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[0:00] Let me just kind of fill you in on where we're going.

[0:19] First of all, for the next couple of Sundays, Sunday nights, that is, and then of course! Jonathan and I will be gone the third Sunday or the second Sunday out.!

[0:29] And next Sunday we'll be here, one after that, that's the 20th, we'll be out. And then when we return, late on the Saturday before the 27th, that evening we'll be having the Lord's Supper, so we'll be doing that.

[0:49] And also I'll be sharing something from God's Word on that evening. And then we'll really get well into the book of Judges.

[1:01] So I'm going to go from Joshua right on into Judges. And that's kind of how the Bible reads. Judges is a continuation of the story of Joshua. And so, in fact, it's somewhat of a seamless story.

[1:15] As you end Joshua, it just kind of goes on in to Judges. And so we'll do that. Tonight and tomorrow, or excuse me, next Sunday night, I'm going to kind of play off of, or maybe spring off of, something that is given to us, revealed to us here in the book of Judges.

[1:41] So I want you to turn to Judges chapter 2 to begin with. This way you'll maybe understand my thinking, my line of thinking.

[1:53] And in chapter 2, and starting with verse 10, this is not the beginning of the book of Judges, of course. The book of Judges kind of just, just kind of starts.

[2:06] And there's quite a number of things that are said that I guess you could sum up with Israel's failure to complete the task.

[2:18] And so we'll get into some of the particulars about that when we really, in earnest, get into the book of Judges. But you could define the whole problem that's addressed in Judges with verse 10 and 11.

[2:33] When all that generation, what generation is that? The generation of Joshua. When all that generation had been gathered to their fathers, that means they died.

[2:46] I guess you knew that. Another generation arose after them. Here's the problem. Who did not know the Lord, nor the work which he had done for Israel.

[3:02] They did not know the Lord. Then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals. That's the natural outcome of forgetting the Lord.

[3:14] You know, worship him. And because we are created as worshiping beings, we're going to worship something. They then opted to worship false gods.

[3:29] And then that kind of is the story. And then you go through Joshua and, you know, and God's people, they forget the Lord. And God sends judgment.

[3:40] And then they cry out for help. And then God brings a deliverer. And then everything is peachy between them and God. And then they forget the Lord. And then God sends judgment.

[3:51] You know the story, how it goes. The cycle all the way through the book of Judges. But what I want us to focus on is really, well, one word here in the text that I just read in verse 10.

[4:07] And it's the word, really a name, Lord. Lord. So I'm going to spend a couple of Sunday nights talking about the name of God.

[4:20] The God they forgot. And they didn't just forget his name. Because God's name means more than just his name. More than just a designation for him or something to call him.

[4:34] You know, that's about all there is to our names. That's just what identifies us. In the sense that, you know, there's my name and your name. And my name belongs to me and your name.

[4:46] And so we just identify a person by the name. Or we call the person by a name. But God's name means much, much, much more. And if they had remembered his name. This is the interesting part.

[4:58] And the meaning of the name. Really, the revelation of the person. The very person of God. If they had remembered that, they would not have forgotten him.

[5:10] And then they would not have done evil in his sight. And so I would say to you that knowing the name of God. I mean his name. Not just a title for him.

[5:21] But his name. Knowing it. And knowing what it means. Knowing what it says about him. Is a tremendous safeguard against turning from him. And disobeying him.

[5:34] And so that's what we're going to do tonight and next Sunday night. And just considering the God who is. The name of God.

[5:45] And so I want you to then turn to the text that we're going to focus on tonight. And it too is a very familiar passage. And it is Exodus chapter 3. And starting.

[5:57] Really I want to start with verse 1 of chapter 3. Though the focus for the next couple of Sunday nights is going to be just 3 verses. 13, 14 and 15. And really more or less just 13 and 14.

[6:13] But this is a familiar passage. I don't need to set it up. As soon as I start reading it, you're going to say, Oh yeah, yeah. I know about this. Remember this. Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian.

