WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.520 Okay, we've been reading the last four Sundays, we've been reading Ephesians chapter 1, it's 00:00:05.520 --> 00:00:11.919 kind of been our base chapter for looking at this whole series on communion with God, 00:00:11.919 --> 00:00:13.640 Father, Son and Holy Spirit. 00:00:13.640 --> 00:00:19.800 I'm just going to read the second half of that chapter from verse 15 to the end of the 00:00:19.800 --> 00:00:20.800 chapter. 00:00:20.800 --> 00:00:26.839 It's a really great prayer, really, and longing of Paul for the church in Ephesus. 00:00:26.839 --> 00:00:30.519 For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and your love 00:00:30.519 --> 00:00:35.719 towards all the nations, all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering 00:00:35.719 --> 00:00:40.960 you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give 00:00:40.960 --> 00:00:45.719 you the spirit of wisdom and of revelation and the knowledge of Him, having the eyes 00:00:45.719 --> 00:00:52.079 of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which He has called you, 00:00:52.079 --> 00:00:56.879 what are the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable 00:00:56.879 --> 00:01:04.039 greatness of His power towards us who believe, according to the working of His great might, 00:01:04.039 --> 00:01:08.719 that He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at the right hand 00:01:08.719 --> 00:01:10.480 in the heavenly places. 00:01:10.480 --> 00:01:16.079 Far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is 00:01:16.079 --> 00:01:20.400 named, not only in this age, but also in the age to come. 00:01:20.400 --> 00:01:25.160 And He put all things under His feet and gave Him as head over all things to the church, 00:01:25.160 --> 00:01:29.719 which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all. 00:01:29.719 --> 00:01:36.080 And maybe focusing as we go through, it's going to be broader than this chapter, but 00:01:36.080 --> 00:01:40.680 as we go through, maybe verses 17 and 18, particularly that the God of our Lord Jesus 00:01:40.680 --> 00:01:46.480 Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the 00:01:46.480 --> 00:01:53.040 knowledge of Him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened that you may know hope. 00:01:53.040 --> 00:01:58.680 Okay, so the series, we're going to look short series on communion with God. 00:01:58.680 --> 00:02:04.400 Now, I'm sure you've heard people say at various points in their lives, this is really 00:02:04.400 --> 00:02:06.560 beyond my pay grade. 00:02:06.560 --> 00:02:13.599 Well, that's exactly how I feel when we're looking at something like this, that the character 00:02:13.599 --> 00:02:18.319 of God, the person of God, I feel it's beyond my pay grade. 00:02:18.319 --> 00:02:20.400 In other words, it's beyond my understanding. 00:02:20.400 --> 00:02:28.439 Ephesians 3 verse 8 speaks about the inexhaustible riches of God, and there is something inexhaustible 00:02:28.439 --> 00:02:35.519 about trying to understand what the trinity of God is, God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. 00:02:35.519 --> 00:02:40.039 There's a famous quote from Martin Luther, the great reformer who was asked to preach 00:02:40.039 --> 00:02:45.560 on the cry of forsakenness of Jesus on the cross, my God, my God, why have you forsaken 00:02:45.560 --> 00:02:46.560 me? 00:02:46.560 --> 00:02:50.359 And that he's supposed to have shut himself up for several days just to meditate and think 00:02:50.359 --> 00:02:51.840 and pray about that. 00:02:51.840 --> 00:02:58.560 And he came out of that time and he said, God forsaken of God, who can understand it? 00:02:58.560 --> 00:03:02.159 And actually I feel very much the same way when we are talking about the truth of the 00:03:02.159 --> 00:03:04.319 trinity. 00:03:04.319 --> 00:03:10.759 God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, three persons but one God. 00:03:10.759 --> 00:03:17.239 And so, but we're going to delve into it a little bit anyway and try and unpack what 00:03:17.239 --> 00:03:22.840 God reveals, some of what God reveals about it, because what we do know is there's nobody 00:03:22.840 --> 00:03:26.079 like God at all. 00:03:26.079 --> 00:03:31.719 It talks about his, in verse 18 it talks about his immeasurable greatness of his power towards 00:03:31.719 --> 00:03:35.199 us who believe, or his incomparable greatness. 00:03:35.199 --> 00:03:40.479 And that is a good word to use when we're thinking about the trinity, that he is, when 00:03:40.479 --> 00:03:44.759 we're thinking about God as trinity, it's absolutely incomparable. 00:03:44.759 --> 00:03:45.840 There's nothing like it. 00:03:45.840 --> 00:03:51.800 We can't take anything alongside it and say, this is what it's like, because it's, the 00:03:51.800 --> 00:03:54.560 character of God is completely unique. 00:03:54.560 --> 00:03:57.960 So we have something interesting in the Old Testament. 