January 19, 2014
Stetson Memorial United Methodist Church
Sermon Series on
“The Names of God”
Sermon 3 of
series-
“The Sacred
Names of God: El, Elohim, Eloah”
Genesis 1:2-2:3
(All Scripture is from The Names of God Bible)
Have
you ever created something that you were just so proud of that you just sat
back and thought to yourself “Wow…I can’t believe that I could ever create
anything like that? It is so awesome and beautiful…that you God for helping me
make this piece of art…!” I love to do beading and I sit there at times…not
knowing what I am going to make, I just have to create. So I sit there and try
to reason out what I am going to do. Well usually when I do that, it fails to
meet what I had in my mind and so I end up taking it apart and starting again.
But those days when I just sit there and let God take over what I am doing…let
Him create through me…well I just sit back when I am done and am amazed at what
the finished product looks like. I know it was not me but God creating within
me that got me to this end result. I love to see God create through me and His
creating through others just inspires me. God is the ultimate creator even when
using others to create a thing of beauty and delicacy. This morning reading
from Genesis is all about beauty and splendor…about how God is the Master
Creator of all that we see.
Let us pray:
Loving and
compassionate God…creator of all we survey...we thank you for the beauty around
us and the beauty you create through us. We pray this morning of the beauty of
Your wisdom to fall down upon us and that we would glimpse and understand the
Word you have for us this day. May we leave this place this day illuminated and
ready to share the beauty of Your Son with those who are in need of beauty in
their lives. May we be renewed and refreshed by Your Word. Amen.
Today we are continuing on our journey
to the heart of God as we learn “The
Sacred Names of God” and call upon those names in pray and within our
hearts. Last week we learned about Yeshua
the Mashiach…Jesus the Messiah as we also celebrated His baptism in the
Jordon Rive as well as remembering our own baptism. Today…we begin with
water…we begin with chaos…we begin in nothingness…only to come away with beauty
and exquisiteness that only God alone can create and recreate. It is all about El…Elohim…Eloah…God! God is a God of the
extraordinary…God is a God like none other…God is a God who takes broken and
chattered chaos and turns it into a thing of beauty…How awesome is our God.
When we pray to Elohim, we pray and we remember that it was He who crated
everything…it was He who began it all. The name El is the One True God or a pagan god named El. But there is no
mistaking…when we speak of…pray to…Elohim
we are emphasizing on the majesty of the One True God! As a matter of fact the
use of Yahew and Elohim translates to “The
Lord God”.
You see…everything exists because God
wanted it to…you and I exist because God wanted us to exist in this time and
space. This is the God, who called forth from nothing and created something. Elohim fearfully and wonderfully made…From
Genesis 1:1 we see that God…Elohim…
can make a majestic thing….an important thing…a sacred thing out of nothing…out
of chaos…out of the chaos and brokenness
of our lives…
As you have heard me say many times,
everything is of sacred worth. God called everything…let me say that again…everything...good…He
even said so after making it. But here’s the kicker…here is the “everyone is of
sacred worth thing”…after Elohim created
humankind…He exclaimed it was VERY GOOD…as a matter of fact, Elohim created humankind in His own
image…you and I bare the image of God. Just
think about that for a moment…the image of God…of Elohim…within us. We are the image of Elohim in the world that he created. How does that make you feel?
What do you think life would be like if all of humanity took on that ancient
sacred call of being the image of God in and to the world that Elohim created through His Ruach…His breathe…and with His spoken
word?
We sometimes…OK often…miss life’s beauty because we are too focused on its
faults…but then again don’t we do that to ourselves and others…concentrate on
the wrong and not look at the goodness…the God given goodness…that is far more
present…we would rather complain about cutting the grass than with just
enjoying the feel as we walk barefoot through it. I mean even as we look at
ourselves…do we see a child of God or someone with many wrongs? (God created and said it was good…very
good).
Elohim
desires
to use His creative power not only to sustain the world but to create a blessed
life for you and for me…full of physical and spiritual blessings. Deuteronomy
28:2-6 tells us (and I’m paraphrasing
here)
You
have blessings abundant if you stay close to Yaweh you Elohim (the Lord Your
God). You will be blessed no matter where you are. Your very life will be
blessed.
Children
Crops
Animals
And
all these will flourish too. Out of the harvest of grain your bread will be
blessed. You will always be blessed. Even your barns will be blessed not to
mention everything that you do.
We live in a world that is ever
changing. We never know from one moment to the next about our world. We even
change ourselves as we learn and grow we change for the good…and the bad at
times. But…but...Elohim …who created
the heavens and the earth…never changes. He was and always will be…He loves you
and me and will never stop. Elohim will
never stop being who He is…unlike human beings…His attitude doesn’t change with
His mood…
We have been promised a life of
abundance…an abundance of love…an abundance of joy…an abundance of peace…an
abundance of forgiveness…and abundance of blessings. Unlike humanity…Elohim keeps His promises. We as
humankind make many promises in our life…children say that they will eat their
veggies if we let them have a candy bar first…lovers promise to stay together
for better or worse and when the worse comes many bail…salespeople promise us
the moon but we all know where that can lead…we are flawed…but He is not.
Beloved children of the most awesome
creator Elohim, we have a mighty God
who can forge rivers in a dry land…who can take nothing and create a thing of
beauty…who can take a broken chaotic life and turn it into something that sings
His praise. He is El Elohim the Most
High creative God who is just waiting to create new life within His children.
He is waiting for His creation to lay down their life on the Potter’s wheel so
that it can be molded into a vessel that will hold His Spirit. He wants to bless
his children with an abundance of love, forgiveness, peace and joy.
Are
you needing to be remolded into who God would have you be? Is there brokenness
in your life that needs to be fixed? Are there parts of your life that seem
shattered into pieces? Are you needing the Ruach Elohim to breathe through your
life again awakening it to the beauty that it truly is? Is the chaos of your
life needing Elohim to create a fertile ground for you to stand? Come to the
Potter’s Wheel and be remolded into a vessel that will hold the Spirit of the
God…that can be poured out onto a hurting world. Bring your hurts…your
scars…your brokenness and put them on the altar of renewal and grace. Let the
Master Artisan create the life of beauty
that it was meant to be.
Elohim
is calling out to you and to me on the winds of love to be renewed with a
newness of life. He is calling to you and to me to be that image of God that
this “godless”, chaotic world needs to be healed and recreated. He is calling
to us… “come my child and be restored to you former self…to the self I always
wanted you to be…to that self that you were born with.”
Let
us pray…
Elohim,
Mighty One, you made everything out of nothing, imposed order out of chaos,
gave birth to beauty, and called it good. Help us to know you as the One True
God who created everything and everyone, the one who placed us on the earth for
a purpose-to magnify Your Name. Come…heal us…recreate us…breath your breath of
life onto the chaos of our lives…Elohim, our God and creator.
Amen.
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