Series Overview
Today, I begin a series of messages entitled Creed: 9 Essentials to the Christian Faith. Why Is This Series Relevant? The reason for this series is that beliefs matter. Beliefs fundamentally alter the shape of our lives Beliefs in and around churches go by various names such as doctrine or articles of faith. No matter the name, beliefs fundamentally alter the shape of our lives.
Feng Hiannemi is a 22-year-old Chinese married woman. At seven months pregnant, she recently was dragged out of her relative’s home because of China’s one child policy. Because she was pregnant with a girl and she was too poor to pay the $6,400 fine that would give her the option to keep her child, Chinese officials aborted her baby in the seventh month of her pregnancy. According to her NBC phone interview: “She was blindfolded, thrown on a bed, and forced to sign a document that she couldn’t read with the blindfold still on her eyes. Then two shots were injected into her belly. Thirty hours later, on the morning June 4, she gave birth to a dead baby girl.” China’s long time Communist leader Chairman Mao Zedong originally encouraged women to have as many children as possible during the Cold War-era when human power was believed to be an important force if war broke out. But the country’s rulers soon found it too difficult to feed the huge population – so they adopted a harsh policy that allows urban citizens to have only one child, and rural couples to have two, if the first child is a girl.
Beliefs matter. Beliefs act as the currency for Christianity. Beliefs operate as the slab and the flooring in Christianity’s construction. There is no roof and walls until you have beliefs, the foundation.
This series, Creed, is an attempt to identify many of the basic elements of Christianity’s core beliefs. It’s an attempt to give more than a bumper sticker introduction to the Christian faith. You might think of it as identifying the basic elements on Christianity’s periodic table.
The word “creed” comes from the Latin and literally means, “to believe”. The word “creed” has come to us through the centuries as important tool in our history. As ancient Christians would adopt a creed at their baptism. That is, they adopted a concise statement of important points of belief that all Christians shared. You could think of a creed as an architectural drawing of the Christian faith. So, beliefs have always been important to the Christian faith. And what one believes is equally important in our day.
This Father’s Day, Americans continue to be quite religious despite the predictions of some that belief in God would die out as science and technology ascended. Yet, despite this prevalent religious inclination where approximately 95% of Americans believe in God, America is composed of Protestants who can’t name the four Gospels, Catholics who can’t name the seven sacraments, and Jews who can’t name the five books of Moses. Americans are ignorant of one another but we are also profoundly ignorant of rudiments of our faith. This growing religious illiteracy increases the chances of misunderstanding people of different faiths in the marketplace and for potential conflict.
And so we focus on a few of the essential beliefs of the Christian faith. So this series, Creed, is designed to answer those who wonder what really lies at the heart of Christianity. Creed is intended to identify the “bottom-line” of Christian’s central concerns for both believers and non-believer’s alike. My goal throughout this series is to take biblical ideas off the high shelf and put them to work in our everyday lives. If your idea of thinking of your beliefs is boring, if your idea of discussing your doctrine is something people fight over, then I want to convince you that your beliefs matter. And on this Father’s Day, I especially want to convince dads that beliefs matter.
Why Do Your Beliefs Matter? Let me quickly name four reasons why what you believe matters.
1. Beliefs Matter to God
2. Beliefs Matter to Your Church Family
3. Beliefs Matter to Your Family
4. Beliefs Matter to You
Beliefs Matter to Your Family
In light of Father’s Day, I want to simply focus on why Beliefs Matter to Your Family and each successive week we’ll see the relevance to the remaining three in the weeks to come. We all have a way of putting things together in our minds. We organize our perceptions into a pattern that makes sense to us. Your beliefs are organized and this is called theology. If someone says, “I’m no theologian, but…”but, everyone does theology. Only some do theology well and some are haphazard at it. For theology is thinking about God and making statements about God. You see, we don’t have a choice between believing and not believing. We will only have a choice between good beliefs and bad beliefs. We don’t have a choice between doing theology and not doing theology. We do have a choice between good theology and bad theology.
When I say, “Beliefs Matter to Your Family,” I am thinking of fathers here especially today. A primary role for a father is teaching. He is to teach his family how to organize their thoughts of life and place them in proper order. “You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise” (Deuteronomy 6:7).
Fathers, teach your children how to put their thoughts about God in biblical order. When you do this, you’ll help them organize their lives around God Himself. Husbands and fathers, help your family build a coherent and accurate system of understanding for life. Fathers, what you believe matters to your family. Beliefs matter because messed up beliefs lead to messed up living. Fathers, what a person believes about God will affect everything else he aspect of his life.
Today’s Scripture
“To the King of ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen” (1 Timothy 1:17).
A person’s belief in God is the primary narrative of life. You could easily say it is the glue of our existence. Do you know enough of God to describe Him? It’s Saturday, so imagine taking your children to a nearby shopping center. If you are like me, you pay little attention to what your children are wearing. You have several errands to do including changing the oil in the car. While you are waiting at Wal-Mart, you take your small kids to the toy section, where they scatter to play. A few minutes go by and you cannot find your smallest child, your son. Minutes turn urgent and you contact the store manager who in turns contacts the police. In the moments when the police are asking for a description, have you paid close enough attention to what your five your old child is wearing to tell the authorities? A basic description of your child is so helpful to the police. A basic description of God is essential. And while describing is much more difficult, the Bible lends us several important descriptions that assist us.
