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Price, Presence, Place | Rachel Ann Thong

Acts Kota Kemuning

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  1. You're listening to a message to go from Acts Church.

  2. We hope this message will light up your day.

  3. So today, I'm just going to bring us through some

  4. scripture and declare His name, basically. I'm going to proclaim

  5. the name of God. And you know, in the English Bible,

  6. the words are very simplistic. So what do we refer

  7. God to in the Bible? God. Lord, God and Lord, usually,

  8. most of the time. In the Hebrew Bible, there's a

  9. lot more words. And you know, I was thinking, yeah,

  10. some of these words I know, but actually I don't

  11. really know the real meaning or the background behind it.

  12. So I went and did some research and I'll share

  13. some of it with us today. Hopefully you can learn something,

  14. those who are new in the faith or those who

  15. never went into all the Hebrew words. You'll learn something

  16. new today and learn something about God's character. Because you know,

  17. in the Hebrew Bible, the word name to begin with

  18. is Shem. Shem. And it's not just, you know, a

  19. combination of sounds. It's not just an identifier. But it

  20. is really a reputation. It conveys the essence and characteristics

  21. of the person, you know, or thing that's being identified.

  22. And that's why it's so important what our.

  23. Names are, right?

  24. I'm sure some of us have some friends whom we wonder,

  25. why did the parents name them that? Go on. Do

  26. you have some friends or heard a name that you're like,

  27. why did the parents name them that?

  28. Don't have?

  29. No? God.

  30. I know I met a few like, poor thing. Poor thing.

  31. Would have been teased in school. What does that mean?

  32. But yeah, a name carries so much weight. And actually,

  33. you go to the first slide. Let me see how

  34. many of you know these names. Go back to my

  35. title slide. Elohim.

  36. Show of hands, those who know this name. Heard it,

  37. read it before? A few? Okay, El Shaddai. The older

  38. ones know the song. El Shaddai, El Shaddai.

  39. Um... Oh, what's that one with no consonants? No vowels, sorry.

  40. Just consonants. What's the word?

  41. Yahweh.

  42. Later we'll go into it, but it's... They added in

  43. the A, right?

  44. And the E. But it's just.

  45. It's the letters, the Hebrew letters is Yud, He, Vah, He.

  46. Correct, Pastor Dan? I say it wrong. And Adonai. Heard it?

  47. Read it?

  48. Okay, some of us have. Here's something that might be

  49. new to us. Yeah, so back to name. Example, my name.

  50. Rachel and Rochelle. The same meaning. How many of you

  51. know the meaning of the name? I think I've shared

  52. it before. Eww. Eww.

  53. Female sheep. Female sheep.

  54. And really, it brings about... a gentleness about the character.

  55. I don't know. I don't think I'm very gentle.

  56. Gentle, nurturing, pure. But more than that, Rachel in the Bible,

  57. she was a shepherdess as well. And that's where I find, wow.

  58. You know, when my parents first named me, it's interesting

  59. because those days, I can't remember whether they knew they

  60. were going to have a girl. Like now we always scan, right?

  61. Those days, I don't know whether they knew, maybe not.

  62. But they both, both my mum and dad had the

  63. same name in mind before they even discussed.

  64. It was Rachel.

  65. And so when I was born, they agreed, Rachel. And

  66. you know, who would have known years later, that's what

  67. we're doing, right? We're shepherding the sheep, we're taking care

  68. of our flock, our homes, our huddles, the homes leaders,

  69. and also the church.

  70. But the name is so important.

  71. I hope all you know the meaning of your name

  72. and sometimes can see how God has, you know, used

  73. your name and really seen your purpose come through your name.

  74. But today, okay, we're not going to talk about our names.

  75. We're going to talk about the name of God. So

  76. let's go to the very first verse in the Bible.

  77. Who knows what is Genesis 1.1? In the Biningging. Okay,

  78. those who don't know, there's some real, is it? Some

  79. real where this guy can't pronounce.

  80. Beginning.

  81. Okay, in the beginning, what happened? Come on, respond. Read

  82. it with me. Yeah, God created the heavens and the earth.

  83. This is the first verse in the Bible. And if

  84. you read the Hebrew translation, what it's saying is actually

  85. in the beginning, Elohim created the heavens and the earth.

  86. Elohim. Elohim. That's the first Hebrew word. Can go to

  87. the next slide.

  88. Next TV. Elohim created the heavens and the earth. And

  89. this talks about God being a creator, right? All-powerful creator.

