Please sign along the doted line:
INTRO ILLUSTRATION
TESTIMONY – The God I have Covenanted with? Who is my God?
Naming Kyle. Eg Smee surname had to be careful. A lot is based on name etc.
In bible, names mean a lot:
Name = personality or related experience
Hebrew name for Eve =WOW!
Moses = pulled out - nile and people from Egypt
Change = deliberate redirection in life
Abram (exalted father) became Abraham (father of a multitude)
Sarai became Sarah (princess to a multitude)
Jacob (deceiver) became Israel (powerful prince)
Saul to Paul
God Revealed by Name
After creation God revealed using different names
Help us understand personality of God –
Elohim (Creator and Designer of the universe)
Adonai (Lord and mastr of all)
Jehovah Shalom (a peace giver)
Jehovah Jirah (a god deserving of praise that will provide)
Call on name of the Lord
I called upon the name of the Lord this last few weeks. Started early. (Genesis 4:26)
In the Old Testament, to do something in “someone’s name” or to “call upon” an individual’s name was very serious business.
When the Scripture directs us to call on the name of the Lord, we are inviting God to come right into our situation.
LORD = YAHWEH
LORD in capitals YAHWEH been removed and LORD replaced – sacred. Take a bath and destroy the pen.
Jews - come to it in their reading, they would not pronounce it.
only said out loud once a year on the Day of Atonement, and then only by the high priest in the most holy place of the Temple.
This name is also translated as Jehovah.
Too Casual with God
Use His name flippantly. God’s name has become part of our slang and is used more often in swearing than in supplication.
Many curse His name out loud;
The third commandment, found in Exodus 20:7 is a charge to not take God’s holy name in vain: “You shall not misuse the name of the LORD [Yahweh] your God, for the LORD [Yahweh] will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.”
We are to not treat His name as “empty” or “nothing.” Literally it means that we are to avoid “attaching to it emptiness.”
ILLUSTRATION 1
Picture of God not changed?
The resident policeman who is just out to bust us for our behavior.
The grand old man who just winks at our wrong-doing.
The managing director who controls everything.
The meek and mild God who is helpless to do anything about our situation.
God as the holy vending machine.
I Put God in a Box
“God in a box” and our box is pretty small.
We have shrunk Him down so much that our thoughts about Him are nowhere close to what the Bible teaches.
Some of us have made Him in “our image” instead of fully living out what it means to be made in “His image.”
Are you ready to take God out of your box of preconceived ideas? In order to see the bigness of God, we need to understand more about what He goes by.
YAHWEH
Let’s turn to Exodus 3 where we are introduced to the meaning, the majesty, and the mystery of the name Yahweh.
This particular name comes straight from God himself, and because it does, we must approach this section with some fear and trembling.
It’s my prayer that when we’re finished, we will never put God in a box again and we’ll learn that life is not primarily about who we are; but is about who God is. In other words, He is God and we are not.
Moses
Moses was tight with Yahweh and he can teach us a lot.
Desert and burning bush
1. Yahweh is Personal (Ex 3:7-10).
2. Yahweh is Present (11-14). God is not only personal, He is also present.
3. Yahweh is Powerful (15-20).
4. Yahweh is a Promise-keeper (6, 15-16).
Three different times in Exodus 3, and once at the end of chapter 2, Yahweh recounts the fact that He is a covenant-keeping God.
2:24: “God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob.”
3:6: “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” And verse 15 and verse 16 are identical: “The LORD, [Yahweh] the God of your fathers — the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob…”
EG’s
In His covenant with Abraham, Yahweh promised to bless his descendants through Isaac (Genesis 12:1-3). In God’s covenant with David, God declared that one of David’s descendants would be the royal heir to the throne (2 Samuel 7:12). This was fulfilled when Jesus, who was from the line of David, was born in the city of David.
Contract vs Covenant
Our culture is more familiar with contracts than with covenants. While there are some similarities, there are at least three differences. Covenants are:
Permanent. A covenant is a permanent arrangement; contracts have an end date.
Total. A contract generally involves only one aspect, while a covenant covers a person’s total being.
When He makes a promise, you can count on Him. Psalm 105:42: “For he remembered his holy promise given to his servant Abraham.” Psalm 119:50: “My comfort in my suffering is this: Your promise preserves my life.”
Yahweh promises to be there for us because He is personal, present, powerful, and a promise-keeper.
“Yahweh, you have always been. You always are and You will always be because you are the God who is there. You are who you are. You are everything and anything I will ever need and I need not look elsewhere.”