00:03:57.960 --> 00:04:04.280 We have basically all of the Old Testament emphasizing and spending a whole lot of time 00:04:04.280 --> 00:04:07.080 telling us that there's only one God. 00:04:07.080 --> 00:04:08.600 There's only one God. 00:04:08.600 --> 00:04:13.480 So we look at some of the verses, just a couple of the verses, but that great Shema, the great 00:04:13.480 --> 00:04:18.800 prayer of the people of Israel in the Old Testament, Deuteronomy 6, hero Lord, the Lord 00:04:18.800 --> 00:04:21.840 our God, the Lord is one, he's one. 00:04:21.840 --> 00:04:25.120 Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul and with all your strength. 00:04:25.120 --> 00:04:30.280 So that was the very core basis of the people of Israel's understanding of God. 00:04:30.280 --> 00:04:31.360 He was one. 00:04:31.360 --> 00:04:32.360 He was one. 00:04:32.360 --> 00:04:35.959 He wasn't like all the other gods of all the other nations, but there was hundreds of 00:04:35.959 --> 00:04:37.759 gods, gods for all kinds of things. 00:04:37.759 --> 00:04:42.439 One God, and in Samuel 2, 2, there is no one like holy like the Lord. 00:04:42.439 --> 00:04:44.120 There is no one like the God. 00:04:44.120 --> 00:04:47.160 There is no rock like our God. 00:04:47.160 --> 00:04:56.800 There is the one God that we have that we recognize, and the New Testament comes with 00:04:56.800 --> 00:04:58.800 that background. 00:04:58.800 --> 00:05:02.200 And then clearly, and I'm not going to spend any time with this because Thomas and John 00:05:02.200 --> 00:05:08.920 have looked at that, clearly the New Testament teaches that God the Father is God, God the 00:05:08.920 --> 00:05:13.440 Son, Jesus is God, and God the Holy Spirit is God. 00:05:13.439 --> 00:05:19.680 And so we have this deep complication and deep revelation of a different understanding 00:05:19.680 --> 00:05:24.519 of the one God, and that is what is revealed to us. 00:05:24.519 --> 00:05:28.560 It's not necessarily explained, but it's revealed to us. 00:05:28.560 --> 00:05:31.879 And you know, it doesn't matter what illustrations that we try to use. 00:05:31.879 --> 00:05:35.519 You can't use illustrations to explain the Trinity. 00:05:35.519 --> 00:05:37.000 You know, there's lots of famous ones, isn't there? 00:05:37.000 --> 00:05:39.040 It's like an egg. 00:05:39.040 --> 00:05:42.680 So you've got the yolk and you've got the white and they've got the shell, and it's 00:05:42.680 --> 00:05:45.360 three different things, but it's just one egg. 00:05:45.360 --> 00:05:47.400 But that doesn't really help. 00:05:47.400 --> 00:05:53.240 A little bit helps, but if you take the yolk away, it's no longer an egg. 00:05:53.240 --> 00:05:56.000 If you take the white away, it's no longer an egg. 00:05:56.000 --> 00:05:58.120 And the shell on its own is no longer an egg. 00:05:58.120 --> 00:05:59.560 It's just a shell. 00:05:59.560 --> 00:06:03.360 But if you take Jesus away from God the Father and God the Son, He's still God. 00:06:03.360 --> 00:06:08.160 If you take the Holy Spirit away from God the Father, He's still God. 00:06:08.160 --> 00:06:14.960 It's, they're interchangeably uniquely linked, you know, a shamrock, three different bits 00:06:14.960 --> 00:06:17.280 and one shamrock or water. 00:06:17.280 --> 00:06:22.880 There's ice and there's steam and there's water, but they're all one thing. 00:06:22.880 --> 00:06:26.879 They're all trying to explain the Trinity, but none of them can explain the Trinity because 00:06:26.879 --> 00:06:34.360 the Trinity is completely unique because the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit as persons 00:06:34.360 --> 00:06:44.340 are in essence God, and there's great equality, and yet there's personhood in this one God. 00:06:44.340 --> 00:06:48.280 And then we have, just to complicate it further, we've got the incarnation, and we've got Jesus 00:06:48.280 --> 00:06:54.720 the Son taking on flesh and becoming a human being and just to make things that little 00:06:54.720 --> 00:06:57.000 bit more difficult. 00:06:57.000 --> 00:07:02.960 So we have nothing to compare God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit with, not even in our 00:07:02.959 --> 00:07:09.519 imagination, we've got no measure at best, we've got tastes and glimpses and shadows, 00:07:09.519 --> 00:07:12.959 but it's what He reveals to us. 00:07:12.959 --> 00:07:22.479 A divine society, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, of perfect love, creativity, goodness, justice, 00:07:22.479 --> 00:07:29.679 absolute sinless purity, unimaginably beautiful and unimaginably terrifying at the same time. 00:07:29.680 --> 00:07:33.400 That's the picture of a holy, perfect, triune God. 00:07:33.400 --> 00:07:37.600 Now there's several things about that that we need to think about, and we've used this 00:07:37.600 --> 00:07:43.160 chapter which speaks so much about God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit as God. 00:07:43.160 --> 00:07:47.759 The first is, I'm speaking more generally, the first is mystery, okay? 00:07:47.759 --> 00:07:50.600 Three persons, one God. 00:07:50.600 --> 00:07:54.960 Irreducible complexity, but so one God. 00:07:54.959 --> 00:08:01.599 A divine society, and there's so much we don't know about that, you know, there's so much 00:08:01.599 --> 00:08:03.560 we don't understand in our lives. 00:08:03.560 --> 00:08:09.719 I really love Keller's, Tim Keller's insight for us as Christians about prayer, okay? 00:08:09.719 --> 00:08:14.479 This is not exactly directed to the Trinity, but it's the same kind of thing where he says, 00:08:14.479 --> 00:08:21.000 God will only give you in prayer what you would have asked for if you knew everything 00:08:21.000 --> 00:08:23.079 He knows. 