So I've been working on the outline of a new book. And I think Orlando is probably the only guy that knows about it in our group. And I'm envisioning a novel about either one or maybe even a couple of people that enter into eternity and what their experience is like once they enter into eternity. And the reason I think this is such an interesting concept is there's a lot of folks out there that have never really considered maybe all the aspects of what it's going to be like once we are no longer breathing this air and we're breathing the air of heaven. And it's a totally, to me anyhow, it's a fascinating concept. But man, I'm telling you, I am having a struggle trying to put the whole thing together because there's one thing about the earth that we're not going to experience when we get to be with the Lord. And that is the earth is about endings. You should think about that. The earth is about endings. The day ends. The movie ends. The book ends. Life ends. Everything's about endings, if you think about it. And then it's not only endings, but then new beginnings as well. And so you get, you have this concept that you're trying to, you know, trying to explain, and yet it's almost unexplainable. Do you guys get where I'm coming from? It's really been interesting. And so I thought about it, and I was like, how many books have I ever read about this? The answer is none. And I don't know why exactly. Well, I do know why. Because I'm telling you, this is a concept, a conscript, actually, that we, as humans, really don't get. The idea of eternity. The idea of there not being endings. The idea that there's not going to be any aging, that there's not going to be any of this stuff that we take for granted in this world, in this life that we're in. And Don, I have the complete works of Francis Schaeffer, if you want me to bring it to you. It's a lot of reading. Well, I, and I, and I understand. Yeah. And, and, uh, but, but I've read, I've read two of Francis's books, uh, and I read his wife's book about tapestry. and it's, it's very, very, yeah, it's heavy. And I don't, I don't actually want it to be, I don't want to be Francis Schaeffer. Okay. I know, please don't take that the wrong way. So at any rate, the point of this whole entire thing is, is that sometimes we get into thoughts and, and considerations that are just too big. to really be able to really get your arms completely around. That's Elohim. That's Elohim. It is such an interesting subject. I remember when I first heard the expression Elohim, I was about 18 years old, and I was in a Bible study, and I remember Ray Cohen was teaching this Bible study, and he made a statement It's interesting, here I am, gosh, what, almost 50 years later, and I still remember it. It's very few statements I can tell you I remember from 50 years ago, okay? But this one I remember. And that is, he said, there is no logical reason why God should be Elohim. There is no logical reason. The Bible clearly says that the Lord is one. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. He should not be expressed in the plurality of the word. It shouldn't be a plural word. The word Elohim is the word that's used for false gods, for example. And every time it's ever talking about false gods, it's always the word Elohim. So it's a plural word. But it is the word that's used to describe God in his majestic form, in who he is. We sing a song on Sundays, you know, it's just who he is, I think is, what's the name of that song, Clark? You know, it's, yeah, no, no, no, it's, it's, it's, it's who I am. It's who you are, you know, and you know, it's, it's just who you are. And, and, and that's a hard concept if you really, Yeah, good, good father. Exactly. Thank you. That's it. And it's just, it's such a big, and by the way, we're going to see that as we get into a lot of these names that they're just, they're just so immense, so deep, so big that it's hard for us to get our arms around it. And so years ago, I did a study. This is from 1976, these notes. August the 16th, actually, 1976, I put the date. I have no idea why I did that. Maybe it was because God knew I was going to refer to it 50 years, almost 50 years later, right? But I wrote this outline or whatever about the plurality of God. And so I was how old at that point? I was 20 years old when I wrote this. And so I was reading it the other day and I was going through it and I'm like, It's that 20-year-old guy, kind of knew what he was talking about. It was fascinating to me. And so what I wrote in there, and we're going to get into what he talks about in the book as well, but I just want to share with you some of the stuff that I wrote almost 50 years ago, 16th of August, 1976. I wrote this, I said, first of all, there are all sorts of names for God. There's Jehovah, there's Adonai, there's El, there's Elohim. But why does God use Elohim right off the bat? You open up the book of Genesis, you get to Genesis chapter one, and it says, and God created the heavens and the earth. God. So we read that in English and we go, okay, God. I think it's about alignment. Well, it might