HINENI

Okay. Neil gave us a Hebrew word. I'm giving you another one. Anybody know how to pronounce that? Say that again? No, you're getting close. Yes. I want to give you that Hebrew word, and I'm going to ask you to remember it. I'm going to ask you to use it. I don't usually bring out that much Hebrew. I'll leave that to Aaron Dominguez when he's here. But the title is Hinnani. Hinnani. As you know, the I's in Hebrew are pronounced with an E. So it's Hinnani, or if you hear that, they may say Hinnani. Say it so fast it almost sounds like ha, but it's E. Hinnani. And Hinnani is actually three words put together. In the Hebrew, he, H-I, means I. Knee, N-I-H is pronounced. Hinnani. Ha, na, means I, M, and then knee. Here. I am here. That's how it was translated in Hebrew. Except there was an issue in the translation, and that's not how it's translated in our Bible. Because, even though it is put together, there needed to be, say, is it an exclamation point? Because it was an exclamation these three words put together. Hinnani. Can you say Hinnani? Oh, you can do better now. Hinnani. Ah, now you get it. It is translated in our Bibles as, here I am. Here I am. The translators realized that there was energy. There was passion in this statement. And so, they brought it in as an important saying. Here I am. There is a Scripture in Matthew 22 and verse 14 you won't turn to. You don't need to turn to because many of you know it. It said, Many are called, but few are chosen. Is it perhaps they weren't chosen because they didn't answer correctly? Is this part of us? Is God wanting us to say, Charmaine? Charmaine. And she says, Here I am. Remember that in Scripture? 17 times is that Hinnani used in the Old Testament for Hebrew. 17 times. And you know who it said, Bye? Who's who in the Bible? Who's who? It's a major statement. It's a statement to say, Here I am. Not, Here I am. You take, you take a role at school? They did in our school. Chuck Smith, here. Jessica, present. There are different ways to say it, but when you look at the examples that are laid out for us, it's Hinnani. To us is what the the great in the Bible say. When their name is called, they don't just answer, hmm?

Answer, Here I am. A definite statement. So I want to look at that as we go there and go with me to the very first Hinnani in the Bible. Go with me to Genesis 22. You know the example here, don't you? Genesis 22 verse 1, Now it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham. And he said to him, Abraham, and Abraham said, Hinnani, here I am. He didn't shy back. God called. He answered that call. Here I am, which means at your service. I'm here.

Look what he said in verse 2. I don't have it up there. But he said to him, Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you. And then it says, He rose early. We can see Abraham wasn't one to shy back. You're going to take your son, you're going to take the fire. You're going to take him up his mind, you're going to kill him. So far, let's go.

It shows that Abraham was ready to do what God wanted him to do. He was that kind of man. He had that kind of passion. He was a true follower of God. Let's go down to verse 11. We know the story. And as he is preparing to sacrifice his son. He said, Verse 11, But the angel of the Lord called to him, angel capitalized, which means it was the Word, of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, Abraham, Abraham, and he said, What?

Hinnani, here I am. Here I am. Powerful statements here given about Abraham. Let's turn over, stay in Genesis. Let's go over and see about Jacob. As I said, a who's who in the Bible, especially in Genesis. Genesis 31, verse 11, as we know about Jacob fleeing from Laban after he had been there, and God still working with him.

And verse 11 said that then the angel of God, capital A, spoke to him in a dream saying, Jacob. And Jacob said, Here I am. Hinnani, Hinnani, this is what he did. This is who he was. Go over to Matthew, Genesis 46. Genesis 46, back here, here, Genesis 46, verse 1, So Israel took his journey with all that he had, and came to bear Sheba, and offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac. Then God spoke to Israel, Jacob, in the visions of the night, and said to him, Jacob, Jacob.

And he said, Hinnani, Hinnani, here I am. It shows that even in a dream, that mentality was there, that when God called, he answered. It's part of his character. It's more than just a calling, more than just a declaration. In the military, I had so many uncles, and most of my uncles were in the military. And growing up, I would spend time with them, and they would always tell me. And how boot camp was, and how service was, didn't sound like somewhere I wanted to hang out.

But then I had men who later worked for me. I had a couple Marines that worked for me, and some guys who had retired from service. And it's interesting because in service, as they would say, it still carried over when they came to work for me. Because it was ingrained in them when their commanding officer or another officer would say anything to them, someone in authority.

