Who God Has Always Been

God is one in relationship.
Nobody ignores the Trinity. We tend to pick a favorite. Today: who God has always been, and how we actually see him.

I. Where This Confession Came From

Jewish monotheists who recited the Shema (Deuteronomy 6:4) were the last people on earth who would divide God up. Then came the resurrection, and Thomas handed Jesus the unshareable name: my Lord and my God (John 20:28).
John 14:8 (NIV) Philip said, "Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us."
John 14:9–10 (NIV) Jesus answered: "Don't you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? 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? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work."

II. Who God Has Always Been

One God, three persons. The Spirit is the eternal bond of love between the Father and the Son. If God were solitary, love would be something God started doing rather than something God is.
Romans 5:5 (NIV) And hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.
1 John 4:8 (NIV) Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
1 John 4:16 (NIV) And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.
God did not make you because he was lonely. His love for you is not a mood.

III. How We See God: The Trinity Compass

Not a personality test. A mirror. All three are true. They go wrong only when left alone.
Creator
Jesus
Holy Spirit
Revealed in
Creation
Cross and empty tomb
Pentecost
Instinct
Explanation
Decision
Liberation
Concerns
Compassion, justice, wisdom
Commitment, truth, evangelism
Gifts, power, grace
Goal:

To understand

To stand firm
To be moved
Engages:
Your head
Your hands
Your heart
Matthew 3:13–17 (NASB 2020)
Matthew 22:37–38 (NIV)

The person of the Trinity you neglect is usually the one you most need this year.

IV. The Dark Side: When We Take Control

The arrows point outward, past the boundary. Every distortion begins with something true about God that we love, and then reaches past the edge of it to make God predictable, useful, and ours.

Syncretism
I assemble God instead of letting him define himself
Jesus
Dogmatism
Truth becomes something I possess rather than stand under
The Spirit
Emotionalism
I treat the Spirit as something I can produce
Genesis 3:1–5 (NIV)

Acts 8:18 (NIV)

V. Why Any of This Matters

Two restorations:
Relationship: you were not forgiven and left on the porch, you were adopted inside.
Image: in Jesus we see the true human being we were always meant to be.
2 Corinthians 5:18–19 (NIV)
2 Corinthians 3:18 (NIV)
Colossians 1:15 (NIV)
If you only ever see one third of him, you will only ever become one third of what he is remaking you into.

The Invitation

One practice this week! Say it over dinner, over your child at bedtime, in the car before the hard meeting, at the end of a day you did not handle well:
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
You were not merely rescued. You were brought all the way in.
2 Corinthians 13:14 (NIV) May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

Questions to Carry Home

Which of the three is your home when things get hard: study, service, or experience?
Which one have you not visited in years?
Where are you most tempted to make God manageable?