[6:29] And he led the flock to the back of the desert and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. All right. So you know the historical setting here. Moses born where?

[6:45] In Egypt. And yet, Pharaoh, because he feared the Hebrews, he had all the male babies killed. Or so he thought.

[6:56] But Moses was preserved. You know how the story about that. And how then he came into Pharaoh's household. And then at one point, Moses thought he would take God's work, God's mission into his own hands.

[7:10] And he killed an Egyptian and so forth. And he ends up eventually in Midian. In exile. A shepherd now. A shepherd now. I mean, from a prince of Egypt to now just a lowly shepherd.

[7:26] And so he's out there in the backside of the desert. And he's watching over his sheep. But something happens here. And we know about this, don't we? And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush.

[7:43] So he looked. And behold, the bush was burning with fire. But the bush was not consumed. And Moses said, I will now turn aside and see this great sight.

[7:54] I always kind of chuckle when I read that because that's almost verbatim out of the Ten Commandments. And you have, you know, Charlton Heston. And he's out there.

[8:04] And it's the only line in the whole movie that sounds a little quirky. Because it's a direct quote out of the Bible. I shall turn aside now and see what. You know, it's just kind of. Well, anyway. I'm glad they quoted scripture anyway.

[8:19] You know. All right. All right. To see why the bush does not burn. So when the Lord saw that he turned aside to look. God called to him from midst of the bush.

[8:32] So we know it's God is here. God's represented here in this phenomenon. God manifested himself in this way. Through a bush that's burning but yet not consumed.

[8:44] So it's not an angel here. It's God. God himself is here. And he called to him from the midst of the bush. And he said, Moses. Moses. Moses. And he said, here I am.

[8:57] Then he said, do not draw near this place. Take your sandals off your feet. For the place where you stand is holy ground. This is just one of my favorite passages.

[9:09] Just love to read this. And to imagine the scene. Even though we've had it portrayed in movies. Some animated movies and so forth. Not sure if VeggieTales has done anything with this yet.

[9:20] Moreover, he said, I am the God of your father. The God of Abraham. The God of Isaac. The God of Jacob.

[9:31] Now they were not his fathers. Right. Okay. He's talking about the generations. God's people. God gave his covenant to Abraham.

[9:43] It was passed on renewed to Isaac. And passed on renewed to Jacob. And Moses comes out of that line. Of the Jews. Of Israel. And Moses hit his face.

[9:54] For he was afraid to look upon God. And the Lord said. I have surely seen the oppression of my people who are in Egypt. And have heard their cry because of their taskmasters.

[10:05] For I know their sorrows. So I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians. And to bring them up from that land. To a good and large land. To a land flowing with milk and honey.

[10:17] To the place of the Canaanites. And the Hittites. And the Amorites. And the Perizzites. And the Hivites. And the Jebusites. Now therefore behold. The cry of the children of Israel has come to me.

[10:30] And I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppressed them. Come now therefore. I will send you to Pharaoh. That you may bring my people.

[10:41] The children of Israel out of Egypt. But Moses said to God. Who am I? That I should go to Pharaoh. And that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt. So he said.

[10:52] I will certainly be with you. And this shall be a sign to you. That I have sent you. When you have brought the people out of Egypt. You shall serve God on this mountain. Then Moses said to God.

[11:05] Indeed. When I come to the children of Israel. And say to them. The God of your fathers has sent me to you. And they say to me. What is his name?

[11:16] What shall I say to them? And God said to Moses. I am who I am. And he said. Thus you shall say to the children of Israel.

[11:27] I am has sent me to you. Moreover God said to Moses. Thus you shall say to the children of Israel. The Lord God of your fathers.

[11:38] The God of Abraham. The God of Isaac. And the God of Jacob. Has sent me to you. This is my name forever. And this is my memorial to all generations.

[11:48] Now Moses goes on with a few more excuses. And God has an answer to all of those excuses. And then finally just loses his patience. And says. Moses. That's just about the gist of it.