1. God is the King
Notice the first words used to describe God in this verse: “To the King of ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen” (1 Timothy 1:17).
God is called a King. The Bible’s description of God is that He is King. He is great in every aspect of His being. This King depends on no one. This King isn’t lonely and is in no need of anyone or anything.
“Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!
34 “For who has known the mind of the Lord,
or who has been his counselor?”
35 “Or who has given a gift to him
that he might be repaid?”
36 For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen” (Romans 11:33-26).
His “his greatness is unsearchable” (Psalm 145:3b).
How great is this King? “Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket,
and are accounted as the dust on the scales;
behold, he takes up the coastlands like fine dust” (Isaiah 40:15).
“All the nations are as nothing before him, they are accounted by him as less than nothing and emptiness” (Isaiah 40:17).
The King is further described by three words found in 1 Timothy 1:17: Eternal or immortal, invisible, and the only God. Paul is taking inventory of the excellent character qualities of God. He is reflecting upon God’s great character qualities and he explodes into praise to God.
1.1 The King Doesn’t Die
Later on in this same book, Paul says: “… he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, 16 who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen” (1 Timothy 6:15b-16).
God is eternal and is ageless. He doesn’t wear a watch. He is a King that is never voted on. His kingship has no term limits. He never has to wonder about a second term. Beyond this, God is “immortal” as He is immune from decay. He is everything’s first cause. Before everything else there was God. He is the source of everything. He is the inexhaustible source of all that is, He is ever-replenishing fountain of all that is. If you were a “fly on the wall” in the courtroom of heaven, you would never hear God ask for a break.
“I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? 2 My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.3 He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber.4 Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep” (Psalm 121:1-4).
God’s workplace has no break room. OHSA’s standards of safety and work regulations do not extend to the courtroom of heaven. God owns no bed. He doesn’t pay attention to the TV ads on the Sleep Number Bed. One of the most important things the Bible says about God is that there is much about Him that we do not know, and will never be able to know, for God is infinite: and we are not. God “dwells in unapproachable light” (1 Timothy 6:16). His brain is too high for us; His intelligence is so that no one can reach it (Psalm 139:6). “To whom then will you liken God, or what likeness compare with him” (Isaiah 40:18)? The answer is: to no one and to nothing. God is incomparably great in comparison to everything else.
1.2 The King Isn’t Seen
“To the King of ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen” (1 Timothy 1:17). Jesus said this about God the Father: “And the Father who sent me has himself borne witness about me. His voice you have never heard, his form you have never seen…” (John 5:37). God is invisible as no one has seen Him; it is Jesus Christ makes God known.
An agnostic recently said to me, “I wish Jesus Christ would reappear every so often.” If Christ reappeared, then this young man could more readily believe in God. God doesn’t reappear and He doesn’t speak audibly because faith means a great deal to God.
“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9). God is invisible to the physical eye but He is visible to eye of faith. He does this so that heaven is not filled with people bragging about how they found God on their own efforts.
1.1 The King Doesn’t Die
1.2 The King Isn’t Seen
1.3 The King Isn’t Threatened
“To the King of ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen” (1 Timothy 1:17).
And God is unique; He has no competitors. He has no rivals. God is described as “a consuming fire” (Deuteronomy 4:24). “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Hebrews 10:31). God doesn’t line up at the starting gate to compete against other gods. God is alone and He has no rivals. He is in a class all by Himself. God is infinitely greater that all our efforts to describe Him.
2. Belief Isn’t Enough – You Honor Him
“To the King of ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen” (1 Timothy 1:17).
These words were penned by a man named Paul, who authored thirteen books that comprise the New Testament. I have selected a section where Paul is discussing his conversion, how he met Jesus Christ and had his life dramatically changed. As he discusses his life change, Paul breaks out in what is known as a Doxology. A doxology is a verbal explosion of words meant to give honor to God. He was overpowered by the vastness of the subject! What began in quiet thanksgiving has now risen to the heights of emotion. Paul is moved by the reminder of God’s profound grace toward him.
Your mind’s acknowledgement of God is insufficient; you must honor Him. Worship is the act of ascribing ultimate value to something in a way that energizes and engages all of you.
Worship is an emotional thing: “Oh come, let us sing to the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation” (Psalm 95:1)!
Worship is more than emotions as it also talks about our submission to Him: “Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker” (Psalm 95:6)! So in kneeling and singing, you can see the deep impact God makes upon the person. Again, simply acknowledging God exists is insufficient for even the demons do this: “You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder” (James 2:19)!
Instead, you must worship Him. You can have an emotional experience but if it doesn’t change the fundamental makeup of who you are, then you haven’t worshipped. Worship must change your life patterns.
