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“For the scientist who has lived by his faith in the power of reason, the story ends like a bad dream. He has scaled the mountains of ignorance; he is about to conquer the highest peak; as he pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries.”

– Robert Jastrow,  former director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies and author (online at: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,946241-3,00.html#ixzz0dHgn9VuS)

What do we call that which is the greatest?  Modernity has tried by science for centuries to discover the meaning of life and the recent trend of post-modernity is truly just a bankrupt modern mind.  Modernity went bankrupt when we realized science can’t answer the deep questions that we really want to know the answers to, like: “Who am I?” and “Why am I here?”

God gives us his name and he wants us to use it.

1. At the beginning of the commandments we see that God gives the people his name!  (Exodus 20:2)
2. Psalm 50:15, we have God’s personal invitation to call on him in our times of trouble and he will hear us!  God wants us to use his name!

We must use God’s name with God’s power!

1. Originally as I worked on this messaged I thought, “God wants us to use his name, ‘Properly.’”  But, I realized that’s not enough – it might not even be right.  He wants us to use his name with power, that’s the only proper way to use it.
2. Look at Luke 9:49-50.  Here Jesus knows that this exorcist is using his name in power, the way which it was intended to be used by his people!
3. Consider the ways people have used the name of God:
   1. Abram called on it (Gen 13:4)
   2. The Levites ministered in it (Dt 18:5)
   3. Prophets spoke truth with it (Dt 18:22)
   4. David slew Goliath with it (1 Sam 17:45)
   5. Solomon built a house for it (1 Kings 8:20)
   6. It’s fame drew the queen of Sheba (1 Kings 10:1)
   7. It gave pride to the Psalmist (Ps 20:7)
   8. It brings fear to the nations (Ps 102:15)
   9. It is a strong tower, the righteous run into it and are saved (Pr 18:10)
4. It doesn’t stop in the Old Testament, consider the ways the apostles used the name of Jesus:
   1. The disciples baptized and proclaimed salvation in it: Acts 2:38
   2. The lame were healed in it: Acts 3:6
   3. The disciples were persecuted because of it: Acts 4:18
   4. The Sanhedrin was afraid of it: Acts 5:40
   5. Demons fled before it: Acts 16:18
   6. Every knee will bow and tongue confess that he is Lord: Philippians 2:10
5. God’s name is full of power and every time we use it flippantly it offends and shows our ignorance.  It’s like running around with a loaded gun!
6. People condemn things, damn things to hell, all the time in the name of God.  God’s name does that, but not the trash can you stub your toe on.
7. God’s name is greater in power than our mundane anger and when we use it – or variations of it – lightly then it simply display our foolishness.

God’s name can only transform – not conform.

1. God says, “Use my name all the time!”  Take my name into the ordinary moments and make them extraordinary.  Take my name into the secular and make it sacred.  Take my name into your moments of weakness and see them transformed into power.
2. I’ve brought the name of Jesus into a hospital room where there was no hope and by speaking the name of Jesus you see people strengthen.  It brings strength to the weak, hope to the hopeless, power to the powerless, it makes the ordinary – extraordinary.  In the book of John, Jesus comes to the wedding and turns the water to wine – ordinary to the extraordinary.
3. He says, “Take my name and use it in power – not convenience.” Take my name and transform the everyday – don’ turn my name into the mundane.  Don’t turn it into a swear word or something you yell when you hit your finger with a hammer.
4. We must guard God’s name and keep it holy that it will bring holiness.  Proverbs 10:19, “When words are many, transgression is not lacking.”
5. Notice that there are those who use God’s name but know nothing personally of its power.  These people are revealed in Matthew 7:15-23.  Here they used Jesus’ name for their gain, when it was convenient, popular and dramatic, but they didn’t live by it.  They didn’t claim it when it was inconvenient.
6. The best way to use God’s name right with power is to allow it to transform us first.

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