[12:00] But I want to stop right here. And want to focus on this question of Moses. Moses. About the name of God. The name of God.

[12:10] I once read. What one preacher said. Was the aim of his ministry. And he said this. He said. The aim of all my ministry.

[12:21] Is the advancement. And joy. Of your faith. He's speaking to his congregation. The advancement of your faith. And the joy of your faith. To the glory of God.

[12:31] That's the aim of my ministry. He went on to say. And preaching is one means to that end. And therefore when I ponder. What I preach. I look for things. That will stir you up.

[12:42] To trust God. With all your hearts. Israel needed a preacher like that. At this very juncture in their life. God had done so many wondrous. And great things.

[12:53] I mean. Starting even with Egypt. Healed. And then throughout. Their journeys in the promised land. And the victories that God gave them.

[13:04] And they needed someone after Joshua died. And was taken up. They needed someone to preach to them.

[13:15] To stir their hearts. And to advance their faith in the one true God. But rather than that happening, they forgot the Lord, forgot him. Now, how could they forget the name of the Lord?

[13:31] Well, as soon as I ask that question, then I have to ask this question, how can we? How can we? How can we rock along in our lives and then at some point, because of some event in life, some setbacks, some struggles, some just, you know, just sin that's not dealt with, how can we then just forget the name of the Lord, forget the Lord altogether?

[13:59] And yet we can. And so the question is, or the need is, we need to revisit the Lord, revisit his name and what his name means.

[14:13] And should mean to us. Not just who he is, but what he has done. Now, I would ask this question, will knowledge of the name of God stir us to trust God more?

[14:28] Will it? And the answer to that question is yes. In fact, the Bible supports that. In Psalm 9 and verse 10, the Bible says, And they that know your name will put their trust in you.

[14:41] Not just know his name as you would know Don or Jonathan or Creselda or any other name of a person here, but to know the meaning of that name and to know the person behind that name.

[14:57] And so, yes, knowing his name can then, will then increase our faith. And the question is how?

[15:08] Well, admittedly, it's a little bit difficult for us to understand this kind of concept and thought in our day because in our culture, as long as I can remember, we've had a different way of choosing, a different method of choosing a person's name.

[15:22] And it's just not like they did it in the Old Testament. In Old Testament days, a person's name was significant. That is, the name itself was significant.

[15:33] It's very descriptive. It revealed something of the character of the person, the person who is thus named, or certain attributes about that person, or certain abilities and talents and accomplishments.

[15:48] And sometimes a person's name, quite often, especially those names, many of those names, key names recorded in Scripture, the name will reveal God's plan for that person's life.

[16:02] And the plan, of course, being in connection with His overall plan. And so names were very significant throughout the Old Testament and even on into the New Testament. Like, for example, the very first woman's name, Eve.

[16:16] Eve, in the Bible, tells us what it means. It means the mother of all living. That's pretty descriptive of the person Eve, isn't it? Because indeed she was. And how about Abraham?

[16:29] I mentioned Abraham a moment ago, one of the patriarchs. The name Abraham means the father of many nations. Well, he was, wasn't he?

[16:41] And how about Israel? You know, Abraham had his son Isaac, and Isaac had his son Jacob, whose name was changed to Israel.

[16:52] Israel means God rules. God rules. Quite a change from the name Jacob, which means cheater or supplanter. You know, and how he got that name.

[17:03] Well, it was descriptive of him as being a twin, and he grabbed onto the heel of Esau. Well, supplanter, and then later how things would turn out there when Jacob got the birthright from Esau.

[17:19] And so names meant something. And even the name Jesus, of course, has tremendous meaning. It means Jehovah is salvation, or Yahweh is salvation. And there are many, many other examples throughout Scripture.

[17:31] God named people to reveal their character, their abilities, their mission in life. That is his mission in life. And I don't know that we today give enough attention to how we name our children.

