A Good Name

Introduction

What do you value? Money?

Think with me for a second. In February of 2004 life changed for college students and soon for the entire world. Facebook went live. In June, more than 1.47 billion people logged into Facebook daily.

Mark Zuckerberg is 33 years old. According to Forbes he is the 5th richest person in the world. He is worth 71 billion dollars. So I did a bit of math - thank you Coach Furman - I did a bit of math and here are the numbers. If you were worth 71 billion dollars and let’s say you are 12 years old and you will live and not make another cent, but you will live until you were 85. Here’s what the numbers would look like. That’s 73 years of spending money.

To spend all 71 billion dollars every second for the next 73 years you would need to spend: $30.84

Or, every minute you would need to spend: $1,805

Or, every hour you would need to spend: $111,024

Or, every day you would need to spend: $2,664,576

Or, every year you would need to spend: $972, 570, 240

If you were a good steward and saved your money for just one week listen to the things you could buy with 18 million dollars:

321 Unlimited 2018 Jeep Rubicons

Enough fully loaded IPads for each person in Iowa Park to have two each and then you could still buy about 2,500 more!

527 of the most expensive items on Amazon: it’s a silver chandelier

That’s a lot of money.

What do you want? Pleasure?

Take a man from the Bible - King Solomon. He was the son of David, who next to Moses, was most important man in the Old Testament. King Solomon one day was asked by God “ask whatever you want and I will give it to you” (). And, Solomon asked God not for money, long life, fame or power, but discernment so that he would be able to rule well - like his father David. So God gave him his wish plus - wealth and honor.

Anybody like - why don’t these things happen to me!?!? Could I not stumble upon this type of dream God?

Things couldn’t be going better for Solomon until - we find out that Solomon had an idol in his heart - foreign women. According to Solomon was a slave to pleasure. He took to himself - listen - 700 foreign wives and 300 concubines (which was a slave that you could have relations with).

But, according to Solomon was a slave to pleasure. He took to himself - listen - 700 wives and 300 concubines (which was a slave that you could have relations with).

A little math - if you went on a date with one of them once a week it would take you 19 years to take each of these wives on one date. He was a slave to pleasure. That means by the time you took them all on one date you would be older than me. Some of yo’ wives would have looked much different than the moment you met them - just saying - they wouldn’t be spring chickens anymore.

Transition: when I ask the question: what do you want you may think money, you may think pleasure, you may think relationships, power, long-life, athletic abiltiy, or some of you nerds may think super hero powers.

But if we look at God’s Word we see one thing that is more precious than money, stronger than power, and longer lasting than the energizer bunny.

But if we look at God’s Word we see one thing that is more precious than money, of more worth than power, and can outlast long-life:

Proverbs 22:1 ESV

1 A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, and favor is better than silver or gold.

Proverbs 22:1 ESV

1 A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, and favor is better than silver or gold.

A good name. Student’s that’s what you should want. You should want a good name.

Do your parents ever say when you leave the house - “don’t forget your last name.” Or, “don’t forget who your father is.”

They say that, wisely, because they recognize the value of a name.

What Solomon meant when he penned this proverb was a good name is a good reputation based on a some fundament biblical values:

Integrity - the opposite of that would be duplicity - taking shortcuts, cutting corners, saying one thing and doing another, being two-faced. That’s duplicity but integrity - some people define as doing the right thing one no one is watching it breeds a good name.

Self-Control - the opposite of that would be out of control. Is your passions under control? How about your eyes? What about your body? Are you a slave to your stomach? How about your anger? Is your life spinning out of control? Self-control, which is a fruit of the Spirit of God, is like a wall for a city; it protects a good reputation. It insulates from within and without.

Courage - the opposite would be fearful. Here’s a good thermometer that measures whether you have courage or not: does decision-making paralyze you because you don’t want to deal with the consequences of deciding?

For instance, do you never speak up when someone asks you where you want to eat because you fear they will reject your idea and in so doing, reject you?

But courage is looking into the unknown and taking steps forward believing God is with you. It is trusting that God is good in pain and in affliction. Courage says “this will not break me, because I am God’s. And, just like God was with Joshua when he went to take the Promised Land, so God is with me.”

Love - Paul once said in that if you had the power to prophesy and faith to move mountains and you were so selfless to the point of delivering yourself up to be burned but you could do all that without love - you gain nothing and your life is as pointless as metal clanging together. To have a good name you must be filled with love.

Listen to what the NT reveals about the source of our love:

1 John 4:19 ESV

19 We love because he first loved us.

And that is what ties it all together for the us tonight. Integrity, self-control, and courage all for a good name for our own sake and glory is like the apple from Snow White - it looks good, but remember it was filled with dark poison. But love, which rightly comes to us when we knit our life to Christ - that love we are able to give because we’ve received it first from God - gives all these other actions rich meaning and life.

a live in submission and joyful obedience to God is much more valuable than riches.

Students, what do you want?

In this moment if you could have your dream or Christ - I think most in

a live in submission and joyful obedience to God is much more valuable than riches.

Hear me it is not wrong to want to succeed with your life. It’s not wrong to want to make money or develop apps or to become a surgeon, to become a professional magician or to do great things and become known.

But, if your name is bad - power, money, fame, pleasure - all those things will magnify, your bad name, they will magnify your poor character. So if you are a sorry sucker and then you come across money - well you are going to really show off your backside. Money will only serve to magnify your poor character. You now will have lots of resources to show off how pitiful you really are.

So students may we be lovers of Christ who pursue a good name over reputation, money, power, fame, or knowledge. Let’s live with integrity, take control of our behavior, step out in courage and be a people of love. For the sake of Christ let’s do this and for his church and the good of Iowa Park.

Pray