BELIEVE- chapter 1 “God” Reinbeck UMC 8/29/16

BELIEVE- chapter 1 “God”

Reinbeck UMC

8/29/16

 (First slide is introductory video)

I am very excited to begin this series of messages and studies called “BELIEVE.” There are three parts to the series.

 Over the winter, we will have a 10- week series called “ACT” and we will ask the question “What should we do?”

 A year from now we will have a  10 week series called “BE” in which we will ask the question “what are we becoming?”

 Today we will start the 10-week series we call THINK--- in other words “what do we believe?”

Therefore, I ask you this morning--- what do you believe about God? Use one word (that no one else has used) to describe God…<<< >>>

You might think we would start with “Does God exist?” We could, but that is not where the Bible starts. The Bible starts with the presupposition that God is: “In the Beginning God…”

 That is a good place for us to start because the vast majority of Americans believe in A GOD: 89% according to pew research.  Worldwide only 2-8% of the population self-identifies as atheist.  The vast majority of people believe in A GOD. The question is, "what god? “

The first commandment doesn’t deny the existence of other gods, but commands us not to put any of them before the one true God: “You shall have no other gods before me”

If you look around there are a whole pantheon of gods from Baal to Bacchus, from Allah to Zeus. There are an estimated 4200 religions in the world, so I guess we have concocted 4200 options. God says, “Okay.” but there are none like me. “You shall have no other gods before me”

I don’t really think our problem is other religious. Our problem is much closer to home. Our biggest problem today is the gods that we fashion ourselves right here in our lives. Just as the Israelites had their golden calf, we set up all kinds of gods from material things to mother earth, from fame to friends, from the games we play and watch to the careers we chose… the most important thing in our lives is our god. People worship all kinds of gods out there.

Some say if you want to know who someone’s god is, look at their check book or credit cards statement… where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. I say if you want to identify someone’s god, look at his or her calendar. How do they choose to spend their time? In our culture, I would say that we have more “I” worshippers than anything. I want this, I believe that, I deserve more, I, I, I, it is that “I infection” I talked about a few weeks ago.

Look at how you spent your money and your time and ask yourself what in your life gets priority? That is your god, and you have to ask yourself which god you will serve? The scripture from Joshua today asks us that question.

I encourage you to buy a copy of BELIEVE for just $5. Read it at home and bring it with you each week. I will be referring to it. So if you picked up your copy, turn to page 18 right now.

Joshua says “I am about to die, (which he does on page 20) but remember what God has done bringing you to this place.” Then he remembers salvation history starting with Abraham, then Egypt, then the exodus, then the wondering in the wilderness for 40 years, and finally the conquering of the Promised Land. In the bold print on page 20, he comes to the heart of the passage. He says in effect, “we have come to a fork in the road and you have to choose one way or another.” You can’t have it both ways, you can’t take both roads, you can’t continue to be double minded, you can’t continue the way you are. Either you are with God, or you are against God.

He gives them the choice saying, “If serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living.”

 Notice, joshua leves them the option. “Chose this day whom you will serve”

•           The God of your ancestors?

•           The gods from egypt?

•           The gods of the Amorites?

•           The gods of all the stuff you own... or want to own.

•           The god of soccer, or football, or whatever your grandkisds are playing this week?

•           The god of your Job?

•           The god of your calendar and to do list?

•           The god of power, prestige, and popularity?

•           The God of your own need to be needed?

•           The God of your own wishes and wants?

•           Or the God of the Bible?

You chose whicever  god you will

It is fascinating to me that God gives freedom of choice. If I were God… which is always a dangerous thing to say… but if I were God, I wouldn’t give you a choice! However, God gives you the choice – if you want to go your way, okay! You chose whicever  god you will

 “But as for me,” Joshua says, “as for me and my house we will serve the LORD.”

 How about you? Whom will you serve? To what god will you give your life? To what deity will you bow down? What power will you serve? Which god will you serve?

I’ll tell you, as for me… I will serve the Lord, the God of the Bible.

I believe in the God of the Bible.

           

 Who is this God, though? We don’t get to know a new neighbor or friend overnight. And God is no different. It really takes a lifetime to know God, if even then. But what do we know about this God in whom we believe?

