who are weak and witness effectively to unbelievers. This is a pastoral letter to a spiritually troubled church.
• Chapter 2 of 1 Cor. is all about proclaiming Christ crucified.
• V. 2 Paul wanted to keep the message simple.
• At the fundamental level, becoming a Christian is a simple step of humbly admitting your need for a savior, Jesus Christ.
• But that’s just the start of the journey and the rest of the Christian life.
• Growth, maturity, discipleship, living like Christ etc., takes time and a continual willingness to be stretched and learn new things.

In that sense, the Christian life is complicated and different for all of us.
• V. 3-5 …”that your faith may not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.”
• Saving faith is produced by the heart-changing power of the Holy Spirit.
• The Christian life is beyond the wisdom of men. How someone grows deeper in their faith is a mysterious process that God engineers.
• V. 6-7, “secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory.”
• The wisdom of God is centered in Christ and includes all of God’s plans for man’s salvation from before the foundation of this world.
• IOW, God knows what he’s doing as has known since before our world was even created.
• Even when Jesus walked the earth, the foolishness of men was evident. Most people didn’t understand who he was or what his mission was. V. 8
• V. 9 We can’t comprehend it
• God’s spirit bridges the gap between the deep things of God and the human heart, graciously enabling human beings to understand the message of the cross, which would otherwise be incomprehensible.
• V. 11 Only the spirit of God knows our thoughts, how we are progressing in our faith etc.
• Eph. 3:1-6

I think it’s tempting for us to want to put things in steps, stages or order.
• 5 steps to relationship happiness, 4 easy steps to shooting free throws, 7 steps to financial freedom, all the “Dummy” manuals…
• So, naturally it also seems like if we follow the logical steps in our spiritual life we can achieve maturity, humility, patience, the fruits of the spirit etc.
• It’s just not the same process for everyone.
• Christian faith “created in a lab” is a manageable faith rather than a scary and uncertain faith. Where there is no mystery, there is no reverence.
• Our Christian faith is constantly growing and changing.
• The Bible tells us to “continue to work out our salvation with fear and trembling.” Philippians 2:12-13
• We can’t be content with things we already learned but need to continue to demonstrate our faith day by day as we nurture our relationship with God.
• We know that we are incapable of saving ourselves so if there are definite steps that every Christian must take to accomplish spiritual goals, then we’ve reverted to a performance based religion that negates faith, grace and the hand of God.

Basically we want to be careful when we start thinking that we’ve matured enough or “already heard that Bible story a hundred times.”
• God will grow and change us throughout our lives if we are open to his leading.
• For me, just when I think I’ve got my faith nailed down and it all “makes sense”…that’s usually when I’m about to learn something new.
• Our coming to Christ and subsequent growth from there can’t be reduced to simple steps or stages. It is a complex process, beyond sorting.
• Now this doesn’t mean we study the Bible less, it actually means we need to study the Bible more.
• The more we study God’s word, the more we can learn as we come to it with a fresh perspective at different times in our lives.
• Instead of trying to manage our Christian lives, we need ask for God’s guidance as we observe and discover what emerges, then respond accordingly.
• Through this process we can be confident that God is always in control so that even unexpected and painful events somehow fit into God’s great design.
• Most often the unplanned events are the most crucial life-changing moments in our journey.
• “When God doesn’t make sense.” Book
• “In our Christian faith we need to look for mystery, beauty, passion, love and God. Not a totally comprehensible god, dissected into miniscule doctrines and from whom all mystery has been drained, but the unpredictable and consuming fire of a God whose presence engulfed Abraham in dread and made Moses tremble.” Chuck Smith Jr.

Conclusion:
• Trying to simplify our faith is like trying nail jello…
• We need to approach the bible to see what it actually says, not to find the key chain of life’s secrets to wealth, happiness and piety.
• We also need to realize the danger of twisting scripture to support a philosophy, theory or practice that contradicts the overall message of the Bible.
• Let’s let God steer the boat as he takes us on this unpredictable journey called the Christian life.
• the armor of God….Eph. 6:18-20