15. Exodus chapter three beginning at verse 13, this is God's word. Then Moses said to God, if I come to the people of Israel and say to them, the God of your fathers has sent me to you and they ask me what is his name, what shall I say to them? God said to Moses, I am who I am. He said, say this to the people of Israel, I am has sent me to you. And God also said to Moses, say this to the people of Israel, Yahweh, the Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob has sent me to you. This is my name forever. And thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations. Let's pray. Our God, we thank you that you have spoken to us in words that we can understand, that you've not made yourself distant, invisible to us, but you have drawn near. You've made us aware of you, revealing yourself in creation, the things that you have made, revealing yourself in providence, the things that you have done, but especially revealing yourself in Christ and through the scripture that we can know you not merely as the Almighty, but as our own God, our Redeemer. So, our Father, today we pray that you would give us wisdom and insight, that we would grow in our knowledge of you and our joy in you. Help us, we pray in Jesus' name, amen. You know, Hebrew is really a beautiful language. It just looks beautiful when it's written out. Hebrew is one of those Mideastern languages that reads from right to left instead of from left to right, and so it throws you when you first see it, but it's all of these beautiful curves, and the letters are strange to us. They don't look like English letters. Greek is different. Greek reads left to right, and the letters sometimes look like English letters. Hebrew is just totally foreign. It sounds Eastern. There's a romance to it when you listen to it spoken. But some people think that there's more than romance in the Hebrew language. Many Christians believe that there's actually power in the Hebrew language. And not just Christians, but many Jews believe this as well, that there's a unique power in the Hebrew language, especially in using the Hebrew names of God. Sure, you can pray in English and you can say boring old things like, Father, I thank you for this, or Oh God, help me. You can pray boring stuff like that, or you can use fire words like Yahweh Yireh, whoa. There's power in that. Yahweh Nissi, the Lord is my banner, or this one's pretty cool, Yahweh Mekadishkim, Yahweh who sanctifies. Every few years there's a big upwelling of interest in the Hebrew names of God as people recover older kind of mystical ways of looking at this secret significance in the name. So in 2022, for example, I remember when this went around Facebook and social media, this post claiming that scholars and rabbis have noted that the letters of God's name in Hebrew, which is Yod-Heh-Vav-Heh, that those Hebrew letters really represent breathing sounds, so that when you pronounce YHWH without vowels, it just sounds like breathing. YHWH, YHWH. So every time you breathe, you're actually saying God's name. And it was this beautiful post, and it had a picture of lungs with flowers and stuff like that, like actually flowers in the shape of lungs. It was a little weird. The post went on, it basically said those bad theologians, you know, they added in vowels arbitrarily, an A and an E so that we could actually get a pronounceable name, Yahweh. And it was so popular, hundreds of thousands of shares. The only problem is that it's totally made up. Totally made up. Inhaling and exhaling doesn't actually give you the sounds of God's name unless you move your tongue to make those sounds. Moses didn't write God's name without vowels because it was a vowel-less name. He wrote God's name without vowels because Hebrew originally was a consonantal alphabet, no vowels in the alphabet. Vowels would be added by the reader, and as you were reading through, you would interpret it contextually to understand which vowels were required. The name Yahweh is not derived from the sound of breath, it is derived from the Hebrew verb echyeh, turned into a noun. Now there's a lot more like this, but today I wanna just dig into a few examples from other passages in the Bible. I wanna talk about what the Bible teaches about our God and our relationship to him through his names and his titles. Now you're probably familiar with what are commonly called God's names. So for example, Genesis chapter 22. Abraham has been told by God, I want you to take your son Isaac, your only son Isaac, I want you to take him up on a mountain, a mountain that I'm gonna show to you, and when you get to the top of the mountain, I want you to kill him, burn him as a sacrifice to me. So Abraham goes to the mountain, goes up on the mountain, prepares to sacrifice his son. The Lord calls to him from heaven and says, wait, don't do it. This was a test to see if you truly trusted me and if you were willing to obey me. I see that you're willing to do that. Don't hurt the boy. So Abraham looks around, sees a ram caught in the thicket, takes the ram out, kills it, offers it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. Genesis 22 verse 14, so Abraham called the name of that place Yahweh Yireh. The Lord will see to it, or the Lord will provide. As it is said to this day, on the mount of the Lord it shall be provided. And so there's songs, like a song that I grew up with, Jehovah Jireh, my provider, right? You probably know that song. The problem is, Yahweh-Yireh is not a name of God. Yahweh-Yireh is the name of a place in the Middle