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Genesis 16-17
16:1 Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. She had a female Egyptian servant whose name was Hagar. 2 And Sarai said to Abram, “Behold now, the LORD has prevented me from bearing children. Go in to my servant; it may be that I shall obtain children1 by her.” And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai. 3 So, after Abram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan, Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her servant, and gave her to Abram her husband as a wife. 4 And he went in to Hagar, and she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, she looked with contempt on her mistress.2 5 And Sarai said to Abram, “May the wrong done to me be on you! I gave my servant to your embrace, and when she saw that she had conceived, she looked on me with contempt. May the LORD judge between you and me!” 6 But Abram said to Sarai, “Behold, your servant is in your power; do to her as you please.” Then Sarai dealt harshly with her, and she fled from her.
7 The angel of the LORD found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, the spring on the way to Shur. 8 And he said, “Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going?” She said, “I am fleeing from my mistress Sarai.” 9 The angel of the LORD said to her, “Return to your mistress and submit to her.” 10 The angel of the LORD also said to her, “I will surely multiply your offspring so that they cannot be numbered for multitude.” 11 And the angel of the LORD said to her,
“Behold, you are pregnant
and shall bear a son.
You shall call his name Ishmael,3
because the LORD has listened to your affliction.
12 He shall be a wild donkey of a man,
his hand against everyone
and everyone’s hand against him,
and he shall dwell over against all his kinsmen.”
13 So she called the name of the LORD who spoke to her, “You are a God of seeing,”4 for she said, “Truly here I have seen him who looks after me.”5 14 Therefore the well was called Beer-lahai-roi;6 it lies between Kadesh and Bered.
15 And Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram called the name of his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael. 16 Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to Abram.
17:1 When Abram was ninety-nine years old the LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty;7 walk before me, and be blameless, 2 that I may make my covenant between me and you, and may multiply you greatly.” 3 Then Abram fell on his face. And God said to him, 4 “Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations. 5 No longer shall your name be called Abram,8 but your name shall be Abraham,9 for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. 6 I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you. 7 And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you. 8 And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God.”
9 And God said to Abraham, “As for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your offspring after you throughout their generations. 10 This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your offspring after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised. 11 You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you. 12 He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised. Every male throughout your generations, whether born in your house or bought with your money from any foreigner who is not of your offspring, 13 both he who is born in your house and he who is bought with your money, shall surely be circumcised. So shall my covenant be in your flesh an everlasting covenant. 14 Any uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin shall be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.”
15 And God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah10 shall be her name. 16 I will bless her, and moreover, I will give11 you a son by her. I will bless her, and she shall become nations; kings of peoples shall come from her.” 17 Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed and said to himself, “Shall a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?” 18 And Abraham said to God, “Oh that Ishmael might live before you!” 19 God said, “No, but Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac.12 I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him. 20 As for Ishmael, I have heard you; behold, I have blessed him and will make him fruitful and multiply him greatly. He shall father twelve princes, and I will make him into a great nation. 21 But I will establish my covenant with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this time next year.”
22 When he had finished talking with him, God went up from Abraham. 23 Then Abraham took Ishmael his son and all those born in his house or bought with his money, every male among the men of Abraham’s house, and he circumcised the flesh of their foreskins that very day, as God had said to him. 24 Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. 25 And Ishmael his son was thirteen years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. 26 That very day Abraham and his son Ishmael were circumcised. 27 And all the men of his house, those born in the house and those bought with money from a foreigner, were circumcised with him.
[1] 16:2
[2] 16:4
[3] 16:11
[4] 16:13
[5] 16:13
[6] 16:14
[7] 17:1
[8] 17:5
[9] 17:5
[10] 17:15
[11] 17:16
[12] 17:19
(ESV)
Redeemer exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
1 of Genesis chapter 16. Now Sarai, Abram's wife, had borne him no children. She had a female Egyptian servant whose name was Hagar, and Sarai said to Abram, behold, now the lord has prevented me from bearing children. Go into my servant. It may be that I shall obtain children by her.
