Don't Carry it Alone | Names of God | Pastor Brian Aulick

Good morning, Engedi. We've got a new song we want to teach you guys today. Super simple. You'll catch on easy, I promise. But go ahead and put those hands together like this. Alleluia, you get all the praise, we say. Alleluia, you get all the praise, always. And I've got a God who is born, and He's known for making a way. Yes, He fought the battle, so I wouldn't have to walk more evening longs to the day. And I've got a God who's been faithful, far more than I could even say. And through every season, in spite of my weakness, He gave me a song I could say. And I came to praise. I came to praise. That's what I woke up to say. I came to praise. This is your part. Alleluia, you get all the praise, we say. Alleluia, you get all the praise, always. And I've got a King who was risen. He put my shame in the grave. With two hellos back, and no, I never had to. And He did it all in freedom. I came to praise. I came to praise. That's what I woke up to say. I came to praise. We say, Alleluia, you get all the praise, we say. Alleluia, you get all the praise, always. I'm singing in the morning. I'm singing at night. I'm singing in the battle. That's how I fight. I'm singing it holy. I'm singing twice. I'm singing it holy the rest of my life. I'm singing in the morning. I'm singing at night. I'm singing in the battle. That's how I fight. I'm singing it holy. I'm singing twice. I'm singing it holy the rest of my life. I'm singing it holy the rest of my life. Ale, ale, aleluia. You get all the praise we say. Ale, ale, aleluia. You get all the praise always. Ale, ale, aleluia. You get all the praise we say. Ale, ale, aleluia. You get all the praise always. I'm singing in the morning. I'm singing at night.

I'm singing in the battle. That's how I fight. I'm singing it holy. I'm singing it twice. I'm singing it holy the rest of my life. Ale, ale, aleluia. You get all the praise always. Let's give Him our praise. Let's give Him our praise. I came to praise. Let me out of my way. I came to praise. ♪♪ Church, let's lift our voices high this morning and sing out to the One who deserves all the praise. ♪♪ A thousand generations are falling down in worship to sing a song of ages until it lands. ♪♪ And all who've gone before us and all who will believe will sing a song. ♪ Song of ages to the Lamb ♪ ♪ Your name is the highest ♪ ♪ Your name is the greatest ♪ ♪ Your name stands above them all ♪ ♪ All throne and dominions ♪ ♪ All powers and positions ♪ ♪ Your name stands above them all ♪ ♪ And the angels cry ♪ ♪ Holy, all creation cries ♪ ♪ Holy, you are lifted high ♪ ♪ Holy, holy forever ♪ ♪ And if you've been forgiven ♪

♪ And if you've been redeemed ♪ ♪ Sing this song forever to the Lamb ♪ ♪ Oh yeah ♪ ♪ If you want more freedom ♪ ♪ And if you bear His name ♪ ♪ Sing this song forever to the Lamb ♪ ♪ To the Lamb, oh we sing ♪ ♪ We sing this song forever and amen ♪ ♪ And the angels cry ♪ ♪ Holy, all creation cries ♪ ♪ Holy, you are lifted high ♪ ♪ Holy, holy forever ♪ ♪ To your people, your people sing ♪ ♪ Holy, to the King of kings ♪ ♪ Holy, you will always be ♪ ♪ Holy, holy forever ♪ ♪ Your name is the highest ♪ ♪ Your name is the greatest ♪ ♪ Your name stands above them all ♪ ♪ Above all thrones and dominions ♪ ♪ All power and position ♪ ♪ Your name stands above them all ♪ ♪ Your name is the highest ♪ ♪ Your name is the greatest ♪ ♪ Your name stands above them all ♪ ♪ Stands above all thrones and dominions ♪ ♪ All power and position ♪ ♪ Your name stands above them all ♪ ♪ And the angels cry ♪ ♪ Holy, all creation cries ♪

♪ Holy, you are lifted high ♪ ♪ Holy, you're holy forever ♪ ♪ Let your people sing ♪ ♪ Holy to the King of kings ♪ ♪ And you will keep holding ♪ ♪ You will always be holy ♪ ♪ Holy forever to the King of kings ♪ ♪ Yeah ♪ ♪ We're so grateful, so grateful ♪ ♪ Cause you are love ♪ ♪ And we sing, Jairus, you are love ♪ ♪ Jairus, you are love ♪ ♪ In every circumstance, in every circumstance ♪ ♪ Jairus, you are love ♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ The Bible says that the devil is a liar, that he is the father of lies So whatever is in your head today, push it out, push it out, and just remember what the Lord says is truth about you My enemy, he lied to me But that's not the end, that's not the end You gave a better work to me So that's what I'll sing, that's what I'll sing The devil tried to keep me down But that's not the end, no that's not the end Oh weary heirs, lift up again And worship the Lamb, worship the Lamb My enemy, he lied to me But that's not the end, no that's not the end You gave a better work to me So that's what I'll sing, that's what I'll sing The devil tried to keep me down But that's not the end, no that's not the end