00:08:23.079 --> 00:08:27.120 So this sense of that, there's so much at the time, we don't really know God and know 00:08:27.120 --> 00:08:31.800 what He wants for us, because He knows so much and we don't. 00:08:31.800 --> 00:08:32.799 He's infinite. 00:08:32.799 --> 00:08:39.039 There's nothing He doesn't know, nothing outside His sovereign hand, and He's good even when 00:08:39.039 --> 00:08:43.279 we experience the evil or can't understand our life or our heart. 00:08:43.279 --> 00:08:50.120 And so there's mystery in the God that you and I serve, even in simply the fact that 00:08:50.120 --> 00:08:53.080 He's a Trinitarian God, God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. 00:08:53.080 --> 00:08:58.560 We can't reduce our faith in God to simple propositions. 00:08:58.560 --> 00:09:04.240 We can't simply have slot machine theological answers to everything about God. 00:09:04.240 --> 00:09:09.879 Worship for us should involve awe and should involve mystery. 00:09:09.879 --> 00:09:12.480 There's that sense in which God is Trinity. 00:09:12.480 --> 00:09:21.360 He'd remind us of that, that He's absolutely different from anything and anyone and therefore 00:09:21.360 --> 00:09:23.680 is worthy of our worship. 00:09:23.680 --> 00:09:27.920 So there's mystery, but there's also humility. 00:09:27.920 --> 00:09:35.720 When we come to worship this Trion God, a glorious God, that we are not gods. 00:09:35.720 --> 00:09:36.720 We're not Trion. 00:09:36.720 --> 00:09:38.480 We're not complex. 00:09:38.480 --> 00:09:39.480 We're not infinite. 00:09:39.480 --> 00:09:41.920 We're not eternal. 00:09:41.919 --> 00:09:45.839 And it's the absurdity, isn't it really? 00:09:45.839 --> 00:09:53.599 It's the absurdity of sin and the human race, where we've tried to be God. 00:09:53.599 --> 00:09:54.839 We've tried to be in control. 00:09:54.839 --> 00:09:56.240 We've tried to take over. 00:09:56.240 --> 00:10:00.959 We weren't content with God's Lordship and sin and what it does in our lives, it just 00:10:00.959 --> 00:10:03.360 says, we'll take over from that. 00:10:03.360 --> 00:10:10.439 And we see the utter devastation when we vie against each other and against God for sovereignty 00:10:10.440 --> 00:10:12.880 and for control. 00:10:12.880 --> 00:10:15.480 It's terrifying what we're doing. 00:10:15.480 --> 00:10:21.440 We can tort reality and what we've got is, what we have as a result is a universe of 00:10:21.440 --> 00:10:25.280 pretend gods. 00:10:25.280 --> 00:10:32.200 And in our pride, we've thought that we can do what God, this Trion God alone can do. 00:10:32.200 --> 00:10:33.560 And you know what I do? 00:10:33.560 --> 00:10:39.760 I have to say sometimes I shiver when I hear someone say, oh, you know, when I meet God, 00:10:39.759 --> 00:10:41.679 I'm going to give him a piece of my mind. 00:10:41.679 --> 00:10:45.200 I'm going to tell him a few things about how he should have done things and how he should 00:10:45.200 --> 00:10:48.039 have done this and that and the next thing. 00:10:48.039 --> 00:10:54.480 You know, as if we know the end from the beginning, as if we are able to grasp the perfection 00:10:54.480 --> 00:10:59.279 of justice and love, when sometimes we're probably more concerned with the smoke from 00:10:59.279 --> 00:11:04.799 our neighbor's barbecue making a mess on the washing that we've just hung out. 00:11:04.799 --> 00:11:14.159 You know, how can we take that position of being gods in our lives when we are so different 00:11:14.159 --> 00:11:20.079 from him and he is so unique in his Trion glory. 00:11:20.079 --> 00:11:27.799 So there's mystery and there's humility, but there's also incredulity as this God reveals 00:11:27.799 --> 00:11:38.159 himself to us, not just his patience with us and his delayed justice and the reality 00:11:38.159 --> 00:11:42.359 that evil will be turned on its head one day, but his extravagance. 00:11:42.359 --> 00:11:48.959 I just want to speak about that for a moment today, his extravagance, because what salvation 00:11:48.959 --> 00:11:54.039 means in this, this is what I want to focus on as Christians tonight, if we are Christians 00:11:54.039 --> 00:12:01.959 tonight, salvation means what it means that this Trinitarian God comes to live in us. 00:12:01.959 --> 00:12:03.559 The Trinitarian God. 00:12:03.559 --> 00:12:10.279 It's the greatest thing by far about being a Christian is that this great God, Father, 00:12:10.279 --> 00:12:15.639 Son and Holy Spirit, the Father comes and lives in us, the Son comes and lives in us 00:12:15.639 --> 00:12:19.159 and the Holy Spirit comes and lives in us. 00:12:19.159 --> 00:12:28.360 And that great reality is that we are united immediately to this divine society when we 00:12:28.360 --> 00:12:29.360 become Christians. 00:12:29.360 --> 00:12:33.839 Now I'm just going to give you some verses about that because that's quite important, 00:12:33.839 --> 00:12:34.839 hopefully. 