Name (Exodus 20:7)

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Good morning. Go ahead, grab your bibles turn to Exodus chapter 20. We’ll be in verse seven. This morning. Pastor Brian Laurits maybe you’re more familiar with his father Crawford tells a story when his dad was asked to speak it in 1980s with the Chicago Bears at their chapel service. Now the Bears were quite good back in the 80s. Not so much anymore. But they weren’t good. And they had the best running back in history by the name of Walter Payton. And as a kid, Brian gets a goat with his dad to this chapel service, and they’re gonna have breakfast with the Bears afterwards, and Brian can see you with his hero. He gets to eat at a table with Walter Payton. And as a kid, Brian ate Wheaties because Walter Payton was on a box of Wheaties, enjoying Wheaties himself. Well, Brian was horrified when he saw that Walter Payton was not eating Wheaties that morning. He was eating Raisin Bran. And the innocence of a child says, I need to ask him this question. Why are you not eating Wheaties? I eat Wheaties because you eat Wheaties,” to which Walter Payton replied, and I quote, oh kid, I hate that stuff. I don’t eat Wheaties. So he told the story. And he says, Here I am eating Wheaties every morning, which he didn’t like, as a kid, because his hero did. And then he said, My hero wasn’t buying what he was selling. Walter Payne attached his name to Wheaties, and yet his allegiance was with Raisin Bran. Now, as adults, we understand the business side of this, we understand endorsements and how they work. But we always want to know that this person uses and enjoys the product that they’re selling. Though that doesn’t always happen. We want what they show in public to be true in private. Now, to be fair, they named the NFL Man of the Year award after Walter Payton for a lot of really good reasons. This is a very small thing. But it was something for Brian as a kid that really stuck out to him. something as insignificant as cereal, when there is a name attached would change his attitude of his favorite player, even if just for a little bit. Now, what about something more important than cereal? In fact, infinitely more important than attaching your name to a serial brand is if you call yourself a Christian. If you say I’m a Christian, what are you saying? Well, back in the book of Acts, we read that at Antioch, the people they’re the followers of Jesus are the followers of the way we’re first called Christians. And what does that mean? It simply means little Christ’s. That’s what they were called. That’s what we are as Christians. So every day we’re walking around as a billboard as an advertisement for what we are attaching our name to. And others are watching. So are we buying what we’re selling? You see, it’s important that we consider this because what we’re attaching our name to, because this will then change the way we live our life. Our whole lives should be lived out to make God’s name great. We already know it is but we want others to see that and they might just see it through us. So that brings us to the third commandment today. Now kids have passed around and said, I’m gonna give you a word, I want you to be listening this morning. To a word, we’re gonna have a bunch of verses up here. And every time you see the word name, in one of those verses, I want you to say it out loud. Okay, so we’re going to practice. Alright, we’re going to read our verse, Exodus, chapter 20, verse seven, if you have your Bible open, you can read it along with me or look on your parents Bible, but I’m going to read it and when you see that word name, I want you to stay with me. So here’s Exodus chapter 20, verse seven, you shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God. For the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name. You shall not misuse the name of the Lord. Here’s the big idea. You’ll see it in your notes there. That God takes His name seriously. Because he takes himself seriously. We’re gonna see this this morning. As we look at three different things. In this passage, we’re gonna look at the fact that the name matters. We’re going to see that its use matters. And finally, your response matters. So let’s look first, at the name. The name matters. Look at that first part of the verse You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God. Now in the first half of the 10 commandments in verses one through 12, we read about the Lord your God five different times. That’s how God is talking to the Israelites. And it’s the personal name of God. It’s Yahweh. Brennan gave us a little bit more of the name and the history on week one. Because before the commandments are even given, God reminds the people of what he has done for them. And so every time we see the Lord and our Bibles with a big L, and then the capital, like kind of little letters of O rd, that is translating the name, Yahweh. So what God is doing here five times in this first half is saying, remember who I am. I’m not absent. I’m not distant. I’m not indifferent. I’m not uninterested in you know, I am the Lord your God, I am intimately involved in your life. I am the promise-making, promise- keeping God who is with you. And this name, this personally he gives them it matters. So the one true God is speaking to Moses. And he makes it clear that they are not to have idols or worship anything else that he is God and God alone in these first two commandments that we’ve looked at. And he has a name. And this name is not given to him. You and I were named by someone else. God doesn’t ask Moses, hey, what’s your opinion? What should what should I be called? He doesn’t go to the Israelites and take a Twitter poll. Say what? What do you guys think I should be named? Noah, he tells us what his name is. He’s already told Moses when he appears to Moses in the burning bush and Exodus 314. God reveals Himself to Moses and cause him to lead his people out of Egypt. How long has Moses been gone from Egypt? 