Big Idea in a Name
Notes
Transcript
[Me]
[“Dad/Mom said so”]
[“Dad/Mom said so”]
RQ: Anybody in here ever been in a fight with an sibling and you call out mom or dad! Because you know they are about to get in trouble.
How did you know that just calling out that name would lead to somebody getting in trouble? Because of who the name belonged to. It was attached to someone who has authority. You remember seeing that person in authority exercise that authority so you know what they are capable of. The sibling that’s in trouble understood the authority behind the named that was just called
This is not law so don’t try this at home, but I’ve known some military veterans who weren’t as worried about getting tickets bc they had veteran license plates. They had served in the US military and even though police officers aren’t under that authority they can tend to show respect to that authority.
If someone walks up to you and says Pastor was talking about you and he said… How many of you would pay a lot of attention to how that sentence ends bc of who it was that was mentioning you.
Or if your at work and your coworker says so Sarah, the manager, was talking about raises and your name came up. You might be like, “And what did they say” all because of who it was that was mentioned raises. Someone who had the authority to give them.
Grass cutting story.. mom recommended I ask for a certain price.. the person with that authority said goodbye! My mom didn’t have that authority to give me the raise. Me going off of her suggestion ended up getting fire. Now, my mom with her own authority in my life went down the block and had a conversation with that man..
[We]
When people hear your name what do you think comes to their mind
Family (sleeps in)
Friends (a gossip, inconsistent, dependable, trust worthy, funny, laid back)
Classmates (studious, slacker, teacher’s pet, etc)
Co-workers (hardworking, helpful, kind, rude, patience, etc)
Ppl who have never met you but have heard your name.. what legacy is attached to it? (“I’ve heard about so and so and their…)
[To the ladies] Taking on his last name..
[To the men] What does your name represent? How do you carry yourself… as a Christian man?
*History behind that… ownership
[Pick someone to write the responses on the board to come back to]
Q: Ladies how would that make you feel? What are some emotions that you would feel?
One place that hasn’t changed… with Jesus in baptism
How often do we view our marriage to Jesus the same as being owned by another person.
Q: Why do we struggle with this… what are some things that make this hard?
How many of you have heard someone say its not about religion it’s about relationship
[God]
I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty, but by my name the Lord I did not make myself known to them.
English Standard Version Chapter 3
I, Paul, oa prisoner of Christ Jesus
[You]
How many of you have heard someone say its not about religion it’s about relationship
Moment of full transparency… about 10 years ago I was talking to a young lady [talk about how we hung out, went on dates, etc.]…
eventually we sat down with Sis. Rachel. And she asked us some questions:
Do you hold hands, have you ever kissed, would you feel a certain way if the other person hung out with someone else the same way you two hang out?
We answered honestly and she said you two are in a relationship but you are lying to other people and yourselves. She looked at the young lady and said, she may not know it, but she feels like your not ready tell the world publicly how you feel about her like your embarrased or ashamed of her.. [inflect voice] the young lady later said that Sis. Rachel was right, that even though she didn’t know it, she felt like our lack of a label left her feeling as though I had something to hide about her.. I was like Sis. Rachel why did you have to go and tell her that..
Point that she made.
It was a relationship with no label… if you would have asked I would have given you a really spiritual answers. Like, we’re letting God guide it or we’re waiting to hear from God on it. But without a label we had no direction.. to intentionality.. no defined purpose to our relationship.. I was failing as Christian man, but didn’t see it and without an older wiser person who’s counsel I sought to speak into my life, I would have continued to fail, even with good spiritual intentions. Being spiritual is not enough. I was filled with the Spirit of God, but lack relational maturity in that area of my life. You see, I had never seen it done. My parents were not commited Christians who came to church every week and could call me out. I was 25 so it wasn’t their job, but man, I def needed some guidance. See, without the label our hearts were intermingled but without any intentionality behind it. We had no planned direction.. we were just drifting down a river of emotions, passions and desires… we went through all of the ups and downs of a relationship.. we argued at times, we laughed at other times..
Remember the story about the fence and the barn [share that example again].
We had no label.. so there was nothing to protect our relationship.. because on paper there was no relationship, but in practice.. there was.. the label would have been our fence.. something to protect our hearts because it would have held us accountable to something.
Men if you are dating its wrong to cheat on your girlfriend.. any ladies disagree?
Ladies if your dating it’s wrong to cheat on your boyfriend.. any men disagree?
But what if you have no label.. then’s what’s right and what’s wrong? Where are the lines drawn.. without labels were are the lines.. where are the boundaries… where are the standards of what your heart should expect?
How do you really know if you’re going in the direction that you should go if there is no label… not every dating relationship leads to marriage.. but if there is no intentionality then you will most likely end up with unintended consequences… we had a lot of ups and downs and a lot of moments of hurt.. pain but no progress bc we weren’t invested in an open, public dating relationship..
[We]
When it comes to God some people want a relationship with no label… no accountability… no real commitment… no personal standards.. no real spiritual direction… you can attend church faithfully and still drift spiritually… attendance is not the goal.. you have a purpose… he called you by name and gave you his name… There’s a purpose behind that..
It’s not about the rules or standards or boundaries about a love for Jesus that says your name is over my life and that is why I care about standards that protect my relationship with you. I’m talking about your own personal covenant. I challenge you to write one out..
I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty, but by my name the Lord I did not make myself known to them.
This is a conversation that God is having with Moses
He is the kind of God that called Israel out of Egypt and basically said to them, you have seen my acts, what I did to Egypt.. the plagues that I rained down on them.. this God who told Moses to tell the people that “I AM” has sent you.. some scholars say that God referred to himself as I Am because he was about to show the Israelites who he was, that in seeing his might and power.. his ability to bring Egypt down they would see what kind of God they were being called into relationship with… in the N.T. the kind of God that we see in Jesus Christ who preached the Gospel, who raised the dead, who healed the sick, who made the lame to walk and who in the ultimate act of love died for our sins..
In the O.T. they were called out as people who worshipped Yahweh (the name that God gave himself in the O.T) and in the N. T. God revealed himself as Jesus (a name meaning that Yahweh is our salvation)… the Name matters
As N. T. followers of Jesus Christ when we are baptized in the name of Jesus we are burying our desires, our plans, our wants, our whole hearts into Jesus, not ours, but his mission for our lives.
The apostle Paul wrote about how when the Israelites walked across on dry land it was a sort of baptism for them. That that way of bringing them out of bondage physically and spiritually was God’s way of saying that you are mine all mine and no one else’s.. Look what I have done to bring you out of Egypt out of relationship with Pharoah and out of relationship with Egyptian gods and into relationship with me and me alone.
Being baptized in the name of Jesus labels.. us.. his.. His name is a label that reflects our relationship with him. This is a relationship with a giant label that says Jesus.. is.. my.. King..
With this comes expectations…
Jesus expects me to have a submissive heart to my spiritual leadership.. I told you the story about the guys who didn’t want to shave at my old church. It wasn’t a heaven or hell issue.. it was about submission to leadership. The reason that I submit to pastor Brent is not bc he’s pastor Brent, it’s bc God’ wants.. submission honors him.
Paul understood that the name came with a change in identity
English Standard Version Chapter 1
Paul and Timothy, servants1 of Christ Jesus
English Standard Version Chapter 3
I, Paul, oa prisoner of Christ Jesus
Gomer and Hosea story in brief
Hosea was a good prophet.. God told him to married a prostitute…
What marriage would do to her statue and identity
[MNO]
[MNO]
For Jesus you are the barn and his name is the fence...