We've been exploring how to become good, like God. Goodness isn't just a matter of telling people WHAT to do, nor dispensing HOW TO advice. God's way is bringing us face to face with His own goodness and grace. And when we lose our way (as we're so prone to do) He keeps bringing us back to himself, reminding us WHO he is, inviting us to Worship. So, God caused his goodness to pass before Moses. He reminds Israel, "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt out of the land of slavery."
Let me ask... How many of you are looking at your life and realizing there are some things that just have to change. Maybe you have a list that looks like Colossians 3:5: "Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry." (internal) Maybe it looks like Colossians 3:8, "But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips." (relational) How long have you been trying to change yourself and others by the brute force of your own will? It doesn't work!
But look! Colossians 3:10 is the secret to unlocking goodness in yourself and others: "Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator." Becoming good like God isn't just a matter of knowing right/wrong--it's a matter of knowing God himself. Our core problem isn't behavior... it's that we don't know God.
One way God preserves knowledge of himself is BY HIS NAME. God's name carries the weight of his character, the weight of his glory. When Moses met God, his first question was, "Who are you? Who should I tell people that you are?" God's answer to Moses was, "I am WHO I am. Tell Pharaoh, tell your people, I AM sent you."
Your name is one of most precious possession. This week artist "Prince" died. I feel old because a lot of young people have no clue who he was. Prince, Freddie Mercury, Michael Jackson... these were brilliant artists who rocked the 80s.
But what do we remember most about Prince? Yes, his music--Purple Rain and When the Dove Cries. But also when he changed his name to that "love" symbol. Do you remember, he'd go on talk shows, and they didn't know how to introduce him w/o offending him... so they gave up, and just started calling him, "The Artist Formerly Known as Prince." The symbol was an odd mashup of the male/female gender symbols.
Why did he do that? It was because Warner Bros took his name, trademarked it, and used it as their main marketing tool to promote all of the music he wrote. Prince felt he'd become a pawn and his name was being used by the record label just to make more money. Plus, the label was putting ridiculous pressure on him to be in the studio, writing and producing. So to protest, not only did he refuse to be called by his own name, he wrote "slave" on his cheek during concerts. It wasn't until 2000 when all his contracts expired, that he was able to "own" his own and use name as he saw fit!
Our names are our most precious possession. I'm not certain when it started, but I grew up in a small town. And in a small town, everyone knows all your business, and they know all your family's business too. Your parents, your older brothers. And in small towns, you often inherit a nickname. Sometimes a nickname can be a term of endearment. But sometimes your nickname can become a thing of derision, shame.
I never got a legitimate nickname. People just started saying my name sarcastically. They wouldn't say, "Jon." They would just say my last name. Except they wouldn't pronounce it right. They would call me, "Morrssetteeeeee" Teachers, coaches, neighbors, church folk, friends... even random strangers would say, "Are you a Morrssette, you look like a Morrssettee." And I'd be like, "What's a Morrssetteee?"
It got to a point where I was embarrassed by own name. Come to find out, I was being judged by things my family had done. My dad is a very good man, but he isn't one to play small town politics. If something at school system seemed out of line, if the leaders at the church were making a bad decision, if my friends did something offensive... if neighbors were being ridiculous (and they were) ... if he perceived we kids weren't being treated fairly... my dad wasn't afraid to confront stuff head on. But as a young person, I'd just feel embarrassed and wanted hide! That is more of a statement about my immaturity, then anything about him...
But then there were my brothers. One of my brothers had a humiliating incident happen his freshmen year that follows him to this day. My other brother, just wasn't cut out for a small town (or any town). He would give teachers the finger, he'd tell the principle off, he'd bounce checks at the gas station, he'd burglarize homes, He'd drink and smoke pot, he'd throw lightbulbs unto our neighbor's driveway at night, blow things up with fire, beat people up, he was crazy! Our family's name was always in the paper... in the criminal "blotter." People saw our family as a bunch of bad apples.
So there I am, in High School, and its "Morrssetteee." And people would say it with a kind of snarl in their lip. One time I got gas, and the clerk wasn't going to take my check, because the manager had written our name down on a watch list by the register. I never felt I had the opportunity to define my own name, to be known for who I was, to let my character shine, to be given a fair shake.
