Craig Groeschel - Forgotten Words That Will Change Your Life
So what do you do when life gets hard? What do you do when you’re hurting, when you feel anxious, when you feel overwhelmed? When life gets difficult, what do you stand on? What do you truly believe? What if I told you that what you believe about God shapes everything about you? Think about it. What you believe about God, it shapes what you think and believe about yourself. It shapes your identity. What you believe about God shapes your morality, how you behave. What you believe about God impacts how you treat people, how you love, if you forgive or if you hold a grudge. What you believe about God shapes your future. What you believe about God shapes your eternity. What you believe about God shapes everything about you.
And so that’s why we’re starting a new message series, it’s called «The Creed». It’s all about what you believe about God. And I gotta warn you, this message series is gonna be different. Can you handle different? Elbow the person next to you and say it’s gonna be different. It’s gonna be different. Elbow your second choice, tell, Hey, it’s gonna be different. Online, type in the comment section it’s gonna be different 'cause I gotta promise you it is going to be different.
Now, we’re talking about the creed and some of you’re gonna say like, what creed are we talking about? Just to be very, very clear, we are not talking about the creed from the office, we are not talking about the band, the Creed, and we’re not talking about Adonis Creed played by Michael B. Jordan. The creed we’re talking about is the Apostles' Creed. And this is a declaration that has shaped the Christian Church for centuries, the Apostles' Creed. If you can imagine, this creed has been declared in royal courts, it’s been sung in prisons, it’s been shouted in cathedrals, and it’s been whispered by Christians facing death. And the Creed begins, I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth and in Jesus Christ, His only son our Lord. These words, they’re ancient, they are unshakeable, and they are worth dying for.
Now, I know what some of you’re thinking, okay, Craig, I was with you on the last series, but like why are we studying some ancient creed when I got modern problems? I can’t even afford eggs today. Can somebody say amen? You can’t even find eggs like… You got some eggs? I’ll pay you 20 bucks for a dozen. That’d be a bargain, right? Why are we talking about a creed when there’s all these real issues going on? What I wanna tell you is the creed, these are not just ancient words, but in a world that is drowning in moral confusion and cultural compromise, this creed offers a firm foundation that has stood the test of time for generations.
And so what we’re gonna do is we’re gonna look at the creed mostly line by line. And my goal in a culture where even many people in the church don’t really know what they believe is, I’m gonna help you build a spiritual foundation that’s not based on just the opinions of people or on the latest TikTok trends or whatever feels good in the moment. But we’re gonna build a spiritual foundation on the timeless, unshakable truth of the one true God. And my goal, just so you’ll kind of… I’m gonna show you my cards, is by the end of the series that you’ll know the Apostle’s Creed, but that you won’t just know the Apostle’s Creed, but you’ll believe it deeply not just as a ritual, but as a personal declaration of your faith in the God who created you. Why? Because what you believe about God shapes everything about you.
So Heavenly Father, we ask that the power of this creed, and more importantly the power of Your living word, would conform our minds, renew our minds to stand on the rock, the truth of who Jesus is, and that what we believe about You would shape us, conform us to the image of Your son, Jesus, that everything we do would glorify You, build our faith on what is true. We pray in Jesus' name and everybody said amen, amen.
Let’s go. Okay. How many of you know the Apostles' Creed? Raise your hand. Raise them high, raise them high. Online, you can type in I know the Apostles' Creed. How many of you have never heard of it before, never heard of it before? You could be a Christian all your life and say it every weekend at some churches. You could be a very committed Christian in some other church and go, what in the world is that? The Apostles' Creed is broadly accepted as the most ancient, concise, time tested declaration of the Christian faith. It dates back, believe it or not, all the way to the second century AD.
And when we talk about the Apostles' Creed, I’m gonna give you a little plot twist. If you want a plot twist, say I want a plot twist, you want one? Here’s a little plot twist. The Apostles' Creed… Are you ready for this? The Apostles' Creed was not written by the apostles. It was written based on the apostles' teaching, but it wasn’t written by the apostles. So why is it called the Apostles' Creed? I don’t know. I couldn’t find that anywhere. But nevertheless, it was actually developed as a response to the false teaching known as gnosticism.
That’s a big word I probably haven’t used since seminary, but we’re gonna come back to the word gnosticism. And the Apostles' Creed helped shaped the unity and unify and strengthen the early Christians around the essential doctrines of our faith. And if you could imagine, this creed was formed when Christianity was still illegal. In other words, if you believed in Jesus during the time this creed was established, you could be arrested, beaten, and put to death the same way as it’s still true in many parts of the world.
