[00:00:00] Well, hi everyone. And welcome wherever you are. However you are experiencing this. Uh, seriously glad that you're with us. Thanks for being a part of our church. Hey, I want to begin this message by showing. Some amazing cutting edge technology. Now I don't want to blow your mind, although it's probably going to blow your mind. [00:00:17] So I want to suggest if you are not yet seated that you find yourself a place to sit, sit down, kind of buckle up, hang on, because this is absolutely going to just amaze you. I wanna show you a very short video, cutting edge technology. Watch this. [00:00:45] Everything I just said was true in the year 1972. When I first saw that, I got to tell you honestly, when pong came out, that's pong. When punk came out, I was astounded. I was. I was mesmerized, man. We used to go down to an arcade where they have this and it was a table like this, and you would play it on the screen of the flat screen. [00:01:06] And it was you against your opponent and Metta was so seriously, so much fun. I don't remember how much it costs, but I know it was worth it. And there was so cool about it was both sides of the table had one knob. So you went over here and. And one knob and you have one choice, you're going to turn it to the left or you going to turn it to the right and whichever way you turned it, that was the way the paddle was going to move and manic and it got fast. [00:01:30] It got furious and it was absolutely awesome. I'm telling you that, to say this other than pong and a short stint with the, the game donkey Kong, uh, after I was out of college, I think if I remember right, uh, I, I just have told you the total extent of my video game. Total extent of it. Okay. You need to understand this is it, this all there was in my lifetime. [00:01:56] End of story. That's all I really understand. I mentioned, and this is important that, um, you, you had to go, uh, in, and in that day, if you wanted to play Palm, do you wanna play donkey Kong? You had to go to an arcane and you had to pay for the games and you usually had to wait in line and you line your quarters up till you could get your turn at it. [00:02:15] Cause that's just the way that it was. All of that is to explain to you that our son, Jeremy, um, grew up in a different day, obviously. And, uh, uh, gaming had advanced significantly between that experience and his lifetime, uh, as he, you know, was a young boy growing up and he had different experiences with it. [00:02:37] Let me, let me just say that video games are grown up in God home. And by that, I mean that they'd become much more advanced. And they had created these home consoles that you didn't have to go to an arcade and you didn't have to pay you. You literally could play at home over and over. Never had to wait in line. [00:02:53] It was your game and you could get really, really good. So being good parents. One of the blessed our kids. So we got him in and Tendo and being a youth pastor. I had students at our house all of the time. We had used staff, youth coaches at our house all of the time. And I'm telling you that TV in that game console we're on all the time. [00:03:11] Jeremy has taken them all on and he was learning. He was getting sharp and he was really becoming Abel and he'd want me to play with them. And he, and, and yeah, I got to tell you, I have the zero interest. They call me a bad dad or, you know, whatever, I can take it or leave it. No, I would put. To leave it. So I left it to him. [00:03:29] He grew up learning how to play these games. I never bothered to learn. All right. Now, keep going through time. Uh, Jeremy grows up, he gets married and he and Michelle have their own kids. And, uh, he and Michelle being good parents want to give their kids a, you know, a blessing. And so they get them a console. [00:03:48] And here's the big difference. Uh, my grandkids, uh, Jeremy's kids grew up having a damn. Who, who could whip them in these video games? Cause he had a lifetime of experience and to them, but being an adult and understanding video games is absolutely normal because they want to aspire to become great enough to best their dad. [00:04:09] All right, now here's where I enter the story there. Uh, their kids, there's five of them. And to show you a picture, just so you can get an idea. Gavin Madsen added lenders are their ages. Aiden. And a phenomenal, great kids and yes, there are my grandkids and I can show a picture. Yep. Yep. But here's what I need you to understand. [00:04:27] They grew up with this stuff. They're going to pop up, pop up, play with us. And so I get invited in. Now, what you need to understand is the game is no longer pong or donkey Kong. Now it's Fortnite or Minecraft or something like that. I don't know if you've seen Fortnite. I don't know if we have a picture of that. [00:04:45] Um, but here's how, here's how it always goes. Okay. Here's how it. I go, gosh, I don't know how to play. And they go, dad, we pop up. We really want you to play, play with us and go, I seriously don't know how to play the game. And they're really quick to tell me how easy it is. And they say, all you have to do all you have to do. [00:05:03] And they, they explained