My break came after I graduated high school and moved to Lincoln Christian University. In Lincoln, it was "hello Jon" and people had tremendous respect for our family, because they knew my parents loved the church. And in Lincoln, at the College at least, people were all about grace, so they respected me regardless of any faults or baggage. It was at Lincoln that I felt like I was being set free, and I just be who I was, and stand on my own character, and accomplishment, and faith.
You know God is subject to having his name hijacked, abused, and misaligned. Do you remember what God told Moses his name was? He said, "I am who I am." In other words, God wants to be free to define himself however he sees fit. He simply wants to be known as He is, in his goodness, splendor, glory, holiness... He doesn't want to be see through anyones filters/labels. Exodus 20:3, God expresses this: "thou shall not use my name in vain. The Lord will not hold guiltless anyone who misuses his name..."
Now really, if you misused Prince's name, it's not the end of the world. If someone misuses my name, what's it really matter? It wasn't until later in life I realized how much I'd let that small town define me. God's enabled me to do great things with my life, in spite of all the people trying to keep me down. But when it comes to God's name, it's an entirely different matter...
Our Goodness. The very moral and spiritual fabric of our lives depends upon us getting God's name right. If God renews us in knowledge in the image of our creator... if our goodness/renewal is bound up in accurately knowing who God is... what happens when what we know about God is only a caricature of who he is really is? God wants to strip away all the baggage, and he wants to be known as the great I AM... I am who I am.
Our Salvation. Our personal salvation depends upon us getting God's name right. If Acts 4:12 were told that there is no other name given among men by which we must be saved but the name of Jesus. Romans 10 says everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved. So what if the name of Jesus is nothing more than a curse word, a laugh line, an explicative among explicatives? Will take Jesus serious enough to call upon him?
Our World. The destiny of our world depends upon us getting God's name right. People make a big deal about calling our nation a "Christian" nation. But how often do we consider the impact this has upon God's reputation? When our nation... when politicians... when our national policies, and covert military actions... when every vile, filty, immoral thing written, produced, filmed, and sung by our entertainment industry... when all of "American Culture" gets associated with the name of God, is that good? The name of God is mocked not because of who God actually is... but because of what Americans often represent God to be. God wants to reclaim his name; he wants the world to know him for who He Is.
Our Worship. I think God also wants to reclaim his name from religion itself. God isn't everything everyone claims him, and names him to be. This is the point of the Ten Commands, "I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt... out of the Land of Slavery, you shall have no other Gods before me. You shall not make grave images... you shall not bow down to false gods. God isn't everything. He is the one true God, and everything we do ought to exalt who God truly is.
Let me say this about worship... WORSHIP is worth-ship.... Ascribing worth-ship to God's Holy Name. That's where Moses, Israel, the Church comes in. We are to show people the worth of God's name. We are to give God's name levity, weight, substance. Our world uses God in an empty, vain, hollow kind of way. But not us.
One way we can give God's name real weight and levity is to avoid being vague about God's glory. This is the problem with so many modern worship songs. It's that they take a phrase and repeat it over and over without really ever saying anything specific about God! "For you are good... for you are good... for you are good to me... for you are good... for you are good... for you are good to me" (10x).
Well why is God good? Why does his name matter? Not just "God is good, blah blah blah..." but rather, "I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt..."
Not just "I love Jesus" but "thou art the Christ, Son of Living God, my personal Lord and Savior..." Not just, "love God love people" but "greater love has no other than this... that while we were still sinners, Christ died for the ungodly"
On a Personal Note. My words and works can serve the glory of God, but it's his own words/works that establish his reputation forever. Jon Morrissette is forgotten. My words and works, no matter how incarnational, pure, blah blah blah, are forgotten. My name fades in memory, it fades on the tombstone, but God's name never fades. His glory is eternal. I'm vested in magnifying his name not my name. How can I point to his name, not my name? How can I point to his words and works not my own, or another?
Your eternity is rooted in him not in knowing me, or loving me, or looking to me. We are only servants of his glory... and its okay! Don't try to be focal point, "VAIN" glory seeking, you probably won't even get 15 minutes of fame. And if you get more, you are forgotten tomorrow. Beauty fades, memory fades, Bible says you are a mist that appears for a short while. But we want people to know, respect weight of God's name.
Football coach.... Reaction to player using Lord's name in vain.
Gently I think we can say to people, "you are throwing around the one name by which you can be saved... think about that carefully. And you are disrespecting the only name by which you/others saved.... What affect are you having on them, and are you comfortable with that..."