INTRODUCTION
Today, we are beginning our new series, “The Mystery Machine.” So take your worship programs out and turn to the last page – you will find some message notes – this will help you follow along and give you some “next steps” for this week!
A Baptist preacher, while beginning his sermon, said this to the congregation: "I’m gonna tell you the same thing Elizabeth Taylor told all her husbands. And that is - ’I’m not gonna keep you long!’"
One of the early church leaders, Augustine, was once accosted by a non-believer who showed him his idol and said, "Here is my god; where is thine?" Augustine replied, "I cannot show you my God; not because there is no God to show but because you have no eyes to see Him."
So today, as we start off this new series about understanding the mystery of God I would like us to start off by praying that we would “see” God today!
Would you join me in prayer by standing …
{ Prayer – “that we would see God” }
Remain standing as we read our Scripture today …
Exodus 3:14, 15: “God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’ God also said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers — the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob — has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, the name by which I am to be remembered from generation to generation.”
You may be seated …
So let me paint the picture for you … Moses sees a burning bush on top of a mountain … he is curios … the bush is on fire, but it is not being consumed, or burned up … so he approaches the bush … and then the bush talks to him … God identifies himself and gives Moses the mission of freeing the Israelites who were in slavery for 100-400 years (depends on which scholar you ask). Moses comes up with excuses, but ultimately concedes and says, “Yes,” to the mission.
Moses has a question though. He asks God, “Who should I say sent me?”
God responds, “Tell them I Am Who I Am … I AM has sent me.”
This was enough for Moses … to be honest, if a burning bush identified itself as “I AM” I probably would pay attention!
“I AM” is a significant statement throughout the entire Bible … because God identified himself as I am “something” throughout the entire Bible.
“I AM” is the first name that God gave himself … So I guess you have to ask: What does “I AM” mean to me?
God is eternally existent - He laid the foundations of the earth and created all things.
God is the Alpha and Omega - just as he created all things, He will exist forever.
God is unchanging. He is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.
When you have a hard time figuring out life and wondering where God fits, meditate on this truth – God says, “I AM everything to you.”
I AM … your provider, healer, friend, future, father and so much more!
Whatever we lack in life, whatever our shortcomings, the “I AM” is there is meet us and make up the difference and be everything you and I need!
That’s a pretty amazing attribute of God!
God is the “I AM.”
Unpacking God to fully understand him is IMPOSSIBLE for the greatest of minds … but it’s not really about unpacking God … it’s not about discovering some “new” thing …
You see, it takes FAITH to believe in someone or something you cannot see – God is beyond our ability to explain Him … because He is God!
Whatever we know about God is not because we “made it up” but because God allowed us to DISCOVER HIM … he graciously revealed himself to us!
How did He do this? Primarily through His Word.
So, how does God reveal himself to us? The Trinity … the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The trinity is NOT something that we created or conjured up so that we can “figure” God out.
God is trinity – he is three persons in one!
Several hundred years ago a man by the name of St. Athanatius wrote what is called the Athanasian Creed … it gives us a pretty clear definition of the trinity … “… we worship one God in trinity and Trinity in unity … for there is one person of the Father, another of the son and another of the Holy Spirit; but the Godhead of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit is all one – the glory equal, the majesty co-eternal. Such as the Father is, such is the Son, and such is the Holy Spirit. So the Father is God, the Son is God and the Holy Spirit is God, yet they are not three Gods, but one.”
I think it’s hard to wrap our minds around that! But that’s trinity!
Over the next several weeks we are going to present to you what God’s Word says about the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit!
So today, I want to answer the question what does the doctrine of the Trinity mean to us? Theologians have debated it … authors have written about it … agnostics have denied it … so what about you and I? Can we grasp it?
Alister McGrath: “… the trinity is a reminder of the majesty and mystery of the God who gave himself for us on the cross.”
The Trinity does not break God into manageable pieces, but it is a reminder that God is complex and cannot be managed by you or I!
Have you ever thought about the power of the watermelon seed? Probably not. It has the power of drawing from the ground and through itself 200,000 times its weight. When you can tell me how it takes this material and out of it colors an outside surface beyond the imitation of art, and then forms inside of it a white rind and within that again a red heart, thickly inlaid with black seeds, each one of which in turn is capable of drawing through itself 200,000 times its weight--when I can explain to the mystery of a watermelon, maybe I can then fully explain the mystery of God – but just because we don’t understand a watermelon capabilities still the watermelon is there – and because we may not full understand God’s attributes still God is the “I AM.”
You and I will always have our limits to understanding God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – The Trinity!
We will never be able to wrap our minds around a deity that has always been … that simply is “I AM.”
So, let’s look at the Trilogy of the Trinity …
Omniscience – God knows everything
Psalm 139:1-4: “O Lord, you examine me and know. You know when I sit down and when I get up; even from far away you understand my motives. You carefully observe me when I travel or when I lie down to rest; you are aware of everything I do.”
God knows everything about everyone!
God is an absolute expert in everything … he struggles with no subject.
I had struggles with a lot of subjects in High School – I could not figure out science for the life of me – so God blessed me with a Biology Teacher as a wife!
God needs no one to complete his knowledge or understanding!
He has no teacher or mentor – he is the great teacher!
God cannot be stumped or tricked – he knows everything about everything!
He knows not just what we do, but why we do it! That’s kind of scary!
Everything … our pains and joys, our hurts and helps, our failures and even our successes … our thoughts and our actions … our past and our future.
So, if God knows everything then He is probably a great asset to our lives!
Omnipresence – God is everywhere
Psalm 139:5-10: “You squeeze me in from behind and in front; you place your hand on me. Your knowledge is beyond my comprehension; it is so far beyond me, I am unable to fathom it. Where can I go to escape your spirit? Where can I flee to escape your presence? If I were to ascend to heaven, you would be there. If I were to sprawl out in Sheol, there you would be. If I were to fly away on the wings of the dawn, and settle down on the other side of the sea, even there your hand would guide me, your right hand would grab hold of me.”
You can’t runaway from God … you can’t escape his eyesight or concern!
He is not just sitting in Heaven … he is everywhere in the universe – in all of creation!
So, God doesn’t just know about what we go through … he is there with us as we go through it!
I think that is pretty amazing!
He is deeply concerned with you so he wants to be where you are!
That boggles my mind! Yet, I don’t get it, but I know He is there!!!
I can’t go anywhere that God is not!!!
Bette Midler sang a song years ago … “From a distance God is watching us; God is watching us from a distance.”
That’s called “deism” – the belief that an all-powerful God sits back and watched us.
No – our God is involved with us!
Omnipotent – God can do anything
Ephesians 3:20: “God can do anything, you know--far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us” (MSG).
We can’t comprehend how God spoke the world into existence – still we see it all every day of our lives!
When Mary and I went to see the sonogram of our new little baby – it’s so cool, but I look at that and think, “Man, God can do anything – even create life.”
In the middle of our circumstances, whatever we are going through, God can bring us through whatever hellish moment we are experiencing!
God can do anything … wow … and he loves us!
CONCLUSION
God is omnipotent – his power knows no equal. He is omnipresent – he is with you in life, good or bad. And He is omniscient – he knows our past, present and future.
He is a mystery and yet He is still awesome!
And He is the one we get to call, “Father.”
In the beginning of this message we opened with a prayer that we would “see Him” today. Can you see the I AM?
Pray with me.