They would answer, Sir, yes, sir. Not just, yeah. But they carried that over. And it was like, Sir, yes, sir. They're at attention. They're ready to go do it. They're ready to get their orders. Similar to what Abraham and Jacob were. Their mindset was, God, what do you need? Haven't you met people that way? Haven't you worked with people that way? And it's like, oh, could you do me a favor? Yes, what is it? What do you need done? Rare in today's world, but so are God's people.

As we look at that, I'm ready, present, and ready for action. Are we that way? When God actually calls us, our guide to us to do things, are we ready to say, Hennani, here I am. Here I am, God. What do you need from me? Go with me to Exodus, if you will. All of you remember this story. Exodus 3, verse 4, Moses taking care of sheep.

Been in the wilderness, taking care of sheep for 40 years. Can't say it had to be the most exciting job, being he was a military general before that. But here, he comes upon this bush, Exodus 3, verse 4.

And Moses started to turn aside. He couldn't figure out why that bush did not burn up. So, in verse 4, so when the Lord saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of that bush and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, what? Hennani. Hennani. Hennani, here I am. It's like he was ready. And God was about to send him on an incredible journey, wasn't he? He had a job for him to do.

Does he have a job for us to do? Hm? That's something to think about. Let's go over to another Who's Who in the Bible. Isaiah. This is the book of Isaiah. Isaiah 6. Isaiah has given this incredible vision of angels and thrones and all these things of magnificent seraphim. And so he gets to hear what they're saying.

And in verse 8, it says, Also, I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Who shall I send? Who do we want to send? Who will we send to do His work? And who will go for us? Then I said, and, Aunty, here I am, Lord, send me. Pretty impressive. Did he know what he was about to have to go do? It is known through historical sources that Isaiah's life didn't end very well. Sawn in two when he was in his 80s or 90s. By a wicked king, here I am. He was willing to do what God needed him to do. Quite impressive. And if Hennani means total availability, does that describe us? Or does it describe us kind of like when we go to work? Oh, it's Monday. Oh, Monday, Monday, Monday. Oh.

Well, it's only five days long. Or do we go, huh?

Let me get up. Let's go. I got a job to do. I'm going to go do it. Don't feel the best in the world. Stayed up too late last night, watching ball games. But I'm ready. And sometimes God calls us at a time when it's not real convenient for us, doesn't he? He needs us to do something when it isn't real convenient. How about next week? How about next year? How about that?

We see the example multiple times of a young lad younger than even Joseph here. Younger than him. Where in the middle of the night God is calling out to him, and he runs over to Elod, the priest to Ty. Yes, sir. No, I didn't call you. But you know what he said each time? He'd hear the voice. Samuel, Samuel, Hinnani! Here I am. Powerful, powerful statement from someone five or six years old. He was available to God. Yes, Samuel was unique. He was special. But he didn't have any trouble multiple times saying, Hinnani, here I am. And it's interesting that Joseph, Jacob's son, of all the sons, he was a favorite. There's no doubt about it, right? Anybody want to argue that fact? I can go to the Bible. I can prove my point. He was favorite. Winsome, do you have a favorite? You're not going to say it here in front of all your kids and all these people. But Jacob was unlike Winsome. He had a favorite, and everyone knew it. And that kind of caused a riff in the family. It caused a problem. We all know the riff. We all know the problem. So, why was his favorite? Well, his favorite life. But was there something else? Because you can see all the scriptures that cover all the life of all the 12 sons. Only one son is quoted as saying, Hennani. His father needs to send him because he didn't know where the other brothers are. They're out there, no telling what they're doing. And he calls Joseph, and he says, Joseph! And Joseph comes, Hennani! Here I am, Father.

Ready to go and do what his father needed him to do. What about our father calling us? Hmm. Are we? Are we prepared for that? Are we ready for that? Now, 17 times, 17 times is Hennani in the Old Testament. And very impressed with Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Samuel, Moses. I mean, it's... But there's one that we need to know every single day. We need to know. Here I am every single day of our lives. Let's go there. Like you to go with me to Isaiah 58. Isaiah 58. It's so interesting as God is talking here. And in verse 8, he says, Then your light shall break, forth like the morning. Your healing shall spring forth speedily. Doesn't that sound pretty good? I'm kind of... I need that. And your righteousness shall go before you. The glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard. Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer. You shall cry, and He will say, Here I am. Hennani. God is willing to say it to you, and He's willing to say it to me, which means what? He's available. He's out of tension. How great! Well, we've got a problem. We don't say, Why me, Lord?