  90. He spoke the universe into existence. There was nothing.

  91. And then when He spoke, everything came into being, right?

  92. He created the sun, the moon, the stars, all the planets.

  93. I love this topic because if you go and look

  94. into outer space, into universe, and you see all his creation,

  95. you're like, wow.

  96. You can't stop but just be in awe. Right?

  97. And then, and he created man in his own image.

  98. And before I even go to that part where he

  99. talks about that, the word Elohim, and just to share

  100. with you, it appears in the Hebrew Bible, it appears

  101. both as a common noun, common noun meaning it can

  102. be a spirit a divinity and it also appears as

  103. a proper noun so in the Hebrew Bible when it

  104. says Elohim sometimes it can be talking about like gods

  105. or the one and only God which is the God

  106. we know okay God of God of Israel God of

  107. the Jews another interesting thing about the word Elohim is

  108. that it is in the masculine plural form what in

  109. the world is that okay in the in some languages

  110. there's There's feminine and masculine words. I don't know.

  111. I'm not a linguist. So I don't... Yeah, like French.

  112. What else? German?

  113. I don't know. But there's a few languages that has

  114. feminine and masculine. So Hebrew is one of them. And

  115. the word Elohim is in the masculine plural form.

  116. So it's like gods instead of God.

  117. But without God, that plural form, you know, I think

  118. it brings such weight to that because.

  119. Apart from emphasising God's sovereign authority, His divinity, what does

  120. it say in Genesis 1, verse 26? Just I gave

    Genesis 1:26

  121. a hint. What did He create? After He created the

  122. whole earth, He created all the animals, the birds, the fish.

  123. Then He said, in chapter 1, verse.

  124. 26, us. Then God said, let us. Plural.

  125. More than one person. Make man in our image according

  126. to our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish

  127. of the sea, over the birds of the air, over

  128. the cattle, over all the earth, and over every creeping

  129. thing that creeps on the earth. Here again, the word

  130. God in the Hebrew Bible is Elohim. Elohim said, let

  131. us make man in our image. Isn't that amazing? The Bible,

  132. when you read it in its original language, this affirms

  133. the Trinity right from the start. Father, Son, Holy Spirit

  134. working in unity. And hence the plural form, you know,

  135. I believe. Amen.

  136. You go back to the first slide.

  137. Is there anything that I wanted to call out?

  138. Not first slide. Yeah, this one. Okay, yeah.

  139. I mentioned all that. Okay, so keep that in mind.

  140. If you see the word Elohim, remember it is a

  141. reminder of our all-powerful Creator. All-powerful Creator. And it emphasizes

  142. the Trinity as well. Let's read a few more verses

  143. where Elohim or variation of the word appears. Deuteronomy 6

    Deuteronomy 6:4

  144. verse 4. There was one week I preached a sermon

  145. on this, which is the Shema.

  146. Do you remember Shema?

  147. Yeah? Deuteronomy 6.4 says, Hear, O Israel. Again, in the

  148. Hebrew word, it's Shema, because it doesn't just mean hear

  149. like a sound, listen. It's hear and obey. It comes together.

  150. There's an action to it. Hear and obey, O Israel,

  151. the Lord our God. And here the word God is Elohinu.

  152. I hope I'm not butchering all the words. Elohinu, the

  153. Lord is one. And that word, Elohim is actually derived

  154. from Elohim.

  155. Okay? It means our God. Our God.

  156. The Lord, our God. So Elohim is from Elohim but

  157. just added the R there. Our God, the Lord is one. Again,

  158. the Lord is one.

  159. What is that?

  160. It's again emphasizing the unity, right? Of God the Father,

  161. the Son and the Holy Spirit. And it's just beautiful

  162. the way the three persons of God works together. Works

  163. together to create works together throughout the Bible. You see,

  164. I mean, there's a lot of emphasis, of course, on Jesus,

  165. the Son, and the Holy Spirit in the New Testament.

  166. But if you read throughout Old Testament, there are snippets

  167. where you will see a mention of them. Yeah, and

  168. the Trinity, I think, is one of the hardest things

  169. for us to explain, comprehend, sometimes with our human minds.

  170. It's hard to explain to people, but this is our God. And,

  171. you know, even throughout worship, we sing so many things

  172. about our Lord and, you know, saying, Lord, revive us.

  173. But it has to come first with, wow, just such

  174. a recognition of this almighty God. It's all-powerful one, amazing creator.

  175. And if we move on, you know, in the Bible,

  176. in Ecclesiastes, Anyone knows who wrote Ecclesiastes?

