He Knows My Name

(00:00) Well, if you happen to have brought your believe book with you today, I don't know if I'm seeing them out there or not, you can. We'll go be looking at chapter 2 today. Uh but if you've caught on as you've been doing your reading, that is also uh it's 95% scripture. And so today we'll be looking at one of the passages talked in there out of uh Genesis chapter 16. (00:26) So we'll be there in a few minutes. Um yeah, I hope you had a good week. Uh hope that you are here with a sense of um excitement for what God is doing as we've started this series uh life unlocked. And that's really what we're trying to look at is discover how God wants us to unlock the depth and riches of life that he intends for us to know and to live. (00:52) And so that's what this series is about. If you haven't gotten one of those books, there's plenty of them back there in the corner. grab one, start reading along and uh encourage you uh to become part of that. If you're not part of a life group, encoura ge you do to do that as well or to join up. You can do that by talking to me or going onto line to the app or going on the app and signing up. (01:13) Uh multiple ways that you can be get involved with this. I think this is uh important for us as a church and I think it's transformative. We've spent last several years walking with Jesus, then looking at how he wants to continue to live out uh his uh purpose in our lives through the book of Acts. And now we're going to look at specifically um the foundations of our belief, the actions that need to follow from that belief, and the people we need to become because of our belief. (01:41) And so that's that's where we're going with this series. So would you join me in prayer just one more time this morning as we open God's word ask him to speak to us. Father we do believe this is your word. Uh you gave this to us as a means of being able to understand uh to know you and know life with you. (02:07) And so I pray as we uh take this a step fur ther now in uh our journey of understanding our faith that you will meet us here. That you will be at work uh through my words to uh use them and mold them the way you want to the ears and hearts of those who are here. Help us to be those who desire to learn and put into action uh what you were. (02:30) We thank you for this opportunity and pray this in Jesus name. Amen. Last week we were looking at the idea uh and started out with the concept of God and that's where uh kind of seems like the ri ght spot to start and in this we uh in the book you read this and I think we looked at last week the Bible starts with an assumption of the existence of God. (02:52) It does not try to start with the trying to prove God's existence and instead it wants to show who God is so that we can know truly the difference between the gods of this world and the one true God. And we talked about that there are God himself talked about the uh and states the reality uh you shall have no other god before me. (0 3:12) He implies that there are other gods in this world that will take our attention. Now again I want to stress that's gods with a little G. And the difference in how God explains himself and and proves himself is that he is the only God who can be faithful to his promises or even can make promises and be faithful to them and then powerfully uh show himself on the behalf of those who seek him. (03:37) And so we looked at that last week. That's how the Bible displays the existence of God. The h eavens declare the glory of God. It says we can look around. Romans Paul tells us that where there's no one with that can claim an excuse. I didn't know the existence of God. He has shown his existence. (03:53) The question is, have you come to know him and he has shown himself faithful and powerful on the behalf of those who have put their faith in him? In fact, we stated it this way. I believe in the God of the Bible, the only true God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We in the book that you've been reading, we briefly hit upon that. Not only does God demonstrate his existence, but he also has displayed himself as uh a triune God. (04:18) Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And sometimes we make that much harder to understand than it really needs to be simply because we're trying to make God fit into our concept of reality and what we think is possible rather than going if God can create the world and he exists and says he exists as three person. Let's understand who those personalities are and why it's significant. (04:41) And so we started there and we looked at that. Today we are going to look at and move from the um all powerful God that exists, the God of creation, the God who sustains, the God who brings rain and shows mercy, the God who is involved in the lives of those who know him. That's the point we want to get to. We want to get to the understanding that God is personal and it's God's intent and desire to be personally involved in our lives. (05:06) So this is the secon d step that we are taking and the things that we want to focus on. When I was in the home I grew up in uh we it wasn't hard for me to believe in the existence of God. Uh God was central uh and I owe it in a lot of ways a lot of it to my mom. It's Mother's Day. I will be honest about that. (05:33) Um she was in a lot of ways the faith anchor of our family and uh she was the one who uh I really learned the value of prayer from. She was the one who challenged uh our family in the idea and concept o f dependence on God. And I saw it though displayed in in both of my parents. But my point being I grew up with an understanding that there was a God. (06:04) And so that wasn't super difficult for me. But the personal God part brought its own challenges. And that's what I want to talk about a little bit today. I've told some of you this before and maybe it shows uh brings into question my intelligence, but I thought I would at least uh share this with those of you who do not know. Ellie, you're my daughter-in-law. (06:27) You're not supposed to be laughing at that. So anyway, um um I don't know about you, I love thunderstorms. Now, I don't know, you know, we don't have a lot of them here, which is disappointing to me. Um, my parents lived for a while in Arizona and I love to visit them because the storms that they were get, those were storms, okay? It's not this little wimpy things that blow through here every once in a while. (06:53) It's the kind where the sky is just black and light ning just lights up the whole sky and you you're shaking when that when the lightning goes and the thunder follows. I