Barriers to Delighting in the Trinity

[0:00] How great is our God. There's a power in understanding our God.

[0:13] If you have been paying attention for the last three weeks, Pastor Dave has preached an excellent sermon on the Trinity. Now, I know for a lot of you, when you think of the Trinity, you think of Father, Son, Holy Spirit.

[0:32] Some of you might wrestle with how does that all work? How does that affect my life? And some of you might be thinking, I don't understand it.

[0:48] It's there. I don't know really what it means to me, but I accept it. But as you learn through Dave's teaching, I'm quite sure that there's more to the Trinity than you realize.

[1:02] The Trinity isn't something that is important because it's a part of God or an attribute or a function of God.

[1:13] The fact of the matter is the Trinity is God. And what I mean by this is God would not be God without us understanding Him as Trinity.

[1:28] In fact, there is no God without God the Father. There is no God without God the Son. And there is no God without God the Holy Spirit. But Dave demonstrated quite clearly that we see the Trinity in the work of creation, in the ministry of Jesus Christ, in the redemption and salvation of man.

[1:53] And finally, how the Trinity is involved in the building and the working and empowering the mission of the church.

[2:06] To have no Trinity is to have no faith. And for some of you, this might be a new idea, a new teaching.

[2:21] You might be surprised as this. You might say, well, why haven't I heard this before? I know many people say, hey, let's kind of understand the Trinity like a mountain climber climbs a mountain, right?

[2:38] When you ask a mountain climber why he climbed the mountain, because it was there. Why do we study the Trinity? Because it was there. No, no, no. It is far more greater and grossing than that.

[2:51] And one of the real reasons why we need to have a right understanding of the Trinity is because when we don't understand the Trinity, it messes up our thinking.

[3:03] It messes up our view of God. It messes up ultimately not just our view of God, but how we relate to God and how we relate to others.

[3:16] The great reformer John Calvin simply wrote, our sinful human minds are like perpetual factory of idols.

[3:29] And what he meant by that is that we invent idols all the time. Our minds. And if we're not focused on the proper orb of who God is, our thinking can go askew.

[3:48] It can go in wrong directions because we do not have that proper understanding. Most cults, you can get down to the fact that they, because they don't understand the Trinity, there's these twisted thought processes which lead to twisted beliefs and sadly, despairingly, twisted actions.

[4:19] All because they're not understanding God as God presents himself in our Bibles. The fact of the matter is we constantly distort the nature of God in our minds.

[4:37] We tend to either make him out more than who he is or less than he is. And the way we purify our thinking on this is understand the Trinity.

[4:52] I believe at the core of my heart that understanding the Trinity is vital to understanding the Christian faith. Vital. The relationships between the members of the Trinity provide for us models for our relationships.

[5:09] We see those relationships in our home, in our church with how we conduct ourselves with one another. Dave taught clearly that within the Trinity we find perfect unity, perfect harmony, perfect delight, and perfect love.

[5:34] Is this not an aspect of God that we should be mindful to know and understand more?

[5:47] Should this not be an area to understand rather than just to put it aside because there's some complexity to it? The fact of the matter, in the Trinity we find a very giving God.

[6:02] We find a God who gives us his Son where we find redemption. We find a God who gives us his Spirit which fills us with God's delight for Jesus, for the church, and for the mission of the church.

[6:17] And it is incredibly beautiful and is incredibly wonderful. And because the doctrine of the Trinity is one of the most important distinguishing doctrines of the Christian faith and therefore deserving our full attention and application, I would encourage you to go back and re-listen to those sermons.

[6:38] Take notes. Work with the outline. You see, this is what makes our faith distinct. No Trinity, no Christian faith.

[6:50] No Trinity, there is no loving God. No Trinity, there is no God who desires a relationship. And if we have no Trinity, there is absolutely no purpose to this creation.

[7:06] Now this morning, I want to further what Dave spoke on. And as you'll note in Dave's final sermon, he talked about what it meant to delight in the Trinity.

