The Trinity

1. Oh, what a joy it is to be here today. And what a beautiful Community of Faith here. You have something special here. I hope you appreciate that. I bring you greetings from our Church in Georgia, USA, and we are so glad to be here. We offer our love to you, what a dynamic person. I wish I could preach like her. But I can’t. And Brian is so engaging, always a good word. Bothe of them have preached in our Church. And both brought incredible words.
2. Amen, are you ready for the word? I want to begin with one Scripture, 2 Corinthians 13:14. This verse is very special to us We proclaim it every Sunday in our Church. It should be special to you because Paul wrote it to your neighbors. “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” Amen.
3. I want you to do something. I want you right now close your eyes, and imagine God. I’ll give you a moment. OK, now look at me. What did He look like? What did you think? What image do you have in your heart? It is so important how you see God. A couple of years ago we planned a sermon series. It was about the basics of our faith. And each message was a question. The first was, ‘Are you a Christian?’ We taught on the Gospel. The second one was ‘Can you trust the Bible?’ And it was on the Word of God. The third was ‘Who do you say Jesus is?’ And we taught about Christ.
4. But as we planned the fourth one was a little different. ‘What is God like?’ And the plan was to teach on the Trinity. Can I be honest with you? I was hoping one of the other preachers got that. How do you preach on the Trinity? We all believe it. We don’t really understand it. So let me preach on Jesus. And let Brian teach on the Trinity. But I was chosen to teach on the Trinity. And preparing for that message changed my life. I only have a few moments with you this morning. But I hope that sharing how it changed my life, will change your life.
5. I asked you how do you imagine God? And another question is, ‘What is God actually like?’ The difference between those two, the difference between how God really is, and how He is in my heart, is very important. The difference in your heart may be robbing you of joy and so many other things. Let me just say it this way, it’s expensive to have the wrong image of God in your heart, or even an insufficient one.
6. You know, how did you get that image anyway? Could it be that you had some help? If your image of God is not enough, could it be that even the enemy of God helped form that image? He’s a thief, and I think he’s going to steal what I’m going to tell you today.
7. Do I want to talk about the Trinity. Probably, in your mind when you imagine God, you saw a single person God. Who will admit that this morning? So, what’s the problem with that? I’m not saying that sometimes I speak to the Father, and sometimes to the Son, sometimes to the Holy Spirit. But the image of God in my heart, what’s wrong with that being a single person? Why does it matter? Thinks of all the false gods, that you’ve ever heard of. Every one of them is a single person god, isn’t it? Am I right? Even the ancient Greek Pantheon, Zeus, Poseidon, and Athena, they were all single person gods. All the Roman gods, single person Gods. The false gods of the Bible, Ashtoreth, Baal, Dagon, all single person gods. The god of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, ouch, is that OK?
8. Do you love me? I love you too. The god of the Jehovah’s Witnesses is a single person god. The god of Islam, is also a single person god, do you still love me? The god of satanism is a single person god. When we have an image of a single person God, it’s like we’re trying to draw Him down among other gods. But my God is not like any other god. Hallelujah, He’s greater than any other god. He is not just one person. My God is 3 persons – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. All 3 God, it’s not easy to understand, but we know that it is true.
9. So, what is the doctrine of the Trinity? If I can teach you just a moment. The doctrine of the Trinity can be summarized in 3 statements: (1) God is 3 Persons, (2) Each Person is God, (3) There is one God. It takes all 3 of those statements to describe God. God is 3 Persons, each of those Persons id fully God, but there is only one God. Our Jewish friends and Islamic theologians, they argue about that. They say, ‘What about Deuteronomy, the Shema’? ‘Hear Oh Israel, our God is one God.’ It does say that. But that doesn’t take away all the rest of Scripture. The ‘One’ in that verse is not a mathematical ‘single’. It’s a ‘unity’. ‘Hear Oh Israel, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are ‘One’ – the Shema. We have ‘One’ God.
10. Some Scriptures very quickly. Genesis 1, ‘God said let “Us make man”’. ‘Let Us…’ Not ‘Let Me’, but ‘Let Us’. There’s more than one Person, right? Now, some people are saying that He is talking about God and the Angels – but Angels are not creators. Only God is a creator. This does not make sense, I don’t know if it translates, but some people say it’s the majestic royal language. When the king says, ‘Today we’ll honor this person’, he really means, ‘I’m going to honor him.’ But he says ‘we’ as a royal saying. But I don’t believe that the Word of God is doing that. I believe God meant what He said. ‘Let Us make man in our image’. When Adam failed, the Lord said, ‘But behold the man has become like one of Us’. At the tower of Babel, ‘He said, “let Us go down, and confuse their language”’. I love Isaiah 6:8, because it has both in it, ‘He said, “Who shall I send, who will go for Us”’.