they give me about a ten second tutorial on what we're trying to do, but they give me no information whatsoever on how we're supposed to accomplish it. Right. They, they just hand me a country. And they go here, use this and then they start the game and I'm left holding this thing. [00:05:21] Now you probably are very familiar with this though. How old are you? I don't know. You're probably very familiar. This is a control. In fact, I have a picture. I need you to understand something. This controller has all kinds of buttons on it. You can see them. This is an actual picture of this controller. [00:05:35] It's got an, a, B and an X and a Y, and it's got a plus and a minus and it's got to Joyce. And it's got this pad right here that goes, uh, you know, like for direction. I don't know what that is. And then I need you to understand up here at the top, there's two sets of like flipper buttons, like, like, uh, you know, a pinball game. [00:05:55] I don't know what the, but I don't have any idea what any of these buttons do. And they don't tell me, this is what they tell me. Just press the, a button. And I'm like, what? Just press the, a button and okay. They start the game. Here's how it goes. I get kids. I get left behind. I get stuck in some corner and I can't, I don't know how to get out of the corner and they're looking at me and they're this real life they're looking at me and they're going, you're discussing, you're so bad at this that they'll say things like Papa, come on, you're killing us. [00:06:28] I'm like, I'm stuck in a corner. How do I get out of the corner? I really have no idea. And then they'll conclude it. And they'll say this Baba, we love you, but you're horrible. Live video games. You're. And I go, I know I'm horrible. And I want to say to you guys, you're horrible teachers, cause you never explained anything to me. [00:06:45] And how was I supposed to know now? Those five are my, our grandkids. Lee's our grandkids from our son's site. I want to introduce you to two of the three of our grandkids from my daughter's side. So I want to show you their pictures. This is Kayden. Obviously these kids are younger. This is Cayden who's five, and this is Becca who's three on their first day of school. [00:07:06] And I want you to understand something about them that I'm there. They're younger. And the other day, uh, I was with them and, uh, Brandon, their dad, Amy's husband, Brandon, um, said to them, I sit down, I want to teach you how to work this. So he literally put one of these in their hands. And then he began to explain what the buttons do. [00:07:31] Here's what I need you to understand. I'm getting in on this lesson. So I grabbed one of these things and I, I sit down on the couch as we got Kayden the five-year-old and the three-year-old Beckett and me, and he's going, he's going, this is what this is. This is what there's time. I'm going to all that makes all the difference. [00:07:49] Oh, game on. Now that I. And he explains all this. And then the game is we're playing these actually coaching he's explained, no, this is what you're trying to know to avoid that. Say I had all this information is new to me. So all that's to say this, we, uh, we started, uh, the game of Mario cart and, uh, I am a really, really proud to stand here and tell you something. [00:08:13] Um, I smoked my grandkids. I had nine related to men. I absolutely just dominated. In fact, I have the actual, this is the score sheet you can see who won the race. Okay. And you see Caden's five Becca. So, uh, Brandon. Yeah, he didn't, he didn't do so. Well, none. None of that's really true, but, uh, you might be wondering why are we spending all of this time talking about this and here's the. [00:08:44] Because when it comes to Christianity, I think we try to pass onto the next generation, uh, the important things as simply, and as carelessly as information was passed on to me about this. And I think I want to understand this. I want us to talk about this. How much of Christianity were you supposed to just pick up where you were supposed to just get, you know, like come on don't you understand the difference between the old Testament and the new. [00:09:11] You see red letters in the Bible, you go, what are the red letters for I'll come on. You can figure that out. Uh, how come the first four books of the new Testament sound like it's repeating the same story over and over again. How come the Bible speaks so much about who B got whom? And by the way, what does even mean? [00:09:27] You see, you got all this stuff in, it's coming at you and you're supposed to figure. I suggest that for many of us, the truth of Christianity flies by us and instead of impacting us and making the difference that truth was supposed to make in our lives, it never impacted because we, we didn't know how to receive it. [00:09:43] We didn't hear it. We didn't get it. We couldn't figure it out. How much are you missing when it comes to God? Because nobody ever explained the basics to you. So we're beginning a series today called the God with. Now the God within that we're going to talk about in this series is the holy spirit who dwells within us, the God within not now. [00:10:05] What