be. I don't really know exactly what that means. When you were talking about the world, I mean, the creation, to me it's obvious that God made it to not replicate, but to be renewed. True, but he could have just as easily, when Moses wrote this, he could have easily had just written the word El. L is God. That is the singular word for God. When we talk about El Shaddai, and we're going to talk about El Shaddai later on, towards the end of this book, he talks about El Shaddai. God Almighty. El Shaddai. But he doesn't use Elohim. He uses El. E-L-O-H-U, usually, is how most people would write it. But it's a transliteration, anyway. So yeah. It's only pronounced L. L. Correct. And so it's actually, it's two consonants is what it basically is. It's the yod and the heth. It's basically, it's not the whole entire word Yehovah, that's for sure. But what's fascinating to me is that Moses could have chosen any word he wanted Right, he was the guy I mean, I'm writing this book right now I was thinking about this the other day when I was when I was working on it. I can use any words I want Use any words I want it's my book Bingo that's the point. That's the whole point. It wasn't Moses's book It was whose book Elohim's book You see, that's the point. Okay, this is something that I think people have a hard... I mean, look, these are hard things to get your... I remember Arthur Pink wrote a whole series of book called Hard Sayings. I have the whole series at my house, Hard Sayings. And if you know anything about Arthur Pink, this really... Whoops, did we lose our guys? We lost our guys. Yeah, I mean, it's correct. And that's why we lost our internet. I hate when that happens. You're not on the schedule. Evidently not. Not available. How about that? There it goes. Okay, there we go. Sorry guys, we just lost our internet for a minute. Yeah, I'll get it. Okay, so the point is that when God uses this name Elohim, I don't think it's by accident. And I'm not saying Moses there, I said when God. Everybody hear me? Yeah, well, no, I didn't say that. But the fact is that Moses could have picked any word that he wanted, but he wasn't the one picking, is my point. It was Elohim who was picking the words. So when we think about this, and especially in those first three chapters of Genesis, we see some real interesting verbiage when it refers to God. We see, for example, Satan in chapter three doesn't ever call him the Lord, he only calls him God. And I forget, do me a favor, someone go into BLB, I forgot, in chapter three there where he says, God, is that Elohim? Just, if someone would look that up, I'd appreciate it. Chapter three. Which verse? Where Satan says, you're gonna know You know, God did not say this or whatever, when Satan is referring... In Genesis. Yeah, Genesis chapter 3. So the point is that we have all of this information that's given to us and so forth, and at the end of the day, God wrote it. That's my point. God wrote it. Elohim wrote it. And so he chose to use Elohim. And what's big about this is that it shows that God is a plurality. Even when God says, hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one, he uses a plural word when he uses the word one. The word one there is Hebrew is the word echad, And echad is the number one. But in Hebrew, the idea of one is that it is not a singular concept. It's a plural. All the numbers are plural. Even one is plural. So when you count in Hebrew, you start with echad. But that's the idea that it's not an only one. That's the word yachid. in Hebrew. So, well, no, that's Elohu. That's that's El. OK, so that's so that's El. So that's that's the that's the that's what I was hoping that I was going to say. I just couldn't remember. And here's the point. The point of this whole entire subject is God could have chosen any words he wanted, but he chose the words that he chose and he chose them for a purpose. and that is to remind us that he is bigger than just this idea of God alone, because God has revealed himself in numerous ways, but he has basically revealed himself in scripture as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. We read about that in Matthew chapter 28. It says, go therefore into all of the world making disciples and baptizing them in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Now what's interesting is, is that he also says basically the same thing in the Old Testament. If you go to, I want you to see a couple of Psalms here because I think there's some really, really cool Psalms that speak to this whole subject. First one is Psalm 45. So go over to Psalm 45. Correct. Okay. So he does use Elohim. Okay. So he uses Elohim. Okay. Thank you very much. I didn't think he used the singular, but I wasn't sure. So that's great. I appreciate you telling me that. So in Psalm 45, we see a really interesting Now, this is a song that's celebrating marriage, specifically the marriage of the king is the theory behind it. But then he says this, he says in verse six, he says, thy throne, O God, Elohim, is forever and ever. A scepter of uprightness is the scepter of thy kingdom. Thou hast loved