The Stages of Our Christian Life - Part 1

Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Monday, January 31st. Are you maturing in your Christian life? Today's podcast helps you identify the stages of your Christian life.

The Christian life is not an event. It is a process. It is a journey.

It has a beginning. And the truth is it never has an ending because once you not leave this life as the children of God forever and ever and ever, we'll be walking in the way of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so when God saved us, he saved us with a purpose in mind. The Bible says in Romans 829 that he predestined you and me to be conformed to the likeness of his son. So in order for that to happen, in beginning at the moment that you and I were saved, it is his purpose and his plan to grow us up.

That is to grow us in the likeness of his son. So all the days of our life, you and I should be growing, becoming more and more Christlike in every aspect of our life. And that's what I want to talk about in this message today, because I do believe there are stages in our Christian growth, stages in our spiritual walk. And so I want you to turn, if you will, to Second Peter, the book over toward the back of your Bible, Second Peter, Chapter three. And in this particular passage, we admonish to do what the scripture tells us throughout that we are to be growing in our relationship to our Lord. And so he says, beginning in the 14th verse of the third chapter, having talked about the coming of the Lord and all the things that will be happening in those days, he says, Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by him in peace, spotless and blameless, and regard the patience of our Lord to be salvation. Just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you. As also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction. You therefore, brethren, are beloved, knowing this beforehand.

Be on your guard, lest, being carried away by the error of unprincipled men, you fall from your own steadfastness. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity.

Amen. Go back, if you will, to Ephesians chapter four, and you recall that he makes it very clear here why, for example, that he even gives in the church pastors and teachers in those days, apostles and evangelists and so forth. And so he says in verse eleven of chapter four of Ephesians, look what he says. He says that he gave some, that is, some to the church as apostles and some as prophets and some as evangelists and some as pastors and teachers. That is, a pastor, in essence, really should be a pastor teacher.

That is, to instruct the people in the ways of God. He says, now, this is the reason God gives pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints, for the work of service to the building up of the body of Christ until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God to a mature man or woman, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. As a result, when we are growing in him, he says, here's what you can expect. As a result, we are no longer to be children tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness and deceitful scheming.

And that's exactly what happens when people who distort the scripture try to teach others. But he says, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into him who is the head, even Christ. He says, what he's saying here is this, that you and I are to grow in a balanced way. Now, for example, it is the matter of growing so that all of your life is given to service, service, service, and no understanding the truths of God. We're to grow up in a balanced fashion.

That is, God's will and purpose and plan for us is that we, from the moment you and I trusted him as our Savior, would begin to grow in Christ's likeness and grow in every aspect of our Christian life. So if someone should say to you, well, are you a growing Christian? Then let me ask you this question, what's going on in your life today that by which you could say, I know that I'm growing? What are you learning that you did not know? What are you practicing you could not practice? How are you serving that you have not served before? How is your life counting to impact and influence others for good?

And it did not do that before. How would you measure your Christian experience? What's happened to you over these years? Some of you have been a Christian a very long time. You've known the Lord Jesus Christ since you were a teenager, even before that.

But how much of these years have you grown? How much do you know of the Word of God you didn't know then? How rich are you in the things of God?

You may be very wealthy and material things, but how rich are you in the thing that no one can take away and death cannot take away from you? That is the Scriptures. That is the truths, the riches of the Word of God.

How much have you grown over these years? And when I think about all the translations that we have and men of God who can explain and expound the words of God, there are so many ways in which you and I have the privilege of growing today that did not exist 40 or 50 years ago. There are so many seminars and books and schools and all kinds of things to help us grow in our Christian life. And yet the church today is probably no stronger than it was then because God's people are too satisfied, don't have a deep enough hunger for the things of God growing in the Christian life, learning the ways of God.

Tell me something any more valuable than to be able to know the ways of God. How does he operate? What motivates him? Why does he do this?

Why does he work in this person's life this way? And why that way? Well, I hope today this will help you understand sort of where you are, because what I want to talk about now are those stages through which our Christian life moves us.

Because somewhere today you're going to find yourself. Let me say two things preliminary. Number one, this does not mean that everyone goes through this all these stages at the same rate. It does not mean that it takes everybody the same length of time. It does not mean that you look around and say, well, I know that I'm more spiritual than he is because I'm in stage five.

You just drop down. If that's your case, you just think you're in stage five because you're not there. We're not talking about being more spiritual than someone else. We're talking about our own life, our own personal relationship to our Lord. So what is the first stage in a person's spiritual life?

Number one is first stage is unbelief. We all began to turn to Ephesians chapter two. And what you'll find is you'll find in Ephesians chapter two the first three stages in our spiritual walk, because this is where we used to be in some form or fashion.

And whether you were saved when you were a child or say when you were 50, it makes no difference because the heart was there and had not been saved. And so listen to what he says in verses one through three here. He says, And you and I were dead in trespasses and sins, in which we formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them, we too also formerly lived in the lust of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.

