Preached by Chris Broom, 3/25/2007

Tiffani Harris gets baptized, joining a stage of faith that pleases God

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Four Stages of Faith - Outline

What stage of faith are you in?

Stage 1: Chaos
Stage 2: Conformity
Stage 3: Questioning
Stage 4: Conviction

Before you decide, let’s look at what faith is.

“Faith is not belief. Belief is passive. Faith is active….” - Edith Hamilton

“Faith… Must be enforced by reason…When faith becomes blind it dies.” - Mahatma Gandhi

“I have one life and one chance to make it count for something — my faith demands that I do whatever I can, wherever I am, whenever I can, for as long as I can with whatever I have to try to make a difference…” - Jimmy Carter

Matthew 8:5-13
- The faith of the centurion astonished Jesus.
- Our goal is to have astonishing faith.

Ephesians 4:11-16
“It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.”

Christian Faith Definition

Faith is not just a loving attitude or religious feeling, but a Christian’s common conviction about Jesus and the doctrines concerning him.

- Get to the forth stage of faith: conviction. That’s where we hope everyone can get to… that maturity of faith where you will no longer be tossed by the distorted teachings that throw the spiritually immature off course. (While some men and women are innocently misguided, some are deliberately deceitful and evil.)

- How do we get to this state of maturity of faith and conviction? By speaking the truth in love.

STAGE 1: CHAOS (This was me until I was twenty-three… even in church.)

No faith at all. In this stage, you are not really committed to any set of beliefs… You know that others are, but you aren’t really committed to anything except yourself. You are doing your own thing. You’re freelance. You make it up as you go along.

Lying, for example is wrong if someone does it to you, but if there’s a circumstance that you believe warrants you to lie, then you have no problem lying, and it’s not wrong in that case. It’s acceptable.

Physical Comparison: Little kids
Little kids are not committed to any certain way of life. If their parents don’t impose a way on them, they will end up hurting themselves. (Mom Says don’t climb up on the roof. Don’t put your finger in the electrical socket.)

Our World Is in Chaos

101 year old woman mugged by a young man in New York.

Spring Break Binge Drinking

Every drunken college party has a day-after story, or two. The sorority sister who passes out on the front lawn of the fraternity house, and doesn’t remember how she got there. The drunken brawl after the homecoming game. The two spring breakers who wake up–together–on a very public beach. But, for some people, like University of Texas at Austin freshman Phanta “Jack” Phoummarath, there is no “day after.” Phoummarath died on December 10, 2005, after a night of heavy drinking with his fraternity brothers. The level of alcohol in his blood was nearly six times the legal limit. But the shock value wears off quickly. Right now, college students across the country are booking “booze cruises” and planning spring break vacations. An estimated 1,700 college students between the ages of 18 and 24 die each year from alcohol-related unintentional injuries. Binge drinking also causes 599,000 injuries and contributes to 97,000 cases of sexual assault or date rape each year. Drinking too much, too fast also increases a student’s risk for getting in trouble with the law, engaging in risky sexual behavior and can affect a student’s academic career. Half of all college students binge drink or do drugs. 1 in 4 go on a drinking binge 3 or 4 times in a 2 week period. One student remarked, “Unless a student has consequences they won’t quit.”

STAGE 2: CONFORMITY (This happened to me when I studied the Bible at age twenty-three.)

Example: Like a child learning to use a spoon or walk.

In this stage, you become committed to a certain set of beliefs. You become committed (or conform) to a group / church.

You may feel, as I did, that this group is keeping you from falling back into the Chaos stage and that is a good thing. But there’s a problem; when trouble or persecution come because of the Word, how do you answer? How do handle the questions?

Example: My friend Bruce’s daughter came home from school one day and told her dad that some kids where picking on her for believing in God. She asked her dad, “What do we believe?” He told her and she started to leave. “Do you want to know why we believe that?” Bruce asked his daughter. “No,” she said. It was enough for her to know what “we” believe.

Is that how you are with issues of your faith? Can you answer the “why” questions? If not, that’s the conformity stage of faith. You go along with the program. Others know the whys, but you don’t need to. (This is how we do it in school, work, etc. Why, I don’t know… it’s what the boss says.)

Here’s a problem that’s could be headed your way if you are a conformist. What is going to happen when something causes you to question what the group believes?

What if you loose a loved one? What if key leadership people don’t agree? (Two serious minded people committed to Jesus may disagree on some things: disputable matters.)

What if you are tempted by something that you have been told the Bible says we shouldn’t do, but you really want to?

What if you hear a teaching that causes you to be tossed back and forth?

For many, it rocks their faith. They think, “If one thing is not true then it must all be untrue.” No!

STAGE 3: QUESTIONING (Everyone goes through this stage. I used to just accept it but now I wonder if it’s really true? The teen years, the Rebellious years, the “I’m grown” years.)

Hebrews 2:1 “We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.”

- Questions are not bad, they are good. But be very careful where you go for your answers.

How do I really know that there is a God? Is this rational? Is the Bible really the word of God? Once you get those truths, the rest is minor because the safest place to go for answers is the word of God. You won’t wonder anymore things like, “Is homosexuality really wrong? Maybe that’s just the way they saw things back then.”

You are no longer totally committed to the program. This is an awkward stage. It’s hard to be totally committed. They need stage four people to mentor them or how can they come out the other end. What if the only one available is a stage two person? They get frustrated and won’t want to badger them. They’ll stay a conformist.

Job was in stage 2 and was thrown into crisis. Do good and God will always protect you. Job questions and debates with friends and with God. God says you will never know it all. It brings Job to a brokenness. Be humble or you won’t make it.

Job 38:1-24 and Job 39:13-25 God’s power

Jobs 40:1-7 Will you contend with God? Be humble. God will question you one day.

STAGE 4: CONVICTION

After believer has thought about questions for themselves and have come to their own convictions.

Stage 4 disciples have a healthier faith than stage 2, acting not just because the group says so. Have your own line of reasoning.

In stage 4, you are internally motivated. That is what we want. Stage 2 and 3 need a close discipler or they will wander off.

Stage 4 will start from scratch and build a church if plopped into Africa. If no one else, you’ll still do it. You can be saved at stage 2 or 3, but maturing people lead to stage 4.

Jesus laid down his life as an example of deep conviction.

You can’t have one foot in the kingdom and one foot out. It’s all or nothing! James 4:4

Stage 4 disciples are not intimidated by your questions in stage 3.

Stage 3 believes if you have one unanswered question or one thing you might disagree with the group, then you should leave. No. Stage 3 can arrogantly say, “If you don’t give me a perfect answer, I can’t give my life to this.” No. If that were the case, no one would ever get married, if you had to guarantee that your partner would always be faithful.

You can be part of a group and have disputable matters.

If you are committed to the group more than God, you may be in stage 2.

In stage 3, you must answer questions.

Stage 4 disciples aren’t bothered that they don’t get their own way. Don’t need to argue on matters of opinion. It’s not good for the group.

Work in harmony, not conformity.

Stage 3 is painful when you don’t have stage 4 disciples to help you. You could fall back to stage 2 or even 1.

Our hope is that everyone makes it to the faithful conviction of stage 4.

“Faith is not belief without proof, but trust without reservation.” - Elton Trueblood

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