God Is The Great I AM - Pastor Efrem Smith | Midtown Church Sacramento

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More about Pastor Efrem

Rev. Dr. Efrem Smith is a pastor, consultant, speaker, and author. He is passionate about life transformation, multiethnic development, healthy churches, and community development. Within his church congregation he is known as Pastor Efrem, Pastor E, and Dr. E.

Pastor Efrem was the founding pastor of The Sanctuary Covenant Church, a multi-ethnic church in Minneapolis, MN, He served as the Superintendent of the Pacific Southwest Conference of the Evangelical Covenant Church. He also served as the President of World Impact, an urban missions organization. Currently, Pastor Efrem is the Co-lead Pastor of Midtown Church, a thriving and multi-ethnic community in Sacramento, California. He is also Co-Owner of Influential LLC, a speaking, consulting, and coaching ministry. Pastor Efrem is the author of Raising Up Young Heroes, The Hip Hop Church, Jump, The Post-Black and Post-White Church, Killing Us Softly, and Church for Everyone.

Pastor Efrem is a graduate of Saint John's University and Luther Theological Seminary. He completed the Doctor of Ministry degree from Fuller Theological Seminary and received an honorary Doctor of Ministry degree from Ashland Theological Seminary. Pastor Efrem is married to Donecia, and they have two daughters, Jaeda and Mireya. 

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:14

We are kicking off a new sermon series today called God Is. God is. We're gonna look at the nature, the characteristics of God, the names of God as presented in Scripture. And so we are glad that you are here as we kick off this new series, God Is. How did you get your name? There are probably some interesting stories in the room around how you received your name. For me, uh, my mom was trying to decide if she was gonna name me after her favorite actor or name me after her favorite candy bar. That was the debate. So my mom was trying to decide would she name me after the actor Ephraim Zimbless Jr. that she loved watching on TV, or would she name me after her favorite candy bar, the Heath Bar? Yeah, praise God her favorite candy bar wasn't Snickers. Man. But she chose to name me Ephraim, mainly because my dad's like, you can't name him after a candy bar. You can't do that. Now, my aunt Frida, she wanted my name to be Dion. So she tried to weigh in and make her case why my name should be Dion, but that didn't happen. But that became my middle name. So my government name is Ephraim Dion Smith. That is my full name and the story behind the the first two names uh that that I have. Now the last name, I mean, that goes back. I mean, uh my dad's last name is Smith, my grandfather's last name Smith. I mean, Smith goes back a ways uh uh on my dad's side of the family in Louisiana, but it also goes back uh more than likely to a plantation. My mom's maiden name is Knight. Her father's last name was Knight, grandfather's last name was Knight, but again, that that last name would go back to a plantation. There are stories behind our names, there's history behind our names. Uh, some of you are the descendants of people that that changed their last name, coming here as immigrants. They maybe they felt like because their last name was Polish or their last name was Italian or their last name was Jewish, that there may be certain ways that they would be seen or treated in the country because of the origins of their last name. Even some of them changed their first names because of the way that maybe at the time their particular immigrant group would have been treated. And so some people walked with their names, some people changed their names based on the environment in which they were living. We are the products, we are the descendants of stories, of joy, of pain, of struggle, of challenge that informs our name. How is God named? Who named God? Well, we'll find out that there are places in the Bible where God names God's self for particular reasons, reasons that impact our lives even today. Go with me to Exodus chapter 3, beginning in verse 1. Exodus chapter 3, beginning with verse 1. It says this. Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire, it did not burn up. So Moses thought, I will go over and see this strange sight why the bush does not burn up. When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, Moses, Moses. And Moses said, Here I am. Do not come any closer, God said. Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground. Then he said, I am 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. The Lord said, I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I've come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey, the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebuzites. And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I've seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. So now go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt. But Moses said to God, Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt? And God said, I will be with you, and this will be the sign to you that it is I have sent you. When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain. Moses said to God, 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 is his name? Then what should I tell them? God said to