| Name is often used to commemorate important thing or event. The city of
Providence, RI for instance, was such named by Roger Williams to thank God
for His providence. Because of the religious persecution in Massachusetts,
Roger William fled and settled in what now is Providence area. He
established the first Baptist church in America and that church still exists
today. In New Mexico, there is a small town called: Truth or Consequences.
This small town is named after a famous radio program broadcasted from that
town. Because that program received so much publicity, on 1950, the city
decided to change its name from Hot Springs to Truth or Consequences.
Try figuring out the reason behind the name of the city, such as: Left
Hand, WV; Santa Claus, IN; Hot Coffee, Miss and Why, AZ. Imagine a
conversation: Where do you live? Why. I just want to know where to live.
Why.
In America we have so many Main Streets, and First Streets, but there is
only one Zzyzx Road and it is in California. Next time when you are driving
to Las Vegas on Freeway 15, look for the sign to this exit. Just don’t ask
me how to pronounce it.
Some names are easier to figure out. Samuel, for instance, means: asked
from God. Hannah has prayed for years and the Lord finally gave her a son.
Therefore the name: Samuel. Every time she looked at the son, she and others
will be reminded that this son is given as an answer from God.
In the Scripture, the Lord is introduced with different names and titles.
Henry Blackaby uses 8 pages to list God’s names and titles; about 600
hundred altogether. Each name signifies a unique characteristic of God as
experienced by His people.
In our Scripture reading this morning for instance, Abraham named the
Lord, Jehovah-jireh, which means, the Lord who provides. The name for the
whole mountain was Mount Moriah, but that particular place for Abraham now
has a new name, Jehovah-Jireh, the Lord who provides. He went up that
mountain with a belief that somehow the Lord will provide. He did not know
how. In Genesis 22:8 Isaac asked his father, where is the lamb for the
burnt-offering? Abraham answered: The Lord will provide. He believed that.
He has faith in God; but that faith has not been proven yet. He did not know
what is going to happen yet.
When in verse 14 Abraham again stated "The Lord provides" it is now an
experience. It’s faith that is experienced. It’s no longer simply a belief,
it is an experience. Abraham moved a step forward in his relationship with
God. At that particular point of time, the Lord is not simply a matter of
knowledge; it is a matter of experience. It’s no longer a matter of
religious discussion, it’s a fact of life; and no one can argue with that.
God has a new name because Abraham experienced the presence of the Lord.
He entered into a new relationship with God. God has become personal to
Abraham.
The first thing we learn this morning is: The Lord reveals Himself to us
and wants us to know Him by experience.
He wants us to have a personal relationship with Him.
God’s names reveal His nature and His way of dealing with us. And only
when we have a personal experience with God then we are able to call Him by
name.
A lot of times we only know God as God. Generic name. Nothing personal
because we do not responded to His call to enter into a personal
relationship. We are not able to refer to Jesus as our Savior because we
have never invited Him to be our Savior. Jesus is Jesus and nothing else.
God has revealed Himself to us and the way we respond to Him will
determine how we know Him. How we call Him reflects the kind of experience
we have with Him. When we have a personal experience with God, our life will
be changed. Our attitude toward the Lord and others will never be the same.
Take Job for instance. Do you think Job knows God? From what the Bible
describes about Job, we are very sure that Job knows about God. He knew what
the Lord demands and he tried his best to please the Lord. He lived
righteously and obeyed God as well as he can do it. He began to think that
he has God figured out. He assumed that he understood the way God works,
until he began to suffer.
The majority part of the book of Job consists of Job defending his
righteousness. He was convinced that he is righteous but why he suffered?
Isn’t suffering only for those who disobey the Lord? How come the Lord acts
differently, unlike the way Job figured God should act?
Only at the end the book Job found his answer. He thought he knew
everything about God and he was surprised. He has a new experience in his
relationship with God, and that personal experience changed his life. He
stated "I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear; but now my eye sees
Thee; therefore I retract, and I repent in dust and ashes." (Job 42:5-6).
Job repents?
His whole arguments has been that he is right and he knows God. But this
new experience in his relationship with God taught him something new.
Job’s experience changes his life. Our experience with God will also
change our life. That’s why the Lord reveals Himself to us. He wants us to
respond to Him and by that our life will be changed. He wants us to
experience His presence, His promises, His words.
He reveals Himself in many ways. When we breathe, we are enjoying His
handiworks. When we see the sun, we are enjoying His revelation. In many
aspects of our life, God reveals Himself very clearly. The question we
should ask is: do we see it?
