Your name is important, isn’t it? I know it is, because I have a name, and I know how much it means to me. I also know because about the time I mess up a name or forget a name, I hear about it!
Names, especially of people, have always been important to us.
A Mr. Simpkin of Phoenix, AZ, gets frustrated with all the people who persist in adding a final “s” to his last name. One day as he watched a clerk fill out forms while he supplied the information, he saw her make that same old exasperating error. "Simpkin," he corrected her kindly but firmly; "just one ’s.’" The clerk got flustered and made the correction--and he stared hopelessly at it, where he saw his last name was now "Impkins!"
Allen Walworth said in a sermon: “Your name is wonderful, isn’t it? It’s the name that you love hearing called out when you return from a trip and you get home and they call you by name. It sends you on a pilgrimage to a granite memorial in Washington, D.C.--at the Vietnam Memorial--and you run your fingers across a certain name. Jesus knows your name. He knows what it takes to unlock who you are and release it.”
When we were kids, and someone would call us “a name,” rather than calling us by our given name, our parents would try to convince us not to feel hurt by it. But it still hurt, didn’t it? Names matter.
Parents know that names matter. That’s why most parents spend a lot of time laboring over what to name their kids. You can hear a lot of the hope of parents in names like Charity and Chastity, and Rich. It’s interesting to track these in the Puritan colonists - Waitawhile Makepeace was born around 1638. Dorchester, Mass. She had another relative named Wealthy Makepeace.
The hope was that their kids would “live up to their name.” Maybe you’ve checked into the origin or meaning of your name. I remember a story I read as a kid about 2 brothers, one named Rikki tikki tembo-no sa rembo-chari bari ruchi-pip peri pembo which means "the most wonderful thing in the whole wide world" and the second son’s name, Chang, which means "little or nothing." I always felt sorry for Chang. He kind of got gypped.
Your name matters because it represents you. So, what kind of a name you have, and where your name shows up is even of eternal importance.
Proverbs 22:1
A good name is more desirable than great riches; to be esteemed is better than silver or gold.
Ecclesiastes 7:1a
A good name is better than fine perfume…
Your name represents who you are. It’s indelibly attached to your reputation. When people hear it, they think of what they know about you. Your name.
Proverbs 3:3-4
Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart. Then you will win favor and a good name in the sight of God and man.
Yet your name is more important than that. It’s more than just what people think of you…
Ill – Nora Newport was driving home from VBS one summer day and her little girl Melissa asked if they could stop by the library. She asked why, and Melissa said, "This morning my teacher told me that the only way we get to heaven is if our name is written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. I just want to make sure that my name is in there!"
I want to be sure too, don’t you? Because the Scriptures say our name needs to be in that book of life if we’re going to be permitted into heaven. (Rev 21:7) If your name’s not in the book, you’re not in His heaven. Where your name is matters. No wonder we don’t like it to be forgotten.
This subject of your name is pretty significant!
Joke - Someone was discussing with his preacher the advisability of writing down the names of the bride and groom in his notes. He had heard about a priest who was too proud to do that, and ended up calling a groom by the wrong name. The preacher said, "You think that’s bad? I began a ceremony and thought: Is his name James or John? I knew I would have to ask him. So I said, ’Is your name James or John?’" "James," the groom said. The bride nudged him and said, "Your name is John."
Joke - A couple of older ladies in a church were talking about some of the challenges of growing older. One of them said, "The worst thing is when your memory starts to go. I’ve known you all my life, and I can’t think of your name. What is it?"
The second lady thought for a moment and said, "Do you need an answer right now?"
So often in the Bible there are people and things named with a deep purpose, and the significance of their name is pointed out to us.
Genesis 2:23 …she shall be called ’woman, ’ for she was taken out of man."
Genesis 3:20 Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living.
Genesis 10:25 Two sons were born to Eber: One was named Peleg, because in his time the earth was divided;…
Several times, God gives names – names that speak to the significance of a person, and how God is going to use them. Today, I’m introducing, a new series: When God Changes Your Name. Study it through and we’re going to find several times when God gives a different name to someone. Every time, He’s not just commenting about a person’s life, He’s also telling us about Himself.
