“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.”
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.
At the beginning of the commandments we see that God gives the people his name! (Exodus 20:2)
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!
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.
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!
Consider the ways people have used the name of God:
Abram called on it (Gen 13:4)
The Levites ministered in it (Dt 18:5)
Prophets spoke truth with it (Dt 18:22)
David slew Goliath with it (1 Sam 17:45)
Solomon built a house for it (1 Kings 8:20)
It’s fame drew the queen of Sheba (1 Kings 10:1)
It gave pride to the Psalmist (Ps 20:7)
It brings fear to the nations (Ps 102:15)
It is a strong tower, the righteous run into it and are saved (Pr 18:10)
It doesn’t stop in the Old Testament, consider the ways the apostles used the name of Jesus:
The disciples baptized and proclaimed salvation in it: Acts 2:38
The lame were healed in it: Acts 3:6
The disciples were persecuted because of it: Acts 4:18
The Sanhedrin was afraid of it: Acts 5:40
Demons fled before it: Acts 16:18
Every knee will bow and tongue confess that he is Lord: Philippians 2:10
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.”
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.
The best way to use God’s name right with power is to allow it to transform us first.
Recently I traveled to Nashville and visited with a couple of our families at the Vanderbilt Hospitals. It’s never fun going to the hospital, usually it’s serious, somber, sometimes it’s sad. While I was at Vanderbilt I seized the opportunity to raid their Divinity Library and sit among some great books while studying for a sermon. It was refreshing to be in a beautiful library overlooking a park-like campus.
I left the library and went across the way to a chapel. It was apparent that the chapel was built at a time in Vanderbilt’s history when the sacred was valued a bit more. This enormous sanctuary was a small piece of the sacred among an institution seemingly devoted to the secular. What made that place even more holy was a group of students who had sought retreat during their lunch hour to pray. Fifteen students among thousands pausing in that place to pray – I was standing on holy ground. A second visit to the hospital and I traded the warmth of that place for the sterility of fluorescent lights and lab coats. But my encounter with our divine God in a moment of pause carried with me that day.
These divine moments, seizing the sacred among the secular, are what a lifestyle of worship is about. Carrying Christ with us into sterile and dreary places is the act of a lifestyle of worship. These are the kinds of moments we want to share here at church. One of these sacred sharing places is our worship room. I’ve posted a picture and a thought from my day and encourage you to do the same. Let us claim this year for the Lord and take him with us throughout. Let us live lives of worship, carrying Christ with us always! We make the secular sacred through the presence of Christ in us.
This video is powerful, but a bit shocking. It didn’t make the cut for Sunday’s message but was close. In light of our discussion on the prosperity gospel yesterday I thought I would share this online with you…
Belief in “God” has destroyed human freedom, even in our own American history we can look back at ways the church justified slavery as a God given institution.
Belief in “God” has sanctioned the exploitation of the weak. Look at the Crusades and the way that Christians exploited those who were not like them.
Belief in “God” has been used to justify spousal abuse, child abuse, and have kept women in subservient roles throughout history.
This God that has justified these things is not the God of the Bible – or should not be portrayed as the God of the Bible. This God that has justified these things is a God created in our own image and one that was constructed by man. And the problem is that…
Our images of God look too much like us! (Exodus 20:4)
Pat Robertson’s god, as seen this week (click here for news story/video), looks too much like Pat Robertson who is concerned with revenge and punitive measures. Maybe your god looks more like you, maybe it’s even more pleasant, the predominant idol of god in America is quite benign at least on the surface and is worshipped by the health, wealth and prosperity gospel preachers.
We are exporting this prosperity gospel all over the world. Even in the poorest reaches of Africa people are teaching that if they give to the their church then they’ll have buckets of money. We have exported a god of consumerism that looks so much like us here in America. (Click here for Christianity Today’s coverage of the exportation of prosperity gospel.)
Our idols make terrible masters. (Exodus 20:5)
The problem with making false gods or god in our image is that we end up serving that god instead of the true god.
Definition of idolatry by Augustine: Idolatry is worshiping anything that ought to be used, or using anything that is meant to be worshiped. I think that we can saw we are in danger of worshipping the gifts over the giver.
Today in many faith healing and prosperity gospel churches they worship their own faith. What a terrible idol to worship! The idol that invites you to give and to give and to pray and to pray. If anything goes wrong it’s your fault because you didn’t have enough faith! The god of your own faith wasn’t strong enough.
The idol of that god is my faith – because my faith can do anything! The idol for some of you is your righteousness – my works can do anything! The problem is that our faith and works can’t do anything! That’s why we need God – not just more effort.
Our attempts to control God fail, because he blesses and curses. (Exodus 20:5-6)
This command does not forbid religious art but creating an idol that would control god. In other words you can not control God by making his picture and using it. You can not control god through excess faith. God is moved by our faith – he is not bound to it!
John 4 illustrates how religion gets in the way of worship. The Samaritans thought that God was on their side because they worshipped on this mountain, the Jewish people thought that God was on their side because they worshipped on that mountain.
I know in some of our darker moments we want to control God, we want to bargain with God, but God doesn’t bargain. You can’t trade your life for your spouse, you can’t do enough good works to save your children. You can’t.
God is trying to save us from the heartache that comes by false hope of false gods. Whether it be graven image, or a midnight bargain, or our faith as our god.
We must keep worship simple – we must come to God on histerms.
John 4 illustrates how religion gets in the way of worship. This woman wanted to talk about mountains and man made rituals – Jesus wanted to talk about life and faith. He says that we are set free when we worship in…
Spirit
Worshipping God happens in the Spirit and is not confined to a place or time, neither this mountain nor Jerusalem.
Worship is laying down everything before God and in return God lifts us up to his vantage point and shows us things from his perspective.
When we worship in Spirit we see a connection and clarity. Acts 13:2
Truth
Romans 1:20-25 makes it clear that we can inappropriately give our worship to something else.
What makes true worship is a true object of worship.
We must be clear that we worship God, why we worship him. We must consecrate ourselves for this task and focus on his worth.
When we come to God with our agenda, when we come to God with our terms, we find a God who looks a lot like us! When we come to God and say reveal yourself to me, we find God as he is.
Sometimes the God that we are angry with is not the God that is, rather we are angry at the god we have. We must discard the idols, gods, in our lives and take up the true God as he is, not as we would have him.