love those storms and I think it started when I was a kid. I grew up, as many of you know, I grew up in Spokane and up there we got more, it seemed like we got more storms. (07:11) At least as a kid in my mind, there were more of them than we get here. And my best friend was a guy named John Teeters and he lived a couple houses down from us. And when thunder and were when uh stor ms would come in, he and I would often uh go out and play in the storms because we really liked them. (07:31) And we would stand out. There's a field out behind our houses and we would stand out and watch. But the best part was there are also these big pine trees in the middle of that field and we would climb up into the trees to the very top and we would uh hang on and the wind would be blowing and we loved it. (07:48) It was like you're just going back and forth. We didn't really think about t he fact that we're now the highest point up in in the field getting ready to light us up like a candle, but that never happened so we were fine. Um, but we would ride out the storm and in and the it's raining and the wind's blowing and lightning's happening and you could, you know, lightning would come and the thunder would come and you just feel it the whole time you're getting tossed around. (08:10) I absolutely love that experience. In fact, if I could go do it right now, I would, except that I've gotten a little bit smarter and so I maybe I'd put a lightning rod somewhere out in the field or something to draw the attention. But the reason I loved it is because it reminded me, it was a constant reminder there's someone bigger than me in this world. (08:33) And there were a lot of people bigger than me, but there was a power beyond anything I could control. It was awesome. And that's part of it's that sense of awe that came over me as a kid when I watched that. So, I didn't have trou if you were with us when we were in the book of Matthew, we talked about the fact that Jesus proclaimed Matthew chapter 4 made the proclamation that he was here to bring the kingdom of God. And in that he was stating that he was trying to bring us as human beings back into a relationship with the living all powerful God. (09:45) And because of our sinfulness and our human nature to rebel against God, we were we were unable to come back on our own. So God became flesh. The word became flesh and m ce. (10:38) You see, if we can't learn to relate to the God of the Bible, then he simply stays out and distant. But God so loved the world that he sent his son that whoever believes in him would not perish but have everlasting life. God wants to unlock life for us through a relationship with him. So let's jump into this a little bit this morning. (11:12) Last week I used the quote from Awtoer. I'll mention it again. What comes into your minds when you think about God is the most important thing s we talked about last week, there are thousands of other gods in this world. The god we choose to worship, now I'm not saying they're alive and powerful. (12:05) I'm saying there's other gods. Those things that will consume and fill the vacuum that was created to be filled by God himself. when we fill that vacuum with anything else, we will find ourselves following the values of that God. And so we we looked at this uh idea and we are looking at the uh the key questions last week. (12:29) Does read anything. If you are familiar at all with the book of Genesis, by the time we get here to the 16th chapter, we are involved in the lives of really two main characters at this point. It's a man named Abraham and his wife uh at this point still Sarah. Um and that may ring a bell for you or if you're very familiar, you know why they were important. (13:32) God had called Abraham out to follow him. And God had given a promise to Abraham. And God had said that he was going to be the father of ma and his wife Sarah. Now the problem was they didn't have any kids. (14:14) They didn't have a son. God said you're going to have a son. The problem was they were old and you know biological factors were involved and at you know late 90s their uh things aren't looking too good. And so after a long course of time since the promise had been given and time had passed, Sarah Sarai had an idea and she came to Abraham and she said, "You know, God's made this promise, but I can't bear you any children. e going to get ourselves in trouble. You know what God needs? He needs our obedience. There's a big difference between that. Why? trying to help him and just simply obeying. (15:27) And so right now, Abraham and Sarah are the focus of God's promise. He's going to bring salvation through them. All nations will be blessed. They have no son. Sarah gets this great idea. She's going to give her her maid servant to to Abraham. And Abraham doesn't give a whole lot of argument on that fact. And in a sho a mess. What do we do? He says she's your slave. You do what you need to do with her. And and so basically Sarah just sends her off out into the desert and um things aren't looking real good at that point. So let's read what unfolds. Genesis 16 7 and 8. (16:58) Just prior to this uh let me say to Haggar's been sent off. It tells us that she finds herself uh next to a a spring on a road uh in the kind of the middle of nowhere. And then it says this, "The angel of the Lord found Hagar near a spri th them deciding that they were going to somehow help God. You see, I think in the simplest terms, if we're going to put ourselves in the situation of this Egyptian woman, she has been told that she is unwanted and she's worthless. (18:07) They saw value in her for a period that she might be the means by which they could promise that it was given by God. So, they were going to try to speed up the process and in so doing, she was disposable. What does it feel like to be disposable? It doesn't fee . He's just simply interested in showing off every once in a while in a lightning storm, but other than that, he's distant and far away. So, here is Hagar alone, abandoned, misused, and mistreated. And the angel of the Lord, what does it say? The angel of the Lord found her. (20:26) Do you understand what that implies? That God was looking for her. That's one of the one of the most I don't know what encouraging comforting words I think we can read that God found her in her place of despair. So G erse that comes to mind at that point. (21:30) Psalm 34:18. Maybe you're familiar with it. The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves crushed in spirit. Do you believe that? It's very true. That is who our God is. He's not just powerful. Oh, he is. But he's close to the