The name change we’re starting with actually involves 2 people – Abram and Sarai, in Gen 17.
We need to start with the story in:
Genesis 12:2-4
"I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you." So Abram left, as the LORD had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Haran.
Abram, by the way, means “exalted father.” He’s 75, has no children, and his name is almost like a cruel joke – “exalted father.” Sometime later, in ch 15, God reiterates His promise to Abram. Abram’s own offspring will grow into a great nation – no more countable than the stars in heaven or the sand on the seashore. He promises great amounts of land to Abram’s descendants. Abram is 86 now, and Sarai still hasn’t had a child. She tries to bypass God’s design in ch 16, giving her maid Hagar to Abram to have a child through her. That just leads to trouble, of course. Then, 13 years later, there’s still no son born like God had promised, and God comes to visit Abram.
Genesis 17:1-8
When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to him and said, "I am God Almighty ; walk before me and be blameless. I will confirm my covenant between me and you and will greatly increase your numbers." Abram fell facedown, and God said to him, "As for me, this is my covenant with you: You will be the father of many nations. No longer will you be called Abram ; your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations. I will make you very fruitful; I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you. I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you. The whole land of Canaan, where you are now an alien, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you; and I will be their God."
So, God changes Abram, the “exalted father,” the name of the man whose wife had no children, to “father of a multitude.” Never again will the name Abram be mentioned in the Bible except in reference to the way God changed it that day. And it doesn’t stop there.
Genesis 17:15-16
God also said to Abraham, "As for Sarai your wife, you are no longer to call her Sarai; her name will be Sarah. I will bless her and will surely give you a son by her. I will bless her so that she will be the mother of nations; kings of peoples will come from her."
Sarah’s name change isn’t as large. Both of her names basically mean “princess.” The point is clear – her position in life is going to change: she’s going to be the mother of kings. Never again will the name Sarai be mentioned in the Bible. Consider it. How often do you refer to this couple as “Abram and Sarai”? God changed their names.
I notice that when God changes peoples’ names, He’s telling us about Him as much as anyone else. And here’s what I think we learn from God changing this man and woman’s name: God keeps His promises. He makes promises, and He’s able to keep them, and does keep them.
1. He Does the Impossible
You have to admire Abraham’s great faith.
Genesis 17:17
Abraham fell facedown; he laughed and said to himself, "Will a son be born to a man a hundred years old? Will Sarah bear a child at the age of ninety?"
Sarah faces the impossibility too:
Genesis 18:10-12
the LORD said, "I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife will have a son." Now Sarah was listening at the entrance to the tent, which was behind him. Abraham and Sarah were already old and well advanced in years, and Sarah was past the age of childbearing. So Sarah laughed to herself as she thought, "After I am worn out and my master is old, will I now have this pleasure?"
So, surprise, surprise, a year later, Isaac is born! What happens after that?
Genesis 21:5-6
Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him. Sarah said, "God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me."
As long as everyone’s laughing, they name the kid Isaac – the Hebrew word for “laughter.” What’s so funny? I don’t get it! Yes, you do! There was no way on earth that this couple was going to have a child. That’s true. It took something superhuman. It took the God Who specializes in the impossible
God, who takes a childless man and renames him “Father of a multitude.”
I don’t know what impossible situation you may be approaching today. I only know that nothing is impossible to God. And I know it because Abram became Abraham.
2. History Has a Direction, and It’s Set by God
When God changes someone’s name, it’s announcing a change. Sure enough, in Abraham and Sarah’s life, it meant major change. I imagine they got a lot less sleep over the next year or 2. I imagine that they had to give more attention to the “baby things” they hadn’t needed to consider before – car seats, diapers, Binkies, and Melba Toast.
But there’s a bigger picture here. When God called and changed this couple, there was a bigger purpose being served. That’s why God tells Abraham,
Genesis 12:3b …all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.
This isn’t just about changes in the home of Abraham and Sarah. This is about God’s plan to raise up a nation, called Israel, and through that nation to bring His own Son into the earth to die as a sacrifice for the entire world.
