I want you to take the Bible this morning and turn to the book of Exodus in chapter 34. The book of Exodus in chapter number 34. If you'll stand in reverence for God's word with me this morning in Exodus chapter number 34 and we'll begin our reading in verse number one. Exodus 34 and verse number 1, for the next several weeks together, we will be looking at these different identities, these names, these characteristics of our great God. I've often thought that we often ask people to do things for a God that they do not ultimately know. But when you know Him, truly know Him, you'll have a great desire to serve Him and please Him. Who is God? What is he like? What essentially are his characteristics? What's on his resume? If God had a LinkedIn account, what would it say? Well, we learn exactly who God is through the pages of the Bible. And I want us to read what it says of God in Exodus 34 in verse one. And the Lord said unto Moses, Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first, and I will write upon these tables the words that were in the first tables which thou breakest. And be ready in the morning, and come up in the morning unto the Mount Sinai, and present thyself there to me in the top of the mount. No man shall come up with thee, neither let any man be seen throughout all the mount. Neither let the flocks nor herds feed before that mount. And he hewed two tables of stone, like unto the first. And Moses rose up early in the morning and went up unto Mount Sinai, as the Lord had commanded him, and took in his hand the two tables of stone. And the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the name of the Lord. And the Lord passed by before him and proclaimed, the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, And that will by no means clear the guilty visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and upon the children's children unto the third and to the fourth generation. And Moses made haste and bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped. I want us to read just that sixth verse together, Exodus 34 verse six. And the Lord passed by before him and proclaimed, the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth. May we pray. Father, we need you today in this moment to know who you are and we need your power to live what we believe in regards to you. Help us, Father, to understand the truth of the word today and help it to be presented in such a way that from the least to the greatest, from that one hearing it for the very first time to that one who loves to hear its retelling, may it be real to us today and we thank you for it. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. Thank you for standing and please be seated together. Have you ever heard of nominative determinism? It's a really fancy way of saying that a person's destiny is locked up in their name, their identity. In other words, people gravitate towards occupations that fit their names. Now when we name our children, we don't really think so much about all of that. But let me give you just a few. Did you hear the fire chief in Sun Prairie whose name was Les McBurney? How about the Oxford-published clinical neurology written by a guy by the name of Lord Brain? Then there was the meat manager at the grocery store in the newspaper. His name was Matt Slaughter. There was a NASCAR driver. His name was Scott Speed. There was an archaeology expert at Durham University. Her name was Pam Graves. You'll have to think about that. the fastest runner in the world Usain Bolt isn't that amazing how that how that works and of course we remember that Bernie Madoff with a lot of people's money didn't he there was a televangelist in Atlanta his name was Creflo Dollar probably the reason we don't name our daughter Jezebel or our son Judas there's power there's power in a name power in a name do you know what your name means how many of you know what your name means all right well my name is Daniel Ryan don't use this against me okay Daniel means God is judge God is judge. Are there any Daniels in the room this morning? God is judge. And my middle name, Daniel, is Ryan, and Ryan means I am king. Do you realize the struggle I've had my whole life? That God is judge and I am king. We've been struggling with that power for a long, long time. My wife's name is Marie, which means bitter, but she's not. And I'm not going to do this. Do you want to know my wife's middle name? OK, we're going to receive an offering. If we take up $5,000, I'll tell you my wife's middle name. Can I tell them? My wife's middle name, she was named after her grandmother. Her middle name is Merle. Well, Merle means blackbird. So do with that whatever you want to do with that, OK? But there's power in a name. I read that an overwhelming majority of dentists are named Dennis. I mean, there's just all these oddities in our lives. In the Bible, when God was going to change someone's destiny, he ultimately changed their name. I was reading about Abram and Sarai, who left the Ur of the Chaldees. They were idolaters. They didn't know God. And then God called them to be the leaders of a new race of people. And Sarai, which means local princess, her name was changed to Sarah, which was a mighty queen of lots of people. Abram was a jurisdictional local leader. He became Abraham, the father of many nations. His son Isaac, his name means laughter, and of course there's Jacob, and Jacob, his name means conniver, manipulator, supplanter, Facebook gossip and storyteller, and God changes his name. He changes his name to Israel, and Israel means prince with God. The