00:12:34.839 --> 00:12:39.000 This battery stopped working, Ali. 00:12:39.000 --> 00:12:41.799 Oh, there we go. 00:12:41.799 --> 00:12:46.639 Okay, so I'm just going to go through a few verses which remind us that God's Father, Son 00:12:46.639 --> 00:12:53.480 and Holy Spirit live in us, John 14, Jesus replied, anyone who loves me will obey my teaching, 00:12:53.480 --> 00:12:59.039 my Father will love them and we will come to them and make our home with them. 00:12:59.039 --> 00:13:04.679 So the Trinity comes and lives with us, the Holy Spirit and Christ, John 14, if you love 00:13:04.679 --> 00:13:09.519 me, keep my commandments, I will ask the Father, He will give you another advocate to help 00:13:09.519 --> 00:13:12.399 you and be with you forever, the Spirit of truth. 00:13:12.399 --> 00:13:17.319 And then He goes on to say, for He lives with you and will be in you, I will not leave you 00:13:17.319 --> 00:13:21.799 as orphans, Jesus says, I will come to you, Jesus is the Son. 00:13:21.799 --> 00:13:26.120 And then Galatians, Paul says, I have been crucified with Christ, I no longer live, but 00:13:26.120 --> 00:13:28.279 Christ lives in me. 00:13:28.279 --> 00:13:33.720 Romans 8, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit raised Jesus from the dead, is living in you. 00:13:33.720 --> 00:13:38.039 He raised Christ from the dead, will also give life to your mortal bodies of His Spirit. 00:13:38.039 --> 00:13:41.600 Who lives in you? 00:13:41.600 --> 00:13:47.080 No one has seen the God, one John 4, but if we love one another, God lives in us and 00:13:47.080 --> 00:13:48.759 His love is made complete. 00:13:48.759 --> 00:13:53.440 The Triune God and God the Holy Spirit, do you not know that you yourselves are God's 00:13:53.440 --> 00:13:57.159 temple and that God's Spirit lives among you? 00:13:57.159 --> 00:14:01.399 You've got these great truths and there's many, many more references to that which remind 00:14:01.399 --> 00:14:08.040 us that we have communion with this Triune God as Christians. 00:14:08.039 --> 00:14:15.679 And that is a remarkable truth, and we're praying, verses 17, 18, that the Spirit of 00:14:15.679 --> 00:14:23.279 wisdom and revelation will help us to know Him better, to give us a knowledge of Him. 00:14:23.279 --> 00:14:28.679 And that's our theme, as people we have communion with God as Christians, God the Father, Son 00:14:28.679 --> 00:14:34.039 and Holy Spirit, and we, our goal in life is to know Him better. 00:14:34.039 --> 00:14:39.399 So there's, tonight, there's no, remember this this evening, there's no such thing 00:14:39.399 --> 00:14:43.439 as an ordinary Christian. 00:14:43.439 --> 00:14:47.919 Every day, every moment, you're waking hours, you're sleeping hours, you're indwelt by 00:14:47.919 --> 00:14:51.599 God the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit as a Christian. 00:14:51.599 --> 00:14:54.319 The divine life is in us as Christians. 00:14:54.319 --> 00:14:59.919 Might not feel it, might not sense it, but that's what is revealed to us, and that is 00:14:59.919 --> 00:15:02.719 the wisdom of God. 00:15:02.720 --> 00:15:08.480 And the other thing is to be encouraged by is that, you know, there's a famous phrase 00:15:08.480 --> 00:15:12.519 that says, it takes a village to raise a child. 00:15:12.519 --> 00:15:15.960 I think it's an African phrase, it takes a village to raise a child. 00:15:15.960 --> 00:15:20.639 In other words, you know, it's not just an individual parental thing, it's the whole 00:15:20.639 --> 00:15:21.639 village. 00:15:21.639 --> 00:15:25.320 We believe that as a church, it takes a church to raise a child. 00:15:25.320 --> 00:15:28.840 That's why baptism of infants is so important to us. 00:15:28.840 --> 00:15:33.680 But it's also true that it takes a trinity to raise a Christian. 00:15:33.680 --> 00:15:36.519 It takes a trinity to raise a Christian. 00:15:36.519 --> 00:15:41.080 We are discipled as Christians by divine, the divine society. 00:15:41.080 --> 00:15:48.480 The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit work together so that we don't fall into a pit 00:15:48.480 --> 00:15:52.680 of hell, and that we are redeemed by Him. 00:15:52.680 --> 00:15:57.440 And with His wisdom and with His revelation, we seek to know Him better. 00:15:57.440 --> 00:16:05.280 So just a couple of things I want to say about that is that as Christians, He makes His home 00:16:05.280 --> 00:16:12.000 and as we saw that in John 14, 23, and also in 1 Corinthians 16, we become the temple 00:16:12.000 --> 00:16:13.560 of the Holy Spirit. 00:16:13.560 --> 00:16:16.120 So you know, in the Old Testament, that was the picture, wasn't it? 00:16:16.120 --> 00:16:24.760 That they built us a tabernacle, then a temple, and God lived in the temple around His people. 00:16:24.759 --> 00:16:27.879 Now in Christ, we are the temple. 00:16:27.879 --> 00:16:29.759 Every individual Christian is the temple. 00:16:29.759 --> 00:16:32.200 God comes and dwells in us, we and God. 00:16:32.200 --> 00:16:36.480 We become part of that trinitarian family. 00:16:36.480 --> 00:16:46.840 And as Christians, this Emmanuel principle, God with us, helps us to begin to appreciate 00:16:46.840 --> 00:16:50.759 and enjoy divine fellowship. 00:16:50.759 --> 00:16:55.200 That's really what being a Christian is about, is we begin... 00:16:55.200 --> 00:16:57.919 Let's put aside laws and rules and regulations just now, okay? 00:16:57.919 --> 00:17:02.319 I'm going to church and reading your Bible and all these things, which are all very important. 