Oh weary heirs, lift up again And worship the Lamb, I'll give you a song of confidence To sing in the face of suffering Whenever you feel your heart forget Sing out the truth, you know Right in the moment you're needing it The Spirit of God will breathe again And all of your hope will be found In Jesus Christ, your cornerstone So this is my song of confidence I'll sing in the face of suffering Whenever you feel your heart forget I'll sing out the truth, I know Right in the moment I'm needing it The Spirit of God will breathe again And all of my hope will be found In Jesus Christ, my cornerstone No shoulder I'm on alone Well how many of you know today that no matter what your weakness you're feeling No matter how tired you are, Jesus is enough for you Do not give up, do not compromise, do not give in You are complete in Christ, He won the victory for you There is nothing that stands against you that is greater than the Lord Jesus Christ I wonder if we could give Him praise one more time church Oh you are complete in Him You have confidence not because you are so good but because He is so great In Jesus' name and all God's people said Amen, amen, go ahead and grab a seat if you would Well it is so good to see everybody today And man, I'm just thankful to be in church

I'm thankful to be in church on a day that's as warm as today Because we're gonna go out How many of you are gonna get outside after church is done today? Wow, okay, everybody's gonna sit inside and watch TV Sounds amazing It's great, we're gonna get outside man I wanna welcome a few groups of special people today So I wanna just say, first off, thanks to everybody for coming out at our Grand Rapids campus We're just so glad you're here We're so glad to have Ingete Espanol's meeting All you who are joining us online I wanna say a special welcome to those who are joining us from jails and prisons around the country We love you and we are praying for you And I wanna just, can we welcome our new folks with us Who's here for the first time? Just make some noise for them, let's go We're glad you're here, alright, thanks for hanging out with us You picked a great day to be in church And I can think a couple things that are going on today that are a big deal But one of them is, how many of you know we got game seven for the Pistons tonight, everybody? Anybody rooting for the Pistons? Let's go Anybody rooting for the Cavs? We don't care Alright Cleveland, you know, that's in the same state as Columbus I mean, come on What good comes from Ohio? Nothing That's probably the answer to that in Jesus' name I'm kidding, I'm kidding, alright Little Sunday morning basketball fun, my goodness

Hey, I got some cool news to report to y'all A couple of weeks ago, our church participated in TRED Which is when we run as part of the Tulip Time Run But we're here to get it, we run To raise money for all kinds of vital partnerships we have as part of Kingdom Builders Both in the West Michigan area Organizations that are meeting great kind of urgent needs But also, we're doing international work through Kingdom Builders Coming alongside refugees and many others And so this is an opportunity for you to run or walk or volunteer in TRED And raise money for incredibly urgent and important needs And man, I'm just so excited Because we had all kinds of people from every single one of our campuses Come out for tread this year. We have 72 volunteers. We had 278 runners or walkers and so get this church We have three hundred and fifty people from and get a church make a difference through tread make some noise for them Well done. Well done. Well done Man just thank you for running. Thank you for fundraising Thank you for having the boldness to say I want to live a life that is bigger than me Because runners walkers and volunteers you made that decision Can I share with you today that forty six thousand five hundred dollars was raised for our Kingdom Builders partners? Give God praise for that Man, every one of those dollars is meeting a real need and is making a big difference And so thank you for stepping up and thank you for being so generous with your time and with your treasure Now today we're going to continue in a series. We started last week. It's called names of God and What we're doing over each one of the weeks of this series is we're going to look at just a different name that God is Addressed by in the Bible primarily the Old Testament and last week We looked at this idea that God is Jehovah. Ah, the Lord is Shepherd from Psalm 23 Missed that message. I want courage you to go back to it. But the reason why we're looking at each one of these names of God is

