As I have expressed many times before, I am thrilled about this new sermon series we are going through. Most of my conversations in the past few weeks have started with the phrase, “So how do you like the new sermon series?” The reason I am thrilled is simple…I enjoy talking about theology and now that we are all studying it together, I can talk to you about it. I didn’t always love doctrine though. I remember as a sophomore in college, thinking in doctrine class, “Yeah, yeah. So what?!” Why is that though? Lately I have been pondering why my love for doctrine has grown over the years. Here are a few thoughts:
1) I learned to enjoy and ask hard questions. I had a teacher at Faith Baptist Bible College that would ask the craziest, off-the-wall questions; and not just about theology, but about everything. At first it was really intimidating, but eventually I learned to love these questions because it stretched my mind and made me think through concepts at a much deeper level than if I just listened to someone lecture about it.
2) I stopped feeling dumb if I didn’t know the answer. It took me a while to figure it out, but that same teacher didn’t always know the answer to the questions he asked. He simply thought it was fun to be able to discuss them as a group. After all, sometimes a good answer isn’t as fun as the best question.
3) I realized that doctrine really does matter. The way we act in life stems from what we believe. For instance, I believe that God is unchanging (i.e. immutable), therefore I can look at God in the Old Testament, and learn about His character, and know that I still serve the same God today. Thus, this impacts how I act or react to certain situations in life (good or bad) as I know that my God is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
4) My love for the Lord grew as I studied doctrine. I really had to stop and ask myself the hard question, “Why do I think doctrine is so boring?” The answer was because I didn’t care about the truths of God. When I say that doctrine is boring, I am really saying that God is boring. God is so deep and I know that we will never know all that there is to know about God; but if we have one life to live (and we do) then why not spend it learning about Him! And as we do that, we will truly be able to love Him more deeply and enjoy Him more fully.
What has God been teaching you in this sermon series? Let us know in the comments section below or on Facebook and be sure to hashtag it as: #WhatReallyMatters.