destiny of a person is changed when God gives them a new identity. I was talking to Jimmy about the New Testament character Peter. Anybody know Peter's original name? Simon Simon bar Jonah Simon son of Jonah and his his name Simon means pebble or rock Stone, but but Jesus changes his name. He says up until this point. You've been a pebble a small player He says but now your name is Peter Boulder great rock when it when a person's destiny has changed their their name is given to them by God. And so here in Exodus 34, God reveals the meaning and power of his name. Now we're talking about Moses, Moses and his relationship with God. Moses has come a little closer to understanding who God is. In Exodus chapter 3, you remember the famous story. Moses was working with sheep on the backside of the desert. He's about 80 years of age. He grew up in Egypt. Now he's been half of his life in the middle of nowhere. God appears to Abraham out of a burning bush. And he wants to know who it is that's speaking to him. And God says, I am. And this idea that God is this eternal God whose existence doesn't... Necessarily, it's not based on circumstances. God's not dependent upon creation. He's eternal. He's timeless. He's changeless. And God doesn't come out of creation, but creation comes out of God Himself. And so here in Exodus 34, Moses needs a real he needs some understanding about who God is, because the people now that Moses is leading have gotten themselves into a bit of a bit of a pickle, so to speak. God is entering into a covenant relationship with them and no sooner are they entering into this relationship than they've already broken the vows, or to put it in modern parlance, they're in a wedding ceremony. In the middle of the wedding ceremony, Jehovah's Bride is cheating on God. I mean, it's pretty bad. It's so bad that God wants to move on from this group of people and choose another people for himself. He's done with them. He's angry with him. He's frustrated with him. And in the middle of this moment, Moses needs a sign that God is still patient and long-suffering, and he wants to know God's identity. He wants to know who God is. And he, in chapter 33, has the audacity to say, Show me your glory. I want to see who you are I want to understand in one moment of time all that you are and your glory and your goodness and mercy and your faith and and your long-suffering and God says no one can see my face and live As a matter of fact, beloved, one day we will see him as he is, but we're not ready to fully see him as he is because I believe if we were to absorb in this one church service this morning everything God is and everything that God has done and everything God desires to do in our lives, our bodies, our minds, our soul would explode with excitement and wonder at the glory and greatness and transcendence of our God. And God says you can't take in in one moment of time all that I am and live but he says I'll do something for you because blessed are they that hunger and thirst for righteousness I'll give you what you can handle and God says I'll let my goodness pass by and God lets his goodness just pass by Moses and into the 34th chapter we come and we see the goodness of God passing by Moses and God revealing to Moses exactly who he is this text the name Yahweh But we say Jehovah, we'll talk about that in just a moment, is demonstrated for the first time in history. Once revealed, it's unmistakable who God is. Someone said it this way, the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, they didn't know the name of God. Can you imagine not knowing God's name? In Exodus 6, 3, the Bible says, and I appeared unto Abraham and Isaac and Jacob by the name of God Almighty, but my name was Jehovah. Was I not known to them? They knew God, but they didn't really, really, really know God. Does that make sense? I've been married to Marie for 22 years, and I would have said, 22 years, I know her. I know her, I know where she's from, I know what she likes, but I'm just now, guys, getting to the point in my life that I just feel like the biggest buffoon sometimes, that I think I know her, but there is so much more I need to know. Can all the guys in the room just say a hearty amen? Ladies, how many of you feel like, man, my husband's kind of failing the test sometimes, knowing who I am, right? There's a difference in knowing and knowing. I know of George Washington, right? He was the first president of our country. I would say I know him, but to intimately know him. I can't say I know our first president. I want to show you a baseball card. I grew up playing baseball cards. When I was a kid, baseball cards were pretty valuable. I was going to go to college on baseball cards. Anybody in here like that? Do you have that picture back there, guys? No? So when I was a kid, there was a monthly price guide that came out. It was called Beckett's Monthly Price Guide. You guys, you're shaking your head over here. Okay, all right. Beckett's Monthly Price Guide, it told you how valuable every baseball card was. And there was a card that I always wanted. 