I BELIEVE

[1] WELCOME: If you’re new with us or just tuning in, my name is Nic Cook and I’m one of the pastors at Cornerstone Church in Auburn, IL. Thanks so much for choosing to worship with us this morning. Today we’re kicking off a new sermon series called THE CREED: WHAT WE BELIEVE. And one of the major reasons that we chose to do this series during this season is that it feels like we’re living in the middle of a lot of uncertainty. In a matter of a few months so much has radically changed around us. And when it feels like everything around you is changing and we’re struggling to figure out how to respond to it, I’ve been looking for an anchor. Something that helps me make sense of this world. [2] And I believe that the Apostles Creed is a gift that we’ve been given by the Church to help us navigate times like this.

It is a series of short biblical statements that are easy to remember yet summarize the firm foundational truths of God’s story. It was something that brought hope and endurance to Christians when they were being hunted and persecuted and dying for their faith. It was something that brought them unity when they were struggling with what was true and what was false. It was something that stayed true even when leaders, empires and kings came and went. Plagues, Nations, and Civilizations came and went, yet these truths stood the test of time. The Creed gives us truth that both stands firm against the continuous changes of this world and yet gives us the ability to respond accordingly in the middle of it. THESE ANCIENT TRUTHS THAT THE CHURCH HAS DECLARED FOR OVER 1,500 YEARS CAN HELP US NAVIGATE THE SITUATION WE FIND OURSELVES IN TODAY. ANCIENT TRUTH FOR CURRENT TROUBLES. And my hope is that it will not only help us have a sense of something solid when the world is shifting, but that it will help us fall even more in love with Jesus as we see him through it. So let’s pray together and then we’ll dig in together.

·  PRAYER: God we come to you this morning as creator, as father, as lover, as judge. We thank you for giving us life and giving us another day to live and breath and worship you. Help us to see your great plan and love. Help us to come to know Jesus personally. That he became a man, experienced our life and our temptations. Help us to stand in awe at his perfect life and genius teaching. May we see our need for a Savior and thank Jesus for taking our place on the cross. And God just because we celebrated easter 3 weeks ago, that the resurrection is still true and still a cause to celebrate. We thank you for your Holy Spirit and ask that He will help us worship you today. That he will reveal truth, bring transformation, and help us know your presence together even though we are separated. And thank you for the Church, your body, your family. Help us to cling to you, love you, and serve you well. Thank you for the hope we have that you are coming one day to set all things right. Glory to God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit now and forevermore. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

o This morning I’m going to read the creed and then at the end of our service I’m going to invite you to say it together as a church. So here it is: [3-5]I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and as buried; He descended to the grave, and on the third day he rose again from the dead; He ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty; From there He will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Universal Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting. Amen! [6]

(TEACH) TRUST IN ACTION, BELIEF & BEHAVIOR (God)

BACKGROUND: Now I know there are a lot of different backgrounds that people come from. And depending on your story, you’re probably having some different reactions. Some of you are thinking, aw geez, I grew up having to say things like this. Or some of you may be like me and grew up in a background hearing, we teach the bible, not man-made creeds. And then some of you are stoked because you love the richness of the words and it brings back great memories. So let me say a couple of things. I am not preaching the creed, I’m using the creed to teach the bible. The creed doesn’t have authority over the bible, the bible is our authority and the only reason the creed is helpful is because it speaks biblical truth. Secondly, I know that tradition can make something seem lifeless and dead when you say it over and over again. However, so can telling my spouse and kid I love you. If I don’t take the time to think about why I’m saying it, then it can be just words. But when I make sure my heart means what my mouth says, it makes all the difference. So we want hearts that mean what the creed says without making it dead and lifeless.  So today, I’m we’re going to examine two little words. [7]“I BELIEVE”. It’s the phrase that starts off the creed, and most of us would probably hop past it without much thought but these are powerful words. Why? [8]

·  BELIEF IS THE STARTING POINT OF OUR JOURNEY WITH GOD: I told you we’d use the creed to teach the bible so let’s look at [Heb. 11:6] [9-12] The same word that is translated belief is also often translated as faith. And it says that without faith, it’s impossible to draw near to God, to be accepted by God, to make him happy. Sometimes we use words so often or hear them so often that we don’t take the time to think about what they mean or explain them. So, let me give you my best definition so far of faith. [13]Faith is Trust in Action. I trust what I know about person or a thing and then I act upon that trust. We do this all the time. We have faith in our cars. We trust that it will get us from place to place. And we act on that trust. We get in our cars, turn the key, and then drive to where we are going. We have faith in electricity. We trust that the people who make and deliver electricity will get it into our houses. We trust the people who wired our houses. And we act on that trust by flicking the light switch. It’s not enough to simply sit in a car and go nowhere or stare at a lights witch and expect the light to come on. We must take action on what we trust to be true, that is faith. Faith is trust in action. And when we do, we find out through experience whether it is true. The verse we read out of Hebrews comes from an entire chapter talking about people who trusted God and acted on that trust. And they were said to both have faith, and through action grew their faith. Noah trusted God and built an Ark and lived to tell about it after everyone else died. Abraham trusted God and left everything and ended up the father of a nation. They didn’t have proof before they took action, they had trust, and after they took action, they grew closer to God.

o THE CREED INVITES US NOT TO SIMPLY SAY THIS IS TRUE, BUT TO ACKNOWLEDGE THAT WE TRUST CERTAIN THINGS ABOUT GOD, TRUST CERTAIN THINGS ABOUT JESUS, TRUST CERTAIN THINGS ABOUT THE HOLY SPIRIT, THE CHURCH, AND ETERNITY, AND WILL CHOOSE TO TAKE ACTION ON THEM. WHEN WE SAY I BELIEVE, WE ALSO MEAN “I BELIEVE, THEREFORE I WILL BEHAVE AS IF IT’S TRUE! BELIEF ALWAYS AFFECTS BEHAVIOR!

