This sermon delves into the revelation of God as a Trinity, exploring the mystery of God being one yet revealed as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It emphasizes the importance of understanding God as a loving Father who desires a personal relationship with His children, encouraging believers to cooperate with God in prayer and to give their all to Him. The speaker shares personal experiences and insights on knowing God intimately as a Father and the impact it has on overcoming insecurity, competition, and receiving abundant blessings.

In the Old Testament, there is no clear revelation of God. But right in the first book, first chapter of the Bible, we get a little glimpse of it in Genesis 1, verse 26. It doesn't say, God said, let me make man in my image, but let us make man in our image. So it's plural. So right in the first chapter of the Bible, we read that God is more than one person. But yet, throughout the Bible, you read God is one. In fact, that's what the Lord taught the Israelites. The Lord, our God, is one God. Deuteronomy 6, verse 4. Here, O Israel, the Lord is our God and the Lord is one. Now this is a mystery that nobody could understand in the Old Testament. That in the beginning, God says we, but here he says God is one. And even in Christendom, there are so-called Christians who believe God is not a trinity. There are groups like that, many millions of Christians. They say, there is only Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are just like different names for one person. You know, like I'm an elder, I'm a husband, and I'm a father. That doesn't mean I'm three persons, I'm one. So, they say God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit just means he reveals himself in different ways, but he's only one person. Now we may think this is only a theological dispute, it's not very serious. There are groups called Jesus only. And they baptize in the name of Jesus and not in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Because they say, even though Jesus said in Matthew 28 and verse 19, you must baptize in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In Matthew 28. But, in the Acts of the Apostles, we read that they were asked to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Acts 2.38, be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. And Acts 3.28, be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. And there is a simple principle to understand the Bible. And that is, according to our human understanding, where two passages appear to contradict one another, they don't contradict. Both are true. There are many truths like this. God is sovereign, and he can do anything. But man has got a free will, and he can choose whether he wants to do something or not. These two appear to contradict each other. How can God be sovereign in the universe if some man can do his own will? And so, you find among believers, there are two groups. One who believes this, and one who believes that. And people ask me, what do I believe? It's like asking me whether I want my left hand or my right hand. I say, I want both. I believe in this truth and that truth. Remember once, even the devil quoted a verse to Jesus. He said, it is written that these angels will take charge of you, so you can jump down. He said, it is written. Jesus said, it is also written, you shall not tempt the Lord your God. So, remember, if the devil can quote a scripture to Jesus, he can quote it to you also. And he can use his agents, preachers, to preach some word of scripture to you, to deceive you. There is a balance in scripture, like there is in our human body. The way our body is, we have to keep it in balance. And it is true that God is one. And when it is written on the other side that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are also one truth. So, we can ask, how can both be true? That is because our mind cannot understand it. And the God whom my mind can explain will be another man like myself. That can't be a true God. If he is really the true God, it will be something beyond my mind. You know, just like a dog cannot understand everything in a man. You may be able to explain to a clever dog that 1 plus 1 plus 1 is 3. You put 3 bones in front of him, after years of training, the dog understands, yeah, 1 plus 1 plus 1 is 3. And now you go one step further, and you teach that dog, 1 multiplied by 1 multiplied by 1 is 1. The dog is confused, I thought it was 3. What an 8-year-old child can understand, even a 15-year-old dog will not understand. What an 8-year-old child can understand, even a 15-year-old dog will not understand. Because the level of a dog and the level of a man are different. So, you have to be like a mad person to understand God. And he only understands that my master loves me. And he cannot understand sin, but he understands that my master loves me. And that's what we need to say. I cannot explain the Trinity, but I know it's true. One thing I know, God loves me. That's all. So, we shouldn't try to explain the mysteries of God with our human mind, we cannot do it. So, we cannot explain the mysteries of God with our human mind. And when people come to our church and say that we have taken baptism in the name of our son, then I say that you may not have known it. There is something wrong that you did there, because you were denying the Father and the Holy Spirit when you were baptized only in the name of Jesus. I say I'm going to baptize you again the way Jesus commanded, in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Because there's a verse in 1 John 2.22 It says, if somebody denies the Father and the Son, that is the Antichrist. If you say, I deny the Father, it's only the Son. That Jesus is the Father, Jesus is the Son and Jesus is the Holy Spirit. That is the spirit of the Antichrist. So, I baptize such people again. I say, whoever baptized you, did not baptize you according to the command of Jesus. So, when they ask me this question, then why is it said in the Acts of the Apostles that they were baptized in the name of Jesus Christ? When two scriptures appear to contradict each other, Jesus said, baptize in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And the apostles baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. I