  177. Anyone knows? Want to shout out? Solomon.

  178. Yes.

  179. Thank you, Benjamin. Solomon.

  180. And he says this in chapter 12, verse 13.

  181. Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. The conclusion.

  182. Fear God. And again, the word here is Elohim.

  183. Fear Elohim and keep His commandments for this is man's All.

  184. King Solomon, he's King David's son, right? He's the richest,

  185. wisest man in history who wrote this book. My devotion now,

  186. I've been going through Samuel and 1 Kings and so

  187. reading about Solomon, it's the first time I really paid

  188. attention to like his wealth and all the things he built.

  189. It's crazy in those times, the way how he built

  190. the temple and his own palace and other buildings. When

  191. you read it, it's like it's probably unheard of. In

  192. those days, the amount of gold that he had, the

  193. amount of gold is really rich. His annual income, I

  194. read up and wanted to understand what it means in

  195. the Bible. Interestingly, right, I don't know why, it's 666.

  196. Talents of gold. 666.

  197. I wonder if there's some hidden meaning in that. But

  198. I didn't go research that. But in terms of value,

  199. it's about 3.22 billion USD today. That was his annual income. 3.22 billion.

  200. Back in that day. Now also a lot already, right?

  201. But yeah, back in the day. That's how rich he was.

  202. And did you know King Solomon had 700 wives and

  203. 300 concubines? I don't know how he housed all of them.

  204. Now you're one also. Hard to manage, right? 700 wives

  205. and 300 concubines. But anyway, this is King Solomon and

  206. then it goes on. Talk about all his... all the

  207. animals that he had. He's the richest and wisest man

  208. and yet his conclusion of life, again, his kesimpulannya at

  209. the end of his life, towards the end, he wrote Ecclesiastes.

  210. In chapter 1, what does he start off with? We

  211. all know the first words. What's the first word in

  212. Ecclesiastes chapter 1?

    Ecclesiastes 1 chapter mention

  213. Meaningless!

  214. Meaningless!

  215. Everything is meaningless. Okay, I can't remember the first verse,

  216. but it's definitely in chapter one.

  217. Meaningless.

  218. Everything is meaningless. He's talking about, you know, what do

  219. people get for all their hard work?

  220. Now all of us working people are thinking, right, we

  221. slow get our work, go early, finish late, brave the traffic,

  222. work so hard.

  223. What does it mean?

  224. No matter how much we see, how much we hear,

  225. how much we learn, how much we even have, how

  226. much we get, right? Humans, we are never satisfied. It's

  227. never enough, right? There will always be someone who knows more.

  228. There will always be someone who has more. You know,

  229. there will always be someone who's more experienced than us.

  230. And he has everything, right?

  231. King Solomon.

  232. I always wonder like, my goodness, God gave him everything.

  233. And still you can say it's meaningless. You know, and

  234. he concluded with this fear, Elohim.

  235. You know, I.

  236. Don't know how many of you here are feeling this. Really,

  237. we sacrifice so much time. We sacrifice our family time,

  238. our sleep, mental health for some people.

  239. For what? Right, I see it.

  240. I see at work especially, you know, a lot of

  241. people just giving so much and then at the end

  242. of the day, don't really get anything in return.

  243. They're like, why? What's all this for?

  244. Thankfully, those who are believers, you know, my encouragement to

  245. them is don't focus on this. Don't focus on what's physical,

  246. what we see. Focus on eternal. But those who don't

  247. know Christ, don't know eternity, even more so, everything looks meaningless.

  248. And yeah. So what he concludes is our only duty

  249. as human beings, as men on earth, as mortals, is

  250. to fear Elohim. Fear God, our Creator. Keep His commandments.

  251. And that is why when you, and I find that

  252. for myself, the only way we find real purpose and

  253. real fulfillment is when we know it's not about just

  254. hitting our KPIs at work. It's not about getting a promotion,

  255. it's not about getting a raise, not about getting recognition,

  256. not even about closing a deal, you know, for a businessman,

  257. but it's knowing, God, I'm serving you.

  258. I'm serving you. I fear you.

  259. I'm obeying what you say. That's where we get our

  260. true fulfillment, right?

  261. And purpose. Man, so that's Elohim. That's Elohim.

  262. And in just some fun facts, some names that are

  263. derived from there. So Elohim, as I said, is plural.