Moses, I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites, I am has sent me to you. God also said to Moses, Say to the Israelites, the Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob has sent me to you. This is my name forever. The name you shall call me from generation to generation. From this text, I want to preach to you on the title, God is the Great I Am. God is the great I Am. God, I pray this would be your message. God, you preach. And let me just be the instrument, the vehicle that you use to say what you want to say to these, your beloved children, my sisters and brothers. God, I want to be obedient to your word. So please let that be done. In Jesus' name, amen. God is the great I am. Some of you have multiple names. You have your government name, you have your fuller first name, but maybe growing up, you you received a nickname over time, or you received a shorter version of your name. So instead of William, they call you Billy now. Or instead of Marcus, they just call you Mark. Or maybe you got some other nickname that you don't even want people to call you no more, because you too grown for that. You don't want nobody calling you Boo-Boo no more. You don't want nobody calling you Ray Ray no more. You don't want nobody calling you TT no more. You don't, you don't, you don't want to go by that no more because you you too grown for that now. But but you have multiple names. I mean, I I get it that I have multiple names. Some people call me Ephraim. Uh some people call me E. Some people call me Pastor E. Some people call me Dr. E. My Aunt Frida calls me Ephraim Dion. My daughters call me dad. I mean, I have different uh names that people call me that I answer to based on their relationship to me.

unknown 8:00

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 8:00

So based on if they know me or not, and based on the way in which they know me, but how long they have known me, they can call me something that I will answer to, but it's all based on the depth of relationship. Ah, wonder when it comes to what we call God or not. It's ultimately based on the depth of relationship that we have with God. Some people just say God, some people say nothing at all. Some people say father, some people say daddy, some people say heavenly father when they pray, some people say the Lord, but it's all about the depth of relationship you have with God and what you know about God. The Bible presents multiple names for God based on the character and nature of God. We will explore these names connected to the character and the nature of God in this series that we will be in for the entire summer. But first, before we dive into this series and we start talking about the various names of God that is presented in the Bible, and we talk about the character and the nature of God, I want to be very clear about something. The ultimate way to know the character and nature of God, the best way, the full way, the core, the foundational way to know the character and nature of God is Jesus. Is Jesus, the Son of God, who is God, the word in the beginning that was God, is God. Nothing came into being except through him, John chapter 1, that the Jesus, the Christ, and and his death on the cross is the ultimate way to know who God is, that God loves us so much that God would come into the world as a human being and give his life for us, that we would be transformed, that we would be made new, that we would be saved out of the unfailing, overflowing, revolutionary love of God. Jesus died for us and rose from the grave that we would be saved. This is the ultimate, foundational, core, central way to know the nature, to know the character of God. Why is that important? Because without Jesus, we could potentially just be left with an angry God, a God of war, a God of violence, a God that we are deeply afraid of. A God of shaming. And this is not the true God. That's a counterfeit understanding of God. To know truly who God is is to know Jesus. Him crucified, Him risen. And there are some people that because they don't really truly know Jesus or they've been presented a false Jesus, they have a false understanding of who God is, and that's why we believe this sermon series is so important to really explore the character, the nature of God. But to know God is to know Jesus. There's enough violence, enough pain, enough horror, enough war in the world as it is. We need a God that is above all that, that is not centrally the God of war, the God of violence, the God of pain. I I've been fortunate that a few years ago I spoke at the Naval Academy. I've been fortunate to speak at uh military bases here in this area. And um, what I found when I'm speaking to men and women that serve the nation in that way is they need a God that is bigger than what they're being trained for, potentially. They need a God that they can look to above the threat of war, the threat of battle. They need the God of unfailing love, liberation, justice, truth, and transformation. So we find ourselves here for this week in the book of Exodus. The book of Exodus is an extension of what happens in Genesis. Exodus is the fulfilling of a promise that God made to Abraham. Exodus is God delivering the descendants of Abraham that now find themselves in slavery in Egypt. And Exodus is about God once freeing these Hebrew slaves, making a covenant with them, building