say, both are true. They say, how can it be true? I say, I'll tell you how I baptize people. When I baptize a person, I say, I baptize you in the name of the Father and the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. I baptize in the name of Jesus Christ. And in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. I'll tell you why. Particularly in a Hindu country like ours, and in many heathen countries, it is not only Christianity that has a trinity. So, if I baptize a Hindu in the name of the Father, he's born again and I baptize him in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And he goes back and tells his parents or whatever it is, I was baptized in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit today. His religious Hindu father would say, oh that's okay. That is Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. It's quite okay. I have no problem. And therefore, to prevent that, I say the Son is not Vishnu, it is Jesus Christ. And in the Egyptians, they also had a trinity with three different names for that. So, that is why it's specified in the Acts of the Apostles, they baptized the Son was Jesus Christ, not some other God. So, there are many things like that. I've studied the Bible 55 years. I've never seen a contradiction in it till today. I say this for the benefit of some of you who have college students who question you, why does it say like this in the Bible? Shall I tell you another story? When I was a young Christian, I was baptized in 1961. I used to read the Bible every day, but I was not a serious student of the Bible when I got baptized. I'd read the Bible every day and have a quiet time. But I'd already been born again for one and a half years. But I was not digging into the scriptures. So, one day I was witnessing to a Muslim fellow naval officer. He was a sharp man, clever. So, when I told him about the way of salvation, he said, let me ask you a question. Was Jonah alive or dead in the fish's belly? He was alive. Then he said, didn't your Jesus say that as Jonah was in the fish's belly, so will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth? So, and this is what the Muslims teach, that Jesus did not die on the cross, he just swooned. They put him in the tomb and the cool air revived him and there was no resurrection. So, he says, Jesus was alive in the fish's belly. He was in the grave, he was not dead. Because like Jonah was, Jesus was. I was so confused, I didn't know what to tell him. I could not continue witnessing to him. I went to my room and I knelt down before God. I said, Lord, I am ashamed. I don't know the answer to something in the Bible. But I decided today, I am going to study the scriptures. And if there is an answer to something in the scriptures, I don't care where it is, I am going to find out. And that day, I started studying the scriptures. And if I know the scriptures well today, I have to thank one Muslim man who challenged me with that question. Today, I know the answer. Jesus said, as Jonah was alive in the fish's belly, so will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth. How is it in? Okay. That means in the center of the earth. So I said, the grave was on the surface of the earth. Whereas Jesus, his body was there, but his spirit went to the center of the earth where paradise was at that time. Because he told the thief, today you will be with me in paradise. So when I put all these scriptures together, I realized at that time, paradise was in the center of the earth. And in his spirit, he was alive there. But his body was dead in the grave. And after three days from paradise, he came back into his body and rose up from the dead. And then we read in Ephesians 4 that when he ascended up to heaven, he took all these captives in paradise and took them up to the third heaven. So today, paradise is not in the heart of the earth, it's up there in heaven. That's why Paul says, I was caught up to paradise. Now these are little things. But sometimes clever people ask questions and try to fool us, there's something wrong in the scriptures. No, there's nothing wrong in saying I don't know the answer. But there's no contradiction. There's one thing I learned in the Navy. A senior officer asked me a question. And if I said, I don't know, sir. He would say to me, never say I don't know, sir. And he said, never say I don't know, sir. Say, I'll find out, sir. To say, I don't know, sir, is a lazy answer. I never intend to find out. I'll find out, sir, means, I don't know right now, but I'll find out. If somebody asks you a question in the Bible you don't know, Don't say, I don't know. I say, I'll find out and get back to you. It's very important to know that. Why? This is what has given me such tremendous confidence that this book is the word of God. And it's that faith which has strengthened me through all types of situations. My ministry has not come merely through the study of God's word. It is not only by studying God's word. There are many people who study God's word who don't have a proper ministry. They don't serve God like Paul did. You know, Paul never worked for money. He supported himself. He planted churches. He appointed elders. Regularly wrote letters to establish those churches. I say, where are people doing that today? Today, people are great preachers who are just building their own names and their kingdoms. They are making a lot of money. You hardly ever find the way the apostles did God's work being done today anywhere. You find elections in churches. People are always pressurizing people to give money. The way the apostles did God's work is almost not seen in the world. And people say, well, it doesn't matter. The main thing is to get people to heaven. If that's the only thing, we don't need a book with 1,000 pages in the Bible. We don't need a five-page Bible or something. The only aim in life is to get people to heaven. There's a lot more to it than that. There's a lot more in scripture because there's a lot more than just taking people to heaven. I'm saying all that to encourage all of you to be diligent students of God's word. If you have a passion for something, you'll spend any amount of time to discover the truth of it. Whether it is studying computers, or some other gadgets, or