This was given at the Lynnville (IL) UMC on January 09, 2005. The Scriptures are from Isaiah 42: 1-9, Acts 10: 34-43, and Psalm 29, among others…

L…U…E…B…B…E…R…T… Back when I was driving a ‘Big Truck’ delivering edible oils around the country I often had occasion to spell my last name out for people as they took note of just who was entering or leaving their plant, and as I did, I usually let them know how aware I was that it is an awkward name to spell by telling them that it appears 12-13 times in my junior and senior-high school yearbooks, and it is spelled about 10 different ways! Now, I went through them a while back to verify that, and it’s actually spelled about 5 different ways, but you get the idea. There are the simple mistakes like leaving out one ‘B’, to, I think misidentifying me altogether as ‘S. Lueck’. The worst, however, was the one that said I was ‘S. Buebbert’… my friends have never let me live that one down!

In these verses from Isaiah, God says, “I am the LORD; that is my name!” Now, it s seems as if God is very particular about His name! Even as far back as His talking to Moses from the burning bush, in the book of Exodus, God said, “”I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.'”

God also said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers — the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob — has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, the name by which I am to be remembered from generation to generation.”

You see, in Isaiah, God says, “I will not give my glory to another or my praise to idols.” Barnes’ Notes says that… “This is the name which God has chosen by which to distinguish Himself from all idols, and which He regards as appropriately expressive of His existence and perfections. He will not allow it to be ascribed to another, nor will He allow another to assume or receive the honor which is due Him, whether it be man, or whether it be an idol. God claims that all appropriate honors should be rendered to him, and that men should cherish no opinions, maintain no doctrines, indulge in no feelings, that would be derogatory to the honor of his name. This declaration is designed to counteract ourinclination… to attribute to man that which belongs to God, or to ascribe to our own wisdom, skill, or power, that which he alone can accomplish.”

And I think that all of that is very understandable! God… IS… God! And Psalm 29 tells us that we should… “Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name; worship the LORD in the splendor of his holiness.” We read… “the LORD thunders over the mighty waters. The voice of the LORD is powerful; the voice of the LORD is majestic. The voice of the LORD breaks the cedars; the LORD breaks in pieces the cedars of Lebanon… The voice of the LORD strikes with flashes of lightning. The voice of the LORD shakes the desert… and in his temple all cry, “Glory!”

Now, when Dorothy and her entourage first went in before the great Wizard of Oz, they were greeted with a booming voice and great flashes of fire and light as the Wizard sent them to destroy the other wicked witch, and his ostentatious presence filled them with such fear and awe that they obeyed! Yet, on their return, Toto discovers the man behind the curtain working the controls, and the ‘great Wizard of OZ’ is discovered to be just a circus man from Kansas. And I think that all too often we keep expecting to find some curtain to pull back and discover the true identity of God! But there is no curtain! There is no magic! None of this is some kind of conjuring trick or special effect designed to fool us into believing!

God… IS… God! His reality… and ours… is whatever He deigns it to be! And He expects us to remember and acknowledge that on every level! He does not belong to us… we belong to HIM! He is not required to do our bidding… we are required to do HIS!

And yet, this great Being… this great creator of all things… this most powerful and most wonderful God… our God… says in Isaiah… “Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight;

I will put my Spirit on him and he will bring justice to the nations. He will not shout or cry out, or raise his voice in the streets. A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out. In faithfulness he will bring forth justice; he will not falter or be discouraged till he establishes justice on earth. In his law the islands will put their hope.”

This is what God the LORD says — he who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and all that comes out of it, who gives breath to its people, and life to those who walk on it: “I, the LORD, have called you in righteousness; I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles, to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness.”

And this Great, All-powerful God then says, “See, the former things have taken place, and new things I declare; before they spring into being I announce them to you!“ He is telling us of the Messiah… the Promised One… His Son… who is to come! Then, in the 3^rd chapter of Matthew, we’re told, “As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” God foretold of the arrival of His Son… and He acknowledged Him at the start of His ministry on this earth!

In the verses from Acts, Peter tells us that…“…God does not show favoritism but accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is right.” He said… “You know the message God sent to the people of Israel, telling the good news of peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all. You know what has happened throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John preached—how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him.”

Peter then adds… “We are witnesses of everything he did in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They killed him by hanging him on a tree, but God raised him from the dead on the third day and caused him to be seen. He was not seen by all the people, but by witnesses whom God had already chosen—by us who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead. All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”

There is a display up at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago that I love to watch and listen to each time we go in which a man mixes and assembles a number of various chemicals together and describes what each one is and what it does. At the end, he says something like, “Now, what have we made? This lemon crème pie! No lemon… no crème… just pie! All through the magic of modern chemistry!” And that is what many have come to expect in today’s world… nothing is what it appears to be!

But… our Lord is real… and He is alive today! His Son, Jesus, is real… and alive today! There is no magic… no flashes or filler designed to impress or mislead us… no conjuring tricks or slight of hand… there is only the Lord! He is real! And He created all that is… all that was… and all that will ever be! He is the Lord! Yet, for all of that greatness… for all of that power and majesty… He loves me enough… He loves you enough that He sent His only Son to die for our sins!

And you don’t get more real than that!