a relationship with them in the desert, and making his name, his nature, his character known to them. Specifically, Exodus chapter three is a meeting, conversation between God and Moses. God shows up to Moses, God speaks to Moses, God lets it known that God sees the oppression, the slavery that is inflicting the Hebrew people, and God selects Moses as a vessel of liberation, and God shares God's name with Moses. What we see is two ways in which God expresses a name for God's self. One is I am, and we're gonna explore that in this message today, but we're also gonna explore that we see the name Lord, and Lord is spelled out in all capital letters. It points to what we say today, Yahweh. It points to uh what we say today as uh Jehovah, but because there's no equivalent of a J in the Hebrew language for us, it's really saying Yehovah or Yehovah. And what this means is the one who was, the one who is, and the one who shall be or is to come. Moses has this encounter with God, this revealing of God's self, this revealing of God's name at 80 years old. Can you believe that? At 80 years old, God calls Moses to a liberating task. I know some of y'all are saying when I'm 80 years old, I don't want God calling me to nothing but to eat and to nap. I don't, I ain't really looking for a job assignment from God at 80 years old. You know what I'm saying? Uh, but but this is the stage of life where Moses is reinvigorated, where Moses is reinvented, and through a name of God revealed to him, his whole life changes. So, what does God being the great I am show us? What does God being the great I am show us? One, it shows us God's existence. To know that God is the great I am, to know that God is Yahweh, is Yehovah, the Lord, is to know God's existence. Let's go back to Exodus chapter three, beginning with verse one. Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire, it did not burn up. So Moses thought, I will go over and see this strange sight why the bush does not burn up. When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, Moses, Moses, and Moses said, Here I am. Let me stop right there for a minute, because there's something going on that I think is important for us to catch here. Moses through marriage was related to a priest, a religious guy, a spiritual guy. He is now in his job taking the flock that he's overseeing to the mountain of God, a place called the mountain of God. But yet he's about to have his own personal experience with God. What this means is you can be related to godly people, you can be around godly people, you can even go to the place that godly people are supposed to go to meet other godly people, but you need your own personal experience with God for yourself. Ultimately, you need your own encounter, your own proof that you can say in your own heart out of your own mouth, I know God exists. You don't have to convince me no more. I don't need to get in debate, debate with anybody anymore. I've had my own encounter. You need more than just somebody that you know that knows God. You need to know more than just Pastor Ephraim or Pastor Susie. You need your own experience with God, that God exists. And that's what Moses gets. But it goes on. Verse 5 Do not come any closer, God said. Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground. Then he 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. Let me stop right there for a minute. Because it is possible to experience that God exists, but if you don't stay in that experience over time, you can have a faulty understanding of who God is because you're still trying to live your Christian life off of one experience. So you have to stay in the journey of experiencing God so that you can truly know the nature and character of God more accurately, more clearly. Because even in experiencing God, Moses' first reaction was he was afraid. Now I want you to know that that we have to live in the tension that the Bible both says, fear God and do not be afraid. Oh, it seemed like this is two opposites being. What is the uh the hypostatic union that is going on right here? Fear God, do not be afraid. What this means is ultimately we are to have reverence for God. We are to have awe of God, we are to have a childlike reverence and awe of God, that God is all-powerful, that God exists, that God is amazing, that God is beyond me, that God has everything I have, and I fear my life without God. But we don't need to be afraid. God is not a boogeyman. Some people are uh they they've they've been sold on the wrong God, and and they're and they're thinking, what is God trying to do to me? Why is God punishing me? Why is God doing this to me? And and we need to help people understand the character and nature of God so that we can get out of these religious misunderstandings. We can get away from spiritual fraud by knowing the loving God of truth and justice and forgiveness and righteousness and holiness that wants to liberate you from the enslavement of false religion. And so, so so so Moses had to stay in this. The Lord said in verse 7, 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. So I've come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey, the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, Jebuzites, Afroites. That there's no Afroites, I just wanted to see if y'all was paying attention, hanging with me. Though some of