40 years. 40 years, he’s made a life of his own. He’s gotten married. He’s He’s away. And God says you’re gonna go back and you’ll lead my people and deliver them out of slavery and Moses like, Well, when I go, who should I say sent me? Because people are gonna have questions. Moses is a lot older at this point. And this is what God says in Exodus three, verse 14, God said to Moses, I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites, I am has sent me to you. This past week, we were at the gospel coalition conference. And John Piper actually had this verse that he was walking through in this chapter as a part of the series, we went through kind of the book of Exodus at this conference was very cool, since we’ve been in it now for a few weeks. And he gave us he just said, just casually, here’s 12 things that Yahweh means. Now we don’t have time to go through all 12 In our time together. So what was he actually doing this he was really just listening 12 attributes of God. This is what my name means. This is who I am. Because God takes His name seriously. He takes himself seriously and he knows his name and his character are tied together. So when he says, I am who I am, it means I had no beginning, and I have no end. I am who I am, there is no one besides me. I am who I am. No one tells me what to do. So for us, we try to explain God, what are the way to say that I am who I am. I don’t know how to explain him to you. He’s inexhaustible, incomprehensible. I am, who I am. Now, God continues to tell us more about himself in Exodus chapter 34. If you remember, Moses is on the mountain again. And Moses is receiving two tablets with the 10 commandments on them a second time. What happened the first time Moses got a little angry. When he came down the mountain the first time on those tablets, what did he see, he saw the people of Israel breaking the first two commandments, having a god a golden calf worshiping it as if he this thing was God. And he smashed to the tablet. So he’s on the mountain again, receiving these tablets a second time. And this is what God says Exodus 34. Then the LORD came down in the cloud and stood there with him and proclaimed his name, the Lord. And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming the Lord the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to 1000s and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin, yet he does not leave the guilty on punished. He punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents in the third and fourth generations. Do you see it here in this passage, that the character of God is the name of God in the name of God is the character of God we cannot separate them I am who I am. Jen will confess anytime we read the name of the Lord, you can just insert the character of the Lord. This is who he is. The name matters
Now, if any of you have had kids, you probably remember some conversations around naming your child. And so the husband comes with his list. The wife comes with her list. The family says, here’s our list. The friends say, here’s some ideas. And then you search online and you get 1000s upon 1000s of names, at some point, you need to narrow it down to one name, what are we going to call this child? And as you go through, maybe this is your experience, maybe not everybody, but I think for some of you, as you go through, you start crossing names off the list for really weird reasons. Like, no, we can’t even kid that. Because in kindergarten, I was bullied by a kid with that name. Or that’s a villain in my favorite movie. Or that girl took my boyfriend in fifth grade. So we can’t use that name. I had a student in class one year that had that name. And that was not a good student, not a good year. So we can’t name our child that way. I’ve heard of these conversations, Jackie. And I actually went through some of these reasons for why we didn’t name our kids, what we ended up naming was something different, we took that one off and cross it off. Your list gets narrowed simply because the name represents something negative to you. But it works the other way, too. There are the other names. I love that name. Because it’s my favorite Bible character’s name. It carries a lot of meaning. That was my best friend’s name. That name has been passed down in my family for generations. I love this name, because you fill in the blank. Why did you choose what you did? In both cases, a name has come to represent something to you, or to your spouse that has forever changed the way you view that name. It’s impacted you. Now God names himself, he defines himself, and he tells us to use his name. But if we use his name, we could also misuse his name. So what if we, as those who identify with Jesus misuse his name so that when others hear that name, they’re like the parents crossing the name off that list. I can’t follow that name. I’ve had too many negative experiences, memories, thoughts and feelings towards people who claimed that name. Or someone says, I want to I want to learn more about this Jesus, because the people I know the names I remember of people who follow Jesus lived their lives differently, and loved well, and cared for me and told me about this Jesus. So names matter. God’s name matters. And so is how we use it. Let’s look at that second point there. It’s use matters. Look at that first part of the verse again, you shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God. Now, if you memorize this verse, when you’re younger, probably in Awana, or some other time where you