Jeffrey Heine:And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai. So after Abram had lived 10 years in the land of Canaan, Sarai, Abram's wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her servant, and gave her to Abram, her husband, as a wife. And he went into Hagar and she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, she looked with contempt on her mistress. And Sarai said to Abram, may the wrong done to me be on you.
Jeffrey Heine:I gave my servant to your embrace. And when she saw that she conceived, she looked on me with contempt. May the Lord judge between you and me. But Abram said to Sarai, behold, your servant is in your power. Do to her as you please.
Jeffrey Heine:Then Sarai dealt harshly with her and she fled from her. Turn to chapter 17, we begin reading in verse 1. When Abram was 99 years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, I am God almighty. Walk before me and be blameless that I may make my covenant between me and you and may multiply you greatly. Then Abram fell on his face, and god said to him, behold my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations.
Jeffrey Heine:No longer shall your name be called Abram, but you shall be called Abraham. For I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you. Go to verse 15. And God said to Abraham, as for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name.
Jeffrey Heine:I will bless her and moreover I will give you a son by her. I will bless her and she shall become nations. Kings of peoples shall come from her. Pray with me. God, we have one desire right now, and that is that you would speak.
Jeffrey Heine:That you would speak and we would hear. That you would open up our hardened, calloused hearts to receive your truth, that you would open up our dull and stubborn minds to receive your truth. Spirit of God, descend on us. Have your way in our midst. Make Jesus known to us through the proclamation of his word.
Jeffrey Heine:God, now I pray that my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore. But Lord, may your words remain, and may they change us. Pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen. Recently I made a absolute fool of myself by hiring somebody to redo the duct work within our house.
Jeffrey Heine:We have a 100 year old home. It's always falling apart. We needed our air ducts redone. So I contacted this man whom a guy told me about. He says, I know a guy who knows a guy who will probably give you a deal.
Jeffrey Heine:And so I said, great. And so I hired this guy and he came in and the guy was old, he was creepy. I'm not sure if he was sane, but the quote he gave me was unbelievable. It was far cheaper than anybody else. So I said, you're hired.
Jeffrey Heine:And he said, well, I need to get half of the money upfront because I need to go ahead and buy some of the supplies. I said, okay. Don't normally do this, but here you go. You look trustworthy. Gave him half my money.
Jeffrey Heine:He got started on the job, said he needed just a little bit more to go get some supplies, gave him a little bit more, and then he just vanished, just completely vanished. And so I I called him and he answered his phone, said, oh, yeah. I'm, I I'm still I'm still just trying to track down some of the supplies. I'll be there shortly as I can. I'm like, great.
Jeffrey Heine:He didn't show up. So I called him again and he said, hey, I was on your way to your house, had an emergency show up, you know, an old woman was without heat. It's gonna be a really cold night. I need to take care of her and I'm like, wow, you're a sensitive guy. Go do that.
Jeffrey Heine:You could you could come to my house later. Come in the morning because I'll be there first thing in the morning. First thing in the morning comes. He's not there. So I give him a call, and he says, I'm just having a late start picking up some of my additional help for this job.
Jeffrey Heine:I'll be there in a couple of hours. Great. He doesn't show up in a couple of hours, so I call and this time he doesn't answer. Uh-oh. So so I call again.
Jeffrey Heine:This time my call is blocked to where I can no longer get through, and I'm beginning to panic because I know I've just pretty much thrown my money in a trash can. The guy took my money and he ran with doing very little work. And as this happened, I'm studying Abraham. I'm studying Abram at this point, and I'm thinking, Abraham and Sarah, I have got to be feeling pretty similar to how I felt at this point. God appears to them, he's a stranger, they don't know him from anybody, and he makes these outlandish promises.
Jeffrey Heine:Hey, I'm gonna do this. I'm gonna make you famous. Most famous guy who's ever walked the planet. I'm gonna give you a child. Nations are gonna come from you.
Jeffrey Heine:You know, all you have to do is just go. Just just throw your old life behind and just go. And so they believe and they go. And they don't have a child. They're like, okay, God, what's what's you know, we're trusting what's up and God says, hey, it's gonna be okay.