11. God is three persons. We go into the New Testament. ‘Go and make disciples of all nations, and baptize them of the Father, and the Son, and of the Holy Spirit’. Amen? The verse we read at the beginning, ‘The grace of the Lord Jesus, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit’. One of the clearest places in Matthew 3, when Jesus was baptized, the heavens opened, the Spirit pf God descended upon Him from heaven, and the voice of the Father spoke from heaven and said, ‘This is My Son in whom I am well pleased’. You have the Father in heaven, the Son on earth, and the Holy Spirit coming down. God is three Persons.
12. Listen, it’s important to have the right image of God in your heart. Because your image of God, will determine your pursuit of Godliness. I was raised in a church where God was a ‘Ruler’, He made rules. So how did that church pursue Godliness. With rules. Don’t wear this, don’t drink that, don’t go there, don’t wear this earing. How many of you know that church. That’s what I was raised in. We thought if we obeyed the rules, we would be Godly. But that’s not how it works. We’re Godly because of His righteousness, Amen. I’m Godly because I know Him. And because I know Him, Godliness comes out of me as fruit.
13. I heard a sad story, not long ago, that may not even be appropriate to tell. But I’m going to tell it anyway because you love me. OK? I was reading the news, and it said, ‘Pastor returns to porn’. And I said ‘What!’ So, I read it. It was a female Pastor; God had delivered her from the sex industry. She had met a Pastor and married him; she had entered the ministry, for, I think years. But one day she divorced her husband, and she went back into the porn industry. The news interviewed her. They said, ‘Why did you do that?’ She said, ‘Because I could live up to the rules.’ Don’t wear this, don’t wear pants, don’t wear makeup, don’t drink any wine. She said, ‘Couldn’t live up to it, so I just left and came back.’ How sad that is. Because that was a church that was rule based, because their God in their heart was just a rule God. I have other examples that I won’t take time to do.
14. But how do we really know what God is really like? We look at Jesus, Amen? Jesus says, ‘If you’ve seen Me, you’ve seen the Father.’ He’s God’s Son; even though He’s God’s Son, says something. It says that God is a Father; He’s not just a ruler. Aren’t you glad He’s a Father today? I’m so glad that my son doesn’t see me as a ruler; my natural son doesn’t see me as a ruler, but he sees me as a father. Amen. God is three Persons.
15. I’ve skipped so many of my notes, I lost myself. Let me read you a quote. CS Lewis, that we know, a theologian, spent his life trying to describe God, and this is how he described Hm, ‘In Christianity, God is not a static thing, He’s not even one Person, but He’s a dynamic, pulsating, active, a life, almost a kind of drama’; ‘almost’ he writes. If you won’t think me irreverent, He’s a kind of dance. God is a dance? The church I was raised in would not accept that! Because they didn’t believe in dancing. We had a joke; do you love me? We taught against premarital sex, because it led to dancing. You too? But God is a dance, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. If He were here today, He wouldn’t be an old man with a white beard, with a stick, ready to whop you if you messed up. He wouldn’t be the picture of Jesus that you see, very meek looking, holding a lamb. No if He would be here today, He would be dancing; He would be moving in and out. Dancing around each other.
16. The Bible says that they love one another. They honor one another; they prefer one another. And it’s a dynamic thing. The Father loves the Son and the Son returns the love. The Father loves the Holy Spirit; the Holy Spirit loves the Son. Early in the Christian Church some people would say that there is no Trinity. A theologian named Arius – there’s only one God. Jesus is not God, He’s a created Son, and it began to sway most of God’s Church. But God raised up a hero, and his name was Athanasius, and Athanasius said, ‘Wait a minute, let’s think about this. God is love is He not?’ And they all said ‘Yes’ like you did. ‘If God is love, what was He doing before creation? Who was He loving?’ And they said, ‘Oh, Oh’. And thankfully that doctrine was put down. And we have believed ever since in a Trinity.
17. I want you to renew the image in your heart. When I began to study this to teach in that series, it became so wonderful to me that I had a Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Up to that time, we had quoted the verse that we began with every Sunday, but I started to say it every day, and that is my assignment to you. Every day, pray this prayer. 2 Corinthians 13:14. Jesus I thank You for Your grace. What is grace? It’s Jesus doing what I can’t do. It’s Jesus instead of me. It’s Jesus with me. Jesus above me; Jesus behind me; Jesus around me; Jesus instead of me – it’s Jesus. I’m crucified yet I live. But not I, but Christ lives in me. Thank you for your grace, Jesus. But then I go ‘Father thank You for Your love’. The Father’s love, oh, how He loves you, He really does. More than you can understand.