o So over the next few months we’re going to be looking at the creed and asking the questions, do I trust what this says about God? Do I trust what this says about Jesus? Do I trust what this says about the Holy Spirit? Do I trust what this says about the Church? Do I trust what this says about the end of time? And then we’ll respond with the second question, If I trust this is true, how should it change the way. If I believe that there is one God, that He is the Creator, that He is like a Father, that He is Almighty, that everything is his, how does this change the way I act and respond. How does this help me deal with the corona virus? How does this make me treat my spouse, coworker, neighbor who as made in the image of God? If I believe that Jesus is God’s son, that he’s really alive and came back from the grave, how does that change the way I behave in response to fear?

o Do you see now just how helpful the Creed can be? Because it reminds us of what is true, and it helps us live in response to it. It expresses our belief and calls us to examine our behavior. OUR TRUST IN GOD LEADS TO ACTION. So as a first point of action, I want to put forward [2] [2] [14][Romans 10:9-10].  Often the first step in following Jesus is a heart that says I believe, I believe what the creed says about Jesus. And then takes action. It takes the first step of obedience to Jesus’ command and gets baptized. If you are ready to follow Jesus, please let us know by going to auburncstone.info and filling out the connection card and we’ll get back to you quickly.

o Now here’s the other piece to this, Faith is a…[15]

(APP) PROCESS MEASURED BY PROGRESS (You)

You don’t have to have it all figured out in order to start the process. You don’t have to be able to flesh out every nuance of what the creed is talking about before you can start to say “I believe”. Hebrews 11 talked about Noah. He believed God’s word and built an ark, but then he turned around and drank too much and cursed his kid. Abraham believed God’s plan and left everything behind, but freaked out from time to time and got himself and his family in trouble. But when they took the first step, God showed up, and they learned to trust him more. And then God showed them more of his plan, and they trusted him and took the next step. It was a lifelong journey of faith. And their faith was measured by taking step after step over the long haul. So the creed is both a call to action, but it is a tool to assess our progress. How am I doing on this journey with Jesus? The Creed helps grow our faith by providing…[16]

·  CLARIFY: what we believe. Has anyone ever asked you what being a Christian is all about? If they did, could you explain it? The creed helps give you an overview of about the great questions of life that people have and what Christianity has to say about it. How did everything begin? What is the purpose of life? Why is everything so broken? How do I find happiness? The Creed can help you grow in helping us address the questions most people are seeking answers for. It helps us to asses how we’re growing in what we know about God and his Word and his will and where we still need help. It also helps to…[17]

·  CORRECT what is not true about God, Jesus, the Spirit, the church and this world. In a world where many people believe things because they’ve heard lies repeated loudly and often enough that it is assumed to be true. The early church had to deal with people denying that the world that God created was good, or that Jesus was actually a man, or that he didn’t really die, or thinking that religion was a personal thing and not connected to a community. The creed was used to help people see what was true teaching and what was false teachers trying to destroy the church from the inside. It helps us grow in our ability to discern the difference between truth and lies, light and darkness. It also…[18]

·  CONNECTS: us to other Christians. When you know you are surrounded by people that are united on what we believe to be the most important things in this life, then it helps us experience community. We are part of a larger story, of a people that started thousands of years ago, and part of a mission that is still going. It reminds us that we are sisters and brothers because of the great love and plan of God through Jesus. We know we’re part of the same team. Which by the way, is far bigger than Cornerstone. It’s far bigger than Auburn. Earlier we sang this I believe by Hillsong and this last summer I had a chance to sing that same song at a concert in the Dominican Republic. And as I sang in English side by side with a couple thousand Spanish speakers, I was given a taste of just how big the body of Christ really is. We are connected by these truths to thousands upon thousands of other Christians past, present and future. And lastly the creed keeps us …[19]

·  CHRIST-CENTERED: The creed actually shows us how incredibly Jesus is and why he is worthy of worship and HELPS US KEEP OUR EYES ON HIM. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit in community brought life to this world. They created humanity in love and desired to be with them in relationship. But humanity chose to try to take the Almighty Fathers’ place. And sin entered the world. And this world is broken because of it. Sin, death, disease, and destruction. And God the Father sent his Son, Jesus to rescue us. He lived in perfect obedience to God. He trusted God and acted. And lived the life we couldn’t. then he died on the cross, not because he had done anything wrong, but to take our place for all the wrong we had done. He died our death, and gave us his life. And he returned from the grave! He is still risen. He is God. And he ascended into heaven and all things belong to him. And he is going to come again to set this world right. But until then, he has given us the Holy Spirit. He has made us part of his church. We are part of helping bring people back to Jesus. We are part of setting them free from sin and purposeless lives. And When he comes back he will judge the living and the dead. And we who love Jesus will have eternal life with him forever in joy and perfect satisfaction. And in that story, the corona virus is barely even a blip! That’s why we worship. That’s why the creed is so great, because it shows us Jesus, and calls us to follow him, and love him, and serve him, and place your hope in him.

Going to give you a couple minutes to meditate on the creed.

You may have a couple of prayers you might want to say during this time:

God I want to believe, help me believe this.

Or God, I believe this but I don’t always live as if I do, help me.

Now we’re going to give you about 5 minutes to discuss the following questions…

What truth do you have a hard time believing? Why?

What truth is most powerful to you? Why?

If faith is trust in action, what belief in the creed needs to be acted on in your life?

Let’s continue to worship Jesus through prayer and singing. God we praise you. Jesus we praise you. Spirit we praise you. Help our unbelief. Forgive our forgetfulness of you and your will. Empower us to love you and serve you. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.