went through the 10 commandments, you know, and some older translations, there’s a phrase that’s missing here. In the NIV. Most of the older translations are literal translations might say, You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. So the NIV is kind of taking the words take and in vain and putting them together and saying, Do not miss use this name. And misuse means to treat, or use improperly or misapply to something. So do not miss us the name of Lord carries with it a whole lot more than what we say. Which is probably how most of us have come at this verse. It’s all about our speech. But there’s actually so much more going on here. So that’s the first thing that comes to mind right speech, it means we don’t say the things that got us into trouble as kids, or in the church. We don’t use God’s name as an exclamation. Oh my god. We don’t use it as a punch line. We don’t use it with other vulgar words, we don’t take oaths and say I swear to God, in those moments, we are taking God’s name in vain we are Miss using the name. And I could go on and on for how we use this name, Thomas Watson actually gives us 18 ways that we misuse God’s name just simply by our speech 18 ways. So it doesn’t mean less than that, because God certainly cares about how we speak his name. And this verse definitely addresses that but it means more. Now when you have called someone out or somebody is called you out for using God’s name speaking it and misusing in this way, that defense is usually something like I didn’t mean anything by it. To which we say that’s the point. You didn’t mean anything by it. Da Carson says it this way. The usage Is profane because it’s common. It’s cheap. We are dealing with God. And we must say and do nothing that diminishes him or cheapens him is at best disrespectful, ungrateful and demeaning. At worst, it D Gods him and thus sinks against the level of idolatry. So misusing God’s name, then, is anything that treats God’s name is empty, or worthless, or on par with everything else in creation. It misses the true reality of who God is. It’s something that is done to no effect, or we can say it’s done to the wrong effect. So when you say I didn’t really mean anything by it, that’s exactly one of the ways you take God’s name in vain, is not meaning anything by it. So we need to be careful with how we use our words. So misuse doesn’t only summarize vain, but like I said, it also translates that word “take”, and the word is literally “take up”. Do not take up the name of the Lord your God, do not carry do not bear the name of God. In vain, do not misuse it. Because God has taken his name and put it on his people. Right before this in Exodus 19. God comes to the people and he says you are to be a kingdom of priests, a holy nation, which means a nation set apart from the rest of nations, when they look at you, you should be different than everyone else. And then he says, reminds them that they are his treasured possession. And that doesn’t just mean Oh, that’s nice. And those like warm, fuzzy feelings like God loves me. No, that is saying, you are now my ambassadors in this world. You are the kings ambassadors in this world, you are my treasured possession. So when they go places, when they talk, when they worship, when they interact with others, they are representing Yahweh. They bring his name with them, quite literally in the tabernacle. They are bringing God with them wherever they go there representing him. Who is said, Who is this setup in the New Testament? The church, Peter picks it up. And First Peter to verse nine, he says, But you, Christian, member of Cityview if you claim Jesus, you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, to do what? That you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. You see, we do nothing different than the Israelites did. Yahweh is with us, he has taken us out of slavery brought us out of darkness and Christians, we have been taken out of the slavery of sin and death and brought into the light. It’s the same story. The Grace kids that Pastor Brandon talked about this morning is from beginning to end of the Bible. It’s not just in the New Testament. It’s everywhere. We represent Jesus to the world. Pure Light heart says speaking or silent, active or passive. We bear the name all the time. In everything we do. You hear that? If you say I’m a Christian, you bear the name in everything you do all the time. And our default setting as sinners now is to take God’s name in vain to misuse it, which is why the commandments are the way they are, you shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God. That’s why it says You shall not because our default setting is I’m going to, I’m a sinner. I’ve got all this sin in my heart. So I need to be told not to do this. But that means every single commandment has a positive thing we are supposed to do. Instead, we are to honor God in our thoughts, in our feelings in our actions. And as we already talked about in our speech. So we’ve talked about speech, I want to talk about three other areas where we can misuse God’s name. And I hope to give a few examples here, but I want to say this is what we shall not do. And this is what we should be doing instead. Okay, so the first one is thoughts, our thoughts we misuse God’s name whenever we think wrong thoughts about God. Anytime your mind goes to unworthy thoughts about God, we are misusing his name. When we redefine who God is, and we say things like my God would never do X, Y, or Z. We are redefining God. We are changing his name, which means we are no longer following the God of the Bible. That is idolatry. Now why does this happen? It happens because we let opinions, our own opinions and the opinions of others seep into our thoughts.