[17:44] We buy books, of course, that list names from A to Z. And sometimes we'll pick a popular name in our culture. Sadly, some TV star or movie Hollywood star.

[17:56] Or, and this is very typical, of course, of our culture, we'll choose a name of a beloved relative. You know, whether dead or alive, past or present. Jonathan, our son, his name came out of a prayer meeting.

[18:12] That makes his name much more spiritual, see. Well, but a person's name revealed God's plan for that person's life and God's plan through that person's name often revealed that.

[18:29] Now, you know, this is especially true then when God named himself. Nobody named God. He named himself, although you could argue, and I think rightfully so, that his name is as eternal as he himself is eternal.

[18:45] And so, names are important. But now, there's a huge difference between man and God when it comes to naming someone, right?

[19:00] Because when a man names someone, like I would name my son, or Sherry and I would name our children, you name your children, or so forth. When man names someone, man does not have the power to make that person fit his name, or her name.

[19:16] Or to live up to the name. If our children have been given, you know, for example, biblical names, by the way, that's another very favorite one of this Christian culture.

[19:27] Name of Bible, our children after Bible names. But if we give our children Bible names, we hope and we pray that they will live up to those names, don't we? But we don't have any power to make that so.

[19:38] Only God has that power. So God named particular people in the Old Testament, and they lived up to their names because of the providence of God, the working of God in their lives. And God has that power.

[19:50] All right, so that, again, thinking about God's name, that could not be more true than when God chose his name, again, his eternal name.

[20:00] But we can count on the fact that God's name for himself is loaded with meaning.

[20:14] It's loaded with meaning concerning who he is and also with what he has predetermined he will do.

[20:25] And that, I believe, is the truth behind Psalm 910 that I quoted a moment ago. They who know your name will put their trust in you. God's name is so full of meaning and life-changing meaning.

[20:41] Now, you understand that God chose a name for himself, then, that reveals truths about himself, truths that when these truths are understood and embraced as they should be, when we know them, when they're revealed to us, and when we embrace those truths, they will deepen our love for him, our faith in him, our admiration for him.

[21:09] Get that out here in just a minute. Must be my dentures. Huh? Yeah, you think I'm kidding, don't you?

[21:20] Actually, I think it's something much deeper than what's in my mouth. I think it's up here. You know the name of God and know what it means and know the depth of meaning in regard to his purpose for us and his love for us and work in our behalf and so forth.

[21:38] And all of that is wrapped up in his name and that will strengthen your faith in him and embolden your worship of him and on and on we could go. All right, so looking at this text here, this very familiar passage.

[21:51] I have taught, alluded sometimes to various parts of this before, so some of this might be familiar. But Moses approached the burning bush, remember, and he met there with the living God who's on sacred ground.

[22:09] God said, take your shoes off, your sandals off because you're standing on sacred ground. It was sacred because of his presence there, God's presence there. And then God gave him a mission or a commission.

[22:23] This was his purpose for Moses. And Moses had to trust him. Had to trust him. It was a big task, huge task. And Moses had to trust him. And so what did Moses need, apparently, in order to trust and obey God's commission?

[22:39] What did he need? What did he say he needed? God's name. And this is kind of interesting, I think. You would think he would know it, and yet he did not.

[22:51] It had not yet been revealed. And Moses wanted to know his name. Now, whether it was right for Moses to ask that or whether it was a lack of faith revealed there that Moses would demand or ask for the name of God is not the issue.

[23:09] God worked, I think, through Moses' unbelief and his attempt to make excuses to get out of God's commission. He used all that so that he could take the opportunity to reveal his name to Moses and through Moses every one of us.

[23:26] And so he wanted to know his name, his personal name for God. That's what Moses said. He said, when I go to the children of Israel and I tell them that the God of your fathers, that's Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that he has sent me, they're going to want to know your name.

[23:40] And so what is your name? And God accommodated that. So how did God answer his question? Well, in a way that initially seems a little bit strange.