righteousness and hated wickedness. Therefore, God, thy God, now that's interesting because that's Elohim Eloheinu. Eloheinu is the plural for our gods, which is kind of interesting as well. So here we've got this, therefore Elohim, Eloheinu, our gods, has anointed thee, and the word anointed there is the word Mashiach, which is the word that we get Messiah from. So he says, therefore God, thy God has anointed thee, has made you the Messiah with the oil of joy above your fellows. And that's a real interesting concept too, this whole idea of the oil of his joy. And of course, in scripture, we see the picture of the spirit of God has always been identified by the oil. You know, remember if you, they had the lamp and so forth, and they would light the lamp, and the oil represented the Spirit of God. So this concept of God being three-partate is right here in this psalm, where he says, God, Elohim, our gods, Eloheinu, and the Spirit, or excuse me, and the Messiah, the Mashiach, all in one place. Now this says, therefore God, your God, Yeah, it's actually Eloheinu. Eloheinu is our gods. And that's different than your gods? I don't know exactly, but I guess the idea's concept, conceptually, is pretty much the same. But I don't know why it would translate it, your god. It's probably a translation. I'm sorry? I said it's probably a translation. Yeah, I mean, and that's part of the problem that we have with English, you know, trying to get these ideas, especially Hebrew to English. Hebrew to English is really hard. Yeah, it's really kind of interesting. This whole idea of possessives and possessive plurals and stuff is really hard. Because Hebrew, by the way, a lot of people don't realize this, but Hebrew doesn't have any vowels. I don't know if you guys realize that. Hebrew has no vowels. So you can have two words that are virtually the same written, same consonants, two entirely different meanings based upon the context in which they're written. Actually, we talked about that last week. We gave you an example of that last week. So what's the point that we're trying to make? If God is so majestic, and we talked about this last week, this idea of his majesty, if he is so majestic, the only way to describe him is in the plural, then why doesn't he always do it? El Shaddai, singular, why? Elohim, plural, why? And the answer to that is just something that we just can't really know. I mean, if you think you can know that, then you are obviously missing the whole point of this discussion. The discussion is that God has decided to identify himself in that way. So in the book, he gets into this idea that Elohim is a picture of God as creator, because it is the word that's used. It's the word that's used to describe God in his form as creator. But I want you to remember this too. In the New Testament, in the book of Colossians chapter three, who does it say is the creator? Does it say God is the creator? In Colossians chapter three? Go over to Colossians chapter three. It says the son. Yeah, it says the son. Yeah, so the point is that if you study scripture and you study this idea about creation and the idea that he created him, it always comes back to the idea that God and Jesus are completely in sync when it came to that. And this idea that God has a son, of course, is an old concept. We read about it in the Second Psalm, for example. It says, he said unto me, who is your son? This idea of God having a son, God having a part of him that actually is doing his bidding, is something that we see over and over and over in scripture. You know, there's so many examples of this. One of my favorite, however, is in Genesis as well. In Genesis chapters 18 and 19, we see Abraham calling out to God, asking God if he would destroy Sodom and Gomorrah if there were 50 righteous. It's sort of a negotiation. I love this. You have 50 righteous. Guy says, no, I wouldn't destroy it for 50. Well, what about 40? Would you do it for 40? No, I wouldn't do it for 40. I would never, no, I wouldn't destroy it if there were 40 righteous. How about 30? You know, when it was all said and done, what he was really saying is, how about one? How about one dude? But he never actually gets that far into the conversation. But here's what's really fascinating. It says that there's three people that come to him. and he entertains them, and he has dinner with them, and he eats with them, and so forth. And later on in that chapter, these three people are identified. It says that two of them are angels, and the other is the Lord. And if you go over to Genesis, I wanna show you a verse in Genesis that just, to me, always stands out. Genesis chapter 19. And basically, this is where Sodom's being doomed, and of course, we see these the three guys coming into the city and staying with Lot and so forth and so on. And he identifies them as the two angels and the Lord. But look at what it says in verse 24. It's kind of an interesting little verse. I mean, it's just sort of there. But it really shows the ministry already in the Old Testament of his son. So look at what it says. It says, and then the Lord, that's