Because the names of God in the Bible were used to communicate a character trait or an attribute about God and so every time you understand a name of God you understand something about the very person of God and Our hope man the thing I'm praying for for this whole series long is listen to this as we understand God's character We will worship him for who he is and we'll experience him meeting us where we are. Amen Church That's what we want to do. We want to worship God fully for who he is But we want to experience through these attributes and character traits of their very person of God that he would meet us right where we are even today And I want to just say some of you're here today. God wants to meet you. All right, you're not here by accident You might go to church every Sunday. You might be the first time today I meet people all the time never been in church before I want you to know if you're in this space if you're watching online God brought you here because he's got a word for you He wants to speak to your heart whatever is going on in your life Now the name that we're looking at of God today is Elohim could y'all shout out Elohim and This is gonna be the earliest name that God has addressed by anywhere in the Bible We're gonna be studying from Genesis 1 if you've got a Bible you can turn to Genesis 1. I didn't say this first service I'll mention the second though Elohim is actually a plural word by itself We take it in context as singular describing God, but it's actually in Hebrew. It's a plural word word It's one of the one of the earliest clues we have in the Old Testament To God's existence as Trinity God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Spirit Elohim and in Genesis chapter 1 We see Elohim's name come up again and again Says this Genesis 1 verse 1 in the beginning God Elohim Created the heavens and the earth and Now the earth was formless and empty darkness was over the surface of the deep and the spirit of Elohim was hovering over the waters and God Elohim said Let there be light and there was light

It's interesting friends that in John chapter 1 Jesus is called the Word of God. And so here we see God the Father Creating heavens of earth. We see heaven and earth. We see the Spirit of God God the Spirit suffering over hovering over the waters and And we know from the New Testament that Jesus was the agent of creation God said the Word of God spoke let there be light. It's a reference to Jesus and there was light God saw that the light was good and he separated the light from darkness. God called the light day and the darkness he called night And there was evening and there was morning the first day And then in verse 6 Elohim creates our atmosphere in verse 9 Elohim creates dry ground verse 11 Elohim creates vegetation verse 14 Elohim creates the Sun the moon and the stars verse 20 and 24 Elohim creates the living creatures and finally in verse 26 Elohim creates humanity Adam and Eve and After all of this creative work in verse 31 we read and God Elohim Saw all that he had made and it was what church It was very good. And There was evening and there was morning the sixth day. Let's pray together Father thank you today that you have a word for each one of us. Thank you that you are Elohim That you stand behind all of creation And as such, you are fully able to speak to each one of us with whatever victories and whatever challenges we face even at this moment. I pray for the person who is here today who does not yet have a relationship with you. They are not here by accident. I pray, Father, this would be the day their heart would receive your love, they would be willing to put their trust in Jesus and begin a relationship with you, Elohim. I pray for those of us who know and love Jesus, that today, even again on this Sunday, we would not be here at church playing games, but we would be here to receive a word from the living God. We are here to listen for that word, our hearts are wide open.

And Jesus, we pray right now, would you speak to us. We expect it in faith, in Jesus' name. And the whole church said, Amen. Well in the opening chapters of the Bible, Genesis 1, 2, and 3, we are finding out, God is putting before us our origin story, really, of the universe and all of humanity. It's interesting, I've really been appreciating origin stories more lately because Christina and I started watching a show, I think it's on Apple, but it's called Silo. Anybody seen Silo yet? That's about the same four people as the first service. All right, so it's gonna be a very powerful illustration. But it's interesting, the show Silo, it's crazy because it's basically this 10,000 people live in a population, in a silo underground, and they don't know why, but they don't know their origin story. They don't know where they came from, they don't know why they're there, they don't know who built the silo under, they don't know anything. And it's like, man, it's so profoundly disorienting to not know where you come from. And here in Genesis 1, God is giving us our origin story. But in order to tell us where we came from, God has to let us know what came before us, what came before this world. And so in Genesis 1, we read these foundational, pivotal words. Watch this, in the beginning, God. Say that out loud with me, in the beginning, God. These four words tell us the most crucial facts we need to know about our origin story. That Elohim existed before all of creation. That before anything was, there was Elohim, He was ultimate reality. And because God, because Elohim existed before anything that was, is, friends, He stands not only above creation, He stands outside of creation. These are fundamental insights into the very nature of our human experience, that Elohim is, in fact, sovereign ruler over everything, Elohim is the one true God. And we have to ask ourselves, how do we respond or interact with such a God?

How do we, how do we respect, how do we respond, how do we react to a sovereign ruler who stands above all of the universe as the one true God? And the answer is, we revere Him. The answer is, when you know God is sovereign ruler, you don't casually relate to Him, you worship Him. I was at a pastor's gathering just a couple weeks ago, and it was just about eight or nine of us pastors sitting around a table, it was real informal. And we didn't know this, found out on the first day, but one of the most influential, impactful pastors that's alive today surprised joined us at this gathering. It was so cool. This guy has made an impact that's almost impossible to comprehend here in the U.S. and all around the world. He's retired now, and here he is, first day, we're all getting together just to hang out and have a meal together, and here comes Pastor Greg, sits down at the table. It's interesting how the moment he walked in, there was a certain kind of reverence for his presence. At first, people were like, yo, is that Pastor Greg? Is that Pastor Greg? That's Pastor Greg, oh my gosh. We didn't know, but then once we all confirmed that was indeed the real guy, that's the guy we've read his books, that's the guy we've seen on the internet, that's the guy we follow on social media, and he's sitting down here at the table with us. It was interesting how respectfully everybody engaged with him. Whenever they would talk to Pastor Greg, whenever they'd talk about Pastor Greg when he was in the room, it was characterized by great regard and great respect. Guys would be trying to help Greg at any time they could. I remember at one point, there's a dude sitting right next to Pastor Greg, and he notices that Pastor Greg's water glass is almost empty, and he's like, Pastor Greg, can I get you some water? Pastor Greg, sure.

