The Significance of God's Names in Our Lives

Thank you.

A thousand names I ever know. Are we supposed to clap? What are we supposed to do? You know the band doesn't love that. The whole summer I've been like, "Will you play songs while everyone stares at you?"

But it's part of what we've wanted to do: look at these songs, introduce them, discuss them. We will be singing "Thousand Names" down the road, so I hope that you enjoy the song.

Something about it—you were able to look at the lyrics and kind of go, "Wow, a thousand names." It wouldn't be awesome if the rest of the message I just sang "Thousand Names" of God to you? But I love you too much to do that. Some of you are laughing because you know how bad that would be.

The thing that this song introduces to us, the thing it invites us to consider, is that the names of God are an umbrella under which we can understand the actions, the nature, the goodness, the qualities, and the character of God.

God alone, and even God as a translation, is something we need to go back in and see some of the various uses of that. So we're going to explore today.

The first thing I want to say is just maybe make the case that the psalmist said it as loud as anybody: the names of God matter. They matter in our day-to-day living. They matter when we're winning. They matter when we're losing. They matter when all goes well. They matter when nothing goes well. They matter when we feel connected to others. They matter when we feel alone.

Listen to some of the ways they talked about the name of God: "Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the Earth! You have set your glory in the heavens." The name of God is big.

Psalm 29:2: "Give unto the Lord the glory due His name. Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness." The name of the Lord is different. It's set apart. It's not quite like your name or my name.

Hold on, I just got to point this out. What the psalmist is saying—somebody made a typo there, am I right? Okay, continuing on.

"Teach me your way, Lord, that I may rely on your faithfulness. Give me an undivided heart that I may fear your name."

Something about putting the name of the Lord as the foremost thing in our lives can direct every other aspect of our lives. He provided—God provided redemption for His people. He ordained His covenant forever. Holy and awesome is His name.

Holy and awesome is His name. Proverbs says, "The name of the Lord is a fortified tower; the righteous run to it and are safe." That was written at a time when, under attack, you would run to a fortified tower to be safe from attack.

You can see this picture over and over again. That's just a very quick brush over that the name of the Lord is different. There's something about it. The names of God reveal the nature of God, and that's why we chose this song.

Because we thought, what if, you know, our heart's desire is that everybody—that we would see—we could follow Jesus and deepen our faith in relationship with Him? But that's just a sentence. What's that look like? What do you do in your day-to-day life?

And what if the names of God would reveal the nature of God? And when that nature is revealed, we're drawn in. We're like, "I want more. I want to understand more. I want to walk closer."

Here's an example of that. When Jesus was asked how to pray—we talked about this last week—but when He was asked how to pray, He looked at His followers and He said, "I want to teach you how to pray like this: Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy. May your kingdom come soon. May your will be done on Earth as it is in heaven."

Jesus looks at these devoted followers of Him and He says, "I want you to understand that your day begins, your prayer begins, your perspective begins with the idea that God's name is something special. You won't understand it. You want to grab hold of it. It's set apart."

Holy is just a word that means not like other things. It means distinct from. It means there's ordinary, and that's like everything, and then there's set apart.

If it's your dishes—okay, I didn't grow up in this world, but how many of you had a grandma who had like the fancy china and you didn't touch it unless it was Christmas? You know, like how many of you are the grandma with the fancy china that nobody—right? You see? All right, I got a couple in here.

So here's the thing: Jesus is saying, "Look at the names. The names of God contain the character, the will, the nature. They're going to tell you about who He is. They're just not like another name. They're powerful. They're powerful."

And so we find that the names of God express the magnitude of God. They express how set apart or unique or different God is. He's not just an add-on, not just an addition to an already fulfilled life or an addition to a struggling life to maybe set it right.

The names of God are more than that, and they point us to that. I want to tell you a story about names. It happens in the Book of Genesis, Genesis chapter 11, where we're introduced to these people who are building a tower. It's called the Tower of Babel.

