You know, I believe that the greatest single privilege that we have as parents is to have children and to name them. Do you ever think about that? The name that you give your child will identify that child for his or her entire existence. Now, there are times when people change their names, and we certainly experienced that even in our own family, and where my sister-in-law, Grace's sister, decided when she was probably around, I don't know, 30-ish, that she didn't like her name anymore. And the reason she didn't like her name anymore is because she felt like that name, which was Sylvia, identified her in her worst condition. Isn't that interesting? So she made the observation that that was the case. And so rather than changing her behavior, she changed her name. And she changed her name to Carmen, which is her middle name. And the problem is, is that Sylvia Carmen was the same person whether she was called Sylvia or she was called Carmen. Really didn't make any difference. And I, you know, I'm, I'm, I'm joking, but I'm not. I mean, at the end of the day, we forget that that we are. what we have become, but our name is very important. And it was interesting because when we adopted Sidney and Reagan, their names obviously were something that we thought a great deal about. We had made a decision that when we actually had found out we were going to be able to adopt, actually Grace and I were in China at that time. working over there for our foundation. And while we were there, it was June 2004, President Reagan died. And while we were there, we found out that the reason that we were able to even be there in China at that time was because of President Reagan. He had opened up, he had attempted to reestablish The breakdown between China and the United States, you think we're in a tough situation now between China and the U.S.? Literally in 1980, when the United States boycotted the Olympics and did all sorts of, you know, kind of crazy things, we cut all ties with China. So this is not the first time that we've cut all ties with China. or have had a fallout with China. We haven't cut all ties with China right now, but we certainly are in a fallout situation. But in 1980, we had a complete shutdown of our relationship with them. And they decided that they would reestablish that relationship, or President Reagan did. And the way in which he did that was by allowing Americans to adopt Chinese children. And that was how he decided to do it. And it was a huge, huge event. And so when he passed away, my wife and I looked at each other and said, we want to commemorate that in our child's life. And so we decided that we were going to name the person. And the neat thing about the name Reagan is we felt it could be used for a boy or a girl. Because we didn't know if we were going to get a boy. We didn't know if we were going to get a girl. We didn't know anything. All we knew was that we had been approved to adopt. We did, but we had no idea who we were going to adopt. We didn't know what, you know, what the process was, well, we knew the process, but we didn't really know what, you know, when it was going to happen or, you know, whatever. And we were way down the list, by the way. At that point, we were probably, you know, 200 deep and into a list that, you know, cranked out about 25 kids a month. So, you know, we felt like this was going to be a while before it was going to happen, but we had pretty much decided that that was what we're going to do. Well, two months later, when we actually were referred to Fu Yayun and Fu Yachu, the two children that ultimately became our daughters, we found out we were going to adopt twins. We had the opportunity to adopt twins. Long story, I'm not going to get into it, but at the end of the day, now we have an interesting issue. We had to have two names, right? So we had one name, but we didn't have another name. And we found out a lot about our kids. And when we found out about their story, we found out that they had, in fact, been rescued by a whole series of people from Australia. Australia happens to be one of my favorite places in the world. And so I was really excited about that. And so I'm thinking, well, how can we commemorate Australia? And my wife said, well, maybe we could figure out some kind of a name that tied into Australia. thinking about our friends that actually were involved. Well, they were from Gympie, Australia, and there was no way we were going to name her Gympie. So that wasn't going to happen, and so on. But we found out that the reason that they had been able to live was because the woman that had rescued them had brought two cleft bottles that had been given to her by a doctor in the Sydney General Hospital. And so he decided that he wanted to see if these bottles work. They were a new kind of a new way of doing, of feeding cleft children. Our children actually were cleft and they were a way to feed cleft children. Prior to these bottles, by the way, the infant mortality rate in China in like 19, 95 or 2000, right through that, well, 2000, I think is the last date I had heard at that point, was about 85%. Meaning that 85% of all cleft children in China in the year 2000 didn't live. And they couldn't feed