Jehovah, rained on Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord, Jehovah, out of heaven. Oh, wait a minute. the Lord out of heaven raining fire and brimstone from, excuse me, the Lord on earth raining fire and brimstone from the Lord in heaven. Well, how is that even possible? I mean, just think about the concept of what we're talking about here. Well, it's because if you go over to 2nd Psalm, because I think this is really a very, very telling verse on this whole subject. When you go to the 2nd Psalm, look at what he says in the 2nd Psalm. He says, why are the Gentiles in an uproar, and the people devise a vain thing? The kings of earth take their stand, and the rulers take counsel together against Jehovah, the Lord, and his anointed. That's the word Mashiach again, same word that was in Psalm 45. He says, so these Gentiles, these rulers, counsel against the Lord and against his anointed." And look at what he says, he says, let us tear their fetters apart. Now is there any doubt when it says let us there that, and of course it's referring to these rulers, that that's not plural? Is there any doubt that we're not talking about multiple rulers, not just one guy that basically is saying, I'm going to take up against the Lord. It says the rulers of the nations, the rulers of the Gentiles. It's more than one, right? Let us tear their fetters apart and cast away their cords from us, the whole thing is plural. Their cords, referring to God, that's a plural that they're, and obviously the same with these rulers that are saying, let us tear their fetters apart. And then it says this, it says, he who sits in the heavens laughs, the Lord, that's an I by the way, the Lord scoffs at them, And then he will speak to them in his anger and terrify them in his wrath or in his fury. But as for me, he says, I have installed my king upon Zion, my holy mountain. And you see how God could possibly have had rained down from heaven when the one that's on earth is calling it out this is this is how he did it okay it's it's by his son so he says I will surely tell of the decree of the Lord he said to me thou art my son now this is interesting because you would think reading the context that it was God that was saying that but it the Lord God up in heaven was saying that but that's not what it says what it says is that the son who is on that mountain is the one who's saying that So we have this picture in scripture, and it happens a lot, where we have the Lord in heaven and we have the Lord on earth. We have this idea of the anointed one being on the, and now this is not New Testament stuff, folks. This is Psalms. This is long before Jesus ever hit the earth or hit the planet in that form. Has the plural been confusing to them? You know, it's a great question because I actually, I remember, it's funny that you asked that. I remember asking that question early on to Ray Cohen and Ray said, they obviously were not confused because they got it. And what's interesting is that God says this idea of His plurality on a regular basis. Like when He was creating man, And this is in Genesis chapter 1 verse 26. It says, let us create man in our own image. Let us. So wait a minute. So there are those that say, well, he must've been talking to the angels. He must've been talking to, you know, other created beings and so forth. But certainly God is not going to counsel with the angels as to whether or not he's going to create something. And what's really interesting is that the word create there, which is the word bara in Hebrew, which, by the way, is actually the Hebrew word for perfection, which I think is really interesting. Same word. It's used for perfection or purity. It's also used for creation. And so he's saying here, let us create man in our image. What's an image? Where do we see an image? No, but where do we see an image? In a mirror. Yeah, in a mirror, in water, in a picture. It's a graphic representation of what's actually there, right? I mean, what is the old expression of, you know, mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the fairest of them all, right? You know, the idea is that mirrors don't lie. They don't lie. You know, you got a pimple on your face, you look in the mirror, guess what? Pimple doesn't go away because I said, well, I don't like that pimple on my face. Well, that's too bad. That's what it is. So the point is that let us create man in our image. So that's an interesting idea. God is going to create man in our image. So again, not this idea of singular again, it's all about You know, it's big, it's massive, it's gigantic, it's huge. And that's what Elohim is all about. Elohim is about the fact that God is so big, God is so immense, that it's virtually impossible to explain. And that's a good thing. If you can explain God in His plurality, then you have not explained God in His plurality. Because it's unexplainable. Do you understand where I'm coming from? That's what makes this such a hard thing for people to teach. This is what makes this such a hard subject to really get your arms around. And what's fascinating is, the older you