[23:52] At least the wording of it seems strange to us. He said, I am that I am. I am that I am. That was his answer. Moses said, what's your name? So I can tell them who sent me.

[24:04] And God said, I am that I am. You just tell them that I am has sent you. Has sent you. You just tell them that. And then in verse 15, he repeats it, but he uses a little different wording here, and we're going to get to the significance of this here in a minute.

[24:22] Tell them, he said, the Lord God has sent me unto you. You tell them that. This is my name forever, the Lord God. So in verse 14, I am has sent you.

[24:37] Verse 15, the Lord God has sent you. And this is interesting. What does it mean? This is the name for God. That's what Moses asked for, for his name.

[24:48] And this is what God gave him. We would expect something a little different. You know, that didn't sound like a name. None of that does. And yet it is his sacred name, his personal name.

[25:00] And what is that name? It's a little difficult to pick it out. And yet, when we discover it, it is incredible.

[25:11] And it bolsters our faith because we know who God is and what God is and what he has purposed to do.

[25:21] The most important name for God. This is the interesting part. The most important name for God in the Old Testament is a name that is never, ever really translated in the Bible.

[25:37] You'll not find a translation of it in the Bible. You'll find it represented by a certain word. And this is the common word you'll find running all throughout the Old Testament.

[25:53] You'll find a certain word and it appears in verse 15. When moreover God said to Moses, thus you shall say to the children of Israel, what? The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob has sent me to you.

[26:11] The Lord. L-O-R-D. There's the name for God. You say, Lord is just a common word.

[26:23] Well, that's how it's translated in our Bibles. L-O-R-D. But L-O-R-D in all capital letters. I read a moment ago out of Joshua chapter 2.

[26:37] Remember verse 10? They had forgotten the Lord. And it's there in the same form. L-O-R-D. All capital letters. In the Hebrew, it is four letters, four Hebrew letters.

[26:51] And if we were to use our Latin-based letters to spell it, it would be Y-H-W-H.

[27:03] Translated Lord in all capital letters in English text. And nearly every Bible, every version of the Bible that you might have, certainly all the popular ones, will always have...

[27:16] The form of it will always be L-O-R-D in all capital letters. But in the Hebrew, it's Y-H-W-H. And you probably have heard, maybe, that this is what is called the Tetragrammaton.

[27:28] How many have ever heard that? Yeah, several of you. The Tetragrammaton, what does that mean? It means four letters. Four letters. Now, it's interesting that they're all consonants.

[27:41] Y-H-W-H. I know sometimes Y is a vowel, but it's a consonant. Four consonants. Which is unusual also in the Hebrew language. In fact, the Hebrew language is built upon...

[27:53] Every word is built upon three consonants. It's a consonantal language. They don't have any vowels. The later vowel points were developed so that a person would know how to pronounce certain words.

[28:07] But every Hebrew word is three consonants except this word. The name for God. And it's four. The Tetragrammaton. Four letters.

[28:17] Four consonants. And we don't really know, though we think we do, we don't really know how it is pronounced or it is to be pronounced. Because, quite frankly, it's almost never pronounced by the Jews.

[28:28] It certainly wasn't with ancient Jews. They would never pronounce it, never speak it out loud. It was never spoken. It was only written with very special care. Very great care.

[28:39] In fact, the story is told about Hebrew scribes who would copy the scriptures. That when they came to the name Yahweh, copying it from another copy of scripture, they would get a brand new quill just to write that name.

[28:56] It was a show of sacredness for that name. And they would never, ever, ever speak it out loud. It was sacred and holy. And it was thought to be just short of blasphemy for a person to speak the name out loud.

[29:12] And so, consequently, we don't really know how it is pronounced. We think it is pronounced Yahweh. You've heard that before.

[29:23] Yahweh. That's the best we can come. Because, you know, technically, a four consonant word without any vowel points is unpronounceable.

