We have One Love

One God to Follow

I really hope y'all had a good sleep,

We are talking about the idea of One and yesterday we talked about how we are all one called the bride of Christ, that we are one body of believers, the church.

Now to look at the other-side of the equation we follow on God, this idea is that we are following 1 God,

Well Liam how does that work that we love Jesus, God the Father and The Holy Spirit, that seems like 3 different persons.

Yes and no,

We have 1 God, but God is 3 persons, of the trinity.

Jesus, Father and HS are all equally God but each their own person.

It’s a little confusing but that is what it is.

However I do not want to dive too deep into the trinity but rather to dive into what it means that we follow one God.

First we have to realize that we follow one God and that should be reflected in the way that we live.

In the great commandments there is the frist commands that are to Love God, so lets jump to the Old Testament for a little and read that.

The first commandment is that we should have no other gods before God,

then immediately it is state that we should not make idols that replace Gods role

Exodus 20:4–6 NIV

“You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.

So when we say we have one God we must cast off the idols of our life, and altough we do not make figurines that repersent God, but rather we put idols of life infront of our God.

These idols of life represent:

Identity

We put who we are, the image of ourselves infront of God and who we is forming us to be.

Money/Things

we put the desire to be rich in this life and in physical things infront of the desire to be rich in the spiritual world, growing in wisedom of God and the the building of our souls rewards in heaven.

Status

Like the last two we build ourself up through what we have or what we have accomplished and we focus on that above what God says about who we are.

Entertainment

doing things we want to do instead of things we should do, this can come to our devotional times or when we should reconnect with God but instead go and do something we thing would be more entertaining. not to say God is not entertaining but you understand my point

Sex/relationships

you get my drift

there is plenty of things that could occupy our time that we spend with God. There are plenty of things that could occupy our space in our minds for God. There are plenty of things that we can substitue for God but all in all there is only one God.

This one God is Love, Peace, Paitent,

He is for you, never agasint you, he is going before you while walking beside you.

God is all for you.

That is why he asks us to not take up another God before him, so that we would love him back but also see that he is for us.

This one God has done some many amazing things for you already, in the creation story, through the promises he gives in the OT, to Jesus in the NT and the promise of return in Revelation. God is ultimetly for you, so how can you be for him more?

What do you need to give up to follow God more?

What have you put as a barrier inbetween you and God?

See Jesus is this bridge, when he died on the cross it is said that the veil tore apart, this veil was like a barrier so that we could not see God, is was poetic but also literal, that there was a divider between us and God that we could not unite but now that Christ died we can.

So Christ builds a bridge between us and God so that there is no divider there is now him.

However we place things inbetween us and God that we need to tear down first, these idols that I talked about and even ones that I did not talk about.

These idols take the place of Jesus and they may look fancy, they never acheive what God wants to achieve for us.

Our barriers will never love us,

our barriers will never support us

our barriers will never before us.

our barriers block us from God.

We need to take them down to follow God.

What are some idols that the world follows today?

How can we break down barriers between us and God?

What idols are in your life that make barriers between you and God?

One God who we Follow together

Luck us that we can take down barriers together.

Because we all share in this faith together.

We have One God who we all follow,

We all follow Jesus together, what does that mean?

well lets jump into Ephesians 4:1-7

Ephesians 4:1–7 NIV

As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.

See we have One Hope, One Spirit, One Lord and this is God. That we all share in following One God, each one of us.

I follow Jesus just as ___ just as ____ follows Jesus.

So we can look to each other as we follow God and say we are in this together.

You are not alone in your faith,

Isn’t that wonderful?

I want you all to know that you are not alone, this is not a lonely journey to follow God, we have other people to join in with us, that is why Paul calls us to keep that unity of the spirit that we all together would follow that one God.

Through the one baptism and with the one Spirit in the one Body (the Church) we all have one Faith.

I am not believing a diffferent thing then you are. I may be older then you, and at a different stage of life. But to be honest I know what it is like to follow God,

the ups and the downs and I can without a doubt say that the leaders who are here for you, know that same feeling too.

Because you are not alone as you follow Jesus,

If you are not yet following Jesus because you think its an outcast kind of situation it is not, becuase you are not alone in your faith walk.

Faith is something that we can work with in community, as we are doing now but when we leave this retreat we can still take these relationships with us and work towards being that one body of believers that we talked about.

Through that we know that we have people that we can rely on when it gets hard.

People that share in faith, they could be going through hard times or can help you going through hard times.

You are not alone in your faith walk.

My hope is that next time you face any doubt, or any type of evil that the enemy approaches you with is that you can run to two people.

God, to Jesus who was 100% man and 100% God, he felt tempation he met the devil who tried to trick him.

He is the one God we are talking about, he is for you and has experienced what you have gone through, becuase he was man.

So ultimently meet with him that you find comfort and peace in the storm in prayer.

that the One God could be your refugee in what ever the storm might be.

if you guys ever wonder how I do this, I actually find my playlist on my phone that I have titled Soverign Refugee and I play that while I am working at whatever is dragging me down. I feel his presence when I seek him out in the storm.

The other way is:

2. that you would run to someone you can trust to help you to keep faith.

I hope you trust someone here in this group that you can talk to when you have a hard day beliving in God

or some kind of storm hits you a little harder then normal and you feel alone in your faith.

Who is that person that you can run to when you are feeling alone in your faith.

Maybe that is a friend,

Maybe its a leader,

Maybe its a parent.

However in small groups we are going to ask a question that I want everyone to awnser, it doesn’t matter if you change it the next day, or if it’s onething when you say it but you think something else.

We are going to ask, who can you run to when following God seems hard, and I hope you can name someone who you have a relationship with that you trust them to talk about this One God we have.

How does know that Jesus is fully man and fully God change how you see temptation?

Who is someone you can run to when you feel your faith failing? (other then God)