Exalting the Lord's Name

He said, I want to let you know that now that I know you have not even withheld the most precious thing to you, your only child from me, I'm going to bless you in unbelievable ways. I'm here to tell you, if you will give God what you've been struggling and withholding from Him, it will be the beginning of the release of the things that God has in store for you and your future. The Lord your God is your provider, your comforter, your very present help in a time of trouble.

Blessed be His holy name. Hello and welcome to Destined for Victory with Pastor Paul Shepherd, Senior Pastor at Destiny Christian Fellowship in Fremont, California. We have a great message for you today, one that explores some of the names of God, what those names have signified down through the ages, and what they mean for you and me. Along the way, Pastor Paul encourages us to let go of everything we hold dear and dedicate our lives to Him and Him alone so that He can bless us beyond all we could ever imagine. Today's message is straight ahead. But remember, though, you can stop by pastorpaul.net anytime to hear recent Destined for Victory messages on demand. That's pastorpaul.net.

You can also subscribe to our podcast at Apple Podcasts, iHeart, or wherever you get yours. Let's join Pastor Paul now as he shares today's Destined for Victory message, Exalting the Lord's Name. In Genesis 22, you remember the story in Genesis 22, where Abraham now has passed a test. You know that Abraham and Sarah were given a test before God had changed their names.

They were given a test of obedience. God said to Abraham, when he was Abram, I want you to get up back in chapter 12, I believe it is, of Genesis, go to a place where I'm going to show you. And Abram got up and went and by faith began to follow this God. And so the Lord over time tested him and said, I'm going to make a nation out of you. Now, here was a man in his 70s, by the time you get to the point where God's telling him he's going to have a child. And the Lord said, I'm going to give you all a son. And through your seed, the nations of the earth are going to be blessed.

And you know what happened? They put their thimble full of brains in God's business and decided that we can't come up with that. They didn't honor and exalt Elohim because had they said this is the God of power, then he's got no problem giving old folks a baby.

No problem at all. But they didn't honor him. When you don't honor and exalt the name of God, you make foolish decisions. And so they decided God needed help. The ultimate insult is for powerless pitiful people like us decide we need to help the powerful God.

That's what they did. They decided God needed a little help. Sarah gave Hagar to her husband so that God could not look bad. If I give you this young woman as your servant now, listen, if you're not going to obey God, why worry about how he's going to pull off what he said? Why not just say, hey, if God said that's going to happen, let's let him happen? Especially why would Sarah defy her own nature? What woman do you know is going to give her husband another woman so that he and God can come up with what they were talking about? You know that defies a woman be like, Oh, please, I wish I would give him Hagar, little young pretty thing so that you and God by some conversation y'all had out there in the woods somewhere can come up with something.

Oh, no. If anybody ought to have been believing God, it should have been Sarah because she'd be like, well, if God's going to do something, I'm the one right here. Y'all know that's how it should have gone down. But anyhow, they failed the test because they came up with this surrogate child trying to fulfill a divine promise. They came up with Ishmael, but that wasn't what God said. And so years later, when Abraham's pushing 100, he's 99, and Sarah is pushing 90, she's 89. God says, now, if y'all are ready, I'm going to give you the makeup because you failed the test before.

When I make you a promise, the promise is going to be fulfilled on the basis of my power, not your ability to pull something off. And so they finally got in sync and came up with Isaac, this child of promise. And then years after that, when the boy is in his teens, in all likelihood, we get to Genesis 22. And it says, the Lord tested Abraham. And he said, Abraham, I want you to take your son, your only son, because at this point, Ishmael and Hagar had been put out. But God said, because he's your child, and God loves us so much, he will bless the mistakes we made when we get back in sync with his purpose.

Isn't somebody glad that we serve a God who will bless your mess? After you repent, after you get straight, God said, I'll work it out. He said, because I know it would be on your heart. He said, I'm going to take that son you should have never had, and I'm going to make a nation out of him. And to this day, a lot of the conflict that we're dealing with in another part of the world are the sons of Ishmael.

And let me tell you something. God said, I'm going to raise up a nation, but now this your only son Isaac, I want you to take him up on the mountain, and I want you to sacrifice him there. Now, why in the world would God promise you that through your seed, the nations of the world are going to be blessed?