them, and that's the reason that they didn't live. By the way, that same statistic was true in the United States in 1950. So it's not like, you know, they were odd. It was just, they just didn't have the equipment. We got it a little quicker than they did. Anyhow, So I thought, wow, this would be really cool to commemorate that. So we had all these thoughts going through our minds. And when we finally found out some information about the girls, we found out that they were being fostered by a family or, excuse me, a group of Australians that had fostered a whole bunch of kids at this place called Hope Foster. center or foster home, actually. And they had given these kids names. They had given them, you know, English names, more for the staff than anybody else. And the two names that they had given Fu Yayun and Fu Yachu were Carly and Sydney. And we thought, oh my gosh, that's perfect. So we'll call one Sidney and we'll call the other Reagan. And Gotti actually had already picked out which one was going to get called Sidney. That was the other problem. You know, when you have twins and you have two names, you got to kind of figure out, well, which one gets which name, right? And so that sort of was taken care of for us. And so Ya Chu was called Sidney and Ya Yun was called Reagan. We changed her name from Carly to Reagan. And we felt very strongly about that. And what's interesting is that I've been telling this story now for the last almost 20 years, that the girls have been alive. The girls have heard this story countless times, and it resonates with them. They know why they're called what they're called. And there's meaning behind their name. And that, I think, is really important. Now, the truth of the matter is that the vast majority of people that are alive today get their name because a parent wakes up one morning and thinks, well, that's kind of a cool name. Or they find it in a book somewhere, or whatever. And then there's all sorts of crazy things that happen as far as names are concerned. But I believe that a name is part of your identity, and in the scriptures, names really kind of tell a story. We've been studying the book of Isaiah, and Isaiah had two sons. One was called Shir Jashabab, Shir Jashabab, which means a remnant will return. Can you imagine calling your kid Shir Joshebab? But you know, back in then, it wasn't that big of a deal, I guess. But every time this kid was mentioned to somebody, his name was telling them that God had a remnant that was going to remain. And that's because that's what that means. Shir Yashabab means a remnant will return or will remain. So then he has another child. We don't know exactly how long afterwards, but probably not too much long after because it's literally in the next chapter, he talks about his second child. And that one's a really interesting one because his name is, are you ready for this one? Mabar Shalal Hashbaz. just sort of rolls right off the tongue. And, you know, we call him Moby. Anyhow, so. But Mabar Shalal Hashbaz, which means swift is the booty, speedy is the prey. And basically what he was trying to tell them, and God told him to name him that, was that The first son was to remind them that a remnant, that remnant that believed were going to be rescued, they would return. But those that went after the booty, that went after the world and the things that were around the world, would get that quickly, but then would be devoured. by that. And so these two children name that to just, well, as I said here, a picture of the fact that God does what God does for the reasons God does it. and so forth. But the name in scripture reveals important information about the individual and it also reveals kind of like what they might become. And frequently I think these names are interesting because unlike in my sister-in-law's situation where she changed her name because she was just trying to change her identity, oftentimes God will change the name. You remember Abram was changed to Abraham, which is kind of an interesting thing because Abram means exalted father and Abraham means father of a multitude. Sarai was changed to Sarah. Sarah means princess. Sarah means a woman of nobleness, which is really interesting. A noble woman, actually, is technically what it means. It's almost like, you know, kind of an interesting twist. When they had their son, their actual son, his name was Isaac. Isaac means laughter. But it doesn't actually just mean laughter in the sense of, you know, I told a joke, you laughed at my joke. It actually means the laughter of cynicism. That's what Yitzhak means. It means, you know, this idea of laughing cynically. as though, really, it's all about unbelief, if you think about it. I mean, that's really what that name actually means. It's, you know, I don't really believe this. And if you think about Isaac, that's, they didn't believe it, but it happened anyway. You know, and she's like, you know, how can this possibly happen? She was nearly 100 years old when she had the son. You know, and so on. But you know, that name, you think about that name and Yitzhak and Isaac and of all the patriarchs, Isaac was the most worthless. Sounds weird. He was really an unbeliever. He didn't really