1960 Mickey Mantle Rookie Card. 1960 Mickey Mantle Rookie Card. Perry, do you have the 1960 Mickey Mantle? You have a friend that has that card? When I was a kid, it was worth $30,000. I had a 1980 Rickey Henderson Rickey card. That was pretty valuable. At the time, all the boys in our class wanted the 1990 Upper Deck. I sound like a dork right now, don't I? The 1990 Ken Griffey Rickey card, I mean, the Upper Deck card, that was worth having. But the 1960 Mickey Mantle Rickey card, that was a famous baseball card. Well, if you look on the back of the baseball card, it tells you a little bit about what Mickey Mantle has done. It tells you about our Grand Slam he hit in the World Series. It tells you a little bit of biographical information about what he did. But I'll tell you what it doesn't do. It tells you what he did, but doesn't tell you who he is. And brother, there's a huge difference between knowing what he did and coming to know who he is. This God of Exodus 34 is entering into a relationship with these people And he doesn't just want them to know what he's done. He wants them to enter into that deep knowledge of who he is and the plan he has for their lives. So if you're taking notes today, I want you to write down when God chose to reveal himself. When God chose to reveal himself. There's really four parts to this, and I need you to listen closely this morning to these. There's four parts of this book of Exodus. The first part is the covenant ceremony, and this is what we might consider the marriage ceremony, though it's not exactly like that, but let's just use that as an analogy. God chooses a bride for himself, and he's entering into a covenant relationship with him. Can I just say that a covenant relationship is different than a contractual relationship? Contractual relationship means that we make an agreement, maybe we shake hands, or maybe we sign a document, and maybe I buy a car, and I'm involved in a contractual relationship with purchasing this car, and what would happen is, if I didn't keep up my end of the contract, you would come and repossess that car, that's a contract. But a covenant's not a contract. The word covenant in the Old Testament means to cut. You don't sign a covenant. You don't agree to a covenant. You cut a covenant. And what they would do is they would take an animal and they would divide it in half. They'd lay one side of the animal to this side. They lay the other side of the animal on that side and they would meet in the middle of the covenant back to back. And then after they were back to back, they would walk away from each other around the sacrifice, and when they came back in the middle of the covenant, they were face to face. They made the infinity symbol together. And among things they would do is they would make an exchange. I would take a garment off, I'd give you my garment, you'd give me your garment, and by means, we would be saying to each other, what's mine is yours, and what's yours is mine. And then we would exchange names. And you would receive part of my name and I'd receive part of your name and we'd be identified with each other by our names. And then we'd cut our hands and shake and become blood brothers. We'd become one based on this covenant that we've entered into. And what we're saying is that As opposed to having a car repossessed, what we're saying is, if I go back on my promise, if I go back on this covenant that I've cut with you, may it be to me as it was to this animal that signifies how serious our responsibility is to each other. In the Old Testament, God recognizes this idea that marriage is not a contract, marriage is a covenant. And it's this symbol that God uses when He enters into relationship with His people. God doesn't make a contract with the people, He enters into a covenant with the people. And by the way, aren't you glad that when you are in covenant with God, God never breaks His terms of agreement? He's always true. He's always faithful. He cannot deny himself. It's beyond God to lie. God is not a man, the Bible says, that he should lie. So the first part of the book, the people enter into a covenant with Jehovah. And then he gives them the law. That's chapters 19 and 20. And after he gives them the law, he gives them the construction, the blueprint of a house that they're to build for God. It's called the tabernacle. What's interesting to me is in chapter 20, he gives them the law, he continues giving them parts of the law, and then into the book of Exodus, he begins to give them the construction of a house whereby they can come when they break the law of God. You see, God gave us a law knowing we couldn't keep it in ourselves, but the New Testament author says that the law is a schoolmaster, it's a tutor, it brings us to Christ. The Ten Commandments preach to us we can't keep the law, but we need Jesus. Thou shalt make, have no other gods before me. And sometimes we have. We put things before God. Our heart cries, I need Jesus. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image. And we've broken that. And our heart cries, I need Jesus. Honor the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Don't take the name of God in vain. And we've broken these principles. And our heart cries, oh, I need Jesus. Then the second table helps us understand our relationship to each other. Honor thy father and thy mother. Thou shalt not kill or steal or bear false witness or covet. And in these ways, we recognize how great we needed someone to live the law through us. And so he gives them the tabernacle, a place where we could make agreement, reconciliation, find forgiveness in God. Well, the fourth part of the story, I skipped the third, the fourth part of the story is the completing of the tabernacle, but it's in the third scene in Exodus we find ourselves, and that is the character of God. If you look very quickly in chapter 32 of Exodus, you'll see the precipitating moment that brings us to chapter 34. So Moses is in the mountain with God. He's received the law of God, he's receiving further instructions from God. And as Moses