We stop opening this and we start listening to everyone else. And then we don’t know what’s what If we let other people speak for God, rather than letting God speak for himself, when this happens, we will redefine him. And we’re no longer following the God of the Bible. So what should be true of us instead, for our thoughts, we need to think God’s thoughts after him. We let him define who he is. And here’s the thing, that means we’re going to come up to things that we don’t fully understand that we can’t fully grasp. And we want to grasp things. That’s why we try to redefine God because we want to be able to explain him. But he’s saying you just have to trust me hear. Which also means we need to trust the words he says, Even when we when we don’t like what we hear. And then we gaze at his holiness and His beauty and his glory. And we see him for who he is how he defines himself. And he defines his own, he tells us, He loves us with an everlasting love. And we need to be in this, to think God’s thoughts after him, we’re not going to find it other places, we have to be in the Word. So that’s thoughts. The next is feelings. It’s a little bit harder to pin this one down, because we know how fickle feelings can be. But we misuse God’s name. When we go through the motions of the Christian life, thinking we can appease God, or get on his good side by just doing the right things, without any thought to our heart, or our motivations. Or maybe for you, it’s doing things so that others see how good you are, might be what we call selfish ambition. Or doing things so that others owe us if we claim to be Christian, and this is how we live our life. And these are the motivations of our heart, we are misusing God’s name, because that is not how God feels. That is not how God works. So instead, when our hearts are changed by the Holy Spirit, we pray that our emotional motivations would catch up to God’s motivations, that our motivations would be like Jesus. Now we don’t live out of selfish ambition. But rather we live in humility, we see that Jesus had love and compassion for others, a desire to glorify His Father in heaven and everything he did. So instead of going through the motions, just checking the boxes, the love of Christ compels us. The love of Christ compels us not to checklists, instead of doing things for others, so that maybe they will like us more, or doing things to get something from someone, we do things for our enemies. We do things for people who can’t pay us back. That’s what it means to honor the name of the Lord, to be motivated by what he’s motivated by. And then finally, our actions. This should be probably the most obvious one, we take God’s name and we misuse it when we carry his name into the world and live exactly like the world. Our actions aren’t matching up with what we say we believe. And so we miss represent Jesus the world when we pursue the same exact things that they do. So parents, let me talk to you for a second. As a family worship Sunday, your actions are speaking to your children. You need to hear this, you are the number one influencer on your kids, for good or bad. And this is not just anecdotal. This is in every research I read. So we often think all the big bad world out there and so much influence on my kids. Yes, they do. And they’re serious stuff that we need to take into consideration and talk about as a family. But guess what, you still have the most influence over your kids? You do? There’s no doubt about that. But here’s the problem. Here’s the bad news. In the studies that they do when they ask Christian parents were the two outcomes you want most for your children. The top two that come up over and over again is I want them to be a good person, and I want them to be happy. That’s evangelical Christian parents. When they ask those same questions of secular parents who do not follow Jesus do not claim to follow Jesus, what do they say? I want my kid to be a good person, and I want them to be happy. Is that really what we’re after? Is that really what we mean? So So here’s the thing, like as Christian parents, I know, you hear that you’re like, Oh, is it but guess what, there is hope here too. I want them to be a good person. So if we mean by that, that we want them to be like Christ. He was the best person. He was a good person. He was a perfect person. If we mean that, then we’re going to want our kids