  264. Just L, E-L, L. Like my son's name, Elias L,

  265. is the singular form. So like Samuel, he's in ex-kids today, Samuel. Samuel,

  266. the L is God. And so his name means heard

  267. by God.

  268. Emmanuel. Also, the word God is there. God with us.

  269. Elijah. And, you know, my son's name, Elias, is also

  270. derived from there. Elijah is the Hebrew name. And it

  271. just means, my God is Yahweh. My God is Yahweh. Jah. Jah. Yah. Okay?

  272. Alright.

  273. So, that's the first name. Everyone say Elohim. Yeah, He's

  274. our all-powerful Creator. And next to that, quite similar, has

  275. the L also, El Shaddai. Just like I mentioned, El Shaddai.

  276. And this means God Almighty. God Almighty. In Genesis chapter 17,

    Genesis 17:1–2

  277. verse 1 to 2, this is when God appears and

  278. reveals Himself to Abraham.

  279. Speaks to Abraham. Let's read this verse.

  280. When Abraham was 99 years old, the Lord appeared to

  281. him and said, I am.

  282. Almighty God. I am El Shaddai.

  283. Walk before me and be blameless and I will make

  284. my covenant between me and you and will multiply you exceedingly.

  285. And then all the way down to verse 19, it says,

  286. Then God said, Now Sarah, your wife, shall bear you

  287. a son. Right?

  288. Because at this time, there are no children. It's like, huh?

  289. How will you multiply me? I'm so old. I can't bear, right?

  290. Sarah's barren.

  291. No.

  292. Sarah, your wife, shall bear you a son. You shall

  293. call his name.

  294. Isaac and I will establish my covenant with him for

  295. an everlasting covenant and with his descendants after him.

  296. This is El Shaddai.

  297. He appears to Abraham and he makes a covenant. He

  298. makes a covenant with Abraham and saying, I will multiply you.

  299. And even at that impossible, to them they thought it's impossible.

  300. Can't have any kids now. But God made the Impossible.

  301. Possible.

  302. And this is actually 25 years, I believe, after the promise.

  303. They were still waiting. Waiting for the promised son. Their

  304. promised son. And some of us, maybe we are still

  305. waiting for our promise. Waiting for our breakthrough. Waiting for healing.

  306. But God doesn't go by our timing. He has His

  307. own timing and things has its time. Right, but we see...

  308. El Shaddai is not mentioned as many times as Elohim,

  309. but it is very apparent that he uses this name

  310. when he reveals himself to Abraham, to Isaac, to Jacob.

  311. Or some of you know as Abraham and the patriarchs.

  312. So his covenant was with them for Abraham and his

  313. descendants after him. If you read on in Genesis 35,

    Genesis 35:11

  314. verse 11, similarly, he reveals then himself to Jacob.

  315. Next slide. Genesis 35, 11.

  316. Then God appeared to Jacob again when he came from

  317. Paddan Aram and blessed him. God said to him, your

  318. name is Jacob. Your name should not be called Jacob anymore.

  319. But Israel, okay, that's where you get the name Israel,

  320. shall be your name. And that's where the whole nation

  321. comes from. So he called his name Israel. Also God

  322. said to him, I am El Shaddai.

  323. I'm El Shaddai.

  324. Be fruitful and multiply. Does that sound familiar? Right at

  325. the beginning, right?

  326. Adam and Eve.

  327. Same promise. Same promise to Abraham.

  328. Isaac and to Jacob, then known as Israel.

  329. And we see, you know, be fruitful and multiply. I

  330. think that's what I caught from this name, El Shaddai.

  331. It's something about multiplication, about being fruitful in our lives.

  332. And we look at this name, El Shaddai. And in Exodus,

  333. Exodus 6 verse 3, this is.

    Exodus 6:3

  334. When God meets Moses. Yeah.

  335. God spoke to Moses and He says this, I am

  336. the Lord. Later we'll go on to this name, Yahweh.

  337. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob as

  338. El Shaddai. Okay, so to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as

  339. El Shaddai, but by my name, Lord. In the English Bible,

  340. it's just by my name, Lord. Okay, but it's Yahweh.

  341. I was not known to them. So they didn't yet

  342. know this name. They knew God as El Shaddai. And

  343. El Shaddai speaks about God being omnipotent. I'll give you

  344. some big words.

  345. Omnipotent. What does that mean? Yeah, all-powerful. It's omnipotent. It's all-sufficient.

  346. He makes all things possible. Yeah, and He fulfills promises.

  347. I want us to catch some of these things about

  348. God's character. Fulfills His promises. Yes. And He brings about

  349. blessing and fruitfulness. And we see that, you know, from

  350. the time Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. And it has, and

  351. it's not even, you know, even when they fall short,

  352. even when they weren't always, because Abraham was, you know,

  353. he was a father of faith.