East. It's the name of a mountain. Another one, Genesis chapter 33, verse 20. Jacob is journeying along, comes safely to the city of Shechem, buys some land, and builds an altar, and calls the altar El Elohe Yisrael, God, the God of Israel. Again, not the name of God, but the name of an altar. Genesis chapter 35 verse 7, after Jacob has awakened or rather after he's come back to this place where he first met God, he builds another altar and called the name of that place where God had spoken to him Bethel. And he called the altar El Bethel, the God of Bethel. I'm getting some fricatives when I make certain noises, I'm sorry. Exodus chapter 17 verse 15, another well-known one after Israel has battled with Amalek, the famous situation where Moses had to sit up on a mountain with his arms in the air, and Aaron and Hur came up and helped him. After Amalek was defeated, Moses built an altar and called the name of it Yahweh Nisi, the Lord is my banner. Again, not a name of God, but the name of an altar. Judges chapter 6 verse 24, Gideon builds an altar, calls it Yahweh Shalom, which is the Lord is peace, again, the name of an altar, not a name of God. Jeremiah chapter 33 verse 16, the name of that city shall be Yahweh Tidkenu, the Lord is our righteousness, which is the name of Jerusalem in the future, not a name of God. Ezekiel chapter 48 similarly gives another alternative future name for Jerusalem, Yahweh Shammah, the Lord is there. You see, there are examples all through scripture. When something significant happens at a place, the place gets a new name. And it's not just new names about God, but Genesis chapter 28, when Jacob sleeps on the stone and wakes up and has the dream about the angels going up and down the ladder of heaven, he names it Bethel, the house of God. Genesis chapter 28, when he wrestles with God overnight, he names that place Peniel, the face of God. When Samuel, in 1 Samuel chapter seven, has defeated the Philistines and the Philistines are fleeing, he builds like a cairn, basically a little pile of rocks, and he calls it Ebenezer, the Stone of Help. These are all names of locations or of altars. They are not names of God. They are statements about who God is and what God has done, statements that are attached two places. Now, these teach us things about God. Don't misunderstand me. I'm not saying you can't read these and be like, well, it's about an altar, so therefore it doesn't have anything to say about God. Well, no, of course. Yahweh Yireh, that's true. The Lord does see to it. He is the God who directs providence to care for his people and to ensure that they always have what they need. Yes, absolutely. Praise the Lord. but they're not names of God, they're names of places. So the mountain, for example, where Abraham was to sacrifice Isaac, the mountain of Moriah, he names Yahweh-Yireh because in that same mountain, centuries later, God does provide a sacrifice that takes away sin, first in the temple and then in the cross. There's other examples of this. phenomenon, but this time they're not names of places or names of God, they're verbs about God. And so Exodus chapter 31, sometimes people interpret this as a name of God, Exodus chapter 31 verse 13. The Lord said to Moses, you are to speak to the people of Israel and say, above all, you shall keep my Sabbaths. This is a sign between me and you throughout your generations that you may know that I, Yahweh, makadishkem, that I, Yahweh, sanctify you. Not a name of God, but a statement about what God does. And so yes, you can say of God, he is the Lord who sanctifies us. Praise the Lord. We can't do it ourselves. But that's a statement about God. not a name of God. Exodus chapter 15, verse 26. The Lord made for them a statute and rule. He tested them there. He said, if you will diligently listen to the voice of the Lord your God, the voice of Yahweh your God, and do what is right in his eyes and give ear to his commandments and keep all of his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians for I, Yahweh, am your healer, I, Yahweh, am Rapha to you, your healer. Psalm 23 verse one, the Lord is my shepherd. In Hebrew, Yahweh Raha, the Lord is my shepherd. Not names of God, statements of God, statements about God. And then there's the titles of God or the descriptions of God. Genesis chapter 14 verse 18, blessed be Abram by God most high. El Elyon, we talked about this a few weeks ago. The highest God, El Shaddai, Genesis chapter 17, verse one. When Abram was 99 years old, the Lord appeared to Abraham, or Yahweh appeared to Abraham, said to him, I am El Shaddai. Walk before me and be blameless. El Shaddai means God Almighty. Do you remember that song, El Shaddai? Michael Card wrote it back in the 80s, and it definitely sounds like an 80s song. I can say that as a kid who sang it all the time in the 90s. But the chorus goes like this, El Shaddai, El Shaddai, El Elyon na Adonai, age to age you're still the same, by the power of the name, El Shaddai, El Shaddai, Er Kamka na Adonai, we will praise and lift you high, El Shaddai. One of the only songs that we sang as a kid that had a lot of Hebrew in it, a lot of a foreign language, I didn't know what those words meant, but we sang it anyways and my dad sometimes would explain the words and then I would know what it meant for a week and then I'd forget. But it means God Almighty, God Almighty, God most high, I beseech you, Lord. El Elyon na'adonai. God Almighty, I beseech you, Lord. Age to age, you're still the same by the power of the name. El Shaddai, El Shaddai. God Almighty, God Almighty. Erkamka na'adonai. I love you, Lord. We will praise and lift you high. El Shaddai, God Almighty. Again, Hebrew's beautiful. It's a beautiful language. Genesis chapter 21, verse 33. Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba. and called there on the name of Yahweh, El Olam, the everlasting God. Isaiah chapter six, in fact, Isaiah's favorite title for God is the title that he reads in Isaiah chapter six, verse three, the title that the seraphim cry out continually to each other as they surround the throne of God. Holy, holy, holy is Yahweh Sabaoth. The whole earth is full of his glory. In English, we usually translate that as the Lord of hosts, and in today, when we hear the word host, we think of like a party, and so in that sense, it would mean God is the Lord of people who host parties, but that's not what the Hebrew word means. The Hebrew word is about armies, forces, Yahweh of the armies. And then another one in Daniel chapter seven, verses nine and 10, Daniel sees a vision of the throne room of God, probably the same vision that John sees in Revelation chapter four and five. Daniel sees thrones were placed and Atikom took his seat, the ancient of days, the ancient of days. But these also are not names of God. They are titles of God and descriptions of God. There's only one other name of God that is given. Exodus chapter three is God's name. He says to Moses, this is the name by which I shall be remembered forever. My name is Yahweh. There's only one person in the Bible who presumes to give God a name. And that is in Genesis chapter 16. And this is marvelous to me. absolutely amazing to me. Hagar is on the run from God. It's not from God, excuse me, she's on the run from Sarah, her master, her mistress, because Sarah had given her to Abram so that Sarah could conceive and bear a child, she conceived and bore Ishmael, now Sarah's upset with her and so she persecutes her and drives her away. Sarah flees into the wilderness and the angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, the spring on the way to Shur and he said, Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going? She said, I'm fleeing from my mistress Sarai. The angel of Yahweh said to her, return to your mistress and submit to her. The angel of Yahweh also said to her, I will surely multiply your offspring so that they cannot be numbered for multitude. He gives her a blessing. You are pregnant, you shall bear a son. You'll call his name Ishmael because the Lord has listened to your affliction. And then Genesis 16, 13. She, Hagar. Hagar is an Egyptian. She's not of the line of promise. Hagar is a slave. She has no inheritance in the line of promise. Hagar, called the name of Yahweh who spoke to her, you are a God of seeing. And she names him El Roy. She gives God a name. She's the only person in the Bible who gives God a name. And that, I think, is beautiful. And God's response to her isn't Wrong! My name's Yahweh, get it right. El Roy, you are El Roy. For she said, truly here I have seen him who looks after me. And she names him. It's amazing, it's remarkable. Now you may be wondering why this list Even if you're not familiar with the term, I'm certain that you've encountered the idea of name theology, which views God's names like conjuring spells. You see it often in Kabbalah, Hebrew Kabbalah. But you see it also in a lot of Christian groups, especially Hebrew Roots-type groups, but a lot of other Christian-type groups, too. You just need to know the right name by which to call God, and then you'll get what you want. So if you're in need, pray to Yahweh-Yiri. If you're overwhelmed, you can pray to El Shaddai, because he's the Almighty. If you are feeling overcome by your sin, then you should pray to Yahweh-Mekadishkem, the one who sanctifies you. feeling just ignored and nobody sees you, then you should pray to El Roy, the God who sees. And then you'll get what you want. But these titles and descriptions of God in the Bible are not given to us so that we can know how to manipulate God. God is not open to manipulation. These are not given to us so that we'll know which name to use when we pray, as if when you're sick, you should pray to Yahweh Rapha, not just to God, because if you pray Yahweh Rapha, you're more likely to get healed. All that is is putting a veneer of godliness over paganism. That's it. It has no effect. on God himself. These names and these names of God, these names of places, these titles and descriptions of God are given to increase our faith, to remind us of God's faithfulness, not to give us power words to conjure God. When David is feeling overwhelmed in Psalm 27, He's faced with opposition and slanders and people who are out to kill him, adversaries who are assailing him from every side. What does he say? He says, Yahweh is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? Yahweh is the stronghold of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid? One thing I have asked of Yahweh that I will seek after, that I may dwell in the house of Yahweh all the days of my life to gaze upon the beauty of Yahweh and to inquire in his temple. He will hide me in his shelter in the day of trouble. He will conceal me under the cover of his tent. Your face, Yahweh, do I seek. He's not using these special kind of secret names of God. He's just praying to his God. Not trying to manipulate him, but just speaking to him in faith. Psalm 91, an exceedingly precious psalm. And especially, especially, precious when you're feeling afraid. He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to Yahweh, my refuge and my fortress, my God in whom I trust. Now that sounds like piling up titles, right? He who dwells in the shelter of El Elyon will abide in the shadow of El Shaddai. I will say to Yahweh, my refuge and my fortress, my Elohim in whom I trust. It sounds like he's piling up words of power, right? But that's not the point, David isn't writing these words for God, he's writing them for himself. This is who my God is, this is who I'm praying to, I know that he is the almighty, I know that he is the most high and so I don't need to be afraid. He's not reminding God of who God is, he's reminding himself of who God is and at the end Under the inspiration of the Spirit of God, Psalm 91 verse 14, this is what God says in answer to David's prayer. Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him. I will protect him because he knows my name. When he calls to me, I will answer him. I will be with him in trouble. I will rescue him and honor him. With long life, I will satisfy him and show him my salvation. because he holds fast to me in love, and because he knows my name. Now Hebrew is a very interesting language. In English, when we're trying to make a point, we underline it, or we italicize it, or we put it in bold, or we put it in all three. When we're speaking a point, we say it, and then we say it again, to make sure that everybody gets what we're saying. In Hebrew, when a Hebrew author is trying to make a point, he'll say it, and then he'll say it again in different words. So when he says in verse 14, because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him and then I will protect him because he knows my name, he's not saying two different things, he's saying the same thing in two different ways. To hold fast to God in love is to know his name. To know God's name is to hold fast to him in love. Because to know God's name is just a shorthand way of saying that you know God. to know God is to love God and that is why God protects. So do you need to know all of those titles, all of those descriptions? No. You really don't. Can it be encouraging? Yeah. But I've been in prayer meetings where people thought that they were praying more powerfully because they were using a whole bunch of Hebrew words. I don't understand Hebrew. I mean, God does, so that's fine. But God doesn't care if you're praying to him in Hebrew or in English. It doesn't matter to him. Hebrew sounds really cool, and it can give us this kind of esoteric feeling that we know something about this that other people don't, but God isn't more impressed by somebody speaking to him in Hebrew than in English, any more than he's more susceptible to Latin than he is to French. The language or dialect that you use to speak to God does not matter. And because that is so important, I'm gonna say it again. The language or dialect that you use to speak to God does not matter. He intended to save people from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. He delights in the prayers of his people, whether they're offered in English or Hebrew or Japanese or Bantu, whether it sounds like high-class British royalty or Appalachian rednecks, he does not care. Because he doesn't delight in the prayers of his people for the highness of the language. He doesn't delight in the prayers of his people because of how sanctified it sounds. He delights in the prayers of his people because they are his people. Christians don't pray El Olam, who is in heaven. Jehovah Sabaoth, who is in heaven. El Shaddai, who is in heaven. All of this is gloriously true. Gloriously true. He is the everlasting God. He is the Almighty. He is the Lord of hosts. Amen. Praise the Lord. But they're not our primary relation to God. When the subjects of a king come to him, they address him by his throne name. The current reigning king of Great Britain is Charles III. His throne name, the honorific address by which people come to him, is this, Charles III, by the grace of God of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of his other realms and territories, king, head of the Commonwealth, defender of the faith. Can you imagine having to say that every time you walked in to talk to somebody? But when the child of a king comes to the king, he doesn't address him by his throne name. He doesn't even address him by his proper name. The child has a privilege that no one else has. You see, there are people who are gonna try to make you think that if you wanna be effective in prayer to God, you need to use all of these special names. My friend, you don't have to use a name for God. There's a title. that is unique to his people, that only his people have the right to use, only those indwelt by the Spirit of God have the courage to use that title. We say, Father in Heaven. Hallowed be your name, yes, yes. We pray that God's name would be sanctified and exalted, that it would be set apart and glorified, that people would see it as unique and holy. We do pray that, but we pray that to our father. We know his name, yes, but we get to call him something different. We get to call him father. When I was a kid, my dad was the, the PE teacher for our local homeschool co-op. And it was a pretty large co-op. There was anywhere from 20 to sometimes as many as 40 kids involved, usually more than that actually. But in a given PE class, there was usually at least 20 kids. And it didn't matter what age group I was in. Usually I was the only one of my siblings in that age group. Sometimes my