All In The Name Of Jesus

I’ve been writing a book. The title of the book is The Incredible Power of Kingdom Authority; the subtitle—“Getting an Upper Hand on the Underworld.” And, I’m very excited about that book. And, as I was studying and writing this week, I was talking to myself, I guess, but considering, praying, thinking about the power—the authority—that is in the name of Jesus, because name stands for authority. And, I just decided that I would share some of that with you tonight.

Colossians 3, verse 16: “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.” Jim, that’s a great verse for a Minister of Music, is it not? And, I know that you know that verse by heart. That’s what we try to practice here. And, notice verse 17 says—and that’s co-joined with verse 16, obviously—“And whatsoever ye do in word or deed,”—and here’s the phrase—“do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him” (Colossians 3:16–17). The title of our study tonight is “All in the Name of Jesus.” Do all in the name of Jesus.

Now, why did God make you? Why did God create you? Well, you say, “God made us to serve Him.” Well, friend, if that’s why He made us, that was not that wise of a thing to do, because He could have made angels that would have done a much better job of service than we do—far better, more obedient. Now, we are to serve Him, but that’s not our chief purpose.

Why did God make us? God created us to worship Him. Why does God want us to worship Him? Because, God is love, and love is a reciprocal act, where God loves us, and we love Him back. And, that love is called worship. And, in order to be loved, love has to have a recipient. And so, God created us, that He might pour His love out to us, and that we might pour our love back to God. And, that’s the greatest thing that we can give God—is our love. If we give God our riches, He’s no richer. If we give God our strength, He’s no stronger. If we give God our wisdom, God is no wiser. If we give God our glory, God is no more glorious. If we give God our power, God is no more powerful, because God has everything. There’s nothing that could be added to any of the attributes of God. But, when we give God our worship, when we give God our love, that meets the desire in the heart of the Father.

Now, here’s some wonderful news for you: There are others that may be able to give God more riches than you; there are people who may be able to give God more wisdom than you; there are people who may be able to give God more power than you are able—but nobody can love God better than you can. Is that not great? Nobody has cornered the market on worship. If you want to worship God, have at it. You can do as good a job as anybody else. And, verse 16 is speaking of worship. Now, this is the kind of worship that we’ve been doing tonight: “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly”— that’s preaching—“in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.” Now, that’s a church service; that’s worship. We have worship here at Bellevue Baptist Church, and I love it. But now, listen, folks. Worship does not end there; it goes on. And, notice, now, the next and—“And whatsoever ye do…”—now, there, he’s made his translation between preaching of the Word—teaching, ministry of the Word, singing, and so forth. Now, watch this—“And whatsoever ye do in word or deed,”—what you say or how you act—“do all in the name of the Lord Jesus” (Colossians 3:16–17).

Now, verse 16 speaks of worship, but verse 17 is still speaking of worship. That means our worship does not end when we leave these doors and go out there into the world. We take our worship with us. And, when we come to church, we don’t merely come to church to worship; we bring our worship with us to church. We bring our worship to church. Real worship—please listen to this, because if you don’t, you’re going to miss the point of the whole message—real worship involves all of life. Real worship involves all of life—everyday, every place, whatever we do we do in the name of Jesus. Because, what is worship? Worship is doing things in the name of Jesus, doing “all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him” (Colossians 3:17). So, that takes worship, and it adds worship to every area of life.