And so when they would declare this creed, it wasn’t just a statement of faith, but it was a declaration of allegiance to a God worth giving your life for is powerful. The Apostles' Creed is just over 100 words. It takes about a minute to say it aloud and it is a truth, a foundation that can make an eternal difference in your life. So today, at all of our Life.Church locations, if you’re able to stand, would you just stand to your feet today, all of our churches? And together what we’re gonna do is we are going to declare the Apostles' Creed. Would you say 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, was born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended to the dead. On the third day, He rose again. He ascended into heaven, is seated at the right hand of the Father and will come again 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 all God’s people said amen. Amen. And amen.
You may be seated. The Apostles' Creed starts this way. I believe in God, the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth. In Latin, it starts with the word credo. That word comes from the root word cred, which we get our word like credibility or trust or faith or belief. The word credo is a very, very strong word that means I believe, but it means richly. It means this, I believe so fully that I give my heart, my trust, and my life to this truth, no matter the cost. I believe with every part of me in God, the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth.
Now, if you’ll notice, does it start with I believe or we believe? It actually starts with I believe, not we believe because the question isn’t, and I want you to think about it, it’s not a what do your friends believe or what do your mom and dad believe? Or what do other people believe? The question is, what do you believe? What do you build your life on? And the creed isn’t something about like personal preference. It’s not just like what do you think or what do you prefer? Like I prefer dogs over cats because God does too. For all you people that get mad, just email me at [email protected]. Used to be a real email if it works anymore. It’s not about preference. It’s not like I prefer bacon over sausage because everything is better with bacon and God’s people said amen, amen. It’s not about preferences. It’s not about opinions. This is about eternal truths that completely define your life.
And so let’s look at how it starts. It doesn’t just start with I believe in God, but the creed defines who God is. It says, I believe in God, the Father Almighty. Now, why does the Father Almighty matter? Why does it define who God is? Because people all over the world believe in some kind of God, right? I mean, people, you ask him, hey, do you believe in God? Like, yeah, I believe in a higher power, right? I believe in this vague force, like karma, that you know you do bad and you get bad and you do good and you get good. I believe in good vibes. I believe in a good… Hey, I believe in the crystals that I got on Etsy, whatever it is. People believe in all different types of gods, but we don’t believe in some idea of God, but we believe in the God of the Bible. And so I want you to say this aloud with me, if you will. I believe in God, the Father Almighty.
Think about this, that declaration is both personal and indescribably powerful. Think about it. It’s personal because it’s declaring I believe in a personal God who is Father and is powerful because my Father is an Almighty God. And those two metaphors, Father and Almighty matter more than you can imagine. When you think about it, whenever Jesus taught us to pray, how did Jesus say we should pray? What He could have said is He could have said, «Hey, I want you to pray to God our ruler or God our creator». But Jesus taught us to pray this way. Jesus said this. He said, «This then is how you should pray,» and say it with me. What did He say? He said, «Our Father in heaven, hollowed be your name». We pray Our Father.
Now, whenever you hear, okay, we’re praying to God the Father, you probably don’t think much of that because if you grew up around the church in this part of the world, we say, oh Heavenly Father, oh Lord Father, oh God Father, well, we just pray that way. But in the ancient world, the idea of God the Father was radical. It was like even heretical because the Roman and Greek religions, their gods were distant, their gods were impersonal, many of their gods were cruel. And so the God, the Bible isn’t distant, isn’t impersonal, but is a close, loving Father. We pray God our Father. We have a personal God that loves us. Now, I have to acknowledge that for some of you hearing about God as Father, that’s that idea of father’s not necessarily a comforting metaphor for you because not everybody had a great father on earth.
And so some of you, your dad might’ve been like mean, or cruel, or distant, or absent, or whatever, maybe difficult to please. And so I wanna show you what God’s word says about our Heavenly Father, so that you see that our Heavenly Father is a good father, He is a loving father, He is a father that will never leave you or forsake you. No matter what kind of a earthly father you may have had, our Heavenly Father is good. I’ll show you four statements that God’s word says. Even if your earthly father was absent, God the Father, He’s always present. He will never leave you. He’ll never forsake you. Even if your earthly father was harsh or cruel or critical, God the Father is always compassionate and kind and full of mercy. Even if your earthly father was distant, our God is a good God who draws close.
When you draw near to your Heavenly Father, He draws near to you. And even if your earthly father was difficult, hard, impossible to please, our God delights in you, rejoices over you in Christ. Our God is a perfect father, a loving father that sees you, and cares about you, and pursues you. That’s how good our Father is. But not only is God the Father, but He’s also the Father Almighty. And that matters so much. He’s not just the Father, but He’s Almighty God. Why does it matter? Because a God who is just Father, He might be loving but not powerful. In other words, He can’t do much. And a God who’s just Almighty might be powerful but not loving. And our God is both. He’s loving and He’s Almighty. He’s both a loving father and He is an all powerful king. He is the God who rules the galaxies, and He is a Father who knows your name, God the Father Almighty.