What they do, it says that humankind comes together and they're like, "You know what? We want all the things God has to offer; we just don't want God." Like, we want all the joy, all the relationships, all the pleasure, all the experience. We want everything God has to offer, but we want this to be about us.

And listen to what the text says in Genesis 11:4: "Then they said, 'Come, let us build a city with a tower that reaches to the heavens.'"

And before I read this next line, in the world we live in, which is like an identity-shaping influence-driven world, this ancient sentence speaks to the heart of today so well: "Let's build this tower that reaches to the heavens so we may make a name for ourselves."

It's interesting what names do. They have the name of God; they live under His care and His concern and His goodness, and they say, "You know, we want all that, but we want to make a name for ourselves."

And I think it's interesting as I think about religion. Right? So I'm a pastor at a Christian church, so I probably qualify as a fairly religious person. All right? But I think—and maybe you would argue this—I am not the most religious person in this room. We are all equally religious.

I just think that the religious impulse is easier to rebrand than it is to extinguish. We might say, "I'm doing away with religion," and all we do is re-religion ourselves. It just might have a different focus, a different intention or attention to it.

We might just shift. Like for me, I started when I was younger. I was the center of my religious affections, my intellect, whatever that was, my understanding of the world, what I thought was fair and wasn't fair.

And then I had these Christian friends, and they're like, "Did you know there's another system?" I'm like, "I'm not religious."

Think about it: if religion is just like a controlling story, it's the question of how we use our energy and our affection, how we organize our lives, and in many cases, how we think the lives of other people should be organized, then we are all overtly and intensely religious.

Some of us just have classic religious language. I don't know if you say "bless you" or "excuse me." Bless you! That was very— that was wonderful.

So in this reality that the religious impulse is easier to rebrand—which is what's happening here—they're not doing away with religion; they're rebranding it in a way that works for them. It's easier to rebrand than to extinguish.

I think there's hope for us because here's the challenge: people who think they're good often tend to also be quite mean. And the names of God rescue us from that. They save us from becoming religious and then, in our religion, determining who is worth valuing and who is not.

So the names of God, they protect our hearts too. They remind us of where we sit in this whole thing—that we're all on equal footing. We're all in need of the goodness and grace of God. Some of us, it's more obvious than others, but we're all in the same place.

And this—I don't know who said this quote, and I've restated, I've rephrased it a little bit, but this isn't mine, but I really like what this says because it brings home why we wanted to do this song and why we wanted to talk about the names of God.

Whatever the problem is, precisely, there's a common solution: a better understanding of Jesus. Knowing the real Jesus helps us stay away from the counterfeit, no matter how well it comes packaged.

And so the names of God help us avoid forgery and identity theft and things that seem like they're supposed to be God. They become almost like a trademark for His identity and His character.

So I'm going to look at two names today. They're two names I think are useful bookends. One is the first name of God in Scripture, and then the second is a name that appears after hundreds of years of silence and oppression and difficulty.

And these two names tell us about God. It's not conclusive; it's not linear. So in the second—and there's a thousand names—I'm going to talk about two. So we'll just walk through this and kind of see what happens.

Here's the very first passage of the Bible: Genesis 1:1. It says, "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the Earth."

In the beginning, God created the heavens and Earth. We read that as "God" in English, but underneath that is "Elohim." Elohim is the Hebrew word that says this God. It's a plural word. This creative God spoke.

You read the story: there was nothing, and then there was something, and it was good, and it was beautiful, and it was very good. And there were people, and there was community, and there was care.

It's this opening story that then quickly crashes, and the arc of Scripture is the restoration of that which broke. So in the beginning, Elohim created the heavens and the Earth.

The very first name of God is a name that carries with it the idea that God is pre-existent and distinct from His creation.

Here's why this is important: because if God exists within and is not distinct from you or me, then there's this personalization, ownership of God, where I get to determine who God loves and who His redemption is for and how the message works and what is life and what is death if it's centered on me.