believe God. And I believe that's one of the reasons why Rebecca realized that, who was his wife, and said, we better do something about this because he's gonna pass on the blessing to somebody that God doesn't want him to go to, which is Esau, and we've talked about that. But itzhak means laughter, but it's laughter in the sense of not believing, kind of cynical laughter. kind of what sort of epitomizes his life. Jacob, Jacob in Hebrew means to, and by the way, Isaac's name was never changed. Did you ever think about that? Isaac was the only one of the patriarchs that his name was not changed. And that's because I don't believe he ever believed. That's kind of an interesting little twist, but whatever. Can't be sure of that, but that's just sort of my take on that and has been for a long time. Jacob means the one who grabs the heel, and it actually is an interesting name because when he was coming out of the womb, he was the second of the twins being born. When he was coming out of the womb, he was actually holding onto his brother's foot, and so they called him Jacob, which means he was holding onto his brother's heel. Historically, over time, that has kind of morphed into a whole different kind of thoughts. The idea is that you're a person that goes under and kind of takes over in a way of subterfuge and so forth. That's sort of what that name Yaakov has come to be known as. But I don't really think that that's what they were trying to do when they named him that. But this idea that he grabbed onto his brother's heel, they thought that was important because God had spoken to his mother prior to the birth and told them that the older would serve the younger. And so this is an interesting little twist to that. But his name was changed to Israel, and Israel means wrestles with God, contends with God, that's what it actually means. Some people actually think it means prevails against God. I never was one that bought into that concept, but it really means to wrestle against God. with God. Yisra'el in Hebrew is the actual name of the sport of wrestling. So I think it pretty much, you know, most of the Jews believe that that's what the word means. So it means to wrestle with God. And the reason why some people think prevailed against God is because he, in fact, wrestled with God and lived. That was the thinking behind that. And so whatever. But it just means to wrestle with God. But again, Yaakov was changed to Israel. And it's interesting that we also see this even in the New Testament. One example is perfect, of course, I think we all know, Simon. being changed to Petros, which of course means Peter or Rock, but he went from Simeon or Simon, which was a very common name that Jewish people would name their children. at least eight or 10 different people in the Old Testament that are named Simeon. It's also when you get into the New Testament, very common name, almost as common as, you know, like Michael might be today. But he didn't want him to be common. He wanted him to be special. And so he renamed him Petros, which is not a name that was very common at all, because it was a very strong name and so forth. But in Scripture, a name will often connote purpose or authority or makeup and character, and it's often seen as the equivalent of that person. So think about Jesus, for example. His name in Hebrew is Yeshua. Yeshua means salvation. And so when he was named that, the angel came to Miriam and said, you shall name his name Yeshua, for he shall save his people from their sin. So, you know, it's interesting most people read that in English and say, you know, you shall call his name Jesus for he shall save his people from their sin. And if you don't know that Jesus is actually Yeshua, which means salvation, it really doesn't make any sense. Right? I mean, if you think about that. So we kind of see it even in his life. In John chapter 17, when Jesus was doing his high priestly prayer, at the very end of that prayer, the very last thing that he says in that is he says, I have made your name known to them and will make it known that the love wherewith you loved me may be in them and I in them. So what he's saying is, is that in that very last thing, is he's acknowledging that he's going to die. And so in that moment, he's saying, I did make it known to them, you know, the whole entire time I was here, and I will make it known to them again, that your name is above all else when I die. So again, it's all about the name. The name is highly exalted. It tells us in Psalm chapter, in the eighth Psalm, It says, we magnify the name of the Lord. I mean, it's just an incredible thing. I remember also in John, just before John chapter 17, John chapter 14, where Jesus says, I am the way and the truth and the life, and Thomas comes to him and says, Lord, if you would just show us the Father, we could obviously get this. And Jesus says, look, if you've seen me, you've seen the Father. because I am the essence of what that's all about. But God's names, and we're gonna talk about this for the next, I don't know how long it's gonna take. I was kind of going through making an outline last night. This could take us the rest of the year. I don't know that that's 100% accurate, but