  354. But there were times when each one of them failed.

  355. And yet, His promises and His favour upon them continued

  356. for generations and generations.

  357. And you see till today, it's real.

  358. I mean, going through a lot of stuff, But we

  359. believe God is with them. Yeah.

  360. Amen.

  361. Are you all catching something about God and His name

  362. and His character? And your vocab increased a little bit

  363. about His names. Because usually we are just so used

  364. with Lord, God, Jesus, Holy Spirit. Okay, ready for the

  365. next one. Next one is.

  366. Alright.

  367. So in the English Bible, again, it's just Lord. Every

  368. time you read Lord, it's one of these words. And

  369. the original word, the YHWH in Hebrew is Yud-Heh-Vah-Heh.

  370. You want to say that? Yud-Heh-Vah-Heh.

  371. And it's mentioned about seven times in the Old Testament. Okay,

  372. just some facts for you. Now, where do we see

  373. this mention of this name? Let's go to Genesis 2

    Genesis 2:4

  374. verse 4. It says, this is the history of the

  375. heavens and the earth when they were created. In the

  376. day that the Lord God made the heavens.

  377. Okay, that Lord God is... Oh, I didn't put a verse,

  378. did I? It's okay.

  379. Genesis, yeah, 2 verse 4. Lord God, that is your Yahweh. Okay,

  380. your Yud, He, Rav, He.

  381. Lord God.

  382. And then, but where this name really... Thank you, XTV.

  383. Where this name really is introduced, as in God comes

  384. and says, this is my name. You want to guess

  385. who it was to? Some of you who know the

  386. Bible pretty well. We already talked about Abraham, Isaac, Jacob.

  387. Another great.

  388. Yeah, Moses. Benjamin is the Bible scholar. Oh, there it is.

  389. Came out already.

  390. Moses.

  391. Okay, in Exodus 3 verse 14, God introduces himself to

    Exodus 3:14

  392. Moses and he said, I.

  393. Am who I am.

  394. Albert jokes about this and saying, in Africa, it'd be

  395. I is who I is.

  396. Or the pastor Sandra. The black Bible would be I

  397. is who I is. I am who I am. The

  398. word in Hebrew.

  399. Is ayeh asheh ayeh. Are you wondering where is the Yahweh? Okay,

  400. I'll get to that. Then he said, Thus you shall

  401. say to the children of Israel, I am. Okay, I

  402. am is the ayah. Has sent me to you. Another

  403. way of saying I am who I am is I

  404. will be what I will be.

  405. Okay, that's the translation. I am what I am. I

  406. will be what I will be.

  407. And this speaks about God being, again, He's self-sufficient, He's unchanging, right?

  408. He is who He is.

  409. He's eternally present and He's also about a relational God.

  410. And why is not Yahweh there? Yahweh basically is He is.

  411. He is. The A-Y is I am.

  412. So God calls, refers to Himself, A-Y, I am. And

  413. the Jusei Yahweh or Yud-Heh-Vah-Heh, He is. And you know

  414. God is outside of time, right? He's outside of our

  415. linear time. He's outside of space. As we know it,

  416. He is, again, some words. Last time we always hear

  417. these words. Don't really hear it much now. He is omniscient.

  418. Omniscient meaning He knows all things. He has unlimited knowledge. Okay,

  419. unlimited knowledge. And He's omnipresent.

  420. These two things.

  421. Omniscient, omnipresent. Omnipresent just means He's present everywhere.

  422. Yeah.

  423. Yeah. everywhere at the same time. And God is constant.

  424. He doesn't change. Thank God He doesn't change. I tell you,

  425. in my company now, everyone's like edgy and.

  426. Feeling not at.

  427. Rest because we are constantly changing. It's constantly changing and

  428. I always have to tell them, yes, in this company,

  429. change is the only constant. So we can only survive

  430. if you're comfortable with it. with change or can manage change.

  431. But it's, you know, it's always happening change. But the

  432. only constant we know and we have, hallelujah, is God.