get, the harder it gets. Usually it's the other way around. Usually the older you get, the easier it is. Not in this subject. Because the older you are, the more difficult it is for you to get the grasp of just how big and how great and how immense and how powerful God truly is. One of the things that's helped me try to get my mind around it is the Hubble telescope showing the images of our universe light years away. Who would have thunk it? Yeah, and it's fascinating because because God is, and this is one of the things he talks about in the book, is that God has complete control over time. He has complete control over space. He has complete control over matter. Explain that. You can't. Yeah, I would love somebody to explain that to me because I don't, first of all, you know, one of the problems that I'm having with my book is that how do you describe heaven when there is no time, when there is no space and there is no actual matter? The only way, just like he couldn't describe what happened in Genesis chapter 1, God had to give it to him. He said, write. Now, Moses in his, now I'm just generalizing, I'm just picturizing. How do I write this? I didn't tell you to understand it, I just told you to write it. You know what I mean? I don't want you to understand it, I'm telling you to write it. And in his writing, I think, from my perspective, for me, the revelation of, thank you, David, I don't know. Wow. Wow. That must be scary. When Jesus was speaking, he said, God is revealing to whom the Lord revealed himself to. To whom the Lord revealed when he was walking. He said, to whom the Lord revealed himself to. Having eyes to see, you don't see. No, I mean this is the point of this whole entire subject is the only way that you can even begin to understand this is if God does the revelation. Why doesn't anybody know the real name of God? These are all descriptors and adjectives at the moment. But why doesn't anybody know his true name? Well, his true name is Jehovah. If you read Exodus chapter 3, he clearly says that. He takes the Hebrew word. That's a descriptor, though. No, it isn't. No, no, no, no. It's God who was, God always will be. No, no, no, no, no. Yahweh is not that. It's four basic letters. Actually, there are those out there that basically say these four letters are the center of everything that is not only just creation, but everything that is, including those things which are not created. But the idea here is that God has given us His name, and that name is, in fact, Jehovah. That is his name. That is his formal name. And everything else is... How does that relate to I am? Well, that is I am. Jehovah is I am. That's right. Jehovah is I am that I am. It's, it's, uh, uh, it's how you, how you actually technically it's, you know, I am, I am. So it says, I'll read the ESV. His eyes are a flame of fire, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself. Well, yeah, again, the idea is that he gave us that name. That name was given to us in Exodus chapter 3. So again, when we come back to this descriptor, in Revelation chapter 19, it's talking about the millennium too. So it's really an entirely different subject. And the people at that time may not have known, but we clearly have in Scripture, in Exodus chapter 3, God telling Moses what his name is. And what he did is he took two particular consonants, moved them together with the other one, and he ended up with four consonants, and that's the name of God. So, again, when we come back to all of these things, it really comes back to one thing, and that is, and he talks about it in the book, God is distinct from his creation. There is creation, there are those things that God created, and then there is God. He existed before there was ever a creation. The word bara, what I was going to say about bara, which I think is really interesting, is bara, the reason why it's also used for perfection is because the idea of bara is that it is creating from nothing. We as people cannot create from nothing. You should think about that. It doesn't matter what it is that we make, it has to come from something. So something had to first exist before we could make it. The clothes that you wear are all a result of us repurposing something else, right? We repurpose the cotton and we end up with a polo shirt. We repurpose the cotton, but we didn't create the cotton. Cotton was provided to us. I don't care what it is that you mean. oil is, you know, that we burn in our, you know, in our cars. Well, in our cars were created by other stuff that we had laying around. And it's just, there's nothing that we have created that is from nothing. That's why scientists are working all the time about, you know, creating DNA, trying to create something from nothing. And they just keep running into this roadblock. Why? Because they can't do it. They can't do it because God is distinct from His creation. And when I say that He sets Himself apart, He sets Himself apart from the constraint of this world. Because we are constrained in this world. And we are constrained by matter. We're constrained by time. We're constrained