Matt Chandler - I Believe In

Well, if you have your Bibles, go ahead and grab those. Romans chapter 10 is where we’re going to camp out. There are really just two verses that we’ll kind of pick apart for the next 40 minutes or so. But before we get started, this is Promotion Weekend, which means we have a handful of sixth graders in here with us finally in big church. So if you’re a sixth grader, will you lift your hands for me? In fact, why don’t you go ahead and just stand up? I know this is probably terrifying if you wrestle with anxiety, but if you’re a sixth grader, go ahead and stand up, even if you’re from Plano, Fort Worth, or Dallas. I know this could be really weird; maybe there aren’t any sixth graders even in here. But if you’re watching me, let me talk to you just for a second: sixth graders, we love that you are in here with us! You bring— and I say this all the time — as men and women get older, they become crustier, not more fun. You, with your love for life, your zeal, and your squirming, remind us of what’s truly important and what’s not. So just as your pastor, I love that you’re in here. Welcome! I’ve been giddy this week just knowing you would be here. In fact, we prayed for you earlier tonight before we got ready to do all that we were going to do, and our prayer was that your love and energy would be contagious for us. So, welcome! We are going to do 12 weeks on the Apostles' Creed, and here’s what I know: let’s chat about it, right? Here’s what I know: those of you with more liturgical backgrounds—maybe you’re a former Catholic, an Anglican, or grew up in a Reformed Presbyterian church or something like that—you are probably excited right now. You’re like, «Can you even do this? Is he allowed to do this? I thought we weren’t allowed to do creeds.» And if you’re a modern Baptist—not a historic Baptist, because historic Baptists were also creedal people—but if you’re a modern Baptist and you’ve heard something like «no creed but the Bible,» then you’re probably concerned about me right now, wondering what the elders are thinking and how they could let this happen, and how to shut it down, right? So there’s this mixture of excitement and nervousness in the room about the Apostles' Creed. But let’s just talk very briefly. What I want to do today in our time together is explain why we would spend 12 weeks on the Apostles' Creed. I can give you my outline right out of the gate, and we’re going to very quickly get to the Bible. Here’s my outline: the Creed will help us develop better symmetry as Christians, provide a more robust understanding of the God of the Bible, help us with clarity in understanding who God is, inform our community regarding who we belong to and who we are with, and finally, the Creed will inform our counsel both to ourselves and to others. So again, the Apostles' Creed, by the grace of God and the Spirit of God, is going to help us with symmetry, clarity, community, and counsel. With that said, that’s what we’re going to talk about in our time together today. But before we proceed, I want to mention three little caveats that I haven’t decided yet but might say in every intro for the next 12 weeks. Here they are: it’s important to know that I have no intention of preaching the Creed but rather using the Creed to preach the Bible. The reason is that creeds do not function and do not hold any authority in and of themselves; rather, they point outside of themselves to the ultimate authority of the Word of God. All right, so perhaps this is a helpful illustration: the moon is awesome to look at; it has no light of its own, but it tells me there’s a light out there. If you’re in sixth grade and haven’t learned that yet, you might be thinking «What?» Here’s what’s happening: The sun is radiating heat and light, and that light hits the surface of the moon and reflects back to us, so we look up and see light reflecting off the moon. Well, the Creed is reflecting the light of the Word of God, demonstrating that the Creed has no authority in and of itself, and I would never preach it like it does. Instead, it points back to the authority of the Word of God. It’s useful for you to keep that in your head really at all times. Secondly, the Creed’s historic use has primarily been twofold: the church has been using this as the oldest of the Christian creeds, and it’s been employed in two ways historically. The first is to correct error; God’s people have a tendency at times to drift into what is not true about God, and the Creed corrects that. But it has also primarily been used as a tool in the spiritual formation of Christians.