  433. It's Yahweh.

  434. Amen. And because of His name, we can fully trust God.

  435. He's just. He never changes. Every generation from then till now, Abraham, Isaac.

  436. Jacob, through our parents, through us, through our future generation,

  437. our kids, He never changes. And Yahweh also describes God's interfacing,

  438. His engagement with humans, with human beings, in kindness, in mercy.

  439. He's always showing that.

  440. We see that a lot.

  441. He declares it a lot in His Word as well. Yeah,

  442. actually this Yahweh is also a region of many names

  443. or phrases. So just now we said Samuel, right? His brother, Joshua.

  444. Joshua comes from Yehoshua. Yehoshua comes from, yeah. And it

  445. means the Lord is my salvation. I cannot pronounce this man.

  446. Which is actually Isaiah. Isaiah, which means God saves. Okay,

  447. so you see the Yahweh name appearing, variations of it

  448. in the Hebrew names. Okay, just now mentioning about how

  449. God interacts with us in His kindness, in His mercy.

  450. We see that in Exodus 34, verse 6 to 7. Now,

    Exodus 34:6–7

  451. this is after the Israelites sinned against God. Okay, if

  452. you remember, they told Aaron, Oh, make us a golden calf.

  453. Don't know where's Moses. He's been up there on the

  454. mountain for so long. Don't know if he's coming down.

  455. And so Aaron gave in to the people. He took

  456. all the gold. He said he threw in the fire

  457. and out came a calf. I don't know how that happened.

  458. The calf jumped out and they all worshipped the golden calf.

  459. And obviously, you know, if you read that whole chapter,

  460. of course, God's anger burns against the people.

  461. Moses' anger burns against the people. He again melted.

  462. The calf and then sprinkled in the water and gave

  463. the Israelites to drink. Drink gold water. But he meets

  464. Moses again. And again, this is after Moses threw down

  465. the tablets today. He really made the Ten Commandments. So angry,

  466. broken to pieces. But God meets him again. And the Lord,

  467. here again we see Yahweh, passed before him and proclaimed,

  468. the Lord, in English Bible, the Lord, It's Yahweh here,

  469. the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abounding in

  470. goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and

  471. transgressions and sin. By no means clearing the guilty, visiting

  472. the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the

  473. children's children.

  474. To the third and the fourth generation.

  475. Amen.

  476. Someone say amen. Thankful for God's mercy. If not, we are.

  477. All doomed, you know, for the sin of whoever, ancestors, ancestors, ancestors.

  478. But He is merciful and gracious.

  479. Amen.

  480. Yahweh.

  481. And in the New Testament, we see this term again, Ehyeh.

  482. Proclaimed by who? In the New Testament. In the book

  483. of John?

  484. Yeah, Jesus.

  485. In 858, Jesus said to them, Most assuredly, I say

  486. to you, before Abraham was Ehyeh, I am.

  487. And this went on. They all went crazy.

  488. The Pharisees and the Sadducees, they all just went mad

  489. because they're like, what?

  490. A man saying you are Yahweh, that is blasphemy.

  491. This is where they tried to stone Jesus because it was,

  492. you know, to them at that time, this is really blasphemy.

  493. But Jesus declared, I am. Again, He just confirmed, you know,

  494. they are one. From the beginning, right, the start, In

  495. the Bible, when it talks about Yahweh, Jesus declared that

  496. He is.

  497. He is. Amen.

  498. In Psalms 68 verse 4, as a reminder of the song,

    Psalms 68:4

  499. Christ the King.

  500. Always mixing up the name. Christ is King. Christ the King.

  501. We sing, riding on the clouds.

  502. Psalms 68 verse 4, it says, Extol him who rides

    Psalms 68:4

  503. on the clouds by his name Yah. Okay, this is

  504. a short form, short form for Yahweh. Sing to God,

  505. sing praises to his name. Extol him, he who rides

  506. on the clouds by his name Yah. And guess what?

  507. This riding on the clouds is mentioned a few times

  508. in the Bible. Okay, so we see it in Daniel's vision.

  509. Daniel 7 verse 13, it says, I was watching in

    Daniel 7:13

  510. the night visions. And behold, one like the Son of Man,

  511. he didn't know the name Jesus yet at that time, right?

  512. But he knows.

  513. Son of Man, coming with the clouds of heaven, he

  514. came to the Ancient of Days.

  515. Okay, that's another name for God. Ancient of Days.

  516. And they brought him near before him. So Daniel saw

  517. that vision. You know, we see some, so King David

  518. is writing about Yahweh riding.