is a bit longer with God than they expected. It's like your wife saying, I'm just going to run into the store and I'll be right back. It takes a little longer than expected. The people, chapter 32, they got bored. They saw that Moses delayed to come out of the mountain. And when they got bored, they thought about building an altar, a sacrifice, something familiar. Look at verse 1. They said to Aaron, this is Moses' brother, get up and make us gods which shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we don't know what has become of him. And verse two, Aaron said unto them, break off the golden earrings which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring them unto me. And all the people break off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them unto Aaron. And he received them at their hand, and he makes a golden calf, a cow made of gold, and they begin to bow down to this cow. And what do they say to the cow? These be thy gods that brought us out of the land of Egypt. was Moses is in God's presence God says to Moses your people are transgressing they they're breaking the covenant during the ceremony they're violating their their allegiance to Jehovah Moses in verse 10 his wrath is waxing hot he's he's frustrated he's wondering what happened to the people. Verse 11, Moses besought the Lord as God and said, Lord, why doth thy wrath wax hot against thy people which thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? The people have made a calf. They've bowed down to this calf. If you read this passage there, recreating worship from Egypt. They're naked, they're dancing, they're partying, they're bowing down to a golden calf. Someone said they were weary of a God without a face. They wanted to know what God looked like. So they made a God similar to their own desires. Someone said, why do our gods always look like us? Someone noted that God created his own image and man being a gentleman returned the favor. They wanted a God they could see. They wanted a God that they could understand. So in the middle of their breaking of this covenant. As they're cheating on the groom during the ceremony. Moses goes up to God and says, what should I say to them now? How's God going to respond to the people? What's he going to say? It's a wait till your father gets home moment. And when Moses begins to speak God's words, the people are shocked. What do you think God's going to do? What do you think God's going to say? Now this is where the rubber meets the road. Because in our world today, people have a skewed view of our great God. Have you heard someone talk about the God of the Old Testament lately? that this God is vindictive, mean-spirited. The atheist of England, Christopher Hitchens, spoke of God as being a genocidal, infanticidal, maniacal, egotistical, maniacal God, this jealous God. Is that the God that reveals himself to the children of Israel here in Exodus 34? What's he going to say? How is he going to reveal himself? Well, I want you to notice the second thing, how God chose to reveal himself. How is he going to reveal himself to the people? Now, let me say this. The passage that I'm about to read that we've already read this morning is the most quoted passage in the entire Bible. Think about this. What Moses says of God is the most quoted passage in the entire Bible. 1189 chapters, 66 books, hundreds of thousands of words. Well, you'd say, well, it's John 3, 16, for God so loved the world, he gave his only begotten son. That's the thing that he would emphasize. But early on in the history of the Bible, God says, this is what I want everybody to know about me. This self-revelation of God. Who are you, God? And God says, let me give you a few things you can know that I absolutely am for eternity. Verse six, and the Lord passed by before him and proclaimed, the Lord God merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and upon the children's children, unto the third and to the fourth generation. This is who our God is. Matter of fact, I want you to hold your place here and I want you to go to the book of Jonah. The book of Jonah, chapter number four. Jonah chapter four. Jonah, he's a preacher. And he's called of God to go preach to their political enemies. And he doesn't want to go. And he doesn't want to go because he is a rabid nationalist. It's not that he loves Israel, it's that he hates the Ninevites. And he has good reason for hating them, can I go on the record and tell you? Jonah hates the Ninevites because the Ninevites hate the Jews, and the Ninevites not only hate Jews, they hate preachers. Why, it's as likely for Jonah to go preach to Nineveh that they would cut the tongue out of his mouth. that they would peel the skin from his body, or worse, that they would kill him, they would soak his body in oil, they would put him on a pole and use preachers as torches to light the way to the city. This is what might happen to Jonah if he goes. And furthermore, if I go and preach and they repent, God won't send judgment because what I really want for them is I want God to give them, I want him to throw the book at them. Have you ever felt that way? So he says, I'm not going. God says, okay. And in chapter one of Jonah, God prepares a wind. He prepares a fish. He prepares everything. And they throw Jonah overboard. He's swallowed by a whale. We know the story. He spewed out of the whale's belly. He runs to the city and he preaches this really, really exquisite, super complicated sermon. You remember the sermon? I think it's eight words. Yet 40 days and none of us shall be destroyed. I