it could, because the more I study, the more I get, and the more I get, the more I study, and the more I study, it's like this ever-changing little thing. That's why I said, don't bother to go much beyond the introduction, because we ain't gonna go much beyond the introduction today. And so, it was funny, because David said he got the e-book, and I said, that's great, but it don't matter. You know, it's okay. But you know, you look at the names of God. I mean, you know, the one that always stands out to me is the fact that God has always called himself Elohim, not just El. El means El is God, but it's in the singular. But Elohim is the plural form of God. It literally means gods. If you're talking about foreign gods, they would talk about Elohim, you know, in that context and so on. But it declares his plurality. That name, Alan, we're gonna look at that next week, but that idea that it declares his plurality. Of course, Yehovah, Yahweh, depending upon how you really wanna say it and so forth, is the actual name that God said that he was to be called. We read about this in Exodus, we'll read in a second, you know, in Exodus when, I think it's Exodus three, it is, Exodus three where God reveals himself to Moses. And again, in Exodus chapter six, where he says to Moses, he said, you know, prior to this, you know, when it was Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, I revealed myself as El Shaddai, which is another name we're gonna look at. I revealed myself as El Shaddai, but to you, I, reveal myself by my everlasting name, the name which will stand forever. which is Yehovah or Jehovah, depending upon how you want to do that. Of course, he calls himself Jehovah Nisi, which means that he's victorious. The Bible talks about Jehovah Rapha, for example, which means that he has the desire to heal. We read Jehovah Jireh, for example, which talks about the fact that he's going to provide, that he is the provider. We read Jehovah Sitkenu, which means that he is righteous and that he is the essence of righteousness. Sitkenu meaning righteousness, of course. So each one of these names, well, what I wrote in my notes here is, you know, God is named as our help for every situation in which we have need. He is there for us and he has named himself in that way. And I believe that names are an insight into an identity. I believe that names matter. I really do. You gain an identity because of your name. Your name actually will oftentimes, I think, pull you in a specific direction in many cases. But it's really interesting to me, I learned this from my daughter, There's nothing that ticks Reagan off than being called Regan. Just drives her crazy. She doesn't appreciate that at all. You misspell her name, her name is spelled R-E-A-G-A-N. And she'll tell you, if you ask her, you know, Reagan, how do you spell your name? I spell it like the president. R-E-A-G-A-N. It's not Regan. It's Reagan, and she's adamant about it. Sydney, it irritates Sydney when people spell her name S-I-D instead of S-Y-D. And she'll be the first one to tell you it's Sydney, like Australia. It's just because that's important to her. But it really irritates them if it's misspelled, if it's mispronounced. Now, not once, not a one-off situation. If somebody just meets them and says, hey, you know, Regan, she'll usually correct them that way. She'll say, no, I'm sorry, it's Regan. What really irritates her, and she told me this, was when people do it over and over and over. It's like every time she meets a person and says, hey, Regan, No Reagan. It's just, you know, a little thing. I mean, no, it sounds, it sounds trite to, to things, but people don't want their names to be misspelled. They don't want them to be mispronounced and so forth. Uh, you know, and, and I think that's a, that's a big deal. It really is. And that's where it is. But the name of God is basically four consonants. And one of the things that's interesting about Hebrew is there were no vowel points attached to the scripture until the first century AD. So the entire Torah, if you read a manuscript of the Torah, it's always going to be consonants only, no vowel points. Does everybody know what I mean by that? So, vowel points in Hebrew are those little marks that you see that are not, you know, the yud or the he or, you know, whatever. You know, it's not a consonant. But the name of God is basically four consonants. And those four consonants are Yud, He, Va, and He again. And so that H, or He, is the letter that God added to Abram to become Abraham. It's the letter that God added to Sarai to become Sarah. You see it throughout scripture, this idea of God adding himself to a person's name. and he does that by adding the H, which is that H sound to it. And what's interesting is that when Jewish people look at the word that we would call Jehovah or Yahweh in English, they do not say that name, ever. They only say, for example, it depends on the context, but if they were in prayer or they were doing something religious and they saw the name of God, they would always say Adonai. So, for example, when a Jewish person would quote what's called Shema, which is Deuteronomy 6.4, they would say Shema Yisrael Adonai Eloheinu Adonai Echad. Now, it's