Sunday Sermon Recap

Speaker: Joshua Yee
The Ten Commandments Sermon Series: Set Free to Live Free
Third Commandment: Don't Use God's Name in Vain.

TAKE THE NAME, BUT NOT IN VAIN

#1: WHAT IS YOUR NAME?

- You see a name is a very special thing.

- It gives me my identity. It tells me who I am.

- It also has a certain authority to it.

- Your name carries a certain weight in it.

#2: CONTEXT – DEFINITION.

i.   Background – READ 3^RD COMMANDMENTS.

 “Do not take/ misuse the name of the Lord your God in vain. For the Lord will not leave anyone who misuses His name unpunished.”

Back when God told Moses to write the 10 Commandments, Israel as a nation had many gods. To name a few, there were Baal and Asherah were among the popular ones. So what the prophets did was they often used those names to invoke authority and fear into the lives of the people for their own benefit. For example, “The Lord Baal told me that you are to give me all your possessions and harvest to me.”

God knew that the prophets often do that. They used the names of the others gods for evil purposes. To kill, steal, for their own purposes. So God did not want them to treat His name the same. This is basically why God gave this commandment.

ii. What does “in vain” mean?

Different versions.

1. Message – “No using the name of God, your God, in curses or silly banter; God won’t put up with the irreverent use of his name.”

2. Amplified – “You shall not use or repeat the name of the Lord your God in vain [that is, lightly or frivolously, in false affirmation or profanely]; for the Lord will not hold Him guiltless who takes His name in vain.

3. Good News – “Do not use my name for evil purposes, for I, the Lord your God will punish anyone who misuse my name.”

That means, when God said that we are not allow to use or take His name in vain, in other words, we are not allowed to use his name to curse, or as a curse word, we are not allowed to take or use His name lightly, or make false affirmation, and we are not allowed to use it for evil purposes.

#3: SOME WAYS – WE CAN TAKE GODS NAME IN VAIN.

1.    False prophesies

- We use God’s name to invoke a sense of fear in other people and “compels” them to do things for your benefit.
- That is taking or using God’s name in vain. It is wrong!

- It is for an “evil purpose” that we use God’s name for.

2.    False pretense

- This has a lot to do with our lifestyle and actions.

- In some versions, it says, “Do not TAKE the name of the LORD in vain. That can also mean that we put on the name of God and tell people that we are Christians, or that we believe in Jesus.

- The Bible says that we are transformed when we believe in Jesus, which can also mean when we TAKE on the name of God.

- So when you say you believe in Jesus, does your actions speaks of Jesus, or does it speak otherwise?

- When people see your behavior, do they see Jesus behind and inside you? Or do they see somebody else?

- This is another way that we TAKE and use God’s name in vain.

3.   False platitude

- This is to do with our words and the statement we use.

- The AMPLIFIED version says that we are not to use his name in a vulgar manner. 

- Words like “Jesus Christ!” when we drop our handphones! Or “Jeeeessss!” Or “God Dammit!”

#4: WHY DID GOD GIVE COMMANDMENT #3?

God gave us the third commandment because GOD WANTS TO HAVE A RELATIONSHIP WITH US! And in that relationship, He wants us to honor Him by taking His name seriously.

·      God gave the entire commandment so that we can live in freedom.

·      Therefore, taking His name in vain is dishonoring God.

·      It’s disobedience and disobedience is sin.

·      Because His name is to be worshipped. His name is to be honored and respected.

·      We don’t treat His name like any other ordinary name.

·      The Bible says that His name is higher than any other name. That at the sound of His name, every knee has to bow and confess that He is the one and only living God.

·      That is why we cannot take His name lightly!

#5: IN THE LIGHT OF FREEDOM.

- How do you feel if people were to use God’s name in vain by telling lies, killing people, using God’s name and committing sin?

-  How do you feel if your friend next to you were to use God’s name to lie to you?

-  When you use God’s name in vain. It simply means we are not honoring Him.

-  It means to say that we do not have relationship with God. And that means, so that we are back to sin.

- That means we are living our live out of that freedom, and it is like we are living like the Israelites in Egypt.

-  God wants to have a relationship with you, and we cannot have a relationship with Him if we are consistently taking His name in vain and dishonoring Him.

-  Pastor Anand covered in the first commandment, that we are to have no other Gods.

-  By taking God’s name in vain, we associating our God with all the other gods around. We are saying that our God is the same as the other gods.

Authority > Power > Victory > Identity > Favor > Consequences > Be faithful to that name > Bless the name

WHAT MUST WE DO? – CONCLUSION

Our living, talking, acting MUST reflect that we are children of God.

If we say we are children of God, then we’ve got to be children of God.

We have to walk in that fear, in that reverence, in that revelation of who God is.