brokenhearted. And so God finds Sarah. The second thing I want you to see, notice what he says. (21:58) Hagar, slave of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going? I got a question for you. Did the messenger of u know the other thing I love in the in that statement the angel didn't show up and say hey you sitting by the well he says Sarah says to her slave of Sarai really interesting in this passage go and read it in Genesis 16 the detail given in the way that the messenger of God speaks to Hagar shows (23:08) that he is very much aware of what is going on in her life and has been aware her. He's not just interested in Abraham and Sarai. He's interested in those every person around. You see, think abou ere's let's go to verse nine. Let's pick up at verse 9. He says this, "The angel of the Lord told her, "Go back to your mistress and submit to her." That had to be a pretty hard request. She'd run away because of the abuse. And God's saying, "I want you to go back. I want you to go back." But he doesn't just demand it. (24:24) He tells her why. And in telling her why, he's giving her the assurance that he is with her. The angel added, "I will increase your descendants so much that they will be t ts will be too many to count. (25:18) " In other words, you're not going to be alone. And I know what's happening with your life. goes on and uh he says to her, the angel adds, "I will increase your descendants so much not be too numerous account." And the angel of the Lord also said to her, "You are now pregnant and you will give birth to a son. (25:37) You will name him Ishmael, for the Lord has heard of your misery." There's a lot of detail in that. Let's pick up just a couple of things. God from? Where are you going? He's saying, "I know where you're coming from." And he's already told her, "I know where you're going. I've already set the future. (26:30) " So, he's answering his own question with a sense of assurance, not only of his awareness, but of his presence. That's the personal God that has revealed himself in the Bible. He even gives the name to her son, Ishmael. Guess what the kid's name is in Abraham or what the name given to him when he's born? It's Ishmael. God knew. ( are names of God given throughout the Bible and especially in the Old Testament. We read different Hebrew names of God and they are based upon what we talked about last week that God powerfully and faithfully shows himself on the behalf of those who follow him. (27:59) God reveals his character and in so doing uh receives a name. The name is given so that we as human beings can be reminded of what he has done and who he is. Sarah, it's not Sarah. I keep intermixing the two. Sorry. Hagar does so lone on the side of a road next to a well, I I I wish we could understand the context. She was so vulnerable. (29:17) She the best thing that would probably have happened to her at that point is somebody would come along, take her captive again, and sell her into to as a slave again somewhere else. She had no way to protect herself. She had no clan or family around her. She had been kicked out and told she was worthless. And yet God saw her. He found her. (29:36) And he knew the details of her l personal God is. That's what makes the life of Jesus so significant is he is the expression of God seeing you and seeing me. (30:35) He sees us in our pain and abandonment. I was going to try to tell you a little bit, but I realized this morning I'm not going to make it through. So, I'm going to just simply tell you this, that God still is interested and still sees you today. It didn't end at the cross. It didn't end because he fulfilled his promise. He's still calling us home. (31:14) And he s the Bible. He loves us. He's given himself for us. You see, when we talk about and read in the life of Jesus, which we spent a year and a half doing, all that Jesus did in this world and in this life that he lived was because God saw you before you were even born. (32:37) Psalmist tells us that he knits us together in our mother's womb. He knows who you are. And you know what? Because of that very fact, he's already stated your worth. The problem is sometimes in this world, there are others that amazing to me that the God of the thunder and lightning storms wants to know each of us personally. He doesn't want to just display his power. He wants to transform us through a personal relationship. Our God is good. I believe that uh Psalm 121, it's the uh verse for this week, and I hope you're going to take the challenge to start memorizing these verses. (34:13) But it says this, "I lift up my eyes to the mountains. Where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heav a mountain where Tim can commandments given on a mountain. (34:57) Uh you know it's I could walk you through many things where the idea that we go up to God to meet him in the mountains. What this psalmist is saying when he says, 'I look to the mountains, he says, I'm looking up to the mountains and I know who dwells up there, but where does my help come from? It comes from the Lord. (35:17) He comes down from the mountain to meet me in the valley. God does not stay in the mountain surrounded b y it with me. I think it'll even come up here on the slide. Our belief that we are looking at today is I believe God is involved in and cares about my daily life. (36:22) That's our key for this week. Have you come to the point where you know God is involved in the details of your daily life? Is that up there on that slide? If you can see that, can you say it with me? I believe God is involved in and cares about my daily life. Can you say it one more time? I believe is involved. Good. (36:53) So d not abandon. You became flesh. You pitched your tent among us and you called us home. If we put our faith in you, you are the God who calls us his children. You meet us when life has kicked us to the side of the road, unwanted and worthless. (38:08) And you say, "Oh, you are precious. You know our past. You set our future. May we walk with you to discover and unlock the life that you have for us. Jesus, we're going to come to your table this morning to recognize the life you gave to bring us b nd loves you. He's been seeking you. (39:15) And if you haven't given your life to him today, let him find you. Give yourself to him. Simply pray, "Jesus, I recognize that through your death, you have forgiven my sins. Through your resurrection, you want to give me life. You the God of the thunder and lightning. You are the God who knows my past and has set my future. I want to walk with you. (39:42) Come into my life. If you have given your life to Jesus and you're wantin"