TAKING GOD SERIOUSLY
Ten Values That Build Strong Families
Exodus 20:7
Gerry White

  • We're in part three today on Ten Values that Build Strong Families.
  • We're looking at the Ten Commandments in this series.
  • We're going to look at the third commandment that I can summarize in one sentence: God says, "Take My name seriously".

Paul Dickinson has written a book called Names. He has a hobby of collecting strange and unusually names. He says sometimes names seem to be prophetic.

  • In 1941 there were two men who were executed in the electric chair in the Florida state penitentiary and their names were Will Burn and Frizzle.
  • Will Drop a Montreal window washer who died by accident, falling as he was washing windows.

Others, he says, seem destined for certain occupations.

  • Joe Bunt became a baseball coach.
  • Dan Druff became a barber.
  • Jeff Treadwell became a podiatrist.
  • Goforth and Ketchum, two guys, became police officers and partners.
  • O'Neill and Pray became partners in church equipment.
  • Wonderfully Trembly, a psychologist.
  • Zoltan Ovary, a gynecologist.
  • P.P. Peters, a urologist.
  • A plaster contractor, Will Crumble.

What's in a name? God says there's a lot in a name when it's His name. In the third command in Exodus 20:7 He says, "You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God."

Why is God so sensitive about His name?

God says that your name represents three things: reputation, character, authority.

It represents your reputation. You've heard people say, "He's making a name for himself."

  • When somebody has a good reputation they say "He's got a good name."
  • When he's got a bad reputation, "He's got a bad name."

When I say a name you automatically thing of his reputation. Hitler, Martin Luther King, Elvis.

A name represents your character. What you are cannot be separated from what your name is once it's identified together.

God gave them a new name. Abram became Abraham, Jacob became Israel, Simon became Peter. God would change their names because He said it represents your character.

Your name represents authority. When a police stops you he says, "Stop in the name of Bugs Bunny!" No, he says "Stop in the name of the law." Why? Because there is authority behind that name.

God says when you misuse My name it's no little deal. It's a big deal because you're defaming My reputation, My character and My authority and you are using it flippantly.

I. WAYS GOD'S NAME CAN BE MISUSED.

When we think about misusing God's name we usually think about swearing. But there are many, many other ways you can misuse God's name besides just swearing.

  1. You can use God's name to insult.
  2. You can use God's name to indulge.
  3. You can use God's name to intimidate.
  4. You can use God's name to impress.
  5. You can use God's name impulsively.

These are all different ways we can misuse God's name.

1. YOU CAN USE GOD'S NAME TO INSULT.

This is when you use profanity or swearing to express irritation.

I heard about a farmer who was late home to dinner. His wife said, "Did the wagon break down?" The farmer said, "No, on the way home I offered a ride to the minister and from that point on the mules didn't understand a thing I said."

America is the most foul-mouthed nation in the world and becoming more so.

Movie's will not sell if they don't have any cussing in them. It's a G rating and nobody wants to go see it. They intentionally add profanity to movies in order to get an "R" because they want it to be a hit.

Books and magazines and TV are filled with profanity.

Even records now have labels on them warning of explicit sexual language, etc.

The most well known garbage mouths in our society are the comedians. Eddie Murphy and other guys get paid big bucks to take the Lord's name in vain and people think it's hilarious. You can't avoid hearing it.

Have you noticed how many things hell gets compared to? Cold as hell, hot as hell, raining like hell.

Why do people swear? They lack emotional control but the main reason is they do it to impress others.

  • Any idiot can swear.
  • It takes no intellect, no IQ, no education.
  • It takes maturity to discipline your speech, especially when you're angry - you stump your toe, you hit your thumb, a guy cuts you off in traffic.
  • It takes discipline to not swear.
  • It shows maturity and self-control by not doing that.

2. THEY USE GOD'S NAME TO INDULGE.

We excuse ourselves and we blame God.

  • "God didn't want me to clean up the living room today."
  • "I didn't feel led to get out of bed."

God gets blamed for so much.

  • "God doesn't want me to honor that contract."
  • "God doesn't want me to fulfill that business deal."
  • "God wants me to do something different." "I've prayed about it."

You use God as a cover for yourself and you indulge yourself.