people who try to find out cricket scores, and the records that Indian batsmen and bowlers have made. They have a passion to find out. And they have so much information in their heads about cricket. About who scored so much, and which match they scored this, and how many wickets somebody took here. When I see that, I say, why don't we have people in the church with a passion to study the Bible like that? They just come and listen and go away without a passion to get to know what is in God's word. That's why there's so much spiritual depth in so many churches. So, when you hear boring sermons and spiritual depth, don't criticize it. You ask yourself, what are you doing to improve that? You've been a believer for so many years, why don't you study God's word? The Bible says, even your sons and your daughters can prophesy when the Holy Spirit is poured upon them. Do you know that even the sisters can prophesy even though they can't teach? Yes, although the sisters can't teach, but they can prophesy. Prophesy means to speak a word to encourage and build up other people. That doesn't mean you have to stand in the pulpit and do it. You can prophesy on a cell phone. So many people are on cell phones the whole day almost nowadays. If you can gossip so much on the cell phone, why can't you say a few words of encouragement also? Those who write emails, why not add a word of encouragement in your emails to that other person? That is prophecy. Prophecy is to say something that will encourage others and challenge others and build them up That is the definition of prophecy in 1 Corinthians 14.3 to encourage people, challenge people, build them up and you can do that on the cell phone. You can do that when somebody comes visiting your home for a visit. You can do that when you write an email. Encourage, challenge, build up That's prophecy. Brothers and sisters can prophesy. So if you decide I'm not going to do gossiping anymore, Yeah, we can talk about many worldly things but you don't have to speak evil about others. There are 101 good things to speak about without speaking evil about other people. And encourage people. You know that all of us need to change our way of speaking. We really seek to use our tongue to bless other people. So now take this matter of the Trinity to the Old Testament. It was not clear. The first time you read about Father, Son and Holy Spirit is in the New Testament. And the first time you see it is at the baptism of Jesus. The Son is there. Father is in heaven and speaks saying this is my beloved Son. And then the Holy Spirit comes upon Jesus. That's the first time in the Bible you see clearly Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And then at the end of the Gospel of Matthew Jesus specified it. You also baptize people in the name of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Just like at his baptism there was Father, Son and Holy Spirit. He says you baptize in the name of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. So how are we supposed to relate to these three persons of the Trinity? That's what I want to share with you. First of all how are we to relate to God the Father? It says in Romans chapter 8 what does the Holy Spirit do when he comes within us? The first thing as soon as we are born again before even we are filled with the Holy Spirit when the Holy Spirit comes in which happens as soon as you are born again it says in Romans 8.15 he cries out from within Abba, Father Abba means Daddy Abba is a Hebrew word Father is a more formal word We usually call our father by a more intimate name like Daddy In the Indian language Abba or something like that There is an intimate word used for our dad Even though formally he is father but there is an intimate word In English it is Dad or Daddy That is Abba So the Holy Spirit cries out Dad So one of the first things the Holy Spirit does when we are born again This is one way you really know you are born again I've got a dad in heaven now and Jesus spoke about that so much He said when you pray pray like this Our Father who art in heaven Before I studied the Bible I was born in an Orthodox Church and I did not know the Bible I knew Jesus died for our sins but I would always think of God as God Almighty and I would always look at God as the Almighty God Jehovah but as the Holy Spirit came into me and I was filled with the Holy Spirit I stopped calling him Jehovah You know what I call him? Daddy Father in heaven and it made such a difference in my life because I was a very insecure, scared young man I was like an orphan a fatherless child I don't know whether you have seen orphans Orphans are very much to be pitied because they have never had from childhood someone to hug them and love them and these children who grow up in orphanages without father and mother because somebody just doesn't want to get rid of that baby they take them to an orphanage all their life they suffer because they are orphans they are always insecure very quick to fight with people always suspicious very stubborn very possessive they want you to be their friend they are so possessive they don't want you to be anybody else's friend these are all marks of an orphan there are many believers like this insecure afraid anxious they don't have a father in heaven you know Jesus said the father cares even for the birds have you heard that story of the two birds talking to each other one bird was asking another bird why are these human beings always so anxious and their brow is furrowed and worried about so many things even these who call themselves Christians they are always so worried about so many things and the other bird said maybe they don't have a father in heaven like we have are the birds saying that why is this man worried so much why is this woman worried so much they go to church on Sunday and sing to the father but they come home so worried they don't know the father in the old testament nobody could call god father great and terrible god that's how they prayed almighty Jehovah I am that I am they were afraid even to mention the name of Jehovah that is why till today nobody knows the correct pronunciation because in the Hebrew it is just written YHVH is that Yahweh or is it Jehovah we don't know why is it we don't know because