There's unimaginable power in using the name of God properly, because here's the truth - listen to me very carefully: If I can misuse the name, then I can use it. I can live in it. I can live it out. I can heal. I can deliver. I can encourage. I can show generosity. I can feed the poor, clothe the naked, visit the sick, and bring encouragement to prisoners. I can give instruction, and if nothing else, if you're sitting there going: I can't do any of those things - listen to me: then you can be nice.
Just be nice. I mean, is that just a heavy revelation or what? God has called Christians to be nice, more than He has called us to be right. Can I get a hearty amen to that?
Is your life revealing the name, or profaning it? Are you manifesting the name, or are you profaning it?
I'm going to close this out with this story - it's an awesome story in the Bible. It's about a guy named Jacob, and Jacob is a mama's-boy. Jacob had severe psychological issues; because, first of all: his name was ‘Liar’, which I think you could agree, if your parents called you that from birth, it would mess you up. God to bed Liar, get up Liar, do your homework Liar, come to dinner Liar, do your chores Liar. It would be bad, but it even gets more complicated...
It says that: his father loved his brother more - and he knew it. Jacob was trying to do anything he could do, to sort of get his father's attention, and he wanted his father's blessing - but the father's blessing belonged to Esau.
But it says that his father was blind; he was laying there because he was old and blind. He's laying there, and he says: “is that you Esau?” Jacob said: “yes, it's me dad - it's me, Esau”. He says: “you sound like Jacob”. He says: “no, no, dad it's me, it's Esau, give me your blessing, give me your blessing dad - come on”. He says: “no, the blessing belongs to Esau - you sound like Jacob”.
Jacob had taken fur - it says that Esau was very hairy, but Jacob was fair-skinned. So he took fur, and he wrapped it around his arms, and he said: “no, no dad, feel my arm - feel it”; so Isaac feels his arm, and he says: “you sound like Jacob, but you feel like Esau” - so he gave him the blessing.
Listen to me very carefully: you don't deserve anything from God. Everything you have is by the grace of God. When you go to God in yourself, in your own name - you don't get anything. But when you put on Christ - you sound like ‘you’, but you feel like ‘Him’ - and the Father gives you every blessing that belongs to Christ anyway. That's living in the name.
One writer said it this way: “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name”. Next line: “...and forget not His benefits: who forgives all of your sins, and heals all of your diseases”. Why? For He is the compassionate, gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiveness God, who does not treat us as our iniquities deserve, but gives us mercy that's new every morning. Great is the faithfulness of God.
You serve a God who believes in you, more than you believe in Him. He's trusted you to carry His name. He's trusted you, and me, and all of us, and as a church, as a dwelling place - He's chosen us to carry His name. Carry it well.
May you be: manifesters of the name of God; and not just carriers of it. May you never carry the name in a way that disappoints the hope that rests upon it. May we be people who carry the name that manifests the hope that rests upon it.
You can walk out of here tonight, completely aware of the name of God - and if you do that, then you're walking in the spirit of Christ, for the spirit of Christ and glory dwells on you.