[29:34] And it's by design. Probably, it's just something like, just a breath. And that also is an interesting thing because God is spirit.

[29:50] And I've shared this with you before. You remember Abraham. His name and issue was Abram, right? And God changed his name to Abraham. When he made his covenant with him, he added his name to his name.

[30:08] Abraham. And so, God's name, how does it pronounce? I think it's Yahweh. That's the best we can get.

[30:20] And some would pronounce it Yahweh. Yahweh. Yahweh. But so sacred was this name that when the Orthodox Jew would come to it in the reading of Scripture, they would substitute it with the word Adonai.

[30:36] Adonai. Another, not name for God, but a title. A descriptive title. It means, my Lord. My Lord. In fact, Adonai can be used in other senses, other applications to speak of even a man.

[30:52] Adonai. But in Scripture, quite generally, quite often in the Old Testament, Adonai was a title for God. And so, since they read Scripture out loud, and certainly in the worship, the formal worship of Israel, when they would read the scroll of the Scripture, and they came to Yahweh, they would not speak the name.

[31:13] They would rather speak the name Adonai, my Lord, because they had such reverence for the name. By the way, Adonai is also in Scripture in the Old Testament, and so every time you see, nearly every time, though there are some other names as well, but nearly every time you see Lord with a capital L and a lowercase O-R-D, that is a translation for the name Adonai.

[31:39] Adonai. But all caps is Lord, but the Hebrews would not speak it. They would not speak it out loud. And so they substituted Adonai for Lord.

[31:50] What about the name Jehovah? You hear that quite often, and it's not wrong to use that name.

[32:01] Again, we don't really know how Yahweh, or the word YHWH, is pronounced, but some will speak the name Jehovah. And you need to understand that Jehovah is kind of an evolution of the name Yahweh.

[32:20] Evolution not in the same sense that Darwin used it. It's kind of an aberration of the word Yahweh, because the ancient Jewish scribes at some point, when I say scribe, I'm talking about those who would copy the Scripture.

[32:35] They couldn't take it to Kinko's or someplace like that and have the Bible. They obviously didn't have printing presses, and so the scribe's job was to copy the Scripture. And so when they came to the word Yahweh, they would superscript, they would put in small letters above the name Yahweh, the word Adonai.

[32:57] And they did that, not because they thought that was part of Scripture, but they did that to aid the reader of Scripture, so that when the reader would come to Yahweh, the reader would not make a mistake and slip up and speak the name.

[33:09] They would instead speak the superscript name above, and that would be Adonai, because of the reverence, the reverence for this name.

[33:20] Over time, you know, that's why I say kind of an evolution. Over time, the vowel points of Adonai kind of melded in with the consonants of Yahweh, and they kind of came together and formed a word that would be pronounced Jehovah.

[33:41] And it's simply a combination of Yahweh, Y-H-W-H, and the name or the word or the title of Adonai, and then you came up with Jehovah. I just thought you might want to know all of that.

[33:55] But now having said all of that, our English translation, LORD, in all capital letters, is, I think we would have to admit, a gross inadequate way to communicate the rich meaning of the name Yahweh.

[34:13] Because LORD is not a name, is it? It's a title. The name Yahweh is not translated. It is substituted with the title LORD.

[34:26] But Yahweh, that is a name. And it's the name for God. It's His personal name. It's His sacred name. And so that's why in this passage, in Exodus 3, 14, why this is so key.

[34:42] And it gives us God's personal name, and it tells us what it means when we put it all together. And when we understand that, then we will trust Him.

[34:54] We will trust Him. So what does His name mean? That's what we're getting to. We've talked about how it's spelled and some of the ways of reverence that the Jewish scribes gave to the name.

[35:09] What does it mean? And what effect does that have on us? Well, here's where it gets interesting, even more interesting to me.

[35:22] The word I am, and that's in verse 14. That was the first response that God gave to Moses' question, what is your name? And God said, I am that I am.

