(outline) Trinity: Loving the Lord for WHO He Is (2)

Title: The Lord Our God, the Lord is One

Text: Deuteronomy 6:4-5

Series: An Invitation to Life in God

Fable: Goose & Golden Eggs

Unbelievers: “What did He ever do for me?”

Believers: “Speak your truth into existence” or “God is for you.”

Jeanie-like God based on his gifts

Thus...

What is the goal of the message?

To call the you to treasure the LORD supremely and devote to HIM uniquely.

Why is this goal needed?

Just as the nation of Israel, we too have the same tendencies...

Israel Historically: Exodus 17:1-7, I Corinthians 10:9

Israel Present text: Deuteronomy 6:10-16

We too: Matthew 24:12 “And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.”

The key to living as God’s people in cultures like this is to treasure the LORD supremely and devote ourselves to Him uniquely.

Illustration:

What does this mean and how does this happen? [to treasure the LORD and devote fully to Him]

Evaluate your hearing of the LORD

Deuteronomy 6:4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord:” begins with an imperative command - “Hear...”

(i) Hearing is Obedience.

This is the verb “Shama”.

(ii) Creeds are confessions because of human weakness.

Secondly, this particular verb introduces what is known as the “Shema” or what has been called the “most fundamental expression of the Jewish faith” [Douglas S. Huffman and Jamie N. Hausherr, The Lexham Bible Dictionary, 2016.]

While the creed is important, the opening word exposes a weakness of humanity — that we are both forgetful and hypocritical.

App:

The New Testament writer James well understood this human weakness when he said in James 1:22 “But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.”

What does it mean to hear the LORD?

To hear the LORD is to obey the words that you hear -- to live according to the truth.

Treasuring the LORD does not begin with a feeling but with hearing and obeying the word of the Lord.

Are you hearing without doing?

Illustration: Hearing the bell at Shaker Run…A you can go bell; Hearing the sirens of a FireTruck while you are driving, you…this is a alerting bell; being awakened to your house alarm going off — this is an alarming bell. Somewhat of a blend of all three...

To hear the truth without responding to the truth is to continue in self-delusion.

It is the self-delusion that continues living a life that is contrary to the truth you’ve just heard.

It is not hearing just anything today, but what is the truth that must be heard?

Estimate the uniqueness of the LORD

Deuteronomy 6:4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord:” does not begin with the command but with the basis for the command. Notice:

Yahweh is an Exclusive God.

Not everyone can call me dad...

(i) Yahweh is the Family Name

The name is given in a phrase in Exodus 3:14-15 “I am that I am” or “I am What I am”

(ii) Yahweh is a revealing name

(Ill: There is a “B-E-E” in the car…)

In an obscure way Yahweh, based on some philologists, comes from the verb to be [Packer, 18 Words, Published by Christian Focus, p. 46]

Reveals that LORD is self-sufficient (no need) and self-existent. (no cause)

The LORD is known and knows.

(iii) Yahweh is one God - v. 4

Exclusivity (among other gods) - Deuteronomy 6:14.

App:

The LORD should be estimated as exclusive, unique.

Illustration: Seeing the Bald Eagle while running (awe, wonder…etc)

Yahweh is a relational Being.

(i) Yahweh is claimed as “our God”

Goes both ways Exodus 20:2, 5, 7.

How then is a Being who is known and personal able to exist if there are not other Persons?

Herein lies the mystery of the Trinity.

Yahweh is the Name of the LORD that encompasses ONE GOD and three Persons. Yahweh is one in being or essence while being three in Persons or subsistence.

What is a being versus person?

WHAT IS HE? He is God. Who IS HE? He is three persons.

Ill: (What are you? Human Being. Who are you? You are Max Fernandez)

God is One is His “W-H-A-T-N-E-S-S”. God is three Persons is His “W-H-O-N-E-S-S”.

Summary: Yahweh has eternally been known, personal, affectionate…etc within his “Who-ness”.

Yahweh is a simple Being.

(i) ignorant or slow - James 1:5.

