What Is Theology?

0:01 How are y'all doing? Make sure that you get this message map out. I know you've already been alerted to that, but this is going to be some heady stuff over the next several weeks, and I want you to use this. It's kind of like you go to a football game, and you want to pick up a program to find out what's going on, so make sure you do that. and you'll see some blanks there. You know, blanks are funny, aren't they? They just kind of scream, fill me in, fill me in. And we're gonna do that as we talk about no, K-N-O-W, theology, or maybe in your case, no N-O, theology.

0:51 Theology. Before I get into that, I was thinking this past week, you'll never know how to build a house without plans. You'll never know how to grill that perfect steak without a recipe. You'll never know jujitsu unless you have a professor. You'll never know how to really play golf without lessons. And here's the big one. You'll never really know the Lord until you know theology. Theology, what is theology? It comes from a couple of words, theos and logos, God, word. Literally, theology is the study of God.

1:47 We're tackling that. Theology, I'm here to tell you, matters. We are going to look at something called systematic theology. Systematic theology is basically a summary or an aggregate or a synthesis of what the entire Bible teaches us about a particular subject. So you name the major subjects. We're not going to look at just what the book of Philippians says about it or the book of 1 Kings says about it. We're going to look at it throughout the entire Bible. Doctrine is a set of statements that actually instruct those beliefs. Doctrine and systematic theology sort of blend together.

2:43 Doctrine would be the pillars of our faith. For example, here's a theological statement, and I'm sure many of you have made this before. If you believe in Jesus Christ, you'll go to heaven. Jesus is the only way to God. You just did theology. The doctrine would be the doctrine of salvation. theology is study but in this series we're going to allow and ask the god of the universe to study us isn't it true that that we love buffets anybody like buffets yeah yeah we're man man we're from we're from texas i mean i'm from the dirty south i love a buffet get the tray the utensils and you're kind of just sliding on through? What if we just said, you know what, I'm going to go straight for the banana pudding. Forget everything else. I just want banana pudding. Could it be that a lot of us in our culture, when it comes to the things of God, have a banana pudding theology, a buffet style theology? We just want to pick the things about God and the Bible that we kind of like, and we want to steer clear of those things that get specific.

4:11 At Fellowship Church, I hope you know this. If you don't, I'm going to tell you, we're not a church that keeps the message vague. We don't broad brush it. We are very specific. Obviously, there are major concepts and principles and precepts that we talk about, but we talk about it in a very precise and detailed fashion. We're going to look at major doctrine in this series. What's a major doctrine? You'll see it there on your message map. A major doctrine is a dominant theme that basically influences and bumps up against all the other major doctrine for all Christians, all time. For example, think about, as I said earlier, the doctrine of salvation. That's a major doctrine.

5:06 The doctrine of Scripture, a major doctrine. The doctrine of the Trinity, a major doctrine. A minor doctrine is a non-dominant theme in Scripture that influences other doctrine and has not applied to all Christians at all times. What would that be? speaking in tongues, what would that be? Where will Jesus come back in regards to the tribulation? Before it gets crazy or after it gets crazy? Church governance, that's a minor doctrine. We're going to talk about, obviously we'll talk about some of the minor doctrines, but we're going to major on the majors because in our culture today, we've minored on the majors and we've majored on the minors. But here's the phrase that pays.

6:03 You ready for this? In the essentials, we have unity. Those are the big, dominant. I sound like a wrestling announcer, don't I? Those are the big, dominant doctrines. On the essentials, we have unity. In the non-essentials, we have liberty. And in all things, we practice charity. Now that is an important statement. three types of people here today. I hate to put you in a category, but we're all in one of these categories. Number one, some of you here have a working knowledge of theology. You're like, okay. You know, I'm kind of tracking with you. I went to seminary for four years.

6:59 I even started my doctrinal program, but had to stop because we helped start Fellowship Church. I have learned a ton myself over the last two months as I've delved into theology. So if I'm learning, I think you will as well. Maybe that's the first group. The second group will be those here who know just enough theology to be dangerous.