interesting. There isn't Adonai in there. But the first word that we say Adonai to is actually Yehovah. But they won't say that. And when they added the vowel points to the scriptures in the first century, I think it was the Masonites that actually did this, when they added the vowel points, they took the vowel points that were typically for Adonai, And they added those same vowel points to Yahweh, and that's how we get Yehovah, because it's the same vowel points. The reason they did that, according to every rabbi that I've ever heard of, is that they wanted to remind you when you saw that name not to say it, but to say Adonai. Now, if you're talking about just the Lord Generally, not in prayer, but just in conversation or whatever, you would say the word Hashem, which means the name. That's all it means. Hashem just means the name. So most Jewish people would say the name. So for example, one of the great blessings that you hear all the time is Baruch Hashem Adonai. And that means blessed is the name of the Lord. So Baruch means blessed. And Hashem, of course, the name. And Adonai, the Lord. So blessed be the name of the Lord. So you see that. And that, by the way, is a very great thing to be able to say to somebody. Baruch Hashem Adonai. If you were to say that to a Jewish person, a religious Jewish person in particular, you would get their attention. Trust me. I've done it. It gets their attention. They're like, how do you know that? I'm taking it upon myself to learn, and so on. So that's a big deal. So why is the scripture so clear about blessed be the name of the Lord? And I believe that the biggest reason that that is, and that's an expression, by the way, that you see a lot in scripture. Hashem in Hebrew, by the way, is used in the scripture about 600 times. And so it's not like a casting word. I mean, it's a word that's used a lot. Now, it doesn't only mean the name of God. It means any name, clearly. But names are important. That's my point. Whether it's God's name, or your name, or anybody else's name. When God starts naming kids, the remnant shall return. Or my favorite, speedy is the booty, swift is the prey. you know, it's, you know, when that kind of thing happens, you see how, I mean, look at the book of Hosea. The book of Hosea is just one name after another after another of just crazy things that God, you know, wanted to show the people. So anyhow, that to me is really, you know, kind of important. But the principal name of God is this idea of Jehovah or Yahweh or whatever. And what's interesting is that, and we've talked about this, When you read Genesis, and I don't believe this is by mistake, but when you read Genesis, in the first two chapters of Genesis, you never see the word God, El. You see the Lord God, which is Yehovah Elohim. You see the Lord God, and that's how God describes in his relationship with Adam and Eve, is the Lord God did this, and the Lord God did that, and the Lord God did this, and the Lord God did that. And then when Satan comes on, the serpent who was, it says, cunning, clever, above any, you know, on the earth, he never calls God by his name. He just says El, and he doesn't even say Elohim. Did not God say to you this, that, and the other thing? Did not God do this? So what he's doing is he's taking away the personality, he's taking away the persona. It would be almost like me saying, you know, about Andrew, you know, we're gonna talk about Andrew, I'm not gonna say his name, I'm just gonna say that person, that person. He's taking away his... his elevation, you know. Right. And his identity. Yeah. And his identity. And so is it true that God said this or God said that? And then when God does come on to the, in Genesis 3, 8, when God actually does come on, it says, and the Lord God entered the scene. And the Lord God, and so it goes right back to when the, and then when, you know, when Satan's talking about it, he goes back to El again. He goes back to God. No identification. And I think that's a big deal. So when you read Exodus chapter three, And you see Moses now at the burning bush. You all know the story, right? He's at the burning bush, and he says, you know, the land that you're standing on is holy ground, which means that God can glare any place holy, by the way. And so he's got this incredible situation that comes about, and now we have Moses coming there and says, well, God, you know, when I go to the people, who should I tell I'm sending? Who should I tell I'm sending? And he says, you tell them that I am that I am. Now, the word I am there is the word, and this is interesting, it's H-Y-H. Now, remember when I said the Yahweh is actually four consonants. There's only three consonants in that word I am. Only four. God adds an additional consonant. You know, that kind of V or other extra Y that's in there and so forth. And that's what makes it special from just the word I am. So when you read the word I am, it's, we would say, I guess if you're going to put vowel points to it, it would be haya. And of course, you know, yehova, you have that extra vowel in there, that extra consonant as well as that extra vowel in there. And so you end up with this different word. But the two words together, if