[35:33] Tell them I am has sent you. The words I am, that's two words in English, right? Unless you say I'm. Contraction, still two words.

[35:46] Yahweh. It's really just one word in the Hebrew. And again, it is this word that we're pronouncing Yahweh. It's the tetragrammaton.

[35:59] It is one word. I am. Hayah. Or something to that, close to that. And then when you get to verse 15, you have then, Lord, right?

[36:11] Or it's the word Yahweh. And those two words, I am in verse 14, Yahweh in verse 15, come from the same Hebrew root word.

[36:24] It is the Hebrew word, Hayah. And it means to be. And we're getting at the meaning of the name Yahweh. And the root of that word, which some would argue is the root of the entire Hebrew language, is to be.

[36:44] To be. It's the to be verb in the Hebrew language. And so this then makes the meaning of the text literally this. I am the one who is.

[36:59] That's the meaning of the name Yahweh. I am the one who is. I am. And so God puts both I am and Yahweh, we translate it Lord, in the same text.

[37:14] He said in verse 14, tell them Hayah, or I am, has sent me to you. And then He said in verse 15, tell them Yahweh, or Lord, has sent me to you.

[37:25] Both are from the same root word. Both are the same, are the same personal name for God. But Yahweh states the name and I am is interpretive of the name.

[37:39] I am. To be. I am. Simply God is. And I believe God's purpose here at the burning bush was to reveal like He had never revealed before the meaning of His personal name and that is that He is the one who is.

[37:58] He is the one who is. I am that I am. As one preacher put it, He is the one who always was, is, the one who always is, is, and the one who always will be, is.

[38:09] Now that's weird, He is eternal. He is self-existent. He had no beginning, no end. He is not created. He is not, He is totally separate, totally apart.

[38:21] He is the one who is the self-existent, eternal God. That's the meaning, the basic meaning of the name Yahweh.

[38:32] Now, that was all introduction. No. I'm going to take the name, this name, and we've, we've just come to its meaning, and then apply that to what that should mean to us.

[38:53] What it should have meant to Israel, but what they forgot. because they forgot it, they didn't fear God, didn't know God, because they forgot His name, they did evil in His sight, stopped worshiping Him and worshiping false God.

[39:13] So what should this name mean to us? Well, here's the first thing. God, and this is obvious, and I've really already stated this, but here's number one, that we ought to get from the name of God.

[39:27] God is the one who is. there. So I added another word to that. God is the one who is there. He's there.

[39:39] He's here. He's there. He's everywhere. Remember, again, the words I am come from the Hebrew to be verb, and it speaks of God's eternal self-existence.

[39:51] He is, or as one famous preacher, a Christian philosopher put it, He is the God, or rather, God is there. That's what we need to understand.

[40:01] First of all, that God is there. He's there. He's always there. He always has been there. He always will be there. If you and I could just somehow take all of time, the continuum of eternity, not just time, but eternity, if we could take it and set it out in front of us so that we could look at the beginning of it and the end of it, if you could conceptualize eternity in that sense.

[40:27] Put it out here. See, we're part of eternity. We can look back, and most of that's pretty fuzzy. We can look forward. We don't see any of that, but we're in the line of eternity. But if we could take that out and put it out here, guess what we would see?

[40:41] God is there. God is there. He's always there. He's there. Beginning and end and all the way through, God is there. In fact, we could even add this, that God is above and outside of all of that as well.

[40:57] Because you can't confine Him to just time and confine Him to eternity. He's infinite. And if we could do that, we would begin to understand a little bit and just reasoning in our thoughts that God is there.

[41:15] And we know that, don't we? I mean, it's obvious. It's basic. That God is there. God exists. But here's the application. Most people live as if He is not there.

[41:31] In fact, they're perfectly content to just live on and live life without any knowledge or any regard, any care for God.

[41:42] As if He's just not there. Yet He is there. And I would say that even some believers and all of us fail at some point in this, we know the truth.