00:17:02.319 --> 00:17:08.039 But it's knowing divine fellowship. 00:17:08.039 --> 00:17:14.279 It's knowing and beginning to know Him better, as we're told, as the eyes of our hearts become 00:17:14.279 --> 00:17:16.400 enlightened, knowing Him better. 00:17:16.400 --> 00:17:22.360 So we begin to know who He is, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 00:17:22.360 --> 00:17:31.960 We begin to know His peace and know belonging and know His various unique characteristics. 00:17:31.960 --> 00:17:34.040 And we converse with Him. 00:17:34.040 --> 00:17:36.720 So you know what it says in the New Testament, pray without ceasing. 00:17:36.720 --> 00:17:39.840 I think that means we go around in our knees. 00:17:39.840 --> 00:17:44.320 But I think it does mean that wherever we are, whatever we're doing, the Spirit of God's 00:17:44.319 --> 00:17:48.599 with us, the person of God, the Father and the Son, the Holy Spirit are with us. 00:17:48.599 --> 00:17:51.759 So we can converse with Him anytime, anytime, anyplace. 00:17:51.759 --> 00:17:53.480 We can talk with Him all the time. 00:17:53.480 --> 00:17:57.159 Don't we need to be a certain place and a certain way to talk with Him? 00:17:57.159 --> 00:18:03.000 And we're listening, listening for insight into what He is teaching us. 00:18:03.000 --> 00:18:06.439 And we worship Him and we see truth in a different light. 00:18:06.439 --> 00:18:13.079 You know, I really love that phrase, that the eyes verse 18, the eyes of our hearts being 00:18:13.079 --> 00:18:19.559 enlightened, it's a brilliant phrase because it talks about knowledge, it does talk about 00:18:19.559 --> 00:18:26.079 knowledge, but it talks about seeing, but it talks about the eyes of our heart, not 00:18:26.079 --> 00:18:29.439 our brain, not our mind. 00:18:29.439 --> 00:18:34.240 It does talk about the eyes of our heart because it's a little bit, I think John was 00:18:34.240 --> 00:18:38.519 speaking about this morning, about the heart being at the center, the ego of our lives, 00:18:38.519 --> 00:18:40.679 the very core of who we are. 00:18:40.680 --> 00:18:45.039 So church isn't for us, well it shouldn't be for us. 00:18:45.039 --> 00:18:52.320 And reading the Bible shouldn't be for us merely intellectual or merely informational. 00:18:52.320 --> 00:18:56.880 We should be praying that the eyes of our hearts are opened. 00:18:56.880 --> 00:19:04.560 That means that we see things in such a way that He reveals that change what we're like 00:19:04.560 --> 00:19:06.640 in our very hearts. 00:19:06.640 --> 00:19:08.440 And that's a great thing. 00:19:08.440 --> 00:19:18.799 And we require His great power and His greatness to enable us to do that. 00:19:18.799 --> 00:19:26.160 And that's a beautiful and real reality for us. 00:19:26.160 --> 00:19:31.120 And it can be deceptive sometimes, you know, because our bodies are decaying. 00:19:31.120 --> 00:19:34.759 Some of our bodies are decaying quicker than others. 00:19:34.759 --> 00:19:39.879 Some of us are more decayed than others, but for Christians for us as Christians are in 00:19:39.879 --> 00:19:44.599 our lives, our hearts are being renewed. 00:19:44.599 --> 00:19:49.879 We're becoming younger, there's restoration happening and our bodies will follow suit one 00:19:49.879 --> 00:19:53.559 day in glory. 00:19:53.559 --> 00:19:59.839 And we recognize that because He has made His home with us. 00:19:59.839 --> 00:20:01.000 He has made His home. 00:20:01.000 --> 00:20:06.519 He will not leave us, we are His temple. 00:20:06.519 --> 00:20:11.640 Now I'm also going to read a couple of verses about the challenge of that. 00:20:11.640 --> 00:20:16.880 Okay, the challenge of communion with God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, this divine 00:20:16.880 --> 00:20:19.039 trinity is in us. 00:20:19.039 --> 00:20:23.279 And it's from Titus 3, so I'm jumping about a little bit, I'm sorry. 00:20:23.279 --> 00:20:26.960 For the grace of God has appeared to offer salvation to all people. 00:20:26.960 --> 00:20:31.720 It teaches us to say no to ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, 00:20:31.720 --> 00:20:36.920 upright and godly lives in this present age while we wait for the blessed hope, the appearing 00:20:36.920 --> 00:20:42.039 of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us to redeem 00:20:42.039 --> 00:20:47.600 us from all wickedness, to purify for Himself a people that are His very own eager to do 00:20:47.600 --> 00:20:48.600 good. 00:20:48.600 --> 00:20:53.000 Now, okay, I don't rip this apart, okay? 00:20:53.000 --> 00:21:00.400 I've got an illustration, it's far from perfect, but I hope it maybe will help a little bit 00:21:00.400 --> 00:21:06.880 to understand the challenge of having God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit in our hearts, 00:21:06.880 --> 00:21:08.039 in our lives. 00:21:08.039 --> 00:21:12.519 Just think of this as old, confirmed, no, maybe it's not need to be old, but a confirmed 00:21:12.519 --> 00:21:13.819 bachelor anyway. 00:21:13.819 --> 00:21:17.440 We use that phrase sometimes, maybe we don't use it very much. 00:21:17.440 --> 00:21:22.559 Someone who was set in their ways anyway, maybe had one or two bad habits, but there 00:21:22.559 --> 00:21:26.480 was nobody there to notice that they were confirmed bachelor. 