3. USING GOD'S NAME TO INTIMIDATE.

Some people are pros at this. They say

  • "God told me what you should do."
  • "God told me what's wrong with you."
  • "God told me you're supposed to lend me money."

Dishonest TV evangelists do this all the time. "God said, if you don't send in 1000 bucks we're going to pull the plug." Pull it and don't intimidate people.

Parents do this all the time. When you're frustrated and you've tried restriction and tried taking away their allowance, spanking. Finally you pull out the big stick and say, "If you keep doing that God is going to get you!" That's intimidation.

Spouses can do this in a marriage. "I've prayed about this and I know God wants us to buy this Jaguar." How are you going to argue with God? Intimidation.

In the world they call that forgery. Forgery is when you use somebody else's name to get what you want. There are a lot of spiritual forgers in the world who misuse God's name by saying, "God told me..."

I warn you be careful about speaking for God.

4. BY TRYING TO IMPRESS.

Insecure believers do this a lot.

They often try to prove how spiritual they are by their jargon, by using continuous religious phrases, spiritual cliches. I feel like the more I use the name Jesus in a sentence then the more spiritual I must be.

"Bless God, that was a great sermon, Hallelujah, thank you Jesus..." Talk doesn't impress me, life style does.

They claim to know God, but by their actions they deny Him.

Titus 1:16

We take God's name in vain when we claim to be committed to Him but we don't back it up with our life style.

A guy says "I love the Lord, He's number one in my life!"

  • Are you involved in any kind of ministry? "No"
  • Are you meeting with Him every day, reading the Bible, daily quiet time? No.
  • Tithing? No.

What does He mean to you then? Just words.

5. USING GOD'S NAME IMPULSIVELY.

This is one many of us fall into as a trap. When you use God's name as a convenient expression of fear or anger or joy or amazement or surprise. "I just caught a 10-pound fish! My God!" "Suzy's pregnant! O, my Lord!" "I just split my pants, My God!"

Don't make God an exclamation point. God says when you use my name, you take it seriously. Don't use it flippantly. It's just as flippant to say Heaven, yes! as it is to say Hell, no! They are both wrong. They are taking spiritual truth and flippantly using them without a thought. Using them impulsively.

Don't use God just as a filler.

Impulsive means without thinking.

Did you know you can even worship impulsively? You can take the Lord's name in vain while you worship. You can misuse God's name in church.

Have you ever sung a song about Jesus Christ and you didn't think about the words, your mind was a million miles away? Your heart's not there. You're just doing the motions. Half-hearted. Routine.

God says (Isaiah 29:13) "These people worship me with their lips but their hearts are far from me." And he says, "When you pray don't use a lot of meaningless words..." Do you ever use a habitual prayer?

Have you ever heard a prayer like this? "Dear Jesus, we want to thank you, God, for the nice day, dear Lord. And Father, we thank you, God, for all you do, O Lord." You're using the name of God every other word in a prayer.

George Barnard did a survey recently and found that 66% of all Americans admit having taken the Lord's name in vain. But every body, including me, is guilty of breaking this command. There are many, many ways that we misuse the Lord's name other than swearing.

We rationalize it, "I didn't mean anything by it."

God is deadly serious about this. Here are the top 10 commandments, the ten most important things in life, and number three is Exodus 20:7b "Don't misuse My name." We're not talking about some minor issue here.

Leviticus 24 says that if a person was caught taking God's name in vain he was to be executed, stoned. It was a capital offense. How many of us would be alive way back then.

The fact is most of us need to bow our heads right now and apologize to God. I didn't realize how serious it is.

II. HOW CAN I USE GOD'S NAME CORRECTLY?

God promises blessing when you use His name correctly.

1. REVERENCE GOD'S NAME CONTINUALLY.

  • Treat it with the utmost respect.
  • Use it carefully.
  • Use it lovingly.
  • Use it as an act of worship.
  • Don't just let it slip out flippantly.

When you say "God", mean it in your heart.

Give to the Lord the glory due His name.

Psalms 29:2

Honor God's name.

People say "It doesn't bother me." It bothers God and it ought to bother you.

People say "I just tune it out. I don't let it bother me." Then you really don't love God very much. That's the bottom line.

If my wife's name were taken in vain, I would not say, "I just don't let it bother me" and tune it out. No, love demands action. I'd have to do something about it.