[7:18] To delight in the Trinity. Today, I want to speak on barriers that we have that causes us to not delight in the Trinity.

[7:29] To not see the beauty of God. To not be content with God. To not be joyful with God. To not take pleasure with God. To not be satisfied with God.

[7:44] I want to talk about some of those barriers that we have. And yes, some of us have those barriers. At Squamish Baptist Church, I'm just not talking to someone who might be listening in from some other part of the world.

[7:59] But some of us who have been walking in the faith for a long tens and tens of years can have this barrier. Or one of these barriers which at some point causes us to not be solely satisfied with God.

[8:24] To not find our joy in God. Where we don't find our pleasure in God.

[8:41] Or to use Dave's word, that we don't delight in God.

[8:52] So the first barrier that we have to delighting in God is that we do not know God.

[9:05] And I'm not just talking about the aspect of salvation. I'm talking about believers in Jesus Christ who are not knowing their Lord and Savior.

[9:21] But let me give you an example of how easy it is for us to put our beliefs, our understanding on God.

[9:33] I'm going to give you a quote. This quote is from Christopher Hitchens. Christopher Hitchens was a famed English American author. And he was a known religious critic and an atheist.

[9:47] And he explains why he doesn't believe in God. But I want you to see clearly how he puts his own beliefs, his own understandings upon God.

[9:58] And he just says, I think the idea of God would be rather awful if it was true. If there was a permanent, total, round-the-clock, divine supervision on everything you did, you would never have a waking or sleeping moment when you weren't being watched and controlled and supervised by some celestial entity from the moment of your conception to the moment of your death.

[10:30] It would be like living in North Korea. See, for Hitchens, God is the ruler and not so much.

[10:40] And some would say he believes that God is the Stalin in the sky or the big brother who has to see and control everything.

[10:53] And truthfully, who in their right mind would ever want to follow such a God? See, this is why we've been studying the attributes of God.

[11:04] Yes, God is omnipresent. But within God's perfect omnipresence, we find his perfect love. We find his perfect justice.

[11:15] We find his perfect mercy. It's incredible what we find, his perfect holiness. We're not limiting God to one point of view.

[11:29] You see, when Hitchens creates this God, his mind is so mixed up, he thinks the worst of man and gives those qualities to an all-powerful being.

[11:49] And that's a God. And who would want to worship that God? See, the reality is there's only one person that can tell us about God.

[12:04] That person is God himself. We are incapable of defining God. The fact of the matter is God is sovereign in his self-revelation.

[12:17] We need God to show us who God is. If you notice in your readings of the Bible, it is God who always names himself.

[12:29] He doesn't appear, does something mighty and allows Moses or Abraham or anyone else to name him. They are so stunned by him, they recognize their inability to name him.

[12:46] In the Old Testament, we understand that he's known as Elohim. God over all. We also know him as Yahweh. The covenant making, the relational God, personal God, dare I say.

[13:03] What this means is you don't get to know God unless God reveals himself to you. We may see evidence of God. We can look at this creation, the mountains, the beautiful things in nature.

[13:16] But if God doesn't reveal himself to us, we are confounded to create a God of our own imagination. That's how we come up with Allah.

[13:31] Or the Greeks, Zeus. Or in fact, Christopher Hitchens actually described the God Marduk, which was a Babylonian God.

[13:43] Who saw mankind as his slaves. Just think of a God who existed for a thousand years on his own, in no relationship.

[13:55] All of a sudden appears and want to make mankind. He's got no conceivably way to relate to them. The only thing he can do is want to control them.

[14:08] You see, the plan of salvation is pretty simple. Ephesians 1, 4, 5 says, Even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world.

[14:24] He was preparing before we even arrived that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoptions as son through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of his will.

[14:43] We know it's no cosmic accident. But this was a God who planned, as Dave pointed out, they met before we were even created.

[14:56] And planned out this eternity. And God predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ.