00:21:26.480 --> 00:21:33.559 And then remarkably, this confirmed bachelor falls in love and is captivated by the beauty 00:21:33.559 --> 00:21:36.879 of his bride, who he marries. 00:21:36.879 --> 00:21:43.159 And she comes into his home and all of a sudden the home has changed. 00:21:43.159 --> 00:21:47.440 It doesn't look like a bachelor's pad for long. 00:21:47.440 --> 00:21:48.960 The decor maybe changes. 00:21:48.960 --> 00:21:54.120 There's a woman, okay, there's a million stereotypes here, I'm sorry. 00:21:54.120 --> 00:22:00.480 But there is a woman's touch comes and things change within the house altogether. 00:22:00.480 --> 00:22:08.360 And they do that together, this new loving couple, they have an amazing time together. 00:22:08.360 --> 00:22:14.400 But there's also some challenges for the one who was a confirmed bachelor. 00:22:14.400 --> 00:22:21.519 And if his routines have been radically changed, some of his habits and his behaviors are being 00:22:21.519 --> 00:22:23.080 challenged. 00:22:23.080 --> 00:22:28.920 Some of the length of time that dirty dishes maybe sat on the side of the sink or the rim 00:22:28.920 --> 00:22:34.400 round the bath or changing the sheets in the bed and things like that. 00:22:34.400 --> 00:22:41.400 There's transformation, but in some ways, some of the transformation is quite difficult. 00:22:41.400 --> 00:22:45.160 Okay, some miserable illustration. 00:22:45.160 --> 00:22:47.280 But I hope you get the picture. 00:22:47.280 --> 00:22:53.519 A million times more is what happens when the trinity of God comes to live in our lives. 00:22:53.519 --> 00:22:57.400 It's a lifelong transformation. 00:22:57.400 --> 00:23:02.160 There's riches, there's beauty, there's companionship, there's things we're learning. 00:23:02.160 --> 00:23:05.960 We never knew the eyes of our heart are being enlightened. 00:23:05.960 --> 00:23:12.200 It's also challenging to have God the trinity in our heart and in our life. 00:23:12.200 --> 00:23:19.360 But we are asked to say yes to godliness and no to ungodliness. 00:23:19.360 --> 00:23:23.160 So yes, you know, we're part of his family. 00:23:23.160 --> 00:23:28.279 We're ushered into this divine society and we see obedience in a new light so that the 00:23:28.279 --> 00:23:32.360 law of love or the law of God becomes the law of love. 00:23:32.359 --> 00:23:36.439 And life becomes worship in a way that it was dull and boring before. 00:23:36.439 --> 00:23:40.959 And we want to please him and we want to do what he wants us to do because we've seen 00:23:40.959 --> 00:23:45.039 things differently and we've learned differently from him. 00:23:45.039 --> 00:23:51.119 But also, and maybe we underestimate this in our lives, he also encourages not only to 00:23:51.119 --> 00:23:56.839 say yes to his beauty, but to say no to our ugliness that remains within us that we battle 00:23:56.839 --> 00:23:57.839 against. 00:23:57.839 --> 00:24:02.599 We know, as he says here, to worldly passions and ungodliness. 00:24:02.599 --> 00:24:11.159 And so the reality of having the try on God living is that sometimes we have to say no 00:24:11.159 --> 00:24:13.399 to what we want to do. 00:24:13.399 --> 00:24:17.759 And there is an awesomeness about God living in us. 00:24:17.759 --> 00:24:20.439 You know, Sam 139 does kind of refer to that. 00:24:20.439 --> 00:24:22.039 He says, where could we go from your spirit? 00:24:22.039 --> 00:24:23.039 We can't. 00:24:23.039 --> 00:24:24.039 There's nothing. 00:24:24.039 --> 00:24:32.240 We can sometimes be scary for us because sometimes we like to sin and do the wrong things. 00:24:32.240 --> 00:24:38.440 And so we have remaining sin to battle against and we're tempted in our selfish hackles rise. 00:24:38.440 --> 00:24:41.079 We don't like saying no. 00:24:41.079 --> 00:24:49.359 But sometimes he's asking us to say no to things that he hates. 00:24:49.359 --> 00:24:53.200 The choices, the paths, the crossroads we will have every day. 00:24:53.200 --> 00:25:00.680 He wants us sometimes to say yes to beauty and no to our ugliness. 00:25:00.680 --> 00:25:07.480 Communion with God, this Trinitarian God, you know, it means something very significant. 00:25:07.480 --> 00:25:16.039 It means that we need to learn to say no to dragging him back to the darkness of the cross, 00:25:16.039 --> 00:25:27.799 who he's paid already for the price of our sins and making him just see them again as 00:25:27.799 --> 00:25:30.399 things that we love. 00:25:30.399 --> 00:25:35.680 It means not dragging him back to the darkness of the cross, where he paid the excruciating 00:25:35.680 --> 00:25:37.960 price to set us free. 00:25:37.960 --> 00:25:44.200 So there is a sense in which having the Trinitarian God is saying no to the battles that we face 00:25:44.200 --> 00:25:47.559 and saying no to certain things in our lives. 00:25:47.559 --> 00:25:56.480 See, if we don't care about that and if we don't care about holiness or godliness or 00:25:56.480 --> 00:26:00.759 dealing with sin which he hates, you know what it would be like doing in my marriage 00:26:00.759 --> 00:26:01.759 with Katrina? 