mean, what a sermon, right? And from the king to the least of the people, they all repent and turn to God. And you would think that Jonah would now say, well, God, I mean, you know, we'll just move on, and I'll confess my frustration, but he doesn't do that. What does he say? Jonah chapter four, verse three. The scripture says, it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry, and he prayed unto the Lord, and said, I pray thee, O Lord, was not this my saying when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before into Tarshish, for I knew that thou art a gracious God. merciful and slow to anger and of great kindness and repentance thee of the evil wherefore now O Lord take I beseech thee my life for me for it is better for me to die than to live and what Jonah does on the banks of the city of repentant Nineveh is he quotes Exodus 34 6 & 7 so who is God he's merciful God is merciful. The word is compassionate. In the Greek, it has the idea of your physical organs. If I say to you in 2025 America, my heart goes out to you. I'm confessing something inside of me is moved by something inside of you. But the Bible doesn't say the heart, the Bible talks about the bowels. How many of you are stomach feelers in your life? If something stressful or anxious, it hits you in your gut. Where are my gut feeling people? Okay, my hands with yours. Compassion means you feel someone's pain in your insides. And this is what the Bible says of our God. Our pain is in the heart of our God. He is merciful. And then the Bible says he's not only merciful, he is gracious. Now in the New Testament understanding, grace is God's riches at Christ's expense. It means that I have what only Jesus deserves, and Jesus got what I deserve, that's what grace is. God has been gracious to me. He didn't give me what I deserved. He was merciful. He kept from me what I did deserve, and He gave me what I didn't deserve. But better than that, He gave me the opposite of what I deserved. I deserved demerit. He gave me merit. I deserved punishment. He gave me pleasure forevermore. I deserve to go to hell, but He gave me heaven for all of eternity. That's what grace is for. That's who God is. Then he said he's long-suffering. The word literally means long-nosed, or can I say it in this way, God is long-fused with us. Man, if I'm the Jews in chapter 32 and chapter 33, I'm seriously wondering if Jehovah is going to destroy our nation and move on and we're all going to die in the wilderness. And God says, my name is Yahweh. And one of my distinctive characteristics, I have a long fuse. I'm long suffering. What a God we have. It was after 9-11 that Billy Graham's daughter, Ann Graham Lotz, said that if God doesn't judge America, he'll have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah. And people say, how has God not yet met judgment upon our country? And the answer is, our great God is long suffering. The Lord is not slack concerning his promises, as some men count slackness. He is long suffering to us. We're not willing that any would perish, but that all should come to repentance. Then he says he is abundant in goodness and truth. This is who our God is. At the moment they think that God will be vengeful, God gives them this most often expressed idea. He's merciful and gracious and long-suffering. I hasten to give you the third truth of this passage which is the revelation of God's name. I want you to notice verse 5 in your text. And the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the name of the, what does it say there, the name of who? The name of the Lord. Now how is that spelled in your Bible? Capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D. If you see that will you say amen? Now who is this? This all caps LORD. Well, this is God. It's his name. Now, just bear with me. I'll give you a five minute history lesson. I recognize I'm the only thing standing before you in a plate of pancakes. I totally recognize. I recognize that. The name here, Lord, is, as in English, four letters. In the Hebrew, it's four letters as well. Now, the Hebrew language, I struggled with Hebrew for about six months in school, and Hebrew is very difficult to learn. One of the hardest parts of Hebrew is it doesn't go left to right, front to back. It goes right to left, back to front. There's 22 consonants, and there are no vowels. So this four letter name for God, Yod-Heh-Vav-Heh, is what they call the Tetragrammaton, four letters, no vowels. Here he says, it's my name, it's my name. And in chapter 20 he said, don't take my name in vain. And it's the only, by the way, it's the only of the Ten Commandments that he puts an extra little oomph on. Now oomph is a southern word for don't mess with God. That's what it means. For the Lord will not hold him guiltless. That takes his name in vain. So if God said there's a special judgment for the one who takes my name in vain, what are you a little hesitant to use? You're a little hesitant to use God's name. Because taking God's name in vain, church, doesn't mean you say it when you're angry, when you hit your thumb with a hammer, or when you leave a bag of groceries at Publix. Though that is taking God's name in vain. The word vanity just means empty. Have you ever said God's name and not really thought about what you were saying when you said it? That's what it means to take his name in vain. When I say the name, listen, when I say the name Jesus, I ought to be really careful that I'm thinking spiritually about what it means to speak the name above all names. When I say the name of God, I should be thinking something