Connected In Him

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Introduction

Identity and placement
To a trinitarian God who is providential, creative, loving, eminent, interacting, working in and through us.

Connected To The Father

to be connected to God is more than to be spiritual. It is more than to pray to “the man upstairs”. God is God. Not a man. To be connected to God is to know the points of connection, the path of connection, and the power of connection.
In Genesis 1:1–2 “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.”
We have the first reference of the Trinitarian God. God created the heavens and the earth. The Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. and then in Genesis 1:26 “Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.””
Let US make man in OUR image pointing to a mono, single, one God with a communal plural self.
In Exodus 4:22–23Then you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the Lord, Israel is my firstborn son, and I say to you, “Let my son go that he may serve me.” If you refuse to let him go, behold, I will kill your firstborn son.’ ”
God identifies as the father of Israel and to the nation as His son. This is the first reference to God as a Father.
Throughout the New Testament, Jesus, in identifying His part in the Trinity and His distinction, refers to God the Father as His Father and encourages us to do the same.
Matthew 6:9 “Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.”
He wants us to not only know Him as God. The Supreme, but God - our Father. Our association with Jesus makes Him our Father.
How many of you had someone who was like a “second mother or second father”. They played a significant role in your life… not just like a Father, no - our actual Father.
Not just the provider, but our provider. Not just as a strong arm, but our strong arm. Not just as a source of wealth, but our source of wealth. Not just as a source of wisdom, but our source of wisdom and guidance. You talk to people who say, I believe in God, but you can tell they do not know Him as their father.
There is nothing wrong with saying “Dear Jesus”. Jesus is God. But there is something fitting about praying, Dear Father because it positions you and it gives reverence to Him.

Connected Through The Son

John 1:1–4 ESV
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men.
The plural language of Genesis 1 now becomes more understandable in John 1. The word for Word, is Logos and as John goes on to clarify, this is Jesus. The Creator who was there from the beginning and then became flesh and walked the world that He created. He was not just a teacher, not just a prophet, not just am example for us to follow, but in John 14:6 “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
Jesus clarifies that the only way to know the Father and to come to the Father is through Him.
Through His bearing our sin on the cross, and His resurrected life, We trust that our sins are forgiven, the debt is paid, and we are adopted through Jesus as children of God. What He said, what He did, and what He promised. Connected through Jesus.
Connected Through The Spirit
The Spirit that hovered over the deep in Genesis 1. is the the Spirit that conceived in Mary, descended like a dove when Jesus was baptized in Matthew 3 and led him into the wilderness to be tempted in Matthew 4. John the Baptist also said that he would baptize in the Spirit.
In the book John, Jesus tells Nicodemus that you must be born again, of water and of the Spirit. That everyone needs a Spiritual birth, not just a physical birth. Three chapters later, Jesus feeds 5,000 which makes Him very popular but then says some very hard things that chased the crowds away. In the midst of this chapter, He tells His disciples in John 6:63 “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.”
By the power of the Holy Spirit, you can be born again. The flesh is not help at all. My aim today is not to talk you into it. My aim is not to manipulate you into a decision, but to preach the truth and pray for the Spirit to give life. Each person in this room has to come to a place where they are moved to faith. You understand the truth of who God is and are convicted by the Holy Spirit to turn to Him.
In Ephesians 1:13–14“In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.”
We are sealed with the Holy Spirit both in Ephesians 4 and 2 Corinthians 1:21–22 “And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, and who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.”
The seal that is referenced is that of a King who places his mark of ownership.
FILLED
In Ephesians 5 it says we are to be filled with the Spirit. In Romans 8:4–9 “For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.”
FOLLOW
In Galatians 5:25 “If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.” It tells us to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit.
Jesus calls the Holy Spirit a helper, a comforter and He says it is to our advantage that He sends the Holy Spirit.
Summary
In the Father, I understand my relationship to and with God. I respect, fear, love, and trust Him. I look to Him as the provider and protecter.
In Jesus, I find my picture of the heart of God. If you know the son you know the father. I find my acceptance, my understanding of the way, the truth and the life.
In the Holy Spirit, I find the promise of His presence and His intervention on my behalf. The flesh is of no help…. the Spirit gives life.
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