with us this morning but we are going to continue our at home series. Um this is lesson number three which is commandment number three. Uh I believe we're going to learn a lot of good things today. Today is a lot of teaching. So, if you would bear with me through this but it's going to be really good teaching and um and you hopefully everyone has a handout. If you don't have a handout. Um they're at the information desk or maybe you can raise your hand. We have somebody that can run and help you get you a handout because this will help us be engaged with one another. Um we're going to start off today's lesson with the scripture if that's okay. Exodus twenty and seven says this, do not misuse the name of the lord your god, the lord let you go unpunished if you misuse his name. Now, that's that's a tough scripture, right? That's a tough scripture and so when I started reading about this scripture and about this lesson, um I started thinking about what's in a name and what what carries a name and so there's this book written names by Paul Dickinson and in there, he has some funny illustrations and names that are uh prophetic and I'm going to go through this really quick and they're pretty funny um and these are all true stories apparently. So, in the book this this is labels. these are true stories There was these two men that were sent to the Florida electric chair and their names were will burn and frizzle Um now, that's pretty ironic, right there was this Montreal window washer who actually fell to his death and this is a sad story but his name was Will drop That's a tough one. There's there's this baseball coach's name was Joe Butt and there was this barber. His name was Dan. Dr. Brad, you'd like that one right there. There's two police officers. This is really funny. There's two police officers and their names. They they they were um partners in crime or actually I should say partners in defeating crime and their last names were go forth and Ketchum. So those two guys did very well in their field. Um there's this uh business equipment. Uh there's these two guys that partnered up and their last names were O'Neill and pray. Now, that's that's uh maybe they just said, you know what? This is this has to happen and then a funny one, the last one there was this plaster contractor and his name was Will crumble. So, that guy was destined from the very beginning to be a plaster contractor but I began to think what's in a name especially god's name it's There's a lot in god's name and why is god's name so sensitive when we talk about his name and it's because it represents a name represents three things. I'm going to talk about these really quickly in this introduction. Um I believe this is the number one in your handout number one in your name or in everybody's name is your reputation right? That's why we say, well, that person's making a name for himself. It's because it's the reputation and when I say um a person can either have to have a good reputation or a bad reputation and so when I say a certain person's name like Adolf Hitler, we immediately think of his reputation. When I say when I say Elvis Presley and my dad's here. so that was for you dad. Um Elvis Presley has a reputation. Uh Queen Elizabeth, Bill Clinton, Donald Trump. When I say certain names, it carries your reputation and as growing up, my father would always say um like son, the last name Golden is pretty well known in this community and and we have a good name for ourselves. So please don't mess that up, right. It's a reputation. everybody's last name carries a reputation, right? So we don't want to mess up our last or our names because we want our reputations to be very well known. Number two is your character. You are cannot be separated from what your name is. Once they're identified together, it's very hard to separate, right? Your character and your name is very well known together. That's why we see in the Bible when somebody's character was changed. God often changed their name, right? We see Abraham, we see uh Jacob, we see Simon, right. So, your character, your reputation, and your character um are very important things when it's talk when we're talking about your name. Number three is your authority. When a police officer stops you. They normally say stop in the name of the law because that's the authority as the law. The man is really a man could either stop you or not stop you but a lot of times we will stop when they say something like, well, the law is going to be coming after you. It's the law that has the authority that stops you, not the man. It's because there's something in a in a name and so an example would be if if John Smith called you and if there's a John Smith, I'm sorry, you have a great name but um if John called you at family dinner and you're eating dinner with your family, you're probably not going to stop your family dinner and answer the phone call for John Smith. Maybe you'll call him back later on a business day. You'll call him back during business hours but if someone like pastor Dean with certain authority called you, you would probably either immediately answer or maybe you'd call him right back after family dinner. It's because there's certain authorities that come with a name. So, when you misuse god's name, we defame his reputation his character. and his authority because we're using the name very casually and there's many, many, many ways we can misuse god's name other than just swearing and we're going to go over this really uh really quick in just a second but how do we know who's got what? Who's God's name, right? How do we know the