Untitled Sermon

Introuction:

Crowd Question: Have you ever had someone say something behind your back that was just completely ridiculous?

Personal Story:

Asked another intern to get watermellons for an event, the next day she quit.

She went back home and told everyone I was the most arrogant, manipulative, inconsiderate,

The following year we had some new interns from that church come in and I was told to give them an orientation on how to do that game. Their eyes were huge when they saw me, because they had heard I was the devil!

One of them asked me, “You seem so different from what we’ve heard. What changed?” And then she told me what was said about me.

Tension:

Being misrepresented it frustrating. To know who you are and to know that everyone else thinks you’re someone else is annoying. I wish I could stand up here and say I was the biggest victim of mis-representation, but I’m not. The person most mis-represented, mis-understood is Jesus.

False Teachings- We’ve had people in church who have manipulated the Bible, said they heard from God and actually mis-represented him.

Political Agenda- We’ve had some Christians that have reduced God to a political party and misrepresented him

Church Hurt- There’s some people who say they’re Christians and then show the complete opposite of Christ’s love.

Bible:

The interesting thing is that is actually incredibly to God how he is represented. This isn’t a message that you need to be perfect for God, but I don’t think we’re aware that this is a priority to God.

Sermon Series: Your pastor told me exactly what this sermon series was about- going through the 10 commandments. But then he told me which ones he had already picked, and I was mad. So I took a look and thought to myself, I want to take a second look at one of these. So we’re going to look at Exodus 20:7 “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain.”

We need to do some Bible study on this otherwise we’ll read this as: “don’t use God’s name as a swear word.” That’s a shallow interpretation.

Context: The second commandment focus on the visual representation of God with idols, but the second now focuses on the verbal representation.

Name: We don’t use “name” as it was used in the Bible. Your name was a representation of who you were. It’s why Jacob - which means liar- had his name. The name God said he was to Moses in Exodus was “I am” - because he wanted his people to know he was everything they needed!

Hebrew Words: There’s 2 specific phrases used in this scripture “take and “in vain.” Take means “to lift, bear.” -it’s inferring this idea of how God’s name is carried, represented, used. And “in vain” meaning something that is false, deceptive, lacking substance, or without a good reason.

You have to understand these aren’t just commands but principles to live by. Let’s rephrase this in english to understand the principle: Do not misrepresent God - because there will be consequences.

Transition: So now there’s the practical question, how does someone misrepresent God, and how do we avoid doing this? We’re going to dive into this practically, but let me say this for a moment. The goal of the commandments is not to say, do these things and then you will have a perfect life. These are principles even more than commands, so goal is to understand the heart of God and his intent behind saying this. God isn’t just telling us don’t do this, but He’s saying in this command, when you represent me for who I really am, there is transformative power. Power that is unleashed to you, the church, and to the world.

BIG IDEA: When we represent God accurately, we allow God to move easily.

Application- Who do we misrepresent God to?

Yourself- this is where sin actually began. Because someone misrepresented God to eve and she believed it, then things became more complicated.

Examples: And we at times believe things about God that aren’t true. Like: He doesn’t love me otherwise I’d be in this job. If he had a plan for my life I would look this type of way. If he was loving, why did he let this happen? Trust me, I get this. And often we don’t talk about it with him, we’ll talk about it to other people.

Bible: Look at Peter and Jesus for a moment in the NT [Matthew 16:13-19]. In this moment Peter took a step of faith to say who Jesus was and God was easily able to speak to the potential of who Peter would become.

Challenge: Could it be that there’s a part of you that knows what you should say about Jesus but instead call him something incorrect.

Personal:

Tozer: The first thought that comes into your mind when you think about God is the most important thing about you.

Final: Is that thought about God accurate?

People in the Church

Examples: Let’s just be honest, the church does a terrible job at times representing God to one another! Can I share some of my favorites:

God told me to break up with you.

The lord told me to tell you…

Those are funny, but then others get abusive and destructive

This is God’s will

It honors God is you obey me completely and do...

If you disagree with me, you disagree with God.

Church hurt apology: I need to take a moment and address something that’s talked about a lot outside but inside. There are pastors, leaders, and Christians who have misrepresented God and done serious damage in other people’s lives. Your pain and experiences are real, and I empathize with you greatly. And I say this to you to give you hope, that was not the desire, will, or representation of God. I’m sorry you’ve been through your experiences.

Bible: I’m both comforted and sad to know that church hurt is not a new thing. If you read through the new testament you will see there a ton of problems showing up between Christians, about some dumb topics to. Acts 6:1 tells of racist bias being exercised to benefit one group instead of another

Challenge: How did Jesus interact with those who tried to hurt him? He washed the feet of men who would betray him, deny him, and abandon him. I’m not advocating we put ourselves in unhealthy situations. There’s a reason Judas was invited to pray in the Garden with Jesus. But still, he was representing God’s love, character, and person. Would we be bold enough to act as Jesus did to

The person who praises in a way you don’t like

The person who talks way to much in your group

The person who wants to serves and then complains about how much they have to do

If represented God we might see him work more easily, more swiftly to bring about maturity in other people’s lives

People in the world