The Apostles' Creed

Where do you go and what do you do when life gets hard? Because sooner or later, life is hard for all of us. In fact, some of you right now, you are in a difficult season and I'm so glad that you are here. Some of you, you're in a really good season and I'm so glad that you are here. And some of you, you just came out of a bad season and you think you might be going into a good season, but you're not sure what season it is, right? And I'm glad that you're here. Where do you go when life gets difficult? Over the next few weeks, I wanna talk to you about the foundation of our faith. Because when life squeezes you, it's like a tube of toothpaste. When life squeezes you and life gets difficult, whatever's inside of you tends to come out. When life gets difficult and we get shaky, God wants us to remember our foundation. For me, over this past year, I memorized Psalm 23 and I've said it just about every day and I'm gonna quote it for you. Just listen to these words. The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. Some of you, you may have heard that before and you've heard it, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. How many of you have heard it that way? Okay, here's what that means.

It means you lack nothing. I don't talk like that, so I'm just going with what it actually says. Make sense? The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures. And he leads me beside quiet waters. He refreshes my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. And even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. For you are with me. And your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil and my cup, it runs over. Surely, goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life. And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. You know what that is? That's good. That's just good. And I can tell you on days when I'm shaky, at least in recent days, I go back to Psalm 23. Why? Because it's foundational. All through it is the strength and the grace of God. And so I just proclaim it. And in proclaiming it, I'm taking hold of it. What I want to do with you over the next few weeks is give you something like that.

What we're gonna talk about over the next few weeks is the Apostles' Creed. We're gonna talk about the creed. And you're like, the band creed? No. Any creed fans? I have a couple of creed songs on my playlist, yeah. Not the band creed, not Adonis' Creed, from the movie Creed, which is great cinema because it's part of the Rocky saga. So we're not talking about that kind of creed. We're talking about the Apostles' Creed. The Apostles' Creed was written in the second century. Now, one thing about the Apostles' Creed, just to keep it real with you, is it was not written by the apostles. But everything it represents and everything it says reflects what the apostles wrote. It was written in the second century, catch this, when Christianity was still illegal. People were being martyred for their faith. And before they were eaten by the lion or burned at the stake, they would proclaim the words that we're about to read, they would proclaim the Apostles' Creed. What we're about to read has been the foundation of Christian doctrine for the last 2,000 years. If you come from a Catholic background, Catholics proclaim the Apostles' Creed. If you come from a Protestant background like me,

we proclaim the Apostles' Creed. Christianity is one faith. Now, it has different flavors and different traditions. But the creed covers it all. What we're about to read is what Christianity is. It's foundational. It's rock solid. What we're about to read is ancient, but it's also timeless. It doesn't need to change because truth remains true. See, the beautiful thing about the truth of God is it doesn't have to change, you know why? Because it's true. It has been true, it is true, it'll always be true. You wanna know why? Because it's truth. And so what we're about to read is foundational to our faith. And what we're gonna do over the next few weeks is we're just gonna unpack this together. Now, today's kind of an intro. We're gonna celebrate baptisms here in just a little bit. So I'm gonna give you an introduction for this, but I wanna challenge you as lead pastor, just plan on being here every week. If you're traveling, one or two things, either change your plans and be here or stick with us online. Walk through the creed with us

because I believe it will strengthen your faith. And the stronger your faith is, the stronger you are. The more that you allow yourself to rest in the rock solid foundation of our faith, the more that you will follow through in every area of your life when it comes to following Jesus. And so what we're gonna do each week is we're gonna stand and we're gonna read the creed. Now, when we read this, there's gonna be a couple of things you're like, ooh, I didn't know that. Ooh, what does that mean? So glad you asked. We're gonna talk about it over the next few weeks. So we'll proclaim it and we'll walk through it and we'll learn together. And hopefully all of us individually will choose to make it our personal creed for life. So I wanna invite you all locations, let's stand and let's read it together. The Apostles Creed from the second century, the Christian faith for a couple thousand years. Now, as we read it, I gotta tell you, pay attention to the commas, all right? Because I've read this a lot. And if you forget the commas, you don't read it right. Make sense? So let's read it out loud together.