There isn’t enough ink in the world… there aren’t enough books in the library... and there aren’t enough hours in the human life to explain fully who God is, but one word might come close: TRINITY. 

The word trinity is not used in the Bible, but it refers to the 3-fold nature of God: Father, Son, and Holy spirit. God is one and the same time God is three. Three in one and one in three.

It is hard to get our heads around the trinity and people have made a lot of theological messes over the years.

The first mistake is called modalism.  Modalism says that first there was the Father. Then the Father went away and God came as the son. And when the Son ascended into heaven God came as the Holy spirit. But the three modes did not exist at the same time.   Modalism, however contradicts scripture, which says that the Word (the son) was with God (the Father) from the very beginning. “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” If God was Father, then son, and now Holy spirit, to whom was Jesus praying when he prayed, “our Father who art in heaven,” or “Father forgive them for they know not what they do. “ NO, MODALISM DOES NOT WORK.

The second MISTAKE is called subordinationism. Subordinationism says that God the Father is the one great God and there are two other inferior divinities. If you’ve ever thought that God the Father is the “main” God then you have been guilty of subordinationism. This idea surfaced to explain how God could keep himself protected from suffering and death. And yet, Scripture tells us that Jesus, “made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!  Jesus also tells us “if you see me you have seen the Father”  and “I will be with you always.”  No, subordinationism doesn’t’ work.

Finally, folks have tried tritheism, or three Gods. Tritheism holds that the Father, Son, and Spirit are three distinct Gods that make up together the object of the Christian faith. But this flies in the face of the Shema, one of Judaism’s most important prayers Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.

No, trinity, or the triunity of God is unlike modalism, or subordinationism or tritheism.

So what does the trinity teach us about God?

 The Triunity of God means, among other things, that God is:

•           out there,

•           right there and

•           in here all at the same time. (The big word for that is omnipresence)

God is at one and the same moment:

•           the transcendent creator of the universe,

•           the immanent personal savior who said, “I have called you friends,’

and the mysterious indwelling spark of God that dwells in each of us, lighting fires above the disciples’ heads on the first Pentecost, strangely warming the heart of John Wesley, and gently purifying my heart making me into the person God wants me to be.

Triunity: Out there… right there... In here.

 The other lesson the Trinity teaches us that this Father, son, and Holy spirit are in perfect, intimate, divine relationship with one another. When we say that God is trinity, we are saying that the God is a God of relationship. … Relationship between Father and Son, between Father and Spirit and between Spirit and Son.

•           God said, “Let us make people in our own image” Us? Our? Yes, God is a triune God in relationship.

•           Jesus says in John 14, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? “Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? “ God in relationship.

•           Jesus Says both, “I will leave you a comforter” and “I will be with you to the end of the age.” God is a God of relationship.

To say god is trinity is to say that the God is is way ouyt there, Right there, and in here, ... the God whose very essence is relationship, desperately wants to be in relationship with you. That is why God throughout the Bible went through extreme lengths to be in covenant, or relationship with his people. God is a God who wants to be in relationship. “Love the Lord your God  And God calls us into relatinship with one another ‘and love your neighbor as yourself. . Relationship. With God and with eachother. 

That is, I think, the heart of  what it means to declare “I BELIEVE THE GOD OF THE BIBLE IS THE ONLY TRUE GOD, FATHER, Son AND HOLY SPIRIT.”

 Let me offer you a challenge and an encouragement

First, the challenge… decide this day whom you will serve! What or whom will be your God?

Second let me encourage you that saying “I believe the God of the Bible is the only true God, Father, Son and Holy spirit.” Really does make a difference in your life. Besides knowing where you are going when this life is over,

•           You know with assurance, that when the darkness of life consumes you, you personally know the God who said let there be light!

•           . When the storms of this life attack you, you personally know the God calms the storms.

•           . When fear consumes you, you personally know the God who is the comforter, who says fear not, I am with you.

•           When you are weak, you personally know the God who is greater than all the powers of life and death, the God who raised Jesus From the grave loves you and wants more than anything your love in return.

 If you will now… please declare with me…

Say together…

I BELIEVE THE GOD OF THE BIBLE IS THE ONLY TRUE GOD, FATHER, SON, AND HOLY SPIRIT.

May the love of God, and the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the fellowship of the Holy spirit be with you all.