[15:07] And what was our condition? Ephesians 2, 1, 2. We were dead in our trespasses and sins. We can't see God. In fact, 2 Corinthians 4, 4 says, The God of this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

[15:35] You see, the first barrier that we have in delighting in God is our complete inability to see God. To not know God.

[15:45] And even when some are led to salvation, who come to believe in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, they take those first baby steps, but then they cease to grow.

[15:59] They don't persist in knowing God. And then later on, they're the ones that are always having trouble making sense of this world, making sense of this life.

[16:10] And very often you do not find great delight. There's no joy in loving God.

[16:24] You see, you may see evidence for God. You can look at Him. But you will never understand Him.

[16:36] The second barrier for delighting in the Trinity is not understanding how intimate the Trinity is to our salvation.

[16:47] And this is where we get caught up in Jesus Christ, God the Father, or the Holy Spirit. We can get completely out of whack with worshiping one aspect of our God while forgetting the other two aspects.

[17:04] The biggest example, we have brothers and sisters that make the biggest to-do about the Holy Spirit. And if they're not seeing a movement or work of the Holy Spirit through some manifestation of the gifts on a weekly basis, they're distressed.

[17:23] When the reality is when we study God's Word, the Holy Spirit is all about Jesus. It's all about Jesus. His whole focus is to be put on Jesus.

[17:34] Because Jesus is the Redeemer. The one who God is glorifying. And that is who is meant to get the glory.

[17:46] You see, when we look at the aspect of salvation, let's be honest. Sin messes us up. We think we know things when we really do not know things.

[17:57] We were created, and you've heard us speak about this before, to be receivers of knowledge. Receivers of knowledge. We were never, ever created to be givers of knowledge.

[18:13] We've always been created to be receivers of knowledge. We were created to be totally, absolutely reliant on God.

[18:25] In fact, the definition of Christian maturity is the complete opposite of every aspect of maturity in this world.

[18:36] We look at our kids. They're getting mature. They walk away from us as parents. Maturity, for us as believers, is moving closer to Christ.

[18:52] It's wanting to look more and more like him. To act more and more like him. To be one with him.

[19:04] We were far apart to start. And now we want to go as close as we can. We want to be totally reliant on God.

[19:16] For our knowledge and our salvation and our wisdom. For some of us, we think this is humiliating.

[19:29] Like we're almost embarrassed to be reliant on someone. How often we are humanly trying to break the bonds that bind us to whatever.

[19:44] When in Jesus Christ, we want to build those binds. Create those binds to him.

[19:56] Fact is, we are a proud people. We want our actions to count for something. Even in salvation. We want some claim on Christ.

[20:10] But yet when we read through the New Testament and we see these introductions. These apostles use these words as such as, I am a slave to Jesus.

[20:20] I am a bondservant of Jesus. I am a servant to the Most High King. Everything. Everything. Is subservient to God.

[20:34] And we see this working in salvation. This Trinity works so perfectly. We saw that in Ephesians 1. For as he chose us before God started the plan.

[20:47] Even though we were dead and our mind was lost. God revealed himself to us. Ephesians 1.7 says, In him, that is Jesus, we have redemption through his blood.

[21:06] The forgiveness of our trespasses. According to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us in all wisdom, in all insight.

[21:21] So, God chose us, gave us to the Son. And the Son's role was to die on that cross to redeem us.

[21:33] And then we continue reading in Ephesians 1.13. And when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of salvation, and believed in him, you were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit.

[21:48] So, those are our two first barriers. One is we don't understand God. Who he is. That's why I'm preaching this sermon series on the attributes of God.

[22:02] My heart's desire, if there's any barrier in your life, I pray that at least one of those sermons will destroy that barrier.

[22:14] The second barrier is not quite understanding salvation, which is pretty simple. God is holy. We are not. We need a mediator in the name of Jesus Christ.