I was like, yeah, and so the guy runs out and gets him some water. Then my favorite moment from hanging out these few days with this, not celebrity in the sense of, oh my gosh, he's so cool. The sense of being a hero for the kingdom of God, of hanging out with him is like, at one point he sits down at the meal and he realized he didn't bring a napkin, he forgot the napkin. And he makes this comment, he's like, oh man, I just realized, shoot, I forgot a napkin. Like five dudes jump up to go get him a napkin as fast as possible. And that was the whole week long, it was like this regard for this man who has done so much for the kingdom of God. And I couldn't help but think to myself, if that is how much regard, if that is how much might even say reverence we show for a pastor who's going to be here for a few moments and then he's going to be buried in the ground. How much more reverence ought we to show our sovereign God, the ruler of the universe, the one who is and who is behind all of reality, the one who stands over and apart from all of creation. This is such an important foundational point, friends, I need to declare to you today. God is not your life coach. Elohim is not your personal therapist. Elohim is not your cosmic assistant. Elohim is the king of kings, he is the lord of lords, he is the sovereign ruler over the universe and the only proper response to Elohim is to worship and revere him. Do you believe that, church? That's how, we don't sit there and go, oh Elohim, I hope you can just like, you know, get about helping making me successful and help me live my best life. Thanks God, he loves helping us. He loves meeting us where we are, but our first response to Elohim isn't like what can you do for me, it's God can I worship you? Because he's worthy of that. And here's the other thing, once you understand God is sovereign ruler, it means that any

time you see a God, an idol, a false religion try to tread on God's turf, you say I don't think so. All right, so any time like, you got so many false religions today, Islam and Hinduism and Buddhism and Jehovah's cults, Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons, all of them, right, they're all man's approach of redefining God in a way that is not true to who he is. I'm sorry, we say as Christians, no, I worship Elohim. I don't give any, I don't even give any ground to these other, these other religions. Man-made religions. And then watch this though, it's not just like false religions or cults out there. How many of you know our own hearts can produce counterfeit gods? You realize this? Man, John Calvin said our heart is an idol-making factory. Watch this, you've got an idol in your life any time you revere something more than God. Any time you're passionate for something more than God. Any time you live in fear for something more than you live in fear of God. Man, I see this all the time. And watch this, idols, they're not like necessarily bad things, they can be, but oftentimes the most dangerous idols are actually the good things in our lives. We end up taking good things and we raise them to be ultimate things. And all of a sudden now we're valuing our marriage too much. We're valuing our jobs too much. We're worshiping our income too much. We're worshiping our lifestyle too much. We're worshiping church growth too much. We're worshiping number of baptism too much. All of a sudden we're worshiping things too high, we're putting them too high, even above the place of God, friends. And any time you see that happening in your life, you say, oh no, no, hold on, hold on. I worship a sovereign ruler, I worship Elohim, and there is nothing that is gonna compete in my life for His worship, amen?

The thing, the thing with, the thing with idols is this, friends. Not only do idols fail to ever deliver on what they promise, did you hear that? They never deliver. Always, they promise big things, you know, over promise and they always under deliver. But even that practical problem is not the biggest problem with idols in our lives. The biggest problem is they call for a worship and devotion that only Elohim is due. And as people who love Elohim, as people who follow Elohim, as people who understand Elohim as sovereign ruler, we say no, we are gonna worship Elohim and Elohim alone because He is the one true God and He is the sovereign ruler. That is how you respond to a sovereign God. With reverence, we revere Him, amen? Now that's not all we learn about Elohim in Genesis chapter one. There's a phrase that is repeated in Genesis chapter one ten times. Ten is, in Hebrew, looked at as a number of completion or a number of perfection. And the phrase is this, and God said, everybody say, and God said. It's repeated over again, and God said, let there be light. And God said, let there be vegetation. And God said, let there be lights in the sky. And God said, let there be living creatures. And it's interesting when you look at the phrase, and God said, in context. You discover that oftentimes, God is creating something out of nothing. Like there was nothing there. There was nothing to manipulate or manage. God just created something out of nothing. Philosophers call this ex nihilo creation, creation out of nothing. So different than how we create today. Like we like to say, oh, we're creating new things, we're making innovations and inventions, but the truth of the matter is, friends,