[41:55] And yet, the truth of the name of God sometimes does not make any difference in our life. One man said, we treat, I quote, we treat our knowledge of the existence of God like we do our basic knowledge of hydrogen.

[42:10] hydrogen. We learn about hydrogen in high school and it is in the air we breathe. But after you learn about hydrogen, your belief in hydrogen has made no difference in your life.

[42:24] And so, if someone were to ask you, does hydrogen exist, you would say, yes, of course, it exists. And then you would just go on as if that didn't even matter.

[42:34] And sometimes we think of God in the same sense. Suppose you're standing before God and giving an account of your life and God says to you, I understand that on several occasions you have said you believe in me.

[42:56] Is that correct? And we say, yes, of course, that's right. And then God says, is it not also true that in your life the more honor and importance and power and beauty a person has, the more you regard and respect that person?

[43:15] The more admiration you give to that person? Is that not the case? And we would say, well, yes. I guess that's right. And then God asks, why is it that I had such an insignificant place in your life compared to the many other things and other people that you adore, that you respect, though you did say that you believed in me?

[43:43] Why did you not have more admiration for me? Why did you not seek more wisdom from me? Why did you not spend more time in fellowship with me than you did?

[44:01] Why did you not strive to know me more than you did and to know my wonderful will for each moment of your life?

[44:12] Why? Why? When you said that you believed in me. Of course, God's not going to ask those questions, but that causes us to begin to think about what we think of God and what place He has in our lives.

[44:28] That's a good question, a kind of good scenario for the people of the world to answer, and it's a good question for many so-called Christians, all of us, that we should answer, whose daily faith in God is sometimes virtually the same as our belief in hydrogen.

[44:49] God is infinitely more important and more significant than hydrogen, of course, right? And He's worthy of our constant thoughts and our trust and our worship and our adoration much, much more than we generally give Him.

[45:08] Are you living your personal life as though God doesn't really make a difference? Sometimes we do. we don't even give Him a thought sometimes.

[45:23] I mean, how many times have I sat with a grieving family who's lost a loved one? Not always, but many times this has been the case. I sit with a grieving family who believe and say they believe in the God who He is and yet act as though He does not exist.

[45:44] I mean, seriously. And we just sometimes drop the name of God in a conversation just as if the token mention of His name is going to make all the difference in the world.

[46:00] But God is there in times of grieving. That's just one example. Just as much there as He was with Moses at the burning bush. God is the God who is there.

[46:11] He's there when we grieve. He's there when we hurt. He is there when we are out of our minds so to speak because of a wayward child. He is there when a daughter comes to her parents and says, I am pregnant.

[46:24] He is there when a creditor comes and says, we're foreclosing on your house. He's there when a husband or a wife comes and says, I don't love you anymore. I'm leaving.

[46:36] He's there in all of those scenarios and many, many more. All of them. And, you know, when you're about to make one of life's major decisions and we have those times and God is there.

[46:49] When we're in need of His wisdom and His guidance, His direction, God is there. This is what we get from the name of God.

[47:00] He's the God who is there. And when you face one of sin's many temptations and allurements and you are struggling and you're about to cave, God is there.

[47:15] And even when you fail and sin, God is there. I am that I am, God said. I am the one who is. He's there.

[47:25] In Him, we live and breathe and have our being. That's what Paul said in Acts 17. And so, here's the closing question. Does that constant reality of who God is and that God is there, does that constant reality make any difference in the way you live your life?

[47:48] Well, it does. If we will set our minds on that as we should, it makes all the difference in the world, in any scenario, in anything that we do, that He's the God who is.

[48:06] We need to understand how knowing the name of the Lord leads us to trust Him. This is what Israel forgot. And so, they stopped serving Him and worshiping Him and worshiping other gods.

[48:23] God had to judge them and get them back in line. And that's the ongoing story of Israel throughout the book of Judges. And it can be our ongoing story as well if we lose sight of the name of God.

[48:40]  Which means we lose sight of Jesus. He's always the name.