[22:26] And through the work of the Holy Spirit opening our eyes, we can testify to the goodness of Jesus Christ who died for me, a horrible sinner.

[22:42] So, those are the first two barriers. The third barriers I thought was kind of interesting when I thought about that. The third barrier to delighting in the Trinity is not knowing how to delight in the Trinity.

[22:57] Right? The third barrier to delighting in the Trinity is not knowing how to delight in the Trinity. In Dave's third sermon, it's called The Good Life of the Trinity, He broke down the work of the Spirit in the believer's life.

[23:13] And he talks about how the Spirit fills us with God's delight. Delight in God himself. Delight in God's family. And delight in God's mission.

[23:25] Now, I'm going to let you in on a secret. There's several words that mean the same thing as delight. Contentment.

[23:38] Joy. Joy. Pleasure. Satisfaction. So, what we understand is that there is an attitude.

[23:50] And I want you to understand that that attitude changes everything. And it affects a lot of things. But one of our biggest problems that we have is that when we, it's when we talk about the word worship.

[24:07] Worship. We don't always get worship. And I want you to understand how delight is so tied tightly to the act of worship.

[24:20] The fact of the matter is when we talk about worship, we usually swing from one extreme to the other extreme. All right? The first extreme is that we see worship as doing things that I must do.

[24:39] Right? I have to serve in children's ministry. I have to serve in children's ministry. I serve in hospitality ministry. I have to read my Bible to pray.

[24:53] I play an instrument on the worship team. Those things we say are worshipful. Now, don't get me wrong.

[25:04] Those are all great and wonderful things. And in fact, as the lead pastor, I wish more people here were willing to offer their gifts in order to serve the body of Christ more fully.

[25:18] But let me tell you something. You can do all these actions and still not be saved. You can do all these actions and still not know the Lord Jesus Christ.

[25:38] This is where delight comes in. When I do those actions for my attention, my soul self-satisfaction, because it makes me feel good, that's not worship.

[25:59] Even if it makes me feel like I'm a part of this church. Hey, I'm a part of Squamish Baptist Church because I make coffee and I'm useful here.

[26:11] That's not worship. The worship is grounded in the delight, the satisfaction, the joy of the Trinity.

[26:31] It's the love of God, the thankfulness of God. Whether it be God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, it's recognizing that work that was done.

[26:44] And that's where I am. That's what makes actions worship. Then we have this other extreme where we've reduced worship to a form of sentimentalism, an emotional reaction.

[27:03] And we get those reactions listening to some songs just even today. How great is our God. I remember listening to that song back in the mid-20s.

[27:15] No, and I'm not talking the 1820s. I'm talking about 2020s and how that moved me. It allowed me to center my mind on the truth of who God is, right?

[27:30] So sometimes we like to exist over here. Our hearts are warm and tender. I feel compassion. But that's it.

[27:46] Delight in God and delight in under that stuff has to move us to action. In fact, that's what the book of James is. Your faith, your delight, your worship, your love of God has to be seen in action.

[28:08] And that action isn't those private actions. Well, I'm going to help Miss Lady, whoever, walk across the street or mow my neighbor's lawn.

[28:18] All great things, by the way. But worship, and as Dave clearly pointed out, we are to delight in what God delights in.

[28:36] And God delights in worship of his church. And the worship in his church is mean being united in God in the work of the church.

[28:49] It's interesting in Colossians 3.12. To be like Jesus, Paul essentially is telling them to put on compassionate hearts.

[29:02] He's not talking about hearts that feel compassion. He's talking about hearts that do compassion. That do compassion.

[29:14] That are building into the body. You see, as Dave so wisely pointed out, to delight in God is to delight in the things of God.

[29:27] And God is clearly about one thing today. It is the growth of the body of Christ. That is the priority above all other priorities.

[29:46] You see, when we understand God, we understand worship in this way, there is a delight in our actions.

[30:02] There is a joy in our actions. There is a pleasure in our actions. It's because we're on the same page as God.

