Transcript
You know, the sad thing is when you use the word "doctrine", many people think these are just abstract truths for seminary hallways. I just need to know Jesus and love Jesus. And the doctrines of the word of God, the things that the Bible teaches us are for our lives.
Every Doctrine Forms a Culture
Every doctrine forms a culture for your living. This is God explaining who He is. This is God explaining who I am. This is God explaining what life is about. This is God explaining meaning and purpose. This is God explaining values that are worth living for. So every doctrine is not abstract, distant, and impersonal. Every doctrine is practical. It's meant to guide me and so, God blesses us with these truths.
And I think what has happened is there has developed in the history of a church a separation between our confessional theology and our functional theology. Well, there shouldn't be that dichotomy because of the nature of faith. Faith is not just something you do with your brain. Faith is a commitment of your heart that changes the way you live everyday.
If you look at Hebrews 11, that chapter that defines faith, you don't read what those people believed. The whole chapter is how they lived because the way you live really defines what you truly believe. So doctrine is intensely practical. It's a loving gift of God, so that we can understand who we are, understand what life is about, understand what is broken around us, understand how it gets fixed, understand the nature of God and in so doing, be able to live the way that we were designed to live.