Oh, is me. Why is me? What? We need to say, Lord. Lord. And He says, Here I am. Hennani. Isn't that amazing that He finishes with that? It shows it in Isaiah 65, the last time. There's pictures in the kingdom. God is going to be available to us, and He's available. But you know the example it sets is, we need to be available to Him, for Him to be available to us all the time. It's what He describes.

When God is present, we need to be there.

He says, Were two or more gathered together in my name? Hennani. He's there. I am there. Here I am. Sabbath day. Well, I don't know. I'm kind of tired today.

Hennani. Well, looks like rain today. Hennani.

We want Him when we want Him. We want Him when we need Him. And when we don't need to show up. Because I isn't convenient? That's not Hennani. Hennani is even when He's not convenient. When you're tired. If God's going to be there, we need to be there. Don't we? That's what this is teaching me. That's what it's teaching. It's the Sabbath day. How about Passover? We have Passover here.

We need to be here. Because God was here. We asked Him to be here. Of course, we're two or more together together. It doesn't matter whether we ask Him to be there or not. He's there. He doesn't need an invitation. He just shows up.

He's a Sabbath crasher, I guess you could say. Because He's there. He's just showing up. As a matter of fact, it's so important. Hennani is so important that He says, if you miss the Passover and you can't make it because something keeps you from doing it, what does Numbers 9 and verse 11 say? 30 days later. Hennani is so important to God that He even makes a backup plan. He doesn't do that with any of His holy days. But He does it here. Why? Because that time signifies that when we take the symbols, we're telling God, Hennani! Every day of my life. Hmm. Pretty impressive. Pretty impressive that that can take place.

Days of Unleavened Bread.

Last day is Monday.

This room. You know who's going to be here? God's going to be here. And He's telling all of us because that's a holy day. Hennani!

So it isn't just this, well, I guess I should show up to services because then people will look at me and realize I'm not there and go, hmm, hmm. That's not it at all. No, it's about God being there and we're His. And it's about that availability. And many people will say, hmm.

God, where were you when I needed you? And you know, God could answer most of them and say, where were you? Where were you? Because I just have certain dates, doesn't He? He just has certain dates that He needs us to say, here I am. It's 52 Sabbaths in a year. And then there's seven others. And then there's Passover. And that's it. What about our needing Him? See, I want that. I want to be able to call on Him. And I want Him to say, here I am. He's promised. He can't lie. It's impossible for Him to lie. We just, so many people don't take Him up on His Word. Yeah, yeah. No. It's a complete promise that He does. So it's interesting here as we go into last week, because last Sabbath we talked about Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread. The next night we kept Passover. The next night we had night to be much observed. And then we had the first Holy Day. Now we're having another Holy Day, which is His Sabbath, during the Days of Unleavened Bread. And Monday we're going to have the last day. Five times in eight days. And nodding.

Five times in eight days. It kind of gives Him a clearer view of, hmm, let's see, wait a minute. Where is He? Where is He? Yeah, didn't? Weren't they crying out to me this week? Uh-huh. So what do we do? Because this week, eating that little thin piece of bread, so flavorful, the matzo, thankfully Mary made me other unleavened treats, so I didn't have to go, uh, ugh. But I had to eat that. Doesn't it? We even got new bread and it still tastes stale. That matzo still, but like, blah, yeah, it's bland. It's just like, you know, but you eat it. And then that's to remind us every day of not only not being puffy, but also, what are we working on? Working on being like Christ. And we concentrate on it. And we concentrate on it. And in case we forget one day, the next day, we're gonna eat that and go, hmm, miss that one. Shows we're a work in progress. God knows it. That's why He called us. He's into rehab. He's into rehabbing us as fleshly two-spirit beings. It's this process. That's what He wants from us. So He doesn't mind if we're taking those two steps forward and one step back, instead of the opposite. Two steps back and one step forward. This is big stuff to Him. So what can we call this week? Beside Days of Unleavened Bread? How about Spiritual Boot Camp? Do you consider it Spiritual Boot Camp? Because we're to show up every day during these days of Unleavened Bread and tell God, here I am. I'm not just eating whatever I want to eat. I'm actually doing my minds on becoming more like you.

They had a theme a few years ago called Army Strong, where they wanted people to get in shape and be this sort of strong. God wants us to be Christ Strong, be like Christ. So this is like a boot camp during these times, except we're not going to say, Sir, yes, Sir, we're going to go, Hanani. So that God knows we're available to Him, and these things are going to work out.