Read it with me. I believe in God, the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth. I believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended to hell. The third day, He rose again from the dead. He ascended to 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 the life everlasting. And everybody said? Amen. Please be seated. Thank you. So what we just read is about 100 words, and it takes over just 60 seconds to read it. Now think about this. This was written again when Christianity was still illegal. People would say this a couple of thousand years ago before they were martyred for the faith. Like before they were being fed to lions, they would proclaim what we just read. Before they were burned at the stake, they would proclaim what we just read.

Prisoners who were put in prison because of their faith would daily out loud proclaim the Apostles' Creed. Now here's the first question, if you were paying attention. What were the first two words of the Apostles' Creed? Do you remember? The first two words were? I believe. It's I believe. I believe. So here's my question. Do you believe? Now notice that it doesn't say we believe. Because it's a personal declaration of faith. It's I believe. Notice it doesn't say my mom and daddy believed. Notice it doesn't say, well, my family believes. Notice it doesn't say I was raised to believe. What does it say? It says what? Say it with me. And that's what we're called in this series. I believe. In Latin, the first two words of the Apostle's Creed, I believe, are this word. It's pronounced credo. Like it rhymes with Play-Doh, but it's pronounced credo. And if you were to say it in Latin, you would roll the R just a little bit. Credo. That's cool, isn't it?

Credo. I have friends that are just getting back from Italy, and they're like, grazie, prego. And so I'm like, today, credo. Not Italian, but Latin. And it means I believe. In fact, you can turn to the person next to you, and you can just proclaim in Latin that you believe. You can say credo. You ready? One, two, three, go. Credo. Credo. It's I believe. Do you know what word we get from the word credo? We get this word. Catch this now. Credibility. Credibility. Credence, the creed. Credo. I believe. Now, here's the thing. Most people think that Christianity is just about mental assent. Because when you and I hear the word believe, that's what we think. It's what I think. It's mental assent. But in Latin, and in the Bible,

the word belief, synonymous with faith, means more than mental assent. It's not just what I think is true. To really believe, to really practice faith, is connected to how we live. Biblical faith, biblical belief, credo, flows like this. To believe is to trust, and to trust is to obey. In fact, the term Christian was not made up by Christians. Did you know this? Jesus didn't show up and go, hey, everybody, starting a new religion. Think I'll name it after, I don't know, me. Because I'm the Christ. By the way, Christ is a title, not a last name. If you're new to church, it's not that Joseph Christ and Mary Christ had little Jesus Christ. It's okay. People are new, you know, it's all right. Christ means, it's a title, it means anointed one. It means the promised one. In Greek, it's Christ. In Hebrew, it's Messiah. If you've ever heard that word. Those two words mean the same thing, the anointed one. Your Bible is different than any other book ever written in the history of mankind. You're like, there's lots of religious writings. Yeah, but they're not like the Bible. Just about every other religious writing

was written by one person in the span of their lifetime. The Quran, written by one person, the prophet, Muhammad. The writings of Confucius, not a trick question, were written by one person, Confucius. Okay, you're staying with me. Those kinds of things. The Bible is unique. Even if you don't believe it, it's unique. Not another book like it. It's 66 ancient manuscripts that were written over a span of 1,500 to 1,600 years by over 40 authors that lived on three different continents. And what brings these 66 timeless ancient documents together is the Christ, the Messiah. In the Old Testament, there's at least 400 distinct prophecies of the coming Messiah, or Christ. In the New Testament, all of them are fulfilled in the person of Jesus, many of which, humanly speaking, would have been impossible, right? Where he was born, the way he would die, things like that. In fact, the last book in your Old Testament is Malachi. The first book in your New Testament is Matthew. There's a 400-year gap between when those two books were written. The Bible is unique, it's set apart, and what makes it unique is the person of Jesus. He's Jesus Christ, the anointed one, the promised one, the Messiah. And that's what brings all of the Bible together. And Jesus didn't say, hey, you know what, everybody, I'm going to start a new religion. Think I'll name it after me, right?