they would never mention that name because it says don't take the name of the lord in vain and they never mentioned it at all just to make sure they never so till today nobody knows is it Jehovah or Yahweh nobody knows but I know it's daddy it's so blessed to be in the new covenant you know that's why there are some songs about Jehovah which Christians sing there is no god like Jehovah many songs about Jehovah this and Jehovah that those are the songs when people sing I am silent or I say daddy because he is not Jehovah to me Jehovah means he becomes distant to me but people say isn't that his name I said supposing my son came to me and says Mr. Poonen I'd like to talk to you I say what son are you angry with me or something why do you call me Mr. Poonen he says dad isn't that your name can't you call me dad I know that's my name and other people call me that but you are my son you don't call me Mr. Poonen so let all the other people call him Jehovah I call him daddy I do what Jesus said when you pray say father in heaven that made such a difference in my life he said before you pray start by saying our father in heaven I use daddy only in private prayer not in public prayer because you know Jesus said you must be like a little child so I imagine when I am praying that I am a little like a little child sitting on my daddy's lap and I feel as secure as a two year old sitting on his daddy's lap no worry or anxiety in the whole world and the wonderful thing a two year old can ask daddy for anything you know daddy I want an elephant real one not toy elephant I want an airplane also real airplane now father may not give all that but he can ask for anything he may only give him a toy plane that's okay I can ask my father for anything believe it believe it or not I do I was not like this in my early days as a Christian for so many years I was worried anxious about so many things the birds would look at me and talk to each other what to do till I came to know God is my daddy that removed the furrows from my brow I learned to relax like it says in Psalm 46 even if the mountains fall in the midst of the sea and the earth shakes God is our refuge not 40 but 46 I want all of you to know God like that don't call him Jehovah and God you can call him God there is nothing wrong in it because he is God he is not only our father he is our father who is in heaven so when I begin to pray if I can keep these two things in mind that's what Jesus said before you begin your prayer say our father who art in heaven two things that means I have to first realize who I am talking to not grace not the great and terrible almighty God whom I am scared to come to I don't need permission to go to him like in some big company some ordinary worker he cannot go and see the CEO general manager easily he has to contact his private secretary and may get an appointment after one month but what about that CEO's little three year old son he just walks into his office without even knocking at the door he doesn't have to wait one month for an appointment I am not an employee of God I am his son I can walk into his presence anytime I can tell him anything I can tell him all my problems he is my father but not only that he is in heaven which means there is nothing he cannot do he can do everything before you pray think of these two things he is my father and he is in heaven because we don't begin our prayer like that we pray and wonder whether he cares for us or not and we are worried and anxious and we don't know God as father so this is how every one of us must know God this is a privilege of the new covenant and that is one of our privileges and that will remove all the insecurity there will be no more competition between you and other believers there is a lot of competition among Christians we want to show we can preach better than others or we are smarter than others or we can sing better than others these are all people who don't know their father I can honestly say I am not in competition with any believer in the whole world I don't want to show that I am better than another person in any area because I am secure in my father he made me in a particular way and I have no complaints no complaints if I have only a certain amount of intelligence I say oh God made me like that I am happy it is very very important to learn to accept yourself the way God made you particularly a lot of young people I think girls particularly they look into a mirror they are not very happy the way God made them they wish their nose was a little smaller or their ears were a little less or I wish I were a little taller or a little shorter or a little thinner God made you in a particular way when you know God as father you just accept yourself and you will be at rest you will be at rest in your heart you will never try to compare yourself with somebody else the advantage is you will never boast that you are better than others you will never feel inferior to others and you will never refuse to cooperate with others whenever we are asked to work with somebody in the back of our mind the question is who will get the credit for this will he get the credit for what I'm doing let him get the credit it's fine it's like in football you know nobody wants to be goalkeeper because he never scores any goals everybody wants to play center forward because he can get the glory I scored so many goals in the game those are useless players the best player is the one who can even pass it to somebody else to score the goal and it doesn't matter if he scored the goal it's our team we won that is a person who is secure in God I'll tell you honestly I'm not even in competition with so many other churches that are doing God's work in India I can sincerely thank God for so many churches who are doing a wonderful work in North India and other parts of India where I've never gone I have to do what God told me to do and they have to do what God told them to do I'm not here to try and show that I'm better than them there are people who do radio ministry literature ministry and children's ministry and they all don't do it the same way I do even their financial policies may be different from mine I'm not here to compete with them I thank God for everyone who is preaching the gospel if they are doing