Sermon – “Identity”

11 But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?” 12 So He said, “I will certainly be with you. And this shall be a sign to you that I have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.” 13 Then Moses said to God, “Indeed, when I come to the children of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they say to me, ‘What is His name?’ what shall I say to them?” 14 And God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And He said, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’ ” 15 Moreover God said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel: ‘The Lord 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, and this is My memorial to all generations.’ 16 Go and gather the elders of Israel together, and say to them, ‘The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, appeared to me, saying, “I have surely visited you and seen what is done to you in Egypt; 17 and I have said I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, to a land flowing with milk and honey.” ’

22 Then Paul stood in the midst of the [i]Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious; 23 for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you: 24 God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. 25 Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things. 26 And He has made from one [j]blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, 27 so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; 28 for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’

6 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh. For with a strong hand he will let them go, and with a strong hand he will drive them out of his land.” 2 And God spoke to Moses and said to him: “I am [a]the Lord. 3 I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty, but by My name Lord[b] I was not known to them. 4 I have also [c]established My covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their [d]pilgrimage, in which they were [e]strangers.

5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; Before you were born I sanctified[a] you; I [b]ordained you a prophet to the nations.” 6 Then said I: “Ah, Lord God! Behold, I cannot speak, for I am a youth.” 7 But the Lord said to me: “Do not say, ‘I am a youth,’ For you shall go to all to whom I send you, And whatever I command you, you shall speak. 8 Do not be afraid of their faces, For I am with you to deliver you,” says the Lord. 9 Then the Lord put forth His hand and touched my mouth, and the Lord said to me: “Behold, I have put My words in your mouth. 10 See, I have this day set you over the nations and over the kingdoms, To root out and to pull down, To destroy and to throw down, To build and to plant.”

30 But the very hairs of your head are all numbered

This morning my message titled identity you know as we sang that one song knowing him and being known as his we are to be known as his his people that’s to be our identity being known. By him and known as His people Amen Let’s go ahead before I begin begin with a word of prayer. Heavenly father we do thank you and praise you for your presence father we just thank you that we can be known as your children as your sons and daughters we thank you for that we thank you for the Lamb that was slain on our B. have we thank you for your presence in our allies each and every day through the power of your Holy Spirit we invite your spirit to have nine and we here today we just pray that should be upon us Father touch our hearts give us the words that you would have us to hear today father may we bless you. Lord God May we bless you father and surrounding ourselves to you surrender our hearts our minds to you Father and we just glorify you in Jesus’ name amen. So today before I be game with the Scripture I want to share a salute a bit as most of you may know a couple weeks ago Karen and I went to Gettysburg P.A. and visited the the battlefield and witnessed all the things up there all the memorials and everything up there Gettysburg is the site of the bloodiest battle of the entire civil war. And. Many people was this we went horseback riding we went on horseback tour and the guy did a fabulous job share in the history in the things that happened there in one thousand nine hundred sixty three and he said many people feel that that was the end of the war that was not the end of the Civil War It was just the bloodiest battle of the buddies three days of the entire civil war did go on and for a little longer after that. It is estimated that there were at least forty five thousand and possibly as many as fifty one thousand casualties in the two armies the battle to Gettysburg. Confederate and Union Army. The tremendous thing is this was in three days three days’ time that many men became casualties of that war the term casualties means not just people who were killed but also men who were wounded many who were willing to die later soldiers who were captured and often even men that ran away so it’s impossible to calculate an exact number because of the missing people because of the incomplete records but they say that the forty five to fifty one thousand is a conservative figure and when you think about that you think of the Vietnam War I believe it was fifty five thousand that were killed in the Vietnam War but that was over a period of a long time it’s hard to fathom that many people killed in three days time hard to hard to grasp. But as you tour the battlefield there’s memorials everywhere there’s canons set up and different places and there’s been morals all along the roads and along the trails I mean there is hundreds and hundreds I don’t remember a count I think they did share that but there’s hundreds and hundreds of memorials along this battlefield memorial scatter this. Throughout because they knew were certain infantry’s or the tie ins were then they would have these memorials in the that particular