about his revelation in the scripture. So the Jews said if it's not going to be forgiven, if it's not going to be just God's going to overlook our keeping or not keeping of His name, we're not going to say God's name anymore. This name in Exodus 34. We're not going to use God's name. So in order to prevent taking God's name in vain, they called him Lord, capital L, lowercase o-r-d. It's the name Adonai. Can we all say Adonai? So they called him Adonai, Lord. Adon is Lord, Adonai would be how to distinguish our God, our Lord. But then they said, well, what's his name? Well, we're not going to say that four-letter consonant name, but we're going to take the vowel, just hang with me for another minute. We're going to take the three vowels from Adonai, and we're going to put them in the four consonants. So we're going from Adonai to take the A and the O and the A, and we're going to put it in Yod-Heh-Vav-Heh, and we're going to have a name somewhat like Yehovah. Now, I think you heard what I just said. I said the name Jehovah. Jehovah. But his name is Yahweh here. Notice it again. Verse five. And the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the name of Yahweh. Now, his name means he is. He is. That's who he is. Lord. So when you're reading in your Old Testament, you come to those four capital letters, capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D. You're reading God's name, Yahweh. We say in the English, Jehovah. So in the New Testament, the Jews also had a name for God. They called him Lord. And in Romans chapter 10, verse 9, the Bible says, if thou shalt confess with thy mouth that Jesus is, what's the word, church? Jesus is, Jesus is Lord. Now watch really carefully, very quickly. When you say Jesus is Lord, you're making an amazing connection. Because watch, the Bible doesn't tell us that God gave us an Old Testament that sits over here, and he gave us a New Testament that sits over here, and there's the God of the Old Testament, and there's the Jesus of the New Testament. Listen to me. When you confess Jesus Christ is Lord, You're declaring that the Jesus of the Old Testament is the fulfillment of the Jehovah or Yahweh of the Old Testament. Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God, and we call Him Jesus, but we don't serve a different God than the Old Testament. Jesus Christ is the God of the Old Testament. He's Lord. Jesus is the long-awaited coming of Yahweh, the God on the top of Mount Sinai. Scott Polley says it this way, that the Jehovah of the Old Testament is the Jesus of the New Testament. In the Old Testament, Christ is concealed. In the New Testament, Christ is revealed. Now, we're just getting to know this God. He says, this is my name. I want to give you a verse and a story, and I'll be done. In Proverbs 18 verse 10, David said, the name of the Lord is a strong tower. The righteous run into it and are safe. Can I ask you a question? Have you ever run into the name of the Lord? Have you ever found refuge in God's name? When we were living in New Smyrna, I looked up the story, it was from 2008. There was a father and a son that were swimming off of Daytona Beach, and as they were swimming, I think it was near Labor Day, pretty sizable riptide hit the Atlantic, and father and son were drawn out. to the open ocean. The son was autistic and not extremely verbal but he had learned his favorite Disney movie was Toy Story. And he had learned how to wade on his back for hours at a time. So about a mile out to sea, his father and he were holding hands, and eventually they lost grasp of one another. And so their means of staying connected is the father would say, to infinity! And his son would say, and beyond. Well, sometime during the night they got separated. And the father screams, to infinity! And the son would say, and beyond! And eventually, in the night, they would scream and had lost contact with each other. Well, the next day, they were at sea for over 14 hours. Can you imagine? Can you imagine spending the night waiting in the middle of shark-infested waters, losing that verbal connection you had with your dad? The next day, they found the father Eight miles offshore. They brought him onto a Coast Guard boat. He worried about his son. An hour later, they brought him up to the captain's quarters. Father feared the worst. And they said, we have good news. We found your boy. He was a mile away. They both had survived the storm. But listen. They lost contact with each other. But I want you to know that this God is as close as the mention of his name. I will never leave you or forsake you." And listen, who he was to them, he is to you today. He is the covenant-keeping God who is merciful and gracious, long-suffering. And He gives us loyal love that will last for all of eternity. As we come to know God, I want to encourage you, not just to know what God has done, I want you to come to know who God is and His plan for your life. May we pray together. Father, thank you for this time and place that we can come together today. We come united around the name of God, the name of Jesus. That name above every name, that name in which is grace and kindness and mercy and love. Lord, there may be someone here today who does not know Thee. They have never come to know Thee as their Savior. Maybe they've heard about what you've done, but they don't truly know who you are. Lord, I've come today to declare your existence, your person, your character to the Calvary Baptist Church today. And I pray in each heart that we might know you and your plan for us, your love for us, your kindness to us.