But the very first passage of the Bible says, "Actually, it's not about you. God is pre-existent, and He's distinct." The theological word is "ex nihilo," which just means out of nothing. There was nothing except God, and from nothing, He spoke.

John, a follower of Jesus, in his very first few chapters of the Gospel of John, he says, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."

In the beginning, we see this callback to this name of God that exists out of nothing, that is distinct.

So I'm not going to do this justice, but I want to give you an overview. If we were to dig deep into what this means, this means that God is responsible for physics, biology, and chemistry—some of the things that cause our world to operate.

And this is complex. I don't see this too much like in this community as I've gotten to know you, but often there's this division to go, "Well, you're either a person of faith or you're a person of physics, biology, and chemistry."

The challenge to this is there are people who love God deeply who excel in these fields. So it's not that clear-cut. You can make that division, but that's the division you're choosing to make.

There are people who defy that division and live within the space, and one of their perspectives is God's creative genius put together a world that operates with physics, biology, and chemistry.

Gross oversimplification, I understand. I want to put that out there as what it means to be pre-existent.

Because then the other thing is this—and this gets too philosophical—but God exists outside of time, space, and matter. The first name of God simply tells us He doesn't fit your paradigms. He doesn't fit your clock. He doesn't fit your rotations of the sun. He doesn't fit your self-duplications.

He doesn't fit these things because He pre-exists them. He sets them in motion. So Elohim, the first name of God, tells us that God is something altogether different than you and I are.

The names of God illuminate His greatness. Now, there's a lot in what I just said that we could argue, unpack, look at, talk about, but I want to take that idea and I want to experiment with another name of God to finish today.

So we have the first name. There's a lot of names. There are about two dozen proper names of God in the Bible, and then there's a whole bunch of actions and different attributes given to God as names.

The next one I want to get to happens with a man named Moses. So we have pre-existence. We have got this kind of large name of God that seems impersonal a little bit, doesn't it? Like God's out there, and don't question Him, and don't use your physics or your chemistry or your biology.

Now, if you're a materialist and you're here this morning, if you are strictly a materialist, everything I just said, I probably lost you for the rest of the morning. I hope you'll stay with us.

But there are very few people like that. Most of us have some sense of like there is something more. There's a spiritual world out there. I just don't quite know what it is. I'm curious about that.

And so now we have from Elohim, the first name of God, the pre-existent, altogether distinct one. We're going to get to Moses.

Moses is—some of you have watched the Disney movie back in the day. He's a prince of Egypt. He's got a complicated backstory. He ends up getting in some trouble, ends up out in the desert, gets married—like everyone does in the desert—and then out of that place, he is a shepherd for his father-in-law. Win-win-win, right?

I mean, here he's got everything going for him. He's out in the desert with his flocks. This is going to be Exodus chapter three. We're going to look at a brief story where God reintroduces some names and just see what they can tell us.

Now, an angel of the Lord appears to him in a fiery bush—like this burning bush—and the bush isn't actually on fire; it's just consumed in flame, but it's not consumed. So there's clearly something supernatural going on here.

Moses goes, "I will go over and see this strange sight, why the bush does not burn up." And so Moses is drawn to what's happening.

As he gets closer, there's a voice, and it says, "Moses, Moses." And Moses says, "Here I am." And the voice says, "Don't come any closer because the ground you're on and the place you're at is holy. It's set apart. It's not for you. Stay where you are. Even take your shoes off."

Okay, so Moses takes his shoes off, and then the story tells us this happens. Now, for centuries, the people of Israel have been in slavery in Egypt. They've built the Egyptian Empire with their hands. They've been in slavery. They don't have an operating religious system. They don't have temples they can go to. They don't have religious practice they can engage in.

The voice and the names of God have been silent. And then this burning bush emerges, and God said, "I'm the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob."

At this, Moses hid his face because he was afraid to look at God. And God's first introduction is He places Himself within the history and the promise of the people of Israel.