name of god? How do we know that Jesus is the name name of god? Well, we're talk about it in the Old testament. God used several names to refer to himself Two of the important one was god revealed his name to Moses when he called him to help Israel be delivered from Egypt and then this is uh number one. He says, I am that I am. This was the original form spoken to Moses and it refers to the eternal and self existing one also in Hebrew, the meaning would say when you get there, I will be there. So, god is encouraging Moses that I will always What you need me to be and I'll always be there for you or I'll always be there before you even get there. One country preacher heard him say it like this, I am means god ain't ever short and he ain't never late. I would say amen to that. Another preacher said, I heard him say this, God's god meant I am everything that you need. Another important old testament name for god was spelled out like this H or YHV H. Which means the eternal it actually translates to the internal and the closest way that we can come to pronounce in this would be Yahweh or Jehovah, the Jews had such reverence for the name of god that they would actually not even pronounce the name of god instead, they would call it and I'm not very good on my Hebrew. Go to the next slide. if you win Oh, maybe I don't have it on there but it's it stands for. Yeah, there. there it is. The infallible name. They would say this is the infallible name or go to the next one at and I which would mean lord or Hashem, I guess his name but god's commandment, what we see as a New Testament church was against pronouncing the name but it was against misusing his name in the New Testament. God revealed himself in flesh is what we all know as Jesus the name of Jesus which includes and it replaces Yahweh. the Old Testament names. Jesus is is is the redemptive name of god in the New Testament and it is the supreme of power, supreme power and authority as the only saving name. The name given for remission of sin and is the highest name ever revealed in Jesus in the Greek form will be Joshua which also means Yahweh in salvation and so suddenly we see this carpenter. he comes on to the scene and has given the name Jesus which is this high authority name and he wasn't just misusing the name of god. It's because he is the name of god. Jesus is god. He was god, The Jewish religious leaders were outraged at this moment because they understood exactly who Jesus was trying to proclaim who he was and the phrase I am appearing to us just in another pronoun and verb identified him to them as Yahweh. John 635 says, he says, I am the bread of life. and says, I am the light of the world. 19 says, I am the door ten and eleven says, I am the good shepherd. Verse eleven and Twenty-five says, I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth in me though he were dead, yet shall he live in fourteen and six. I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the father but by me eight and 24. If you believe not that I am, he shall die in your sins and 858 says, before Abraham was I am and to the soldiers arresting Jesus. Jesus said unto them, I and as soon as the soldiers heard it, they stepped backwards and they fell to the ground and in Mark fourteen and Sixty-two when he is at to Jesus says to the high priest at his trial, Jesus said, I am and you shall see the son of man sitting on the right hand of power and coming into the clouds of heaven. we see Jesus at the very end of his life in Pilate was forced to carry out this execution through political pressure in this moment was powerless because he wanted to save Jesus but in an unusual move, Pilate himself writes an inscription on the cross and we see this in nineteen John 1919 through Twenty-two and Pilate wrote a title and put it on the cross and the writing was Jesus of Nazareth, the king of the Jews. This title then read many of the Jews for the place where Jesus was crucified was not to the city and it was written in Hebrew and in Greek and Latin then chief priest of the Jews to Pilate, right? Not the king of the Jews but that he said, I am king of the Jews. Pilate answered and said, what I have written, I have written. see in three languages, Hebrew, Greek, and Latin. It says, Jesus of Nazareth, the king of the Jews. This was just another inscription to the Greek and the Romans. It says, that he is god. but many of the Jews begin to gather this inscription and read it and they said there's a problem here and so the chief priest asked Pilate to change it but Pilate says what I have written, I am not changing one bit and so we see through the years these scholars of the law, they begin to get upset to look at this because written over Jesus's head is written this, if you go to the next lot for me, It's written this right here which goes to translates and it's the it's the first letter of each one of these words. All the Jewish leaders are condemning this poem that is written on the cross because it is saying that Jesus was Yahweh. Go to the next slide. This is set on the cross for everyone to see that meaning that on Jesus's cross is that he is Yahweh or Jehovah and so It wasn't just a carpenter that day that decided to take up the name of Jesus in the name of god and then die. It was not a carpenter's blood but it was god's blood. It was Yahweh's blood. God's name is Jesus and we worship Jesus. So now that we know who god is and his name, how there are five ways that I want to talk about really quickly that we can how we misuse god's name. The first one we use god's name to insult We use, we use god's name to insult. This