older brother was in there with me. But all of the other kids would call him Pastor John. And I didn't get to. And sometimes I would feel like, man, this is weird. I'm the only one who can't call him that. And it wasn't until I was an adult, which sometimes we're just thick headed this way, it wasn't until I was an adult that I realized I was the only kid in my class who got to call Pastor John dad. And that is a privilege that only six people in the history of the world have had. And that's a high privilege for me. My friend, you have a privilege that Moses never had. Moses got to see God talking to him out of a burning bush. He got to see the glory of God on Mount Sinai, the backside of the glory of God. He got to hear God proclaim his name, Yahweh, Yahweh, a God merciful and gracious, full of steadfastness and love. He never got to call God Father. You see, we have a privilege. that is unique, and it explodes in the New Testament. It explodes onto the pages of the New Testament. In the Old Testament, you get maybe three or four times descriptions of Israel calling God their father corporately. You are our father of the nation. God calls Israel his firstborn son, for example, in Exodus chapter 19, in Exodus chapter 11, and other places. The nation as a whole was considered to be God's son, not individual Israelites. But in the New Testament, it just explodes onto the scene. Matthew 5, verse 16, Jesus speaks to his disciples on the mountain. He says, in the same way, let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who's in heaven. You have heard that it was said you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy, but I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. You therefore must be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect. Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. When you give to others, Do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing so that your giving may be in secret. And your father who sees in secret, he will reward you. When you pray, don't pray in public like other people do. Go into your room and shut the door and pray to your father who is in secret. And your father who sees in secret, he will reward you. Look at the birds of the air. They neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns and yet your heavenly father, your heavenly father feeds them. Are you not of much more value than they? The Gentiles all seek after these things, what to eat, what to drink, what to wear. Your heavenly father knows that you need these things. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you. 20 times, just in the gospel of Matthew alone, 20 times Jesus says to his people, God is your father. And 15 times in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus calls God his own father. What he's doing here, and it's interesting, in the first half of Matthew, Jesus talks about your heavenly father. In the second half of Matthew, he talks about my heavenly father. It's like he's trying to make people see something that they could not see before, that if you are in Christ, you call God by an even better name than Yahweh. You call God by an even better name than Hashem. You call God by an even better name than Adonai. You call him Father. Is there any greater privilege than to come into the presence of the creator of all things and say, Father, help me? We call God by the same name Jesus did. My friend, you don't have to pile up names and titles of God to make him hear you. That can build your confidence as you pray. Yes, it's not wrong. But it doesn't make God more likely to listen to you. It builds your faith, it builds your confidence. But what makes God listen to your cries is this, that he loves you. That he sent his son to die for your sins and raised him from the dead. What makes God listen to you is because your sins have been fully removed in Christ. Because the spirit of God indwells you, having turned from your sins and trusted in Jesus. What makes God listen to you when you cry out to him in prayer is because God is your father through Christ. Romans chapter eight. Paul knows that this is a difficult thing for us to grasp and so he drives it home with the longest chapter in the book of Romans, driving home this point. The mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, it does not submit to God's law, indeed it cannot, those who are in the flesh cannot please God, yes. You, though, are not in the flesh. You are in the Spirit if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. So brothers, we're debtors not to the flesh as though we should live according to the flesh. If you live according to the flesh, you will die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. You did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear. My friend, think about this. When God revealed himself to Israel on Mount Sinai, he revealed himself in thunder and darkness and fire and earthquake and trumpets so loud that it blew people's eardrums crazy. So glorious was his appearance that the people of Israel, after they heard the Ten Commandments, they looked at Moses and they said, we can't do this anymore. Can you talk to him? And then come and tell us what he says? We can't do this anymore. This is too big. This is too scary. And Moses says, the reason God has appeared to you this way is so that you will always fear him. So that you will always know that he is God. But when the Spirit of God comes into your heart, when you trust in Jesus, the Spirit of God does not come into your heart as