And then he tells you to sacrifice the very child. Because when God blesses us, he doesn't bless us for us. He blesses us for his name's sake. And we reap many benefits and byproducts of his blessing. But he has to make sure that we don't take the blessing to ourselves. And so every now and then you'll see God bless you, but he tests you with the blessing.

Because he wants to make sure you know your husband is not yours, your wife is not yours, your job is not yours, your money is not yours, your career is not yours, your ambition, your gifts are not yours. They are mine, and if you take what is mine in another direction, I cannot bless you. So he said, I want you to take him up on the mountain, and I want you to sacrifice him there. And he takes him up on the mountain, and at one point in the trip, read it in Genesis 22, Isaac says, Father, we have the wood, we have the materials to build the altar for a sacrifice, but we don't have the lamb.

Where is the lamb? And Abraham looked at his son and said, my son God will provide the lamb. And the moment came when they built the altar and placed the wood there. The moment came when Abraham had to take his son and place him on the altar.

What a defining moment in scripture. Because here you see not only the unconditional obedience of a man who's determined to follow God, but you find the unconditional compliance of the son of the promise. You know, when you're looking at Isaac in Genesis 22, you're seeing a really good type of Jesus Christ. Because like Isaac, Jesus laid his life down. And Isaac was willing in that moment to lay his life down. You've got to understand, this is a strong boy.

And his daddy is 113, 115 years old. Abraham did good to get up the mountain. If Isaac is determined not to be sacrificed, there's nothing Abraham's going to do about it.

You know a lot of y'all can't fool with your teenagers now. But this is the unconditional obedience of a man and the unconditional compliance of a son. And Isaac gives himself, doesn't understand what's going on, but he gives himself. And Abraham lays him on the altar and raises the knife, no doubt thinking in his heart, I don't know why in the world God would do this, but God is going to raise him up because he made a promise about this boy. And so it's mine to obey and it's God's to do the rest. And when he raises the knife with intent to sacrifice his son, the Lord speaks out of heaven and says, don't do it.

I was testing you and you passed the test. He said, I want to let you know that now that I know you have not even withheld the most precious thing to you, your only child from me, I'm going to bless you in unbelievable ways. I'm here to tell you, if you will give God what you've been struggling and withholding from him, it will be the beginning of the release of the things that God has in store for you and your future. And after that moment, the Bible says, Abraham declared that place Jehovah Jarrah, the Lord will provide. Let me tell you something, whatever it is you need in your life, he will provide because what God did was he gave them a ram.

He looked over on the side of the mountain there and there was a ram with his horns caught in the bush and he said, there's your sacrifice. Wherever the will of God is, the provision of God is. When God gives you a vision, God gives you provision. When God guides, God provides. God will never lead you where he will not take care of you. And so all you got to do is get in his will. When you get in his will, it's the safest place in the world.

I'd rather be broken in his will because I know he will meet every need and he will supply all that is needed when I am in the will of God. God will provide. I want somebody to know that you can rejoice because you serve the God who provides. We not only serve Jehovah Jireh, we serve Jehovah Nissi. That is found in Exodus 17.

Exodus 17 you'll find that he is Jehovah Nissi and here's what was going on there. The children of Israel have come out of Egypt, they've crossed the Red Sea and now they are finding themselves under attack from the Amalekites. Let me tell you something, when you come out of sin, don't be surprised when you find that you have new enemies.

It's because we don't wrestle against flesh and blood. We are wrestling against principalities and powers, against the rulers of darkness, spiritual wickedness in high places. And when you decide you're going where God wants to take you, the enemy decides he's going to do everything to stop you. And the Amalekites come out against the children of Israel but all Moses did was say we don't have to panic because this battle really is not ours, this is the Lord's. He said what I'm going to do is get up on the top of the mountain and I'm going to lift up the staff of God in my hand and he sent Joshua to go on down into the valley and fight. Get some fighting men and you fight the Amalekites and I'm going to lift the staff because this really is not our fight, we're just vessels and God is going to war against them. And the staff represented the presence of God in their midst and Jehovah Nissi means the Lord is our banner. Now banner in scripture had to do with warfare.