So I begin to wrap this up.

When God brings someone into your path, and He does, I said it the other day, whether it's at work, whether it's at home, whether it's at school, whether it's in the neighborhood, God brings people into our lives. Think the woman in John 4, the woman at the well, just showed up there because she was out of water.

God knew. God brought her in to meet Christ. He brings many people into our lives so they can meet a Christ-like person. That's why we're doing what we're doing. It isn't just so we can walk around going, you know who I am? I'm a son of God. No. We are. We are children of God, but that's why He gives us a little thin bread to remind us, no, we're just, my sons are flat, humble, meek.

But they have power. Power under control.

Isn't that one of the Beatitudes? Showing a horse with a bridal on it. Word picture. Is that horse? There's no one stronger than a horse. No one man. It has such power if you've ever had a horse, and I had a horse, and it had of its own mind. If I didn't have a lot of sugar cubes, do what He wanted. But that humble, that word picture was a horse being led. That's us. God has given us such power, but we have to have it under control so God can lead us where He needs us and how He needs us and what He needs us to do. It's powerful. So when God brings someone into your path who has biblical questions, we tell, oh, here's a booklet. Uh, ucg.org. Uh-uh. That's not what He's doing. There are resources there, yes, but He's bringing them to you.

And He expects us to say, Hennani, here I am. So why do we study the Bible? Not for just our own salvation. We do it so we can help people. We do it so we have answers that we wouldn't have unless we study their book.

And there's a destiny in front of us. We're going to be teaching a lot of people.

And you're going to look back 500 years from now in the glorious Kingdom, and you're going to say, boy, that Chuck Smith had it easy. He had 50 people. I've got 50,000.

This is part of our training. This is where it goes. Uh, go with me. Last verse. Matthew 28. And verse 19. This is a commission He's given to all of us, not just these disciples that were back then. We found that out in Passover Night in John 17. Those who will follow after you. But here, verse 19, He says, go!

Says therefore, huh?

No. Sorry. Therefore is not in the majority of manuscripts. So, my Bible even has it crossed out because I crossed it out because I found it wasn't in there. But people added that. Go therefore. No. This is what it says. Go! Not therefore. Well, if you want to. Well, here's a reason. No. The original translation says, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you, always, even to the end of the age. Hmm.

Hennony. He wants us to be available to help other people.

Sometimes we don't want to do that, though. Sometimes there are difficult people. Right, Mike Hamill? We've got to have a difficult person we've both got to work with. Right, Barry? Barry had a chance to spend a little time with our difficult person. Was he difficult? Was he one of the most difficult people you ever worked with? You can say, yes. And he's shaking his head, yes. And he's like, hmm, difficult. Mike, one of the most difficult I've worked with, you? Yes, absolutely.

God's going to bring some difficult people. And there will be difficult things God wants us to do, and He's going to guide us through His Spirit. And we're going to say, oh, I don't know whether I, you remember what Christ said? Father, not my will, but Your will be done. What was He saying? Hennani. Absolutely, Grace. She's got it.

This is what He wants from us. So, what is this telling us? Be prepared. Be available. Be ready.

How do we be prepared? How are we prepared? How do we be prepared? That's a lousy way to say it. How are you preparing?

Well, I read the Bible five minutes a day. Is that enough preparation? It isn't for me, but it's not my job to judge you. Neil talked about prayer. I've only got five minutes to pray. Is that enough? I think your pastor alone needs five minutes of your time. You need to pray for him.

These are things that we can be doing to show we've got things to do. We've got things to pray for. We've got Haiti to pray for. It's young ladies, father, and mother over there trying to bring many sons to glory. In Haiti, in a bad place, Haiti. They're having services today. They need our prayers. And I thank you for your support as you gave offerings and were able to help send a subsidy to Haiti. But it's tough. It's tough. But Joseph Jean said, Hainanee, here I am. And he went, and he's there now, carrying on the work of God. We can do the same thing in your town, your neighborhood, in your life.

You say, well, I don't know if I'll see any fruits from this.

That's God's job. Your job is to say, here I am. It's his job to work with the person. And as God's spirit moves, brethren, our lives are down to one thing. Our here I am moment is now. Our here I am moment is now. That's why he's called you. That's why he works with you. That's why he says, I'll never leave you nor forsake you.

Because we need to be there for him. Because he wants to always, always be there for us.

Hainanee!