The ultimate and clearest revelation happen in the person of Jesus Christ
and the Scripture. Jesus is the living Word, and the Scripture is the
written Word of God. We don’t see Jesus physically today, but we have the
Scripture that continues to reveal God to us. Can we see Him. What is our
respond to His revelation? Have we experience the truth of His word?
When we fail to respond to Him, we are not going to experience Him; and
when we do not experience Him, then we do not know God. We may know a little
about God; but that’s it. A knowledge, not an experience.
And this leads us to our second lesson:
2. Our experience with God will impact the way we live.
Earlier we have seen that when Job experience God, his whole life is
changed. His values, his mindset, everything is now different. He has
experienced God’s presence and it changes his life.
We may have a lot of knowledge about God, but until we come to experience
God our life won’t feel the difference.
Experience is the best teacher. As long as we remember what we
experience, our life will change. Granted, many of us has a short memory. We
tend to forget the good things and remember the bad things. We remember when
people hurt our feelings and forget when we are loved. We remember the
occasions when the Lord does not answer our prayers and forget the ones He
answered. We have a short memory; and that maybe one of the reason why the
Lord reveals His presence every day. He is always there, waiting for us to
come and to experience what He has made ready for us.
What you know about God is good; but only experience counts. Without
experiencing God’s promises personally, your life will never be the same.
Abraham did not hesitate to obey the Lord because he has experienced with
God. He knew God can be trusted, not because he was taught or he heard
sermon about it; but because he has experienced it.
A man fell over a cliff but saved himself by clinging to a branch. Not
knowing how to get back up, he heard a voice that said, "I am the Lord. I
can help you. Do you believe that?"
The man answered, "Of course, I trust You completely."
The Lord said again, "Do you believe that I can divide the sea and raise
the dead?"
The man answered, Or course, I believe that."
The Lord said, Well, then let go and I will take care of you."
Silence.
What are you going to do? Are you going to let go? Or hold tighter. The
answer depends on what experience you have with God.
You may have faith; but if you don’t put your faith to work, it does not
mean anything. James asks, What use is it my brethren is a man says he has
faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him?" Faith without work is
dead. When we experience what we believe, our faith becomes stronger. Our
life will be different.
A lot of times our faith fails to grow and we live in spiritual poverty
now because we seldom come to church or sleep during a sermon; but because
we do not have personal experience with God. We do not put our faith to
work. We know a lot of good things but never experience them.
Your experience with God will influence the way you live.
3. Your experience with God will inspire you to share your faith with
others.
Imagine what happened that day when Abraham went home. He and Isaac met
Sarah. Imagine the conversation. When Sarah asked them about their trip to
Mount Moriah, do you think Abraham can calmly answered, "Oh, it’s ok?" I
will imagine that Abraham and Isaac would be excited. Isaac would tell his
Mom how Daddy almost killed him. Sarah must have had a shock of her life
that day. Her only son was almost killed. She must have stared at Abraham
and asked him what he has been thinking. Abraham would share with her what’s
going on and how the Lord has provided. Maybe one day, he would even bring
Sarah on a trip to Mount Moriah and pointed her the location. Jehovah Jireh.
It’s here that the Lord has provided. Jehovah Jireh. Sarah must be glad to
learn God’s new name. New experience, new name.
Your experience with God will encourage you to share your faith with
others.
When our life is boring, we are not excited about it. It’s only so so.
Nothing to talk about. But when we have a fresh experience with God, we want
to share. I was sitting in an office of a lawyer in downtown LA when I was
calculating our last year’s attendance. When I found out that not only we
achieved the average attendance we wanted to achieve, but we went beyond it,
I was so excited. We wanted to achieve 65 and we have 67 on the average. We
went up an average of 6 people per week. The Lord has blessed us; and I was
so happy. I want to share it with others. I showed it to Lenny and also to
one of our church members who were there with us. We talked about it for a
while and we were all so excited.
When you have experience with God, you are going to share it with others,
no matter what.
When you are excited about your faith you are going to tell others about
it. And the only way to be excited about your faith is to put it to work.
Remember, faith without work is dead, and dead faith does not do any good.
When you live according to what you believe, you are going to experience
God’s presence and that experience will cause you to share what the Lord has
done in your life with others.
New experience, new name.
God reveals Himself to us so that we can experience His presence.
Our experience with God will impact the way we live
Our experience with God will motivate us to share our faith.
My prayer is that this year not only we know about God, but each and
every one of us will have a new experience with God. An experience that will
change us and cause us to talk about God. |