This is people use profanity or swearing to express irritation at a situation or to belittle someone else or to call someone else's name. So, as an insult, we we can misuse his name as an insult in North America. We can see that people in in culture are pretty um foul mouthed people. We and and we see that our culture especially medians literally get paid to take up the lord's name in vain. and um they're swearing every other every other word they're they're saying the name the lord's name in vain, every other sentence it seems like and so they're paid to do this. um but people or if we swear people that swear um I would say lack emotional control and maturity because in reality, we can teach a 3 year old to say a cuss word or a parrot to say a cuss word but it maturity and discipline to say, you know what? I don't think I'm going to talk that way. I don't want to talk that I don't want to swear or to say certain words and it reminds me of the story. There was this farmer, he was home getting late one night, His wife had cooked dinner and uh he walks into the house and the wife says to the farmer, what took you so long? Did the wagon break down? And so the farmer said no uh uh on the way home, I picked up a minister, a preacher and I decided to offer him a ride and from there on out the meals didn't understand one word I was saying You'll get that later. In other words, the farmer normally cusses at the meal. Okay. Yeah, you can go back and rewatch that segment and try to digest that joke. Number two, pastor. That one didn't go over very well. Number two, we use god's name to indulge is when we, this is when we excuse our actions by blaming god saying, well, I believe god told me to do to do this instead of taking personal responsibility and saying, you know what? No, that wasn't god telling me that that was just my feelings and we see we see we say things like, well, god will let me know if he doesn't want me to do this but in reality, you haven't read your Bible and you didn't realize that god actually said don't do those things. So we blame god for certain things that we do in an action that we do or say the way that we talk by saying, well, I don't think god's cares if I do but in reality, god's word spells it out very clearly. Counter culture going against culture. Our feelings should always be secondary to god's word, right? Our feelings must be subject to god's word and Leviticus. 1912 says, do not make a promise in my name. If you do not attend to keep it. That brings disgrace on my name. When we claim god's approval on something that is clearly not his will we say, well god, I think god told me to do this or I'm going to do this because I don't know if god told me not to do this. Then, we're breaking the third commandment because we're indulging. We're saying, you know what? I believe god's letting me do this and here's an example. There's this church in Washington DC and they became very famous because the first family decided to start going there. Um First lady Hillary Clinton at that time said we're going to start going to this church and one of the bishops was one of the guests uh visiting speakers was a bishop there and he began to make suggestions and it became an uh national news but this bishop basically said that he suggests that day that Jesus was a drag queen and the apostle Paul was a gay man and that the ten commandments is something we shouldn't really follow because it contradicts some of the things that we believe and so that is a prime example of someone putting their feelings over god's word This is an attempt to basically coop god's blessing and apply it to our own behavior and say, you know what? This is what I like to do. So, I'm going to believe this and have my own belief system but in reality, god's word might contradict your feelings That was a divine character assassination on the Bible and I don't believe what he was saying but that is a clear example of how we can make things up and say, I believe god wants me to do this just based off of my feelings. Number three, we use God's name to intimidate So, this is when we claim god's direction for something that is basically our own making In Hebrew, the third commandment says, no lifting up the lord's name as an endorsement. You should not take up the name of Yahweh your god for emptiness, another way, another way of saying this is you should not steal the lord's name. So, how do we steal the lord's name by applying it to places it doesn't belong? time that we misrepresent God. We're taking up his name in vain and so you can see this sometimes when when and I'm we can I'm going to put myself myself in this category as well. So, I'm not casting any stones to anybody but when we go and ask for counsel from pastor and we go in there and we're asking for counsel but in reality, our mind is already made up. We've made up our mind but we're just trying to get an endorsement from god that says to agree but in reality, we've kind of we're asking for council but we want pastor to agree with us, right? So, that would be a word called forgery where we're trying to use somebody else's name to get what we want saying, well, I believe God is telling me to do this or I'm putting god in place so I can get what I want. We have to be careful the way that we use god's name. We have to be careful. Number four, we use god's name to impress So, this is where social media comes to light You see, I mean and again, I'm not going to throw any stones but we can sometimes post a picture about our Bible or post a picture of our Bible but in reality, we didn't even read the Bible in that