by space. You know, we think of the galaxies. This is, you know, you talked about the Hubble. You know, the one thing that's fascinating about the Hubble is that the more it looks, the more it finds. The bigger it gets. It's not getting smaller. It's not getting more complete. It's getting less complete. Or we're finding out that we actually have a less complete picture of what God has created in this universe. It's just, to me, it's... I'm sorry? Well, exactly. And every time it looks further, it finds more. That's the point. It's not like, it's not like it just, you know, it says, you know, well, you know, we're going to find the end of the universe eventually. You know, it doesn't, you know, that's a, that's a concept that's hard for people. Why? Because again, we deal in endings. We do. We deal in finish lines. And things which are finite, correct. And the idea of infinite is just a concept. I don't care what anybody tells you. The idea of things being infinite, the idea of things being without an end, is a concept that is very challenging for people to get. And the reason it is, is because it is accounted unto a man once to die. That's why. Every single one of us have one common thing about us, and that is that it is accounted unto us once to die. Every one of us are going to experience that. Everyone. And the fact of the matter is, is that God is not tethered to endings. He's not tethered to time. He's not tethered to any of these things. And the other thing that he talks about in the book, which I think is clear about Elohim, is that His omnipresence is a picture of that. If God is everywhere at all times, That's just a concept that man just doesn't get. I mean, we don't understand that. Now, what's interesting is that we don't understand it, but we expect it, which is interesting, if you think about that. We expect God to hear our prayers no matter where we are. No matter where we are. We could be under the water drowning. We expect God to hear our prayers. We could be in a plane 40,000 feet above the earth. We expect God to hear our prayers. We expect Him, but we can't explain it. We can't explain God's omnipresence. We can't explain that God is everywhere and present all at the same time. You know, He's here, He's there, He's everywhere. If you can explain that... But the point is that you can't explain it. But that's the point. The point is that there is no explanation for something that's unexplainable. That's Elohim. That's the point. So, I wrote this outline. The 16th of August, 1976. I was 20 years old. I was 20 years old when I wrote this. And I was reading it and I was thinking, this is really amazing. This is really amazing. And here's why it's amazing, because I'm not sure I would have written it this way today. Yet I think this is better than what I would have written today. That's my point. Do you understand what? No, I'm being serious. I think it does. I think it does. I hadn't even been a believer at this point for three years. I hadn't even been a believer for three years when I wrote this. I'm just telling you guys, it's really, There's a simplicity in this that I think is absolutely amazing. Yeah, there's just a simplicity to it. There's a calculus to it which is just a faith. There's no proof. That's the point. And so a guy who has been a believer for two years can write this. A guy that's been a believer for nearly 50 years struggles writing this. Because we try to put too much into it. Yeah. As we mature, as we age, we create these paradigms, these constructs to help us explain the world. A child is not constrained by that. They're open to God. They're open to his imagination. Or a new belief. Same difference. And it is a difference. You know, when you think about, as we experience God, we should be closer to God. Will we experience it? And I'm thinking about Abraham, from my perspective. You know, when Abraham first, when God said, come out from among you, Abraham walked. And he had no clue where he was going. Y'all just give me a minute for this. Had no clue where he was going. But when God asked him to offer up Isaac, he didn't have some experience. And he was able to do it because in his conversation, It was an example of him and his relationship. He told me and Wade here, me and Boyd go up and we will return. Yep. Expectation. Because of his experience. And then when he's walking, God, it was three days before he saw the place. He didn't just stop the first time and went to the first place. No, three days. He had to continue walking until God said, this is the place. Why? Because he had an experience by walking with God all this time. You get what I'm saying? So therefore, when he looked and when God said, do this, and he told him, but the man waited there for three days. It wasn't one day. The man was waiting on Abraham, and he walked with God for three days. And God said, just confess, I want you to offer up your son. And Abraham said, okay, Lord. And he bonded him up, he made the offer. But that is because of the experience. He had been with God for a period of time. And I haven't told you, that's the point. It