It had to do with the sign of a mighty army. Stay with us the second half of Pastor Paul Sheppard's message is coming right up. We want to thank all of you who support Destined for Victory with your prayers and financial support, gifts that help Pastor Paul share the joy of the Gospel message with a growing audience. Destined for Victory is supported entirely by friends like you and today as we continue to face some tough challenges, your support is more critical than ever. So please perfectly consider making a gift to Destined for Victory. Give online safely and securely from our website pastorpaul.net or give us a call at 855-339-5500.

Again our phone number is 855-339-5500. Well God has many names one of them is Jehovah Nissi which means the Lord is our banner. What does that mean for me and you?

Let's find out by rejoining Pastor Paul for the rest of today's message Exalting the Lord's Name. And so a mighty army would have a banner that went before them and that declared how powerful they were. In fact you see a little bit of it in today's world because many sports teams developed a mascot around the idea of it was to represent our power. We're the USC Trojans fighting folk.

I found that out because I gave them a whole lot of money educating my daughter down there. I said y'all better win this game as much money as I'm paying down here. You know but in Bible times a banner spoke of a warring army. It spoke of their strength of their power and God said don't worry because in Exodus 17 he said the Lord is your banner. I'm your banner. When your enemies come out against you I'm the one that steps out and says is there a problem here?

You come out here messing with my kids? Listen when the enemy comes against you he's not coming against you he's coming against the God you serve and we have to learn that God is Jehovah Nissi he is our banner. Now that necessitates that you are fighting a holy war.

Oh let me help you now. You can't have a carnal battle and get God to fight it for you. But if you are about the business of doing his will if you are living your life to please him and the enemy in the midst of that comes against you as you're seeking to please God here's the good news God will fight your battle because it really isn't your battle. When you are in sync with his will your enemies are God's enemies.

Your problems are God's problems. Your challenges are God's challenges and he steps out and says I am the one who will give you the victory. And that's why as long as Moses had the staff up the staff of God had represented God's presence in their midst and whenever you saw that then you saw the Amalekites running and they were being pursued by Joshua and the fighting men of Israel. But whenever he got tired and dropped his hand right there in Exodus 17 then you'd find Joshua and them running and you'd find the Amalekites chasing them.

And when Moses and Aaron and her who were on the mountain saw that they said oh we got to keep this thing up because if you let God down if you don't exalt him if you get carnal and think you can do it then the enemy will show you you don't have any power. And I'm here to tell somebody who's letting God down in their mind and in their heart and in their values and in their priorities no wonder the enemy is mopping the street up with you because you've got to lift up and exalt the name of the God you serve. This really isn't about me. You can talk about me. You cannot like me. You can resent me.

It's not about me. But if you fight against God you got a problem on your hands. And so Aaron and her said oh we got to help this situation and one got on one side of Moses and the other got on the other and they lifted up his hands so that he could hold the staff.

And they were under him and put a rock under him so he could sit down and keep his hands up and they had him up. Whatever you got to do to lift up the name of Jesus find yourself a seat in your life and keep him lifted up for if I be lifted up from the earth I'll draw all men unto me and I'll fight every battle you have. I want to let you know that he's Jehovah Nissi. Do I have time to give you one more?

Let me give you one more. He is Jehovah Shalom. Jehovah Shalom.

