I've been guilty of this. I confess this before men, I ask for forgiveness. I've done this! There's been times I've done it on purpose, which is really bad, but I had to mature past that. There have been times that I've done it by accident, and I didn't mean to; but all of us at some point have done this, where: we use God's name to accomplish our own purpose.
We have an idea, we really believe it's a good idea, but we're not confident enough to sell the idea, so this is what we say: “God told me”. When you hear somebody say "God told me" all the time, normally it's someone who's not confident enough to take responsibility for their own feelings. That's using the name of God in vain. Co-operate with God, don't manipulate Him.
3) Do not take my name, and then do things that are incompatible with who I am.
The name of God is defined a lot of different ways; but the primary definition of the name of God, to the Hebrew people, is found in Exodus 34:6 and 34:7, and it says this: He is the Lord. He is the compassionate, gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiveness God. He is the Lord. If you don't remember anything from tonight, remember that: compassionate, gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiveness. When you take the name of God, you are called to show the world what God looks like.
Let me tell you what that is not.
1) Its not: being ‘doctrinally right’. None of us are doctrinally right. We're just Joe and Jane, trying to make sense of an infinitely-dimensional God.
2) Its not: being the moral police for the whole world.
You are not called to tell the whole world who's right and who's wrong, who's in and who's out, who's in heaven and who's in hell. You're not called to do any of that.
What we are called to do is: to carry the name; which means we are to act: compassionate; gracious; slow to anger; abounding in love and forgiveness.
In the First Century, they called it ‘The Disposition of Messiah’. It was the primary test of ministry, particularly the prophetic. If someone gave a prophetic word in the First Century, they would test the prophecy; and the first question about the prophecy was not: “is it right or wrong”; the first question about the prophecy was: was it delivered in a manner consistent with the disposition of messiah? Was it delivered in a compassionate, gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiveness way? What was the tone of the prophecy?
Let me say it this way: you can be right, but be wrong, at the top of your voice.
Are we carrying the name ‘in vain’; or are we carrying it in a way where, the world around us would look at our lives, and say: they are compassionate, gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiveness?
Is it possible to never swear with your tongue, yet be swearing with your whole life? Is it possible that you would never say a ‘swear word’ with your mouth, but yet your whole life is actually profaning the name of God.
You're supposed to be compassionate, gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love; so when you're critical when you gossip, slander, lose your temper, go off at someone, when you're mean, when you're judgemental. When these kinds of things happen, you understand that that is just as much ‘swearing’, as any other swear-word. Using God's name in a way that ‘disappoints the hope that rests upon it’; instead of a way that manifests it.
3) Don't be people who carry my name, and yet live however you want.