God the Father

God the Father

Tonight we're going to be starting this revival. And I don't know if you all are familiar with the theme of this revival, but the theme that we're going to talk about all three nights, that's going to be discussed every single night is the Trinity. Now the Trinity. We talk about the Trinity a lot in church. We talk about it a lot without speaking the words Trinity. The Trinity is the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Now a lot of times the US, the concept of the Trinity is very difficult for us to understand because we have nothing here on earth now that we can compare it to. There's nothing that we can compare three different essences, 3 different people kind of in one. Same person.

And what I mean by that is the Scripture, the Bible, lays out these three different essences of God the Father, Jesus Christ the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Now all three of these are God. Just indifferent essences. And tonight we're going to concentrate on God the Father. Now I want to talk about 3 separate events here, if you will. The first Genesis chapter 1 verses one through 8. We're going to talk about creation because we have to start somewhere. You have to start at the beginning. We have to know what happened at the beginning. To layout the rest of the story, it's kind of like anything else. You have to lay the foundation first. You have to get the foundation built before you can build everything else. You have to build the floor before you can build the walls before you can build the roof.

So I want to start out tonight by looking at Genesis chapter 1 verses one through 8. It says “it says in the beginning was God. God created the heavens and the earth, and the earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep. The Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the head of the waters. And God said, let there be light, and there was light, and God saw that light was good. And God separated the light from darkness. God called the light day, and the darkness he called night. And there was evening, and there was morning one day. Then God said, let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters. Let it separate the waters from the waters. God made the expanse and separated the waters which were below the expanse from the waters which were above the expanse, and it was so God called the expanse heaven. There was evening and there was morning a second day.”

Now, why are these verses important? Why is it important to go back to Genesis 11 and start from the beginning? We have to know that God was there from the beginning. You know, there's all these all kinds of theories on how the world was created. There's theories on two rocks collided and the world was created from that. Everything that we see was created from 2:00. Rocks colliding together. Now to me as an old country boy, that makes no sense because you can take a rock in this hand, a rock in this hand and beat it together all you want to, and you can't come up with nothing but two rocks that are probably going to end up broke. If you've ever looked in the face of a newborn child. If you've ever looked outside in the springtime, seeing the flowers and the trees blooming, beauty. I don't understand how all that can happen from two rocks beating together.

But we have to start somewhere. There has to be a beginning. People ask me often, well, what do you believe happened for all this to be created? What do you believe happened for all this to happen? Take out your Bible Genesis 11 in the beginning God. God was there in the beginning. He's been here all along. He created everything. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. That's Scripture. That's what happened. Now, to me, there's no debate about that. We know that God created all. He created us.

Move down to Genesis 1 verses 26 and 27 talks about that just for a second. It says, “And God said, let us make man in our image according to our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the sky, and over the castle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. God created man in his own image, and in the image of God he created him male. And female. He created them.”

So a few things that these verses, these verses tell us back in verse 26, it said and God said, let us make man in our image. Now, in English class, we learn those words us and our. What does those mean? That means they're plural. It means that the Trinity, the Father, Son, the Holy Spirit are there. All the way back from the beginning. This is not a new development. This is something that has always been there.

But what I want us to understand here is God is far beyond us. What I mean by that? He is all knowing. He is all understanding. God knows us way better than we even know ourselves, and that's hard for us to grasp, so a lot of times it's hard for us to understand. God knows us way better than we know ourselves. He knows the hairs on our head. He has the numbered. He knows what's best for us. He also knows what is not good for us as well. And he leads us in 23rd. Psalm talks about that. He lead us beside the still waters. He restores our soul.

Just some things that God does for us, but we remember when we pray. To pray for God's will to be done now, a lot of times that's a very tough prayer to pray. But we know by knowing that God is all, knowing that He knows us all, He has the ultimate plan. A lot of times we pray for things that we don't need. A lot of times we pray for things that will be harmful to us in the end. A lot of times we pray for things and we just can't see down the road a little ways. God can. Remember that. Remember that he is all knowing. Remember he is all understanding.

Also, remember in our prayers that God has the power to do anything. After all, He created the world. He created us. He created everything around us. He has the power to do anything is in his will. That's a lot of times where faith comes in. Do we have the faith that God can and will do what we're praying for? That we have the faith that God has the power. There's a little verse in Scripture. It's very important. It says for nothing is impossible with God. We need to remember that. A lot of times when we struggle, when we're going through a tough time, it's easy to forget that. It's easy to forget that God is always there. It's easy to forget that God can do anything because we think that he is abandoned us. We think that he is just gotten completely. Away from us. God tells us he'll never leave us. He'll never forsake us. We may leave him, we may forsake him, but he will never, ever leave us.

Now another thing that I want to look at tonight, two more topics or two more stories in the scripture that I want to look at tonight. The first was when Jesus was. Baptized. Now, there are three times in the New Testament that God spoke audibly. God the Father spoke audibly three times. It's recorded in the New Testament. Tonight we're going to look at two of those for just a minute. The first was that Jesus's baptism, Matthew 3. 13 through 17.

When Jesus arrived from Galilee at the Jordan, coming to John to be baptized by him, but John tried to prevent him, saying I have need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me. But Jesus answering said to him permitted at this time, for in this way it is fitting. For us to fulfill all righteousness then he had permitted him. After being baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water, and behold, the heavens were open, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove and lighting on him. Behold, a voice out of the heavens said. This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased.”

