Trinity

Trinity Sunday

June 11, 2006

Deuteronomy 6:4-5

How many Gods do you have?

INTRODUCTION: Most people in our society today claim to be mono-theists – they claim to worship only one God. Is this so?  In many respects people in our world are for the most part poly-theists worshiping many gods because they are devoted to persons and things other then God. Could it be said that most people’s choice of God is much akin to Baskin Robins™ - with 31 flavors – one for each day of the month? Our Old Testament lesson declares that God is one, and that no other god has any reality. What would this say to our world today?

I.        What makes a god?

A.     One to whom you are totally devoted. Where your heart is there your treasure will be.

B.     What is your “passion” – this is your “god”

II.     What “gods” are available in our time?

A.     The god of success –

1.      The American Dream still lives

2.      The one with the most toys wins!

B.     The god of contentment –

1.      We have never had it so good

2.      What we consider necessities others regard as luxuries – e.g. the average “welfare” family often has – color televisions, air conditioning, two cars, DVD players, a VCR, etc.

C.     The god of ease –

1.       “I keep working for the week-end” from Huey Lewis & the News

2.      Retire early –

III.   If God is your one God, you must love Him totally - God lays His command to love “upon your heart” – v.6

A.     It is not enough to know you are to love God, nor to understand investigate, or discuss the command. God is not to be analyzed, scrutinized, or dissected. He is totally “other” 

B.     It is to be a matter of the heart. It involves your feelings, your emotions, your will.

C.     Our faith dare not be only cerebral. It must get deep into the psyche so that the whole person responds in obedience to God’s command.

CONCLUSION: The words of our text for this morning make up the Shema, the chief and basic confession of the Old Testament – that there is one God and He is to be worshiped totally. Though God manifests Himself in three persons – He is one essence. To love and worship God calls for us to believe that God is one and He is to be loved with one’s total being.