No, no, no. What happened was people began following Jesus. They saw him physically die. They saw him three days later, risen. Millions of people saw him before he ascended into heaven. In fact, he walked on the earth for 40 days and then he ascended into heaven. And what happened was these believers in Jesus started living out their faith. Why? Because they believed. Credo, they were credible. And because they were credible, people looked at their life and went, you're acting like Jesus. You love your neighbor as yourself. You love God. You are kind, compassionate. There is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control in your life. You're like a little Jesus Junior. You're a Christer. You're a Christian. That's what the term means. It means little Christ. And so it wasn't that the people gathered together and were like, what are we going to call ourselves? Should we have a secret handshake? That's not how it went. They just lived out their faith. They were just credible in what they believed. And the world looked at their life and went, you're like Jesus. Your character is like Jesus.

Why? Because they believed and they trusted God and they obeyed and did what he said. And it radically changed them from the inside out. So when you say, I believe, here's what you're saying. I believe this to the extent that my life will be lived in such a way that what I say with my mouth will be backed up by the credibility of how I live. To believe is to trust and to trust is to what? Obey. That's what it means to believe. It means to be credible. And so over the next few weeks, as we proclaim this, I want to challenge you to ask yourself whether or not you really believe it. Because in believing it, there will be credibility about it in the stuff of your everyday life. And when life comes and the storms come and when life hits and when you get squeezed and the stuff that's inside of you begins to come out, it will match what this creed says. Credible, solid. And you might be shaken, but you still stand. Why? Because your life is built on the rock of the Christian faith. And so every week we're going to proclaim it and we're going to do a gut check and we're going to become more and more credible in our faith. Here's what the word credo literally means. Here it is as it comes on the screen. I believe, I believe so fully that I give my heart, my trust, and my life to this truth. Look at this, no matter the cost. All right, I'm going to be the pastor here for just a second. Are you ready? When is the last time your Christian faith cost you anything? Because we kind of have this idea that God works for us. And sometimes we get a little upset if it didn't go our way.

I mean, after all, we went to church three weeks in a row. We even had to park a little farther than we wanted to. And we all leave church like an American Idol judge, right? Sermon was okay. How come Robert wasn't preaching this weekend? I like the illustrations, right? Music, it was okay, but I like when this person leads worship. And we have this big idea that we're customers coming to a show and we do our thing and we did our deal for the week and then we leave, good till next week, go live how you want, right? No, no, no, no, no. All of life, everything, this truth I believe, this truth I stand, this truth I carry no matter the cost because it's the truth I believe. You see the difference? Here's our verse of scripture for the series. This is Romans chapter one, verse 16, the first part of the verse. Here's what the Bible says. For I am not ashamed of the gospel because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes. Today we're going. to celebrate baptism. Every person that is baptized, you know what they're saying? Credo. They're saying, I believe. If you're new to baptism, what we do here at the church when we baptize people is it's a celebration. And we get that from Luke chapter 15. In Luke 15, there's three stories that Jesus tells.

There's a lost sheep and a lost coin, and then a lost son, the parable of the prodigal son, if you've heard that before. But in all three, when something is found, there's a celebration. Baptism is a picture of someone who was lost being found. It's symbolic. We dunk under here at Sun Valley. You're like, why do you dunk under? Because that's what the word baptism means. Did you know that? It comes from this Greek word, baptismo. You know what baptismo means? It means to dunk under. And the reason we dunk under is because it's symbolic. Here at Sun Valley, we don't baptize babies because a baby is not saying, I believe. When a baby is baptized, the parents are saying, we believe, and we're gonna raise this child in the faith. And it's a beautiful thing. And if that's part of your background, I just wanna affirm that completely. It is a beautiful, wonderful thing. And when you see baptism in the Bible, it's about somebody's personal faith. It's about an individual saying, I believe. I believe in Jesus, and I've put my faith in him to the extent, watch this, that I've died to myself. They go under the water.