[30:14] If we do not know God, we're not going to be on the same page as God. If we have a broken view of who God is, we're not going to be on the same page as God. If we have a broken view of salvation, we're going to have a broken view of God and what it means to delight in Him.

[30:33] But when we see all those actions that we know, the spiritual gifts that we have all been given, especially by God, to serve His church, when we use them, we are delighting not only in God, but we are delighting God.

[31:01] You see, to delight both in action and in an emotion or feeling, it's to join with the Trinity and to be in worship with God.

[31:21] Dave read this verse, John 17, 22. This is the high priestly prayer. This is kind of Jesus' last non-duress type of prayer where He's not suffering.

[31:35] He's suffering in a different way, but this is before He goes to the cross. He's in this garden. And He's praying for us.

[31:50] Simply says, the glory, Father, that You have given me, I have given to them that they may be one even as we are one.

[32:05] I in them and You in me that they may become perfectly one so that the world may know that You sent me and love them even as You loved me.

[32:25] Do you love us? Do you love me?

[32:37] Do you love the person who you regularly sit beside? Do you love the person when you walk in who opens the door for you?

[32:47] Do you love the people who instruct your children in children's ministry? If you know anything about Jesus Christ, you know two things.

[33:04] One, He is sitting at the right hand of God and from this position He reigns over heaven and earth. This is Ephesians 1, 20, 23.

[33:16] That He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and above every name that is named not only in this age but also in the one to come.

[33:30] And He put all things under His feet and gave Him as head over all things to the church which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.

[33:47] You see right now Jesus is all about bringing everything into subjection under His control. You know how He's using it? COVID. COVID's not an accident.

[33:59] COVID's not an unexplainable event. God is using it. He's using the chaos in governments both to reveal His church and to bring it under His authority where in His body the fullness of Him who fills all in all.

[34:20] And the second main purpose is that He's doing it to build His church. That's what He's doing. That's what I just read in John 17, 22.

[34:34] The glory that you have given me I have given to them. No matter the craziness that we might be experiencing in the world the discouragement there was a great satire on one of the Christian satire sites called the Babylon V.

[34:51] It said man is depressed after reading news and being on social media. Of course that would depress you because when you put your eyes on all the things of this world and not on Jesus Christ it depresses because it gives us that idea that maybe God missed this one.

[35:14] Maybe He's not so in control. But as John 17 so clearly teaches us we are called to be in unity with the Trinity.

[35:39] How does that happen? One the first is understanding that God as Trinity live in community. Dave has taught us this perfectly. The Trinity is the perfect example for us to function both as brothers and sisters in Christ as husbands and wives in the home as parents to our children.

[35:58] Two the second is to understand that we are created for community that you and I are created for one another. We were never created to do our own thing.

[36:09] In fact like I said we need each other to be conformed to the likeness of Christ. It means that we share Jesus' love and relationality with one another.

[36:24] Unity in diversity that does not mean we are the same. It means that God took all the different people and He puts us together because He's creating a beautiful beautiful church that's to give glory to Him that is to scream out to this world who Jesus Christ is.

[36:47] Yes we were created differently. We have different spiritual gifts. Gifts are not better or worse.

[36:58] They're different and they are for different roles. If I may speak into you a little bit more if you live in Squamish and this is the church that you choose to attend you are called to be united in this church.

[37:22] You are called to love this church. If you believe in God's sovereignty and where He has placed you sadly I have met Christians who live here but they give money to their old home church or I was actually in a position when I was newly at a church I found out that there was a list of someone giving money to our church and I inquired to who it was and it was someone who had moved away and I had to write them a letter and said no no you're no longer here you need to love the church where you are at and I know we might have baptized you and your kids and there's emotional response all that type of thing it's great to hear letters of hello how are you doing but you are now responsible to another group of believers that are in another city and that's where your attention needs to be God has appointed the people here to be the people of this church you've heard me use the analogy before we're not to set up our own stone in another yard people don't drive around to beautiful places in