you put hayah together twice, you get yalem. So it's really kind of an interesting thing and so forth. So I am and I am, that's the whole point. So when a Jew writes the word God, to me, he does G-D. He never puts the consonant in there. The vowel. I'm sorry, the vowel in there. He never puts it. Even a Reformed Jew that doesn't even care about any of this stuff, they do G-D. Have you guys seen that? No, but why? Well, I think it's part of that tradition, that history. So it's funny you had that question because that's in my notes the very next thing I wanted to talk about. Okay, so why do they do that? So why do they use Adonai instead of Yehovah? Why do they use Hashem? Why do they use G-D in English? Why do they do that? Well, I've done a little bit of research on this and some of this I just sort of knew but I actually watched a a really interesting YouTube video of a rabbi explaining this. It's about a 10-minute video. If you ever want to watch it, just let me know. I'll send it to you. But it's a really interesting video on this subject of why do we not use the name of God. And so this is basically what he said. First of all, it would violate the third commandment. What's the third commandment? Never use the name of the Lord in vain. Okay, well, what does vain mean? Vain means empty, vanity. Don't use the name carelessly. Exactly, yeah, don't use the name carelessly. And so, well, how do you know if you're using the name carelessly? You don't really know. And so, therefore, if you never use the name, then you can never use it carelessly. That's the theory behind that. There is a certain amount of sense that comes into that. So that's the first reason. The second reason is that the vowel points, of course, were not added until the first century. And so we really don't know how to say the name. In truth. And one of the problems that we have too is that there are other verses for example in Exodus chapter 3 in verse 15 it says God says this is my name forever which is Zashem zaolam and That's how we basically think it's supposed to be said but in the oral Torah he said it's zashem hololam And you say, well, what does that mean? Well, if you say it the first way, zashem olam, that means forever. His name is forever. But if you say hololam, that means his name is hidden or concealed. Hololam means concealed or to hide something. Now, in the context, it doesn't make any sense, if you want to know the truth, to say hololam. It really doesn't make any sense, because it says in the very next one that in his name shall be a memorial. It shall be remembered. So how can it be remembered if it's concealed? But nevertheless, like he said, this is a point of misunderstanding, possibly, that someone might say, oh, Allah, and another might say, oh, Allah, because they added a different vowel point. That's really the only difference between those two words, by the way, is the vowel point. So they have the same consonants in both words. So we don't know. And so again, if it's hold on and it's supposed to be concealed, then we certainly should be concealing it. But if it's hold on and it's forever, we could still do that without actually saying it. So again, that would be that. And then the final thing he said, which was very interesting, is that it's a matter of respect because he is our father. It's a matter of respect because he is our father. In the same way that you would never call your father by his proper name. By the way, in Orthodox Judaism, it is a sin to call one's father or mother by their proper name. You never do that. I have to tell you that in Catholicism, it's the same way. I was taught as a child never to call my father by his proper name. I don't recall ever calling my father by his proper name. The only time I called my mother by her proper name was when we would make fun of her. We'd go, Chow-nee, you know, that kind of thing. But I never called my mother by her proper name. I never talked to her. But when we were joking around, because my mother, the way she said Joan was so funny. And so we would joke around about that. But I don't ever recall calling my father Dawn or Donald. Not that I certainly did it without any if I did it was just it was not Maybe not in Addressing them. I always called him dad. I was Stephen. I never called him anything more than that I mean, that was just the way he addressed it and I can't believe that any of my other brothers or sisters did either You know, it's just it's a matter of respect Psalm 8 I think is really amazing because Psalm 8 says oh Lord our God how majestic is your name and all the earth and You have displayed your splendor above the heavens. And we read also in Psalm 19 that the heavens declare the glory of God and affirm His handiwork. It's just a remarkable thing. But one of the things he said in the book, which I haven't done a lot out of the book today, but one of the things he said in the book that got my attention is, you can't know His name until you've forgotten your own. You cannot know God's name until you've forgotten your own. And what that means is that you have to make Him more important than you. And I think that's really what this is all about. You know, Jesus said in the Lord's Prayer, hallowed