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Last week we discussed that our spiritual journeys were a series of stages.
We shared how for some of us stages were marked by denominational affiliations.
Others shared that circumstances precipitated levels of growth and stages of development in individual spiritual journeys.
We also laid the foundation for this week’s study by defining some key terms.
Quick review:
We said that faith is more then belief, it involved action.
We said that the journey was both the process and the passage.
We said that stages were fluid that one moves back and forward between them regularly.
We said that stages were not goals to be achieved but rather places where we could evaluate where we have been and consider where we’re going.
A home stage is where you operate most of the time.
It characterizes your life of faith.
Cages are where we get stuck, when we stand still and refuse to move.
Crisis is the time to move.
Crisis requires faith in God.
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*Do you remember the first time you rode a two-wheeler?
Hit a baseball?
Drove a car?*
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*How about your first love?
Can you remember the first time you met?
What was he or she wearing?
Where did you go?*
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*Those memories stay with us for a lifetime.
They are milestones.
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*Stages of spiritual development are milestones too.
They mark encounters with God.*
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*Stage 1 The recognition of God.*
Stage one is where we began our journey of faith.
It is the discovery and recognition of God.
A recent survey of American households conducted by George Barna showed that
* 95% of Americans believe in God (1997)
/How do they recognize God?/
* 69% believe God is an all-powerful, all-knowing, perfect creator of the universe who rules the world today.
(2004)
* 7% believe that God is the total realization of personal human potential.
(2001) So when man reaches his full human potential he becomes god.
Big difference there!
* Almost nine out of ten people (87%) say the universe was originally created by God.
(2000)
* 15% of Americans say God is no longer involved in their life.
(1997)
For the believer, *Recognition of God* is accepting the fact that God is real to us.
Let’s look at a Biblical example of someone discovering that God is real.
This individual comes from a family with a rich heritage of service to God.
The Grandfather served God, the father served God, and now the grandson is about to discover for himself that God is real.
Gen 32:22-31
/22////That// night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two maidservants and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok.
////23//// //After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions.
////24//// //So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak.
////25//// //When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man.
////26//// //Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.”
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/But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” /
/2////7//// //The man asked him, “What is your name?” /
/“Jacob,” he answered.
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/28////Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, //// because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome.”
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/// 29////Jacob said, “Please tell me your name.”
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/But he replied, “Why do you ask my name?”
Then he blessed him there.
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///30////So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, “It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.”
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///31////The sun rose above him as he passed Peniel, and he was limping because of his hip.
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You see that Jacob recognized God.
The God of his father and grandfather became real to him at the banks of the Jabbok River.
Astronauts have said that when they saw the earth from outer space, they knew that God is real.
First time parents will say that after witnessing the birth of their child, they knew that God is real.
An addict might say that AA, or NA was their experience of spirituality.
*People enter a relationship with God in one of 2 ways*
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*1. ** A sense of Awe*
*2. ** A sense of Need*
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Let’s work backward through my examples, you tell me if you think this is a sense of awe or a sense of need?
Addict – sense of need
New parents – sense of awe
Astronauts – sense of awe
Jacob?
That’s a little tougher.
Let’s consider Where was Jacob going?
Back to his homeland, \\ Why did he leave his homeland in the first place?
Tricked his brother out his inheritance.
Esau was going to get him.
So him mother sent him to live with his uncle.
Married Rachel & Leah, and had served his 21 years.
Was now coming home, was still afraid of his brother
Jacob – sense of need, Jacob needed God’s protection.
Yet when he met God he experiences a sense of awe.
/“I have seen God face to face.” /What did he get in the process?
God’s blessing.
We can conclude from these examples that when one encounters God through a sense of awe, it is a very natural process.
He is awed by the beauty in creation.
He is awed by the birth of his child.
He simply, innocently accepts that only God could be responsible.
We call this child like faith.
Luke 18:17-17
/16 but Jesus called for them, saying, “Permit the children to come to Me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these./
/ 17 “Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it at all.”/
I did some research to see what the probability is for an American today to develop a relationship with Jesus Christ.
Now remember Jesus said we needed child-like faith.
I found
* Children between the ages of 5 and 13 have a 32% probability of accepting Jesus Christ as their savior.
* The probability of accepting Christ drops to 4% for those who are between the ages of 14 and 18.
* Those older than 18 have a 6% probability of accepting Jesus Christ as their savior, during their mortal lifetimes.
We see that as Americans get older, they tend to loose their sense of awe.
Let’s look at the other side: When one encounters God through a sense of need, the process involves crisis.
Remember we said that crisis is the time to act.
One very common crisis is the need for fulfillment.
Think about it, how many of you have heard unsaved friends and family say that they’re unhappy, something is missing from their lives?
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