no matter how great the scientists work, no matter how great the company's research, the truth of the matter is, every time we announce a so-called new thing, it's just a rearrangement of molecules and matter that was already there, do you understand that? There's no scientist who's literally created something out of nothing. We call it new, but in point of fact, it's not really new, it's a manipulation of what already was. And watch this, the power of our God is such that he can take something out of nothing and he can make it into something. He can take something that wasn't there and make it reality. What this tells us is that God is absolutely incomprehensibly powerful. He is able to do far more than anything you or I could ever ask or imagine. How do you relate to a God who is powerful like this? You rely upon him. You ask God to do in your life what you could not do for yourself. You intentionally lean on the power of Elohim instead of just leaning on your own strength and your own willpower. Now, if you're a parent, you're used to this kind of leaning dynamic because if we're gonna be honest, moms and dads, the whole opening run of your kid's life is them leaning on you for a power they do not have, right?

Could you feed me, please? Could you get that for me, please? Could you buy that for me, please? They get older. Could you drive me there, please? Could you order that, Evan's big thing was, could you order that for me online, please? My wife is a saint. You cannot imagine the number of products she has ordered for our son. I mean, it's crazy. And for many years, he did not have an Amazon account. He did not have a way to pay for it. And for all of the products, which was about 80% of them that he didn't like once they showed up, he did not have the way to package it up and get it back to UPS to send it back again, right? Mom, could you please? He was leaning on her for a power he did not have. Friends, this is an approximation of exactly what you and I are called to do as we worship and serve Elohim, who has a power we cannot begin to comprehend. And here's the thing I was thinking about this. For anybody who has been a Christian for longer than like 10 minutes, you're like, well, of course, Pastor Brian. Of course, he's powerful. And of course, I would rely on him. How could you not do that?

That's who God is. But I think for many of us, including myself, I think we're better at talking about relying on God than actually relying on God. Here's a little test that I applied to myself this week. I'm gonna ask you to apply it to yourself. How many of you, when you're dealing with difficult things, you go, sometimes I spend more time worrying about it than I spend praying about it. Put your hands up if you're joining me That's a lot of us, right? Better at, we're better at talking about relying on God. How about this one? For those of you who really like to strategize and plan, how many of you would say you spend sometimes more time strategizing and planning than you think about actually praying about the thing? Hands up if that's you, right? We got, so we know God's powerful and we know that we're called to rely on him and yet we struggle to do the very thing we were made to do and that God is glad to do for us and that is be our strength. I love this passage in Psalm 44 because for me it paints a beautiful picture of what it means to know, like we've got our part of the equation, we gotta work hard, we gotta put in the effort, but we also know that God is our strength. The psalmist says this,

through you, through you Elohim, we push back our enemies. Through your name, we trample our foes. I like this next word. I put no trust in my bow. Not just a little bit of trust, it's a nice bow after all. I put no trust in my bow. I put no trust in my sword. It doesn't bring me victory, but watch this, he says, Elohim, you give us victory. Somebody say, God gives victory. You give us victory over our enemies and you put our adversaries to shame. The reason why I like Psalm 44 is because on the one hand, the psalmist knows he's gotta push back and he's gotta fight. How many of you know you gotta fight, right? You can't just sit on the couch at home if you're gonna move forward and God's calling your life. He knows he's gotta fight. He knows he needs a bow. He knows he needs a sword. He knows he needs to use those things and know how to use them well. Watch this. But he knows no matter how well he uses them,

if he experiences victory, victory is coming from God, not his own abilities. I'm such, I'm such a fan of all of you who are entrepreneurs and you're out there working hard and you're doing your best and you're taking risks and you're making sacrifices. All I want to say to you is listen, in the midst of the grind, in the midst of working hard, in the midst of all your labors and your faith and your risk, can I tell you if you experience victory, it's only because God is going to give you victory. Let's lean on Him. Let's pray and let's ask Him for strength. Let's ask Him for help. Let's actually live like Elohim is our Elohim. And I know there's probably somebody out there like, well, pastor, I'm making a lot of money and I'm doing well in my job and I don't even pray that much. Know what I want to say? Think about where you'd be if you actually started leaning on Jesus. I mean, my goodness, man, I feel like some of us, if we started leaning on God for the power that only He can provide, man, our life would give a testimony that is so beautiful, that is so compelling that people couldn't help but put their trust in Jesus when they see what God's doing in your life. So let's lean on Him, amen church? God's sovereign ruler, number one. Number two, God is powerful, incomprehensibly so. And then number three, there's a phrase that's repeated not ten times this time, but seven times in the text. And it is the phrase, it is good. Every day of creation, God gets done, stands back, it's like me when I get done working on the lawn. It is good. I do that today still, don't I, Tina? That's true.