moment. So, we're just trying to use god's name to impress. So, when we try to act like we're very spiritual by talking a lot but we don't have a certain lifestyle So, this is where insecure believers might be or or where we're trying to impress a lot but we're not really talking or we're talking the talk but we're not actually walking the walk because in reality, does not impress god. Lifestyle does talk doesn't impress god. Lifestyle does. So, we can't turn god into a cliche, right? We can't turn god into this cliche, this meme, this posting about and say, you know what? I'm doing this Bible studies in reality, are we And so the lifestyle is what matters, not the talk and Titus 116 says, such people claim they know god but they deny him by the way they live. they are despicable and disobedient, worthless for doing anything good. and so this last one, number five, We use god's name impulsively and so, if you're looking at all these one through four you're like, well, I don't do that. I don't do that. I don't do that one. Okay? Number five, 100% of us have done this at some point. We have done this at some point. So, how do we use god's name impulsively? This is when we use God's name without thinking about what we're saying. An example is a convenient expression of fear. Now, if you're actually praying to Jesus out of fear, that's different. I'm just saying like casually saying his name without even thinking about it out of anger. right? We can use god's name out of anger out of joy. You can use god's name out of joy but you're not actually thinking about Jesus in that moment out of amazement. or surprise because what we're In that moment, we're reducing god's name to like AA. Wow. Factor in Jesus's name is a lot better than just a wow factor, right? We're reducing it down to like, oh no, Jesus's name is a lot better than just an oh no or like a. Oh, that's amazing. Jesus's name is a lot better than just amazing. So, we have to take god's name seriously. God says to use his name. seriously but when we use it impulsively without even thinking about the reverence but without even thinking about god's name, We can break this commandment. and so when I started thinking about this, we can even worship impulsively We can even worship impulsively. You see at 11 o'clock service, we see, we see our first, the first song. I don't really like that song. The second song, I really like the third song. I'm kind of disengaged at that moment. It's because we begin to get stuck in a routine and so we begin to worship impulsively because we're not actually reading the lyrics on the screen. We're not actually praying the words that are on the screen and so we're saying Jesus's name we're saying this prayer without thinking because in reality, we're thinking about Texas Roadhouse right? So, we go to our worship service and say, well, that was uh that song wasn't that good but this song right here, I actually prayed the lyrics that I'm singing and uh song number two but number three, I'm kind of ready for pastor Dean at this point to start preaching. So, I'm kind of disengaging. So, this is what you'd call worshiping impulsively or worshiping in a routine and not actually understanding what you're saying on the screen. We have to be careful. We have to be careful how we use god's name. when we pray, his name is our heart and our mind million miles away. Are we actually praying to Jesus saying, god, please help me in these circumstances. Are you just doing it out of routine? Isaiah 2913 says and so the lord says, these people say they are mine. They honor me with their lips but their hearts are far away. and their worship of me amounts to nothing more than human laws learned by Matthew six says, when you pray, don't babble on and on as people of other religions do. they think their prayers are answered only by repeating their words again and again. Those are some tough scriptures to digest because I believe we all fall into these traps every now and then saying, you know what? I wake up at a certain time. I pray at a certain time or I go to sleep at a certain time and I pray at a certain time and so are we praying to Jesus? Are we doing this out of routine when we come to church during our worship service? Are we praying in the songs that are being sung? We worship into the songs that are being sung. Are we just doing this out of routine? We gotta be careful and it's like me saying and and just an illustration really quick. if I was saying to my dad, dear dad, I want to thank you dad for the great allowance that you have given me. dad. it's kind of a weird to talk but sometimes we pray that way, right? We just kind of impulsively say god's name just as a routine and so what I want to say here too is I tell some of our students that well, I just don't know how to pray yet. I don't know what everyone has a different way that they communicate and they wait in the way that they talk, right? So, going to communicate and you're going to pray differently than the way that I pray and the way that I communicate your personality is different. The way that you communicate to god is going to be different in the way that you communicate to god. So, don't don't think that you gotta pray a certain way to where you're imitating someone else's prayer. Don't do this impulsively. Just pray to god and talk to him the way that you would talk to anyone and it is okay sometimes to just stop and to think to think about Jesus and to wait in the silence because god understands the silence. In reality, we don't have to impress anyone. We're just talking to Jesus. George Barnum found that 66% of