And I've been washed in his love, mercy, and grace. Come up out of the water. And now I'm a brand new person. I believe, and I live for him. And so here at Sun Valley, right? We say, have you given your life to Jesus? Yes. Is it your desire to follow him all the days of your life? You're gonna see questions mouthed in just a moment in the baptismal waters. That's what they're asking. Is it your desire to follow him all the days of your life? And the person says, yes. Then we say, we baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Take them under the water and bring them back out again. We get that from Matthew 28, 19 and 20, because it says, baptize people in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. It's just right out of the Bible. But is somebody saying, I believe? Credo. My life used to be about me. Now it's about Jesus. I'm all in to the extent that I'm willing to get up in front of all of you and just show you that my faith is legit. And so when they come up out of the water, you know what we do here?

We celebrate, just like it says in Luke 15. We just celebrate the grace of God and the mercy of God and the testimony of this person that they believe in Jesus. And we sing worship songs and we celebrate the grace of God in our own lives. And it's just this moment as a church where together we say, he still changed his lives. He's a savior who still saves. And we just celebrate this person's public profession of credo. I believe. So over the next few weeks, we're gonna go on this journey. We're gonna stand each week and proclaim the creed and I wanna encourage you to go all in. Every area of your life. All in, no matter what the cost, because it's true. And we'll learn and grow together. Let's pray together. Would you pray with me? I just feel led to do this. It could be that you're here today and you've never had a personal encounter with God. The Bible teaches that you become a Christian by going right to Jesus and trusting him, putting your faith in him. It's a relational thing. Faith is a relational word because it means trust. And we trust Jesus in two ways. One, as savior, to cover everything that we have done wrong,

will do wrong in the future, to cover all of our sin, all of our wrongs for all time. We trust him as savior. And then we also trust him as Lord, as the leader of our lives. And it could be that right now God is working in your heart. And you're thinking to yourself, I mostly believe. Well, that's enough. To mostly believe is enough. You just have to choose to cross the line and step over. And so if you'd like to trust Jesus today, I can help you do that right now. If you're like, I want to receive the love of God in my life, I want to trust Jesus as Savior and Lord, I can help you do that. Just in your own heart and mind, he'll hear you just say, Jesus, I need you. I'll confess with you. Let's confess together. I'm a sinner. And I need a Savior. I believe you died on the cross for me and that you rose again and I ask you to save me. And I trust you as the leader and Lord of my life. From this day forward, I receive you, Jesus. Thank you for receiving me. Amen. Amen. If that was you, I want to challenge you with a couple of things before I challenge you. I want to say congratulations. Can we just celebrate with all these that just prayed? Right after service today, we have something called First Step and it'll be right at the front at all of our locations.

Just kind of stick around right after the service, walk up front. You'll see people gathered kind of to the side and they'll give you a high five and welcome you. They're going to give you a free Bible and just help you get started on the journey. Not going to be creepy or weird. All right. Just help you get started. Easy peasy. The other thing you can do today is you can be baptized. That's old school. Like that's the way they did it in the Bible. People prayed to receive Jesus and then they went down to the river right then. And so we have clothes for you. We are ready to help you be baptized. If you're like, hey, I chose to believe and I'm ready to, I believe I'll be baptized today. Then we'll help you. We'll help you do that. All right. So we're going to get ready to celebrate baptisms over the next few weeks. I want to encourage everybody. I know at Sun Valley, we always put the verses on the screen. We're going to continue to do that. I want to challenge you over the next few weeks to bring your Bible because I'm going to have you look up some things. It will help you. If you don't have a Bible, come to First Step. I talked about it just a moment ago, right after service, and we'll give you a Bible for free. But let's go on this journey and we'll learn the creed together and we'll look at the scriptures that support it.

Sound good? I love you guys. I'm going to pray again and then we're going to celebrate new life in Jesus. We're going to celebrate baptisms. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for amazing grace. We thank you that you're a savior who still saves. We thank you that it's all grace. We don't earn it. We don't deserve it. We just believe and receive. But in that belief, it changes us. And so teach us, we pray, over the next few weeks, may each of us as individuals, may our faith become more credible. To us personally, and in that people will notice as we live more committed to you. So teach us, we pray, and change us, and may our hearts reflect yours. Now we celebrate baptism. We celebrate new life in you. We celebrate each and every person who is going to stand here in a moment to let us know that they believe. Bless this time. Bless this moment of worship. And again, may it be for the glory of Jesus and our good. It's in Jesus' name I pray, amen.