y'all look like back in the 70s, you was an Afroite, but that's neither here nor there. So God is showing that God exists. Yes. God is the one who existed way before Pharaoh. And God is saying that God sees the misery of the enslaved, God hears the cries of the oppressed. Why is that important? Because if God is for the poor, if God is for the enslaved, if God is for the suffering, God is for everybody. If the poor, if the enslaved, if the marginalized, if the colonized and suffering have access to God, everybody has access to God. It's inclusive. Now, now why is why am I saying it like that? Because, come on now, we you know how it is. We we live in a culture, in a society that if you're wealthy and you have certain privileges, you can get access into rooms, into spaces that other people don't have. Access into. So, like you can go through there because you have a membership, because they know you, because you're the third generation to have access to it. You know, you you've got the credentials, you've got the degree, you you have the access to get in certain spaces that people that are under-resourced, that are undereducated, that don't have the training can't get in that same space. And so if God was just for the people that had membership at the club, if God was just for the people that had wealth, if God was just for the highly educated, if God was just for the Caesars and the pharaohs of the world, then God would be discriminatory against a whole section of humanity that God says his son died for. And that's why if God is hanging out where the poor is, God is hanging out at a place where all humanity can have access. Because there's no place where the poor are that you can't get to. There's no place where the suffering are that you can't get to. If you ain't there, it's because you don't want to go there. It ain't because you don't have access to get there. You can go where the poor is, you can go where the under-resourced are, you can go where the incarcerated are, you can go where the sick are, you can go where the addicted are, you can go where the broken are, you can go where the abandoned are, and bring the liberating love of God if you want to. That's why I'm glad God showed us ahead of time. By having solidarity with the disinherited. This is a deep dive into existentialism. This transforming moment when I realize that God exists so that God can transform why I exist in the world. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Anybody in here, you met God and it changed why you exist in the world, you wouldn't apply for that job. But now that you know God, you wouldn't have applied for that university. But now that you know God, they told you you couldn't buy a house in that neighborhood. But because you know God, the ultimate realtor of the universe who owns all the land anyway, you decided you're gonna apply for the mortgage loan and put a down payment down anyway. Because you know that God exists, you have a new revelation of why you exist in the world. You don't exist to be stepped on, you don't exist to be thrown away, you don't exist to be abused, you don't exist to have people torture your mind and your emotions because you know God exists, you know you're too good for that now. Ah, he's the great I am, he's Yahweh, he's Yehovah, and I know why I'm in the world now. What does God being the great I am show us? One, God's existence, two, God's eternity. Exodus chapter three, beginning with verse 10, says this. So now go. I'm sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt. But Moses said to God, Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt? And God said, I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you. When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain. Moses said to God, 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 is his name? Then what should I tell them? God said to Moses, I am who I am. That is what you are to say to the Israelites, I am has sent me to you. God also said to Moses, Say to the Israelites, the Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob has sent me to you. This is my name forever. The name you shall call me from generation to generation. Uh, okay, so so we got two names that God has given God's self and sent and is sending Moses to Pharaoh, and well, first to the Israelites. So he's saying, first go to the enslaved Hebrews and let them know who I am. Go to the enslaved, go to the ones crying, go to the ones broken and let them know who I am. Then you're gonna go to Pharaoh. I feel like God is saying something through this microphone. I don't know. All right. All right, so God says, I am, and God says Lord. So let's break this down. Why does he say first I am? This saying I am is saying that God's reign has no end. He's saying, I am yesterday, I am today, I am tomorrow, I am forever. This has to do with God's reign. That God's reign is forever, that God's reign has no end. There are term limits, even though they might not think so, on Pharaoh, on King Nebuchadnezzar, on King Darius, on Artaxerxes. I know that Egypt thought their empire was gonna last forever. I know that Assyria thought and Persia thought their empires would last forever. I know that Babylon thought their empire would last forever. I know the Roman Empire thought their empire would last forever. I know Nazi Germany thought it was gonna