You know what that means? That means God is my peace. You find that in scripture in Judges chapter 6 when Gideon has been selected to be the leader of God's people against a massive alliance of the enemy. Gideon feels completely unqualified but God sends an angel to let him know it's not about you it's that you're chosen and Gideon's trying to explain why he's disqualified. I'm the least in my family all that stuff and the angel says no you don't understand from God's perspective you're a mighty warrior and your challenge is to see yourself the way God sees you and so the angel is there ministering to him and giving him divine instruction and he says well let me prepare something for you in honor of your visit and in the course of doing so he gets the revelation that this is a divine being. This is one that comes from the presence of God who's standing here and he says oh I've seen the Lord and he got scared because he thought he was going to die. See Old Testament folk were much more reverent they understood that God's not just somebody around the corner. You know we act so casual with God you got to understand Jesus did teach us to have a personal relationship but personal doesn't mean irreverent. God's not your buddy not somebody from around the block you can just obey him when you want discard when you want no no no he is the king of kings and Lord of lords and when Old Testament folk encountered the divine they were afraid they said that's it I'm going to die and the angel spoke up and said no no don't worry peace be unto you. God's not going to kill you he's got a plan for you he didn't send me here to kill you and because of that encounter the Bible says that Gideon declared that Jehovah Shalom God is my peace. I'm here to tell somebody that God wants to be your peace when you are worried that you are going to die God wants to be your peace because you're not going anywhere till he's ready for you. When you think that your circumstances are overwhelming God wants to speak peace because there is nothing going on in your life there is no challenge that is greater than the God you serve and I want you to understand that you don't have to worry in fact worry is a very futile emotion because worry produces nothing good haven't you figured that out in your life at this point there is nothing good gained from worry because not only don't I worry solve our problems worries add additional problems now I'm worried and I got stomach trouble I still had the original problem now I got stuff going on in my body now I can't sleep well and when I sleep I don't rest well anybody ever slept all night and woke up tired there could be some things on your heart that you're worried about that you're trying to control when you need to give them to the God who wants to take your problems because he can do something about them and give you his peace and I found out in studying the scriptures that peace doesn't come just from God to you peace is an exchange offering you don't get peace until you give him your worries your problems your challenges your doubts your struggles I can prove it in scripture the Bible says don't worry about anything Philippians chapter 4 but pray about everything you've got to give all of those things you would worry to God in prayer then the peace of God which passes all understanding will keep your heart and mind through Jesus Christ it's an exchange offering God says I have peace for you do you want it you say oh yeah and you go to grab for he said give me your problems you say well I don't know see I don't know no no you have to trust God with your stuff trust God with your spouse trust God with your job trust God with your money trust God with your ambitions trust God with that big decision you're facing in your life trust God with your kids that you don't know how to raise or the ones you've raised and now they act like you never raised them you got to trust him with whatever it is because you will not get the peace until he gets the problem you missed it I got to say it again you won't get the peace until he gets the problem and it's a divine exchange but Gideon found that you don't have to worry when you serve God because God is the beginning and the end he knows what he started he knows when it will be done and in the meantime the devil can pronounce all he wants but God is going to have the last say no challenge in your life will reflect the final outcome of your life it is God who began the good work in you and he will bring it to completion well let me wrap this up there's so much more I can reveal I just wanted to whet your appetite you study the scripture and when you come across the names of God look into them because they all reveal something about the God you serve and you'll praise him and worship him more the more you get to know who he is but let me tell you something if you don't know Hebrew and you don't know Jehovah Jireh and Jehovah Shalom and Jehovah Nissi and there are others I didn't have time to cover Jehovah Shammah the God who is there Jehovah Sitkanu the God our righteousness on and on the Lord our shepherd the Lord our healer just on and on you'll come across them in scripture if you don't know all that Hebrew if you know one name you got it made if you know the name of Jesus if you know the name of Jesus oh you got it made now you can't just know the name you got to know who the name belongs to because in him Colossians 2 says is all the fullness of deity wrapped up in bodily form the beauty of the gospel is this while we were yet sinners Christ died for us he made that sacrifice not because of our goodness but in spite of our badness so that anyone no matter what they've done no matter how lost they might be can not only find salvation in the hereafter but can have the abundant joyful Christian life in the here and now do you need prayer today visit pastor paul.net click contact us and let us know how we can pray for you and while you're there online be sure to ask for pastor paul's monthly letter of encouragement yours at no cost or obligation now here's something else for you a booklet from pastor paul called built on a solid foundation you know we can't avoid life's storms but with god's help we can survive them in built on a solid foundation pastor paul tells you how to build your life upon the solid rock of god's word so that you can emerge victorious no matter what life throws your way that's built on a solid foundation a booklet from pastor paul and our gift to you today by request for your generous gift to destined for victory just call 855-339-5500 or visit pastor paul.net to make a safe and secure donation online you can also mail your gift to us at destined for victory post office box 1767 fremont california 94538 again the address destined for victory box 1767 fremont california 94538 he not only love people by meeting their needs but jesus lifted people jesus lifted people he had the ability to give them hope he had the ability to give them joy to give them peace to lead them in better shape than he found them he lifted people we ought to be known as folk who lift others that's tomorrow in pastor paul shepherd's message representing jesus everywhere we go until then remember he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion in christ you are destined for victory