In Latin, you may have heard the word omnipotent. The word in Latin is this, omnipotentem, omnipotentem. And this is what this word means. It means having absolute power and supreme authority. Let me tell you about the almightiness of our God. He is unrivaled, uncontested, and unlimited in all creation, time, and existence. That is our father who is Almighty. And so what does this mean to you? Your marriage is in trouble. You’ve got a bad diagnosis. You’re dealing with anxiety. You’re afraid. You don’t know what you believe. Someone hurt you and you’re trying to work through it. When you pray, here’s what you can do. You might sometimes just kneel down out of reverence for our King. And when you pray, you might every now and then call God.
You can pray to Jesus, the Holy Spirit, Heavenly Father. You can pray to God. You can pray to righteous one, the ruler, the sovereign. You can pray Almighty Father. And when you pray that, it reminds you that God is both personal and there is no problem too big for Him to handle. When you pray to Almighty Father, you know that He cares. And there is no person too broken for Him to heal. There is no plan of the enemy against you that our God can’t stop. Our God is a loving father and He’s Almighty. He loves you and there is nothing impossible to our God. God is Father. And because He’s father, there’s nothing too small for you to pray about. God cares about everything that you care about.
So what do you believe? Credo. I believe. I believe in God, the Father Almighty. And then the next line is what? Say it with me. Creator of heaven and earth. Now, when we call God creator today, you might not think anything of this. Again, this was very controversial in early Christianity because there was this false teaching, we talked about called gnosticism. What is gnosticism? The gnostics believed that everything material, meaning like this stand the trees, the birds, our physical body, the clouds, everything material they believed was evil. And they believed that there was this lower God, his name was Demiurge. And Demiurge, this is what they believed, created the material world. Then they believed there was a higher and a true God that created everything that was spiritual and was only concerned with spiritual things.
This creed declares that God is the creator of the heavens and the earth. That when He created everything he said, it is good. And that’s why in John’s gospel, whenever John declared in the beginning was the word and the word was with God, and then what he said next was actually counter predicting or contradicting what the gnostics believed. He said in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. And then he said, «Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made».
I believe that God is the creator of the heaven and earth. I would ask you this. What do you believe about God? Because what you believe about God shapes everything about you. And for centuries, faithful believers declared, say it with me, I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth. What’s amazing is that the early Christians, they risked their lives to declare this creed that they said it out loud, they could be killed for their faith. They risked their lives. What about you? What do you believe about God?
I wanna tell you what I believe about God. I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth. I believe that in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth and said that it is good. I believe in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God who keeps His promises across generations. I believe in the God that parts the seas and makes a way when there is no other way. I believe in the God who led His people, but with fire at night and cloud by day. I believe in a God who brings down the walls with a shout and takes down the giant with a stone. I believe in the God who commands the winds and the waves, and they obey Him. I believe in a God that restores the broken, heals the sick, and raises the dead. I believe in the God who became flesh and the person of His son Jesus Christ and died so we could live. I believe in the God who brings dead things back to life. I believe in a personal God, a loving God, and Almighty God, who’s also Father, who knows you, and sees you, and loves you, and calls you by name.
I believe in the God who fights for you and goes before you, and the God who will never leave you and the God that will never forsake you. I believe in the God who was and is and is to come reigning on the throne and one day will say to His son, now is the time. And the trumpet of God will sound and the dead in Christ will rise, and Jesus will come back for His church, perfect and pure by the power of the Holy Spirit without spot or wrinkled. And I believe in the God who one day will wipe away every tear. I believe in the God that says there’ll be no more sin, and no more shame, and no more sorrow, and no more pain. And I believe we will dwell with Him forever shouting holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty.
I believe in God the Father Almighty, the creator of heaven and earth and in His only son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. And I believe on the third day when the stone was rolled away, the tomb was empty and Christ has risen again. I believe it. And so I would ask you, like, what do you believe? What do you do when your life falls apart? What do you do when someone betrays you? What do you do when there’s more month than there is money? Do you believe in God as personal Father who’s also almighty and all powerful, the God who will never leave you and never forsake you, the God who is all knowing and ever present and completely omnipotent and all? Do you believe in the God of the Bible? Do you believe so fully that you’ll give Him your whole heart, that you’ll trust Him with your whole life no matter the cost?
Because listen, if He is that God, that’s the only reasonable response. I can’t speak on behalf of God, but I think it would break my heart if I were God and I sent my son and Christians behave like they do today. No reverence, no real fear of God, no passion. I mean every now and then, when you realize who He is, you just can’t contain yourself. Sometimes you stand up and shout. Other times you fall on your face, but you give them everything. It’s not like a, hey, you wanna go to church this weekend? Ah, it’s too pretty out. Ah, there’s a game on. Ah, I’m kind of tired. No, it’s like, hey, He is our God, He is our Father, we are His people. We exist to glorify Him. It’s because of who He is, this is who we are. We are the body of Christ. I believe in God, the Father.