[38:35] Europe to see stones they go to see these incredible buildings that were built with many stones and it's the same thing here with the church this is the church that you were called to love it may not be the church where you grew up at it it may not be the church where your family is and it might not even be the church where you've had the greatest experiences I know people who feel emotionally connected to these places far away just because they had an experience there not necessarily salvific but some other worship experience this worship experience may be different it's just a different context a different group of people but that doesn't mean you cannot come and experience worship here it doesn't mean you have the option of ignoring your biblical commands to not be a part of the church to not give to serve the church is filled of opportunities and we've been called to pursue these opportunities when people tell me that the church isn't perfect

[39:56] I always tell them well if you're here it certainly isn't because as long as there's one more person here there's one more way it can be imperfect but that's how God works through us that's that's the power of God working through broken vessels that's 1 Corinthians we are nothing but clay pods but God's glory is seen in these clay pods it's seen in the work of the Trinity as he works in each every one of us to close the sermon I just want to read for you a quote it's written by Tim Chester and he writes this as a following as a problem with the evangelical church he simply says evangelicalism faces a lack of commitment to Christian community perhaps this is because we don't have a proper our view seems to look at God as three different gods we reflect the individualism of our age we receive of ourselves primarily as many individuals and then project us back into

[41:08] God making him in our image as the God who is many at the expense of his unity we can conceive the father son and spirit but not father son and spirit as one being and so our church's functions as group of individuals rather as one interdependent community we have reduced the idea of being one in the spirit to just falling out or to do institutional collaboration this falls so short of what Paul calls us to in Philippians 2-2 we are to be of the same mind having the same love being in full accord and of one mind how are you you and I how are you how are you during this time are you missing the opportunity to use your gifts are you missing the opportunity to receive others gifts to you

[42:26] I think just as these last couple of months have been going on and I think it's weighed heavy upon my heart and Dave's heart how important it is for us to come together again you're going to see more activities planned that just gives us the opportunity but most importantly to be able to come and worship together as God has called us to I pray that you'll pray along with us as we figure out the mandates that the government has given us but I'm praying that we will soon hear from people who attend here who have not been as engaged but want to give of their time to be a part of preparing and to be a part of this worship there's also a second opportunity that I want to speak to you perhaps for some reason you're not able to meet here because there might be too many people but there might be higher risk but maybe you'd be willing to meet with a family that we could create kind of bubble churches where people could come together and listen to the sermons together in that method some people live with non

[43:53] Christians or they're alone and it's not the same when we're listening to a sermon we've been blessed with having different people show up during our worship time just with their kids and through my wife just people that they know and there's just that power of just being together under God's words singing these words and praying for one another that they experience I know it's long since we've been together and I know it's tiring and I know there'll be a risk but I think it's a manageable risk and I believe using the quarantine rules that have been set in place the social physical distancing use of face masks and sanitizer I think will be okay I don't know what singing will look like still have to talk to those who give of their wonderful time and gifts to the music ministry but

[44:55] I'm just praying and I'm asking you to pray along with me that we'd come together very very soon and the Lord would protect our time of worship let me pray dear holy and heavenly God we thank you for who you are as Trinity Lord there's so much to learn from you as Trinity how together you are how united you are more important that you're about this mission the church father I pray that you will work in every one of the hearts that are here and there will be a desire to give of what you have given them not just financially Lord but gifts some people have some amazing gifts whether it be for music or hospitality or just service administration father I pray that you would give us a mind on how to engage our youth as we set certain steps in place to continue the ministry there as we plan for this church for the future

[46:08] Lord Lord I ask for your blessing upon tonight it will be kind of weird but I hope it will be okay I hope we will be able to do according to the government standards what needs to be done on such a day so father we love you Lord we desperately want to delight in you father I pray that you remove the barriers in our life that cause us from delighting in you may we find our soul satisfaction in you and you alone we ask these things your most great and powerful name amen