spot. And but the but the first memorial and the first few memorials I should say that were placed on the battlefield were placed there by the by the veterans of the war. They wanted to the memorials they wanted I’ma and the hard time I care for Tom talking they wanted the memorials to be a reminder to the people of those that lost their lives there that’s why the memorials were placed there to remind the people that the man that fought would not be forgotten. And there are so many different immortals there I had I think a few of the memorial pictures brought up there to see a man on top of the some armor so unique so a couple more there’s a soldier with a gun in hand and another one hole in the flag behind them many soldiers Virginia to her sons at Gettysburg or another. Soldier holding the flag I’m not sure how many they have saved one for last the largest one for last. All these memorials are reminder there is the last one a reminder of those that fought many of the memorials would say this was the like the twenty third battalion of for Ginia or the sixty second battalion of New York or some from Alabama so many states and they designated to their state in the infantry that fought there in that battle in that battlefield. But this memorial right here the Pennsylvania memorial it is the largest memorial at Gettysburg. That monument stands one hundred ten feet tall the statue on top is called the wing victory that statue alone weighs seventy five hundred pounds and it was made from melted down cannons. They built it in one thousand ten in a cost I was reading I was given information. It cost one hundred forty thousand dollars to build that thing in one nine hundred ten it’s made of granite and brass concrete and they spend an additional thirty thousand dollars for the grounds and some of the other memorials around it. And as we were visiting this memorial as you see the steps go up the front of it and you can go up in there and top and there was a little bit of shade. And a breeze will care we get out there we walk up and she goes right up the steps and if you see all these plaques those are plaques around the outside of it on the bottom there’s ninety two of them there brass so care goes up the steps a stork make them a way around the outside and it took me so long to go around there that she was looking for me she was about to call me on the phone to see what happened to me because she was up there and join the breeze in the shade but as I walked around that thing it was a movie moment for me. Because every one of those plaques has the name of every soldier from Pennsylvania that served in the war every plaque represents one battalion or infantry and there’s the names there. I’m going there and I’m just I’m just taking my time I mean I’m just I don’t know it’s just what moved me. I seen the name climb. Cairn Spammy is a Klein my step parent step mom was a Klein. I seen the name Hartman I know Hartman a scene a lot of names that were familiar names just the last names but there’s names there of every soldier that served in the Civil War. That just you know I could look at those other monuments and say OK. The Virginia battalion was here or the Alabama tie and served here but when you see the names it kind of makes it personal it for me it hit home it makes it personal. Because you know the name word then a five Bar name right. I mean we don’t just go around go hey hey you hey man hi sir hey buddy we are going to fight by our names. So to me when I read those names. It just. Spoke to me spoke to my heart it a den of FIDE those men that died one hundred fifty years ago. On that battlefield. Yes I didn’t see their faces but it made it personal with their identity God has a name also actually God has many names we’re going to read from Exodus Chapter three. Verses eleven through seventeen. But Moses said the God who Imaad that I should go to Pharaoh and that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt so he said I will certainly be with you and this will be a sign to you that I have sent you when you have brought the people out of Egypt you shall serve God on this mountain then Moses said to God Indeed when I come to the children of Israel and say to them the God of your father’s ascent me to you and they say to me what is his name what shall I say to them and God said to Moses I am who I am and he said thus you shall say to the children of Israel I AM has sent me to you moreover God said to Moses thus you will say to the children of Israel the Lord 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 and this is my memorial to all generations go and gather the elder visit Elders of Israel together and say to them the Lord God of your fathers the God of Abraham the God of Isaac and of Jacob appeared to me saying I have surely. Visited you and seen what is done to you in Egypt and I have said I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites in the Hittites of the Amorites and the parasites and the headlights and the lights to a land flowing with milk and honey may god add his blessings to the hearing and reading of His Holy Word God said that this is my name forever and this is my memorial to all generations. What this memorial means as it used here for friends the same thing memorial means today and the same thing that it meant to those veterans of the Civil War. To remember. To Remember that’s what it means don’t forget those who died and don’t forget the living God Don’t forget his name he is the I AM Don’t forget that he is the true God the Creator the heavens and the earth God wants all generations all people to remember who he is to know him to know who he is to remember his name or God is not just a god among many gods. He is just he is not an unknown or an impersonal god. I see those A more as we’re kind of impersonal but the ones with the one with the names made a personal or God is not an impersonal God He is a personal God He wants