What do you believe about God? Because what you believe about God shapes everything about you. And so if your life doesn’t really reflect who He says you should be, then maybe I would’ve ask you, what do you really believe? Not just up here, but in here, in here. What do you believe? Because if He sent his son and died so I could be forgiven and rose again, then that demands everything. My life isn’t about me. It’s not about what I can get. It’s about not what I can enjoy. It’s not about my happiness and my comfort. My life is about Him because what you believe about Him shapes everything about you.
So I told you my prayer, my hope is that you’ll learn this thing and it won’t just be words you say, it’ll be the spiritual foundation that shapes how you live. Because what we believe about God shapes everything about us. So what do you believe? What do you believe? I believe God, the Father Almighty, a personal God and a powerful God who is here today revealing Himself to you.
So, Father, we ask that by the power of Your spirit, You would show us who You are and who You are would shape everything about who we would become.
As you’re praying today at all of our churches, those of you online, I wonder how many of you like you do, you believe in God, you really do, you really do. And maybe you need Him right now, like you’re going through something difficult. You need the love of a Heavenly Father. And you need the power of an Almighty God. Today at all of our churches and online, those of you who you know you are a Christian and you need the presence or you need the power of God, you need His touch right now, His provision, you need His goodness in your life right now, you’re hurting or someone you love is, and you need the presence and the power of God, but you lift your hands right now, just lift them up. Just lift them up hands going up everywhere. Online, you can just type in the comment section, I need the presence of God or I need the the power of God.
And so, God, we thank You now that You are here, that You are loving Father, and You are our powerful King. So God, we ask You to do what You do. Love us. Reveal Your heart to us. God, comfort those who are grieving, God. Provide for those who lack. God, we pray for miracles for those who need miracles. God, thank You that You’re a loving Father with us now. And You’re an almighty, all powerful, righteous King. Reveal Yourself, Meet our needs. We need You, God. We need You, we need You, God. God, just reveal Yourself to us.
As you keep praying today, There are many of you, and I’m just gonna say it right now, you might be like me. I grew up saying that thing in church. We said it when I was there. And I believed it in my head, but not in my heart. And there are those of you right now, you might kind of believe it in your head, but not in your heart. Others of you, you never even heard it before, but you’re looking, going, «Hey, if this God’s stuff is real, then it demands my whole life».
And so I want to ask you genuinely, what do you believe? What do you believe? If you believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, that He became flesh and sent His son Jesus to die on a cross in your place so you could be made right with God, you have one reasonable response and that is to give Him your whole life. Today at all of our churches, online, there are many of you… You’re gonna recognize, it’s just been a thing, but it hasn’t shaped your life. If that’s you today, you got a choice to make.
What do you believe about God? Because what you believe about Him shapes everything about you. At all of our churches today, all over the world, online, if you recognize, you may have a head knowledge of Him, but He hasn’t taken over your heart, what are we gonna do? I believe. When you believe, it shapes everything about you, move it 18 inches, move it from your head down into your heart and declare that Jesus is the Lord of your life. If you don’t know where you stand, who is Jesus? He is the perfect son of God who died in our place so you could live. What do we do? We step away from our sins and we say, «Jesus, I give you my whole life. I believe wholeheartedly, so fully, every part of me. I wanna live for You».
You’re made right with God, not by your good works, but by the grace of who Jesus is. He died so you could live. Your only reasonable response, take my whole life today. All of our churches, those of you online who say, hey, that’s me, it may be in my head today, it’s moving to my heart. With everything in me, I respond to his goodness. He gave His life for me so I give my life to Him. Jesus, would you be the Lord first the Savior of my life?
If that’s your prayer today, lift your hands high right now, all over the place and say, yes, that’s my prayer right here. God bless you right here. Both of you, praise God together. Others today, say yes, Jesus. Lift up your hands and say, I surrender to you. Right back up there, others today, say, yes, Jesus, be the Lord of my life, I surrender. Right up here at the back, God bless you, guys. Praise God for you. Online, just type in the comment section, I’m surrendering my life to Jesus, I’m surrendering to Jesus. And today, wherever you are, let’s pray together. Nobody prays alone. Pray:
Heavenly Father… I believe… You’re a loving Father… And Almighty God… Who sent Jesus… So I could live… And be forgiven. Be the Savior of my life. Be my Lord. Fill me with Your Holy Spirit… So I could know You… And serve You… And live for You. And all that I do… My life is not my own. I believe You’re my Lord. I believe You’re my Savior. I live for You. Thank you for new life. I give You all of mine. In Jesus' name I pray.