I need you to understand is we're going to get to the holy spirit in the weeks to come, but you can't really dive into a study on the holy spirit until you kind of deal with what we're going to call the pre-call to the holy spirit. And that's what we're going to talk about today. And, um, if we don't get what we're going to talk about today, then I don't. [00:10:26] We're going to understand much about what's coming in the next several weeks now. So let me just explain, uh, just a few things that you need to re realize. Okay. What I want to talk about today is one of, if not the most important aspects of the Christian life, it's crucial that you understand it's a subject. [00:10:44] You probably have heard something about, it's an idea that maybe you've even wrestled with. It's unfortunately, a concept that a lot of Christians say it really makes no difference whatsoever, which is absolutely tragic because I would argue you are dead wrong. It's so important that I would say this. If you don't get this, you're not going to understand the old Testament and you're not going to understand the new Testament. [00:11:06] You're not going to understand salvation and how it works. You're not gonna understand worship and how to do it properly. You're not gonna understand prayer and how to pray effective. You're not going to understand biblical community. You're not going to understand what love has to do with it, the flat. [00:11:24] So the point is, if you don't understand the basics that we're going to talk about today, so much of this is going to go by you. So here's the deal. We're going to talk today about what is called the Trinity. All right. Now, when I say the Trinity immediately, you might get scared, like, oh no. Uh, it's, it's a bit complex. [00:11:44] I just want to tell you that it's a bit complex. Um, and honestly, uh, to tackle the Trinity, it's kind of like a mosquito in a nudist colony. I mean, I know what I got to do, and I just don't know where to start because everything looks good. That's a little bit of the flavor of this right here. And, but we're going to dive in. [00:12:03] All right. So I want to start, I'm going to choose where to go first and I want to talk about the nature of God. Get us to understand the pre-cool to understanding the holy spirit by let's just talk about the nature of God now, who is God, who is God? What do you know about God? AWL Tozer said this. What comes into our minds? [00:12:27] When we think about God is the most important thing about us. It is absolutely crucial. Uh, so, so what comes to your mind? How would you explain God to somebody? How would you describe. And then you have to ask the question. Does God want us to understand? Or did he want to sustain mysterious and kind of out of touch? [00:12:49] I want to say this. I think God wants us to learn. I think God wants us to know him in John 17 three. It says this is eternal life that they know you. The one, uh, the, the thing they know you, the only God and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent, but that, how can we come to know God? Okay. Like do, like, if you want to understand a frog, you put it on a, on a, on a table and you experiment on it and you cut it open and you make some observations and you kind of say, here's what I saw. [00:13:22] Here's what I figured out. And that's how you, you know, come to understand the frog. You try to do it with the detached objectivity, but what do you do when it comes to God? See, there's a fundamental question that we've got to wrestle with. Can we even comprehend. It might sound really simple, but scripture says, be careful here, Isaiah 55, 8 and nine says, God, God said these words for my thoughts are not your thoughts. [00:13:49] Neither are your ways. My ways to clarify to the Lord as the heavens are higher than the earth. So are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. W what, so what are my chances? What are your chances? I mean, if you understand what that saying is saying that God's dumbest thought is way above my smartest, most brilliant insight I've ever gained. [00:14:16] What w what do I think I'm going to do here now? I know another question is, should we be able to comprehend God? I mean, seriously, should we be able to comprehend God, let me, let me walk you down this road. What if you could get your mind around. W what, if you could get to know God so well that you could actually finish his sentences? [00:14:40] Well, what if you got to know God so well that you could predict what God's going to do over every circumstance? What would you give to be able to explain God accurately? Now, again, it sounds so incredibly appealing to know God's so well that I would be able to do all that, but here's the question. How big would that God be? [00:15:04] How big, if I can wrap my brain around him, how big is he? And if I could fully understand God, am I not greater than God and my intelligence beyond his intelligence? Let, let me put a couple of key ideas on the table here. Okay. The, the, these are, these are just principles to wrestle with. All right. First, any God you could fully explain is no, God. [00:15:31] We're following. Think about it. Why, why