North Americans admit to taking the lord's name in vain and the rest were all lying because breaks. Number five. everyone does 100% of us do it accidentally. We do it Exodus twenty and seven says, do not misuse the name of the lord your god. The lord will let you go unpunished if you misuse his name, So, I got about 1012 minutes left and I want to go over this really quickly. How do I use God's name correctly? So, we talked about how not to use it. Let's talk about how we can use it. Psalm 61 and five says, you have given me the blessings you deserve. For those who reverence your name. there are many scriptures in the Bible that promises god's blessing over our lives. If we honor his name. So, how do we do that? Number one, reverence, reverence, god's name continually We must treat god's name with the uttermost respect, right? We must say god III and we use his name respectfully using it carefully and lovingly in an act of worship. Psalm twenty-nine and two says, honor their wonderful name of the lord and worship the lord most holy and glorious and see. So, how does this apply to our homes? How does commandment number three apply to our homes? Well, in a lot of ways but this one area is how can we do better? Well, when we're sitting at home and we're listening and watching and we're entertaining and we're listening to entertainment that is using god's name in vain, it's probably a good time to cut it off. to say, you know know what? From my house, we're not going to listen to the lord's name in vain just be spread across. We're not just going to let the lord be defamed. We're not going to let his be. uh to be lowered in our house. We're not going to let that happen. So, we can't just watch and listen and participate in certain things in our homes because if we love Jesus and love demands action and we're going to say, you know what? His name is not going to be thrown around like everybody else's name in our house Verbal abuse is rampant today and and if if we truly honor the lord's name, we gotta be careful of the way that we talk. We gotta the way that we talk Number two, represent god's name. Clearly. represent god's name clearly. our lifestyle, the way that we live. can either lift up the lord's name or bring it down our walk. needs to match our talk. We can say a lot of good things. but do you actually live this lifestyle? Do you live the lifestyle of being a Christian? If we're a Christian, if we call ourselves a Christian, then we must represent Christ and do it well In Timothy, it says, a person who calls himself a Christian should not be doing things that are wrong. There's two reasons why people don't come to Christ. So, don't come to know Jesus. One, they never met a Christian or they met a Christian in name only or they met the wrong Christian right. This next set of scriptures it says, and whatsoever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the lord Jesus giving thanks to god and the father by him In reality someday, we're all going to be judged for every idle word that was spoken and that is one of the most frightening verses in the Bible. Matthew 1236 says, I promise you that on the day of judgment, everyone will have to account for every careless word they have spoken That's tough. So, we gotta be careful the way that we talk. We gotta be careful the way that we walk and with the way that we carry ourselves. People who swear and misuse the name of the lord show one problem and that's they have a heart problem. because people who worship with their mouth and their lifestyle so that god is truly in control and the last verse says, Luke 645, the mouth speaks what the heart is full of Amen. And so I want god in my life and in my home. I want him to have a great reputation which he does and I want our house to show that he has a great reputation and then we and then we carry his name and we don't we don't defame his character. We don't defame his reputation and we don't defame his authority because in our house, I want Jesus's name to be most high. Amen. Why don't we stand really quick and I'm going to pray over We just learned. and for the remainder of this service but I believe, I know we were kind of going through this and you're probably thinking, well, I don't do this, this, this, this, and this for the next week. Just be careful about using his name out out of reputation or out of impulsively out of just out of routine because I think we can all work on that area. Amen. Father, thank you so much for all your wonderful blessings you have stored upon us God. Thank you Jesus for all the wonderful things you have done but today god I ask you bless this congregation as we learned in first word today God do not take up your name in vain. God, I pray that you help us choose our words carefully god and that we sit and we meditate and we we use your name impulsively and god during our 11 o'clock service during our worship service. God, I pray that we don't just pray and worship out of routine but god we actually understand the name that we are taking up God. Jesus, you are the great god and god I pray every wonderful blessing upon every single person us here today, God and thank you Jesus for the ten commandments. A ten set of rules for us to live and to structure our homes by and god in this church, we believe in the ten commandments In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Amen. It is almost 1040 Worship service starts at eleven. 1045. POBC kids. check out is available. So, thank you all again so much for joining us for First Word. We love you. We look forward to seeing you and worshiping with you at 11 o'clock.