18. Maybe you didn’t have a loving father, but He is a loving Father. And He loves you more than you can understand. Not just when you’re good, He loves you when you mess up. I fact He may love you more in that moment. God, I messed up again – I love you. He loves you so much. So, I have the Grace of Jesus every day. I walk in the love and provision of God the Father, and have the help of the Holy Spirit every day. He guides me, teaches me, gives me gifts, He gives me power, power to live. I have a three Person God, Amen? And I have all three with me every day. Not one God way off in heaven, not one Person, way off in heaven, but three persons that are with me every day. Hallelujah.
19. I want to do something. It’s OK, do you love me? Are we familiar with the song, ‘Holy, Holy, Holy? It was composed by a man called Isaac Watts. But Isaac didn’t write this song, he got the song from heaven. Because the Word says that night and day, there is Holy, holy, holy. How many holies? Three holies. Why do you think there’s three holies? Hallelujah; because there’s three Persons. Holy is the Father, holy is the Son, holy is the Spirit and they’re just dancing, loving each other.
20. When you came in though you had a one Person image of God. And your song sounded like this. But when you leave here, the song will sound differently. That was my life, 2 years ago my life was a single person God. And I thought it was good. But when I discovered the power of a three Person God in my life, my trust grew, my prayer life grew and my life changed into this – a full song. But it didn’t stop there, how many of you know that God invited us in? He invited us into that community and this is what God wanted – a really full song. Hallelujah Amen, just a single-handed song and then add us – a full both handed song.
21. When I was preparing the message 2 years ago, I had 2 not visions but, images of God imprinted on my heart. And one was standing in a waterfall and there were different levels. It came over the top and it went over another rock, and then it came over me. That’s why God created us. Why did He create us – because He needed us? No, we sang that earlier, He doesn’t need us. Is it because He wanted someone to rule over? No, it wasn’t to rule. Oh, I know one. He wanted some servants. Some slaves to do His work right? No, that’s a false God. Why did He create you? I’m very serious now. What was your main purpose for being born? Your main purpose to be born was to receive God’s love. That’s why you were made. His love overflowed. And it flowed down upon us. And the other image that He showed me of a dance. Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and we were in the dance. Because Jesus invited us to the dance, Amen? Jesus purchased our ticket for the dance. Jesus brought me to the dance, presented me to the Father, filled me with His Spirit, and now I’m dancing too.
22. But I look out at my community, and I see dying people, thirsty people, sad people, and they need to know that the ticket has already been purchased for them to come into the dance, to come under the waterfall. ‘If any man is thirsty, let him come to Me’ Jesus said. I’ll cause flowers to bloom in your desert. So, every day, I stand in the shower, and I just feel God’s love. My water bill has gone up higher. And right there I prayed, ‘Thank You Jesus for Your grace, thank You Father for Your love and thank You Holy Spirit for Your help today.’
23. This is such a simple message, but it can be so powerful in your life. Practice the Trinity over the next few days. In fact, I have 5 quick points to close with. (1) Nurture the image of the Triune God in your heart, and so, we’ve already talked about that. Just make it a priority. It’s OK to just talk to the Father, or the Son, or the Holy Spirit. But never forget all three Persons are God. If you asked somebody, ‘Do you believe in God?’ and they say yes, ‘What God?’ Know what God you believe in, Amen. (2) Surrender to and trust in Jesus and let Him bring you to the dance. Amen, He’s going to take care of you. Another life verse for me and Debbie, Proverbs 3, ‘Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Don’t lean on your own understanding. But in all your ways trust Him. And He will direct your path.’ We pray it every day. (3) Shun single person life and embrace community. What I’m saying is this, if God doesn’t do anything alone, if He lives in community, why would I try to do anything alone and not engage community? The most Godly thing you can do is embrace community with one another. Oh, I hope you realize the treasure you have in this community right here. Pour your heart into it. Don’t be afraid to love. Don’t be afraid to be vulnerable. (4) Turn your attention outward away from yourself. The three Persons of God are always deferring the other. The Father honors the Son, the Son honors the Father. Don’t turn inward on yourself. Turn outward towards others. Live toward others. (5) Allow God’s love to overflow you. The Bible says that I as a man am head of my family, does that mean I’m the boss? No! It means I’m the leader, and God wants me to get into His waterfall of love, let it flow through me, flow into my wife, it flows from her and into our children and flows into the world. Amen.

I don’t know if I did a good job at teaching this, but I think you get the idea. God is three Persons. All three are with you every day. When you wake up in the morning, Jesus thank You for Your grace, Father thank You for Your love, Holy Spirit thank You for Your help. Let’s go do life together. In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.