I get done weeding the gardens, I get done doing whatever it is, come on out here, walk with me. It is good. That's what God does on every one of these days of creation. It is good. Can I tell you something? The reason why God can declare His works are good is because God is good. The reason why God can declare His works are good is because God is the source of good, God is the standard for good, and therefore every one of God's works and His judgment are what, church? They're good. This is such an important concept to grasp, that God is good, because once you come to understand His goodness in your life, it will, it'll change your relationship with Him. If God is just this distant, powerful God, then sure, maybe you ask Him for help once in a while, but He's just out there and maybe He does it, maybe He doesn't, maybe He does, but He doesn't really care, friends. But once you understand God is good, now you have grounds to understand that God doesn't just powerful, but He cares for your life. And it just changes everything. There's a dude who goes to our church, grew up in such a dysfunctional home. I know that's the case for many of us. I know, I know I got that kind of story and, and parents are always fighting with each other and swearing at each other and fighting with the kids and telling their kids how terrible they are and throwing stuff at each other and just, dysfunctional home. But this guy said, every time I went to my grandparents' house, he said it was like the only time of my week that I could rest on the inside. And I said, why? Because they're just good people? He said because they're good people, they have good hearts. And I'd walk into my grandparents' house, he'd say, and they'd ask me how I'm doing.

And they'd want to hear about all the details. And he said, I'd walk in and they'd speak life over me and they'd encourage me. And he said, I walk into their house and he said, every time I go into their house, there's a smell of chocolate chip cookies in the air. Come on, grandparents, that's a secret, right? And he said, because they were such good people, I'd be in that environment and it was the only place my soul would experience rest. And they cared. Listen to this passage from the book of Nahum, chapter one and verse seven. It says, the Lord is good. Somebody shout out, the Lord is good. He said, the Lord is good. He's a refuge in times of trouble. Trouble. Watch this. He cares for those who trust in him. It's because the Lord is good, friends, that you can finally rest in his love and care when you are facing difficulty. I know many of us in our own church family right now are facing incredible difficulty. Some of you are feeling it right now because you're in jail or prison and you're waking up every day to difficulty. Some here in our church are going through a divorce. Some are going through bankruptcy. Some are going through other kinds of difficult legal or court proceedings. Some people here feel profoundly lonely. There are others here who have a broken relationship with their child that they don't know how to remedy. You're not even on speaking terms anymore. You're going through all of this pain in your own soul, your own heart. And what the world says is, look to the world for comfort when you're hurting.

The world's says go shopping if you're hurting so you can forget your pain. The world says go eating. The world says go drinking. The world says go smoking. The world says go doom-scrolling. The world says go do something sexual that's going to give you relief for a moment. The problem, friends, with the world's comfort is it's fake, it's superficial, and it's momentary. Listen, if you know God as Elohim, if you know your God is good, you can rest in His care. You do not have to turn to the world for comfort because you already have a comforter in the Lord Jesus Christ. You know Elohim, and He's good, and He cares for your need, and He's a refuge for your soul. You don't need to build a refuge, you don't need to make a refuge, you don't need to find a refuge. Elohim is your refuge. And my encouragement, listen, if you're going through something hard today, if your heart is hurting, maybe you're going through the pain of betrayal, maybe you're going through the pain of a relationship broken, maybe you're going through the pain of financial loss, my encouragement to you is turn your pain over to Elohim. Because listen, instead of the world's comfort, which is superficial and fake and momentary, Elohim's comfort is soul-deep and it's lifelong. Psalm 34, taste and see that the Lord is blessed is the one who take refuge in Him. Elohim is sovereign ruler. Elohim is incomprehensibly powerful. Elohim is good and therefore you can rest in His care. You can bring your hurts to Him, you can bring your pains to Him, and He will minister to your heart. But there's one other aspect of Elohim that I want you to see in the text today. All throughout Genesis chapter 1, God is addressed as Elohim. As we go through each subsequent day of the creation narrative, this grand title for God, Elohim, is ascribed to Him one time after another. But then that switches in Genesis 2. If you know your Bible, Genesis 2 is where we get the zoomed-in account of God creating humanity. Everything that happened on day 6 in chapter 1 is zoomed in on in chapter 2. And what's fascinating is God is no longer addressed simply as Elohim, but rather He is addressed as Yahweh Elohim. Everybody say Yahweh Elohim. In your English Bible, you read it as the Lord

