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by Pastor Don Gettys THE MAN WITH 190 NAMES The world of old had 7 wonders. Pyramids- 13 acres, 481' tall, 2M 2« ton blocks. Hanging Gardens of Babylon, Arches 300' tall. Statue of Zeus of pure solid Gold and Ivory. Temple of Diana at Ephesus of marble. Tomb of Mausolus, died 353BC (Mausoleums) Colossus of Rhodes, Bronze statue over the harbor entrance at Rhodes, ships between its legs! Great Lighthouse of Alexandria 400' tall, 100' sq base. (All of these are now gone except the pyramids.) I suppose today one of these would be the Computer. But in the old times they missed a "VIP" wonder of the world. Far greater than any or all is the wonder of JESUS! And His empty tomb! Jesus is the greatest wonder of the whole universe! ISAIAH 9:6 His name shall be WONDERFUL. What makes it wonderful? Because Jesus is our Hero! Jesus is our rescue! Jesus is our Saviour! We need a Saviour! In December 5, 1986 Walter Wyatt, Jr. was flying his Beechcraft from Nassau to Miami, a 1 hour trip. His navigational equipment was gone. The only thing he had was his compass and it began to gyrate. Walter was soon lost over the vast ocean. He called MAYDAY over his radio. Soon a coast guard Falcon search plane came for him to follow. Only 6 miles from the airport he ran out of gas. At 8 PM he crashed into the water. The plane soon sank leaving him floating on the water in his leaky life vest. His forehead was bleeding. Suddenly he felt a hard bump. A shark had found him. He kicked the beast and it went away. In the morning at one point he saw a dorsal fin heading for him. Again he kicked. Two more bull sharks came next, again he kicked and they veered off. He was near exhaustion. Suddenly an aircraft came over and finally the cutter Cape York pulled alongside Walter. A Jacob's ladder was dropped over the side. Somehow he managed to climb up and onto the ship. He fell to his knees and kissed the deck. He had been saved. When he was in the ocean, targeted by hungry sharks, his great need was not for advice or better techniques. Nothing less than outside intervention could have rescued him from sure death. We are like that doomed man. We must have rescue from above. LUKE 2:11 Unto us is born a Saviour. He is a prefect Saviour, an expert at search and rescue. The biggest question is: Is Jesus your Saviour? Has He saved you? Jesus is just one name that we use to identify our Saviour. Actually Jesus Christ has some other names. Over 190 different names! It would be very informative and fun to preach on each of these names. It would probably take 10 or even 25 sermons or even 100 to do it justice. Allow me to share a few thoughts about the Man with 190 names. For instance, for just about every FEAR that enters the human heart there is a name of Jesus to meet that fear. Fear of the Dark-------------I am the LIGHT of the world. John 1:9 Fear of Failure--------------I am ALMIGHTY God! Revelation 19:15 Fear of Death----------------I am the LIFE! John 14:6 Fear of losing health--------I am great PHYSICIAN, Luke 4:23 Fear of Hunger---------------I am the BREAD of life. John 6:35 Fear of LOSS-----------------I am KING over all the earth. Zech 14:9 Fear of the FUTURE-----------I am your COUNSELOR. Isaiah 9:6 Fear of FALSEHOOD------------I am the TRUTH. John 14:6 Fear of ENEMIES--------------I am your DELIVERER. Romans 11:26 Fear of false ACCUSATIONS----I am your JUDGE, Acts 10:42 Fear of being LOST-----------I am the WAY, John 14:6 Fear of THEFT or ROBBERY-----I am the DOOR, John 10:7 Jesus is the answer to every fear that we could ever have. It would make a nice study to sit down a little each day and study the various names of Jesus and find out just what they will do to give you hope and peace. There is tremendous POWER in the very name of Jesus! The name that I like the best is the one that means SAVIOUR. HEBREWS 7:25 He is able to save to the uttermost, those who come to Him! Jesus is a pro at saving sinners. Our part is to come to Him. Let Jesus save you. We can no more save ourselves by trying hard than a blind man can be cured by increasing the brightness of the lights. Jesus occupation was not always to be a Saviour. Once, He lived in a perfect land called heaven. There the rivers never freeze, the wind always behaves, frost does not kill, and doctors are unheard of. Pain was unknown. Death was not in the dictionary. Sin was known only as a possibility in the mind of the Trinity. But sin did erupt. And God was ready to deal with the crisis. Jesus was sent like a heavenly EMT to operate the great rescue. He came as a baby. Grew up as a boy. Jesus never traveled over 200 miles from His birth place. He was humble and a hard worker. Our Saviour never watched TV. Never swam in a pool. He grew up on a dirt floor. The only thing He ever owned was His clothes. Yet... As a boy He startled a King, and puzzled learned doctors. In manhood He ruled the course of nature. He healed the multitudes without medicine. Jesus never made a charge for His services. Every act was a