thunder and lightning. He doesn't come in as fire. He doesn't come in as an earthquake that shatters you and demolishes you and causes you to flee in crave and fear, crying out to the mountains, fall on us and hide us from the wrath of the Lamb and him who sits on the throne. That is not how the Spirit of God comes into your heart. You have not received the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear. You have received the spirit of adoption as sons by whom we cry, Abba, Father. The spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. Our spirit by itself, you tell us, you're a child of God. Our spirit's gonna say, uh-uh, he is too big, he is too holy, there's no way I could be a child of God, I've got too much sin. The spirit of God comes in, he takes our soul, and he brings it into the presence of God, and he says, this is your father, and he loves you. You are safe with him, don't be afraid. And if we are children then we are heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ provided we suffer with him that we may also be glorified with him. Galatians chapter four, another of these absolutely precious reminders of this reality. When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his son, born of woman, born under the law to redeem those who were under the law so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the spirit of his son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Our relationship to God is the same as Christ's relationship to the Father. Not the same ontologically, not the same in nature. Jesus is the Son of God eternally by virtue of his divinity. We are sons of God by adoption through redemption. But we are brought to an equal level with Christ so that everything that belongs to Jesus belongs to us. Everything that can be said of Jesus can be said of us. Jesus is righteous. He is absolutely sinless. In Christ, that is true of you as well. Before God, you are free. Yes, you still sin. God doesn't see it. He sees Christ. If anybody comes to you and says, or in any way implies to you that when you pray, you need to use all of these extra super cool names of God. My friend, run. Run. They're trying to sell you a bill of goods. It's a scam. They're trying to sell you something less than what you already own. In Christ, you have the right to call God Father. Everything else is under that. Every other title of God, every other name of God is lower for the Christian than the right to call God Father. Robert Webb put it like this, he said, it would satisfy any man if he could grasp in consciousness and realize and experience that God was his father. When we approach him in the intensity of worship we gather up all the sweetness involved in fatherhood and all the tenderness enwrapped in sonship. When calamities overcome us and troubles come in like a flood, we lift up our cry, we stretch out our arms to God as a compassionate Father. When the angel of death climbs in at the window of our homes and bears away the object of our love, we find our dearest solace in reflecting upon the fatherly heart of God. When we look across the swelling flood, it is our Father's house. on the light covered hills beyond the stars, which cheers us amid the crumbling of the earthly tabernacle. My friend, you have a right to call God Father if you are in Christ. Our friends across the road, they say the proper way to address God is ask Jehovah, that is his eternal name. Yahweh is his name. His relation to us is father. So rejoice in that. Don't be ashamed of it. Don't ever be embarrassed about it. It's not some kind of country rube thing to approach God as father. This is a privilege that God's people have waited for for thousands of years. So rejoice in it. If we could have the men who are going to help serve communion come forward. This ordinance that we're about to participate in, this is a reminder to us of that reality. How deep the Father's love for us, how vast beyond all measure that he would give his only son to make a wretch his treasure. That's what this is here for, that's what this is for us. To remind us again, our Father loves us. So if you're a believer in Christ, you've been baptized in obedience to his commands and you are striving by the Spirit of God in you to walk in obedience to Jesus, then we invite you to partake with us, to celebrate with us God as our Father. If you're not in Christ, my friend, you need him. You need to know him. First, so that your sins can be taken away. But second, so that you can know him as he designed you to know him. God created you to know him as your father. There's no peace like this. There's no joy like this. Your sins have come between you. Jesus is willing to take those sins away if you are willing to turn from them and trust him. We're going to take a moment to silently confess our sin. If there is known sin in your heart that you need to deal with before God, sin that you have not yet turned away from, then this is the opportunity to do that before God. If your conscience is clear, you have been confessing sin as you have sinned, you're dealing with it, you're striving to walk in obedience, and as far as you know there is nothing between you and God, then yes, pray that the Spirit of God would search you. Don't beat yourself up over long forgotten sins, long forgiven sins. Rejoice in Christ's forgiveness. Rejoice in his love for you. Rejoice in a clear conscience. That's what the blood of Jesus does for us. It cleanses our conscience, something the law of God could never do. So let's pray together.