to go after others and love them at a cost to their own life sometimes. So yes, sign me up for that if that’s what being a good person is for my children. But if it means I just want them to go through life and not make people mad, I just want them to be called Nice. That’s not what we’re after. Second, if we want them to be Happy, if we mean by happy in life, just doing what makes them happy, makes them feel good. They go after what’s easy and comfortable if that’s what you want for them. That’s not what we should be for them. That’s not what we want for them. If it means being happy in Jesus and following him, no matter where he calls them, then yes, that’s what we should be about. So how do you define that? Be a good person, be happy. They’re watching you. If you say we’re, I’m a Christian, your mom, your dad, we’re Christians, we’re gonna raise you in a Christian home? Are they seeing these things be true of you. And then kids and teenagers, I want you to listen for just a second. I want you to know that our goal here as a church is to raise you so that when you are sent out from here, when you graduate, when you go on to the next thing that God has for you in life, that you are people that the world cannot ignore. We want you to have hearts transformed by the gospel. So that your thoughts about Christ are what His Word says. That you honor him with the way that you speak. You honor him with the way that you act and the things that you do. And I want to explain this. But I want to say at first, we want you to be a problem in the world. We do. Because Jesus and his disciples were a problem in the world. In x, it tells us that they turn the world upside down. You don’t do that by just being a nice person who goes through life and tries to be just good. You won’t stand out because that’s what the world is going after. What we want is kids who love people well, they live with conviction, that do good to others, and love their enemies. They live lives of radical generosity and show compassion, and have an unwavering commitment to God’s word, no matter what it says. That’s what we want for you. So how does this happen? Bible’s clear, Jesus is clear. die to yourself. Take up the cross, and follow me. When we live our lives this way we bring honor to the name of Jesus first John to six says whoever claims to live in him. That’s Jesus must live, as Jesus did. So saying I’m a Christian isn’t something we take lightly, should not be done casually, because we are identifying with the Triune God. So we can’t say I’m a Christian, and thinking go live like everybody else. Because their God is not powerful ours is. We are following the Triune God is that we’ll be celebrating baptism. How important is this name. And the last words from Jesus Therefore go and make disciples, baptizing them in the name. See that? were baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Goddesses attached his name to you. We attach our name to him. X 412. Again, everybody’s you see name in this verse, I missed the last one sorry, x 412. Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name. under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved. Name is all over. Because the name of God is the character of God. It reveals something about him to us every time we say it. When we sing a song like how majestic is your name? Do we know what we’re saying? are we sitting here this morning singing, standing and singing his name in vain? Do we know who we’re singing to? Look, the last thing you response matters. Look at the last half of verse seven for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name. God takes His name seriously because he takes himself seriously. So I hope this morning you’re convinced that you have broken this command over and over and over again. And I hope you’ve discovered the broken in ways you never even knew you did. Why do we think that’s a good thing? Because God gives us a warning here. So we want to take warnings in the Bible seriously. So if there’s going off like I have done this, I continue to do this. Okay, listen to the warning, because there is hope. But first, the warning itself is a warning of punishment. God will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name. For those who don’t take his name seriously. For those who misrepresent God to others, those who reject His name outright. There is punishment coming.