00:26:01.759 --> 00:26:07.559 It would be like me inviting a prostitute to the house and to our bed and say, Katrina, 00:26:07.559 --> 00:26:11.559 you don't mind if we share a bed together with the prostitute, the three of us all? 00:26:11.559 --> 00:26:12.559 No problem. 00:26:12.559 --> 00:26:15.279 And that's horrendous, isn't it? 00:26:15.279 --> 00:26:17.759 It's an embarrassing thing to say. 00:26:17.759 --> 00:26:24.319 But the reality is that the Bible often talks about spiritual adultery and it's because 00:26:24.319 --> 00:26:29.440 it's in relational terms that God wants us to consider how we live our lives and how 00:26:29.440 --> 00:26:36.799 we think about how we live and what we do and saying yes to his beauty and no to sin. 00:26:36.799 --> 00:26:44.079 So that's the challenge of communion and communion we also recognize and I'm drawing 00:26:44.079 --> 00:26:49.680 to an end with this is that communion with God who dwells in us because we're the temple 00:26:49.680 --> 00:26:54.599 of the Holy Spirit is not just private and personal, it's also communal. 00:26:54.599 --> 00:27:02.720 So in Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 19, yeah, 19 it says, you're no longer citizens and 00:27:02.720 --> 00:27:07.079 strangers but your fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God 00:27:07.079 --> 00:27:09.559 built in the foundation of the apostle and the prophets. 00:27:09.559 --> 00:27:14.200 Christ Jesus the cornerstone whom the whole structure joined together grows into a holy 00:27:14.200 --> 00:27:19.500 temple in the Lord and in him you also are being built together into a dwelling place 00:27:19.500 --> 00:27:21.000 for God by the Spirit. 00:27:21.000 --> 00:27:23.640 Okay, so it's all related. 00:27:23.640 --> 00:27:29.279 So it's not just that we're individually temples but together we're temples because 00:27:29.279 --> 00:27:34.079 the moment you come to Christ you're actually part of a society, the divine society, Father, 00:27:34.079 --> 00:27:35.480 Son and Holy Spirit. 00:27:35.480 --> 00:27:41.200 We're never just individuals but we come not just to that divine society but to the church, 00:27:41.200 --> 00:27:48.440 the people of God and to his family. 00:27:48.440 --> 00:27:53.079 So communion is not just private and personal. 00:27:53.079 --> 00:27:57.160 Trinitarian at its core. 00:27:57.160 --> 00:27:58.160 Social at its core. 00:27:58.160 --> 00:28:02.680 Your salvation is not just your own and it's not just personal. 00:28:02.680 --> 00:28:05.360 It's societal, it's communal. 00:28:05.360 --> 00:28:12.440 Now church, we often stress here and I'll stress it ad nauseam and I'll stress it as long as 00:28:12.440 --> 00:28:19.880 I'm here until the day I'm taken is that community is hugely significant. 00:28:19.880 --> 00:28:21.040 We grow together. 00:28:21.040 --> 00:28:22.840 We're ambassadors together. 00:28:22.840 --> 00:28:25.000 We're light and salt of the world together. 00:28:25.000 --> 00:28:27.000 We reflect the love of God together. 00:28:27.000 --> 00:28:32.279 Now we have no time to look at that but I just want to say in conclusion two things 00:28:32.279 --> 00:28:39.519 about this being together is that worship together is much more than just doing church. 00:28:39.519 --> 00:28:44.359 We often think of, oh well, it's the worship hour, half ten, half five. 00:28:44.359 --> 00:28:45.359 I'm going to worship them. 00:28:45.359 --> 00:28:48.920 This is my worship and that's right, it's good. 00:28:48.920 --> 00:28:55.640 We do worship together but it's much more than doing church. 00:28:55.640 --> 00:29:02.280 It's about sharing communion with the triune God as a people, sharing our lives, sharing 00:29:02.280 --> 00:29:09.400 discipleship, sharing mission, sharing obedience, sharing support, sharing accountability. 00:29:09.400 --> 00:29:11.640 You tell me about unity as a doctrine. 00:29:11.640 --> 00:29:19.080 I'll tell you there's no more important one in the universe because it's what we are. 00:29:19.080 --> 00:29:20.080 You tell me about division. 00:29:20.079 --> 00:29:25.679 I'll tell you there's no greater sin in the universe because we're trying to divide what 00:29:25.679 --> 00:29:28.879 God has joined together. 00:29:28.879 --> 00:29:36.639 Worship and the sacrament that we enjoy together is that special, public worship for example 00:29:36.639 --> 00:29:45.240 is that special expression of communion with God that is just what we are as believers. 00:29:45.240 --> 00:29:48.720 And I think that our public gatherings in church should be, for that reason I think they should 00:29:48.720 --> 00:29:52.720 be important and special and significant. 00:29:52.720 --> 00:29:59.480 And I think that's why gathering together on the Lord's Day in public worship matters. 00:29:59.480 --> 00:30:05.360 And that's why I think wearing masks and being divided and being online and being at home 00:30:05.360 --> 00:30:08.960 is just a pale reflection. 00:30:08.960 --> 00:30:12.440 And even probably at our very best what we do on Sundays is a pale reflection of what 00:30:12.440 --> 00:30:13.440 it should be. 00:30:13.440 --> 00:30:18.480 But we come together under the preaching of the Word because we want you want and I want 00:30:18.480 --> 00:30:24.880 the eyes of our hearts to be enlightened that the spirit of wisdom and revelation will be 00:30:24.880 --> 00:30:25.880 with us. 00:30:25.880 --> 00:30:30.200 When was the last time any of us actually thought about that? 00:30:30.200 --> 00:30:35.559 That we're looking for the God's spirit of revelation and wisdom to enlighten our hearts. 