God, all Lord in all caps, the Lord God, Yahweh Elohim. The reason why this is significant is because Yahweh is God's personal covenant name. Yahweh is the name that God gave to His people and His people alone to signify that He cared about them, that He was in a relationship with them, that they belong to Him, and that He was their God, Yahweh Elohim. And here we are in Genesis 2, and He's creating humanity, and no longer is God simply Elohim, now God's personal name, Yahweh Elohim. This is God's way of saying to us that He is not just powerful, Elohim is personal. Elohim wants a relationship with you. Elohim wants to know you, and Elohim wants to be known by you. It's not just Elohim anymore, He's Yahweh Elohim. I was talking to Pastor Jerrion last week, he's our worship pastor, and he was telling me that his father-in-law is trying to get him, trying to get Jerrion to call him by a different name. I was like, well what name are you calling him? And he's like, I don't know if you know this about Pastor Jerrion, but he ended up marrying his, in Orlando when Jerrion was a teenager still, he was part of this church, Pastor Gary was his pastor, he ended up marrying his pastor's daughter, which is the beloved Kara, sitting here in the front row with my wife, alright? So that's his pastor's daughter. How many of you know that comes with some pressure, right? And so Jerrion, who's very, I mean Ben, what I said earlier about the reverence for Pastor Greg at the beginning, Jerrion's very got like high honor for his pastor, and so he's used to calling Karis's dad Pastor Gary. That's who Pastor Gary was, Pastor Gary. If he got real casual about it, he'd call him Pastor, alright? That's how, that's like risk days, right, but just Pastor. And so Jerrion and Karis have been married almost seven years, and Pastor Gary is trying to sit Jerrion down. Jerrion says that Pastor Gary is a southern Florida boy, he starts every sentence with... Boy, giving a talk with Jerrion, boy. And, and he said, he's trying to get Jerrion to call him something other than pastor or Pastor Gary. He's like, we're around the grandkids now, you know, around the whole family, you're still, you should call me pastor.

And he said, maybe you just call me anything else. I mean, you can call me, you know, dad, you can call me grandpa, you can just call me Gary. I mean, just anything but pastor or Pastor Gary. Now, why is he saying this to Jerrion? Because their relationship isn't just through the church now, now they're family. He said, this isn't, this isn't just about like you serve on my, no, now we have a relationship. And I want you to call me by my personal name. Listen, Christians, if all you call God is by Elohim, if you only relate to him as sovereign ruler, you are at risk of turning what is supposed to be a relationship with God into a religion. Religion is all about what you are doing to get to God. Christianity is all about what God has done to get to you in Jesus Christ for a relationship. Can I tell you something today? God does not want a religion, he wants to know you. God doesn't want you to work for him, he wants you to relate to him. He wants you to live from a place of you have been accepted, you have drawn near, you've become a child of God. It's not, God, what do I have to do to you to make you happy, what do I have to do to you? Do I have to have, are my good deeds bigger than my bad deeds, or God, have I done enough today that you don't, you're not gonna judge me? No, no, no, he doesn't want any of that.

God wants a relationship with you, church. If forever you should doubt that, listen to these words from Hebrews chapter nine. The writer says, therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the most holy place, the presence of God, since we have confidence to enter the most holy place by the blood of Jesus Christ, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart. Listen, friends, Jesus did not die on a cross so you could become religious, do you realize this? Jesus did not die on a cross so you could get up every day asking, am I doing enough for God? Jesus died on a cross so he could make you enough for God. Jesus died on a cross so all of the burden of your sin would be put on him, all of those dark and demonic thoughts that sometimes cross your mind, those evil actions in your past and for some are present, it all would be put on Jesus, and as you would be put on trust in him, you would be clothed with Jesus' righteousness and perfection, and out of that place, you could draw near to God. God doesn't want you working for him. God doesn't want you saying, God, what do I have to do to try to make you happy? God wants you to know you are accepted, you are chosen, you are redeemed, you are loved, you are a son or daughter of God, you are, man, you've been, you're redeemed,