  519. On the clouds.

  520. And then in All the Gospels. Matthew, Mark, Luke. At

  521. least Matthew, Mark, Luke. You want to take down the verses,

  522. you can take it down. Matthew 24, verse 30. I

    Matthew 24:30

  523. didn't put it there. I don't think so. Matthew 24,

    Matthew 24:30

  524. verse 30. Mark 13, verse 26. You can go back

    Mark 13:26

  525. and read it for yourself. Luke 2, verse 27. Okay,

    Luke 2:27

  526. Matthew 24, 30, Mark 13, 26, Luke 2, 27. All

  527. three men recorded Jesus telling about His second coming. And

  528. it's all about coming on the clouds.

  529. Wow. How many of you are excited to see that day? Oh,

  530. can't imagine.

  531. Can't imagine how we will feel when we see Jesus

  532. coming on the clouds. Matthew 24, 30 says, And a

  533. sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven.

  534. And then all the tribes of the earth will mourn

  535. and they will see the Son of Man coming on

  536. the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

  537. The tribes of the earth will mourn, but we will

  538. not mourn.

  539. We will be rejoicing. Lord, take us home. And He's

  540. coming with power and great glory. Before that day, that's

  541. why we have Habakkuk, right? We want everyone to know

  542. God's glory first. Not only see it on that day

  543. because then they will mourn if that's the only time.

  544. They're recognizing His glory. We want them to see it now. Yeah.

  545. Amen.

  546. And the beautiful thing about this, Yahweh, He's coming back.

  547. He's coming back soon. This relational God that we have,

  548. who's made a covenant, who's kept His promises, who's blessed us,

  549. who has made us fruitful, He is coming back soon.

  550. And He's going to take us home to be with

  551. Him forever.

  552. Yeah. The promise that we all hold on to. I'm

  553. sure there are days when we are like, come sooner.

  554. But some of us are like, wait, wait, Lord.

  555. Unfinished business. We're not done yet. But He will. Still

  556. want to enjoy.

  557. Still have people to introduce to Him, to bring to Him.

  558. But yes, we will be with Him forever.

  559. Amen. Amen. Adonai.

  560. Another word for Lord, Adonai. It means Lord or it

  561. can mean my Lord or.

  562. Master.

  563. And just now we talked about Yahweh, right? They added

  564. the A and the E or, you know, or some

  565. of us, more English term, we say Jehovah. But it

  566. was Yud-Heh-Vav-Heh. And during those days, they don't even want

  567. to say the name. So they replaced it basically.

  568. With Adonai. So they called him Adonai.

  569. They substituted the name Yahweh to Adonai because it was

  570. just too holy to say. The name of God was

  571. so holy, they couldn't even utter it. At some point,

  572. I know they were saying it at some point, and

  573. then at some point, they stopped using that name altogether.

  574. They wouldn't say it. And then they replaced it with Adonai.

  575. And if you read Exodus, Exodus chapter 4 verse 10,

    Exodus 4:10

  576. Moses uses this name. He says, Moses says to the Lord,

  577. El Adonai. Okay, of God. God, Lord God.

  578. Oh my Lord, Adonai again.

  579. I am not eloquent, neither before nor since you have

  580. spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech

  581. and slow of tongue.

  582. Okay, you see here Moses calling him Adonai. A lot

  583. more verses.

  584. Actually one of the verses that you are very familiar

  585. with and Now only I also know that the term

  586. is actually Adonai is every week when we bless you

  587. with the benediction.

  588. Did you know that?

  589. So God bless you and keep you, make His face

  590. to shine upon you, that's Adonai. The Lord is Adonai.

  591. Adonai bless you and keep you. Adonai make His face

  592. shine upon you and be gracious to you. Adonai lift

  593. up His countenance upon you and.

  594. Give you peace.

  595. Man, so every week when we declare that, we are saying,

  596. my Lord, my Lord bless you. My Master, make His

  597. face to shine upon you. My Lord, lift up His

  598. countenance upon you. Give you peace. Amen.

  599. Amen. Hallelujah. A few more verses.

  600. I mean, Psalms 16 verse 2, if you want to

    Psalms 16:2

  601. take it down, also says Adonai. Psalm 83 verse 18,

    Psalms 83:18

  602. whose name alone is Adonai. These are some references. You'll

  603. see King David using the name quite a bit. Daniel 9.19

  604. as well.

  605. Oh, Adonai.

  606. So you see a lot of the Jews, you know,

  607. using the name Adonai as opposed to Yahweh.