And this is not just an Old Testament idea. What does Jesus say in Matthew seven, the end of the sermon on the mount he says Not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of My Father who is in heaven, Many will say to Me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in Your name, drive out demons in in your name performed many miracles. And I will tell them plainly, I never knew you, away from me, you evildoers. They said the name. They didn’t believe in the name. They use the name they miss used the name. And there’s warnings there for us. So we must take them seriously. But is there hope for us today? Of course there is. Of course there is. You see, Jesus never took God’s name in vain. Not in the words that he said, not in the thoughts that he had. Not in the feelings in his heart, not in his actions. Never once did he miss use the name of the Lord. But he did even more than that. Because in John eight before the religious leaders, they’re arguing with him about who he is, what does he do in John 858, he says, very, Truly I tell you, Before Abraham was born, I am. Not only do you not take God’s name and misuse it, he took God’s name on himself. They picked up stones in that moment to kill him. Because they knew what he was doing. He was claiming to be God. Jesus took his name very seriously. Because he took himself seriously. He took his father, and the purpose for which his father sent him very seriously. And he perfectly represented God to us. And then he perfectly represented us before God. First in following the 10 commandments, and every other of the 600 Plus laws in the Old Testament, and he fulfilled them perfectly for us. Then he represented us by going to the cross and taking up burying, carrying our sins on the cross. Taking that punishment that we deserve from our sin, from taking God’s name in vain from all breaking all the other commandments over and over again. And he died. And he rose again to say it is finished, it is complete, there is forgiveness now. So when we believe in him when we take up his name, when we bear his name, when we carry his name, God sees Jesus’s perfection in us like we always follow the 10 commandments. So what should we do? When we leave here today, and we say the wrong thing. We misuse God’s name. And we think wrong thoughts about God. And we have bad motivations in our heart, and we do the evil thing that we don’t want to do. But we do it again and give in. We repent, we repent and turn back to God and receive the forgiveness that He already has given us in the cross of Christ. And then we honor him was what we say, with what we think with our motivations and with what we do. Now, maybe you’re here and you are your whole life has been taking God’s name in vain. You’ve been misusing God’s name, all over the place. Like you know that and what you say what you think what you’ve done all of it. You know, it’s inconsistent with who God is and what he has done. There is hope for you this morning. Romans 1013, everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Why is it matter to be calling the name because the character of God is there? Because he’s forgiven you. And he loves you. And there’s grace. So call on his name, and you will find that call the name of the Lord. Instead of misusing it, take it up. Take it up. For those of us who are here and have claimed to follow Jesus, we need to remember something about this passage. These words are spoken to the people of Israel, God’s people, it was not spoken to the other nations. It was spoken to God’s people. And who are these people? They were the ones who saw the mighty deeds of God in Egypt. There was a radically saved from slavery by crossing the Red Sea. And they are the ones who know their freedom is found in God alone. And God had to tell them, Don’t misuse my name. After seeing all of that, these are the ones that have the warning, don’t misuse my name. So for us, how are we representing Jesus to the world? For some people, their only understanding of who Jesus is, is being around you. That’s how important that name is. It may be you and only you that they see. So, when you don’t represent Christ, well, you repent, you turn back, you honor him, you say the things that you want that you know he wants you to say you do. Think the thoughts after him and you do the things you know he wants you to do. And you go represent him again. Because you may be the only one representing Christ, so that person and then be encouraged in the new heaven and the new earth. Listen to what it says about us. And Revelation 22, verse four, they will see his face and his name will be on their foreheads. That’s us. God’s name will be on us. It is on us. See, God has attached his name to you. He says you are mine. So let’s take God seriously. And if we do, we’ll take his name seriously, and how we live? Let’s pray.
Lord, being able to even say that name is an honor. Being able to sing songs of praise to you this morning is an honor. Being able to read your word is an honor for us. And Lord, I trust that most of us here this morning want to leave here honoring your name. And sword, I pray that each person in their heart right now would confess the area, confess the area of their life right now where they know they are misusing your name and how they’re representing you, in their family in their church, their neighborhood, workplace school community. I pray that we would confess that now. And then remember there is hope and forgiveness in Jesus Christ. That because he went to the cross for us there is forgiveness. And Lord, I pray that you would see us that you would help us go from here seeking to honor your name and all that we do. And Lord, I pray that if there’s people in our life right now who are looking at us and only us as a representation of who Jesus is, Lord, show us that we’re wrapped around them, Lord, we want you to shine through, not us. So Lord, help us represent you. As we continue to sing, we need that assurance that only you can provide through the cross and the empty tomb. We love you and we pray this in Jesus name, Amen.