There's not a single person who can boast of anything for the simple reason we were all lost. So that the first stage of our spiritual life is that we're lost. We're separated from God because of our sin. We're unbelievers.

We're just doing what comes naturally. Nobody's taught us the truth. We never heard, maybe didn't hear in the gospel. Nobody's explained to us our need of salvation.

So here's what happened. There came a time in your life when somebody tried to witness to you and you said not interested. You go through the church, don't give me that stuff. Do you ever read the Bible?

Don't try to put a guilt trip on me. And so you're absolutely uninterested. And so once in a while, maybe you turn on the television and some fellows on that talking about some religious, you cut it off, change station. You turn on your radio and listen to some kind of music and all of a sudden another program comes on and that's religious. You cut that off.

Not interested. So what happens? And so somewhere along the way, somebody got your attention in mind and we began to listen. And we listened for a while and then we got real interested. And then we wanted to know and one thought about our sin and thought about our past and thinking, God, could you possibly save me? There came a moment in time. Listen, these were the progressive moments that there came a moment in time when you in one single moment said yes to Jesus Christ, trusted him as your personal savior, looked at the cross and recognized he paid your sin debt in full. And at that moment, you received Jesus Christ as your personal savior. From that moment on, you took the first step in your second stage of the spiritual walk. What is the first stage? Unbelief. We all started there. The second stage is salvation because at that moment, you trusted the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal savior.

Maybe somebody tried to explain it to you at first and maybe they didn't do a very good job. And so you, as somebody said, well, I tried to get saved. And I've talked to some people who say, well, I've been trying to get saved. Boy, do I like to meet them because I want to say your days of trying are over.

Let me tell you how to do it as simple as it can be. God wants to save you. He wills to save you. He chooses to save you. He died to save you. Now's the time.

Let's talk about it. God wants us to grow so that salvation, listen, salvation, which is a second stage, is not the stopping point. That is the beginning of your spiritual journey with God.

That is the beginning. Salvation eternally secures you forever as a child of God. And now we begin to grow. Well, once you trust that Jesus Christ is your personal savior and you begin to understand a few things and you were excited. The Bible says that you became a new creation in Christ Jesus. Old things have passed away.

All things have become new. And you begin to think a little different. You want to go to church, want to read your Bible, want to pray. But after a while, you got so that you thought, well, you know, I'm not dissatisfied doing this when I think about all that God has done for me over in the past. And you look back over your life and some of you have to say, well, I've wasted so much of my life. I don't want to waste the rest of it. So much of my life has just been doing what I want to do and doing my thing. God saved me.

I want to do something him. So what happens brings us to stage number three. And that stage is the stage of service because it is natural and normal for a person who has been saved by the grace of God to want to do something for God. Back to Ephesians chapter two and listen to what he says, if you will, in this 10th verse. For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for what?

Good works, which God prepared beforehand that you and I should walk in them. That is, he not only chose to save us, but he chose that you and I would serve him in some fashion. You and I would serve him according to the spiritual gifts and the talents that he's given us. Now, if God has gifted you and talented you and you are deliberately, willfully not serving God in a way that he has equipped you to do so.

You are sinning against Almighty God because you are wasting a gift, wasting a talent. Listen, suppose God said, all right, believers, anybody who's absolutely not going to serve me with the gifts and talents I'm giving them. If you're not going to serve me, I'm just going to take you home. I wonder how many folks would be left in church.

We'd have mass funerals, mass funerals. If God has gifted you and talent you and he has, he has called you to serve him. I'm here to tell you, friend, I would be afraid not to serve God. And I'm going to tell you two reasons. Number one, because what the word says. And secondly, because of what I've seen happen to people who said, I'm not going to do it.

There is absolutely no way to succeed in your life in deliberate, willful disobedience to God when it comes to serving him. He has invested so much in your life. The sunshine, the rain, the good weather, the good health, the clothes, the car, the house, your family. Look what God has done for you. And for us to tell him we don't have time, suppose he said, well, fine, I'll just take you off the scene. All of us have time. All of us have talents and gifts. The issue is, God, what do you want me to do with what you've given me? Now, listen carefully. You see, somebody says, well, but, you know, I can't do as good as somebody.

That's not even the issue. I don't ever remember Jesus comparing anybody with someone else and saying, well, you should do as well as they do. No. The only thing I have to do, the only thing you have to do is what God calls us to do. Do we all make mistakes? We all blow it at times. We all fail. We all have our weaknesses. We all make our mistakes in life. And your business, you've made mistakes. You failed at this and failed at that and failed at the other. But that doesn't make you a failure. That's how we grow.

What did he say? My little children, not my big adults, my little children, these things I write unto you because you and I are babes in Christ and we are growing. And it's the word of God that causes us to grow and learn the things of God.