7:26 You know, you've heard this and heard that and you like things that sound good to you and you're not sure if that's in the Bible. Like a friend of mine quoted this to me recently. He goes, you know, as the Bible says, this too shall pass. I didn't want to say it back to him, but I wanted to say, man, that's not in the Bible. So some of us are that way. Don't worry, we're gonna clear up the confusion. We're not trying to belittle anyone or say, oh man, you don't know any theology. No, no, no. We're all in this together, right? Another group would be those who have no theology, N-O theology. You're just like in Never Never Land. And that's cool. I don't think you'll be in Never Never Land after this series. You're going to have just a life change, I believe. You'll facepalm.

8:20 You'll see the nature of God like you've never seen him before. It could cause some of us to fall on our face in worship. it might blow up some of our other thoughts that we consider were in the Bible and we're like, man, that's theologically incorrect. So that's what's gonna happen in this series. And again, the third group would be those who have no theology. But then there's also some people here, I know, maybe you're on our campus in downtown Dallas, downtown Fort Worth, maybe you're in Frisco, maybe you're watching online, maybe you're at Alasso Ranch, who knows? and you're like, Ed, I'm not sure I really believe in God.

9:02 This series is for you because I don't think you know the identity of the one you're saying no to. And we're gonna discover that. So as we discover systematic theology, we'll see God like we've never seen him before and ourselves as well.

9:24 Some of you are like, well, Ed, how do you know that people, you know, kind of have a whack theology? How do you know that some people, you know, are well-meaning and well-intentioned, but they don't really know what they're talking about? How do you know that some churches are theological dumpster fires? How do you know that? Well, one of the quickest ways is just to scroll through social media. If you run a company, this is kind of an aside, this is free of charge. If you run a company and you're thinking about hiring someone, the quickest way to find out about them is just check out their social media. Like that, you can discover who they are because the things we post, wow. Let's go back to theology. What are some theological statements that we read on social media that might be partly true but aren't really true? and this will show you how we need theology.

10:23 Here's one. It's all about love. Well, God is love, yes. But that's one aspect. God is also a God of wrath. He's a just God. He's a merciful God. He's a God of grace. He has communicable and incommunicable character qualities and attributes. We'll talk about that next time. He's omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent. So to say, man, it's just all about love. No, that will not hold theological water. It's partially true. Here's a real popular one. In fact, I like this, but it's not true. Your breakthrough is on the way. Now, if I preached like that and I just said, you're gonna have a breakthrough in your marriage, in your finances, in your business.

11:20 Oh, man. Pack out arenas. I'd sell millions of more books than I've sold. Just keep it vague. Your breakthrough is coming. What in the heck is that? Again, we're not vague. Yes, I understand technically. God is a God of the breakthrough. Yes, we become a believer. That's a breakthrough. In this series, we'll go, man, I never knew theology. That could be a breakthrough. But to sit there and think, well, I'm going to have a breakthrough and I'll have no more problems. That's false. Oftentimes, God has to break us down to break us through. And think about the Apostle Paul. The Apostle Paul, who was a pretty good Christian.

12:05 It was funny. Let me say it again. The Apostle Paul, who was a pretty good Christian, he wrote two-thirds of the New Testament. Anyway, Paul had a thorn in the flesh. We don't know what it was. Three times. He said, God, heal me. God, heal me. God, heal me. No. What if your breakthrough or your miracle doesn't happen the way you think it should?

12:31 Again, see, we have to be specific here. That's not theologically sound. Here is another one, and we have to be careful when we ever say this. God told me. really God told you and a lot of pastors say that and when they say that it gives them permission to do a lot of things hey stop God told me oh so you're certain God talked to you like he talked to Moses as he received the Ten Commandments. Really? Hmm. I don't believe that. I don't think that holds biblical water. You can say God has impressed upon my spirit and many times, I'm talking about me, I have felt God impress upon my spirit and it's like him speaking to me, but don't just say God told me that causes a lot of theological problems.