would I follow a God that I can fully explain that I can fully grasp? Let me say it this way a little bit differently. The only God worth knowing is the one beyond your ability to fully know folks. This is counterintuitive, but think it through with me, um, should God be comprehensible to, you know, if he was, you are beyond. [00:15:59] He answers to you. You're not answering to him. Now, let me say this. Um, there's a lot of stuff that man has figured out about how God did things, how God created humans. We, you know, we know all kinds of things. So these days science has taken us a long way. And we can just talk about like the brain right now. [00:16:18] We know all kinds of things about the brain that generations ago. They didn't know. W we know that, you know, the brain is made up of different parts of frontal lobe. You know, the temporal lobe, the parietal lobe, the sh Sara, You know, the sh uh, the cerebral cortex, the amygdala, we know all this now, and we can understand what the different parts to do. [00:16:36] We also, in fact, a couple of weeks ago, I was talking about the issue of depression. I was talking about, you know, these neuro-transmitters these chemicals to get, you know, uh, functioning in your brain. And, and we talked about, um, uh, nor F uh, no, I can never do this. No, epinephrin, that's the word I'm looking for. [00:16:57] These are, these are chemicals that they're, they're shot across what are called and these synapses and, and they, they gather and they capture and they do all these things. And, and, and the point I wanted to make is that, you know, you hear all this stuff and you go, that sounds so complicated because it is, but it's not, it's not beyond God. [00:17:18] It's what man has been able to figure out. But, um, they figured out how God wired up. But let me ask you a question. What about all the things that are, that exist out there that we, we don't really understand? You know, that scientists still cannot explain consciousness. Do you know that scientists truly don't understand gravity? [00:17:38] Do you understand that scientists really know why an animal's brain is wired in such a way that it can find itself a way across a continent on a migration and find its way back. If we, as men can not yet figure out how an animal can do that, what are the odds that we could understand how God program. [00:17:54] All of that into men and into animals. Now, as I'm going through all of this folks, your eyes might be just glossed over, but I, I wanna, I wanna make this point, shouldn't God be able to do things beyond your comprehension. Aren't you glad that you can't explain everything there is to know about God? Like for instance, I, I, I just think about like miracles. [00:18:20] You know how Jesus walked on water? I don't know. I don't know how Jesus could heal anyone. I don't know. I don't know how he could do that. How he wrote, he was able to raise people from the dead. I, I. You see, I expect God to do things that my brain can't grasp. I, uh, I have no problem with the Virgin birth. [00:18:39] I expect God, the God of the Bible to do stuff like that. I don't have any problem with the bodily resurrection of Jesus. I, I expect God to do things like that, to enter the world in a different way and exit the world. I don't know how to explain to you how his death on the cross is going to cover all your sins. [00:18:55] But I believe with all my heart that if God explained that that's what it's going to do, even though I can't. Uh, I, I think that's what it's going to do. So we comprehending that it's in our inability to comprehend that makes God, God, you get what I just said. Are we comprehending that it's in our inability to comprehend God, that makes God God. [00:19:23] Well now let me say this and listen carefully. We could only fully understand or conceive of a God of our own creation. That's the only God you can get your brain around when you created now, what you would do. And we've done this, people do this all the time. We want to create God in our image. We want God as we want God to be. [00:19:48] We want God. Like we always say, well, if I were God, I would never let this happen. If I were God, we played God all the time and we want a God. That's like. Uh, God, in our image, the problem is scripture is very clear. God wasn't created in your image. You were created in his image. Let me take you to Genesis 1 26. [00:20:07] It says this, then God said, let us make mankind in our image in our likeness. God, God's going, look, this is what's called the Imago DEI. We are made like, God, God is not made like us. We are image bearers of God's greatness. But wait a minute, wait, wait a minute. For me, for me to fully understand him, then I've got to be more than him. [00:20:33] See, this is the lesser trying to be more than the greater. I'm not more than the greater I'm the lesser I was created in his image, not he created in mine. And by the way, did you catch that verse? Did you see what the verses said? Let me take you back. Let's look at it a little more closely. Genesis 1 26 says then God said, let us make mankind in our. [00:20:54] In our likeness, w w what is the low down here? Who's the us, let