be thy name. Hallowed be thy name. I mean, is there anything more incredible than hallowed be thy name? I don't know. Maybe not. But I really think it's the opposite of taking the Lord's name in vain. Hallowed be thy name is sort of just the direct opposite of the idea of keeping it vain. And then the final thing he said in the book, which I thought was kind of interesting in this chapter, is he said, But fearing the name is something we have to understand. And we've talked about this the previous time we were doing Kingdom Men, that the fear of the Lord is to take them seriously. We need to be very serious about the name of God, and about the names of God, and the titles of God, and what they mean to us. Because each one of those titles that we're going to look at, every single one of them, without exception, are to remind us that God is there for us. Every single one of them. Elohim, his plurality, it's because he's there for us. He's there to give us his spirit, to give us his son, to give us of himself. That's an incredible thing to think about. You know, Jehovah, the actual name of God, is that God is timeless. He doesn't change. Jesus said it this way. I am you know Excuse me the book of Hebrews says about Jesus. He is the same yesterday today and forever In in the beginning of the book of the Revelation he talks about the fact that he was he is and he will be same Always you know that idea of being timeless is really what that word Jehovah is all about El Shaddai that he is almighty He is there he can he can rescue us from any situation because he's all shut up. He is almighty You know, he is our righteousness sit King. He is our our Provider gyra, he is you know, all of these different, you know expressions all to basically To be there for us Every single name that God has given to himself is given to him by so that we can learn that He is there for us. So, I'm excited about this. I hope you guys are. That's all I got for today. I just thought we'd open it up for a couple comments. I'm sorry? No, Jehovah is I Am. So, you know, it's the idea that He's timeless. He's always in the present. He's always the present tense. No, Shema means here. So Shema Yisroel, here, O Israel. Shema is to here. So yeah, so Shema Yisroel, Adonai, and so it's the idea of that. It was interesting. I was looking at the Exodus 3, where it says, I am but I am not. Yeah. And they have a note on this particular verse. Or I will be what I will be. No. No, that's just not true. I'm sorry. It's just not true. Hayah in Hebrew, which is what that word is, is always I am. It's never I will. That would be the future tense. It's never in that tense. I thought it was interesting, too, that just a second ago, I saw that you were, I think, here in the 11th chapter of Isaiah, right? Yeah. just how it kind of weaves all this stuff sort of together all the time. All of our classes and all that stuff. Yeah, and if you think about what we're talking about in Isaiah, that whole idea that he's going to vindicate his name is then glorified in that psalm that he does in Isaiah chapter 12 that we're going to cover this week. You know, I mean, that to me is such a big deal. Yeah, it really is. For me, I'm thinking, Moses wrote the first five books of the Torah. And God is explaining everything to him that reveals himself. That's astonishing to me, listening to what you're saying. It is God in his writing, however we want to take it. God is telling Moses everything from the beginning up until the five books. And in all those books, he's studying and revealing himself. Moses didn't know this stuff unless God told him. And for me, I'm like, oh my God, he is so perfect in wanting us to know who he is. I mean, think about all of that he put in there. He's telling Moses, I want, in every aspect from the beginning up until Revelation, he's telling us, I want you to know who I am. And for me, Jesus said, it is given to you to know what is the mystery of his name. And that's what I'm thinking. He desired for us to know what's the mystery. of God, and all of that, for me, is spiritual. All of that is spiritual. Because it's not about flesh. It's about knowing God, and Jesus told us in the Word, God is seeking for us to worship Him in spirit and in truth. And the truth is, He desires for us to know Him in a very real way. And to give Moses that type of insight, And for you to start sharing what has made me, it's just mind-blowing for me. I mean, if I really think about it, it's just mind-blowing. Well, here's what's even more mind-blowing, in my opinion. Here's what's even more mind-blowing. Five years ago, I didn't know you. Right? Five years ago, I didn't know you. Your name was Orlando five years ago, but I never knew that. And then one day I had the privilege of meeting you and learning your name. So that now I can call you, I can talk to you, I can have a relationship with you because I know your name. It begins by knowing your name, right? And so once we knew each other's names, that relationship could become what I believe is becoming even stronger every single day that you and I know each other. And the same is true with God. You know, when he's just God, he's just like, well, that ain't just a