to be known by us in the US to know him. The apostle Paul was addressing a group of religious people in Athens and Acts Chapter seventeen verses twenty two through twenty seven. Then Paul stood in the midst of the air Pegasus and said men of battens I perceive that in all things you are very religious have any of you ever had someone say to you I know that you’re a religious person. Anybody. Yeah I have had a gentleman work one day say I know you’re a religious guy I’m like No I’m not yeah and he goes you go to Char I’m like I’m not religious I’m a Christian. Because I have that thought in my mind is the religious people that brought all the accusations against Jesus is a religious people when I cross but yet I guess I am a religious people because he down across from me right so I’m also one of them but I don’t like to be known as a religious person I’d rather be known as a Christian a child of God a man. Verse twenty three for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship I even found an altar with this inscription To the Unknown God. So Athens the people there warship many gods and they just want to make sure they had all the bases covered. To the Unknown God just in case we missed one here’s an inscription To the Unknown God just so we have it all covered right. To the Unknown God therefore the one whom you worship without knowing him I proclaim to you God who made the world and everything in it since he is Lord of Heaven and Earth does not dwell in temples made with hands as he warship with men’s hands brothers and sisters God does not meta need us to build a temple for him he doesn’t need us to fashion anything in his likeness or image. Because he is God it’s all his were not the fashion it no graven images as though he needed anything since he gives life to all bread and all things and he made from one blood every nation of men to dwell in the place of the earth and has determine their Pria pointed times in the boundaries of their dwellings so that they should seek the Lord in the hope that they might group for him and find him though he is not far from each one of us that’s his desire that we would long for him that we would group for him he is the great I am he is the Lord and He does desire that man would seek him. And know him know his identity his name is important. The phrase translated I am who I am in the Hebrew is a sure way I’m probably not pronouncing that right but the word A is the first person common singular of the verb to be. And it be it can be used in any number of ways like I am watching a sheep or I am walking on the road or I am his father however when you use it as a stand alone and description I am is the ultimate statement of self sufficiency So when God says I am the I Am is saying that he is self sufficient self existant immediate presence God exists and is not contingent upon anyone else. His plans are not contingent upon any circumstances his promises that he will be what he promises that he will be what he will be. He will be the Turnley consist constant God is going to say consistent but constant God. He stands ever present and unchangeable completely sufficient in himself. Hope you’re given God’s identity here to do what he wills to do and to accomplish what He Wills to accomplish. So when he had then applied himself as I am who I am he stated that no matter when or where he is there. Is similar to the New Testament expression in Revelations one eight that I am the Alpha Omega Alpha and Omega. Says the Lord who is and was and is to come the Almighty and this is true of him for all times. It would be an appropriate message from Moses to the children of Israel because they found the. Cells in slavery in bondage in Egypt hundreds and hundreds of years they felt that they had lost their identity. They went down there the children of Jacob they knew Father Abraham but here they are they’ve been there for hundreds of years they’re probably wondering what about the promises what about the promises to our fathers they kind of lost their identity. But I am was promising that he would free them he would free them from the reflections he would free them from their bondage you know many people today seem to think that they are like the is Israelites they’re trapped they’ve lost their identity people are turning to all kinds of things to try to find their identity today self-sufficiency trying to find satisfaction in many different forms some people compare themselves to other seeking to identify themselves some people identify themselves by how successful they are in a world or what social group or club they belong to the find some sort of sense of status or belonging but brothers and sisters our true identity not lies in what club rebuilding too. But our true identity should lie in how many lives we’ve touched Charles Spurgeon says a good character is the best tombstone those who loved you and were helped by you will remember you when you forget me nots have withered away carve your name in the hearts of people not only marble. That should be what identifies you. Many years ago the communist government in China commissioned an author to write a biography of Hudson Taylor with the purpose of distorting the facts and presenting him in a bad light. They wanted to discredit the name of this consecrated missionary of the gospel as the author was doing his research he was increasingly impressed by Taylor saintly character and godly life and he found it extremely difficult to carry out his assigned task with a clear conscience eventually at the risk of losing his life he laid aside his pen renounced his atheism and received Jesus Christ as his personal Savior whether we realize it or not our example leaves an impression on others let’s ask God to help us make it one of love faith and purity of life may our identity be remembered by our love that we’ve had when other people may that be what truly identifies us again God’s name