But it's in service, putting it into practice, putting it into practice is what makes it real. Now, for example, you can learn a lot of truth, but you know, when it becomes yours, you know, when it gets the rooting and grounding deep down inside of you, when you get very secure and very convinced and very persuaded. When you start telling someone else, that's one of the wonderful, wonderful things about preaching the gospel. And that is that all week long, I'm pouring God's word into my heart so I can pour it out into your life so that you can pour it out into someone else's life, into someone else's life and into someone else's life. And as you share what God is saying to you, you become stronger. You get rooted and grounded in the truth of the gospel.

And what happens? Your service takes on a whole new perspective. God has called every single one of us to serve him. That's one of the stages in the Christian life. It's one that you never get over. Now, we get over being lost.

We never get over being saved and we never get over serving him. What's first stage? Unbelief. Second stage? Unbelief.

All right. Third stage? Now, this fourth stage is frustrated inadequacy. You say, well, where did that stage come from? Just listen.

You've been there whether you know it or not. Frustrated inadequacy. Well, what do we mean by that?

Simply this, two things, two areas of our life in which we become frustrated, which is a part of God's plan, I believe. Number one, let's say, for example, now that you're serving the Lord, boy, you're so excited, you get in the choir and men, I mean, they're calling you to have a solo or whatever it might be and you get up and you do fantastic. Next thing you know, you think you're pretty good.

And so what happens? God has to give you a dose of frustrated inadequacy because you know what happens? Anytime you and I think we can handle this, we got this one down, then you're just about ready to have a good dose of frustrated inadequacy because God knows, listen, while He may be using you in a wonderful way, He knows one of the greatest threats to God using anybody is getting self-confident and cocky about it. Now, go back to 2 Corinthians chapter 12 for a moment. The apostle Paul had the same problem anybody else does. As wise as he was, as knowledgeable as he was, listen to what he says. God knew this man like he knows every man and woman.

Here's what he said. He's talking about how weak he was and he says in the seventh verse of chapter 12 of 2 Corinthians, and because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, he said, God has given me such awesome truth that I'm sharing. He says, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet me to keep me from exalting myself.

Now, he says, I tried to get rid of it but it didn't work. He said, I prayed three times and God wouldn't take it away. Now, listen, here's the apostle Paul, been through all the heartache and the trials and difficulties and persecution, and here's what he said. He said, God knew that I was prone to be prideful and egotistical. He gave me such revelations. He said, it would have been easier for me to be strutting around and saying to all these churches, let me tell you what God taught me.

What great truths God showed me. So he said, God gave me something that kept me feeling weak, kept me being inadequate, kept me thinking, oh, God, if you don't do this, it's not going to happen. God, if you don't speak through me, it's not going to work. God, if you don't strengthen me, I'm not going to be able to get there. God, if you don't help me, I won't be able to do it.

He says, here's what I found. He says in that last verse, I found that when I am the weakest, that's when the power of God surges through me with the greatest amount of strength. The apostle Paul knew what it meant to feel frustrated and inadequate. Frustrated inadequacy is God's stage to bring us through, to bring us to the point of realizing, hey, you know what, you can't do this. You can't live the Christian life.

You see, it's not a matter of doing better and better and better because it's not a matter of getting better and better and better. The truth is, if God took the Lord Jesus Christ out of our body today, out of our spirit, you and I would be just as wicked, just as evil, just as vile as anybody else. It is Christ.

It is not our life. And so what does he do? He has to bring us to the stage of frustrated inadequacy. If he did not, we'd become proud and egotistical.

Now, somebody says, well, but after all, I mean, after a while, a person should have enough experience behind them and enough knowledge that they shouldn't feel inadequate. Let me tell you, friend, God help us if we ever get to the place that we think we can handle it. And I pray, Lord, don't ever let me walk on any platform anywhere thinking I got that one down. If you don't say it, God, if you don't make it clear, if you don't make it crystal clear, if you don't make it plain, if you don't make it simple, if you don't do it, Lord, it's not going to work because I've had enough failures in my life to know if God doesn't do it, it won't work. You can take the same words without the Spirit of God. You can take the same plan, the same outline, whatever it may be, unless the Spirit of God is in it, it's not going to stick. Unless the Spirit of God is in it, it's not going to reach somebody's heart because you preach to a man's conscience, you preach to a woman's conscience, not to their feelings, but to their conscience. What is right?

What is wrong? Is this the truth? Is this not the truth? And so what does God do? He gives us enough frustrated inadequacy to bring us to the realization in our life we cannot serve God in our own strength. That is not a demotion. It is not a failure. It is not a setback. It is a step forward in your Christian walk.

He never intends for us to do it apart from Him. Thank you for listening to The Stages of Our Christian Life. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or InTouch Ministries, stop by InTouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of InTouch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.