13:48 Another one is, the Lord allowed this to happen for you to have a testimony. I remember I interviewed a rapper up here one time, I won't mention his name, and he told me the same thing. And it's like he was glorifying his rebellious, sinful season more than when he became a follower of Christ. And he was like, yeah, God allowed that, so I'll have this platform to, what? No, no, no, you were just sinning, my man.

14:23 See, we have to think. you will prosper and be blessed. I'll just stop there. I'll see you. Man, Ed is so positive. I feel so great. I'm gonna leave here and prosper and be blessed. True. God prospers us. He prospers some of us financially. he prospers some of us with opportunity. He prospers some of us with help. Yes, we would never say that. And God blesses us in those ways. But to limit him there, because see, if I just stop at saying, God wants to prosper you and bless you, if I just stopped there, you would think, oh man, where's my new Lamborghini?

15:18 You know, where's all this money just raining down? That's a very Western-esque vibe. God is a God of the blessings, but go back to the Apostle Paul. Was he blessed when he had the thorn in the flesh? I mean, were Lisa and I blessed three years ago when our oldest daughter suddenly died? Were we prospering? in God's economy, and because of our theology, and because of his power, we were able to come through that. But would you call that blessings? interesting isn't it i found jesus that's another one no my friend you didn't find jesus he found you we we do have a freedom of choice don't get me wrong but he found you and see it's not about me so many of these statements it's about it's about me me it's about me me god's lucky to have me on his team. No. No. God doesn't need anything. Out of his grace and mercy and compassion and love and creativity, he made us to glorify him. So Jesus finds us. And we're going to break that down in this series. People say, well, I believe in Jesus. What does that mean to believe. I became a born again believer. What does that mean? Sometimes people say this, hey man, you know, we're all God's children. Sorry, but no cigars. And I like to smoke cigars now and then.

17:05 we're God's creation. We're not all God's children. We're only God's children when we're born again into the family of God. God just wants me to be happy. a lot of people believe that and they use that as an excuse especially to bolt on their marriage you know uh god wants me to be happy and i'm not happy so i am going to leave my marriage because after all god wants me to be happy no he doesn't no he doesn't god wants you to be and me to be obedient. Happiness is based on happenings. God gives us something much deeper than happiness. He gives us outrageous, contagious joy, a tranquility of the soul. And here's the final one. I can go on and on. I know you've seen this one. He gets us.

18:09 That is cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs. What does that mean? He gets us. Man, you know, God gets me. Yeah, he does. He gets me. He understands me. And I can live like hell, but he gets me. And God wants me to be happy, but he gets me. No, no, I mean, again, technically, I can preach on that and teach on that and show you he gets us and what that really means. But you cannot be nebulous and general and fly at 40,000 feet and never land the plane. We have to land the plane. So let's go back to our outlines.

19:01 Are you ready? and hopefully you know that a lot of people don't understand theology and people that make these statements, they're not being mean or bad or malicious. They're just clueless. So major doctrine, we talked about that, dominant, minor, non-dominant. Assumptions, and this will be an assumption throughout this series and I'm gonna tell you why this is an assumption in this series. The Bible is true and our only absolute standard of truth. Okay. And that's Fellowship Church. Fellowship Church, we are about the Bible. We are under the authority of the inerrant, infallible Word of God. We teach it, and we preach it, and we say it, and we spray it, and we make them feel it. Okay. And everyone's learning theology from knee high to tree high at Fellowship for the next at least six weeks. Also, the God spoken of in the Bible. See, that exists, and he is who the Bible says he is. Next week, what are we talking about? The doctrine of God. You remember Sports Illustrated? You remember when magazines were popular? Remember that? We would take these beautiful photographs of different sports stars, and Sports Illustrated, they had just wonderful photographers, and we would cut out the images.