Jeffrey Heine:You're gonna have a child. You're gonna nations are gonna come from you. Okay? Great. No child.
Jeffrey Heine:God is this are we on the right path? Yes. Hey, can you count the stars, Abram? That's how many descendants you're gonna have. Look look at them all.
Jeffrey Heine:You're gonna be blessed. Okay, great. 10 years go by. No no fulfillment of the promise. Even the land that they went was not a land flowing with milk and honey, it had a famine in it.
Jeffrey Heine:They had to leave. No no child and Sarah just keeps getting older and they had to be thinking, you know what, it sounded too good to be true. This this strange god is just leading us on, making empty promises. I'm sure that had to hit them, and it finally became unbearable to Sarai. Unbearable.
Jeffrey Heine:She had to do something about it. Chapter 16 begins with, now Sarai, Abram's wife, had borne him no children. This is exactly how Sarai was introduced to us in chapter 11, where it says Sarai was barren. She had no child. Just in case you didn't know what barren was, she had no child.
Jeffrey Heine:This is our her identity is that she is childless. And for Sarai, this was agonizing. And you you cannot understand the pressure that a woman during this time felt to have children. Their entire identity was wrapped up in having a child. And I'm not exaggerating about this.
Jeffrey Heine:We're gonna see later that Rachel goes to her husband, Jacob, and she says, give me a child or I will die. And she's not exaggerating because she knows they have to have children who will take care of them when they're older. They have to have children who will protect them from the neighboring warring tribes. Children are a necessity. In this day, you could be beautiful, You could be intelligent.
Jeffrey Heine:You could be rich. Yet, if you were a woman without a child, you were worthless. Sarah was beautiful. She was wealthy, but she had no child. There was no one to carry on Abram's name, no one to take over his business, his possessions.
Jeffrey Heine:No one to protect them from neighboring tribes, care for them in their old age. She was a drain to society. A barren woman contributed nothing. And so Sarai, at this point 10 years now removed from this promise, she finds her situation unbearable. That something's got to give.
Jeffrey Heine:We've given up everything and for what? She was sick of waiting. You know, this is, as Jeff said, this is our first Sunday, 1st week of Advent, which is the season of waiting. The word Advent simply means to come and in this Advent season we wait for Jesus to come. We only have to wait 4 weeks, you know, 4 weeks, Christmas, we celebrate.
Jeffrey Heine:It's here. Abram and Sarai waited 10 years already at this point, and they are still waiting. And in every year that Sarai waits, it seems less and less likely her body has even getting more and more impossible. Yet God keeps renewing his promise to Abram. Oh, I'm gonna bless your socks off.
Jeffrey Heine:Oh, I'm gonna make a nation of you, Abram. Oh, it's gonna be, you know, it's gonna be more wonderful than you ever imagined, but it's got to be getting harder and harder to believe these promises. You know, if you have a time, a hard time waiting for the Lord, I doubt you've waited 10 years. Now we have a hard time waiting in prayer. Lord, I want to hear your voice.
Jeffrey Heine:You've got about 30 seconds before I've got to go to work. So speak now Lord. We have a hard time waiting. You know, in many ways, when you look at the life of Abram, God does things to Abram, as a foreshadowing of what will later take place with Israel and what will later take place with the church. You kind of see it in a small scale with Abram, then you see it on the big scale with Israel and the church.
Jeffrey Heine:Israel would have to wait 2 1000 years for the child to come, and Jesus. And when Jesus comes, he says, well I'm coming back. And now we as Abraham's children by faith, now we have waited almost 2,000 more years for Christ to return. We're in a season of Advent. Well, Sarah, she got sick of her season of Advent.
Jeffrey Heine:And so she goes to her Egyptian servant and she asked to have a child, asked her to have a child for Abram. It's very similar to, you know, when when Abram went to the land of Canaan and it was barren, he went to Egypt. He didn't pray about it, he lacked faith, he went to Egypt. Now Sarai, she's barren. What does she do?