last forever, but there is no Pharaoh, there is no king, there is no prime minister, there is no governor, there is no mayor, there is no president that can outlive God. God has no term limits and God has no time limits. So when he says I am, he's saying the one who was, the one who is, the one who shall be, and when he says, I am Lord, I am Yahweh, which is really Yehovah, because Yahweh is only the Hebrew letter construction of the proper name of God. So to say God is Yahweh, it would be equivalent that if you were gonna call me by my first name, Ephraim, uh, and some people would say put doctor or pastor in front of that, but I'm just saying, if you were to call me Ephraim, but if you said it like Yahweh, you're just pronouncing the letters that construct my name. So you would say, hey, uh, uh, e mm, hey, e mm, and I would say, hey, what's wrong with you? Because you're just sounding out the letter. That's what Yahweh is. So if you take the Hebrew letters, what does Yahweh, what does it actually spell? What does it construct? What we say, Jehovah. But because again, there's no equivalent of the J in the Hebrew, it's Yehovah. Yehovah. This is the proper name of the one true God. But there were scholars, religious people back in the day that thought, you know, so that you don't use the Lord's name, so that you don't use God's name in vain. Let's not use God's proper name at all, so we don't have the temptation to use it in vain, to use it wrongly, to use it uh inappropriately, but it is Yehovah. Well, what does that mean? Okay, you you're gonna like this, especially if you're urban. Because what Yehovah really means in the English is not gonna sound the best grammatically, but it's the best way for me to help you understand what Yehovah the Lord means. It means, uh I'm warning you ahead of time. It means I will be what I will be, so I be it. I now I love that because it's sad, because I grew up urban. So for me, I'm like, praise God. Look at won't he do it? Do it, won't he? So I know some people say, but that don't sound well, because it it wasn't meant to be word for word translated into the English like that. So in our English language, it sounds so urban and hood. That's what I like about it. It sounds so urban. It's like like what does Yehovah mean? It means I will be what I will be, so I be it. Oh my God. That is awesome. The the international hood version of the Bible. This is awesome. The urban Bible version, but I will be what I will be, so I be it. That's what God is saying. His name is you go tell Pharaoh, you go tell the oppressors, you go tell the people that are using their power against the marginalized that God will be who God will be, and you about to see, because God's about to be it. This is good news. You might be unemployed, but God's about to be what God needs to be in your life. Maybe you went through divorce, maybe you're sick right now, maybe there's confusion in your mind, maybe you're experiencing heartache, maybe somebody threw you away, but just when you started to feel isolated and lonely, all by yourself, the one who will be and always will be is about to be in your life. Somebody look at God and say, So be it. Be whatever you need to be on the inside of me, Jehovah. Be what you need to be in my city, be what you need to be in my family, be what you need to be in my country, be what you need to be in this world, be what you need to be in my mind, be what you need to be in my heart. Get into the center of my circumstance and God just be, just be God. That's all I'm asking. I'm I'm gonna stop, I'm gonna stop begging stuff from God. Now I'm just gonna say, God, just be. I trust you so much that God just be who you be in me. And now to get to my more grammatic part of the sermon, more grammatically correct part of the sermon, where I was talking about, you know, existentialism and whatnot. Let us go to point three. We've talked about God's existence, we've talked about God's eternity, let's talk about God's empowerment. To know God is the great I am, to know God is Yahweh is to know that God exists, that God exists into eternity, and that God empowers. Uh, Exodus chapter 3, verse 16. God says to Moses, Go assemble the elders of Israel and say to them, The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, appeared to me and said, I have watched over you and have seen what has been done to you in Egypt. And I have promised to bring you up out of your misery in Egypt into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebuzites, a land flowing with milk and honey. The elders of Israel will listen to you. Then you and the elders are to go to the king of Egypt and say to him, The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us. Let us take a three-day journey into the wilderness to offer sacrifices to the Lord your God. But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless a mighty hand compels him. So I will stretch out my hand and strike the Egyptians with all the wonders that I will perform among them. And after that, he's gonna let y'all go. I mean, I I put a little taste on it, but he's gonna let y'all go. God said, I know the circumstance you in. I know these people think they rule over you. I know these people think they control you. I know these people think they can hold you back. But when I get done working my wonders, they're gonna let you go. They're