wasn't the first time. And so when you are a young Christian, when you're a young believer, God shows you, does all kind of things. That is, that's exactly, but it's so amazing. It's amazing. Now you can walk with God a little bit, so you don't get so excited. Yeah. You get what I mean? Yeah. You begin to trust him even more. Yeah. You can lean on him and say, okay, Lord, I don't walk with you this way before. Where you gonna lead me? That's what trust a man is. You know, when Abraham said, negotiate with God 50. but he would actually negotiate with God for his nephew. That's what this connection was, thinking that his nephew gonna bring about a change inside. See, that's why the negotiation came up, because he thought he was gonna be there for us. You only need one person to change a whole community. Only one that is really walking in light. And the angels got locked. They get to him, but they didn't live a life. Which is where Abraham wanted to be. I know most of you are sure because you've seen it with all these people. But the point I'm making is the experience Abraham had with God, it should allow us to trust him. The older we get and the more we work with him, the more we should trust him. Well, and remember this experience of him offering Isaac occurred after he met the Lord face-to-face when he was discussing Solomon. This was a period afterwards. So as we get into this whole entire concept of Elohim, and we start to really get our arms around it, we realize we can't. It's almost like, you know, it's almost like you're, you know, you're getting it and it's like thin air. Yeah, it's like, you know, it's just this concept is so big. It's too immense for us to try to figure out. And the point is, is that that's why we have to accept it on faith. And we're not supposed to do that. Exactly. And that's why I'm telling you, it was much easier for me to write this when I was a believer for two years than it would have been today, almost 50 years. It's fact versus faith. Totally. And figure it out, that's fact. Interesting that this is what drew me to the Lord. concept, you know, back in my late teens, early twenties, when I accepted the Lord, I came to that conclusion, and the thought that kind of haunts me was, but who made God? You know, so I'm like, you know, we think of a beginning and an end, like you said, but there is a realm out there that's so beyond, and so that kind of gave me peace, in saying I'm not going to figure this out, because there's something out there, way bigger than me, that I'm not going to figure out. Yeah, because we think in terms of beginnings and endings. We think in terms of, you know, I've never seen a stone over the plot of a grave that identified anything but when it began and when it ended. It's the dash, right. You know, what do you do with that dash? But at the end of the day, that's how we think as humans. No doubt. And, you know, and thermodynamics works the same way. So this idea that things are degrading, things are falling apart, and that we have to always improve them, you know, and restore them, and so forth, is part of the human existence, really. But it's not a part of the divine existence, which is so hard for people to truly understand. And that's why evolution, for example, is flawed, because it starts with the idea that we can improve things, that things are going to get better. and that we're going to naturally select things and so forth. And that's some of the basic flaws that are in the theory. So here's my point that I want to make today, okay? Because we could go for days and try to cover something that's uncoverable, really. And that is, how big is God to you? How big is God to you? And I think that that's a really interesting question that you can't just give me an answer for, by the way, okay? But you have to kind of, you know, really think in terms of just how big is your God? Because I think for most people, they have very small guts. They have a very small God. They have a very small God. He's involved in bits and pieces of their existence, and typically it's only in the midst of catastrophe and calamity. Yeah. But the truth of the matter is, is that he who sits in the heavens laughs. The Lord scoffs at them. Why do we have such a small picture of God? Why is it that we make God so much something that we can define? Really? It's the other way around. And when we start to think in terms of the fact that He spoke us into existence, think about that for a second. He spoke us into existence. Really? I want you to kind of get, you know, that was an incredible statement when I remember when I first read that. You didn't have to lift a finger. Yeah. He just spoke it into existence, you know? And the Lord said, let there be light. And there was what? It was light. Spoke it into existence. Sorry? I mean, you know, it's fascinating, you know, that, I mean, there's so many interesting things about this whole creation story. One of the things that I think is interesting is the fact that it says that he created everything out of nothing. Out of nothing. The word there in Hebrew indicates that which