Jeffrey Heine:She goes to her Egyptian servant. Finding a man made solution instead of waiting on the Lord. Well, what she does is actually common practice during this time, in which you could get one of your servants to bury you a child, and what would happen is actually during childbirth, they would bear the child on your lap. Therefore, the child would become yours. It was a common practice.
Jeffrey Heine:Sarah could probably even justify it by saying, you know what, I'm just trying to fulfill the call of the Lord. It's what the Lord wants of us, you know. So I'm just speeding this process along. But the bottom line is she didn't trust. And Abram listened to the the the scripture is very clear.
Jeffrey Heine:Listen to the voice of Sarai. He didn't listen to the voice of the Lord. And so he comes up with a human solution instead of waiting for faith. You you might say here that the mistake they're making is that they are trying to make a name for themselves. God had promised, Abraham, I'm gonna make you a great name.
Jeffrey Heine:You're gonna be famous. They don't see it happening. And so they go about it and they try to make it through their own means. So once again, here we see Abraham failing in his faith. And we've seen this before, and yet God's gonna respond like he always responds.
Jeffrey Heine:He doesn't punish. He gives grace and gives grace. And he's gonna reestablish his covenant with Abraham in chapter 17, and he says, you know what? And now I'm gonna give you a new name. I'm going to give you a new name.
Jeffrey Heine:Chapter 17, once again, let's read verses 45. Behold, my covenant is with you and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations. No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be called Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. In verse 15, and God said to Abraham, as for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be your name. So he gives them new names.
Jeffrey Heine:Giving names has a lot of meaning. Giving new names can change the direction of your life. I've got just a little trivia for you. Does does anybody know who Lawrence Toreid is? It's mister T.
Jeffrey Heine:Kind of kind of sounds a little better. Can kind of go farther with with Mr. T. Now some of y'all should know this. Any of y'all know who David Howell Evans is?
Jeffrey Heine:Part of my spirit just died. The edge. You too? The edge? Somehow, you know, David Evans rocking on the guitar is just not the same as the edge.
Jeffrey Heine:Anybody know who Annie May Bullock is? Tina Turner. I like this one. Vincent Fournier. That's Alice Cooper.
Jeffrey Heine:You can't really have the kind of rock that he has and be named Vincent Fournier. Declan McManus, Elvis Costello. I like this one. Cortezer Broadus. He would have gotten nowhere with this name, but he changed it to Snoop Dogg.
Jeffrey Heine:And, and his career just just took off or or William Bailey, Axl Rose, Leslie Lynch King Junior. That that name would have taken him nowhere, but he changed it and he became president Gerald Ford. And names often are where we find our identity, you know, we kind of can change the course of our life or want to go in a new direction by giving ourselves a new name, and here Abraham gets a new name or God names Abram, Abraham, and he named Sarai Sarah. Now Abram meant exalted father, and it can either mean that your father is exalted or you are an exalted father. Since Abram didn't have any kids, it probably meant his father was exalted.
Jeffrey Heine:God then changes his name to Abraham, which means father of many, which instantly, you know, my mind that people started singing this horrible song over and over, father Abraham, many sons. And then he he goes to Sarai, and he says, no, I'm gonna change her name to Sarah. Now this one's interesting because Sarai means princess. Sarah means princess. Says, I'm changing your name from princess to princess.
Jeffrey Heine:But it makes all the difference in the world when I name you princess, versus when you try to become a princess. Because when you try to become a princess you will fail, but when I name you princess, you will be the mother of many nations. Now when God names someone or or names something, several things happen. For starters, it shows that he has ownership and that he has authority over what he has named. We see this now, you know, when if you get a boat, you name the boat.
Jeffrey Heine:You get to name it because it's yours. When you have a child, you know, I I didn't take a poll and say, hey, what would y'all like to name my children? I named my children. My my wife and I did because they're ours. I don't really care what you think about our names.