it in the wrong motive God will judge them one day my life became secure when I knew God as my father and I wish all of you would know that all these wrong attitudes that you have towards other people in your heart if you go to the root cause of it it's insecurity from the time we are born we are insecure only way to come to security is if you know God as your father and that is what the Holy Spirit has come to do it removes fear of our enemies harming us this is one of the main things that Jesus tried to stress even in the sermon on the mount we think the sermon on the mount is such a high standard we can't reach it in the middle of the sermon on the mount you see this wonderful statement and that is the secret Matthew 6 and verse 8 your father knows what you need even before you ask him I said father this is great even before I ask you know what I need then why does he ask us to pray if he already knows what we need because he wants us to have the joy of feeling that he answered our prayer he could have done it all himself without our asking he wants us to have the joy of feeling I helped in that it's like if I am carrying a big table from one room to another and my 3 year old son says daddy I want to help you now I know that he will be more of a nuisance if he tries to help me but I don't want to discourage him I say ok son just hold that corner there he will hold that corner and he will help me carry the table to the other room and he will feel so happy that daddy and I carried the table together and he will go and tell his mummy you know mum I carried that table and daddy helped me to take it to the other room and I am so happy that my son is excited God is a father better than me he wants me to feel I did something you know when Jesus fed the 5000 he could have created bread from nothing but he said let me give this little boy a feeling that he also helped to feed the 5000 he said give me your 5 slices of bread and he fed everybody and that boy goes home and says you know mummy I and Jesus fed 5000 people today and that is why he tells us to pray he can do a million things without your prayer he wants you to cooperate with him he could have made wine from air in an empty water pot he could have made wine he said let them feel they also had a part so you pour the water I will make it into wine this is our father you do something you do the easy part I will do the difficult part he wants to cooperate with us it is such a joy to cooperate with the father in prayer he can do it without us but he chooses to use us you remember when Jesus told the disciples after they fished all night and caught no fish he said Jesus could have filled that boat with all the fish jumping in by itself then they would have been 100% Jesus work he said I want you to do something you throw the net then Jesus filled that net with fish you learn something from all this that he says I want to work together with you it means that he is saying I want to work together with you if you do not do your part if you do not fill that net if you do not give five bread nothing will happen if the child says I cannot give five bread I can only give one then the father says keep it I will do it without your help I will tell you something the lord Jesus wants everything from you or nothing that is what God wants that is the reason many of us do not enjoy the blessing of God or in our life or our ministry if you give everything to God he will give everything to you see John 17 that is a lovely verse here John chapter 17 you must always remember this verse Jesus prayed to the father in verse 10 father all things I have that are mine are yours and all that are yours are mine that is how Jesus lived if I have five slices of bread you can have all of them if I have like the widow two mites I will put it both in the box like that widow so what about Christians who say God I will give you 10% then the verse is like this father 10% of my stuff is yours and 10% of your stuff is mine you know why some of you get so little from God others seem to get so much why is your ministry so barren and other people just like rivers of living water because when God asks you to give something you take a small teaspoon the smallest teaspoon you can find and say Lord here is my offering always your question is what is the minimum I have to give to God to keep him happy and God says what is the minimum I have to give this guy to keep him happy and somebody else says Lord take everything the Lord says really then you can take everything of mine also okay one last verse Psalm 18 last verse Psalm 18 it says in verse 25 with the kind you show yourself kind with the blameless you show yourself blameless with the pure you show yourself pure with the crooked you show yourself astute and with the miser you will show yourself miserly to that person and with the liberal generous man you also show yourself as liberal do you wonder why God is so miserly in the way he blesses you with the miser he shows himself miserly why does somebody else get so much from God with the generous he shows himself generous the law is this in the measure in which you give it will be given to you God is the most wonderful person in the whole universe we must know him as a loving father who wants to bless us much more much much more than any of you want to bless your own children this is the father I have come to know in the last 40 years the first 16 years of my Christian life I did not know him like that and I was a defeated miserable Christian I always wanted to hold people to myself nobody should leave me nobody should leave my church today I say you wanna go go because I am insecure in the father I can honestly say I never tried to hold people in my church I have seen so many pastors somebody will steal my sheep are they your sheep then they deserve to be stolen I don't have any sheep of my own they are all Jesus sheep he takes care of them I don't have to hey hey don't leave my church hang on here the answer to everything is to know God as your daddy many people have been believers 50 years and they don't know God in that way let's pray thank you father for the revelation you give us in your word through the holy spirit help everyone here to know you as a father we pray in Jesus name Amen