(ii) Not a composition of gods

For the countries who had false gods, they often did so in a polytheistic way. They had a goddess of fertility, a god of crops, a god of health…etc

(iii) Not a possessor of attributes - I John 4:7-8. God is Love.

App:

Not 33% Stakeholders.

Not 300% Tri-Theism.

Illustration: H2O - Not Forms…

How is the LORD unique and what is His worth?

Illustration: What do you do when you see a bald eagle, an albino squirrel, a shooting star, a whale breach the water.......etc We are far too easily entertained with the temporary.

Are you esteeming the LORD as unique to all other things and people? (awe, wonder...etc)

Psalm 29:2 “Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name; Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.”

If we are going to treasure the LORD, we need to stare, watch, marvel; but there is actually a particular response that the Lord deserves.

Evaluate your love for the LORD

Deuteronomy 6:5 “And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.”

(i) Yahweh Deserves Love

Unique, exclusive devotion.

APP: Not a psychological analysis. List is endless.

(ii) Yahweh Does Not See Us as Disposable. [Human Flourishing]

Deuteronomy 6:3 “Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe to do it; that it may be well with thee, and that ye may increase mightily, as the Lord God of thy fathers hath promised thee, in the land that floweth with milk and honey.”

Illustration: Obedience to the Father is always in our best interest even when your impulses are telling you otherwise.

Marshmallow Test or Chris Harrison Chart

Mankind, the nation of Israel, and we were all created by Yahweh to be in relationship with Him and so that without Him we would never fully flourish or find whole satisfaction. As one man said, “You have a God-size hole in your heart.”

Illustration: Think of all the things people do to satisfy themselves.

Living Water, Bread of Life.

The deepest longing is to be loved and to love. For me to love God wholly is not only what Yahweh deserves, but it is what I need.

We are not dispensable to Him. Yahweh has your best interests in mind.

What is the LORD’s great commandment to me and am I living by it?

Are you wholly loving God?

Estimate the cost loving the LORD

(i) Can anyone completely love Him like He really deserves?

Mark 12:28-30 “28 And one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, and perceiving that he had answered them well, asked him, Which is the first commandment of all? 29 And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: 30 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.”

Answer: No. Hence, the sacrificial system in Israel.

Weight of this message from Christ, note Mark 12:34

“And when Jesus saw that he answered discreetly, he said unto him, Thou art not far from the kingdom of God. And no man after that durst ask him any question.”

Do you love God like this?

(ii) Has Someone ever loved Him like He really deserves?

HEAR, O JESUS! John 14:30-31 “30 Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me. 31 But that the world may know that I love the Father; and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do. Arise, let us go hence.”

John 17:21-26 “That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. 22 And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: 23 I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me. 24 Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world. 25 O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me. 26 And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.”

(III) What is the cost of loving the Father this way?

True Faith in the Perfect Lover of the Father.

(having accepted your inability to give God what He deserves)

Romans 1-5:5 (Galatians 4:6, Titus 3:5-6).

The New Birth is an invitation into the life of God.

It is an invitation into a love that has eternally existed. It is an invitation to be brought back from exile under the punishment for our sin.

How is this invite accomplished? By the One God, Who is Three Persons:

God the Father sent His loved Son to live a fully human life of love for the Father and others, die a sacrificial death for those who had transgressed the law, powerfully rise from the dead, and ascend to Heaven so that the Father/Son could send the Holy Spirit of Love to birth lovers of God and lovers of people.

What is the cost of wholly loving Yahweh?

The cost is genuine faith that is marked by affectionate obedience in every aspect of your life. (heart, soul, mind, strength)...

Are you esteeming the cost of loving Yahweh because of Yahweh?

If this is the Yahweh we have in Jesus, why are we not more bold to speak of him to the surrounding nations? Jude 19-23.

What is your bank account, online image, daily life marked by? I John 2:5, 15, 4:20.

To know God, you must have Christ. To have Christ is to have the Spirit of Christ. To have the Spirit of Christ is to have the love of God in your heart.

God the Father has invited us into life in Him through the Son and by the Holy Spirit.

Have you RSVP’d?

If so, do you love Him like nobody else?