Jeffrey Heine:We we were gonna name our child. When Caroline got a dog, we let her name it, Daisy, because it was her dog and now she was taking ownership and she was taking responsibility for it. We can even see this early on in the book of Genesis when God gave man dominion and authority over all the earth. Says he brought forth all the animals before Adam, and Adam named them. He named them because he was given dominion and authority over them.
Jeffrey Heine:Even when the woman was created, Adam named her Eve because he was responsible for her. When god names Abram, Abraham, and Sarai, Sarah, he is showing that they are mine. I have absolute authority and responsibility for them. They are mine. I'm responsible for their well-being.
Jeffrey Heine:And then something else happens when God names people, and this time it's it's much different than when we name somebody. When we name something, we often describe it. You know, you you and once we got a a white kitten, and we gave it to my granddad one time and it was just white all over and so we named it Snowball because it looked like a snowball. We're just describing what it is or you know if you have a gray dog, you name it Smokey, and you're and you're just describing. But when God names someone, he's not describing what it is.
Jeffrey Heine:He is declaring what it will be. There's authority in that word. He's not saying this is what you are. He's saying this is what you will be. You will be the father of many nations.
Jeffrey Heine:In a sense, he's creating when he does this. And you could go back to Genesis and you can see, you know, the very first couple of chapters in Genesis, this is how God created the whole universe. He simply named things. That's what he did. He didn't look and notice light and then say, I'm gonna call that light.
Jeffrey Heine:He came up with a name, light. There's lights. You know, birds. There are birds. He created by naming.
Jeffrey Heine:The reason he knows the name of every star is because he named every star. He created them. We can kind of see this, well we can see this creative power in, in Jesus in the New Testament when he does things like renames Peter. He was Simon. Says no longer are you Simon, but you are Peter.
Jeffrey Heine:Now he's not describing Peter. He's not saying, Simon, when I look at your life, you're a rock. I know you're gonna deny me 3 times, you know, even a little servant girl is gonna come and you're gonna run away like a scared little girl, but you know, rock is perfect for you. He he knows what will happen, but he says, you are rock. And when I say you are rock, you will become the rock.
Jeffrey Heine:Nothing can keep you from being the rock. I now take ownership, responsibility for you. We can see this power to some extent when we name things. A few weeks ago, I shared with you when I was talking about faith, how Caroline, my oldest, how she was terrified of water initially. She would not jump to my arms.
Jeffrey Heine:I was that, you know, loser dad there saying jump, jump, and she wouldn't. Well, a few days later, Lauren and I renamed her. I mean, she was still Caroline, but we actually dubbed her Caroline the brave. I mean, we got around, we made a big deal. We said, you are Caroline the Brave.
Jeffrey Heine:And immediately she went to that pool, she jumped right in, beaming, going, I am Caroline the brave. And it didn't stop there, she started going crazy. She she went a little overboard. She's I mean that same week she started going down zip lines, dangerous zip lines, and she's going, can I do it again? I'm Caroline, the brave daddy.
Jeffrey Heine:We since named Natalie, Natalie the generous. We we have named Georgia, Georgia the one who will never put her parents in a nursing home. And and we're we're we're hoping it finds fulfillment in her life. To some degree, when we name it does have that effect to some degree, but not like God. Not like God.
Jeffrey Heine:God gives the names Abraham and Sarah. He's declaring what they shall be. He's giving them their identity. And this is where it gets really difficult because they did not become their names immediately. Actually, it took 25 years, 15 more years after this, before that they even started really seeing it come about.
Jeffrey Heine:But what's happening is God's saying, hey, I want you to build your entire identity on my word, who I say you are. Not what you see, not what you feel, not anything else. You build everything on who I declare you to be. And I say you are the father of nations, and I say you are a princess. I don't know if you can imagine just how awkward this would have been for them.
Jeffrey Heine:I mean, we often don't think of this when we think of Abraham, but giving the name father of many nations would have been pretty difficult as he meets people, as he's traveling, you know. Hi, what's your name? Hi, I'm the father of nations. Wow, father of nations, you know. How many kids do you have?
