This morning, we are beginning a new seven-week sermon series entitled “The Names of God”. In this series, we are going to discover God’s character through His names.

Here is the driving premise of this series: We cannot fully trust, worship, or relate to a God we do not truly know.

As we begin, we need to gain the understanding that names carry profound significance, and they function as more than simple labels. They convey essential qualities about their bearers.

When we consider the names of God, we must understand that names carry more than mere identification. They signify honor, express power and authority, His nature, character, and function.

To know God’s name is to know how He relates to you. When God changed Abram’s name to Abraham, it revealed destiny and covenant. How He reveals Himself gives understanding to the covenant we have with Him, and how He relates to us.

The challenge I see many times is that people know about God, but don’t have a relationship with him. The result is often weak faith, confusion in hardship, and inconsistency in spiritual life. If we don’t know Him, we will try to relate to Him through our experience, traditions, or pain rather than through revelation.

In this series, we are going to see how God revealed Himself through names when His people faced a specific need. The revelation was progressive through scripture, situational in moments of need, and personal in relationship.

The pattern seen is a need-produced revelation that leads to a new understanding of God. The best part of each revelation of God’s names is that they are tied to covenant promises. They are more than theological information; they are meant to strengthen faith, deepen intimacy with God, and transform our prayer life through faith and expectancy.

In the Old Testament, we discover the one name of God, which was the redemptive name, and that is the name Jehovah (Yahweh). God speaks to Moses from a burning bush, calls and commissions him to deliver the people of Israel from Egypt.

Moses, overwhelmed by the task, asks in Exodus 3:13, “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?”

God answers in Exodus 3:14, “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.’ ”

Here is the powerful part: when God reveals Himself to Moses as "I AM WHO I AM", He is signifying His eternal, self-existent nature. The name “I AM” introduces God, who has always existed, and always will.

Do you realize that when we call on the name of Jesus (Yeshua), we are declaring that Jehovah/Yahweh is salvation or that Jehovah saves! His name declares that He will save, deliver, and rescue.

Moses’ question was not about curiosity; it was about authority, representation, and confidence in mission.

The name Jehovah/Yahweh is often translated as "LORD" in English Bibles, and it underscores God's covenantal faithfulness and unchanging character.

It is important to recognize that the revelation of God to Moses came in a moment of questioning, when he was called by God, but was unsure of himself and the mission. God often reveals His name in moments of insecurity.

The key to understand about God’s response to Moses in saying “I AM” is this: God was declaring that He was not defined by the situation, but that the situation must submit to who He is. The power of the I AM statement is that God was declaring, I AM what you need, when you need it, and as you need it.

The beauty of this revelation is that God meets different needs without changing His nature, and our confidence comes from realizing our assignments are sustained by God’s identity, not our capacity.

The first name of God I want to share with you this morning is the name Jehovah Jireh, which means, “The Lord will see, or the Lord will provide.”

This name emerged when Abraham memorialized God’s provision of a substitute for the sacrifice of his son, Isaac, on Mount Moriah. In Genesis 22, God tests Abraham. He commands him to take the son of promise, Isaac, and sacrifice him.

Now, before you get any strange ideas about God, understand that many people follow God until they receive what they want from Him, and many after turn away to idolize the promise they have received.

Abraham, by faith, obediently followed the instruction of the Lord.

The declaration of Abraham was to call the place Jehovah Jireh, The Lord will Provide. What is powerful about this name is that the weight of the name rests on its future orientation rather than past commemoration.

Unlike “The Lord did provide”, the name “The Lord will Provide” anticipates ongoing divine action rather than memorializing a single event.

God is omniscient (all-knowing) and omnipresent (in all places), and He perceives our needs both present and future, and supplies them accordingly. The Hebrew word “Jireh” fundamentally means “to see”, and when God sees, He foresees as an all-knowing, all-seeing, eternal God.

I will even tie a prophetic understanding to this story of Abraham. Abraham declared to Isaac that God would provide for himself a lamb when asked about the offering. God providing the ram in the thicket was a prophetic declaration and picture of Jesus, who would later come as the substitute lamb who would take away the sin of the world.

He is indeed the God who sees!

As I close this message, I want to address the tension between belief and experience.

We can sing about the provision of God, here is an oldie, “Jehovah Jireh, my provider, His grace is sufficient for me, for me, for me.” or a newer song, “Jireh, you are enough, Jireh, You are enough, and I will be content, in every circumstance. Jireh, You are enough.”

Many times, there is a genuine struggle that emerges in whether the conviction we sing about translates into real trust that God will meet all needs.

There are a few hurdles that we will all have to navigate if we are to move into the place of trust.

1. The Control Hurdle.
• It is trust vs. self-reliance. If I don’t make it happen, it won’t happen. It is marked by anxiety when outcomes aren’t in your hands.
• Most of us are trained to plan everything, control outcomes, and depend on effort as the ultimate source.
• God as provider doesn’t eliminate effort, but it redefines dependence. It requires a shift from the mentality that it is all on me to the mentality that I’m responsible, but God is the source.

2. The Timing Hurdle.
• Root Issue: Expecting God to work on our timeline. The delay of time often creates an opportunity for doubt. Why hasn’t God come through yet? It is seen in frustration when the provision feels delayed.
• Delay is not denial. Throughout scripture, God often provides in what feels like the last moment, and in a way that builds trust.

3. The Definition Hurdle.
• Culture teaches and limits provision to financial abundance or material needs. Biblical provision extends beyond material needs to include areas such as wisdom, strength, relationships, peace, and opportunities.
• A key truth to understand is that God provides what we need, not always what we prefer.

4. The Past Experience Hurdle.
• We must not choose to define God’s faithfulness to provide based on past disappointments.
• Here is an unpopular truth. God is not responsible or required to meet all of our expectations. At times, we all ask for what we want, but God ultimately knows what we really need.
• For example: Sometimes it is to go through the storm so that it can refine us, instead of being delivered from the storm. God will not fail us; sometimes, we simply lack the understanding of what God is doing in our lives.

5. The Comparison Hurdle.
• Don’t measure God’s provision against others. People have different assignments. Comparison distorts perspective and robs one of gratitude and trust. Remember, God’s provision is personal, not competitive.

6. The Fear of Lack Hurdle.
• This is the primary hurdle when it comes to trusting God with the tithe. It stems from a scarcity mindset. Fear says, there won’t be enough. The result is that we hoard, have anxiety about the future, and have difficulty being generous.
• Trusting God as provider is what breaks the grip of scarcity. It moves you from the mindset that I must protect everything to the mindset that God is my source.

7. The Conditional Trust Hurdle.
• This is about not having transactional faith, where I trust God only when things go well, and begin to doubt when things get hard. The key to understand: God’s provision is based on His unchanging character. He is faithful regardless of our circumstances.

8. The Misunderstanding of Responsibility Hurdle.
• Biblical provision is about partnership. You act, God supplies. We must not allow passive thinking-"God will provide, so I will do nothing"-or the opposite: overworking without trust.
• The goal is to have faithful obedience and trust in God’s outcome.

Believing that God is Jehovah Jireh, our provider is more than belief; it is a lens through which we view life.