gonna wish they hadn't put your name in their mouth. When I God said, Let me fight your battles. I know you wanna clap back. I know you wanna clap back, but there's a clap from heaven when it hits your circumstance. The clap from the kingdom of God is more powerful than your clap, it has more authority than your clap, it has more power in it. So why don't you sit back and watch God clap? Let God do it. Because God has all power, He has power over Pharaoh, He has power over kings, God has the power and God gives power. This is very crucial to understand, sisters and brothers, as I come to my close. The reason the people listen to Moses is because he's obedient to God. It's God doing it through Moses. I'm hoping that the reason you're listening to me is because it's something that's coming through bigger than me. As soon as I step away from being obedient to God, humble before God, y'all need to stop listening to me. I need accountability that what is coming out of my mouth, what I'm standing on, is ultimately coming from God's agenda, not my own selfish agenda. So I gotta come to my clothes, y'all. I gotta close this out. So the last final thought here is God's engagement. Chapter 4 of Exodus, I gotta read it quickly. Moses answered, What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say the Lord did not appear to you? Then the Lord said to him, What is in your hand? A staff, he replied. The Lord said, Throw it on the ground. Moses threw it on the ground and it became a snake and he ran from it. I don't blame him. Then the Lord said to him, Reach out your hand and take it by its tail. Say what? You ever felt like God wanted you to do something that at the time you didn't really want to do it? Right then? You didn't want to be disrespectful to God. You believe in God, but you're like, God, not that. I'm gonna lie. There's a couple things I hope God don't ever ask me to do. Pick up a snake, move to Idaho. Outside of those two things. I shouldn't have confessed that in front of all y'all, but it's out there now. But Moses was obedient. Moses reached out and took hold of the snake, and it turned back into a staff in his hand. This said the Lord, and so that they may believe that the Lord, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you. What is it saying? God will take whatever you currently have and reconfigure it so that you can rediscover your real purpose. God will take you right where you are. He'll take you employed where you are or unemployed where you are. He'll take you housed or unhoused where you are. He'll take you married or single right where you are right now. He will take you where you are and use it for liberation. Because ultimately, God gives us his name to rename who we are. I've been to Ghana four times. And the very first time that Dinesha and I went to Ghana was powerful on that first one day because it was the first time we experienced a renaming ceremony. I did ancestry.com and found out that my origin, my who I am. I am mostly Nigerian. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. All the Nigerians in the house, amen. We know what the what the real Jolif Rice is. We know Jonah, we know the real one. And I'm also part Ghanaian. And so in Ghana, I was given a Ghanaian name. It's Queku. When I was given this name, I cried. Because it was a connection so deep to be renamed in that spot. But more importantly, when you say yes to Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you are given a new name. And you should wear this name wherever you go. God gives you multiple names. You are the saved, you are named righteous. You are named holy. You are named forgiven. You are named victorious. You are named overcomer. You are named whole. You are named beloved. This is your name. You are never, you're the God is ripping off the name, the abused, the neglected, the thrown away, the loser, the divorced, the un that's not your name anymore. God is giving you a new name. So today the altar's open. And if you need to claim your name, your new name, I invite you to the altar today. And this altar today is a renaming ceremony. Come get your name. The great I am says you are one with him. Yehovah wants to give you your proper name. That's a good one right there, musician. That's a good one right there. And because you know his name, he knows your name. And he knew your name before you even knew his name. So why don't you come if you are lost, if you are broken, if you are dealing with something that is keeping you up at night, if you're dealing with frustration, if you're dealing with pain, if you're dealing with brokenheartedness, if you're just trying to find a way out of what seems like no way, why don't you come to the altar and let this be your naming ceremony? This day, this day, this day. After I close in prayer, there are people over here, sisters and brothers, they would love to pray for you. If you, whether you're standing at the altar, kneeling at the altar, or sitting out there, and you need additional prayer about anything, these sisters or brothers over here, they would love to pray for you. They would be so honored. So, God, you know my name. You call me your own. I'm your beloved, I am your child. I'm saved and made new and holy in you. So let me live my life by the name given to me by you, the great I am. Yehovah. In the name of Jesus I pray. Amen.