Sunday March 9th, 2008
River of Life Ministries, Pastor Michael West
Series: His majesty, His Names part one Sermon: I AM
Scripture: Psalm 9:10
(Scripture are taken from the NJB, although I use the AMP to preach with)
Psalm 9:10 Those who revere your name can rely on you, you never desert those who seek you, Yahweh.
Jehovah——I am, the self-existent One, Yahway God’s personal name given to Moses, also called the tetragrammaton or four letters—YHWH—which occurs about 6,800 times and is translated “Lord” in the Bible. It became common practice for Jews to say “Lord” or Adonai instead of saying YHWH. Yah or Jah—is a shorter form of Yahweh which is often combined with other names or phrases.
Hallelujah means—praise YAH—praise the Lord. Elijah means God is Yah or God is Lord and Joshua means Yah or the Lord is my salvation.
I AM—the self existent one. It means:
God never changes. His promises never fail.
When we are faithless—He is faithful and We need to obey Him
Exodus 3:14 God said to Moses, ‘I AM He Who is.’ And He said, ‘This is what you are to say to the Israelites, “I AM has sent me to you.” ’
Exodus 6:2-4 God spoke to Moses and said to him, ‘I am Yahweh. To Abraham, Isaac and Jacob I appeared as
El Shaddai, which means all sufficient One, God of the mountains, God Almighty—but I did not make my name Yahweh known to them.
Exodus 34:5-7 And Yahweh descended in a cloud and stood with him there and pronounced the name Yahweh. Then Yahweh passed before him and called out, ‘Yahweh, Yahweh, God of tenderness and compassion, slow to anger, rich in faithful love and constancy, maintaining his faithful love to thousands, forgiving fault, crime and sin, yet letting nothing go unchecked, and punishing the parent’s fault in the children and in the grandchildren to the third and out like a garment, like outworn clothes you change them;
Psalms 46:1 God is both refuge and strength for us, a help always ready in trouble;
Isaiah 26:4 Trust in Yahweh for ever, for Yahweh is a rock for ever.
Malachi 3:6 ‘No; I, Yahweh, do not change; and you have not ceased to be children of Jacob!
Christianity is the gateway into God and when you get into God you launch out into a wonderful journey into infinity with Him and you will never want to turn back. Infinity, no limit, no end.
It’s not a dash of grace here and there, it’s infinite grace and it cannot be measured. If ever there was a place where God stopped, then God wouldn’t be perfect. If God knew just about everything, then He wouldn’t be perfect and His understanding would be limited.
Psalms 147:5 Our Lord is great, all-powerful, his wisdom beyond all telling.
If God knew everything but one percent, you couldn’t worship Him, because you cannot worship what is not perfect. There is His power. Infinite power, but if someone else held a smidgen of that power and saved it up where God could not have it one hundred percent, then we couldn’t worship Him. He would not be worthy. And even if He was more powerful than all the other powers that be, He would not be perfect because He would be defective as an all powerful God.
If there was a blemish of imperfection in God’s goodness whereby He might favor one over another, then He could not be our God, He could not be our Father in heaven and if He had 99.9 percent pure love, that missing tenth makes Him not God.
Unfortunately today’s Christian’s worship a cheap little obscure god of the cosmos. A god they can call “the man upstairs.” My angel, my superstar, my bodyguard. The god Christians are reducing themselves to worship is one who, fills their pockets with more cash, helps me make the grade and win the game. This is not the god of Abraham. They have taken advantage of Jesus as the Servant, to being their servant who grants them what they want rather than what they need.
Let’s face it, Christians can create gods and serve them just as the heathen do and he can be made out of anything, even dark imaginations, but that god will never be like the True and Living God of Jacob and Isaac, the God of Noah and Moses. No, Christianity today is losing it’s strength and is becoming rotten inside. Although we look spectacular outside—white-washed and smell good and all the while going down the drain because of the god’s of modern Christianity and not the God of the Bible. Big fancy church void of depth in God the Almighty One.
Sure we pray and some pray hard, but we fall short of praying to the real God of the universe Who is interested in our hearts and end up praying to a god who is not all cracked up to what he should be and we make excuses of why this god doesn’t answer and blame it on “it’s not his will” or worse “our lack of faith.” Which the later is more true. Christianity is losing faith in God, God Who is all perfect.
God takes pleasure in us and He takes pleasure in Himself. God created the heavens, the earth, the birds and the animals, God created man and declared “It was good.” We find God pleased with Himself and all He created in the beginning of Genesis. He was happy and then came the fall. But let me point out, God didn’t fall off the thrown and have an emergency meeting about what He should do, He already knew what to do.
God did not have to send His Son Jesus to die for all of us, but He did and at the same time, it was Jesus stepping up to volunteer for the task. They were willing. They were happy to do something for the creations made in Their image. They would spare nothing in order to restore us, to redeem us back.
As a parent, I would do anything for my children. From answering the wee morning hour cry of I’m hungry, to the changing of what would soon be stinky diapers. There is no police force that would make me kiss the boo boo, or pack a lunch. It’s just something I did because I love them. As they have grown, I would still lay my life down for them. Happily, joyfully, because I love them.
This is how God is with us. He is awesome, infinite, eternal, all-wise and loving, all around and ever present, no borders and no measurement to Who He is. Our God delights in Himself as He said about Jesus the Son in Whom He is well pleased—Matthew 3:17
If we would stop and look around, as God can be seen in nature, we would see that God was very happy with His creation. Think for a moment how everything lives and moves.
Our planet moves at 66,000mph and the rotational speed of the Earth at the equator is about 1,038 miles per hour. The atmosphere at the equator is also slightly thicker due to rotation, and you weigh slightly less. At mid-latitudes, the speed of the Earth’s rotation decreases to 700 to 900 miles per hour.
If the Earth were to stop spinning suddenly, the atmosphere would still be zipping along nicely at around 1,000 miles an hour. As a result, everything not attached to bedrock would pretty much be scoured clean.
The Greeks said that all this movement in the heavens was the music of spheres. God must have been singing while He was creating and He must be a God of great enthusiasm and energy, because we keep on moving. If it all stopped, what would it be like?
Heaven and angels sang at Jesus birth and we will sing when the roll is called. Throughout the Bible there has been singing and rejoicing. Miriam sang. David sang. They sang because they knew God, Who He is and what He can do.
We as Christians need to get off the needy wagon and return to worshipping the One True God. The God called I AM.
Revelation 5:12 loudly chanting: Worthy is the Lamb that was sacrificed to receive power, riches, wisdom, strength, honour, glory and blessing.
He is inviting us to come unto Him and share in Him all that He is. The depth of God will always be a mystery, like the backside of Mercury or Venus and like the man in the moon we see at night, God keeps His face shinning toward us and He smiles.
If all you want today is what you have. If all you need is what you think you need. If you are content with your relationship with God, I can’t help you, but…
If you want more than what modern Christianity is offering you, financial freedom, getting healed, moving up in life, a better job, a better car, if you want more than that, if you want a closer relationship with God, then this series is for you.
Father, I know that my message isn’t popular. There is no fluff n stuff in it, just a wake up call to Who You are and I pray that today is a turning point for each one of us to draw nearer, hear clearer and love You deeper than before. Help us to get to know You better. Help us to Worship You better. You are the Great I AM. In Jesus Name, Amen.