person. He's just God. But when he's Jehovah, when he is, when I know his name, I can speak to him in that way. And so like, when you read all the prophets, I mean, you read, you know, most everywhere in Scripture, when people that know the Lord are speaking about Him, they never call Him God. They call Him Father, but they normally call Him Job. They call Him Lord. Now, they'll often say, Lord God. They'll say, Lord Elohim. By the way, they never say Jehovah El, which is really interesting. You never see that in Scripture. It's always Jehovah Elohim. We're talking about that next week. We're talking about Elohim. But really interesting. You never see them say Jehovah El, no singular God. No, no, no, it's always Jehovah Elohim because it's his plurality that's always being addressed by each one of them that know him. But Satan calls no. What's money in English? I mean, God is so generic, to be honest. It's so impersonal. I think the closer you walk with him, I don't call him God. I mean, I always had an attitude, but I've gotten away. You know, and now we're going into the Hebrew names, basically, of God, which I think is great, because there's so much we can learn in the Old Testament that we usually don't get as Christians. Christians do not major in the Old Testament. Well, neither do Jews. No, I'm not. And what's really interesting is when I watch this video, I'm going to send you guys this video. Please do. It's about a nine minute video. And basically, it's from an organization called Jews for Judaism. And basically, it's to refute Jews for Jesus. That's the thing. makes it even stronger, which is fascinating. But what was interesting about this rabbi was that his knowledge of scripture, of course, was amazing, and to be expected, actually. I would have been shocked if it wasn't. But moreover, what it said to me was the immensity of the truth was just right there. But he acknowledged in this is that You can only know God by name. You can't just know him as God. Because at that point, it's like saying person. I don't call him Bob. I don't call him Robert. I call him person. Really? Why would I do that? I don't do that. Hey, person. You wouldn't say that. So that's what we're talking about. And so as we get into this now, I'm telling you, next week is going to be very interesting. If you don't get to come next week, listen to the tape next week. I promise you, Elohim is an amazing study. It's not a name of God, necessarily. It is who he is. It's bigger than that. It's sort of who he is. El Shaddai is sort of the same thing. We get into El Shaddai and we see the same thing. It's who he is. There's a great song about that, about who he is. It's who he is. And that's really what we're talking about in this kind of thing. Anyhow, any comments from the online gallery? well you know it's really interesting because Isaiah 52 it's funny you said that he he he used the the I think the New Living Translation or something like that, or whatever. But I'm gonna read it to you from the New American Standard, because it's really kind of cool. It doesn't take anything away, by the way, from what you're saying, Steve, at all. But the New American Standard, I think I gave you guys this in the email. But I love this, it says, those who rule over them howl. My name is continually blasphemed all day long. Therefore, my people shall know my name. My people shall know my name. My name's being blasphemed by all these other people out there that are howling, making all this crap. But my people are gonna know my name. Therefore, in that day, I am the one who is speaking. saying, here I am. It's an incredible statement. It really is. It's huge. So anyhow, there you go. Good. Thank you, Steve. We appreciate that. What's that? You're recording me, right? Yeah. Hey, John. Yeah. Hey, John. I don't think we change our names in modern Christianity. So you got Peter, you got Paul, you got Abraham. I don't know if it's a good idea or a bad idea, to be honest. Every situation is different. But even Saul becoming Paul is just adding a consonant. I don't know if you ever thought about that. He just added kind of a new Greek letter to his name. So it's kind of interesting, but I think Paul did it because he was trying to show everybody that he was, in fact, not that one who was killing people. That was his identity as Saul. And his identity as Paul is that he was bringing people back to life. So again, you could make a really good argument either way, frankly, I think, John. You could make a great argument either way. I don't think it's something dogmatically one way or the other. Yeah, but it's a good point. It really is. But yeah, God's always changing people's names. It's really kind of cool. All right, well, let's get out of here. I appreciate you guys are gonna go and have some breakfast if you want to join us. That's great. We'll see you then. So let's just have a word of prayer and we'll get out of here. Father, we are so thankful you bless us. Lord, you are our Lord. We love you. We know your name. And I am so thankful that we do know your name, but how will it be that name? Make it, God, very important to each one of our lives as we thank you for all you do for us and for us in Jesus.