You may not—you might be super familiar, more than me, with these names, or it might be new to you. So Abraham, he's like the first one in the Christmas story. Abraham's like, "There's going to be a—" some of you are like, "No, that's Mary and Joseph," but he's the first Christmas story.

There's going to be a promised son to you. You're super old; you can't have kids, but I'm going to give you a child, and you're going to become a great nation. Wild stuff! Abraham trusts God and has faith, and he has a son named Isaac.

Isaac becomes the father of Jacob and Esau. And if you know Jacob's story, Jacob's like a sneaky guy. That's actually what his name means. Any Jakes in here? Apologies; your name means the deceiver, the double-minded, the heel-grabber.

Okay, but you're better than that. I see you, Jake, right? You're better than that.

So notice what God does. This is just a quick note to set up what God's about to say with His name. Notice what He does: He says, "Moses, I want you to know who I am. I'm the God of like the wild, faith-filled promise of what I'm going to do through the trust of Abraham.

And I'm the God of Isaac, the one—the response of that promise. It actually happened. I kept my word."

And then does anyone know what Jacob's other name is? His good name? It's Israel. Jacob had a wrestling match. He had a moment where he was just done, and God met him.

Jacob and God wrestled, and there's always beautiful imagery that happens. God says, "Let go of me," and Jacob says, "I will not let go of you until you bless me."

And God looks at him and says, "Your name used to be Jacob, but now it will be Israel because you're the one who wrestled with God and you overcame."

Why in the world did God not introduce Himself to Moses as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Israel? I don't know. I wasn't there, all right? No one's really asking me to write a book about this.

But I would say you seem to get a picture of the character and nature of God. "I'm the God of your faithfulness, and I'm the God of your trust, and I'm the God of your double-minded dealings and your backroom negotiations and your heel-grabbing and the things you try to do for you that are about you that fail. I'm also there with you."

And that's how He introduces Himself to Moses. Israel is Jacob's proper name. It's a good one. And yet to this day, he's known as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.

Moses hides his face, and the Lord says, "I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt." Three hundred years in slavery, roughly. "I've heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I'm concerned about their suffering."

He goes on to say, "Moses, I'm going to work through you, and we're going to work through the Pharaoh, and we're going to release the people of Israel. They're going to be set free from captivity."

Moses's response is this: Moses says to God, "Suppose I go—here comes the name—suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they ask me, 'What's His name? What do I tell them?'"

They've been in slavery. They've been abandoned by You. They think there's no hope. Generations born to make mud and straw bricks and build an empire. What do I tell them Your name is?

And God says, "I am who I am." This is the second name of God. Elohim, the pre-existent one: "I am who I am."

This is what you're to say to the Israelites: "I am has sent me to you." And then He reaffirms, "I'm the Lord, the God of the fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob. He has sent me to you."

And then He goes back and He says, "This is my name forever, the name you shall call me from generation to generation."

And just to end with this, it's pretty complicated. This is not an easy translation from Hebrew. What God says His name is—He doesn't actually say—it's not just "I am." It might be "I am who I am," or some different translations will say, "I will be what I will be."

Because it's not a normal answer to a name question. When you ask, like, "What's your name?" If you ask me what my name is and I said, "My name is my name," you would go, "That's not helpful, Carlos. I want to know your name."

And that's kind of what God does. God turns and He says, "Guess what? There are a few things I can share with you that come together and tell you who I am. I'm altogether different. I'm altogether set apart. I'm not like what you think I am."

Something you can add into your life or your system to make it work. I exist outside of it. I am greater than it. I was here before it, and I will be here after it.

It's God expressing the size and scope of who He is, saying, "I will be what I will be. I'm the one who is."

That sounds to me like a very real, like a very religious explanation of what's happening here, but it's a fair basic explanation of what's happening.

There's more going on because Moses and God are in the middle of a conversation. They're not just having one-liners. They started. Moses said, "God, who are you?"

It's like, "I'm the father of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and I have heard my people cry." He says, "I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I've heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I'm concerned about their suffering."