Jeffrey Heine:Well, you know, that's that's kind of the thing. You know, they're not really it's not really happening yet. You know, Sarai, you know, is meeting with with the women of the the village they've traveled in. You know, wow, you're named princess. Why are you named princess?
Jeffrey Heine:Well, because I am going to be the princess of nations. Nations are gonna come for me. Like, wow, you must have amazing children. Actually actually, I don't really have any kids yet. Like, have have you looked in the mirror?
Jeffrey Heine:Do you know how old you are? You're not having children. You call yourself princess? There would have been mocking and scorn with these names as they traveled around because there wasn't any physical evidence of it. All they could hold on to was the word of God.
Jeffrey Heine:That was it. It'd be 15 more years before she finally had a child. Remember, without having a child, she was seen as worthless. That's the society she grew up in. Before you completely just condemn such an archaic society, you have to realize every society oppresses in some way.
Jeffrey Heine:For, for her society, it was, if you don't have children, you're worthless. But for many of us in this room, it's if you're not beautiful, you're worthless. If you don't have education, you're worthless. You do not have money, you're worthless. Tim Keller, a favorite pastor of mine, he he said several times, he likes to point out when people say, you know, oh, that archaic society says, yeah, you know what, they might have condemned people if they didn't have children, but they didn't struggle with eating disorders.
Jeffrey Heine:You see see every society has something that they hold up and say, if you're not this, you're worthless. I mean who do you think, if if you have a beautiful woman and you have, you know, a very average or homely kind of looking woman, go and interview for a job, who do you think gets it? If they both like the same man, who do you think gets the date? See our society, it still oppresses. We still have those things that we hold up as what we must have.
Jeffrey Heine:And the key for you is to not say, okay, okay, therefore I need to look as, you know, as good as possible. I need to get the most uncomfortable shoes, you know, I need to, you know, spend forever in front of a mirror and try to look good and I need to try to make it. That's that's not the solution. And the key is not to say, okay, it's I don't care what others think about me, what what I think about me. That's the only thing that matters.
Jeffrey Heine:That's not the solution either. That's what, you know, this place is about, you know. Hey, who you are begins with what you do, you know. You'll find out there, you know, be bold. You are bold.
Jeffrey Heine:You are beautiful. You just need great self esteem. That's not the solution. Not at all. The key is for you to say, you know what?
Jeffrey Heine:What other people say I am does not matter. What I say I am doesn't matter. Who God says I am matters. That's it. I will build my whole identity on who God says I am.
Jeffrey Heine:Because I know if I build it on my wealth, well, what if I make a bad investment? Well, if I build it on my looks, I'm gonna get old, it's gonna fade. You know, if if I build it on a person, they're gonna fail me. Only building your identity on God will sustain you through all of life and beyond it. You know, in Jesus Christ, for those who have trusted him as their Lord, as their savior, as the one who forgives them.
Jeffrey Heine:In Jesus Christ, you become a new creature. The old things are gone, new things have come. Just like with Abraham, he calls you, he makes an everlasting covenant with you, and then he gives you a new name. God's the one who gives you your identity. There's this there's a strange verse in Revelation 2, and Jesus says this to the church of Pergamum.
Jeffrey Heine:He says he's gonna give each one of them a white stone, each person in this church a white stone with a new name written on it. And no one will know that except for the one who receives it. So every every every believer there is gonna get this white stone with a name that they're gonna read it. Now I don't really know exactly what all that means. Just that God has given us a new name, and when we read it, we're gonna say, that's who we are.
Jeffrey Heine:That's who I will become. My identity comes from the authoritative word of God. So let me ask the question, do you know who or whose you are? For those of you who put your faith in Jesus, you know this, he has put his spirit inside of you crying out, Abba father, you are his child and your identity rests in that. You know, the new name that we have received did not come cheap.
Jeffrey Heine:We looked at that last week when we looked at the covenant and how God himself came through those sacrificed halves to make a covenant with us. Well, in order for us to be a new creature, in order for us to get a new name, it didn't come cheap. It came at the cost of the father son, Jesus Christ. That's what we're gonna celebrate as we take communion together.