I mean, you're his, and out of that place, out of that place, we serve him, not out of a place of earning, but out of a place of gratitude, God, after everything you've done to make me a new creation, I stand up here to serve you, not to earn anything, but just to reflect my gratitude for the salvation that you've accomplished in my life. Elohim Yahweh tells me God is not interested in simply religion, God is interested in personal relationship. Let's pray together. Father, today, I wanna just say thank you that you are Elohim. That you are ruler over all of the universe, that you stand above and outside of all of this beautiful creation that you have made. And as such, Father, our proper response to you is reverence. Father, we just pray you would show us if there is anything in our lives that we are putting ahead of you, our lifestyle, our money, a hope to get married, a child, if there's anything at all we're putting in front of you, Father, we wanna dethrone those things. We don't want them to become idols, but rather we wanna give you our reverence. We wanna give you our first honor. We wanna give you our first worship today. I pray, Father, for those of us

who are trying to live life largely on our own strength, God, we recognize you want to do in our lives and through our lives what we cannot do on our own. Make us people of prayer, Father. Make us people who call out to heaven and can say it with the psalmist. I might have a bow in my hand or I might have a sword. I know I need to push forward, but I know my victory, if it comes, is only gonna come through Jesus Christ. Because people who rely on you for victory, who look to you for victory, who call out to you for victory because we know victory does not come through our own strength. Pray for the one who's hurting today. I pray for the one who came into church today and feels burdened. God, you are not just powerful, you are good. And even in this moment, would we bring our hurts and our pains to you? Holy Spirit, would you minister to our hurts and pains? You give us a comfort this world does not give. The world holds out to us a comfort that is momentary, that is fake. And God, you give us a comfort that is so deep and lifelong. Would you comfort us and meet us even right now in our pain, Elohim? And finally, God, you want a relationship with us.

You know, it's just running us around, doing things for you. You want us to relate to you. And listen, if you're here today and you haven't given your life to Jesus, can I tell you, you're here because God wants to know you. You're here because God wants you to put your trust in him today, to acknowledge you can't save yourself, you can't forgive yourself, that you need Jesus' death on the cross so your sins can be wiped out through his bloodshed, that you can be made a new person through his resurrected life. And so listen, friends, in just a moment, I'm gonna count to three. And when I say three, if you want to give your life to Jesus today, I'm just gonna ask you to put your hand in the air as a way of saying before God, today is the day I wanna give my life to Christ. I wanna become a child of God. I wanna come home to Elohim. And I'm not gonna call you out and I'm not gonna embarrass you, but this is a chance to say with raised hand, this is my day to become a child of God. And so one, I want you to know God loves you so much that he would give the life of his son, Jesus Christ, on a cross to die for your sins and mine.

Two, the same Jesus who would die on a cross was raised to life three days later so that as you and I would put our trust in him, we too would be raised to new life, both living for Jesus on the side of the grave and with the hope of heaven on the other. And three, if you wanna give your life to Jesus today, no matter what your campus you're at, could you put your hand in the air right now, declare before God right now, if this is the day you say, I wanna come home to God, I wanna ask him to forgive my sins, that he would make me new, I wanna ask that God would bring me into his family, that I would step in my faith and know that I have been forgiven and I am a child of God. And I'm gonna pray right now, and if that is your heart's desire, I wanna ask you to agree with this prayer. And so Father, right now we say, we cannot save ourselves, we have a burden of sin that we cannot fix, but through the blood of Jesus, I pray, you would forgive my sins even right now. I'm gonna put my trust in you today, Jesus, and by the power of your resurrected life, would you make me new, that from this point forward, I would follow you, Jesus, with all who I am for the rest of my days,

all the way to spending my eternity in your arms. I pray it in Jesus' name and all of God's people said, amen. Can we celebrate the power of the gospel today, church? Elohim is meeting us. It's not a religion, it's a relationship. And listen, if you just took that step, and as our ushers are walking down the aisles, I want you to just wave to them. We've got a Bible to give to you, we've got a book, just a free book to get you started in your spiritual journey, and so they'll be glad to hand that out to you, just grab their attention. But we're gonna end this day by worship, so I wanna ask you to stand to your feet, and let's declare one last time, friends, that we are here to worship and revere Elohim, our sovereign God. ♪ Your name is the highest ♪ ♪ Your name is the greatest ♪ ♪ Your name stands above them all ♪ ♪ Above all thrones and dominions ♪ ♪ All powers and positions ♪ ♪ Your name stands above them all ♪ ♪ Your name is the highest ♪ ♪ Your name is the greatest ♪ ♪ Your name stands above them all ♪ ♪ Above all thrones and dominions ♪ ♪ All powers and positions ♪

♪ Your name stands above them all ♪ ♪ And the angels sing your praise ♪ ♪ Your name stands above them all ♪ ♪ And the angels cry holy ♪ ♪ All creation cries holy ♪ ♪ You are lifted high holy ♪ ♪ Holy forever King of people, King of people sing ♪ ♪ Holy to the King of kings ♪ ♪ Holy you will always be ♪ ♪ Holy, holy forever King of people, King of people sing ♪ ♪ Holy, holy forever King of people, King of people sing ♪