And there's this kind of weird emotion introduced that God is deeply concerned about people. "I have heard their cries." That all happens before He says, "I am."

"I have heard their cries." And so He goes on, and Moses says, "Okay, so if I go to the Israelites, who do I tell them sent me? Where they say, 'What's His name? What am I supposed to say?'"

And that's when God says, "I am who I am." This is what you're going to say to the Israelites: "I am has sent me to you."

If you want to know my name, Moses, remember I am ex nihilo. I am pre-existent. I am Elohim. I'm the one who exists outside of anything you need or want. I do not answer to you, and I'm the one who loves you deeply and personally, and my heart is broken for the place you're at.

And so a good rabbinical—there's a bunch. If you ever look at rabbinical or rabbi understandings of the Old Testament, there's so much to learn.

And a great rabbinical understanding of "I am who I am" is this: "I will be with them in this predicament."

So Moses goes, "God, who are You?" And God says, "Oh, Moses, remember what we were just talking about? I've heard my people cry. I'm going to answer them. I'm going to bring about freedom and release. I will be with them in this predicament, and I will be with them a thousand years from now."

"God, who do I tell sent me?" "I am who I am, the one who knows where they are and the one who will be with them for a thousand years."

I'm also pre-existent, ex nihilo, out of nothing I made something. It doesn't work from a strict material point of view, but the names of God—they're not trying to answer that question. They're trying to reveal His nature and His character to you.

And so the one who's ex nihilo, the one who is pre-existent, He also expresses deep emotion and love, and He says, "I'm the God of promises. I'm the God of your faithfulness, but I'm also the God of your failures. I'm the God that has been with you and will be with you a thousand years from now."

And if I could summarize these two names—the first, Genesis 1:1, and the interaction on the bush—I’d say this: God is pre-existent, and He's intensely personal. That's what makes Him so different.

He's pre-existent, and He's intensely personal. He's present.

So He has names like this: formal names—Creator, Doctor, Rock of Ages, Great I Am, Eternal King, Lowly Servant.

And He also has names that are acts, names like Loving, Bondage Breaker, Rose from the Dead, the One Who Guides, Parted the Sea.

I want to give you a few technical names—names that you can find in Scripture. We could have gone through these as part of today, but I would have got bored; you would have got bored.

So we're just going to put them all right here. Okay, here's just a few names of God. I was thinking about our church and our community and the kind of things we wrestle with as people—those who are full of faith, those who mostly have questions or don't have faith, or at least not in this—in what we're talking about.

You can see these names here. They're different attributes of the characters of God. So there's El Roi, the God who sees. There's El Shaddai, the all-sufficient God.

Often when you're reading the Scriptures, you just see the word "Lord" in the context, but this is what's going on in the Hebrew underneath it. There's El Shaddai, the all-sufficient God.

There's Adonai, Lord Master. Maybe you need in your life right now a transition from who is the Lord master of your life—from you, from an employer, from some idea or some word that was said to you down to, "I'm going to just trust and see what happens if I put my hands and my life in God's hands."

There's Jehovah Rapha, the Lord that heals. Jehovah Jireh, the Lord will provide. Jehovah Shalom, the Lord is peace. Jehovah Simcha Gili, God my exceeding joy.

And these are just a few of the names of God. What I would invite you to do over the next minute is pull out your phone, get a note out, or grab a piece of paper.

In your life right now, which name of God do you need to better understand and experience so you can more fully follow Jesus and deepen your faith in relationship with Him?

Maybe you're at the very beginning and you're not sure where to start, or maybe you feel disappointed in faith and in God, or maybe you're in a season of just difficulty, or maybe you're in a season of celebration.

Which one of these names could you walk out this week and then the weeks ahead and just go, "All right, the names of God reveal the character of God."

So I need more Adonai in my life. I've got to start submitting all of them. I've got to figure out how to do this. Or maybe you need the Lord that heals, or maybe you just need to be celebrating with God.

Let me just give you a few moments, and then we're going to enter into ending our service today by celebrating baptism.