00:30:35.559 --> 00:30:39.079 It's a great prayer that we can pray for coming to church. 00:30:39.079 --> 00:30:45.160 It shouldn't be and forgive us when it is a half hour monologue or just a midweek Bible 00:30:45.160 --> 00:30:49.200 study just because that's what we do. 00:30:49.200 --> 00:30:52.360 It's much more than that. 00:30:52.360 --> 00:31:01.220 We need to lift our understanding and our sense of community together as we worship the 00:31:01.220 --> 00:31:04.440 living God in our times together. 00:31:04.440 --> 00:31:09.360 Now, I want to close by asking you to think about this. 00:31:09.359 --> 00:31:15.399 We have traditionally for a long time we've had two very similar, quite formal Sunday 00:31:15.399 --> 00:31:16.399 services. 00:31:16.399 --> 00:31:18.039 Much the same thing happens every week. 00:31:18.039 --> 00:31:19.039 There's differences. 00:31:19.039 --> 00:31:20.039 Fine tuning. 00:31:20.039 --> 00:31:23.839 But there's not a great deal and that's fine. 00:31:23.839 --> 00:31:28.919 But it's been our tradition to have two Sunday services because we believe it's good. 00:31:28.919 --> 00:31:30.279 It's good to gather. 00:31:30.279 --> 00:31:31.599 It's good to use that day. 00:31:31.599 --> 00:31:34.079 It's good to bookend the Lord's day. 00:31:34.079 --> 00:31:37.439 But I do wonder, shoot me down you can. 00:31:37.440 --> 00:31:39.799 Are we missing something? 00:31:39.799 --> 00:31:47.360 Are we building the best gospel community in our use of the Lord's day? 00:31:47.360 --> 00:31:50.480 We know that more and more people are choosing just to come to one Sunday service. 00:31:50.480 --> 00:31:52.000 Now, I don't know why that's the case. 00:31:52.000 --> 00:31:53.519 Maybe lots of different reasons. 00:31:53.519 --> 00:31:58.400 Part of it will be tradition, part of it will be different experiences, different culture. 00:31:58.400 --> 00:32:03.080 I wouldn't like to guess all the different reasons why people won't want to come twice 00:32:03.080 --> 00:32:04.720 in a Sunday. 00:32:04.720 --> 00:32:15.120 But what if once in a while on a Sunday evening, instead of the formal worship, we have a huge 00:32:15.120 --> 00:32:23.240 big table in here and we all bring food and we all sit with different people and we talk 00:32:23.240 --> 00:32:29.319 about life and about faith and young people sit with older people and learn from them. 00:32:29.319 --> 00:32:30.799 We share faith experiences. 00:32:30.799 --> 00:32:35.319 We explicitly remind ourselves that we are in the company of the triune God, that the 00:32:35.319 --> 00:32:39.879 Trinity is the host of this meal and is among us. 00:32:39.879 --> 00:32:45.919 And after spending time in gospel community together, we have worship and celebrate the 00:32:45.919 --> 00:32:47.919 Lord's Supper. 00:32:47.919 --> 00:32:54.639 We don't not make us think, maybe, a little bit more about what communion with God looks 00:32:54.640 --> 00:33:04.600 like and what is expected of us as a building joined together and take away some of the 00:33:04.600 --> 00:33:13.960 passivity of our church services and maybe our lack of interaction and lack of intentional 00:33:13.960 --> 00:33:20.120 thought about building one another up in the most holy faith, talking to one another about 00:33:20.119 --> 00:33:25.319 Jesus, learning to do that well so that when we can go into the world of work, our lives 00:33:25.319 --> 00:33:30.079 that we are more, we are speaking more naturally about Jesus with them because we are doing 00:33:30.079 --> 00:33:36.679 it with one another and we are doing what exactly was done in the New Testament church. 00:33:36.679 --> 00:33:37.679 Just a few thoughts. 00:33:37.679 --> 00:33:39.159 Let's pray. 00:33:39.159 --> 00:33:46.439 Father, God help us to think about who you are and think about how great you are and 00:33:46.440 --> 00:33:57.000 think about the reality of what it means to fellowship with, to live with the Holy Spirit, 00:33:57.000 --> 00:34:03.160 God the Father, God the Son, in our… made their home with us. 00:34:03.160 --> 00:34:06.120 God has made his home with us and we with him. 00:34:06.120 --> 00:34:12.360 And that whatever transpires and happens in our lives that whether we live to an old age 00:34:12.360 --> 00:34:18.519 or die young, whether our lives are good or bad, from a human point of view, we have this 00:34:18.519 --> 00:34:30.360 divine source of life just working through us and never leaving us and taking us home. 00:34:30.360 --> 00:34:37.360 And we rejoice in that great hope that death is defeated and the grave and the separation 00:34:37.360 --> 00:34:40.079 between ourselves and God has been dealt with. 00:34:40.079 --> 00:34:42.759 Help us to worship you. 00:34:42.759 --> 00:34:48.960 Please Lord, may you give us a spirit of wisdom and revelation so the eyes of our hearts may 00:34:48.960 --> 00:34:55.639 be enlightened and that we may live in that hope, that glorious hope of the gospel. 00:34:55.639 --> 00:34:56.960 We ask it in Jesus' name. 00:34:56.960 --> 00:35:12.960 Amen.