us make God in our image. Who's the hour. What do you know that the, the Hebrew terms, uh, old Testament is written in Hebrew, uh, the names of God, Elohim and Adam, and I do know that those are plural plural terms got God is more than. Just a singular. [00:21:23] And at this point you ought to be like going, wait a minute, what do you mean us an hour? And you start to realize that there's going to be a theme. That's going to run through the Bible. You see, when you get into the new Testament, you're going to see things happening in the life of Jesus. That if you understand how this works, it's going to make some sense to you. [00:21:39] You're going to see it, the baptism of Jesus and Matthew chapter three. In fact, I'll just read it to you. Here's what it says. As soon as Jesus was baptized. He went up out of the water at that moment, heaven was open and he saw the spirit of God, descending like a dove and a lighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, this is my son whom I love with him. [00:22:00] I am well-pleased wait, what, who are these people showing up? So the sun is getting baptized. A dove comes down and says, representing the holy spirit and a voice from heaven says, this is my beloved. We're all these people. All right. Let me take you to the last thing she's still in. What's called this great commission said that found at the end of the gospel of Matthew. [00:22:27] And it says this in Matthew 28, 19, therefore go and make disciples of all the nations baptizing them. Let's just like what we just watched him do, baptizing them in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy city. So understanding the Trinity, how are we supposed to make sense out of this? [00:22:49] God goes, let me walk you through this. Okay. Let me help you here. Now, Trinity means the tri unity of God, the tri unity of God, or say, let, let, let me say it a little bit differently. The three in one. Of God. Now the word Trinity is not found in the Bible, but the concept of Trinity is all through the Bible. [00:23:11] You see it wasn't until later on, after the church was started and they tried to figure out, okay, like how does all this make sense that they began to see all that God was doing? And they began to go, you know what? This explains this best is the God is a Trinity and they began to call it death. No folks, what is it, Trinity? [00:23:28] Is this a math bending? The mental problem to be solved? Is that what this is about? Um, I'm going to try my hardest to just try to make this make some sense here. Here's some things I need you to know. Okay. First and foremost, you got to start here. You need to understand there is only one God, only one God in the old Testament, in the new Testament, only one God old Testament, Deuteronomy six, four hero Israel, the Lord, our God, the Lord is. [00:23:57] New Testament first, Timothy 2, 5, 4. There is one God, one God. Okay. Now one God, but there are three distinct persons that make up who God is. Listen carefully, the father, the son, and the spirit. Have I lost you yet? Stay with me. And in fact, let me just say this, understand this statement. So if you're prone to right, this is the big idea. [00:24:24] Once you just kind of wrap your brain around this. God is one in essence and three in person, and I know that's heavy. I get it. Stay with it. W one in essence, but three in person, the essence explains what God is. The person explains who God is the who. All right. Essence is what you are. Person is who you are. [00:24:49] So, so God is. One watt and three who's one in essence, three in person. Now, again, don't, don't gloss over. Stay with me. Each of these three persons are not part of God, but there are fully God and fully equal with God. All right. Now equally God. So I'm going to give you seven statements that are going to my best shot at trying to explain to you how to get your brain around this. [00:25:20] Right. And they're going to come from. Seven statements that unlock an understanding to the Trinity. Number one statement. There is only one. God, you've got to start there. There's only one. God statement. Number two, the father is God. The father has got Philippians. One, two says grace and peace to you from God, our father and the Lord. [00:25:42] Jesus Christ. All right. There's only one. God, the father has got third statement. The son is God. And this is where we're going to have to start direction. You're uh, you're uh, thinking Titus two 13 says while we wait for the blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and savior Jesus Christ. [00:26:05] Jesus Christ is God. The son has got, and then the holy spirit is. Wait, what? No, if you're going to read this and understand it, you got to realize one essence three who's, three persons. Okay. So like in the, uh, book of acts, there was this conflict and these person, these, uh, these two people tried to deceive God and deceive Peter and the, and the apostles. [00:26:29] And they kind of set up a little thing and, and Peter became aware of it because the spirit of God within him said, Hey, check this out a little more. Um, in acts chapter five, I just want to show you this verses three to four, then Peter