I Believe: September 26 Sermon Discussion Guide
A.W. Tozer famously said, “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.” What we believe about God matters, as it impacts our worship of God and every facet of our lives. Yesterday we continued working through the Apostles’ Creed by looking at the first line or clause of the creed: I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of Heaven and Earth. In that short statement we find three main affirmations about our God.
1. God is the Creator
2. God is the sustainer of all creation
3. God is the immanent Father of our lives
God is the Creator: In the creed and consistent with the biblical witness, we affirm that God is the creator of everything that exists. As the Nicene Creed puts it, God is the maker of Heaven and Earth, of everything visible and invisible. All of it created by God. This is the affirmation of Yahweh’s people throughout the Old Testament.
Exodus 20:11, as the context for the Sabbath commandment, Yahweh says: 11 For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day.
Isaiah 45, God speaks to Cyrus through the prophet: 12 I made the earth and created man on it; it was my hands that stretched out the heavens, and I commanded all their host.
As we think of the creative activity of God, our goal is not to determine in precise scientific detail how it occurred. The point of the Genesis creation account is theological, not scientific. But we do find in that account that the creative activity of God involved God’s speech (God speaks, creation springs) and a process (there were 6 creative periods of time). We affirm that God created everything.
But not only is God the creator of everything visible and invisible at some point in the past. But he continues to hold it all together, as Paul says in Colossians 1:15
He (Jesus) is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
God is intimately involved with his creation, sustaining, preserving, upholding it all, even now.
Finally, God is our Father. While God is not biologically a male and masculinity is not closer to godliness in some way, Jesus not only uses this language himself, but also invites his followers to do the same, “Pray like this: Our Father…”
In 1 John 5 we read: Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him.
This is the God we serve. The God who created everything visible and invisible, who holds it all together. He preserves, sustains, supports all of life. Without God nothing would exist. And what is perhaps most shocking is that this almighty, transcendent God is not far off, unwilling to be bothered. We are God’s children. Heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ.
Our God is a father who cares, supports, loves, forgives, nurtures, yes, he brings correction, but never for our harm. Always for our health and wholeness.
Questions for Reflection:
Why is it important to understand that the creation account in Genesis is making a theological point, not a scientific point?
How does reflection on God as creator impact your worship? How might it impact how you view the created world around you?
How does reflecting on God’s sustaining and preserving power of all things at all times impact our lives of faith?
Reflect on the Fatherly nature of God.