If somebody ridiculed or made fun of your mother, you'd protest it. You wouldn't set in silence. But many believers say nothing when Jesus' name is blasphemed all the time.

You need to reverence God name continually. Reverence involves not only protecting God's name but knowing it.

Those who know your name will trust in you...

Psalms 9:10

God has many names, well over 100 names of God in the Bible, each one of them reveal a different aspect of God's character - love, justice, holiness, the things he's promised to care for.

The way you get to know God is to get to know the names of God. If you only know one name you don't know God very well. There are lots of names that describe God in the Scripture and the better you know them the better you're going to trust Him and the better you're going to love Him.

2. REPRESENT GOD'S NAME CLEARLY.

A person who calls himself a Christian should not be doing things that are wrong.

II Timothy 2:19

Our lifestyle can misuse the name of God.

  • If you call yourself a believer act like one.
  • If you're going to call yourself a Christian don't drag Christ's name through the gutter by your lifestyle. Your walk needs to match your talk.
  • If you're a believer you represent God.

There are two reasons why many people never come to Christ.

First, they've never met a Christian.

Second, they met one and it was a Christian in name only who claimed to be a Christian but there was no difference in their lifestyle. "If they're a Christian they're just like me. There's nothing different. I don't need to be a Christian because I'm just like them."

If you claim to be a believer, a Christian, and use God's name and aren't any different you're a bad advertisement. God will hold us accountable for that. We represent God's name clearly.

The truth is that there are people all around you that are watching and evaluating your speech and your actions and they're checking to see how you're different and how you're different in your life style. So guard your mouth, guard your actions.

As a Christian, you need to be careful about slang. A lot of slang is just watered down cussing. It's profanity with a substitute.

When you say, "Gosh, darn it!" It's the same thing as "God, damn it!" or "Dadgum it!" It's the same thing.

When you say "Judas priest" its the same thing as "Jesus Christ!" or "Jimminy Christmas" Gee is just short for Jesus, and Gosh is short for God, Heck is just short for hell.

People say, "By gad, by gum, by jobe, by golly, gee whiz..." Those are just variations. They all came from profanity, taking God's name in vain.

Do you think God doesn't see through that? Do you think He's not seeing the intention of a profane statement? Be very careful about your slang too.

Whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus

Colossians 3:17

3. RELY ON GOD'S NAME COMPLETELY.

No wonder we are happy in the Lord. We trust His holy name.

Psalms 33:21

How does Jesus make us happy?

  • Forgives us of all our sins.
  • Loves me unconditionally for my who life.
  • Helps me through hardship.
  • Saved through him.

Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven by which we must be saved.

Acts 4:12

Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and by believing you may have life in His name.

John 20:31

How many of you when you were kids because you used a cuss word got your mouth washed out with soap? It doesn't work. The problem is not in the mouth but in the heart. Whatever is inside of you is what's going to come out when the world puts on pressure.

If I'm filled with anxiety and tension and turmoil and fear and anger and bitterness, when the world puts on pressure that's what is going to come out. It's like squeezing a toothpaste tube, the toothpaste inside is what's going to come out.

When I'm filled with love and peace and the world puts on pressure that is what's going to come out. Swearing is simply a symptom that there is turmoil in my heart.

The mouth speaks what the heart is full of.

Luke 6:45

Ultimately the only way to clean up your language is to have a change of heart. Jesus can do that.

God says don't misuse My name. Use it with awe and reverence, Be serious. It's not a laughing matter when someone cusses. You're offending the creator of the universe.

Some of you are saying "I've got the habit and I have to admit I've got a bad mouth."

Maybe you picked up that habit in the army or school or your home or wherever, what do you do?

  1. The first thing you need to do is tell God you're sorry and apologize for misusing His name. Tell him you didn't realize how serious it was. And you need to ask his forgiveness.
  2. Then you commit that problem and your life to God, give Him the whole thing. "Jesus Christ, come in and give me that new heart and tongue."
  3. Begin practice controlling what you allow in your mind. There are just some things you just don't listen to, go see, or read, because you know it's going into your mind.
  4. And you remember that He is with you at all times, you practice His presence. You don't usually take somebody's name in vain that is standing right by you. If you'd recognize and realize that you're never without God presence you'd be a lot more disciplined in your speech, because He hears it all. Ask Him to help you and He will.