said, and NIS, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart, that you have lied to the holy spirit and you have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land. [00:26:58] It was just deception. Didn't it belong to you before it was sold and after it was sold, wasn't the money at your disposal? They sold a piece of land. They said, this is what we got for it. It's not what they got for it. And they were deceiving Peter and Peter says, why are you deceiving the holy spirit? [00:27:13] And I've watched this. And after it was sold, wasn't the money at your disposal to get to anything you want it. What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied just to human beings, but to God directly connecting the holy spirit to God. So the first floor of the seven, there was only one. God, the father is God. [00:27:31] The son is God. The holy spirit is. Uh, catch it. The father is not the son and the father is not the son. The son is not the spirit. The spirit is not the. The three are different persons, not three different ways of looking at God now. Well, there's a whole list of things that we're going to want to avoid mistakes that we want to avoid. [00:28:01] But let me just give you just a couple of just right off the top. It's really easy to think. Okay. So each member of the Trinity is one third of God. And the answer is no, that's a mistake. Colossians 2, 9, 4 in Christ, all the fullness of. Uh, all the fullness of the deity lives in bodily form, not a, not a third, not a fraction, not some, not a slice of a pie. [00:28:26] All of the deity. Okay. So mistake number one to avoid, uh, somehow cut got up into three pieces. Um, there all three of the exact same thing that they're exactly the same. Uh, the father is the son. The son is the spirit. And again, I'm telling you. It's not going to make any sense. That's not a true sentence. [00:28:48] And then th the third mistake to avoid the father. Oh, I see. So the father became the son who became the spirit and now the spirit is with us. No, the father did not become the son and the son did not become the spirit. Three distinct persons. Somebody wrote this, I don't know who to attribute it to. I didn't write it. [00:29:08] Uh, I, it was in my notes. Okay. I don't remember where I got it, but here's what I want to say. Somebody said this, the Trinity is not simple, but, but if you think about it, most of reality, isn't simple. For instance, every one of the trillions of cells in your body is incredibly complex. Even the proteins in your cells are complex. [00:29:28] Family relationships are complicated. Football is complicated. I still can't figure out my $20 digital alarm. And yet, for some reason, when it comes to God or Bible study or spirituality, we want simple answers. We don't want to think, but do we really want a God who is less mysterious than an alarm clock? [00:29:47] Great question. A to understand this, God is one in essence and three in person. Essence is what you are person is who you are. So God is one watt and three who's. All right. Now here's the problem. People forever tried to wrap their brain around that, like, oh, okay. So it's like, and come up with some analogy or a metaphor, some something, and here's the problem. [00:30:16] Every one of these breaks down it, God is greater than any words that we can combine together to explain it. Now, images can help you. And like, for me personally, this might not help you, but this has always had. Uh, it is the idea of what's called the triple point of water and you can look this up on YouTube. [00:30:34] You can actually put water in such a condition. It has to do with certain pressure and how you do this, but you can actually get water to be water, to be both steam and liquid and ice. All three of the same. They're all. One in essence, but in three very distinct modes, as it were, uh, three very distinct ways in which you'd experienced them frozen, you know, uh, uh, like room temperature, and then steam you go, how can that be? [00:31:04] It's all at once. You can do it. You can again, check it out on YouTube. All right. That doesn't work for you. Uh, others say, well, it's kind of like this. Uh, the Trinity of God is like it like you, uh, who are you? You're made up of your mind, your body and your soul. God is a mind, which is the father and body, which is the son and soul, which is the spirit. [00:31:31] Now all of these breakdown, you can't run them to the extreme because you're trying to grasp that, which is so far beyond trying to grasp God. But, um, I just need you to understand. That all of this really does matter. And let me just real quickly explain three reasons why it matters. I'm going to come fast. [00:31:50] Why it matters. Number one, because it accurately, accurately explains who God is. If you want to know God, you need to understand who God is for who he is, not who you would be if you were God, but who he is. It distinguishes him from other deities that people. In other words, when you understand this, you realize that Hinduism does not allow for the Trinity of God, nor does Islam doesn't allow for the Trinity of God, nor does any other faith. [00:32:21] In fact, it's been said that