is left over. created it out of like, it's just like, there's not even a word for it is the point. There's like no word for it. And so, this idea that God has created the earth out of nothing is a hard piece of information for us. Why? Because remember, we do everything based upon doing it by repurposing what we already have. B-A-R-R-A. B-A-R-R-A. It's just actually two consonants. B-E-T and R-A-H-A. So the idea is that we see this incredible picture of God laid out for us in scripture that's so big we can't really even get our arms around it. We can't even begin to understand it. And the more we search, the more we find it's kind of like the galaxy. Right? It's just too big. And it gets even bigger. And every time we think we kind of understand the ends of the, oh, no, that's not the, nope, nope, the Hubble just found another galaxy. Oh, then there's another galaxy. And then there's another galaxy. And then there's... The point of this whole entire thing is that God still in the midst of all of this incredibleness, and I want you to think about this, created everything that we see for us. Did you ever think about that? All the different days of creation, the first five days of creation, everything that was created during the first five days of creation was for what he was about to create on the sixth day. Everything. And it is only what he built on the sixth day that he said it was very good. Isn't that amazing? So why did he think that we, me, forget about we, me, why did he think I was very good? I don't even think I'm very good. He didn't know you. He didn't know me? I didn't think he knew me. You know what, Don? You are in his image. But even more so, the scripture says that the glory of God is man. That's what the scripture says. The glory of God is man. That's what God says about us. We are his glory. Now think about that. The scripture also said, what is man that thou art so mindful of him? So when you saying what you saying, I'm thinking to myself, oh my goodness, how good he is. And here's kind of my final salvo, and then we'll get out of here. And after he created us, and he said it was very good, He gave us a picture of what heaven was gonna be like when he said, and on the seventh day, he rested. See, that's what heaven's all about. Heaven's all about being at rest. And I'm gonna tell you right now, that is contrary to everything that we think we are in our humanity. We don't like rest. We really don't. we would much rather be doing than not doing. This is why men get bored, by the way, because they're afraid to rest, and they get bored, and then they get all these crazy thoughts that go through their brain, and it just creates all the insanity that we then perpetrate. But at the end of the day, God has created us, he has called us very good, and then he stopped. And that's hard. That's hard, that's big. And sometimes, somewhere, somehow, we have to kind of try to get our arms around the idea that we are more than our work, our identity is more than what we say we are, Our identity is found in resting in him. That's what our identity is. He's not done creating us either. Well, I don't think so. I don't think so. I think he's just beginning. But the point is this, and I'm just going to end on this idea. The bigger God becomes to us, the more we realize just how much we don't know. Do you see where I'm coming from? scratching, scratching John. I don't even think we are touching the surface. I mean, you know what I'm saying? I mean, it's such a gigantic thing. And that's why I love this word Elohim. Because it's about God, you know, so he talks about God is created and I get that. He talks about God is, you know, restored. I get that. But to me, Elohim says, He is bigger than anything that we can possibly imagine. And that's a good thing. Yeah. It's like, it's the difference between you don't understand and you can't understand. Exactly. Exactly. You don't have the ability to understand. Right. And that's my point. That's why I brought this with, because, and because anybody wants to see it, I'll be happy to give it to you. But the point is, is that, um, when, When we do these things, when we have these statements, and we say, oh, this is what I believe, and this is absolutely, and we get dogmatic about stuff, I think Elohim. Every time I find myself getting dogmatic about anything, I think about Elohim, because I don't know anything. I just know a little, you know, I think it was Paul that said, we look through a glass darkly or dimly. You know, it's just, we don't, we haven't even begun to, as you said, John, scratch the surface. We haven't even begun to scratch the surface. And so Elohim, it's a great place to start when we talk about the names of God. Next week we're gonna talk about Jehovah, John, and we're gonna talk about why that is the name of God. And I will, I promise you, I will cover Revelation 19 at the same time. You know, in that. So we'll do that next time we get together. Hope you guys. Got something out of this, you know, so there we are. Exactly. That's exactly right. Yeah, I agree. All right, let's get out of here.