20:22 a quarterback, the golfer, even table tennis. And we would make collages in our rooms. We would tape these figures on top of each other, and it was really cool. You'd walk in our room and be like, oh, man, it's a sports collage. Whoa, and the more you looked at it, the more you'd see image after image after image, and they were just randomly, that's the key word, taped on top of each other. We can't do that when it comes to theology. We have to have an organized summary of what the entire Bible says about important topics. We can't just cut out some figures and paste it here, paste it there, and go, I like that, I don't like that, I like that, I don't like that. Are you a collage?

21:16 Hopefully, we will change out of that to look at the entire context of Scripture because when it comes to the Word of God, it's easy to take one or two verses and build a theology on those verses. And we're not doing that. We're looking at what the whole Bible says, for example, about salvation. From Genesis to Revelation, the doctrine of salvation. The doctrine of God from Genesis to Revelation. So we want to see the entire context. Why should we know theology? Now it gets fun. We're going to fly. Number one, it's the most important thing we can download. This is it. I went to a shopping center recently, and I walked in this store, and I saw dozens and dozens of moms with their kids, you know, with their mini-me's running around, and they were buying all of these school supplies and clothes.

22:18 And by the way, if you want to get run over, just walk around right now in a parking lot. Those moms are so focused. I mean, they'll put their big Suburban in reverse, and they're backing up no matter what. Just watch out. Now, obviously, women are the most talented. I mean, guys, we're not even close, but I just wanted to say that. We're preparing, though, ladies, aren't we, and kids, for school. there is nothing as important as what we're going to talk about. Nothing. Because this, again, is the foundation. Jesus said you either build your life on the sand or the rock. Number two, it transforms us into disciples. What's a disciple? It is a learner, an incurable learner. It's an apprentice, a disciple.

23:12 That's the second half of the Great Commission. Great Commission, Matthew 28, 19 through 20. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit. And here we go, teaching them to obey, not some things, not the things I like, everything I've commanded you. It's the second part of this. Number three, it takes our decision-making to an elite level. I have a friend of mine when he says elite, he says it that way. Elite. That's elite. And I just thought about that. I don't know why I told you that. It just kind of came into my mind. But decisions as we negotiate the maze of life, decisions are based on our worldview, based on our theology, systematic theology. God, what do you say about this? Number four, it develops our maturity. Maturity. Physical maturity is natural. It just happens. Spiritual maturity has to be intentional. When I was in junior high school, every year they would break up, the boys and the girls, and they would show the boys this film about development, sex education.

24:33 It was a black and white film. The star of this film was named Jim. And the film would start this way. Ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, from boy to man. Ba, ba, ba, ba, ba. The short show that teaches you about puberty. Ba, ba, ba, ba. And then it would show this weird looking guy. and the announcer would go, this is Jim. Notice the pimples on his forehead.

25:11 The sweat stains under his arms. He's going through puberty. He's moving from boy to man. Man, bah, bah, bah. I love that. But one of the frustrating things about the film, we saw it every year, Jim never matured. He always stayed in that one lane. God does not want us to do that. And this series will help us in our spiritual maturity. Hebrews chapter six, verse one says, let us move on, go on to maturity. Number five, it deepens our worship. Everything we do, say, touch, and feel should be about worship. We will worship like we've never worshiped before when we get a handle of theology.

26:05 Obviously, there's a mysterious side to this. No one here can fully comprehend all the things of God. That's why I said earlier, we're gonna talk next week about the communicable and the incommunicable attributes of God. But I'm telling you, our worship will go to another level. Number six, it gives us confidence to defend the faith. I'm not doing this series for you to take this Bible and bash someone over the head. And I'm gonna take my coworker out who's an atheist and I'm just gonna bombard him. I'm gonna give him a headbutt, boom. Come off the top rope, bam. No, no, no, no. This is so we can defend the faith in love, but also with strength and power.