Now I'm going to try not to get on to tomorrow night's lesson when Mike will be talking about Jesus Christ the Son. But I want to concentrate on a couple things here. First of all, I have to mention when we look at these verses, I have to mention baptism. Baptism is important. Now a lot of times we forget that, but baptism is important. After all, Christ himself did it. Flip over to 2nd Corinthians chapter 5 verse 21 for a second. It says, “He made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him.”

So why is this first important? Christ is the only one who ever came to earth who never sinned. He never committed not one sin. Now none of us here tonight can say that. He's the only person to ever come to Earth, live a life, and never commit a sin. He had no need to be baptized. But yet it was important enough for him to do it. He came to live a life as an example for us. An example for us to live by. A perfect example. He was baptized by John the Baptist.

And it's obvious John the Baptist knew who Christ was. He knew he was the Messiah. There's several scriptures that talk about that, even back before both of them were born, when they were both in their mother's womb. John the Baptist knew who Jesus was and he even said I'm not supposed to baptize you. You should be the one baptizing me. But Jesus told him he permitted it at this time, and John baptized him, and Jesus comes up immediately from the water. Now that's where I want to start concentrating on for just a second. The Spirit of God moved as a dove descending on Jesus. And then a voice out of heaven. His voice out of heaven said, This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased.

Now this is a very special story. Not only does it show us the baptism of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, but also by looking at this story, all three elements of the Trinity were present. God the Father. Spoke audibly. Said This is my beloved son. Now, first of all, this tells us exactly who Christ is. This wouldn't have happened if Jesus Christ wasn't the Messiah. This would have been impossible. The Son Jesus Christ himself was there, the one being baptized. And the Spirit of God like a dove. Was there as well. Now another thing that this is really special, it starts Jesus's ministry.

It shows us that when we are baptized, that when we accept him into our life as our Lord and Savior, when we repent of our sins, when we're saved, that's not the end. That's just the beginning. It can be the beginning for us as well. When we take that leap of faith, when we realize that we have done wrong, when we realize that we have sinned and we take that leap of faith and we are baptized, that's the beginning. That's when we can start. That's when we can start living our lives for Christ. That's when we can start. Living every day for God. But remember, baptism isn't the end. That's just the start.

The next story I want to look at, the last one I want to look at tonight, Matthew 17 verses one through 8. We're going to talk about the transfiguration for just a second. Again, what we're going to see, what I want to concentrate on here is where God's spoke audibly. It says, “Six days later Jesus took with him Peter and James and John his brother, and led him up on a high mountain by themselves, and he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his garments became as white as light. Behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, walking with them. Peter said to Jesus, Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will make the three tabernacles here, one for you, one for Moses, and 1:00 for Elijah. While he was still speaking, a bright cloud overshadowed them. Behold, a voice. Out of heaven. Said, This is my beloved son, with whom I am well pleased. Listen to him. When the disciples heard this, they fell face down and were terrified. Jesus came to them and touched them and said, get up and do not be afraid. And lifting their eyes, they saw no one except Jesus himself alone.”

So we see and we know this as the transfiguration. Jesus underwent this dramatic change. Scripture says there in verse two, he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun and his garments became white as light. He wanted to do this so that his disciples could behold Him in His glory. Now Peter made a mistake here. He put Moses and Elijah in the same category as Jesus and he even says there I'll make you 3 table tabernacles here, one for you, one for Moses and 1 for Elijah.

That's when we hear God the Father speak audibly one more time. First of all, he says, this is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Now, if you remember, that's exactly the same words that God the Father spoke at the baptism of Christ. It shows us again that Christ is the Messiah. But he adds a little bit more to it here. He says listen to him. Now if you notice the scripture says here while he was still speaking, Peter was still trying to talk to Jesus and God the Father interrupted him. Basically what he was saying here is hold up, listen to him, you've got some things wrong.

He was trying to put Moses and Elijah. Right up there with Jesus. Now Moses and Elijah had very important things to do. They were very important people. But they're not in the same category as Jesus Christ. Because tonight, in this revival that we're talking about, we're talking about the Trinity, the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit. Nobody that has ever lived on this earth, no matter what they did, no matter why they were here. Has ever been in the same category with the Trinity? It's impossible.

Because all the way back from the beginning, we went back to night and we looked at Genesis 11 in the beginning, God. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. All the way from the beginning they were there. I want to ask you tonight. Who are we going to put our faith in? Because in all reality, whether we are a Christian or not, at some point in our lives we have to choose what or who are we going to put our faith in? Is it going to be in the one who created the earth? Is it going to be in the one who is with us all of the time? And other people's going to get into that later on in this revival, talking about Christ, talking about the Holy Spirit? Are we going to put our faith in the Trinity and the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit? Or are we going to put our faith in someone or something else? I don't know about you. I'm going to put my faith in the one who created the earth and the one who sent his son to die for us, who sent his son to be put on a cross, who sent his Son to pay for all of our sin even though he didn't commit one. There too and wanna put my faith in. The one who died for us, the one who defeated death. Three days he rose again. That's something that we all have to think about. We all have to make that decision for ourselves. Nobody else can make it for us. We would love to make that decision for our loved ones. We would love to make a decision for them so that they could spend eternity in heaven. But we all have to make it for ourselves. What are we going to choose?