El Shaddai
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Genesis 17:1-8.
When Abram was ninety-nine years old, YHWH appeared to him and said, “I am El Shaddai; walk before me and be blameless. I will confirm my covenant between me and you and will greatly increase your numbers.”
Abram fell facedown, and Elohim said to him, “As for me, this is my covenant with you: You will be the father of many nations. No longer will you be called Abram; your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations. I will make you very fruitful; I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you. I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your Elohim and the Elohim of your descendants after you. The whole land of Canaan, where you are now an alien, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you; and I will be their Elohim.”
When God appeared to Abram, He revealed a new name to him. God called Himself El Shaddai which means God Almighty or God all powerful. God revealed this name when He made His first covenant with the Jews, through Abram.
1. God’s power in the universe
a. We looked at the fact, last week that God created everything.
b. We know from Colossians chapter 1 that it was Jesus Christ who
i. Created Everything
1. Visible
2. Invisible – angels, heavenly realms
3. Everything in heaven and on earth
ii. Created it for himself
iii. And holds it all together
c. I don’t know about you, but when I have three different appointments in a day, I need to make sure I write down my schedule and keep checking it
i. Give me five different appoints in a day and I’ll be sure I’ll miss something
ii. Several weeks ago, I had seven different appointments in a single day, with different people, five in San Jose and two up here. That was a frantic day.
d. You ask a scientist how many stars exist in the universe and you’ll get an answer like
i. 100 thousand million, er, just in our galaxy
ii. And there are millions and millions of galaxies
iii. In other words – a whole bunch
iv. God knows them all, their size, their location
1. It is quite possible that He has named them all
2. He knows all the stars, all the planets, and the gas clouds and every little spec of space dust
e. Scientists have been asked how many cells are in the human body.
i. The low estimates are 25 trillion.
ii. The high estimates are 100 trillion
iii. Scientists have not yet figures out how to count the number of cells in a human body
iv. God knows how many cells are in the human body
1. He knows each cell and keeps each cell running
2. He does that not only for you, but everyone here
3. Not only for everyone here, but for all 6 billion people on this planet
4. Not only all the people, but all the animals and plants, and insects and fish and birds and little crawly things and little oozing things…all of them
f. God not only knows all that information, but he actively holds it all together.
i. After the apple fell on Isaac Newton’s head, he discovered gravity
ii. If God stopped controlling the universe, gravity would cease to exist
iii. And so would all of us
2. God’s power in history
a. God first revealed this name to Abraham and until Moses, when a bunch more names would be revealed, this was it
b. This was considered the covenant name of God by Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph
c. And what was the covenant that was made?
i. That Abraham would be made into a might nation
ii. Was he?
iii. Let me simply say this. You cannot turn you TV on to any news channel without hearing the word Israel at least once a week. Some weak, you hear it every hour
iv. Hamon, in the book of Ester tried to wipe them out
1. And he hung on his own scaffold
v. Assyrians tried to kill them
1. God killed 200,000 of them
vi. Babylonians took them to a foreign land
1. And they returned to rebuild
vii. Hitler tried to exterminate them
1. And ended up taking his own life
2. And split Germany for 45 years
viii. Lebanon fires rockets into Israel
1. And what? Did they hit anything of value?
2. The reports are sketchy, but they stopped and Israel is till strong
d. The name El Shaddai appears 48 times in the Bible
i. A handful of times in Genesis and exodus, whenever God talks about the covenants
ii. A bunch of times in Revelations
1. I read Revelations the other day and even though it is fragmented and confusing, there is one clear message
2. God is in control
a. Absolutely
b. Totally
c. There are no challengers
3. God’s power in your life
a. 31 times in Job
i. Why?
ii. Because when everything falls apart, you do not want the creator, you do not want the most high, your do not want the one who sees, you want the MOST POWERFUL BEING IN THE UNIVERSE!
iii. Job cried out to El Shaddai
b. So, let’s look at the lives of the people in this church and see the power of God
i. The latest miracle is Hank being reunited with his son after 50 years
ii. Too hard for God? Not hardly
c. There have been people healed from their death bed, healed from cancer, healed from stuff that baffled the doctors, families reunited, children coming to the Lord, a closeness of this church community that is amazing to see, and more and more and more.
d. I hear stories all the time of the power of God working in the lives of the people in this church and I know I will continue to hear more stories of the God almighty working in the lives of His people
e. Prayers are answered and faith is built every day because
i. God’s infinite power is released when His people Pray
Finally, where has God’s ultimate power been totally revealed?
Creation? The exodus? The creation of Israel?
God put everything He had into one event: The birth, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