27:01 It's time that we learn to stand and say, here is what I believe. Here is who God is. Here is who the scripture is. I mean, you know what I'm saying too. So anyway, that's kind of something I wanted to say. Now we go over to how. How are we to study theology? Don't worry, we're almost done. We're spurring the horse to the barn. That means we're almost done. Now, as a speaker, you should never say that. Did you know that? Never. I said that just to make this point. When you're giving a business presentation, this is free of charge, don't ever say, finally, don't do that. Or in conclusion, or don't do this either. You stop, then you go, any questions?

27:54 when you say that, you're like, well, I wasn't really clear and I don't know what I'm talking about, so do you have any questions? So don't do that. Anyway, how are we to study theology? I don't know why I said that, but I did. Through prayer, through prayer, through prayer. God, what are you saying to me? Pray about this. Study it in.

28:16 Pray it through and live it out. Next, through precision. I love my dermatologist man this guy's a cool cat he really is I went to the dermatologist recently because you know I spent a lot of time out in the sun and it was back in the day where no one talked about skin cancer I put baby oil all over me just have tanning contests with Lisa but she always won she says this dark skin I don't So I have these spots and stuff that need to be checked. So I find myself in the examining room just sitting there waiting. You know how you do in the doctor's office. It's a lot of waiting. Have you noticed that? Just kind of wait. So I'm just looking around. I've always noticed things that, I don't know, this is just me, that are kind of weird.

29:11 So I'm looking up at the lights. I'm thinking, huh, just basic can lighting, you know, diffused lighting, whatever. Then all of a sudden you hear the doctor approaching. Ed, hey, doctor, how's it going? I go, it's going fine. And I glance and I see this laser thing on the table and effortlessly, he just picks that laser up. How's their church going? I mean, he just starts in a conversation.

29:43 Well, I was so stupid. We had this big conference two days later and when I show up, I mean, I look horrible. Well, people are like, what's wrong? we're not diffused light when it comes to theology. We are laser beam. Our church is a laser beam church. It matters what you say about theology. That brings us to the next point. How are we to study theology? Through prayer, through precision, through partnership, together in the local church. It's the best place to learn it. Also through purpose. God, what are you saying to me about theology today? And I'll tell you again, there is no way that Lisa and I could have gone through what we've gone through over the last three years had it not been for theology.

30:45 Theology. and then through perspective, perspective. There's something called the retina and there's something called the cortex. So we see something that images reflected back to our retina upside down. But our cortex puts it right side up. And why are people so jacked up? Why is our world so crazy? Why do people who seem to be smart, why are they making these dumb decisions? They're seeing upside down. When we have systematic theology, when we have the right doctrine, the Holy Spirit of God turns it right side up. I don't know about you, but I'm ready.

31:41 I am ready to see things right side up because when we see things right side up, we will know theology. Dear Heavenly Father, as our heads are bowed and eyes are closed, I want to just pray especially for our church as we tackle this difficult, this heady topic. God, you give us your power.

32:22 You give us your discernment through prayer and precision and partnership and purpose and perspective to change, to learn, and to become the kind of people that you desire us to become. Others of you here, I know you pray with me, but others of you here, maybe you've never asked Jesus Christ to come into your life. As I mentioned earlier in the message, we have a freedom of choice. Yes, God is everywhere. Jesus is everywhere. The Holy Spirit is everywhere. but you can ask Jesus right now to come into your life. He wants you to find him, but really he has found you. Well, Ed, how do I do that? You just simply say this, just say, Lord, I admit to you, just say that with me, that I'm a sinner, that I have fallen short.

33:21 And I believe that you sent Jesus Christ to die on the cross for my sins, to rise again. I believe, Jesus, you live righteously. You died sacrificially and rose bodily. And right now, I ask you, Jesus Christ, to come into my life. You may be up in the balcony. You could be down here. Just pray that prayer. others of us here again need to ask the Lord to just clear and clean the decks. And God, I ask you humbly to stretch us and to mold us and to make us into people who know your word and why we believe what we believe. We ask all these things in Christ's name.