any doctrine, if any doctor makes Christianity Christian, that's a goofy way to say it, then surely it's the doctrine of the Trinity. It is Christianity's distinctive one God in three forms. So you want to understand God accurately, then you need to get your brain around as best you can. [00:32:43] Now second reason, because it allows us to know and worship God appropriately to no one worship God appropriately. Um, not as we would create a, not as we might like him to be not like we would like to be worshiped that we were got no, uh, it's who God is. And you can go. I've tried my hardest. Alright. And this one would be the, I think the most important one, because it explains why the Bible prioritizes love and relationships. [00:33:14] And it just does folks from beginning to end community matters. Life is better done together. You were not made to be alone to be left alone. You belong to something bigger than you and the Trinity explains it because you realize God is in committee. Let us make man in our image, God is in a relationship. [00:33:34] He is father, son, and spirit. The love that they have, you know, God is love that experience. That's what love is. And what you got to understand is God did not create mankind to fill a void in his heart. He had a man shaped hole in his heart and he needed man to fill it. No out of the overflow of the love between the father, the son and the spirit. [00:33:58] God invites you into a. Now because he needs you, not because you complete them because you fulfill them because he wanted you. And that's what Christianity is. It's accepting the invitation of God to come into a relationship, father, son, and spirit. So let me, let me finish this message right now. Look, I I've tried my best in this message to make something extremely complicated, at least, uh, explainable enough that we could go. [00:34:27] Okay. I got some stuff to think about. That's been my. Now the big idea again, just make sure you get it. All right. Here it is. God is one in essence and three in person. Essence is what you are. Person is who you are. God is one watt and three who's, one essence, three person. Um, I'm going to close with a thought it's going to sound like it's kind of random, but it should make some sense. [00:34:57] Let me, let me just explain something. So scientists have studied the sun. Okay. And I'm talking about in, up in the sky, the sun, and they've come up with some findings. I may just relate to some things they've discovered about the sun. Okay. Are you ready? Um, they stayed the deep within the core of the sun. [00:35:16] The temperature is 27 million degrees. Oh, the pressure is 340 billion times. What it is here on earth. The sun's core that insanely hot temperature and unthinkable pressure combined to create nuclear reactions. In each reaction, four protons fused together to create one alpha particle, which has seven tenths of a percent less mass than the four protons. [00:35:51] The difference in mass is expelled as energy. Then after one heck of a lot of years through a process called convection, this energy from the core of the sun finally reaches the surface where it is expelled from the sun as heat and. And everything. I just said, you might've gone. I don't care to know it's not important. [00:36:14] And here's the beautiful thing. You know what you can say? That's interesting, but you don't need all of that information to be able to get a tan from the sun you see in the same way, you don't need to understand everything. There is about God to experience the beauty of this. You just got to understand that if you really want to dive in there's this, this growth that has to happen, this intense, this willingness to go there and go for it. [00:36:45] Um, and God wants you to know as much as you want to know about him. He wants you to know and invites us that no. If I liked it in this message, just like totally, uh, confused you and you go, ah, you've overwhelmed me. Okay. Listen, let me help you. Okay. Just hit the, a button. All right. Try to avoid corners. Uh, just hit the, a button. [00:37:07] You know what? I, I'm so glad you're in the game. Um, God, God wants you to understand like how it all works, but to whatever degree now, next week we're gonna go. Uh, get a little bit less technical. Uh, we're going to dive into a subject of the holy spirit and I want to invite you to not miss it. Think you're going to learn a lot. [00:37:28] I think we're going to be blessed in a great way. So hang on, let me pray and we'll wrap it up. So God, thank you. We love you. We are so privileged to be your children. We're so privileged to be invited into this incredible relationship that. Uh, father-son spirit, uh, amazing. So help us to learn, help us to really help us to ponder this and the week to come. [00:37:51] What is all this human mean? But God, thank you that you didn't leave us with. No explanation whatsoever is complicated. We get it all kinds of buttons, all kinds of stuff, but it's, it's knowable. We can, we can move down a deeper understanding. So to that end father, we just praise you. Thank you in Jesus name. [00:38:12] Amen. Thank you all very much for being a part. Bless you. Have a great week.