makes it clear that he wants a relationship with us our identity with him can be personal is personal. In Exodus Chapter six one through four the Lord said into Moses now southbound see what I will do to Pharaoh for with a strong hand so he let them go and with a strong hand shall he drive them out of his land and God spake to unto Moses and said unto him I am the Lord and I appeared to a unto Abraham on to Isaac and on to Jacob by the name of God Almighty but by my name Jehovah was I not known to them. And I have also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan the land of their pilgrimage wherein they were strangers he was not known to Abraham Isaac and Jacob as Jehovah. He was only known to them as God Almighty but though the children of Israel today know him as Jehovah. But Jehovah was not the original name given unto the children of Israel his original name was yawa ya way but the children of Israel they were so fearful of blaspheming the name of the Lord they had set a reverend fear of God that they were afraid to speak the name ya way imagine that they were so fraid of God. But they had that reverence reverence reverential fear of God say yah way. The Jews decided that when it came to the name ya way that they would call him the Hebrew word for God is out and they are which means Lord. It is of the highest importance that we in our faith have the correct identity for Jesus Christ. There are many scriptures that reveal his true identity Philippians two nine through twelve says Therefore God also has the exalted him and given him the name which is above every name that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of those in heaven and of those on Earth and of those under the earth and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father therefore my beloved as you have also obeyed the Jewish name is Yahshua Jesus in John eight twenty four it says Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins for if you do not believe that I am he you will die in your sins then when you read all of Chapter eight of what we have too much to try to read Jesus claimed to be the I AM He is one with the father he is I am but when he referred to his self as God or as I am that’s when they are ready to take up stones and stoning to death because they thought he was blasphemy. But he is I am he is Jesus Joshua as we close I want to look for a moment of how we view our own identity. You know some people tend not to like themselves very much. And I don’t know the reason why it could be that they were bullied in school they were belittled by their parents they were abused they were mistreated I don’t know how some people get to the place where they have a stream really low self esteem about themselves but there are many people there today. But I say to anyone and everyone that has a low self esteem we were created in the image of God. You were created in the image of God You want to know your true identity you were created again in the image of God I want to tell you that you are special to God he loves you very much very much so that he allowed his son to come and die that we would have life and he knows who you are. God said to the prophet Jeremiah Jeremiah one five before I formed you in the womb I knew you. Before you were born I sanctified you I were danger to a prophet to the nations I know that were not all born to be prophets but I know that each and every one of you God knew you when you was in your mother’s womb. He knew what you were going to be he loved you when you was in your mother’s womb. So we can say that about each and every one of you everyone listening God loves you you are special to God created in His image in Matthew ten twenty seven thirty one whatever I tell you in the dark speak in the light and what you hear in the year preach on the housetops and do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the sold but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell or not to sparrows sold for a copper coin and not one of them falls to the ground apart from your father’s will think about that for a minute a sparrow. A soap for a copper coin but not one sparrow falls of the ground apart from the Father’s will but the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear therefore for you are more value than many sparrows. Why should we have a low self esteem because we are valuable to God created in His image he loves you he cares for you as we sang in a song God cares for you. Cemetery reject Gettysburg has literally thousands of unmarked graves. Thousands of them miserable ne’er you see these little white stones all in a row rows after row after row of them unmarked graves why. Because there were so many killed in three days they had to get them buried there was no time to identify forty some thousand men the guy that was leading to or said that there were so many men strewn about a field you could walk from one end of the other not stepped on the earth. That’s how many men were there so they couldn’t identify them all unmarked graves but brothers and sisters God knows each and every one of them he knows who’s in every one of those grades he knows their identity and he knows our identity he knows their name and it’s his desire that all would identify with him that’s the most important thing that we identify with him so when someone says Who are you what’s your name well I am Ronny I’m a child of the Living God or I am Judith and I am a daughter of the Living God. I am bucked and I’m a son of the Living God on and on and on that’s whoosh we identify with God. So often we want to watch him wrong I’m a carpenter ROM Susie I’m a secretary I don’t have that if I was what we do identify with Jews we are. A man. A child of the Living God and you are special in his eyes he wants us to identify with him. We’re not just a nobody but we are I somebody we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ he’s a man a man.