It may be that you look at the evening news and wonder if life on earth has just lost its purpose. I’m here to tell you it hasn’t. Whatever happens, the history-making times in which we live have a direction and a purpose. Nations and rulers can all make their plans and enact them. God is at work in all of this. Do you believe it? History has a direction and it’s set by God.
3. God Values Humans
Deep inside the changing of names, and the plan of God that’s at work here, is God’s reason for doing it in the first place. He values humans. This week has been a good week to be reminded of that, because it has been the anniversary of the Roe V. Wade decision that affixed a price tag on human life in our nation. Revisit:
Genesis 12:3 I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you."
God’s intention was to take a man named Abram and, beginning with him, enact His plan that was to include all the people on the earth. It’s strange to me that somewhere along the way some theologians have tried to tell us that the death of Jesus was only for certain people. Paul says in I Tim. we have put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, and especially of those who believe. God values humans - more than baby seals or spotted owls; more than ice shelves and rain forests. Remember that the next time you’re having a hard time putting up with someone you don’t especially like. Remember that the next time you’re struggling with caring for the so-called “undesirables” of your world. God values humans – all humans.
4. God Can Be Trusted
When a man marries a woman, she usually takes on his name. Her name gets changed. I’m not certain where that started, but it certainly fits with what’s going on. She’s accepting his protection, his love and tenderness toward her, his provision as her own. She’s giving over a lot by accepting him as husband, and that can be a scary thing. That’s why he needs to be a man she can completely trust.
When God changed Abraham and Sarah’s names, it set a marker that God can be trusted.
It doesn’t mean the timing will be our own.
It doesn’t mean the way He works will be our own.
It doesn’t even mean the outcome will be our own.
Aren’t you glad?! I’ll testify to you this morning that many times in my life, I’ve been praying for God to do something, to make things do a certain way, and they don’t. And now, as I look back on most of those, I realize that God’s way was better than my way – every time. And for those times where I can’t look back on it yet, I have more reasons to trust Him that it’s going to be OK.
This story cries out to us that God can be trusted. “Abraham, pack up all that you own and go live in a place where I’ll show you. Abraham, get the nursery ready. I’m going to give you a son when it can’t be done. And later, God will tell Abraham to go sacrifice his son – what? “Trust Me.”
And Abraham trusts God, and today, we’re part of the multitude of his offspring, by faith. What’s it mean? It means you can trust God!
Romans 4:17
As it is written: "I have made you a father of many nations." He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed--the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were.
Every one of us can tell about the way someone else let us down. Maybe it was bad enough or repeated enough that we now don’t trust that person at all. You know what it’s like to not be able to trust someone.
In fact, you probably can site some situations where you wouldn’t trust yourself.
You can trust God. There’s no such thing as an un-kept promise with Him. Some probably struggle with this whole concept of trusting anyone. You’ve been burned enough times that it’s hard. I want to suggest that you need to be filling your mind with the stories about God’s faithfulness, His trustworthiness. Look at what He has done, regardless of how impossible it seemed, regardless of how out of whack things seemed. You can trust God.
Conclusion:
Remember when you learned to write your name? For some people, it’s a pretty tough task. If your name’s "Bob," you got off easy. If it’s "Nebuchadnezzar," well, it’s a little more difficult.
But pity the poor 6 yr-old Swedish boy named "Brfxxccxxmnpckcccc111mmnprxvc1mnckssqlbb1111g." It’s true.
His parents say it’s pronounced "Albin," and they claim the name’s "a meaningful, expressionistic typographic formulation which we consider to be an artistic new creation in the pataphysical tradition in which we believe." OK. I’m sure that’s a big help to little Albin every time he takes out his crayon and tries to write his name! I’d say, “Call me Al!”
Abram was a nice enough name. Sarai wasn’t so far off from “Sarah.” But God had something better in mind for them, and for all the families of the earth.
I want to tell you this morning that God has something better for you too – a better name, with a greater future than any human name can ever give…