gift. Jesus never wrote a book but all the books that have been written about Him, could not be held in all the libraries of this state. Our Master never wrote a song, yet there are thousands about Him. More than all other songs combined! Our Great I Am is the STAR of Astronomy, CHIP of the computer, ROCK of Geology, LAMB and LION of Zoology, LOVE of Psychology, Medicine of Pharmacology GOLD of the Economy. Herod could not kill Him. Satan could not overcome Him. Death could not destroy Him. The Grave could not hold Him. One of my favorite things about Jesus is His Great Love. When we meet Jesus face to face we are going to look into the soft eyes of an exceedingly kind face overflowing with compassion and mercy. We see mere glimpses of this today. When Dan Clark was a boy his father took him to the circus. Dan says: The line was long but finally we got up near the ticket counter. The family ahead of us was large and poor. Eight children under the age of 12! They did not have much money, their clothes were not expensive, but they were clean. The children were well behaved, standing in line behind their parents, two-by-two, holding hands. Jabbering about the clowns, elephants, and the things they were about to see. It was easy to see they had never been to a circus before. The mother was holding her husbands hand looking up at him with pride. Just then the ticket lady asked how many tickets the man wanted. He proudly said: 8 Children's tickets and two adult tickets. The ticket lady quoted the price. The man's wife let go of his hand and dropped her head. The man's lips began to quiver. He leaned a little closer to the ticket counter and said: How much did you say? Again she quoted the price. It was obvious he did not have enough money. How could he turn and tell his 8 kids he could not take them to the circus? Seeing what was going on, my dad put his hand into his pocket, and pullet out a $20 bill and dropped it on the ground beside the poor broken father. "Excuse me sir, this must have fallen out of your pocket!" The poor father knew what was going on. He was in a desperate, heartbreaking, embarrassing situation. He looked my dad straight in the eyes and took dad's hand in both of his work calloused hands and squeezed tightly onto the $20 bill and with his lip quivering and a tear streaming down his cheek he replied, Thank you, thank you sir. This really means a lot to me and my family. They got their tickets and went to the entrance. The faces of the children were glowing with anticipation. The man and his wife were close. After they went inside, my father and I went back to the car and drove home. We did not go to the circus that night. We had given our money so another family could enter in. Jesus gave his life that we can enter in to the Joy that the heavenly Father has prepared for his children. I love the words of that old hymn: For God so loved the world, He gave His only Son to die on calvarys tree, from sin to set me free, Some day he is coming back, What glory that will be, Wonderful His love to me. REVELATION 3:20 Behold I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice and open the door I will come in and eat with him and he with me. He stands outside our personal door, Waiting, Camping on our door step. Longing to be with us. He Knocks on our door. He knocks by sending events that wake us up and make us think about Him. He Calls. If we listen, we will hear His voice out there calling for us. Our greatest need is for the strength of Jesus and His free salvation. When you come to the McDonald Road Restaurant to be fed, you want the best food in the world. You look at our menu and it is one thing: JESUS, the BREAD of life. And the price for you is absolutely free. Jesus paid it all! Without Jesus what is a sermon worth? Like it said in the Ministry Magazine: An X-ray picture of Miss America may be ever so accurate and scientific but is not going to hold the attention like looking at her face and her smile. The bare bones of every sermon should be wrapped in the living flesh of Jesus. He is the life of the sermon and He is the life of the Christian. Jesus ever lives to increase the possibility of our salvation. One day I was at a bookstore and decided I needed to purchase an Almanac, a big thick book of over 600 pages. It is chuck full of facts. In 1988, 4.8 marriages out of every 1000 ended in divorce. 13 out of every 100 Families were headed by women. Each American generates almost 4 pounds of waste per day. 1 in 5 teenagers is armed with a gun, knife or club. Students who listen to loud music cannot hear as well. Facts, facts, facts..... Do they really matter? Some facts are a matter of life or death. For example: The number of people who have sinned and fall short=100% -The number of people who will face the Judgement=100% The number of people who will live with Jesus forever because they accept His saving grace is 100%!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! -------------------------------------------------------------------McDonald Road Sermons