  608. Wow, very fast, XTV. Thank you.

  609. And Psalms 110. Psalms 110 verse 1. Yes, this one

    Psalms 110:1

  610. I have. It says, the Lord said to my Lord.

  611. I used to read this and like, what? Why Lord

  612. speaking to my Lord? The Lord said to my Lord,

  613. whose Lord? Sit at my right hand till I make

  614. your enemies your footstool. Okay, so again in Hebrew, there's

  615. a distinction between the two words. So it's Yahweh said

  616. to Adonai, sit at my right hand till I make

  617. your enemies your footstool.

  618. Okay, so you see the.

  619. In the original, the Lord is used where the Hebrew

  620. letters Yahweh.

  621. Yahweh, so God the Father.

  622. And then my Lord is used again, which is Adonai,

  623. referring to the Messiah. Referring to the Messiah, Jesus. Amen.

  624. You know, God's name, as you look at His names,

  625. I mean, if you go through Yahweh, there's so many others.

  626. Then you have Yahweh Nisi, Yahweh Nireh, Jehovah Jireh, as

  627. you know it. And all these things and all God's

  628. names just points to His character. You know, and I

  629. pray this year we would just desire to go deeper

  630. with Him. Know Him more, not just on the surface.

  631. Really know His name because His name you know, explains

  632. his character to us and he basically reveals himself to

  633. us in different situations, different challenges that we go through

  634. and he appears to us, you know, in different ways,

  635. what we need at that time. So my desire, my

  636. prayer is that as we know him more, as we

  637. learn about his character more that is what stirs our

  638. heart revival can't come just by like okay you know

  639. we sit around here we talked about at homes right

  640. about positioning ourselves how do we position ourselves right how

  641. do we have our hearts open to him But when

  642. we go into who this God is and what His

  643. name means, then I pray that our hearts really, really

  644. want to open to Him. And again, it is His timing.

  645. Revival happens in His time. We can't orchestrate it. We

  646. can't plan it. But in order to position ourselves, we

  647. need to desire to know Him. We need to desire

  648. and hunger to hear Him speak to us. And so

  649. if I can just even summarize, you know, about God's names.

  650. Again, Elohim. Everyone say Elohim. Elohim, our powerful creator and

  651. a trinity.

  652. He makes things come alive, right? We talk about revival

  653. this year. He creates things out of nothing to begin with.

  654. So reviving something that.

  655. Exists, even though it might be dead or dormant now

  656. in our lives, there's nothing for Him. We can create

  657. things out of nothing. Reviving something is nothing. So my

  658. question to us, is there anything dead? Is there anything

  659. dormant within us that needs reviving? Let's call upon Elohim

  660. to revive that.

  661. Amen.

  662. El Shaddai is God Almighty. Any of you here have

  663. an impossible situation? Let me assure you, the same God

  664. who enabled Abraham and Sarah to bear a son in their,

  665. what age?

  666. 100? 190? 90? Sarah was 90, Abraham was 100.

  667. That same God is the God we love, we serve.

  668. He can do the impossible for you. Amen? Amen. And Lord,

  669. Lord Yahweh, He's eternally present. He's unchanging.

  670. No matter what you're going through, no matter what storms

  671. you are going through, He never changes.

  672. And He's already made a covenant with us. And He's

  673. coming to take us home.

  674. Right?

  675. Our greatest....

  676. And we need to ask ourselves, do we really have

  677. that personal relationship with Him? He wants to have that

  678. personal relationship with us. He's a relational God. Are we

  679. ready for Him to return? Yeah, we don't talk a

  680. lot about end times these days. Some of us grew

  681. up in the era where they're talking about end times

  682. all the time to scare us, but but.

  683. He is coming soon. Are we ready? Are we ready

  684. for Him? You know, we need to check, check our lives.

  685. And Adonai, and I, I close with this because I

  686. want us to ask ourselves, is He truly your Lord

  687. and your Master? In the Bible, many people call Him Adonai.

  688. I mean, even the Pharisees, Sadducees probably at that time,

  689. you know, Adonai, Adonai. But is He really your personal Lord?

  690. Your Lord, not just the Lord. Your Lord and your Master.

  691. And are there things in our lives that we need

  692. to align to His will, to His purpose? Let's not,

  693. you know, let, let's not let any day pass us

  694. by by just going with the flow. You know, we

  695. want to be walking in His will, walking in His

  696. purpose so that every day will be fulfilling.

  697. We hope you've been blessed by this message. For more

  698. information on our church, please visit xchurch.org. We are also

  699. active on Facebook and Instagram. We're believing that this week

  700. is going to be a good week ahead for you.

  701. God bless.